The origin of the far-infrared emission from the nearby radio galaxy M 87 remains a matter of debate. Some studies find evidence of a far-infrared excess due to thermal dust emission, whereas others propose that the far-infrared emission can be explained by synchrotron emission without the need for an additional dust emission component. We present Herschel PACS and SPIRE observations of M 87, taken as part of the science demonstration phase observations of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. We compare these data with a synchrotron model based on mid-infrared, far-infrared, submm and radio data from the literature to investigate the origin of the far-infrared emission. Both the integrated SED and the Herschel surface brightness maps are adequately explained by synchrotron emission. At odds with previous claims, we find no evidence of a diffuse dust component in M 87, which is not unexpected in the harsh X-ray environment of this radio galaxy sitting at the core of the Virgo cluster.


The study linking the marriage with work explores the mechanism of action of employees' marital satisfaction and job performance through establishing a moderated mediating effect model. The results of the correlation and regression analyses conducted by collecting questionnaires from 290 employees indicated that: (1) Emotional exhaustion and work engagement play a chain mediating role in the positive relationship between marital satisfaction and job performance. (2) Work meaningfulness and work engagement play a chain mediating role in the positive relationship between marital satisfaction and job performance. (3) The need to support a family moderates the relationship between marital satisfaction and work meaningfulness, as well as the mediating effect of work meaningfulness and work engagement on the relationship between marital satisfaction and job performance. (4) The need to support a family moderates the relationship between marital satisfaction and emotional exhaustion, as well as the mediating effect between emotional exhaustion and work engagement on marital satisfaction and job performance. (5) Self-efficacy moderates the relationship between marital satisfaction and work meaningfulness, as well as the mediating effect between work meaningfulness and work engagement on marital satisfaction and job performance. This study provides a new perspective of family as resources for improving employees' job performance in management.


m Abstract - This paper is the result committed by the collaboration between AI Mashoor High School and School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia to bridge the gap of knowledge between school students and their future endeavour in science and technology, specifically electronics, electrical and computer engineering. Innovative approach has been put forward in upgrading the context of teaching and learning of physics subject in school. In this project, students have been exposed to real engineering design process through the development of simplified turbidity meter. This project is done by diluting a related university project into a simplified version of the system. A "straight forward design approach" introduced in this design eliminates the need for complex amplification and algorithmic processing circuitry thus producing a simpler version of turbidity meter that can be easily understood by high school students. The science principles applied through this project has further increase students' appreciation towards physics subjects in school. Hence, reaching beyond school syllabus through the suggested outreach effort should be implemented in broader sense to raise more young interest in physics-engineer ing.


ABSTRACT Fetal damage following cytomegalovirus (CMV) intrauterine infection is mostly linked to primary infection. To differentiate primary infection from nonprimary infection, immunoglobulin M (IgM) tests are not reliable enough, and measurement of the IgG avidity appears to be the method that is the most widely used at present. In the present study the performance of the Vidas (bioMérieux) avidity assay was compared with that of a new enzyme immunoassay based on the use of a recombinant CMV glycoprotein B protein (Biotest).


Alzheimer's disease is associated with a dramatic decline in cognitive performance including hippocampal‐dependent memory. We have investigated one feature of hippocampal activity related to memory, the γ (30–80 Hz)‐frequency rhythm. Hippocampal slices from mice overexpressing the human amyloid precursor protein (APP)SWE mutation (TAS10) were compared at 8 and 16 months of age with wild‐type littermates. In slices obtained from TAS10 mice aged 8 months the γ‐frequency activity evoked with bath application of 200 nm kainate was significantly (P < 0.05; n = 8 slices, five animals) impaired (area power, 5956 ± 2487 µV2) compared to slices from wild‐type animals (area power, 18 256 ± 7880 µV2). At 16 months of age there was no longer a significant difference (P > 0.05; n = 11 slices from five animals) between slices from TAS10 and wild‐type control mice as the wild‐type mice now exhibited a marked age‐dependent reduction in γ‐frequency activity (TAS10 area power, 5751 ± 1573 µV2; wild‐type area power = 5379 ± 1454 µV2). Although no dense‐core plaques were evident at 8 months there was detectable amyloid labelling in the TAS10 mice which might account for the deficits in γ activity observed at this age. Dense plaques were clearly evident in the TAS10, but not wild‐type, mice at 16 months of age but no further reductions in γ‐frequency activity were seen in the TAS10 mice. These data suggest that deficits in network function in Alzheimer's disease occur early and are not directly correlated to amyloid load.


Based on a particular property of some liquid crystal to reflect a specific wavelength for a specific temperature, Particle Image Velocimetry and Thermometry (PIVT) is a method allowing to measure simultaneously velocity and temperature fields. In a first part, this study discusses PIVT calibration methods and especially the effect of liquid crystal particle deposition on hue and intensity response. An experimental set-up is designed and the results confirm the high variations of intensity response with time and the need to use a simple relationship between hue and temperature. In a second place, these results are used to apply PIVT to an unsteady natural convection flow in a cavity containing an internal heat source.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


ABSTRACT Background:  Characterized by demyelination, inflammation and axonal damage, multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common disorders of central nervous system led by the immune system. There is an urgent and obvious need for biomarkers for the diagnosis and follow-up of MS. Objective:  To investigate serum levels of sestrin2 (SESN2), a protein that responds to acute stress, in MS patients. Methods:  A total of 85 participants, 40 patients diagnosed previously with relapsing-remitting MS and 45 healthy controls, were included. Serum SESN2 parameters were investigated in blood samples drawn from each participant in the patient and control groups. Results:  SESN2 levels were significantly lower in MS patients than in controls (z: -3.06; p=0.002). In the ROC analysis of SESN2, the predictive level for MS was 2.36 ng/mL [sensitivity, 72.50%; specificity, 55.56%; p=0.002; area under the curve (AUC)=0.693]. For the cut-off value in both groups, SESN2 was an independent predictor for MS [Exp (B)=3.977, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) 1.507-10.494 and p=0.013]. Conclusions:  The decreased expression of SESN2 may play a role in MS pathogenesis, and SESN2 could be used as a biomarker for MS and as immunotherapeutic agent to treat MS.


Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is envisioned as an efficient candidate for future communication systems. This letter proposes a novel orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with index modulation (IM)-based NOMA scheme, called OFDM-IM NOMA, for future multi-user communication systems. Inspired by IM and classical NOMA-OFDM, users utilize flexibility by adjusting power allocation factors and subcarrier activation ratios. Our new scheme allows different service users to share available resources as in classical NOMA, more efficiently. It is shown that OFDM-IM NOMA reliably supports a high and low data rate user at the same resources by adjusting their subcarrier activation ratios.


In 2021 the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program collected survey (n=2,223) and urinalysis (n=716) data from police detainees across Australia. Seventy-seven percent (n=553) of detainees who provided a urine sample for analysis tested positive to at least one type of drug, less than in 2020 (82%). Around half of the detainees tested positive to methamphetamine (50%) or cannabis (45%), one-fifth tested positive to benzodiazepines (18%) or opioids (18%), whereas very few tested positive for cocaine (2%) or MDMA (<1%). Self-reported past-month methamphetamine use was stable for most of 2021 until it declined in October–November, while past-month cannabis use increased in July–August. Nationally, methamphetamine and heroin each cost $50 per point on average, whereas cannabis cost $17 per gram.


The high-tech industry is highlighted for advanced techniques,substantial capital investment,and smart talents.But their effective combination can not be achieved in the development of high-tech industry,which impedes its industrialization.Meanwhile,an effective mechanism is needed to develop the high-tech industry healthily.The aim of this paper is to explore the integration model of base,project,and talent which is presented and served as a new road for high-tech industry development as well as prove this model rational.Some results of the model are appealing.Firstly,start-ups in the park have the higher success probabilities;secondly,higher expected return attracts talents to join into start-ups in park;thirdly,side payment is the inner incentive to initiate this high-tech industry integration model.更多还原


Due to the continuous demand for smaller microelectronic devices, there exists a need to reduce the size of structural shapes in microelectronics and other related industries. Toward this end, effective lithographic techniques are essential to achieve a reduction in the size of microelectronic structures. Typical lithographic processes involve etch resistant photoresist underlying materials having antireflecting properties at a certain wavelength exposure. In this work, such materials were synthesized by the step-polymerization of diamines 2,2'-bis(3-amino4-hydroxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane (6FP) and 4,4'-(9-fluorenylidene)dianiline (BAFL) with a variety of diacid chlorides [terepthaloyl, isophthaloyl, glutaryl, and succinyl chlorides] and characterized by 1H NMR in tetrahydrofuran (THF-d8), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) using polystyrene standards. The effect of the structure of the components on the copolymer solubility in mixture of propylene glycol monoethylether acetate (PGMEA) and cyclohexanone used in microelectronics processing was studied by UV-visible spectroscopy. The solubility of the copolymers was found to be in trade-off relationship with BAFL content needed for its antireflective properties and high plasma etch resistance. The polymers that were prepared by using the equimolar mixture of isophthaloyl dichloride and glutaryl dichloride equimolar mixture showed the best solubility, processability and functionality and are applicable as spin-on antireflecting hardmask materials for deep ultra violet (DUV) litfhography technology. They showed good coatability, chemical resistance, plasma etch resistance, and plasma etch selectivity.


The subsystem in a smartphone means its hardware components, such as the CPU, GPU, and screen. Accurately estimating subsystem power consumption of commercial smartphones is necessary for applicable to wide research areas. Current subsystem power estimation techniques are mostly based on power models, resulting in considerable errors for various types of power consumption behaviors. These include (1) asynchrony between the measured power consumption and the corresponding workload statistics, and (2) nonlinearity concerning CPU idle states, pixels colors of AMOLED screen, and GPU workload statistics. In this study, we propose a novel utilization-based, subsystem power estimation method for a smartphone, namely Clustering and Symbolic Regression (CSR) that takes these power consumption behaviors into account so as to increase power estimation accuracy. To address asynchrony, we cluster the subsystem workload statistics into synchronous and asynchronous groups by employing affinity propagation clustering. To address nonlinearity, we employ symbolic regression for fitting measured power consumptions with respect to subsystem workload statistics. We compare our approach with various power estimation methods, Linear Regression Model (LM), Genetic Programming (GP), and Support Vector Regression (SVR). The results show Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) reduction between 23.61 and 42.55 percent on the estimated power consumption of a simple (Nexus S) and complex (Galaxy S4) smartphone subsystems.


Al-doped ZnO thin films are considered as a promising alternative to ITO
in optoelectronic applications. In this work, Al-doped ZnO thin films were prepared using sol-gel
spin coating technique.

The optical properties of the films such as refractive index, extinction coefficient,
dielectric function and the absorption coefficient were examined using spectroscopic ellipsometry
method in the wavelength range of 300 to 900 nm. The effect of Al doping on ZnO thin films with
different Al concentrations was significant. Tauc relation was used to estimate the optical band
gap energy of the films.

The calculated values of band gap energy were obtained between 3.10 to 3.25 eV. Also
the fraction of voids was calculated using Aspnes theory.

The free carrier concentration value was obtained in the order of 1019 cm-3.


This issue of Journal of Medical Ethics includes a pair of papers debating the implications of moral bioenhancement for human freedom–and, especially, the question of whether moral enhancement should potentially be compulsory. In earlier writings Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu (P&S) argue that compulsory moral bioenhancement may be necessary to prevent against catastrophic harms that might result from immoral behaviour.1 In "Voluntary moral enhancement and the survival-at-any-cost bias" Vojin Rakic agrees with P&S that moral bioenhancement is important, but he argues that bioenhancement interventions should be voluntary rather than compulsory ( see page 246 ).

Both Rakic and P&S disagree with Harris, who denies that moral enhancement could involve interventions beyond cognitive enhancement. Moral enhancement would essentially involve cognitive enhancement, according to Harris, because moral behaviour requires ability to distinguish right from wrong–ie, awareness and rational capacity.2 While Harris admits that those who know what is right might not always do what is right, he argues that we could not altogether prevent people from doing what is wrong (via moral enhancements) without destroying freedom essential to their moral agency.

According to Rakic, however, the fact that people who know what is right might not always do what is right reveals that mere cognitive enhancement would be inadequate to prevent immoral behavior–because much immoral behaviour results from weakness of will. Because people could freely chose to undergo moral enhancement, furthermore, according to Rakic, "our freedom will not be curtailed by it". Presumably Rakic here supposes that if a person freely choses to be in State A (e.g., more altruistic, with less weakness of will, and morally better motives, etc.) then State A is necessarily compatible with–and a reflection of–her human freedom. Forcing a person to be in State A, on the other hand, …


We describe a silicon-based lateral p-i-n junction device for light sensing applications. This device is based on metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) architecture and, therefore, has a gate for controlling its electrical operating point. Device fabrication is described in brief, followed by a description of the device's electrical and optoelectronic properties including current-voltage characteristics and optical transfer characteristics. It shows good linearity and high optical responsivity of 20 and 16 A/W for red and blue light, respectively. The associated gate can be used to control the quiescent operating point thus making it easy to interface the detector with ordinary metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs).


This paper examines several existing methods of static shading device design, and presents a new approach called SHADERADE. The approach is implemented as an eponymous tool based on Rhinoceros® and EnergyPlus, and offers flexible, novel techniques for assessing the desirability of solar transmittance over any potential shading volume or surface. Using simulated sidelit offices located in Anchorage, Boston and Phoenix, it is shown that SHADERADE is able to consistently generate shading systems with improved thermal performance vis-a-vis existing methods. It is also shown that the approach can handle curved geometries with ease, and can effeciently manage the sizing of shading devices by identifying regions that matter most. The authors hope that these capacities will facilitate a more effective, less prescriptive approach to shading design.


The author discusses five main differences between archives in the United States and China : differences in national history and the formation of archives; differences in the archival administration system; differences in archival management; differences in the research use of archives; and differences in archival education. He remarks on some strengths and weaknesses, as he sees them, in the American archival system


Understanding a legal text is very important, because, the correct interpretation of the law is the complementary part of criminal justice system. But how can one correctly understand the meaning of the law texts? Regrettably, in Iran's legal system, there are no general legal articles for the method of understanding  all the criminal law texts. In this research, we try to suggest  a method of understanding based on the legislator`s intentions by constructing interpretative rules which combined of a set of general and special rules; the former is derived from the linguistic sciences and the latter from the legal principles. Therefore, these rules can be applied in all the legal system, and as a sample, we study them in the Iranian criminal law. As a result, as the formal interpreters, the judges should give a meaning to a legal text that is adaptable to its author`s intent, otherwise their understandings are outside the legal framework.


Summary

Artemisia sphaerocephala is widely used for vegetation rehabilitation, but its germination is very low after air seeding of achenes. We explored effects of light, temperature and water stress on germination. Results show that both final percent germination and germination rate were increased by temperature increment, with the highest values occurring at 15: 25°C (night: day) in dark and 20: 30°C under light. Light inhibited germination, especially at lower alternating temperatures (5: 15°C and 10: 20°C). The alternating temperature window for germination was slightly narrower under light than in dark, and germination was slower under light than in dark across the temperature range. Achenes incubated in the dark and at constant temperatures had over 80% germination at 10 to 25°C, with an optimum at 20°C. Under dark and 25μmol m-2 s-1 light flux density at 10: 20°C, final percent germination was over 94%, but if the light flux density was increased to 100 and 400 μmol m-2 s-1, final percent germination was significantly lower (64% and 38% respectively). However, achenes could keep their germination capacity for a long time (over 50 days) and germinate well after going back to the dark. Germination was also lower under water stress and few achenes germinated at -1.4 MPa. This was more pronounced at high and low temperatures. Given these findings and the prevailing climatic characteristics, the most suitable time for air seeding of achenes may be mid-May.


Background: This study aimed to characterize blaCTX-M, blaTEM, and blaSHV genes among extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs)-producing Enterobacteriaceae species in different regions of Sudan. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, different clinical samples (n = 985) were collected randomly from symptomatic patients from four geographical regions of Sudan and cultured on chromogenic media. Following bacterial identification, phenotypic screening of ESBLs was done according to CLSI guidelines using cefotaxime (30 μg), ceftazidime (30 μg), and cefepime (30 μg) discs with and without clavulanic acid. The DNA was extracted by guanidine hydrochloride protocol, and then conventional PCR was used to detect blaCTX-M, blaTEM, and blaSHV genes. The presence of genes' subtypes was characterized by DNA Sanger sequencing for selected samples. Results: Enterobacteriaceae represented 31% (305/985) of all isolates, 42 (128/305) of which were ESBLs producer, confirmed by phenotypic confirmatory test (75% [96/128] of them were positive for blaCTX-M genes, 61% [78/128] for blaTEM genes, and 38% [48/128] for blaSHV genes). Fourteen isolates (11%) were negative for all genes. Forty-eight percent (63/75) of Escherichia coli isolates were positive for blaCTX-M, while in Klebsiella pneumoniae, the dominant gene was blaTEM (82%) and had a low amount of blaSHV (59%). There was a significant association (P-value = 0.001 for all except for chloramphenicol, P = 0.014, and amikacin, P = 0.017) between resistance to third-generation cephalosporins and ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, meropenem, chloramphenicol, and amikacin. Forty-two percent (40/96) of CTX-M-positive isolates were in Gizera State, 33% (32.96) in Sinnar, 24% (23/96) in Khartoum, and 1% (1/96) in White Nile. Conclusion:We conclude that blaCTX-M genes are the most dominant genes in ESBLsproducing isolates and are more prevalent in big cities than in rural areas.


In this paper, using Riemann-Liouville integral and Caputo derivative, we study an n−dimensional coupled system of nonlinear fractional integrodifferential equations of hight arbitrary order. The contraction mapping principle and Schaefer fixed point theorem are applied to prove the uniqueness and existence of solutions in Banach Spaces. Furthermore, we derive the UlamHyers and the generalized Ulam-Hyers stabilities of solutions. Some illustrative examples are also presented.


Although PVM was developed to use a network of heterogeneous UNIX computers as a single large parallel computer, it has become an interface for portable programming even on MPP's. We present PVM performance results for a massively parallel transputer system with up to 512 processors. In comparison to an implementation of the same application in the native transputer operating system Parix, we realized about 30% performance loss for the PVM application. This is mainly caused by restrictions in the process model and the less e cient communication of PVM in comparison to Parix.


3D dense reconstruction refers to the process of obtaining the complete shape and texture features of 3D objects from 2D planar images. 3D reconstruction is an important and extensively studied problem, but it is far from being solved. This work systematically introduces classical methods of 3D dense reconstruction based on geometric and optical models, as well as methods based on deep learning. It also introduces datasets for deep learning and the performance and advantages and disadvantages demonstrated by deep learning methods on these datasets.


CLC is a new promising combustion process for CO2 capture with less or even no energy penalty compared to other processes. Up to now, most of the work performed on CLC was conducted with gaseous or solid fuels, using methane and coal and/or pet coke. Liquid fuels such as heavy fuels resulting from oil distillation or conversion may also be interesting feedstocks to consider. However, liquid fuels are challenging feedstock to deal with in fluidized beds. The objective of the present work is therefore to investigate the feasibility of liquid feed injection and contact with oxygen carrier in CLC conditions in order to conduct partial or complete combustion of hydrocarbons. A batch experimental fluidized bed set-up was developed to contact alternatively oxygen carrier with liquid fuels or air. The 20 mm i.d. fluidized bed reactor was filled up with 45 g of NiAl0.44 O1.67 and pulses of 1-2 g of liquid were injected in the bed at high temperatures up to 950˚C. Different feedstocks have been injected, from dodecane to heavy fuel oils No.2. Results show that, during the reduction period, it is possible to convert all the fuel injected and there is no coke remaining on particles at the end of the reduction step. Depending upon oxygen available in the bed, either full combustion or partial combustion can be achieved. Similar results were found with different liquid feeds, despite their different composition and properties.


This paper concentrates on the comparison of different discrete choice models using data concerning purchases of different brands of crackers in USA. Five logit models are proposed: multinomial logit (MNL), mixed logit (ML), multinomial logit which accounts for heterogeneity between the customers (MNLH), multinomial logit extended with a brand loyalty variable (MNLB), and multinomial logit with a combination of the two extensions to MNL mentioned above (MNLC). Using the Cracker data set from the Ecdat package in the R software, it was found that ML outperforms all the other models, and that the extensions applied to MNL help in improving MNL. Therefore, it was concluded that using a mixed logit model is the best way to model an unordered categorical dependent variable.


We report here a new strategy to graft both redox and DNA probes on carbon nanotubes to make a label-free DNA sensor. Oxidized single-walled carbon nanotubes are first immobilized on a self-assembled monolayer of cysteamine; then the redox probe, a quinone derivative 3-[(2-aminoethyl)sulfanyl-5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone], is grafted on the free carboxylic groups of the nanotubes. After that, for DNA probe grafting, new carboxylic sites are generated via an aryl diazonium route. After hybridization with a complementary sequence, the conformational changes of DNA could influence the redox kinetics of quinone, leading to a current increase of the redox signal, detected by square wave voltammetry. The system is selective, as it can discriminate a single mismatched sequence from the complementary one.


This paper reports a newly developed scanning probe microcontact printing (SP-/spl mu/CP) method to generate submicron patterns. It uses a scanning probe with an elastomeric tip to transfer chemical or biological materials onto a substrate. SP-/spl mu/CP combines the advantages of microcontact printing and scanning probe microscopy technologists. The design and fabrication of the scanning probe is described in this work. The functioning of the probe is demonstrated by generation of sub-500 nm ODT lines on a gold surface using SP-/spl mu/CP method.


Ion beam deceleration properties of a newly developed low-energy ion beam implantation system were studied. The objective of this system was to produce general purpose low-energy (5 to 15 keV) implantations with high current beam of hundreds of μA level, providing the most wide implantation area possible and allowing continuously magnetic scanning of the beam over the sample(s). This paper describes the developed system installed in the high-current ion implanter at the Laboratory of Accelerators and Radiation Technologies of the Nuclear and Technological Cam-pus, Sacavem, Portugal (CTN).


The precipitate phase, 6 LiF.MgF2, has been identified in slowly cooled single crystals of TLD-100. Ionic conductivity measurements indicate a solubility limit of 250 degrees C and that substantial undercooling is necessary to cause precipitation. These effects are important in the practical heat treatment of such dosimeter crystals.


Persistent drought conditions and associated vegetation mortality in the central Sierra Nevada of California were analyzed from 2013-2015 using a combination of field-derived polygons and AVIRIS hyperspectral data. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) was used to classify hyperspectral data into five land cover classes based on dominant flora. LDA accuracies were compared across years in order to determine whether classification accuracy was correlated with increasing drought severity. It was determined that 2013 had the greatest accuracy and 2015 had the lowest. However, this trend was influenced by Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) effects in the densely forested landscape. Fractional cover data of green vegetation (GV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and soil were obtained from the US Forest Service to analyze which land cover classes and which elevation intervals experienced the greatest fractional cover change, which are both indicators of vegetation senescence and mortality. GV loss deemed the most appropriate indicator of vegetation senescence and mortality as NPV and soil appeared to be confused by the Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) method used to obtain the fractional cover images. Mixed oak woodland (MO) and mixed low conifer (LC) forests experienced the greatest and second-greatest decreases in GV, respectively. Lower elevation areas (695-1369 m) generally experienced greater GV loss than higher elevation areas (2167-2779), which coincided with both MO and LC forest classes. The MO forest class, which occurs most in lower elevation areas, was comprised of dominantly drought resistant flora and experienced the greatest GV loss during the study period (16%). Conversely, the HC forest, which occurs dominantly in higher elevation areas, was comprised of dominantly non-drought-tolerant flora but experienced less GV loss (5%). This suggests that the differences in elevation and location of vegetation within the landscape played a larger role than the dominant floras' degrees of drought tolerance. Variations in seasonal senescence may have influenced the measured loss of GV for the MO and LC classes, which contained deciduous vegetation. However, overall GV loss in all classes, even those without trees, indicates that the landscape likely experienced vegetation mortality, especially at low elevations in the MO and LC classes.


Management of consumer waiting experiences is critical for practitioners in that unpleasant waiting experiences may result in negative service evaluations. This paper develops a conceptual framework in which predicted value of service, wait expectation (conceptualized as "consumer zone of wait tolerance" derived from the service literatures), wait disconfirmation (consumers' compari-sons between wait expectations and perceptions), and affective response to waiting are proposed to directly or indirectly affect service experience evaluation. In addition, this paper proposes that actions of the service provider moderate the relationship between affective response to waiting and service experience evaluation. Conclusions and contributions are discussed.


The purpose of the research was to know the effect of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I (IGF-I) derived from pregnant crossbred mare serum (PMS) in mice (Mus musculus) folliculogenesis. The subjects of this research were 20 female mice. The research was arranged by Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four treatments and five replications. The treatments were C0 = 10 ng/ml of physiological NaCl, P1 = 10 ng/ml of IGF-I PMS, P2 = 20 ng/ml of IGF-I PMS, and P3 = 40 ng/ml of IGF-I PMS. Observed variables are the number of primary, secondary, tertiary and de Graff follicles. During the treatment, the estrous cycle was also observed. The data of follicles number were analyzed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and followed by HSD (Honestly Significant Difference) test. The result showed that the addition of IGF-I PMS significantly affects (p<0.05) on increasing the primary and secondary follicles number. The addition of IGF-I PMS 20 ng/ml and 40 ng/ml can increase the primary and secondary follicles significantly (p<0.05).  Keywords: IGF-I crossbreed mare serum pregnant; follicle; Mus musculus


Abstract Since vitamin B12 serves as a cofactor in the synthesis of methyl precursors for biological methylation and enables methylfolate to be recycled for nucleotide synthesis, B12 deficiency has been known to induce hyperhomocysteinemia and inadequate DNA synthesis, along with "methylfolate trap". Even though depletion of B12, a common B-vitamin deficiency in the elderly, has not often been invoked as a causative factor in carcinogenesis, a recent animal study demonstrated that a B12-deficient diet, which was of insufficient severity to cause anemia or illness, disturbed normal homeostasis of one-carbon metabolism in the colonic mucosa and resulted in diminished genomic DNA methylation and increased uracil misincorporation in DNA, both of which are purported mechanisms for one-carbon metabolism-related colonic carcinogenesis.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of linear and quasi-steady aerodynamic models of aircraft aerodynamic models when a small unmanned aerial system flies in the presence of strong wind and gust at a high angle of attack and a high sideslip angle.

Design/methodology/approach

Compatibility analysis were done to improve the quality of recorded flight test data. A robust method called fuzzy logic modeling is used to set up the aerodynamic models. The reduced frequency is used to represent the unsteadiness of the flow field according to Theodorsen's theory. The work done by the aerodynamic moments on the motions is used as the criteria of stability.

Findings

In portions of flight, aircraft's stability and control derivatives were unstable and nonlinear functions of airflow angles and angular rates. The roll angle had an important effect on unsteadiness of directional oscillatory damping derivatives. The pilot-induced oscillation and wing rock possibilities were investigated and dismissed so that the lateral directional oscillatory motion was classified as a nonlinear Dutch roll oscillation. Major modeling enhancements or real-time parameter identification are required for the control of a small unmanned aerial system in off-nominal conditions. The robustness tests of all-weather autopilot systems must be done with consideration of sign change.

Originality/value

Oscillatory damping derivatives were reconstructed using flight test data and the inadequacy of engineering level software in predicting this type of instability observed and demonstrated for a flight in the presence of wind shear and external disturbances.


Metric learning networks are used to compute image embeddings, which are widely used in many applications such as image retrieval and face recognition. In this paper, we propose to use network distillation to efficiently compute image embeddings with small networks. Network distillation has been successfully applied to improve image classification, but has hardly been explored for metric learning. To do so, we propose two new loss functions that model the communication of a deep teacher network to a small student network. We evaluate our system in several datasets, including CUB-200-2011, Cars-196, Stanford Online Products and show that embeddings computed using small student networks perform significantly better than those computed using standard networks of similar size. Results on a very compact network (MobileNet-0.25), which can be used on mobile devices, show that the proposed method can greatly improve Recall@1 results from 27.5\% to 44.6\%. Furthermore, we investigate various aspects of distillation for embeddings, including hint and attention layers, semi-supervised learning and cross quality distillation. (Code is available at https://github.com/yulu0724/EmbeddingDistillation).


In clinical neuroimaging applications where subjects belong to one of multiple classes of disease states and multiple imaging sources are available, the aim is to achieve accurate classification while assessing the importance of the sources in the classification task. This work proposes the use of fully Bayesian multiple-class multiple-kernel learning based on Gaussian Processes, as it offers flexible classification capabilities and a sound quantification of uncertainty in parameter estimates and predictions. The exact inference of parameters and accurate quantification of uncertainty in Gaussian Process models, however, poses a computationally challenging problem. This paper proposes the application of advanced inference techniques based on Markov chain Monte Carlo and unbiased estimates of the marginal likelihood, and demonstrates their ability to accurately and efficiently carry out inference in their application on synthetic data and real clinical neuroimaging data. The results in this paper are important as they further work in the direction of achieving computationally feasible fully Bayesian models for a wide range of real world applications.


: Indo-West Pacific coral reef fishes form speciose ecological communities. A biogeographically meaningful interpretation of diversity patterns in this region requires accurate inventories of species. Previous studies have suggested that biogeographic scenarios for Indo-West Pacific coral reef fishes are compromised by an unacknowledged yet substantial amount of cryptic diversity. DNA barcoding, the use of a mitochondrial gene as an internal species tag for species identification, has opened new perspectives on global biodiversity. The present study, based on the largest DNA barcode reference library produced to date for Indo-West Pacific coral reef fishes, sheds new light on the extent of cryptic diversity and its evolutionary origin. We analyzed 3174 DNA barcodes for 805 species of coral reef fishes sampled at three different locations across the Indo-West Pacific (including 538 new DNA barcodes for 270 species sampled from New Caledonia). Among the 183 species with Indo-West Pacific distribution and multiple specimens analyzed, 78 (42.6%) were represented by two or more monophyletic lineages alternatively sorted between the sampling sites in the Indian and Pacific oceans and another 73 (40%) showed evidence of phylogeographic structure. Spatial analyses pointed to a detectable impact of geographic isolation on the emergence of cryptic diversity. The significant correlation of several life history traits to the maximum intraspecific genetic distances suggests that genetic divergence among geographically isolated cryptic lineages accumulated though mutation and genetic drift.


We consider the problem of designing a wireless mobile sensor network to collect information from demands whose time of arrival and locations are stochastic. We study a simple scheme that partitions the target area into subregions monitored by a mobile node, which then communicates the data collected from its region via multihop wireless communication to a single base station. We find the unique joint power control and area partitioning strategy that maximizes the lifetime of the wireless mobile sensor network. We explicitly characterize this strategy and propose an efficient algorithm to find it. Finally, we study the sensitivity of the optimal strategy on the parameters of the problem via simulations.


Objective To provide a quantitative program that can assess the teaching effectiveness of tongue diagnosis skills training. Methods 2116 cases were selected in the Medical Examination Center of Beijing TongRen Hospital who undergoes a health examination in June 2011 to December. By taking the digital tongue figure and extract the digital tongue color values (L*, a *, b *), this study used the colorimetric method to quantify the information of the tongue color. And cluster analysis method was used to get the cluster centers of the various types of tongue color. Results All types of tongue color gathered in lilac pink, pink, orange, pink color areas around. Three-dimensional scatter plot shows the data clustered for the 11 regions, visible in the tongue color category vector clearer state of aggregation, split between each other clear and gathered evenly. Conclusion Based on the colorimetric method this study not only offers the basis of quantization for the diagnosis of tongue color teaching but also found objective criteria for learning outcomes assessment.


There exists an extreme paucity of research regarding the post-school outcomes of disabled Native American youth. In addition, there exists a significant need to assist Native American youth with disabilities to make a smooth transition from school to work and adult living. The importance of this transition is especially significant for Native Americans, since the median age of this population is 21.3 years of age (Arizona State Data Center, 1990). In most Native American communities, a majority of these youth are in school, but many may drop out before completing high school. For example, researchers have noted the school dropout rate is higher among American Indians than for any other ethnic minority group (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1980; 1983). In 1988, the dropout rate was 35.5% among American Indians compared to 28.8% for the U.S. population. In the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, 19% of the American Indians in the 8th grade indicated that they expected they would drop out of high school or that high school graduation would be the terminal point of their education. Furthermore, a very small percentage of American Indian parents expected their children to attend college (National Center for Education Statistics, 1988). A recent survey conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs identified 6,816 school-aged students between 5-21 years as disabled (O'Connell, 1987). The most prevalent handicapping conditions included learning disability, speech impairment, and mental retardation. The other less visible types of disabilities found in Native American youth are those associated with psychosocial problems. For example, the suicide rate for Native American youth in some communities is 3 to 10 times the rates for the general population (O'Connell, 1987). Substance abuse, especially alcohol, is also 2 to 3 times the rate for non-Indian youth (O'Connell, 1987). For a variety of reasons, then, Native American youth are at greater risk for educational failure and, ultimately, economic disability. During the past few years, the U.S. Congress has undertaken a number of legislative initiatives designed specifically to enhance the employment opportunity for persons with disabilities. First, the 1986 re-authorization of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act (P.L. 99-506), provided specific mandates for the provision of supported employment and rehabilitation engineering services. Second, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (P.L. 101-336) in 1990 provides for specific safeguards and accommodations for persons with disabilities who are seeking entry to the world of work. Third, and perhaps most essential to this project, the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) of 1990 provides specific mandates for transition planning and rehabilitation counseling services for students with disabilities. These initiatives, in combination with modifications in the Social Security Administration and other federal programs, have signaled a comprehensive and coordinate effort on the part of the federal government to enhance the employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, these initiatives have not been fully implemented among Native American reservation communities. One of the major reasons that transition has not yet been fully adopted among Native American communities may be that the concept is itself based upon the values of an urban, Anglo culture. For example, two of the dominant themes of transition, as defined in federal policy, are gainful, competitive employment and emancipation from the family home. These experiences, however, are not universally valued by Native Americans and, in particular, those Native Americans residing on reservations and maintaining traditional tribal customs. In these communities, the values of cooperation, interdependence and communal responsibility and action often conflict with the values of independence and competition that are often implied by transition services. …


This paper aims to characterize the current status of using customer loyalty programs in the Czech Republic. Customer loyalty programs are evaluated as a part of marketing communication, where especially customer cards have a specific role in communication mix of selected companies. Furthermore, customer loyalty programs are evaluated from the perspective of internal marketing system company, as an invaluable source of data about customers. Obtained data are used for decisions on segmentation, targeting and overall marketing strategy. Customer loyalty programs in the Czech Republic are also examined from the perspective of consumers – factors that influence consumer involvement in these programs are evaluated. The paper also shows the results of desk research about personal information provided by consumers to engage in customer loyalty programs.


In this paper, we propose a new geometrical two-erose-ring scattering model for the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) mobile-to-mobile (M2M) fading channels. In this model, the line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) components are all considered. Based on the geometrical model, a reference model and the corresponding simulation model are derived. Their statistical properties such as the three-dimensional (3D) space-time cross-correlation function (CCF), the two-dimensional (2D) spatial cross-correlation function (2D spatial CCF), and the temporal autocorrelation function (ACF) are studied. For computing the parameters of the simulation model, the extended method of exact Doppler spread (MEDS) are used. The close agreement between the statistical properties of the simulation model and those of the reference model are demonstrated. We believe that this research work is important for designers to develop, analysis, test, and optimization the future MIMO M2M communication systems.


Advances in the technological era are making information security breaches a more common occurrence. A vital part of ensuring an organisation is well protected from these increasingly complex threats is a suitable security solution. Suitability of a security solution should not only be measured in terms of goals such as reducing down time or reducing the risk of a certain threat, but also meet stakeholder and executive goals in terms of being cost effective. Currently, cost effective is determined by calculating a return on security investment calculation, where the cost of a solution is evaluated against any savings resulting after purchasing the solution to determine whether the option is viable. The current implementation of return on security investment calculations however is often subjective and inaccurate as calculations are performed in an ad-hoc manner. When there are multiple factors to consider, with uncertain or incomplete values available, a multi-attribute decision making method that utilises uncertainty is required in order to allow the decision maker to assess all possible options in the most logical and objective manner, whilst keeping in mind the goals of the organisation. In this paper we present and evaluate a conceptual, analytical framework that, with the use of multi-attribute utility theory under uncertainty, is able to model return on security investment calculations in a novel way. This new calculation is introduced as a Value of Information Security Investment calculation. The final goal is to create a framework that allows for repeatable, predictable and mature, calculations that determine the value of an information security investment.


Epidemiological studies in man suggest that blood pressures tend to be higher in persons with low calcium (Ca) intakes. Previous studies in normal rats have shown that severe Ca restriction raises blood pressure. The chronic effect of moderate Ca restriction is not known. We evaluated the effect upon systolic blood pressure of rearing young Wistar rats on a diet marginally adequate in Ca. Male weanling Wistar rats (8 rats per group) were placed on one of four diets containing 0.5% Ca (control diet), 0.4% Ca, 0.3% Ca, or 0.2% Ca. The three experimental diets were made up by replacing CaHPO4 in the salt mix with (NH4)H2PO4. Content of PO4 and electrolytes other than Ca was the same for all 4 diets. Sodium (Na) content was 0.1%. Diets were fed for 19 weeks. Rats did not grow normally on the 0.2% Ca diet, but growth was normal on the other three diets. There was no overall statistically significant effect of diet upon systolic pressure. During the first nine weeks of study there were no significant differences between groups and no consistent trends. During the last seven weeks, however, there was a consistent trend toward higher systolic pressures as Ca intake decreased. The mean change in blood pressure during the last five weeks of study from the baseline value at 4 weeks of age was significantly greater in rats consuming 0.2% Ca and tended to be greater in rats consuming 0.3 and 0.4% Ca than in controls. On several occasions, group mean systolic pressures were significantly greater in rats on the experimental diets than in controls. Systolic pressures for individual rats, averaged over the last seven blood pressure measurements, varied over a wider range in the experimental groups than in rats eating the control diet, and the distribution in the experimental groups was shifted toward higher systolic pressures. The results suggest that rearing normal rats on a diet marginally adequate in Ca may lead to a modest elevation in the blood pressures of some, but not all rats. The effect, however, is of much smaller magnitude than that observed with severe Ca restriction.


The hair follicle is the unique organ that has the capacity of undergoing cyclic transformations following periods of growth (anagen), regression (catagen), and rest (telogen) regenerating itself to restart the cycle. The dynamic capacity of hair to growth and rest enables mammals to control hair growth and length in different body side and to change their coats. Unlike what is observed in many animals in which the pelage synchronously passes from one phase of the cycle to other all stages of growth cycle are simultaneously found in the human pelage, the growth pattern is a mosaic where the hair cycling staging of one hair root is completely independent of it nearest hair follicle, meaning that each follicular unit (FU) can contain follicles in different stages at any given time. A variety of factors, such as nutritional status, hormones, exposure to radiations, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, environmental pollution or drugs may affect hair growth, and affects the number of hairs, this progressive hair loss has a cosmetic and social impact that often significantly affects social and psychological well-being of the patient that suffers from this hair loss. Although a number of therapies, such as finasteride and minoxidil, are approved medications, a wide variety of classes of phytochemicals and natural products, including those present in ginseng are being testing. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on study the potential of ginseng and its metabolites in hair loss.


In order to characterize various different epilayer designs for semiconductor Raman amplifier pump lasers, combined electromodulated reflectance (ER) and photoluminescence (PL) studies were performed on wafer samples of InP / InGaAsP / InGaAsP edge-emitter laser structures in the infrared spectral region. Information about the quantum well (QW) transitions is obtained primarily from the ER, with additional corroboration provided by the PL. The ER spectra are fitted with a line shape model to obtain the ground-state and higher-order QW transition energies, which are found to agree well with theoretically calculated values. The ER spectra also provide the waveguide core and barrier compositions and built-in electric fields in the laser structures. The information provided by ER studies on the prefabrication wafers is found to corroborate well with diagnostic spontaneous emission measurements performed on actual laser devices fabricated from the same wafer batches.


In order to develop a gene transfer system for the unicellular diazotrophic cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. strain BH68K, this organism has been further investigated for the presence of additional host restriction-modification enzymes other than Csp68KI, previously reported for Cyanothece sp. Analysis of cell extracts by phosphocellulose and Mono Q fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) has led to the identification of three new restriction endonucleases. These enzymes have been designated Csp68KII, Csp68KIII, and Csp68KVI. Csp68KII is an isoschizomer of AsuII and restricts DNA at the recognition sequence 5'-TT/CGAA-3'. Cleavage occurred between thymine and cytosine producing 2 bp 5' overhang ends. The third restriction endonuclease, Csp68KIII, is an isoschizomer of AvaIII and restricts DNA at the recognition sequence 5'-ATGCA/T-3'. Cleavage occurred between the 3' adenosine and thymine nucleotides producing 4 bp 3' overhang ends. The fourth enzyme identified, Csp68KVI, recognizes CGCG and cleaves this sequence between the internal guanine and cytosine nucleotides producing blunt ends.


The ballad has long existed in the periphery of the Lithuanian folkloristics. In this article, the folk ballad's role and place in the Lithuanian folksong tradition is explored discussing two classical works of the Lithuanian folklore research characterized by their rather diverse theoretical assumptions. Both works were published in the end of the 1960s. The first one is the study on the Lithuanian folk ballads by Pranė Jokimaitienė (1968), and the second one is the monograph by Donatas Sauka discussing the uniqueness and value of folklore (1970). The author of the article suggests examining the folk ballad not only in terms of the genre, but also from the broader interdisciplinary perspective, thus combining both above-mentioned points of view by Jokimaitienė and Sauka. Such approach is strengthened by the research history of the ballad – a very complex and complicated phenomenon.
Limiting the ballad analysis exclusively by the Lithuanian material on the one hand, and by the pure folklore on the other, hinders us from adequately placing the ballad in the Lithuanian folklore system. Therefore, the author suggests renouncing the narrow concept of the ballad as a text, at the same time regarding it beyond the definition of the genre and taking into account its social, cultural, historical and anthropological contexts. The article aims at discussing the peculiarities of the ballads' existence in the Lithuanian environment in terms of development of the Lithuanian folkloristics. Notably, ballads have always found themselves at the outskirts of the idealizing template of the research in Lithuanian folksong.
Various nations have seen very diverse adaptations of the ballad plots, and this international diversity of folk ballads along with their dissemination across other genres opposes making clear decisions regarding their identity, even when the general definition is applied. Giving in to the temptation of submitting the generic definition, the folklorist adopts the views of a literary scholar: the definition might look essentially correct (the ballad is "a lyric-epic composition characterized by dramatic features" or "a narrative folksong with lyrical and dramatic character", etc.), but will hardly be of use. Compositions with similar plots might be attributed to different genres in various national folklores, which works according to their own folklore systems. Besides, even variants of the same type might embrace a rather broad scope: from the stylistically pure ballads to the lyric transformations with ballad motives. This complicates the wish to combine all compositions and types into a single generic group. Here, one must bear in mind the already established tradition of folklore research. In Lithuania, development of folkloristics has shaped a general image of the folklore universe, which has in turn dictated how the whole folksong corpus is ordered and systematized.
Finally, the author draws the readers' attention to the fact that ballads – the folksong layer of foreign origins and abounding in signs of "otherness" – have become unique compositions in Lithuania, not similar either to European samples nor to the authentic canonic Lithuanian folksongs. Having appropriated a topic or some wandering story line, Lithuanians frequently do their own transformations in terms of content and form. It is concluded that the Lithuanian ballads have sprung from interactions between the local folksong tradition and the balladic expression, thus acquiring an additional meaning and value.


The possible tests of the Standard Model in the spectra of the Highly Charged Ions via the observation of the Parity Nonconservation Effects are considered. The proposed experimental schemes, their advantages and drawbacks are discussed. The discussion is concentrated mainly on the He-like ions, where the crossing of the levels with opposite parity provides a uniquely favorable situation for the observation of the parity nonconservation.


Forty-one patients with multiple cartilaginous exostosis (MCE) were classified into three groups: Group I, no involvement of the distal forearm (n = 8); Group II, involvement of the distal forearm without shortening of the radius or ulna (n = 11); Group III, involvement of the distal forearm with shortening of the radius or ulna (n = 22). Groups were compared with regard to number of lesions, regional morbidity rate, age of onset, height, and presence of valgus deformity of the ankle. From these results, children in Group I were mildly affected. Further, those in Group III were severely affected, and all children in Group III had lesions of the innominate bone or proximal femur, where secondary chondrosarcoma occurs most frequently. This classification should prove useful in estimating severity and identifying cases at high risk for malignant transformation. MCE seemed to be an aberrant enchondral ossification and its mode of development to be reflected in the growth potential of each bone. Dislocation of the radial head occurred in three cases and was the initial symptom in two of these. Dislocation of the radial head may occur earlier than previously thought, hindering its prevention.


Nowadays knowledge production of KIBS (Knowledge Intensive Business Services) has been successfully implemented in foreign countries, while domestic research in this field has not yet been carried out, and to some extent, this has hampered the knowledge innovation of KIBS in China. This paper proposed the concept of knowledge production of KIBS, then compared research content of IE with research content of knowledge production of KIBS, analyzed three aspects of knowledge production of KIBS based on IE methodology: organized knowledge system, operation process control, project management. At last, proposed the research field of knowledge production of KIBS, which tried to broaden the research field of industrial engineering.


We develop a model for the economic design of a Bayesian control chart for monitoring a process mean. The process may randomly suffer failures that result in a non‐operating state, and thus call for an immediate corrective maintenance action, as well as assignable causes that shift the process mean to an undesirable level. Quality shifts, apart from poorer quality outcome and higher operational cost, also result in higher failure rate. Consequently, their removal, besides improving the outcome quality and reducing the quality‐related cost, is also a preventive maintenance action since it reduces the probability of a failure. The proposed Bayesian model allows the determination of the design parameters that minimize the total expected quality and maintenance cost per time unit. The effectiveness of the proposed model is evaluated through the comparison of its expected cost against the optimum expected cost of the simpler variable‐parameter Shewhart chart. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The motor effects induced by impulse magnetic field (IMF) applied to lumbar as well as to cervical enlargements in decerebrated cat were studied. The magnetic coil with diameter 8 cm was placed on the distance 1-2 cm over the spinal cord. Single magnetic spinal cord stimulation with intensity 0.5-1 Tesla as well as continuous magnetic stimulation with frequency of 1 Hz and intensity 0.5 Tesla was performed. Single magnetic stimulation of lumbar enlargement elicited reflex responses in proximal and distal hind limb muscles. Continuous stimulation induced the locomotor activity in hind limbs on moving treadmill belt by activation of neuronal spinal locomotor networks (generator of stepping movements). The stimulation of lumbar enlargement involved into the locomotor activity only hind limbs. Continuous magnetic stimulation of cervical enlargerment evoked coordinated stepping movements in fore- and hind limbs. Initially stepping movements raised in hind limbs and then in forelimbs. After cessation of magnetic stimulation some coordinated stepping movements were observed. Thus, for the first time we showed a possibility to induce the locomotor activity in decerebrated cat by magnetic stimulation. The obtained results demonstrate the ability of non-invasive mode of neuronal spinal locomotor network activation. This approach opens new perspectives for using magnetic stimulation in clinical practice.


The United States and the United Kingdom are two countries sharing the same belief in the free market economy. Both countries are characterized by the separation of ownership and control and hostile takeovers are an important mechanism for constraining managerial excesses. However, the regulation of takeovers and defensive mechanisms is strikingly different. While Delaware jurisprudence has entrusted the board with the power to block hostile bids subject to an enhanced judicial standard, the United Kingdom has been a pioneer in adopting and promoting across Europe an absolute ban on takeover defenses. The public outrage provoked by the recent Kraft-Cadbury debacle has increased calls for stricter regulation of hostile takeovers. In light of the growing skepticism against the City Code's lenient approach to hostile takeovers, a question naturally arises. Should the United Kingdom abandon its restrictive approach towards takeover defenses and adopt the laxer and more lenient U.S. model? The answer should be negative, as the implementation of a U.S.-style regime, under which directors' defensive actions are scrutinized by the courts, would result in the U.K. market losing its major advantages. The speed, flexibility and certainty offered by the current regime would dissipate, should the authority in regulating defensive tactics be given to the courts. The genius of the U.K. regime lies in its ability to achieve the best results at a minimum cost. It manages to promote certainty, a vibrant takeover market and the accountability of directors, while eliminating the costs generated by litigation. In addition, the costs imposed by Rule 21 of the Takeover Code are either insignificant or associated with a wider debate outside the takeover field.


This work is a part of the joint Russian – American Program on Beneficial Use of Depleted Uranium. The production of nuclear fuels results in the accumulation of large quantities of depleted uranium (DU) in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which is converted to uranium oxides. Depleted uranium dioxide (DUO2) can be used as a component of radiation shielding and as an absorbent for migrating radionuclides that may emerge from casks containing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) that are stored for hundreds of thousands of years in high-level wastes (HLW) and SNF repositories (e.g. Yucca Mountain Project). In this case DU oxides serve as an additional engineered chemical barrier. It is known that the primary radioisotope contributor to the calculated long-term radiation dose to the public at the Yucca Mountain SNF repository site boundary is neptunium-237 (237Np). This paper describes the sorption of 237Np in various media (deionized water and J-13 solution) by DUO2. Samples of DUO2 used in this work originated from the treatment of UF6 in a reducing media to form UO2(DUO2-1 at 600°C, DUO2-2 at 700°C, and DUO2-3 at 800°C). All species of DUO2 sorb Np(V) and Np(IV) from aqueous media. Equilibrium was achieved in 24 hours for Np(V) and in 2 hours for Np(IV). Np(V) sorption is accompanied with partial reduction of Np(V) to Np(IV) and vice versa. The sorption of Np(V) onto DUO2 surfaces is irreversible. The investigations on DUO2 transformations were performed under dynamic and static conditions. Under static conditions the solubility of the DUO2 samples in J-13 solution is considerably higher than in DW. When the pre-treatment temperature is decreased, the solubility of DUO2 samples raises regardless of the media. The experiments on interaction between DUO2 and aqueous media (DW and J-13 solution) under dynamic conditions demonstrated that during 30-40 days the penetration/filtration rate of DW and J-13 solution through a thin DUO2 layer decreased dramatically, and then slowed and stabilized. The filtration rate of J-13 solution through DUO2layer is several times lower than that of DW. If Np were sorbed by UO2 in SNF rather than being transported to the site boundary, the site boundary dose would be more than an order of magnitude lower than that calculated. If this is so, the remaining primary contributors to site boundary dose would be 129I and the decay products of 238U. One could provide an additional barrier, a chemical barrier, to radionuclide release by surrounding the SNF with UO2. The experiments also indicate that a relatively thin layer of UO2 essentially stops water penetration. Such a barrier would deny water access to the SNF. Such a repository SNF configuration would provide reduced radionuclide transport from the drift as well as sorbing released nuclides from failed SNF pins.


The purpose of this research were provided information about the presence of the heavy metal Fe, Sn and Pb in some canned foods. The material of packaging are Fe, Sn and Pb can solve in food product. The heavy metal analysis by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (perkin Elmer Model 3110). In part of yield were showed that tinned food B1 (Ranesia Sardines, B2/Cip Sardines) and B3 (Yoko Sardines) were disccorerd with the label inpackaging; but inport of the yield were accord with the label. The heavy metal analisys of all sample did not showe on Sn or Pb, but did show 0,22 ppm Fe in sample A2 (milli lychee cocktail); 49,15 ppm in sample B1 (Ranesia Sardines); 42,79 ppm Fe in sample B2 (Cip Sardines); 23,89 ppm Fe in sample C1(Yoka sardines) ; 14,86 ppm in sample B3 (Prornas beef) ; 24,96 ppm in sample C2 (Great Wall Corned Beef) ; 25,60 ppm Fe in sample C3 (Cip Corned beef).

Keywords : Heavy Metal, Canned Foods.


RFID identification is a new technology that will become ubiquitous as RFID tags will be applied to every-day items in order to yield great productivity gains or "smart" applications for users. However, this pervasive use of RFID tags opens up the possibility for various attacks violating user privacy. In this work we present an RFID authentication protocol that enforces user privacy and protects against tag cloning. We designed our protocol with both tag-to-reader and reader-to-tag authentication in mind; unless both types of authentication are applied, any protocol can be shown to be prone to either cloning or privacy attacks. Our scheme is based on the use of a secret shared between tag and database that is refreshed to avoid tag tracing. However, this is done in such a way so that efficiency of identification is not sacrificed. Additionally, our protocol is very simple and it can be implemented easily with the use of standard cryptographic hash functions. In analyzing our protocol, we identify several attacks that can be applied to RFID protocols and we demonstrate the security of our scheme. Furthermore, we show how forward privacy is guaranteed; messages seen today will still be valid in the future, even after the tag has been compromised.


Compared with conventional gastroscopy which is invasive and painful, wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) can provide noninvasive examination of gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The WCE video can effectively support physicians to reach a diagnostic decision while a huge number of images need to be analyzed (more than 50 000 frames per patient). In this paper, we propose a computer-aided diagnosis method called second glance (secG) detection framework for automatic detection of ulcers based on deep convolutional neural networks that provides both classification confidence and bounding box of lesion area. We evaluated its performance on a large dataset that consists of 1504 patient cases (the largest WCE ulcer dataset to our best knowledge, 1076 cases with ulcers, 428 normal cases). We use 15 781 ulcer frames from 753 ulcer cases and 17 138 normal frames from 300 normal cases for training. Validation dataset consists of 2040 ulcer frames from 108 cases and 2319 frames from 43 normal cases. For test, we use 4917 ulcer frames from 215 ulcer cases and 5007 frames from 85 normal cases. Test results demonstrate the 0.9469 ROC-AUC of the proposed secG detection framework outperforms state-of-the-art detection frameworks including Faster-RCNN (0.9014) and SSD-300 (0.8355), which implies the effectiveness of our method. From the ulcer size analysis, we find the detection of ulcers is highly related to the size. For ulcers with size larger than 1% of the full image size, the sensitivity exceeds 92.00%. For ulcers that are smaller than 1% of the full image size, the sensitivity is around 85.00%. The overall sensitivity, specificity and accuracy are 89.71%, 90.48% and 90.10%, at a threshold value of 0.6706, which implies the potential of the proposed method to suppress oversights and to reduce the burden of physicians.


Cancer is responsible for a large share of deaths, worldwide as well as in Romanaia, and induces high costs (for individuals, health system and society), proved to be one of the most burdensome diseases. Lately, problems induced by cancer in women are increasing, due to the raise in incidence, but mainly to the high mortality rate of cervix cancer. Hospitals having obstetrics-gynecology departments are the main medical units who provide specialized services for diagnosis, staging and treatment of cervix cancer; the most of cervix cancers cases are recorded in hospital care sector, and the analysis of hospital morbidity may offer a pretty fair picture of the phenomenon. The present paper presents some results of the analysis of the hospital morbidity trough cervix cancer, in hospitals who reported clinical data at patient level, during the first eight months of the year 2009. Key words: geographic distribution of hospitalizations, the profile of hospitalization, surgical procedures for cervix cancer in hospital


We have re-investigated the paragenesis and mineral compositions of the emerald occurrence at the Rist mine, Hiddenite, North Carolina, in order to provide a foundation for fluid-inclusion and isotopic studies, and to examine the possible relationship between emerald and spodumene mineralization and granitic pegmatites. Beryl and chromian spodumene occur entirely within quartz veins and in open cavities that occupy brittle tensional fractures in folded metamorphic rocks. Examination of cavities reveals four assemblages characterized by a specific group of minerals; characteristic minerals in the four assemblages are calcite, amethystine quartz, spodumene and emerald. The early stage of vein development is characterized by the crystallization of massive quartz and followed largely by the precipitation of Ca–Fe–Mg carbonates. The occurrence of Be-, Li-, Ti-, and B-bearing minerals coupled with local contamination by Cr and V is largely penecontemporaneous with the formation of cavities. Late precipitation of pyrite, chabazite-Ca and graphite suggests that low temperatures and reducing conditions were prevalent during the waning stages of mineral precipitation. The presence of cogenetic high- and low- X (CO2) fluid inclusions in quartz indicates that an aqueous carbonic fluid reached a state of immiscibility during vein formation. No relationship with granitic pegmatite was observed.


IN a recent article in this journal, Mark Thompson and James Cairnie analyze the experience of British Columbia teachers' unions and school districts with compulsory, conventional arbitration, from 1937 to 1973.1 The authors conclude that their data "indicate rather clearly that compulsory arbitration can avert strikes without causing collective bargaining to disappear and without leading to wage settlements far above or below negotiated agreements."2 Their data do provide convincing support for the strike-averting and wage impact conclusions, and one cannot really take issue with their "bargaining has not disappeared" conclusion as long as even a few school districts and unions continue to avoid arbitration. I do disagree with the general thrust of their "no disappearance" conclusion, however, for my analysis of their data shows that arbitration appears to have had a deleterious impact


An attempt was made to identify persistent bright calcium flocculi with the solar M-regions postulated by J. Bartels to be the source of charged particles causing the 27-day recurrences in terrestrial-magnetic activity. Sketches of the bright flocculi on calcium spectroheliograms, arranged in rows of 27 days each, were compared with corresponding charts showing recurrences in magnetic activity. Identification was limited to two objectives, namely, (1) for years near minimum when bright flocculi and magnetic disturbances are scarce and therefore rendered more conspicuous and (2) for three of the most prominent sequences in magnetic activity from 1917, through 1931.


In this paper, we use finite element analysis (FEA) to study the linear viscoelastic response of polyurea, a type of hard–soft block copolymer. A Niblack's algorithm-based technique employed on atomic force microscopy images provides geometry inputs for the FEA model, while the viscoelastic master curves of the soft matrix are obtained via a combination of dynamic mechanical analysis data and molecular dynamic (MD) estimations. In this microstructural image-based FEA framework, we introduce an interphase area of altered properties between the hard and soft domains. Both spatial and property distributions of this interphase area affect the viscoelastic response of the copolymer system. To quantitatively investigate the impact of structural and property features of the interphase on the energy storage and dissipation of a system during linear perturbation, we develop a statistical descriptor representation of the interphase region related to physical parameters. Utilizing decision-tree and random forest concepts from machine learning, we apply a ranking algorithm to identify the most significant features for four different mechanical response descriptors. Results show that the total interphase volume fraction and shifting factor distributions in the interphase area dominate the magnitude of the tan δ peak, whereas the magnitudes of the shifting factors primarily affect the tan δ peak location in frequency space. This method allows us to readily identify the dominant features impacting individual properties and paves the way for material design of hard–soft block copolymer systems.


Patients with tuberculosis (TB) and positive sputum smears are source of disease transmission, effective treatment will break chain. The problem of therapeutic success seen from the success rate of treatment in Indonesia, especially in government hospitals is still 50%. We determined the association between adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and successful TB treatment at the Persahabatan Hospital. In this retrospective cohort study (174 subjects), the number of ARDs was compared with treatment outcomes among patients with positive sputum smears TB and receiving category I treatment between September 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016. Data were analyzed by chisquare and Fisher's exact tests. The number of ADRs was 34.5% (60/174 subjects). Minor ADRs were more common than major ADRs (46/60, 76.6 % vs 14/60, 23.3 %). The Success of TB treatment was 70.9% (39/55) in group with ADRs and 62 % (49/79) in group without ADRs. There was no association between incidence of ADRs and successful TB treatment (P = 0.29, chi-square test). However, the categorized of ADRS was related to the success rate of TB treatment, (P = 0.03; Relative Risk = 0.5; CI= 0.2-1). Incidence of ADRs was 34.5% with minor adverse events being more common. There was no association between occurrence of ADRs and successful TB treatment. Clinical article (J Int Dent Med Res 2019; 12(3): 1170-1173)


A structure-based approach is described for predicting the effects of amino acid substitutions on protein function. Structures were predicted using a homology modelling method. Folding and binding energy differences between wild-type and mutant structures were computed to quantitatively assess the effects of amino acid substitutions on protein stability and protein protein interaction, respectively. We demonstrated that pathogenic mutations at the interaction interface could affect binding energy and destabilise protein complex, whereas mutations at the non-interface might reduce folding energy and destabilise monomer structure. The results suggest that the structure-based analysis can provide useful information for understanding the molecular mechanisms of diseases.


Design A qualitative study informed by grounded theory principles to explore the experiences of parents who had extremely preterm or babies with antenatally diagnosed life-threatening diagnoses who were cared for in a regional tertiary neonatal unit. The study was conducted when the child was old enough to be diagnosed with long-term neurodevelopmental or medical sequelae. Setting North Queensland is a large area in Eastern Australia of 500 000 km2, which is served by one tertiary neonatal unit. Participants Seventeen families representing 21 extremely preterm babies and one baby with congenital malformations who was not expected to survive prior to delivery (but did) were interviewed using grounded theory principles. Interviews were coded and themes derived. Results Parents who recollect their neonatal experiences from 3 to 7 years after the baby was cared for in the neonatal intensive care described negative themes of grief and loss, guilt and disempowerment. Positive enhancers of care included parental strengths, religion and culture, family supports and neonatal unit practices. Novel findings included that prior pregnancy loss and infertility formed part of the narrative for parents, and hope was engendered by religion for parents who did not usually have a religious faith. Conclusions An understanding of both the negative aspects of neonatal care and the positive enhancers is necessary to improve the neonatal experience for parents. Parents are able to contextualise their previous neonatal experiences within both the long-term outcome for the child and their own life history.


We calculate the branching ratio of omega --> pi^+ pi^- gamma decay in a phenomenological framework in which the contributions of VMD, chiral loops, sigma-meson intermediate state amplitudes and the effects of omega-rho mixing are considered. We conclude that the sigma-meson intermediate state amplitude and omega-rho mixing make substantial contribution to the branching ratio.


Species living in East African montane forests have highly fragmented distributions. Plio‐Pleistocene climatic cycles, however, may have allowed temporary contact between forest blocks, thereby allowing gene flow. Our aim was to reconstruct the colonization history of Praomys delectorum, a rodent species adapted to montane forests. We tested two alternative scenarios: (1) the occurrence of a series of vicariance events related to Quaternary climatic changes; and (2) colonization from a single origin through successive dispersal events.


The construction industry has been suffering from both low labor productivity growth and safety issues, due to the increasing project site complexities and the lack of skilled labors. As a potential technical solution, Augmented Reality (AR) has been studied to reduce the cognitive workloads in construction job sites by visualizing task-related information in the direct context of the workspace and operations. Instead of using helmets/goggles that may decrease users' field of views, we advocate mobile projectors for AR (MPAR), and propose a camera-projector system to ensure consistent AR projection even if the projectors may change poses when installed on mobile platforms such as human workers or even construction collaborative robots (co-robot). By obtaining the projector's pose relative to the projection plane (e.g., a wall or panel on construction site) via composing a series of homography transformations in this system, we could determine how to warp virtual information (images or 3Dmodels) for desired projections, nomatter whether human observers' head poses are needed. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method using two construction AR applications: displaying occluded as-planned or as-built facility information behind a mock-up wall.


We describe a general method for analyzing a nonstationary stochastic process X(t) which, unlike many of the previous analysis methods, does not require X(t) to have any scaling feature. The method is used to study the fluctuations in the daily price of oil. It is shown that the returns time series, y(t)=ln[X(t+1)X(t)] , is a stationary and Markov process, characterized by a Markov time scale t_{M} . The coefficients of the Kramers-Moyal expansion for the probability density function P(y,tmid R:y_{0},t_{0}) are computed. P(y,tmid R:,y_{0},t_{0}) satisfies a Fokker-Planck equation, which is equivalent to a Langevin equation for y(t) that provides quantitative predictions for the oil price over times that are of the order of t_{M}. Also studied is the average frequency of positive-slope crossings, nu_{alpha};{+}=P(y_{i}>alpha,y_{i-1}<alpha) , for the returns, where T(alpha)=1nu_{alpha};{+} is the average waiting time for observing y(t)=alpha again.


Abstract. Implementation failure is widely acknowledged as a major impediment to the success of water resource plans and policies, yet there are very few proactive approaches available for analysing potential implementation issues during the planning stage. The Motivations and Abilities (MOTA) framework was established to address this planning stage gap, by offering a multi-stakeholder, multi-level approach to evaluate the implementation feasibility of plans and policies. MOTA is a stepwise process focusing on the relationship between trigger, motivation, and ability. Here we outline the base model of the MOTA framework and review existing MOTA applications in assorted water resource management contexts. From our review we identify the strengths and limitations of the MOTA framework in various institutional implementation and social adoptability contexts. Our findings indicate that the existing MOTA base model framework has been successful in identifying the motivations and abilities of the stakeholders involved in a range of bottom-up water resource planning contexts, and in subsequently providing insight into the types of capacity- or consent-building strategies needed for effective implementation. We propose several complementary add-in applications to complement the base model, which specific applications may benefit from. Specifically, the incorporation of formal context and stakeholder analyses during the problem definition stage (Step 1), could provide a more considered basis for designing the latter steps within the MOTA analyses. In addition, the resolution of the MOTA analyses could be enhanced by developing more nuanced scoring approaches, or by adopting empirically proven ones from well-established published models. Through setting the base model application, additional add-in applications can easily be added to enhance different aspects of the analysis while still maintaining comparability with other MOTA applications. With a robust base model and a suite of add-in applications, there is great potential for the MOTA framework to become a staple tool for optimising implementation success in any water planning and policy-making context.


Background. Azithromycin is often prescribed for unclear indications. Our objectives were: 1) to evaluate adherence to published guidelines for respiratory infections, and 2) to determine patterns for azithromycin use among community providers. Methods. A case-based survey was developed and emailed to members of a statewide registry. Providers chose their preferred management for infections with published treatment guidelines: otitis media, sinusitis, and community acquired pneumonia. After survey completion, participants could request an "answer key" detailing appropriate management of each scenario. A follow-up questionnaire was distributed inquiring whether the exercise had prompted reevaluation of current practices. Results. We received a 10% response rate and analyzed 163 completed surveys. There was general agreement on half the questions, with ≥ 75% of respondents choosing the recommended antibiotic. The remaining scenarios showed more divided choices. For example, nearly all (97%) agreed to hospitalize a patient with focal pneumonia and low oxygen saturations, but differed in preferred antibiotic regimen, with equal numbers choosing ampicillin alone, ampicillin + azithromycin, or vancomycin + ceftriaxone. For a 5 year old with 3 days of otalgia, the group was divided between watchful waiting vs treatment with amoxicillin. In cases where azithromycin was indicated, there was clear agreement from the group on its use. We also observed azithromycin preference in cases of recurrent otitis media and sinusitis. Those who varied from the guidelines to choose azithromycin in one scenario were significantly (28%) more likely to do so in other scenarios (p < 0.001). On the post-survey questionnaire, 26% reported adjusting their practice, 69% reviewed the guidelines, 9% used cases for teaching, and 21% discussed the guidelines with colleagues. Conclusion. The majority of respondents followed published guidelines, though we did observe variance with more ambiguous cases. When the group did vary from the guidelines, their choices would not likely have adversely affected care. Our results suggest room still exists for improved antibiotic stewardship. Our results and feedback suggest that future guidelines including case-based recommendations or discussions may enhance adherence. Disclosures. All authors: No reported disclosures.


This paper examines the various influences on general price movements in the Philippines since 1965. Model of inflation for small, open economies is developed to serve as the framework of analysis. Based on the regression results, the major determinants of past CPI increases are identified and some implications of the findings briefly discussed.


The COVID-19 pandemic has affected various aspects of life, one of which is education. Direct face-to-face contact needs to be reduced to prevent transmission of COVID-19, while educational institutions must continue to organize learning courses. This study identifies the effect of the blended learning model on learning outcomes of level II students in child-nursing courses during the COVID- 19 pandemic. This study used a pre-experiment, one-group pre-test post-test, the sample was selected using the cluster random sampling method involving 105 students of level II of the Fatmawati Academy of Nursing. Data were analyzed using SPSS-24 software with the Wilcoxon test. The instrument used was a written test consisting of a pre-test and a post-test, a child-nursing procedure skills test. The results showed pre-test mean value is 74.74 and post-test mean value is 80,133. From these results, it can be concluded that there is the use of the blended learning model improved the learning outcomes of child nursing in Fatmawati Nursing Academy students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This can be seen from the average post-test result value, which is higher than the pre-test result value (p = 0.000).


The biological network complexity is growing enormously and in order to reveal confined properties of these intricate networks, detection of crucial network components may assist in gaining effortless perceptive on the underlying biological processes. Analyzing complex biological pathways for their disease association is still a drawn-out process and requires an integrative approach for comprehensive examination of proteins and interactions to identify candidate markers underlying major malignancies and genetic disorders. There is a need for an amalgamated approach to annotate all the sub-components and their associated interactions in a biological system. It is anticipated that analysis of biological pathways would serve as a valuable accompaniment for analyzing biomarkers in disease pathways and will also contribute scientific knowledge towards their better understanding. Manika Sehgal Institute of Microbial Technology, India TirathaRaj Singh Jaypee University of Information Technology, India Principles and Analysis of Biological Networks


Background In 1951, Ardran reported that metastatic bone lesions could be detectable on plain radiography with 30% to 50% of decalcification. Authors performed experimental study for minimum level of decalcification to detect the osteolytic bone metastasis of long bone with recent technique of radiographs. Methods One pair of fibula and humerus from two cadavers was cut into specimen 1 inch in length. Distal half of specimen was dipped into hydrochloride (HCl) with 15 min interval. All 16 specimens were checked by film-type radiography (FR), computed radiography (CR), digital radiography (DR). To exclude inter-observer's variance, 3 radiologists evaluated images. Calcium amount before and after decalcification was measured and expressed in percentage of decalcification. Results Osteolytic changes were detectable with 11% to 16% of decalcification for fibula and 3% to 8% for humerus on plain radiography with FR, CR, and DR. Conclusions Our study showed that minimum of 3% and maximum of 16% of decalcification is necessary when osteolytic metastatic bone lesions of long bone could be detected on plain radiography.


An analysis is given of the characteristic flexural modes and frequencies of a linearly elastic free-free spheroid in an ideal fluid. The finite element method is used to represent the structural properties of a slender spheroid, employing a special element formulated for this purpose on the basis of Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. A consistent added mass matrix is derived from the exact solution of the infinite fluid potential problem, truncated at a suitable number of terms. A consistent added stiffness matrix is obtained for the buoyancy forces on a spheroid floating with its axis in a free surface, but other free surface effects (associated with wave generation) are assumed negligible. Solutions are computed for different aspect-ratio variable density spheroids vacuo, deeply submerged, and floating. The results indicate the possibility of considerable distortions in the lowest ('rigid') modes of slender floating bodies vibrating in a vertical plane, and illustrate the difficulty of defining three dimensional reduction factors for use with a simplified two dimensional theory. Derivation of the classical reduction factors for uniform density spheroids is given by way of comparison. The paper provides an illustration of use of a finite element formulation, in conjunction with consistent added mass and stiffness matrices, for a rational analysis of the structural dynamics of ships and other marine vehicles.


Terrestrial laser scanning is a promising technique for automatic measurements of tree stems. The objectives of the study were (1) to develop and validate a new method for the detection, classification and measurements of tree stems and canopies using the Hough transformation and the RANSAC algorithm and (2) assess the influence of distance to the scanner on the measurement accuracy. Tree detection and stem diameter estimates were validated for 16 circular plots with 20 m radius. The three dominating tree species were Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and birch (Betula spp.). The proportion of detected trees decreased as the distance to the scanner increased and followed the trend of decreasing visible area. Within 10 m from the scanner, the proportion of detected trees was 87% on average for the plots and the diameter at breast height was estimated with a relative root-mean-square-error (RMSE) of 14%. The most accurate diameter measurements were obtained for pine, which had a RMSE of 7% for all the full 20 m radius plots. The RANSAC algorithm reduced noise and made it possible to obtain reliable estimates.


Given the toxicity of arsenic, there is an urgent need for the development of efficient and reliable detection systems. Raman spectroscopy, a powerful tool for material characterization and analysis, can be used to explore the properties of a wide range of different materials. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) can detect low concentrations of chemicals. This review focuses on the progress of qualitative and quantitative studies of the adsorption processes of inorganic arsenic and organic arsenic in aqueous media using Raman spectroscopy in recent years and discusses the application of Raman spectroscopy theory simulations to arsenic adsorption processes. Sliver nanoparticles are generally used as the SERS substrate to detect arsenic. Inorganic arsenic is chemisorbed onto the silver surface by forming As-O-Ag bonds, and the Raman shift difference in the As-O stretching (∼60 cm-1) between As(V) and As(III) allows SERS to detect and distinguish between As(V) and As(III) in groundwater samples. For organic arsenicals, specific compounds can be identified based on spectral differences in the vibration modes of the chemical bonds. Under the same laser excitation, the intensity of the Raman spectra for different arsenic concentrations is linearly related to the concentration, thus allowing quantitative analysis of arsenic. Molecular modeling of adsorbed analytes via density functional theory calculation (DFT) can predict the Raman shifts of analytes in different laser wavelengths.


An ideal match of a computational data structure and a topology happens once the structure is directly mapped into a physical layout. Nanotechnologies offer various topological structures in spatial dimensions. One of the problems arising from this variety is to "delegate" computing properties to these structures. A direct approach is to embed the data structure into a given topology. Decision trees (DTs) and diagrams (DDs) are candidate data structures with the ability to compute an arbitrary switching and multivalued functions. In this paper, we manipulate the topology of DTs and DDs in the iterative embedding process using the property of topological flexibility. We report our experimental results on application of algebraic (Spolynomials, after Stankovi´c) and graphical (Voronoi diagrams) structures to design and evaluate various topologies.


Swimming micro robots are becoming feasible in biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery, opening clogged arteries and diagnosis owing to recent developments in micro and nano manufacturing technologies. It has been demonstrated at various scales that micro helices with magnetic coating or attached to a magnet can move in fluids with the application of external rotating magnetic fields. The motion of micro swimmers interacting with flow inside channels needs to be well understood especially for medical applications where the motion of micro robots inside arteries and conduits in the body become pertinent. In this work, swimming of helical micro robots with magnetic heads inside tubes is modeled with the resistive force theory (RFT) and validated with experiments conducted in glycerin filled mini glass channels placed in rotational magnetic fields. The time-averaged forward velocities of magnetically driven micro swimmers that are calculated by the RFT model agree very well with experimental results.


The phenomenon that wild grasses did not grow beneath the tree of Quercus mongolica Fisch var. grosseserrata Rehd. Wils. while they grew vigorously beneath other species of trees around Q. mongolica was observed in many places in the Hokkaido district. The allelochemicals in the soil beneath Q. mongolica were studied. This soil inhibited the growth of lettuce (Lactuca scariola L. var. sativa Bisch), green amaranth (Amaranthus viridis L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Norin No. 59) and timothy (Phleum pratense L.) by 50-90% in a 30 day soil culture test in phytotron. Of four fractions of extracts, the ethyl acetate fraction of the phenolic extracts from the soil beneath Q. mongolica showed the highest inhibition on seed germination and growth of etiolated seedling of the four species. Nine allelochemicals, 3, 4-dihydroxybenzoic, p-hydroxybenzoic, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxybenzoic, 3, 4-dimethoxybenzoic, vanillic, p-coumaric, ferulic acids, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and kaempferol were identified in this fraction by HPLC, EI-MS and 1H-NMR. The contents of five main phenolic compounds, p-coumaric, ferulic, vanillic, p-hydroxybenzoic acids and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde and kaempferol in the soil were found to be 13, 382, 3, 542, 2, 952, 2, 164, 1, 378 and 990μg per 100g soil, higher than those in the growing soils of Sasa cernua, Picea jezoensis, rice, corn, potato, carrot, soybean and beet, but lower than in the soil beneath red pine. These allelochemicals might have important roles in the distribution of forest species and understory grasses.