The effects of "acute" phenobarbitone treatment on some aspects of folate metabolism in rat liver, that is total folate activity, protein bound and free folate, and various-length pteroylpolyglutamate amounts, were studied. The administration of two doses of the anticonvulsant drug (8 mg/100 g of body weight), caused a severe depletion in folate pool, free folate and in the percentage of longer-chain polyglutamates, while the amount of protein bound folates was unchanged. Such modifications are more evident in the animals killed at 24 h after the last drug injection rather than in those killed 12 h later. The possible mechanisms by which phenobarbitone might interfere with the synthesis of pteroylpolyglutamates, the actual coenzymic forms of folic acid, are discussed.


Microscale Janus emulsions represent a versatile material platform for dynamic refractive, reflective, and light-emitting optical components. Here, we present a mechanism for droplet actuation that exploits thermocapillarity. Using optically induced thermal gradients, an interfacial tension differential is generated across the surfactant-free internal capillary interface of Janus droplets. The interfacial tension differential causes droplet-internal Marangoni flows and a net torque, resulting in a predictable and controllable reorientation of the droplets. The effect can be quantitatively described with a simple model that balances gravitational and thermal torques. Occurring in small thermal gradients, these optothermally induced Marangoni dynamics represent a promising mechanism for controlling droplet-based micro-optical components.


In view of the recent experimental predictions of a weak structural transition in CoV2O4 we explore the possible orbital order states in its low temperature tetragonal phases from first principles density functional theory calculations. We observe that the tetragonal phase with I41/amd symmetry is associated with an orbital order involving complex orbitals with a reasonably large orbital moment at vanadium sites while in the phase with I41/a symmetry, the real orbitals with quenched orbital moment constitute the orbital order. Further, to study the competition between orbital order and electron itinerancy we considered Mn0.5Co0.5V2O4 as one of the parent compounds, CoV2O4, lies near itinerant limit while the other, MnV2O4, lies deep inside the orbitally ordered insulating regime. Orbital order and electron transport have been investigated using first principles density functional theory and Boltzmann transport theory in CoV2O4, MnV2O4 and Mn0.5Co0.5V2O4. Our results show that as we go from MnV2O4 to CoV2O4 there is enhancement in the electron's itinerancy while the nature of orbital order remains unchanged.


Spin filtering properties of novel GaNAs alloys are reported in this thesis. Spindependent recombination (SDR) in GaNAs via a deep paramagnetic defect center is intensively studied. By using the optical orientation photoluminescence (PL) technique, GaNAs is shown to be able to spin filter electrons injected from GaAs, which is a useful functional property for integratition with future electronic devices. The spin filtering ability is found to degrade in narrow GaNAs quantum well (QW) structures which is attributed to (i) acceleration of band-toband recombination competing with the SDR process and to (ii) faster electron spin relaxation in the narrow QWs. Ga interstitial-related defect centers have been found to be responsible for the SDR process by using the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) technique. The defects are found to be the dominant grown-in defects in GaNAs, commonly formed during both MBE and MOCVD growths. Methods to control the concentration of the Ga interstitials by varying doping, growth parameters and post-growth treatments are also examined.


A self-consistent model for trapped-ion-cloud formation around a dust particle immersed in low-temperature low-density plasma is presented. The model is based on the solution of an integral balance equation for trapped-ion density, the free ion and electron densities, and the Poisson equation for electric potential distribution. It is shown that, in a weakly collisional regime in plasma, trapped ions form a spread "shell" with the maximum located at some distance from the negatively charged core (dust particle) proportional to an ion Debye length. The estimated polarizability of such dusty "quasi atoms" in an external electric field is very high, and their induced dipole moments can be responsible for the alignment of dust particles, the formation of chain and multilayer structures, and the coagulation of dust grains.


INTRODUCTION: Exposure to avian proteins is a frequent cause of Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis (HP). We describe a series of NH secondary to exposure to feather duvet. MATERIAL AND METHODS:In the outpatient clinic of interstitial lung disease during the years 2004-2011, 28 patients were diagnosed with HP with definite causality from exposure to feathers contained in the feather duvet. Diagnosis criteria: diagnosis of NH, contact with feather duvet coincident with the onset of symptoms; IgG + and / or positive bronchial challenge test (BCT). In neither case had history of exposure to any agent known as a producer of NH. RESULTS:15 male; mean age 59 years. Presentation was acute in 5, subacute in 4 and chronic in 19 cases. Auscultation was normal in 10 patients, revealed crackles in 17 and wheezing in 1. FVC mean was 67.57%, DLCO 52.60%. IgG+ in front of avian antigens in 11/24, and in front of fungi in 16/24. A culture of feather duvet was positive for fungi in 6 cases. The BCT was positive in 8/11 in front of avian antigens and 4/7 against fungi. Pathological study was performed in 16/28 patients, showing a characteristic pattern of subacute NH in 6/16, consistent with NH in 8/16 and UIP pattern in 2/16. Surgical lung biopsy (BPQ) was performed during the study in 7 cases and revised from the samples of another center in 7. During the follow up lung transplantation, was performed in 4 patients (2 of them already had previous BPQ). CONCLUSIONS:Our study confirms that exposure to a minimum but persistent agent may be sufficient for disease development. Diagnosis at an advanced stage of chronic NH is common. Project funded by FIS PI1001577 (ISCIII) and SEPAR 2010.


The web page recommendation is generated by using the navigational history from web server log files. Semantic Variable Length Markov Chain Model (SVLMC) is a web page recommendation system used to generate recommendation by combining a higher order Markov model with rich semantic data. The problem of state space complexity and time complexity in SVLMC was resolved by Semantic Variable Length confidence pruned Markov Chain Model (SVLCPMC) and Support vector machine based SVLCPMC (SSVLCPMC) methods respectively. The recommendation accuracy was further improved by quickest change detection using Kullback-Leibler Divergence method. In this paper, socio semantic information is included with the similarity score which improves the recommendation accuracy. The social information from the social websites such as twitter is considered for web page recommendation. Initially number of web pages is collected and the similarity between web pages is computed by comparing their semantic information. The term frequency and inverse document frequency (tf-idf) is used to produce a composite weight, the most important terms in the web pages are extracted. Then the Pointwise Mutual Information (PMI) between the most important terms and the terms in the twitter dataset are calculated. The PMI metric measures the closeness between the twitter terms and the most important terms in the web pages. Then this measure is added with the similarity score matrix to provide the socio semantic search information for recommendation generation. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance in terms of prediction accuracy, precision, F1 measure, R measure and coverage.


This article discusses definitional ambiguities in research on the role of stress in the etiology of schizophrenia. Implications of the change to DSM-III criteria are considered, as is the question of whether prior research samples have overincluded acute schizophrenics. It is suggested that the problem of defining schizophrenia's time of onset is one of the thorniest in this literature. Three different operational definitions of stress are examined. Stress may be considered a response involving disruption in homeostasis, or as a stimulus with objectively specifiable properties. Stress is also defined interactionally with reference to characteristics of the individual and the surrounding life context. Relative merits of the three definitions are evaluated, and an attempt is made to clarify the differentiation between formative and triggering effects of stress. Further study of the impact of remote life events on vulnerability is encouraged.


A distinctive feature of japanese society is its apparent eagerness to embrace various forms of voluntary death or suicide as legitimate, even positive, behavior with a potentially redemptive value. These forms include the samurai's ritualistic disembowelment (seppuku or harakiri), remonstration suicide (kanshi) in protest against a corrupt superior, and suicide out of devotion to a lord or superior (junsbi), all of which are surrounded by "a heroic, romantic, aesthetic, and moral aura" (Lebra 1976:190). Suicide is, of course, an extraordinary act in Japan as elsewhere in the world (Lifton 1979:24). Though it is not common, it is widely revered by Japanese if committed on the basis of authentic moral intentions in relation to societal pressure—that is, to exorcise shame (haji) and to highlight honor, dignity, and integrity. In a culture that esteems the tragic hero who embodies the "nobility of failure" (Morris 1975), and which regards voluntary death as an experiential transcendence for participants and observers alike, perhaps the most extreme and intriguing example of taking one's own life is the double suicide or love suicide (shinjū).


Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) among cancer patients receiving nivolumab-plus-ipilimumab therapy and nivolumab monotherapy. Patients and methods PubMed and Web of Science were searched for related studies from inception to June 2018. Eligible studies included randomized controlled trials comparing nivolumab-plus-ipilimumab with nivolumab alone in cancer patients reporting on all-grade (grade 1–4) and high-grade (grade 3/4) irAEs. Paired reviewers selected studies for inclusion and extracted data. The odds risk and 95% CI were calculated. Results A total of 2,946 patients from four studies were included in the meta-analysis. The underlying malignancies included lung cancer (two trials) and melanoma (two trials). Compared with nivolumab monotherapy, the nivolumab-plus-ipilimumab therapy was associated with a significantly higher risk of all- and high-grade irAEs such as pruritus, rash, diarrhea, colitis, alanine aminotransferase elevation, and pneumonitis. Conclusion The combination therapy of nivolumab and ipilimumab increased the incidence of irAEs in patients with advanced cancer.


Measurements have been made of the deposition of cloud droplets and dissolved chemical species to moorland vegetation. Measurements of liquid water fluxes have been made by the gradient technique using Knollenberg FSS probes and by a weighing lysimeter. Deposition velocities for cloud liquid water in the range 0.1 to 0.24 g m -3 at a height of 1.0m were close to those for momentum. The FSS probes enabled the determination of deposition velocities as a function of droplet size. It was found that the deposition velocity increased with droplet radius from 2.5 m to 6.5 m radius. Between 6.5 and 12.5 m radius, deposition velocities exceeded those for momentum, but decreased sharply between 12.5 and 15.5 m.
In periods of thin cloud (0.1 g m -3), evaporation from the surface occurred despite continued deposition


At high temperatures the Cu0.50Pd0.50 alloy forms a fcc solid solution phase that at 770 K undergoes a bainitic transformation into a B2 phase, bcc based and chemically ordered. On the basis of first-principles calculations performed along the appropriate Bain paths, both for the ordered and disordered alloys, we find that this phase transition is due to the competition between the band electronic energy and the electrostatic interactions, the former favouring fcc, the latter bcc geometrical arrangements. Below the transition temperature the chemical ordering, driven by the conventional Fermi surface mechanism, causes an increase of the charge transfer and changes the shape of the energy curve along the Bain path. As a result, a plastic deformation of the geometrical lattice occurs. In this scenario, the coupling between concentration and uniaxial strain fluctuations plays a fundamental role and the key physical quantity is the charge transfer.


The history and theory supporting the idea of a universal log law for turbulent wall-bounded flows are briefly reviewed. The original idea of justifying a log law from a constant Reynolds stress layer argument is found to be deficient. By contrast, it is argued that the logarithmic friction law and velocity profiles derived from matching inner and outer profiles for a pipe or channel flow are well-founded and consistent with the data. But for a boundary layer developing along a flat plate it is not, and in fact it is a power law theory that seems logically consistent. Even so, there is evidence for at least an empirical logarithmic fit to the boundary-friction data, which is indistinguishable from the power law solution. The value of κ≈0.38 obtained from a logarithmic curve fit to the boundary-layer velocity data, however, does not appear to be the same as for pipe flow for which 0.43 appears to be the best estimate. Thus, the idea of a universal log law for wall-bounded flows is not supported by either the theory or the data.


The poems in James Najarian's debut collection are by turns tragic and mischievous, always with an exuberant attention to form. Najarian turns his caprine eye to the landscapes and history of Berks Country, Pennsylvania, and to the middle east of his extended Armenian family. These poems examine our bonds to the earth, to animals, to art and to desire.


Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports are important carriers of enterprises non-financial information disclosure, which are inextricably related to the production efficiency and performance of enterprises. The objective of this paper is discovering the causal effect of the CSR mandatory disclosure policy and the total factor productivity (TFP) of enterprises. This paper uses the sharp regression discontinuity design based on the micro data of the enterprises to study the impact by taking China's mandatory disclosure policy in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment. This paper makes some contribution to the impact of mandatory CSR disclosure on enterprise TFP and the mechanism and heterogeneity of this impact. The research draws the following conclusions: First, the CSR mandatory disclosure can significantly improve the TFP of enterprises on the whole, and this effect has the characteristics of long-term and dynamic decline. Second, the mechanism of mandatory disclosure of CSR on TFP is through the mediating effect of R&D and innovation expenditures. Third, the heterogeneity of the impact of CSR mandatory disclosure on TFP is reflected in two aspects: industry and equity nature differences. These conclusions are strongly correlated with the contingent decision-making behaviour of enterprises and give some ideas to the policy makers.


Pacific Water flows northward through Bering Strait and penetrates the Arctic Ocean halocline throughout the Canadian Basin sector of the Arctic. In summer, Pacific Summer Water (PSW) is modified by surface buoyancy fluxes and mixing as it crosses the shallow Chukchi Sea before entering the deep ocean. Measurements from Ice-Tethered Profilers, moorings, and hydrographic surveys between 2003 and 2013 reveal spatial and temporal variability in the PSW component of the halocline in the Central Canada Basin with increasing trends in integrated heat and freshwater content, a consequence of PSW layer thickening as well as layer freshening and warming. It is shown here how properties in the Chukchi Sea in summer control the temperature-salinity properties of PSW in the interior by subduction at isopycnals that outcrop in the Chukchi Sea. Results of an ocean model, forced by idealized winds, provide support to the mechanism of surface ocean Ekman transport convergence maintaining PSW ventilation of the halocline.


This paper aims to analyze NAHP(National Affordable Housing Programme), UK focusing on the relationship between its supply process and Design and Quality Standards(D&QS) in view of the quality of housing environment. NAHP has five steps which are pre-qualification, bid, assessment, selection of plan, and review of implementation. D&QS is adapted to the steps of assessment and review of housing environment after completion. The contents of D&QS are compared with the standards of Korea on the basis of the framework including safety, convenience, comfort and sustainability. As a result, the standards of Korea get score more than UK in the aspects of safety, convenience and D&QS of NAHP get more score in the aspects of comfort, sustainability. Furthermore the former has more the standards of physical facilities for residence while the latter has more the standards of plot and regionality which are helpful for the adaptability of different housing types.


Solving nonlinear evolution partial differential equations has been a longstanding computational challenge. In this paper, we present a universal paradigm of learning the system and extracting patterns from data generated from experiments. Specifically, this framework approximates the latent solution with a deep neural network, which is trained with the constraint of underlying physical laws usually expressed by some equations. In particular, we test the effectiveness of the approach for the Burgers' equation used as an example of second-order nonlinear evolution equations under different initial and boundary conditions. The results also indicate that for soliton solutions, the model training costs significantly less time than other initial conditions.


Brihatpanchamoola is an extensively used Ayurvedic combination of five root barks for curing different diseases. However, as per requirements, the root bark of these drugs are not available in the market. Therefore, many industries are using stem bark instead of root bark during preparation of respective formulations. Thus, in the present study, the Kwatha prepared from root bark and stem bark of Brihatpanchamoola has been evaluated on analytical parameters. The organoleptic, physicochemical characteristics and qualitative estimation of functional groups for both the samples revealed similar results except for the absence of saponins in root samples. HPTLC profile showed presence of more chemical moieties in raw stem bark in comparison to root bark. However, these findings were reversed in case of Kwatha prepared from the same. Analytically, the study reveals that root bark of Brihatpanchamoola can be effectively substituted by stem bark for almost all practical purposes.


The large-scale context for oceanic subduction is examined in the region bounded by 10 N and 40 N and 10 W and 40 W using data collected from June 1991 to June 1993. In contrast to climatology, it was found that over the entire region the ocean gained heat, ranging from 10–30Wm to the north to 40–50Wm to the south. Steady tradewinds dominated the southeastern half of the region. To the northwest of the axis of these tradewinds was a broad region of downward Ekman pumping with a 2-yr mean of about 50myr. Wind-driven surface currents and a seasonal cycle in mixed layer temperature and depth were found that reflected the influence of local forcing. The interior circulation was consistent with the clockwise circulation of the eastern end of the subtropical gyre, though eddy variability dominated the northern part of the region. Due to Ekman convergence the winter mixed layer in the central and southwestern parts of the region was as deep as to the north; however, it was also warm. This deep, warm mixed layer in the center of the region aided the subduction of water from the northeast by providing a protective cap; isopycnals that outcropped to the north passed well below the base of this mixed layer. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Background: Renal angiomyolipomas hemorrhage is strongly associated with their size and vascular constitution. Since previous studies showed that mTOR inhibitors can differentially act in distinct cell lines, we analyzed the effects of sirolimus on the volume of different components of angiomyolipomas in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex, including vascular structures. We retrospectively analyzed 23 angiomyolipomas from 10 patients treated with sirolimus. An approach based on a Hounsfield-unit threshold was used to classify angiomyolipomas in fat-rich, fat-poor and intermediate-fat tumors, and to categorize tumor compartments in fat rich, fat poor, intermediate fat and highly vascularized. Diameter variations were measured to assess the effects on aneurysmatic/ectatic vascular formations. Results: Volume reduction following treatment with sirolimus was higher in fat-poor than fat-rich angiomyolipomas. Tumor reduction was mainly determined by decrease of the fat-poor and highly-vascularized compartments, with a lesser contribution of the intermediate-fat component, while the volume of the fat-rich compartment increased. Broad liposubstitution was observed in some tumors. Massive reduction of aneurysmatic/ectatic vascular structures was observed, with disappearance of such lesions in most cases. Conclusions: Our study showed that sirolimus reduces the size of angiomyolipomas by decreasing primarily their highly-vascularized and fat-poor compartments. This effect is associated with a remarkable reduction of tumoral aneurysms/ectatic vessels and other vascular structures. Our findings revealed, therefore, the likely mechanism responsible for the reported risk-decreasing effect of mTOR inhibitors on angiomyolipoma bleeding. Our findings also expand the understanding the biology of this tumor, supporting a role for mTOR in maintenance, and maybe assembling, of blood vessels in angiomyolipomas.


Keratinocytes from rat skin were separated according to their size in a specially designed unit‐gravity sedimentation chamber. The fractions obtained with this technique showed clear morphological differences, and analysis of size distribution confirmed that size was the criterion for separation. Simultaneous DNA and RNA staining of the fractions with acridine orange and subsequent flow cytometric analysis enabled one to classify cells into resting, proliferating, and differentiating stages. Cell size was not directly correlated with proliferation in situ as determined with acridine orange flow cytometry, nor with proliferative capacity in culture as assayed by BrdU/Hoechst flow cytometry. The smallest cells, exhibiting low DNA and RNA content, which do not proliferate in vivo, required a prolonged period of serum stimulation in vitro to initiate RNA and DNA synthesis. Cells of intermediate size exhibited early RNA synthesis and maximal proliferative capacity, whereas the largest cell population displayed no RNA synthesis in culture and the least proliferative capacity. In conclusion, these results suggest that RNA synthesis early after serum stimulation, in addition to a specific, optimal cell size, correlates with the proliferative capacity of keratinocytes in cell culture.


Composite is merger of lasing and matrik. Orientation, size measure and form of lasing very is influencing is nature of mechanic from is composite. With thick and wide variation of bamboo fibre expected will be got by the nature of maximal mechanic to be is composite Intention of usage of this bamboo fibre beside is easy to got by bamboo have excellence in remarkable resilience and growth. Wide variation of bamboo laminate is 2mm,4mm, and 6mm; for thick variation of 0.6mm,0.8mm and 1mm. Polyester the used is Yukalac QTN polyester 835 / 83K. This composite Examination method use impact test. According to result of attempt at volume 20% of the size wide 2mm and thick 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm have strength of biggest impact, while for volume 5% of the size wide 6 mm and thick 1mm having strength of smallest impact. wide of the size, thick and percentage of laminate volume, get obtain conclusion don't have influence of examination of impact


Digitalis is often believed to be ineffectual in the treatment of cardiac disease in children. The most probable explanation for this belief is that the doses commonly used have been too small, for McCulloch and Rupe 1 have demonstrated that both normal children and those suffering from heart disease require from 10 to 100 per cent more digitalis per pound of body weight than do adults before electrocardiographic or other signs of digitalization are produced. Our studies of twenty-six children suffering from severe myocardial failure confirm this report, and lead us to the conclusion that even larger doses are beneficial in causing a loss of edema and an increase in the patient's comfort. Digitalis will not, of course, repair the myocardial damage, but a comparison between the fate of children treated with the drug and that of those who did not receive it would seem to indicate that the administration


Tumor recurrence is often seen at sites where the peritoneum has been injured during surgery for gastrointestinal malignancies. It is thought that malignant cells released from the tumor during surgery implant in the sites of injury in the abdominal wall and cause tumor recurrence. Here we use dextran sulfate (DS) as an antagonist to cell adhesion for preventing implantation of i.p. seeded malignant cells, thus suppressing the recurrent tumor formation often observed at the site of injury in postoperative abdominal walls. DS was tested for anti-adherent activity against B-16 melanoma cells to injured abdominal wall specimens ex vivo and showed the capacity to significantly impair B-16 melanoma cell adherence compared to controls without DS. DS was also tested for the activity to prevent i.p. seeded B-16 melanoma cells from implanting in the site of injury in the abdominal wall in vivo and DS prevented B-16 melanoma cells from implanting in the sites of injury in the abdominal wall. In the test for the activity to improve survival in mice after B-16 melanoma was inoculated i.p., DS improved the survival of mice as compared to the controls without DS. We conclude that DS may be useful in preventing surgically promoting tumor implantation at sites of injury in post-operative abdominal wall treated for gastrointestinal malignancies.


This paper explores J.M. Coetzee's latest novel, The Schooldays of Jesus (2016), and focuses on its intense dialogue with ancient philosophical ideas such as Plato's Theory of Forms and some of the author's literary precursors, such as Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605) and Musil's The Confusions of Young Törless (1906). It is also a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach's brilliant mind and music, which Coetzee has already commented upon on different occasions. The Schooldays is an intertextual story about the magic of numbers, dance and music and tells the story of Davíd, a rebellious child who is sent to Juan Sebastián Arroyo's Academy of Dance (Arroyo is Bach's name translated into Spanish), where he learns that music and dance can help us communicate with the universe and discover our true selves. It is the first time Coetzee incorporates magical elements and constant spiritual allusions in one of his plots, and I will argue that these, together with the intertextuality with other novels and texts and the characterization of the main characters, are used to show (once again) his ambivalence towards rationalism, but in a different style. This represents a turning point in his literary career.


Shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus have become an increasingly important commercial species in the upper Mississippi River (UMR) because of the collapse of foreign sturgeon (family Acipenseridae) populations and bans on imported caviar. In response to concerns about the sustainability of the commercial shovelnose sturgeon fishery in the UMR, we undertook this study to describe the demographics of the shovelnose sturgeon population and evaluate the influence of commercial harvest on shovelnose sturgeon populations in the UMR. A total of 1,682 shovelnose sturgeon were collected from eight study pools in 2006 and 2007 (Pools 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, and 18). Shovelnose sturgeon from upstream pools generally had greater lengths, weights, and ages than those from downstream pools. Additionally, mortality estimates were lower in upstream pools (Pools 4, 7, 9, and 11) than in downstream pools (Pools 13, 14, 16, and 18). Linear regression suggested that the slower growth of shovelnose sturgeon is a consequence of commercial harvest in the UMR. Modeling of potential management scenarios suggested that a 685-mm minimum length limit is necessary to prevent growth and recruitment overfishing of shovelnose sturgeon in the UMR.


Alkaline flooding is the earliest chemical flooding method reported. Its usage
was in the beginning limited to reservoirs with high acid numbers because of the
assumption that recovery is due to in situ surfactant that is formed from alkali-acidic
components reactions. Alkaline flooding while succeeded in increasing microscopic
sweep did not reduce the mobility ratio. Consequently, the macroscopic sweep was
not improved. Later work proved that improvement in recovery was not dependent
on high acid number. This work aims to relate the increase in recovery by alkaline
flooding due to end-points relative permeability changes and formation of 1FT
reducing components that do not depend on acids.
Dulang crude, Waxy crude and Sodium Hydroxide as the alkaline solution
were tested. Removals of acids from the crudes were effected by adding 2-
Ethylimidazole in Ethanol with the crudes. The extracted and un-extracted crudes
were used in alkaline flooding using Berea sandstone cores with initial water
flooding; End-points relative permeability changes and incremental recoveries from
alkaline flooding were measured from the displacement tests for comparisons. Core
properties after displacements were also inspected for any effective porosity and
permeability alterations. Effluents from the displacement test were tested for alcohol
formation which was expected to be a major Interfacial Tension (1FT) reducing
component.
Synthetically mixed crude oil (n-Heptanes/ Butanol/ Oleic Acid) were tested
with alkaline solution to identity component which affected the 1FT the most.
Emulsion stability test was also conducted using Dulang crude with alkaline solution
to quantity the Interfacial Viscosity (IFV) which could play a major role in
improving the volumetric efficiency.
Incremental recoveries from alkaline flooding for un-extracted crude were
around 7- 10% whereas for the extracted crude 5-6% incremental. End-points
relative permeability to the displacing fluid, Krw' was reduced to around 30 - 50%
in alkaline flooding compared to water flooding in all the displacement tests, thus
leads to a lower Mobility Ratio of 0.5 - 0. 7 in the case for alkaline flooding. pH
detection of more than 0.5 indicates a high possibility of alcohol formation from the
effluents of the displacement runs. Effective permeability of the core sample prior to flooding increased after the displacement test with an increase of around 0.2 - 13%
increment from all cases.
From all the synthetic crude mixture, Butanol as one of the type of alcohol,
lead to the greatest 1FT reduction of 0.14 Dynes/em at 5% wt concentration. This
confirmed that even if very small amount of alcohol was formed, it can lead to a very
low 1FT. From emulsion stability test, at 2 % wt concentration of alkaline, the
emulsion formed was the most stable giving the longest time for separation of around
33 minutes. This explained the stability of emulsion droplets formed in alkaline
flooding which improved the volumetric efficiency thus leading to a higher oil
recovery.
Alkaline flooding still offers a cheap alternative to other interfacial tension
(1FT) reducing chemical process. Well defined relationships between the recovery
improvements to key mechanisms in alkali flooding can be valuable in designing
flooding processes using alkali as part of alkali polymer or alkali-surfactant-polymer
flooding.


We use holography to study the spontaneous condensation of a neutral order parameter in a (2+1)-dimensional field theory at zero-temperature and finite density, dual to the electron star background of Hartnoll and Tavanfar. An appealing feature of this field theory is the emergence of an IR Lifshitz fixed-point with a finite dynamical critical exponent $z$, which is due to the strong interaction between critical bosonic degrees of freedom and a finite density of fermions (metallic quantum criticality). We show that under some circumstances the electron star background develops a neutral scalar hair whose holographic interpretation is that the boundary field theory undergoes a quantum phase transition, with a Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless character, to a phase with a neutral order parameter. Including the backreaction of the bulk neutral scalar on the background, we argue that the two phases across the quantum critical point have different $z$, a novelty that exists in certain quantum phase transitions in condensed matter systems. We also analyze the system at finite temperature and find that the phase transition becomes, as expected, second-order. Embedding the neutral scalar into a higher form, a variety of interesting phases could potentially be realized for the boundary field theory. Examples which are of particular interest to condensed matter physics include an antiferromagnetic phase where a vector condenses and break the spin symmetry, a quadrupole nematic phase which involves the condensation of a symmetric traceless tensor breaking rotational symmetry, or different phases of a system with competing order parameters.


The Horizon-10T collaboration have reported observation of Multi-Modal Events (MME) containing multiple peaks suggesting their clustering origin. These events are proven to be hard to explain in terms of conventional cosmic rays (CR). We propose that these MMEs might be result of the dark matter annihilation events within the so-called axion quark nugget (AQN) dark matter model, which was originally invented for completely different purpose to explain the observed similarity between the dark and the visible components in the Universe, i.e., ΩDM∼Ωvisible without any fitting parameters. We support this proposal by demonstrating that the observations, including the frequency of appearance, intensity, the spatial distribution, the time duration, the clustering features, and many other properties nicely match the emission characteristics of the AQN annihilation events in atmosphere. We list a number of features of the AQN events which are very distinct from conventional CR air showers. The observation (non-observation) of these features may substantiate (refute) our proposal.


Hierarchical and gradient nanostructures are important to exploit the full potential of nanofibers in filtration applications. The introduction of a gradient into carbon nanotube (CNT)/fiber hierarchical structures could result in a change of the particle capturing properties. Here, we show the fabrication of hierarchical carbon nanotube (CNT)/quartz-fiber (QF) filters with gradient nanostructures where the content of CNTs decreases exponentially along the thickness direction of the filters. The loading of catalysts for the growth of CNTs in the QF filter has been achieved using an aerosol technique, which can be carried out on a large-scale. With only 1.17 wt% CNT, the penetration of the CNT/QF filter at the most penetrating particle size (MPPS) has been reduced by one order of magnitude, while the pressure drop only increases about 6% with respect to that of the pristine QF filter, leading to an obvious higher quality factor (Qf) for the CNT/QF filter. More importantly, the service life of the CNT/QF filter with the CNT-rich side downstream has increased by 64% when compared with the pristine QF filter. In contrast, when the CNT-rich side is placed upstream, the service life of CNT/QF filter is only 41.7% of that observed when placing the CNT-rich side downstream. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that the gradient nanostructure of the CNT/QF filter, together with the CNT/QF hierarchical structure play very important roles in the simultaneous enhancement of the filtration efficiency and the service life of the air filters.


Present paper seeks to analyze the impact of training programmes on distance education professionals of Indira Gandhi National Open University, (IGNOU). The objective of the paper is to identify the training needs of Distance Education Professionals to manage distance education affairs of IGNOU, to evaluate the effectiveness of existing training programmes, to develop a feasible training and professional development model for distance education Professionals (DEPs) and to suggest initiatives in existing training for the skill development of DEPs for effective career growth and development. Attempt has been made to apply statistical tools such as skewness, kurtosis, regression and correlation on a different set of variables to assess the impact of the training programmes on DE professionals such as teachers and academics. While addressing the objectives of the study it is revealed that some of the indicators have opened up scope for improvement. Nevertheless trainees have expressed mixed reaction on the quality of training pgrammes with respect to content, methodology and effectiveness. Based on the analysis a workable training model has also been suggested where emphasis on the Common Training Approach (CTA) has been given besides, work specific training. For the over all professional development of DEPs a suitable training strategy has been worked out which ensures training at different strata that includes primary, secondary & tertiary level considering the experience & job requirements of the professionals.


The Whabouchi pegmatite, located in the James Bay area of Québec, is a lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite of albite-spodumene type. In order to evaluate the mineralogical and geochemical variability of the pegmatite, 168 samples were collected from drill core and analyzed for their whole rock geochemistry and mineralogy. The pegmatite is composed of quartz, albite, K-feldspar, spodumene, and muscovite, with trace amounts of spessartine garnet, apatite, beryl, tourmaline, and oxides. It is mostly homogenous, showing greatest variability with respect to the minerals albite, K-feldspar, and spodumene. The Li2O concentration varies between 0.03 and 4.46 wt.%, for an average of 1.53 wt.% and an estimated variability of 53%. Modal mineralogical data showed an inverse correlation between spodumene and the feldspars (albite + K-feldspar), which could also be observed when comparing the Li2O content with the sum of Na2O and K2O. To improve on this relationship, correlation matrices comparing all geochemical components were constructed and allowed the development of an equation able to estimate the Li2O content of the samples within 0.5 wt.% of the measured value. The applicability of the equation to other albite-spodumene type pegmatites was verified with samples collected from the Georgia Lake area of northwestern Ontario. The calculation provided a good approximation of the Li2O content of the samples, with 92% of the data showing a difference of 0.5 wt.% Li2O or less; however, it has an impact on the statistical mean of the data set, the data being recalculated to return an average closer to 1.5 wt.% Li2O. Considering the difficulty in analyzing lithium content of an in situ sample, this relationship could facilitate estimation in the field using portable X-ray fluorescence with the capability of analyzing all required components.


A research is entitled The Types and Functions of Prepositions in P.S. I Love You movie by Richard LaGravenese. This paper is intended to analyze the types of prepositions and the functions of prepositions. The writer uses descriptive method to establish this research. The aims of the research are to know the types of preposition and to identify the preposition functions which are used in P.S. I Love You movie. The result of the research shows the types of prepositions that appear in the movie are the preposition of time, preposition of place, preposition of manner, and preposition of direction. Meanwhile, the functions of prepositions that appear in P.S. I Love You movie are the function as head of prepositional phrases, noun phrase modifier, noun phrase complement, adjunct and adverbial, and the fuction as particle.


Two experiments investigated the role of spatial abilities on uninhabited ground vehicle (UGV) performance under two different viewing conditions: direct line of sight and teleoperation. The ability to operate a mobile robot was indexed by task completion time and total number of course collisions. Results showed that participants with higher spatial abilities exhibited superior performance in both direct line of sight and teleoperation. Performance under direct line of sight was correlated with both spatial relations and spatial visualization, whereas performance during teleoperation was only correlated with spatial relations ability. Understanding the roles of spatial abilities under different viewing conditions will aid in the advancement of selection criteria and training paradigms for robot operators.


This paper addresses the formation coordinated control problem of nonholonomic mobile robots in obstacles environment. Based on each robot formation feedback between itself and its virtual structure and artificial potential field method, a decentralized controller is designed to maintain the formation to effectively track the target with desired velocities and avoid collisions. The formation control stability is proved with Lyapunov stability theory as well. Finally, the validity of the proposed formation controller is demonstrated with experiment simulation results in the case of six followers.


Background Direct telephone communication is one way through which patients can reach their doctor; this is particularly useful for people with reduced mobility and with chronic diseases needing frequent advice. However, the volume of calls may mean that either the patient does not get the best out of this contact, or that staff do not have time to deal with calls adequately.1–3 In Cyprus there is a dual healthcare system, with traditional state hospitals on one hand, but a significant proportion of the country's healthcare is delivered privately. Unavoidably, there is more direct contact between patient and private practitioner and appointments are more often 'on demand'. To our knowledge, there has been no previous study analysing such telephone contact in Cyprus, something that would be especially interesting when patients have direct access to mobile telephone numbers and where they also use text messaging. Objectives To analyze landline, mobile phone contacts and text messaging between patients and a rheumatology department in order to help focus on areas of communication that need improvement or suggest a change in practice so as to use time and resources more efficiently. Methods The rheumatology department at Aretaeion Hospital Nicosia is a single-handed department with no specialist nurse. For eight consecutive days the following were recorded: frequency of calls to the receptionist, calls and texts to the rheumatologist, timing and duration of each call and the reason. The physician also noted whether the calls were urgent or routine. Results During the 8 days of data collection, 261 phone calls and 32 texts were received. Only 19 calls were urgent. The doctor received on average 18 phone calls per day on his personal mobile phone with a mean of 3 minutes and 19 seconds duration for each call. This implied roughly an hour per day of telephone consultations. Texts from patients ranged from updates regarding progress through to purely non-urgent ones. All texts had to be replied to by the doctor. 89% of the communication was via telephone calls and 11% via text. The doctor received 45% of the total number of telephone calls on his mobile phone while the receptionist received only 44% on the department landline. Adding the texts to the analysis shows that the doctor received 56% of the total communication, while the receptionist received only 44%. (Fig. 1) Conclusions The doctor received more calls than the receptionist spending a significant amount of time speaking on the phone. This time could have been better invested in face-to-face patient care and consultations. Reasons for the large proportion of phonecalls directly to the doctor should be studied. The huge usefulness of specialist nurses is emphasized here; a suitably trained nurse would be able to deal with a significant proportion of the calls, allowing for wiser resource allocation. References Bunn F, Byrne G, Kendall S. The effects of telephone consultation and triage on healthcare use and patient satisfaction: a systematic review. Br J Gen Pract 2005 Dec;55(521):956-961. Foster J, Jessopp L, Dale J. Concerns and confidence of general practitioners in providing telephone consultations. Br J Gen Pract 1999 Feb;49(439):111-113. Toon PD. Using telephones in primary care. BMJ 2002 May 25;324(7348):1230-1231. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.3515


Two series of disulfonated iptycene-based poly(arylene ether sulfone) random copolymers, i.e., TRP-BP (triptycene-based) and PENT-BP (pentiptycene-based), were synthesized via condensation polymerization from disulfonated monomer and comonomers to prepare proton exchange membranes (PEMs) for potential applications in electrochemical devices such as fuel cell. To investigate the effect of iptycene units on membrane performance, these copolymers were systematically varied in composition (i.e., iptycene content) and the degree of sulfonation (i.e., 30–50%), which were characterized comprehensively in terms of water uptake, swelling ratio, oxidative stability, thermal and mechanical properties, and proton conductivity at various temperatures. Comparing to copolymers without iptycene units, TRP-BP and PENT-BP ionomers showed greatly enhanced thermal and oxidative stabilities due to strong intra- and inter-molecular supramolecular interactions induced by hierarchical iptycene units. In addition, the introduction of iptycene units in general provides PEMs with exceptional dimensional stability of low volume swelling ratio at high water uptakes, which is ascribed to the supramolecularly interlocked structure as well as high fractional free volume of iptycene-based polymers. It is demonstrated that the combination of high proton conductivity and good membrane dimension stability is the result of the synergistic effects of multiple factors including free volume (iptycene content), sulfonation degree, hydrophobicity, and swelling behavior (supramolecular interactions).


The advancement of semiconductor industry has led to continuously increasing level of integration. Due to this and driven by shorter time-to-market and product life cycle, the industry has migrated into SoC paradigm. NoC is viewed as a practical solution for SoC interconnection due to its reusability and scalability. Existing NoC designs are mainly based on packet switching. However, packet switching NoC requires significant buffering resources, which consumes silicon area and power. An alternative to packet switching is circuit switching based NoC. In this paper, circuit and packet switching had been evaluated, and simulations were performed to measure and compare the performance of both NoCs to determine the viability of CNoC as on-chip interconnection solution.


Abstract Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are receiving increasing attention due to their low power consumption and strong bioplausibility. Optimization of SNNs is a challenging task. Two main methods, artificial neural network (ANN)-to-SNN conversion and spike-based backpropagation (BP), both have advantages and limitations. ANN-to-SNN conversion requires a long inference time to approximate the accuracy of ANN, thus diminishing the benefits of SNN. With spike-based BP, training high-precision SNNs typically consumes dozens of times more computational resources and time than their ANN counterparts. In this letter, we propose a novel SNN training approach that combines the benefits of the two methods. We first train a single-step SNN(T = 1) by approximating the neural potential distribution with random noise, then convert the single-step SNN(T = 1) to a multistep SNN(T = N) losslessly. The introduction of gaussian distributed noise leads to a significant gain in accuracy after conversion. The results show that our method considerably reduces the training and inference times of SNNs while maintaining their high accuracy. Compared to the previous two methods, ours can reduce training time by 65% to 75% and achieves more than 100 times faster inference speed. We also argue that the neuron model augmented with noise makes it more bioplausible.


The article on the extensive factual material considered priorities and formation of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in the conditions of the Commonwealth of Independent States, after the collapse of the USSR. Highlights the positive role of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev to realize these issues. All issues are analyzed with the help of large legal framework, which was formed between Russia and Kazakhstan in the field of realization of the Customs Union countries and other countries of the CIS goals.


This article investigates the validity of the credit view hypothesis in eleven OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries over the period 1987:QI to 2003:QIII. The existence of a long-run relationship between the banking sector and the real sector is supported by cointegration test results. For some of the countries in the sample, Granger causality tests show the leading role of the banking sector in the real sector, thus supporting the credit view hypothesis, whereas for other countries, the same tests indicate no interdependence.


The electromigration damage in flip chip solder bumps of eutectic SnPb and SnAg3.8Cu0.7 was studied after current stressing at 120 °C with 1.5 A. The diameter of the bumps was about 200 μm. The under-bump metallization (UBM) on the chip side was electroless Ni and on the board side was electroplated Cu. Surface marker motion was used to measure the atomic flux driven by electromigration and to calculate the effective charge number, Z*, of the solder. For eutectic SnPb, Z* is about 36–100 after 39.5 h of electromigration, but for SnAg3.8Cu0.7 the marker movement was too small to measure Z* even after 200 h of current stressing. While the effect of electromigration in SnAg3.8Cu0.7 is much smaller than that in eutectic SnPb, hillocks of intermetallic compounds at the anode have been observed in the former. An extensive growth of Ni–Cu–Sn intermetallic compounds in the matrix of both solder bumps was found. A localized dissolution of electroless Ni UBM was observed under current stressing, yet no dissolution ...


Finite element analysis (FEA) is a widely used tool in structural analysis. Because of advances in graphics and animation capabilities, commercial FEA programs can be of great benefit in aiding students in understanding concepts in many undergraduate engineering courses. However, although software vendors have made great strides in enhancing the user-friendliness of commercial codes, proper use of complex FEA software still requires significant training and experience. There is typically not time to instruct students in use of FEA software, or in FEA theory, in courses which are not specifically FEA courses. This work builds on previously reported work, and describes a number of macros that have been developed which automate modeling procedures using the FEA code, ANSYS, to easily produce results, and high-level graphical representations of results, related to a range of topics in structural mechanics. Macros have been developed that illustrate concepts in courses such as statics, dynamics, solid mechanics, machine design, and vibrations, with minimal input from the user. No FEA theoretical background is required to use the macros. They can be used by students in stand-alone assignments, or by instructors in in-class demos. Some examples of results that can be generated and graphically depicted are stress contours due to beam bending, stress contours illustrating the stress concentration in the fillet region in a loaded bar with a step diameter change, animated structural vibration mode shapes, and plots of displacement and velocity of a projectile versus time. Inexperienced users can also easily display numerical results in tables generated by the software. Nonlinear solutions can be generated, for instance, in large deflection beam bending problems, to illustrate the fact that standard textbook solutions are only valid within some operating range.


The first mission of NASA's New Millenium Program, Deep Space 1, has, as one of its principal demonstration technologies, the first autonomous optical navigation system to be used in deep space.


We discuss the local physical changes at the surface of an AGN accretion disk after the onset of a magnetic flare. The X-ray irradiation by a flare creates a hot spot at the disk surface where the plasma both heats up and expands in the vertical direction in order to regain the hydrostatic equilibrium. Assuming that the magnetic loop causing the flare is anchored deeply within the disk interior, we derive analytical estimates for the vertical dimension H hot and the optical depth τ es of the heated atmosphere as a function of the position within the spot. We perform computations for various values of the accretion rate m, the fraction f cor of radiation dissipated within the disk corona, and the covering factor f cover of the disk surface with flare-illuminated patches. It turns out that generally we can distinguish three characteristic radial zones within the disk showing a qualitatively different behavior of the heated material. In the innermost regions of the disk (inner zone) the expansion of the disk material is restricted by strong gravitational forces. Further out, the flare source, initially above the disk, soon becomes embedded by the expanding disk atmosphere. At these intermediate disk radii (middle zone) the material is optically thick thus greatly modifying the observed radiation by multiple Compton scattering. We show exemplary spectra models obtained from Monte Carlo simulations illustrating the trends. In the outermost regions of the disk (outer zone) the expanding material is optically thin and its influence on the observed spectra is smaller but pressure gradients in radial directions should cause the development of a fountain-like dynamical structure around the flare source. We discuss the observational consequences of our results.


In this paper we consider two resource allocation problems of URLLC traffic and eMBB traffic in uplink 5G networks. We propose to divide frequencies into a common region and a grant-based region. Frequencies in the grant-based region can only be used by eMBB traffic, while frequencies in the common region can be used by eMBB traffic as well as URLLC traffic. In the first resource allocation problem we propose a two-player game to address the size of the grant-based region and the size of the common region. We show that this game has specific pure Nash equilibria. In the second resource allocation problem we determine the number of packets that each eMBB user can transmit in a request-grant cycle. We propose a constrained optimization problem to minimize the variance of the number of packets granted to the eMBB users. We show that a water-filling algorithm solves this constrained optimization problem. From simulation, we show that our scheme, consisting of resource allocation according to Nash equilibria of a game, persistent random retransmission of URLLC packets and allocation of eMBB packets by a water-filling algorithm, works better than four other heuristic methods.


The burning rate of unconfined cribs has long been identified to occur in two regimes: the densely-packed regime where the burning rate is proportional to the crib porosity and the loosely-packed regime where the burning rate is independent of porosity. Though the cribs used to define these burning regimes were primarily cubic in dimension, there are seemingly endless possible ways to build a crib with a given porosity. This work explores the burning rate of cribs with a wide variety of geometries to determine whether the porosity-burning rate relation in the literature holds. One set of experiments was performed to validate the testing apparatus against the known data in the literature. A second set of experiments explored the effect of crib layout in the loosely-packed crib regime. The porosity was kept approximately constant while the number of sticks per layer, number of layers and the length to thickness ratios (l/b) were varied. For l/b less than 36, the burning rate of all cribs matched the porosity-burning rate relation from the literature. For larger l/b, the burning rate was considerably reduced, implying that the crib porosity is a function of l/b above some critical threshold. A third set of experiments was performed to examine the effect of the spacing distance between the crib and the support platform. The effect of spacing distance is strongly dependent on l/b, with no difference seen for l/b = 10 and a 60% change for l/b =96. Future work will focus on exploring the burning rate and the effect of the crib-platform spacing for cribs with large l/b.


COCAINE AND MEFLOQUINE-INDUCED ACUTE EFFECTS IN VENTRAL TEGMENTAL AREA DOPAMINE AND GABA NEURONS David W. Allison Department Physiology and Developmental Biology Doctor of Philosophy The aim of the two studies presented here was to evaluate the effects of cocaine and mefloquine (MFQ) on γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Cocaine: In vivo, lower doses of intravenous cocaine (0.25-0.5 mg/kg), or methamphetamine (METH), enhanced VTA GABA neuron firing rate via D2/D5 receptor activation. Higher cocaine doses (1.0-2.0 mg/kg) inhibited their firing rate. Cocaine and lidocaine inhibited the firing rate and spike discharges induced by stimulation of the internal capsule (ICPSDs) at dose levels 0.25-2 mg/kg (IC50 1.2 mg/kg), but neither DA nor METH reduced ICPSDs. In VTA GABA neurons in vitro, cocaine reduced (IC50 13 μM) currentevoked spikes and sodium currents in a use-dependent manner. In VTA DA neurons, cocaine reduced IPSCs (IC50 13 μM), increased IPSC paired-pulse facilitation, and decreased sIPSC frequency, without affecting mIPSC frequency or amplitude. These findings suggest cocaine reduces activity-dependent GABA release on DA neurons in the VTA, and that cocaine's usedependent blockade of VTA GABA neuron voltage-sensitive sodium channels (VSSCs) may synergize with its DAT inhibiting properties to enhance mesolimbic DA transmission implicated in cocaine reinforcement. Mefloquine: Mefloquine (MFQ) is an anti-malarial agent, Connexin-36 (Cx36) gap junction blocker, 5-HT3 antagonist, and calcium ionophore. Mounting evidence of a Cx36-mediated VTA GABA neuron syncytium suggests MFQ-related dysphoria may attribute to its gap junction blocking effects on VTA synaptic homeostasis. We observed that MFQ (25 μM) increased DA neuron spontaneous IPSC frequency 6 fold, and mIPSC 3 fold. Carbenoxolone (CBX, 100 μM) only increased sIPSC frequency 2 fold, and did not affect DA mIPSC frequency. Ondansetron did not mimic MFQ. Additionally, MFQ did not affect VTA DA evoked IPSC paired pulse ratio (PPR). However, Mefloquine did induce a 3.5 fold increase in bath-applied GABA current. Remarkably, MFQ did not affect VTA GABA neuron inhibition. At VTA DA neuron excitatory synapses MFQ increased sEPSC frequency in-part due to an increase in the AMPA/NMDA ratio. These finding suggest MFQ alters VTA synapses differentially depending on neuron and synapse type, and that these alterations appear to involve MFQ's gap junction blocking and calcium ionophore actions.


ABSTRACT Morphologically similar sympatric species reduce competition by partitioning resources, for example by occupying different dietary niches or foraging in different areas. In this study, we examine the foraging behavior of Arctic (Sterna paradisaea), Common (Sterna hirundo), and Roseate terns (Sterna dougallii) breeding on Coquet Island, northeast England, using colony-based observations and coincident at-sea visual tracking of foraging birds to quantify interspecific overlap in prey selection and foraging areas. Although visual tracking methods have been used in previous studies, our study is the first example of this method being used to quantify multi-species overlap in foraging areas and the first time Roseate Tern foraging locations have been conclusively identified using a visual tracking method. Percentage overlap in foraging areas varied among species with Arctic and Common terns sharing a higher percentage of their foraging range with each other (63%) than either species did with Roseate Terns (Common = 41% and Arctic = 0%). Arctic and Common terns utilized similar foraging areas and partitioned resources by diet while Roseate Terns differed from other species in both diet and foraging area. Arctic and Common terns varied provisioning rate, prey length, and foraging areas with increasing brood age, while Roseate Terns fed similar prey and foraged consistently inshore. Although there were some similarities in areas utilized by these species, there were sufficient differences in behavior to minimize interspecific competition. Our study further demonstrates the successful use of a visual tracking method to show how morphologically similar sympatric seabird species partition resources by diet, foraging area, and response to increasing brood age.


Postmortem examination of a juvenile Australian fur seal, Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus, washed ashore on Phillip Island, Victoria, revealed traumatic fibrinous pericarditis and hemothorax. A foreign body lodged in the right ventricle was identified as the barbed spine of the ray Urolophus paucimaculatus. A small puncture wound through the esophagus indicated the initial perforation site.


1The article substantiates the hypothesis that the modern technological production process results in the complexity of socio-economic space and leads to the increase of its integration, which in turn causes the need for coordinated and balanced development. The author describes the process of the growth of complexity in the economic space as a result of the increasing number of links caused by the creation of enterprises and organizations, changes in the structure of production and the growth of the educational level of the population. The author gives the characteristics of the new quality of economic space. The factors of coordinated and balanced development of the territories are outlined in the article. The contents of the concept of "commercial combination" are explained. Also the necessity of the transition to systemic innovative thinking in the context of increasingly complex economic space is substantiated. The article suggests the way of using rebalancing of the economy as a new vision of balance in the context of crisis situations. It is concluded that the outcome of the theoretical and practical search should be the formation of a viable development of the territories, which is provided by the intellectual and technological, as well as moral and ethical, level of the population living there.


A comparative study was carried out to clarify the problems in applying ICD-10 to Japan and Germany. Field studies in both countries showed some differences as follows. In FO, the definition of dementia in Japan and that of mild cognitive disorder in Germany were required. In F1, the exclusion of amphetamine from caffeine in Japan and clarification of their harmful use, dependence and withdrawal in Germany were requested. In F2, schizotypal disorder was not accepted in both countries and differentiation between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia in Japan and that of acute psychotic disorders in Germany were demanded. In F3, the severity of depressive episode should not be evaluated by the number of symptoms in Japan and depressive neurosis should be included not only to dysthymia but adjustment disorder in Germany. In F4, the nomination of neurotic and psychoreactive disorder, somatoneurosis, should be used in Japan and a low reliability in neurotic and psychosomatic disorder in Germany was reported. In F6, the definition of borderline and narcissistic P.D. should be clarified in both countries. Besides, in translating English terms, there were some problems, such as "disorder" to "shougai" in Japanese and there was no appropriate German term for "bizarre delusion" and so forth. In conclusion, Japanese Clinical Modification (JCM) and that of Germany should be recommended to WHO. Field Trial of Diagnostic Criteria for Research (ICD-10, WHO) in Japan


Enzymatically prepared novel polyphenol poly(4,4′-dihydroxydiphenyl ether) (PDHDPE) is blended to modify the properties of biodegradable polyester poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] (PHB). Because the differential scanning calorimetry data show a single composition-dependent glass transition for each blend, PHB and PDHDPE are found to be miscible in the amorphous phase. The crystallization of PHB is depressed by PDHDPE because PDHDPE reduces the molecular mobility and the flexibility of molecular chains of PHB. The Fourier transform IR spectra clearly indicate that PHB and PDHDPE interact through strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds between the carbonyl groups of PHB and the hydroxyl groups of PDHDPE. However, when PHB is blended with DHDPE monomer, no obvious hydrogen bonds are observed because of the phase separation and strong self-intermolecular hydrogen bonds between DHDPE molecules. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 2439–2449, 2005


Abstract. Introduction. Human development in education, health, and decent living increases, the accumulated human capital increases. The increase in production factors in the form of human development as a whole will increase output. In aggregate, an increase in the accumulation of human capital will impact the use of production factors as a source that replaces accumulated physical capital with human capital. Based on endogenous growth theory, human capital accumulation will create knowledge that will produce higher knowledge output. This research focuses on analyzing economic growth in Indonesia regarding endogenous factors, including the Government Expenditure Ratio for Education and Health, Human Development Index, and Labor Force Participation Rate by all provinces in Indonesia. The data used in this study are secondary for the period 2011-2020 and cross-sectional from 34 provinces in Indonesia. The analysis technique uses quantitative with Panel Data regression analysis tool. Purpose. This study analyzes the effect of the Government Expenditure Ratio on Education and Health, Human Development Index, and Labor Force Participation Rate on Economic Growth in Indonesia. Results. Education and Health Expenditure Ratio, HDI, and TPAK have a positive effect on Economic Growth. This condition means that every increase in Education and Health Expenditures, the human development index, and the Labor Force Participation Rate (TPAK) will increase economic growth. Overall economic growth is mostly determined by the Labor Force Participation Rate (TPAK). Conclusions. . Increasing the Proportion of Education and Health Expenditure Ratio, improving the quality of HDI, and increasing LFPR will impact increasing Economic Growth in Indonesia. Thus, to further increase spending on education and health, the availability of employment opportunities will result in the accumulation of human capital, which will increase economic growth in the long term.


In July 25th, 2013 Indonesia for the first time provided rail link service from and to an airport. It particularly was operated from and to Kualanamu International Airport (KNIA), Deli Serdang, North Sumatera, which was also operated for the first time on that date. Managing the airport rail link service, a private company namely PT. Railink basically is the subsidiary company of PT. Angkasa Pura II (Persero) and PT. Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero). The price of train ticket, in fact, is getting higher as time goes by. It is noted that the ticket price has increased from IDR 80K to IDR 100K since January 15th, 2015. Concerning this situation, this study is conducted to investigate the demand elasticity of the airport rail link service from and to Kualanamu International Airport as well as factors in taking the airport rail link. The result of the study reveals that the demand of airport rail link service as the impact of the increasing of the ticket price is inelastic since its value of elasticity reaches -0.38. The other result, moreover, finds six reasons influencing people to go with airport rail link: comfort, punctuality, speed or travel time, practicality, access to train station, and other modes' tariff.


Because online learning presents unique challenges for not only learners but faculty and administrators as well, those involved in these cyberenvironments must think beyond the boundaries of  the  traditional classroom.   This study examined the perceptions of online persistence  factors,  those characteristics which  influence student  retention, as seen by the  three  major  stakeholders  in  community  college  distance  education  programs: administrators, faculty, and students.  The purpose of the study was to determine which factors  are  most  important  among  the  three  groups  and  where  those  perceptions converge since  lack of convergence could be a  factor  resulting  in high attrition rates of some  online  courses. While  the  results  of  this  study  indicated  that  the  perceptions  of administrators  and  faculty  are  more  closely  aligned  than  either  is  with  the  students' perceptions,  they  also  show  a  recognition  among  all  groups  of  stakeholders  of  online learning as an evolving phenomenon which  requires attention  to even  the most minute details  which  are  sometimes  overlooked,  not  emphasized,  or  taken  for  granted.    This recognition  indicates  a  necessary  paradigm  shift,  which  will  lead  to  improvements  in online learning policy, design, and pedagogy, is in the making.


Most success stories start with a small step taken by somebody, without any guarantee that it will work, but that person usually had the dream of the bigger picture at the back of his mind and believed from the start in what he was doing.


This paper proposes a method for a humanoid robot to generate 3D model of the environment using a stereo vision, find a movable space using it and plan feasible locomotion online. The model is generated by an accumulation of 3D grid maps which are made from the range data of the field of view obtained by a correlation based stereo vision. The locomotion is planned by an online whole body pattern generator which can modify robot's waist height, an upper body posture and so on according to the size of the movable space.


Integration is still a hot topic in Dutch politics. Declining neighborhoods suffer from poverty, neglected social housing and an over-representation of inhabitants with a non-Dutch cultural background. These severe circumstances have had a strong influence on the youngsters that have been raised in these areas. The Ghetto culture has made his entrance in the declining neighborhood: Youngsters wearing coats with fur collars and golden teeth seem to terrorise neighborhoods. A covering term for this phenomenon amongst youngsters is 'Street culture'. The district Loosduinen is situated in the city of The Hague, the Netherlands. It is an area where the Street culture has led to feelings of unsafety and deprovation amongst the inhabitants. This report presents a research on the social- cultural integration between the Street culture and Society, the Burger culture within the geographical context of the district Loosduinen. A product- service is developed to improve the social cohesion. The neighborhoods Houtwijk and Nieuw-Waldeck are part of the district Loosduinen. These two areas are the main focus within this project. The two neighborhoods are developed forty years ago. The former Dutch horticulturalists live together with families from various ethnical backgrounds. Neighborhoods where Dutch 'white trash' and foreign macho cultures are joint. Small social housing, poverty and dislocated families caused youngsters to spend most of their free time on the streets. The Street culture gives them the feeling to belong, to be part of a group. The youngsters reject against their parents, school, politics and society. They feel that society does not accept them. A common sentence used as an excuse for the derailed behavior is "Ze moeten me toch niet". Stereotyping in the media confirms their exclusion form society. The future perspective from these youngsters is in contrast with their current behavior. They want a family, job and a house: The 'normal' life. Aggressive behavior and criminal activities have led to a vicious circle of distrust between the Street and Burger culture. The clash between the two cultures has led to less possibilities for youngsters to develop themselves within society. Youngsters hace difficulties with job applications. Recruiters and and youngsters distrust eachother as well. Derailed behavior and stereotyped valueing of a person feeds this distrust. Unemployment of youngsters makes the path of crime more appealing. This leads to more nuisance in society. A crucial condition to break through the vicious circle of distrust, is to take away prejudices. When less information is available about a person, stereotypes will be used to generate an opinion about someones personality. A good first impression is important to overcome a stereotyped impression. An interaction needs to be designed to give youngsters enough confidence to show who they are, instead of hiding behind their tough behavior. These insights have led to the development of the WorkTag. This Product- Service System (PSS) stimulates youngsters to apply for a job easy and quick, within the familiarity of the streets. The WorkTag consists of two main products; A Smartphone application and a Sticker. Combined, they give location based information about the type of work. Youngsters see the "Ik heb werk voor je" stickers on the streets. They scan the sticker via their application and see a video message with information about the work. When they like the video, they can directly apply for the job through a selfmade short video clip. The application gives instructions on how the youngsters should make the video. The fact that youngsters makes their own video, the application is within the safety of the streets and the application guides the process, enables the youngster to give a good impression. The video message is directly send to the mail Inbox of the recruiter. First qualitative testing has showed that youngsters react positive on the video applications. Important is that, when the youngster and recruiter meet in real life, prejudices are already taken away. A positive esteem on the video makes youngsters already feel more confident. The recruiter sees an individual in front of him. The video has already given a lot of (nonverbal) information about the youngster. The WorkTag is designed to give youngsters the confidence to express their most positive identity. The scientific relevance of this project can be found in two areas. First is that Product Design could be a useful tool in solving societal issues. Where sociologists and antropologists explain, design can change. Next to this is the scientific relevance on the research on video application. The first qualitative researches have a positive outcome. This first research could be the starting point for further research on this topic. It could prove if video application can be used on a large scale.


Despite Italian teachers' strong interest in the use of games, especially the digital ones, there are several critical issues due to their lack of familiarity with games/video games thus making games' adoption in teaching complex because teachers have only limited time to prepare and play a game-based learning game. Therefore they feel uncertain about using games in class due to their limited knowledge of digital games and find it difficult to identify appropriate assessments, they also find it difficult to integrate video games effectively and efficiently into their classroom, it is also difficult for them to choose appropriate games for teaching. Additionally the school/administration doesn't assist their effort to support and improve their skills in game-based learning. The learning of the fundamentals of the Italian language and grammar are described and defined by the Italian Ministry of Education within the "National Indications for the 'Italian Language' Curriculum". However, multiple difficulties often make it arduous to learn the basics of the Italian language. The video game "Ross and the Sgrammanebbia" - which can be translated as "Ross and the Un-grammar-Fog" - is a didactic grammar web video game that has a correspondence between the levels and the topics of the textbook as well as giving the teacher a valid help to organise a didactic path studied on the curricular skills. In order to define the useful guidelines for an effective introduction of the game in the classroom, participatory qualitative-quantitative research was prepared on the methods that a small group of teachers put in place to design the training activity with video games. The research focused on: analysis of the educational design skills for the use of games: definition of learning goals, assessment methods and identified teaching strategies; evaluation of the pedagogical activities implemented to facilitate the introduction of games in the classroom; analysis of the roles played by the teacher during all the phases of the training activity - from the design of the training activity to the introduction of the game in the classroom, to evaluation.


Customer support is one of the main aspects of the user experience for online services. However, the rise of natural language processing techniques, the industry is looking at automated chatbot solutions to provide quality services to an ever-growing user base. In Sri Lanka, Ceylon Electricity Board website is one of the largest websites that customers use always to get information about electricity services. Hence, a chatbot system is very essential in CEB website. This paper presents a study about implementing and evaluating of a chatbot model for CEB website. This study implements virtual conversation agent based on deep learning algorithm which is multilayer perceptron neural network and a special text dataset for conversations about CEB services. The conversation agent model is made by utilizing the natural language processing techniques to facilitate the processing of user messages. The output of this research is the response from the chatbot and identify the best testing method to get highest accuracy for chatbot model. The chatbot model achieves the highest accuracy with the number of epochs set to 2000 and the learning rate value of 0.01 on response context data training so that it gets 78.8% accuracy.
Keywords: Natural language processing, chatbot, deep learning, multilayer perceptron neural network, Monte Carlo cross validation, k-fold cross validation


The data on the impact of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are inconsistent. We therefore performed a meta-analysis to assess the prognostic value of pretreatment NLR in patients treated with TKIs for mRCC. We searched the Embase, Medline, PubMed, Cochrane and ISI Web of Knowledge to identify clinical studies that had evaluated the association between the pretreatment NLR and prognosis in mRCC patients. Prognostic outcomes included overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Nine studies encompassing a total of 1091 participants were included. We found that a high NLR was an effective prognostic marker of both OS (pooled HR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.35-2.77; P = 0.0003) and PFS (pooled HR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.42-3.17; P = 0.0002). Subgroup analysis revealed that studies reporting a NLR ≥ 3 showed a more significant effect of NLR on both OS (pooled HR: 2.50, 95% CI: 1.99-3.14; P = 0.0003) and PFS (pooled HR: 2.17, 95% CI: 1.26-3.75). This meta-analysis suggests that high pretreatment NLR is associated with a poor prognosis in mRCC patients receiving TKI treatment.


BACKGROUND
Low ionized calcium (ICa) is prevalent in critical care patients. It is poorly detected by the popular indirect method, which corrects serum total calcium (TCa) for change in albumin. That correction (cTCa) ignores any concomitant change in the anion-complexed fraction of TCa. We tested whether the diagnosis of low ICa can be improved by further correcting for calcium complexation, represented by the anion gap (AG) or its components-sodium, chloride, and total carbon dioxide (tCO2).

METHODS
We retrospectively studied all patients in our intensive care units between 2009 and 2011 with ICa measured on arterial (n = 310) or venous (n = 462) gas panels within 19 min of a comprehensive chemistry panel. Logistic models to predict low ICa and linear models to estimate ICa were derived in the arterial group and validated in the venous group, using either AG (AG model) or its components (Ion model) as predictors, adjusted for TCa and albumin.

RESULTS
AG and its set of components were each highly significant independent predictors of low ICa. On validation, the logistic Ion model was better than the logistic AG model (ROC curve area ± SE: 0.92 ± 0.02 vs 0.89 ± 0.02; P = 0.008), which, in turn, was far better than cTCa (0.81 ± 0.03; P = 0.0006); the hypocalcemia rates predicted by the models showed good fit with the observed rates. Linear estimates of ICa were too imprecise for clinical use.

CONCLUSIONS
The adjustment of TCa for AG or for sodium, chloride, and tCO2 markedly improves the diagnosis of low ICa. This finding may be useful in guiding ICa testing.


Research has shown a positive correlation between extractive colonisation and low post-colonial economic growth. This paper provides case study research to explore the possibility that post-colonial extractive institutions were already present in pre-colonial times. In Zambia's case this is indeed true. Extractive institutions existed in Zambia before colonisation, and colonisation certainly did not improve on them. The question whether countries like Zambia are doomed for failure is also considered, and it is concluded that an environment that allows experimentation is supportive of economic growth and development. With an authoritative regime during the Second Republic, feedback on policy decisions was limited and may provide more of an answer to bad post-colonial economic performance than extractive colonisation.


Gastrin synthesis in ovarian tumors has been described in a few isolated cases associated with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Consequently, ovarian gastrin synthesis has been considered exceptional. In order to evaluate whether expression of gastrin in ovarian tumors indeed is rare, we examined the expression and processing of progastrin in 16 malignant and 5 benign ovarian tumors and 4 normal postmenopausal ovaria. Using a library of sequence specific radioimmunoassays, cleavage by processing-like enzymes, and gel chromatography, we found that one-half of the malignant tumors expressed significant concentrations of amidated gastrins [6.7 +/- 2.7 (SEM) pmol/g; range, 1.4-20.0 pmol/g, n = 7]. The concentrations of glycine-extended gastrins and progastrins were low (0.25 +/- 0.03 and 1.4 +/- 0.4 pmol/g, respectively) but higher than in controls and benign tumors. Chromatography showed that the majority of the bioactive gastrins was unsulfated gastrin-17. The other half of the malignant tumors expressed glycine-extended gastrins and progastrins (0.2 +/- 0.03 and 0.6 +/- 0.1 pmol/g; n = 9), but the amidation of the peptides was impaired (0.1 +/- 0.03 pmol/g). Low concentrations of glycine-extended gastrins and progastrins were detected in the normal ovarian tissues (0.2 +/- 0.05 pmol/g tissue and 0.2 +/- 0.06 pmol/g, respectively, n = 4) and in the benign tumors (0.1 +/- 0.02 pmol/g and 0.5 +/- 0.03 pmol/g; n = 5). Amidated gastrins were undetectable, except in low amounts in a single benign tumor (0.2 pmol/g tissue). The results show that postmenopausal ovaria and neoplastic ovarian tissues express the gastrin gene at peptide level. The synthesis and processing of progastrin increase considerably in malignant tumors.


In order to develop low-salt and healthy surimi products, we limited the amount of NaCl to 0.5 g/100 g in this work and studied the effect of CaCl2 (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 g/100 g) on the 3D printing quality of low-salt surimi gel. The results of rheology and the 3D printing showed that the surimi gel with 1.5 g/100 g of CaCl2 added could squeeze smoothly from the nozzle and had good self-support and stability. The results of the chemical structure, chemical interaction, water distribution, and microstructure showed that adding 1.5 g/100 g of CaCl2 could enhance the water-holding capacity and mechanical strength (the gel strength, hardness, springiness, etc.) by forming an orderly and uniform three-dimensional network structure, which limited the mobility of the water and promoted the formation of hydrogen bonds. In this study, we successfully replaced part of the salt in surimi with CaCl2 and obtained a low-salt 3D product with good printing performance and sensory properties, which could provide theoretical support for the development of healthy and nutritious surimi products.


ABSTRACT Ants can navigate by comparing the currently perceived view with memorised views along a familiar foraging route. Models regarding route-following suggest that the views are stored and recalled independently of the sequence in which they occur. Hence, the ant only needs to evaluate the instantaneous familiarity of the current view to obtain a heading direction. This study investigates whether ant homing behaviour is influenced by alterations in the sequence of views experienced along a familiar route, using the frequency of stop-and-scan behaviour as an indicator of the ant's navigational uncertainty. Ants were trained to forage between their nest and a feeder which they exited through a short channel before proceeding along the homeward route. In tests, ants were collected before entering the nest and released again in the channel, which was placed either in its original location or halfway along the route. Ants exiting the familiar channel in the middle of the route would thus experience familiar views in a novel sequence. Results show that ants exiting the channel scan significantly more when they find themselves in the middle of the route, compared with when emerging at the expected location near the feeder. This behaviour suggests that previously encountered views influence the recognition of current views, even when these views are highly familiar, revealing a sequence component to route memory. How information about view sequences could be implemented in the insect brain, as well as potential alternative explanations to our results, are discussed. Summary: There is a sequence component to route memories in ants, as ants show signs of navigational uncertainty when the familiar sequence of views is suddenly altered.


The paper describes the "Enhanced Multimedia Recorder" (EMMR), which provides a programmable access method for multimedia data. The EMMR records heterogeneous multimedia data and then organizes them into meaningful units by dividing the recorded data using heuristic rules. The structured data representation within the EMMR framework can enable application programmers to access data segments organized from multimedia data.


The Naval Research Laboratory tight-binding (TB) method accurately describes the electronic and mechanical properties of many elemental systems, including semiconductors, simple metals, and transition metals. We report an extension of the method to an intermetallic compound, FexAl1-x. We found a set of non-orthogonal TB parameters which reproduced the electronic structure and total energy versus volume of a set of first-principles linearized augmented-plane-wave (LAPW) calculations for the B1 (NaCl), B2 (CsCl), D03 (Fe3Al), C11b (MoSi2), and B32 (NaTl) structures. Structural properties, such as lattice constants and bulk moduli, and electronic properties, such as the densities of states and energy bands, are reproduced well. In addition, quantities that were not fitted, such as elastic constants, are found to be in very good agreement with independent LAPW calculations.


Schwann cells (SCs) in animals exist in different developmental stages or wound repair phases, distinguished mainly by the expression of SC-specific markers. No study has yet determined SC state under in vitro culture conditions, and the specific markers expressed in SC are obscure as well. In this study, we harvested sciatic nerves from newborn mice and isolated SCs by an enzyme-digestion method, then we examined the expression profiles of ten markers (S100, p75NTR, Sox10, Sox2, GAP43, NCAM, Krox20, Oct6, MBP, and MPZ) at both the RNA and protein levels in in vitro mouse SCs and speculated their relation with in vivo SC stages. We assayed RNA and protein levels of SC specific markers by immunofluorescence, Western Blot, and real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The results show that the expression of most markers (S100, p75NTR, GAP43, NCAM, Krox20, Oct6, MBP and MPZ) was not detectable in all of early stage cultured SCs. The expression of transcription factors Sox10 and Sox2 was, however, detectable in all SCs. After 8 days, the positive expression rate of all markers except GAP43 and Oct6 was almost 100%.These results indicates Sox10 is a necessary marker for SC identification, while S100 is not reliable. SCs cultured in vitro express Sox2, P75NTR, NCAM, GAP43, Oct6, and MPZ, suggesting that they are similar to in vivo undifferentiated iSCs or dedifferentiated iSCs after nerve injury.


Introduction: Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) negative allosteric modulators (NAM) such as 2-Methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)pyridine (MPEP) and 3-((2-Methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl)pyridine (MTEP) can produce antidepressant-like effects; an example being the forced swim test in rodents. It is therefore of high interest that a new mGlu5 NAM called basimglurant (RO4917523, RG7090) was recently introduced for clinical development in depression. Areas covered: The current article reports on the preclinical and clinical work with basimglurant which strongly supports its use for treatment of depression. The authors cover the pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics and safety and tolerability features of basimglurant together with its clinical efficacy in a clinical type II trial. Expert opinion: The antidepressant activity of basimglurant may be related to a preferential reduction of mGlu5 receptor signaling in distinct populations of cortical limbic GABA interneurons causing disinhibition of discrete glutamate neuronal networks in brain circuits of mood and emotion. Basimglurant's removal of mGlu5 receptor induced inhibition of D2 receptor signaling in A2A-D2-mGlu5 heteroreceptor complexes of ventral striato-pallidal GABA neurons mediating anti-reward may also play a role. Basimglurant is a highly promising antidepressant drug now in clinical development for depression. However, further clinical trials are highly warranted.


E-scooters have become a familiar sight in cities worldwide in recent years, with many new companies renting them for use. But their arrival has also brought new safety concerns. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present a framework for comparing how different micromobility vehicles, such as e-scooters, and bicycles move in cities, a methodology that can benefit companies and local authorities alike, and—most importantly—contribute to improving traffic safety.


ABSTRACT Radiocarbon (14C) is a key radionuclide in the assessment of the safety of underground geological disposal facilities for radioactive wastes, and the understanding of the 14C behavior in stainless steel may lead to a re-evaluation of the near-surface repository for the disposal of wastes containing this radionuclide in high concentrations. To achieve this objective, leaching experiments were planned for two different scenarios. The first is where the leaching solution, NaOH solution of pH ca. 12 in aerobic conditions, simulates the expected conditions in a cement-based near-surface repository over long time periods. The other one uses an acid solution of 1M H3PO4, which has been proved as a high efficiency chemical removal agent of 14C in graphite. The development of both analytical methods and protocols to measure the release of 14C from the activated steel samples and the speciation in the aqueous and gaseous phase has been undertaken as part of the EC CAST (CArbon-14 Source Term) project. Analytical methods, suitable for identifying and quantifying low molecular weight organic molecules, comprise ion chromatography (IC) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS); they are described for aqueous and gaseous samples, respectively. In this paper the preparation of leaching experiments to measure the release of 14C and the results obtained are described.


This paper discusses dynamic financial approaches to solvency analysis in non‐life insurance companies by explaining cash flow simulation models which are based on the planning of their typical cash inflows and outflows. Posits that these models take into account patterns of loss reserve run‐offs and asset cash flows by implementing several hypotheses that also include expectations about external economic conditions such as inflation rates and interest rates. Acknowledges the cash inflows and outflows have been planned over a period of time to evaluate how positive net cash flow (liquidity) leads to the increase in assets over liabilities (solvency).


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of different fresh gas flow (FGF) rates on isoflurane pharmacokinetics during anesthesia induction.

METHODS
Sixty female patients (ASA class I-II, age range of 18-49 years) scheduled for gynecological laparoscopic surgery were randomly divided into groups I, II, and III (n=20) for isoflurane inhalation with FGF rate of 1, 2, and 3 L/min, respectively. Each group was further divided into two equal subgroups according to the setting concentration of the isoflurane vaporizer at 1% (groups I 1, II 1, and III 1) and 2% (groups I 2, II 2, and III 2). Isoflurane with different setting concentrations was administered under different FGFs in the patients after tracheal intubation following anesthesia induction, and the inspiratory concentration (CIiso) and expiratory concentration (CEiso) of isoflurane in the airway were monitored and recorded every 3 min for totalling 18 min, with the observation time points marked as T1 to T6, respectively.

RESULTS
CIiso and CEiso varied significantly at different time points and between different subgroups (P<0.05). In each subgroup, CIiso and CEiso increased along with time and reached a relatively stable stage at 9 min, but failed to reach the setting concentration during the observation period. At different observation time points, CIiso and CEiso in the subgroups with setting isoflurane concentration of 2% were almost twice as much as that in the subgroups with setting isoflurane concentration of 1%.

CONCLUSIONS
CIiso and CEiso increase along with time lapse in all the groups and reach a relatively stable stage at 9 min after inhalation initiation, but can not reach the setting concentration. The larger the FGF and setting concentration, the faster CIiso and CEiso increase.


In his verse, Dylan Thomas returned time and again to Wales, particularly the area around Laugharne. It was the topography and character of the town that gave rise to his most famous verse play, "Under Milk Wood". Armed with Thomas's memoirs, verse and sketches, Hilary Laurie revisits his haunts and together with specially taken photographs has created a strong evocation of both the poet and his sense of place.


Clustering and community detection provide a concise way of extracting meaningful information from large datasets. An ever growing plethora of data clustering and community detection algorithms have been proposed. In this paper, we address the question of ranking the performance of clustering algorithms for a given dataset. We show that, for hard clustering and community detection, Linsker's Infomax principle can be used to rank clustering algorithms. In brief, the algorithm that yields the highest value of the entropy of the partition, for a given number of clusters, is the best one. We show indeed, on a wide range of datasets of various sizes and topological structures, that the ranking provided by the entropy of the partition over a variety of partitioning algorithms is strongly correlated with the overlap with a ground truth partition The codes related to the project are available in https://github.com/Sandipan99/Ranking_cluster_algorithms.