The aim of this study is to design, develop and evaluate artificial intelligence and statistical techniques to predict the probability of survival in traumas using knowledge acquired from a database of confirmed traumas outcomes (survivors and not survivors). Trauma in this study refers to body injuries from accidents or other means.
Quantifying the effects of traumas on individuals is challenging as they have many forms, affect different organs, differ in severity and their consequence could be related to the individual's physiological attributes (e.g. age, fragility, premedical condition etc). It is known that appropriate intervention improves survival and may reduce disabilities in traumas. Determining the probability of survival in traumas is important as it can inform triage, clinical research and audit. A number of methods have been reported for this purpose. These are based on a combination of physiological and anatomical examination scores. However, these methods have shortcomings as for example, combining the scores from injuries for different organs is complicated.
A method for predicting probability of survival in traumas needs to be accurate, practical and accommodate broad cases. In this study Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Children's Hospital, Sheffield University and the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) collaborated to develop improved means of predicting probability of survival in traumas. The data used in this study were trauma cases and their outcomes provided by the TARN. The data included 47568 adults (age: mean = 59.9 years, standard deviation = 24.7 years) with various injuries. In total, 93.3% of cases had survived and 6.7% of cases had not survived. The data were partitioned into calibration (2/3 of the data) and evaluation (1/3 of the data). The trauma parameters used in the study were: age, respiration rate (RR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), pulse (heart) rate (PR) and the values obtained from two trauma scoring systems called Abbreviated Injury Score (AIS) and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS). Intubation and Pre-exiting Medical Condition (PMC) data were also considered.
Initially a detailed statistical exploration of the manner trauma these trauma parameters related to the probability of survival outcomes was carried out and the results were interpreted. The resulting information assisted the development of three methods to predict probability of survival. These were based on Bayesian statistical approach called predictive statistical diagnosis (PSD), a new method called Iterative Random Comparison classification (IRCC) and the third method combined the IRCC with the fuzzy inference system (FIS). The performance of these methods was compared with each other as well as the method of predicating survival used by the TARN called Ps14 (the name refers to probability of survival method reported in 2014).
The study primarily focused on Trauma Brain Injury (TBI) as they represented the majority of the cases. For TBI, the developed IRCC performed best amongst all methods including Ps14. It predicted survivors and not survivors with 97.2% and 75.9% accuracies respectively. In comparison, the predication accuracy for Ps14 for survivors and not survivors were 97.4% and 40.2%.
The study provided resulted in new findings that indicated the manner trauma parameters affect probability of survival and resulted in new artificial intelligence and statistical methods of determining probability survival in trauma.


ABSTRACT Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a bioactive sphingolipid metabolite, is the ligand for five specific G protein-coupled receptors, named S1P1 to S1P5. In this study, we found that cross-communication between platelet-derived growth factor receptor and S1P2 serves as a negative damper of PDGF functions. Deletion of the S1P2 receptor dramatically increased migration of mouse embryonic fibroblasts toward S1P, serum, and PDGF but not fibronectin. This enhanced migration was dependent on expression of S1P1 and sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1), the enzyme that produces S1P, as revealed by downregulation of their expression with antisense RNA and small interfering RNA, respectively. Although S1P2 deletion had no significant effect on tyrosine phosphorylation of the PDGF receptors or activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 or Akt induced by PDGF, it reduced sustained PDGF-dependent p38 phosphorylation and markedly enhanced Rac activation. Surprisingly, S1P2-null cells not only exhibited enhanced proliferation but also markedly increased SphK1 expression and activity. Conversely, reintroduction of S1P2 reduced DNA synthesis and expression of SphK1. Thus, S1P2 serves as a negative regulator of PDGF-induced migration and proliferation as well as SphK1 expression. Our results suggest that a complex interplay between PDGFR and S1P receptors determines their functions.


The author suggests that as conceived in the West the idea of civil society probably obscures the practical means of achieving civil values in Iran. He derives his argument from a critique of the liberal foundation in the genealogy of civil society in the West; civil society in relation to power, democracy, and justice; asymmetries between Iran's political culture and civil society as projected in the liberal paradigm; and ways and means of optimizing liberal values in a society such as Iran, whose outlook is not (and probably cannot be) "liberal".
Historically, civil society evolved in the West on two elemental foundations: the primacy of society over polity and the ethics of individual rights. The first, theoretically exemplified by the Hobbesian and Lockean concepts of social contract, defines the limits of the sovereign's (state's) power and legitimacy and, consequently, the conditions of citizens' obligation to obey. The second is characterized by a move away from the primacy of law, whether given by God or by Caesar, to the precedence of right, meaning the individual's capacity to participate in the making of the law. Both elements are characteristically quiet on the subject of power relations within society, which is a matter of domination and subjugation. The legitimacy/obligation dimension is essentially juridical and the foundation of liberal constitutional democracy. The domination/subjugation dimension, on the other hand, is at the heart of the problem of justice. Since in constitutional democracies state is normally controlled by the dominant groups in society, there has always existed significant tension between liberal democracy and social justice.
In Iran, as in other "Third World" countries, the experience of colonialism not only disrupted the social balance but also reversed the relationship between society and polity. It fell on the state to change the society by defining the paths of development and parameters of justice. Consequently, ends became more important than means, on one hand weakening the juridical dimension and on the other hand strengthening state's intervention in the realm of social justice. The trade-off between state's ability to promote justice and society's proclivity to control state in favor of powerful interests will have to be taken into account in any serious discussion of civil society in Iran. State's power will have to be humanized and controlled by an inscription of ethical values and control through countervailing power. To optimize liberal values, it is important to draw, whenever possible, on the accommodating organizational and ethical features of traditional culture, using "balance" as the operative formula and forging an "institutional" balancer as its guarantor.


"The Problem" occurs when a statute's provisions become contradictory or unworkable in the context of new or unforeseen phenomena, yet the statute mandates agency action. The application of an unambiguous statutory provision may become problematic or unclear. Similarly, unambiguous provisions may become inconsistent given a particular application of the statute. During the same term, in Scialabba and UARG, the Supreme Court performed a Chevron review of agency interpretations of statutes facing three variations of the Problem, which this Note characterizes as direct conflict, internal inconsistency, and unworkability. In each case, the Court defined ambiguity in various, nontraditional ways and deferred to the agency's reasonable interpretation of the statute.

The broadest definition of ambiguity provided by the Justices encompassed direct conflicts, internal inconsistencies, and unworkability. In contrast, the narrowest definition found ambiguity based only on internal inconsistency. Some Justices found no ambiguity, but allowed an agency more interpretive flexibility to resolve the Problem and accomplish the unambiguous mandate of the statute.

This Note contends that ambiguity in broken statutory frameworks may influence the traditional Chevron analysis; the Court may defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation or allow an agency greater interpretive flexibility where it would not otherwise. But an agency does not have unlimited interpretive authority each time the Problem arises. Agency interpretations that alter or ignore unambiguous statutory text or functionally change the statute may still be impermissible under Chevron review. This Note raises agencies' awareness regarding these nontraditional definitions of Chevron ambiguity, and discusses agency interpretive authority and limitations in the context of the Problem.


A set of automated planning algorithms is the current operations baseline approach for the Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) of the proposed Hyper spectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission. For this operations concept, there are only local (e.g. non-depletable) operations constraints, such as real-time downlink and onboard memory, and the forward sweeping algorithm is optimal for determining which science products should be generated onboard and on ground based on geographical overflights, science priorities, alerts, requests, and onboard and ground processing constraints. This automated planning approach was developed for the HyspIRI IPM concept. The HyspIRI IPM is proposed to use an X-band Direct Broadcast (DB) capability that would enable data to be delivered to ground stations virtually as it is acquired. However, the HyspIRI VSWIR and TIR instruments will produce approximately 1 Gbps data, while the DB capability is 15 Mbps for a approx. =60X oversubscription. In order to address this mismatch, this innovation determines which data to downlink based on both the type of surface the spacecraft is overflying, and the onboard processing of data to detect events. For example, when the spacecraft is overflying Polar Regions, it might downlink a snow/ice product. Additionally, the onboard software will search for thermal signatures indicative of a volcanic event or wild fire and downlink summary information (extent, spectra) when detected, thereby reducing data volume. The planning system described above automatically generated the IPM mission plan based on requested products, the overflight regions, and available resources.


Introduction paradoxical embolism is a relatively uncommon clinical condition. Only a few hundred cases have been reported in the literature. 1 Despite sophisticated technological advances, it remains an under-diagnosed clinical entity.2 Blood clots formed either in the right side of the heart or in the venous circulation escape via an intra- or extra-cardiac right-to-left shunt into the systemic circulation. This results in an arterial embolism, hence the term paradoxical embolism. The condition can cause significant morbidity and mortality. We report a case of cerebral infarction secondary to paradoxical embolism. This is the first case to be reported in the literature with the unique and rare association of patent foramen ovale and pulmonary arteriovenous malformation with hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia.


This paper presents KJS, the most complete and throughly tested formal semantics of JavaScript to date. Being executable, KJS has been tested against the ECMAScript 5.1 conformance test suite, and passes all 2,782 core language tests. Among the existing implementations of JavaScript, only Chrome V8's passes all the tests, and no other semantics passes more than 90%. In addition to a reference implementation for JavaScript, KJS also yields a simple coverage metric for a test suite: the set of semantic rules it exercises. Our semantics revealed that the ECMAScript 5.1 conformance test suite fails to cover several semantic rules. Guided by the semantics, we wrote tests to exercise those rules. The new tests revealed bugs both in production JavaScript engines (Chrome V8, Safari WebKit, Firefox SpiderMonkey) and in other semantics. KJS is symbolically executable, thus it can be used for formal analysis and verification of JavaScript programs. We verified non-trivial programs and found a known security vulnerability.


This paper evaluates a novel form of fiscal stimulus: a temporary cut in the rate of Value Added Tax (VAT). In December 2008, the UK cut the standard rate of VAT by 2.5 percentage points for 13 months in an effort to stimulate spending. We estimate the effect of the cut on prices and spending using alternative strategies for identifying the counter-factual. Although firms initially passed through the VAT cut by lowering their prices, at least part of the pass through of the VAT cut was reversed after only a few months. Despite this early reversal, the cut raised the volume of retail sales by around 1% which on its own generates a 0.4% increase in total expenditure. The cut raised retail sales by encouraging consumers to bring forward their purchases and we find a significant fall in sales after the VAT cut ended. Thus an indirect tax cut stimulates significant intertermporal substitution in purchases.


YankoVa, V. and D. GaneVa, 2013. Possibilities for control of tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) by application of insecticides in tomato greenhouse growing. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 728-731 Tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta (Meyrick 1917) is one of dangerous pests in greenhouse tomato production. Studies with tomato for mid-early production in unheated greenhouses were conducted in the Maritsa Vegetable Crops research Institute Plovdiv during the period 2010-2011. Seven products for plant protection were applied in the biological study of tomato as the insecticides Alverde 20 ml/da, Confidor Energy OD 0.08 % and Avant 15 SC 20 ml/da are with high effectiveness (over 75%) against first-second instars of larvae of tomato leaf miner. These products could be included in the plant protection systems for pest control in tomato growing in cultivation facilities.


The GM and Ford downgrade to junk status during May 2005 caused a wide-spread sell-off in their corporate bonds. Using a novel dataset, we document that this sell-off appears to have generated significant liquidity risk for market-makers, as evidenced in the significant imbalance in their quotes towards sales. We also document that simultaneously, there was excess co-movement in the fixed-income securities of all industries, not just in those of auto firms. In particular, using credit-default swaps (CDS) data, we find a substantial increase in the co-movement between innovations in the CDS spreads of GM and Ford and those of firms in all other industries, the increase being greatest during the period surrounding the actual downgrade and reversing sharply thereafter. We show that a measure of liquidity risk faced by corporate bond market-makers - specifically, the imbalance towards sales in the volume and frequency of quotes on GM and Ford bonds - explains a significant portion of this excess co-movement. Additional robustness checks suggest that this relationship between the liquidity risk faced by market-makers and the correlation risk for other securities in which they make markets was likely causal. Overall, the evidence is supportive of theoretical models which imply that funding liquidity risk faced by financial intermediaries is a determinant of market prices during stress times.


Snacks and lunches offered at school can decisively influence children's dietary habits. In the light of discussions to establish prevention and intervention programs to abate current trends of rising childhood obesity, children's preferences for food items with lower calorie content gain on importance. But youths preferences concerning different school milk products are not well-known. Therefore, the objective is to investigate if the milk products offered at school still meet older children's preferences or if modifications could prove to be useful. Based on outcomes of an online survey covering a choice experiment and conducted among juveniles in Germany the probability that youths benefit from different products as well as varying prices, sugar and fat contents is estimated. Socio-demographics, psycho-metrics and perceived weight status are employed to explain youths choices preferring novel school milk products yet unavailable in German schools. Results of the choice experiment show that youths aged 15-18 are a heterogeneous group. They prefer a wider range of different products including drinking yoghurt as an option as well. Results indicate that nutritional aspects (low sugar/fat content, artificial sweetener) and body image are important for some of them.


For Indonesia the fall of Suharto in 1998 brought dramatic changes in the political landscape. It signified the beginning of transformation from an authoritarian regime towards a more democratic society where the distribution power is more devolved. In this respect Indonesia follow what is called a big-bang approach in the transition. First in the agenda of socio-economic reform is decentralization which changes the relationship between the center and local governments. Next in the country's reform was democratization at the local government level. In this paper we examine how decentralization and democratization affect governance at the local government level. Our particular interest is to assess the impact of decentralization and local democratization on the quality of road. We find that although the temptation to produce lower quality roads is high the combination of democratization, free media, an ad-hoc anti-corruption agency and well educated bureaucrats keep the quality of roads reasonably good while the corruption is held in check.


The first birth cohort exposed to the 401(k) system for most of their working lives is now approaching retirement. 401(k) participants in this cohort have accumulated only about a third of the savings they need to maintain their standard of living in retirement. The 401(k) system fails even those who use it as instructed. High earners are as ill-prepared for retirement as low-and moderate earners. Inadequate wealth accumulations reflect well-known design flaws in the 401(k) system – patchy coverage, high fees, opportunities to take pre-retirement withdrawals, and the lack of a default pathway for converting accumulated wealth into retirement income.


Regulatory elements located within an ∼28-kb region 3′ of the Igh gene cluster (3′ regulatory region) are required for class switch recombination and for high levels of IgH expression in plasma cells. We previously defined novel DNase I hypersensitive sites (hs) 5, 6, 7 immediately downstream of this region. The hs 5–7 region (hs5–7) contains a high density of binding sites for CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF), a zinc finger protein associated with mammalian insulator activity, and is an anchor for interactions with CTCF sites flanking the DH region. To test the function of hs5–7, we generated mice with an 8-kb deletion encompassing all three hs elements. B cells from hs5–7 knockout (KO) (hs5–7KO) mice showed a modest increase in expression of the nearest downstream gene. In addition, Igh alleles in hs5–7KO mice were in a less contracted configuration compared with wild-type Igh alleles and showed a 2-fold increase in the usage of proximal VH7183 gene families. Hs5–7KO mice were essentially indistinguishable from wild-type mice in B cell development, allelic regulation, class switch recombination, and chromosomal looping. We conclude that hs5–7, a high-density CTCF-binding region at the 3′ end of the Igh locus, impacts usage of VH regions as far as 500 kb away.


Chromobacterium violaceum is a Gram-negative bacillus that is a facultative anaerobic, oxidase positive, glucose fermenting, and non-lactose fermenting. C. violaceum is free living which can be found in the soil and water. C. violaceum produces a possible antioxidant called violacein a purple pigment that is considered to be one of the significant characteristics of C.violaceum. Chromobacterium violaceum one of the Gram negative bacteria which use Quorum Sensing (QS) occurs within a single bacterial species, and regulates a lot of different processes ,essentially serving as a simple communication network so that QS is the accumulation of signaling molecule that enable a single cell to sense the communication from other cells .The density and bioluminescence through quorum sensing is manipulated via the signaling molecule N-acyl-homoserine (AHLs) that is produced by C. violaceum. The major objective in this work is to determine the reason why 14N1 cannot produce the pigment on LB media in cultures using heavy cell inoculum and high concentration of AHL on all the C. violaceum strains. C. violaceum 14N23 and 14N1 were isolated from copper basin, Tennessee and (ATCC) 12472 and (ATCC) 31532 obtained from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), and CV026. 14N1 produces a pigment after 24 hours by using high inoculation 20% which is 10 ml overnight culture of 14N1 to 40 ml LB broth media with different shaker's speed started from (in static culture , 150,175,225). On the AHLs 14N1 did not produce a pigment and that the same with 14N23. However, 12472 did produce a pigment after 24 hours, and the positive control (ATCC) 31532 produced and the negative control CV026 did not.


INTRODUCTION
Rates of mental health issues are increasing, coupled with insufficient resources to provide appropriate support. This is a particular challenge for rural areas in Australia that face significant social inequities including a scarcity of health resources. E-health initiatives are often proposed to maximise the number of rural mental health consumers able to receive support. The Australian Government has prioritised e-health within the remit of the Australian Digital Health Agency and the National Digital Health Strategy. However, despite increasing interest in e-health in policy and practice settings, uptake has been underwhelming. This study investigated the factors affecting the likely engagement with the internet, both for general and e-health purposes, within the context of South Australian rural mental health consumers. The focus was on psychosocial predictors, which embraced intrinsic (motivation), as well as extrinsic factors concerning equity, such as income, occupation, education and geographic location.

METHODS
Participants in this quantitative study included 208 mental health consumers in rural South Australia who had recently accessed a local health network mental health service. Data were sourced from the service's clinical management database and a questionnaire constructed for the study. The questionnaire included measures of personal characteristics, motives, equity and internet use.

RESULTS
Motives and equity-related variables were directly linked to general internet use, which subsequently affected the likelihood of using the internet for health purposes. Intrinsic rather than extrinsic factors were the most significant drivers of internet use; that is, higher levels of general internet use were associated with being younger, having stronger motivation, greater trust, higher education, being employed, having a higher income and having home internet access. For health internet use, the identified significant associations were more modest and included only being younger, having stronger motivation, and greater trust. The model indicated that there were no direct predictors of internet use for health beyond use of the internet for general purposes. However, key study variables provided significant indirect paths to health internet use. General internet use was strongly influenced by motivation, and age and equity to a lesser extent. Motivation was influenced by trust, and age and equity, with trust also influenced by age and equity.

CONCLUSION
This quantitative investigation sought to describe the barriers to and enablers of internet use generally, based on the assumption that before people will use the internet for health, they need to be prepared to use it for general purposes. The model proposed in the current research offers an indication of some of the factors that may influence rural mental health consumers' use of the internet for both general and health purposes. To appropriately design future e-health initiatives, the initial focus must be on consumers' individual capacity and willingness to use the internet generally. Policymakers and service providers are acutely interested in leveraging internet use to facilitate positive health outcomes. Understanding the factors that affect rural mental health consumers' use of the internet in general is beneficial in informing the efficient allocation of resources and the appropriate design of e-health initiatives to produce innovative solutions.


Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated gastric carcinoma (GC) is the monoclonal growth of EBV-infected epithelial cells, and the entity was recognized only recently. EBV-associated GC is distributed worldwide and more than 90,000 patients are estimated to develop GC annually in association with EBV (10% of total GC). EBV-associated GC occurs in two forms in terms of the histological features, i.e., lymphoepithelioma-like GC and ordinary type of GC. Both share characteristic clinicopathological features, such as the preferential occurrence as multiple cancer and remnant stomach cancer. While the expression of EBV-latent genes is restricted to several in the infected cells (Latency I), EBV-associated GC shows gastric cell phenotype, resistance to apoptosis, and the production of immunomodulator molecules. Recently, global and non-random CpG island methylation of the promoter region of many cancer-related genes has been demonstrated with their decreased expression, such as p16 INK4A, p73 and E-cadherin. This abnormality is accompanied by methylation of the EBV genome itself, suggesting a process of virus-driven hypermethylation in the development of neoplastic cells. Further studies are necessary to determine the precise sequence of EBV infection, methylation, transformation and selection of the predominant clone within the stomach mucosa. Future studies are also desirable for the target and strategy of therapy, such as initiating viral replication or reversing the DNA methylation of cellular genes.


The Thai passenger transport sector remains dominated by ailing state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Virtually untouched by post-1997 crisis liberalization and privatization schemes that would have revitalized these zombies1, the managerial and regulatory architecture of transport SOEs continue to be complicated. Departments under at least two ministries and three sectoral commissions with complex structures regulate the sector with unclear lines of responsibilities.Lacking regulatory expertise, public officials often make decisions on an ad hoc basis and abusively protect the status quo just as the financial performances of these SOEs, especially welfare bus and railway operations, deteriorate. As this paper will demonstrate, privatization, shock therapists knee-jerk response to this structural problem, may be inappropriate unless regulatory institutions are strong and independent, restraining conflict of interest and rent-seeking behavior of public officials. Because regulatory capture is prevalent, Thailand should first consider institutional remedies, most importantly separating regulatory function from operation and policy-making, whilst increasing public awareness and strengthening competition regime.


The Press Freedom Commission (PFC) was officially formed in July 2011 and completed its work on 25 April 2012, when its Chairperson, former Chief Justice Pius Langa, released its findings. I was very privileged, over this short period, to serve on the PFC under the leadership of Judge Langa and alongside some very highly respected members of civil society, namely: Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Santie Botha, Futhi Mtoba, Dr Phil Mtimkulu, Kobus van Rooyen SC, Derick Elbrecht and Professor Kwame Karikari. This tribute is my own recollection of the Commission's work and of the experience of working alongside Justice Langa as well as his impact on our efforts over the nine-month period.


Biology is the most rapidly evolving scientific field of the 21st century. Biology graduates must be able to integrate concepts and collaborate outside their discipline to solve the most pressing questions of our time, e.g. world hunger, malnutrition, climate change, infectious disease and biosecurity. University educators are attempting to respond to this need to better prepare undergraduates to face these challenges by undergoing a dramatic shift in teaching practice from teaching-centered to studentcentered and from discipline knowledge to graduate capabilities. With this shift came the development of capstone units—a student's culminating academic experience where authentic learning environments assist students to develop employer-prized capabilities, e.g. metacognition, networking, time management, collaborative skills. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) launched a new student centered set of science majors in 2012 and in second semester 2015 will offer a capstone in biology for the first time. My main aims with this report are to understand the theoretical basis and logic behind the development of capstone units and to compare and contrast what other Australian institutions are providing. Based on my findings, I recommend six generic elements for capstone units in biological science: 1. Challenging inquiry-based learning tasks that are intentionally ill defined and complicated, and address cutting edge relevant problems. 2. Small group work activities and assessment that encourages positive constructivist learning. 3. Student centered learning where teachers take the role of coaching and mentoring with students also being provided opportunities to network with members of the professional community. 4. Students perform authentic tasks that involve articulating their findings to peers and experts including the experience of having to defend arguments and decisions. 5. Learning opportunities that include career development skills and training. 6. Explicit modeling of self-aware and meaningful learning to encourage deep learning strategies that foster an appreciation for the nature of science. Overall, I found that the characteristics of capstone units should not be focused on transmitting content, nor simply another controlled application of the scientific method; instead the activities and assessment students perform should be complex, relevant, and realistic to encourage students to move beyond being motivated by grades or fear of failure to wanting to understand concepts deeply and solve problems to make a difference within their future professions and communities.


The Globalization and Comparative Approach Key Words: Western Civilization, Chinese Civilization, USA, EU, China, civilization clash, wealth bifurcation, Death Triangle of Civilization, globalization, globalization waves, economic crisis, grand strategy, outsourcing, wise civilization, civilization future. Introduction1 The main purpose of this investigation is to evaluate a question: is there a clash between the Western and Chinese civilizations, and what is the myth and reality of this clash? The spectacular economic development of the Chinese and the concurrent decline of Western civilization provoke many predictions of the near-future world order. So far it seems that the West cooperates with China quite well, since through outsourcing of Western manufacturing, China can employ its large labor force and the Western financial elite benefit tremendously in business, due to cheap labor. However, the question is how long can that kind of cooperation last? It triggered the financial crisis of 2008-2011, due to the shrinking middle class in the West, and furthermore, increasing numbers of employed Chinese workers can buy more and will need to consume more strategic resources which are available in limited volumes on the earth. Will the current cooperation be replaced by a clash for resources? That kind of question will be investigated in this paper. Also the wisdom-oriented abilities of both civilizations will be evaluated to see which one has better chances to survive a shortage of strategic resources. The methodology of this investigation is based on the interdisciplinary big-picture view of the world scene, driven by a global economy and civilization, with an attempt to compare both civilizations according to key criteria. A set of conclusions will be provided at the end of this paper, with practical and social implications for eventual implementation. The Impact of Globalization on Western and Chinese Civilizations in the 21st Century The development of the modern world began after the fall of Byzantium (1453) and the discovery of America (1492), that is, at the end of the 15th century. In each century since, usually one country has dominated the world. In the 16th century Portugal dominated, in the 17th century Spain was the hegemon, and in the 18th century Great Britain was the leader. At the beginning of the 19th century, the hegemon was France, which was later replaced by Great Britain. In the 20th century Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and to a certain degree Russia competed for the main role in world politics. In the 21st century the U.S. 's domination is fading, and many predict it will be replaced by China. In the last 500 years, different targets and issues were at stake in world politics. For example, Portugal, Spain, and Great Britain were conquering new territories, with good results. Once the world became richer in the 19th century due to the gains of the Industrial Revolution, at stake were clashing ideologies. The English Revolution (168889) built the foundation for the parliamentary system, the American Revolution (17751783) provided the concept of modern democracy, and the French Revolution (17891 799) created citizenship in France. The Industrial Revolution (1760-1850-1960) contributed the factory system and industrially manufactured products, financed by capital. It led to accelerated wealth creation and rising inequality among society's members. To solve rising dissatisfaction and poverty, differing ideologies regarding the further development of civilization were at stake. None of those ideologies - capitalism, socialism, and later communism and Nazism - could solve societal problems. Eventually these ideologies led to the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), Spanish Revolution (1936), World War ?, the Cold War (1945-1991), and to the very successful Scientific-Technological Revolution (1945-) and Information Revolution (1980-). …


The distribution of snow and the energy flux components of snowmelt are intrinsic characteristics of the alpine water cycle controlling the location of source waters and the effect of climate on streamflow. Interannual variability of these characteristics is relevant to the effect of climate change on alpine hydrology. Our objective is to characterize the interannual variability in the spatial distribution of snow and energy fluxes of snowmelt in watersheds of a maritime setting, Tokopah Basin (TOK) in California's southern Sierra Nevada, and a continental setting, Green Lake 4 Valley (GLV4) in Colorado's Front Range, using a 12 year database (1996–2007) of hydrometeorological observations and satellite‐derived snow cover. Snowpacks observed in GLV4 exhibit substantially greater spatial variability than in TOK (0.75 versus 0.28 spatial coefficient of variation). In addition, modeling results indicate that the net turbulent energy flux contribution to snowmelt in GLV4 is, on average, 3 times greater in magnitude (mean 29% versus 10%) and interannual variability (standard deviation 17% versus 6%) than in TOK. These energy flux values exhibit strong seasonality, increasing as the melt season progresses to times later in the year (R2 = 0.54–0.77). This seasonality of energy flux appears to be associated with snowmelt rates that generally increase with onset date of melt (0.02 cm d−2). This seasonality in snowmelt rate, coupled to differences in hydrogeology, may account for the observed differences in correspondence between the timing of snowmelt and timing of streamflow in these watersheds.


Introduction: Astronomy fundamentally changed after Henry Draper
first photographed the spectrum of the star Vega in 1872.
Soon thereafter, astronomers began surveying the stars
and photographing their spectra. The resulting flood of
stellar spectra was a blessing and a challenge. The bewildering
variety of stellar spectra demanded a simple, adaptable,
and meaningful organization system. By 1924, Annie
Jump Cannon had revised the stellar spectra organization
system and personally classified over two hundred thousand
stars. Her basic system is still in use today.
In this activity, students begin their exploration by following
in Cannon's footsteps to organize a few stellar
spectra. Later they learn that the absorption features in
the spectrum change according to the temperature of the
star. Given this information, they may revise their organization
scheme and order the stars by temperature. In this
way, they come to understand the code for temperature
in a star's spectrum. In the explanation section, students
learn the history of how Cannon and others dealt with
this same problem


The purpose of this review is to raise the index of suspicion for paradoxical embolism among generalists. The review is based solely on anecdotal reports compiled from EMBASE, MEDLINE, Googlescholar and Pubmed. Search terms were 'paradoxical embolism', 'pulmonary embolism' and 'pulmonary arteriovenous malformations'. What emerged was that right-to-left paradoxical embolism could occur with or without concurrent pulmonary embolism, and also with and without proof of the presence of an 'embolus-in-transit'. Potential sites of single or multiple systemic involvement included the central nervous system, the coronary circulation, renal arterial circulation, splenic circulation, the mesenteric circulation and the limbs. In many cases, the deep veins of the lower limbs were the source of thromboembolism. In other cases, thrombi originated from an atrial septal aneurysm, from a central venous line, from a haemodialysis-related arterio-venous shunt, from a popliteal vein aneurysm, internal jugular vein, superior vena cava, from a pulmonary arteriovenous malformation, from tricuspid valve endocarditis (with and without pulmonary embolism) and from the right atrium, respectively. Stroke was by far the commonest systemic manifestation of paradoxical embolism. Some strokes were attributable to pulmonary arteriovenous malformations with or without coexistence of intracardiac shunts. Clinicians should have a high index of suspicion for paradoxical embolism because of its time-sensitive dimension when it occurs in the context of involvement of the intracranial circulation, coronary circulation, mesenteric circulation, and peripheral limb circulation.


The goal of this thesis was to design a new RF front-end receiver for a ground penetrating radar, with a bandwidth of 4 GHz and the implementation of range-gate switching. Several manufacturers were considered in the quest for suitable components, and the most interesting components were ordered for testing. From these results, two different receiver designs were prototyped and further developed, and several measurements were conducted to determine if they fulfilled the desirable specifications. Only one of the designs proved to yield the desired gain characteristics, with a total gain of around 55 dB, and a small gain variation across the desired bandwidth. The initial design had issues regarding oscillations because of feedback in the DC network, and had to be sorted out to achieve the final results. The dynamic range of this design was calculated to be approximately 108 dB, with a 1 dB compression point at around 18 dBm. The video leakage transients from the range-gate switches, and the T/R leakage, did not saturate any of the amplifiers in the receiver. However, there is always room for further improvements of the design, which has been discussed in the thesis.


We consider the problem of learning rules from natural language text sources. These sources, such as news articles and web texts, are created by a writer to communicate information to a reader, where the writer and reader share substantial domain knowledge. Consequently, the texts tend to be concise and mention the minimum information necessary for the reader to draw the correct conclusions. We study the problem of learning domain knowledge from such concise texts, which is an instance of the general problem of learning in the presence of missing data. However, unlike standard approaches to missing data, in this setting we know that facts are more likely to be missing from the text in cases where the reader can infer them from the facts that are mentioned combined with the domain knowledge. Hence, we can explicitly model this "missingness" process and invert it via probabilistic inference to learn the underlying domain knowledge. This paper introduces a mention model that models the probability of facts being mentioned in the text based on what other facts have already been mentioned and domain knowledge in the form of Horn clause rules. Learning must simultaneously search the space of rules and learn the parameters of the mention model. We accomplish this via an application of Expectation Maximization within a Markov Logic framework. An experimental evaluation on synthetic and natural text data shows that the method can learn accurate rules and apply them to new texts to make correct inferences. Experiments also show that the method out-performs the standard EM approach that assumes mentions are missing at random.


The purpose of this research project was to compare stress among professionals in a mental health care setting. This research question sought to answer the following question: Do mental health care social workers experience higher levels of stress in comparison to other mental health care professionals? Empirical research suggests that mental health social workers experience higher levels of stress, than comparable occupational groups therefore this research project explores stress among mental health care social workers in comparison to other mental health care professionals (Lolyd, King, Chenoweth, 2002). In order to compare stress levels among professionals a stress survey was distributed to professionals in a mental health care setting which included; Social Workers, Nurses, Physicians, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Doctor, Chaplin, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and Physical Therapist. In order to measure and compare stress among professionals a Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was distributed (Cohen, Devert, 2012). The results of this survey reported that there is a significant difference between the stress levels of individuals who responded to the survey. According to the results of this survey mental health care social workers experience less stress in comparison to other mental health care professionals, therefore this study rejected this researcher's hypothesis. While the findings did reject the suggested hypothesis research does indicate that social workers do still experience high levels of stress, which makes this research project important to the field of clinical social work. This research is important to the field of clinical social work because of the implications for future education. In order to deviate from stress in the social work field, self-care is a technique that should be taught in social work programs. In addition, social work


This paper concerns the surface-tracing-based (STB) linear-array synthetic-aperture-radar (LASAR) 3-D imaging technique. The basic idea of this technique is to consider the 3-D SAR imaging problem as tracing a surface in the low height-resolution level. The STB 3-D imaging technique first initiates a low-resolution digital elevation map (DEM) using 3-D backprojection (BP) algorithm, predicts a higher resolution DEM from the known elevation using multivariate-interpolation technique, searches from the predicted elevation and obtains a higher resolution DEM, then repeats the prediction and searching recursively and obtains the fine-resolution DEM finally. By converting the 3-D LASAR imaging problem to a 2-D surface-tracing problem, the STB 3-D imaging technique can reduce the computational complexity by one order. The computational cost of STB 3-D imaging technique is analyzed, and we find out that the computational cost of STB 3-D LASAR imaging technique is determined by the surface prediction error and the fluctuation of ground. In particular, for normal distribution, when one of the earlier two factors is small, the computational cost is proportional to the other factor approximately. Finally, a new STB 3-D BP algorithm that implements the surface-prediction operation via multiresolution-approximation (MRA) technique (named as MRA 3-D BP algorithm) is presented. By operating the interpolation in frequency domain, the computational cost of MRA algorithm for sparse LASAR is near to that of RD algorithm for full-element LASAR.


Of paramount importance to the natural sciences, the principles of Darwinism, which involve variation, inheritance, and selection, are increasingly of interest to social scientists as well. But no one has provided a truly rigorous account of how the principles apply to the evolution of human society - until now. In "Darwin's Conjecture", Geoffrey M. Hodgson and Thorbjorn Knudsen reveal how the British naturalist's core concepts apply to a wide range of phenomena, including business practices, legal systems, technology, and even science itself. They also critique some prominent objections to the application of Darwinism to social science, arguing that ultimately Darwinism functions as a general theoretical framework for stimulating further inquiry. Social scientists who adopt a Darwinian approach, they contend, can then use it to frame and help develop new explanatory theories and predictive models. This truly pathbreaking work at long last makes the powerful conceptual tools of Darwin available to the social sciences and will be welcomed by scholars and students from a range of disciplines.


At present, the Baltic Sea region (BSR) possesses great disparities in the methods used to handle and process waste. While some countries recover most of the waste they produce, a number of other nations are lagging behind. Such disparity needs to be addressed to accommodate a more sustainable solution to waste management issues. The paper discusses how universities together with other research institutions find their prominent role here. A regional project 'RECO Baltic 21-Tech' (partly funded by Baltic Sea Region Program 2007-2013) serves as an example of mutual benefits: universities via professional research and education contribute to a sustainable waste management in the region, at the same time gaining interesting topics for research, possibilities for capacity building and curricula enrichment for students.


In this paper we study job design. Will an organization plan precisely how the job is to be done ex ante, or ask workers to determine the process as they go? We first model this decision and predict complementarity between these job attributes: multitasking, discretion, skills, and interdependence of tasks. We argue that characteristics of the firm and industry (e.g., product and technology, organizational change) can explain observed patterns and trends in job design. We then use novel data on these job attributes to examine these issues. As predicted, job designs tend to be 'coherent' across these characteristics within the same job. Job designs also tend to follow similar patterns across jobs in the same firm, and especially in the same establishment: when one job is optimized ex ante, others are more likely to be also. There is some evidence that firms may segregate different types of job designs across different establishments.


- Copper based shape memory materials was interesting group of metal alloys that have a widespread potential in medical and industrial application due to their characteristics ,the possibility of exhibiting shape memory behavior and lower cost. In this research the alloy (Cu-(15-40) wt%Zn-6wt.%Al) has been prepared by powder metallurgy technique Zn element (15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 wt%Zn) and fixed percentage of Al content which is 6.wt%Al then aluminum replaced by (Si, Sn, Ni )element at fixed percentage of 6wt.%, in order to study the effect of these elements on SMA. After samples preparation examination were done by using XRD, SEM technique, DSC, Vickers hardness, Archimedes method to measure the porosity percentage and corrosion rate in different solutions (HCl, NaOH and SEAWATER).The XRD and microstructure results show that all samples with and without additives consist of two phases (β-phase) and (α-phase) at room temperature and the addition of alloying elements in these percentages does not have effect on present phases. the hardness increased with zinc content because the formation of intermetallic compound of CuZn that responsible to hardness while The addition of Si ,Sn and Ni leads to lower the hardness than aluminum. The bulk density increased with the alloys without addition alloying elements(Si, Ni and Sn ) while apparent porosity decreased with it the reason for this phenomenon due to the characterization of alloying elements that addition to the alloy. From the results of corrosion test can be show the alloy with 35wt% Zn have the higher corrosion resistance in all media (HCl, NaOH and sea water) and the addition of alloying element lead to improve the corrosion resistance. Finally, it is observed that the Copper base shape memory alloys with these types of additives are suitable for use in different application.


Of the natural forcings causing short‐term climatic variations, volcanism, along with its climatic impact, is perhaps the best understood. The primary net result of the impact is the reduced receipt of solar energy at Earth's surface due to the scattering of incoming solar radiation by secondary sulfate aerosols formed from volcanic sulfur. The quantitative effects can be measured in energy‐balance‐based climate models, which require validation using high‐quality paleoclimatic and paleovolcanic data. An important advancement in the effort to understand the role of volcanism in climate change in the recent decade is the significant improvement in paleovolcanic records from polar ice cores, represented by long records with unprecedented temporal accuracy and precision, and by the potential to identify climate‐impacting stratospheric eruptions in the records. Other improvements include (1) the investigation of long‐term relationship between eruptions (including super‐eruptions) and climate variations, beyond an eruption's radiative impact of up to a few years; (2) a better understanding of the response to volcanic perturbation of feedback mechanisms in the climate system; and (3) the limited role of volcanic eruptions in the era of human‐induced greenhouse warming. Urgent research/investigation is needed to evaluate the geoengineering proposition to counteract greenhouse warming by injecting sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, which is based on the significant cooling effects of stratospheric volcanic eruptions, and its serious unintended consequences. WIREs Clim Change 2010 1 824–839 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.76


Catches of demersal fish from research vessel surveys in three areas around the British Isles from 1901 to 1907 were compared with survey catches in the same areas from 1989 to 1997. Mesh size and other characteristics of the trawls used suggested that some of these data were comparable, and could be used to describe changes in demersal fish assemblages over the last 80 years. In Start Bay (NW English Channel) and the Irish Sea, species diversity was the same in both periods, although the most abundant species in each period were not the same. In English coastal regions of the southern North Sea, fish populations became more diverse, as plaice Pleuronectes platessa and whiting Merlangius merlangus became less abundant, and the relative abundance of several non-target species such as dragonet Callionymus spp., bib Trisopterus luscus, and bull-rout Myoxocephalus scorpius increased. The proportion in the catch of small fish species (maximum body length 30 cm) in catches decreased in all regions during the time period, except in the Irish Sea where plaice replaced grey gurnard Eutrigla gurnardus as a dominant species. There was a decline in abundance of large sharks, skates and rays, including the common skate, Raja batis, white skate R. alba and the angel shark Squatina squatina. During historic surveys, 60% of the elasmobranch fauna consisted of thornback ray Raja clavata, whereas in contemporary surveys the lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula was the most abundant elasmobranch. Changes in length-frequency distribution of fish in both target and non-target categories, and other observed changes, were thought to be a response to commercial exploitation, and corresponded to similar observations recorded elsewhere. (C) 2000 British Crown Copyright.


Objectives The aim of this study is to identify prognostic factors of persistent disease activity and long quiescence in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods Patients enrolled in the Hopkins Lupus Cohort from 1987 to 2012, who attended at least three visits per year during 3 consecutive years following baseline and had available information on disease activity were included. Patterns of SLE disease activity over the 3-year period were defined as: persistent long quiescent (pLQ), persistent relapsing-remitting (pRR), persistent chronic active (pCA) and mixed based on Modified SLE Disease Activity Index (M-SLEDAI). Possible predictors of pCA (vs pLQ, pRR and mixed) and pLQ (vs pCA, pRR and mixed) were identified by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results 916 patients were included. In the multivariate analysis, use of hydroxychloroquine (OR: 0.45, 95%  CI 0.22 to 0.92, p=0.03), African American ethnicity (OR: 2.36, 95%  CI 1.15 to 4.85, p=0.02) and baseline SLEDAI (OR: 1.10, 95%  CI 1.03 to 1.17, p=0.005) remained significant predictors of pCA. Higher education (>12 years; OR. 2.07, 95%  CI 1.07 to 4.03, p=0.03) and lower baseline SLEDAI (OR: 0.67, 95%  CI 0.56 to 0.82, p<0.001) were significant predictors of pLQ, while African American (OR: 0.38, 95%  CI 0.17 to 0.83, p=0.02) and female patients (OR: 0.26, 95%  CI 0.12 to 0.57, p<0.001) were less likely to achieve pLQ. Conclusion African American ethnicity and high disease activity at baseline predict chronic activity in SLE, regardless of treatment, years of education and income. Higher education, low disease activity at baseline and male sex predict long quiescence. The use of hydroxychloroquine is independently associated with a lower risk of chronically active disease.


Due to the worldwide shortage of He and the price development caused by this, alternative concepts of neutron detection are in demand. One possible alternative is a ZnS/LiF scintillation detector with readout via wavelength shifting fibers. The presented dissertation describes the development of a model of the physical frontend, which enables computer-aided simulations with different configurations and conditions. The model regards the microscopic structure of the scintillator during the tracking of alpha and triton particles created by the conversion of a neutron at a Li, as well as the propagation of photons through the scintillator plate. In the first case, the structure is simulated via randomly placed spherical grains, through which the charged secondary particles are tracked. In the second case, the photons are subject to a random walk with parameters dependend on the composition of the scintillator. The model is validated in several steps, during which single aspects of the model are verified. There is a good agreement between measurements and simulations of neutron absorption and pulse height spectra of different scintillator samples. A comparison with optical transmission measurements shows, that the simulated effective optical absorption coefficent is of the same order of magnitude as the measured value of samples of one manufacturer, but is smaller by a factor of 6 than the value of samples of another manufacturer. For the validation of the entire model, measurements of a prototype are compared to simulations. In order to compare the data event-wise, a detection algorithm based on cluster finding is developed. Measurements and simulations are in good agreement, so the model can be regarded as validated. To optimize multiple parameters at the same time, a generalization of the Golden Section Search can be used. This algorithm optimizes parameters with respect to an optimization function, e.g. detection efficiency, which is calculated dependend on simulation data. This way it is possible to optimize detector parameters for new developments.


In Our Own Minds, Radu Bogdan takes a developmental perspective on consciousness -- its functional design in particular -- and proposes that children's functional capacity for consciousness is assembled during development out of a variety of ontogenetic adaptations that respond mostly to sociocultural challenges specific to distinct stages of childhood. Young human minds develop self-consciousness -- in the broad sense of being conscious of the self's mental and behavioral relatedness to the world -- because they face extraordinary and escalating sociocultural pressures that cannot be handled without setting in motion a complex executive machinery of self-regulation under the guidance of an increasingly sophisticated intuitive psychology. Bogdan suggests that self-consciousness develops gradually during childhood. Children move from being oriented toward the outside world in early childhood to becoming (at about age four) oriented also toward their own minds. Bogdan argues that the sociocultural tasks and practices that children must assimilate and engage in competently demand the development of an intuitive psychology (also known as theory of mind or mind reading); the intuitive psychology assembles a suite of executive abilities (intending, controlling, monitoring, and so on) that install self-consciousness and drive its development. Understanding minds, first the minds of others and then our own, drives the development of self-consciousness, world-bound or extrovert at the beginning and later mind-bound or introvert. This asymmetric development of the intuitive psychology drives a commensurate asymmetric development of self-consciousness.


While to some chasing a small white ball across a vast field of grass may seem pointless, the game of golf has, for centuries, drawn everyone from the poor working class to the upper crust of society. There is something enchanting about the experience of golf that sets it apart from other sports. In this collection of 18 short stories, "The Guru of Golf" celebrates perhaps one of the most widely popular of athletic pursuits. Thomas Moore shows us how golf can be a perfect metaphor for life itself--endlessly mysterious, joyful, and captivating, yet at times unbearable. From the tee to the green, he intertwines modern and classical tales that illustrate the challenges players face--on and off the course. A game rife with strict rules on etiquette and both physically and mentally taxing, golf tests the body, mind, and spirit. Humorous and insightful, "The Guru of Golf "captures the range of emotions associated with its players' ardent determination; searches for meaning behind quiet, solitary moments; and reveals the struggles that try our patience, as well as the victories that make the game--and life--worthwhile.


Hydropower can be an ideal compensation for fluctuant photovoltaic (PV) power due to its flexibility. In this study, a multiobjective optimization model considering energy generation and consumption simultaneously for a hydro‐PV hybrid power system is proposed. With the daily mean radiation intensity and temperature, the PV power output is calculated. Taking reservoir release as the decision variable, the total energy generation of the hydro‐PV system is maximized. Meanwhile, the gap between the energy generation and the energy consumption is minimized to reduce the abandoned PV power or hydropower. The proposed multiobjective model is optimized by Non‐dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithms‐II (NSGA‐II). The Longyangxia Project, the largest hydro‐photovoltaic hybrid power system in the world is taken as the study case to estimate the optimal operational strategies for different objectives in wet year, normal year, and dry year, respectively. The optimal operation process of the reservoir is presented, which is instructive for the operation in the future.


Higher density is required to obtain higher mechanical properties of PM components, in particular for the fatigue strength. Besides the compressibility of the base powder, the lubricant and compaction method plays an essential role for compaction of high density. The lubricant type and content are limiting factors to the compressibility due to their low theoretical density. However, by improving the efficiency of the lubricant, a lower added content of lubricant can be meet the requirement of during ejection and thus higher density can be achieved. In this paper, an increased density by using high performance lubricant in Fe-Cu-C mixes as well as excellent green strength and higher tensile strength after sintering, will be presented.


Group 16 chalcogen atoms may exhibit Lewis acidic σ-holes which are able to form attractive supramolecular interactions with Lewis bases via chalcogen bonds (ChB). Interest in ChB is increasing rapidly; however, the potential for anion binding has not been fully explored. Herein we report on the application of chemically robust and stable benzylic selenocynates (1 and 2) for halide ion recognition in the solid state and in solution. Single crystal X-ray structural analysis of various cocrystals reveals structurally important Se⋯X− (X = Cl, Br, I) chalcogen bonds. Changes in the 13C and 77Se chemical shifts via NMR spectroscopy show how halide ion recognition influences the local electronic environment of the selenium atoms in solution. Deviations of the interaction from the extension of the C–Se covalent bond are quantified and assessed with the aid of computational chemistry.


Electron spin resonance of VO2+ doped in CdSeO4.H2O has been studied at 300 K using an X-band spectrometer. The ESR powder spectra have been analysed and spin-Hamiltonian parameters evaluated. Using crystal field approach a theoretical estimate of the ground state wave functions of VO2+ in CdSeO4.H2O, MSeO4.6H2O (M=Mg,Zn), MH3(SeO3)2 (M=Li,Na,Rb) have been made using ESR data. The dipolar hyperfine coupling constant P and Fermi contact parameter K have also been estimated.


Numerous proteins being used as therapeutic agents such as therapeutic antibodies are produced within cell cultures. This work sought to develop a single nutrient solution (single feed) for fed-batch processes comprising all nutrients in one complex feed at neutral pH without impacting or improving cell culture performance, titer and monoclonal antibody (mAb) characteristics. The amino acid L-cysteine was shown to rapidly dimerise into poorly soluble L-cystine via oxidation mechanisms. Addition of L-cysteine to a complex, chemically defined, highly concentrated neutral pH nutrient solution (feed) resulted in rapid production of L-cystine from L-cysteine indicating poor stability of L-cysteine in the feed. To keep L-cysteine stable in the standard fed-batch process at Merck, the amino acid was maintained in an alkaline pH environment separated from the other feed nutrients (two feed strategy). The addition of the alkaline L-cysteine nutrient solution to fed-batch cultures resulted in pH peaks while feedings.
To achieve the aim of establishing the single feed strategy, screening of several L-cysteine derivatives was carried out in the part 5.1 of this work. Out of several L-cysteine derivatives, the derivative S-sulfocysteine (SSC) was chosen since it showed the desired physico-chemical properties. In part 5.3 of this work, SSC was shown to be stable over three months at 4°C in chemically defined, complex, highly concentrated neutral pH feed.
In part 5.5 of this work, L-cysteine was replaced by SSC in batch cultures with Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) suspension clone 1. It was shown that SSC was able to replace L-cysteine in batch mode indicating that SSC was used as a L-cysteine source. The use of SSC in fed-batch experiments (spin tubes, bioreactors) with CHO suspension clone 2 was examined in parts 5.6 and 5.7. Application of 15 mM SSC (single feed strategy) revealed prolonged growth and increased titer compared with the standard process (two feed strategy).
The antibody produced with 15 mM SSC showed no differences in N-glycosylation, charge variant and mAb sequence compared with antibody produced from the standard process as shown in part 5.8.
The mechanism of SSC use as a L-cysteine source was described in part 5.9. Due to its interaction with glutathione (GSH), mixed disulfides were generated. After their enzymatic reduction, L-cysteine was released and ready for metabolization. Further, increased intracellular total GSH pools, superoxide dismutase 1 and 2 (SOD-1, SOD-2) levels and decreased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentrations were observed in the single-feed containing 15 mM SSC compared with the standard process indicating anti-oxidant related mechanisms of SSC.
Toxic effects of 20 mM SSC in fed-batch and 1.5 mM SSC in batch mode on cell growth were correlated to the external pH in part 5.10. The observed drops in pH with toxic SSC concentrations were assumed to be responsible for the monitored reproducible, rapid cell death in batch and fed-batch cultures compared with the standard processes. Further, it was shown that different CHO suspension clones reacted differently to the derivative indicating clone dependent effects of SSC.
Overall, the results of this work confirmed the concept of the single-feed strategy in CHO suspension fed-batch culture. For the first time, SSC was successfully used as a L-cysteine source in cell culture. The successful application of SSC in cell culture was shown to be dependent on its applied concentration, the used cultivation mode and clone.


Sustainable manufacturing is one of the key challenges of producers all around the world. Despite the frequent use of the term sustainability, it is not clear in an operational way what sustainability means applied to different industries and products. This paper addresses the machine tool industry and proposes specific tools and methods to enable sustainable design of future machine tools, as an enabler for sustainable manufacturing. The literature review is divided into two main parts. Initially, the sustainability concept is discussed, from a broad level to a more product-focused one, showing the main indicators to measure product sustainability. However, the assessment and evaluation of the three dimensions involved in sustainability is a multi-criteria problem. Accordingly, necessary issues and concepts on the multi-criteria analysis theory to the measurement and evaluation will be reviewed. The main contributions of this paper are a machine tool sustainability index (MTSI) for assessing the sustainability of machine tools and a design support system (DSS) for assisting designers in building more sustainable machine tools. Although the MTSI has been specifically developed for the machine tool industry, the DSS is a valid tool for designing sustainable products considering economic, environmental and social aspects in any industry.


We describe the motivation, design, and implementation of the CORNISH survey, an arcsecond-resolution radio continuum survey of the inner galactic plane at 5 GHz using the Very Large Array (VLA). It is a blind survey coordinated with the northern Spitzer GLIMPSE I region covering 10° < l < 65° and |b| < 1° at similar resolution. We discuss in detail the strategy that we employed to control the shape of the synthesised beam across this survey, which covers a wide range of fairly low declinations. Two snapshots separated by 4h kept the beam elongation to less that 1.5 over 75% of the survey area and less than 2 over 98% of the survey. The prime scientific motivation is to provide an unbiased survey for ultra-compact H II regions to study this key phase in massive star formation. A sensitivity around 2 mJy will allow the automatic distinction between radio-loud and radio-quiet mid-IR sources found in the Spitzer surveys. This survey has many legacy applications beyond star formation, including evolved stars, active stars and binaries, and extragalactic sources. The CORNISH survey for compact ionized sources complements other Galactic plane surveys that target diffuse and nonthermal sources, as well as atomic and molecular phases to build up a complete picture of the interstellar medium in the Galaxy.


Materials play a big part in the manufacturing firms as it account for about 56% of the annual turnover. This research analyzed the attention and recognition the Kenyan manufacturing firms are giving to the materials management. The motivation of the study was based on the fact that longterm success and survival of any Organization depends entirely on how well organization are managing their costs. The study was a survey of medium and large manufacturing firms based in Nairobi. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire consisting mainly of close-ended questions and some few open-ended questions. The main objective of this study was to determine the kind of attention and recognition the Kenyan manufacturing firms are giving to material management and also shed light on the benefits of adopting good materials management practices. A sample size of 55 firms was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The research revealed that not much attention was given to materials management as only about 23 percent of the firms had in charge of materials reporting directly to the chief executive officer. At least quite a number of large firms had well established departments to manage materials compared to medium firms. The conclusion drawn from the research was that Kenyan firms were not practicing professionalism in materials management and that materials management was more suited for large firms. Recommendations made were that, owing to the large sum of money companies were spending on materials and material related activities, a lot of emphasis and attention needed to be given to materials management. Materials management needs to be recognized as a top management function.


The United States is expected to become the world's largest oil producer by 2020, overtaking Saudi Arabia, and the world's top natural gas producer by 2015, surpassing Russia. In the past decade, energy companies have learned to tap previously inaccessible oil and gas in shale with "hydraulic fracturing" ("fracturing" or "fracking"), pumping fluid at high pressure to crack the shale and release gas and oil trapped inside. This "shale revolution" has created millions of jobs, enhanced our energy independence, and reduced U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by substituting natural gas for coal. Even so, fracturing is controversial. It may undercut the renewable energy industry, exacerbate air pollution and congestion, and use significant amounts of water. The most unique risk, which is the focus of this Article, is the potential contamination of groundwater. The fluid used in fracturing contains toxic chemicals. There is little evidence so far that subterranean fracturing can directly contaminate groundwater, and this risk may never materialize. The layer of shale that is fractured is usually thousands of feet below the water table, with a buffer of dense rock or clay in between. But there are other ways in which fracturing might contaminate groundwater, including surface spills of fracturing fluid, improper handling of waste, and the migration of natural gas into water wells. Some of these risks are familiar from decades of conventional oil and gas production, while others are new. In response, this Article proposes a strategy for regulating water contamination from fracturing. For issues that are already well understood, we would rely on best practices regulations. For issues that are unique to fracturing and are not yet well understood, we would rely on liability rules – and, specifically, a hybrid of strict liability and a regulatory compliance defense – to motivate industry to take precautions, develop risk-reducing innovations, and cooperate in the development of best practices regulations. To facilitate more accurate determinations of causation, we recommend information-forcing rules (e.g., requiring energy companies to test water quality before they begin fracturing). We also suggest other design features for the liability system, such as one-way fee shifting and provisions to ensure that defendants will not be judgment proof. To ensure that the regulatory regime draws on existing regulatory expertise and is both dynamic and tailored to local conditions, we recommend keeping the regulatory center of gravity in the states, instead of fashioning a new federal regime.


This study aims to find out requirements and needs to be fulfilled in developing remote Radio Frequency (RF) laboratory. Remote laboratories are newly emerging solutions for better supporting of e-learning platforms and for increasing their efficiency and effectiveness in technical education. By this way, modern universities aim to provide lifelong learning environments to extend their education for a wider area and support learners anytime and anywhere when they need help. However, as far as the authors concern, there is no study investigating the requirements and needs of remote laboratories in that particular field in the literature. This study is based on electrical engineers' and technicians' perspectives on the requirements of a remote laboratory in RF domain. Its scope covers investigation of the participants' perceptions toward computer mediated communication and it attempts to answer the questions: which studying strategies are preferred by the learners and what kind of RF laboratory content should be provided. The analysis of the results showed that, geographic independence, finding quickly the elements of past communication and temporal independence are declared as the most important advantages of computermediated communication. However, reading significant amount of information is a problem of these environments. In the context of how to show the content, respondents want to see shorter text on the screen. Therefore the instructions should include little amount of text and must be supported with figures and interactive elements. The instructional materials developed for such learner groups should support both linear and non-linear instructions. While analyzing the content to be provided, we have seen that, most of the participants do not have access to high level equipments and traditional experiments are considered as the necessary ones for both engineers and technicians.


We consider the degree-diameter problem for undirected and directed circulant graphs. To date, attempts to generate families of large circulant graphs of arbitrary degree for a given diameter have concentrated mainly on the diameter 2 case. We present a direct product construction yielding improved bounds for small diameters and introduce a new general technique for "stitching" together circulant graphs which enables us to improve the current best known asymptotic orders for every diameter. As an application, we use our constructions in the directed case to obtain upper bounds on the minimum size of a subset A of a cyclic group of order n such that the k-fold sumset kA is equal to the whole group. We also present a revised table of largest known circulant graphs of small degree and diameter.


ABSTRACT This study examined co-mother family of origin stories. Origin stories, representing the formation of a family, are culturally understood within a master narrative of heterosexual love and biological childbearing. Beginnings of co-mother families rupture this dominant, gendered, boy-meets-girl script. Investigating whether or not co-mother stories reify the normative master narrative or if instead their narrations resist and/or possibly transform conventional understandings, analysis identified three co-mother origin story themes: Becoming a Family (1) as Normal, (2) as Negotiation, and (3) as Normalization. Themes differ in terms of depiction of co-mother family formation as congruent with current norms, as something that needs to be made to seem normal (i.e., in need of normalization), or as something between normal and normalization—to be negotiated internally within the couple. Study results are discussed within a broader framework of family coming-together stories.


This paper introduces a new approach for the definition of innovation clusters, based on the co-location of concentrated patenting and manufacturing activity in the EU. The incorporation of data on both the production and use of technologies results in an indicator that depicts both formal and informal modes of innovation and conditions which can be expected to be conducive to the generation, diffusion and absorption of innovation, and consequently the enhancement of competitiveness. Our findings indicate that certain types of patenting and manufacturing activity tend to co-locate. The sectoral-technological composition of the three types of concentrations observed points towards a higher level of diversity than one would expect in the case of narrow specialisation. Applying the new indicator in a test of the often hypothesised benefits of innovative clustering, we find that the identified clusters have consistently higher wages in the sectors concerned.


EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF MIXING TIME IN A STIRRED, TORISPHERICAL-BOTTOMED TANK EQUIPPED WITH A RETREAT-BLADE IMPELLER by Nonjaros Chomcharn Glass-lined reactors are typically used in the pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals industries because of their material compatibility with most reactants and their cleanability. These reactors are typically equipped with a retreat-blade impeller placed close to the bottom of the tank a single baffle mounted from the top. The mixing performance of such reactors has not received significant attention in the literature, despite their ubiquitous presence in the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, mixing time, i.e., the time required by the system to achieve a predefined level of homogeneity, has not been studied to any significant degree. In this work, the mixing time in a 60-L, scaled-down version of an actual industrial reactor having an industrial-type torispherical bottom and equipped with a retreat-blade impeller was experimentally determined for three different baffling configurations, i.e., unbaffled tank, partially baffled tank (in which the typical beavertail baffle was used), and fully baffled tank (i.e., with four full baffles). A conductivity method using sodium chloride (NaCl) as a tracer was used as one the main method to determine mixing time. Experiments in the unbaffled system were conducted by installing one two probes in the mixing vessel (at the wall and midway between the wall and the shaft, respectively). The presence of the conductivity probe(s) had a significant impact on mixing time. Results showed that different mixing times were obtained with the conductivity method depending on the location of the probe(s) and the number of probes. A separate colorimetric method coupled with image processing was additionally used to determine the mixing time. Both methods produced similar results when two probes were present, probably because of the baffling effects introduced by the probes themselves. Results were also obtained for the partial baffled system and the fully baffled system, but only using the conductivity method. Experiments were performed when the agitation speed was varied in order to establish a correlation between mixing time and rotational speed for all systems. The mixing time in the partially baffled system was found to decrease with increasing impeller speeds and the predicted mixing time from regression agreed well with the experimental results. As for the fully baffled system, the mixing time varied in inverse proportion to the agitation speed, as in the typical baffled systems. The non-dimensional mixing number, 095N, was obtained within the speed range of 100-200 rpm for both the partially baffled and the baffled system. In the latter case, 095N was found to be independent of impeller speed, as expected. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF MIXING TIME IN A STIRRED, TORISPHERICAL-BOTTOMED TANK EQUIPPED WITH A RETREAT-BLADE IMPELLER by Nonjaros Chomcharn A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Engineering Otto H. York Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering


One of the implicit aims of higher education is to enable students to become better judges of their own work. This paper examines whether students who voluntarily engage in self-assessment improve in their capacity to make those judgements. The study utilises data from a web-based marking system that provides students with the opportunity to assess themselves on each criterion for each assessment task throughout a programme of study. Student marks were compared with those from tutors to plot changes over time. The findings suggest that overall students' judgements do converge with those of tutors, but that there is considerable variation across achievement levels, with weaker students showing little improvement. Whilst the study is limited by the exigencies of voluntary participation and thus consequential gaps in the data set, it shows how judgement over time can be demonstrated and points to the potential for more systematic interventions to improve students' judgements. It also illustrates the use of the web-based marking and feedback software (ReView) that has considerable utility in aiding self-assessment research.


Echoes of Peace: Anti-War Sentiment in the Iliad and Heike monogatari and Its Manifestation in Dramatic Tradition Tyler A. Creer Department of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature, BYU Master of Arts The Iliad and Heike monogatari are each seen as seminal pieces of literature in Greek and Japanese culture respectively. Both works depict famous wars from which subsequent generations of warriors, poets, and other artists in each society drew their inspiration for their own modes of conduct and creation. While neither work is emphatically pro-war, both were used extensively by the warrior classes of both cultures to reinforce warrior culture and to inculcate proper battlefield behavior. In spite of this, however, both tales contain a strong undercurrent of anti-war sentiment which contrasts sharply with their traditionally seen roles of being tales about warriors and their glorious deeds. This thesis examines these works and details the presence of anti-war sentiment while also highlighting its emergence to greater prominence in later works found within the genres of Greek tragedy and nō theater. Ultimately, the Iliad and Heike monogatari act as foundational sources of anti-war sentiment for the later dramatic works, which poets of both cultures used to decry the woeful effects of war on both combatants and the innocent. By examining the presence of anti-war sentiment in two cultures that share surprising similarities but are widely separated by geography and chronology, we are presented with both a broader and deeper understanding of the effects of warfare on society and of the historical responses of citizen populations to events in war.


This article argues that the method outlined in NATO's Comprehensive Operations Planning Directive (COPD) manual is entirely based on systems theory and describes how to apply the principles for managing system change through comprehensive operations projects. Such systems thinking is based on conceptually different principles than traditional military planning methods. Students must therefore be provided with new conceptual tools to understand and handle the complex planning process outlined in the COPD manual. Thereto, they require knowledge of its founding scientific theories to meet academic standards. The concluding message is that military teachers and students must widen their individual mental frames of reference through a transformational learning process to obtain the comprehensive understanding required to fully manage the COPD process. Moreover, they need to prepare for facilitating dialogues in the less mature comprehensive operations planning teams of real-life situations.


Abstract This paper introduces the responses of two substandard reinforcing details exterior beam-column T connections, which were upgraded by a new retrofitting method using concrete covers and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP). Two reinforced concrete (RC) exterior beam-column connections without transverse reinforcement at the joints were cast and tested. A mix of epoxy resin and 20% thickener was used to glue the first connection (the Strengthened specimen, TS) with the concrete covers around the column at the joint area to modify it from a square to a circular section and then it was wrapped with CFRP to strengthen. A load was first applied on the second connection (the Repaired specimen, TR) to cause a serious failure then it was repaired. The repair scheme of the second connection was identical to the first connection. Results of testing the two connections have shown that the shear strength and ductility of both the strengthened and the repaired connections were improved significantly. The glued concrete covers not only increased the volume of the joint so that increase its shear strength but also helped in increasing the CFRP effectiveness by increasing the confinement effect on the concrete and reduce the possibility of CFRP debonding at the joint regions. © 2013 International Institute for FRP in Construction. ABSTRACT This paper introduces the responses of two substandard reinforcing details exterior beam-column T connections, which were upgraded by a new retrofitting method using concrete covers and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP). Two reinforced concrete (RC) exterior beam-column connections without transverse reinforcement at the joints were cast and tested. A mix of epoxy resin and 20% thickener was used to glue the first connection (the Strengthened specimen, TS) with the concrete covers around the column at the joint area to modify it from a square to a circular section and then it was wrapped with CFRP to strengthen. A load was first applied on the second connection (the Repaired specimen, TR) to cause a serious failure then it was repaired. The repair scheme of the second connection was identical to the first connection. Results of testing the two connections have shown that the shear strength and ductility of both the strengthened and the repaired connections were improved significantly. The glued concrete covers not only increased the volume of the joint so that increase its shear strength but also helped in increasing the CFRP effectiveness by increasing the confinement effect on the concrete and reduce the possibility of CFRP debonding at the joint regions.


Both programs were offered in a face-to-face format at the Merritt campus, and both were a collaborative effort. Implications for establishing and sustaining Aboriginal-focused post-secondary education are identified and discussed in this article, as are the barriers to post-secondary education faced by Aboriginal students and the authors' challenges as non- Aboriginal people engaged in programming across cultures. Additionally, reflections on these initiatives are offered and linkages to key literature on the issue of Aboriginal post- secondary education are identified.


We propose a novel online learning-based framework for occlusion boundary detection in video sequences. This approach does not require any prior training and instead "learns" occlusion boundaries by updating a set of weights for the online learning Hedge algorithm at each frame instance. Whereas previous training-based methods perform well only on data similar to the trained examples, the proposed method is well suited for any video sequence. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed detector both for the CMU data set, which includes hand-labeled occlusion boundaries, and for a novel video sequence. In addition to occlusion boundary detection, the proposed algorithm is capable of classifying occlusion boundaries by angle and by whether the occluding object is covering or uncovering the background.


The basic concept of control system of multitasking interactions between Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0 (MISI-5.5) is presented in order to have a critical thinking or expert thinking for facing a current complex life of man on earth. The integration of internet of things (IoT), big data (BD), and artificial intelligence (AI) associated with living (L), mobility (M), and working (W) of a person on earth was derived based on their unseparated links in the language of a couple three differential equation particularly from the wisdom extracted according to the knowledge and understanding of current sophisticated nanotechnology system. Finally, the relationship between control system and its feedback can be easily formulated in a matrix system so that the whole big picture of such multitasking interactions is obviously understandable. The impacts of this work are applicable to various actions and reactions in many different fields such as herbal medicines, airplanes, robots, birds, animals, or human being because of its fundamental contribution.


Objectives: When managing sport-related concussions (SRC), sports medicine physicians utilize serial neurocognitive assessments and self-reported symptom inventories when evaluating athlete recovery and safety for returning to play (RTP). Since post-concussive RTP goals include symptom resolution and return to neurocognitive baseline, clinical decisions rest on an understanding of modifiers of baseline performance. Several studies have reported the influence of age, gender and sport on baseline neurocognitive performance, but few have assessed the potential effect of sleep. We hypothesized that: 1) athletes receiving less sleep prior to baseline testing would perform worse on neurocognitive metrics; and 2) decreased sleep would have no association with the quantity of reported symptoms. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 3,704 non-concussed athletes, 2,385 male, 3,321 high school and 383 college-aged, with baseline symptom and neurocognitive scores on Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT). Subjects were stratified into three groups based on self-reported sleep duration the night prior to testing; 1) short < 7 hrs, 2) intermediate 7−9 hrs; and 3) long ≥ 9 hrs). Multivariate analysis assessed the influence of categorical sleep duration on the baseline number of reported symptoms and ImPACT performance, with alpha level of 0.05. Results: When controlling for age, gender and sport as covariates, the multivariate analysis of covariances showed a significant association between shorter sleep duration and poorer verbal memory scores (p=0.019), visual memory scores (p=0.035), and reaction time scores (p=0.044), but not for visual-motor scores. Significance was found between shorter sleep duration and increased number of reported symptoms (P < 0.0001). Subsequent pairwise comparisons revealed these associations to be most significant when specifically comparing the short and intermediate sleep groups. Conclusion: Our results indicate that athletes sleeping less than 7 hours prior to testing perform worse on 3 out of 4 neurocognitive ImPACT scores and endorse more symptoms. Because concussion management and RTP decisions hinge on the comparison to a reliable baseline evaluation, sports medicine physicians should strongly consider amount of sleep prior to neurocognitive testing in the assessment of athletes' recovery.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Endothelial function, assessed using brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), predicts future cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This study established age- and sex-specific reference intervals for brachial artery FMD in healthy individuals and examined the relation with CVD risk factors. In a retrospective study design, we pooled brachial artery FMD (acquired according to expert-consensus guidelines for FMD protocol and analysis) and participant characteristics/medical history from 5362 individuals (4–84 years; 2076 females). Healthy individuals (n=1403 [582 females]) were used to generate age-/sex-specific percentile curves. Subsequently, we included individuals with CVD risk factors, without overt disease (unmedicated n=3167 [1247 females] and medicated n=792 [247 females]). Multiple linear regression tested the relation of CVD risk factors (body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and smoking) with FMD. Healthy males showed a negative, curvilinear relation between FMD and age, while females revealed a negative linear relation that started higher but declined at a faster rate than males. Age- and sex-specific differences in FMD relate, at least partly, to baseline artery diameter. FMD was related to CVD risk factors in unmedicated (eg, systolic/diastolic blood pressure) and medicated individuals (eg, diabetes/dyslipidemia). Sex mediated some of these effects (P<0.05), with normalization of FMD in medicated men, but not women with dyslipidemia. In conclusion, sex alters the age-related decline in FMD, which may partly be explained through differences in baseline diameter. Sex also alters the influence of some CVD risk factors and medication on FMD. This work improves interpretation and future use of the FMD technique.


A new joint report from the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that the premature deaths of 550 000 working-age people across European Union countries from chronic diseases, including heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer, cost EU economies EUR 115 billion or 0.8% of GDP annually. This figure does not include the additional loss in terms of lower employment rates and productivity of people living with chronic health problems.

The report, entitled 'Health at a Glance', also explains that while earlier diagnosis and better treatments have substantially increased the share of people surviving these diseases, many countries – including the United Kingdom, Ireland and especially some Central and Eastern European countries – lag behind in terms of cancer survival rates.

'Many more lives could be saved if standards of care are raised to the best level across EU countries' , said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria, launching the report in Brussels with European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis. ' More needs to be done to reduce inequalities in access and quality of care, and European health systems must become more efficient in channelling resources where they have the most impact on health outcomes, including on prevention' .

Health at a Glance: Europe 2016 shows slow growth in health spending in many EU countries in 2015, collectively accounting for 9.9% of EU GDP. Germany, Sweden and France each spent around 11% of GDP on health care, closely followed by the Netherlands and Denmark (at 10.8% and 10.6%, respectively). Countries in the Eastern part of the EU tend to spend much less, with shares ranging from 5% to 6% of GDP.

In all countries, the health spending share of GDP is projected to increase in the coming years due mainly to population ageing and the diffusion …