Abstract : Finite pulse length effects are shown to play a major role in the propagation, stability and guiding of intense laser beams in plasmas. We present the quasi paraxial approximation (QPA) to the wave equation that takes finite pulse length effects into account. The QPA is an extension of the usual paraxial approximation. The laser field is shown to be significantly modified for pulses less than a few tens of wavelengths long. A pair of coupled envelope-power equations having finite pulse length effects, as well as relativistic and atomic electron nonlinearities, is derived and analyzed. Short laser pulses propagating in plasma channels are found to undergo an envelope oscillation in which the front of the pulse is always damped while the back initially grows. The modulation eventually damps due to frequency spread phase mixing. In addition, finite pulse length effects are shown to significantly modify nonlinear focusing processes.


Skin cancer has become the most common neoplasm in the United States. With early diagnosis and appropriate management, most skin cancers have an overall 5-year survival rate of 95%. Cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), however, has a significantly higher morbidity and mortality, resulting in 65% of all skin cancer deaths. Although the long-term survival rate for patients with metastatic melanoma is only 5%, early detection of CMM carries an excellent prognosis, with surgical excision often being curative. Primary care physicians can play a critical role in reducing morbidity and mortality from CMM by recognizing patients at risk, encouraging the adoption of risk-reducing behaviors, and becoming adept at identifying suspicious lesions.


Background: Understanding the condition of OSS projects is important to analyze features and predict the future of projects. In the field of demography and economics, health and wealth are considered to understand the condition of a country. Aim: In this paper, we apply this framework to OSS projects to understand the communities and the evolution of OSS projects from the perspectives of health and wealth. Method: We define two measures of Workforce (WF) and Gross Product Pull Requests (GPPR). We analyze OSS projects in GitHub and investigate three typical cases. Results: We find that wealthy projects attract and rely on the casual workforce. Less wealthy projects may require additional efforts from their more experienced contributors. Conclusions: This paper presents an approach to assess the relationship between health and wealth of OSS projects. An interactive demo of our analysis is available at goo.gl/Ig6NTR.


Abstract. The functional significance of renographic delay in excretion observed in connection with chiefly unilateral "physiologic" hydronephrosis of pregnancy was analyzed in 10 cases. The delay was found to be entirely or predominantly due to the reservoir effect of the dilated urinary tract. A moderate reduction of urinary flow on the affected side was suggested to contribute to the impairment in only 3 of the 10 cases. Interpretation of the degree of urinary obstruction as judged by renography should be cautious. This applies especially to the assessment of complete obstruction, which should be diagnosed only after considering the reservoir effect of the dilated tract.


Supply management can be defined as a national program authorized by federal legislation designed to use production control regulations rather than price to match the supply of milk with the demand for milk. A supply management program may be voluntary or mandatory. Voluntary supply management carries an incentive to participate, but mandatory supply management carries a penalty for failure to comply. The comprehensive purpose of supply management is to return to milk producers high enough milk prices to permit average dairy farmers to enjoy a satisfactory standard of living and avoid excess production. Historically, price has been used to balance supply and demand, but the accelerating technological gains in milk production are generating increasing concerns as to whether the rapid restructuring of the dairy farm sector due to supply driven prices is an acceptable consequence of a market-oriented dairy policy. Alternative supply management programs continue to be defined. It is evident from the Canadian experience that production controls can balance supply and demand while achieving significantly higher prices for quota milk. However, negative impacts on demand and farm structure have accompanied the program.


ETFs have established themselves as global financial instruments with a myriad of practical and strategic applications. However, a key test of their long-term staying power will be their relative performance under fire. This article from State Street Global Advisors, the largest U.S. and global manager of ETFs, examines the trading behavior of several bellwether ETFs during some critical periods of market instability.


AIM
To study the effect of a new anti-CD163-dexamethasone conjugate targeting activated macrophages on the hepatic acute phase response in rats.

METHODS
Wistar rats were injected intravenous with either the CD163 targeted dexamethasone-conjugate (0.02 mg/kg) or free dexamethasone (0.02 or 1 mg/kg) 24 h prior to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (2.5 mg/kg intraperitoneal). We measured plasma concentrations of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) 2 h post-LPS and liver mRNAs and serum concentrations of the rat acute phase protein α-2-macroglobulin (α-2-M) 24 h after LPS. Also, plasma concentrations of alanine aminotransferase and bilirubin were measured at termination of the study. Spleen weight served as an indicator of systemic steroid effects.

RESULTS
The conjugate halved the α-2-M liver mRNA (3.3 ± 0.6 vs 6.8 ± 1.1, P < 0.01) and serum protein (201 ± 48 μg/mL vs 389 ± 67 μg/mL, P = 0.04) after LPS compared to low dose dexamethasone treated animals, while none of the free dexamethasone doses had an effect on liver mRNA or serum levels of α-2-M. Also, the conjugate reduced TNF-α (7208 ± 1977 pg/mL vs 21583 ± 7117 pg/mL, P = 0.03) and IL-6 (15685 ± 3779 pg/mL vs 25715 ± 4036 pg/mL, P = 0.03) compared to the low dose dexamethasone. The high dose dexamethasone dose decreased the spleen weight (421 ± 11 mg vs 465 ± 12 mg, P < 0.05) compared to controls, an effect not seen in any other group.

CONCLUSION
Low-dose anti-CD163-dexamethasone conjugate effectively decreased the hepatic acute phase response to LPS. This indicates an anti-inflammatory potential of the conjugate in vivo.


Insect pest management in stored products is facing a crisis due to several serious drawbacks of using insecticides, such as the development of resistance in the treated pest, toxic residues, and the increasing cost of application (Tapondjou et al 2002). Hence it is necessary to develop alternative pest control techniques for protecting stored commodities (Gunasekaran and Rajendran 2005). Toward this end, intensified efforts have lead to an increasing number of research studies to find safe, effective and viable alternatives (Tapondjou et al. 2002). Carbon dioxide gas (CO2) and essential oils from plants have received considerable attention for the control of stored products insects, because of their relative safety to the non-target organisms (AliNiazee 1972; Bekele et al 1996; Juliana and Su 1983; Sudesh et al 1996; Bouda et al 2001).


Galectin-3 is a a beta-galactoside binding protein recently proposed to be a promising presurgical molecular marker for distinguishing benign from malignant thyroid neoplasms. We analyzed galectin-3 expression immunohistochemically in papillary areas of hyperplastic lesions of benign thyroid tissue in comparison with malignant papillary projections of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). A monoclonal antibody to galectin-3 and ABC immunohistochemical technique were used to evaluate galectin-3 expression in 26 cases of benign papillary hyperplasia (8 cases of hyperplastic adenoma, 8 cases of hyperplastic colloid goiter, 10 cases of Graves disease) in comparison with 25 cases of PTC. Immunohistochemical results showed no reactivity for galectin-3 in papillary areas of benign hyperplastic lesions. Strong cytoplasmic galectin-3 immunoreactivity was found in all 25 cases of PTC. These results show that galectin-3 expression is a feature of malignant papillary projections but not of benign papillary hyperplasia. Thus, the immunohistochemical evaluation of galectin-3 might contribute to differential diagnosis between malignant and benign thyroid lesions with papillary projections.


Abstract This study aims to evaluate land use and land cover (LULC) changes and associated impacts in the landscape structure and ecosystem services (ES) value in Lousã municipality, in Central Portugal. The results show that significant changes in LULC were recorded over the study period (1974–2018). Agricultural abandonment, expansion of woodland due to the promotion of the eucalyptus (EU) monoculture (chiefly Eucalyptus globulus), the invasion of exotic species (mainly Acacia dealbata) and the increase of built-up areas are the most significant changes that have shaped the landscapes of the study area. The analysis also revealed that the mean patch size has decreased whereas the number of patches increased. The results showed that although the EU and deciduous forest (DF) increased the ES value, the overall total ES value fell around 10% between 1974 and 2018, mainly due to the decrease in the supply of agricultural goods. Studies of this kind on local rural landscapes are vital when it comes to devising appropriate land management policies for the landscape level by considering the interaction between each element for sustainable development.


Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a bleeding diathesis caused by the production of autoantibodies to factor VIII (FVIII). It manifests as an isolated deranged activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) indicating a defect in the intrinsic coagulation pathway. Herein, we report a case of a 26-year-old woman who presented with hemoperitoneum in the postpartum period following a lower segment Caesarean section (LSCS). AHA carries significant mortality if it remains undiagnosed, and early recognition and measures to eradicate the acquired inhibitors are the mainstays of its management.


A 47-wavelength flat erbium-doped fiber ring laser over whole C-band is experimentally achieved with only 21-dBm output power from erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The spectrum flatness of the multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is investigated.


Needles are used in many surgical procedures such as drug delivery or needle biopsies. One of the key challenges when using needles in these interventions is the placement of the needle. Placement of the needle at the goal position will ensure proper execution of the surgical plan as well as avoid possible complications. This work explores tracking a needle with a piezoelectric sensor embedded at its tip with an ultrasound transducer and a mono-camera. While each of the ultrasound transducer and the monocamera sensors are insufficient on their own, one can uniquely locate the position of the piezoelectric sensor by combining these two sources of sensor information together. The information from each sensor can be processed to determine a geometrical locus on which the piezoelectric sensor must lie. By spatially combining the geometrical loci from the two sensors using an ultrasound calibration process, one can uniquely determine the location of the piezoelectric sensor. An experiment in a water tank was conducted with the computed results compared to ground truth cartesian stage data. An in-plane accuracy measure resulted in errors of 0.63mm and 0.18mm. The relative accuracy measure had a minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of 0.02mm, 2.15mm, 0.61mm, and 0.61mm respectively. Future work will focus on demonstrating this method in more realistic ex vivo scenarios and explore whether our listed assumptions hold.


The in vivo animal antimalarial and in vitro cy extract of Annona senegalensis Pers. (Annonaceae) was vivo antimalarial activity of the methanol extract against using the 4-day suppressive test procedure. The extract antimalarial property that were dose – dependent. At dos produced significant chemosuppression of parasitemia ( It had the highest activity at 800mg/kg weight of mice disphosphate, the standard reference drug which had a ch vitro cytotoxicity evaluations were perfomed using A278 sensitivity assay. Extract of A. senegalensis exhibited 28.8μg/ml. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the p of alkaloids, saponins, tannins and cardiac glycosides. T use of the plant for the treatment of malaria.


A new fabrication method of deeply buried corrugated waveguides is presented. It uses a direct bonding process and allows us to make efficient grating couplers in waveguides. The efficiency of the grating is enhanced by enclosing air in its grooves during the fabrication process. A demonstrator based on a waveguide produced by ion exchange has been fabricated and tested. Theoretical and experimental results are compared.


Levofloxacin (L-ofloxacin) is a fluoroquinolone derivative. It is the active substance contained in ofloxacin with a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. In this work we examined the activity of levofloxacin against the facultative intracellular bacteria Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella typhimurium in vitro, in tissue culture and in animal models of infection. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) MIC90 for Salmonella enterica and L. monocytogenes were 0.078 mg/l and 4 mg/l, respectively. Levofloxacin was bactericidal against L. monocytogenes and S. typhimurium because 8 x MIC killed 90% of the initial inoculum of L. monocytogenes EGD and S. typhimurium LT2 within 4 hours and 3 hours, respectively. Levofloxacin was more effective than ampicillin against L. monocytogenes EGD infecting tissue culture cells. Also in tissue culture cells infected with S. typhimurium LT2, levofloxacin was slightly more effective than ciprofloxacin. In animal models of infection, levofloxacin was as potent as the reference substances. In conclusion, levofloxacin is a candidate for the treatment of infections caused by facultative intracellular Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.


Summary
The next research it was done in finca "El Rosario" that is located in Cuyotenango, Suchitepequez.
This research paper came from the concern of the finca's administration, because of the last results of the performance in the sugar cane's cultivation that were too slow. The best production are found in 90 ton/Ha and the lowest in 70 ton/Ha; it is considered as a low performance 100 ton/Ha (Cencigana) while in the rubber planting there's no uniform stems (from 11 to 17 cm), besides of other judgements that were taken of the diagnose completed during the Professional Supervised of Exercise Practice.
It was considered to realize a ground study, because it allows to know its potential so we can obtain the wanted results, in a way that is efficient and appropriate. Providing technical advice that has been absent of this place.
Because there wasn't a semi-detailed ground study in the property, we couldn´t take in consideration the physical and chemical characteristics of it. Therefore, this information didn't exist to have an irrigation design and a nutritional management of the rubber planting (Hevea brasiliensis) and sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum).
Because of the previously mentioned reasons, there was a ground division in a semi-detailed level (1:20,000) that at the end generated a publication map at a scale of (1:10,000) and presenting physical and chemical characteristics, ground fertility levels and irrigation classification.
In order to do this research, initially it was scanned the area of study, and a ground's physical study it was realized also, so it could be determined the easy identification parameters in the field; like the texture, structure, color and effective deepness, stoniness, are some that could be mentioned and that was essential to classify the grounds with uniform characteristics and set sampling points, with help of a Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate the correct place where the ground
samples where subtracted and sent to the "Ing. Salvador Castillo Orellana" laboratory, from the Agronomy Faculty of the San Carlos de Guatemala University.
The results that were obtained proved that the surface horizons possess a loose grain structure, a black coloration on the rubber planting area, dark gray and dark brown for the sugar cane planting. The lower horizons possess a massive structure and a dark brown color in the rubber planting, while that in the sugar cane there were obtained brown and dark yellow-brown coloration.
For the sugar cane planting the textures vary from plain to clay plain to clay. In the rubber planting it was sandy-plain to clay. Those are deep grounds, with a sewer system from moderated to slow.
Erosion from mild to moderate with shaped grooves. The relief is plain to smooth undulated. Among the chemical ground characteristics, it was obtained a pH within 6.5 to 7.1. They are poor grounds on Phosphorus and Potassium, for the sugar cane planting.
For the rubber planting, it was obtained a pH within 6.3 to 6.5; poor grounds on Phosphorus but with an appropriate level of Potassium in the surface horizons but deficient in the lower horizons.
Taking in consideration the previous results, we classified the grounds for irrigation purposes in Class II; which present characteristics such as arable grounds, convenience to sugar cane planting's irrigation, light limited stoniness, slopes of 0 t 4%, undulated to smooth relief and low to moderate erosion, this is based on what was indicated by the United States Bureau of Reclamation (U.S.B.R.).
For the nutritional management of sugar cane planting the recommended dose to apply is 15quintal/Ha of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and 4 quintals of Potassium Nitrate (K20), for the rubber planting only is required to apply 3.8 pound/tree of diammonium phosphate.
Regarding the irrigation water management there were two obtained classifications of which the "A" classification belongs to the Northeast and South area, and of
which has a ground with a plain-clay texture, this is equivalent to 61.70% which represents 29Ha, there was obtained a basic infiltration of 8.1 mm/hr. The "B" classification it belongs to the Northeast area, it has a plain texture ground in an area of 18Ha, this belongs to the 38.30% and it was obtained a basic infiltration of 13mm/hr.


Experimental studies of laminar plumes descending under gravity into stably stratified environments have shown the existence of a critical injection velocity beyond which the plume exhibits a bifurcation to a coiling instability in three dimensions or a sinuous instability in a Hele-Shaw flow. In addition, flow visualization has shown that, prior to the onset of the instability, a stable base flow is established in which the plume penetrates to a depth significantly smaller than the neutral buoyancy depth. Moreover, the fresh water that is viscously entrained by the plume recirculates within a 'conduit' whose boundary with the background stratification appears sharp. Beyond the bifurcation, the buckling plume takes the form of a travelling wave of varying amplitude, confined within the conduit, which disappears at the penetration depth. To determine the mechanisms underlying these complex phenomena, which take place at a strikingly low Reynolds number but a high Schmidt number, we study here a two-dimensional arrangement, as it is perhaps the simplest system which possesses all the key experimental features. Through a combination of numerical and analytical approaches, a scaling law is found for the plume's penetration depth within the base flow (i.e. the flow where the instability is either absent or artificially suppressed), and the horizontal cross-stream velocity and concentration profile outside the plume are determined from an asymptotic analysis of a simplified model. Direct numerical simulations show that, with increasing flow rate, a sinuous global mode is destabilized giving rise to the self-sustained oscillations as in the experiment. The sinuous instability is shown to be a consequence of the baroclinic generation of vorticity, due to the strong horizontal gradients at the edge of the conduit, a mechanism that is relevant even at very low Reynolds numbers. Despite the strength of this instability, the penetration depth is not significantly affected by it, instead being determined by the properties of the plume in the vicinity of the source. This scenario is confirmed by a local stability analysis. A finite region of local absolute instability is found near the source for sinuous modes prior to the onset of the global instability. Sufficiently far from the source the flow is locally stable. Near the onset of the global instability, varicose modes are also found to be locally, but only convectively, unstable.


Multiple anthropogenic changes, such as climate change and chemical pollution, threaten the persistence of natural populations. Yet, their potential additive and interactive effects on organismal performance and fitness are poorly understood, thus limiting our ability to predict the effects of the global change.
We conducted a laboratory experiment to study the singular and combined effects of experimental heat waves and micropollutants (i.e. low-concentration toxicants; henceforth micropollutants [MPs]) on the freshwater snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. To comprehensively understand physiological and ecological consequences of stress, we studied a broad range of traits from respiration rate to feeding performance and growth. We also determined traits contributing to fitness and immune responses, as these are key traits in determining both organismal fitness and interspecific (e.g. host–parasite) interactions. We tested whether a constant exposure to MPs affects the ability of snails to tolerate heat waves (8 days of 23.5°C), and subsequently to recover from them, and whether the effects are immediate or delayed.
We found strong immediate additive effects of both stressors on reproduction, while they synergistically increased respiration and antagonistically decreased food consumption. Moreover, these effects were transient. Although the heat wave increased metabolic rates, individuals did not increase their resource uptake. This caused an apparent imbalance in resource levels—a probable cause for the observed trade-off between immune function and reproductive traits (i.e. phenoloxidase-like activity decreased, while reproductive output increased). In addition, exposure to MPs led to a temporarily reduced reproductive output.
Our results indicate that even short-term heat waves and low concentrations of chemical pollution can have large, mainly additive impacts on organismal fitness (e.g. altering susceptibility to infections and reproductive output). This suggests that long-term effects of existing stressors and heat waves need to be considered when assessing the resilience of natural populations.


Multiple organ system failure secondary to infection is the most frequent cause of late mortality after hemorrhage, burns, and trauma. Although multiple immunologic abnormalities have been identified following injury, blood loss, and tissue ischemia, the mechanisms that produce these alterations in T- and B-cell function have not been completely defined. Physiologic stress and ischemia result in increased release of neuroendocrine peptides and hormones, capable of affecting normal neuroendocrine-immunologic balance and producing immunosuppression. Tissue ischemia leads to increased expression of heat shock proteins by hypoperfused cells, which can alter T-cell function. Injury also is followed by the appearance of serum immunosuppressive factors, which have been shown to inhibit T- and B-cell function. Future therapies directed at these and other cellular and molecular abnormalities initiated by tissue hypoperfusion may reverse the immunosuppressed state in critically ill patients and lead to improved outcome in this setting.


Introduction: Coronal microleakage is the major cause of failure of root canal treatments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sealing ability of white MTA, C&B Metabond and cavit against coronal microleakage of Enterococcus faecalis for four months.
Methods and Materials: Ninety extracted single–rooted human teeth were selected. Root canal instrument-tation and abturation with gutta-percha was performed. The teeth were randomly divided into four groups of 20 teeth each, plus two control groups consisting of 5 teeth. Three millimeters of gutta-parcha was removed from the coronal aspect of the root canals in the groups I, II, III and replaced with C&B Metabond, cavit and white MTA, respectively. The teeth in group IV did not receive an intraorifice barrier. The external surface of each root, except the apical region, was covered with two layers of nail varnish. All teeth were inserted in the designed system for this experiment. The whole system was sterilized and then transferred in a BHI culture. A fresh solution of E. faecials was injected in to the system every 3 days. The samples were evaluated daily for 120 days and the time of culture contamination with E. faecalis was registered in each case. Statistical tests of Variance and Duncan were used to analyze the results.
Results: All the samples in positive control group were infected after 24 hours. None of the negative control samples were infected after 120 days. Group I (C&B Metabond) and group II (cavit) had no significant difference with group III (White MTA). But groups I, II were significantly different from group IV (without barrier). Group III wasn't significantly different with group IV.
Conclusion: The obturated root canals that received a C&B Metabond or cavit orifice plug leaked significantly less than the obturated, unsealed group. Therefore, to prevent coronal microleakage this material can be recommended as a intraorifice barrier before restorative treatment is initiated.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an almost uniformly fatal malignancy of the exocrine pancreas. Although several factors contribute to the poor prognosis of this disease, the ability of cancer cells to disseminate and establish inoperable metastases before diagnosis is a major impediment to successful therapy. Unfortunately, strategies that enable efficacious treatment or early detection of the disease do not exist, highlighting an urgent need for a critical understanding of PDAC progression and dissemination. To identify novel molecular mechanisms that drive metastasis, we compared the transcriptomes of "invasive" and "non-invasive" cancer cells isolated from tumors that are derived from a previously described autochthonous PDAC model (KrasLSL-G12D;p53LSL-R172H;Pdx1-cre or KPC mice). This mouse model was chosen because it recapitulates many aspects of the human disease, including cellular heterogeneity, abundant stromal responses, and great propensity for metastasis. To isolate pure PDAC cells, we first excluded the infiltrating, non-cancer cells by incorporating a Cre-reporter allele (R26LSL-Tomato) into the KPC mice. Our strategy to distinguish "invasive" from "non-invasive" cancer cells was based on our previous observations that the high mobility group AT-hook 2 protein (Hmga2), which is otherwise not expressed in most of adult tissues, is specifically expressed in cancer cells with mesenchymal phenotype. To label cancer cells that express Hmga2, we generated a conditional Hmga2-GFP reporter mouse. When a single Hmga2GFP allele is present in the KPC;R26LSL-Tom mice, we were able to sort both Hmga2-positive (GFP+Tomato+) and Hmga2–negative (GFP-Tomato+) cancer cells. Intravenous transplantations indicated that the GFP+ cancer cells have significantly higher metastatic ability. Furthermore, transcriptomic profiling of the sorted, un-passaged cells through RNA-Seq indicated that Hif1α activity is highly enriched in the invasive GFP+ cancer cells. Consistent with the RNA-Seq data, the expression of the Hif1α target Glut1 correlates with Hmga2 under immunohistochemical staining. We hypothesized that during PDAC progression, hypoxia induces the both up- and down-regulation of a set of genes, including both Hif1α-dependent and –independent ones, that are necessary to drive cancer metastasis. Future experiments will functionally interrogate, both in vitro and in vivo, the candidate genes selected based on presence of human orthologs, cross-examination with co-purified myofibroblast transcriptomic profiles, fold change, and novelty. Our study will help identify important molecular mechanisms that drive PDAC metastasis. Citation Format: Shin-Heng Chiou, Monte Winslow. Molecular dissection of pancreatic cancer invasion and metastasis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer: Innovations in Research and Treatment; May 18-21, 2014; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(13 Suppl):Abstract nr A20.


Mechanical, thermal, and water absorption properties of the composites have been studied as a function of sawdust content, using different weight percentage. The characteristics properties of the composites were studied using differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Field emission scanning electron microscopy was used to understand the interfacial bonding. The obtained results showed that the 15 wt% composites exhibited the highest tensile strength (7.5 MPa) and flexural strength (8.9 MPa) compared with the 5 wt%, 30 wt%, 40 wt%, and 50 wt% composites. A good interfacial combination was formed between 15 wt% of sawdust and epoxy resin. In terms of the tensile and flexural strength, the differential scanning calorimetry analysis confirmed that matrix modification could improve the mechanical properties and thermal stability of the composites compared to neat resin. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectrum showed the presence of functional groups pertaining to composites. The absorption data of the composite showed that the water uptake increased as the amount of sawdust in the composite increased. The 5 wt%, 15 wt%, 30 wt%, and 40 wt% sawdust composites also displayed less water absorption behavior (1.534%, 1.871%, 2.492%, and 4.127%, respectively) compared to the 50 wt% composite.


A method is described for determining the local characteristic impedance at any point on a high-frequency coaxial cable. Measurements are made of the deviations from a harmonic series of the resonant frequencies of a short length of open or short-circuited cable. It is shown how these deviations can be used to calculate the coefficients of Fourier series describing the impedance variations along the length. Since the measurements are performed at microwave frequencies, the resolution of the impedance changes is considerably better than for lower-frequency methods. Measurements on an artificially discontinuous cable have allowed the experimental accuracy of the method to be determined, and close agreement has been obtained between the experimentally predicted and the actual impedance changes. Results from short cable samples indicate that the local variations of characteristic impedance are largely due to changes in the diameter over the dielectric filling.


Since Parresol's (2001) seminal paper on the subject, it has become common practice to develop nonlinear tree biomass equations so as to ensure compatibility among total and component predictions and to fit equations jointly using multi-step least squares (MSLS) methods. In particular, many researchers have specified total tree biomass models by aggregating the expectations of nonlinear component equations. More recently, an alternative approach has been used wherein compatibility is ensured by specifying a total biomass equation plus one or more component disaggregation functions. Yet calibration of such equations typically has not recognized the additivity of the biomass data or the implied stochastic constraints necessary for development of a valid probability model. For model selection based on information criteria, stochastic simulation, Bayesian inference, or estimation with missing data, it is important to base estimation and inference on probabilistic models. Thus, we show how to specify valid stochastic models for nonlinear biomass equation systems and how to estimate parameters using maximum likelihood (ML). We also explain how ML procedures can accommodate unobserved or aggregated component biomass data. We use Parresol's slash pine data set to contrast model forms and demonstrate Gaussian ML from complete and missing data using open-source software.


Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonotic disease endemic in Mexico and of major economic importance to the livestock industry and public health. The increase of resistance and reduced susceptibility to common anti-brucella drugs in several Brucella species reported in recent studies have motivated the researchers to search for new antimicrobials where the antimicrobial peptides can be an alternative. The present is a pilot study in which the in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of two bovine field strains of B. abortus and B. melitensis were evaluated against the antimicrobial peptides canine cathelicidin (K9CATH) of 21 and 38 amino acids. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 8 μg/ml for both cathelicidins was obtained against B. abortus, while none of the cathelicidins up to 128 μg/ml inhibited B. melitensis growth. Further studies including more clinical isolates of brucella and the use of combinations of these peptides with the conventionally prescribed anti brucellosis drugs could be useful in ascertaining whether these peptides have a synergistic effect.


Recently, the architecture of 'mesh of buses' is becoming quite popular in parallel computing. Its main advantage is the limited broadcast capability that is used to overcome the main disadvantage of the mesh, namely the relatively big diameter. We show that in such networks busses indeed accelerate the time for the fundamental problem of routing. Furthermore, unlike in the 'store and forward' model, the time becomes proportional to the network load. Namely, small number of packets is faster to route. We consider 1-1 routing of m packets in a d-dimensional mesh with n/sup d/ processors and d/spl middot/n/sup d-1/ buses (one per each row, column). The two standard models of accessing the buses are considered and compared. CREW in which only one processor may transmit at any given time, and the CRCW model in which several processors may attempt to transmit at the same time (getting a noise signal as a result). We design a routing algorithm that routes m packets in the CREW model in O(max(1/d, n 1/4+1)) steps. A matching lower bound is also proved. In the CRCW case we show an algorithm of O(m1/d log n) and a lower bound of /spl Omega/(1/d). It is shown that the difference between the models is essentially due to the improved capability of estimating threshold functions in the CRCW case.


Background: In order to increase health service to people to obtain healing and restore health, very influencing factor is sufficient drug need planning, either for its type and amount. Problem faced in Magelang Tidar Hospital is excessive drug and low appropriate drug requirement plan (<100%). This research to increase appropriate drug need planning in Magelang Tidar Hospital in 2013. Method: This research used quasi experiment research design with pretest-posttest design. It used indicator of drug need planning as output before and after FGD intervention. Results: 1) Average drug suitability with formulary for regular in before and after FGD intervention are 82.2% and 84.1%, for ASKES in before and after intervention are 95.1% and 97.5%, and for Jamkesmas in before and after FGD intervention are 64.7% and 81.8%. 2) Average drug appropriateness with DOEN 2011 for regular in before and after FGD intervention are 65.6% and 72.8%, for ASKES in before and af ter intervention are 66.6% and 69.1% and for Jamkesmas before and after FGD intervention are 68.7% and 71.1%. 3) Drug fund allocation has reached 100% of available fund. (4) Percentage of drug item amount in planning and real drug item in usage for regular drug before and after FGD intervention are 124.6% and 241.7%, for ASKES in before and after intervention are 185.5% and 265.2%, and for Jamkesmas in before and after FGD intervention are 220.5% and 399.8%. (5) Percentage of planning appropriateness for regular drug before and after FGD intervention are 40.1% and 10.4%, for ASKES in before and after intervention are 13.5% and 4.9%, and for Jamkesmas in before and after FGD intervention are 13.8% and 4.5%. Conclusion: FGD intervention with feedback can increase some appropriateness indicator of drug need planning in Magelang Tidar Hospital such as drug suitability with formulary indicator and drug suitability to DOEN indicator. Fund allocation indicted that required fund have accorded to available fund. Percentage of drug item amount in planning and in real usage is increase and percentage of planning appropriateness is decreased due to excessive drug budget. Keywords: FGD intervention, drug need planning, Magelang Tidar Hospital


Background: This study aimed at detecting clusters of specific combinations of humor styles, as measured by the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), and at identifying eventual association of such combinations with indicators of psychological well-being. Methods: The participants in the present cross-sectional study were 458 Italian female high school students from central Italy (ages ranged from 13 to 18 years). The HSQ was employed to assess different styles of humor according to a multidimensional approach. The Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scales (RPWB) was used to evaluate psychological well-being by six intercorrelated dimensions; in addition, the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ), and the General Self-Efficacy (GSE) were applied. A cluster analysis, based on the scores reported on the HSQ, as well as the differences between group means of the well-being indicators were computed. Findings: The two emerged groups (high and low in positive humor styles) differed in group means for all dimensions of RPWB, SEQ, and GSE. Discussion: The implementation of specific training in the effective use of humor may contribute to enriching programs that inspire psychological and psychotherapeutic well-being.


Systems designers have distributed object technology available to them, such as implementations of the OMG's CORBA. However object oriented design methods mostly consider development of sequential systems. Few methods consider the problems of designing for distribution or give guidance to allow the benefits of distribution to be realised. The paper proposes the environmental object model and design method based on a containment hierarchy, with constraints on links between instances. The model and method promote the development of complex distributed abstractions, implemented as a system of CORBA servers. Throughout the paper, a case study of a distributed grouped diary service is used.


Objectives The aims of this study were to determine the magnitude and duration of fecal viral DNA shedding after diagnosis of feline panleukopenia (FP) in a group of shelter cats using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR); to assess the utility of a negative point-of-care test or the resolution of diarrhea and systemic signs as proxy measures for qPCR positivity; and to investigate patterns of additional enteric pathogens in relation to feline panleukopenia viral shedding duration. Methods Feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) infection in clinically affected shelter cats was confirmed by a commercial qPCR test. Observations were made on days 0, 3, 7, 14 and 21 post-diagnosis. Fecal flotation, FPV qPCR and the canine parvovirus IDEXX SNAP Parvo ELISA (SNAP) test were performed on fecal samples. Results Forty cats and kittens with confirmed panleukopenia were initially enrolled. Sixteen kittens were sampled until day 14, and 12 were followed to day 21. Median DNA viral copy numbers fell below the diagnostic cut-off by day 7, with 13/16, 6/16, 1/16 and 0/12 testing PCR-positive on days 3, 7, 14 and 21, respectively. The SNAP test was positive in 12/16 kittens on day 0 and only 3/16 on day 3. SNAP test results, diarrhea and systemic signs were inconsistent in relation to qPCR positivity post-diagnosis. Additional enteric pathogens were common. The presence of additional pathogen types was suggestive of a longer PCR shedding duration, but this was not tested statistically owing to the small sample size. Conclusions and relevance These findings suggest that cats should be isolated for at least 14 days after a diagnosis of FP, but that release from isolation after this point is reasonable, in association with a multifaceted infection control strategy. The study findings did not support using SNAP test results, diarrhea or systemic signs as proxy measures for virus shedding.


A new coronavirus, referred to as SARS-CoV-2, is responsible for the recent outbreak of severe respiratory disease. This outbreak first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019, has spread to other regions of China and to 25 other countries as of January, 2020. It has been known since the 2003 SARS epidemic that the receptor critical for SARS-CoV entry into host cells is the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The S1 domain of the spike protein of SARS-CoV attaches the virus to its cellular receptor ACE2 on the host cells. We thought that it is timely to explain the connection between the SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, ACE2 and the rationale for soluble ACE2 as a potential therapy.


This paper presents an approach to manage a large database using a compact color descriptor and a statistical method for accurately pruning the database. A compact color descriptor adopted in the proposed content-based image retrieval system is 63-bit binary Haar color histogram, which is very compact and can be effectively used for fast image search. In addition to fast searching using this compact descriptor, we further improve retrieval time by applying pruning technique, which looks for the candidate images similar to the query image from the database and ignore the rest that are not likely to the query image. The descriptors of the candidate images are then matched with that of the query. The most similar images will be retrieved and ordered according to their distance to the query. The proposed retrieval system can efficiently retrieve the most similar images from the database while help in reducing the retrieval time and the storage space.


A study conducted by Deloitte & Touche examined the use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS)--specifically laparoscopic cholecystectomy, laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair and thoracoscopic wedge resection--at nine U.S. hospitals. From a total hospital cost perspective, two procedures studied reduce hospital costs, one is a breakeven and one increases hospital costs. In addition, with MIS there is a major shift in resource consumption from nursing care units to the operating room. Best practices, defined as most efficient staffing levels, operative times, lengths of hospital stay and other treatment characteristics practiced at the study hospitals, were also identified. Hospitals can maximize their return on MIS by providing ample training to surgical and processing staff, standardizing on equipment, wisely choosing when to use custom kits, block scheduling for MIS and incorporating MIS into the hospital's strategic plan.


There is a growing debate on whether agricultural land in urban fringes should be maintained or converted to other uses. While 'pro-ruralists' believe agricultural land conversion can threaten food security and cause rural-urban migration, 'pro-urbanists' find it a necessary change for transition from a primitive agricultural-based community to an advanced industrial-based society which has the capacity to create mass productions. New-Ruralists follow an agricultural-based development approach that promotes small-medium farming and acknowledges rural lifestyle while New-Urbanists give a priority to large industrial-based sectors and encourage urban lifestyle. Given the unlike concerns of different societies, the paper concludes that the approaches might have different priorities in the less developed, developing, and developed world.


This paper addresses the implications on channel utilization and performance when a simple method is used for enhancing the quality of service (QoS) accorded to customers of cellular/PCS networks. Based on customer usage across cellular networks, user mobility profiles are created and maintained. This information allows preferential channel allocation to priority customers, while regular users are treated fairly. Simulation results are used to evaluate system performance. Results demonstrate improved QoS, viz., reduced handoff failures to priority users, while ensuring good QoS to other customers with minimal implications for channel utilization.


Genetic fuzzy systems (GFSs) hybridize the approximate reasoning method of fuzzy systems with the learning capability of evolutionary algorithms. The objective of this paper is to focus on an important class of problems in the field of network intrusion detection, namely, the class imbalance problem, one of the problems strongly tied with the classification of the database of intrusion detection. In this work we have used a fuzzy association rule based classification method, to obtain an accurate and compact fuzzy rule-based classifier with a low computational cost. We have proposed the use of a novel fitness function to deal with the problem of imbalance dataset in the genetic post processing phase for rule selection and parameter tuning. The efficiency of the proposed system has been shown through a complete detailed experimental comparative study with well-known classifiers reported in the IDS literature. Experiments were performed with KDD Cup 99 intrusion detection benchmark data set as an example of a network traffic data.


Abstract Background: In randomized controlled trials, prior to statistical analysis, the data are checked for outliers and erroneous data. Statistical tests are, traditionally, not very good at distinguishing between errors and outliers, but they should be able to point out main endpoint results closer to expectation than compatible with random sampling. Objectives: To explain from hypothesized and published examples why extreme p-values like p>0.95 and p<0.0001 may indicate that sampling was not completely random. Results: Extreme p-values can be readily observed in recent issues ofhigh-impact journals. A p-value >0.95 literally means that we have a >95% chance off inding a result less close to expectation and, consequently, a <5% chance off inding a result this close or closer. Often in studies a statistical power of 80% is agreed upon, corresponding with a p-value of approximately 0.01. The ultimate p-value may then be a bit larger or smaller. However, a p-value much smaller than 0.01 will be rarely observed, because it would indicate that the study is overpowered. If the p-values can be assumed to follow a normal distribution around 0.01, then we will have a less than 5% chance ofobserving a p-value of <0.0001. Conclusions: In randomized controlled trials, main endpoint p-values larger than p=0.95 will be rare, because they would indicate similarities closer than compatible with a normal distribution ofrandom data samples. Also very low p-values like p<0.0001 will be rarely encountered, because it would mean that the trial was overpowered and should have had a smaller sample size. It would seem appropriate, therefore, to require investigators to explain such results and to consider rejecting the research involved. So far, in randomized controlled trials the null-hypothesis is generally rejected at p<0.05. Perhaps we should consider rejecting the entire study if the main endpoint p-values are >0.95 or <0.0001.


Abstract. Water flow dynamics of a river has significant effect in the ecological functions played by the river. There exists an intricate relationship between discharge in a river and phenomenon such as sedimentation, prevalence of vegetation and river morphology. In order to better understand these phenomena, it is important to determine the velocity of the river. While there exist conventional in-river velocity measurement techniques, UAS based method offers the capability to make large number of measurements at a large number of locations without the need to place measuring instrument at each of these locations. In this paper, we present the results of application of UAS in determining surface velocity of river. In this study, we released floats along the river and captured videos by mounting RGB sensor as well as thermal sensor in the UAS. The videos were processed using OpenCV library as well as Matlab's Image Processing Toolbox. This paper discusses the learnings of our study which indicates that videos captured from UAS can be used to determine surface velocity of a river.


Sonochemically prepared PtRu (3 : 1) and Johnson Matthey PtRu (1 : 1) were analyzed by X-ray absorption spectroscopy in operating liquid feed direct methanol fuel cells. The total metal loadings were 4 mg cm(-2) unsupported catalysts at the anode and cathode of the membrane electrode assembly. Ex situ XRD lattice parameter analysis indicates partial segregation of the Ru from the PtRu fcc alloy in both catalysts. A comparison of the in situ DMFC EXAFS to that of the as-received catalyst shows that catalyst restructuring during DMFC operation increases the total metal coordination numbers. A combined analysis of XRD determined grain sizes and lattice parameters, ex situ and in situ EXAFS analysis, and XRF of the as-received catalysts enables determination of the catalyst shell composition. The multi-spectrum analysis shows that the core size increases during DMFC operation by reduction of Pt oxides and incorporation of Pt into the core. This increases the mole fraction of Ru in the catalyst shell structure.


Abstract Minority vote to statement A5 of the Fourth Ovarian Cancer Consensus Conference, Vancouver 2010, on behalf of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gynaekologische Onkologie (AGO) Study Group Germany plus North-Eastern Society of Gyneco-Oncology and the AGO Austria.


The non-equilibrium statistics and kinetics of a simple bistable system (resonantly driven nonlinear oscillator coupled to reservoir) have been investigated by means of master equation for the density matrix and quasiclassical Fokker-Planck equation in quasienergy space. We found out that the system's statistical and kinetic properties drastically change when the quasienergy states become nearly degenerate and the occupation of the most excited state is strongly enhanced. It has been revealed that in nearly degenerate case a new critical quasienergy parameter emerges. Below the critical quasienergy value the eigenstates are superpositions of the quasiclassical states from different phase space regions, while above this value the eigenstates correspond to only one particular region of the phase space. We have also generalized Keldysh theory for ionization of atoms in the electromagnetic field for bistable systems. It has been demonstrated that Keldysh parameter in bistability region is large when pumping intensity is smaller than the critical value. It has been shown by direct calculations that multi-photon transition amplitude coincides with the tunneling amplitude. So, multi-photon transitions and tunneling between the regions of the phase space are just the same effects. We also demonstrated that for bistable systems the Keldysh parameter logarithmically depends on the external field amplitude.


ABSTRACT An experimental study was conducted to research dolphins' sonar adaptation capabilities for location of objects obscured by marine sediments. It was shown that dolphins are able to alter spectral and temporal characteristics of their location signals. Adaptive change in length, spectral width and amplitude of signals provides optimal tools to fight interference and allows dolphins to effectively identify objects.


The genetic transformation of Simarouba glauca will help researchers across the globe in developing high medicinal value and high biomass varieties in a short period. Although genetic transformation methods have been trailed by many research groups for several years, the variation in transformation efficiency and difficulties in handling tissue culture plantlets made it difficult to optimize a reliable protocol. In this study, we established an alternative protocol of genetic transformation by introducing GUS Plus reporter gene into the genome of a S. glauca through the Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer method which is the first report in India. Leaf explants co-cultivated with Agrobacterium LBA4404 strains harboring pCAMBIA 1305.1 vector have shown the presence of GUS Plus and HptII gene by PCR analysis as well as GUS assay. The outcome of our research provides fundamental information on efficient gene transformation in S. glauca which will help to enhance future research on the genetic transformation of S. glauca.


To accurately determine the space use of animals, we need to follow animal movements over prolonged periods, which is especially challenging for the critically endangered Grauer's gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As a consequence, we know little about Grauer's gorillas, particularly from the lower elevational parts of their range. Between 2016 and 2018, we tracked unhabituated Grauer's gorillas in lowland forests (500–1,000 m a.s.l.), at the community-managed Nkuba Conservation Area in Nord Kivu (DRC) to provide estimates of daily travel distances (DTD), daily displacement distances (DDD), and the linearity of recorded paths expressed as the Linearity Index (LI): DDD/DTD. We found an average DTD of ∼1.3 km (range 0.05–5.0 km), with temporal variation among monthly averages; specifically, an increase in travel distance over the June–August dry season resulting in peak travel distances at the beginning of the September–December wet season. Daily displacements showed similar temporal variation, which resulted in a lack of obvious temporal patterns in LI. We conclude that the movement patterns of Grauer's gorillas in lowland forests, which are characterized by larger DTD than those of Grauer's gorillas that inhabit highland habitats, show similarity to travel distances of other predominantly frugivorous gorillas. Moreover, the observed temporal patterns in space use may be tentatively linked to temporal changes in fruit availability or consumption. These observations have consequences for our understanding of the ecological role that Grauer's gorillas play and provide baseline data to estimate current and future distributions, abundances, and carrying capacities of this highly threatened animal.


In this communication, a 2-port printed MIMO antenna of a dimension of 12× 8.5 mm2 with high isolation and high gain is reported for 28-GHz (n257-band) millimeter-wave applications. The conducting patch is placed on high-frequency laminates of duroid 5880 substrate (εr = 2.2, tanδ = 0.009, thickness = 0.8 mm). The port orientation investigation is also carried out to attain maximum isolation between the antenna elements. Diversity performance parameters (ECC, DG, TARC, and CCL) are investigated and calculated to justify the MIMO identity of the proposed model. The simulated findings are verified by the measured results of the fabricated archetype. All simulated/measured results are within the permissible limit and in good coherence.


For the intersection of the Stiefel manifold and the set of nonnegative matrices in R n × r , we present global and local error bounds with easily computable residual functions and explicit coefficients. Moreover, we show that the error bounds cannot be improved except for the coefficients, which explains why two square-root terms are necessary in the bounds when 1 < r < n for the nonnegativity and orthogonality, respectively. The error bounds are applied to penalty methods for minimizing a Lipschitz continuous function with nonnegative orthogonality constraints. Under only the Lipschitz continuity of the objective function, we prove the exactness of penalty problems that penalize the nonnegativity constraint, or the orthogonality constraint, or both constraints. Our results cover both global and local minimizers.


This paper develops a Walrasian general equilibrium model based on transaction cost and specialization to investigate the emergence and evolution of the role of management services in a competitive market with the general concern of corporate governance. It explains the reason why along the commercialization and modernization of human society, there is substantial increment of professional managers available for business world, and also becoming more affordable for more business companies. With the improvement of transaction efficiency, the market demand of professional managers are more preferred and profitable, which will also bring about new business structures and new economic institutional systems to improve the well-being to the overall members of society. Thereby, hiring professional managers in a competitive market can promote aggregate productivity by enlarging the scope for trading off network effects of the division of labor on aggregate productivity against transaction costs. To business practitioners, this model suggests hiring professional managers a key element of business viability during that a major transition took place in human society. China's recent practices in ownership transformation and corporate governance have also been examined, which further proves our argument that performance and effectiveness of interaction and interrelation between ownership and corporate governance are endogenously determined by different market conditions. It is impossible to achieve success ownership transformation and establish effective corporate governance without upgraded changes and consecutive adjustment and improvement of market conditions to facilitate the solid function of market mechanism.


Thematic progression is a way of developing themes and rhemes in clauses. In other words, thematic progression is a strategy or a specific way to make writing more effective. In addition, thematic progression is a prominent aspect of systemic linguistic functional. Thematic progression has been widely studied in English over the past few years and proves that is very important element in writing. In other words, good writing is effective writing. Therefore, themes and rhemes play a role in creating good texts. Besides that, thematic progression has also been done for many purposes. Therefore, the focus in this study is to describe the pattern of thematic progression in a student writing. It purpose to know which thematic pattern of progression is widely used in the student's writing. Therefore, this research entitled Thematic Progression Analysis in Students' Writing. In this study the researchers used the theory of Bloor and Bloor (2014) which states there are 4 types of patterns of thematic progression, namely the constant theme pattern, the linear theme pattern, the split theme pattern, and the derived theme pattern. To carry out this research, the data is taken from the writings of English A2 / 2014 students in IKIP Siliwangi, Cimahi. There are 47 student writing data. The researcher took 5 samples from the data by choosing the same number of sentences from each text. The results show that the thematic development pattern that is widely used by the students of class A2 / 2014 is the pattern of constant theme, the second pattern is linear theme, the third pattern is the split theme and the last pattern is the derived theme.


This paper investigates the causal impact of displacement on health outcomes for Colombian children of different age cohorts. It uses the Colombian Demographic and Health Survey 2010, which provides both a number of health outcomes and information about displacement of households. Two different empirical strategies are employed to identify the impact of displacement on child health, namely a linear regression model and propensity score matching. In order to capture different dimensions of health, four health outcomes are used as dependent variables: (i) height-for-age z-scores; (ii) subjective health status; (iii) affiliation to a health insurance; and (iv) having a health problem last month. Overall, a negative relationship between displacement and child health is documented. In line with findings from African and Asian countries, displacement increases the likelihood for malnutrition for young children and primary school children. Moreover, being displaced leads to a lower subjective health status for children from all age cohorts. Yet, displaced children are not affected by health problems significantly more often than non-displaced children. Last, but not least, displaced children from all age cohorts are significantly less likely to have health insurance.


Older employees are increasingly accepting bridge employment, which occurs when older workers take employment for pay after they retire from their main career. This study examined predictors of workers' decisions to engage in bridge employment versus full retirement and career employment. A national sample of 482 older people in the United States was surveyed regarding various work-related and nonwork related predictors of retirement decisions, and their retirement status was measured 5 years later. In bivariate analyses, both work-related variables (career goal achievement and experienced pressure to retire) and nonwork-related variables (psychological distress and traditional gender role orientation) predicted taking bridge employment, but in multinomial logistic regression, only nonwork variables had unique effects. Few predictors differentiated the bridge employed and fully retired groups. Nonwork variables were salient in making the decision to retire, and bridge employment may be conceptually more similar to full retirement than to career employment.


Abstract Propagation of 3-D fatigue cracks is analyzed using a discrete dislocation representation of the crack opening displacement. Three dimensional cracks are represented with Volterra dislocation loops in equilibrium with the applied external load. The stress intensity factor (SIF) is calculated using the Peach–Koehler (PK) force acting on the crack tip dislocation loop. Loading mode decomposition of the SIF is achieved by selection of Burgers vector components to correspond to each fracture mode in the PK force calculations. The interaction between 3-D cracks and free surfaces is taken into account through application of the superposition principle. A boundary integral solution of an elasticity problem in a finite domain is superposed onto the elastic field solution of the discrete dislocation method in an infinite medium. The numerical accuracy of the SIF is ascertained by comparison with known analytical solution of a 3-D crack problem in pure mode I, and for mixed-mode loading. Finally, fatigue crack growth simulations are performed with the Paris law, showing that 3-D cracks do not propagate in a self-similar shape, but they re-configure as a result of their interaction with external boundaries. A specific numerical example of fatigue crack growth is presented to demonstrate the utility of the developed method for studies of 3-D crack growth during fatigue.


We detect the diffuse thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect from the gas filaments between the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) pairs using a new approach relying on stacking the individual frequency maps. We apply and demonstrate our method on ~88000 LRG pairs in the SDSS DR12 catalogue selected with an improved selection criterion that ensures minimal contamination by the Galactic CO emission as well as the tSZ signal from the clusters of galaxies. We first stack the Planck channel maps and then perform the Internal Linear Combination method to extract the diffuse $y_{\rm sz}$ signal. Our $Stack$ $First$ approach makes the component separation a lot easier as the stacking greatly suppresses the noise and CMB contributions while the dust foreground becomes homogeneous in spectral-domain across the stacked patch. Thus one component, the CMB, is removed while the rest of the foregrounds are made simpler even before component separation algorithm is applied. We obtain the WHIM signal of $y_{\rm whim}=(3.76\pm 0.44)\times 10^{-8}$ in the gas filaments, accounting for the electron overdensity of $\sim 13$. We estimate the detection significance to be $\approx 8.1\sigma$. This excess $y_{\rm sz}$ signal is tracing the warm-hot intergalactic medium and it could account for most of the missing baryons of the Universe. We show that the $Stack$ $First$ approach is more robust to systematics and produces a cleaner signal compared to the methods relying on stacking the $y$-maps to detect weak tSZ signal currently being used by the cosmology community.


N-myc expression is under stage- and tissue-specific regulation in mammalian development, but its function is totally unknown. We sought agents to block N-myc activity in order to infer from the effect the possible function of N-myc in the apparently complex processes. As candidates for such agents, we tested fusion genes encoding N-myc:beta-galactosidase fusion proteins for their effects on the formation of transformed foci of rat embryo primary fibroblasts as the result of transfection with N-myc and activated H-ras. One of the gene constructs very efficiently antagonized N-myc activity, as assessed by its effect on focus formation, but did not appreciably affect cell viability. The product of this gene was not only targeted to the nucleus but also accumulated in subnuclear loci which may represent the sites where normal N-myc proteins reside. The occurrence of antagonistic effect at a low stoichiometric ratio suggested that the fusion protein gene competed with the N-myc gene in a fashion analogous to a dominant negative mutation.


The functioning and survival of orthotopic liver allotransplants in toto were compared with heterotopic partial and whole allotransplants in inbred rats. In contrast to the rapid and aggressive rejection of the heterotopic allografts, the orthotopic whole‐liver allografts survived for prolonged periods. These latter grafts were subjected to mild cellular attack 11 to 12 days following transplantation, but they survived without the massive cellular infiltration and hepatocytolysis seen in the heterotopic partial grafts. Biliary secretion by the orthotopic whole‐liver allografts was functional throughout the survival period and was markedly increased during the final stages of survival, whereas the heterotopic liver grafts ceased to excrete normal bile by day 9, after which they were completely depigmented.


Semiring parsing is an elegant framework for describing parsers by using semiring weighted logic programs. In this paper we present a generalization of this concept: latent-variable semiring parsing. With our framework, any semiring weighted logic program can be latentified by transforming weights from scalar values of a semiring to rank-n arrays, or tensors, of semiring values, allowing the modelling of latent-variable models within the semiring parsing framework. Semiring is too strong a notion when dealing with tensors, and we have to resort to a weaker structure: a partial semiring. We prove that this generalization preserves all the desired properties of the original semiring framework while strictly increasing its expressiveness.


Leukocyte isolation from whole blood to study inflammation requires the removal of contaminating erythrocytes. Leukocytes, however, are sensitive to prolonged exposure to hyper/hypoosmotic solutions, temperature changes, mechanical manipulation, and gradient centrifugation. Even though care is taken to minimize leukocyte activation and cell loss during erythrocyte lysis, it is often not possible to completely avoid it. Most procedures for removal of contaminating erythrocytes from leukocyte preparations are designed for bulk processing of blood, where the sample is manipulated for longer periods of time than necessary at the single-cell level. Ammonium chloride-mediated lysis is the most commonly used method to obtain enriched leukocyte populations but has been shown to cause some activation and selective loss of certain cell types. The leukocyte yield and subsequent activation status of residual leukocytes after NH(4)Cl-mediated lysis have been shown to depend on the time of exposure to the lysis buffer. We have developed a microfluidic lysis device that deals with erythrocyte removal at nearly the single-cell level. We can achieve complete lysis of erythrocytes and approximately 100% recovery of leukocytes where the cells are exposed to an isotonic lysis buffer for less than 40 s, after which the leukocytes are immediately returned to physiological conditions. Theoretically, this process can be made massively parallel to process several milliliterss of whole blood to obtain a pure leukocyte population in less than 15 min.


In this paper, a flatness-based nonlinear control method is proposed to control a multisource/multiload electrical hybrid system (EHS). The EHS is composed of a fuel cell and a supercapacitor-bank (SCB) as the main and auxiliary sources. They supply two independent loads, connected to a dc-bus through unidirectional buck converters. The proposed method is able to control the fuel cell output power and its dynamics. It also allows limiting the current of an SCB during charging and discharging processes. The proposed control strategy has the advantage of not requiring any commutation between different control algorithms when the operating mode of the system changes (from the normal mode to the overload mode, for example). As the fuel cell output characteristic (FCOC) varies with the physical and environmental parameters, an observer is also proposed and designed to estimate either the fuel cell voltage-power (V-P) output characteristic or voltage-current (V -I) output. The use of the proposed observer allows achieving an efficient control of the system and avoiding overcharging or discharging of an SCB. Experimental results demonstrate the operation of the proposed control strategy and observer in all situations. Experimental test on a system is done with two separated loads of 5 and 12 V, via a dSPACE platform.


The biologic response to injectable, glutaraldehyde cross-linked, fibrillar collagen implants in the rat subcutaneous model was shown to be a function of the concentration of glutaraldehyde used for cross-linking. The collagen was prepared from bovine hide by pepsin solubilization and reconstituted as a fibrillar suspension of 35 mg collagen/mL. Fibrillar collagen implants cross-linked with glutaraldehyde concentrations equal to or less than 0.01% exhibited a response characterized by fibroblast invasion, neovascularization and little, if any, evidence of inflammation. Implants cross-linked with 0.1 and 1.0% glutaraldehyde elicited a foreign body/giant cell reaction and varying degrees of implant erosion. The interaction of human skin fibroblasts with 0.01% glutaraldehyde cross-linked collagen in vitro was found to be dependent on the culture conditions utilized to evaluate the interaction. When the ratio of cell culture media to collagen was 20:1, cell invasion of the cross-linked preparations was observed, whereas, when this ratio was reduced to 1:1, such interactions could not be detected. Noncross-linked preparations were colonized by cells regardless of the experimental conditions used. Studies of implants in both the rat and guinea pig subcutaneous models indicated that glutaraldehyde cross-linking concentrations as low as 0.0075% provided enhanced wet weight recovery (wet weight persistence) and resistance to biologic degradation (collagen persistence) as compared to noncross-linked fibrillar collagen preparations. These cross-linked implants also exhibited a greater degree of fibroblast infiltration and vascularization. Between 30 and 60 days, some degree of calcification developed in both collagen formulations implanted in rats and guinea pigs; however, the reaction occurred with greater frequency and intensity in cross-linked preparations in guinea pigs. Calcification in the guinea pig was followed by the appearance of focal areas of ossification.


Abstract In this paper, I present the results on large-scale evolution of density turbulence of solar wind in the inner heliosphere during 1985–2009. At a given distance from the Sun, the density turbulence is maximum around the maximum phase of the solar cycle and it reduces to ~70%, near the minimum phase. However, in the current minimum of solar activity, the level of turbulence has gradually decreased, starting from the year 2005, to the present level of ~30%. These results suggest that the source of solar wind changes globally, with the important implication that the supply of mass and energy from the Sun to the interplanetary space has significantly reduced in the present low level of activity.


Anatomy of the fitness landscape for a group of well known combinatorial optimisation problems is studied in this research and the similarities and the differences between their landscapes are pointed out. In this research we target the analysis of the fitness landscape for MAX-SAT, Graph-Colouring, Travelling Salesman and Quadratic Assignment problems. Belonging to the class of NP-Hard problems, all these problems become exponentially harder as the problem size grows. We study a group of properties of the fitness landscape for these problems and show what properties are shared by different problems and what properties are different. The properties we investigate here include the time it takes for a local search algorithm to find a local optimum, the number of local and global optima, distance between local and global optima, expected cost of found optima, probability of reaching a global optimum and the cost of the best configuration in the search space. The relationship between these properties and the system size and other parameters of the problems are studied, and it is shown how these properties are shared or differ in different problems. We also study the long-range correlation within the search space, including the expected cost in the Hamming sphere around the local and global optima, the basin of attraction of the local and global optima and the probability of finding a local optimum as a function of its cost. We believe these information provide good insight for algorithm designers.


The concentrations of inhibin A, inhibin B and activin A in follicular fluid and oocyte culture medium were analysed to investigate the production of these peptide hormones by ovarian granulosa cells and oocyte-cumulus complexes, as well as their potential as possible biochemical markers for oocyte quality and fertilizing capacity. Follicular fluids were collected from individual follicles during oocyte retrieval for in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Oocyte-cumulus culture media were collected after in-vitro insemination. The concentrations of dimeric inhibin A, inhibin B and activin A were measured using two-site enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in the follicular fluid and matched oocyte culture medium. Hormone concentrations were compared with oocyte quality and fertilizing capacity. The concentration of inhibin A in follicular fluid increased while that of inhibin B decreased with increasing follicle size. Follicular fluid concentrations of inhibin A inhibin B and activin A were not significantly different in follicles with differing oocyte quality. Oocyte culture medium concentrations of activin A were significantly higher in morphologically good quality oocytes. There was no relationship between the concentrations of the three hormones and oocyte fertilizing capacity. This study confirms that follicular fluid concentrations of inhibin A may prove to be a marker of follicular growth and maturation. Higher concentrations of activin A produced by good quality oocyte-cumulus complexes suggest that activin A may play a role in oocyte maturation.


The constant focus on comprehensive quality of work and the promotion of an effective culture of prevention and communication, already indicated in the European Directives, gave new impetus to the strategy aimed at improving working conditions and workers' health. This study is aimed at identifying the successful factors of the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, an information and awareness campaign promoted by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work based in Bilbao, through the analysis of the campaign's project and of the results achieved in Italy. The European Week, now at its 7th edition, represents a peerless opportunity to spread the culture of risk prevention and to raise awareness on the adoption of measures to improve workplaces, above all in small and medium enterprises. It is, furthermore, a valuable tool to communicate and disseminate messages and to promote good practices on occupational safety and health. ISPESL is the Italian Focal Point of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and has been supporting the organization of the European Week in Italy, since the first edition. It has been strongly committing itself to promote and disseminate information on the event, relying on its national network which operates throughout the national territory. The ISPESL web-site--http://www.ispesl.it--contains a web page dedicated to European Weeks, providing information on the campaign and on the related initiatives, on the materials, and on the main events taking place in Italy.


This paper examines the effective deployment of conversational agents in virtual worlds from the perspective of researchers/practitioners in cognitive psychology, computing science, learning technologies and engineering. From a cognitive perspective, the major challenge lies in the coordination and management of the various channels of information associated with conversation/communication and integrating this information with the virtual space of the environment and the belief space of the user. From computing science, the requirements include conversational competency, use of nonverbal cues, animation consistent with affective states, believability, domain competency and user adaptability. From a learning technologies perspective, the challenge is to maximise the considerable affordances provided by conversational avatars in virtual worlds balanced against ecologically valid investigations regarding utility. Finally, the engineering perspective focuses on the technical competency required to implement effective and functional agents, and the associated costs to enable student access. Taken together, the four perspectives draw attention to the quality of the agent–user interaction, how theory, practice and research are closely intertwined, and the multidisciplinary nature of this area with opportunities for cross fertilisation and collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


On the basis of OECD Guideline 106, batch sorption methods were employed to reveal the effect of Ca2+ ion strength and different cations (0.01 mol/L solution of NaCl, KCl, NH4LCl, MgCl2, CaCl2, ZnCl2 and AlCl3) on norfloxacin (NOR) sorption-desorption process in four tested soils (Ustic Cambosols, Udic Argosols, Gleyic-Stagnic Anthrosols and Ali-Perudic Ferrosols). Results indicate that sorption coefficient Kf values of NOR gradually decrease to a steady state with the increased concentration of calcium ion in solution. There exists a significantly negative correlation between Ca2+ ion strength and Kf value (p < or = 0.05). Compared with higher NOR concentrations, the effect of calcium ion concentration is negligible to the sorption at lower NOR concentrations. At the low pH, cationic form of NOR is predominant in equilibrium solutions, so cation sorption and hydrogen bonding could be the main sorption mechanism. Whilst at the zwitterionic form of NOR (pH 6.3-8.4), electrostatic adsorption or dipole moment may control the sorption process. This causes the different sorption behavior of NOR in the four soils. Thus, the calcium ion in solutions is competitively adsorbed to the active sorption sites so as to decrease the NOR sorption amount. Moreover, the different cations result in difference of NOR sorption. Cations of higher valencies are adsorbed more strongly to surface active sorption sites, with the following order: M+ (Na+, K+, NH4+) < M2+ (Ca2+, Mg2+, Zn2+) < M3+ (Al3+).


Abstract: Frugivory and seed dispersal by the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, in a mid-elevation tropical evergreen forest in India was studied by dung analysis and conducting seed germination trials on ingested and control seeds. A total of 384 dung piles were observed during the period February 2007 to December 2008. Fruits/seeds and seedlings of 27 woody species were observed from the dung piles. Seed germination experiments showed that seeds from dung were viable and germination time of ingested seeds was significantly lower than that of control seeds. It was observed that 43.6% of the seedlings in the dung piles established as saplings. The study suggests that the Asian elephant is a legitimate seed disperser in tropical forests in its range.


This chapter examines the economic arguments for textualism and contextualism, the two primary methodologies used by courts to determine the intentions of contracting parties with respect to their performance obligations. Textualism, which is rooted in the idea of complete contracting, calls for a more restrictive approach to implied terms and interpretation than contextualism, which is rooted in the idea of incomplete contracts. The primary conclusions are that, as in other areas of contract law, the choice between the two interpretive methodologies depends on the transaction costs of drafting, the relative likelihood of court error, and the risks of opportunistic behavior. Neither methodology dominates so much that it should be uniformly employed, which is consistent with how courts actually behave. JEL classification: K12


In this letter, we propose a rotation invariant parts-based model to detect objects with complex shape in high-resolution remote sensing images. Specifically, the geospatial objects with complex shape are firstly divided into several main parts, and the structure information among parts is described and regulated in polar coordinates to achieve the rotation invariance on configuration. Meanwhile, the pose variance of each part relative to the object is also defined in our model. In encoding the features of the rotated parts and objects, a new rotation invariant feature is proposed by extending histogram oriented gradients. During the final detection step, a clustering method is introduced to locate the parts in objects, and that method can also be used to fuse the detection results. By this way, an efficient detection model is constructed and the experimental results demonstrate the robustness and precision of our proposed detection model.


The temperature and compositional dependence of the electrical conductivity of semiconducting strontium vanadate glasses have been reported in the temperature range 80-500 K. It has been observed that the multiphonon assisted hopping model of small polarons in the nonadiabatic regime, which considers the strong interaction of electrons with both the optical and acoustical phonons, can interpret the temperature dependence of the conductivity data of these glasses over the entire temperature range of measurement. The parameters obtained from the fits of the experimental data to this model appear reasonable and are consistent with the glass composition. Mott's optical phonon assisted hopping model at high temperatures yields smaller values of the localization length. However, Mott's variable range hopping model can predict the low temperature data. Schnakenberg's model provided higher values of the hopping energy than the activation energy obtained at the highest temperature range.


In matters of religion, Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony had to tread carefully. If they strayed from orthodox beliefs, they ran the risk of reproach and even excommunication. This was especially true of women. Ann Hutchinson is a prime example. She was initially highly popular for her home meetings, but she began to draw notice from the powerful men in the colony. Hutchinson was preaching that people could speak to God directly, essentially disempowering the church and the clergy. To one Puritan leader, John Winthrop, this kind of message was a direct threat to their power; therefore, Winthrop made it his mission to bring Hutchinson to trial and banish her from the colony. She was not the only unfortunate female that fell victim to the stone-like oppression of the Patriarchy. Anne Bradstreet's sister, Sarah Keayne, suffered a similar fate. She spoke out publicly against the injustices the Patriarchy committed against women. However, she failed to keep her social image intact. Winthrop and the other leaders stepped in to assert their authority against Keayne. As a result, Sarah Keayne was rejected by her husband and excommunicated from the church. Due to the fate of both women, the Puritan community was fearful that they, too, would become the next victims of the Patriarchy. Ann Hutchinson's and Sarah Keayne's social demise weighed heavily on Bradstreet's mind. Given that Anne Bradstreet's father and husband served on the court of magistrates that convicted Hutchinson, Bradstreet would have been all too aware of the dangers of criticizing the Patriarchy. Even though she was aware of these dangers, she did it anyway. But Bradstreet needed to be careful to remain well liked by her community, by both men and women. One social misstep would lead to her own excommunication, and women would be left with no one to fight for their basic rights. As Wendy Martin notes in An American Tritych, Bradstreet was a protofeminist who sought to change the power disparity between men and women to break the bonds of oppression for all women. This is particularly evident in the poems Martin does not examine. In "To Her Father with Some Verses," Bradstreet acknowledges that women are indebted to the Patriarchy but turns this debt to her advantage by making the Patriarchy acknowledge her value as a female writer.


A novel method using self-adaptive image correlation windows for photogrammetric point cloud generation is reported. By combining existing tie points used in the bundle adjustment with a flood-fill matching process that uses a tie point as a seed, the algorithm makes it possible to develop point clouds and surfaces automatically for a variety of complex real world scenes. The performance assessment is on-going, but first results show that, although computationally expensive, the method can be utilized in a practical setting with little operator intervention. Future work will focus on improving the adaptive windows and on fitting various surfaces during matching so that composite object types can be sent to the CAD environment as an alternative to point clouds, which are expensive to manipulate.


The 27 International Symposium, Exhibit & Workshops on Preparative and Process Chromatography PREP2014 was held in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 20-23, 2014 at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. The symposium was attended by 300 people from 20 different countries (70% US, 30% non-US). 20% of the participants were from academia and 80% from industry. More than 45 pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and fine chemical companies were represented along with 37 chromatography media, equipment and technology suppliers.


This paper reconceptualizes the Daubert admissibility regime using the "evidence-based" metaphor. Although contemporary society is pervaded by calls for such things as medicine, policy, corrections, and crime prevention to be "evidence-based" and evidence is firmly associated with law, there has been little application of this notion in law and little recognition of the homology between evidence-based medicine and the Daubert inquiry. The paper argues that the Daubert inquiry may be conceived as a demand for "evidence about evidence," or "evidence-based evidence." It then uses the recent controversy over the admissibility of latent print (fingerprint) evidence to illustrate this notion. It shows that proponents of latent print evidence have had difficulty producing evidence about the reliability (or accuracy) of latent print evidence. Instead, trial courts have tended to find latent print admissible based on evidence that does not pertain directly to the accuracy of latent print evidence. Therefore, latent print evidence, as yet, is not "evidence-based evidence." Finally, the paper suggests that this state of affairs may explain the exclusion of latent print evidence in one recent case.


This report is on the design and development of a prototype Hull Monitoring System (HMS) for use on merchant vessels. The overall objective of the HMS was to increase ship safety and to improve ship performance by generating appropriate information and recommendations through a minicomputer controlling strategically located sensors, information display consoles, and an interactive command console. For increased ship safety, the HMS primarily monitored ship stability, hull strength, cargo lashing strength, and flooding conditions. For improved ship performance, the HMS provided information leading to the optimum trim and levels in the roll- stabilization tanks, with minimum ballast, and to the assurance of hull structural integrity and intact cargo. The HMS operates in four main modes: Cargo, Cruise, Fuel, and Damage. The development program was conducted in three phases: Phase I, System Definition, beginning in May 1974; Phase II, System Design and Fabrication, beginning in June 1975; and Phase III, System Installation and Evaluation, beginning in October 1976. In Phase III, the HMS was installed on the SS AMERICAN AQUARIUS, a United States Lines Lancerclass containership, for performance evaluation. In general, the HMS performed as intended. Recommendations are included for improving the reliability of sensor and operator inputs. This final report concludes Phase III. Included as appendices are data compiled from the voyages, the Operating and Maintenance Manual for the HMS, and computer program descriptions and listings.


Graph embedding or graph mapping is an important aspect for interconnection networks used for communication between processors in parallel systems. Some parallel algorithms use communication structures which can be represented by hex-cells. In order to run these algorithms on a tree-hypercube multiprocessor system, without changing the current topology and the running application, their communication graphs need to be embedded into tree- hypercube. In this research, we have designed an algorithm for embedding hex-cells of n nodes into tree-hypercube TH(2,d) where d >= 2. The embedding has dilation one, congestion one, and expansion 1.1. In the algorithm an embedding of irregular shape of hex-cells into tree-hypercube TH(2,d) where d >= 2 is performed.


Arcus, a Medium Explorer (MIDEX) mission, was selected by NASA for a Phase A study in August 2017. The observatory provides high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy in the 12-50Å bandpass with unprecedented sensitivity: effective areas of >450 cm2 and spectral resolution >2500. The Arcus key science goals are (1) to measure the effects of structure formation imprinted upon the hot baryons that are predicted to lie in extended halos around galaxies, groups, and clusters, (2) to trace the propagation of outflowing mass, energy, and momentum from the vicinity of the black hole to extragalactic scales as a measure of their feedback and (3) to explore how stars, circumstellar disks and exoplanet atmospheres form and evolve. Arcus relies upon the same 12m focal length grazing-incidence silicon pore X-ray optics (SPO) that ESA has developed for the Athena mission; the focal length is achieved on orbit via an extendable optical bench. The focused X-rays from these optics are diffracted by high-efficiency Critical-Angle Transmission (CAT) gratings, and the results are imaged with flight-proven CCD detectors and electronics. The power and telemetry requirements on the spacecraft are modest. Mission operations are straightforward, as most observations will be long (~100 ksec), uninterrupted, and pre-planned, although there will be capabilities to observe sources such as tidal disruption events or supernovae with a ~3 day turnaround. Following the 2nd year of operation, Arcus will transition to a proposal-driven guest observatory facility.


ABSTRACT Disability is one of the largest minority groups, with a spending power of approximately £273bn every year. Consequently, many advertisers are now weaving people with disabilities into brand narratives. These narratives often evoke feelings of pity or portray people with disabilities as inspiring, solely or in part on the basis of their disability. Meanwhile, social media has emerged as a vessel for social change. Through the netnographic study of twelve influencers with visible impairments, complex personhood is proposed as a social ontology by which disabled lives are acknowledged in less confined terms. Our findings illustrate how social media influencers with disabilities may draw on narratives based on empowerment, playfulness, resistance, and responsibility to present themselves as neither victims nor superhuman agents but as complex human beings. We thus bring forward a complex model in market-mediated representations of disability, beyond the misrepresentational narratives based on pity and 'inspiration porn'.


-The theoretical analysis of coupled-mode self-excited vibration of hydraulic gates is developed in the present paper. The theory is applied to the 87-ton Tainter gate at the Folsom Dam, which according to eyewitness testimony, experienced flow-induced vibrations and failed in l995. In its original design, the Folsom Tainter gate possessed two significant vibration modes. One mode was a whole gate rotation around the trunnion pin, while the second mode was a streamwise bending vibration of the skinplate. For certain upstream water levels, these two modes can couple with each other through hydrodynamic forces and inertia torques, producing self-excited vibration. The equations of motion for the small amplitude coupled-mode vibration are derived in non-dimensional form, revealing the non-dimensional parameters governing the vibrations and the hydrodynamic forces. The characteristics of this coupled-mode self-excited vibration are obtained through approximate numerical solutions, derived by iterative numerical calculations of the equations of motion. In addition, examination and physical explanations for vibration trajectories and energy transfer from the fluid motion to the gate vibration are presented. The theory, along with measured in-air frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios, is used to generate stability diagrams of the original Folsom gate design.


Technological development from horse-drawn carriages to the new Airbus A380 has led to a remarkable increase in both the capacity and speed of tourist travel. This development has an endogenous systemic cause and will continue to increase carbon dioxide emissions/energy consumption if left unchecked. Another stream of technological research and development aims at reducing pollution and will reduce emissions per passenger-kilometer, but suffers from several rebound effects. The final impact on energy consumption depends on the strength of the positive and negative feedback in the technology system of tourism transport. However, as the core tourism industry including tour operators, travel agencies, and, accommodation has a strong link with air transport, it is unlikely that technological development without strong social and political control will result in delivering the emission reductions required for avoiding dangerous climate change.


Uncertainty and risk are caused by million variables and either they will happen due to complex nature of the universe. This short communication investigates on effects of food risk variables (drives) on the agricultural section. Those drivers consider climate change, urban issues, socio-economic factors, and other measures. As the evaluation of agricultural production system based on multi variables is tough and usually confronts with conflicts, therefore, this article provides a framework to propose a structure with aid of multiple criteria
decision making (MCDM) and expert attitudes. By an empirical example, eight decision factors and six alternatives compose a decision matrix and multi-objective optimization method (MOORA) delivers the optimal solution. The findings of this paper can be a route for experts in this area to explore the further questions and strategies.


A control approach for automated highway driving is proposed in this study, which can learn from human driving data, and is applied to the longitudinal trajectory of an autonomous car. Naturalistic driving data are used as samples to train the model offline. Then, the model is used online to emulate what a human driver would do by computing acceleration. This reference acceleration is tracked by a predictive controller, which enforces a set of comfort and safety constraints before applying the final acceleration. The controller is designed to balance between maintaining vehicle safety and following the model's commands. Thus, the proposed controller can handle dynamic traffic situations while performing like a human driver. This approach is validated on two different scenarios using MATLAB simulations.