Soft
actuators and sensors are currently used in many industrial applications due to
their capability to produce an accurate response. Researchers have studied
dielectric electroactive polymers (DEAPs) because these types of structures can
be utilized as actuators and as sensors being able to convert electrical energy
into mechanical and vice versa. However, production of this kind of structures
is complex and in general involve several steps that are time consuming.
Customization of these types of structures will be ideal to enhance the
performance of the devices based on the specific application. 3D printing
technologies have emerged as innovative manufacturing processes that could
improve fabrication speed, accuracy, and consistency with low cost. This
additive manufacturing technique allows for the possibility of increased device
complexity with high versatility.

This
research studied the potential of 3D printing technologies to produce DEAPs,
soft actuators, and flexible sensors. The study presents novel designs of these
composite flexible structures, utilizing the most flexible conductive and
nonconductive materials available for fused deposition modeling, achieving versatility
and high performance in the produced devices. Produced
DEAP actuators showed an actuation and electric resistivity higher than other
electroactive structures like shape memory alloys and ferroelectric polymers. In addition, this research describes the
electromechanical characterization of a flexible thermoplastic polyurethane,
(TPU), produced by additive manufacturing, including measurement of the
dielectric constant, percentage radial elongation, tensile proprieties,
pre-strain effects on actuation, surface topography, and measured actuation
under high voltage. DEAP actuators were produced with two different printing
paths, concentric circles and lines, showed an area expansion of 4.73% and
5.71% respectively. These structures showed high resistance to electric fields
having a voltage breakdown of 4.67 kV and 5.73 kV respectively. Those results are similar to the resistant of the most used
dielectric material "VHB 4910".

The
produced soft pneumatic actuators were successfully 3D printed in one continuous
process without support material. The structures were totally sealed without
the use of any sealing material or post process. Computational simulations were
made to predict the response of the designed structures under different
conditions. These results were compared with experimental results finding that
the theoretical model is able to predict the response of the printed actuators
with an error of less than 7%. This error is satisfactorily small for modeling
3D printed structures and can be further minimized by characterization of the
elastomeric material. Besides that, two different grippers were designed based
on the opening and closing movements of single bellows actuators. The
functionality of both designs was simulated and tested, finding that both
designs are capable lifting a heavier rigid structure.

Finally,
this study presents a computational simulation of a 3D printed flexible sensor,
capable of producing an output signal based on the deformation caused by
external forces. Two different sensors were designed and tested, working based
on a capacitance and resistance change produced by structural deformation. Computational
analysis indicate the capacitance sensor should undergo change of capacitance from
3 to 8.5 pF when is exposed to 30 kPa; and the resistance sensor should
experience an increase from 101.8 to 103 kΩ when is exposed to 30 kPa.


This thesis presents accounts of two Highland Scotland landscapes: Badenoch and Strathnaver. The threads of archaeological evidence - as well as topographic context, historical evidence and other pieces of data - are drawn together and woven into an understanding of the inhabitation of these landscapes at different times in the past. Two chapters are devoted to exploring the archaeological landscapes of each study area.

The thesis is founded on certain perceptions of archaeological practice: that it constitutes a dialectical process of engagement with archaeological remains, in which the archaeologist fashions meaning from the raw material of the evidence. This process is a kind of dwelling, in some ways akin to how people make meaning of the landscapes in which they live, through coming to know them, to shape and be shaped by them. Writing about archaeological landscapes should reflect and be a working out of that process.

The study areas were chosen for their contrasting and complementary characteristics. Strathnaver, in the far north of Sutherland, borders the coast; Badenoch, in the central Highlands, is landlocked. Both areas have a topographic coherency, formed around river valleys and their watersheds. The remains of prehistoric communities survive to a greater extent in Strathnaver than in Badenoch, while in Badenoch the remains of Medieval or later settlement remains are most prominent. Both study areas contain evidence for the early Medieval organisation of the landscape in the form of chapel sites; the settlements to which they provided pastoral care may have continued in use through the Medieval period. As an important routeway through the Highlands, Badenoch served as the seat of some of the most powerful figures in Medieval Highland Scotland, and the process of feudalisation appears to have strongly influenced the development of its settlement pattern. Strathnaver, lying along a maritime route and forming part of the Norse earldom of Caithness, saw settlement by Norse farmers; that history is reflected in its numerous Norse place names, and many of its townships may have their origins in the Norse period of settlement in the late first millennium A.D. Both Badenoch and Strathnaver were the focus of Improvements in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, resulting in the clearance of townships, although those in Strathnaver were more widespread and brutal. In both areas, these changes left the earlier settlement pattern fossilised as the remains of townships.


Red deer ( Cervus elaphus L.) are known from many prehistoric sites in Western Europe; a number of these are usually of great size as compared with contemporary animals. This essay is an attempt to summarize the literature concerning the size of the prehistoric red deer in comparison with the recent species and to discuss the different influences of the habitat (extent and character of the biotope, food, climate) on the dimensions of red deer. It is the intention that it should attribute to a better understanding of the factors that may have caused the great size of many prehistoric red deer and to try and find out if a similarity between the variation during the course of postglacial times and the local variation in relation to the habitat exists. Most investigators agree that the prehistoric red deer belongs to the same species as the recent red deer. Cervus elaphus L. The red deer from Western and Central Europe (France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Switzerland. Germany, Italy, the Balkans and Western Russia) are usually considered to be all of the same subspecies C. elaphus hippelaphus ERXLEBEN, 1777 (e.g. HALTENORTH & TRENSE, 1956). Within this subspecies a number of varieties can certainly be distinguished according to different habitats, but, as will be clear at the end of this article, it is likely that most of their differences are only phenotypical. On the other hand some investigators distinguish quite a lot of subspecies. The first thing to be demonstrated here is the fact that most prehistoric red deer are indeed considerably larger than the present red deer. RUTIMEYER (1861, p. 59, 60) pointed out that remains of red deer recorded from the Swiss lake-dwellings are about one third larger than the corresponding parts of recent species of C. elaphus in Switzerland. RITCHIE (1920, p. 336) is also of the opinion that red deer were about one third larger in former times than a well developed animal of today. RITCHIE based his conclusion on the following prehistoric finds: three antlers and one complete skeleton. VAN GIFFEN (1913, p. 135, 136) likewise reports the large dimensions of some scanty remains of red deer known from the Dutch terps (including a mandibula). According to INGEBRIGTSEN (1923, p. 204, 205) WAHLGREN holds the opinion that the size of the recent red deer and of the prehistoric ones can easily be explained by differences in environment and age. INGEBRIGTSEN himself on the other hand thinks that it is clearly demonstrated by the investigations of BRINKMANN that subfossil red deer were indeed larger than the recent ones. BRINKMANN poses the idea that measuring teeth is very useful to compare sizes of deer; when measuring a molar one is independent of the age of the animal in question and to a certain degree independent likewise of the influences of the environment. For when a molar is fully developed it will not increase in size any more, even when the animal in question has not yet stopped growing. The size of the teeth therefore are a standard for the size which the animal can attain when conditions are normal. When the teeth are larger and better developed, the deer in question will be larger and better developed too. On account of BRINKMANN'S assertions that measuring teeth is the most proper method to prove that subfossil red deer were of greater size than the now living specimens, INGEBRIGTSEN has been measuring the M3 of the lower jaw of subfossil and recent red deer; it has become clear that subfossil deer were indeed larger (cf. the following table; though the animals are supposed to differ one third in lenght, the molars do not shows this difference). At the same time it should be born in mind that also smaller prehistoric remains of red deer exist. Probably there was a large variation in size in those times too, as it appears from my own observations.2) Lenght M3 (mandibula) of Cervus elaphus L.


Gothicism in early modern Baltic historiography

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the seventeenth-century view of early medieval history. It is based on four Baltic chronicles: those of Moritz Brandis, Thomas Hiarn, Gustav von Lode and David Werner, and Christian Kelch. In addition, a sixteenth-century chronicle by Johann Renner was added as an independent text, since it was unknown to the four chroniclers mentioned above.
The subject has found little attention in Baltic German and contemporary Estonian historiography, but could be studied as an interesting phenomenon in early modern historiography in the context of developments in Europe at the same time.
The first part of the article gives examples of the origin myths of England and France and proceeds to give a short overview of the history of the Gothicism in Swedish historiography. The second part summarizes the description of early medieval history of the chronicles, compares the texts, and searches for the sources and motives of the chroniclers.
The chronicles describe centuries full of military campaigns between Scandinavian and Baltic tribes and their rulers. It seems that Moritz Brandis was the base text for the later chroniclers, though his text was not copied word-for-word. The chronicles of Lode-Werner and Kelch followed Brandis's text more closely than Hiarn. Brandis and Hiarn had lengthier and more detailed descriptions of events, while the texts of Lode-Werner and especially Kelch were shorter and much less detailed. However, they both added events or episodes (from their sources) that are not included in the chronicles of Brandis and Hiarn. All four storylines follow a similar path, but each has slight differences. However, it was not Moritz Brandis who created (as in made up) the early modern view of the Baltic early medieval past, partly because at the end of the sixteenth century Johann Renner also constructed a similar view of early medieval history. Brandis was the base text, but Hiarn probably wrote quite an independent narrative based on Brandis's sources.
The practice of writing mythical or legendary history for European nations was quite common in the early modern period and had its roots in both politics and the lack of criticism toward ancient and medieval sources. The high tide of Gothicism in the kingdom of Sweden coincided with the Swedish rule in Estland and later Livland. The political aspects are also important in the Baltic context but should not be overemphasized. Although Gothic historiography was more widespread in the province of Estland, which had been under Swedish rule longer than the province of Livland, and at the Swedish university of Tartu, both competing Danish and Swedish sources were used. It seems more likely that the chroniclers wanted to go back as far as their sources allowed, which is why they included the Goths, Swedes, and Danes. The chroniclers did not create the past; they compiled it from their sources, which were both popular and authoritative at the time, such as the medieval chronicle of Saxo Grammaticus and the work of Johannes Magnus.
The Baltic chroniclers were interested in sources that described the events concerning the Baltic area, and they left out events they considered supernatural or otherwise unimportant. They did not invent events or mythical ruler dynasties for the local tribes, although one or two local rulers were mentioned. If anything, they were rather unimaginative, and Thomas Hiarn and Lode-Werner were outright skeptical of the mythical early medieval past.

Keywords: Gothicism, chronicle, historiography, early modern, Estonia, Livonia.

Janet Laidla (b. 1982), is a Lecturer of Estonian history at the Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu.
Correspondence: Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu, Ulikooli 18, 50090 Tartu, Estonia. E-mail: email@example.com


The head of the branded private investment company owner of the Virgin brand reflected on the group's new pillars of growth. Since the 1970s when Richard Branson created the Virgin record retailing company, Virgin had developed from scratch six companies worth more than $1 billion each and changed their focus from record retailing and music production to a broader one based on airlines, health, financial services, mobile and media businesses. In addition, Virgin had been able to apply the Virgin brand to several different products without harming the brand. Their challenge had been finding the capital to finance the new ventures rather than the brand. Since 2005, Branson was dedicating more and more time to a charitable organization, Virgin Unite, and had appointed Stephen Murphy the new CEO of the Group. As Murphy contemplated their growth strategy for the next decade he faced a number of difficult decisions. First, how should he fund new ventures? While growing, the Group had sold stakes in its companies and had signed with them licensing agreements for the use of the Virgin brand name. The Virgin Group was today a loose group of companies some linked to Virgin only by brand licensing agreements. Should they expand by signing new licensing agreements? Second, what kind of opportunities should he seek? Should they keep acting as a venture capital firm, nurturing new ventures as in the past or should they invest in larger and more established companies? What would be the consequences of their choices on the brand and on the Group? Would they always be able to inject the Virgin culture and turn around companies?Learning Objective: Growth strategy.


Abstract. Internal and external migration from vernacular settlements is not a new phenomenon. However, the scale and scope increased when forced migration is becoming exacerbated due to both armed conflicts and climate change. Political tensions are one of the most common threats to vernacular dwellings in conflict areas. Not only do destruction and vandalism cause harm to vernacular architecture, but people living in vernacular buildings are often forced to leave their homes in order to seek safety. On the other hand, vernacular architecture can help refugee crises in hosting countries. Billions of dollars are invested in establishing temporary refugee camps, yet we know for a fact they are rarely temporary. People stay in such camps for decades, commonly Cons located on the outskirts of cities, where vernacular settlements also tend to be. Investments in rebuilding, restoring and reusing vernacular settlements can be a win-win situation. The time and cost of the rehabilitation process might also not be suitable to many camps, or camp-like, contexts. Also, encounters some regulations for listed vernacular heritage sites that cannot be used as dwellings and must be kept as open museums. In this study, a proposal for reusing and rehabilitating vernacular settlements will be discussed together with reflections on challenges and obstacles. The case study chosen for this research is in the Middle East, where the majority of refugees settled after the Arab Spring. This paper demonstrates a methodology in which algorithmic modelling is applied to refugee settlement site planning.


The global economy is unsustainable because it promotes constant growth on a finite planet. Driving the expansionist economy is an unsustainable consumer culture. Because technological advances cannot solve social problems, within a few decades increasing resource shortages and degrading ecosystems will collapse the world system. Sustainability requires social and environmental resilience, health and wholeness. A consumer society cannot transform into a conserver society without cultural and structural change. The key factor for transformation is the emergence of an integral worldview capable of organizing sustainable social structures and economic processes.


Visual feedback can play a crucial role in a dynamic robotic task such as the interception of a moving target. To utilize the feedback effectively, there is a need to develop robot motion planning techniques that also take into account properties of the sensed data. We propose a motion planning framework that achieves this with the help of a space called the perceptual control manifold (PCM) defined on the product of the robot configuration space and an image-based feature space. We show how the task of intercepting a moving target can be mapped to the PCM, using image feature trajectories of the robot end-effector and the moving target. This leads to the generation of motion plans that satisfy various constraints and optimality criteria derived from the robot kinematics, the control system, and the sensing mechanism. Specific interception tasks are analyzed to illustrate this vision-based planning technique.


Will the earth be able to keep on providing future generations of sufficient mineral resources, given the growing world population in combination with a growing GDP per world citizen? The research objectives were: To find out what geological scarcity means, which mineral resources are geologically scarce and how can the concept of sustainable rate of extraction be made operational To enable soundly-based recommendations to be made on whether humankind needs an international agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of geologically scarce mineral resources and, if so, to identify the key elements of such an agreement. Geological scarcity reflects the amount of extractable mineral resources in the earth's crust compared to the extraction rate of that mineral resource. Not all minerals are equally scarce from a geological point of view. According to this study, the resources of nine out of sixty five investigated minerals will be depleted within about 200 years from now. See Table 1. In this study the following operational definition for the sustainable extraction rate of geologically scarce mineral resources was used: the extraction rate of a mineral is sustainable if a world population of 9 billion people can be provided with that resource for a period of 1000 years, assuming that the average per capita consumption is equally divided over the world's countries. Based on this definition we investigated for which of the 65 mineral resources the extraction needs to be reduced and by how much. The conclusion is that extraction reduction is needed for 15 of the 65 mineral resources investigated. See Table 1. Table 1 Depletion period and extraction reduction (relative to 2010) necessary to achieve a sustainable extraction rate of the 15 geologically scarcest mineral resources We investigated for four scarce mineral resources (antimony, zinc, molybdenum, and boron) whether their extraction rate could be reduced to a sustainable level without losing any of the services they currently provide. The conclusion is that this is feasible on the basis of existing knowl how and technology. But maybe future generations do not need to worry whether enough mineral resources will be safeguarded for them, because the price mechanism of the free market system might lead to an automatic, timely, and sufficient conservation of geologically scarce mineral resources. Our investigation makes clear that the historical price development of a resource that is geologically scarce does not significantly differ from the price development of an abundant resource. Although we expect that the price of a resource will eventually increase, this may only be at the moment that the resource is nearly depleted and little remains for future generations. Therefore, it is recommended to follow a precautionary approach, to ensure that geologically scarce mineral resources will remain available for future generations. Based on the findings of the current research it is recommended to create an international agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of geologically scarce mineral resources. Key elements such an agreement are: A system for setting annual extraction quota of the selected mineral resources and the allocation of these quota to the resource countries A system of compensation of resource countries by user countries for reducing the extraction of geologically scarce mineral resources.


The role of nitrogen in the metabolism of protein in animals is the topic of this journal article. The aspects of food consumption, digestion, absorption and eventual utilization by the animals bodies are discussed. Growth in farm animals is synonymous with protein, which is nitrogen accumulation. Modern agricultural industry has attempted to improve efficiency in domestic food production to improve protein or nitrogen use by the animals. This is for breeding, faster gain, leaner meats and for heavier producing hens or cows. High protein or high nitrogen food stuffs for animals tended to be expensive. North Dakota was fortunate in that it was one of those states whose animal food stuffs were higher energy and higher protein. For some livestock, amino acids and proteins need to be balanced. Paragraphs headings in this article are: nitrogen needs are actually nitrogen requirements, simple stomach animals require amino acids, improved animal performance improved nitrogen metabolism, urea is most common NPN material in feeding, plant-animal aspects of nitrogen fertilization, semen storage, forage preservation, elevating protein content of silage and ruminal protein degradation affects. The need for more research into this topic concludes the article.


Abstract. Landslides are one of the leading causes of loss of life and property in the World. Landslides are the most profound ones within other mass movements. Especially in the Northern region of Turkey is severely threatened by landslides. Mass movements can be divided several main classes which are falls, slides, creeps, flows and complex movements. Landslides can occur due to a variety of reasons and most basic one of them is the angle of repose or slope of the hillside. If the angle is overly steep, gravity will pull the material downward, causing a mass movement. Many studies have been carried out in Turkey to monitor landslides, prevent and reduce landslides damage. These studies mostly focused on forecasting of landslides and damage determination after landslides. Activities required to be carried out in the field can be resulted with unwanted consequences for work safety while the landslide is still active. A landslide is triggered at Devrek, Zonguldak on July 16th, 2015 which affected an area of 40 hectares. For this reason, 88 buildings and a school are evacuated by authorities. To support emergency action plan while ongoing active landslide occurrence at Devrek, apart from the geotechnical approach, aerial photogrammetry, terrestrial laser scanning, land-based SAR methods are used. This study is a summary of studies carried out simultaneously with an active landslide at Devrek, Zonguldak on July 20th – August 8th, 2015.


For most Americans, the collapse of the Enron Corporation is without doubt the most memorable corporate event of their generation. Remarkably, few people are aware that the New Deal regulatory framework - which Congress recently reformed and toughened to in response to the Enron debacle - was itself erected in the wake of a strikingly similar corporate crash. In late 1931 and early 1932, the country looked on in horror as Samuel Insull's mighty and seemingly invulnerable electric utility holding company empire collapsed without warning, wiping out the holdings of over 1 million investors, most of whom believed that they had invested in a safe and secure electric utility enterprise. The newspapers of the day declared the event "the biggest business failure in the history of the world." President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the progressives in Congress subsequently used the Insull debacle as a rallying point from which to promote many of the most important laws of the New Deal, including the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the Federal Power Act of 1935, and the legislation creating the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration.This Article chronicles the striking similarities, and the ironic differences, between the respective failures of Insull and Enron. A careful examination of these historic events suggests that Insull and Enron were emblematic of rare moments in history when the birth of an infrastructure industry generates an enormous surge in economic activity, capturing the imagination of the investing public and weakening the commitment of the political class to serve, if needed, as vigilant, disinterested regulators. The main lesson that emerges from our analysis is not so much that we need to strengthen laws against corporate wrongdoing. Rather, it is in recognizing that, during a financial bubble driven by rapid growth in network industries (e.g., electricity and the Internet), regulatory officials will almost inevitably buckle under political pressure and (a) fail to issue new rules that might interfere with the financial "hijinks" and (b) fail to enforce vigorously laws already on the books. This Article suggests that the laws adopted in response to Enron are destined to be watered down and ignored during the next boom, just as the New Deal laws, passed in response to the Insull debacle, were watered down and ignored during the 1990s. The authors reluctantly conclude that history will likely repeat itself in another generation or two, and there is little that can be done beyond vain entreaties to our own grandchildren to become more devoted students of history.


Background The ability of global health systems to cope with increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases is of major concern. In readiness for this challenge, Australia has drawn on clinical pathway models developed over many years in preparation for influenza pandemics. These models have been used to estimate health care requirements for COVID-19 patients, in the context of broader public health measures. Methods An age and risk stratified transmission model of COVID-19 infection was used to simulate an unmitigated epidemic with parameter ranges reflecting uncertainty in current estimates of transmissibility and severity. Overlaid public health measures included case isolation and quarantine of contacts, and broadly applied social distancing. Clinical presentations and patient flows through the Australian health care system were simulated, including expansion of available intensive care capacity and alternative clinical assessment pathways. Findings An unmitigated COVID-19 epidemic would dramatically exceed the capacity of the Australian health system, over a prolonged period. Case isolation and contact quarantine alone will be insufficient to constrain case presentations within a feasible level of expansion of health sector capacity. Overlaid social restrictions will need to be applied at some level over the course of the epidemic to ensure that systems do not become overwhelmed, and that essential health sector functions, including care of COVID-19 patients, can be maintained. Attention to the full pathway of clinical care is needed to ensure access to critical care. Interpretation Reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality will rely on a combination of measures to strengthen and extend public health and clinical capacity, along with reduction of overall infection transmission in the community. Ongoing attention to maintaining and strengthening the capacity of health care systems and workers to manage cases is needed.


The rise of Prussia and subsequent unification of Germany under Prussia was one of the most important events in modern European history.However, the fact that this unification was brought about as a result of the Prussian military has led to many misconceptions about the nature of Prussia, and consequently of Germany, which persist to this day. This collection sets out to correct them. Beginning in 1830, and finishing with the official dissolution of Prussia by the Allies in 1947, the book takes a broad approach: chapters cover the conservatives and the monarchy, industrialisation, the transformation of the rural and urban environment, the labour movement, the tensions between Catholics and Protestants within the state, and the debate about the links between Prussian militarism and the final tragedy of Nazi Germany. By focusing on the social, religious and political tensions that helped define the course of Prussian history, the book also throws light on the development of modern German history.


Several studies showed the relation between renal and Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) with distinct genotypes. The current study aims to investigate the association with 844ins68 polymorphism on Cystathionine β-synthase (CβS) gene in renal and CVD with Sudanese population. In this pilot study, we have opted 150 cases from Khartoum state hospitals, Khartoum, Sudan. We have selected equally controls, renal and CVD (n=50). Peripheral blood was collected to perform the biochemical and molecular analysis. Genomic DNA was isolated to perform the polymerase chain reaction analysis. The current results showed the non-significant analysis with the combination of renal versus controls (OR-0.81 (0.31, 2.10); p=0.66) and CVD versus controls (OR-0.65 (0.26, 1.67); p=0.37). When we correlated renal samples and CVD cases with biochemical data and 844ins68, we found Vitamin B12, D, TP, URCA and Folic acid, cholesterol to be associated (p<0.05). In conclusion, our results confirm the role of the negative association of 844ins68 polymorphism in the Sudanese population. It may be due to low sample number, and future studies should be performed with larger sample size with multiple CβS gene SNPs in the world's people.


The interaction of seven novel fluorescent labeled beta-lactams with a library of six polymer materials molecularly imprinted (MI) with penicillin G (PenG) has been evaluated using both radioactive and fluorescence competitive assays. The highly fluorescent competitors (emission quantum yields of 0.4-0.95) have been molecularly engineered to contain pyrene or dansyl labels while keeping intact the 6-aminopenicillanic acid moiety for efficient recognition by the cross-linked polymers. Pyrenemethylacetamidopenicillanic acid (PAAP) is the tagged antibiotic that provides the highest selectivity when competing with PenG for the specific binding sites in a MI polymer prepared with methacrylic acid and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (10:15 molar ratio) in acetonitrile in the presence of PenG. Molecular modeling shows that recognition of the fluorescent analogues of PenG by the MI material is due to a combination of size and shape selectivity and demonstrates how critical the choice of label and tether chain is. PAAP has been applied to the development of a fluorescence competitive assay for PenG analysis with a dynamic range of 3-890 muM in 99:1 acetonitrile-water solution. Competitive binding studies demonstrate various degrees of cross-reactivity for some antibiotics derived from 6-aminopenicillanic acid, particularly amoxicillin, ampicillin, and penicillin V (but not oxacillin, cloxacillin, dicloxacillin, or nafcillin). Other antibiotics, such as chloramphenicol, tetracycline, or cephapirin, do not compete with PAAP for binding to the imprinted polymer. The MI assay has successfully been tested for PenG analysis in a pharmaceutical formulation.


The brain has two main types of synapses, chemical and electrical. Electrical synapses represent a major form of communication between interneurons in the mammalian nervous system. They play an important role in synchronization of activity in local cell populations because their speed and reliability allow signals to spread across whole networks at a time scale that is sufficient to preserve precise timing of signals between distant neurons. Despite these potentially vital functions, electrical synapses have generally been regarded as stereotypic and nonflexible. However, Landisman and Connors found that transmission across electrical synapses can undergo long-term modifications just like transmission at chemical synapses. The modulation depends on activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors, which presumably trigger intracellular signal cascades modulating the connexins that constitute the electrical synapses. C. E. Landisman, B. W. Connors, Long-term modulation of electrical synapses in the mammalian thalamus. Science 310, 1809-1813 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


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EUR price for eurozone countries, USD price for USA and Latin America only Advances in Psychosomatic Medicine Founded: 1960 Field of Interest: Psychiatry Listed in bibliographic services, including: PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Google Scholar ISSN 0065–3268 e-ISSN 1662–2855 Included in • www.karger.com/hospitalcollection • www.karger.com/ psychology-psychiatry-package Vol. 34: Clinical Challenges in the Biopsychosocial Interface Update on Psychosomatics for the 21st Century Editors: Balon, R. (Detroit, Mich.); Wise, T.N. (Falls Church, Va.) VIII + 164 p., 9 fi g., 16 tab., 2015 CHF 78.00 / EUR 73.00 / USD 92.00 (hardcover or online*) CHF 94.00 / EUR 88.00 / USD 110.00 (online**) ISBN 978–3–318–02966–6 e-ISBN 978–3–318–02967–3 Vol. 33: Cultural Psychiatry Editor: Alarcón, R.D. (Rochester, Minn./Lima) X + 134 p., 5 tab., 2013 CHF 50.00 / EUR 47.00 / USD 59.00 (hardcover or online*) CHF 60.00 / EUR 56.00 / USD 71.00 (online**) ISBN 978–3–318–02394–7 e-ISBN 978–3–318–02395–4 Vol. 32: The Psychosomatic Assessment Strategies to Improve Clinical Practice Editors: Fava, G.A. (Bologna); Sonino, N. (Padova); Wise, T. (Falls Church, Va.) VIII + 246 p., 7 fi g., 20 tab., 2012 CHF 61.00 / EUR 57.00 / USD 72.00 (hardcover or online*) CHF 73.00 / EUR 68.00 / USD 86.00 (online**) ISBN 978–3–8055–9853–8 e-ISBN 978–3–8055–9854–5 Vol. 31: Sexual Dysfunction: Beyond the Brain-Body Connection Editor: Balon, R. (Detroit, Mich.) VI + 188 p., 2 fi g., 4 tab., 2011 CHF 58.00 / EUR 54.00 / USD 68.00 (hardcover or online*) CHF 70.00 / EUR 65.00 / USD 82.00 (online**) ISBN 978–3–8055–9824–8 e-ISBN 978–3–8055–9825–5 Advances in Psychosomatic


Groundwater pumping is a boundary condition in groundwater models, and surface application, reuse, diversions, and water reclamation plant discharges are boundary conditions in hydrologic or hydraulic (i.e., surface) models. These processes can be simulated, however, as internal flow and solute transport components within a fully integrated groundwater–surface water model. A methodology has been developed and incorporated into the MODHMS fully integrated surface–subsurface modeling framework to enable evaluation of water distribution and application and impacts to water quality on surface and subsurface domains. This methodology allows the supply and delivery of water and associated water quality to be a part of the model solution rather than being predetermined boundary conditions to the system. Furthermore, this methodology handles temporal and spatial changes to land use and water quality and associated effects on outdoor water distribution, infiltration, runoff, and evapotranspiration properties that are related to surface cover or land use classifications. This new methodology was applied to a portion of the Upper Santa Clara River system and underlying groundwater basins of southern California to aid in the evaluation of a Cl− total maximum daily load (TMDL) study. The outcome of this modeling evaluation has led to an enhanced understanding of how Cl− is transported throughout the surface–subsurface model domain and improved collaboration among stakeholders. The model serves as a powerful tool with which to develop and evaluate various approaches for the Cl− TMDL implementation for the Upper Santa Clara River system.


We studied synchronization with a metronome that smoothly changes tempo, from slow to fast (accelerando) or from fast to slow (ritardando). During the transition phase, systematic alternations of underadjustment and overadjustment of period and phase were observed. We analyzed the synchronization error (�asynchrony�) sequences in terms of two models that both assume linear period and phase correction mechanisms but differ in terms of how the timekeeper period is adjusted to the tempo change. In the interval-based model, period corrections are based on comparisons between timekeeper and metronome intervals, whereas in the asynchrony-based model, period corrections are based on the deviations of taps from metronome events. The qualitative data pattern is more compatible with an asynchrony-based model than with an interval-based model. Additional mechanisms that switch on and off period adjustment seem to be needed, however, for a quantitative fit of this model to our data.


This document presents an extension to the service architecture proposed in the EUDAT deliverable D9.4 [EUDAT D9.4] that enables a user to get easy access to different storage systems such as IBM TSM (see glossary for abbreviations) or HPSS. Hereby the document focuses on features for integrity checking based on check- summing and scheduling of staging requests to achieve the best possible quality of service. The architecture provides a front-end API following the REST paradigm over HTTP. Beside the features presented in the previous deliverable, the architecture is now extended to schedule and reorder slow, asynchronous operations based on predefined strategies. The architecture was prototypically implemented to work within the B2SAFE context and was successfully tested in defined testing environments.


This paper presents a detailed study of high amplitude wave loadings on the hull of a paired column semisubmersible platform, for material selection during scantling. The recent development of deep draft paired column semisubmersible platform for dry trees application in the Gulf of Mexico has opened a new phase in the functionalities of semisubmersible platforms in the oil & gas industry. Its innovation nevertheless is not without the high cost of steel for hull columns and reinforcement during construction. A technique for hull weight reduction has been postulated with the possible application of composite girders and stiffeners on regions with less stress profile during high amplitude ocean loading for hull reinforcement. The column deformations and stress profile from fluid structural interactions have been studied, and a precise understanding of the material and structural deformation of the hull component has been recorded using FEA. Results have suggested that the drag effect of flow circulation within the hull formation is more dominant on the inner columns, and minimum steel reinforcement might be required on the sensitive areas around the inner columns. As expected, the un-submerged surface area received no significant stress variation irrespective of the wave amplitude profile and the bulking tendencies of the inner part of the outer column is also reduced.


The discovery of a series of genetic and serological markers associated with disease susceptibility and phenotype in inflammatory bowel disease has led to the prospect of an integrated classification system involving clinical, serological and genetic parameters. The Working Party has reviewed current clinical classification systems in Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and indeterminate colitis, and provided recommendations for clinical classification in practice. Progress with respect to integrating serological and genetic markers has been examined in detail, and the implications are discussed. While an integrated system is not proposed for clinical use at present, the introduction of a widely acceptable clinical subclassification is strongly advocated, which would allow detailed correlations among serotype, genotype and clinical phenotype to be examined and confirmed in independent cohorts of patients and, thereby, provide a vital foundation for future work.


Introduction: To reduce occupational accidents and work-related diseases as well as improving satisfaction of working conditions, Assessment to identify risks and control measures are necessary. The aim of this study, applying ergonomic assessment indices to assessed the job groups and ability of textile workers. Materials and methods: This study was conducted on 194 men employed in the QaemBaft textile company. Relative Stress Index (RSI) was used to assess the textile job groups. Also; Work Ability Index (WAI) was used to assess the personnel's ability. Results: Results of RSI for 15 job groups showed that all jobs were in the Safe zone. Also results of WAI showed that only ―Open ―job was to have good level of ability and other job groups were to have intermediate level of ability. Conclusion: According to the results, Relative Stress Index (RSI) is a tool for macroergonomics assessment of job risks. Also, in six categories of tasks of RSI, levels of fitness is determined. But WAI, Ability to work is determined that is a wider earning than the fitness.


Genomic diversity of anonymous regions across the genome, most probably including coding and noncoding amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), was examined in 20 individuals of the blind mole–rat, Spalax galili, one of four allospecies of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies of blind subterranean mole–rats in Israel. We compared 10 individuals from two nearby populations in Upper Galilee, separated by only a few dozen to hundreds of metres and living in two sharply contrasting ecologies: white chalk and rendzina soil with Sarcopterium spinosum and Majorana syriaca versus black volcanic basalt soil with Carlina hispanica-Psorelea bitominosa and Alhagi graecorum plant formations. The microsite tested ranged in an area of less than 10 000 m2. Out of 729 AFLP loci, 433 (59.4%) were polymorphic, with 211 soil unique alleles. Genetic polymorphism was significantly higher on the ecologically more xeric and stressful chalky rendzina soil than on the neighbouring mesic basalt soil. This is a remarkable pattern for a mammal that can disperse each generation between tens to hundreds of metres. These results cannot be explained by migration (which causes homogenization) or by chance (which will exclude sharp genomic soil divergence). Natural selection is the only evolutionary adaptive force that can cause genetic divergence across the genome matching the sharp microscale ecological contrast.


There has been a deeper appreciation on using technology in English classroom. It is used to create an interesting learning process. Weblog-based learning in classroom is becoming imperative nowadays since the students themselves are growing within digital era. However, this study purposes that many educators are not taking advantage of this unique and fun learning tools for young learners. This study is designed to reveal: (1) the students' background in using computer and internet to get useful information; (2) the students 'perception of the use of classroom blog learning as a tool in learning English; (3) the students' perception toward weblog activity; (4) students' perception towards the benefits of the weblog as a means of problem solving for learning English. This research applied the descriptive method which attempted to describe the primary students' response toward the use of weblog. Data obtained from 120 as a total sample of 5th grade students in an Islamic Bilingual School, West Java, Indonesia. Questionnaire and interview were used to collect the data. The findings of the present study indicated that most of the participant showed positive attitudes and willingness to integrate weblog-based learning in English classroom. This technique made them more engaged and excited to learn English. However, factors such as technical problem and bad internet connection on the use of internet could be possible impediments to the use of classroom blog.


A federal False Claims Act action against Westchester County, New York launched a unique effort to explore whether zoning, subsidies, and advocacy could significantly Increase the percentage of minorities living in largely white communities. A Voluntary Cooperation Agreement entered into by Marin County, California raises a similar question. This article describes the legal background of the lawsuit brought against Westchester County, the Settlement Agreement that arose from it, and the attempt by Westchester County to carry out its obligations to affirmatively further fair housing. It traces the evolution of exclusionary zoning law in New York State courts, contrasts it to statutory approaches in New Jersey and Connecticut, and reviews the tepid efforts of the New York State legislature to tackle the problem of articulating the affordable housing obligations of local governments. The authors detail the progress made in Westchester County and explain their own initiative to use training, education, and technical assistance to further the efforts by communities to provide fair and affordable housing. The article also explains the significance of the implementation of the Settlement Agreement and that while Westchester County will probably meet most of the literal terms of the Settlement, the goal of achieving significant racial integration in largely white census tracts, and all the benefits of diversity that integration achieves, remains elusive. Finally, it considers what can be done at the state level to achieve integration goals, while still pursuing other state policies regarding smart growth, climate change mitigation, energy conservation, and housing equity in densely settled urban areas.


Software testing is an essential skill for software developers, but it is challenging to get students engaged in this activity. The Code Defenders game addresses this problem by letting students compete over code under test by either introducing faults ("attacking") or by writing tests ("defending") to reveal these faults. In this paper, we describe how we integrated Code Defenders as a semester-long activity of an undergraduate and graduate level university course on software testing. We complemented the regular course sessions with weekly Code Defenders sessions, addressing challenges such as selecting suitable code to test, managing games, and assessing performance. Our experience and our data show that the integration of Code Defenders was well-received by students and led them to practice testing thoroughly. Positive learning effects are evident as student performance improved steadily throughout the semester.


We repurpose a High-Throughput (cell) Imaging (HTI) screen of a glucocorticoid receptor assay to predict target protein activity in multiple other seemingly unrelated assays. In two ongoing drug discovery projects, our repurposing approach increased hit rates by 60- to 250-fold over that of the primary project assays while increasing the chemical structure diversity of the hits. Our results suggest that data from available HTI screens are a rich source of information that can be reused to empower drug discovery efforts.


Background and Purpose The literature concerning transient ischemic attacks in young adults compared with strokes in young adults is scanty. This study evaluates the profile of transient ischemic attacks in young patients (aged 45 years or younger) compared with older patients (aged older than 45 years). Methods Between 1981 and 1991, 75 young patients (aged 45 years or younger) and 723 older patients (aged older than 45 years) were diagnosed as having a transient ischemic attack and included in the study. History of presenting transient ischemic attack, risk factors, clinical features, investigations, and etiology were compared on the basis of the above age groups. Results In younger patients the presenting transient ischemic attack occurred less frequently in the vertebrobasilar territory (9% versus 21%, P=.03). Risk factor analysis revealed significant differences between the groups, with hypertension, previous smoking history, ischemic heart disease, and peripheral vascular disease being more common in the older group. Migraine and valvular heart disease were more common in the younger group. Approximately 60% of the patients in each group had multiple etiologies. The most common etiology was atheromatous cerebrovascular disease in both groups (74% versus 37% [P<.0001] in the older and younger groups, respectively). Other significant etiologic differences included fibromuscular dysplasia, mitral valve prolapse, and use of oral contraceptives occurring more frequently in the younger group, and ischemic heart disease occurring more frequently in the older group. Conclusions This study reveals the clinical and etiologic differences between younger and older patients with transient ischemic attack. The importance of multiple etiologies in both groups of patients has diagnostic and management implications.


The current study examined preschool teachers' beliefs and practices during children's play in high and low quality outdoor environments in child care centers. Children's physical activity was measured using accelerometers. Videotapes of children and teachers during outdoor play were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to understand teachers' practices and children's play behaviors. Additionally, teachers were interviewed to understand their beliefs of children's outdoor play and outdoor environment. Quantitative results indicated that children's activity levels were higher when teacher's activity levels were higher, and children engaged in higher levels of play when teachers showed high involvement during outdoor play. Qualitative results revealed that teachers considered outdoor settings as important in facilitating children's physical development, social development, and learning about nature, and believed their role was to supervise children, help them find a direction in play, and interact with them during outdoor play. Teachers' practices ranged from monitoring children to facilitating their play, but they rarely participated in play with children. Overall, teachers' beliefs and practices, and children activity levels and play differed by high and low quality outdoor settings. Policy implications for teacher preparation programs, importance of the outdoor classrooms and future research are discussed.


Advanced glycosylation endproducts (AGEs), the glucose-derived adducts that form nonenzymatically and accumulate on tissue proteins, are implicated in many chronic complications associated with diabetes and aging. We have previously described a monocyte/macrophage surface receptor system thought to coordinate AGE protein removal and tissue remodeling, and purified a corresponding 90-kD AGE-binding protein from the murine RAW 264.7 cell line. To identify AGE-binding proteins in normal animals, the tissue distribution of 125I-AGE rat serum albumin taken up from the blood was determined in rats in vivo. These uptake studies demonstrated that the liver was a major site of AGE protein sequestration. Using a solid-phase assay system involving the immobilization of solubilized membrane proteins onto nitrocellulose to monitor binding activity, and several purification steps including affinity chromatography over an AGE bovine serum albumin matrix, two rat liver membrane proteins were isolated that specifically bound AGEs, one migrating at 60 kD (p60) and the other at 90 kD (p90) on SDS-PAGE. NH2-terminal sequence analysis revealed no significant homology between these two proteins nor to any molecules available in sequence databases. Flow cytometric analyses using avian antibodies to purified rat p60 and p90 demonstrated that both proteins are present on rat monocytes and macrophages. Competition studies revealed no crossreactivity between the two antisera; anti-p60 and anti-p90 antisera prevented AGE-protein binding to rat macrophages when added alone or in combination. These results indicate that rat liver contains at least two novel and distinct proteins that recognize AGE-modified macromolecules, although p90 may be related to the previously described 90-kD AGE receptor isolated from RAW 264.7 cells. The constitutive expression of AGE-binding proteins on rat monocytes and macrophages, and the sequestration of circulating AGE-modified proteins by the liver, provides further evidence in support of a role for these molecules in the normal removal of proteins marked as senescent by accumulated glucose-derived covalent addition products, or AGEs.


We introduce topological restricted maximum likelihood (TopREML) as a method to predict runoff signatures in ungauged basins. The approach is based on the use of linear mixed models with spatially correlated random effects. The nested nature of streamflow networks is taken into account by using water balance considerations to constrain the covariance structure of runoff and to account for the stronger spatial correlation between flow-connected basins. The restricted maximum likelihood (REML) framework generates the best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) of both the predicted variable and the associated prediction uncertainty, even when incorporating observable covariates into the model. The method was successfully tested in cross-validation analyses on mean streamflow and runoff frequency in Nepal (sparsely gauged) and Austria (densely gauged), where it matched the performance of comparable methods in the prediction of the considered runoff signature, while significantly outperforming them in the prediction of the associated modeling uncertainty. The ability of TopREML to combine deterministic and stochastic information to generate BLUPs of the prediction variable and its uncertainty makes it a particularly versatile method that can readily be applied in both densely gauged basins, where it takes advantage of spatial covariance information, and data-scarce regions, where it can rely on covariates, which are increasingly observable via remote-sensing technology.


There has been a considerable amount of work carried out on two-dimensional laser forming, using multi-pass straight line scan strategies to produce a reasonably controlled bend angle in a number of materials, including aerospace alloys. However in order to advance the process further for realistic forming applications and for straightening and aligning operations in a manufacturing industry it is necessary to consider larger scale 3D laser forming. The objective of this investigation is to establish rules for the positioning and sequencing of the irradiation lines required for the controlled 3D-laser forming of a symmetrical saddle shape from rectangular sheet material. The saddle shape was chosen due to its more complex 3D geometry, the double curvature providing a useful case study with which to build up the design rules for such 3D shapes. The investigation consisted of the laser forming of 400mm x 200mm 1.5mm gauge Mild Steel CR4 sheet using a CO2 laser source. The scan strategies tested consist of straight and radial lines and concentric circular patterns. The active laser forming mechanism used varied from the temperature gradient to the upsetting mechanism depending on beam parameters and traverse speed used. The final geometries of the parts formed were verified using a coordinate measuring machine and are presented. It was possible to produce a controlled repeatable saddle shape using a concentric race-track strategy, employing the upsetting mechanism at the centre of the sheet, thus shortening the material at the centre and the plate naturally saddles. However the results of the investigation show that the problem of 3D laser forming is extremely complex. It was found that once a successful scan strategy was discovered symmetry was difficult to achieve due to the asymmetrical nature of the forming process itself, in that it was not possible to form the whole sheet at the same time.


Representations of Jews in Late Medieval and Early Modern German Literature, by John D. Martin. Studies in German Jewish History 5. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2004. 254 pp. $49.95. Incorporating recent discussions about the distinction between anti-Judaism and antisemitism and the "hermeneutic Jew," John Martin contests the almost universally negative portrayal of late medieval and early modern German representations of Jews formulated in modern scholarship. He rejects what he considers an uncritical acceptance of the idea that only decline in Jewish and Christian relations in medieval Germany is depicted in medieval German literature as well as the belief that medieval literature, especially medieval religious drama, played a large role in provoking anti-Jewish violence. In response to recent scholarship (especially the work of Natascha Bremen Edith Wenzel, and Andrew Gow), Martin asserts that "the facts of daily life in medieval Germany make it difficult to defend the thesis that such conceptions of Jews as inhuman monsters exerted an unchallenged and unquestioned influence over the minds of medieval Christians" (p. 29). He suggests instead that medieval Christians were aware of the Jewishness of their own religion and that there existed a variety of literary Jews, who were complex and ambivalent. The monstrous image of the Jew, however, was never the sole, and often not the prominent, image in the literature. In his attempt to establish this contention, Martin examines a wide range of German literature, focusing on Passion plays, saints' legends, and fables. He notes that Jews could frequently be depicted in sympathetic light. Often Jews clearly identified in the literature were depicted not as venal or irrational creatures but as people seeking the truth about God. Even when late medieval literature cast the Jews as associated with the devil, Jews were more likely to be presented as dupes, not willing agents, of evil. Martin argues that the emphasis on the Jewish origins of Christianity in the literature is multivalent, but that orientation does not necessarily imply a condemnation of the Jews. He asserts that the plays, for example, do not convey the message that the Christian Gospels do not offer hope to Jews or that Jews have no proper place in Christian society. What is more, the literature at times portrays a realistic depiction of Jewish polemic and rabbinic teachings about Jesus. Martin concludes that Jewish resistance to the Christian Gospels was nevertheless not seen as a symptom of an inherited race-based defect. Martin does note that certain literary productions clearly did include more anti-Jewish animus than others and that there were occasional, and often significant, shifts in representation. He points to two developments completed in several fifteenth-century texts, namely, the shifting of blame for the Crucifixion onto all Jews and the creation of an anachronistic division between Jews and the followers of Jesus. In some cases, this shift was also evident in the dehumanization of Jews through the use of animal imagery. Martin believes that even negative imagery needs to be properly contextualized, however. The degradation of Jews through the use of scatological humor, for example, was entirely typical of the Fastnachtspiele genre. Such contextualization, Martin argues, makes it possible to reconsider even some of the apparently most vehement anti-Jewish portrayals. In the work of Hans Folz, for example, he sees hostility toward Jews as an abstract, psychological phenomenon, not a credible, extant danger to the lives and property of Christians. Folz, Martin contends, deals with Jews differently in his varying literary pieces, and overall evinces a disputative and theological interest in the Jews. Even in the literature that at times depicts Jews as sorcerers or magicians, some Jews, even when they remain unconverted, are depicted as righteous. …


We have developed a label-free conductometric platform for the rapid measurement of kinetics parameters for the adsorption and desorption of proteins on surfaces. Adsorbed Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) has been detected electrically with response times in the minute range, and kinetic models were elaborated and compared to the measurements. The device presents similar characteristics to Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) immunosensors, but takes advantage of a simpler, low-cost electronic measurement unit.


Migration studies are both extensive and fragmentary, reflecting a wide variety of aims and methodology. In recent years an abstract statistical approach has dominated migration study which tends to concentrate on the distance and direction of migrants. This thesis aims to extend this approach to investigate more fully the structural variables of the migration environment. The study of the migration context is supplemented by analysis of the characteristics of migrants drawn from a sample survey of heads of households in Grenoble; to give a more complete and balanced picture of the complexity of migration. The examination of net migration balances has been extended to study the spatial pattern of migration by Principal Components Analysis of gross flows at a national level. Factors of the migration environment selected for further study were demography, agriculture and amenities. Agricultural improvement is seen to act as an intervening variable between population pressure and outmigration in the early years of this century, while in more recent years the level of available amenities appears the dominant factor influencing migration. The department of Isere was selected for further study because of the presence within it of the rapidly growing city of Grenoble which in the post-war period emerges as a focus for migrants of national importance. Furthermore the diversity of the natural environment within Isere provides a variety of source and destination areas. The areas of population loss were studied by means of Automatic Interaction Detection which determined the factors important in explaining outmigration and provided a basis for the classification of those areas. The types of origin and destination areas are related to the characteristics of the migrants themselves, drawn from a sample of individual census returns from the 1968 census. The varied environments within Isere and France as a whole produce different types of migrants with varying characteristics and aspirations; who seek out different areas of the city in which to settle. The characteristics of the migrants are drawn from a sample survey of individual census returns from the 1968 census.


We explore the relationship between firm performance and its strategic orientation in adopting an open-approach to innovation. Based on the description of previous author, we develop a multi-item construct to measure firm-level open innovation proclivity. Open innovation proclivity assesses the company's inclination to utilise external ideas to complement its business model to profit from innovations. This construct also measures the firm's tendency to sell its intellectual property to outsiders to profit from others' innovation efforts. Collecting survey data from multiple respondents with time lag from 122 Taiwanese electronic-product manufacturers, we find Taiwanese electronic companies' proclivity to open innovation relates positively to managers' perceived firm performance. We also find the entrepreneurial orientation of these companies positively moderates the relationship between open innovation proclivity and firm performance.


A colony of chimpanzees that dates from the dawn of the U.S. space program is the object of a tug-of-war between a biomedical research foundation and animal rights activists. The U.S. Air Force, which owns the colony, no longer has any need for the chimps and is looking for a private outfit to take them over. Three groups are expected to submit proposals by the 3 June deadline, and the outcome of the contest will determine whether the animals will be used for research or be left to live out their lives in a sanctuary.


Innate immunity in animals including humans encompasses the complement system, which is considered an important host defense mechanism against Aspergillus fumigatus, one of the most ubiquitous opportunistic human fungal pathogens. Previously, it has been shown that the alkaline protease Alp1p secreted from A. fumigatus mycelia degrades the complement components C3, C4, and C5. However, it remains unclear how the fungal spores (i.e. conidia) defend themselves against the activities of the complement system immediately after inhalation into the lung. Here, we show that A. fumigatus conidia contain a metalloprotease Mep1p, which is released upon conidial contact with collagen and inactivates all three complement pathways. In particular, Mep1p efficiently inactivated the major complement components C3, C4, and C5 and their activation products (C3a, C4a, and C5a) as well as the pattern-recognition molecules MBL and ficolin-1, either by directly cleaving them or by cleaving them to a form that is further broken down by other proteases of the complement system. Moreover, incubation of Mep1p with human serum significantly inhibited the complement hemolytic activity and conidial opsonization by C3b and their subsequent phagocytosis by macrophages. Together, these results indicate that Mep1p associated with and released from A. fumigatus conidia likely facilitates early immune evasion by disarming the complement defense in the human host.


Unlike medical writing, 'veterinary writing' does not exist as a defined career path. However, writers are inevitably also required in this field and play important roles in different areas of the veterinary profession for creation of scientific and non-scientific documents. Scientific writing may involve production of regulatory and research-related documents, disease- or drug-related educational and promotional literature, and materials such as abstracts, journal articles, and posters for publication. Non-scientific writing may involve production of print-based and online materials for consumers about medicines and pet health. Numerous opportunities therefore exist for medical writers and veterinarians to embed themselves in various areas where writers are essential to the veterinary profession.


Background and Aim: Pre-hospital delay is an important cause of increasing mortality in acute myocardial Infarction. There are conflicting data regarding the relationship between sex and pre-hospital delay for patients with acute myocardial Infarction. The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between pre-hospital delay and sex. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 162 consecutive patients with acute myocardial Infarction admitted to Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) in Dr. Heshmat hospital in Rasht between May 2010 and September 2011. A convenient sampling method was used. All patients were interviewed within 7 days after admission by using a data collection form. Results: Mean of pre-hospital delay for women was more than men. Majority of men had chest pain. The women often experienced different and non specific symptoms compared to men. Regression analysis showed no significant relationship between patients' characteristics and pre-hospital delay in women; whilst, prehospital delay was significantly related to perceiving symptoms to be serious and interpreting symptoms to a cardiac origin in men. Conclusion: Results of the current study suggest that pre-hospital delay for women was longer than men with acute myocardial Infarction; as women often experienced no specific symptoms compared to men. Therefore, it recommended that clinicians educate public, particularly women, on acute myocardial infarction to enable them to recognize the signs and symptoms of acute myocardial infarction correctly and realize the benefits of early treatment.


OF DISSERTATION OPTIMAL USES OF BIOMASS RESOURCES IN DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS Biomass production is spatially distributed resulting in high transportation costs when moving dedicated biomass crops and crop residues. A multifaceted approach was taken to address this issue as the low bulk and energy density of biomass limits transportation efficiency. Two systems were analyzed for the conversion of biomass into a denser feedstock applicable to on-farm use. Pelletization was able to densify the material into a solid fuel. Using a pilot scale flat ring pellet mill, the density of the material was able to be increased to at least 4.4 times that of uncompressed material. Pellet durability was found to be strongly related to the moisture content of the material entering the mill. Unlike with ring roller pellet mills, a higher durability was typically seen forbiomass materials with a preconditioned moisture content of 20% (w.b.). From a liquid fuel standpoint, the conversion of lignocellulosic material into biobutanol on-farm was the second method investigated. For the pretreatment of biomass, alkaline hydrogen peroxide spray was demonstrated to be an effective enhancer of saccharification. The viability of on-farm biobutanol preprocessing bunker facilities within Kentucky was analyzed using Geographic Information systems (GIS) to specifically address transportation related factors. The spatial variability of corn field production, size, and location were resolved by utilizing ModelBuilder to combine the various forms of data and their attributes. Centralized and Distributed preprocessing with Centralized refining (DC) transportation systems were compared. Centralized was defined as transport of corn stover directly from the field to a refinery. DistributedCentralized was specified as going from the field to the biobutanol bunker with corn stover and from the bunker to the refinery with a dewatered crude biobutanol solution. For the DC design, the location of the field and refinery were fixed with the biobutanol bunker location being variable and dependent upon differing maximum transportation (880 km) cutoffs for biomass transport from the field to biobutanol bunkers. The DC designs demonstrated a lower (38 59%) total transportation cost with a reduced fuel use and CO2 emissions compared to the centralized system.


While the increase in shear strength of Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) is well recognized, it has yet to be found common application of this material in building structures and there is no existing national standard that treats SFRC in a systematic manner. The aim of the diploma work is to investigate the shear strength of fibre reinforced concrete beams and the available test data and analyse the latter against the mostpromising equations available in the literature. The equations investigated are:Narayanan and Darwish's formula, the German, the RILEM and the Italian guidelines. Thirty articles, selected among over one hundred articles taken from literature, have been used to create the database that contains almost 600 beams tested in shear. This large number of beams has been decreased to 371 excluding all those beams and test that do not fall within the limitation stated for this thesis. Narayanan and Darwish's formula can be utilized every time that the fibre percentage, the type of fibres, the beam dimensions, the flexural reinforcement and the concrete strength class have been defined. On the opposite, the parameters introduced in the German, the RILEM and the Italian guidelines always require a further characterization of the concrete (with bending test) in order to describe the post‐cracking behaviour. The parameters involved in the guidelines are the residual flexural tensile strengths according to the different test set‐ups. A method for predicting the residual flexural tensile strength from the knowledge of the fibre properties, the cylindrical compressive strength of the concrete and the amount of fibres percentage is suggested. The predictions of the shear strength, obtained using the proposed method for the residual flexural tensile strength, showed to be satisfactory when compared with the experimental results. A comparison among the aforementioned equations corroborate the validity of the empirical formulations proposed by Narayanan and Darwish nevertheless only the other equations provide a realistic assessments of the strength, toughness and ductility of structural elements subjected to shear loading. Over the three investigated equations, which work with the post‐cracking characterization of the material, the Italian guideline proposal is the one that, due to its wide domain of validity and the results obtained for the gathered database of beams, has been selected as the most reliable equation.


BACKGROUND
Dietary factors related to body weight and chronic disease risk are of interest because of recent increases in the prevalence of overweight.

OBJECTIVE
Secular trends in energy and fat intakes of youths aged 2-19 y were assessed. Current intakes were compared with recommendations.

DESIGN
Dietary 24-h recall data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994) and earlier national surveys were examined.

RESULTS
Mean energy intake changed little from the 1970s to 1988-1994 except for an increase among adolescent females. Over the same time period, the mean percentage of energy from total and saturated fat decreased, but remained above recommendations, with overall means of 33.5% of energy from fat and 12.2% of energy from saturated fat. In 1988-1994, approximately 1 in 4 youths met the recommendations for intakes of fat and saturated fat and 3 in 4 met the recommendation for cholesterol intake. Beverages contributed 20-24% of energy across all ages and soft drinks provided 8% of energy in adolescents. Except for adolescent girls, beverage energy contributions were generally higher among overweight than nonoverweight youths; soft drink energy contribution was higher among overweight youths than among nonoverweight youths for all groups.

CONCLUSIONS
The lack of evidence of a general increase in energy intake among youths despite an increase in the prevalence of overweight suggests that physical inactivity is a major public health challenge in this age group. Efforts to increase physical activity and decrease nonnutritive sources of energy may be important approaches to counter the rise in overweight prevalence.


Despite widespread usage of ionizing radiation in medical diagnosis and treatment methods, development of radioprotective agents is important in modulating normal tissue damages. The inherent toxicity of synthetic compounds and the confirmation of low toxicity of natural compound in accordance with long – term usage of medicine have led many researchers to investigate the radio-protective abilities of natural compounds. Hesperidin (HES) is a flavanone glycoside, belonging to the flavonoid family found in human diet abundantly and noted for its many beneficial effects. However, hesperidin has fewer protective effects than synthetic compounds and less toxicity and possibility of oral administration. That is why it can be offered as a suitable radio-protector in radiotherapy patients, radiation workers, astronauts, and the public.


Amphiphilic block copolymers can elegantly assemble in water to form well-defined nano-objects and through smart design of the polymers it is possible to efficiently prepare functional materials for biomedical applications such as drug carriers. Linear triblock terpolymers add an additional level of complexity to the process. The assembly can proceed in a step-wise manner, collapsing one block at a time and producing materials with segregated domains in the nanometer scale. Here we present the self-assembly of a pH-responsive and sugar-functionalized linear triblock terpolymer PGlcEA-b-PBuA-b-P4VP in aqueous solution. Initially the polymer forms small spherical micelles with a poly(butylacrylate) core and a corona composed by the two outer blocks. Subsequent exchange of the solvent to aqueous solution at different pH value causes aggregation into bigger particles triggered by the segregation of the poly(4-vinylpyridine) block. Morphologies include large patchy spherical particles and caterpillar-type structures and are strongly influenced by the acidity of the solution. We determine the best conditions for the preparation of the aggregates and study their stability to ageing and temperature variation with particular focus on the "caterpillars". Our results demonstrate that a hierarchical self-assembly can be useful to expand the morphological diversity of polymeric nanoparticles in aqueous solution bearing bioactive surface functionalities.


Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of market structure and market conduct characteristics (such as market concentration, presence of networks operated by global corporations, presence of vertically integrated companies, presence of hypermarket gasoline stations and consumption level) on price-cost margin levels, based on an example of the European Union retail gasoline market. Methodology: The research applied regression analysis on a panel data set comprising of average monthly price-cost margins for 2012 to 2015, based on the data published in the European Commission Oil Bulletin, and on a set of variables characterizing market structure and market conduct of 24 European Union member state countries. Findings: The results showed that in the case of retail gasoline markets, higher industrial concentration yields higher price-cost margins with a statistically significant influence of other market structure and conduct factors.


This paper deals with the application of model predictive control (MPC) to optimize power flows in a network of interconnected microgrids (MGs). More specifically, a distributed MPC (DMPC) approach is used to compute for each MG how much active power should be exchanged with other MGs and with the outer power grid. Due to the presence of coupled variables, the DMPC approach must be used in a suitable way to guarantee the feasibility of the consensus procedure among the MGs. For this purpose, we adopt a tailored dual decomposition method that allows us to reach a feasible solution while guaranteeing the privacy of single MGs (ie, without having to share private information like the amount of generated energy or locally consumed energy). Simulation results demonstrate the features of the proposed cooperative control strategy and the obtained benefits with respect to other classical centralized control methods.


Current research in deep learning is primarily focused on using Python as a support language. Go, an emerging language, that has many benefits including native support for concurrency has seen a rise in adoption over the past few years. However, this language is not widely used to develop learning models due to the lack of supporting libraries and frameworks for model development. In this thesis, the use of Go for the development of neural network models in general and convolution neural networks is explored. The proposed study is based on a Go-CUDA implementation of neural network models called GoCuNets. This implementation is then compared to a Go-CPU deep learning implementation that takes advantage of Go's built in concurrency called ConvNetGo. A comparison of these two implementations shows a significant performance gain when using GoCuNets compared to ConvNetGo.


Teaching restorative justice in an academic setting is different from teaching almost any other academic course. Courses taught in the context of academic criminal justice programs tend to reinforce the structural inequalities in society, replicated and reinforced by instructor driven classroom experiences. In contrast, effective teaching of restorative justice should emulate the values of principles of restorative justice in the organization and management of the course. Teachers of restorative justice must 'walk the talk' and apply restorative principles and values to the design and delivery of the course itself. A conceptual framework for 'restorative andragogy' is developed that blends principles and values of adult learning with those of restorative justice. Four principles of this approach are identified and applied across three instructional modalities – face-to-face, online only, and hybrid courses. This approach provides a theoretically grounded model for effective teaching of restorative justice courses.


Saxifraga cuneifolia L. (sect. Gymnopera, Saxifragaceae) is a plant distributed in the main mountain ranges of southern Europe, from the eastern Pyrenees to the eastern Carpathian. Currently, two subspecies are recognized based on morphological characteristics: S. cuneifolia subsp. cuneifolia grows in the Maritime Alps and North Apennines and S. cuneifolia subsp. robusta is located in the remaining area of distribution. A more delicate form and a smaller number of flowers in S. cuneifolia subsp. cuneifolia are the morphological characteristics that differentiate this subspecies from the widespread S. cuneifolia subsp. robusta. To explore the genetic diversity and the subspecific geographic patterns of S. cuneifolia s. l. we conducted a molecular study of nuclear and plastid sequences. Samples of S. cuneifolia s. l. have been analysed throughout the distribution area of this species. Our results, based on nuclear (ITS) and plastid (rbcL, trnL–F, and psbA–trnH) markers, showed a genetic characterization of both subspecies presenting discriminant haplotypes and ribotypes that confirm the current subspecific systematics.


This talk will review the various components of the OCFS2 stack, with a focus on the file system and its clustering aspects. OCFS2 extends many local file system features to the cluster, some of the more interesting of which are posix unlink semantics, data consistency, shared readable mmap, etc. In order to support these features, OCFS2 logically separates cluster access into multiple layers. An overview of the low level DLM layer will be given. The higher level file system locking will be described in detail, including a walkthrough of inode locking and messaging for various operations. Caching and consistency strategies will be discussed. Metadata journaling is done on a per node basis with JBD. Our reasoning behind that choice will be described. OCFS2 provides robust and performant recovery on node death. We will walk through the typical recovery process including journal replay, recovery of orphaned inodes, and recovery of cached metadata allocations. Allocation areas in OCFS2 are broken up into groups which are arranged in self-optimizing "chains." The chain allocators allow OCFS2 to do fast searches for free space, and deallocation in a constant time algorithm. Detail on the layout and use of chain allocators will be given. Disk space is broken up into clusters which can range in size from 4 kilobytes to 1 megabyte. File data is allocated in extents of clusters. This allows OCFS2 a large amount of flexibility in file allocation. File metadata is allocated in blocks via a sub allocation mechanism. All block allocators in OCFS2 grow dynamically. Most notably, this allows OCFS2 to grow inode allocation on demand.


Abstract It is a popular view among scholars that the modern time-concept of everyday life grew as a result of work-organisation and discipline in factories during industrialisation. This concept consists of a greater stress on punctuality and a greater general awareness of time. Without denying this, this essay argues that there might have been other social processes and reasons behind the modern time-concept. In a comparison of early-modern Swedish court evidence covering four different socio-economic milieus and two different decades - the 1650s and the 1730s - some interesting facts are revealed. There are differences between the local communities studied, but the greatest differences occurred over time. This can be explained by a growing demand from the central judicial institutions for clearly written records rather than by a more detailed organisation of time in the communities, since Sweden did not experience a revolution in working conditions over these periods but changes in the bureaucratic strata in the period. One may therefore draw the conclusion that the modern time-concept was not only a result of work-discipline but also of communication, and that its genesis is older than the industrial revolution.


Labour Market Reform in China documents and analyses institutional changes in the Chinese labour market over the last twenty-five years, and argues that further reform is necessary if China is to sustain its high growth rates. The book first assesses the problems associated with the pre-reform labour arrangements. It offers an in-depth analysis of the urban labour market and its impact on individual wage determination, ownership structure, labour compensation and labour demand and of social security reform. In its main chapters, the book investigates the impact of rural economic reform on rural labour market. Detailed consideration is given to the rural agricultural labour market, labour arrangement in the rural non-agricultural sector, and the wage gap between the rural agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. Finally, the book examines the phenomenon of rural-urban migration, its impact on rural and urban economic growth, and models its effect on urban employment, unemployment and earnings.


Project planning is one of the most important activities in software projects. Poor planning often leads to project faults and dramatic outcomes for the project team. If cost and effort are determined pessimistic in software projects, suitable occasions can be missed; whereas optimistic predictions can be caused to some resource losing. Nowadays software project managers should be aware of the increasing of project failures. The main reason for this problem is imprecision of the estimation. In this paper, several existing methods for software cost estimation are illustrated and their aspects will be discussed. Comparing the features of the methods could be applied for clustering based on abilities; it is also useful for selecting the special method for each project. The history of using each estimation model leads to have a good choice for an especial software project. In this paper an example of estimation is also presented in an actual software project. KeywordsCost Estimation; project fail; Cocomo; Accuracy


Abstract There is increasing evidence that most of the fear expressed by consumers in terms of the link between cholesterol in the diet and heart disease is, amongst others, related to the amount of fat in red meat and dairy produce. The result is that many consumers are cutting back on, if not avoiding, red meat products. A major challenge ahead of the beef industry is to supply a product that complies with the demands of more sophisticated and health conscious consumers. But, even if the beef industry could respond positively to consumers' needs, it is uncertain whether consumers would pay more for beef containing less fat. In this paper the willingness of consumers to pay for less fat in selected beef cuts (T-bone and rump) was investigated with a log-linear hedonic price model. The results showed that more affluent consumers in Bloemfontein were (i) willing to pay for additional external fat (this was contrary to expectations). This was attributable to the culture of food consumption and traditional cooking style (braai). The result does not imply that the amount of external fat can be unlimited, but rather that current external fat levels are desired by consumers; (ii) seam fat had a negative impact on prices of the selected beef cuts in Bloemfontein indicating that reducing the amount of a less desired attribute could shift the demand curve outward; (iii) marbling fat did not have a significant impact on prices of selected cuts in Bloemfontein; and (iv) cuts classified as bone-in was discounted by consumers in Bloemfontein. The study further found that one can't merely assume that international trends are applicable to the South African situation, but this needs further research. It is hence proposed that a similar study is conducted for South Africa as a whole.