The conference presents papers on motor gasoline use in aircraft, alternative fuel use in aircraft, and future fuel requirements. Aircraft field experience with automotive gasoline in the U.S. is considered as well as field experience with type certified civil aircraft operated on motor gasolines and a worldwide survey of motor gasoline characteristics. Attention is also given to the performance of alternative fuels in general aviation aircraft, ethanol and methanol in intermittent combustion engines, and investigations into gasoline/alcohol blends for use in general aviation.


3983 AVN944 is an orally bioavailable inhibitor of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 (IMPDH). IMPDH2 is the rate limiting enzyme for the de novo production of guanine nucleotides, and is highly up-regulated in many malignancies, including hematologic cancers. AVN944 has been shown to be a potent inhibitor of cancer cell proliferation, and to elicit a specific set of cellular responses directly related to depletion of cellular GTP pools (Strovel et al., 2006). Recent reports (Chong et al., 2006) have suggested that IMPDH inhibition could provide added benefit as a cancer therapy through blockade of tumor angiogenesis. To investigate this hypothesis, we evaluated AVN944 in a series of angiogenesis assays to determine the potential utility of this drug as an antiangiogenic agent for cancer treatment. AVN944 was found to potently inhibit endothelial cell proliferation, with an IC50 of approximately 30nM, significantly more potent than the IMPDH inhibitor mycophenolic acid (MPA; 130nM). Other in vitro assessments of AVN944 activity in endothelial cells included a comprehensive analysis of global gene expression changes resulting from IMPDH inhibition in these cells. The pathways and genes affected by IMPDH inhibition in endothelial cells were compared to those affected by AVN944 treatment of cancer cells, in an attempt to distinguish the reported dependence of endothelial cells on IMPDH 1 versus 2. Even more specifically, a broad set of biomarkers, currently being used to monitor response in patient samples from a phase I clinical trial with AVN944, was analyzed to assess the similarity of the response of endothelial cells to GTP depletion, as compared to cancer cells and patient samples. In addition, AVN944 antiangiogenesis activity was analyzed in the in vivo matrigel plug assay and in a renal carcinoma xenograft model. These results, detailing the potent inhibition of endothelial cells in vitro combined with inhibition of angiogenesis in relevant in vivo models, could position this drug for rapid development as a novel antiangiogenic agent for cancer therapy.


A significant part of the elements of machines and structures along with stationary fatigue is subjected to combined impacts of low-cycle and multi-cycle fatigue loading in operation. The physical nature of their fracture in these conditions depends on the ratio of the mode parameters and entails the necessity of advanced research. The predominance of this or that process determines the nature of the damage accumulation which leads to the destruction. Under such conditions, i.e., preliminary cyclic elastoplastic deformation followed by subsequent fatigue loading, the material subjected to preliminary loading at the first stage can be considered the "new material" with the new properties acquired upon cyclic elastoplastic loading which then undergoes further fatigue loading at the second stage. Hence, at the second stage, the new properties of the material are determined by the level of structural changes and damages earlier accumulated in the material. In this case, the damage to the material is considered on the basis of the well-known statement about the staging character of plastic flow, two main processes, i.e., shear, caused by the interaction of dislocations, and destructuring, attributed to violation of the continuity or integrity of the metal. Experimental studies of changes in the durability of cyclically hardened and cyclically softened steel specimens at different levels of preliminary elastoplastic deformation with varying number of cycles and amplitudes of preliminary elastoplastic strain showed the occurrence of an additional damage to the material when combination of loading modes leads to change in the fatigue durability at the subsequent stage of the basic multi-cycle loading. It is shown that correlation between changes in the fatigue durability and structural state of the material, caused by accumulated damage upon preliminary overloads, and, moreover, those changes can be characterized by the ratio of plastic and destructive strains as a Q-factor of the material.


Language may ordinarily account for difficulties in solving word problems and this is particularly true if mathematical word problems are taught in a language other than one's native language. Research into cognitive load may offer a clear theoretical framework when investigating word problems because memory, specifically working memory, plays a major role in solving problems successfully. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of language when solving mathematical word problems while taking into consideration participant's limited working memory. The participants' main role was to solve word problems in a format that depended on the group they were assigned to. The study utilized a qualitative method approach and involved three phases, a pre-testing, acquisition, and testing phase. Predominant findings from this study show that there was a statistically significant difference between the various groups participants were assigned to.


This paper provides an overview of issues, which are central to the nature of blended learning, and suggests looking at it through the prism of learner experiences. It also reports on the study which explores learners' perspectives on the experience of blended learning and, in particular, on problems students have and the strategies they use while taking Moodle activities as part of their self-study as required by the institution. Thematic analysis of the open-ended semi-structured interviews revealed that students experience various problems when they are left one-to-one with online assignments, such as the level of difficulty of learning material, time constraints, lack of feedback and lack of support together with motivational issues. To solve them they employ a range of strategies, such as getting help from outside, using networking and group work. These findings illustrate the necessity for the task designers to take such issues as information sharing among learners and their need for adequate support into account when designing Moodle activities.


ABSTRACT A cross-sectional survey was carried out with 485 healthy working adult Ethiopians who are participating in a cohort study on the progression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection to establish hematological reference ranges for adult HIV-negative Ethiopians. In addition, enumeration of absolute numbers and percentages of leukocyte subsets was performed for 142 randomly selected HIV-negative individuals. Immunological results were compared to those of 1,356 healthy HIV-negative Dutch blood donor controls. Immunohematological mean values, medians, and 95th percentile reference ranges were established. Mean values were as follows: leukocyte (WBC) counts, 6.1 × 109/liter (both genders); erythrocyte counts, 5.1 × 1012/liter (males) and 4.5 × 1012/liter (females); hemoglobin, 16.1 (male) and 14.3 (female) g/dl; hematocrit, 48.3% (male) and 42.0% (female); platelets, 205 × 109/liter (both genders); monocytes, 343/μl; granulocytes, 3,057/μl; lymphocytes, 1,857/μl; CD4 T cells, 775/μl; CD8 T cells, 747/μl; CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio, 1.2; T cells, 1,555/μl; B cells, 191/μl; and NK cells, 250/μl. The major conclusions follow. (i) The WBC and platelet values of healthy HIV-negative Ethiopians are lower than the adopted reference values of Ethiopia. (ii) The absolute CD4 T-cell counts of healthy HIV-negative Ethiopians are considerably lower than those of the Dutch controls, while the opposite is true for the absolute CD8 T-cell counts. This results in a significantly reduced CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio for healthy Ethiopians, compared to the ratio for Dutch controls.


The aim of co-segmentation is to simultaneously segment multiple images depicting an identical or similar object. In this study, a co-segmentation method using saliency detection and region merging is proposed. The saliency detection results using different detection methods on different types of colour space are combined to produce seed regions for each image in the image group. The initial seed regions of all the images are refined by eliminating the dissimilar ones to ensure accurate seed regions for each images as possible. Region merging is performed on each image individually in order to allow our method to be applied to large image groups. The maximal similarity measurement and nearest similarity measurement are defined as merging rules. The deliberately designed merging strategy aims to merge two regions using the maximal similarity rule and label two regions as the same class but not merge them using the nearest similarity rule. The proposed method has been compared with some state-of-the-art methods on three datasets, and the experimental results show its effectiveness.


This paper studies an environment of simultaneous, separate, first-price auctions for complementary goods. Agents observe private values of each good before making bids, and the complementarity between goods is explicitly incorporated in their utility. For simplicity, a model is presented with two first-price auctions and two bidders. We show that a monotone pure-strategy Bayesian Nash Equilibrium exists in the environment.


Background Certolizumab pegol (CZP) has demonstrated rapid and sustained improvements in disease activity in Japanese patients (pts) with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), both with methotrexate (J-RAPID; NCT00791999) and with or without DMARDs other than methotrexate (HIKARI; NCT00791921) in placebo-controlled double-blind (DB) randomized trials.1,2 Although previous analysis suggested that the loading dose (LD) of CZP (400mg at Weeks (Wks) 0, 2 and 4) improves the clinical response of CZP for the first 24 wks3, the impact of the initial LD on the long-term outcomes remains unknown. Objectives To compare the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity 1 year (yr) after initiation of CZP with and without the LD. Methods Data from the Japanese clinical trials1,2 and the respective open-label extensions (OLEs) (J-RAPID OLE: NCT00851318; HIKARI OLE: NCT00850343)4,5 were used for this analysis. Pts randomized to receive CZP 200mg every 2 wks (Q2W) with the LD were defined as LD groups (J-RAPID: n=82; HIKARI: n=116), whereas pts randomized to receive placebo in the DB trials who entered the respective OLEs and initiated CZP 200mg Q2W without LD were defined as No-LD groups (J-RAPID: n=61; HIKARI: n=99). The ACR response rates, achievement of DAS28 LDA, safety assessments, plasma CZP levels and rates of anti-CZP antibodies (Abs) were analyzed up to 1yr after initiating CZP. DB baseline for the LD groups and at OLE entry for the No-LD groups were used as the baselines. Results The ACR20/50/70 responses of the LD vs No-LD groups in J-RAPID were 74.4%/62.2%/32.9% vs 76.8%/60.7%/26.8%, and in HIKARI were 69.0%/50.9%/31.9% vs 62.1%/43.2%/23.2%, respectively, at 1yr (Figure). The LD groups had higher proportion of pts in DAS28 LDA (J-RAPID: 48.8% vs 42.6%; HIKARI: 42.2% vs 26.3%). Frequency of anti-CZP Abs was lower in the LD groups than in the No-LD groups (J-RAPID: n=2/82 [2.4%] vs n=4/61 [6.6%]; HIKARI: n=30/116 [25.9%] vs n=32/99 [32.3%]). Pts who developed anti-CZP Abs had lower plasma CZP levels and lower clinical responses than Ab-negative pts. Safety profiles were similar between the groups. Figure 1. ACR response rates over one year. Conclusions While this post-hoc analysis has limitations including the comparison of DB vs OLE data, the results suggest that the benefits potentially due to the initial loading dose are sustained until at least 1yr without additional risk of adverse events. References Yamamoto K. et al. Mod Rheum 2013; epub. Yamamoto K. et al. Mod Rheum 2013; epub. 3. Takeuchi T. et al. Arthritis Rheum 2013;65(Suppl.10):S989. Tanaka Y. et al. Mod Rheum; in press. Tanaka Y. et al. Mod Rheum; epub. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge Costello Medical Consulting for editorial assistance which was funded by UCB Pharma. Disclosure of Interest : T. Takeuchi Grant/research support: Abbott Japan, Astellas Pharma, Bristol–Myers Squibb, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, Janssen, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Pfizer Japan, Sanofi–Aventis, Santen, Takeda, Teijin Pharma, Abbvie, Asahikasei, Taisho-Toyama, Consultant for: Astra Zeneca, Eli Lilly Japan, Novartis, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Asahi Kasei Medical, Abbvie, Daiichi Sankyo, Speakers bureau: Abbott Japan, Bristol–Myers Squibb, Chugai, Eisai, Janssen, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Pfizer Japan, Takeda, Astellas Pharma, Diaichi Sankyo, K. Yamamoto Grant/research support: UCB Pharma, Pfizer, Abbott, Santen, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Eisai, Consultant for: UCB Pharma, Pfizer, Abbott, BMS, Roche, Chugai, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Eisai, H. Yamanaka Grant/research support: AbbVie, Asahikasei Pharma, Astellas, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Mitsubishi Tanabe, MSD, Nippon Kayaku, Pfizer, Santen, Taisho-Toyama, Takeda, Teijin Pharma, Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Pfizer, Takeda, Teijin Pharma, N. Ishiguro Grant/research support: Takeda, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Astellas, Chugai, Abbott, BMS, Eisai, Janssen, Kaken and Pfizer, Daiichi Sankyo, Speakers bureau: Daiichi Sankyo, Takeda, Hisamitsu, Otsuka, Taisho-Toyama, Kaken, Eisai, Janssen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Japan, Chugai, Mitsubishi Tanabe, UCB Japan, Astellas Pharma, Pfizer Japan, Y. Tanaka Grant/research support: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Abbvie, MSD, Chugai, Astellas, Daiichi-Sankyo, Consultant for: Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Eisai, Chugai, Abbott Japan, Astellas, Daiichi-Sankyo, Abbvie, Janssen, Pfizer, Takeda, Astra-Zeneca, Eli Lilly Japan, GlaxoSmithKline, Quintiles, MSD, Asahi-Kasei, Speakers bureau: Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Eisai, Chugai, Abbott Japan, Astellas, Daiichi-Sankyo, Abbvie, Janssen, Pfizer, Takeda, Astra-Zeneca, Eli Lilly Japan, GlaxoSmithKline, Quintiles, MSD, Asahi-Kasei, K. Eguchi Consultant for: UCB Pharma, A. Watanabe Grant/research support: Daiichi-Sankyo, Kyorin, Shionogi, Taisho, Dainippon-Sumitomo, Taiho, Toyama Chemical and Meiji Seika, Speakers bureau: MSD, GSK, Shionogi, Daiichi-Sankyo, Taisho-Toyama, Dainippon-Sumitomo, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Pfizer, H. Origasa Consultant for: UCB Pharma and Astellas, M. Kobayashi Employee of: UCB Pharma, T. Shoji Employee of: UCB Pharma, O. Togo Employee of: UCB Pharma, N. Miyasaka Grant/research support: Pfizer, Takeda, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Chugai, Abbott, Eisai and Astellas, T. Koike Speakers bureau: UCB Pharma, Pfizer, Chugai, Abbott, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Takeda, Eisai, Santen, Astellas, Taisho-Toyama, BMS, Teijin Pharma, Daiichi-Sankyo DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.1447


Chaos is a kind of nonlinear system response that has a dense set of unstable periodic orbits (UPOs) embedded in a chaotic attractor. The idea of the chaos control is to explore the UPO stabilization obtaining dynamical systems that may quickly react to some new situation, changing conditions and their response. The OGY (Ott-GrebogiYorke) method achieves system stabilization by using small perturbations promoted in the neighborhood of the desired orbit when the trajectory crosses a specific surface, such as a Poincaré section. This contribution proposes a multiparameter (MP) method based on OGY approach in order to control chaotic behavior using different control parameters. As an application of the proposed multiparameter general formulation it is presented an uncoupled approach where the control parameters do not influence the system dynamics when they are not active. This method is applied to control chaos in maps using two control parameters. The two-dimensional Hénon and Ikeda maps are of concern. Results show that the proposed procedure can be a good alternative for chaos control since it provides a more effective UPO stabilization than the classical single-parameter OGY approach.Chaos control is employed for the stabilization of unstable periodic orbits (UPOs) embedded in chaotic attractors.


We have recently compiled a database with all doctoral dissertations (PhDs) completed in modern Greece (1837-2014), in the general area of astronomy and astrophysics, as well as in space and ionospheric physics. A preliminary statistical analysis of the data is presented, along with a discussion of the general trends observed.


Background  Topical retinoids have been successfully used in the treatment of acne vulgaris but may induce irritation when used twice daily. The association of retinaldehyde (RAL) with glycolic acid (GA) have complementary activities, which could be of interest for adult women with acne because of a better tolerance/efficacy ratio. The aim of this study was to evaluate the tolerance and the efficiency of RAL (0.1%)/GA (6%) in adult women with acne when used alone or in combination with their usual acne products except retinoids.


China Academic Library & Information System (CALIS) is the world's largest university library consortium, which is responsible for resource coordination and joint construction, document information sharing services, and staff training, application system construction, etc. It uses cloud computing (CC) technology to build a platform for cloud services and sharing, which is a model for the development of China's university library alliances (CULA) in the past 30 years, and has played an important role in promoting the CULA development, which has independently designed and developed an online cooperative cataloging system and an online public retrieval (OPAC) system for the retrieval of the joint catalogue of Chinese and foreign books and pe-riodicals. This article mainly adopts the method of case analysis to analyze the development process, organizational structure, operation mode, and development trend of CALIS, with the purpose of revealing the general laws of the CULA construction.


The cellular localization of protein tyrosine phosphatase 51 (PTPIP51) and its in vitro interacting partner protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) was studied in human placentae of different gestational stages. The expression of PTPIP51 protein and mRNA was observed in the syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast layer of placentae from the first, second, and third trimesters. In contrast, PTP1B expression was restricted to the syncytiotrophoblast during all gestational stages. Cells of the cytotrophoblasts and parts of the syncytiotrophoblasts expressing high amounts of PTPIP51 were found to execute apoptosis as shown by TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling assay, cytokeratin 18f, and caspase 3 expression. PTPIP51 could also be traced in the endothelium and smooth muscle cells of placental arterial and venous vessels, identified by double immunostainings with antibodies directed against van Willebrand factor and α-smooth muscle actin. Some of these cells showing a high PTPIP51 reactivity were Ki67 positive, indicating proliferation. Additionally, a small population of placental CD14-positive macrophages and mesenchymal cells within the villous stroma were detected as PTPIP51 positive. Our data suggest that both proteins, PTPIP51 and PTP1B, play a role in differentiation and apoptosis of the cytotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast, respectively. Moreover, PTPIP51 may also serve as a cellular signaling partner in angiogenesis and vascular remodeling.


Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide zoonosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii. Ingestion of raw/undercooked meat is considering an important route of infection. Consumption of meat from equids is common in European and Asian countries and an increase in Brazil has been observed. The aim of this study was to evaluate occurrences of anti-T. gondii antibodies and risk factors relating to infection in equids slaughtered for human consumption in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Blood samples from 192 horses and 208 donkeys were collected in the exsanguination area during the slaughter. Serum samples were subjected to the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT). Association analysis was performed using Pearson's chi-square test (χ2) or Fisher's exact test, to evaluate risk factors relating to the prevalence of seroreagents. Antibodies against T. gondii were found in 13.5% of the equids, with higher occurrence in horses (18.75%) than in donkeys (8.65%). Associations between seropositivity and the following variables were found (p ≤ 0.05): species, animal origin, purpose of rearing and source of water for animal consumption and contact with cats. Farms need to implement preventive measures to control T. gondii infection in these species and avert transmission of the parasite to the human population that will consume their meat.


Aims: The synthetic polymer plastics have become an integral part of contemporary life. Excess use of plastics and indiscriminate dumping of it in soil and water is polluting the environment. In order to overcome this problem, the production and applications of eco-friendly biodegradable products from microbes are becoming inevitable from the last decade and also are the good alternatives for synthetic polymers.
Methods and Results: Polyhydroxyalkanoate producing bacterial strains were confirmed by serial dilution of sewage samples from dairies and pour plating using modified nutrient agar medium with 2% glucose and 0.3% sudan black. Commercial dairy sewage sample from III Dairy showed highest count of PHA producers (3.80 log10cfu/ml) followed by II Dairy (3.68 log10cfu/ml) and I Dairy (3.35 log10cfu/ml). On an average, 70 per cent were PHA producers among TBC of sewage samples.
Conclusion: Dairy sewage sample from III Dairy showed highest count of PHA producers (3.80log10cfu/ml)
Significance and Impact of the Study: This study provides importance of polyhydroxyalkanoates and their role against synthetic plastic by enumerating the polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) producing bacteria from Dairy sewage samples that can be effectively utilized for the synthesis of bioplastics.


Phonetic transfer is defined as an L1 influence on the acquisition of L2 phonetics. Previous studies have investigated phonetic transfer in the area of articulation, but the effects of L1 on L2 pronunciation measured by speech recognition technology have been under-researched. This study aims to address the issue by focusing on a sample of 676 Chinese university ESL students. Drawing on quantitative data, it examined whether the participants applied phonetic transfer to ESL learning and what factors might have influenced the results of phonetic transfer. We assumed that Chinese-to-English phonetic transfer occurs but that the extent of the transfer would be small because Chinese and English belong to different language families. However, findings from this study confirm that Chinese-to-English phonetic transfer occurs and the extent is large. The findings regarding high transferability might be attributed to spelling through phonics and the nature of pronunciation acquisition.


The circulation and exchange between two intermittently closing and opening lakes and lagoons (ICOLLs) and the ocean were analysed using salinity and current meter data. Wamberal Lagoon was shallow (~2.5 m maximum depth) with a small (<1 km2) waterway area and a short opening duration (2 weeks), and Smiths Lake was deeper (~5 m maximum depth) with a larger (~11 km2) waterway area and a longer opening duration (4 months). An absence of river inflow and a restricted sill type inlet channel characterised both systems. The results showed that the smaller ICOLL exhibited a salinity structure similar to a partially or well-mixed estuary, whereas the larger ICOLL exhibited stronger separation of flow with a salt wedge-type structure. Both ICOLLs had strong current velocities in the surface water during ebb tide. The results also demonstrated that tidal effects controlled the circulation and exchange in the smaller ICOLL, whilst the wind also had a significant influence. In the larger ICOLL, subtidal effects over the fortnightly tidal cycle significantly influenced the circulation and exchange, but the influence of tide and wind effects was weaker. An analysis of the flushing for the two ICOLLs illustrated that the timescales were an order of magnitude different but comparable to the duration of opening for each ICOLL, ranging from 4 days in the smaller ICOLL (Wamberal Lagoon) to 113 days in the larger ICOLL (Smiths Lake). This research suggests that intermittent estuarine systems may be quite complex and variable within the same regional area, and consequently throughout the world.


Emerging sonography techniques often require increasing the number of transducer elements involved in the imaging process. Consequently, larger amounts of data must be acquired and processed. The significant growth in the amounts of data affects both machinery size and power consumption. Within the classical sampling framework, state of the art systems reduce processing rates by exploiting the bandpass bandwidth of the detected signals. It has been recently shown, that a much more significant sample-rate reduction may be obtained, by treating ultrasound signals within the Finite Rate of Innovation framework. These ideas follow the spirit of Xampling, which combines classic methods from sampling theory with recent developments in Compressed Sensing. Applying such low-rate sampling schemes to individual transducer elements, which detect energy reflected from biological tissues, is limited by the noisy nature of the signals. This often results in erroneous parameter extraction, bringing forward the need to enhance the SNR of the low-rate samples. In our work, we achieve SNR enhancement, by beamforming the sub-Nyquist samples obtained from multiple elements. We refer to this process as "compressed beamforming". Applying it to cardiac ultrasound data, we successfully image macroscopic perturbations, while achieving a nearly eightfold reduction in sample-rate, compared to standard techniques.


"Agency theory in modern corporate finance suggests the presence of a conflict of interest between managers and shareholders. Prior theoretical and empirical research has identified leverage as an important mechanism that is likely to mitigate agency costs. Although debt plays a central role in mitigating corporate agency conflicts, relatively few studies have examined the implications that arise from the use of secured versus unsecured debt. Given the differences that exist in the incentives to engage in costly monitoring activities between secured and unsecured debt holders, we explore the role of secured and unsecured debt as monitoring devices. Specifically, we answer the following question: Does the use of unsecured debt result in a performance difference between firms that employ a higher proportion of unsecured debt versus firms that utilize secured debt? We find robust evidence that an increase in the use of secured debt by REITs is associated with positive excess returns in the following quarter.""


Background: Several studies from Europe have over time shown that children growing up in poverty will have long lasting effects on their physical and mental health, on medical service utilization, and criminal behavior. Poverty exists even in developed countries such as the United States and Israel (25% of children living in poverty), where it is a major public health problem of a magnitude that is markedly different than Scandinavian countries (3%). Methods: This paper presents data from the Israel National Insurance Institute research on poverty, with comparisons with several other countries. Results: The data showed the incidence of poverty in Israel at 18% of all families. The number of families living in poverty in 2000 was 305,400 with 1,088,100 persons and 481,100 children. In other words 25% of the children or every fourth child in Israel live in poverty. Conclusions: It is concluded that there is a need for further research into the effects of poverty on child development and adaptive behaviors, and to find ways to conduct policy relevant research. Pediatricians and child health care workers should also be trained in community advocacy work in order to work as a coalition in the community towards prevention of poverty and poverty related health problems.


Despite a growing body of evidence concerning effective approaches to increasing breast cancer screening, the gap between research and practice continues. The North Carolina Breast Cancer Screening Program (NC-BCSP) is an example of an evidence-based intervention that uses trained lay health advisors (LHA) to promote breast cancer screening. Partnerships that link academic researchers knowledgeable about specific evidence-based programs with community-based practitioners offer a model for increasing their use. This article describes a partnership between CrossWorks, Inc., a community-based organization, and the UNC-CH Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in planning and implementing an evidence-based program for promoting breast cancer screening among older African American women in rural eastern North Carolina communities. We used in-depth interviews to explore the relationship of the partnership to the activities that were undertaken to launch the evidence-based program.


Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. About 75 to 80% of sexually active Americans will be infected with HPV at some point in their lifetime. The risk of HPV infection seems to be related with age at first intercourse, younger age and number of sexual partners. HPV infection is limited to the basal cells of stratified epithelium of the skin or mucous membranas. There is a wide latency period, from months to years, before squamous intraepithelial lesions develop. Most HPV infections are cleared within 2 years by the immune system. Only in 5% to 10% of infected women with "high risk" types the infection persists determining a high risk of developing intraepithelial neoplasias, as cervical cancer, vulvar cancer, penile cancer, and/or anal cancer. The gynecological evaluation and Papanicolau smear are the primary screening tools for detecting HPV infection. There is currently no specific treatment for HPV infection. The Transfer Factor (TF) or Dialyzable Leukocyte Extract is an immunomodulator that has been successfully used as an adjuvant in the treatment of intracelular infections such as recurrent herpes virus diseases. TF induces the expression of RNAm and IFN-&ggr; and increases CD4+ cells. The IFN-&ggr; activates macrophages, neutrophils, B lymphocytes, NK cells, and favours the differentiation of T cells into Th1 lymphocytes that are requiried for the control of intracellular patho gens. Methods We used TF in a group of patients with persistent genital human papillomavirus infection. Results We included 12 patients, aged 19 to 45 years old (mean 30), with 14 to 23 years at first intercourse and a mean of 3 sexual partners in their lifetime. All of them had persistent HPV that had been treated before with local and ablative therapeutic options (including cervical freezing, cauterizing loop, imiquimod, podophyllin and/or cervical conization). Transfer factor was administered daily for 5 days, and subsequently at 7-day intervals for 5 weeks. We found an important improvement in the gynecological evaluation of cervix and perineal lesions and a significant reduction in the frequency of relapses. Conclusions Transfer factor could be used as an adjuvant in patients with persistent genital human papillomavirus infection.


1. Background: While many studies analyze the functions that images can fulfill during humanitarian crises or catastrophes, an understanding of how meaning is constructed in text–image relationships is lacking. This article explores how discourses are produced using different types of text–image interactions. It presents a case study focusing on a humanitarian crisis, more specifically the sexual transmission of Ebola. 2. Methods: Data were processed both quantitatively and qualitatively through a keyword-based selection. Tweets containing an image were retrieved from a database of 210,600 tweets containing the words "Ebola" and "semen", in English and in French, over the course of 12 months. When this first selection was crossed with the imperative of focusing on a specific thematic (the sexual transmission of Ebola) and avoiding off-topic text–image relationships, it led to reducing the corpus to 182 tweets. 3. Results: The article proposes a four-category classification of text–image relationships. Theoretically, it provides original insights into how discourses are built in social media; it also highlights the semiotic significance of images in expressing an opinion or an emotion. 4. Conclusion: The results suggest that the process of signification needs to be rethought: Content enhancement and dialogism through images have a bearing on Twitter's use as a public sphere, such as credibilization of discourses or politicization of events. This opens the way to a new, more comprehensive approach to the rhetorics of users on Twitter.


Due to low levels of observability and automation in active distribution networks (ADNs), the deployment of accurate measurement devices would be inevitable to increase the network observability. This work develops an optimal framework for phasor measurement unit (PMU) placement considering the accuracy of the distribution system state estimation (DSSE) process. In this regard, first, considering the significance of active power in supplying network loads, an active power sensitivity analysis is conducted in which the accuracy of active power injection at each bus is multiplied by its value of lost load. In this way, the accuracy of active power estimation could be transformed into a monetary value. Then, based on the determined sensitivity criterion, the optimal placement of PMUs has been performed with the aim of appropriate accuracy for the DSSE. On the other hand, the accuracy of the results obtained in the state estimation procedure can affect the estimation of line-loadings and lead to load shedding due to the low accuracy of estimated line-loadings. It is noteworthy that due to the high integration of distributed energy resources in distribution systems, ADNs would be prone to congestion issues. Therefore, in the next stage, this perspective is also used for determining the optimal number and location of PMUs in ADNs to improve their observability based on the operational conditions of the network. Finally, the developed algorithm is applied on the 77-bus-UK-test distribution network to investigate its effectiveness in improving the DSSE accuracy and mitigating interrupted loads. The numerical results indicate that implementing the proposed framework not only increases the DSSE accuracy but also decreases the cost of compensating the accuracy of active power by 7% compared to the typical network without PMUs. Further, the results show that the proposed model significantly mitigates the total curtailed loads due to the low accuracy of estimated line-loadings.


Introduction: Growth patterns of breastfed and formula-fed infants differ, but the influence of breastfeeding duration on early growth remains unclear. The objective of this study is to evaluate current evidence on the association of exclusive and partial breastfeeding duration with different growth parameters during infancy. Materials and Methods: In this systematic review, we searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and additional sources from January 2011 until March 2018 to identify relevant cohort studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Results: Twenty studies that recruited infants from the general population were included. In the developed setting, exclusive breastfeeding duration was inversely associated with weight and length gain during infancy in observational studies. Longer duration of exclusive breastfeeding was also associated with an earlier peak in infant body mass index (BMI). Inconsistent results were observed for the associations of exclusive breastfeeding duration with other infant BMI characteristics. In an RCT conducted in Iceland, exclusive breastfeeding for 4 versus 6 months did not affect infant growth patterns. In the developing setting, conflicting findings on the associations of exclusive breastfeeding duration with infant weight and length parameters were shown in observational studies. Shorter partial breastfeeding duration was associated with higher weight gain during infancy, with limited or inconclusive data regarding other growth parameters. Conclusions: Longer duration of exclusive and partial breastfeeding tended to be associated with slower growth rates during infancy in the developed setting only. These associations seem to be dose dependent and more pronounced in exclusively versus partially breastfed infants.


Plastic pollution may be defined as the accumulation of plastic products in the environment that may affect human life as well as wildlife. Plastics waste contributes a major proportion to the total municipal solid waste. Plastic is composed of various chemical elements and it does not degrade naturally even after its usage. It is properties such as durability, light weight and low cost, which makes it so useful also makes it problematic when it comes to its end of life phase. Mismanagement of plastics waste may pose environmental hazards such as when littered it may interfere with the natural beauty of the city and it may also result in choked drains, may cause air pollution when burnt with garbage containing plastics, interferes in waste processing facilities when garbage is mixed with plastics. Therefore plastic waste management techniques are required for proper management of plastic waste in a way which is environment friendly and may help in the proper utilisation of plastic material. The solution to tackle this problem lies in following 3R namely reduce, reuse and recycle. Waste plastics can be recycled and used in several ways including construction of roads.


【The study was aimed to recommend the ways for improving regulatory system of quasi-drugs in governmental authority by comparing with other countries. According to the regulations, the scope of quasi-drugs includes 3 categories of 1) the health aids made of textile, rubber and paper, 2) the health aids which have very minimal effects or no any effects on humans, and 3) disinfectants and pesticides. In US, these quasi-drugs in Korea are classified into 5 categories of medical device, cosmetics, OTC drugs, dietary supplements and pesticides. To improve quasi-drugs administration in Korea, it is concluded that several measures should be implemented : 1) establish clear criteria for classifying into quasi-drugs and more detailed guidelines on designation of quasi-drugs, 2) reform current regulations to meet 3-categories characteristics, supplement detailed guidelines on quasi-drugs administration for effective application process, and update relevant regulations for efficacy, safety and quality, 3) update quasi-drug monographs, 4) re-evaluate current classification of individual quasi-drugs, 5) develop comprehensive list by ingredients, 6) reform post-marketing management system for safety and quality, 7) strengthen the review agency function by increasing the number of experts, 8) develop the database for quasi-drugs for effective information management.】


This study is about organizations that have been able to combine high job satisfaction with good productivity and profitability, i.e., they are able to operate profitably while being recognized as the best work places in Finland. These organizations are called alternative organizations. They have consciously rejected many traditional organizational practices like rigid hierarchies, administration, order and control. The ways of working lean on continuous learning and improvement, customer orientation and collaborative development. These companies continuously ensure that they are on the right track in customer projects and they let employees take initiative and responsibility. The importance of shared objectives is recognized and people are brought together to figure out the shared purpose. Usually the work happens in self-organized teams. Findings from alternative organizations have raised a lot of interest also in traditional companies, which are interested in questions such as what ultimately can be learned from alternative organizations and how to increase self-organization? This study aims at describing how a traditional company can recreate its structures to become a more innovative and meaningful workplace. The alternative organization in this study is in the information technology business. The data was collected from three theme interviews. The analysis produced a description of an organization which has abandoned traditional organizational and management practices. Then, a survey was conducted for a more traditional company in which the personnel evaluated their working environment. The researchers then analysed how alternative and traditional companies differ in various aspects and how the traditional company could develop in those aspects.


We propose a Hardware Trojan (HT) attack for analog circuits with its key characteristic being that it cannot be prevented or detected in the analog domain. The HT attack works in the context of Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) comprising both digital and analog Intellectual Property (IP) blocks. The attacker could be either the SoC integrator or the foundry. More specifically, the HT trigger is placed inside a dense digital IP block where it can be effectively hidden, whereas the HT payload is in the form of a digital pattern transported via the test bus or generated within the test bus, reaching the Design-for-Test (DfT) or programmability interface of the victim analog IP with the test bus. The HT payload unexpectedly activates the DfT and sets the victim analog IP into some possibly partial and undocumented test mode or changes the nominal programmability. The HT payload can be designed to result in performance degradation or complete malfunction, i.e., denial of service. We demonstrate this HT attack scenario on two analog IPs, namely a low-dropout (LDO) regulator using simulation and an RF receiver using hardware measurements.


To the Editor, Eugenics Review SIR,-It is possible that there may be an automnatic evolutionary solution to the problem raised by Dr. Piney in your last issue. Except in the last two or three generations children have been an almost inevitable accompaniment of marriage. Now, in those capable of using contraceptives effectively, family size is largely determined by the strength of parental instinct, that is the desire to have and bring up children. Since this instinct has only undergone strong selection recently it is not unnatural that many individuals are deficient in it; one expression of that deficiency being the unwillingness to sacrifice present happiness for the sake of posterity, which Dr. Piney finds to be common. In general it is likely, and a matter for congratulation, that such individuals are not likely to perpetuate their deficiency either by the transmission of its genetic component or by parental influence. Those with strong parental instinct will not be much affected by fears of the loss of spousely companionship or of the many other disadvantages involved in having a large family. C. 0. CARTE.R. Botley's Park War Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey.


Friction is present in all mechanical systems and causes a wide range of problems for control. The development of model-based strategies accounting for Friction in the designed control has been a vast area of Research since these last decades. A promising Friction model which received a lot of attention these last years is the so-called LuGre model, which originates in the collaboration between the two control Research groups of Lund (Sweden) and Grenoble (France). This model is quite simple and is capable of capturing a wide range of well known friction phenomena, such as the Stribeck effect or the frictionnal lag. In particular this model is used in [Robertsson et al., 2004], where a general method for friction compensation for nonlinear systems is presented. The compensation strategy is simple: it just consists in adding to the control signal a friction estimate, computed using a LuGre model based observer. This thesis deals with the application of the theory of this article on a real experiment: the stabilization of the Furuta pendulum in the upright position. First, attention is paid so that the initial hypothesis of this article be satisfied. These hypotheses consist in finding a stabilizing control for the system when Friction is neglected, and an associated Lyapunov function verifying some properties. Then, Friction is included by following the procedure presented in the article. The friction estimate is computed according to the discretized LuGre form, presented in fFreidovich et al., 2006g, and the main result of the article is verified both in Simulation and on the real process, the simulations being carried out with Matlab-Simulink and the real experiments by using a dSPACE device. From a practical point of view, the implemented compensation scheme works perfectly in Simulation: the limit cycles originating from an uncompensated friction are totally annihilated, while for real experiments this oscillating behaviour is still remaining, but happens to be significantly reduced. From a theoretical point of view, the results of [Robertsson et al., 2004] are fully verified in Simulation, while for real experiments the presence of remaining limit cycles prevents a perfect verification of the theory.


A set of experiments is done to study the phenomenon of free convection heat transfer from an isothermal vertical flat plate embedded in a saturated porous medium in steady state condition. The porous medium consisting of 0.8 cm spheres. The aspect ratio of the isothermal flat plate, H/W, is equal to 2. Where H is the height and W is the width of the vertical plate. The investigations were cared out for Darcy modified Rayleigh number between 100 and 500. The results indicate that heat transfer increases linearly with increasing the Darcy modified Rayleigh number. In addition, the present results are in good agreement with the higher-order boundary layer theory obtained by Cheng and Hsu [1].


The article discusses experience with the treatment of 60 patients with arthrosoarthritis deformans of various large joints by the traditional conservative methods and with the use of laser radiation by an Uzor biomedical laser device. The authors noted a positive effect of laser radiation on the pathological processes developing in the region of the involved joint, which reduced the terms of treatment from 24.4 to 10.4 days and considerably reduced the number of recurrences in the immediate period.


This paper presents a review of concepts related to wildfire risk assessment, including the determination of fire ignition and propagation (fire danger), the extent to which fire may spatially overlap with valued assets (exposure), and the potential losses and resilience to those losses (vulnerability). This is followed by a brief discussion of how these concepts can be integrated and connected to mitigation and adaptation efforts. We then review operational fire risk systems in place in various parts of the world. Finally, we propose an integrated fire risk system being developed under the FirEUrisk European project, as an example of how the different risk components (including danger, exposure and vulnerability) can be generated and combined into synthetic risk indices to provide a more comprehensive wildfire risk assessment, but also to consider where and on what variables reduction efforts should be stressed and to envisage policies to be better adapted to future fire regimes. Climate and socio-economic changes entail that wildfires are becoming even more a critical environmental hazard; extreme fires are observed in many areas of the world that regularly experience fire, yet fire activity is also increasing in areas where wildfires were previously rare. To mitigate the negative impacts of fire, those responsible for managing risk must leverage the information available through the risk assessment process, along with an improved understanding on how the various components of risk can be targeted to improve and optimize the many strategies for mitigation and adaptation to an increasing fire risk.


Translation-related activities from and into Arabic have significantly increased in the last few years, in both scope and scale. The launch of a number of national translation projects, policies and awards in a number of Arab countries, together with the increasing translation from Arabic in a wide range of subject areas outside the Arab World – especially in the aftermath of the Arab Spring – have complicated and diversified the dynamics of the translation industry involving Arabic. The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Translation seeks to explicate Arabic translation practice, pedagogy and scholarship, with the aim of producing a state-of-the-art reference book that maps out these areas and meets the pedagogical and research needs of advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as active researchers.


This paper presents the Hefestos Model, designed to provide ubiquitous accessibility. The project aims at supporting accessibility for People With Disability (PWD) and elderly in various situations of their everyday life. Offering context awareness, user profiles and trails management, the model is a base for applying assistive technologies that fulfills accessibility needs. Moreover, in the proposed model, we devised an ontology. Besides the benefits of intrinsic semantic representation, the use of an ontology fosters future integration with others solutions. We also present a case study based on a prototype, which was developed to evaluate the model. This assessment used a smart wheelchair, operated by a paraplegic person, which is under development at University of the Sinos Valley (Unisinos).


The conventional software of GT-Power is used to simulate a single cylinder diesel engine. The diesel engine is simulated to study the engine emission when the engine is operating with ethanol as alternative fuel. The simulation results were compared with the data from the diesel engine operating with mineral diesel The simulations are conducted at full load condition for the engine operating with ethanol and mineral diesel. It is found that the emission of diesel engine operating with ethanol is higher as compared to mineral diesel. Кеуwords – ethanol, diesel engine, emission


Subspace codes have important applications in random network coding. It is interesting to construct subspace codes with both sizes, and the minimum distances are as large as possible. In particular, cyclic constant dimension subspaces codes have additional properties which can be used to make encoding and decoding more efficient. In this paper, we construct large cyclic constant dimension subspace codes with minimum distances $2k-2$ and $2k$. These codes are contained in $\mathcal{G}_q(n, k)$, where $\mathcal{G}_q(n, k)$ denotes the set of all $k$-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$. Consequently, some results in \cite{FW}, \cite{NXG}, and \cite{ZT} are extended.


A study was conducted on the effectiveness of ethanolic and volatile extracts of the leaves of four plants acclimatized in Benin on Rhipicephalus microplustick, aiming to contribute to the research of acaricides, which are effective on these ticks and harmless to the environment. To this effect, the modified larvae immersion test was performed to determine the effectiveness of the extracts on the larvae of Rhipicephalus microplus aged 7 to 14 days. 5% concentration of the two types of extracts of Lantana camara L., Hyptis suaveolens (L.)Poit., Tephrosia vogelii Hook. f., andOcimum gratissimum L. induced theRhipicephalus microplus larval mortalities,extending from 32.5 to 88% with the ethanolic extracts on first time. Then again, essential oils extracted from these four plants led to 100% mortality from 1.25% of concentration. All the lethal doses at 50 and 90% of mortality of volatile extracts were statistically lower than those of the ethanolic extracts at 5% level of significance (P < 0.05). The extracts of Ocimum gratissimum L. and Tephrosia vogeliiHook.f were the most activein vitroagainst Rhipicephalus microplus larvae. The results of the present study propose that, plant extracts constitute a promising option for the natural control against the safe strains of Rhipicephalus microplus in Benin and the world.


Tropical Cyclone Viyaru, formerly known as Cyclonic Storm Mahasen was a rapidly intensifying, category 01B storm that made landfall in Chittagong, Bangladesh on the 16th of May, 2013. In this study, the sensitivity of numerical simulations of tropical cyclone to cumulus physics parametrization is carried out with a view to determine the best cumulus physics option for prediction of the cyclones track, timing, and central pressure evolution in the Bay of Bengal. For this purpose, the tropical cyclone Viyaru has been simulated by WRF ARW in a nested domain with NCEP Global Final Analysis(FNL) data as initial and boundary conditions. The model domain consists of one parent domain and one nested domain. The resolution of the parent domain is 36 km while the nested domain has a resolution of 12 km. Five numerical simulations have been done with the same micro-physics scheme (WSM3), planetary boundary layer scheme,NOAH land surface scheme but different Cumulus Parametrization scheme. Four cumulus Parametrization schemes are KF, BMJ, GF and Tiedtke and one simulation was done without any cumulus physics scheme. The results of model simulations are compared with corresponding analysis or observation data. For best result data provided by Joint Typhoon Warning Center and NASA tropical cyclone center was used as observed for comparison. After the study it was found that tracks, intensity, wind speed, precipitation, and central pressure of the cyclone have sensitive result with different cumulus physics schemes.


There are over 100 conducting polymers which have been synthesised by chemists with a wide range of specific electrical conductivities. Many of these polymers are suitable for elec tronic device fabrication. Semi-conducting and conducting polymers have potential for application in several areas. In this paper electronic and microwave properties are explored. Fabrication of elec tronic and microwave devices can be achieved with these special polymers which are not possible with say silicon or gallium arsenide. Wide area flexible electronic junctions can be fabricated. Polymers have low density, hence conductivity to weight ratio can be higher than metals. Optical transparency together with electrical conduction has been achieved. This article presents an overview of the results of investigations undertaken within the Centre for Materials Technology (CMT) in this area over the past 4 years. This includes work on monomer and polymer synthesis, molecular structure-property relationships, electromagnetic shielding, thermal, optical and junction properties.


Spinel ferrites are considered practical and promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) electrocatalysts because of their advantages in the adsorption and activation of electrocatalytic substances. A CeO2 functional metal oxide was used to modify a spinel oxide in order to further improve the electrocatalytic performance of the spinel oxide. In this work, a CeO2@CoFe2O4/NF hybrid nanostructure was synthesized for the first time by typical hydrothermal and calcination methods. In an alkaline medium, CeO2@CoFe2O4/NF displays superior OER activity and needs an overpotential of 213 mV to deliver a current density of 100 mA cm-2, which makes it one of the most active catalysts reported so far. In addition, the as-prepared CeO2@CoFe2O4/NF material needs a potential of 1.40 V at the same current density in 1.0 M KOH with 0.5 M urea, which displays superior UOR activity. The CeO2@CoFe2O4/NF catalyst also displays good durability and the performance of the electrode is negligibly attenuated at a large current intensity of 125 mA cm-2. Experimental results demonstrate that the activity of the CeO2@CoFe2O4/NF catalyst is ascribed to the exposure of more active centers and a faster electron transfer rate. This work develops a novel method for exploiting Earth-abundant, robust and environmentally friendly OER and UOR electrocatalysts.


Monte Carlo computer-simulation techniques applied to a microscopic interaction model of the gel-to-fluid chain-melting phase transition in pseudo-two-dimensional lipid membranes (mono- and bilayers) have shown that the density fluctuations at the transition induce formation of pseudo-one-dimensional fluctuating interfaces between lipid clusters in the membrane plane leading to dynamically heterogeneous membrane states. The characteristics of the fluctuations and the scaling properties of the clusters show that the membrane exhibits pseudo-critical behavior. In thermodynamic equilibrium, the interfacial area has a dramatic temperature dependence with an anomaly at the transition temperature. This anomaly is related to similar anomalies in response functions and in the transmembrane permeability. The interfacial area may be modulated by appropriate "impurities", e.g., by interfacially active molecules such as cholesterol or interstitial small molecules such as general anaesthetics. The properties of the interfacial area provide a means for understanding aspects of the functioning of certain interfacially active membrane-bound enzymes, such as phospholipase A2.


ABSTRACT Background: Female genital tuberculosis (FGTB) is a known cause of female infertility. Worldwide incidence is 5%–10% and annual burden in India is around 4%–7%. It is known to cause tubal and endometrial damage. However, the effect on ovarian damage is poorly known. The availability of ovarian markers has contributed to an improved understanding of ovarian reserve in FGTB. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess ovarian reserve by measuring anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and antral follicle count (AFC) amongst infertile women and analyse the effect of GTB on ovarian reserve parameters. Settings and Design: This was a prospective study at a tertiary referral centre for infertility for 18 months. Materials and Methods: A total of 133 infertile women who underwent diagnostic hysterolaparoscopy and cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test testing of an endometrial biopsy were included in the study. AMH and AFC of all the infertile women were assessed and compared between cases with and without FGTB. Statistical Analysis Used: Independent t-test was used to find the outcome differences in the distribution of values. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Fifty-eight (43.6%) cases were diagnosed with FGTB (Group I), and 75 (56.3%) cases were without FGTB (Group II). The mean AMH level 1.88 ng/ml (±1.52) and mean AFC 9.0 (±5.50) were significantly lower (P < 0.001) in Group I than in Group II with AMH 3.57 ng/ml (±2.93) and AFC 12.50 (±6.0). Conclusion: In women with prolonged infertility and low ovarian reserve, FGTB should be ruled out. Early diagnosis and treatment of GTB may prevent further decline of ovarian reserve and improve the reproductive outcome.


The effectiveness of no-till (NT) farming in reducing loss of soil organic matter (SOM) depends on climate and soil properties. Soil samples were obtained from two long-term experiments that were designed to study the impact of tillage systems on crop yields. However, the objectives of this experiment were to assess the impact of NT on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration rate and other soil properties and to estimate historic depletion of SOC under different soil management practices with reference to the undisturbed wooded control. The two long-term experiments in Ohio studied were those sited at South Charleston and Hoytville. The South Charleston (83° 30′ W and 39° 48′ N) experiment was established in 1962 on Crosby silt loam (fine mixed, mesic Aeric Ochraqualf). The site has long-term annual temperature and precipitation of 10.8 °C and 1043 mm, respectively. Tillage treatments for continuous corn (Zea mays) were NT, chisel plow (CP), and moldboard plow (MP). The Hoytville (84° 04′ W and 41° 03′ N) experiment was established in 1987 on Hoytville clay loam (fine, illitic mesic Mollic Epiaqualfs) soil. The site has long-term annual temperature and precipitation of 9.9 °C and 845 mm, respectively. There were two crop rotations: (i) 2-year corn-soybean (Glycine max) rotation with NT and subsoiling and (ii) 3-year corn-soybean-oat (Avena sativa) rotation with NT, CP, and rotational tillage soil management. The Hoytville clay site is poorly drained, has higher clay content, and higher and more even by distributed antecedent level of SOC in the soil profile than does the South Charleston silt loam soil. No-till increased SOC and N pools in the 0 to 5-cm layer in silt loam soil but had no effect in clay soil. The rate of SOC sequestration in the silt-loam soil under NT was 175 kg C ha−1 y−1. The silt loam soil had higher SOC and N stratification ratios in NT than in MP and CP treatments, whereas the stratification ratios were low and similar in all treatments in the clayey soil. For both soils, there were no differences between tillage treatments in several soil properties including texture, available water capacity, hydraulic conductivity (Ks), and cation exchange capacity. The NT decreased soil bulk density and pH in the 0 to 15-cm layer in the silt loam soil. The plow till treatments had a small impact on soil aggregation in clayey soil. The decline in water-stable aggregates with reference to NT was no more than one sixth. In the silt loam soil, however, the water-stable aggregates in plow till treatments were merely one third of that in the NT treatment. The historic loss of the SOC pool for 0 to 30-cm depth under agricultural land use was 25 to 35% in silt loam and 19 to 25% in the clayey soil.


In the la st decade, the uncovering of a � mafia system of communication � based on written messages ( pizzini ) and other forms of writing has significantly challenged the long-held view that the Sicilian mafia was a criminal organisation largely based on an oral tradition. In particular, the discovery and emergence of memoirs and letters written by former mafiosi (who held different roles of responsibility within the organisation) raises new questions about the role of writing in the process of disengagement from mafia organisations. This article analyses the memoirs of mafia boss Michele Greco and mafia member Leonardo Vitale to investigate the dynamics at play when dealing with the trauma of leaving Cosa Nostra and the resulting loss of a powerful collective identity. While the acquisition of a mafia identity has been the object of numerous studies, less attention has been given to what losing mafia status entails and the specific role of writing in this process. The article draws upon theories of representation of identity in self-narratives as a basis for our interpretation. The data analysed is from judicial papers, police reports and the relevant secondary literature on the subject. A previously unknown memoir written by boss Michele Greco in 1994 is also presented in this study for the first time.


The data are reported for an in vitro metabolism study of two novel synthetic cannabinoids, N-(1-adamantyl)-1-pentyl-1H-indole-3-carboxamide (APICA) and its fluorinated analog N-(1-adamantyl)-1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indole-3-carboxamide (5F-APICA, STS-135), which are active ingredients of smoking mixtures sold in Russia since 2012. The cannabinoids were isolated from herbal mixtures using preparative liquid chromatography and then incubated with human liver microsomes (HLMs). The formed metabolites were characterized by liquid chromatography - triple quadrupole mass spectrometry and high-resolution mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization in positive ion mode. It was found that HLMs produce mono-, di-, and trihydroxylated metabolites, as well as N-desalkyl metabolites, which can be further hydroxylated; the amide bond resisted the metabolic cleavage. For 5F-APICA, a series of oxidative defluorination products formed as well. For in vivo confirmation of the formed in vitro metabolites, spot urine samples from drug users were analyzed with the created method. It was shown that for the detection of APICA abuse, the preferred metabolites are the di- and tri-hydroxylated species, while in case of 5F-APICA, a monohydroxy metabolite is a better target. The N-despentyl (desfluoropentyl) hydroxyadamantyl metabolite also provides good retrospectivity to confirm the administration of any of these cannabinoids.


Correspondence to: Washoo Mal LRBT Free Base Eye Hospital Korangi 2 1⁄2, Karachi email@example.com This is an interventional case report of a 30 years old male patient of oculocutaneous albinism with high myopia associated with retinal detachment in both eyes. He had best corrected visual acuity of hand movement in right eye due to fresh rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and perception of light in fellow eye because of long standing retinal detachment. Micro incision vitrectomy surgery was done in right eye after flattening of retina with PFCL, endolaser photocoagulation attempted but failed to get adequate burns over tear and detached retina. Then cryopexy was performed around the retinal tear and 360° of peripheral retina.


We use the molecular techniques of PCR and PFGE to identify MRSA from clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus causing infections among hospitalized patients in Benin-City, Nigeria. A total of 36 isolates were obtained from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital between July-September, 2007. The MRSA strains were selected according to their phenotypic characteristics (antibiotic resistant profiles), susceptibility to oxacillin by E-test, and detection of β-lactamase. This was verified by a latex agglutination test for PBP2a production combined with PCR for mecA gene carriage. Four isolates representing 11% were confirmed as MRSA according to the molecular techniques used with two PFGE types (H and L) and one agr type (1). Multi resistance to the various antibiotics used was observed in one of the clones. The isolation of MRSA in health institution indicates that adequate steps in limiting spread are urgently needed. Also, for the first time two MRSA clones according to the PFGE classifications have been identified in Nigeria. Keywords : methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , MRSA, PFGE, PCR, molecular techniques.


The idea for a new interactive teaching and learning tool derived from an interdisciplinary project and seminar at ETH called "Philosophical Reflections on Digital Methods in Architecture". In order to facilitate the integration of the typically text-based work in philosophy with the more image-based work in architecture, we developed a custom-made software. The resultin g Knowledge Network Online Whiteboard KNOW is an online tool for interactive student learning in large groups and with different media, from text, to pictures and videos. KNOW helps to make student work directly visible for everyone in real time, facilitating collaborative student learning, and creating a platform for supporting debate whilst at the same time acting as an archive. This paper first describes the didactic background of KNOW. This is followed by a brief analysis of the overall textual and pictorial structure of students' contributions and by several small case studies on teaching formats in which KNOW was used. The paper ends with a critical discussion of KNOW and outlines goals.


ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of adjunctive medical expulsive therapy (MET) with tamsulosin for the promotion of stone fragments clearance for repeated extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL). Materials and Methods: This meta-analysis was conducted by systematic search for randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies in PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science databases in January 2020, which compared tamsulosin with either placebo or non-placebo control for repeated ESWL. The primary endpoint was stone-free rate (SFR), the second endpoints were stone clearance time and complications. The quality assessment of included studies was performed by using the Cochrane System and Jadad score. Results: 7 RCTs were included in this meta-analysis. Tamsulosin provided higher SFR (for stones larger than 1cm, OR: 5.56, p=0.0003), except for patients with stones less than 1cm. For patients with renal stones (OR: 2.97, p=0.0005) or upper ureteral stones (OR: 3.10, p=0.004), tamsulosin can also provide a higher SFR. In addition, tamsulosin provided a shorter stone clearance time (WMD: −9.40, p=0.03) and lower pain intensity (WMD=-17.01, p <0.0001) and incidences of steinstrasse (OR: 0.37, p=0.0002). Conclusion: Adjunctive MET with tamsulosin is effective in patients with specific stone size or location that received repeated ESWL. However, no well-designed RCT that used computed tomography for the detection and assessment of residual stone fragments was found. More studies with high quality and the comparison between tamsulosin and secondary ESWL are needed in the future.


This article investigates the link between human capital depreciation and job tasks, with an emphasis on potential differences between education levels. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, fixed effects panel regression is applied to estimate an extended Mincer equation based on Neumann and Weiss's model. Human capital gained from higher education levels depreciates at a faster rate than other human capital. The depreciation rate is also higher for specific skills compared to general skills. Moreover, the productivity-enhancing value of education diminishes faster in jobs with a high share of non-routine interactive, non-routine manual, and routine cognitive tasks. These jobs are characterized by greater technology complementarity or more frequent changes in core-skill or technology-skill requirements. The presented results point to the urgency of elaborating combined labor market and educational and lifelong learning policies to counteract the depreciation of skills. Education should focus on equipping workers with more general skills in all education levels and adapt educational programs to take into account the rapid upgrade of production technologies and changing competency requirements.


We report a regioregular bis-pyridal[2,1,3]-thiadiazole (BPT) acceptor strategy to construct the first ambipolar pyridal[2,1,3]thiadiazole-based semiconducting polymer (PBPTV). The use of BPT unit enables PBPTV to achieve high electron affinity, low LUMO level, and extended π-conjugation. All these factors provide PBPTV with encouraging hole and electron mobilities up to 6.87 and 8.49 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively. Our work demonstrates that the BPT unit is a promising building block for designing high-performance electron-transporting semiconductors in organic electronics.


OBJECTIVE
Risk criteria for the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) and modified risk criteria (i.e. the Denver Criteria) were compared in a group of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism.

METHOD
Participants were 17 children aged 2-4 years with DNA confirmation of FXS. Four children had autism and 13 children did not.

RESULTS
Preliminary findings regarding the sensitivity and specificity of the CHAT for detecting risk for autism in children with FXS are as follows: using the original CHAT risk criteria, sensitivity and specificity were 50% and 100%, respectively; and using the Denver Criteria, sensitivity and specificity were 75% and 92%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
The CHAT and the Denver Criteria resulted in preliminary findings suggesting high levels of sensitivity to autism in children with FXS.


Objective: To analyze evidence on prenatal care implemented in primary care, with focus on the perception of pregnant women, postpartum mothers and health professionals, and on the relationship with the public policies for women's health. Methods: A survey was conducted in BDENF, LILACS and SciELO databases comprising the period of 2004 to 2013, through the descriptors "Prenatal care", "Primary healthcare", "Public policies for health", "Comprehensive assistance to women's health", and including publications in Spanish and Portuguese language. Nineteen articles were selected, and their data was organized and analysed in light of the public policies. Results: It was observed that effective prenatal care favours the reduction in maternal mortality rates. The perception of pregnant and postpartum women about the prenatal care was discussed on the basis of the Ministry of Health guidelines, and is linked to the importance of the multidisciplinary team's performance. Deficiencies were identified in the women's knowledge with respect to dental care, breastfeeding guidance, and the participation of parents in education groups performed in the prenatal period. Nurses associated the prenatal assistance to beneficial effects, provided that pregnant women perform consultations and professionals are able to adopt effective monitoring in prenatal care. Conclusion: Quality prenatal care ensures the monitoring of pregnant women and prevents complications in childbirth and postpartum period, reflecting on the decrease in maternal and infant mortality.


Arkansas (AR) consistently has higher ischemic heart disease (IHD) death rates than the US, which is believed to be due to a higher prevalence in AR of major, modifiable risk factors. We examined the difference in IHD death rates between AR and the US as consequences of differences in the prevalence of nine risk factors between pre-Medicare age group (45-64) and Medicare age group (65-84). We modeled IHD deaths attributable to differential prevalence between AR and the US using mortality data and prevalence data from AR and US for years 2000-2010, and relative risk measures obtained from the INTERHEART and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities studies. From 2000-2010, our study showed that if we were to reduce the prevalence of significant risk factors to US levels, we would reduce AR IHD deaths by 26.6% in the pre-Medicare age group and 15.9% in the Medicare age group. Most of the increased mortality was explained by higher prevalence of smoking and hypertension in AR. Other socioeconomic factors that contributed to an increased risk of poor health outcomes were education, income, and the lack of health insurance; with AR having worse outcomes than the US for the pre-Medicare age group. The importance of risk factors depended on race, sex, and age. The excess mortality in AR relative to the US for the two age groups can largely be explained by prevalence differences in smoking, hypertension, cholesterol, education and income.


A fluorometric assay using 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid for analysis of DNA in alkaline-hydrolyzed calf articular cartilage is described. Additional estimates of DNA content, obtained by counting of cells in cartilage slices and of cells isolated from the tissue by digestion with bacterial collagenase, indicated that falsely high values were obtained with the fluorometric assay and with the indole procedure of Bonting and Jones. Cartilage collagen and proteoglycan were both found to contribute to this interference. Factors to correct for this interference were determined, based upon the hydroxyproline and uronic acid contents of these components. application of these corrections to DNA values obtained by fluorometric assay of the cartilage samples resulted in DNA estimates in agreement with those obtained by counting of cells.


From the joint study of the I. C. D. R. G. it appeared that most causes of occupational dermatitis were revealed by the standard patch test series. In spite of this the standard series is insufficient as a diagnostic tool. In most occupations supplementary tests must be performed. Based on a series of 27 veterinary surgeons with occupational dermatitis (to be published). 1 suggest that a battery for this profession should include the following substances: Spiramycin Tylosin tartrate Erythromycin Streptomycin Dihydrostreptomycin Benzyl penicillin Procain penicillin Penetamate B. P. Procain Bezathine penicillin Tuberculin Weismann and I had previously presented evidence that cows' hair may cause contact dermatitis. I therefore suggest that scratch and intradermal tests should be performed with: cows' hair, horse dander and pigs' bristles. Denmark has few sheep. Where they are abundant, sheep's wool may be included.


Special education is defined as the process of educating students in a way that provides accommodations that address their differences, disabilities, and special needs. Generally speaking, this process requires individually planned and systematically monitored teaching procedures, adjusted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. Nowadays, growing attention is being to paid to people with special needs. The study examines the issue of educating people with special needs. The paper presents the quantative representation of persons with disabilities showing disability groups in Russia, age and gender composition of persons with disabilities in the Volga Federal district has been analyzed. The issues of education and employment of persons with special needs have also been assessed.  The health self-evaluation has been studied as well.


Parental involvement as shared resources between children and parents is an important factor for students to establish educational plans for the future, because parents always intervene in determining the type of high school in which their child will enroll. The differences in parental influences between students, who attend private and public, at least in part, may explain the excellence of the private sector in achievement or attainment. Using the NELS:88 which contains a sample of eighth-grade students who begin the transition from middle to high school and thus provides trend data about the critical transition to high school, this paper found that students who are enrolled in private high school already have well-organized parental involvement. Such a difference between them may cause the accumulated disadvantages for public high school students in achievement and attainment. Moreover, the effect of parental involvement is moderated by different ethnic groups and especially Asians and Blacks with parents who often discuss schooling or future plans is more likely to select a private high school than Whites.


A review of our experience with evoked potential monitoring of over 100 spinal procedures is summarized here. Typical results of somatosensory cortical evoked potential (SCEP) testing found that latency of responses increased slightly and amplitude decreased substantially from preanesthesia to predistraction with no further changes. SCEP results are effected by many factors, but when they are understood and recognized, evoked potential monitoring can play a significant role in recognizing potential problems and preventing postoperative neurological problems in patients undergoing spinal surgery.


ABSTRACT Theories of affective influences on cognition posit that negative mood may increase cognitive load, causing a decrement in task performance (Seibert & Ellis, [1991]. Irrelevant thoughts, emotional mood states, and cognitive task performance. Memory & Cognition, 19(5), 507–513), or cause a shift to more analytic thinking, which benefits tasks requiring attention to detail (Schwarz & Clore, [1983]. Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(3), 513–523). We previously reported that individuals who are higher in the trait of emotional reactivity performed better on an inhibitory task with increasing negative mood whereas low-reactive individuals showed the converse pattern (Gabel & McAuley, [2018]. Does mood help or hinder executive functions? Reactivity may be the key. Personality and Individual Differences, 128, 94–99; [2020]. React to act: Negative mood, response inhibition, and the moderating role of emotional reactivity. Motivation and Emotion, 44(6), 862–869). Because high-reactive individuals are more accustomed to negative affect (Nock et al., [2008]. The emotion reactivity scale: Development, evaluation, and relation to self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Behavior Therapy, 39(2), 107–116), we speculated that negative mood engendered analytic thinking but without a task-incongruent increase in cognitive load – thereby facilitating performance. Here, we induced a heuristic or analytic approach to information processing prior to performance of an inhibitory task and expected different results pending the thinking style induced. In the heuristic condition, increasing negative mood was associated with better performance for high-reactive participants but not their low-reactive counterparts. In the analytic condition, increasing negative mood was associated with better performance irrespective of emotional reactivity. Our results are consistent with the notion that negative mood engenders analytic thinking which may benefit response inhibition provided it does not increase task-incongruent cognitive load.


We present a novel technique for securing an endotracheal tube after using a #1 Classic laryngeal mask airway (LMA) as a conduit for intubating the trachea of a premature infant. During induction of anesthesia for inguinal hernia repair in an ex- 23-week infant, an unanticipated difficult airway was encountered. After several unsuccessful attempts of intubating via direct laryngoscopy, we placed the endotracheal tube (ETT) into the trachea using a fiberoptic bronchoscope through a #1 LMA. A pediatric stylette, with Hytape TM wrapped around the distal tip, was then used as a plunger to safely and easily remove the LMA from the mouth while maintaining the ETT in proper position. This technique is applicable in cases of a difficult neonatal airway where even a #1, the smallest LMA, is used.


This chapter presents an empirical study of the left periphery of Basic Discourse Units, viz. the linguistic segments that speakers and hearers use to interpret the discourse they are engaged in. A Basic Discourse Unit is bound by the mapping of a syntactic (dependency) structure and a major intonation unit, giving rise to different types of discourse units (congruent, syntax-bound, intonation-bound, regulatory). Focusing on the discourse units' Left Peripheral Elements, which are again defined in syntactic and prosodic terms, we show that they fulfil different discourse structuring roles.


Background: India is undergoing rapid urbanization with simultaneous increases in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). As urban areas become home to an increasing share of the world's population, it is important to understand relationships between the built environment and progression towards CVD. Objective: We assessed associations between multiple measures of the built environment and biomarkers of early vascular aging (EVA) in the Population Study of Urban, Rural and Semiurban Regions for the Detection of Endovascular Disease and Prevalence of Risk Factors and Holistic Intervention Study (PURSE-HIS) in Chennai, India. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 3,150 study participants. EVA biomarkers included systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), central pulse pressure (cPP) and flow-mediated dilatation (FMD). Multiple approaches were used to assign residential exposure to factors of the built environment: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), a measure of vegetation health and greenness; Landsat-derived impervious surface area (ISA); and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)-derived nighttime lights (NTL). Multivariable regression models were used to assess associations between each built environment measure and biomarkers of EVA, adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), cooking fuel type, energy intake, sex, physical activity, smoking, socioeconomic status, and stress. Results: Residing in areas with higher ISA or NTL, or lower greenness, was significantly associated with elevated SBP, DBP, and cPP, and with lower FMD, adjusting for age, BMI, sex, smoking status, and other CVD risk factors. An interquartile range decrease in greenness had the largest increase in SBP [4.3 mmHg (95% CI: 2.9, 5.6)], DBP [1.2 mmHg (95% CI: 0.4, 2.0)] and cPP [3.1 mmHg (95% CI: 2.0, 4.1)], and the largest decrease in FMD [−1.5% (95%CI: −2.2%, −0.9%]. Conclusion: Greenness, ISA, and NTL were associated with increased SBP, DBP, and cPP, and with reduced FMD, suggesting a possible additional EVA pathway for the relationship between urbanization and increased CVD prevalence in urban India. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP541


This paper addresses the problem of finding optimal trajectories for multiple autonomous systems. Mixed integer linear programming (MILP) is described for designing time and energy- or fuel-optimal maneuvers that account for the presence of other vehicles. The paper shows how integer constraints can be added to linear programming to account for obstacle avoidance and collision avoidance among the group of autonomous systems


This descriptive type of cross-sectional study was carried out in 4 government and 4 non-government medical colleges of Bangladesh to assess the quality of undergraduate medical education. The study was conducted during the period of July 2018 to June 2019. The total sample size was 576, out of which there were 440 fifth year medical students, 114 clinical teachers and 22 Key informants. Convenience sampling technique was adopted. Two self - administered semi- structured questionnaires and one in-depth-interview schedule were utilized for the study. The study revealed that there was shortage of teaching staffs and infrastructure facilities. However numbers of hospital beds, indoor and outdoor patients were found to be sufficient. Study revealed that most of the students learned to take history, examine the patients; but had difficulties to make a provisional diagnosis. The clinical teaching in evening session was found to be neglected. Teachers could not ensure students' learning of optimum skills and attitude. The study recommended reviewing the curriculum. Course burden should be reduced by removing redundant contents. The subjects namely Pathology, Microbiology and Pharmacology need to be rearranged to shift those to second phase. Emphasis is required to be given on behavioural science, communication skills and medical ethics.
Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education Vol.11(2) 2020: 34-42


Nanocellulose-based materials have attracted significant attention because of their attractive advantages. Particularly, aerogel, a porous nanocellulose material, have been used in diverse applications owing to their unique properties. In this study, short rod-like cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and long filament-like cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) were isolated from a eucalyptus pulp source using acidolysis and oxidation/mechanical methods, respectively. Subsequently, two different aerogels were prepared from the CNCs and CNFs using the sol-gel method and their properties were compared. The morphology, chemical structure, chemical composition, shrinkage rate, internal structure, thermal degradation, biophysical properties, and mechanical properties of the as-prepared aerogels were compared. Furthermore, the shrinkage of the CNC and CNF aerogels was effectively controlled using a supercritical CO2 drying process. Additionally, three decomposition regions were observed in the thermogravimetric analysis curves of the aerogels; however, the CNF aerogels exhibited enhanced thermal stability than the CNC aerogels. Further, the CNC and CNF aerogels exhibited a mesoporous structure, and the compressive strength of the CNC and CNF aerogels under 85% strain was 269.5 and 299.5 KPa, respectively. This study provides fundamental knowledge on the fabrication of CNCs, CNFs, and corresponding aerogels from lignocellulosic biomass, and their characteristics.


Abstract This paper presents three methods for multiscale indexing of the content of projection data of computed tomography images in the CBIR-systems for medical database search. The feature spaces in the developed algorithms have been created by means of, respectively: Discrete Stationary Wavelet Transform (DSWT), Shearlet Transform (ST) and Repagulum Wavelet Transform (RWT). A comparative analysis and assessment of the proposed algorithms have been carried out based on experimental studies with computed tomography images.


The Czech National Corpus (CNC) is a longterm project striving for extensive and continuous mapping of the Czech language. This effort results mostly in compilation, maintenance and providing free public access to a range of various corpora with the aim to offer a diverse, representative, and high-quality data for empirical research mainly in linguistics. Since 2012, the CNC is officially recognized as a research infrastructure funded by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports which has caused a recent shift towards user service-oriented operation of the project. All project-related resources are now integrated into the CNC research portal at http://www.korpus.cz/. Currently, the CNC has an established and growing user community of more than 4,500 active users in the Czech Republic and abroad who put almost 1,900 queries per day using one of the user interfaces. The paper discusses the main CNC objectives for each particular domain, aiming at an overview of the current situation supplemented by an outline of future plans.


This article takes up new online experiments in alternative arts education as examples of para-institutional practice, arguing that the online experiments discussed can be understood as enacting modes of border dwelling. In this context, the para-institution acknowledges and works with the tensions and compromises that exist in attempting to operate besides and beyond gatekeeping art world structures, rather than enacting a total refusal of these institutions. As an example of how these tensions play out in practice, the article focuses on the wiki Mesh: a sharing hub for emerging artists, initially developed out of the Into the Wild alternative arts education programme. Mesh was conceived by Esther McManus, who spoke with the author for the purposes of exploring the Mesh project as a case study for this article. In re-articulating para-institutional practices as forms of border dwelling within the ontology of the pluriverse, this article aims to demonstrate how borders of institutional practice are a fertile space to question the terms of the conversation when exploring institutional processes and parameters, as part of an ethically engaged project seeking more inclusive and pluriversal artworlds.


Hexameric tyrosine-coordinated heme protein HTHP from Silicibacter pomeroyi has been shown to exhibit peroxidase- and catalase-like activity. In the present study, detailed spectroscopic and electrochemical investigations were performed to analyze the redox properties and active site structure of HTHP. Potentiometric titration of HTHP in solution revealed a single redox transition at -0.54 V (vs Ag/AgCl), indicating six structurally identical tyrosine coordinates hemes. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) of immobilized HTHP afforded a distinctly more positive redox potential (-0.17 V) but failed to detect a transition at -0.54 V. Conversely, surface enhanced RR (SERR) spectroscopy provided evidence for both high- and low-potential transitions and for a partial loss of heme in the reduced state. The high-potential CV-active redox transition is attributed to the hemes of the barrel-shaped HTHP in a wheel-like orientation on the surface. Supported by coarse-grained simulations and SERR spectroscopy, the majority of HTHP is concluded to adopt a reverse-disc orientation, accounting for the low-potential transition. In view of the striking similarity of HTHP to the heme carriers HasA or HmbR regarding redox potential, Fe-Tyr ligation, and heme release, we propose heme transport as an alternative or additional function.


Abstract : A unique, non-invasive diagnostic technique for characterizing two-dimensional thermal fields generated during the combustion of nanothermites was developed. Temperature resolved thermal images of the reactions were obtained using infrared imaging coupled with multiwavelength pyrometry. Thermal images of fuel rich aluminum/copper oxide (Al/CuO) and aluminum/ polytetrafluoroethylene (Al/PTFE) mixtures embedded with different additives were analyzed and the principal factors affecting the spatial distribution of temperature during their combustion were identified. Results showed two distinct temperature zones during combustion: a hot zone surrounding the point of ignition, where the highest temperatures were recorded followed by a lower temperature region called the intermediate zone. Temperatures are plotted as a function of distance from the point of ignition such that inflection points distinguishing temperature gradients provide an indication of the range of the thermal influence. Gas generation and heat of combustion are principal factors affecting temperature fields: greater gas generation in addition to condensed phase products promotes higher temperatures in the far field. Results also indicate that faster reactions attain higher temperatures and more extensive temperature fields. This observation is attributed to greater momentum of the gas and condensed phase products projected from the hot zone that shift the inflection point farther. These results show that multiphase convection is a governing mechanism promoting thermal energy distributions.


As tsunami waves propagate towards the shoreline, they break where the water depth is approximately equal to the incident wave height. Following breaking, waves run up the shore in form of a hydraulic bore. Video footage of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami shows that, upon reaching the shoreline, tsunami waves broke and transformed into a hydraulic bore that propagated onshore with considerably high velocity. However, mechanisms of hydraulic bore impact on structures are not yet well understood. Analogies between a tsunami-induced hydraulic bore and a dam-break induced wave have been previously demonstrated and published by various researchers. In order to advance the existing understanding of the complex interaction between hydraulic forces and the impacted structures, an experimental approach was taken where a dam-break induced flow, generated by the fast opening of a gate, impacted various free standing structures of different shapes located downstream of the gate. The pressures exerted on the upstream and lateral sides of a cylindrical structure, together with the bore height and the flow velocities in the flume were measured. In addition, the time history of the total force exerted on the cylindrical structure was also recorded. For the square structure, local forces on the upstream side were recorded. The effects of upstream obstacles and flow constrictions on flow velocities and on local forces exerted on a square structure were also investigated. In addition, to further understand the impact of debris during tsunami-induced flooding, wooden logs were added to the bore in order to act as water-borne missiles, while the structure's reaction was measured.


The Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme aims to protect equality and the rights of persons, as enshrined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU) and the international human rights conventions to which the European Union has acceded. The programme has nine specific objectives, ranging from the promotion of non-discrimination to the enforcement of consumers' rights, and funds a variety of actions, including awareness-raising and training activities, and support to key European actors involved in the protection of equality and the rights of persons (e.g. Member State authorities implementing European Union law).


We have demonstrated reduced 1/f low-frequency noise in sub-µm metamorphic high Ge content p-Si0.3Ge0.7 metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) at 293 K. Three times lower normalized power spectral density (NPSD) SID/I D 2 of drain current fluctuations over the 1–100 Hz range at VDS = –50 mV and VG–Vth = –1.5 V was measured for a 0.55 µm effective gate length p-Si0.3Ge0.7 MOSFET compared with a p-Si MOSFET. Performed quantitative analysis clearly demonstrates the importance of carrier number fluctuations and correlated mobility fluctuations (CMFs) components of 1/f noise for p-Si surface channel MOSFETs, and the absence of CMFs for p-Si0.3Ge0.7 buried channel MOSFETs. This explains the reduced NPSD for p-Si0.3Ge0.7 MOSFETs in strong inversion.


We entertain the possibility that neutrino masses and dark matter (DM) originate from a common composite dark sector. A minimal effective theory can be constructed based on a dark $SU(3)_D$ interaction with three flavors of massless dark quarks; electroweak symmetry breaking gives masses to the dark quarks. By assigning a $\mathbb Z_2$ charge to one flavor, a stable "dark kaon" can provide a good thermal relic DM candidate. We find that "dark neutrons" may be identified as right handed Dirac neutrinos. Some level of "neutron-anti-neutron" oscillation in the dark sector can then result in non-zero Majorana masses for light Standard Model neutrinos. A simple ultraviolet completion is presented, involving additional heavy $SU(3)_D$-charged particles with electroweak and lepton Yukawa couplings. At our benchmark point, there are "dark pions" that are much lighter than the Higgs and we expect spectacular collider signals arising from the UV framework. This includes the decay of the Higgs boson to $\tau \tau \ell \ell^{\prime}$, where $\ell$($\ell'$) can be any lepton, with displaced vertices. We discuss the observational signatures of this UV framework in dark matter searches and primordial gravitational wave experiments; the latter signature is potentially correlated with the $H \to \tau \tau \ell \ell^{\prime}$ decay.