Background: The prefrontal cortices play an essential role in cognitive-emotional and working memory processes through interactions with multiple brain regions. Methods: This article further develops a unified neural architecture that explains many recent and classical data about prefrontal function and makes testable predictions. Results: Prefrontal properties of desirability, availability, credit assignment, category learning, and feature-based attention are explained. These properties arise through interactions of orbitofrontal, ventrolateral prefrontal, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices with the inferotemporal cortex, perirhinal cortex, parahippocampal cortices; ventral bank of the principal sulcus, ventral prearcuate gyrus, frontal eye fields, hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia, hypothalamus, and visual cortical areas V1, V2, V3A, V4, middle temporal cortex, medial superior temporal area, lateral intraparietal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. Model explanations also include how the value of visual objects and events is computed, which objects and events cause desired consequences and which may be ignored as predictively irrelevant, and how to plan and act to realise these consequences, including how to selectively filter expected versus unexpected events, leading to movements towards, and conscious perception of, expected events. Modelled processes include reinforcement learning and incentive motivational learning; object and spatial working memory dynamics; and category learning, including the learning of object categories, value categories, object-value categories, and sequence categories, or list chunks. Conclusion: This article hereby proposes a unified neural theory of prefrontal cortex and its functions.


The third multicopy suppressor gene of the PDI1 deletion from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, MPD2, was isolated and characterized. The MPD2 gene encodes a protein with a putative signal sequence, ER retention signal, and a disulfide isomerase active site like sequence. The amino acid sequence around the active site like sequence is similar to the thioredoxin-like domains of PDI and PDI related proteins, although the similarity is comparatively low. A delta-pdi1 strain over-producing Mpd2p showed slow growth and was sensitive to 1 mM dithiothreitol. Mpd2p can be detected in wild type cells and is a glycoprotein. Although the MPD2 gene was not essential for growth, overexpression of the gene partially restored the maturation defect of carboxypeptidase Y caused by the PDI1 deletion. Mutagenesis analysis revealed that Mpd2p can compensate for the loss of PDI with its CXXC sequence.


Amongst the plethora of affinity biosensor systems based on biomolecular recognition and labeling assays, magnetic labeling and detection has emerged as a promising approach. Magnetic labels can be detected by a wide range of non-invasive methods, are physically and chemically stable, relatively inexpensive to produce, and can be easily made biocompatible. Over a decade ago, the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory pioneered the use of giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors to detect biomolecules labeled with paramagnetic microbeads. Since then, our various investigations and engineering efforts have resulted in significant improvements in both the magnetoelectronic instrumentation and the assays associated with these magnetic labels. This paper and subsequent presentation provides a synopsis of the development of our technology which has evolved into a highly sensitive detection method.


Abstract Two homologues of cereal grain resorcinolic lipids, 5-n-heptadecylresorcinol and 5-n-hepta-decenylresorcinol studied in the system employing yeast cell protoplasts showed marked fusiogenic activity. The frequency of hybrid formation induced by studied amphiphiles was significantly higher than that obtained with the use of 40% (w/v) polyethylene glycol 4000. The resorcinolic lipids as fusion-inducing agents did no affect regeneration of the cellular wall. The fusiogenic activity of resorcinolic lipids lost when calcium ions were absent in the medium. Fusiogenic activity of studied amphiphiles is related to their ability to induce non bilayer structures within the cellular membranes.


We present a novel approach to efficiently learn a label tree for large scale classification with many classes. The key contribution of the approach is a technique to simultaneously determine the structure of the tree and learn the classifiers for each node in the tree. This approach also allows fine grained control over the efficiency vs accuracy trade-off in designing a label tree, leading to more balanced trees. Experiments are performed on large scale image classification with 10184 classes and 9 million images. We demonstrate significant improvements in test accuracy and efficiency with less training time and more balanced trees compared to the previous state of the art by Bengio et al.


We propose an integrated model of learning demands, work-related resources, and job stressors, which incorporates core assumptions of work design in predicting processes of learning and performance as well as health impairment. The model was tested in a heterogeneous sample of 830 employees using structural equation modeling. Empirical results largely support theoretical assumptions. Learning demands and work-related resources were positively related to intrinsic motivation and creative performance. Job stressors and low work-related resources were predictive for health impairment. The suggested tripartite taxonomy reconciles inconsistent research findings on the impact of work characteristics. The model provides practical guidance for work analysis and design by clarifying relationships between established work characteristics, job performance, and worker health.


We describe a compilation algorithm for efficient software pipelining of general inner loops, where the number of iterations and the time taken by each iteration may be unpredictable, due to arbitrary if-then-else statements and conditional exit statements within the loop. As our target machine, we assume a wide instruction word architecture that allows multi-way branching in the form of if-then-else trees, and that allows conditional register transfers depending on where the microinstruction branches to (a hardware implementation proposal for such a machine is briefly described in the paper). Our compilation algorithm, which we call the pipeline scheduling technique, produces a software-pipelined version of a given inner loop, which allows a new iteration of the loop to begin on every cycle whenever dependences and resources permit. The correctness and termination properties of the algorithm are studied in the paper.


Previous studies have suggested an association between hyperlipidaemia and retinal venous and arterial occlusion. To investigate this association further, the retinal arterial vasculature was studied by fluorescein angiography in forty hyperlipidaemic subjects, and clinical examination and biochemical investigations, including lipid profile, were performed in 99 patients with retinal vein occlusion and forty patients without retinal vein occlusion as a comparison group. Retinal arterial abnormalities were found on fluorescein angiography in eight patients with combined hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia (type IV and V hyperlipidaemia). However no abnormalities were found in patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia (type II). Fluorescein angiography was repeated after 6 months hypolipidaemic therapy in four of the patients with retinal arterial abnormalities. Progression of retinal vascular closure was observed in two patients with poor hyperlipidaemic control and improvement in two other patients with good hyperlipidaemic control. There was a significantly higher incidence of hyperlipidaemia (P less than 0.001) and glucose intolerance (P less than 0.05) in the retinal vein occlusion group when compared to the control group, and a higher incidence of hypertension in patients with either central or branch retinal vein occlusion than in the normal population. We conclude that retinal arterial abnormalities occur in type IV and V hyperlipidaemias and that both central and branch retinal vein occlusion are associated with similar risk factors to large vessel disease.


Novel cyano- and 2-imidazolinyl-substituted derivatives of pyridylbenzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxamides 4, 5, 10-13 and benzo[b]thieno[2,3-c]naphthyridin-2-ones 6, 7, 14-17 were prepared. All derivatives showed a prominent antiproliferative effect. Extensive DNA binding studies and additional biological evaluations point to various modes/targets of action. The results strongly support intercalation into DNA as a dominant binding mode of fused analogues, which was substantiated using topoisomerase I inhibition assay. Most intriguingly, only minor structural difference between "nonfused" compounds 12 and 13 has strong impact on the interactions with DNA; while 13 binds within the DNA minor groove in the form of dimer, 12 does not form significant interactions with DNA. The assumption that severe mitotic impairment (G2/M phase arrest) induced by 12 could point to tubulin, another important target, was confirmed by its obvious anti-tubulin activity observed in immunofluorescence assay, whereby treated cells showed disruption of microtubule formation comparable to the effect obtained by paclitaxel, a well-known tubulin antagonist chemotherapeutic.


I caught the tail end of a conference presentation recently on rituals in health care. I would have liked to have heard the beginning but I had made myself late by avoiding cracks in the pavement.


SOC 8010 CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY (3 credits) This course surveys the nineteenth century writers whose ideas have had a strong influence on the development of contemporary sociology and sociological theories. It examines work in such areas as: structural functionalism; conflict theory; rationalism; and the beginnings of modern symbolic interaction, feminist, and race theory. The course emphasizes a close reading of original texts, as well as seminar-style class discussions. Prerequisite(s)/Corequisite(s): Graduate; permission of instructor if outside Sociology MA program.


Background and purpose: Angiogenesis provides proper nutrition and helps to the development and spread of cancer cells. Cancer stem cells are a rare population of tumor cells responsible for initiation, spreading and growth of cancer. Angiogenesis occurs more in cancer stem cells compared with other cancer cells. Ibuprofen, as a member of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) group is used for prevention and treatment of certain cancers. In the present study, we investigated the effect of ibuprofen on angiogenesis in gastric cancer stem cells. Materials and methods: Gastric cancer stem cells of MKN45 cell line was isolated by spheroid colony formation technique. Gastric cancer stem cells were treated with various concentrations of ibuprofen. The angiogenic properties in gastric cancer stem cells treated with ibuprofen was compared with control cells using two-dimensional angiogenesis. Results: Angiogenesis reduced in the cancer stem cells treated with ibuprofen compared with the control cancer stem cells. Conclusion: Ibuprofen decreased angiogenesis in gastric cancer stem cells.


DN-9693, c-AMP: phosphodiesterase inhibits platelet aggregation induced by metastasizing tumor cells and blood-borne metastases of these tumors. Effects of this drug on pulmonary metastases was studied in wKA rats, which were sc implanted with 4-dimethylaminoazobenzene (DAB) induced KDH-8 tumor cells. KDH-8 cells (10(5)) were sc inoculated on day 0 and excised on day 20. DN-9693 was ip injected at a dose of 150 micrograms twice a day for 7 days pre operatively (-7 - 0) or perioperatively (-3 - +3) or postoperatively (0 - +7). The rats were sacrificed on day 20 after surgery, and lung weight and the number of surface pulmonary nodules were measured. Both were significantly decreased in the group of perioperative and postoperative administration of DN-9693. The survival of these rats were furthermore prolonged when Cyclophosphamide (40 mg/kg) was sc injected 3 days after surgical resection. KDH-8 tumor cells (10(4)) were iv inoculated on day 0, and DN-9693 was ip injected at a dose of 150 micrograms twice a day for 7 days on day 0 approximately 7. Rats were sacrificed on day 20, and same studies as above were done. In this artificial pulmonary metastases, the decrease of the number of lung nodules was observed in WKA rat treated with DN-9693. Platelet aggregation induced by KDH-8 tumor cells was inhibited by ADP inhibitor (apyrase, CP/CPK) and thrombin inhibitor (heparin, MD-805); KDH-8 tumor cells induced platelet aggregation by two different mechanisms: ADP-mediated aggregation and thrombin-mediated aggregation. This platelet aggregation by KDH-8 tumor cells was inhibited by DN-9693 with dose-dependency. DN-9693 had no direct anti-tumor effects either in vivo or in vitro. The results indicates that this drug prevents pulmonary metastases by inhibiting platelet aggregation.


The objectives of this study were to compare the effects of various acid solutions combined with ultrasonics as an aid to remove mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA)-based root canal filling and to assess their effect on the surface topography and microhardness of root canal dentin. Materials and Method: Fifty human permanent single rooted and single canaled freshly extracted teeth were decoronated and sectioned apically to prepare the middle third of root sections of 5 mm length. The canals were prepared in a step-back manner. OrthoMTA was packed throughout the prepared canals. These root sections were incubated for one week and subsequently randomly allocated to five groups (n = 10) according to the OrthoMTA removal method: No treatment (NT); 5% glycolic acid + ultrasonics (5% GA+U); 10% glycolic acid + ultrasonics (10% GA+U); 10% citric acid + ultrasonics (10% CA+U); Distilled water + ultrasonics (DW+U). A 1 mm deep well was created within the coronal end of the set OrthoMTA. Wells were filled with each respective test solution and left for 5 min. Thereafter, further removal of OrthoMTA used a specific ultrasonic tip. Finally, the canals were flushed using 1 mL of the respective test solutions and activated with a Controlled Memory ultrasonic tip for two cycles of 20 s each followed by flushing with 1 mL of distilled water and paper point drying of the canals. Then, specimens were longitudinally split into two halves and examined under a scanning electron microscope (1000×) to assess the residual OrthoMTA and surface topography of root canal dentin. The Vickers surface microhardness of treated radicular dentin was measured using the HMV-2 microhardness tester. Result: Data were analysed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's post hoc test. Significant differences for residual OrthoMTA were observed between (10% GA+U) with (5% GA+U), (10% CA+U), (DW+U) and (NT) (p value < 0.01). In the context of microhardness, (5% GA+U) and (10% GA+U) showed statistically significant difference compared to (NT), (10% CA+U) and (DW+U) (p value < 0.01). Conclusion: 10% GA+U was superior to other tested groups in removing OrthoMTA, but it substantially reduced dentin microhardness.


The effect of a bubble on the virtual current of an electromagnetic flow meter is studied numerically with the bubble at various positions along the pipe axis of the flow meter. To solve the distribution of the virtual current, a two-dimensional (2D) assumption is used. The domain is divided into sub-domains. In each of the sub-domains, the potential of the virtual current is expressed in series with unknown coefficients. An alternating method is used to find the unknowns. Various bubble sizes and bubble positions along the pipe axis of the flow meter are considered in the calculation. The change of the virtual current caused by the existence of the bubble is evaluated using deviation and asymmetry.


A pulse-based programmable memristor circuit for implementing synaptic weights for artificial neural networks is proposed. In the memristor weighting circuit, both positive and negative multiplications are performed via a charge-dependent Ohm's law (). The circuit is composed of five memristors with bridge-like connections and operates like an artificial synapse with pulse-based processing and adjustability. The sign switching pulses, weight setting pulses and synaptic processing pulses are applied through a shared input terminal. Simulations are done with both linear memristor and window-based nonlinear memristor models.


The excavation width of some deep foundations and underground structures ranges from several to hundreds of meters in engineering. The deformation characteristics of the retaining structures and ground of these deep excavations vary with the excavation width. The two-dimensional finite element method is adopted to investigate the deformation characteristics of retaining structures and ground with different ratio of the excavation depth to the excavation width. The numerical results show that the magnitude of ground settlement and basal heave as well as the magnitude of horizontal displacement of basal all increase nonlinearly with the ratio. The magnitude of horizontal ground surface displacement decreases with the ratio first,then increases. The lateral deformation of the retaining structure varies gradually from introversion-type to extroversion-type as well as overall movement towards the inside excavation with the increase in the ratio.


A 64-year-old female with a history of hypertension, obesity and hyperlipidemia presented to the Gastroenterology clinic with fatigue. Laboratory workup was consistent with iron-deficiency anemia, supported by low mean corpuscular volume and low ferritin. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy were scheduled. EGD revealed two sessile polyps in the body of the stomach and the biopsy was consistent with welldifferentiated grade 1 neuroendocrine tumor. Colonoscopy was performed and on intubation of the cecum a unique incidental foreign body was seen in the appendiceal orifice (Fig. 1). The foreign body was successfully removed with the use of a rat tooth forceps. The foreign body was identified to be a piece of a "spork" (Fig. 2), and patient had no recollection of its ingestion. Ingestion of a foreign body in healthy adults is unusual and usually accidental. Risk factors for intentional foreign body ingestion include developmental delay, alcohol intoxication, incarceration and psychiatric illness [1]. Accidentally ingested foreign bodies usually go undetected and pass without any incidents. However, up to 20% require endoscopic removal [2]. Endoscopic removal of a foreign body is indicated if it is greater than 6 cm in length and 2.5 cm in diameter [3]. A foreign body in the appendiceal orifice or cecum may cause obstruction and could lead to subsequent acute appendicitis and perforation, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality.


We present results from MUSE spatially resolved spectroscopy of 21 post-starburst galaxies in the centers of eight clusters from z ∼ 0.3 to z ∼ 0.4. We measure spatially resolved star formation histories (SFHs), the time since quenching (t Q ), and the fraction of stellar mass assembled in the past 1.5 Gyr (μ 1.5). The SFHs display a clear enhancement of star formation prior to quenching for 16 out of 21 objects, with at least 10% (and up to >50%) of the stellar mass being assembled in the past 1.5 Gyr and t Q ranging from less than 100 to ∼800 Myr. By mapping t Q and μ 1.5, we analyze the quenching patterns of the galaxies. Most galaxies in our sample have quenched their star formation from the outside in or show a side-to-side/irregular pattern, both consistent with quenching by ram pressure stripping. Only three objects show an inside-out quenching pattern, all of which are at the high-mass end of our sample. At least two of them currently host an active galactic nucleus. In two post-starbursts, we identify tails of ionized gas indicating that these objects had their gas stripped by ram pressure very recently. Post-starburst features are also found in the stripped regions of galaxies undergoing ram pressure stripping in the same clusters, confirming the link between these classes of objects. Our results point to ram pressure stripping as the main driver of fast quenching in these environments, with active galactic nuclei playing a role at high stellar masses.


A new multi-beam optical system is presented on the grounds of tri-positioning systems in this paper. The system has been developed to improve the data transfer rate for the optical disk system. The actuating system is composed of a tracking and focusing actuating system basically and a newly developed beam rotating actuator. The beam rotating actuator is employed in a multi-beam optical system to trace more than one track simultaneously. The multi-beam optics is established through the optical simulation and several experimental trials. The differential phase tracking method is used in the tracking error signal detection based on the only one beam spot. We also analyze the characteristics of multi-beam optical system. The experimental result shows that the multi-beam positioning system has performance adequate to the multi-beam optical disk system.


This paper studies the growing presence of private equity (PE) acquirers in the hospital industry. We examine employment, operational efficiency and patient outcomes at hospitals acquired by PE firms. While the total employment at target hospitals significantly declines, the proportion of physicians and nurses in the total workforce (skilled worker ratio) increases for hospitals acquired by a publicly traded PE backed hospital. Employment cuts also occur in hospitals acquired by non-PE acquirers, but skilled worker ratio does not increase in those hospitals. PE-backed acquirers, especially publicly traded ones, are also uniquely associated with reductions in overhead costs. Consistent with PE acquirers increasing skilled worker ratio, patient satisfaction scores do not decline at PE-acquired hospitals and even improve along some dimensions. In contrast, patient satisfaction significantly worsens at hospitals acquired by non-PE acquirers. Examining real patient outcomes, we find that PE acquirers are not associated with higher mortality and readmission rates at target hospitals than non-PE acquirers. Overall, our paper provides a comprehensive look at the role of PE acquirers in the hospital industry, and documents nuanced differences between PE and non-PE acquirers, as well as between PE backed acquirers with and without access to public capital markets.


There is increasing evidence that workers in many service settings regulate their work speed in response to operating conditions. However, in service episodes of finite duration characterized by time-varying and non-stationary dynamics (e.g., outpatient departments), operating variables that can affect work speed have not been rigorously studied. Understanding the impact of these drivers on work speed can help managers improve resource and appointment scheduling. We employ the trade-off faced by workers between cost of providing service and cost of customer wait in such environments to identify two previously unexplored drivers of work speed - time within the episode and anticipated remaining workload. We empirically test our predictions using data from a high volume, tertiary care outpatient department. We find that workers start a typical service episode at slower work speed and progressively speed-up toward the end of the service episode. As a result, incoming patients experience 23% shorter (50 minutes smaller) average length of stay at the middle, and 60% shorter (130 minutes smaller) toward the end of the service episode. Further, consistent with our conceptual framework, we find that the temporal pattern of speed-up is influenced by the anticipated workload during the service episode. Specifically, a higher anticipated workload leads to a larger increase in work speed earlier in the service episode than later. An increase in anticipated workload by 1 patient per hour leads to 9% (20 minutes) reduction in average length of stay at the beginning, only 4% (8 minutes) reduction during the middle and negligible change toward the end of the service episode. We also identify the role of reduction in discretionary task (ordering diagnostic tests) as one mechanism of achieving this speed-up, which itself is influenced by time within the service episode and anticipated remaining workload. These findings provide managers with several levers to improve efficiency and quality of service provision, e.g. overall shorter service episodes, increasing the staffing level earlier in the service episode and decreasing it later, and scheduling simpler patients earlier in the service episode.


Abstract This paper presents a summary of the principles and processes used to design a ski-jump ramp profile for the UK's Future Aircraft Carrier (CVF) optimised for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The paper includes an overview of the CVF and JSF programs, a history and summary of the ski-jump ramp and the principles of its use in the shipborne Short Take-Off (STO) manoeuvre. The paper discusses the importance of defining optimisation boundaries including specified objectives, aircraft configurations and environmental conditions. It then demonstrates the process of balancing the design drivers of air vehicle performance and landing gear loads to achieve an optimum profile. Comparisons are made between the proposed candidate CVF ramp profile and the current in service ski-jump design as designed for the Harrier family of aircraft. The paper briefly covers some of the important issues and factors that have been experienced when a theoretical profile is translated into a physical ramp fitted to a ship, principally the effects on aircraft operations due to build and in-service variation from the nominal profile.


Alterations in protein and gene expression levels are often used as features to predictive models such as clinical outcome prediction. A common strategy to combine signals on individual proteins is to integrate alterations with biological knowledge. In this work, we propose a novel patient representation where we integrate the expression levels of proteins with the biological networks. Patient representation with PRER (Pairwise Relative Expressions with Random walks) operates in the neighborhood of a protein and aims to capture the dysregulation patterns in protein abundance for proteins that are known to interact. This neighborhood of the source protein is derived using a biased random-walk strategy on the network. Specifically, PRER computes a feature vector for a patient by comparing the protein expression level of the source protein with other proteins' levels in its neighborhood. We test PRER's performance through a survival prediction task in 10 different cancers using random forest survival models. PRER representation yields a statistically significant predictive performance in 8 out of 10 cancer types when compared to a representation based on individual protein expression. We also identify the set of proteins that are important not because of alteration of its expression values but due to the alteration in their pairwise relative expression values. The set of identified relations provides a valuable collection of biomarkers with high prognostic value. PRER representation can be used for other complex diseases and prediction tasks that use molecular expression profiles as input. PRER is freely available at: https://github.com/hikuru/PRER


HIV prevalence is rising and has been consistently higher among women in Rwanda whereas a decreasing national HIV prevalence rate in the adult population has stabilised since 2005. Factors explaining the increased vulnerability of women to HIV infection are not currently well understood. A statistical mapping at smaller geographic units and the identification of key HIV risk factors are crucial for pragmatic and more efficient interventions. The data used in this study were extracted from the 2010 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey data for 6952 women. A full Bayesian geo-additive logistic regression model was fitted to data in order to assess the effect of key risk factors and map district-level spatial effects on the risk of HIV infection. The results showed that women who had STIs, concurrent sexual partners in the 12 months prior to the survey, a sex debut at earlier age than 19 years, were living in a woman-headed or high-economic status household were significantly associated with a higher risk of HIV infection. There was a protective effect of high HIV knowledge and perception. Women occupied in agriculture, and those residing in rural areas were also associated with lower risk of being infected. This study provides district-level maps of the variation of HIV infection among women of child-bearing age in Rwanda. The maps highlight areas where women are at a higher risk of infection; the aspect that proximate and distal factors alone could not uncover. There are distinctive geographic patterns, although statistically insignificant, of the risk of HIV infection suggesting potential effectiveness of district specific interventions. The results also suggest that changes in sexual behaviour can yield significant results in controlling HIV infection in Rwanda.


Due to the increasing growth of nanomaterial science and abundant reported studies on Nano materials and the extensive use of nanomaterials in welding, this study investigates the composition and distribution of cerium nanomaterial in submerged welds, and for this purpose, welded samples with different thicknesses of cerium oxide nanoparticles were tested for investigating microstructure. In this part of experiments, optical microscopic images, scanning electron microscopic images and microstructure of weld metal were studied. The experiments were carried out at the Razi metallurgical research center. As a result, we found that the weld metal with a 0.5 mm cerium oxide nanocoating had a finer grain structure than that of a weld metal without a nanocoating, and one of the reasons for the presence of oxides and inclusions, is to form the seeds of ferrite grain and needle ferrite.


One of the main challenges in Macroergonomics is to develop a universal model to measure macroergonomic compatibility. As a first step to develop such model, it is necessary to validate the construct of macroergonomic compatibility (MC). MC refers to the ability of the different work system components and elements to complement the capabilities and limitations of employees in order to achieve companies' goals. In that regard, to achieve this step, this paper analyzes the effects of MC of physical and psychological characteristics of employees over the performance of manufacturing systems measured by the  clients ,  production processes , and the  organizational performance of companies . Data was obtained from 188 employees of manufacturing systems by means of the Macroergonomic Compatibility Questionnaire (MCQ) in Chihuahua, Mexico. Also, data is analyzed to propose and test a hypothetical causal model of the relationships among the variables by using a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. Employees'  physical characteristics  ( weight ,  height ,  strength ) are considered as independent variable. The highest direct effects values (s) were found from  physical characteristics  to  psychological characteristics  (0,49), from  clients  to  organizational performance  (0,45), and from  psychological characteristics  to  motivation and needs . Also, the highest total effects were found from  physical characteristics  to  motivation and needs  (0,517) and  psychological characteristics  (0,488) and from  clients  to  organizational performance  (0,454). Results of this model offer relevant knowledge to develop macroergonomic strategies for manufacturing systems in order to increase their competitiveness and support the design and improvement of these systems.


Based on the strong magnetic anisotropy along the symmetry of the crystal, we construct a U(2) non-Abelian gauge potential for the molecular nanomagnet Mn12 by varying the external magnetic field adiabatically. Moreover, the non-Abelian geometric phase and the unitary matrix operation, which are the key steps to realize the universal holonomic quantum computing in the degenerate subspace, are also obtained by means of choosing an evolution path properly.


The classical relativistic mechanics of a system consisting of two point particles bound by the Hooke-like a,ction-at-a-distance is established. Relativistic inv.ariance o{ this interaction is .ensured by the prescription that it works between "conjugate" points on the world lines. of the two particles, which perform relativistic rigid motion. The conserv~tion laws of 4-momentum and angular momentum are given, and they lead to a linear relation between spin and squared mass of the bound system. Solutions to the fundamental equations of theory are explicitly obtained. Also it is shown that in the non-relativistic limit the theory approaches the usual Hooke-type theory. Quantization of this theory leads to a bilocal wave equation associated with two subsidiary conditions, and this is suitable. for. the representation of mesonic. states lying on a Regge trajectory.


This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the use of CRM (Crumb Rubber Modifier) in bituminous mixtures for asphalt pavements, using a Dry Process. Employing experimental methods capable of ensuring that the mixtures obtained and the stress conditions that they undergo in pavements are representative, we clarify some aspects relating to the design and production of mixtures; we also show the effects of the bitumen-rubber interaction on mechanical performances (fatigue resistance and rutting). Among the various factors involved in manufacture, a particular investigation was carried out on the effects of asphalt content, mixing temperatures and mixture compaction. The experimental results show that the addition of rubber to bituminous mixtures with a Dry Process has effects on the physical and mechanical properties of bituminous mixtures that are similar to those given by the use of polymer-modified bitumens (thermoplastic elastomers, SBS type). For the covering abstract see ITRD E121480.


Human transforming growth factor-alpha TGF-alpha, a polypeptide growth factor which causes reversible transformation of normal cells, is composed of 50 amino acid residues, has a 30 to 40% amino acid homology to epidermal growth factor (EGF), and binds the EGF receptor. In human cancers, studies are beginning to show that TGF-alpha could serve as a tumor marker and as a marker for the malignant potential of a tumor. Thus far, the types of carcinomas with which abnormal TGF-alpha expression has been associated include liver, gastrointestinal, breast, skin, lung, brain and ovarian cancers. TGF-alpha may play a role in the processes involved with tumor initiation and tumor growth. In cell lines, TGF-alpha has been found to be associated with autocrine and paracrine types of cellular growth initiation and with increased levels of oncogene expression. In summary, the evidence concerning human TGF-alpha are that TGF-alpha could serve as a marker for human cancers and that an understanding of the basic actions of TGF-alpha could help to explain the self-sustaining nature of tumors.


Many questions come up when we think about the academic performance of students and the ways and means to ameliorate that. In today's digital era we can use latest technologies to improve student performance and attendance. Class attendance, quizzes and assignments play a key role in academics. In this paper, we have defined a framework for improving class attendance based on GPS and face detection, and new learning environment where students can use devices like enabled devices, iPad, Tab, iPhone, blackberry, laptop etc. for class quizzes and assignments. We proposed an online as well off-line model for quizzes that will run on platform independent applications. Keywords : Heterogeneous, face recognition, GPS, Platform Independent application, mobile learning


We propose an efficient cooperative ARQ (Automatic Repeat request) scheme for multi-hop underwater acoustic communications, in which cooperative nodes are used to provide more reliable alternative paths for a specific source-relay-destination connection. Based on the knowledge of inter-node distances, a cooperative region is defined to include all possible candidates for cooperative nodes from a given pair of source-relay-destination nodes. When the relay (destination) node receives an erroneous packet, it asks for retransmission from a cooperative node, which is selected in a closest-one-first manner from the nodes in the cooperative region. The selection procedure continues until the retransmission is successful. In addition, during a packet-relay through multiple hops, the typical acknowledgement (ACK) signal is replaced with overhearing data packet returned back from the next hop. In this paper, we evaluate the proposed scheme by comparing it with a conventional S&W ARQ in terms of throughput efficiency. Computer simulation results show that the proposed cooperative retransmission scheme can significantly improve the throughput by increasing the probability of successful retransmission.


There is level of uncertainty prevailing in the health care profession today. No one knows what the future will bring for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and patients. However, one thing is certain: physicians will need to market and promote their practices. This article will provide several practical ideas that any practice can use to market and proS mote itself in an ethical fashion.


This paper sought to evaluate the behavior of an upflow Anaerobic-Aerobic Fixed Bed Reactor (AAFBR) in the treatment of cattle slaughterhouse effluent and determine apparent kinetic constants of the organic matter removal. The AAFBR was operated with no recirculation (Phase I) and with 50% of effluent recirculation (Phase II), with θ of 11h and 8h. In terms of pH, bicarbonate alkalinity and volatile acids, the results indicated the reactor ability to maintain favorable conditions for the biological processes involved in the organic matter removal in both operational phases. The average removal efficiencies of organic matter along the reactor height, expressed in terms of raw COD, were 49% and 68% in Phase I and 54% and 86% in Phase II for θ of 11h and 8h, respectively. The results of the filtered COD indicated removal efficiency of 52% and k = 0.0857h to θ of 11h and 42% and k = 0.0880h to θ of 8h in the Phase I. In Phase II, the removal efficiencies were 59% and 51% to θ of 11h and 8h, with k = 0.1238h and k = 0.1075 h, respectively. The first order kinetic model showed good adjustment and described adequately the kinetics of organic matter removal for θ of 11h, with r equal to 0.9734 and 0.9591 to the Phases I and II, respectively.


Contemporary analysis has generally accepted that amphibious warfare development in the United States and the United Kingdom was quite similar, if not almost identical, during the Cold War. So-called 'parallel courses' of similar development, which had emerged during the interwar years and continued to evolve during the Second World War, converged even further in the post-war era. This effectively culminated in national approaches (or systems) that most closely reflected the US Naval Service's (i.e., US Navy and Marine Corps) World War II model, which had been used with legendary success in the Pacific through 1945. However, a comparative study of American and British developments from 1945 to 1968 at the strategic, organisational/institutional and tactical/operational levels of analysis reveals that there were significant, if not fundamental, differences. These variances-which had, in fact, materialised during the inter-war years and were consolidated during World War II-continued to evolve along parallel but different courses of development. In essence, they were based on naval versus maritime strategies, single-service versus inter-service (or joint) organizations/institutions, and combined arms versus joint warfare concepts, techniques and doctrine. One could arguably summarise these developmental trends as being amphibious and expeditionary, respectively. Comparing these different courses of development is best accomplished by determining and analysing the similarly divergent evolutionary debates and changes that occurred within each subject country, specifically during the peacetime years when the most significant advances in concepts, tactics, techniques, and doctrine were made. Whilst these activities were particularly divisive in the late 1940s and 1950s (and even in the early 1960s), it was not until the mid-l960s that compromises were reached on both sides of the Atlantic, which made a convergence of amphibious/expeditionary warfare development apparent; but even this did not completely eliminate certain underlying national differences.


In this work, a portable slit imaging system is developed to study both the electron beam diameter and the profile of the newly developed Shanghai Electron Beam Ion Trap (Shanghai EBIT). Images are detected by a charge coupled device (CCD) sensitive to both X rays and longer wavelength photons (up to visible). Large scale ray tracings were conducted for correcting the image broadening effects caused by the finite slit width and the finite width of the CCD pixels. A numerical de-convolution method was developed to analyse and reconstruct the electron beam density distribution in the EBIT. As an example of the measured beam diameter and current density, the FWHM (full width at half maximum) diameter of the electron beam at 81 keV and 120 mA is found to be 76.2 μm and the density 2.00 × 103 Acm−2, under a magnetic field of 3 T, including all corrections.


Left ventricular wall motion was observed with EKG gated cardiac blood pool scan in 71 various cardiac diseases and 10 normal controls to evaluate its diagnostic and clinical significance in them. 1) In the presence of left ventricular dysfunction, visual evaluation of the left ventricular wall motion was useful to determine whether it was due to localized or diffuse abnormalities. In cardiomyopathy, marked left ventricular dilatation and severe hypokinesia were noted. 2) In myocardial infarction, regional wall motion abnormalities well represented the location of infarcted areas in majority of cases. Patients with inferior wall infarction had smaller decrease of the left ventricular ejection fraction and wall motion grade than anterior or combined groups. In whom persistent left ventricular failure was present, wall motion analysis with gated cardiac scan provided valuable information for the detection of ventricular aneurysms. 3) Evaluation of the left ventricular wall motion and its grading provided a reliable estimate of the left ventricular function. In conclusion, visual evaluation of left ventricular wall motion and its grading provided valuable information for analyzing the characteristics of regional and global left ventricular dysfunction.


Recycled paper is an important raw material to provide sustainability of natural resources and reduce the environmental impact of the use of paper from recycled pulp in the packaging industry. Hence, recycled paper production is higher in terms of volume and utilization. Recycled paper products are used in the packaging industry partially or fully. Such usage leads to the presence of heavy metals due to recycled and chemical additive sources. The present study aims at determining the amounts and also identifying the sources of heavy metals such as Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni, and Cu contained in recycled testliner (TL) and fluting (FLT), which are main products used in production of corrugated cardboard. The metals in the structure of the paper used in packages directly or indirectly in contact with foods are heavy metals. Mean values of 2.6 mg kg-1 Pb (lead), 2.8 mg kg-1 Zn (zinc), 0.094 mg kg-1 Cd (cadmium), 1.8 mg kg-1 Ni (nickel), and 25.4 mg kg-1 Cu (copper) were detected in test liner and fluting papers using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The main sources of heavy metals are colorants, mainly consisting of conventional paint and pigments as well as spot and Pantone Matching System (PMS) colorants.


OBJECTIVES
This article examines determinants of self-perceived health. Factors associated with very good/excellent rather than good health are compared with those associated with fair/poor rather than good health.

DATA SOURCE
The data are from the household cross-sectional and longitudinal components of the first three cycles (1994/95, 1996/97 and 1998/99) of Statistics Canada's National Population Health Survey (NPHS).

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES
Cross-tabulations from the 1998/99 NPHS cross-sectional file were used to estimate the prevalence of very good/excellent and fair/poor health by sex and age group. Based on the longitudinal file, predictors of health perceptions in 1998/99 were studied in a multivariate model using generalized logistic regression.

MAIN RESULTS
While physical conditions were strongly related to health perceptions, some lifestyle, socio-economic and psychosocial factors were also statistically significant. Heavy smoking, irregular exercise and overweight were associated with fair/poor health ratings. Unhealthy changes in lifestyle were associated with fair/poor rather than good health. Distress, low self-esteem and low socio-economic status were negatively associated with very good/excellent health.


This study explores a bottom-up approach toward negatively curved carbon allotropes from octabenzo[8]circulene, a negatively curved nanographene. Stepwise chemical reduction reactions of octabenzo[8]circulene with alkali metals lead to a unique highly reduced hydrocarbon pentaanion, which is revealed by X-ray crystallography suggesting a local view for the reduction and alkali metal intercalation processes of negatively curved carbon allotropes. Polymerization of the tetrabromo derivative of octabenzo[8]circulene by the nickel-mediated Yamamoto coupling reaction results in a new type of porous carbon-rich material, which consists of a covalent network of negatively curved nanographenes. It has a specific surface area of 732 m2 g-1 and functions as anode material for lithium ion batteries exhibiting a maximum capacity of 830 mAh·g-1 at a current density of 100 mA·g-1. These results indicate that this covalent network presents the key structural and functional features of negatively curved carbon allotropes.


Wavelength routed all-optical networks require that continuous wavelengths be established from source to destination nodes if no wavelength converters exist in the network. The requests to establish these lightpaths can be blocked depending on the availability of the wavelengths. It has been discovered that lightpaths of no longer length suffer higher blocking probability than those of shorter lightpaths, which is known as fairness problem. The traffic classification and service (ClaServ) method is introduced to optimize the fairness problem as well as reduce the traffic blocking probability. Simulation results for a 4/spl times/4 mesh-torus network and a NSFNET topology show that the ClaServ method can greatly reduce the blocking probability for average network traffic requests.


The arrival of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has brought about intense methodological restructuring in the participating countries. These changes, along with the development of ICT, are reshaping the Higher Education system. The emergence of advanced technological tools like the Moodle platform has altered the teaching-learning process at every educational cycle. This paper springs from the work undertaken as part of the ongoing project for Educational Excellence in collaboration with three Andalusia universities: Seville, Cadiz and Huelva. The study was entitled Tele-education Platforms for Virtual Instruction. Since work at the University of Huelva has taken into consideration the students at some point, and the University of Córdoba lacks research on this area, we decided to examine the role of the student at the University of Cordoba as side-work to the original project. To this purpose, we designed an instrument to determine the students' rate of use, level of satisfaction and level of knowledge of the Moodle platform. Thus, with this paper we would like to emphasize the relevance of students as key elements in the education system, as recipients of the teaching process.


Introduction This procedure provides several reports for making inference about the difference between two population means based on a paired sample. These reports include confidence intervals of the mean difference, the paired sample ttest, and non-parametric tests including the randomization test, the quantile (sign) test, and the Wilcoxon SignedRank test. Tests of assumptions and distribution plots are also available in this procedure.


For the first time, an exhaustive linear and nonlinear stability analysis of multi-transistor MMIC circuits is presented. A key point of the proposed stability analysis lies in that it can be easily implemented on any CAD package. Our straightforward and powerful approach allows both linear and nonlinear stability analysis of any complex circuit submitted or not to large RF signals. Following our novel approach, a MMIC HBT power amplifier was analyzed. Division frequency phenomena and spurious oscillations were detected by simulations and confirmed by measurements.


Despite growing research and policy attention, perinatal behavioral health conditions (i.e., mental health and substance use disorders) remain prevalent, burdensome for families, and largely untreated in the US. Researchers have documented an array of barriers to accurate detection, linkage with effective treatment, and improved outcomes for perinatal women with behavioral health disorders. It is clear that a multi-component approach that integrates evidence-based detection and management of perinatal behavioral health in the context of obstetrics care can be effective. This paper presents the initial development of a clinical quality improvement program that includes evidence-based components of behavioral health integration in obstetrics in the state of Florida in the US. The FL BH Impact (Improving Maternal and Pediatric Access, Care and Treatment for Behavioral Health) program, guided by the RE-AIM model for program implementation, has been developed over the past 2 years. Program components, initial implementation, and preliminary findings are presented. Following the implementation phase, the program has enrolled 12 obstetrics practices and 122 obstetrics providers in program engagement and training activities. The primary program component allows for obstetrics clinician telephone access to a statewide listing of behavioral health referral resources for patients and access to consultation with psychiatry. Since program implementation, the program has received a total of 122 calls to this line, with an expected increasing trajectory of calls over time. Results suggest this program is feasible to implement across a large geographic area. Challenges to implementation and future directions are discussed. These types of multi-component approaches to improved management and outcomes for perinatal behavioral health are promising and must be expanded and sustained in the US.


This study was designed to measure nitrite/nitrate and cytokine levels of serum obtained from septic shock patients and to describe potential depressant effects of human septic serum on rat cardiomyocytes. Serum was prepared from 10 non-septic patients and 10 patients with documented septic shock. Adult rat ventricular myocytes were exposed to 20 % serum in the medium. Cardiomyocyte contractility was assessed by measuring shortening fraction and shortening velocity. Serum levels of nitrite/nitrate, a marker of nitric oxide final metabolites, and cytokines (tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL) 1beta, 6, 10, 8 and 12p70) were measured. Compared with serum from non-septic patients, serum of septic shock patients induced rapid reduction of the extent and velocity of shortening in isolated cardiomyocytes. Nitrite/nitrate, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-12p70 concentrations of tested serum for cardiomyocyte studies were not increased in septic serum compared with controls. In contrast, septic serum that induced a depression of in vitro contractility, had increased levels of IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10. We can conclude that the depression of in vitro contractility induced by septic serum is not directly dependent on elevated levels of nitric oxide metabolites, TNF-alpha or IL-1beta. Our results support the view that other cytokines, including IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10, are potent circulating mediators of myocardial depression in cardiomyocytes.


This trial aimed to integrate metadata that spread over farm-to-fork continuum of 110 Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)Maine-Anjou cows and combine two statistical approaches that are chemometrics and supervised learning; to identify the potential predictors of beef tenderness analyzed using the instrumental Warner-Bratzler Shear force (WBSF). Accordingly, 60 variables including WBSF and belonging to 4 levels of the continuum that are farm-slaughterhouse-muscle-meat were analyzed by Partial Least Squares (PLS) and three decision tree methods (C&RT: classification and regression tree; QUEST: quick, unbiased, efficient regression tree and CHAID: Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) to select the driving factors of beef tenderness and propose predictive decision tools. The former method retained 24 variables from 59 to explain 75% of WBSF. Among the 24 variables, six were from farm level, four from slaughterhouse level, 11 were from muscle level which are mostly protein biomarkers, and three were from meat level. The decision trees applied on the variables retained by the PLS model, allowed identifying three WBSF classes (Tender (WBSF ≤ 40 N/cm2), Medium (40 N/cm2 < WBSF < 45 N/cm2), and Tough (WBSF ≥ 45 N/cm2)) using CHAID as the best decision tree method. The resultant model yielded an overall predictive accuracy of 69.4% by five splitting variables (total collagen, µ-calpain, fiber area, age of weaning and ultimate pH). Therefore, two decision model rules allow achieving tender meat on PDO Maine-Anjou cows: (i) IF (total collagen < 3.6 μg OH-proline/mg) AND (µ-calpain ≥ 169 arbitrary units (AU)) AND (ultimate pH < 5.55) THEN meat was very tender (mean WBSF values = 36.2 N/cm2, n = 12); or (ii) IF (total collagen < 3.6 μg OH-proline/mg) AND (µ-calpain < 169 AU) AND (age of weaning < 7.75 months) AND (fiber area < 3100 µm2) THEN meat was tender (mean WBSF values = 39.4 N/cm2, n = 30).


The relationship between the toxicities of crude extracts and purified toxins of Fusarium spp. belonging to the section Sporotrichiella has been assessed. Toxicity was determined on the basis of death of Artemia salina larvae and of viability and blastogenic response of bovine and human lymphocytes. Trichothecene-producing strains of Fusarium sporotrichioides and Fusarium poae were toxic to A. salina and to lymphocyte blastogenesis. A strain of Fusarium tricinctum, producing visoltricin and chlamydosporol, induced differentiated activity in different bioassays (toxicity to A. salina but only minor activity against lymphocyte blastogenesis). Other, non-toxin-producing strains of Fusarium chlamydosporum, F. poae, and F. tricinctum were not active in the tested biosystems.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) among women seeking electrology, clients presenting to nine electrology centers completed a questionnaire.

STUDY DESIGN
Women with potential risk factors were referred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They underwent a detailed history and physical examination, including hirsutism scoring by a modified Ferriman-Gallwey (F-G) method. Serum was assayed for total testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate.

RESULTS
Three hundred fifteen (40%) of 779 patients had potential risk factors for hyperandrogenism and were referred. Eighty-two (26%) completed their evaluation. Six were excluded secondary to prepubertal or menopausal status. Of the remaining 76 patients, 20% had F-G scores of 7 or 8, 13% had scores of 9 or 10, and 21% had scores > 10. Forty-nine (64%) patients reported irregular menstrual cycles. Sixty-four patients were not receiving hormonal therapy: 25 reported regular menstrual cycles, and 39 reported irregular cycles. Seventeen (68%) of the 25 had at least one abnormal androgen value, while 33 (85%) of the 39 women had at least one abnormal value (nonsignificant difference). Overall, PCOS was evident in 39 of the 76 women, or 12% of the 315 patients who were referred for further evaluation.

CONCLUSION
Thirty-nine of the 315 referred patients (12%) fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for PCOS. However, they were not receiving medical care for this condition. In addition, this percentage is a conservative estimate in that 74% of the referred patients did not pursue a medical evaluation. Therefore, efforts to educate both electrologists and their clients of the possibility of underlying endocrine disorders and subsequent metabolic morbidity should be undertaken.


Owing to the current situation of the Telecom Service Providing Industry in Pakistan where competition has intensified excessively raising prominent apprehensions such as job hopping and employee retention. The prime cause or motive of this book is to educate its audience about the statistics that have been published in the domain of employee engagement and employee retention. This book examines the overall level of employee engagement within the Telecom Service Providing Industry of Pakistan, and the extent to which workload distribution, growth, work environment, training opportunities and employee empowerment contribute to employee retention within the identified organizations. Nevertheless, the monetary elements of employee retention in these service providing companies is beyond the scope of this study. Findings of this book confirm that there is a positive and direct association among employee engagement and employee retention. More specifically the dimensions of engagement namely; workload distribution, growth, work environment, training opportunities and employee empowerment all show an affirmative impact or effect on the amount of retention in the Telecom Industry.


Being able to resolve conflicts effectively is a skill of primary importance in our society. In this paper, we describe a serious game that aims to teach 9- to 11-year-old children conflict resolution by making them aware of the deep elements of conflict. The player is invited to manage a theatre club and mediate the conflicts that may suddenly arise between the synthetic characters as autonomous agents.


This article is a comparative consideration of Morehouse College president and public theologian Benjamin Elijah Mays (1894–1984) and novelist Richard Wright (1908–60). Their respective views on modernism were developed through a gendered lens of black Southern masculinity and religion that each experienced during his formative childhood. Mays and Wright responded differently to theism and Christianity. They also responded differently to the mothering women in their lives—one with affection, the other with disaffection. Both Mays and Wright viewed modernism as a means of navigating the political hegemony embodied by white males. Yet, they each reproduced the modernist heterosexism, unwittingly supporting the subordination of the women who mothered them.


Classification is a critical, widely employed type of hyperspectral image (HSI) processing. Recently, deep learning models have been attracting more attention within the hyperspectral remote-sensing community due to their improved classification performance. Among them, recurrent neural networks (RNNs), which were initially used to handle sequential data, have been applied to HSI classification with promising results. The key point for such RNN-based models in a classification context is the extraction of a sequential feature for each individual pixel in a HSI. One popular strategy is to first extract similar pixels compared with a target pixel from the HSI, and then use those similar pixels to encode its sequential feature. However, the computational cost is tremendous, especially if such similarity-calculation search is done on the whole image. In this article, inspired by our previous work regarding similarity measurement-based sequential feature construction, a faster sequential feature extraction framework for long short-term memory (LSTM)-based HSI classification is proposed, where object-based segmentation method is employed for the purpose of imposing spatial constraints and computational acceleration. Within the proposed framework, both the local segment containing the target pixel and nonlocal segments are considered. For a target pixel, similar segments are selected first based on segment-based features, and then similar pixels from selected segments are extracted to construct a sequential feature. During pixel-wise similarity measurement, both spectral and spatial information are considered in such computation. Experimental results on three benchmark HSI data sets illustrate that the proposed methods achieve promising classification performance with markedly lower computation-time cost.


— Pond ash is to be investigated for its use as a partial replacement for sand in cement mortar (1:4). The effort is to be made for the utilization of Pond Ash as sand replacement material in mortar which may introduces many benefits from economical, technical and environmental points of view. The project will present the results of the cement mortar of mix proportion 1:4 in which sand will partially replace with Pond Ash as 0%, 10%, 30%, 40% and 50% by weight of sand. It is proposed to prepare two set of mixture proportions. First will be a control mix (without Pond Ash with regional fine aggregate (sand) and the other mixing will contain Pond Ash obtained from Thermal Power plant industry. The compressive strength test is to be conducted with partial replacement of Pond Ash with sand. The strength property of mortar with Pond Ash for strength at 28 days as partial replacement with the cement in the cement mortar 1:4 is to be determined. Similarly the other set of cement mortar incorporating Pond Ash is to be kept in elevated temperature up to 1100° C and tested for its compressive strength. The results for controlled cement mortar and Pond Ash mortar for compressive strength at normal temperature and elevated temperature is to be compare.


In the dentistry field, an ultrasonic surgery unit is widely used in bone cutting and scaling to reduce operation time and minimize hemorrhage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate bone cutting and the effect of a specimen's temperature on the two-type ultrasonic surgery unit using a handpiece moving system(HMS). A HMS, which can cut the bone, was developed to perform the experimental procedure with precision of motion control. Bone specimens were prepared from a combination of epoxy-hardener and cortical bone of bovine leg. Through the bone-cutting experiment, the cutting depth was evaluated by not only scanning electron microscopy, but also Vernier calipers. Also, the temperature distribution was measured by a thermo-graphic camera. This study may be applied methodically in various experimental evaluations on a performance test by a HMS.


Most red-cotyledon microsperma lentils (Lens culinaris Medikus) are utilised after postharvest processing into split dehulled seed. This study examined the effects on dehulling of 23 diverse genotypes of red-cotyledon microsperma lentil, each grown at three sites ranging from 245 to 663 mm total seasonal rainfall in Lebanon and Syria. Dehulling efficiency (%) was measured as the sum of split dehulled seed, whole dehulled seed, and whole hulled seed. Despite a range in location means of 464–2018 kg ha−1 for grain yield, the corresponding mean dehulling efficiencies varied only from 84.8 to 85.9%, indicating that the location effect on dehulling efficiency is of minor importance. There was more variation among genotypes for dehulling efficiency (80.8–87.7%) and for preparation of split dehulled seed (62.1–80.2%) than between locations. Seed processing variables showed medium to high broadsense heritabilities. Correlations between seed processing characters and agronomic variables were generally low. An approach to seed selection for optimum processing variables within the ICARDA breeding programme is discussed.


A new type of anion exchange resin, AG MP-1M, has been successfully applied to the chemical separation of Cu, Co, Fe and Zn from geological samples. Copper, Co, Fe and Zn are separated using 8.2 mol/L HCl+0.01%HF, 4 mol/L HCl, 2 mol/L HCl and 0.5 mol/L HNO3 as eluants, respectively. This method is better than the conventional method using AG MP-1 anion exchange resin, which requires a second step to better separate Cu and Co, especially for geological samples with high Co. Using this method, we separated Cu, Co, Fe and Zn from geological standards, BHVO-2, AGV-1, GBW 07111 and GBW 07114, with recovery yields higher than 99%for all these elements. No mass fractionation during the chemical separation procedure was observed. The chemical separation method well satisfies high precision measurements of Fe isotope ratios by using multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique.


INTRODUCTION: The appropriate physiological response to an acute bout of progressive aerobic exercise requires proper functioning of the pulmonary, cardiovascular and skeletal muscle systems. Unfortunately, these systems are all negatively impacted in patients with heart failure (HF), resulting in significantly diminished aerobic capacity compared with apparently healthy individuals. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) is a noninvasive assessment technique that provides valuable insight into the health and functioning of the physiological systems that dictate an individual's aerobic capacity. The values of several key variables obtained from CPX, such as peak oxygen consumption and ventilatory efficiency, are often found to be abnormal in patients with HF. In addition to the ability of CPX variables to acutely reflect varying degrees of pathophysiology, they also possess strong prognostic significance, further bolstering their clinical value. Once thought to be contraindicated in patients with HF, participation in a chronic aerobic exercise program is now an accepted lifestyle intervention. Following several weeks/months of aerobic exercise training, an abundance of evidence now demonstrates an improvement in several pathophysiological phenomena contributing to the abnormalities frequently observed during CPX in the HF population. These exercise-induced adaptations to physiological function result in a significant improvement in aerobic capacity and quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Furthermore, there is initial evidence to suggest that aerobic exercise training improves morbidity and mortality in patients with HF. This paper provides a review of the literature highlighting the clinical significance of aerobic exercise testing and training in this unique cardiac population.


Despite the fact that up to 47.3% of the workforce is now female, sexual harassment is still not recognized as a serious issue it is frequently downplayed and treated as a joke. Empirical research on sexual harassment in the recent years have indicated that up to 70% of women have experienced at least one form of sexual harassment at work. However, only a few decide to report or blow the whistle on their experience, i.e. only 1%. This is supported by studies that whistle-blowing action is not a popular means of reporting wrong-doing in Malaysian organizations. If the victims do not report their experience with sexual harassment, the offender cannot be apprehended and/or punished, and the behaviour is likely to continue. Organizations generally do not act on sexual harassment until an employee reports the problem to an organizational authority. While certainly, a variety of deterrents will be necessary to eliminate sexual harassment, a critical one is that victims report the behaviour so that some action can be taken. It appears that the decision to report a sexually harassing behaviour is a complex and difficult one, thus it is important to consider under what conditions will the target, report a sexually harassing behaviour with the inherent obstacles in doing so. In Asian countries it's impossible to measure actual reporting rates of sexual harassment, caused by the nature of the act itself, not many are willing to disclose the fact that they have been harassed, this is evident in the number of reported cases, combined with factors such as patriarchal culture, the lack of information about sexual harassment and the conflict –avoidance tendency in collectivist countries, explains why measuring intention to report would be the nearest operational variable. There is little empirical research on intention to report sexual harassment or the applicability of the theory of planned behaviour in measuring intention to report. This study utilizes constructs and relationships from the theory of planned behaviour, in an effort to prove its effectiveness in predicting intention to report sexual harassment thus extending the application of the theory of planned behaviour to include the intention to report sexual harassment and its cross-cultural applicability. In particular, this study looks at perception of sexual harassment, organizational climate and self-efficacy as independent variables that may influence the intention to report. Using a survey data of 348 female administrators from public universities in Malaysia, the theory of planned behaviour was tested using both SPSS and Partial Least Square (version 3.0). It was revealed that the intention to report to be turned into actual reporting is at least partially determined by self-efficacy and organizational climate. The findings illustrated the powerful impact of self-efficacy is a principal factor that contributes the much-needed conviction in reporting sexual harassment. In addition, the organizational climate was a notable predictor of intention to report, which also confirms with previous studies that climate for sexual harassment, is a predictor of incidents of sexual harassment in organizations.


Breast cancer has now been subjected to extensive molecular characterisation. Although much attention has focused on transcriptional profiling, with consequent identification of a number of biological sub-types, it is clear that breast cancers show significant variability in their somatic genome. Breast cancers are diseases that are largely dominated by copy number aberrations (CNAs) rather than single nucleotide variants (SNVs). Although HER2 is the poster child CNA driven therapeutic target a number of other mutation and CNA candidates are being pursued. The mutational processes that drive the different forms of genomic instability in breast cancer are increasingly understood and have been described in the last year. These mutational and rearrangement signatures may reveal aberrations in the DNA damage response that themselves represent a vulnerability and a therapeutic target. I will discuss a range of strategies and clinical trials being employed to target DNA repair, genome instability and consequent replicative stress in breast cancer. I will also discuss the state of development of assays that categorise a range of forms of mutational signature and genome instability which may act in future as predictive biomarkers of therapy response or resistance to DNA damage response targeting therapies with utility in the clinic. Citation Format: Tutt A. MS2-3 Clinical implications of DNA repair and genome instability research [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr MS2-3.


A previous decision analysis examined a patient with severe CAD, diminished ventricular function, and an abdominal aortic aneurysm and also concluded that CABG followed by aneurysm repair was optimal. This patient, who had well-preserved cardiac function but severely compromised pulmonary status, stood to gain less from CABG than would a patient with more severe coronary disease, thus accounting for the "close-call" between the CABG-AAA and AAA only strategies. Nevertheless, the analysis did emphasize the benefit of aneurysm repair, whether done alone or after CABG. The analysis also highlighted the significant risk of aneurysm rupture the patient is exposed to while recovering from CABG surgery. The operative mortality risks of the two procedures are similar; thus, the patient's total operative risk is approximately doubled if he undergoes both procedures rather than aneurysm repair alone. The key question raised by the analysis is whether this double jeopardy is more than compensated by the degree to which prior CABG reduces both short-term cardiac risk at subsequent aneurysm repair and long-term cardiac mortality. For this patient, who had good cardiac function, the gains appeared sufficient to offset the interval risk of aneurysm rupture and the additional risk associated with a surgical procedures. THE REAL WORLD The patient indeed underwent and tolerated CABG, although he had a stormy prolonged postoperative course due to pulmonary failure. After discharge from the hospital, he declined readmission for repair of the aneurysm. We did not model that possibility, clearly an inadequacy in our tree. Some six months later, the patient was still alive and was, reluctantly, readmitted for aneurysmorrhaphy. At that time, however, his pulmonary function had deteriorated and both the anesthesiologist and the pulmonary consultant stated unequivocally that further surgery was now impossible. In retrospect, the expected utility of CABG without aneurysm repair (thus providing only a decrease in the long-term mortality risk from his CAD) would have been 1.95 (DEALE) or 2.06 (Markov) years. Sensitivity analysis revealed that, even if long-term cardiac risk were completely eliminated by CABG, immediate aneurysm repair would have been a better approach had the patient's physicians known he would be likely to refuse or not be a candidate for the second operation. In summary, although the patient's comorbidities did indeed place him at significant operative risk for either aneurysmorrhaphy alone or two sequential procedures, the benefits to be gained were shown to far outweigh the risks when compared with expectant observation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


This study examined the prevalence of intimate partner violence in Jordan among a sample of 517 reproductive health clinic attendees. Intimate partner violence was measured using the World Health Organization's domestic violence questionnaire which was modified by the results of focus group discussions conducted in Amman. The percentages of women experiencing at least 1 form of control or violence since marriage were: control, 97.2%; psychological violence, 73.4%; physical violence, 31.2%; and sexual violence, 18.8%. Modifications of the WHO questionnaire were needed to measure control and psychological violence in Jordan. Similar modifications might be required when conducting research in the Region.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

As member of the high-mobility-group (HMG)-domain containing proteins – SOX2 (Sex determining Region Y – box 2) transcriptional activator is known for its pivotal role in maintaining self-renewal, pluripotency and cellular identity in embryonic stem cells. While its status in adult tissue, e.g. in homeostasis – is still less understood and controversy – SOX2 has shown recently to be up regulated in a huge variety of human tumors like oesophagus, lung, brain and breast.

Within this study whole sections – provided as formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples, derived from 86 patients with advanced breast cancer disease were stained via immunohistochemistry (IHC) for SOX2 positivity. Further on – six breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB231, MDA-MB453, SK-BR3, SUM-159, T47-D) as well as an individual based tissue micro array (TMA) containing 1080 fine needle biopsies were additionally analyzed using IHC and qRT-PCR. Initially – all samples have been evaluated for their particular molecular subtype (Luminal A, Luminal B, Normal-like, HER2 Overexpressing, Basal-like) and their histopathological parameters (histological subtype, grade, size, lymph node metastasis).

For further proof of principle the applied SOX2 polyclonal antibody (SOX2 PAb AF2018, R&D SystemsTM) was validated for its marker capacity via Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Spectroscopy and Western Blot to determine the kinetic profile, limit of detection, epitope variety and specificity of this antibody. With the so called 'fishing' opportunity for analyte recovery in SPR, native putative antigen bound by the SOX2 PAb can be enriched and further characterized from whole cell lysates.

In conclusion – SOX2 showed association to overall bad prognosis due to high grade (p<0.001), huge size (p=0.003), lymph node metastasis (p<0.001) as well as histological and molecular subtypes with poor overall-survival (p<0.001). Further on it is independent (p=0.6) of oestrogen receptor (ER) presence but correlated to EGFR expression (p=0.007). During antibody-based validation – SOX2 PAb revealed to possess high specificity, sensitivity and affinity to native and recombinant SOX2 full length protein finally. In this way SOX2 – as marker, can be applied to predict overall poor prognosis in breast cancer in an ER- and subtype-independent fashion.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2273. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-2273


This article uses canonical correlation analysis to investigate the income characteristics of active real estate agents in the United States who elected to participate in commercial and investment transactions. The model is unique in that it included activity areas to determine the specialties where agents generated the income and the type of clients who paid for the service. Future studies should consider the multiple dependent variable approach with activity areas to capture the relationship between income and the type of work involved.


Artificial intelligence (AI) now enables automated interpretation of medical images for clinical use. However, AI's potential use for interventional images (versus those involved in triage or diagnosis), such as for guidance during surgery, remains largely untapped. This is because surgical AI systems are currently trained using post hoc analysis of data collected during live surgeries, which has fundamental and practical limitations, including ethical considerations, expense, scalability, data integrity, and a lack of ground truth. Here, we demonstrate that creating realistic simulated images from human models is a viable alternative and complement to large-scale in situ data collection. We show that training AI image analysis models on realistically synthesized data, combined with contemporary domain generalization or adaptation techniques, results in models that on real data perform comparably to models trained on a precisely matched real data training set. Because synthetic generation of training data from human-based models scales easily, we find that our model transfer paradigm for X-ray image analysis, which we refer to as SyntheX, can even outperform real data-trained models due to the effectiveness of training on a larger dataset. We demonstrate the potential of SyntheX on three clinical tasks: Hip image analysis, surgical robotic tool detection, and COVID-19 lung lesion segmentation. SyntheX provides an opportunity to drastically accelerate the conception, design, and evaluation of intelligent systems for X-ray-based medicine. In addition, simulated image environments provide the opportunity to test novel instrumentation, design complementary surgical approaches, and envision novel techniques that improve outcomes, save time, or mitigate human error, freed from the ethical and practical considerations of live human data collection.


This article considers the value of relating music and language in the EFL classroom. From an ontological point of view, sounds are the roots of both music and speech. Our 'melodic approach' is based on the evidence that musicality of speech has an effect not only on the pronunciation skills of EFL students but also on their entire language acquisition process. A number of suggestions are made to provide the teacher with a range of teaching devices.


Objective: This study aimed to compare the burden of caregivers of patients with bipolar disorder and schizo-phrenia, and its relationship with sociodemographic variables of the subjects and clinical features of the disorders. Methods: Sixty-two schizophrenia and 62 bipolar affective disorder-I patients with their caregivers who consulted Uludag University Medical Faculty outpatient clinic of Department of Psychiatry were enrolled to the study. Patients with schizophrenia were assessed on Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, patients with bipolar affective disorder-I were assessed on Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Young Mania Rat¬ing Scale. Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale, sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics Data Form were applied to each patient. Caregivers of the patients were assessed on HDRS, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale (ZCBS) and Socio-demographic Characteristics Data Form. Results: It is found that the scores of ZCBS for schizophrenia patients' caregivers were significantly higher than those bipolar affective disorder patients' caregivers. Scores of HDRS and HARS were significantly correlated with the score of ZCBS in both care-giver groups. Conclusion: Caregivers of schizophrenia patients are more likely to be affected negatively than those of bipolar affective disorder patients, therefore psychological support should be considered for caregivers.


Human resources are central to economic development and can be increased in value and productivity by investment in human beings e.g. in their education and health. But for a considerable period in the past economists stressed the importance of the accumulation of man-made physical capital for economic growth and development to the neglect of human resource capital. Nevertheless, in the second half of the 20th century the importance of human resource capital (particularly education) for economic growth came to be recognised. Nevertheless the implications of the formation of human resource capital for sustainable development were given virtually no in-depth attention but it is important to address this matter, as is done here.


The cooling of a high power motor controller has been studied for more than two years. The total power dissipation in the controller is estimated to be in the order of 20 kW. We chose to use pool boiling inside a enclosed volume for thermal management. This paper is concerned with the evaporation part of the cooling system. The primary concern has been the cooling of the "hockey puk" GTO's having an expected power dissipation in the order of 1 kW. To increase the effective area for evaporation heat transfer, the components have been clamped between cooling "blocks". We found however that a notable part of the heat was transferred directly from the GTO capsule itself into the liquid. This was dependent on the degree of liquid subcooling and the total pressure. The thermal resistance in the cooling blocks contributed significantly to the total temperature loss. The temperature gradients depended heavily upon the local heat transfer from cooling block to liquid. FEM simulations have been used to model the temperature distribution in the cooling blocks as a function of heat transfer coefficients.<<ETX>>


Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, exceeded only by Alzheimer's disease (AD). About 1 million people in the United States, 1 million in Western Europe, and 5 million worldwide suffer from PD. Clinically, PD is characterized by motor symptoms including rest tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and posture instability. In addition, patients with PD also suffer from non-motor symptoms including cognitive impairment and dementia, fatigue, autonomic disturbances, and sleep disorders. While the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra is responsible for the motor symptoms, the degeneration of nondopaminergic neurons including cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM), norepinephrine neurons of the locus coeruleus (LC), serotonin neurons in the raphe nuclei of the brainstem, and peripheral autonomic nervous system are responsible for the nonmotor symptoms (Orlanow el al., 2015). Because PD is a slowly progressive disorder that compromises patients' quality of life (QOL) progressively, neurorehabilitation plays a critical role in improving QOL in PD. Difficulty turning, freezing, and postural instability result in high risk for falls and fractures. Cognitive impairment and dementia are also major risk factors for shortened life. Poor motor control and cognitive impairment lead to driving impairment. Poor nocturnal sleep and daytime sleepiness associated with dopaminergic medicine further affect driving safety. Neurorehabilitation is increasingly playing a major role as part of a multidisciplinary approach in managing PD. Neurorehabilitation interventions have been used in the treatment of motor, gait, speech, and cognitive problems (Uc et al., 2014). A systematic review showed that neurorehabilitation has beneficial effect on motor functions, quality of life, and activities of daily living (Foster et al., 2014). The advance of technology enables researchers to use wireless wearable sensors to measure motor impairments in PD quantitatively. In this issue, Mancini el al. used wireless sensors to compare turning mobility in PD versus normal control over seven days. They showed that although the total numbers of steps and turns were not different between the two groups, the PD group had slower and more variable turning velocity and higher number of steps per turn. These wearable sensors therefore can quantitatively detect abnormality in turning that cannot be detected by clinical examination. These sensors will be useful for monitoring progress in rehabilitation practice and clinical trials. Parkinson's disease, due to its slowly progressive nature, may offer a unique model to investigate whether non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or direct current stimulation (tDCS) can improve symptoms and reverse functional changes in the motor cortex and motor circuit secondary to dopaminergic deficiency. The motor system is an ideal target for cause-effect exploration, because its output can easily be measured using neurophysiological techniques such as surface EMG or motor function assessment. The rationale for non-invasive brain stimulation is that if the abnormalities in brain activity and physiology that cause clinical deficits are reversed, normal function should be restored. The dramatic effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) provide the best evidence for this rationale and suggest that DBS may have widespread effects across the motor circuit that connects motor cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus. This raises hope that stimulating elsewhere within this circuit, such as stimulating motor cortex by NIBS, could achieve comparable effects. The second paper, by Benninger and Hallett, reviewed the available clinical studies in TMS and tDCS. Although rTMS and tDCS have therapeutic potential, their clinical effects so


Intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) is a small intestinal brush border enzyme that has been shown to function as a gut mucosal defense factor, but its precise mechanism of action remains unclear. We investigated the effects of IAP on specific bacteria and bacterial components to determine its molecular targets. Purulent fluid from a cecal ligation and puncture model, specific live and heat-killed bacteria (Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes), and a variety of proinflammatory ligands (LPS, CpG DNA, Pam-3-Cys, flagellin, and TNF) were incubated with or without calf IAP (cIAP). Phosphate release was determined by using a malachite green assay. The various fluids were applied to target cells (THP-1, parent HT-29, and IAP-expressing HT-29 cells) and IL-8 secretion measured by ELISA. cIAP inhibited IL-8 induction by purulent fluid in THP-1 cells by >35% (P < 0.005). HT29-IAP cells had a reduced IL-8 response specifically to gram-negative bacteria; >90% reduction compared with parent cells (P < 0.005). cIAP had no effect on live bacteria but attenuated IL-8 induction by heat-killed bacteria by >40% (P < 0.005). cIAP exposure to LPS and CpG DNA caused phosphate release and reduced IL-8 in cell culture by >50% (P < 0.005). Flagellin exposure to cIAP also resulted in reduced IL-8 secretion by >40% (P < 0.005). In contrast, cIAP had no effect on TNF or Pam-3-Cys. The mechanism of IAP action appears to be through dephosphorylation of specific bacterial components, including LPS, CpG DNA, and flagellin, and not on live bacteria themselves. IAP likely targets these bacterially derived molecules in its role as a gut mucosal defense factor.


Purpose: The existence of tumor-initiating cells in breast cancer has profound implications for cancer therapy. In this study, we investigated the sensitivity of tumor-initiating cells isolated from human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2)-overexpressing carcinoma cell lines to trastuzumab, a compound used for the targeted therapy of breast cancer. Experimental Design: Spheres were analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence for HER2 cell surface expression and by real-time PCR for HER2 mRNA expression in the presence or absence of the Notch1 signaling inhibitor (GSI) or Notch1 small interfering RNA. Xenografts of HER2-overexpressing breast tumor cells were treated with trastuzumab or doxorubicin. The sphere-forming efficiency (SFE) and serial transplantability of tumors were assessed. Results: In HER2-overexpressing carcinoma cell lines, cells with tumor-initiating cell properties presented increased HER2 levels compared with the bulk cell population without modification in HER2 gene amplification. HER2 levels were controlled by Notch1 signaling, as shown by the reduction of HER2 cell surface expression and lower SFE following γ-secretase inhibition or Notch1 specific silencing. We also show that trastuzumab was able to effectively target tumor-initiating cells of HER2-positive carcinoma cell lines, as indicated by the significant decrease in SFE and the loss of serial transplantability, following treatment of HER2-overexpressing xenotransplants. Conclusions: Here, we provide evidence for the therapeutic efficacy of trastuzumab in debulking and in targeting tumor-initiating cells of HER2-overexpressing tumors. We also propose that Notch signaling regulates HER2 expression, thereby representing a critical survival pathway of tumor-initiating cells.


A system for locking two semiconductor lasers in phase has been devised. It consisted of heterodyning two GaAlAs laser diodes and comparing the phase of the beat frequency signal with the phase of a reference RF local oscillator. The resulting phase error was used as a feedback signal and current fed back to the local oscillator laser to lock the two lasers in phase.


Objective: Nanotechnology is emerging as one of the most important and revolutionizing areas in the research field. Nanoparticles are produced by various methods like physical, chemical, mechanical and biological. Biological methods of microorganisms are often preferred because they are clean, non-toxic, safe, biocompatible and environmentally acceptable. Methods: In the present studies isolation and characterization of Lactobacillus species (LAB) from Curd was done with MRS agar (Hi Media, India. M614) . All the isolates were subjected to cell morphology, physiology and an array of biochemical characterization (BCT). The confirmed LAB was used for the TiO 2 nanoparticles synthesis. The TiO 2 nanoparticles were then characterized by Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Results: The SEM images of samples revealed that the nanoparticles were spherical, irregularly shaped with no definite morphology. Biosynthesized TiO 2 nanoparticles were ranged in size from 20 to 50 nm. Conclusion: The presence of TiO 2 nanoparticle was confirmed by face centered cubic structure of synthesized TiO 2 nanoparticle was confirmed by FTIR pattern.


We have applied the Green function theory in GW approximation to calculate the quasiparticle energies for semiconductors Si and GaAs. Good agreements of the calculated excitation energies and fundamental energy gaps with the experimental band structures were achieved. We obtained the calculated fundamental gaps of Si and GaAs to be 1.22 and 1.42 eV in comparison to the experimental values of 1.17 and 1.52 eV, respectively. Ab initio pseudopotential method has been used to generate basis wavefunctions and charge densities for calculating dielectric matrix elements and electron self-energies.


Extensive control and transient performance tests were conducted on the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant and are discussed here. Use of conventional plant sensors greatly facilitated obtaining transient data. Test data agree well with prior analog computations. The maneuverability and transient behavior of this boiling-water reactor plant when undergoing load changes, turbine trip-offs, and other plant disturbances establish this plant as being very satisfactory for utility applications. Stability characteristics of this reactor are excellent.


A late 9th century jeweler's kit from dwelling 2 at Osinovoye Ozero, a Mohe site on the Middle Amur, is described. Bronze was smelted in a crucible placed on a ceramic support inside a vessel-like furnace. Nine bronze plaques from the same dwelling are compared with negatives of molds in which they were cast. Based on results of the elemental analysis of plaques, these fall into three groups. The fi rst differs from the other two by the source of ore, and plaques of the second group were recast more than once. Most Turkic type plaques were evidently destined for recasting into Mohe ornaments. The latter include one openwork and two fi gured plaques as well as bronze bells found in 2012 in dwelling 3. Because bronze items differing in composition were recast several times, the source of ore cannot be identifi ed. Techniques of manufacturing molds and facing of plaques, used by Central Asian and Mohe artisans, are reconstructed.


Drawing on recently established zine archives and oral-history interviews with former girl zine producers, as well as with zine librarians, archivists, and commentators, this essay explores the significance of the fact that dissident girls and young women developed an interest in what are now called "girl zines" through a number of different routes, with a range of different interests, and at different moments over the course of the last twenty-five years. Some were directly inspired by riot grrrl bands in the early 1990s. Others happened upon zines at alternative bookstores and info-shops and as part of their participation in the larger punk underground. Still others learned of them through popular magazines, college courses, and public and private libraries, or through quite varied friendship networks. The fact of this social, material, and temporal variability raises important questions about whether "girl zines" should be thought of as a unitary genre and, correlatively, about whether the girl zine explosion itself should be construed as a secondary effect of the riot grrrl phenomenon of the early 1990s. Building on recent critiques made by punks and zinesters of color of the now-dominant narrative about the history of riot grrrl and the role of zines within it, the essay traces how that narrative developed in the context of a backlash against feminism and how it led, ultimately, to the creation of the genre now known as "girl zines" and the founding of archives designed to ensure their preservation. Though both are seen as significant political achievements for feminism, by considering Mimi Thi Nguyen's recent claim that the dominant narrative and the genealogies it constructs tend to ignore the important but often differently motivated contributions of punks and zinesters of color, the essay explores the question of what it might mean to focus on the varied itineraries that girls pursued into the punk underground and on how those itineraries affected the zines they created for often quite distinct purposes. Ultimately, the essay asks how riot grrrl and girl zine-ing ought to be understood. That is, should they be construed as a singular event, as a coherent social movement, as a fractious discourse, as a complex set of social practices, as a political intervention, or as something else? In the end, the author argues that attending to the disagreements and contestations among girl punks and zinesters who constantly called each other out over their differences suggests that as a youthful cohort profoundly affected by the vast social and cultural change associated with what is now call neoliberalism, these young people were arguing among themselves and with the surrounding culture over how to craft new, more flexible forms of subjectivity and sociality adequate to the challenges of the twenty-first century.


A multiplying D/A converter stage incorporating a novel technique for compensating the residual error due to finite amplifier gain is proposed. The scheme is suitable for deep-submicron CMOS technologies and is advantageous compared to the available correlated double sampling techniques because it neither doubles the size of the sampling capacitance, nor requires processing of the same input signal twice for cancelling the residual error at the virtual ground. The conducted behavioral simulations confirm the efficiency of the proposed technique applied to a pipelined A/D converter.