Behavioral economics represents only one tool among many available to the government to combat obesity and improve health outcomes. For example, the USDA uses high-impact marketing strategies, such as partnerships with fast food companies, to increase consumption of subsidized commodities, which include dairy, corn, wheat, meat, and soy. These tactics depart significantly from the principles of choice architecture, which is a form of libertarian paternalism that focuses on the environments in which people make choices. Dividing food policy into three categories — hard paternalism, aggressive soft paternalism, and gentle soft paternalism — highlights the differences in the government's approaches that depend on its objective. This categorization suggests that financial concerns, such as subsidies and industry goodwill, compel the use of strategies proven to influence consumer behavior. Health concerns, in contrast, tend to generate less impactful policies. The chapter interrogates the disproportionate harm that structural constraints inflict on socially marginalized communities and concludes by proposing a shift in federal food policy to a harder paternalistic framework.


Distillation with unlabeled examples is a popular and powerful method for training deep neural networks in settings where the amount of labeled data is limited: A large ''teacher'' neural network is trained on the labeled data available, and then it is used to generate labels on an unlabeled dataset (typically much larger in size). These labels are then utilized to train the smaller ''student'' model which will actually be deployed. Naturally, the success of the approach depends on the quality of the teacher's labels, since the student could be confused if trained on inaccurate data. This paper proposes a principled approach for addressing this issue based on a ''debiasing'' reweighting of the student's loss function tailored to the distillation training paradigm. Our method is hyper-parameter free, data-agnostic, and simple to implement. We demonstrate significant improvements on popular academic datasets and we accompany our results with a theoretical analysis which rigorously justifies the performance of our method in certain settings.


We review the findings of Cho et al. on the crystal structure of a p53 tumor suppressor-DNA complex. The core DNA binding domain of p53 folds into a structure termed a beta-sandwich, which organizes two loops and a loop-sheet-helix structure on one surface of p53 to interact with the consensus DNA recognition sequence of p53. These structures help to explain the functions of wild-type p53 and the effects of tumor-associated mutations on p53 DNA binding, transactivation and suppression of cellular proliferation.


This study focusses on the effects of geotechnical and seismical parameters on structural hazards and soil structure interaction in Duzce area where commercial and residential structures very dense and soil amplification and structural periods. Standard Penetration Test (SPT-N) N blow numbers, shear wave velocity (Vs), soil amplification and dominant soil vibration period were measured. They demonstrate that along the Asarsuyu river parts of the study area have lower seismic and geotechnical characteristics than the others. The most common soil period is around 0.36-0.44 second amplification factor is around 2.2.with periods of many structures in the Geliş: 07/01/2016, Düzeltme: 15/01/2016, Kabul: 26/01/2016 Düzce Üniversitesi Bilim ve Teknoloji Dergisi, 4 (2016) 264-277


Background Salmonella Typhimurium DT8 has been associated with human outbreaks. Anderson phage typing scheme has been used for more than four decades for subtyping of Salmonella Typhimurium, but it has shown some limitations. Here, we characterize prophages among Salmonella Typhimurium DT8 strains to test the potential use of prophage sequence profiles for subtyping. Method A total of 54 isolates of Salmonella Typhimurium DT8 were selected for this study which was part of an outbreak study by Ashton et al. (2015)*. Twenty-six isolates were associated with an outbreak in the States of Jersey in 2013 and 28 isolates were non-outbreak-associated isolates. Comparative genomics using a range of bioinformatic tools was carried out including SPAdes for de novo assembly of WGS data. PHASTER was used for characterisation of prophages (http://phaster.ca/). Result All DT8 strains are lysogenic for three prophages (RE-2010, ST64B and Gifsy-2). Moreover, the three prophages showed identical sequence among outbreak and non-outbreak isolates. Interestingly, prophage SSU5 was detected in one non-outbreak isolate. Prophage SSU5 is closely related to cryptic plasmid pHMC2 that infects only rough strains of Salmonella Typhimurium. This study is the first to report the presence of prophage SSU5 in Salmonella Typhimurium DT8. Conclusion It is crucial to use accurate, reliable and highly discriminative subtyping methods for epidemiological characterisation and outbreak investigation of Salmonella Typhimurium. Prophage profiling might be unsuitable subtyping method. The emerging genetic analysis should be combined with the conventional method for epidemiological surveillance until WGS-based analysis can be improved and standardized. *https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4336196/


The noticeable increase in diversity of the student population over the past decade has now highlighted engagement issues that will be compounded by the general dissociative tendencies that Gen Y and other individuals of today's society now commonly participate in. More and more of our students try to complete degrees in an isolated, relatively off-campus, and academic environment. This is somewhat facilitated by the ever-increasing, time-flexible, blended learning approaches that incorporate the new information technologies. However, these strategies are often at the expense of extrinsic and intrinsic social interactions for students. Moreover, when the "Second Year Slump" is experienced by students, their engagement in learning and motivation are often impaired and they potentially find themselves without the supportive social networks that typically would provide both assistance and encouragement during this time and aid in the progression through their degree. In turn, this may negatively impinge upon student retention.


The consistency of satellite and in situ time series of Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), Turbidity and Total Suspended Matters (TSM) was investigated at 17 coastal stations throughout the year 2017. These stations covered different water types, from relatively clear waters in the Mediterranean Sea to moderately turbid regions in the Bay of Biscay and the southern bight of the North-Sea. Satellite retrievals were derived from MODIS/AQUA, VIIRS/NPP and OLCI-A/Sentinel-3 spectral reflectance. In situ data were obtained from the coastal phytoplankton networks SOMLIT (CNRS), REPHY (Ifremer) and associated networks. Satellite and in situ retrievals of the year 2017 were compared to the historical seasonal cycles and percentiles, 10 and 90, observed in situ. Regarding the sampling frequency in the Mediterranean Sea, a weekly in situ sampling allowed all major peaks in Chl-a caught from space to be recorded at sea, and, conversely, all in situ peaks were observed from space in a frequently cloud-free atmosphere. In waters of the Eastern English Channel, lower levels of Chl-a were observed, both in situ and from space, compared to the historical averages. However, despite a good overall agreement for low to moderate biomass, the satellite method, based on blue and green wavelengths, tends to provide elevated and variable Chl-a in a high biomass environment. Satellite-derived TSM and Turbidity were quite consistent with in situ measurements. Moreover, satellite retrievals of the water clarity parameters often showed a lower range of variability than their in situ counterparts did, being less scattered above and under the seasonal curves of percentiles 10 and 90.


Abstract Sandstone and siltstone samples collected from the lowest part of the Clam Bank Formation in western Newfoundland contain a distinctive monospecific conodont assemblage of Ozarkodina remscheidensis eosteinhornensis and O. remscheidensis ssp., confidently dated as Late Ludlow through Lochkovian. Palynomorph assemblages of terrestrial spores, acritarchs, chitinozoans, scolecodonts and plant fragments are relatively abundant and diverse in the lower 250 m of this formation. Taxa include the cryptospore genera Cymbohilates, Acontotetras, Hispanaediscus, Laevolancis, and Tetrahedraletes, spore genera Ambitisporites, Aneurospora, Apiculiretusispora, Emphanisporites, Retusotriletes, Synorisporites, Vermiverruspora, and a new species Stellatispora fahraeusi. Acritarchs include the taxon Triangulina sanpetrensis and chitinozoa include Angochitina chlupaci. Palynomorphs indicate a Lochkovian age, corresponding with the Apiculiretusispora sp. E zone from Europe. In well preserved samples from this section, the fossil terrestrial palynomorph assemblages from these shallow marine deposits correspond closely in species diversity and concentration with values reported for modern shelf deposits located adjacent to low Arctic moss and sedge tundra. By inference, earliest Devonian terrestrial vegetation must have been relatively well developed on this ancient coastline.


Glioblastoma is one of the most common types of primary brain tumor. In situations of local recurrence, physicians can suggest either specific palliative anticancer treatments (SPAT; surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy) or best supportive care (BSC). The objective of the present study was to identify clinical factors that may have influenced the continuation or cessation of SPAT during the final 3 months of life in patients with glioblastoma. In the present retrospective single-center study, all records of patients treated for glioblastoma, who succumbed to the disease between June 2006 and February 2014, were assessed. All selected patients were divided into two groups, according to treatments received during the last 3 months of life: The SPAT and BSC groups. A total of 148 patients were included: 81 patients in the SPAT group (group A) and 67 patients in the BSC group (group B). A performance status equal to 0 was observed for 17.3% of patients in group A vs. 6% in group B. Following progression, chemotherapy was administered in 39.5% of cases in group A vs. 20.9% of cases in group B (P=0.0149). The mean number of lines of chemotherapy administered in group A was equal to 1.44±0.77 as compared with 1.06±0.67 in group B (P=0.0017). SPAT are utilized frequently among patients approaching mortality due to a glioblastoma. Certain factors, including the utilization of novel chemotherapy after the first progression or number of lines of chemotherapy previously administered, may have influenced physicians' decisions whether to continue with the SPAT or not.


Streptococcus suis, a major porcine pathogen, has been receiving growing attention not only for its role in severe and increasingly reported infections in humans, but also for its involvement in drug resistance. Recent studies and the analysis of sequenced genomes have been providing important insights into the S. suis resistome, and have resulted in the identification of resistance determinants for tetracyclines, macrolides, aminoglycosides, chloramphenicol, antifolate drugs, streptothricin, and cadmium salts. Resistance gene-carrying genetic elements described so far include integrative and conjugative elements, transposons, genomic islands, phages, and chimeric elements. Some of these elements are similar to those reported in major streptococcal pathogens such as Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Streptococcus agalactiae and share the same chromosomal insertion sites. The available information strongly suggests that S. suis is an important antibiotic resistance reservoir that can contribute to the spread of resistance genes to the above-mentioned streptococci. S. suis is thus a paradigmatic example of possible intersections between animal and human resistomes.


The local polynomial approximation (LPA) is a nonparametric regression technique with pointwise estimation in a sliding window. We apply the LPA of the argument of cos and sin in order to estimate the absolute phase from noisy wrapped phase data. Using the intersection of confidence interval (ICI) algorithm, the window size is selected as adaptive pointwise varying. This adaptation gives the phase estimate with the accuracy close to optimal in the mean squared sense. For calculations, we use a Gauss-Newton recursive procedure initiated by the phase estimates obtained for the neighboring points. It enables tracking properties of the algorithm and its ability to go beyond the principal interval (-pi,pi) and to reconstruct the absolute phase from wrapped phase observations even when the magnitude of the phase difference takes quite large values. The algorithm demonstrates a very good accuracy of the phase reconstruction which on many occasion overcomes the accuracy of the state-of-the-art algorithms developed for noisy phase unwrap. The theoretical analysis produced for the accuracy of the pointwise estimates is used for justification of the ICI adaptation algorithm.


We present a new channel for the transmission of monetary policy, the deposits channel. We show that when the Fed funds rate rises, banks widen the spreads they charge on deposits, and deposits flow out of the banking system. We present a model where this is due to market power in deposit markets. Consistent with the market power mechanism, deposit spreads increase more and deposits flow out more in concentrated markets. This is true even when we control for lending opportunities by only comparing different branches of the same bank. Since deposits are the main source of liquid assets for households, the deposits channel can explain the observed strong relationship between the liquidity premium and the Fed funds rate. Since deposits are also a uniquely stable funding source for banks, the deposits channel impacts bank lending. When the Fed funds rate rises, banks that raise deposits in concentrated markets contract their lending by more than other banks. Our estimates imply that the deposits channel can account for the entire transmission of monetary policy through bank balance sheets.


Coupled atmosphere‐ocean general circulation models have a tendency to drift away from a realistic climatology. The modelled climate response to an increase of CO2 concentration may be incorrect if the simulation of the current climate has significant errors, so in many models, including ours, the drift is counteracted by applying prescribed fluxes of heat and fresh water at the ocean‐atmosphere interface in addition to the calculated surface exchanges. Since the additional fluxes do not have a physical basis, the use of this technique of "flux adjustment" itself introduces some uncertainty in the simulated response to increased CO2. We find that the global‐average temperature response of our model to CO2 increasing at 1% per year is about 30% less without flux adjustment than with flux adjustment. The geographical patterns of the response are similar, indicating that flux adjustment is not causing any gross distortion. The reduced size of the response is due to more effective vertical transport of heat into the ocean, and a somewhat smaller climate sensitivity. Although the response in both cases lies within the generally accepted range for the climate sensitivity, systematic uncertainties of this size are clearly undesirable, and the best strategy for future development is to improve the climate model in order to reduce the need for flux adjustment.


Using the soil as a form of treatment and final disposal for coffee wastewater(CW), considering its water and nutrient content to the coffee, solves environmental problems and reduces production costs for coffee growers. This research had the objective to evaluate the influence of different potassium levels from WC on the growth of (Coffea arabica L.), Catuai' and Catucai' coffee varieties, in their fist year, as well the potassium increase and electrical conductivity in the soil solution. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse of the Engineering Department, of Universidade Federal de Lavras, in Lavras - MG, Brazil. The treatment levels were defined as: 30 mg L-1; 65 mg L-1; 100 mg L-1; 135 mg L-1 of potassium (K+), applied through CW and the control (irrigation water and conventional fertilization). Coffee processing wastewater with concentration up to 135 mg L-1 of potassium contributes to coffee growth, specifically, plant height and shoot diameter, showing to be equal or even better than irrigation water and potassium via conventional fertilizers. In addition, during the period evaluated the increase in soil potassium concentration was not enough to increase electrical conductivity to levels that could affect plant growth.


We have previously reported that in vitro and in vivo leptin signaling up-regulates VEGF in mouse and human mammary tumor cells (MT) but the specific molecular mechanisms involved are largely unknown. Here we describe how leptin activated canonic and non-canonic signaling pathways to induce specific transcription factors (TF) essential for the transcriptional activation of VEGF gene in mouse MT (4T1, EMT6 and MMT). Basal expression of VEGF/VEGFR2, leptin/OB-R and ER-α was initially investigated in MT. Leptin dose-response and time-course effects on VEGF levels were determined by ELISA. Several pharmacological inhibitors for key leptin-target kinases and TF were used to dissect the signaling pathways involved in leptin-induced levels of VEGF protein and mRNA in MT. A series of VEGF-promoter Luc-reporters [full-length & transcription factor (TF)-binding deletions: HRE, AP1, AP2, NFκB and SP1] were transfected into MT to analyze leptin regulation of VEGF transcription. Our data show that MAPK, PI-3K (canonic) and PKC, JNK and p38 MAP kinase (non-canonic) signaling pathways were generally involved in leptin regulation of VEGF. Analysis of cis-acting elements of VEGF promoter shows that leptin activation of HIF-1α is essential for transcription in all MT. This was mainly linked to MAPK, PI-3K, PKC, JNK and p38 signaling. Leptin-induced MAPK, JNK and p38 to activate NFκB that was essential for VEGF expression in high producer MT (EMT6 and MMT). Leptin through all canonic signaling pathways activates SP1 required for VEGF regulation in 4T1 cells. In contrast, AP1 was not involved but AP2 repressed leptin-mediated transcription of VEGF. Overall, these data suggest that leptin signaling regulates VEGF gene in MT cells mainly through HIF-1α and NFκB. These results delineate for first time the mechanisms for leptin regulation of VEGF and, reinforce the idea that the disruption of leptin signaling could impact breast cancer growth by inhibiting MT proliferation and angiogenesis. This work was supported in part by NIH/NCI 1SC1CA138658-02; NIH/UAB Breast SPORE Career Development Award; BC 504370 Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure and the Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar Award (to RRGP). Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2378.


This research describes the breeding ecology, behaviour and substrate preferences of the Australian Fairy Tern, Sternula nereis nereis, in four colonies around Perth, Western Australia between 2018 and 2020. Extensive field observations, supported by a bird banding study and sunrise to sunset video recording were used at colony and roosting sites to determine the processes of mating, colony formation, egg-laying and incubation periods, post-hatching care and breeding success (fledglings per pair). At a colony in North Fremantle, the median nest spacing was 0.71 m (mean ± s.e. = 0.89 ± 0.05 m), which increased over time. Birds establishing nests within a week of the first eggs being laid selected sites with significantly higher percentage beach shell cover (73.5 ± 4.5%) than those laying later in the season (58.2 ± 7.9%) and on average, birds selected sites with higher shell cover (64.9 ± 2.8%, n = 114) than a random sample of sites within the colony (53.7 ± 4.4%, n = 44). Incubation periods ranged from 17 to 26 days (n = 86, mean = 21 ± 0.17 days). Incubation shift duration was highly variable, with both sexes contributing, almost equally to the care of the brood (mean = 1.27 ± 6.11 h). Chicks fledged 21–23 (mean = 22 ± 0.21, n = 10) days following hatching, with all banded juveniles leaving the colony site within 8 days of fledgling. The information gained from this research helps inform conservation strategies for this vulnerable species, where management interventions are frequently necessary to prevent population decline.


In this paper, an ontology-cored emotional semantic retrieval model was proposed and constructed in order to overcome the current situation that it is difficult to implement emotional semantic search in the course of image searching. A method Combines Mpeg-7, theory of concept lattices and ontology construction together to construct the kernel ontology library was put forward. The difficulty of this method lies on how to integrate the Mpeg-7 standard descriptor with image emotional ontology properties, and how to auto-generate new concept results. This model was implemented and related experiments were carried out of which the results validated the feasibility of this model on image emotional semantic search.


Background: In recent years, obesity has become a major public health problem and its prevalence is increasing at an alarming pace. Moreover, this problem has affected children and adolescents in marked fashion with a higher prevalence in females than in males. Objective: To evaluate the effect of maternal obesity on length of gestation and mode of delivery and subsequent intrapartum and neonatal complications. Methods: This prospective cohort study involved a total no. of 600 women with singleton pregnancies delivered in the period between December 2011 and July 2012 and were categorized into three groups according to their BMI; normal weight (18.5-24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25-29.9 kg/m2) and obese (≥30 kg/m2). The main outcome measures were length of gestation, mode of delivery, risk of delivery and neonatal complications in overweight and obese women versus normal weight women. Results: Obese women had a significantly increased risk of post-term pregnancy and higher rate of induction ending in caesarean section compared with women of normal weight. Again, there was a significantly longer median length of first stage, increased incidence of second-degree tear and significantly increased risk of low Apgar score. However, the incidence of postpartum haemorrhage and third-degree tear were similar in all body mass index categories. As regard shoulder dystocia, there was a trend towards increased incidence with increasing BMI for primiparous women but just failed to reach significance (P=0.05). There was a trend towards increased incidence of macrosomia with increasing BMI category (P=0.074) this trend was significantly true for primiparous women (P=0.047), but no trend was observed for analysis restricted to multiparous women. Conclusion: Increasing BMI is associated with increased incidence of post-term pregnancy, failed progress of labour, labour induction, CS delivery, low Apgar score and macrosomic babies.


Efforts to leverage peer effects by changing assignment have often fallen short due to endogenous peer choice. To address this, I build a two-part model: agents form networks via continuous linking decisions; conditional on realized networks, outcomes are determined. I provide results on identification of both parts of the model. Using data from a randomized study in India, I estimate the model, assess its performance in out-of-sample prediction, and simulate outcomes under preferential assignment rules. This paper contributes new methodology for identifying effects of alternative assignments in the presence of network endogeneity, as well as identification of network formation models.


248 Background: The objective of this study was to assess relationships between race, treatment, and cause-specific mortality for prostate cancer.

METHODS
The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database yielded 328,151 prostate cancer patients diagnosed between 1990-2007 including 5,129 Japanese-American, 50,717 Black-American, and 282,305 White-American men. Japanese-American men were selected as they have the lowest incidence of prostate cancer and best treatment outcomes. Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to assess association of race with prostate-cancer specific mortality before and after adjusting for age, health, and treatment. To assess impact of race on treatment selection, we compared mean incidence of treatment type [external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), brachytherapy, and surgery] by race using one-way ANOVA and post-testing with Bonferroni correction.

RESULTS
Race significantly impacted survival after prostate cancer treatment. Blacks had the highest (HR= 1.198; 95% CI: 1.159 to 1.239, p< .001) and Japanese the lowest (HR= .618; 95% CI: .560 to .682, p< .001) mortality hazard compared to Whites. Tumor grade was the strongest predictor of survival (p< .001). Treatment was also significant: Brachytherapy had the lowest mortality hazard for radiation treatments and surgery was associated with lower mortality hazard compared to no surgery. 37.8%, 44.1%, and 29.1% of Blacks, Whites, and Japanese-Americans underwent surgery (p< .05), 27.3%, 23.8%, and 38.2% of Blacks, Whites, and Japanese-Americans underwent EBRT, (p< .05), and 4.9%, 6.7%, and 4.7% of Blacks, Whites, and Japanese-Americans underwent brachytherapy, with Whites significantly different from the other groups( p<.05).

CONCLUSIONS
SEER database analysis revealed race impacts prostate cancer survival. Treatment selection for prostate cancer differs among racial groups and race is associated with differential treatment outcomes. Comparisons between treatments must be viewed with caution as confounding variables likely exist not accounted for in the SEER database. Future research on race, treatment, and socioeconomic impact on cancer-specific mortality is warranted.


1 SUMMARY As part of a study of almost-everywhere complex sets, we i n vestigate sets that are immune to AC 0 ; that is, sets with no innnite subset in AC 0. W e show that such sets exist in P PP and in DSPACElog n log n. Our main result is an oracle construction indicating that any improvement in these immunity results will represent a signiicant advance, in that we show that any answer to the question: Are there sets in NP that are immune to AC 0 ? will provide non-relativizable proof techniques suitable for attacking the Ntime vs Dtime question. That is, we show that the existence or nonexistence of AC 0-immune sets in NP has consequences concerning the complexity of sets in deterministic and nondeterministic exponential time.


Abstract Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a widespread endocrine disease that affects 6% to 20% of women of reproductive age and is associated with high risk of infertility, obesity, and insulin resistance. Although genetic, neuroendocrine, and metabolic causes have been stated to lead to PCOS, the etiology of PCOS remains unclear. Recent studies in humans and rodent models have shown an association between changes in the gut microbiome and the metabolic and clinical parameters of PCOS. In addition, it has been proposed that dysbiosis of gut microbiota may be a potential pathogenetic factor in the development of PCOS. In this context, modification of gut microbiota with probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic agents suggests that these products may serve as new treatment options for PCOS. In this review, it is aimed to explain the relationship between PCOS and gut microbiota with possible mechanisms and to examine the new treatment approaches that can be developed in this direction. Key teaching points Studies have shown that gut microbiota may be a potential pathogenetic factor in the development of PCOS. Dysbiosis of gut microbiota in women with PCOS appears to be associated with PCOS phenotypes. Studies suggest that insulin resistance, sex hormone concentrations, and obesity may affect the diversity and composition of gut microbiota in women with PCOS. With better understanding of the role of intestinal microbiota in PCOS, interventions including prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics can be considered as future treatment options.


: Facing the decreasing trend of domestic food demand and also the share of domestic products, market penetration to abroad is one of the urgent strategies for domestic agricultural producers. This study firstly examines the possibilities of it with checking the fruits of EPA and TPP negotiations briefly. Secondly, it is revealed that branding and promotion strategies become structural problems among individual producing area brands and All- Japan brand as an umbrella brand. To show the criteria of selecting a branding strategy, strategic choice of advertise and promotion by umbrella brand and each area brands in sequential game is examined. And the criteria is explained mainly by the signs of advertise and promotion's spillover effect and strategic effect.


We studied the effects of 4.8 μM prenylamine on transmembrane potentials in isolated guinea pig papillary muscles using a conventional microelectrode technique and compared them with those of 36.9 μM lidocaine. Prenylamine reduced Vmax at 1 Hz increasingly as the external potassium, [K]o, was increased from 2.7 to 10 m M. The reduction was also increased as the driving rate was increased from 0.25 to 5 Hz. The rate-dependent depression was less in 2.7 and 8.1 m M with 7.2 m M [Ca]o and more in 5.4 and 8.1 m M [K]owith 1.8 m M [Ca]o. Prenylamine produced a marked delay in the recovery of Vmax in premature responses inserted between constant driving stimuli at 0.25 Hz. The delay was also less in the former two, and more in the latter two media. Thus the effects of prenylamine on Vmax were more rate dependent and less [K]o-dependent than those of 36.9 μM lidocaine. At the diastolic interval of 100 ms, prenylamine depressed the overshoot, action potential duration at 0 mV level (APDo) and Vmax in premature responses more markedly than did 36.9 μM lidocaine, the differences of the effects being more significant for the first two. The results are interpreted as representing the calcium-antagonistic property of prenylamine of which lidocaine appears to be devoid.


The study aims to examine the effectiveness of job rotation in enhancing the knowledge accumulation of workers' opinions at the Iraqi Al-Kitab University by measuring the impact and testing the relationship between job rotation and knowledge accumulation. 62 valid questionnaires were distributed. The study used the statistical program (SPSS) to prove the validity of the research hypotheses related to the correlation and influence between the two research variables (functional rotation, knowledge accumulation). The findings revealed a positive moral correlation between the combined job rotation and the combined knowledge accumulation of the university under study in terms of its variables according to the value of the correlation coefficient at the aggregate level. Some recommendations related to the results of the research were made, the most important of which were: the necessity of developing and pumping new blood into the university, helping the employee and the university to get out of the cycle of stagnation, and resisting the change caused by the belief that the job is the property of the employee.


With increasing amounts of wind power connected, the power system is impacted in a number of ways. In this paper, the emphasis has been on one of those impacts: the harmonic emission from wind-power installations. The harmonic emission of individual wind turbines as well as from a wind park has been studied. For four modern wind turbines estimations have been done on the impact on the grid per harmonic and interharmonic group. The primary emission from complete windpark due to the emission from the turbines has been analyzed.


Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege (The Principle of legality of crimes and punishments) refers to the fact that an act is not considered a crime and deserves no punishment, unless the Legislator determines and announces the criminal title and its penalty before. The legality principle protects individual security by ensuring basic individual libertties against the arbitrary and unwarranted intrusion of the state. Thus, the criminal judge can't call the individuals' acts crime and assign punishments for them or exert punishments that are not prescribed by the Legislator without any letter of law. If an act is morally wrong or socially is against the public order, it is not regarded as a crime and the Legislator is the only authority who can recognize some acts as crime and punish the actor. In the Iranian legal system, before the Islamic Revolution and also after it, the Constitution and ordinary laws have explicitly emphasized the observance of the mentioned principle. When there is no text or in the case of the silence or lack of law, the criminal judge is bound to issue the verdict of innocence. In recent years, as a result of the great misunderstanding of the Art.167 of the Constitution, ordinary rules including s. 214 of the Criminal Procedure of Public and Revolutionary Courts Act 1999, and s. 8 of the Revolutionary and Public Courts Act 1994, allowed the criminal judge to refer to the Jurisprudence and religious decrees in order to assign the criminal titles and the related punishments, when there is no text or in the case of the silence or lack of law. This paper attempts to verify this legal base. It refers to the history of the discussion and the articles of the Constitution and the jural sources to indicate that it's necessary to pay more attention to the aforementioned law and the legality principle, which in turn makes it possible to abolish or amend the contradictory laws.


【In ${\ll}$ The Method ${\gg}$ , Archimedes presented the famous heuristic technique for calculating areas, volumes and centers of gravity of various plane and solid figures, utilizing the law of the lever. In that treatise, Archimedes used the fact that the center of gravity of a cone lies one-quarter of the way from the center of the base to the vertex, but the proof of this is not extant in his works. This study analyzes the propositions and their relations of ${\ll}$ The Method ${\gg}$ focusing on the procedural characteristics of the 'method' of Archimedes. According to the result of that analysis, this study discusses the likely approach which was taken for Archimedes to find out the center of gravity of a cone.】


Stemflow has a significant influence on hydrological and ecological processes within forests. However, research on stemflow is scant as stemflow comprises a very small volume compared to throughfall. In Japan, forest cover mainly distributed in mountainous areas occupies nearly 70% of the total land area and ranges from subalpine to subtropical zones. Many hydrological and agricultural studies have been conducted but a comprehensive literature review that summarizes the generation and chemical characteristics of stemflow is lacking. The purpose of this review is to interpret the results from Japanese forest stemflow papers and to propose objectives for future studies.


This article examines the influence of nonverbal cues and attorney gender on juror impression formation. Two major conclusions are drawn from this study: (1) Attorney gender may not influence the impression formation process in the courtroom, and (2) Delivery styles produce expectations for the appropriateness of disfluencies in speech. The broader implications for impression formation in the legal process are outlined. It is argued an interactionist perspective provides a useful heuristic framework to address the complexity of impression formation in legal settings.


In this paper, an optimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) which is independent from correlation-interval and mobile speed is analyzed, which is on the basis of the channel auto-correlation Doppler shift estimation algorithm. And then an optimized SNR tracking (OSNRT) algorithm on the basis of Rake receiver under multi-path fading channel is proposed. The improved algorithm calculated Doppler shift by selecting a finger whose SNR is nearest to the optimal SNR. Simulation results show that contrasted to conventional schemes the proposed approach is less sensitive to correlation-interval and velocity varieties.


The authors summarize the case of diprosopic syncephalic joined twins diagnosed at 22 weeks of pregnancy by ultrasonography performed because of hydramnios. The rate of separation anomalies of monozygotic twins is assessed by a review of the literature: from 1 to twenty to fifty thousands for joined twins to 1 per cent fifty thousand to fifteen millions for diprosopus. The etiology is the result of a late division of the egg between D12 and D16. Often an encephalic diprosopic joined twins cause elevated levels of maternal serum alpha protein. Early ultrasonography permits to consider a vaginal therapeutic abortion.


Received 26/11/2018; Accepted 3/2/2019 DOI: 10.21608/ejchem.2019.6377.1539 ©2019 National Information and Documentation Center (NIDOC) A of Cu onto maize husk in single and Cu-Zn binary aqueous solutions was compared. Equilibrium adsorption studies showed that Cu in the single solution system packed vertically on the surface of the adsorbent but penetrated into the porous network of the adsorbent in the binary solution system. Data from the isotherm studies in the single and binary systems were well fitted in the Freundlich model, with linear regression correlation coefficient values (R2) 0.764 and 0.994 respectively. The n values from this model indicated that Cu ions were chemisorbed on the adsorbent in the two solution systems but formed stronger bonds in the binary solution. Adsorption capacity of the adsorbent for Cu in the single solution was 1.21 mg/g but increased to 1.63 mg/g, 1.67 mg/g and 1.84 mg/g in the 2:1, 2:2 and 1:2 Cu:Zn binary solutions respectively. Adsorption of Cu in all the solution systems were spontaneous, with the 1:2 binary solution been the most energy efficient system. Selectivity of Cu ions in the equimolar Cu:Zn binary solution was synergistic. The marked reduction in the percentage content of calcium and potassium on the adsorbent when it was contacted with the Zn and Cu-Zn solutions showed that these elements were exchanged with Cu and Zn on the adsorbent matrix. Shift in absorption band at the R–OH functional group on the adsorbents in all the studied solution systems showed that complexation of metal ions occurred at these points. The disappearance of the carboxylic acid –OH absorption band on the husk in the Cu ion solution system was an indication that an additional adsorption site was involved in the complexation of Cu on the adsorbent. The findings from this study showed that using maize husk as adsorbent, copper adsorption is more enhanced in the presence of zinc ions in binary solutions of the two heavy metals.


The propagation and dynamical evolution of a scalar field in the background of a (2 + 1)-dimensional Einstein—Power—Maxwell (EPM) black hole are studied. We obtain an analytical expression for the greybody factor, which shows that the greybody factor increases as the electric charge increases and approaches unity for large frequencies. We also find the quasinormal modes of the black hole, which tell us that the EPM spacetime is very stable.


Nuclear export of mRNA, previously thought to happen exclusively through nuclear pore complexes, may also occur via a membrane-budding mechanism. In eukaryotes, the double membrane of the nuclear envelope protects and organizes the genetic information that is stored as DNA in the nucleus. To use this information, the DNA must be transcribed into mRNA, packaged with proteins into a messenger ribonucleoprotein (mRNP) complex, and transported to the cytoplasm, where the information contained within the mRNA is translated into the corresponding protein. Until now, nuclear export of mRNP particles was thought to occur solely through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs)—transport channels inserted into the nuclear envelope at fusion sites between the inner and outer nuclear membranes (1). However, new findings by Speese et al. (2) suggest an alternative and unexpected route for a cellular mRNP to exit the nucleus, by membrane budding.


An immunoperoxidase staining technique was employed in an effort to demonstrate prostatic acid phosphatase in sections of the effusion cell blocks in a retrospective investigation of the incidence of malignant prostatic cells in body cavity effusions in 33 patients with histologically confirmed prostatic cancer. An attempt was also made to identify the prostate as a possible anatomic site of origin in 26 patients with an unknown primary but with cytologically positive fluids. Neoplastic cells were identified in the effusion specimens in 21.2% of the patients with confirmed prostatic cancer; the sources, however, were either primary or metastatic carcinomas of nonprostatic origin. None of the cytologic specimens in this study demonstrated a positive prostate-specific acid phosphatase staining reaction, as did the prostatic metastases to the lungs used as controls.


In this paper we present a conditional principle of Gibbs type for independent nonidentically distributed random vectors. We obtain this result by performing Edgeworth expansions for densities of sums of independent random vectors.


The Heart of the Matter is usually considered a 'Catholic' novel as the protagonist, Major Scobie, is a Catholic by religion. His broken rosary points to the muddle of religious belief set up in him. Scobie is nailed to the cross by his compassion and feeling of responsibility for the pain and misery of others. When he partakes of the Sacrament in sin and laments having lost his way, his self-imposed duties lead him down a road to self-destruction. This anti-hero takes his own life, committing the ultimate sin of Despair in God's Providence. Yet, paradoxically, Father Rank pronounces that Scobie really loved only God, and the narrative suggests that he died a saint, albeit an anonymous one. Greene avers the transaction between Modernity and Catholic conservatism to be a vital one; that the writer should be a protestant in a Catholic set-up and be a catholic in a Protestant one. A deep yearning energizes Greene's narrative for Good amid evil plaguing the world.


This study was carried out to compare the nutrient intake, urinary excretion of mineral (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu ), and the ratios of creatinine (Cr), body mass index (BMI) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) to the amount of mineral in 24-hour urine between both the male university students with few exercise (non-exercisers) and male university distance runners. The propriety of ratios of Cr, BMI and BMR was also examined in order to estimate intake of mineral for the male university distance runners. There were no significant differences in the intakes of energy, protein and carbohydrate between the both groups of subjects, and those major nutrients were at reasonable levels for the both groups of subjects. On the other hand, neither the intake levels of VB6, Ca, Mg, and Cu in the non-exercisers, nor niacin, Mg and Cu in the male university distance runners reached the level of Recommended Dietary Allowance for the Japanese. The intakes of retinol, VB1, VB6 and Ca were higher in the male university distance runners than in the non-exercisers. The urinary excretion and excretion ratio to intake of Zn, excretion ratio of Na, ratios of Cr, BMI and BMR of Zn, and Cr ratio of Na were higher in the non-exercisers than those in the male university distance runners. So as to achieve the same levels of Cr ratios of Ca and Zn as the non-exercisers, the male university long distance runners should take larger amounts of those minerals than the non-exercisers. It was sug gested that the ratio of BMR rather than that of Cr ratio to urinary excretion of mineral would be suitable for the estimation of a desirable intake level of mineral for the male university distance runners. (Jpn. J. Phys. Fitness Sports Med. 2001, 50 : 79•`88) key word : mineral nutrition, distance runner, non-exerciser, urinary excretion of minerals, creatinine


Abstract Efficient solution of the Tower of London (T of L) test (Shallice, 1982) has been hypothesized to depend on frontal lobe mediation. Performance on the test by 20 patients with severe, diffuse, traumatic head injury was compared with that of control subjects, matched on age and years of education, and, within the patient group, according to broad location of damage (frontal or nonfrontal). Scores were also compared with those obtained on two commonly used tests of frontal lobe function, Verbal Fluency, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting test (WCST). Results indicated that whereas the Verbal Fluency test and WCST discriminated well between patients and control subjects, the T of L test did not, nor did it discriminate well between patients with and without documented frontal lobe damage. However, there were large individual differences in planning and solution times across all subjects. Interpretation of results was complicated by interaction of other variables such as premorbid IQ and duration of posttraumatic amnesia. It is suggested that closer attention to the relation between planning and total times separately for correct and incorrect solutions might be informative. A need for systematic study of the relationship between test performance and everyday behavior is also identified. (JINS, 1995, 7, 537–544.)


Sexuality is the most secret and intimate feature of human life, or the others hand sexuality something related to sexual organ which is one of the things that human necessary in life, different from sex; division two gender human determined are biologically like penis and vagina or something giving from god that surely an absolute thing. This research discussed and focused of the sexuality of women in Ayu Utami's Saman and D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. This research has two problems: (1) the treatment of women characters to their own body (2) the way the women communicate their desire to the others.
To analyze and answer that research question, the researcher used theory by Kate Millet about patriarchy politicize the sex in whole human aspect and Helene Cixous about women should write to get their rights and liberate from the suffering. This research used literary criticism design with the mimetic approach and used comparative literature as the method to compare the data that the researcher find in Saman and Lady Chatterley's Lovers about sexuality of women.
As the result, the researcher got three points of this research. First, the women characters in Saman too radical than those in Lady Chatterley's Lover, either the treatment those did to their body or communicate their desire to the others. Second, the exploration of the women characters body in Lady Chatterley's Lover did by man, or the other hand man still the controller of that exploration, than in Saman, women characters have own rights to did whatever they want to their body and men has not chance to do that. Third, describing of women characters in both novels especially in sexuality definitely different, the differences of sex of the author is the biggest cause.
The conclusion of this research is the women characters in both novels very different especially in sexuality, that impact from the different of the author and of course the different point of view about woman, which Saman made by Ayu Utami (woman) and Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H Lawrence (Man). And for the further researcher who interest about it can find another object which related to women and sexuality, such as in Ads or Film.


Aims The aim of this study was to examine if it is plausible to interpret the appearance of shame in a Swedish healthcare setting as a reaction to having one's honour wronged. Methods Using a questionnaire, we studied answers from a sample of long-term sick-listed patients who had experienced negative encounters (n=1628) and of these 64% also felt wronged. We used feeling wronged to examine emotional reactions such as feeling ashamed and made the assumption that feeling shame could be associated with having one's honour wronged. In statistical analyses relative risks (RRs) were computed, adjusting for age, sex, disease-labelling, educational levels, as well as their 95% CI. Results Approximately half of those who had been wronged stated that they also felt shame and of those who felt shame, 93% (CI 91 to 95) felt that they had been wronged. The RR was 4.5 (CI 3.0 to 6.8) for shame when wronged. This can be compared with the other emotional reactions where the RRs were between 1.1 (CI 0.9 to 1.3)–1.4 (CI 1.2 to 1.7). We found no association between country of birth and feeling shame after having experienced negative encounters. Conclusions We found that the RR of feeling shame when wronged was significantly higher compared with other feelings. Along with theoretical considerations, and the specific types of negative encounters associated with shame, the results indicate that our research hypothesis might be plausible. We think that the results deserve to be used as point of departure for future research.


An in situ scanning tunneling microscope (STM) observation is made on the surfaces of a homoepitaxial GaAs/GaAs layer on a GaAs (001) vicinal surface and a heteroepitaxial GaAs layer on a InP (001) surface grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), using a multi-chamber UHV-STM system equipped with MBE facility. This observation gives atomic-scale information about the mechanisms of epitaxy.


Abstract The German cockroach, Blatella germanica (L.), is a suspected vector of several enteric bacterial pathogens, including Escherichia coli, among livestock and humans. However, little is known about the factors that influence bacterial transmission by cockroaches. Here, we orally infected B. germanica with various laboratory and field strains of E. coli and examined bacterial titers over time to shed new light on the factors that influence the dynamics of infection. Our results reveal that a laboratory strain of E. coli is largely cleared within 48 h while one field isolate can persist in a majority of cockroaches (80–100%) for longer than 3 d with minimal impact on cockroach longevity. We also find that the ability to clear some strains of E. coli is greater in cockroach nymphs than adults. Notably, no differential expression of the antimicrobial gene lysozyme was observed between nymphs and adults or in infected groups. However, clearance of E. coli was significantly reduced in gnotobiotic cockroaches that were reared in the absence of environmental bacteria, suggesting a protective role for the microbiota against exogenous bacterial pathogens. Together, these results demonstrate that the interactions between cockroaches and enteric bacterial pathogens are highly dynamic and influenced by a combination of microbial, host, and environmental parameters. Such factors may affect the disease transmission capacity of cockroaches in nature and should be further considered in both lab and field studies.


Background: Patients with major depression are accompanied by intestinal flora flocculation; however, the relationship between the composition of gut microbiota in pregnancy and postpartum depression (PPD) has not been established. In this study we determined the effect of the gut microbiota in pregnant women during 32-39 weeks of gestation on PPD.Methods: Participants (n = 74) were enrolled between 2016–2017 from the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Centre (GWCMC). Stool samples were collected during 32-39 weeks of gestation, and the relative abundance of fecal microbiota was characterized by 16S rRNA sequencing. The parturients completed the mainland Chinese version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) 42 days postpartum to detect PPD. The linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) method was used to identify bacterial population differences between the PPD and control groups.Results: The top three bacteria phyla in the PPD and control groups were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. Compared with healthy pregnant women, the alpha diversity index of the PPD group was lower. Beta diversity analysis was performed by PCoA showing that no significant differences in bacterial community structures between the two groups (R2 = 0.013, P = 0.549). The composition of gut microbiota during 32-39 weeks of gestation of the two groups was different. At the genera level, Acinetobacter, Plesiomonas, Enterococcus, Olsenella, Alloscardovia, and Anaerotruncus were increased in the PPD group, while Lactococcus, Adlercreutzia, Clostridium, Coprococcus, and unclassified-Clostridiales were decreased. At the species level, hypermegale, uli, casseliflavus, and hathewayi were increased in the PPD group, and celatum was increased in the control group.Conclusions: During 32-39 weeks of gestation, a reduction in diversity of gut microbiota and anti-inflammatory bacteria, and an increase in opportunistic pathogenic bacteria are more likely to cause PPD.


In this paper we report on a study into the antecedents of online purchase intention for B2C websites. In particular this research juxtaposes two competing models that explain online purchase intention. A replication was carried out of the trust-oriented study by S.L. Jarvenpaa et al. (2000), and the website oriented model from P.Y.K. Chau et al. (2000), first developed by F.D. Davis (1989). The replication study involved 227 undergraduate students, and resulted in a number of findings. First, online purchase intention at the website is strongly determined by attitude towards online shopping at the website. Second, trust in the company does not influence attitude directly, but indirectly through a significant impact on perceived risk. Third, website usefulness does not significantly influence attitude towards shopping and online purchase intention. We conclude that trust-oriented models appear to be more appropriate to explain online purchase intention than website-oriented models.


Treatment with extracts from whole herbs has been reported to synergistically enhance the anticancer activities of therapeutic agents in recent studies. The present study evaluated the antioxidant and anticancer activities of Smilax corbularia Kunth (S. corbularia) and Phellinus linteus (P. linteus) crude extracts individually and in combination. S. corbularia was extracted using ethanol, whereas P. linteus was extracted using hot water. Both crude extracts underwent physiochemical characterization. Subsequently, the possible antioxidant activities of both crude extracts, individually and in combination, were evaluated using 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) assays. Their effects on breast cancer cell cytotoxicity, proliferation and apoptosis were then assessed. The crude S. corbularia extract obtained was found to have a high level of total phenolic content, whilst the crude P. linteus extract had high levels of total polysaccharide content. The total phenolic content and total polysaccharide content results of the combinations depended on the respective ratios of the individual extracts. S. corbularia alone and combination 3 (which contained 75% S. corbularia: 25% P. linteus) demonstrated the greatest radical scavenging activity, followed by combination 1 (50% S. corbularia: 50% P. linteus), combination 2 (25% S. corbularia: 75% P. linteus) and P. linteus. The toxicity results of the extract samples on the cancer cells corresponded with their antioxidant activity. In particular, certain combinations demonstrated clearer inhibitory effects on cell proliferation against three types of breast cancer cells compared with those exerted by the two individual extracts. However, induction of apoptosis was limited, with the degree of apoptosis observed to be #x003C;5%. These findings suggested that treatment with combinations of these two extracts could confer enhanced antioxidant and antiproliferative effects on breast cancer cells. Therefore, the potential of these two extracts in combination as anticancer agents warrants further investigation.


The 5-Fluorocytosine bronchial secretion levels of 14 patients with a chronic respiratory disease were determined using a microbiological method. The mean maximal concentrations (7.76 +/- 7 micrograms/ml) were obtained at the end of a single 25 mg/kg i v perfusion over 30 minutes. The level increased when five i v perfusions were performed every 6 hours and bronchial diffusion was higher and faster by concomitant administration of (bromhexin hydrochloride). Therefore, 5-Fluorocytosine was not found in bronchial secretions of four patients in spite of a normal serum levels (21.5 +/- 5 micrograms/ml).


In this article the author will examine the two important and distinct roles of both manager and leader. Often, out of necessity, these two roles are performed by the same individual, but this however, is not always ideal or practical. Therefore, as a manager, it is vital to recognise the focus of your role and to support and develop those staff within your department who can and are already fulfilling their leadership potential. This article will start by demonstrating the differences between a leader and a manager. Change management will be discussed before finishing with how the manager can support and develop their own staff to become successful leaders, thereby allowing the manager to concentrate upon the vital job of managing.


In this thesis we examine how Logistics in Petrobras may improve their decision making with regard to routing and scheduling of platform supply vessels (PSV). Petrobras are aiming to double their current production level by 2020. The expansion requires an increase in capacity on all levels of the organization. This includes Logistics, which will have to cope with the future expansion in addition to facing some underlying issues that already exist in their supply chain. The logistics base for Campos basin is located in the city Macae. Currently the port in Macae is operating at maximum capacity and struggles to cope with increasing demand inquiries. We argue that an operational planning tool for routing and scheduling may contribute to more efficient order handling. The thesis introduces the platform supply vessel routing and scheduling problem with refueling tankers (PSVRSP-RT), which consists of identifying optimal routes and schedules for the daily departures of PSVs servicing a set of offshore installations. The problem considered is formulated as a deterministic cost minimization problem and solved as a mixed integer linear programming problem (MILP). For a given planning horizon the model intends to properly allocate a set of pickup and delivery orders to a fleet of PSVs that has one available departure per day. Among other tasks, the model solves the optimal choice of vessel type for each departure, delivery sequence of orders and optimal deployment locations for refueling tankers. The objective function minimizes fixed and variable sailing costs, in addition to minimizing the penalty costs of delay and express delivery of orders. Friedberg and Uglane (2012b) provided an arc-flow formulation of the original PSVRSP. In the Master's thesis the same model is expanded by including the aspect of refueling tankers. According to the reviewed literature, there seems to be a clear trend towards the use of column generation to solve maritime ship routing problems. The arc-flow model is therefore decomposed using the Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition (DWD) approach, which results in a path-flow model. In the decomposed model, a subproblem (SP) is solved for each combination of departures and vessels, whereas the restricted master problem (RMP) incorporates the common constraints and the pool of columns generated in the subproblems. Column generation is used to solve the linear programming relaxation of the MILP problem. Furthermore, Branch and Price (B&P) is implemented to close the MILP gap and provide an optimal integer solution. A computational study tests a set of different approaches to column generation and other aspects of the B&P tree to speed up the solution process for the path-flow model. Testing reveals that the break-first-then-optimum (BFO) procedure is the most promising column generation approach. After implementing a satisfactory B&P scheme, the path-flow model is compared with the arc-flow model for several problem instances. Results indicate that the arc-flow model performs better for small problem instances, but as the size of the problems increases the path-flow model becomes superior. An advantage of column generation is that the model is able to provide decent bounds within a reasonable time frame, despite experiencing a tail-off effect in the B&P tree. The model is applied to a base case from Campos basin to evaluate the problem from an economical perspective. In terms of economical value, knowing how the model is affected by variations in input parameters adds value on a strategic level. With regard to the PSV fleet size and mix it is evident that a balanced composition is important in terms of cost minimization. The results reveal that a scenario involving excess capacity, i.e. a majority of PSV 3000 vessels, causes a significant increase in direct costs. In contrast, the instances involving a capacity deficit reveal a potential increase in indirect costs related to delay and express delivery costs. When we alter parameters for the offshore refueling operations, the results present only small deviations in total costs. In fact, the results indicate that the buoys for anchoring refueling tankers are properly positioned. Changing the deployment locations of refueling tankers to non-optimal buoys make little difference in terms of direct costs. With regard to the order prioritization system, the analysis provides an important intuition about the sensitivity of the delay penalty. The direct costs, which consist of sailing distance and fixed leasing rates for PSVs, are not significantly influenced by large alterations in delay penalty. Logistics face some issues that must be addressed before the model may be implemented in practice. Internal uncertainty factors arise due to lack of transparency, capacity restrictions and stakeholders? mistrust in logistics operations. To increase trust in the system by more reliability in order handling, Logistics have introduced fixed routes and schedules for PSVs. In relation to the Petrobras 2020 vision and the development in Santos basin, the future state of Logistics may become more adaptable to a dynamic planning environment. As Santos basin is under development, drilling rigs and other non-stationary installations will be the main source for demand. Fixed routes would therefore have to be reset frequently. Furthermore, as distances from the depot increase, refueling offshore might in fact become a necessity to increase the range of the PSVs.


The aim of this study is to determine the which teaching techniques and methods is more useful for academic success in math class according to university students' opinions. Prepared in accordance with expert opinion 8 different techniques and methods is aimed to scaling by using pair-wise comparision. The measurement tool prepared 8x8 square matrix format conducted to 310 students from a state university located in the Aegean region studying in a vocational school located in the central campus in 2013-2014 Academic Year. First the scaling process is performed by V. Case Equation then III. Case Equation. Afters caling process, according to students' opinions the most useful teaching methods and techniques in math class are demonstration, question and answer, lecture, problem solving, brain storming, discussion, group work and role-plays-drama method, respectively. According to the obtained results, suggestions were made for teachers and lecturers about the need to use which methods and techniques


It was nearly a year after the holding of the Aeronautical Exhibition, before the next meeting of the Society was held on 20th May 1869. Despite the fact that in the first three years of the Society's life much attention had been paid to heavier-than-air ideas, the Chairman, Glaisher, had lost none of his enthusiasm for balloons for certain purposes. "They met that night under peculiar circumstances," he said, "there being in London at this time the largest balloon yet made." Glaisher referred to Henri Giffard's captive balloon, capable of lifting twenty people at a time. In a calm it could be held captive at 2,000 ft., and was exhibited at Ashburnham Park. Giffard placed the balloon at the disposal of Glaisher for taking meteorological observations, and he made close on 30 ascents in it on behalf of the British Association, in whose transactions the results are reported.


We establish spectral convergence results of approximations of unbounded non-selfadjoint linear operators with compact resolvents by operators that converge in generalized strong resolvent sense. The aim is to establish general assumptions that ensure spectral exactness, i.e. that every true eigenvalue is approximated and no spurious eigenvalues occur. A main ingredient is the discrete compactness of the sequence of resolvents of the approximating operators. We establish sufficient conditions and perturbation results for strong convergence and for discrete compactness of the resolvents.


The synthesis and functionalisation of nanostructure magnetic materials has been an interesting area of study because of its possible applications in a variety of widely diversified areas ranging from information technology to nano-biotechnology. The advancements in nanofabrication and development of modern characterization techniques have opened a wide array of highly sophisticated applications of magnetic nanoparticles in the biomedical as well as in electronic fields. The properties physical, structural and magnetic nanopatricles required for different applications should be unique. The experimental studies carried in synthesis and analysis of different mixed magnetic ferrite nanoparticles of Co1-x-Znx, Co 0.8-x-ZnxNi0.2 and Co 0.8-x-Znx Mn0.2 ferrite nanoparticles by means of a reverse coprecipitation chemical method. The magnetic properties, super paramagnetic behavior, the saturation magnetization, coercivity and remanenent magnetization of the samples were measured using instruments like VSM, TEM, XRD and SEM. Using Pulse Field Magnetometer the temperature variation of magnetization has been carried out to determine the Curie temperature.


In the future, it is unlikely that complex system products will compete solely on the basis of technical performance. What will differentiate such systems and their developers is the ability to balance all the dimensions of product performance, including product pricing and timing (which are functions inclusive of development cost and cycle time). Furthermore, this balance must be congruent with customers' perceptions of value. Once this value is ascertained or approximated, complex system developers will require the capability to adjust the design process to meet these expectations. The required amount and sophistication of project planning, control, information, and flexibility is unprecedented. The primary goal of this work is a method to help managers integrate process and design information in a way that supports making decisions that yield products congruent with customer desires and strategic business goals.
This work consists of three parts. Part one contains two exploratory studies that further understanding of complex system product development processes. One study explores process iteration and seeks to explain why some aircraft development programs do not address iteration with existing project planning and control methods. The other study examines sources of risk, classifying these into six categories (cost, schedule, performance, technology, business, and market risks) and building causal frameworks to represent their relationships. Both studies point to avenues for improving existing process models and in some cases reveal process characteristics requiring new methods. These results, while derived from projects in the aerospace industry, are highly applicable across a variety of complex system development projects.
Part two entails an effort to model some of the characteristics observed in part one. After a review of four types of dependency structure matrices (DSMs), notably the activity-based or schedule DSM, extensive data are collected from an uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) design process. Part two thus describes how to build a DSM model and provides data for example applications of the detailed models developed in part three.
Based on the foundational work of parts one and two, part three develops a new methodology and models for understanding product development process cost, schedule, and performance. The methodology complements activity-centric schedule models such as DSM in that activities provide direct contributions to process cost and schedule and design performance. This approach sets the stage for integrated cost, schedule, and performance analyses. A cost and schedule model is presented first, and it is extended to account for the effects of activities on product performance. The stochastic, simulation model generates distributions of possible cost, schedule, and performance outcomes. These distributions represent uncertainty and are analyzed in relation to impact functions and targets to determine levels of risk. The model outputs enable the exploration of the costs and benefits of several management options and yield interesting insights. The goal is to improve product development planning and control though the capability to balance cost, schedule, and performance appropriately. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)


The results of operative treatment of secretory otitis media in 32 children at the II Department of Laryngology of the Silesian Medical Academy in Zabrze are presented. Ventilation tubes made from a plastic called "tarflen", for temporary tympanic cavity drainage and middle ear ventilation were used. Satisfactory results confirmed by otomicroscopic, audiometric and tympanometric examinations were obtained. It is pointed out that surgical treatment is necessary in chronic cases. The possibility of serious complications in case of desistance from this kind of treatment are indicated. The quality of Polish ventilation tubes, making treatment successful, in emphasized. The problem of difficulties in diagnosing secretory otitis media is also presented.


This research comprehensively illustrates the design, implementation and evaluation of a novel marker less environment tracking technology for an augmented reality based indoor navigation application, adapted to efficiently operate on a proprietary head-mounted display. Although the display device used, Google Glass, had certain pitfalls such as short battery life, slow processing speed, and lower quality visual display but the tracking technology was able to complement these limitations by rendering a very efficient, precise, and intuitive navigation experience. The performance assessments, conducted on the basis of efficiency and accuracy, substantiated the utility of the device for everyday navigation scenarios, whereas a later conducted subjective evaluation of handheld and wearable devices also corroborated the wearable as the preferred device for indoor navigation.


We characterize the relation between corporate asset structure and capital structure by exploitingvariation in the salability of tangible assets. Theory suggests that tangibility increases borrowingcapacity because it allows creditors to more easily repossess a firm's assets. Tangible assets, however,are often illiquid. We show that the redeployability of tangible assets is a main determinantof corporate leverage. To establish this link, our analysis uses an instrumental variables approachthat incorporates measures of supply and demand for various types of tangible assets (e.g., machines,land, and buildings). Consistent with a credit supply-side view of capital structure, we find that assetredeployability is a particularly important driver of leverage for firms that are likely to face creditfrictions (small, unrated firms). Our tests also show that asset redeployability facilitates borrowingthe most during periods of tight credit. Our work contributes new evidence to capital structure modelsthat are based on contract incompleteness and limited enforceability. It does so characterizing awell-defined channel through which credit frictions affect firm financial decisions.


Research has indicated that repeat offending costs the UK a minimum of £11 billion each year.
In addition, national proven re-offending rates of adults released in 2004 and followed up over a two year period were reported at 56% (Home Office, 2007). The issue of re-offending is currently being addressed by the Government in their new Crime Strategy (Home Office, 2007).
In addition, the current gap in service provision for offenders serving sentences of 12 months or less can be understood as contributing towards these high rates of re-offending.
The (2002) Social Exclusion report identifies seven pathways as major contributors to reoffending which should be addressed at both policy and individual level. The National Offender Management Unit (NOMS) recognises the need to work in partnership with key government agencies, prison and probation services and local agencies to implement intervention addressing the seven pathways. NOMS also recognises the importance of utilizing links with faith and voluntary groups to work more closely with offenders at individual level.
The Community Chaplaincy Project with HMP Swansea provides support to offenders during the bridging process between custody and reintegration into the community using the established skills and expertise of the faith and voluntary sector.


ABSTRACT Urban agriculture on green roofs has tremendous potential to enhance food security, economic opportunities, and community building in cities yet faces unique ecological challenges including limited soil moisture content for crops. We compared the effects of two green roof soil moisture management practices, sedum (Sedum album) groundcover versus watering, on performance and quality of three perennial culinary herbs: thyme, mint, and oregano. Individually and interactively, sedum groundcover and watering significantly impacted parameters of performance (biomass, vitality, and module coverage) and quality (total phenolic concentrations) of the three culinary herbs during early stages of establishment while having variable impacts during later developmental stages. Our results suggest that sedum groundcover can serve as a substitute for watering of hardy culinary herbs on green roofs on the basis of plant performance and quality. Findings can be applied to inform agroecological water management of herbs and other hardy specialty crops on green roofs toward enhancing their drought tolerance and advancing sustainable urban agriculture.


Jet impingement is a complex heat transfer technique which involves several process variables, such as nozzle-to-plate distance, jet diameter, Reynolds number, jet temperature, among others. To understand the effect of each variable, it is important to study them separately. In industrial applications that use forced convection by air jet impingement, such as reflow soldering, the correct analysis of the flow structure and accurate definition of the variables values that affect the heat transfer over the target surface leads to an increase of the process performance decreasing the manufacturing costs. To reduce costs and time, the introduction of numerical methods has been fundamental. Using a Computational Fluid Dynamics software, the number of experiments is highly reduced, being possible to focus on the phenomena that are highly relevant for the purpose of the study. In this work, the nozzle-to-plate distance (H/D) variable is analyzed. This is considered one of the most important parameters since it influences the entire structure of the jet flow as well as the heat transfer coefficient over the target surface. The results present a comparison between different H/D under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions for a Reynolds number of 2,000.


Traditional musical instruments become one of the plenty cultures throughout Indonesia, which must be preserved by the younger generation. The lack of knowledge of the younger generation about traditional musical instruments makes them not know that in Indonesia there are many traditional musical instruments, especially Gamelan musical instruments. The lack of use of technology to preserve regional musical instruments also makes many young people not realize any information of Gamelan musical instruments. By utilizing Augmented Reality technology that is applied to the Android platform, the researcher designs and creates an Android application that is used to introduce Gamelan musical instruments. This application displays musical instruments in 3D that appears as Augmented Reality so that 3D objects from musical instruments appear to the real world. The steps taken in making the application are application planning, analysis, making applications using Unity 3D, testing applications and implementing applications to Android-based mobile devices. The result of testing application of the introduction of traditional musical instruments is that the application can run on various Android mobile devices. Based on the results of the test data, it can be concluded that this application can help increasing the knowledge of the younger generation about Gamelan musical instruments.

Keywords: Introduction of Gamelan musical instruments, Augmented Reality, 3D models.


Disclosed is a substrate for a light emitting element package, wherein sufficient heat dissipation effects can be obtained from the light emitting element, and cost and size are reduced, as a substrate for packaging the light emitting element. A light emitting element package using such substrate is also disclosed. Specifically, the substrate for the light emitting element package is provided with an insulating layer (1) composed of a resin (1a) containing heat conductive fillers (1b, 1c), a thick metal section (2) formed under the mounting position of a light emitting element (4), and a surface electrode section (3) formed separately from the thick metal section (2) on the mounting side of the insulating layer (1).


Jet vetoes are essential in many analyses at the LHC and Tevatron. Typical signals have a specific number of hard jets or leptons, while backgrounds have additional jets. Vetoing undesired jets efficiently discriminates signal and background. For a sample with ≥N jets, the veto to give N energetic jets defines an "exclusive" N-jet cross section. This strongly restricts the phase space and causes large double logarithms in perturbation theory that must be summed. Jet vetoes are typically implemented using jet algorithms, yielding complicated phase-space restrictions, and reliance on leading-log parton-shower Monte Carlo simulations. We introduce a global event shape "N jettiness" τN, which is defined for events with N signal jets. Requiring τN≪1 constrains radiation between the signal jets and provides a theoretically well-controlled jet veto. N jettiness yields a factorization formula with inclusive jet and beam functions.


A new approach for the modeling and control of automated manufacturing systems is presented. This formulation lends itself to a hybrid model that allows fast and direct design of the system configuration embedded with its optimal control policy. A discrete-time linear stochastic state variable model is formally derived from first and second order fluid approximation obtained by splitting the process into two hierarchical layers. This hybrid representation yields a complete dynamical description of the system and offers average values and variances of both performance measures and of their gradients with respect to the most significant design parameters.


To achieve very low NOx emission levels, lean-premixed gas turbine combustors have been commercially implemented which operate near the fuel-lean flame extinction limit. Near the lean limit, however, flashback, lean blowoff, and combustion dynamics have appeared as problems during operation. To help address these operational problems, a combustion control and diagnostics sensor (CCADS) for gas turbine combustors is being developed. CCADS uses the electrical properties of the flame to detect key events and monitor critical operating parameters within the combustor. Previous development efforts have shown the capability of CCADS to monitor flashback and equivalence ratio. Recent work has focused on detecting and measuring combustion instabilities. A highly instrumented atmospheric combustor has been used to measure the pressure oscillations in the combustor, the OH emission, and the flame ion field at the premix injector outlet and along the walls of the combustor. This instrumentation allows examination of the downstream extent of the combustion field using both the OH emission and the corresponding electron and ion distribution near the walls of the combustor. In most cases, the strongest pressure oscillation dominates the frequency behavior of the OH emission and the flame ion signals. Using this highly instrumented combustor, tests were run over a matrix of equivalence ratios from 0.6 to 0.8, with an inlet reference velocity of 25 m/s. The acoustics of the fuel system for the combustor were tuned using an active-passive technique with an adjustable quarter-wave resonator. Although several statistics were investigated for correlation with the dynamic pressure in the combustor, the best correlation was found with the standard deviation of the guard current. The data show a monotonic relationship between the standard deviation of the guard current (the current through the flame at the premix injector outlet) and the standard deviation of the chamber pressure. Therefore, the relationship between the standard deviation of the guard current and the standard deviation of the pressure is the most promising for monitoring the dynamic pressure of the combustor using the flame ionization signal. This addition to the capabilities of CCADS would allow for dynamic pressure monitoring on commercial gas turbines without a pressure transducer.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


Current theorizing and evidence suggest that parenting stress might be greater among parents from both low and high socioeconomic positions (SEP) compared with those from intermediate levels because of material hardship among parents of low SEP and employment demands among parents of high SEP. However, little is known about how this socioeconomic variation in stress relates to the support that parents receive. This study explored whether variation in maternal parenting stress in a population sample was associated with support deficits. To obtain a clearer understanding of support deficits among mothers of high and low education, we distinguished subgroups according to mothers' migrant and single-parent status. Participants were 5,865 mothers from the Growing Up in Scotland Study, who were interviewed when their children were 10 months old. Parenting stress was greater among mothers with either high or low education than among mothers with intermediate education, although it was highest for those with low education. Support deficits accounted for around 50% of higher stress among high- and low-educated groups. Less frequent grandparent contact mediated parenting stress among both high- and low-educated mothers, particularly migrants. Aside from this common feature, different aspects of support were relevant for high- compared with low-educated mothers. For high-educated mothers, reliance on formal childcare and less frequent support from friends mediated higher stress. Among low-educated mothers, smaller grandparent and friend networks and barriers to professional parent support mediated higher stress. Implications of differing support deficits are discussed.


Business writing has a standard way of writing and formality in communication, this space for clearer and concise communication should be evident in the letter, otherwise, it shall create miscommunication and confusion. Thus, a level of students' learning in terms of the knowledge of format and content should be mastered by the learners. Having this idea, the researcher pursued this study on the evaluation of the students' business writing skills to help the students be prepared of future communication with the companies and be able to increase their confidence level in their written communication by avoiding technical and grammatical error. The study analyzed the Linguistics Errors and Skill-Competency in Business Letter Writing of student-leaders in College of Education in University of Nueva Caceres. This study sought identify kind of letters archived in the College of Education; determine the Linguistics Errors of College of Education students in Business Writing in terms of Mechanical, Morphological, Lexical, and Syntactic; recognize the Level of Competency in Business Writing Skills of College of Education students in terms of Format, and Content; establish the relationship of the Linguistic Error and the Level of Competency in Business Writing Skills of the College of Education students; and present an innovative instructional material may be produced by the researcher based on the result of the study. This study allowed the researcher to see that the Letter request is the common letters submitted in the office; that the students, despite their perception of being competent and highly competent in their business letter writing skills, are still committing errors particularly in the Punctuations, Sentence Structures, and Word Choice. Thus, should learn and relearn the important concepts in the business letter writing format and content. Lastly, should urge the future researchers to evaluate the innovative material done by the researcher so that it would be practically useful for the present and future student-leaders.


Hash functions are being used as building blocks in such diverse primitives as commitment schemes, message authentication codes and digital signatures. These primitives have important applications by themselves, and they are also used in the construction of more complex protocols such as electronic voting systems, online auctions, public-key distribution, mutual authentication handshakes and more. Part of the work presented in this thesis has contributed to the \SHA-3 contest" for developing the new standard for hash functions organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. We constructed the candidate Edon-R, which is a hash function based on quasigroup string transformation. Edon-R was designed to be much more efficient than SHA-2 cryptographic hash functions, while at the same time offering same or better security. Most notably Edon-R was the most efficient hash function submitted to the contest. Another contribution to the contest was our cryptanalysis of the second round SHA-3 candidate Hamsi. In our work we studied Hamsi's resistance to differential and higher-order differential cryptanalysis, with focus on the 256-bit version of Hamsi. Our main results are efficient distinguishers and near-collisions for its full (3-round) compression function, and distinguishers for its full (6-round) finalization function, indicating that Hamsi's building blocks do not behave ideally. Another important part of this thesis is the application of Grobner bases. In the last decade, Grobner bases have shown to be a valuable tool for algebraic cryptanalysis. The idea is to set up a system of multivariate equations such that the solution of the system reveals some secret information of the cryptographic primitive. The system is then solved with Grobner bases computation. Staying close to the topic of hash functions, we have applied this tool for cryptanalysis and construction of multivariate digital signature schemes, which is a major hash function application. The result of this is our cryptanalysis of the public-key cryptosystem MQQ, where we show exactly why the multivariate quadratic equation system is so easy to solve in practice. The knowledge we gained from finding the underlying weakness of the MQQ scheme was used to construct a digital signature scheme. The resulting scheme, MQQ-SIG, is a provably CMA resistant multivariate quadratic digital signature scheme based on multivariate quadratic quasigroups. The scheme is designed to be very fast both in hardware and in software. Compared to some other multivariate quadratic digital signature schemes, MQQ-SIG is much better in signing and private key size, while worse in key generation, verification and public key size. This means that MQQ-SIG is a good alternative for protocols where the constrained environment is on the side of the signer.


Ceramic composites found in nature, such as bone, nacre, and sponge spicule, often provide an effective resolution to a well-known conflict between materials' strength and toughness. This arises, on the one hand, from their high ceramic content that ensures high strength of the material. On the other hand, various pathways are provided for stress dissipation, and thus toughness, due to their intricate hierarchical architectures. Such pathways include crack bridging, crack deflection, and delamination in the case of layered structures. On the basis of these inspiring ideas, we attempted here to create simultaneously strong and tough laminated alumina composite with high ceramic content. Composites were prepared from high-grade commercial alumina with spin-coated interlayers of ductile polymers (PMMA and PVA). The specimens' ultimate properties (strength, fracture toughness, and work of fracture) were measured by a four-point bending method. In some cases, fracture toughness of the composites was increased by up to an order of magnitude, reminiscent of the natural layered composites. It is proposed that this increase may be attributed to an interlocking mechanism, often encountered in biological composites. The significance of sample architecture and the role of the interfacial and bulk properties of the interlayer material are discussed.


Background and Purpose: Pre-operative anxiety is associated with a high incidence of postoperative pain, increased consumption of narcotics and anesthetics, delayed recovery and discharge of patients from hospital. Due to the effect of some medicinal plants have anxiolytic and sedative, this study aimed to compare the effect of cinnamon oil plant with oral diazepam on anxiety in patients before the surgery was performed. Methods and Materials: In this clinical trial study, 60 patients 60-15 years old referred Imam Ali hospital Bojnoord, were divided randomly into two groups. At 21 the night before surgery, group 1, 10 drops of cinnamon juice oral and group 2, diazepam (5 mg) were mixed in 50 ml of tap water, were administrated. The Spielberger anxiety questionnaire were recorded before intervention and one hour before surgery. Data were analyzed using statistical tests. Results: In this study, the cinnamon group were 83.3% male and 16.7% female and diazepam group were , 76.6% male and 23.3% female. The Manifest and hidden anxiety reduced from 49.6±5.5 and 50.4±6.1 to 38.2±5.9 and 38.1±5.9 in the first group and 50.2±5.0 and 49.8±5.8 to 40.9±6.1 and 39.1±5.5 in the second group. compared two groups showed no significant difference. Conclusion: According to the results, cinnamon can reduce anxiety in patients undergoing surgery and can be used as a pre-medication drug.


Considerable developments have occurred in wound healing and care over the last few decades. Innovative technologies such as use of growth factors, bioengineered skin, topical negative pressure, heat, oxygen, and others have entered the clinic. These techniques have been advantageous, but even the most advanced and sophisticated product requires proper wound care and wound bed preparation in order to function optimally. It has been shown that the organization of a wound team, not the change in products, increases the healing of problem wounds (MTV Report, Denmark, 2003). Efficacy studies are generally performed in a few centers with investigators already experienced in the field. This probably leads to an optimal efficacy of the product. Problems arise when the product is marketed and is used by clinicians not specially educated in wound care. If no treatment plan and education is performed, product efficacy and cost‐effectiveness decrease dramatically. This is clearly a major problem for patients, but also for communities and, in the end, for companies' sale of the product. Structuring of treatment and education is for these reasons the largest present challenge in the area of wound healing. The optimal way to treat nonhealing wounds is based on a multidisciplinary concept that has been implemented in a national health care system as a recognized expert function. It should consist of a specific treatment plan including modern wound care products and well‐educated personnel. This structure is similar to other areas of the medical profession, but has to a lesser degree been established in the treatment of problem wounds. A growing understanding of the importance of this area is, however, shown by the increasing number of working groups focusing on organization and education in wound care. Presently the European Wound Management Association, the World Union of Wound Healing Societies, and The Danish Wound Healing Society have created such types of working groups.


Luminescent materials have become prevalent in data communication and information security because of their special optical characteristics. Conventional luminescent materials generally exhibit unicolor emission and fixed excitation mode, resulting in decreased efficiency of anticounterfeiting applications. The development of an iridescent chameleon-like material that can change its emission color under different stimulations is a significant challenge. Here, we propose that Pb2+, Mn2+, and lanthanide cations (such as Y3+, Tb3+, Yb3+) co-doped in Na2CaGe2O6 particles can be an effective tool for designing dual-mode anticounterfeiting materials based on their tunable fluorescence/persistent luminescence transformation and excitation wavelength-dependent emission. Ultimately, a proof-of-concept anticounterfeiting fabric is obtained by using the as-prepared phosphors and exhibits a dynamic multiple color response. This work exploits the possibility of developing a new class of multimode anticounterfeit materials, which would be almost impossible to mimic or counterfeit, providing a very high level of security.


A direct relationship is observed between the formation of the piperonyl butoxide-reduced cytochrome P-450 double Soret difference spectrum (type III) and inhibition of the formation of the carbon monoxide—cytochrome P-450 difference spectrum. This relationship appears to involve a single binding site.. The type III piperonyl butoxide—cytochrome P-450 interaction exerts a similar effect on the formation of the carbon monoxide-, pyridine-, n-octylamine-, and ethyl isocyanide— cytochrome P-450 difference spectra. Inhibition of the formation of the spectrum produce by (+)-benzphetamine is greater than that observed with the other ligands. The relationship between the change in absorbance and the change in absorbance divided by substrate concentration is linear for the formation of the type III spectrum produced by piperonyl butoxide, inhibition by the latter of the formation of the spectrum produced by carbon monoxide, and formation of the pyridine type II substrate spectrum at low pyridine concentrations. At high pyridine concentrations and with (+)-benzphetamine this relationship is curvilinear. The piperonyl butoxide type III interaction does not inhibit the formation of the pyridine type II substrate spectrum at low pyridine concentrations. At high pyridine concentrations the inhibition observed is similar to the inhibition of the (+)-benzphetamine type I substrate spectrum. Our observations suggest that piperonyl butoxide binds to one form of cytochrome P-450 at a single site and that an additional form of the cytochrome is present in noninduced hepatic microsomes from mice, which does not bind type I substrates or form a type III interaction with piperonyl butoxide.


Objective. In this study, the feasibility of detecting a P300 via an asynchronous classification mode in a reactive EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI) was evaluated. The P300 is one of the most popular BCI control signals and therefore used in many applications, mostly for active communication purposes (e.g. P300 speller). As the majority of all systems work with a stimulus-locked mode of classification (synchronous), the field of applications is limited. A new approach needs to be applied in a setting in which a stimulus-locked classification cannot be used due to the fact that the presented stimuli cannot be controlled or predicted by the system. Approach. A continuous observation task requiring the detection of outliers was implemented to test such an approach. The study was divided into an offline and an online part. Main results. Both parts of the study revealed that an asynchronous detection of the P300 can successfully be used to detect single events with high specificity. It also revealed that no significant difference in performance was found between the synchronous and the asynchronous approach. Significance. The results encourage the use of an asynchronous classification approach in suitable applications without a potential loss in performance.