The semiconductor industry is facing increasing problems with designing complex circuits with tight constraints on area, performance and power consumption. Worse still, these circuits must be designed and verified very quickly. The existing design tools have great problems with handling the complexity of the designs, and time consuming manual intervention is often needed in order to reach a satisfactory result.
One factor in this increasing complexity is the fact that routing wires dominate logical gates in today's high-performance circuits when non-functional properties such as signal delay and power consumption are considered.
In conventional design methods, information about routing wires is not included until the later design stages, so that bad choices early on are not discovered until after the time consuming physical design stage.
In order to overcome this problem, we need design methods which take wire effects into account right from the start. This requires better abstraction techniques that faithfully model the lower-level implications, even when working at a high level of abstraction.

We propose a system called {\em Wired}, which allows layout- and wire-aware design at higher abstraction level than any similar approach that we know of. Wired is based on a simple relational programming language, which in turn, is embedded in the functional programming language Haskell. This gives a very powerful and flexible system for describing low-level aware circuit generators.
Combining Wired with Lava -- a similar system, but with less support for the analysis of low-level properties -- gives a powerful design flow in which a design can start off as a relatively high-level functional Lava description, and then be gradually refined into a low-level Wired description.
We demonstrate through case studies of parallel prefix networks that the link between the high-level and the low-level description can be made very clear, allowing changes to be propagated up and down through the abstractions.
The system supports the analysis of non-functional properties that depend on wire effects. In particular, a bidirectional analysis that calculates RC-delays has been implemented, exploiting the fact that Wired is a relational programming language. This, combined with succinct circuit descriptions, enables rapid design exploration, in which candidate designs are compared for performance.


Since the end of 2015, the US Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate nine times. This has led to capital outflows and asset depreciation in many emerging market economies. The present paper examines the factors that determine the financial volatility of emerging markets in the face of external shocks. By calculating the capital flows of 30 emerging markets from 1990 to 2018 and conducting panel regression, this paper finds that countries with good infrastructure facilities, a sound banking system and high economic growth have significantly lower cross‐border financial risks. An implication from the empirical analysis is that emerging countries would benefit greatly by actively taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative. The framework of the Belt and Road Initiative allows emerging countries better access to China's massive consumer market to promote trade and long‐term growth. Their quality of infrastructure can be improved through cooperation with China in infrastructure investment. They can also jointly establish a cooperative financial framework to enhance regional financial stability. These strategies will reduce systematic financial risks and counteract the negative impacts of US interest rate hikes.


Duplicate records in the Online Union Catalog of the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., were analyzed. Bibliographic elements comprise information found in one or more fields of a bibliographic record; e.g., the author element comprises the main and added author entry fields. Bibliographic element mismatches in duplicate record pairs were considered relative to the number of records in which each element was present. When a single element differed in a duplicate record pair, that element was most often publication date. This finding shows that a difference in the date of publication is not a reliable indicator of bibliographic uniqueness. General cataloging and data entry patterns such as variations in title transcription and form of name, typographical errors, mistagged fields, misplaced subfield codes, omissions, and inconsistencies between fixed and variable fields often caused records that were duplicates to appear different. These factors can make it extremely difficult for catalogers to retrieve existing bibliographic records and thus avoid creating duplicate records. They also prevent duplicate detection algorithms used for tape-loading records from achieving desired results. An awareness of particularly problematic bibliographic elements and general factors contributing to the creation of duplicate records should help catalogers identify and accept existing records more often. This awareness should also help to direct system designers in their development of more sensitive algorithms to be used for tape loading. The resulting general reduction in the number of duplicate records in union catalogs will be a major step toward increased cataloger productivity, user satisfaction, and overall online database quality.


A wheelchair with a gear system was designed and analysed in order to find a good solution for people with wheelchair to move into the car. This gear system has been designed to be installed in the car and the whole wheelchair can be moved into the car automatically even with the people on it. The three dimensional design have been done in a CAD commercial program with this the solid mechanics analysis was also performed. Volvo XC 60 and V60 as well as a foldable wheelchair have been chosen in this work.


The absorption and urinary excretion of [3 H]prednisolone after oral ingestion was examined using hard gelatin capsules with and without a coating of Eudragit‐S which delayed release of the contents. In 6 patients with ulcerative colitis absorption was delayed until the preparation reached the colon but the total absorption was unchanged. In 6 patients with Crohn's disease and ileal strictures the preparation broke proximal to the stricture and absorption was delayed until this occurred (within 4‐12 h). In 5 patients with Crohn's disease and intestinal resections the capsules broke unreliably.


Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb or also known as Pandan Wangi is a member of the screwpine family, noted by its distinct scented leaves resembling the smell of fragrant basmati rice, and was held as the vanilla of Southeast Asia. Pandan Wangi was often opted as an alternative form of insect repellent in some household in Southeast Asia. Where, various studies have shown pandan leaves extract exhibited both insecticidal and repellency properties towards certain insects, notably mosquitoes and cockroaches. However, there is a paucity of information on the effect exhibited by root extract. Hence, this study aims to verify the insecticidal and repellency activities of pandan root extract using adult Drosophila melanogaster as the model organism. Dried pandan roots were extracted in methanol, ethanol and ethyl acetate solvent by Sohxlet method to yield extracts of differing polarity. The phytochemical constituent of the extract were determined by qualitative screening and quantitative assays. In the Contact Toxicity assay, Drosophila melanogaster were introduce to extract solution of differing concentration by aerosol sprays. The insect mortality rate was determined after 24 hour of exposure to the extract. For the repellency assay, the flies were entrapped into a vessel containing cotton soaked in extract-attractant solution against an attractant control solution. Repellency properties were determined by movement observation of the insects within the vessel in a period of an hour. Results showed that all 3 extract were positive for steroids, phenols and flavonoid with methanol and ethanol extracts yielding equally higher concentrations of total phenolic and flavonoids content as compared to ethyl acetate extracts. The contact toxicity and repellency assay showed that no significant mortality and deterrent effect was observable from the pandan root extract with concentration up to of 1% (w/v).


ABSTRACT We describe a new species of the albanerpetontid amphibian Albanerpeton from three localities in the Lower Cretaceous Cloverly Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A. Radiometric dates between ∼111–112 Ma indicate it is slightly younger than A. arthridion from the Antlers Formation. The new species is diagnosed on a pair of fused frontals that possess a unique combination of characters, mixing plesiomorphic features of the internasal process with a more derived overall shape and proportions. Referred material includes premaxillae, maxillae, dentaries, atlantes, 'axes,' trunk vertebrae, humeri, and an ilium. Phylogenetic analyses place the new species near the base of Albanerpeton sensu lato but without fully resolving its position. The inclusion of Shirerpeton and Wesserpeton within this clade opens up the possibility that these genera might be incorporated into Albanerpeton, or that a number of species formerly assigned to Albanerpeton might receive new generic assignments. By including several informal species in our analysis, it becomes clear that character distributions are more homoplastic and that past genus typologies are probably less secure. We assign the new species to Albanerpeton conservatively, pending further phylogenetic study. The Cloverly Albanerpeton is found in unambiguously aquatic deposits, suggesting that the animal lived near these settings for at least part of its life. This is a common habitat for Mesozoic albanerpetontids, unlike the karst-dominated, often drier, deposits in which Cenozoic species are typically found. Despite the recent discovery of a probable arboreal species, it is likely that albanerpetontids inhabited a range of habitats throughout their evolutionary history.


Formation of temporal guiding-center walking solitons in tandem structures made of quadratic nonlinear crystals is investigated. The specific new effects and possibilities arising by engineering the multifrequency periodical variation of the group-velocity, group-velocity dispersion and nonlinearity existing in the tandem structures are introduced.


ABSTRACT Permian-Triassic strata of the Middle Rocky Mountains (Wyoming, southern Montana, eastern Idaho, northeastern Utah, and northern Colorado) reflect major subsidence in the miogeosyncline on the west and minor subsidence of the shelf to the east. Sequences of thousands of feet of strata in southeastern Idaho and northern Utah give way eastward to sequences a few hundred feet thick. Western areas were sites of deposition of Permian phosphorite, chert, and dark mudstone (Phosphoria Formation), and of Triassic olive shale, tan siltstone, and grey limestone (Dinwoody Formation). A broadly comparable west-to-east transition from normal marine to hypersaline environment characterizes both systems, with red beds dominating in eastern Wyoming. Stratification is generally parallel on each side of the contact, and the only evidence of pre-Triassic erosion is commonly microrelief on a generally flat surface of great extent. The specific boundary between the two systems at any one locality is placed primarily on lithologic evidence. A change from carbonate to fine-grained, land-derived sediment characterizes the contact through much of Wyoming. To the east, red beds and evaporites are overlain by similar red beds and evaporites; to the west, each of the several Phosphoria Formation rock types or equivalent Shedhorn Sandstone can be found directly below Triassic shale and calcareous siltstone. The Upper Permian strata commonly show silicification, whereas Lower Triassic beds do not. Bedded evaporite commonly occurs in drab Lower Triassic strata of the shelf, whereas it is limited to the Permian red-bed sequence in peripheral regions of the shelf. Faunal control normally either confirms the boundary (western area), is absent above the boundary (central shelf), or is absent above and below it (eastern shelf). Youngest Permian faunas generally indicate a Guadalupian age, although a small collection of brachiopods from northwestern Wyoming suggests the possibility of post-Guadalupe Permian beds. The thick Triassic sequence in Idaho contains several Lower Triassic ammonoid zones, starting with a late Otoceratan assemblage. Upper Permian and Lower Triassic strata contrast strikingly in diversity and abundance of fossils. Groups common in Permian strata but absent in Lower Triassic beds include sponges, bryozoans, productoids, seven bivalve superfamilies, and scaphopods. Over the shelf, the youngest Permian strata were deposited in sublittoral to supralittoral carbonate and evaporite environments. This area was probably sub-aerially exposed before deposition of basal Dinwoody strata but remained nearly at sea level. Erosion, dissolution, and soil formation were minimal, probably reflecting arid climate and lack of relief. To the west, deposition may have persisted in some localities during much or all of this time. Triassic strata indicate a westward shift of environments so that deposition of carbonate rocks prevailed in the miogeosyncline and high salinity prevailed farther west on the shelf than in Permian seas. End_Page 676------------------------


Among the intestinal parasitic infestations extant in this country, whipworm disease (trichuriasis) has been one especially difficult to manage. Treatment failures have been common with available drugs. Although dithiazanine iodide (Delvex) apparently was quite effective, it produced some unfortunate toxic effects and is no longer marketed.1 A notable advance in the treatment of whipworm infestations appears imminent. In this issue ofThe Journal(p 1408, p 1412), Miller et al and Wolfe and Wershing report quite gratifying results with a new drug, mebendazole, in two series of patients with the disease. High reductions in egg counts occurred, and while cures were not uniformly achieved, adequate dosage usually produced them. For inexplicable reasons, infestations that were not eradicated in the Miller series were usually light ones. In the Wolfe and Wershing series, however, from a different geographical area, the cure rate was lower with massive infestations. Contrary to an earlier


Background: Evaluation of success of tympanoplasty depends on various host and surgical factors has been subject of interest for many years and still continues to be challenge . Methods: Present study was undertaken to observe results of type I tympanoplasty using tragal cartilage and perichondrium with temporalis fascia grafts using endomeatal and postauricular approach. Results: Study group comprises of 30 patients in Group A and B operated by tympanoplasty type I by endomeatal and postauricular techniques. Success was 96.3% in Group A and 94.7% in Group B for closure of membrane perforation. During postoperative period average time taken for wound healing was 23 days in Group A and 35 days in Group B. Preoperative and postoperative assessment of hearing performed with pure tone audiometry revealed an average hearing loss of 36.50 dB in Group A before surgery and postoperative assessment at end of 1 year revealed hearing improvement of 14.23 dB. In Group B preoperative assessment revealed hearing loss of 38.23 dB lowered to 15.12 dB after surgery. When hearing improvement in both groups were compared preoperatively and postoperatively, in Group A there was improvement of 22.27 dB while in Group B was 23.11 dB. The hearing improvements in both the groups appear to be similar when the results were compared. In present study overall success rate was 89.7% which is comparable to outcome of surgery performed with post auricular approach with temporalis fascia graft which is 91.3%. When postoperative complications were studied it was observed that Group A had fewer numbers of complications as over Group B which was documented in Table 2. Conclusions: Success of tympanoplasty depends on several host and surgical factors. Tragal perichondrium appears as proven alternate for closure of perforation of tympanic membrane. Cosmetically endomeatal approach appears promising over post auricular approach.


Health care is quite different from other industries because of its organizational structure, service delivery, and financing of health services. Balancing costs, quality, and access presents unique challenges for each stakeholder group committed to promoting the health and healing of its citizens. Using the diagnostic approach to health care entrepreneurship, we created a framework from research in the field to understand the predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors most relevant to successful entrepreneurship.


Hollow materials derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged in the biomedical field due to their unique properties, and different synthesis methods have been proposed. However, so far, the large-scale use of hollow MOFs is mostly limited by the timeliness of synthesis methods. Herein, we propose a new ultrasonic aerosol flow strategy for the instantaneous synthesis of a Zr-MOF-derived hollow sphere complex (ZC-HSC) in only one step. Through rapid transient heating, the coordination between metal salts and organic ligands occurs along with prompt evaporation of the solvent. The whole process lasts for only about 21 s, compared with several steps that take hours or even days for conventional synthesis methods. Based on the ZC-HSC, we designed a nanodrug with the functions of manipulating the tumor microenvironment, which can reshape the tumor microenvironment by improving tumor hypoxia and inflammatory microenvironment and promoting antiangiogenic therapy. Combined with microwave thermo-chemotherapy, the nanodrugs effectively treat triple-negative breast cancer (the tumor cell survival rate was only 34.76 and 31.05% in normoxic and hypoxic states, respectively, and the tumor inhibition rate reached 87.9% at the animal level), providing a new theoretical basis for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer. This rapid, one-step, and continuous ultrasonic aerosol flow strategy has bright prospects in the synthesis of MOF-derived hollow materials and promotes the further development of large-scale applications of biological nanomaterials.


Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) are a biologically plausible neural network model with significant advantages in both event-driven processing and spatio-temporal information processing, rendering SNNs an appealing choice for energyefficient object detection. However, the non-differentiability of the biological neuronal dynamics model presents a challenge during the training of SNNs. Furthermore, a suitable decoding strategy for object detection in SNNs is currently lacking. In this study, we introduce the Current Mean Decoding (CMD) method, which solves the regression problem to facilitate the training of deep SNNs for object detection tasks. Based on the gradient surrogate and CMD, we propose the SNN-YOLOv3 model for object detection. Our experiments demonstrate that SNN-YOLOv3 achieves a remarkable performance with an mAP of 61.87% on the PASCAL VOC dataset, requiring only 6 time steps. Compared to SpikingYOLO, we have managed to increase mAP by nearly 10% while reducing energy consumption by two orders of magnitude.


Pathologic and epidemiologic data suggest that while little racial variation exists in prostate cancer prevalence ("autopsy cancer"), striking racial variation exists for the clinically diagnosed form of the disease. A review of the available literature was performed to define whether racial differences in serum androgen levels or qualitative or quantitative differences in the androgen receptor were correlated with prostate cancer incidence or severity. Black men were found to be exposed to higher circulating testosterone levels from birth to about age 35 years. Such differences were not consistently noted among older men. Significant differences also were found for dihydrotestosterone metabolites among black, white, and Asian men. Unique racial genetic polymorphisms were noted for the gene for 5 alpha-reductase type 2 among black and Asian men. Novel androgen receptor mutations recently have been described among Japanese, but not white, men with latent prostate cancer. Finally, androgen receptor gene polymorphisms leading to shorter or longer glutamine and glycine residues in the receptor protein are correlated with racial variation in the incidence and severity of prostate cancer. This same polymorphism also could explain racial variation in serum prostate-specific antigen levels. Collectively, these data strongly suggest racial differences within the androgen/androgen receptor pathway not only exist but could be one cause of clinically observed differences in the biology of prostate cancer among racial groups.


Child maltreatment is a significant public health issue in the United States. Understanding key risk factors for child maltreatment is critical to informing effective prevention. Poverty is an established risk factor for child maltreatment. However, recent research indicates that material hardship (i.e., difficulties meeting basic needs) may serve as a more direct measure of the way in which poverty affects daily life. One form of material hardship that is common among families is housing stress. Previous reviews have summarized the existing literature regarding the association of economic insecurity with child maltreatment, but no reviews have synthesized and critically evaluated the literature specific to the association of various types of housing stress with child maltreatment. We conducted a systematic search of multiple electronic databases to identify peer-reviewed studies conducted in the U.S. regarding the association of housing stress with child maltreatment. We identified 21 articles that used nine distinct measures of housing stress including homelessness or eviction, homeless or emergency shelter stays, foreclosure filing, housing instability, inadequate housing, physical housing risk, living doubled-up, housing unaffordability, and composite housing stress indicators. Overall, results from this body of literature indicate that housing stress is associated with an increased likelihood of caregiver or child self-reported maltreatment, child protective services (CPS) reports, investigated and substantiated CPS reports, out-of-home placements, and maltreatment death. Additional theory-driven research is needed to further our understanding of the contribution of specific types of housing stress to risk for specific types of maltreatment.


Galactagogues represent substances used to enhance breast milk production. Between 2001 and 2014 we identified 2034 phone calls regarding the use of galactagogues made to MotherSafe. The majority involved discussion of domperidone (n = 1884; 92.6%), with the remainder relating to metoclopramide (n = 153; 7.5%) or other herbal galactagogues (eg fenugreek, milk thistle; n = 262; 12.9%). A 50% decrease in total calls occurred from 2011 to 2014, while the percentage of calls regarding herbal galactagogues increased from 0% in 2001 to 23% in 2014. These findings support the need for more robust research surrounding the use of galactagogues in clinical practice.


This study reports the sexual abuse of children and their social functioning after sexual assault in West Coast Zone, State of Sabah, Malaysia. The objective of this study is to analyse the social functioning of child sexual assault survivors according to the duration and frequency of sexual assault on the child survivors. Eighty children who reported sexual assault were studied. The main research instrument used was adapted from the Inner Interaction Scale of Social Functioning (IISSF). The results of the study show that there are no significant differences in the social functioning of child sexual assault survivors according to the duration and frequency of sexual assault, but the social functioning symptoms of achievement and expectations were significantly different according to the frequency of sexual assault. The social functioning of the victims based on duration and frequency of sexual assault is important for social workers both to understand and to take note of in treatment and intervention work with child sexual assault survivors who report their abuse. The implications of these findings were also discussed in the context of the provision of crisis intervention support for child victims of sexual assault by a counsellor, social workers and psychologist.


Abstract Problems of resolution and poor superpositional evidence in mammalian biostratigraphy through Paleocene-Eocene boundary strata in NW Europe are solved by applying parsimony analysis to taxa shared between localities. On this basis, five biozones are established in the area for the interval formerly delineated by mammalian biostratigraphers as MP7-MP9. Integration with other biostratigraphies (dinocyst, calcareous nannoplankton, charophytes) aids correlation between the London, Belgian and Paris Basins, and supports the earlier idea of diachronism of the 'argile à lignites' facies. The advent of 'Sparnacian' mammal faunas in Europe may coincide with a carbon isotope excursion recently recognized in the Paris Basin. This would support recent views on essential synchronism of the beginnings of both the North American Wasatchian and European 'Sparnacian' land mammal ages.


The Complete Recovery Room Book. Third Edition. A. Hatfield, M. Tronson; Oxford University Press, GPO Box 27849, Melbourne, Vic. 3001; $115.00; 155x233 mm; pp. 586; ISBN: 0-19-263218-3. This is the third edition of a popular book directed at recovery room nursing staff.The main aim of the authors is to produce a book that may be used by inexperienced recovery staff as a resource to troubleshoot clinical problems. To achieve this aim there is a certain amount of repetition throughout the book. It is very readable but often dogmatic in the advice given. This book covers the broad range of topics relevant to the recovery room in 28 chapters. The third edition has expanded and updated the previous editions, covering topics in more depth and including references. Clear, useful diagrams and tables are included throughout the text. Eight appendixes contain useful information in list format on topics such as drug infusions, arrhythmias and a day surgical information sheet. This book is unlikely to interest the specialist anaesthetist, but it does achieve its aim of being an easily read resource for the recovery room nursing staff. It is a worthwhile resource for the recovery room bookshelf. M. GRAY Lismore Base Hospital, Lismore, N.S.W.


: Sperm released into the urine of adult male frogs, Rana pipiens, after intraperitoneal injection of human chorionic gonadotropin, were used to fertilize freshly ovulated eggs. Repeated spermiations from the same animal were induced with repeated injections of the hormone at intervals of four to 11 days. Individual frogs were induced to spermiate up to four times, with fertile sperm ensuing each time. Development of zygotes produced by this method did not differ from the development of ova fertilized by conventional methods.


Background Blood levels in macular cystoid spaces are commonly seen in patients with branch or central retinal vein obstruction, but have not been previously reported. Methods To determine blood levels in cystoid spaces, a retrospective study was conducted of 102 eyes with branch retinal vein obstruction, 54 eyes with central retinal vein obstruction, 207 eyes with clinically significant diabetic macular edema, and 109 eyes with aphakic or pseudophakic cystoid macular edema seen over a 5-year period. Results Definite blood levels in cystoid spaces were found in 26 eyes (25%) with branch vein obstruction and in 4 eyes (8%) with central vein obstruction. In contrast, this clinical change was detected in only 1 of 207 eyes (1%) with diabetic cystoid macular edema, and in only 2 of 109 eyes (2%) with aphakic or pseudophakic cystoid macular edema (P < 0.001). When blood levels in cystoid spaces were detected in patients with branch vein obstruction, the site of obstruction tended to be superotemporal (P < 0.05). Conclusion Blood levels in cystoid spaces are an important sign of retinal vein obstruction, and may help establish the diagnosis in certain cases.


The effect of embryonal thymic calf extracts (ETCE) on mice thymectomized at birth was investigated. ETCE was found to induce an increase in leukopenia and a decrease in the level of serum gamma globulins; it also reduced survival time in mice. The effect of ETCE on lethally irradiated mice was also examined. Only long-term administration of ETCE prior to gamma irradiation at 750 rad prolonged the survival time of mice (40% permanent survival) as compared with irradiated controls; the leukocytes from mice retained mitotic capability. Neither long-term treatment with ETCE prior to irradiation at 1000 rad, nor short-term administration prior to 750 rad affected survival time. ETCE administered after irradiation of mice with 750 rad caused a rapid decrease in blood leukocytes and a significantly lowered survival time.


Approximately 352,000 farm operators, generally running very small farms, were identified as retired according to the 1993 Farm Costs and Returns Survey (FCRS). Although retired farmers operated 17 percent of all farms, they produced only 2 percent of the value of production. The information presented here has implications for the use of statistics on farming, the importance of farming to retired operators, the importance of the Conservation Reserve Program to retired operators, and the future of farming.


Introduction Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) is a very effective treatment in patients with highly active relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who failed standard disease modifying therapies (DMTs). Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients with RRMS who received AHSCT in Sheffield. Results 25 patents with RRMS received AHSCT between July 2013 and July 2017. Their median age at diagnosis was 40 (22–56) years. All had highly active disease with gadolinium enhancing lesions on their pre-transplant MRIs. Eighteen patients had previously been treated with various DMTs and seven were treatment naïve. Median pre-AHSCT EDSS was 5.5 (2.5–7.5). Median follow up was 12 (3–42) months. Median post-AHSCT EDSS at the last follow up was 3 (1–6.5), p<0.001. No patient experienced further relapses following transplantation. Three patients had new lesions on their first follow up MRI at 6 months, but none had any new or enhancing lesions on subsequent MRI scans. Only routine transplant related toxicities were observed. One female and the wife of a male patient successfully conceived following AHSCT. Conclusion AHSCT is safe and effective in inducing remission in patients with highly active RRMS. Further studies are required to compare its efficacy with standard DMTs.


Reserves estimation for oil and gas reservoir has always been an interesting topic in the effort of estimating the volume of hydrocarbon in the world, which can be recoverable and economically produced. Recently, unconventional gas reservoirs have becoming hot topic of interest and playing an ever increasing role towards satisfying current and future energy demands, due to their high possibility for gas production. Therefore, this paper will discuss about the reserves estimation for tight gas/ unconventional reservoirs alongside with the economic modelling. Numerous methods of reserves estimation has been introduced decades ago to accurately estimate the hydrocarbon volumes. However, not all methods of reserves estimation is suitable for tight gas/ unconventional reservoirs. With the advances of technology, sophisticated methods or techniques are being applied to explore the hydrocarbon world in the extent that we never encounter before, especially in the context of unconventional resources. Therefore, comprehensives information regarding tight gas/ unconventional reservoirs will be discussed in this project. Ultimately, our goal in this project is to identify different methods of reserves estimation for tight gas/ unconventional reservoirs and study the best available method as well as introduce any other approach or modification made for the method of reserves estimation


The aim of this study was to investigate whether the content of the problems in a problem-based learning programme directs the students to the faculty's educational objectives. Sixteen students in two study groups in a three-year programme for training in psychotherapy generated 228 learning issues. The tutors reported the issues and the discussion themes. The learning issues and themes were compared with the faculty objectives. The correspondence between faculty objectives and learning issues/themes was 79% in the study groups, which showed that the problems presented direct the students to the faculty goals. The result also shows that it is important to study not only the learning issues but also what students talk about while preparing the reports in their group.


The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the problem, which has been addressed extensively by mathematicians, computer scientists and researchers. Since TSP finds its applications in real world problems viz., VLSI design, Art works, World tours, etc., finding an optimal solution to TSP will be a significant work as it will give better results for many TSP related applications. There are several methods and techniques to solve TSP. One of the best approaches to find an optimal solution to TSP is Genetic Algorithm, which gets the optimal solution from limited search space. Genetic Algorithm is also readily amenable to parallel implementation, which renders them usable in real-time. This book presents the genetic Algorithm method of solving TSP applications. The Genetic Algorithm control parameters namely initial population size, selection methods, crossover operators, mutation operators and repair operators are tuned to find the optimal tour in TSP. The impact of these Genetic Algorithm control parameters are analyzed and tuned to produce optimal results for Travelling Salesman Problem applications viz., VLSI Detailed Routing and National Tour.


In this article I concentrate on how government agencies and promotional bodies have attempted to capture WA in text and image in the twentieth century. The promotional prose and imagery of Western Australia from the l920s to the l960s now appears, with hindsight, to be stagey and sanitised. But we need to contemplate this imagery to make sure that the marketing sophistication of this century doesn't just represent new forms of tourism hype.


The effect of a subsonic toroidal flow on the linear magnetohydrodynamic stability of a tokamak plasma surrounded by an external resistive wall is studied. A complex non-self-adjoint eigenvalue problem for the stability of general kink and tearing modes is formulated, solved numerically, and applied to high {beta} tokamaks. Results indicate that toroidal plasma flow, in conjunction with dissipation in the plasma, can open a window of stability for the position of the external wall. In this window, stable plasma beta values can significantly exceed those predicted by the Troyon scaling law with no wall. Computations utilizing experimental data indicate good agreement with observations.


Summary We generalize the vector-acoustic imaging methods to minimize the impact of the noise when processing the multi-measurement marine seismic data. We also study the special case of single measurement optimal acoustic imaging, while taking into account the statistics of the noise. After describing the theory of our approach, we apply it to realistic synthetic multisensor data (North Sea) using a research prototype of reverse time migration (RTM) in which realistic noise was added to the data. Numerical examples demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed approach and show the benefit of multisensor imaging in terms of residual deghosting, denoising, and migration swings removal.


Widely considered one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, Alexander Calder revolutionised modern sculpture - most significantly with his kinetic works, which Marcel Duchamp coined as "mobiles." Later in his career, Calder created enormous versions of these floating abstractions. Their arching forms, dynamic surfaces and sheer mass reflected his fascination with engineering and technology. This book focuses on Calder's earlier, interior-scaled works, which paved the way for the public works that continue to fascinate viewers around the world. Filled with images of Calder's elegant, colorful, floating shapes, this volume offers a number of critical texts that enrich our understanding of this innovative artist. Together with an illustrated exhibition chronology and bibliography, this in-depth and highly engaging volume offers something for every fan of Calder's work.


Polyphenol oxidase (PPO; EC 188.8.131.52) catalyzes the hydroxylation of monophenols to o-diphenols (cresolase activity) and the oxidation of o-diphenols to o-quinones (catecholase activity), leading to browning in plants and produce. Further interest in the enzyme has been triggered by the active role that it plays in plant defense systems. PPO can be found in latent forms and is activated in vitro by various agents including urea, detergents, and proteases. The activation of PPO from several sources by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) has been extensively investigated, but reports on the effect of other detergents or on the differential effect of detergents on each of PPO's activities are scarce. In addition, investigations on the enzyme in other plant parts besides fruits and vegetables are also scarce. Here, the effect of various detergents and chaotropic agents on PPO from dormant saffron (Crocus sativus L.) corm extract was investigated. SDS and sarkosyl activated the cresolase activity, while only SDS activated the catecholase activity. All other detergents tested, in milli- or micromolar concentrations, inhibited the cresolase activity but barely affected the catecholase activity. In contrast, urea and guanidine-HCl drastically inhibited the catecholase activity but moderately inhibited the cresolase activity. The same effects were obtained on the partially purified enzyme. Results identified a PPO, present in dormant corms, which was activated only by anionic detergents and was inhibited by other reputed activating agents such as urea. Results also emphasized the differences in structure and accessibility of the active sites for cresolase and catecholase activities.


In this paper, a novel self-aligned asymmetric source-body contact is proposed based on the tunneling effect. The fabrication is relatively simple with only one extra angle implant step. Test structures have been fabricated and good electrical results were obtained. The improvements of this new approach in both device performance and manufacturing compared to fully-depleted SOI MOSFETs are discussed.


The oxidation products of ascorbic acid (AscH-) can rapidly glycate and crosslink lens proteins in vitro, producing fluorophores and browning products similar to those present in cataractous lenses. The accumulation of AscH- oxidation products, however, would largely be prevented by the millimolar levels of glutathione (GSH) present in human lens. Here we investigate whether protein aggregation could allow the oxidation of AscH- by UVA-induced reactive oxygen species in the presence of physiological levels of GSH. The metal-catalyzed oxidation of 1.0 mM AscH- by 50 microM Cu(II) was almost complete after 1 h, but no oxidation was seen in the presence of GSH concentrations as low as 0.5 mM. UVA irradiation of protein aggregates from human lens, which accumulated more than 2.0 mM singlet oxygen after 1 h, caused a 50-60% oxidation of 1.0 mM AscH-. The addition of 204 mM GSH, however, decreased AscH- oxidation by less than half, and 30% of the AscH- was oxidized even in the presence of 15 mM GSH. This diminished protection may be due, in part, to the ability of AscH-, but not GSH, to penetrate to the sites of singlet oxygen generation located within the protein. Consistent with this hypothesis, greater GSH protection was seen when a proteolytic digest of the human proteins was subjected to the same irradiation or when singlet oxygen was chemically generated from 3-(4-methyl-1-naphthyl)propionic acid endoperoxide (MNPAE) at 37 degrees C in the medium. The addition of 50 microM Cu(II) had no effect on the rate of degradation of dehydroascorbic acid (DHA). Singlet oxygen, either UVA- or MNPAE-generated, increased the rate of DHA loss. This secondary oxidation of DHA by singlet oxygen would allow the accumulation of AscH- oxidation products was not reducible by GSH. Therefore, the data presented here argue that the protein aggregation seen in older human lenses may permit oxidized AscH--induced crosslinking to occur even at physiological GSH levels.


Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched for the treatment of trauma. The current treatment guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies designate EMDR as an effective treatment for PTSD.In this article the author writes about the history of this "breakthrough therapy" and describes EMDR as a standardized protocol. In the second part describes trauma recovery where she uses EMDR in treating post-traumatic stress disorder in a case study about a 25 year old woman, who has been a rubbery survivor.


Prepared inhibitor blend of synthesized Co (II) Schiff base complex and Azadirachta indica extract was applied as anti-corrosion agent to mild steel in acidic (0.5 M H2SO4) medium. A synergistic performance was the lookout of the study, with the green inhibitor as the synergistic additive. Inhibitors are characterized by their active functional groups, UV-visible profile and bioactive compounds. Surface characteristics of polished, corroded and coated mild steels were investigated using weight loss experiments. Results of phytochemical screening shows the presence of possible bioactive species, including glycoside, tannins and phenolic compounds, saponin, Steroids and Triterpenoids. Weight loss experiments at temperature range of 303 K to 323 K were performed. Inhibition efficiencies of the three systems demonstrated increments with increasing inhibitor concentration and decreases as the temperature rises, thus characterizes physi-sorption mechanism. The ethanol extract of Azadirachta indica leaves, cobalt (II) Schiff base complex and the blend in 0.5 M H2SO4 gives up to 46.88 %, 31.16 % and 59.69% inhibition efficiencies respectively at 323 K. The adsorption equilibrium data of these inhibitors on the surface of mild steel fits the Freundlich, Langmuir and Dubinin - Raduskevich isotherms at varying extent and the values of ΔGads for all the isotherms were below 20 kJ/mol, suggesting physical adsorption. The estimated thermodynamic parameters support process spontaneity. Generally, enhanced performance of blend inhibitor showed a synergistic effect (S1> unity) and proved the effectiveness of derived blend as potent inhibitor of mild steel corrosion in acidic medium. Keywords : Antagonistic, Blend, Complex, Inhibitor, Synergistic


Grapevines of most species and cultivars produce lateral meristems (tendrils and inflorescences) on at least two successive nodes in three. Lateral meristems complicate rootstock cutting production, since tendrils are removed from rootstock cuttings prior to propagation and since tendrils clinging to wires, canes, or other tendrils make collecting cuttings more time consuming and expensive. To develop improved grapevine rootstocks with reduced lateral meristems, an elite nematode resistant rootstock selection ((Vitis berlandieri × V. riparia) × V. biformis) was crossed with ?Roger?s Red? (Vitis hybrid), and ?Roger?s Red? was also self-pollinated. Seedlings from controlled pollinations were grown in a greenhouse and trained up a stake. Starting at the first node in alternate phyllotaxy (that is, a node with a lateral meristem) and continuing for twelve nodes, the presence or absence of lateral meristems was observed and the type of lateral meristem was reported. There were 141 cross-pollinated seedlings. There were 83 seedlings from ?Roger?s Red? self-pollination. The expected pattern of lateral meristem distribution was wild type: two successive lateral meristem bearing nodes, followed by a single lateral meristem-free node. However, 43 of 83 seedlings from ?Roger?s Red? self-pollination showed two or more successive lateral meristem-free nodes (flanked by lateral meristem-bearing nodes), and 12 of these 43 showed at least two sets of two successive lateral meristem-free nodes. One self-pollinated seedling showed three successive lateral meristem-free nodes in the alternate phyllotaxy. In contrast, in the hybrid population only 33 of 141 seedlings showed the non-wild type pattern of two successive lateral meristem-free nodes, and only 6 of these 33 showed at least two sets of two successive lateral meristem-free nodes. Tendril distribution is under genetic control and the production of extra tendril-free nodes was segregating in these populations. Dominant alleles at two genes are required for the mutant phenotype. A genetic model and the gene names Successive Tendril free Node-1 and Successive Tendril free Node-2 are proposed.


In this paper I present a new solution to the so-called 'neglected alternative' objection against Kant's argument for transcendental idealism. According to this objection, Kant does not give sufficient justification for his claim that not only are space and time forms of our intuition but they also fail to be things in themselves or properties thereof. I first discuss a proposal by Willaschek and Allais, who try to defend Kant against this charge by building on his account of a priori intuition, and argue that it is insufficient to meet the objection in its full force. I then present my own solution to the problem. It is based on a reconstruction of Kant's account of properties of appearances, and tries to show that this account implies that spatio-temporal properties could in principle not pertain both to appearances and to things in themselves.


We have adapted two methods to evaluate the beta-hexosaminidase (HEX) enzymatic activity in cultured cells, based on the use of (i) the fluorogenic substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl-6-sulfo-2-acetamido-2- deoxy-beta-D-glucopyranoside (MU-GlcNAc-6-SO4) and (ii) the naphthol AS-BI-N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminide and hexazotized pararosaniline. We demonstrate that both methods could be used for the HEX isoenzymes by comparing wild-type and mutant human fibroblast cell lines, deficient for either an alpha or beta subunit from Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff patients. This in situ cytochemical assessment of HEX activity offers a rapid evaluation to study the expression of this enzyme in a heterogeneous cell population such as in gene transfer experiments.


Development of an integrated Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) structural health monitoring (SHM) system for a composite horizontal axis wind turbine blade is reported in this article. The SHM systems are expected to make significant reduction in the operational cost of wind turbines by optimizing the maintenance, yielding maximum service life of the wind turbine at minimum maintenance cost. Recently, the SHM systems are receiving even more attention due to the current trend in designing larger wind turbines in order to increase the efficiency. Increasing their size subjects them to larger operational loads and thus demands precise and real-time information about how the system is performing. The FBG sensor as SHM sensor has many advantages over other conventional sensors. Providing real-time information about structural integrity and operational load can be used in conjunction with other methods to decrease the overall energy cost. This paper discusses laboratory scale experimental setup for validation of FBG as a strain sensor to be used in SHM. Validation methods include a comparison of static strain measured with a resistive strain gauge to the FBG, and a modal analysis done with the FBGs compared to accelerometers.


AbstractExamination of the decomposed brain is a largely neglected area of forensic neuropathology. However, careful examination often yields valuable information that may assist in criminal proceedings. Decomposition encompasses the processes of autolysis, putrefaction, and decay. Most decomposed brains will be affected by both autolysis and putrefaction, resulting in a brain that may, at one end of the spectrum, be almost normal or, at the other end, pulpified, depending on the conditions in which the body remained after death and the postmortem interval. Naked eye examination may detect areas of hemorrhage and also guides appropriate sampling for histology. Histological appearances are often better than what would be predicted from the state of the brain. Histology often confirms macroscopic abnormalities and may also reveal other features such as ischemic injury. Silver staining demonstrates neuritic plaques, and immunocytochemistry for &bgr;-amyloid precursor protein and other molecules produces results comparable with those seen in well-preserved fixed brains. The usefulness of information derived from the examination of the decomposed brain in criminal proceedings is illustrated with 6 case reports drawn from the author's own practice.


Current recommendations on vitamin B12 intake vary from 1.4 to 3.0 μg per day and are based on the amount needed for maintenance of hematologic status or on the amount needed to compensate obligatory losses. This systematic review evaluates whether the relation between vitamin B12 intake and cognitive function should be considered for underpinning vitamin B12 recommendations in the future. The authors summarized dose-response evidence from randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies on the relation of vitamin B12 intake and status with cognitive function in adults and elderly people. Two randomized controlled trials and 6 cohort studies showed no association or inconsistent associations between vitamin B12 intake and cognitive function. Random-effects meta-analysis showed that serum/plasma vitamin B12 (50 pmol/L) was not associated with risk of dementia (4 cohort studies), global cognition z scores (4 cohort studies), or memory z scores (4 cohort studies). Although dose-response evidence on sensitive markers of vitamin B12 status (methylmalonic acid and holotranscobalamin) was scarce, 4 of 5 cohort studies reported significant associations with risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or global cognition. Current evidence on the relation between vitamin B12 intake or status and cognitive function is not sufficient for consideration in the development of vitamin B12 recommendations. Further studies should consider the selection of sensitive markers of vitamin B12 status.


Immobilization of the spine is of prime concern during transportation of trauma patients to prevent neurologic compromise. In an attempt to study certain techniques of prehospital thoracolumbar spine immobilization, we radiographically evaluated the motion of the thoracolumbar spine in a volunteer with a stable spine, a cadaver with an unstable thoracolumbar spine, and a patient with a T12-L1 fracture dislocation. Both the backboard and the Scoop stretcher offered adequate stabilization for thoracolumbar spine instability. The logroll maneuver presented the greatest possibility for movement of the spine at the unstable thoracolumbar segment.


The present study attempts to consider the level of party politics, especially after the democratization of Mongolia as a new democratic country. Mongolia is the country where the pro-democracy movement began in 1989 with the influence of the pro-democracy movement in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe from the mid-1980s. The one-party dictatorship of the MPRP, which has been in existence for more than 70 years since its independence in 1990, ended. The Party Law was adopted and the multi-party system was introduced in May 1990, Mongolia held its first free elections in July 1990. After democratization in there have appeared many new political parties like other newly-democratic states, but most of them have failed to enter Parliament.
Mongolian political parties have held a total of seven elections since the first parliamentary election in 1992. The Mongolian People''s Party (MPP) is a party, with a long history and experience taking power by winning a majority seat in three elections (at least 30% of seats in parliament). On the other hand, adverse parties consisted mainly from Democratic Party (DP), lost from the first election by showing signs of instability, so they have merged into a unified and electoral coalition. Mongolia has become a democratic country, and the multi-party system has been made possible, only MPP and DP hold the majority of the seats previous parliamentary elections, the two-party system and the hegemonic system have actually been formed.
It can be said that Mongolia''s party system is fluid because of political party policy failures, frequent merges and internal division of political parties, so that the electoral liquidity index, which represents the pattern of competition between political parties, is very high. Mongolian voters'' preference for political parties has fluctuated greatly from election to election, leading to frequent regime changes. Mongolian political parties are trying to buy votes from voters in commodities or in kind rather than win an election by ideology or policy. This is why voters have continued to lose confidence in political parties in recent years.
Although there is no cracking structure in Mongolia''s party system like any other new party system, the regime is changing every election due to the lack of voter unity and the instability of political parties. As a result, the party system has shown a low level of institutionalization, such as increased electoral liquidity, the inability to legislate, the lack of communication between government organizations, and the irresponsible public policy of politicians.


Orthodontic aligners undergo deformation during installation, producing an unexpected component of elastic restoring force that causes unintended changes in the dentition. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between strain and elastic recovery of the aligner. We distinguished the contributions to aligner deformation due to molding and installation by measuring the thickness distribution of an aligner after molding using micro-CT and tracking changes in grid patterns drawn on the sheet used to fabricate the aligner. The aligner was installed on a device that simulated canine movement. Although canine strain was quite strong around the cusp, and in premolar, it was observed mainly in their centers. Furthermore, after molding, thickness distribution of the aligner was found. But, it is no clear relationship between the thickness distribution and the strain distribution. Our method of analysis can help improve aligner design and establish molding method to deliver optimal orthodontic treatment.


Nowadays multidimensional data as a part of Big Data are collected in every organization and feature selection is one of the main approaches in terms of processing them with machine learning methods. In this study, firstly, a Feature Selection based on Lorentzian Metric (FSLM) is developed. The proposed method unlike from matrix multiplication in Euclidean space uses the Lorentzian analogue to calculate within and between class scatter matrices. These scatter matrices are functioned in the novel FSLM method as discriminative criterion. In calculation of the scatter matrix, covariance matrix in Lorentzian space should be properly defined. The validity and correctness of the novel FSLM method was tested over GESTURE, LSVT, MADELON, RELAX and SONAR data sets. The obtained results indicate that the proposed method has a significant improvement in terms of feature selection and classification success.


The prognosis of patients with advanced colorectal cancer with icterus is dismally poor, and adequate chemotherapy for these patients has not been established yet. A 59-year-old male with fatigue, anorexia and icterus with serum total bilirubin 9.7 mg/dL was referred to our institution. He was diagnosed with advanced sigmoid colon cancer with multiple liver metastases. A biopsy specimen of the primary tumor showed well-differentiated adenocarcinoma without KRAS mutation. Since biliary drainage was impossible due to diffuse liver metastases, we initiated combination chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil, Leucovorin, oxaliplatin (modified FOLFOX6) and cetuximab. The doses of 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin were reduced, but cetuximab was administered at the standard dosage. After 3 courses of chemotherapy, total bilirubin dropped to 0.8 mg/dL. No significant toxicity other than grade-2 skin toxicity and neuropathy was observed, and the patient has continued chemotherapy on an outpatient basis. Combination chemotherapy with mFOLFOX6 plus cetuximab was effective and feasible in this case of metastatic colon cancer with icterus due to diffuse liver metastasis.


Botulinum toxin is a dreaded biological toxin elaborated by Clostridium botulinum. The action of this toxin is to cause paralysis of both voluntary and involuntary muscles. The unique property of paralysing capability of muscles has been used for the benefit of human beings. Dr Allan Scot, an ophthalmologist, first used the toxin in a patient with squint in 1981 and since then the botulinum toxin is being used in various disorders characterised by muscle overactivity such as spasticity in both children and adult, dystonic conditions such as blepharospasm, cervical dystonia, spasmodic dysphonia, writer's cramp, etc, hemifacial spasm and headache. Its main action is at the terminal nerve endings of myoneural junction and it prevents release of acetylcholine from vesicles thus causing chemical denervation. Its action persists for 3 to 4 months on an average. Its side effects such as drooping, diplopia, dysphagia, depending on the sites of injection, are few and usually transient. Generalised anaphylaxis is almost unknown. Now botulinum toxin is being used in non-neurological conditions where muscles are under spasmodic state such as achalasia cardia, anal fissure, spasm of urethral sphincter, etc. Because of wider safety range and fewer complications, botulinum toxin has been an important therapeutic armamentarium in different branches of medicine and surgery.


The authors re-evaluate the distribution of the intracellular alkali metals in humans and offer an approach for selecting reference concentrations for the organs of a typical adult human. For non-skeletal tissues, reference values for K, Rb and Cs are determined as a trimmed weighted mean of reported values remaining after studies involving apparently questionable populations or measurement techniques have been eliminated. The skeleton is treated as a special case, with explicit consideration being given to the heterogeneous distribution of these elements among different regions and different types of skeletal tissue. The most significant suggested changes for the intracellular alkali metals are for Rb in the skeleton and total body. ICRP Reference Man has a total Rb content of 0.68 g, compared with the present estimate of only 0.25 g, and a skeletal Rb content of 0.21 g, compared with an estimate of only 0.013 g. This has important dosimetric implications for radiorubidium.


A remodeling project for deteriotated housing stocks tends to be an important issue in resources recycling because it does not destruct whole building but destruct particularly. However, compared with new building projects, remodeling project has disadvantages in adding destruct work and repair and rehabilitation work as well as causing difficulty in decision making from diverse project stakeholders. BIM as total tool for creating and managing information in building life cycle has potentialities for solving these problems. However it is difficult to apply BIM to remodelling project as a result of BIM database was constructed focus on new building project. Therefore a need for constructing BIM standard system for remodelling project is arisen. This paper constructed BIM standard database and verified application of BIM standard database in remodelling project. For this research, this paper analyzed the present state of estimation work and scheduling work through the expert interview, conducted the analysis of database in BIM program with Vicosoft BIM program, and evaluated application of remodelling BIM standard database with case study. This paper was expected to effectively utilize as actual data in remodelling project.


Membrane Filtration technique is being accepted worldwide as an environment friendly and energy efficient technique in Desalination Industry as compared to Thermal Desalination techniques. However, the performance of membranes which include permeate flux and rejection is affected by the membrane fouling. The properties of membrane and surface features such as porous structure, hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity charge, polymer characteristics, surface roughness determine the fouling potential of the membrane. The hydrophilic and smooth membrane surface is usually considered desirable in tackling membrane fouling issues. Therefore, many studies have focused on to enhance surface characteristics of membranes by surface coating with polymers and nanomaterials. Since, membrane coating is not done during fabrication of the most commercially available membranes, therefore, it is also important to determine the surface features of the commercially available membranes to investigate their membrane fouling potential. Thus, the objectives of this study were (1) to perform membrane surface characterization of commercial Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Nanofiltration (NF) membranes using techniques such as SEM, AFM, FTIR and XPS; (2) to measure hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of commercial RO and NF membranes through water contact angle measurement using sessile drop method and (3) to measure the flux and percentage rejection of NF and RO membranes using Dead end filtration technique. Here, the characterization of membrane surface in terms of surface roughness, using SEM and AFM, showed that the commercial RO membrane had more ridge and valley structures and higher average surface roughness i.e. 71.24 nm as compared to NF membranes (6.63 nm). In addition, water contact angle measurements showed that the NF membrane was more hydrophilic as compared to RO membrane. The average contact angle found for RO membrane was 59.94°. On the other hand, it was observed that NF membrane is extremely hydrophilic in nature. Due to which, contact angle value was not obtained for most of the runs. The droplet could diffuse in less than 5 seconds. In addition, the dead-end filtration experiments showed that the RO membrane had much lower flux as compared to NF membrane. This can be associated with the pore structure of these membranes. Since, the NF membrane has porous structure, in oppose to RO membrane, the flux of the NF membrane is usually higher than the RO membranes. As the membrane surface roughness and hydrophobicity makes it more susceptible to the fouling leading to reduction in membrane flux and performance, it can be concluded from this study that there is a need for surface coating of RO membrane with suitable nanomaterials such as graphene oxide to improve its hydrophilicity and surface smoothness. This will eventually make the membrane more resistant to membrane fouling and will establish the use of membrane filtration technique in desalination industry in Qatar in the future. Microorganisms have been isolated from Gulf sea water, identified and differentiated and are being used to study the biofouling of RO and NF membranes, that would be coated to limit the fouling problems. Acknowledgement: This research was made possible by NPRP grant # [9-318-1-064] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The findings achieved herein are solely the responsibility of the author[s].


Chronic infections are a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide and are often associated with CD8 T cell exhaustion. T cell dysfunction in these settings is likely a major reason for failed control of infection. In many chronic infections, CD4 T cells are also of major importance (e.g., HIV, HCV and LCMV). Compared to CD8 T cells, however, there is relatively little information on dysfunction of virus-specific CD4 T cell responses. This prompted us to ask whether CD4 T cells also become dysfunctional and how the differentiation of virus-specific CD4 T cells during chronic viral infection compares to CD8 T cells. We have defined the pattern of differentiation, hierarchy of dysfunction and diversity of costimulatory and inhibitory pathways involved in CD4 T cells exhaustion by comparing responses during acute and chronic LCMV infection. The results show that while CD4 T cells do become exhausted, they do not follow the exhaustive profile that has been established for CD8 T cells. While CD4 T cells do upregulate multiple inhibitory receptors during chronic infection, the inhibitory receptors they upregulate and their expression profile differs from CD8 T cells. These studies highlight that the well-characterized phenotype of CD8 T cell exhaustion cannot be broadly applied to CD4 T cells and suggests that CD4 and CD8 T cells may require different therapeutic treatments to rescue exhaustion.


The growth behavior of intimal smooth muscle cells (SMC) prepared from atheromatous plaques of the thoracic aorta in hyperlipidemic rabbits was studied in a culture system. Specimens of intimal and normal medial SMC were examined in terms of their proliferative response to various growth factors, polypeptide hormones or 12-O-teradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Intimal SMC showed lower rates of growth and DNA synthesis when the cells were exposed to TPA, but there was no difference in growth response between intimal and medial SMC to the other growth-promoting stimuli such as fibroblast growth factor (FGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin or serotonin. 3H-phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate (3H-PDBu) binding assays showed the number of binding sites to phorbol esters in intimal SMC to be decreased by 65% as compared with that in medial SMC. These results suggested that intimal SMC have different growing characteristics, which seemed to be acquired during the process of intimal thickening.


Abstract : This retrospective study summarizes the results of DNA testing (Ryanodine receptor 1 (RYR1) gene sequencing) in a cohort of 34 Belgian families with proven Malignant Hyperthermia susceptibility. Eighteen different RYR1 sequence variants were found in 25 families. The most prevalent variant was p.Gly341Arg, detected in 7 families. Ten of the 18 variants are considered to be pathogenic, the remainder being 'variants of uncertain significance'. Complete phenotype and genotype concordance was obtained in 15 families ; in 7 discordance was found ; in 3 insufficient data did not allow to conclude. Discordance could be attributed to either limits in specificity of the in vitro contracture test, wrong blood sampling, or the possibility of more than one RYR1 variant in a particular family. Even though this study reflects the known important diverseness of RYR1 variants, genetic testing can secure a diagnosis of Malignant Hyperthermia susceptibility in almost 50% of the Belgian families with known Malignant Hyperthermia.


Background: Congenital anomalies have emerged as a main cause of perinatal mortality as well as infant morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to determine the incidence of congenital anomalies and to study associated factors. Methods: It is an observational study conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of SMGS Hospital during a period of one year from October, 2012 to September, 2013. All women with anomalies proven on Ultrasonography and those having no antenatal record but after delivery/abortion, examination of newborns revealed anomalies; were included in the study. Results: The pattern of congenital anomalies included Central nervous system (49.60%), Urinary system (13.79%), musculoskeletal system (12.99%), GIT (7.16%), CVS (5.83%) etc. The overall incidence of congenital anomalies was 1.85%. Higher incidence of anomalies was found in babies of mother between 26-30 years of age (2.13%) and parity of 4 and above (3.65%). Frequency was more common in Muslims as compared to Hindus (2.8% vs 1.68%), in non-cephalic presentation as compared to cephalic presentation (10.28% versus 1.51%). Conclusion: This study stresses upon incidence of congenital anomalies as they are an important cause of perinatal mortality. To decrease the incidence of various congenital anomalies and their prevalence in the particular region, it is important that the distribution and prevalence are identified in that region and country as a whole.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ischemic injury to the brain is a common complication of SCA. To better understand the neurologic impact of SCA, TBSS were applied to DTI data to investigate white matter injuries in pediatric patients with SCA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: TBSS comparisons of a range of anisotropy and diffusion measures were carried out between age- and background-matched population groups: patients with SCA with no visible lesions, patients with SCA with mild gliosis, and normal controls. RESULTS: TBSS analysis revealed that both SCA populations exhibited reduced anisotropy and increased diffusivity compared with normal controls in multiple brain regions, including the corpus callosum and centrum semiovale. Furthermore, the results suggest that the severity of SCA is positively correlated with the white matter changes in the corpus callosum. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates that TBSS is a viable technique in detecting subtle white matter damage in patients with SCA whose conventional anatomic MR imaging scans show no, or minimal, abnormalities and has the potential to evaluate the neurologic impact of the treatment of SCA.


The article presents the notion of corporeality, relating to the dimensions of agency, of sexual difference and sickness. The author comes from the phenomenological anthropology to perform what he calls a cultural and phenomenological analysis of the Self. He contrasts the notion of the body as material object with the corporeality as flesh mutually shared, implicated and never completely anonymous. This notion of corporeality reframes the body as a source of the existence and location of the world experience. The article constructs a scheme of body-world relations and explore their implications for the concept of embodiment. Articulates the notion of agency since Merleau-Ponty, Bourdieu and Foucault and the notion of sexual difference from feminist theories in Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva and Maxine Sheets-Johnstone. In the final section the author completes the outline with a discussion of three diseases - phantom limb, chronic fatigue and environmental illness - as an illustration of different dynamics of embodiment.


This study investigated Effutu Municipality Junior High School (JHS) 2 students' performance on the National Minimum Standards (NMS) set by the 2012 JHS revised mathematics syllabus. It specifically sought to find out whether the JHS 2 students in the Municipality will attain the NMS set by the end of basic education. The population was JHS 2 students in the Central Region in the 2013/2014 academic year. Ten JHS were randomly selected in the Effutu Municipal to participate in the study. A total of 285 students (141 males and 144 females) responded to test items based on the NMS. The study employed survey as a strategy of enquiry using a test designed following rigorous standard-test design principles. The test comprised a 35 item multiple choice items taken in 120 minutes. For easy interpretation, the students obtaining a mean score below 55% were categorized as 'performing below minimum standards', those scoring between 55% and 65% were categorized as performing at 'minimum competency' and those scoring of 65 and above were categorized as performing at proficiency level. The study revealed that eight out of the nineteen content standards (i.e. 42%) were found to be difficult by the students. It was found that overall about 30% of the students achieved the proficiency mean score of at least 65% and only about 10% achieved below the minimum competency level, implying about half of the students are operating at minimum competency level. The results also revealed that in the Effutu Municipality, students in private JHS outperform their counterparts in the public JHS as the results indicated that the majority of private school students (77%) achieved proficiency as compared to only 28% from the public schools. Recommendations are made for improving the performance of the students, particularly in public schools, who are not reaching proficiency.


Many scholars hold that trust is one of the key in searching for inter-firm cooperation. But there are few studies to investigate the antecedent of inter-firm trust. The aim of the research is to identify the main determinants of inter-firm trust in tourism region. With an empirical study of 262 enterprises in a tourism region in Vietnam, the study finds that characteristics of firms and its executives do significantly positively affect inter-firm trust. The result also reveals that communication and sharing information, using social network in inter-firm relationship will facilitate trust between partners. The result support the general thesis that executive can build and develop inter-firm trust based on its main determinants. The study provides both theoretical and practical implications.


A simple method for the purification of the major topoisomerase (topoisomerase 1) from chicken erythrocytes is described. Because of the generally repressed state of the chromatin from these nuclei, the heterogeneity of the non-histone proteins is reduced, and it is possible to purify this enzyme from a nuclear extract by a single chromatographic step. The chicken erythrocyte topoisomerase appears to be similar to previously described eukaryotic type I topoisomerases with respect to its physical and enzymological properties. The pattern of intermediate products generated during the action of chicken erythrocyte topoisomerase on a supercoiled closed circular DNA substrate has been examined quantitatively and has been shown to be consistent with a mechanism in which the enzyme closes its substrate DNA molecular after the removal of each superhelical turn and in which dissociation of the enzyme substrate complex may, but does not necessarily, occur after each cycle of the reaction.


Purpose There has been limited work assessing the use of re-irradiation (re-RT) for local failure following stereotactic spinal radiosurgery (SSRS). We reviewed our institutional experience of conventionally-fractionated external beam radiation (cEBRT) for salvage therapy following SSRS local failure. Materials and Methods We performed a retrospective review of 54 patients that underwent salvage conventional re-RT at previously SSRS-treated sites. Local control following re-RT was defined as the absence of progression at the treated site as determined by magnetic resonance imaging. Results Competing risk analysis for local failure was performed using a Fine-Gray model. The median follow-up time was 25 months and median overall survival (OS) was 16 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.8–24.9 months) following cEBRT re-RT. Multivariable Cox proportional-hazards analysis revealed Karnofsky performance score prior to re-RT (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.93–0.98; p = 0.003) and time to local failure (HR = 0.97; 95% CI, 0.94–1.00; p = 0.04) were associated with longer OS, while male sex (HR = 3.92; 95% CI, 1.64–9.33; p = 0.002) was associated with shorter OS. Local control at 12 months was 81% (95% CI, 69.3–94.0). Competing risk multivariable regression revealed radioresistant tumors (subhazard ratio [subHR] = 0.36; 95% CI, 0.15–0.90; p = 0.028) and epidural disease (subHR = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.12–0.78; p =0.013) were associated with increased risk of local failure. At 12 months, 91% of patients maintained ambulatory function. Conclusion Our data suggest that cEBRT following SSRS local failure can be used safely and effectively. Further investigation is needed into optimal patient selection for cEBRT in the retreatment setting.


Abstract. The Federal Company for radioactive waste disposal (BGE) is responsible for
the search for a site with the best possible safety for the disposal of
high-level radioactive waste in Germany. The site selection procedure is
regulated in a law that was adopted by the German Federal Parliament
(Repository Site Selection Act – StandAG, 2017, last updated 2020
(StandAG)) and aims to be a participatory, transparent, learning, and
self-questioning process based on scientific expertise. The first step of
the first phase of the site selection procedure was completed in September
2020 and resulted in the identification of sub-areas that give reason for
expecting favourable geological conditions for the long-term storage of nuclear
waste in the sub-surface. These sub-areas cover approximately 54 % of
Germany and are located in three different host rocks: rock salt–halite,
claystone, and crystalline rock. The challenge for the next step is to find
suitable siting regions within the previously determined sub-areas that are
then considered further in the next phase of the site selection procedure
(Hoyer et al., 2021). The preliminary representative safety analyses in Phase I, Step 2 of the site
selection procedure require according to Section 7 (6) No. 4 EndlSiUntV that
"the basic possibility of safe operation shall be demonstrated, but a
complete operational safety analysis does not need to be performed". The
method is described in BGE (2022a, b) and can be summarized as
follows. The demonstration of the basic possibility of safe operation is carried out
within the framework of the representative safety analyses for the
individual aspects of operational safety in different degrees of detail. The
non-radiological aspects of operational safety, which are, for example,
derived from occupational health and safety, mining law and fire protection,
a site-independent consideration of the regulatory basis and the derivation
of corresponding actions, are considered requirements for and are taken
into account by the preliminary repository design according to Sect. 6 (4)
EndlSiUntV. To demonstrate the basic possibility of safe operation for the operational
safety aspects "radiation protection" and "release of radioactive
substances" in the investigation areas to be considered, a general
catalogue is compiled that summarizes possible events and actions to fulfill
the requirements for operational safety. This general catalogue is independent
of location and coverage of all host rocks and repository concepts. From this general catalogue, possible specific events are identified for each
individual investigation area, and the necessary actions are derived. In
addition to the demonstration of the basic possibility of safe operation,
the robustness of operational safety within the investigation area is
evaluated in a second step.


Abstract : The remediation of groundwater contamination continues to persist as a social and economic problem due to increased governmental regulations and public health concerns. Additionally, the geochemistry of the aquifer and the contaminant transport within the aquifer complicates the remediation process to restore contaminated aquifers to conditions compatible with health-based standards. Currently, the preferred method for aquifer cleanup (pump-and-treat) has several limitations including, the persistence of sorbed chemicals on soil matrix and the long term operation and maintenance expense. The impetus of this research was to demonstrate that a calculus of variations approach could be applied to a pulsed pumping aquifer remediation problem where contaminant transport was affected by rate-limited sorption and generalized to answer several management objectives. The calculus of variation approach produced criteria for when the extraction pump is turned on and off. Additionally, the analytic solutions presented in this research may be useful in verifying numerical codes developed to solve optimal pulsed pumping aquifer remediation problems under conditions of rate-limited sorption.


We have surveyed what various groups of instructors and students think students should learn in introductory physics. We started with a Delphi Study based on interviews with experts, then developed orthogonal responses to "what should we teach non‐physics majors besides the current syllabus topics?" AAPT attendees, atomic researchers, and PERC08 attendees were asked for their selections. All instructors rated "sense‐making of the answer" very highly and expert problem solving highly. PERers favored epistemology over problem solving, and atomic researchers "physics comes from a few principles." Students at three colleges had preferences anti‐aligned with their teachers, preferring more modern topics, and the relationship of physics to everyday life and also to society (the only choice with instructor agreement), but not problem solving or sense‐making. Conclusion ♯1: we must show students how old physics is relevant to their world. Conclusion ♯2: significant course reform must start by reaching consensus on what to teach and how to hold students' interest (then discuss techniques to teach it).


Fibronectin is a protein present in blood and the extracellular matrix which has important roles in cell adhesion and migration, wound healing and blood clotting. Three models of fibronectin adsorption, on various substrates of interest to biochemists, are compared. The first model (of Langmuir) is expressed explicitly as a time dependent function for the mass of protein adsorbed. The second model is a modification of the scaled particle theory of Reiss et al. [J. Chem. Phys., 31:369--380, 1959] and takes into account the probability of a molecule finding a sufficiently large vacant area on the adsorbing substrate surface. The third model extends the second model to the case in which molecules may expand the radius of their contact with the substrate upon adsorption. We used datasets obtained from experiments to compare the models. The Langmuir model is straightforward to fit to a dataset. The remaining models are fitted using a steepest descent method to minimise least squares error. We describe initial estimates for parameters for this procedure and compare the quality of fit of the models.

 References M. A. Brusatori and P. R. van Tassel. A kinetic model of protein adsorption/surface-induced transition kinetics evaluated by the scaled particle theory. J. Colloid Interface Sci. , 219(2):333--338, 1999. doi:10.1006/jcis.1999.6496 D. E. MacDonald, B. Markovic, M. Allen, P. Somasundaran, A. L. Boskey. Surface analysis of human plasma fibronectin adsorbed to commercially pure titanium materials. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. , 41:120--130, 1998. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9641632 E. Helfand, H. Reiss, H. L. Frisch, J. L. Lebowitz. Scaled particle theory of fluids. J. Chem. Phys. , 33(5):1379--1385, 1960. doi:10.1063/1.1731417 H. P. Erikson and N. A. Carrell. Fibronectin in extended and compact conformations: Electron microscopy and sedimentation analysis. J. Biol. Chem. , 258(23):14539--14544, 1983. http://www.jbc.org/content/258/23/14539 H. Reiss, H. L. Frisch and J. L. Lebowitz. Statistical mechanics of rigid spheres. J. Chem. Phys. , 31(2):369--380, 1959. doi:10.1063/1.1730361 I. Langmuir. The adsorption of gases on plane surfaces of glass, mica and platinum. J. Am. Chem. Soc. , 40(9):1361--1403, 1918. doi:10.1021/ja02242a004 P. R. van Tassel, L. Guemouri, J. J. Ramsden, G. Tarjus, P. Viot and J. Talbot. A particle--level model of irreversible protein adsorption with a postadsorption transition. J. Colloid Interface Sci. , 207(2):317--323, 1998. doi:10.1006/jcis.1998.5781 P. Schaaf and J. Talbot. Surface exclusion effects in adsorption processes. J. Chem. Phys. , 91(7):4401--4409, 1989. doi:10.1063/1.456768 B. Widom. Random sequential addition of hard spheres to a volume. J. Chem. Phys. , 44(10):3888--3894, 1966. doi:10.1063/1.1726548


Abstract:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a family childhood obesity program for Latino agricultural families within a community health center. The program included several treatment components to address culturally relevant topics and other factors, such as poverty, that affect agricultural workers. The program was evaluated using attendance, height, and weight data. Linear mixed models were used to analyze weight data, including measurements obtained before, during, and after the intervention. A total of 133 subjects participated. Attendance was significantly associated with greater weight loss. Younger children exhibited a significant decline in weight during the intervention whereas older children did not experience any weight improvements. Community health centers may provide the appropriate infrastructure for multidisciplinary childhood obesity interventions targeting young Latino children from agricultural families. Additional research is needed to understand the treatment needs of Latino adolescents.


The aircraft flight control system controls an aircraft's direction and flying attitude, and actuators are key components of control systems. Actuators can be classified as Geared Rotary Actuator (GRA) and Ball Screw Actuator (BSA). GRA is used in mid-sized aircraft, and BSA is used in larger aircraft. A two-stage differential GRA model was suggested in this paper, and structural analysis and performance tests were performed. According to the analysis and experiment, the stiffness of the two-stage differential GRA was 17.57% higher than that of the conventional GRA, and the structural safety was improved.


Image registration is a crucial and fundamental problem in image processing and computer vision, which aims to align two or more images of the same scene acquired from different views or at different times. In image registration, since different keypoints (e.g., corners) or similarity measures might lead to different registration results, the selection of keypoint detection algorithms or similarity measures would bring uncertainty. These different keypoint detectors or similarity measures have their own pros and cons and can be jointly used to expect a better registration result. In this paper, the uncertainty caused by the selection of keypoint detector or similarity measure is addressed using the theory of belief functions, and image information at different levels are jointly used to achieve a more accurate image registration. Experimental results and related analyses show that our proposed algorithm can achieve more precise image registration results compared to several prevailing algorithms.


Analogue models or scale experiments of estuaries and short tidal basins are notoriously difficult to create in the laboratory because of the difficulty to obtain currents strong enough to transport sand. Since Osborne Reynolds' experiments over a century ago, experimental tidal flow has been driven by periodic sealevel fluctuations. Recently we discovered a novel method to drive periodic tidal currents: periodically tilting the entire flume. This leads to sediment transport in both the ebb and flood phase which in tidal systems with dynamic channel and shoal patterns. Here we compare the tidal currents driven by sealevel fluctuations with those driven by tilting. We use a bespoke flume of 20 m by 3 m with rough bed: the Metronome. Experiments were run in a straight flume with different tilting periods and with either one or both boundaries open at constant head with free inflow and outflow. Also experiments were run with flow driven by periodic sealevel fluctuations. We recorded surface flow velocity along the flume with Particle Imaging Velocimetry and water levels along the flume. Furthermore we compared the results to a one-dimensional model with shallow flow equations for a rough bed. We found that Reynolds' method results in negligible flows along the flume except for the first few meters, whereas flume tilting results in nearly uniform, reversing flow velocities along the entire flume that are strong enough to move sand. A periodically tilting flume therefore has the potential to simulate estuaries as observed in a pilot experiment and opens up the possibility of systematic biomorphological experimentation with self-formed estuaries.


We introduce DeepJoin, an automated approach to generate high-resolution repairs for fractured shapes using deep neural networks. Existing approaches to perform automated shape repair operate exclusively on symmetric objects, require a complete proxy shape, or predict restoration shapes using low-resolution voxels which are too coarse for physical repair. We generate a high-resolution restoration shape by inferring a corresponding complete shape and a break surface from an input fractured shape. We present a novel implicit shape representation for fractured shape repair that combines the occupancy function, signed distance function, and normal field. We demonstrate repairs using our approach for synthetically fractured objects from ShapeNet, 3D scans from the Google Scanned Objects dataset, objects in the style of ancient Greek pottery from the QP Cultural Heritage dataset, and real fractured objects. We outperform six baseline approaches in terms of chamfer distance and normal consistency. Unlike existing approaches and restorations generated using subtraction, DeepJoin restorations do not exhibit surface artifacts and join closely to the fractured region of the fractured shape. Our code is available at: https://github.com/Terascale-All-sensing-Research-Studio/DeepJoin.


The thermal conductivity of model zeolites was investigated using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics calculations. This type of calculation was found to overestimate the thermal conductivity of low-density silica polymorphs. A better reproduction of the experimental results was found for zeolites, and this was related to the lower phonon mean free path. The thermal conductivity of framework silicates was shown to be determined primarily by the vibrations of the continuous oxygen sublattice. Thus, the most drastic suppression of the heat transfer was related to alterations of the O-O distances; for example, a sixfold reduction in thermal conductivity compared to that of siliceous LTA zeolite was found for LTA-A1PO4. Framework cations were shown to affect the heat transfer by changing the vibrational modes of the structural building units of the framework and non-framework counter-cations, by disturbing the oxygen sublattice locally and acting as Rayleigh and resonant scatterers. A model assuming the heat transfer to be due only to non-dispersive acoustic phonons failed to reproduce the dependence of the thermal conductivity on the mass of the cations and the unit-cell dimension, thus suggesting a more sophisticated mechanism of heat transfer to be operative in framework materials. The effect of non-framework non-ionic species on the thermal conductivity was shown to be determined by their effect on the characteristics of the oxygen framework vibrations. Thus, repulsive interactions between the oxygen sublattice and Xe8 clusters, reducing the anisotropy and anharmonicity of the oxygen vibrations, give rise to enhanced heat transfer in LTA-SiO2 at ambient conditions.


Leadership development opportunities can be derived from naturalistic learning experiences. Six lessons from the recent presidential campaign are presented through a leadership lens rather than a political lens. Topics include networking, polarity management, communication, managing agreement, ambition, and transition management. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2021;52(3):112-114.].


A personal computer system has been used to facilitate search and analysis of a radiology information system database (RADOS) for research purposes. The system enables flexible retrieval of examination data and radiographic findings with subsequent graphical manipulations. With modifications it could be implemented on other radiology information systems.


Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (DSMLs) have received recent interest due to their conciseness and rich expressiveness for modeling a specific domain. However, DSML adoption has several challenges because development of a new DSML requires both domain knowledge and language development expertise (e.g., defining abstract/concrete syntax and specifying semantics). Abstract syntax is generally defined in the form of a metamodel, with semantics associated to the metamodel. Thus, designing a metamodel is a core DSML development activity. Furthermore, DSMLs are often developed incrementally by iterating across complex language development tasks. An iterative and incremental approach is often preferred because the approach encourages end-user involvement to assist with verifying the DSML correctness and feedback on new requirements. However, if there is no tool support, iterative and incremental DSML development can be mundane and error-prone work. To resolve issues related to DSML development, we introduce a new approach to create DSMLs from a set of domain model examples provided by an end-user. The approach focuses on (1) the identification of concrete syntax, (2) inducing abstract syntax in the form of a metamodel, and (3) inferring static semantics from a set of domain model examples. In order to generate a DSML from user-supplied examples, our approach uses graph theory and metamodel design patterns.


Abstract Context. The preservation of denning habitat is paramount to the recovery of threatened bear populations because of the effect that den site disturbance can have on cub mortality. Understanding habitat suitability for denning can allow management efforts to be directed towards the regions where conservation interventions would be most effective. Aim. We sought to identify the environmental and anthropogenic habitat variables associated with the presence of Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos) den sites in Croatia. Based on these associations, in order to inform future conservation decisions, we also sought to identify regions of high suitability for denning across Croatia. Methods. Using the locations of 91 dens inhabited by bears between 1982 and 2011, we opted for the presence-only modelling option in software Maxent to determine the most important predictors of den presence, and thus predict the distribution of high-value denning habitat across Croatia. Key results. We found that structural elements were the most important predictors, with ruggedness and elevation both relating positively to den presence. However, distance to nearest settlement was also positively associated with den presence. Conclusion. We determine that there is considerable denning habitat value in areas with high and rugged terrain as well as areas with limited human activity. We suspect that high and rugged terrain contains a greater concentration of the karstic formations used for denning than lower-lying regions. Implications. Our study presents the first habitat suitability model for brown bears in Croatia, and identifies core areas suitable for denning both within and outside the species' current range. As such, it provides useful evidence for conservation decision making and the development of scientifically-based management plans. Our results also support the need for finer spatial scale studies that can reveal specific denning preferences of subpopulations.


This paper provides a distributional analysis of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), with implications for American households from changes to the individual income and corporate income taxes. We model the impact on average tax rates and after-tax incomes using tax records data from the 2011 Internal Revenue Service public use file and the open-source Tax-Calculator microsimulation model. We find that the effects of the TCJA vary widely across and within income deciles depending upon family structure, the choice of equivalence scales, and whether the impacts are short term or long term. When appropriately accounting for differences in tax unit size, through 2025 the individual income tax changes of the TCJA appear progressive. Failing to account for these differences obscures these progressive effects because larger families benefiting from the expansion of the child tax credit have higher incomes. Combining individual income and business tax provisions in the static scenario, the TCJA is likely to result in short-term increases in after-tax incomes across all deciles, with longer-term decreases for the lower-income households if the individual income tax provisions are allowed to expire. Even in the short run, the gains are significantly lower for those below the top decile. In the long-run dynamic scenario, the TCJA appears regressive, with income gains skewed toward the top.