Glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS) with its high resolution, low limit of determination and wide linear dynamic range is a powerful technique for direct analysis of high purity solid metals. Similar to the drawback of other direct solid sampling methods, a drawback of this technique is the lack of appropriate pure certified reference materials to calibrate the instrument, so that it is often used for semi-quantity analysis. A new calibration procedure using synthetic calibration samples by the doping-melting method was developed to obtain more accurate and traceable analytical results. The calibration samples were prepared from high purity copper powder doped with standard solutions of graduated and defined concentration. And then a part of them was melted into bulks and another was pressed to tablets. The homogeneity of both types of samples was measured by GDMS and for the doped tablets, relative deviations of the IBRs of both sides for 45 elements were mostly less than 10%. For the doped bulks, some problems such as the segregation effect and analyte losses happened for most elements; so satisfactory homogeneity was obtained for only 9 elements, for which nearly all relative deviations of the IBRs of both sides were less than 5%. Relative sensitivity factors of 9 and 45 elements in the copper matrix were obtained by calibration of GDMS with doped bulks and doped tablets, respectively. The RSF values obtained by calibration with doped tablets were compared with values derived from standard RSFs and the large differences demonstrated that matrix-adapted calibration was necessary when the impurities were measured accurately by using the instrument, especially for the rare earth elements. Then the 9 RSFs determined using tablets and bulks were compared and the results showed that relative deviations of them in most cases were less than 10%. The correlation coefficients of the calibration curves obtained by using the doping-melting method were better than those obtained using the doping-pressed method and the uncertainties of RSFs were smaller. Several copper CRMs were measured to validate the calibration procedures. The results revealed that the measured values using the two types of calibration samples were in agreement with the certified values. The results revealed that the calibration results of Fe and Ni coming from calibration samples prepared by using the two types of methods were in agreement with the certified values.


Abstract Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas, Convolvulaceae) is an important food crop in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Lack of access to quality sweetpotato planting material after sweetpotato limits utilization of market oriented improved clones and new varieties. Obtaining clean planting material in the right quantity and quality is a challenge in the SSA region. Farmers often obtain planting materials from their own sources with multiple rooting, drawn from a previous crop or neighbors and face the risk of it being infected with sweetpotato viruses. The objective of this study was to examine the economic and physical yield performance of sandponics multiplication method by comparing with conventional soil method using optimal N-nutrient inputs. The performance of five sweetpotato cultivars (Irene, Delvia, Tanzania, Gweri, and Kabode) in the modified prototype sweetpotato nutrient media was evaluated. Vine production utilizing modified sandponics nutrient media with trellised plants was compared to the conventionally used soil media. Analysis of variance indicated that the main effects of cultivar and substrate were highly significant (p < 0.0001) for nodes produced, vine multiplication rate (VMR), number of cuttings produced, and vine length. In addition, cultivar by substrate interaction was highly significant at 0.01 probability level for nodes produced, VMR, and vine length. Vine multiplication rate was 33% higher in the sandponics system compared to the conventional soil method of multiplying sweetpotato vines. Among the cultivars studied, Irene was the most favorable cultivar with a VMR of 65.2 in sand and 45.5 in soil. The cost-effectiveness analysis indicates that the cost per cutting (i.e., 3–4 nodes) produced from sandponics method was 4.6 KSH (US$ 0.046) as compared to 3.1 KSH (US$ 0.031) per cutting produced from conventional method. Sandponics system is competitive due to its capability of increased VMRs. However, the optimal number of ratooning needs to be investigated to understand the economies of scale in future research.


Peace agreements have their honeymoon periods launched by a photo shoot marking the outbreak of 'peace'. The work of converting the promise and hard-won compromises of a transition into reality is fraught with visible and hidden threats. When can we know a transition is 'working'? How can we calculate the level of security threat posed to future stability by deep rooted structural inequalities? What role does restorative justice play in these dilemmas? The textual and political site for this analysis is Northern Ireland's 1998 Agreement. Intersectionality theory aids analysis of the gender dynamics of law and politics in this jurisdiction. We find that political stability has built-in gendered costs and benefits. Local restorative justice initiatives may proactively reduce communal tensions but benefits to women may be less evident. An intersectional assessment brings women's lives into the picture and moreover explains how transitions work in practice.


We propose a method for learning linear models whose predictive performance is robust to causal interventions on unobserved variables, when noisy proxies of those variables are available. Our approach takes the form of a regularization term that trades off between in-distribution performance and robustness to interventions. Under the assumption of a linear structural causal model, we show that a single proxy can be used to create estimators that are prediction optimal under interventions of bounded strength. This strength depends on the magnitude of the measurement noise in the proxy, which is, in general, not identifiable. In the case of two proxy variables, we propose a modified estimator that is prediction optimal under interventions up to a known strength. We further show how to extend these estimators to scenarios where additional information about the "test time" intervention is available during training. We evaluate our theoretical findings in synthetic experiments and using real data of hourly pollution levels across several cities in China.


The World Peace Foundation, an operating foundation affiliated solely with The Fletcher School at Tufts University, aims to provide intellectual leadership on issues of peace, justice and security. We believe that innovative research and teaching are critical to the challenges of making peace around the world, and should go hand-in-hand with advocacy and practical engagement with the toughest issues. To respond to organized violence today, we not only need new instruments and toolswe need a new vision of peace. Our challenge is to reinvent peace.


Art education for general education was first introduced to China in 1902, when the reforms of Chinese education were begun. Despite China possessing a unique cultural tradition an overwhelming number of Western ideas were 'borrowed' to develop art education in the first half of 20th century China. From an historical, political and cultural perspective, this was not an isolated phenomenon in China at that time. After the defeat of China in the Opium War, generations of Chinese intellectuals devoted themselves to the long quest for Westernization. Many Chinese wished to modernize China by replacing the backward practices perceived in Chinese civilization with ideas from modern Western civilization; or to create a new culture through merging the essence of Chinese and Western culture.

Since the turn of the 20th century, especially after the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the pace of direct learning from the West increased rapidly. In the early 20th century the influence of the West had penetrated into every aspect of Chinese culture including visual arts education, visual arts and general education. At the same time, the flow of such an enormous amount of Western ideas worried many Chinese intellectuals who found it a threat to Chinese cultural traditions. As well, there were concerns also about the blind adoption of Western ideas or the quality of the Chinese studies of Western knowledge. In today's sense, all these concerns are equivalent to the notions of Globalization and Glocality.

This development of Chinese visual arts education as well as education and visual arts was under mostly Japanese, American and German influences. Japan was regarded as a bridge for China to learn from the West during the turn of the 20th century and much of Western knowledge such as German pedagogic and art educational thinking and was imported to China indirectly through Japan.

This study seeks out and reviews the available Chinese writings on art education in the first half of the 20th century and suggests that among this mass of the Western ideas on art education being imported into China especially from Germany. Thus the introduction of German ideas on art education, the study of the contextual factors of the formulation of German art educational notions at the turn of the 20th century (including the Dresden conference on art education) in these Chinese writings, are selected as part of the case study of this dissertation. Focus will be given to an in-depth analysis of the quality of study on this issue in the Chinese writings.

The Chinese and German intelligentsia's and art educators' original written texts published from the late 19th to the first half of the 20th century form the primary sources for this dissertation. All these written materials are text corpus and constitute the objects of scrutiny for the research. This thesis is significant because it is the first to explain and develop an insight into the development of Chinese art education for general education in the first half of the 20th century with a view to trace where many of the ideas originated from, how they were introduced and by whom. The study concludes with an examination of the German influences through a qualitative analysis of the available Chinese and German written texts of the period.


Kathy Hamilton reviews "Understanding children as consumers" which takes as its starting point the active role that children play within consumer culture, focusing primarily on children between 8 and 12 years old. David Marshall has edited a collection derived from a mixed set of disciplines including marketing, consumer research, developmental, applied and social psychology, modern history and organisation studies. It is split into four sections covering children as consumers, encountering marketing, kids' stuff and looking forward. Hamilton concludes that there is a range of interesting and relevant material presented. However, given the overall aim of the book, there would have been potential for more of the chapters to emphasise children's experiences in the marketplace from their perspective, to gain a greater understanding of children's agency within the consumption arena.


Europe's equity market structure is poised for a dramatic transformation that will parallel changes that have swept the United States during the past several years. Although there are a few key differences between the U.S. markets at the beginning of its metamorphosis and European markets today, these won't prevent the rapid development in Europe of a market structure similar to that which now exists in America-marked by extreme fragmentation of liquidity, the emergence of dark pools, soaring volumes, and an outsized role for high-frequency traders, such as statistical arbitrageurs and electronic market-making firms. Incumbent exchanges such as the LSE, Deutsche Borse, and Euronext will see their monopoly-like market shares dwindle as new rivals, fueled by superior technology, maker-taker pricing, and big order-flow providers, continue to enter the market. But incumbents will have ample opportunity to benefit from the same trends if they are not complacent. One opportunity, already being pursued by Nordic market operator OMX (now under Nasdaq's ownership) and by NYSE Euronext, is for incumbents to launch pan-European markets that will capture share outside their national borders. And all markets should benefit from a rise in overall volumes similar to that seen in the United States during its transformation.


Developing countries wishing to participate in the REDD+ mechanism can start developing forest reference (emission) levels, based on the guidance provided by COP 17 of UNFCCC and by considering the following points: The quality and availability of data will determine the methods used to develop forest reference (emission) levels. The step-wise approach proposed in this policy brief can reflect different national circumstances and facilitate broad participation by enabling countries to develop relatively simple forest reference (emission) levels that can be improved over time. These levels can be set alongside efforts to improve measurement and monitoring capacities and reduce uncertainties conducted as part of the three REDD+ implementation phases (which countries are required to follow). Considering the drivers and activities that cause deforestation and forest degradation will be particularly important in relation to 'adjusting' reference (emission) levels according to 'national circumstances'. A sub-national approach to developing forest reference (emission) levels should be restricted to Phases 1 and 2 of REDD+ and national forest RELs/RLs should be developed for Phase 3 of REDD+ when any financial incentive scheme will be based on fully measured, reported and verified results-based actions. This will ensure the cost-efficiency and will safeguard the environmental integrity of the REDD+ mitigation mechanism.


Value for money is a term that has, and continues to be, applied to Higher Education in the UK. Universities are held to account in terms of the quality of their provision and the student outcomes achieved. The aim of this paper is to investigate how value for money is defined and who value is being measured for, focusing on Foundation Year courses. Various measures are employed to define value for money, but they share common features: a focus on student judgment and metrics such as progression, retention and graduate outcomes. Students are the main focus when value for money is being discussed, and there are many immediate benefits (increased confidence, improved completion) as well as longer term benefits (improved wages, health and societal engagement) in being a university student. There is an investment on the part of the student and society, but the returns outweigh the initial outlay financially and socially. The implications of this study include the need to design a measure of value for money that considers the long term as well as immediate benefits of Higher Education, in particular through Foundation Year provision, improving education on what student debt entails for students and their parents and more tailored support for non-traditional learners.


Utilizing a new average atom code, we calculate the index of refraction in C, Al, Ti, and Pd plasmas and show many conditions over which the bound-electron contribution dominates the free electrons as we explore photon energies from the optical to 100 eV (12 nm) soft x rays. For decades measurement of the electron density in plasmas by interferometers has relied on the approximation that the index of refraction in a plasma is due solely to the free electrons and therefore is less than 1. Recent measurements of Al plasmas using x-ray laser interferometers observed fringes bending in the opposite direction than expected due to the bound-electron contribution causing the index of refraction to be larger than 1. During the next decade x-ray free-electron lasers and other sources will be available to probe a wider variety of plasmas at higher densities and shorter wavelengths, so understanding the index of refraction in plasmas is essential.


Knowledge, from Plato onwards, has been considered in relation to justified belief. Current debate has centred around the nature of the justification and whether justified belief can be considered an internal or extenal matter. Epistemological internalists argue that the subject must be able to reflect upon a belief to complete the process of justification. The externalists, on the other hand, claim that it is only necessary to consider whether the belief is reliably formed, and argue that the ability to know by reflection is not required for a justified belief. In the historical section of this book the three most important epistemologists, Plato, Descartes and Hume, as well as the ancient epistemologies of the stoics, Academics and Pyrhonians, are considered. In reconsidering the history of epistemology the author is led to argue against hte view that internalism is historically dominant. His critique of internalism is then developed into a sustained argument against many of its forms, and he goes onto defend an externalist, reliabilist epistemology.


Abstract In 2008, we began two related research projects that focus on recent Australian rock art, made after the arrival of Asians and Europeans, in part of northwest Arnhem Land's Wellington Range. This area has extensive and diverse rock art, including many examples of paintings that reflect contact between local Aboriginal people and visitors to their shores. At some sites figures made of beeswax are found superimposed under and over paintings, thus providing a means of obtaining minimum and maximum ages for pigment art. We report on the results of an initial radiocarbon beeswax dating programme at the Djulirri site complex. Results include the earliest age for a depiction of a Southeast Asian watercraft in Australian rock art, which is also Australia's earliest contact period rock art depiction discovered so far. Based on the probability distribution of the calibrated ages, it is 99.7% probable this image dates to before AD 1664 and likely is much older. The significance of this result is discussed in relation to early contact history, as revealed by historic documents and archaeological excavation. Other important results suggest a close encounter between local Aboriginal people and Europeans occurred in the 1700s, before British exploration and settlement in the Arnhem Land region.


Turkey is one of the countries that have debates on the necessary arrangements and preparations before the adoption of "International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Mid-sized Entities" which was issued in July 2009 by International Accounting Standards Board. In the adoption process, the views of different parties should be sought and the steps should be taken very carefully. This study aims to bring to light the views of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) which are the most important party in these debates and which will be affected from the adoption most. The objectives of this study are to determine the current structure of SME accounting and financial reporting, the views of SMEs on the adoption and application of the standard and the possible variables that might be affecting SMEs' thoughts. 216 SMEs participated to the research by filling up a questionnaire, and the results show that SMEs support the adoption of the new standard, they want it to be elective, rather than compulsory, and even if it is elective, most of the respondents are eager to apply it.


The major achievements in syntactic typology garnered nearly 50 years ago by acclaimed typologists such as Edward Keenan and Bernard Comrie continue to exert enormous influence in the field, deserving periodic appraisals in the light of new discoveries and insights. With an increased understanding of them in recent years, typologically controversial ergative and Philippine-type languages provide a unique opportunity to reassess the issues surrounding the delicately intertwined topics of grammatical relations and relative clauses (RCs), perhaps the two foremost topics in syntactic typology.
 Keenan's property-list approach to the grammatical relation subject brings wrong results for ergative and Philippine-type languages, both of which have at their disposal two primary grammatical relations of subject and absolutive in the former and of subject and topic in the latter. Ergative languages are characterized by their deployment of arguments according to both the nominative (S=A≠P) and the ergative (S=P≠A) pattern. Phenomena such as nominal morphology and relativization are typically controlled by the absolutive relation, defined as a union of {S, P} resulting from a P-based generalization. Other phenomena such as the second person imperative deletion and a gap control in compound (coordinate) sentences involve as a pivot the subject relation, defined as an {S, A} grouping resulting from an A-based generalization. Ergative languages, thus, clearly demonstrate that grammatical relations are phenomenon/construction specific. Philippine-type languages reinforce this point by their possession of subjects, as defined above, and a pragmatico-syntactic relation of topic correlated with the referential prominence of a noun phrase (NP) argument. As in ergative languages, certain phenomena, for example, controlling of a gap in the want-type control construction, operate in terms of the subject, while others, for example, relativization, revolve around the topic.
 With regard to RCs, the points made above bear directly on the claim by Keenan and Comrie that subjects are universally the most relativizable of NP's, justifying the high end of the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy. A new nominalization perspective on relative clauses reveals that grammatical relations are actually irrelevant to the relativization process per se, and that the widely embraced typology of RCs, recognizing so-called headless and internally headed RCs and others as construction types, is misguided in that RCs in fact do not exist as independent grammatical structures; they are merely epiphenomenal to the usage patterns of two types of grammatical nominalizations.
 The so-called subject relativization (e.g., You should marry a man
 who loves you) involves a head noun and a subject argument nominalization (e.g., [who [Ø loves you]]) that are joined together forming a larger NP constituent in the manner similar to the way a head noun and an adjectival modifier are brought together in a simple attributive construction (e.g., a rich man) with no regard to grammatical relations. The same argument nominalization can head an NP (e.g., You should marry who loves you). This is known as a headless RC, while it is in fact no more than an NP use of an argument nominalization, as opposed to the modification use of the same structure in the ordinary restrictive RC seen above. So-called internally headed RCs involve event nominalizations (e.g., Quechua Maria wallpa-ta wayk'u-sqa-n-ta mik"u-sayku [Maria chicken-acc cook-P.nmlzr-3sg-acc eat-prog.1pl], lit. "We are eating Maria cook a chicken," and English I heard
 John sing in the kitchen) that evoke various substantive entities metonymically related to the event, such as event protagonists (as in the Quechua example), results (as in the English example), and abstract entities such as facts and propositions (e.g., I know that John sings in the kitchen).


Long period dating references or Distanzangaben can be found in both cuneiform texts and the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament. In this article five of them are selected. One reference is about 800 years; another one 700 years; still another 600 years and a further one covering a long period of 3200 years, the last which is a case of a need for a better understanding of Ancient Mathematics or Counting systems. These texts were discovered, transliterated, translated and discussed or commented upon by many scholars since the middle of the 19th century. Scholars are divided into two or more camps regarding these periods in cuneiform references: those who tried to find historicity in them taking them at face value; those who reject them as bogus and just "round numbers". Optimistic scholars and pessimistic scholars are divided by the epistemology they are operating as well as the methodology they are selecting to solve the problems. Those who are skeptical in hermeneutics will not utilize these texts to construct chronology. Those who are affirmative in hermeneutics will try to find solutions harmonizing some or all of them. It is with this last method that this research was approached. The axiom was entertained that if the ancient scholars knew astronomy, mathematics, and other sciences so well, then surely they would have taken great pain in recording their own history. This led to the investigation again of these Distanzangaben in the cuneiform tablets and a reconsideration of the chronology of the Old Testament long period dating references and making an attempt to link some kings between the cuneiform texts and the Masoretic Text. The case of Amraphel of Genesis 14 and Hammurabi of the Nabonidus text was such a link and the second one is the closeness of the Sumerian King List's Flood date applying the year-day principle (1 day = 360 days of the calendar of the hemerological cuneiform texts) and the Masoretic Text chronology for the Flood. Someone once said that scientific pursuit is the case of "two men sitting behind bars: the one saw mud and the other one stars."


A novel test pattern generator which is more suitable for built in self test (BIST) structures used for testing of VLSI circuits. The objective of the BIST is to reduce power dissipation without affecting the fault coverage. A new low power test pattern generator using linear feedback shift register (LFSR), called LP-TPG, and is presented to reduce the average power and peak power of the circuit by reducing the switching activities during test. In this approach, the single input change patterns generated by a counter and a gray code generator are Exclusive–ORed with the seed generated by the low power linear feedback shift register [LP-LFSR]. The proposed scheme is evaluated by using, a synchronous pipelined 4x4 and 8x8 Braun array multipliers. The system-on chip (SoC) approach is adopted for implementation on Xilinx Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). From the implementation results, it is verified that the testing power for the proposed method is reduced by a significant percentage.


Starting from the assumption that theories of meaning and concepts of selfhood are inseparably interwoven, this paper takes the current philosophical turn toward ethics as a revival of humanistic concerns in order to argue for a formulation of selfhood as hermeneutical, ethical, and social that goes beyond both modernist and postmodernist views of the self. Drawing on the works of Michael Polanyi, Emmanuel Levinas, and John Macmurray, I argue that being human entails the creating of meaning, requires a personal-relational framework, and needs an irreducible ethical boundary. These essential elements of the self, however, require the re-admittance of the religious into our discussion about what it means to be human.


In this paper, we consider the use of residue arithmetic to increase the accuracy and reduce the dynamic range requirements of optical matrix–vector processors. We show that matrix–vector operations and iterative algorithms can be performed totally in residue notation. We suggest an architecture using a frequency-multiplexed optical systolic array feedback processor. As our case study, we consider the solution of three simultaneous equations.


Background: Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with α-galactosidase A (α-Gal A) is currently the most effective therapeutic strategy for patients with Fabry disease, a lysosomal storage disease. However, ERT has limitations of a short half-life, requirement for frequent administration, and limited efficacy for patients with renal failure. Therefore, we investigated the efficacy of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vector-mediated gene therapy for a Fabry disease mouse model and compared it with that of ERT. Methods: A pseudotyped rAAV2/8 vector encoding α-Gal A cDNA (rAAV2/8-hAGA) was prepared and injected into 18week-old male Fabry mice through the tail vein. The α-Gal A expression level and globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) levels in the Fabry mice were examined and compared with Fabry mice with ERT. Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies were conducted. Results: Treatment of Fabry mice with rAAV2/8-hAGA resulted in the clearance of accumulated Gb3 in tissues such as liver, spleen, kidney, heart, and brain with concomitant elevation of α-Gal A enzyme activity. Enzyme activity was elevated for up to 60 weeks. In addition, expression of the α-Gal A protein was identified in the presence of rAAV2/8hAGA at 6, 12, and 24 weeks after treatment. α-Gal A activity was significantly higher in the mice treated with rAAV2/8hAGA than in Fabry mice that received ERT. Along with higher α-Gal A activity in the kidney of the Fabry mice treated with gene therapy, immunohistochemical studies showed more α-Gal A expression in the proximal tubules and glomerulus, and less Gb3 deposition in Fabry mice treated with this gene therapy than in mice given ERT. The α-gal A gene transfer significantly reduced the accumulation of Gb3 in the tubules and podocytes of the kidney. Electron microscopic analysis of the kidneys of Fabry mice also showed that gene therapy was more effective than ERT. Conclusions: The rAAV2/8-hAGA mediated α-Gal A gene therapy provided improved efficiency over ERT in the Fabry disease mouse model. Furthermore, rAAV2/8-hAGA-mediated expression showed a greater effect in the kidney than ERT.


Specifying the reward function of a Markov decision process (MDP) can be demanding, requiring human assessment of the precise quality of, and tradeoffs among, various states and actions. However, reward functions often possess considerable structure which can be leveraged to streamline their specification. We develop new, decision-theoretically sound heuristics for eliciting rewards for factored MDPs whose reward functions exhibit additive independence. Since we can often find good policies without complete reward specification, we also develop new (exact and approximate) algorithms for robust optimization of imprecise-reward MDPs with such additive reward. Our methods are evaluated in two domains: autonomic computing and assistive technology.


Characterizing the processes leading to deforestation is critical to the development and implementation of targeted forest conservation and management policies. In this work, we develop a deep learning model called ForestNet to classify the drivers of primary forest loss in Indonesia, a country with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. Using satellite imagery, ForestNet identifies the direct drivers of deforestation in forest loss patches of any size. We curate a dataset of Landsat 8 satellite images of known forest loss events paired with driver annotations from expert interpreters. We use the dataset to train and validate the models and demonstrate that ForestNet substantially outperforms other standard driver classification approaches. In order to support future research on automated approaches to deforestation driver classification, the dataset curated in this study is publicly available at this https URL .


As license plates emblazoned with the message "Choose Life" have proliferated in twenty-four states, so too have lawsuits challenging such specialty license plates. The holdings of such cases have run the gamut, resulting in a three-way circuit split among the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits. Analysis of the controversy up to this point has not considered an illuminating analogy: advertising space owned and operated by the government. Examining the parallels between advertising space and specialty license plates informs doctrinal analysis of the dispute, demonstrating that state legislatures may not use the current practice of individually establishing specialty license plates through statute, but must instead choose acceptable subjects to appear on license plates, leaving individual applications under the care of a neutral administrator.


Nanotechnology is an area which has vast potentials for turning fundamental research into successful innovations. In the present paper, damping in Polyurethane (PU)–Multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) nanocomposites is studied by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Free Layer Damping (FLD) methods. MWNT is functionalised using HNO3/H2SO4 mixture, thionyl chloride and ethylene diamine to introduce amide groups on the nanotube surface. Composites are prepared from a two–part PU resin system and the functionalised MWNT. The work addresses the concept of damping from molecular level interactions using DMA to an actual vibration damping technique, namely FLD. DMA study clearly shows a 70% increase of loss tangent of the nanocomposites as compared to neat PU, indicative of the high damping efficacy. The effectiveness of the developed nanocomposite is established by FLD measurements wherein a good damping of the order of 5–15 dB is observed in the frequency range of 10–1000 Hz, over that of neat PU. The added advantage of the system is the damping capability in the low frequency region also. The study is expected to be helpful in finding damping applications in aircraft and missile substructures, ships and submarines, machinery supports, mounting platforms of electronic equipment, bridges, buildings, etc.


Thermally enhanced greases made of dispersions of small conductive particles suspended in fluidic polymers can offer significant advantages when used as a thermal interface material (TIM) in microelectronics cooling applications. A fundamental problem which remains to be addressed is how to predict the effective thermal conductivity of these materials, an important parameter in establishing the bulk resistance to heat flow through the TIM. The following study presents the application of two simple theorems for establishing bounds on the effective thermal conductivity of such inhomogeneous media. These theorems are applied to the development of models which are the geometric means of the upper and lower bounds for effective thermal conductivity of base fluids into which are suspended particles of various geometries. Numerical work indicates that the models show generally good agreement for the various geometric dispersions, in particular for particles with low to moderate aspect ratios. The numerical results approach the lower bound as the conductivity ratio is increased. An important observation is that orienting the particles in the direction of heat flow leads to substantial enhancment in the thermal conductivity of the base fluid. Clustering leads to a small enhancement in effective thermal conductivity beyond that which is predicted for systems composed of regular arrays of particles. Although significant enhancement is possible if the clusters are large, in reality, clustering to the extent that solid agglomerates span large distances is unlikely since such clusters would settle out of the fluid. In addition, experimental work available in the literature indicates that the agreement between the selected experimental data and the geometric mean of the upper and lower bounds for a sphere in a unit cell are in excellent agreement, even for particles which are irregular in shape.


Business process monitoring in the area of service oriented computing is typically performed using business activity monitoring technology in an intra-organizational setting. Due to outsourcing and the increasing need for companies to work together to meet their joint customer demands, there is a need for monitoring of business processes across organizational boundaries. Thereby, partners in a choreography have to exchange monitoring data, in order to enable process tracking and evaluation of process metrics. In this paper, we describe an event-based monitoring approach based on BPEL4Chor service choreography descriptions. We show how to define monitoring agreements specifying events each partner in the choreography has to provide. We distinguish between resource events and complex events for calculation of process metrics using complex event processing technology. We present our implementation and evaluate the concepts based on a scenario.


This chapter covers a response to the discourse of limits which stresses the unlimited capacity of ingenious humans to overcome ecological limits, especially when they are organized in capitalist markets. For Prometheans, long term trends show environmental improvement and declining resource scarcity, such that economic growth can therefore go on forever. This Promethean discourse has often been advanced by market economists, and has often been highly influential in government, especially in the United States. More recently a Promethean environmentalism looks forward to a 'good Anthropocene' in which government too plays a role in bringing natural systems under benign human control, so that technologies such as geoengineering can be used effectively against problems such as climate change. In the background of Promethean argument is an older cornucopian discourse that stresses natural abundance of resources and the capacity of ecosystems to absorb pollutants. Ecologists and Earth systems scientists are not convinced and remain critical of Promethean discourse.


In this paper, we analyze the performance of a cloud radio access network (CRAN), consisting of multiple randomly distributed remote radio heads (RRHs) and a macro base station (MBS), each equipped with multiple antennas. To model the spatial distribution of RRHs and analyze its performance, we use stochastic geometry tools. In contrast to previous works on CRAN that consider Poisson Point Process (PPP) model for the spatial distribution of RRHs, we consider a more realistic Matérn hard-core point process (MHCPP) model that imposes a certain minimal distance (referred to as hard-core distance) between the two RRHs so that the RRHs are not too close to each other. To compare system performance of CRAN when different transmission strategies are used, three RRH selection schemes are adopted including 1) the best RRH selection (BRS); 2) all RRHs participation (ARP); and 3) nearest RRH selection (NRS). Considering downlink transmission, the ergodic capacity, outage probability, and system throughput of CRAN are analytically characterized for different RRH selection schemes. The presented results demonstrate that compared to PPP model, the increase in hard-core distance will result in a higher outage probability and cause a negative impact on ergodic capacity. Furthermore, when the same total transmit power is consumed, BRS scheme provides the best outage performance while ARP scheme is the best RRH selection scheme when the same transmit SNR at each RRH is assumed. Moreover, it is shown that the hard-core distance has a more significant impact on systems with higher intensity of PPP distributed candidate points and in large hard-core distance regime increasing the intensity of candidate points can only provide a small improvement in outage performance. We extend our work to multiuser case with zero-forcing (ZF) precoding where it is proven that the results in multiuser case reduce to the derived results in this work by substituting K=1 for single-user.


Recent investigations on the bifurcation behavior of power electronic DC-DC converters have revealed that most of the observed bifurcations do not belong to generic classes such as saddle-node, period doubling, or Hopf bifurcations. Since these systems yield piecewise smooth maps under stroboscopic sampling, a new class of bifurcations occur in such systems when a fixed point crosses the border between the smooth regions in the state space. In this paper we present a systematic analysis of such bifurcations through a normal form: the piecewise linear approximation in the neighborhood of the border. We show that there can be many qualitatively different types of border collision bifurcations, depending on the parameters of the normal form. We present a partitioning of the parameter space of the normal form showing the regions where different types of bifurcations occur. We then use this theoretical framework to explain the bifurcation behavior of the current programmed boost converter.


I-MINDS provides a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) infrastructure and environment for learners in synchronous learning and classroom management applications for instructors, for large classroom or distance education situations. For supporting the instructor, I-MINDS includes a teacher agent. The teacher agent allows the instructor to interact with students, manage QA sessions, administer quizzes, post evaluations, form groups and monitor individual and group performances. For computer-supported collaborative learning, I-MINDS, which stands for Intelligent Multiagent Infrastructure for Distributed Systems in Education, provides a student agent for each student. Each student agent monitors and models its user and carries out group formation with other student agents behind-the-scene. I-MINDS provides standard online collaborative features such as chat rooms and whiteboards and implements a structured cooperative learning mechanism called Jigsaw. The system also incorporates multiagent coalition formation algorithms for forming peer groups. I-MINDS also provides a group agent for each peer group that monitors and evaluates its assigned peer group. I-MINDS has been deployed and evaluated in an introductory computer science course (CS1). Results show that intelligent tools such as I-MINDS can be used in a real-time environment to support student cooperative learning activities, and also as a testbed to collect instructional or pedagogical data for better understanding of student collaborative learning. This paper describes the I-MINDS framework, implementation, deployment, and test results comprehensively.


Learning in a multi-target environment without prior knowledge about the targets requires a large amount of samples and makes generalization difficult. To solve this problem, it is important to be able to discriminate targets through semantic understanding. In this paper, we propose goal-aware cross-entropy (GACE) loss, that can be utilized in a self-supervised way using auto-labeled goal states alongside reinforcement learning. Based on the loss, we then devise goal-discriminative attention networks (GDAN) which utilize the goal-relevant information to focus on the given instruction. We evaluate the proposed methods on visual navigation and robot arm manipulation tasks with multi-target environments and show that GDAN outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of task success ratio, sample efficiency, and generalization. Additionally, qualitative analyses demonstrate that our proposed method can help the agent become aware of and focus on the given instruction clearly, promoting goal-directed behavior.


Introduction Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) related to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is the leading cause of acute renal failure in young children. In France, HUS surveillance in children aged < 15 years was implemented starting from 1996. Aim We present the results of this surveillance between 2007 and 2016. Methods A voluntary nationwide network of 32 paediatric departments notifies cases. Two national reference centres perform microbiological STEC confirmation. Results Over the study period, the paediatric HUS incidence rate (IR) was 1.0 per 100,000 children-years, with a median of 116 cases/year. In 2011, IR peaked at 1.3 per 100,000 children-years, and decreased to 1.0 per 100,000 children-years in 2016. STEC O157 associated HUS peaked at 37 cases in 2011 and decreased to seven cases in 2016. Cases of STEC O26-associated HUS have increased since 2010 and STEC O80 associated HUS has emerged since 2012, with 28 and 18 cases respectively reported in 2016. Four STEC-HUS food-borne outbreaks were detected (three STEC O157 linked to ground beef and raw-milk cheese and one STEC O104 linked to fenugreek sprouts). In addition, two outbreaks related to person-to-person transmission occurred in distinct kindergartens (STEC O111 and O26). Conclusions No major changes in HUS IRs were observed over the study period of 10 years. However, changes in the STEC serogroups over time and the outbreaks detected argue for continuing epidemiological and microbiological surveillance.


In the Huon Valley, southern Tasmania, Australia, large volumes of pesticides are applied to the region's apple orchards. The broad objective of this study was to determine whether regional aquatic ecosystems are being adversely impacted by the use of orchard pesticides. The subcatchment of Mountain River was chosen as the study area, and a regional risk assessment was completed to gain an understanding of the environmental issues in the region.
A Tier 1 risk assessment identified the insecticide, chlorpyrifos, as being of particular concern to aquatic ecosystems. The risk hypothesis for research on chlorpyrifos was that spray drift from chlorpyrifos applications in orchard located on river flats was resulting in aquatic ecosystems being exposed to potentially harmful concentrations of pesticide.
Chlorpyrifos exposures in Mountain River were characterised using data from seasonal sampling and sampling at the time of spray application. Seasonal results showed intermittent, low-level detections of chlorpyrifos in Mountain River. Sampling at the time of spraying provided unique field data describing the magnitude and duration of pulse exposures at a site directly exposed to spray drift. The concentrations measured compared well with the spray drift model, AgDRIFT™.
Chlorpyrifos effects in Mountain River were characterised using multiple lines of evidence. Probabilistic risk assessments using cumulative frequency distributions of exposure and effects data, and @Risk® software simulations of probability distributions functions fitted with BestFit® software showed that aquatic species were not adversely impacted by the exposures measured.
Field studies validated the outcomes of the probabilistic risk assessment for fish species. In situ investigations on the blood chemistry and acetykholinesterase activity of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykzss) were used to assess acute effects. A maximum aquatic concentration of 0.163μg/L was measured soon after the commencement of spraying, but no significant changes in blood chemistry parameters or cholinesterase activity were detected. Body burdens and histology of native fish caught from localities surrounded by orchards confirmed exposure to pesticides but it was difficult to assess the severity of chronic effects, given the multiple stressors to which fish in agricultural areas are exposed.


Vocabulary has always been an area of interest for many researchers since words represent "the building block upon which knowledge of the second language can be built" and without them people cannot convey the intended meaning (Abrudan, 2010). Nation (1988) emphasised if teachers want to help their learners to deal with unknown words, it would be better to spend more time on vocabulary learning strategies rather than spending time on individual words. However, Schmitt in Schmitt and McCarthy (1997:200) stated that among vocabulary learning strategies only 'guessing from context' and 'key word method' have been investigated in depth. Therefore, there is need for more research on vocabulary learning whose pedagogical implications may contribute to the field of second language learning. Considering the abovementioned issues, vocabulary is a worthwhile field to investigate. Hence, this paper aims at proposing a framework for vocabulary teaching strategy in English as a foreign language context.


Tetralogy is competitive intelligence software with full text or factual data from bibliographic data bases, on line or on CD/ROM, from the Internet or any other computer source. With statistical methods and exploratory data analysis methods, it shows strategic information unreachable up to now in a short time. Information such as actors identity, mobility, emergence and evolution of topics and concepts, terminology, strong domains, clusters, what to read, where to publish, and with whom to cooperate. Tetralogy is a tool designed for scientific and technological watch.


Tourism is increasingly seen as a potential lever towards high economic growth, measured both in terms of income and employment. In recent years, interest in tourism has spread rapidly throughout many small and medium European cities, which previously have not considered themselves as tourist destinations. This paper reviews and summarises the existing literature on the economic assessment of tourism with the objectives of, firstly, identifying the main categories of impacts and, secondly, constructing an inventory of methodologies available to assess them. We will progress step by step, starting from the most simplistic approaches and relaxing assumptions as we proceed. Firstly, we assume a static setting, with spare capacity. In such a setting (partial equilibrium), prices do not respond to demand shocks: only quantities (production, income and jobs) adjust. Secondly, we relax this assumption and assume that there is no spare capacity: prices respond to increasing demand (general equilibrium), leading to reallocation of resources across sectors. We then move from a static to a dynamic setting and survey those contributions that look at the relationship between tourism specialisation and long-run growth.


Part I of this Article develops some necessary perspective on transovereignty and its importance to law and ethics by reflecting first on traditional sovereignty. A few competing positivist and anti-positivist theories of the emergence of political and legal systems will be briefly reviewed to reveal significantly different pictures of the possible role played by rights-claims in political development. Part II extends one of those theoretical models to help us describe more fully the nature and importance of the special political phenomenon of transovereignty. Part III examines briefly a particularly strong example of transovereignty at work: the impact of the Catholic Church on local political activities in Poland. Widening the Article's perspective, Part IV speculates briefly on the implications of transovereignty for the legal ethics of lawyers practicing human rights law. The Article addresses the question, for example, of whether lawyers as a professional group, with their shared reverence for the rule of law as a governing political ideal an ideal of orderliness that they view as a "human right" all its own are themselves becoming a significant transovereign force.


In greenhouse production a temperature drop concept has become an important tool to control stem elongation of a number of ornamental plant species, bedding plants and vegetable transplants. This concept takes advantage of the fact that, in many species, plant stem elongation is sensitive to a short diurnal temperature drop in the morning or in the end of the night. Here, the role of light in cucumber plant (Cucumis sativus L.) response to a diurnal temperature drop has been investigated. Plants were grown under relatively "low" (120 μmol m s PPFD) or "high" (320 μmol m s PPFD) light intensity. The effect of a 2 h temperature drop from 23° to 9°C, either in the end of the night (in darkness) or in the beginning of the day (in light) on plant growth, photosynthetic and respiratory activity was studied. Light-demanding and shade-tolerant cucumber hybrids were used in experiments. The results showed differential temperature regulation of plant morphology and photosynthetic activity in light and darkness. A temperature drop in the light led to more pronounced decrease in biometric and photosynthetic parameters of plants than a temperature drop in darkness. Light intensity during plant growth also modified plant response to a temperature drop. In particular, a temperature drop in the night led to a decrease in photosynthetic activity only in plants grown under "low" light. The respiration of the leaves, on the contrary, was intensified as a result of a temperature drop in plants grown under "high" light. Light-demanding and shade-tolerant hybrids had generally similar response to a temperature drop, but some differences were also revealed. Thus, the degree of light inhibition of mitochondrial respiration decreased due to a temperature drop only in the leaves of light-demanding hybrids. They also demonstrated greater reduction of photosynthetic pigment content in response to a temperature drop compared to shade-tolerant plants. This suggests that plant response to a diurnal short-term temperature drop depends to large extend on the timing of the drop treatment (in light or darkness) and light growing conditions. The degree of plant light demand may also be important.


Discrimination based on caste affects at least 270 million people worldwide, mostly in South Asia. Caste as a system of social organisation has been exported from its regions of origin to diaspora communities such as the UK, yet despite the prohibition of caste-based discrimination in international human rights law caste is not recognised as a ground of discrimination in English law. The overhaul of its equality framework and the proposed new single equality act present the UK with an opportunity to align national legislation with international law obligations. The Government's decision not to include protection against caste discrimination in the new legislation leaves race and religion as the only possible legal 'homes' for caste. This article considers the argument for legal recognition of caste discrimination in the UK, the capacity of race and religion to subsume caste as a ground of discrimination, and the role and limitations of law in addressing 'new' forms of discrimination such as casteism.


Max-min fair is widely used in network traffic engineering to allocate available resources among different traffic transfers. Recently, as data replication technique developed, increasing systems enforce multi-source transmission to maximize network utilization. However, existing TE approaches fail to deal with multi-source transfers because the optimization becomes a joint problem of bandwidth allocation as well as flow assignment among different sources. In this paper, we present a novel allocation approach for multi-source transfers to achieve global max-min fairness. The joint bandwidth allocation and flow assignment optimization problem poses a major challenge due to nonlinearity and multiple objectives. We cope with this by deriving a novel transformation with simple equivalent canonical linear programming to achieve global optimality efficiently. We conduct data-driven simulations, showing that our approach is more max-min fair than other single-source and multi-source allocation approaches, meanwhile it outperforms others with substantial gains in terms of network throughput and transfer completion time.


Abstract Cloud computing has started to transform economic activities in the global South. Many businesses are taking advantage of the pay-as-you-go model of the technology, and its scalability and flexibility features, and government agencies in the South have been investing in cloud-related mega-projects. Cloud-based mobile applications are becoming increasingly popular and the pervasiveness of cellphones means that the cloud may transform the way these devices are used. However, findings and conclusions drawn from surveys, studies and experiences of companies on the potential and impact of cloud computing in the developing world are inconsistent. This article reviews cloud diffusion in developing economies and examines some firms in the cloud's supply side in these economies to present a framework for evaluating the attractiveness of this technology in the context of evolving needs, capabilities and competitive positions. It examines how various determinants related to the development and structure of related industries, externality mechanisms and institutional legitimacy affect cloud-related performances and impacts.


It is misleading to speak of a world as it is, or even a single world. It makes more sense to think of various versions of the world that individuals may entertain, various characterizations of reality that might be presented in words, pictures, diagrams ... each of these symbol systems captures different kinds of information and hence presents different versions of reality. All we have ... are such versions ... through them do we gain access to what we casually term "our world." (Gardner, 1980, pp. 92-95) What does it really mean to be a preservice teacher in an Art for the Elementary classroom at today's university? As a preservice teacher educator, I find myself asking this question on more than one occasion. Preservice teachers often come into my classroom with preconceived notions of what art is and how it is to be "used." One such preservice teacher recently requested an advising session to let me know that what I planned to teach in my course over the semester was not going to be of value to her, as she was teaching first grade and did not understand how art could possibly be important to children learning to read and write. This encounter was after the first class meeting in which I had simply handed out the syllabus and given a course overview. In our advising appointment, I asked her if she had ever taught first grade. She promptly replied with, "No, but I have observed a first grade class ... twice." I assured her, based on my experience as a preservice teacher educator for the past 6 years and having taught in the public school system for more than 12 years, that she would indeed learn something about art that would help her teach in her first grade classroom. She did not appear convinced when she left my office. Art and art-making are defined as special forms of experience (Dewey, 1980), and these experiences are viewed in multiple contexts. The central role of this narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Olson & Craig, 2001) is to explore the relationship between the preservice teacher and art, as well as art's role in accessing the learners' knowledge communities (Craig, 1995) based on the experiences of preservice teachers, all of which are occurring in an art for the elementary classroom within a university setting. The earlier encounter is one example of the misconceptions preservice teachers have about art, and the types of notions that have prompted this narrative inquiry and brought me to a crossroads when it comes to leading students in experiences with art. The crossroads are neither the art for the elementary content nor the variety of learning experiences given to preservice teachers in the art for the elementary classroom. These crossroads involve dealing with the preconceived notions of preservice teachers about what art is, and the "knowledge communities" (Craig, 1995) they access to understand and explore art. These knowledge communities refer to any personal, practical, professional, internal or external resource that an individual accesses to make sense of their world; that is, how they come to know, or in this case, how they come to know art. These crossroads that are encountered lead to many forks in the road where decisions are made in attempt to disrupt what was previously understood as an art curriculum in an art for the elementary classroom. Instead, these crossroads make art practice for the elementary preservice teacher reflective, personal, and powerful, changing assumptions and adding to the ever-changing knowledge communities that individuals draw from to make sense of their world. THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Most preservice teachers are preconditioned by prior education experiences to try to construct the "right" fixed answer, while others, who are more open, will begin to take risks in creating, looking at, talking about, and writing about art without regard for a "right" answer. The processes initiated in this art for the elementary classroom were intended to provoke thought and encourage voice while making meaningful art. …


The purpose and value of humour as a human characteristic has been debated by philosophers for centuries. However, the use of humour in workplaces remains a contentious issue in management theory to this day. Some academics and philosophers praise humour and encourage its use; others see it as a frivolous distraction from the job-at-hand. This study details the history of the acceptance of humour as a positive human attribute and its possible impact on contemporary workplace management practices.
The dichotomy of opinion around the use of humour in the workplace appears to stem from a lack of clarity around the 'style' of humour being considered in a workplace context. A Humour Style Questionnaire developed by Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray and Weir (2003) provided a tool for researchers to differentiate the humour style preferences being displayed in workplaces. This has enabled more targeted and meaningful research to be undertaken. Researchers can now look specifically at workplace humour which is predominantly affiliative, inclusive and uplifting, to determine if this specific style of humour is of value in terms of enhanced worker attitude and performance leading to improvements in productivity.
At the same time, studies are also emerging that show that workplaces are benefiting from the application of positive psychology in enhancing workplace satisfaction, motivation and productivity. Also emerging from the field of positive psychology, Luthans, Youssef and Avolio (2007) developed a concept called psychological capital (or PsyCap) based on the capacities of self-efficacy, resilience, hope and optimism associated with improved organisational productivity.
Luthans et al., (2007) suggested that humour, along with a range of other positive capacities, is also a potential indicator of PsyCap. They observed that humour, generally, has a positive social impact for both the deliverer and the recipient of that humour. However they also warned of the potential downside in which use of inappropriate humour (negative humour) has been found to alienate others and can lead to social isolation for the deliverer and apprehension by those observing this behaviour. They conclude that inappropriate humour may lead to reduced group cohesion.
Given these observations, the differentiation between positive humour and negative humour was paramount in this research as was an exploration of the relationship between PsyCap and positive humour. Specifically, the study examined both the use and style of humour in workplaces and its relationship with the PsyCap of employees. It also investigated the relationship between positive humour, psychological capital and indicators of workplace productivity from employee self-reports and supervisors' assessments. Finally, it examined whether the team supervisor's own sense of humour and the extent of a 'fun' team climate moderated these relationships of interest.
A survey questionnaire was developed from the literature and was completed by 303 individual participants from 50 Australian work teams. These self-report instruments were complemented by a questionnaire completed by each participating work team's supervisor. The supervisors' questionnaire included questions relating to each of their participating subordinate's teamwork and helping behaviours; creativity and innovative thinking; discretionary effort and civic virtue; and productivity and contribution to organisational effectiveness.
The data collected were used in a confirmatory factor analysis exploring whether or not humour fits empirically with the PsyCap construct. Results for a model of positive humour and PsyCap achieved satisfactory fit, showing evidence of convergent validity. A number of linear regressions were used to test a series of hypotheses. Results were mixed but overall supportive of the value of using, or at least allowing, positive humour to be a part of workplace cultures.
This study appears to be the first to examine the relationship between positive humour and PsyCap. It is also one of the few studies that demonstrate the potentially helpful effects of these constructs on workplace productivity. The implications for workplaces are simple. Appropriate, positive humour used at work is not detrimental to productivity but is shown to contribute to employees' performance and positive attitude towards their workplaces.


The dioecious and andromonoecious Solanum taxa (previously described as the "S. dioicum group") of the Australian Monsoon Tropics have been the subject of phylogenetic and taxonomic study for decades, yet much of their basic biology is still unknown. This is especially true for plant-animal interactions, including the influence of fruit form and calyx morphology on seed dispersal. We combine field/greenhouse observations and specimen-based study with phylogenetic analysis of seven nuclear regions obtained via a microfluidic PCR-based enrichment strategy and high-throughput sequencing, and present the first intron-containing nuclear gene dataset in the genus Solanum and the first species-tree hypothesis for the S. dioicum group. Our results suggest that epizoochorous trample burr seed dispersal (strongly linked to calyx accrescence) is far more common among Australian Solanum than previously thought and support the hypothesis that the combination of large fleshy fruits and endozoochorous dispersal represents a reversal in this study group. The general lack of direct evidence related to biotic dispersal (epizoochorous or endozoochorous) may be a function of declines and/or extinctions of vertebrate dispersers. Because of this, some taxa might now rely on secondary dispersal mechanisms (e.g. shakers, tumbleweeds, rafting) as a means to maintain current populations and establish new ones.


Although wildlife risk assessments are generally based on the accumulation of environmental contaminants through food chains, wildlife may also ingest contaminants incidentally with sediment. Forty‐two mute swans (Cygnus olor) were collected from unpolluted portions of central Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA, in spring 1995, and their intestinal digesta were analyzed for 13 metals (aluminum [Al], boron, barium, cadmium, copper [Cu], iron, magnesium, manganese, nickel, lead [Pb], strontium, vanadium, and zinc) and for acid‐insoluble ash, a marker of sediment. Swan livers and sediment samples also were analyzed for the same metals. Group method of data handling demonstrated that the digesta Al, which is associated with clays, was the best predictor of digesta Pb. Adding concentrations of other metals as predictors did not improve the accuracy of the estimates of Pb concentrations from Al concentrations. The r2 of the equation relating the log of digesta Pb to the log of digesta Al was 0.86, whereas the r2 of the equation relating the log of digesta Pb to the log of digesta acid‐insoluble ash was 0.50. Accounting for the sediment ingested was critical to determining the exposure of mute swans to Pb, as well as to some of the other metals, and sediment ingestion should be considered in ecotoxicological risk assessments of waterfowl. The mean of 7.4% acid‐insoluble ash in the digesta corresponded to an estimated 3.2% sediment in the diet. The Pb concentrations in the digesta were two to three times the concentration that would have been predicted from sediment Pb concentrations; presumably, the swans had ingested clays high in Pb that had settled on the vegetation. The swans were probably not exposed to high Cu concentrations but nevertheless had hepatic Cu concentrations that would be considered very high if found in other species.


The clinical presentation of dengue virus (DENV) infection is variable. Severe complications mainly result from exacerbated immune responses. Type I interferons (IFN-I) are important in antiviral responses and form a crucial link between innate and adaptive immunity. Their contribution to host defense during DENV infection remains under-studied, as direct quantification of IFN-I is challenging. We combined ultra-sensitive single-molecule array (Simoa) digital ELISA with IFN-I gene expression to elucidate the role of IFN-I in a well-characterized cohort of hospitalized Cambodian children undergoing acute DENV infection. Higher concentrations of type I IFN proteins were observed in blood of DENV patients, compared to healthy donors, and correlated with viral load. Stratifying patients for disease severity, we found a decreased expression of IFN-I in patients with a more severe clinical outcome, such as dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) or dengue shock syndrome (DSS). This was seen in parallel to a correlation between low IFNα protein concentrations and decreased platelet counts. Type I IFNs concentrations were correlated to frequencies of plasmacytoid DCs, not DENV-infected myloid DCs and correlated inversely with neutralizing anti-DENV antibody titers. Hence, type I IFN produced in the acute phase of infection is associated with less severe outcome of dengue disease.


With advancements in electronics technology, the new-era of devices are flexible and bendable. This has given rise to new smart textiles as wearables. Printed electronics enables to put down electronics on textiles without affecting the flexibility of the fabric. We have developed dry electrodes on healthcare stockings to stimulate muscles to preserve muscle mass in COVID-19 patients. The fabric does not allow direct printing of electronics. Thus, various layers are used. This paper investigates the mechanical strength of these layers on the stocking to remain functional for daily usage. We also discuss washing results on the layers.


Plate tectonics, as the unifying theory in Earth sciences, controls the functioning of important planetary processes on geological timescales. Here, we present an open‐source workflow that interrogates community digital plate tectonic reconstructions, primarily in the context of the planetary deep carbon cycle. We present an updated plate tectonic reconstruction covering the last 400 million years of Earth evolution and explore components of the plate–mantle system that is involved in the exchange and storage of carbon. First, the workflow enables us to estimate subduction zone lengths through time, which represent the "tap" of carbon that is released at convergent tectonic margins. Second, we explore the role of Andean‐style versus intra‐oceanic subduction regimes during Pangea assembly and breakup. Third, we provide an improved model for carbonate platform evolution since the Devonian and evaluate the interaction of subduction zones and buried carbonate platforms. Last, we present a new model for estimating oceanic age, carbon content in the upper oceanic crust, and estimated (carbon‐containing) sediment thicknesses through time and present methods to track the subduction of this material through time. These components of the deep carbon cycle are key mechanisms controlling, or at least modulating, atmospheric CO2 on geological timescales and hence strongly influencing long‐term climate. We find that the mid to Late Cretaceous greenhouse climates were likely driven by increased subduction fluxes of volatiles and increased subduction zone interactions with carbonate platforms in the Tethyan tectonic domain. Our work highlights the importance of community digital plate tectonic reconstructions as a framework for studying key systems, such as the deep carbon cycle, that influence the life‐support mechanisms on our planet.


Mycobacteria produce several unusual cofactors that contribute to their metabolic versatility and capability to survive in different environments. Mycofactocin (MFT) is a redox cofactor involved in ethanol metabolism. The redox-active core moiety of mycofactocin is derived from the short precursor peptide MftA, which is modified by several maturases. Recently, it has been shown that the core moiety is decorated by a β-1,4-glucan chain. Remarkably, the second glucose moiety of the oligosaccharide chain was found to be 2-O-methylated in Mycolicibacterium smegmatis. The biosynthetic gene responsible for this methylation, however, remained elusive, and no methyltransferase gene was part of the MFT biosynthetic gene cluster. Here, we applied reverse genetics to identify the gene product of MSMEG_6237 (mftM) as the SAM-dependent methyltransferase was responsible for methylation of the cofactor in M. smegmatis. According to metabolic analysis and comparative genomics, the occurrence of methylated MFT species was correlated with the presence of mftM homologues in the genomes of mycofactocin producers. This study revealed that the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis does not methylate mycofactocins. Interestingly, mftM homologues co-occur with both mycofactocin biosynthesis genes as well as the putative mycofactocin-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase Mdo. We further showed that mftM knock-out mutants of M. smegmatis suffer from a prolonged lag phase when grown on ethanol as a carbon source. In addition, in vitro digestion of the glucose chain by cellulase suggested a protective function of glucan methylation. These results close an important knowledge gap and provide a basis for future studies into the physiological functions of this unusual cofactor modification.


ABSTRACT Many dog owners claim that their animals know when a member of the household is coming home, typically showing their anticipation by waiting at a door or window. In previous trials with a dog called Jaytee, recorded on videotape, it was found that he anticipated his owner's arrival more than ten minutes in advance, even when she was returning in unfamiliar vehicles such as taxis, when the people at home did not know when to expect her, and when she set off at randomly-selected times. This paper describes the results of a pre-planned series of ten videotaped trials with a dog called Kane, a Rhodesian ridgeback, who was said to wait by a window while his owner was on the way home. The window-area was filmed continuously while the dog's owner went to places more than 8 km away and came home at a variety of non-routine times, some of which were selected at random and communicated to her by a telephone pager. The time-coded videotapes were scored blind by a third party. In nine out of ten trials Kane spent most time at the window when his owner was on the way home. On average he was at the window 26 percent of the time while she was returning, and only one percent of the time throughout the rest of her absence. This difference was highly significant statistically. Possible explanations for this behavior are discussed.


We analyze the steady-state mean square error (MSE) convergence of the LMS algorithm when deterministic functions are used as reference inputs. A particular adaptive linear combiner is presented where the reference inputs are any set of orthogonal basis functions-the adaptive orthogonal linear combiner (AOLC). Several authors have applied this structure always considering in the analysis a time-average behavior over one signal occurrence. We make a more precise analysis using the deterministic nature of the reference inputs and their time-variant correlation matrix. Two different situations are considered in the analysis: orthogonal complete expansions and incomplete expansions. The steady-state misadjustment is calculated using two different procedures with equivalent results: the classical one (analyzing the transient behavior of the MSE) and as the residual noise at the output of the equivalent time-variant transfer function of the system. The latter procedure allows a very simple formalism being valid for colored noise as well. The derived expressions for steady-state misadjustment are contrasted with experimental results in electrocardiographic (ECG) signals, giving exact concordance for any value of the step size.


INTRODUCTION
In El Salvador, end-stage renal disease is the leading cause of hospital deaths in adults, the second cause of death in men and the fifth leading cause of death in adults of both sexes in the general population.

OBJECTIVE
Identify risk factors for chronic kidney disease and urinary markers of renal and vascular damage, measure kidney function and characterize prevalence of chronic kidney disease in persons aged ≥18 years in the Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador.

METHODS
A cross-sectional analytical epidemiological study was carried out using active screening for chronic kidney disease and associated risk factors in individuals aged ≥18 years in the Bajo Lempa Region, a rural, coastal area in El Salvador. Door-to-door visits and clinical examinations were conducted. Epidemiological and clinical data were collected including: family and personal clinical history of disease; biological, behavioral, social and environmental risk factors; physical measurements; urinalysis for markers of renal and vascular damage; and blood tests (serum creatinine, serum glucose, lipid profile). Glomerular filtration rate was calculated using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease formula. Chronic kidney disease case confirmation was done three months later. Multiple logistic regression was used for data analysis.

RESULTS
A total of 375 families and 775 individuals (343 men, 432 women) were studied-88.3% of the total resident population in the region. Elevated prevalence of risk factors was observed: diabetes mellitus, 10.3%; hypertension,16.9%; family history of chronic kidney disease, 21.6%; dyslipidemias, 63.1%; overweight, 34%; obesity, 22.4%; metabolic syndrome, 28.8%; use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, 74.8%; infectious diseases, 86.9%; agricultural occupation, 40.6% (80.6% in men); and contact with agrochemicals, 50.3% (82.5% in men). Prevalence renal damage markers was 15.8% (greater in men): microalbuminuria 6.3%; proteinuria 5.7%; hematuria 3.5%; proteinuria-hematuria 0.3%. Proteinuria of <1 g/L predominated. Prevalence of chronic kidney disease was 17.9% (25.7% in men; 11.8% in women). Distribution by stages: stage 1, 4.6%; stage 2, 3.5%; stage 3, 6.2%; stage 4, 3.0%; stage 5, 0.6%. In patients with chronic kidney disease, most common was non-diabetic chronic kidney disease (86.3%), followed by chronic kidney disease associated with neither diabetes nor hypertension (54.7%). Prevalence of chronic renal failure was 9.8% (17% in men; 4.1% in women). Multiple logistic regression showed significant association with increasing age, male sex, hypertension and family history of chronic kidney disease.

CONCLUSIONS
Elevated prevalence of chronic kidney disease, chronic renal failure and risk factors was found, compared to international reports. Most common was chronic kidney disease of unknown cause, associated with neither diabetes nor hypertension. Associations were found with age, male sex, hypertension and family history of chronic kidney disease, with decline in kidney function beginning at early ages. Male farmers have a dual burden of non traditional (occupational, toxic environmental) and traditional (vascular) risk factors that could act in synergy, contributing to kidney damage.


The purpose of this self-study was to critically examine whether or not my beliefs about literacy are reflected in my teaching practice. In addition, it was to determine if my teaching practice aligned with six instructional elements for literacy suggested by Allington and Gabriel (2012) in their article "Every Child, Every Day." There were three data sources in this study. I kept a time-log for one week with an instructional calendar about my schedule for literacy instruction. At the end of each day, I wrote a post-teaching reflection. The third data source was my personal, written responses to each of Allington and Gabriel's (2012) six suggested elements. The data were analyzed using a constant-comparison method. The findings indicated that my practice is somewhat aligned to Allington and Gabriel's (2012) suggested literacy elements. However, my ideal beliefs do not align with my teaching practices. There is evidence of tension between my teaching practice and my beliefs. There was even evidence that suggests that my ideal beliefs do not align with my real beliefs. In an effort to improve my teaching practices, I need to better understand my


Climate change mitigation usually involves the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, such as carbon dioxide (CO2). Every tonne of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) produces about one tonne of CO2. Consequently, OPC accounts for 5-6% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and for 4% of total global warming. Due to these environmental problems the industry of building materials is under increasing pressure to reduce the energy used in the production of OPC and the greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, there is a growing interest in developing alternatives to OPC, such as, calcium sulphoaluminate cements (CSA), that will release 0.25-0.40 tons of CO2 less than OPC per tonne of clinker, depending on their composition. Although CSA cements are very promising, their use is strongly limited in Europe. At the present state of European standard, CSA cements cannot be used in structural concrete according to the EN 206-1; only three formulations ,produced by Buzzi Unicemin Trino (Italy), obtained in 2013 a CE mark, also allowing the use for structural application. Hence, the general aim of this PhD Thesis is to better understand the behaviour of these eco-cement during their hydration. Moreover, I am a member of a working group which has a large experience in anhydrous cements and clinkers characterisation by X-Ray powder diffraction combined with Rietveld methodology, and in the processing of materials. So, I would like to highlight my contribution in the processing and characterisation of hydrated CSA pastes, including the quantification of ACn (Amorphous and Crystalline not-quantified) content through laboratory X-ray powder diffraction (LXRPD), and the measurement of mechanical properties of the corresponding mortars. Moreover, another objective was to establish a methodology to prepare, store and stop the hydration of cement pastes and mortars. Although anhydrous cements are mainly crystalline materials, they may contain a non-negligible amount of ACn; in addition part of the hydration products can be amorphous. This is the reason why the quantification of the ACn is an important issue. In previous studies, we used the internal standard methodology, measuring the sample in reflection geometry, to calculate the ACn content with quite accurate results. However, the addition of an internal standard may alter the cement hydration, dilute the phases in the pastes, and produce microabsorption problems. Hence, both external standard in reflection geometry and internal standard in transmission geometry methodologies have been compared. With that study, we can conclude that the ACn content in a mixture of powders can be calculated using both, internal and external standard, where the latter is of even greater utility in the study of hydration of cement pastes. That methodology has the inherent benefit of using common experimental requirements of LXRPD (knowing the diffractometer constant) and moreover, the sample is not altered/diluted. Moreover, the internal standard method is useful to corroborate the obtained values. However, the transmission approach is not very suitable for following ACn evolution in a process because it is experimentally tedious. Once we trust the methodology to control the hydration phases including ACn content, the effect of the following parameters on the hydration of CSA pastes and mortars was studied: gypsum content, sulfate source, water/cement (w/c) ratio, superplasticizer and the possible addition of fly ash (FA). The optimum w/c ratio must be high enough to have a high degree hydration of cement phases, and to provide workability, but in turn, it should be low enough to yield good mechanical strengths. The use of the optimum type and amount of additives improves the workability of cement pastes, allowing the use of lower w/c ratios and, consequently, higher compressive strength values. The optimised amount of gypsum to prepare CSA cements has been determined to be close to 25wt%. Therefore, we were able to correlate the phase assemblage of CSA pastes with compressive strength values of corresponding mortars. Another aim was the cost reduction of CSA cement and the study of the possible pozzolanic effect when the cement is partially replaced by FA. Although the hydration did not show enough evidences of pozzolanic effect even after 6 months of study, we found that the partial substitution produces: i) filling and ii) diluting effects. And we concluded that the partial substitution of cement (15wt% of FA) involves economic and environmental benefits. Moreover, the phase assemblage evolution is the same in the presence or not of FA, suggesting that durability is not compromised. Furthermore, the construction industry often requires cements with tailored properties. The knowledge and control of CSA hydration and properties of their mortars make possible the production of tailored cements and in the future, to comply all European standards. Through the use of different kinds of sulphate sources, w/c ratio and additives, the rheological behaviour and setting time of cement pastes have been controlled and modified while high compressive strength values were achieved. Each sulphate source (gypsum, bassanite or anhydrite) provides mortars with different setting times, as a consequence of their different rate of solubility. Hence, the use of different sulphate sources is a key point to control the rate of cement hydration. Bassanite solubility in water is very high thus, when added to cements/mortars it yields to short setting times (20min) that produces heterogeneous mortars with low mechanical strengths. However, the use of the optimum amount and type of additive, delays the setting time and allows the preparation of mortars with compressive strength values up to 80MPa at 7 days of hydration. Anhydrite dissolves slowly so, at 1 hydration-day, the amount of ettringite formed (~20wt%) is lower than that in gypsum pastes (~26wt%), producing mortars with lower compressive strengths (40.7 and 21.2MPa, respectively). However, after 3 hydration-days, similar ettringite contents are produced but mechanical strengths of anhydrite-pastes are slightly higher. This behaviour is mainly due to a higher plasticity of anhydrite-paste. Moreover, it must be noted that mortars with gypsum-w/c0.50 or anhydrite-w/c0.50 gave compressive strengths higher than OPC mortars at early ages. At this point, we are able to obtain tailored CSA eco-cements and mortars for diverse applications through the control of their hydration and also with the consequent economic and environmental benefits.


In today's world, digital technology is taking over our lives more and more including education and entertainment. In both fields situations occurs when someone needs to control or coordinate tasks in different locations to be performed just in time. There exists certain amount of modus operandi characterized by various levels of complexity that tries to solve this issue. During state-of-the-art research authors found a lack of simple solutions that could be easily adapted for specific user requirements while still suitable for wide area of needs. In this paper we describe our experience taken from developing of hardware and software tool kit suitable for education or entertainment event staging and management where real time user-assigned task control or task reassignment is required. Hardware part includes embedded device that performs SRD interface control and configured information output. Development of this part was done with energy economy in mind to ensure the utmost possible autonomous operation of device. Software part is lightweight web based application that can be accessed by event organizers and participants using HTML-enabled Internet browser from PC or smartphone. Mobile phone's built-in camera and matrix bar code interface can be used as an option for access to the system or execution of specific tasks. Over the course of last 5 years tool kit has been progressively implemented in hardware and software prototypes that found multiple applications in various "Autoliste" and "CDT" organized events.


A Research Project Submitted In Partial fulfilment Of The Requirement For The Award Of Master Of Arts Degree In Project Planning And Management


Why do even the best companies struggle to become as profitable in international markets as they are at home? Because they've fallen for the "mirage" of a truly global market. In fact, the world is comprised of hundreds of intensely local markets that are becoming more fragmented with each passing year. In The Mirage of Global Markets, David Arnold reveals why multinationals are actually losing market share--and how the world is rapidly accelerating towards "segments of one." Next, he offers you a comprehensive new blueprint for maximizing profitability in a world of local markets. You will discover why international marketing has become radically different from conventional marketing, and you will learn how to cost-effectively localize all the decisions that matter most: decisions about market entry, product mix, distribution, promotion, communication, strategy and more. Simply put, The Mirage of Global Markets shows how to globally manage the intensely local marketing programs that are now utterly crucial to your success.


In the early morning of 21 September, 1999, Taiwan experienced its most powerful inland earthquake (with Richter magnitude 7.3) of the century. The earthquake occurred near the small town of Chi-Chi in central Taiwan, in an area with a low recent background of seismicity although it is surrounded by belts of high seismicity. It caused an extensive surface ruptures totaling about 100 km long and a tremendous number of aftershocks. Using seismological and morphological data, we investigate tectonic environment in central Taiwan and the associated plate structure in the Taiwan region, with emphasis on the cause of the earthquake and its aftershock sequence. Taiwan island is situated on the northwestern corner of the Philippine Sea plate, where its interaction with the Eurasian plate is complicated. The Philippine Sea plate moves northwestward with respect to the Eurasian plate. The former subducts northwestward, in general, along the Ryukyu ward and underthrusts westward in the Taiwan region, with the meridianline of l2l.5°E being the present western boundary of the active subductlng lithosphere. The western boundary is migrating westward, at a rate of about 6 cm/y, along with the northwestward movement of the Philippine Sea Plate. The Philippine Sea plate, like a plow, pushes and uplifts Taiwan island situated on the Asian continental margin, as demonstrated by a seismic wedge to the east of 121°E. In central Taiwan, there exist two obvious linear belts of frequent earthquakes, almost perpendicular and individually trending NW and NE. These linear belts form the boundaries of a triangular area with low background seismicity in front of the seismic wedge, including the Peikang basement high, an uplifted pre-Miocene basement beneath the Western Coastal Plain and its offshore zone. The Chi-Chi earthquake occurred in a subarea of the triangular area near the vertex, con. Fined by the seismic belts and the Peikang basement high. 'The northwestward movement of the subarea has been impeded by the Peikang basement high, and the associated crustal strain energy may have thus been stored, and then released to trigger the Chi-Chi earthquake, the ruptures and the aftershocks.


The spread of resistance of malaria parasites to conventional chemotherapies necessitates the development of new drugs. The present study analyzes the active site loop of the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase from Plasmodium vivax (PvLDH). A five–amino acids insertion was observed in the active site loop of PvLDH, as in other plasmodial LDHs, which is absent in human LDH and is therefore a potential novel target site for new antimalarial drugs. This study describes the mutagenic testing of overproduced Plasmodium vivax lactate dehydrogenase to evaluate the importance of the inserted amino acids in the active site loop, which were previously identified as important residues by crystal structure studies. Deletion of these 5 extra amino acids in the active site loop resulted in an inactive form of the protein, supporting the notion of using this site as a novel target for antimalarial drug design. Drug Dev. Res. 67:175–180, 2006 © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background and aim Acute pancreatitis (AP) can result in pancreatic necrosis and inflammation, with subsequent multi-organ failure. AP is associated with increased neutrophil recruitment and a rise in pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNFα. Pretreatment with haemin, results in recruitment of haem-oxygenase-1 (HO-1)+ macrophages and protects against experimental pancreatitis. It is not clear whether modulation of HO-1 after onset of disease has a protective role. In this study, we tested the utility of Panhematin, a water-soluble haemin formulation, in activating and inducing pancreatic HO-1, and as a therapeutic agent in treating mouse acute pancreatitis. Methods We defined the distribution of radiolabelled haemin, then used in vivo HO-1–luciferase bioluminescence imaging and the CO-release assay to test Panhematin-induced upregulation of HO-1 transcription and activity, respectively. Using two well-defined AP murine models, we tested the therapeutic benefit of Panhematin, and quantified cytokine release using a luminex assay. Results Intravenously administered Panhematin induces rapid recruitment of HO-1+ cells to the pancreas within 2 h and de novo splenic HO-1 transcription by 12 h. Despite high baseline spleen HO-1 activity, the pancreas is particularly responsive to Panhematin-mediated HO-1 induction. Panhematin-treated mice, at various time points after AP induction had significant reduction in mortality, pancreatic injury, together with upregulation of HO-1 and downregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and CXCL1, a potent neutrophil chemoattractant. Conclusions Despite AP-associated mortality and morbidity, no effective treatment other than supportive care exists. We demonstrate that Panhematin leads to: (i) rapid induction and activation of pancreatic HO-1 with recruitment of HO-1+ cells to the pancreas, (ii) amelioration of AP even when given late during the course of disease, and (iii) a decrease in leucocyte infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokines including CXCL1. The utility of Panhematin at modest doses as a therapeutic in experimental pancreatitis, coupled with its current use and safety in humans, raises the potential of its applicability to human pancreatitis.


We propose the concept of active shields-shields that switch concurrently with a signal wire of interest. Active shields aid signal transitions through the coupling between the signal wire and shields. For RC dominated wires, the active shields switch in the same phase as the signal wire since capacitive coupling is the dominant coupling mechanism. For wires with dominant inductive coupling, active shields switch in the opposite phase of the signal wire. We show that under fixed area and input capacitance constraints, in-phase active shielding outperforms traditional (passive) shielding and wire sizing/spacing techniques for minimizing delays and transition times on RC-dominated wires. For RLC wires, we demonstrate a region of feasibility (in terms of signal wire widths) for which opposite-phase active shielding outperforms the passive shielding technique. Opposite-phase active shielding suppresses ringing behavior to a greater degree than passive shields, providing similar performance to differential signaling while maintaining the simplicity of single ended signaling. The benefits of opposite-phase active shielding as compared to passive shielding are shown in the context of various clock net optimizations where reductions in ringing behavior (up to 4.5X) and transition times (up to 40% reduction) are achieved.


Dr. Choi et al. However, they misunderstood several aspects of our case. Below we have addressed the points raised in his correspondence. First, in this case, the post-tetanic count (PTC) was assessed after confirming the absence of response of train-of-four (TOF) stimulation which indicates that the neuromuscular block (NMB) level of the patient was in a deep block. According to the suggestion of ideal neuromuscular monitoring, PTC should be assessed as soon as train-of-four count (TOFc) becomes 0 [1]. And this sequence should be repeated with time interval with more than 3–4 min until TOFc becomes more than 0 for the accurate neuromuscular monitoring and avoiding measurements during post-tetanic potentiation. We followed this sequence during the recovery of the neuromuscular blockade of the patient. Second, as mentioned in the original report, it was regrettable that we did not use an adequate dose of sugammadex at first administration. In the case of deep NMB, sugammadex 4 mg/kg is advised for the reversal [2]. Thus, at least 300 mg of sugammadex should be used in this patient (75 kg of body weight) at the first use. However, we noticed that an inadequate dose of sugammadex was used and administered additional sugammadex 200 mg. Third, we used sugammadex in spite of profound bradycardia because we did not notice the bradycardia was developed by sugammadex. The bradycardia lasted only about 10s without hypotension and returned to normal spontaneously. Most cases of bradycardia associated with sugammadex were clinically insignificant or easily treatable at the time of its first release [3]. However, only a few cases of severe bradycardia with the use of sugammadex was reported recently. Thus, we did not recognize the risk of bradycardia after the use of sugammadex [4]. As Dr. Choi et al. mentioned, it would be reasonable and safer to use anticholinesterase or waiting for the natural recovery from NMB. Reports about the unknown complications associated with sugammadex are increasing as its widespread use [5]. This case reported profound bradycardia and resistance to the sugammadex after the use of excessive doses of sugammadex. The author emphasizes that we should be aware of the possibility of severe complications after the use of sugammadex and proper dosage of sugammadex should be used based on the quantitative neuromuscular monitoring. Yong Jun Choi, Jeong Wook Park, Sang Hun Kim, and Ki Tae Jung