PURPOSE: The traditional sources of financing (bank loans) cannot be treated as an essential source of financing for SMEs in developing countries. For this reason, this group of entities uses many alternative sources, from bootstrapping to microfinance and crowdfunding. During the last decade, a significant contribution in this area has been financial technology. The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to present the role of financial technologies in financing SMEs, 2) to examine the role of entities based on financial technology in financing SMEs in developing countries, and 3) to consider other non-bank aspects of financing SMEs, leading to the improvement of the financial situation of these entities. The in-depth analysis of these entrepreneurial finance practices will be developed in the following papers presented in this Issue. METHODOLOGY: This study employs a theoretical approach based on a narrative literature review. The primary attention is focused on applying financial technology as a stimulant for the finance of SMEs in developing countries. FINDINGS: As a consequence of the financing gap for SMEs within the traditional financial system, these entities use non-bank financing based on financial technology. The research confirms that financial technology plays a crucial role in fostering the financial situation of SMEs in developing countries and providing greater financial inclusion for these entities. Both, financial technology and enterprises based on this technology contribute significantly to the improvement of efficiency of financing SMEs in emerging markets. They also provide a broader range of services, than were offered by the traditional financial sector. Regarding the other aspects of SME finance, it is essential to implement such ways of financing like microfinance services and crowdfunding. Such funding mechanisms, together with the budget process and the compliance under the conditions of e-tax systems, are important determinants of current entrepreneurial finance. IMPLICATIONS: The paper describes the financing of SMEs in developing countries. The in-depth picture of the SME's financial situation, focusing on the technological development in this area, provides essential insight into this still poorly explored area. It also offers important premises for shaping the post-pandemic policy to support their further growth. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Despite growing theoretical and empirical literature about entrepreneurship finance, this study aims to contribute to the role of financial technology in this area. The impact of financial technologies and the role of fintech-based entities on SME activity in developing countries are still poorly researched. Moreover, the research provides a brief overview of other SME funding sources and their determinants in this group of countries.


For ethnically diverse societies, as in Russia, the post-communist economic transition implies a restructuring of the old cultural division of labor – the distribution of occupations and rewards among ethnic groups. The Soviet commitment to affirmative action policies for non-Russian regions and their resident minorities unraveled along with the USSR. And without central controls over employment and wages, education, and investment, the federal government has far fewer levers to impose quotas or to push industrial and urban development into minority areas. The question, then, is who bears the burden of economic dislocation and who benefits from new economic opportunities? This paper uses survey data to explore the connections between ethnicity and economic transition in three republics of Russia – Tatarstan, North Ossetia and Sakha (Yakutia).


Controlled growth of ZnO nanorods on various substrates is of great importance in photonic and electronic devices. Also of interest is increasing the optical activity of zinc oxide nanorods in the visible spectrum. In this study, we report doping dependence on the morphology, optical, absorption, electrical conductivity and photoluminescence (PL) of aligned ZnO nanorods doped with cobalt from 5 % to 20% grown on glass substrates. The ZnO nanorods were grown by a chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique using equimolar ratios (selected at 0. 1M and 1 M) of zinc (II) nitrate and hexamethylenetetramine in solution at 95◦C. Doping is achieved by adding cobalt nitrate to the precursor solutions of the CBD in one set of samples and by adding cobalt chloride to the CBD precursor solutions in a second set of samples. We compared the doping efficiency in two sets of samples doped with cobalt via cobalt nitrate and cobalt chloride. Measurements of the cobalt incorporated in ZnO matrix were performed using atomic emission spectroscopy (AES). AES measurements show that cobalt incorporation is much more efficient at 1M concentration of the precursor solution using cobalt chloride than using cobalt nitrates for doping. Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM) images show that at 0.1 M ratio of the CBD precursor solutions, the morphology of ZnO deposited resulted in hexagonally shaped nanorods. The nanostructure morphology is maintained in 0.1 M cobalt doping, irrespective of the route (cobalt nitrate or cobalt chloride) taken to achieve the doping. At 1M ratio of the precursor solutions, SEM images show that the morphology revealed platelets at all doping levels, irrespective of the doping method used. Electrical conductivity measurements at 300K using Van der Pauw method show that ZnO nanorods doped with cobalt chloride yielded the lowest resistivity at 0.1 and 1 M. In addition, PL spectra of the doped samples show a peak shift to longer wavelengths in both cobalt nitrate and cobalt chloride samples. The near band edge in absorption measurements show a progressive shift in band gap to lower energies in both types of doping. However, the band edge shift was more pronounced in 0.1 M cobalt nitrate samples compared to other samples. Based on the cobalt incorporation efficiency, doping of ZnO by cobalt chloride may be a better method for achieving higher doping efficiency by chemical bath deposition.


The literature shows that aerosol optical depth (AOD) derived from the MODIS Collection 5 (C5) dark target algorithm has been extensively validated by spatiotemporal collocation with AERONET sites on both global and regional scales. Although generally comparing well over the eastern US region, poor performance over mountains in other regions indicate the need to evaluate the MODIS product over a mountain site. This study compares MODIS C5 AOD at 550nm to AOD measured at the Appalachian State University AERONET site in Boone, NC over 30 months between August 2010 and September 2013. For the combined Aqua and Terra datasets, although more than 70% of the 500 MODIS AOD measurements agree with collocated AERONET AOD to within error envelope of ± (0.05 + 15%), MODIS tends to have a low bias (0.02–0.03). The agreement between MODIS and AERONET AOD does not depend on MODIS quality assurance confidence (QAC) value. However, when stratified by satellite, MODIS-Terra data does not perform as well as Aqua, with especially poor correlation (r = 0.39) for low aerosol loading conditions (AERONET AOD less than 0.15). Linear regressions between Terra and AERONET possess statistically-different slopes for AOD < 0.15 and AOD = 0.15. AERONET AOD measured only during MODIS overpass hours is highly correlated with daily-averaged AERONET AOD. MODIS monthly-averaged AOD also tracks that of AERONET over the study period. These results indicate that MODIS is sensitive to the day-to-day variability, as well as the annual cycle of AOD over the Appalachian State AERONET site. The complex topography and high seasonality in AOD and vegetation indices allow us to specifically evaluate MODIS dark target algorithm surface albedo and aerosol model assumptions at a regionally-representative SE US mountain site.


With the development of the high-temperature superconducting material, the high-temperature superconducting machine becomes the very important research direction in the electrical machine domain. It integrates the advantages of high-power density, small machine size, and zero resistance of the superconducting windings. In this paper, taking an axial-radial flux-type high-temperature superconducting permanent-magnet synchronous motor (ARFTHTSPMSM) as an example, based on the investigations about the configuration characteristics and the operation principles of such machine, the mathematical model for the 3-D transient electromagnetic field was established. The magnetic field in this motor was analyzed by using the time-stepping finite-element method. In addition, the distribution characteristics of the magnetic flux in the air gap and ferromagnetic bridge were discussed, and then, the variations of the air-gap flux density, ferromagnetic bridge flux density, and non-load back electromotive force were analyzed when the motor is operating at different axial magnetic motive force. Both the theoretical analysis results and the experimental data indicate the notable advantage of adjustable excitation in such machine. Finally, based on the aforementioned analysis, the rotor eddy current losses were calculated, and their distribution characteristics were studied when the motor is operating at the starting process and the steady state, respectively. The obtained conclusions may provide useful reference for the design and research on the ARFTHTSPMSM.


Organisms encounter a wide range of toxic compounds in their environments, from chemicals that serve anticonsumption or anticompetition functions to pollutants and pesticides. Although we understand many detoxification mechanisms that allow organisms to consume toxins typical of their diet, we know little about why organisms vary in their ability to tolerate entirely novel toxins. We tested whether variation in generalized stress responses, such as antioxidant pathways, may underlie variation in reactions to novel toxins and, if so, their associated costs. We used an artificial diet to present cabbage white butterfly caterpillars (Pieris rapae) with plant material containing toxins not experienced in their evolutionary history. Families that maintained high performance (e.g., high survival, fast development time, large body size) on diets containing one novel toxic plant also performed well when exposed to two other novel toxic plants, consistent with a generalized response. Variation in constitutive (but not induced) expression of genes involved in oxidative stress responses was positively related to performance on the novel diets. While we did not detect reproductive trade-offs of this generalized response, there was a tendency to have less melanin investment in the wings, consistent with the role of melanin in oxidative stress responses. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that variation in generalized stress responses, such as genes involved in oxidative stress responses, may explain the variation in tolerance to entirely novel toxins and may facilitate colonization of novel hosts and environments.


Economic development in East Germany is not uniform. The building and construction industry is booming but manufacturing industry is stagnating. The paper argues that severe distortions in relative factor prices are the cause of the dichotomous development. These distortions result from excessive wage increases and investment support large enough to make the cost of capital negative for East German industry. The negative cost of capital implies that this factor in fact mutates into an economic good whose `production' the firm tries to increase by using more of other factors. It is suggested that the support for investment be abandoned and that a political compromise be sought, whose aim is to reduce the planned wage rises. The compromise could include an investment wage agreement for insider workers and a distribution of the stock of public housing to prevent workers from suffering wealth losses. It would be a Pareto improvement avoiding the large welfare loss incurred by the policies currently pursued.


ABSTRACT The picture of chivalry in medieval romance was primarily an idealised vision of knightly custom. The world of King Arthur and Camelot codified moral and courtly standards which were presented in literature as patterns for emulation. The writings of Sir Thomas Malory, the last medieval bearer-up of Camelot, was understood and received by medieval readers as a traditional praise of chivalry. It is therefore especially intriguing to find in the Morte Darthur the irreverent figure of Dinadan, a knight more ready for a jest rather than a joust, a clown whose words and deeds ridicule chivalric customs. His light treatment of chivalric norm and of courtly love sets him apart from the otherwise traditionally-minded Camelot. On the one hand, Dinadan may be viewed as Malory's touch of comedy and common-sense in his late medieval treatment of the old, quaint world. On the other hand, Dinadan's irreverence may be seen as a serious breach in the otherwise didactically idealised image of Arthur's Britain. The presence of Dinadan complicates the moral appeal of Malory's Camelot and brings a dose of ambivalence and a lack of clear didactic closure into the text. ********** Any modern discussion about the medieval man, his mentality, his social and religious behaviour, even his spirituality, is dominated by the useful, though limiting assumption of the inherently normative quality of the medieval mind. It cannot be denied that many norms were defined, taught and followed in the Middle Ages: scholastic philosophy brought the imperative of normative authority into all medieval discourse, the teaching of the medieval church impressed the grid of normative thinking on human moral behaviour, the strict hierarchy of the medieval society and the patriarchal nature of the medieval family were certainly a source of everyday dos and don'ts for every man and every woman. Medieval literature reflects this need for norms in its overtly didactic and instructional tone. Manuals of sins, monastic and rules, specula or mirrors for princes and other members of society, collections of moral examples, books on ars moriendi, even guidebooks up the scale of spiritual perfection, all defined models of behaviour and encouraged their emulation. Latin and vernacular writings in many European languages confirm the universality of the prescriptive function assigned to literature, which, by quoting sententiae from recognised auctores and supplying exempla of proper behaviour, address the reader's ability to learn and follow norms (see Curtius 1948: 63-67). The frequently quoted sentence from St. Paul: "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction" (Romans 5: 4), well summarises this exegetic and didactic attitude to reading and writing. The medieval world and medieval literature, as we have learnt to know them, are indeed peopled by saints, holy women, ideal princes and the most chivalric knights. Yet right next to them, the student of the Middle Ages, finds practices and their literary expressions that undermine, questions, parody or even deny the moral or social teaching of the positive examples. One is usually determined to see them as exempla momentia, examples to be avoided vs. exempla trahentia, examples to be followed (Goller 1997: 93), but frequently such a reading is rendered dubious by the lack of a closed moral argument in the text. Baffled by the irreverence of the boy bishop traditions, the low humour of some plays in the mystery cycles, or the pornographic images in the fabliaux, we tend to call them marginal or lewd, insisting on the otherwise pure and conclusively normative message of medieval literature. The genre of medieval romance is also generally believed to have been treated as an expression and a definition of the knightly ideal. Life and literature inspired each other and devised a set of chivalric role models, knights of Camelot and the Round Table, to whom real knights and courtiers would aspire. …


NASA has assumed that any manned Mars mission will be an International one. Given the problems with the International Space Station and the inherent problems associated with U.S. participation in aerospace projects, the case for an international program is weaker than might generally be appreciated. A U.S. Mission would be simpler and less costly in the long term. Key Word: NASA, Mars, spaceflight, planetary exploration, International Aerospace Programs The goal of America's human spaceflight program - openly stated or not is the exploration of Mars Louis Friedman, The Planetary Society America is a great nation. Great nations do great deeds. Sometimes America develops a cure for polio or anew treatment for diabetes. Sometimes we carefully place evil empires in the ash heap of history, and once upon a time we flew to the moon. Since then, the space program had not achieved the kind of great things it once seemed to promise. The space shuttle is not cheap reusable space truck it was supposed to be. The space station is moving ahead slowly and painfully - partly because of politics (though these problems have eased of late) and partly because the Russians are in deep trouble and don't want to admit it. In July, 1989, when George Bush laid out his idea for what America's manned space program should look like, he split it into three parts - one, the space station, two, a return to the moon, and three, a mission to Mars. This was exactly the program that space enthusiasts had wanted since the end of the Apollo missions. When George Bush spoke it had been 17 years since any human had ventured outside of earth's orbit. The last moon mission had been in 1972. Since then, America's space program had mostly centered on the space shuttle - its triumphs and its disasters and its hard won rebirth. Now, in 1998, it looks like we are going to send people to Mars. We know how to do it. Only the political will is lacking. We also have to decide who else is going along for the ride. It is often assumed that any Mars mission will, of necessity, be an international project - that America just cannot afford to do it alone, as we did during the glory days of the Apollo project when NASA was spending 0.08% of U.S. GNP, roughly 30 billion in today's dollars, instead of 13.67 billion NASA will get in FY 1999.1 NASA had always dreamed great dreams. As NASA historian and critic Howard McCurdy put it: "From the beginning, NASA officials saw themselves as advocates of missions that were considerably beyond what the president and congress had actually authorized."2 Dan Goldin, the agency director, has recently asked his people to come up with a mission that could be done for about 25 billion, presumably over ten years. In the final years of the Cold War, the idea of space cooperation with the Soviets became popular with those who were looking for a way out the "Logic of Conflict." The late Senator, Sparky Matsunaga (D), of Hawaii, proposed both a joint space station and in his 1986 book, the "The Mars Project,"3 a joint U.S./Soviet manned Mars mission. The senator wrote that "the United States bears a special responsibility not merely to follow, but to lead in the move towards greater and enduring cooperation in space,"4 - a fine idea, but one that leaves the space program vulnerable to the kind of corruption and bitter disappointment that now seems to be lurking in the shadows of the international space station. When George Bush proposed a manned Mars mission, the idea was immediately sneered at by his political enemies in congress: "There's no such thing as a free launch," was one widely reported reaction, but what really killed his dream was the NASA study that put a 450 billion dollar price tag on the mission. In 1990, Bush proposed a 24% increase in NASA's budget.5 He did not get the money. The political stars were just not lined up right for Bush's dream of an Apollo-like push to put a man on Mars. …


People of all ages have been found to have misconceptions and lack sound intuition in situations of uncertainty (Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Bar-Hillel & Falk, 1982; Shaughnessy, 1981; Shaughnessy, 1992). Further, many people hold to misconceptions even after being presented with evidence contradicting their intuitions (Kahneman & Tversky, 1982a; Tversky & Kahneman, 1982) or beliefs (Anderson, Lepper, & Ross, 1980; Slusher & Anderson, 1989). In order to overcome these misconceptions and build sound probabilistic understandings in school-age children, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has recommended that students be involved in hands-on activities and experiments, such as simulations, to model situations of uncertainty while determining probabilities and solving problems (NCTM, 1989; 2000; also see Konold, 1991,1994; Shaughnessy, 1981; 1992; Watson, 1995). Further, it has been suggested that using a computer to carry out simulations may help students overcome misconceptions, because students can generate large amounts of data and analyze sample distributions that are closer to actual population distributions (NCTM, 2000; also see Biehler, 1991). However, there is little research that systematically investigates the effects of different pedagogical techniques on students' misconceptions (Shaugnessy, 1992). Zhonghong and Potter (1994) found that computers can be a helpful tool for overcoming misconceptions and some studies have investigated the role of computers in students' understanding of distribution (Cohen & Chechile, 1997; Wilensky, 1997), however, beyond this, little research exists on the effectiveness of computer simulations in overcoming probabilistic misconceptions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the persuasiveness of computer-based Monte Carlo simulations on students' decisions in situations of uncertainty. This study 1) compares the use of computer simulations as an investigative-pedagogical tool (teacher-facilitated) to more traditional instructional methods (teacher-directed) for teaching probability, 2) considers the impact of simulation on students' psychological attachment to their misconceptions, and 3) compares the impact of computer simulations on students of different achievement levels. While the main purpose of this study is to consider the instructional impact of computer simulations on students' misconceptions and decision making, the psychological barriers associated with these misconceptions are also discussed. Background The work of Kahneman and Tversky (e.g., Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982) was devoted to identifying misconceptions and notions of probability that people possess and the associated heuristics that they use to make probabilistic decisions. Misconceptions in conditional probability are some of the most interesting and have been found to be prevalent in school-aged children as well as adults (Bar-Hillel & Falk, 1982; Shaughnessy, 1992). In situations involving conditional probability, one must determine the probability of an event when certain information has been given or something has happened. Many people are confused by the information that they are given. They have difficulties determining what is the conditioning event and are further confused by the additional information that is presented in conditional situations (Shaughnessy, 1992). Monty's Dilemma is a problem frequently associated with the teaching of conditional probability (Shaughnessy, 1992; Shaughnessy & Dick, 1991). Monty's Dilemma is an age-old problem whose interest was revitalized by the Parade Magazine's column "Ask Marilyn" (vos Savant, 1990a, 1990b, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c). In a certain game show, a contestant is presented with three doors. Behind one of the doors is an expensive prize, behind the others are junk. The contestant is asked to choose a door. …


Despite reflection being identified as a key component of behavior change, most existing tools do not explicitly design for it, carrying an implicit assumption that providing access to self-tracking data is enough to trigger reflection. In this work we design a system for reflection around physical activity. Through a set of workshops, we generated a corpus of 275 reflective questions. We then combine these questions into a set of 25 reflective mini-dialogues. We deliver our mini-dialogues through MMS. 33 active users of fitness trackers used our system in a 2-week field deployment. Results suggest that the mini-dialogues were successful in triggering reflection and that this reflection led to increases in motivation, empowerment, and adoption of new behaviors. Encouragingly, 16 participants elected to use the system for two additional weeks without compensation. We present implications for the design of technology-supported dialog system for reflection. Author


Chromonic phases are a family of lyotropic liquid crystals (LC) formed by ionic aromatic mesogens such as disodium cromoglycate (cromolyn), sunset yellow and others. It is well known that chromonic phases are oriented in the presence of external magnetic fields, leading to the observation of anisotropic NMR observables such as quadrupolar splittings or residual dipolar couplings. Despite the fact that the cromolyn nematic LC phase (N) presents important advantages like great homogeneity, small line broadening, and easy sample preparation, it has been scarcely used as a water-compatible NMR orienting medium, in part due to a too strong induced degree of alignment on the guest molecules. However, the use of cromolyn-brine mixtures led to the optimum degree of alignment allowing to record (1)H-(13)C dipolar couplings with good accuracy.


A series of 8-hydroxyquinolines are synthesized and their Antitubercular, antifungal, and antibacterial activities are tested. Quinolines are found to possess antibacterial, antifungal, immunosuppressive, analgesic, vasorelaxing, Antiplasmodial, anticancer and PDE4 inhibitory activities. Aryloxypropanolamines were reported to be associated with β-adrenergic blocking, CNS depressant and hypotensive activities. In view of the potential nature of these moieties it was considered worthwhile to study the effects of two pharmacophoric moieties such as quinoline and propanolamines/amino ethane in a single molecule. In the present study the synthesis, antitubercular, antifungal, and antibacterial activities and structure activity relationship of aryloxypropanolamine substituted 8-hydroxy quinolines are reported. The compounds were characterized by IR, H-NMR, spectral and Elemental analysis. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijasbt.v2i3.11100 Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol. 2(3): 342-358


Introduction and Purpose: Due to the importance of functional balance tests assessment with emphasis on parameters influencing the balance including somatotype, this study undertaken to determine the reliability of functional balance tests (static, semi-dynamic and dynamic) in endomorphe healthy women within 24-34 years old. Methodology: 25 female endomorphe with the average and standard deviation age of 27.32±2.13 yrs, height of 161.13±6.37 cm and weight of 58.28±8.46 kg, participated in this study. Functional balance tests were assessed while Heath-Carter approach applied to determine the participant somatotype. All the functional balance tests are used for each individual three times within 72 hours. Data distribution normalization are evaluated by means of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, while ICC was used for assessing the reliability at a significance level of P<0.05. Results:The reliability of all static, semi-dynamic and dynamic balance tests used in this study was confirmed with an endomorphe type body. Assessing static balance, the Stork and Angel tests; semi-dynamic balance, Star Excursion Balance Test test; and dynamic balance, the Timed to Get Up and Go and Tandem Walking tests got very good reliability level (ICC>0.80


Mariepskop forms part of the northernmost edge of the Drakensberg Mountain range and is known for its complex topography associated with meso-scale atmospheric circulation, and therefore its numerous climatic zones. The mountain hosts a high biodiversity. The peak of Mariepskop lies at approximately 1900m Above Mean Sea Level (AMSL), which is higher than the surrounding escarpment to the east. Its foothills also extend well into the Lowveld at about 700 m AMSL. Mariepskop is therefore ideal for studying airflow exchange between the industrial Highveld and the Lowveld with its diversity of natural resources. It is also ideal for detecting global warming signals on altitudinal gradients extending from the Lowveld to altitudes above the Highveld escarpment. In this study long-term National Centre for Atmospheric Research I National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCAR/NCEP) wind data at two atmospheric pressure levels (850 and 700 hPa), as well as near-surface temperature data, were obtained for the Mariepskop region for the summer (December-January-February: DJF (1981-2011 )) and winter (June-July-August: JJA (1980-2012)) seasons. The data was used to study synoptic wind flow across the mountain in the upper (700 hPa) and lower (800 hPa) atmosphere, as well as near-surface temperature gradients. During the summer season, east-south-easterly and south-easterly winds were found to be the most prominent. These winds are commonly associated with both continental and ridging anticyclonic conditions. During winter, the predominant wind direction at 850 hPa is south-easterly, which is also due to the influence of ridging anticyclones, while at 700 hPa the dominant winter wind direction becomes west-south-west, which is due to the more frequent eastward passing of cyclonic frontal systems across the Highveld towards the Lowveld. Long-term near-surface temperatures exhibit a weak increasing linear temperature trend for both seasons, which might be due to global warming.


This study used the investment model to predict relationship status and satisfaction among a sample of heterosexual dating couples. Both partners of 42 couples completed measures of commitment, relationship satisfaction, alternative quality (i.e., perceptions of how easy it would be to do better in another relationship than in the present one), and relationship duration at Time 1. Six months later, measures of relationship status and satisfaction were completed. On several dimensions, females had cognitions that were more relationship maintaining than did males. A path analysis did not support the investment model. However, females' perceptions at Time 1 that they had poor quality relationship alternatives predicted positive relationship status 6 months later. Time 1 scores predicted both males' and females' Time 2 relationship satisfaction, although males' Time 1 views of the relationship were more strongly predictive of females' Time 2 relationship satisfaction than vice versa. These findings suggest that females may be more invested in their relationships than are males and that this greater investment may provide them with more influence over the future course of their relationships.


A new design for a single-use disposable pneumatic microgripper is presented in this paper. It enables very cost-effective batch microfabrication in SU-8 with a single lithography mask by shifting manufacturing complexity into reusable components. An optically readable force sensor with potential to be used in a feedback loop has been integrated in order to enable gripping with a controlled force. The sensors are first examined separately from the gripper and exhibit good linearity. The gripper function utilizes the disposable gripper element together with a reusable gripper fixture. During experiments, the pneumatically actuated microgripper can vary the gripping force within a range of a few mN (up to 5.7 mN was observed). This microgripper is planned to be used in a liquid environment for gripping larger aggregates of cells in combination with the patch clamp technique. This approach will allow Langerhans islets suspended in an electrolyte solution to be grasped and held during electrophysiological measurements without cell damage.


2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) is currently regarded as a potential alternative fuel to gasoline due to the development of new production technology. In this paper, the spray characteristics of DMF and its blends with gasoline were studied from a high pressure direct injection gasoline injector using the shadowgraph and Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) techniques, This includes the spray penetration, droplet velocity and size distribution of the various mixtures. In parallel commercial gasoline and ethanol were measured in order to compare the characteristics of DMF. A total of 52 points were measured along the spray so that the experimental results could be used for subsequent numerical modeling. In summary, the experimental results showed that DMF and its blends have similar spray properties to gasoline, compared to ethanol. The droplet size of DMF is generally smaller than ethanol and decreases faster with the increase of injection pressure. The mean velocity of DMF spray droplets is similar to gasoline and higher than ethanol. Ultimately, the spray characteristics of DMF are better suited to the gasoline engine technology than its counterpart, ethanol. © 2010 SAE International.


You too can understand the statistics of life, even if you're math-challenged! What do you need to calculate? Manufacturing output? A curve for test scores? Sports stats? You and Excel can do it, and this non-intimidating guide shows you how. It demystifies the different types of statistics, how Excel functions and formulas work, the meaning of means and medians, how to interpret your figures, and more in plain English. Getting there learn how variables, samples, and probability are used to get the information you want Excel tricks find out what's built into the program to help you work with Excel formulas Playing with worksheets get acquainted with the worksheet functions for each step Graphic displays present your data as pie graphs, bar graphs, line graphs, or scatter plots What's normal? understand normal distribution and probability Hyping hypotheses learn to use hypothesis testing with means and variables When regression is progress discover when and how to use regression for forecasting What are the odds work with probability, random variables, and binomial distribution Open the book and find: Ten statistical and graphical tips and traps The difference between descriptive and inferential statistics Why graphs are good How to measure variations What standard scores are and why they're used When to use two-sample hypothesis testing How to use correlations Different ways of working with probability


According to the foregoing account, the evidence of carefully executed injections strongly favours the view that a continuity exists between the contractile vascular system and the noncontractile sinus system in Hirudo. This continuity is proved to exist in various regions of the body by means of serial sections. The communication takes place through the capillary systems. The haemolymph system of Hirudo consists of four main longitudinal trunks, sending out transverse branches to the body-wall. The dorsal branches of the lateral vessels pass into small annular vessels communicating with the plexus of minute capillaries in the epidermis. From these, again, arise capillaries going to small sinuses which run into the lateral transverse sinuses, and so into the dorsal sinus. Similarly (he ventral sinus sends annular sinuses along the ventral region of the body-wall opening into the epidermal plexus, whence arise capillaries joining the latero-abdominal vessels. Continuity between the two systems has also been shown to take place by means of capillaries on the wall of the alimentary canal, and probably exists on the other internal organs of the body. Two questions still remain to be solved: firstly, as to the circulation of the haemolymph; secondly, as to the exact homology of the channels in which it flows. With respect to the first of these problems, I have no direct observations to record; but it may be pointed out that the presence of the valves described above show, at least, that the haemolymph must flow in a constant direction--that there is a real circulation, not a mere motion backwards and forwards. It seems to me extremely probable that the annular vessels collect the oxygenated blood from the epidermal plexus, and carry it into the latero-dorsal and latero-lateral vessels, whence it would be pumped into the lateral vessels. From these some of the haemolymph must be carried by the latero-abdominal vessels to the various organs of the body, and to the ventral cutaneous plexus. The annular sinuses would collect it from this plexus and carry it into the ventral sinus. The abdominodorsals and the dorsal sinus would appear to supply the dorsal and lateral cutaneous plexus. We are left in considerable uncertainty as to the true nature of some of the spaces. That the lateral vessels belong to the real vascular system, and that the ventral sinus and perinephrostomial sinuses belong to the true cœlomic system, seems to be clearly established both by comparative anatomy and by the embryological researches of Burger (2). This observer, however, could not trace the dorsal sinus to a cœlomic origin, and since its branches bear the same relation to the cutaneous plexus as those of the latero-abdominal vessels, I am inclined to think that the dorsal sinus may represent the dorsal vessel of other annelids. In that case the cœlomic cavities do not persist dorsally, or have never reached the median dorsal region in the Gnathobdellidae. The annular channels may possibly represent the annular cœlomic lacunae so well described and figured by Oka in Clepsine (10), and it may perhaps be through them that the chief communication between the cœlom and the vascular system has been established. The observation of the some-what variable relations of these annular channels tends to support this view. With the very imperfect knowledge of the development of the cœlom and blood-vessels in Hirudo at our disposal, we cannot say for certain at present where the one ends and the other begins, nor whether a given capillary really belongs to the one or the other. Nor can we safely conjecture how the continuity has actually taken place. But one thing seems fairly certain, namely, that it is not only by means of the botryoidal channels that the communication has been brought about. It is very tempting to compare the leech with the Vertebrate, in which a third system of spaces--the lymphatic system--has been interpolated, allowing a communication to take place between the originally distinct cœlom and blood-vascular system. 1 But the botryoidal tissue is not so inter-polated in the case of Hirudo; if it were obliterated, the two systems would still be in free continuity by means of capillaries. The botryoidal channels would seem to be rather of the nature of a by-path, through which the haemolymph does not necessarily circulate. In this connection it should be mentioned that in sections they are rarely seen to be as much distended with the fluid as the neighbouring capillaries of similar size. Whatever may be the process whereby the continuity between the cœlom and vascular system has been established in the Gnathobdellidae, there can be little doubt that it is a secondary condition, and that the structure of such a form as Acanthobdella, in which a closed blood-system lies in a normally developed cœlom, is really the more primitive.


This paper investigates an analytical approach for matching the characteristics of a fixed pitch angle wind turbine with that of a self-excited induction generator (SEIG). The generator feeds its stator electrical output power into an infinite bus-bar via a static power conditioner. The power conditioner used here consists of a diode bridge rectifier and an inverter bridge thyristor tied together through a d.c. link reactor of high inductance in the stator circuit. The analysis is carried out by representing the steady state performance of the self-excited induction generator mathematical model. The wind turbine's performance curve, power coefficient versus tip speed ratio, Cp(), is represented by a polynomial function of both the generator speed and the wind speed. At any given generator speed the wind turbine output mechanical power is equated to the SEIG input mechanical power. From this mechanical power balance a non-linear equation for the wind speed is resulted. This equation is solved numerically using Newton-Raphson method. Knowing the wind speed the corresponding other performance characteristics can easily be obtained. [Adel S. Nada and Saeed A. Al-Ghamdi. Matching a Wind Turbine with a Self-Excited Induction Generator. J Am Sci 2013;9(6):607-614]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org. 77


Jaguar, an Archean Cu-Zn-rich volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposit, is situated in the
Teutonic Bore volcanic complex in the Eastern Goldfields of the Yilgarn Craton, Western
Australia. The Jaguar deposit is one of only three VHMS deposits that have been mined in
the Eastern Goldfields. The deposit is hosted in a succession dominated by coherent facies
and their associated volcaniclastic facies, with minor non-volcanic facies. The rocks (c. 2.69
Ga) have been affected by regional greenschist facies metamorphism and deformation, and
hydrothermal alteration is intense around the massive sulfide orebody.
Using only drillcore across a 1 km x 1.6 km area, twenty-five principal lithofacies have been
recognised in the study area and are organised into five groups: 1) coherent rhyolite, dacite,
andesite, basalt and dolerite facies; 2) monomictic volcanic breccia and conglomerate; 3)
polymictic volcanic breccia and conglomerate; 4) volcanic sandstone and mudstone; and 5)
non-volcanic mudstone and chemical facies. The environment of deposition was submarine
and below-storm-wave-base.
The stratigraphy at Jaguar has been reconstructed using observations and interpretations
based on facies analyses and relationships, rock fabric and microstructure that are supported
by the application of immobile element geochemistry. The succession is split into Footwall
(FW), Mineralised Package (MP)and Hangingwall (HW) units. The FW is divided into
four volcanic lithofacies having distinctive composition. It is marked by an absence of
sedimentary units between the volcanic facies. The deepest footwall is andesite lava (DFA)
which was succeeded by a rhyolite dome (FR). These units are overlain by coherent andesite
(FA) and then pillow basalt (FB). The FW (DFA, FR, FA and FB) and the MP dacite
magmas were closely related.
The MP is a complex assemblage of intercalated coherent, autoclastic, resedimented and
non-volcanic lithofacies divided into six sub-units: 1) the Dacite MP (MPD) comprising
coherent dacite, monomictic dacite breccia, and monomictic pumice-rich breccia facies;
2) the Conglomerate MP (MPC) comprising polymictic dacite breccia, polymictic
conglomerate and pillow-fragment basalt breccia facies; 3) the Pumice-rich MP (MPP)
comprising polymictic pumice-rich breccia and pumice granule sandstone facies; 4) the
Laminated MP (MPS) comprising laminated volcanic mudstone, non-volcanic mudstone
and black shale, polymictic conglomerate, volcanic sandstone and chert fades; 5) the
Laminated Chert MP (MPH) comprising chert fades; and 6) the Sulfide ore (MPO).
The basal unit of much of the MP is laminated chert (MPH) (30-100 cm thick), which
directly overlies the FB. Chemical deposition of the chert occurred on the sea floor as an
exhalative precipitate immediately prior the eruption of the dacite (MPD). In places, plastic
deformation and brecciation occurred possibly during contemporaneous local seismic events
(related to growth faulting) which locally exposed the FB.
The dacite (MPD) was erupted as a series of small domes or flows on to the seafloor in
an unstable environment. The coherent centres of these domes pass through autoclastic
margins into pumiceous carapace. Pumice formed by non-explosive, quench fragmentation
of pumiceous carapace on the vesiculating dome. Spalling and debris flows of unstable
primary breccias deposited the associated polymictic breccias (MPG) and incorporated
plastically deformed clasts of seafloor chert. The polymetallic sulfide orebody was formed
in this environment. Within the MPG, primary sulfide clasts indicate that the sulfide
body was forming contemporaneously with the MP. Tectonic instability and growth
faulting exposed the growing massive sulfide, creating local debris flows containing sulfide
clasts. This instability caused elutriation of finer-grained particles into the water column
where they were moved about by water and weak gravity currents, before settling out of
suspension (MPS).
The HW comprises coherent and associated autoclastic lithofacies interbedded with
laminated volcanic and non-volcanic mudstone facies. It is divided into four major volcanic
units, defined by packages of associated volcanic lithofacies having distinctive composition.
From the base of the hangingwall, these units are informally named: the Hangingwall
Andesite (HA), the Hangingwall Basalt (HB), the Upper Porphyritic Andesite (HUA) and
the Upper Quartz Rhyolite (HUR). The HA and the HB have been further subdivided
into single mappable units, assisted in the case of the HA, by distinct geochemical
characteristics. There was a profound change in composition from the FW to the HW
magmas.
Volcanism resumed after the MP, more highly fractionated andesites (HA) interfingering
with volcaniclastic and pelagic sediments. These units are overlain by a thick succession
of compositionally monotonous basalts (HB), that includes fades dominated by fountain
deposits (fluidal-clast breccia) to pillow lava. Transient growth faults caused episodic to
gradual subsidence that formed wedge shaped thickening in the HA and lower HB units.
Subsidence had ceased by the time the upper HB was erupted. Dolerite sills with the same
composition as the HB were likely feeders to the HB lavas. They intruded the succession
up to mid-level HB. At this time, evidence points to a change in the stress regime from
extension to compression. The composition of the HB/D magmas was different from
earlier magmas. The aggregate thickening of the succession from sill inflation was between
150 and 200 m. The inflation was probably not uniform; intrusion of more magma in the
south of the area likely caused tilting to the north. The remainder of the hangingwall was
deposited in an apparently seismically stable environment and each major volcanic event
was followed by deposition of significant mudstone (plus sandstone and carbonaceous
mudstone).
The lateral continuity of almost all units, and the lack of repetition of the sequence, does
not support the presence of subtle thrust ramp repetitions, despite substantial evidence of
shear related deformation in some sedimentary interbeds. All the sedimentary younging
evidence unequivocally indicates younging to the west, implying no obvious major folds.
The deformation of the sequence was not significant enough to influence stratigraphic
reconstruction.
The dominant sulfide minerals are pyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite (and
locally, magnetite). Galena and arsenopyrite are present as minor phases and trace amounts
of tetrahedrite-tennantite and geochronite were identified. The majority of the ore minerals
have been subject to varied amounts of strain. A low-strain window is the primary source of
evidence that the deposit was syn-volcanic and formed predominantly beneath the seafloor.
The evidence of the infill of open space textures, the colloform intergrowths of sulfide
and chert, the sulfide replacement of spherulites plus replacement fronts within the dacite
all support this conclusion. Where pyrite has been deformed, it has commonly failed in a
brittle manner. Where there is interconnectivity of sulfide grains, most sulfides (excluding
pyrite) show evidence of ductile flow deformation and durchbewegung textured bands.
Relicts of undeformed colloform pyrite may remain within these ductile bands, and where
pyrite has boudinaged or failed cataclastically, fine fractures perpendicular to the band have
been filled with other sulfides. Where clasts of gangue have been dragged into the bands,
typical durchbewegung texture is developed. Most bands appear to have been annealed
post-deformation.
Multi-element and REE spidergrams suggest that the coherent rocks are similar to BABB,
with Nb-Ta depletion indicative of a subduction-related arc signature. Discrimination
diagrams (developed for Phanerozoic rocks) suggested a complex, early back-arc setting
for Jaguar. This conclusion is consistent with an ensimatic rift environment where the rift
was an early back-arc basin probably over a subducting slab, and coincided with a period
of modest extension at local scales. Although only a small part of the whole succession
was examined, ore formation appears to have been localised at a volcanic centre, during a
transition in magma composition and productivity.


The 24 h oesophageal pH study is considered to be the gold standard for quantifying acid reflux.1 In this review we provide an evidence-based discussion of the role of 24 h pH studies as part of the investigation of children with suspected gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), and provide a practical guide on when a pH study is indicated, how to perform pH studies and how to interpret the results.

Gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) is defined as the effortless regurgitation of gastric contents into the oesophagus. GORD is defined as GOR associated with sequelae (table 1) including faltering growth.2

View this table:

Table 1 Symptoms associated with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease

Physiological reflux is common in both primary and secondary care settings, and usually improves with age.3 Improvement is due to a combination of factors including growth in the length of the oesophagus, a more upright posture, increased tone of the lower oesophageal sphincter, and a more solid diet. In most cases, diagnosis is based on clinical assessment without the need for invasive testing. Investigation is reserved for those children in whom, for example, there is doubt about the diagnosis, or empirical therapy is considered to have failed, or for those children with extra-intestinal manifestations, such as acute life threatening events (ALTEs), apnoeas, Sandifer syndrome, asthma or faltering growth, in whom reflux is suspected to be a contributing factor.

In children with co-existing problems, such as asthma, cerebral palsy, epilepsy or congenital heart disease, GORD may be part of a complex interaction of pathologies as a primary or secondary phenomena. In such settings children may benefit from the diagnosis and treatment of GORD, and GORD may be improved by optimal treatment of the child's co-existing problems.

Children with isolated GORD can remain symptomatic into adulthood; severe oesophagitis4 and oesophageal strictures from GORD in childhood have been reported.5

The investigation …


It is often said that open source projects will "win" or "lose" based purely on technical merit. Experiences from the LSB Project's interface standardization efforts indicate there are some concrete steps an open-source project producing interface libraries for general use can take to make the project more usable for a wider audience, leading to greater chance of widespread acceptance. Such projects have a reasonable chance of becoming standards, whether de-facto or by inclusion in formal specifications such as the LSB. The evidence is that projects ready for largescale use typically meet most of a set of criteria that include: demand; stable, well-documented interfaces; comprehensive interface and regression tests; an easily-deployed (portable) working implementation; and an appropriate choice of license. With the exception of demand, most of these criteria can be consciously worked towards. The paper will present some case studies of libraries that have successfully been incorporated into the LSB specification. It will also discuss some tools the LSB has developed that may help in describing public interfaces and developing tests, and discuss some ways in which portability of the code base can be improved.


Topology optimization of quasistatic contact problems This paper deals with the formulation of a necessary optimality condition for a topology optimization problem for an elastic contact problem with Tresca friction. In the paper a quasistatic contact model is considered, rather than a stationary one used in the literature. The functional approximating the normal contact stress is chosen as the shape functional. The aim of the topology optimization problem considered is to find the optimal material distribution inside a design domain occupied by the body in unilateral contact with the rigid foundation to obtain the optimally shaped domain for which the normal contact stress along the contact boundary is minimized. The volume of the body is assumed to be bounded. Using the material derivative and asymptotic expansion methods as well as the results concerning the differentiability of solutions to quasistatic variational inequalities, the topological derivative of the shape functional is calculated and a necessary optimality condition is formulated.


Small changes to water flow regimes from dams can help to restore river ecosystems The world's rivers are regulated by about 58,000 large dams (more than 15 m high) that provide water supplies for municipalities and irrigation, allow downstream navigation, and enable hydropower production (1). New dams are widely seen as sources of green energy. An estimated 75% of the world's potential hydropower capacity is unexploited (2), and some 3700 new dams are currently proposed in developing economies (3, 4). But dams also cause substantial and often unacknowledged environmental damage. Recent research affords insight into how dams might be strategically operated to partially restore some lost ecosystem functions and services.


ABSTRACT Woody biomass is the largest source of renewable energy in Europe, and the expected increase in demand for wood for energy purposes was the stimulus for writing this paper. Opportunities to increase the supply of forest biomass in the short and long term are discussed, as well as environmental side effects of intensive forest management. Focusing on northern Europe, national estimates of potential annual fellings and the corresponding potential amounts, simulated by the European Forest Information Scenario model, are then presented, as well as reported fellings. For the region as a whole, there seems to be substantial unused biophysical potential, although recent data from some countries indicate underestimated annual felling rates. We argue that an economic perspective is lacking in the debate about wood production for energy purposes in Europe and harvest potentials, and we discuss the effects of biophysical capacity limits in forest yield from a partial equilibrium perspective. Using a larger proportion of the biophysical potential in northern Europe than at present will entail trade-offs with environmental and social values, which means that strategies are needed to protect and account for the benefits and costs of all forms of ecosystem services.


From Huygens-Fresnel integral in cylindrical coordinates and by conveniently choosing the phase function from energy considerations, we demonstrate the possibility of approximately achieving and almost freely chosen longitudinal intensity profile along the optical axis for Free Space Optics (FSO) using a simple theory. These phase functions represent optical elements that could be coupled to the transmitter and, in the case of this work, it is shown that axicons and gradient-index (GRIN) axicons, which are commercially available and cost-effective, can be easily designed for applications in FSO systems to overcome diffraction and possible atmospheric attenuations, to increase the link distance or to diminish the power emitted.


Weekly measurements of Calanus helgolandicus egg production rates and phytoplankton species identification and abundance have been carried out at a station in the English Channel for a period of 7 yr. These data have been analyzed to investigate the effects of the microplankton composition on egg production rates with special emphasis on groups where nutritional value is controversial, such as diatoms and the Prymnesiophyte, Phaeocystis pouchetii. Diatoms did not show any negative effect on the egg production rate. Phaeocystis pouchetii also showed no negative effects, whereas in contrast, a dinoflagellate, Gyrodinium aureolum, clearly showed a negative effect. We conclude that diatoms do not have a negative effect on egg production rates at the concentrations found in the field and for these natural species assemblages, and that when such an effect exists, as is the case with G. aureolum, the effect can be clearly identified.


Fluorescent nanocrystals composed of semiconductor materials were first introduced for biological applications in the late 1990s. The focus of this review is to give a brief survey of biological applications of quantum dots (QDs) at the single QD sensitivity level. These are described as follows: 1) QD blinking and bleaching statistics, 2) the use of QDs in high speed single particle tracking with a special focus on how to design the biofunctional coatings of QDs which enable specific targeting to single proteins or lipids of interest, 3) a hybrid lipid-DNA analogue binding QDs which allows for tracking single lipids in lipid bilayers, 4) two-photon fluorescence correlation spectroscopy of QDs and 5) optical trapping and excitation of single QDs. In all of these applications, the focus is on the single particle sensitivity level of QDs. The high applicability of QDs in live cell imaging experiments held together with the prospects in localization microscopy and single molecule manipulation experiments gave QDs a promising future in single molecule research.


Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition, by Erich S. Gruen. Hellenistic Culture and Society 30. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. 335 pp. $38.00. In Heritage and Hellenism, Erich Gruen applies his formidable expertise as a major historian of the Hellenistic world to the question of how Jews accommodated themselves to this world while at the same time reasserting their own cultural identity. The end result is a delightful treat that challenges a host of cherished assumptions and suggests a radical modification in the way scholars approach much of the evidence for ancient Judaism. The primary focus of the book is on Jewish writings composed in Greek in the Hellenistic period. The introduction boldly announces Gruen' s rejection of prevailing notions that these writings served the apologetic and propagandistic motives of a beleaguered minority trying to protect itself from loss of its identity in an alien world. Gruen's thesis is that these writings were produced instead by a self-confident Judaism to reaffirm its traditions and to supply itself with a means of entertainment, amusement, and aggrandizement. Gruen argues that in the process of achieving these goals, the authors of these writings freely invented new material that would assist them in reappropriating older Jewish traditions. Jewish adjustment to the Hellenistic world may be understood without the customarily assumed polarization between assimilation and adherence to tradition. Chapter 1 emphasizes that the Hasmoneans operated upon an assumption of compatibility between Judaism and Hellenism. The Maccabean revolt was directed against the policies of the Seleucid king and indigenous enemies in Palestine rather than against Hellenism. Chapter 2 makes the brilliant suggestion that Egyptian versions of the Exodus originally resulted from Jewish appropriations of Egyptian legends rather than antisemitic distortions of Jewish traditions. Jews used Egyptian stories "to establish the claims of Jews to a place of eminence in the history of Egypt" (p. 64). Chapter 3 shows how Jewish writers exploited both the positive and negative features of the biblical picture of Joseph. Joseph became a model for expressing the relationship of Jews to surrounding society not only through his wit, success, and superiority, but also through his condescension and arrogance. Chapters 4-7 arguably form the heart of the book. In Chapter 4 Gruen appears to want to give midrash its due by emphasizing that many Jewish writers fostered pride in Jewish tradition by expanding upon the Scriptures. But in chapters 5-6 he demonstrates that certain texts must be understood primarily as folklore rather than midrash. Artapanus and other Jewish writers surveyed in chapter 5 freely employed purely fictitious inventions even when telling stories somehow related to those found in the Scriptures. Gruen sees the "tales of the Tobiads" and other sources surveyed in Chapter 6 predominantly as folktales and works of fiction given verisimilitude through a historical framework. The texts sampled in Chapters 5 and 6 displayed a robust sense of national identity by freely appropriating both Jewish and Gentile traditions to emphasize Jewish cultural superiority, unashamedly encouraging success within the framework of political subordination to Hellenistic rulers, poking fun at Gentile kings and Jewish heroes, and a variety of other ways. …


Abstract: SUMMARY: Late Precambrian tillites in western Spitzbergen, which were metamorphosed and strongly deformed during mid-Palaeozoic and mid-Cenozoic orogenies, contain stones up to 1 m or more in diameter, generally set in a fine-grained psammitic and pelitic matrix. The stones are lithologically varied, and include dolostone, limestone, quartzite, granite, granite-gneiss, volcanic rocks and sandstones. The tillites illustrate the varied rheological behaviour of different rock types under the same TP conditions. Where stones are dispersed through the matrix the degree of deformation appears to follow the pattern: granite (unfoliated) < dolostone < quartzite < metavolcanic rocks < granite-gneiss < limestone, with axial ratios for granite being around 2: 1 and for limestone over 20: 1. Matrix composition has a marked influence on the degree of deformation undergone by the stones. For example, stones in a sandy matrix are more deformed than those in finer-grained matrix of an adjacent horizon, suggesting that the latter is more capable of taking up the regional strain. Similarly, the deformation of stones is greater in rocks bearing only a small amount of matrix.


To address how eukaryotic replication forks respond to fork stalling caused by strong non-covalent protein–DNA barriers, we engineered the controllable Fob-block system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This system allows us to strongly induce and control replication fork barriers (RFB) at their natural location within the rDNA. We discover a pivotal role for the MRX (Mre11, Rad50, Xrs2) complex for fork integrity at RFBs, which differs from its acknowledged function in double-strand break processing. Consequently, in the absence of the MRX complex, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) accumulates at the rDNA. Based on this, we propose a model where the MRX complex specifically protects stalled forks at protein–DNA barriers, and its absence leads to processing resulting in ssDNA. To our surprise, this ssDNA does not trigger a checkpoint response. Intriguingly, however, placing RFBs ectopically on chromosome VI provokes a strong Rad53 checkpoint activation in the absence of Mre11. We demonstrate that proper checkpoint signalling within the rDNA is restored on deletion of SIR2. This suggests the surprising and novel concept that chromatin is an important player in checkpoint signalling.


Recent contributions to a growing theory literature have focused on the tradeoff between adaptation and coordination in determining delegation within firms. Empirical evidence, however, is limited. Using establishment‐level data on decision rights over information technology investments, I find that a high net value of adaptation is strongly associated with delegation, as are local information advantages and firm‐wide diversification; in contrast, a high net value of within‐firm coordination is correlated with centralization. Variation across establishments within firms is widespread: most firms are neither fully centralized nor fully decentralized. Delegation patterns are largely consistent with standard team‐theory predictions; however, certain findings, such as a negative correlation between delegation and firm size, call for a consideration of agency costs as well.


Many companies practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) as part of their branding and public relations efforts. For example, as part of their CSR strategies, some companies adopt voluntary codes of conduct in an effort to respect human rights. This Article contemplates the application of CSR principles to trade-related intellectual property (IP). In theory, patent and copyright laws promote progress and innovation, which is why IP rights are beneficial for both IP owners and for the public. Trademark rights encourage businesses to maintain certain standards and allow consumers to make more efficient choices. Though IP rights are often discussed in relation to the value they provide for business purposes, trade-related IP can also promote human progress, including as it relates to health, education and culture. A CSR model for international intellectual property offers an additional strategy to support ongoing efforts to make IP-related trade agreements more sensitive to human needs.


We are well aware of the rise of the 1% as the rapid growth of economic inequality has put the majority of the world's wealth in the pockets of fewer and fewer. One much-discussed solution to this imbalance is to significantly increase the rate at which we tax the wealthy. But with an enormous amount of the world's wealth hidden in tax havens—in countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands—this wealth cannot be fully accounted for and taxed fairly. No one, from economists to bankers to politicians, has been able to quantify exactly how much of the world's assets are currently hidden—until now. Gabriel Zucman is the first economist to offer reliable insight into the actual extent of the world's money held in tax havens. And it's staggering. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations , Zucman offers an inventive and sophisticated approach to quantifying how big the problem is, how tax havens work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are a quickly growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over 25%—there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. This hidden wealth accounts for at least $7.6 trillion, equivalent to 8% of the global financial assets of households. Fighting the notion that any attempts to vanquish tax havens are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well the counter-argument that since the financial crisis tax havens have disappeared, Zucman shows how both sides are actually very wrong. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations he offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. Only by first understanding the enormity of the secret wealth can we begin to estimate the kind of actions that would force tax havens to give up their practices. Zucman's work has quickly become the gold standard for quantifying the amount of the world's assets held in havens. In this concise book, he lays out in approachable language how the international banking system works and the dangerous extent to which the large-scale evasion of taxes is undermining the global market as a whole. If we are to find a way to solve the problem of increasing inequality, The Hidden Wealth of Nations is essential reading.


In the present investigation, to evaluate the performance of a 25% cement replacement by fly ash (FA), blended composite and control (without FA) was hydrated with sea water (SW) with the water to binder ratio 0.4. Intervals of the hydrated samples are 1 hour, 6 hours, 7 hours, 1 day, 7 days, 28 days, 90 days and 180 days. Setting time and compressive strength of control and blended composites were carried out. The hydrated samples were subjected to FTIR and SEM with EDS analysis. This study reveals that the control (without fly ash) pastes can accelerate the early stage of hydration due to higher amounts of ettringite formation and retarded hydration process in later periods due to Ca(OH)2 product reacting with sodium, magnesium and chloride ions to form recrystallised gypsum and Mg(OH)2. These products are deteriorating in control paste. In blended composite, these products are free due to pozzolanic reaction of fly ash consuming Ca(OH)2. Also, the Al2O3 rich in fly ash reacts with chloride to form Friedel's salt (C3A.CaCl2.10H2O). This reduces the amount of free chlorides and hence, the blended composite has higher strength than control in later periods and increase the resistance to sulphate attack.


The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (renamed Cominco in 1966) was formed in 1906 and four years later bought the Sullivan Mine, the world's largest silver-lead-zinc ore body, located at Kimberley in the Southeast corner of British Columbia. The complex sulphite ore was shipped to the company's newly acquired and redesigned smelter in Trail, B.C., some 160 km to the southwest, in the Columbia River valley. As the lead and zinc concentrates contained from 17-33% sulphur (anon., c.1948), their smelting produced significant quantities of sulphur dioxide as a waste product which was off-gassed from a 409-foot tall stack (Murray, 1972, p. 72). By 1930, these releases had reached a high of 651 tonnes per day of SO2 (or 325.5 tonnes as sulphur). The topography of the Trail region presented some unusual challenges and problems: The Trail Smelter lies in a deep gorge cut out by the Columbia river. The region is decidedly rugged and the Columbia is flanked on either side by mountains sufficiently high to preclude a diffusion of smoke fumes to east or west, except in cases of gorges formed by creek tributaries (Howes and Miller, 1929, p. 6). [See Figure 1] The distance from Trail to the [international] boundary line is about seven miles as the crow flies or about eleven miles, following the course of the river....At Trail and continuing down to the boundary and for a considerable distance below the boundary, mountains rise on either side of the river in slopes of various angles to heights ranging from 3,000 to 4,5000 feet above sea-level, or between 1,500 to 3,000 feet above the river. The width of the valley proper is between one and two miles (Trail Smelter Arbitration Tribunal, 1935, p. 8). The net result of this topographical configuration was a funneling of [SO.sub.2] waste gases down the Columbia River valley into Northeast Washington state. [See Figure 2] In 1926, citizens of the town of Northport in Stevens County, Washington complained that the toxic fumes were destroying crops, killing their cattle, corroding their barbed wire fences and galvanized roofs and peeling building paint. The U.S. government complained in turn to Canada and both countries agreed to take the case to arbitration under the International Joint Commission, marking the first time that an issue of air pollution came before an international tribunal (Murray, 1972; see also Agent for the Government of Canada, 1936). The IJC found against the smelter in 1931, recommending that financial compensation of $350,000 be paid and that the company be required to reduce the massive amounts of [SO.sub.2] released into the atmosphere (IJC, 1931). The U.S. government rejected the Commission's recommendations as inadequate, and the issue was not finally settled until March 1941 when a special panel (the Trail Smelter Arbirtation Tribunal), established in 1936, issued its "Final Decision." Well before the date of settlement, the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company had hit upon a answer to the problem and had installed several new industrial processes at their site in Trail. The solution was to extract sulphur from the gaseous emissions and produce sulphuric acid which could then be used to manufacture fertilizer. On the face of it, being forced to expend large sums of money on the control of waste products, estimated in excess of $20 million (Read, 1963, p. 221), posed a significant financial challenge to the smelting company. Fortuitously, the system to use sulphur dioxide to produce fertilizer addressed a number of critical issues facing the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company at the time: (1) most importantly, the new control procedures essentially removed a threat to the continued operation of the smelter; (2) it provided a more diversified product base which allowed the company to weather falling metal prices in the Great Depression; and (3) it allowed the company to capitalize on an emerging market for synthetic fertilizers, both nationally and internationally. …


The oral anaerobic bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis, a major pathogen of advanced adult periodontitis, produces a novel class of cysteine proteinases in both cell-associated and secretory forms. A lysine-specific cysteine proteinase (Lys-gingipain, KGP), as well as an arginine-specific cysteine proteinase (Arg-gingipain), is a major trypsin-like proteinase of the organism. Recent studies indicate that the secreted KGP is implicated in the destruction of periodontal tissue and the disruption of host defense mechanisms. In this study, we have constructed a KGP-deficient mutant to determine whether the cell-associated KGP is important for pathophysiology of the organism. Although the mutant retained the strong ability to disrupt the bactericidal activity of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, its hemagglutination activity was reduced to about one-half that observed with the wild-type strain. More important, the mutant did not form black-pigmented colonies on blood agar plates, indicating the defect of hemoglobin adsorption and heme accumulation. Immunoblot analysis showed that the expression of a 19-kDa hemoglobin receptor protein, which is thought to be responsible for hemoglobin binding by the organism, was greatly retarded in this mutant. The mutant also showed a marked decrease in the ability to degrade fibrinogen. These results suggest the possible involvement of KGP in the hemoglobin binding and heme accumulation of the organism and in the bleeding tendency in periodontal pockets.


The representations employed by the visual system for dynamic object recognition remain relatively unclear, due in part to the lack of sufficient data constraining the nature of the underlying encoding processes. In the current study, we examined the limits of invariant recognition for unfamiliar moving objects in the context of a same/different matching task. In Experiments 1 and 2, Observers were asked to evaluate whether pairs of moving objects differed in identity subject to a spatial manipulation (inversion) and a spatiotemporal manipulation (speed change between sample and target). We find evidence of a speed-dependent inversion effect, suggesting distinct modes of processing for fast-moving and slow-moving objects. Furthermore, we observe a deleterious effect of speed change between sample and test stimuli, indicating that the speed of appearance change is encoded by the visual system for recognition. In a third experiment, we also observed a speed-dependency in the extent to which the direction of motion is encoded by the visual system for recognition. These results are discussed in the context of previous proposals regarding dynamic object representations, and in terms of an emerging model of dynamic object perception.


Language Acquisition and the Form of the Grammar attempts to re-think the ideal organization of the grammar, given its need to be learned. The book proposes a fundamental connection between the form of the adult grammar and the sequence of grammars which the child adopts in first language acquisition. Challenging the conventional division between language acquisition and syntax, this influential work constructs a new understanding of phrase structure, bringing syntactic data to bear on phrase structure composition. Two new phrase structure composition operations are proposed, Adjoin-α, which adjoins adjuncts into the structure, and Project-α, which fuses open class and closed class structures. The author also introduces the novel concept of subgrammars, successively larger grammars that take the child from the initial state to the adult grammar. This work will be of interest to those in the areas of syntax, language acquisition, learnability, and cognitive science in general.


Verification and validation is one of the most important concerns in the area of software engineering towards more reliable software development. Hence it is important to overcome the challenges of testing concurrent programs. The extensive use of concurrent systems warrants more attention to the concurrent software testing. For testing concurrent software, automatic tools development is getting increased focus. The first part of this study presents a systematic review that aims to explore the state-of-the-art of concurrent software testing. The systematic review reports several issues like concurrent software characteristics, bugs, testing techniques and tools, test case generation techniques and tools, and benchmarks developed for the tools. The second part presents the evaluation of four commercial and open source static analysis tools detecting Java multithreaded bugs. An empirical evaluation of the tools would help the industry as well as the academia to learn more about the effectiveness of the static analysis tools for concurrency bugs.


The use of geophysical techniques in archaeology has become widespread, however these methods have rarely been applied to rock art research. There is a need to record and document rock art images as they face deterioration from environmental, industrial and human impacts. This project trials the use of a magnetic susceptibility (MS) meter to non-invasively detect and spatially resolve ochre rock art images. Ochre is frequently used in rock art production and previous research in other contexts has shown that it emits a MS signature due to its inherent magnetic characteristics. These ochre images can be hidden behind silica or carbonate crusts or may deteriorate over time limiting their visibility. The rock art images that lie behind such crusts are likely to be protected from weathering and are amenable to dating using such techniques as uranium-series and radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). This research demonstrates that, if present in sufficient abundance, red ochre can be imaged and spatially resolved with a MS meter when applied to a rock face in a variety of geological environments. The type of binder used, pre-application heating or the rock type does not appear to have a significant effect on the viability of the technique. More important to the success of a survey is the equipment setting, spatial resolution of the survey and the use of a correction to control instrument drift. Imaging ochre beneath a proxy crust was trialled without success; however this is attributed to poor survey design rather than a fundamental problem with the technique. The success of this trial demonstrates the validity of continuing investigations in the emerging field of rock art geophysics and highlights the importance of future trials on field sites.


Using two datasets containing demographically representative samples of the Dutch population, I study how lifetime experiences of aggregate labor market conditions affect personality. Three sets of findings are reported. First, experienced aggregate unemployment is negatively correlated with the levels of all Big Five personality traits, except for conscientiousness (no significant correlation). Second, in panel data models with individual fixed effects I find that changes in experienced aggregate unemployment cause changes in emotional stability and agreeableness for men, and conscientiousness for women. The correlation is positive, and effects are economically large. Thirdly, I report suggestive evidence that the main driver is experienced aggregate unemployment, instead of other macroeconomic variables as experienced GDP, stock market returns or inflation. Taken together, these findings suggest that changes in Big Five personality traits are systematically related to experienced aggregate labor market conditions.


HCI projects are increasingly evaluating technologies in the wild, which typically involves working with communities over extended periods, often with the goal of effecting sustainable change. However, there are few descriptions of projects that have been successful in the long-term. In this paper we investigate what factors are important for developing long lasting community ICT interventions. We do this by analysing a successful action research project and provide five recommendations for facilitating sustained community engagement. CrowdMemo aimed to preserve local heritage in a town in rural Argentina and the project was set up so that it could be continued by the community once researchers had left. Participants created videos about personal memories of the town and over 600 people attended the premiere where they were first screened. The impact has not just been short-term and there has been sustained engagement with the project by stakeholders in the town and wider region: the local school integrated digital storytelling into its curriculum; the approach has been adopted by two nearby towns; and the project has influenced regional government educational policy.


Coccidioidomycosis is an endemic fungal disease, found mainly in the southwesternUnited States, northwestern Mexico, and some areas of Brazil and Argentina. Clinicalmanifestations vary depending upon both the extent of infection and the immune statusof the host. Pneumonia is the most common clinical presentation, and it rarely involvesthe central nervous system, skin, and bones. Patients with coccidioidomycosis usuallyrespond well to therapy if diagnosed and treated promptly. Here we report a rare caseof coccidioidomycosis infection in an immunocompromised host who presented with amediastinal mass.


We analyze the folding kinematics of a recently proposed origami-based tessellated structure called the Morph pattern, using thin, rigid panel assumptions. We discuss the geometry of the Morph unit cell that can exist in two characteristic modes differing in the mountain/valley assignment of a degree-four vertex and explain how a single tessellation of the Morph structure can undergo morphing through rigid origami kinematics resulting in multiple hybrid states. We describe the kinematics of the tessellated Morph pattern through multiple branches, each path leading to different sets of hybrid states. We study the kinematics of the tessellated structure through local and global Poisson's ratios and derive an analytical condition for which the global ratio switches between negative and positive values. We show that the interplay between the local and global kinematics results in folding deformations in which the hybrid states are either locked in their current modes or are transformable to other modes of the kinematic branches, leading to a reprogrammable morphing behavior of the system. Finally, using a bar-and-hinge model-based numerical framework, we simulate the nonlinear folding behavior of the hybrid systems and verify the deformation characteristics that are predicted analytically.


Port Kashima has been constructed since 1963 on the coast of Kashimanada located north-east of Tokyo. Fig. 1 is the general plan of Port Kashima showing the layout of breakwaters and inner basins. The length of south and north breakwaters will be 2,800 and 1,380 m, respectively. The depth of fairway will be 16 m below L.L.W.L. (lowest low water level) aiming to accomodate 100,000 ton class vessels. The coast of Kashimanada is a bowshaped sandy beach of some 70 km long facing the Pacific Ocean; Naka River flowed out at the north end and Tone River at the south end, as shown in Fig. 2. The northern portion has a narrow beach with the cliff of Kashima Plateau behind it and the southern portion is of alluvium zone by Tone River with the sand dunes. Port Kashima is being constructed at about 25 km north from the south end of Kashimanada Coast and this place is geologically called as the south alluvium zone. In the coast around Kashima Port, there runs a sand dune along the coast. The crest of this dune is about 8 m above L.L.W.L. in elevation. The back shore in front of the dune is 50-80 m in width and 3-4 m above L.L.W.L. in elevation. There are alongshore bars at 100-150 m seaward from the shore line on a usual day and at T00-400 m on a stormy day in beach profile. The bottom materials are composed of mainly fine sand and the mean spring tide range is about 1.4 m. The wave, large or small, attacks this coast every day. From the above-mentioned, the sand drift should be estimated to be remarkable at the constructing site of the harbor. Therefore, the field investigation concerning sand drift has been conducted since tow years before the beginning of the works of harbor construction. In this paper, a few recent investigations will be presented in detail, after a brief description of main field investigations conducted until 1965*


"Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater" is the first book of its kind to examine the origin of the modern manga phenomenon. Kamishibai (paper theatre) is a fascinating and nearly vanished Japanese art form that paved the way for modern-day comic books and is central to the phenomenon of manga. During the height of kamishibai in the 1930s, the gaito kamishibaya (street-corner storyteller) acted as an entertainer and reporter, gathering residents of local towns for the much-anticipated picture show - which was economically backed by selling candy, roasted chestnuts, and sweet potatoes to the children. Typically the storyteller would travel to several villages during the day and set up his butai, (a miniature wooden proscenium), through which the illustrated boards were shown. The stories that were depicted ranged from action-packed westerns, period pieces, traditional folk tales, and melodramas, to nightly news reporting on World War II. More than just illustrated pictures, a good storyteller would act out the parts of each character with different voices and facial expressions. As television was introduced to Japan, the art of kamishibai died out; its influence, however, can still be seen in modern pop culture - from videogames to manga comics. Author Eric P. Nash conducted years of extensive research, and was granted unprecedented access to little-known archives of kamishibai in Tokyo. With rare images and expert writing, this book will easily become an essential guide to the origins of manga and its history.


We developed and evaluated single- and dual-energy radiographic absorptiometry (RA) for the measurement of mandibular bone mineral density (BMD), using standard dental equipment, that would allow for inexpensive and widespread osteoporosis screening. Accurately measured x-ray tubespectra are important for validating the simulations used in the design of the method. A constrained least-squares deconvolution technique for reducing the detector-induced blurring of the energy spectrum was developed. Application of this analytic correction to spectra acquired with a NaI-photomultiplier detector improved the measured data by 20%–60%. Implementation of the screening method is accomplished by simultaneously acquiring high- and low-energy images on a single dental radiograph by appropriate filtering of the dental x-ray tube output. Computer simulations were performed to optimize the filters with respect to error in the bone measurement. A custom-designed film holder housed the beam filters and accommodated calibration wedges that allowed the radiographs to be normalized for differences in exposure and developing conditions. Forty-six male and female subjects, ages 27 to 87 years, participated in a pilot study to assess the RA techniques. Left and right vertical periapical radiographs were taken of the premolar–molar region and, for comparison, the subjects' BMD was evaluated at the spine, left and right femur as well as total body by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Mandibular BMD by either high or low single-energy RA measurements was positively correlated with skeletal BMD, as assessed by DXA, at the arms, legs, trunk, ribs, pelvis, total body, and femoral neck. ROC analysis of the single-energy techniques for identification of osteopenic and osteoporotic female subjects, as defined by DXA at the left femoral neck, yielded an area under the curve of 0.73. This is comparable to commercial devices currently used for screening and indicates that the RA method may be valuable for early diagnosis of low bone mass.


Palaeoscolecid worms are a ubiquitous group of Early Palaeozoic ecdysozoans that are curiously lacking in the archetypal Cambrian Lagerstätten, the Burgess Shale. Here I describe Scathascolex minor gen. et sp. nov, the first unequivocal palaeoscolecid from this site. Scathascolex is armoured with simple Hadimopanella‐like plates, but lacks smaller platelets, pointing to a close affinity with the Palaeoscolecida sensu stricto. Neither preservational nor environmental factors account for the scarcity of palaeoscolecids in the Burgess Shale, which presumably represents an ecological phenomenon.


Abstract It has been documented that vertical customer–supplier links between industries are the basis for strong cross-sectional stock return predictability  ( Menzly and Ozbas, 2010 ). We show that robust predictability also arises from horizontal links between industries, i.e., from the fact that industries are competitors or offer products, which are substitutes for each other. These horizontally linked industries exhibit positively correlated fundamentals. The signal derived from this type of connectedness is the basis for significant alpha in sorted portfolio strategies, and informed investors take the related information into account when they form their portfolios. We thus provide evidence of return predictability based on a new type of economic links between industries not captured in previous studies.


This article examines the key ingredients in a Catholic inner-city school that have contributed to a paradigm shift in the school community. The school has relinquished a comfortable niche educating children of Calcutta's elite in favor of the messy and risky business of engaging with the poor. It has asserted the right of every child to quality education, dared to cross social boundaries, and succeeded in integrating a widely disparate parent and child community. The article elaborates on a cluster of key ingredients which together constitute a pathway for transforming schools into those which practice social justice and provide quality education. It examines widely recognized change principles in action within a particular setting and relates that the achievement of equity and excellence are not mutually exclusive. It explores the distinctive values, ethos, teaching and learning strategies, leadership, staff and culture of the school that promote learning despite flouting conventional selection and social class norms, in order to distill the key ingredients which make for excellence and equity. This essay begins by setting the study in context, describes the research methodology briefly, and then provides an analysis of a model of best practice and a pathway to social transformation that the school has adopted.


Remote directing groups in a bifunctional molecule do not always behave independently of one another in C–H activation chemistries. A combined DFT and experimental mechanistic study to provide enhanced Ir catalysts for chemoselective C–H deuteration of bifunctional aryl primary sulfonamides is described. This provides a pharmaceutically-relevant and limiting case study in using binding energies to predict intramolecular directing group chemoselectivity. Rational catalyst design, guided solely by qualitative substrate–catalyst binding free energy predictions, enabled intramolecular discrimination between competing ortho-directing groups in C–H activation and delivered improved catalysts for sulfonamide-selective C–H deuteration. As a result, chemoselective binding of the primary sulfonamide moiety was achieved in the face of an intrinsically more powerful pyrazole directing group present in the same molecule. Detailed DFT calculations and mechanistic experiments revealed a breakdown in the applied binding free energy model, illustrating the important interconnectivity of ligand design, substrate geometry, directing group cooperativity, and solvation in supporting DFT calculations. This work has important implications around attempts to predict intramolecular C–H activation directing group chemoselectivity using simplified monofunctional fragment molecules. More generally, these studies provide insights for catalyst design methods in late-stage C–H functionalisation.


Increasing demands for portable power applications are pushing conventional battery chemistries to their theoretical limits. Silicon has potential as an anode material to increase lithium-ion cell capacity. The associated volume change during lithiation/delithiation leads to a decline in capacity during cycling and low lithium diffusion rates within silicon limit high rate performance. Porous silicon can potentially address the poor cyclability and rate capabilities simultaneously by minimising stresses and providing smaller silicon substructures for lithium diffusion. Template assisted synthesis and magnesiothermic reduction of silica to silicon offers a facile and scalable route for the production of porous silicon structures even when using a non-porous feedstock. This review collates the available literature concerning the effects of reaction conditions through the reduction reaction. We highlight that it is important to report in detail all reaction conditions and complete characterisation of both the reactant and the product. The battery performance of these porous silicon structures is discussed and future research directions are identified. These outcomes will enable the identification of a clear design pathway for the bespoke production of porous silicon.


In this master thesis, a comparative study of the feasibility of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) tools has been done in light of simulating the problem of obstructive-sleep apnea (OSA). Part of the study has been done by simulating the benchmark; Flow Induced Oscillations of a Flexible Beam, by the different solvers; COMSOL, Abaqus and Abaqus coupled with ANSYS Fluent through third party coupling code MpCCI. By evaluating the results produced a qualifying approach for simulating the case of OSA is done. By assessing through FSI simulations, insight to the problem at hand can be gained. Making a proper problem formulation can be crucial to get a physical meaningful analysis. When setting up FSI simulations, several choices have to be made to make the most suitable approach. For instance if the type of discretization should be described with a Lagrangian, Eulerian or an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation, and how the coupling of the fluid and solid domain should be done. The capturing of the interface and the interaction between the fluid and structure proves to be essential for the simulations. In addition to the choice of dicretization and coupling of the domains, the simulations is sometimes limited by technical problems and the feasibility of tools. The use of computational FSI analysis can be a cumbersome task even if simulations yield decent results. The majority of the benchmark simulations did not produce the results expected. Only two of four simulations reached oscillations resembling the pattern shown in other studies. Thus indicating errors in model description and/or weaknesses of tools. For instance the capability to solve for non-linear behaviour. The main issue for the benchmark simulations were related to the deformation and mesh motion of the fluid domain by the use of the ALE method, which often required a finer mesh tuning increasing the computational cost. The results from the benchmark were post processed in COMSOL and Abaqus, and compared in order to see to what extent they correlated. For additional perspective a comparable study is referred to in context of some of the findings [5]. By formulating a simpler problem description for the case of OSA some of the issues related to large deformations were bypassed. The simulation of the soft palate yielded coarse yet useful results, which can be used to get some insights to the disease. However, due to some of the flow specifics other problems were encountered, mainly regarding the embedded 3D simulations done with Abaqus. These primarily concerned convergence criteria for the equilibrium


The finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods are utilized to investigate the leakage performance degradations in two kinds of flexible seals (i.e., forward bending and backward bending) and two kinds of shroud labyrinth seals (i.e., with straight fins and chamfered fins) in rubbing events. With the existing experimental data, FEA methods for contacting simulations and CFD methods for leakage rate and flow pattern predictions are carefully examined. The wear characteristic and leakage performance between labyrinth seals and flexible seals are compared before and after rub. The results show that, in rubbing process, the labyrinth seal with straight (symmetrical) fins is likely to undergo the mushrooming damage, whereas the labyrinth seal with chamfered (asymmetrical) fins is likely to undergo the tooth-bending damage. In rubbing process, compared with the labyrinth seal, the flexible seal has a superior characteristic in resisting the wear damage due to increased flexibility of fin. For a labyrinth seal with 0.3 mm design clearance and a flexible seal with 0.15 mm design clearance, the 0.5 mm radial displacement of rotor will result in 110% increase of leakage rate for labyrinth seal, and 7% increase of leakage rate for flexible seal after wear. Under the same conditions, the forward bending flexible seal has a lower leakage rate than the backward bending flexible seal before and after rub.