The improper integration of traditional transportation modes with low emissions vehicles can generate a price war that reduces the service quality, undermining the efficiency and the profitability of parcel delivery operators. This paper aims to provide managerial insights to design a win-win strategy for the co-existence of traditional and green business models. In doing so, we adopt a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates a qualitative analysis through a Lean Business methodology, named GUEST, with a quantitative analysis based on simulation-optimisation techniques. This kind of holistic vision has received little attention in the literature. The first analysis investigates the parcel delivery industry with an emphasis on the main business models involved, their costs and revenues structures, while the quantitative part aims to simulate the system and extract sustainable policies. In particular, results highlight that in deploying mixed-fleet policies, the decision-makers have to focus both on the environmental sustainability that benefits from the adoption of low-emission vehicles, and on the operational feasibility and economic sustainability of the two services. In this direction, the paper suggests some managerial insights concerning the split of the customer demand between traditional and green operators, according to the classes of parcels and geographical areas of the city.


In addition to addressing the basic need of shelter, building envelopes must address concerns of load transfer, energy efficiency, durability, and resilience with respect to natural and human-produced disasters, among other structural and aesthetic concerns. This paper discusses the key barriers to the use of low-tech compressed earth blocks in a resilient and sustainable manner. The paper also presents a process improvement approach through which low-tech masonry approaches can be used to provide a context-appropriate, cost-effective resilient solution. Typical compressive strength values of masonry can range from 7 MPa to 20 MPa for commonly used concrete masonry units (CMU). Compressed earthen masonry usually peaks at somewhere between 3 and 5 MPa. When working with these lower numbers, general concerns arise from masonry being an elastic-brittle material and become more significant. This paper adopts a process improvement approach to propose a stabilization strategy that can be used to enhance the quality of blocks produced. Fibers are included in the blocks in this research to address susceptibility to local failure when the masonry is exposed to impact load from, for example, flying debris in a high wind region. The process improvement approach is used to optimize the use of fiber in compressed earth blocks and also explore the feasibility of using a low-strength, soil-cement mortar to achieve strength compatibility with the optimized blocks.


Abstract Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) do not have a fixed infrastructure and consist of sensor nodes that perform sensing and communicating tasks. The WSNs have large application spectrum such as habitat monitoring, military surveillance, and target tracking, where sensor nodes may operate distributed in highly dynamic environments. Battery-constrained sensor nodes may aggregate the sensed data, localize themselves, and route the packets in an energy-efficient and decentralized manner to enable running the applications. Agents are capable of independent and autonomous action, so that they can successfully carry out tasks that have been delegated to them, thus agent-based approaches are very suitable to apply as the solution of the problems occurring in WSNs. So far many agent-based approaches were proposed for WSNs. This paper surveys the agent technologies for sensor networks by providing a classification, objectives and costs of these approaches with the open research problems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that covers the intersection of the agent technology and sensor networks from a wide perspective.


In this groundbreaking book Andrew Sluyter demonstrates for the first time that Africans played significant creative roles in establishing open-range cattle ranching in the Americas. In so doing, he provides a new way of looking at and studying the history of land, labor, property, and commerce in the Atlantic world. Sluyter shows that Africans' ideas and creativity helped to establish a production system so fundamental to the environmental and social relations of the American colonies that the consequences persist to the present. He examines various methods of cattle production, compares these methods to those used in Europe and the Americas, and traces the networks of actors that linked that Atlantic world. The use of archival documents, material culture items, and ecological relationships between landscape elements make this book a methodologically and substantively original contribution to Atlantic, African-American, and agricultural history.


We present an algorithm for the gossiping problem defined over an n processor communication network, N, where message multicasting is allowed. The algorithm generates a communication schedule with a total communication time at most nar, where r is the radius of the network. Our algorithm begins by constructing a spanning tree (or tree network T ) with the least possible radius. Then, all the communications are carried out in the tree network as follows: Each processor waits its turn to transmit "almost" consecutively to its parent and children all the messages in its subtree. During other times, each processor transmits to its children all the messages emanating elsewhere in the network.


Privately protected areas deserve far greater recognition and support than is the case at the moment. Private conservation efforts can often fill important gaps in national policies in terms of both geographic cover and speed of response to conservation challenges, yet they remain a hidden resource: ignored by governments, omitted from international conservation reporting mechanisms and left out of regional conservation strategies. To date, the large majority of protected areas have been created on state-owned lands and waters, and while such initiatives are invaluable, they will not be enough to achieve the targets set by the Convention of Biological Diversity: 17 per cent of land and freshwater area and 12 per cent of coastal and marine areas. With this report, another major governance type, protected areas under private ownership, is receiving long-overdue recognition, and the hope is that it will bring them fully into the mainstream of global conservation practice.


Newspaper clipping regarding the settlement in Texas. First portion (front side) is signed by W. D'Hanis & Co. and dated March 1846 from Antwerp. Second portion (front side) mentions Haby's return to Europe to take his family back to Texas and is signed Huth & Co. and dated March 25, 1846 from Neufreystaedt. Second clipping (reverse side) has two sections: First section is part of a letter commending the character of a vicar. The second section relates the story of four lumberjacks who found a stash of gold presumed buried during the French Revolution. They turned it over to the owner of the land, who had it distributed amongst the poor of the community. The third, and last, section contains various small news items.


A few years ago, it seemed inconceivable to think about cars able to detect open doors automatically, with a device for speech recognition; besides, it was almost unbelievable to imagine houses that close their windows in case of rain, or heating systems that turn themselves on at a specific time, reaching certain temperatures; among other characteristics. However, nowadays it is almost natural to have these benefits at our disposal; even it is possible to abstract oneself about the hardware used for their implementation. This fact is due to the technical advance, as well as to the raise of a new paradigm: Context Aware Programming In other words, the development of applications aimed to react automatically towards environment changes. This type of application requires a representation scheme over the contextual information used. This paper defines some guidelines connected to Requirement Engineering for these systems to operate. First, a context taxonomy is conceptualized, used as a guide for eliciting processes; then, definitions for "element", "context attribute", and "representation scheme" are presented. Finally, a procedure for eliciting and specifying context is proposed.


Rhetoric operated at the crux of seventeenth-century thought, from arguments between scientists and magicians to anxieties over witchcraft and disputes about theology. Writers on all sides of these crucial topics stressed rhetorical discernment, because to the astute observer the shape of one's eloquence was perhaps the most reliable indicator of the heart's piety or, alternatively, of demonry. To understand the period's tenor, we must understand the period's rhetorical thinking, which is the focus of this book. Ryan J. Stark presents a spiritually sensitive, interdisciplinary, and original discussion of early modern English rhetoric. He shows specifically how experimental philosophers attempted to disenchant language. While rationalists and skeptics delighted in this disenchantment, mystics, wizards, and other practitioners of mysterious arts vehemently opposed the rhetorical precepts of modern science. These writers used tropes not as plain instruments but rather as numinous devices capable of transforming reality. On the contrary, the new philosophers perceived all esoteric language as a threat to learning's advancement, causing them to disavow both nefarious forms of occult spell casting and, unfortunately, edifying forms of wonderment and incantation. This fundamental conflict between scientists and mystics over the nature of rhetoric is the most significant linguistic happening in seventeenth-century England, and, as Stark argues, it ought profoundly to inform how we discuss the rise of modern English writing.


In this study, we investigated the effect of a random nanostructure scattering layer (RSL) on the microcavity and light extraction in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). In the case of the conventional OLED, the optical properties change with the thickness of the hole transporting layer (HTL) because of the presence of a microcavity. However, OLEDs equipped with the an RSL showed similar values of external quantum efficiency and luminous efficacy regardless of the HTL thickness. These phenomena can be understood by the scattering effect because of the RSL, which suppresses the microcavity effect and extracts the light confined in the device. Moreover, OLEDs with the RSL led to reduced spectrum and color changes with the viewing angle.


Through inviting the tacit and the intuitive to be components of my anthropological research, Engaging Ethnography's objective is to communicate, through corporeal and visually explorative means, the affective and aesthetic nature of the everyday. By projecting small-scale videos onto objects and spaces, my intent as artist-ethnographer is to highlight the embodied and expressive qualities of the liminal and transient spaces that characterize the everyday and our movement though it. Using creative production as a form of research, Engaging Ethnography uses anthropology and media art in order to create a hybrid form of engagement, that of 'creative fieldwork.' This interdisciplinary model is an attempt to bring the visual into the ethnographic in order to bridge the gap between research and representation while also expanding the range of materials and methods used to engage in ethnography.


Polar codes asymptotically achieve the symmetric capacity of any binary-input discrete memoryless channel under sequential decoding algorithms such as successive cancellation decoding. However, for applications with high throughput requirements, other decoding approaches may be a better fit, as sequential decoders are inherently difficult to parallelize in order to increase their throughput. Iterative belief-propagation decoding may pose a valid approach for such parallel decoders. In this work, we present an extensive study of polar codes under both sequential and parallel message schedules in iterative decoding, and reveal a strong dependency of the code performance on the schedule used for decoding. To overcome performance impairments observed when using polar codes optimized for sequential scheduling under parallel schedules, we present a method to optimize codes for iterative decoders working with parallel scheduling.


In 1994, four days after taking office, Ernesto Zedillo, the last president to govern Mexico emerging from the once hegemonic National Revolutionary Party, promoted a major redesign of the Supreme Court of Justice that
substantially expanded its constitutional review powers and reduced its size from 26 to 11 members. The operation of this more compact and powerful body was left in charge of 11 justices nominated by Zedillo. During the period
1917-1994, the Supreme Court adjudicated only 63 constitutional cases of its exclusive jurisdiction. In contrast, since the reform came into force in 1995, it
has been the arena in which more than two thousand constitutional cases have been ultimately settled.
Why do courts established under authoritarian rule become effective policy-makers as democracy develops? Using Mexico as a case study and drawing on the strategic approach for the study of courts, this thesis argues
that the Supreme Court turned into an effective policy-maker as a result of the convergence of three factors: institutional change (from judicial reform), political fragmentation (from democratisation) and an unprecedented internal stability. Judicial reform set a new institutional framework; political fragmentation triggered the use of constitutional review by political actors; and stability enhanced experience within the Court and prompted justices to more proactively engage in policy-making.
Through an appealing case study, a novel research strategy and original evidence consisting of four original datasets and thirty-five elite-interviews,
this thesis contributes, first, to the comparative analysis of courts by offering a systematic and comprehensive account of judicial rulings and precedents and their impact both within and beyond judicial boundaries; second, to the judicialisation literature by highlighting the effects of the delegation of power
to courts on judicial performance; and third, to the Mexican politics scholarship by providing a re-assessment of the role of the Supreme Court in regime dynamics.


The article analyses the judgment of EU member court to open insolvency proceedings and the recognition and enforcement of these judgments in another EU member state. The main principles of the recognition of court judgments in insolvency cases as well as the purpose and the procedures of the recognition in the European Union are disclosed in this article. These issues fall inside the scope of application of the Regulation 1346/2000, therefore, the author of the article pays a great attention to the theoretical analysis of this Regulation and its application in judicial practice. Although the court decision in insolvency proceedings is automatically recognized in another EU member state (without any additional procedures required), it does not necessarily mean that any decision in insolvency proceedings will be implicitly recognized and enforced in all cases. If a person concerned in particular lawsuit seeks the court judgment to be compulsory enforced in the EU member country, which recognizes this decision, it is required to appeal to a competent institution (in Lithuania – Court of Appeal) for the enforcement of the particular judgment. The application letter to the competent institution should be prepared in accordance with the requirements stated in the Regulation and Civil Process Code concerning form, content and supplements of the application. If the application is properly presented, it should be allowed to enforce the court judgment of another EU member country without revising the repudiation elements stated in the Regulation. However, if a person concerned in particular insolvency lawsuit requests to revise the particular decree proving the repudiation elements stated in the Regulation, the Court of Appeal of Lithuania verifies the existence of repudiation fundamental principles due to specific judgment. The article analyses the fundamental principles of non-recognition of judgments in insolvency proceedings, particularly concerning the conception and range of public policy. Based on such practical issues of the application of the Regulation, the author analyses the settled practice in insolvency lawsuits solved by the Court of Justice of the European Communities.


An element composes other particles but it itself is non-composite. The basic substance composes all and it itself is composed by the basic element(s). The Modern Standard Model with Supersymmetry has over 200 basic particles but none of them satisfies the definition of 'element'. Inter-conversions of various forms of energies and/or with mass and the equation E=mc2 compellingly needs a 'basic substance' composing all forms of E & m, otherwise E & m could not interconvert. Real Sharmon Medium propagating light as wave-quantum UNITY at constant velocity invariant to source-observer motion is the 'absolute reference frame' and all-composing and all-pervading 'basic substance' composed by the new particle 'sharmon', which comprises a positive positrino & a negative negatrino, the two basic elements named cosminos. They compose all forms of energy & mass, material particles and energy-quanta in the Cosmos. Their electric charge is ± 1.37x 10-30 esu; mass 2.596x10-48 gm & spin ½. Sharmon's mass is 5.192x10-48 gm, spin 0 & 1. As a kinetic gas, the sharmon medium is irremovable by any means since the ~10-33 cm Sharmon can pass thru interatomic spaces and between orbital electrons. Its number density is ~1015 sharmons per cm3, mass density 0.519x10-33 gm.cm-3. Its inter-sharmon distance of ~ 10,sup>-5 cm compares with Mean Free Path for real gasses e.g. 1.12x 10-5 cm for Hydrogen. An element is singly charged since multiple charges imply that many constituents. Cosmino's single unified charge manifests as mass & electric charge via the mediation of gravitational and electromagnetic fields/forces, which also unify into a single gravitoelectromagnetic field/force. No particle is massless or sizeless point; neutrinos have mass, size & electric charge. Cosmino compositions of quarks, leptons, neutrinos and photon are worked out.


Poly(p-phenylenevinylene), or PPV, is a polymer of great technological relevance due to its electroluminescence properties, which have been exploited in organic light emitting diodes, flexible displays and other optoelectronic devices. Although PPV is a material of foremost importance for many applications, its synthesis on the nano/microscale cannot be achieved through the standard method that uses heating of a precursor polymer. This paper shows how direct laser writing with femtosecond pulses can be employed for the synthesis of PPV in pre-determined regions, allowing a novel approach towards the precise fabrication of complex polymeric microcircuits. The physical-chemical phenomena involved in the conversion of the precursor into PPV are shown to be related to a two-photon induced thermal process, which is confined to the focal volume, resulting in the controlled synthesis of PPV.


Of all the meat quality traits, tenderness is considered the most important with regard to eating quality and market value. In this study we have utilised genome wide association studies (GWAS) for peak shear force (PSF) of loin muscle as a measure of tenderness for 1,976 crossbred commercial pigs, genotyped for 42,721 informative SNPs using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 Beadchip. Four 1 Mb genomic regions, three on SSC2 (at 4 Mb, 5 Mb and 109 Mb) and one on SSC17 (at 20 Mb), were detected which collectively explained about 15.30% and 3.07% of the total genetic and phenotypic variance for PSF respectively. Markers ASGA0008566, ASGA0008695, DRGA0003285 and ASGA0075615 in the four regions were strongly associated with the effects. Analysis of the reference genome sequence in the region with the most important SNPs for SSC2_5 identified FRMD8, SLC25A45 and LTBP3 as potential candidate genes for meat tenderness on the basis of functional annotation of these genes. The region SSC2_109 was close to a previously reported candidate gene CAST; however, the very weak LD between DRGA0003285 (the best marker representing region SSC2_109) and CAST indicated the potential for additional genes which are distinct from, or interact with, CAST to affect meat tenderness. Limited information of known genes in regions SSC2_109 and SSC17_20 restricts further analysis. Re-sequencing of these regions for informative animals may help to resolve the molecular architecture and identify new candidate genes and causative mutations affecting this trait. These findings contribute significantly to our knowledge of the genomic regions affecting pork shear force and will potentially lead to new insights into the molecular mechanisms regulating meat tenderness.


In The Story of the Human Body, Daniel Lieberman, Professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard, shows how we need to change our world to fit our hunter-gatherer bodies. This ground-breaking book of popular science explores how the way we use our bodies is all wrong. From an evolutionary perspective, if normal is defined as what most people have done for millions of years, then it's normal to walk and run 9 -15 kilometres a day to hunt and gather fresh food which is high in fibre, low in sugar, and barely processed. It's also normal to spend much of your time nursing, napping, making stone tools, and gossiping with a small band of people. Our 21st-century lifestyles, argues Daniel Lieberman, are out of synch with our stone-age bodies. Never have we been so healthy and long-lived - but never, too, have we been so prone to a slew of problems that were, until recently, rare or unknown, from asthma, to diabetes, to - scariest of all - overpopulation. The Story of the Human Body asks how our bodies got to be the way they are, and considers how that evolutionary history - both ancient and recent - can help us evaluate how we use our bodies. How is the present-day state of the human body related to the past? And what is the human body's future? "Monumental. The Story of the Human Body, by one of our leading experts, takes us on an epic voyage". (Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish). "Riveting, enlightening, and more than a little frightening". (Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run). Daniel Lieberman is the Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and a leader in the field. He has written nearly 100 articles, many appearing in the journals Nature and Science, and his cover story on barefoot running in Nature was picked up by major media the world over. His research and discoveries have been highlighted in newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Boston Globe, Discover, and National Geographic.


While the present inquiry charts new territory in Roman cultural research, there are in fact two academic disciplines that have long recognised the relationship between clothing and identity and have established useful theoretical frameworks in which to examine this relationship: anthropology and sociology. Following the introduction, chapter 2 begins with a discussion of the symbolic meanings of dress as identified by sociologists and anthropologists based on their research in more modern contexts. The next two sections set out the chronological and geographical scope of the study by explaining the time period chosen and the boundaries and histories of the study's three areas. This investigation is primarily focussed on depictions on grave monuments. The reasons for this, as well as a discussion of the nature of the sources and their unique potential to inform us about identity, are the subject of chapter 3. More technical aspects of the use of Roman gravestones are included in Appendix III. In order to be able to gauge the effect integration into the Roman Empire had on the dress behaviour of the Rhine-Moselle population, it is important first to establish what was worn in the region before Roman conquest. This is closely linked to the question of the origins of the garments found in the Roman period. The first part of chapter 4 puts forward a number of new theories regarding pre-Roman dress in the region and the origins of garments. As a result, and also due to a certain amount of confusion in terminology in previous studies, the second part of chapter 4 presents a typology of garments including brief descriptions. Each garment is given a code number to facilitate identification in the catalogue which includes all civilian funerary monuments depicting identifiable clothing from the Rhine-Moselle region. Chapter 5 discusses the results from analysing dress behaviour on the stones in the catalogue which is presented, primarily in graphical form, in Appendix II. The penultimate section of chapter 5 investigates the meaning of headwear in general and the possible significance of the various bonnets that appear to have played such a central role in native dress in the Rhine-Moselle region. The final section looks at the phenomenon of mixing garments of different origin within the same outfit as a solution to the 'problem of what to wear' in a complicated cultural environment. A general summary and comparison of these results is undertaken in the conclusion (chapter 6) in order to link the findings back to the current state of Roman cultural studies and to assess how these findings contribute to our understanding of the social processes at work in the provinces of the Roman Empire.


Deep Learning-based chest Computed Tomography (CT) analysis has been proven to be effective and efficient for COVID-19 diagnosis. Existing deep learning approaches heavily rely on large labeled data sets, which are difficult to acquire in this pandemic situation. Therefore, semi-supervised approaches are in demand. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end semi-supervised COVID-19 detection approach, ResNext+, that only requires volume level data labels and can provide slice level prediction. The proposed approach incorporates a lung segmentation mask as well as spatial and channel attention to extract spatial features. Besides, Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) is utilized to acquire the axial dependency of the slices. Moreover, a slice attention module is applied before the final fully connected layer to generate the slice level prediction without additional supervision. An ablation study is conducted to show the efficiency of the attention blocks and the segmentation mask block. Experimental results, obtained from publicly available datasets, show a precision of 81.9% and F1 score of 81.4%. The closest state-of-the-art gives 76.7% precision and 78.8% F1 score. The 5% improvement in precision and 3% in the F1 score demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. It is worth noticing that, applying image enhancement approaches do not boost the performance of the proposed method, sometimes even harm the scores, although the enhanced images illustrate better perceived visual image quality. INDEX TERMS Attention, COVID-19, Computed Tomography, Detection, Enhancement, LSTM, Semisupervised learning


Reflective practice is widely adopted across the field of experience-based learning subjects in higher education, including practicums, work-integrated learning, internships, service learning and community participation. This adoption of reflective practice implies that it supports student learning through experience. When reviewing the evidence for the role of reflection for learning, it became evident that not only was there no clear agreement about the definition of reflection, there has been little theoretical development in this area. An integrated participatory action research and ecological approach was adopted to build a theory about the ecology of reflection for learning through experience. Through this process the assumptions, or truths that are taken for granted, that underpin the new theory were declared and substantiated. Key concepts and the principle tenets of the theory were then identified and defined, leading to an overview of the ecologies of the learner, the learning context and the experiential learning context.


This report focuses on analysis steps necessary for a paper document processing. It is divided in three major parts: a document image preprocessing, a knowledge-based geometric classification of the image, and a expectation-driven text recognition. It first illustrates the several low level image processing procedures providing the physical document structure of a scanned document image. Furthermore, it describes a knowledge-based approach, developed for the identification of logical objects (e.g., sender or the footnote of a letter) in a document image. The logical identifiers provide a context-restricted consideration of the containing text. While using specific logical dictionaries, a expectation-driven text recognition is possible to identify text parts of specific interest. The system has been implemented for the analysis of single-sided business letters in Common Lisp on a SUN 3/60 Workstation. It is running for a large population of different letters. The report also illustrates and discusses examples of typical results obtained by the system.


Three examples of the study and enhancement of the landscape in Italy are presented. The interdisciplinary approach to this topic is carried out not simply by juxtaposing disciplines, but by the integration of different ambits. In this way, disjunctive thought is substituted by a holistic approach that produces communication more appropriate to research. This offers the scientists a tool that is of paramount importance for their studies, and for ordinary citizens, a new way of considering the landscape. Example 1: Sustainable tourism and man–landscape relationships: Ecomuseum, Castello di Serravalle (Bologna). By studying the landscape of a hilly wine-producing area, it has been possible to observe the signs of reciprocal man–environment interactions that have characterized the area for over two millennia. For this reason, an Ecomuseum was founded, to provide an efficient tool for the enhancement of sustainable tourism, and also to popularize knowledge of local cultural heritage among the citizens. Example 2: Lago Bracciano near Montese (Modena): re-assessment of an Apennine area combining archeology, landscape and history. The landscape of areas containing historical settlements of local populations was reconstructed. This started with archeological and documentary data that had not yet been correlated, which was integrated with geological and geochemical data. In this way, a marginal tourism area has been improved by appraisal of its intrinsic cultural and historical values. Example 3: Geological elements and poetic trails in Frignano Park. This geological–literary itinerary starts from the assumption that there is a specific poetic and cultural value to the Modena Apennines that is linked to the morphological and geological features of this territory. Geology and literature become an accompaniment to a new pilgrimage of knowledge.


Aquatic food webs are affected from the bottom up by light through its effect on photosynthesis and productivity. But light also has a top‐down effect, because it is crucial for the visual foraging efficiency in many fish. Here we present data suggesting that marine pelagic food webs are primarily structured top‐down by light through its effect on vision in fish. For light‐limited fjord ecosystems, we show that the abundance of zooplanktivorous fish is proportional to the vertical extension of a visual feeding habitat, represented by the inverse of the light absorbance coefficient of the water column. We also show that both zooplankton abundance and body size are proportional to the size of a vision‐protected habitat that can be defined as the dimensionless product of the light absorbance coefficient and the depth of the water column. Natural and human‐driven environmental change may involve alterations in the amount of surface radiation as well as in the optical properties of the water column. Our results imply that such changes are likely to affect aquatic food webs top‐down through vision as well as bottom‐up through photosynthesis.


Past studies that examine gender differences in investment decisions have treated married households as a single decision- making unit. This study improves upon traditional unitary bargaining models and estimates a series of unitary and collective-type models to investigate how a husband's age and relative control over financial resources affects the allocation of assets in women's defined contribution plans. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, the results show that women who are married to less educated and older men are less likely to take on risk with their portfolios. Women who earn a greater share of the household's total earnings are also less likely to invest in risky assets. There is little evidence that the characteristics of the wife affect the husband's investment decisions. The findings have important policy implications, especially with respect to proposed Social Security reforms which would enable workers to choose how their personal security accounts are invested.


Microemulsions are unique dispersions of oil in water or water in oil which are stabilised by a surfactant and co-surfactant. The formation of such a mixture was first reported by Hoar and Schulman in the 1940s when they noticed a mixture of hydrocarbon and surfactant turned from milky to clear on the addition of alcohol. The ability of microemulsions to simultaneously solubilise either aqueous or organic components while remaining isotropically clear and thermodynamically stable attracted much attention, particularly in the 1970s for use in tertiary oil recovery. During the early 1990s these surfactant based systems were reported in separation science as mobile phases in HPLC and background electrolytes in CE.
Given the capability of microemulsions to dissolve both aqueous and non-aqueous compounds, their use as eluents in HPLC (MELC) and background electrolytes in CE (MEEKC) was further examined. In order to effectively test the ability of microemulsions to separate a diverse range of compounds, they were applied to the simultaneous analysis of oil- and water-soluble vitamins. A novel MELC method was developed for the simultaneous isocratic separation of oil- and water-soluble vitamins. Similarly, a MEEKC method was also developed for separating the same range of vitamins. In addition to separation, all microemulsion compositions examined in the development of the MEEKC method were characterised in terms of droplet size, surface tension, conductivity, and refractive index. When cross correlated with the MEEKC vitamin separation, relationships between choice of microemulsion components, physicochemical measurements and separation were observed.
Also, a commonly reported SDS based microemulsion was characterised and applied to the MEEKC separation of pharmaceutical analytes. Initially a pseudoternary phase diagram was constructed to establish a range of possible compositions. Microemulsions across an aqueous dilution line were prepared and physicochemical measurements conducted to establish microemulsion phase type and transition. Results indicated that the measurement techniques employed were capable of describing microemulsion phase type. Furthermore, it was seen that the microemulsion phase type could be correlated with a MEEKC separation.


In this manuscript, we developed a two-fold symmetric linchpin (TSL) that converts readily available phage-displayed peptides libraries made of 20 common amino acids to genetically-encoded libraries of bicyclic peptides displayed on phage. TSL combines an aldehyde-reactive group and two thiol-reactive groups; it bridges two side chains of cysteine [C] with an N-terminal aldehyde group derived from the N-terminal serine [S], yielding a novel bicyclic topology that lacks a free N-terminus. Phage display libraries of SX1CX2X3X4X5X6X7C sequences, where X is any amino acid but Cys, were converted to a library of bicyclic TSL-[S]X1[C]X2X3X4X5X6X7[C] peptides in 45 ± 15% yield. Using this library and protein morphogen NODAL as a target, we discovered bicyclic macrocycles that specifically antagonize NODAL-induced signaling in cancer cells. At a 10 μM concentration, two discovered bicyclic peptides completely suppressed NODAL-induced phosphorylation of SMAD2 in P19 embryonic carcinoma cells. The TSL-[S]Y[C]KRAHKN[C] bicycle inhibited NODAL-induced proliferation of NODAL-TYK-nu ovarian carcinoma cells with apparent IC50 of 1 μM. The same bicycle at 10 μM concentration did not affect the growth of the control TYK-nu cells. TSL-bicycles remained stable over the course of the 72 hour-long assays in a serum-rich cell-culture medium. We further observed general stability in mouse serum and in a mixture of proteases (Pronase™) for 21 diverse bicyclic macrocycles of different ring sizes, amino acid sequences, and cross-linker geometries. TSL-constrained peptides to expand the previously reported repertoire of phage-displayed bicyclic architectures formed by cross-linking Cys side chains. We anticipate that it will aid the discovery of proteolytically stable bicyclic inhibitors for a variety of protein targets.


Full scan based design technique is widely used to alleviate the complexity of test generation for sequential circuits. However, this approach leads to substantial increase in test application time, because of serial loading of vectors. Although BIST based approaches offer faster testing, they usually suffer from low fault coverage. In this paper, we propose a hybrid test architecture, which achieves significant reduction in test application time. The test suite consists of: (i) some external deterministic test vectors to be scanned in, and (ii) internally generated responses of the CUT to be re-applied as tests iteratively, in functional (non-scan) mode. The proposed architecture uses only combinational ATPG to hybridize deterministic testing and test per clock BIST, and thus makes good use of both scan based and non-scan testing. We also present a bipartite graph based heuristic to select the deterministic test vectors and sequential fault simulation technique is used to perform the exact analysis on detected faults during the re-application of internally generated responses of the CUT during testing. Experimental results on ISCAS-89 benchmark circuits show the efficacy of the heuristic and reveal a significant reduction of test application time.


One of the key assumptions underpinning the rise of 'crowdsourced work' – from transport apps including Uber to online platforms such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk – is the assertion put forward by most platforms that crowdworkers are self-employed, independent contractors. As a result, individuals might find themselves without recourse to worker-protective norms, from minimum wage and working time law to health and safety regulations and unfair dismissal protection. But is this account accurate? In this paper, we hope to challenge prevailing assumptions, arguing that in certain scenarios crowdworkers can, and should, be classified as workers within the scope of domestic employment law. The approach proposed, however, is an initially counterintuitive one: we advocate the adoption of a functional concept of the employer as a regulatory solution to crowdwork employment, with platforms, crowdworkers, and service users each shouldering their appropriate share of employer responsibilities.


This qualitative study examines the role familismo (Marín & Marín, 1991) played in 20 Latina/o high school seniors' college choices. Familismo is the tendency to hold the wants and needs of family in higher regard than one's own and has been considered a common trait of Latina/o families. Interviews with students and secondary school counselors revealed this trait may be a common value upheld by Latina/o families but is also a reflection of structural forces outside the family unit. Findings highlight ways students negotiated the options of attending a university close to home to benefit from familial support and/or financially contribute to the family; leaving the region for college in order to ensure a "better life" for themselves and their families; or compromising by beginning at a regional institution and later transferring to another university. High school personnel, and others assisting Latina/os with their college choices should consider such findings.


The preservation of mangrove ecosystem requires knowledge on soil Morphology, Physical and Chemical Characteristics, for understanding the requirements for their sus-tainability and preservation. Seven pedons of mangrove soil, five under fluvial and two under marine influence, located in the Subaé River basin were described and classified. Samples of horizons were collected for physical and chemical analyses, including Pb and Cd. The moist soils were suboxidic, with Eh below 350 mV. The pH of the pedons under fluvial influence ranged from moderately acid to alkaline, and pedons under marine influence was around 7.0. Mangrove soils under fluvial influence were characterized with the highest Pb and Cd concentrations in the pedons, which could be perhaps due to it closeness to the mining company Plumbum, while the lowest Pb concentrations was registered in the pedon furthest from the factory. Because the pedons had at least one metal above the reference level they were considered potentially toxic. The soils were classified as Gleissolos Tiomórficos Órticos (sálicos) sódico neofluvissólico, according to the Brazilian Soil Classification System and as Thiomorphic orthic Gleysol (salic) sodi cluvissol (potentially toxic, very poorly drained) according with FAO. The pedon under marine influence was classified in the same subgroup, but the metal concentrations met the acceptable standard.


Background : Burns are among the most devastating forms of trauma, and also the most common typesof injury affecting children in home environment. There are a major cause of morbidity and mortality all over the world for both children and adults,especiallyfor developing countries like Somalia because of inadequate medical treatment.Objective: The main objective is to gain knowledge, attitude andpractice towards burn patients admitted to Madina Hospital between October 2017 and October 2018.Methods: Throughout the study,researchers utilized both quantitative and qualitativemethods of data collection which were achieved from patients included in the study. A briefintroduction was made to the respondents before distributing the questionnaires with the explanation about thesignificance of the study.Results: 404 participants had been included in the study of which were divided into two groups such as 'case' (n=202) and 'control' (n=202) groups of each having equal number of patients. Burn injuries had beenfound most frequent in children less than 4 years of age (42.6%), and secondlyingadults between 20 and 40 years of age (38.6%). The male-female ratio had been found similar. Significant risk factors regarding burn injuries were such as; low level of education (OR=2.32, 95% CI: 1.28- 4.22, p<0.005),kerosene usage for cooking (OR=1.935; 95% CI:1.303–2.874, p<0.005) and lack of knowledgeconsideringprevention andsafety (OR=1.885, 5% CI:1.559-2.279, p<0.005).Conclusion: Ways of tackling the hazards posed by fire and othercauses of burns in homes, institutions and all work places should be taught in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. Low level of education as a risk factor for burns is a complex issue involving communities, non-governmental organizations and government. Theministry of education should incorporatehealth education in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 03 No. 04 October'19 Page : 218-222


Keywords: Induction motor, windings, phase-shifting capacitor, efficiency, positive and reverse sequence currents
Induction motors consume almost 70% of the world's electricity as they are the driving force behind the vast majority of rotary mechanisms [1]. For industrial and domestic purposes alone, about a million new electric motors are commissioned annually. Single-phase induction motors (SPIMs) are superior to all other types of electrical machines that operate on a single-phase AC voltage network because of their simple and robust design and low cost. Therefore, a small improvement in the SPIM energy performance can have a strong impact on energy consumption worldwide and ultimately reduce emissions of harmful substances into environment. This article presents a technique for optimizing SPIM windings in order to maximize efficiency with a given and fixed phase-shifting capacitor. The positive effect of the application of the proposed method is confirmed by the results of SPIM industrial tests with various powers and rotor speeds.


Abstract Geochemical characteristics of Icelandic basalts require mixing of several sources: depleted asthenosphere, a plume (presumably heterogeneous), and an enriched component (e.g. hydrothermally altered crust). We use lava compositions and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic ratios from neighbouring coeval volcanic centres to define spatial variations in source components beneath the neovolcanic zones. Within the Eastern Volcanic Zone, basalt compositions vary systematically from tholeiitic near central Iceland (Veidivotn, Grimsvotn) to Fe-Ti tholeiites at Hekla and Katla, to alkaline in Vestmannaeyjar. Each volcanic centre has distinctive geochemical characteristics that require differences in source components and proportions on the scale of 10–20 km.


PURPOSE
To evaluate relative detection of pulmonary embolism (PE) with standard bolus-triggered contrast-enhanced breath-hold magnetic resonance (MR) pulmonary angiography, contrast-enhanced recirculation-phase breath-hold low-flip angle three-dimensional (3D) gradient-echo (GRE), and nonenhanced free-induction cardiac- and respiratory-triggered true fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP) MR sequences.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was HIPAA compliant and institutional review board approved. Twenty-two patients with a computed tomographic (CT) angiography diagnosis of PE underwent MR imaging within 48 hours of CT. MR included three complementary techniques: MR pulmonary angiography, 3D GRE, and triggered true FISP. Each sequence was analyzed separately by two independent reviewers who recorded presence of emboli in categorized pulmonary artery anatomic territories. CT angiography results were analyzed by a third independent reviewer, who retrospectively recorded presence of emboli using the same format; these results served as the reference standard. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for PE detection were calculated for each MR technique on a per-embolus basis, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated according to the efficient-score method. A two-sample t test was used to compare values among MR techniques.

RESULTS
Sensitivities for PE detection were 55% for MR pulmonary angiography, 67% for triggered true FISP, and 73% for 3D GRE MR imaging. Combining all three MR sequences improved overall sensitivity to 84%. Specificity was 100% for all detection methods except for MR pulmonary angiography (one false-positive). Agreement between readers was high (κ = 0.87). Embolus detection rates were lowest in the lingula branch for all MR sequences compared with remainder of the vascular territories (P = .07).

CONCLUSION
There are complementary benefits to combining standard MR pulmonary angiography, 3D GRE, and triggered true FISP MR examinations for evaluation of PE.


The African Flood Forecasting System (AFFS) is a probabilistic flood forecast system for medium- to large-scale African river basins, with lead times of up to 15 days. The key components are the hydrological model LISFLOOD, the African GIS database, the meteorological ensemble predictions by the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Ranged Weather Forecasts) and critical hydrological thresholds. In this paper, the predictive capability is investigated in a hindcast mode, by reproducing hydrological predictions for the year 2003 when important floods were observed. Results were verified by ground measurements of 36 sub-catchments as well as by reports of various flood archives. Results showed that AFFS detected around 70 % of the reported flood events correctly. In particular, the system showed good performance in predicting riverine flood events of long duration (> 1 week) and large affected areas (> 10 000 km 2 ) well in advance, whereas AFFS showed limitations for small-scale and short duration flood events. The case study for the flood event in March 2003 in the Sabi Basin (Zimbabwe) illustrated the good performance of AFFS in forecasting timing and severity of the floods, gave an example of the clear and concise output products, and showed that the system is capable of producing flood warnings even in ungauged river basins. Hence, from a technical perspective, AFFS shows a large potential as an operational pan-African flood forecasting system, although issues related to the practical implication will still need to be investigated.


AIM
Circulating microRNAs (miRNA) are a promising diagnostic tool for lung and gastric cancer. However, their diagnostic value in nasopharyngeal cancer remains unknown. Thus, this study aims to systematically evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of circulating miRNA for nasopharyngeal cancer.

METHOD
Eligible studies were searched and selected from the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases. RESULTS from these included studies were pooled using random-effects models. Sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were calculated to assess the overall performance of miRNA-based assay. Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves were plotted to evaluate the overall diagnostic accuracy of circulating miRNA detection.

RESULTS
Seven publications were considered eligible for this systematic review, and four studies were finally chosen for this meta-analysis. In the diagnostic meta-analysis, the overall pooled results for sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, and DOR were 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83-0.90), 0.87 (95% CI: 0.82-0.91), 7.529 (95% CI, 2.575-22.013), 0.145 (95% CI, 0.058-0.363), and 64.045 (95% CI, 10.176-403.10), respectively. The area under SROC curve was 0.95.

CONCLUSION
Circulating miRNA detection presents an enormous potential in diagnosing nasopharyngeal cancer. Studies with a large sample size of nasopharyngeal cancer patients must be conducted to verify the diagnostic value of circulating miRNA.


Professor Klippies Kritzinger, as Dean of the erstwhile faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, was willing to take a risk and allow a new, rather esoteric discipline to come into being in the new millennium. Christian Spirituality was thus born at Unisa in 2000, not without certain reservations from some faculty members. As a tribute to Klippies, some salient issues with respect to teaching Spirituality are discussed in this article, in particular the area of Interspirituality. It has also become clear that Missiology and Spirituality are not just sister disciplines in the department, but need each other as partners in order to effect individual and societal transformation.


Notwithstanding increasing policy and academic debate around the 'twin' digital and ecological transitions, there is no systematic assessment of their linkages, potential synergies and trade-offs. Most fundamentally, the full extent of challenges that their interaction poses for the prospects of a 'just transition' is not fully understood. This paper discusses the role and impact of digital technologies on two key objectives of a just sustainability transition, namely (1) the creation of decent-quality employment in (2) the pursuit of climate change mitigation and, more broadly, sustainability. In addition, it also discusses (3) whether and how digitalisation affects society more broadly, with a particular focus on how digital technologies can contribute to or reduce existing inequalities, as well as promote social dialogue at all levels. For each of these three aspects, evidence is presented regarding either the negative or positive effects of a number of digital technologies in several key sectors. Based on this evidence, the rationale for jointly addressing these transformations is explained and key policy implications are put forward.


Borophene: Boron in two dimensions Although bulk allotropes of carbon and boron differ greatly, small clusters of these elements show remarkable similarities. Boron analogs of two-dimensional carbon allotropes such as graphene have been predicted. Now Mannix et al. report the formation of two-dimensional boron by depositing the elemental boron onto a silver surface under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions (see the Perspective by Sachdev). The graphene-like structure was buckled, weakly bonded to the substrate, and metallic. Science, this issue p. 1513; see also p. 1468 A two-dimensional boron allotrope forms after depositing its elemental vapor on a silver surface in vacuum. [Also see Perspective by Sachdev] At the atomic-cluster scale, pure boron is markedly similar to carbon, forming simple planar molecules and cage-like fullerenes. Theoretical studies predict that two-dimensional (2D) boron sheets will adopt an atomic configuration similar to that of boron atomic clusters. We synthesized atomically thin, crystalline 2D boron sheets (i.e., borophene) on silver surfaces under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions. Atomic-scale characterization, supported by theoretical calculations, revealed structures reminiscent of fused boron clusters with multiple scales of anisotropic, out-of-plane buckling. Unlike bulk boron allotropes, borophene shows metallic characteristics that are consistent with predictions of a highly anisotropic, 2D metal.


This paper examines whether monetary indicators are useful in implementing optimal discretionary monetary policy when the policy maker has incomplete information about the environment. We find that money does not contain useful information for the policy maker, if we calibrate the model to the U.S. economy. If money demand were to be appreciably less variable, observations on money could be useful in response to productivity shocks but would be harmful in response to money demand shocks. We provide an incomplete information example where equilibrium welfare declines when the money demand volatility decreases.


Metallo supramolecular assemblies of an 8-arm poly(ethylene glycol) partially substituted with terpyridyl end-groups and the transition metal ions Ni(2+), Fe(2+), Co(2+) and Zn(2+) were studied for their nano-particle formation at dilute conditions and gelation at higher concentrations. The large differences in dissociation rate constants of the metal ligand complexes largely determine the assembly behavior. Thermodynamically stable complexes are generated with Ni(2+) and Fe(2+) chlorides, which lead to distinct particle sizes of ∼200 nm in dilute conditions. The Co(2+) and Zn(2+) chlorides provide multiple size distributions revealing that mono and bis-complexes are present at equilibrium. Upon complexation, terpyridyl groups move to the outer sphere giving aggregates with a charged surface. At polymer concentrations above 5 wt%, crosslinking upon addition of transition metal ions provides hydrogels. Elastic hydrogels were obtained with Ni(2+), Fe(2+) and Co(2+) having storage moduli in excess of 20 kPa, whereas Zn(2+) gels are relatively viscous. Only Zn(2+) gels show a thermoreversible sol to gel transition at a temperature of 25 °C independent of polymer concentration.


Daylight factor is one of the physical parameters affecting indoor environmental. We can determine this factor in many ways. The main ways are computational methods, in situ measurements and finally measurements in architectural models. Measurements in models enable us comparison both measurements under real sky and under artificial sky. We can study changes in internal conditions - the colors and variability of the interiors and potential variability of window openings. Using of mini - photometer head in measurements enable us to give precision quality of design daylight in interior and validate computational methods for the real space.


Methods implemented in incorrect classes are common bad smells in object-oriented systems, especially in the case of systems maintained and evolved for years. To tackle this design flaw, we propose a novel approach that recommends Move Method refactorings based on the set of static dependencies established by a method. More specifically, our approach compares the similarity of the dependencies established by a source method with the dependencies established by the methods in possible target classes. We evaluated our approach using systems from a compiled version of the Qualitas Corpus. We report that our approach provides an average precision of 60.63% and an average recall of 81.07%. Such results are, respectively, 129% and 49% better than the results achieved by JDeodorant, a well-known move method recommendation system.


Introduction Tinnitus is one of the most distressing hearing-related symptoms. Innovative ways of managing tinnitus distress and the related healthcare burden of treating tinnitus are required. An internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) intervention has been developed in Sweden to improve access to evidence-based tinnitus treatments. This study aims to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of iCBT in reducing the impact associated with tinnitus, in the UK. It, furthermore, aims to establish whether there are subgroups of tinnitus sufferers for whom this iCBT intervention may be more suitable. Methods and analysis A two-armed randomised control trial—with a 1-year follow-up design—will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of iCBT on tinnitus distress. A delayed treatment design using a weekly check-in control group will be used. 70 participants will be randomly assigned to each group by an independent researcher by using a computer-generated randomisation schedule, and after being prestratified for age and tinnitus severity. They will undergo the iCBT e-health intervention online together with audiological therapeutic support. The main outcome measure is the Tinnitus Functional Index. Process evaluation of the intervention will also be conducted. Data analysis will be in accordance with Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials guidelines. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been granted. If this intervention proves effective, it may be possible that at least some tinnitus sufferers can be managed though an iCBT e-learning treatment programme. This would be cost effective and potentially will free up services for those with more severe problems that need face-to-face treatment. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT02370810, date 05/03/2015.


The laser-induced damage behavior of narrow-band interference filters was investigated with a Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm under single-pulse mode and free-running laser mode. The absorption measurement of such coatings has been performed by surface thermal lensing (STL) technique. The relationship between damage morphology and absorption under the two different laser modes was studied in detail. The explanation was given by the standing-wave distribution theory.


Because of changing cyclosporine dosing patterns over the years, maintenance doses in 1469 living donor and 1486 cadaver donor index renal transplants in patients who were 0 to 20 yr of age of the time of transplantation were reviewed. All grafts had at least 30 days' function. Eighty-nine percent of living donor patients and 95% of cadaver donor patients were maintained on cyclosporine for 12 months after transplantation. Among patients receiving cyclosporine, the maintenance 12-month dose in living donor graft recipients increased from 6.4 mg/kg per day for patients who had transplants done in 1987 to 7.9 mg/kg per day for patients who had transplants done in 1992 (P = 0.02). Among cadaver donor graft recipients, the mean 12-month maintenance dose increased from 6.4 mg/kg per day in 1987 to 7.8 mg/kg per day in 1992 (P = 0.01). At 6 months after transplantation, the maintenance cyclosporine dose in 1103 living donor graft recipients who retained graft function during the subsequent 6-month period was 7.1 mg/kg per day, compared with a 6-month dose of 3.9 mg/kg per day in 28 patients who lost their graft in the subsequent 6-month period. For 1041 recipients of cadaver donor grafts who retained graft function through 12 months after transplantation, the 6-month maintenance cyclosporine dose was 7.4 mg/kg per day, compared with 5.4 mg/kg per day in 59 patients whose graft failed in the subsequent 6 months. In patients who did not have an acute rejection episode during the first 12 months after transplantation, the rate of subsequent "late" rejections was 22% for patients with a 12-month maintenance cyclosporine dose < or = 4.0 mg/kg per day, and 16% for patients whose 12-month maintenance cyclosporine dose exceeded 8.6 mg/kg per day. A proportional hazards regression analysis, using cyclosporine dose as a time-dependent covariate, showed that the hazard of graft failure was reduced 5 to 6% for each incremental increase of 1 mg/kg maintenance dose of cyclosporine (within the dose range studied) for both living and cadaver donor source transplants.


We are happy to feature four invited submissions by Lisa Guenther, Kym Maclaren, Bonnie Mann, and Gayle Salamon, all of whom respond to the questions motivating our inaugural issue. Both Salamon and Maclaren offer a response to the question "What is critical phenomenology?" by exploring the productive relationship between critical theory and phenomenology. Salamon does this by tracing the history of the term critical phenomenology. Maclaren further explores the productive relationship between critical theory and phenomenology en route to her analysis of intimacy. Focusing on the phenomena of shame and long-term solitary confinement, Mann and Guenther take up that question by performing the work of critical phenomenology. Mann also offers suggestions regarding critical or, as she calls it, feminist phenomenology's relation to the tradition—both of classical phenomenology and feminist philosophy. Guenther shows how the work of critical phenomenology is already at play in the practices of resistance among prisoners in the Security Housing Unit of Pelican Bay State Prison in California.


Azole drugs selectively target fungal sterol biosynthesis and are critical to our antifungal therapeutic arsenal. However, resistance to this class of drugs, particularly in the major human mould pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus, is emerging and reaching levels that have prompted some to suggest that there is a realistic probability that they will be lost for clinical use. The dominating class of pan-azole resistant isolates is characterized by the presence of a tandem repeat of at least 34 bases (TR34) within the promoter of cyp51A, the gene encoding the azole drug target sterol C14-demethylase. Here we demonstrate that the repeat sequence in TR34 is bound by both the sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP) SrbA, and the CCAAT binding complex (CBC). We show that the CBC acts complementary to SrbA as a negative regulator of ergosterol biosynthesis and show that lack of CBC activity results in increased sterol levels via transcriptional derepression of multiple ergosterol biosynthetic genes including those coding for HMG-CoA-synthase, HMG-CoA-reductase and sterol C14-demethylase. In agreement with these findings, inactivation of the CBC increased tolerance to different classes of drugs targeting ergosterol biosynthesis including the azoles, allylamines (terbinafine) and statins (simvastatin). We reveal that a clinically relevant mutation in HapE (P88L) significantly impairs the binding affinity of the CBC to its target site. We identify that the mechanism underpinning TR34 driven overexpression of cyp51A results from duplication of SrbA but not CBC binding sites and show that deletion of the 34 mer results in lack of cyp51A expression and increased azole susceptibility similar to a cyp51A null mutant. Finally we show that strains lacking a functional CBC are severely attenuated for pathogenicity in a pulmonary and systemic model of aspergillosis.


Pressure Locking and Thermal Binding (PL/TB) are two different but related physical phenomena, which under certain conditions may prevent the opening of some types of valves.According to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) NPP operators should evaluate all safety-related power operated gate valves in all operational configurations for susceptibility to PL/TB. Corrective actions are required for susceptible valves that shall assure performance of safety function within plant licensing bases.NEK (NEK) first addressed this issue through the analysis of the Motor Operated Valves (MOV) that were included in the NEK MOV program. This approach resulted with 31 valves in Krsko NPP being found as susceptible to TB, 21 of which to both TB and PL. Subsequently, a more thorough analysis was performed, which took into account realistic operational parameters and detailed deterministic and probabilistic assessment evaluation of accident scenarios. This produced a list of 8 valves susceptible to Pressure Locking, and another 8 susceptible to TB.Valves were screened according to their safety significance, safety function, type, operational history, and operational conditions. Where applicable, Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) has been used as a tool to screen the risk from PL/TB to the safe plant operation. To reduce the risk from PL/TB occurrence, either physical modification of the valve (alteration of actuator gear ratio to provide more force), relevant part of the entire fluid system (flooding of sump suction lines), or simulation and testing to confirm actual ability to overcome increased forces (initiating a controlled PL condition, and testing to confirm actuator's ability to perform), was used.Methods used and results produced for PL are the subject of this paper.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


This study was conducted to reveal genetic diversity among 100 Osmanthus fragrans cultivars using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Eight AFLP primer combinations produced a total of 443 polymorphic fragments with an average of 64 per primer combination. The percentage of polymorphic bands (86.81%), the resolving power (Rp) (32.71) and the PIC values (0.331) showed the efficiency of used primer combinations. The revealed AFLP makers were effective in distinguishing all the cultivars considered. Cluster analysis were performed to assess patterns of diversity among cultivars and showed the abundant genetic diversity. The overall distribution pattern of molecular variation suggested that 93.33% of the total genetic variance was within the identified groups and 6.67% of the genetic variation was among the identified groups. Our results showed that AFLP markers are useful for Osmanthus fragrans germplasm discrimination as well as for investigation of genetic diversity and variation. The information will facilitate germplasm identification, conservation and new cultivar development.


We show that higher-order actions for cosmological perturbations in the multifield Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) inflation model are obtained by a Lorentz boost from the rest frame of the brane to the frame where the brane is moving. We confirm that this simple method provides the same third- and fourth-order actions at leading order in slow roll and in the small sound speed limit as those obtained by the usual Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formalism. As an application, we compute the leading order connected four-point function of the primordial curvature perturbation coming from the intrinsic fourth-order contact interaction in the multifield DBI-inflation model. At third order, the interaction Hamiltonian arises purely by the boost from the second-order action in the rest frame of the brane. The boost acts on the adiabatic and entropy modes in the same way, thus there exists a symmetry between the adiabatic and entropy modes. But at fourth order this symmetry is broken due to the intrinsic fourth-order action in the rest frame and the difference between the Lagrangian and the interaction Hamiltonian. Therefore, contrary to the three-point function, the momentum dependence of the purely adiabatic component and the components including the entropic contributions are different in the four-point function. This suggests that the trispectrum can distinguish the multifield DBI-inflation model from the single field DBI-inflation model.


OF DISSERTATION INVESTIGATING STRUCTURE AND PROTEIN-PROTEIN INTERACTIONS OF KEY POST-TYPE II PKS TAILORING ENZYMES Type II polyketide synthase (PKS) produced natural products have proven to be an excellent source of pharmacologically relevant molecules due to their rich biological activities and chemical scaffolds. Type II-PKS manufactured polyketides share similar polycyclic aromatic backbones leaving their diversity to stem from various chemical additions and alterations facilitated by post-PKS tailoring enzymes. Evidence suggests that post-PKS tailoring enzymes form complexes in order to facilitate the highly orchestrated process of biosynthesis. Thus, protein-protein interactions between these enzymes must play crucial roles in their structures and functions. Despite the importance of these interactions little has been done to study them. In the mithramycin (MTM) biosynthetic pathway the Baeyer−Villiger monooxygenase (BVMO) MtmOIV and the ketoreductase MtmW form one such enzyme pair that catalyze the final two steps en route to the final product. MtmOIV oxidatively cleaves the fourth ring of the mithramycin intermediate premithramycin B (PreB) via a Baeyer−Villiger reaction, generating MTM's characteristic tricyclic aglycone core and highly functionalized pentyl side chain at position 3. This Baeyer−Villiger reaction precedes spontaneous lactone ring opening, decarboxylation, and the final step of MTM biosynthesis, a reduction of the 4′keto group catalyzed by the ketoreductase MtmW. Another example of co-dependent post-PKS tailoring enzymes from the gilvocarcin biosynthetic pathway is composed of GilM and GilR. These two enzymes form an unusual synergistic tailoring enzyme pair that does not function sequentially. GilM exhibits dual functionality by catalyzing the reduction of a quinone intermediate to a hydroquinone and stabilizes O-methylation and hemiacetal formation. GilM mediates its reductive catalysis through the aid of GilR that provides its covalently bound FADH(2) for the GilM reaction, through which FAD is regenerated for the next catalytic cycle. A few steps later, following glycosylation related events unique to each gilvocarcin derivative, GilR dehydrogenates the hemiacetal moiety created by GilM to establish the formation of a lactone and the final gilvocarcin chromophore. To achieve a better understanding of post-type II PKS tailoring enzymes and their protein-protein interactions for the benefit of future combinatorial biosynthetic efforts two specific aims were devised. Specific aim 1 was to investigate the structure of MtmOIV and the role of active site residues in its catalytic mechanism. Specific aim 2 was to integrate the function of GilM and its protein-protein interactions with GilR that lead to their synergistic activity and sharing of GilR's bicovalently bound FAD moiety.


We analyze cascades of defaults in an interbank loan market. The novel feature of this study is that the network structure and the size distribution of banks are derived from empirical data. We find that the ability of a defaulted institution to start a cascade depends on an interplay of shock size and connectivity. Further results indicate that the ability to limit default risk by spreading the lending to many counterparts decreased with the financial crisis. To evaluate the influence of the network structure on market stability, we compare the simulated cascades from the empirical network with results from different randomized network models. The results show that the empirical network has non-random features, which cannot be captured by rewired networks. The analysis also reveals that simulations assuming homogeneity for the size of banks and loan contracts dramatically overestimates the fragility of the interbank market.


Growth, feed utilization and protein digestibility in the fingerlings of the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (mean weight 1.36 + 0.05 g) fed diets containing varying levels of the kidney bean, Phaseolus vulgaris were investigated under laboratory conditions. The kidney bean was incorporated at separate levels of 60, 40, 20 and 0% (control). The feeding period lasted for 8 weeks. There was no mortality recorded in all the various treatments, and the fish feed avidly throughout the feeding period. In general, the best growth and feed utilization results were obtained in fish fed the control diet, however, results obtained with the 60% kidney bean diet were satisfactory. Weight gain of the fish fed the control diet was 92s.02% , that fed on the 60% kidney bean diet was 71.22%, while that fed on the 20% kidney bean diet had the least weight gain value of 16.67%. Protein digestibility values in the control and 60% kidney bean diets were 85.04% and 81.04% respectively. There was no evidence of excessive fat or carbohydrate deposition in the fish muscle tissues after the feeding period. Journal of Aquatic Sciences Volume 14, April 1999, pp. 55-60

 KEY WORDS: Growth, feed indices, digestibility, Tilapia, kidney bean


The concept of a bioeconomy can be understood as an economy where the basic building blocks for materials, chemicals, and energy are derived from renewable biological resources. Biorefineries are considered an integral part of the development toward a future sustainable bioeconomy. The purpose of this literature review is to synthesize current knowledge about how biorefinery technologies are being developed, deployed, and diffused, and to identify actors, networks, and institutions relevant for these processes. Several key findings can be obtained from the literature. First, investing more resources in R&D will not help to enable biorefineries to cross the 'valley of death' toward greater commercial investments. Second, while the importance and need for entrepreneurship and the engagement of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is generally acknowledged, there is no agreement how to facilitate conditions for entrepreneurs and SMEs to enter the field of biorefineries. Third, visions for biorefinery technologies and products have focused very much on biofuels and bioenergy with legislation and regulation playing an instrumental role in creating a market for these products. But there is a clear need to incentivize non‐energy products to encourage investments in biorefineries. Finally, policy support for biorefinery developments and products is heavily intertwined with wider discussions around legitimacy and social acceptance. The paper concludes by outlining current knowledge gaps. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd


The study of the link between debt and growth has been full of debates, both in theory and empirics. However, there is a growing consensus that the relationship is sensitive to the level of debt. Our paper tries to address the question of non linearity in the long term relationship between public debt and economic growth. Specifically, we set out to test if there exists an established 'laffer curve' type relationship, where debt contributes to economic growth up to a certain point (maximal threshold) and then starts to have a negative effect on growth afterwards. To carry out our tests, we have used a methodology that delivers a superior test of bell shapes, in addition to the traditional test based on a regression with a quadratic specification. The results show evidence of a bell-shaped relationship between economic growth and total public debt in a panel of low income Sub-Saharan African economies. This supports the hypothesis that debt has some positive contribution to economic growth in low-income countries, albeit up to a point. If debt goes on increasing beyond the level where it would be sustainable, it may start to be a drag on economic growth.


Mobile money has gained so much prominence in the developing world in recent times due to its potential to bring on board the financially excluded people in the rural areas and transform the mainly cash economies of developing countries into a cashless economies. However in Uganda, the use of mobile money as a saving mechanism has not gained as much impetus as the transfer and payment strands. In this policy brief, we examine the probable reasons explaining why the saving strand has remained unpopular within both the Mobile Network Operators (MNO) and amongst the population. One major setback – the expansion of mobile money beyond mobile payments is still limited in Uganda partly due to limitations in legislation. While mobile money falls under financial services, MNC are licensed and regulated by the Uganda Communications Commission. This contradiction has led to questioning of the legality of mobile money service provisions in Uganda. In addition, setbacks associated with living in hard to reach areas – poor road networks, poor coverage of the mobile networks, limited spread of other financial institutions are some of the hindrances to using mobile money as a saving mechanism. The promotion of savings requires that telecom companies and commercial banks leverage on each other's strengths to deliver a comprehensive saving instrument for hard to reach areas and poor people. The use of mobile money as a saving mechanism also requires innovative approaches that will allow for smooth operations of mobile agents to deposit and withdraw money whenever the need arises.


The principal goal for an occupational medicine program is to promote a safe and healthy workplace through the provision of work-related medical services. In a biomedical research setting that involves biohazardous materials, those services should include a preplacement interview and counseling, a practical plan for responding to suspected exposures and infections, and occasionally the provision of medical surveillance for suspected health hazards in the work environment. A preplacement medical evaluation is recommended for individuals who may be exposed to potential human pathogens, including zoonotic agents. This chapter focuses on medical care for occupational injuries and illnesses. Medical surveillance is an important component of occupational medical support services. The practice of occupational medicine is unique in that the practitioner is responsible to both the employee-patient and the worker's employer. Participation in a serum storage program is generally voluntary, although it should be strongly recommended by the health care provider. Sera should be preserved for the workers' benefit at -20°C or lower in a non-self-defrosting freezer. The importance of the basic principles for designing medical support services for a workplace—a proper risk assessment and thoughtful advance planning for work-related medical needs—cannot be overemphasized when the workplace is a maximum containment laboratory. Specialized medical surveillance programs and immunization regimens may be necessary. Strict adherence to postexposure monitoring protocols is needed, and provisions for adequate medical facilities in the event of an exposure and/or subsequent infection should be made prior to undertaking biosafety level 4 work.


Indonesia has much marine tourism potential to be developed, but there has been a significant decrease of visits to the main marine tourism destinations in Indonesia, one of whichis Banten Province. Among the various factors that led to the decline of tourist visits, weak promotion strategy is suspected to be noteworthy. This research was conducted to analyse strategy and promotion activity regarding Banten Province during the last three years. The results show that the promotion strategy is not consistent with the strengths and opportunities that Banten Province requires and weaknesses and threats it must overcome to be a leading tourist destination in Indonesia.


Fractals are shapes in which an identical motif repeats itself on an ever diminishing scale. A coastline, for instance, is a fractal, with each bay or headland having its own smaller bays and headlands--as is a tree with a trunk that separates into two smaller side branches, which in their turn separate into side branches that are smaller still. No longer mathematical curiosities, fractals are now a vital subject of mathematical study, practical application, and popular interest. For readers interested in graphic design, computers, and science and mathematics in general, Hans Lauwerier provides an accessible introduction to fractals that makes only modest use of mathematical techniques. Lauwerier calls this volume a "book to work with." Readers with access to microcomputers can design new figures, as well as re-create famous examples. They can start with the final chapter, try out one of the programs described there (preferably in a compiled version such as TURBO BASIC), and consult the earlier chapters for whatever is needed to understand the fractals produced in this way. The first chapter, which builds on the relationship of binary number systems to the "tree fractal" described above, is the best place to start if one has no computer. There will be much to enjoy on the way, including the beautiful color illustrations.


Particles that can undergo directed self-propulsion are desirable for colloidal cargo delivery and self-assembly. Herein we describe the synthesis of silica–manganese oxide "matchstick" colloids that undergo catalytic self-propulsion by consumption of hydrogen peroxide. Chemotaxis is observed when particles are placed in a fuel gradient. Movement opposes convective flow which is tracked by following inert polymer microspheres simultaneously.


OBJECTIVE
The increase in the number of AIDS cases among women has led to an increase in the maternal-infant transmission of human acquired immunodeficiency virus. Measures for the control of this type of transmission were implemented in Brazil in 1996. The aim of the present study was to analyze time trends in maternal-infant transmission of AIDS among Brazilian children.

METHODS
The present study included children born in Brazil between 1990 and 2001. We used the database of notified AIDS cases in children 13 years of age or younger between 1990 and 2004. Exponential regression models adjusted to the time series provided the annual variation rates and observed and expected values for the period.

RESULTS
We found a significant increasing trend for cases born prior to the year in which anti retroviral therapy was introduced, with an increase rate of about 12% (t<0.003) per year. Rates from different states ranged from 5.9% to 31%. The analysis of expected and observed cases for each of the country's five Regions showed a reduction in the number of cases among children born from 1997 onwards, with a progressive year-to-year reduction. The number of notified cases among children born in 2001 was less than 10% the number of expected cases.

CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained suggest a favorable response to the implementation of policies for the prevention of maternal-infant HIV transmission in Brazil, as observed in other parts of the world.


Changes of community structure in response to competition usually take place on timescales that are much too short to be visible in the geological record. Here we report the notable exception of a benthic marine community in the wake of the end‐Permian mass extinction, which is associated with the microbial limestone facies of the earliest Triassic of South China. The newly reported fauna is well preserved and extraordinarily rich (30 benthic macroinvertebrate species, including the new species Astartella? stefaniae (Bivalvia) and Eucochlis obliquecostata (Gastropoda)) and stems from an environmentally stable setting providing favourable conditions for benthic organisms. Whereas changes in the taxonomic composition are negligible over the observed time interval of 10–100 ka, three ecological stages are identified, in which relative abundances of initially rare species continuously increased at the cost of previously dominant species. Concomitant with the changes of dominant species is an increase in faunal evenness and heterogeneity. In the absence of both environmental and taxonomic changes, we attribute this pattern to the long‐term effects of interspecific competition, which acted at an unusually slow pace because the number of competing species and potential immigrants was dramatically reduced by the end‐Permian mass extinction. We suggest that these non‐actualistic conditions led to decreased rates of niche differentiation and hence to the delayed rediversification of benthos that characterizes the aftermath of the greatest Phanerozoic mass extinction event. A hyperbolic diversification model is proposed, which accounts for the positive relationship between the intensity of interspecific competition and the rate of niche differentiation and resolves the conundrum of delayed rediversification at a time when niche space was largely vacated.


Introduction: Children are the major victims of mortality and morbidity in our society. Though Bangladesh has achieved significant success in reducing mortality of children over the past few decades, but still it is alarming.
Objective: To determine the sickness profile of the children under 12 years attending paediatric outpatient department at combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from July to December 2012 to determine the sickness profile of the children under 12 years attending paediatric outpatient department at CMH, Dhaka. A total of 143 children were selected for this study and data were collected with a semistructured questionnaire and check list by face-to-face interview of the parents and reviewing medical records of the children.
Results: Among the subjects, 60.1% were male and 39.9% were female with mean age 4.8(±3.6) years. Regarding mother's education, 62.2% were SSC or equivalent qualified, 23.1% HSC, 0.7% Diploma and 4.9% were Graduated or above. Average family size of the children was 4 (±0.7). Most of the mothers (97.2%) were housewives. The diseases suffered by children included respiratory diseases (43.4%), gastro intestinal diseases (17.5%), pyrexia (16.8%), neurological diseases (14.0%) and non-communicable diseases (8.4%). Respiratory diseases (43.4%) were more common in children of housewives' mother (43.9%) while neurological diseases (14.0%) were prevalent in children of serving mother and these differences were statistically significant (P=0.027). Regarding age and diseases, respiratory diseases were more in <1 year children while pyrexia and neurological diseases were more in 6-9 years children. About mother's education and diseases; diseases of GIT, pyrexia, respiratory and neurological were prevalent in mothers of SSC or equivalent level. The association of mothers' education level and diseases of children suffering from were statistically significant (P<0.05).
Conclusion: To improve the situation, health care providers and the parents should be aware enough of prevailing major diseases of the children and there by necessary measures along with health education especially for mother should be taken accordingly.
JAFMC Bangladesh. Vol 17, No 2 (December) 2021: 76-80


Title: Palestinian freelance journalists self-censorship, customers and role in society Number of pages: 67 Authors: Linnea Fridh and Jens Wingren Mentor: Gabriella Sandstig Course: Bachelor thesis, Journalism studies Period: Spring 2015 University: Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG) University of Gothenburg Purpose/ Aim: The aim of the study is to map and analyse the working conditions, possibilities and limitations of Palestinian freelance journalists.. Main results: By analysing the answers of our respondents we have concluded that the main possibility with the working conditions of Palestinian freelance journalists is their flexibility. As long as they are financially safe (for example from working another job) they can be more straightforward and uncompromising in their journalism. Freelance journalists are however limited by the financial scarcity of the Palestinian media that don't pay them enough and offer lacking support. Feeling excluded from the union is also something that specifically affects the freelance journalists and might make them feel more vulnerable. There is therefore a slight paradox inherent in the situation of the Palestinian freelancer: they have the opportunity to do good and critical journalism, but only if they can support themselves financially in some other way. Another finding of this study is that freelance journalists may alter their implications of professional ideals such as objectivity and neutrality when they work with foreign news desks. Working with this kind of customers also provides a way of expressing oneself with less fear of repercussions from differing factors in Palestinian society that might want to silence dissent.


Background: Among case mix classifications, the best for hospitalized elders is the Resource Utilization Groups (RUG) system, which allows a better location of patients, resource administration and the design of health care strategies for elderly people. Aim: To report the results of RUG-T18 classification of elderly patients admitted to an university hospital. Patients and methods: RUG-T18 classification was applied to 210 patients aged 75.2 ± 7.2 years old, 108 male, admitted to the Clinical Hospital of the Catholic University of Chile. Results: The clinical classification of assessed patients was rehabilitation in 50.9% of cases, special care in 10.5%, clinically complex in 37.1% and reduced physical functions in 0.5%. None had behavioral alterations. There were no differences between subjects older or younger than 75 years old. Daily life activities showed that help was required for sphincter control in 46% of patients, for feeding in 44% and for mobilization in 64% (28% of patients required help from two or more people). Geriatric assessment showed that, since 1993, the proportion of elders with greater functional derangement increased from 18 to 28%, and the proportion of those with mental disturbances from 4 to 12%, specially among those over 75 years old. Conclusions: Most elders admitted to the hospital are classified in the superior categories of the RUG-T18 system and have severe mental and functional limitations. These patients require a multidisciplinary approach with a great emphasis in rehabilitation.


With rapid deployment of modern data center networks (DCNs), many problems with respect to DCN architecture, congestion notification, TCP Incast, and power consumption have been observed. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the most recent research activities in DCNs, with emphasis on the network architecture design, congestion notification algorithms, TCP Incast, and power consumption. We describe in detail the architecture of a typical modern DCN. Furthermore, we investigate the challenges of the typical tree-based hierarchical DCN architecture encountered today and the requirements for the optimal DCN architecture, and we classify the proposed DCN architectures into switch-centric topology and server-centric topology. A section is also devoted to describe some newly proposed DCN architectures. We present a brief overview of the TCP Incast problem along with previously proposed solutions. We also review the recent energy-efficient solutions to minimize the power consumption in DCNs. Finally, we outline possible future research topics in DCNs.


AIMS: To analyse the frequency of loss of heterozygosity (allele loss, LOH) in a large sample of colorectal carcinomas using highly informative markers along chromosome 11q. METHODS: One hundred paired samples of colorectal cancer and normal tissue were genotyped at six microsatellite markers on chromosome 11q (cen-D11S1313-D11S901-DRD2/NCAM-D11S29- D11S968-tel). The high levels of heterozygosity at these markers allow allele loss to be determined in about 80% of cases at any one locus. The frequency of replication errors (RERs, microsatellite instability) has also been determined. RESULTS: LOH was found at frequencies of 25% and 29% at the distal D11S968 (11qter) and D11S29 (11q23.3) loci, slightly above the accepted baseline of 0-20%. Allele loss at NCAM, DRD2, D11S901, and D11S1313 was not raised above baseline levels. The probable genetic mechanism of allele loss--chromosomal non-disjunction, mitotic recombination, deletion, or gene conversion--seemed to vary between tumours and no consistent mechanism of mutation was found. Microsatellite instability was found in 23 (23%) tumours. No associations were found between LOH and clinical data (patient sex, age at presentation, tumour site, and Duke's stage). CONCLUSIONS: Although gene(s) on 11q may have a role in the development of a minority of colorectal carcinomas, this study provides evidence against the general importance of allele loss on chromosome 11q in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. The results also have implications for the importance of 11q in other cancers: it seems less likely that a single tumour supressor gene at this location promotes the growth of all types of tumour when lost. Rather, one or more genes with tissue specific effects may be involved.


Macunahyphes zagaia sp. nov. and M. araca sp. nov. are described based on imagines collected from the Amazon biome in Brazil. Specimens belonging to all species of the genus were examined and a diagnosis for each one is provided. Variation seen in the male imago of M. eduardoi is described, as well as the female and egg for the first time. Together with M. eduardoi , the two new species share the presence of a basal swelling on segment II of the forceps, which raises important questions concerning the evolution of this character in Leptohyphidae. Finally, a re-definition of the genus is proposed.