OBJECTIVE: The goal was to investigate the effects of the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) on days of respiratory support and intensive care, growth, and neuromotor development at term age for infants born at <32 weeks. METHODS: Infants were assigned randomly, within 48 hours after birth, to a NIDCAP group or basic developmental care (control) group. The NIDCAP intervention consisted of weekly formal behavioral observations of the infants and caregiving recommendations and support for staff members and parents, as well as incubator covers and positioning aids. The control group infants were given basic developmental care, which consisted of only incubator covers and positioning aids. Outcome measures were respiratory support, intensive care, and weight of <1000 g. Growth parameters were measured weekly or biweekly and at term age. Neuromotor development was assessed at term age. RESULTS: A total of 164 infants met the inclusion criteria (NIDCAP: N = 81; control: N = 83). In-hospital mortality rates were 8 (9.9%) of 81 infants in the NIDCAP group and 3 (3.6%) of 83 infants in the control group. No differences in mean days of respiratory support (NIDCAP: 13.9 days; control: 16.3 days) or mean days of intensive care (NIDCAP: 15.2 days; control: 17.0 days) were found. Short-term growth and neuromotor development at term age showed no differences, even with correction for the duration of the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: NIDCAP developmental care had no effect on respiratory support, days of intensive care, growth, or neuromotor development at term age.


The following is a training platform to allow robotic surgeons to develop the skills necessary to lead an interprofessional team in emergency undocking of a robotic system. In traditional robotic training for surgeons, a brief web based overview of performing an emergency undocking is provided during initial introductory training to the robotics system. During such a process, there is no training in delineation of interdisciplinary roles for operating room (OR) personnel. The training presented here uses formative simulation and debriefing followed by a lecture. For the simulation, a modified gynecologic simulator is draped in a steep trendelenburg position consistent with most gynecologic laparoscopic surgery. The training torso is modified using tubing hooked to pressure bags of red food colored IV fluid used to simulate a catastrophic vessel injury on demand. Positioned throughout the operating room setting is an interprofessional team consisting of embedded standardized persons (ESPs) to fulfill the roles of a circulating nurse, scrub nurse, anesthesiologist, and bedside assist surgeon. Robotic surgeons are presented a case scenario necessitating emergency undocking, and given control of the robotic instruments. The scenario is terminated following either successful completion of an emergency undock, or at five minutes due to the emergent nature of the case. A debriefing session with hands on training of the steps to emergency undocking, necessary equipment, troubleshooting techniques, and operating room personnel roles follows the simulation. The learners are presented with a short lecture reemphasizing the material presented in the debriefing for their own self-study. This training results in improved time accessing the patient, improved knowledge, confidence, and completion of critical actions, and can be replicated in most institutions. All robotic surgeons should be able to demonstrate competence in this crucial intervention. A limitation of the curriculum is ability to access the in-situ environment for training purposes.


Phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase/Akt signaling activates NF-κB through pleiotropic, cell type-specific mechanisms. This study investigated the significance of PI 3-kinase/Akt signaling to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced NF-κB activation in transformed, immortalized, and primary cells. Pharmacological inhibition of PI 3-kinase blocked TNF-induced NF-κB DNA binding in the 293 line of embryonic kidney cells, partially affected binding in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, HeLa and ME-180 cervical carcinoma cells, and NIH 3T3 cells but was without significant effect in H1299 and human umbilical vein endothelial cells, cell types in which TNF activated Akt. NF-κB is retained in the cytoplasm by inhibitory proteins, IκBs, which are phosphorylated and targeted for degradation by IκB kinases (IKKα and IKKβ). Expression and the ratios of IKKα and IKKβ, which homo- and heterodimerize, varied among cell types. Cells with a high proportion of IKKα (the IKK kinase activated by Akt) to IKKβ were most sensitive to PI 3-kinase inhibitors. Consequently, transient expression of IKKβ diminished the capacity of the inhibitors to block NF-κB DNA binding in 293 cells. Also, inhibitors of PI 3-kinase blocked NF-κB DNA binding in Ikkβ–/– but not Ikkα–/– or wild-type cells in which the ratio of IKKα to IKKβ is low. Thus, noncoordinate expression of IκB kinases plays a role in determining the cell type-specific role of Akt in NF-κB activation.


With the escalation of the industrial structure, what the future of the Yangtze River Delta manufacturing will be, how the Yangtze River Delta to adjust the industrial structure to maintain good economic growth has become a community of common concern. This paper first uses principal component analysis (PCA) to identify the leading industry of the Yangtze River delta, and chooses three representative industries, namely the black metal smelting and rolling processing industry, general equipment manufacturing and computer and communication equipment manufacturing industry, to analyze the dynamic variation characteristic of the gravity centre of the leading industries from variation direction, distance by building industrial gravity center model. At last, we contrastively summarize the dynamic variation characteristic of the gravity centre of the leading industry of the Yangtze River Delta.


A highly-educated, socially aware group of persons presented themselves for Tay-Sachs screening having learned about it mainly from friends, newspapers, radio, and television but not from physicians or rabbis. After learning that screening was possible and deciding that it is in principle a good idea, and after discussing it with relatives and friends but not with physicians and rabbis, they presented themselves for the test. Although the participants knew that Tay-Sachs is a serious disease and that Jews are vulnerable, few of them knew much about the genetics of the disease, its frequency, or the incidence of the carrier state. This experience of screening for Tay-Sachs carriers suggests the need for physicians to learn the relation of genetics to preventive medicine, and for the public to learn more about the biology of man.


This research is motivated by contestation between nationalism of Indonesia and Papua that gave birth to prolonged conflict in Papua. Focuses of research is construction of nationalism on Papuan college student in Surabaya in multiculturalism perspectives. By using theory of constructive nationalism, that used in perspective of multiculturalism. As a qualitative research, it uses ethnographic approach with emic-ethic perspective. By taking location in Surabaya-Indonesia, data were collected from 35Papuan students with observation, in-depth interviews, FGD, and surf blogs, facebooks, and twitter. The findings is that consciousness as a nation and Papuan nationalism is constructed on the essential-primordial elements, who is influenced by agents of change, colonization, exploitation, marginalization, and the violence and human rights violations, with proceeds through the development of Papuan college student organization that later became the pioneer rejection of government programs and demands for independence, and meaningful cultural reorientation of modern Papua.


This article reviews the broad range of contemporary remote sensing technologies that can access the ocean, while emphasizing next-generation ones that might revolutionize the field. Significant challenges remain in studying the largest part of Earth's biosphere. As of 2022, less than 10% of the ocean has been imaged at a comparable resolution to the surface of the moon and Mars, despite comprising more than 90% of the habitable volume of our planet. Within the past five years, phenomena as modest as refractive ocean-wave distortion have finally been addressed, but steep technology maturation and challenges persist in remote sensing life in our oceans, hampering our understanding of rapidly changing ecosystems at a crucial inflection point in our history. We survey the field and share emerging technologies and trends, while motivating the case for a future Sustained Marine Imaging Program for the next decade in remote sensing the ocean biosphere. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 47 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


A robot control package is described which utilizes on-line structural simulation of robot manipulators and objects in their workspace. The model-based controller is interfaced with a high level agent-independent planner, which is responsible for the task-level planning of the robot's actions. Commands received from the agent-independent planner are refined and executed in the simulated workspace, and upon successful completion, they are transferred to the real manipulators.


This study examined whether pro-2-PAM, a pro-drug dihydropyridine derivative of the oxime 2-pralidoxime (2-PAM) that can penetrate the brain, could prevent or reverse the central toxic effects of three nerve agents; sarin, cyclosarin, and VX. The first experiment tested whether pro-2-PAM could reactivate guinea pig cholinesterase (ChE) in vivo in central and peripheral tissues inhibited by these nerve agents. Pro-2-PAM produced a dose-dependent reactivation of sarin- or VX-inhibited ChE in both peripheral and brain tissues, but with substantially greater reactivation in peripheral tissues compared to brain. Pro-2-PAM produced 9–25% reactivation of cyclosarin-inhibited ChE in blood, heart, and spinal cord, but no reactivation in brain or muscle tissues. In a second experiment, the ability of pro-2-PAM to block or terminate nerve agent-induced electroencephalographic seizure activity was evaluated. Pro-2-PAM was able to block sarin- or VX-induced seizures (16–33%) over a dose range of 24–32 mg/kg, but was ineffective against cyclosarin-induced seizures. Animals that were protected from seizures showed significantly less weight loss and greater behavioral function 24 h after exposure than those animals that were not protected. Additionally, brains were free from neuropathology when pro-2-PAM prevented seizures. In summary, pro-2-PAM provided modest reactivation of sarin- and VX-inhibited ChE in the brain and periphery, which was reflected by a limited ability to block or terminate seizures elicited by these agents. Pro-2-PAM was able to reactivate blood, heart, and spinal cord ChE inhibited by cyclosarin, but was not effective against cyclosarin-induced seizures.


The rough sets reduction algorithm is an NP problem and is sensitivity to data noise. In order to overcome these disadvantages and deal with stochastic data, attributes selection and reduction is conducted by statistical filtration in this paper. This step corresponds to the process of attaining reduct of information system or decision system in the rough sets theory. Then the linear discriminant analysis classification algorithm based on Mahalanobis distance is used for classification, which is suitable for classification problem where its eigenvalue possess different type of property. Several databases of UCI repository are tested, using crossover validation. The results show that compared with C4.5 and SORES, the algorithm needs less property and produces less error recognition result. Furthermore the algorithm is simple and doesn't need to quantify the continuous properties, which prove the validity of the algorithm


We studied the home range and habitat use of paca (Cuniculus paca) in a rural agricultural community in the Alto Beni region, in La Paz department, Bolivia, where game meat is the main source of protein for a large portion of local inhabitants. We captured and radio collared five individual paca (4 females and 1 male), which were followed for six months in 2012 to estimate home range of the individuals and assess their habitat use and selection. The total mean home range (95% Minimum Convex Polygon) was 2.26 ha (SD = 0.80), and ranged from 1.5 to 2.96 ha. The mean female home range (2.04 ha) was smaller than the male ́s (2.95 ha). Pacas used two (crops and fallows) of the three available habitats (secondary forest patches), and appeared to positively select crops over the other two. The importance of crops may be linked to the type of agriculture conducted in the area (i.e. mainly cacao in agroforestry systems), which may offer more food and shelter for pacas. Given that, the importance of habitats may change seasonally; this topic should be examined in future studies. Our results suggest that agroforestry systems may be important for the species since they offer a variety of food resources throughout the year.


Introduction: Abdominal Ultrasonography (USG) is the most commonly used method for diagnosing acute appendicitis the most common surgical cause of acute abdomen. In this study, we observed the reliability of USG for diagnosing acute appendicitis. Objectives: To evaluate the role of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Methods: In this study, we performed abdominal USG of 100 patients admitted with lower right abdominal pain and diagnosed as acute surgical abdomen according to the physical examination and laboratory findings. These patients were surgically treated by appendecectomy, and excised specimens were sent for histopathological examination. Results: One hundred patients were assessed in this study. Out of them 82.0% patients had acute appendicitis and diameter of their appendices were more or equal to 6 mm. Twenty nine percent of the patients were below 21 years of age. Intraluminal fluid was present in 81% of patients and peri-appendicular fluid was present in 66.7% of patients. Leucocytosis was present in 49% of the cases and neutrophilia in 84% of the cases. All of the patients presented with lower abdominal pain with migration of pain in 52% cases and they had right iliac fossa tenderness. The sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV) and accuracy rate of ultrasonography was 76.8%, 88.9%, 96.9%, 45.7% and 79.0%, respectively. 45 JAFMC Bangladesh. Vol 10, No 1 (June) 2014 Conclusion: Acute appendicitis is a common indication for emergency abdominal surgery. Proper clinical assessment is the mainstay of diagnosis in acute appendicitis and addition of routine abdominal ultrasound by graded compression technique can improve the diagnostic accuracy and adverse outcome. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jafmc.v10i1.22904 Journal of Armed Forces Medical College Bangladesh Vol.10(1) 2014


An inertial navigation system containing a versatile computer can be given the capability of automatically measuring its gyro mass unbalance. These measurements are accomplished in tests performed and monitored by the computer. Mass-unbalanced drifts induced by tilting the stable platform are detected by the system's acceleration sensors. From the outputs of these sensors, the computer determines the mass-unbalance components using regression-analysis techniques that minimize errors of extraneous origin.


Abstract The paper briefly describes the colorful career of the West German entrepreneur, Willy H. Schlieker and the rise to prominence of his one-man business conglomerate. It then goes on to discuss reasons and three hypotheses which purport to explain the company's failure: entrepreneurial failure, a conspiracy among a number of his powerful creditors who were also competitors interested in eliminating an uncomfortable business rival; and the self-interested behavior of the court-appointed insolvence administrator. It concludes that the fate of Schlieker's company was sealed by the way the administrator conducted bankruptcy procedures.


Spin-dependent tunneling across a highly textured MgO insulating barrier has received much attention due to its potential applications in various spintronic devices. However, the interfacial magnetic and electronic structure of a prototypical realization of this in Fe/MgO/Fe and the effective band gap of the MgO layer are still under debate. In order to resolve these issues, we have employed standing-wave excited core and valence photoemission, as well as core-level magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) in photoemission, to study the Fe/MgO interface with subnanometer depth resolution. For our synthetic procedure, we show that the Fe/MgO interface is linearly intermixed in composition over a length of \ensuremath{\sim}8 \AA{} (\ensuremath{\sim}4 monolayers) and that there is a magnetic dead layer \ensuremath{\sim}2\char21{}3 \AA{} thick. The unambiguous extraction of depth-resolved density of states (DOS) reveals that the interfacial layer composition is mostly metallic and nonmagnetic FeO${}_{\mathrm{x}}$, with x \ensuremath{\cong} 1, which accounts for a smaller magnetoresistance compared to theoretical predictions. The formation of the magnetic dead layer (FeO) at the interface should also reduce the tunneling spin polarization. The analysis of our data also shows a clear valence band edge of ultrathin MgO layer at \ensuremath{\sim}3.5 eV below the Fermi level (${E}_{\mathrm{F}}$) that is very close to that of single crystal bulk MgO. An analysis that does not consider the interdiffused region separately exhibits the valence band edge for MgO layer \ensuremath{\sim}1.3 eV below ${E}_{\mathrm{F}}$, which is significantly closer to the MgO barrier height estimated from magnetotransport measurements and further suggests that the Fe/MgO interdiffusion effectively reduces the MgO band gap.


Accumulating evidence indicates the multifaceted nature of social support. Although support seekers may receive help, they may also encounter upsetting responses. It remains unclear how seeking and receiving social support, when differentiated, are associated with individuals' strengths and well-being. This study collected survey data from 357 adults recruited from the southeastern United States. We classified participants using the factors of support seeking and support received into four groups: Interconnected (high on support seeking and receiving), Tended (low on support seeking, high on support receiving), Rebuffed (high on support seeking, low on support receiving), and Isolated (low on support seeking and receiving). We then examined the differences among groups. The study found significant differences among the four groups in measures of regulatory strengths, meaning-making strengths, interpersonal strengths, and perceived well-being. In general, the Interconnected group scored highest among the four groups, followed by the Tended group, the Rebuffed group, and lastly, the Isolated group. The finding that the Rebuffed group did not score significantly lower than the Isolated group underscores the importance of support seeking. Individuals may benefit from the support seeking process even though they do not obtain the support needed. Social work practitioners should facilitate and optimize their clients' support seeking, including removing clients' barriers to support seeking and addressing clients' negative experiences in the support seeking process. Social work researchers should measure multiple aspects of social support, including support received and support seeking.


Filamentary conduction in resistive switching metal- insulator-metal devices is often modeled from the circuital viewpoint using diode-like structures with series resistances. We show in this letter which arrangement of diodes and resistances is compatible with experimental multilevel set and reset I-V characteristics in electroformed TiN/SiOx/TiN structures. The proposed model is based on the solution of the generalized diode equation corresponding to N diodes arranged in parallel with a single series resistance. The model is simple yet accurate and it is able to capture the essential features exhibited by the I-V curves in the low and high bias regimes, revealing that a single equation can deal with both the low and high resistance states. An exact expression for the differential conductance suitable for small-signal analysis and circuit simulators is also provided.


The aim of this study was to investigate the modulation of the hippocampal function by the cholinergic cells of the septum and the role of the septo-hippocampal cholinergic system in learning and memory. Immunotoxin 192 IgG-saporin was used to produce selective lesions of cholinergic septohippocampal neurons. Hippocampal AChE was used as a quantitative measure of lesion extent. A total of 16 male outbred albino rats were used in the present study to investigate the ability of sham-operated and medial septal (MS) immunotoxin lesioned rats to learn the location of a visible, as well as submerged platform in a water maze. The rats' responses on the competition test were classified as either cue or place, based on the swim path for those trials. Examination of the AChE stained sections showed that after injections of 192 IgG saporin into the MS, animals exhibited significantly less AChE staining in hippocampus as compared to sections obtained from sham-operated animals. Differences in the platform reaching latency between the animals of different groups for the training trials were not found. Data from both competition trials for each group show that the sham-operated rats in 13 trials out of 16 competition test trial used place strategy and MS-lesioned ones used this strategy in 11 trials. Decreased place-bias in MS-lesioned rats compared to the sham-operated rats was not significant. These findings suggest that the septo-hippocampal cholinergic system is not essential for all types of hippocampal-dependent memory and deficits observed after septal electrolytic lesions cannot be accounted solely to the loss of hippocampal ACh.


The object of the present paper is to study pseudo conharmonically symmetric manifold which is a type of non-flat Riemannian manifold. In the first section, we give the definition of a pseudo conharmonically symmetric manifold. In the second section, some theorems about this manifold are proved. In the last section, we give an example for the existence of this manifold. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classifications: 53B20, 53C25,53B30,53C15


The interstellar gas that flows through the heliosphere is strongly affected by ionization close to the Sun, in particular solar photoionization, electron impact, and charge exchange. Therefore, the interpretation of any observation of interstellar gas in the inner heliosphere hinges upon the accurate knowledge of these effects and their variations. In addition, the irradiance and line profile of the relevant solar spectral line are needed to properly interpret resonant backscattering observations of the interstellar neutral gas. With instrumentation on ACE, SOHO and Wind, continuous monitoring of these important environmental conditions simultaneously with a multitude of interstellar gas observations has become possible for the first time. In this paper we present a compilation of the processes and parameters that affect the distribution of interstellar helium inside the heliosphere and their observation, including the irradiance and line profile of the He 58.4 nm line. We also make the connection to proxies for these parameters and evaluate their accuracy in order to expand the time period of coverage wherever possible.


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Germanium-on-silicon, mid-infrared waveguides are used to demonstrate molecular fingerprint sensing of poly(methyl methacrylate) between 7.5 and 10 μm wavelength. The results are compared to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements, highlighting the potential of the platform for the identification of analytes.


For several years, many authors have predicted that nano-scale integrated devices and circuits will have a rising sensitivity to both transient and permanent faults effects. Essentially, there seems to be an emerging demand for building highly dependable hardware/software systems from unreliable components. Most of the effort has so far gone into the detection and compensation of transient fault effects. More recently, also the possibility of repairing permanent faults, due to either production flaws or to wear-out effects after some time of operation in the field of application, needs further investigation. While built-in self test (BIST) and even self repair (BISR) for regular structures such as static memories (SRAMs) is well understood, concepts for in-system repair of irregular logic and interconnects are few and mainly based on field-programmable gate-arrays (FPGAs) as the basic implementation. In this chapter, the authors try to analyse different schemes of logic (self-) repair with respect to cost and limitations, using repair schemes that are not based on FPGAs. It can be shown that such schemes are feasible, but need lot of attention in terms of hidden single points of failure.


Blind spots are one of the causes of road accidents in the hilly and flat areas. These blind spot accidents can be decreased by establishing an Internet of Vehicles (IoV) using Vehicle-2-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-2-Infrastrtructure (V2I) communication systems. But the problem with these IoV is that most of them are using DSRC or single Radio Access Technology (RAT) as a wireless technology, which has been proven to be failed for efficient communication between vehicles. Recently, Cognitive Radio (CR) based IoV have to be proven best wireless communication systems for vehicular networks. However, the spectrum mobility is a challenging task to keep CR based vehicular networks interoperable and has not been addressed sufficiently in existing research. In our previous research work, the Cognitive Radio Site (CR-Site) has been proposed as in-vehicle CR-device, which can be utilized to establish efficient IoV systems. H In this paper, we have introduced the Emotions Inspired Cognitive Agent (EIC_Agent) based spectrum mobility mechanism in CR-Site and proposed a novel emotions controlled spectrum mobility scheme for efficient syntactic interoperability between vehicles. For this purpose, a probabilistic deterministic finite automaton using fear factor is proposed to perform efficient spectrum mobility using fuzzy logic. In addition, the quantitative computation of different fear intensity levels has been performed with the help of fuzzy logic. The system has been tested using active data from different GSM service providers on Mangla-Mirpur road. This is supplemented by extensive simulation experiments which validate the proposed scheme for CR based high-speed vehicular networks. The qualitative comparison with the existing-state-of the-art has proven the superiority of the proposed emotions controlled syntactic interoperable spectrum mobility scheme within cognitive radio based IoV systems.


A stratigraphically conformable dinoflagellate zonation ranging in age from Vraconian Albian to earliest Oxfordian-middle Callovian is distributed through 875 m of section recovered at Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 534A. The Cretaceous interval is the most fossiliferous studied to date in the paleobathymetrically deep western North Atlantic, and correlates well with five other sites. The Cretaceous-Jurassic boundary, considered to be conformable, is in nannofossil ooze just below the first red intercalated layers but above the major lithology of the Jurassic Cat Gap Formation. Jurassic assemblages are not as well preserved, but provide stratigraphically useful species. Blackish sediment is present intermittently throughout the investigated section at Site 534A; its origin is considered to be related to sedimentation rates. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1663------------


Mars has an extensive, long-lived sedimentary record that is complimentary to the terrestrial record, bearing both first-order similarities and first-order differences. The igneous record is composed of basaltic rocks, in fundamental contrast to the granodioritic upper continental crust of the Earth, which in turn dominates the provenance of clastic and chemical sedimentary rocks. The crust and sedimentary mass of Mars on average are older than the terrestrial records, and Mars provides exceptional potential for understanding processes that were active during the earliest history (.3.5 Gyr) of the solar system. Numerous sedimentary minerals have been identified both from orbit and by rovers/landers and include a variety of clays, sulfates, amorphous silica, minor carbonates, and possibly chlorides. The Martian sedimentary mineralogical record is Feand Mg-enriched and Naand K-depleted compared to the terrestrial record, reflecting differing crustal compositions and differing aqueous surficial environments. There is evidence for three distinct sedimentary mineralogical epochs: an early clay-rich era, intermediate sulfate-rich era, and a younger era dominated by secondary iron oxides. This mineralogical evolution likely records desiccation, acidification, and oxidation of the surface over geological time. There is also evidence that surficial processes were controlled by a sulfur cycle, rather than the carbon cycle, over much of Martian geological time, leading to low-pH aqueous conditions. The nature of this S cycle changed over time as volcanic sulfur sources and amounts of near-surface water diminished. There is a linkage between the S cycle and iron/oxygen cycles related to diagenetic oxidation of iron sulfates to form iron oxides. Where studied in detail, weathering is dominated by low pH, with mobility of ferric iron being common. Lack of evidence for expected aluminum mobility indicates that low water–rock ratio conditions prevailed. In Noachian terrains, where clay minerals are common, it is more likely that aqueous conditions were closer to circum-neutral, but detailed study awaits future landed missions. Numerous depositional environments are recognized, including fluvial, deltaic, lacustrine, eolian, and glacial settings. Evaporitic rocks appear common and are characterized by distinctive suites of Mg-, Ca-, and Fe-sulfates and possibly chlorides. A system of chemical divides can be constructed and indicates that the range of observed evaporite minerals can be explained by typical water compositions derived from acidic weathering of Martian crust, and with variable initial pH controlled by HCO 3 /SO 2 4 ratios. Several diagenetic processes have also been identified, including complex groundwater diagenetic histories. One process, consistent with experimental studies, that explains the correlation between sulfate and iron oxide minerals seen from orbit, as well as formation of hematitic concretions in the Burns Formation on Meridiani Planum, is oxidation of iron sulfates to form iron oxides. In general, the diagenetic record that has been identified, including incomplete iron sulfate oxidation, limited clay mineral transformations, and absence of amorphous silica recrystallization, indicates highly water-limited postdepositional conditions. Among the most important outstanding questions for sedimentary geochemistry are those related to the quantification of the size and lithological distribution of the sedimentary record, the detailed history of near-surface water, and the origin and history of acidity in the aqueous environment.


The present work focuses on the severe plastic deformation and deformation twinning of 316L austenitic stainless steel deformed at high temperatures (700 and 800 °C) using equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE). Very high tensile and compressive strength levels were obtained after ECAE without sacrificing toughness with relation to microstructural refinement and deformation twinning. The occurrence of deformation twinning at such high temperatures was attributed to the effect of high stress levels on the partial dislocation separation, i.e., effective stacking fault energy. High stress levels were ascribed to the combined effect of dynamic strain aging, high strain levels (∈ ∼ 1.16) and relatively high strain rate (2 s^−1). At 800 °C, dynamic recovery and recrystallization took place locally leading to grains with fewer dislocation density and recrystallized grains, which in turn led to lower room temperature flow strengths than those from the samples processed at 700 °C but higher strain hardening rates. Apparent tension-compression asymmetry in the 700 °C sample was found to be the consequence of the directional internal stresses.


The focus of this research was to examine the impact of traditional sexual health education, an approach that infringes upon children's rights to information, on 15 year-olds' knowledge of birth control, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, attitudes toward gays and lesbians. One hundred and twenty grade ten students completed a survey comprising measures of sex education received, sexual activity, sexual health knowledge, attitudes toward gays, lesbians, and the teaching of homosexuality, and school-based experiences with homophobia. Our findings reinforce the inadequacy of traditional sexual health education to meet rights consistent standards. Although many of the respondents were sexually active, their knowledge of sexual health issues, and especially of homosexuality, was poor. Homophobic expression was reported to be very common in schools, and teacher interventions were few. Prejudicial attitudes toward gays and lesbians were related to experience with homophobia and to a lack of knowledge about homosexuality. In essence current practices are violating the rights of all children but particularly those of sexual minority status. Consistency with children's rights requires shifts in sex education practices and teacher attitudes and behaviors.


We studied the hypothesis that, in energy-depleted endothelial cells, Ca(2+)-dependent activation of protein kinase C (PKC) causes phosphorylation of vinculin and that this effect is involved in the early loss of endothelial barrier function. Vinculin localization and phosphorylation, PKC activity, and albumin permeability were studied in cultured coronary endothelial monolayers from rats. Ten minutes after the onset of metabolic inhibition by 5 mM potassium cyanide and 5 mM 2-deoxy-D-glucose, immunofluorescence of vinculin at cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix contacts faded, whereas total cellular vinculin content remained unchanged. During the same time period, vinculin phosphorylation at tyrosine and serine sites increased by 3.9- and 3.5-fold, respectively. Vinculin phosphorylation was related to activation of PKC and an unidentified tyrosine kinase and was elicited by a rise in cytosolic Ca2+ within energy-depleted endothelial cells. Conditions inhibiting vinculin phosphorylation also reduced monolayer permeability induced by energy depletion. These data indicate that vinculin phosphorylation is involved in the progression of hyperpermeability during energy depletion in coronary endothelial monolayers.


Red cell transfusion therapy is a common treatment modality in contemporary medical practice. Although blood collection and administration is safer and more efficient than ever before, red cells undergo multiple metabolic and structural changes during storage that may compromise their functionality and viability following transfusion. The clinical relevance of these changes is a hotly debated topic that continues to be a matter of intense investigation. In the current review, we begin with an in‐depth overview of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying red cell storage, with a focus on altered metabolism, oxidative stress and red cell membrane damage. We proceed to review the current state of evidence on the clinical relevance and consequences of the red cell storage lesion, while discussing the strengths and limitations of clinical studies.


Background and Aims: Endotracheal intubation in postlaryngectomy patients is usually accomplished by inserting endotracheal tube directly into the laryngectomy stoma. The primary objective of our study was to assess the systolic blood pressure (SBP) response to intubation in postlaryngectomy patients. Secondary objectives included assessment of changes in heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and to estimate tracheal component of hemodynamic response to intubation in normal patients by finding out the relative reduction in hemodynamic response that might occur in postlaryngectomy patients. Material and Methods: This was a prospective, observational study. Forty postlaryngectomy patients formed group L and 40 normal patients constituted group N. After induction of anesthesia and neuromuscular blockade, direct laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation were performed in group N, whereas an endotracheal tube was passed through the laryngectomy stoma directly into the trachea in group L. Hemodynamic responses were documented. Chi-square test, independent samples t-test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test were applied. Result: Group L patients were significantly older with significantly lower baseline HR with higher SBP and MAP. As baseline values were not comparable, they were taken as covariates and ANCOVA was applied. Adjusted mean values were then compared. Immediately after induction HR, SBP and MAP were comparable in both groups. Subsequent comparison of adjusted mean values showed significantly higher HR, SBP, and MAP in group N immediately after intubation and 1,3,5, and 10 min later (P < 0.001). At 15 min, HR and SBP were significantly higher in group N with comparable MAP. Conclusion: Hemodynamic stress response to endotracheal intubation is minimal or absent in postlaryngectomy patients. They mostly present with elevated blood pressure and develop hypotension following induction that persists despite intubation.


This is a companion volume to the author's Lhiatus expressif dans l'lliade et dans l'Odyssee (reviewed in CR 41 [1991], 10-11) and shows the same faults and merits. F. assumes a familiarity with that monograph, and users of it will appreciate the pages of addenda and corrigenda included here. Spondaic verses number over 1500 in the two Homeric epics, less than one verse in twenty, even if diphthongs are read where modern texts mark separate vowels, as in ATpetSys. A. Ludwich, who first examined the matter, took the common-sense view that the spondaic rhythm, like any other rhythm, had the potential to reinforce the sense of the verse, but for the most part was no more than a pleasing variant of the hexameter and rare enough not to seem mannered. F. brings logic to bear on common sense: spondaic verses must either be expressive or not expressive; since it is admitted that some are indeed expressive, all must be. What follows is a tour de force of interpretation, forced interpretation. It requires great single-mindedness to read expressivite into formulae like cpwvqaiv re and fj.€p6irwv avOpw-nwv. What the spondee expresses, always, is gravitas, of person or situation. Gods, great heroes, effort, fear, death attract the spondee, or so F. maintains, and examines every instance (including some of his own emendations) in the poems. The labour must have been tedious, and no doubt the data will be useful, but in the end the thesis is no more convincing than that of LHiatus. Gods, to take an example of F.'s contentions, ought to have an inbuilt gravitas (but we must not forget the Aios A-na.Tt\ and Ares and Aphrodite), and F. can point to the vocative vnan KpeiovTuiv, the oblique cases of AnoXXaiv, the title ArpvTwvy), and the So/xov evpwevra of Hades. I mention these because they illustrate the inventiveness of the epic diction and, if they are traditional expressions, their utility also, a utility that we may allow to extend to their sense as well as their metrics. But the seam is soon exhausted. Hermes ('Eppeias) should have been as lucky in his three long syllables as Jrj/xijrrjp, but he is never placed at the verse end. Is that because there is no special or generic epithet for Hermes comparable to the favflij and ivirXoicanos assigned to Demeter? F, of course, insists on Apyeupovrqs (not -ei'-), and by the same device provides a spondaic paraphrase for Ares, avSpeupovrysNo such helping hand (why not?) is extended to the senior gods Hera, Poseidon, or Zeus (except in the vocative). The gravitas of gods, according to F, extends also to their actions. The dread cry of Eris jxiya r t Seivov re (77.11.10), yes, but should this extend to every occurrence of ixvd-fjaaadai, (pwvrjaev re, <pwvqoavTos, KTX. with reference to a god? And what do we make of the formula Kar' OvXifiTrow Kaprjvcov atgaoa, where the sense of ataacu ('of rapid motion' LSJ) seems to clash with the alleged expressiveness of a heavy rhythm enhanced in this case by a spondaic fourth foot? F. is equal to the paradox: Tart raffine d'Homere installe le spondaique sur un mot aile, que rien ne peut alourdir. Effet superbe de royale ou divine majeste, sans ombre de lourdeur, qui sent evidemment son tres grand artiste' (commenting on the horses of Eumelos, TtoSwKfas opviBas u>s, 7Z.2.764). Triple spondaic endings are not unusual and are often formular (BvrjTuiv avdpuirrojv, Axaiol re Tpwes re, KTX.), but F. does not comment on the special effect, if any, of this striking rhythm.


Super resolution methods alleviate the high cost and high difficulty in applying high resolution infrared image sensors. In this paper we present a novel single image super resolution method for infrared images by combining compressive sensing theory and deep learning. Low resolution images can be regarded as the compressed sampling results of the high resolution ones in compressive sensing. With sparsity in this theory, higher resolution images can be reconstructed. However, because of diverse level of sparsity for different images, the output contains noise and loss of high frequency information. Deep convolutional neural network provides a solution to relieve the noise and supplement some missing high frequency information. By concatenating two methods, we manage to produce better results in super resolution tasks for infrared images than SRCNN and ScSR. PSNR and SSIM values are used to quantify the performance. Applying our method to open datasets and actual infrared imaging experiments, we also find better visual results are preserved.


We present a preliminary list of the Culicidae species collected in seven localities at the province of Misiones, Argentina, since the mosquito fauna of this region is poorly known. Mosquito sampling was carried out during spring-summer, between August 2006 and January 2007, the months of highest abundance of these insects. Collection of specimens was made with a CDC-like trap (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) in peri-urban zones. Sixty-five species were identified. The geographic distribution of Anopheles darlingi , Uranotaenia davisi and Howardina fulvithorax is extended.


Coal-derived materials from two coal conversion processes were screened for potential ecological toxicity. We examined the toxicity of materials from different engineering or process options to an aquatic invertebrate and also related potential hazard to relative concentration, composition, and stability of water soluble components. For materials tested from the Integrated Two-Stage Liquefaction (ITSL) process, only the LC finer (LCF) 650/sup 0/F distillate was highly soluble in water at 20/sup 0/C. The LCF feed and Total Liquid Product (TLP) were not in liquid state at 20/sup 0/C and were relatively insoluble in water. Relative hazard to daphnids from ITSL materials was as follows: LCF 650/sup 0/F distillate greater than or equal to LCF feed greater than or equal to TLP. For Exxon Donor Solvent (EDS) materials, process solvent produced in the bottoms recycle mode was more soluble in water than once-through process solvent and, hence, slightly more acutely toxic to daphnids. When compared to other coal liquids or petroleum products, the ITSL or EDS liquids were intermediate in toxicity; relative hazard ranged from 1/7 to 1/13 of the Solvent Refined Coal (SRC)-II distillable blend, but was several times greater than the relative hazard for No. 2 diesel fuel oil or Prudhoemore » Bay crude oil. Although compositonal differences in water-soluble fractions (WSF) were noted among materials, phenolics were the major compound class in all WSFs and probably the primary contributor to acute toxicity.« less


Recently, Non-fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) has been making rapid progress and reaching record breaking efficiency [1]. In the conventional idea for the fullerene based OSCs, one need a large donor-acceptor (D/A) offsets to cause rapid (i.e., <1ps) and effective charge separation from exciton at the D/A heterojunction [2]. However, recent work showed that non-fullerene OSC with small D/A offset can also achieved very high power conversion efficiency (PCE) [1,3-4]. The explanation for this is that charge separation occurs over hundreds of ps from thermalized charge transfer exciton (CTEs) at the D/A heterojunction for the non-fullerene system [5], thus charge separation in efficient non-fullerene OSC with small D/A offset is an endothermic process. Here we will present our recent transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy studies to further elucidate the temperature dependence of charge transfer and charge separation dynamics in a number of nonfullerene OSC model systems with negligible D/A LUMO offset but variable HOMO offsets. We selectively create acceptor excitons and showed that acceptor excitons dissociate into CTEs at a similar rate (~100ps) as donor excitons despite the significantly large driving force provided by the HOMO offset. In contrast, by tracing the electro-absorption signal, it was demonstrated the generation of free charges after hole transfer required additional thermal excitation. Our result show the charge separation is indeed an endothermic behavior in non-fullerene OSCs, but charge transfer is not. Our result give a deeper understanding of the working mechanism of non-fullerene OSCs, which will have important fundamental implications on the development of OSCs.


This paper deals mainly with the interfamily spheroplast fusion of Pasteurella multocida C 48-1 (Enr r,Chl s) and Escherichia coli O 78 (Chl r,Enr s), and the development of 2-combined attenuated strains. Protoplast fusion was performed by mixing protoplast suspension with 400 g/L PEG4 000 and newly formed Ca 3(PO 4) 2, and 16 strains hybrid cells with two drug-resistant markers were selected. To test the immunogenicity and safety of 2 fusion attenuated strains (F 4 and F 9), Guangdong yellow chicks were vaccinated separately with F 4 and F 9.The result showed that the F 4 strain was safe and with immunogenicity attributable to the two parent bacteria.


The paper introduces the basic principle of thermography and describes the structure of an infrared imaging system. The possible applications of thermography in energy auditing and recognising the usage patterns of electric power of buildings in Hong Kong are highlighted. The details of evaluating the indoor temperature by thermography are described. The merits of such information to the planning and operation of the electric power system are discussed. >


Testing and diagnosis are important issues in system-on-chip (SoC) development, as more and more embedded cores are being integrated into the chips. In this paper we propose a built-in self-test (BIST) and self-diagnosis (BISD) scheme for embedded SRAMs, suitable for SoC applications. It supports manufacturing test as well as diagnosis for design verification and yield improvement. With low hardware cost, our memory BISD approach can handle various types of SRAM, including pipelined, multi-port, and multi-clock architectures. In addition, a test scheduling methodology and a BISD compiler are also implemented, which reduce the testing time as well as test development time.


In this paper, we seek to answer the research question as to whether students take into account the predictions of human capital theory (namely the higher wages associated with further studies) in their decision to participate in higher education. Our alternative research question is whether students can be described by Bourdieu's theory on capital conversion, that is, whether they aim to accumulate cultural and social capital during their studies, which can also be profitable for them in the future. Our research method is quantitative: we use cluster analysis to examine the motives behind further studies and employ cross tabulation and variance analysis to reveal the relationship between clusters and social background variables. We find that the wage premium associated with further studies is not the most important motive among students; it holds only minor importance even for those from a disadvantaged social background. The results suggest that students in secondary schools, especially talented but underprivileged ones, should be motivated to enter higher education by informing them about the potential wage premium they can attain if they study further. Importantly, we also find that underprivileged students may be unaware of the fact that higher education is an efficient mechanism to accumulate social and cultural capital, which then can be converted into economic capital.


Twenty-four lambs (Ovis aries) were used in a 45-day finishing study to evaluate the effects of feeding diets high in linoleic acid (C(18:2), omega-6) on liver lipid composition and on lipogenic enzyme activities in subcellular fractions of liver. Lambs were fed either a 5% safflower oil (SO, high linoleic acid) supplemented diet or a control diet without added oil. SO feeding caused a reduction in the amount of serum and liver triacylglycerols and cholesterol, whereas the level of phospholipids in both tissues was hardly affected. In liver of SO-treated lambs an increase in the levels of C(18:2) and arachidonic acid (C(20:4), omega-6), together with a simultaneous decrease of saturated fatty acids, was observed. In comparison to rat liver, rather low activities of enzymes in the pathway for de novo fatty acid synthesis, i.e. acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase, were found in lamb-liver cytosol. Both enzyme activities, as well as those of the NADPH-furnishing enzymes, were significantly reduced by SO feeding. In contrast, microsomal and especially mitochondrial fatty acid chain elongation activity, the latter being much higher than that of rat liver, were significantly increased in SO-treated lambs. In these animals, a stimulation of triangle up(9)-desaturase activity was observed in liver microsomes.


Abstract This study was based on two essential considerations about biodiesel: agricultural potential of Turkey for biodiesel production and governmental policies about environmentally friendly alternative fuels in Turkey. A policy to increase biodiesel production in Turkey by importing biodiesel or shifting to oilseed production from another plant does not seem reliable or practical. However, a short analysis on growing oil plants as a secondary product gives promising results. Even in this case, however, investment for biodiesel production is risky from the standpoint of market prices in comparison with regular diesel, given the government's unstable task policies. For the same reason, it is difficult to forward a scientific analysis as guidance to the investor for biodiesel production.


ABSTRACT Fan, H.-J, 2020. Research on sustainable development of coastal rural ecotourism based on tourism perception. In: Bai, X. and Zhou, H. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 115, pp. 53-55. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. In the development of modern rural tourism, it is necessary to deeply explore the characteristic rural culture and continuously enhance the tourism attraction of rural areas. Stimulated by the spiritual needs of the people and the needs of economic development in rural areas, rural tourism has shown a trend of vigorous development. Developing eco-tourism in rural areas not only helps spur rural modernization, comprehensively improve the spiritual civilization construction between urban and rural areas in China, and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas in China. Compared with the urban environment, rural areas have more rural environmental resources, and citizens who have lived in cities for a long time have greater attraction. With the increasing number of tourists in coastal villages, tourism plays an increasingly important and obvious role in the economic development of towns, and its advantages become more and more obvious with the passage of time. How to give full play to the positive influence brought by the development of rural tourism and control the negative influence brought by the development of rural tourism to the maximum extent will be the primary problem for the coastal rural tourism community to achieve sustainable development.


In this paper we present a time-domain time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) approach to calculate frequency-dependent polarizability and hyperpolarizabilities. In this approach, the electronic degrees of freedom are propagated within the density matrix based TDDFT framework using the efficient modified midpoint and unitary transformation algorithm. We use monochromatic waves as external perturbations and apply the finite field method to extract various orders of the time-dependent dipole moment. By fitting each order of time-dependent dipole to sinusoidal waves with harmonic frequencies, one can obtain the corresponding (hyper)polarizability tensors. This approach avoids explicit Fourier transform and therefore does not require long simulation time. The method is illustrated with application to the optically active organic molecule para-nitroaniline, of which the frequency-dependent polarizability α(-ω; ω), second-harmonic generation β(-2ω; ω, ω), optical rectification β(0; -ω, ω), third-harmonic generation γ(-3ω; ω, ω, ω), and degenerate four-wave mixing γ(-ω; ω, ω, -ω) are calculated.


ABSTRACT Aged dystrophin-null canines are excellent models for studying experimental therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a lethal muscle disease caused by dystrophin deficiency. To establish the baseline, we studied the extensor carpi ulnaris (ECU) muscle in 15 terminal age (3-year-old) male affected dogs and 15 age/sex-matched normal dogs. Affected dogs showed histological and anatomical hallmarks of dystrophy, including muscle inflammation and fibrosis, myofiber size variation and centralized myonuclei, as well as a significant reduction of muscle weight, muscle-to-body weight ratio and muscle cross-sectional area. To rigorously characterize the contractile properties of the ECU muscle, we developed a novel in situ assay. Twitch and tetanic force, contraction and relaxation rate, and resistance to eccentric contraction-induced force loss were significantly decreased in affected dogs. Intriguingly, the time-to-peak tension and half-relaxation time were significantly shortened in affected dogs. Contractile kinetics predicted an unforeseen slow-to-fast myofiber-type switch, which we confirmed at the protein and transcript level. Our study establishes a foundation for studying long-term and late-stage therapeutic interventions in dystrophic canines. The unexpected myofiber-type switch highlights the complexity of muscle remodeling in dystrophic large mammals. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.


Background: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) comprises 15–20% of newly diagnosed invasive breast cancers and has been associated with an elevated risk of both local-regional recurrence (LRR) as well as distant failure. Bevacizumab (BEV) has been shown to improve pathologic complete response rates in the setting of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT), but its effect on LRR remains undefined. This study reports the impact of adding BEV to standard breast cancer therapy in TNBC patients treated at a single institution. Methods: One hundred and eighty-five consecutive TNBC patients treated at the University of Alabama Birmingham from May 2005 to August 2010 were reviewed. Thirty-one TNBC patients treated with chemotherapy (CT) and BEV on prospective studies were matched (1:2) with 62 TNBC patients treated with CT alone, controlling for age, stage, and use of radiation (RT). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate LRR, distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and overall survival (OS), and cohorts were compared using Cox proportional hazards models and the 2-sided log-rank test. Results: Mean age was 47 and 46 years in the cohorts with and without BEV, respectively. Stage in each cohort was as follows: 32% stage I, 61% stage II, and 7% stage III. Use of adjuvant RT was 81% in each cohort (25/31 BEV, 50/62 no BEV). BEV was delivered with NCT in 17 patients (55%) and with adjuvant CT in the remaining 14 patients (45%). Eleven patients (35%) completed an additional 1 year of maintenance therapy with BEV. LRR occurred in 2 (6%) patients treated with BEV vs. 16 (26%) treated with CT alone (HR = 0.25, 95% CI 0.06–1.07, p = 0.04). Distant recurrence occurred in 3 (10%) patients treated with BEV vs. 11 (18%) patients in the CT group HR=0.6, 95% CI 0.2–1.8, p = 0.48). There were 2 (6%) deaths in the BEV group vs. 12 (19%) in the CT alone group (HR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.13–2.3, p = 0.19). Conclusions: In a matched-pair analysis of TNBC patients, the addition of BEV to conventional breast cancer management was associated with a reduction in LRR. Further prospective study is necessary to examine the impact of BEV on local-regional control in TNBC. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-17-07.


Spatial risk assessments are an effective management tool used in multiple-use marine parks to balance the needs for conservation of natural properties and to provide for varying socio-economic demands for development. The multiple-use Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) has recently experienced substantial increases in current and proposed port expansions and subsequent shipping. Globally, large whale populations are recovering from commercial whaling and ship strike is a significant threat to some populations and a potential welfare issue for others. Within the GBRMP, there is spatial conflict between the main breeding ground of the east Australian humpback whale population and the main inner shipping route that services several large natural resource export ports. The east coast humpback whale population is one of the largest humpback whale populations globally, exponentially increasing (11% per annum) close to the maximum potential rate and estimated to reach pre-exploitation population numbers in the next 4–5 years. We quantify the relative risk of ship strike to calving and mating humpback whales, with areas of highest relative risk coinciding with areas offshore of two major natural resource export ports. We found females with a dependent calf had a higher risk of ship strike compared to groups without a calf when standardized for group size and their inshore movement and coastal dependence later in the breeding season increases their overlap with shipping, although their lower relative abundance decreases risk. The formalization of a two-way shipping route has provided little change to risk and projected risk estimates indicate a three- to five-fold increase in risk to humpback whales from ship strike over the next 10 years. Currently, the whale Protection Area in the GBRMP does not cover the main mating and calving areas, whereas provisions within the legislation for establishment of a Special Management Area during the peak breeding season in high-risk areas could occur. A common mitigation strategy of re-routing shipping lanes to reduce risk is not a viable option for the GBRMP due to physical spatial limitations imposed by the reef, whereas speed restrictions could be the most feasible based on current ship speeds.


Immunity in influenza is a complex phenomenon that depends upon numerous factors whose importance is not yet sufficiently known. The following mechanisms of defence are triggered by infection with the influenza virus: (a) The immune secretory system: -- IgA antibodies, --immune response in terms of the vaccinating dose, previous immunologic experience and time (appraised according to the moment in which infection started). (b) Serum antibodies: -- to the soluble antigen, -- to surface particulate antigens (hemagglutinin and neuraminidase), --antihemagglutinin and antineuraminidase antibodies, indicating the degree of protection. (c) Cellular immunity: -- influenza virus inducing the proliferation of lymphocytes in vitro and activating the inhibitory factor of mononuclear migration, -- mediated immunity. These problems of immunity have not yet been fully elucidated.


Continued advances in quantum technologies rely on producing nanometer-scale wires. Although several state-of-the-art nanolithographic technologies and bottom-up synthesis processes have been used to engineer these wires, critical challenges remain in growing uniform atomic-scale crystalline wires and constructing their network structures. Here, we discover a simple method to fabricate atomic-scale wires with various arrangements, including stripes, X-junctions, Y-junctions, and nanorings. Single-crystalline atomic-scale wires of a Mott insulator, whose bandgap is comparable to those of wide-gap semiconductors, are spontaneously grown on graphite substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. These wires are one unit cell thick and have an exact width of two and four unit cells (1.4 and 2.8 nm) and lengths up to a few micrometers. We show that the nonequilibrium reaction-diffusion processes may play an essential role in atomic pattern formation. Our findings offer a previously unknown perspective on the nonequilibrium self-organization phenomena on an atomic scale, paving a unique way for the quantum architecture of nano-network.


The problem of the division between the Ancient World and that of the Middle Ages— real or illusory?—which has provoked such controversy among historians of Europe, is no less important for North Africa, although its study has hardly begun. In seeking to show that the routes which spanned roughly the region of northern. Algeria in classical times survived for a thousand years thereafter, Forstner is attempting the detailed proof of an assumption that has often been made but never sufficiently shown, about the continuity of civilization in the Maghrib from one epoch to the next. He does so by the detailed comparison of the literary and archaeological evidence for the network of' roads ' in the Roman, Vandal and Byzantine periods with the descriptions of the routes provided by the Arab geographers, most notably al-Bakri and alIdrlsi. This comparison occupies the bulk of the book, and whatever else it may do, will prove an enormously valuable work of reference. Forstner has not shrunk from the unenviable task of deciding what is meant by ' a mile ' or ' a day's journey ', or from an increasingly speculative, but always cautious, assessment of the probabilities where the evidence is defective. Laying what he calls the timeless map of the medieval period, constructed from all references of whatever date, over a similarly timeless map of the classical period, he is able to conclude that the Muslims employed most but not all of the Roman routes, with relatively few additions of their own to make new connexions, or to open the way south into the Sahara. The conclusion is very plausible, though it is a pity that the picture given by the small map XXI does not wholly correspond with that of the larger map XXIII. It is also a pity that there is no short list of the 102 routes of the Islamic period, under which the material is arranged, in numerical order. To find any given route, it is necessary to refer for its number to the figures on map XXIII.


Lactococcus garvieae , a gram-positive anaerobe facultative coccus, is a well-known pathogen in the aquaculture and cattle sector, being extremely rare for human beings. There are some case reports of infections caused by this microorganism, however, there are no fasciitis cases up to date. This is a case of a 24-year-old patient with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and previous COVID-19 pneumonia without sequelae, admitted to the emergency room for a case compatible with fasciitis. Three cultures for L. garvieae were obtained from surgical debridement and microbiological studies were performed using automated VITEK-2 equipment. No posterior complications were documented. The patient went through a skin graft with a favorable response without evidence of clinical relapse.


We introduce Harmonia, a new RF-based localization scheme that provides the simplicity, cost, and power advantages of traditional narrowband radios with the decimeter-scale accuracy of ultra wideband localization techniques. Harmonia is an asymmetric tag and anchor system, requiring minimal modifications to existing low-power wireless devices to support high-fidelity localization with comparatively modest infrastructure costs. A prototype Harmonia design offers location estimates with an average-case error of 53.4 cm in complex, heavy-multipath, indoor environments and captures location estimates at 56 Hz while requiring only 1.7 mA additional power draw for each tag and complying with all US UWB regulations. We believe this architecture's combination of accuracy, update rate, power draw, and system complexity will lead to a new point in the design space.


farms in Salumber tehsil of Udaipur district during 2008-09. The study has revealed that farm income per family is higher on beneficiary farms as compared to non-beneficiary farms. The progress of crop insurance scheme in Rajasthan has been found positive, as is evidenced through compound and linear growth rates. In the Udaipur district, the progress of crop insurance scheme has been found positive, except the claim passed to the number of farmers and amount of sum insured. At the overall level, the total area insured under the crop insurance programme has been only about 45 per cent of the total cropped area of the beneficiary farms. Use of inputs such as human and bullock labour, seed, manures, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. has been found significantly higher on beneficiary farms than non-beneficiary farms. The beneficiary farmers have invested more on hired human, machine and bullock labour, seeds, manures, fertilizers, chemicals, etc. mainly because of guaranteed compensation from the crop insurance scheme. Positive elasticity for area in maize and wheat crops in both the beneficiary categories has indicated the scope of further use of this input to increase crop production and gross income. The majority of beneficiary farmers have been found satisfied with crop insurance scheme; however, they have shown discontent towards delay in payment of claim, present basis fixing compensation and inadequate payment of compensation. The same response for these shortcomings has been reported by non-beneficiary group also.


D-3-Hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HBDH) from Pseudomonas fragi showed a strict stereospecificity to the d-enantiomer of 3-hydroxybutyrate (d-3-HB) as a substrate. The l-enantiomer acts as a competitive inhibitor, with a K(i) value comparable to the K(m) value for d-3-HB. We have determined the crystal structures of the ternary complex of HBDH-NAD(+)-l-3-HB and the binary complex of HBDH-NAD(+). The former structure showed a so-called closed-form conformation, which is considered an active form for catalysis, while the latter stayed mostly in a open-form conformation. The determined structures along with the site-directed mutagenesis confirmed the substrate recognition mechanism that we proposed previously. The hydrogen bonding interaction between Gln196, located in the moving helix, and the carboxyl group of the substrate/inhibitor is important for the stable ternary complex formation. Finally, the crystal structures of the Thr190 mutants, T190S and T190A, indicate that the Thr190 is a key residue for the open-closed conformational change. T190S retained 37% of the activity. In T190A, however, the activity decreased to 0.1% that of the wild-type enzyme. Fixing the position of the hydroxyl group of Thr190 to form hydrogen bonds to the pyrophosphate moiety and the carboxamide of NAD(+) seems to be a significant factor for the open-closed conformational change.


Eight neonatal calves (2 to 21 days old) with suspected abomasal displacement or intestinal obstruction after acute onset of abdominal tympany, colic, depression, or death were referred to Kansas State University for clinical examination or for necropsy. Results of routine hematologic and serum chemical analyses did not reveal consistent changes. Necropsy revealed abomasal distention, with various degrees of abomasitis, hemorrhage, and ulceration, but did not reveal evidence of displaced abomasum or obstructed intestine. Specimens of ruminal contents collected via stomach tube or at necropsy and abomasal contents collected at necropsy were obtained for anaerobic bacteriologic culture. Clostridium perfringens was isolated from all specimens, and on the basis of toxin neutralization tests in mice, 7 were type A and one was type E. Copper concentrations in serum and tissues were within normal limits. It appeared that the acute abdominal syndrome in these neonatal calves was unrelated to copper deficiency, and that C perfringens, particularly type A, may have had an appreciable contributory role in its pathogenesis.


A sudden heating oil release occurred below a concrete slab of a residence in Massachusetts. The oil entered an open sump in the basement and migrated to a nearby stream. Remediation included deployment of absorbent booms, limited soil excavation, and in-situ treatment with hydrogen peroxide. Soil, sediment, groundwater, and indoor air samples were analyzed to delineate the extent of contamination, verify that remedial efforts were successful, and determine if a vapor intrusion pathway existed. Indoor air samples were collected on three events: at the time of release, after remedial activities, and four months later. Indoor air analytical results were compared to the new draft Threshold Values published by the MassDEP Indoor Air Working Group (June 2008). In each sampling event, various compounds were detected above the applicable Threshold Values. As suggested by the MassDEP, multiple lines of evidence were investigated to determine whether the exceedances were attributable to the release. The presence of mothballs, the construction and operation of the home heating system, analytical evidence of a potential historical release, and soil and groundwater analytical data were used as lines of evidence that a vapor intrusion pathway did not exist.


This paper investigates deep neural network (DNNs) applied to coprime microphone arrays (CPMAs) and semi-coprime microphone arrays (SCPMAs) for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation of speech signals. Existing research has shown that the coprime arrangement increases the operating frequency of conventional uniform linear arrays (ULAs) by interleaving two uniform sub-arrays with different spacing. The SCPMA extends this arrangement and further increases the operating frequency, above which interfering signals are largely amplified in the recording and lead to confusion with the desired source. As a result, both types of coprime geometries improve the beampattern, array gain and DOA estimation results compared to the ULA. However, large side lobes may still occur in the beampattern of the two coprime arrangements, resulting in degraded DOA estimates using conventional beamforming-based approaches in an adverse environment. The proposed approach alternatively utilises deep learning (DL) to estimate speech DOAs using coprime microphone arrays. Experimental results evaluating the accuracy under different levels of noise using the mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the DOA estimate indicate satisfactory performance of the proposed method.


Replacement of the esophagus in children can be performed in cases of malformations, injuries, or acquired conditions. The new esophagus should allow normal oral feeding, with little or no gastroesophageal reflux, and be able to work well for the lifetime of the patient. For over a century, many substitutes have been used, such as segments of colon, the entire stomach, gastric tubes, or parts of the small bowel, but none are perfect or function like a normal esophagus. Esophageal replacements are demanding challenges for pediatric surgeons. Here, I review the different techniques and the pitfalls related to these procedures on the basis of our experience of more than 300 esophageal replacements in children performed since 1989.


The prevalence of self-medication (SM) has increased in health professionals due to awareness of disease and symptoms. Incorrect use of medication caused harmful effects. To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of health professionals, this survey was conducted. A cross-sectional study was carried out among health professionals of different specialities. Knowledge, attitude and practice-based questions were asked through an electronically distributed questionnaire. Data were statistically tested using the Chi-square test with SPSS. Most of the health professionals were aware with the term of self-medication; however the knowledge about related questions was not satisfactory. Almost half of the participants practiced self-medication. The prevalence of self-medication among participants was high. They need to be trained and educate about the incorrect use of self-medication.


Child labor is a gradually increasing phenomenon across the world. Children working on the streets are vulnerable to a variety of mental and non-mental illnesses. Due to the scarcity of the research on the health impacts of this phenomenon on these children, this study investigates the risks of mental illnesses and school performance among children working on the streets. A comparative study was conducted from December 16, 2006 to June 10, 2007. The study included 120 boys working on the streets and a comparable sample of non-working boys from primary schools. A modified Family Map was used to collect data on the socio-demographic characteristics. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescence tool was utilized to identify the presence of mental illnesses. The findings show that children working on the streets are five times more likely to be depressed and four times more likely to be anxious than school children. No significant differences are found between the two groups concerning suicide, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, tic disorder or school performance. Children working on the streets are more likely to have one or more mental illnesses than the comparable sample of boys attending school regularly. More research is needed to address pathogenesis of mental illnesses as well as resilience of vulnerable children living in a difficult environment.


"Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden - step out of the space provided"
Nurse With Wound.
The 1979 debut album by Nurse With Wound is perhaps less famous for the music it contained than an accompanying text printed on its inside sleeve. Dubbed the 'NWW List', it is a collection of 292 outsider artists and bands ('electric experimental music') that inspired NWW; some known, most obscure, and a few potentially fictional. Providing fans and collectors of experimental with an unofficial road-map-cum-shopping-list of rare, visionary and exotic music across 'art' and 'popular' styles, its fame has accumulated such that, today, items sell on Ebay for upwards of a thousand pounds. Yet the significance of the list is not only as a spirit-seeker's handbook. More than this, it has come to represent a shift in the praxis and self-understanding of underground music culture relative to history, where passive notions of 'influence' and 'inheritance' are displaced by the more active and performative concepts of 'genealogy' and 'history making'. In today's electronic music, these processes are everywhere: in the creative practices of individual artists, the curatorship of record labels, the texts of record stores and music critics - even in the individual sounds and technologies. Without the recovered historical signifiers and uncharted paths that thread throughout and mark the terrain of contemporary electronic music genres - J.D. Emmanuel's new age-meets-minimalism masterpiece Wizards in Noise; the production sound on Don Henley's Boys of Summer in Hypnagogic Pop; the Radiophonic Workshop in Hauntology - their very separateness as genres is compromised.
How do we theorise this acceleration, diversification, and individuation of genealogy in electronic music today, accounting for the multiple conflicting historical paths that are threaded by artists, labels, genres, and institutions, and that are performed through texts, sounds, artefacts, and other mediums? Music criticism on the subject has so far been nugatory, resorting to well-worn end-of-history narratives of crisis, decline, and malaise in popular culture. Drawing on the NWW list, and informed by the concept of 'the contemporary' as a distinct moment of historical-time consciousness, a first aim of this paper will be to argue against this intellectual trend, figuring the 'hauntological' turn, not as a symptom of crisis or inertia, but as part of a reflexive expansion of what constitutes the aesthetic object. Central here is the role and function of the Internet in today's electronic music genres, and the aesthetics of the archive that has emerged in relation to it.
The second aim of my paper will be to consider the implications of these actions for music studies in general. If there is a 'musicological' intent to these acts of curation and history-making, augured by the expanding archive of popular music housed on the Internet, then how can musicology-proper utilise them in productive ways? This section will draw on Branden W. Joseph's 2008 study of Tony Conrad, and Georgina Born and Nicholas Cook's recent statements on the notion of 'relational musicology', for methodological and theoretical support.


Despite recent multilateral efforts to single out child labor in debt bondage as one of the worst forms of child labor, several important questions have yet to be addressed: How pervasive is the phenomenon? Are there systematic correlations between the incidence of children in debt bondage and the economic, legislative, and financial development indicators of the economy? How does an understanding of these correlates affect the way national and international policy measures aimed at targeting this form of child labor are perceived? This article addresses each of these questions. The empirical findings suggest strong correlation between the likelihood of the incidence of child labor in debt bondage with the stage of development of an economy, the stage of financial development, and enforcement of core labor rights. Building on this evidence, the article presents a theoretical model that highlights the drawbacks and merits of a number of policies aimed at putting checks on child labor in debt bondage.


In March 2020, for the first time in the history of the UN Human Rights Council, Elena Dovgan, a representative of Belarus, Doctor of Law, Professor at the Department of Private International and European Law, Faculty of International Relations, Belarusian State University, became a Special Rapporteur. Elena Dovgan was in charge of the negative impact of sanctions, and this mandate falls on a difficult time: despite calls from numerous states, international organizations and NGOs to abandon restrictive measures, the U.S., EU and their partners blocked the UN draft resolution on the fight against coronavirus, which implied the easing of sanctions and the abandonment of trade wars. In an interview for Eurasia.Expert, the Special Rapporteur from Belarus revealed how the UN system of special procedures works and the essence of the international expert's difficult work.


Purpose : Diabetes insipidus(DI) has been known to be a relatively common complication after craniotomy. We have investigated the incidence and clinical course of DI in children related to craniotomy for a brain tumor and determined the risk factors of postoperative DI. Methods : Sixty-two pediatric patients, who have undergone craniotomy for a brain tumor(including stereotactic biopsy) from February 1995 through January 1998, were included in this study. We reviewed hospital records retrospectively and analyzed daily fluid intake and output, electrolytes and osmolarity of serum and urine, and urine specific gravity. Results : Of 62 patients, DI developed preoperatively in 7 patients and postoperatively in 7 patients. Preoperative DI composed of 4 germinoma, 2 craniopharyngioma and a histiocytosis, followed by permanent DI after operation. All of the postoperative DI were composed of suprasellar tumors, including 4 craniopharyngioma, which progressed to permanent DI in 5 cases and transient DI in 2 cases. The 5 patients had a triphasic response. The initial phase of DI began within 12 hours postoperatively followed by antidiuretic phase at the 2nd-6th postoperative day, lasted 1-6 days and finally all patients entered permanent DI. Hypopituitarism developed in 10 patients and all of them were accompanied by permanent DI. Conclusion : DI is a common complication after neurosurgery for the hypothalamic or pituitary area. The high-risk factors of permanant DI are preoperative DI, combined hypopituitarism or triphasic response. Therefore, it is important to closely monitor this high-risk group, and we should consider endocrinological evaluation in patients who had undergone craniotomy for a brain tumor. (J Korean Pediatr Soc 1999;42:1702-1710)


Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), a major staple food for the people of Pakistan and other Asian countries, is used as bread, chapatti, porridge, noodles and many other. It is established that color quality of wheat products depend on chemical and enzymatic factors especially the polyphenol oxidases (PPOs). These are copper containing enzymes which induce browning in wheat-based products. Various procedures for determining PPO activity available and differences in PPO activity among wheat genotypes have been documented. In present study, an attempt was made to establish the association of molecular markers with polyphenol oxidase activity in wheat genotypes having very high or very low PPO activities. Twelve pairs of markers were used out of which only three primer pairs viz. PPO43, PPO30 and WP2-2 yielded specific pattern discriminating high and low PPO genotypes. Cluster analysis for all 12 markers revealed that all the low PPO lline share the same sub cluster, but high PPO lines were dispersed in different clusters.


Normolipemic plane xanthoma (NPX) is a well-characterized clinicopathologic entity distinct from necrobiotic xanthogranuloma (NXG). We present the case of a patient with the classic clinical course of NPX but with many histologic features in common with NXG, namely, multinucleated lipophages, cholesterol clefts, and degeneration of collagen with associated cellular necrosis (necrobiosis). We suggest that NPX and NXG represent part of a spectrum of xanthomatous dermal reactions associated with paraproteinemias and may be more closely related than previously recognized.


Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a rare hematologic disease that occurs due to immune system dysfunction. Clinical manifestations of this disease are fever, increased ferritin level, cytopenia, and hemophagocytosis in the biopsy report of the bone marrow. We report a 36‐year‐old woman referred to our hospital with persistent fever, arthralgia in interphalangeal joints, and cutaneous rash on the trunk, was subsequently diagnosed as an adult‐onset Still's disease (AOSD), and after bone marrow aspiration, HLH was diagnosed with her.


PICORE-ASL using tr-FOCI pulses during labelling typically generates high power deposition at 7T. The current study introduces an asymmetric tr-FOCI pulse for PICORE-ASL to achieve SAR reduction. Results from simulations, phantom and in vivo experiments demonstrate the SAR reduction that can be achieved by using the asymmetric pulses without sacrificing inversion efficiency, slice profiles or CBF measurement.


AbstractThreefold densities may be introduced into atmospheric thermodynamics. For rainless clouds the general indirect or implicit conclusion is that they are denser than moist air under the same circumstances, although in a classic treatise a different conclusion was reached, to the effect that cloudy air (containing water and/or ice) is less dense than moist air under the same pressure and temperature. By reconsidering carefully different ways of determining densities, any doubts that may linger after reading the scant literature dealing explicitly with the density of a cloud are dispelled.


We present a thorough spectroscopic study of y-(n-hexadecyl)quinolinium tricyanoquinodimethanide, C 1 6 H 3 3 Q3CNQ, a very well-known zwitterionic donor-π-acceptor chromophore, that behaves as a molecular rectifier. Absorption and Raman spectra are collected from solution and solid samples, as well as from Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayer and multilayers. Whereas Raman spectra confirm the zwitterionic nature of the molecule in all phases, the absorption spectra show a complex evolution with the molecular environment. The impressive inverse solvatochromic behavior (hypsochromism) shown by C 1 6 H 3 3 Q-3CNQ is analyzed, based on the Mulliken-Holstein model that was previously used to describe spectral properties of normal solvatochromic (bathochromic) dyes. The same model is extended here to describe the molecular units in the LB monolayer. Intermolecular interactions in the film are introduced as classical electrostatic forces. The molecular parameters entering the model are extracted from the analysis of absorption and emission spectra in solution in a bottom-up modeling that allows the transfer of information among the different phases. The polarity of the ground state is estimated as p 0.89, 0.90, and 0.93 in CHCl 3 , CH 2 Cl 2 , and CH 3 CN, respectively. The ground and first excited-state electric dipole moment at infinite dilution in CH 2 Cl 2 are estimated as 36 and 4 D, respectively, in good agreement with previous estimates. The large blue-shift of the absorption band in the LB film with respect to solution is ascribed to the increased polarity of the environment, rather than to excitonic effects.


Interference plays a crucial role for performance degradation in communication networks nowadays. An appealing approach to interference avoidance is the Interference Cancellation (IC) methodology. Particularly, the Successive IC (SIC) method represents the most effective IC-based reception technique in terms of Bit-Error-Rate (BER) performance and, thus, yielding to the overall system robustness. Moreover, SIC in conjunction with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), in the context of SIC-OFDM, is shown to approach the Shannon capacity when single-antenna infrastructures are applied while this capacity limit can be further extended with the aid of multiple antennas. Recently, SIC-based reception has studied for Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing or (spread-OFDM systems), namely OFCDM. Such systems provide extremely high error resilience and robustness, especially in multi-user environments. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey on the performance of SIC for single- and multiple-antenna OFDM and spread OFDM (OFCDM) systems. Thereby, we focus on all the possible OFDM formats that have been developed so far. We study the performance of SIC by examining closely two major aspects, namely the BER performance and the computational complexity of the reception process, thus striving for the provision and optimization of SIC. Our main objective is to point out the state-of-the-art on research activity for SIC-OF(C)DM systems, applied on a variety of well-known network implementations, such as cellular, ad hoc and infrastructure-based platforms. Furthermore, we introduce a Performance-Complexity Tradeoff (PCT) in order to indicate the contribution of the approaches studied in this paper. Finally, we provide analytical performance comparison tables regarding to the surveyed techniques with respect to the PCT level.


This paper describes the challenges with the exploitation of memory corruption software vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS. The goal is to map out the problem space in order to allow for the anticipation of developments in the future, as current research suggests that exploitation of such vulnerabilities in the wild is not currently the case. By understanding the challenges that an attacker faces, defensive strategies can be better planned, a required evolution with the current state of Cisco IOS router networks.


Abstract. Patterns of genetic diversity in the groundwater fauna of Australia have largely focused on obligate stygobites of relatively large size, namely, crustaceans. Oligochaete worms, with their smaller size and broader ecological niches, provide a contrasting model in which to examine such patterns. Genetic diversity in subterranean oligochaetes in the Pilbara region of Western Australia were examined using one nuclear (18S) and two mitochondrial (COI, 12S) regions. The observed variation was assessed at three levels of hydrology – river basin, creek catchment, and individual bore or site – to document geographic patterns. Most species appeared to be restricted to an individual catchment; however, five species, representing three families, were widespread, with some haplotypes being shared between bores, catchments and even basins. General patterns suggest that while hydrology plays a role in the distribution of oligochaete species, it does not always confine them to catchments, in contrast to patterns observed in groundwater isopods and amphipods in the region. We suggest that intrinsic characteristics of oligochaetes, such as body size, shape, reproductive strategy and ecological requirements, may have allowed them greater dispersal within the subterranean biome of the Pilbara. In particular, oligochaetes may occupy subterranean and surface waters, increasing their opportunities for dispersal.


Research Highlights and Abstract This article provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of UK debt. makes a contribution to the debate on the Anglo-liberal growth model and its consequences for the recovery of the UK economy. The UK has the highest private debt among the G7 states plus Spain. Both financial services and household debt are high. Financial services debt is much the more consequential of the two sectors. It was a central component of the growth model of the UK prior to 2008 and its legacy is making the UK's recovery from recession extremely difficult. Financial sector debt also had an impact on the UK's rising borrowing requirement from 2007. However, it was not the direct cause of the rise in the UK's budget deficit, which was in large part a product of the Brown government's approach to its political difficulties as growth came to an end. Despite the UK's high budget deficit in comparative terms, the UK has enjoyed considerable fiscal autonomy the past few years. However, this autonomy could yet be threatened by the ongoing consequences of financial sector debt.


Ideally, for emission calculations long term dynamic simulations should be performed, but this requires long calculation times. Simplifications are consequently necessary. Due to the non-linear behaviour of sewer systems, it is difficult to find a direct relationship between the input (rainfall) and the output (overflows) of a combined sewer system. Since continuity always has to be fulfilled, the sewer system storage is the key parameter. Simplified models make use of storage/throughflow-relationships to characterize sewer systems. For a number of real sewer systems storage/throughflow-relationships were determined under different rainfall conditions. Although the rainfall conditions varied considerably, the storage/throughfiow-relationships seem to remain quite similar. This provides a good argument to build faster, simplified models for long term simulations, where only the storage/throughflow-relationship and the continuity equation are necessary. By fitting a piecewise linear relationship to the determined storage/throughflow-relationship, it is readily implemented in a linear reservoir model. For such model the solution can be analytically obtained. This results in very low calculation times, of the order of 10* to 10* times smaller than for the dynamic simulation.


A new approach for computing NURBS offset curves and surfaces was proposed in this paper. First of all, the special NURBS curves and surfaces were recognized to be different with free form ones. The offsets of the special cases were precisely calculated according to their equations. The offset of free form NURBS curves and surfaces were solved using the following steps: (1) Decomposing the NURBS curve and surface into Bézier segments or surface patches; (2) Sampling Bézier segments or surface patches and removing duplicate points; (3) Interpolating the offset points and creating offset curve or surface; (4) Reducing the control points by removing all removable knots with a user defined tolerance. On the premise of keeping the shape of offset curves and surfaces, not only the degree of curve or surface could be freely controlled, but also less number of control points was needed and also duplicate knots were avoided. It was proved in practical engineering that the efficiency and precision were improved mush.


Potholes though seem inconsequential, may cause accidents resulting in loss of human life. In this paper, we present an automated system to efficiently manage the potholes in a ward by deploying geotagging and image processing techniques that overcomes the drawbacks associated with the existing survey-oriented systems. Image processing is used for identification of target pothole regions in the 2D images using edge detection and morphological image processing operations. A method is developed to accurately estimate the dimensions of the potholes from their images, analyze their area and depth, estimate the quantity of filling material required and therefore enabling pothole attendance on a priority basis. This will further enable the government official to have a fully automated system for effectively managing pothole related disasters.


Abstract Objectives Patients undergoing surgery for locally advanced lung cancer involving the chest wall require anatomical lung with extensive en-bloc chest wall resection and appropriate reconstruction. In this proof-of-concept study, we aimed to produce personalized three-dimensional (3D)-printed chest wall prosthesis for a patient undergoing chest wall resection and reconstruction using clinically obtained computed tomography (CT) data. Methods Preoperative CT scans of three patients undergoing chest wall resection were analyzed and the areas of resection segmented. This was then used to produce a 3D print of the chest wall and a silicone mold was created from the model. This mold was sterilized and used to produce methyl methacrylate prostheses which were then implanted into the patients. Results Three patients had their chest wall reconstructed using this technique to produce a patient specific prosthesis. There were no early complications or deaths. Conclusions It is possible to use 3D printing to produce a patient specific chest wall reconstruction for patients undergoing chest wall resection for malignancy that is cost-effective. This chest wall is thought to provide stability in the form of prosthetic ribs as well compliance in the form of an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene patch. Further research is required to measure chest wall compliance during the respiratory cycle and long-term follow-up from this method.


The present work was conducted to compare the occurrence of Escherichia coli possessing virulence and ESBL genes in backyard and farmed poultry. Three hundred and sixty samples from the poultry kept in backyard system and 120 samples from the farmed birds were collected from West Bengal, India. Among the E. coli isolates of backyard poultry (O2, O10, O25, O55, O60, O106, UT), none of them possessed any of the Shiga toxin genes and eight E. coli isolates (8/272; 2.9%) harboured eaeA gene alone. Whereas among the E. coli isolated from the farmed poultry (O17, O20, O22, O102, O114, O119, rough, UT), four isolates (4/78, 5.1%) harboured stx 1/stx 2 gene and 11 isolates (11/78, 14.1%) possessed eaeA gene. None of the E. coli isolates from the backyard poultry harboured any studied ESBL gene. Whereas 29.4% of E. coli isolates from the farmed poultry were found to possess the ESBL genes.