Problem Personal observations while serving as a pastor and evangelist indicate a need for more effective and persuasive appeals for decisions following sermons. This is especially important when preaching the distinctive truths of the Seventh-day Adventist church. It is both a challenging and rewarding segment of my own preaching experience. For this reason it is my desire to improve on the delivery of appeals by including "prophetic preaching" strategies for reaching the heart issues that most concern those attending the Discover Revelation seminar that I present as an evangelist for the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Method This project was a comparative study of persuasive appeals for decision on distinctive Seventh-day Adventist beliefs. Distinctive beliefs that are part of this project are Salvation/Baptism, Sabbath, Second Coming, State of the Dead, Remnant Church, and Sanctuary. Prophetic appeals for decision were compared to traditional story appeals for these distinctive beliefs during two evangelistic series conducted in Holland and Cadillac, Michigan from July to November 2014. A qualitative evaluation using the focus group method was done following each of the two evangelistic series of presentations. Three separate groups met during August, September, and November 2014. Results Each of three focus groups related strong impressions regarding the persuasive preaching of appeals using the prophetic preaching style. They agreed that this was more persuasive compared to a traditional narrative story appeal for the close of the messages. There was concern that the prophetic preaching style had potential to alienate listeners, particularly those who could be struggling with an issue the researcher addressed. Out of three groups, one person, referring to one of these presentations, said that he/she disliked that one prophetic preaching appeal and that it did nothing for him/her. Three out of 17 focus group members expressed concern about the direct nature of the issues addressed. Of the three, no one expressed that he/she was offended. None mentioned that he/she knew of anyone who took offence. One respondent in each focus group expressed this concern unprompted by the researcher. In one focus group, a respondent not of our faith, after expressing this concern, indicated that one prophetic appeal in particular caused his/her decision for Christ. Both styles of appeals were well received. Respondents felt the prophetic style impressed attendees more due to the relevant current issues challenged by prophetic preaching. It was stronger, more distinctive. A potential weakness expressed by two was that more sympathy for those dealing with issues confronted was needed. Conclusions In preaching this style of appeal, it is important to exegete the audience and know their issues. It is essential to make the whole message Christ-centered and biblically presented. It is important to express empathy and sympathy in dealing with the issues. In speaking truth to power, we need to realize the weakness of individuals and be compassionate. We must include hope and the fact that Christ is the answer. There were favorable results when compared to preaching in a non-prophetic preaching style. Approximately 14% and 23% of initial non-Adventists in attendance were baptized after six weeks. The potential stands, three months after the evangelistic meetings, for 30% to 60% of the opening attendance to be baptized as new members. This research was well received by both a small and medium-sized congregation in the Michigan Conference.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the language anxiety experiences of students studying English as a second language (ESL) at Universiti Utara Malaysia. This study adopted a qualitative case study approach. The sampling of participants was done through purposive sampling in order to select information-rich cases. The sampling strategy employed was maximum variation sampling to find common patterns among three levels of English language courses and related samples of student participants. Data collection was done through interviewing ESL students and lecturers and also analyzing documents. Nineteen students were interviewed to get their perspectives on the language anxiety phenomenon. In order to understand language anxiety, four components were investigated: the sources of language anxiety, anxiety reactions, coping strategies and effects of language anxiety. Three major themes, three minor themes and two unexpected themes emerged from this study in relation to the sources of language anxiety. It was discovered that the language anxiety experienced by the participants stemmed from the learners themselves, lecturers' instructional practice, social and cultural influence. In terms of language anxiety reactions, seven themes emerged from this study. This study also found eight strategies used by the participants to cope with language anxiety. Explanation on the effects of language anxiety focused more on the subtle effects based on the experiences shared by the participants in this study. The study concluded that language anxiety is a prevalent phenomenon among the participants. All the participants expressed experiencing anxiety but at various degrees such as low, moderate or high. Speaking and writing were the two language skills most associated with sources of language anxiety. Debilitating anxiety was a common experience among the participants with one exception. Some implications for the learners, lecturers, peers, and course developers are stated briefly. Some recommendations are also suggested for further study.


Abstract Saudi Arabia is witnessing a unique and rapid economic growth as well as beyond-oil comprehensive investments relatively at most sectors including education and ICT. As part of the global pedagogical shift from teacher-centred approaches to more learner-centred approaches, Saudi educational system already started to adopt distance and mobile learning practices to support this shift. Saudi higher education sector, in particular, is investing heavily to promote teaching and learning practices that can cope with students' needs in the digital age. Moreover, the rapid advancement as well as the enormous penetration of mobile technologies among Saudi youths have increased the interest in mobile learning. In addition, young population in Saudi Arabia are the biggest users of mobile social media in the Arab World. There are several challenges that accompanied this rapid development of economic and educational systems in Saudi Arabia. Special and unique 'version' of mobile learning was formed as a response to these challenges. This paper will review some of the challenges found in previous studies, and will highlight other challenges that are believed to have a major impact on mobile learning in Saudi Arabia. A picture of the future of mobile learning in Saudi Arabia will then be drawn.


Editor's Note: Submissions to this column may be in the form of papers, essays, poetry, or other similar forms. Editorial assistance will be provided to develop early concepts or drafts. If you have a potential submission or idea, or if you would like reactions to a document in progress, contact the series editor directly: William D. Grant, EdD, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Department of Family Medicine, 475 Irving Avenue, Suite 200, Syracuse, NY 13210. 315-464-6997. Fax: 315-464-6982. grantw@upstate. edu. Lessons From Our Learners


This essay explores the environmental agendas and ambitions that motivate John Timothy Rothwell, a mad biker chieftain wielding an axe,' who, claiming to be a 'post-Thatcher' King Arthur, changes his name and links his political struggles against the state to myths that mourn the lost original purity of ancient Britain. This article looks backward to authoritarian values his ecocriticism should interrogate. (LAF and MBS)What 'patient labor of mourning' divides English Heritage's fantasy of Britain's medieval origins from the acts of political legitimation of one Arthur Uther Pendragon (born John Timothy Rothwell), a 'British soldier, the son of a soldier, brought up in army camps and council estates, a truant, a persistent offender, a jack-of-all-trades, a traveler, a mad biker chieftain wielding an axe, who, in a moment of revelation, in a twentieth-century squat,' claims to be a 'post-Thatcher' King Arthur, who changes his name to reflect (create) that reality, and who links his political struggles against the state to myths that mourn the always already lost original purity of ancient Britain, invoking 'a time, long before history, when the people knew their place in the Universe, not as the centre, but as parts of a greater whole'?1 This is the characterization of Arthur Pendragon offered up in The Trials of Arthur: The Life and Times of a Modern-Day King, the (auto) biography written by Pendragon and Christopher J. Stone. King Arthur (and when we refer to King Arthur in this essay, we are referring to this late twentieth-century return), wearing Druid robes, a crown, and wielding Excalibur, has since the late 1990s been involved in ecological conflicts with such keepers and maintainers of the mythologies of the British past-and British monuments-as English Heritage, Parliament, and even the Monarchy, in his desire to reclaim the sacrality of the land. Ronald Hutton, the University of Bristol historian of neo-paganism, describes Arthur Pendragon as 'a major figure in modern Druidry and deserving of'an equally important place in the history of groups concerned with environmental issues and civil rights.'2 Taking as his battle cry John Boorman's mantra-through Jessie Weston-that 'the king and the land are one,'3 Arthur Pendragon has set out to reclaim sites like Stonehenge, providing a contesting myth of origin to that supplied by the current trustees, who have fenced off the stones, making what 'the king' claims was a place of worship, where men and women communed with the earth, into little more than a museum space catering to the 'tourist gaze.'4This essay explores the environmental agendas and ambitions that motivate Pendragon's engagement with both the Arthurian past and the environment, exploring the imbrications of ecology and cultural heritage, nature and the antique past, in forms of nostalgia that become a means to forge political communities of all kinds, but most particularly, the community of the nation. While we do not claim to be experts on ecocriticism or green cultural studies, we hope to bring our expertise in medievalism to bear on the trope Timothy Morton has called ecomimesis-the techniques through which nature writers speak for and represent nature-to investigate its investments in nostalgia as an expression of ecological nationalism.5 Ecomimesis is an authenticating device, but it is also 'a pressure point, crystallizing a vast and complex ideological network of beliefs, practices, and processes in and around the idea of the natural world.'6The 'patient labor of mourning' with which we opened is the phrase Bernard Cerquiglini uses to describe the nostalgia of the medieval philologist's 'quest for an anterior perfection that is always bygone.'7 This desire for the 'authentic, first, and original version' also describes the passion that fuels King Arthur's self-described 'mad fantasy.'8 In both his protests and his memoir, King Arthur conjures up an ecomimesis that knits together nature, medievalism, romance, and nostalgia for a lost organic society. …


Trends in air pollutant emissions from 1970 to the present day are described and discussed for the United Kingdom and the United States. These are compared with trends in ambient concentrations and the similarities and divergences are discussed. There have been notable success stories in terms of reductions in smoke and sulfur dioxide concentrations, although the current concentrations are still a matter of concern. Concentrations of carbon monoxide and many volatile organic compounds have decreased very substantially in recent years. Nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and ozone still give cause for concern. The trends in the United Kingdom and United States are contrasted with those in less developed countries for which China is taken as a case study. The trends in emissions and airborne concentrations are reviewed and contrasted with those in the more developed world.


Protein-directed intracellular transport has not been observed in bacteria despite the existence of dynamic protein localization and a complex cytoskeleton. However, protein trafficking has clear potential uses for important cellular processes such as growth, development, chromosome segregation, and motility. Conflicting models have been proposed to explain Myxococcus xanthus motility on solid surfaces, some favoring secretion engines at the rear of cells and others evoking an unknown class of molecular motors distributed along the cell body. Through a combination of fluorescence imaging, force microscopy, and genetic manipulation, we show that membrane-bound cytoplasmic complexes consisting of motor and regulatory proteins are directionally transported down the axis of a cell at constant velocity. This intracellular motion is transmitted to the exterior of the cell and converted to traction forces on the substrate. Thus, this study demonstrates the existence of a conserved class of processive intracellular motors in bacteria and shows how these motors have been adapted to produce cell motility.


Background Prostate cancer is the second most frequent malignant tumour among men, with approximately 900,000 new cases per year. However, the financial situation of our public health system and the tight budgets of hospitals demand the best use of healthcare resources. Therefore, physicians should use cost-effective strategies in clinical practice. Purpose To analyse the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of cabazitaxel as a treatment for metastatic prostate cancer in our hospital, and to compare those results with the available literature. Material and methods A retrospective observational study was carried out to estimate our population progression-free survival (PFS), measured by the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (RECIST). The study lasted 15 months and included all 0–1 ECOG performance status patients who received cabazitaxel for metastatic prostate cancer in our hospital. Afterwards, costs were calculated using actual dosages and current prices including industry discounts. Administration or indirect costs were not considered. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of cabazitaxel was obtained. Finally, the literature perspective and our estimation from real practice were compared. Results Ten patients were treated with cabazitaxel for metastatic prostate cancer during the inclusion period. Median age was 68 years old (range 61–83). The median dose was 20 mg m-2. Four patients required dose reductions (10–15 mg m-2). The median PFS was 7.0 months. Pharmacological costs were €15,923.5 per patient treated, and therefore our estimated ICER was €2,274.78/month of PFS. While published ICERs were estimated at €12,546.32/month of PFS, we obtained a much lower ICER. Hence, a discrepancy of €10,271.54/month of PFS was found. Conclusion The summary of products characteristics (SPC) recommended dose is higher than actual practice, and consequently costs are overestimated in studies based on SPC data. On the whole, pharmacoeconomic analyses should be applied in specific settings since general analyses may not be congruous with actual scenarios. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


The present paper reports the overall benefits of freeze granulation for enhancing the properties of zirconium tin titanate Zr0.8Sn0.2TiO4 (ZST) ceramics in the total absence of sintering additives. The ZST powder was synthesized by solid state reaction and attrition milled in ethanol for 10 h. This starting non-granulated powder (NG-ZST), without and with 1 wt% ZnO as sintering additive, was used to consolidate green bodies by dry pressing. The pure ZST powder was also dispersed in aqueous media to obtain stable suspensions with high solid loadings. Free flowing spherical homogeneous granules were prepared by freeze granulation and used to consolidate ZST green bodies by dry pressing (FG-ZST). The effects of processing variables and sintering temperature (1300–1450 °C) on densification and on the structural, mechanical and electrical properties of ZST ceramics were systematically investigated. Our study clearly reveals the superior properties of FG-ZST ceramics, which derive from an enhanced sintering behaviour associated with the absence of sintering additives.


In Nigeria, mobile phones have been instrumental to the rapid increase in telecommunications accessibility. Mobile phones have become integral part of daily life among the general population and college/university students. Several studies have found that the use of mobile phones among college/university students has brought about a profound and diverse pool of knowledge. However, mobile phone usage also has its adverse effects. This paper examined the evolution of mobile phones in Nigeria and the concomitant positive and adverse effects of its usage amongst students in tertiary institutions. It identified the positive effects to include easy access to information, instructional usage and personal convenience; while the adverse effects include distraction in the classroom, reduced cognitive ability, cheating during examinations, cyber bulling, poor writing skills and addiction. The paper then concluded that though mobile phones have positive effects on the educational and socio-economic development of Nigerian students, university authorities should take a more proactive role to reduce its adverse effects by either prohibiting the use of mobile phones during lecture hours or encouraging students to switch off their phones or put them on silence mode while receiving lectures. The significance of this paper for the Nigerian educational system is that if its recommendations are implemented, the positive effects of mobile phone usage will then overshadow its negative effects.


I propose a simple, general framework for the interaction of inference with natural language interpretation. First, inference is only available when triggered by the violation of highly ranked constraints. Second, inference is constrained to be a search for a minimal submodel. I show that this correctly captures facts concerning deaccenting, ellipsis, and reciprocal interpretation.


Web-scale data has been used in a diverse range of language research. Most of this research has used web counts for only short, fixed spans of context. We present a unified view of using web counts for lexical disambiguation. Unlike previous approaches, our supervised and unsupervised systems combine information from multiple and overlapping segments of context. On the tasks of preposition selection and context-sensitive spelling correction, the supervised system reduces disambiguation error by 20-24% over the current state-of-the-art.


Background: Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is a sensitive and specific marker of acute cardiac damage. We examined the prevalence, characteristics and outcome of incidental cTnI rises in older patients. Methods: One hundred and eighty-seven consecutive patients aged 65 years or over with a raised cTnI on admission at least 8 h after symptom onset were categorised into: (1) ST-elevation myocardial infarction, (2) other acute coronary syndromes (ACS), (3) other recognised non-ACS causes of cTnI rise and (4) non-ACS with no other identifiable cause (an incidental finding). The number of readmissions and deaths for each group was measured at 30 and 90 days. Results: Age range = 65–98 years. Male = 55.6%. Fifty-four percent had a raised cTnI due to non-ACS illnesses, whilst in 18% it was an incidental finding. The latter group was relatively older and had a significantly lower degree of cTnI rise (U = 1718.5, p = 0.002), but a higher readmission and mortality rate compared to the other groups (categories 1–3) for both follow-up periods. Conclusions: Incidental cTnI rise is common in older patients and is associated with a poorer prognosis compared to ACS or a recognised non-ACS condition. Future research should attempt to evaluate the significance of such incidental rises in elderly patients.


In this paper, we investigate incentive structures within partnerships. Partnerships provide a classic example of the tradeoff between risk spreading and moral hazard. The degree to which firms choose to spread risk and sacrifice efficiency incentives depends upon risk preferences, for which data are typically unavailable. We are able to overcome this difficulty due to the existence of a unique data set on a prominent form of professional partnership; medical group practice. We consider a two-stage model in which agents choose effort in response to incentives and in which the firm can choose two different instruments to affect incentives and to spread risk: the compensation method and the number of members. There are two new theoretical results. First, relative to the compensation method or group size which would be chosen in the absence of risk or risk aversion, the best compensation method will be one which sacrifices efficiency incentives in order to spread risk, and the best membership size will exceed the first best size for the same reasons. Second, a further increase in risk or risk aversion leads the firm to sacrifice more efficiency incentives in order to spread more risk. Hence, firms who are more risk averse or face greater uncertainty pay larger risk premiums in terms of sacrificed output due to shirking. The empirical results are striking and consistent with the theory. Firms which report more risk aversion have greater departures from first-best organizational incentive structures. Specifically, increased risk aversion leads to compensation arrangements which spread more risk through greater sharing of output and to decreased group size in order to counteract diminished incentives. We also find that compensation arrangements that have greater degrees of sharing of output across physicians significantly reduce each physician's productivity, whereas reductions in group size significantly increase productivity. The estimated premium associated with risk aversion accounts for almost eleven percent of gross income, comparing the most risk averse to the least risk averse physicians in the sample.


Technology of one kind or another has always been a central ingredient in war. The Spartan king Archidamus, for instance, reacted with alarm when first witnessing a weapon that could shoot darts through the air. And yet during the past two centuries technology has played an unprecedented role in military affairs and thinking, and in the overall conduct of war. In addition, the impact of new technology on warfare has brought major social and cultural changes. This volume explores the relationship between war, technology, and modern society over the course of the last several centuries. The two world wars, total conflicts in which industrial technology took a terrible human toll, brought great changes to the practice of organized violence among nations; even so many aspect of military life and values remained largely unaffected. In the latter half of the twentieth century, technology in the form of nuclear deterrence appears to have prevented the global conflagration of world war while complicating and fueling ferocious regional contests. A stimulating fusion of military and social history, extending back to the eighteenth century, and with contributions from such leading historians as Brian Bond, Paddy Griffith, and Neil McMillen, War in the Age of Technology will interest lay readers and specialists alike.


Summary
It is well known that several members of the vitamin B complex possess growth promoting properties (7). Riboflavin, pantothenic acid, biotin, nicotinic acid, thiamin, and folic acid excite certain groups of bacteria and yeast to proliferate beyond their ordinary limits. The researches of Sure (8) have contributed considerably in clarifying vitamin B1 potency relative to its growth accelerating factors in the lower animal.
In these leprosy experiments vitamin B1 (thiamin) was employed as a growth stimulating substance. Cultures were prepared directly from tissue emulsion that was rich in the bacillus of Hansen. Organ culture preparations were made from the affected tissues of rabbits which had previously been injected with emulsion (tissue juice) of a leprosy nodule containing the Hansen bacillus in great numbers.
Direct cultivation upon the artificial medium of a chromogenic acid-fast bacillus from the human leprous nodule was obtained. The culture secured directly from the human lesion was identical with the chromogenic culture isolated from the lesions of the rabbit induced with human leprous tissue.
Growth was not observed in the cultured material before the intervention of two and one-half months for the indirect (leprous tissue → animal passage → in vitro cultivation) and two months had elapsed before visible growth was noted for the direct (leprous tissue → in vitro culture) cultivation. This feature is quite constant as regards B. leprae culture.
The author (9) has demonstrated that acid-fast saprophytes (B. phlei and B. smegmatis) can be cultivated readily on an ordinary medium in twenty-four hours as contrasted to the slow growing tendency of the chromogenic acid-fast bacilli isolated and reported herein. Duval and Harris (10) observed that B. leprae is extremely slow to grow even under the most favorable conditions requiring eight to ten weeks to attain maximum growth. Initial growth is apparently dependent upon a vital "activator" or stimulatory agent.
There have been reports in the literature regarding the production of infection in the experimental animal with cultures obtained from human leprosy tissue; however, there has been no mention made of an experimental procedure where animal passage and infection was fulfilled, resulting in the cultivation of a chromogenic acid-fast bacillus. Furthermore, to establish authenticity of this culture a tissue emulsion of a fresh leprosy nodule was cultured directly on the artificial pabulum (vitamin B1). This preparation also yielded an acid-fast chromogenic bacillus. The special medium "vitalized" with thiamin or vitamin B1 was employed in these isolations.
These microbial isolations were identical from the cultural, morphological, and tinctorial points of view to the acid-fast chromogenic leprosy culture of Duval. These premises herein reported are significantly correlated with Duval's (2) in vitro cultivation of the acid-fast chromogenic bacillus from the uncontaminated leprous nodule. This representation gives strong supporting evidence for the authenticity of Duval's leprosy culture regarding its etiological relationship to the disease of human leprosy.


In the current study, the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a rotating, partial pin-finned, cooling channel that has a trapezoidal cross section and converges from the hub to tip in both the streamwise and spanwise directions are experimentally investigated. To model the geometry of an internal trailing edge cooling passage, the channel is oriented with respect to the direction of rotation (β = 120 deg). Isolated copper plates are used to obtain regionally averaged heat transfer coefficients on the leading and trailing surfaces. Pressure drop is measured using pressure taps placed at the inlet and outlet of the channel. Utilizing Dp = 5 mm diameter pins, a staggered array is created. For this array, the streamwise pin-spacing, Sy/Dp = 2.1, was kept constant; however, the spanwise pin-spacing, Sx/Dp, was varied from the hub to tip between 3 and 2.6 due to the channel convergence. Experiments were conducted for two partial pin-fin sets having pin length-to-diameter ratios of Sz/Dp = 0.4 and 0.2. The rotation number was varied from 0 to 0.21 by ranging the inlet Reynolds number from 10,000 to 40,000 and rotation speed from 0 to 300 rpm. A significant decrease in pressure loss and a slight reduction in heat transfer enhancement are observed with the use of partial pin-fins compared with the previously reported full pin-fin converging channel study. This provides better thermal performances of the partial pin-fin arrays compared with the full pin-fin array, in the converging channels.


This paper critically discusses the method of participant observation (as ethnographic method and everyday practice), which consists of participation, observation and mediation, and suggests adjustments, through the lens of perception, which seem necessary in smartphone-saturated cities. The author argues that digital and material forms of mediation lead to different possibilities and limitations of sensory perception. These therefore need to be consciously acknowledged in the social production and construction of space and place. Through a focus on human perception, the challenges that individualised on-site media consumption provides to the concepts of participation, perception and mediation are discussed. In this regard, the interface, most prominently the screen, functions as a nexus that retranslates information through mediation back into the field of human perception. Mobile digital communication can therefore enrich the sphere of perception (at site), but what is digitally mediated is at the same time constrained by the technical and translational possibilities of the medium and the interface. The case study of the Shimokitazawa Curry Festival in Tokyo is used to show how participation, multisensory perception and mediation are practiced in an urban setting. The same case also provides empirical data concerning multisensory participation as a method that is facing new challenges through increasing mobile digital communication.


Parched landscapes, biodiversity loss, encroaching deserts and deforestation are some of the environmental crises taking place in tropical savannas and dry forests throughout the world. To date, much research into these regions has treated humans as 'outside' or as an 'impact' only. However, over and over again, examples show that, in fact, humans are not external factors, but integral components of these systems. Humans are key determinants of savannas and dry forests, affecting patterns and processes, as well as impacts on natural resources. Unless we understand the human-environment relationship in these regions, we will never truly identify the causes or be able to provide solutions.

This book therefore focuses on the roles of the past, present and future human perceptions and actions on savannas and dry forests. It examines how the views of local farmers, NGO workers, government officials and international scientists differ on the links between the social and ecological components of savannas. It deals with these multiple perspectives by using systems diagramming and conceptual modelling to provide a clearer and more explicit understanding and to promote better communication between the various actors concerned.


Abstract. Japanese Islands are situated along the tectonically very active zone. Earthquakes occur frequently, and there are many active volcanoes. Climatically Japan is located in the east Asian monsoon zone and has high annual precipitation. Tropical cyclones (typhoons) or baiu (early summer rain season) sometimes lead to torrential rainfall. Such natural conditions have created broad high mountain areas and rivers of strong erosional process. Mountain slopes are geologically open to collapse, and debris flows often occur in streams in mountainous areas. While the area of alluvial plains, underlain by thick unconsolidated sediment, account for only 25% of the whole of Japan, approximately 80% of the population is concentrated in these weak-ground areas. Owing to such geographical characteristics, people have suffered many and various natural disasters (earthquake ground motion, liquefaction, landslide, debris flow, river flood, high tide, tsunami, etc.) in Japan.In 1959, a very strong typhoon (Isewan Typhoon or Typhoon Vera) brought the greatest flood damage in Nagoya City and its surrounding area. More than 5,000 people were killed or missing by it. The major damage was caused by high tide inundation in the delta of the Nobi plain. Three years before the disaster, Masahiko OYA (1923–2005) made a 1 : 50,000 geomorphological map of the plain. The damaged area had been shown in the map which was based on geomorphic features. After this, it became well-known that geomorphological mapping is effective for understanding flood risks.Since then, the various natural disasters have been studied by Japanese geomorphologists and the relationship between the damage and geomorphological condition has been revealed. Nowadays we know that the geomorphological land condition influences very much not only the damage by earthquake strong motion but also occurrence of ground liquefaction. It is also well-known that landforms derived by landslide or debris flow shown in a geomorphological map mean that the place is open to damage in the future.The national government carried out and is carrying out some geomorphological mapping projects for the purpose of hazard assessments. Nowadays, national and local governments prepare various kinds of "hazard map" which show probably dangerous zones, and some of them are made using the information provided from geomorphological maps.Major geomorphological mapping projects are as follows:Chikei Burui Zu (Landform Classification Map) 1 : 50,000, 1953–This project intended not to use for hazard assessment but to contribute to the development conservation and higher utilization of land in the rapid population growth period. At first, this project executed by the Geographical Survey Institute (national survey and mapping agency of Japan, present name: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, GSI), but most of maps has been prepared by prefectural governments. Most part of Japan has been covered. We can see the maps on a website of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and on the web-GIS (Chiriin Chizu) of GSI.http://nrb-www.mlit.go.jp/kokjo/inspect/landclassification/land/l_national_map_5-1.htmlSuigai Chikei Bunrui Zu (Geomorphological Survey Map of River Basins Showing Classification of Flood Stricken Areas) 1956–200135 maps of this series, the scale of which are mainly 1 : 50,000 or 1 : 25,000, were made by OYA and his co-workers. The above-mentioned geomorphological map of the Nobi plain is the first one. The mapping was made from a viewpoint that the micro-landforms of a plain reflect the history of flooding because they have been formed by the deposition process during the flood time, and therefore they enable us to estimating flooding in the future. The project was sponsored by some government organizations, especially river offices. Oya and his co-workers also made 10 maps in foreign countries of Asia and Africa. Today, we can see the maps on the website of the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED).


With the issues of fuel cost and environmental impact on the rise, the concept of replacing conventional vehicles with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) has become essential. The main goal of PHEV implementation focuses on the ability to utilize electrical propulsion to assist the internal combustion engine. However, the batteries for the PHEV must be recharged using grid energy. This paper will study the effects of PHEV charging at the sub-transmission level through modeling/simulation and power hardware in the loop including an actively controlled drive system and controllable load.


Recent macroeconomic models of developing countries have emphasized the possibility of contactionary devaluations, stressing that domestic aggregate demand is likely to be reduced by the devaluations while aggregate supply may respond only slowly to the change in relative prices brought about by the devaluation. These results have been obtained in static models. In this paper we add wage and export-sector dynamics to the models of contractionary devaluation, and show that the effects which produce contractionary devaluations in the short term can produce limit cycles in the long run. The economy never returns to long-run equilibrium following a devaluation, but rather moves with fixed periodicity through successive phases of boom and bust.


Many small estuaries and coastal lagoons in different parts of the world may be classified as temporarily closed/open ecosystems. They are blocked off from the sea for varying lengths of time by a sand bar, which forms at the estuarine mouth. The lengths of the closed and open phases, which are determined primarily by the interaction of river inflow and the sea in the mouth region, affect the structure and functioning of the estuarine biotic community. Freshwater inflow to such estuaries is normally not measured, and observations on the duration of estuarine mouth openings/closures are very scarce. As a result, relevant management decisions are often made on the basis of general experience and intuitive judgment. This paper describes an innovative approach for linking hydrologic data to mouth state in ungauged estuaries. A key characteristic in the method is the stream/river flow duration curve. It is first established for a daily index, which reflects the upstream catchment wetness and is calculated using rainfall information from the nearest rain gauge(s). This duration curve is then used to convert the current precipitation index time series into a continuous daily inflow time series at the ungauged estuarine mouth location. The conversion is based on the assumption that precipitation index values in a small catchment, and daily inflows to the estuarine mouth correspond to similar probabilities on their respective duration curves. The paper further illustrates how the generated inflow data could be used for the simulation of a continuous time series of estuary mouth openings/ closures. Inflows are routed through a reservoir model, and the estuary mouth is considered open on days when the spillage from an estuarine "reservoir" occurs. The approach is illustrated using limited observed data on estuary mouth conditions from the South African coastline.


The assay most widely utilized is the enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT). The ELISPOT was first described in 1983 as an alternative to plaque-forming assays for the detection of antibody-secreting cells. This assay may be adapted for use with synthetic peptides, including overlapping peptide pools. In an effort to increase the sensitivity of ELISPOT, several groups have developed modifications of the standard protocol involving the addition of exogenous cytokines, costimulatory antibodies, or antigen-presenting cells. The ELISPOT is relatively new, and considerable methodological variation exists among laboratories. As a positive control for cytokine release, many laboratories rely on polyclonal stimuli. However, these reagents may give rise to a nearly confluent lawn of spots. Statistical methods for evaluating ELISPOT results and determining the appropriate positive cutoff have varied considerably between laboratories. A summary of statistical methods reported in the recent literature is given. Standardization and validation of any bioassay is a lengthy process and will require many multicenter studies. As ELISPOT readers continue to improve and statistical methods achieve broader acceptance, the trend towards increasing standardization is likely to accelerate rapidly within the next few years.


No field of Latin literature has been more transformed over the last couple of decades than that of the Roman historians. Narratology, a new receptiveness to intertextuality, and a re-thinking of the relationship between literature and its political contexts have ensured that the works of historians such as Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus will be read as texts with the same interest and sophistication as they are used as sources. Topics central to the entire tradition, such as conceptions of time, characterization, and depictions of politics and the gods, are treated synoptically, while other essays highlight the works of less familiar historians, such as Curtius Rufus and Ammianus Marcellinus. A final section focuses on the rich reception history of Roman historiography, from the ancient Greek historians of Rome to the twentieth century. An appendix offers a chronological list of the ancient historians of Rome.


The cellular technology and the wireless communication technology is developing and improving rapidly. The antenna acts as the bridge between the user terminal and the base station controller (BSC). Being a vital component of the wireless communication system, the antenna's basic function is to broadcast and to receive electromagnetic waves. It will, to a large extent, affect the quality and the speed of the communication. With the progressing of the antenna technology, the mobile terminal devices have evolved from the original communication tools to highly intellectualized equipments. The communicated content was also diversified, as there are now FM programs, TV shows and internet. All these, however, brings demanding standards to the antenna. For example, it requires a much higher bandwidth and top performances from the antenna to support the complex applications and communication function of the mobile terminals. Besides, the communication systemÂ's portable terminal has nearly locked the position of the antenna, which demands that the size of the antenna must be downscaled. The control of the wave velocity, shape and its directivity can be usually optimized by improving the radiation characteristics of the antennas, which will boost the overall performance of a system. In this way, also improved are the channel capacity and the frequency utilization ratio. This paper, beginning with the introduction of the development status of the wireless communication system and the antennas, studies some of the designs of new antennas. With that study, this paper also analyzes the development direction fitting to modern communication system and the relevant devices, as well as the structure adaptation and trend of antennas.


The surge in demand for Internet of Things (IoT) systems and applications has motivated a paradigm shift in the development of viable radio frequency identification technology (RFID)-based solutions for ubiquitous real-time monitoring and tracking. Bit tracking-based anti-collision algorithms have attracted considerable attention, recently, due to its positive impact on decreasing the identification time. We aim to extend bit tracking to work effectively over erroneous channels and scalable multi RFID readers systems. Towards this objective, we extend the bit tracking technique along two dimensions. First, we introduce and evaluate a type of bit errors that appears only in bit tracking-based anti-collision algorithms called false collided bit error in single reader RFID systems. A false collided bit error occurs when a reader perceives a bit sent by tag as an erroneous bit due to channel imperfection and not because of a physical collision. This phenomenon results in a significant increase in the identification delay. We introduce a novel, zero overhead algorithm called false collided bit error selective recovery tackling the error. There is a repetition gain in bit tracking-based anti-collision algorithms due to their nature, which can be utilized to detect and correct false collided bit errors without adding extra coding bits. Second, we extend bit tracking to "error-free" scalable mutli-reader systems, while leaving the study of multi-readers tag identification over imperfect channels for future work. We propose the multi-reader RFID tag identification using bit tracking (MRTI-BT) algorithm which allows concurrent tag identification, by neighboring RFID readers, as opposed to time-consuming scheduling. MRTI-BT identifies tags exclusive to different RFIDs, concurrently. The concept of bit tracking and the proposed parallel identification property are leveraged to reduce the identification time compared to the state-of-the-art.


Negativity is a news ideology, and its negative effects on attitude formation are widely documented. Contrary to this view, the present study demonstrates that negative economic news can in fact be good news. Based on a two-wave national panel survey and a media content analysis, we show that individual exposure to negative economic news enhances internal economic efficacy , a sense of competence in and understanding of the economy. This is good news as internal economic efficacy may facilitate economic evaluations and decision making. The study reveals that changes in economic efficacy are driven by news attention aroused by the negative tone. However, not all individuals are susceptible to such media effects. Higher interest in economic news lowers the impact of negativity on attention arousal.


OBJECTIVE
To identify social, clinical and behavioral factors of tuberculosis patients that are associated with delay in the search for primary health care.

METHOD
This is a cross-sectional, quantitative study conducted with 56 people on treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis in the city of Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The data were collected through a structured instrument. The Chi-square and Fisher tests were applied to test the association between independent and dependent variables (search time). A value of p <0.05 was set as statistically significant.

RESULTS
No social or clinical variables were statistically associated with patient delays in the search for primary health care. Among the behavioral variables, self-medication and the first health service sought had a statistically significant association with the time for seeking care (p = 0.020, and p = 0.033, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Self-medication contributes to the delay in the search for primary health care by tuberculosis patients.


Due to requirements in different applications, sensors with various capacities are deployed. Data routing in such heterogeneous wireless sensor networks (HWSNs) poses challenges. First, the heterogeneous features create asymmetric links in the communication graphs which are not dealt with by conventional routing algorithms using undirected graphs. Second, it is important to provide an assured delivery rate for mission critical applications since sensors communicate with each other through lossy asymmetric links. In this paper, we propose LayHet: a layer-based routing protocol for HWSNs, which takes advantage of the asymmetric links to deliver messages to the sink with an assured delivery rate. Simulation results show that LayHet outperforms previous routing methods in terms of average delivery ratio, average hops, average packet replication and average control message overhead.


This paper synthesizes the efforts of an interdisciplinary, University-convened communication task force in the U.S. that used science communication theory to develop an effective strategy during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We outline recommendations for researchers and practitioners who are, or are interested in, implementing theory-based communication practices while describing how we dealt with the unforeseen realities we faced. Overall, we recommend that effective public health and science communication should be based on theory and formative evaluation while relying on established infrastructure, real-time data, a deep understanding of intended target audiences, and intentional coordination with community partners.


The United States currently funds five major climate modeling efforts. But scientists and policymakers are eager to have even better models, and the U.S. Department of Energy is considering a plan to build a new, higher resolution model that could take into account features, such as ocean eddies or storms, that cover less than 100 square kilometers. Many researchers are excited about the nascent project, but others worry it could divert resources from existing collaborations.


The Van Allen radiation belts have been zapping unlucky satellites—and puzzling space physicists—ever since they were discovered 6 decades ago. Now, at last, researchers have figured out where the electrons that fill the Van Allen belts get their killer energy: They are being accelerated within the Van Allen belts themselves. The new explanation should help researchers better forecast onslaughts of Van Allen radiation, allowing satellite operators to minimize disruptions.


Surface expression of CD27 was evaluated in 75 mature leukemic B-cell neoplasms. All cases other than hairy cell leukemia (HCL) expressed CD27. Intensity was significantly higher in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Lack of CD27 in 17/17 HCL contrasted with expression of this marker in 5/5 splenic lymphomas with villous lymphocytes. Lack of CD27 is a new distinctive feature of HCL among B-cell malignancies.


Motivated by online ad allocation, we study the problem of simultaneous approximations for the adversarial and stochastic online budgeted allocation problem. This problem consists of a bipartite graph G = (X, Y, E), where the nodes of Y along with their corresponding capacities are known beforehand to the algorithm, and the nodes of X arrive online. When a node of X arrives, its incident edges, and their respective weights are revealed, and the algorithm can match it to a neighbor in Y. The objective is to maximize the weight of the final matching, while respecting the capacities.

When nodes arrive in an adversarial order, the best competitive ratio is known to be 1 - 1/e, and it can be achieved by the Ranking [18], and its generalizations (Balance [16, 21]). On the other hand, if the nodes arrive through a random permutation, it is possible to achieve a competitive ratio of 1 -- e [9]. In this paper we design algorithms that achieve a competitive ratio better than 1 -- 1/e on average, while preserving a nearly optimal worst case competitive ratio. Ideally, we want to achieve the best of both worlds, i.e, to design an algorithm with the optimal competitive ratio in both the adversarial and random arrival models. We achieve this for unweighted graphs, but show that it is not possible for weighted graphs.

In particular, for unweighted graphs, under some mild assumptions, we show that Balance achieves a competitive ratio of 1 -- e in a random permutation model. For weighted graphs, however, we prove this is not possible; we prove that no online algorithm that achieves an approximation factor of 1 -- 1/e for the worst-case inputs may achieve an average approximation factor better than 97.6% for random inputs. In light of this hardness result, we aim to design algorithms with improved approximation ratios in the random arrival model while preserving the competitive ratio of 1 -- 1/e in the worst case. To this end, we show the algorithm proposed by [21] achieves a competitive ratio of 0.76 for the random arrival model, while having a 1 -- 1/e ratio in the worst case.


In recent years, the most common causative organism of hospital infections has been methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The major mechanism of beta-lactam resistance in MRSA is attributed to the production of a specific penicillin binding protein (PBP2'), which is a product of mecA gene, with extremely low binding affinities to beta-lactams. In the present study, we have established a rapid identification method of MRSA by sensitive detection of mecA gene using nested PCR. Nested PCR method amplifying the target DNA in two steps enhanced the efficiency of the second round amplification. By means of this method, mecA gene was successfully detected in clinical samples, such as blood, pus, sputum and feces within 3-4 hrs. Rapid diagnosis of MRSA-bacteremia is particularly important for prevention of sever systemic infection. There are some strains of S. aureus which possess mecA gene in spite of low minimal inhibitory concentration of DMPPC. In these strains expression of mecA gene is induced by contact of beta-lactams and they obtain methicillin resistance. Using nested PCR method, these latent MRSA are rapidly and certainly detectable. This method should be useful for early and effective detection of MRSA hospital infections.


BACKGROUND
High density lipoproteins are an heterogeneous population of particles. Two main subpopulations have been identified, one contains Apo A-I and Apo A-II and is denominated LpA-I:A-II and another one contains only Apo A-I and is denominated LpA-I.

AIM
To measure the concentrations of these particles in patients with stable coronary artery disease.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Serum lipids, A-I and B apolipoproteins, LpA-I, LpA-I:A-II and LpB particles were measured in 73 men aged 33 to 82 years with angiographically documented coronary artery disease (CAD) and 33 control subjects aged 39 to 76 years. LpA-I, LpA-I:A-II and LpB were measured by a noncompetitive enzyme linked immunoassay using previously characterized monoclonal antibodies against ApoA-I, ApoA-II and apoB.

RESULTS
Patients with CAD had significantly higher mean levels of LDL cholesterol than the control group (p = 0.038). The mean concentration of LpA-I particles in patients with CAD was significantly lower (p = 0.031) than in control subjects, while the concentration of LpA-I:A-II particles was significantly higher (p = 0.016). The percentage of coronary stenosis correlated negatively with LpA-I and positively with LpA-I:A-II. The best relative risk (RR) indicator in these patients was LDL-cholesterol. The relative risk increases 2.5 fold when LpA-I falls below the cut-off level. Likewise, the relative risk increases 3-fold when LpA-I:A-II raises over the cut-off level.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that the quantification of LpA-I and LpA-I:A-II particles might allow a more accurate evaluation of the CAD risk than HDL cholesterol. LpA-I might represent the antiatherogenic fraction of HDL.


Author(s): Yates, KK; Turley, C; Hopkinson, BM; Todgham, AE; Cross, JN; Greening, H; Williamson, P; Van Hooidonk, R; Deheyn, DD; Johnson, Z | Abstract: © 2015 The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved. The global nature of ocean acidification (OA) transcends habitats, ecosystems, regions, and science disciplines. The scientific community recognizes that the biggest challenge in improving understanding of how changing OA conditions affect ecosystems, and associated consequences for human society, requires integration of experimental, observational, and modeling approaches from many disciplines over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Such transdisciplinary science is the next step in providing relevant, meaningful results and optimal guidance to policymakers and coastal managers. We discuss the challenges associated with integrating ocean acidification science across funding agencies, institutions, disciplines, topical areas, and regions, and the value of unifying science objectives and activities to deliver insights into local, regional, and global scale impacts. We identify guiding principles and strategies for developing transdisciplinary research in the ocean acidification science community.


Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is considered the number one non-pharmacological treatment for a number of mental and psychological disorders (Tolin, 2010; Stuhlmiller & Tolchard, 2009). While CBT with problem gamblers has shown promise, the quality of the research in this area is lacking. One area of concern is that across the many trials and reports using CBT with gamblers no single unified approach has been used and so comparison across studies is limited. Similarly, translation of the CBT research into clinical practice is almost entirely absent (Walker, 2005). This article will explore the concepts of CBT with problem gamblers and identify common elements across all reported approaches. A unified model of CBT with problem gamblers will be suggested and the direct clinical application of this model described from a state-wide gambling service in Australia (Flinders Approach) with 205 problem gamblers. The results indicate that the Flinders Approach is successful in treating gamblers considered to be at the severest end of the experience, with a 69% completion rate. Implications for future research in which this model may be tested against other therapies and pharmacological treatments will be discussed.


Delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions are antigen-specific, cell-mediated immune responses which, depending on the antigen involved, mediate beneficial (resistance to viruses, bacteria, fungi, and certain tumors) or harmful (allergic dermatitis, autoimmunity) aspects of immune function. We have shown that acute stress administered immediately before antigenic challenge results in a significant enhancement of a skin DTH response in rats. A stress-induced trafficking or redeployment of leukocytes to the skin may be one of the factors mediating this immunoenhancement. Here we investigate the effects of varying the duration, intensity, and chronicity of stress on the DTH response and on changes in blood leukocyte distribution and glucocorticoid levels. Acute stress administered for 2 h prior to antigenic challenge, significantly enhanced the DTH response. Increasing the duration of stress from 2 h to 5 h produced the same magnitude enhancement in cutaneous DTH. Moreover, increasing the intensity of acute stress produced a significantly larger enhancement of the DTH response which was accompanied by increasing magnitudes of leukocyte redeployment. In contrast, chronic stress suppressed the DTH response when it was administered for 3 weeks before sensitization and either discontinued upon sensitization, or continued an additional week until challenge, or extended for one week after challenge. The stress-induced redeployment of peripheral blood lymphocytes was attenuated with increasing exposure to chronic stress and correlated with attenuated glucocorticoid responsivity. These results suggest that stress-induced alterations in lymphocyte redeployment may play an important role in mediating the bi-directional effects of acute versus chronic stress on cell-mediated immunity in vivo.


Robots need sensors to operate properly. Using a single image sensor, various aspects of a robot operating in its environment can be measured or monitored. Over the past few years, image sensors have improved a
lot: frame rate and resolution have increased, while prices have fallen. As a result, data output has increased and in a number of applications data transfer to a processing unit has become the limiting factor for
performance. Local processing in the sensor is one way of reducing data transfer. A report on the Vision in Robotics and Mechatronics project


Erbium–yttrium co-doped BiVO4 with a tetragonal structure is synthesized by means of a surfactant free hydrothermal method. The studied photocatalyst shows good photoactivity under sun-like excitation for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and for O2 evolution. From structural and morphological characterization, it has been stated that the presence of lanthanides induces the stabilization of the tetragonal phase. This is probably due to the substitutional occupation that occurs in the BiVO4 lattice. The photocatalytic performance under visible-NIR radiation clearly evidences the occurrence of an up-conversion process involved in the overall photo-electronic mechanism. The tetragonal phase Er0.0075,Y0.03–Bi0.9625VO4 system gives the highest O2 evolution rate (425 μmol g−1 h−1) under sun-like excitation, being 8 times higher than that attained for m-BiVO4 (53 μmol g−1 h−1).


During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, not only physical assets were eroded but more importantly, human capital were destroyed and left the country living hardly on qualified personnel at almost all levels of the economy to play a meaningful development role. While capacity building is needed in many sectors of the economy, it is especially important in the education sector.  This study focuses on one particular issue namely to what extent sending academic staff for training in foreign countries can effectively contribute to capacity building in Rwandan higher education institutions (HEI). Various options exist to improve a strategy to build capacities in higher education institutions; amongst others is the training of human resource which is the most important of all.  In order to investigate the above, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used.  Techniques such as documentation, semi-structured interview, questionnaire and direct observation were also used in order to reach the research objectives.  With regard to the main question of this study, findings reveal that funding academic staff for foreign training is believed to effectively contribute to capacity building in Rwandan higher education. As respondents explain, academic staff sent for training in foreign countries acquires new knowledge that is needed to build the country. This gained knowledge is spread all over the country through teaching at universities where most sectors of the country find their human resources. Being open minded, trained academic staff will be able to update his knowledge and therefore train in turn his students accordingly.  However, findings inform also that Rwandan HEI are faced with multiple problems amongst others the problem of defining the real institutional needs for appropriate training. In this regard, findings suggest that for the training to be effective in Rwandan HEI there is a need of putting in place appropriate mechanisms and assessing institutional needs before training a person and training according to those specific needs in order to help the process of capacity building being more effective.


In this communication we propose the concept of a circularly polarized reflectarray (RA) antenna capable of independent beam-switching in both K and Ka bands. The RA unit cell comprises one microstrip ring per each operation frequency. Each ring is integrated with six equally spaced series RF micro electro-mechanical systems (RF MEMS) switches, which allows implementing the sequential rotation principle formerly used in circularly-polarized RA for single-frequency operation. A detailed design is proposed, considering the best relative arrangement of the rings corresponding to each frequency, the accurate modeling of the RF MEMS switches, and the full-wave simulation of the full array. The designed RA is implemented on a 4-inch quartz wafer and comprises 109 K-band and 124 Ka-band split-rings. Two prototypes representing two frozen states of the reconfigurable antenna are fabricated and measured. The designed RA can provide <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">${\pm}{120}^{\circ}$</tex> </formula> progressive phase difference in both operation bands exhibiting beam switching to <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">${\pm}{35}^{\circ}$</tex> </formula> and <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">${\pm}{24}^{\circ}$</tex> </formula> off the broad-side in K and Ka bands respectively. The performance of the designed antenna is verified by the agreement of the measured and simulated radiation patterns.


The African Union (AU) was created in 2001 in replacement of the Organization of the African Unity in order to address inter alia the issues of peace and security as well as gross violations of human rights on the continent. For this purpose, paragraphs (h) and (j) of Article 4 of the Constitutive Act of the AU provide respectively for "the right of the Union to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely: war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity", and "the right of Member States to request intervention from the Union in order to restore peace and security." While endowing the AU with the right of intervention, the constituent texts of the AU do not require it to seek authorization from the Security Council in order to undertake any intervention as is required by Article 53 (1) of the UN Charter. This paragraph provides that no enforcement action should be taken by a regional organization (like the AU) without the authorization of the Security Council. Only Article 17 (1) of the Protocol Establishing the Peace and Security of the AU calls for the Peace and Security Council to "cooperate and work closely with the [UN] Security Council." For this cooperation, Article 17 (2) of the same Protocol underlines that "[w]here necessary" such recourse should be made to the UN, (and not specifically to the Security Council), not to request an authorization for the intervention but rather in order for the UN "to provide the necessary financial, logistical and military support" needed by the AU. Arguably, there is an apparent conflict between the provisions of the AU texts and those of the UN Charter, especially Article 53 (1), in which case the UN Charter would prevail pursuant to its Article 103. The object of this research was to respond to the brief question of whether the right of intervention of the AU as provided for in its constituent texts is in conformity with the UN Charter law. In other words, it was to find out whether the AU texts by authorizing the AU to intervene in its Member States establish a new reinterpretation of the UN Charter in particular its Articles 2 (4), 2 (7) and 53 (1) or whether the AU's right of intervention is justifiable either under the UN Charter or under general international law. It came out of this study that despite the confusion raised by the AU texts regarding the Security Council's authorization, under optimal conditions the AU has to seek a prior and express authorization of the Security Council in case it intends to intervene by military force under the circumstances of Article 4 (h) of its Constitutive Act. Otherwise, the intervening States would be in violation of the UN Charter. However, the AU's intervention pursuant to Article 4 (j), be it forceful or not, to restore peace and security at the request of a concerned Member State is in conformity with the UN Charter.


Plasma protein binding is an important factor for the kinetics of drugs and how they act since it is the first step in drug distribution. Physiological changes in pregnancy, which include plasma composition, can affect drug binding and subsequent drug response. In the present study, we investigated the toxicokinetics (TK) and/or toxicodynamics (TD) of diclofenac and propranolol comparing pregnant Sparague-Dawley (SD) rats with non-pregnant SD rats in terms of protein binding and drug distribution. Diclofenac and propranolol are reported to bind to albumin and alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP), respectively. After a single administration of diclofenac, the area under plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) based on free diclofenac in pregnant rats was 3.9 times higher than that in non-pregnant rats. This difference is considered to be due to a lower concentration of serum albumin and a higher concentration of non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) that inhibits drug binding to albumin, in pregnant rats. In histopathological examination, more severe gastrointestinal toxicity was observed in pregnant rats at 24 hr after dosing. This severe toxicity was likely to be correlated with the higher AUC. With respect to propranolol, the difference of the AUC based on free propranolol was not clear although the concentration of serum AGP was lower in pregnant rats. However, the binding analysis data suggested a difference of protein binding at a lower propranolol concentration range. Consequently, lowered serum proteins and increased NEFA in pregnant rats can lead to low protein binding, subsequent increase in free drug concentrations, and eventual increase in the TD of drugs.


Due to the high transiency and high voltage characteristics of spark ignition, precise measurements are in demand for efficient ignition in future clean combustion engines. The practical challenges of SI systems arise as the gaseous substances vary extensively in density, flow, and temperature. In this paper, a typical transistor coil ignition system with a current management module maintains the transient discharge condition for more credible measurements. Suitable apparatus with FPGA multi-task control systems are established to effectively control and stabilize the discharge current level and duration. The electrical waveforms and spark plasma patterns are correlated, via concurrent electric probing and shadowgraph imaging, under quiescent and flow conditions. The multi-task FPGA provides synchronization of ignition control and data acquisition. The empirical setup and analyzing methods of this work provide essential guidance for facilitating broader innovations in spark ignition, and for advancing the clean and efficient combustion in automotive and aviation engines.


Known internationally and variously described as the Godfather of Streetwear and one of the founding fathers of Tokyo's Harajuku scene, Hiroshi Fujiwara exerts a disproportionate influence over contemporary design culture. Fujiwara, who had collaborated with the likes of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood as a teenager in the early 1980s, merged a seminal interest in punk with hip-hop and skate culture to become one of Japan's principal tastemakers. A musician and producer, Fujiwara is also one of the most prolific of sneaker designers, and his kicks are some of the most sought-after collectibles. In addition to his very visible and longstanding collaborations with Nike, he has authored a number of fashion lines, and is at the head of the Tokyo-based Fragment Design. Maintaining his reign as the arbiter of hip for over 30 years, this book presents the breadth of his career, including sections on his highly sought after artwork and graphics, sneakers, product design, and curated personal effects. With an introduction by Eric Clapton and contributions by Takashi Murakami, Mark Parker, Jean Touitou, Nigo, Sarah Lerfel, this graphically inspired book provides a unique glimpse into one of the most influential tastemakers of our time.


'If any man or woman should ask what I wish this romance...to be called, it is the Romance of the Rose, in which the whole art of love is contained'. Guillaume de Lorris's own introduction to his allegorical account of the progress of a courtly love affair gives no indication of the eventual scale and scope of the work, which became the most popular and influential of all medieval romances. In the hands of Jean de Meun, who continued de Lorris's work, it assumed vast proportions and embraced almost every aspect of medieval life, from predestination to the right way to deal with premature hair-loss. This new translation into modern English, based on the French edition by Felix Lecoy, is intended as much for the general reader as for students of French and English literature. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


The construction or rehabilitation of elevated highway projects presents a spectrum of challenges to project practitioners. These challenges place a demand on the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) abilities of the project management team. Moreover, micro-scheduling of construction activities has been deemed important to the reduction of waste based on the lean paradigm due to the changing dynamics of the construction site. Choosing the project scheduling method that will facilitate value crea-tion for the stakeholders becomes an MCDM problem and entails having a clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the different scheduling methods under consideration. Choosing by Advantage (CBA) is an emerging lean construction MCDM method that has been successfully applied to the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry but with little application in infrastructure projects such as the construction of elevated urban highway projects. Decision makers using the CBA list the attributes and advantages of each alternative and then assign a degree of importance to each advantage relative to the one that is least preferred. The CBA helps to differentiate alternatives based on the decision context and reduces time to reach consensus, and it manages better subjective trade-offs by basing decisions on the importance of agreed advantages. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by applying the CBA in the selection of the micro-scheduling method in elevated urban highway projects.


The diverse microflora of the gastrointestinal tracts of fish is a promising frontier for the discovery of beneficial bacteria and further microbiological investigations. Isolation, characterization, and determination of the enzymatic and antibacterial activities of the culturable cellulolytic bacteria from the gut of (black Acanthurus gahhm surgeonfish) were investigated. The bacterial strains were isolated from the three gut regions (anterior, mid and hind) using minimum medium. The isolates were characterized morphologically, biochemically and physiologically using standard methods. The isolates were qualitatively tested for activities of extracellular enzymes such as in amylase, protease and lipase. Results showed that the cellulolytic bacteria were Grampositive bacilli, coccobacilli and cocci exhibiting varied biochemical activities most notably fermentative abilities. Physiological tests revealed that the bacteria were able to tolerate high salt concentration. The strains exhibited varying levels of activities for protease and lipase but not on amylase. The isolates were further tested for their antibacterial activity and only one isolate, AG 5H showed signs of efficacy through a zone of inhibition against but not for The isolate AG5H is S. aureus E. coli. interesting because of its high level of enzymatic activities and antibacterial action, which can be exploited for further study for fish health and nutrition and other industrial applications.


Destination Specificity During brain development, some types of neurons migrate from where they are born to their final functional locations. Some neurons migrate radially, from the inside to the outside, while others migrate tangentially. Di Meglio et al. (p. 204) analyzed the migration of a group of tangentially migrating neurons in the hindbrain. Although these neurons all entered the same migratory stream, they each retained positional information such that their relative organization in the destination site reflected their original organization. Interactions between epigenetic signals and the genes encoding Hox transcription factors encoded the positional information and fine-tuned migration. During brain development, epigenetic mechanisms allow tangentially migrating neurons to retain topographical organization. We investigated the role of histone methyltransferase Ezh2 in tangential migration of mouse precerebellar pontine nuclei, the main relay between neocortex and cerebellum. By counteracting the sonic hedgehog pathway, Ezh2 represses Netrin1 in dorsal hindbrain, which allows normal pontine neuron migration. In Ezh2 mutants, ectopic Netrin1 derepression results in abnormal migration and supernumerary nuclei integrating in brain circuitry. Moreover, intrinsic topographic organization of pontine nuclei according to rostrocaudal progenitor origin is maintained throughout migration and correlates with patterned cortical input. Ezh2 maintains spatially restricted Hox expression, which, in turn, regulates differential expression of the repulsive receptor Unc5b in migrating neurons; together, they generate subsets with distinct responsiveness to environmental Netrin1. Thus, Ezh2-dependent epigenetic regulation of intrinsic and extrinsic transcriptional programs controls topographic neuronal guidance and connectivity in the cortico-ponto-cerebellar pathway.


Model experiments have revealed that stratospheric polar ozone depletion and anthropogenic increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) have both contributed to the observed increase of summertime tropospheric westerlies in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) with the ozone influence dominating. As the stratospheric halogen loading decreases in the future, ozone is expected to return to higher values, with the disappearance of the Antarctic ozone hole. The impact of this ozone recovery on SH climate is investigated using 21st century simulations with a chemistry climate model (CCM). The model response to the ozone recovery by 2100 shows that tropospheric circulation changes during austral summer caused by ozone depletion between 1970 and 2000 almost reverse, despite increasing GHG concentrations. Comparison of the CCM results with multi‐model scenario experiments from the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasize the importance of stratospheric ozone recovery for Antarctic climate.


In Model-Based Diagnosis, a diagnostic algorithm is typically used to compute diagnoses using a model of a real-world system and some observations. Contrary to classical hypothesis, in real-world applications it is sometimes the case that either the model, the observations or the diagnostic algorithm are abnormal with respect to some required properties; with possibly huge economical consequences. Determining which abnormalities exist constitutes a meta-diagnostic problem. We contribute, first, with a general theory of meta-diagnosis with clear semantics to handle this problem. Second, we propose a series of typically required properties and relate them between themselves. Finally, using our meta-diagnostic framework and the studied properties and relations, we model and solve some common meta-diagnostic problems.


Most of the studies on auditors' perceptions towards the effectiveness of the international standard on auditing 240 Red Flags (RF) were conducted in developed economies. This research, therefore, fills the gap by aiming to determine whether RF can be helpful for Lebanon certified public accountant (LCPA) working in auditing firms by detecting fraudulent financial reporting (FFR). Data were collected using a questionnaire that was distributed to a random sample of 130 LCPA. The results support that there is a positive significant association between pressures and FFR occurrence in Lebanon. However, there were no support for opportunities and attitudes to be associated with FFR occurrence. Moreover, the findings provide a strong evidence that ISA 240 RF for FFR can help external auditors in detecting material mis-statement (MM) due to fraud in Lebanon. Therefore, the current research recommends LCPA working in the audit firms in Lebanon to focus their efforts more on high quality RF, which will in turn facilitate fraud detection in the financial statements.


Analysis of detailed statistics shows remarkable fluctuations in the volume and composition of voyages on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) along the northern coast of Russia since international use began in 2010. There has been strong growth in destination shipping between the Arctic and ports outside the region, but transit shipping between the Pacific and the Atlantic has not experienced the growth many had anticipated. Explanations are found in international market conditions as well as in the management of the NSR, with important lessons for the future development of different shipping segments. Shipping companies from several countries took part in the period up to 2019, but they seem to have become less central in the current phase of NSR shipping, which is dominated by the transport of hydrocarbons out of the Arctic. Russia expects international transit to pick up later. However, Russia alone cannot determine the volume of international traffic: it is the international shipping industry that will assess the balance of factors and conditions, and conclude if and when the shorter Arctic routes are safe, efficient, reliable, environmentally sound and economically viable in comparison with other routes.


Triassic and Jurassic sediments from two cores in the Nordkapp Basin, Barents Sea, were analyzed by sedimentological, petrographic, SEM and XRD methods. The objective of the study was to gain better understanding of the depositional environments of the Upper Triassic-Jurassic, Snadd-, Fruholmen- and Sto formations with emphasis a mineralogical shift in the transition between the Snadd and Fruholmen formations, and try to relate the differences to depositional environment, climatic changes and diagenesis. The studied sediments of the Snadd and Fruholmen formations represent a transition from tidal flat, shoreline and inner shelf deposits. And the Sto Formation mainly represents inner shelf deposits, with exception of some fluvial deposits due to a local variation in one of the cores. The deposits represent an overall transgressive trend. The diagenetic processes differ in the three formations due to dissimilar depositional environment. In the Snadd Formation rhizocretions have been observed in combination with rootlets,and high levels of iron and manganese indicate influence by fresh-water. XRD analyses of mudstones showed no great compositional differences the Snadd and Fruholmen formations supporting observations from sandstone compositions of similar provenance and environment above and below the formation boundary. The largest compositional variation is seen between the Fruholmen and Sto formations, this is in accordance with other studies conducted in the Nordkapp Basin. The distinct increase in maturity may be due to extensive reworking connected with a regional transgression and sea-level rise.


We report a Rh-catalyzed, enantioselective silylation of arene C-H bonds directed by a (hydrido)silyl group. (Hydrido)silyl ethers that are formed in situ by hydrosilylation of benzophenone or its derivatives undergo asymmetric C-H silylation in high yield with excellent enantioselectivity in the presence of [Rh(cod)Cl]2 and a chiral bisphosphine ligand. The stereoselectivity of this process also allows enantioenriched diarylmethanols to react with site selectivity at one aryl group over the other. Enantioenriched benzoxasiloles from the silylation process undergo a range of transformations to form C-C, C-O, C-I, or C-Br bonds.


This exploratory study looks at the structural and geographical patterns of corporate knowledge flows from a regional perspective. The methodological approach combines the centrality indicators developed in the social network analysis (SNA) and complementary tools from the graphs theory to assess the betweenness centrality of regions (or poles)- their ability to control knowledge flows within a network or to impact its cohesiveness - and the relative contribution of individual firms (or layers) to the centrality of regions. The combination of the two approaches brings relevant insights on the way large R&D-driven firms organise their knowledge sourcing and generation across world regions


The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality, effective ness and the ideal method of tubal ligation with low complication, low bleeding and early recovery. In this investigation we compared the early complications and the quality of operations in two different tubul ligation techniqwes on totally 112 women who were operated in two centers in Tehran, Iran; In one group (53 women ) tubal ligation was carried out by laparascopy (with clips and cautery, whereas the other group (59 women) was operated using Pomeroy technique in laparotomy. Collection of information was done using questionare and case selection and grouping was performed randomly. The results showed that the duration of operation and hospitalization as well as the amount of bleeding were less in laparascopy group than in laparatomy group (P<0.05). Moreover, women in laparascopy group could completely retain their activity more rapidly than the other group. Hematoma and infection were only slightly higher in patients in laparatomy group (P>0.05), whereas pain occurred more aften in the laparatomy group (P<0.05). It can be concluded that complications occur less often in the laparascopy goup in compoarison with lapartony goup and tubal ligation with laparascopy can be considerd as a better and safer method.


This chapter contextualizes the interrelationships between tourism and climate change and thus provides an introduction to this volume. It commences with a brief but comprehensive overview of the key issues identified by climate change research, including an update since the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as a brief discussion of the latest rounds of climate change negotiations. The pursuing discussion is informed by these points and explores climate change's indirect and induced impacts on tourism and possible ramifications. Both of these parts highlight behavioral change as a critical factor to both adaptation and mitigation thus motivating the psychological contribution in an effort to shed light on the obstacles to behavioral change. In the concluding section, the chapter synthesizes the discussion grounded in multiple disciplines into a set of research themes that the volume subsequently begins to address.


The aim of the present review is to give new insights into the pathogenesis of retinoblastoma, by applying the principles of Epigenetics to the analysis of clinical, epidemiological, and biological data concerning the disease. As an emerging new scientific approach linking the genome to the environment, Epigenetics, as applied to the interpretation of clinical, epidemiological and biological data in retinoblastoma, can not only explain the inconsistencies of the mutational ("two hit") model, but also open new outstanding scenarios in the fields of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of this eye tumour. This review is both a collection of literature data arguing against the role of the mutational ("two hit") model in the genesis of retinoblastoma, and a documented evaluation of how the Epigenetic, rather than the genetic model fit the variegated phenotypic expression of the disease. The epigenetic model in the genesis of retinoblastoma, proposed herein, emphasizes the role of environment and the interaction of the environment with the genome, in generating reti-noblastoma in young children. Environmental toxicants, including radiations, wrong diets, and infectious diseases, among others, all play a major role in conditioning the degree of DNA methylation in embryos and foetuses during pregnancy, thus leading to stable, functional alterations of the genome, which, on the other hand, can be also transmit-ted from generation to generation, thus mimicking a hereditary disease. An accurate analysis of the currently available literature on both retinoblastoma and Epigenetics, coupled with the knowledge of the variegated phenotypic expression of the disease, can easily lead to the conclusion that retinoblastoma is an epigenetic, rather than a genetic disease.


Methods to improve the operational efficiency of a water supply network by early detection of anomalies are investigated by making use of the data streams from multiple sensor locations within the network. The water supply network is a demonstration site of Vitens, a Dutch water company that has several district metering areas where flow, pressure, electrical conductance and temperature are measured and logged online. Three different machine learning approaches are tested for their feasibility to detect anomalies. In the first approach day-dependent support vector regression (SVR) models are trained for predicting the measurement signals and compared to straightforward models using mean and median estimates, respectively. Using SVRs or the averaged data as real-time pattern recognizers on all available signals, large leakages can be detected. The second approach utilizes adaptive orthogonal projections and reports an event when the number of hidden variables required to describe the streaming data to a user-defined degree (energy level threshold) increases. As a third approach, (unsupervised) clustering techniques are applied to detect anomalies and underlying patterns from the raw data streams. Preliminary results indicate that the current data set is too limited in the amount of events and patterns to harness the potential of these techniques.


A beam-folding technique in optical interferometry, where the number of beam folds used can be very large, is reported. This technique can be used as a low-cost position-tracking method in a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) to cover the broad spectral range from UV to IR. The main advantage gained is the simple position-tracking algorithm used in sampling the interferogram. We have developed a UV-visible FTS, whose wavelength coverage is limited only by the optical elements (350 nm(-1) microm with off-the-shelf components). Preliminary results show that it can achieve a resolution of approximately 4 cm(-1) even with a ball-bearing translation stage.


The Guaymas Basin (Gulf of California) hydrothermal vent area is known as a dynamic and hydrothermally vented sedimentary system, where the advection and production of a variety of different metabolic substrates support a high microbial diversity and activity in the seafloor. The main objective of our study was to explore the role of temperature and other environmental factors on community diversity, such as the presence of microbial mats and seafloor bathymetry within one hydrothermally vented field of 200 × 250 m dimension. In this field, temperature increased strongly with sediment depth reaching the known limit of life within a few decimeters. Potential sulfate reduction rate as a key community activity parameter was strongly affected by in situ temperature and sediment depth, declining from high rates of 1–5 μmol ml−1 d−1 at the surface to the detection limit below 5 cm sediment depth, despite the presence of sulfate and hydrocarbons. Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis yielded a high-resolution fingerprint of the dominant members of the bacterial community. Our analyses showed strong temperature and sediment depth effects on bacterial cell abundance and Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) number, both declining by more than one order of magnitude below the top 5 cm of the sediment surface. Another fraction of the variation in diversity and community structure was explained by differences in the local bathymetry and spatial position within the vent field. Nevertheless, more than 80% of all detected OTUs were shared among the different temperature realms and sediment depths, after being classified as cold (T < 10°C), medium (10°C ≤ T < 40°C) or hot (T ≥ 40°C) temperature conditions, with significant OTU overlap with the richer surface communities. Overall, this indicates a high connectivity of benthic bacterial habitats in this dynamic and heterogeneous marine ecosystem influenced by strong hydrothermalism.


In many applications of the remote sensing, an user is often interested in identifying specific land cover only while other classes may be of no interest. In the present study, high resolution WorldView-2 image having spatial resolution of 1.84 meter has been used for identifying wheat crop for a test site located in Roorkee, India. WorldView-2 data consists of a total of eight spectral bands out of which last four spectral bands i.e. Red (630–690 nm), Red edge (705–745 nm), NIR 1 (770–895 nm) and NIR 2 (860–1040 nm) are useful for the vegetation related studies. Since Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) which is formulated by the Red and NIR band, is well known for vegetation related studies. Therefore, in the present research the above four bands has been used to generate all the four possible combinations of NDVI viz. Red – NIR1, Red edge – NIR 1, Red – NIR 2 and Red edge – NIR 2. Further to study the temporal behaviour of crops, two date WorldView-2 data was taken to make the temporal NDVI. These temporal NDVI were then classified using fuzzy based Possibilistic c-Means (PCM) soft classification. The weighting exponent (or fuzzifier) m was optimized to get the best PCM soft classification output. Wheat crop is represented as the fraction image output of the PCM soft classification corresponding to each temporal NDVI. To check the accuracy of these fraction images, the entropy method was used. The entropy values were calculated for a total of 150 known pixels in each output. It is found that the outputs corresponding to low entropy values have sufficiently high membership values for wheat class, hence these outputs are more accurate. Further, it is observed that the average entropy values found for the temporal NDVI corresponding to the Red – NIR 1, Red edge – NIR 1, Red – NIR 2 and Red edge – NIR 2 are 0.065, 0.089, 0.075 and 0.055 respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that temporal NDVI generated by using a combination of Red edge and NIR-2 bands yields higher accuracies in comparison to other. It was also observed from the study that the optimized values of weighting exponent m is varies for different spectral indices.


The use of simulated altitude is frequently used in an attempt to enhance athletic performance. Similar techniques have also recently been used in a clinical population to improve cardiovascular risk. However, the effects of different frequencies of simulated altitude per week, follow up assessments and the effects of passive simulated altitude in addition to exercise (rather than exercising in hypoxia) has not been tested in a sedentary, middle-aged population.
To simulate altitude, an intermittent hypoxic exposure (IHE) protocol was used whereby 5-min of hypoxia was alternated with 5-min of normoxia for 1 hour. Heart rate variability (HRV), i.e. the beat-to-beat fluctuations between R-peaks, cardiovascular fitness (VO2peak), systolic blood presssure (SBP), highly-sensitive C-Reactive protein (hs-CRP, indicative of systemic inflammation associated with athlersclerosis), high density lipoprotein, total cholesterol, and arterial stiffness were used to assess cardiovascular health during 3 IHE studies.
In the first study, 4 IHE sessions/week for 4 weeks resulted in increased HRV compared to a placebo treatment (71.6 ± 52.5%, mean between-group change from the natural logarithm ± 90% confidence interval), indicating increased parasympathetic activity. The second study assessed the effects of IHE frequency on selected risk factors. Following the 5-week intervention, HRV (during paced breathing) increased in participants given both 2-3 (IHE3) and 5 (IHE5) IHE sessions per week (IHE5: 47.3 ± 41.6%; IHE3: 6.2 ± 6.9%), thereby confirming the changes in HRV reported in Study 1. In addition, haemoglobin concentration (2.7 ± 2.8%), time taken to complete the maximal fitness assessment (34.5 ± 36.8%), and maximal workload (14.4 ± 14.9%) were increased in IHE5 compared to the control group, while changes in hs-CRP (12.7 ± 48.7%) were trivial. None of these changes were seen in IHE3. There was an increased VO2peak (12.6 ± 9.3%) in IHE3 compared to the Control, but not IHE5.
Due to the benefical effects on VO2peak and HRV, 2-3 IHE sessions/week were used together with 3 exercise sessions/week (IHE3+Ex), and compared to exercise only (Ex) in the third study. Immediately post intervention, 4- and 8-wk follow up measurements were taken. Both groups showed a tendency to decrease total cholesterol, improve arterial compliance (pulse wave velocity) and increase VO2peak and HRV, but these changes were unclear. High density lipoprotein (Post: 8.0 ± 8.0%; 8-wk: 10.0 ± 8.5%), SBP (Post: -3.4 ± 3.4%; -3.5 ± 3.7%) improved in IHE3+Ex more than Ex, and while VO2peak was qualitatively unclear at Post it was increased at the 4-wk (9.4 ± 8.0%) and 8-wk (7.9 ± 8.3) follow-up sessions. While differences in systemic arterial stiffness (augmentation index) was unclear between groups at Post, the augmentation index increased at 4- and 8-wk (4-wk: 11.8 ± 18.4%; 8-wk: 24.8 ± 19.7%) in the IHE3+Ex group compared to Ex.
Overall, IHE appears to increase the parasympathetic contribution to the sympathovagal balance of the heart at rest in…


Nowadays, mathematical modeling of the dam break flooding flows has become very interesting and challenging problem for scientists and engineers. In order to analyze possible risks and safety, mapping of flooded areas corresponding to different scenarios and conditions for the destruction of dams and reservoirs is significant. The results of mathematical modeling of large-scale flows in areas with a complex topographic relief were presented in this chapter. The flow was numerically simulated by the volume of fluid (VOF) method-based solver interFoam of OpenFOAM package, which solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) with the k-? turbulence model. The mathematical model adequacy is checked by comparing with experimental data. The efficiency of the applied technology is illustrated by the example of modeling the breaking of the dams of the Andijan (Uzbekistan) and Papan (near the Osh town, Kyrgyzstan) reservoirs.


Multireference (MR) diagnostics are common tools for identifying strongly correlated electronic structure that makes single reference (SR) methods (e.g., density functional theory or DFT) insufficient for accurate property prediction. However, MR diagnostics typically require computationally demanding correlated wavefunction theory (WFT) calculations, and diagnostics often disagree or fail to predict MR effects on properties. To overcome these challenges, we introduce a semi-supervised machine learning (ML) approach with virtual adversarial training (VAT) of an MR classifier using 15 WFT and DFT MR diagnostics as inputs. In semi-supervised learning, only the most extreme SR or MR points are labeled, and the remaining point labels are learned. The resulting VAT model outperforms the alternatives, as quantified by the distinct property distributions of SR- and MR-classified molecules. To reduce the cost of generating inputs to the VAT model, we leverage the VAT model's robustness to noisy inputs by replacing WFT MR diagnostics with regression predictions in a MR decision engine workflow that preserves excellent performance. We demonstrate the transferability of our approach to larger molecules and those with distinct chemical composition from the training set. This MR decision engine demonstrates promise as a low-cost, high-accuracy approach to the automatic detection of strong correlation for predictive high-throughput screening.