Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore two distinct yet complimentary "structured professional judgement (SPJ)" approaches to terrorist/extremist risk assessment on the vexing issue of how best to deal with the subjectivity inherently involved in professional judgement.

Design/methodology/approach

An SPJ methodology is considered the best practice approach for assessing terrorism risk. Currently there are four specific terrorism risk instruments that have been published in the literature. Two of these SPJ tools are examined in detail, namely the Violent Extremist Risk Assessment tool (Pressman, 2009; Pressman et al., 2012) and the Structured Assessment of Violent Extremism (SAVE) tool (Dean, 2014). The paper critically unpacks the conceptual and methodological stumbling blocks of an SPJ methodology for controlling human subjectivity.

Findings

The paper presents the case for adopting a "controlling in" approach rather than a "controlling out" approach of an analyst's subjective tacit (in-the-head) knowledge inherent in their professional judgement. To have a quantifiable SPJ tool that triangulates the multi-dimensionality of terrorism risk which can validate an analyst's professional judgement is the next logical step in terrorist/extremist risk assessment work. The paper includes a case example of this "controlling in" approach and the validation methodology used by the SAVE software system.

Practical implications

The implications for practice range from incorporating the SAVE system in operational policing/national security work with its quantitative nature, triangulated risk scores, visualisation output of a prioritised case report with in-built alerts, to the required training for system calibration to enhance user proficiency.

Originality/value

This is a highly original and innovative paper as this type of quantified SPJ tool (SAVE) has up until now never been applied before in terrorist/extremist risk assessment work.


Introduction Mitochondria change their shape by undergoing either fusion or fission producing elongated interconnected or fragmented discrete networks, respectively. Whether alterations in mitochondrial morphology impact on the heart's susceptibility to ischaemia-reperfusion injury is unknown. We hypothesised that inducing mitochondrial fusion protects the heart against ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Methods and Results In response to ischaemia, mitochondria in HL-1 cells (a cardiac-derived cell line) were shown to undergo fragmentation, a process which could be prevented by a dominant negative construct of Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1, a known mitochondrial fission protein). Inducing mitochondrial fusion in HL-1 cells by over-expressing either mitofusin 1 or 2 (known mitochondrial fusion proteins) or Drp1K38A (a dominant negative mutant form of Drp1): increased the proportion of cells containing elongated mitochondria (65±4%, 69±5%, 63±6%, respectively, vs 46±6% in control:N=80 cells/group; p<0.05); decreased mitochondrial permeability transition pore sensitivity (by 2.4±0.5, 2.3±0.7, 2.4±0.3-fold, respectively; N=80 cells/group: p<0.05); and reduced cell death following simulated ischaemia-reperfusion injury (11.6±3.9%, 16.2±3.9%, 12.1±2.9%, respectively, vs 41.8±4.1% in control:N=320 cells/group:p<0.05). Pharmacologically inducing mitochondrial fusion using mdivi-1, a small molecule Drp1 inhibitor, reproduced the beneficial effects. Crucially, elongated interfibrillar mitochondria were identified in the adult rodent heart using confocal and electron microscopy. Finally, inducing mitochondrial fusion with mdivi-1 in adult murine cardiomyocytes reduced cell death following simulated ischaemia-reperfusion injury (34.0±1.9% vs 46.0±1.1%:N>250 cells/group:p<0.05), and reduced infarct size in the in vivo murine heart (21.0±2.2% vs 48.0±4.5% in control;N=6 animals/group:p<0.05). Conclusions Inducing mitochondrial fusion protects the heart against ischaemia-reperfusion injury. These findings provide a novel pharmacological target for cardioprotection.


This paper covers the successful manufacturing of Giant Magneto-Resistive (GMR) spin valve sensors consisting of a highly precise thin film stack of partially only three nanometer thin metal layers on the high-performant polymer polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK). By means of injection molding, disk-shaped wafer-like substrates were made including meandering cavities for subsequent sputter deposition. After a polishing step, a backside contact was established using the technique of laser direct structuring. The entire production process replaces and simplifies the classical lithography and masking processes almost rendering a clean room redundant. Sensors manufactured this way on PEEK substrate show a magneto-resistive effect of 3.7 % in comparison to 7.2 % for sensors gained with the same deposition parameters on silicon dioxide.


The article presents the results of a research aimed at revealing the representations that parents have on the family-school relationship in the rural context of Quillon, Chile. Qualitative methodology is used, using in-depth interview. Twenty subjects are interviewed. Some results indicate that families give teachers a key part to establish a proper family-school relationship. This representation is based on the recognition of the bureaucratic nature of the school. How the family involvement is modelled is determined by the relevance assigned to the school success of their children. Indeed, moments, instances and ways in which families participate are related to the value assigned to them to enhance academic results.


The Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC) sponsored an Autoantibody Workshop, providing data from a large number of type 1 diabetes–affected sibling pair families with multiple autoantibodies assayed (both islet and nonislet targets) and extensive genetic and clinical information. Multiple groups analyzed the autoantibody data and various forms of genetic data. The groups presented their results at the T1DGC Autoantibody Workshop and compared results across genes and autoantibodies. The reports of the analyses of the autoantibody data with genetic information are contained as individual articles in this supplement. There were several consistent findings that emerged from the T1DGC Autoantibody Workshop. The human MHC (HLA genes) is the major contributor to variation in the presence of islet and nonislet autoantibodies in subjects with established type 1 diabetes. The contribution of non-MHC genes/variants to autoantibody prevalence is dependent on the set of single nucleotide polymorphisms tested, the autoantibody evaluated, and the inclusion criteria for sample selection. On the basis of these results, the HLA alleles DRB1*0101 and DRB1*0404 and the PTPN22 R620W variant are consistently associated with autoimmunity in the T1DGC Autoantibody Workshop data.


Objective Drug abuse is an escalating problem in Hong Kong, especially among teenagers and young adults. A study was conducted in order to obtain the characteristics of drug abusers presenting to the Accident & Emergency department of North District Hospital, which is located in the New Territories near the Hong Kong – Shenzhen border. Design Prospective study. Setting Accident and Emergency department of a public general hospital. Patients Drug abusers presenting to the Accident and Emergency department in a six-month period. Main outcome measures Epidemiological data including demographic data, types of drug taken, place of drug abuse and magnitude of cross-border drug abuse were collected and analyzed. Results The sex distribution was male 59 and female 13 (ratio=4.5:1). The mean age was 29.2 (range 14 to 67 years). Of interest, 29.2% abused drugs at home; 29.2% abused drugs in parties such as karaoke, rave and disco; 68% abused drugs in Hong Kong; 32% abused drugs in China and 6.9% claimed themselves first-time drug abusers. The commonest drug taken was ecstasy (40.3%) – the majority (55%) in China and the rest (45%) in Hong Kong. For organic solvent abusers, 57.1% were below 18 years of age. One patient died, resulting in a mortality rate of 1.4%. Conclusion Ecstasy was the commonest drug abused on both sides of the "border". The majority of substance abusers were teenagers or young adult males. This study confirmed the significant magnitude of psychotropic substance abuse problem among the young population in the North District, indicating the urgent need for clinical and social intervention.


We studied fifty seven episodes of cirrhotic spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in order to know its microbiological, clinical and evolutive characteristics. One third of the patients had presented some previous peritonitis episodes. Ninety three percent of the patients referred some symptoms at time of diagnosis. Ascitic fluid Gram stain showed the presence of bacteria in 72% of the samples. Culture of ascitic fluid was positive for a single microorganism in 50 cases (88%). Seventy seven percent of microorganisms were Gram negative being Escherichia Coli in 63% of cases. Hemoculture was positive in 68% of cases with an almost complete correspondence with germs found in ascites. Seventy four percent of patients presented some complication throughout their hospital stay being the most frequent renal failure (49%) and encephalopathy (46%). Sixty three percent of patients died being the mortality rate higher amongst the older patients and amongst those who did not present neither high temperature or peritonism, or those who developed some complication.


This paper is based on work to develop an interactive learning game called HEALTHSIMNET that is meant for improving practice in a health care network. It considers three selected models for analysis of documentary data acquired during semi-structured interviews with participants of a network of health practitioners in the HIV field. The paper briefly reviews the expansive theory of learning but mainly explains how the three techniques can yield interactive narrative. We end with a description of the game and a discussion of the extent to which games developed using this method can be said to sustain the kind of learning described by activity theory. Keywords: activity theory, interactive narrative, game, HIV.


A language carries a concept of container which holds the information of emotion, culture and history of a community sharing a language as well as delivers the information since it plays a role in the formation of cultural code of an ethnic group. Each language maintains its own order and rule, and reveals the characteristics of the world of spirit of a certain ethnic group. The language also keeps its uniqueness and expresses the lives of the group. Phraseology is one of the linguistic methodological expressions which play a major role. Expressive features and aesthetic functions of a language and distinctiveness of an image in certain group appear in the system of phraseology. Thus, we can get a sense of linguistic view of world in each ethnic group through phraseology. The view makes us comprehend how a group perceives a real world surrounding it such as natural environments and various human behaviors. This article aims to study the practical meaning of 'сердце' and 'душа' in modern Russian and the relations between two words in Russian phraseology by examining the expressive phrases with 'сердце' and 'душа'. By doing so, we could understand a part of the view of the world which Russians recognize through these two words.


Objective
This study aims to compare the efficacy and safety of drug-coated balloon (DCB) and standard angioplasty balloon (SAB) in the treatment of intrastent restenosis (ISR) after lower extremity ASO following rotarex thrombus removal.

Methods
94 patients with ISR after lower extremity ASO were selected and divided into DCB group (47 cases) and SAB group (47 cases). After patients were treated with DCB and SAB methods, six months after discharge care, the therapeutic effect, lower extremity dorsal arterial blood flow, ankle-brachial index, lameness distance, hemorheology, endothelial function indexes, and lipid levels were measured.

Results
DCB group showed significantly higher effective rate compared to SAB group (P < .05). After treatment, post-treatment improvements in dorsalis arterial blood flow, ankle-brachial index intermittent claudicity distance, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and nitric oxide (NO) contents were more pronounced in the DCB group than SAB group (P < .05).Indexes of hemorheology and the contents of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels significantly decreased after treatment, with greater reduction observed in DCB group (P < .05). In addition, No significant change in adverse reactions between groups, but DCB group had lower adverse drug reaction rate.

Conclusions
Overall, DCB demonstrated superior efficacy in treating ISR after lower extremity ASO, offering a promising option for improving patient outcomes.


In shallow lakes, algal biomass is a fundamental indicator of eutrophication status. However, the vertical movement of phytoplankton within the water column can complicate the determination of total phytoplankton biomass using remotely sensed data of surface conditions. In this study, we develop, validate, and apply a new approach to use remotely sensed reflectance to estimate the variability of total algal biomass in shallow eutrophic lakes. Using the baseline normalized difference bloom index together with hydrological and bathymetric data, we determine the spatial and temporal dynamics of the total algal biomass in Lake Chaohu, a large shallow lake in eastern China under the nonalgae bloom conditions. Over an eleven-year period (2003–2013), the total phytoplankton biomass was highly variable, more than doubling between 2006 and 2007, from 19.95t to 39.50t. The seasonal decomposition of biomass dynamics indicated the highest biomass production occurred in June, while the lowest occurred in April. The estimates of total phytoplankton biomass were both consistent with in situ measurements and consistent for observations made on the same day and on consecutive days. The improved stability and reliability of total biomass estimations provided more complete information about lake conditions with respect to surface concentrations. This has implications for both management and modeling.


Distributed OLTP systems execute the high-overhead, two-phase commit (2PC) protocol at the end of every distributed transaction. Epoch-based commit proposes that 2PC be executed only once for all transactions processed within a time interval called an epoch. Increasing epoch duration allows more transactions to be processed before the common 2PC. It thus reduces 2PC overhead per transaction, increases throughput but also increases average transaction latency. Therefore, required is the ability to choose the right epoch size that offers the desired trade-off between throughput and latency. To this end, we develop two analytical models to estimate throughput and average latency in terms of epoch size taking into account load and failure conditions. Simulations affirm their accuracy and effectiveness. We then present epoch-based multi-commit which, unlike epoch-based commit, seeks to avoid all transactions being aborted when failures occur, and also performs identically when failures do not occur. Our performance study identifies workload factors that make it more effective in preventing transaction aborts and concludes that the analytical models can be equally useful in predicting its performance as well.


Mojokerto Regency is one of the districts with a high number of pregnant women who experience chronic energy deficiency (KEK) and continues to increase every year. Chronic energy deficiency is a nutritional problem due to lack of food consumption and energy sources containing micronutrients. Though the intake of quality nutrition in sufficient quantities is needed for the health of pregnant women and the fetus in the womb. Therefore, this study aims to analyze whether there is a relationship between nutritional intake and the incidence of KEK in pregnant women at the Gedeg Mojokerto Health Center. Where the independent variable in this study is nutritional intake in pregnant women and the dependent variable is KEK in pregnancy. The design in this study was a cross sectional survey and the population was all pregnant women in the working area of Gedeg Mojokerto Health Center with a total sample of 75 respondents. The data from this study were processed using the Chi-square statistical test which was then followed by the Odds Ratio test. And from the results of the study, it was found that there was a significant relationship between nutritional intake of pregnant women and the incidence of KEK (Chronic Energy Deficiency) in the Puskesmas Gedeg Mojokerto, this was evidenced by the acquisition of a p-value of 0.000 (< 0.05) which was further emphasized. with the results of the Odds Ratio (OR) which obtained a value of25.227 (> 1), where pregnant women with poor nutritional intake had a 25.227 times greater risk of experiencing KEK (Chronic Energy Deficiency) than pregnant women with good nutritional intake.


We present a novel procedure aimed at unsupervised catheter reconstruction from CT images. The proposed procedure is performed in two steps: detection of catheters on CT images and 3D reconstruction. In the first step catheters are detected as curvilinear structures where the first derivative in the direction of the normal vanishes. In the second step, geometric constraints on the shape of catheters are used to reconstruct catheters and to eliminate noise yielding from imperfect detection. Multiple solutions are removed by a combinatorial optimization algorithm. The algorithm can be used for both prostate catheters (approximately perpendicular to image plane) and breast catheters nearly parallel to image plane. The algorithm is automatic, without human interaction involved. Results obtained by testing the algorithm on clinical data are presented.


In zero-shot image retrieval (ZSIR) task, embedding learning becomes more attractive, however, many methods follow the traditional metric learning idea and omit the problems behind zero-shot settings. In this paper, we first emphasize the importance of learning visual discriminative metric and preventing the partial/selective learning behavior of learner in ZSIR, and then propose the Decoupled Metric Learning (DeML) framework to achieve these individually. Instead of coarsely optimizing an unified metric, we decouple it into multiple attention-specific parts so as to recurrently induce the discrimination and explicitly enhance the generalization. And they are mainly achieved by our object-attention module based on random walk graph propagation and the channel-attention module based on the adversary constraint, respectively. We demonstrate the necessity of addressing the vital problems in ZSIR on the popular benchmarks, outperforming the state-of-the-art methods by a significant margin. Code is available at http://www.bhchen.cn


Motor fault is a major problem in unmanned oriented systems such as smart factories. Recently, some studies have been actively carried out to make such a fault diagnosis unattended by a deep learning algorithm. However, these studies do not take into account the speed at which motors are driven, and therefore they are not appropriate for the actual system. In this paper, the experiment was performed to develop a deep learning algorithm that considered the motor speed. The method is that regard the vibration signal as an image and uses the algorithm, CNN, which is suitable for this processing. Adopting the suitable model reduced over-fitting and increased accuracy by reducing the model complexity. As a result, it is shown that fault diagnosis can be performed considering the motor driving speed by using the deep learning algorithm.


The National Airspace System (NAS), as a portion of the US' transportation system, has not yet begun to model or adopt integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. However, users of the NAS, i.e., Air transport operators, UAS operators, etc. are beginning to use this technology throughout their operations. At issue within the broader aviation marketplace, is the continued search for a solution set to the persistent daily delays and schedule perturbations that occur within the NAS. Despite billions invested through the NAS Modernization Program, the delays persist in the face of reduced demand for commercial routings. Every delay represents an economic loss to commercial transport operators, passengers, freighters, and any business depending on the transportation performance. Therefore, the FAA needs to begin to address from an advanced concepts perspective, what this wave of new technology will affect as it is brought to bear on various operations performance parameters, including safety, security, efficiency, and resiliency solution sets. This paper is the first in a series of papers we are developing to explore the application of AI in the National Airspace System (NAS). This first paper is meant to get everyone in the aviation community on the same page, a primer if you will, to start the technical discussions. This paper will define AI; the capabilities associated with AI; current use cases within the aviation ecosystem; and how to prepare for insertion of AI in the NAS. The next series of papers will look at NAS Operations Theory utilizing AI capabilities and eventually leading to a future intelligent NAS (iNAS) environment.


In Greece, chestnut forests ( Castanea sativa Mill.) occupy more than 30,000 ha of forest land. The species is one of the most significant of the Balkans. It is mainly cultivat ed for its high quality wood. Concerning cultivation and harvesting, the monks in Mount Athos peninsula in northern Greece practice a special empirical management method for local coppice chestnut forests. Data collected from 9 sampling surfaces, comprising of coppice chestnut stands of three different ages (10, 20 and 40 years old), were analyzed to study the effect of this particular empirical management method on specific soil parameters. Results indicated that, there is a general trend for increased organic matter and nutrient concentrations in the soil of 10 and 40 years old chestnut stands in comparison to those of 20 years of age. Cultivation treatments cause intense alterations on soil properties, leading to severe degradation of nutrient resources.


Understanding how ecosystem engineers influence other organisms has long been a goal of ecologists. Woodpeckers select nesting sites with high food availability and will excavate and then abandon multiple cavities through their lifetime. These cavities are crucial to secondary cavity nesting birds (SCB) that are otherwise limited by the availability of naturally occurring cavities. Our study examined the role food resources have on the nest site location and home range size of woodpeckers, and the respective influence woodpeckers and the construction of cavities have on the nesting success of SCB. Using five years of avian point count data to locate golden-fronted woodpeckers (GFWO: Melanerpes aurifrons), we correlated insect availability with GFWO home range size and determined differences in insect availability between GFWO occupied and unoccupied sites, while recording nesting success (success: ≥ 1 fledgling) for the GFWO and common SCB in south Texas: Black-crested Titmouse (Baeolophus atricristatus), Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens), Brown-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus tyrannulus), and Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii). We used model averaging to fit species-specific logistic regression models to predict nest success based on cavity metrics across all species. Sites occupied by GFWO had a higher biomass of insects in orders Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Orthoptera than unoccupied sites, and there was a negative correlation between the availability of these insect orders and home-range size. GFWO had increased nest success in trees with increased vegetation cover and lower levels of decay, while SCB had higher levels of nesting success in abandoned GFWO cavities opposed to naturally occurring ones, and in trees with low decay. Our results suggest that SCB may be drawn to nest in abandoned woodpecker cavities where they have higher rates of nest success compared to natural cavities. Additionally, the prevalence for GFWO to excavate cavities in trees with lower levels of decay contradicts previous literature and may indicate a novel temperature trade-off, with live trees requiring more energy to excavate, but providing more protection from high breeding season temperatures in arid and semi-arid areas.


Acetyl-coenzyme-A carboxylase has been isolated in homogeneous form from Candida lipolytica. The homogeneity of the enzyme preparation is evidenced by analytical ultracentrifugation, dodecyl-sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Ouchterlony double-diffusion analysis. The purified enzyme exhibits a specific activity of 8.0 U/mg protein at 25 degrees C and contains 1 mol biotin/263000 g protein. The sedimentation coefficient (S20,W) of the enzyme is 18 S. It has been shown by dodecyl-sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis that the enzyme possesses only one kind of subunit with a molecular weight of 230000. This finding, together with the biotin content, indicates that the C. lipolytica enzyme has a highly integrated subunit structure. The C. lipolytica enzyme is very labile, but is stabilized by glycerol. The enzyme is markedly activated by poly(ethyleneglycol), the activation being due principally to a decrease in the Km values for substrates. Even in the presence of this activator, the Km value for acetyl-CoA of the C. lipolytica enzyme is much higher than that of the enzyme from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and animal tissues. The C. lipolytica enzyme, unlike the enzyme from animal tissues, is not activated by citrate.


Low soil fertility has been a major factor to low maize yields in smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa. Technologies have been proposed including inorganic, fertilizers and plant growth promoting microorganisms. A study was conducted under greenhouse and field conditions to evaluate the effects of liquid inorganic fertilizer and microbiological products on growth, nutrient uptake and yield of maize. Products evaluated were Teprosyn (nitrogen, zinc phosphorus), BioSoil Crop Booster (BSCB) (Pseudomonas fluorescens), and Bio Soil Nitro plus (BSN+) (Acetobacter sp.). Treatments were: products alone (low and high rate), product + half rate phosphorus (10 kg P ha-1), half rate P, full rate P (20 kg P ha-1) and Control. All products were analysed for quality. None of the products met the label claims in nutrient/organism concentration. An increase of biomass was observed in the greenhouse for half rate P + BSCB low rate and high rates for BSCB and BSN+ compared to Control. Half rate P + BSN+ low rate gave the highest grain yield which was similar full rate nitrogen and P. BSCB and BSN+ at low rates with P half rate resulted in an increase in biomass yield in the greenhouse. Efficacy of low rate BSN+ + half rate P was demonstrated when applied at the recommended rates and combined with half rates of N and P. A package of inorganic and Bio-fertilizers should be developed based on soil fertility status, and the quality of the inputs verified to ensure that they are conform to the label guarantee analysis.


Cancer is the second most common cause of death in US in 2015 and has been the leading cause of death in Japan since 1981. Despite of improved therapeutic strategies in cancer, only limited treatment options can still be available to a subset of patients. Many efforts have been made to develop molecular targeted drugs, but the success rate did not reach to patients' expectation. Unlike the conventional chemotherapy, the use of maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and the measurement of bulk tumor volume are not always appropriate for the clinical evaluation of molecular targeted drugs. To optimize and personalize the dosing for targeted agents, detailed molecular pathway and biomarkers that are affected by the drug should be elucidated. OTS167 was developed as a novel and potent MELK kinase inhibitor that we previously reported. The expression of MELK is elevated in various human cancers both in solid and hematological tumor and MELK is known to be associated with cancer progression and poor prognosis. Because MELK is indicated its critical roles in cancer stem cell proliferation as well, targeting MELK is an attractive and promising therapeutic strategy for cancer patient. Here, we report the molecular mechanism of action of OTS167 in preclinical model. OTS167 suppressed MELK activity and promoted MELK protein degradation by inhibition of autophosphorylation. OTS167-treated cells showed drastic morphological transformation with the induction of p53 and p21 expression. We also investigated the expression of stem cell markers to elucidate whether OTS167 suppresses cancer stem-like properties through inhibition of MELK. Furthermore, we evaluated antitumor activity of OTS167 using human xenograft model and molecular changes in tumor tissue. The expression of MELK and downstream molecules were decreased in OTS167-treated xenograft tumor tissues by IHC. The change of expression and pharmacological effect were well correlated. Our data provide the evidence for the concept that OTS167 suppresses tumor growth through the inhibition of MELK signaling pathway and suggest the possibility of biomarkers for the assessment of clinical efficacy. Citation Format: Suyoun Chung, Kyoko Kijima, Yosuke Harada, Naofumi Takamatsu, Takashi Miyamoto, Yo Matsuo, Yusuke Nakamura. Pharmacologic, pharmacodynamic action of MELK kinase inhibitor OTS167 in cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2158.


Swath bathymetry sonar is used to obtain profiles of the bottom by estimating the arrival angle of the backscatter for a given range. Simple interferometric sonars estimate the angle by measuring the phase difference between two receive elements. This procedure works well if the backscatter is from a single area of the bottom and there are no competing signals. If, however, two or more signals from different directions arrive at the elements at the same time, the resulting phase difference will be in error, and hence, the estimated bottom location will be in error. This paper describes typical survey situations where multiple same-time signals are likely and provides examples from survey data. The situations discussed include shallow water applications where multipath signals and surface scattering are present, and the situation where two bottoms are present within the profile. Both towfish and pole mount deployment configurations are considered. It is concluded that a swath bathymetry system must be able to operate in the presence of at least two same-time signals, and preferably three or four. Mitigation techniques are useful for eliminating multipath and surface scatter, but multiple bottoms must be estimated simultaneously requiring the swath bathymetry system to estimate multiple angles simultaneously.


Single and multiple doses of SK-110 were administered orally to healthy volunteers. No subjective or objective symptoms were observed in tests I-I, I-II, I-III, and II, with the exception of dehydration, considered to be a direct effect of the diuretic, which was observed in test I-III. No noteworthy abnormalities were observed in laboratory examinations. One hour after administration of SK-110, urinary output and excretion of urinary electrolytes increased. In test II the diuretic effect of SK-110 continued for about 9 h after administration. Plasma concentration of SK-110 increased in proportion to the doses, and peak concentration was observed 3-4 h after administration. Plasma concentration of SK-110 on the 1st and 5th day of administration showed the same patterns. Drug excretion in the urine was less than 10%.


Disseminations of organic fertilizer use in olive sapling nursery is very important. When the saplings are developed well at the beginning, this will be important for root development after planting to land, decreasing the future yield lowness, and even obtaining large amount of high quality olive grain and oil, therefore studies about this subject are essential. In this study, Gemlik olive ( Olea europaea L. cv. Gemlik) variety saplings were grown with applications of different doses of the vermicompost that is an organic fertilizer (0, 5, 10, 20 and 40%) to production material and single dose of chemical fertilizer which is used commonly by planters (100% production material + chemical fertilizer). The micro nutrients content of the production material were analyzed. According to the results, the micro nutrients analysis of the production material used for the growth of olive saplings at the 3 rd and 6 th months was significant. Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn and B values as the average of all treatments were 12309.56, 34.74, 625.66, 52.61 30.85 at the 3 rd month and 12066.24, 28.60, 507.03, 47.40, 29.98 mg kg -1 at the 6 th month. In general, 40% vermicompost (VC) + 60% production material (PM) increased the micro elemental content. Use of vermicompost in production material can be said to increase quality of production material and positively affect nourishment of olive saplings and their developments. Vermicomposting is a simple biotechnological process of composting, in which certain species of earthworms ( Eisenia foetida etc.) are used to enhance the process of waste conversion and produce a better product. The use of vermicompost is important for the sustainability of agriculture. These results showed that the effects of different organic material (vermicompost) applications on olive sapling properties are important.


In recent years much effort has been devoted to the localization of vital processes within cells especially in the mitochondria. Methods for the isolation of mitochondria have been worked out for many tissues and have shown that the general properties of these units do not vary greatly from one tissue to another. A problem of great interest is their survival outside the cell. Working with isolated brain mitochondria we have measured the rates of oxidation of substrates of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the process of oxidative phosphorylation emploved them as indicators of the survival of mitochondria as effective units. We find that their survival time is short but may be prolonged by the addition of a number of soluble factors. These include adenosine triphosphate, coenzyme i, glutathione, cobalt and what is believed to be a new cofactor. A remarkable feature of these substances is the complex interrelationship they display. Thus cobalt is relatively ineffective in the absence of glutathione, while the latter has no influence in the absence of cobalt. The new factor resembles glutathione in this respect. Even in combination these three cofactores require the presence of both adenosine triphosphate and coenzyme I to produce their full effect. Another metal, copper, may be of importance, since it antagonizes the action of cobalt and its inhibitory effect may be abolished by raising the concentration of cobalt. These coenzymes are ineffective unless they are added to the mitochondria at the start of the incubation in the Warburg bath. We suggest that they are concerned in some process which is important in the preservation of the integrity of the mitochondrial particles.


Background The rapidly increasing socioeconomic strain caused by dementia represents a significant public health concern. Regional dementia centers (RDCs) have been established nationwide, and they aim to provide timely screening and diagnosis of dementia. This study investigated the clinical characteristics and progression of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia (AD), who underwent treatment in RDCs or conventional community-based hospital systems. Methods This retrospective single-center cohort study included patients who were diagnosed with AD between January 2019 and March 2022. This study compared two groups of patients: the hospital group, consisting of patients who presented directly to the hospital, and the RDC group, those who were referred to the hospital from the RDCs in Pohang city. The clinical courses of the patients were monitored for a year after AD diagnosis. Results A total of 1,209 participants were assigned to the hospital (n = 579) or RDC group (n = 630). The RDC group had a mean age of 80.1 years ± 6.6 years, which was significantly higher than that of the hospital group (P < 0.001). The RDC group had a higher proportion of females (38.3% vs. 31.9%; P = 0.022), higher risk for alcohol consumption (12.4% vs. 3.3%; P < 0.001), and greater number of patients who discontinued treatment 1 year after diagnosis (48.3% vs. 39.0%; P = 0.001). In the linear regression model, the RDC group was independently associated with the clinical dementia rating sum of boxes increment (β = 22.360, R2 = 0.048, and P < 0.001). Conclusion Patients in the RDC group were older, had more advanced stages of conditions, and exhibited a more rapid rate of cognitive decline than patients diagnosed through the conventional hospital system. Our results suggested that RDC contributed to the screening of AD in a local region, and further nationwide study with the RDC database of various areas of Korea is needed.


Mitoxantrone has been used as induction or escalation treatment in highly-active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Whilst effective, its use is limited by adverse events (AE). Objective To report the clinical effectiveness and AE profile following mitoxantrone in a patient cohort with RRMS over a 10-year follow-up period. Methods This retrospective study included all patients treated with mitoxantrone in the Leeds MS service between 2003 and 2015. We measured expanded disability status scale (EDSS) scores annually and recorded AEs and secondary progression (SPMS). Results Forty-two patients (25 female, 17 male) were reviewed. Twenty-three (55%) received disease-modifying therapy (DMT) pre-mitoxantrone (17 interferon beta-1a, 4 glatiramer acetate, 2 natalizumab). Nineteen (45%) received further DMT post-mitoxantrone (1 interferon beta-1a, 9 glatiramer acetate, 5 natalizumab, 2 fingolimod, 2 dimethyl fumarate). Median pre-mitoxantrone EDSS score was 6.0 (95%CI 5–6). Median EDSS score at year 10 was 6.5 (95%CI 5–7). Nine (21%) developed SPMS. Commonest AE was nausea, n=6 (14%). Four (10%) developed serious AEs (1 arrhythmia, 1 left ventricular impairment, 1 pancytopaenia, 1 acute myeloid leukaemia). All serious AEs resolved and AML remains in remission for over 6 years. Conclusion Mitoxantrone therapy is effective and relatively low risk with evidence of long-term benefits in RRMS patients.


T he associations between individualism-collectivism and prejudice have yielded mixed findings. Triandis (1995) argues that prejudice and discrimination are more likely among collectivists than individualists, and that the vertical attribute (emphasizing hierarchy) of both individualism and collectivism is more related to negative attitudes toward out-groups. The present study examines the predictive power of individualism and collectivism to explain measures of prejudice toward a minority out-group (gypsies) among the general population of a collectivist culture (Spain). Results indicate that individualists are more likely to express prejudice toward gypsies, whereas collectivists favor more positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward this out-group. The findings also indicate that the horizontal attribute (emphasizing equality) was more important when assessing individualism-collectivism relations with prejudice in Spain. In such collectivistic culture, individualism is more likely to instigate prejudice, while collectivism more likely to inhibit it. These findings support other research showing that individualists are more likely to prejudice and discriminate, but contradict Triandis' expectation that vertical collectivists are more likely to express negative attitudes toward out-groups (followed by vertical individualists, horizontal collectivists and horizontal individualists). Theoretical explanations for the findings are discussed.


Smart contract (SC) is an extension of BlockChain technology. Ethereum BlockChain was the first to incorporate SC and thus started a new era of crypto-currencies and electronic transactions. Solidity helps to program the SCs. Still, soon after Solidity's emergence in 2014, Solidity-based SCs suffered many attacks that deprived the SC account holders of their precious funds. The main reason for these attacks was the presence of vulnerabilities in SC. This paper discusses SC vulnerabilities and classifies them according to the domain knowledge of the faulty operations. This classification is a source of reminding developers and software engineers that for SC's safety, each SC requires proper testing with effective tools to catch those classes' vulnerabilities.


Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a significant problem following rape, yet reports on the efficacy of pharmacological agents in this population are lacking. The results of an open 12-week clinical trial utilizing sertraline (mean dose 105 mg) in the treatment of adult female rape victims with chronic PTSD are presented. The five completers were, on average, 41.6 years old and 15.6 years postassault. Sertraline reduced PTSD and related symptoms in these rape victims. The mean Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) scores decreased by 53%, with four out of five participants responding positively to treatment. These preliminary results support the need for systematic assessment of sertraline in this population.


Summary

The ability of crops of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) to establish in farmers' fields depends largely on its capacity to germinate and emerge under limited soil moisture conditions. Studies on germination under moisture stress have been previously conducted using osmotic media which do not wholly reproduce the conditions of the seed bed in the field. Hence the need for a field screening technique. A line source irrigation system was used to provide five moisture regimes ranging from -0.08 MPa to -0.92 MPa. The drying rate of the soil and the soil temperature depended largely on incident radiation, and the relationship between the moisture content and daily soil temperature and daily radiation was consistant. Total porosity of the seed bed, derived from bulk density measurements and particle density ranged from 43.8% to 45.3%, which would allow sufficient aeration when as in the experiments conducted here, water content was low (> 0.14 g/g). Under these seed bed conditions the pattern of response of emergence to the moisture gradient was linear or curvilinear. Genotypic differences existed for emergence and its response to water level. The field method developed is useful for identifying genotypes able to germinate and emerge under conditions of low seed bed moisture.


Flow-through type fiber-optic chloride ion selective optodes have been developed based on chloride adducts of lipophilic organometallic compounds, including a metal: Sn, Ge, Hg or Hf and a lipophilic anionic indicator dye of the diphenyl amine type. The pellicular-type ODS beads were coated with a lipophilic organic liquid containing the lipophilic organometallic compound as the anion-selective ionophore ligand and LAD-3 as the color changeable indicator dye. The optode system was constructed by packing these color changeable ion sensing beads in the flow-through optical cell (cell volume, 7 μl) having a quartz window attached directly to the distal end of a bifurcated optical fiber. The optode based on tricyclohexyltin chloride (TCTC1) exhibited the most sensitive response to chloride ion among all the sensors using the organometallic compounds investigated. This optode could detect chloride ion in the concentration ranging from 10^-4 to 1 M at pH 6.5 with a 0.01 M sodium phosphate buffer as the flowing solution by measuring the absorbance change in the sensing beads at 516 nrn. This optode showed sufficient selectivity for the determination of chloride ion in normal human serum.


ABSTRACT The uncertainties and growing social inequality young adults face in the labour market call for research on the link between young women's expectations about working life and the real options they have in seeking to combine work with care. Drawing on Sen's capabilities approach, this study contributes to filling this gap in the literature by examining how women in emerging adulthood in Finland foresee their future career and working life, and how these expectations are associated with socioeconomic and partnership characteristics and their expectations for work-family reconciliation. Survey data obtained from 527 young women aged 18–29 were analysed using latent profile analysis. Three distinct career/working life profiles were identified: confident (43%), cautiously confident (37%) and concerned (20%). The young women in the confident profile were the most advantaged and those in the concerned profile the most disadvantaged with regard to level of education, main activity, financial situation and region. Furthermore, the concerned women foresaw their options in their future career and in combining work with care as limited. The findings underline the importance of viewing individual decision-making processes related to work-family transitions within broader institutional and societal contexts.


Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) makes up about 90% of diabetes cases, as well as tough restriction on continuous monitoring and detecting become one of key aspects in T2DM. This research aims to develop an ensemble of several machine learning and deep learning models for early detection of T2DM with high accuracy. With high diversity of models, the ensemble will provide more excessive performance than single models.  Methodology: The proposed system is modified enhanced ensemble of machine learning models for T2DM prediction. It is composed of Logistic Regression, Random Forest, SVM and Deep Neural Network models to generate a modified ensemble model.  Results: The output of each model in the modified ensemble is used to figure out the final output of the system. The datasets being used for these models include Practice Fusion HER, Pima Indians diabetic's data, UCI AIM94 Dataset and CA Diabetes Prevalence 2014. In comparison to the previous solutions, the proposed ensemble model solution exposes the effectiveness of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. It provides an accuracy of 87.5% from 83.51% in average, sensitivity of 35.8% from 29.59% as well as specificity of 98.9% from 96.27%. The processing time of the proposed model solution with 96.6ms is faster than the state-of-the-art with 97.5ms. Conclusion: The proposed modified enhanced system in this work improves the overall prediction capability of T2DM using an ensemble of several machine learning and deep learning models. A majority voting scheme utilizes the output from several models to make the final accurate prediction. Regularization function in this work is modified in order to include the regularization of all the models in ensemble, that helps prevent the overfitting and encourages the generalization capacity of the proposed system.


Single Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM) enables the acquisition of high-resolution images by alternating between activation of a sparse subset of fluorescent molecules present in a sample and localization. In this work, the localization problem is formulated as a constrained sparse approximation problem which is resolved by rewriting the $\ell_0$ pseudo-norm using an auxiliary term. In the preliminary experiments with the simulated ISBI datasets the algorithm yields as good results as the state-of-the-art in high-density molecule localization algorithms.


Abstract: This paper is designed to look at how the owner/managers of Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Zimbabwe formulate business strategies to enable their organizations to get the competitive edge over their counterparts in the large organization sector. The sample size of this research paper consisted of 1000 SMEs located in 5 out of a total of 10 Zimbabwean Provinces, namely Bulawayo Metropolitan, Harare Metropolitan Province, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Midlands. The research instrument used was the self – administered questionnaire. Data collected was analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistical tools. Results obtained from the study revealed that strategic management is not fully practiced in these SME organizations and the fact that strategic management is not in full operation simply point out that strategy formulation is not done. The paper recommended the use of formal strategic management processes by SMEs for the success of their organizations.


Sale of the possessions of Guy Debord – jealously organized and preserved by him during his lifetime – to the French State, which claimed them as National Treasure and denied their departure from the country to the University of Yale, and their later exhibition by his widow, from our perspective, brings up the question of its timeliness and the possibility of its reviving a legacy that betrays the will of its originator, because of its content and because of the character of the controversial Situationist philosopher. It not only questions the validity of his work, but an understanding of the world based on it and the evolution of a time marked by neoliberalism, which allows nothing to escape from its order. Observing the acquisition process and the way the exhibition, entitled, "Guy Debord: un art de la guerre", is being managed, we believe that it is no longer possible to support a position described as a clash between positive and negative in that broader diagnosis of our time. From a genealogy that also attempts to clarify some not very well-known questions about the Situationist International, we explain another underlying motif, which would set the question of the importance of the legacy of Debord and whether or not it was a betrayal to one side. Hence, we position our approach in the emerging concepts which would today outline other essentials for thinking about our time and that would exclude neither those of the IS nor those of Debord's work itself. Another parallel genealogy, from the Marxian theory that does not speak about the city, but faces the articulation of our still reference 20 th century, towards the various derivative Marxian lines, which are indeed concerned with the urban question, to offer a reflective alternative to the political approach. The political approach, as observed in the Debord-State confrontation, kept up in the process of elevation to National Treasure of his legacy, and the way in which the exhibition cynically supports this positive vs. negative duality, shifts towards a definition of Noopolitics for architectural action in the city, from primarily revising the differences that would open other possible worlds -in Lefebvre's words- for the present.


Background Flat detector computed tomography (FDCT) is widely used for periprocedural imaging in the angiography suite. Sine Spin FDCT (SFDCT) is the latest generation of cone beam CT using a double oblique trajectory for image acquisition to reduce artefacts and improve soft tissue brain imaging. This study compared the effective dose, image quality and diagnostic performance of the latest generation of SFDCT with multidetector CT (MDCT). Methods An anthropomorphic phantom equipped with MOSFET detectors was used to measure the effective dose of the new 7sDCT Sine Spin protocol on a latest generation biplane angiographic C-arm system. Diagnostic performance was evaluated on periprocedurally acquired SFDCT for depiction of anatomical details, detection of hemorrhage, and ischemia and was compared with preprocedurally acquired MDCT. Inter- and intra-rater correlation as well as sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Results Both modalities showed equal diagnostic performance in the supratentorial ventricular system. SFDCT provided inferior image quality in grey-white matter differentiation and infratentorial structures. Intraventricular, subarachnoid and parenchymal hemorrhages were diagnosed with a sensitivity of 83.3%, 84.2% and 75% and a specificity of 97.3%, 80.0% and 100%, respectively; early ischemic lesions with a sensitivity of 73.3% and specificity 94.7%. The effective dose measured for the 7sDCT Sine Spin protocol was 2 mSv. Conclusions Our findings confirm the high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of SFDCT in detecting intracranial hemorrhage and early ischemic lesions. The delineation of grey-white matter differentiation and infratentorial structures remains a limiting factor. In comparison to previous studies, the new 7sDCT Sine Spin protocol showed a lower effective dose.


Background and Objectives: We believe that complications due to the mesh used in ventral hernia repairs can be reduced by using the natural barrier afforded by the peritoneum. This can be challenging to do laparoscopically, however we felt that the robot-assisted laparoscopic approach reduces the difficulty in placing the mesh in the preperitoneal space, and we want to share our early experiences with this approach. We describe the surgical technique used in robot-assisted laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) ventral hernia repair with mesh. In addition, we evaluate its feasibility and present preliminary perioperative results. Methods: We performed robot-assisted laparoscopic TAPP ventral hernia repairs in 3 patients in the spring of 2015. Demographic information and defect size were measured. Conversion from a laparoscopic to an open procedure was the primary outcome variable. Results: There were 3 cases of robot-assisted TAPP ventral hernia repair with mesh. The mean age of the patients was 49 years, the mean body mass index was 32.6 kg/m2, and the mean operative time was 163.7 minutes. The mean defect size was 1219.0 mm2. There were no conversions to open during this early learning phase. All patients were discharged home within the 24-hour postoperative period. No complications were noted during a mean follow-up of 3 months. Conclusions: We present our early experience with robot-assisted TAPP ventral hernia repair. We note that because of improved ergonomics and wristed instrumentation, the robotic platform enabled creation of peritoneal flaps and complete coverage of mesh with peritoneum after primary closure of the defect. The robotic approach is feasible and may provide a better environment for mesh integration and protection. Further investigations with long-term follow-up are needed to verify that this technique is effective in reducing mesh-related intra-abdominal complications.


The quantities entropy and diffusion are measured for two- and three-dimensional (3D) dust clusters in the fluid state. Entropy and diffusion are predicted to be closely linked via unstable modes. The method of instantaneous normal modes is applied for various laser-heated clusters to determine these unstable modes and the corresponding diffusive properties. The configurational entropy is measured for 2D and 3D clusters from structural rearrangements. The entropy shows a threshold behavior at a critical temperature for the 2D clusters, allowing us to estimate a configurational melting temperature. Further, the entropic disorder increases for larger clusters. Finally, the predicted relation between entropy and unstable modes has been confirmed from our experiments for 2D systems, whereas 3D systems do not show such a clear correlation.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Background: Temsirolimus was combined with cixutumumab, a fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibody directed at insulin growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R), on the basis of preclinical data suggesting that the combination could overcome resistance in Ewing's sarcoma (EWS). Methods: Patients received cixutumumab, 6 mg/kg IV weekly, and temsirolimus, 25 mg-37.5 mg IV weekly (4-week cycles), with restaging after 8 weeks. Median follow up was 8.9 months. Results: Twenty patients (17 with EWS, 3 with desmoplastic small-round-cell tumor [DSCRT]) were enrolled. Twelve patients (60%) were men; median age, 24 years; median number of prior therapies, 6. Six patients previously received an IGF-1R inhibitor and two, temsirolimus. The most frequent toxicities, at least possibly drug-related, were thrombocytopenia (85%), mucositis (80%), hypercholesterolemia (75%), hypertriglyceridemia (70%), and hyperglycemia (65%) (mostly grade 1-2). Seven of 20 patients (35%) achieved stable disease (SD) >5 months or complete/partial (CR/PR) responses (duration = 5.6, 5.7, 8, 2 +, 18+, 15, 22+ months). Tumor regression of over 20% (100%, 100%, 27%, 23%, 23%) occurred in 5/17 (29%) EWS patients with time to treatment failure lasting 22, 2+, 15, 18 and 8 months, respectively. Biopsy samples of one patient taken at the time of emergence of resistance to a different IGF-1R inhibitor, demonstrated upregulation of mTOR pathway proteins, as determined by morphoproteomic analysis of the resistant tumor; and this particular patient achieved a CR with a time to treatment failure of 22 months on our trial. A second patient with EWS had a PR with prior IGF-1R treatment and then had a mixed response with remarkable regression in three lung modules after instituting cixutumumab and temsirolimus, but progression in a fourth lesion. Morphoproteomic analysis of this patient's resistant tumor demonstrated upregulation of mTOR and ERK/MEK signals. The latter suggests the possibility that a combination of IGFR/mTOR and MEK inhibitors might warrant investigation in order to reverse resistance. Four of the seven best responders developed grade 3 mucositis, myelosuppression, or hyperglycemia, which was controlled while maintaining drug dose. Side effects of this regimen were well controlled with medication and the assistance of an endocrinologist, when necessary Conclusions: This mechanism-based approach shows evidence of activity for temsirolimus and cixutumumab in EWS family tumors. The majority of best responders developed grade 3 side effects which were well controlled by supportive measures, suggesting that drug dose should not be compromised. This study was supported by R21CA13763301A1 (Aung Naing), U01CA62461 (Razelle Kurzrock), and U01CA62487 (Patricia LoRusso)

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-124. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-LB-124


Salmonella sp. is one of the bacteria from Food-Borne Disease agents, can contaminate meat and cause salmonellosis. According to National Indonesian Standard 2009, meat is safe for consumption if it has a negative result of salmonella in 25 grams of meat. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was contamination of Salmonella sp. on beef sold in the traditional market of Banyuwangi District. A total of 18 samples used in this study were taken according to the criteria for isolation and identification. All samples were enriched with the pre-enrichment stage using Lactose Broth media, and the enrichment medium using Tetrathionate Broth. Furthermore, in the isolation stage using Salmonella Shigella Agar (SSA) media. Then proceed with the identification stage using the Triple Sugar Iron Agar (TSIA) test, the Sulfide Indole Motility (SIM) test, and the Urease test. The results showed that 5 out of 18 samples tested positive for Salmonella.


Background: Plaque is a significant factor that leads to periodontal disease. One of the most common areas for plaque accumulation is the lower anterior region. Crowding acts as a predisposing factor for plaque accumulation and if not treated eventually leads to periodontal disease. Periodontal disease progression may lead to pathological tooth mobility which can result from acute periodontal inflammation, traumatic occlusion and an apical shift of the rotational center of the tooth as it occurs in advanced alveolar bone loss, and the increased mobility can cause inconveniences for the patient. The new classification of periodontal disease states that teeth with progressive mobility may require splinting therapy to improve patient comfort and additional improvement for the Oral Health-related Quality of Life.
Objective: To describe the correction of tooth mobility with intracoronal fiber splint to improve function and comfort.
Case Report: A 26-year-old male patient with crowded anterior presented to the Periodontics Department of the Dental and Oral Hospital of Gadjah Mada University (RSGM UGM) with the main complaints of lower front teeth mobility and frequently bleeding of gums, especially when brushing the teeth. The treatment plans of periodontal therapy begins with the initial phase, followed by the correction and the maintenance phases. In the initial phase, DHE, SRP, desensitization, occlusion adjustment and intracoronal fiber splint were carried out to eliminate inflammation and stabilize the mobility of the teeth.
Conclusion: The splint is a periodontal therapy done through the redistribution of forces on the affected teeth, the splint minimizes the impact of the loss of support. The loss of support structures of the teeth leads to the mobility of the teeth. Increased mobility of the teeth affects the function, aesthetics and comfort of the patient. Splints are used to overcome all these
Keywords: periodontal therapy, intracoronal fiber splint, mobility


Fibers were drafted at two different velocities; from the results it was concluded that the irregularity of the drafted sliver is not influenced by the velocity. The author shows by actual tests that roller setting is very important for material with a low degree of parallelism, such as card sliver, but is largely unimportant for slivers with a high degree of parallelism. It is also shown that the draft ratio, as far as sliver irregularity is concerned, is critical with strands of low fiber parallelization. A highly interesting and valuable section of the


ABSTRACT Apple modulus of elasticity was readily predicted (r^ > 0.76) from acoustic resonant frequency vibrations caused by an impulse striking the apple. Magness-Taylor fiminess was poorly predicted (r^ < 0.27) using the same technique. An elastic sphere model was developed that utilized an observed resonant frequency to predict the modulus of elasticity of the apple. These predictions were compared with measured values of Magness-Taylor firmness and modulus of elasticity..


Cloning farm animals with desirable genotypes can be commercially advantageous. In their commentary, Anderson and Seidel discuss recent results in this field (including a report in last week9s issue by
 Cibelli
 et al. ) and argue that our understanding of the cell biology of cloning still has many unanswered questions.


Electronic medical record interoperability remains an elusive goal for the clinical informatics community. The HL7 Emergency Care Workgroup created an emergency care domain analysis model that organizes existing HL7 standards into a clinician friendly information model. The model supports the capture of domain knowledge and encoding in a sharable format. The result is a domain information model that supports interoperability of information and processes in diverse Emergency Department information systems.


In November 1999, in the United Kingdom, a woman was convicted of the murder of her two infant sons. An appeal against the conviction was dismissed in October 2000, but the conviction was quashed by a second court of appeal in January 2003. Review of the autopsy findings showed that standard procedures had not always been followed, thus limiting verification of the alleged findings. Some potentially important diagnoses and conclusions were also altered over time. This case and its sequelae demonstrate the difficulties that may arise if cases are not fully investigated by pathologists with specific training or experience in paediatric forensic pathology, with all of the results being clearly summarised and discussed in autopsy reports. Trying to clarify findings, diagnoses and circumstances of death at a later stage may simply not be feasible, owing to a wide variety of possibilities other than inflicted injury. This type of case has unfortunately led to mistrust of the medical and legal systems and has made the investigation of such emotive and tragic cases all the harder.


We describe a hybrid quantum system composed of a micrometer-size carbon nanotube (CNT) longitudinally coupled to a flux qubit. We demonstrate the usefulness of this device for generating high-fidelity nonclassical states of the CNT via dissipative quantum engineering. Sideband cooling of the CNT to its ground state and generating a squeezed ground state, as a mechanical analogue of the optical squeezed vacuum, are two additional examples of the dissipative quantum engineering studied here. Moreover, we show how to generate a long-lived macroscopically-distinct superposition (i.e., a Schr\"odinger cat-like) state. This cat state can be trapped, under some conditions, in a dark state, as can be verified by detecting the optical response of control fields.


'Mindreading' or theory of mind (ToM) refers to the capacity to attribute mental states to others. This ability is regarded as a critical component of what has, to date, exclusively characterized the advanced social cognition displayed by humans. The false belief task is a key test for ToM in different animal species. On a standard non-verbal false belief task, humans pass from age 4, whereas non-human primates consistently fail. Neuroanatomical and behavioural evidence for dolphins, however, indicates that they are capable of passing ToM tasks. The current paper represents a synthesis of the relevant dolphin research on neocortical evolution and non-invasive behavioural tests of precursors for ToM and the attribution of beliefs. The success of dolphins on attribution of belief tasks, in the absence of learning or cueing, indicates that they are capable of 'mindreading'. What are the implications of animal 'mindreading'? ToM tasks probe for reflexive consciousness and, by this criterion, dolphins may display reflexive consciousness. The implication of this conclusion is that future behavioural studies of social cognition will have considerable ethical and legal implications for animal welfare.


Frequency scanning interferometry is a well-known technique to measure the distance to a reflecting target. However, variations in the optical path length during the finite measurement time severely limit the applicability of the method in real-world environments. By the use of a second swept source measurements become immune to these variations. The use of a second source implies a great increase in costs and complexity. In this letter, we explore the possibility of using four wave mixing for the generation of the secondary swept frequency source. This greatly reduces the increase in costs and solves the synchronization issues often encountered by dual laser systems. A prototype has been built and tested against induced variations in the optical path length, proving the ability of the technique to improve distance measurements in industrial environments.


Autoantibodies against glutamic acid decarboxylase (GADA), protein tyrosine-phosphatase-like protein (IAÐ2A), and/or pancreatic islet cells (ICA) are autoimmune markers usually present at diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is therefore in general believed to be caused by an immune-mediated beta cell destruction. In children this destruction is fast, whereas in adult patients Type 1 diabetes is sometimes slowly-progressive, with preserved insulin production, and is therefore clinically often considered as Type 2 diabetes. The aims of this thesis were to develop GADA and IA-2A assays and study the value of these antigen-specific islet antibodies in the prediction of beta cell failure and differentiation between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

In children ( 20 years of age) was always associated with presence of GADA and/or IA-2A at diagnosis. The antibody patterns differed between rapid (2-3 antibodies and high antibody levels) and slow development (only GADA or ICA). In the Diabetes Incidence Study in Sweden (DISS) (15-34 years of age), islet antibodies were found in 83% of patients with clinical Type 1, but also in 24% of patients with clinical Type 2 and 51% of patients with unclassifiable diabetes. Hence, measurements of islet antibodies are necessary for a correct classification of diabetes (Type 1 versus Type 2). In 13% of antibody negative cases, low fasting P-C-peptide levels (<0.25 nmol/l) identified idiopathic non-autoimmune Type 1 diabetes. Most children and adults remained GADA and/or IA-2A positive many years after diagnosis.

In conclusion, the antigen-specific islet antibodies predicted beta cell failure. To differentiate between classical Type 1 diabetes, slowly-progressive Type 1 diabetes, idiopathic Type 1 diabetes, and Type 2 diabetes, a classification into seropositive (islet antibody positive) or negative diabetes, with or without preserved beta cell function, is proposed.


Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder that characterized by abnormal bilateral social interaction, deficiency in verbal and nonverbal communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors .autism caused by the inappropriate immune response which released several cytokines. One of the most important and main causes of autism is a defect in, the formation of the neuronal synaptic circuit. IL6 acts in this circuit. Autistic children have increased IL6 serum and CNS level. This additional IL6 made by excess activity of neuroglia or CNS resident cells or maternal IL6. In autistic cases, CNS IL6 level in frontal cortex and cerebellum is high which lead to increased brain ventricles volume, anatomical and functional changes. In the animal model of autism, BTBR mice, inhibition of IL6 trans-signaling increased active glutamate release in synaptic space that improves communicational behaviors. TH17 cells are one of the main sources for IL6, that activated by IL23and produce IL17. IL17 is to produce IL6 and TNFɑ. Elevation of IL6 serum level caused asthma, which is one of the disorders of autistic children. Decreased Extracellular density of IL2, IL15 and Glutathione is observed in autism, lead to decrease activity and performance NK cells. Finding that has been observed in 45% of cases. To investigate the association of cytokine changes behaviors in autism, the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADR) was used. ADI results suggest that elevation serum level of IL-1β, IL12 and IFNγ causes repetitive behaviors, whereas increase IL-6 to IL-10 ratio, lead to social behaviors and interactions impaired. As a result, an increase in inflammatory cytokines causes more severe behavioral disorders. Autism immunotherapy: decrease the production of IL6 by use of Anti IL23 or inhibition brain IL6 trans-signaling.


Multiple sequence alignment of distantly related viral proteins remains a challenge to all currently available alignment methods. The hidden Markov model approach offers a new, flexible method for the generation of multiple sequence alignments. The results of studies attempting to infer appropriate parameter constraints for the generation of de novo HMMs for globin, kinase, aspartic acid protease, and ribonuclease H sequences by both the SAM and HMMER methods are described.


The waiting room is a place we are all familiar with but at the same time are uncomfortable with. It is a place of not just uncertainty, anxiety and vulnerability, but also one of hope. It is a place where we wait for examination, diagnosis, and reassurance. A time for reflection where life choices are scrutinised, personal promises are made and deals are done with God. It is a place where reality is suspended and a potential life changing experience can occur.


Free-electron laser (FEL) configurations in which the parameters of the electron beam vary along the undulator become relevant when considering new aspects of existing FELs or when exploring novel concepts. This paper describes a fully three-dimensional, analytical method suitable for studying such systems. As an example, we consider a seeded FEL driven by a beam with varying transverse sizes. In the context of the Vlasov-Maxwell formalism, a self-consistent equation governing the evolution of the radiation field amplitude is derived. An approximate solution to this equation is then obtained by employing an orthogonal expansion technique. This approach yields accurate estimates for both the amplified power and the radiation beam size. Specific numerical results are presented for two different sets of x-ray FEL parameters.


To achieve high efficiency and low degradation of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC), it is necessary to maintain an appropriate level of humidification in the fuel cell membrane. Thus, membrane humidifiers are typically used in PEMFC systems. Parameter studies are important to evaluate membrane humidifiers under various operating conditions to reduce the amount of physical tests. However, simulative studies are computationally expensive when using detailed models. To reduce the computational cost, surrogate models are set up. In our study, a 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a hollow fibre membrane humidifier is presented and validated using measurement data. Based on the results of the validated CFD model, a surrogate model of the humidifier is constructed using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) in combination with different interpolation methods. To evaluate the surrogate models, their results are compared against reference solutions from the CFD model. Our results show that a Halton design combined with a thin-plate-spline interpolation results in the most accurate surrogate humidifier model. Its normalised mean absolute error for 18 test points when predicting the water mass fraction in the membrane humidifier is 0.58%. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the solutions of the POD model can be used to initialise CFD calculations and thus accelerate the calculation of steady state CFD solutions.


The aim of this study was to examine the effects of degree of milling on various rice parameters such as proximate composition, and cooking properties using mathematical model. The experiments were performed in the laboratory of Food Research Division, Nepal Agricultural Research Council. The three different medium type rice varieties of Nepal (Lumle-2, Chhomrong and Machhapuchre-3) were exposed to five different degrees of milling (0%, 6%, 8%, 10% and 12%). The degree of milling (DM) level significantly (P≤0.05) affected the milling recovery; head rice yield, nutrient content as well as cooking properties of the rice. Increase in DM resulted in further reduction of protein content, fat content, minerals, milled rice and head rice yield after bran layer was further removed. A positive correlation between DM used in present model, amylose content, kernel elongation and gruel solid loss was observed, however, with an increase in DM; amylose content, kernel elongation and gruel solid loss were found to be increased. Adopting 6 to 8% DM for commercial milling of rice might help to prevent quantitative, qualitative and nutritional loss along with retention of good cooking characteristics.


This chapter presents a method to capture semantic information from design protocols. We report on a preliminary study that analyses a design protocol by using the FBS ontology and derives processes within this ontological framework by employing linkography. The usefulness of this method is examined by applying it to the Engineering 1 protocol (E1) as a case study. The original 1990 FBS ontology captures 66% meaningful processes of all the derived processes, while the situated FBS ontology captures 92% meaningful processes of all the derived processes. Further coding analysis may improve this percentage. The session is characterized, according to the ontology, by the high percentage of behaviour reformulation, followed by structure reformulation, and analysis.


In this paper, the requirement on optimal training sequences for single-carrier multi-antenna channel estimation with space-time block-coding is firstly derived based on time-domain analysis. It is then shown that the optimality requirement relates to a new concept called Z-periodic complementarity, and the desired optimal training sequences are in fact a class of Z-periodic complementary sequences which include the conventional periodic complementary sequences and L-perfect sequences as special cases. Definitions and constructions of the Z-periodic complementary binary sequences and their mates are given.


Traditional single-pixel imaging uses Fourier patterns to modulate objects in the Cartesian coordinate system. The Cartesian Fourier pattern of single-pixel imaging is inappropriate to display in a circular field of view. However, a circular field of view is a widespread form of display in computed optical imaging. Here, circular patterns are adopted to adapt to the circular visual area. The circular patterns are displayed in polar coordinates and derived from two-dimensional Fourier transform in polar coordinates. The proposed circular patterns have improved imaging efficiency significantly from 63.66% to 100%. The proposed polar coordinate Fourier single-pixel imaging is expected to be applied in circular field-of-view imaging and foveated imaging.


Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men were used to estimate economic inequality within three 5-year cohorts as they moved from midlife to later life. The Gini index of inequality increased steadily after age 59, supporting the hypothesis that within-cohort inequality increases in late life. However, a transition analysis found considerable mobility in relative status for individuals over a 15-year period. These results suggest the need to develop a longitudinal perspective on later-life economic status which distinguishes between individual-level and population-level outcomes and identifies the life events and characteristics of individuals that predict changes in economic status. Further research is needed on the processes which lead to later-life inequality, and on the distributional impact of public and private pension policies.


OBJECTIVE
Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is an early-onset encephalopathy resembling congenital viral infection that is characterized by basal ganglia calcifications, loss of white matter, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lymphocytosis, and elevated interferon-alpha levels in the CSF. Studies have shown that AGS is an autosomal-recessive disease linked to mutations in 5 genes, encoding the 3'-repair DNA exonuclease 1 (TREX1), the 3 subunits of ribonuclease H2 (RNASEH2A-C), and sterile alpha motif domain and HD domain-containing protein 1 (SAMHD1). In this study we further characterized the phenotypic spectrum of this disease.

METHODS
Clinical and laboratory data were obtained from 26 patients fulfilling the clinical diagnostic criteria for AGS. Genomic DNA was screened for mutations in all 5 AGS genes by direct sequencing, and sera were analyzed for autoantibodies.

RESULTS
In 20 patients with AGS, 20 mutations, 12 of which were novel, were identified in all 5 AGS genes. Clinical and laboratory investigations revealed a high prevalence of features (some not previously described in patients with AGS) that are commonly seen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), such as thrombocytopenia, leukocytopenia, antinuclear antibodies, erythematous lesions, oral ulcers, and arthritis, which were observed in 12 (60%) of 20 patients with AGS. Moreover, the coexistence of AGS and SLE, was for the first time, demonstrated in 2 patients with molecularly proven AGS.

CONCLUSION
These findings expand the phenotypic spectrum of lupus erythematosus in AGS and provide further insight into its disease mechanisms by showing that activation of the innate immune system as a result of inherited defects in nucleic acid metabolism could lead to systemic autoimmunity.


In this paper, a robust optimization approach is applied to the two-axes stage using a piezoelectric actuator for precise motion tracking. Robust control is based on LQG/LTR (linear quadratic Gaussian control with loop transfer recovery) control. Further, an LMI (linear matrix inequality) is used to find the optimal parameter in the loop transfer recovery step, instead of a trial and error method. A decoupler in the shape of FIR filter is added to reduce the coupling effect between the motions of the two axes, and hence, the feedback control loop is designed independently for each axis motion. The experimental result shows that the proposed control scheme can be applied effectively for motion control of the two-axes stage.


Nepali sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) cultivars are grown in mid hills and are considered to be exquisite in taste. It is mostly harvested during December-January that fetches poor market price. Farmers try to delay picking by retaining fruit on tree compromising tree health and production for next season. Further in some places farmers try to store in normal room and cellar storage facility with considerable amount of post-harvest loss. Recently cool bot storage facility has been introduced to storage horticulture commodities. Thus an experiment was set to study the effect of various storage structure on shelf life of sweet orange at National Citrus Research Program, Dhankuta, Nepal. Four types of storage facilities (zero energy, cellar, cool bot and normal room) were used to store sweet orange fruit over 90 days. Freshly picked Dhankuta Local sweet orange fruit with small pedicel intact were used for this study in RCB design with four treatments replicated four times. Physiological loss in weight (PLW), fruit rot percent, juice recovery percent, TSS and TA were recorded at weekly interval. The result revealed that there was no significant difference in chemical quality parameters (TSS and TA) due to storage method. However, juice recovery and PLW was better in cool bot and cellar stored fruit with ≤15% fruit rot when waxed fruit were stored at 10-12°C with more than 85% RH. In a constant supply of electricity, cool bot storage could be better option compared to other storage facilities for sweet orange storage up to three months


We are interested in blind image restoration in confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Two challenging problems in this imaging system are considered: First, spherical aberrations due to refractive index mismatch leads to a depth variant (DV) blur. Second, low illumination leads to a signal dependent Poisson noise. In addition, the DV point spread function (PSF) is unknown, which increases the complexity of the problem considered. Our goal is to remove in a blind framework both the DV blur and the Poisson noise from CLSM images. Using an approximation of the DV PSF, we define in a Bayesian framework a criterion to be jointly minimized w.r.t. the specimen function and the PSF. We then adopt an alternate minimization scheme for the optimization problem. For each elementary minimization, we use the recently proposed scaled gradient projection (SGP) algorithm that has shown a fast convergence rate. Results are shown on simulated and real CLSM images.


Apurinic/apyrimidinic sites are the most common DNA damage under physiological conditions. Yet, their structural and dynamical behavior within nucleosome core particles has just begun to be investigated, and show dramatic differences with the one of abasic sites in B-DNA. Clusters of two or more abasic sites are repaired even less efficiently and hence constitute hotspots of high mutagenicity notably due to enhanced double-strand breaks formation. Based on a X-ray structure of a 146-bp DNA wrapped onto a histone core, we investigate the structural behavior of two bistranded abasic sites positioned at mutational hotspots along microsecond-range molecular dynamics simulations. Our simulations allow us to probe histone tails interactions at clustered abasic sites locations, with a definitive assignment of the key residues in-volved in the NCP-catalyzed formation of DNA–protein cross-linking in line with recent experimental findings, and pave the way towards a systematic assessment of histone tails response to DNA lesions.


Cereal cyst nematodes (Heterodera spp.) are a significant threat to global cereal production systems and choosing the correct management strategy requires knowledge and identification of various species. We conducted a survey across the main cereal-growing regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2017. Cyst-forming nematodes were detected in 34 samples (44.7%), of which 28 were identified as H. filipjevi or H. avenae using internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-rDNA sequencing. Six populations were unidentifiable to species level and were recorded as belonging to the H. avenae group. H. filipjevi was the dominant species, found in 19 samples (25%) from the provinces of Qobustan, Ismailli, Oguz, Sheki, Barda, and Kurdamir. H. avenae was detected in 9 samples (11.8%) across the provinces of Ismailli, Oguz, and Sheki. ITS-rDNA phylogenetic analyses showed that populations of H. filipjevi clustered in one group with two subgroups, all supported by high bootstrap values. Populations of H. avenae also clustered in one group with two subgroups. Genetic dissimilarities were higher within populations of H. filipjevi when compared to populations of H. avenae. The density of many of these cyst populations approached or exceeded the maximum threshold level for economic losses. This is the first report on H. filipjevi and H. avenae in Azerbaijan. The knowledge of cereal cyst nematode presence is extremely important for Azerbaijan's agricultural industry when assessing the occurrence and distribution of soilborne diseases. Management measures to control cereal cyst nematodes should be directed towards breeding for resistant germplasm, crop rotation, and implementing other management practices.


- There are number of research practices, methodologies and tools existing and evolving to help the social science researchers in conducting there research studies such as doing surveys, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data etc.Social simulation models have a significant role play in the area of social sciences. The role of social simulation models have increased to such an extent that they are attempting to incorporate actual human social behaviour.This paper deals with the nature and implications of the growing importance of research in the area of social simulating models. The agent based social simulating models are supposed to serve as a prototype of the real social scenario. We discuss the purpose, design and direction of systems for the simulation of social phenomena from the perspective of a social expert and analyze their in real the world picture. The analytical study carried on social simulations is discussed on various parameters that have remained subtly trivial and insignificant in this research area. The parameters are classified as the type of application being simulated, the categories of result obtained from simulating models. We do this by arguing and speculating about what an ideal system of this type might look like and how practically useful and applicable it is to the current social scenario. It is certainly true that the use of Agent based modelling opens up new scientific perspectives but we must keep in mind the fundamental limitations and pitfalls of computer based modeling.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of handwriting on the writing assess-ment, according to whether the handwriting is excellent or bad. Methods: A total of 24 elementary and middle school teachers participated in this study and assessed 6 original writings and 6 transcriptions of the same original writings using the HWP 2007 program. Six writings were collected from elementary students of 4th to 6th grades, 3 of 6 students presented with excellent handwriting and 3 of 6 with bad handwriting. The assessments were done according to the standards of propositional knowledge assessment (You & Jeong, 2008).Results: In the excellent handwritings, the rules of orthography and the contents of introduction of the original writings were scored higher than those in the transcriptions. The difference between tran-scription and original writing showed minus scores in original writing assessments and plus scores in transcription assessments. In the propositional knowledge score and its subscales scores - content knowledge, text knowledge, language knowledge and text context knowledge -, were differences in transcription assessments significantly higher than those in original writing assessments. Several as-sessment indices - clarity of the ending, contents of introduction, appropriate contents, rules of or-thography, structured composition and various vocabularies showed significantly higher differences in transcription assessments than those in original writing assessments.Conclusions: The excellent handwriting could be assessed high and the bad handwriting could be as-sessed low. These results suggest that we should consider the effects of handwriting factors on the re-sults of writing assessment and that the transcription could be used for an accurate writing assessment. Key Words: Disorder of Written Expression, Writing assessment, Propositional knowledge, Bad hand-writing, Excellent handwriting.


The text is about the results of a documental work of research (post-mortem inventory and Book of Notes) regarding the trajectory of the building in which The City of Itu (SP)'s Republican Museum (Museu Republicano na Cidade de Itu-SP) is installed, an extension of Museu Paulista - USP. Therefore, from all the pieces of information researched we can infer that the construction day of the building that shelters the museum, is a lot earlier than 1850, year which has been considered as such in many essays. This year registers, in fact, the presence of one of the families that lived in that building: the Almeida Prados that hosted the Conventionals of 1873.


The spectrum of surface acoustic phonons in films of CaF2 on GaAs(111) has been investigated by means of Brillouin light scattering. We report the first experimental observation of the disappearance of the Rayleigh phonon with increasing film thickness in these structures of the fast-on-slow or accelerating type. For propagation along at the disappearance of the Rayleigh surface phonon, a quasi-resonance in the continuum, whose spectral position tends to that of the Rayleigh phonon of CaF2(111) for larger value of film thickness, is detected in the spectrum. Because of this behaviour we identify this quasi-resonance as the pre-Rayleigh mode of the film. When propagation is along (110) the role of the pre-Rayleigh mode of the film is played by the pseudosurface acoustic mode. The theoretical discussion is performed by comparing the Brillouin spectra with the surface projected phonon density of states for shear vertical phonons numerically calculated for CaF2/GaAs(111) heterostructures.


Coagulation and Flocculation in Water and Wastewater Treatment provides a comprehensive account of coagulation and flocculation techniques and technologies in a single volume covering theoretical principles to practical applications.

Thoroughly revised and updated this new edition has been progressively modified and increased in scope to cater for the requirements of practitioners involved with water and wastewater treatment.

New topics in this new edition include:

The book presents the subject logically and sequentially from theoretical principles to practical applications. Successive chapters deal with, in turn, properties of materials present in waters and wastewaters; characteristics and types of coagulants commonly in use; mechanisms and practical implications of destabilization of waterborne material using metal coagulants and polyelectrolytes; considerations and requirements for coagulant addition at the rapid mixing stage; theoretical and practical considerations of flocculation; and details of experimental procedures for assessing primary coagulants, flocculant aids, sludge conditioners, and flocculation parameters. Numerous examples are included as appropriate.

Treatment and disposal of sludges resulting from coagulation-flocculation related operations is dealt with in an Appendix. This important topic has been separated from the main text to avoid disturbing the continuum of the presentation.

Coagulation and Flocculation in Water and Wastewater Treatment is a readable and useful resource for the water scientist and engineer. It is a convenient reference handbook providing numerous examples and appended information and it is a vital text for course material for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

ISBN: 9781780407500 (eBook)

ISBN: 9781780407494 (Print)


While direct reactions with activation barriers are now routinely calculated, reactions going through a longlived
intermediate complex are much more difficult to study[1, 2]. Complex-forming reactions are often barrierless
and are thus relevant to the field of cold and utra-cold chemistry [2]. With decreasing temperature, wave effects
become increasingly important and may dominate the collisional behavior at ultralow temperatures. Capture theories
(close-coupling expansion with boundary conditions applied in the reactant channel) are often used to study
complex-forming reactions [3, 4].
The Langevin capture model is often used to describe barrierless reactive collisions. At very low temperature,
quantum effects may alter this simple capture image and dramatically affect the reaction probability. In this talk,
we use the trajectory-ensemble reformulation of quantum mechanics without wavefunctions recently proposed by
Poirier and coworkers[5, 6] to compute adiabatic-channel capture probabilities and cross-sections for the reaction
Li + CaH(v = 0; j = 0)!LiH + Ca at low and ultra-low temperatures. The captured quantum trajectory takes full
account of tunneling and quantum reflection along the radial collision coordinate. Our approach turns out to be
very fast and accurate, down to extremely low temperatures.


The purpose of this study was to verify a model of user's satisfaction of an e-learning environment based upon platform using behaviors. This is a non-experimental study. The data was collected from system management logs and users satisfaction survey after learning service. Total 314 users were invited in this study. First, theory model was identified. Second, the satisfaction survey results were prepared. Third, the behavior data of each survey subject were prepared. A CFA procedure were conducted to verify whether the data fits into the model. The model fit is positive with χ 2 = 2.06, p-value=.151, df= 1, RMSEA=.058. The proposed two-factor theory model with simple structure fit the data. The love e-learning and satisfaction of e-learning factors are significantly supporting the hypothesis of a relationship between the factors. The findings suggested that identifying satisfaction from behavior is possible.


ABSTRACT Competence for genetic transformation of Streptococcus pneumoniae is a transient physiological property inducible by a competence-stimulating peptide (CSP). A 68-kDa CSP-inactivating protein was previously obtained following lithium chloride (LiCl) extraction. By the same protocol, a CSP-inactivating protein was purified and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry as an endopeptidase, PepO. Analysis of a pepO mutant provided no support for the hypothesis that PepO participates in competence regulation. To reconcile in vitro and in vivo data, we suggest that LiCl treatment results in the release of intracellular molecules, including PepO.


The increased temperatures associated with lead free processes have produced significant challenges for PWB laminates. Newly developed laminates have different curing processes, are commonly filled with ceramic particles or micro-clays and can have higher Tg values. These changes, designed to reduce Z-axis expansion and improve the materials resistance to thermal excursions through primary attach and rework operations have also produced harder resin systems with reduced fracture toughness. This reduction in toughness has increased the incidence of the "Pad crater/Pad Lift" defects which are now reported as the dominant failure mode for Pb-free compliant materials. Observations from multiple streams of field returned product are now available to confirm this change in failure mode. This work discusses multiple phases of bend to failure testing and the implications for mechanical reliability of Pb-free product. The various phases were intended to investigate relationships commonly accepted for SnPb processes when they are applied to Pb-free compatible materials. The relationships between safe working strain, strain rate and board thickness are examined in the first phase. The second phase directly compares commonly used standard loss laminate materials and the impact of micro clay fillers in these resin systems which has been identified as a significant factor by other investigators. The effect of extended thermal excursions for an extensively used standard loss laminate material is also investigated. Assembly process and test methods are discussed in addition to selected results, failure analysis and distribution parameters. The effectiveness of a simplified predictive model that includes board and package parameters will also be discussed.