"What Can Nanotechnology Learn From Biotechnology?" presents diverse perspectives on biotechnology and nanotechnologies. Avoiding extreme perspectives, unwarranted hype and absolute rejection, this book explores the diverse territory of proponents and opponents of challenging but potentially risky technologies. Contributions from recognized experts in their fields represent the perspectives of a diverse range of stakeholders.This book details the lessons to be learned from the controversy over genetically modified foods, and how those lessons can be applied to developing nanotechnologies, particularly agricultural and other food-related applications. Exploring the environmental, social and ethical impact of nanotechnology in addition to the technical and economical impacts, it is an ideal reference for any scientist, engineer, research program administrator, resource allocator, and NGO advocate. Key features in this book include, it: addresses the growing concern over the responsibility of science to the impacted population; uses real-world experience to outline practical approaches for emerging technologies; and, also addresses the concerns of science as well as social science.


Summary From the literature and the geological maps it is known that superficial structures occur extensively associated with the Jurassic strata in the south Cotswolds. There is some discrepancy in the representation of superficial structures on the small-scale geological maps (1:63,360 and 1:50,000 scales). Examples from the Bath area have been selected and engineering geomorphological maps of some superficial structures are presented. It is concluded that valley bulges and cambers are difficult to delimit using this technique but landslips, especially the more recent, large-scale ones, and mudflows can often be clearly depicted. An important consideration is the subsequent 'smoothing' of natural features by hillwash or intensive agriculture and associated ploughing. It is concluded that this form of mapping is no substitute either for geological mapping or for a proper site investigation; it can, however, add valuable data.


The article investigates global participation in academic research productivity through the growth of publications from Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&C) in two of the most prestigious bibliographic indexes, Scopus and the Science Citation Index (SCI). Data were obtained from the SCImago Journal and Country Rank and the Iberian-American and Inter-American Network of Science and Technology Indicators databases. Tables were created for the number of citable documents in Scopus, the publications in SCI, and the comparative indicators of the number of publications in SCI from LA&C countries adjusted for number of researchers, full-time researchers, inhabitants, and national research and development (R&D) expenditure. The countries with the highest number of publications since 1990 SCI and 1996 Scopus were Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Colombia shows the largest growth in research productivity over the periods studied and became in 2010 the country with the fifth highest number of publications in both indexes. Comparative indicators adjusted for numbers of researchers, population and national R&D expenditures do not show clear differences in performance across countries. The article concludes with suggestions for the need to provide greater contextual analysis and including other bibliographic indexes and databases in order to have a fuller understanding of the reasons for particular levels of research productivity across LA&C countries.


Multi-fidelity (gray-box) hyperparameter optimization techniques (HPO) have recently emerged as a promising direction for tuning Deep Learning methods. However, existing methods suffer from a sub-optimal allocation of the HPO budget to the hyperparameter configurations. In this work, we introduce DyHPO, a Bayesian Optimization method that learns to decide which hyperparameter configuration to train further in a dynamic race among all feasible configurations. We propose a new deep kernel for Gaussian Processes that embeds the learning curve dynamics, and an acquisition function that incorporates multi-budget information. We demonstrate the significant superiority of DyHPO against state-of-the-art hyperparameter optimization methods through large-scale experiments comprising 50 datasets (Tabular, Image, NLP) and diverse architectures (MLP, CNN/NAS, RNN).


In general the passive safety capability is much greater in newer versus older cars due to the stiff compartment preventing intrusion in severe collisions. However, the stiffer structure which increases the deceleration can lead to a change in injury patterns. In order to analyse possible injury mechanisms for thoracic and lumbar spine injuries, data from the German In‐Depth Accident Study (GIDAS) were used in this study. A two‐step approach of statistical and case‐by‐case analysis was applied for this investigation. In total 4,289 collisions were selected involving 8,844 vehicles, 5,765 injured persons and 9,468 coded injuries. Thoracic and lumbar spine injuries such as burst, compression or dislocation fractures as well as soft tissue injuries were found to occur in frontal impacts even without intrusion to the passenger compartment. If a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Score (MAIS) 2+ injury occurred, in 15% of the cases a thoracic and/or lumbar spine injury is included. Considering AIS 2+ thoracic and lumbar spine, most injuries were fractures and occurred in the lumbar spine area. From the case by case analyses it can be concluded that lumbar spine fractures occur in accidents without the engagement of longitudinals, lateral loading to the occupant and/or very severe accidents with MAIS being much higher than the spine Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS).


Thalassaemia screening programme has been conducted in Malaysia since 2004. The aim of the programme was to reduce the burden of the disease by identifying thalassaemia carriers. However, the response towards the screening activities was unsatisfactory as there was lack of public awareness against the importance of thalassaemia screening. An alternative approach is to screen blood donors. The purpose of this study was to observe the prevalence of thalassaemia carriers among healthy blood donors. Seven hundred and thirty eight healthy blood donors were screened in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang from July to September 2010 using cation-exchange high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Cases with haemoglobin variants were further analyzed by gel electrophoresis at alkaline pH. Result shows that the blood donors consisted of 413 Malays (56%), 162 Indians (22%), 148 Chinese (20%) and 15 others (2%). There were 19 (2.6%) individuals with haemoglobin E trait, six (0.8%) with co-inheritance of haemoglobin E and αα-thalassaemia and five (0.7%) with β-thalassaemia trait. Haemoglobin Constant Spring and haemoglobin A2 prime were observed in two (0.3%); and Haemoglobin Lepore and alpha chain variant in one (0.2%). αα-thalassaemia and normal haemoglobin A2 β-thalassaemia could not be excluded in 190 cases (26%), as they required deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) studies for identification. Thalassaemia screening in blood donors is more feasible and effective. Therefore, a wider scale population screening including blood donors could benefit the existing thalassaemia screening programme in Malaysia.


Introduction: Using e-learning in medical universities grows fast and the quality of its content is considered an important issue. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of e-learning content of Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This descriptive study investigated all faculty members of Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery (n = 55) at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2015-2016. Data were collected by a researcher made questionnaire. To determine the validity of the instrument, content validity was used and the reliability of the questionnaire with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for its components was 0.73, 0.70, 0.85, 0.70, 0.72 and 0.65, respectively. To analyze the data, descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (One-Sample T test) were used. Result: The components of "importance", according to 80 percent significantly higher (t (54) =4/90). but other components of the components "interest learner" (t=(54)-4/17), the factor of "usefulness" (t(54)=-321/5) component "ability to learn" (t(249)=17/01), and the components of "flexibility" (t(54)= -1/54, P>0/05), the average of the sample mean hypothetical (16) were less significant than harm. Conclusion: Among the components of the quality of e-learning content; "interested learner", "usefulness", "ability to learn" and "flexibility" Not Favorable conditions, and only components of "importance" was eligible.


N.m.r., i.r. and optical spectra of model compounds were recorded. These were to help in elucidating the structures of the phenylazo derivatives of bilirubin conjugates isolated from human bile. Model compounds included commercial and human bile bilirubin, mesobilirubin, bilirubin dimethyl ester, dimethoxybilirubin dimethyl ester and the corresponding phenylazo derivatives. The phenylazo derivative of vinylneoxanthobilirubinic acid was also investigated. All compounds were of the type IXa, and no other isomer could be detected with the spectroscopic methods employed. The compounds crystallize as the lactams, except for dimethoxybilirubin dimethyl ester and its phenylazo derivative, which are held in the lactim ether configuration. With all other compounds no tautomeric forms other than the lactams could be detected, although small proportions of bilirubin must exist as the lactim. Bilirubin does not form a betaine, a structure that has been proposedby von Dobeneck & Brunner (1965) to explain the bathochromic shift of its optical spectrum as comparedwiththe expected position ofthe absorptionmaximum at 420nm. However, this shift to 453nm can be explained on the basis of internal hydrogen bonds occurring between the carboxylic protons and the pyrrole rings of bilirubin, as proposed by Fog & Jellum (1963), and new evidence for such a bonding has been accumulated. The bilirubin sulphate described by Watson (1958), which is formed by treatment of bilirubin with concentrated sulphuric acid and acetic anhydride, was also investigated. The main product ofthis reaction was isolated as itsphenylazo derivative, andwasshowntobe 3,18-di(ethylidene sulphate)-2,7,13,17. tetramethylbiladiene-ac-8,12-dipropionic acid. The reaction leading to this com. pound is an addition of sulphuric acid to the vinyl side chains of bilirubin according to Markownikoff's rule.


This paper describes the development status of the devices based on compound semiconductors especially on gallium arsenide (GaAs) in Japan. In the area of the devices for handy phone, and PCS/PCN application, GaAs MESFETs, HEMTs and HBTs have been actively investigated to have low voltage operation and low power consumption. The market has started to expand and we can see many serious and practical studies in this area. In millimeterwave InP lattice matched HEMTs and GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs have been developed as active devices for collision avoidance radar, wireless LAN, remote POS system and etc. For high rate optical communication systems, still GaAs MESFET ICs have been developed because the technology is matured today, though HBT ICs are studied for many functions. In the field of data processing, GaAs LSIs have established its position for the highest speed logic in a computer system.


In recent years it has become clear that carcinogenesis is a complex process, both at the molecular and cellular levels. Understanding the origins, growth and spread of cancer, therefore requires an integrated or system-wide approach. Computational systems biology is an emerging sub-discipline in systems biology that utilizes the wealth of data from genomic, proteomic and metabolomic studies to build computer simulations of intra and intercellular processes. Several useful descriptive and predictive models of the origin, growth and spread of cancers have been developed in an effort to better understand the disease and potential therapeutic approaches. In this review we describe and assess the practical and theoretical underpinnings of commonly-used modeling approaches, including ordinary and partial differential equations, petri nets, cellular automata, agent based models and hybrid systems. A number of computer-based formalisms have been implemented to improve the accessibility of the various approaches to researchers whose primary interest lies outside of model development. We discuss several of these and describe how they have led to novel insights into tumor genesis, growth, apoptosis, vascularization and therapy.


There are two major reasons to diagnose asymptomatic HIV infection: to facilitate timely initiation of antiretroviral therapy, and to reduce the chance of onward transmission. A negative test offers an opportunity for preventive health promotion. All these aspects of testing require follow up by suitably trained personnel. We describe a case illustrating the hazards of self testing for HIV. A 31 year old British heterosexual man attended the genitourinary medicine clinic requesting an HIV test. His last sexual contact was 3 weeks earlier with a female partner of 3 months. He had recently learnt that she had had a previous male partner who had had African sexual partners and therefore may be at higher risk of having HIV infection. He obtained a home HIV test kit (''Discreet'' HIV Home Test Kit, Seville Marketing Ltd) from a Canadian based internet site and this result was positive. On further inquiry he gave a history of sore throat and swollen cervical lymph nodes 2 months previously, although these symptoms had largely resolved. He had never tested for HIV before and had no other significant risk factors. We requested an HIV test on the patient; the result was negative. We repeated the test after 3 months and again it was negative, confirming that the patient was not infected at the time he performed the home HIV test. The current HIV screening test used by our centre uses both HIV antibody and p24 antigen detection and is known to detect HIV infection 3–12 weeks after infection. Given that he was now symptom free with negative syphilis serology and at low risk for acquiring HIV, no further investigations were undertaken. The patient had disposed of the test kit and it was not available for inspection. Unlike oral fluid kits recently licensed in the United States, this kit required a fingerprick and a drop of blood to be applied to a reagent strip. The company claimed ''99.4% accuracy'' for the kit's results. From discussion with the patient it seemed that the result displayed by the testing kit evolved over time and had to be read between 3 minutes and 8 minutes after applying the drop of blood. The time dependency of the reaction made the kit liable to be misread. We performed an internet search and found that websites selling the kit were no longer active. Furthermore, a US Federal Trade Commission restraining order had been placed on the kit 2 days before the patient presented to our clinic. As well as finding the company to be in breach of US law by selling the kit in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had tested the accuracy of the kit. ''Results of the testing, based on the package instructions, 'changed dramatically' during the 15 minutes that the results were reported. After 3 minutes, 15.4% of the kits gave erroneous readings; after 8 minutes, 29.6% registered inaccurate results; after 15 minutes, 59.3% of the kits gave inaccurate results. Moreover, the kits showed both inaccurate HIV positive results and inaccurate HIV negative results.'' This case is important because the use of the internet to obtain HIV test kits is likely to increase. One study in California found fairly high levels of interest in instant home HIV tests and it is not difficult to locate kits for HIV testing and other diagnostic services on the internet. A home HIV test kit using oral fluid has been licensed in the United States and a home blood collection and telemedicine system is also available, 5 but these are not available legally in the United Kingdom or Europe. All healthcare professionals involved in counselling and testing patients for HIV should be aware that self taken HIV tests may be inaccurate and confirmatory testing in an appropriate laboratory should be performed before making a diagnosis of HIV infection. Although access problems to sexual health services have rightly engendered innovative approaches to diagnosis and management, there should be a note of caution on using new HIV technologies of rapid testing in nonhealthcare settings and legalisation of home and over the counter HIV testing kits. It is imperative that clinical governance issues are addressed. Medicolegal consequences are important, but of greater significance is the distress to individuals and their partners who are wrongly diagnosed or inappropriately reassured through the use of poorly performing kits.


In the Philippines, youth unemployment continues to hinder meaningful economic development due to job-skills mismatch, lack of knowledge and skills training, and work experiences. To address the problem, Department of Education's (DepEd) K to12 Program added two (2) years of Senior High School which is an advantage for students to develop relevant skills as early as high school. One of the goals of the K to 12 Basic Education Program is to develop the competencies, work ethic, and values relevant to pursuing further education and/or joining the world of work among learners. This study involved twenty-five (25) Grade 12 STEM strand students who were immersed in a science and technology-based industries. The work immersion lasted for eighty (80) hours where students performed different tasks assigned to them by the work immersion partner institution supervisors. The students' performance appraisal and evaluation were evaluated by their respective supervisors. Results showed that most of the students were evaluated outstanding and that their performance exceeds the required standard. The positive learning gains suggest that work immersion enables the students to acquire and develop the skills of teamwork, communication, attendance and punctuality, productivity and resilience, initiative and proactivity, judgment and decision making, dependability and reliability, attitude, and professionalism. Moreover, the students perceived their experiences as an avenue to test themselves and apply what they have learned in a non-school scenario where they were not only able to apply their previous training but are also able to experience the social interactions in a work environment. Their experiences in science-based work immersion partner institutions developed many skills and values that would help them as they move from high school to real life.


Sediment profiling imaging (SPI) is a versatile and widely used method to visually assess the quality of seafloor habitats (e.g., around fish farms and oil and gas rigs) and has been developed and used by both academics and consultancy companies over the last 50 years. Previous research has shown that inserting the flat viewport of an SPI camera into the sediment can have an impact on particle displacement pushing oxygenated surface sediments to deeper sediment depths and making anthropogenically-disturbed sediment appear healthier than they may actually be. To investigate the particle displacement that occurs when a flat plate is inserted into seafloor sediments, a testing device, termed the SPI purpose-built sediment chamber (SPI-PUSH) was designed and used in a series of experiments to quantify smearing where luminophores were used to demonstrate the extent of particle displacement caused by a flat plate being pushed into the sediment. Here, we show that the plate of the SPI-PUSH caused significant smearing, which varied with sediment type and the luminophore grain size. The mean particle smearing measured directly behind the inserted plate was 2.9 ± 1.5 cm for mud sediments with sand-like luminophores, 4.3 ± 2.5 cm for fine sand sediments with sand-like luminophores and 1.9 ± 1.1 cm for medium sand sediments with mud-like luminophores. When the mean depth of particle smearing was averaged over a larger sediment volume (11 cm3) next to the inserted plate, substantial differences were seen between the plate-insertion experiments and controls highlighting the potential extent of smearing artefacts that may be produced when a SPI camera penetrates the seafloor. This experimental data shows that future studies using the SPI camera, or any other periscope-like device (e.g., planar optodes) need to acknowledge that smearing may be significant. Furthermore, it highlights that a correction factor may need to be applied to these data (e.g., the depth of apparent redox potential discontinuity layer) to correctly interpret SPI camera images and better determine the effect of anthropogenic impacts on seafloor habitats.


Nowadays, one product that has a well qualified design will not have expected utility if it cannot be available at the appropriate time and place to its buyers. Thus, marketing managers and official sales always try to find the more efficient and modern methods of distribution through investigating the transfer methods of goods. Appropriate decision will lead to the enhancement of transfer speed, convenience of customers, and reduction of costs. One of the main tools of marketing is the efficient distribution system. Since cultural products have a determining role in conveyance of thoughts, values, and social norms and transmit cultural values and messages with themselves, their distribution has a great importance. This study aimed to investigate the current challenges in distribution channels of cultural goods and services. Some of these challenges were being traditional, the length of the channel, and the number of intermediaries.


BACKGROUND For centuries, thinkers have considered whether and how climatic conditions influence the nature of societies and the performance of economies. A multidisciplinary renaissance of quantitative empirical research has begun to illuminate key linkages in the coupling of these complex natural and human systems, uncovering notable effects of climate on health, agriculture, economics, conflict, migration, and demographics. ADVANCES Past scholars of climate-society interactions were limited to theorizing on the basis of anecdotal evidence; advances in computing, data availability, and study design now allow researchers to draw generalizable causal inferences tying climatic events to social outcomes. This endeavor has demonstrated that a range of climate factors have substantial influence on societies and economies, both past and present, with important implications for the future. Temperature, in particular, exerts remarkable influence over human systems at many social scales; heat induces mortality, has lasting impact on fetuses and infants, and incites aggression and violence while lowering human productivity. High temperatures also damage crops, inflate electricity demand, and may trigger population movements within and across national borders. Tropical cyclones cause mortality, damage assets, and reduce economic output for long periods. Precipitation extremes harm economies and populations predominately in agriculturally dependent settings. These effects are often quantitatively substantial; for example, we compute that temperature depresses current U.S. maize yields roughly 48%, warming trends since 1980 elevated conflict risk in Africa by 11%, and future warming may slow global economic growth rates by 0.28 percentage points year−1. Much research aims to forecast impacts of future climate change, but we point out that society may also benefit from attending to ongoing impacts of climate in the present, because current climatic conditions impose economic and social burdens on populations today that rival in magnitude the projected end-of-century impacts of climate change. For instance, we calculate that current temperature climatologies slow global economic growth roughly 0.25 percentage points year−1, comparable to the additional slowing of 0.28 percentage points year−1 projected from future warming. Both current and future losses can theoretically be avoided if populations adapt to fully insulate themselves from the climate—why this has not already occurred everywhere remains a critical open question. For example, clear patterns of adaptation in health impacts and in response to tropical cyclones contrast strongly with limited adaptation in agricultural and macroeconomic responses to temperature. Although some theories suggest these various levels of adaptation ought to be economically optimal, in the sense that costs of additional adaptive actions should exactly balance the benefits of avoided climate-related losses, there is no evidence that allows us to determine how closely observed "adaptation gaps" reflect optimal investments or constrained suboptimal adaptation that should be addressed through policy. OUTLOOK Recent findings provide insight into the historical evolution of the global economy; they should inform how we respond to modern climatic conditions, and they can guide how we understand the consequences of future climate changes. Although climate is clearly not the only factor that affects social and economic outcomes, new quantitative measurements reveal that it is a major factor, often with first-order consequences. Research over the coming decade will seek to understand the numerous mechanisms that drive these effects, with the hope that policy may interfere with the most damaging pathways of influence. Both current and future generations will benefit from near-term investigations. "Cracking the code" on when, where, and why adaptation is or is not successful will generate major social benefits today and in the future. In addition, calculations used to design global climate change policies require as input "damage functions" that describe how social and economic losses accrue under different climatic conditions, essential elements that now can (and should) be calibrated to real-world relationships. Designing effective, efficient, and fair policies to manage anthropogenic climate change requires that we possess a quantitative grasp of how different investments today may affect economic and social possibilities in the future. Two globes depict two possible futures for how the climate might change and how those changes are likely to affect humanity, based on recent empirical findings. Base colors are temperature change under "Business as usual" (left, RCP 8.5) and "stringent emissions mitigation" (right, RCP 2.6). Overlaid are composite satellite images of nighttime lights with rescaled intensity reflecting changes in economic productivity in each climate scenario. For centuries, thinkers have considered whether and how climatic conditions—such as temperature, rainfall, and violent storms—influence the nature of societies and the performance of economies. A multidisciplinary renaissance of quantitative empirical research is illuminating important linkages in the coupled climate-human system. We highlight key methodological innovations and results describing effects of climate on health, economics, conflict, migration, and demographics. Because of persistent "adaptation gaps," current climate conditions continue to play a substantial role in shaping modern society, and future climate changes will likely have additional impact. For example, we compute that temperature depresses current U.S. maize yields by ~48%, warming since 1980 elevated conflict risk in Africa by ~11%, and future warming may slow global economic growth rates by ~0.28 percentage points per year. In general, we estimate that the economic and social burden of current climates tends to be comparable in magnitude to the additional projected impact caused by future anthropogenic climate changes. Overall, findings from this literature point to climate as an important influence on the historical evolution of the global economy, they should inform how we respond to modern climatic conditions, and they can guide how we predict the consequences of future climate changes.


ABSTRACT This study analyzed the methods used to teach the multiplication of fractions in Turkish and American textbooks. Two Turkish textbooks and two American textbooks, Everyday Mathematics (EM) and Connected Mathematics 3 (CM), were analyzed. The analyses focused on the content and the nature of the mathematical problems presented in the textbooks. The findings of the study showed that the American textbooks aimed at developing conceptual understanding first and then procedural fluency, whereas the Turkish textbooks aimed at developing both concurrently. The American textbooks provided more opportunities for different computational strategies. The solutions to most problems in all textbooks required a single computational step, a numerical answer, and procedural knowledge. Furthermore, compared with the Turkish textbooks, the American textbooks contained a greater number of problems that required high-level cognitive skills such as mathematical reasoning.


George Caspar Homans, one of America's leading intellectual figures, presents here his collected papers, covering twenty-three years of work, on the nature of sound theory in social science. Subjects addressed include social structure, power, distributive justice, ethnomethodology, and behaviorism, all issues of concerns as well as continuing professional controversy. Homans also offers social histories that deal with social organization, political design, and the behavior of men and women in a time of fierce ideological conflict. He concludes by developing his viewpoint on the rightful place of general theory within social science. Homans' career has spanned many of the key periods in the development of twentieth century social science. His own work has been central to this process. He was the first and major sociologist to appreciate the sociologist implications of psychologists' work on learning and behavior theory. His contributions to modern sociology have had a major impact on the study of small groups, the problem of theory and methods of theory construction, and the study of basic characteristics of social behavior.


Abstract Mean thickness measurements and crystal-thickness distributions (CTDs) of illite particles vary systematically with changes in hydrothermal alteration type, fracture density, and attendant mineralization in a large acid-sulfate/Mo-porphyry hydrothermal system at Red Mountain, near Lake City, Colorado. The hydrothermal illites characterize an extensive zone of quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration beneath two deeply rooted bodies of magmatic-related, quartz-alunite altered rock. Nineteen illites from a 3000 ft vertical drill hole were analyzed by XRD using the PVP-10 intercalation method and the computer program MudMaster (Bertaut-Warren-Averbach technique). Mean crystallite thicknesses, as determined from 001 reflections, range from 5-7 nanometers (nm) at depths from 0-1700 ft, then sharply increase to 10-16 nm at depths between 1800-2100 ft, and decrease again to 4-5 nm below this level. The interval of largest particle thickness correlates strongly with the zone of most intense quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration (QSP) and attendant high-density stockwork fracturing, and with the highest concentrations of Mo within the drill core. CTD shapes for the illite particles fall into two main categories: asymptotic and lognormal. The shapes of the CTDs are dependent on conditions of illite formation. The asymptotic CTDs correspond to a nucleation and growth mechanism, whereas surface-controlled growth was the dominant mechanism for the lognormal CTDs. Lognormal CTDs coincide with major through-going fractures or stockwork zones, whereas asymptotic CTDs are present in wallrock distal to these intense fracture zones. The increase in illite particle size and the associated zone of intense QSP alteration and stockwork veining was related by proximity to the dacitic magma(s), which supplied both reactants and heat to the hydrothermal system. However, no changes in illite polytype, which in other studies reflect temperature transitions, were observed within this interval.


Offline Reinforcement Learning (RL) aims to learn policies from previously collected datasets without exploring the environment. Directly applying off-policy algorithms to offline RL usually fails due to the extrapolation error caused by the out-of-distribution (OOD) actions. Previous methods tackle such problem by penalizing the Q-values of OOD actions or constraining the trained policy to be close to the behavior policy. Nevertheless, such methods typically prevent the generalization of value functions beyond the offline data and also lack precise characterization of OOD data. In this paper, we propose Pessimistic Bootstrapping for offline RL (PBRL), a purely uncertainty-driven offline algorithm without explicit policy constraints. Specifically, PBRL conducts uncertainty quantification via the disagreement of bootstrapped Q-functions, and performs pessimistic updates by penalizing the value function based on the estimated uncertainty. To tackle the extrapolating error, we further propose a novel OOD sampling method. We show that such OOD sampling and pessimistic bootstrapping yields provable uncertainty quantifier in linear MDPs, thus providing the theoretical underpinning for PBRL. Extensive experiments on D4RL benchmark show that PBRL has better performance compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms.


The work of Anselm Kiefer begins with a crucial question. How, after the Holocaust, can one be an artist within the German tradition? Born at the end of the Second World War, Kiefer's career represents a quasi-existential quest to redefine Germanness. This new monograph will examine the foundation of Kiefer's work: memory and our response to it. Kiefer's work is informed by great literary works, myths, tales and legends, and particularly the world of Kabbalistic mysticism. This book explores his passion for alchemy, his admiration for great female figures obscured by history, and his relationship with the landscape and nature, a notable topic of his most recent works. Steeped in culture, Kiefer mixes many forms and media. The 'total work of art' has characterized his work for more than four decades. Art historian Dominique Baque highlights an aspect of Kiefer's work here that has received very little critical attention before now: his conceptual understanding of the book and photography. She also considers the often overlooked performance element of his work, starting with his first 'actions' from the end of the 1960s.


We are aiming at understanding the graphene formation mechanism on different SiC polytypes (6H, 4H and 3C) and orientations with the ultimate goal to fabricate large area graphene (up to 2 inch) with controlled number of monolayers and spatial uniformity. To reach the objectives we are using high-temperature atmospheric pressure sublimation process in an inductively heated furnace. The epitaxial graphene is characterized by ARPES, LEEM and Raman spectroscopy. Theoretical studies are employed to get better insight of graphene patterns and stability. Reproducible results of single layer graphene on the Si-face of 6H and 4H-SiC polytypes have been attained. It is demonstrated that thickness uniformity of graphene is very sensitive to the substrate miscut.


Background IL-17 is the defining cytokine of the Th17, Tc17, and γδ T cell populations that plays a critical role in mediating inflammation and autoimmunity. Psoriasis vulgaris is an inflammatory skin disease mediated by Th1 and Th17 cytokines with relevant contributions of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-17. Despite the pivotal role IL-17 plays in psoriasis, and in contrast to the other key mediators involved in the psoriasis cytokine cascade that are capable of inducing broad effects on keratinocytes, IL-17 was demonstrated to regulate the expression of a limited number of genes in monolayer keratinocytes cultured in vitro. Methodology/Principal Findings Given the clinical efficacy of anti-IL-17 agents is associated with an impressive reduction in a large set of inflammatory genes, we sought a full-thickness skin model that more closely resemble in vivo epidermal architecture. Using a reconstructed human epidermis (RHE), IL-17 was able to upregulate 419 gene probes and downregulate 216 gene probes. As possible explanation for the increased gene induction in the RHE model is that C/CAAT-enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBP) -β, the transcription factor regulating IL-17-responsive genes, is expressed preferentially in differentiated keratinocytes. Conclusions/Significance The genes identified in IL-17-treated RHE are likely relevant to the IL-17 effects in psoriasis, since ixekizumab (anti-IL-17A agent) strongly suppressed the "RHE" genes in psoriasis patients treated in vivo with this IL-17 antagonist.


Novel bis(azidophenyl)phosphole sulfide building block 8 has been developed to give access to a plethora of phosphole-containing π-conjugated systems in a simple synthetic step. This was explored for the reaction of the two azido moieties with phenyl-, pyridyl- and thienylacetylenes, to give bis(aryltriazolyl)-extended π-systems, having either the phosphole sulfide (9) or the phosphole (10) group as central ring. These conjugated frameworks exhibit intriguing photophysical and electrochemical properties that vary with the nature of the aromatic end-group. The λ3-phospholes 10 display blue fluorescence (λem = 460–469 nm) with high quantum yield (ΦF = 0.134–0.309). The radical anion of pyridyl-substituted phosphole sulfide 9b was observed with UV/Vis spectroscopy. TDDFT calculations on the extended π-systems showed some variation in the shape of the HOMOs, which was found to have an effect on the extent of charge transfer, depending on the aromatic end-group. Some fine-tuning of the emission maxima was observed, albeit subtle, showing a decrease in conjugation in the order thienyl <phenyl <pyridyl. These results show that variations in the distal ends of such π-systems have a subtle but significant effect on photophysical properties.


In the last 10-15 years much work devoted to the problem of regional economic modeling was fulfilled both in countries with planned economies and those with market economies. This work differs by the objectives, complexity, time horizons, and extent of interregional problem analysis, applied tools and so on. It seems that the time has come to start comparative analysis of this work with the main aim to generalize elaborated approaches to the solution of the whole problem and methods which are used to solve particular parts of it. As a result one or more systems of models with a more general-and as far as possible universal -- description of a subsystem may be constructed.

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) seems to be the most appropriate place in which to try to organize this kind of exploration. Having the feasibility to organize an international team of scholars who represent different schools and directions of exploration, cooperating with the scientists from East and West, organizing international conferences and workshops, IIASA seems to be the natural center for this cooperative activity.

Undoubtedly, the activities might be fruitful only if cooperation with national institutions and other international organizations -- the Regional Science Association is one of the first -- is installed.

Nevertheless, several years of cooperative activity are needed to obtain the first practical results in order to achieve mutual understanding of the approaches and apparatus which correspond to the conditions in different countries.


'Provincialism', or the separation of inferior spaces from normative ones, is seen in this essay as a key trope for interpreting modern Indian history. Provincialism, or provinciality, is a space recognizable instantly. It is marked by slowness, by absence of the new and recent, by what is seen on the national level as a brake-effect in an otherwise promising march forwards. Cities, which is what I concentrate on in this essay, are characterizable as provincial by a certain appearance: a topography of narrow streets, by the sloppy merger of the inside and outside, by an absence of discrimination between the jungle and the civilized as animal life proliferates on the roads. Their space is marked by a lack of discipline, and this lack is further exacerbated by an attitude almost aggressive, at any rate stubborn, that seems to embrace every other dimension of life. The provincial citizen is one whose body identifies with the provincial space. It revels in an indifference to the rules of obedience to arbitrary external exercises of power. The provincial space and its citizen are marked in the use of languages by the dominance of regional language over English. Overall, the provincial space is signified in the state as an obstacle, political, economic, and most of all cultural, to what could otherwise be the smooth march forward of unfettered forces of rationality and order. But it signifies itself by an alternative code. That which is indiscipline to the center is freedom to the margins; that which is coarse, is cultured; that which is backward, is rich; that which is alien is intimate; and that which is unable to keep step with a march forward is precisely the intelligent and crafty that refuses to play a non-reflexive, mechanical game.


As institutions of public service, libraries play a major role in providing a democratic and egalitarian access to information and culture. Their missions are defined in several manifestos and codes of ethics. In such a context, integration of digital resources into libraries collections has created new difficulties, due to:
- the complexity of organising and making these contents easily available;
- visibility and promotion aspects.

This, not only because the mission of libraries cover access to every kind of resources, digital or not, but also because it is one of the patrons' expectations.
Based on the results of a research project held in collaboration with some french and swiss libraries, the aim of the poster is to set out some solutions to better integrate ebooks solutions into libraries' offer and to optimise the communication actions about this kind of resources. Our suggestions are divided into two kinds of recommendations: on one hand, those dealing with content access, on the other hand, the ones regarding communication.

First, patrons may have difficulties to identify, find, access and read ebooks. Their needs and wishes here may concern the devices as well as the content selection and providing.
We encourage libraries to:
- Supply the patrons with preloaded reading devices;
- Offer personalised access to ebooks;
- Propose downloadable lists of ebooks.
For example, specific contents can be selected according to topics such as civic engagement or social development.

Then, given that ebooks have appeared quite recently in libraries' collections and that this kind of resources are intangible, this offer is often little-known by patrons. Furthermore, users do not always have sufficient technical and informational knowledge to access and read ebooks. Thus, it is necessary to inform them about:
- the simple fact that this digital offer exists;
- the scope of the offer;
- technical aspects and constraints linked to these digital documents' use (e.g. formats, devices, access protocols…);
- the support provided by their library (help, training, workshops…).
Some actions can be undertaken to develop the ebooks' potential and use:
- To deliver appropriate and accurate information about ebooks by developing new services based on information literacy, use of ebooks and digital reading devices advice ;
- To train patrons and to encourage them to self-study in this field ;
- To efficiently communicate to highlight ebooks.

In this way, libraries should offer a wide access to knowledge, regardless the medium, especially since digital contents break down physical barriers and can reach people with disabilities or far from (digital) reading (elders, prisoners…).


This study investigates the emergence and the rise of Creative Hubs (CHs) in Istanbul, which as Turkey's economic capital contains most of its creative workforce and the largest number of its CHs. In the last 10 years, the number of co-working spaces (CWSs), incubation centres (ICs), labs, and makerspaces in the city has rapidly increased, following a global trend. This study aims to better understand the changing working forms of the city by investigating the motivations behind the emergence of CHs. 46 CH examples, consisting of CWSs, ICs, makerspaces, and labs, have been examined for this purpose. The study is structured around the four main categories that highlight the different aspects of CHs: structure (establishment structure and community structure), focus (sectors and professions), services (physical and social facilities), and values (motivation). The findings of the study demonstrate that members of CHs are mostly freelancers, entrepreneurs, micro SMSs, and start-ups, consisting mostly of members of Generation Y. They work predominantly in creative sectors and tend to look for flexible and cost-saving solutions, support mechanisms, and new connections for their work. The research revealed that CHs are distinguished through the services that they provide. Having emerged as new forms to respond to the distinctive needs of emerging jobs in the creative economy era, they can be considered a new landscape of the post-industrial city.


We have obtained two- and three-dimensional detection threshold contours in cone contrast space for sinusoidal gratings for three subjects at three spatiotemporal conditions (1 cycle/degree (c/deg), 0 Hz; 0.125 c/deg, 0 Hz; 1 c/deg, 24 Hz). These conditions were chosen to favor the response of each of the three postreceptoral mechanisms in turn. Contours were obtained from measurements in as many as 60 axes in (L, M, S) cone contrast space and were fitted by superellipses. Our technique permitted us to improve on earlier estimates of the cone weightings to the mechanisms. We found that the red–green mechanism has an input cone weighting of L−M with a 2% S-cone input; the luminance mechanism has a weighting of kL + M, where k varies between 3 and 5 at the high-temporal condition, with a 5% S-cone input in opposition to L- and M-cones; and the blue–yellow mechanism consists of S inputs in closely balanced opposition to L and M inputs. These cone weights were found to be consistent among our three subjects.


We present a quantified description of the fluid flow and a novel flowline-based meshing technique to create adaptive grids for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations in patient-specific intracranial aneurysms. The adaptive grid density is obtained such that it captures the fine geometrical details of the flow with high grid density, while smoother flow characteristics are calculated with a coarser grid density. The correlation between the topological characteristics of the flow and the element size of the adaptive grid results in a practical mathematical formula for calculating the element size using only one uniform base mesh and a user defined implementation in CFD post processors.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Peer-to-Peer systems have proven to be an effective way of sharing data. Modern protocols are able to efficiently route a message to a given peer. However, determining the destination peer in the first place is not always trivial. We propose a model in which peers advertise their expertise in the Peer-to-Peer network. The knowledge about the expertise of other peers forms a semantic topology. Based on the semantic similarity between the subject of a query and the expertise of other peers, a peer can select appropriate peers to forward queries to, instead of broadcasting the query or sending it to a random set of peers. To calculate our semantic similarity measure, we make the simplifying assumption that the peers share the same ontology. We evaluate the model in a bibliographic scenario, where peers share bibliographic descriptions of publications among each other. In simulation experiments complemented with a real-world field experiment, we show how expertise-based peer selection improves the performance of a Peer-to-Peer system with respect to precision, recall and the number of messages.


The tensile plastic strains and the residual tensile stresses caused by heat input during the laser cladding process are the main reasons for the cracking. In this paper, the laser cladding process on a type 1045 steel plate with Ni60 powder feeding was investigated and simulated by finite element method to analyze the temperature field and stress-strain field of the laser cladding process. In the temperature field model, the main considerations were given to the heat source data and the thermal boundary conditions. The interactions of laser, powders and base metal were mainly considered in the application of the heat source data. The relationship between the heat convection coefficient of work piece surface and the temperature variation was mainly considered in the application of thermal boundary conditions. In the stress-strain field model, the main consideration was given to the elastic-plastic characteristics of the materials, and the materials were assumed to be linear strain-strengthened. Moreover, the thermal stresses could be solved through the temperature field and were subsequently applied directly to the stress-strain field model as loads. Besides the temperature variations, the stress variations and the strain variations of some critical points (including the crest point of the cladded layer and intersection point of cladded layer and plate) were also obtained through the finite calculation. The temperature variations show that the heating curve is approximately a straight line while the cooling curve is like an arm of a hyperbola. The strain variations show that the thermal strain has a variation trend similar to the temperature variations. The elastic strain of each point is very low when compared to the plastic strain. The calculated results show that the tensile plastic strain of the crest point on the coating is the greatest in the cladding direction and the tensile stress in this direction of this point is great too. As a result, transverse crack can be easily initiated at the crest of the coating. While the tensile plastic strain at the intersection point of the base metal and coating is the greatest in the direction vertical to the plate thickness, the stress at this point (in the same direction) is compressive. Therefore, the intersection points tend to form a limited toe crack which can not grow.


Abstract In the present work, the formation of ester linkages in cellulosic materials during drying and heating was addressed. The results indicated that direct ester formation, without anhydride intermediate, occurs between carboxylic acids of suitable structure and cellulosic hydroxyls at 180°C, even after reaction times as short as 5 min. The 2(R)-hydroxybutyric acid is most effective in ester formation, followed by 2-ketobutyric acid and 3-hydroxybutyric acid. Hexanoic acid is less effective and veratric acid produces no esters at all. At lower temperatures, 2-ketobutyric acid is the most reactive compound. One conclusion is that a hydroxyl or keto group in α position of the carboxylic acids favours ester formation. Another finding is that three pyrrolidine structures are produced after esterification and aminolysis of 2-ketobutyric acid. One of the structures indicates that 2-ketobutyric acid is reactive in two positions and could therefore be a potential cross-linker. A critical parameter for ester formation is pH, and the results indicate that pH <2 strongly favours esterification, whereas almost no esters are produced at pH >5–6. All experiments were performed in a solid-state model system (on cellulosic filter paper) with low moisture content. Esterification of five carboxylic acids was studied. Samples were heated constantly at 180°C for 5 min or gradually from 22°C to 180°C over periods ranging from 5 to 45 min. Quantitative analysis of ester formation between the monocarboxylic acids and the hydroxyl groups of cellulose was performed by means of aminolysis and gas chromatography.


We fabricate a high-quality germanium-on-insulator (GOI) with tensile strain by combining the wafer bonding of a strained Ge grown on a Si substrate and an oxidized Si substrate and the selective etching of Si. The obtained 300-nm-thick strained GOI shows a smooth surface with RMS roughness of 0.15 nm and no dislocation is detected by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). The tensile strain of 0.19% induced in the GOI is found to be maintained throughout the fabrication process. This suggests that the fabricated strained GOI has a high potential as an essential platform for high-performance electronic and optical devices.


Given a set of documents and an input query that is expressed in a natural language, the problem of document search is retrieving the most relevant documents. Unlike most existing systems that perform document search based on keyword matching, we propose a method that considers the meaning of the words in the queries and documents. As a result, our algorithm can return documents that have no words in common with the input query as long as the documents are relevant. For example, a document that contains the words "Ford", "Chrysler" and "General Motors" multiple times is surely relevant for the query "car" even if the word "car" never appears in the document. Our information retrieval algorithm is based on a similarity graph that contains the degree of semantic closeness between terms, where a term can be a word or a phrase. Since the algorithms that constructs the similarity graph takes as input a myriad of parameters, in this paper we fine-tune the part of the algorithm that constructs the Wikipedia part of the graph. Specifically, we experimentally fine-tune the algorithm on the Miller and Charles study benchmark that contains 30 pairs of terms and their similarity score as determined by human users. We then evaluate the performance of the fine-tuned algorithm on the Cranfield benchmark that contains 1400 documents and 225 natural language queries. The benchmark also contains the relevant documents for every query as determined by human judgment. The results show that the fine-tuned algorithm produces higher mean average precision (MAP) score than traditional keyword-based search algorithms because our algorithm considers not only the words and phrases in the query and documents, but also their meaning.


The Delaunay triangulation is one of the fundamental problems in computational geometry, dual to the well-known Voronoi diagram. It has numerous applications in various disciplines such as computer graphics, computer vision, and robotics. This thesis deals with a number of interrelated questions arising in modeling shapes by computing Delaunay triangulations. We give algorithms for surface reconstruction, computing Delaunay triangulations given surfaces, and computing Delaunay triangulations in general.
Given a set of samples from a surface, the surface reconstruction problem is to construct a piecewise linear approximation of the original surface. We give two surface reconstruction algorithms with guarantees of both geometric and topological correctness using the 3D Delaunay triangulation of the input samples. The first algorithm selects a set of Delaunay triangles using a simple geometric test and extracts a manifold from it. It is the first surface reconstruction algorithm with topological guarantee of correctness. The second algorithm improves the robustness using the weighted Voronoi diagrams called power diagram.
When the surface on which the samples lie are known, we can use the connectivity of the surface to speed up the Delaunay triangulation. We give an O(n log* n) expected time algorithm to compute the 3D Delaunay triangulation given the surface on which the samples lie, under some realistic assumptions. It improves upon O( n log n) expected time usual randomized incremental algorithm in this case. The algorithm can be useful for mesh generation and medial axis construction.
The randomized incremental algorithm for Delaunay triangulation is theoretically optimal in expected time but suffers from serious thrashing because of its random memory access pattern when the data structure gets too large to fit in memory. We propose a new insertion order called biased randomized insertion order (BRIO) which removes enough randomness to significantly improve performance, but leaves enough randomness so that the algorithm remains theoretically optimal. We show by experiments that the size of input data we can compute in a given machine increases dramatically using BRIO instead of the total random order.


Carbonate platforms spanning intervals of global change provide an opportunity to identify causal links between the evolution of marine environment and depositional architecture. This study investigates the controls on platform geometry across the Palaeozoic to Mesozoic transition and yields new stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental constraints on the Great Bank of Guizhou, a latest Permian to earliest Late Triassic isolated carbonate platform in the Nanpanjiang Basin of south China. Reconstruction of platform architecture was achieved by integrating field mapping, petrography, biostratigraphy, satellite imagery analysis and δ13C chemostratigraphy. In contrast to previous interpretations, this study indicates that: (i) the Great Bank of Guizhou transitioned during Early Triassic time from a low‐relief bank to a platform with high relief above the basin floor (up to 600 m) and steep slope angles (preserved up to 50°); and (ii) the oldest‐known platform‐margin reef of the Mesozoic Era grew along steep, prograding clinoforms in an outer‐margin to lower‐slope environment. Increasing platform relief during Early Triassic time was caused by limited sediment delivery to the basin margin and a high rate of accommodation creation driven by Indosinian convergence. The steep upper Olenekian (upper Lower Triassic) slope is dominated by well‐cemented grainstone, suggesting that high carbonate saturation states led to syndepositional or rapid post‐depositional sediment stabilization. Latest Spathian reef initiation coincided with global cooling following Early Triassic global warmth. The first Triassic framework‐building metazoans on the Great Bank of Guizhou were small calcareous sponges restricted to deeper water settings, but early Mesozoic reef builders were volumetrically dominated by Tubiphytes, a fossil genus of uncertain taxonomic affinity. In aggregate, the stratigraphic architecture of the Great Bank of Guizhou records sedimentary response to long‐term environmental and biological recovery from the end‐Permian mass extinction, highlighting the close connections among marine chemistry, marine ecosystems and carbonate depositional systems.


Introduction: Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) plays an important role in transmission of nerve impulses, plasticity, growth, and generally in the health of nervous system. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is involved in immune and inflammatory responses and is produced by immune cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, skeletal muscles, and fat tissues. The aim of this study was investigating the changes of IL-6 and BDNF serum concentration following acute plyometric training among inactive men. Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted at a gymnasium in Yasuj. A total of 18 inactive men voluntarily participated in the study and were randomly divided in two groups: experimental (n=9) and control group (n=9). Subjects in the acute exercise group performed plyometric trainings consist of scissor jump, lateral hop, box jump, diagonal hop, power skipping, and speed skipping. Subjects' blood samples were taken before and after training in order to measurement IL-6 and BDNF levels. The levels of IL-6 and BDNF were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Between group differences and within group differences were analyzed through independent t-test and dependent t-test, respectively, using SPSS 16 software. The level of significance was considered P<0.05. Results: The levels of IL-6 after plyometric trainings significantly increased comparing with the control group, but significant changes wasn't observed in BDNF concentrations. Conclusion: Acute plyometric training did not have any effects on the serum level of BDNF as to the short period of training. However, the significant rise of IL-6 was attributed to the subjects' lack of physical fitness.


This report presents the preliminary results of the SEAMEO SPAFA Survey on Archaeology Education in Southeast Asia which was conducted online from September to December 2018. The aim of the survey was to understand the archaeology education landscape in Southeast Asia and identify the current needs in archaeology education and skills training. 330 people responded to the survey, which was available in multiple languages. These initial results outline where archaeologists in the region studied archaeology; public perceptions of archaeology education in the region; an overview of the archaeology profession and industry and the main training needs identified by those studying or working in Southeast Asian archaeology today.


Objective: To compare the importance of storage time and the tooth type for isolation of dental pulp cells (DPCs) from extracted human teeth. Methods: 35 human teeth were used in this study. The teeth were stored in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) after extraction and divided into two groups randomly according to the time elapsed between extraction and isolation. In group one, the isolation was performed within 2 hours and in the other group it was performed 24 hours after extraction. Results: No significant differences between isolation time and total cell counts (p=0.483) and between isolation time and viable cells (p=0.341). No significant differences between the first molar and the premolar related cell counts and viable cells, but both teeth groups showed significant higher viability and had higher total cell amounts than third molars after isolation. Statistically significant correlations were found between age of donors and viable cells and viability after 24 hours isolation time. Conclusion: The immediate isolation of DPCs is not necessary after the tooth extraction. The tooth can be stored in PBS at room temperature up to twenty four hours after the extraction without a significant reduction in cell viability and counts. The cells obtained from younger donors might have more chance for more viability even if storage time was extended. Premolars and first molars were better donors than the third molars for DPCs isolations and the high number of success revascularization rate in premolars with necrotic immature premolars might be because of their high cell viability potentials.


— The use of new anti-HCV drugs is currently limited by high costs and dual therapy; pegylated interferon and ribavirin (peg-IFN+RBV) still represents the only affordable treatment in patients with low-stage fibrosis. We evaluated the role of Interferon lambda4 (IFNL4) polymorphisms and its combination with on-treatment alanine transaminase (ALT) modification in predicting sustained virological response (SVR) in HCV genotype 1 and 4 patients with low-stage fibrosis. We retrospectively analysed 124 patients with Metavir ≤F2, who received dual therapy at our centre. Genotyping for IFNL4 polymorphisms was assessed at baseline, as well as ALT levels (baseline and week 2, 4, 12 and 24 of therapy). Thirty patients (24%) were TT/TT, 74 (60%) TT/DG and 20 (16%) DG/DG. The SVR rate was significantly higher in TT/TT genotype compare to TT/DG and DG/DG (97% vs. 53% and 50%, respectively, p=0.001). Patients that achieved a 60% reduction of ALT baseline value after 4 weeks of therapy had a significantly higher SVR rate (94% vs. 52%, p<0.001). Factors significantly associated with SVR were TT/TT genotype (p=0.029), RVR (p=0.019) and 60% ALT reduction at 4 week of therapy (p=0.005). The absence of both TT/TT genotype and 60% ALT reduction were negative predictors of SVR (p<0.001). In conclusion, the combined use of IFNL4 polymorphisms and ALT reduction at 4 week of treatment is able to optimize candidates' selection for peg-IFN+RBV, discriminating those that could still benefit from dual therapy from the ones that need the new regimens. —


The face of traditional Human Resources services in progressive organisations throughout South Africa is currently undergoing a dramatic change. The focus has moved from managing established traditional HR functions to providing guidance to implementing business strategy. As a result, professionals in Human Resources are increasingly challenged to take a more strategic perspective regarding their role in the organisation. As Human Resources professionals respond to this challenge, measuring Human Resource's performance and its contribution to the firm's performance consistently emerge as a key theme. At the same time more and more top-level managers are realising that HR or the people side of the business is critical to the long-term survival of the business. Human Resources functions are challenged to prove to organisations that they add value to the organisation's performance. These functions are, however, battling to justify the reasons for their existence in organisations. Perhaps one of the reasons that HR has not been more successful in communicating the importance of what they do, is because they have tended not to express it in economic terms. The study underway aims at addressing one of the challenges that the Eskom Human Resources function is facing. In view of the reality of recognizing human limitations it makes eminently good sense to consider the experience of others. By systematically studying the best business practices, operating tactics, and winning strategies of others, an individual, team or organisation can accelerate its own progress and improvement. This study therefore, draws from the experience of others through uti lising benchmarking as a method to evaluate the value that HR adds to business performance. Benchmarking is the key to proving the impact of HR function as well as providing the data for effective strategic planning. A number of international HR benchmarking studies has been undertaken. Examples are, the PWC consulting group studies, The Saratoga human capital performance benchmarking studies, the Watson Wyatt human capital index and the HR Health checks undertaken in Europe and the U.K. Each one of these studies has a unique approach. The Saratoga tool has been chosen for this study as a result of its' uniqueness regarding its' capability of combining disparate data from around the enterprise in a central repository allowing HR professionals to deliver quantifiable results through analysis, benchmarking, trending and forecasting. The Return on Investment (ROI) of Human Capital draws years of quantitative and qualitative international research that has provided a breakthrough methodology for measuring the bottom-line effect of employee performance. There are a vast number of HR practices that the HR function focuses on. In this context it appears that the reason why HR has not earned the respect they should earn is also because they have been slow in transforming themselves from the traditional, transactional role to the transformational leadership one that takes on the change agent status. This study therefore aimed at identifying value adding HR practices, which HR should focus on in order to add value to organisational performance. The concept of the balanced scorecard, together with he newly introduced concept of the HR scorecard was also used as guides to measuring the value of HR in Eskom. Seven categories of HR activities were chosen according to the already established Saratoga measures. These categories are: organisational effectiveness; HR staffing, costs and remuneration; remuneration/ compensation and benefits; absence and retention; recruitment; training and development; and Occupational Health and Safety. The results of the study were presented based on the key indicators for the employment cycle namely; Acquiring skills, maintenance, development and retention. These indicators were analysed in relation to the organisation's human capital performance. An additional category was that of the HR function itself. The primary results were as follows; Eskom posted relatively good results on human capital performance. However, there are indications that this performance can be improved. Eskom is weak on acquiring. There are big opportunities for improvement. Eskom's maintenance posted poor results. There are however interventions under way to address this situation. Eskom's investment in the development of its employees was found to be very good, outclassing all its counterparts. The study suggests that maybe this high investment account for the reason why Eskom is able to have a high internal recruitment rate. Eskom's retention strategies seemed to be very effective especially since there were very low levels of resignations. The findings on the HR structure and support were that the HR structure is too densely populated, yet, professionalism was slightly lower. There are opportunities for improvement in this area. The study was therefore able to achieve its objectives. The main recommendation for future research is that a qualitative approach, which is interpretative, should back-up this study so as to verify a number of supporting HR roles and functions. LlST OF FIGURES PAGE Figure 2.1 The Eskom Transmission balanced scorecard 34 Figure 2.2 Strategic influence of HR factors 35 Figure 3.1 HR model illustrating the process of acquiring shareholder value 48 Figure 3.2 An illustration of balancing cost control and value creation 53 Figure 5.1 Saratoga model o f analysis 79 Figure 6.1 The Recommended Eskom HR Scorecard 109


Experiments were carried out to establish whether glutamine synthesis in yeast is subject to control through the operation of cumulative feedback inhibition on the bios y n t he t ic enzyme glut m i n e sy n t he tase . 15N isotope was used to measure the in vivo rate of amide synthesis in a,culture growing on ammonia. The steady-state rate measured corresponded quite closely with a value calculated from a knowledge of the enzyme content of the yeast, and indicated that under these conditions yeast did not possess a large excess of biosynthetic capacity. In another experiment yeast was subjected to a brief period of nitrogen deprivation and rates of amide synthesis were determined immediately after addition of ammonia to the culture. This established that no significant increase in the rate of amide synthesis per unit of enzyme accompanied a reduction in the cell concentration of glutamine and other amino acids, and that the small increase in rate observed was caused by an increase in enzyme amount. Measurements of the rate of glutamine synthesis in yeast with very high levels of enzyme confirmed that the enzyme content was of prime importance in determining the rate of synthesis in the organism. Thus when ammonia was added to yeast growing on glutamate, the rates of amide synthesis were initially nearly sixfold higher than ones observed on ammonia; this enhancement of rate almost exactly paralleled the increase in amount of enzyme in the yeast. Although the cell concentration of glutamine had greatly increased at this time and the concentration of some of its derivatives was unchanged, virtually no restraint operated to limit the synthetic activity of the enzyme in the organism. The rapid decline in the rate of glutamine synthesis which ensued occurred in response to a depletion of enzyme substrates as well as to enzyme inactivation, and the relative importance of these two factors in the control of glutamine synthesis was quantitatively assessed.


Abstract In the present paper, we present a novel finite-element method capable of handling most of the physics arising in the resin wet-out step for any composite system and processing case. The method is based on a compressible two-phase continuum formulation where a key feature is to model the involved physics via innovative use of the compressibility of the phases. On the one hand, the fluid-phase compressibility is used to capture the physics of the advancing resin front as well as the physics behind the flow front. On the other hand, solid-phase compressibility is used to model micro-infiltration of the resin and the corresponding preform compaction, essentially considered as a fluid sink problem. Finally, the generic porous media model is formulated in the finite strain regime. The model is implemented and demonstrated for different manufacturing methods and the results with respect to each example are presented. The degree of saturation, pressure distribution, preform deformation, and reaction forces are some of the post-processed results for different manufacturing methods. The ultimate goal of this contribution is to establish a unified generic and general simulation tool for structural (long fiber) composite processing where, to this date, there is no single FE-based tool available commercially for this purpose.


Background: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH), as one of the most common congenital endocrine disorders, may be significantly associated with congenital malformations. This study investigates urogenital abnormalities in children with primary CH (PCH). Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 200 children aged three months to 1 year, referred to Amir-Kabir Hospital, Arak, Iran. One hundred children with PCH, as the case group, and 100 healthy children, as the control group, were selected using convenient sampling. For all children, demographic data checklists were filled, and physical examination, abdomen and pelvic ultrasound and other diagnostic measures (if necessary) were performed to evaluate the congenital urogenital abnormalities including anomalies of the penis and urethra, and disorders and anomalies of the scrotal contents. Results: Among 92 (100%) urogenital anomalies diagnosed, highest frequencies with 37 (40.2%), 26(28.2%) and 9 (9.7%) cases including hypospadias, Cryptorchidism, and hydrocele, respectively. The frequency of urogenital abnormalities among 32 children with PCH, with 52 cases (56.5%) was significantly higher than the frequency of abnormalities among the 21 children in the control group, with 40 cases (43.4%). (OR=2.04; 95%CI: 1.1-3.6; p=0.014). Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that PCH is significantly associated with the congenital urogenital abnormalities. However, due to the lack of evidence in this area, further studies are recommended to determine the necessity of conducting screening programs for abnormalities of the urogenital system in children with CH at birth.


Despite the fact that management and decision makers have spent a great deal of money on protecting their data from any possible attack, several have occurred. Moreover, security specialists often establish a welldesigned security policy. This research investigates the field of assessing staff acceptance and compliance with information security. Thus, significant factors influencing compliance are investigated and prioritised by this research. The study is conducted in a particular governmental organisation in Saudi Arabia. The study sample is 111 respondents. In terms of the survey result, information security is influenced positively by factors relating to certainty of control (94%), awareness programs (93%), sanctions (93%) and reward (78%). However, the factor relating to trust between employees affects negatively by 45% on information security.


Ruble S. Watson, ed. Memory, History, and Opposition under State Socialism. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. Santa Fe: Distributed by University of Washington Press for School of American Research Press, 1994. x, 210 pp. References. Index. $16.95, paper. $35.00, cloth. The introduction to this collection begins with one of the finer Soviet-era anecdotes: "Armenian radio is asked `Is it possible to foretell the future?.' The reply is: "Yes, that is no problem: we know exactly what the future will be like. Our problem is with the past: that keeps changing." Commencing on this ironic note, the book unfolds into several nuanced and original studies of how social memory and historical interpretation was managed within various state socialist regimes. The most innovative element of each chapter the emphasis placed upon the ambiguous nature of officially sanctioned historical discourse. In direct conflict with theorists of totalitarianism, who assert that physical repression and fear were the primary elements of state power, the contributors of this book provide a multitude of examples of how official ideologies in many cases came to discredit the state or even provide the metaphors which could be used to imagine a new order. As Rubie Watson directly states in the introduction, this is a collection which examines the meaning of "actually existing socialism" and not the socialism of Cold War ideologues. Rather than presenting chronicles of physical repression, this collection presents a number of contexts in which memory and experience is cautiously repressed by social actors (with the implicit risk that it might slip away and confront the repressors in the future). Among collections which examine the dynamics of state socialism, this collection is one of the best edited and most innovative. The product of a seminar organised in 1991, all of the chapters cross-reference each other producing a work with a high degree of coherence. Perhaps most boldly, the chapters by Watson and Humphrey argue for a theory of social power within state socialist contexts which is distinct from theories of class oppression and colonial oppression. This controversial theoretical approach is supported by a very rich summary of the literature on state socialism world-wide. Although four of the nine chapters focus on China specifically, the reader will find theoretical debates which draw from a rich bibliography of work from Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia. Just as the people of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union remember and debate the advantages and disadvantages of their former political regimes in recent elections, this book provides a concise summary of European, American, and dissident analyses of state socialism. …


Abstract Experimental researches of the shear flows influence on the confinement in the mirror trap of the dense nonequilibrium helium and nitrogen plasma created under conditions of the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) gas breakdown were made. Limiter with electric potential relative to the vacuum chamber was set inside the mirror trap. During the increasing of the value of limiter potential over Ucrit = 70-100 V the considerable increasing of the full ion flux from the trap was obtained (about of 3-4 times) that is apparently indicates that the plasma density and may be electron temperature increased in the trap that can be interpreted as the transversal losses decrease that is the result of "vortex confinement" regime realization. Pointed effect was obtained in the helium and nitrogen plasma both. Azimuthal modes with m = 1, m = 2 dominated in spatial spectrum of plasma oscillations. This method of "vortex confinement" regime realization for non-equilibrium heavy ions plasmas seems to be perspective for new generation of ECR heavy multicharged ion sources creation.


In this article, we draw upon 'After-ANT' scholarship to generate openings for a shift from purely deconstructive studies of object organization to a more straightforward generation of concrete and specific alternative trajectories towards the future by way of ontological experimentation. Through careful empirical investigation of a mine and a landfill, and how these are enacted in practice in different topological registers, we show how mines and landfills are intertwined; enacted sometimes as similar and in other cases as different types of objects, thus shaping the paths of becoming for those bundles of relations that become enacted as either a 'mine object' or a 'landfill object'. Mapping these practices generates openings for interventions suggesting how things could be made different in some specificity; in this case, for example, the appreciation of what constitutes 'natural resources'. The overarching purpose of this article is to intervene in current debates regarding the potential merits of drawing upon Object-Oriented Philosophy as an inspiration in critical organizational studies. While we are highly sympathetic to calls for more experimental object studies, we are hesitant towards Object-Oriented Philosophy as a source of inspiration due to its specific metaphysical underpinnings. To clarify what we find to be at stake here, we conclude the article by situating After-ANT in a wider landscape of thought, discussing the contrast between broadly pragmatist research approaches, such as After-ANT, and Object-Oriented Philosophy. Finally, we try to spell out how we believe this contrast reverberates upon how we understand the purpose and potential of critical social science.


The Waterloo massive sulfide deposit occurs in the Cambro-Ordovician Seventy Mile Range Group in the Charters Towers district in northern Queensland, one of the principal submarine successions in eastern Australia that contains abundant volcanic-hosted base metal deposits. The deposit consists of several small dismembered, stratiform, blanketlike, pyrite-chalcopyrite-sphalerite-galena massive sulfide lenses hosted by intensely altered volcanic rocks. The deposit and its host rocks have been deformed during regional deformation of the Middle to Late Ordovcian and were affected by two subsequent events of brittle deformation.
The Waterloo deposit formed on top of a lava-dominated andesite succession comprising coherent volcanic units and related juvenile volcaniclastic rocks. The hydrothermal activity leading to the deposition of massive sulfides commenced during the waning stages or after the cessation of the andesite volcanism. The blanketlike mineralization is interpreted to have formed largely at or very close to the sea floor in a moderately deep to deep marine environment. Formation of the massive sulfides was accompanied by the mass-flow deposition of coarse quartz-feldspar crystal-rich volcanic debris that records broadly contemporaneous, probably explosive, rhyolitic volcanism occurring outside the immediate study area. This resedimented volcaniclastic unit retains a record of hanging-wall alteration, indicating that the Waterloo hydrothermal system was operative during and after burial by the coarse volcaniclastic material. The deposition of the coarse volcaniclastic rocks was followed by the intrusion of a feldspar-porphyritic dacite cryptodome that was also subject to hydrothermal alteration associated with the massive sulfide formation. Facies relationships suggest that the cryptodome locally breached the wet and unconsolidated coarse volcaniclastic material to emerge on the sea floor. The emplacement of the partially extrusive dacite cryptodome coincided with the waning of the Waterloo hydrothermal system.
The subsequent period of relatively quiet sedimentation was occasionally interrupted by the emplacement of synsedimentary basalt and andesite sills as volcanism at Waterloo shifted back to more mafic compositions.
This period was followed by the mass-flow deposition of coarse feldspar-quartz-vitric volcanic debris and the
onset of another period of intense basalt- to andesite-dominated volcanism.
Geochemical analyses of volcanic rocks from the host-rock succession of the Waterloo deposit and correlation with regional data suggest that the massive sulfide deposits in the Charters Towers district formed during a specific period of Cambro-Ordovician back-arc basin development dominated by mantle-derived volcanism.
Comparison with the volcanic architecture of other known massive sulfide deposits in the district indicates that
massive sulfide mineralization at Charters Towers is mainly associated with silicic shallow, intrusion-dominated
volcanic centers and occurrences of this volcanic facies should be considered prospective for other deposits in
the belt.


The dual-energy computed tomography (DECT)-based approach holds promise in reducing the overall uncertainty in proton stopping-power-ratio (SPR) estimation, but cannot be easily implemented with most commercial proton treatment planning systems (TPS). In this study, we revisited the idea of coupling the stoichiometric calibration method with virtual monoenergetic CT datasets (MonoCT) generated by modern DECT scanners, because of its readiness for implementation with the existing TPS. Our objective was to determine the optimal energy of the MonoCT dataset for stoichiometric calibration and estimate the overall uncertainty in SPR estimation at the optimal energy. We performed stoichiometric calibration for MonoCT datasets across the energy range available on a Siemens Force DECT scanner and a Philips IQon DECT scanner in a 10 keV step. We estimated the uncertainties of different sources (imaging, modeling, and inherent uncertainties) for different tissue types (lung, soft, and bone tissues) associated with each energy; these were then combined into a single composite uncertainty for three tumor sites (head-and-neck (HN), lung, and prostate). The optimal energy was eventually selected based on the composite range uncertainty, which turned out to be 160 keV for both DECT scanners. At 160 keV, the total uncertainties (2σ) in SPR estimation were determined to be 3.2%–4.5%, 0.9%, and 1.4%–1.6% for lung, soft, and bony tissues, respectively. These results were comparable to the corresponding values estimated for the DECT approach evaluated in our previous study: 3.8%, 1.2% and 2.0%, for lung, soft, and bony tissues, respectively. The composite range uncertainties (2σ) were estimated as 1.5%, 1.7%, and 1.5% for prostate, lung, and HN, respectively. Our results demonstrated the potential of MonoCT images for reducing proton SPR uncertainty. Further clinical studies are needed to compare this approach with the DECT approach directly on real patient cases.


There is limited understanding of the underlying process that govern the peroxone activated persulfate (PAP) oxidation of 1,4-Dioxane, specifically at what rates this advanced oxidation process (AOP) proceeds, how long the system remains active once injected into a contaminant plume, and which radicals might be involved. The research presented herein investigates a peroxone activated persulfate oxidant, patented by EnChem Engineering (Newton, Massachusetts) under the name OxyZone®, and its effect on 1,4-Dioxane contaminated water under column scale conditions in the presence of porous material. A secondary objective of this study was to identify radicals formed during the oxidation of 1,4-Dioxane using OxyZone with Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Initial batch experiments provided data on the reaction rates as a function of the oxidant: contaminant ratio. The formation of hydroxyl radicals, and possibly sulfate radicals, was confirmed by EPR. Subsequent flow-through columnscale experiments were conducted in a sand packed, 1.5 m long PVC column saturated with an aqueous solution containing dissolved approximately 300 μ/L 1,4-Dioxane. 1,4Dioxane effluent concentrations were monitored with a Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer. Two types of column scale experiments were performed to simulate two possible oxidant injection schemes, namely oxidant injection at one or more than one locations within the flow field of a 1,4-Dioxane plume. In these column experiments, the oxidation rates varied from 0.08 h-1to 1.54 h-1 and were greatest when the oxidant was injected as two slugs farthest up-gradient. Under these conditions, almost all 1,4-Dioxane was destroyed during breakthrough of the oxidant solution. Most noteworthy is that the degradation process continued past the time expected from the breakthrough of a conservative tracer. The prolonged reactivity was found to be caused by the oxidant solution's elevated density (about 1.05 g/cm3), which retarded the (upward) flow of the oxidant solution through the column, thereby extending the contact time with the contaminant and decreasing the 1,4-Dioxane concentration to below detection limit during much of the oxidant breakthrough. Together, this research suggests that the insitu chemical oxidation of 1,4-Dioxane in groundwater plumes with peroxone activated persulfate is possible. However, field application must account for the density driven transport that influences the oxidant transport.


Two boys were among the first patients to have benefited from the use of biocides (antiseptics and disinfectants). Joseph Lister described in 1867 how he used carbolic acid to prevent infection in their injured limbs, thereby saving them from amputation.1 Ever since then we have relied on antiseptics and disinfectants to prevent infection by reducing the burden of bacteria in wounds, catheters, ventilators and the environment of susceptible patients, such as neonates. Should biocides fail, we may once again live in a more hostile world, in which deaths linked to caesarean sections, preterm births, invasive procedures, burns and accidents are commonplace. Our dependence on biocides has once again increased in importance in the light of potentially untreatable infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms, as prevention of infections (by using biocides) is once again better than cure (use of failing antibiotics). However, there is mounting evidence of bacteria also becoming resistant to biocides when used at in-use concentrations for the recommended length of time. From laboratory studies, we are also aware of a growing body of evidence of cross-resistance to antibiotics. These worrying observations are being studied to understand the relevance of observational studies and laboratory findings to infection prevention procedures in the clinic and whether the use of certain biocides can lead to inadvertent selection of bacteria that are also more resistant to frontline antibiotics.

Biocides are used to decontaminate patients and staff before operations using hand and body washes and skin preparation before surgery. They can support healing in burns victims and prevent infection of susceptible patients from environmental contamination, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa contaminating patients on a neonatal ward.2 Though infection prevention procedures depend on the efficacy of the applied biocides, standards to test the efficacy of biocides (EN 1040 and EN 13727) are not very …


The Calasparra segment of the Socovos Fault shows a large number of lamproite outcrops, most of them being dikes emplaced along tension gashes and Riedel faults. Subsequently to the emplacement, some of the dikes were affected by faulting, showing striae and kinematic indicators of right-lateral displacement. The ubiquity of the lamproite outcrops, together with the mantle source invoked for these magmas, imply that the Socovos Fault is a major fracture zone, cutting through the crust and connecting in some way the surface to the lithospheric mantle.


Objective: The study was conducted to evaluate the mid-term effectiveness of a new surgical approach in the reduction of overaction of the inferior oblique muscle.
Methods: A new surgical treatment was developed consisting of suturing the muscle to the sclera at the Gobin's point with tendon sparing by way of a micro-incision to reduce any tissue damage during the surgical procedure and to enhance the healing process. The treatment was evaluated postoperatively in a group of 150 patients with primary or secondary inferior oblique overaction.
Results: All patients experienced a complete resolution of the elevation in adduction, no residual vertical imbalance, lateral incomitance was improved.
Conclusion: The outcome of the new equatorial scleral anchor surgical treatment has been generally accepted as favourable in our study, also if compared with the results yielded by the most frequently used anterior transposition of the inferior oblique muscle. The new surgical treatment appears to be a relatively a less invasive, safe, reversible technique, including the potential to perform the procedure with an adjustable suture.


Heating, cooling, and lighting for buildings represent 40 percent of our nation's energy consumption. Smart windows can reduce energy needs by up to 40 percent by regulating the transmission of visible and near-infrared light. This talk will highlight a self-powered smart-window technology that uses UV-harvesting organic solar cells for onboard power. Highlighted in the Wall Street Journal, implementation of such smart windows can simultaneously provide energy savings and increase occupant comfort.


Questions of major importance for subsurface contaminant transport at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) include (i) travel times to the aquifer, both average or typical values and the range of values to be expected, and (ii) modes of contaminant transport, especially sorption processes. The hydraulic and geochemical framework within which these questions are addressed is dominated by extreme heterogeneity in a vadose zone and aquifer consisting of interbedded basalts and sediments. Hydraulically, major issues include diverse possible types of flow pathways, extreme anisotropy, preferential flow, combined vertical and horizontal flow, and temporary saturation or perching. Geochemically, major issues include contaminant mobility as influenced by redox conditions, the concentration of organic and inorganic complexing solutes and other local variables, the interaction with infiltrating waters and with the contaminant source environment, and the aqueous speciation of contaminants such as actinides. Another major issue is the possibility of colloid transport, which inverts some of the traditional concepts of mobility, as sorbed contaminants on mobile colloids may be transported with ease compared with contaminants that are not sorbed. With respect to the goal of minimizing aquifer concentrations of contaminants, some characteristics of the vadose zone are essentially completely favorable. Examples include the great thickness (200 m) of the vadose zone, and the presence of substantial quantities of fine sediments that can retard contaminant transport both hydraulically and chemically. Most characteristics, however, have both favorable and unfavorable aspects. For example, preferential flow, as promoted by several notable features of the vadose zone at the INEEL, can provide fast, minimally sorbing pathways for contaminants to reach the aquifer easily, but it also leads to a wide dispersal of contaminants in a large volume of subsurface material, thus increasing the opportunity for dilution and sorption.


In this paper, we propose a progressive pose grammar network learned with Bi-C3D (Bidirectional Convolutional 3D) for human pose estimation. Exploiting the dependencies among the human body parts proves effective in solving the problems such as complex articulation, occlusion and so on. Therefore, we propose two articulated grammars learned with Bi-C3D to build the relationships of the human joints and exploit the contextual information of human body structure. Firstly, a local multi-scale Bi-C3D kinematics grammar is proposed to promote the message passing process among the locally related joints. The multi-scale kinematics grammar excavates different levels human context learned by the network. Moreover, a global sequential grammar is put forward to capture the long-range dependencies among the human body joints. The whole procedure can be regarded as a local-global progressive refinement process. Without bells and whistles, our method achieves competitive performance on both MPII and LSP benchmarks compared with previous methods, which confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of C3D in information interactions.


Abstract— In cultured endothelial cells, the antioxidant, l-ascorbic acid (vitamin C), increases nitric oxide synthase (NOS) enzyme activity via chemical stabilization of tetrahydrobiopterin. Our objective was to determine the effect of vitamin C on NOS function and tetrahydrobiopterin metabolism in vivo. Twenty-six to twenty-eight weeks of diet supplementation with vitamin C (1%/kg chow) significantly increased circulating levels of vitamin C in wild-type (C57BL/6J) and apolipoprotein E (apoE)–deficient mice. Measurements of NOS enzymatic activity in aortas of apoE-deficient mice indicated a significant increase in total NOS activity. However, this increase was mainly due to high activity of inducible NOS, whereas eNOS activity was reduced. Significantly higher tetrahydrobiopterin levels were detected in aortas of apoE-deficient mice. Long-term treatment with vitamin C restored endothelial NOS activity in aortas of apoE-deficient mice, but did not affect activity of inducible NOS. In addition, 7,8-dihydrobiopterin levels, an oxidized form of tetrahydrobiopterin, were decreased and vascular endothelial function of aortas was significantly improved in apoE-deficient mice. Interestingly, vitamin C also increased tetrahydrobiopterin and NOS activity in aortas of C57BL/6J mice. In contrast, long-term treatment with vitamin E (2000 U/kg chow) did not affect vascular NOS activity or metabolism of tetrahydrobiopterin. In vivo, beneficial effect of vitamin C on vascular endothelial function appears to be mediated in part by protection of tetrahydrobiopterin and restoration of eNOS enzymatic activity.