When a signal passes through a serpentine trace with coupling between the legs, there is an apparent speed-up of the signal. That is, the signal appears to pass through the serpentine section faster than the trace length would otherwise indicate. This apparent speed-up is caused by crosstalk coupling between the legs of the serpentine traces. The amount of apparent speed-up is directly related to the coupling strength between the legs and inversely related to the rise time of the signal passing through the section. The apparent speed-up of the signal is not directly related to the coupled length. For long coupled lengths (those longer than the critical length) signals may become distorted as they pass through the serpentine section, but the degree of distortion is a complex function of the frequency of the signal. Signals pass relatively undistorted through short coupled serpentine sections.


The minimum noise figure for a MESFET with a delta-function doping profile along the substrate interface is calculated using an analytical method and a two-dimensional computer simulation. The results are compared with similar results obtained for a uniformly doped device. For typical GaAs FETs the minimum noise figure is not improved. However, at the minimum noise point the transconductance is higher, compensating for the increased source-gate capacitance there.


Author(s): Myers, Andrew | Advisor(s): McKee, Christopher; Klein, Richard | Abstract: This thesis explores several related questions on the physics of star formation and interstellar clouds. Chapter 2 addresses the remarkable independence of the stellar initial mass function to gas metallicity across a wide a range of galactic and extra-galactic environments. I perform analytic calculations that suggest the temperature structure of a centrally heated, dusty gas cloud should be relatively insensitive to the dust-to-gas ratio over the range of variation probed by observations. I support these calculations with full radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. Chapter 3 investigates the fragmentation of magnetized, massive cores via direct numerical simulation, finding that a combination of magnetic fields and protostellar heating strongly suppresses core fragmentation. These results could explain why the stellar initial mass function so closely resembles the dense core mass function, even at very high core masses. Chapter 4 analyzes the magnetic field structure around a rotationally-dominated protostellar disk formed in the above simulations. I present a map of the column density, magnetic field vectors, and outflow lobes at various length scales and viewing angles that can be compared against observations. I find that the disk begins to influence the geometry of the magnetic field on ∼ 100 AU scales, which should begin to be probed in nearby stellar cores by the next generation of radio interferometers. Chapter 5 addresses the long-standing question of the high CH+ abundance along diffuse molecular sight lines. I compute the CH+ abundance in a turbulent, diffuse molecular cloud by post-processing numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. The results agree well with observations of the column densities of CH+ and of rotationally-excited H2. Finally, Chapter 6 presents the results of radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of star formation at the cluster scale. The results show that the magnetic field plays a role in determining the star formation rate, the degree of fragmentation, and the characteristic stellar mass.


The green production transition in agriculture is all about the quality of agricultural products at the source of production. Whether the product quality certification can accelerate the green production transition in agriculture is an issue of concern. We have measured the degree of green production transition of kiwifruit growers using a finite mixture model in this paper, and use research data from the main kiwifruit production areas in Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces to verify the impact of conducting product quality certification on the green production transition of kiwifruit growers. Besides, we use a multi-valued treatment effects model to verify the differences in the degree of green production transition among kiwifruit growers in the face of different certification types. Our findings are mainly as follows: the degree of green production transition among kiwifruit growers is not high, with an average of only 36.3%. Product quality certification can significantly promote the green production transition of kiwifruit growers, and the promotion effect of different certification methods in green production transition of kiwifruit growers significantly varies. The promotion effect of organic certification is greater than that of green certification and pollution-free certification. Further, the mechanism test analysis reveals that product quality certification can influence the green production transition of kiwifruit growers through three mechanisms: quality monitoring, market premium, and market access threshold. Based on this, this paper proposes policy recommendations to advance quality certification and green production transition among kiwifruit growers to increase the certification, enhance the willingness to green transition, and boost the differentiated certification system.


Author(s): Kenney, Martha | Advisor(s): Haraway, Donna | Abstract: Fables of attention are didactic stories about the consequences of how we attend to the world. They act on our sensoria; they teach us how to pay attention. In this dissertation, which is located in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), I use the genre of the fable to explore the relationship between attention and storytelling across different ecologies of practice. Specifically, I focus on wonder as a mode of attention in feminist theory and scientific practice. As I read and write fables of attention, wonder does not stay still; it transforms and accrues different meanings as the chapters unfold.Chapter 1 looks at wonder as epistemological dilation in the scientific articles of American ichthyologist E.W. Gudger (1866-1965), showing how it shaped his scientific objects and guided his passionate empiricism. Chapter 2 tells the story of how STS scholar Helen Verran shifts her mode of attention from wonder to disconcertment as she struggles to remain accountable for the colonial inheritances of her knowledge-making practices. In Chapter 3 I return to wonder, refiguring it for speculative feminist theory. Isabelle Stengers is my guide as I read speculative wonder into the work of iconoclastic evolutionary biologists Joan Roughgarden and Lynn Margulis. Here wonder helps me to consider how to tell more responsive and response-able stories about life. The Conclusion is about thinking with aesthetics, the arts of enchantment, and the promise of an illuminated wonder.Following in the tradition of feminist science studies, each of these chapters is guided by the cosmopolitical question: "What kinds of attention can foster more livable, breathable technoscientific worlds?"


We reprove three known (algorithmic) bounds for terminal-clustering problems, using a single framework that leads to simpler proofs. The input in terminal-clustering problems is a metric space $(X,d)$ (possibly arising from a graph) and a subset $K\subset X$ of terminals, and the goal is to partition the points $X$, such that each part, called cluster, contains exactly one terminal (possibly with connectivity requirements), so as to minimize some objective. The three bounds we reprove are for Steiner Point Removal on trees [Gupta, SODA 2001], Metric $0$-Extension for bounded doubling dimension [Lee and Naor, unpublished 2003], and Connected Metric $0$-Extension [Englert et al., SICOMP 2014].
A natural approach is to cluster each point with its closest terminal, which would partition $X$ into so-called Voronoi cells, but this approach can fail miserably due to its stringent cluster boundaries. A now-standard fix is to enlarge each Voronoi cell computed in some order to obtain disjoint clusters, which defines the \texttt{Noisy-Voronoi} algorithm. This method, first proposed by Calinescu, Karloff and Rabani [SICOMP 2004], was employed successfully to provide state-of-the-art results for terminal-clustering problems on general metrics. However, for restricted families of metrics, e.g., trees and doubling metrics, only more complicated, ad-hoc algorithms are known. Our main contribution is to demonstrate that the \texttt{Noisy-Voronoi} algorithm is not only applicable to restricted metrics, but actually leads to relatively simple algorithms and analyses.


The only important complication of a stress fracture is the true fracture. For this reason, a diagnostic should be made as fast as possible. 30 patients with stress fractures, whose 10 with magnetic resonance imaging are presented and the different radiological technics are compared. The magnetic resonance imaging, showing the first modifications inside the medullary cavity, allows a quick diagnosis in very difficult cases, when the other technics have not given the answer.


A radical new work aiming to redefine the relationship between travel and language, focusing on the pivotal bond of language and culture as mediated through translation.An important feature of the Twentieth century has been the enormous growth in travel and the increasing mobility of individuals and groups across societies. A largely neglected aspect of this development has been the relationship of the traveller to language. Across the Lines examines the ways in which language mediates experience across cultures. It assesses a range of travel narratives by writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Dervla Murphy, Eva Hoffman and Jonathan Raban, and uses a theoretical frame of reference taken from socio-lingusitics, literary theory and semiotics. The work looks at what happens to the narrative of travel when the traveller has no grasp of the language spoken and how the status of interpreters, and guidebooks impact on different kinds of travel.Written by one of the leading thinkers in his field, Across the Lines raises concerns, which will be of interest to students and critics of language, translation, travel writing, tourism, and anthropology.


The fabrication of nanowires with axial multiquantum wells or disks presenting a homogeneous size and shape distribution along the whole stack is still an unresolved challenge, despite being essential for narrowing their light emission bandwidth. In this work we demonstrate that the commonly observed change in the shape of the disks along the stacking direction proceeds in a systematic, predictable way. High- resolution transmission electron microscopy of stacked (In,Ga)N quantum discs embedded in GaN nanowires with diameters of ∼40 nm and lengths of ∼700 nm and finite element method calculations show that, contrary to what is normally assumed, this change is not related to the radial growth of the nanowires, which is shown to be negligible, but to the strain relaxation of the whole active region. A simple model is proposed to account for the experimental observations. The model assumes that each disk reaches an equilibrium shape that minimizes the overall energy of the system, given by the sum of the surface and strain energies of the disk itself and the barrier below. The strain state of the barrier is affected by the presence of the disk buried directly below in a way that depends on its shape. This gives rise to a cumulative process, which makes the aspect ratio of each quantum disk to be smaller compared to the disk grown just before, in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations. The obtained results imply that strain relaxation is an important factor to bear in mind for the design of multiquantum disks with controlled shape along the stacking direction in any lattice mismatched nanowire system.


Abstract Parenteral options for treating neonatal hypoglycemia (NH) include: intramuscular (i.m.) glucagon or intravenous (i.v.) glucose 10%. So far, the role of i.m. glucagon in treating NH has not been adequately assessed. We retrospectively studied 236 neonates with NH. One hundred and twenty-one infants received oral glucose-fortified-milk-based formula (OGFM) and their blood glucose level (BGL) was maintained thereafter. Two groups of infants required intervention: (a) OGFM + i.m. glucagon (n = 77, 32.6%) and (b) OGFM + i.v. glucose bolus (n = 38, 16.1%). BGL1, BGL2 and BGL3 denote pre-treatment BGL, 2–2.5 h post-treatment and BGL within 2.5–4 h post-treatment; respectively. The two groups were compared regarding two outcome measures: Outcome no. 1: BGL2 ≥ 45 mg/dL and outcome no. 2: BGL3 ≥ 45 mg/dL. Compared to i.v. glucose, the i.m. glucagon group had significantly more infants with BGL2 ≥ 45 mg/dL (40% vs. 76%, p = 0.028), and marginal significant difference regarding BGL3 ≥ 45 mg/dL (62% vs. 77%, p = 0.08). Univariate analysis showed that i.m. glucagon, male gender, vacuum extraction, cesarean delivery and one or more NH risk factors were significantly associated with outcome measure no. 1. I.m. glucagon, small for gestational age status, cesarean delivery, BGL1 and NH risk factors were associated with outcome measure no. 2. Multi-variate analysis showed that i.m. glucagon was significantly and independently associated with BGL2 ≥ 45 mg/dL. I.m. glucagon is worth consideration as a treatment option for NH.


Objective. To evaluate the feasibility of prenatal power Doppler imaging of pulmonary arteries in congenital diaphragmatic hernia and to study its potential to predict outcome. Methods. A prospective observational study was conducted. Forty‐two cases of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (32 left and 10 right) without associated anomalies were analyzed. Qualitative evaluation of pulmonary vasculature was based on power Doppler imaging performed at 26 to 38 weeks. The pulmonary arteries were studied in the lung contralateral to the hernia. Pulmonary Doppler angiography was considered satisfactory when 3 levels of bifurcation defining 3 distinct segments of the pulmonary arteries were imaged and was otherwise considered poor. We also recorded the gestational age at diagnosis, side of the hernia, abdominal circumference below the third percentile, amniotic fluid volume, lung/thoracic area ratio, left/right ventricle ratio, and, in left‐sided hernias, stomach position, and we carried out a multivariate analysis to determine the contribution of each factor to predict neonatal mortality. Results. More than 3 divisions of the fetal pulmonary arteries were imaged in 20 cases; 1 or 2 divisions or none were imaged in 22. Neonatal mortality was significantly greater when fewer than 3 divisions of the pulmonary arteries were imaged (18 [82%] of 22) than when 3 divisions could be identified on power Doppler imaging (5 [25%] of 20; P = .0005). However, the lung/thoracic area ratio was the only factor that remained significantly associated with mortality in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions. An altered pulmonary power Doppler image is associated with neonatal mortality, but estimation of the lung area remains the best predictor of neonatal outcome.


Adhesion between soft matter is a universal mechanical problem in bio-engineering and bio-integration. The Johnson–Kendall–Roberts (JKR) method is widely used to measure the work of adhesion and work of separation between soft materials. In this study, the JKR theory is recaptured and three complementary dimensionless parameters are summarized to help design adhesion measurement experiments compatible with the JKR theory. The work of adhesion/separation between two commonly used soft elastomers, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, Sylgard® 184) and Ecoflex® 0300, is measured by the JKR method using a dynamical mechanical analyzer. Effects of base polymer to curing agent mixing ratio and solvent extraction are examined. A unified adhesion mechanism is proposed to explain the different adhesion behaviors. It is concluded that chain–matrix interaction is the most effective adhesion mechanism compared with chain–chain or matrix–matrix interactions. Chain–chain interaction obstructs chain–matrix interaction as it either blocks or entangles with surface chains which could have interacted with the matrix.


A technique is presented to invert first-arrival time using simulated annealing. The scheme is based on an extremely fast finite-difference solution of the Eikonal equation to compute the first-arrival time through the velocity models by the multistencils fast marching method. The core of the simulated annealing, the Metropolis sampler, is applied in cascade with respect to shots to significantly reduce computer time. In addition, simulated annealing provides a suite of final models clustering around the global solution and having comparable least-squared error to allow determining uncertainties associated with inversion results. The capability of this inversion technique is tested with both synthetic and real experimental data sets. The inversion results show that this technique successfully maps 2-D velocity profiles with high variation. The inverted wave velocity from the real data appears to be consistent with cone penetration test (CPT), geotechnical borings, and standard penetration test (SPT) results.


Electricity systems around the world are changing, with the Paris Agreement of 2015 a catalyst for much of this current change.1 The Australian Government ratified this agreement, by commiting to 26-28% emissions reductions below 2005 levels by 2030.2 Additionally, State governments are adopting more ambitious targets to increase variable renewable energy and focusing on net emissions reductions, while the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) warns of power instabilities and load shedding3. Given the difficulties in reducing emissions in other sectors, reductions in emissions from electricity generation has become the focus of these targets. Natural gas is often referred to as a 'transition fuel' towards a low emissions future, but this requires that it is in abundance and cost competitive. While the majority of the electricity generated in the National Energy Market (NEM) is coal-based, a vast majority of these plants are due to retire gradually between now and 2050, and this generation loss will need to be replaced in the context of low emissions aspirations. How this is done has significant implications for how much the system will cost, with natural gas playing a pivotal role. In order to decarbonise the grid to meet targets, while building firm, dispatchable generation capacity to support the system, a new metric is required to measure success.
 The changing generation mix, along with the need to maintain a competent grid, is resulting in previously acceptable cost comparison metrics being used outside of their limited range of applicability. Electricity generation facilities do not only provide energy, they also provide an array of additional services which are fundamental to maintaining a permanent and reliable electricity supply across the system. These services, corresponding costs and operational implications need to be included in the evaluation of technologies in order to ensure the grids emerge transformed, resilient and genuinely sustainable. Total System Cost is the most appropriate economic metric for analysis and decision making in a future, low emissions grid.
 This paper explores the outputs of the MEGS model (Model of Energy and Grid Services), showing the outcomes if a single technology group is favoured. High renewables, gas and carbon capture and storage scenarios are discussed. The optimal route to power grid decarbonisation needs to be be viewed as a team sport, not a race. It's an "and" not an "or" solution. There's a range of technologies that have very different, yet important, roles to play in providing the pathway to a low emissions, competent and reliable supply at the lowest total system cost.


Low-delay speech coding has drawn much attention because of its many potential applications. A lot of low delay speech coders have been proposed in the past few years. But almost all of them focus on the speech bit rate between 8 kb/s to 16 kb/s. The authors present a low delay speech coder operating at 4.8 kb/s which provides good speech quality with a coding delay only about 2.5 msec. This new low delay coder uses backward LPC analysis to remove the short-term correlation from speech and adopts a new approach to predict the long term prediction (LTP) coefficients based on a "dual-decision" scheme. At the excitation part, the authors exploit a new excitaton model which contains a sinusoid signal codebook and a stochastic codebook to excite the whole speech system. The synthesized speech of this coder has comparable quality to that of FS-1016 CELP coder while having a delay constraint more than an order of magnitude smaller than that of the FS-1016 coder.<<ETX>>


For achieving satisfactory performance of coating layers obtained using the thermal spray technique, pre-treatments are carried out by roughening the smooth surfaces of metals to more than a few tens of μm. Although a surface roughness tester is reliable for quantitatively measuring the surface roughness, it requires expertise and a long measuring time. In the present article, a simple optical method is presented which the authors hope will replace the above surface roughness tester. The proposed method relies on first projecting a narrow beam of light from a light-emitting diode obliquely over the roughened surface, and then on measuring the distortion of the light as observed perpendicular to the surface. Proof-of-principle experiments were performed first against a surface roughness comparator, and then against actual blasted surfaces using both the optical method and the surface roughness tester, yielding the two methods to be in good agreement. Original Research Article


One hundred and six children undergoing antireflux surgery were studied; 41 were severely mentally retarded and 29 had reflux strictures. Although the eventual rate of success was 92%, 20 patients developed complications that required a second operation. Prolapse of the fundoplication into the mediastinum was the commonest complication (in seven patients), followed by intestinal obstruction (in five), and intractable fibrous oesophageal strictures (in five). The incidence of postoperative complications was highest in patients with mental retardation or oesophageal strictures. Referral of these patients for operation was invariably delayed, and earlier referral may have avoided many of the complications.


A novel packaging configuration for high-power phosphor-converting white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) application is reported. In this packaging configuration, a thermal-isolated encapsulant layer was used to separate the phosphor coating layer from the LED chip and the submount. Experimental and finite-element method simulation results proved that this thermal management can prevent the heat of LED chip from transferring to the phosphor coating layer. The surface temperature of the phosphor coating layer is a 16.8degC lower than that of the conventional packaging at 500-mA driver current for 1-mm power GaN-based LED chip. Experimental results also show that this packaging configuration can improve the light-emitting power performance and color characteristics stability of the white LED, especially under high current operating condition.


The antiperinuclear factor, an autoantibody specific for rheumatoid arthritis, was found in 51/63 (81%) patients with rheumatoid arthritis by indirect immunofluorescence on human buccal mucosa cells. The sensitivity of the antiperinuclear factor test was increased by pretreating the buccal mucosa cells with 0.5% Triton-X100. The specificity of the test for rheumatoid arthritis as compared with control serum samples was maintained. The localisation of the perinuclear factor in the keratohyalin granules of the buccal mucosa cells was verified by immunoelectron microscopy. The perinuclear factor was found to be an insoluble protein whose antigenicity was sensitive to various fixation procedures. In serum samples from patients with rheumatoid arthritis there was a positive correlation between the presence of antiperinuclear factor and the presence of the so called antikeratin antibodies as detected by immunofluorescence on unfixed rat oesophagus cryostat sections. No relation was found between the presence of the perinuclear factor and either the rheumatoid factor, Epstein-Barr virus components, or any cytokeratin. By double immunofluorescence an exact colocalisation of the perinuclear factor and profilaggrin was found. Although the precise biochemical identity of the perinuclear factor remains unclear, our results suggest that it is a protein only present in the fully differentiated squamous epithelial cell layer.


The effects of PEG 6000-induced osmotic stress (−0.976 MPa) on the root growth of young plants, and the changes in abscisic acid (ABA), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and NO contents were investigated in the root tips of a drought-tolerant and a drought-sensitive wheat cultivar ( Triticum aestivum L. cvs. MV Emese and GK Élet, respectively). The root length of cv. MV Emese was more effectively reduced than that of GK Élet by osmotic stress. Concomitantly, the ABA content of the 15-mm apical zone of the roots remained at the control level in GK Élet cultivar, but in MV Emese it decreased significantly after the early phase of the experiment, indicating that the accumulation of ABA is necessary for the maintenance of root growth under osmotic stress. The extent of ROS accumulation relative to the respective control was more pronounced in the elongation zone of roots in MV Emese in the later stages of the experiment, while NO concentrations increased significantly early after PEG exposure, suggesting that high concentrations of ROS and NO were unfavourable for root expansion. In contrast, in cv. Élet, the high NO content in the elongation zone declined to the control level under osmotic stress within 4 days. The changes in root growth due to osmotic stress did not exhibit a correlation with the drought tolerance of the genotypes defined on the basis of the crop yield.


The SMEs' limited capacity to acquire information and use sources is a major factor explaining their low level of involvement and performance on export markets. Nonetheless, a small amount of applied research has been undertaken on this subject. We present the results of an inquiry into the impact of information search and competencies on the competitive strategy and export performance of 346 exporting manufacturing SMEs. The research model postulates that the performance of these SMEs is determined by their general competitive strategy, which in turn is explained by the ability of the business to acquire and manage foreign market information. The results of an analysis using a PLS method confirm three of the four hypotheses.


This paper describes a CMOS LNA for Bluetooth/IEEE802.11b front-end receiver in a TSMC 0.18-mum process. The LNA provides a 50Omega input impedance and utilizes a tuned load to provide high selectivity. The LNA achieves a maximum small signal gain of 18.9 dB within 1-dB compression point (iCP1dB) of -13.2 dBm. The LNA acquires an NF of 2 dB with an input return loss of -10.62 dB and an output return loss of -9.6 dB. In the linearity response, the LNA's IIP3 is 2.42 dBm. The LNA consumes 4.3 mA of current from a 1.5-V supply


INTRODUCTION AND METHODS
The role of enterococcus in intraabdominal infection remains controversial. A retrospective study of 473 patients with bowel perforation was conducted to assess the impact of enterococci on outcome of patients with perforation of the small and large bowel.

RESULTS
The overall mean age was 61.4 with a gender ratio of 60/40 (m/f). We detected enterococci in 54% of all patients. In the group of enterococci-positive patients, we found Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) in over 70% and Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) in over 50%. Those in whom we detected enterococci (Pos) had a higher 90-day mortality rate than patients who were enterococci negative (Neg) (29.7%/19.4%, P 0.007). Morbidity, length of stay in intensive care unit (ICU-LOS) and length of stay in hospital (hospital-LOS) were significantly higher in the Pos group. The subgroup of Pos who received specific antimicrobial therapy against these species (Pos-treated) had a higher 90-day mortality rate than the subgroup without specific therapy (Pos-not treated) (35.5%/23.3%, P 0.04). The Pos-not treated group had higher morbidity, ICU-LOS and hospital-LOS than the Neg group. The mortality rate, ICU-LOS and hospital-LOS of immunosuppressed patients (12%) were significantly higher compared with patients not on immunosuppression with similar morbidity. We found a higher rate of E. faecium than in other studies (55.1%). However, we observed no difference in mortality and morbidity between patients infected with E. faecalis and E. faecium. In multivariate analysis, detection of enterococci did not influence mortality. Significant risk factors were age, immunosuppression, specific antimicrobial therapy and anastomotic leakage.

CONCLUSION
Enterococci seem to play a minor role in uncomplicated intraabdominal infections. Our results suggest that enterococci play a role in the severity of postoperative complications. In particular, detection of enterococci in patients with anastomotic leakage are suggested to be an indicator of severe illness. We found significantly higher rates of E. faecium than described before, but no significant differences in clinical outcome between E. faecalis and E. faecium. When empirical therapy against enterococci is recommended, E. faecalis and E. faecium should both be covered.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Better prognosis of cancer including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unsatisfactory due to recurrence and chemoresistance. In this respect it is important to identify molecular targets specific to the disease in order to design effective therapeutic strategies. In the present study, we investigated the prognostic role of Never-in-mitosis-A-related kinase 2 (NEK2) in HCC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fifty HCC patients who underwent hepatectomy were enrolled in the study. NEK2 gene and protein expression was examined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry, respectively.

RESULTS
Higher expression of NEK2 was detected in HCC tumoral compared to adjacent non-tumor tissues (p<0.001), and protein expression was also relatively high in tumor than corresponding non-tumor tissues. Furthermore, high NEK2 expression was positively correlated with hepatic venous invasion (p=0.047), des-gammacarboxy prothrombin (p=0.003), and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) (p=0.024). Patients with high NEK2 expression had significantly poor recurrence-free survival (p=0.042) and early recurrence.

CONCLUSION
Overall, these results suggest that NEK2 could be a promising biomarker for HCC recurrence.


We introduce the concept of instant independence for certain anticipating stochastic processes and take the class of instantly independent stochastic processes as a counterpart of adapted stochastic processes for the Ito theory of stochastic integration. Then we define the stochastic integral of a stochastic process which is a linear combination of the products of instantly independent and adapted stochastic processes. The crucial idea is to use the right endpoints as the evaluation points for the instantly independent factors, while the left endpoints are used for the adapted factors. We prove a special case of Ito's formula for this new stochastic integral and present some examples of stochastic dierential equations.


We have entered an era of massive data sets in astronomy. In particular, the number of supernova (SN) discoveries and classifications has substantially increased over the years from few tens to thousands per year. It is no longer the case that observations of a few prototypical events encapsulate most spectroscopic information about SNe, motivating the development of modern tools to collect, archive, organize, and distribute spectra in general and SN spectra in particular. For this reason, we have developed the Weizmann Interactive Supernova Data Repository (WISeREP)—an SQL-based database (DB) with an interactive Web-based graphical interface. The system serves as an archive of high-quality SN spectra, including both historical (legacy) data and data that are accumulated by ongoing modern programs. The archive provides information about objects, their spectra, and related metadata. Utilizing interactive plots, we provide a graphical interface to visualize data, perform line identification of the major relevant species, determine object redshifts, classify SNe, and measure expansion velocities. Guest users may view and download spectra or other data that have been placed in the public domain. Registered users may also view and download data that are proprietary to specific programs with which they are associated. The DB currently holds more than 8000 spectra, of which more than 5000 are public; the latter include published spectra from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), all of the SUSPECT (Supernova Spectrum) archive, the Caltech-Core-Collapse Program (CCCP), the CfA SN spectra archive, and published spectra from the University of California, Berkeley, SNDB repository. It offers an efficient and convenient way to archive data and share it with colleagues, and we expect that data stored in this way will be easy to access, increasing its visibility, usefulness, and scientific impact. We encourage the SN community worldwide to make use of the data and tools provided by WISeREP and to contribute data to be made globally available and archived for posterity.


As middleware and component technologies lack support of QoS management, so we tried to propose a solution for how a mobile middleware can take up support the QoS management. In order to identify' the QoS mechanisms, that the middleware must manage on behalf of the application, we use a Video Streaming scenario and demonstrate the feasibility of our solution for this scenario. The key concept of our work is the service plan that specifies the service and the QoS of components and compositions. These service plans are user recursively, so that the QoS aware middleware platform can configure and reconfigure applications, based on user requirements and resource availability. Keywords: Qos Management, Mobile Middleware, Video Streaming


ABSTRACT The advent of Web 2.0 has emerged abundant but often unstructured user-generated georeferenced data, such as those from Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) initiatives. In many cases, these data can be considered as complementary to the authoritative geospatial data. With the increasing availability of multi-source geospatial data, the efforts for geospatial data integration have gained momentum, aiming at gathering maximum information to answer sophisticated questions that cannot be answered using a single data source. Although there are various approaches employed for this purpose with different degrees of success, semantic web methods and tools have not been tested sufficiently in this scope, particularly for multi-scale urban building data integration and enrichment. Attempting to fill this gap, in this study, multi-source and multi-scale urban building data were integrated with a geometric matching method based on the overlapping area, then a geospatial ontology was developed to define multi-scale representations and detailed cardinality relations of the building features. Finally, some features from the geospatial ontology were then linked to popular knowledge bases such as DBpedia and YAGO. For the exploitation on the web, query and visualization processes were demonstrated using sample questions. The semantic web enabled to model complex cardinality of relations between the features from three different building data sets using inferencing and Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL). The study showed that integrating different geospatial data sets as a knowledge base can facilitate answering sophisticated questions from different users.


Increased threat of metals simultaneous to the biota well-being and the environs is continually causing a major apprehension worldwide. The phytoremediation technique is highly advantageous involving the natural processes of plants viz., translocation, evapotranspiration, and bioaccumulation, thus degrading contaminants slowly. In particular, nanophytoremediation is a rapid green alternative as it reduces the ancillary impacts of the environment such as green gas emissions, waste generation, and natural resource consumption to the present scenario as there is a great potential of nanoparticles from plants which can be synthesized. Nanophytoremediation is a current methodology for remediation of pollutants, contaminants by using synthesized nanoparticles from plants. In this, the use of different strategies enhances the selective uptake capabilities of plants. The metal elements in excess are affecting the physiological processes in plants; thus, it is necessary to apply nanophytoremediation technology through transgenic plants. In this review paper, we focused on plant species, which can be used as metal tolerant, hyperaccumulators. Due to the insurmountable pressure of a sustainable cleaner environment, bioremediation can be concurrent with nanoparticles for efficient and effective sustainable measures.


Abstract The use of genetics in recent years has brought to light the need to reevaluate the classification of many gorgonian octocorals. This study focuses on two Leptogorgia species—Leptogorgia virgulata and Leptogorgia hebes—from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (GOM). We target complete mitochondrial genomes and mtMutS sequences, and integrate this data with previous genetic research of gorgonian corals to resolve phylogenetic relationships and estimate divergence times. This study contributes the first complete mitochondrial genomes for L. ptogorgia virgulata and L. hebes. Our resulting phylogenies stress the need to redefine the taxonomy of the genus Leptogorgia in its entirety. The fossil‐calibrated divergence times for Eastern Pacific and Western Atlantic Leptogorgia species based on complete mitochondrial genomes shows that the use of multiple genes results in estimates of more recent speciation events than previous research based on single genes. These more recent divergence times are in agreement with geologic data pertaining to the formation of the Isthmus of Panama.


The main problem of learning institutions that prepare futurenursing specialists is to prepare specialists who will get highqualification that correspond to European Union and the country'sjob market needs. The goal of modern education process is theability to look for attainment, to know how to use, estimate, judgeand organize the gained knowledge and to be able to use it inpractice. The aim of this assay is to reveal the approach of generalpractice nursing students to self-dependent work, its educationaland organizational aspects and also to show the elements thatmake students get involved in organizing self-dependent workin order to gain the professional knowledge that is necessary inpractice. The assay revealed the educational aspects that motivatestudents to get involved in organizing self-dependent work actively:self-dependent work that involves getting knowledge for futureprofession, sustentation for student, interdisciplinary integrationof self-dependent tasks, assistance in choosing the subject of selfdependententproject, flexible lecturer's approach to self-dependentproject subjects, choice of groups, giving the reversionary ligament.During the studying process lecturers should pay more attentionto the course of self-dependent work, communication with studentand student groups, collaborate when solving the problems that arecommon for students.


Within the framework of the European earth observation programme Copernicus, a series of Sentinel satellites will be launched. These satellites provide operational sensing capabilities across the whole measurement spectrum, covering a broad range of applications in support to six thematic areas: land, marine, atmosphere, climate change, emergency management and security. Due to their advanced sensing concepts and outstanding spatio-temporal sampling characteristics, the Sentinel satellites will collect more data than any earth observation programme before. Every single day they will acquire several Terabyte of data, which means that over the years they will collect tens of Petabyte of environmental data. Clearly, if one would like to exploit the full wealth of information contained in this enormous data set, it must be possible to process the data over and over again with ever improving algorithms. But this is challenging, as storing, transferring and processing such big and diverse data sets is increasingly facing technological limitations (e.g. the relatively low I/O performance of today's computer platforms). Therefore, the current way of distributing the earth observation data to all interested users over the internet is not practrical, or affordable any longer. Instead, the task will be to "bring the software to data" rather than vice versa. This means that the processing of the Sentinel data will increasingly have to take place in large data centres or in the "cloud". Having recognised this problem early on, there are already several organisations and initiatives worldwide that prepare for the uptake of massive Sentinel data steams into their existing or planned Big Data infrastructures. The scope of this paper is to provide a brief overview of these initiatives, with a predominantly European perspective. The discussion highlights the need for increased cooperation and networking to maximise the tangible outputs and social benefits of the Sentinel programme.


Oxidant-induced alveolar epithelial cell (AEC) apoptosis is implicated in mediating lung injury, fibrosis, and malignant transformation by mechanisms that are not fully established. We previously reported that oxidative stress (eg, amosite asbestos or H2O2) induces mitochondria-regulated AEC apoptosis and that overexpression of a mitochondria-targeted DNA repair enzyme, human 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase 1 (mt-hOgg-1), is protective. In this study, we explore the mechanism underlying the protective effects of mt-hOgg-1 (kind gift of Dr. M. Gillespie). We find that the protective effects are not due to redox activity of mt-hOgg-1 since, compared with empty vector controls, mt-hOgg-1 overexpressing A549 cells did not alter asbestos-induced ROS production as assessed by either DCF fluorescence or an adenovirally expressed redox sensor (ro-GFP) targeted to the mitochondria. As expected, mt-hOgg-1 enhanced DNA repair assessed by an 8-oxoG incision assay (1.7 ± 0.2-fold vs control; p < .05). Both asbestos and H2O2 reduced mitochondria (mt)-aconitase activity and protein expression, but, notably, these effects were completely blocked in mt-hOgg-1 over-expressing A549 cells. Immunoprecipitation studies show that hOgg-1, similar to frataxin, coprecipitates with mt-aconitase. We also found that hOgg-1 mutants that completely lack 8-oxoguanine DNA repair activity (V317, Long AB; kind gift of Dr. V. Bohr) blocked oxidant-induced caspase 9 activation and DNA fragmentation comparable to wild-type hOgg-1. We conclude that mt-hOgg-1 has a dual function as a DNA repair protein as well as a mt-aconitase chaperone. These data suggest a novel role of Mt-hOgg-1 preservation of AEC mitochondria aconitase in the pathogenesis of oxidant-induced lung toxicity. Funding: VA Merit Award (DK), NIH-HL67835-01 (GRSB).


There is a long history of direct translation of propositional Horn-clause logic programs into neural networks. The possibility of translating first-order logical syntax in the same way has been largely overlooked, perhaps due to a "propositional fixation" fixation! We briefly revise the possibility and advantage of translating existentially and universally quantified clauses into
a neural form that follows the first-order syntax in a natural way


To store and manage data efficiently is the critical issue which modern information infrastructures confront with. To accommodate the massive scale of data in the Internet environment, most common solutions utilize distributed file systems. However there still exist disadvantages preventing these systems from delivering satisfying performance. In this paper, we present a Name Node cluster file system based on HDFS, which is named Clover. This file system exploits two critical features: an improved 2PC protocol which ensures consistent metadata update on multiple metadata servers and a shared storage pool which provides robust persistent metadata storage and supports the operation of distributed transactions. Clover is compared with HDFS and its key virtues are shown. Further experimental results show our system can achieve better metadata expandability ranging from 10% to 90% by quantized metrics when each extra server is added, while preserving similar I/O performance.


Many researchers claim that inquiry-based learning offers proper solutions to engage students in the 3D virtual world (3DVW), while little literature has reported how to conduct inquiry-based learning and to what extent it influences learning in this world. This study investigates the perceived effectiveness when students exhibit in the inquiry-based learning compared with the standard learning in the 3DVW. Forty-eight students voluntarily participate in the experiment. Half of them learn in the inquiry-based environment, and the other half learn in the standard environment. The effectiveness is measured by the perceived experience and perceived knowledge gains. The data is analyzed by combining the quantitative with qualitative approaches. The results show students who exhibit in the inquiry-based environment perceive more effectiveness than those who don't. Also, the reasons why students perceive in the way are obtained. This study indicates the inquiry-based learning conducted in the 3DVW can effectively enhance learning.


We present a simple, yet flexible parameter synthesis approach for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). The user defines the behavior of a CPS, a set of (un)safe states, and a generic template for an invariant using Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) formulas. Counterexample-Guided Inductive Synthesis (CEGIS) is then used to compute values for open parameters and a concrete invariant to prove that all unsafe states are unreachable. We present a proof-of-concept tool, optimizations, and first experiments.


A description is given of a low background proportional counter system suitable for the examination of long-lived radioactive isotopes occurring in nature, or of other artificially produced isotopes with a low specific disintegration rate. An investigation of neodymium shows no evidence for the reported beta-activity and it is concluded that Nd[150] is stable against single beta decay. A slight alpha-activity, which may be characteristic of Nd[144] is observed. No experimental proof of instability in either of the 'neighbouring' isobars Re[187] and Os[187] is found. Since recent geophysical work suggests that Re[187] is beta-active, it is concluded from the results of the study that the energy of the electrons released in the transition is very small, of the order of 1 Kev or less. Assuming a first-forbidden transition this suggests that the half-life of Re[187] is 10[11] years or greater. The emission of a low intensity L x-radiation from heavy elements, under bombardment by cosmic or other background radiation, is noticed. The effects on the ultimate sensitivity of the proportional counter and some methods of mitigating the interference are considered. The radio-active transitions undergone by Lu[176] are studied in detail. The beta decay is found to have a half-life of (4.13 +/- 0.20) x 10[10] years and seems most likely to correspond to a third-forbidden transition with a spin change of 4 units. The maximum energy of the beta spectrum is 425 +/- 15 Kev. The energies of the three excited states of Hf[176], occupied in succession by the decaying nucleus, confirm predictions from the Bohr-Mottelson rotational model of the nucleus. Strong electron peaks from the internal conversion of the 89 Kev gamma ray of Hf[176] and internal conversion electrons from 190 +/- 10 Kev and 310 +/- 10 Kev gamma rays permit classification of the transitions as E.Q. The intensity of the L x-ray emission from Lutetium is consistent with the presence of an electron capture mode of decay, amounting to (9 +/- 1) % of the beta transitions. Some evidence for the emission of gamma rays following electron capture in Lu[176] is demonstrated. The ratio of the rates of emission of gamma rays and beta rays from K[40] is re-measured. Two separate investigations give values of 0.124 +/- 0.002 and 0.121 +/- 0.004 respectively, confirming the discrepancy between recent physical and geological work on the K[40] radio active transition. The half-life of the isotope is estimated to be (1.28 +/- 0.02) X 10[9] years. The energy of the gamma ray is confirmed to be 1.46 +/- 0.01 Kev. New coincidence experiments to check the accepted decay scheme of K[40] are described. Experiments to determine the amount of backscattering of electrons and positrons from thick sheets of steel and aluminium into 2pi solid angle are also treated.


This article analyzes some changes in the lifestyles of women, with the claim that their "modern" character falls within the scope of the objective culture, i.e., they encompass the entire human condition, enabling us to interpret and understand better the transformations of all human beings. After the first part, which considers the co-relation of modernity and socio-cultural changes, the argumentation focuses on some of the thematic-conceptual themes (work, family and romantic love) that characterize the current lifestyle of women and, consequently, society as a whole.


Abstract Experimental data on the effects of lifestyle interventions on fetal neurodevelopment in humans remain scarce. This study assessed the impact of a pregnancy nutrition+exercise intervention on offspring neurodevelopment at 12 months of age. The Be Healthy in Pregnancy (BHIP) randomized controlled trial (RCT) randomly assigned pregnant persons with stratification by site and body mass index (BMI) to bi-weekly nutrition counselling and high dairy protein diet, walking goal of 10,000 steps/day plus usual prenatal care (UPC; intervention group) or UPC alone (control group). This study examined a subset of these mothers (> 18 years, singleton pregnancy, BMI <40 kg/m2, and enrolled by ≤12 weeks gestation) and their infants (intervention = 42, control = 32), assessing cognition, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive functioning at 12 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development third edition (BSID-III) as the outcome measure. We also examined if maternal factors (prepregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain (GWG)) moderated associations. Expressive language (MD = 9.62, 95% CI = (9.05–10.18), p = 0.03, ƞ2p = 0.07) and general adaptive composite (GAC) scores (MD = 103.97, 95% CI = (100.31–107.63), p = 0.04, ƞ2 p = 0.06) were higher in infants of mothers in the intervention group. Effect sizes were medium. However, mean cognitive, receptive language, motor, and social-emotional scale scores did not differ between groups. A structured and monitored nutrition+exercise intervention during pregnancy led to improved expressive language and general adaptive behavior in 12-month-olds, but not cognitive, receptive language, motor, or socioemotional functioning. While these experimental data are promising, further research is needed to determine the clinical utility of nutrition+exercise interventions for optimizing infant neurodevelopment.


Inflammation and angiogenesis are of importance in the pathophysiology of sickle cell disease (SCD). Recently, the chemokine stromal-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) has been shown to be a key mediator of angiogenesis and inflammation. In this study we determined serum SDF-1 levels in consecutive adult sickle cell patients during the clinically asymptomatic state as well as during painful crisis. Serum SDF-1 levels were significantly elevated in HbSS/HbSβ⁰-thalassaemia patients [n = 42; 5,177 pg/ml (2,438–7,246)] compared to HbSC/HbSβ+-thalassaemia patients [n = 16; 2,405 pg/ml (1,365–3,047)] and healthy HbAA controls [n = 45; 2,894 pg/ml (2,577–3,334)] (p = 0.001). No significant increments were observed during painful crisis (n = 40). SDF-1 levels were significantly higher in SCD patients with pulmonary hypertension (PHT) compared to patients without PHT. Elevated circulating SDF-1 levels occur in patients with SCD and may play a role in the pathophysiology of SCD-related PHT.


Oxidative stress is intensive cellular oxidation caused by redundant reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals. Redundant ROS causes DNA fracture, lipid peroxidation and protein inactivation, thus leading to severe cell damage. Recent studies have shown that hydrogen is a good anti-oxidant. It selectively reduces the hydroxyl radical, the most cytotoxic of ROS; however, it does not react with other ROS, which play physiological roles. As a result, it could protect tissues against oxidative stress injuries, such as ischemia/reperfusion injury of the heart, liver and intestine, cisplatin nephrotoxicity, sepsis and colon inflammation. As a medical gas, hydrogen may have a prospect for far-reaching clinical application.


Objective. To determine the validity and usefulness of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) for diagnosing left ventricular dysfunction (LVD). Design. Prospective, descriptive, multi-centred study to validate the diagnostic test. Setting. Primary care centres in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Participants. Consecutive sample of patients at high risk of presenting with LVD. Interventions. Data will be gathered from anamnesis, physical examination, ECG, and chest x-ray to find the risk factor(s) for LVD and the presence or absence of symptoms of congestive heart failure according to the Framingham scale. BNP will be determined at PC clinics in all patients who meet the inclusion criteria, using the "triage BNP test." All patients included in the study will be referred to an echocardiography service for an echocardiogram, which will be the gold standard test. Two independent cardiologists will evaluate the echocardiograph without knowing the BNP values. Main measurements. BNP concentrations will be compared against the kind and degree of LVD. ROC curves analysis will test the capacity of BNP to diagnose LVD. Optimal sensitivity and specificity value will be calculated by means of the position on the curve resulting from the minimum distance at the cut-off point for best sensitivity and specificity. Then, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values will be calculated. Discussion. BNP can complement the information provided by other diagnostic tests. It should be included as an important factor in the taking of clinical-therapeutic decisions.


The fabrication and properties of GaAs tunnel diodes are described. The material preparation is discussed; devices are described which have been fabricated consistently with peak to valley current ratios > 15:1, with voltage swings in the range from 0.9 to 1.2, and with current densities from 2000 amp/cm2 to over 10,000 amp/cm2 (and with correspondingly low capacitances, e.g., capacitances as low as 0.2 μμf/ma and g/C figures of merit as high as 5×1010 sec-1). The temperature behavior of typical units is presented. Applications particularly well suited to GaAs units are mentioned.


This paper reports on the damage of Wushi Bridge in a recent Taiwan 921 earthquake. Damage to Wushi Bridge appeared in the superstructure, substructure, and approaches. Typical types of damage are discussed and illustrated in this paper. A review of the bridge design specifications in Taiwan is also presented to give the background on the seismic design of Taiwan highway bridges.


Kebar grass contains active antioxidants and potential vitamins to neutralize TCDD toxicity. Prove that Kebar grass extract in various dosage can maintain viability, motility, and sperm concentration of male mice exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. This study was an experimental laboratory study with five groups consists of Negative Control (C-), Positive Control (K +) with TCDD exposure of 0.7μg/Kg BW IP single dose. The treatment group was given oral Kebar grass extract for 53 days treatment 1 (T1) with a dose of 0.045 mg / g BB, Treatment 2 (T2) with a dose of 0.08 mg/g/BW, and Treatment 3 (T3) with a dose of 0.135 mg/g/BW. The data of motility, viability, and concentration of spermatozoa obtained were analyzed using One Way Anova test and Duncan Multiple Range Test. Administration of Kebar Grass Extract at a dosage of 0.135 mg/g/BW showed a significant difference between the control group and the treatment group (p<0.05). Exposure to TCDD in C+ decreased motility (13 ± 6.70%), viability (28 ± 19.35%), and concentration (0.87 ± 0.64 cells / mm3) of sperm significantly compared to C-. The administration of Kebar grass extract can maintain motility (74 ± 5.47%), viability (76 ± 2.72%), and concentration (2.50 ± 0.69 cells/mm3) spermatozoa in the T3 group with a dose of 0.135mg/g/BW. Kebar grass extract is effective for maintaining the quality of mice sperm from damage due to exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin.


Much recent attention has been paid to quantifying anatomic and functional neuroimaging on the individual subject level. For optimal individual subject characterization, specific acquisition and analysis features need to be identified that maximize interindividual variability while concomitantly minimizing intra‐subject variability. We delineate the effect of various acquisition parameters (length of acquisition, sampling frequency) and analysis methods (time course extraction, region of interest parcellation, and thresholding of connectivity‐derived network graphs) on characterizing individual subject differentiation. We utilize a non‐parametric statistical metric that quantifies the degree to which a parameter set allows this individual subject differentiation by both maximizing interindividual variance and minimizing intra‐individual variance. We apply this metric to analysis of four publicly available test‐retest resting‐state fMRI (rs‐fMRI) data sets. We find that for the question of maximizing individual differentiation, (i) for increasing sampling, there is a relative tradeoff between increased sampling frequency and increased acquisition time; (ii) for the sizes of the interrogated data sets, only 3‐4 min of acquisition time was sufficient to maximally differentiate each subject with an algorithm that utilized no a priori information regarding subject identification; and (iii) brain regions that most contribute to this individual subject characterization lie in the default mode, attention, and executive control networks. These findings may guide optimal rs‐fMRI experiment design and may elucidate the neural bases for subject‐to‐subject differences. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1986–1997, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Abstract. Urban infrastructure deals with various objects, such as multi-floor buildings, underground utilities, and other typical two-dimensional (2D) geographic information system (GIS) objects. Currently, Oman and Qatar authorities attempt to manage and handle all these spatial objects and features via spatial data infrastructure (SDI). Qatar has a long tradition of applying SDI, while Oman has made rapid progress in building SDI according to the current practices in this field. Governments in both countries work toward smart cities and e-government to meet the fourth industrial revolution requirements. Current literature, indicate that SDI could be considered a major building block for such smart initiatives in the near future. This paper describes the status and challenges of developing SDI (including 3D SDI) for Oman and Qatar. We anticipated these 2D and 3D SDI initiatives would eventually provide future direction for the smart city and e-government. The current status and challenges form major discussions of this paper. It also discusses 3D SDI development. This paper ends by describing a framework for implementing the 3D SDI. The outcomes could significantly improve the awareness for developing 3D SDI in Oman and Qatar.


The leaves of Buchanania Lanzan (Anacardiaceae) are reported to be of great medicinal importance. Isolation of chemical constituents was carried out from the leaves of Buchanaia lanzan, an evergreen member of the family anacardiaceae, using column chromatography. Identification of chemical constituents was done by MP, IR, NMR & LC-MS techniques. Three compounds ie pinitol, vomicine and celidoniol were isolated from the methanolic extract. These findings are useful in establishing a relationship between chemical composition of the leaf extract and previously reported activities of B. lanzan and also may assign a new potential role of B. lanzan extract in human health care.


Pre-germination treatments represent the physiological methods that improve plant production by modulating the metabolic activities of germination before the emergence of the radicle. It was suggested that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a crucial role in signalling seed germination. Our work consisted in studying changes in the redox status in the embryonic axis (radicle and plumule) and in cotyledons of Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. non-primed, osmoprimed (30% PEG6000), hydroprimed or twice hydroprimed seeds, by estimating antioxidant activities and production of ROS. Some antioxidant enzymatic activities as well as total non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity were measured. The production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide anion (O2-) was also assessed by 3,3'-diaminobenzidine (DAB) and nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) respectively. The results obtained showed, on the one hand, that priming allows activation of antioxidant enzymes, especially in the plumule. On the other hand, these results showed that priming caused an accumulation of ROS in embryonic tissues. This may explain the improvement of seed germination performance according to the oxidative window model. Priming induced changes in the redox environment at the seed level. These changes were closely related to the pre-germination treatments. Indeed, a double cycle of hydration-rehydration induced the broadest spectrum of modifications of the redox status, which would explain the improvement of the seed vigour.


The emergence of the novel human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has caused a worldwide epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which markedly affected the global health and economy. Both uncontrolled viral replication and proinflammatory cytokine storm can cause severe tissue damage in COVID-19 patients. SARS-CoV-2 utilizes angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as its entry receptor. In this study, we generated ACE2 extracellular domain-Fc and scFv-IL6R-Fc fusion protein to differentially neutralize virus and temper cytokine storm. The hACE21-740-Fc fusion protein showed potent inhibitory effect on pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 entry and good safety profile in mice. The scFv-IL6R-Fc showed strong blockade effect on IL-6 signal activation. In addition, we established a mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-based hACE21-740-Fc and scFv-IL6R-Fc delivery strategy, which provided a potential rapid option for urgent clinic therapeutic need of COVID-19 patients.


We propose an effective algorithm based on subdivision surface representation for reconstruction of the human body from the data of a two-view body scanner. In the case that the scan data can be grouped into front and back views, we firstly rearrange the data by resampling in the frontal projection plane, and triangulate each set of data points followed by zippering the front and back contours with an Add—Delete method to create an initial mesh. Then the initial mesh is simplified to produce a control mesh as the base of a subdivision surface. Finally, the control mesh is optimized by fitting its subdivision surface to the original data, and, accordingly, a piecewise smooth body model is reconstructed. Experimental results show that the algorithm is capable of gap and hole filling, is robust to noise, and is computationally efficient.


Microarrays are widely used to study changes in gene expression in diseases. In this paper, we use this technology to discover gene expression patterns in the cold syndrome in Chinese medicine. We identify differentially expressed genes and extracted gene modules that are enriched with differentially expressed genes in the cold syndrome by analyzing cDNA samples, which are purified from blood taken from a pedigree. Our results suggest that the cold syndrome might be caused by the physiological imbalance and/or the disorder of metabolite processes. The study confirms the hypotheses about molecular pathways responsible to human metabolic-related diseases.


The objectives of this study were to develop and validate an equal-interval measure of neurologic impairment from the International Standards for Neurological and Functional Classification of Spinal Cord Injury Patients developed by the American Spinal Injury Association. These standards were used to rate impairment at admission and discharge to Model System facilities. The results demonstrate that the standards fulfill their purpose of characterizing sensory-motor impairment. Developed was a self-scoring key that rehabilitation clinicians can use to obtain a measure of severity that combines sensory and motor level ratings and completeness classifications to describe impairment more precisely and illustrate the magnitude of reductions in impairment. This measure can be used to monitor improvement over time and compare severity across individuals or groups.


Angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma (AFH) is a rare soft tissue tumor that is most commonly reported to arise in the subcutaneous tissues of the upper extremities in adolescents and young adults. At present, the WHO classifies this neoplasm as a tumor of uncertain differentiation. AFH is most often clinically regarded as a tumor of intermediate risk due to low reported rates of recurrence and only rare occurrences of metastases. Its histomorphological hallmarks are a prominent lymphoid cuff surrounding a spindle cell neoplasm with syncytial-appearing cytoplasm. Several variant morphologies have been described. Genetically, the tumor is characterized by translocations involving the EWSR1 gene in over 90% of cases. A widening range of anatomical locations and morphological variants of AFH has been reported in the literature; however, neither anatomic location nor specific morphologic features have been shown to correlate with clinical/biological behavior. We report a unique case of AFH arising in the parenchyma of the breast. The neoplasm showed the typical histomorphology including a peripheral lymphoid cuff. The lesional cells in this case were found to be immunoreactive with desmin, and a positive EWSR1 result was confirmed by break-apart fluorescence in situ hybridization testing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of AFH arising in the breast parenchyma of a postmenopausal female.


The relationship of ovarian reserve parameters to fertility in mammalian females continues to be debated. We demonstrated improved uterine function, creating an environment that is more supportive of early embryonic development in beef heifers with increased numbers of follicles. In the present study we hypothesized that timing of luteolysis differs between heifers with increased compared to heifers with diminished numbers of follicles. Angus heifers (n = 20/ group) were classified as low (14.7 ± 1.1) or high (32 ± 1.1) antral follicle number based on ovarian ultrasonography, and artificially inseminated (d0) following a Select Synch protocol. At d16 after insemination, heifers were slaughtered, and reproductive tracts collected. Tracts were flushed with 20 mL of physiological saline to determine pregnancy status by presence of a conceptus and endometrial samples from the horn ipsilateral to the CL were frozen for determination of transcript abundance. Real-time RT-PCR was performed to determine relative transcript abundance of oxytocin receptor (OXTR) and interferon-stimulated gene-15 (ISG15) with glyceraldehyde-3-phospate dehydrogenase as the endogenous reference gene. Transcript abundance was analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS with follicle group, pregnancy status and the interaction as fixed effects. Transcript abundance of ISG15 was greater in pregnant endometrium than non-pregnant endometrium (2.75 ± 0.25 vs 0.16 ± 0.22-fold; P < 0.0001) with no influence of follicle group or the interaction. The interaction of follicle group and pregnancy status influenced OXTR transcript abundance (P = 0.06). Luteolytic mechanisms were activated in non-pregnant heifers with diminished numbers of follicles (1.46 ± 0.25-fold) and were not activated in pregnant heifers (0.06 ± 0.22-fold) or heifers with increased numbers of follicles that were not pregnant (0.32 ± 0.30-fold). These data indicate a wider window of recognition of pregnancy in beef heifers with increased numbers of ovarian follicles. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.


Environmental context. Atmospheric particles play an important role in the global climate system; they contribute to the radiation balance directly, but they also have an indirect effect by modifying cloud properties and influencing precipitation. Over the Southern Ocean, nanometre-sized particle production is believed to be largely natural, although the processes that lead to these particles are not well understood. This work provides new observations of atmospheric nanoparticles, and shows that they arise from diverse sources of production. Abstract. This paper presents analyses of a two-year record of aerosol measurements made at the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (CGBAPS) in Tasmania covering the period 1999 and 2000. The focus of the study is nanoparticles, defined here as particles with diameter Dp, in the range 3 ≤ Dp ≤ 12 nm; with the number concentration determined using two condensation particle counters, a TSI 3025 UCPC (Dp ≥ 3 nm) and a TSI CN3760 (Dp ≥ 12 nm). Total aerosol (Dp ≥ 3 nm) and nanoparticle concentrations were examined for three broad air mass origins, namely 'Baseline' or background maritime, continental Australia and Tasmanian air masses. Total median aerosol concentrations in the Baseline, continental and Tasmanian sectors typically ranged from 100 to 900, 1300 to 1900 and 500 to 1200 cm–3, respectively. The median ranges for the nanoparticle concentrations were 50–350 cm–3 in Baseline air, 150–450 cm–3 in continental air and 100–300 cm–3 in Tasmanian air. While the total aerosol concentrations in the three sectors were quite different, the nanoparticle concentrations were less so. Nanoparticle diurnal concentrations showed substantial differences between the three sectors, indicative of different aerosol sources or precursor sources in the regions designated by these wind sectors.


The study proposes the analysis of the necessity for the Romanian firms' management to modernize in order to increase economic productivity within the European economic market. The approach will tackle the most important aspects regarding labor market evolution, the necessity of a performanceoriented management and leadership efficiency. A distinctive space will be devoted to organizational communication mechanisms, in the newly created conditions due to the penetration of the occidental-type organizational culture, especially through the multinational companies. Main changes in the labor market, at a global level, are the consequence of the new migration wave of the work force, registered after 1989, from and to the ex-communist countries, and to the adhesion of a part of these states, including Romania, to the European Union. All these evolutions impose a new organizational type, a new management, but also a new type of employee, selected upon his/her competences.


The UKIRT Wide Field Camera (WFCAM) is an IR mosaic camera that represents an enormous leap in deep IR survey capability. It will be used as both an open time facility, and to perform a public IR Deep Sky Survey (the UKIDSS project), starting in early 2004. Here we present current plans for the data archive system, which will be provided as a standard service for all UK WFCAM data whether private or public survey data. The data rate is an order of magnitude larger than any previous survey experiment. WFCAM is therefore a crucial stepping stone between current day surveys such as SuperCOSMOS, APM and SDSS, and future facilities such as VISTA and the LSST. Pipeline processing presents a technical challenge, but the strongest challenges come in operation and curation of such a pipeline and of the rapidly accumulating database. For the public archive, there is little technical challenge in simply storing the data, and the real challenge comes in the rapidly increasing expectations of the user community for the kind of on-line services available with the archive. We describe three levels of archive service and the challenges they present, and discuss the hardware and software solutions we are likely to deploy.


A key challenge for direct methanol fuel cells is the sluggish reaction kinetics, poor anti-CO poisoning ability, and insufficient Pt utilization of platinum-based catalysts during methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). Herein, we report a facile approach for PtCuNi electrocatalysts with adjustable inner and surface configurations. By judiciously controlling the nucleation/growth kinetics, PtCuNi core-shell alloy nanoparticles (PtCuNi-CS NPs) fortified with a Cu-rich core and a Pt-rich shell are obtained. Especially, PtCuNi-CS NPs show the highest mass activity and specific activity toward MOR, 5.7 and 5.1 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the PtCuNi-CS NPs with a suitable d-band center possess excellent electro-oxidation activity. Additionally, the doping of Cu and Ni atoms endows the PtCuNi-CS NPs with enhanced OH* adsorption. This work provides an effective design strategy to develop Pt-based trimetallic electrocatalysts as efficient anode materials for fuel cell applications.


The effect of water coating of constituent monomers on the optical single-scattering properties of fractal soot aggregates is investigated numerically using core-mantle theory and approximations involving two effective medium theories. A cluster–cluster aggregation algorithm is used to numerically generate fractal aggregates, and the core-mantle Generalized Multi-particle Mie (GMM) method is used to compute the exact single-scattering properties of soot aggregates with water-coated monomers. Comparisons are then made with results obtained using approximations that combine either the GMM method or the Rayleigh–Debye–Gans (RDG) method with either the Maxwell-Garnett or the Bruggeman effective medium approximation (a total of four approximation methods). The optical properties calculated are the extinction and absorption cross sections, the single-scattering albedo, and the phase matrix of water-coated fractal aggregates; these calculations are done for two wavelengths, 0.628 μm and 1.1 μm. Water coating of the fractal aggregates is shown to increase the extinction and absorption cross sections, the single-scattering albedo, and forward scattering, but decrease backward scattering. The combination GMM + Maxwell-Garnett gives approximations that are quite good over a range of coating thicknesses and aggregate size. The combination GMM + Bruggeman performs less well, overestimating the extinction and absorption cross sections and underestimating the single-scattering albedo. In the case of RDG, the better combination is with the Bruggeman approximation, but the errors involved are greater than with the GMM + Maxwell-Garnett combination. Results from simple idealized calculations indicate that the differences between results with the Maxwell-Garnett and Bruggeman approximations should be even larger in cases of aerosol cores that are less absorptive than soot. Copyright 2012 American Association for Aerosol Research


Particulate matter below 2.5 micron (PM2.5) and its existence in atmosphere is observed in most of major cities in India and abroad. Health impacts of such pollutant on human being leading asthma and chronic bronchitis in India in last decade. Pune city in Maharashtra state of India is rapidly emerging as mega city in India due to its urbanization and modernization. Particulate matter and trace elements in it are causing severe effects on people of Pune. In present study, trace elements like lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in PM2.5 at Pune city in Maharashtra, India were measured with the help of PM2.5 sampler and chemical characterization of Pb and Cd was done to determine the concentrations in the ambient air. The source apportionment of Pb and Cd was done by applying US EPA positive matrix factorization model to identify the sources and quantitative distribution of these elements at receptor location of Katraj in Pune city. The main objective was to identify and determine health impacts of Pb and Cd as well as PM2.5. The results of the study shall help urban planners, air quality planners and people of medicine to initiate urban air pollution management in Pune city.


Diagnostic procedure, therapeutic care and degree of follow-up delivered to 1692 lung cancer patients over 2 years (1978–79) in 31 Italian hospitals were reviewed. The data show marked deficiencies in the various indicators analysed: staging by standard methods was recorded only in 13% of patients; reliable histocytologic classification in 54% of patients. A group of commonly accepted protocols was adopted as first-line therapy only in 49% of treated cases; 19% of patients were regularly followed according to standard programs, whereas 49% had been dropped without any information in the charts. Better performance, although not satisfactory, was found in hospitals with oncologic facilities and wards compared to centers without « ad hoc » organizations. The discussion focussed on the limits of organizational measures and efforts to determine widespread improvement in care for a disease such as lung cancer for which real therapeutic gains are still hard to achieve.


ABSTRACT A key cross-examination tactic in trials of child sexual abuse (CSA) is to highlight inconsistencies between sources of information to discredit the complainant's account. The present study examined the prevalence, origin and nature of inconsistencies arising in the cross-examination of complainants in CSA trials. Further, we examined the association between these inconsistencies and the types of question that elicited them in the earlier police interview of the child witness (i.e. open-ended, specific, or leading). Transcripts of videorecorded interviews (evidence-in-chief) of 73 complainants (15 males, 58 females) and subsequent cross-examinations at trial were coded. Results showed that inconsistencies were raised in the cross-examination of 94.5% of complainants; most between what the children said in their police interview versus their cross-examination. A greater proportion of inconsistencies was associated with specific than open-ended questions asked in the police interview. However, open-ended questions were associated with some inconsistencies, perhaps due to the longer answers they elicited. Shorter police interviews relying mainly on open-ended questions may minimise the opportunity for inconsistencies to arise in cross-examinations. Judges and juries require education about inconsistencies that arise from memory's reconstructive nature and lay people's tendency to use these inconsistencies to make inferences about the unreliability of witnesses.


Purpose
In patriarchal settings, cultural barriers continue to influence women's participation in positions of leadership and political authority. This paper aims to explore these findings in light of the theoretical concepts of "hegemonic masculinity" and "patriarchy," which explain gender disparities in the occupancy of political power and leadership positions in Qatar.

Design/methodology/approach
Data from original face-to-face national surveys conducted among subjects in Qatar were used, including 1,611 completed household interviews.

Findings
The findings were consistent with the prevailing patriarchal beliefs present in Qatari society and Arab Gulf States. The analysis showed that there was greater significant support for men holding key leadership and authority positions than women. Individual-level factors were found to have a significant association with attitudes favoring women. Compared to respondents who had never attended school, those who had completed secondary school and those who had partaken in higher education favored having women in leadership roles.

Practical implications
As a means to fix the gender imbalance within the occupancy of positions of political power in Qatar, this study recommends putting substantial efforts into increasing the number of interventions underpinning gender equality through social awareness programs that may improve the public's perceptions. Furthermore, gender-equitable affirmative actions are needed to promote the inclusion of women in power and increase their presence in leadership roles.

Originality/value
This study is among the very few that have theoretically and empirically addressed the issue of women's authority and involvement in key leadership roles in the context of Qatar.


We propose a new algorithm to learn a dictionary for reconstructing and sparsely encoding signals from measurements without phase. Specifically, we consider the task of estimating a two-dimensional image from squared-magnitude measurements of a complex-valued linear transformation of the original image. Several recent phase retrieval algorithms exploit underlying sparsity of the unknown signal in order to improve recovery performance. In this work, we consider such a sparse signal prior in the context of phase retrieval, when the sparsifying dictionary is not known in advance. Our algorithm jointly reconstructs the unknown signal-possibly corrupted by noise-and learns a dictionary such that each patch of the estimated image can be sparsely represented. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our approach can obtain significantly better reconstructions for phase retrieval problems with noise than methods that cannot exploit such "hidden" sparsity. Moreover, on the theoretical side, we provide a convergence result for our method.


Steel is widely used in various applications due to its resistance to mechanical stress and its ductility, as well as having other important features such as weldability, paint adhesion, easy molding and recycling, low cost and ferromagnetic properties. With exposure to humidity and high temperatures, however, rust occurs on the steel surface, causing the material to deteriorate. There are various techniques used to protect steel against corrosion, including Hot-Dip Galvanization, which consists of heating a metallic steel sheet in an oven to approximately 600 oC followed by immersing the sheet in a kettle containing an alloy of molten aluminum, iron and zinc. A rectangular metallic structure, known as an electromechanical immersion tunnel (snout), is used for the transfer of the steel metal sheet from the oven to the bath. It is important to prevent the bath oxidation resulting from the contact of the bath with air (dross) because this phenomenon causes a defect visible in the metallic sheet. This can be minimized by controlling the position of the snout. In this study, a mathematical model was implemented to control the angular and linear position of the snout. The automatic reset mode is activated when the rear roller is replaced, while the automatic mode is always used when there are variations in the zinc bath level. The obtained results confirm the effectiveness of the positioning of the equipment showing a minimization of the time required for new adjustments. This proposal reduces the weight of the scrap generated by 27.54 % and 4.75 % for the formation of PGZN (zinc grains) and PBOR (dross), respectively.


In recent past, lead acid batteries have been by flywheels in the energy storage systems (ESS). The performance of a flywheel energy storage system (FESS) greatly depends on the performance of the supporting bearings. To study the performance of FESS incorporating ball bearings, a test setup was developed consisting of one 20 kg flywheel and two ball bearings. The performance of FESS was evaluated by measuring the time to coasting down of flywheel. With the number of operation of FESS, performance deterioration was observed. The condition monitoring unit, consisting of accelerometer and eddy current proximity sensor, was installed to investigate reason(s) of reduction in the performance. On analyzing acceleration and FFT plots, the failure of bearing(s) was diagnosed. To confirm the failure prediction, the bearing was dismantled and visual inspection was carried out.


The article was devoted to the phenomenon of delisting companies from the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The purpose of the article is to identify the reasons of leaving the Stock Exchange by issuers and to predict trends related to this phenomenon in the future. The article describes reasons found in the official materials of the WSE as well as other direct and indirect factors that influence withdrawal of companies from the stock exchange. In addition, the case study method was used, describing the tender offer for Prime Car Management shares and its regulatory consequences. Based on the analysis, it was found that the domestic Stock Exchange lost its attractiveness for companies from traditional industries and the phenomenon of deleting will continue to intensify with the simultaneous absence of new issuers debuting on the market. An opportunity for the WSE may be technology entities that obtain much higher pricing acceptable by investors.


Objective
Galectin-3 affects tumor progression and cell surface polarization by expressing from the tumor and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Therefore, it may have a role on micropapillary carcinomas (IMPC), which have characteristic morphological features. The aim was to investigate the expression levels of Galectin-3 within tumor and peritumoral CAFs in IMPC, and to compare with expression in invasive ductal carcinomas (IDC).

Materials and Methods
Hematoxylin and Eosin-stained preparations of resection materials examined between 2010-2016 were re-evaluated. Thirty-four IMPC cases and 34 IDC cases with similar molecular subtype distribution to IMPC were compared. Galectin-3 levels were evaluated with a calculated H-score in tumor and semi-quantitatively in CAFs.

Results
While tumoral Galectin-3 expression levels were higher in IMPCs compared to IDCs, there was no difference for Galectin-3 expression in CAFs between the two histologic types. However, there was no significant relationship between tumoral Galectin-3 expression and clinicopathological parameters in IMPCs. When the subjects were divided into two groups, depending on their Galectin-3 status regardless of histological types, the loss of Galectin-3 expression in tumor was found to be related to larger tumor size/advanced pT stage and a greater number of metastatic nodes. Additionally, expression of Galectin-3 in CAFs was found to be associated with distant metastasis.

Conclusion
IMPC showed prominent Galectin-3 expression in tumor compared to IDC. However, independent from the histological type, whereas the loss of Galectin-3 expression in tumor showed an association with larger tumor size and higher number of metastatic axillary lymph nodes, the presence of Galectin-3 expression in CAFs showed an association with distant metastasis.


Abstract Aim The two Opuntia ficus indica seed oil fractions (glyceridic and unsaponifiable) were compared to their biological activities and then assessed with their bioactive compounds. Methods Based on the inhibition concentration at 50 percent (IC50) values, the antioxidant activity of the two fractions was compared with three different tests. The antibacterial activity was assessed by the agar disk diffusion assay against five human pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, the main fatty acids composition and unsaponifiable compounds in Opuntia ficus indica seed oil were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometryand (GC/MS) and NP-HPLC. Results Results showed that antioxidant and antibacterial activities considerably varied depending on the fraction. In fact, unsaponifiable fraction has higher biological activities than the glyceridic ones. The unsaponifiable fraction has stronger effects of scavenging 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and it is more efficient against bleaching of β-carotene than the saponifiable extract, unlike the experimental results of 2,2′-azino-bis3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6- sulfonic acid (ABTS) scavenging test. Furthermore, the unsaponifiable fraction was more efficient against all pathogenic strains specially Escherichia coli. The major fatty acids identified were: linoleic (61.42%), oleic (20.55%) and palmitic acids (11.88%). Such a difference in biological capacities between the two fractions can be explained by the high content of some bioactive compounds in the unsaponifiable fraction. Low level of squalene was present in the seed oil. But high levels of terpenic alcohols (3169 mg/kg) and of coenzyme Q9 (75.3 mg/kg) were detected in the Opuntia seed oil. Conclusion Informations provided through this work are important for the valorization and use of this cactus vegetable oil in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.


This paper proposes a current-control technique with a predictive control method for multilevel inverters. The proposed current-control method adopts a variable sampling point scheme for inductor current sensing. It is able to avoid the switching noise caused by the turn-on or turn-off of power devices. The measured value of the inductor current is used to estimate the inverter output voltage at the next switching period with a simple linear extrapolation to force the output current to follow the current reference. Compared to the conventional predictive current controllers, the proposed control features are as follows: (1) only the inductor current measurement is required, and it is able to achieve a cost-effective and less-complex circuit (the output voltage and current measurements are required for a conventional controller) and (2) the proposed variable sampling technique is designed to avoid the switching noise, thus a robust current-control system can be achieved. Finally, a seven-level cascaded inverter with three DC-AC converter modules was constructed and tested. Analysis, simulations, and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed system.


Background Oil spills can cause severe damage within a marine ecosystem. Following a spill, the soluble fraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is rapidly released into the water column. These remain dissolved in seawater over an extended period of time, even should the insoluble fraction be removed. The vertical distribution of the aromatic hydrocarbon component and how these become transferred is poorly understood in brackish waters. This study examines the vertical distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons having been released from a controlled film of spilled oil onto the surface of brackish water. Methods The study was undertaken under controlled conditions so as to minimize the variability of environmental factors such as temperature and hydrodynamics. The distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was measured in the dissolved and suspended phases throughout the 1 m water column with different intensity of water sampling: 1, 2, 4, 7, 72, 120, 336, 504 and 984 h. Results The total concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ranged from 19.01 to 214.85 ng L–1 in the dissolved phase and from 5.14 to 63.92 ng L–1 in the suspended phase. These hydrocarbons were released immediately following a controlled spill attaining 214.9 ng L–1 in the dissolved phase and 54.4 ng L–1 in the suspended phase near the cylinder bottom after 1–2 h. The 2–3 ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons dominated in the dissolved phase (60–80%), whereas the greater amount of 4–6 ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (55–90%) occurred in the suspended phase. A relatively low negative correlation (rS = –0.41) was determined between the concentration of phenanthrene and suspended matter, whereas a high negative correlation (r = − 0.79) was found between the concentration of pyrene and suspended matter. Despite the differences in the relationships between the concentration ratio and amount of suspended matter the obtained regressions allow roughly to predict the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.


Using harmonized wealth data and a decomposition approach novel to this literature, we identify differences in determinants and in the income profiles of asset and debt portfolios in European and North American countries for two age groups. Younger households' participation decisions in assets are more responsive to income. Family structure plays a significant role in explaining cross-country differences for both cohorts. Debt participation of older households and asset participation of younger households may be particularly responsive to institutions. This could have important implications for policy setting, suggesting a scope for the promotion of asset holdings among younger households and debt holdings to facilitate
consumption smoothing among older households.


A weighted half-normal model is suggested to fit the data collected via line transect technique. The proposed model is appealing since it satisfies the standard assumptions of any reliable model in the scope of line transect technique. It is monotonically decreasing and it has a shoulder at the origin. The estimators of the population abundance that derived under the model were compared with some existing parametric estimators. The simulation results demonstrate the good performances of these estimators over the existing ones in many considered cases.


During a prospective 10-week assessment period, 3238 children aged 1–16 years presented with acute wheeze to Paediatric Emergency Research in the UK and Ireland centres. 110 (3.3%) received intravenous bronchodilators. Intravenous magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) was used in 67 (60.9%), salbutamol in 61 (55.5%) and aminophylline in 52 (47.3%) of cases. In 35 cases (31.8%), two drugs were used together, and in 18 cases (16.4%), all three drugs were administered. When used sequentially the most common order was salbutamol, then MgSO4, then aminophylline. Overall, 30 different intravenous treatment regimens were used varying in drugs, dose, rate and duration.


The design and testing of an S-Band TE/sub 21/ mode coupler is presented. The coupler is used in a simultaneous receive (autotracking)/transmit feed antenna. Theoretical coupler designs and performance are compared with measured test results for a prototype and production unit.


A simple graphical method is described that allows the assessment of a student's progress while learning intravenous cannulation and tracheal intubation. Thirty‐four students were studied during their initial training; 91% of those students who obtained a sufficient number of trials to allow a final assessment to be made met the criterion of 80% success for cannulation and 95% achieved similar success in intubation. Thirty‐one ambulance staff who returned for a 3‐day refresher course were also assessed; 44% (for intravenous cannulation) and 61% (for tracheal intubation) met the 80% success criterion.


Improvements in total elbow arthroplasty during the last 20 years have resulted in clinical outcomes which now are comparable with the results of hip arthroplasty. The main types of prostheses used are unlinked prostheses or semiconstrained hinged prostheses. The unlinked prostheses require the preservation of bone stock and the ability to reconstruct the collateral ligaments to achieve stability. Semiconstrained, hinged prostheses have inherent stability but humeral loosening was initially a problem. Stress transfer through the humeral stem can be reduced by using a prostheses with anterior flanges (Coonrad-Morrey or GSB3). Survivorship analyses beyond 10 years now are becoming available for these prostheses. There has been no universal agreement as to which outcome measure should be used for total elbow replacements. Future developments will include an evolution of principles as understanding of elbow biomechanics progresses. Operative technique is likely to be modified by the development of alignment aids and jigs.