Four sub-populations with special reference to silking and maturation periods were derived from a broad based CIMMYT population- 31 received from Maxico in the National Coordinated Maize Programme, NARC, Islamabad. The derived populations were LL late silking and late maturity, LE late silking early maturity, EL early silking late maturity and EE early silking early maturity. The crop duration was partitioned into silking and maturity phases to identify short duration maize cultivars with high potential which could be well fitted in various cropping patterns. Maturity was based on black layer formation (BLF). The base population was used for crossing between plants that silked after 47 days of planting and named as early silking. Crosses were also made between plants that silked after 55 days of planting and named them as late silking plants. On the bases of BLF both early and late silking plants were grouped as early and late BLF plants during the following year. Selected groups were crossed to raise 4 sub-populations and finally 40 ears of EE, 20 ears of EL, 16 ears of LL and 39 ears of LE groups were selected and planted during spring 1995. Plants were crossed in all possible combinations within each population and same cycle of selection and hybridization was repeated during Autumn 1995 by selecting 65 ears for EE 40 ears for EL, 30 ears for both LE and LL on the basis of BLF. Crosses were made between the plants silked on the same date in each group and 10 ears from each group were selected for head to progeny rows during spring 1996 and bulk pollination was made among the plants in each group and these populations along with base population were used as experimental material for investigation of variance, genetic gain, heritability, correlation, path coefficient and stability analysis.

The experiment was conducted at three locations; at location I, both agronomic and physiological traits were recorded, whereas at location 11 and location Ill, only agronomic traits were recorded. Significant differences were observed for all the traits at all the three locations except number of ears and oil contents at location I where populations did not differ significantly. The population LL exhibited the highest kernel yield, GFO, EGFO, kernel rows, kernels per plant, leaf area and moisture at harvest. It displayed more kernels per row, plant height, whereas moderate ear height and lowest OMAR. Second population LE gave high kernel yield, kernels per plant, plant height, ear height and highest OMAR and kernels per row, whereas it displayed moderate kernel weight, leaf area moisture at harvest and lowest GFO and EGFO. The population EL had low kernel yield per plant, kernels per row, kernels per plant, plant height, ear height and OMAR, whereas it .showed higher GFO, EGFO, kernel weight and moderate kernel rows, leaf area and moisture at harvest. Population EE depicted lowest kernel yield, kernel weight, leaf area, plant height and MAH, it possessed lower GFD, kernel rows, kernels per row, kernels per plant, ear height and EGFD, whereas it possessed higher DMAR.

High heritability alongwith high genetic advance was recorded for days to silking, black layer formation, GFD, kernel rows, kernels per row, kernels per plant, kernel weight, leaf area, plant height, ear height, kernel yield, EGFD, DMAR, moisture loss rate, moisture loss duration and for moisture at harvest. This indicated the scope of improvement for these characters from broad based population by crossing and simultaneous selection. Moderate heritability and low genetic advance was recorded for LPD and low heritability alongwith low genetic advance were recorded for ears per plant, protein content and oil content. Improvement for these characters from the present material was limited, therefore some novel technique (mutation breeding, wide hybridization & transformation).are suggested to be adopted to improve these important traits.

Interrelationship among various quantitative traits alongwith direct and indirect influence of yield components is an important study for the breeders. Such information may be used in the prediction of the correlated responses to directional selection and in the detection of some traits which may have no value in themselves but are useful as indicators of the more important ones under consideration. Path analysis revealed that kernels per plant showed the highest direct effect on kernel yield followed by DMAR, plant height and EGFD at location-I. Days to black layer formation had highest positive direct effect on kernel yield followed by ear height and kernels per row at location III, whereas at location-II only leaf area expressed high positive direct effect on kernel yield. All these characters are multigenic in nature and influenced by the environment, therefore correlation and path analyses are suggested to be conducted under specific environments for particular material.

Significant correlation between the traits in different populations at all locations revealed positive association of days to silking with maturity period in EE and with kernel rows in EE & EL. Days to black layer formation showed positive association with kernel rows in EE & EL and with GFD in BP, EL & LL. It was observed that both developmental stages had no correlation with kernel yield directly in any population, only significant correlation of days to black layer formation with kernel yield in LE & BP at one location showed high influence of environmental factors. Kernel rows had positive association with kernels per plant in BP, EE, LE & LL and with kernel yield in LE. Kernels per row had positive correlation with kernels per plant in BP & EL and with kernel yield in BP, kernels per plant with kernel yield in all populations and with leaf area in BP, whereas kernel weight displayed negative association with kernels per plant in all populations except BP. Kernel yield could be improved by increasing kernels per plant in all populations, whereas negative association of kernel yield with kernel weight in all the populations needs special breeding techniques to break this undesirable linkage.

Stability analysis indicated that location and population x location interaction were significant for days to black layer formation, kernel weight, leaf area, plant height and ear height. Population-location interaction was significant for days to silking and kernel yield, whereas non-significant variance of location and population-location interaction was observed for kernels per plant. None of the populations possessed bi equal to unity, whereas populations with regression closer to unity were considered stable population. The LE population showed bi value closer to unity for days to silking, days to black layer formation, kernel yield and plant height. The EE population showed bi value closer to unity for days to black layer formation kernel weight, ear height and kernel yield, BP showed for kernels per plant and plant height, and LL for kernel weight and plant height. Population showed bi value greater than unity were LL for days to black layer formation, and kernel yield, LE for kernels per plant, and ear height, EL for days to black layer formation, leaf area, plant height and kernel yield, EE for kernels per plant, leaf area, and ear height, and BP for days to silking, kernel weight, leaf area, and ear height. Populations that displaying negative bi values, were LL for days to silking, leaf area & ear height, LE for leaf area, EL for days to silking, EE for days to silking, and BP for days to black layer formation & kernel yield. Significantly higher S2d were observed for days to silking in EL & BP for kernel weight in LL, EL and EE, for leaf area in LL, EL and BP, for plant height in EL & BP, for ear height in LL, LE, EL & BP and for kernel yield in LE, EL & BP.


Cyanobacterial blooms in source waters are of concern as they can produce some compounds that are aesthetically unpleasant in potable water. Musty-earthy taste and odour compounds 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin are produced by some species of cyanobacteria and actinomycetes. These compounds are low molecular weight volatile tertiary alcohols whose presence in treated water even at low ng L -1 levels can result in consumer complaints. Adsorption onto powdered activated carbon (PAC) is often used to remove these compounds during the treatment process. PAC is very efficient at removing these compounds but the presence of natural organic matter (NOM) reduces the efficiency of the PAC. For effective application of PAC the impact of NOM must be taken into account when determining the required dose. In this study the adsorption of MIB and geosmin from several waters was related to water quality parameters of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), UV absorbance at 254 nm and colour to determine if these could be used to predict adsorption. Results obtained showed that the water quality parameters of DOC and UV absorbance at 254 nm could be useful indicators for MIB and geosmin adsorption, although the relationship appears to be specific to the water source in question.


In this research study, the detection and removal of nalidixic acid by boron nitride nanocluster (B12N12) were investigated using the DFT, infra-red (IR), natural bond orbital (NBO) and frontier molecular orbital (FMO) computations. The calculated negative values of adsorption energy, Gibbs free energy changes, and great amounts of thermodynamic equilibrium constants demonstrated nalidixic acid adsorption on the surface of B12N12 was spontaneous, irreversible and experimentally feasible. The values of adsorption enthalpy changes and specific heat capacity (CV) revealed that, the interaction of the adsorbate and adsorbent was exothermic and B12N12 was an ideal nanostructure for the construction of new thermal sensors for detection of nalidixic acid. The influence of temperature on the thermodynamic parameters was also investigated and the results demonstrated that, the adsorption process was more favorable at room temperature. The NBO results indicated in all of the studied configurations covalent bonds were formed between nalidixic acid and B12N12 and their interaction was chemisorption. The density of states (DOS) spectrums showed that, the bandgap of boron nitride nanocage after the adsorption of nalidixic acid decreased from 14.864 (eV) to 7.314 (eV), indicating that the electrical conductivity of B12N12 improved significantly in the adsorption process and B12N12 is an appropriate sensing material for developing novel electrochemical sensor to nalidixic acid determination. The important structural parameters including chemical hardness, chemical potential, dipole moment, electrophilicity and maximum charge capacity were also computed and discussed in detail.


Abstract. Accurate quantification of the sulphur dioxide (SO2) flux from volcanoes provides both an insight into magmatic processes and a powerful monitoring tool for hazard mitigation, with miniature ultraviolet spectrometers becoming the go-to method for SO2 flux measurements globally. The most common analysis method for these spectrometers is Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS), in which a reference spectrum taken outside the plume is used to quantify the SO2 column density inside the plume. This can lead to problems if the reference spectrum is contaminated with SO2 as this leads to systematic underestimates in the retrieved SO2 column density. We present a novel method, named "iFit", which retrieves the SO2 column density from UV spectra by directly fitting the measured intensity spectrum using a high resolution solar reference spectrum. This has a number of advantages over the traditional DOAS method, primarily by eliminating the requirement for a measured reference spectrum. We show that iFit can accurately retrieve SO2 column densities in a series of test cases, finding excellent agreement with existing methods without the use of a reference spectrum. We propose that iFit is well suited to application to both traverse measurements and permanent scanning stations, and shows strong potential for integration into volcano monitoring networks at observatories.


Law protection to the foreign patent which has been listed in Indonesia similar with the law protection given to Indonesia's patent, it's when there was technology plagiarism to foreign patent listed, there could be accusation of patent cancellation according to Patent Law.
This writing had statement of problems : (1) From the Law No.14 / 2001 about patent perception, should the foreign patent be listed according to the priority rights ? (2) Had the Law No.14 / 2001 about patent given law protection to the foreign patent in Indonesia ?
The writer used juridical-normative research method, which paid attention to the law and existing norm in law form. Data sources were primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected from Patent Law and several related rule to the thesis focus and secondary data from primary law, like books, magazine, paper, Internet, thesis. This final assignment aimed to find out the rights of foreign patent according Law which should be listed according to the priority rights, to find out the application of foreign patent listed in Indonesia.
According to data analysis, there could be concluded that Law protection for foreign patent in this term is foreign patent which was listed by priority rights according to section 27 and 28 Patent Law. The patent listed by priority rights didn't mean that the patent would be prior to be protected. Priority mean that the case which harmed the patent holder in material, like selling, renting or another action used patent without any permission or gave royalty to the legal patent holder, so that it caused loss to the patent holder. Just as happened in foreign patent case owed by Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd with Patent applicant No. 000483 in date 4 October 1991, titled" Micro Capsule which able to release uterus in slow way". This priority application has been rejected by Directorate General of Patent since it had shortage in patent, so that in law, the patent application should be rejected since it didn't fulfill the rule of invention in the section 1, 2, 3, and 5 patent Law.
Foreign patent law was similar with Indonesia Patent. The differences only if the foreign patent in a country should use priority rights as stated in section 4 Paris Convention while in Indonesia Patent Law itself has been arranged in sectio 27 and 28 patent Law. The Law protection to foreign law in Indonesia existed when there was imitation of foreign law technology which had been listed, so there could be stated a patent cancellation. When there was violation which caused loss for foreign patent holder, there could be a civil or criminal case according to the place where the violation existed (locus delicti)
Foreign patent solution could be done by two ways, patent holder could choose court (litigation) or outside court (non-litigation). Solution through court was done by accusation in Civil Law, while outside law conclusion could be done through arbitrage, mediation, and private organization.
The latest conclusion of this law writing was foreign patent should be listed with priority rights, according to section 27 and 28 patent law and the protection of foreign patent is similar with Indonesia patent when there was technology plagiarism to foreign patent listed, there could be a patent cancellation. Conditions stated in section 27 and 28 too much complicated. It wasted time for foreign patent which had interest to list his patent in Indonesia. In patent law, there was no clear and detail arrangement about foreign patent, so that rule about foreign patent in patent law was not sufficient to create law certainty.


Objectives To develop predictive criteria for COVID-19-associated cytokine storm (CS), a severe hyperimmune response that results in organ damage in some patients infected with COVID-19. We hypothesised that criteria for inflammation and cell death would predict this type of CS. Methods We analysed 513 hospitalised patients who were positive for COVID-19 reverse transcriptase PCR and for ground-glass opacity by chest high-resolution CT. To achieve an early diagnosis, we analysed the laboratory results of the first 7 days of hospitalisation. We implemented logistic regression and principal component analysis to determine the predictive criteria. We used a 'genetic algorithm' to derive the cut-offs for each laboratory result. We validated the criteria with a second cohort of 258 patients. Results We found that the criteria for macrophage activation syndrome, haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and the HScore did not identify the COVID-19 cytokine storm (COVID-CS). We developed new predictive criteria, with sensitivity and specificity of 0.85 and 0.80, respectively, comprising three clusters of laboratory results that involve (1) inflammation, (2) cell death and tissue damage, and (3) prerenal electrolyte imbalance. The criteria identified patients with longer hospitalisation and increased mortality. These results highlight the relevance of hyperinflammation and tissue damage in the COVID-CS. Conclusions We propose new early predictive criteria to identify the CS occurring in patients with COVID-19. The criteria can be readily used in clinical practice to determine the need for an early therapeutic regimen, block the hyperimmune response and possibly decrease mortality.


In the present paper integrated stratigraphy and structural
analyses are aimed at the description of a synsedimentary transpressional tectonic event, driving the onset and development of the Early Pliocene Lascari Basin, located NW of the Madonie Mountains(northern Sicily).
Our data show that the transpressive tectonics generated a morphostructural high flanked by a deep and narrow tectonic depression, bounded by steep and tectonically controlled slopes. Within this depression an Early Pliocene fining and deepening upward sedimentary succession was deposited, unconformably overlying the already deformed substrate. The succession is made up of «base-ofslope» breccias, cross-stratified calcarenites, and bathyal limestones
deposited in a high-energy palaeostrait setting. The growth geometry that characterizes the stratal pattern of the deposits suggests the activity of a synsedrimentary transpressional event during the Early Pliocene time.
The roughly E-W trending Lascari Syncline, where the Early
Pliocene syntectonic basin is hosted, belongs to a system of north verging folds, deforming the pre-existing, originally flat thrusts, generated in Langhian-Serravallian time.
This paper presents an original interpretation of the stratigraphic
and structural evolution of the study sector of the Sicily Fold
and Thrust Belt. Our data contribute also to both define the structural
style and constrain the timing of transpressional tectonic event
in northern Sicily. A brief comparison performed between the data
here presented and those coming from adjacent sectors of northern
Sicily suggests that the transpressional tectonics in these sectors of
the chain was active at least since the latest Tortonian till at least the
Late Pliocene.


This paper proposes a range-bound-aware convolution layer that accelerates the inference of rectified linear unit (ReLU)-based convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for analyzing video streams. Since video analysis systems require to process each video frame in real-time, the computational cost of inference of CNNs must be reduced. Several techniques heuristically skip the computation for the current frame and reuse the results of the previous frame when the current and previous frames are sufficiently similar. However, for critical applications such as surveillance systems, their accuracy can be unsatisfactory because they sacrifice accuracy for efficiency. In contrast, our method reduces the computational cost of convolution layers accompanied by ReLU while producing exactly the same inference results as an original model. We utilize both temporal similarity of video frames and activation sparsity in ReLU-based CNNs to guarantee to skip truly redundant computations. We experimentally confirm that our method can accelerate widely used pre-trained CNNs with both CPU and GPU implementations.


Various techniques have been developed for identifying the most probable interactants of a protein under a given biological context. In this article, we dissect the effects of the choice of the protein–protein interaction network (PPI) and the manipulation of PPI settings on the network neighborhood of the influenza A virus (IAV) network, as well as hits in genome-wide small interfering RNA screen results for IAV host factors. We investigate the potential of context filtering, which uses text mining evidence linked to PPI edges, as a complement to the edge confidence scores typically provided in PPIs for filtering, for obtaining more biologically relevant network neighborhoods. Here, we estimate the maximum performance of context filtering to isolate a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) network Ki from a union of KEGG networks and its network neighborhood. The work gives insights on the use of human PPIs in network neighborhood approaches for functional inference.


Abstract:Participation, as a social and political movement, continues to gain momentum, and the legal and sociological frameworks supporting the rights of children and young people to participate in various aspects of social life are now well established. Yet, there are gaps and silences behind the rhetoric of participation that beg closer scrutiny. Such analysis is important in ensuring "participation" is not unproblematically adopted by policy makers and practitioners without regard to the complex and competing agendas at work in its implementation or any clear evidence of the significance or outcomes for the young people involved. This paper explores some of the complexities and ambiguities of participation through the lens of experience in working with a group of young people, 12 to 22 years old, who are actively involved with the Centre for Children and Young People, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia.


Though a large body of literature analyzes commodity markets in general as well as the crude oil market, little work looks at the determinants of gasoline price shocks and which variables contributed to specific historical shocks. Using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model, one can determine how gasoline prices typically respond to shocks in price determinants, how much each variable, on average, contributes to the variation in gasoline, and which variables influenced gasoline prices during particular shocks. This paper proposes a simple SVAR model of the gasoline market and uses the model to determine what caused gasoline prices to decline between June 2014 and February 2015.


Richard C. Sarafian's Vanishing Point (1971) is the apotheosis of the Vietnam-era exploitation/arthouse existentialist road movies produced in the wake of Easy Rider. Vanishing Point is about speed and technology, surveillance and control, acceleration and catastrophe, roads, deserts, and perspective. It explores the compression of time through the acceleration of movement and measures the velocity of a counterculture that has "hopped up" the machinery of repression as it approaches final impact. This essay discusses the film in the context of issues surrounding individual liberty and national security which, while historically specific to the moment of production – the late 1960s and early 1970s – are also provocatively contemporary in their identification of the limits of resistance. Vanishing Point is read as a film that refuses the escapism of the road movie genre and instead pursues the logic of maximum efficiency internalized by the film's protagonist. As such the film questions the libertarian rhetoric of the open road and instead proposes that American fictions of free mobility mask the fact of containment by military-industrial imperatives.


Vygotsky's social-psychological theory of human development and Bakhtin/Volosinov's theory of language and the dialogical nature of thought have received increasing interest in the educational research literature but tend to remain unrelated even where co-citation occurs. In this article, I first present a model that integrates the fundamentally common features in the two approaches and present a table with the correspondences of the theoretical terms across four European languages; the model thereby integrates the psychological and sociological dimensions at the heart of the two approaches. I then articulate and elaborate on six main issues that are relevant to and have implications for research: (a) sensual life as integrative unit, (b) self-movement and development, (c) the nested relations between activity and living utterance, (d) signification, (e) vernacular as the origin and locus of development, and (f) unit analysis.


Taking advantage of the panel structure of the data, the impact of intermarriage on labor market productivity as measured by earnings is examined. Contrarily to previous studies which rely on instrumental variable techniques, selection issues are addressed within a fixed effects framework. The model accounts for short and long term effects as well as general differences between those who intermarry and those who do not. Once unobserved heterogeneity is incorporated, advantageous effects from intermarriage vanish and do not differ from premiums from marriage between immigrants. However, immigrants who eventually intermarry receive greater returns to experience indicating better labor market integration.


ABSTRACT The Paralympic games is a pedagogic, pervasive, political, powerful, and 'popular' cultural site where the heightened visibility of disability bring into being specific forms of disability as they articulate within cultures, institutions and practices. Regarded as a 'positive charge' by Stuart Hall, the Paralympics intends to challenge the devalued disabled body politic of typical disability representation. This has been stimulated by the entry of Channel 4 as the UK Paralympic rights holders in 2012 which has seen greater media coverage of certain technologically enhanced cyborgian parasport bodies and an emerging celebrity / sexualized disability culture. This contemporary moment in disability representation provides a compelling space in which to (re-)address the gendered nature of hyper-visible Parasport hybrids, their potential to disrupt 'normative' relations of power, and, the wider impact on disability politics in a neoliberalised culture of widening and affective circuits of bodily inclusion and control. Drawing on an integrated content and textual analysis of 90 h of Paralympic programming from the Rio 2016 Games we highlight two emblematic segments so as to enhance our appreciation of contemporary disabled politics as it intersects with gender, technology and nation. We analyse these emblematic segments at the intersection of critical disability studies, cultural studies and sport, using concept of ablenationalism to highlight the extent certain technological capacitated parasport bodies perform gendered representational work as part of the seductive apparatus of neoliberal micro-governance suggestive of an emerging ecology of disability-gender relations. In doing so, we highlight the Paralympic contradictions and interrogate the assumed 'positive charge' of the contemporary (re-)presentation of disability.


It is generally believed that a neuron is a threshold element that fires when some variable u reaches a threshold. Here we pursue the question of whether this picture can be justified and study the four-dimensional neuron model of Hodgkin and Huxley as a concrete example. The model is approximated by a response kernel expansion in terms of a single variable, the membrane voltage. The first-order term is linear in the input and its kernel has the typical form of an elementary postsynaptic potential. Higher-order kernels take care of nonlinear interactions between input spikes. In contrast to the standard Volterra expansion, the kernels depend on the firing time of the most recent output spike. In particular, a zero-order kernel that describes the shape of the spike and the typical after-potential is included. Our model neuron fires if the membrane voltage, given by the truncated response kernel expansion, crosses a threshold. The threshold model is tested on a spike train generated by the Hodgkin-Huxley model with a stochastic input current. We find that the threshold model predicts 90 percent of the spikes correctly. Our results show that, to good approximation, the description of a neuron as a threshold element can indeed be justified.


Designing new two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors with high carrier mobilities is highly desirable for material innovation, especially when the configuration has novel topological properties. Here, we proposed a first-principles-based design of a 2D crystal, namely a Be2N6 monolayer. In which, each N atom is shared by two neighboring N atoms and one Be atom, forming a novel moiety of benzene-like N6 rings. Rather than the instability of hexazine, the Be2N6 monolayer has a moderate cohesive energy, good kinetic and thermodynamic stability, due to the stabilization effect of the Be element by forming twelve classical two-centre–two-electron (2c–2e) σ-bonds and five multicenter 6c–2e π-bonds. There are ten π electrons in a unit cell, which satisfies the Huckel rule [4n + 2] (n = 2), indicating the Be2N6 monolayer aromaticity. As a result, the Be2N6 monolayer has an ultra-high mechanical strength of up to 200 J m−2. Particle-swarm optimization (PSO) computations reveal that a cyclo-N6-containing Be2N6 monolayer is the lowest-energy configuration in 2D forms with a stoichiometry of 1 : 3, and therefore could be synthesized experimentally. Furthermore, the Be2N6 monolayer is an indirect semiconductor with a band gap of 1.71 eV at the hybrid functional level, close to that of the bulk amorphous silicon ∼1.6 eV widely used in solar cells. At this point, the high electron mobility of up to ∼104 cm2 V−1 s−1 and visible-light absorption of ∼105 cm−1 are observed for the Be2N6 monolayer. If realized, it will not only enrich the knowledge of the bonding nature of nitrogen but could also have potential applications in electronics and optoelectronics.


The threat posed by the Islamic State[1] is frequently described as unprecedented and unique. Measured by the size of territory it once controlled, its wealth in terms of cash on hand and access to modern military material, and in its shocking brutality, the Islamic State has broken new ground as a terrorist organization. However, the Islamic State is not simply a terrorist organization, but is also a well-equipped insurgent army, and a quasi-state that seized and–with qualified success–operated the bureaucratic institutions of the territories it captured. The Islamic State is often contrasted with its ideological predecessor and operational competitor, al-Qaeda. Highlighting how these organizations differ is helpful in developing effective means of confronting them. In this article, we compare the Islamic State to another terrorist organization the Sendero Luminoso of Peru, to help understand the forces that gave rise to them, sustained them, and ultimately led to Sendero's demise. Through this comparative analysis, we argue that understanding the Islamic State, not simply as a terrorist organization but also as a social movement, allows us to contextualize its violence within patterns evinced by other violent social movements. This approach will also allow us to better understand how the Islamic State might eventually end. Although the military defeat of the Islamic State may be inevitable, the socio-political conditions that gave rise to and sustained it will likely remain and its remnants may very well present a "traditional" terrorist threat for years to come.


Many social networks are predicated on the assumption that a member's online information reflects his or her real identity. In such networks, members who fill their name fields with fictitious identities, company names, phone numbers, or just gibberish are violating the terms of service, polluting search results, and degrading the value of the site to real members. Finding and removing these accounts on the basis of their spammy names can both improve the site experience for real members and prevent further abusive activity. In this paper we describe a set of features that can be used by a Naive Bayes classifier to find accounts whose names do not represent real people. The model can detect both automated and human abusers and can be used at registration time, before other signals such as social graph or clickstream history are present. We use member data from LinkedIn to train and validate our model and to choose parameters. Our best-scoring model achieves AUC 0.85 on a sequestered test set. We ran the algorithm on live LinkedIn data for one month in parallel with our previous name scoring algorithm based on regular expressions. The false positive rate of our new algorithm (3.3%) was less than half that of the previous algorithm (7.0%). When the algorithm is run on email usernames as well as user-entered first and last names, it provides an effective way to catch not only bad human actors but also bots that have poor name and email generation algorithms.


Objectives: Hanging is a common cause of death worldwide as well as a method of suicide with a high fatality rate, In this retrospective study, data were obtained from cases of hanging reported to Department of Forensic Medicine at the province of Basrah, Iraq, in order to analyze the characteristics of hanging, to focus on its distribution by gender, age groups, marital status, the place of occurrence of the incident, ligature types used, autopsy findings and manner of death, and to determine the possible causes of hanging fatalities over the period of the study, in addition to various other associated factors with the aim to find out which individuals are more prone to death by hanging and to explore the potential control and preventive measures. Methodology: Over a period of seven years, from January 2010 to December 2016. data from autopsy reports, together with information from police investigation reports and history obtained from relatives were used in this study. Results: A total of 184 forensic autopsies were conducted on cases of death due to hanging during the period of the study. The highest proportion of hanging cases was suicidal in nature (86%). Twenty eight percent of the suicidal hanging victims were in their 3 decade of life, and the incidence rate of hanging among female and male victims was almost equal, female to male ratio was 1.1:1. Conclusion: Hanging is a common cause of suicide in our society, especially among young individuals. Prevention of death by hanging is not easy since different types of materials can be used as a ligature.


This draft chapter for an edited volume asks whether judicial review of agency action prevents or facilitates agency capture and, to the extent it fails to prevent capture, asks how judicial review could be redesigned to more effectively police agency capture. Judicial review's effectiveness at controlling capture depends heavily on the definition and pattern of regulatory capture and the chapter starts by identifying different definitions of capture. The chapter then examines whether judicial controls are effective at detecting and policing capture. It argues that judicial controls are in some ways better at preventing capture than political controls, but in other ways such controls are poorly suited to police capture. The chapter then identifies several features of judicial controls on administration that could be altered to improve its capacity to police capture, but also argues that, if the goal is preventing agency capture, judicial review has some inherent limitations.


Tourism in Cornwall represents over 24% of Cornwall's annual GDP. It is "the county's largest single industry", providing work for one in five Cornish inhabitants, and is responsible for almost a quarter of the money the county makes each year (Objective One, 2001, p. 10). However, in its current form, this vibrant but carbon-intensive business sector does not contribute to low-carbon development in Cornwall. It remains un-sustainable in a number of environmental, social and economic ways (Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, 2011a; 2014b). Thus, there isa recognized need for "sustainable tourism" (Butler, 1999), also defined as "ethical and responsible tourism" (Goodwin et al, 2003), due to the global growth of tourism and its various damaging by-products.

According to Moscardo (1996) and Pearce (2005), one of the most effective ways to achieve sustainability in tourism is by influencing the behaviour and attitudes of visitors and tourism operators. Therefore, distinguishing Tourism as a form of consumption, this research project studies tourists as consumers, and aims at encouraging sustainable consumption in order to promote sustainable tourism in Cornwall.

Since human behaviour, not technology, lies at the heart of sustainable consumption, this project addresses the challenge of promoting sustainable tourism from a behavioural point of view, not a technical one; understanding and influencing the behaviour of tourists visiting Cornwall towards more environmentally and socially friendly patterns. More specifically, due to the fact that sustainable consumption requires sustainable behaviour not just at the 'point-of-sale' but most importantly during the 'use-phase' of a product/service/system's lifecycle (Pettersen and Boks, 2008, p.119), this project focuses on influencing C02-related Human-Artefact interactions within the context of Cornish accommodation-provision industry, the second largest sector of Tourism that contributes to C02 emissions and climate change (Cohen et al, 2014).

In the contemporary framework of sustainable design, many authors argue for the importance of design as a powerful means of furthering behaviour change towards more sustainable practices (Lilley, 2009; Thackara, 2005; Walker, 2006; Bhamra et al. 2008). Thus, this research project addresses social and environmental issues as they pertain to Tourism and aims to demonstrate the importance of Sustainable Design as a medium to change touristic behaviour, lessen its impact and support sustainability in Tourism. As original design research, this thesis draws upon a multi-disciplinary literature review, including the emerging field of 'Design for Sustainable Behaviour' (DfSB), Behavioural Economics (Dolan et al's 'MINDSPACE model'), Environmental and Social Psychology, Social Science (Cialdini's 'Six Universal Laws of Influence'), and Community-based Social Marketing, bringing together their developed understandings on what it takes to communicate and influence human behaviour, along with illustrated examples, into a comprehensive chart called "Elements of Persuasion".

In turn, "Elements of Persuasion" creates the basis upon which new knowledge is consolidated in the form of a webtool called "Triggers for Change"; a digital platform, developed and evaluated through an iterative Human-Centred Design process, that aims to become an online resource framework for the Cornish tourism industry, that improves the persuasiveness of their sustainability communications with tourists visiting Cornwall. This would therefore minimise the industry's contribution to C02 emissions and climate change and, thus, further Sustainable Tourism in Cornwall


Social norms predict health behaviors of adults and adolescents. We aimed to determine if parents' beliefs about social norms were associated with children's exposure to three behavioral risk factors. We asked 648 parents of children ages 0-18 years old attending two pediatric practices about their children's exposure to smoking at home. Parents of 341 parents with children >2 years old were also asked about insufficient dental care, and 435 with children aged >12 months about their children's sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption. Children were categorized as "at risk" or "not at risk" for each factor.The primary outcome was the parent-reported estimate of neighborhood prevalence of those same risk factors.Of eligible participants, 8% reported smoking at home, 23% that their child hadn't seen a dentist for 6 months, and 35% that their child drank SSBs once a day or more. In multivariate analyses, parents with children in the "at risk" group estimated that the prevalence of each risk factor was higher in their neighborhood, than did participants with children in the "not at risk" group: difference of 12.2% [95% CI, 5.8%-18.6%] for tobacco-smoke exposure, 18.6% [95% CI, 10.7%-26.5%] for lack of regular dental visits and 12.1% [95% CI, 5.1%-19.0%] for SSB consumption (P<0.001 for all comparisons).Parents of children exposed to three behavioral risk factors reported higher perceived prevalence of each risk factor compared to parents of children not at risk. Addressing parents' social norms beliefs could help promote healthier behaviors of children.


Recent findings suggest that humans treat computers in a social way. Affect lies at the core of our social behavior; therefore, to capture this social nature of human interaction with computers and to provide a systematic way of including affect into such systems, we propose TAME an integrative framework of affective agent behavior. This paper describes psychological and mathematical foundations for each of the TAME components: personality Traits, Attitudes, Moods and Emotions. An experiment to assess effectiveness of the proposed framework is also presented.


Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children. The most common of these are medulloblastomas, highly aggressive tumors that arise in the cerebellum and whose molecular etiology is poorly understood. Berman et al. show that initiation and continued growth of these tumors requires the Hedgehog (Hh) cellular signaling pathway. Treatment of mice with cyclopamine, a plant-derived molecule that inhibits Hh signaling, caused regression of medulloblastomas with no apparent side effects; thus, small-molecule antagonists of Hh may merit investigation as a new therapy for human medulloblastoma. D. M. Berman, S. S. Karhadkar, A. R. Hallahan, J. I. Pritchard, C. G. Eberhart, D. N. Watkins, J. K. Chen, M. K. Cooper, J. Taipale, J. M. Olson, P. A. Beachy, Medulloblastoma growth inhibition by Hedgehog pathway blockade, Science 297, 1559-1561 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Why are sperm small and eggs large? The dominant explanation for the evolution of gamete size dimorphism envisages two opposing selection pressures acting on gamete size: small gametes are favoured because many can be produced, whereas large gametes contribute to a large zygote with consequently increased survival chances. This model predicts disruptive selection on gamete size (i.e. selection for anisogamy) if increases in zygote size confer disproportional increases in fitness (at least over part of its size range). It therefore predicts that increases in adult size should be accompanied by stronger selection for anisogamy. Using data from the green algal order Volvocales, we provide the first phylogenetically controlled test of the model's predictions using a published phylogeny and a new phylogeny derived by a different method. The predictions that larger organisms should (i) have a greater degree of gamete dimorphism and (ii) have larger eggs are broadly upheld. However, the results are highly sensitive to the phylogeny and the mode of analysis used.


Background/Context Current estimates show 2,500 Islamic State (IS) jihadists are from the United States, Australia, and Western Europe. How and in what ways formal schooling influences the radicalization process and the development of extremist worldviews is yet to be fully understood. There is little research that explores how religious schooling educates against radical thought and behavior and this article reports findings from a qualitative case study of an Islamic school in the United States that counters religious extremism through the promotion and development of an American Muslim identity in its students, an ideology that advances the idea that an individual can be wholly American and wholly Muslim without any incongruity. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study The purpose of this research was to explore one American Islamic school's efforts to counter religious extremism through the promotion and development of an American Muslim identity in its students. Two research questions guided this inquiry: (a) How does one American Islamic school attempt to develop and promote anti-extremist beliefs and behaviors through their development of an American Muslim identity in its students? (b) How is this reflective of Davies' Critical Idealism XvX Model? Research Design For this qualitative case study, data were gathered and analyzed using Lynn Davies' Critical Idealism XvX Model, which contrasts formal education that teaches anti-extremism to education that may teach extremist worldviews. Findings/Results The findings suggested that this Islamic school's focus on American Muslim identity reflected the components and values put forth in Davies' framework that supported anti-extremist education and thereby thwarted extremist ideologies of single-truths, silencing, obedience, utopian excellence, political ignorance, and pure identities. Establishing a "good fit" for teachers, parents, and students were essential and parents with extremist or fundamentalist ideologies tended to disenroll their children. This study also suggested that Davies' Critical Idealism XvX Model may be a useful framework for exploring religious education. Conclusions/Recommendations The school's administrators believed in the need to re-envision the American Muslim community—moderate in outlook, resonant with American values, participative with community, and supportive and welcoming of diversity. In doing so, the school delivered an anti-extremist education that promoted social integration, democratic values, and acceptance of diversity. This moderate outlook is counter to prevailing stereotypes and thus it is imperative that research continues to explore the role formal schooling plays in educating for or against extremism.


Guest Editorial Technological advances in biomedical imaging are providing unprecedented opportunities for improving our understanding of biological processes and revealing the anatomical and functional organization of biological systems, from macro- to nano-scales. Research in this area is progressing at an extraordinary rate and is becoming more and more interdisciplinary. The IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) was initiated to bring together researchers from the medical and biological imaging communities and to provide an effective forum for multidisciplinary interactions. The first meeting was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Washington, DC, July 7-10, 2002. It was organized jointly by the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) and co-sponsored by National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of the Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), representing the first IEEE-NIH collaborative effort on a major imaging conference. The symposium was focused on the engineering aspects of biomedical imaging while promoting an integrative approach through all scales of observation. It successfully brought together a large group of biomedical imaging researchers and practitioners (535 participants) with different backgrounds to share their knowledge and to address the latest challenges in data acquisition, image reconstruction, image processing, analysis, and visualization. A highlight of the symposium was the inspired opening address by Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the newly appointed director of the NIH. He stressed the importance of imaging for the biomedical sciences and expressed a strong interest in the conference. Dr. Zerhouni is very much in favor of collaborations between engineers and biomedical scientists, having experienced them first hand as a radiologist. He holds several patents related to imaging and is widely known for having introduced magnetic resonance tagging as a diagnostic tool for assessing heart function. Another noted NIH speaker was Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, who will become NIBIB's first permanent director in September 2002. He opened the first session by expressing his strong support for ISBI; he also explained the mission of NIBIB in which imaging will play a major role. The scientific program of the conference consisted of 3 plenary talks, 10 special sessions, 19 oral sessions, and 6 poster sessions over three days. The plenary talks, one on each day, covered topics from molecular imaging (by Michael Phelps, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Medicine), functional imaging (by Alan Koretsky, NIH), to medical image analysis (by Michael Brady, University of Oxford, U.K.). The first two talks reviewed and discussed the latest developments in imaging modalities and applications, while the latter illustrated the power and potential of image processing and analysis algorithms. The special sessions, consisting of invited papers and sponsored by NIBIB, were a unique feature of the conference. They covered a wide range of topics: "Model-Based Image Segmentation and Analysis" (organized by Christos Davatzikos), "Microarray Image Processing and Analysis" (organized by Bin Yu and Dan Bartell), "Optical Coherence Tomography" (organized by Stephen Boppart and Rene Salathe), "Micro Imaging" (organized by Erik Ritman and Francoise Peyrin), "Brain Connectivity and Functional Assessment" (organized by Peter Basser and John George), "Nonrigid Registration" (organized by Benoit Dawant), "Fast Acquisition and Sampling in MRI" (organized by Yoram Bresler), "Electron Microscopy" (organized by Benes Trus), "In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging" (organized by John Hoffman and Gary Kelloff), and "Federal Funding Opportunities for Biomedical Imaging Research" (organized by Richard Swaja, NIH/NIBIB). In addition to the invited program, a total of 355 papers were submitted to the symposium, of which 73 were accepted for oral presentation and 142 for poster presentation. The acceptance rate for contributed papers was about 60%. The papers of the symposium are published in IEEE conference proceedings; they will be included in the IEEEXplore database which is searchable through the WEB. There are many indications that ISBI fulfills a strong need of the biomedical imaging community. Many participants expressed enthusiastic support for the conference. It was felt that the time was ripe for IEEE to have its flagship conference on biomedical imaging. In charge of planning the next meeting are Christian Roux (representing EMBS) and Richard Leahy (representing SPS). It is our belief and hope that the next ISBI, to be held in Washington, DC, once again, will be even more successful in serving our community. Efforts will be made to increase the participation and the level of cross fertilization between the medical and biological imaging communities. ISBI may also play an important role in graduate education and training, as it is often impossible for a single institution to develop a comprehensive biomedical imaging curriculum covering all the modalities and applications. It is, therefore, desirable that future ISBI's include a one-day pre-conference event with tutorials and short courses covering not only imaging fundamentals, but also emerging technologies and applications. In closing, we may say that ISBI was a success, partly due to timing, location, and the fact that the conference responded to a need of the engineering community. However, nothing could have happened without the hard work, creativity, and involvement of the volunteers. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire organizing committee, the program committee, the special session chairs, and the external reviewers for their large commitment of time and effort. All administrative matters were handled by the staff of both SPS and EMBS under the leadership of their executive directors, Mercy Kowalczyk and Laura Wolf. The technical program chairs were Jeffrey Fessler (for SPS) and Michael Vannier (for EMBS), with additional support provided by the special sessions chairs Erik Meijering and Jean-Louis Coatrieux and the NIBIB representative on the committee, Richard Swaja, who played a crucial role in involving the NIH. We do not know how to thank them enough for having helped us to turn what initially looked like a nice idea into a reality.


In this paper, a procedure for identifying the transfer functions of Park's dq-axis model of a synchronous generator has been developed for analyzing automotive charging systems. This application note focuses on one particular aspect of charging system design: alternator/regulator performance. This voltage regulated power system must operate satisfactorily under extreme transient conditions. Two of these transients, a load-dump condition (heavy electrical load switching with a disconnected battery), and an engine rapid crankshaft speed-up, are examined. It will be shown that the parameters of this model can be easily identified from standstill timedomain data. The validity of the theoretical model has been verified by comparing time-domain simulations with measurements taken from the direct-drive synchronous generator.


This article analyzes and discusses the governance or decision-making structure of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) within the European Banking Union, particularly with respect to financing of the Single Resolution Fund and adoption of resolution schemes. The governance structure of the SRM is undoubtedly complex. It is clearly a compromise, desperately trying to strike a balance between the interests of individual Member States within the Eurozone, the interests of the Eurozone or the EU as a whole, and, sometimes, the interests of Member States outside the Eurozone. Certain aspects of the complexity are however due to technical reasons of EU law, particularly the Meroni-doctrine. The SRM's governance structure features several layers of complexity. The SRM's complex governance structure may well have a negative impact on the effectiveness of decision-making within the SRM framework – efficient, impartial, decisive and quick decision-making is obviously crucial in the case of bank resolution.


N2 fixation and ammonia oxidation (AO) are the two most important processes in the nitrogen (N) cycle of biological soil crusts (BSCs). We studied the short-term response of acetylene reduction assay (ARA) rates, an indicator of potential N2 fixation, and AO rates to temperature (T, -5°C to 35°C) in BSC of different successional stages along the BSC ecological succession and geographic origin (hot Chihuahuan and cooler Great Basin deserts). ARA in all BSCs increased with T until saturation occurred between 15 and 20°C, and declined at 30–35°C. Culture studies using cyanobacteria isolated from these crusts indicated that the saturating effect was traceable to their inability to grow well diazotrophically within the high temperature range. Below saturation, temperature response was exponential, with Q10 significantly different in the two areas (~ 5 for Great Basin BSCs; 2–3 for Chihuahuan BSCs), but similar between the two successional stages. However, in contrast to ARA, AO showed a steady increase to 30–35°C in Great Basin, and Chihuhuan BSCs showed no inhibition at any tested temperature. The T response of AO also differed significantly between Great Basin (Q10 of 4.5–4.8) and Chihuahuan (Q10 of 2.4–2.6) BSCs, but not between successional stages. Response of ARA rates to T did not differ from that of AO in either desert. Thus, while both processes scaled to T in unison until 20°C, they separated to an increasing degree at higher temperature. As future warming is likely to occur in the regions where BSCs are often the dominant living cover, this predicted decoupling is expected to result in higher proportion of nitrates in soil relative to ammonium. As nitrate is more easily lost as leachate or to be reduced to gaseous forms, this could mean a depletion of soil N over large landscapes globally.


Paying particular attention to legal and organizational aspects, this article attempts to analyze transboundary institution-building within the context of European integration and changes in European regional policy. Based on a short case study of the Dutch-German EUREGIO, it is argued that new EC regional development programs and national government support have helped this border area association define strategies enabling it to circumvent legal technicalities, establishing defacto (although not dejure) public agencies responsible for coordinating transboundary cooperation efforts. Additionally, the EUREGIO and other Dutch-German border area associations have vigorously pursued transboundary economic development schemes that have tended to cement working relationships and elicit central government support. Europe's progress in transboundary cooperation must be viewed in the context of developments taking place there, especially the growth of a unitary market and political and economic union. Nevertheless, it is suggested that North American border regions may be able to learn from European experience - particularly in the light of the North American Trade Agreement - developing strategies that mobilize local political sentiment and help overcome the influence of ideologies of national sovereignty at regional, state and national levels.


Between time and art there are multiple relationships, which are on one hand characterized by the phenomenal or theoretical perspective on time and on the other hand by the various modi of artistic symbolizing. When in the eighteenth century the concept of art has been developed, which formed the base of the philosophical discussion until today, a division of arts according to their spatial or temporal features has been conceived. Quite important in our days is the theory of "Performative Aesthetics" of works of art. Four aspects or levels can be distinguished. 1) Syntactically one has to investigate, whether and in what sense time or elements of temporal structures constitute not only trivially but in a specific and irreducible sense the symbolization of works of art. In this context one may ask, whether it would be more adequate to speak of space- time. 2) Semantically (in the narrow sense) the question is about time as the sphere of reference for art. In this respect one has to differentiate whether the experience of time or scientific and philosophical theories of time can be the object of artistic symbolization. Regarding to the "phenomenal time" e.g. a first-person-perspective on time is presupposed , that refers to the "future" or the "past" of somebody. If the question is about a philosophical theory of time a structure of time could be the object of artistic representation, in which e.g. from the third-person- perspective the "before-afterwards"- relation of time is represented. What the "question about time" means in this context, whether a translation from a theoretical to an artistic system of symbolization of time is possible and what would be the modus of this symbolization, are considerations that concern the para-theoretical or pre-theoretical status of artistic propositions. The last example includes 3) a further level of argumentation, the aspect of the self-referential syntactic-semantic entanglement. If a conception of time is transformed into a work of art, then it must be transposed by the artistic symbolization. Symbolizing space-time must be understood as being not only a denotation, but also a (self- )expression and examplification. The artistic proposition refers to elements of "time" in such a way that it deals with time as a theme and/ or it is about time expressing elements of time exemplified by its own artistic form. 4) On the onto- semantic level every work of art is and becomes "real" within the event of (production and) reception. "Work of art" is to be understood as a 3-place relation of symbolization as an aesthetic process. Thus, the performative factor is brought back to the intrinsic 3-place relation that constitutes the work of art and this implies that every work of art possesses and shows and performs space-time as an elementary condition of sensual cognition (and therefore of the work of art itself). With this concept of work of art the claim of "performative Aesthetics" - "destructing" the traditional work of art turns out to be void. Work of art is an irreducible onto-semantic constellation insofar it reflects in its self-referential and intrinsic performative mode of symbolization the conditions of constitution of the empirical reality and cognition.


A sequence of completely positive maps can be decomposed into quantum trajectories. The geometric phase or holonomy of such a trajectory is delineated. For nonpure initial states, it is shown that well-defined holonomies can be assigned by using Uhlmann's concept of parallel transport along the individual trajectories. We put forward an experimental realization of the geometric phase for a quantum trajectory in interferometry. We argue that the average over the phase factors for all quantum trajectories that build up a given open system evolution, fails to reflect the geometry of the open system evolution itself.


Complement is an ancient component of immunity, playing a primary role in defending against pathogens as part of the innate immune system. Mannose-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2 (MASP-2) is a critical component of the lectin complement pathway and cleavage of its substrates C2 and C4 contributes to the formation of a key complement component, the C3 convertase. MASP-2 has been implicated in a number of inflammatory diseases, thus the development of inhibitors of MASP-2 presents a potential route for prevention and/or treatment of these diseases. The structure of MASP-2 in complex with C4 confirmed the location of an accessory binding site (exosite) on the complement control protein (CCP) domains and revealed a potential exosite on the serine protease (SP) domain. This study sought to quantitate the contribution of these MASP-2 exosites to the kinetic mechanism of interaction between the enzyme and C4. This was done by mutating selected residues from the CCP and SP domain exosites and measuring the effects on C4 binding and cleavage efficacy using a variety of methods. The role of the CCP domain exosite in high affinity binding and efficient cleavage of C4 was confirmed and it was shown to play a major role in the initial interaction with C4. A naturally occurring mutation in the CCP2 domain that has been linked to a number of chronic infectious diseases, D371Y, did not impair efficient cleavage of C2 and C4, nor was the activation by MASP-1 or MASP-2 affected. The effect of the mutation in the context of the disease linkages is thus unknown. The potential SP domain exosite was shown to be a functional exosite, with residues R578 and R583 shown to be necessary for efficient C4 binding and cleavage. The SP domain exosite was also shown to play the major role in a secondary conformational change between MASP-2 and C4 required to form a high affinity complex. The serine protease inhibitor (serpin), C1 inhibitor (C1-INH) is known to be the main endogenous inhibitor of MASP-2. C1-INH activity can be enhanced through the binding of polyanionic molecules, such as the naturally occurring glycosaminoglycan, heparin. The polyanionic molecule, polyphosphate (polyP), has recently been found to reduce complement activity and may represent a more potent enhancer than heparin of C1-INH activity. Heparin and long chain polyP (>1000 units) were both shown to bind to MASP-2, with the SP domain exosite shown to play a key role in this process. Platelet-length polyP (70-120 units) was found to have no effect on C1-INH activity against MASP-2 at physiological concentrations and had an inhibitory effect on C1-INH activity at higher concentrations. Heparin had an inhibitory effect on C1-INH activity, even at lower concentrations. Further study into the effects of polyP size on C1-INH activity is required to determine if polyP represents a more potent enhancer of C1-INH activity against MASP-2 than heparin. The results from this study provide information on the regulation of MASP-2 activity that may be used to design potential therapeutics to regulate the enzyme in inflammatory diseases.


Lymphatic filariasis caused by Wuchereria bancrofti is major public health problem in tropical and subtropical countries including Nigeria. The real burden of the disease in most endemic regions remains unknown. The nocturnal periodicity of the parasites requires parasitological examination to be done at night and this is quite cumbersome. The World Health Organization recently recommended two rapid methods for the assessment of lymphatic filariasis (RAGFIL). These RAGFILS methods i.e. using community health workers and key informants were used to rapidly map lymphatic filariasis in Akinyele Local Government area of Oyo State Nigeria. The prevalence of hydrocele and elephantiasis was highly sensitive in identifying this community as endemic for filariasis. The degree of association between finding by health workers and information obtained form the community key informants was high for the two major clinical manifestation of the disease used. Community key informants and health workers did provide useful information on the prevalence of clinical filariasis. These observations suggest that the mean number of cases obtained in the village through key informants and the examination of health workers for the clinical signs of the disease may be considered at an initial level to identify endemic areas. The need to extend this method to rapidly map lymphatic filariasis in Nigeria is discussed. Key words: Lymphatic, Filariasis, Rapid, Mapping, Assessment and Health workers.
Afr. J. Clin. Exper. Microbiol. 2004; 5 (3): 231-234


Abstract - The aim of this paper is to explain the technical choices that EDF R&D took and concrete building blocks that we are developing in order to build gradually a Smart Grid architecture in France and Europe. The technical choices regarding models are based on a model driven engineering approach relying on business information models like CIM (Common Information Model), 61850 and COSEM (Companion Specification for Energy Metering). The technical choices regarding architectures are based on Service Oriented Architecture. The paper illustrates what we are currently experimenting at EDF R&D and some methods or building blocks that we promote either at the level of European projects or at the IEC level.


Late Cretaceous mesofossils are described from the Zliv-Řídká Blana locality in the South Bohemian Basins, the Czech Republic. Angiosperm remains dominate the fossil assemblage both in terms of taxonomic diversity and quantitatively, with about 65 different species based on about 1,000 specimens of flowers, fruits and seeds. There are surprisingly few nonangiosperm species in the flora, with only four specimens assigned to bryophytes, ferns and conifers. There are no megaspores of Selaginellales or Salviniales, which are otherwise common in many Cretaceous mesofossil floras. Among angiosperms, flowers and fruits assigned to the Normapolles group (Fagales) and to the Ericales are particularly prominent. In systematic composition as well as general organization and size of the angiosperm reproductive organs, the Zliv-Řídká Blana mesofossil flora is comparable to other Late Cretaceous mesofossil floras collected from various regions of Laurasia. In addition to the plant remains, the fossil assemblage also includes insect eggs and coprolites.


Stellaria apetala (= Stellaria pallida) was obviously largely overlooked in the Taunus (Germany, state of Hesse). A targeted search on 25 cemeteries carried out in April 2018 provided 16 finds, includ-ing first evidence for 4 TK 25 and additionally for 5 quadrants. The species was predominantly found in the Stellaria pallida-Veronica arvensis community described by GRIESE (1999), which is a small-scale, closely interlocked mosaic of lawns of the alliance Cynosurion, and of therophyte assemblies of the class Koelerio-Corynephoretea. In the cemeteries of the Taunus, Stellaria apetala also grows in pure therophyte communities and in margins of tree feet. Only once it was found in a pure Cynosurion community.


This paper reviews literature related to the international student population found in universities and colleges in the United States (U.S.). More specifically, adjustment issues, common stressors, and coping strategies of international students are explored. Multicultural counseling issues and the help-seeking behavior of international students are addressed. Methods in which college counselors and personnel can assist international students in achieving a positive experience are also discussed. Finally, suggestions for further research are made. ********** Multicultural Challenge of College Counselors College counselors often need to modify traditional counseling theories and techniques to meet the particular needs of individual clients. Traditionally, psychology and counseling theories have included cultural specific assumptions that contain universal definitions of what constitutes normal behavior. They typically favor individualism over the ideals of collectivism (Sadeghi, Fischer, & House, 2003). Counseling strictly from these theoretical frameworks may not be suitable for those clients who do not hold the beliefs and values espoused by these theories. The notion of universality of counseling theories and techniques has been questioned by many. There may be a need to modify these traditional approaches to include culturally inclusive or specific considerations. While a need for modification of traditional counseling approaches and a mastery of multicultural competencies may exist, mastering the basic premises of traditional counseling competencies may be needed in order to successfully utilize multicultural competencies (Fuertes & Bartolomeo, 2001). With the diversification of the United States (U.S.), college counselors will inevitably be faced with counseling culturally diverse clients. In order to effectively meet the needs of these clients, college counselors need to step out of the traditional role of a counselor. Becoming competent in multicultural issues, values, and beliefs of diverse clients may aid college counselors when working with a diverse population. Vinson and Neimeyer (2000) suggested an increase in racial identity development may consequently lead to an increase in multicultural counseling competency. Sue and Sue (2003) discussed the notion of what it means to be a culturally competent counselor. These components included possessing awareness of one's own cultural biases, pursuing knowledge about a client's culture, and actively seeking out skills and techniques that are culturally sensitive. Competency, according to Pedersen (1987), can also include the avoidance of reductionism in the counseling process. In other words, attempts should be made not to substitute cultural stereotypes for the phemenological perspective of each client. The pursuit of cultural competency is an active and indefinite one. College counselors who do not challenge, explore, or become aware of their own culturally learned assumptions may not be practicing within the principles of suitable counseling (Pedersen, 1990). The Presence of International Students in Higher Education It is reported that in the 2003-2004 school year international students made up 4.3% of U.S. higher education enrollment. That is a total of 572,509 international students enrolled in colleges or universities across the United States. This was a slight decline from the following year where the international student population accounted for 4.6% of higher education enrollment, totaling 586,323 international students (Open Doors, 2004). Nonetheless, the presence of international students in U.S. institutions is prevalent. These students bring both cultural diversity and economic advantages to the U.S. Open Doors reported that many colleges and universities are called to meet the needs of and provide for a successful and beneficial experience for these students. International Students Adapting to a New Culture Adjustment Issues When coming to the U. …


Due to compressibility, reactivity, evaporation and mixing, the gas species concentration varies significantly along the intake and exhaust pipes of an engine. An understanding of this behavior is vital to correctly predict catalyst performance because the behavior of a catalyst very much depends on the instantaneous local species concentrations, rather than those in the cylinder. Also, knowing this behavior is more important to assess the effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The objective of this research is to develop a tool that is capable of predicting the instantaneous species concentration throughout the entire intake and exhaust system, and to lay out a foundation to model catalysts in the near future. This is done by first developing a complete engine cycle simulation model that is able to accurately predict wave dynamics in the piping system. Then, species tracking is accomplished by solving the species conservation equations. The twelve species formed due to combustion commonly seen in engine applications are studied. Comparisons with experimental data using the current model are made, and reasonable agreements are obtained.


In the present study, a series of in-plane quasi-static tensile and compressive tests are carried out on a commercial Fiberglass/Phenolic hexagonal cell honeycomb core at elevated temperatures to investigate the high temperature mechanical responses of the bulk core under large deformations. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) testing is also conducted on the core cell walls to determine the temperature dependence of the mechanical properties of the constituents of the core. A 3D non-linear finite element model (FEM) with large displacements of the repetitive unit cell is employed in which the cell walls, node bond adhesive layers and adhesive fillets at the intersections of the cell walls are modeled based on the measured geometry of a commercial Fiberglass/Phenolic honeycomb core. The homogenized stress-strain curves obtained from test data for uniaxial tension and compression loadings along the ribbon and transverse directions at different temperatures are compared with finite element predictions. It is shown that, by increasing the temperature, the honeycomb core responses to applied displacements become softer in both the ribbon and transverse directions, which are attributed to the degradation of phenolic resin used in the cell wall matrix and node bond adhesive. The predictions of the finite element model are in good agreement with the test data.


&NA; The purposes of this study were to investigate the differences in mechanical properties of major miniplating systems used for noncompression miniplate osteosynthesis of mandibular fractures and to determine whether these properties influence treatment outcome. The study was conducted in two parts. First, six of the major miniplate systems currently used at the Royal Adelaide Hospital were subjected to bending tests at the University of Adelaide Engineering Department to quantify the relative stiffness of each plate. Second, a prospective sample of patients presenting with mandibular fractures was analyzed. These patients were treated with a variety of the miniplating systems. The results of treatment as a whole were compared to identify any direct benefit consequent on the miniplate selected. While significant differences in stiffness were identified between the plating systems, no significant differences in treatment outcome were identified between the noncompression plates employed. Since no observable benefits have been identified by choice of miniplate, selection should be based on surgical preference, biocompatibility, CT compatibility, and unit cost. Because of the variations in materials, design, properties, CT compatibility, and unit cost, it is important not to regard all miniplates as equal and interchangeable. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 97: 1150, 1996.)


A new facile colloidal synthesis of CuBiS2 (CBS) nanocrystals with monodispersed size and good quality has been developed. The CBS nanocrystal films were deposited by solid-state ligand exchange and their field effect transistor and photoconductive characteristics were characterized. The prototype solar cell has presented a decent performance. The suitable bandgap and highly appealing photoresponsivity demonstrate the as-synthesized CBS nanocrystals as an alternative to existing Cd- and Pb-containing nanocrystals for optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices.


AIM
To evaluate the effectiveness of an individually tailored oral health educational programme for oral hygiene self-care in patients with chronic periodontitis compared with the standard treatment.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A randomized, evaluator-blinded, controlled trial with two different active treatments were used with 113 subjects (60 females and 53 males) randomly allocated to an experimental or a control group. The individually tailored oral health educational programme was based on cognitive behavioural principles and the individual tailoring for each participant was based on participants' thoughts, intermediate, and long-term goals, and oral health status. The effect of the programmes on gingivitis [gingival index (GI)], oral hygiene [plaque indices (PlI) and self-report], and participants' global rating of treatment was evaluated 3 and 12 months after oral health education and non-surgical treatment.

RESULTS
Between baseline and the 12-month follow-up, the experimental group improved both GI and PlI more than the control group. The mean gain-score difference was 0.27 for global GI [99.2% confidence interval (CI): 0.16-0.39, p<0.001] and 0.40 for proximal GI (99.2% CI: 0.27-0.53, p<0.001). The mean gain-score difference was 0.16 for global PlI (99.2% CI: 0.03-0.30, p=0.001), and 0.26 for proximal PlI (99.2% CI: 0.10-0.43, p<0.001). The subjects in the experimental group reported a higher frequency of daily inter-dental cleaning and were more certain that they could maintain the attained level of behaviour change.

CONCLUSION
The individually tailored oral health educational programme was efficacious in improving long-term adherence to oral hygiene in periodontal treatment. The largest difference was for interproximal surfaces.


IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE BIT...The universe is made of bits of information and it has been known for more than a century that every piece of the the universe - every electron, atom and molecule - registers these bits and that information. It is only in the last years, however, with the discovery and development of quantum computers, that scientists have gained a fundamental understanding of just how that information is registered and processed. Building on recent breakthroughs in quantum computation, Seth Lloyd shows how the universe itself is a giant computer. Every atom and elementary particle stores these bits, and every collision between those atoms and particles flips the bits into a new arrangement and effortlessly spins out beautiful and complex systems, including galaxies, planets and life itself. But every computer needs a program, the set of instructions that tell it what patterns to create. Where did the bits come from that tell the universe to create its magnificent complexity? Who - or what - is programming the universe?


The results presented in this thesis concern two aspects of the biology of trypanosomatids. First, the process of antigenic variation in the African trypanosomes and second the structure and function of the kinetoplast DNA of trypanosomatids. Part I. Trypanosomes were cyclically transmitted by the insect vector, Glossina morsitans, and the expression of variable antigen types (VATs) in the metacyclic populations from the salivary glands and the first bloodstream populations in metacyclic initiated infections in mice were analysed. Tsetse flies were fed on the blood of mice containing any one of 5 VATs of Trypanosoma brucei of the ANTAR 1 serodeme. The VATS of the metacyclic trypanosomes subsequently detected in the flies' saliva probes vere investigated using monospecific antisera to AnTAK 1 VaTs in indirect immunofluorescence and trypanolysis reactions; these sera included 5 raised against AnTats 1.6, and 1.45, previously idnetified as components of the metacyclic population (M-VATs), and against the 5 VATs originally ingested by the flies. The percentage of metacyclics reacting with a particular M-VAT antiserum remained more or less constant (AnTat 1.6, 6.0-8.3% AnTat 1.30, 13.7-18.2%; AnTat 1.45, 2.0-8.0%), regardless of the age of the fly or the ingested VaT. AS these 3 VATS account for no more than one-third of the metacyclic population, the existence of at least one more VAT is envisaged. The ingested VAT could not be detected among the AnTAR 1 metacyclic trypanosomes. Metacyclic trypanosomes from the salivary glands of infected tsetse flies were also used to initiate infections in mice. Immunofluorescence and trypanolysis reactions employing 24 monospecific antisera were used to analyse the VATS present in the mice following cyclical transmission. Regardless of the VAT used to infect tsetse flies, the first VATS detectable in the bloodstream were those previously identified as M-VATS. These were present until at least 5 days after infection, at which time lytic antibodies against at least 2 of the M-VATs were detectable in the blood of infected mice. In mice immunosuppressed by X-irradiation the M-VATs were detectable in the bloodstream for longer periods, but the percentage of the population labelled with anti-metacyclic sera showed a decrease on day 5 as in non-irradiated animals. The VAT ingested by the tsetse was always detectable early during the first parasitaemia following cyclical transmission and was usually the first VAT detectable after the M-VATs. Neutralization of selected M-VATs before infecting mice resulted in elimination of the neutralized M-VAT from the first parasitaemia but had no effect on the expression of other VATs in the early infection. Part II. In studies on the structure and function of the kinetoplast DNA (KDNA) of trypanosomatids I have examined the KDNA structure and mitochondrial activity of two species of Herpetomonas and also a stock of T. brucei which has lost the ability to activate its mitochondrion during syringe passaging in laboratory rodents.The structure of the KDNA of Herpetomonas muscarum and Herpetomonas inrenoplastis was compared by electron microscopy, restriction endonuclease digestion and hydridization with cloned portions of the maxi-circle from T. brucei 427. The KDNA of both H. musearum and H.ingenoplasits has a buoyant density of 1 .69B g/cm3; however, the KDNA of H. ingenoplastis represents 31% of the total cellular DNA as compared with 8% for H. muscarum KDNA. The KDNA network of H. muscarum consists of thousands of mini-circles of 0.6 to 0.7 x 106 daltons and a few large circular molecules, maxi-circles, of 21 x 10 daltons. The mini-circles of H. muscarum show sequence heterogeneity while maxi-circles of H. muscarum have a unique nucleotide sequence. The KDNA of H. ingenoplastis completely lacks mini-circle size molecules and the network is composed 6 6 6 entirely of large circular molecules of 11 x 106, 15.5 x 106 and 24 x 106 daltons. The 11 x 106 and 15.5 x 106 dalton molecules show sequence heterogeneity and are the major component of the KDNA. Hybridization studies with cloned fragments of T. brucei maxi-circle suggest that the 24 X 106 dalton component of H. ingenoplastis kDNA is functionally equivalent to the maxi-circle of other trypanosomatids. It was concluded that the 11 x 106 and 15.5 x 106 dalton circles of H. in enoplastis are functionally similar to mini-circles of other tryoanosomatids and that the maxi-circles of H. ingenoplastis differ from those of T. brucei and H. muscarum in major nucleotide sequences. The structure and activity of the mitochondrion from H.ingenoplastis and H. muscarum have been studied by electron microscopy, respiration studies with different substrates and inhibitors, analysis of oligomycin- sensitive ATPase activity and low-temperature difference spectra of respiratory chain cytochromes. Certain differences in the two species can be correlated with alterations in the maxi-circle of H. ingenoplastis described in the preceding paper.


This report presents a statistical evaluation of the response modification factor for reinforced concrete structures. The response modification factor R is defined as the ratio of the absolute maximum linear elastic base shear to the absolute maximum nonlinear base shear of a structure subject to the same earthquake accelerogram. Twelve structural models with various dynamic characteristics are first constructed. Next, 90 synthetic earthquakes are generated from three power spectra representing different soil conditions. Then, the nonlinear and corresponding linear time history analyses are performed to produce structural response data. On the basis of these data, an empirical formula for the response modification factor is established from a multivariate nonlinear regression analysis. The empirical formula describing the mean value of R factor is a function of the maximum ductility ratio, the viscous damping ratio and the earthquake-structure period ratio. In addition, variation of R factor in terms of the maximum ductility ratio is also established from the multivariate nonlinear regression analysis. The empirical formula is demonstrated using two structures. In addition, comparison of the proposed formula with Newmark's formulas is also made. From the empirical formula, the response modification factors recommended for the design of reinforced concrete structures are also presented. The authors believe that most of the R factors specified in the current NEHRP provisions are too large and unconservative. Thus, the specification of more reasonable R factors in the seismic design provisions is warranted.


We present a method for fabrication-oriented design of actuated deformable characters that allows a user to automatically create physical replicas of digitally designed characters using rapid manufacturing technologies. Given a deformable character and a set of target poses as input, our method computes a small set of actuators along with their locations on the surface and optimizes the internal material distribution such that the resulting character exhibits the desired deformation behavior. We approach this problem with a dedicated algorithm that combines finite-element analysis, sparse regularization, and constrained optimization. We validate our pipeline on a set of two- and three-dimensional example characters and present results in simulation and physically-fabricated prototypes.


Studies of complex physical and engineering systems, represented by multi-scale and multi-physics computer simulations have an increasing demand for computing power, especially when the simulations of realistic problems are considered. This demand is driven by the increasing size and complexity of the studied systems or the time constraints. Ultrascale computing systems offer a possible solution to this problem. Future ultrascale systems will be large-scale complex computing systems combining technologies from high performance computing, distributed systems, big data, and cloud computing. Thus, the challenge of developing and programming complex algorithms on these systems is twofold. Firstly, the complex algorithms have to be either developed from scratch, or redesigned in order to yield high performance, while retaining correct functional behaviour. Secondly, ultrascale computing systems impose a number of non-functional cross-cutting concerns, such as fault tolerance or energy consumption, which can significantly impact the deployment of applications on large complex systems. This article discusses the state-of-the-art of programming for current and future large scale systems with an emphasis on complex applications. We derive a number of programming and execution support requirements by studying several computing applications that the authors are currently developing and discuss their potential and necessary upgrades for ultrascale execution.


The human neutrophil is an important effector cell in acute inflammation and in the innate immune response against bacteria and fungi. When immune reactions occur in the tissue in response to antigen challenge, neutrophils are the first cells to enter the site of inflammation. The neutrophil is equipped with a vast amount of receptors that both interact with inflammatory mediators and host tissue as well as with the prey. These receptors are found on the cell surface but are also stored in different types of granules and vesicles in the cell. By mobilizing the granules and vesicles to various extents and thereby upregulate receptors to the plasma membrane, the mature neutrophil can modulate its communication with the environment. One granule type, the azurophil granules, primarily delivers a killing machinery to intracellular organelles containing a prey that has been engulfed. These granules have traditionally been regarded as classical lysosomes, but their membrane is so far largely uncharacterized. The aim of this thesis was to elucidate details regarding azurophil granule membrane composition in order to further understand their role in neutrophil function. The studies led to identification of so-called lipid rafts in the azurophil and other granule membranes, and a detailed characterization of the azurophil granule lipid rafts with regard to protein composition was thus performed. One of the proteins identified in azurophil granule membranes was stomatin. This protein was present also in other granule/vesicle membranes and the plasma membrane. Furthermore, the protein was localized to lipid rafts. Apart from stomatin, the azurophil granule membrane rafts contained a vast number of proteins, of possible importance for membrane structure/integrity and fusion. The fact that several cytoskeletal proteins also were identified, suggests that the granule membrane is organized in much the same way as the plasma membrane. The thesis also includes studies on the neutrophil receptors for galectin-3, a potent activator of extravasated human neutrophils. Since granule mobilization is a prerequisite for galectin-3-induced activation of the cells, the receptors have been suggested to be granule localized. Here, galectin-3-binding proteins from specific/gelatinase granules were isolated, and among these, CD66a and CD66b were identified as the most plausible receptor candidates. The CD66b is a glycophosphatidyl inositol (GPI)-linked protein that was found to be localized to lipid rafts, suggesting that raft-associated signaling may be of importance for the galectin-3-induced neutrophil responses. 91-628-6953-1 978-91-628-6953-1


Trace element and Os isotope data for Lisburne Group metalliferous black shales of Middle Mississippian (early Chesterian) age in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska suggest that metals were sourced chiefly from local seawater (including biogenic detritus) but also from externally derived hydrothermal fluids. These black shales are interbedded with phosphorites and limestones in sequences 3 to 35 m thick; deposition occurred mainly on a carbonate ramp during intermittent upwelling under varying redox conditions, from suboxic to anoxic to sulfidic. Deposition of the black shales at ~335 Ma was broadly contemporaneous with sulfide mineralization in the Red Dog and Drenchwater Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, which formed in a distal marginal basin.

Relative to the composition of average black shale, the metalliferous black shales ( n = 29) display large average enrichment factors (>10) for Zn (10.1), Cd (11.0), and Ag (20.1). Small enrichments (>2–<10) are shown by V, Cr, Ni, Cu, Mo, Pd, Pt, U, Se, Y, and all rare earth elements except Ce, Nd, and Sm. A detailed stratigraphic profile over 23 m in the Skimo Creek area (central Brooks Range) indicates that samples from at and near the top of the section, which accumulated during a period of major upwelling and is broadly correlative with the stratigraphic levels of the Red Dog and Drenchwater Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, have the highest Zn/TOC (total organic carbon), Cu/TOC, and Tl/TOC ratios for calculated marine fractions (no detrital component) of these three metals.

Average authigenic (detrital-free) contents of Mo, V, U, Ni, Cu, Cd, Pb, Ge, Re, Se, As, Sb, Tl, Pd, and Au show enrichment factors of 4.3 × 103 to 1.2 × 106 relative to modern seawater. Such moderate enrichments, which are common in other metalliferous black shales, suggest wholly marine sources (seawater and biogenic material) for these metals, given similar trends for enrichment factors in organic-rich sediments of modern upwelling zones on the Namibian, Peruvian, and Chilean shelves. The largest enrichment factors for Zn and Ag are much higher (1.4 × 107 and 2.9 × 107, respectively), consistent with an appreciable hydrothermal component. Other metals such as Cu, Pb, and Tl that are concentrated in several black shale samples, and are locally abundant in the Red Dog and Drenchwater Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, may have a partly hydrothermal origin but this cannot be fully established with the available data. Enrichments in Cr (up to 7.8 × 106) are attributed to marine and not hydrothermal processes. The presence in some samples of large enrichments in Eu (up to 6.1 × 107) relative to modern seawater and of small positive Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* up to 1.12) are considered unrelated to hydrothermal activity, instead being linked to early diagenetic processes within sulfidic pore fluids.

Initial Os isotope ratios (187Os/188Os) calculated for a paleontologically based depositional age of 335 Ma reveal moderately unradiogenic values of 0.24 to 0.88 for four samples of metalliferous black shale. A proxy for the ratio of coeval early Chesterian seawater is provided by initial (187Os/188Os)335 Ma ratios of four unaltered black shales of the coeval Kuna Formation that average 1.08, nearly identical to the initial ratio of 1.06 for modern seawater. Evaluation of possible sources of unradiogenic Os in the metalliferous black shales suggests that the most likely source was mafic igneous rocks that were leached by externally derived hydrothermal fluids. This unradiogenic Os is interpreted to have been leached by deeply circulating hydrothermal fluids in the Kuna basin, followed by venting of the fluids into overlying seawater.

We propose that metal-bearing hydrothermal fluids that formed Zn-Pb-Ag deposits such as Red Dog or Drenchwater vented into seawater in a marginal basin, were carried by upwelling currents onto the margins of a shallow-water carbonate platform, and were then deposited in organic-rich muds, together with seawater- and biogenically derived components, by syngenetic sedimentary processes. Metal concentration in the black shales was promoted by high biologic productivity, sorption onto organic matter, diffusion across redox boundaries, a low sedimentation rate, and availability of H2S in bottom waters and pore fluids.


Pillow lavas of Cretaceous and Neogene age well exposed in Hokkaido, Japan, and those of Neogene age in North Island, New Zealand, provide evidence of their mode of growth. Some pillow lobes diverge by formation of longitudinal surface spreading cracks; the others grow by formation of transverse spreading cracks, leaving one or more crusts ending toward the front of the lobes and constrictions. Therefore, it is possible to determine the direction of growth of pillow lobes by tracing the crusts and/or constrictions.


For applications at temperatures of 150°C or above, such as in automotive under the hood electronics and power electronics, a robust dielectric material is necessary for capacitors. In traditional X8R products [Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) specification, AC/C within ±15% between -55°C and +150°C compared to that at 25°C], the dielectric material is designed for applications up to 150°C. However, at temperatures above 150°C, these typically suffer from degradation of reliability performance and severe reduction in capacitance, particularly under dc bias conditions. Recently, a Class-I dielectric material has been developed using nickel electrodes for high-temperature application up to 200°C. Due to its linear dielectric nature, this material exhibits highly stable capacitance as a function of temperature and voltage. Multilayer ceramic capacitors made from this material can be qualified as X9G with robust reliability. This paper will report electrical properties and reliability test data on these Class-I ceramic capacitors at temperatures ≥ 150°C. In addition, test data from D - E curves and energy density measurements will be reported along with a discussion of possible mechanisms behind the robust reliability of this material.