Developments in computer-mediated communications are not only providing new opportunities for educators but also changing roles and competencies in learning and teaching environments. Experts agree that teaching online requires different roles and competencies. The literature includes several studies on roles and competencies for online teaching. However, as Le Boterf underlines, roles and competencies largely depend on context. This survey study intends to identify roles, competencies and resources for online teaching in Turkey by asking online mentors of Anadolu University what they think about the roles they should perform and the competencies and resources they should possess in order to teach online successfully. Results have shown that the participant Turkish online mentors agree on the significance of the assessor, the content expert and process facilitator roles; on the other hand, they indicate lower level of necessity for the material producer and the administrator roles. Results have also revealed lack of design competencies among online mentors. Overall, the study has supported Le Boterf's claim about importance of context on identification of roles and competencies.


We analyze the performance of a spatial fiber switching system when using a pixelized mirror, such as a LCoS or MEMS spatial light modulator, in place of a large tilting micromirror. Our findings demonstrate the dependence of insertion losses on tilt angles or fiber counts, and the dependence of the crosstalk in the number of phase quantization levels and random phase errors. The former effects can be minimized by satisfying a relationship between the tilt angle to a fiber, the pitch of the array, and the optical wavelength.


: The paper concerns the possibility of decreasing the number of tabanid flies on pastures by means of ball- and funnel-shaped traps (of the Manitoba type) with insecticides and expediency of using the above method for the cattle protection that prevents the milk productivity loss by 6.7 to 8.3%. In addition to the traps, a regular cattle dip with insecticides, which are most attracting for the whole complex of bloodsucking Diptera and zoophilous flies, offers promise in the control of tabanids.


Brazilian and North American historiography share many aspects when it comes to indigenous issues. In both cases, the histories of native groups changed the ways of producing knowledge about them, creating and transforming public policy. Games of complex influences guided the ways of dealing with the knowledge about inter-ethnic relations. In many cases, such knowledge served as a fulcrum for the survival of the implicated groups. Historiographical trajectories, here and there, are full of convergence, divergence, dynamism and political complexity. That said, the purpose of this article is to present a vision of the two parallel processes of construction of historical discourses about Indians and trace from there, agendas and possibilities of mutual contributions.


The present study examined lower secondary students' images of mathematics, comprised of stated attitudes to and perceived needs for mathematics, and views about mathematicians and their work. A group of 1284 lower secondary students drew a picture of mathematician at work and described their drawings. The students' drawings fell into two distinct groups: drawings that depicted their view of what a mathematician at work would look like, and drawings that depicted a mathematician who was clearly a mathematics teacher. This article presents the data regarding the latter group. Trends that emerged from the drawings in this sample included that mathematics teachers were: predominantly female; had a positive image; incorporated lectures, explanations, and demonstrations; and used whiteboards and books as tools of the profession. The article concludes with possible implications for practice and research.


We investigate the effects mode truncation and dissipation characteristics have on predictions of wave shape statistics such as skewness and asymmetry. We demonstrate the effect of mode truncation by calculating wave shape statistics for data from a laboratory experiment using an increasing number of frequency components each calculation. We find that the values of skewness and asymmetry converge to a maximum as more components are retained, with the maximum values attained when components out to the Nyquist frequency are kept. We run a lowest order Boussinesq shoaling model and a nonlinear dispersive shoaling model with the data, retaining more components with each simulation. Both models show the same convergence characteristics as the data as the number of retained frequency components increases. The lowest order Boussinesq model, despite its shallow water formalism, yields skewness and asymmetry values closer to those of the data than those of the dispersive model. This is likely due to the phase mismatches in the dispersive model, which become large in deep water and thus violate the slowly-varying amplitude assumption. We also investigate the effect of spectral dissipation on these predictions. We run the lowest order Boussinesq shoaling model with different proportions of frequency-dependent dissipation and calculate wave shape statistics. We find that the distribution must take into account some aspect of (ff variation in the dissipation for reliable wave shape statistics.


As faculty work to move their courses to the new 8-week format, this guide can link them to other colleges who have already made that change for their subject.


This paper describes the design, construction and testing of a dual-output power converter concept where only the large components, such as the DC link capacitor and heat-sink, are shared between two actuators which are used sequentially in the deployment of aircraft landing gear. This mutual component approach combines the advantages of dual-use power converters with the flexibility of one power converter per application. Practical results of the converter operating are presented for a range of test conditions in order to validate the simulation study.


Races belonging to the Ug99 (TTKSK) lineage of the wheat stem rust fungus, carrying complex virulence combinations, and their migration to countries in Africa, Middle East and Asia continue to pose a significant threat to global wheat production. The rapid spread of additional races, e.g., TKTTF or the Digalu lineage, in several countries causing localized epidemics reminds us of the vulnerability of wheat germplasm to stem rust disease, a formidable foe referenced as early as biblical times. A global rust monitoring system reflecting increased surveillance efforts has identified 13 races within the Ug99 lineage in 13 countries and unrelated lineages are emerging, spreading and posing serious threats to wheat production. Race TKTTF has caused localized epidemics in Ethiopia and its variants have been recently implicated in stem rust outbreaks in Europe. Concerted research efforts have resulted in the identification of several new resistance genes and gene combinations for use in breeding. Combining multiple adult plant resistance (APR) genes in high-yielding backgrounds and discovery of new quantitative trait loci conferring stem rust resistance has progressed in the recent years, enhancing the durability of resistance. Effective gene stewardship and new generation breeding materials and cultivars that combine multiple race-specific or minor to intermediate effect APR genes, complemented by active surveillance and monitoring, have helped to limit major epidemics and increase grain yield potential in key target environments.


Background Atogepant is an oral, small-molecule, calcitonin gene–related peptide receptor antagonist for the preventive treatment of migraine. Methods In the double-blind, phase 3 ADVANCE trial, participants with 4–14 migraine days/month were randomized to atogepant 10 mg, 30 mg, 60 mg, or placebo once daily for 12 weeks. We evaluated the time course of efficacy of atogepant for the preventive treatment of migraine. Analyses included change from baseline in mean monthly migraine days during each of the three 4-week treatment periods, change in weekly migraine days during weeks 1–4, and proportion of participants with a migraine on each day during the first week. Results We analyzed 873 participants (n = 214 atogepant 10 mg, n = 223 atogepant 30 mg, n = 222 atogepant 60 mg, n = 214 placebo). For weeks 1–4, mean change from baseline in mean monthly migraine days ranged from −3.1 to −3.9 across atogepant doses vs −1.6 for placebo (p < 0.0001). For weeks 5–8 and 9–12, reductions in mean monthly migraine days ranged from −3.7 to −4.2 for atogepant vs −2.9 for placebo (p ≤ 0.012) and −4.2 to −4.4 for atogepant vs −3.0 for placebo (p < 0.0002), respectively. Mean change from baseline in weekly migraine days in week 1 ranged from −0.77 to −1.03 for atogepant vs −0.29 with placebo (p < 0.0001). Percentages of participants reporting a migraine on post-dose day 1 ranged from 10.8% to 14.1% for atogepant vs 25.2% with placebo (p ≤ 0.0071). Conclusion Atogepant demonstrated treatment benefits as early as the first full day after treatment initiation, and sustained efficacy across each 4-week interval during the 12-week treatment period. Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03777059


In cylindrical coordinate, exact wave functions of the two-dimensional time-dependent harmonic oscillator in a time-dependent magnetic field are derived by using the trial function method. Meanwhile, the exact classical solution as well as the classical phase is obtained too. Through the Heisenberg correspondence principle, the quantum solution and the classical solution are connected together.


Cylinder deactivation is a technology seeing increased automotive deployment in light of more demanding fuel economy and emissions requirements. Examples of current production systems include GM's Active Fuel Management and Chrysler's Multi-Displacement System, both of which provide one fixed level of deactivation. Dynamic Skip Fire (DSF), in which the number of fired cylinders is continuously varied to match the torque demand, offers significantly increased fuel savings over a wider operating range than the current production systems. One of the biggest challenges in implementing cylinder deactivation is developing strategies to provide acceptable Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH); this paper discusses those challenges and the methodologies developed. This work covers theoretical root causes; proposed metrics to quantify the NVH level; algorithmic and physical mitigation methods; and both subjective and objective evaluation results. CITATION: Serrano, J., Routledge, G., Lo, N., Shost, M. et al., "Methods of Evaluating and Mitigating NVH when Operating an Engine in Dynamic Skip Fire," SAE Int. J. Engines 7(3):2014, doi:10.4271/2014-01-1675. 2014-01-1675 Published 04/01/2014 Copyright © 2014 SAE International doi:10.4271/2014-01-1675 saeeng.saejournals.org Downloaded from SAE International by Joe Serrano, Thursday, April 03, 2014 05:10:32 PM


We present a computational study of effectiveness of declarative approaches for three optimization problems in the realm of abstract argumentation. In the largest extension problem, the task is to compute a σ -extension of largest cardinality (rather than, e.g., a subset-maximal extension) among the σ -extensions of a given argumentation framework (AF). The two other problems considered deal with a form of dynamics in AFs: given a subset S of arguments of an AF, the task is to compute a closest σ -extension within a distance-based setting, either by repairing S into a σ -extension of the AF, or by adjusting S to be a σ -extension containing (or not containing) a given argument. For each of the problems, we consider both iterative Boolean satisfiability (SAT) based approaches as well as directly solving the problems via Boolean optimization using maximum satisfiability (MaxSAT) solvers. We present results from an extensive empirical evaluation under several AF semantics σ using the ICCMA 2017 competition instances and several state-ofthe-art solvers. The results indicate that the choice of the approach can play a significant role in the ability to solve these problems, and that a specific MaxSAT approach yields quite generally good results. Furthermore, with impact on SAT-based AF reasoning systems more generally, we demonstrate that, especially on dense AFs, taking into account the local structure of AFs can have a significant positive effect on the overall solving efficiency.


Road geometry and traffic conditions influence strongly drivers behaviour. The authors propose a model for the evaluation of driver's level of discomfort LD locally induced by different road environments and traffic flow conditions. The main theoretical hypothesis behind the model is that a significant indicator of the level of discomfort is computed as proportional to the difference between driver's desired speed Sd and the operating speed So imposed by local traffic density. To evaluate the level of discomfort for an homogeneous road segment, the variation of road characteristics and traffic conditions in terms of flow and composition must be taken into account. Moreover driver's desired speed depends on the individual reason of the travel. Therefore, considering a traffic condition, the level of discomfort at a specific road location will assume different value for each flow typology. The greater the difference between driver's desired speed and flow speed, the higher the level of discomfort. Twenty-five Italian rural two way-two lane road segments have been analysed. Field surveys were needed for data collection. The discrepancies between drivers expectations and operating conditions have been analysed. These data have been correlated with road dependent collisions of each road segment. This paper shows the results and points out the validity and applicability of the model to actual case studies for the evaluation of the expected accident occurrence as a function of the level of discomfort suffered by road users. Keywords – discomfort, risk threshold, driver's behavior, accident rate, roadway and traffic conditions


Abstract. Mobile terrestrial laser scanners (MTLS) produce huge 3D point clouds describing the terrestrial surface, from which objects like different street furniture can be generated. Extraction and modelling of the street curb and the street floor from MTLS point clouds is important for many applications such as right-of-way asset inventory, road maintenance and city planning. The proposed pipeline for the curb and street floor extraction consists of a sequence of five steps: organizing the 3D point cloud and nearest neighbour search; 3D density-based segmentation to segment the ground; morphological analysis to refine out the ground segment; derivative of Gaussian filtering to detect the curb; solving the travelling salesman problem to form a closed polygon of the curb and point-inpolygon test to extract the street floor. Two mobile laser scanning datasets of different scenes are tested with the proposed pipeline. The results of the extracted curb and street floor are evaluated based on a truth data. The obtained detection rates for the extracted street floor for the datasets are 95% and 96.53%. This study presents a novel approach to the detection and extraction of the road curb and the street floor from unorganized 3D point clouds captured by MTLS. It utilizes only the 3D coordinates of the point cloud.


At first, the police were sure that the bombers used weapons-grade plastic explosives and sophisticated timers. Two weeks later, they changed their minds - the bombs were home-made and were detonated manually. Since then the official account has changed repeatedly and remains riddled with anomalies and confusion. The government is resisting calls for a full inquiry and instead intends to present a 'narrative' written by a civil servant that will stand as the definitive account of what took place. As Mosaddeq demonstrates in this exhaustive investigation, such an approach cannot hope to provide the public with an adequate explanation of what took place. He further shows how the attacks can only be fully understood in the light of extensive co-operation between the Islamist extremists and Western Intelligence in Central Asia, and U.S. - U.K. state interests. The London bombings, much like the attacks on New York in 2001, were a widely predicted consequence of the West's global strategy. If we do face a future of terrorism we should at least understand the extent to which our governments have accepted this as the price of business as usual.


There are two opinions that are extremely different ahout religion function to self-actualization process. Firstly, religion is needed in self-actualization process. Secondly, religion inhibits self-actualization process. The research will make a clearance of that problem and to discover a conception about religion which are conducive to the self-actualization effort. Material object of the research is· Iqbal 's conception about religion and self, and the formal object is religion philosophy. Hermeneutic method is used in this research. There are some procedures of method, namely interpretation, analysis synthesis, coherency, comparation, and heuristics. The result ofresearch are: the self is more potensia than actus. Potensia will become actus through out s~lf-actualization process, and will final at insan kamil. lnsan kamil is the human like God, a human ideal condition. Religion norms are the one ofrepresentative self-actualization procedures. Religion can be called modus of existence. Proportional understanding about religion is needed for its. The understanding which placed the human as the central ofthe world, but the spiritual consciousness which oriented to God is growth in his self That understanding called anthropocentric-spiritualistic conception. Iqbal's conception about religion is anthropocentric-spiritualistic one. Self of human became central subject in his philosophy, and whole of his philosophy systems are formatted by the religion. Iqbal's conception about religion can be a reference in self- actualization.


I estimate the effect of private schooling on Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores of 62 countries across the globe from 2000 to 2012. I employ time and country-fixed effects regression models and also use the short-run demand for schooling within a country and year as an instrument for private share of schooling enrollment. I find evidence to suggest that increased private schooling leads to improved PISA scores around the world. Specifically, the model using control variables alongside country and year fixed effects finds that a one percentage point increase in the private share of schooling enrollment is associated with a 1.6-point increase in math scores and a 1.2-point increase in reading scores. However, only one of the two relationships remains statistically significant in the instrumental variables analysis.


Women are a major stakeholder in the development project of any society. Globally, the issues of women marginalisation and low participation in political leadership and decision making have been attracting a lot of attention from scholars. Although women and men have different biological and physiological make-up, they may share common features with men in terms of educational qualifications, socio-economic status and occupation among others. Yet, they are marginalised in virtually all spheres of public life. In many African countries, such as Nigeria, obnoxious social norms, political exclusion and economic lopsidedness dictate the presence and voice of women in public life. According to 2006 Nigerian population census figure, women constituted 49% of the total population, but there has been a gross gender gap between men and women, especially in political representation, economic management and leadership. This paper, therefore, examines critically some factors that have brought about this wide political and socio-economic disparity. Using both historical and descriptive approaches and guided by patriarchy and liberal feminism theories, the paper argues that the various economic, political, social and systemic practices serve as obstacles to effective participation of women in politics, governance and decision making in Nigeria. The paper concludes that, for there to be greater participation of women in all spheres of Nigerian society, government and other stakeholders should engage in programmes and policies that would empower women politically, socially and economically. Keywords: Women, leadership, governance, marginalization, prospect, politics


The asphaltic plug joint (APJ) is commonly used to accommodate structural movement in motorway bridges. Despite its widespread popularity, the performance of this jointing system is unpredictable, and premature failure is common. A brief description of the standard APJ system currently employed is given, together with proposed alternative joint geometries to improve the in-service performance of APJs. The finite element (FE) code ANSYS v5.1 was used to complete a pilot study of the performance of the APJ system, where models of the standard and of two geometrically altered designs of joint plug (trapezoidal and sinusoidal) were examined. A compression test conforming to ASTM D1074-96 of an APJ sample ensured that measured values of the stress-strain curve were used in numerical analysis. Different structural loading conditions were simulated, and a simplified method to model the interaction between a moving truck wheel and the plug was used to approximate vehicle loading. The results, presented in the form of plots of the distribution and magnitudes of internal stresses, and graphs of maximum stresses at key locations, provide a basis for the study of joint response as a function of plug geometry.


The aim of the present study was to analyse the feeding strategy and spatial distribution of the spider crab Leucippa pentagona in Bahia Bustamante (Patagonia, Argentina). Several microhabitat variables that could influence the spatial distribution of this crab were related to its different life stages by using redundancy analysis. Regarding its feeding preferences, we found that the sphacelariales Halopteris spp. and Sphacelaria fusca, epiphytes of the alga Gracilaria gracilis, represented over 70% of its diet. Conversely, consumption of G. gracilis was low throughout the year. These feeding preferences can be related to the higher proportion of ash-free dry mass of sphacelariales. A close association was observed between G. gracilis biomass and recruits and mature crabs; this relationship was stronger at critical periods of the crab's life cycle such as incubation or moult. Intermolt juveniles were related to G. gracilis0 as well as to other species of macroalgae. Our results suggest that G. gracilis plays a key role in the small-scale distribution of L. pentagona in Bahia Bustamante, providing food and shelter. The consumption of G. gracilis epiphytes allows L. pentagona to maintain high foraging rates at safe living sites, minimizing the damage to G. gracilis.


We introduce a stellar coronagraph that uses a coronagraphic mask described by a Hermite function or a combination of them. It allows the detection of exoplanets providing both deep starlight extinction and high angular resolution. This angular resolution depends on the order of the Hermite function used. An analysis of the coronagraph performance is carried out for different even order masks. Numerical simulations of the ideal case, with no phase errors and perfect telescope pointing, show that on-axis starlight is reduced to very low intensity levels corresponding to a gain of at least 25 magnitudes (10(-10) light intensity reduction). The coronagraphic throughput depends on the Hermite function or combination selected. The proposed mask series presents the same advantages of band limited masks along with the benefit of reducing the light diffracted by the mask border thanks to its particular shape. Nevertheless, for direct detection of Earth-like exoplanets it requires the use of adaptive optics facilities for compensating the perturbations introduced by the atmosphere and by the optical system.


Author(s): Zhang, Dandan | Advisor(s): Yang, Peidong | Abstract: Semiconductor nanomaterials have become an important class of materials with great potential for applications ranging from catalytic to electronic and optoelectronic devices. For next generation catalytic, optoelectronic, and photonic applications, the synthesis of high-qualify nanomaterials with uniform size, well-defined morphology, composition, and surface chemistry is of key importance, because the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of these nanomaterials are strongly dependent on those parameters. Besides technical interests, access to defined nanoscale structures is also essential for uncovering their intrinsic properties unaffected by sample heterogeneity. Rigorous understanding of the properties of individual nanocrystals will enable us to exploit them, making it possible to better design and build novel electronic, magnetic, and photonic devices and other functional materials based on these nanostructures.This dissertation explores both direct synthetic methods and post transformation approaches for rational synthesis of new nanomaterial systems, which are potential candidates for applications in areas of photovoltaics, non-noble-metal plasmonics, light emitting diodes, etc. And their structural, optical, and electrical properties have been investigated in detail. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the current progress and common strategies used in rational control of the size, shape, composition, and surface chemistry of nanomaterials. Chapter 2 examines the Cu+ cation-exchange mechanisms in CdS nanowires. A detailed transformation diagram of cation-exchange chemistry from CdS to Cu2-xS nanowires is reported. By varying the reaction time and the reactants' concentration ratio, the progression of the cation-exchange process was captured, and tunable crystal phases of the Cu2-xS are achieved. The overall process occurs in three stages: formation of discontinuous Cu2-xS islands, formation of core-shell CdS-Cu2-xS heterostructures, and complete conversion to Cu2-xS nanowires with controllable crystal phases. Detailed structural characterization reveal that the resultant Cu2-xS phases become more stoichiometric with increasing reaction time and copper precursor concentration. This experimental result suggests a kinetically controlled process limited by diffusion. In Chapter 3, a catalyst-free, solution-phase approach has been developed to obtain single crystalline, orthorhombic CsPbX3 NWs with uniform growth direction. The morphological evolution of the CsPbBr3 nanostructures along the reaction has been investigated, and the reaction protocol has been optimized to achieve a high yield of monodispersed nanowires likely due to a soft template mechanism. The direct synthesized CsPbI3 NWs show a room-temperature stable double-chain phase, with weak photoluminescence mainly from the trap states. Anion-exchange reaction by using the monodispersed CsPbBr3 NWs as templates can retain the favorable corner-sharing orthorhombic phase, and independently control the NW compositions, thus access to a wide range of compositions with bright and tunable photoluminescence spanning over nearly the entire visible spectrum. Meanwhile, surface treatment with the original precursors was performed to effectively passivate the surface states, and improve the quantum yield to over 10 times. In Chapter 4, a stepwise purification method has been developed to purify the ultrathin CsPbX3 NWs with a uniform diameter of 2.2±0.2 nm. The structural and optical properties have been discussed. Aberration-corrected high-resolution TEM shows the NWs are single crystalline, absorption and fluorescence spectrum shows that those NWs possess strong two-dimensional quantum confinement effects along with bright emission. The band gap of these ultrathin NWs can be tuned by anion-exchange reaction.


Monounsaturated 5β-cholanoic acids with double bonds in rings A, B, and C were prepared by POCl3 and ZnCl2 dehydration from natural bile acids with selectively blocked hydroxyl functions. The yields ranged from 15 to 100%. The products were purified by thin-layer and AgNO3 thin-layer chromatography and the structures were confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The methyl ester acetates of the unsaturated 5β-cholanoic acids possessed chromatographic properties closely similar to those of the corresponding saturated bile acids. Several characteristic fragments were seen in the mass spectra which, in conjunction with the chromatographic properties, permitted an unambiguous distinction between different monounsaturated acids, and between saturated and unsaturated bile acids of the same number and configuration of functional groups. The 20 5β-cholenoic acids examined represent all of the simple chemical and enzymatic dehydration products of natural bile acids and can be com...


What We Already Know about This Topic Anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness is paralleled by a disruption of frontoparietal functional correlation, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography. However, it is still unclear how anesthesia induces such a corticocortical disconnection. Dynamic-resting state is a recent analytical method to study large-scale brain networks, allowing the clustering of functional magnetic resonance images into functional brain states. What This Article Tells Us That Is New When moving from wakefulness to anesthesia, the anatomical structure of connections between brain areas becomes the main driver of the repertoire of functional states. Subjects given anesthesia lose the ability to generate flexible functional brain states that transcend brain anatomy. High similarity between brain structure and function is a new general signature of anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness. Background: The mechanism by which anesthetics induce a loss of consciousness remains a puzzling problem. We hypothesized that a cortical signature of anesthesia could be found in an increase in similarity between the matrix of resting-state functional correlations and the anatomical connectivity matrix of the brain, resulting in an increased function-structure similarity. Methods: We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance images in macaque monkeys during wakefulness (n = 3) or anesthesia with propofol (n = 3), ketamine (n = 3), or sevoflurane (n = 3). We used the k-means algorithm to cluster dynamic resting-state data into independent functional brain states. For each condition, we performed a regression analysis to quantify function-structure similarity and the repertoire of functional brain states. Results: Seven functional brain states were clustered and ranked according to their similarity to structural connectivity, with higher ranks corresponding to higher function-structure similarity and lower ranks corresponding to lower correlation between brain function and brain anatomy. Anesthesia shifted the brain state composition from a low rank (rounded rank [mean ± SD]) in the awake condition (awake rank = 4 [3.58 ± 1.03]) to high ranks in the different anesthetic conditions (ketamine rank = 6 [6.10 ± 0.32]; moderate propofol rank = 6 [6.15 ± 0.76]; deep propofol rank = 6 [6.16 ± 0.46]; moderate sevoflurane rank = 5 [5.10 ± 0.81]; deep sevoflurane rank = 6 [5.81 ± 1.11]; P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Whatever the molecular mechanism, anesthesia led to a massive reconfiguration of the repertoire of functional brain states that became predominantly shaped by brain anatomy (high function-structure similarity), giving rise to a well-defined cortical signature of anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness.


We examine the hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility of a high-strength AISI 4135 steel by means of a slow strain-rate test (SSRT) using notched round bar specimens. Hydrogen was introduced into the specimens by electrochemical charging and its content was measured by thermal desorption spectrometry (TDS). It was found that the maximum tensile stress decreased in a power law manner with increasing diffusible hydrogen content. Finite element method (FEM) calculations demonstrated that the peak value of the maximum principal stress and the peak value of the locally accumulated hydrogen concentration at the maximum tensile stress were in good agreement with one power law relationship for the specimens with different stress concentration factors.


Relative permeability and capillary pressure are the key parameters of the multiphase flow in a reservoir. To ensure an accurate determination of these functions in the areas of interest, the core flooding and centrifuge experiments on the relevant core samples need to be interpreted meticulously. In this work, relative permeability and capillary pressure functions are determined synchronously by history matching of multiple experiments simultaneously in order to increase the precision of results based on additional constraints coming from extra measurements.
 To take into account the underlying physics without making crude assumptions, the Special Core Analysis (SCAL) experiments are chosen to be simulated instead of using well know simplified analytical or semi-analytical solutions. Corresponding numerical models are implemented with MRST (Lie, 2019) library. The history matching approach is based on the adjoint gradient method for the constrained optimization problem. Relative permeability and capillary pressure curves, which are the objectives of history matching, within current implementation can have a variety of representations as Corey, LET, B-Splines and NURBS. For the purpose of analyzing the influence of correlations on the history matching results in this study, the interpretation process with assumed analytical correlations is compared to history matching based on generic NURBS representation of relevant functions.


Aspergillus fumigatus is the predominant airborne pathogenic fungus causing invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. During infection A. fumigatus has to adapt to oxygen‐limiting conditions in inflammatory or necrotic tissue. Previously, we identified a mitochondrial protein to be highly up‐regulated during hypoxic adaptation. Here, this protein was found to represent the novel oxidoreductase HorA. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae a homologue was shown to play a role in biosynthesis of coenzyme Q. Consistently, reduced coenzyme Q content in the generated ΔhorA mutant indicated a respective function in A. fumigatus. Since coenzyme Q is involved in cellular respiration and maintaining cellular redox homeostasis, the strain ΔhorA displayed an impaired response to both oxidative and reductive stress, a delay in germination and an accumulation of NADH. Moreover, an increased resistance against antifungal drugs was observed. All phenotypes were completely reversed by the addition of the synthetic electron carrier menadione. The deletion strain ΔhorA showed significantly attenuated virulence in two murine infection models of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Therefore, the biosynthesis of coenzyme Q and, particularly, the fungal‐specific protein HorA play a crucial role in virulence of A. fumigatus. Due to its absence in mammals, HorA might represent a novel therapeutic target against fungal infections.


The behaviour of concentric double emulsion droplets in linear flows is examined analytically, for the case when both fluid–fluid interfaces remain nearly spherical, and numerically, for the effect of finite interface deformation. The theoretical analysis is used to calculate the velocity fields interior and exterior to the particle, the first effects of flow-induced deformation, and the effective viscosity of a dilute emulsion of compound droplets. The numerical simulations allow for a complete investigation of the finite deformation of both the outer drop and the encapsulated particle. For concentric multiphase particles, there appear to be two distinct mechanisms of globule breakup: (i) continuous extension of the globule corresponding to non-existence of a steady particle shape or (ii) contact of the two interfaces at the globule centre, owing to incompatibility of the steady inner and outer interface shapes, even though the globule is only modestly deformed. Finally, the effect of different flow-types, i.e. uniaxial or biaxial extensional flows, is shown, in one example, to suggest breakup of the inner droplet even though the outer droplet maintains a steady shape.


OBJECTIVES
Benign liver tumours (BLTs) are common and their management remains controversial. This study assesses the safety of a selective management approach.

METHODS
Patients with BLT were identified from an institutional database. Patients with simple cysts or an incidental BLT in the setting of metastasis or concomitant malignancy were excluded.

RESULTS
A total of 285 patients presenting during the period from January 1992 to December 2009 with haemangioma (53.0%), focal nodular hyperplasia (23.9%), adenoma (10.2%) or indeterminate/other lesions (13.0%) were evaluated. Of these, 117 patients (41.1%) underwent immediate resection and 168 patients (58.9%) were followed with serial imaging (median follow-up: 30 months). During observation, eight patients (4.8%) underwent resection for tumour growth, inability to exclude malignancy or symptoms; no patients demonstrated malignant transformation or tumour-related complications. During the study period, the number of BLTs evaluated and the proportion of patients observed increased from 129 BLTs of which 36.4% were observed in 1992-2002 to 156 BLTs of which 71.2% were observed in 2003-2009 (P < 0.001). Diagnostic uncertainty led to resection in 29.5% of patients during the earlier period, but in only 13.4% during the more recent 7 years (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Asymptomatic BLTs without concern for malignancy or adenoma can be safely observed with minimal risk for misdiagnosis. Patients selected for observation rarely require resection or develop tumour-related complications.


Previous studies demonstrated that high K (HK) intake caused hypertension in Cyp2c44 (-/-) mice. In the present study we examined the role of Cyp2c44 in the collecting duct (CD) in blood pressure (BP) regulation during increased K intake in a CYP2c44 CD-specific conditional knockout mice (KO). CD specific KO mice were generated by crossing Cyp2c44(flx/flx) mice (a generous gift of from D. Zeldin, MD) with a Hoxb7-Cre+ mice. The KO mice have normal body development and show no visible differences when compared to wt mice. However, increasing dietary K intake from 1% to 4% significantly increased the BP of KO mice (from 125 mmHg to 148 mmHg) but, not that of wt mice. In contrast, feeding KO mice with high salt (4% or 8%) had no significant effect on their BP (126 mmHg). A high (HK) intake also slightly but significantly increased plasma Na concentration of KO mice from 149 mM to 150.3 mM. Moreover, single tubule-real-time PCR experiments demonstrated that a HK intake increased the expression of Cyp2c44 mRNA by 10 folds in the distal convoluted tubule (DCT) but only had a modest effect in the TAL and no effect on Cyp2c44 expression in proximal tubules. Thus, a HK intake is still able to stimulate Cyp2c44 expression in the DCT. Because administration of amiloride decreased the BP of the KO mice on a HK diet to 117 mmHg, we speculate that defective regulation of ENaC by the Cyp2c44 epoxygenase may be responsible for the HK intake-induced hypertension in the KO mice. This speculation was confirmed by patch-clamp experiments performed in the isolated CD of the KO mice. Application of arachidonic acid (AA) inhibited ENaC in the wt mice but failed to inhibit Na channels in the KO mice. However, adding 11,12-EET inhibited ENaC in both wt and KO mice. We conclude that the CD Cyp2C44-epoxygenase in is essential for suppressing ENaC activity in the CD and for preventing hypertension in response to a HK intake.


Nowadays, there is a conflict between the rapidly increasing demand for electricity and the requirement for reducing dependence on fossil fuel to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions. Proper utilization of renewable energy such as wind energy is proposed as an efficient solution to address this problem. However, due to the high inter-temporal variation and limited predictability, it is difficult to make full use of renewable energy as supplement to the conventional thermal power plants in smart grid. In this paper, we provide an energy efficient solution to solve this problem: the integration of Pug-In-Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). Through proper charging and discharging processes, the PHEV fleet can act as energy storage when there is excess renewable energy, while in case of energy shortage, the energy can be properly returned to the grid. Optimization models based on stochastic programming are developed for both the cases without PHEV fleet and with PHEV fleet, while various uncertainties such as power price, renewable power and user demand are taken into account. By solving the two stochastic programming problems, the optimal power management solutions are obtained, and the numerical results show that the integration of PHEV can effectively reduce the energy to be generated by conventional thermal power plants, and as a result, the overall energy generation cost can be significantly reduced.


Questions about the relationship between religion and politics are discussed with particular focus on the consequences for religious education. Norway is taken as an example of a country where increasing cultural diversity challenges traditional politics of religion. In the present climate of conflicting views on the role of religion in politics, religious education is higher on the political agenda in many European countries, but it is unclear which path the governments choose to follow. For religious educators it is important to engage critically in the political debate about religion, and to show a basic political loyalty towards the education of the individual child and towards improving the lifeworld of children.


"Familial searching" in law enforcement DNA databases has been pilloried as a step "towards eugenics and corruption of blood" and "lifelong genetic surveillance" that is "inconsistent with a basic pillar of American political thought." Courts have yet to address the issue fully, but several commentators contend that the practice is unwise, unjust, or unconstitutional. This Article examines the more significant constitutional claims. It concludes that although kinship matching should not be implemented simply because it is technologically seductive, neither should it be removed from the realm of permissible law enforcement information gathering on constitutional grounds. In reaching this conclusion, the Article describes the logic of kinship analysis; clarifies the nature of partial-match searching; shows how an advanced system of DNA databases could yield additional, accurate leads in the investigation of both routine and high profile crimes; and why this system, if properly implemented, is compatible with constitutionally protected interests of both convicted offenders and their close relatives.


On 12 May 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake happened in Wenchuan, Sichuan province, China .It was the most serious earthquake in china since 1949, causing very huge casualties and engineering damages to the buildings. In the earthquake, a reinforced concrete frame structure of Beichuan Hotel in Beichuan County collapsed completely because of the unsuitable arrangement of column network, and the engineering damage was characteristic. In the paper, the properties of material nonlinearity were considered ,the nonlinear analysis model of reinforced concrete frame structure was established, the time history analysis and nonlinear static analysis were used during inelastic stage, the main cause of structural destruction was obtained, the influence of the arrangement of column network on the structure was discussed.Therefore ,the results can provide valuable reference for the seismic design of reinforced concrete frame structure.


OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to determine the relationship between various types of perinatal infections and stillbirths.

STUDY DESIGN
By use of various textbooks on perinatal infections, multiple MEDLINE searches, and the reference list of all appropriate manuscripts, the appropriate English language literature was reviewed to define the relationship between various perinatal infections and stillbirths.

RESULTS
Infection may cause stillbirth by a number of mechanisms, including direct infection, placental damage, and severe maternal illness. A large variety of organisms have been associated with stillbirth, including many bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. In developed countries, between 10% and 25% of stillbirths may be caused by an infection, whereas in developing countries, which often have much higher stillbirth rates, the contribution of infection is much greater. Ascending bacterial infection, both before and after membrane rupture, with organisms such as Escherichia coli, group B streptococci, and Ureaplasma urealyticum is usually the most common infectious cause of stillbirth. However, in areas where syphilis is very prevalent, up to half of all stillbirths may be caused by this infection alone. Malaria may be an important cause of stillbirth in women infected for the first time in pregnancy. The two most important viral causes of stillbirth are parvovirus and Coxsackie virus, although a number of other viral infections appear to be causal. Toxoplasma gondii, leptospirosis, Listeria monocytogenes, and the organisms that cause leptospirosis, Q fever, and Lyme disease have all been implicated as etiologic for stillbirth.

CONCLUSION
Because infection-related stillbirth is relatively rare in developed countries, and those that do occur are caused by a wide variety of organisms, reducing this etiologic component of stillbirth much further will be difficult. However, in certain developing countries, the stillbirth rate is so high and the infection-related component so great that achieving a substantial reduction in stillbirth should be possible simply by reducing maternal infections.


This article explores a new window into Safavid political history – Safavid dream narratives. In that era, dreams were told to justify the kings' deeds and to legitimise their hegemony. These dreams, the symbols in the dreams, and the way they were interwoven into the political affairs of the time reflect the widely held beliefs of the people in dreams and dream interpretation. Moreover, dream narratives divulge how political and religious goals could be pursued and achieved through dream-telling and dream interpretation. This article examines why, and in which periods, dreams were appropriated by Safavid kings as legitimising instruments. The author will analyse influential dream narratives from a wide range of Safavid texts and determine the different categories of dreams that were related.


The level of quality of service depends on the performance of the bureaucracy as public service providers. UPTD BLK Semarang Regional Office of Manpower and Transmigration Department is a public organization which organizes vocational skills training services in the city of Semarang. This research of analysis aims to know the performance of UPTD BLK Semarang city that is focused on the performance of field work skills training as well as know the supported and restricted factor in the achievement of the performance. Performance appraisal as seen from five dimensions i.e. productivity, quality of service orientation, responsiveness, accountability and corporate responsibility, whereas the supported and restricted factor as seen from the human resources and infrastructure. This research used qualitative descriptive approach with an informant employees UPTD BLK Semarang and the user community service. The results of this research show the performance UPTD BLK Semarang Regional Office of Manpower and Transmigration Department not optimal, still found some problems on the dimensions of productivity, quality of service orientation, responsiveness and corporate responsibility, a new dimension of accountability of both categories, in addition to the limited human resources, and infrastructure are less well be factors restricting implementation of performance. Suggestions that can be done to improve performance, i.e. creating coordination and good cooperation with the technical team, improving socialization and sensitivity to the needs of the community and improving the quality of job skills training. As for overcoming the factors restricting the performance with improving the quality and quantity of human resources, adding and revamping infrastructure and determine the target completion results of graduate training.


The Cu-coated nano SiC composite particles were prepared by heterogeneous nucleation method. For the heterogeneous nucleation process, the dispered nano SiC particles and the active Cu2O precipitation were both prefabricated. The composite particles were characterized by means of XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM and ED analysis technics. It is found that Cu layers are coated on the nano SiC particles, which are continuous and dense, and partly oxidized to Cu2O, and the oxidation rate can be reduced by improving experimental processes. The investigation on reaction mechanism shows the disproportionating reaction speed of Cu+ can be controlled by adjusting the pH value of reaction solution, which makes the degree of supersaturation of Cu crystallites accord with the conditions of heterogeneous nucleation.


Over the last decades there has been an increasing focus on how to build a sustainable society and in particular on how to design policies that pushes the society into a more sustainable direction. The present paper aims at analysing differences between house buyers when valuing environmental characteristics associated with the house as such. The theoretical framework used is based on the hedonic modelling, but we are also estimating the second stage by assuming a translog utility function. In doing that we are able to estimate the non-marginal willingness to pay for environmental housing attributes and whether environmental aware household have a higher willingness to pay or not. The conclusion to be drawn from the analysis is that there is a positive willingness to pay for environmental attributes. Hence, there may be room for policy measures such as information campaigns. However, it seems to be more effective concerning environmental housing attribute that do not require large investment.


Purpose: To describe the effect of monocular deprivation on densities of neural retinal cells in rabbits. Methods: Thirty rabbits, comprised of 18 subject and 12 control animals, were included and monocular deprivation was achieved through unilateral lid suturing in all subject animals. The rabbits were observed for three weeks. At the end of each week, 6 experimental and 3 control animals were euthanized, their retinas was harvested and processed for light microscopy. Photomicrographs of the retina were taken and imported into FIJI software for analysis. Results: Neural retinal cell densities of deprived eyes were reduced along with increasing period of deprivation. The percentage of reductions were 60.9% (P < 0.001), 41.6% (P = 0.003), and 18.9% (P = 0.326) for ganglion, inner nuclear, and outer nuclear cells, respectively. In non-deprived eyes, cell densities in contrast were increased by 116% (P < 0.001), 52% (P < 0.001) and 59.6% (P < 0.001) in ganglion, inner nuclear, and outer nuclear cells, respectively. Conclusion: In this rabbit model, monocular deprivation resulted in activity-dependent changes in cell densities of the neural retina in favour of the non-deprived eye along with reduced cell densities in the deprived eye.


A revised, updated edition of this solved-problem Outline, it is the most up-to-date supplement on the market in this subject. SI units are stressed, new problems added, and the writing style is modernized. Boundary layers, gas dynamics, and theories of turbulence are covered in relation to the latest theories and practices. New artwork is added, amounting to a 20% revision. This is the follow-up course to fluid mechanics and hydraulics and is a basic college engineering course.


Changes in the natural behavior, expressing adaptation to cohabitation in a community, were observed in the slave-making ants P. rufescens and the slave-species F. fusca and F. cinerea. After a few raids, the initially undirected arousal evoked in the slaves by the amazons' raids, begins to acquire attributes appropriate to the situation, but completely different in both studied slave-species. F. cinerea picks up the pupae abandoned on the nest by the slave-making ants and eventually begins to wrench them away from the amazons arriving with prey. F. fusca, whose nests have openings so narrow that it prevents the mass entry of amazons with prey, begin to enlarge those openings shortly after the amazons return. After a certain number of raids, F. fusca begin to enlarge the openings immediately after the departure of the amazons for the slave-raid. The amazons, on their side, adjust soon to the specific behavior of the given slave-species; in nests with F. fusca, they make use of enlarged openings, carrying their prey through them into the nest; when F. cinerea are the slaves, most of the amazons begin to drop the pupae on the nest, and later even surrender the prey to the slaves who meet them. It is supposed that in all three species, under the influence of specific conditions there occurs the process of learning of new forms of behavior.


Present investigation were carried out to study photoelastically the stress distributions in a simply supported beam with over- hangs subjected to a low velocity central- and quarter- spanimpact loadings by light strikers keeping beam/ striker weight ratio constant (2.675), and then comparing the results so obtained with those in similar simply supported beams made of other materials subjected to central- impact loadings from an analysis of dynamic strain gauge data. Interesting new findings were obtained from the results of the present investigation and also from results reported in the literature in this respect. Introduction. In modern times dynamic stress analysis is becoming increasingly important for various engineering applications. Although significant amount of insight in these respects have been developed, the subject being rather intricate would continue to attract of more research workers in future. A beam is a common structural element, and in several applications, simply supported beams with over- hang are employed in practice. Transverse and longitudinal bridge girders and chassis of rails- and road- wagons are some of the typical applications of the same. Here, photoelastic technique was employed to determine dynamic stress distributions in a model simply supported beam with over- hang.


The stomach contents of 137 examples of Potamotrygon motoro caught in 3 locations (Muana, Afua and Lake Arari) on Marajo Island were analysed. The values of the Index of Relative Importance (IRI) and its respective percentage (%IRI) were calculated. The level of repletion 1 (¼ full) was the most representative for both sexes, as well as for immature and mature specimens. Most of the food items found were well-digested. The food items identification indicated the presence of 15 orders, including insects, mollusks, crustaceans, annelids and fish. Differences in diet were observed among the locations studied when comparing %IRI, crustaceans being the most preferred in Afua, fish in Lake Arari and mollusks in Muana.


Research emphasises sound as an important variable in servicescapes. However, sounds have been operationalized mainly as different types of music in empirical research. This paper explores the influence of nature sounds on consumer perceptions of attributes in a car parking facility. Responses from field experiments consisting of 600 consumers in three groups are analyzed. The results show that consumers perceive the servicescape to be significantly safer and less crowded when sounds are introduced. Furthermore, a nature sound evokes higher curiosity, better mood, lower stress levels, and higher willingness to return, than a manmade sound. Research and marketing implications are discussed.


: We present a case of a 65-year-old woman, in whom diagnosis of primary systemic amyloidosis was established, being dyspnea the main cause of consultation. In addition, we emphasize the importance of the adequate valorization of such symptom in a patient with no precedents of cardiorespiratory pathology.


Foraminiferal revision of the Holkerian Stratotype of Britain at Barker Scar, Holker Hall, south Cumbria, UK, allows the subdivision of the section into the Cf4δ, Cf5α and Cf5β subzones (the latter being further subdivided into lower Cf5β1 and upper Cf5β2 intervals). The base of Cf5α subzone at the base of bed C and base of Cf5β subzone from the middle part of bed C, occur at 14 m and 10.5 m, respectively, below the traditional basal boundary of the Holkerian at bed K. The lower boundaries of these foraminiferal subzones occur within the main interval affected by dolomitization in the section, which poses problems in defining precisely the bases for these subzones. Nevertheless, in spite of the dolomitization, a more or less continuous foraminiferal record allows a solid correlation of the base of the Cf5β with the preserved succession in the Livian Substage (defined in Belgium, but also used in France), and it is assumed that the base of this substage should correspond to the base of the Cf5α subzone. The base of the Cf5α subzone can be correlated with the base of the Russian Tulian Substage, since it contains many taxa in common with the Holkerian. However, further investigation is needed to establish other levels of correlation (e. g., base of the Cf5β subzone) higher up in the Holkerian substage. All of these problems suggest that the Holkerian, as it is currently recognised, and the Barker Scar stratotype section, in particular, should be reconsidered, and a new para-stratotype section, ideally devoid of dolomitization, should be located and investigated, in order to corroborate the occurrence of the Cf5α and Cf5β foraminiferal subzones compared to those recognised in the Barker Scar Stratotype. These modifications would allow identification of an apparent synchronous faunal event forming the basis of a future subdivision of the Visean.


How can the Anglican Communion resolve its problems of internal ecumenism to overcome the threat of rupture that faces it at the beginning of the twenty-first century?

Anglican identity is not monolithic but pluriform within the particularity of its tradition. The Anglican way of being Christian is one that is discursive rather than definitive, aware of its roots but open to new expression of itself – and aware of the conditionality of any expression of Church in this passing world. However, from time to time, there are tensions within the tradition between those who hold differing views.

In 1867, facing the challenge of maintaining Anglican unity, Archbishop Longley summoned a meeting of Anglican bishops who sought collective understanding in a discursive, dialogic fashion and which evolved into a Lambeth Conference Tradition. The bishops sought the common mind of the Church on problematic questions, always aware of the mutability of their conclusions and often willing to change their view according to changed circumstances. In this way they sought to maintain Anglican unity and the principle of comprehension whereby the tradition sought to be inclusive of diversity.

The Sixth Conference in 1920 sought to address the wider question of Christian unity by employing the same methodology. The Appeal to All Christian People was intended to draw the churches into engagement with one another to overcome their differences and achieve a degree of ecclesial unity. Reconciliation of Christians with each other was set at the heart of ecumenical discourse and bore fruit in important ways.

This thesis proposes that the same methodology can and should be deployed to address the disputes that exist within the Anglican Communion at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Lambeth Conference Tradition is an essential element in Anglican heritage that Anglicans may only ignore at their peril.


BACKGROUND
Black and Hispanic women with early-stage breast cancer are more likely than white women to experience fragmented care and less likely to see medical oncologists to get effective adjuvant treatment. We implemented a tracking and feedback registry to close the referral loop between surgeons and oncologists.

METHODS
We compared completed oncology consultations and use of adjuvant treatment among a group of 639 women with newly diagnosed stage I or II breast cancer who had undergone surgery at one of six New York City hospitals from 1999 to 2000 with the same outcomes for a different group of 300 women with breast cancer whose surgeries occurred in 2004-2006, after the implementation of the tracking registry. Underuse of adjuvant treatment was defined as no radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery, no chemotherapy for estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors, or no hormonal therapy for ER-positive tumors 1 cm or larger. We used hierarchical modeling to adjust for clustering within hospital and surgeon practice. Odds ratios were converted to adjusted relative risks (aRRs). All statistical tests were two-sided.

RESULTS
Implementation of the tracking and feedback registry was accompanied by a statistically significant increase in oncology consultations (83% before vs 97% after the intervention; difference = 14%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 11% to 18%; P < .001) and decrease in underuse of adjuvant treatment (23% before vs 14% after the intervention; difference = -9%, 95% CI = -12% to -6%; P < .001). Underuse declined from 34% to 14% among black women, from 23% to 13% among Hispanic women, and from 17% to 14% among white women (chi-square of change in underuse from before to after among the three racial groups; P = .001). In multivariable models adjusting for clustering by hospital and surgeon, the intervention was associated with increased rates of oncology consultation (aRR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.3 to 1.8), and reduced underuse of adjuvant treatment (aRR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.6 to 0.9). Compared with the preintervention findings, minority race was no longer a risk factor for low rates of oncology consultation (aRR = 1.0, 95% CI = 0.7 to 1.3) or for underuse of adjuvant therapy (aRR = 1.0, 95% CI = 0.8 to 1.3).

CONCLUSIONS
A tracking and feedback registry that enhances completed oncology consultations between surgeons and oncologists also appears to reduce rates of adjuvant treatment underuse and to eliminate the racial disparity in treatment.


This paper tests the rational expectations lifecycle model of consumption against (i) a simple Keynesian model and (ii) the rational expectations lifecycle model with imperfect capital markets. The tests are based upon the relative responsiveness of consumption to income changes which can be predicted from past information and income changes which cannot be predicted. Problems caused by measurement error in the income changes are circumvented by using the innovations from a vector autoregression of the measures of the determinants of income to form a noisy instrument for the unanticipated change in income, and using the lagged values of the measures of the income determinants to form an instrument for the anticipated income change. We show that the Keynesian model implies that the regression coefficients relating the change in consumption to the instruments for the anticipated and unanticipated components of the income change should be equal. The lifecycle model (with perfect capital markets) implies that only the instrument for the unanticipated component should affect consumption. The empirical results support the lifecycle model. In addition, we incorporate capital market imperfections into our empirical formulation of the lifecycle model by assuming that the marginal interest rate at a point in time is a differentiable, concave function of net assets. This leads to a test for capital market imperfections based upon whether consumption responds differently to positive and negative predictable changes in income. Our results are inconclusive.


Physical, structural, and electromagnetic properties and interrelating processes in sea ice are used to develop a composite model for po-larimetric backscattering signatures of sea ice. Physical properties of sea ice constituents such as ice, brine, air, and salt are presented in terms of their effects on electromagnetic wave interactions. Sea ice structure and geometry of scatterers are related to wave propagation, attenuation, and scat tering. Temperature and salinity, which are determining factors for the thermodynamic phase distribution in sea ice, are consistently used to derive both effective permittivities and polarimctric scattering coefficients, Polarimetric signatures of sea ice depend on crystal sizes and brine volumes, which are affected by ice growth rates, Desalination by brine expulsion, drainage, or other mechanisms modifies wave penetration and scattering. Sea ice signatures are further complicated by surface conditions such as rough interfaces, hummocks, snow cover, brine skim, slush layer, Based on the same set of geophysical parameters characterizing sea ice, a composite model is developed to calculate effective permittivities and backscattering covariance matrices at microwave frequencies for interpretation of sea ice polarimetric signatures.


Load-balanced switch architectures are known to be scalable in both size and speed, which is of interest due to the continued exponential growth in Internet traffic. However, the main drawback of load-balanced switches is that packets can depart out of order from the switch. Randomized load-balancing of application flows by means of hashing on the packet header is a well-known simple solution to this packet reordering problem in which all packets belonging to the same application flow are routed through the same intermediate port and hence the same path through the switch. Unfortunately, this method of load-balancing can lead to instability, depending on the mix of flow sizes and durations in the group of flows that gets randomly assigned to route through the same intermediate port. In this paper, we show that the randomized load-balancing of application flows can be enhanced to provably guarantee both stability and packet ordering by extending the approach with safety mechanisms that can uniformly diffuse packets across the switch whenever there is a build-up of packets waiting to route through some intermediate port. Although simple and intuitive, our experimental results show that our extended randomized load-balancing approach outperforms existing load-balanced switch architectures.


Objective To develop public health adaptation strategies and to project the impacts of climate change on human health, indicators of vulnerability and preparedness along with accurate surveillance data on climate-sensitive health outcomes are needed. We researched and developed environmental health indicators for inputs into human health vulnerability assessments for climate change and to propose public health preventative actions. Data sources We conducted a review of the scientific literature to identify outcomes and actions that were related to climate change. Data sources included governmental and nongovernmental agencies and the published literature. Data extraction Sources were identified and assessed for completeness, usability, and accuracy. Priority was then given to identifying longitudinal data sets that were applicable at the state and community level. Data synthesis We present a list of surveillance indicators for practitioners and policy makers that include climate-sensitive health outcomes and environmental and vulnerability indicators, as well as mitigation, adaptation, and policy indicators of climate change. Conclusions A review of environmental health indicators for climate change shows that data exist for many of these measures, but more evaluation of their sensitivity and usefulness is needed. Further attention is necessary to increase data quality and availability and to develop new surveillance databases, especially for climate-sensitive morbidity.


Two grids with different internal mesh structure have been used to predict the incompressible free surface flow around the Wigley hull form at Fr = 0.2 and 0.267. The finite volume RANSE code Ansys CFX, which using the two-phase EulerianEulerian fluid approach has been used to perform the different numerical simulations. The Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence models have been used in the RANSE code. Ansys Meshing and ICEM CFD grid generators have been used to generate the two unstructured tetrahedral grids for this study. The results compare well with the available experimental data for the hull resistance at the two speeds. In addition, wave patterns, pressure contours and the time required for the numerical simulations of the grids have been compared in this study.


A method of image processing, Haar wavelet transform, was first applied to establish a new index and provide accurate digital data to present urban atmospheric visibility, instead of the conventional observing method. Digital images of urban areas in Kaohsiung, a city at the south of Taiwan, are analyzed according to brightness (gray level). An index value for a scene image is calculated with a processor of Haar wavelet transform. As a result, a good correlation between the wavelet index values and the visual range values estimated by three trained observers is affirmed by the correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of 0.81. Convenient transmission and the exchangeability of digital images of the real-time landscape facilitate the demonstration of the results on the web site.


Ransomware attacks are taking advantage of the ongoing pandemics and attacking the vulnerable systems in business, health sector, education, insurance, bank, and government sectors. Various approaches have been proposed to combat ransomware, but the dynamic nature of malware writers often bypasses the security checkpoints. There are commercial tools available in the market for ransomware analysis and detection, but their performance is questionable. This paper aims at proposing an AI-based ransomware detection framework and designing a detection tool (AIRaD) using a combination of both static and dynamic malware analysis techniques. Dynamic binary instrumentation is done using PIN tool, function call trace is analyzed leveraging Cuckoo sandbox and Ghidra. Features extracted at DLL, function call, and assembly level are processed with NLP, association rule mining techniques and fed to different machine learning classifiers. Support vector machine and Adaboost with J48 algorithms achieved the highest accuracy of 99.54% with 0.005 false-positive rates for a multi-level combined term frequency approach.


Orthogonal recursive bisection (ORB) algorithm can be used as data decomposition strategy to distribute a large data set of a cardiac model to a distributed memory supercomputer. It has been shown previously that good scaling results can be achieved using the ORB algorithm for data decomposition. However, the ORB algorithm depends on the distribution of computational load of each element in the data set. In this work we investigated the dependence of data decomposition and load balancing on different rotations of the anatomical data set to achieve optimization in load balancing. The anatomical data set was given by both ventricles of the Visible Female data set in a 0.2 mm resolution. Fiber orientation was included. The data set was rotated by 90 degrees around x, y and z axis, respectively. By either translating or by simply taking the magnitude of the resulting negative coordinates we were able to create 14 data set of the same anatomy with different orientation and position in the overall volume. Computation load ratios for non - tissue vs. tissue elements used in the data decomposition were 1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:25, 1:38.85, 1:50 and 1:100 to investigate the effect of different load ratios on the data decomposition. The ten Tusscher et al. (2004) electrophysiological cell model was used in monodomain simulations of 1 ms simulation time to compare performance using the different data sets and orientations. The simulations were carried out for load ratio 1:10, 1:25 and 1:38.85 on a 512 processor partition of the IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer. Th results show that the data decomposition does depend on the orientation and position of the anatomy in the global volume. The difference in total run time between the data sets is 10 s for a simulation time of 1 ms. This yields a difference of about 28 h for a simulation of 10 s simulation time. However, given larger processor partitions, the difference in run time decreases and becomes less significant. Depending on the processor partition size, future work will have to consider the orientation of the anatomy in the global volume for longer simulation runs.


The oxidation of complex, water-insoluble biomass to formic acid is reported using a Keggin-type polyoxometalate (H5PV2Mo10O40) as the homogeneous catalyst, oxygen as the oxidant, water as the solvent and p-toluenesulfonic acid as the best additive. The reaction proceeds at 90 °C and 30 bar O2 and transforms feedstock like wood, waste paper, or even cyanobacteria to formic acid and CO2 as the sole products. The reaction obtains up to 53% yield in formic acid for xylan as the feedstock within 24 h. Besides the role of the additive as a reaction promoter, the formic acid isolation and the recycling of catalyst and additive are demonstrated.


This study is a systematic review of the library and information science (LIS) literature related to international students and academic libraries. A systematic review involves the methodical collection and analysis of a body of literature and is growing in popularity in the LIS field. Three well-known LIS databases were systematically searched for articles related to the topic, and manual bibliography searches were conducted to find additional publications. Journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers were included or excluded based on established criteria. Findings show that articles published about international students and academic libraries have increased steadily between 1990 and 2014. The majority of authors are affiliated with universities and institutions in the United States, although an increase in represented countries is apparent. Fewer than half of the articles can be considered original research, and surveys are the most popular method for data collection. The LIS field—and international students—would benefit from further exploration of this topic, particularly from original research with practical implications.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the side effects of the main pesticides used in adult and immature Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) (Acari: Phytoseiidae). The tests were carried out in the laboratory by using the contact and residual spraying method on the leaf surface. It was tested tebufenozide, phosmet, methidation, chlorpyrifos, abamectin, fenpyroximate, pyridaben, captan, mancozeb (two concentrations) and dithianon. To calculate the total effect (E%) on the adults, it was evaluated the mortality, oviposition and viability of eggs, and for the immature ones, only the mortality. The results of E% were assessed 96 hours after the spraying. The products were classified considering the total effect (E%) of toxicity proposed by the IOBC/WPRS. Phosmet, tebufenozide and methidation were innocuous; abamectin, fenpyroximate, chlorpyrifos, captan, mancozeb (two concentrations), and dithianon were slightly harmful, and pyridaben was moderately harmful to the N. californicus adults. As the pesticide selectivity for the immature ones, it was verified that abamectin and pyridaben were moderately harmful, and the others were innocuous. The treatment with 320 g.a.i./100l of mancozeb was the most harmful to N. californicus. No product has been classified as harmful to N. californicus, showing tolerance to these pesticides. These results allow a choice and a more adequate handling for the pesticides used in commercial orchards of apple trees, so that the presence of this mite predator has ability to control red mite.


This paper presents a rate control algorithm for the dominant discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based video coding. It is developed based on a more accurate rate-distortion (R-D) model, specifically, a new distortion-quantization (D-Q) model. Different from previous work that employs a uniform D-Q model or an empirical distortion model, our work proposes an accurate distortion model, which can quantitatively describe the relationship of distortion with respect to video source information and the selected quantization resolution. Based on understanding the distribution of source frequency coefficients and the quantization theory, our distortion model is proposed. This distortion model is combined with the classical R-D theory to generate a new rate model. Finally, the proposed model is implemented on an MPEG-4 encoder to perform rate control for a low-delay visual communication system. We also compare the proposed rate control with the VM18 rate control and it has been shown to be more efficient


Introduction: Hospitals have increasing numbers of emergency department attendances each year. We need to treat these patients more quickly and avoid emergency over-crowding thus allowing patients to flow freely through the acute hospital. Hospitals require timely and efficient discharge processes to achieve adequate patient flow. In a previous quality improvement project to reduce readmissions, we had highlighted the importance of supporting patients with complex discharge needs at the time of discharge. Achieving safe, timely and person-centred discharge from hospital to home is an important indicator of quality and a measure of effective integrated care. At a time when building new acute beds is not feasible innovative new ideas are required to attain this goal. Practice change: We planned and commissioned a new off-site 18-bedded transitional care unit (TCU). The nursing and therapy team of the TCU are part of our acute hospital nursing service. The medical model is a unique hybrid with a local general practice providing day-to-day medical input supported by the consultant geriatricians from the acute hospital. Active daily discharge planning and creating links with community is a primary goal of the TCU. There is a weekly multidisciplinary meeting including the GPs and geriatricians with the unit team.  Aim: Our TCU was developed to support the smooth flow of patients with complex discharge needs from the acute hospital back to home in a safe and timely manner. The goal of the TCU is to reduce the patients' stay in acute care and provide effective discharge planning. Targeted population: The TCU is designed to care for patients who no longer require active acute hospital facilities but are not yet ready to discharge directly home. Patients requiring multidisciplinary assessment, a short reablement programme or social care set-up before discharge are suitable. All patients come directly from our acute hospital.   Highlights: The TCU opened in September 2016 after nine-months of planning and refurbishment. The TCU is now admitting about 50 patients per month with an average length of stay of 9.1 days. The identification of appropriate patients for the TCU is sustained by a daily "discharge support meeting" and senior staff assessment in the acute hospital. The TCU has developed increasingly close links with other community discharge support services Discussion & Conclusions: Our TCU has been successfully opened and is achieving its goals. Successful discharge involves far more than a move from hospital to home. Appropriate discharge planning emphasises patient support and communication. Success and sustainability of the TCU is possible with a dynamic nursing and therapy team. Acute hospital identification and assessment of appropriate patients is vital for the TCU. The hybrid model of medical care has been a positive innovation that could be replicated elsewhere.  Lessons learned: Social & non-clinical problems are often involved in complex discharges Discharge planning is not started early enough in acute hospitals Communication and information transfer between acute wards and TCU is critical Complex operational issues emerge is organising and running an off-site unit


ENERGY AND ANGULAR MOMENTUM TRANSFER WITH CIRCULAR RYDBERG STATES Mohammad Mujaheed Aliyu M.S. in Physics Advisor: Sebastian Wüster August 2017 Circular states belong to a class of Rydberg states having maximum angular momentum. These states, compared to other Rydberg states, have longer lifetimes, and in the classical limit resemble circular Bohr-like orbits. The long lifetime makes them suitable for use in cavity-QED experiments, precision measurements and simulation of quantum energy transport in biological systems. Energy transfer has earlier been studied using non-circular Rydberg states. Here, we look at interacting ultra-cold atoms in circular Rydberg states, and show how energy and angular momentum transfer can be studied in much larger systems due to improved lifetimes. As we show this is made possible by reducing the number of interacting two-atom states involved in transport to just two, via dipole-dipole selection rules. We determine the trapping precision required to maintain this simple description. Finally we present initial investigations to what extent transport with circular states can be modelled classically. Our results indicate that circular Rydberg states can be used for quantum simulations of energy and angular momentum transport for longer times than low-lying angular momentum states. Through using a pair of circular states with comparable C3 values Rydberg atomic chains could also find application in quantum information transfer mechanisms.


Since the Juncker Commission took office in late 2014, the idea of an "Energy Union" has been a central theme of the EU energy policy debate. Today, the Energy Union concept covers every area of current European energy and climate policy. Its primary objective is to create a coherent, overarching policy framework. From a political perspective, the Commission's aim is to prevent any further renationalization of energy policy. But although the Member State governments constantly refer to the energy union concept, it is already clear that they will avoid or at least delay implementation of meaningful steps in the direction of such a union. Against this backdrop, it is unlikely that any fundamental changes will take place in the near future. And over the next few years, the focus of EU energy and climate policy will be on pragmatic progress in the area of energy market regulation—not on strategic large-scale projects.


Abstract : This paper presents a summary of the findings of AGARD Working Group 06. This working group was established to consider 'Distributed Micro Processor Application to Guidance & Control Systems'. The results of this Study are presented in AGARD AR-178. One of the areas considered by the working group was option and opportunities for standards and it is this area that is being considered in this paper. It should be emphasised that this document is not intended to suggest definitive standards or even to state categorically that any given standard should be developed. Rather its intention is to focus attention upon the need for standards and to point out areas where opportunities exist for standardization. As will be seen from the previous sections in this report there is a vast proliferation in hardware and software. When systems are developed they often produce unique hardware and software, such as operating systems, executives, high level languages, etc. Since the life cycle of aircraft systems is at least twenty years from conception, it could be as much as thirty years after the initial design before the systems are finally phased out. This makes it almost impossible to maintain avionic systems in the later parts of their life cycle.


The purpose of this study was to develop appropriate somatosensory video game interventions on enhancing selective attention of institutional-dwelling elderly with disabilities. Fifty-eight participants aged 65~92 were recruited and divided into four groups, 4-week and 8-week experimental and two control groups, for evaluating the one-month carry-forward effects by Vienna Test System. Fourteen participants in experimental groups voluntarily completed 30-minute Xbox games 3 times per week for a total of 4 and 8 weeks. The results showed that: (1) except sum of incorrect reaction, a majority of participants whose selective attentions had significant improvements in immediate effect, carry-forward effects and overall effect in 8-week group (p < .05); (2) 5 out of 8 items in selective attention tests had significant immediate and carry-forward effects and one overall effect in 4-week intervention (p < .05) and (3) The results conclude that using somatosensory video games is a viable approach to promote selective attention of institutional-dwelling elderly with disabilities. The present study also found that this approach could motivate elderly to participate with a variety of sound, music and sensory stimulations and is a viable and valuable direction to promote quality of life in long-term care system.


Recent studies have utilized different charge states of oxygen ions as a tracer for the origins of plasma populations in the magnetosphere of Earth, using O+ as an indicator of ionospheric‐originating plasma and O6+ as an indicator of solar wind‐originating plasma. These studies have correlated enhancements in O6+ to various solar wind and geomagnetic conditions to characterize the dominant solar wind injection mechanisms into the magnetosphere but did not include analysis of the temporal evolution of these ions. A sixth‐order Fourier expansion model based empirically on a superposed epoch analysis of geomagnetic storms observed by Polar is presented in this study to provide insight into the evolution of both ionospheric‐originating and solar wind‐originating plasma throughout geomagnetic storms. At high energies (~200 keV) the flux of O+ and O6+ are seen to become comparable in the outer magnetosphere. Moreover, while the density of O+ is far higher than O6+, the two charge states have comparable pressures in the outer magnetosphere. The temperature of O6+ is generally higher than that of O+, because the O6+ is injected from preheated magnetosheath populations before undergoing further heating once in the magnetosphere. A comparison between the model results with O+ observations from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission and the Van Allen Probes provides a validation of the model. In general, this empirical model agrees qualitatively well with the trends seen in both data sets. Quantitatively, the modeled density, pressure, and temperature almost always agree within a factor of at most 10, 5, and 2, respectively.


This study optimized alkali pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) and investigated the potential of alkali-pretreated SCB in producing cellulase and reducing sugar by a white-rot fungus, P. sanguineus, via solid state fermentation (SSF). The fermentability of the reducing sugar produced during SSF was examined by co-culturing yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with P. sanguineus. Central composite design (CCD) was applied to optimize the pretreatment based on reducing sugar yield obtained from enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated SCB. The model developed from CCD fitted the data well, and the optimized conditions for alkali pretreatment were 128 °C, 0.62 M NaOH, and 30 min with a reducing sugar yield of 97.8%. The alkali-pretreated SCB after washing and drying was cultivated with P. sanguineus during SSF. It was found that cellulase and reducing sugar can be produced simultaneously from this SSF system. The maximum cellulase activities determined from filter paper assay (FPase), carboxylmethylcellulase (CMCase) assay and β-glucosidase assay were 0.02 IU/mL, 0.11 IU/mL, and 0.13 IU/mL on day 8, day 3, and day 6 of cultivation, respectively. The maximum reducing sugar concentration of 19.9 mg/g pretreated SCB was obtained on day 4 of SSF. The reducing sugar produced was converted into ethanol upon the addition of yeast into the SSF system. Evidently, the reducing sugar acquired can be further utilized to produce other valuable products in subsequent processes.


We propose a multi-objective framework to learn both secondary targets not directly related to the intended task of speech enhancement (SE) and the primary target of the clean log-power spectra (LPS) features to be used directly for constructing the enhanced speech signals. In deep neural network (DNN) based SE we introduce an auxiliary structure to learn secondary continuous features, such as mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs), and categorical information, such as the ideal binary mask (IBM), and integrate it into the original DNN architecture for joint optimization of all the parameters. This joint estimation scheme imposes additional constraints not available in the direct prediction of LPS, and potentially improves the learning of the primary target. Furthermore, the learned secondary information as a byproduct can be used for other purposes, e.g., the IBM-based post-processing in this work. A series of experiments show that joint LPS and MFCC learning improves the SE performance, and IBM-based post-processing further enhances listening quality of the reconstructed speech.


Abstract One-stop service shops (OSSs) for government services delivery have become a popular and flexible mode of administrative decentralization for delivering government services of various types throughout the world. Using an analytical framework derived from decentralization, this article examines their introduction in Mongolia paying particular attention to politics, political economy and governance. The Mongolian OSSs have been justified mainly on managerial and governance grounds and are viewed by government as a most successful public administration reform. This article reviews these rationales in the course of tracing the history of the introduction of OSSs into Mongolia. The reform is also located in the political economy of Mongolia using problem tree analysis to evaluate its relevance to the country's leading development issues. Further problem tree analysis is applied to one of these issues, service delivery. The OSS experiment is also examined through the lens of political analysis paying particular attention to the policy making and policy implementation. The overall picture is one of both success and failure; success in terms of establishing OSSs across Mongolia but failure in terms of the lack of change to bureaucratic processes and the centralization of the State.


Liver transplantation (LT) is currently one of the best available strategies for treating multiple hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and decompensated liver cirrhosis. However, patients often undergo HCC recurrence after LT, with most HCC recurrences detected at 1-2 years. CD133 was the first identified member of the prominin family of pentaspan membrane proteins and is a marker of hepatic stem cells. Here, we report a unique case of seven repeated recurrences of HCC in the lungs after LT, with all HCC recurrences resected curatively by a thoracoscopic approach. Pathological examination revealed moderately differentiated HCC identical to that in the original histology of the liver tumor. Interestingly, no CD133 immunoreactivity was observed in cancerous lesions of the primary HCC and the 1st to 2nd recurrences, as indicated by immunohistochemistry. However, CD133 was strongly stained in the cancerous lesions from the 3rd to 7th recurrences. The patient survived and had no recurrence after 9 years of the initial living donor LT. In conclusion, we investigated an evocative case of seven repeated recurrences of HCC in the lungs to elucidate the significance of circulating CD133-positive hepatic stem cells. This case illustrates the need for further research to clarify the mutual effect of CD133-positive hepatic stem cells for the development of new therapeutic strategies.


Land settlement produced by groundwater exploitation may cause larger deformation of the high-speed subgrade. To meet the settlement control requirements after construction of the high standard of high-speed railway subgrade, Pile-Slab composite foundation treatment technology keeps developing and applying in high-speed railway construction. However, the settlement deformation calculation theory of Pile-Slab composite foundation is not mature, in particular, the research for Pile-Slab composite foundation deformation caused by groundwater exploitation is seldom, which is far behind the requirements of engineering practice. To study the effect of exploiting groundwater near the high- speed railway on Pile-Slab composite foundation deformation, in this paper, we establish 3D fluid-solid coupling model using ABAQUS, analyze the effect of different groundwater exploiting quantities on high-speed railway subgrade when CFG piles are used to strengthen the foundation, and compare to the result with no CFG piles. The analysis shows that in the condition of pumping water, CFG Pile-Slab composite foundation has a significant effect on decreasing subgrade lateral deformation and settlement which are reduced by 70%.


A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for Award of the Degree of Master of Science in Project Planning and Management of Mzumbe University


Undernutrition in developing countries continues to affect 780 million people resulting in poor growth and development;  increasing the burden of disease and imposing a number of costs on the affected countries. The aim of this study was to establish the dietary diversity and consumption patterns among small-holder farming households. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Kiboga district, Uganda and Bukoba district, Tanzania with 220 and 199 households, respectively. Results from the 24 hour  recall showed that white roots, tubers and bananas were the most consumed food group in the two districts with a significantly higher consumption in Kiboga than Bukoba. However, households in Bukoba had higher dietary diversity scores compared to those in Kiboga even though both districts had 52% of the households consuming diets with moderate dietary diversity. The percentage of households consuming vitamin A rich vegetables and fruits, and animal protein (flesh meats, organ meats and eggs) was  negligible. There was no significant difference between food group consumption at household level and that of the youngest 6-59 month-old child within these households. High consumption of a food group and absence of a food group by the whole household was matched by the consumption of the children. Only 48% and 35% of caregivers in Kiboga and Bukoba, respectively reported preparing special meals for the child. Younger caregivers, ability of households to rent out land, and distance to market were  variables that significantly influenced intake of vitamin A and iron but not protein. The results highlight opportunities for the   promotion of vitamin A- rich fruits and vegetables, and protein foods in between the main household meals of the day, as well as avenues through which nutrition education can be reinforced to improve the knowledge and skills of the households, especially the decision makers and care givers of children under five years of age. Key words : Dietary diversity, Food groups, Household consumption, Smallholder, Vitamin A, Protein


Objectives: Previous studies have suggested the importance of reactive oxygen species in all the steps of carcinogenesis. Antioxidant enzymes are considered as the most specific and efficient way to protect cells from reactive oxygen species. The purpose of the current study was to identify the role of oxidative stress and major antioxidant enzymes in ovarian carcinomas. Methods: The material consisted of 68 invasive ovarian carcinomas which were studied by immunohistochemistry with antibodies to antioxidant enzymes peroxiredoxins (Prxs) I-VI and thioredoxin and oxidative stress markers nitrotyrosine and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). Both the intensity and the extent of the stainings were assessed, and the nuclear and cytoplasmic expressions were evaluated separately. Results: The study revealed the hydroxyl radical-derived oxidative stress marker in DNA, 8-OHdG, to be a powerful prognostic factor in ovarian carcinoma (Kaplan-Meier survival log-rank-analysis P = 0.003; risk of death to ovarian carcinoma 2.69; 95% confidence interval 1.35-5.35. 8-OHdG was also associated with poor differentiation (P = 0.053), higher stage (P < 0.001), and non-optimal surgical outcome (P = 0.002). High cytoplasmic Prx IV immunostaining was associated with a better prognosis (P = 0.024), and elevated cytoplasmic expression rates of Prxs V (P = 0.043) and VI (P = 0.032) were associated with a higher stage. Conclusions: To conclude, it appears that hydroxyl radical-derived oxidative stress, but not nitric oxide radical-derived oxidative stress, plays a significant role in ovarian carcinogenesis. Immunohistochemical assessment of 8-OHdG could provide a useful prognostic marker in ovarian cancer.