Since the introduction of desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) mass spectrometry (MS), ambient MS methods have seen increased use in a variety of fields from health to food science. Increasing its popularity in metabolomics, ambient MS offers limited sample preparation, rapid and direct analysis of liquids, solids, and gases, in situ and in vivo analysis, and imaging. The metabolome consists of a constantly changing collection of small (<1.5 kDa) molecules. These include endogenous molecules that are part of primary metabolism pathways, secondary metabolites with specific functions such as signaling, chemicals incorporated in the diet or resulting from environmental exposures, and metabolites associated with the microbiome. Characterization of the responsive changes of this molecule cohort is the principal goal of any metabolomics study. With adjustments to experimental parameters, metabolites with a range of chemical and physical properties can be selectively desorbed and ionized and subsequently analyzed with increased speed and sensitivity. This review covers the broad applications of a variety of ambient MS techniques in four primary fields in which metabolomics is commonly employed.


Multidimensional family therapy (MDFT) is an established treatment program for youth displaying multiproblem behavior. We examined whether MDFT decreased criminal offending among cannabis abusing adolescents, as compared with individual psychotherapy (IP). In a Western European randomized controlled trial comparing MDFT with IP, a sample of 169 adolescents with a cannabis disorder completed self-reports on criminal offending. Half indicated they had committed one or more criminal offenses in the 90 days before the baseline assessment. Follow-up assessments were at 6 and 12 months after randomization. The proportion of adolescents reporting nondelinquency increased during the study period, most so in the MDFT condition. In addition, MDFT lowered the number of violent offenses more than IP. This difference was not seen for property crimes. In cannabis abusing adolescents, MDFT is an effective treatment to prevent and reduce criminal offending. MDFT outperforms IP for violent crimes.


This study aims to contribute to the discussion of late Byzantine urban centres by researching four important cities for which written, archaeological and numismatic sources are available, and by creating a profile for each. Conclusions drawn from the study of Monemvasia, Ioannina, Arta and Thessalonike have then been used to draw a wider picture about late Byzantine cities in general. The period 1204-1460 saw the territorial collapse of the Byzantine Empire, followed by its partial reconstitution and then final fall. The political fragmentation of the Balkans and an increasingly integrated Mediterranean economy placed the Byzantine city at the heart of the politics and the economy of its region, and connected it to the wider world more than at any time since the seventh century. The profile of cities such as Monemvasia, Ioannina, Arta and Thessalonike was shaped by their function both as centres of wealth and international trade, and the residence of the imperial administration and the provincial elite. The study is divided into four chapters, each dedicated to a particular city. Each chapter analyses the politics, built environment, society, population, privileges and economy of the individual urban unit, and combines each section to draw conclusions. The concluding chapter of the thesis highlights common trends and developments in the socio-economic profiles of the four cities, and makes more general observations about late Byzantine urban civilization.


This White Paper analyzes the proposed "No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2019" (NOPEC). This legislation, which has been introduced in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, addresses the antitrust issues involved in allowing the Department of Justice to sue the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), their member states, their state owned oil companies (SOEs), nonmember states and their SOEs, and private companies for their participation in an international cartel that has long been involved in regulating the production and distribution of oil and other petroleum products.

The White Paper begins with a background discussion of the participants in the oil cartel. The paper then describes in detail the proposed legislation. The paper discusses how prior suits against OPEC have failed as courts have applied several substantive law doctrines — comity, Act of State, and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act — as well as rules on service of process under the Federal Rules of Civil procedure, to turn away the four private cases that have been filed. The paper then addresses how NOPEC is directed at removing the substantive defenses that have blocked the private party litigation and that might block litigation filed by the Justice Department. The bill removes the substantive law blocks, although an issue might remain if the Department brings a criminal prosecution, but NOPEC does not address the procedural issue of service of process. The White Paper concludes that NOPEC is an important part of a worldwide effort to stop international cartels that harm consumers and reduce economic welfare.


Extracted from text ... 12 - IMIESA SEPTEMBER 2005 INSIGHT Information and knowledge are key to meeting
the challenges of a rap- idly changing society. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are playing an increasingly important role in
the daily lives of citizens, revolutionising work and leisure and changing
the rules of doing business. ICTs encompass all technologies that facilitate
the processing and transfer of information and communi- cation services (United Nations, 2002). Community informatics is developing as an approach for linking economic and social development efforts at
the com- munity level to
the opportunities that ICT presents (Gurstein, ..


The modernist conception of the autonomous 'subject' as centred, sovereign, and coherently rational, acting intentionally, knowledgeably, and volitionally, has been challenged from a variety of sources, including poststructuralism, feminism, and posthumanism. A different kind of attack on the modernist subject has recently been staged by neurobiologists who have started to decentre the subject from within—to 'naturalise' (and materialise) the subject. This biological naturalism—the new 'life sciences'—claims to challenge our conceptions of self, the ethical subject, and what we conceive of as 'life'. But what conceptions we have of the configurations of the self is fundamental to our understandings and conceptions of ethics. This paper traces a debate between German neurobiologists and (post)humanist philosophers on the ontology of such things as 'free will', 'ethical agency', and the 'self' as an example of how the dispute between naturalists and nonnaturalist or postnaturalists is instrumental in sharpening our understanding of the self and of ethical agency. The paper argues that naturalism is bound to fail due to its inability to grasp the intersubjectivist nature of ethical agency, a theme which links up with recent geographical writing on ethics. I suggest, building on a recent contribution of Huib Ernste in this journal, that we should consider Helmuth Plessner's concept of eccentric positionality and ontology of the possible as a postmetaphysical kind of ethical humanism.


This report summarizes the work conducted to analyze the site impact of freight villages. The analysis included assessing traffic, logistics and economic impacts, which are then used to determine the extent to which freight village development has the potential to assist in New York Metropolitan Transportation Council's regional objectives. The objectives are to mitigate congestion by reducing vehicle miles traveled and increasing mode balance, foster rational and efficient land uses that curb sprawl, focus development on desired growth areas, promote compatible land uses, and promote economic development in the form of job creation. The method of assessment is as follows: analyze the generation of truck traffic, where different numbers of trucks are generated by the type of facility located within a freight village. A typical freight village model was created and was applied to six sites. The number of trucks generated by facilities is estimated using the truck trip rates from the ITE Trip Generation manual and relevant figures. To assess the impact of alternative land uses compared to freight village development, various scenarios were used for comparisons which include development of a business park, an amusement park and a regional park. The traffic impact of a freight village will then be compared to that of alternative developments. After conducting the study and analyzing the potential sites more thoroughly it was concluded that they are suitable for development as freight villages. Previous analysis and international experience show that networking among freight village facilities in a region enhances their functionalities and increases their potential to achieve clustering effects and to further reduce any adverse impact. As the need for goods in the region grows, so does the demand for freight transport and logistics operations. The current model of various small facilities and large number of truck trips required to accommodate the demand for freight is not sustainable. Freight villages help achieve environmental objectives, having the potential to reduce miles of less sustainable modes of transport and increasing the use of environmental friendly transport modes such as rail and water accessible warehouse facilities.


A Bayesian formulation is employed to develop a sparse vector regression model. The model is used to characterize the connection between measured vector scattered-field data x and the underlying target responsible for these fields, characterized by the parameter vector t. The scattering data x may be measured at multiple positions and/or at multiple frequencies. The statistical model is trained using a set of data D = {x n , t n } N n=1 established from a measurement and/or a forward model. Given observed scattered fields x, the model yields the expected target parameters t, as well as the associated accuracy of this estimate, defined in terms of 'error bars'. After developing the theory, we consider scattering from dielectric targets buried under a lossy half-space. We address examples for which the actual target responsible for the scattered fields is not matched to that used in the regression model, as well as scattering data with large additive noise.


For the conception of cut-and-cover tunnel, two solutions are usually considered to define the cross-section : an arch/vault or a frame. The vault enables an optimal static behavior in case of a large soil cover and symmetric loads. However, this solution faces some constructive issues. The construction process of a frame is simpler and more cost efficient, but its static behavior turns out to be less suitable for large soil covers. A research performed at EPFL allowed defining an innovative solution for the transverse section. This solution is a mix of a frame and a vault. It combines the static and constructive advantages of both solutions. This shape was chosen for several projects that are currently under way in Switzerland. The performance of this transverse section depends on the strength and ductility of its nodes. This paper presents an overview of the first results following both theoretical and experimental investigations that are currently under way about the behavior of nodes subjected to various load configurations. The theoretical part is used for the conceptual design and the optimization of bars details aiming at satisfying both ductility and strength requirements. The specimens were modeled and analyzed with the elastic-plastic stress fields method. This method enables to predict the failure modes and strengths of the specimens. The experimental part consists of a series of tests on four full scale specimens. These tests pointed out that the loading type and the bar disposition significantly influence the nodes areas. 1.


Across the globe, our continued existence in light of present conditions is uncertain. Rapid spread of disease and risk of complications endanger the human population. Such challenging circumstances may shock and devastate us, inducing mass panic and pandemonium amid the pervasive threat of pandemic. Yet according to Buddhist philosophy, existential unease can also spawn deep transformation. In this paper, we examine a pair of aesthetic emotions (saṃvega/pasāda) from the early Buddhist tradition that together hold the potential to induce critical reflection and productive engagement in response to existential threat. By referring to saṃvega/pasāda as aesthetic emotions, we intend to draw out their distinctive, often visually-oriented soteriological function. While initially 1 Dharma Realm Buddhist University. Email: email@example.com and brianna.morseth @drbu.edu. 206 Liang and Morseth, Aesthetic Emotions disorienting and perhaps even paralyzing, saṃvega and pasāda are ultimately reorienting and motivating factors on the path to liberation from the suffering entailed by cyclic existence.


Abstract This study proposes an improvement of the general formalism for calculating gamma-ray buildup factors in multilayer shields developed by Assad et al. The main modification concerns the treatment of the double-layer shield formed by the two first layers of a multilayer shield. Instead of replacing the double-layer shield with an equivalent thickness of the layer of the second material, the improved general formalism replaces it with a single-layer shield made of an appropriate material. The determination of the appropriate material is implemented into MERCURE-6.1 thanks to neural networks trained on a large set of various configurations. One-dimensional comparisons with the TWODANT transport Sn code shows the accuracy of the new formalism for shields composed of three and five layers. Indeed, for three-layer shields with an infinitesimal second layer and for multilayer shields composed of numerous thin layers (more than 15), MERCURE-6.1 matches the reference data quite well. The MERCURE-6.1 ability to solve three-dimensional realistic cases is highlighted by comparisons to the TRIPOLI-4 and MCNP-4C Monte Carlo codes.


This, the first casebook in the United States devoted exclusively to trade secret law, is challenging yet user-friendly to students in order to facilitate their reading and understanding of the material. This casebook is designed to be used by law students (and business students) with no prior background in intellectual property law. The authors have made conscious and thoughtful decisions about the way in which the information throughout the casebook is presented and organized. The general organization of the casebook follows a logical analytical approach to understanding trade secret law, with the chapters progressing from proving the essential elements of a trade secret claim to defensive tactics and remedies, managing trade secrets, and criminal actions. It also addresses employment, management, and international issues.


A PTP approach in network security for misbehavior detection system present a method for detecting maliciousmisbehavior activity within networks. Along with the detection, it also blocks the malicious system within the network and adds it to Blacklist. Malicious node defined as a compromised machine within the network that performs the task provided by i.e. it does not forward the legitimate message to another node in the network or sends some other message to a neighbor node. This system is based on Probabilistic threat propagation. This scheme is used in graph analysis for community detection. The proposed system enhances the prior community detection work by propagating threat probabilities across graph nodes. To demonstrate  Probabilistic Threat Propagation (PTP) considers the task of detecting malicious node in the network. Proposed System also shows the relationship between PTP and loopy belief ropagation


Despite the increasing connectivity between consumers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design promotional incentives that jointly consider their consumers as both purchasers and sharers. In this study, we examine whether and how firms can leverage consumers' social connections and engage consumers to share promotional incentives. In collaboration with a leading online deal platform, we report a large-scale randomized field experiment to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varying in the shareability and scarcity of promotion codes) in driving social sharing senders' purchases and successful referrals. We find that the different incentive designs have distinct impacts on the purchase and referral outcomes. Specifically, providing senders with one non-shareable promo code significantly increases their own purchase likelihood, compared to the other experimental groups. In contrast, senders who receive one shareable promo code are less likely to purchase themselves yet are more likely to make successful referrals. Surprisingly, the incentive design with two promo codes containing one non-shareable code and one shareable code increases neither the senders' purchases nor their successful referrals. Managerially, we estimate that although the one non-shareable promo code group derives the highest net revenue for the experimental period, the one shareable promo code group derives the highest customer lifetime value for the firm from the new customers acquired through the successful referrals. We further conducted two online experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk that replicate the field experiment's findings and explore the underlying mechanisms of the observed relationships. We find that exclusivity perception and social motives triggered by the incentive designs with one promo code mediate their effects on senders' self-purchases and successful referrals, respectively, and explain the ineffectiveness of two promo codes. Our study contributes to the bodies of literature on IT-enabled social sharing and social promotions, providing implications for firms on how to design promotional incentives that accommodate the dual role of consumers as purchasers and sharers.


Vegetation systems with varying levels of tree cover are widely distributed globally, but the determinants of vegetation and tree cover still lack a consistent global framework. How these systems' distribution responds to spatial variability of climate seasonality and associated fire regimes therefore remains unclear. Here, we focus on tree cover distribution at the global level. We develop a model that accounts for the role of seasonality and moisture in the dynamics that link climate, fire and tree cover. We choose predictors that have a clear link to functional processes that control tree physiology and growth, such as freezing tolerance (accounted for in the variable growing season length, GSL) and the balance between water availability and evapotranspiration (accounted for in the variables moisture index and moisture season length). The results show that the relative importance of climate factors and fire frequency as determinants of tree cover hinges on the GSL conditions. For example, significant interactions of tree cover with fire only occur in regions with GSL of 6–7 months or of 12 months. Our data also show a general relationship between maximum tree cover and moisture at the global level that is not visible when examining precipitation. Discontinuities in this relationship occur with frequent fires found under specific levels of seasonal moisture and temperature. A common climatic trait of frequent fires is moisture with a pronounced seasonality and an overall negative balance over the growing season. Frequent fires allow grassland to persist where there could be savanna/woodland as in the case of the North American grasslands. Frequent fires also allow savanna to persist where there could be forest, as found in tropical regions. This quantitative work is useful in improving large-scale land-atmosphere models as well as for identifying conditions of vulnerability for ecosystem diversity.


This thesis describes the feasibility and capabilities of a Fluorescence Imaging and Raman Probe (FIRP). This miniature instrument will combine reflected light and fluorescence imaging and Raman spectroscopy for potential exobiology or terrestrial environmental use. With the help of a penetrometer, the probe might be used to assess the presence of life on Mars and gain an understanding of Martian soil. Furthermore, this thesis will delineate how this penetrometer may be used to detect underground constituents and pollutants present on our own planet. The proposed FIRP will be incorporated into a penetrometer that will go several meters below the surface seeking bio-signatures and information about soil composition. Microscopic imaging with reflected light will provide morphological context, fluorescence imaging can provide biomass detection, and Raman spectrometry can provide chemical identification of imaged material. The fluorescence technique will mainly depend on the performance of a non-cooled low-noise monochrome imaging camera, optical filters, and high efficiency light emitting diodes in the UV and visible. This miniature instrument will be connected by optical fiber to a surface platform that will host the Raman spectrometer and Raman laser excitation source. This thesis will show the experimental results of a bench-top proof of concept system. Images and spectra were collected and analyzed. Important choices and characteristics of the optical design are discussed relative to Raman and fluorescence detection. Finally, the thesis will propose a prototype of a compact device that combines both sensing methods and is compatible with a penetrometer platform.


While there is a well-established body of empirical research documenting the negative effect of taxation on foreign direct investment (FDI), there is scant evidence on the extent to which international tax considerations (double taxation, international tax relief stipulated in bilateral tax treaties and the effect of withholding taxes) affect the role of taxation for FDI, and how tax issues differ according to the investment strategies—'horizontal' and 'vertical'—pursued by %multinational firms. This paper addresses these issues. Using data on US acquisitions over the period 1995-2005 in 18 OECD countries, it is shown that international tax relief plays a critical role in determining the impact of taxation. Regardless of the type of investment strategy, the significantly negative effect of corporate taxes disappears when accounting for the tax credits stipulated in bilateral tax treaties. It is also shown that there is considerable heterogeneity of the impact of sales taxes across investment strategies. High administrative burden to comply with taxation always reduces a country's appeal as target for FDI.


We report on the new class of inorganic nanocomposite films with the inorganic phase hosting the polymer nanofillers made by the concurrent multi-beam multi-target pulsed laser deposition of the inorganic target material and matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation of the polymer (MBMT-PLD/MAPLE). We used the exemplary nanocomposite thermoelectric films of aluminum-doped ZnO known as AZO with the nanofillers made of poly(methyl methacrylate) known as PMMA on various substrates such as SrTiO3, sapphire, fused silica, and polyimide. The AZO target was ablated with the second harmonic (532 nm) of the Nd:YAG Q-switched laser while PMMA was evaporated from its solution in chlorobenzene frozen in liquid nitrogen with the fundamental harmonic (1064 nm) of the same laser (50 Hz pulse repetition rate). The introduction of the polymer nanofillers increased the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposite films (possibly due to the carbonization of PMMA and the creation of additional channels of electric current) three times and reduced the thermal conductivity by 1.25 times as compared to the pure AZO films. Accordingly, the increase of the thermoelectric figure-of merit ZT would be ~ 4 times. The best performance was observed for the sapphire substrates where the films were the most uniform. The results point to a huge potential of the optimization of a broad variety of optical, opto-electronic, and solar-power nanocomposite inorganic films by the controllable introduction of the polymer nanofillers using the MBMT-PLD/MAPLE method.


Colloidal platelets are natural building blocks for the shape-controlled assembly of two-dimensional periodic lattices and can form versatile optical elements. Using three-dimensional (3D) numerical modelling, we demonstrate the self-assembly of triangular, square and pentagonal sub-micrometer sized platelets in a thin layer of nematic liquid crystal. Torques acting on individual platelets are calculated, showing that platelets with quadrupolar symmetry (squares, hexagons, etc) are, orientationally, more strongly bound than platelets with dipolar symmetry (triangles, pentagons) which is important for switching applications. Inter-platelet potentials are shown to depend in a complex way on the orientations of the platelets, exhibiting easy and hard reorientation axes and multiple minima. Linear chains of elastic dipoles form into two-dimensional periodic lattices via interesting rotational and translational shifts, to minimize the distortions in the surrounding nematic medium.


AbstractAim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of coeliac disease and its relation to duodenitis, H. pylori infection and gastritis in a sample of the adult general population.
Methods: A Swedish population sample of 482 subjects (aged 35 to 85 years) were examined with gastro-duodenoscopy with multiple biopsies taken. Circulating antibodies to endomycium, gliadin, and H. pylori were also determined.
Results: Based on histomorphological findings, coeliac disease was evident in 9 of 482 subjects giving a prevalence of 1.9 [1.0-4.0, 95% confidence interval] percent. The prevalence of gastritis with or without H. pylori infection did not differ between subjects with and without coeliac disease. Considering subjects without coeliac disease, there was no difference in the serum levels of gliadin antibodies between those with and without duodenitis. However, subjects with positive H. pylori status had significantly higher levels of gliadin antibodies than those with negative H. pylori status.
Conclusions: This study confirms that there is a relatively high prevalence of undiagnosed coeliac disease in Swedish adults. There was no association between coeliac disease and H. pylori infection or gastritis, although serum gliadin antibody levels were slightly increased in subjects with positive H. pylori status.


A simple and efficient principle for nanopatterning with wide applicability in the sub‐50 nanometer regime is chemisorption of nanoparticles; at homogeneous substrates, particles carrying surface charge may spontaneously self‐organize due to the electrostatic repulsion between adjacent particles. Guided by this principle, a method is presented to design, self‐assemble, and chemically functionalize gradient nanopatterns where the size of molecular domains can be tuned to match the level corresponding to single protein binding events. To modulate the binding of negatively charged gold nanoparticles both locally (<100 nm) and globally (>100 μm) onto a single modified gold substrate, ion diffusion is used to achieve spatial control of the particles' mutual electrostatic interactions. By subsequent tailoring of different molecules to surface‐immobilized particles and the void areas surrounding them, nanopatterns are obtained with variable chemical domains along the gradient surface. Fimbriated Escherichia coli bacteria are bound to gradient nanopatterns with similar molecular composition and macroscopic contact angle, but different sizes of nanoscopic presentation of adhesive (hydrophobic) and repellent poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG) domains. It is shown that small hydrophobic domains, similar in size to the diameter of the bacterial fimbriae, supported firmly attached bacteria resembling catch‐bond binding, whereas a high number of loosely adhered bacteria are observed on larger hydrophobic domains.


Why do we have more than one form of intellectual property rights? Why are the structures of patent and copyright forms so different? What factors influence the optimal structure of each form? We can move toward addressing some of these enduring puzzles and understanding the effects of the differences between intellectual property forms by examining the presence and distribution of information costs in the propertarian relationship. In this article, I explore the relationship between the nature of protected intellectual goods and differences in the structures of patent and copyright. Intellectual property rules in patent and copyright can make it easier or more difficult for parties to gather and comprehend information regarding protected goods. The literature on the law of organizations has recognized that it is most efficient to align transactions, which differ in their attributes, with organizational forms, which differ in structural ways, so as to minimize transaction costs. I argue that similarly, when intellectual property forms are structured to minimize information costs they are more efficient, all else equal, than when they are not so structured. Examining the presence and distribution of information costs can suggest ways in which we might increase efficiency in intellectual property.


Service compositions enable users to realize their complex needs as a single request. Despite intensive research, especially in the area of business processes, web services and grids, an open and valid question is still how to manage service compositions in order to satisfy both functional and non-functional requirements as well as adapt to dynamic changes. In this paper we describe an approach towards adaptive management of QoS-aware service compositions. This approach integrates well known concepts and techniques and proposes various execution strategies based on dynamic selection and negotiation of services, contracting based on service level agreements, service enactment with flexible support for exception handling, monitoring of service level objectives, and profiling of execution data.


Recent technologies have suggested the utilization of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology to enhance the fabrication accuracy of prosthetics. Accordingly, simulations are used to obtain precise parameters for subject-specified prosthetic socket. This study proposes an evaluation system to measure the accuracy of a subject-specific 3D transfemoral residuum model during the interaction with the socket in conjunction with the application of finite element methods. The proposed system can be used in future validations of socket fabrication. The evaluation is based on the measurement of the residuum's soft tissue deformation inside two types of prosthetic sockets. In comparison with other studies, the 3D models were constructed with magnetic resonance images (MRI) with the aid of computer-aided design (CAD) software. The measurement of soft tissue deformation was conducted based on the measurement of the volumetric value of fat, muscle and skin in the pre- and post-donning phases. The result yielded a promising correlation coefficient value between the simulation and the experiment in the soft tissue deformation evaluation. The relation of the muscle–fat ratio in the residuum is extremely important in the determination of the ability of the prosthetic to deform. The environment during the socket fitting session was similar to that defined by the set boundary conditions in simulations. In view of the promising results of this study, the evaluation system proposed herein is considered reliable and is envisaged to be used in future research.


Why do investors entrust active mutual fund managers with large sums of money while receiving negative excess returns on average? Our explanation is that investors have a coarser information set than fund managers which leads them to systematically misinterpret managers' skill. When investors are unable to correctly quantify risk because they have no knowledge of factor investing on beyond-market-risk factors, Fake Alpha strategies based on factor investing look like skill from the investors' perspective. As running such strategies is relatively cheap for the managers, the investors' coarser information set misleads them to invest beyond the point of zero excess returns in equilibrium. We confirm our theory by analyzing the sample of US equity active managed mutual funds and find significant evidence of decreasing returns to scale at the fund level as well as negative excess returns to investors in equilibrium states.


Where does Au coordinate to N-(2-pyridiyl)benzotriazole? Here, pyridyltriazole gold(I) complexes were synthesized, whereby it was revealed that the triazole part coordinated to gold(I). Compared to the Ph3PAuCl/AgOTf catalyst, pyridyltriazole gold(I) complexes proved to be an efficient pre-catalyst for the most challenging gold-catalyzed borrowing hydrogen reaction and dehydrogenation of alcohols and amines, which provided an efficient method to selectively synthesize imines, substituted amines and functionalized ketones in excellent yields with high chemoselectivity. This indicated that triazole ligands are helpful in forming gold nanoparticles and delaying agglomeration in these reactions. Importantly, this kind of air and moisture stable complex was effective for allene synthesis through the 3,3-rearrangement of propargyl ethers with good yields under wet conditions with a reduced catalyst loading by a silver-free protocol. Furthermore, the synthesis of 1,5-enyne derivatives was realized from propargyl alcohols with pyridyltriazole gold(I) complexes as the catalyst.


In this paper, a new low level feature suitable for Hand Drawn Color Sketches retrieval is presented. The proposed feature structure combines color and spatial color distribution information. The combination of these two features in one vector classifies the proposed descriptor to the family of Composite Descriptors. In order to extract the color information, a fuzzy system is being used, which is mapping the number of colors that are included in the image into a custom palette of 8 colors. The way by which the vector of the proposed descriptor is being formed, describes the color spatial information contained in images. To be applicable in the design of large image databases, the proposed descriptor is compact, requiring only 48 bytes per image. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.


Diabetes mellitus is a world-widely public health issue associated with premature mortality, decreased quality of life and increased health-care expenditures. The aim of the review was to elevate the effect of apple cider vinegar on glycemic control, hyperlipidemia and obesity control in type 2 diabetes patients. Many clinical trials showed the hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and anti-obesity effect of vinegar. Proposed mechanisms action of vinegar for the hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic effect are including slow gastric emptying, it promotes uptake of skeleton muscles glucose in the body and acetic acid may inhibit disaccharides activity in the small intestine blocking the complete digestion of starch molecules, suppression of hepatic glucose production and increased glucose utilization. Results of previous studies showed that apple cider vinegar has the potential of anti-diabetic, antihyperlipidemic and antiobesity effects in diabetes mellitus patients. Objective of review: The objective of the current review study was to investigate the effect of apple cider vinegar on glycemic control, hyperlipidemia and control on body weight in type 2 diabetes patients and other therapeutic and commercial effect of apple cider vinegar. Data sources: To collect data for relevant literature PubMed, Google Scholar, science direct and Cochrane sources were used.


Background: Given the increasing presence of aborigines in Taiwan higher education, especially in nursing institutes, the retention and adaptation of aboriginal students is a critical issue for research. Understanding the adjustment and transformation process of aboriginal nursing freshmen is very important for improving their learning, but very little information can be found about their experiences. Aims: In order to provide the references to improve the qualities of multi-ethnic learning in the future, this study is to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the adjustment process of aboriginal nursing freshmen and the meaning they drew from their learning. Participants: The study recruited 20 female aboriginal freshmen from the five year nursing program. These students came from different areas or tribes in Taiwan. The age for these students was from 15 to 17. Methods: A qualitative method was adopted to conduct this research. The primary method for data collection was a series of in-depth interviews conducted by six well-trained interviewers with backgrounds in counseling during the first year of participants' school life. The data analysis was carried out by open coding, axial coding and determining the core theme. Conclusions: 'Coping with changes' was the core theme for describing and guiding the process of first year college life. During the process, the four most common challenges were: (1) Excitement and fear collide initially; (2) Confronting reality; (3) Seeking connection; (4) Getting along with all. Based on the above results, we contend that the aboriginal students need to seek connections. The aboriginal freshmen appreciate teachers who are sensitive to their culture, and they need more support for aboriginal student clubs. Curriculums and pedagogies designed for aboriginal students may benefit them in reaching their highest potential in both academic and social psychological development. This study, therefore, suggests that the institute should offer different programs for the aboriginal nursing freshmen in different adjustment stages.


The performance of a drinking-water treatment plant is determined by the control of the plant. To design the appropriate control system, a control-design methodology of five design steps is proposed, which takes the treatment process characteristics into account. For each design step, the necessary actions are defined. Using the methodology for the pellet-softening treatment step, a new control scheme for the pellet-softening treatment step has been designed and implemented in the full-scale plant. The implementation resulted in a chemical usage reduction of 15% and reduction in the maintenance effort for this treatment step. Corrective actions of operators are no longer necessary.


Part I of this Note provides a brief background of cryptocurrencies and ICOs. Part II examines historical speculative bubbles and argues that the ICO market is a speculative bubble. Part III explores characteristics of those who invest in bubbles as well as the psychological biases that those investors may encounter. It presents psychological arguments for market behavior in an effort to counter the neoclassical economic claims for why a bubble cannot occur and identifies two distinct types of investors in ICOs—the smart money investors and noise traders. Part IV discusses the limited regulations currently governing the ICO market. Finally, Part V argues that an asymmetrically paternalistic regulatory scheme is the most fitting way to regulate the ICO market. Part V does not provide a comprehensive regulatory framework; rather, it argues for light-touch regulation of ICOs and offers examples for how to implement such regulation.


Climate change is exacerbating the extremes in hydro-meteorological events. Together with other global drivers under change – population growth, rapid urbanisation, increased asset values – this may result in increased frequencies and even higher impacts of water-related disasters. Further comprehensive actions are needed to reduce the vulnerability and to increase the resilience of exposed populations and assets.


The 2002 farm bill is a big change from the 1996 farm bill. The new bill introduces greater complexity through direct and countercyclical payments. A comparison of the 1996 and 2002 farm bills is needed to estimate how all the changes affect farmers and to guide future farm bill policy. This paper uses simulation analysis to estimate 10 years of net income under the 1996 and 2002 farm bills for three Kentucky counties. Results indicate that both net income and income variance are very similar in all three counties. Changing the projected prices for the simulation affects income under both farm bills almost equally.


This study describes the constituents of phenolic acids and antioxidant activities of chestnut (Castania sativa Mill.) honeys and propolis in Turkey. Antioxidant activity of the chestnut honeys and propolis were examined by three different methods, namely scavenging of free radical 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, FRAP, and cupric reducing antioxidant power. Total phenolic contents were determined by using Folin–Ciocalteu reagent as GA equivalent. The phenolic constituents were also determined by HPLC. The antioxidant activities were compared with standard antioxidants such as catechin, BHT and Trolox. The antioxidant activities of all the samples were found high and related to the sample concentrations. The ethanolic propolis extracts showed the highest antioxidant activity. The major phenolic acids of the chestnut honeys and propolis identified by HPLC with PDA detection were coumaric acid, FA, cinnamic acid, CA and ChA.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

In this study, some phenolic acid components and antioxidant capacity of chestnut (Castania sativa Mill.) honey and propolis were measured. The comparative findings from antioxidant activities and phenolic acid analyses of honey and propolis samples of chestnut origin provide important criteria for considering their nutritional and nutraceutical potentials. Comparison of our results with literature data also ranks the chestnut honey and propolis as better sources of antioxidants among those from other floral origins.


Objective: To detect the levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in breast milk of lactating women around the waste incineration plant in Shenzhen city, and analyze the related influencing factors.
Methods: In 2011 4~12 months, 89 breast milk samples within 1~2 month birth from lactating women within the range of 5 km in the waste incineration plant were collected from 2011.04 to 2011.12. After pretreatment, 17 gradients of PCDD/Fs in breast milk samples were quantitatively analyzed with isotope dilution high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS), and the normal concentration of total toxic was calculated. SPSS13.0 was used to analyze the relationship between nurse age, residence time, diet and other factors and PCDD/Fs concentration of breast milk.
Results: In breast milk samples, the median of mass concentration of ΣPCDD/Fs was 181.52 pg/g fat, and the median concentration of ΣTEQ-PCDD/Fs was 5.80 pg/g fat. According to the mass concentration, the dominant compounds are OCDD of 84.26%, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8-HpCDD of 5.84% and OCDF of 2.14%. Based on the TEQ concentration, the dominant compounds of pollution compounds were 2, 3, 4, 7, 8-PeCDF of 39.45%, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8-HxCDF of 7.56% and 1, 2, , 3, 7, 8-PeCDD of 24.20%. The statistical analysis found that PCDD/Fs load was related to age and breast milk, PCDD/Fs load in breast milk of high maternal age group was higher than the low age group (7.71 pg/g fat and 6.34 pg/g fat, P=0.04); PCDD/Fs load level in breast milk was associated with family income (r=0.22, P<0.05).
Conclusion: The levels of dioxin compounds in breast milk around the waste incineration plant in Shenzhen are equivalent with common population in Shenzhen. The level of PCDD/Fs in breast milk is positively related to maternal age and family income.


Strain and electronic structure of InAs/GaAs quantum dot molecules made up of identical and non-identical vertically stacked quantum dots are compared using the sp3d5s* nearest neighbor empirical tight binding model. Hydrostatic and biaxial strain profiles strongly impact the local band edges and electronic structure for both identical and non-identical dots. Strain in the lower dot is significantly different as compared to the upper dot in the non-identical system in contrast to the identical system where it is almost the same in both dots. Therefore structural detailed differences are of critical importance and cannot be neglected. Qualitatively, the electronic structure is similar in identical and non-identical dot systems for small separations (below 6 nm) and it is significantly different for large separations. The molecular orbitals convert to the dot-localized atomic orbitals at large dot separations in the non-identical system. Non-idealities such as strain and size variations induce an energy splitting in the considered dot ground states. Larger dissimilarity of dots increases e1-e2 and decreases the optical gap of system. This favors the possible use of such system in the construction of the long wavelength optical laser.


Prior research suggests that the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—the main cause of climate change—affects firm valuation. In this paper, we provide new insights into the determinants of the voluntary disclosure of GHG emissions. We show that board ancestral diversity has a positive and statistically significant effect on a firm's scope and quality of voluntary GHG emission disclosure. This effect is robust to controlling for several other dimensions of board diversity as well as to addressing endogeneity and sample selection. Additional analysis suggests that board ancestral diversity has a higher impact on GHG emission disclosure in firms with low institutional ownership and high corporate complexity. We interpret these findings as consistent with the view that board diversity enhances monitoring and advising.


State of nature theory has served as an important theoretical foundation for various political theories. It is usually used to justify the development and existence of certain political institutions and/or to explain why and how a government could come into being from a state of nature. While numerous studies have examined the role of state of nature theory in Western political thought — most notably, in the political thought of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke — very few studies have examined state of nature theory in Chinese political thought. This Article argues that certain traditional Chinese thinkers did in fact explicitly set forth state of nature arguments as theoretical foundations and justifications for their political thought. It describes and analyzes the state of nature theories of three important traditional Chinese thinkers: Mozi (c. 480-390 B.C.), Xunzi (c. 4th to 3rd century B.C.), and Liu Zongyuan (773-819 A.D.). It also compares their respective state of nature theories with one another, as well as with those of Hobbes and Locke. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of its findings on Chinese political and legal theory more broadly.


Although monitoring is an essential tool for biodiversity conservation, monitoring pro- grammes are often poorly designed and thus unlikely to produce results that are meaningful for man- agement. Monitoring is especially challenging when dealing with rare and elusive species in areas where conservation resources are particularly limited. In such cases, monitoring techniques aimed at estimating occupancy represent an attractive alternative to traditional methods concerned with esti- mating population size, as the collection of detection/non-detection data is in general less costly and easier to implement. In this study, we evaluated the use of occupancy as a state variable for the mon- itoring of the Alaotran gentle lemur Hapalemur alaotrensis, a Critically Endangered primate exclu- sively inhabiting the dense marshes around Lake Alaotra in Madagascar. We used a likelihood-based modelling approach that explicitly accounts for detectability. This showed that the probability of detection of H. alaotrensis was extremely low and depended on site characteristics that can vary in space and time, confirming the need to account for imperfect detection when monitoring this species. We used our models to explore factors affecting the probability of occupancy and detection to iden- tify management implications, and also developed recommendations for the ongoing monitoring of this species. The method applied in this study provides an efficient tool for the monitoring of an elu- sive species and has the potential to provide a flexible sampling framework for local community- based monitoring initiatives.


Context. The Sun is very quiet with less sunspots and activity since the beginning of solar cycle 24. However, the active region (AR) 11045 emerged on February 5, 2010, is associated with 43 (8 M- and 35 C-class) flares, 53 coronal mass ejections (CMEs), 29 filament eruptions, 19 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) waves and abundant jets, indicating that this AR is the first productive one of solar cycle 24. Aims. We study the AR evolution and its associated activities, and also their relationships, to understand this productive AR. Methods. We used SOHO/MDI magnetograms to study the magnetic fields, STEREO/SECCHI images to explore the activities, and GOES measurements to investigate the soft X-ray flux of the AR. Results. During the AR evolution, six pairs of main magnetic fields emerged, and 93.1% flares and 82.75% filament eruption occurred in the emergence and stable phases of the magnetic flux. However, 43.4% CMEs occurred in the decaying phase, even though there were lessflares. An example isgiven to show that an event isrelated to aflare, afilament eruption, a CME and an EUV wave from inner corona to outer corona in space, and the filament eruption and EUV wave occur near the peak time of the flare. Among the 29 filament eruptions, 79.3% are associated with CMEs, as well as 58.6%, associated with flares, and 34.5%, associated with EUV waves. During the 12-day active phase, 575 jets are detected with a daily occurrence rate of 49.3. This is the first time that so many jets have been identified in one AR, implying at least 575 lower magnetic reconnection processes during the AR evolution. We statistically studied these jets along with the AR evolution, and noticed that the jets mostly occurred surrounding the emerging flux. We also investigated the spatio-temporal relationships between the jets and the flares, and find that the jets are usually rooted around the flare cores, and the soft X-ray flux is inverse correlated with the number of the jets, especially during the beginning 9 days since the AR emergence. In comparison with AR 11045, we studied the other newly emerging AR 11045, and obtained similar results. The relationships between the jets and the flares may well represent a scenario of two-step magnetic reconnection. Using schematic diagrams, we explain the remarkable magnetic field emergence, cancelation and shear motion of AR 11045, and its associated activities.


The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) is one of psychology's most famous studies. It has been criticized on many grounds, and yet a majority of textbook authors have ignored these criticisms in their discussions of the SPE, thereby misleading both students and the general public about the study's questionable scientific validity. Data collected from a thorough investigation of the SPE archives and interviews with 15 of the participants in the experiment further question the study's scientific merit. These data are not only supportive of previous criticisms of the SPE, such as the presence of demand characteristics, but provide new criticisms of the SPE based on heretofore unknown information. These new criticisms include the biased and incomplete collection of data, the extent to which the SPE drew on a prison experiment devised and conducted by students in one of Zimbardo's classes 3 months earlier, the fact that the guards received precise instructions regarding the treatment of the prisoners, the fact that the guards were not told they were subjects, and the fact that participants were almost never completely immersed by the situation. Possible explanations of the inaccurate textbook portrayal and general misperception of the SPE's scientific validity over the past 5 decades, in spite of its flaws and shortcomings, are discussed.


This study investigated the (1) relationship of students' family and educational background to their opinions of fashion retailing as a career, and (2) preferences for fashion retail job attributes in relationship the appeal of fashion retail job profiles. A sample of 131 fashion merchandising students from five state-funded universities completed a four-part survey which measured two independent variables: student background and preferences of fashion retail job attributes and two dependent variables: opinions of fashion of retailing as a career and the appeal of fashion retail job profiles. Analyses included multiple regression, t-test, and correlations. For opinions of fashion retailing as a career, parental background was not significant while attendance at a retailing course, semester hours completed and G.P.A. had limited relationships. Fashion retail job attribute preferences were related to the appeal of fashion retail job profiles; the most preferred attribute was high personal freedom.


The problem with which this study is concerned is articulating all possible CT3 and KR21 reliability measures for every case of a 5x5 binary matrix (32,996,500 possible matrices). The study has three purposes. The first purpose is to calculate CT3 for every matrix and compare the results to the proposed optimum range of .3 to .5. The second purpose is to compare the results from the calculation of KR21 and CT3 reliability measures. The third purpose is to calculate CT3 and KR21 on every strand of a class test whose item set has been reduced using the difficulty strata identified by Order Analysis. The study was conducted by writing a computer program to articulate all possible 5 x 5 matrices. The program also calculated CT3 and KR21 reliability measures for each matrix. The nonparametric technique of Order Analysis was applied to two sections of test items to stratify the items into difficulty levels. The difficulty levels were used to reduce the item set from 22 to 9 items. All possible strands or chains of these items were identified so that both reliability measures (CT3 and KR21) could be calculated. One major finding of this study indicates that .3 to .5 is a desirable range for CT3 (cumulative p=.86 to p=.98) if cumulative frequencies are measured. A second major finding is that the KR21 reliability measure produced an invalid result more than half the time. The last major finding is that CT3, rescaled to range between 0 and 1, supports De Vellis' guidelines for reliability measures. The major conclusion is that CT3 is a better measure of reliability since it considers both inter- and intra-item variances.


For over 2000 years the manual craft of papermaking has been practiced all over the world utilizing a variety of techniques. This review describes the evolution of hand papermaking and its cultural significance. Paper's evolution has been shaped by the structure and chemical composition of the fibers. Almost every aspect of modern papermaking technology has been foreshadowed by traditional practices. Such practices were passed down for many generations within families of papermakers. The main sources of cellulosic fiber evolved as the ancient craft migrated from its birthplace in China to Korea and Japan, the Islamic world, and then to Europe and America. Though most paper made today comes from automated, continuous production systems, handmade paper has enjoyed a resurgence, both as a traditional craft and as an art-form. In addition, traditional papermaking methods can provide insights to help in modern applications involving cellulosic fibers.


We prove that there are 3-CNF formulas over n variables that can be refuted in resolution in width w but require resolution proofs of size nΩ(w). This shows that the simple counting argument that any formula refutable in width w must have a proof in size nO(w) is essentially tight. Moreover, our lower bounds can be generalized to polynomial calculus resolution (PCR) and Sherali-Adams, implying that the corresponding size upper bounds in terms of degree and rank are tight as well. Our results do not extend all the way to Lasserre, however-the formulas we study have Lasserre proofs of constant rank and size polynomial in both n and w.


Francisella tularensis, a Gram-negative bacterium and causative agent of tularemia, is categorized as a Class A select agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention due to its ease of dissemination and ability to cause disease. Oropharyngeal and gastrointestinal tularemia may occur due to ingestion of contaminated food and water. Despite the concern to public health, little research is focused on F. tularensis detection in food and environmental matrices. Current diagnostics rely on host responses and amplification of F. tularensis genetic elements via Polymerase Chain Reaction; however, both tools are limited by development of an antibody response and limit of detection, respectively. During our investigation to develop an improved culture medium to aid F. tularensis diagnostics, we found enhanced F. tularensis growth using the spent culture filtrate. Addition of the spent culture filtrate allowed for increased detection of F. tularensis in mixed cultures of food and environmental matrices. Ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC)/MS analysis identified several unique chemicals within the spent culture supernatant of which carnosine had a matching m/z ratio. Addition of 0.625 mg/mL of carnosine to conventional F. tularensis medium increased the growth of F. tularensis at low inoculums. In order to further enrich F. tularensis cells, we developed a DNA aptamer cocktail to physically separate F. tularensis from other bacteria present in food and environmental matrices. The combined enrichment steps resulted in a detection range of 1–106 CFU/mL (starting inoculums) in both soil and lettuce backgrounds. We propose that the two-step enrichment process may be utilized for easy field diagnostics and subtyping of suspected F. tularensis contamination as well as a tool to aid in basic research of F. tularensis ecology.


Gendered inequalities are on the frontlines of COVID-19. The catalogue of COVID-19's impact covers all aspects of women's lives: work, family, education, health, reproduction, mental and physical well-being, and leisure. The pandemic has exposed the limitations in the current economic system on public and private support for gender equity and the intersecting impact of gender, race, and class in that lack of support. Women of color, particularly Black, Latina, and Native American, are at the intersection of the inequities in the emerging stay-at-home economy. This Article argues that COVID-19 is likely to have complex implications for gender equality and gender equity as state and local governments, the federal government, and private actors focus on recovery plans. The negative impact includes hundreds of thousands of deaths, lingering health complications for many among the several million people who have already contracted the virus, massive economic disruption and loss for individuals, families, and communities and the exacerbation of structural inequalities. The creative policy responses prompted by the devastating impact of COVID-19 provide promise for building a more transformative and equitable future. Indeed, any roadmap to resilience is incomplete without addressing the gender inequities in our social infrastructure. Proposing a feminist recovery plan, this Article focuses on a set of issues relating to gender inequities concerning work and family, including the gender pay gap, the child care crisis, and the disproportionate role of women—particularly, women of color— in providing essential but undervalued care work.


Three studies investigated whether victims' satisfaction with a restorative justice process influenced third-party assignments of punishment. Participants evaluated criminal offenses and victims' reactions to an initial restorative justice conference, and were later asked to indicate their support for additional punishment of the offender. Across the three studies, we found that victim satisfaction (relative to dissatisfaction) attenuates people's desire to seek offender punishment, regardless of offense severity (Study 2) or conflicting reports from a third-party observer (Study 3). This relationship was explained by the informational value of victim satisfaction: Participants inferred that victims felt closure and that offenders experienced value reform, both of which elevated participants' satisfaction with the restorative justice outcome. The informational value communicated by victim satisfaction, and its criminal justice implications, are discussed.


Standards in e-learning have been developed to support authoring, assembly, and execution of learning objects. Nevertheless, pricing of learning objects still plays a minor role in current e-learning research. So far, standards for learning objects lack concepts for the integration of prices. In this paper, we present an approach to support pricing of e-learning objects on different abstraction levels. The approach is based on combining price models and learning objects by extending the learning objects' XML metadata on the one hand and on the representation of processes as exchanges and manipulations of XML documents on the other hand. Consideration of price models in a workflow-based learning-object management system thus allows for explicitly modeling processes for pricing such as price negotiations between learners and learning object providers or mediators. Moreover, pricing processes can be integrated into learning, teaching, and administration processes and thereby enhance the cooperation of all participating actors.


Ganoderma lucidum (Curtis) P. Karst., known as "Lingzhi" in China or "Reishi" in Japan, is a well-known medicinal mushroom and traditional Chinese medicine, which has been used for the prevention and treatment of bronchitis, allergies, hepatitis, immunological disorders and cancer. G. lucidum is rarely collected from nature and mostly cultivated on wood logs and sawdust in plastic bags or bottles to meet the demands of international markets. Diverse groups of chemical compounds with pharmacological activities, isolated from the mycelia and fruiting bodies of G. lucidum are triterpenoids, polysaccharides (β-D-glucans), proteins, amino acids, nucleosides, alkaloids, steroids, lactones, lectins, fatty acids, and enzymes. The biologically active compounds as primarily triterpenoids and polysaccharides of G. lucidum have been reported to possess hepatoprotective, antihypertensive, hypocholesterolemic, antihistaminic effects and antioxidant, antitumor, immunomodulatory, and antiangiogenic activities. Several formulations have been developed, patented and used as nutraceuticals, nutriceuticals and pharmaceuticals from G. lucidum's water or ethanol extracts and rarely purified active compounds. As the result of clinical trials, various products have commercially become available as syrup, injection, tablet, tincture or bolus of powdered medicine and an ingredient or additive in dark chocolate bars and organic fermented medicinal mushroom drink mixes such as green teas, coffees, and hot cacaos. This review has intended to give and discuss recent knowledge on phytochemical and pharmacological compositions, therapeutic and side effects, clinical trials, and commercial products of G. lucidum.


s in Anthropology (Baywood Publishing) CSA Biological Sciences Database (ProQuest) HEED: Health Economic Evalua ons Database (Wiley Blackwell) IBIDS: Interna onal Bibliographic Informa on on Dietary Supplements (NIH) Journal Cita on Reports/Science Edi on (Thomson Reuters) ISSN 1045-3873 (Print) ISSN 1540-8167 (Online) For submission instruc ons, subscrip on and all other informa on visit: www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/jce


Artificial Intelligence (AI) is part of our everyday life and has become one of the most outstanding and strategic technologies of the 21st century. Explainable AI (XAI in short) is expected to endow AI systems with explanation ability when interacting with humans. This paper describes how to provide kids with natural explanations, i.e., explanations verbalized in Natural Language, in the context of identifying/recognizing roles of basketball players. Semantic grounding is achieved through fuzzy concepts such as tall or short. Selected players are automatically classified by an ensemble of three different decision trees and one fuzzy rule-based classifier. All the single classifiers were first trained with the open source Weka software and then natural explanations were generated by the open source web service ExpliClas. The Human-Computer Interaction interface is implemented in Scratch, that is a visual programming language adapted to kids. The developed Scratch program is used for dissemination purposes when high-school teenagers visit the Research Center in Intelligent Technologies of the University of Santiago de Compostela.


Speech transcription can now be achieved quickly enough to generate subtitles in real-time. Research presented in this paper aims to explore the potential of synchronous transcription in instrumenting learning environments, specifically in the context of hybrid lectures. Considering available technologies, we designed a toolset in order to answer the existing needs of students and teachers. This toolset is built around the transcription of the teacher's speech, which acts as a support for interactions and provides data needed by other functionalities. We present here the different interfaces and their components, as well as the results of the user test carried out in real life conditions.


Liquid Crystal Display Drivers deals with Liquid Crystal Displays from the electronic engineering point of view and is the first expressively focused on their driving circuits. After introducing the physical-chemical properties of the LC substances, their evolution and application to LCDs, the book converges to the examination and in-depth explanation of those reliable techniques, architectures, and design solutions amenable to efficiently design drivers for passive-matrix and active-matrix LCDs, both for small size and large size panels. Practical approaches regularly adopted for mass production but also emerging ones are discussed. The topics treated have in many cases general validity and found application also in alternative display technologies (OLEDs, Electrophoretic Displays, etc.).


Laboratory measurements reveal the flow structure within and above a model seagrass meadow (dynamically similar to Zostera marina) forced by progressive waves. Despite being driven by purely oscillatory flow, a mean current in the direction of wave propagation is generated within the meadow. This mean current is forced by a nonzero wave stress, similar to the streaming observed in wave boundary layers. The measured mean current is roughly four times that predicted by laminar boundary layer theory, with magnitudes as high as 38% of the near‐bed orbital velocity. A simple theoretical model is developed to predict the magnitude of this mean current based on the energy dissipated within the meadow. Unlike unidirectional flow, which can be significantly damped within a meadow, the in‐canopy orbital velocity is not significantly damped. Consistent with previous studies, the reduction of in‐canopy velocity is a function of the ratio of orbital excursion and blade spacing.


This case, which will be presented in detail, supports Mr. Barabas's contention that there may exist an "arterial" type of syndrome. It provides a particularly florid example, with a similar illness occurring in milder form in a brother. Although usually regarded as an autosomal dominant trait,' the possibility of different modes of inheritance in a heterogeneous syndrome has always to be considered, and one might speculate that some cases of the " arterial " form might be transmitted as autosomal recessives. If this were so parents would not be expected to show the trait, and absence of family history could be compatible with this mode of inheritance, as in the case of Rubinstein and Cohen,2 another of our own,3 and number 27 of Barabas. The features of systemic illness (fever, etc.) ink our patient are not well explained and it may be noteworthy that they had occurred in milder form earlier in this patient's history. We wonder whether others have had similar experiences and whether more acute episodes of arterial damage may occur in the course of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.-We are, etc., ROBIN M. BANNERMAN. CARL J. GRAF. JAMES F. UPSON. Buffalo General Hospital, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.


Dry (CO2) reforming of methane (DRM) is a well-studied reaction that is of both scientific and industrial importance. This reaction produces syngas that can be used to produce a wide range of products, such as higher alkanes and oxygenates by means of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. DRM is inevitably accompanied by deactivation due to carbon deposition. DRM is also a highly endothermic reaction and requires operating temperatures of 800-1000 °C to attain high equilibrium conversion of CH4 and CO2 to H2 and CO and to minimize the thermodynamic driving force for carbon deposition. The most widely used catalysts for DRM are based on Ni. However, many of these catalysts undergo severe deactivation due to carbon deposition. Noble metals have also been studied and are typically found to be much more resistant to carbon deposition than Ni catalysts, but are generally uneconomical. Noble metals can also be used to promote the Ni catalysts in order to increase their resistance to deactivation. In order to design catalysts that minimize deactivation, it is necessary to understand the elementary steps involved in the activation and conversion of CH4 and CO2. This review will cover DRM literature for catalysts based on Rh, Ru, Pt, and Pd metals. This includes the effect of these noble metals on the kinetics, mechanism and deactivation of these catalysts.


An advanced electrode is essential for flexible energy storage devices which enable the application of next-generation flexible electronics. In the current research project, we have designed and fabricated self-supported Mn3O4@C nanotube arrays on a conductive substrate via a simple template-assisted route, which can be directly used as a binder-free anode for flexible Li-ion batteries. Such microstructure engineering of electroactive Mn3O4 and conductive carbon layers enables the Mn3O4@C electrode to possess a high electrical conductivity. The substantial void space in the hollow nanotube and the gap between these 1D nanotube units allow for the full expansion of Mn3O4 while preserving the structural integrity of the Mn3O4@C self-supported electrode and stable SEI film on the outside carbon surface. As for Li-ion batteries, these binder-free Mn3O4@C electrodes exhibit a superior cycling performance (after 3000 cycles at 200 μA cm−2/793 mA g−1 with a capacity retention of 552.2 mA h g−1) and excellent rate performance (a reversible capacity of 420, 400 and 375 mA h g−1 at 400/1586, 500/1982 and 600/2380 μA cm−2/mA g−1, respectively). The self-supported Mn3O4@C nanotube electrode with high flexibility shows its great potential for flexible energy storage devices.


Changes in global wave climate and its impacts received only minimal attention in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). Discussions provided are mostly restricted to the long-term variability of the significant wave height based on visual estimates from voluntary observing ships while other components of the wave climate are mostly ignored. Despite some attempts in studying the impact of a warmer climate on the global wave field based on statistical projections, and some recent regional dynamical projections using regional climate models to force wave models, a coherent global modelling study of the future changes in the global wave climate is still lacking. Tropical and extra-tropical cyclones are the main generating forces behind the global wave field. Recent studies, based on runs with the high resolution (T213; 63 km) version of the ECHAM5 global climate model revealed that in a warmer climate extra-tropical storms will not necessarily get more intense. On the other hand a poleward shift of the extra-tropical storm tracks is expected in both hemispheres. The effects of these changes on the future global wave climate are investigated in the present study. The high-resolution ECHAM5 nearsurface wind fields are used to force the wave model WAM and to simulate the global wave climate of two 32-yr periods that are representative for the end of the twentieth (1959-1990) and twenty-first (2069-2100) centuries. The twentieth century period is referred to as the control period. Comparison of control period wave climate with that obtained from the corrected ECMWF reanalysis shows a good agreement and comparison of climate change signals (future-present) reveals changes consistent with poleward shift of extra-tropical storm tracks. Further studies using different model/emission scenario combinations are needed to fully assess robustness and uncertainty of these changes.


Background : Senggugu (Clerodendron serratum Spreng.) is a plant that is use to stimulate the secretion of mucous ("gurah"). From previous study it is shown that Senggugu root bark has mucolitic effect on mucous gland by decreasing mucous viscosity. Phenolglycoside, mannitol and sitosterol are the substances that is verified to be found in Senggugu root bark. Senggugu is widely applied among Indonesian community for ages but the toxicity has not yet been determined. Therefore it is important to measure the LD-50 value to decide toxicity potential of Senggugu root bark ethanolic extract.
Objective : The aim of this research was to assess the potency of acute toxicity, evaluate clinical symptoms and spectrum of toxic effect of experimental animals after administration of Senggugu (Clerodendron serratum Spreng.) root bark ethanolic extract to Balb/C male mice.
Method : This research was an experimental study used post test only control group design. The experimental objects were Balb/C male mice, healthy, age between 2-3 months old with identical body weight (25-30 g). Twenty-four Balb/C mice samples were divided into four groups, that was six mice for each group, including one control group and three experimental groups. The Senggugu root bark ethanolic extract dosage that was given for each group were 1 g of body weight; 1,5 g of body weight; and 2 g of body weight. The symptoms of toxicity and death of experimental subject was evaluated for seven days in a row.
Result : This research obtained no dead mice found between the observation period. The extract administration caused lacrimation, besides alteration of animal behaviours including passiveness.
Conclusion : LD50 value of ethanolic extract from Senggugu root bark was cannot be determined on Balb/C male mice.
Key words : Clerodendron serratum Spreng., LD50, Balb/C male mice


Distinct characteristics of transmission and distribution power grids typically necessitate different control algorithms, especially at the primary control level where quick responses are required. Accordingly, various droop control schemes have been developed due to specific types of power grid impedances. Therefore, controllers at higher levels often have to be redesigned whenever a different power grid is considered, hence, incurring higher cost and effort. As a way to overcome that problem, in this work, a unified secondary controller using distributed control theory is designed for different droop schemes associated with distributed battery storage in different grid conditions. The control design follows the consensus theory, originally designed for multi-agent systems, to control the frequency and voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC), synchronize energy levels, and proportionally share active and reactive powers of battery storage systems. A sufficient condition for the upper bound of communication delays between storage systems is derived to ensure system stability. Several scenarios are studied using a modified IEEE 118-bus benchmark to support the theoretical results of the proposed approach.


As about Qatar well known country among Gulf countries, depends on a single commodity of resources or we can say rentire state which is totally depends on natural resources as petrochemicals and gas. In the classical views of economics always use the diminishing law of return in production, which shows if production factor one or two are used in production, this will increase production but in decreasing rate. Which means if factors of production are not using equally, this problem may come in production of anything but other things should same as technology etc but somewhere its work still in life. Qatar has an unemployment problem in youth, which could be solved through Government interference in the policies for example: Qatar and other Gulf States are suffering from lack of economic growth of the country. But to solve these problems, the Government sets up a central planning authority which has been called by several names, such as the planning commission, planning ministry or planning board. What goods should be produces, how should they be produces, how should they be distributed among the population and how much should be invested to bring about economic growth are all decided but the central planning authority. This method of solving central problems through the use of economic planning has been adopted in socialist countries. In such economic system, the capital and property are collectively owned by society and work of production is organized by the government. In this system, private entrepreneurs have no right to undertake the work of production and consumers lose their freedom to choose and consume the goods of their choice. Government plays an active role in the solution of the various central problems, regarding production, distribution and investment. Regarding Qatar, this policy works in international market as consumers of Gas is in world–wide. So the government of Qatar control its Gas production as not demand for and supply of Gas but the price will determine its production (as international market will give the price of Gas) Government of Qatar and of Corse other GCC countries could control its economy through the interference of the Government of the country. As the adaptation of proper monetary policy (in which the policies regarding the supply of money, bank credit and the rate of interest are included), fiscal policy (which is concerned with the government expenditure and taxation policies) and direct controls such as industrial licensing policies, control on price, import and exports. The other economic tool could be used in production of a single commodity as LNG in Qatar. Production possibility Curve in economics explains how much production of gas should be optimum level of production. One of the major issues before the oil-rich Gulf States (Qatar) in recent decades has been the diversification of their economies from the oil to non-oil sectors. Their heavy dependence (from 70 to 90%) on the oil revenues has prompted these countries to formulate the policies so that other sources of income from the non-oil sector can be enhanced. But the question is how in these Gulf States have been successful in implementing these policies? Moreover, what are the major drawbacks in the diversification their economies in the present time? In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the rationale behind the diversification of Arab Gulf economies dominated any single rent revenues. This has been discussed in the framework of their overall macro-economic development, taking into consideration the various factors of productions, so that a desired balanced growth can be maintained. The main focus of the paper is on the current initiatives taken these States towards the building of a non-oil economy. While highlighting the Arab Gulf State's economic diversification drive, the paper, particularly point out the varying degrees of seriousness and success because as this paper concludes, this economic diversification project cannot be conceived without taking into account the impact of fluctuation in oil prices in the global market as well as on the overall economic and political stability in the region.


Language policies in sub-Saharan African nations emerge out of specific political, historical, socioeconomic, and linguistic conditions. Education plays a crucial role for all spheres of language policy. Policies either upgrade or downgrade indigenous languages through their application at various educational institutions. The most significant example is the selection of the language(s) used as languages of learning and teaching at higher-education institutions. The region's colonial history also influences the language policies of the independent African states. Language policy in Senegal is an example of a francophone country focusing on a linguistic assimilation policy in which minor reforms in favor of indigenous languages have taken place. Rwanda's language policy is unique as the former francophone nation now uses English as an exoglossic language in a type of hybrid language policy. Botswana is an example of an anglophone country that follows a language policy that is dominated by a very close connection to the notion of nation-building through its concentration on a single language, Setswana, alongside English. Tanzania is an anglophone African country whose policy focuses on Kiswahili, which is one of the very few indigenous and endoglossic languages. Kiswahili is broadly used in Tanzanian educational institutions until the tertiary level, but its use as medium of instruction focuses on the primary level. South Africa demonstrates the very close relationship between general political decisions and language policy and vice versa. Language policy decisions are never neutral and are influenced by the politics of a specific country. As a result, individual and societal language attitudes influence language policies. In addition to this, the overt and official language policy on a macro level may differ from the implementation of such policies on a micro level. At the micro level, practice can include covert language practices by various stakeholders.


Both straight and curved waveguides are written in a variety of silicate glasses using near-IR femtosecond laser pulses. Writing parameters are identified that produce waveguides that support only a single mode and yield smooth-mode profiles. The laser pulse-induced refractive index change is reconstructed from near-field mode profile data using the scalar wave equation and by refractive near-field profiling. Waveguide propagation losses are determined by throughput and Fabry-Perot resonator measurements. Both coarse and fine period gratings are written and characterized, and the thermal stability of these gratings is investigated. The utility of the femtosecond writing technique is demonstrated by fabricating an optical interleaver.


NASA Tech Briefs announce new technology derived from the U.S. space program. They are issued to encourage commercial application. Tech Briefs are available on a subscription basis from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22151. Requests for individual copies or questions relating to the Tech Brief progam may be directed to the Technology Utilization Division, NASA, Code UT, Washington, D.C. 20546.


We conducted a systematic review focusing on articles in the occupational therapy practice category of Children and Youth published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy over the 2-yr period of 2009-2010. We used the frameworks of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and Positive Youth Development (PYD) to explore occupational therapy research progress toward the goals of the Centennial Vision. We organized 46 research articles by research type and classified them within these two frameworks. Most reviewed published research investigated variables representing constructs falling within the ICFdomains of Body Functioning and Activity. The effect of occupational therapy interventions on PYD resided primarily in building competence. To meet the tenets of the Centennial Vision, occupational therapists must document changes in children's engagement in everyday life situations and build the evidence of occupational therapist's efficacy in facilitating participation.


Sweet cherry is currently considered as a fruit with high interests. The amount of the produced yield is well saleable in the world and also in Hungary year by year, moreover often there is a shortage with the high quality fruits. Researches with the sweet cherry production focus on the intensity growing all over the world, namely the realization of producing with small trees ensuring high quality and quantity. In our examinations 'Lapins' sweet cherry cultivar was evaluated grafted on rootstocks with different vigor (Gisela 5, Gisela 6, Colt) at the University of Debrecen, Pallag Experimental Station. According to our results trees grafted on Colt rootstock can be described with very low yields due to the excessive high vigor. Trees with Gisela 5 and Gisela 6 rootstocks showed excessive high productivity, as size of the fruits did not reach the required values.


Objective : To investigate the effects of TNF blocking therapy on synovial immune activity in rat adjuvant arthritis (AA) by measuring mRNA expression of key macrophage and T cell cytokines during PEG sTNF-RI treatment (10 mg/kg) on days 8, 10 and 12. Methods : Paw volume was assessed every 3-4 days. Ankles were removed for quantitative radiology and histology and synovial membrane removed to determine cytokine mRNA expression using semi-quantitative RT-PCR. T cells in joints were quantified by immunohistochemistry. Results : Paw volume was significantly decreased in rats treated with PEG STNF-RI from days 12 to 17. Histology scores and synovial T cell numbers were reduced on days 13 and 17 and radiology scores significantly reduced on day 13. Expression of synovial TNF, IFN- n, IL-17, IL-2 and IL-4 mRNA was unchanged in treated rats and TGF- g expression was significantly increased at day 13. Conclusions : PEG sTNF-RI attenuates AA and disease recurs after treatment ceases, similar to human rheumatoid arthritis. Continued TNF production and/or ongoing T cell activity, may explain the recrudescence of disease once treatment is stopped.


Large-scale divestiture of commercial forestlands is occurring in the United States. Furthermore, increasing demand for cellulose for bioenergy may modify forest management practices widely enough to impact the spatial characteristics of forested landscapes. We used the HARVEST timber harvest simulator to investigate the potential consequences of divestiture and increased harvest from existing stands for bioenergy on landscape indicators of sustainability in a working landscape in upper Michigan. Divestiture tended to reduce the amount of older forests, increased fragmentation, reduced public access, and decreased the volume of wood extracted from the landscape. Increasing bioenergy production also reduced older forests, increased fragmentation of age classes, and reduced fragmentation of forest types, while increasing wood volume extracted. Our results suggest that divestiture and increased harvest for bioenergy will have negative effects on most indicators of ecological sustainability studied, although it is less clear whether these effects are ecologically significant because the slopes of the negative relationships are relatively small at the divestiture rates studied.


Editors' note: This is the first of what we hope will be a series of essays describing archival collections of interest to students of Arkansas history. We encourage archivists and librarians to submit similar essays about their own collections or briefer items for inclusion in our "News and Notices" section. THE HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER, LOCATED in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Library in Little Rock, consists of two collections, the archival collection and the History of Medicine Collection. The History of Medicine Collection, housed in the Robert Watson History of Medicine Room, contains classic and rare books in the health sciences. Donations from the personal collections of early UAMS faculty members formed the core of this collection of approximately 4,500 volumes. The collection also contains works that document early Arkansas medicine, such as a handwritten book composed in 1844 by Dr. A.W. Webb of Chicot County entitled "Medical Notes and Reflections." The Hans G. Schlumberger Collection is included within the History of Medicine Collection. This collection contains books from Dr. Schlumberger's private library. Dr. Schlumberger served as the chairman of the pathology department at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences from 1957 to 1960. He died in 1967 after lingering in a coma for seven years following an automobile accident. He was a popular teacher at the university, but he gained international recognition as a pioneer in the study of comparative oncology. The collection of over 400 books focuses on pathology but also contains definitive texts on a variety of other subjects. There is an emphasis on the basic sciences, as well as medicine. The basic science texts reflect Dr. Schlumberger's interest in the study of tumors in lower animals: The publication dates of the books range from 1744 to 1958. The archival collection supports a primary goal of the Historical Research Center, which is preservation of both University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences history and the history of the health sciences in Arkansas. The emphasis on the history of Arkansas health sciences makes this a unique collection in the state. The archives contain administrative papers of departments and colleges at the university, as well as personal papers and correspondence of faculty, staff, and alumni. Personal papers of numerous notable Arkansas health scientists include those of Roscoe G. Jennings, a UAMS founder, Nolie Mumey, a 1916 UAMS graduate, and members of Arkansas's Dibrell family. Records of various state health sciences organizations, such as the Arkansas Medical Society and the Pulaski County Medical Society, are also included. A photograph collection contains pictures and negatives that trace the history of UAMS and Arkansas health sciences. Numerous collections within the archives document the development of the public health system in Arkansas and have proved invaluable to researchers. One of these is the Oliver Clarence Wenger collection of papers, photographs, and records, which document the work of Dr. Wenger, both in Arkansas and elsewhere, from 1919 to 1958. Dr. Wenger established the U.S. Public Health Service's free clinic and bathhouse in Hot Springs and served as director between 1919 and 1936. The clinic specialized in the control and treatment of venereal diseases. Dr. Wenger was not a native Arkansan, but lived in the state intermittently from 1919 to 1936, then again from 1946 to 1950. For his service in the British West Indies, he was honored by King George VI of Great Britain with an Order of the British Empire medal. In 1946 he returned to Arkansas from the West Indies and established a private medical practice in Hot Springs. …


The Effect of Stress Presentation Mode on Stress Acquisition Among Advanced Learners of Russian Alexandra Brattos Center for Language Studies, BYU Master of Arts The purpose of this research was to test the effect of stress presentation mode on stress acquisition of advanced learners of Russian. The study attempted to determine if advanced learners of Russian are able to place stress more correctly on words in specific texts after receiving various treatments or receiving no treatment. Participants were Brigham Young University students studying Russian as a second language at the thirdyear level or higher. They were randomly assigned into three groups: a group that received no treatment, a treatment group that read words with graphically marked stress, and a treatment group that heard texts read by a native speaker. All participants completed a pretest, a treatment (in the second and third groups), and a posttest. The pretest and the posttest consisted of a reading task: the participants read 12 sentences taken from 12 different texts. The same words from the texts were used in the treatment to expose the participants to the sentences again in order to determine if the treatment made a difference in the acquisition of correct stress. The treatment was different for each group. Group 1 (A) read texts marked with stress, Group 2 (B) read the same texts but without stress marked; rather, they heard a native speaker of Russian read the texts on a recording, and Group 3 (C) read the same texts but without stress marked graphically or hearing a native speaker. The results of the research reject the hypothesis that aural presentation of stress as opposed to a visual only presentation leads to improved acquisition of stress. However, based on the analyses of the data, overall findings rendered some interesting and unexpected results and observations. First, although the treatment for group A appears to be more effective than that for groups B and C, all groups showed improvement after completing the treatment. This strongly suggests that reading, whatever form it takes, can be a useful tool in facilitating control of stress. Second, group A had more participants that fell into the "fast" reading category, and fast readers scored significantly higher than slow or medium speed readers. This suggests that the faster one reads the better one controls stress, or the better one controls stress the faster one reads.


Any deviation of voltage or current from the ideal sinusoidal waveform is a power quality (PQ) disturbance. PQ disturbances can be broadly classified into two categories, Variations and Events. Variations are disturbances which have an effect on every cycle, such as harmonics or voltage unbalance. Events are disturbances which last for a time, from a fraction of a cycle to several cycles, and then may not repeat for several hours or days. Transients and voltage dips are examples of events. It is not economically viable to eliminate PQ disturbances completely. However, they cannot be allowed to become too large, otherwise equipment costs would have to increase to account for the increased immunity required. The basic principles of EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) are used to develop a process by which equipment can be guaranteed to operate satisfactorily on the supply network. The basic idea is that, for each disturbance type, a value called the compatibility level is established and that: • All equipment should have immunity levels greater than the compatibility level. • The PQ disturbance level on the network has to be constrained to be less than the compatibility level. This paper discusses the work undertaken to characterise the emission levels of equipment and electrical network and using this information devise PQ guidelines for the New Zealand electricity industry. The management of emission levels is broadly similar for all disturbance types with some differences in detail. The treatment given in this paper is particularly relevant to harmonics, where a new voltage droop approach is presented. This basically determines a harmonic voltage allocation, which is then converted into a current allocation by assuming a given system harmonic impedance. Different approaches are adopted for LV and MV installations. The main principles are: 1. Time varying harmonic quantities are represented by their 95% values. 2. Diversity between independent sources is represented by the Summation Law. 3. The allocation should increase with customer maximum demand. 4. The allocation should be such that the largest harmonic voltage in the system should reach the planning level when all customers are connected and taking their full allocation.


Predictive models play a key role for inference and decision making in crowdsourcing. We present methods that can be used to guide the collection of data for enhancing the competency of such predictive models while using the models to provide a base crowdsourcing service. We focus on the challenge of ideally balancing the goals of collecting data over time for learning and for improving task performance with the cost of workers' contributions over the lifetime of the operation of a system. We introduce the use of distributions over a set of predictive models to represent uncertainty about the dynamics of the world. We employ a novel Monte Carlo algorithm to reason simultaneously about uncertainty about the world dynamics and the progression of task solution as workers are hired over time to optimize hiring decisions. We evaluate the methodology with experiments on a challenging citizen-science problem, demonstrating how it balances exploration and exploitation over the lifetime of a crowdsourcing system.