Studies on the quality of education and the factors affecting the motivation of the students have increased in recent years. Hidden curriculum and education stress perception are concepts that are dealt with in theoretical frameworks designed to reveal more unions in the educational literature. In this context, the examination of the relationship between the two concepts in a sample of university students in young adulthood will be in place to understand the risk factors and supporting factors of the relationship between these two structures. Relation between hidden curriculum and educational stress has been examined in this study. Research about this study was completed with 546 university students. Educational stress scale and hidden curriculum scale have been applied to participants. Educational stress scale was developed by Sun et al. (2011). Hidden curriculum scale was developed by Akbulut and Arslan (2016). The relation between hidden curriculum and educational stress has been examined by correlation and path analysis. It was found in the study that hidden curriculum and educational stress were significantly related to each other. According to correlation analysis, statistically meaningful relation was founded between educational stress and sub dimensions of the hidden curriculum; content, learning and teaching process and evaluation. Using SEM, all the parameters of models can be tested simultaneously in one step. The specifications on the model were for direct paths from educational stress to hidden curriculum. The conclusion that student's perceived hidden curriculum affects perceived educational stress has been reached as a result of the present study. Hidden curriculum have significant effects on educational stress. Results are discussed within the extent of the related literature.


We develop a novel end-to-end trainable feature selection-forecasting (FSF) architecture for predictive networks targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT). In contrast with the existing filter-based, wrapper-based and embedded feature selection methods, our architecture enables the automatic selection of features dynamically based on feature importance score calculation and gamma-gated feature selection units that are trained jointly and end-to-end with the forecaster. We compare the performance of our FSF architecture on the problem of forecasting IoT device traffic against the following existing (feature selection, forecasting) technique pairs: Autocorrelation Function (ACF), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Recurrent Feature Elimination (RFE) and Ridge Regression methods for feature selection, and Linear Regression, Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), 1 Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (1D CNN), Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), and Logistic Regression for forecasting. We show that our FSF architecture achieves either the best or close to the best performance among all of the competing techniques by virtue of its dynamic, automatic feature selection capability. In addition, we demonstrate that both the training time and the execution time of FSF are reasonable for IoT applications. This work represents a milestone for the development of predictive networks for IoT in smart cities of the near future.


It is carried out a numerical study of the three-dimensional temperature and velocity fields in a cylindrical horizontal thermal tank during the process of water circulation. The numerical simulations were made using an academic Finite Volumes numerical code. This simulation considers that the thermal tank is connected to solar collectors. So, in the tank, the inlet jet temperature is higher than those inside the tank. This study aims to investigate the influence of the inlet jet on thermal stratification. The results show that for the mass flow rate studied, there is no significant variation on thermal stratification.


The Legislative Decree no. 81/2008, as amended, established in Title VIII, the general obligation of the employer to eliminate at the source or minimize the risks of exposure to physical agents at workplace, including non-ionizing radiation. The Regulations transpose the Artificial Optical Radiation (AOR) Directive 2006/25/EU and the Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Directive (2013/35/EU) of the European Parliament and Council. For all physical agents Legislative Decree no. 81/2008 provides that, where there is a potential hazardous exposure, the hazard should be managed through the application of a combination of appropriate control measures applying them in the following hierarchy of importance: eliminate the hazard ; substitute the hazard with a less hazardous process; introduce engineering controls, protective housings, enclosures, interlocks, delayed operation switches, etc.; introduce administrative controls, limiting the duration of exposure and personal protective equipment (PPE). In this context it is essential to provide workers and all those involved in the company's security system, proper procedures of risk assessment and prevention, and adequate information and training on the correct behaviour to be adopted in all activities in the vicinity of significant sources of optical radiations or electromagnetic fields. In the present paper the principles underlying the risk assessment of optical radiation and electromagnetic fields are discussed, referring both to the current legislation in Italy and to the Physical Agents Portal, which is recognized as an official reference for such an assessment.


We discuss the possibility to create hybrid quantum systems that combine ultracold atoms with graphene membranes. We investigate a setup in which a cold atom cloud is placed close to a free-standing sheet of graphene at distances on the order of a few hundred nanometers. The atoms then couple to the graphene membrane via Casimir-Polder forces. Temporal changes in the atomic state of the atomic cloud changes the Casimir-Polder interaction, thereby leading to the creation of a backaction force in the graphene sheet. This setup provides a controllable way to engineer ripples in a graphene sheet.


Objective. Optimization of fluid therapy in emergency medicine.
Materials and methods: 1) conceptual four-phase liquid resuscitation model; 2) conceptual approach of infusion therapy management is based on an assessment of the four main components of haemocirculation: a vascular content, tone and integrity, blood flow; 3) fast bedside ultrasound algorithm for differential diagnosis of shocks and infusion resuscitation protocol using ultrasound of the inferior vena cava (preload assessment) and lungs (early detection of extravascular fluid).
Results. Using the selected methods, it is possible to clearly determine the optimal target-oriented infusion strategy depending on the volemic status and the state of hemodynamics, the parameters of which can be estimated using ultrasound: vascular content – inferior vena cava (caliber and breathing variations); vascular tone – caliber of the tibia artery; vascular integrity – loss assessment in the third space (physiological cavities and interstitium of the lungs); blood flow – Doppler Echo.
Conclusions. The use of diagnostic ultrasound allows to optimize tissue perfusion, keeping the intravascular fluid volume in a certain range by sorting patients into three categories of fluid management: infusion resuscitation, tested infusion, limiting infusion and early use of vasopressors, which reduces the number of adverse effects and the incidence of complications.


Human cell lines of hematopoietic origin were tested for production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). B-cell lines transformed by Epstein-Barr virus release a factor (referred to as hTNF) that is cytotoxic for mouse L cells sensitive to mouse TNF but not for L cells resistant to mouse TNF. Exposure to 4 beta-phorbol 12 beta-myristate 13 alpha-acetate augmented production of hTNF. hTNF activity was not found in supernatants of cell lines of T-cell, monocytic, or promyelocytic origin. Partially purified hTNF has a molecular weight of approximately 70,000, has no interferon activity, is acid labile, is destroyed by heating at 70 degrees C for 1 hr, induces cross-resistance to mouse TNF in vitro, and causes hemorrhagic necrosis of Meth A mouse sarcoma in the standard in vivo mouse TNF assay. Tests with a panel of 23 human cancer cell lines showed that hTNF is cytotoxic for 7 cell lines, cytostatic for 5, and has no effect on 11. Comparative studies with human alpha, beta, and gamma interferons indicated that sensitivity to hTNF and interferon can be distinguished. Combined treatment with hTNF and alpha or gamma interferon resulted in a synergistic cytotoxic effect.


Heat acclimation (HA) attenuates physiological strain in hot conditions via phenotypic and cellular adaptation. The aim of this study was to determine whether HA reduced physiological strain, and heat shock protein (HSP) 72 and HSP90α mRNA responses in acute normobaric hypoxia. Sixteen male participants completed ten 90-min sessions of isothermic HA (40°C/40% relative humidity) or exercise training [control (CON); 20°C/40% relative humidity]. HA or CON were preceded (HYP1) and proceeded (HYP2) by a 30-min normobaric hypoxic exposure [inspired O2 fraction = 0.12; 10-min rest, 10-min cycling at 40% peak O2 uptake (V̇O2 peak), 10-min cycling at 65% V̇O2 peak]. HA induced greater rectal temperatures, sweat rate, and heart rates (HR) than CON during the training sessions. HA, but not CON, reduced resting rectal temperatures and resting HR and increased sweat rate and plasma volume. Hemoglobin mass did not change following HA nor CON. HSP72 and HSP90α mRNA increased in response to each HA session, but did not change with CON. HR during HYP2 was lower and O2 saturation higher at 65% V̇O2 peak following HA, but not CON. O2 uptake/HR was greater at rest and 65% V̇O2 peak in HYP2 following HA, but was unchanged after CON. At rest, the respiratory exchange ratio was reduced during HYP2 following HA, but not CON. The increase in HSP72 mRNA during HYP1 did not occur in HYP2 following HA. In CON, HSP72 mRNA expression was unchanged during HYP1 and HYP2. In HA and CON, increases in HSP90α mRNA during HYP1 were maintained in HYP2. HA reduces physiological strain, and the transcription of HSP72, but not HSP90α mRNA in acute normobaric hypoxia.


(1) Background and objective: to explore the experiences of Swiss health care providers involved in a community fall prevention pilot project on barriers and facilitations in interprofessional cooperation between 2016 and 2017 in three regions of Switzerland. (2) Methods: semi-structured interviews with health care providers assessed their perspective on the evaluation of jointly developed tools for reporting fall risk, continuous training of the health care providers, sensitizing media campaigns, and others. (3) Results: One of the project's strengths is the interprofessional continuous trainings. These trainings allowed the health care providers to extend their network of health care providers, which contributed to an improvement of fall prevention. Challenges of the project were that the standardization of the interprofessional collaboration required additional efforts. These efforts are time consuming and, for some categories of health care providers, not remunerated by the Swiss health care system. (4) Conclusions: On a micro and meso level, the results of the present study indicate that the involved health care providers strongly support interprofessional collaboration in fall prevention. However, time and financial constraints challenge the implementation. On a macro level, potential ways to strengthen interprofessional collaboration are a core element in fall prevention.


The aim of this study was to determine the difficulties experienced by disabled children and their mothers due to the necessity of being at home during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) process. The research is a qualitatively prepared phenomenological-type descriptive study. "Content analysis" was used in the analysis of the interview questions. Semi-structured interview technique was used as the data collection method. It was determined that the disabled child lost the skills he learned during the COVID-19 process; his health was adversely affected; there were disruptions in the education process; behavioral problems began; and he experienced social isolation. As a result, it can be said that both children with disabilities and mothers who care for them try to cope with many difficulties during the COVID-19 process and they are left alone and do not receive support during this process.


The attrition and retention of special education teachers of color (SETOC) is a concern for school district leaders who are seeking racially and ethnically minoritized teachers to work with students of color with disabilities. We reviewed 47 articles from 2002 to 2020 regarding factors related to the attrition and retention of special education teachers (SET) to better understand the racial characteristics of the participants in the studies and to compare and contrast whether SETOC provide reasons for why they stay or leave that vary from reasons provided by their White colleagues. We found that researchers examining SETs have mostly ignored race and ethnicity when analyzing factors in the attrition and retention of SETs. Although empirical research on the topic is scarce, the articles that were analyzed in this review that also included an analysis of the experiences of SETOC often was framed using a racial lens in understanding factors that may cause them to stay in or leave the profession. We conclude with a discussion of major takeaways from the literature and recommendations for promoting a more robust research agenda on this topic for future considerations.


Objective This study aimed to find out whether utilizing a shift schedule evaluation tool with ergonomics recommendations for working hours has favorable effects on the incidence of occupational injuries. Methods This 4-year prospective cohort study (2015–2018) consisted of a dynamic cohort of healthcare shift workers (N=29 237) from ten hospital districts and six cities in Finland. Working hour characteristics and occupational injuries were measured with daily registry data. Multilevel generalized linear model was used for the analyses, and the estimates were controlled for hierarchical structure of the data and confounders. Results Ward heads of the cities used the shift schedule evaluation tool 3.2 times more often than ward heads of the hospital districts. Overall incidence of workplace and commuting injuries did not differ between users and non-users of the evaluation tool. The incidence of dislocations, sprains, and strains was lower in the users than non-users [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.78–0.99]. Approximately 13% of this association was mediated by increase in realized shift wishes and 10% by increase in single days off. In subgroup analyses, the incidence of workplace injury (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.69–0.99), and among types of injuries, the incidence of dislocations, sprains, and strains (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.55–0.85) and falling, slipping, tripping, or overturning (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.58–0.99) were lower in users than non-users among employees of the cities, but no association was found among employees of the hospital districts. Conclusion The use of ergonomics recommendations for working hours is associated with a reduced risk of occupational injuries.


The goal of a scientific work is to give to the reader clear information in the shortest time. To achieve this goal depends on the writer's technique and experience. In this article we will review the essential ingredients of a scientific paper, and which is the role of each one. We will also make some comments on lecture presentation and on paper preparation for journal submission.


The material transportation planning with a mobile robot can be regarded as the ordered clustered traveling salesman problem. To solve such problems with different priorities at stations, an improved adaptive genetic simulated annealing algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the priority matrix is defined according to station priorities. Based on standard genetic algorithm, the generating strategy of the initial population is improved to prevent the emergence of non-feasible solutions, and an improved adaptive operator is introduced to improve the population ability for escaping local optimal solutions and avoid premature phenomena. Moreover, to speed up the convergence of the proposed algorithm, the simulated annealing strategy is utilized in mutation operations. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm has the characteristics of strong ability to avoid local optima and the faster convergence speed.


Estuaries are key reactive ecosystems along the land–ocean aquatic continuum, with significant ecological and economic value. However, they have been facing strong morphological management changes as well as increased nutrient and contaminant inputs, possibly leading to ecological problems such as coastal eutrophication. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify the ingoing and outgoing fluxes of the estuaries, their retention capacity, and estuarine eutrophication potential. A 15 1-D Carbon–Generic Estuary Model (C-GEM) was used to simulate the transient hydrodynamics, transport, and biogeochemistry for estuaries with different sizes and morphologies along the French Atlantic coast during the period 2014– 2016 using readily available geometric, hydraulic, and biogeochemical data. These simulations allowed us to evaluate the budgets of the main nutrients (phosphorus [P], nitrogen [N], silica [Si]) and total organic carbon (TOC), and their imbalance with respect to estuarine eutrophication potential. Cumulated average annual fluxes to the Atlantic coast from the seven 20 estuaries studied were 9.6 kt P yr, 259 kt N yr, 304 kt Si yr, and 145 kt C yr. Retention rates varied depending on the estuarine residence times, ranging from 0–27%, 0–34%, 2–39%, and 8–96% for TP, TN, DSi, and TOC, respectively. Largescale estuaries had higher retention rates than medium and small estuaries, which we interpreted in terms of estuarine residence times. As shown by the indicator of eutrophication potential (ICEP), there might be a risk of coastal eutrophication, i.e., the development of nonsiliceous algae that is potentially harmful to the systems studied due to the excess TN over DSi. 25


Purpose

There is a dearth of studies that have investigated mediators of the effect of service quality on customer loyalty under the conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe; where bank customers' confidence in the banking system has been dented by bank failures. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediators of the effect of service quality on loyalty among bank customers in Zimbabwe.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional survey of 310 bank customers was conducted in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. A questionnaire with Likert type questions was used to collect data. Customers were randomly intercepted as they walked out of five major banks. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed relationships.

Findings

The study found that service quality, satisfaction and corporate image all have positive direct effects on loyalty. It was also found that satisfaction and corporate image all mediate the effect of service quality on loyalty.

Research limitations/implications

The study was conducted in Chinhoyi, one of the emerging towns in Zimbabwe. There is a need to conduct more similar studies in other parts of the world in future in order to have a better understanding of this subject.

Practical implications

Banks are advised to address issues to do with service quality, customer satisfaction and corporate image when designing marketing programmes intended to increase customer loyalty.

Originality/value

Studies that have investigated mediators of the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in banking environments such as in Zimbabwe are scarce. This study was conducted to address this knowledge gap. Relationships among customer loyalty and its antecedents are not likely to change due to conditions prevailing in a particular banking environment.


Describes a test generation and fault simulation method which detects faults in the clock control logic that can cause register initialization failure in sequential circuits. By assigning an individual initial value X/sub n/ to the inaccessible register n in the faulty circuit and observing both the fault signal 0/X/sub n/ (0 in the good circuit/X/sub n/ in the faulty circuit) and 1/X/sub n/ in a different time frame, test vectors which can detect previously undetectable faults can be generated. Consequently, this method can generate test vectors with 98% to 100% fault coverage for sequential circuits for which conventional test generation methods only achieve 89% to 95% coverage.<<ETX>>


Background and Objectives: Cyclone is one of the most utilized dust collectors for airborne particles control. It separates particles from airflow by centrifugal force. However, it is not effective in collecting very fine particles smaller than 10 μm in diameter. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of charging particles on cyclone efficiency in collecting particles smaller than 1 μm. Materials and Methods: To achieve the above aim, a pilot air conditioning system equipped with conventional cyclone of Lapple model was designed and installed. A high voltage (18 KV) DC power supply was used for charging silica particle in corona charger. Isokinetic probe was used for particles sampling at upstream and downstream of cyclone under different study conditions and measurement was carried out using Grimm 1.08 dust counter. Results: Charging fine airborne silica particles caused a significant increase in collection efficiency. There is a direct relationship between collection efficiency and charging voltage, so that the total particles collection efficiency was increased from 2.7 to about 72% with respect of increasing charging voltage from zero to 18 Kv. However, inlet air velocity has a negative effect on the collection efficiency of particles charged. Conclusion: Applying electrocyclone in collecting fine particles smaller than 1 μm is more efficient compared with that of conventional cyclones.


Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Antartica, Cladosporium austrolitorale from coastal sea sand. Australia, Austroboletus yourkae on soil, Crepidotus innuopurpureus on dead wood, Curvularia stenotaphri from roots and leaves of Stenotaphrum secundatum and Thecaphora stajsicii from capsules of Oxalis radicosa. Belgium, Paraxerochrysium coryli (incl. Paraxerochrysium gen. nov.) from Corylus avellana. Brazil, Calvatia nordestina on soil, Didymella tabebuiicola from leaf spots on Tabebuia aurea, Fusarium subflagellisporum from hypertrophied floral and vegetative branches of Mangifera indica and Microdochium maculosum from living leaves of Digitaria insularis. Canada, Cuphophyllus bondii from a grassland. Croatia, Mollisia inferiseptata from a rotten Laurus nobilis trunk. Cyprus, Amanita exilis on calcareous soil. Czech Republic, Cytospora hippophaicola from wood of symptomatic Vaccinium corymbosum. Denmark, Lasiosphaeria deviata on pieces of wood and herbaceous debris. Dominican Republic, Calocybella goethei among grass on a lawn. France (Corsica), Inocybe corsica on wet ground. France (French Guiana), Trechispora patawaensis on decayed branch of unknown angiosperm tree and Trechispora subregularis on decayed log of unknown angiosperm tree. Germany, Paramicrothecium sambuci (incl. Paramicrothecium gen. nov.) on dead stems of Sambucus nigra. India, Aureobasidium microtermitis from the gut of a Microtermes sp. termite, Laccaria diospyricola on soil and Phylloporia tamilnadensis on branches of Catunaregam spinosa. Iran, Pythium serotinoosporum from soil under Prunus dulcis. Italy, Pluteus brunneovenosus on twigs of broadleaved trees on the ground. Japan, Heterophoma rehmanniae on leaves of Rehmannia glutinosa f. hueichingensis. Kazakhstan, Murispora kazachstanica from healthy roots of Triticum aestivum. Namibia, Caespitomonium euphorbiae (incl. Caespitomonium gen. nov.) from stems of an Euphorbia sp. Netherlands, Alfaria junci, Myrmecridium junci, Myrmecridium juncicola, Myrmecridium juncigenum, Ophioceras junci, Paradinemasporium junci (incl. Paradinemasporium gen. nov.), Phialoseptomonium junci, Sporidesmiella juncicola, Xenopyricularia junci and Zaanenomyces quadripartis (incl. Zaanenomyces gen. nov.), from dead culms of Juncus effusus, Cylindromonium everniae and Rhodoveronaea everniae from Evernia prunastri, Cyphellophora sambuci and Myrmecridium sambuci from Sambucus nigra, Kiflimonium junci, Sarocladium junci, Zaanenomyces moderatricis-academiae and Zaanenomyces versatilis from dead culms of Juncus inflexus, Microcera physciae from Physcia tenella, Myrmecridium dactylidis from dead culms of Dactylis glomerata, Neochalara spiraeae and Sporidesmium spiraeae from leaves of Spiraea japonica, Neofabraea salicina from Salix sp., Paradissoconium narthecii (incl. Paradissoconium gen. nov.) from dead leaves of Narthecium ossifragum, Polyscytalum vaccinii from Vaccinium myrtillus, Pseudosoloacrosporiella cryptomeriae (incl. Pseudosoloacrosporiella gen. nov.) from leaves of Cryptomeria japonica, Ramularia pararhabdospora from Plantago lanceolata, Sporidesmiella pini from needles of Pinus sylvestris and Xenoacrodontium juglandis (incl. Xenoacrodontium gen. nov. and Xenoacrodontiaceae fam. nov.) from Juglans regia. New Zealand, Cryptometrion metrosideri from twigs of Metrosideros sp., Coccomyces pycnophyllocladi from dead leaves of Phyllocladus alpinus, Hypoderma aliforme from fallen leaves Fuscopora solandri and Hypoderma subiculatum from dead leaves Phormium tenax. Norway, Neodevriesia kalakoutskii from permafrost and Variabilispora viridis from driftwood of Picea abies. Portugal, Entomortierella hereditatis from a biofilm covering a deteriorated limestone wall. Russia, Colpoma junipericola from needles of Juniperus sabina, Entoloma cinnamomeum on soil in grasslands, Entoloma verae on soil in grasslands, Hyphodermella pallidostraminea on a dry dead branch of Actinidia sp., Lepiota sayanensis on litter in a mixed forest, Papiliotrema horticola from Malus communis, Paramacroventuria ribis (incl. Paramacroventuria gen. nov.) from leaves of Ribes aureum and Paramyrothecium lathyri from leaves of Lathyrus tuberosus. South Africa, Harzia combreti from leaf litter of Combretum collinum ssp. sulvense, Penicillium xyleborini from Xyleborinus saxesenii, Phaeoisaria dalbergiae from bark of Dalbergia armata, Protocreopsis euphorbiae from leaf litter of Euphorbia ingens and Roigiella syzygii from twigs of Syzygium chordatum. Spain, Genea zamorana on sandy soil, Gymnopus nigrescens on Scleropodium touretii, Hesperomyces parexochomi on Parexochomus quadriplagiatus, Paraphoma variabilis from dung, Phaeococcomyces kinklidomatophilus from a blackened metal railing of an industrial warehouse and Tuber suaveolens in soil under Quercus faginea. Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Inocybe nivea associated with Salix polaris. Thailand, Biscogniauxia whalleyi on corticated wood. UK, Parasitella quercicola from Quercus robur. USA, Aspergillus arizonicus from indoor air in a hospital, Caeliomyces tampanus (incl. Caeliomyces gen. nov.) from office dust, Cippumomyces mortalis (incl. Cippumomyces gen. nov.) from a tombstone, Cylindrium desperesense from air in a store, Tetracoccosporium pseudoaerium from air sample in house, Toxicocladosporium glendoranum from air in a brick room, Toxicocladosporium losalamitosense from air in a classroom, Valsonectria portsmouthensis from air in men's locker room and Varicosporellopsis americana from sludge in a water reservoir. Vietnam, Entoloma kovalenkoi on rotten wood, Fusarium chuoi inside seed of Musa itinerans, Micropsalliota albofelina on soil in tropical evergreen mixed forests and Phytophthora docyniae from soil and roots of Docynia indica. Morphological and culture characteristics are supported by DNA barcodes. Citation: Crous PW, Osieck ER, Jurjević Ž, et al. 2021. Fungal Planet description sheets: 1284–1382. Persoonia 47: 178–374. https://doi.org/10.3767/persoonia.2021.47.06.


ABSTRACTThis thesis describes the rejection efficiency and the fouling behaviour of calcium sulphate solutes in a 1 nm tubular ceramic titanium dioxide nanofiltration membrane.Calcium sulphate is considered as one of the greatest scaling potential inorganic salts that responsible for membrane fouling which represents a main challenge in the expansion of membrane processes for desalination of brackish and saline water. The surface charge type and magnitude for the composite amphoteric TiO_2 membrane were characterised using streaming potential measurements. Electrokinetic membrane experiments were conducted in a background electrolyte comprising 0.01 M (NaCl). The zeta potential was estimated from the measured streaming potential using the Helmoholtz-Smoluchowski equation and the surface charge density was subsequently calculated using the Gouy-Chapman and Graham equations. The experimental results showed that the membrane was negatively charged at neutral pH and its iso-electrical point (i.e.p) was at pH of 4.0. The rejection behaviour of calcium sulphate at three different initial concentrations (0.001, 0.005 and 0.01 M) were investigated compared to other naturally occurring minerals (NaCl, Na_2 SO_4, CaCl_2) in single salt solutions. The rejection experiments were conducted at five different applied trans-membrane pressures ranged from 1.0 to 5.0 bars. Salt retention measurements showed that the rejection sequence was R (CaSO_4) > R (Na_2 SO_4) > R (CaCl_2) > R (NaCl). This rejection sequence behaviour showed an inverse relationship with the diffusion coefficients of the four salts. The salt with the lowest diffusion coefficient (CaSO_4) showed the highest rejection (43.3%), whereas that with the highest diffusion coefficient showed the lowest rejection. The rejection of calcium sulphate solution at saturation concentration was also conducted after a suspension solution of 0.015 M (CaSO_4) was prepared and filtered. The ionic analysis for calcium sulphate permeates indicated that, for the negatively charged TiO_2 membrane, the rejection for bivalent anion (SO_4^(2-) ) was higher than that of the bivalent cation (Ca^(2+) ).The critical flux (CF) experiments were carried out at six trans-membrane pressure ranged from 1.0 to 6.0 bars to identify the form and the onset of calcium sulphate fouling (as gypsum) using different concentrations below saturation concentration (0.001, 0.005, 0.01 M) and at saturation concentration. Two different flux-pressure techniques have been applied and compared to determine the critical flux values; these are: step by step technique and standard stepping technique. The obtained critical flux results from both measuring techniques (for all the four sessions) confirmed that the critical flux was reached and exceeded. The present work indicated that the resulting critical flux values from both measuring procedures were decreased as the ionic strengths of the calcium sulphate solutes were increased.A mathematical model has been proposed to identify the key parameters that affect the transport performance inside the TiO_2 nanofiltration membrane. The original Donnan steric pore model (DSPM) was used to simulate the rejection of 0.01 M sodium chloride as a reference solution. The membrane effective pore radius was estimated using two different transport models, both of these models depend on the permeation test of uncharged solute (glucose). The Donnan potential was determined based on the membrane effective fixed charge density which was determined by supposing that the membrane surface charge was uniformly distributed in the void volume of cylindrical pores. The theoretical rejection of NaCl solute for the present DSPM model was found to be in agreement with the experimental data.


This thesis consists of four independent chapters on urban and development economics. The first chapter estimates the causal effect of access to new subway stations on employment. I focus on a narrow band on either side of an equidistant line to existing and new subway lines in Shanghai. Comparing employment outcomes between firms on the side of the line nearest to new stations with firms on the side of the line closest to existing stations, identifies the causal effect of the new subway service. I find that every 1km decrease in distance to the subway service improves employment growth of manufacturer firms by 55-58% over five years, while it surprisingly reduces the employment growth of consumer service firms. The second chapter exploits the exogenous shock of an influential online shopping retail discount event in China (similar to Cyber Monday), to investigate how rapid growth of e-commerce affects urban traffic congestion. In the week after the event, intracity traffic congestion dropped by 1.7% during peak hours and 1% during off-peak hours. Using Baidu Index (similar to Google Trends) as a proxy for the changes in online shopping, I find that a 10% increase in online shopping causes a 1.4% reduction in traffic congestion. A welfare analysis conducted for Beijing suggests that the congestion relief effect has a monetary value of around 239 million US dollars a year. The third chapter (co-authored) studies how differential institutions persisting from colonial rule affect the spatial structure of African cities, especially how new patches of development are scattered and spatially disconnected from existing developments. The paper finds that Francophone cities are more compact than Anglophone cities. Geocoded Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data further show that compact cities have better connection to public services. The last chapter (co-authored) evaluates the environmental value of canals in England using a hedonic property price approach. Results reveal that proximity to canals increases house prices and the effect is highly localized. Houses within 100 meters of a canal have a price premium of around 5%, relative to those beyond 1km. A difference-in-differences analysis suggests that re-opening of the Droitwich canals caused price increases of around 10% within 100m of the restored canals, which is consistent with results in the national sample.


This paper presents a new method for lossy compression of temporal data of both naturally recorded and synthetically created videos by Catmull-Rom spline and quadratic Bezier curve fitting. The proposed method approximates the luminance or color variations in a sequence of frames by spline fitting in Euclidean space. Precise control of accuracy at pixel level is achieved by a specified tolerance of error. A break and fit criterion is employed to minimize the number of curve segments required to fit the data. Experimental results show that the described method yields very good results, both in terms of objective and subjective quality measurement, i.e., bit-rate/PSNR and human visual acceptance, without causing any blocking artifacts.


Thin-layer polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum obtained from one patient 48 and 65 days after the onset of tuberculous meningitis revealed five oligoclonal immunoglobulin zones in CSF without any counterpart in serum, indicating local immunoglobulin production. Subsequent immunofixation with specific antisera revealed that three of the zones consisted of immunoglobulin G lambda present simultaneously. Immunofixation with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) as antigens and autoradiography revealed zones of specific antibodies in the CSF which, regarding mobility, corresponded to oligoclonal and polyclonal CSF immunoglobulin G zones. No antibody activity was detectable in the corresponding serum, indicating that the antibodies present in CSF were synthesized within the central nervous system. In seven control patients (three with multiple sclerosis, four with chronic inflammatory central nervous system diseases of unknown cause) with oligoclonal CSF immunoglobulin, no evidence for local production of antibodies against M. tuberculosis or BCG was detectable. Immunofixation with M. tuberculosis or BCG as antigens and autoradiography may prove to be a useful diagnostic complement to conventional techniques in patients with suspected tuberculous meningitis.


Increased white cell counts are associated with augmented mortality and morbidity in sickle cell disease (SCD) and leukocytes play a central role in the vaso-occlusive process of sickle cell disease by adhering to the vascular endothelium and participating in mechanisms of oxidative stress and inflammation. The relevance of neutrophil death to the pathogenesis of inflammatory disease is now recognized, since alterations in the apoptotic processes of leukocytes may affect their cellular function and inflammatory processes. As such, this study investigated the effect of serum from control individuals (CON), SCD patients in steady state (SCD) and SCD patients on hydroxyurea therapy (SCDHU; 20–30 mg/kg/day HU) on the apoptotic processes of neutrophils (Neu). Neu were separated from whole blood of CON individuals using a ficoll-paque gradient; serum was also separated and filtered through 0.22μm ultra-filters. Pools of serum were prepared by mixing serum from 10 individuals from each subject group. Neutrophils (4×10 6 cells/ml) were cultured in the presence of pooled filtered serum (10% v/v) for 16h (37°C, 5%CO 2 ) in DMEM. Apoptosis was evaluated by detection of annexin V binding, and viability was determined by MTS assay. CON Neu cultured in the presence of pooled SCD serum demonstrated a significantly higher percentage of apoptotic cells (67.6 ± 4.3%; n=4) compared to Neu cultured with CON serum (52.3 ± 3.6%; n=4; P 5; P>0.05); Neu cultured with SCDHU serum demonstrated a higher caspase-3 activity (4.23±0.70-fold increased activity, n=8, P>0.05 Wilcox. matched pairs), but this increase was not statistically different to that of Neu cultured with CON serum. Viability did not differ significantly following 16h-culture of CON Neu with CON, SCD, or SCDHU serum (0.70±0.05; 0.80±0.06; 0.86±0.08 OD 490nm , respect., n>9, P>0.05); furthermore co-incubation of the Neu with serums in the presence of the programmed necrosis inhibitor, Necrostatin (10μM), had no significant effect on cell viability (0.80±0.05; 0.83±0.05; 0.86±0.05 OD 490nm , for CON, SCD and SCDHU respect., n>9, P>0.05), indicating that SCD serum does not appear to induce a process of necroptosis in Neu. Neutrophil death in SCD, like other inflammatory diseases, appears to be regulated by a complex network of both intracellular death and survival signaling pathways that may be modulated by extracellular stimuli. We demonstrate, under the conditions described herein, that filtered SCD serum can induce an apoptotic process in non-SCD neutrophils that does not appear to be mediated by alterations in caspase-3 activity. High levels of circulating TNF-α, a cytokine that has been previously found elevated in the serum of our population of SCD patients, are known to elicit neutrophil death via a caspase-independent mechanism; likewise, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production also induces caspase-independent neutrophil apoptosis. Interestingly, activity levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), were found in significantly lower levels in SCD serum compared to CON serum (data not shown), suggesting that SCD serum may have a greater capacity to induce ROS production in neutrophils. Notably, serum from SCDHU individuals did not stimulate increased apoptosis in control neutrophils, indicating a reduction in the serum factor(s) that elicit apoptosis in these cells. As such, Neu may be subject to both anti-and pro-apoptotic stimuli in the circulation of SCD individuals. Since alterations in Neu apoptotic processes may have significant effects on Neu function and number, in turn contributing to inflammatory processes and cellular damage at sites of inflammation, studies to understand the complex balance of these mechanisms in SCD are necessary.


The aim of this study was to describe Finnish nursing and dental hygienist students' experienceswhile playing the culture simulation games Barnga and BaFa BaFa, and thus to obtain knowledge aboutthe usefulness of the simulation method for increasing the students' cultural awareness. The data werecollected using a semi-structured questionnaire from undergraduate students (n = 103) and analysedwith the SPSS software programme. The study found that Barnga and BaFa BaFa increased students'cultural awareness by giving them insights into different cultures, by changing their thinking aboutnew cultures, by enabling them to identify with another culture, by confirming their self-awareness,and by providing them with new personal insights. The games evoked a variety of emotions in theplayers, such as suspicion, confusion, success and feeling in control, and enabled debriefing of personalcultural prejudices. The two games were equally preferred by the students and provided them withprofessional, intercultural and educational benefits. The findings indicate that Barnga and BaFa BaFa arepowerful methods to learn cultural awareness in nursing. Most probably those students who haveprevious cross-cultural experience benefit more fromthe games than those who have not. However,the long-term effects of the games call for further research.


The present study reports the fabrication of ultra-fine powders from animal protein fibres such as cashmere guard hair, merino wool and eri silk along with their free volume aspects. The respectively mechanically cleaned, scoured and degummed cashmere guard hair, wool and silk fibres were converted into dry powders by a process sequence: Chopping, Attritor Milling, and Spray Drying. The fabricated protein fibre powders were characterised by scanning electron microscope, particle size distribution and positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). The PALS results indicated that the average free volume size in protein fibres increased on their wet mechanical milling with a decrease in the corresponding intensities leading to a resultant decrease in their fractional free volumes.


Noise and light levels during hospitalizations can disrupt sleep and circadian health, resulting in worsened health outcomes. This study describes patterns of noise and light for inpatient children undergoing stem cell transplants. Objective meters tracked noise and light levels every minute for 6 months. Median overnight sound was 55 dB (equivalent to conversational speech). There were 3.4 loud noises (>80 dB) per night on average. Children spent 62% of the 24-h cycle in nonoptimal lighting, with daytime light dimmer than recommended 98% of the time. Over the 6-month period, the lowest overnight noise level recorded exceeded World Health Organization recommendations for sleep, with frequent spikes into ranges known to cause wakings. During the day, children were rarely exposed to light sufficient to preserve healthy circadian rhythms. Hospitals should address systematic environmental and workflow disruptors to improve the sleep and circadian health of patients, particularly those already at elevated risk for health morbidities.


The Hilbert–Huang Transform (HHT) has been sparsely applied to problems in seismology, although previous studies have pointed to its broad scope. In this maiden attempt, we use the HHT to represent earthquake energy release duration and frequency content and compare the results with two conventional inversion methods. By selecting examples from interplate, intraplate, and intraslab settings, we demonstrate that the HHT has the power to discriminate energy release of earthquakes with different tectonic affiliations. We observe that the dominant frequencies for energy release are higher for intraslab earthquakes than for interplate and intraplate events. We use the empirical mode decomposition-based HHT and introduce a new parameter, which we name the energy rate function (ERF), to quantify the energy release. By employing empirical Green's functions to remove the path and site effects and using a linear combination of a select set of intrinsic mode functions, we generate the station-specific relative measure of energy that we refer to as relative ERFs (RERFs). Averaged over RERFs from multiple stations, the ERF represents a measure of the total relative energy release, comparable to the moment rate functions (MRFs) and SCARDEC source time functions (STFs). Results for six of the seven earthquakes we analyzed show high cross correlation with the STFs (0.84 ± 0.03) and MRFs (0.79 ± 0.06), but there are mismatches between ERFs and MRFs or STFs when the energy release is complex and involves multisegment or bilateral ruptures. The proposed method is computationally efficient, requiring only 3.46 ± 2.62 s on average, compared to ~20 min (~1200 s) for the teleseismic inversion method we employ. With its ability to represent the seismic source in terms of energy release, the ERF method has the potential to evolve not as an alternative to waveform inversion but as a rapid time–frequency analysis tool, useful for earthquake hazard assessment.


The present work describes methods for fabricating multilayered core-shell nanoparticles composed of silica (SiO2) as a core, gadolinium compound (GdC) as an inner shell, and SiO2 as an outer shell (SiO2/GdC/SiO2) toward colloidally-stable, inert magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent, and for surface-modifying the SiO2/GdC/SiO2 nanoparticles toward immobilization of functional molecules on the SiO2/GdC/SiO2. SiO2 nanoparticles (particle size by transmission electron microscopy (TEM): 28.6±12.6 nm) were produced by a sol-gel method using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and methylamine in water/ethanol solution. GdC-coated SiO2 nanoparticles (SiO2/GdC) (GdC shell thickness by TEM: 35.9±4.9 nm) were synthesized by a homogeneous precipitation method using water/propanol solution containing the SiO2 nanoparticles, Gd(NO3)3, urea and polyvinylpyrrolidone. Succeeding SiO2coating of the SiO2/GdC nanaoparticles was performed by using TEOS and NaOH in the presence of SiO2/GdC nanoparticles. Consequently, SiO2/GdC/SiO2 nanoparticles (SiO2 shell thickness by TEM: 8.5±2.7 nm) could be obtained. The SiO2/GdC/SiO2 nanoparticles were successfully surface-modified by using 3aminopropyltrimethoxysilane for amination, and by followingly using succinic anhydride for carboxylation.


Phenolic compounds in Spanish virgin olive oils were characterized by HPLC. Simple phenols such as hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, and vanillin were found in most of the oils. The flavonoids apigenin and luteolin were also found in most of the oils. The dialdehydic form of elenolic acid linked to tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol was also detected, as were oleuropein and ligstroside aglycons. The structure of a new compound was elucidated by MS and NMR as being that of 4-(acetoxyethyl)-1,2-dihydroxybenzene. Changes of phenolic compounds in virgin olive oils with maturation of fruits were also studied. Hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, and luteolin increased their concentration in oils with maturation of fruits. On the contrary, glucoside aglycons diminished their concentration with maturation. No clear tendency was observed for the rest of the phenolic compounds identified.


We propose a method for measuring the center of mass and moment of inertia of a model using 3D point clouds. First, we use point cloud registration and segmentation to obtain point clouds of model parts with different material densities. Then, we correct the point cloud coordinates by principal component analysis, and we perform 2.5D volume calculations in three directions. Finally, we input the material density for each model part, perform point cloud reconstruction, and calculate the center of mass and moment of inertia. In experiments, we measured the center of mass and moment of inertia simultaneously by using multiple time-of-flight cameras. The results demonstrated that the proposed method accurately measured the center of mass and moment of inertia with errors of <1m m and <3%, respectively. This is a promising approach for automatically measuring models of aircraft, cars, etc.


The problem of gravitation near the Schwarzschild radius is addressed. The pressure due to free fall velocity is introduced. At the Schwarz-schild radius, this pressure produces the force balancing the gravity thus stopping the collapse of the matter. The minimum radius of the source of gravity is defined as a radius at which the proton reaches the Planck energy. The compact object as a thin shell at the minimum radius is considered. The proton is assumed to decay at the Planck scale into positron and hypothetical Planck neutrinos. Under accretion onto the compact object, half the protons decay, and the other protons retain at the minimum radius.


The optical constants of spun-cast films of several polyfluorene derivatives were examined using a combination of reflection and transmission spectroscopic ellipsometry. Results for both unannealed films and films annealed at 150°C are presented. For some polymers, annealing allowed the polymer chains to re-organize such that the films became more isotropic. The optical constants of two common metal cathodes, calcium and aluminium, were investigated using reverse ellipsometry. Multi-layer structures incorporating both polymer and metal layers were also successfully modelled.


Abstract The paper considers the role of the development of corporate social responsibility of Ukrainian nuclear energy producers to ensure the effective functioning of this industry. National sustainable development in all social and economic spheres depends heavily on effective employee management where safety plays the main role. The purpose of the article is to evaluate the development of corporate social responsibility in NNEGC "Energoatom" and identify reserves for improving enterprise employee management. To achieve this goal, the method of SPACE analysis has been modified, because this tool is traditionally used as a method of strategic management. A system of 23 indicators has been developed to evaluate the level of corporate social responsibility in NNEGC Energoatom. Four groups of factors were identified, each of them was assessed by a set of relevant indicators. The article covers the activities of the enterprise during 2016-2020. On the basis of mathematical calculations, the SPACE-analysis matrix is constructed and the strategy of corporate social responsibility development is defined. The evaluation of the level of corporate social responsibility in NNEGC Energoatom indicates a high level of CSR. Despite the effective corporate social responsibility policy in NNEGC Energoatom, some problems still exist. The analysis allowed identifying the ways to improve the corporate social responsibility of nuclear energy producers, particularly to ensure a competitive salary, increase the level of occupational safety, improve the internal communication system. The practical value of the analysis lies in the fact that the modified method of SPACE-analysis can be used to evaluate the corporate social responsibility in different types of enterprises with different aims and objectives.


This article is based on a research whose objective was to create and analyze the undergraduate business model taxonomy in Distance Education (DE) modality at private Higher Education Institutions in Brazil. As methodological procedure, a survey was conducted from August to November 2017, with 43 Brazilian institutions and a cluster analysis. The analysis resulted in the formation of two to three groups (clusters) in each of the nine business model building blocks explored in the literature review, in a total of 24 groups. From these groupings and the analysis of each group characteristics, their taxonomic classifications were created, that is, the main objective of this work. Two distinct and recurrent business models in distance education were also identified and analyzed, based on the 43 surveyed institutions study.


To the Editor:— This letter concerns your recent article by Berg et al, "The Unique Association Between Salivary Gland Cancer and Breast Cancer" ( 204 :771, 1968). The authors found an eightfold increase in breast cancer incidence for patients in their study who were being observed for cancer of the major salivary glands. They suggest correctly that this association indicates the possibility of common causal factors, but they do not speculate on what such factors might be. I would like to hypothesize that the common factor in this series is irradiation therapy. The authors mention that irradiation appears to be the cause of the excess skin cancers observed. In light of MacKenzie's 1 findings of an increased incidence of breast cancer in patients who had had multiple fluoroscopic examinations of the chest, it seems worthwhile to inquire about previous radiation therapy of patients with salivary gland and breast cancer in this


Purpose: To assess the effect of a novel intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy on tear proteins and lipids in eyes with Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). Methods: Twenty-four eyes of 12 patients with MGD were recruited and received five overlapping flashes (565-1400 nm) directed at the lower eyelid. The IPL parameters include intensity: 2.5 to 6.5 J/cm2, voltage: 100 to 240 V, frequency: 50 to 60 Hz, input: 16 W, maximum optical energy: 23 J, pulse duration: <2.0 ms, and repetition time: 1-3.5 s. Tear samples were evaluated immediately before and 2 weeks after IPL therapy and included measurements of protein concentration, electrophoretic mobility by using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, lipid profile assessments, and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) for phospholipids. Results: Significant improvements were observed in tear protein concentrations and molecular weight after IPL therapy. The most pronounced effect was in the molecular weight of tear lysozyme, lactoferrin, and albumin. Tear lipids showed an improvement in the concentrations of total lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol, and phospholipids. On TLC, the tears in patients with MGD had significantly lower amounts of anionic phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, and phosphatidylserine but amounts zwitterionic neutral phospholipid phosphatidylcholine were normal. These anionic phospholipids showed obvious recovery after IPL therapy. Conclusion: IPL therapy is effective in eyes with MGD. It improved tear protein and lipid content and composition. The anionic phospholipids were more responsive to IPL therapy than were the other zwitterionic phospholipids.


Physicians face challenges staying up-to-date with the latest research and accessing the ever-growing field of knowledge is time-consuming. Online education can make these clinician's tasks more efficient and less time-consuming.As part of a larger curriculum, we developed an online CME activity titled: "Enthesitis in Psoriatic Arthritis: Disease, Diagnosis and Decisions". The goal of this study was to assess whether this online CME accredited video discussion improves physicians' understanding of the role of enthesitis in the diagnosis and management of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in clinical practice.Rheumatologists participated in an online CME activity (https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/910671) consisting of a 30-minute video discussion between 2 experts with accompanying slides. Educational effect was assessed using a 4-question repeated pairs, pre-/post-assessment. A chi-square test was used to determine if a statistically significant improvement (P<.05 significance level) existed in the number of correct responses from the pretest and posttest scores. Cramer's V was used to estimate the level of impact of the education. The CME activity launched on March 28, 2019, and the data were collected through June 7, 2019.A total of 145 rheumatologists completed the pre- and post activity assessments. Overall the activity had a signficiant impact (P<.0001) on rheumatologists' knowledge of the role of enthesitis in the diagnosis and management of PsA, with a Cramer's V value of 0.153 indicating a noticeble educational impact. The average percentage of correct responses rose from 54% pre-activity to 69% post-activity. A repeated pairs analysis showed that 22% of rheumatologists improved their knowledge and 47% reinforced their knowledge, respectively. The change in percentage of correct responses from pre- to post-assessment for all questions are shown in table. Almost 40% of rheumatologists had a measurable improvement in confidence in their ability to evaluate the presence of enthesitis according to a clinical exam or ultrasound.Table.Impact of education on rheumatologists' knowledge of enthesitisQuestion #Question topicAggregated dataLinked Learner ResultsaAverage % of correct responses Pre- vs. Post-educationP-value% ImprovedblearnersPre- vs. Post-education% ReinforcedclearnersPre- vs. Post-education1.Immunopathology of PsA75% vs 84%.057912%72%2.Prevalence of enthesitis in patients with PsA44% vs 68%<.000133%34%3.Clinical trial outcomes in patients with enthesitis43% vs 56%.034522%34%aEach individual learner tracked pre and post-educationbIncorrect answer pre-education, Correct answer post-educationcCorrect answer pre-education, Correct answer post-educationThis online CME activity significantly improved rheumatologists' understanding of role of enthesitis in the diagnosis and management of PsA. However, there is clearly room for further improving physicians' knowledge of clinical trial outcomes with biologics in patients with enthesitis, since 44% of rheumatologists provided incorrect answers to question 3 post-education. This topic can be addressed in future education.This CME-certified activity was supported by independent funding from Novartis AG.Adriana Stan Grant/research support from: The CME-certified activity was supported by an independent educational grant from Sandoz., Marinella Calle Grant/research support from: This CME-certified activity was supported by an independent educational grant from Novartis AG, Peter Schoonheim Grant/research support from: This CME-certified activity was supported by independent funding from Sandoz., Philip J Mease Grant/research support from: Abbott, Amgen, Biogen Idec, BMS, Celgene Corporation, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sun Pharmaceutical, UCB – grant/research support, Consultant of: Abbott, Amgen, Biogen Idec, BMS, Celgene Corporation, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sun Pharmaceutical, UCB – consultant, Speakers bureau: Abbott, Amgen, Biogen Idec, BMS, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Janssen, Pfizer, UCB – speakers bureau


We study distributed load balancing in networks with selfish agents. In the simplest model considered here, there are n identical machines represented by vertices in a network and m > n selfish agents that unilaterally decide to move from one vertex to another if this improves their experienced load. We present several protocols for concurrent migration that satisfy desirable properties such as being based only on local information and computation and the absence of global coordination or cooperation of agents. Our main contribution is to show rapid convergence of the resulting migration process to states that satisfy different stability or balance criteria. In particular, the convergence time to a Nash equilibrium is only logarithmic in m and polynomial in n, where the polynomial depends on the graph structure. In addition, we show reduced convergence times to approximate Nash equilibria. Finally, we extend our results to networks of machines with different speeds or to agents that have different weights and show similar results for convergence to approximate and exact Nash equilibria.


Introduction Current guidelines recommend aortic valve replacement in patients with apparently asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis, who exhibit symptoms or a decrease in blood pressure on exercise testing. However, the additional information provided by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is limited. This study sought to establish the additional information provided by CPET in this context. Methods An analysis of patients with aortic stenosis undergoing CPET in an enhanced valve surveillance clinic was performed. Symptom limited cardiopulmonary exercise testing with respiratory gas exchange analysis was used, and the patients were encouraged to exercise until exhaustion. Results 71 patients with moderate to severe aortic stenosis and good left ventricular function (AVVmax 4 0.5m/s MG 38 11mmHg, AVA 0.9 0.2cm2, LVEF 60 8%)were included in the analysis. The mean age was 74.2 12.1 years and 51 patients (70.4%) were male. 33 (46.5%) patients had a background of hypertension, 12 (16.9%) had diabetes mellitus and 8 (11.3%) had coronary artery disease. All patients denied cardiovascular symptoms at baseline. A total of 119 CPETs were performed. All patients exercised to respiratory exchange ratio (RER) >1.1 indicating good effort. Of the 71 patients, 26 (37%) exhibited a peak VO2 <84% predicted. 11 patients (15.5%) developed breathlessness on exertion, 7 (9.9%) exhibited a fall in blood pressure below baseline and 3 (4.2%) developed ST depression. 18 patients (25.3%) had a peak VO2 <84% predicted, but without symptoms, fall in blood pressure or ST depression. There was a significant correlation between peak VO2 and AVA (r= 0.24, p= 0.047, but not between peak VO2 and transaortic velocity (r=0.117, p=0.339) and peak VO2 and mean gradient (r=0.139, p= 0.256). Over a median follow up time of 8 months (IQR 4 to 28 months), 28 patients (39%) were referred for aortic valve intervention. There were 3 deaths. Logistic regression showed that aortic valve area and peak VO2 were not significant predictors for clinical events. Abstract 132 Table 1 Conclusion Our data demonstrates that a significant proportion of patients with apparently asymptomatic aortic stenosis exhibit exercise limitation as measured by peak VO2. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing may provide incremental objective evidence of early deterioration, over and above parameters obtained from conventional treadmill testing, as suggested by current guidelines. Conflict of Interest nil


Recent statistical X-ray measurements of the intracluster medium (ICM) indicate that gas temperature profiles in the outskirts of galaxy clusters deviate from self-similar evolution. Using a mass-limited sample of galaxy clusters from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, we show that the departure from self-similarity can be explained by non-thermal gas motions driven by mergers and accretion. Contrary to previous claims, gaseous substructures only play a minor role in the temperature evolution in cluster outskirts. A careful choice of halo overdensity definition in self-similar scaling mitigates these departures. Our work highlights the importance of non-thermal gas motions in ICM evolution and the use of galaxy clusters as cosmological probes.


The aim of study was to research the state of iodine prophylactic in pregnant women in Russian Federation and offer the optimal levels of daily iodine intake during pregnancy and lactation.414 pregnant and breast-feeding women and 256 newborns from 3 various regions of Russian Federation were observed in this survey. Women have been divided into 2 groups: 1st group taking of 200 μg of KI per day, 2nd group 300 KI μg per day during pregnancy and lactation.The following surveys were performed: TSH; fT4; AT'TPO; urinary iodine concentration (UIC); indicators of hemoglobin, erythrocytes, hematocrit, iron, ferritin; ultrasound examination of a thyroid.Initially, the median of UIC in all regions is below threshold level 150 μg/l. In Nizhny Novgorod it is 140,8 μg/l; Smolensk -62,7 μg/l and Moscow Region 127,5 μg/l that confirms iodine insufficient in pregnant women.Optimal iodine nutrition during pregnancy and lactation is reached by the only regular iodine prophylactic, and the requirement of iodine should be at least 250 μg/day.With presence of the iron deficiency anemia which was revealed in 22,3% of pregnant women, efficiency of iodine prophylactic is decreasing and optimum preventive doses of iodine for the this category of pregnant women is at least300 μg/day.


students to master the traditional and the latest vocal techniques inherent in different manners of singing. The considered principles are complementary and provide the interrelation of psychological-pedagogical, musical-theoretical and vocal training of students from China. They need to be applied not in isolation, but in a complex way. Mandatory and full implementation of them ensures the efficiency and purposefulness of the educational process, promotes the improvement of the quality of vocal training, leads to the conscious formation of students' performing mobility.


Wireless network (WLAN) platforms today are based on complex and inflexible hardware solutions to meet performance and deadline constraints for Media Access Control (MAC). Contrary to that, physical layer solutions, such as Software Defined Radio, become more and more flexible and support several competing standards. A flexible MAC counterpart is needed for system solutions that can keep up with the rising variety of WLAN protocols.We revisit the case for programmable MAC implementations looking at recent WLAN standards and show the feasibility of a software-based MAC. Our exploration uses IEEE 802.11a-e as design driver, which makes great demands on Quality-of-Service, security, and throughput. We apply our SystemC framework for efficiently assessing the quality of design points and reveal trade-offs between memory requirements, core performance, application-specific optimizations, and responsiveness of MAC implementations. In the end, two embedded cores at moderate speed (< 200MHz) with lightweight support for message passing using small buffers are sufficient for sustaining worst-case scenarios in software.


Repair of substantial cranial defects in adults and children may be compromised due to limitations in donor bone stocks for autologous grafts. We evaluated the capability of autologous adipose-derived mesenchymal cells (ADCs) in combination with polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds to regenerate bone in a critical-sized skull defect. Thirty adult New Zealand White rabbits were divided into six groups of five animals each: (1) PLA alone (control), (2) fibronectin-coated PLA, (3) PLA with ADCs, (4) fibronectin-coated PLA with ADCs, (5) PLA with osteogenically induced ADCs (osADCs), and (6) fibronectin-coated PLA with osADCs. All the animals were humanely killed after 6 weeks. X-ray, histology, and histomorphometric analysis were performed to evaluate the new bone formation inside the PLA scaffold. Radiographically and histomorphometrically, the groups in which the PLA was not fibronectin coated showed no bone formation in contrast to the fibronectin-coated groups (Gp1 vs. Gp2, p < 0.0005); the group treated with osteo-induced ADCs and fibronectin (Gp6) showed significantly more bone formation than the group treated with undifferentiated ADCs (Gp4) and the group treated without cells (Gp5, p < 0.0005, in both cases). These data indicate that the surface treatment with fibronectin promotes bone formation within the scaffold, and that autologous, osteo-induced adipose-derived cells enhance bone formation if seeded into a fibronectin-treated PLA scaffold.


This article explores the role of subnational geography in the analysis of the consequences of Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) for workers performing different typologies of jobs. We qualify jobs according to their knowledge content, degree of tradability and response to agglomeration economies. While the former two dimensions are key to signal the intensity to OFDI exposure of different typologies of jobs, the latter contributes to explain the unequal spatial distribution of benefits and losses from OFDI in terms of job creation/destruction. We theorise areas that are more severely exposed to OFDI experience job losses in routine occupations, whereas they do not necessarily benefit from job creation in non-routine jobs. To test our hypothesis, we make use of a balanced panel dataset at the local labour market level, exploiting variations in OFDI exposure and in the job composition of local areas. Our findings—robust to numerous checks, including unobserved global and local trends—indicate that job losses concentrate in regions that were more exposed to OFDI based on their initial industry mix, and affect individuals performing mainly routine tasks. In these same areas, however, no significant effects are found when looking at job creation in non-routine occupations.


Whether the minimum wage is an effective redistributive policy is still controversial. I investigate this issue from a new perspective by focusing on the effect of minimum wage hikes on housing rents. It is informative for two reasons. First, if minimum wage hikes increase housing rents, some of the benefits accidentally fall on homeowners rather than workers.
Second, housing rents serve as an indicator as to whether and how much minimum wages are beneficial for workers, which I show by developing a spatial equilibrium model. I empirically analyze the causal impact of the minimum wage increase on housing rents in the United States and Japan. In both countries, minimum wages hikes increase housing rents in urban areas: 10% minimum wage increase induces 1%-2% increase in the United States and 2.5%-5% increase in Japan. While the unintended incidence on homeowners is arguably moderate, it is non-negligible. Moreover, it may be more salient if minimum wages induce unemployment. I also suggest the importance of heterogeneous welfare impacts on different groups of minimum wage workers.


Microfinance has considered to be the key to end world poverty by serving the poor and vulnerable. In Uganda, the microfinance market has been on a steady rise since 1980; a time when HIV prevalence peaked. When voices are questioning whether microfinances work as efficiently as supposed, organizations in Uganda claims that HIV positive people might be excluded in various ways from financial services. This paper aims to investigate if people living with HIV are being excluded from the microfinance market in Uganda. To do so, we use two OLS-models to analyze data from the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics, the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda, and the U.S Agency for International Development. By analyzing the estimates on existenceand number of MFIs, HIV prevalence, control variables and regional effects, we find evidence suggesting that HIV positive people might be excluded from the microfinance market in the Central region of Uganda, but no statistical evidence from the Western, Eastern or Northern regions. But exclusion might occur in other ways that were not possible to examine statistically in this report, such as self-exclusion and stigmatization. Due to data limitation and sample size bias, we welcome further research on the topic.


This research was conducted to identify some leaf characters related to light capture efficiency. It used split plot design with sub plot nested at the main plot. The main plot was light intensity consisted of two levels: I100 = light intensity 100% and I50 = light intensity 50%, while the sub plot was soybean genotype consisted of G1 = Pangrango, G2 = Ceneng, G3 = Godek, and G4 = Slamet.  Leaf characters measured were : leaf total area, specific leaf area, trifoliate leaf area, leaf hairs (trichome) density, leaf thickness, length of  palisade, chlorophylls content (chlorophyll a, b, and ratio a/b), and the greenness intensity.  The result of research indicated that Ceneng has lower total leaf area, higher specific and trifoliate leaf area, less leaf hair density, thinner leaf, shorter palisade, higher greenness intensity, higher chlorophyll content (a and b), and also lower ratio chlorophyll a/b. Key words:  Light capture efficiency, light intensity, tolerant genotype, sensitive genotype, soybean


The large-scale deployment of location-based services (LBSs) brings about the potential abuse of their clients' personal information. Therefore, location privacy in LBSs is significant. Ensuring location privacy for mobile users is an effort to prevent semi-honest or dishonest service providers from abusing the location information. Though there exist several techniques to preserve location privacy of mobile users, these techniques cannot effectively protect the location privacy in continuous location-based services. In this paper, we propose a location anonymity scheme based on the fake queries in continuous location-based services. To prevent attackers from tracing a mobile user by his continuous queries, some fake continuous queries will be injected by some neighbors. These fake queries can produce equivalent fake paths similar to the user's mobile path, because they are generated according to the user's speed and mobile direction. It is so difficult for the attackers to distinguish the real continuous queries from other fake queries. Security analysis shows that our scheme can resist the continuous queries attack, maximum speed attack and abnormal points attack. Experimental results manifest that our scheme can provide stringent privacy guarantees and is beyond the limitation of existing algorithms based on K-anonymity technique.


In this paper, the performances of FSR wireless routing protocol under different parameters are simulated based on ns2 network simulation platform. The reference point group mobility model is selected as the mobile ad hoc network mobility model. Through the detailed analysis of the results, the three features of the FSR routing protocol in terms of end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio and routing overhead are concluded under reference point group mobility model. This work is useful for further study about variety applications based on FSR wireless routing protocol in mobile ad hoc network.


The high CO tolerance of PtRu electrocatalysis, compared with pure Pt and other Pt-based alloys, makes it interesting as an anode material in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). This report describes the formation of bimetallic PtRu nanofilms using the electrochemical form of atomic layer deposition (E-ALD). Metal nanofilm formation using E-ALD is facilitated by use of surface-limited redox replacement (SLRR), where an atomic layer (AL) of a sacrificial metal is first formed by UPD. The AL is then spontaneously exchanged for a more noble metal at the open-circuit potential (OCP). In the present study, PtRu nanofilms were formed using SLRR for Pt and Ru, and Pb UPD was used to form the sacrificial layers. The PtRu E-ALD cycle consisted of Pb UPD at -0.19 V, followed by replacement using Pt(IV) ions at OCP, rinsing with blank, then Pb UPD at -0.19 V, followed by replacement using Ru(III) ions at OCP. PtRu nanofilm thickness was controlled by the number of times the cycle was repeated. PtRu nanofilms with atomic proportions of 70/30, 82/18, and 50/50 Pt/Ru were formed on Au on glass slides using related E-ALD cycles. The charge for Pb UPD and changes in the OCP during replacement were monitored during the deposition process. The PtRu films were then characterized by CO adsorption and electrooxidation to determine their overpotentials. The 50/50 PtRu nanofilms displayed the lowest CO electrooxidation overpotentials as well as the highest currents, compared with the other alloy compositions, pure Pt, and pure Ru. In addition, CO electrooxidation studies of the terminating AL on the 50/50 PtRu nanostructured alloy were investigated by deposition of one or two SLRR of Pt, Ru, or PtRu on top.


This study has as main objective to `make recommendations for improvement of the objective evaluation of the effectiveness of the Sand Engine'. The Frame of Reference methodology, a tool developed by Van Koningsveld (2003), is used to map the evaluation of effectiveness. This approach is used descriptively as well as prescriptively. A descriptive approach revealed that the current evaluation fails to meet the criteria for objective assessment. A prescriptive framework is developed in order to prescribe improvements in the evaluation. The main gaps that this methodology discloses in the current monitoring and research programs is that a regional approach is necessary in order to effectively maintain the coastline position in case of presence of a Sand Engine. Secondly, a decrease in disturbance of local benthic communities, expected to result in an environmentally friendlier approach compared to regular nourishments, should be evaluated with hypothesized differences in ecological footprint and recolonization time between a Sand Engine and a regular nourishment.


. The moment-resistant steel frames are frequently used as a load-bearing structure of buildings. Global response of a moment-resistant frame structure strongly depends on connections behavior, which can significantly influence the response and load-bearing capacity of a steel frame structure. The analysis of a steel frame with included joints behavior is the main focus of this work. In particular, we analyze the behavior of two connection types through experimental tests, and we propose numerical beam model capable of representing connection behavior. The six experimental tests, under monotonic and cyclic loading, are performed for two different types of structural connections: end plate connection with an extended plate and end plate connection. The proposed damage-plasticity model of Reissner beam is able to capture both hardening and softening response under monotonic and cyclic loading. This model has 18 constitutive parameters, whose identification requires an elaborate procedure, which we illustrate in this work. We also present appropriate loading program and arrangement of measuring equipment, which is crucial for successful identification of constitutive parameters. Finally, throughout several practical examples, we illustrate that the steel structure connections are very important for correct prediction of the global steel frame structure response.


We study the problem of fairly allocating a set of indivisible goods among agents with matroid rank valuations — every good provides a marginal value of 0 or 1 when added to a bundle and valuations are submodular. We generalize the Yankee Swap algorithm to create a simple framework, called General Yankee Swap , that can efficiently compute allocations that maximize any justice criterion (or fairness objective) satisfying some mild assumptions. Along with maximizing a justice criterion, General Yankee Swap is guaranteed to maximize utilitarian social welfare, ensure strategyproofness and use at most a quadratic number of valuation queries. We show how General Yankee Swap can be used to compute allocations for five different well-studied justice criteria: (a) Prioritized Lorenz dominance, (b) Maximin fairness, (c) Weighted leximin, (d) Max weighted Nash welfare, and (e) Max weighted p -mean welfare. In particular, our framework provides the first polynomial time algorithms to compute weighted leximin, max weighted Nash welfare and max weighted p -mean welfare allocations for agents with matroid rank valuations.


Introduction: Diabetic nephropathy has become the single most important cause of end stage renal disease worldwide. Detection of early stages of diabetic nephropathy with sensitive tests may be useful to prevent progression of nephropathy. The present study was undertaken to study the serum sialic acid levels and microalbuminuria and to assess whether there is a relationship between these two with glycemic control and other parameters in diabetic nephropathy patients.
Materials and Methods: A total number of 100 subjects participated in present study including 50 clinically diagnosed cases of type-2 diabetic nephropathy patients. Fasting and post-prandial blood sugar, urea, creatinine, serum sialic acid and urinary microalbumin levels were estimated.
Results: The mean fasting blood sugar values in cases (181.40±45.82) as compared to controls (89.62±12.53) is statistically significant (p
Conclusion: Estimation of serum sialic acid prior to microalbumin in diabetic patients is helpful in assessing the glycemic control and identify the risk of nephropathy which is the main cause for mortality and morbidity among type-2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Keywords: Serum sialic acid, Microalbumin, HbA1c, Nephropathy, Type-2 diabetes mellitus.


By its decision of 19 November 2012, the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition fined four companies for their participation in agreements aimed at market sharing on the waste management…


Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) have emerged as an effective technique for solving PDEs in a wide range of domains. It is noticed, however, the performance of PINNs can vary dramatically with different sampling procedures. For instance, a fixed set of (prior chosen) training points may fail to capture the effective solution region (especially for problems with singularities). To overcome this issue, we present in this work an adaptive strategy, termed the failure-informed PINNs (FI-PINNs), which is inspired by the viewpoint of reliability analysis. The key idea is to define an effective failure probability based on the residual, and then, with the aim of placing more samples in the failure region, the FI-PINNs employs a failure-informed enrichment technique to adaptively add new collocation points to the training set, such that the numerical accuracy is dramatically improved. In short, similar as adaptive finite element methods, the proposed FI-PINNs adopts the failure probability as the posterior error indicator to generate new training points. We prove rigorous error bounds of FI-PINNs and illustrate its performance through several problems.


Recently developed methods to improve the usefulness of pulsed nuclear reactors as sources for simulation of wide pulse ionization environments, generated by weapon produced neutrons, are described. These methods include the use of a special shield material which performs the dual role of attenuating neutrons and enhancing gamma dose rate, tailoring of pulse shapes by modifying the reactor burst characteristics through selective coupling between the reactor core and special reflector configurations, and use of special shield configurations to improve dose uniformity. Data obtained at the White Sands Missile Range Fast Burst Reactor and the Sandia Corporation SPR II for several shield configurations and reactor operating conditions are presented. Gamma radiation dose rates and 1 MeV damage equivalent neutron fluences obtained with and without use of the special shield material are compared. Dose rate enhancements of 5.2 and 3.3 times free fields were achieved behind shield thicknesses of 5 and 12 in., respectively. The respective neutron fluences were reduced by factors of 5.5 and 62. A peak dose rate enhancement of 12.4 times free field was achieved between slabs of shield material. Peak dose rates of 5 × 107, 1 × 107, and 1.2 × 106 rads(Si)/sec were achieved behind the shield material for pulse widths of 52 ?sec, 100 ?sec, and 1 msec, respectively, while limiting the neutron fluence to approximately 1 × 1011 n/cm2.


Improving avocado (Persea americana Mill.) rootstock propagation has been a major industry and research challenge globally for many decades. Avocado is an outcrossing species; thus, clonal propagation is the only way to propagate proprietary rootstocks. At present, avocado clonal propagation involves ex vitro rooting of tree cuttings at very poor efficiency, long turn-around time and high expense. A suitable mass clonal propagation process through in vitro culture technology could potentially revolutionize the avocado industry globally. Over the last four years, we have been developing an in vitro mass propagation technology for avocado. We observed avocado cultivars to differ in their ability to acclimatize. We hypothesized that this difference may relate to the specific structural characteristics of the cultivars. To test this, histological investigation of the stems, leaves, and roots of tissue cultured plants of two avocado cultivars; 'Reed' and 'Velvick' was carried out. Quantitative parameters; stomatal index, stomatal density, trichome density, vein-islet density, and vein termination density were analysed for comparison. Acclimatization success correlated to the presence of fully differentiated secondary xylem in the root suggested to maintain high water availability. Meanwhile, the presence of smaller epidermal cells, high stomatal density, less amount of xylem vessels in stem and reduced vein termination density correlated to reduced acclimatization success. These findings will succour optimization strategies for in vitro culture of difficult-to-acclimate cultivars of avocado but also, other woody perennials experiencing similar problems.


ABSTRACT Long, S.A.; Mango-Mutiti, C.; Mutiti, S., and Weese, D.A., 2023. Investigating the effects of increasing water salinity on an endemic crayfish. Journal of Coastal Research, 39(5), 816–822. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. The greatest diversity of freshwater crayfish is found in the southeastern United States, home to nearly 75% of the world's known crayfish species. Many of the freshwater habitats for these crayfish are threatened by human activities and face degradation from multiple fronts, one being climate-related sea-level rise. This threat is significant for island populations that are unable to disperse to favorable locations. The goal of this study was to investigate the salinity tolerance of Procambarus lunzi (Hobbs 1940b), a species endemic to a small coastal region in the southeastern United States, to predict how sea-level rise might affect vulnerable coastal populations. A total of 171 crayfish was collected from a barrier island in Georgia and exposed to three treatments: freshwater, a slow salinity increase (salinity raised by 1.5‰ weekly), and a fast salinity increase (salinity raised by 3‰ weekly). Weekly mortalities were recorded and used to compute percent survivorship. Individual body masses were also monitored weekly and the average change in body mass between treatment groups was compared using one-way analysis of variance. Regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between initial body mass and the salinity level tolerated before mortality occurred. There was no significant difference in body mass change between the control group and the salinity treatment groups. The salinity level tolerated before mortality occurred was not correlated with individuals' body mass at the start of the treatments. The first mortality occurred at 30‰ salinity and 50% mortality occurred when salinity was >39‰. These results indicate a high tolerance to salinity that was unexpected for a freshwater species. The implication is that P. lunzi may be able to withstand habitat degradation due to sea-level rise given its relatively high tolerance to increases in salinity.


Mitochondria have the capacity to integrate environmental signals and, in animals with active stem cell populations, trigger responses in terms of growth and growth form. Colonial hydroids, which consist of feeding polyps connected by tube-like stolons, were treated with avicins, triterpenoid electrophiles whose anti-cancer properties in human cells are mediated in part by mitochondria. In treated hydroids, both oxygen uptake and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species were diminished relative to controls, similar to that observed in human cells exposed to avicins. While untreated colonies exhibit more stolon branches and connections in the centre of the colony than at the periphery, treated colonies exhibit the opposite: fewer stolon branches in the centre of the colony than at the periphery. The resulting growth form suggests an inversion of the normal pattern of colony development mediated by mitochondrial and redox-related perturbations. An as-yet-uncharacterized gradient within the colony may determine the ultimate phenotypic effect of avicin perturbation.


Structural adjustment programmes implemented in developing countries in recent years focus sharply on the management of public affairs. Access to well-managed records and information is among the vital ingredients that make up an efficient administration. Describes the establishment of archives centres in Africa and discusses: the role of national archives in the modern state; the link between administrative reforms and records management; the nature of records management; and achieving accountability through record-keeping. Concludes that past attempts by African governments to demonstrate accountability have achieved limited success and that further leverage must come through effective record-keeping.


Two behavioural assays were carried out: one on the attraction of potato cyst nematodes (PCN), Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida , to solanaceae-specific secondary metabolite α-solanine, the other on the effect of ZnSO 4 (a compound known to suppress chemoreceptors). The first assay demonstrated that α-solanine was attractive to second-stage juveniles (J2) of PCN; G. pallida was attracted to concentrations of 10 −4  M and 10 −5  M, whereas G. rostochiensis was attracted to 10 −5  M. Globodera pallida reacted faster than G. rostochiensis to the same concentration of α-solanine. As α-solanine is produced by host plants of PCN, this compound is attributed to kairomones. The response to α-solanine of nematodes pre-exposed to a 3 mM ZnSO 4 solution was significantly suppressed compared to that of water control. The effect was observed throughout the whole testing period (30 min). This is the first evidence that both α-solanine and ZnSO 4 can affect the behaviour of hatched J2 of PCN.


The runup height is an important design parameter to determine the crest elevation of coastal structures and seawalls. In this study, two dimensional wave runup tests for rubble-mound structure covered by tetrapods were conducted. Incident waves at the toe include nonbreaking, breaking and broken random wave conditions. A empirical formula to predict runup elevation of rubble-mound structure with 1:1.5 front slope was proposed on the basis of physical model test results using a surf similarity parameter. The test results from this study were compared with those from van der Meer and Stam(1992).


In secret sharing schemes (SS), cheaters may open forged shares so that honest participants would recover a forged secret. This problem is closely related to error correcting codes. For an SS, consider a code C such that a codeword is a possible (/spl upsi//sub 1/,...,/spl upsi//sub n/), where /spl upsi//sub i/ is a share of participant P/sub i/. Let d/sub min/ denote the minimum Hamming distance of C. Then cheaters can be detected from (/spl upsi//sub 1/,...,/spl upsi//sub n/) if up to [(d/sub min/-1)/2] participants are cheaters. McEliece and Sarwate (1981) showed that d/sub min/=n-k+1 for Shamir's (1979) (k,n)-threshold scheme. Karnin et al. (1982) showed this equality for any ideal (k,n)-threshold scheme. (Blakeley and Kabatianskii (1995) showed another proof.) On the other hand, (k,n)-threshold schemes were generalized to monotone access structures /spl Gamma/, where /spl Gamma//spl Delta/={A|A can determine the secret} (Itoh et al. 1993). This paper first proves d/sub min//spl les/n-max/sub B/spl notin//spl Gamma//|B| for any monotone access structure /spl Gamma/. Further, we present an SS which satisfies d/sub min/=n-max/sub B/spl notin//spl Gamma//|B| for any /spl Gamma/. This SS has a maximum distance separable (MDS) property. Third, we introduce a new measure d/sub cheat/ as follows. The correct secret s can be recovered from (/spl upsi//sub 1/,...,/spl upsi//sub n/) if there are at most [(d/sub cheat/-1)/2] cheaters. The fact of cheating can be detected from (/spl upsi//sub 1/,...,/spl upsi//sub n/) if there are at most d/sub cheat/-1 cheaters. We prove that d/sub min//spl les/d/sub cheat/=n-max/sub B/spl notin//spl Gamma// |B|.


Cigarette smoke is one of the six major pollution sources in the room air. It contains large number of particles with size less than 10 nm. There exist carbon dots (CDs) in cigarette smoke which have strong fluorescence and with good bio-compatibility and low toxicity. CDs in cigarette smoke can be applied in bio-imaging which has great potential applications in the integration of cancer diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, CDs were extracted from cigarette smoke. Then, sodium borohydride was added to CDs aqueous solution for reduction and the reduced CDs (R-CDs) were used for biological cell imaging. The results indicate that the CDs with the particle size <10 nm in cigarette smoke are self-assembled by the polymerizated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and ammonium nitrite which are disk nano-structure composed of sp2/sp3 carbon and oxygen/nitrogen groups or polymers. Sodium borohydride can reduce the carbonyl group on the surface of CDs to hydroxyl group and increase the ratio of the Na 1s ratio of the CDs from 1.86 to 7.42. The CDs can emit blue fluorescence under ultraviolet irradiation. After reduction, the R-CDS have the intensity of fluorescence 7.2 times than before and the fluorescence quantum yield increase from 6.13% to 8.86%. The photoluminescence (PL) wavelength of R-CDS have red-shift of 7 nm which was due to the increasing of Na element ratio. The onion epidermal cells labeled with R-CDs show that the CDs could pass through the cell wall into the cell and reach the nucleus. The cell wall and the nucleus could be clearly visualized. CDs also shows low toxicity to human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) with good biological activity. The obtained results indicate that the CDs and R-CDs have good fluorescent property which could be used as bio-imaging agent.


An intravenous catheter is a medical device used to inject intravenous fluid into the body. This procedure can lead coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) bacteria such as Staphylococcus epidermidis penetrates the skin and forms biofilm on the catheter. Biofilms bring serious problem such as antibiotic resistance, the long-term effects increase the length of staying in the hospital, cost, morbidity, and mortality. This research aimed to analyze the biofilm formation of S. epidermidis in several types of intravenous fluids based on time. This was a laboratory experimental research using microtiter plate assay method and crystal violet coloring. Three 96-well microplates were inoculated with S. epidermidis in ringer lactate, 10% dextrose, 5% dextrose, normal saline, and gelafusal, each plate was incubated at three different times of 24, 48, and 72 h respectively. The results show that the optical density (OD) values of all intravenous fluids with bacteria within 24 and 48 h of incubation time did not show significant differences compared to negative controls, while the 72 h treatments of 10% dextrose, 5% dextrose, and normal saline showed significant differences. This indicates that biofilms of S. epidermidis were not formed in intravenous fluids within 24 and 48 h of incubation time, however this bacterium started forming biofilm in 10% dextrose, 5% dextrose, and normal saline within 72 h of incubation time. In conclusion, the length of incubation time may influence biofilm formation.


Data, to an increasing degree, is not used directly as content represented in documents, but it serves as a foundation for content tailored for and delivered to users working in different and varying contexts. To this end, the actual content is dynamically assembled from base data with respect to a certain context. This is particularly true for content management applications, e.g., for websites that are targeted at a user's context. The notion of context comprises various dimensions of parameters like language, location, time, user, and user's device. Most data modeling languages, including programming languages, are not well prepared to cope with variants of content, though. They are designed to manage universal, consistent, and complete sets of data. The Minimalistic Meta Modeling Language (M3L) as a language for content representation has proven particularly useful for modeling content in context. Towards an operational M3L execution environment, we are researching data schemas to efficiently store and utilize M3L models. Such schemas serve as a testbed to discuss context-aware data representation and retrieval in this paper. This is done by expressing contextaware models, in particular M3L statements, by means of traditional persistence technology. Keywords-data modeling; content modeling; context-aware data modeling; content; content management; context.


That our ordinary everyday experience exhibits both unity and continuity is uncontroversial, and on the face of it utterly unmysterious. At any moment we have some conscious awareness of both the world about us, as revealed through our perceptual experiences, and our own inner states – our bodily sensations, thoughts, mental images and so on. Since once wakened we tend to stay awake for several hours, tracing out continuous routes through whatever environment we happen to find ourselves in, it is hardly surprising that our experience itself is continuous rather than discontinuous.


According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in 2010 the transport sector was responsible for 23% of the total energy-related CO2 emissions (6.7 GtCO2) worldwide. Policy makers in Luxembourg are well-aware of the challenges and are setting ambitious objectives at country level for the mid and long term. However, a framework to assess environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective on the scale of transport policy scenarios, rather than individual vehicles, is lacking. We present a novel framework linking activity-based modeling with life cycle assessment (LCA) and a proof-of-concept case study for the French cross-border commuters working in Luxembourg. Our framework allows for the evaluation of specific policies formulated on the trip level as well as aggregated evaluation of environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective. The results of our proof-of-concept-based case study suggest that only a combination of: (1) policy measures improving the speed and coverage of the public transport system; (2) policy measures fostering electric mobility; and (3) external factors such as de-carbonizing the electricity mix will allow to counteract the expected increase in impacts due to the increase of mobility needs of the growing commuting population in the long term.