The effects of different management measures on the undergrowth diversity of Larix gmelinii forests were determined. The undergrowth vegetation of Xing'an Larch forest under seven different transformation methods was investigated in the Chaocha Forest Farm of the Genhe Forestry Bureau in the northern Daxinganling Mountains. Community composition, structural characteristics, species diversity and biomass of seven different retrofitting methods and one control plot. The results showed that the species composition of Larix gmeliniii under 7 different transformation methods included 34 species of 30 genera and 21 families of shrubs, including 7 species, 7 genera and 7 species of shrub layer, and 20 species, 24 genera and 24 species of common species in the herb layer. The species with the largest proportion in the layer is bilberry, followed by Xing'an rhododendron, and the dominant species of herbaceous layer is quite different. In terms of diversity index, the diversity index of Xing'an larch forest under local tending artificial promotion natural regeneration and transformation measures was low (P<0.05); the study showed that the best tending thinning intensity was between 30% and 40%, different. The impact of the transformation method on the structure and diversity of understory vegetation in Larix gmelinii forest is not only related to the transformation, but also depends on the transformation measures taken.


Dengue has been considered one of the major health problems in the world. Philippines is one of the most affected countries of this epidemic disease during the year 2015. Dasmarinas City is one of the cities in the Philippines affected by dengue fever outbreak. This study aims to assess the current level and to identify the relationships between knowledge, attitude and preventive practice about dengue fever of the respondents within Dasmarinas City, Cavite. This study used purposive sampling in selecting respondents from ten barangays with the highest number of dengue cases during the year 2015. Survey questionnaires was used to gather information from 419 respondents about their demographic profile, involvement in health promotion and educational intervention, sources of information, knowledge, attitude, and preventive practice regarding dengue fever. The results of this study showed that most of the respondents have moderate knowledge level, positive attitude, and fair preventive practices. Preventive practice has a significant relationship with barangay, family income, health promotional activities and educational intervention, and received information. A structural equation model was developed, tested and fitted to the data well (chi-square= 81.960, df= 52, CFI= .947, TLI=.933, and RMSEA= .037). Furthermore, a positive attitude towards dengue fever had a positive impact on the dengue preventive practice of the residents in Dasmarinas, however high knowledge about dengue fever does not guarantee good practice of preventive measures.


Aims. The properties of transient horizontal magnetic fields (THMFs) in both plage and quiet Sun regions are obtained and compared. Methods. Spectro-polarimetric observations with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) on the Hinode satellite were carried out with a cadence of about 30 s for both plage and quiet regions located near the disk center. We selected THMFs that have net linear polarization (LP) higher than 0.22%, and an area larger than or equal to 3 pixels, and compared their occurrence rates and distribution of magnetic field azimuth. We obtained probability density functions (PDFs) of magnetic field strength and inclination for both regions. Results. The occurrence rate in the plage region is the same as for the quiet Sun. The vertical magnetic flux in the plage region is ∼8 times more than in the quiet Sun. There is essentially no preferred orientation for the THMFs in either region; however, THMFs in the plage region with higher LP have a preferred direction consistent with that of the plage-region's large-scale vertical field pattern. PDFs show that there is no difference in the distribution of field strength of horizontal fields between the quiet Sun and the plage regions when we avoid the persistent vertical flux concentrations for the plage region. Conclusions. The similarity between the PDFs and the occurrence rates in plage and quiet regions suggests that a local dynamo process due to the granular motion may generate THMFs all over the Sun. The preferred orientation for higher LP in the plage indicates that the THMFs may be somewhat influenced by the larger-scale magnetic field pattern of the plage.


Millimeter wave irradiation has been found to generate a dose-dependent heating of skin, providing an opportunity for destruction of heat-sensitive cutaneous tumors including melanomas. In vitro irradiation of epidermal keratinocytes and melanoma cells revealed distinct susceptibility of melanoma cells to MMW hyperthermia with higher thermotolerance of keratinocytes. No significant species differences were found when human and murine keratinocytes and melanoma cells were compared. In vivo irradiation of cutaneous melanoma in mice with MMW at the incident power density of 1.25 W/cm/sup 2/ for 30 min resulted in a selective melanoma destruction. Histological analysis showed no tissue damage of normal skin cells (necrosis or apoptosis) within the exposed skin areas. We hypothesize that MMW irradiation would be a useful treatment modality for cutaneous melanoma in humans.


The greater area comprising the Attica peninsula and the Saronic Gulf is greatly influenced by various local circulation types. During winter months, moderately high air pollutants concentrations are observed when the prevailing condition is either stagnant or a weak southern flow. The case studied in this paper regards an episode that occurred in mid-December. This episode is characterized by very weak pressure gradient over Greece, and very little change in wind speed and direction with height, without the precedence of exceptionally strong warm advection in the lower troposphere during the days before the episode. This episode was not characterized by very high air pollution values, a rather common feature during December, that even though it presents one of the highest episode frequencies, the observed values are not high enough to require the enforcement of restrictive measures.


CASE tools have been thought as one of the most important means for implementing the derived quality programs. Two basic questions should be answered to find the right CASE tool: what attributes the CASE tools should exhibit and how the existing tools can be ranked according to their capability to support the quality program goals. We propose our solution based on the concept of software benchmarking. First, we summarise the QR method, and then we report on how it was applied in CASE tools assessment. Next we derive appropriate benchmark sets for CASE tools on the base of the CMM, the standard ISO 9000 and the MBNQA-criteria. We propose and implement a framework for CASE tools evaluation and selection.


A study of the changes which occur in the intra-articular loose bodies which contain hyaline cartilage, showed the chondrocytes to be very versatile. To effect the transformation of a fractured portion of the articular surface from an angular to a rounded body, peripheral chondrocytes lyse the surrounding glycans and revert to fibroblasts before proliferating and forming fibrocartilage. The central chondrocytes show a wide variety of changes which may mask the original structure of the hyaline cartilage. Remodelling can occur by the formation of osteoclasts. Analogies are drawn between the behaviour of chondrocytes in culture and in some pathologic processes.


This paper is a study of a fingerprint recognition system based on minutiae based fingerprint algorithms used in various techniques. This line of track mainly involves extraction of minutiae points from the model fingerprint images and fingerprint matching based on the number of minutiae pairings among two fingerprints. This paper also provides the design method of fingerprint based student attendance with help of GSM. This system ignores the requirement for stationary materials and personnel for keeping of records.


A major theme of nineteenth century mathematics was the study of integrals of algebraic functions of one variable. This culminated in Riemann's introduction of the surfaces that bear his name and analysis of periods of integrals on cycles on the surface. The creation of a correspondingly satisfactory theory for functions of several variables had to wait on the development of algebraic topology and its application by Lefschetz to algebraic varieties. These results were refined by Hodge's theory of harmonic integrals. A closer analysis of Hodge structures by P. A. Griffiths and P. Deligne in recent years has led to unexpectedly strong restrictions on the topology of the variety and to a diversity of other applications. This advance is closely linked to the study of variation of integrals under deformations, particularly in the neighbourhood of a singular point.


X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy at the Th L3 edge is applied for the characterization of crystalline, anhydrous ThO(2)(cr), microcrystalline ThO(2).xH(2)O(s), amorphous ThO(n)(OH)(4-2n).xH(2)O(am), aqueous Th(IV) solutions, and colloidal suspensions up to p(c)H 3.7. The microcrystalline, possibly hydrated thorium dioxide, is formed at p(c)H 1.5-2.5 by precipitation from suspensions of 16-23 nm thorium dioxide colloids. The solubility data determined for this solid is several orders of magnitude lower than the values for amorphous Th(IV) hydroxide or hydrous oxide. The EXAFS spectrum of the isolated microcrystalline particles shows that their structure is different from that of anhydrous crystalline ThO(2)(cr) and amorphous ThO(n)(OH)(4-2n).xH(2)O(am) precipitated at higher pH and dried at room temperature. The solubility measured for the amorphous Th(IV) precipitate is comparable to that previously reported for a solid prepared in a similar manner. In other solubility studies with amorphous Th(IV) hydroxide or hydrous oxide, considerably higher thorium concentrations are measured at p(c)H 3.5-5. The aqueous speciation is made by EXAFS for solutions prepared by careful coulometric titration under comparable conditions (p(c)H and thorium concentration). The spectra of these solutions demonstrate the presence of a large amount of Th(IV) polynuclear species or colloids of small size, having a highly asymmetric Th-O coordination. The EXAFS spectrum of these colloids is similar to that of the amorphous solid.


A method has been devised to repair the catheter in such circumstances rather than replace it. The severed catheter is cleaned with appropriate sterilizing agents and a #19 B-D needle inserted into either the right atrial or the pulmonary arterial line. The lumen supplying the balloon tip requires a #20 B-D needle. Grinding of the bevel of the needle and tapering of its stump facilitates passage into the lumen of the catheter and reduces the possibility of embolizing plastic chips created during insertion. This adaptation is stable, simple to perform, and withstands substantial pressure without leakage. A supply of needles prepared as indicated may be gas sterilized and kept available for use when needed. ALFRED G. KITCHEN, M.D. PAUL W. ARMSTRONG, M.D. Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada


The mission of religions aims to bring welfare and safety for human both in the world or hereafter. Meanwhile the poverty denotes multidimensional perspective includes in term of economy, social, belief in God, and moral. The poverty constitutes the challenge that Indonesian people face. The poverty indicates the lower of percapita income, jobless, etc. Islam and Catholic two religion institutions in Indonesia have the prophetical task and responsibility toward the poor people. The prophetical mission involves the problem of poverty in order to liberate them from that poverty. The liberation the poor people from poverty does not only a basis of Indonesian development and civility but also denotes the prophetical ethics. Keywords: misi, profetik, miskin, tertindas, dan agama.


The goal of this thesis is to analyze and apply the concept of Entropy to the valuation and hedging of derivative financial instruments issued on equities. More specifically, it develops a methodology based on the lowest relative Entropy to solve the problem of valuation and, above all, hedging of a type of exotic equity option called Cliquets. In an informal manner, financial valuation target is to obtain the value in monetary units of assets whose purpose is the investment or the financing. These assets are defined as financial instruments, and the locations and mechanisms by which are exchanged is called financial markets. On the other hand, a financial derivative are those instruments whose price depends on, this is, it derives of another variable, this variable is called the underlying, and can be very diverse nature and typology, the vast majority belong to the financial sphere. By way of illustration, we can make a small classification, according to Hull (2003), with the main categories of underlying: i. Financial Assets equity shares of companies, stock indices, etc. ii. Exchange Rate iii. Commodities: oil gas, copper, etc. iv. Financial assets in fixed income: bonds, deposits, etc. v. Other: credit, temperature, sports betting, … The valuation of financial instruments is done via two methodologies: i. Absolute Valuation ii. Relative Valuation In a simplified manner, absolute valuation is based on taking into consideration all the cash flows associated with the instrument...


Background: The cancer stem cell (CSC) theory which postulates a small subset of tumor cells have the capacity in tumor initiation, progression and importantly resistance to chemotherapy. CD133 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that serves as a putative cancer stem cell (CSC) marker in colon cancer and its relationship with the chemoresistance has been on debate. In our previous clinical study, we found the patients with CD133 + colon cancer have better prognosis after 5 fluorouracil (5-FU) chemotherapy compared to CD133 - tumors. Purpose: To understand the role of CSC marker expression in relation to chemoresistance in colon cancer, we evaluated the effect of CD133 inhibition in colorectal cancer (CRC) cell line on the genes expression which are related to chemoresistance or cell survival. Materials & Methods: CD133 siRNA transfection was performed on CD133+ colon cancer cell line (Caco-2). The proliferation assay used to detect the cytotoxic effect of 5-FU chemotherapy. The change in expression of chemoresistance related genes (AKT1, ABCG2 and MDR1) and cell survival related genes (survivin and beta-catenin) were evaluated by qRT-PCR and western blotting at 48hrs and 72hrs after CD133 siRNA transfection. Results: The proliferation assay demonstrated the increased chemoresistance of colon cancer cells after inhibition of CD133 expression when 5µM 5-FU was treated (p=0.0014). The mRNA expression of chemoresistance related genes (AKT1, ABCG2, MDR1) and cell survival related genes (survivin and β-catenin) were all significantly increased after transfection (p + colon cancer cell line induce the chemoresistance to 5-FU chemotherapy through the increased expression of chemoresistance related genes. Therefore, CD133 expression seems to be related with the chemosensitivity to 5-FU in colon cancer despite the mechanism needs to be proven. Citation Format: Mi-Ra Lee, Sun-Young Ji, Khalilullah Mia-Jan, Mee-Yon Cho. Inhibition of CD133 expression induce the chemoresistance to 5-fluorouracil in the colon cancer cell line. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 219. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-219


With an increasing number of wireless devices and access technologies available, users will be able to access their personal distributed environment of services and data conveniently in a wide variety of ways. Unfortunately this flexibility comes at a cost - higher security risks and vulnerabilities. The traditional association with a network provider may not exist, replaced by a far more nebulous association with a number of unknown entities, network nodes and service providers. These ad hoc relationships require a notion of trust, which presents great difficulties in a dynamic wireless environment. This paper presents a formal trust architecture to address these issues, with the focus on aspects of trust policy formation and its evolution.


When a humanoid robot hand generates a dexterous motion or adaptive behavior, a three-dimensional tactile sensor is indispensable which is as thin and soft as human skin. This study proposed a three-dimensional tactile sensor which enables to use a thin and soft elastic body without requiring any such processing as drawing of pattern on the surface or injection of pigment, etc., in the belief that this would enable to produce a wide dynamic range and a high resolution. We manufactured an optical type pressure sensor capable of irradiating a light in parallel to an elastic body, in such a way that the contour line may indicate the shape of the object material and, with the position of incidence of this light as clue, estimating the ldquocontact position of the object material,rdquo ldquomagnitude of the force,rdquo and ldquoangle of incidence of the force.rdquo The estimation experiment showed that the output of the tactile sensor exhibits the same accuracy as that of a conventional ldquohard and heavyrdquo sensor.


A surcharge load is any load such as spoil embankments, streets or highways, construction machinery which is imposed upon the surface of the soil close enough or distance to the excavation. This load causes a lateral pressure to act on the system in addition to the basic earth pressure. One of the most famous methods is Boussinesq strip method. After many considerations on adjacent surcharge, it was found that the distribution of lateral surcharge had not accuracy, and the shape and also the magnitude of the lateral pressure were not correct. In this paper besides considering the shape and magnitude due to the Boussinesq distribution of lateral surcharge pressure for adjacent surcharge, a combined method that is named "KZP1" and also a method based on the "KZP1" that is named "KZP2" for distance surcharge with an applied examples is presented


Surface recognition of biosystems is a critical component in the development of novel biosensors and delivery vehicles, and for the therapeutic regulation of biological processes. Monolayer-protected nanoparticles present a highly versatile scaffold for selective interaction with bio-macromolecules and cells. Through the engineering of the monolayer surface, nanoparticles can be tailored for surface recognition of biomolecules and cells. This review highlights recent progress in nanoparticle-bio-macromolecule/cellular interactions, emphasizing the effect of the surface monolayer structure on the interactions with proteins, DNA, and cell surfaces. The extension of these tailored interactions to hybrid nanomaterials, biosensing platforms, and delivery vehicles is also discussed.


Introduction Helium magnetic resonance imaging (3He MRI) provides functional information on lung ventilation, perfusion and microstructure. We describe use of 3He MRI to assess lung function in a patient with "horse-shoe" lung. Case presentation EB is a 46 year old female with congenital lung abnormalities diagnosed during infancy. Chest x-ray confirmed an abnormal right upper lobe (RUL). Pulmonary arteriography reported hypoplastic RUL vessels. Bronchoscopy confirmed tracheal stenosis, and cardiac catheterisation reported an abnormal pulmonary arterial pattern. A diagnosis of congenital lung anomalies along with asthma was made during her childhood. Throughout her life her condition has been characterised by recurrent severe respiratory tract infections requiring hospitalisation. Recent CT chest confirmed right lung hypoplasia a deformed right main bronchus, moderate hypoplasia of the right main pulmonary artery and severe hypoplasia of RUL pulmonary vessels. An isthmus joins the two lungs consistent with "horse-shoe lung".1 Ventilation-perfusion scan reported 26% functioning right lung. Bronchoscopy confirmed tracheal and right main stem stenosis with left main stem bronchomalacia. Surgical resection is an option for 'horse-shoe 'lung characterised by recurrent infections.2 In this context, we proceeded to 3He MRI to obtain more detailed functional information.Abstract P285 Figure 1 Results of 3He functional MRI Results of 3He Functional MRI Communication between the right and left lungs was visualised (Figure 1). In the right lung, ventilation was reduced with increased heterogeneity (Figure 1a, f). And perfusion notably reduced, in the RUL (Figure 1c. 3He apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), which estimates acinar airway dimensions, was elevated and heterogeneous (Figure 1c), consistent with hypoplasia. The left lung was well ventilated and perfused with normal ADC values. Conclusion 3He MRI shows promise in functional analysis of "horse-shoe" lung with hypoplasia. This can prove useful in surgical assessment of these patients and therefore improve their management. References 1 Dikensoy O, Kervancioglu R, Bayram NG, Elbek O, Uyar M, Ekinci E. Horseshoe lung associated with scimitar syndrome and pleural lipoma. J Thorac Imaging 2006;21(1):73–5 2 Orzan F, Angelini P, Oglietti J, Leachman RD, Cooley DA. Horses lung: report of two cases. Am Heart J 1977;93(4):501–5


Synthetic holograms have achieved a great impact in a variety of fields like architecture, advertising, army and art, and have proven their importance in advancing the holographic displays as visual communication media. Printing synthetic holograms needs the development of a holographic printer that from a set of 2D images allows to create 3D holographic images of real objects and computer generated objects. With the purpose of developing a holoprinter, we have implemented three related components: i) design and implementation of an optical system for direct writing of hogels, ii) a computational implementation to generate parallax 2D images and finally, iii) the implementation of an opto-mechanical and control system for automatic recording of the synthetic holograms. The three components have been developed under the restricted conditions of our holographic laboratory. In this way, a direct write optical setup was implemented using He-Ne laser, and an optical system for hogel writing with a field of view (FOV) of 60° was designed by using commercial lenses. To generate 2D parallax images, an application was created in the free computer graphics software Blender, applying different camera configurations. And a LabView application was made to automatically control obturation and displacement of the holographic plate. The system developed can record computer generated objects and real objects. Real objects are digitized by using a conventional photographic camera. Reflection full parallax holographic stereograms were recorded on PFG-01 plates and their holographic reconstructions are presented and discussed.


Purpose
This study investigates how the variables of culture and hearing status might influence the amount of parent-child talk families engage in throughout an average day.

Method
Seventeen Vietnamese and 8 Canadian families of children with hearing loss and 17 Vietnamese and 13 Canadian families with typically hearing children between the ages of 18 and 48 months old participated in this cross-comparison design study. Each child wore a Language ENvironment Analysis system digital language processor for 3 days. An automated vocal analysis then calculated an average conversational turn count (CTC) for each participant as the variable of investigation. The CTCs for the 4 groups were compared using a Kruskal-Wallis test and a set of planned pairwise comparisons.

Results
The Canadian families participated in significantly more conversational turns than the Vietnamese families. No significant difference was found between the Vietnamese or the Canadian cohorts as a function of hearing status.

Conclusions
Culture, but not hearing status, influences CTCs as derived by the Language ENvironment Analysis system. Clinicians should consider how cultural communication practices might influence their suggestions for language stimulation.


RECIPE is a three-year (2003-05) European Commission project funded within Framework 5, involving ten partners in the UK, France, Switzerland, Finland and Germany. RECIPE is designed to provide information to assist conservationists and managers of peat extraction with options to restore peat accumulation and carbon sequestration in peatlands that have either been abandoned or designated for restoration. The objectives are to identify those combinations of water table, vegetation, microbiology and chemistry favorable to the reestablishment of peatland biodiversity and long-term regeneration. The novel approach of this project is to focus on the relationship between the development of microbial diversity and the processes governing C cycling. The ultimate goal will be to develop indicators of change in physical, chemical and biological characteristics of peat. Studies will be made of a range of regenerating peatlands as well as detailed regeneration experiments at specific sites. The specific objectives, methodologies, and some results will be presented. By achieving these objectives in the context of current management practices, RECIPE will provide guidelines for sustainable management that will reconcile peat use with the maintenance of biodiversity.


Apparatus (1) comprises a trough(2) with two rotatably arranged shafts (3) extending alongside each other, which shafts (3) are each provided with paddles (7) spaced apart in axial direction with an intermediate distance. The paddles (7) extend substantially in a radial plane with respect to the shafts (3) and extend in circumferential direction over at least a part of the circumference. In circumferential direction, the paddles (7) are at least partly wedge-shaped. Upon opposite rotation of the shafts (3), successive paddles (7) mesh alternately, thereby forming a gap narrowing again and again. Per shaft (3), successive paddles (7) in axial direction are staggered relative to each other in circumferential direction through an angle.


Exact diagnosis of electrical submersible pump (ESP)partial friction fault may avoid magnitude economic loss. Three-dimensional vibration accelerations of ESP were measured with acceleration transducer. Since working well ESPs are deeper in the earth, vibration signals seriously fade. This paper proposed that SVM is employed as classifier and wavelet parameters as features for ESP partial friction fault diagnosis. After SVM parameters selection with grid method, the highest recognition rate is up to 86.7%. Results indicate that SVM is competent not only for small sample recognitions but also for recognitions based on faintness signal. A new method is provided for ESP partial friction fault diagnosis.


The release of beryllium from poloidal limiter tiles was investigated by laser-induced fluorescence. The measured beryllium fluxes are in the range 1019-1020 m-2 s-1, depending on the proton flux and heat load onto the limiters. Evaluation of the data shows that besides physical sputtering by protons sublimation becomes important at elevated surface temperatures. The density of neutral metastables in front of the limiter was found to be two times higher than the ground-state density.


OBJECT: To study the frequency of inflammatory bowel disease in our area. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective, hospital-based analysis identifying potential cases, with a posterior study of case records following a predefined protocol, according to international standards in diagnosis. PATIENTS: All patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or indeterminate colitis established between 1975 and 1992 at our Hospital. RESULTS: 222 cases (ulcerative colitis: 109; Crohn's disease 93; indeterminate colitis 20) were identified and a clear trend for an increased incidence was found for the three diagnoses; with annual incidence below 1 for them all in the 1975-1977 period versus 3.66; 3.33; and 1 respectively in the 1990-1992 period. This trend was evident both for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. CONCLUSIONS: The global frequency of inflammatory bowel disease has increased in the last years in Zaragoza (Spain), and its incidence in now very similar to that reported in northern European countries. Possible factors associated with this phenomenon should be pursued in future studies.


The most densely populated and economical most valuable areas in The Netherlands lie below mean sea level. These areas are protected against the sea by a joint coastal dune system. The vital importance of this dune system is reflected in the extensive collection of Dutch legal regulations that ensure the safety level of the dunes. The assessment methods currently prescribed by these regulations are developed in the early eighties. These methods are strictly speaking only valid for infinitely long, uniform and straight coasts. The Dutch coast with its curvatures, islands and estuaries does not meet these prerequisites. The wide application of these assessment methods is mainly justified due to intentional overestimation of the expected dune erosion. In virtue of the expected climate change and corresponding sea level rise, an effective and reliable coastal management becomes increasingly important. Dutch water management authorities therefore commissioned the development of a renewed probabilistic assessment method for dunes. Such method will provide a more accurate and elegant way of dealing with the large number of uncertainties involved in the dune erosion process. The original assessment methods for dunes along the Dutch coast are extended with a computational method for additional erosion along convex coastlines. This method is based on a limited data analysis, which resulted in a cautious guideline. It is therefore expected that current regulations underestimate the influence of coastal curvatures on the amount of dune erosion. In context of the development of a probabilistic assessment method for dunes, little is known about the relevance of coastal curvatures. It is questioned if longshore phenomena in general and coastal curvatures in particular should be incorporated in the newly developed assessment methods. A probabilistic model set-up is created using the numerical semi-two-dimensional dune erosion model DurosTA and a Monte Carlo routine. The dune erosion model is developed especially to investigate the influence of coastal curvatures. Using this probabilistic model set-up, series of computations with varying coastal curvatures and incident wave angles are made for different types of relevant probabilistic hydraulic conditions. From the results the influence of coastal curvatures on the erosion volumes, and thus the retreat distances and probability of failure, is obtained. The results are compared to current regulations. Furthermore the aspects of the dune erosion process that are particulary interesting for curved coastlines are determined. The physical and location independent importance of different model parameters is investigated by conducting a traditional sensitivity analysis. The probabilistic and location dependent importance of the model parameters is investigated by a probabilistic analysis using, amongst others, the design point. Results show that curvatures found along the Dutch coast can increase the 1/4,000 year retreat distance over 100%. Also coastal stretches with curvatures that are neglected in the current regulations still appear to suffer from a larger retreat distance up to 15%. In comparison, the maximum additional retreat distance to account for coastal curvatures is according to current regulations less than 20% in the observed situations. Furthermore the physical importance with respect to the amount of dune erosion of the sediment diameter increases along curved coastlines due to the more efficient transport of suspended sediments. From a probabilistic perspective the storm surge level gains importance due to the common formulation of the correlation between the storm surge level, the significant wave height and peak wave period.


Samples must be representative and specimen preparation must introduce as few changes as possible if microscopic information is to be significant in characterization and classification of soils and rocks and in interpretation of their engineering behavior. Soils and recent sediments are damaged most easily, and specimen preparation is most complex for these materials. Air drying may cause shrinkage and distortion; freeze drying and drying by the critical point method provide partial solutions. Even so, differences in the procedure followed in the removal or replacement of water can cause marked differences in appearance of specimens examined on the electron and optical microscopes. Sectioning and surface exposure may also introduce artifacts. Soil specimens for fabric study commonly are fractured when frozen, since cutting may not be used generally. The use of ion bombardment in metal coating and as an etch method is discussed, and the possibility of improving specimen preparation procedures by combining an etch technique with freeze drying is outlined.


Purpose To test the ability of a drug-eluting balloon (DEB) to reduce recurrent in-stent restenosis (ISR) in diabetic patients with femoropopliteal stents. Methods A prospective all-comers study [Drug-Eluting Balloon in Peripheral Intervention for In-Stent Restenosis (DEBATE-ISR); ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01558531] of symptomatic diabetic patients with femoropopliteal ISR undergoing treatment with paclitaxel-eluting balloons was designed to compare their 12-month recurrent restenosis rate with that of historical diabetic controls. From January 2010 to December 2011, 44 consecutive diabetic patients (32 men; mean age 74±11 years) were treated with DEBs and enrolled in the study. The control group comprised 42 diabetic patients (23 men; mean age 76±7 years) treated with a conventional balloon for femoropopliteal ISR from 2008 to 2009. Results No significant differences in terms of clinical, angiographic, or procedural characteristics were observed between the study groups. Lesion length was 132±86 mm in the DEB group vs. 137±82 mm in the BA group. Procedural success, defined as a residual stenosis <30% in the restenotic segment (stent +5 mm at proximal and distal edges), was obtained in all treated lesions. At 1-year follow-up, 6 patients died (3 in each group), and 1 patient in the BA group underwent major amputation. Recurrent restenosis, assessed by angiography (66%) or ultrasound (34%), occurred in 8/41 (19.5%) patients in the DEB group vs. 28/39 (71.8%) in the BA group (p<0.001). Target lesion revascularization for symptomatic recurrent restenosis was performed in 6/44 (13.6%) patients in the DEB vs.13/42 (31.0%) in the BA group (p=0.045). Conclusion Using DEB for treating femoropopliteal ISR led to a significant reduction in recurrent restenosis and repeat angioplasty at 1-year follow-up as compared to historical controls.


The elastic wave-propagation of ultrasonic signals in concrete with varying percentage of air inclusions is simulated in two dimensions using finite-difference-methods. Snapshots of the waves explain their different behaviour in several kinds of inhomogenous models with varying contrasts in their elastic parameters. The received Aand B-Scans show the negative influence of size-effects and air inclusions on the data and the induced problem to detect a flaw inside the concrete.


The singly periodic, genus one helicoid was conjectured to be the limit of a one parameter family of doubly periodic minimal surfaces referred to as Perturbed Genus One Scherk Surfaces. Using elliptic functions, we show such surfaces exist, solving a two-dimensional period problem by perturbing a one-dimensional problem. Using flat structures associated to these minimal surfaces, we verify the conjecture.


The aim of this research to analyze influence of life style and perceived brand value to create buying decision through online shopping. Empiciral studies at branded fashion products. The population of this research is all students of Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta. The technique sampling in this research is purposive sampling by take 100 respondences. Data collection method using field study in form of personal questionnaire. Analysis tools in this research uses multiple linear regression. Based on the result are found some finding, the first is life style has significant influence to create buying decision through online shopping and the second is perceived brand value has significant influence to create buying decision through online shopping


Faturrahman, Meryandini A, Junior MZ, Rusmana I (2011) Isolation and identification of an agar-liquefying marine bacterium and some properties of its extracellular agarases. Biodiversitas 12: 192-197. A new agar-liquefying bacterium, designated Alg3.1, was isolated from Gracilaria samples collected from the Kuta Coast at Central Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara and was identified as Aeromonas sp. on the basis of morphology, biochemical-physiological character and 16S rDNA gene sequencing. The bacterium appeared capable of liquefying agar in nutrient agar-plate within 48 hours of incubation and the agar was completely liquefied after l5 days at 29C. When the isolate was grown in basal salts solution medium B supplemented with peptone and yeast extract, produced extracellular agarases within a short period of time (4-16 h) and the maximum agarase activity was 0.489 nkat/mL at 36h after incubation.


It's never too early to begin thinking about your 2019 CPD goals, and ICAS has a range of opportunities available to help you keep up to date and prepare you for the year ahead.


For many, the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in drastic behavior changes. While the immediate uncertainty and fear surrounding the initial lockdown has subsided, there are still significant changes to our daily lives and work that may have lasting impact on our health and well-being. One such change is the increase in physical inactivity and sedentarism, a result of decreased group activities, organized events, work and school from home mandates, and physical distancing. Physical inactivity represents one of the strongest modifiable risk factors for poor health outcomes and a preventable cause of early morbidity and mortality from many common chronic diseases. Overall, health care providers are inconsistent and often ineffective at screening and counseling patients on the benefits of regular physical activity. Additionally, there is very little structured curricula for medical learners to address physical inactivity and other lifestyle factors that contribute to the health of our patients. As we adjust to new social practices and behaviors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that we emphasize the need for education, screening, evidence-based interventions, advocacy, and effective role modeling on the importance of physical activity for our patients, communities, and our own well-being.


The immunomodulatory capability of aqueous leaf extract of Moringa oleifera was investigated in male Wistar rats. Dry leaf powder of Moringa oleifera was extracted with water and lyophilized. Twenty four Wistar rats with body weight of 86.2 ± 4.43 g were grouped equally into four (A-D) and distilled water, 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight of extract were orally administered once daily for 56 days groups respectively. Serum interleukin-2 concentration increased (p<0.05), while interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-? reduced (p<0.05). Erythrocyte parameters, neutrophils and monocyte concentrations were reduced (p<0.05). Total leukocyte and lymphocyte counts, and liver reduced glutathione were increased (p<0.05), while malondialdehyde and serum uric acid were decreased (p<0.05). The findings of this study supported the folkloric use of the aqueous leaf extract of Moringa oleifera as an immunomodulating regime for the prevention and/ or cure of infective and degenerative diseases. However, the extract caused anaemia. Keywords: Immunomodulatory capability, Moringa oleifera , supported, folkloric use, degenerative diseases and anaemia.


BACKGROUND Intravenous thrombolysis is an important treatment for cerebral infarction. However, it is difficult to achieve good results if the patient is complicated with anterior circulation macrovascular occlusion. In addition, the vascular recanalization rate is low, so mechanical thrombectomy, that is, bridging therapy, is needed AIM To investigate the efficacy and safety of bridging therapy and direct mechanical thrombectomy in the treatment of cardiogenic cerebral infarction with anterior circulation macrovascular occlusion. METHODS Ninety-six patients in our hospital with cardiogenic cerebral infarction with anterior circulation macrovascular occlusion from January 2017 to July 2020 were divided into a direct thrombectomy group (n = 48) and a bridging group (n = 48). Direct mechanical thrombectomy was performed in the direct thrombectomy group, and bridging therapy was used in the bridging treatment group. Comparisons were performed for the treatment data of the two groups (from admission to imaging examination, from admission to arterial puncture, from arterial puncture to vascular recanalization, and from admission to vascular recanalization), vascular recanalization rate, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores before and after treatment, prognosis and incidence of adverse events. RESULTS In the direct thrombectomy group, the time from admission to imaging examination was 24.32 ± 8.61 min, from admission to arterial puncture was 95.56 ± 37.55 min, from arterial puncture to vascular recanalization was 54.29 ± 21.38 min, and from admission to revascularization was 156.88 ± 45.51 min, and the corresponding times in the bridging treatment group were 25.38 ± 9.33 min, 100.45 ± 39.30 min, 58.14 ± 25.56 min, and 161.23 ± 51.15 min; there were no significant differences between groups (P=0.564, 0.535, 0.426, and 0.661, respectively). There was no significant difference in the recanalization rate between the direct thrombectomy group (79.17%) and the bridging group (75.00%) (P = 0.627). There were no significant differences between the direct thrombectomy group (16.69 ± 4.91 and 12.12 ± 2.07) and the bridging group (7.13 ± 1.23 and (14.40 ± 0.59) in preoperative NIHSS score and GCS score (P = 0.200 and 0.203, respectively). After the operation, the NIHSS scores in both groups were lower than those before the operation, and the GCS scores were higher than those before the operation. There was no significant difference in NIHSS and GCS scores between the direct thrombectomy group (6.91 ± 1.10 and 14.19 ± 0.65) and the bridging group (7.13 ± 1.23 and 14.40 ± 0.59) (P = 0.358 and 0.101, respectively). There was no significant difference in the proportion of patients who achieved a good prognosis between the direct thrombectomy group (52.08%) and the bridging group (50.008%) (P = 0.838). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse events between the direct thrombectomy group (6.25%) and the bridging group (8.33%) (P = 0.913). CONCLUSION Bridging therapy and direct mechanical thrombectomy can safely treat cardiogenic cerebral infarction with anterior circulation macrovascular occlusion, achieve good vascular recanalization effects and prognoses, and improve the neurological function of patients.


Rolling bearing is a key component of rotary machinery, and its working state tends to affect the reliability and lifetime of the equipment. The traditional way to ensure productivity is to replace rolling bearings regularly which is a waste of resources and could increase maintenance costs, because of the large discreteness of rolling bearing's lifetime. So changing the fail-and-fix practices into a predict-and-prevent methodology is the most effective method. At present, the most common way used for rolling bearing fault diagnosis is vibration signal analysis. This paper explores the Local Mean Decomposition (LMD) algorithm to self-adaptively decompose the vibration signal into several PF components, and further calculates the power spectrum of each PF component, and extracts the sum of power value at the characteristic frequency band of inner ring fault/outer ring fault/ rolling element fault. The sum of power value is used to train the BP neural network. And the experimental results show that the BP neural network trained in this way has high classification ability.


In an effort to achieve good health status and not cause a variety of disease risks,
knowledge of nutrition is needed. Adequacy of nutrition can be seen from the pattern of
food consumption. This food consumption pattern includes a description of the type and
amount of food. Lack or excessive in nutrition fulfillment can lead to malnutrition,
where malnutrition is a trigger factor for various diseases. Generally, inmates have a
low level of education background and low knowledge about nutrition and assume that
the most important food is only to "fill the stomach" and not pay attention to the
nutritional content. Though nutrients greatly affect the quality of human resources such
as health, intelligence and work productivity. Penitentiary administration has a large
role in providing food for prisoner. Correctional Institutions are places to conduct
guidance for inmates Almost all of Indonesia prisons are over capacity. This
overcapacity condition resulted in decrease in services and a weakening of supervision
of inmates. Like ordinary people, prisoners also have the right to obtain appropriate
health and food services. Although the standard of food provision has been regulated by
Kemenkumham, but there is no further research on nutritional adequacy in prisons. The
purpose of this study was to determine the nutritional adequacy of Class IIA and IIB
prisoners in Kendal District. This research was carried out by observing field surveys
and interviewing prison administrators for 4 times a month which is conducted once a
week by observing the prisoners' daily diet menu cycle, food type data, food quantity
and number of prisoners per day and respondent data which includes age, height and
weight. Respondents were selected by purposive sampling as many as 20 respondents
from class IIA correctional institutions and 20 respondents from class IIB correctional
institutions. From the results of this study it was found that nutrition fulfillment is still
centered on carbohydrate food sources. Excessive carbohydrate adequacy, good protein
adequacy, insufficient fat and micronutrient adequacy are still centered on several types
of micronutrients such as Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B5. The food used in
fulfilling the respondent's nutrition is still less diverse because it has not been able to
meet the overall nutritional needs


To determine the gastric cancer risk factors, a case-control study was performed. Cases were the gastric cancer patients operated at NCC hospital from 1980 to 1982. Controls were the patients in Adult Disease Clinic. Main items of risk factors were cancer family inheritance tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking. Although in the case of cancer family and tobacco smoking either alone might produce gastric cancer, the syncarcinogenic type of combination of cancer family, tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking might act most definitely in gastric carcinogenesis.


The task of motion planning for robotic manipulators means to drive an end-effector between designated points in the work area while obstacles are not hit. This contribution investigates the case of dynamic obstacles (like human operators) and the consideration of a performance criterion to be maximized for the motion. The proposed approach maps the dynamics of the manipulator and the obstacles into the C × T-space (spanned by the configuration C and the time T). Within this space, an (sub-)optimal sequence of configurations in the collision-free subspace is determined by mixed-integer linear programming. To achieve sufficient computational efficiency, the optimization task is approached by employing the principles of model predictive control. The paper describes the approach based on the example of a two-link robot interacting with a human operator.


Entrepreneurship courses were made compulsory in public higher education institutions (IPTA) starting in 2007. Consequently, the Basics Entrepreneurial Acculturation Module has been used by all IPTA to strengthen the teaching of the course. Nevertheless, what is more important is to focus on lecturers who serve as the 'backbone' of the government's success. Given the importance of lecturers in this instance, a study of the perceptions of teaching entrepreneurship courses and effective teaching methods and environments that support the development of entrepreneurship in IPTA needs to be done. The objective of this study, in particular, was to identify the perceptions of lecturers at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) to teach entrepreneurship to their students. Moreover, the identification of entrepreneurial teaching techniques or methods that work, and the extent to which universities play a role in promoting entrepreneurship have also been examined in this study. To this end, a total of 92 lecturers from three main academic collegees in UUM, namely the College of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Law, Government and International Studies were participated in this study. Overall, the results indicate that the level of perception UUM lecturers for teaching entrepreneurship is moderately high (M=3.86). The study also presented a number of measures and recommendations to the parties concerned such as universities and government (the Ministry of Education) to enhance and promote entrepreneurship programmes available at IPTA


Assuming a two-way relationship between climate change and tourism, it is very important to know the beliefs and attitudes of tourist managers. Research of beliefs and attitudes of tourist managers is a key problem of this research. Beliefs and attitudes of tourist managers are affected by different factors such as: sociodemographic characteristics, especially gender; level of education; length of service in the tourism sector; membership in ecological ngos; and beliefs and attitudes about climate change. To investigate managers' opinions, the authors created a survey which focused on all managers who manage categorized facilities by type in the Republic of Croatia. The results have shown significant differences in the beliefs and attitudes about the interinfluence of climate change and tourist accommodation. Managers who are female, who have completed tertiary education, who are members of ecological ngos and who consider themselves activists, and those who have more years of work experience, showed stronger pro-environmental attitudes and higher levels of ecological awareness. Keywords: attitudes, beliefs, climate change, management, tourism, destinations


Bifid nose is a rare congenital deformity. Three cases were reported here. The characteristics of these patients are different from the literatures reported. Two of them were treated by a new surgical method--making a hole between fissure and nasal cavity. The shape of nose became better after operation and the results were satisfactory. The procedure was simple and safe. The method of treatment was introduced and discussed in this article.


Humoral responses directed against Schistosoma mansoni soluble egg antigen were studied in Zimbabwean children before and after treatment with either praziquantel (PZQ) or oxamniquine (OXAM). Treated children showed a significant increase in the proportion producing IgE and IgG3 and in mean levels of IgE, IgM, IgG3 six weeks post‐treatment. At 18 weeks post‐treatment, the proportion of treated children producing IgA, IgE, and IgG3 increased while the proportion producing IgG1 and IgG4 decreased. Mean levels of IgA, IgE, and IgG3 were higher than pre‐treatment levels while levels of IgG1, IgG4 and IgM were lower. Statistical analyses showed that the magnitude of change in levels of IgE, IgM and IgG3 at 6 weeks post‐treatment and of IgE, IgG3 and IgG4 at 18 weeks post‐treatment was significantly greater in treated compared to untreated children, and there were no significant differences in immune responses between children treated with praziquantel and those treated with oxamniquine. The magnitude of change in IgE at 6 and 18 weeks, IgM at 6 weeks and IgG3 at 18 weeks post‐treatment were significantly associated with age in treated but not in untreated children, with the change being greater in younger children. This suggests that treatment induced a change in the age‐antibody relationship for these isotypes, and that the age‐antibody relationship is not robust to chemotherapy. Pre‐treatment infection levels were significantly associated (positive correlation) with the magnitude of change for IgE and IgG3 at 18 weeks post‐treatment. Taken together, these results indicate that the age‐antibody relationship observed in these children is due, at least in part, to cumulative host experience of parasite antigens and not host age alone.


This study demonstrates a useful application of on-line microbore high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fast atom bombardment (FAB) and thermospray (TSP) mass spectrometry techniques for identification of metabolites from the in vitro metabolism of an experimental Monsanto herbicide: 2-chloro-N-(ethoxymethyl-N-[2-methyl-6- (trifluoromethyl)phenyl]acetamide, 'chloroacetanilide'. The microbore HPLC FAB technique on a high-resolution sector mass spectrometer accelerated identification of polar metabolites from the in vitro metabolism study of the herbicide. It provided good chromatographic resolution and excellent FAB sensitivity with strong protonated molecular ions. Scanning high-resolution LC/FAB mass spectrometry also provided molecular formulae for structural elucidation of unknown metabolites. Sample purification and concentration were minimized. Identification of less polar metabolites was carried out using LC/TSP mass spectrometry with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. LC/TSP mass spectrometry provided useful structural information for both polar and less polar metabolites because their spectra showed more fragmentation than FAB spectra. Glutathione conjugation was the major reaction observed during in vitro incubation of the herbicide. Oxidation of the chloroacetanilide by rat liver enzymes was also a significant metabolic reaction. Seven metabolites were identified, of which four were glutathione conjugates.


In this paper the authors map the researches related to the production of bulk polypropylene, the processes modelling for the manufacturing of polypropylene and the use of neural networks applied to polymers. These themes are treated through a bibliometric analysis able to identify the most dedicated and advanced research poles all over the world, the most published authors and the evolution of their development through the years. In the end, there's a comment about the reality of the university-enterprises relation in Brazil.


K-functionals K(f, t, L2(R), Lβ2 (R), which defined by the fractional derivatives of order β > 0, have been considered in the space L2(R). The relation K(f, t, L2(R), Lβ2 (R) ≍ ωβ(f, t) (t > 0) was obtained in the sense of the weak equivalence, where ωβ(f, t) is the module of continuity of the fractional order β for a function f ∈ L2(R). Exact values of the best approximation by entire functions of exponential type νπ, ν ∈ (0,∞), have been computed for the classes of functions, given by the indicatedK-functionals and majorantsΨ satisfying specific restriction. Kolmogorov, Bernstein and linear mean ν-widths were obtained for indicated classes of functions.


The propagation of tulip is severely hampered by the slow traditional propagation methods. With the increased need for new varieties with e.g. an improved resistance against pests, next to the continuous interest in new varieties with e.g different colors, the 25-30 years needed before a new cultivar can be commercially introduced is a problem. Therefore, alternative, faster methods to propagate tulip are wanted and the application of tissue culture techniques seems very promising. However, still a number of problems exist; especially tissue culture starting from tulip bulb scales has been proven cumbersome, because the explants are only vital and able to regenerate shoots (from which new bulbs can be produced) in a very limited period of the season. Our project was aimed at the elucidation of the physiological factors responsible for this loss of vitality and regeneration potential. Two hypotheses were tested. In one hypothesis the role of oxidative stress in these problems was evaluated. If tissues are not able to process the reactive oxygen species produced during the cutting of an explant or to cope with the stress during the incubation, the tissue can be severely damaged by oxidative stress phenomena like membrane damage, production of toxic substances (TBArs or phenolics) and damage to DNA or structural proteins, leading to loss of viability and death of the explants. In our second hypothesis the role of tulipaline A (α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone) in the loss of vitality was evaluated: since tulipaline A has been implicated in fungal defence of tulip bulb scale tissue as being a toxic substance to the fungus which is released upon wounding, we hypothesized that release or production of tulipaline A might cause toxic reactions in tulip tissue, leading to loss of vitality and death of the explants upon cutting. To test our hypothesis of extreme sensitivity to oxidative stress we used different approaches in the first place: we compared physiological parameters of the stress response in regenerating tulip explants (bulb scales and stalk explants) with non-regenerating tulip bulb scale explants. In a second approach we applied different tissue culture conditions (differing oxygen concentrations and anti-oxidative additives to the nutrient medium) and measured physiological parameters implicated in the oxygen stress response (i.e. changes in enzyme activities (LOX, SOD, peroxidase, catalase, PAL and polyphenoloxidase), membrane composition and production of TBArs and phenolics). To obtain an indication of the role of the changed oxygen conditions a further comparison was made with other tissue culture systems like lily and apple stem segments. This also enabled us to determine in which phase of the regeneration process the changed conditions have the most effect. The physiological response of regenerating and non-regenerating scale explants did not differ significantly. The response was furthermore comparable to the pattern of changes observed in well regenerating tulip stalk explants. Some differences were observed after 2-3 weeks of incubation; these differences are probably caused by the poor viability of non- regenerating explants and not the cause of this poor viability since most damaging events and the start of regeneration are supposed to occur before the stage in which the differences are found. The experiments with modified oxygen conditions in which we applied 100 % oxygen to increase or 2 % oxygen to reduce oxygen stress also yielded no indications of an extreme sensitivity of tulip bulb scale tissue to oxidative stress. Regeneration was not improved by the application of low oxygen conditions and vitality was not negatively influenced by high oxygen conditions; high oxygen conditions seemed favourable for faster growth of the regenerating structures but slightly negative to the formation of primordia. No improvement of vitality could be observed after addition of anti-oxidative substances, this also suggesting no extreme sensitivity of the tulip bulb scale explants for oxidative stress. Tulipaline content was determined in stalk explants and in regenerating and non- regenerating bulb scale explants. Surprisingly, tulipaline A and not its precursor tuliposide A was the most abundant compound in scale explants, although tulipaline was expected to be too reactive to occur in the free form in living cells. Therefore, it is likely that in bulb scales the tulipaline is present either in specialised. vesicles or in an environment which reduces its reactivity. The amounts of tulipaline we found did differ strongly between stalks and bulb scales: the higher amounts of tulipaline in bulb scales might suggest a role in the lower regeneration potential but the comparison between regenerating and non-regenerating bulb scale explants did not confirm this suggestion. The tulipaline content changed during incubation; a clear decrease upon cutting the explants is seen, resembling a wounding effect. The content did increase later on during incubation of the explants indicating production of tulipaline A but still no clear relation with vitality could be established. Furthermore, a comparison between initial tulipaline content and browning response for different tulip cultivars, indicated a negative instead of a positive correlation between the two parameters. All these observations suggest that the low viability of tulip bulb scale explants is not directly related to a toxic effect of tulipaline A. Since both tested hypotheses do not seem to be related to the poor viability of tulip bulb scale explants outside the period in which regeneration is possible, the cause of this problem has to be found elsewhere. Probably the gradual progress of senescence leads to a stage where no redifferentiation is possible. Therefore, the development of a method to arrest bulb material in a physiological state where regeneration is possible might be necessary for the of micropropagation of tulip via bulb scale explants.


This paper studies incentives for the interim voluntary disclosure of verifiable information in probabilistic all-pay contests. Considered are unfair contests, i.e., contests in which, subject to activity conditions, one player (the favorite) is interim always more likely to win than the other player (the underdog). A condition is identified that ensures that a given contest is unfair regardless of disclosure decisions. Under this condition, full revelation is the unique perfect Bayesian equilibrium outcome of the contest with pre-play communication. This is so because the weakest type of the underdog will try to moderate the favorite, while the strongest type of the favorite will try to discourage the underdog - so that the contest unravels. We also show that self-disclosure may, with positive probability, provoke unintended reactions, i.e., "dominant" or "defiant" behavior. Moreover, while individually rational for the marginal type, the unraveling may be strictly Pareto inferior from an ex-ante perspective. Our main conclusion is just the opposite of the corresponding finding for the deterministic all-pay auction. The proofs employ lattice-theoretic methods and an improved version of Jensen's inequality.


OBJECTIVE
To seek a exact method of estimating postmortem interval (PMI).

METHODS
This study detected the concentration of zincum(Zn) and nickel(Ni) in vitreous humor of rabbit at hour 96 after death and explored the relationship between their concentration and PMI using a method ICP-MS.

RESULTS
The concentration of Zn and Ni in vitreous humor of rabbit at hour 24 after death were related to PMI significantly; The formulae of the relationship between PMI and Zn concentrations is y = 0.1404x2 - 1.3351x + 3.8298 (within 24 h; R2 = 0.9202). The formula of the relationship between PMI and Ni concentrations is y = 0.0043x2 - 0.0596x + 0.2665(within 24 h; R2 = 0.9103).

CONCLUSION
The concentration of Zn and Ni in vitreous humor of rabbit may be a reference indicator to estimate early PMI.


© 2015 The Linnean Society of London. In the aftermaths of mass extinction events, during radiations of clades, and in several other evolutionary scenarios, there is often a decoupling of taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity. The placental mammal radiation after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction is one of the archetypal adaptive radiations, but the change in morphological disparity of the entire skeleton has never been quantified across this important boundary. We reconstruct ancestral morphologies of 680 discrete morphological characters onto dated phylogenies of 177 mostly Cretaceous and Palaeogene eutherians (placental mammals and their stem relatives). Using a new approach to incorporate morphologies representing ghost lineages, we assess three measures of morphological disparity (sum of ranges, sum of variances and mean pairwise dissimilarity) across stage-level time bins within the Cretaceous and Palaeogene. We find that the range-based metric suggests that eutherian disparity increased immediately after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, while both variance-based metrics declined from the Campanian to the Maastrichtian, but showed no change in disparity from the Maastrichtian to the Puercan - the first North American Land Mammal Age of the Paleocene. Increases in variance-based metrics lag behind the range-based metric and per-lineage accumulation rate, suggesting that the response of mammals to the Cretaceous-Palaeogene event was characterized by an early radiation that increased overall morphospace occupation, followed later by specialization that resulted in increased dissimilarity.


Background: Myocarditis is inflammation of the cardiac myocytes. In the first 6 months of life, myocarditis is slow‐progressing and sudden death is common. It should not be forgotten that these patients can have intrauterine myocarditis. Case Presentation: A 4‐month‐old male patient had fast breathing and cyanosis during crying in the last month. At admission, we found tachypnea and hypoxia in his physical examination, and cardiomegaly on the chest radiogram. Subsequently, dilatation of left ventricle and left atrium, systolic dysfunction of left ventricle, and mitral valve regurgitation were found in echocardiography. The patient was diagnosed with myocarditis. We were informed that he had a twin brother, so we evaluated the second baby too. Similar but less severe findings were obtained in the echocardiographic examination of the twin brother, who had normal findings in physical examination. Infectious and metabolic scanning tests were performed on both patients. The underlying cause could not be spotted. Sizes of ventricles and atria, and left ventricle functions of the patients were found to be normal with treatment at the end of the 6th week. Conclusion: Four‐month‐old twins were diagnosed and recovered from myocarditis with supportive therapy in a short time. We think that the twins had intrauterine myocarditis.


This article addresses the question of the implications for professional education of economic, social and political changes that are transforming the boundaries, accountabilities and governance of professional practice. We argue that approaches to professional education that are uni-disciplinary and focused on the individual, cannot prepare students for practising a profession in circumstances requiring transformative change. We pose a conceptual alternative, drawing on practice theory, which, we argue, engages more effectively with the nature of practice in changing circumstances. Our particular concern is to find better ways to understand how learning is situated and embodied in practices and complexly implicated in change and innovation. In developing these new understandings, we draw on material from a case study of practice change in the area of health, to theorise learning as relational and embedded in the practices of an organisation in an intense state of change and becoming.


This report discusses briefly the chief fundamental results obtained from the days of Faraday to the present time in studying the electromotive forces ordinarily referred to the domain of electromagnetic induction. Self-induction is first taken up, and the phenomena of self-induction are treated as essentially identical with the phenomena of inertia in dynamics, according to the idea of Maxwell and the idea originally accepted by Faraday. The only recent fundamental progress has been in studying the inertia of free electrons and other ions, and experiments on this subject are referred to. The motional electromotive force, developed when matter moves in a magnetic field, is next considered, and is derived from Ampere's law on the electron theory. Especial attention is devoted to the motional intensity, and the resulting electric displacement, in insulators, of which nothing has been known until recent years. The induced electromotive force in fixed conductors and insulators arising from the motion or alteration of other systems is next considered, and is expressed both in terms of magnetic flux and in terms of the general vector potential, which refers the phenomena back to the motion of electrons without the magnetic field as intermediary. The relations between the induced and motional electromotive forces are discussed, as well as the relation of the electric displacement produced in certain cases to the hypothesis of the fixed aether. The report closes with a treatment of unipolar induction in both so-called open and closed circuits, including brief descriptions of some of the principal experiments, a discussion of the theories involved, and their application to the unipolar generator.


This study advances the institution-based view of strategy by integrating it with firm-specific capability considerations. In particular, we investigate the integrative influence of subnational-level home country institutional environments and firm-level political capital, as an important way to seek resources, on emerging economy entrepreneurial firms' internationalization. With data from Chinese entrepreneurial firms, we find that the development of subnational institutional environments in the home country is related to firms' degree of internationalization. Furthermore, while political capital with low-level governments enhances the effect of subnational institutions on internationalization, political capital with high levels of government has no such moderation effect. Theoretical and empirical contributions and implications are discussed.


ABSTRACT: The fauna of Iranian Dascillidae and Rhipiceridae (Coleoptera: Dascilloidea) is summarized in this paper. In total, 6 species of Dascillidae from 2 genera, Dascillus Latreille, 1797 (1 species) and Karumia Escalera, 1913 (5 species), and 2 species of Rhipiceridae from the genus Arrhaphipterus Schaum, 1862 are listed. The lectotype of K. estaphilinoides Escalera, 1913 is to be considered the holotype.


In this study, detection of an obligate aerobic, thermophilic and acidophilic bacterium, the sporeforming Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris was performed by determination of its specifc metabolite, guaiacol. Since its spores have been shown to resist conventional pasteurization, it has become a potential spoilage concern for fruit and vegetable juices, mainly for apple and orange juices. Detection of guaiacol was carried out by using an NST 3320 type electronic nose, and other methods, such as peroxidase-based enzymatic method with UV-Vis spectrophotometer, SPME-GC-MS technique and an untrained sensory panel were also applied. The results indicated that based on their detection limit the methods can be ordered in the following way: SPME-GC-MS (detection limit: <0.5 ppm)<sensory evaluation (detection limit: 0.5–1 ppm)<spectrophotometric method=electronic nose technique (detection limit: 1.25–2.5 ppm).


An algorithm is presented for error detection and correction of disparity, as a process separate from stereo matching, with the contention that matching is not necessarily the best way to utilize all the physical constraints characteristic to stereopsis. As a result of the bias in stereo research towards matching, vision tasks like surface interpolation and object modeling have to accept erroneous data from the stereo matchers without the benefits of any intervening stage of error correction. An algorithm which identifies all errors in disparity data that can be detected on the basis of figural continuity and corrects them is presented. The algorithm can be used as a postprocessor to any edged-based stereo matching algorithm, and can additionally be used to automatically provide quantitative evaluations on the performance of matching algorithms of this class. >


ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between digital skills of the workforce and income inequalities within regions. By combining three databases – EU-LFS, EU-SILC and ESCO – the analysis studies the relationships between digital skills and income inequalities for an unbalanced panel of 103 European regions for the period 2003–13. The results show that the relationship between digital skills and inequalities varies substantially across income groups and, in particular, that digitalisation exacerbates inequalities among the less affluent whereas it mitigates them among those with higher income levels.


Rumen micro-organisms which are resistant to high levels of condensed tannins (CT) may constitute a unique response by feral goats to the nutritive depressing effects of mulga (Acacia aneura) CT. Transferring these micro-organisms to domestic livestock lacking this response may be beneficial when CT-rich mulga diets are consumed. Three experiments were conducted in which sheep consuming a mulga diet were given a ruminal inoculation of feral goat rumen fluid (FGRF). Feed intake and nitrogen (N) retention were significantly greater (P < 0.05) in both sheep and domestic goats following inoculation and in inoculated compared with uninoculated sheep. Inoculation also improved N digestibility and reduced the rate of liveweight loss in sheep and domestic goats. These improvements were of similar magnitude to those attributable to the traditional N, phosphorus and sulfur mineral supplement for mulga fed sheep. FGRF inoculated sheep also grew as much wool as uninoculated sheep receiving a production enhancing mineral supplement. The results from these experiments suggest that FGRF is readily transferable to sheep and improves N metabolism in these animals. Using micro-organisms from FGRF as an inoculum for sheep consuming a mulga diet has the potential to be an alternative to mineral supplements.


Seabed based geotechnical investigation systems have been widely used in deep water site investigation in the offshore oil and gas industry. Compared to rotary boring systems, seabed based systems are relatively cost effective and minimize the disturbance from typical drilling processes. Piston corer is the most widely used type of equipment to retrieve soil samples in seabed based systems. In this paper, a conceptual design of a low-cost piston corer system named QuickCore is proposed. This system can be efficiently deployed and recovered by standard Anchor Handling Vessels (AHV). A key feature of this proposed piston corer system is a steel frame to cover the piston corer equipment and enable the piston corer to be brought over the stern roller of AHV. In contrast to a typical piston corer system used in offshore geotechnical investigation, the new design will significantly reduce the operational cost by avoiding the use of specialized vessels. Finally, a numerical equation to estimate the required drop weight is proposed.


A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Johannesburg 2016


Considering its importance for vital activities, water and particularly drinking water should be clean and should not contain disease-causing bacteria. One of the pathogenic bacteria found in water is the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli). In the commonly used method for the detection of E. coli bacteria, the bacteria samples distilled from the water sample are seeded in endo agar medium and the change in the color of the medium as a result of the metabolic activities of the bacteria is examined with the naked eye. This color change can be seen with the human eye in approximately 22 ± 2 hours. In this study, a new bacteria detection scheme is proposed – using deep learning to detect E. coli bacteria both in shorter time and in practical way. The proposed technique is tested with experimentally collected data. Results show that the detection of bacteria can be done automatically within 6-10 hours with the proposed method.


This thesis details the design, implementation and validation of a system that facilitates partial automation for detection of anomalous repolarization segment morphologies in the ECG of mice. The technology consists of hardware for signal conditioning of the electrocardiogram (ECG); software for the collection, archiving and real-time & retrospective Internet visualization of data, and all algorithm for morphology analysis of the repolarization segment in murine ECG. The system was validated using genetically engineered mouse subjects with elevated VLDL, analogous to LDL or "bad cholesterol" in humans, and elevated but modified HDL. or "good cholesterol." These subjects, so-called "double-knockout," or dKO mice, exhibit repolarization segment morphologies that are manifestations of severe cardiovascular pathophysiology. This thesis describes the technology in detail and its application to elucidating long-term trends in repolarization morphology deviations in dKO mice. The paper concludes with future work that will utilize the technology and potential clinical applications.


Antimicrobial therapy of device-related infections often fails, despite the in vitro susceptibility of the infecting strain. Therefore, alternative laboratory-based in vitro tests are required to predict the outcome. Fleroxacin, ciprofloxacin, aztreonam, and co-trimoxazole were tested against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 in vitro and in the tissue-cage animal model. The importance of early treatment was evaluated by starting the drugs either 30 min before or 4, 12, and 24 h after bacterial challenge. Results were compared with the in vitro drug efficacy against nongrowing and adherent Escherichia coli ATCC 25922. The alternative in vitro tests correlated highly with the outcome in the tissue-cage animal model. In the prophylaxis group (drug given 30 min before bacterial challenge), co-trimoxazole was less efficacious than the other three drugs (P less than 0.001). In delayed treatment, ciprofloxacin showed the highest cure rate. It was also more potent than the other drugs against nongrowing and adherent E. coli ATCC 25922. The efficacies of aztreonan, fleroxacin, and ciprofloxacin dropped significantly (P less than 0.01) when the time interval between bacterial challenge and the start of treatment was delayed to greater than 4 h. These data emphasize (i) the need for proper timing of prophylaxis in patients undergoing implant surgery, and (ii) the possibility of successful treatment of established device-related infections with drugs which kill not only growing but also nongrowing and adherent bacteria.


The present study aims to examine the relationship of spiritual well being (SWB) with achievement motivation (AM) among the students of science and commerce streams. The concept of spiritual well being is becoming very popular among the researchers and the present day psychologists. It may be conceptualized as an expression about the spiritual health of an individual, about what his inner thinking leads him to do and how he performs in his life. Achievement motivation is a phenomenon which is affected mostly by spiritual well being in present day population. Achievement motivation can be said to be a need for achievement. It is an important determinant of aspiration, effort, and persistence when an individual expects his performance to be the best. In the present study, the Spiritual Well Being Scale (Paloutzian and Ellison, 1982) was used to measure SWB and Achievement Motivation Scale (Siddiqui Z.U., 2013) for achievement motivation. Correlation analysis was done to find out the relationship between SWB and achievement motivation. The result showed a negative and significant relationship (r= -.418, p< 0.01) between the SWB and achievement motivation and the dimensions of SWB, (Religious Well Being and Existential Well Being) were also negatively related to the achievement motivation. It was found that the correlation between SWB and achievement motivation was stronger among science stream students (r= -.457, p < 0.01) than the commerce stream students (r= -.390, p< 0.01), and also that correlation between SWB and achievement motivation was stronger among males than females.


The numerical models for predicting the collection efficiency of particles in the size range of 0.3 ∼ 10.0 μm in electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) have been well developed. However, for nanoparticles, or particles with the diameter below 100 nm, the existing models can't predict the collection efficiency very well because the electric field and ion concentration distribution were not simulated, or charging models were not adopted appropriately to calculate particle charges. In this study, a 2-D numerical model was developed to predict the nanoparticle collection efficiency in single-stage wire-in-plate ESPs. Laminar flow field was solved by using the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equation (SIMPLER Method), while electric field strength and ion concentration distribution were solved based on Poisson and diffusion-convection equations, respectively. The charged particle concentration distribution and the particle collection efficiency were then calculated based on the convection-diffusion equation with particle charging calculated by Fuchs diffusion charging theory. The simulated collection efficiencies of 6–100 nm nanoparticles were compared with the experimental data of Huang and Chen (2002) for a wire-in-plate dry ESP (aerosol flow rate: 100 L/min, applied voltage: −15.5 ∼ –21.5 kV). Good agreement was obtained. The simulated particle collection efficiencies were further shown to agree with the experimental data obtained in the study for a wire-in-plate wet ESP (Lin et al. 2010) (aerosol flow rate: 5 L/min, applied voltage: +3.6 ∼+4.3 kV) using monodisperse NaCl particles of 10 and 50 nm in diameter. It is expected that the present model can be used to facilitate the design of ESPs for nanoparticle control and electrostatic nanoparticle samplers.


In the histological diagnosis, it is important to consider the presence of borderline lesions, the possibilities of multiple primary lung cancers and the differential diagnosis between small cell carcinoma and non-small cell carcinomas. In the definite diagnosis, moreover, it is necessary to refer to the special staining procedures, including immuno-histochemistry. In clinical trials, one must evaluate the precise clinical staging in addition to the pathological qualification for enrolled cases. On the other hand, the staging evaluation should be minimal in the practical treatment. It should be noticed that the staging procedure between non-small cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma is different.


Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) and Neisseria lactamica (Nl) are commensal bacteria that live in the human nasopharynx, where they form microcolonies. In contrast to Nl, Nm occasionally causes blood and/or meningitis infection with often fatal consequences. Here, we studied interactions between neisserial strains during biofilm formation. Fluorescent strains were engineered and analyzed for growth in single- and dual-strain biofilms with confocal laser-scanning microscopy. Different strains of diverse Neisseria species formed microcolonies of different sizes and morphologies. Pair-wise combinations of two invasive Nm strains and one Nm carrier isolate showed that these strains can coexist in spite of the fact that they produce toxins to combat congeners. This lack of competition was even observed when the biofilms were formed under nutrient limitation and can be explained by the observation that the separate microcolonies within mixed biofilms are mostly lineage specific. However, these microcolonies showed different levels of interaction. The coexistence of two strains was also observed in mixed biofilms of Nm and Nl strains. Inactivation of the autotransporter NalP, which prevents the release of the heparin-binding antigen NHBA and the α-peptide of IgA protease from the cell surface, and/or the production of autotransporter AutA increased interactions between microcolonies, as evidenced by close contacts between microcolonies on the substratum. Qualitative and quantitative analysis revealed an altered spatial distribution of each strain in mixed biofilms with consequences for the biomass, biofilm architecture and bacterial viability depending on the synthesis of NalP and AutA, the expression of which is prone to phase variation. Being in a consortium resulted in some cases in commensalism and cooperative behavior, which promoted attachment to the substratum or increased survival, possibly as result of the shared use of the biofilm matrix. We hypothesize that Nm strains can cooperate during host colonization, but, possibly, the different capacities of the microcolonies of each strain to resist the host's defenses limits the long-term coexistence of strains in the host.


Recently, Granisetron (KYT) was proved to have a strong effect for cisplatin (CDDP)-induced emesis. We compared the effect of KYT for CDDP-induced emesis between two different administration schedules. Forty micrograms/kg of KYT was administered either by 30-minute drip infusion with 100 ml of saline (Group A) or 30-second injection with 10 ml of saline (Group B). We investigated the therapeutic effect of KYT in both group A and Group B by the crossing-over method. After the patients who had a malignant tumor and were going to receive CDDP (over 50 mg/m2) in two courses were selected, KYT was administered by the method of Group A or Group B in a double-blind comparison. The clinical efficacy was at least "effective" in 70% (7/10) of Group A and Group B. The study treatment was considered "useful" in 80% (8/10) of Group A, 90% (9/10) of Group B, and "safe" in 100% of Group A and B. There was no difference between two groups in this respect. The results showed that the slow intravenous injection of KYT also has an excellent antiemetic effect on CDDP-induced emesis and a high degree of safety.


Background: The objective of this work was a comparative study of two animal models in female mice: Chronic Mild Stress (CMS) and Chronic Mild Stress combined with chronic inflammation with complete Freund's adjuvant (CMS+CFA). Methods: Mice were exposed to CMS for 40 days as food deprivation, water deprivation, forced swimming, flashing light, isolation, wet bedding and wet litter at 4°C. The stress was applied at times that change every day, in order to minimize its predictability. A subcutaneous injection of 0.03 mg/ml of CFA was administered to CMS groups the 18th day of experimentation. Recordings of sequences of behavior in elevated plus maze, open field test and water maze test was made. After decapitation, the brain, thymus, spleen, liver, kidneys, adrenals and ovaries were weighed and we calculated their relative weights. Results: Exposure of mice to CMS caused a depraessive-like behavior revealed by behavioral tests, accompanied by a decreased gain of body weight, locomotor activity and impaired spatial memory signaled by the Morris water maze test. The injection of CFA in mice submitted to a CMS has provided a partial repair of the memory in the Morris water maze, locomotor activity, gain of body weight, weight of adrenals. Conclusion: Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) could reverse the depressive-like symptoms induced by chronic mild stress (CMS) in mice.


Since large masses of statistics are usually dull, and the US Census compiles an exceptionally large mass, we might expect that a book about the census would be extremely dull. Instead, this book by Wattenberg, a journalist, writing in collaboration with Scammon, a social scientist and former director of the census, is fascinating. In a light, easy-to-read style, with occasional touches of humor, the authors present significant facts and some interpretations. Much of the material is familiar— population expansion, rising income and living standards, increasing educational level—but much is unexpected. For example, everyone has heard about the growing proportion of the elderly in the population (people over 65 were 2.5% in 1850, 9.2% in 1960) but did you realize that the figures show this trend will not continue? The present high percentage is due largely to heavy immigration before World War I, mostly young people, now elderly. Again, there is


As many as one-third of U.S. hotels have been converted from one brand to another in recent years, a process that frequently improves the hotel's financial performance—although that is not always the case. Using data collected between 1994 and 2012 from PKF Hospitality Research, an analysis of brand conversions by 260 hotels shows that hotels moving downscale generally improved their occupancy, and thus their top-line revenue and profit ratios, compared to a control group of 2,750 hotels that did not change brands. However, hotels that moved upscale did not see notable changes in revenue or profit, nor did hotels that moved across their tier, especially when they stayed within their brand family. Two factors seem to drive the financial results for converted hotels—the relative strength of the brand and the fit between the brand and the property.


This paper describes the activity of annotation of an Italian corpus of in-car speech material, with specific reference to the JavaSgram tool, developed with the purpose of annotating multichannel speech corpora. Some pre/post processing tools used with JavaSgram are briefly described together with a synthetic description of the annotation criteria which were adopted. The final objective is that of using the resulting corpus for training and testing a hands-free speech recognizer under development.


Abstract Eight ruminally cannulated beef steers were used to evaluate forage intake and physiological response during adaptation to a diet consisting of bermudagrass round bale silage (RBS) and dried distillers grains (DDG) and in a second experiment the effect of level of DDG supplementation on RBS forage intake, digestibility, and rumen parameters. The adaptation experiment was designed to simulate a 14-d step-up process. Initially steers received ad libitum RBS, on d 4 steers were offered 1.13 kg of DDG daily and every 4 d daily DDG offered was increased by 1.13 kg. Blood and rumen fluid samples were collected before feeding (0 h) and 6, 12, 24 (before feeding), and 36 h after every diet change. The digestibility experiment was conducted as an 8 × 4 Latin square with four periods. Treatments included RBS only and DDG supplement levels of 0.33%, 0.66%, and 1.0% of body weight (RBS + 0.33, +0.66, and 1.0, respectively). Collection periods consisted of 21 d to determine dry matter intake [DMI], digestibility, and collect rumen fluid samples. During adaptation, level of DDG did not (P = 0.42) affect RBS DMI. Mean ruminal pH was greater (P < 0.05) for RBS only compared with diets with DDG. When steers were offered 3.39 or 4.52 kg/d of DDG rumen NH3-N concentration was greater (P ≤ 0.05) compared with other levels of DDG or RBS alone. Mean nonesterified fatty acid and plasma urea N concentrations varied among levels of DDG offered. In the digestibility experiment forage DMI, total DMI, and total tract apparent digestibility exhibited a quadratic (P ≤ 0.05) response to level of DDG offered. Mean ruminal pH responded in a quadratic manner (P = 0.03) and was greater for RBS only compared with RBS plus DDG at any level. Mean ruminal NH3-N concentration tended (P = 0.07) to respond in a cubic manner as DDG amount offered increased. Physiological responses during adaptation to DDG over 14 d resembled responses previously observed after long-term DDG supplementation. Offering DDG up to 1% of body weight did depress forage DMI and ruminal pH but increased total DMI, diet digestibility, and ruminal NH3-N concentration.


This paper proposes ESS DC-DC Converter using Redox Flow Battery (RFB) for stand-alone microgrid. Price, safety, expandability and dynamics are crucial in ESS. Reports show that Zinc-bromine (ZnBr) RFB is the best choice in ESS. Simple electrical ZnBr RFB model is obtained from charging test. DC-DC converter Inductor current-DClink Voltage model is proposed for the DC microgrid. For the controller design in z-domain, the K-factor method is by considering nature of the digital controller. The control performance has been verified with simulation and hardware experiments. Lastly 10kW DC microgrid using RFB test result is shown.


A prototype shadow-shield whole body counter is used at the University of Ioannina Medical Physics Laboratory as a tool in radiation protection and in biomedical research. In this study the effect of natural airborne radioactivity on the measurement quality features was investigated and performance improvements were developed. Radon air concentration in the counting room was assessed using electret and track detectors over short and long time periods, respectively under various ventilation conditions. A method based on the assessment of the 214 Bi 1.76 MeV spectral region was developed to correct for the interference of the radon products to the lower energies of the spectrum. Moreover airborne radioactivity in the counting room was controlled by forced ventilation. Double measurements were carried out in anthropomorphic phantoms and in adult volunteers to assess the impact of the room ventilation module in the measurement precision. Radon control coupled with corrections for the interference of its decay products improved substantially the counter performance characteristics. Keyword: Whole body counter, precision, radon


Based on empirical data, the impact of five specific variables, namely: a) System quality, b) Information quality, c) Quality of the Marketing Information System [MIS] technical support, d) The Marketing Information System compatibility, and lastly e) The Marketing Information System flexibility, on the effectiveness of Marketing Information System was investigated. The effectiveness measurement is based on the Competing Value Model (CVM) model which allows the definition of effectiveness on four basic dimensions. The results define the positive impact of these factors on the several dimensions of the effectiveness. Implications for practice, study limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.


Network traffic monitoring using IP flows is used to handle the current challenge of analyzing encrypted network communication. Nevertheless, the packet aggregation into flow records naturally causes information loss; therefore, this paper proposes a novel flow extension for traffic features based on the time series analysis of the Single Flow Time series, i.e., a time series created by the number of bytes in each packet and its timestamp. We propose 69 universal features based on the statistical analysis of data points, time domain analysis, packet distribution within the flow timespan, time series behavior, and frequency domain analysis. We have demonstrated the usability and universality of the proposed feature vector for various network traffic classification tasks using 15 well-known publicly available datasets. Our evaluation shows that the novel feature vector achieves classification performance similar or better than related works on both binary and multiclass classification tasks. In more than half of the evaluated tasks, the classification performance increased by up to 5\%.


OBJECT
Mobilizing the temporal muscle is a common neurosurgical maneuver. Unfortunately, the cosmetic and functional complications that arise from postoperative muscular atrophy can be severe. Proper function of the muscle depends on proper innervation, vascularization, muscle tension, and the integrity of muscle fibers. In this study the authors describe the anatomy of the temporal muscle and report technical nuances that can be used to prevent its postoperative atrophy.

METHODS
This study was designed to determine the susceptibility of the temporal muscle to injury during common surgical dissection. The authors studied the anatomy of the muscle and its vascularization and innervation in seven cadavers. A zygomatic osteotomy was performed followed by downward mobilization of the temporal muscle by using subperiosteal dissection, which preserved the muscle and allowed a study of its arterial and neural components. The temporal muscle is composed of a main portion and three muscle bundles. The muscle is innervated by the deep temporal nerves, which branch from the anterior division of the mandibular nerve. Blood is supplied through a rich anastomotic connection between the deep temporal arteries (anterior and posterior) on the medial side and the middle temporal artery (a branch of the superficial temporal artery [STA]) on the lateral side.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on these anatomical findings, the authors recommend the following steps to preserve the temporal muscle: 1) preserve the STA; 2) prevent injury to the facial branches by using subfascial dissection; 3) use a zygomatic osteotomy to avoid compressing the muscle, arteries, and nerves, and for greater exposure when retracting the muscle; 4) dissect the muscle in subperiosteal retrograde fashion to preserve the deep vessels and nerves; 5) deinsert the muscle to the superior temporal line without cutting the fascia; and 6) reattach the muscle directly to the bone.


Single and double electron transfer from He into the ground state ion O6+(1s2)1S0 and the metastable ion O6+(1s2s)3S1 have been studied in collisions at v=0.39 v0. The single capture takes place dominantly into the n=3 shell for both ions; for O6+(1s2s)3S1 the transfer excitation ending in O5+(1s2p3l) represents of the order of 10% of the core conserving capture. The single capture main features are similar for both ion configurations. The double capture into the ground state and the metastable ion is discussed, assuming that its main features (energy gain and thus binding energy) are also similar.