A series of salts of the radical ion TCNQ were prepared by standard organic techniques or by controlled electrocrystallisation and their three-dimensional crystal structures were determined by single crystal X-ray diffractometry. The crystallisation of the two-phase system found in 1,2-bis(1-ethyl-4-pyridinio)ethene (TCNQ)4 was studied using a.c. conductivity techniques. The results showed phase formation to be dependent upon both concentration and cooling rate, and no evidence was found for a third phase possessing a metallic d.c. solid state conductivity.
The structures reported in detail are:
a) 1,4-dimethylpyridinium (TCNQ)2' DMPY(TCNQ)2' Triclinic, a = 7.833, b = 13.889, c -7.171Angstrem, alpha = 106.81, beta = 112.50, gamma = 95.36°, z = 1, space group P1. TCNQ moieties stacked as discrete diads with an interplanar separation of 3.21 Angstrem within the diad. The d.c. dark conductivity was measured (sigma 300 = 1.7 x 10 (-4) ohm cm (-1)) and is consistent with the observed structure.
b) 2,3-bis(1-methyl-4-pyridinio)butane (TCNQ)4' DMPB (TCNQ)4, Triclinic, a = 7.798, b = 14.248, c = 13.690 Angstrem, alpha = 109.53, beta = 103.37, gamma = 95.42°, Z = 1, space group P1. TCNQ moieties stacked as discrete tetrads with interplanar separations of 3.13 and 3.17 Angstrem within the tetrad. Anisotropic d.c. dark conductivity measurements were made and found to be consistent with the structure.
c) 1,2-bis(1-hydro-4-pyridinio)ethane (TCNQ)2, DHPA (TCNQ)2, monoclinic, a = 29.481, b = 7.405, c = 13.470 grad., beta = 94.03 grad., Z = 4, space group 2/c. TCNQ moieties arranged in 4 columns of diads along c with an interplanar separation of 3.10 Angstrem within the diad. The structure exhibits hydrogen bonding (N - H--------N heavy atom separation = 2.885 Angstrem) between the cation and TCNQ moieties.
d) 1,2-bis(1-hydro-4-pyridinio)ethane (TCNQ)4, DHPA (TCNQ)4, monoclinic, a = 12.894, b = 3.933, c = 27.580 grad., beta = 109.95 grad., Z = 1, space group P 21/c .TCNQ moieties in infinite stacks along b with cations in disordered positions in the channels between the stacks.


This paper describes two methods for obtaining three-dimensional holographic images containing superimposed constant-range contours for accurate cross-section tracing or contour mapping. The first and simplest method requires two illuminating sources with identical wavelength but at slightly different positions. This method has the drawback of requiring the hologram to be made at right-angles to the illumination direction. This results in shadowed areas on the object. The second method requires an illuminating source containing two wavelengths. This method also requires precise positioning of two reference sources, one for each wavelength. The positions of the reference sources may be optimized so that contours will appear over a maximum object angle. Experimental results that prove the principle are shown.


Alluvial river channels are intrinsically mobile. We mapped channel planform extent in a series of experiments to measure instantaneous rates of channel motion, loss of planform overlap with the original positions of the channels, and reworking of the fluvial surface over which the channels moved. These experiments comprise two aggrading deltas, one subsiding delta that underwent cyclical base level changes, and one braided channel system that was seeded with vegetation. We find that the amounts of channel planform overlap and remaining unreworked fluvial surface area both decay exponentially with time, and that these metrics and the instantaneously‐measured rates of channel motion scale predictably with one another in spite of the different time scales of the processes they record. Rates of channel planform change increase with increasing sediment flux and bed and planform irregularity, and decrease with the establishment of riparian vegetation. Aggradation does not noticeably affect channel mobility, but induces avulsions that allow the channels to more rapidly rework the fluvial surface. Additional findings include that: (1) sediment flux in the braided experiment equals its rate of bar migration, (2) channel widths are normally distributed with time, and (3) we can use our channel mobility metrics to connect surface processes with the resultant fluvial stratigraphy.


Many handbooks and guides have been developed to assist with the adoption and implementation of BIM for organizations and projects. This paper examines the ways in which roles and responsibilities of BIM specialists are defined across an international selection of 36 of these documents. The purposes of BIM guides are examined and categorized, and the expertise and intentions of their developers are considered. The number and variety of guides and standards available raises concern, as findings suggest that while BIM practice generally is becoming more standardized, BIM specialist roles may be developing in an uncoordinated manner, even when companies and individuals consider themselves to be following best practice guidance. Specific shortcomings identified include a lack of definition of client-side roles in the BIM process, the inclusion of organisational BIM roles and activities in project-level guides and standards, and overlapping use of similar role titles to describe different functions within BIM project teams. The use of BIM guides to define project and organizational roles requires further attention in the wider professional context of BIM implementation and practice, in order to strengthen BIM practice and reduce ambiguity and uncertainty.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of the present paper was to determine the sensitivity of the GnRH-LH axis to leptin administration during sexual maturation in female rats.

METHODS
For this purpose the hypothalamic concentration of GnRH, the pituitary content and the plasmatic levels of LH were determined in prepubertal (15 days of age) and peripubertal female rats (30 days of age), treated with leptin at a dose of 30 microg/kg. i.p. in a single injection, 90 min before sacrifice.

RESULTS
The results indicate that leptin significantly increased the GnRH concentration at 15 days of age (p <0.01). At 30 days of age the hormone did not significantly modify the hypothalamic GnRH content. Leptin increased the pituitary LH levels, both in prepubertal and peripubertal rats. Nevertheless, while the increase at 15 days of age was around 180%, in peripubertal rats it was about 51,2 %. In spite that leptin significantly increased LH plasmatic levels at both ages (p < 0.01 ), in rats of 15 days of age leptin increased LH in about 244%, at 30 days of age this increase was only about 102%.

CONCLUSION
These results clearly demonstrated that leptin has stimulatory effect on gonadotrophin axis been higher in prepubertal than in peripubertal rats. On these basis, and on the results of previous papers, (in which it has been demonstrated that the hypothalamic control of gonadotrophins by neurotransmitters and neuromodulators also showed qualitative and quantitative changes during sexual maturation), it is proposed that these differences are connected with the maturation of the neuroendocrine mechanisms involved in the regulatory action of leptin on the gonadotrophins axis.


The ferric binding protein, FbpA, has been demonstrated to facilitate the transport of naked Fe3+ across the periplasmic space of several Gram-negative bacteria. The sequestration of iron by FbpA is facilitated by the presence of a synergistic anion, such as phosphate or sulfate. Here we report the sequestration of Fe3+ by FbpA in the presence of sulfate, at an assumed periplasmic pH of 6.5 to form FeFbpA-SO4 with K'(eff) = 1.7 x 10(16) M(-1) (at 20 degrees C, 50 mM MES, 200 mM KCl). The iron affinity of the FeFbpA-SO4 protein assembly is 2 orders of magnitude lower than when bound with phosphate and is the lowest of any of the FeFbpA-X assemblies yet reported. Iron reduction at the cytosolic membrane receptor may be an essential aspect of the periplasmic iron-transport process, and with an E(1/2) of -158 mV (NHE), FeFbpA-SO4 is the most easily reduced of all FeFbpA-X assemblies yet studied. The variation of FeFbpA-X assembly stability (K'(eff)) and ease of reduction (E(1/2)) with differing synergistic anions X(n-) are correlated over a range of 14 kJ, suggesting that the variations in redox potentials are due to stabilization of Fe3+ in FeFbpA-X by X(n-). Anion promiscuity of FbpA in the diverse composition of the periplasmic space is illustrated by the ex vivo exchange kinetics of FeFbpA-SO4 with phosphate and arsenate, where first-order kinetics with respect to FeFbpA-SO4 (k = 30 s(-1)) are observed at pH 6.5, independent of entering anion concentration and identity. Anion lability and influence on the iron affinity and reduction potential for FeFbpA-X support the hypothesis that synergistic anion exchange may be an important regulator in iron delivery to the cytosol. This structural and thermodynamic analysis of anion binding in FeFbpA-X provides additional insight into anion promiscuity and importance.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Nd:YAG laser posterior capsulotomy is a standard method for treatment of posterior capsule opacification (PCO) in adults. However, there is not enough information available regarding the advantages and disadvantages of its conventional techniques. This study aims to compare cruciate and circular techniques of Nd: YAG laser posterior capsulotomy. METHODS: In this clinical trial, 100 eyes of patients with posterior capsule opacification after cataract surgery were randomly divided into two groups. Cruciate capsulotomy was performed for the first group and circular capsulotomy was performed for the second group. Visual acuity, intraocular pressure, lens shifting, uveitis, macular hole and retinal detachment were examined. In addition, the energy used for rupturing the capsule was recorded. IRCT: 201207037466N4. FINDINGS: The energy used in circular capsulotomy (345±68.53) was significantly more than the energy used in cruciate capsulotomy (284.4±46.78) (p=0.001). Results showed that there is no significant difference between the two groups in terms of average visibility (p=0.859) and intraocular pressure (p=0.097). Nevertheless, these two variables increase significantly through time (p=0.001). Moreover, there is no significant difference between the two groups in terms of percentage of halo. CONCLUSION: Since improvement in visual acuity and intraocular pressure was similar in the two groups but the energy used in circular capsulotomy was more than cruciate capsulotomy, cruciate technique is the preferred method. © 2016, Babol University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.


An imaging dynamic photopolarimeter in an optical configuration
 P(α)SA(n) (polarizer-sample-analyzer) having harmonically
 rotating polarizer (P) and analyzer (A), is presented for studies of inhomogeneous
 birefringent media. The method is capable of simple and precise measuring of
 birefringence and optical rotation across a two-dimensional field. Although the basic
 principle upon which the method operates has been proposed earlier, the focus here is
 on its extension, applicable to a whole field, and immediate measurement of three
 optical parameters, which have direct physical meaning. Earlier versions of the
 instrument either operate with a single beam or measure components of Jones or
 Mueller matrices. The operation of the given method is consistent with a general idea
 of dynamic photopolarimetry by discrete Fourier analysis and entails digital
 procession of intensity images, obtained at nine equispaced positions of the
 polarizer and the analyzer during synchronous rotation of them. A technique of data
 acquisition is described, and a detailed error analysis is provided. Theoretical
 considerations are supplemented with testing measurements of a quartz phase
 plate.


Internet routes - controlled by the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) - carry our communication and our commerce, yet many aspects of routing are opaque to even network operators, and BGP is known to contribute to performance, reliability, and security problems. The research and operations communities have developed a set of tools and data sources for understanding and experimenting with BGP, and on February 2016 we organized the first BGP Hackathon, themed around live measurement and monitoring of Internet routing. The Hackathon included students, researchers, operators, providers, policymakers, and funding agencies, working together on projects to measure, visualize, and improve routing or the tools we use to study routing. This report describes the tools used at the Hackathon and presents an overview of the projects. The Hackathon was a success, and we look forward to future iterations.


Piezoelectric polymers are characterized by their flexibility and ease of processing into shapes, however, their piezoelectric coefficients, such as d33, are quite low (∼24 pC N−1). Here we report a 3D-printed multilayer β-phase PVDF-TrFE copolymer which does not require high temperature annealing or complicated transfer processes and exhibits a much higher effective piezoelectric coefficient (d33 ∼ 130 pC N−1 for six 10 μm layers). In order to confirm its high power density, a rugby ball-shaped energy harvester, which operates via a flextensional mechanism, was prepared using the multilayer copolymer. The experimental results show that it can produce a peak voltage of ∼88.62 Vpp and a current of 353 μA, which are 2.2 and 10 times those of a single-layer PVDF-TrFE harvester, respectively, under a pressure of 0.046 MPa. Notably, its peak output power density was as high as 16.4 mW cm−2 (according to Ppeak = (VpeakIshort)/2); while at a load of 568 kΩ, it was still 5.81 mW cm−2. The proposed copolymer processing method and flextensional mechanism in a rugby ball configuration show great potential for future micro-energy development in flexible, wearable electronic devices and wireless sensor networks.


Notions about life adopted within different cultural traditions reveal similarities. According to anthropologists, these similarities show that humans share a basic apprehension of the world, allowing them to tell the living from the nonliving. Some scholars consider this an outcome of evolutionary adaptation. The present article offers a survey of the views of life formulated over the past twenty-four centuries that retain a bearing on the life sciences as they are practiced today. It will be argued that, at least since Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur, notions about life and the uses of life in the social and economic sphere have been woven into a common fabric.

Key Concepts:

From Aristotle onward, answers to the question of what is life have displayed some recognisable, recurrent patterns.

At least since Darwin and Pasteur, the notions about life and the uses of life in the social and economic sphere have been woven into a common fabric.

During the twentieth century several circumstances favoured an intertwining between the research tools of the physicists and those of the biologists, often resulting in a gene-centered view of life.

Over the past few decades emerging specialties such as evo-devo and systems biology have harboured growing dissatisfaction with the gene-centered view.

The achievements associated with the Human Genome Project at the turn of the century were technological as well as scientific.

Answers to the question 'what is life?' are increasingly coming from technologically oriented approaches to the life sciences, sustained by the expanding bioeconomy.

Keywords:

Aristotle;
Descartes;
Kant;
Darwin;
Pasteur;
Schrodinger;
molecular biology;
Human Genome Project;
bioeconomy


Techniques for automated code repair have the potential for greatly aiding in the development of secure and correct code. There are currently a few major difficulties confronting the development and deployment of tools for automated repair, we examine these and briefly explore possible solutions. To give a flavor of what automated repair might look like, we discuss in detail three types of proposed automated repair: (1) repairing inequality comparisons involving integer overflow to behave the same as if unlimited-bitwidth integers were used, (2) inserting memory bounds checks where needed, using dynamic analysis to infer tightest correct bounds, (3) inserting missing authorization checks in a client-server application based on an inferred access control policy.


Brief solution-focused therapy is a collaborative and nonpathological approach for therapy emphasizing on finding the solution by the client with the help and collaboration of the therapist. The research was conducted to examine the effectiveness of brief solution-focused couple therapy in reducing couple burnout among women. The present research has been conducted by a semi-experimental method with a pretest-posttest and follow-up with control group design. The population of the present research included all the women who visited three counseling centers of the welfare organization and also mental helpers. After the initial screening, 30 women, whose scores were the highest in couple burnout questionnaire were selected as the study sample, and they were assigned into two experimental and control groups (15 participants per group). The data were gathered by Pines's couple burnout measure. The level of couple burnout was measured for the experimental and control group participants before experimental intervention (brief solution-focused couple therapy). Afterwards, the experimental group received the brief solution-focused couple therapy for 7 sessions of 1.5-hour in groups, but the control group received no intervention. Also, the experimental group participated in a follow-up session approximately 5 weeks after the last therapy session. Results showed that brief solution-focused couple therapy has been able to significantly reduce couple burnout in the posttest stage and in the follow-up stage. Brief solution-focused couple therapy can be used for reducing marital problems among couples.


Anti-Resonant Reflecting Optical Waveguides (ARROWs) are a novel form of optical waveguide technology, where light is confined and guided in the low index region of the sensor. This is achieved by the use of anti-resonant Fabry-Perot reflections. The ARROW sensor offers a 10 fold increase in sensitivity over traditional high index waveguides, which use evanescent sensing.The ARROW sensors are fabricated as slides, where a high index substrate (SF-10) is coated with both a low index silicon oxide (550 nm) and a high index silicon nitride (80 nm) layer.A single ARROW slide offers applications for vapour and Biosensing. However, by sandwiching two slides together such that the coatings are facing, the sensor may be used for applications where a capillary channel is required. These applications include Capillary Isoelectric Focussing (CIEF), Capillary Electrophoresis (CE), or Capillary Flow Cytometry (CFC), which are demonstrated here.For these latter applications, the capillary channel was formed using a novel method, where a photoresist sandwich layer was selectively exposed and developed to form the channel between the two slides.Results were recorded using either a linear CCD array (Vapour and Biosensing) or a 2D CCD Camera, with a Motion Picture Capture Card (CIEF, CE and CFC). Incident light was provided by either a tungsten halogen filament (Vapour and Biosensing) or a frequency doubled 10mW solid state laser operating at 473nm (CIEF, CE and CFC).


This essay interrogates the emergence of a new moment in the unfolding of contemporary neoliberal hegemony which sees the political potential in creating strong connections with liberal feminism, updating this while also retaining some of its most salient features dating back to the mid to late 1970s. At the same time this process, which can be traced through the very contemporary entanglements of political culture, visual media and new social media, finds concretisation through the figure of the middle-class mother who is slim and youthful in appearance. This persona, whether in full time work or a 'stay home Mum' is accredited a more substantial professional status than was the case in the era of the 'housewife'. With feminism 'taken into account' she is considered an equal partner in marriage and thus charged with making the right choices and decisions for her family needs. In this neoliberal version of past notions of 'maternal citizenship' a number of socio-political processes can be seen at work, she is compared favourably for her well-planned and healthy life in comparison to her less advantaged, low income, single parent counterparts. Her lifestyle and childcare choices mark a strong departure, indeed an entirely different trajectory to previous generations of mothers, who across the boundaries of class and ethnicity, benefited from a feminist post-war welfare ethos which regarded nursery provision for pre-school children, toddlers and indeed babies as a social good. And finally her presence and visibility in a number of campaigning and online organisations suggests a stronger class divide than was the case in the past and with this the eclipsing of the egalitarian principles of social democracy. The essay reflects on the film Revolutionary Road (2009) and the recent book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg as conduits for this new 'maternal-feminine'.


The luxury of the ancient world is legendary, but the Athenian reputation is sober because this wealthy, successful city-state spent all its money on the conspicuous consumption of ephemeral things. Their consuming passions for food, wine and sex drove their society, as well as generating the rich web of privilege, transgression, guilt and taboo for which they are remembered today. Using pamphlets, comic satires, forensic speeches - from authors as illustrious as Plato and as ignored as Philaenis - as source material - this study combines a traditional classicist's rigour with an appreciation of the new analytical techniques pioneered in gender and cultural studies to provide an alternative view of ancient Athenian culture and to bring its reality into a focus easier on the modern eye.


Accurate numerical methods for treating the junction and boundary conditions needed in the transient two-phase flows of a piping network were published earlier by us; the same methods are used to formulate the treatment of the material interface as a moving boundary. The method formulated is used in a computer program to calculate sample problems designed to test the numerical methods as to their ability and the accuracy limits for calculation of the transient two-phase flows in the piping network downstream of a PWR pressurizer. Independent exact analytical solutions for the sample problems are used as the basis of a critical evaluation of the proposed numerical methods. The evaluation revealed that the proposed boundary scheme indeed generates very accurate numerical results. However, in some extreme flow conditions, numerical difficulties were experienced that eventually led to numerical instability. This paper discusses further a special technique to overcome the difficulty.


There is a wealth of theoretical as well as empirical society-oriented research which is generally discussed under the rubric of sociological theories of the State and which, unfortunately, at present is not made full use of in the study of International Relations. The thesis aims to create the conditions that will enable us to 'tap' this material for the benefit of the study of international relationships. The thesis provides evidence that analyzing politics in terms of 'the State' directs out attention to a single central problem, the interrelation between the governing institutions of a country amid other aspects of that society. Modern theories of the State discuss the nature of the political process which is the process by which societies organise themselves. Therefore, the political process itself is located at the centre of the analysis. International interactions are then classified into two categories: formal interactions which are defined as all those emanating from the governing institutions of a country, and informal interactions, which encompass all other types of interactions. 'Informal interactions', that is, private trade and investment, the flow of ideas, immigration, the dissemination of techniques and technologies, etc, create a substratum of unmeditated links among what appear on the surface as independent, separate societies. Although varied and chaotic in their origins, they are much more predictable in their social effects. A significant portion of them conform to two simple patterns, named respectively horizontal and vertical links. The first pertains to cases whereby, in one form or another, a group of people residing in one formation are linked directly to a group residing in another, thus resulting in an 'informal' vertical tie between the two social formations. Horizontal links are links of competition. They are based on the principle that competitors tend to modify their behaviour to improve their competitive position. Both ties effect structural changes within social formations that reverberate through their 'domestic' political processes. These links are the principal channels by which 'domestic' political processes are 'externalized' and in turn 'internalized' on a world scale -- they are the primary forms by which International Relations and the domestic political processes are inter-linked.


The fish fauna associated with shallow subtidal rocky-reefs in southern Apulia (SE Italy, Mediterranean Sea) was investigated to assess whether fish assemblage structure, and temporal trends in species richness and abundance of fishes were affected by sewage pollution. Fish assem- blages were evaluated by visual census at 3 locations (3 to 4 km apart), 1 putatively impacted by a sewage outfall (discharge rate from 200 to 600 m 3 h -1 ) and 2 controls; within each location, 3 sites (100 to 300 m apart) were surveyed 4 times over the study year. In general, dissimilarities in assemblage structures between the 2 controls were always lower than between each control and the outfall loca- tion. During winter, however, the dissimilarities between controls were very low and similar to those between each control and the outfall location, suggesting that in this period, fish assemblages from the outfall did not greatly differ from those in the controls. Planktivorous and detritivorous fishes were more abundant at the impacted location and contributed most to dissimilarities in assemblage structures between the outfall and controls. Furthermore, the outfall significantly affected total fish abundance (which was consistently about 5-fold greater at the outfall than at the controls), and tem- poral trends in the average density of sparids and small serranids at the scale of locations, while small benthic fishes were influenced at the scale of sites (within locations). Particulate feeders and plank- tivorous fishes showed different temporal trends in average densities between outfall and controls at both spatial scales examined. Species richness and density of herbivorous fishes did not show signif- icant differences attributable to the outfall. The data thus show that nearshore sewage discharges have the potential to alter spatio-temporal patterns in littoral fish assemblages.


The mathematical operation of quantization exists in many communication and control systems. The increasing demand on existing digital facilities, such as communication channels and data storage, can be alleviated by representing the same amount of information with fewer bits at the expense of more sophisticated data processing. In "Estimation and Control with Quantized Measurements," Dr. Curry examines the two distinct but related problems of state variable estimation and control when the measurements are quantized. Consideration is limited to discrete-time problems, and emphasis is placed on coarsely quantized measurements and linear, possibly time-varying systems.In addition to examining the development of the fundamental minimum variance or conditional mean estimate, which lays the groundwork for other types of estimates, the author also looks at easier-to-implement approximate nonlinear filters in conjunction with three communication systems, and so the book is not limited to theory alone. Next, the performance of optimum linear estimators is compared with the nonlinear filters.Along with a new interpretation of the problem of generating estimates from quantized measurements. both optimal and suboptimal stochastic control with quantized measurements are treated for the first time in print by Dr. Curry."MIT Research Monograph No. 60"


Tourism geographies are a vibrant field of scientific inquiry. Despite this, it is obvious that the sub-discipline is met with disinterest within geography departments, at the same time as tourism geographers are welcomed and acknowledged within the wider tourism community. This article offers some reflections and an institutional perspective on the tourism–geography nexus. This is accomplished by reviewing the institutional and geographical affiliations of authors in the journal Tourism Geographies. It is shown that tourism geographies are successful globally, but for various reasons are increasingly marginalized within geography departments. Hence, it is concluded that tourism geographies seem to be moving out of geography departments, which may turn out to deprive students of learning about the geography of a major driver of global and regional change.


We present chemical abundances for O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, and Fe in eight red giants and one turnoff star in the metal-rich globular cluster 47 Tuc, based on spectroscopy with the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle high-resolution spectrograph on the Magellan 6.5 m Clay telescope. A robust line by a line differential abundance analysis technique, relative to the K-giant Arcturus, was used to reduce systematic errors from atmospheric and atomic parameters. Our derived mean LTE [Fe/H] of −0.76 ± 0.01 ± 0.04 dex (random and systematic error, respectively) is more metal poor by about 0.1 dex than recent literature results. The chemical element ratios in this nearby globular cluster most closely resemble those of the Galactic bulge, although there is a non-negligible overlap with the composition of thick-disk stars. We find that the [Al/Fe] and [Na/Fe] ratios coincide with the upper boundary of the trends seen in the bulge and thick disk. There is only a small intrinsic scatter in the majority of the abundance ratios, indicating that 47 Tuc is mostly a rather chemically homogeneous system.


This paper presents the first quantitative assessment of the rocky reef ecology of St Helena, a remote island in the central tropical Atlantic. Monitoring data were used to characterise different habitat types found around St Helena. These findings were compared with 9 other locations in the tropical Atlantic, in different biogeographic, oceanic and reef settings, along with the environmental variables known to limit coral reef formation. St Helena's rocky and boulder reefs had ~50% cover dominated by turf and other filamentous algae, with lower levels of sessile invertebrates (15%) and macroalgae (4%). Both coral and rocky reef comparison locations also showed a dominance of turf and filamentous algae, with higher levels of macroalgae and sessile invertebrates in areas with higher nutrient concentrations (e.g. south-east continental Brazil). Coral growth in St Helena appeared to be limited by cool average sea temperatures of 22°C, which is near, but not below, accepted lower thresholds for reef formation. The main trophic groups of fish found on rocky reefs in St Helena were comparable to other Atlantic rocky and coral reefs, with a dominance of planktivores, mobile invertivores and roving herbivores, with the major difference in trophic structure being driven by more planktivores in oceanic vs. continental versus locations. St Helena's narrow rocky coastal strip varied little in terms of reef geomorphology, resulting in high homogeneity around the island. However, endemic fish were numerous, demonstrating that isolation has produced a unique tropical Atlantic marine assemblage.


As web sites proliferate, offering more of the same, why does a customer choose one web site over the others? Among other factors, website intelligence offers a viable answer to this question. However, past studies fall short of providing a comprehensive conceptualization or effective metric of website intelligence, limiting our ability to enhance the intelligent aspects of web sites. Integrating prior research findings, we propose website intelligence as a second order construct consisting of three sub-dimensions of content, presentation, and interaction, and develop new measures for these dimensions. Further, we theorize the website intelligence construct as a mediator of the system quality and information quality effects on user perceptions of usefulness and ease of use, and test the proposed model using PLS on data collected from an experiment. The newly developed measure exhibits strong psychometric properties. The results largely support the proposed mediating role of website intelligence.


This thesis studies computer games from a recipient's perspective by doing an analysis of how an implied player is expected by game design to take action in computer games. From the assumption that the player of computer games is cast in the role as problem solver, the thesis aims to study how the player engages in the structuring of courses of action in the computer role-playing game (CRPG) Baldur's Gate II: The Shadows of Amn and the turn-based strategy game (TBS) Heroes of Might & Magic IV. The work is based upon theoretical views from different fields. One of the central concepts utilised is agency, derived from the action theory branch of philosophy and adapted to computer environments by Janet Murray and Brenda Laurel. Coupled with Espen Aarseth's claim that a computer game player meets aporias or roadblocks in the game that must be solved by sudden epiphanies, the concept of agency will be fruitfully developed in order to investigate the player's participation in computer games. Parallels will be drawn between the aporia-epiphany pair and cognitive psychology's view on problem solving in order to identify different species of problem sequences in games. Most interesting is the proposal of the concept computer game agency, which denotes a kind of player action that is motivated, intentional, and has a certain effect in that it contributes to the progression of the game. The comparative analysis of Baldur's Gate II and Heroes IV demonstrates how an implied player traverses the game via the means of problem solving. BGII's focus on role-play creates a very different motivation for problem solving than does HoMMIV's focus on strategy. While BGII little by little reveals the goal of the game by letting the player traverse a chain of separately arranged problems, HoMMIV defines the goal beforehand and presents new problems within existing ones like a Chinese box. Since BGII lets the player concentrate on one problem at a time, while HoMMIV lets the player plan ahead and see problems as interrelated, it becomes clear that the games rely on different kinds of logics when it comes to how the player is expected to traverse them.


The focus of this paper is on substantive aspects of fertility and mortality, and their implications for future population trends in North Africa. There is convincing evidence that high fertility has been maintained for a considerable time and that a decline has begun in these countries. This decline is not uniformly the same in each country. Most of it is in urban areas, while fertility in rural areas is still high. Also, because of differences in desired fertility, use of contraceptive methods, and women's education, the potential for further decline in fertility varies considerably by place of residence. Results from the World Fertility Surveys and the Demographic and Health Surveys show enormous fertility differences by level of women's education. Also, they show large fertility declines in response to a few years increase in women's education. On the other hand, mortality decline is progressing rapidly. Life expectancy at birth has increased for males and females. There are substantial mortality differences between countries. Mortality data by place of residence in North Africa is not available except for Egypt, where life expectancy at birth has increased for rural males and females more than for their urban counterparts. These patterns of fertility and mortality will shape the future population trends for several years. In the first place, a young age structure resulting primarily from past high fertility levels will lead to high population growth momentum such that a decline in fertility will not have its full impact for quite a long period. The greatest demographic challenge for governments in North Africa is in rural areas, where fertility is the highest and women's education is the lowest. On the other hand, there are considerable uncertainties about future demographic trends in these countries primarily because of social development and political instability. With differences in development and varying political support to national population programs and activities, future population trends in these countries are likely to take a divergent course.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate factors associated with survival in dogs with nasal carcinomas that did not receive treatment or received only palliative treatment.

DESIGN
Retrospective case series.

ANIMALS
139 dogs with histologically confirmed nasal carcinomas.

PROCEDURES
Medical records, computed tomography images, and biopsy specimens of nasal carcinomas were reviewed. Only dogs that were not treated with radiation, surgery, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy and that survived > or = 7 days from the date of diagnosis were included. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate survival time. Factors potentially associated with survival were compared by use of log-rank and Wilcoxon rank sum tests. Multivariable survival analysis was performed by use of the Cox proportional hazards regression model.

RESULTS
Overall median survival time was 95 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 73 to 113 days; range, 7 to 1,114 days). In dogs with epistaxis, the hazard of dying was 2.3 times that of dogs that did not have epistaxis. Median survival time of 107 dogs with epistaxis was 88 days (95% CI, 65 to 106 days) and that of 32 dogs without epistaxis was 224 days (95% CI, 54 to 467 days).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The prognosis of dogs with untreated nasal carcinomas is poor. Treatment strategies to improve outcome should be pursued.


Should youth and community work practitioners and trainers use their own identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) to support the learning of students in Higher Education (HE) and young people in informal education?
As educators how we use our identity within professional settings is an issue that all practitioners, especially those who identify as LGBT or Queer must explore. In this paper the authors present some initial findings as to whether the issues and challenges are the same for youth and community workers, academics teaching in the field and for students and young people they work with. We seek to examine issues including the difference between naming yourself 'Queer' rather than 'LGBT' and whether we, as 'out' lesbians within our work place, are letting our 'hetero' colleagues off the hook.
Our research used an autoethnographic approach: 'sharing politicized, practical, and cultural stories that resonate with others' (Adams & Jones 2011:111). We recognise that our stories are not the truth but are contextual (Bourdieu, 1992).They are selective accounts, some made consciously and some made unconsciously although we aim to be as transparent as possible about our 'conscious partiality' (Bourdieu in Miles, 1993).
We focussed on our individual identity and journeys and shared collective identities (Bruner 2004, Buchroth and Parkin, 2010) and used our collective accounts as a means of reflection on our educational approaches. In providing a reflexive account we are intending to stimulate debate with others about their sexual identity narrative accounts.
As lesbians we discuss how our identity relative to queer theory presented through narratives of our lived experiences can support our role as educators. We examine the usefulness of issues raised by Queer Theorists for educators within HE and practitioners of youth and community work. We look at a range of ideas including Butler's Theory of Performativity (1999), the usefulness of 'Queering of the public discourse' (Shildrick, 1997:192), challenging of the binary division (Stein and Plummer, 1994) and using 'Queer' as a 'deliberately disruptive term' (Marinucci, 2010:33 citing Halperin, 2003).
The active dynamic between theory and practice in developing our critical analysis and the challenge of translating this learning back into our educational practice is a recurring theme throughout our research.


In current and future situations of trans-global crises, social dissent and related practices of resistance cut across conventional country boundaries. Expressions of dissent and resistance pursue change through unconventional practices not only to challenge current governance, but to re-invent participation. They seek to impact society by transforming acquired values, subjectivities and knowledge. Despite these transformations of people's subjectivities, majoritarian theories examining social movements still focus on fi nding rational patterns that can be instrumentalized in data sets and produce generalizable theoretical outcomes. This paper problematizes how social theory makes sense of collective action practices on the ground. Everyday non-discursive practices prove productivity-led theories' increasing disengagement with their object while challenging the excessive bureaucratization of scientifi c knowledge (Lyotard, 1997). That is, people experiment collectively with their capacities, and create their own initiatives and identities which do not follow determined patterns but do-while-thinking. The dichotomist approach of majoritarian debates in collective action theory is critically analysed by introducing the work of 'minor authors' and 'radical theorists'. The fundamental purpose of this paper is to open a discussion space between the fi eld of social action theories and activism knowledge, hence encouraging the creation of plateaus that blur academic boundaries and construct new subjectivities beyond "the indignity of speaking for others" (Deleuze in Foucault et al., 1977. p. 209). Drawing on the experience of the 15th of May 2011 in Spain, I analyse how radical theory refl ects on current movements and collectives. NADIA FERRER SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD Corresponding author: Nadia Ferrer, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


This paper aims to establish how the innovative activity in Finland has changed over time in the transition from a resource-driven economy to a knowledge-driven economy. The paper first takes a historical perspective on innovation and industrial activity in Finland through a descriptive analysis. The aim is to identify technological trends in both specific technological areas as well as in different industries. Patent data provides a long time-series of innovative activity from 1842 to 2005 covering 164 years overall. This data is complemented with industry data from 1948 to 2007. The industry data allows a comparative descriptive analysis between the main industries and their respective technological development. The descriptive analysis is complemented with a statistical analysis, in which the interaction between growth in industrial volumes and growth in patent stock is empirically examined taking into account the industry specificities and lag-structures. This approach reveals whether patenting activity, used to approximate innovative activities, can be used to predict the growth of industrial activity. This aspect has received surprisingly little attention in prior research. The regression analyses show that there is a positive connection between industry growth and patent growth. In addition, the patent growth lags, both backward and forward in time, are positively connected to the industrial growth. This finding suggests that there might exist a positive cycle where innovation induces industry growth, which in turn induces innovative activities. Furthermore, patent growth seems to have a weak positive impact on industry growth with a lag of 13 years. This indicates that patent growth might provide weak signals of future industry growth


Copyright was first applied to words and was initially visual in orientation. Since the earliest copyright laws, copyright subject matter has progressively expanded from granting rights to protect written expression to other artistic arenas. Copyright law has, however, consistently undervalued the art of performance while favoring the written expression of music, which has had a profound impact on African American based musical forms, now a dominant basis for popular music. This paper examines the privilege of sight in copyright and the numerous ways in which copyright law systematically disfavors performance and suggests two possible explanations. First, copyright law seems to exhibit a visual bias toward perceptible music notation such as written sheet music, which superficially resembles books, maps, and charts, the first objects of U.S. copyright protection. Second, the successful movement beginning in the nineteenth century to 'sacralize' older music forms and freeze in place canonical classical works has contributed to visual-textual bias and reinforced an existing privilege of sight. Sacralization involved the identification of original written texts that could serve as 'authentic' works, a process that came at the expense of alternative performance practices. Visual bias and sacralization have disadvantaged creative practices based in performance, particularly in light of fixation requirement under current U.S. copyright law. This emphasis on writings has disfavored some plaintiffs who have sought greater protection for their own performance practice, while at the same time disfavored some defendants whose creative, non-notated performance practice should allow a greater scope for their borrowing. Copyright's visual-textual bias thus diminishes important contributions of performers of music and hinders recognition of the full spectrum of activities that may be embedded in sound recordings. This article suggests that courts in interpreting infringement in music cases must look beyond the visual and take better account of how music is actually perceived, applying insights of neuroscience research on music cognition. Contexts of creation should play a greater role in copyright infringement determinations, which should take a more holistic approach to music and other arts that incorporates both visual and nonvisual elements and greater understanding of varied assumptions about musical perception for copyright determinations.


The bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to contribute to vascular function during peak exercise. Young women with Metabolic Syndrome (MetSyn) have presented with a deficit in vascular conductance during exercise hyperemia. PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to measure changes in bioavailable blood NO levels at rest and during peak handgrip exercise to determine the mechanistic role of NO on dynamic vascular conductance in women with MetSyn compared to healthy controls during small muscle exercise. METHODS: In this study, 16 participants (7 MetSyn and 9 Controls) performed graded dynamic handgrip while beat-to-beat blood pressure (CNAP finger plethysmography), brachial artery diameter and blood flow with Doppler ultrasound and B-mode imaging were measured continuously. Exercise workload was increased in a ramp fashion (0.5 kg/min) at 30 contraction/min until task. At rest and immediately upon task failure, a venipuncture was performed to take rest and peak venous NO levels to be later measured by EPR Spectroscopy (Bruker Biospin EleXsys-II E-540 EPR Lband) at the UNM Health Science Center and Colorimetric Nitrate/Nitrite commercial ELISA kit. Whole blood was drawn into a prepared vacutainer in a 1:1 venous blood with deferoxamine (DF) chelator, in diethyldithiocarbamate (DETC) Krebs buffer. Plasma was preserved with EDTA and all samples were immediately flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 degrees Celsius. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in resting NO values (p=0.034) and end NO concentration values (p=0.053) between MetSyn and control groups. However, the MetSyn showed higher resting and peak NO values than control group as measured by ELISA. The change in plasma NO did not show any significant changes from rest to peak exercise in both groups (MetSyn p=0.757, control p=0.562). However, EPR indicated a significance between rest and peak exercise (p<0.05). There was no significant change in NO between the groups (p=0.633). The MetSyn group has a significantly diminished arterial conductance in the brachial artery during handgrip as well as an attenuated response in the femoral artery during dynamic leg kick. CONCLUSION: The colorimetric nitrate/nitrite ELISA did not prove to be a sensitive enough technique to measure the degree of change of NO concentrations at peak exercise. The whole blood EPR technique in our laboratory is a more robust signal for identifying these changes in a wider range of concentrations between rest and peak. Future projects include an expansion of the standard curve for NO EPR to identify the potential differences at rest between the two research groups as well as to identify any health disparate differences between the regional populations of New Mexico and West Texas. Research reported in this publication was supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medicine Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM103451.


As multi-core processor architectures with tens or even hundreds of cores, not all of them necessarily identical, become common, the current processor design methodology, that relies on large-scale simulations, is not going to scale well because of the number of possibilities to be considered. We need intelligent/efficient techniques to navigate through the processor design space. In this paper, we propose to treat processor design space exploration as a classical search problem. We adapt several well known (and some less known) search/optimization techniques that have been used very successfully in other domains to the problem of efficiently exploring the processor design space. We observe that these techniques result in multi-core processors whose performance is comparable (within 1%) to a processor design that requires an exhaustive exploration of the design space. These techniques often take orders of magnitude (a factor of 3800 at the minimum) less time for coming up with these processors. We also show that machine learning-based techniques can be applied on top of these search/optimization-based techniques to prune the search space even further. We leverage the knowledge gained in this research to develop Magellan – a framework for accelerating multi-core design space exploration and optimization. Magellan can be used to find the highest throughput processors of a given type for a given area, power, or time budget. It can be used to aid even experienced processor designers that prefer to rely on intuition by allowing fast refinements to an input design.


A real-time object detection and classification system using FPGA developed for high-speed asymmetric time-stretched optical microscopy (ATOM) framework is presented. Due to the massive amount of data generated by optical frontend, storing the raw data for offline post-processing is slow and impractical for the targeted single cell analysis applications. The proposed FPGA solution eliminates the need to transfer and persist the entire raw data by processing low-level signals and forming high-level images in real-time. Objects of interest are detected and segmented from the image stream and a classifier subsequently performs high-level analysis on the segmented images. When compared with existing software-based post-processing workflow, this FPGA-based approach will improve both the number of objects captured per experiment and the overall end-to-end object classification performance. The system also allows co-optimization between optical system, low-level signal processing and image analytic in a unified environment that enables new scientific discoveries previously unachievable.


In order to assess the capacity of ground support systems when subjected to dynamic loading, simulated rockburst tests by using blasting have been conducted at LKAB Kiirunavaara underground mine. In this paper, a numerical simulation for one of the field tests is conducted using LS-DYNA code to numerically investigate the effect of the different aspects of the charge design including the initiation point and the geometry on the test results. In the simulation, an explosive material model is used to model the detonation of explosive used in field tests and the Riedel-Hiermaier -Thoma (RHT) material model is used to model the dynamic response of the rock mass. The decoupling effect between the explosive and the wall of borehole is also taken into account in the model. The numerical results show a similar particle vibration pattern and a crack pattern to those of the field measurment. The effects of the position of the initiation point and the charge structure on the dynamic response of rock mass are also discussed. The results can be a reference for blast design for future field tests.


GPU Gems has won a prestigious Front Line Award from Game Developer Magazine. The Front Line Awards recognize products that enable faster and more efficient game development, advancing the state of the art.FULL COLOR THROUGHOUT! "This collection of articles is particularly impressive for its depth and breadth. The book includes product-oriented case studies, previously unpublished state-of-the-art research, comprehensive tutorials, and extensive code samples and demos throughout." -Eric Haines, Author of Real-Time Rendering "GPU Gems is a cool toolbox of advanced graphics techniques. Novice programmers and graphics gurus alike will find the Gems practical, intriguing and useful." -Tim Sweeney, Lead Programmer of Unreal at Epic Games GPU Gems is a compilation of articles covering practical real-time graphics techniques arising from the research and practice of cutting-edge developers. It focuses on the programmable graphics pipeline available in today's graphics processing units (GPUs) and highlights quick and dirty tricks used by leading developers, as well as fundamental, performance-conscious techniques for creating advanced visual effects. The contributors and editors, collectively, bring countless years of experience to enlighten and propel the reader into the fascinating world of programmable real-time graphics.Major topics covered include: Natural effects Lighting and shadows Materials Image processing Performance and practicalities Beyond triangles Contributors are from the following universities and corporations: Alias Systems Brown University Croteam Cyan Worlds Hochschule Bremen Industrial Light & Magic iXBT.com Monolith Productions New York University Novarama NVIDIA Paralelo Computacao Piranha Bytes Pixar Animation Studios Siemens Medical Solutions Softimage Co. Softlab-NSK Sony Pictures Imageworks Stanford University UC Davis UNC-Chapel Hill Universitat Pompeu Fabra University of Utah University of Waterloo The accompanying CD-ROM includes complementary examples and sample programs.


Reducing malformation is a constant challenge in the aquaculture production of marine finfish throughout the world. Several nutritional studies have previously linked vitamin A (VA) to abnormalities in skeletogenesis during marine fish larval development. Striped Trumpeter, Latris lineata, is a marine fish native to south-eastern Australia and New Zealand that has been successfully cultured at a semi-commercial scale in the hatchery and sea cages. My project aim was to examine if dietary VA during the live feed period affects larval performance and skeletal development, especially the jaws and vertebral column, and determine the nutritional VA requirement. The first part of the project was to accurately measure and quantify VA in live feeds and fish larvae using two extraction methods. The first method measured total VA in terms of retinyl palmitate, retinol and retinoic acid and the second method measured total retinol. The second part of the project was to determine the optimal conditions to enrich rotifers and Artemia with VA (retinyl palmitate) through examining the effects of time and light. This was followed by examining the effect of water type (clear and greenwater) on VA content of enriched rotifers over time. The optimal enrichment time for VA enrichment was 2 h for rotifers in dark conditions and 12 to 24 h for Artemia. The enrichment of rotifers and Artemia with VA was not uniform, and rotifers displayed a higher retinoid inclusion pattern than Artemia. Water type, time spent in larval rearing water after enrichment and the previous VA enrichment levels affected the concentration of retinoids in the VA-enriched rotifers. In clearwater, the concentration of retinoids in VA-enriched rotifers decreased over time, while in greenwater, the retinoid concentration decreased in the high VA-enriched rotifers and increased in the low VA-enriched rotifers. The significant difference in VA content of prey from graded VA enrichments was maintained for at least 4 h in clearwater and 4 to 8 h in greenwater.
The third part of the project was to feed L. lineata larvae with VA-enriched rotifers or Artemia using dose-response experimental designs. The first experiment tested the effect of feeding VA-enriched 2 rotifers (eight doses of VA, 0.5 to 92.5 ng retinol mg\(^{-1}\) DW rotifers) to L. lineata larvae in 24 replicate 300 l tanks and reared in greenwater from 6 to 18 days post hatch (dph), followed by a four week period on Artemia (from 17 to 43 dph) to allow post-larvae to fully develop the jaw and skeletal elements. The second experiment investigated the potential impact of retinoids derived from microalgae by testing the combined effect of green or clearwater and enriched rotifers (three doses of VA, 0.6 to 99.6 ng retinol mg\(^{-1}\) DW rotifers). The last experiment tested the effect of feeding enriched Artemia (six doses of VA, 0.4 to 44.1 ng retinol mg\(^{-1}\) DW Artemia) for four weeks (from 17 to 44 dph).
The results showed that VA incorporation into L. lineata larvae varied with different doses of VA in the enriched rotifers and Artemia, while the water type did not affect the VA content in the larvae. The performance of L. lineata larvae and post-larvae was not affected by dietary VA during either the rotifer or Artemia feeding periods, while greenwater affected growth (9.2% and 28.0% increase in length and weight, respectively, over clearwater, by 43 dph). Dietary VA did not affect the onset or types of jaw malformations in post-larvae during the rotifer or Artemia feeding period experiments (81 and 50% prevalence of commercially relevant malformations on 43 and 44 dph, respectively). However, jaw malformation severity was reduced when larvae were reared in greenwater (2%) compared with those reared in clearwater (14%). Dietary VA during the rotifer feeding period affected the prevalence of vertebral column malformations which were correlated with the larval VA content, where daily inclusion of ≤ 123 ng total VA mg\(^{-1}\) DW rotifer, equivalent to ≤ 35ng total retinolmg\(^{-1}\) DW rotifer, can reduce the skeletal malformations to approximately 30%.
To my knowledge, this research is the first to examine the effects of increasing doses of VA through enrichment of live feeds, during two different larval developmental stages, on the performance and skeletal development of the same marine fish. Also, it is the second study to explore the effect of graded VA doses in enriched rotifers through dose-response experimental design on skeletal malformations in a marine finfish. The overall conclusion was that dietary VA has no effect on the growth or survival of L. lineata larvae and also has little or no effect on the jaw malformation in L. lineata larvae, where physical factors, including the size of rearing tanks, tank colour, and water type, have a greater, and potentially masking, effect on jaw malformation. However, dietary VA was found to significantly affect vertebral column malformations only during the rotifer feeding period. The study highlights the species-specific nature of the effect of VA on malformations, and that marine larvae are more sensitive to the VA treatment when they are younger, during the formative stage of skeletal development.


Original / British English Pete and Carla are students. One day they look at some very old coins and stamps in a shop. Pete wants to buy some stamps, but they are very expensive. Later that day some coins are missing from the shop -- and the shopkeeper wants to find Pete.


While many real-world applications need to organize data based on space (e.g., geology, geomarketing, environmental modeling) and/or time (e.g., accounting, inventory management, personnel management), existing conventional conceptual models do not provide a straightforward mechanism to explicitly capture the associated spatial and temporal semantics. As a result, it is left to database designers to discover, design, and implement - on an ad hoc basis - the temporal and spatial concepts that they need. We propose an annotation-based approach that allows a database designer to focus first on nontemporal and nongeospatial aspects (i.e., "what") of the application and, subsequently, augment the conceptual schema with geospatiotemporal annotations (i.e., "when" and "where"). Via annotations, we enable a supplementary level of abstraction that succinctly encapsulates the geospatiotemporal data semantics and naturally extends the semantics of a conventional conceptual model. An overarching assumption in conceptual modeling has always been that expressiveness and formality need to be balanced with simplicity. We posit that our formally defined annotation-based approach is net only expressive, but also straightforward to understand and implement.


Use of cellular lightweight concrete (CLC) in masonry construction has gained
tremendous popularity in recent decades owing to its sustainability, density, low
thermal conductivity and due to fewer mortar joints. Addition of fibers can improve
the ductile behavior of CLC under compression, shear, and tensile loadings. Data on
mechanical characterization of synthetic fiber reinforced CLC (FRCLC) is scarce. The
objective of this study is to develop a high-performance fiber-reinforced cellular
concrete to provide a better alternative to existing clay brick and aerated autoclaved
concrete blocks for structural applications of masonry. Use of micro-fibers (fibrillated)
enhances the pre-peak behavior of masonry by arresting cracks at micro-scale, while
macro (structural) fibers induce ductile behavior in the post-peak region by arresting
the crack propagation soon after the crack initiation. An extensive experimental
campaign has been carried out to mechanically characterize FRCLC under
compression, flexure, composite masonry prisms under compression, tension, fracture
and direct shear loading. Firstly, the mechanical behavior of CLC cylinders under pure
axial compression and CLC blocks under flexure is studied. After that, the behavior of
CLC masonry prisms under compression, dog-bone CLC specimen in tension, and
notched CLC blocks under flexure(fracture studies) were studied. Finally, the special
test setup was developed for testing the double-notched CLC specimen under direct
shear. Shear behavior of CLC with and without different fiber dosages was studied.
Test results indicate that the addition of structural fibers improves the compressive

strength and tensile strength by a factor of 2.0 and 3.4 respectively for 0.55% volume
fraction. Post-peak ductility improves up to a factor of 9 (for a strain limit of 0.01) in
case of compression and by multifold (for a strain limit of 0.06) in case of tension for
0.55% volume fraction. Similarly, it resulted in an increase of post-peak flexural
ductility for unnotched beams and fracture energy for notched beams by a factor of 15
and two respectively for a hybrid addition of 0.44% macro fiber and 0.02% microfiber
volume fraction. For composite masonry prisms, it increased up to 28.3% to 0.55%
when compared to that of control specimen. With further addition of micro-fibers of
0.02%, the compressive strength increased up to 45.2% for 0.44% dosage. Hybrid fiber
reinforcement enhanced the peak strength and ductility which indicates better crack
bridging both at the micro and macro levels. Semi-empirical models for characterizing
the stress-strain behavior of CLC under compression and tension is proposed. Also,
stress-strain curves for CLC masonry prisms are also developed. Digital image
correlation technique is used to monitor the crack growth process during the tension
test on the dog-bone specimen. The strains in the direction parallel to the direction of
loading obtained from DIC showed a close match with the strain obtained using
linearly varying displacement transducers. Acoustic emission technique is used while
characterizing the fracture and shear behavior. Charts for quantitatively assessing the
crack width were plotted using AE counts and energy. Three-dimensional source
location is attempted and the events located are classified into mode-I and mode-II. In
general, the fiber reinforced CLC developed in this study is shown to have adequate

mechanical properties for use in the structural application of masonry including load
bearing and infill construction.


It is thought – by musicians, listeners and music theorists alike – that music has the
ability to mimic, mirror or reproduce the effects of psychedelic drugs: a concept of
immense significance considering the expansive corpus of literature attesting to the
therapeutic value of such drugs. This thesis attends to how music can be meaningfully
compared to the effects of drugs like mescaline, psilocybin and LSD.
The musicological theories explaining the relationship between the effects of such
drugs and music are based almost entirely on prototypes: the complexity of a
psychedelic pharmacopeia reduced to LSD, LSD's extraordinary array of effects
reduced to three, and the three effects theorised, for the most part, in relation to a
particular style of rock that crystallised around San Francisco in the 1960s. This style –
acid rock – has been most extensively analysed in relation to the question of how music
can be psychedelic, resulting in a list of sounds understood to recreate the effects of
such drugs for the listener.
In this thesis I demonstrate the prevalence of these same sounds in Goth, a diverse
collection of popular music styles associated not with drugs but rather the Gothic. By
demonstrating how the various sub-styles of Goth – which have many analogues in the
wider popular music repertoire – are rich in precisely the same sounds understood to
reproduce the effects of LSD, I suggest two broad conclusions: either Goth(ic) music is
psychedelic, or acid rock is not because the theories that explain the ways it
reproduces the effects of such drugs cannot be held to account.
I propose both conclusions are true. Goth is psychedelic by the current academic
model, but this model is problematic; in particular its reliance on prototypes has had
the unfortunate side-effect of imposing a culturally biased understanding of
psychedelic drug experiences upon the repertoire to which the term might refer.
Whilst I demonstrate how music analysts might map out a more stylistically inclusive
definition of psychedelia in a manner that is mindful of the prototypes involved, I
suggest the highest potential for understanding how music is able to reproduce the
effects of such drugs lies in a pharmacological concept known as set and setting.


The past decade has shown a great rise in digital tools to measure various aspects of daily life. Such measured data does not exist in a vacuum and is increasingly integrated in newly designed interactive products. Meanwhile our cities are moving toward smart infrastructure and supporting innovation from citizen initiatives to improve the urban experience and well-being. In the current work we follow these trends by building on the design knowledge created from the designing of personal informatics and bridge this knowledge towards urban informatics solutions. We elaborate upon the stage-based model of personal informatics (Li et al., 2010) and how it can be potentially applied on a neighborhood level. We discuss the proposed expansion from a personal model towards a participatory one and highlight the design decisions regarding motivation and community forming, and present a design case to illustrate the holistic activities of a designer contributing to a community-deployed, quantified


Abstract Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and its metastasis markedly exacerbates patients' prognosis. In particular, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), which lacks estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer frequently forming metastatic lesions. Differentiation-inducing factor-1 (DIF-1) identified in Dictyostelium discoideum inhibits cell proliferation and migration of various mammalian cancer cells. However, the effect of DIF-1 on TNBC has not been examined. Here, we investigated whether DIF-1 shows anti-proliferative and anti-metastatic effects on TNBC by in-vivo and in-vitro experiments. Methods In in-vivo experiments, we used cancer xenograft model mice in which murine TNBC 4T1/Luc cells (1.0 × 106 cells/mL) were injected into mammary fat pads to evaluate the effects of intragastric administration of DIF-1 (300 mg/kg/day) on the primary tumor growth and lung metastasis. In in-vitro experiments, we carried out assays for cell proliferation, migration and invasion to evaluate the anti-proliferative and anti-metastatic effects of DIF-1. We also conducted Western blotting and real-time RT-PCR to identify the mechanisms for DIF-1's anti-cancer effects. Results In vivo, administration of DIF-1 significantly suppressed the primary tumor growth and lung metastasis without adverse effects such as weight loss and myelosuppression. In vitro, DIF-1 reduced cyclin D1 and c-Myc by inhibiting transcription and promoting degradation of the proteins, which resulted in the suppression of cell proliferation. DIF-1 also suppressed cell migration and invasion and reduced the protein expressions of snail, twist, vimentin and MMP-2, crucial factors in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Conclusions DIF-1 exerts anti-cancer effects in TNBC by reducing cell cycle accelerators and reversing EMT. Our findings suggest that using DIF-1 as a lead compound could develop a novel anti-cancer agent for TNBC. Legal entity responsible for the study The study protocol was approved by the Committee on Ethics of Animal Experiments of Kyushu University. Animal handling and procedures were carried out in compliance with the Guidelines for Animal Experiments, Kyushu University, and the Law (No. 105) and Notification (No. 6) of the Japanese Government. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


CHQ (Cold Heading Quality) steels are assumed to be non-heat treatable so strengthened by cold forming which is a quick and mass production makes it low cost manufacturing process. In this study, microstructure and phase transformation in steels is a fundamental aspect of governing the properties. A large number of studies are dedicated on the subject phase transformations owing to availability of several commercial steel grades. Due to several grades of steels commercially available shows differently behavior so it is hard to conclude that phase transformation is universally understood completely. In this study the influence of heating rate on the development of microstructure of CHQ steel has been studied thoroughly by using different heating techniques.For characterization, optical microscope connected with high resolution camera and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) was utilized to interpret the microstructural results. In addition, heat treatment methods have been utilized as to vary the microstructure in the steel under experimentation. It was found that heating rate could have major effect on phase transformation of CHQ steel (under study). Rate of heating enhances the austenite development kinetics with respect to dwell time and such austenite has been changed to martensite upon cooling. In addition, heating rate also promotes nucleation sites for the formation of austenite phase of CHQ steel.


Virtual environments and related technology generate interest and excitement. Their power is strengthened with empirical evidence of their utility for scientific inquiry and decision-making. This paper reports on a study to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual environment (VE) presentations about issues typical of those facing decision makers in a rapidly growing urban area. The presentations consisted of the explanation and visualization of two phenomena—groundwater overdraft and the urban heat island. The virtual environment utilized in this study, Arizona State University's Decision Theater, is purported to help policy makers and the larger community visualize complex model output and make decisions about scientific issues. To begin to assess these claims, we carried out a user test during which a group of research participants were given two surveys, one before the presentations, to determine a priori understanding, and a second afterwards, with the same questions. This methodology allowed us to carry out within-subjects tests concerning contrasting phenomena, in order to assess two primary hypotheses: (1) knowledge and perceptions of environmental phenomena will change after the viewing, and (2) understanding will vary based on the phenomena in the presentations. Our analysis shows at least some level of support for the hypotheses, with evidence that the virtual environment positively influenced understanding, and that there may be important differences in insight generation based on characteristics of the phenomena represented. Finally, we outline critical areas of future research to further knowledge about the impact of visual VE settings on understanding and decision making.


Author(s): Levinson, RM; chen, S; ban-weiss, G; gilbert, H; berdahl, P; rosado, P; destaillats, H; sleiman, M; kirchstetter, T | Abstract: As the least expensive category of high-slope roofing in the U.S., shingles are found on the roofs of about 80% of U.S. homes, and constitute about 80% (by product area) of this market. Shingles are also among the least reflective high-slope roofing products, with few cool options on the market. The widespread use of cool roofs in the two warmest U.S. climate zones could reduce annual residential cooling energy use in these zones by over 7%. This project targets the development of high-performance cool shingles with initial solar reflectance at least 0.40 and a cost premium not exceeding US$0.50/ft². Phase 1 of the current study explored three approaches to increasing shingle reflectance. Method A replaces dark bare granules by white bare granules to enhance the near-infrared reflectance attained with cool pigments. Method B applies a white basecoat and a cool-color topcoat to a shingle surfaced with dark bare granules. Method C applies a visually clear, NIR-reflecting surface treatment to a conventionally colored shingle. Method A was the most successful, but our investigation of Method B identified roller coating as a promising top-coating technique, and our study of Method C developed a novel approach based on a nanowire mesh. Method A yielded red, green, brown, and black faux shingles with solar reflectance up to 0.39 with volumetric coloration. Since the base material is white, these reflectances can readily be increased by using less pigment. The expected cost premium for Method A shingles is less than our target limit of $0.50/ft², and would represent less than a 10% increase in the installed cost of a shingle roof. Using inexpensive but cool (spectrally selective) iron oxide pigments to volumetrically color white limestone synthesized from sequestered carbon and seawater appears to offer high albedo at low cost. In Phase 2, we plan to refine the cool shingle prototypes, manufacture cool granules, and manufacture and market high-performance cool shingles.


Hydroxyurea, a drug widely used in therapy of several human diseases, inhibits deoxynucleotide synthesis--and, consequently, DNA synthesis--by blocking the cellular enzyme ribonucleotide reductase. Hydroxyurea inhibits human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) DNA synthesis in activated peripheral blood lymphocytes by decreasing the amount of intracellular deoxynucleotides, thus suggesting that this drug has an antiviral effect. Hydroxyurea has now been shown to block HIV-1 replication in acutely infected primary human lymphocytes (quiescent and activated) and macrophages, as well as in blood cells infected in vivo obtained from individuals with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The antiviral effect was achieved at nontoxic doses of hydroxyurea, lower than those currently used in human therapy. Combination of hydroxyurea with the nucleoside analog didanosine (2',3'-dideoxyinosine, or ddl) generated a synergistic inhibitory effect without increasing toxicity. In some instances, inhibition of HIV-1 by hydroxyurea was irreversible, even several weeks after suspension of drug treatment. The indirect inhibition of HIV-1 by hydroxyurea is not expected to generate high rates of escape mutants. Hydroxyurea therefore appears to be a possible candidate for AIDS therapy.


Title: Burnout of primary school teachers in the North West Province Kev terms: Burnout, exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy, job characteristics, strain, teachers The foundation of the education of our country lies in the hands of the primary school teachers. Unfortunately, teachers have to juggle many roles not only are they expected to teach diverse classes and be a role model, but they also have to deal with social problems all for very little remuneration. Our teachers are becoming less motivated, frustrated and very despondent and as a result, an increasing number of teachers are suffering from burnout. The objective of this research was to investigate the job characteristics associated with burnout as well as the bumout-strain relationship among primary school teachers in the North-West Province. A stratified random sample of 646 primary school teachers in the North West Province was taken. The Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBEGS), Job Characteristics Scale and Your Health Questionnaire (third questionnaire of the ASSET) were used as measuring instruments. Cronbach alpha coefficients, inter-item correlation coefficients, Pearsonproduct correlation coefficients and canonical correlation coefficients were used to analyse the data. Structural equation modelling (SEM) methods were used to construct job characteristic models of burnout. The results showed that overload leads to exhaustion, which leads to cynicism and in turn to lack of professional efficacy. Job resources was found to be related to all three dimensions of burnout, while rewards played a moderating effect between both overload and exhaustion, and job resources and bumout. Exhaustion and lack of professional efficacy lead to physical and psychological strain. Recommendations were made for further research.


This paper reviews the state of the art of optical coherence tomography (OCT), an interferometric imaging technique that provides cross-sectional views of the subsurface microstructure of biological tissue. Following a discussion of the basic theory of OCT, an overview of the issues involved in the design of the main components of OCT systems is presented. The review concludes by introducing new imaging modes being developed to extract additional diagnostic information.


Traffic violations are among the leading causes of road accidents. In this research, the sensitivity of Greek drivers to a hypothetical intensification of police enforcement for speed violations and improper overtaking is analyzed, using stated preference data. Under the assumption of increased police enforcement, drivers were presented with the option to maintain their unsafe driving patterns (and risk getting fined) or comply with the traffic laws (and experience longer trip duration). A parsimonious mixed logit model has been estimated and sensitivity analysis is performed with respect to the main variables. The model explicitly captures the (unobserved) heterogeneity in the sample, and reflects the fixed random parameter across observations from the same respondent. The behaviour of the surveyed drivers depends on socioeconomic characteristics and trip characteristics. Based on the presented sensitivity analysis, it can be argued that while the "typical" Greek driver may not be particularly risk-prone, there are segments of the population that show a tendency to violate traffic laws. This is a useful finding that could be used by policy makers e.g. to develop targeted police enforcement campaigns (or targeted media campaigns, special education initiatives, etc.), aimed at the demographic segments with a higher tendency for traffic violation.


Data from high-energy physics experiments are collected with significant financial and human effort and are mostly unique. However, until recently no coherent strategy existed for data preservation and re-use, and many important and complex data sets have simply been lost. While the current focus is on the LHC at CERN, in the current period several important and unique experimental programs at other facilities are coming to an end, including those at HERA, b-factories and the Tevatron. To address this issue, an inter-experimental study group on HEP data preservation and long-term analysis (DPHEP) was convened at the end of 2008. The group now aims to publish a full and detailed review of the present status of data preservation in high energy physics. This contribution summarises the results of the DPHEP study group, describing the challenges of data preservation in high energy physics and the group's first conclusions and recommendations. The physics motivation for data preservation, generic computing and preservation models, technological expectations and governance aspects at local and international levels are examined.


1. Introduction Becoming a professional teacher calls for extensive theoretical and practical studies going far beyond the provision of initial teacher education courses. Practice worldwide has shown that novice teachers experience enormous difficulties when starting their working careers at schools and many of them fail to survive the adaptation period. Some estimates suggest that almost 30 percent of beginning teachers do not teach beyond two years and 40-50 percent leave the profession within their first five years of teaching (Darling-Hammond and Sclan 1996:83, Hughes 2003:1619). To the end of reducing the attrition and burnout rate during this period, educational authorities and teacher educators have taken measures to alleviate beginning teachers' adaptation to the profession by introducing extensive on-the-job field practice and induction programmes. The main purpose of these programmes is to provide assistance to student and beginning teachers for integrating their formal pedagogical knowledge with the practice of a specific school and for their adaptation to the specific atmosphere or micro-politics (a term introduced by Kelchtermans & Ballet 2002) of this school. However, focusing only on the issues of supporting the practical studies of beginning teachers in their final phases of practice-based studies would turn out to be tardy, as many basic practical teaching skills should be mastered already in the early stages of teacher education (e.g. Berliner 2001, Moore 2003). Therefore, the issue of supporting beginning teachers' field-based studies should be seen as a continuum starting with the tasks of supervising student teachers' school practice and ending with mentoring during the induction period. The following article, based on a theoretical review of teacher education research, analyses general concepts of supervision and mentoring of student and beginning teachers' school practice, specifies the function of supervision and mentoring in different phases of teacher education, compares some current mentoring programmes in practice, and discusses the issues of mentor selection and preparation. 2. General concepts of supervision and mentoring 2.1. Supervisors and mentors The persons responsible for the guidance and support of the student and beginning teachers are referred to using differing terminology depending on the nature of support provided and the support providers' role in organising and supervising teaching practice. The name also depends on teacher education traditions in a specific country. For example, the person supervising prospective teachers during their final qualification phase may be called 'tutor', 'counsellor', 'coordinator', 'mentor', 'orientator' etc. (Eurydice 2002:79). Usually at least two support persons are involved in the organisation of student teachers' school practice: the supervising or mentoring teacher and the representative of the education institution as contact or liaison person between the university faculty and partner school. In order to emphasise differences in the nature of the support and guidance that student or beginning teachers need, the cooperating teacher supervising the pre-service teaching practice is called "supervisor" and teachers who work with teacher education interns are called "mentors" in this study. Thus, the name "mentor" points to a collegial and equal relationship with the protege in which the mentor serves as a guide to practical knowledge and as a source of moral support (Awaya, et al. 2003) and better characterises the expected role of cooperating teachers working with interns. 2.2. Needs for mentoring as determined by different approaches to teacher education From a broad analytical point of view student teaching experience can be conceptualised, as articulated by Dewey (1904), in two contrasting ways. One conception is that of apprenticeship, where university supervisors and cooperating teachers assist students in gaining techniques and self-confidence that will help them survive more comfortably within an existing school situation, and without questioning the status quo. …


Abstract The assertion of the centrality and supremacy of man, or rather, of the idea(l) of humanity, during the Renaissance period, inevitably entailed the repudiation of the animal and the beginning of the great human-animal divide. What was seen, at the time, as the re-birth of man, was also the birth of a rampant anthropocentrism which, until the recent so-called "animal turn"" in critical and literary studies went unquestioned. Taking this into account, one would expect to find an almost exclusive focus on the human or what is/was perceived as being human in most works from that period. Yet, surprisingly, throughout Shakespeare's plays, one encounters a plethora of figures of animality leaping, running, crawling, flying, swimming, or advancing, as Derrida would say, "à pas de loup"". From dogs, bears, lions, apes and foxes to birds, fish, worms and reptiles, Shakespeare the humanist paradoxically unfolds a veritable bestiary of nonhuman presences. Using corpus-based analysis that focuses on animal similes built with the preposition "like"" and a critical angle largely informed by posthumanist theory, we take a closer look at the forms, roles and functions of both nonhuman and human animality in Shakespeare, as well as the intricate relationship between anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism.


Introduction Providing HIV testing to truck drivers in Africa is crucial but challenging. The introduction of HIV self-testing provides expanded service delivery options for clients, potentially increasing demand for services and expanding coverage – especially important for high-risk and difficult-to-reach populations. This study examines the preferences regarding HIV testing service delivery models, among long distance truck drivers in an effort to identify testing services that would appeal to this population. Methods Using a discrete choice experiment, this study examines the drivers of choice regarding HIV counselling and testing among 305 truck drivers recruited from two roadside wellness clinics along major trucking routes in Kenya. Participants made trade-offs between characteristics of HIV testing service delivery models by making hypothetical choices in a series of paired HIV testing scenarios. Conditional logit models were used to identify the HIV testing characteristics driving the selection of preferred scenarios, and determine whether preferences interact with individual characteristics – especially HIV testing history. Results Participants preferred free, provider-administered HIV testing at a roadside clinic, using a finger-prick test, with in-person counselling, undertaken in the shortest possible time. The strongest driver of choice was the cost of the test. Those who had never tested previously preferred oral testing and telephonic counselling, while those who were not regular testers favoured clinic based- over self-testing. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that for the majority of participants – most of whom had tested before – the existing services offered at roadside clinics were the preferred service delivery model. The introduction of oral self-testing increases the options available to truck drivers and may even improve testing uptake for some, especially among those who have never tested before. However, these findings suggest the impact on HIV testing uptake of introducing oral self-testing may be limited in this population.


The Imprecise DEVS approach combines the advantages of imprecise computation with a formal modeling methodology in order to avoid the transient overloads on real-time systems. This process requires efficient scheduling methods to find the best schedule of the computations to guarantee the deadlines and to increase the quality of the results by reducing the discarding of the optional computations. This work introduces a solution to integrate schedulability analysis with Imprecise DEVS to improve the predictability and the feasibility for scheduling. The proposed schedulability analysis and scheduling methods are based on Earliest Deadline First, priority-driven and mandatory-first approaches and they are considered to be executed dynamically. The schedulability tests contribute to avoid unnecessary discarding of optional computations improving the quality of the results.


This article describes an action research study in which ninth graders composed digital responses to their study of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet .  Their collaborative digital projects included e-zines, presentations, digital videos and photostories.  Although meeting face to face in and outside of class, the students also used Ning (a social networking site) to share their products and to communicate about them throughout the unit.  The paper will focus on what their communications reveal about the students' participation and understanding during the composing process, including thinking, representing, actively engaged, creating, knowing, and social - summed up in the acronym TRACKS.


The objective of this study was to use surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for rapid detection and characterization of trace amounts of forchlorfenuron extracted from fruits. Forchlorfenuron is a plant growth regulator widely used in grapes. In this study, gold-coated nanosubstrates (Q-SERS) were used for SERS measurements. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis was used as a statistical method for quantitative analysis of the spectral data. Our results demonstrate that enhanced Raman signals acquired from samples exhibited characteristic spectral patterns. The detection limit for forchlorfenuron by SERS is 3.14 ppm at 99.86% confidence interval. The PLS results for quantification of forchlorfenuron were obtained: R = 0.96, RMSEP = 9.336 ppm. In addition, HPLC was also used to measure forchlorfenuron and verify SERS results. A good linear relationship was observed between 0.1 100 ppm with an R value of 0.999 at 260 nm. These results demonstrate that SERS coupled with gold nanosubstrates is a rapid and simple method that requires little sample preparation. It could be a practical and


With the advent research of Document Image Analysis and Recognition (DIAR), an important line of research is explored on indexing and retrieval of graphics rich docu- ments. It aims at nding relevant documents relying on segmentation and recognition of text and graphics components underlying in non-standard layout where commercial OCRs can not be applied due to complexity. This thesis is focused towards text infor- mation extraction approaches in graphical documents and retrieval of such documents using text information. Automatic text recognition in graphical documents (map, engineering drawing, etc.) involves many challenges because text characters are usually printed in multi- oriented and multi-scale way along with di erent graphical objects. Text characters are used to annotate the graphical curve lines and hence, many times they follow curvi-linear paths too. For OCR of such documents, individual text lines and their corresponding words/characters need to be extracted. For recognition of multi-font, multi-scale and multi-oriented characters, we have proposed a feature descriptor for character shape using angular information from con- tour pixels to take care of the invariance nature. To improve the e ciency of OCR, an approach towards the segmentation of multi-oriented touching strings into individual characters is also discussed. Convex hull based background information is used to segment a touching string into possible primitive segments and later these primitive segments are merged to get optimum segmentation using dynamic programming. To overcome the touching/overlapping problem of text with graphical lines, a character spotting approach using SIFT and skeleton information is included. Afterwards, we propose a novel method to extract individual curvi-linear text lines using the fore- ground and background information of the characters of the text and a water reservoir concept is used to utilize the background information. We have also formulated the methodologies for graphical document retrieval ap- plications using query words and seals. The retrieval approaches are performed using recognition results of individual components in the document. Given a query text, the system extracts positional knowledge from the query word and uses the same to generate hypothetical locations in the document. Indexing of documents is also per- formed based on automatic detection of seals from documents containing cluttered background. A seal is characterized by scale and rotation invariant spatial feature descriptors computed from labelled text characters and a concept based on the Generalized Hough Transform is used to locate the seal in documents. Keywords: Document Image Analysis, Graphics Recognition, Dynamic Pro- gramming, Generalized Hough Transform, Character Recognition, Touching Charac- ter Segmentation, Text/Graphics Separation, Curve-Line Separation, Word Retrieval, Seal Detection and Recognition.


A streptomycete was isolated from an Easter Island soil sample and found to inhibit Candida albicans, Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton granulosum. The antibiotic-producing microorganism was characterized and identified as Streptomyces hygroscopicus. The antifungal principle was extracted with organic solvent from the mycelium, isolated in crystalline form and named rapamycin. Rapamycin is mainly active against Candida albicans; minimum inhibitory concentration against ten strains ranged from 0.02 to 0.2 mug/ml. Its apparent activity against Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton granulosum is lower because of its instability in culture media on prolonged incubation required by these fungi. No activity was observed against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Acute toxicity in mice is low.


The effect of chemical composition on the cationic conductivity of mixed alkali metals β"-polyferrites was established. Cationic conductivity is determined by the mobility of alkali metal ion in inter-unit space which in turn depends on the ratio of cation radius and width of inter-unit space. The conductivity increases with z, and at the same z in the range of 0.28 – 0.4 becomes constant (z in the formula Me2-zAdzFe11O17, where Me - the basic alkali metal, Ad - introduced alkali metal ion, which has the larger radius (Cs, Rb)) for all samples. This is due to the structural features of polyferrites.


Objective: Evaluation of the cytotoxic effect of different extracts of Orthosiphon pallidus Royle on MCF-7 cell lines, comparatively. Materials and Methods: The breast cell line MCF-7 was cultured in DMEM medium containing fetal bovine serum & antibiotics. The cells were exposed to different doses of all the ethanolic, aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts and incubated for 24, 48 and 72 hrs respectively and further studied for MTT colorimetric test, SRB test, glutathione assay and cellular uptake assay. Results: The results showed hydroalcoholic extract had a dose and time-dependent anticancer effect on MCF-7 cancer cells after 72 hours (P<0.05). The study revealed that Orthosiphon pallidus Royle could inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. Conclusion: The ethanolic, aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of Orthosiphon pallidus Royle exhibited anticancer activity in a wide range in dose -dependent manner. The study concluded that Orthosiphon pallidus Royle shows cellular uptake and anti-proliferative activities.