BACKGROUND
HIV infected patients, especially those treated with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, show an increased risk and incidence of cardiovascular disease.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to evaluate the progression of subclinical atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries, expressed as the value of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and the amount of atherosclerotic plaques, and to analyze the correlation between cIMT and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in a cohort of HIV infected patients.

METHODS
The analysis included 72 HIV infected patients, mean age 39.4 years, and 27 healthy HIV negative individuals, matched for age and sex. The data collected included evaluation of the infection, ARV treatment, past cardiovascular events, assessment of traditional and nontraditional risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, cIMT measurements and amount of atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid arteries.

RESULTS
HIV infected patients show more advanced subclinical atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries (cIMT and plaques incidence). The cardiovascular risk profile of the HIV infected patients is significantly different from HIV negative people. Among the HIV positive group lower body mass index (BMI) and higher waist/hip ratio (WHR) are observed. The concentration of all cholesterol fractions is lower, whereas the concentration of triglycerides is higher. Cigarette smoking is more common among HIV-infected individuals. A strong statistical correlation between cIMT and age, hypertension, non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL) cholesterol and ARV time were found. Total and LDL cholesterol, and lifetime smoking exposure also affect the cIMT. The relationship between cIMT and current HIV RNA may indicate the impact of the current infection status on the cIMT dynamics in this subpopulation.


To prevent the chromosomal abnormalities and DNA damage in plants induced by environmental chemicals and pollutants, it is necessary to understand the outcome of these aberrations and DNA damages that direct to alter the genetic constituents or structures. Higher plants are usual and outstanding tools to detect the genotoxic effect of mutagens and also tremendous indicators of cytogenetic and mutagenic effects of environmental pollution. Due to conserve structure of genetic material, several plants were used as a test material for bioassay. Due to ease and accuracy of detecting and quantifying plant bioassay previously several workers showed that the detection of genotoxicity is simple and does not require costly laboratory outfit. Several advance techniques were used in recent works in place of chromosomal aberration like Micronucleus test, Sister Chromatid Exchange, Comet assay, FISH test, TUNEL test and recently transgenic plants are using as a biomonitoring tool for environmental pollutants and chemicals. The present review article describes the use of different methods of plant bioaasays for the detection of genotoxins.  2007 Trade Science Inc. - INDIA


Recent efforts to visually capture the phenomena of boiling have proposed monolithic approaches that extend the basic techniques underlying existing fluid solvers. In this work, we show that if we instead treat boiling as a separate computational module to be loosely coupled to an existing solver, a very easy to implement, highly efficient algorithm can be designed that produces excellent visual results, even on coarse (643) grids. The algorithm is also highly SIMD-amenable, allowing the boiling computation to be farmed out to a GPU or Playstation 3 Cell processor. Our algorithm takes less than 100 lines of commented, readable C + +, and can be integrated into an existing particle level set fluid solver with virtually no modifications. A serial implementation consumes between 3-5% of the overall running time, and a preliminary SIMD implementation shows that a 643 simulation runs at 130 FPS, making the computational cost of the module totally negligible.


Background
Some medicines for sale in developing countries are approved by a stringent regulatory authority (SRA) or the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification program; many of these are global brands. This study ascertains whether medicines approved by SRAs or the WHO perform better in simple quality tests than those that have not been approved by either.

Methods
Over the past 4 years, 2652 essential drugs (products to treat malaria, tuberculosis, and bacterial infections) were procured by covert shoppers from eleven African cities and eight cities in a variety of mid-income nations. All samples were assessed using the Global Pharma Health Fund eV Minilab® protocol to identify whether they were substandard, degraded, or counterfeit.

Results
The failure rate among SRA-approved products was 1.01%, among WHO-approved products was 6.80%, and 13.01% among products that were not approved by either. African cities had a greater proportion of SRA- or WHO-approved products (31.50%) than Indian cities (26.57%), but they also experienced a higher failure rate (14.21%) than Indian cities (7.83%). The remainder of cities tested had both the highest proportion of approved products at 34.46% and the lowest failure rate at 2.70%. Products made in Africa had the highest failure rate at 25.77%, followed by Chinese products at 15.74%, Indian products at 3.70%, and European/US products, which failed least often, at 1.70%. Most worrying is that 17.65% of Chinese products approved by the WHO failed.

Conclusion
The results strongly indicate that approval by either an SRA or the WHO is correlated with higher medicine quality at a statistically significant level. The comparatively high failure rates among WHO-approved products suggest there may be some weakness in post-marketing surveillance of these products, especially of Chinese-made WHO-approved products. The discrepancy between the failure rate of WHO-approved products from India (2.39%) and China (17.65%) is cause for concern. It is possible that more of the failures originating in China are counterfeit products, but this cannot be ascertained without greater help from the manufacturers themselves.


: Hart and John Moore (2008) introduce new behavioral assumptions that can explain long-term contracts and the employment relation. We examine experimentally their idea that contracts serve as reference points. The evidence confirms the prediction that there is a trade-off between rigidity and flexibility. Flexible contracts–which would dominate rigid contracts under standard assumptions–cause significant shading in ex post performance, while under rigid contracts much less shading occurs. The experiment appears to reveal a new behavioral force: ex ante competition legitimizes the terms of a contract, and aggrievement and shading occur mainly about outcomes within the contract


This investigation examined the species diversity and vegetation structure of the peat swamp forest on Mindanao Island, Philippines in relation to peat thickness, hydrology and physicochemical properties of soil and water. Sampling plots were randomly established along a relatively straight transect from the eastern side of the fringing tall pole forest towards the inner zone of pygmy forest, as well as in forest on the Kasawangan lakeshore in the western part of the peatland. The results showed that additional previously unidentified vegetation zones could be distinguished between the tall pole forest and the pygmy forest; i.e. tall intermediate forest and low intermediate forest. Statistically, these additional zones were strongly supported by analysis of variance on stand structure and by non-metric multidimensional scaling on peat properties. Moreover, a Lycopodium-Dicranopteris dominated plant community, which occurs arbitrarily as patches, was also observed. The tall pole forest was the most diverse forest type. In total, 101 species belonging to 56 families and 81 genera of vascular plants (trees and understorey vegetation) were recorded, with Tristaniopsis decorticata (Myrtaceae) and Thoracostachyum sumatranum (Cyperaceae) being the most dominant. Changes in forest structure from the outer to the inner zone are related to the increase in peat thickness towards the centre of the dome. The changes in structure are influenced by the shallow superficial peat layer and the protective surface layer of the peatland, the acrotelm.


This report focuses on the actual state of emergency response to acute chemical hazards.As such, planners and operational personnel may find that the situations depicted in the following case studies would resemble the ones
they would face in similar circumstances. There is no vision here of an ideal
situation. Instead, the following chapters describe response-related emergency
events which transpired in three communities upon experiencing an actual chemical disaster. The purpose of this publication is to provide a picture of the complexities involved in local disaster operations and the means by which community uncertainties. The report is written in an effort to porvide readers a "cookbook" approach to hazardous
chemical response, That is, it is not a step-by-step algorithm or field manual to which responders can refer in the event of a dangerous chemical
incident. Rather, it is a descriptive report aimed at illuminating aspects of disaster response traditionally ignored in the more technically-oriented body of literature.


The degradation of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) in liquid fermentation using microbial complex obtained from palm oil mill effluent (POME) under non-sterile condition was investigated in the present study. A control study using carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) as substrate to examine the cellulose degradation ability of the microbial complex from POME. The effects of the operating parameters of fermentation; size of inoculum, aeration rate, pH and substrates concentration on the degradation of EFB and CMC were studied. The effectiveness of mixed microorganisms from POME on the biodegradation of pure cellulose EFB was also determined in this study. The degradation was performed at agitation speed of 150 rpm in a 10 liter bioreactor under various above mentioned process parameters for a 10 day period. The evolution of dry matter (DM) and Chemical oxygen demand of solids (CODs) were used to measure the performance of the non-sterile liquid fermentation process on the solid degradation of EFB and CMC. An optimized biodegradation process of EFB and CMC by mixed microbes from POME was performed at the end of this study. The selection of the parameters for the optimized biodegradation process was based on those that provided the best degradation during the optimization study.The study of the effect of inoculum size on the biodegradation of CMC showed that 300 mL/L is the optimal condition for both DM and CODs reduction. The DM and CODs reduction of EFB was slightly increased (< 7%) as the inoculum size increase to 450 mL/L but the biodegradation rate of CMC was reduced by more than 50% (in term of CODs reduction). Hence 300 mL/L was chosed as optimal inoculum size for the study of the optimized biodegradation of EFB and CMC.
The effect of aeration rate on the reduction of DM and CODs was different. The highest DM reduction was achieved at 1.0 vvm, while the highest CODs reduction was achieve at 0.5 vvm for both EFB and CMC biodegradation study. As a result aeration rate of 0.5 vvm was selected as the optimal condition for further study.
The effect of pH on the reduction of DM and CODs was somewhat different. Generally lower pH give a better DM reduction for both EFB and CMC biodegradation studies. However, the highest CODs reduction was achieved at pH 4.5 and 5.0 for the biodegradation study of EFB and CMC, respectively. The pH 5.0 was selected for the optimized study as the highest specific reduction rates of both DM and CODs were achieved at this pH value.
The reduction of DM and CODs was different when changing substrate concentration for the biodegradation studies of EFB and CMC. The highest DM reduction was achieved at the substrate concentration of 10 g/L for both EFB and CMC. The highest CODs reduction was achieved at substrate concentration of 20 and 25 g/L for the biodegradation studies of EFB and CMC, respectively. The substrate concentration of 15 g/L was selected for optimized biodegradation study due to the highest specific rates of reduction for both DM and CODs were achieved of this value of substrate concentration. Optimized biodegradation studies of both EFB and CMC were conducted at the inoculum size of 300 mL/L, aeration rate of 0.5 vvm, pH of 5 and substrate concentration of 15 g/L. The DM and CODs reduction for EFB were respectively 70% and 30% higher than that of CMC. The microbial analysis revealed that more fungus and yeast population were found during the middle stage of EFB biodegradation compared to that of CMC. Bacteria population has dominated the fermentation medium of CMC. This may explained the higher level of biodegradation that has been achieved in the EFB experiment. Yeast and fungus has a better ability to degrade the complex structure of biomaterial such as lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose found in the EFB.
The degradation of EFB can be expeditiously carried out to achieve about 57% DM reduction under fermentation conditions of inoculum size of 300 mL/L mixed culture microorganisms, aeration rate of 1.0 vvm, pH 6.0 and substrate concentration of 15 g/L. The highest DM reduction of CMC, 31.11% was achieved under 150 mL/L of inoculum size, 0.5 vvm aeration rate, pH 6.0 and substrate concentration of 15 g/L. In conclusion, the biodegradation of EFB and CMC was affected differently by the parameters being studied due to the presence of different type of microbes in the middle stage of biodegradation process.


African countries are limited in unifying themselves due to the boundaries and various requirements which hinder their free and perfect mobility, manifested in visa requirement, multi-currencies, different leadership, insecurity, unemployment, poor resource utilisation and poor production. Leadership, perfect mobility and industrialisation are the major sectors to Africa's unification and prosperity. There is always the thinking that perhaps the means used by the imperialists to exploit Africa's minerals and partitioning, that in return led to Europe's industrialisation, could be the very means to Africa's unification, industrialisation and becoming a first world continent. The effort to find a possible means of providing sustainable development and unification in Africa informed the decision to write this article. It is about the history, uses, effects, benefits and description of the railway system. Today, Africa is facing a lot of political leadership problems and corruption mainly because the resources which were abundantly endowed to Africa were plundered through the railway development. Partitioning of Africa was also another tool deployed to make it impossible for Africans to relate and defend what belonged to them. This article intends to show how the railway is Africa's greatest tool to radical development and unification.


Semantic segmentation requires a detailed labeling of image pixels by object category. Information derived from local image patches is necessary to describe the detailed shape of individual objects. However, this information is ambiguous and can result in noisy labels. Global inference of image content can instead capture the general semantic concepts present. We advocate that high-recall holistic inference of image concepts provides valuable information for detailed pixel labeling. We build a two-stream neural network architecture that facilitates information flow from holistic information to local pixels, while keeping common image features shared among the low-level layers of both the holistic analysis and segmentation branches. We empirically evaluate our network on four standard semantic segmentation datasets. Our network obtains state-of-the-art performance on PASCAL-Context and NYUDv2, and ablation studies verify its effectiveness on ADE20K and SIFT-Flow.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of the GP Ia and GP IIIa polymorphisms in the group of women in labor, and to assess the risk of thrombosis associated with their occurrence.

DESIGN AND SETTINGS
245 women in labor hospitalized between 1.01.2001 and 31.12.2003 r. were enrolled in the study. Patients were qualified for the study if detailed physical exam and past medical history excluded existence of known risk factors predisposing to thrombosis. Study group was composed of 72 women in childbirth, which at some point during current pregnancy or in early labor were diagnosed with thrombosis, and control group included 173 women in labor randomly picked from the group of patients with uncomplicated pregnancies. Polymorphic regions of platelets glycoprotein were detected using genotyping methods based on polymerase chain reactions (PCR).

RESULTS
1.72% of patients were found to have thrombosis. The thrombosis was located in the venous system in 97.2% of cases. Arteries were affected in two patients (2.7%). Prevalence of individual platelets glycoprotein mutations did not differ between controls and study group. In both groups platelets glycoprotein polymorphisms moderately pro-thrombotic A1/A2 and C/T dominated, and the least numerous were strongly pro-thrombotic A2/A2 and T/T.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results did not show the causative relationship between the existence of platelets GP IIIa/GP Ia mutations and venous system thrombosis in the women in labor. Probably presence of pro-thrombotic mutations of platelets glycoprotein in this group of patients does not represent the increased risk of thrombosis.


Atomistic simulations—molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, ab initio and density functional theory (DFT) calculations—have proved useful in gaining insight into the molecular basis of fundamental processes in aquatic geochemistry, such as solvation, ion pair formation, adsorption, molecular diffusion, and the energetics of mineral phases (Rotenberg et al. 2007; Bickmore et al. 2009; Hamm et al. 2010; Kerisit and Liu 2010; Hofmann et al. 2012; Stack et al. 2012; Wallace et al. 2013). Key strengths of these simulations are their ability to examine the behavior of individual atoms (where spectroscopic and other experimental methods probe the average behavior of large numbers of molecules) and to allow constraints that would be difficult or impossible to impose in the laboratory. These features make atomistic simulations powerful tools for elucidating the manner in which collective phenomena arise from molecular scale properties in geochemical systems. The range of length and time scales probed by atomistic simulations (from angstroms to tens of nanometers and from femtoseconds to microseconds, continuously expanding with advances in the availability and sophistication of computational resources) makes them ideally suited to complement several spectroscopic techniques, including X-ray, neutron, and nuclear magnetic resonance approaches.

A well known limitation of the methods described in the present chapter, particularly in the case of classical mechanical (MD and MC) simulations, is the approximate nature of the models that are used to describe interatomic forces. In the simplest of these simulations, bond lengths and angles are fixed; inter-atomic interactions are modeled as the sum of two-body interactions that depend only on the identity of the interacting atoms and the distance between them; and chemical bonds are not allowed to break or form during a simulation (Allen and Tildesley 1987; Frenkel and Smit 2001). The choice of force …


This paper contributes to post-Marxist discussions on the relevance of class as a social category in a postmodern world. Rather than marginalize this issue of social positioning, the authors explore the relevance of an Althusserian perspective which acknowledges the importance of class as it articulates with other social/identity issues such as gender and ethnicity. The substantive context for this discussion is gendered labor migration from the Philippines, and the advocacy work conducted by Filipino non-government organizations (NGOs) working with migrants in Pacific Rim countries. It focuses on NGOs in Hong Kong and Vancouver, and their efforts to contest the gendered national identities which are being constructed as poor women migrate to wealthier countries to seek employment as domestic workers. These contexts highlight the articulation of issues of class, gender and ethnicity in conceptualizing the migration of Filipino women, and the authors argue that NGO activities provide insights on how to envision decentered class struggles in relation to transnational migration.


ABSTRACT Current therapeutic options for cryptococcal meningitis are limited by toxicity, global supply, and emergence of resistance. There is an urgent need to develop additional antifungal agents that are fungicidal within the central nervous system and preferably orally bioavailable. The benzimidazoles have broad-spectrum antiparasitic activity but also have in vitro antifungal activity that includes Cryptococcus neoformans. Flubendazole (a benzimidazole) has been reformulated by Janssen Pharmaceutica as an amorphous solid drug nanodispersion to develop an orally bioavailable medicine for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases such as onchocerciasis. We investigated the in vitro activity, the structure-activity-relationships, and both in vitro and in vivo pharmacodynamics of flubendazole for cryptococcal meningitis. Flubendazole has potent in vitro activity against Cryptococcus neoformans, with a modal MIC of 0.125 mg/liter using European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) methodology. Computer models provided an insight into the residues responsible for the binding of flubendazole to cryptococcal β-tubulin. Rapid fungicidal activity was evident in a hollow-fiber infection model of cryptococcal meningitis. The solid drug nanodispersion was orally bioavailable in mice with higher drug exposure in the cerebrum. The maximal dose of flubendazole (12 mg/kg of body weight/day) orally resulted in an ∼2 log10CFU/g reduction in fungal burden compared with that in vehicle-treated controls. Flubendazole was orally bioavailable in rabbits, but there were no quantifiable drug concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or cerebrum and no antifungal activity was demonstrated in either CSF or cerebrum. These studies provide evidence for the further study and development of the benzimidazole scaffold for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis.


This paper examines the difficulty the US armed forces face in shifting their focus from preparing for regular wars, in which combat is separated from civil society, to irregular wars, in which combat is integrated with civil society. It argues that the political context of contemporary irregular wars requires that the purpose and practice of Western forces be governed by liberal values. This is also the case with regular wars, to the extent that they occur, but it is the integration with civil society that makes the application of liberal values so challenging. It argues that this challenge becomes easier to meet when military operations are understood to contribute to the development of a compelling narrative about the likely course and consequence of a conflict, in which these values are shown to be respected. However, while it is vital that the employment of armed force remains sensitive at all times to the underlying political context and to the role of narratives in shaping this context, a key test of success will always be the defeat of the opposing forces. The application of this test in regular war remains straightforward; this is not the case with irregular war, which can be of long duration and contain frequent shifts in tempo and focus. The 'war on terror' has highlighted these issues and the paper concludes with suggestions for a strategic response.


Personal response in English has never been easy for students especially those from the rural areas. Even though in Malaysia English is the country's second language, due to the country's diverse background, English is perhaps the third or the fourth language spoken after the 'mother tongue', the standard Malay language and the other languages (if any) spoken by some Malaysians. English is perhaps a foreign language to some Malaysians. In SMK Sematan, students who mostly come from the Malay, Chinese and Bidayuh background normally put their mother tongue first in interaction, followed by Sarawak Malay, the Standard Malay, and then English. Hence, with this limited exposure in English, getting the students to give personal response in the language is a daunting task. Since the introduction of literature in the English language syllabus, one of its main aims is to get students to respond to the text personally. Therefore in this study, a research was done on the use of the two short stories 'QWERTYUIOP' and 'The Fruitcake Special' learnt by the upper form students to determine its effectiveness in promoting personal response. Ninety form four students and five teachers were selected as the sample for this study and the methods used to determine the results are testing and questionnaire. The result of the study is then generated from SPSS using the Descriptive Statistic Analysis method focussing on frequency, percentage and mean. In this study, the result shows that personal response through the two short stories is not quite effective due to students' poor language. Teachers' approaches and choice of activities contribute to students' poor language. Therefore, teachers' are encouraged to take some steps to improve their approaches and activities in the classroom to help students to improve their language first before promoting personal response.


Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites are known for having high water and organic material contents, including amino acids. Here we address the origin of amino acids in the warm interiors of their parent bodies (planetesimals) within a few million years of their formation, and we connect this with the astrochemistry of their natal protostellar disks. We compute both the total amino acid abundance pattern and the relative frequencies of amino acids within the CM2 (e.g., Murchison) and CR2 chondrite subclasses based on Strecker reactions within these bodies. We match the relative frequencies to well within an order of magnitude among both CM2 and CR2 meteorites for parent body temperatures <200°C. These temperatures agree with 3D models of young planetesimal interiors. We find theoretical abundances of approximately 7 × 105 parts per billion, which is in agreement with the average observed abundance in CR2 meteorites of (4 ± 7) × 105, but an order of magnitude higher than the average observed abundance in CM2 meteorites of (2 ± 2) × 104. We find that the production of hydroxy acids could be favored over the production of amino acids within certain meteorite parent bodies (e.g., CI1, CM2) but not others (e.g., CR2). This could be due to the relatively lower NH3 abundances within CI1 and CM2 meteorite parent bodies, which leads to less amino acid synthesis. We also find that the water content in planetesimals is likely to be the main cause of variance between carbonaceous chondrites of the same subclass. We propose that amino acid abundances are primarily dependent on the ammonia and water content of planetesimals that are formed in chemically distinct regions within their natal protostellar disks.


This study investigated physical activity (PA) and sedentary time (SED) in relation to hippocampal gray matter volume (GMV) in pediatric overweight/obesity. Ninety-three children (10 ± 1 year) were classified as overweight, obesity type I, or type II–III. PA was assessed with non-dominant wrist accelerometers. GMV was acquired by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Neither PA nor SED associated with GMV in the hippocampus in the whole sample (p > 0.05). However, we found some evidence of moderation by weight status (p < 0.150). Moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) positively associated with GMV in the right hippocampus in obesity type I (B = 5.62, p = 0.017), which remained when considering SED, light PA, and sleep using compositional data (γ = 375.3, p = 0.04). Compositional models also depicted a negative association of SED relative to the remaining behaviors with GMV in the right hippocampus in overweight (γ = −1838.4, p = 0.038). Reallocating 20 min/day of SED to MVPA was associated with 100 mm3 GMV in the right hippocampus in obesity type I. Multivariate pattern analysis showed a negative-to-positive association pattern between PA of increasing intensity and GMV in the right hippocampus in obesity type II–III. Our findings support that reducing SED and increasing MVPA are associated with greater GMV in the right hippocampus in pediatric overweight/obesity. Further studies should corroborate our findings.


This paper discusses the way in which China's 'Harmonious Society Project' and industrial transformation have intersected in a particular way in Guangdong Province, China, revealing both the consequences and opportunities it poses for migrant industrial workers. Elaborating on Mannheim's generational analysis and using interview data from 37 migrant industrial workers, I seek to show that worker strategies, based on policy and market opportunities, can be understood as fragmented strategies of generations reacting to the transforming political economy. Findings demonstrate that this inter-generational perspective provides tools to grapple with how migrant industrial workers form alliances and negotiate obstacles taking divergent strategies to cope with industrial transformation.


The coverage and availability offered by the OMEGA radionavigation system make it a natural choice for search and rescue systems that are to operate globally. Effective use of OMEGA signals in these applications requires ambiguity resolution beyond the 132 km lanes provided by the present three frequency format or the 528 km lanes provided by the proposed four frequency format. Additional ambiguity resolution can be provided by a variety of techniques based on information already present in the OMEGA signals, but not used in conventional navigation receivers. These techniques make use of envelope time-of-arrival, signal strength, dispersion, multiple intersection, unique frequencies, and direction of arrival. Use can also be made of other low-frequency signals, including VLF communications, Loran-C envelopes, and sferics. This paper reviews the capabilities and limitations of each technique. On the basis of work done to date, it appears that a combination of techniques can provide complete ambiguity resolution in most situations.


Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) were set up to provide banking services by way of funds mobilization and offering of credit to cottage industry operators, farmers, fishermen, and regular salaried employees. These banks are not obliged to undertake Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities but are expected by some stakeholders such as citizens in the community to devote part of their profits to meet social developmental activities. This study examines the CSR practices among RCBs in Ghana by adopting a mixed method approach. A combination of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and crosssectional survey was employed to gather detailed information from 86 respondents who are associated with the selected RCBs. Data collected from Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and annual reports were analyzed using content analysis and presented in themes and models. Using the binomial test and descriptive statistics, questionnaire responses were analyzed and presented. We found that among RCBs, CSR has become synonymous to community and social development as managers accept the value that CSR can create in business. Additionally, it was found that three major stages are involved in the planning and implementation of CSR by RCBs. The researchers recommend that RCBs put together CSR policy guidelines, which will form the basis for CSR engagements in their respective banks.


Abstract. I consider continuous‐time autoregressive processes of order p and develop estimators of the model parameters based on Yule‐Walker type equations. For continuously recorded data, it is shown that these estimators are least squares estimators and have the same asymptotic distribution as maximum likelihood estimators. In practice, though, data can only be observed discretely. For discrete data, I consider approximations to the continuous‐time estimators. It is shown that some of these discrete‐time estimators are asymptotically biased. Alternative estimators based on the autocovariance function are suggested. These are asymptotically unbiased and are a fast alternative to the maximum likelihood estimators described by Jones. They may also be used as starting values for maximum likelihood estimation.


Jeanne Becu, an illegitimate child from the Vaucouleurs area in France, ascended the ranks of the Ancien regime to become the Countess du Barry and take her place as Royal Mistress of Louis XV. During her tenure as Royal Mistress, Jeanne amassed a jewel collection that rivaled all private collections. During the course of the French Revolution, more specifically the Reign of Terror, Jeanne was forced to hatch a plot to secure the remainder of her wealth as she lost a significant portion of her revenue on the night of 4 August 1789. To protect her wealth, Jeanne enlisted Nathaniel Parker Forth, a British spy, to help her plan a fake jewel theft at Louveciennes so that she could remove her economic capital from France while also reducing her total wealth and capital with the intent of reducing her tax payments. As a result of the theft, her jewelry was transported to London, where she would travel four times during the French Revolution on the pretext of recovering her jewelry. This thesis examines her actions while abroad during the Revolution and her culpability in the plot. While traveling to and from London, Jeanne was able to move information, money, and people out of France. Jeanne was arrested and charged with aiding the counter-revolution, for which the Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced her to death. Madame du Barry represented the extravagance and waste of Versailles and of Bourbon absolutism, and this symbolic representation of waste was what eventually inhibited Jeanne's success.


The paper reports the outcomes of a Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) funded study of pupil perceptions of studying history at Key Stage 3 (between the ages of 11-14). The research aimed to explore how enjoyable pupils found the study of history compared to other school subjects and how important pupils felt it was to do well in history compared to other school subjects. Particular attention is devoted to pupil feedback on what aspects of studying history they found interesting and enjoyable, and their views on the usefulness of studying history in school. The research took place in the context of increasing concern about disaffection and disengagement from learning in UK schools (see for example, Elliott, 1998, DfES, 2003, White, 2004). A questionnaire and focus group survey was conducted across 12 schools in East Anglia, London and the South Coast. Within the constraints of the sample size, an effort was made to obtain data from a range of different schools in terms of socio-economic and ethnic background of pupils, and types of school. The survey consisted of a questionnaire survey of 1,740 pupils from the 12 schools and focus group interviews with 160 pupils from eight of the 12 schools. The results were analysed using SPSS and Filemaker Pro software. The findings suggest that many pupils (according to this survey 48%) arrive at secondary schools with negative perceptions of the subject. Roughly half of the pupils surveyed acknowledged an interest in history outside the classroom, in the form of reading, websites, site visits or watching history programmes on television. Pupil responses suggest that many of them do regard history as an important subject. However, many pupils were unable to give reasons for studying history which reflected the aims and purposes of the subject as indicated in recent curriculum specifications. Their reasons were often very vague and general, or based on fairly inchoate or limited ideas about employment possibilities. Many pupils either did not feel that history was relevant or were unable to articulate why it might be useful. There were wide variations in the number of pupils who regarded history as interesting and important, with substantial differences within as well as between departments. The survey provides some insights into pupils' understanding of the purposes of school history, and into the factors which persuade them that the subject is interesting, enjoyable and worthwhile. Although this study confined itself to pupils' views of history as a school subject, research along similar lines may provide further insight into pupils' attitude to learning in other subjects.


We observed two eclipses of the Kepler-13A planetary system, on UT 2014 April 28 and UT 2014 October 13, in the near-infrared using Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. By using the nearby binary stars Kepler-13BC as a reference, we were able to create a differential light curve for Kepler-13A that had little of the systematics typically present in HST/WFC3 spectrophotometry. We measure a broadband (1.1–1.65 μm) eclipse depth of 734 ± 28 ppm and are able to measure the emission spectrum of the planet at R ≈ 50 with an average precision of 70 ppm. We find that Kepler-13Ab possesses a noninverted, monotonically decreasing vertical temperature profile. We exclude an isothermal profile and an inverted profile at more than 3σ. We also find that the dayside emission of Kepler-13Ab appears generally similar to an isolated M7 brown dwarf at a similar effective temperature. Due to the relatively high mass and surface gravity of Kepler-13Ab, we suggest that the apparent lack of an inversion is due to cold-trap processes in the planet's atmosphere. Using a toy model for where cold traps should inhibit inversions, as well as observations of other planets in this temperature range with measured emission spectra, we argue that with more detailed modeling and more observations we may be able to place useful constraints on the size of condensates on the daysides of hot Jupiters.


The life of the complex, ruthless adversary of General Franco, whose life spanned much of Spain's turbulent 20th century. From 1939 to 1975, the Spanish Communist Party, effectively lead for two decades by Santiago Carrillo, was the most determined opponent of General Franco's Nationalist regime. Admired by many on the left as a revolutionary and a pillar of the anti-Franco struggle, and hated by others as a Stalinist gravedigger of the revolution, Santiago Carrillo was arguably the dictator's most consistent left-wing enemy. For many on the right, Carrillo was a monster to be vilified as a mass murderer for his activities during the Civil War. But his survival owed to certain qualities that he had in abundance – a capacity for hard work, stamina and endurance, writing and oratorical skills, intelligence and cunning – though honesty and loyalty were not among them. One by one he turned on those who helped him in his desire for advancement, revealing the ruthless streak that he shared with Franco, and a zeal for rewriting his past. Drawing on the numerous, continuously revised accounts Carillo created of his life, and contrasting them with those produced by his friends and enemies, Spain's greatest modern historian Paul Preston unravels the legend of a devastating and controversial figure at the heart of 20th-century Spanish politics.


The latest growth of North American unconventional shale plays is supported by the shift towards improved well designs: extended well laterals, high-intensity proppant loadings, and adoption of slick water fluids for fracturing. To optimize well productivity and economics, producers continue to push the well lateral boundaries from 10,000-ft to over 15,000-ft, creating super lateral wells, which pose significant challenges and pushed the boundaries of extended reach Coiled Tubing (CT) operations. This document outlines field operational details, string design and downhole tool considerations that had a major effect on the success of extended reach CT interventions in super laterals with 2.375-in CT diameters.
 Currently, several U.S. operators have succeeded with 7,500-ft to 10,000-ft range laterals using CT in post-fracture plug mill-out and clean-out operations. These well designs and successive service operations require larger CT diameters and higher pumping pressures to effectively complete job objectives. Generally, 2.375-in CT diameters of over +23,000-ft in length, that feature a robust wall design and materials are being used to withstand the combined pressure loadings and access target depths, –while minimizing bend cycle fatigue accumulation and deformation during operations. Operational plans comparing CT forces, lock-up behavior and hydraulics analysis, along with friction matching of post-job data evaluations, were used to compare the CT performance in the newest well lateral records. Other operational factors, such as equipment availability, logistical issues, and field deployment, are also considered in the analysis of using CT in these complex wells.
 Field results demonstrated that CT well interventions in over 14,500-ft laterals are feasible by using highly engineered 2.375-in CT, friction reduction tools accompanied by fluids chemical additives, and tailored operating techniques that improve efficiencies. The application of high strength quench and tempered material with specific wall configurations that feature the use of the thickest gauge used in a working CT string, and the newest taper technology that transitions through four nominal wall thicknesses within couple hundred feet, –have been found to maximize lateral reach capabilities and service life in extended reach operations. The inclusion of the latest technologies on extended reach tools and fluid additives is a must to maximize friction reduction and wellbore cleaning at rates of over 4 BPM and working pressures of over 7,000 psi.
 These industry records demonstrate that the potential for longer laterals is far from being exhausted. Technological innovations on surface equipment, downhole tools, CT materials and highly engineered strings configurations, along with refined operational practices and logistics, are required to perform safe extended lateral completions on a larger scale.


This Thesis reports a theoretical and experimental study of thermal poling of glasses in which a second order optical nonlinearity is introduced into the glass by applying a potential across the glass at elevated temperature. Thermal poling is the most reported and reproducible procedure for the introduction of the nonlinear susceptibility of 2nd order, c(2), in glasses. The attainment of c(2) of the order of 1pm/V has been reported in a wide range of silica based glasses including glasses suitable for ion exchange, UV-writing and rare earth doping. Effective c(2) of 0.1 pm/V has been demonstrated in poled channel waveguides in silica indicating a poor overlap between c(2) and the waveguide modes. These reported values of c(2) must be increased at least one order of magnitude for glasses and two orders of magnitude for waveguides for practical use. Therefore a good understanding of the poling mechanism which was unclear at the beginning of this work was required for poling optimisation. In this Thesis a poling model based on electrostatics and ion transport theory is developed yielding a method for the evaluation of glasses for poling. A new technique for simultaneous poling and waveguide fabrication by differential ionic drift in glasses that contains more than one mobile ion is demonstrated and poling of K+ ion-exchanged waveguides is achieved. c(2) of the order of 1 pm/V was verified in poled soda lime glass and in found in poled potassium ion-exchanged soda lime glass. A poling time for multioxide glasses some 5 times shorter and minimum temperature 50oC lower than reported in the literature was achieved with constant-current thermal poling in vacuum. A procedure to evaluate the average value, thickness and the location of the c(2) region is established. This study provides an improved understanding of the poling mechanism and may contribute to the achievement of higher c(2) in poled glasses and poled waveguides in glasses.


Validating and testing a machine learning model is a critical stage in model development. For time-series anomaly detection, validation and testing is challenging because of the lack of labeled data and the difficulty of generating a realistic time-series with anomalies. Motivated by the continued success of Variational Auto-Encoders (VAE) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to produce realistic-looking data we provide a platform to generate a realistic time-series with anomalies called AnoGen. Our contribution includes a sampling technique that allows us to sample from the latent z space of a trained variational auto-encoder to deterministically generate a realistic time-series with anomalies.


Since the mid-1980s, monetary policy has contributed to a great moderation of the housing cycle by responding more proactively to inflation and thereby reducing the boom bust cycle. However, during the period from 2002 to 2005, the short term interest rate path deviated significantly from what this two decade experience would suggest is appropriate. A counterfactual simulation with a simple model of the housing market shows that this deviation may have been a cause of the boom and bust in housing starts and inflation in the last two years. Moreover, a significant time series correlation between housing price inflation and delinquency rates suggests that the poor credit assessments on subprime mortgages may also have been caused by this deviation.


The authors present tools and concepts of multivariate data analysis by means of exercises and their solutions. The first part is devoted to graphical techniques. The second part deals with multivariate random variables and presents the derivation of estimators and tests for various practical situations. The last part introduces a wide variety of exercises in applied multivariate data analysis. The book demonstrates the application of simple calculus and basic multivariate methods in real life situations. It contains altogether 234 solved exercises which can assist a university teacher in setting up a modern multivariate analysis course. All computer-based exercises are available in the R or XploRe languages. The corresponding libraries are downloadable from the Springer link web pages and from the authors home pages.


The rate-distortion performance of a distributed video coding system strongly depends on the characteristics of the side information. One could naïvely think that the best side information is the one with the largest PSNR with respect to the original corresponding image. However, previous works have shown that this is not always the case and a reduction of the side information MSE does not always translate into better rate-distortion performance for the complete system. The scope of this paper is to explore a set of metrics other than the PSNR and explicitly designed to classify the side information with respect to its impact on the end-to-end compression performance. A first contribution is to define an experimental framework that can be used to meaningfully compare different metrics for side information evaluation. As a second contribution, our analysis allows to understand why in some cases PSNR-based metrics provide a fairly reliable estimation of the side information quality, while in other cases they do not. This analysis also allows us to introduce a set of new metrics that are better adapted for side information effectiveness evaluation, and that are based on a suitable power of the absolute difference between side information and the original image, or on the Hamming distance between the respective transform coefficients. Besides their theoretical interest, these new metrics can also improve the rate-distortion performance of some distributed video coding systems such as the hash-based ones. We observe improvement up to 74% rate reduction in a simple study case.


Superpeer unstructured P2P systems have been found to be very effective by dividing the peers into two layers, superlayer and leaf-layer, in which message flooding is only conducted among superlayer and all leaf-peers are represented by corresponding superpeers. However, current superpeer systems do not employ any effective layer management schemes, so the transient and low-capacity peers are allowed to act as superpeers. Moreover, the lack of an appropriate size ratio maintenance mechanism on superlayer to leaf-layer makes the system's search performance far from being optimal. We present one workload model aimed at reducing the weighted overhead of a network. Using our proposed workload model, a network can determine an optimal layer size ratio between leaf-layer and superlayer. We then propose a dynamic layer management algorithm, DLM, which can maintain an optimal layer size ratio and adaptively elect and adjust peers between superlayer and leaf-layer. DLM is completely distributed in the sense that each peer decides to be a superpeer or a leaf-peer independently without global knowledge. DLM could effectively help a superpeer P2P system maintain the optimal layer size ratio and designate peers with relatively long lifetime and large capacities as superpeers, and the peers with short lifetime and low capacities as leaf-peers under highly dynamic network situations. We demonstrate that the quality of a superpeer system is significantly improved under the DLM scheme by comprehensive simulations.


Background and Objective: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) following atherosclerosis is the most common cause of cardiac deaths world wide. We aimed to investigate the pathologic features of atherosclerosis in non cardiac death cases to have an estimate of atherosclerosis prevalence in Mashad (North east of Iran). Patients and Methods : This descriptive (cross sectional) study was done, during October 2007 – March 2008, on 80 cadavers from 11 to 50 years old who had died of non cardiac causes and had no history of cardiac disease. After autopsy in forensic medical center, coronary arteries were removed and examined for atherosclerotic plaques. In case of a definite lesion, microscopic slides were also prepared. Otherwise, three random slides from each branch of coronary arteries were studied by a pathologist. Results: We found that 73.1% of men and 61.5% of women had at least one fibrofatty or advanced plaque in major coronary arteries. Atherosclerosis in 41.8% of men and 30.8% of women was in advanced form. Frequency of advanced atherosclerotic plaques progressed with age reaching a maximum of 78.5% by the age of 41-50 years. In addition, prevalence of plaques suddenly increased after second decade of life. Atherosclerotic plaques were most commonly found in left anterior descending artery (60%) followed by right coronary (50%) and left circumflex (42.5%) arteries. Conclusion: This study showed an unexpectedly high prevalence of atherosclerosis in this population. It highlights the importance of cardiovascular risk factor screening from early ages of third decade.


Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcus infections (PANDAS) originated from the observational work of Swedo and collaborators, who formalized their definition in 1998 in a set of operational criteria. The application of these criteria, which focuses on tics and obsessive-compulsive symptoms as core symptoms, has encountered difficulties, eventually leading to a high rate of misdiagnosis. In particular, the core feature represented by the association between newly diagnosed infections and neuropsychiatric symptom relapses in youths with this diagnosis could not be demonstrated by longitudinal studies. Exploratory studies aiming to identify clinical or cognitive features that could discriminate PANDAS from other pediatric obsessive-compulsive and tic disorders present methodological limitations, and therefore are not conclusive. Other behavioral features, in addition to obsessive-compulsive symptoms and tics, have been included in pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndromes (PANS) and childhood acute neuropsychiatric syndromes (CANS), two new concepts recently proposed in order to define a much broader clinical spectrum encompassing etiologically diverse entities. Given the uncertainties on the clinical definition of PANDAS, it is not surprising that evidence in support of a post-infectious, immune-mediated pathophysiology is also insufficient. Anti-dopamine receptor antibodies might be relevant to both Sydenham's chorea (SC)—the prototypical post-streptococcal neuropsychiatric disorder—and some rare forms of encephalitis targeting the basal ganglia specifically, but studies exploring their association with children fulfilling Swedo's criteria for PANDAS have been inconclusive. Moreover, we lack evidence in favor of the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis or tonsillectomy in patients fulfilling Swedo's criteria for PANDAS, whereas a response to immune-mediated treatments like intravenous immunoglobulins has been documented by one study, but needs replication in larger trials. Overall, the available evidence does not convincingly support the concept that PANDAS are a well-defined, isolated clinical entity subdued by definite pathophysiological mechanisms; larger, prospective studies are necessary to reshape the nosography and disease mechanisms of post-streptococcal acute neuropsychiatric disorders other than SC. Research is also under way to shed further light on a possible relationship between streptococcal infections, other biological and psychosocial stressors, and the complex pathobiology of chronic tic disorders.


When melt fraction increases beyond a critical value, migmatites behave as magmas. Conversely, when melt fraction decreases, crystallizing magmas form solid-framework mushes and behave as solids. The richness in preserved mesoscopic melt segregation structures in migmatites is not matched by melt segregation structures in granitic bodies. This paper identifies melt segregation structures in granites and compares them to structures in migmatites. The rarity of segregation structures in granites is a consequence of the solid-framework mush allowing for cryptic melt extraction from its pores, the relatively short duration of solidification of the mush, and the fragile nature of the solid framework. Identifying segregation features in granitoids at outcrop scale provides the basis for understanding the physical processes that lead to chemical and mineralogical differentiation in granitic magmas.


Mobility as a Service is a quite novel term and has not a commonly agreed definition yet. In this report we use the term Combined mobility services to describe a service offering, including public transport in combination with other transport modes such as taxi, car-sharing, bike-sharing etc.The drivers for the change in how we will consume mobility are multiple, but the report discusses Societal trends such as Urbanisation ad climate change and sharing economy, Economical trends such as excess capacity and new payment systems together with technological development as enabler for the transition. New mobility services are constantly entering the market, and one of the most well-known is UBER. The limousine brokering service that, based on a technological platform have expanded around the world and also in terms of the service offering, now offering services covering the taxi-segment and now starting to offer services very close to public transport.The auto-makers are starting to grasp a possible different future, and are launching mobility services such as car-pool, free-floating car-pools and simplified car-owning schemes.Especially in the Nordic countries, the concept of MaaS is taking of, with services like Ubigo, which was piloted in Goteborg during 2014 and MaaS.fi, a Finnish MaaS-service to be started in 2016 in Finland with the goal of a global expansion. Telecom actors like Ericsson and Sonera are also active in this area. In Sweden, the public transport sector is analysing which role they should take in the MaaS-actor-ecosystem, and in Vastra Gotaland, a pre-commercial procurement of combined mobility services is scheduled for 2016. On a European level, the MaaS-alliance, supported by ERTICO[1], was formed during 2015 with the aim to stimulate the implementation of MaaS in Europe. EU also supports the concept by issuing a specific topic for MaaS in the 2016 H2020 mobility call.There are also a series of research-project ongoing, especially in Sweden and Finland, studying MaaS from a institutional, business and technical perspective. However, few studies are currently researching the sustainability effects of MaaS, even though initial studies indicates that MaaS, if designed bad, also can have negative environmental effects. Mobility as a Service can be designed in different ways and with different types of actors as the lead. If the public transport should be the coordinator of MaaS or a facilitating collaborator is discussed in the report. The report argues that public transport can provide a better stability of such a service (compared to a commercial MaaS operator), but also that public transport do not have the same flexibility in service offering as an external actor, and that they may attract more public transport users than car-owners to the service, in which case the environmental effects can be negative. The report also argues that if MaaS-service is subsidized (other than the services provided by PT), it can also lead to negative rebound effects, and if it is NOT subsidized, there are less reasons why public transport should organise the MaaS-service.UITP, the international organisation for public transport, have an active process for combined mobility services, CMS,(as MaaS is named in the PT sector) and promotes PT to take an active or even leading role in the establishment of this. In the report, some models are introduced for describing different types of mobility services emerging, and the most important distinction of what the report describes as MaaS, is that a Combined Mobility Service provides a subscription of some kind and possibly also a re-packaging of included services, while integrated public transport mainly gives the user the possibility to plan, book, and pay for the whole journey with several transport modes in one service (app). CMS is therefore both a business model and a technical platform which draws its profitability on the reduction of privately owned cars, whilst integrated public transport represents mainly a technical integration which mainly simplifies the shift between modes for a single trip. Both these versions are often referred as MaaS-services. The eco-system of MaaS, and different actor roles are introduced in the report, showing that there are business opportunities for Maas-operators, platform providers, mobility service providers as well as for public transport if the MaaS-service is designed in a right way. Several institutional barriers are identified in the report, which if addressed, could facilitate a faster introduction of MaaS. The Swedish transport subsidy system is discussed, where subsidizing of cars is allowed, but not the subsidizing of mobility services. The role of public transport and the importance of PT (brand) facing the customer, or if a neutral actor is better in attracting private car-owners to exchange the car for mobility services. The technical matureness of public transport is addressed, while a digitized business process (buying, paying and distributing electronic tickets) is a prerequisite for a commercial MaaS-operator to be able to include public transport in the service offering. Technically, Swedish public transport has a very good position through the work done at X2AB/Samtrafiken, but the policy issues around the possibility for third-party actors to use this, is not yet addressed, especially not on a national level.Finally several areas are identified where more research is needed to fully understand and take advantage of the possibilities with MaaS. The foremost area, where few initiatives have been identified, is the sustainability effects of MaaS. If wrongly designed, MaaS can give environmental effects of the service are negative (e.g making PT users to use more car-pools), and positive effects are gained if citizens are exchanging the owning of a car with subscription of mobility services.Other identified research areas are social factors like accessibility are effected by less car-ownership and the introduction of MaaS, how MaaS can contribute to resource efficiency, how MaaS can be supported by policy integration and other institutional issues. [1] European network for ITS deployment. www.ertico.com


Advances in computing power in the past 20 years have led to a proliferation of spatially explicit, individual-based models of population and ecosystem dynamics. In forest ecosystems, the individual-based models encapsulate an emerging theory of "neighborhood" dynamics, in which fine-scale spatial interactions regulate the demography of component tree species. The spatial distribution of component species, in turn, regulates spatial variation in a whole host of community and ecosystem properties, with subsequent feedbacks on component species. The development of these models has been facilitated by development of new methods of analysis of field data, in which critical demographic rates and ecosystem processes are analyzed in terms of the spatial distributions of neighboring trees and physical environmental factors. The analyses are based on likelihood methods and information theory, and they allow a tight linkage between the models and explicit parameterization of the models from field data. Maximum likelihood methods have a long history of use for point and interval estimation in statistics. In contrast, likelihood principles have only more gradually emerged in ecology as the foundation for an alternative to traditional hypothesis testing. The alternative framework stresses the process of identifying and selecting among competing models, or in the simplest case, among competing point estimates of a parameter of a model. There are four general steps involved in a likelihood analysis: (1) model specification, (2) parameter estimation using maximum likelihood methods, (3) model comparison, and (4) model evaluation. Our goal in this paper is to review recent developments in the use of likelihood methods and modeling for the analysis of neighborhood processes in forest ecosystems. We will focus on a single class of processes, seed dispersal and seedling dispersion, because recent papers provide compelling evidence of the potential power of the approach, and illustrate some of the statistical challenges in applying the methods.


Many species of butterflies exhibit interesting optical phenomena due to structural color. The physical reason for this color is subwavelength features on the surface of a single scale. The exposed surface of a scale is covered with a ridge structure. The fully three-dimensional, periodic, finite-difference time-domain method is used to create a detailed electromagnetic model of a generic ridge. A novel method for presenting the three-dimensional observed color pattern is developed. Using these tools, the change in color that is a result of varying individual features of the scale is explored. Computational models are developed that are similar to three butterflies: Morpho rhetenor, Troides magellanus, and Ancyluris meliboeus.


Author(s): Tu, Sheng-Yuan | Advisor(s): Sayed, Ali H. | Abstract: Adaptive networks consist of a collection of nodes with adaptation and learning abilities. The nodes interact with each other on a local level and diffuse information across the network to solve estimation and inference tasks in real-time. In this dissertation, we first examine and compare the mean-square performance of two main strategies for distributed estimation over networks: consensus strategies and diffusion strategies. The analysis confirms that diffusion networks converge faster and reach lower mean-square deviation than consensus networks, and that their mean-square stability is insensitive to the choice of the combination weights. In contrast, and surprisingly, it is shown that consensus networks can become unstable even if all individual nodes are stable and able to solve the estimation task on their own. This finding motivates us to focus on the study of diffusion networks. We incorporate node mobility into the design of the networks and demonstrate that the resulting strategies are well suited to model various types of self-organized behavior observed in biological networks.We also examine the effect of heterogeneous sources of information on network performance. In one scenario, we consider two types of agents: informed and uninformed. Informed agents receive new data regularly and perform consultation and in-network processing tasks, while uninformed agents participate solely in the consultation tasks. It is established that if the set of informed agents is enlarged, the convergence rate of the network becomes faster albeit at the possible expense of some deterioration in mean-square performance. The arguments reveal an important interplay among three factors: the number and distribution of informed agents in the network, the convergence rate of the adaptation process, and the estimation accuracy in steady-state. In a second scenario, we study the situation in which the data observed by the agents may arise from two different distributions or models. We develop and study a procedure by which the entire network can be made to follow one objective or the other through a distributed and collaborative decision process. The results are useful to model situations where the agents in biological networks need to decide between multiple options, such as deciding between moving towards one food source or another or between moving towards a new hive or another.The results in this dissertation reveal some interesting phenomena that relate to adaptation over networks: more information is not necessarily better and the way by which information is processed and propagated through the network matters: small variations can lead to catastrophic failures. The dissertation also reveals the convenience of using diffusion strategies to model sophisticated behavior exhibited by biological networks such as fish schooling and prey-predator behavior.


Nonstationary pulse regimes associated with self-modulation of a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser have been studied experimentally and theoretically. Such laser regimes occur at an intracavity group delay dispersion that is smaller than or larger than what is required for stable mode locking and exhibit modulation in pulse amplitude and spectra at frequencies of several hundred kilohertz. Stabilization of such modulations, leading to an increase in the pulse peak power by a factor of 10, were accomplished by weak modulation of the pump laser with the self-modulation frequency. The main experimental observations can be explained with a round-trip model of the femtosecond laser, taking into account gain saturation, Kerr lensing, and second- and third-order dispersion.


Production goods from raw material data with computerized system will help efficiency in the company. One of the critical factors in a production process is scheduling production machine. This application will be divided into several functions like processing raw material data, goods data, purchasing data, sales data, engine data, production data, and reports data. The advantage of this application is to facilitate the company to process data, and allows administrator to get more information about raw materials, goods, purchasing, sales, machine, production, report data that exist in a place of business. One of major feature that exist in this application is calculation of production estimation of how long a product is produced which has a relationship with incoming orders. Keywords : Purchase and Sales Applications, Machine Scheduling, Production.


IMPORTANCE
The role of sex in relationship to implant failure after total hip arthroplasty (THA) is important for patient management and device innovation.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the association of sex with short-term risk of THA revision after adjusting for patient, implant, surgery, surgeon, and hospital confounders.

DESIGN AND SETTING
A prospective cohort of patients enrolled in a total joint replacement registry from April 1, 2001, through December 31, 2010.

PARTICIPANTS
Patients undergoing primary, elective, unilateral THA.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Failure of THA, defined as revision procedure for (1) any reason, (2) septic reason, or (3) aseptic reason after the index procedure.

RESULTS
A total of 35,140 THAs with 3.0 years of median follow-up were identified. Women constituted 57.5% of the study sample, and the mean (SD) patient age was 65.7 (11.6) years. A higher proportion of women received 28-mm femoral heads (28.2% vs 13.1%) and had metal on highly cross-linked polyethylene-bearing surfaces (60.6% vs 53.7%) than men. Men had a higher proportion of 36-mm or larger heads (55.4% vs 32.8%) and metal on metal-bearing surfaces (19.4% vs 9.6%). At 5-year follow-up, implant survival was 97.4% (95% CI, 97.2%-97.6%). Device survival for men (97.7%; 95% CI, 97.4%-98.0%) vs women (97.1%; 95% CI, 96.8%-97.4%) was significantly different (P = .01). After adjustments, the hazards ratios for women were 1.29 (95% CI, 1.11-1.51) for all-cause revision, 1.32 (95% CI, 1.10-1.58) for aseptic revision, and 1.17 (95% CI, 0.81-1.68) for septic revision.

CONCLUSIONS
After considering patient-, surgery-, surgeon-, volume-, and implant-specific risk factors, women had a 29% higher risk of implant failure than men after THA in this community-based sample.


Does municipal broadband stimulate broadband adoption or employment growth? I conduct an empirical study of American towns that have built municipal networks to answer this question. Using data from the FCC's Form 477 and the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, I track broadband deployment, adoption, and employment statistics for these towns from 2013 to 2017. A town's decision to install a municipal network in the first place is not random, however. To deal with selection effects, I apply Coarsened Exact Matching to ordinary least squares regression to compare results from the treatment group with a weighted control group of similar towns. I also apply two-stage least squares regression with instrumental variable analysis to deal with endogeneity in the decision to build. I do not find evidence that municipal broadband yields benefits in broadband subscription rates or employment growth.


Title of Document: Exploring Musical Diversity in the Collaborative Repertoire from 1880 through 1963 Sooyoung Jung, Doctor, 2011 Directed by: Professor Rita Sloan School of Music It is essential in musical performance not only to convey the unique language of the composers but also to approach each composition from the perspective of its style. During the 20th century, diverse musical idioms co-existed, sometimes mixing or fusing, yet retaining recognizable characteristics and thereby remaining distinctive. This dissertation explores myriad examples from Late Romanticism/PostRomanticism, Naturalism, Neo-Classicism, Nationalism and Impressionism composed during this unusually rich period. In order to explore a broad range of collaborative repertoire and to deepen my knowledge of the styles and performance practices relating to these pieces, I studied and performed the repertoire with pianist Eunae Baik–Kim, clarinetist Jihoon Chang, and singers Joshua Brown and Young Joo Lee. The first program featured Post-Romantic, Neo-Classic and Impressionist two-piano works composed by Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky. Each of the three composers used their own distinctive harmonies, rhythms, melodic inventions, pedaling and figurations. In all of the works, both piano parts were densely interwoven, having equal importance. Lied and operatic aria was the focus of the second recital. Brahms' Vier Ernste Gesänge Op. 121, Ravel's Don Quichotte a Dulcineé and Italian, French and German operatic arias were the examples of Post-Romanticism and Nationalism. The representative composers were Verdi, Massenet, Korngold, Leoncavallo, Ravel and Wagner. Despite the fact that all of the repertoire was written in traditional musical forms, the composers' unique voices mark each work as belonging to a particular genre. The third recital focused on Post-Romantic and Impressionistic music written for clarinet and piano: the Première Rhapsodie by Debussy, the Sonata by Poulenc and Brahms' Sonata in F minor Op. 120, No. 1. These works, although profoundly different in style, share elements of simplicity, clarity and elegance as well as technical virtuosity, articulation and profound musical depth. The three recitals which comprise this dissertation project were performed at the University of Maryland Gildenhorn Recital Hall on February 27, 2010, October 25, 2010, and January 31, 2011. The recitals were recorded on compact disc and are archived within the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM). EXPLORING MUSICAL DIVERSITY IN THE COLLABORATIVE REPERTOIRE FROM 1880 THROUGH 1963 By


We argue that the use of high‐throughput screening techniques, although expensive and laborious, is justified and necessary in studies that examine biological effects of mobile phone radiation. The "case of hsp27 protein" presented here suggests that even proteins with only modestly altered (by exposure to mobile phone radiation) expression and activity might have an impact on cell physiology. However, this short communication does not attempt to present the full scientific evidence that is far too large to be presented in a single article and that is being prepared for publication in three separate research articles. Examples of the experimental evidence presented here were designed to show the flow of experimental process demonstrating that the use of high‐throughput screening techniques might help in rapid identification of the responding proteins. This, in turn, can help in speeding up of the process of determining whether these changes might affect human health.*


Traditional VR is mostly about headset experiences either in completely virtual environments or 360° videos. On the other hand AR has been mixing realities by inserting the virtual within the real. In this work we present the Augmented VR concept that lies at the middle right of the virtuality continuum, typically referred to as augmented virtuality. We offer another perspective by blending the real within the virtual focusing on capturing actual human performances in three dimensions and emplacing them within virtual environments [1]–[3]. By compressing and transmitting this new type of 3D media we can also achieve real-time interaction, communication and collaboration between users. Being in full 3D our media are compatible with a variety of applications be it either VR, AR, MR and open up new exciting opportunities like free viewpoint spectating while also increasing the feeling of immersion of all participating users. We demonstrate our technology via a prototype two player game that can support spectating in various devices like head mounted displays (VR) or tablet laptops (AR). Our system is easy to setup, requiring minimal non-technical human intervention, and relatively low cost taking one step ahead in making this technology available to the consumer public.


Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approaches have been used in various application areas to improve efficiency, optimization, or automation. However, very little is known about how the DRL algorithms make decisions and what features affect their performance. Using a case study of a DRL based Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) optimization methodology, we demonstrate how we can address these challenges by applying interpretability tools and systematically exploring the model inputs for better understanding the DRL behaviour and decision making process. We developed a methodology for interpretable reinforcement learning and evaluated our approach in real-world house located in Knoxville, TN. Our findings explain the reasoning behind DRL-based optimization decisions under different circumstances which has been discussed and confirmed by the experts in the field.


Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) on light element materials and soft matters is problematic due to electron irradiation damage and low contrast. In this doctoral thesis techniques were developed to address some of those issues and successfully characterize these materials at high resolution. These techniques were demonstrated on graphene flakes, DNA/magnetic beads and a number of water containing biomaterials. The details of these studies are given below.A TEM based method was presented for thickness characterization of graphene flakes. For the thickness characterization, the dynamical theory of electron diffraction is used to obtain an analytical expression for the intensity of the transmitted electron beam as a function of thickness. From JEMS simulations (experiments) the absorption constant λ in a low symmetry orientation was found to be ~ 208 nm (225 ± 9 nm). When compared to standard techniques for thickness determination of graphene/graphite, the method has the advantage of being relatively simple, fast and requiring only the acquisition of bright-field (BF) images. Using the proposed method, it is possible to measure the thickness change due to one monolayer of graphene if the flake has uniform thickness over a larger area.A real-space TEM study on magnetic bead-DNA coil interaction was conducted and a statistical analysis of the number of beads attached to the DNA-coils was performed. The average number of beads per DNA coil was calculated around 6 and slightly above 2 for samples with 40 nm and 130 nm beads, respectively. These results are in good agreement with magnetic measurements. In addition, the TEM analysis supported an earlier hypothesis that 40 nm beads are preferably attached interior of the DNA-coils while 130 nm beads closer to the exterior of the coils.A focused ion-beam in-situ lift-out technique for hydrated biological specimens was developed for cryo-TEM. The technique was demonstrated on frozen Aspergillus niger spores which were frozen with liquid nitrogen to preserve their cellular structures. A thin lamella was prepared, lifted out and welded to a TEM grid. Once the lamella was thinned to electron transparency, the grid was cryogenically transferred to the TEM using a cryo-transfer bath. The structure of the cells was revealed by BF imaging. Also, a series of energy filtered images was acquired and C, N and Mn elemental maps were produced. Furthermore, 3 A lattice fringes of the underlying Al support were successfully resolved by high resolution imaging, confirming that the technique has the potential to extract structural information down to the atomic scale. The experimental protocol is ready now to be employed on a large variety of samples e.g. soft/hard matter interfaces.


This article examines how ordinary victims of racism rebut racist beliefs communicated to them by the mass media and encountered in daily life. We describe the rhetorical devices that North African immigrant men in France use to respond to French racism, drawing on thirty in-depth interviews conducted with randomly selected blue-collar immigrants residing in the Paris suburbs. We argue that while French anti-racist rhetorics, both elite and popular, draw on universalistic principles informed by the Enlightenment as well as French Republican ideals, North African immigrants rebut racism by drawing instead on their daily experience and on a 'particular universalism', i.e. a moral universalism informed by Islam. Their arguments frequently centre on claims of equality or similarity between all human beings, or between North Africans and the French. Available cultural repertoires and the structural positions of immigrants help to account for the rhetorical devices that immigrants use to rebut racism.


The present study sought to find out how carotenoid supplement influences on body weights, feed consumption and reproductive success in standard farm mink (Neovison vison). Carotenoids were from microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis. A dose of carotenoid supplement of 0.20, 0.25, 0.20, 0.20, and 0.10 g/animal was added daily in feed in February, March, April, May and June, respectively. Experimental groups were: 1) control group, and 2) carotenoid group. Each group comprised 100 females and 25 males. The results showed that appetite of animals in all groups was good. Significant differences were not found in body weights before breeding. However, weights of control females were significantly (P < 0.05) lower compared with those of carotenoid fed animals when kits aged 21 days. At the age of 21 and 42 days, body weights of kits were similar in both groups. However, kits from carotenoid group tended to grow better (P < 0.1) than those from control group. Number of whelped females was lower in control group (81 vs 85 females). Number of barren females was higher in control than in carotenoid group (16 vs 13 females). Significant differences were not found in number of kits per mated and whelped female. Number of lost kits was higher in the control group at the age of 21 days (24 vs 20 kits) and the age of 42 days (40 vs 26 kits). The present study showed that carotenoid supplement could be used in mink diet. The results are promising, but require further studies before final implementation.


Special challenges exist in writing reliable numerical library software for heterogeneous computing environments. Although a lot of software for distributed-memory parallel computers has been written, porting this software to a network of workstations requires careful consideration. The symptoms of heterogeneous computing failures can range from erroneous results without warning to deadlock. Some of the problems are straightforward to solve, but for others the solutions are not so obvious, or incur an unacceptable overhead. Making software robust on heterogeneous systems often requires additional communication. We describe and illustrate the problems encountered during the development of ScaLAPACK and the NAG Numerical PVM Library. Where possible, we suggest ways to avoid potential pitfalls, or if that is not possible, we recommend that the software not be used on heterogeneous networks.


Reputation is one of the key assets of a digital entrepreneur in markets for experience goods, especially in settings like Darknet and anonymous marketplaces. But what happens if this asset is diminished by a shock, i.e. negative feedback? We study how entrepreneurs on anonymous marketplaces respond to negative feedback by adjusting their product portfolio, or even exiting the market altogether. We find that the entrepreneurs are more likely to exit following negative feedback, but that a entrepreneur's accumulated transactions experience on the market platform negatively moderates this. Interestingly, the entrepreneurs that do remain tend to expand their product portfolio. This effect, however, is again driven by entrepreneurs with relative high transactions experience, i.e. those with a high prior transactions volume. These results suggest that the reputation and the transactions experience of an entrepreneur interact in intricate ways to drive an entrepreneur's choice of remaining in the market or adjusting her portfolio. We derive managerial and policy implications of these results.


Recent developments in scholarly publication and the new directions being pursued in both humanities departments and libraries in the production of digital content provide opportunity for scholars and libraries to explore new models for working together to produce and disseminate scholarly materials. We offer as a first step toward a model for publication the case of Opuscula: Short Texts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (OSTMAR), a hybrid form of publication that leverages the university library infrastructure to create a platform for the publication of scholarly primary materials, an area of publication formerly reserved for the commercial press. This model is dependent on close collaboration between scholar and librarian, the nuances of which are outlined in this paper.


Abstract. We perform a fault-based probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) exercise in the Upper Rhine Graben to quantify the relative influence of fault parameters on the hazard at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant site. Specifically, we show that the potentially active faults described in the companion paper (Jomard et al., 2017, hereafter Part 1) are the dominant factor in hazard estimates at the low annual probability of exceedance relevant for the safety assessment of nuclear installations. Geological information documenting the activity of the faults in this region, however, remains sparse, controversial and affected by a high degree of uncertainty. A logic tree approach is thus implemented to explore the epistemic uncertainty and quantify its impact on the seismic hazard estimates. Disaggregation of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) hazard at a 10 000-year return period shows that the Rhine River fault is the main seismic source controlling the hazard level at the site. Sensitivity tests show that the uncertainty on the slip rate of the Rhine River fault is the dominant factor controlling the variability of the seismic hazard level, greater than the epistemic uncertainty due to ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs). Uncertainty on slip rate estimates from 0.04 to 0.1 mm yr−1 results in a 40 to 50 % increase in hazard levels at the 10 000-year target return period. Reducing epistemic uncertainty in future fault-based PSHA studies at this site will thus require (1) performing in-depth field studies to better characterize the seismic potential of the Rhine River fault; (2) complementing GMPEs with more physics-based modelling approaches to better account for the near-field effects of ground motion and (3) improving the modelling of the background seismicity. Indeed, in this exercise, we assume that background earthquakes can only host M     6. 0 earthquakes have been recently identified at depth within the Upper Rhine Graben (see Part 1) but are not accounted for in this exercise since their potential activity has not yet been described.


Abstract A conventional opinion is that Russia is trying to destroy the liberal international order. Russia indeed defies it, but also justifies its foreign policy with the liberal order's normative frameworks and reproaches the West for not standing up to these norms. Moreover, Moscow does not present any alternative vision. Russia complains about the internal contradictions of the liberal order: sovereignty vs. intervention, pluralism vs. universality, US hegemony vs. equality and democracy, although it also exploits these contradictions. In fact Russia demands an adjustment of the liberal order rather than its eradication and should, therefore, be classified as a neorevisionist power. Two elements underlie Russia's at times aggressive foreign policy conduct. The first one, its feeling of being ill-accommodated in the present order, predefines the direction of the policy. The second, the prioritisation of foreign policy over domestic reforms, explains the intensity of Russian discontent and its occasional aggressive manifestations. Russia's domestic consensus regarding its foreign policy, including views on the liberal international order, facilitates this aggressiveness. Three policy conclusions can be drawn: acknowledging that Russia uses the inherent contradictions of the liberal international order opens up possibilities for dialogue and an eventual overcoming of the crisis; the survival and strengthening of the liberal order depends on its embrace of all major players, including Russia, and hence, the need for some adjustments to the order itself; and finally such adjustments presuppose Russia's readiness to shoulder responsibility for the (reformed) liberal international order.


It is possible to change the figure of reflecting surfaces quantitatively by controlled deposition of metals, evaporated in vacuum. The theory for calculating screens and the experimental technique are described. A spherical 12-inch mirror has been repeatedly parabolized, obtaining a surface perfect within 0.05 wave-length. A 558‐inch spherical mirror has been parabolized with the optical axis outside of its periphery. A defective parabolic mirror was corrected for turned up and down edges. A convex spherical secondary mirror was hyperbolized. The limitations and possible applications of the method are discussed.


In organizational management, it is highly recommended that data and information be adequately prepared to match the knowledge needed to be used in decision-making processes. However, faced with the paradigm of complexity that currently dictates the dynamics of modern organizations, there is still a search for operational solutions that allow agility and flexibility to corporate information flows to meet that desired condition. In this context, the concept of data and information governance presents itself as a fundamental premise because it systematizes, reorganizes and reorients each element of the organizational system (people, processes, structures, etc.) without losing the notion of its contexts and causalities. For this, in the conceptual modelling of governance, the concept of systemism arises to support the balance between holistic and reductionist approaches, inherent in management processes, but often considered antagonistic or contradictory. The present chapter presents and discusses a data and information governance model for research and development (R&D) organizations. The model is based upon the concepts of data, information and knowledge life cycles and knowledge mapping, recovering and valuing the ontological nature of the elements of the system under analysis and constructing a pragmatic proposal for corporate application and operation


Antiprogestins are characterized by substitutions at the 11 beta and 17 alpha positions of the steroid ring system and bind strongly to both progesterone and glucocorticoid receptors. Although they function predominantly as antiprogestins and antiglucocorticoids, on occasion they display progestin agonistic and even antiestrogenic properties. The most common clinical use of the antiprogestin mifepristone is to induce a medical abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. Progesterone maintains the endometrium, transforming it from a proliferative to a secretory state. It also facilitates the luteinizing hormone surge, which initiates ovulation. As a consequence, antiprogestins may also have contraceptive potential. Although antiprogestins do delay ovulation, this effect is inconsistent unless high doses are given, and under these circumstances, the antiprogestin effect is associated with unopposed estrogen action on the endometrium. Very low doses of antiprogestins do not affect hormonal secretion or ovulation or alter bleeding patterns, but they do have contraceptive potential by inducing profound alterations in endometrial morphology. Mifepristone is also a very effective and safe postcoital agent. This new class of pharmacological agents has numerous other gynecological and obstetrical indications, such as endometriosis, uterine myoma, and expulsion of the fetus in the case of fetal death in utero. Antiprogestins may also be used in the treatment of steroid-dependent tumors. There are also therapeutic implications consequent to their antiglucocorticoid properties.


Precise positioning with a stand-alone GPS receiver or using differential corrections is known to be strongly degraded in a constrained environment (urban or sub-urban conditions) due to frequent signal masking, strong multipath effect, frequent cycle slips on carrier phase, etc. The objective of this work is to explore the possibility of achieving precise positioning with a low-cost architecture: using multiple low-cost receivers with known geometry to enable the vehicle attitude determination and RTK performance amelioration. In this paper, we firstly use a method that includes an array of receivers with known geometry to enhance the performance of the RTK in different environments. Taking advantage of the attitude information and the known geometry of the array of receivers, the improvement of some internal steps of RTK precise positioning can be realized. This concept is tested on real data sets, where different scenarios are conducted including varying the distance between the 2 antennas of the receiver array and the environmental conditions (open sky, suburban, and constrained urban environments). The results show that our multi-receiver RTK system is more robust to degraded GNSS environment in terms of ambiguity fixing rate and gets a better position accuracy under the same conditions when comparing with the single receiver system.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To compare available grading and staging scales that measure external lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) and to assess problems and gaps related to these tools.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional.

SETTING
A comprehensive cancer center in Tennessee.

SAMPLE
103 participants post-HNC treatment.

METHODS
Four scales were used to evaluate study participant external lymphedema status, including the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) Lymphedema Scale (version 3.0), American Cancer Society Lymphedema Scale, Stages of Lymphedema (Földi's Scale), and the CTCAE Fibrosis Scale (version 3.0).

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Occurrence rate, severity of lymphedema, and components and descriptors of each scale.

FINDINGS
The prevalence and severity of external lymphedema differed based on the tools. Each tool had an identified limitation. Current theory postulates a continuum between lymphedema and fibrosis, but only the Földi's Scale adequately reflected that concept.

CONCLUSIONS
None of the available scales clearly captured all the important characteristics of external lymphedema in patients with HNC. A need exists to develop a clearly defined and validated scale of external lymphedema in the HNC population.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Oncology nurses should take an active role in addressing issues related to lymphedema assessment in patients post-HNC treatment; however, new assessment tools need to be developed for clinical use.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION
Early identification and accurate documentation of head and neck lymphedema are critically important to prevent lymphedema progress. However, existing grading criteria failed to capture important characteristics of external head and neck lymphedema. More research efforts need to be made to address this under-recognized issue.


A major user of cast components is the automotive industry, where the functionality of the components is related to environmental demands. Internal combustion engines are constantly being improved to emit less pollution. A vital part in this development is to increase the material properties of engine components during their life cycle. In particular, cylinder heads, cylinder blocks and piston rings for diesel engine are produced in grey cast iron. Cast iron is expected to be in use far into the foreseeable future, due to favourable properties and low production costs. This work has been devoted to study microstructure formation, the tensile properties of cast iron and to some extent defect formation.The microstructure develops during solidification and solid state transformations. An inverse thermal analysis method was developed to study the kinetics of the microstructure formation. The inverse thermal analysis used, the Fourier method, analyses the cooling curves of two thermocouples to study the solidification or transformation. To decrease experimental errors, simulations have been done and the cooling curves were analysed. The best results were obtained when the thermocouples were placed close to each other.With the help of the thermal analysis a time dependent and fading nucleation law of the eutectic cells was found to fit the experimental results best. The experiments were made by multiple thermal analyses, and six different types of inoculants were investigated. The eutectic growth behaviour during solidification was evaluated with inverse thermal analysis, and it was found that commercial inoculants not only affect the eutectic nucleation but they also control the eutectic growth rate.Models of densities and volume changes are an integral part of a microstructure simulation of cast irons. These models are important for the inverse thermal analysis and an understanding of the porosity and expansion penetration in cast iron.The tensile strength of grey cast iron has been discussed by examining the fracture mechanism of the material at failure. The ultimate tensile strength is a result of the intimate collaboration between the graphite flake and the primary phases. Several parameters, including the graphite morphology, carbon content, inoculation and cooling conditions influence the ultimate tensile strength by offseting the equilibrium between the major constituents, the graphite flakes embedded in the primary metallic matrix. A model to predict the ultimate tensile strength is developed based on the interpretation of the stress intensity behaviour in a eutectic cell.The models developed for nucleation, eutectic growth and prediction of tensile strength were introduced into a casting simulation program. Mould filling, solidificauon, microstructure development and tensile strength of a complex. shaped cylinder head were simulated.