[1] Estimates of global mean direct climate forcing by absorbing aerosols located above boundary layer clouds are large, uncertain, and almost entirely unconstrained by observations. Spaceborne lidar offers a new opportunity for global constraints. Here we examine techniques for using liquid water clouds as lidar targets, allowing aerosol optical depth and Angstrom exponent to be deduced directly from aerosol effects on light transmission. Two such techniques are examined using data from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO). The first is a previously reported method based on measurements of cloud depolarization ratio (DR) at 532-nm wavelength. The second is a new method using measurements of cloud color ratio (CR), which is the ratio of the signal from the cloud at 1064 nm to that at 532 nm. Optical depth retrievals from these two methods compare favorably over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean during August 2006, when biomass burning aerosols are frequently advected over marine stratiform clouds. The CR technique is mainly sensitive to fine-mode aerosols and essentially insensitive to clouds and coarse-mode dust. Because anthropogenic aerosol is predominantly found in the fine mode, the CR technique can be used to help identify situations where anthropogenic cloudy-sky direct radiative forcing is occurring. We demonstrate this capability using 6 months data over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.


ABSTRACT Seed accelerators are a new generation of business incubators. While the number of seed accelerators worldwide has grown exponentially, there is as yet no consensus on how to measure and analyse their performance. Therefore, the present study, using two pioneering surveys, aims to cast new light on this field by empirically assessing the performance of accelerators and the prospects of their accelerated firms. A model is built on two perspectives that are used to assess the prospects of the accelerated firms: (1) the accelerator´s perspective, and (2) the accelerated start-ups' perspective. The results confirmed, at statistically significant levels, that the portfolio size of accelerators, their start-ups´ survival rates, and the number of employees in the accelerated firms, have a positive effect on the median value of the funding received by the accelerated start-ups from the accelerators' funds. Furthermore, accelerators located in the U.S., and those with the greatest longevity, are shown to have a higher impact on start-ups´ survival rates. The study is not free of limitations, but its findings contribute to the still scarce quantitative literature on the performance of accelerators, and provide important managerial implications for their managers, investors, and entrepreneurs.


The purpose of this study is to fill a gap in the literature by investigating how an ignored population of women, women over age 50, copes with HIV/ AIDS. Older women are referred to as "invisible victims" with regard to HIV/AIDS. Previous research on coping with HIV/ AIDS focuses mostly on men. Of the research that does focus on women, older women are often overlooked. Although older women are a minority compared to other HIV-infected populations in the US, they are just as deserving of recognition and care as any other population. Data was collected through open-ended, in-depth interviews with four women individually. Recruitment of the sample is from several health institutions serving HIV/AIDS populations. The major topics discussed in the interviews include: demographics, what it is like to live with HIV or AIDS, and way of coping with HIV/ AIDS, including social support, religion, and health behaviors. The data analysis process is a qualitative one, with exploration of major themes and presentation of rich descriptions to illustrate those themes. Results from the data show that in terms of coping, all four participants found it most difficult to cope with a different aspect of living with HIV. Regardless of this finding, participants still employed similar coping strategies. As hypothesized, social support and religious/ spiritual support are important aspects in coping with HIV for all participants. The use of education as a coping mechanism was not an anticipated result. Yet, education was a constant theme, whether it was educating oneself about the disease to better understand it or educating others as to prevent them from contracting HIV. A variety of different positive coping strategies were employed by the participants in coping with their HIV, including altering negative health habits and staying optimistic. Negative coping strategies were also employed, but these seemed


Abstract Finite-amplitude dynamics of baroclinic waves are examined in the presence of asymmetric Ekman pumping at the lower and upper boundaries. Both asymptotic and spectral numerical methods are employed. The resulting amplitude equations yield time evolutions that can lead to an eventual equilibration, a regular perpetual vacillation or a chaotic vacillation depending on the actual values of the supercriticality, the dissipation and the stratification parameters and the fundamental zonal wavenumber. Within the limits of strong bottom dissipation and weak supercriticality, the system always eventually equilibrates and the asymptotic results compare favorably with the numerical results. The vacillation is most likely to occur when the bottom dissipation is weak, supercriticality is strong or the viscous asymmetry is high. Vacillatory final states are possible for up to an order of magnitude larger bottom dissipation than predicted by the symmetric configuration, provided the top dissipation is small in ...


In this paper, neural networks trained by the error back-propagation algorithm are used to build models of etch rate, uniformity, selectivity and anisotropy as a function of optical emission spectroscopy (OES) data in a reactive ion etching process. The material etched is benzocyclobutene (BCB), a low-k dielectric polymer, which is etched in an SF/sub 6/ and O/sub 2/ plasma in a parallel plate system. Neural network training data are obtained from a multi-way principal component analysis (MPCA) of the OES data. These data are acquired from a 2/sup 4/ factorial experiment designed to characterize etch process variation with controllable input factors consisting of the two gas flows, RF power and chamber pressure. Evaluation of the trained neural networks is performed in terms of root mean square (RMS) error, and less than 3% prediction errors are achieved.


Moringa oleifera Lam (Moringaceae), commonly known as "Drumstick," is used in Indian folk medicine for the treatment of various illness. We have evaluated the hepatoprotective effect of an ethanolic extract of M. oleifera leaves on liver damage induced by antitubercular drugs such as isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RMP), and pyrazinamide (PZA) in rats. Oral administration of the extract showed a significant protective action made evident by its effect on the levels of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (aspartate aminotransferase), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (alanine aminotransferase), alkaline phosphatase, and bilirubin in the serum; lipids, and lipid peroxidation levels in liver. This observation was supplemented by histopathological examination of liver sections. The results of this study showed that treatment with M. oleifera extracts or silymarin (as a reference) appears to enhance the recovery from hepatic damage induced by antitubercular drugs.


Seismic-reflection data from the easternmost Ross Sea image buried scour-and-fill troughs and flat-topped ridges interpreted as having formed by glacial erosion and deposition during the Oligo-cene. The NNW-SSE orientation of the troughs and lack of similar Oligocene glacial features within the central Ross Sea suggests that the ice issued from the highlands of Marie Byrd Land located 100 km away and that portions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet formed earlier than previously accepted. Existing global climate models (GCMs) do not produce West Antarctic ice caps for the Oligocene, in part due to low elevations modeled for that time. Evidence for Oligocene ice beyond the paleocoast suggests a higher elevation for the early Cenozoic Marie Byrd Land and Ross Embayment than at present.


The powder motion induced by the gas flow has been identified as one of the critical phenomena in laser powder bed fusion processes that significantly affects the build quality. However, the gas dynamics and its induced driving forces for the powder motions have not been well quantified. A numerical model is developed to investigate such powder-gas interactions. With a combination of computational fluid dynamics and particle tracking techniques, the model is capable of simulating the transient gas flow field surrounding the powder and the forces exerted on powder surfaces. The interaction between metal powders and a free jet is investigated with the current model. In the simulation results, the entrainment and the ejection motions of powders with respect to the free jet can be predicted. It is found that the driving forces of these motions are majorly contributed by the pressure differences in the gas flow surrounding the powder, and the powders can also interact with the jet to significantly alter the flow field. Quantities which are difficult to measure by experiments are quantified by the simulations, such as the velocity and pressure field in the gas, as well as the subjected forces and torques of powders. Such quantitative information provides insights to the mechanisms of the powder-gas interaction in laser powder bed fusion processes.


Author(s): Aviles, Natalie | Advisor(s): Lampland, Martha | Abstract: This study combines archival research and oral history interview data to construct a single case temporal comparison of organizational reforms in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that were designed to foster innovation by directing basic science findings around virally induced cancers toward the development of vaccines. This project is poised to make a significant contribution by addressing an unresolved theoretical problem: how can sociologists and interdisciplinary science, technology, and society (STS) scholars understand how formal organizations affect scientific knowledge production and innovation? My work contributes to sociological theory and the sociology of culture by offering a coherent theoretical framework that unifies process theories of organization and pragmatist social theory. I develop this "pragmatist process theory of organization" to analyze organizational culture as a temporal process comprising iterative cycles of meaning-making anchored in sequences of organizational problem-solving. I apply this pragmatist process theory of organization to analyze virus-cancer research programs under organizational cultures of "targeted research" in 1961-1976 and "translational research" in 1991-2008. In each period, I show how NCI researchers drew upon local understandings of the relationship between basic and applied science articulated in these organizational cultures to address the scientific and administrative problems they faced around routine organizational events. Over time, sequences of problem-solving fed back into strategic planning and collaborative scientific practices to further articulate these organizational cultures in ways that affected science going forward. In the first period, this process yielded consensus around a limited number of RNA and herpes-like viruses identified early in the development of the program. Priority-setting around operational reporting and contract funding allowed virus-cancer program scientists to justify de-prioritizing DNA viruses more promising for vaccine development, such as hepatitis-B. In the second period, the ambiguity of cultural understandings of translation encouraged a more dispersed collaborative structure. This cultivated an environment of distributed cognition based on fluid and dynamic collaborations that utilized emerging technologies to develop a biomedical innovation—the HPV vaccine. Arguing against existing models, I show how the substantive understandings embedded in organizational cultures as they are produced over time provide centripetal or centrifugal forces that make a difference in the possibilities for innovation.


In 1385 Ferrer Saiol, protonotary of Queen Eleanor of Sicily, translated into Catalan Palladius's Opus Agriculturae ('The Work on Farming'). This Latin work was widely known throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, and therefore a translation of Opus Agriculturae was wanted in the fourteenth-century's Kingdom of Aragon. A difficult aspect of Opus  Agriculturae is its technical vocabulary. Being aware of it, Ferrer Saiol referred in his translation to his use of numerous reference books to undertake the best possible version. These medieval glossaries and vocabularies belong in his translation, explicitly as well as implicitly. We identify here books that Ferrer Saiol used for this version, like Papias's  Vocabularium , Johannes Balbus's Catholicon , Simon of Genoa's Clavis Sanationis and Ibn Wafid's De Simplicibus Medicinis . These books are analysed here in order to understand its translating process. In addition, we aim to understand through medieval glossaries those passages whose scientific terms Saiol doesn't correctly translate.


Quasi-phase matching has achieved wide recognition as a powerful and versatile tool for efficient second harmonic generation [1,2]. In such media, for imperfect phase matching, the process of frequency up-conversion evolves periodically with distance because the residual pump power is parametrically amplified in regions of high conversion efficiency, causing frequency down-conversion. Even when perfect phase-matching is met, any noise power at the pump frequency will be strongly amplified in regions of high second harmonic power, causing down conversion [3,4]. These effects limit the second harmonic efficiencies that can be achieved under stable conditions in practice. We consider here the case of a nonlinear crystal that contains a saturable absorber, in the form of a dopant with a resonant transition whose frequency equals the pump frequency, and whose saturation intensity is relatively low. In this case, absorption does not play any essential role on the up-conversion process when the pump wave is strong enough to saturate the transition. It comes into the action, however, at the point where the pump is sufficiently depleted that the intensity becomes lower than the saturation threshold. This means that deleterious instabilities, caused by parametric down-conversion in regions of high second harmonic conversion efficiencies, are suppressed by elimination of the residual pump power. In the paper, a comprehensive analysis of second harmonic generation in resonantly-doped nonlinear meda will be presented. An analytical study carried out in the phase plane allows estimation of the optimal values of the saturation intensity, phase mismatch, and crystal length. Further numerical simulations on a reduced set of Maxwell's equations allows practical recommendations on the arrangement of the experiment to be made


E-logistics is relatively a new industry has been gained momentum since the emergence of computerized global market and internet in particular E-Commerce. The integration of IT with logistics management is becoming a prerequisite for good logistic management hence the development of E-logistics. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of E-logistics on logistics performance in order to improve automotive service industry by taking up this technology. The problems have been observed in automotive service was traditional way of service, longer lead times and low customer service level, which highly affects the customer; results major economic impact on the company. So these existing problems can be rectified by using E-logistics that can serve to increase integration of operation and customer service level.In order to meet the key objectives of the research, qualitative and quantitative methods and combination of primary and secondary sources of data have been used. Primary data was collected using observation, interview and questionnaires. A majority of the respondents were being selected from the departments who were directly involved in administering of E-logistics within the company. After the fieldwork, the data was coded and tabulated by use of tables and charts. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25.0). The results provided support for the conceptual frame work, the E-logistics has a positive influence on theperformance of the company and adopt it in order to be morecompetitive in the service business. Key-Words: -E-logistics, E-commerce, IT,automotiveservice improvement, Hawassa


Regional policy problems are universal. This means that all countries need good methods for analyzing and solving their regional problems. Models for regional policy making and planning have also been worked out in scientific institutions. It is obvious that these abstract models are often not specific enough to be used in policy making but have to be adapted to the institutional, historical and natural conditions of the specific region to be planned. It is one of the ambitions with the Silistra regional case study, reported in this volume, to test the possibility of applying regional policy models, developed in Bulgaria, at IIASA and elsewhere, to the solution of the Silistra development problems.

Some of the models suggested for the Silistra case study are presented in this volume. These models should, however, not be viewed in isolation but as parts of a general systems approach. The papers by M. Albegov and A. Andersson/A. La Bella give examples of possible systems approaches to integration of regional policy models into a consistent system.

This volume basically contains papers on model design. Few papers report on actual use of the models in applications for policy making. The application of these models is planned to be reported in later Task Force Proceedings, when the work has progressed into a stage of close cooperation with the decision makers and national economy planners of the Silistra region. We also have the ambition to come to a stage of generalization of the modeling experiences gained in this case study so that other countries can benefit from the experiences gained in the Silistra case study.


In forensic cases involving mail bombs, extortion, kidnapping or threatening letters, biological evidence such as the saliva used to attach the stamp and seal the envelope could be used for genetic analysis. We have developed a highly sensitive semi-nested PCR method for the HLA-DRB1 locus; suitable for the analyses of very limited amounts of DNA. When applied to a set of stamps and envelopes with saliva from control individuals, typing results were consistent with those obtained using hairs drawn from the same individuals. No interference was found due to DNA from the fingerprints of people handling the letters. The system was applied to three forensic cases with threatening letters. The first case resulted in an exclusion of the suspect. In the second case, the suspect could not be excluded (probability of identical genotype by chance > 0.01). These results demonstrate that biological evidence in cases with threatening letters is amenable to genetic typing.


Sociocultural anthropologists work with US military organizations in a wide variety of employment situations and roles. Some who work full time within these organizations conduct research on personnel or teach in schools, holding roles and doing work similar to anthropologists in academia. Others are external consultants, providing advice and research in ways similar to applied anthropology in other sectors. Still others work in less common capacities, such as providing scientific advising, conducting analysis, or designing and administering programs.
 Most forms of engagement or employment with military organizations are controversial within the discipline. The controversy is an important source of caution and critique. However, it sometimes masks the complexity of the work context. Few large institutions are truly homogenous. The several million uniformed and civilian personnel who work within US military organizations have diverse, often conflicting perspectives on important issues and varying degrees of agency to effect or resist change. Consequently, the opportunities and constraints anthropologists have to affect the institution depend heavily not only on their specific roles, but also on where they work within the institution and who their colleagues are.
 The broad range of the roles and positions anthropologists hold in military organizations, coupled with the complexity of the work context, create challenges for developing ethical and practical guidelines. Practicing anthropologists in this sector must collaborate with colleagues to interpret and meet disciplinary professional standards for ethics, transparency, and quality. The work context and controversy also create challenges for building and maintaining an identity as an anthropologist.
 As is the case with applied and practicing anthropology in all sectors, anthropological work with US military organizations has broader implications for the discipline. Connections to powerful institutions, such as corporations or government entities, always bring with them legitimate concerns about how the biases and intentions of the institutions might reshape the field. There also are significant questions about how colleagues can assess the ethical decision making and evaluate the work of those employed in non-traditional roles and settings. Additionally, the field continues to grapple with how anthropologists practicing in this sector can most effectively communicate what they learn about military organizations back into the discipline.


This paper examines the issue of how undocumented immigration is framed by comparing case studies of the United Kingdom and the United States. The role of the media and social construction are integral to this debate and this has, in part, led to more domestic bills aimed at tackling undocumented immigration. In the United Kingdom, the issue of undocumented immigration has led to the recent drafting of a bill by Home Secretary John Reid to address the issue. This bill has only served to polarize the population and energize the far-right. In the United States, rival bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate have also attempted to deal with the issue and this too has led to polarization. The debate at the domestic level then is ineffective and other options should be explored at the supranational level. The European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are considerably different, but each can be utilized to adequately settle the issue of undocumented immigration. The US should utilize NAFTA and create an EU-style cohesion fund to stem the flow of undocumented workers and the UK should limit mobility and then lobby the EU to fine countries whose people flood into the country. In sum, this debate has already been framed and the best way forward is to seek an amicable solution through supranational agreements rather than ineffective national public policy.


Background People who suffer facial injury, whether from accidents or interpersonal violence, face a range of psychosocial issues as a result. Though standards of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) to restore function and appearance continue to improve, psychological problems may be overlooked in busy wards and clinics. Major trauma patients are known to be at risk of high levels of acute stress disorder (ASD), as well as depression and anxiety and, in the longer term, may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, there has been limited exploration of the experience of OMFS trauma patients. Changes to appearance can be distressing and can impede the return to normal life; they can also exacerbate problems by reminding patients of traumatic events. This study aims to establish the prevalence of psychological distress (ASD, depression, anxiety, appearance concerns) in facial injury patients. Methods This prospective study recruited injury patients being treated at the Royal London Hospital by OMFS, and discussed at bi-weekly multidisciplinary meetings. Participants completed standardised self-completion questionnaires within two weeks of injury: these assessed symptoms of ASD (ASDS: Acute Stress Disorder Scale), psychological distress (HADS: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and appearance concerns (DAS24: Derriford Appearance Scale). Patients were excluded on the basis of cognitive impairment; self-harm leading to admission; and insufficient understanding of English. Results Data from 106 patients show that a high proportion of patients experienced clinically significant symptoms of distress. Twenty nine (29) percent of patients experienced symptoms indicative of ASD on the ASDS, which is associated with subsequent PTSD. Twenty nine (29) percent and 48 percent respectively experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety, using the HADS to assess clinically significant symptoms. Those experiencing clinically significant levels of distress on the ASDS or HADS had higher levels of appearance concern on the DAS24 (mean=40, SD=13.6), compared with those without significant distress (mean=26, SD=7.6). Refusal rates were low (>10%), however in this diverse East London population, English language requirements excluded many otherwise eligible patients (22%). Discussion There are high levels of psychological distress and unmet needs in this cohort. Rehabilitation involves a return to normal psychosocial functioning as well as physical function and appearance, and there is a need for a simple, practical means of assessing distress. These psychological conditions are treatable, however, and the ability to identify those at risk would enable healthcare practitioners to provide important interventions.


Background: Ketogenic diets (KDs) have gained some popularity not only as effective weight-loss diets and treatment options for several diseases, but also among healthy and physically active individuals for various reasons. However, data on the effects of ketosis in the latter group of individuals are scarce. We therefore collected pilot data on the physiological response to a self-prescribed ketogenic diet lasting 5-7 weeks in a small cohort of healthy and physically active individuals. Methods : Twelve subjects (7 males, 5 females, age 24-60 years) who followed moderate to intensive exercise routines underwent blood testing, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and spiroergometry during an incremental treadmill test. On the next day, they went on a self-prescribed KD for a median of 38 days (range 35-50 days), after which the same tests were performed again. Ketosis was self-monitored by urinary ketone strips. Subjective feeling during the diet was assessed by a questionnaire after the intervention. Due to the small and heterogenous sample, the results are interpreted in the context of the already existing literature. Results: The KDs were tolerated well by the majority of individuals. Impaired recovery from exercise remained the most frequently reported side effect until the end of the study. Most blood parameters remained stable during the intervention. However, there were significant elevations of total and LDL cholesterol concentrations (p<0.01) and a trend towards increased HDL-cholesterol (p=0.05). The drastic reduction of carbohydrates had no statistically significant influence on running performance judged by the time to exhaustion, VO 2max and respiratory compensation points. BIA measurements showed significant increases in phase angle (p=0.01) indicating improvements of body composition with an estimated decrease of 3.4 kg of fat mass (p=0.002) and gain of 1.3 kg of fat free mass. We discuss the validity of these estimates taking into account a possibly altered hydration status due to the KD. Conclusions: Active healthy individuals will probably experience no major problems during a short term KD lasting several weeks. The drastically reduced carbohydrate content of the diet seems to be no limiting factor for running performance. In addition, improvements in body composition can be expected. While most biochemical parameters are not influenced by the diet, there seems to be an impact on the blood lipid profile that could be considered problematic with respect to cardiovascular disease risk. However, the predictive role of cholesterol levels alone in individuals undergoing regular physical activity remains to be elucidated.


Min-max optimization problems (i.e., min-max games) have been attracting a great deal of attention because of their applicability to a wide range of machine learning problems. Although significant progress has been made recently, the literature to date has focused on games with independent strategy sets; little is known about solving games with dependent strategy sets, which can be characterized as min-max Stackelberg games. We introduce two first-order methods that solve a large class of convex-concave min-max Stackelberg games, and show that our methods converge in polynomial time. Min-max Stackelberg games were first studied by Wald, under the posthumous name of Wald's maximin model, a variant of which is the main paradigm used in robust optimization, which means that our methods can likewise solve many convex robust optimization problems. We observe that the computation of competitive equilibria in Fisher markets also comprises a min-max Stackelberg game. Further, we demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of our algorithms in practice by computing competitive equilibria in Fisher markets with varying utility structures. Our experiments suggest potential ways to extend our theoretical results, by demonstrating how different smoothness properties can affect the convergence rate of our algorithms.


The confluence of several developments has created an opportune moment for energy system modernization. In the past decade, smart grids have attracted many research activities in different domains. To realize the next generation of smart grids, we must have a comprehensive understanding of interdependent networks and processes. Next-generation energy systems networks cannot be effectively designed, analyzed, and controlled in isolation from the social, economic, sensing, and control contexts in which they operate. In this paper, we develop coordinated clustering techniques to work with network models of urban environments to aid in placement of charging stations for an electrical vehicle deployment scenario. We demonstrate the multiple factors that can be simultaneously leveraged in our framework in order to achieve practical urban deployment. Our ultimate goal is to help realize sustainable energy system management in urban electrical infrastructure by modeling and analyzing networks of interactions between electric systems and urban populations.


Land degradation in South Africa has been of concern for more than 100 years with both climate change and inappropriate land management (overgrazing) being proposed as primary drivers. However, there are few quantitative studies of degradation and, in particular, few of erosion by water. Badlands, taken here to be the landform which results from extreme erosion, have been notably neglected. We report on 13 consecutive years of erosion pin measurements of badland erosion on 10 study sites in the Sneeuberg uplands of the eastern Karoo in South Africa. The study sites are on Holocene colluvium which mantles footslopes. They have been subject to overgrazing for at least 100 years, c. 1850–1950. Currently they are lightly grazed by sheep. The area receives about 500 mm rainfall per year. The sites are remote, with only informal, farmer‐operated, daily raingauges nearby. The nearest sub‐daily raingauge is c. 55 km distant. Also we report on an analysis of the erosion pin data which focuses on establishing the origins and context of the badlands, including the relationship between study sites and adjacent valley‐bottom gully systems; compare erosion rates on our study sites with rates determined by erosion pins on other badland sites; and discuss the implications of these erosion rates for landscape development and off‐site impacts. Net erosion rates on the study sites are relatively high compared with global badland rates and range from 3.1 to 8.5 mm yr‐1 which may be extrapolated to 53 to 145 t ha yr‐1 (using a measured bulk density of 1.7 g cm‐3). However, comparisons with badland sites elsewhere are difficult because of different measuring methodologies, lithologies, climate and dominant processes. Erosion rates on the study sites are strongly influenced by rainfall amounts and, in particular, by daily rainfall events which exceed ~10 mm: this is the threshold intensity at which runoff has been observed to commence on badlands. Of significance, but of lesser influence, is weathering, mainly by wetting and drying: this prepares bare surfaces for erosion. However, questions remain regarding the role of site characteristics, and of processes at each site, in determining between‐site differences in erosion rate. Crude extrapolation of current rates of erosion, in conjunction with depths of incision into the badlands, suggests that badland development started around 200 years ago, probably as a response to the introduction of European‐style stock farming which resulted in overgrazing. We assume, but cannot quantify, the additional influence of periods of drought and burning in the erosional history of the area. Intermittent connection of these badlands to valley‐bottom gullies and therefore to small farm dams and ultimately to large water storage reservoirs increases their impact on local water resources. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Nowadays, attacking the passwords is one of the most straightforward attack vectors, which authorize access to information system. There are numerous feasible methods, attempt to guess or crack passwords, with a di erent methods, approaches and tools. This paper analyzes the possibilities of using the tools and gives an example of how to accomplish the password guesses in di erent methods with tests which can be demonstrated together with comparison of input dictionary lists. The overall service to the follower is to insure for the potential needs: preventing password cracking, information security audit, password recovery, security policy etc.


Particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen are the main pollutants in the tail pipe emissions of bio-diesel fueled engine. In this investigation Mahua methyl ester along with diethyl ether (DEE) used as fuel for the single cylinder DI-Diesel engine, analysis of performance and emission is presented. This paper presents an investigation into the effect of biodiesel blending on performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine. The effect of fuel additive was to control the emission from diesel engine and to improve its performance. But still the research work is going on the biodiesels application is to make it environmental friendly. In this experiment DEE mixed with the MME at different proportion such as 3%, 5%, 10% and 15% tested at different loads on diesel engine. The addition of diethyl ether to the blends reduced the NOX emission at low and medium loads; however, at high loads the NOX emission was higher compared to diesel and lower compared to the corresponding biodiesel blend. The results obtained from the engine tests have shown a significant reduction in NOx emissions especially for DEE addition of more than 10% on a volume basis and a little decrease in smoke of DEE blends compared with neat MME. Smoke levels are decreased substantially with 15% DEE blend with MME at full load. The thermal efficiency rise and SFC are better in the case of 15% additive blend.


The fairness doctrine in corporate law is rhetorically glorious. Courts speak of scrutinizing transactions tainted by self-dealing for entire fairness, intrinsic fairness, and even inherent fairness. In theory, the doctrine should be a boon to shareholder-plaintiffs, especially as contrasted with corporate law's usual tendency to defer to the business judgment of corporate insiders. But in cases where courts discuss the fairness doctrine, how often have plaintiffs actually won' Are their meaningful differences in the three articulations of the doctrine, or are the adjectives fancy verbiage' Are some fairness cases more important than others in promulgating doctrine' While anecdotes abound, precious little empirical research exists to address these questions. This Article uses a new tool - network analysis - to perform an empirical study of fairness doctrine as developed by the Delaware Supreme Court and the Delaware Court of Chancery. It creates network maps to represent visually the topology of Delaware's fairness jurisprudence, using actual cases as nodes on graphs and interrelationships among cases as arcs connecting the nodes. These maps, along with metrics that describe the characteristics of the network, provide rich data through which to understand fairness jurisprudence more systematically. Copyright 2008 San Diego Law Review. Article is reprinted with the permission of the San Diego Law Review.


The domain pinning fields of ferromagnetic Ga1−xMnxAs films were investigated using the planar Hall effect (PHE). Two in-plane components of GaMnAs films' anisotropy fields (H4∥ and HU∥), which determine the direction of magnetic easy axes in the (001) plane, were obtained from the PHE's angular dependence fitted with magnetic free energy within the scheme of the Stoner–Wohlfarth model. The domain pinning fields were obtained both with and without consideration of the deviation angle, δ, of magnetic easy axes from the ⟨100⟩ crystallographic direction of each sample. The values of domain pinning fields are clearly different between the two methods of analysis and the discrepancy increases with δ. This indicates that the correct direction of the magnetic easy axis (i.e., the influence of uniaxial anisotropy) must be considered to obtain precise values of pinning fields in GaMnAs films.


A new multiple-model filter for target tracking has been developed and performed well in this thesis. The procedure of the new multiple model (MM) filter has no compromises between non-manoeuvre and manoeuvre, and between manoeuvres except in the ambiguous cases. The operation of the new MM filter is simple like VD filter but with no need for reconstruction of manoeuvre, and the new MM filter also considers all kinds of motions like interacting multiple model (IMM) filter but with a small number of models and significantly reduced computational load. The scheme of the new multiple-model tracking filter consists of manoeuvre detection, construction of manoeuvre filters, construction of safeguard filter, and filter selection. The performance of the proposed tracking filter mainly relies on manoeuvre detection, construction of manoeuvre model filter, and construction of safeguard model filter. In order to improve the tracking, several manoeuvre detection methods have been developed. One of the manoeuvre detection methods is to test the statistic of normalised optimally squared smoothed accelerations, and gives quicker detection than classical manoeuvre detection by testing normalised squared-innovation statistic, in spite of the smoothing lag. This thesis suggests that the manoeuvre be detected by testing the changes of the statistic of normalised squared innovations to give effective manoeuvre detection, based on Chen and Norton's (1986) detection by testing rapid parameter changes. The thesis also modifies Weston and Norton's (1997) change detection with the fixed-lag smoothing instead of the fixed-interval smoothing used by Weston and Norton's method, and obtains more accurate and quicker manoeuvre detection. According to the features of target motion, the target manoeuvres are modelled as straight-line acceleration motion, cross-track acceleration motion, and curvilinear acceleration motion. Thus the manoeuvre model filters can be constructed by these three kinds of motions with a limited number of manoeuvre model filters and reduced computational load. To avoid the risk of the loss of track, a safeguard filter is used in the case of uncertain manoeuvre. The safeguard filter is constructed by combining Singer's (1970) filter and input estimation, to provide at least comparable performance to IMM filter. Further improvement for multiple-model tracking is provided by using the fixed-lag smoothing technique. In comparison with the multiple-model filter alone, the fixed-lag smoothing multiple-model filter provides much better performance (even with fixed lag d=1), and can be implemented in a real time at the costs of a small delay and slight increase in computational load.


The question of how criminal law should deal with the intoxicated offender has been the subject of much debate and remains one of the most difficult problems with which courts have had to grapple. At different times the approach has varied considerably. Thus at one stage it was considered that drunkenness could never be an answer to a criminal charge. As was said in the Exchequer Chamber in Reniger v Fogossa. Today intoxication is generally seen as a mitigatory factor but as to which crimes and based on what criterion remains a source of difficulty. This article seeks to review the present law on this topic in Zambia and then to consider its possible future development. The modern law relating to the intoxicated offender stems from the House of Lords decision in Director of Public Prosecution v Beard and this forms the basis of the law on intoxication in a number of common law countries.


Catastrophic events have raised numerous issues concerning how effectively the built environment accommodates the evacuation needs of individuals with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities represent a significant, yet often overlooked, portion of the population disproportionately affected in emergency situations. Incorporating disability considerations into emergency evacuation planning, preparation, and other activities is critical. The most widely applied method used to evaluate how effectively the built environment accommodates emergency evacuations is agent-based or microsimulation modeling. However, current evacuation models do not adequately address individuals with disabilities in their simulated populations. This manuscript describes the BUMMPEE model, an agent-based simulation capable of classifying the built environment according to environmental characteristics and simulating a heterogeneous population according to variation in individual criteria. The method allows for simulated behaviors which more aptly represent the diversity and prevalence of disabilities in the population and their interaction with the built environment. Comparison of the results of an evacuation simulated using the BUMMPEE model is comparable to a physical evacuation with a similar population and setting. The results of the comparison indicate that the BUMMPEE model is a reasonable approach for simulating evacuations representing the diversity and prevalence of disability in the population


This thesis, written for a popular audience, explores the many facets of the placenta, an organ that facilitates the growth of the fetus during pregnancy. It looks at what happens when the placenta dodges the hospital incinerator-taking on a second purpose, a second life. Once the placenta is expelled during the third stage of labor, once it has served its role in the body and is facing retirement, it can take on whole new forms of usefulness. Humans, artful at manipulating the materials of life, have created new-and often controversial-purposes for this discard tissue after it has served its primary role: expelled placenta is used in eye surgery, in training dogs to sniff dead bodies, in toxicology research, in forensics, in cosmetics, and, most significantly, in an emerging field of stem cell research. From ritual use to research subject to health treatment, we have taken the placenta from the realm of the dead and given it new vigor.


Background Refugees encounter texts such as course books, pamphlets and exams during mandatory integration in the Netherlands. Texts present explicit or implicit messages to refugees on "successful" integration and citizenship. The What's the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) approach from Carol Bacchi, allows us to understand how texts are a presentation of governments see problems, and what is needing to be fixed. Applying an occupational lens facilitates identification of occupations promoted as desirable or discouraged towards those striving for citizenship. Relevance: Discourse in integration programs can be considered as a tool of governance, aiming to promote "acceptable" everyday occupations during the transition to citizenship. Aim: This presentation aims to present findings of an initial analysis for discussion. The main aim of the research project, is to explore the impact of differing discourses in integration programs in the Netherlands, including government and citizen programs, to understand the consequences of these discourses on the lives of refugees. Identify Gaps: This research addresses important gaps in current integration research. Firstly, this research focuses on texts in practice, while previous research has largely focused on the policy texts. Secondly, this research program will focus on not only government integration programs, but also those who are being initiated and facilitated by citizens in the Netherlands'. Theoretical Foundation: Theoretical approach inspired by Foucault governmentality. Critical analysis of discourse in texts is informed by Bacchi's WPR approach. Concept of citizenship will be framed with Isin's concept of acts of citizenship. Theories from occupational science, such as occupational possibilities, will facilitating understanding of how occupations are promoted in practice. Conclusion: Textual documents, utilized in practice, are important to include when exploring the relationship between discourse and everyday doing. It is important to consider discourse as a tool of governance and how it impacts on the occupational engagement of refugees.


Glistenings consist of multiple microvacuoles in intraocular lenses (IOLs) that cause retinal stray light and may affect quality of vision. For four IOL types, the microvacuole particle size distribution and particle volume density was measured using confocal light microscopy and dark field microscopy, and the corresponding extinction coefficient γ was determined. The light scatter contribution induced by microvacuoles was measured as function of both angle and extinction, and was verified by calculations using Mie theory. Two IOL types possessed significant glistenings having stray light levels higher than that of a healthy 20 year old crystalline lens corresponding to γ ≥ 0.08 mm(-1).


Microprocessor design is very time-consuming, due to the huge design space that needs to be explored in order to identify the optimal design. Detailed simulations, used to explore these design spaces, are fairly slow. For every design point of interest, several hundreds of billions of instructions per benchmark need to be simulated. Recently, statistical simulation was proposed to efficiently cull a huge design space. The basic idea of statistical simulation is to collect a number of program characteristics and to generate a synthetic trace from it. Simulating this synthetic trace is extremely fast as it contains a million instructions only. We improve the statistical simulation methodology by proposing accurate memory data flow models. We model load forwarding, delayed cache hits and correlation between cache misses based on path info. Our experiments using the SPECcpu2000 benchmarks show a substantial improvement upon current state-of-the-art statistical simulation methods.


Background: Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) avulsion fracture of tibia is an uncommon but serious complication during primary cruciate retaining total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The first objective of this report was to conduct a retrospective cohort study to investigate the incidence and potential risk factors of PCL avulsion fracture in primary cruciate-retaining TKA. The second objective was to assess the functional outcomes of the knee after reduction of PCL avulsion fracture. Methods: From January 2014 to January 2016, 56 patients who experienced PCL avulsion fracture of tibia in primary cruciate-retaining TKA were included in study group. Patients in this group underwent reduction of avulsion fracture. In this period, we selected 224 patients (control group) for comparison. Patients in this group also underwent the same TKA but no PCL avulsion fracture occurred. Range of motion of the knee and Knee Society Scores were assessed. The forgotten joint score was used to analyze the ability to forget the joint. Differences were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05. Results: In our series, the incidence of PCL avulsion fracture was 4.6%. There was no significant differences with regard to preoperative or postoperative range of motion of the knee (p > 0.05). At the final follow-up of 4 years, the mean clinical scores of study and control groups were 92.4±2.7 and 93.6±1.9, respectively (p > 0.05). The mean functional scores were 85.1±1.8 and 87.1±1.2, respectively (p > 0.05). There was no significant statistical difference with regard to forgotten joint score (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The incidence of PCL avulsion fracture of tibia is relatively high. Older age and female gender were two risk factors of fracture in primary cruciate-retaining TKA. Reduction of PCL avulsion fracture with high-strength line can achieve good stability and function of the knee.


Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate how the BSC is used to measure performance by the provider and the users in a municipality. Furthermore, the purpose is also to examine the different views of providers and users of BSC in different departments.Design/methodology/approach – The research on the use of the BSC is based on a single case study in Kristianstad municipality. The case study was performed on three different administrations, culture and recreation, children and education, and care which are representing users of the BSC. The case study was also performed in the city management which presented the provider of the scorecard. Afterwards, the results of the case study have been analyzed from an institutional perspective.Findings - In this case study, it is concluded that the BSC is a useful tool for performance measurement in the municipality of Kristianstad. The providers and users of the scorecard are viewed differently as a performance tool.Research limitations – Due to a small sample size, it is difficult to generalize the results of this single case study. Future research could expand this study by a quantitative study based on a survey including all Swedish municipalities. Another proposal can be comparative case studies of different municipalities.Practical implications – This thesis shows how the BSC is used for performance measurement and how it is viewed from the providers and users. Using the results of this study, managers can use the scorecard in a more efficient way.Originality/value – This single case study examines the use of BSC in Krisitanstad municipality as there have been relatively few studies in this area. With the collection of the empirical evidence we have contributed with literature in this area.


Often missing or underdeveloped in wildland fire research is a clear sense of the link between contemporaneous political possibility and the desired ecological or management outcomes. We examine the disconnect between desired outcomes and what we call the "politically possible". Politically possible policy solutions are those that recognize how compromise, stakeholder engagement, and the distribution of costs and benefits combine to structure political acceptability. Better attending to the politically possible in wildland fire-related research can, in turn, inform our understanding of the cause, effect, and the potential solutions to fire management challenges. We observe how a lack of awareness and attention to the politically possible can create divisions or barriers to realistic action.


In the recent advances of natural language processing, the scale of the state-of-the-art models and datasets is usually extensive, which challenges the application of sample-based explanation methods in many aspects, such as explanation interpretability, efficiency, and faithfulness. In this work, for the first time, we can improve the interpretability of explanations by allowing arbitrary text sequences as the explanation unit. On top of this, we implement a hessian-free method with a model faithfulness guarantee. Finally, to compare our method with the others, we propose a semantic-based evaluation metric that can better align with humans' judgment of explanations than the widely adopted diagnostic or re-training measures. The empirical results on multiple real data sets demonstrate the proposed method's superior performance to popular explanation techniques such as Influence Function or TracIn on semantic evaluation.


ABSTRACT Conrad Gessner's (1516-1565) discussion of cetaceans and sea-monsters as part of the same distinct group of animals (HA 1558) highlights how in the work of mid-sixteenth century naturalists the taxonomical interacts with cultural, literary, and scholarly tradition. In addition to listing physical characteristics shared by all members of the group, Gessner refers to literary sources which blur the line between whales and monsters, to linguistic causes of such confusion, and to descriptions of cetaceans by various classical, mediaeval, and early modern authors. Alongside anecdotes about real but little-known cetaceans, he presents a range of monster-sightings and draws a connection between classical sirens, aquatic fairies and mermaids. Gessner's encyclopaedic approach means his discussion is embedded in the scholarly dialogue of the mid-sixteenth century and provides insight in the thoughts of several of his contemporaries on cetaceans, the position of monsters in a taxonomy, and the existence of sea-monsters.


Artificial neural networks play a prominent role in the rapidly growing field of machine learning and are recently introduced to quantum many-body systems to tackle complex problems. Here, we find that even topological states with long-range quantum entanglement can be represented with classical artificial neural networks. This is demonstrated by using two concrete spin systems, the one-dimensional (1D) symmetry-protected topological cluster state and the 2D toric code state with an intrinsic topological order. For both cases we show rigorously that the topological ground states can be represented by short-range neural networks in an {\it exact} fashion. This neural network representation, in addition to being exact, is surprisingly {\it efficient} as the required number of hidden neurons is as small as the number of physical spins. Our exact construction of topological-order neuron-representation demonstrates explicitly the exceptional power of neural networks in describing exotic quantum states, and at the same time provides valuable topological data to supervise machine learning topological quantum orders in generic lattice models.


The recent food crisis exacerbated the frailty of the world's food system. Nations were unable to respond to their internal market demands as national reserves were exhausted. A reduction in the grain supply forced a sharp increase in the food prices that prevented families from buying basic provisions. The rising food prices did not result in profit to farmers, but instead to a few companies that are currently in command of key areas of our food system, such as distribution, processing, and trade. In fact, the food crisis came as result of three decades of redefinition of our food systems that favored market speculation by these powerful players, instead of development. In Latin America, structural adjustments for "fiscal responsibility and government efficiency" played a key role in dismantling sovereign nations' control over food and resources. Dictated as policy recommendations and/or mandates by international banks and donors, these policies forced nations to change their constitutions1 to favor privatizing natural resources and deregulating food markets. Through deregulation, structural adjustment policies promoted profound changes not only in the regional food economy, but also in the governance of food itself, as they allowed large agribusinesses and fishing operations to control the production, processing, and distribution of food staples. And, most importantly, these policies generated an imbalance between producers by dismantling programs that benefitted small-scale farmers.


In this paper, we present a global-local model reduction for fast multiscale reservoir simulations in highly heterogeneous porous media with applications to optimization and history matching. Our proposed approach identifies a low dimensional structure of the solution space. We introduce an auxiliary variable (the velocity field) in our model reduction that allows achieving a high degree of model reduction. The latter is due to the fact that the velocity field is conservative for any low-order reduced model in our framework. Because a typical global model reduction based on POD is a Galerkin finite element method, and thus it can not guarantee local mass conservation. This can be observed in numerical simulations that use finite volume based approaches. Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method (DEIM) is used to approximate the nonlinear functions of fine-grid functions in Newton iterations. This approach allows achieving the computational cost that is independent of the fine grid dimension. POD snapshots are inexpensively computed using local model reduction techniques based on Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) which provides (1) a hierarchical approximation of snapshot vectors (2) adaptive computations by using coarse grids (3) inexpensive global POD operations in a small dimensional spaces on a coarse grid. By balancing the errors of the global and local reduced-order models, our new methodology can provide an error bound in simulations. Our numerical results, utilizing a two-phase immiscible flow, show a substantial speed-up and we compare our results to the standard POD-DEIM in finite volume setup.


The current work investigates the slamming characteristics of wave piercing catamarans
through the analysis of sea trials data of the 98 m Incat sea frame "Hull 061", built in
Tasmania, Australia and currently serving in the US Navy combat fleet. The importance of
this sea trials data is that the ship was tested in severe sea conditions to assess her suitability
for military operations and to define her operational envelope. New signal processing
techniques such as Wavelet Transforms are used in analysing slamming data for two main
purposes, slamming identification and modal analysis in time and frequency domains
simultaneously. The Wavelet Transforms were found superior to conventional signal
processing tools such as Fast Fourier Transform and Short Time Fourier Transform.
The structural strength of wave piercing catamarans is studied by introducing a novel sea
trials analysis for structural performance assessment in an attempt to simulate real loading
conditions. The methodology was tested on normal linear wave loading (without
slamming) and was found satisfactory. A "Reverse Engineering" approach is introduced to
predict slamming loads during sea trials by using the capabilities of Finite Element Analysis
using the well known software PATRAN/NASTRAN1. To increase the efficiency of this
approach, the load parameters, spatial location and distribution, were investigated through
model tests of a similar but larger 112 m Incat hydro-elastic model in the Australian
Maritime College towing tank facility. Based on pressure measurements, proper slam load
models can be more accurately and efficiently introduced in the finite element analysis.
Quasi-static analysis was first performed to examine its suitability to analyse such fast time
varying loads. Difficulties in comparison procedures between numerical simulations and
trials data have strongly highlighted the need for dynamic analysis. Direct transient dynamic
analysis was performed using the dynamic solver of the same software package. Good
agreement with trials data was found. The suggested procedure and slamming loading
patterns used in the numerical simulation is then verified and can be regarded as a solid
base for verification of other theoretical design models.


Aquaporins and aquaglyceroporins are membrane channels that allow the permeation of water and certain other small solutes across the cell membrane, or in the case of AQP6, AQP11 and AQP12A, intracellular membranes, such as vesicles and the endoplasmic reticulum membrane [17]. Since the isolation and cloning of the first aquaporin (AQP1) [21], 12 additional mammalian members of the family have been identified, although little is known about the functional properties of one of these (AQP12A; Q8IXF9) and it is thus not tabulated. The other 12 aquaporins can be broadly divided into three families: orthodox aquaporins (AQP0,-1,-2,-4,-5, -6 and -8) permeable mainly to water, but for some additional solutes [5]; aquaglyceroporins (AQP3,-7 -9 and -10), additionally permeable to glycerol and for some isoforms urea [16], and superaquaporins (AQP11 and 12) located within cells [14]. Some aquaporins also conduct ammonia and/or H2O2 giving rise to the terms 'ammoniaporins' ('aquaammoniaporins') and 'peroxiporins', respectively. Aquaporins are impermeable to protons and other inorganic and organic cations, with the possible exception of AQP1 [16]. One or more members of this family of proteins have been found to be expressed in almost all tissues of the body [reviewed in Yang (2017) [27]]. AQPs are involved in numerous processes that include systemic water homeostasis, adipocyte metabolism, brain oedema, cell migration and fluid secretion by epithelia and loss of function mutations of some human AQPs, or their disruption by autoantibodies further underscore their importance [reviewed by Verkman et al. (2014) [24], Kitchen et al. (2105) [16]]. Functional AQPs exist as homotetramers that are the water conducting units wherein individual AQP subunits (each a protomer) have six transmembrane helices and two half helices that constitute a seventh 'pseudotransmembrane domain' that surrounds a narrow water conducting channel [17]. In addition to the four pores contributed by the protomers, an additional hydrophobic pore exists within the center of the complex [17] that may mediate the transport of gases (e.g. O2, CO2, NO) and cations (the central pore is the proposed transport pathway for cations through AQP1) by some AQPs [8, 15]. Although numerous small molecule inhibitors of aquaporins, particularly APQ1, have been reported primarily from Xenopus oocyte swelling assays, the activity of most has subsequently been disputed upon retesting using assays of water transport that are less prone to various artifacts [6] and they are therefore excluded from the tables [see Tradtrantip et al. (2017) [23] for a review].


Mouna andraos Working in new media for almost a decade, Mouna Andraos reinvents everyday electronic experiences to trigger our imagination and stimulate conversations about the roles they play in our lives. She holds a master's degree from NYu's Interactive Telecommunication Program and is an alumna of Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology in New York City. She has shown work and led workshops in various locations, including the 2008 YAP installation at PS1/MoMA in New York, Beirut's Olympiades culturelles, the Société des Arts Technologiques (Montréal), the San José Biennale, and the Nagoya Design Center. Her work for the Montréal-based interactive agency Bluesponge has won prizes from Communication Arts, the Webbies, Best of Show at the SXSW Festival, and a CyberLion in Cannes. Mouna was recently awarded the Phillys Lambert design award for her work with designer Melissa Mongiat.


The objective of this work is to reconsider the schematization problem of
[6], with a particular focus on the global case over Z. For this, we prove the
conjecture [Conj. 2.3.6][15] which gives a formula for the homotopy groups of
the schematization of a simply connected homotopy type. We deduce from this
several results on the behaviour of the schematization functor, which we
propose as a solution to the schematization problem.

 Comment: 21 pages, french


Ischemia is a pathological condition owing to the deficiency of blood supply to a limited area of tissue. Ischemia can induce burst production of reactive oxygen species and lead to oxidative damage. As a family member of reactive sulfur species, sulfane sulfur plays important physiological roles in many biological events including synthesis of cofactors, modulation of enzyme activities, sulfuration of tRNA, and especially regulation of the intracellular redox state. We hypothesize that the endogenous level of sulfane sulfur will be adjusted to deal with ischemia-induced oxidative damage. Therefore, the bioimaging of sulfane sulfur real-time changes during ischemia is important for better understanding its physiological processes. Herein, we describe the development of a mitochondria-targeted fluorescent probe Mito-SH that allowed for selective and sensitive detection of sulfane sulfur. Mito-SH is designed on the basis of the tautomerization of sulfane sulfur to thiosulfoxide, which ensures its high selectivity and sensitivity. A lipophilic triphenylphosphonium cation is selected as the mitochondria-targeted moiety, which can precisely navigate Mito-SH into mitochondria. The emission profile of azo-BODIPY fluorophore locates at the near-infrared region, which deeply penetrates tissue and effectively avoids the interference of biological background. Mito-SH exhibits the desirable combination of selectivity, sensitivity and excellent fluorescence response upon reaction with sulfane sulfur in cells. By employing Mito-SH, we evaluate the real-time sulfane sulfur dynamic changes under oxygen-glucose deprivation. Finally, Mito-SH has been successfully used for imaging sulfane sulfur changes caused by acute ischemia in mice.


INTERVIEW WITH VLADIMIR LYSENKO Zlobin: What do you see as the most desirable, but at the same time realistic scenario of Russia's evolution in the near future? Lysenko: I see now three possible variants of the development of the situation. The most optimal is that the present government in the present situation will succeed in doing something. Therefore, I believe that the best option for everyone is if this government were to get something done. Based on this, Boris Nemtsov and I are already attempting to work toward consolidating the main part of the democratic forces so as to enter the next parliamentary elections as a combined democratic bloc and not as fifteen parties, as was the case in 1995. In this situation, the main task is to correctly determine the leader of the united democratic bloc. It is not simple, because all of the democrats are so well known and loved by the people that each believes that he is the one most adored by the voters. That is why we are now preparing to hold some kind of public elections, primaries so to speak. I think that Yavlinsky, Gaidar, Nemtsov, Pamfilova, Khakamada, and so forth should be announced here. For me, it absolutely does not matter which of them wins the primaries. The main thing is that we have a united bloc and a mutual leader and that all democrats will recognize the results of such elections. Although we have very complicated relations with him, if Grigory Yavlinsky wins the elections we will agree that he will be the leader of this bloc, and the rest of the parties will back him. But the optimal thing is to find someone who, without arguments, can unite the whole democratic movement. Neither Yavlinsky nor Gaidar is capable of doing this. Personally, I am betting on the regional leaders, and I think that once Nemtsov has the highest ratings among the democrats in the regions, then he will be that unifying figure. If he does not collapse in the near future, if he does not ruin himself by reveling in the awareness that he is so popular and big, he has a very good chance to become the leader of the united democratic bloc. If this bloc receives 15 to 20 percent in the Duma elections, then Nemtsov has a real chance to perform very successfully in the presidential elections. Our second possible variant is that the government will fail. Then the opposition will inevitably come to power. Zlobin: Which opposition, exactly? Lysenko: It will be Communist, national-patriotic, or something between them. In this respect, Russia has missed its cycle. All of the Eastern Europe countries and the former Soviet republics have already gone through it. In those countries, first the right wing won, then all kinds of left wings, Brazauskas [head of Lithuanian Communist Party] and so on, and now again the right wing. Russia has gone through all those years on a single Right wave. Therefore, a colossal responsibility rests on the party in power in Russia. So much is weighing on it now that I really do not believe that they can do anything! I think that, after all, we are fated to the fact that opposition representatives will come to power in 1999 and 2000. Therefore, it is already necessary to think, What will that opposition be like? How systematic will it be? Will the opposition turn the situation completely back? Or, like Kvasnevsky in Poland, will it play by the rules, which are already accepted in the country? The third possible variant is an authoritarian regime. The party in power, seeing that it is not capable of preserving power in legal ways, conducts a constitutional coup d'etat, such as happened in 1993, breaks up the opposition, bans any kind of opposition parties, and establishes an authoritarian regime. Along with that, the Duma is dissolved and elections either are not conducted or are conducted according to such election law and under such violations that guarantee (as in Kazakstan, for example) a parliament that is fully controlled by the president of the country. …


Background and Purpose Increased expression of endothelin receptor type B (ETBR), a vasoactive receptor, has recently been implied in the reduced cerebral blood flow and exacerbated neuronal damage after ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). The study explores the regulatory mechanisms of ETBR to identify drug targets to restore normal cerebral artery contractile function as part of successful neuroprotective therapy. Methods We have employed in vitro methods on human and rat cerebral arteries to study the regulatory mechanisms and the efficacy of target selective inhibitor, Mithramycin A (MitA), to block the ETBR mediated contractile properties. Later, middle cerebral artery occluded (MCAO) rats were used to substantiate the observations. Quantative PCR, immunohistochemistry, western blot and wire myograph methods were employed to study the expression and contractile properties of cerebral arteries. Results Increased expression of specificity protein (Sp1) was observed in human and rat cerebral arteries after organ culture, strongly correlating with the ETBR upregulation. Similar observations were made in MCAO rats. Treatment with MitA, a Sp1 specific inhibitor, significantly downregulated the ETBR mRNA and protein levels. It also significantly reduced the ETBR mediated cerebrovascular contractility. Detailed analysis indicated that ERK1/2 mediated phosphorylation of Sp1 might be essential for ETBR transcription. Conclusion Transcription factor Sp1 regulates the ETBR mediated vasoconstriction in focal cerebral ischemia via MEK-ERK signaling, which is also conserved in humans. The results show that MitA can effectively be used to block ETBR mediated vasoconstriction as a supplement to an existing ischemic stroke therapy.


State-of-the-art automatic speech recognition (ASR) techniques are typically based on hidden Markov models (HMMs) for the modeling of temporal sequences of feature vectors extracted from the speech signal. At the level of each HMM state, Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) or artificial neural networks (ANNs) are commonly used in order to model the state emission probabilities. However, both GMMs and ANNs are rather rigid, as they are incapable of adapting to variations inherent in the speech signal, such as inter- and intra-speaker variations. Moreover, performance degradations of these systems are severe in the case of unmatched conditions such as in the presence of environmental noise. A lot of research effort is currently being devoted to overcoming these problems. The principal objective of this thesis is to explore new approaches towards a more robust and adaptive modeling of speech. In this context, different aspects of the modeling of speech data with HMMs and GMMs are investigated. Particular attention is given to the modeling of correlation. While correlation between different feature vectors (corresponding to temporal correlation) is typically modeled by the HMM, correlation between feature vector components (e.g., correlation in frequency) is modeled by the GMM part of the model. This thesis starts with the investigation of two potential ways to improve the modeling of correlation, consisting of (1) a shift of the modeling of temporal correlation towards GMMs, and (2) the modeling of correlation within each feature vector by a particular type of HMM. This leads to the development of a novel approach, referred to as OHMM2O, which is a major focus of this thesis. HMM2 is a particular mixture of hidden Markov models, where state emission probabilities of the temporal (primary) HMM are modeled through (secondary) state-dependent frequency-based HMMs. Low-dimensional GMMs are used for modeling the state emission probabilities of the secondary HMM states. Therefore, HMM2 can be seen as a generalization of conventional HMMs, which they include as a particular case. HMM2 may have several advantages as compared to standard systems. While the primary HMM performs time warping and time integration, the secondary HMM performs warping and integration along the frequency dimension of the speech signal. Frequency correlation is modeled through the secondary HMM topology. Due to the implicit, non-linear, state-dependent spectral warping performed by the secondary HMM, HMM2 may be viewed as a dynamic extension of the multi-band approach. Moreover, this frequency warping property may result in a better, more flexible modeling and parameter sharing. After an investigation of theoretical and practical aspects of HMM2, encouraging recognition results for the case of speech degraded by additive noise are given. Due to the spectral warping property of HMM2, this model is able to extract pertinent structural information of the speech signal, which is reflected in the trained model parameters. Consequently, such an HMM2 system can also be used to explicitly extract structures of a speech signal, which can then be converted into a new kind of ASR features, referred to as OHMM2 featuresO. In fact, frequency bands with similar characteristics are supposed to be emitted by the same secondary HMM state. The warping along the frequency dimension of speech thus results in an adaptable, data-driven frequency segmentation. In fact, as it can be assumed that different secondary HMM states model spectral regions characterized by high and low energies respectively, this segmentation may be related to formant structures. The application of HMM2 as a feature extractor is investigated, and it is shown that a system combining HMM2 features with conventional noise-robust features yields an improved speech recognition robustness. Moreover, a comparison of HMM2 features with formant tracks shows a comparable performance on a vowel classification task.


In late 1914, Charlie Chaplin's name first began appearing on marquees. By the end of the following year, moviegoers couldn't get enough of him and his iconic persona, the Little Tramp. Perpetually outfitted with baggy pants, a limp cane, and a dusty bowler hat, the character became so beloved that Chaplin was mobbed by fans, journalists, and critics at every turn. Although he never particularly liked giving interviews, he accepted the demands of his stardom, giving detailed responses about his methods of making movies. He quickly progressed from making two-reel shorts to feature-length masterpieces such as The Gold Rush, City Lights, and Modern Times. Charlie Chaplin: Interviews offers a complex portrait of perhaps the world's greatest cinematic comedian and a man who is considered to be one of the most influential screen artists in movie history. The interviews he granted, performances in and of themselves, are often as well crafted as his films. Unlike the Little Tramp, Chaplin the interviewee comes across as melancholy and serious, as the titles of some early interviews---"Beneath the Mask: Witty, Wistful, Serious Is the Real Charlie" or "The Hamlet-Like Nature of Charlie Chaplin"---make abundantly clear. His first sound feature, The Great Dictator, is a direct condemnation of Hitler. His later films such as Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight obliquely criticize American policy and consequently generated mixed reactions from critics and little response from moviegoers. During this late period of his filmmaking, Chaplin granted interviews less often. The three later interviews included here are thus extremely valuable, offering long, contemplative analyses of the man's life and work.


This entertaining and playful book views Disney World as much more than the site of an ideal family vacation. Blending personal meditations, interviews, photographs, and cultural analysis, "Inside the Mouse" looks at Disney World s architecture and design, its consumer practices, and its use of Disney characters and themes. This book takes the reader on an alternative ride through "the happiest place on earth" while asking "What makes this forty-three-square-mile theme park the quintessential embodiment of American leisure?"Turning away from the programmed entertainment that Disney presents, the authors take a peek behind the scenes of everyday experience at Disney World. In their consideration of the park as both private corporate enterprise and public urban environment, the authors focus on questions concerning the production and consumption of leisure. Featuring over fifty photographs and interviews with workers that strip "cast members" of their cartoon costumes, this captivating work illustrates the high-pressure dynamics of the typical family vacation as well as a tour of Disney World that looks beyond the controlled facade of themed attractions.As projects like EuroDisney and the proposed Disney America test the strength of the Disney cultural monolith, "Inside the Mouse" provides a timely assessment of the serious business of supplying pleasure in contemporary U.S. culture. Written for the general reader interested in the many worlds of Disney, this engrossing volume will also find fans among students and scholars of cultural studies."


With the increasing dependence on IT in modern enterprises and the significant risks associated with omnipresent IT systems in business, IT governance is becoming imperative to all organisations. King III is based on the "apply or explain" approach, that forces South African entities for the first time to apply the IT governance principles as contained in the report, or explain the reasons for not applying these principles. This paper provides a macrolevel view of IT governance, derived from King III, and determined that it correlates strongly with the growing body of knowledge on IT governance. The paper investigates the responsibilities for IT governance within organisations and provides clear guidelines on the responsibilities of management roles, from the board to the operational level, involved in IT governance to ensure accountability.


Woodhouse Sakati syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive multisystem disorder characterized by neuropsychological, endocrinal, and ectodermal symptoms. We report a 52-year-old Saudi female with psychosis, extrapyramidal signs, sensorineural hearing loss, diabetes, hypothyroidism, amenorrhea, hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, absence of secondary sexual characters, and alopecia totalis. Her brain computed tomography (CT) showed bilateral basal ganglia calcification and her genetic testing confirmed homozygous single nucleotide deletion (C.436delC) of frameshift mutation (p.A147HfsX9) in exon 4 of the gene DCAF17 gene. Woodhouse Sakati syndrome seems to be more prevalent, and probably underdiagnosed, in the Middle East and Arab countries, and should be considered in patients with a combination of neurological and endocrinal dysfunction. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported to have psychotic symptoms. J Med Cases. 2018;9(2):73-75 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc2996w


POWER (Providing the Outside World with Empowerment and Resources), a student organization within the Texas Tech's Collegiate Recovery Program established December 2015, elaborated on their members experience when engaging in the important effort of diversity outreach to persons in recovery from substance and alcohol use disorders and eating disorders.  POWER describes their mission statement to provide a foundation and a voice for underrepresented individuals in recovery by delivering positive end results through opportunities for success with a vision to instill hope for a promising future. These members along with the director of the CCRC and another staff member shared what they have found to be most effective and ineffective when presenting to diverse groups in their community. The presenters provided educational and recovery resources used in reaching out but also the varying and tailored approaches and techniques utilized when conducting outreach work to specific marginalized populations.  These materials and techniques have been honed through many presentations and experience since 2015.  During their presentation, student leaders, and members of POWER, shared their own personal experiences of marginalization as well as their experience as presenters/peer leaders.


Twort's Water Supply, Seventh Edition, has been expanded to provide the latest tools and techniques to meet engineering challenges over dwindling natural resources. Approximately 1.1 billion people in rural and peri-urban communities of developing countries do not have access to safe drinking water. The mortality from diarrhea-related diseases amounts to 2.2 million people each year from the consumption of unsafe water. This update reflects the latest WHO, European, UK, and US standards, including the European Water Framework Directive. The book also includes an expansion of waste and sludge disposal, including energy and sustainability, and new chapters on intakes, chemical storage, handling, and sampling. Written for both professionals and students, this book is essential reading for anyone working in water engineering.Features expanded coverage of waste and sludge disposal to include energy use and sustainabilityIncludes a new chapter on intakesIncludes a new chapter on chemical storage and handling


The work described in this paper presents preliminary results of an ongoing Research project. It focuses on the implementation of Lean Construction (LC) technique to improve construction management practice in Nigeria. To achieve this, design science research strategy was undertaken with different data collection methods. These methods included direct observations, interviews, questionnaires and documentary analysis. The research was carried out in a University construction site, where four prototype hostel buildings were being constructed simultaneously by four different contractors. LC technique via the Last Planner Systems (LPS) was adopted by one of the contractors in the construction of one of the hostel building. The results reveal that the LC project made significant improvements in terms of; the timely completion of the project, 30% cost savings as against the others and an average Percentage Plan Completed (PPC) of 80%. These improvements were facilitated by the way the site was planned, managed and controlled using LPS. Last Planner System (LPS) is the most developed LC tool used in improving work plans and control of projects. The paper concludes by discussing possible barriers hindering the full potential of LPS. These barriers include; lack of commitment to change and innovation, and starting off the implementation half way into start of the project. The critical success factors are also discussed and further research is being proposed.


The article studies the determinants of short-term liabilities of financially distressed small and medium-sized enterprises in Bulgaria. The research is based on data from the financial statements of one hundred non-financial enterprises in different industries in the period from 2014 to 2016, provided by the National Statistical Institute. A company is defined as financially distressed if it cannot cover its short-term liabilities with its operating cash flow. By employing multiple regression analysis, we design a model, which shows the positive impact of the levels of net sales revenue, inventory, receivables from customers and suppliers and financial assets, and the negative impact of the ratio of current assets to total assets on the short-term debt of financially distressed SME-s.


With mounting support for dramatic criminal justice reform, the question is no longer whether we should decarcerate American prisons but how. This question is far more complicated than it might seem. We could cut the prison population in half, for example, by drastically shortening sentences. Or we could reduce prison admissions. Or we could do both. And we could do either or both for countless combinations of criminal offenses. Moreover, even when they reach the same numeric target, these strategies are not equivalent. They would have vastly different consequences for both prisoners and the public, and widely varying timeframes to take effect. To pick among them, we need richer metrics and more precise empirical estimates to evaluate their consequences. This Article begins by proposing metrics to evaluate the relative merits of competing decarceration strategies. The public debate has focused almost exclusively on how we might decarcerate while minimizing any increases in crime and has, therefore, underappreciated the costs of prison itself. We should consider at least three more metrics: the social harm of incarceration, racial disparity, and timing. Next, the Article develops an empirical methodology to identify the range of strategies that would reduce the national prison population by 25, 50, and 75%. Finally, it identifies the best performing strategies against each metric. The results have several broader takeaways. First, the optimal approach to decarceration depends heavily on which metrics we value most. The results thus quantify a stark set of policy choices behind a seemingly simple objective. Second, the results confirm that, to dramatically shrink prisons, it is critical to decarcerate a substantial number of people convicted of violent offenses—a fact that may surprise the majority of Americans who believe people convicted of drug offenses occupy half of prison beds. Finally, the results show that race-neutral decarceration


In pursuit of a more efficient shopping experience, consumers are using a growing combination of distribution channels, in what has come to be known as omnichannel behaviour. Greater understanding of this phenomenon could aid retailers in managing consumer contact points more efficiently. Using distribution services and channel policies, among other key variables, this paper aims to arrive at a conceptual definition of omnichannel behaviour that will enable firms to implement more effective customer segmentation. Methodologically, it is an empirical study based on an online survey of the customers of a global fast fashion chain. The key channel characteristics in this segmentation are found to be the assurance of product delivery and privacy policy. The majority of users of both the offline and online channels are women, younger, more innovative in channel usage and do most of their shopping online.


1. Human-elephant conflict (HEC) in Africa occurs wherever these two species coincide, and poses serious challenges to wildlife managers, local communities and elephants alike. Mitigation requires a detailed understanding of underlying patterns and processes. Although temporal patterns of HEC are relatively predictable, spatial variation has shown few universal trends, making it difficult to predict where conflict will take place. While this may be due to unpredictability in male elephant foraging behaviour (the male behaviour hypothesis) it may also be due to variations in the data resolution of earlier studies.
2. This study tested the male behaviour and data resolution hypotheses using HEC data from a 1000-km(2) unprotected elephant range adjacent to the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. HEC incidents were divided into crop raiding and human deaths or injuries. Crop raiding was further subdivided into incidents involving only male elephants or family groups. A relatively fine-resolution, systematic, grid-based method was used to assign the locations of conflict incidents, and spatial relations with underlying variables were explored using correlation analysis and logistic regression.
3. Crop raiding was clustered into distinct conflict zones. Both occurrence and intensity could be predicted on the basis of the area under cultivation and, for male elephant groups, proximity to major settlements. Conversely, incidents of elephant-induced human injury and death were less predictable but were correlated with proximity to roads.
4. A grid-based geographical information system (GIS) with a 25-km(2) resolution utilizing cost-effective data sources, combined with simple statistical tools, was capable of identifying spatial predictors of HEC. At finer resolutions spatial autocorrelation compromised the analyses.
5. Synthesis and applications . These results suggest that spatial correlates of HEC can be identified, regardless of the sex of the elephants involved. Moreover, the method described here is fully transferable to other sites for comparative analysis of HEC. Using these results to map vulnerability will enable the development and deployment of appropriate conflict mitigation strategies, such as guarding, early warning systems, barriers and deterrents. The utility of such methods and their strategic deployment should be assessed alongside alternative land-use and livelihood strategies that limit cultivation within the elephant range.


Marine Ornithology 30: 50 (2002) The Cape Gannet Morus capensis is an endemic seabird to southern Africa, breeding on offshore islands off Namibia and South Africa (Harrison 1985). After breeding, dispersal takes place as far as Mozambique, rarely Tanzania, on the east coast of Africa, and to the Gulf of Guinea on the west (Harrison 1985). However, vagrant birds have been reported in Victoria, Australia (Venn 1982) and on the Atlantic coast of South America, in the Argentinean Patagonia and the Beagle Channel (Bergkamp 1995, Ramirez 1996) at the southern tip of South America.


PART 1 UNDERSTANDING and USING HOMEOPATHY: Introduction. A Brief Homeopathic History. Homeopathic Remedies. Homeopathic Principles and Prescribing. Using This Book. PART 2 PREGNANCY: Abdominal Pain. Backache. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Constipation. Cramping. Diarrhoea. Dizziness and Fainting. Frequency of Micturition. Gestational Hypertension. Haemorrhoids. Heartburn. Insomnia. Ligament Pain/Sciatica. Loss of Libido. Nausea and Vomiting. Threatened Abortion and Vaginal Bleeding. Vaginal Discharge. Varicose Veins. Leg and Vulva. PART 3 LABOUR: Emotional Shock. Failure to Progress. Fear. Ill-Effects of Drugs Taken During And/Or After Labour. Neonatal Respiratory Difficulties at Delivery. Pain Relief. Postpartum Haemorrhage. Retained Placenta PART 4 the PUERPERIUM: After Pains. Breast-Feeding and Breast Problems . Disorders of Urinary Tract and Micturition. Physical Trauma. Postnatal Depression. Puerperal Mania. Subinvolution And/Or Abnormal Lochia PART 5 the BABY: Colic. Constipation. Discharges from the Eye. Minor Skin Injuries. Neonatal Jaundice. Oral and Rectal Candidiasis. Sleeplessness. PART 6 MATERIA MEDICA. Remedy Pictures (Main Remedies) PART 7 APPENDICES. Remedy Pictures (Other Remedies). Remedy Abbreviations for Suggested Uses in Part 6. Glossary of Homeopathic Terms. Useful Addresses


Dendritic cells (DCs) require costimulatory molecules such as CD86 to efficiently activate T cells for the induction of adaptive immunity. DCs maintain minimal levels of CD86 expression at rest, but upregulate levels upon LPS stimulation. LPS-stimulated DCs produce the immune suppressive cytokine IL-10 that acts in an autocrine manner to regulate CD86 levels. Inter-estingly, the underlying molecular mechanism behind the tight control of CD86 is not completely understood. In this study, we report that CD86 is ubiquitinated in DCs via MARCH1 E3 ubiquitin ligase and that this ubiquitination plays a key role in CD86 regulation. Ubiquitination at lysine 267 played the most critical role for this regulation. CD86 is ubiquitinated in MARCH1-deficient DCs to a much lesser degree than in wild-type DCs, which also correlated with a significant increase in CD86 expression. Importantly, CD86 is continuously ubiquitinated in DCs following activation by LPS, and this was due to the autocrine IL-10 inhibition of MARCH1 downregulation. Accordingly, DCs lacking MARCH1 and DCs expressing ubiquitination-resistant mutant CD86 both failed to regulate CD86 in response to autocrine IL-10. DCs expressing ubiquitination-resistant mutant CD86 failed to control their T cell-activating abilities at rest as well as in response to autocrine IL-10. These studies suggest that ubiquitination serves as an important mechanism by which DCs control CD86 expression and regulate their Ag-presenting functions. The Journal of Immunology , 2011, 187: 000–000.


Remote sensing (RS) data quality is improving exponentially. Ever higher resolution and acquisition facilities have become accessible in the last decade. In archaeology, satellite imagery has been widely used for detecting surface and subsurface anthropic features. In the last years the use of RS has been extended to reconstruct past environmental conditions, modelling subsistence strategies and evaluate conservation and visibility of the archaeological record (Lasaponara and Masini 2011). Here we present the use of RS data and newly acquired field data for the understanding of present geomorphology and taphonomic processes affecting geoarchaeological evidence preservation and visibility. Our case study is based in North Gujarat, India, an ecotone region strongly affected by changes in seasonal precipitation and climate. The present physiography is the result of a "fossilized" landscape where records of environmental variability and settlement dynamics of hunter-gatherer and agro-pastoral communities during the Early to Middle Holocene are readily accessible. Present work focuses on a) classification of regional main land covers, b) detection of sedimentary processes and c) changes in geomorphological features for a better understanding of settlement patterns.   Research propose a multiscale approach integrating: 1) multispectral response of vegetation and sediments on LANDSAT, ASTER, and IKONOS imagery; 2) regional altimetry (SRTM, ASTER GDEM, GPS survey); 3) historic maps and imagery (such as declassified CORONA); and 4) ground survey for validating remote sensing results (sediment analyses, plant cover, archaeological site location). Preliminary results propose a definition of new socio-ecological patterns suggesting a different story of the transition from hunter-gathering to agropastoralism in north-western India


Histamine levels have been suggested as a rapid fish spoilage indicator. Therefore, histamine biosensors based on immobilization of diamine oxidase (DAO) in photocurable poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (photoHEMA) film was developed. Histamine was oxidized by immobilized DAO at 0.35 volt on the surface of carbon-paste screen-printed electrode (SPE) versus conventional Ag/AgCl reference, and with platinum rod as a counter electrode, which named as macro electrode system histamine biosensor. No leaching of the immobilized DAO was observed during histamine detection using the biosensor. The optimized histamine biosensor displayed a linear response over the range of 0 to 60 ppm histamine with correlation coefficient (R2) equals to 0.9946 (RSD < 11.19%). The sensitivity obtained was 5.56 nA ppm-1 and the limit of detection was 0.65 ppm of histamine with the response time of 50 seconds. The histamine biosensor exhibited repeatability and reproducibility characteristic with RSD values equals to 14.06 and 7.80% (n = 10) respectively. The histamine biosensor was applied to determine histamine in tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) and the results were agreeable with a conventional high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method, where a correlation of R2 = 0.9612 (Y = 0.9614 x + 5.5813) was obtained. The developed histamine biosensor showed recovery of added histamine in the range of 93.11 to 100.58%.
Home made miniaturized histamine biosensor (30 mm x 10 mm) was then developed by screen-printed of carbon as working and counter electrodes together with Ag/AgCl reference electrode on the polyester substrate {named SPE (i)}. Miniaturized histamine biosensor with SPE (i) operated at 0.25 volt exhibited a linear range from 0 to 100 ppm of histamine with R2 = 0.9577 (RSD < 9%) and sensitivity of 0.03 nAppm-1 with the limit of detection of 2.46 ppm of histamine. The miniaturized histamine biosensor with a SPE (ii) was operated at 0.35 volt and it showed a linear range from 0 to 50 ppm histamine with R2 of 0.9766 (RSD < 16%) and sensitivity of 0.40 nAppm-1. The limit of detection of histamine was 4.64 ppm. The miniaturized SPE (i) was then modified with K3Fe(CN)6 and operated at 0.35 volt. This biosensor could detect the histamine in the linear range of 0 to 80 ppm with the R2 = 0.9931 and sensitivity 5.31 nAppm-1. The limit of detection for this modified histamine biosensor was 2.11 ppm histamine.