Experiences related to the physical body have a crucial impact on many aspects of people's psychosocial well-being and adjustment (Cash & Smolak, 2011). Erikson (1968) stated that identity is "located" both in the core of the individual and in the core of their society. Individuals' identity formation is thus influenced both by their individual characteristics such as physiological and cognitive development, and the characteristics of their society. Because identity formation is an essential task during emerging adulthood, and Western society today is particularly appearance-focused, body dissatisfaction may hinder a healthy transition into adulthood (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2006). While the importance of the physical body in identity development long has been theoretically inferred (e.g., Erikson, 1968, Arnett, 2000), research investigating these associations is scarce and needs significant development (Daniels & Gillen, 2015). For example, there has been a lack in investigations of how body image (i.e., one's body- or appearance-related perceptions, thoughts and feelings; Grogan, 1999) is related to identity formation (Daniels & Gillen, 2015). Therefore, the present study aimed to examine how different aspects of body image are related to identity synthesis and identity confusion in emerging adulthood. The participants in this study were 545 Swedish emerging adults (303 women and 242 men) with a mean age of 24.4 years (SD = .52). Body image was assessed using the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA; Mendelson et al., 2001) with three subscales: BE-Appearance (appearance-based body esteem), BE-Weight (Weight-based body esteem), and BE-Attribution (beliefs about how others view one's body and appearance). Identity formation was measured using the 12-item identity subscale from the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI; Rosenthal, Gurney, & Moore, 1981; Schwartz, Zamboanga, Wang, & Olthuis, 2009) and divided into identity synthesis and identity diffusion. Self-esteem was assessed using the Single-Item Self-Esteem Scale (SISE; Robins, Hendin, & Trzesniewski, 2001). Results indicated that high appearance-based body esteem (BE-Appearance) predicted high identity synthesis and low identity confusion. Also, high scores concerning beliefs about how others view one's body and appearance (BE-Attribution) predicted high identity synthesis, but was not related to identity confusion. Weight-based body esteem (BE-Weigh) did not predict identity synthesis or identity confusion. The analyses did not suggest that gender moderated the relationship between body image and identity formation. Furthermore, analyses revealed significant predictive relationship between BE-Appearance and identity synthesis and confusion, as well as between BE-Attribution and identity synthesis, even when including self-esteem as a predictor. However, when including self-esteem as a predictor, the effects of BE-Appearance and BE-Attribution became reduced, indicating a partial mediating effect of self-esteem. The results are discussed in relation to theory that has suggested that appearance is a more salient aspect of women's identity than men's and we propose that future studies might investigate how the associations between body image and identity are related to different identity domains and contents. It is concluded that associations between emerging adults' body image and identity formation go beyond what may be explained by their associations to self-esteem.


With a help of the selfconsistent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) approach with the D1S effective Gogny interaction and the Generator Coordinate Method (GCM) we incorporate the transverse collective vibrations to the one-dimensional model of the fission-barrier penetrability based on the traditional WKB method. The average fission barrier corresponding to the least-energy path in the two-dimensional potential energy landscape as function of quadrupole and octupole degrees of freedom is modified by the influence of the transverse collective vibrations along the nuclear path to fission. The set of transverse vibrational states built in the fission valley corresponding to a successively increasing nuclear elongation produces the new energy barrier which is compared with the least-energy barrier. These collective states are given as the eigensolutions of the GCM purely vibrational Hamiltonian. In addition, the influence of the collective inertia on the fission properties is displayed, and it turns out to be the decisive condition for the possible transitions between different fission valleys.


The problem of a plane SH wave incident at the base of a dipping layer has been considered. A solution by multiple reflection for waves incident at any angle perpendicular to strike has been obtained for the amplitude, phase and phase velocity. Numerical values are calculated on the surface. For waves propagating in the up-dip direction the amplitude versus frequency curves for a constant depth to the interface change slowly with increasing dip for dip angles less than 20°. However, for waves propagating in the down-dip direction, the character of the amplitude curves changes rapidly. It is found in these cases that the diffracted wave plays an important role. In addition to satisfying the boundary conditions at the surface and between the media, the diffracted wave must also satisfy additional conditions along a dipping surface lying between the free surface and the boundary between the two media due to the geometrical nature of the reflected wave solution.
 It is found that the phase velocities vary rapidly with both period of the wave and depth to the interface, particularly for propagation directions close to an angle which corresponds to vertical incidence in the horizontally layered case.


Photoinduced orientation in a series of molecular glasses made of small push-pull azo derivatives is dynamically investigated for the first time. Birefringence measurements at 632.8 nm are conducted with a temporal resolution of 100 ms to probe the fast rate of the azo orientation induced under polarized light and its temporal stability over several consecutive cycles. To better evaluate the influence of the azo chemical substituents and their electronic properties on the orientation of the whole molecule, a series of push-pull azo derivatives involving a triphenylaminoazo core substituted with distinct electron-withdrawing moieties is studied. All resulting thin films are probed using polarization modulation infrared spectroscopy that yields dynamical linear dichroism measurements during a cycle of orientation followed by relaxation. We show here in particular that the orientation rates of small molecule-based azo materials are systematically increased up to 7-fold compared to those of a reference polymer counterpart. For specific compounds, the percentage of remnant orientation is also higher, which makes these materials of great interest and promising alternatives to azobenzene-containing polymers for a variety of applications requiring a fast response and absolute control over the molecular weight.


Laminin α2 chain-deficient muscular dystrophy, or LAMA2-CMD, is a very severe disease caused by mutations in the LAMA2 gene. Skeletal muscle is the most affected tissue, with patients presenting symptoms such as hypotonia at birth, joint contractures and progressive muscle wasting. Changes in the central nervous system include white matter abnormalities, delayed motor milestones and compromised action potential propagation. To date, there is no cure and most therapeutic interventions aim at alleviating secondary complications. In the last two decades microRNAs (miRNAs) have been explored as biomarkers or therapeutic targets in various diseases. In this thesis we have profiled miRNAs in quadriceps muscle of the dy3K/dy3K mouse model of LAMA2-CMD as an initial screening. We then investigated the effects of genetically removing a pro-fibrotic miRNA, i.e. miR-21, in two mouse models of LAMA2-CMD. We showed that the single deletion of this miRNA is not enough to reduce fibrosis and improve muscle phenotype or function in LAMA2-CMD mouse models. We further explored miRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers of disease progression. Urine miRNAs were profiled at 3 time points representing no symptoms, initial symptoms and severe disease (3, 4 and 6 weeks of age). We found distinct panels of differentially expressed miRNAs at these time points, suggesting that miRNAs can be used as biomarkers for LAMA2-CMD progression. Finally, we explored metabolism as a therapeutic target in a metformin intervention study. We found that metformin treatment improved grip strength in treated dy2J/dy2J mice, despite unaffected muscle weights. Energy efficiency was improved in treated dy2J/dy2J females, which resulted in improved weight gain. Central nucleation decreased in treated dy2J/dy2J mice, which suggests reduced muscle damage. We found a significant reduction of small fibres in dy2J/dy2J females with metformin. White adipose tissue weight increased in treated dy2J/dy2J mice; in contrast, brown adipose tissue weight was reduced in treated dy2J/dy2J males.


Abstract It has often been stated by older people's advocates that discrimination affecting older people is commonplace and ongoing in the Australian labour market. In this article, we contrast such rhetoric with a review of evidence from recent large-scale surveys which demonstrates that low and declining numbers of Australians experience age discrimination, while highlighting the complexity of the phenomenon. We identify the emergence of a fake 'age' advocacy that is acting to the detriment of an informed public discourse concerning issues of older workers' employment. To counter this we propose five underlying principles for advocacy on ageing and work: countering myths concerning the extent and nature of age barriers in the labour market; avoiding and challenging the use of age stereotypes in making the business case for older workers' employment; recognition that age interacts in complex ways with a range of other factors in determining people's experiences of the labour market; challenging public understanding that is grounded in the notion that generational conflict is inevitable; and discarding traditional notions of the lifecourse in order to overcome disjunctions and contradictions that hamper efforts to encourage and support longer working lives.


A methodology to construct transmission tower models for lightning performance studies is presented. The proposal allows for the inclusion of distributed losses, nonuniform surge velocities, and tower arm modeling. As this methodology is based on standard transmission line theory, its application to practical analysis is straightforward.


In this study, a genome scan was performed to detect genomic loci that affect fat deposition in white adipose tissues and muscles in 278 F (2) males of reciprocal crosses between the genetically and phenotypically extreme inbred chicken lines New Hampshire (NHI) and White Leghorn (WL77). Genome-wide highly significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) influencing fat deposition in white adipose tissues were found on GGA2 and 4. The peak QTL positions for different visceral and subcutaneous white adipose tissues were located between 41.4 and 112.4 Mb on GGA2 and between 76.2 and 78.7 Mb on GGA4, which explained 4.2-10.4% and 4.3-11.6% respectively of the phenotypic F (2) variances. Contrary to our expectations, the QTL allele descending from the lean line WL77 on GGA4 led to increased fat deposition. We suggest a transgressive action of the obesity allele only if it is not in the genetic background of the line WL77. Additional highly significant loci for subcutaneous adipose tissue mass were identified on GGA12 and 15. For intramuscular fat content, a suggestive QTL was located on GGA14. The analysed crosses provide a valuable resource for further fine mapping of fatness genes and subsequent gene discovery.


In this work we present an alternative to design a noncontact profiler using diffractive optical elements in substitution of the traditional optical elements (refractive, refiective).With these elements we have lenses with large numerical aperture and high control of the spherical aberration that is most important in the case of the profilers. In this work, the optical design of a profiler is presented that will be used in a large coordinate measuring machine. The optical design allows to this profiler scan the surface in a continuous way. We also present the algorithms for recovering the form of the surface starting from the date obtained with the profiler.


The telecommunication industry has become conscious about its energy consumption and associated the environmental footprint of its operating infrastructure, e.g., data centers. At present, more than one half of the total energy consumption of data centers is for the power and cooling infrastructure. One way to save energy is an approach called "free air cooling," where ambient air is used to cool the equipment, thereby reducing the energy consumed in cooling and conditioning the air. Free air cooling is being adopted for data centers that are already in operation where the equipment used are unlikely to have been designed or qualified for free cooling regime. Traditional reliability evaluations depend on industry standards that assume pre-defined environmental conditions and generally perform set of environmental tests that relate to those conditions. Equipment level risk identification and mitigation methods are not practical to apply for the data center as a system. This paper provides an overview of the associated challenges posed by such an operating environment. This paper discusses the reason why traditional reliability methods cannot be used to assess the risks of free air cooling of data centers. Finally, as an alternative approach, prognostics and health management technique that can provide the users of data centers with the ability to identify impacts of free air cooling, estimate remaining useful life of the equipment, and help identify impending intermittent service interruptions and degradations is described.


In this paper, we present a piston-type spatial light modulator (SLM) as a programmable optical pattern generator for maskless lithography. The SLM is a dual-lever-type actuator with pixel-overlapping springs to achieve low voltage actuation with a small capacitor area. Large arrays of up to ~40000 mirrors with 20-mum pixels and ~17000 mirrors with 30-mum pixels have been fabricated. The arrays have various prewired configurations to alleviate the need to control all the pixels individually. The mirrors have high resonance frequencies for fast response and achieve deflections of lambda/2 (lambda=193 nm for 20-mum pixels and lambda=633 nm for 30-mum pixels) at voltages less than 100 V. The mirrors are fabricated using thin-film processing and chemical mechanical polishing of the reflector layer. Using the SLM in an aerial imaging system, we demonstrate the generation of dark lines, dark areas, linewidth modulation, and subgrid positioning. We also demonstrate compensation of image shifts due to through-focus wafer drift using a double exposure (or phase-compensated exposure) technique


As2S3 and As2Se3 chalcogenide 3-bridges suspended-core fibers (SCFs) are designed with shifted zero-dispersion wavelengths (ZDWs) at around 1.5 μm, 2 μm, and 2.8 μm, respectively. A generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation is used to numerically compare supercontinuum (SC) generation in these SCFs pumped at an anomalous dispersion region nearby their ZDWs. Evolutions of the long-wavelength edge (LWE), the power proportion in the long-wavelength region (PPL), and spectral flatness (SF) are calculated and analyzed. Meanwhile, the optimal pump parameters and fiber length are given with LWE, PPL, and SF taken into account. For As2S3 SCFs, SC from a 14 mm-long fiber with a ZDW of 2825 nm pumped at 2870 nm can achieve the longest LWE of ∼ 13 μ m and PPL up to ∼72%. For As2Se3 SCFs, the LWE of 15.5 μm and the highest PPL of ∼ 87 % can be achieved in a 10 mm-long fiber with ZDW of 1982 nm pumped at 2000 nm. Although the As2Se3 SCFs can achieve much longer LWE than the As2S3 SCFs, the core diameter of As2Se3 SCFs will be much smaller to obtain a similar ZDW, leading to lower damage threshold and output power. Finally, the optimal parameters for generating SC spanning over different mid-IR windows are given.


In recent years, 3D design and printing technology has been successfully used in maxillofacial bone reconstruction procedures. We had the opportunity to observe its benefits in the manufacture of custom facial implants. The production is so precise that perfect anatomical congruence and biocompatibility are possible. Within the plastic and maxillofacial surgery department of the University Hospital of Liège, we had the opportunity to perform two operations requiring facial skeleton redefinition implants. The purpose of this article is to highlight the current possibilities of facial prostheses via new 3D techno¬logies, but also the advantages and possible complications of this type of surgery.


Cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography (CE HPLC) provides an excellent tool for accurate and reliable diagnosis of various hemoglobin (Hb) disorders. HbQ India is a rare alpha chain variant that usually presents in the heterozygous state. Its presence in double heterozygous state with HbD Punjab is extremely rare. The double heterozygosity for α and β chain variants leads to formation of abnormal heterodimer hybrids, which can lead to diagnostic dilemmas. We report two rare cases of double heterozygous HbQ India/HbD Punjab where the hybrid Hb was seen to elute at retention time similar to HbC on CE HPLC. The first case had unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia at presentation; while, the second case was asymptomatic.


Festival time is here and South Norfolk will host some fabulous events as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival annual arts extravaganza.


This paper introduces an interactive application of our previous work on the Patterns language as creative assistant for editing cameras in 3D virtual environments. Patterns is a set of vocabulary, which was inspired by professional film practice and textbook terminology. The vocabulary allows one to define recurrent stylistic constraints on a sequence of shots, which we term " embedded constraint pattern " (ECP). In our previous work, we proposed a solver that allows us to search for occurrences of ECPs in annotated data, and showed its use in automated analysis of story and emotional elements of film. This work implements a new solver that interactively propose framing compositions from an annotated database of framings that conform to the user-applied ECPs. We envision this work to be incorporated into tools and interfaces for 3D environments in the context of film pre-visualisation, film or digital arts education, video games, and other related applications in film and multimedia.


The distribution and origin of offshore permafrost is discussed for the southern Beaufort Sea. Two types of permafrost are identified: permafrost which is in thermal equilibrium with negative sea bottom temperatures, and disequilibrium permafrost, which is not in equilibrium with either positive or negative sea bottom temperatures. The origin of permafrost is considered in terms of the Quaternary period when coastal areas were exposed to cold air temperatures and then submerged. The effect of warm river waters, primarily from the Mackenzie River, is shown to ameliorate coastal water temperatures and may be responsible for a thin active layer at some sites. Water quality and oxygen isotope ratios are given for some samples. The evidence suggests that some relic land permafrost, with ground ice, is present beneath the southern Beaufort Sea. Perforated permafrost should be present, but not extensive thermokarst depressions. By inference, permafrost probably underlies much of the Canadian Arctic waters, altho...


The book, which is developed directly from Mersch's doctoral thesis, deals with the urbanization of the Attic chora, examining this complex and differentiated process in the medium term of more than five centuries, from the Late Dark Age to the Classical period. It is divided into two major sections: the catalogue of sites (91-232), with the main information about the archaeological sites (the geographical setting, the literary sources, the archaeological records), and an interpretative section (189). The sites are listed according to their modern toponyms, the actual demes constituting the main entry, with the various findspots falling within their limits. According to a long-standing scholarly tradition, alphabetical order is followed in the presentation of this data. I think that this choice does not help to draw a coherent picture of the local/sub-regional settlement systems (see for example the sites of Kato Souli, Marathonas-Ninoi, Nea Makri and Vrana, each of them standing separately in its 'alphabetical' position). On the other hand, this approach relies on the traditional idea that the settlement unit of the 'deme'--as it appears in the Cleisthenic deme system and its later development—is the only valid conceptual frame for interpreting the evidence, thus thinking of Attica as a constellation of rural villages centered on Athens since the earlier times.


The paper analyzes two timely business trends: Digitalization and Data Privacy which are deepening their roots globally. Businesses are overwhelmed with enormous quantities of data processed by their internal operations such as website cookies, mobile applications, surveillance cameras, etc. Some even purchase data from data vendors who have better capacity to process it to suit specific business targets. More companies are developing new business models to capture value from the digitalization process. Such business models include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Ali Pay and Lufthansa Miles & More purchase enabled loyalty card which were traditionally companies offering mobile phones, advertising and travel services and core businesses respectively. Other companies are digitalizing partially or wholly their business processes to improve security, these include banks, create convenience by using personal identifying techniques such as fingerprint or facial recognition while others process data and invent business solutions for future use to compete in the market. Previous studies addressed the topics of Business Models without much emphasis on the digital trends and evolving issues such as Data Privacy and Digital Ethics. Comparatively, the topic of Data Privacy has also been argued in biased ways by previous scholars either from a utilitarian point of view where they claimed that privacy should be accorded great importance for businesses only and not individuals or as a basic human right by social scientists and law scholars. We suggest a checklist to minimize risks from both the utilitarian and ethical points of view for enterprises in the digital era.


Physicochemical analysis of compost obtained by mixing sludge from domestic waste water plant treatment from Settat city (Morocco) with vegetal co-substrat show a good evolution of temperature during process, a good rate of decomposition and an enrichment in humic substances. The compost obtained is stable, hygienic and riche in fertilizing compounds. It can be used as an agricultural amendment.


Pistacia atlantica is the main herbal medicine that has been widely used in the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean areas since ancient time. Pistacia atlantica has been used for multiple purposes like stomach diseases, renal disorders, wounds and coughs. The aim of this study is to review its botanical characterization, traditional applications, photochemistry effects and pharmacological activities. Data in this review article was gathered from credible pharmacopeias, electronic databases such as Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, EBSCO, Google Scholar, SID and Iran Medex and textbooks of Persian medicine such as Canon of medicine (Ibn-e Sina, 980-1037 AD) and Makhzan-al-Advia (Aghili, 18th century). The keywords were searched in Persian and English books on medicinal plants and traditional medicine. The results showed that P. atlantica has many medicinal properties such as antioxidant, antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, along with others. It can also be effective in gastrointestinal diseases. Thus, different new drugs can be formulated based on P. atlantica for the management of various diseases.


The comparative analysis of systolic dysfunction of left ventricle and chronic heart deficiency with preserved and reduced fraction of left ventricle ejection has been conducted. In total, 62 patients with heart failure FC III-IV of NYHA were examined. The group of patients with chronic heart deficiency with preserved fraction of ejection (40% patients) was dominated by elderly women, who had a significantly higher body mass index, as well as diabetes mellitus, anemia. These patients revealed significantly higher creatinine and cholesterol levels and a lower hemoglobin level than in the patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction.


Relationships with leaders do not happen in isolation from the relationships one has with one's peers. Therefore, we examine the influence of leader‒member exchange on follower job performance in light of the larger social networks in which followers are embedded. Testing multilevel models with data that were gathered using questionnaires from a sample of 240 nurses and 20 supervisors working at four Dutch hospitals revealed that a positive relationship exists between leader‒member exchange and follower job performance when follower workflow network centrality and/or follower friendship network centrality are high but not when they are both low. The results of this study show how the different follower relationships with the supervisor and colleagues intertwine in explaining follower job performance and suggest that the larger network in which followers are embedded within their work teams is important for explaining variations in the results regarding the relationship between leader‒member exchange and follower job performance. Our study indicates that leaders should have an eye for the network position of their followers when developing high quality leader‒member exchange relationships. For followers, a good relationship with their leader is important, but its value depends on their relationships with colleagues.


1,2-Cycloheptadiene is a strained, transient species that has been underutilized as a synthetic building block. Seven-membered cyclic allenes are mostly known for their propensity to undergo rapid dimerization, and relatively little has been reported regarding their cycloaddition reactivity with 1,3-dienes or 1,3-dipoles. This work describes the trapping of 1-acetoxy-1,2-cycloheptadiene and its unsubstituted counterpart, generated via desilylative elimination, with a range of 1,3-dipolar trapping partners, affording complex polycyclic products with high regio- and diastereoselectivity.


An organocatalytic enantioselective addition of oxazolones to N-tosyl aldimines has been developed. The process is promoted by a readily prepared cinchona alkaloid ligand and affords a series of valuable alpha-disubstituted alpha,beta-diamino acid derivatives with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 97% ee) and diastereoselectivities (up to >30:1 dr). The adducts can be transformed into the corresponding protected chiral alpha-disubstituted alpha,beta-diamino acids by a one-pot hydrolyzed reaction smoothly.


This paper details a new ultra-precise turning method for increasing surface quality, "Multi Point B Axis Control Method." Machined surface error is minimized by the compensation machining process, but the process leaves residual chip marks and surface roughness. This phenomenon is unavoidable in the diamond turning process using existing machining methods. However, Multi Point B axis control uses a small angle (<1 °) for the unused diamond edge for generation of ultra-fine surfaces; no machining chipping occurs. It is achieved by compensated surface profiling via alignment of the tool radial center on the center of the B axis rotation table. Experimental results show that a diamond turned surface using the Multi Point B axis control method achieved P-V 0.1 µm and Ra 1.1nm and these ultra-fine surface qualities are reproducible.


The late summer of 2009 was a bad period, at least symbolically, on the American anger front. A television host preempted an awards ceremony with an ill-tempered (and lengthy) outburst. A tennis star excoriated and threatened a hapless line judge. A representative shouted "You lie!" at the President of the United States on the floor of Congress. More broadly, "town hall" discussions of health care reform frequently degenerated into passionate shouting matches and sometimes outright violence, with one participant having his little finger bitten off after he punched an opponent. Standard interpretation: there we go again. An American Studies professor is quickly quoted to the effect that the American people have always been coarse. A host of experts are ready to tell us how angry we are and how we need to learn more self-control—just think of the epidemic of road rage. But the actual story is more complicated. It may prove equally troubling, but it differs markedly from the conventional national self-portrait and probably also from the ways foreigners, accustomed to Hollywood violence and American military assertion, think of us as well. The fact is that many Americans have been involved in a concerted effort to control anger, particularly in work and family life, but also in politics, for several decades now. Many participate unknowingly, often convinced that national anger constraints are inadequate, but participate they do. The results have been considerable in many venues. But the results are also incomplete. The real danger is not too much anger overall, but marked disproportions in who is authorized to get angry amid the widespread effort to restrain it. And that, in part, was what was showing up in the angry summer of 2009.


Multiculturalism and the attempt to accommodate cultural diversity have been questioned from different fronts. On the one hand, political criticism, based on "fear" and "anxiety" about "others" combined with emphasis on national identity has characterised the political agenda in terms of security in Europe. On the other hand, philosophical criticism questioned concepts such as "identity politics", the "politics of recognition" and the "politics of difference" which aim to emphasise the struggle of minorities. This position points out that multiculturalism seems to promote extreme diversity at the expenses of consent, a necessary condition for governing. This has also exposed the general assumption that accommodating ethnic and religious minorities, in the light of plurality of values and interests, is central to liberal democracies thus uncovering the difficulty of achieving political consensus in increasing culturally diverse societies. Within this context, this work will first explore concepts such as "identity politics", the "politics of recognition" and the "politics of difference" in relation to the assumption that to achieve a consensus based on cultural difference may undermine civil consensus. Moreover, focus on identity and culture diverts from economic justice undermining multiracial class solidarity. Secondly, in order to determine the ambiguity of consensus and pluralism, this work will explore the work of John Rawls and Jean Francoise Lyotard. In their works, it is implied that modern societies are characterised by innumerable narratives and doctrines making them pluralistic. This conjecture is common in both thinkers, but for the former it is a positive result of the development of civil society where consensus is attainable, for the latter any form of consensus is to be avoided because can be a tool for political authority. This contradiction points out that a form of consensus is needed to achieve a politics of social and political cohesion within society but at the same time it warns about the danger of a dominant culture and the threat of exclusion. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n9p38


Whether at the undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate level, Applied Statistics with R: A Practical Guide for the Life Sciences teaches readers to properly analyze data in an efficient, accessible, plainspoken, frank, and occasionally humorous manner. Readers will come away with the knowledge of which analyses they should use and when they should use them, an important skill in an age when the statistical analyses used in the life-sciences are becoming increasingly advanced. This book uses the statistical language R, which is the choice of ecologists worldwide and is rapidly becoming the 'go-to' stats program throughout the life-sciences. Written around a single real-world dataset, Applied Statistics with R which encourages readers to become deeply familiar with an imperfect but realistic set of data, much like they themselves might collect. Early chapters are designed to teach basic data manipulation skills and build good habits in preparation for learning more advanced analyses. This approach also demonstrates the importance of viewing data through different lenses, facilitating an easy and natural progression from linear and generalized linear models through to mixed effects versions of those same analyses. Readers will also learn advanced plotting and data-wrangling techniques, and gain an introduction to writing their own functions. Applied Statistics with R is suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate students, professional researchers, and practitioners throughout the life-sciences, whether in the fields of ecology, evolution, environmental studies, or computational biology.


In this paper, we consider the problem of developing predictive models with limited data for energy assets such as electricity loads, PV power generations, etc. We specifically investigate the cases where the amount of historical data is not sufficient to effectively train the prediction model. We first develop an energy predictive model based on convolutional neural network (CNN) which is well suited to capture the interaday, daily, and weekly cyclostationary patterns, trends and seasonalities in energy assets time series. A transfer learning strategy is then proposed to address the challenge of limited training data. We demonstrate our approach on a usecase of daily electricity demand forecasting. we show practicing the transfer learning strategy on the CNN model results in significant improvement to existing forecasting methods.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) has been reported in association with haematological abnormalities, including monoclonal gammopathies. We present a 54-year-old male patient with a 30-year history of MS who was admitted to our hospital for investigation of anaemia and increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate. A monoclonal IgM protein was detected by serum protein immunofixation, while bone marrow biopsy indicated a 70% infiltration by small lymphoplasmacytoid cells, in the context of a lymphoplasmacytoid immunocytoma, findings compatible to the diagnosis of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM). To our knowledge, this is the first report of WM in a patient with MS. Further to the coexistence of the two diseases observed in the case presented here, there is additional evidence suggesting that the association of MS with plasma cell dyscrasias may not be coincidental.


Multiple pixel x-ray sources facilitate new designs of imaging modalities that may result in faster imaging speed, improved image quality, and more compact geometry. We are developing a high-brightness multiple-pixel thermionic emission x-ray (MPTEX) source based on oxide-coated cathodes. Oxide cathodes have high emission efficiency and, thereby, produce high emission current density at low temperature when compared to traditional tungsten filaments. Indirectly heated micro-rectangular oxide cathodes were developed using carbonates, which were converted to semiconductor oxides of barium, strontium, and calcium after activation. Each cathode produces a focal spot on an elongated fixed anode. The x-ray beam ON and OFF control is performed by source-switching electronics, which supplies bias voltage to the cathode emitters. In this paper, we report the initial performance of the oxide-coated cathodes and the MPTEX source.


Embedded services and applications that interact with the real world often,over time, need to run on different kinds of hardware (low-costmicrocontrollers to powerful multicore processors). It is difficult to writeone program that would work reliably on such a wide range of devices. This isespecially true when the application must be temporally predictable and robust,which is usually be the case since the physical world works in real-time.Thus, any application interacting with such a system, must also work inreal-time.In this paper we introduce a representation of the temporal behavior ofdistributed real-time applications as colored graphs that capture the timingof temporally continuous sections of execution and dependencies between them,creating a partial order. We then introduce a method of extracting the graphfrom existing applications using a combination of analysis techniques. Once thegraph has been created, we introduce a number of graph transformations thatextract ``meaning'' from the graph. The knowledge thus gained, can be utilizedfor scheduling and for adjusting the level of parallelism suitable to the specifichardware, for identifying hot spots, false parallelism, or even candidates foradditional concurrency. The importance of these contributions is evident whenwe see that such graphs can be sequentialized to our partiture model andcan then be used as input for offline, online, or even distributed real-timescheduling. Finally we present results from analysis of a complete TCP/IP stackin addition to smaller test applications which show that our use of differentanalysis models result in a reduction of the complexities of graphs. Animportant outcome is that increasing the expression of concurrency can reducethe level of parallelism required, saving memory on deeply embedded platforms,while keeping the program parallelizable whenever complete serializability isnot required. We also show that applications which were previously consideredto be too complex for characterization of their worst-case behavior are nowanalyzable due to the combination of analysis techniques that we utilize.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the methodological characteristics and good research practices of COVID-19 interventional studies developed in Brazil in the first months of the pandemic.

METHODS
We reviewed the bulletin of the National Research Ethics Committee - Coronavirus Special Edition (Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa - CONEP-COVID) (May 28, 2020) and the databases of the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), ClinicalTrials.gov, and Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (Registro Brasileiro de Ensaios Clínicos - ReBEC) to identify interventional studies registered in Brazil that assessed drug type, biological therapy, or vaccines. We described their methodological characteristics and calculated their power for different effect magnitudes.

RESULTS
A total of 62 studies were included, 55 retrieved from the CONEP website, and 7 from registry databases. The most tested pharmacological interventions in these studies were: chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, convalescent plasma, tocilizumab, sarilumab, eculizumab, vaccine, corticosteroids, anticoagulants, n-acetylcysteine, nitazoxanide, ivermectin, and lopinavir/ritonavir. Out of 22 protocols published on registry databases until May 2020, 18 (82%) were randomized clinical trials, and 13 (59%) had an appropriate control group. However, 9 (41%) of them were masked, and only 5 (24%) included patients diagnosed with a specific laboratory test (for example, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction - RT-PCR). Most of these studies had power > 80% only to identify large effect sizes. In the prospective follow-up, 60% of the studies available at CONEP until May 2020 had not been published on any registry platform (ICTRP/ReBEC/ClinicalTrials) by July 21, 2020.

CONCLUSION
The interventions evaluated during the Brazilian research response reflect those of international initiatives, but with a different distribution and a large number of studies assessing hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine. Limitations in methodological design and sample planning represent challenges that could affect the research outreach.


This paper focuses on the way people define and challenge practices of distance during protest and the way protesters disrupt 'generally established and universally visible and valid distances' associated with the place. In illuminating these ideas, two case studies with seemingly similar socio-spatial characteristics are explored. The first case was initiated by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and aimed to call attention to the nation's neediest people by embarking on the 'Poor People's Campaign', which settled people on the National Mall in an encampment they called Resurrection City (RC). The second action, the Occupy Movement, was an international protest movement directed towards social and economic inequality. The Occupy Movement called upon protesters to 'flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months' to call attention to the inequalities of global capitalism. The paper interprets the strategies and tactics used by the Poor People's Campaign and the Occupy Movement to challenge distance, concluding with some reflections on the way contemporary forms of dissent are changing the way we perceive public space and its politics.


Neutralization of vaccinia virus with immune rabbit serum occurred optimally when incubated at 37 C for 16 to 24 hr in the plaque neutralization test employing the MA-104 embryonic rhesus monkey kidney cell line.


Background and Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the common cause of liver disease among thalassemic patients who receive recurrent blood transfusion. Recent studies in Iran has shown a high prevalance of HCV among Iranian thalassemic patients, inspite of low HCV seroprevalence in general population. In this study we investigated the prevalence of new cases of hepatitis C and its risk factor in the group of thalassemia major patients. Methods: This study was carried out in thalassemic ward of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, southern Iran in year 2003. Cases were interviewed using a standard questionnaire including demographic, clinical history and HCV related risk behaviors. Then 3 blood samples were investigated by serum marker of anti-HCV antiboby (anti-HCV Ab) via Eliza3th method in times zero, 45 days and after 6 months follow-up. Results: The mean age of patients were 15.2 ||(1-36 years old) and the proportion of male to female 1 to 1. The rate of HCV antibody positivity in the first sample was 25%. All of the second and third blood samples were negative. There was significant correlation between age and being positive for anti-HCV Ab (P < 0.001) and also between being positive anti-HCV Ab and the time they began to receive blood transfusion. The patients who started blood transfusion before 1996 (the year we started screening program for blood donors in Blood Bank in Iran) had 12.5 times more risk for being positive for anti-HCV Ab (odds ratio = 12.5). Conclusions: Our results approved the effect of screening program for blood donors in blood transfusion centers.


The paper deals with certain aspects of the interpretation and application of the law pertaining to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), which are related to a person's right to question the possibility of criminal prosecution as well as to the impossibility of execution of criminal prosecution in respect of a person who was not surrendered to the Republic of Lithuania. It is observed that the procedures of the execution of the EAW in legal practice, as distinct from their delineation in the provisions of the legal acts of the European Union, are being inadmissibly misinterpreted in the national law. It conditions infringements of the right of a person to be brought to criminal account to know what he/she is suspected of. A person's right to question the possibility and the limits of criminal prosecution is a constitutional guarantee towards the legitimacy of criminal proceedings.


Innovative ideas will be required to meet government targets for the health service in the future. Increasing the number of hours available to surgical teams from two to three sessions could be one solution. Efficient and effective utilisation of a huge capital resource would appear to be further justification for increased hours, although the Audit Commission suggests that improving existing utilisation rather than extending hours should be the priority. However if operating sessions could be increased from two to three there is a potential to reduce waiting lists.


The May 2010 edition of Civil Engineering carried an article on the Barbados Screwdock being the oldest surviving shiplift in the world. That article was based on information obtained in Barbados and on a survey of the currently derelict facility. The historical information available was restricted to information from and about the island. Since then further, significant information has come to my attention that needs to be placed on record. It turns out that the screwdock concept and the shiplift system was a uniquely American invention of the early 19th century. Judging by the surviving descriptions and the remnants of the Barbados Screwdock, it was an invention that displayed all the elegant simplicity, practicality and ingenuity of the time and place of its inception.


Soymilk cake (SMC) fortified with defatted soy flour was fermented by a novel Bacillus subtilis GT-D in the solid-state fermentation with chlorella, mulberry leaves or green tea as food ingredient. The fermentation of SMC resulted in higher content of tyrosine and higher activities of protease, amylase and fibrinolytic enzymes. Fermented SMC including mucilage indicated six-fold higher content of dietary fiber compared to that of non-fermented SMC. The SMC fermented without additional ingredient allowed the highest spread ratio and width of cookies. Cookies prepared without SMC showed the lowest value of spread ratio and width compared to those of fermented SMC. In addition, these cookies showed the highest hardness value of 8,975 g, and thickness value of 5.97 and slightly higher bright color. Cookies fortified with SMC fermented with chlorella or mulberry leaves showed higher sensory evaluation value. Fortification of SMC fermented without additional ingredient resulted in the highest preference in the sensory evaluation of cookies.


This licentiate thesis describes and analyses the modern history of the socio-technical systems for urban water supply and sanitation in East Africa with focus on Uganda and Kenya. The key objective of the thesis is to evaluate to what extent the historic processes frame and influence the water and sanitation services sectors in these countries today. The theoretical approach combines the Large Technical Systems approach from the discipline of History of Technology with New Institutional Economics. Throughout, urban water and sanitation service systems are regarded as socio-technical systems, where institutions, organisation and technology all interact. The thesis consists of three separate articles and a synthesis in the form of a framework narrative. The first article provides a discussion of the theoretical framework with special focus on the application of Public Goods theory to urban water and sanitation. The second article describes the establishment of the large-scale systems for water supply and sanitation in Kampala, Uganda in the period 1920-1950. The third article focuses on the politics of urban water supply in Kenya with emphasis on the period 1900-1990. The main findings in this thesis are that the socio-technical systems for urban water and sanitation evolve over long periods of time and are associated with inertia that makes these systems change slowly. The systems were established in the colonial period to mainly respond to the needs and preferences of a wealthy minority and a technological paradigm evolved based on capital-intensive and large-scale technology. Attempts to expand services to all citizens in the post-colonial period under this paradigm were not sustainable due to changes in the social, political and economic environment while incentives for technological change were largely absent. History thus frames decisions in the public sphere even today, through technological and institutional inertia. Knowing the history of these socio-technical systems is therefore important, in order to understand key sector constraints, and for developing more sustainable service provision.


The species Canthon (Peltecanthon) staigi is a Neotropical "dung beetle" from Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, which plays a key ecological role reallocating organic material and in some cases being a seed disperser.


Spinal muscular atrophy is caused by reduced levels of SMN resulting from the loss of SMN1 and reliance on SMN2 for the production of SMN. Loss of SMN entirely is embryonic lethal in mammals. There are several SMN missense mutations found in humans. These alleles do not show partial function in the absence of wild-type SMN and cannot rescue a null Smn allele in mice. However, these human SMN missense allele transgenes can rescue a null Smn allele when SMN2 is present. We find that the N and C-terminal regions constitute two independent domains of SMN that can be separated genetically and undergo intragenic complementation. These SMN protein heteromers restore snRNP assembly of Sm proteins onto snRNA and completely rescue both survival of Smn null mice and motor neuron electrophysiology demonstrating that the essential functional unit of SMN is the oligomer.


When flower-bearing shoots in cut rose (Rosa ·hybrida) are harvested, a varying number of repressed axillary buds on the shoot remainder start to grow into new shoots (budbreak). Earlier experiments indicated that light reaching the bud affected the number of budbreaks. In all these studies, whole plants were illuminated with different light intensities or light spectra. The aim of this article is to disentangle the effects of light intensity and light spectrum, in this case red:far-red ratio, at the level of the buds on budbreak in a rose crop. Three experiments were conducted in which light intensity and red:far-red ratio at the level of the buds were independently varied, whereas intensity and red:far-red ratio of incident light on the crop were not changed. Light intensity and red:far-red ratio at the position of the buds were quantified and related to budbreak on the shoot remainders. Removal of vertical shoots increased light intensity and red:far-red ratio as well as budbreak (1.9 budbreaks per shoot remainder compared with 0.4 budbreaks when five vertical shoots were present). No vertical shoots and red light-absorbing shading paper over the plant base mimicked the effect of vertical shoots with respect to light intensity and red:far-red ratio, but budbreak (1.0 budbreaks) was intermediate compared with treatments with and without shoots. This suggested that the presence of shoots exerts an inhibiting effect on budbreak through both effects on light at the bud and correlative inhibition. When plants had no vertical shoots and light intensity and red:far-red ratio at bud level were changed by neutral and red light-absorbing shading paper, there was a positive effect of light intensity on budbreak (0.3 more budbreaks per shoot remainder) and no effect of red:far-red ratio. Combinations of high and low light intensity with high and low red:far-red ratio on axillary buds showed that there was a positive effect of light intensity on budbreak (0.5 more budbreaks per shoot remainder) and no effect of red:far-red ratio. Our study reveals that when light intensity and red:far-red ratio received by the plant are similar but differ at bud level, budbreak was affected by light intensity and not by red:far-red ratio.


Despite the high stress levels, paramedics seem to ignore or even negate the stress. This can be detrimental and lead to stress-related diseases. Therefore, we investigated the divergence between physiological and psychological stress responses of paramedics. Participants were 16 paramedics and 17 white-collar workers. We assessed psychological stress parameters, cortisol awakening response (CAR), and quantified immune parameters. In paramedics, electrocardiogram (ECG) was measured during one complete 24-hour shift. Our results revealed that CAR was higher in paramedics compared to controls. An alteration of immune parameters was observed even during days of free time. Also, ECG recordings showed acute stress in paramedics during rescue situations. Questionnaires revealed that rescue-service specific stressors affect psychological outcomes. However, paramedics reported significantly less mental stress and higher levels of depersonalization than controls. Taken together, our results suggest higher stress in paramedics compared to controls. However, paramedics negate their daily stress. Our findings underline therefore the importance to develop stress-management interventions for paramedics including sensitization for their stress reactions.


This report concerns the address to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Robert S. McNamara President of the World Bank. The concept of security itself had become greatly oversimplified. There was an almost universal tendency to think of the security problem as being exclusively a military problem, and to think of the military problem as being exclusively a weapns-system or hardware problem. The speech focuses instead on population, demographics, and fertility issues. It examines the population background and recent demographic trends. Both fertility decline and interventions to reduce fertility are explored.


The authors report their experience in haemorrhage after thyroid surgery. Haemorrhagic complications occurred in 5 cases in a series of 1803 sequential thyroidectomies (incidence: 0.27%). In particular, incidence was 1.9% after interventions for thyroid neoplasias (adenoma and carcinoma) and 0.18% after interventions for non-neoplastic thyroid pathology. Haemorrhage occurred always after "total" operations, even if monolateral. Causative and contributing factors, precautions and measures helpful in reducing the incidence and the potential dangerousness of haemorrhagic complications are discussed.


Originally published 1970.This book traces the history of the sixth form in Britain from the first decade of this century and follows the continuing debate over its function to the present day. It analyzes what kind of organisation is required to meet the demands of rising numbers and questions whether the needs of older adolescents can be better met in the "new" sixth form of the comprehensive school or in a separate type of sixth-form college. The book also discusses the balance between general and specialized courses.


Royal tax records from 1557 to 1614 provide native harvest data for descriptive and quantitative analysis of the Saami (Lapp) reindeer hunting society in northern Sweden. The Saami made tax payments during the Scandinavian Late Middle Ages to Crown sheriffs in natural harvest products according to standardized equivalents. These natural goods were obtained in three areas of subsistence - hunting/trapping, fishing, and primitive reindeer husbandry, allowing for a graphic depiction of the economic performance of extended Saami families during this period prior to the adoption of modern reindeer herding. The native harvest, combine with enthnohistorical information, provides a model for reconstructing traditional circumpolar economies. Key words: Saami (Lapps), hunting economy, reindeer, taxation, Sweden, native harvest


Debugging consumes significant time and effort in any major software development project. Moreover, even after the root cause of a bug is identified, fixing the bug is non-trivial. Given this situation, automated program repair methods are of value. In this paper, we present an automated repair method based on symbolic execution, constraint solving and program synthesis. In our approach, the requirement on the repaired code to pass a given set of tests is formulated as a constraint. Such a constraint is then solved by iterating over a layered space of repair expressions, layered by the complexity of the repair code. We compare our method with recently proposed genetic programming based repair on SIR programs with seeded bugs, as well as fragments of GNU Coreutils with real bugs. On these subjects, our approach reports a higher success-rate than genetic programming based repair, and produces a repair faster.


The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possibility of paleoentomology as a proxy in garden archaeology research. Garden contexts can prove difficult to identify and interpret due to the many changes the contexts go through during their activity period. Mixing of materials, harvesting and cultivation of many different plants will affect the environmental data that is retrieved from them and thus our interpretation of horticulture. This essay looks at the contexts and materials involved in the gardening process; irrigation sources, fertilizer, garden plant macrofossils and modern ecological insect and host plant relationships. The goal is to suggest a conceptual indicator group of insect and plant species that could aid in the identification of garden context and the in situ growth of relic plants. Paleoentomological information from the relating contexts (middens, composts, wells etc.) and other indicator groups have been included along with the ecological data in order to get a more complex picture over the garden contexts and their varying content. For instance, many of the plants found in garden soils are recorded as host plants to several insect species. This paper argues that investigation of these relationships can aid garden archaeology and further our understanding of herbivorous insects' and associated species' relationships to plant domestication in pre-history.


[1] Using a moored ice-profiling sonar along with a moored acoustic Doppler current profiler, a total spatial section of draft across 3334 km of sea ice was obtained in the southwestern Sea of Okhotsk near Hokkaido in the winters of 1999–2001. Using this draft data set, the average draft and keel statistics are discussed in this sea for the first time. The mean draft was 0.60 m, which corresponds to the thickness of 0.71 m, over the three winters with the range of 0.49–0.72 m for each winter. The classification of level and deformed ice reveals a small range of the monthly mean level ice draft (0.18–0.27 m) and the dominance of the deformed ice in terms of volume (80%). The mean draft varied with the areal ratio of the deformed ice fairly well. These results suggest that dynamic processes such as ridging and rafting are important for the evolution of draft in the region of observation. The observed draft probability density distribution and keel statistics show that the thick ice ratio and keel frequency are lower than the similar data in polar regions and closer to those observed in Davis Strait west of Greenland. Along with the ice concentration and speed derived from the satellite data the southward ice transport to the southwestern Sea of Okhotsk is estimated on the basis of the observed sea ice thickness. The estimated ice transport ranged from 15 to 70 km3 in each winter. The heat and freshwater transport associated with the ice transport ranged from −3.9 × 1017 to −1.8 × 1018 J and from 12 to 57 km3, respectively.


The production of extracellular cellulases by Aspergilus niger NRRL 567 on corn stover was studied in liquid state fermentation. In this study, three cellulases, exoglucanase (EXG), endoglucanase (EG) and β-glucosidase (BGL) were produced by A. niger NRRL 567. The optimal pH, temperature and incubation time for cellulases production was found to be 3.5, 30°C and 96 h, respectively. Maximal cellulases activities were achieved with 4% corn stover, 0.1% molasses and 1% yeast sludge. To our knowledge, this is the first report on production of cellulases by using corn stover as a substrate from A. niger NRRL 567.


Introduction. The ability to conceptualise other individuals' mental states is dependent on having a 'theory of mind' (ToM). Individuals with Asperger's syndrome typically display ToM impairments, as do some individuals with schizophrenia, notably those with paranoid delusions. The presenting features of these and other individuals, such as those with some personality disorders, particularly in forensic patients, are often unclear. ToM performance was examined to see whether it could distinguish forensic patients with Asperger's syndrome from other patient groups. Methods. The performance of three male patient groups (N = 39) detained in high security psychiatric care, including those with Asperger's syndrome, schizophrenia (with paranoid delusions and/or auditory hallucinations as their predominant symptoms), or a dissocial and/or borderline personality disorder were compared using the revised eyes task and the modified advanced ToM test. Results. The Asperger's syndrome and schizophrenia groups performed significantly worse than the personality disorder group on both ToM measures. However, the Asperger's syndrome and the personality disorder groups had significantly higher levels of general intellectual functioning than the schizophrenia group. Conclusions. Whilst ToM performance may help to discriminate patients with Asperger's syndrome or schizophrenia from personality disorder ed patients, a wide range in performance made it difficult to specify a patient to a particular group. Theoretical and methodological issues are discussed along with the usefulness of ToM assessments with forensic patients.


Lysosomal cysteine peptidase cathepsin B, involved in multiple processes associated with tumor progression, is validated as a target for anti-cancer therapy. Nitroxoline, a known antimicrobial agent, is a potent and selective inhibitor of cathepsin B, hence reducing tumor progression in vitro and in vivo. In order to further improve its anti-cancer properties we developed a number of derivatives using structure-based chemical synthesis. Of these, the 7-aminomethylated derivative (compound 17) exhibited significantly improved kinetic properties over nitroxoline, inhibiting cathepsin B endopeptidase activity selectively. In the present study, we have evaluated its anti-cancer properties. It was more effective than nitroxoline in reducing tumor cell invasion and migration, as determined in vitro on two-dimensional cell models and tumor spheroids, under either endpoint or real time conditions. Moreover, it exhibited improved action over nitroxoline in impairing tumor growth in vivo in LPB mouse fibrosarcoma tumors in C57Bl/6 mice. Taken together, the addition of a 2-(ethylamino)acetonitrile group to nitroxoline at position 7 significantly improves its pharmacological characteristics and its potential for use as an anti-cancer drug.


Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, and Herbert Feig are the most prominent of the positivists to formulate views on the mind-body problem. (C. G. Hempel's one-off treatment [1935] is set aside here; see Kim [2003] and Crawford [2013].) While their views differed from each other and changed over time, they were all committed to some form of scientific physicalism, though a linguistic or conceptual rather than ontological form of it. In focus here are their views during the heyday of logical positivism and its immediate aftermath, though some initial scene-setting of Schlick's and Carnap's pre-positivist views will help to understand the final opposing positions of Carnap and Feigl. All three philosophers are largely—entirely, in the case of Schlick and Feigl—concerned with sensations and sensory consciousness, or what Feigl came to call (after the psychologist E. C. Tolman) "raw feels" and what are now usually called "qualia" or "phenomenally conscious" mental states.


The theory of soft sets initiated by Molodtsov, based on soft set theory in this paper we defined the Γ- Soft set, Γ- Soft subset, equality of two Γ- Soft sets, complement of Γ- Soft set, null Γ- Soft set, NOT Γ- Soft set and absolute Γ- Soft set with examples. Also, Γ- Soft binary operations like AND, OR operations along with Union and Intersection of Γ- Soft sets. De-Morgan's laws on Γ- Soft sets and some fundamental results are carried out. In this paper, we introduced the second parameter set, Γ which denotes the name of a brand or company


As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has greatly impacted the world, especially in the field of education, therefore, with increasingly developing technological capabilities, the teaching and learning process in schools is also carried out online. This study aims to analyze the character values of students, as well as describe the design of student character learning in accordance with Pancasila as the basis of the State, and students are able to instill character values in everyday life. This research was conducted at MI TerpaduTahfidz Al Mubarak Langsa in grades 3 and 4 with 20 students per class, and 4th grade teachers. The data analysis method used is a qualitative method by applying field research, namely by field observations, by observing each object which is done online through a video call application. From the results of the analysis, it was known that the character of students in grades III and IV of Integrated MI Tahfidz Al Mubarak 80% is very in accordance with the values of Pancasila because the learning system is carried out always under the supervision of parents and teachers with a maximum number of ten students in one online class. In one class there are two teachers who teach in each class, every day parents must send reports on student progress to their respective class teachers. This is also inseparable from the role of parents in educating their children at home even though the state of the teaching and learning process is carried out online.


Counterfeiting of food and pharmaceutical products, albeit a more serious issue in developing countries is, however, omnipresent. Therefore, there is an ever-growing need for anticounterfeiting measures to address this challenge. Currently, the existing overt and covert anticounterfeiting measures are more prevalent on the packaging of such products. While such measures are helpful to a certain extent, they are however, easier to by-pass with reused authentic packaging, fake barcodes and duplicate product numbering. Furthermore, advanced research and new innovations have indicated that it is also possible to have additional levels of security by incorporating similar measures into or on the product itself. Although these novel anticounterfeiting measures offer a unique opportunity to safeguard the customer's interest at best, they present certain challenges. Some of these include biocompatibility of the materials and the need for them to be in compliance with regulatory organizations. However, overcoming these challenges confronts the issue directly. In this work, the approach is to develop a proof of concept of entirely edible barcodes from naturally available and/or food grade materials such as sodium alginate. This study also focusses on the influence of drying on the macroscopic structure of such barcodes. The barcodes are produced by physically cross-linking the polymer in specific moulds, converting them into a hydrogel barcode in itself. Altogether, this work provides a qualitative understanding that such a concept can be developed and that the significant structural changes upon drying is not exclusively governed by the concentration of sodium alginate.


BACKGROUND Tenofovir gel is being evaluated for vaginal and rectal pre-exposure prophylaxis against sexual HIV transmission. Because this is a new prevention strategy targeting large numbers of healthy people, we broadly assessed its effects on the mucosa. METHODS AND FINDINGS In MTN-007, a phase 1, randomized, double-blinded rectal microbicide trial, we used systems genomics/proteomics to determine the effect of tenofovir 1% gel, nonoxynol-9 2% gel, placebo gel or no treatment on rectal biopsies taken at baseline, after one application or after seven daily applications (15 subjects/arm). Experiments were repeated using primary vaginal epithelial cells from four healthy women. After seven days of administration, tenofovir 1% gel had broad-ranging biological effects on the rectal mucosa, which were much more pronounced than—but different from—those caused by the detergent nonoxynol-9. Tenofovir profoundly suppressed anti-inflammatory mediators such as interleukin 10; increased T cell densities; caused mitochondrial dysfunction, possibly by blocking PNPT1 expression; and altered regulatory pathways of cell differentiation and survival. Except for leukocyte-derived factors, all these effects were replicated in primary vaginal epithelial cells, which also proliferated significantly faster in tenofovir's presence. CONCLUSIONS Tenofovir's suppression of anti-inflammatory activity could diminish its prophylactic efficacy over time. The breadth of mucosal changes, including mitochondrial dysfunction and epithelial proliferation, raises questions about its safety for long-term topical use. These findings suggest that a systems biology evaluation of mucosal effects may be beneficial before advancing to large-scale efficacy trials with topical HIV prevention agents that achieve high, long-lasting local drug concentrations.


In this paper, we analyze the quality status of Health and Welfare division's standardized log and asses the characteristics of the institutions" logs analysis to establish the criteria to minimize hazards and control the quality of log's institutional details to limit extraction. As a result, extraction condition's proposed development direction to adequately assess and control health and welfare abuses privacy control target log. This improvement over the status and quality of information shared with relation to institutional work of the log quality characteristics is made possible. In addition, quality control and inspection standards were prepared in accordance with the institutional log characteristics. Future research will include performing continuous analysis and improvement activities on the quality of logs with integrated control of sharing personal information and distributing information about logs' quality to proactively target organ. Therefore, we expect that correcting proactive personal information misuse and leakage is possible to achieve.


A method has been described which allows one to analyze complicated currents emanating from warmed dielectrics. This technique is easily applied for temperature waves of certain amplitude and frequency limits and permits an accurate assessment of dielectric materials being examined for specific applications, such as infrared detectors or vidicon targets, where it is necessary to know the current magnitude and relaxation properties as a function of temperature and temperature changes. The low-frequency temperature wave method is a direct dynamic measurement of the pyroelectric coefficient. This method eliminates the need for measurements of specific heats, dielectric constants, and radiation absorption coefficients as well as identifying the effects due to irreversible currents which occur when samples are heated at a constant rate.


The Tibet ASgamma experiment is located at 4,300m above sea level, in Tibet, China.The experiment is composed of a 65,700 m2 surface air shower array and 3,400 m2 underground water Cherenkov muon detectors. The surface air shower array is used for reconstructing the primary particle energy and direction, while the underground muon detectors are used for discriminating gamma-ray induced muon-poor air showers from
cosmic-ray (proton, helium,...) induced muon-rich air showers.Recently,the Tibet ASgamma experiment successfully observed gamma rays in the 100 TeV region from some point/extended sources as well as sub-PeV diffuse gamma rays along the Galactic disk.In this talk, The observational results as well as their interpretations will be presented,
followed by some future prospect.


OBJECTIVE
To study the relationship between the location of atrioventricular accessory pathways and occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with atrioventricular re-entrant tachycardia (AVRT).

METHODS
The clinical features and location of accessory pathways in patients with a history of AF were compared with those of patients with no history of AF.

RESULTS
Patients with AF (n=44) were older, more likely to be male and more likely to have multiple or manifest accessory pathways than patients without AF (n=373). There was no significant difference in the location of accessory pathways between the two groups. Multivariate regression analysis showed older age, male sex, and multiple and manifest pathways were independent predictors of AF in patients with AVRT (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
The location of accessory pathways does not appear to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of AF in patients with AVRT. Older patients with multiple or manifest accessory pathways are at an increased risk of clinical AF.


Low-code development platforms provide an accessible infrastructure for the creation of software by domain experts, also called"citizen developers", without the need for formal programming education. Development is facilitated through graphical user interfaces, although traditional programming can still be used to extend low-code applications, for example when external services or complex business logic needs to be implemented that cannot be realized with the features available on a platform. Since citizen developers are usually not specifically trained in software development, they require additional support when writing code, particularly with regard to security and advanced techniques like debugging or versioning. In this thesis, several options to assist developers of low-code applications are investigated and implemented. A framework to quickly build code editor extensions is developed, and an approach to leverage the Roslyn compiler platform to implement custom static code analysis rules for low-code development platforms using the .NET platform is demonstrated. Furthermore, a sample application showing how Roslyn can be used to build a simple, integrated debugging tool, as well as an abstraction of the version control system Git for easier usage by citizen developers, is implemented. Security is a critical aspect when low-code applications are deployed. To provide an overview over possible options to ensure the secure and isolated execution of low-code applications, a threat model is developed and used as the basis for a comparison between OS-level virtualization, sandboxing, and runtime code security implementations.


The expression of glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) was found widely altered in a variety of human malignancies. Methylation and deletion of GPx3 were reported in several types of human cancers. Recently, GPx3 characterized as a tumor suppressor gene. However, the mechanism of the tumor suppressor activity of GPx3 is not clear. In this report, we demonstrated that GPx3 interacts with p53-induced gene 3 (PIG3) in both prostate cancer cells and immortalized prostate epithelial cells. The PIG3 binding motif is located in amino acid 2-114 of GPx3. Expression of GPx3 resulted in apopotosis and necrotic cell death. Interaction of GPx3 and PIG3 led to dramatic increase of reactive oxygene species (ROS) inside the cells and activation of caspase-3. Knocking down of PIG3 or mutation of PIG3 binding motif in GPx3 abrogated ROS generation activity induced by GPx3. These results suggest that PIG3 activity is GPx3-dependent, and reveal a novel signaling pathway that leads to GPx3 mediated tumor suppression. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 204. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-204


Abstract. General aspects of Swiss late- and post-glacial plant immigration patterns are briefly discussed. The following examples are mentioned: Ericaceae, Plantago alpina, Pinus cembra and Picea abies. The history of flora and Vegetation provides important palaeoecological informations. Moreover, it gives evidence to the stability and age of quaternary plant communities and serve as criteria for gene conservation in situ. Finally, the knowledge of plant immigration ways can be a valuable source of plant breeding research.


A mild, operationally simple, visible light-induced photoredox method for constructing novel trifluoromethylated quaternary carbon centers from trifluoromethylated tertiary bromides has been developed. Using this method, a wide range of alkenes were successfully bifunctionalized to γ-butyrolactams. As for electron-rich alkenes, reactions catalyzed by Ir(dF(CF3)ppy)2(dtbbpy)(PF6) were kinetic processes with high yields and short times. For styrenes, reactions catalyzed by Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)(PF6) were thermodynamic processes with moderate yields and prolonged reaction times. For aliphatic alkenes, the reactions were neither thermodynamic nor kinetic and fac-Ir(ppy)3 was used as catalyst. Thus, reactions were not as efficient as electron-rich alkenes. The atom-transfer radical addition reactions of trifluoromethylated tertiary bromides with alkynes were also achieved. The configuration of products we separated was E type only. Some of the products exhibited bactericidal activity.


We estimate risk-free interest rates unaffected by convenience yields on safe assets. We infer them from risky asset prices without relying on any specific model of risk. We obtain a term structure of convenience yields with maturities up to 2.5 years at a minutely frequency. The convenience yield on treasuries equals about 40 basis points, is larger below 3 months maturity, and quadruples during the financial crisis. In high-frequency event studies, conventional and unconventional monetary stimulus reduce convenience yields, particularly during the crisis. We further study convenience-yield-free CIP deviations, and we show significant bond return predictability related to convenience yields.


In the present work report, 2-methyl-6-((2-(4-(3-methyl-3-phenylcyclobutyl)thiazol-2yl)hydrazono)methyl) phenol (MPTHP) has been newly synthesized and characterized. The new molecule has been used to modify the glassy carbon (GC) electrode surface through the alcohol oxidation method due to –OH group on its structure. MPTHP modified GC (MPTHP/GC) electrode has been used as a chemical sensor electrode for the quantitative determination of Cu (II) ions. Following the modification process, the surface characterization process of the modified electrode has been carried out by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In this work, Cu (II) ions have been quantitatively determined by using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique. A quite low detection limit (based on 3sbl/m) for Cu (II) using developed sensor electrode was found to be as 1.0x10-9 M. For the calibration curve, solutions of Cu (II) ions changing from 1.0x10-9 M to 1.0x10-3 M have been prepared using Britton-Robinson (BR) buffer solution at pH 5. The developed sensor electrode has been applied to tap water sample for the quantitation of Cu (II) ions and the amount of Cu (II) was determined as 4.07 x 10-9 M in this sample.


Due to the convergence of computer services and telecommunication technology, data traffic exceeds the telephony traffic. Thus, optical packet switching has emerged as one of the promising technology that allows high speed and date rate/format transparency. It harnesses a tremendous bandwidth that supports enormous delivery. However, an appealing solution for traffic scheduling of optical packet switched is required to resolve the packet contention. The resultant of packet loss is due to the contention of two or more packets with same outbound address with same wavelength. The packet loss probability is addressed as the most inevitable sand significant measurable performance parameter. Thus QoS provision is foreseeable as a consequence of diverse applications and drastically growth of traffic demands. This paper evaluates the necessity of traffic scheduling with QoS provision from wavelength domain via wavelength conversion. This approach adopts the concept of tunable optical wavelengths converters that has attracted considerable interest currently. Also, the possibility of introducing class differentiation is examined. The simulation results show the packet loss ratio can be improved with an appropriate selection of design parameters including the number of wavelength and degrees of conversion. Thus, the packet does not suffer from conventional buffering delay while maintaining an ample network throughput.


Key-to-address conversion algorithms which have been used for a large, direct access file are compared with respect to record density and access time. Cumulative distribution functions are plotted to demonstrate the distribution of addresses generated by each method. The long-standing practice of counting address collisions is shown to be less valuable in fudging algorithm effectiveness than considering the maximum number of contiguously occupied file locations.


An omnidirectional inertial switch with rectangular spring is proposed in this paper, and the prototype has been fabricated by surface micromachining technology. To evaluate the threshold consistency and stability of omnidirectional inertia switch, the stiffness of rectangular suspension springs is analyzed. The simulation result shows that the coupling stiffness of the rectangular spring suspension system in the non-sensitive direction is a little more than that in the sensitive direction, which indicated that the omnidirectional switching system's stability is reinforced, attributed to the design of rectangular springs. The dynamic response simulation shows that the threshold of the omnidirectional inertial switch using the rectangular suspension spring has high consistency in the horizontal direction. The prototype of an inertial switch is fabricated and tested successfully. The testing results indicate even threshold distribution in the horizontal direction. The threshold acceleration of the designed inertial switch is about 58 g in the X direction and 37 g in the Z direction; the contact time is about 18 μs.


We consider a special type of restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM), namely a Gaussian-spherical RBM where the visible units have Gaussian priors while the vector of hidden variables is constrained to stay on an L 2 sphere. The spherical constraint having the advantage to admit exact asymptotic treatments, various scaling regimes are explicitly identified based solely on the spectral properties of the coupling matrix (also called weight matrix of the RBM). Incidentally these happen to be formally related to similar scaling behaviors obtained in a different context dealing with spatial condensation of zero range processes. More specifically, when the spectrum of the coupling matrix is doubly degenerated an exact treatment can be proposed to deal with finite size effects. Interestingly the known parallel between the ferromagnetic transition of the spherical model and the Bose–Einstein condensation can be made explicit in that case. More importantly this gives us the ability to extract all needed response functions with arbitrary precision for the training algorithm of the RBM. This allows us then to numerically integrate the dynamics of the spectrum of the weight matrix during learning in a precise way. This dynamics reveals in particular a sequential emergence of modes from the Marchenko–Pastur bulk of singular vectors of the coupling matrix.


The NASA/NOAA Electronic Theater presents Earth science observations and visualizations from space in a historical perspective. Fly in from outer space to Cambridge and Harvard University. Zoom through the Cosmos to SLC and site of the 2002 Winter Olympics using 1 m IKONOS "Spy Satellite" data. Contrast the 1972 Apollo 17 "Blue Marble" image of the Earth with the latest US and International global satellite images that allow us to view our Planet from any vantage point. See the latest spectacular images from NASA/NOAA remote sensing missions like Terra, GOES, TRMM, SeaWiFS, & Landsat 7, of storms & fires like Hurricane Isabel and the LNSan Diego firestorms of 2003. See how High Definition Television (HDTV) is revolutionizing the way we do science communication. Take the pulse of the planet on a daily, annual and 30-year time scale. See daily thunderstorms, the annual blooming of the northern hemisphere landmasses and oceans, fires in Africa, dust storms in Iraq, and carbon monoxide exhaust from global burning. See visualizations featured on Newsweek, TIME, National Geographic, Popular Science covers & National & International Network TV. Spectacular new global visualizations of the observed and simulated atmosphere & oceans are shown. See the currents and vortexes in the oceans that bring up the nutrients to feed tiny plankton and draw the fish, whales and fishermen. See the how the ocean blooms in response to El Niiioh Niiia climate changes. The Etheater will be presented using the latest High Definition TV (HDTV) and video projection technology on a large screen. See the global city lights, and the great NE US blackout of August 2003 observed by the "night-vision" DMSP satellite.


Giovanni Battista Cocciola was one of the seventeenth-century Italian composers active for a period in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His musical legacy, only partially preserved and unknown to the international musicological literature, comprises motets, church concertos, canzonettas and masses. Cocciola is also the author of one concerto included in the Parnassus Musicus Ferdinandaeus.


This study was performed to answer the question of whether counter current retrograde transfer of beta-endorphin in the perihypophyseal cavernous sinus-carotid rete vascular complex depends on the reproductive activity of sheep and if this transfer depends on membrane Na+ K+ ATP-ase blocking by ouabain. Sheep were anaesthetised and the jugular vein and the carotid artery were cannulated on both sides. Multielectrolitical liquids (Solfin, Polfa "Kutno", Poland): 500 ml of Solfin with heparin (25,000 IU), or Solfin with heparin and ouabain (Sigma, St. Louis, USA) in concentrations of 10(-5) or 10(-4) mol 1(-1) were infused into the brain through the carotid artery. Heparinized blood was collected through the carotid artery. After exsanguination, the head with the neck was removed. The isolated head was supplied with oxygenated, heated, autologous blood diluted with Solfin (4:1) without or with ouabain in concentration of 10(-5) or 10(-4) mol 1(-1). Blood pressure and temperature were measured throughout the duration of the experiment. During the experiment 125I-beta-endorphin (7.9 x 107 dpm) dissolved in 10 ml of Solfin was infused for 5 min (5 ml) into each cavernous sinus through the angularis oculi veins. Blood samples for radioactivity measurements were collected each min from the carotid rete (through the opposite carotid artery to the artery supplying the brain with arterial blood) and from both jugular veins. In all the experiments significant 125I-beta-endorphin radioactivity was found in arterial blood supplying the brain and hypophysis in the early luteal phase in sheep. No radioactivity was found (with the exception of one animal) in sheep during seasonal anoestrus. A blockage of Na+ K+ ATP-ase by ouabain administered during exsanguination and during head perfusion with dose of 10(-4) mol 1(-1) reduced beta-endorphin counter current transfer to arterial blood, but this effect was not evident with the dose of 10(-5) mol 1(-1). Increased blood pressure was observed in all the experiments with either dose of ouabain.


Fast and approximate nearest-neighbor search methods have recently become popular for scaling nonparameteric regression to more complex and high-dimensional applications. As an alternative to fast nearest neighbor search, training data can also be incorporated online into appropriate sufficient statistics and adaptive data structures, such that approximate nearestneighbor predictions can be accelerated by orders of magnitude by means of exploiting the compact representations of these sufficient statistics. This chapter describes such an approach for locally weighted regression with locally linear models. Initially, we focus on local dimensionality reduction techniques in order to scale locally weighted learning to domains with very high dimensional input data. The key issue here revolves around obtaining a statistically robust and computationally inexpensive estimation of local linear models in such large spaces, despite potential irrelevant and redundant inputs. We develop a local version of partial least squares regression that fulfills all of these requirements, and embed it in an incremental nonlinear regression algorithm that can be shown to work efficiently in a number of complex applications. In the second part of the chapter, we introduce a novel Bayesian formulation of partial least squares regression that converts our nonparametric regression approach to a probabilistic formulation. Some of the heuristic components inherent in partial least squares can be eliminated with this new algorithm by means of efficient Bayesian regularization techniques. Evaluations are provided for all algorithms on various synthetic data sets and real-time learning examples with anthropomorphic robots and complex simulations.


Background. Lupus nephritis (LN) is an autoimmune disease, and effective treatment can improve the prognosis of patients. Several studies have demonstrated that Astragalus membranaceus can effectively suppress the progression of LN, but the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the mechanism whereby Astragalus membranaceus exerts this therapeutic effect against LN. Method. Astragalus targets and LN-related targets were obtained from the TCMSP database and WGCNA analysis, respectively. Then we obtain the compound targets and constructed the protein interaction network of the compound targets. The top 10 core targets were identified. And We have validated it. We performed GO and KEGG enrichment analyses on the compound targets to identify the functional and genomic pathways enriched among these targets. Molecular docking of Astragalus membranaceus with the core targets was performed . Result. We identified 214 AM targets and 102 LN-related targets. Among them, we obtained 10 core targets, IL-1β, EGF, CCND1, CASP3, STAT1, PTGS2, and PPARγ were found to have high diagnostic values for LN. In the validation dataset GSE99339, all the core targets were significantly expressed, except for EGF deletion. The results of the KEGG enrichment analysis showed that 7 out of 23 valid targets were significantly enriched in the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway (p=1.14E-05). The molecular-docking results showed that AM with IL-1β, CASP3, STAT1, and PPARγ had good binding properties. Conclusion. The therapeutic effect of AM against LN might be related to suppression of inflammation and autophagy, and the bioinformatics-based results presented here provide a theoretical basis for the clinical application of AM in LN.


An experiment has been made on ribbing induced on a film coated over a roll surface in coating by means of a two-roll system, one roll rotating and the other fixed. Wavelength and depth of the ribbing are measured by a newly developed technique utilizing an image reflected on the ribbed film surface by a straight bar, and the following are clarified. Non dimensionalized wavelength is correlated with capillary number for Newtonian liquids, but it takes higher values for several viscoelastic liquids used. Viscoelasticity of the liquid has an effect of increasing the depth of ribbing, that is, the depth takes the value of 0.04mm to 0.1mm for Newtonian liquids, but 0.07mm to 0.2mm for viscoelastic liquids. The wavelength of spatial perturbations generated on the meniscus at the exit of the clearance between the two rolls coincides with the wavelength of the ribbing seen over the roll surface. This means that the perturbation of the liquid generated just after passing through the clearance is carried with rotation of the roll and results in the ribbing over the roll surface.


Estimates of hydrodynamic parameters from geoelectrical data settings play an important role in hydrogeology studies. In such context, correlation between transversal resistance (RT) and Transmissivity (T) has been considered a usefu l tool for evaluation of aquifer hydrodynamic characteristics. Ten Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES) using Schlumberger configuration close to tubular wells were carried out in Bebedouro's region (Sao Paulo state, Brazil) aiming at getting RT. Through a representative average value of hydraulical conductivity (K) obtained from Adamantina Formation, it was possible to estimate T parameter that in turn allowed a RT x T relationship analyzed by linear regression with correlation coefficient R = 0.9. In order to access the reliability of such methodology, nine additional VES's were carried out for specific points placed at the southern region of the micro basin, for which we had no available information provided by stratigraphic studies of tubular wells. Furthermore, values were also estimated for RT and T parameters plotted against results provided by the first 10 VES's. Results were considered satisfactory validating the method applicability.


ABSTRACT Among Wittgenstein's thought experiments, the wood-sellers is one of the most controversial. According to an absolutist interpretation, they are meant to show that we cannot transcend our concepts, and that our rationality is the only possible one. In contrast, according to a relativist interpretation, they are meant to expose the parochialism of our concepts and the contingency of our logic. In this paper, I will attempt to move beyond absolutism and relativism, and I will explore the possibility of a relativistic (as opposed to relativist) reading of the wood-sellers. So, like Carlo Penco, I will use Einstein's theory of relativity in order to throw some light on them. Yet, I will also contend that Penco's interpretation falls short of a truly relativistic reading of Wittgenstein.


This paper introduces an efficient interconnect delay fault test (IDFT) controller on boards and SoCs with IEEE 1149.1 and IEEE 1500 wrappers. By capturing the transition signals launched during one system clock, interconnect delay faults operated by different system clocks can be effectively tested with our technique. The IDFT controller proposed does not require any modification on boundary scan cells, instead very simple logic needs to be plugged around the TAP controller. Complete compatibility with the IEEE 1149.1 and IEEE 1500 standards is preserved and the superiority of this approach is verified through design experiments


Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable foods which usually undergo a gradual loss of nutraceuticals during storage. Chitosan-based edible coatings are extensively studied thanks to antimicrobial activity and great potential to extend the shelf life. However, little information is presently available on the nutraceutical quality of chitosan-coated products. The present study is addressed to evaluate accompanied by a delayed degradation of some phenolic compounds during storage. These results indicate that chitosan coating is effective in maintaining the quality parameters, the coated fruit showed less weight loss (−16%) and more firmer (+40%) than control fruit, chitosan-coated tomato emitted significantly lower ethylene (−41%) than control, and slowing down the nutraceutical loss occurring in postharvest, mainly of the lycopene, main carotenoid, found in tomato fruits. These results indicate that chitosan coating is effective in slowing down the nutraceutical loss occurring in postharvest, thus representing a promising tool to preserve bio-protective phytochemicals during fruit conservation.

Practical applications
During storage and domestic conservation, the nutraceutical quality of fruits and vegetables usually decreases and can undergo deterioration due to physiological disorders and mechanical damages. In the last decade, use of edible coatings has attracted interest as a promising technology to prolong the shelf life of particularly perishable foods. These coatings act as protective barriers decreasing transpiration rate and gas transfer across the product surface, thus promoting the maintenance of nutritional quality.