Aiming at the development of functional sheets, this research proposes a new fabrication method of origami robots to create an electronic circuit which can transform into a three-dimensional (3D) shape and move by itself by combining origami geometry and a flexible printed circuit board. Inspired by the caterpillar movement, we develop a crawling robot to demonstrate this approach. The body of the robot is made of a P-Flex™ sheet and actuated by shape memory alloy (SMA). The robot uses the contraction force generated from the SMA and the elasticity of sheet itself in order to produce periodic changes in shape. Since these fold lines maintain elasticity, this robot can also be returned to a flat state for storage. Materials we use are commercially available and cheap enough to achieve mass-production. Besides, this design method provides an easy way to fabricate a variety of new functional origami robots and mechanisms by designing more complex origami patterns and built-in circuits.


The introductory chapter (»What are national costumes and how to study them«) attempts to define the concept of 'national costume', analyze its significance in the traditional culture of human groups, and examine possible ways of studying them. The second chapter (_DeScriptions of Zlarln costumes material remains and oral accounts) Is a result of field research and it gives detalled descriptions of men's, women's and children's traditional costumes and their parts. The description Is most detailed with respect to women's costumes, which are still worn by some women on the island, while men's and children's costumes have practically gone out of use and are consequently more sketchlly presented. In an attempt to trace the development and change in clothing patterns, the third chapter (»Zlarln costumes in earlier periods written and pictorial sources.) analyzes references to clothing In different sources from the sixteenth century to the present day, with particular emphasis on seventeenth-century bequest documents. This diachronic procedure, among other things, makes It possible to get an Idea of the male costumes in earlier periods. In order to determine the place of Zlarin costumes among the types of clothing in other parts of the country and the varied Influences that can be seen in Zlarin, the fourth chapter (»Zlarin costumes and the surrounding area comparisons and analyses«) offers a synchronic comparison with costumes in the immediate and more distant surrounding areas. The closing chapter (••Zlarin costumes in the context of the traditional culture«) shows how clothing may help to explain some other phenomena in the patterns of life and culture of a traditional community, such as that of Zlarin. Costumes are therefore discussed as articles of domestic manufacture, as items of consumption, as possible indicators of social structure, as individual status symbols, and finally as symbols of local culture and local identity.


The high morbidity and mortality of colorectal cancer pose a significant public health problem worldwide. Here we assessed the pro-cancer efficacy and mechanism of action of CCNB1 in different colorectal cancer cells. We provided evidence that CCNB1 mRNA and protein level were upregulated in a subset of human colorectal tumors, and positively correlated with Chk1 expression. Repression of Chk1 caused a significant decrease in cell proliferation and CCNB1 protein expression in colorectal cancer cells. Furthermore, downregulation of CCNB1 impaired colorectal cancer proliferation in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. Specifically, suppression of CCNB1 caused a strong G2/M phase arrest in both HCT116 and SW480 cells, interfering with the expression of cdc25c and CDK1. Additionally, CCNB1 inhibition induced apoptotic death in certain colorectal cancer cells. Together, these results suggest that CCNB1 is activated by Chk1, exerts its oncogenic role in colorectal cancer cells, and may play a key role in the development of a novel therapeutic approach against colorectal cancer.


OBJECTIVE
Assess the impact of weight change on costs, resource use, and treatment discontinuation among metformin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

STUDY DESIGN
Observational, retrospective cohort.

METHODS
Adults with T2DM who were pre existing metformin-treated patients were included. Insulin users were excluded. Administrative data from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2010, were linked to clinical data, and patients were placed into cohorts based on relative change in body weight. Three cohorts were created: weight loss (decrease >3%), and weight neutral (change ≤3%), weight gain (increase > 3%). Inter-cohort differences in resource utilization, costs (2010 US$), and treatment discontinuation were evaluated using statistical models that adjusted for baseline characteristics.

RESULTS
A total of 2110 patients (weight loss = 967; weight neutral = 970; weight gain = 173) were included; mean age was 59.6 years, 52.2% were women, 64.1% were Caucasian, and average baseline weight was 98.7 kg. The weight-loss cohort incurred significantly lower costs per year compared with the weight-neutral cohort, driven mainly by lower medical costs from reduced utilization. Weight reduction was associated with approximately $2200 and approximately $440 lower annual all-cause and T2DM-specific costs (P < .05), respectively. Patients who lost weight were 21% less likely to discontinue therapy. Weight gain was associated with a significant increase in all-cause costs of $3400 per year compared with the weight-neutral cohort; however, differences in T2DM-specific costs and discontinuation rates did not reach significance levels.

CONCLUSIONS
Weight loss (> 3%) among patients with T2DM was associated with decreased costs and lower rates of treatment discontinuation. Hence weight-focused treatment approaches can help reduce the economic burden for patients with T2DM.


Berardinelli-Seip Congenital Lipodystrophy (BSCL) is an autosomal recessive inborn error of the common pathway of acylglycerol and phospholipid synthesis. Patients with this condition present with generalized lipoatrophy, hepatomegaly, acromegalic features, hypertrichosis, and developmental delay. But on workup, they may also be discovered to have hypertriglyceridemia with or without hypercholesterolemia and insulin resistance. A high index of suspicion is required for diagnosis which may have implications in management. Here we present a 5-year old male with clinical features of BSCL. BSCL2 gene sequencing done showed a homozygous c.782dupG, p.(Ile262Hisfs*12) sequence alteration, classified as pathogenic, hence, confirming the diagnosis of BSCL. This is the first reported case in the Philippines.


Self-stabilization refers to the ability of systems to recover after temporal violations of conditions required for their correct operation. Such violations may lead the system to an arbitrary state from which it should automatically recover. Typically, a self-stabilizing algorithm is examined for eventual functionality, namely, whether the algorithm eventually exhibit the desired input output relation. In this article, we extend the typical functionality criteria to include the recovery of privacy and security aspects. In cryptographic protocol problems, two or more parties want to perform some joint computation, while guaranteeing security properties against adversarial behavior. Current cryptographic protocols guarantee these security properties as long as the adversary is limited to compromise only a fraction of the parties. However, in reality, the adversary may compromise all the parties of the system for a while. We introduce the notion of Self-Stabilizing Secure Computation, a design that ensures that the security properties of computation are automatically regained, even if at some point the entire system is compromised. We then propose a self-stabilizing secure protocol for the evaluation of a reactive functionality which yields a computation of a virtual global finite state machine.


Sexual infidelity (S.I) is one of the world's intractable problems. It adversely affects the sanctity of family which is the basic unit of human society. Decades of deliberate and strategic policies to mitigate S.I have not yielded considerable concrete results. This is despite multidimensional approach from the church, state, and non-governmental organizations. Arguably, in the endeavor to ensure believers are sanctioned against unprecedented rates of S.I, Africa Inland Church –Kenya (A.I.C-K)has established Christian Education programs designed to address developmental needs (formative, teenage, and adulthood) of all adherents. Despite church's effort to eradicate S.I among her married members, the problem still persists. The research sought to examine factors influencing S.I. in A.I.C-K. This study is grounded on the premise that morality marks an essential ingredient in society, especially in the family institution; hence, without family values, society would be disrupted and eventually collapse. The article is justified by the need for the church to regain her moral authority as the conscience of the society. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Simple random and purposive sampling methods were used to choose a sample size of the requisite number of respondents. Key findings revealed that inadequate preparation before wedding, marital dissatisfaction, and geographical migration were among highly rated causes of sexual infidelity in A.I.C-K.


Semi-supervised domain adaptation (SSDA) aims to apply knowledge learned from a fully labeled source domain to a scarcely labeled target domain. In this paper, we propose a Multi-level Consistency Learning (MCL) framework for SSDA. Specifically, our MCL regularizes the consistency of different views of target domain samples at three levels: (i) at inter-domain level, we robustly and accurately align the source and target domains using a prototype-based optimal transport method that utilizes the pros and cons of different views of target samples; (ii) at intra-domain level, we facilitate the learning of both discriminative and compact target feature representations by proposing a novel class-wise contrastive clustering loss; (iii) at sample level, we follow standard practice and improve the prediction accuracy by conducting a consistency-based self-training. Empirically, we verified the effectiveness of our MCL framework on three popular SSDA benchmarks, i.e., VisDA2017, DomainNet, and Office-Home datasets, and the experimental results demonstrate that our MCL framework achieves the state-of-the-art performance.


This quantitative study was carried out with 358 puerperal women interned in a university hospital of Uberaba — MG, for three months. Its aim was to describe the intention of puerperal women regarding the use and type of contraceptive methods after birth, place of acquisition and source of orientation of such contraceptives. The data were obtained by means of a structured instrument and analyzed by descriptive statistics. 340 (98,8%) of the participants wanted to use a contraceptive method after birth. The main methods they wished to use were: oral contraceptive, hormonal injection and tubal ligation. The most mentioned place for acquisition of contraceptives was the drugstore. The main source of orientation mentioned was the physician. Most of the puerperal women intended to use a contraceptive method after birth, a crucial fact for the fulfillment of their reproductive planning. They should have guaranteed access to contraceptive methods in health services, as well as to receive the guidelines from various health professionals.


The paper presents a three-phase PWM AC-to-DC converter that employs an inductive energy transfer mechanism (DC reactor). This converter has a wide control range of DC voltage by means of its step-up and step-down characteristics. The source current can be sinusoidally waveshaped in phase with the source voltage by means of the proposed PWM control strategy. The power factor becomes unity in the controlled range of DC voltage. The input filter parameters are decided. Then, waveforms of voltages and currents, input, output and dynamic characteristics are discussed by the computer simulation and their validity is confirmed by experiments.


The place of religion in the political order is arguably the most contentious issue in post-Mubarak Egypt. With Islamist-oriented parties controlling over 70 percent of seats in the new People's Assembly and the constitution-writing process about to begin, liberals and leftists are apprehensive about the implications for Egyptian law and society, including the rights of Egypt's millions of Coptic Christians.


Objective: To investigate the epidemiologic and behavioral characteristics of HIV among community population in Liangshan prefecture. Methods: We collected social demographic, behavioral and serological information by means of the monitoring questionnaire and serological tests. Data was analyzed by using the chi-square test and logistic regression. Results: From April to June of 2010 to 2015, 14 092 cases of community population were selected as the study objects, with 267 cases diagnosed as HIV positive patients. The HIV positive rates were 3.24%, 3.07%, 1.17%, 1.38%,1.42% and 1.25%, respectively. We observed that when community population having the following characteristics as: living in Butuo country (OR=3.83), being males (OR=1.77), being Yi nationality (OR=4.40) being widowed (OR=28.57), with history of drug abuse (OR=3.71) or injecting drug use (PWID) (OR=4.92), or history of needle sharing among PWID (OR=8.53), were under higher risks for HIV infection. With histories as: having had secondary or above levels of schooling (OR=0.59), having protected sex with regular partners (OR=0.21) and with non-regular partners (OR=0.46), they seemed to be somehow protected for getting HIV infection. Conclusion: The positive HIV rates of HIV among community population in Dechang, Ningnan and Butuo varied from 0.10% to 8.77% while the HIV transmission among general population remained challenging.


Since the election of Syriza in January the Eurozone crisis has become intensely political. In February, Syriza extended the previous governments' debt-deal with the Troika (EU, ECB and IMF) for an extra four months. Since then, they have come under increasing pressure to do their own deal with these same institutions. If they relent, Syriza will continue imposing the very austerity they were elected to reverse. Paying off their international creditors will come with significant conditions, such as structural reforms to labour markets, cuts to public sector pay, a complete overhaul of the pensions system and a further round of privatisations.


The laser-plasma method is developed for diamond synthesis in air without using vacuum or reaction chambers. The design of a laser plasmotron based on a 3-kW cw CO2 laser for synthesis of diamond films on substrates of size 3–4 times larger than the transverse size of the plasma jet is presented. Various regimes of plasmotron operation while moving the substrate relative to the laser plasma are considered. Possible directions in further investigations in the field of laser plasma synthesis of diamond on large areas are discussed.


A range of ruthenium-arene compounds with chloride, bromide or iodide ligands were prepared and tested as catalysts for the homogeneous redox neutral alkylation of tert-butylamine with phenethyl alcohol, and compared to the previously reported catalyst [RuCl2(p-cymene)]2, in the presence of the diphosphine 1,1′-bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene (dppf). The best catalytic activities were obtained with ruthenium iodide compounds. The formation of either [RuX(p-cymene)(dppf)][X] or [(RuX2(p-cymene)) 2(dppf)] (X = halide) under the catalytic conditions employed was investigated.


This chapter suggests that Michel Foucault is a nuisance for scholars of organizations, albeit a productive one. Foucault disavowed the study of organizations, yet his work was fundamentally concerned with the administering of lives, a central concern of scholars of organizations. The chapter explores this tension by examining four displacements that Foucault sought to effect: first, a move from asking 'why' type questions to 'how' type questions; second, a concern with subjectivity that discards the ethical polarization of subject and object in favour of an analysis of the historically varying ways in which the capacities and attributes of subjects are constituted; third, a focus on practices rather than organizations, and a concern to analyse sets or assemblages of practices in terms of how they emerge and how they are stabilized over time; fourth, a focus on rationalities in the plural. It then examines the 'Foucault effect' in organization studies.


To evaluate the concentration-effect relationships of propofol during recovery after total intravenous anesthesia, 20 female patients undergoing lower abdominal surgery were studied. In 10 patients (Group B) the propofol infusion was supplemented with an epidural block with bupivacaine to evaluate the relation between the blood concentration of propofol and various pharmacodynamic end-points. The remaining 10 patients (Group A) received an alfentanil infusion intravenously instead of the epidural block to assess the dynamic interactions of alfentanil and propofol. Postoperative performances (drowsiness, amnesia, cooperation, and orientation) were evaluated by means of scoring scales. Critical flicker fusion threshold (CFF) also was used to assess the level of postoperative alertness. A propofol blood concentration of 2.5 μg/mL was required for satisfactory hypnosis during surgery and at 0.8 ± 0.4 μg/mL, the patients were considered fully awake. A concomitant alfentanil infusion reduced the propofol concentration required by 0.2–0.4 μg/mL for the same degree of effect. Rapid recovery was seen in all patients, but in the group receiving alfentanil infusion there was a shift to the left of the concentration-effect curve in regard to drowsiness and a statistically significant prolongation of recovery by CFF-measurement which suggests a possible dynamic interaction with alfentanil. We conclude that there is a good correlation between the blood concentration of propofol and the pharmacodynamic responses during recovery.


This paper introduces a robotic system that uses a PTZ camera to find the human in the room and locate its position. Then the robot is guided to go near to the human. This includes human detection and localization, robot localization and robot navigation. Human's head and face is detected by using a combination of motion detection, shape analysis and color information. The 3D position of human's head and face is estimated by using the depth from focus method. For robot localization we use a very fast measuring system that utilizes ultrasonic and infrared signals simultaneously. For robot navigation we use a map of environment consisting of doors, walls and static objects. After locating human and robot a visibility graph is searched for the shortest path and obstacle avoidance is done in a reflexive method using ultrasonic sensors.


Expectation-Maximization (EM) is a prominent approach for parameter estimation of hidden (aka latent) variable models. Given the full batch of data, EM forms an upper-bound of the negative log-likelihood of the model at each iteration and updates to the minimizer of this upper-bound. We first provide a "model level" interpretation of the EM upper-bound as sum of relative entropy divergences to a set of singleton models, induced by the set of observations. Our alternative motivation unifies the "observation level" and the "model level" view of the EM. As a result, we formulate an online version of the EM algorithm by adding an analogous inertia term which corresponds to the relative entropy divergence to the old model. Our motivation is more widely applicable than the previous approaches and leads to simple online updates for mixture of exponential distributions, hidden Markov models, and the first known online update for Kalman filters. Additionally, the finite sample form of the inertia term lets us derive online updates when there is no closed-form solution. Finally, we extend the analysis to the distributed setting where we motivate a systematic way of combining multiple hidden variable models. Experimentally, we validate the results on synthetic as well as real-world datasets.


Crowdsourced investigations shore up democratic institutions by debunking misinformation and uncovering human rights abuses. However, current crowdsourcing approaches rely on simplistic collaborative or competitive models and lack technological support, limiting their collective impact. Prior research has shown that blending elements of competition and collaboration can lead to greater performance and creativity, but crowdsourced investigations pose unique analytical and ethical challenges. In this paper, we employed a four-month-long Research through Design process to design and evaluate a novel interaction style called collaborative capture the flag competitions (CoCTFs). We instantiated this interaction style through CoSINT, a platform that enables a trained crowd to work with professional investigators to identify and investigate social media misinformation. Our mixed-methods evaluation showed that CoSINT leverages the complementary strengths of competition and collaboration, allowing a crowd to quickly identify and debunk misinformation. We also highlight tensions between competition versus collaboration and discuss implications for the design of crowdsourced investigations.


Videoconferencing is an innovative method that potentially allows medical students exposure to international teachers in refugee mental health who would otherwise be inaccessible. This article reports a pilot study using videoconferencing with international teachers from Australia, Sweden and the USA participating in the training of ten senior Swedish medical students. Interviews with an actual and a simulated patient were conducted at the U.S. and Australian sites respectively, followed by discussions involving those two sites with students and their supervisors in Sweden. Students evaluated the method favourably, as did the teachers, although the brevity of the program was seen as a limitation. Teachers noted the importance of preparing students and patients and ensuring that the technology operates smoothly to ensure success. Although cost-effective in teaching medical students in developed countries, videoconferencing may still be out of the reach of training programs in many developing countries where it is most needed.


Frictional interfaces are abundant in natural and engineering systems, and predicting their behavior still poses challenges of prime scientific and technological importance. At the heart of these challenges lies the inherent coupling between the interfacial constitutive relation—the macroscopic friction law—and the bulk elasticity of the bodies that form the frictional interface. In this feature paper, we discuss the generic properties of a minimal macroscopic friction law and the many ways in which its coupling to bulk elasticity gives rise to rich spatiotemporal frictional dynamics. We first present the widely used rate-and-state friction constitutive framework, discuss its power and limitations, and propose extensions that are supported by experimental data. We then discuss how bulk elasticity couples different parts of the interface, and how the range and nature of this interaction are affected by the system's geometry. Finally, in light of the coupling between interfacial and bulk physics, we discuss basic phenomena in spatially extended frictional systems, including the stability of homogeneous sliding, the onset of sliding motion and a wide variety of propagating frictional modes (e.g., rupture fronts, healing fronts and slip pulses). Overall, the results presented and discussed in this feature paper highlight the inseparable roles played by interfacial and bulk physics in spatially extended frictional systems.


Graphene quantum dots (GQD) with an average size of 3.1 nm were incorporated into a mesoporous porphyrinic zirconium-based metal-organic framework (MOF) by direct impregnation to render the donor-acceptor charge transfer from GQD to porphyrinic linkers. The hybrid material still possesses around half porosity of the pristine MOF and shows a hundredfold higher electrical conductivity compared to the parent MOF. By utilizing the porphyrinic linkers as catalytically active units, the GQD-MOF material exhibits a better electrochemical sensing activity toward nitrite in aqueous solutions compared to both the pristine MOF and GQD.


Recension del libreo de Neil Mercer Neil Mercer. (2019) Language and the Joint Creation of Knowledge. The Selected Works of Neil Mercer. Taylor and Francis.


The limited lifetime in a high current is the main drawback of spark-gap switches. Electrode replacement is an easily suggested method to extend the lifetime. In order to perform electrode replacement, thermal damage caused by heating effect should be prevented at the static electrical contact interfaces between the electrodes and the holders. Based on the Holm model, the Hertz formula, and the heat conduction theory, a mathematical model of the contact temperature rise is proposed in this paper. This mathematical model can prove quantitatively that the pulse-current integral (action integral), material physical properties, and mechanical characteristics of spark-gap switches are key parameters affecting the temperature rise. The action integral is determined by the electrical parameters. Material physical properties include the thermal conductivity, the specific heat, the density, the electrical resistivity, the elasticity modulus, and the Poisson ratio. Mechanical characteristics of spark-gap switches include the contact radius/area, the contact force, and the contact surface roughness. The implementation of electrode replacement depends on the reasonable configuration of these key parameters. The experiments in a 1.2-MJ power supply module give that the phenomenona correspond with our analysis. Based on the analysis in this paper, an electrode holder structure is proposed as a practical solution for extending the useful lifetime of spark-gap switches with graphite electrodes.


ABSTRACT This study aimed to identify the barriers to a timely discharge from short-term care in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Community Living Centers (CLCs). Ninety-nine interviews were conducted with CLC staff in leadership and direct-care positions in eight varied CLCs. Major themes identified through qualitative analysis as barriers to a timely discharge were a lack of patients' financial resources, low social support, and reluctance of some veterans and staff to view a timely veteran discharge as their goal. Staff also perceived that barriers were much more difficult to overcome in regions where community-based long-term services and supports were limited or nonexistent. Because VHA has lagged behind Medicaid more generally in terms of investment in these types of services, additional strategies are warranted to achieve the important policy goal of deinstitutionalizing VHA care and returning veterans to their homes in the community.


Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty have become very important concepts in modern management and quality models. A number of measurement frameworks have been proposed, and especially the American Customer Satisfaction Index and its European counterpart, EPSI Rating, have been accepted as good solutions. In 2003, however, Reichheld published an article in HBR, in which he claims that the Net Promoter Score (introduced by himself), is the only number you need to grow, and the only number you need to manage customer loyalty. We claim that the NPS is an inefficient and unreliable measure of customer loyalty and this paper clearly demonstrate that the NPS is by far inferior to the standard measures of loyalty used by the ACSI and EPSI Rating.


ackground: The assessment of the occlusal features of the anterior segment of the dental arch is considered of vital importance, especially for adult as it affects esthetics greatly. With the increase in esthetic demands and dental awareness with the vital importance of the anterior teeth in esthetic, function and phonetics. The present study was directed to analyze anterior segment in subjects with class one occlusion. This study that dealt with adult subjects while the previous studies mostly analyzed children. Epidemiological studies are one of the most significant methods which provide adequate information and knowledge about the distribution and prevalence of the occlusal features. Direct metric measurements proved to be helpful and effective for this purpose. Objectives: This study was designed to assess the relationship between upper and lower anterior teeth segment and gender difference and effect of this relationship on malocclusion. Materials and methods: This study was conducted from 30 September 2012 to 1 may 2014 on (1771) students in University of Almuthanna ( College of medicine (255), College of Engineering (437) and College of Science (1079)) were clinically examined, only (300) of them were selected who fulfilled the required specifications, (150) students for each gender. Their age was ranging from 18 to 25 years, were studied with respect to relationship of upper and lower anterior segment , overjet, overbite, anterior crossbite ,crowding and spacing. Results: The normal overjet were presented in (65.3%) students (64.4%) males and (66%) females, increased overjet were presented (24.3%) students (24%) males and (24.6%) females and decreased overjet were presented in (10.4%) students (11.4%) males and (9.4%) females). Normal overbite were presented in (53%) students (52%) males and (54%) females, increased overbite were presented (16.7%) students (16%) males and (17.4%) females, decreased overbite were presented in (30.3%) students (32%) males and (28.6%) females). The anterior crossbite were presented in (8.6%) students (8%) males and (9.3%) females) .Upper segment crowding were presented in (17%) students (18%) males and (16%) females), lower segment crowding were presented in (19%) students (19.4%) males and (18.6%) females). Upper segment spacing were presented in (16.4%) students (17.4%) males and (15.4%) females), lower segment spacing were presented in (11%) students (12%) males and (10%) females), Conclusion: This study displays more crowding percentage in the lower segment and display more upper segment spacing for total( male and female students),there was no significant difference between males and females in overjet, overbite, anterior crossbite ,crowding and spacing.


We examine the basic characteristics (electron temperature and positive ion density) of , Ar and /Ar high-density magnetoplasmas sustained by the propagation of a surface wave at 2.45 GHz under conditions close to electron cyclotron resonance (ECR). The gas pressures investigated are in the 0.1-10 mTorr range. Our experiments show that the dependence of the electron temperature and positive ion density on gas pressure is markedly different in pure and pure Ar. These results can be explained by the molecular and strong electronegative character of with respect to Ar. Furthermore, it is found that the radial profile of the positive ion density presents sharp peaks at the position where the wave electric field is the highest in the reactor. This shape can be explained using a simplified model which takes into account both radial and axial diffusion.


Abstract This paper describes the gender system of Laal, a language isolate of Chad. Laal has a strictly semantic, partly sex-based gender system making use of three semantic features: [±human], [masculine/feminine], and [±abstract], defining four genders: human masculine, human feminine, neuter, and abstract. Gender is covert on nouns; it is marked only on agreeing pronouns and functional words. The morphological marking and structure of the gender system is different in pronouns and functional words. Seven agreement classes are defined by various conflations of gender and number categories in both pronominal forms and functional words.


Objective To design and build a set of experimental equipment for neutron radiation irradiation
 by using the 241Am-Be neutron source.
 Methods In the preliminary work, the spatial distribution data of the neutron energy spectrum
 and the gamma energy spectrum inside and outside the device were simulated by Monte
 Carlo method, and the changes of radiation fluence rate with spatial distribution
 was studied. The model of the 241Am-Be neutron device was established, and the neutron transport process in the irradiation
 field was studied using the method of shadow cone, inverse square law and other data
 analysis methods.
 Results Based on the simulation results, the normalized effective does of fast neutron fluence
 at the measurement point is about 72.9 pSv/n, and the one of photon fluence is about
 3.04 pSv/γ. The ratio of effective dose of photon fluence to neuteon is about 4.17%.
 Conclusion Using Monte Carlo method, a standard model of 241Am-Be neutron source was constructed, the shadow cone design was optimized, and the
 feasibility of using the shadow cone conversion method to establish a standard neutron
 source radiation device was discussed.
 摘要: 目的 拟利用
 241Am-Be 中子源设计并建立一套中子辐射照射实验装置。
 方法 采用蒙特卡洛 (Monte Carlo) 方 法, 模拟计算装置内外中子能谱和 γ 能谱空间分布数据, 研宄中子注量等随空间分布的变化规律;初步建立镅铍中子 装置的数学模型,
 采用影锥法、平方反比律验证等数据分析方法, 对中子输运过程进行研宄。
 结果 模拟获得测量点 处归一化快中子注量有效剂量约为 72.9 pSv/n, 光子约为 3.04 pSv/γ, 光子注量有效剂量与中子注量有效剂量的比值约 为 4.17%。
 结论 利用蒙特卡洛方法, 构建了镅铍中子源标准装置模型, 优化了影锥设计, 初步讨论了将影锥转换法用 于建立中子源辐射照射装置的可行性。


Current approaches to the robust control of the motion of rigid robots are surveyed, and the available literature is summarized. The five major design approaches discussed are the linear-multivariable approach, the passivity approach, the variable-structure approach, the saturation approach, and the robust-adaptive approach. Some guidelines for choosing a method are offered.<<ETX>>


The language and wording used in the signatures of paintings by Domenikos Theotokopoulos ('El Greco') reveal a self‐conscious construction of cultural identity in the early modern era. This paper argues that El Greco, an artist born in Crete who later worked in Venice and Rome for nearly ten years, and then for the rest of his career in Toledo, Spain, used his signature as a means to broadcast his artistic brand as a Greek other during his decades‐long estrangement from his homeland. Regardless of where he worked or of the style that his paintings adopted, he always and without exception drafted his signatures in Greek, while at key moments of his career, especially during his frequent transitions from one city to the next, he appended his name with a declarative 'Cretan' in order to make it unmistakable that the viewer is looking at the work of a foreigner. In so doing, El Greco's use of language – a topic never taken into consideration with regards to the meaning of its deployment in his signatures – reveals much about the politics of cultural identity in the multicultural societies in which he worked.


Racial bias against Black Americans is a continuing problem in the United States. Although interracial dialogue is generally accepted as an effective method to combat racial bias, such dialogues are often avoided because they can make White Americans anxious and are accompanied by negative outcomes. Therefore, in the present study, we tested a simple intervention designed to (a) increase Whites' willingness to choose to enter a situation in which they would interact with a Black partner and (b) reduce the negative outcomes typically found in these interactions. One hundred fifty-seven White participants were randomly assigned to have a conversation with an interaction partner on one of two topics, racial discrimination or sexual identity discrimination. They were further assigned to one of two groups: an intervention group or a control group. The intervention group was told that people tend to avoid interracial interactions because these interactions are anxiety provoking but that choosing instead to approach interracial interactions may help to reduce future feelings of anxiety. The control group received no such guidance. Results demonstrated that, compared to the control group, participants in the intervention group were more likely to choose to interact with a Black partner over a White partner and showed more positive nonverbal engagement during the interracial interaction. We discuss the implications of this work for the development of strategies to increase Whites' engagement in interracial dialogue.


 Abstract — The laser scanner is a detection technique essential for the 3D modeling of objects and it is well known its capability to acquire large amounts of data relatively in short times with a high degree of precision. So it is widespreadly used in broader research's fields from engineering to medicine and to the study and protection of cultural heritage. Through integration with other radiometric techniques you can get an overview on the state of conservation, particularly with the three-dimensional models obtained by integrating 3D laser scanner data with images obtained with the infrared camera, that is able to deliver, over the dimensional characterization, also information on possible anomalies, dimensional and in shape, invisible to human eyes and other techniques. In particular, this application with the integrated use of terrestrial laser scanning instrumentation and advanced infrared camera can test a possible use for cars, after packaging and transport, in order to detect any damage caused by transport.


This paper presents a mathematical model to evaluate the risks of arbitration in contractual disputes to decide whether or not to raise an arbitration case for a claim. It adds the ingredient of a regret theory approach for taking that decision, if an amicable settlement amount is not agreed. Many other models that are based on decision trees, game theory, and neural networks lack a regret theory approach. The inclusion of regret theory in this model may be adaptable to any other models available making the decision more realistic through a stochastic approach of optimizing the maximum benefit for the minimum regret.


Gynecologic surgery complications may be classified as anesthesia related, hemorrhagic, infectious, urinary, gastrointestinal, vascular and nervous. The complication rate varies according to the type of surgery and patient ́s comorbidities [1]. Abdominal muscle hematomas are rare, but they may be a complication associated to any abdominal surgery including gynecologic. Most abdominal wall hematomas occur in rectum sheath, and hematomas within the oblique muscle are unusual. Women over 50 years old present hematomas more often than men, probably due to their muscular fragility [2]. In this article, the authors present a clinical case of a hematoma of the oblique muscle after a gynecologic surgery and its further complications.


A widely held 'RNA first' model proposes that RNA gave organic matter on Earth its first access to Darwinism. Such a proposal, which requires a mechanism to generate RNA from a prebiotic 'soup', must also manage the intrinsic instability of any RNA so formed. Here, we show that silicon dioxide (silica, SiO2), in the form of synthetic opal, adsorbs and stabilizes RNA from aqueous solution. The extent of adsorption on fully amorphous silica is less, as is the extent of adsorption on the surface of crystalline quartz. We show that the RNA adsorbed on opal is considerably more stable than the same RNA molecule free in aqueous solution at pH 9.5. This provides a mechanism by which any RNA formed in a prebiotic environment could have been concentrated and stabilized so that it could have later participated in the first Darwinian biology.


BACKGROUND
Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) patients often develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) related brain pathology. Disease State Index (DSI) is a method to combine data from various sources for differential diagnosis and progression of neurodegenerative disorders.

OBJECTIVE
To apply DSI to predict clinical AD in shunted iNPH-patients in a defined population.

METHODS
335 shunted iNPH-patients (median 74 years) were followed until death (n = 185) or 6/2015 (n = 150). DSI model (including symptom profile, onset age of NPH symptoms, atrophy of medial temporal lobe in CT/MRI, cortical brain biopsy finding, and APOE genotype) was applied. Performance of DSI model was evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

RESULTS
A total of 70 (21%) patients developed clinical AD during median follow-up of 5.3 years. DSI-model predicted clinical AD with moderate effectiveness (AUC = 0.75). Significant factors were cortical biopsy (0.69), clinical symptoms (0.66), and medial temporal lobe atrophy (0.66).

CONCLUSION
We found increased occurrence of clinical AD in previously shunted iNPH patients as compared with general population. DSI supported the prediction of AD. Cortical biopsy during shunt insertion seems indicated for earlier diagnosis of comorbid AD.


Stones on the surface of the soil enhance infiltration and protect the soil against erosion. They are often removed in modern mechanized agriculture, with unfortunate side‐effects. We evaluated experimentally the influence of surface stones on infiltration, runoff and erosion under field conditions using a portable rainfall simulator on bare natural soil in semi‐arid tropical India, because modernization and mechanization often lead to removal of these stones in this region. Four fields with varied cover of stones from 3 to 65% were exposed to three rainfall intensities (48.5, 89.2 and 136.8 mm hour−1). Surface stones retarded surface runoff, increased final infiltration rates, and diminished sediment concentration and soil loss. The final infiltration ranged from 26 to 83% of rainfall when the rainfall intensity was 136.8 mm hour−1. The reduction in runoff and soil erosion and increase in infiltration were more pronounced where stones rested on the soil surface than where they were buried in the surface layer. The sediment yield increased from 2 g l−1 for 64.7% stone cover with rainfall of 48.5 mm hour−1 to 70 g l−1 for 3.5% stone cover with rain falling at 136.8 mm hour−1. The soil loss rate was less than 2 t ha−1 hour−1 for the field with stone cover of 64.7% even when the rainfall intensity was increased to 136.8 mm hour−1. The effects of stones on soil loss under the varied rainfall intensities were expressed mathematically. The particles in the sediment that ran off were mostly of silt size.


This paper examines one of the problem raised by Wittgenstein's discus- sion of rule-following. What is it to grasp a rule (a universal, a pro-perty) given that a rule is individuated by its application to objects which the grasper will never think of? One philosophically tempting solution to this problem is discussed. To grasp a rule is to be disposed to behave in certain ways. The paper shows how this answer resurrects the very problem it was designed to solve and concludes by relating this dia- lectic to Wittgenstein's Quietism.


Education is an important thing in life. In practice, education consists of teachers and students. A teacher teaches a subject to students. Students are taught by several or more teachers. There is a provision in which a class of students can only receive one subject at a time. Teachers can also only teach one subject at a time. This requires a system that is used to regulate so that these provisions can be fulfilled without ignoring other provisions. The system used to manage these problems is a subject scheduling system. This system regulates the class placement of students with the subjects they study. In manual implementation, the process is very inefficient in terms of time, human resources and thought power. The method that can be used to solve this problem is the genetic algorithm. A genetic algorithm is a heuristic method or procedure inspired by the natural selection process. Genetic algorithms are generally used to produce high-quality solutions to problems in the form of optimization and search by relying on biologically inspired operators such as mutation, crossbreeding, and selection


Think tanks seek to shape the business of government by offering policy expertise in a number of areas, including health care. This expertise tends to be presented as 'the view from nowhere' – independent, value-neutral expertise that can inform policy. We challenge this view by examining what 'independence' means and how it is performed. We present an interpretive policy analysis of data collected from four UK-based think tanks that have sought to influence health policy. Our analysis demonstrates how a sample of healthcare think tanks publicly positioned themselves as 'independent' organizations. They drew on technocratic health planning discourse to emphasize a range of knowledge-related activities, artifacts and instrumental language that, informants suggested, allowed them to feed emerging evidence into policy and improve health services. Such positioning seemed to provide them with legitimacy in the eyes of decision makers. A parallel set of think tank activities (e.g., meetings with parliamentarians) took place 'back-stage' and focused on influencing health policy and, in the context of recent proposals to reform the English National Health Service, lending broad though not unqualified support to government proposals to extend market principles in health care. Informants appeared to seek to neutralize their presentation of such 'back-stage' influencing through a range of discursive strategies.


Abstract : During carcinoma progression, tumor cells often undergo changes similar but not identical to epithelial-mesenchymal transitions in embryonic development. In this study I have demonstrated that experimental stimulation of hyaluronan synthesis in normal epithelial cells is sufficient to induce mesenchymal and transformed characteristics. Using recombinant adenoviral expression of hyaluronan synthase 2, 1 showed that increased hyaluronan production promotes anchorage- independent growth and invasiveness, induces gelatinase production, and stimulates phosphoinositide-3-kinase/Akt pathway activity in phenotypically normal MDCK canine kidney and MCF-lOA human mammary epithelial cells. Cells infected with hyaluronan synthase 2 adenovirus also acquire mesenchymal characteristics, including up-regulation of vimentin', dispersion of cytokeratin, and loss of organized adhesion proteins at intercellular boundaries. Furthermore, I showed that transforming effects of two well-described agents, hepatocyte growth factor and P-catenin, are dependent on byaluronan-cell interactions. Thus increased expression of hyaluronan is sufficient to induce epithelial to mesenchymal transition and acquisition of transformed properties in phenotypically normal epithelial cells. In addition I have shown that the extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer emmprin, promotes anchorage-independent growth and stimulates ErbB2, phosphoinositide 3-kinase /Akt, MAP kinase and focal adhesion kinase cell survival signaling pathways in a hyaluronan-dependent manner.


Background. Hydatid cyst (HC) disease is endemic in many developing countries, like Yemen, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, especially in the rural regions. The disease has a variable clinical courses and even might be asymptomatic for many years. Objectives. In giant and large pulmonary hydatid cysts, pulmonary resection is the usual method of surgical treatment. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the lung conservative surgery in treatment of cases with giant and large hydatid lung cysts, as an effective method of management. Patients and Methods. Between January 2009 and August 2014, a total of 148 patients with pulmonary hydatid cysts were operated and their data was reviewed retrospectively and analyzed. Out of these cases, 52 (35.14%) cysts with more than 10 cm in diameter and 36 (24.32%) cysts with 5–9 cm were regarded as giant and large hydatid lung cysts, respectively. The small cysts less than 5 cm were presented in 8 (5.4%) cases only; other cases had ruptured cysts. Preservation of the lung tissues during surgery by cystotomy and Capitonnage was our conservative surgical methods of choice. Results. Eight patients developed bronchopleural fistula (BPF); of them, 4 BPFs have healed with chest tube and physiotherapy, but in the other 4 patients reoperation was done for the closure of persistent BPF. No mortality was observed in the present study. Conclusion. We conclude that conservative surgical procedure can achieve complete removal of the pulmonary hydatid cyst. Enucleation of the intact huge cysts is safe. Careful and secured closure of the bronchial communication should be done by purse string or figure-of-8 sutures, with or without Teflon pledgets. These simple procedures are safe, reliable, and successful.


[1] Kepler is a 31 km diameter Copernican age complex impact crater located on the nearside maria of the Moon. We used Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery and topographic data in combination with Kaguya terrain camera and other image data sets to construct a new geomorphologic sketch map of the Kepler crater, with a focus on impact melt-rich lithologies. Most of the interior melt rocks are preserved in smooth and hummocky floor materials. Smaller volumes of impact melt were deposited in rim veneer, interior and exterior ponds, and lobe-like overlapping flows on the upper crater wall. Based on shadow lengths, typical flows of melt-rich material on crater walls and the western rim flank are ∼1–5 m thick, and have yield strengths of ∼1–10 kPa. The melt rock distribution is notably asymmetric, with interior and exterior melt-rich deposits concentrated north and west of the crater center. This melt distribution and the similarly asymmetric ray distribution imply a slightly less than 45° impact trajectory from the southeast. The exposed wall of Kepler displays distinct layering, with individual layers having typical thicknesses of ∼3–5 m. These are interpreted as flows of Procellarum mare basalts in the impact target. From the point of view of exploration, numerous fractures and pits in the melt-rich floor materials not only enable detailed studies of melt-related processes of impact crater formation, but also provide potential shelters for longer duration manned lunar missions.


The formation of oxide film on the surface of aluminium melts, i.e. bifilms, are known to be detrimental when they are incorporated into the cast part. These defects causes premature fractures under stress, or aid porosity formation. In this work, Al-12 Si alloy was used to cast a step mould under two conditions: as-received and degassed. In addition, 10 ppi filters were used in the mould in order to prevent bifilm intrusion into the cast part. Reduced pressure test samples were collected for bifilm index measurements. Samples were machined into standard bars for tensile testing. It was found that there was a good agreement with the bifilm index and mechanical properties.


Molecular response properties for ground and excited states and for transitions between these states are defined by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a molecular system in a field of a time-periodic perturbation. In equation of motion coupled cluster (EOM-CC) theory, molecular response properties are commonly obtained by replacing, in configuration interaction (CI) molecular response property expressions, the energies and eigenstates of the CI eigenvalue equation with the energies and eigenstates of the EOM-CC eigenvalue equation. We show here that EOM-CC molecular response properties are identical to the molecular response properties that are obtained in the coupled cluster-configuration interaction (CC-CI) model, where the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is solved using an exponential (coupled cluster) parametrization to describe the unperturbed system and a linear (configuration interaction) parametrization to describe the time evolution of the unperturbed system. The equivalence between EOM-CC and CC-CI molecular response properties only holds when the CI molecular response property expressions-from which the EOM-CC expressions are derived-are determined using projection and not using the variational principle. In a previous article [F. Pawłowski, J. Olsen, and P. Jørgensen, J. Chem. Phys. 142, 114109 (2015)], it was stated that the equivalence between EOM-CC and CC-CI molecular response properties only held for a linear response function, whereas quadratic and higher order response functions were mistakenly said to differ in the two approaches. Proving the general equivalence between EOM-CC and CC-CI molecular response properties is a challenging task, that is undertaken in this article. Proving this equivalence not only corrects the previous incorrect statement but also first and foremost leads to a new, time-dependent, perspective for understanding the basic assumptions on which the EOM-CC molecular response property expressions are founded. Further, the equivalence between EOM-CC and CC-CI molecular response properties highlights how static molecular response properties can be obtained from finite-field EOM-CC energy calculations.


Since the theory of the Soft Power proposed by Joseph Nye came into being, this theory attracted lots of attention. However, the research on the source of the theory is limited. This paper introduces the Soft Power Theory, the source of the Soft Power Theory, Joseph Nye of soft power theory under Different Countries application analysis and its revelation. Key words : The Soft Power Theory; The source of the theory; Application analysis; Revelation


Review of Emily Zackin, Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places: Why State Constitutions Contain America's Positive Rights (2013). In claiming that Americans are looking for rights in all the wrong places, Professor Emily Zackin targets two flawed mindsets: (1) that the exclusive source of new individual rights is the federal Constitution, as opposed to the state constitutions; and (2) that constitutional rights in general are exclusively negative, just libertarian prohibitions on governmental action, not affirmative calls for the government to act. The first point returns to a once dominant, then forgotten, now reemerging, insight — that constitutional rights do not originate solely in the U.S. Constitution or come only from decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. There are fifty-one constitutions and fifty-one high courts, and all of them protect a wide variety of individual rights. The second point, the central thesis of Zackin's book and the useful insight offered in it, acknowledges that the American constitutional law tradition focuses on negative protections — structural and individual-rights limitations on government — but claims that this perspective does not describe that tradition in full. To get the full picture, she urges, one must account for a strain of positive constitutional rights dating from the nineteenth century and found in most state constitutions, rights that operate by compelling governments to act, not by prohibiting them from acting. To support the point, Zackin offers three examples of positive-rights traditions in the states' constitutions: the right to a free and adequate public education, the rights to safe working conditions and fair pay, and the right to a clean environment. The book purports to tell what is, not what should be. But some will take Zackin's description to suggest, if not to call for, a norm-changing view: that the American constitutional tradition ought to account for such positive rights and appreciate the possibility of more.


PURPOSE The American Board of Family Medicine has completed the 7-year transition of all of its diplomates into Maintenance of Certification (MOC). Participation in this voluntary process must be broad-based and balanced for MOC to have any practical national impact on health care. This study explores family physicians' geographic, demographic, and practice characteristics associated with the variations in MOC participation to examine whether MOC has potential as a viable mechanism for dissemination of information or for altering practice. METHODS To investigate characteristics associated with differential participation in MOC by family physicians, we performed a cross-sectional comparison of all active family physicians using descriptive and multinomial logistic regression analyses. RESULTS Eighty-five percent of active family physicians in this study (n = 70,323) have current board certification. Ninety-one percent of all active board-certified family physicians eligible for MOC are participating in MOC. Physicians who work in poorer neighborhoods (odds ratio [OR] = 1.105; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.038–1.176), who are US-born or foreign-born international medical graduates (OR = 1.221; 95% CI, 1.124–1.326; OR = 1.444; 95% CI, 1.238–1.684, respectively), or who are solo practitioners (OR = 1.460; 95% CI, 1.345–1.585) are more likely to have missed initial MOC requirements than those from a large, undifferentiated reference group of certified family physicians. When age is held constant, female physicians are less likely to miss initial MOC requirements (OR = 0.849; 95% CI, 0.794–0.908). Physicians practicing in rural areas were found to be performing similarly in meeting initial MOC requirements to those in urban areas (OR = 0.966; 95% CI, 0.919–1.015, not significant). CONCLUSION Large numbers of family physicians are participating in MOC. The significant association between practicing in underserved areas and lapsed board certification, however, warrants more research examining causes of differential participation. The penetrance of MOC engagement shows that MOC has the potential to convey substantial practice-relevant medical information to physicians. Thus, it offers a potential channel through which to improve health care knowledge and medical practice.


ABSTRACT A deep understanding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–host interactions is crucial to developing effective therapeutics and addressing the threat of emerging coronaviruses. The role of noncoding regions of viral RNA (ncrRNAs) has yet to be systematically scrutinized. We developed a method using MS2 affinity purification coupled with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and designed a diverse set of bait ncrRNAs to systematically map the interactome of SARS-CoV-2 ncrRNA in Calu-3, Huh7, and HEK293T cells. Integration of the results defined the core ncrRNA–host protein interactomes among cell lines. The 5′ UTR interactome is enriched with proteins in the small nuclear ribonucleoproteins family and is a target for the regulation of viral replication and transcription. The 3′ UTR interactome is enriched with proteins involved in the stress granules and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins family. Intriguingly, compared with the positive-sense ncrRNAs, the negative-sense ncrRNAs, especially the negative-sense of 3′ UTR, interacted with a large array of host proteins across all cell lines. These proteins are involved in the regulation of the viral production process, host cell apoptosis, and immune response. Taken together, our study depicts the comprehensive landscape of the SARS-CoV-2 ncrRNA–host protein interactome and unveils the potential regulatory role of the negative-sense ncrRNAs, providing a new perspective on virus–host interactions and the design of future therapeutics. Given the highly conserved nature of UTRs in positive-strand viruses, the regulatory role of negative-sense ncrRNAs should not be exclusive to SARS-CoV-2. IMPORTANCE Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19, a pandemic affecting millions of lives. During replication and transcription, noncoding regions of the viral RNA (ncrRNAs) may play an important role in the virus–host interactions. Understanding which and how these ncrRNAs interact with host proteins is crucial for understanding the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. We developed the MS2 affinity purification coupled with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method and designed a diverse set of ncrRNAs to identify the SARS-CoV-2 ncrRNA interactome comprehensively in different cell lines and found that the 5′ UTR binds to proteins involved in U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein, while the 3′ UTR interacts with proteins involved in stress granules and the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein family. Interestingly, negative-sense ncrRNAs showed interactions with a large number of diverse host proteins, indicating a crucial role in infection. The results demonstrate that ncrRNAs could serve diverse regulatory functions. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19, a pandemic affecting millions of lives. During replication and transcription, noncoding regions of the viral RNA (ncrRNAs) may play an important role in the virus–host interactions. Understanding which and how these ncrRNAs interact with host proteins is crucial for understanding the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. We developed the MS2 affinity purification coupled with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method and designed a diverse set of ncrRNAs to identify the SARS-CoV-2 ncrRNA interactome comprehensively in different cell lines and found that the 5′ UTR binds to proteins involved in U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein, while the 3′ UTR interacts with proteins involved in stress granules and the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein family. Interestingly, negative-sense ncrRNAs showed interactions with a large number of diverse host proteins, indicating a crucial role in infection. The results demonstrate that ncrRNAs could serve diverse regulatory functions.


As subjective artistic creations, artistic paintings carry emotion of their creators. Emotions expressed in paintings and emotion aroused in spectators by paintings are two kinds of emotions that scholars have paid attention to. Traditional studies on emotions expressed by paintings are mainly conducted from qualitative perspectives, with neither quantitative output on the emotional values of a painting, nor exploration of trends in the expression of emotion in art history. In this research we threat facial expressions in paintings as an artistic characteristics of art history and employ cognitive computation technology to identify the facial emotions in paintings and to investigate the quantitative measures of paintings from three emotion-related aspects: the spatial and temporal patterns of painting emotions in art history, the gender difference on the emotion of paintings and the color preference associated with emotions. We discovered that the emotion of happiness has a growing trend from ancient to modern times in paintings history, and men and women have different facial expressions patterns along time. As for color preference, artists with different culture backgrounds had similar association preferences between colors and emotions.


A new genus and species of the family Parabathynellidae, Siambathynella laorsriae gen. nov. et sp. nov. is described from Thailand. The new genus displays an exclusive character: a distinctive male thoracopod VIII with a row of denticles on the basipod. The new species also displays a unique combination of morphological characters, including a seven-segmented antennule, seven-segmented antenna, sexual dimorphism on the antennule, exopod of thoracopod I one-segmented, exopod of thoracopod II–VII two-segmented, male thoracopod VIII lacking basipodal seta, female thoracopod VIII with two setae, lacking pleopods, sympod of the uropod with inhomonomous row of spines, and endopod of uropod with a spinous distal process and a large distal spine ornamented with rows of setules. This is the first record of Bathynellacea (family Parabathynellidae) in Thailand, extending the distributional range of this taxon in Asia.


Much of the work in today's organizations is accomplished by distributed, or "virtual" project teams, rather than by work groups meeting in traditional face-to-face meetings. This paper investigates to what extent results from earlier GSS (group support systems) research are being applied to distributed environments, and to what extent more recent research in distributed GSS (DGSS) acknowledges and supports the evolution of work to a distributed project management context. The paper begins with a summary of GSS in face-to-face (FTF) settings, based on two recent meta-analyses, and then analyzes recent selected research literature focused on DGSS and distributed project teams. The results of the analysis provide a foundation for identifying gaps in virtual project team research, and for discussing implications for research and practice.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was cultural norms that expectant mothers in Kibera slum uphold.Methodology: The study utilized a correlation research design. The target population comprised all expectant mothers within Kibera slums who were present at the selected clinics during antenatal day at the time of data collection. The target population also constituted all the twenty eight medical practitioners working at the five selected clinics as well as all the peer professionals who listen to the expectant mothers' complaints. The study conducted a census for the medical practitioners and used convenience sampling for the expectant mothers and peer professionals. The sample size was 38 respondents. The study used a questionnaire, focus group discussion and a key informant interview guide as research instruments to obtain primary data. The questionnaires were self-administered with the help of two research assistants while the researcher conducted the focus group discussion with the expectant mothers and the key informant interview with the two peer professionals. The researcher analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data.Results:The medical practitioners indicated that expectant mothers uphold cultural customs, cultural practices, cultural beliefs and cultural agreement values.The expectant mothers indicated that they observe various cultural norms .Results also revealed that the existence of cultural norms affect the intercultural communication of health information among expectant mothers. However, some of the expectant mothers take up advice that goes against their cultural beliefs and norms. They take up advice on various issues such as vaccination, giving birth in clinics, taking of drugs, going to prenatal clinics, family planning and undergoing caesarean during birth.Policy recommendation: The Ministry of Health should take the initiative to educate the residents of Kibera slum on the importance of attending antenatal and prenatal clinics. The MOH should also lead campaigns that condemn outdated cultural customs which subject expectant mothers to adverse risks even to the point of losing their lives. This can be done through the local media


Prenatal development is mainly dependent on a close interrelation between nutritional supply use and regulation by hormones and growth factors. Mechanisms during early embryonic development are sensitive to manipulation through selected management strategies of the sow and modifications of this strategy may serve as a model for the examination of molecular and cellular events controlling early embryonic growth. The administration of growth hormone (GH) to pregnant sows affects the development of fetuses in a manner dependent on the gestational period of treatment, therefore suggesting that maternal GH plays a significant role in prenatal development. In addition, in well-fed and feed-restricted gilts, treatment with porcine somatotropin (pST) during early to mid-pregnancy promotes the growth of their placenta and/or fetuses. Due to an exponential increase in research exploring the role of ST in growth biology, collectively, these studies resulted in an unprecedented increase in our understanding of how ST affects growth of domestic animals. Thus, the main purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the remarkable biological effects that pST has on pig fetal growth.


Background

Depression is common in young people, has a marked negative impact and is associated with self-harm and suicide. Preventing its onset would be an important advance in public health.

Objectives

To determine whether psychological or educational interventions, or both, are effective in preventing the onset of depressive disorder in children and adolescents.

Search methods

The Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Review Group's trials registers (CCDANCTR) were searched at the editorial base in July 2010. Update searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and ERIC were conducted by the authors in September 2009. Conference abstracts, reference lists of included studies and reviews were searched and experts in the field contacted.

Selection criteria

Randomised controlled trials of psychological or educational prevention programmes, or both, compared with placebo, any comparison intervention, or no intervention for young people aged 5 to 19 years-old, who did not currently meet diagnostic criteria for depression or who were below the clinical range on standardised, validated, and reliable rating scales of depression, or both, were included.

Data collection and analysis

Two authors independently assessed studies for inclusion and rated their quality. Sample sizes were adjusted to take account of cluster designs and multiple comparisons. We contacted study authors for additional information where needed.

Main results

Fifty-three studies including 14,406 participants were included in the analysis. There were only six studies with clear allocation concealment, participants and assessors were mostly not blind to the intervention or blinding was unclear so that the overall risk of bias was moderately high. Sixteen studies including 3240 participants reported outcomes on depressive diagnosis. The risk of having a depressive disorder post-intervention was reduced immediately compared with no intervention (15 studies; 3115 participants risk difference (RD) -0.09; 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.14 to -0.05; P<0.0003), at three to nine months (14 studies; 1842 participants; RD -0.11; 95% CI -0.16 to -0.06) and at 12 months (10 studies; 1750 participants; RD -0.06; 95% CI -0.11 to -0.01). There was no evidence for continued efficacy at 24 months (eight studies; 2084 participant; RD -0.01; 95% CI -0.04 to 0.03) but limited evidence of efficacy at 36 months (two studies; 464 participants; RD -0.10; 95% CI -0.19 to -0.02). There was significant heterogeneity in all these findings. There was no evidence of efficacy in the few studies that compared intervention with placebo or attention controls.

Authors' conclusions

There is some evidence from this review that targeted and universal depression prevention programmes may prevent the onset of depressive disorders compared with no intervention. However, allocation concealment is unclear in most studies, and there is heterogeneity in the findings. The persistence of findings suggests that this is real and not a placebo effect.

Plain Language Summary

Psychological and educational interventions for preventing depression in children and adolescents

Depressive disorder is common and has a major impact on the functioning of young people. The aim of this review was to assess the effectiveness of programmes designed to prevent its onset.

We found that, compared with no intervention, psychological depression prevention programmes were effective in preventing depression with a number of studies showing a decrease in episodes of depressive illness over a year. There were some problems with the way the studies were done but despite this the results are encouraging. We found data to support both targeted and universal programmes, which is important as universal programmes are likely to be easier to implement. We recommend that further research be undertaken to identify the most effective programmes and to test these in the real world.


Abstract. The present study combines archaeological data with
archaeopedological data from colluvial deposits to infer Neolithic
settlement dynamics between the Baar region, the Black Forest and the Swabian Jura.
A review of the state of archaeological research and an analysis of the
processes leading to the discovery of the Neolithic sites and thereby the
formation of the current archaeological site distribution in these
landscapes is presented. The intensity of land use in the study area is
compared with other landscapes in southern Germany using site frequencies.
Phases of colluvial deposition are dated using AMS 14C ages of
charcoals and luminescence ages of sediments and interpreted as local
proxies for a human presence. Archaeological source criticism indicates that
the distribution of the Neolithic sites is probably distorted by factors
such as superimposition due to erosion and weathering effects limiting the
preservation conditions for Neolithic pottery. A reconstruction of Neolithic
settlement dynamics is achieved by complementing the archaeological data
with phases of colluviation. Evidence for a continuous land use in the Baar region
throughout the Neolithic is provided and sporadic phases of land use on the
Swabian Jura and in the Black Forest are identified. In the late and final
Neolithic, an intensification of colluvial formation can be noticed in the
low mountain ranges.


We construct geometric models for classifying spaces of linear algebraic groups in G-equivariant motivic homotopy theory, where G is a tame group scheme. As a consequence, we show that the equivariant motivic spectrum representing the homotopy K-theory of G-schemes (which we construct as an E-infinity-ring) is stable under arbitrary base change, and we deduce that homotopy K-theory of tame Artin stacks satisfies cdh descent.


Clustering high-dimensional data is a major challenge due to the curse of dimensionality. To solve this problem, projective clustering has been defined as an extension to traditional clustering that attempts to find projected clusters in subsets of the dimensions of a data space. In this paper, a probability model is first proposed to describe projected clusters in high-dimensional data space. Then, we present a model-based algorithm for fuzzy projective clustering that discovers clusters with overlapping boundaries in various projected subspaces. The suitability of the proposal is demonstrated in an empirical study done with synthetic data set and some widely used real-world data set.


The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis has dramatically reshaped the chemistry of the surface Earth, and the presence of significant quantities of O2 in the atmosphere and ocean now drives the fundamental dynamics of nearly all quantitatively significant biogeochemocal cycles (C, S, P, N, Fe). Whether by direct consumption through the metabolic demands of large, complex organisms, or through the recycling of essential substrates within microbial ecosystems, biologically produced O2 provides nearly all of the compounds used in metabolic electron transfer on a global scale. Although it is widely accepted that the partial pressure of O2 in Earth's atmosphere has increased through time (with attendant, although somewhat complex, changes in ocean ventilation), there is still much debate surrounding the timing of the emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis and little is known about the detailed tempo and mode with which this metabolic innovation came to shape early Earth surface chemistry. This dissertation explores the early oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere and the relationship between atmospheric oxygen levels and ocean ventilation from a variety of perspectives. First, empirical data based on an integrated suite of paleoredox proxies is used to suggest that biological oxygen production emerged and began exerting significant effects on Earth surface chemistry at least 100 million years prior to the initial accumulation of large quantities of O2 in the atmosphere (often referred to as the Great Oxidation Event , approximately 2.4 billion years ago). The implications of this time lag between metabolic innovation and large-scale biogeochemical reorganization are explored through a series of quantitative models, focusing on the thermodynamics and kinetics of mineral reactions under various Earth surface conditions, regional oceanographic modeling of surface ocean O2 cycling, and a global sulfur isotope mass balance model that explicitly incorporates rare sulfur isotope systematics ( 33 S, ( 36 S) and the dynamics of sedimentary recycling on long timescales. Finally, the dynamics of ocean ventilation following the initial accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere are explored by combining a large trace metal database with a spatially explicit mass balance model that exploits the differing redox behavior and surface cycling of molybdenum (Mo) and chromium (Cr).


Obesity plays a pivotal role in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Certain types of obesity may be related to alcohol ingestion, which itself leads to impaired cardiac function. This study analyzed basal and ethanol-induced cardiac contractile response using left-ventricular papillary muscles and myocytes from lean and obese Zucker rats. Contractile properties analyzed include: peak tension development (PTD), peak shortening amplitude (PS), time to PTD/PS (TPT/TPS), time to 90% relaxation/relengthening (RT90/TR90) and maximal velocities of contraction/shortening and relaxation/relengthening (±VT and ±dL/dt). Intracellular Ca2+ transients were measured as fura-2 fluorescence intensity (ΔFFI) changes and fluorescence decay time (FDT). In papillary muscles from obese rats, the baseline TPT and RT90 were significantly prolonged accompanied with low to normal PTD and ±VT compared to those in lean rats. Muscles from obese hearts also exhibited reduced responsiveness to postrest potentiation, increase in extracellular Ca2+ concentration, and norepinephrine. By contrast, in isolated myocytes, obesity reduced PS associated with a significant prolonged TR90, normal TPS and ±dL/dt. Intracellular Ca2+ recording revealed decreased resting Ca2+ levels and prolonged FDT. Acute ethanol exposure (80–640 mg/dl) caused comparable concentration-dependent inhibitions of PTD/PS and ΔFFI, associated with reduced ±VT in both groups. Collectively, these results suggest altered cardiac contractile function and unchanged ethanol-induced depression in obesity.


A numerical implementation of the upper bound theorem of limit analysis is applied to determine 2D and 3D active horizontal earth pressure coefficients considering seismic actions through a horizontal seismic coefficient. Results are obtained for vertical wall, horizontal soil, different friction angles of the soil, soil-to-wall friction ratios, horizontal seismic coefficients, and wall width-to-height ratios. The few cases for which 3D active earth pressure coefficients are available in the literature using upper-bound methods were used for comparison with the corresponding earth pressure coefficients obtained in the present work. This showed a general improvement of these results, which allows expecting a good accuracy for the set of cases studied. The ratios between the 3D and 2D horizontal active earth pressure coefficients are found to be practically independent of the soil-to-wall friction ratio. An equation is proposed for calculating these ratios. This equation can be easily used in the design of geotechnical structures requiring the determination of 3D active earth pressure coefficients.


There has been increasing concern regarding environmental problems arising from the widespread use of petroleum-based plastic materials for packaging. Many efforts have been made to develop sustainable and biodegradable packaging materials to replace plastic products. The current review summarizes recent research progress in developing cellulose packaging materials to replace plastics used for cushioning and barrier packaging functions based on pulp fibers, cellulose nanofibers, and regenerated cellulose films to benefit from their renewability, sustainability and biodegradability. The cushioning packaging materials include molded pulp products and bio-based foams. Advanced cellulose films and paper can be good barriers for oxygen and carbon dioxide gases, as well as for water vapor. Several cellulose fiber-based packaging products have been commercialized in areas that used to be occupied solely by plastic products.


In this paper, entropy generation rate in the flow of couple stress fluid undergoing exothermic chemical reaction through a porous vertical channel is studied by applying the second law of thermodynamics. A semi-analytical solution for the governing equations is obtained using Adomian decomposition method (ADM). The effects of couple stress parameter, internal heat generation parameter, Dufour number on the velocity, temperature distribution, entropy generation rate and Bejan number are investigated and the results were presented graphically. The results show that solutal diffusivity has significant effect on the entropy generation rate and irreversibility of heat in a couple stress fluid flow.


The generalized exploiting modification direction (GEMD) steganography algorithm is an enhancement of the exploiting modification direction (EMD) algorithm to hide a high payload capacity with maintaining the quality of the stego-image. This paper proposed a developed GEMD image steganography algorithm using improved pixel segmentation strategy with an indicator bit (PSS-IB) to overcome the drawbacks of the previous EMD algorithms. The proposed algorithm segments each block of pixels of the cover image into vector of coordinate area (VCA), an indicator bit (IB) and vector modification area (VMA). The VCA vector is kept unchanged, the IB is flipped if required and the VMA vector is modified. The VCA vector is segmented into "n" vectors to carry the secret data. The modified VMA vector is obtained by applying the GEMD algorithm on these vectors. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is designed and FPGA implemented using Xilinx System Generator (XSG) on Spartan 3E Kit. The experimental results prove that, the proposed algorithm has high embedding rate, high embedding payload capacity, less computational complexity and keeping high stego-image quality compared to previous work.


A novel surface integral equation based algorithm is proposed for accurate inductance and resistance extraction in 3-D interconnects. The surface integral equation is obtained by using the skin-effect cross-sectional approximation of the volumetric current density in the traditional volumetric integral equation. The method allows for substantial reduction of computational complexity in the pertinent boundary-element formulation compared with widely adopted volumetric models. For a fixed number of samples per skin-depth establishing a desired accuracy of extraction, the number of degrees of freedom in the proposed discretized problem scales with frequency ¿ as O(¿¿), as opposed to O(¿) exhibited by the volumetric models. The accuracy of extraction is shown to be maintained from dc to the limit of magneto-quasistatic approximation.


DNA methylation is an essential epigenetic regulation mechanism implicated in transcription and replication control, developmental reprogramming, retroelements silencing and other genomic processes. During mammalian development, a specific DNA methylation pattern should be established in germ cells to allow embryonic development. Less is known about germ cell DNA methylation in other species. To close this gap, we performed a single-cell methylome analysis of chicken diplotene oocytes. We comprehensively characterized methylation patterns in these cells, obtained methylation-based chicken genome segmentation and identified oocyte-specific methylated gene promoters. Our data show that despite the formation of specific transcriptionally hyperactive genome architecture in chicken diplotene oocytes, methylation patterns in these cells closely resemble genomic distribution observed in somatic tissues.


The University of Lampung area, especially in the Faculty of ISIP, FEB, and FT is a densely packed student area. This area has undergone many land-use changes. The condition of the land as a green open space has changed its function to become an area for lecture buildings and offices. One of the impacts is an increase in direct surface runoff and a decrease in the quantity of water that seeps into the ground, this condition causes flooding during the rainy season. To facilitate the rehabilitation of the drainage system in the University of Lampung area, it is necessary to redesign the drainage system of the University of Lampung area. Rehabilitation of drainage channels is carried out to resolve flood inundation points that occur during the rainy season. Rainwater that is channeled through drainage channels is directed to natural or artificial reservoirs. The collected rainwater is used to recharge groundwater through natural infiltration methods. The analysis carried out in this study includes hydrological analysis and analysis of the existing drainage sections and the solutions are given. The hydrological analysis aims to calculate the planned discharge using the rational method. Modeling with the application used in this study aims to determine the capacity of the water level in the existing channel. Based on the results of the analysis, in the area, the Faculty of Engineering experienced runoff and inundation. This situation requires rehabilitation of the Lampung University area drainage system.


Background Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis is a broad term used to describe several different forms of chronic arthritis in children. Variable assessment tools can be used for assessment of JIA disease activity. JADI is composed of 2 parts (Viola et al., 2005). Objectives Assessment of the articular and extraarticular damage index in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients. Methods This study was carried out on 60 JIA patients. Patients who had inflamed synovia related to trauma or malignant disease, septic arthritis, bone diseases, as dysplasia or osteomyelitis were excluded. Clinical assessment: sex, age at disease onset, JIA category, educational level, loss of school years and previous use of systemic corticosteroid and second-line drug therapies. Local examination: Number of swollen joints, joints with pain on movement/tenderness, joints with limited range of motion, joints with active arthritis were recorded for every patient. Disease activity: was measured by using the (JADAS-27). Functional ability: was assessed by (CHAQ). Laboratory assessment: included ESR and CRP. Radiographic assessment: scored according to the adapted Sharp/van der Heijde score. Damage assessment: was assessed using the Juvenile Arthritis Damage Index.The (JADI-A) and (JADI-E). Results Patient characteristics: 6 had systemic onset, 29 had polyarthritis, 14 extended oligoarthritis, 11 had persistant oligoarthritis and none of them had psoriatic arthritis. 38 females and 22 males (56.7%) percent of patients lost some years of education ranging from 0–3 years. Patients in remession were very few 5 patients only. According to the C-HAQ score (13.3%) of patients had no disability (11.7%) mild disability (41.6%) moderate disability and (33.3%)severe disability. 60% patients had articular damage and 35% patients had extraarticular damage. The wrist was the most frequently damaged joint.The growth failure, pubertal delay and leg length discrepancy were the most frequently reported extraarticular items. Correlation of JADI with other disease variables: showed that JADI-A is correlated with physician's global assessment, CHAQ, radiological damage. Conclusions Ours is the first study that has used JADI to assess outcome in patients with JIA in Egypt. JADI has a good correlation with traditional outcome measures in JIA and may be a good tool to be used in clinical practice and is likely to increase current understanding of the natural history of the disease. References Singh G., Arthreya B.H., Fries J.F., et al. (1994): Measurement of health status in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum.; 37 (12) 1761–769. Viola S., Felici E., Magni-Manzoni S., et al. (2005): Development and validation of a clinical index for assessment of long term damage in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Arthritis & Rheumatism ;52(7):2092–2102. Ravelli A. and Martini A. (2007): Juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Lancet 369:767–78. Boros C. (2010): Juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Australian family physician ;39(9):630–636. Tanner JM, Davies PS 1985.Clinical longitudinal standards for height and height velocity for North American children. J Pediatr 107:317–329. Acknowledgements First of all, thanks to Gracious Allah. I would like to express my profound gratitude and appreciation to Prof. Dr. Enass Abdel Kader Elewa and to Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Moustafa Ashour for support and supervision. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The annual discharges of municipal wastewater across the Green Line (the Israeli-Palestinian "borders") are increasing; thus a bi-national conflict exists with political, environmental, and economical dimensions. This is a challenge calling for an urgent need for effective transboundary cooperation aiming at public health and environmental protection. Based on the review of selective international and national literature, data analysis of accessible local reports and technical site visits, we demonstrate how complex transboundary wastewater management is throughout the world and on the Green Line or Israeli-Palestinian "borders" specifically. The Israeli water policy reflected by the current unilateral interventions have proved ineffective in addressing regional management of transboundary wastewater problems. This paper provides an overview of the current status of sanitation services coverage in Palestinian communities and discusses the immense challenges behind achieving sustainable wastewater treatment facilities. An example of transboundary wastewater management is presented to advance discussions on Jad Hanna wastewater treatment plant serving Palestinian communities, a recent peace building sanitation project along the Israeli-Palestinian "border". This paper underlines effectiveness, equality, trust, transparency, benefits sharing and responsibilities as key elements of sustainable transboundary wastewater treatment management. A transboundary cooperation along the Green Line (which currently is being seen as the Israeli-Palestinian borders) to promote affordable sanitation and reuse facilities is achievable if a number of legal, political, socio-economical and environmental questions are fairly resolved.


The drug-delivery field has been an attractive as well as challenging area for research. With the emerging of new formulated drugs and pharmaceutical compounds, development of good drug-delivery system (DDS) is crucially required. This study aims to utilize albumin as the drug template in silica/albumin/drug (S/A/D) system. Prior to designing this system, the interaction between silica and albumin was investigated. It is hypothesized that high interaction between silica and albumin may result in slower drug release over time, which is preferred for a good DDS. Silica and albumin (S/A) materials were prepared by using fumed silica and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the silica precursors. Three different S/A samples were prepared; fumed silica with albumin (FS/A), fumed silica with pre-treated albumin by sodium borohydrate (FS/A-N), and silica sol (TEOS) with albumin (SS/A). In-vitro release of albumin in phosphate buffer solution (pH 7) was carried out to examine the interaction between albumin and silica. The concentration of albumin was detected at 280 nm by UV-visible spectrophotometer. All samples were characterized by diffuse reflectance-UV-visible spectrophotometer (DR-UV), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) dan thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA). DR-UV results show that SS/A exhibited the lowest absorption intensity at 280 nm, which indicates better interaction between silica and albumin. This result was supported by the presence of Si-O stretching band of silanol at 952 cm -1 from the FTIR spectrum. Release study of albumin demonstrated that the release of albumin from SS/A was slowest compared to those of FS/A and FS/A-N.


This paper proposes a three-dimensional scanner system, which is built by using an ingenious geometric construction method based on monocular vision. The system is simple, low cost, and easy to use, and the measurement results are very precise. To build it, one web camera, one handheld linear laser, and one background calibration board are required. The experimental results show that the system is robust and effective, and the scanning precision can be satisfied for normal users.


Dr. Karl Menninger of the famous family in Topeka, Kan, has been all his life a dedicated, creative, and sensitive student of human nature. His literary productivity has been enormous, and his programs of action in the field of mental health and illness have been effective, extending far beyond the walls of the Menninger Clinic. The present book will add to his stature because it is a good book—a sensible work for both intelligent lay readers and professionals of all disciplines concerned with mental health. This large volume, veritably a textbook, cannot be reviewed in detail. Only assurances can be given that it is authentic for our current state of knowledge. The author has a sense of history and describes classification, diagnosis, and therapy as evolutionary processes. Perhaps the 70-page appendix outlining systems of psychiatric classification from 500 BC to the present could have been omitted. The essence of Menninger's


Internet server-side applications are becoming an invaluable source of information for many scientists. This is particularly evident in the case of molecular biology, where raw information and computation tools related to various genome projects are easily and quickly accessible through several Web servers. As illustrated by the pioneering efforts of the Ocean Drilling Stratigraphic Network (ODSN) service for making online plate reconstructions, the Cornell Interactive Mapping System, the Harvard Centroid-Moment Tensor Project, and the DRAGON project, geophysics has just begun to systematically use comparable network programming technology Within the next few years, many local resources that are currently accessible only at the scale of university departments will be rendered available to a wide public of researchers and students.


There is a consensus today that the the main lesson of the Aharonov-Bohm effect is that a picture of electromagnetism based on the local action of the field strengths is not possible in quantum mechanics. Contrary to this statement it is argued here that when the source of the electromagnetic potential is treated in the framework of quantum theory, the Aharonov-Bohm effect can be explained without the notion of potentials. It is explained by local action of the field of the electron on the source of the potential. The core of the Aharonov-Bohm effect is the same as the core of quantum entanglement: the quantum wave function describes all systems together.


A simple mathematical description of thick hologram recording and playback is given using a basic wave front representation. Results are obtained for amplitude and phase holography. This approach is very accessible to students and predicts the important results that are obtained in early and some more advanced holography experiments. The approach is also quite general and applies to transmission and reflection holography.


About the book:
Portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) instrumentation has some unique analytical capabilities for the in situ analysis of samples in the field. These capabilities have been extended in recent years by the continuing development of solid state detectors, surface mounted electronics, digital signal processing technology, Li-ion batteries combined with a choice of rugged sealed radioisotope sources or miniature X-ray tubes that provide lightweight hand-held devices.

As well as opening up new applications, in situ measurements by PXRF, where the instrument is placed in direct contact with the object to be analysed, involve the complete integration of sampling and analysis. Careful interpretation of results is therefore required, particularly when the analysis is used to estimate the bulk composition of a sample.

In this monograph, an overview is given of instrumentation, analytical capabilities, and limitations in the interpretation of results, sampling considerations and applications where PXRF offers substantial advantages over conventional analytical techniques. The aim is to give the reader an insight into the capabilities of the technique and to demonstrate the contribution it can make to a range of areas of contemporary scientific interest.

Chapters are written by internationally recognised scientists with practical experience of in situ analysis using portable X-ray fluorescence and demonstrates the wide range of applications for the technique. The topics covered are illustrated with diagrams and photographs where appropriate and each chapter includes supporting references to enable the reader to gain a greater understanding of a particular application.


Abstract As lead optimization efforts have successfully reduced metabolic liabilities due to cytochrome P450 (CYP)-mediated metabolism, there has been an increase in the frequency of involvement of non-CYP enzymes in the metabolism of investigational compounds. Although there have been numerous notable advancements in the characterization of non-CYP enzymes with respect to their localization, reaction mechanisms, species differences and identification of typical substrates, accurate prediction of non-CYP-mediated clearance, with a particular emphasis with the difficulties in accounting for any extrahepatic contributions, remains a challenge. The current manuscript comprehensively summarizes the recent advancements in the prediction of drug metabolism and the in vitro to in vitro extrapolation of clearance for substrates of non-CYP drug metabolizing enzymes.