Irrigated agriculture accounts for about 80% of total agricultural production in Pakistan, an arid country home to the sixth largest population globally. Almost all irrigated production takes place in the Indus Basin Irrigation System, the world's largest contiguous irrigated area. The extensive system of canals transfers water from the river system to distributaries and from there to watercourses, farms, and eventually to individual farm plots. Given growing water shortages and the resulting increased variability in water flows in the system, it will be important to improve system efficiency to ensure continued increase in agricultural production. A key question remains, however, where to intervene in the system. This paper uses multilevel modeling to explore the relative importance of plots, farms, watercourses, and distributaries on the levels and variance of wheat yield, and identify entry points to improve agricultural water management in a way that can guide prioritization of investments across the different levels of the irrigation network. Our findings suggest that out of the total variation in wheat yield that is not explained by plot specific characteristics, 28% is explained by distributary level effects, 3% by watercourse level effects, and 7% by farm (household) characteristics. These findings suggest that investments that improve irrigation water delivery at the distributary level provide the highest impact per unit of dollar invested in terms of reducing yield gaps among farmers.


Every day, people rely on prospective memory—our ability to remember to perform a future action—to carry out myriad tasks. We examined how a sham cognitive enhancing drug might improve people's performance on a prospective memory task. We gave some people (but not others) the sham drug, and asked everyone to perform a high-effort prospective memory task. People who received the sham drug performed better on the prospective memory task. They also took longer to perform their ongoing task, suggesting that they increased their effortful monitoring. These results fit with research showing that suggestions can lead people to increase cognitive effort and increase memory performance.


Zircotec Ltd., UK, originally developed its technologies for use in nuclear reactors. During the last decade, its coatings have been used in several other applications, including orthopedic implants, and the company has expanded into the defense sector with a greater emphasis on heat protection. This Technical Spotlight outlines some of the company's process capabilities.


Background and Objectives Analysis of positively-selected genes can help us understand how human evolved, especially the evolution of highly developed cognitive functions. However, previous works have reached conflicting conclusions regarding whether human neuronal genes are over-represented among genes under positive selection. Methods and Results We divided positively-selected genes into four groups according to the identification approaches, compiling a comprehensive list from 27 previous studies. We showed that genes that are highly expressed in the central nervous system are enriched in recent positive selection events in human history identified by intra-species genomic scan, especially in brain regions related to cognitive functions. This pattern holds when different datasets, parameters and analysis pipelines were used. Functional category enrichment analysis supported these findings, showing that synapse-related functions are enriched in genes under recent positive selection. In contrast, immune-related functions, for instance, are enriched in genes under ancient positive selection revealed by inter-species coding region comparison. We further demonstrated that most of these patterns still hold even after controlling for genomic characteristics that might bias genome-wide identification of positively-selected genes including gene length, gene density, GC composition, and intensity of negative selection. Conclusion Our rigorous analysis resolved previous conflicting conclusions and revealed recent adaptation of human brain functions.


Background: This study performed to assess the safety of cataract extraction with phacoemulsification and intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in patients with high axial length compared with patients with normal axial length. Materials and Methods: A total of 866 eyes were enrolled in this study; all subjects underwent phacoemulsification and IOL implantation for treatment of cataract. Seven hundred and nine eyes fell in the normal group with axial lengths ranging between 21 and 24.5 mm, and 157 eyes were considered myopic with axial length equal or greater than 26 mm. The two groups were compared regarding intraoperative surgical complications, such as vitreous loss, posterior capsular rupture, nucleolus drop, and undesirable implantation of IOL in the anterior chamber. Results: Age was a risk factor in both groups, with each year increase of age, the chance of incidence of intraoperative complications increased 1.04-folds ( P = 0.03). And with 1 mm increase in axial length, the incidence of complications raised 1.22-folds ( P = 0.007). There was no significant correlation between axial length and incidence of vitreous loss, although the incidence of posterior capsular rupture and nucleus fragment drops increased with increment in the axial length. Sex of the patients and side of the left or right eye were not found to be significant risk factors. Conclusions: As the results illustrate, in this survey, age and high axial length were statistically significant risk factors for incidence of intraoperative complications of cataract surgery with phacoemulsification technique. Anticipation of these complications and also preparation and prophylactic measures may decrease incidence of these complications.


ABSTRACT We document gender differences in the booking of business air travel among similar workers within a firm. Women pay consistently less per ticket than men after accounting for a large set of covariates. A large proportion of the lower fares paid are explained by women booking earlier. We find that gender differences increase with age but find no deviation from this trend during the childbearing years. We also find that country-level gender differences in reciprocity are associated with the documented gender differences. The documented gender differences have important monetary implications for firms and suggest an important role for workers' morale.


Steel strands have the advantages of good bending performance, strong impact resistance, stable and reliable operation, etc. As a load-bearing structure, the health of steel strands directly affects the stability and safety of the entire structure. Therefore, detecting the damage to in-service steel strands is extremely important. Due to the influence of the helical structure, the contact effect between the wires, and the influence of the applied load, it is difficult to solve the wave problem of the steel strands using the governing equations and boundary conditions from a purely theoretical point of view. The Floquet Boundary Conditions (Floquet BC) method can replace the whole with a single repeatable substructure without rewriting the equilibrium equation, which is more general and simpler than the SAFE method. The advantage of Floquet BC is that only the propagation term is considered, and it is very suitable for irregular waveguides such as steel strands. In this paper, the Floquet BC method is used to analyze the dispersion characteristics of the helical curved rod and the steel strands in the torsional coordinate system, and the results obtained are the same as those obtained by the SAFE method.


Anti-albumin antibodies that recognize glutaraldehyde treated albumin have been detected in diabetes mellitus, belonging to all immunoglobulin classes. Anti-albumin antibodies have been found to be closely associated with circulating immune complexes, suggesting a role in their formation. It is suggested that such immune complexes may account for the positive immunofluorescence findings of albumin, immunoglobulin and complement in blood vessels previously reported in diabetes mellitus.


Almost all dwarf galaxies in the Local Group (LG) that are not satellites of the Milky Way or M 31 belong to either one of two highly symmetric planes. It is still a matter of debate whether these planar structures are dynamically stable or whether they only represent a transient alignment. Proper motions, if they could be measured, could help to discriminate between these scenarios. Such motions could be determined with multi-epoch very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) of sources that show emission from water and methanol at frequencies of 22 and 6.7 GHz, respectively. We report searches for such masers. We have mapped three LG galaxies, NGC 6822, IC 1613, and WLM, in the bands covering the water vapour and methanol lines. These systems are members of the two above-mentioned planes of galaxies. We have produced deep radio continuum (RC) maps and spectral line cubes. The former have been used to identify star-forming regions and to derive global galactic star formation rates (SFRs). These SFRs turn out to be lower than those determined at other wavelengths in two of our sources. This indicates that dwarf galaxies may follow predictions on the RC–SFR relation only in individual regions of enhanced RC emission, but not when considering the entire optical body of the sources. No methanol or water maser emission has been confidently detected, down to line luminosity limits of ∼4 × 10−3 and 10 × 10−3 L⊙, respectively. This finding is consistent with the small sizes, low SFRs, and metallicities of these galaxies.


The standard mathematical account of the sub-metrical geometry of a space employs topology, whose foundational concept is the open set. This proves to be an unhappy choice for discrete spaces, and offers no insight into the physical origin of geometrical structure. I outline an alternative, the Theory of Linear Structures, whose foundational concept is the line. Application to Relativistic space-time reveals that the whole geometry of space-time derives from temporal structure. In this sense, instead of spatializing time, Relativity temporalizes space.


Seattle Smart Traveler (SST) is an application of World Wide Web (WWW) technology to test the concept of automated dynamic ride-share matching. This paper reports a new statistical model for quantifying ride-share matching and car pooling. The model is validated using the SST experimental results, and the model demonstrates that the car-pooling process is a quadratic function of the number of users participating.


High-power directed wideband electromagnetic (EM) radiation in the microwave range can be generated by means of a superluminal electron emission current pulse [I] produced'when the front ofthe electron emission from the interface between a vacuum and a medium propagates with a velocity higher than the speed of light. In particular, a superluminal current pulse is generated when a plane metal surface is irradiated by a plane flux of radiation capable of producing electron emission. According to the theory, the higher the energy of the emitted electrons, the higher the intensity and the total energy of the emitted EM radiation. Estimates show that, in order for the energy and intensity of the generated EM radiation be of interest for practical purposes, the energy of the emitted electrons should be on the order of tens of keV or higher. Under laboratory conditions, the emission current of highenergy electrons can be generated by separating processes of the electron production and the formation of the emitting dipole layer. Ionizing radiation capable ofproducing electron emission is used only to initiate the emission of electrons with the minimum possible energy and electrons emitted are then acceleSated to their final energies by an external electric field. The results were obtained in early studies of operating modes of a radiator in which the generated electromagnetic wave did not have any significant effect on parameters of the accelerating system. However, it is clear that, for high current densities of accelerated electrons, this effect should be taken into account. When the current density is sui% ciently high, characteristics of the generated EM radiation depend on parameten of the accelerated diode and, primarily, on parameters of the limiting current that can he produced above the anode. In particular, since the EM radiation pulse forms at the front of the emission CUIrent, the achievement of high current densities at the anode is determined not by the current density of the emitted electrons but by the growth rate of the emission current. Our objective is to investigate limiting characteristics of the EM radiation generated by an elementaty superluminal source. We present analytical estimates and results of numerical calculations of parameters of a superluminal current pulse and EM radiation generated when the emission electrons are accelerated in a plane diode operating at high current densities.


Obliquity pacing of Antarctic glaciations during the Quaternary

The frequency of Antarctic glaciations during the Quaternary are not well understood. Benthic oxygen isotope records provide evidence for eccentricity paced global ice volume changes since c. 800 000 years and the ice core records (such as EPICA) also appear to have 100 000 year cycles over the last 800 000 years. However, the benthic oxygen isotope records are a global average – not an Antarctic record. Quaternary, sedimentary records proximal to the ice margin (such as the ANDRILL AND-1B record) are needed to understand better the recent glacial history of Antarctica.

Here we present results from the 6.21 m long, NBP03-01A-20PCA sedimentary record which was recovered from the outer continental margin of the Ross Embayment.

Sediments comprise mud with numerous clasts and paleomagnetic analyses revealed magnetic reversals at 4.21 m, 5.74 m, and 5.85 m depth. These reversals are correlated with C1n-C1r.1r-C1r.1n-C1r.2r geomagnetic reversals which have corresponding ages of 773 ka, 990 ka, and 1070 ka.

Time series analysis of continuous Anhysteretic Remanent Magnetisation (ARM) data, which are controlled primarily by the concentration of magnetic minerals, revealed strong obliquity paced cycles between c. 800 ka and 350 ka. The presence of obliquity cycles prompted us to carry out core scanning XRF and grain size analyses. The archive half was scanned in a itrax XRF core scanner at the Marine and Geology Repository at Oregon State University and high density grain size analyses were conducted at the University of Otago.

We identified obliquity paced cycles in the titanium elemental data over the same period which we suggest represent variations in the terrigenous material in the core. Weaker obliquity cycles are also present in the >2mm grain size fraction which we suggest is controlled by the proximity of the ice shelf front.

We suggest that the presence of obliquity paced cycles in our data series indicate that the Ross Ice Shelf calving line advance and retreat cycles were paced with obliquity until at least 350 ka and that the mid-Pleistocene transition occurred later in the Southern Hemisphere than in the North.


BACKGROUND
Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy, which may need further Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) testing beyond autoantibodies for diagnosis due to the necessity of lifetime gluten restriction. HLA genotyping test is useful in certain scenarios for CD diagnosis and screening. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reasons for inappropriate requesting of HLA testing.

METHODS
One hundred and fifteen patients, who had been tested for CD-related HLAs, were included in this study. Final diagnosis, indication of HLA test, serological and histopathological findings were re-evaluated to determine the inappropriate usage of HLA testing.

RESULTS
Among all patients, 44 (38.2%) were diagnosed with CD according to their genotyping results. The frequency of DQ 2.5, DQ8 and DQ2.2 haplotypes among these patients was 57.2%, 28.2%, and 14.3%, respectively. HLA test was performed inappropriately in 35 (30.4%) of patients. The most common reason was serology and pathological findings of patients were already conclusive as CD in 15 (42.9%) patients. Serology negative patients were tested without any supporting finding of CD in 11 (31.4%) patients. Last identified reason was that patients whose serology and intestinal biopsy were not conclusive as CD in 9 (25.7%) patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Before requesting HLA typing test, patient's data should be thoroughly evaluated to confirm the need for test.


Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and its varieties are important vegetable crops worldwide. They are also well‐known, rarely reported, causes of contact allergy. As lettuce allergens and extracts are not commercially available, the allergy may be underdiagnosed. The aims of this article are to present new data on lettuce contact allergy and review the literature. Lettuce is weakly allergenic, and occupational cases are mainly reported. Using aimed patch testing in Compositae‐allergic patients, two recent Danish studies showed prevalence rates of positive lettuce reactions of 11% and 22%. The majority of cases are non‐occupational, and may partly be caused by cross‐reactivity. The sesquiterpene lactone mix seems to be a poor screening agent for lettuce contact allergy, as the prevalence of positive reactions is significantly higher in non‐occupationally sensitized patients. Because of the easy degradability of lettuce allergens, it is recommended to patch test with freshly cut lettuce stem and supplement this with Compositae mix. As contact urticaria and protein contact dermatitis may present as dermatitis, it is important to perform prick–to–prick tests, and possibly scratch patch tests as well. Any person who is occupationally exposed to lettuce for longer periods, especially atopics, amateur gardeners, and persons keeping lettuce‐eating pets, is potentially at risk of developing lettuce contact allergy.


We consider partition function games and introduce new definitions of the core that include the effects of externalities. We assume that all players behave rationally and that all stable outcomes arising are consistent with the appropriate generalised concept of the core. The result is a recursive definition of the core where residual subgames are considered as games with fewer players and with a partition function that captures the externalities of the deviating coalition. Some properties of the new concepts are discussed.


An investigation is reported of narrowing of the spectrum in dispersive cavities when the aperture size is reduced. Wavelength tuning as a result of displacement of the axis of an optical system is also considered. These effects are explained without invoking the aberrations associated with an asymmetry of the dispersive components of the system. An analysis is made of the main factors governing the laser frequency tuning as a result of displacement and misalignment of complex systems.


Ditchgrasses are aquatic species, rooting in mud in fresh or brackish waters. Their perfect flowers are borne on long tenuous and coiled peduncles from the axils of upper leaves. Arranged in short spikes, each flower is initially concealed within a spathe. Stamens are two. Leaves are alternate or opposite, each with a single midrib. One species is found in Nova Scotia. Photograph by Alex Wilson.


Complex syntactic structures may be difficult to recognize when produced using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems that do not contain grammatical markers. The present study investigated adult English speakers' production of Subject and Object relative clause sentences using a picture/symbol-based AAC system with speech output. Most participants avoided the potential ambiguity that resulted from the absence of grammatical markers. They followed spoken English word order when encoding Object relative clause sentences, but altered this order for Subject relative clause sentences. Most participants used constituent proximity to maintain the distinction between Subject and Object relative clause sentences. Results indicate the combined effects of underlying syntactic knowledge and pragmatic variables on the AAC constituent order patterns observed.


There is a growing concern, lately, in the Niger Delta region, nay, Nigeria at large, over the despoliation of our environment by multinational oil companies and citizens in quest for economic gains. The problem is that humans have come to see themselves as "landlords" and masters of God's creation rather than stewards, having untrammeled authority to plunder natural resources with reckless abandon. The resultant effect is that this unethical attitude towards the environment poses grave danger to both living and non-living things in the ecosystem and forecloses the possibilities of its sustainability. Specifically, this paper critically examines the implications of the anthropocentric- utilitarian tradition in environmental ethics for the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The anthropocentric approach emphasizes the use of non-human natural resources solely in terms of their instrumental value to human kind. Its utilitarian dimension holds that so long as an environmental attitude or policy produces the greatest happiness, pleasure or benefit possible for the greatest number of people, it is moral. This paper posits that such tradition is quite problematic to the realization of environmental justice and wholeness in the Niger Delta. Our objective here is to show that the monumental environmental problems in the Niger Delta resulting from oil exploration are precipitated by the some unjust socio-economic and unethical principles. This paper recommends the application of the principles of environmental stewardship and environmental justice as a way out of the problem. These principles stand for moral consider ability towards the environment as well as a fair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits.


This article uses data from a three-year study of one large industrial firm to illustrate fundamental distinctions between the pioneer era, when women and minorities struggled individually for access to predominantly white male jobs, and the postpioneer era that occurred after equal employment policies were institutionalized by the firm. Internal labor market theory provides a framework for analyzing the effects of organizational changes during the latter period. Our sources include intensive, structured interviews with 75 of the firm's blue-collar employees, 27 unstructured interviews with union officials, 388 responses to a mailed survey of blue-collar employees, and plantwide data on the employment status and job classifications of over 7000 blue-collar workers. We find that the 1978 affirmative action agreement did not address many of the organizational barriers at the plant level that impede women's access to and advancement in traditionally male jobs. Although the current policy has increased the number of women being hired, it may be promoting new patterns of sex and race segregation.


Motivation Identification of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that bind to ribonucleic acid molecules, is an important problem in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. It becomes indispensable to identify RBPs as they play crucial roles in post-transcriptional control of RNAs and RNA metabolism as well as have diverse roles in various biological processes such as splicing, mRNA stabilization, mRNA localization, and translation, RNA synthesis, folding-unfolding, modification, processing, and degradation. The existing experimental techniques for identifying RBPs are time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, identifying RBPs directly from the sequence using computational methods can be useful to efficiently annotate RBPs and assist the experimental design. In this work, we present a method, called AIRBP, which is designed using an advanced machine learning technique, called stacking, to effectively predict RBPs by utilizing features extracted from evolutionary information, physiochemical properties, and disordered properties. Moreover, our method, AIRBP is trained on the useful feature-subset identified by the evolutionary algorithm (EA). Results The results show that AIRBP attains Accuracy (ACC), F1-score, and MCC of 95.38%, 0.917, and 0.885, respectively, based on the benchmark dataset, using 10-fold cross-validation (CV). Further evaluation of AIRBP on independent test set reveals that it achieves ACC, F1-score, and MCC of 93.04%, 0.943, and 0.855, for Human test set; 91.60%, 0.942 and 0.789 for S. cerevisiae test set; and 91.67%, 0.953 and 0.594 for A. thaliana test set, respectively. These results indicate that AIRBP outperforms the current state-of-the-art method. Therefore, the proposed top-performing AIRBP can be useful for accurate identification and annotation of RBPs directly from the sequence and help gain valuable insight to treat critical diseases. Availability Code-data is available here: http://cs.uno.edu/~tamjid/Software/AIRBP/code_data.zip


Abstract Drawing on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n = 10,700), we evaluate indirect effects − via parent negative psychology and harsh-inconsistent parenting − of income harshness, unpredictability, and their interaction on kindergarteners' socioemotional development. Income harshness is operationalized as the typical level of family income-to-needs across four repeated measurements from 9 months to kindergarten and unpredictability as random variation across the same repeated measurements. Results indicate that the effects of greater income harshness and the harshness-X-unpredictability interaction (reflecting more predictable income harshness) on more "problematic" child behavior operated via both parent negative psychology (i.e., greater psychological stress) and harsh-inconsistent parenting. Results underscore the utility of simultaneously investigating effects of income harshness and unpredictability, as well as their interaction and mechanisms of influence.


Feedback control systems have been used to move the muscles and joints of the limbs of paraplegic patients. The feedback signal, related to the knee joint angle, can be obtained by using an electrogoniometer. However, the use of accelerometers can help the measurements due the facility of adhering these devices to the skin. Accelerometers are also very suitable for these applications due their small dimensions and weight. In this paper a new method for designing a control system that can vary the knee joint angle using Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is presented, as well as a simulation with parameters values available in the literature. The nonlinear control system was represented by a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model and the feedback signals were obtained by using accelerometers. The design method considered all plant nonlinearities and was efficient and reliable to control the leg position of a paraplegic patient with the angle of the knee ranging from 0° to 30°, considering electric stimulation at the quadriceps muscle. The proposed method is viable and offers a new alternative for designing control systems of the knee joint angle using more comfortable sensors for the patients.


Switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.) is a warm-season perennial grass native to North America, it was used as forage and vegetative filter strips in early days, and have developed into a bioenergy crop in recent years. In this study, we found that the switchgrass cultivar 'Alamo' at elongation stage 4 have developed inflorescences about 1 cm in length, and in vitro incubation of the shoot apexes harboring inflorescences on Murashige and Skoog's basal medium supplemented with 3 mg/L 6-benzylaminopurine generated multiple shoot clumps. Anatomical study showed that some of the regenerated shoots originated from axillary buds on the explants, some of them originated from adventurous buds and some of them originated from young florets. Further study of shoots originated from young florets found that the floral organs degenerated or developed into leaf-like organs, and the flower terminal transformed into a vegetative shoot apical meristem, that's to say these shoots arise from flower reversion. In vitro induction of floral reversion provided a novel protocol to manipulate flower development in switchgrass, which might contribute a fundamental for flower development study in switchgrass and other plants.


For many decades kibbutzim in Israel have aspired to embody principles of a Utopian community. Members live in such community out of their free will with knowledge of other life options and the possibility to leave whenever they wish and all members of that community satisfy all their needs in a sustainable way. They maximise the expression of their human potential and live in a community of equality among the members, according to their unique human needs and potentials, in solidarity, in collaboration and fraternity, and in cooperation. The community actively uses its resources in spreading these values and characteristics into the larger society. However, starting at the end of the 1980s, the kibbutzim experienced a deep economic and ideological crisis. Two major outcomes of that crisis signalled the beginning of the demise of the kibbutz phenomenon: (a) a large wave of emigration for other ways of life by members, particularly the young; and, (b) abandonment by most kibbutzim and their members of the basic principles of conduct that stemmed from the kibbutz values. The article explores the causal processes that undermined the kibbutz model. I conclude that the abandonment of kibbutz values is the major cause. At the end I draw lessons for the survival of intentional communities like the kibbutz.


Background: Under normal circumstances, change in heart rate variability (HRV) in pregnancy projecting alterations within the regulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Many previous works have shown an impact of gestation on the role of ANS in control of heart rate in the western country; however, it is poorly understood in Indian population, but then again a definitive this study is beneficial in relating to the influence on maternal autonomic cardiovascular control in some aspects of physiology in normal pregnancy.

Aims and Objective: The aim of our study was to analyze the cardiac autonomic control throughout different stage of pregnancy with HRV.

Materials and Methods: This study (n = 200) comprised normal non-pregnant and pregnant participants in the age of 20–30 years old, were divided randomly into Group 0 (n = 50) - control group comprised non-pregnant, healthy women. Study group (n = 150) classified into three subgroups; Group 1 (n = 50) - participants in their first trimester, Group 2 (n = 50) - participants in their second trimester, and Group 3 (n = 50) - participants in their third trimester. The electrocardiographic R-wave-R-wave interval HRV was measured on a beat-to-beat basis with the help of an electrocardiogram machine (BPL Cardiart 1087/MK-V) for 5 min.

Result: Mean RR interval was decreased significantly in the 3rd trimester of pregnant study group when compared to non-pregnant control groups. Root of the mean of the sum of the squares of differences, NN50, and pNN50 were increased significantly in the first trimester of the pregnant study group when compared with non-pregnant control groups. Low frequency (LF) and LF (nu) significantly decreased, high frequency (HF) and HF (nu) significantly increased in the 1st trimester and significantly altered in 2nd trimester as well as 3rd trimester as vice versa. LF/HF ratio was significantly decreased in the 1st trimester and significantly increased in the 2nd trimester as well as 3rd trimester of pregnant study group when compared to non-pregnant control groups.

Conclusion: The cardiac autonomic nervous activity in pregnancy showed a higher parasympathetic dominance in the 1st trimeste r and decreased gradually in 2nd trimester as well as 3rd trimester, and there was a lower sympathetic activity in the 1st trimester and increased gradually in the 2nd trimester as well as 3rd trimester. These changes throughout normal pregnancy may have an advantage in the initial identification of abnormal physiological function.


The need to increase the durability of unpaved roads and the need to improve driver comfort have led to this research: to focus more attention on the use of reinforcements for this type of road. Unpaved roads are created by using an unbound granular base layer placed on compacted cohesive soils. When the subgrade is weak, due to its poor consistency and high compressibility, generally, a geosynthetic reinforcement (geogrid and/or geotextile) is placed over the subgrade, followed by a compacted granular fill layer. The use of geosynthetics can produce several benefits, such as draining, reinforcement, filtering, separation, and proofing. This paper aims to present a numerical investigation using 3-D Finite Element Modeling (FEM) to analyze the improvement, in terms of the rutting reduction of an unpaved road system, reinforced by a geogrid, under repeated traffic loads. 3-D FEM analysis was carried out on two unpaved road sections, one reinforced and the other unreinforced, with both subjected to an impulsive wheel loading. It can be concluded that a significant improvement in pavement behavior is obtained by placing a geogrid layer at the base–subgrade interface. In fact, the obtained results show that geogrid reinforcement can provide a relevant contribution to the reduction of permanent deformations.


This paper investigates the stability analysis of plates made of functionally graded material (FGM) and subjected to electro-mechanical loading. A thick square FGM plate with piezoelectric actuator and sensor at top and bottom face is considered. The material properties are assumed to be graded along the thickness direction according to simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fraction of the constituents, while the Poisson's ratio is assumed to be constant. The plate is simply supported at all edges. Using first order (FOST) and higher order shear deformation theories (HOST12), the finite element model is derived with von-Karman hypothesis and as a degenerated shell element. The displacement component of the present model is expanded in Taylor's series in terms of thickness co-ordinate. The governing equilibrium equation is obtained by using the principle of minimum potential energy and the solution for critical buckling load is obtained by solving the eigen value problem. The stability analysis of piezoelectric FG plate is carried out to present the effect of power law index and applied mechanical pressure. Results reveal that buckling strength increases with an increase in volume fraction. It can also be improved using piezo effects. The present analysis is carried out on newly introduced metal based FGM which is a mixture of aluminium and stainless steel which exhibits corrosion resistance as well as high strength property in a single material.


Keeping the objective to build up a new structural class of quinoxaline, a new series of quinoxaline derivatives bearing the pyridinyl thiazole nucleus have been synthesized by base-catalyzed chloro-amine condensation reaction approach. The protocol offers expeditious and easy synthesis with excellent yield. The chemical structures of the synthesized compounds were elucidated by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FT-IR, elemental analysis, and mass spectral data.


The application of Coon's indirect method, using antisubstance P antibodies, has permitted the immuno-histo-fluorescence study of the distribution of SP positive structures in 6 human brains. Several areas of the hemispheres and of the brainstem have shown axons of various sizes and densities exhibiting SP positive varicosities. Their topographic distribution was established for the human brain and compared with the distribution observed in the brain of the rat. Both distributions appeared very similar in the somato-sensorial systems of the spinal cord, medulla and pons, in the structures of the midbrain tectum and tegmentum as well as in those of the thalamus and hypothalamus. Substantia nigra and globus pallidus showed a large amount of substance P, in human brain as well as in the rat, but in human brain, substance P positive axons were arranged in a longitudinal peridendritic "pipe" shaped manner, particularly in the antero-external and superior part of the substantia nigra as well as in the internal segment of the globus pallidus; such "pipes" were rarely seen in the rat. Moreover, in man, the pallidal substance P was almost exclusively seen in the internal segment while it spreads to the external segment in the rat. Substance P was found to be scarce in the rhinencephalic and limbic structures, the amygdala and the olfactory bulb of man, contrary to their abundance in the rat, but this peculiarity could be due more to some pathological changes associated with the advanced age of the patients whose brains were studied than to an interspecific difference.


Ultrabasic rocks from the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge and peridotites of the alpine type have similar petrographic characteristics. A petrochemical comparison of these rocks shows that oceanic peridotites are enriched in SiO2 and normative hypersthene. The direction of the development of the composition of ultrabasic rocks after separation of different amounts of basalt from pyrolites of oceanic and alpine type ultrabasic rocks was obtained by calculation. Combination of these data with experimental melting diagrams shows that alpine type ultrabasic rocks melt at higher temperatures than oceanic ultrabasic rocks. On geological and petrochemical grounds we think that the ultrabasic rocks which outcrop in the rift zones of the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge are a specific formation. This formation consists of slighty differentiated pyrolites of the oceanic type.


This text takes into account neuroses that develop from an explicit trauma that occurred in the material reality, but which appear with some features of transference neurosis. The classical description of traumatic neurosis is briefly depicted; next, an autobiographical account is narrated by the French Jewish writer Sarah Kofman, who spent her childhood in France during World War II, when her father was killed in Auschwitz, and was forced to live in hiding during that period. On the one hand, the object is discussed, through loss, as well as the the relationships established with it; on the other, the trauma itself. We try to show that the interaction between these two currents creates a complex relationship that may be responsible more for transference neurosis features than for traumatic neurosis. The "erotic", in the phallic-Oedipal meaning, seems to be what produces this complexity, functioning as a workingthrough factor of the trauma..


In a conventional semiconductor, when the dielectric screening effect is suppressed, the exciton binding energy increases and the corresponding excitonic transition would exhibit a redshift in the spectrum. In this work, I study the optical properties of hexagonal graphene nanodots by using a configuration interaction approach and reveal that the edge of the absorption spectrum shows an abnormal blueshift as the environmental dielectric constant ϵr decreases. The two dominant many-body effects in the nanodot: the quasiparticle and excitonic effects are both found to scale almost linearly with ϵr-1. The former is shown to have a larger proportionality constant and thus accounts for the blueshift of the absorption edge. In contrast to the long-range Coulomb interaction, the on-site Coulomb energy is found to have a negative impact on the bright excitonic states. In the presence of a strong dielectric screening effect, a strong short-range Coulomb interaction is revealed to be responsible for the disintegration of the bright exciton.


OBJECTIVE
We previously reported the presence of high serum concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In this study we evaluated the effect of actarit on patients with early and advanced stages of RA and the relationship between RA activity and serum NO levels.

METHODS
Thirty-seven RA patients who were undergoing care at Sasebo Chuo Hospital were entered into the study. Patients were divided into two groups based on the severity of their disease: group I (stages I and II) and group II (stages III and IV). NO concentrations in serum samples were measured by the chemiluminescence method.

RESULTS
Morning stiffness, the number of tender and swollen joints, grip strength, pain score, modified Health Assessment Questionnaire score (mHAQ), ESR, CRP and the Lansbury index significantly improved during 24 weeks of treatment in group I. Patients in group II did not show improvement in morning stiffness, pain score, ESR or CRP during treatment. The concentrations of NO in group I were significantly reduced at 8 weeks after administration of actarit. Those in group II showed a delayed response; a significant decrease in NO occurred at 20 weeks. The improvement in the number of tender and swollen joints, grip strength, pain score, mHAQ and Lansbury index noted in group I preceded the fall in NO concentrations.

CONCLUSION
Our results demonstrate that actarit improves disease activity in early phase RA by suppressing serum NO levels. The results suggest that NO is a useful marker for monitoring improvement in the early stages of RA.


The main parts of the LHC diffractive physics programme possible to be measured using a proton tagging technique are presented. The geometric acceptance of the ATLAS forward proton detectors: ALFA and AFP for various LHC optics settings are shown. The probabilities of observing a proton originating from a minimum-bias event in ALFA and AFP stations are given. The main properties of single diffractive and double Pomeron exchange production of dijets, photon+jet, jet-gap-jet and W/Z bosons are discussed. The possibility of measuring the jet production in exclusive (double proton tag) and semi-exclusive (single tag) mode is evaluated.


Manufacturing is a global activity that started during the industrial revolution in the late 19th century to cater for the large-scale production of products. Since then, manufacturing has changed tremendously through the innovations of technology, processes, materials, communication and transportation. The major challenge facing manufacturing is to produce more products using less material, less energy and less involvement of labour. To face these challenges, manufacturing companies must have a strategy and competitive priority in order for them to compete in a dynamic market. A review of the literature on the decomposition of manufacturing processes outlines three main processes, namely: high volume, medium volume and low volume. The decomposition shows that each sub process has its own characteristics and depends on the nature of the firm's business. Two extreme processes are continuous line production (fast extreme) and project shop (slow extreme). Other processes are in between these two extremes of the manufacturing spectrum. Process flow patterns become less complex with cellular, line and continuous flow compared with jobbing and project. The review also indicates that when the product is high variety and low volume, project or functional production is applied.


The super-heated temperature system is a typical element with high-order inertia process in thermal power plant. Especially in case of load changing, the parameters show obvious time-varying^ uncertain and nonlinear property, which markedly reduces the quality of the traditional PID cascade control. MFAC is an advanced control strategy with exellent self-turn and robustness. However, the drawback of MFAC are low response speed and couldn't overcome extraneous disturbance. MFA with human-simulated intelligent control(HSIC) is therefore being presented. Characteristic information of dynamic process is used to heuristic and instinct inference in HSIC, and modifying the penalty factor in MFAC continuously. MFAC is used precise control directly. Simulation results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the HIS-MFA control in super-heated temperature system.


In the past Korean firms tend to choose L/C contract to avoid credit risk and dishonour of bills. But recently international traders tend to prefer simplified transactions procedures in view of their efficiency. This study deals with a literature review and empirical study on determinative factors in the decision of a payment method. The results of this paper are as follows; Firstly, characteristics of business relations(export experiences, credit risk, payment risk, delivery risk, etc.) and costs and procedures of payment show a statistically significant influence on the decision of each export companies' payment methods. In conclusion export firms regard a cost reduction as one of the most important factor in selecting a payment method in trades. Secondly, this study analyzes variables of decision factors in countries such as China and America. In China characteristics of environments (in particular, a risk related to the government of an import nation) is regarded as most important factor. Chinese economy has become a big emerging market and has expanded trades in the global market. Because of change of trade environment in china, the environment risk factor is regarded as more important factor than others in selecting a payment method. This study is to investigate the main factors in making decisions of payment methods of export firms. There are certain limitations in scope and sizes of samples in this paper. Firstly, as problem of sample selection, sampling size and the number of the samples analyzed are small. Secondly, the lack of available data makes the study limited.


Subcutaneous calcification as a complication of chest wall irradiation has only been described once before in the literature. Six patients who developed heavy calcification of soft tissue following chest wall and breast irradiation are described here, and relevant literature is reviewed.


A subthreshold model for use in circuit simulation software is described. The model includes representation of nonuniform substrate impurity concentrations and short-channel and narrow-channel effects, while being simple in form. It has been developed in concert with an automated parameter-extraction methodology. The model adds only one parameter to the existing strong inversion model with which it is fully integrated. The accuracy and computational efficiency are suitable for circuit simulation. The results of an extraction carried out on nMOS transistors with channel widths from 70 to 0.9 mu m and channel lengths from 35 to 1.25 mu m over a wide range of bias conditions are described. >


The structure and ontogeny of foliar stomata were studied in 50 species of 28 genera belonging to 17 tribes of the family Euphorbiaceae. The epidermal cells are either polygonal, trapezoidal, or variously elongated in different directions and diffusely arranged. The epidermal anticlinal walls are either straight, arched or sinuous. The architecture of cuticular striations varies with species. The mature stomata are paracytic (most common), anisocytic, anomocytic and diacytic. Occasionally a stoma may be tetracytic, cyclocytic or with a single subsidiary cell. The ontogeny of paracytic stomata is mesogenous dolabrate or trilabrate, mesoperigenous dolabrate; that of diacytic stomata is mesogenous dolabrate, whereas that of anisocytic stomata is mesogenous trilabrate; rarely an anisocytic stoma may be mesoperigenous. Hemiparacytic stomata are mesoperigenous unilabrate; tetracytic stomata are mesoperigenous dolabrate and anomocytic stomata perigenous. Abnormalities encountered include four types of contiguous stomata, stomata with a single or both guard cells aborted and persistent stomatal initials. Cytoplasmic connections between the guard cells of two adjacent stomata or the guard cell of a stoma and an adjacent epidermal/subsidiary cell, or both types occurring in a species, were noticed. The stomatal development, distribution, diversity and basic stomatal type with reference to systematics are discussed.


Global and hemispheric temperatures, greenhouse gas concentrations, solar irradiance, and anthropogenic sulfate aerosols all have increased during the last one hundred and fifty years. Classical linear regression techniques will indicate a positive relationship among such series whether or not such a relation exists. Such standard techniques cannot, therefore, show whether observed temperature increases are the result of anthropogenic climate change. However, recent developments in econometrics allow for the analysis of relationships between statistically non-stationary data. We apply some of these recently developed tests in order to uncover the presence of stochastic trends in global climate change variables. These tests indicate that the greenhouse gases are characterized by I(2) stochastic trends while they fail to find evidence of an I(2) stochastic trend in hemispheric temperature series. This would mean that there is no simple long-run equilibrium relationship between radiative forcing and temperature. We then use a multivariate structural time series model to decompose Northern and Southern Hemisphere temperatures into stochastic trends and autoregressive noise processes. This method does not suffer from some of the disadvantages of the standard tests. The results show that there are two independent stochastic trends. The first is I(2) and is shared by the Northern and Southern Hemisphere temperatures. It may be related to the to the radiative forcing variables and represent a global warming signal. The second trend is I(1) and is only present in Northern Hemisphere temperatures. This trend seems closely related to the radiative forcing due to tropospheric sulfates.


Tumor heterogeneity presents challenges for personalized diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The identification method of cancer-specific biomarkers has important applications for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer types. In this study, we analyzed the pan-cancer DNA methylation data from TCGA and GEO, and proposed a computational method to quantify the degree of specificity based on the level of DNA methylation of G protein-coupled receptor-related genes (GPCRs-related genes) and to identify specific GPCRs DNA methylation biomarkers (GRSDMs) in pan-cancer. Then, a ridge regression-based method was used to discover potential drugs through predicting the drug sensitivities of cancer samples. Finally, we predicted and verified 8 GRSDMs in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), rectum adenocarcinoma (READ), uveal Melanoma (UVM), thyroid carcinoma (THCA), and predicted 4 GRSDMs (F2RL3, DGKB, GRK5, PIK3R6) which were sensitive to 12 potential drugs. Our research provided a novel approach for the personalized diagnosis of cancer and informed individualized treatment decisions.


Developments in science and technology, demand-driven education and practices, climate change, the gradual decrease in natural resources, and economic constraints all combine to drive increased interest in research in architecture and urbanism at EU levels. In light of this, the EURAU conferences were initiated in 2004 to create a platform for researchers to share their own research outputs and knowledge, and to discuss problems emerging in architecture and urbanism with a view to develop solutions.

This book brings together 19 selected papers delivered at the EURAU2014 Istanbul "Composite Cities" Conference, the primary aim of which was to provide a medium in which the complex relationships between urban form and urban experience could be discussed. The conference did this by examining four composite characters of today's cities: the hybrid city, the morphed city, the fragmented city and the mutated city.

The volume addresses the importance of research on the complexity of today's cities, cities that are transforming on various levels from local to global, while also shedding light on new models of urbanism discussed together with new decision-making actors.


A 51-year-old male patient with chronic renal failure, who had required dialysis for 22 years, presented with a cervical mass. Laboratory data were consistent with secondary hyperparathyroidism due to chronic renal failure. Cervical exploration was performed with excision of four parathyroid glands and autotransplantation of the normal gland into the forearm. The cervical tumor of the right inferior gland demonstrated parathyroid carcinoma histologically. Adenoma of the right superior gland and hyperplasia of the left superior gland were also recognized. The left inferior gland was normal. A few cases of parathyroid carcinoma in patients on maintenance hemodialysis have been previously reported. However, this is the first report in which all four parathyroid glands revealed different pathological findings: carcinoma, adenoma, hyperplasia and normal gland. Chronic stimulation of the parathyroid glands to release parathyroid hormone might have caused the variety of findings in the four parathyroid glands.


Daily-life locomotion constantly challenges our neuromotor system, requiring adjustments in motor strategies to cope with external perturbations (e.g. a trip), control stability and avoid falls. Though knowledge about the effectiveness of perturbation-based interventions for improving fall-resisting skills in older adults has grown considerably, the effects of age and different protocol parameters on the adaptability (i.e adaptation, retention, generalisability) of the balance control system are not well established. This dissertation examined the adaptability and specificity of fall-resisting skills across the adult lifespan, with the perspective that the insight gained could improve both the effectiveness and efficicency of the assessment and training of fall-resisting skills. Four studies were conducted, comprising of both cross-sectional and longitudinal (14 weeks) designs. The first part of the dissertation focused on the specificity of the assessment of reactive dynamic stability control and the second part on adaptability to trip-perturbation exposure and how this varies with practice dose or age (i.e. young, middle-aged, old). Firstly, a gradual, age-related decline in reactive stepping performance was confirmed for different stepping modes. More importantly, it appears that volitional stepping characteristics have limited potential for discriminating between individuals or groups with quite different balance recovery capabilities. Therefore, volitional stepping tasks may not be sensitive enough for clinical application. Secondly, although the adaptability of reactive gait stability control during a single bout of trip-perturbations remains highly effective across the adult lifespan (which could counteract the initially poorer ability to cope with sudden balance loss in older age), retention of these improvements over several months seems to be diminished with ageing and dependent on a specific number of perturbations. Finally, the robust adaptations in stability control could not benefit recovery performance in an untrained reactive balance task, suggesting task specificity of learning. Profound differences in the spatiotemporal organisation of muscle activation patterns, i.e. muscle synergies, indicate a diverging modular control to different perturbations, possibly preventing inter-task generalisation of adaptations in stability control.


Canada's growing interest in trade with countries in the Indo-Pacific region corresponds with an ominous growth in geopolitical instability and insecurity in that part of the globe. With Indo-Pacific hunger for oil expected to soar – especially in China, where demand will translate to 80 per cent of imports in 10 years – Canada needs to develop policies to deal with the region's turbulent realities. The Indo-Pacific comprises countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and includes such unstable and unpredictable players as North Korea and Pakistan, both of which have nuclear weapons and long-simmering border tensions. India is an emerging economic and military rival to China. In the next 20 years, China and India are expected to lead the global demand for gas as coal consumption continues to decline, and Canada has a stake in this prosperous future. Along with territorial squabbles in the region, Canada will have to deal with complex issues such as terrorism, human trafficking, transnational crime, piracy and cyber-crime, as well as the struggle for global dominance between China and the U.S. One key area for potential conflict is China's recent construction and militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea. The Canadian government's new military strategy, Strong, Secure, Engaged does little more than make a plea for peace and the rule of law in the South China Sea. However, more trade crosses the Pacific Ocean from Canada than crosses the Atlantic. And with Canada signing on to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the region's troubles will need to be resolved by more than good intentions on paper. Canada must shift more diplomatic, security and military resources to the Indo-Pacific; otherwise, its efforts will be spread too thinly to be effective in the region. Trade, especially through a major route like the Strait of Malacca, could easily be disrupted by any one of a number of disputes, such as a conflict between China and Taiwan or if historic resentments boil over among competing territorial claimants in the region. Thus, Canada needs to step up and reaffirm its security commitments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a partner in the region. Participating in maritime exercises and Freedom of Navigation (FON) operations would also help to reinforce to countries in the region the importance of abiding by international law. Meanwhile, Canada should set aside for now any intentions to negotiate a free trade agreement with China. China does not share some of Canada's key trade and security goals and its aggressive behaviour in the South and East China Seas clearly signal that now is not the time to talk about a trade pact. China must demonstrate that it is willing to take a more cooperative approach to resolving trade and security issues in the Indo-Pacific and to support and respect the rule of law in the region. Canada has the potential to become a reliable, stable source of energy for Indo-Pacific countries. There is also an opportunity for provinces such as Alberta to strike their own strategic deals to provide energy resources to countries in that region, in return for trade and investment benefits. However, while investing at home in the necessary infrastructure and export capability to expand its role, Canada must also strive to bring its own unique approach to enhancing regional and energy security in the Indo-Pacific.


The recognition of large fluvial channels in the geological record is of great importance for regional palaeohydraulic and palaeogeographical reconstructions, inputs to reservoir modelling, and estimating the input of sediment to sedimentary basins, with consequent larger‐scale implications for modelling basin fill. However, available criteria for the interpretation of the scale of ancient fluvial systems are still poorly tested, particularly the widely‐adopted assumption that the abundance of large‐scale dunes in some deep channels implies that abundant large‐scale cross‐strata sets will be preserved in similar palaeochannels. To test this hypothesis, high‐resolution multibeam echo‐sounding imaging of two reaches in the Amazon River where large dunes are common were investigated, yielding an extensive dataset concerning dune geometry, position within the channel and, most importantly, the presence and distribution of smaller superimposed dunes on their lee sides. These results show that despite 90% of the bedforms at water depths >20 m being constituted by up to 12·2 m high compound dunes, 94% of the lee sides of these dunes are covered by smaller superimposed dunes. These results suggest that steep avalanche foresets that are several metres in height may be rare in the preserved stratigraphic record of these large channels, which are instead more commonly represented by decimetre‐scale cross‐stratified cosets formed by superimposed dunes migrating down the lee side of the large‐scale host bedforms. This observation thus suggests that the recognition of compound dune cosets is key to the interpretation of river‐channel scale, since compound dunes are the principal bedform in most large river channels. Consequently, successions dominated by decimetre‐scale thick cross‐strata sets, but that show rarer preservation of outsized metre‐scale avalanche foresets, and abundant similar‐sized cosets near the base of fining‐upward cycles are probably the most common bedform record of large‐river channels.


The article discusses the sources of scientific law that regulate relations in the field of organization,funding and research. The author classified normative legal acts, judicial practice, international legal acts,legal customs and local normative acts of scientific and educational organizations as sources of scientificlaw. At the same time, the doctrine of scientific law has yet to be worked out, which in the future may takethe place of the source of the "law of science".


Previous research indicates that quick, repetitive actions (pinches, taps, button presses) are executed with smaller force when followed by predictable and salient action effects (tones, light flashes). It has been suggested that successive actions become gradually softer until an optimum is reached, which presumably reflects a balance between the ability to maintain a high probability of action success, and the reduction of exerted force to conserve energy. In the present experiments, we investigated whether this action-effect-related motor adaptation appeared when the arrival of the action effect was unpredictable. Young adult participants produced evenly spaced pinches (Experiment 1) or taps (Experiment 2), which resulted in a tone in 50% of the trials. The presence of the tone effect varied randomly from trial to trial, leading to action sequences with various tone-elicitation patterns. We have found that pinches and taps preceded by sequences of tone-eliciting actions were softer than actions preceded by sequences of tone-absent trials. In the case of pinches, actions were also modulated on the fly, with the current action being softer and briefer when a tone was elicited. Our results demonstrate that action effects can modulate subsequent and ongoing actions even when the arrival of these effects is unpredictable. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


The brain's skill in estimating the 3-D orientation of viewed surfaces supports a range of behaviors, from placing an object on a nearby table, to planning the best route when hill walking. This ability relies on integrating depth signals across extensive regions of space that exceed the receptive fields of early sensory neurons. Although hierarchical selection and pooling is central to understanding of the ventral visual pathway, the successive operations in the dorsal stream are poorly understood. Here we use computational modeling of human fMRI signals to probe the computations that extract 3-D surface orientation from binocular disparity. To understand how representations evolve across the hierarchy, we developed an inference approach using a series of generative models to explain the empirical fMRI data in different cortical areas. Specifically, we simulated the responses of candidate visual processing algorithms and tested how well they explained fMRI responses. Thereby we demonstrate a hierarchical refinement of visual representations moving from the representation of edges and figure–ground segmentation (V1, V2) to spatially extensive disparity gradients in V3A. We show that responses in V3A are little affected by low-level image covariates, and have a partial tolerance to the overall depth position. Finally, we show that responses in V3A parallel perceptual judgments of slant. This reveals a relatively short computational hierarchy that captures key information about the 3-D structure of nearby surfaces, and more generally demonstrates an analysis approach that may be of merit in a diverse range of brain imaging domains.


The selection of fuel is of significant importance in cement industry as the fuel cost comprises 40% of the total cement manufacturing cost. Furnace Oil, Natural Gas and coal are the three available options for kiln firing. The Coal being cheapest is economically more suitable but is difficult to handle. However, in order to ensure the cost effectiveness of process, coal arises as the suitable choice. This research paper investigates the suitability of PMDC Degyari Coal, Quetta to be used in cement industry. A detail analysis of the coal was carried out including its proximate analysis, gross calorific value, hard groove grindability index, total sulfur, and ash analysis. Volatile Matter, Ash Content, Fixed Carbon, Gross Calorific Value and Moisture Content of the coal understudy are within the limits prescribed for usage of coal in the cement industry(1). However, the sulfur content of coal and the hard groove index are the problematic areas. On this basis it is suggested that the coal understudy can be used in cement industry after mixing it with imported coal of low sulfur content and high hard groove grindability index.


OBJECTIVES
The aims of this study were to test the essential oil from Lippia sidoides Cham. for antifungal activity, in vitro, against Candida spp. and Microsporum canis, to evaluate its acute and subchronic toxicological effects, in vivo, and to determine its chemical constituents.

METHODS
The antifungal activity, in vitro, was initially evaluated by the agar-well diffusion technique, and the MIC and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) were determined by the broth microdilution method. The acute and subchronic toxicological effects were determined in mice and rats, respectively. The chemical composition of the essential oil was determined by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy.

RESULTS
The essential oil obtained from L. sidoides was effective against all tested strains by the agar-well diffusion method. The MICs of L. sidoides essential oil for strains of M. canis ranged from 4 to 70 mg/L and the MFCs ranged from 9 to 150 mg/L. The MICs for strains of Candida spp. ranged from 620 to 2500 mg/L and the MFCs ranged from 1250 to 5000 mg/L. The main constituents of L. sidoides essential oil were thymol (59.65%), E-caryophyllene (10.60%) and p-cymene (9.08%). The acute administration of the essential oil up to 3 g/kg by the oral route to mice was devoid of overt toxicity. The 30 day oral administration of L. sidoides oil (117.95 mg/kg/day) to rats did not induce any significant histopathological, haematological or serum biochemical alterations.

CONCLUSIONS
The essential oil from L. sidoides may be a promising source in the search for new antifungal drugs due to its efficacy and low toxicity.


OBJECTIVE
Inflammatory pseudotumor is a benign process that can involve most organ systems. The purpose of this report was to evaluate the imaging features of multifocal chronic inflammatory pseudotumor in four patients who presented with clinical, radiographic, and biopsy evidence of pancreatic or biliary malignancy.

CONCLUSION
To our knowledge, this is the first report in the radiology literature describing the imaging features of progressive multifocal inflammatory pseudotumor originating from a primary pancreatic or biliary focus. Even on retrospective review, no distinguishing imaging features were identified that could discriminate benign from malignant disease. These findings emphasize the importance of histopathologic analysis in the diagnosis of malignancy, particularly in patients with previously diagnosed inflammatory pseudotumor.


RisperrJa/ prescribingin/ormation p220 1. Bonneux L, Barendregt JJ, Meeter K, et al. Estimating clinical morbidity due 10ischemic heart disease and congestive heart lailure: the future rise of heart lailure. kn J Public Health 1994; 84: 20-28. 2. Mortality from congest ive heart failure United States, 1980-1990. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1994; 43: 77-81. 3. Reitsma JB, Mosterd A.de Craen AJM, et al. increase in hospital admission rates for heart failure in the Netherlands, 19801993. Heart 1996; 76: 388·392 . 4. McMurray J, McDonagh T, Morrison CE, Dargie HJ. Trends in hosptatlsations for heart laiture in Scotland 1980-1990. Eur Heart J 1993; 14: 1158-1162. 5. Kannel WB, Ho K, Thorn T. Changing epidemiological features of cardiac failure. Br Heart J 1994; 72 Suppl : S3-S9. Cl


Identi�cation of youth at risk for post-traumatic pathology is critical for public health, medicine, and social policy but research has not yet succeeded in pinpointing biomarkers that can distinguish the post-traumatic from the resilient pro�le in contexts of trauma. As trauma alters the microbiome with lasting effects on the host, the current longitudinal, multi-measure, cross-species study sought to outline the microbial signature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We followed a unique trauma-exposed cohort for 15 years, from early childhood to adolescence, repeatedly assessing post-traumatic symptomatology. Gut microbiome composition and diversity characterized post-traumatic pathology, distinguished youth with PTSD from resilient individuals, and mediated the continuity of post-traumatic disorder. Mother-child microbial synchrony was reduced in cases of PTSD, suggesting that diminished microbial concordance among family members may index susceptibility to post-traumatic illness. Germ-free mice transplanted with PTSD microbiomes compared with those receiving resilient microbiomes exhibited anxious behavior. Our �ndings provide causative evidence that the microbial trauma pro�le is at least partially responsible for the trauma-related phenotype and highlight microbial underpinnings of resilience. Our results suggest that the microbial ecology may serve as additional biological memory of early life stress and underscore the potential for microbiome-related diagnosis and treatment following trauma exposure.


Rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries (RAIBs) attract great attention for stationary energy storage, but there remains a lack of suitable cathode materials for them. Here, a porous iron fluoride/multi wall carbon nanotube (FeF3/MWCNTs) composite as a cathode for RAIBs shows high discharge capacity (180 mA h g-1) and good rate performance, while MWCNTs play crucial roles in improving conductivity and cycle stability. Various characterizations elucidate its conversion-type mechanism, in particular, the Fe3+/Fe2+ conversion exhibits a high operating potential of 1.75 V and discharge capacity of 123 mA h g-1, which is very promising for practical applications.


China's economic growth and the high pace with which it plans and constructs its infrastructure networks have led to a renewed interest in its decision-making models and the Asian or Confucian values which are believed to underlie it. This paper makes an attempt to show what these Confucian value entail, to what extent they permeate infrastructure planning in China and why it is not easy or straightforward to copy or emulate the policy practices elsewhere.


This paper describes three incidents involving buckets or other small, open containers that have occurred at Rohm and Haas facilities. In one, a reaction between sodium and water propelled a bucket with considerable force, resulting in an injury. In another, a fire occurred when the lid of a plastic bucket containing a liquid peroxide became contaminated during filling and was blown off. In the last, a solid peroxide and several different initiators and catalysts were staged on a pallet for use in batch reactors. A fire was caused by the mixing of small spills from the containers on or under the pallet used to hold them. The fire caused severe damage and temporary shutdown of a reactor train. In all cases, a good Environmental, Health, and Safety Review would have identified the problems and the review teams could have easily developed methods to prevent the accident. © 2005 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2005


Partial, selective activation of nuclear receptors is a central issue in molecular endocrinology but only partly understood. Using LXRs as an example, we show here that purely agonistic ligands can be clearly and quantitatively differentiated from partial agonists by the cofactor interactions they induce. Although a pure agonist induces a conformation that is incompatible with the binding of repressors, partial agonists such as GW3965 induce a state where the interaction not only with coactivators, but also corepressors is clearly enhanced over the unliganded state. The activities of the natural ligand 22(R)-hydroxycholesterol and of a novel quinazolinone ligand, LN6500 can be further differentiated from GW3965 and T0901317 by their weaker induction of coactivator binding. Using biochemical and cell-based assays, we show that the natural ligand of LXR is a comparably weak partial agonist. As predicted, we find that a change in the coactivator to corepressor ratio in the cell will affect NCoR recruiting compounds more dramatically than NCoR-dissociating compounds. Our data show how competitive binding of coactivators and corepressors can explain the tissue-specific behavior of partial agonists and open up new routes to a rational design of partial agonists for LXRs.


Experimental LEED intensity-energy spectra measured in our laboratory for the Al(111), Al(110), V(110), V(100), and Cu(110) surfaces are analyzed by means of r-factor comparisons with calculated spectra. The surfaces of Al(111) and V(110) are shown to correspond to nearly perfect terminations of the corresponding bulk structures. These systems are used to investigate the influence of the nonstructural variables of the calculations on the structure determination. The r-factor procedures are then applied to the determination of the surface structures of Al(110), V(100), and Cu(110). For these systems, it is found that the surface interlayer spacings exhibit a damped, oscillatory deviation from the bulk value, in qualitative agreement with the recent predictions of Landman, Hill and Mostoller (Phys. Rev. B 21, 448 (1980)).


Stiffeners are secondary plates or sections which are attached to beam webs or flanges to stiffen them against out of plane deformations .Almost all main bridge beams will have stiffeners. However, most will only have transverse web stiffeners, i.e. vertical stiffeners attached to the web. Deep beams sometimes also have longitudinal web stiffeners. It is this rigidity which engineer attempt to utilize when they design thin walled structure such as door, plate girders, box girders and so on. This restraint can be provided by folding the plate along parallel lines, which lie in the longitudinal direction, or restraining a plate is to provide longitudinal stiffener, which are additional plate elements whose planes are inclined to that of the plate. This paper aims to design and develop the light weight, high strength stiffened panels for shaper frames and Machine tool structures. A variety of simple analysis methods have been developed for the analysis of stiffened panels. These methods typically belong to one of the following classes: analysis based on smeared properties, simple plate analysis under simple supports, and accurate linked or segmented plate analysis or finite strip analysis. The more complicated or detailed modeling usually employs discredited models such as finite element and boundary element analysis. Abstract: Stiffeners, performances, structure Stiffeners, performances, structure


Aquifer arsenic (As) contamination is occuring throughout deltaic areas of Southeast Asia, including the Mekong Delta, and affects the health of millions of people. As is highly sensitive to fluctuations of redox conditions which are generated by the alternating wet-dry cycles during the monsoonal seasons. A survey of geophysical and chemical characteristics of soil and groundwater in the An Phu district, located in the vicinity of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, shows the occurrence high As aqueous concentration in this region. Chemical and geophysical data indicate a strong positive correlation between As concentrations in the anoxic groundwater and conductivity of soils. In addition, mechanisms of As release are shown to be associated with colloidal and iron (oxyhydr)oxides which undergo microbial mediated reductive dissolution under redox oscilatting conditions. The presence of sulfate microbial reduction potentially stabilizes As in the solid phase and diminish As in the aqueous phase through the adsorption/desorption of As onto iron (oxyhydr)oxides and/ or sulfides with formation of thiols complexes in solid phase. Because of the high pyrite content in sediment, pyrite oxidation may drop in pH values, leads to inhibition of sulfate reducing bacteria and reduces sequestration of dissolved As. Although the biogeochemical cycling of redox sensitive species such as As in dynamic systems is challenging, it has been possible to strengthen our collective understanding of such system.


In this paper, a compact planar monopole antenna with eight-band LTE/WWAN (LTE700/2300/2500/GSM850/900/1800/ 1900/UMTS) operation for laptop computer application is presented. This design structure comprises a bent driven strip and two coupled strips, which can contribute multiple resonance modes to combine two wide operating frequency bands covering 665–1023 MHz and 1612– 2924MHz. The proposed antenna fed by a 50-Ω coaxial cable occupies a small size of only 65(L)× 11(W)× 0.4(H)mm3, so it can be flexibly embedded inside the casing of the laptop computer as an internal antenna. A fabricated prototype of the antenna is tested and analyzed. Experimental results exhibit that nearly omnidirectional coverage and stable gain variation across the desirable LTE/WWAN bands can be obtained with the antenna.


An experiment is described which investigated cognitive inhibition in schizophrenia. It is noted that both the abnormal and cognitive literatures use the concept of inhibition. Frith (1979) suggests that the more cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia may be due to the failure to limit the current contents of consciousness due to a failure adequately to inhibit the output of preconscious processes. Current thinking in cognitive psychology suggests that in the process of selective attention there is active inhibition of distractor information. A technique used to investigate this is termed negative priming (Tipper, 1985). The general nature of this paradigm is as follows: if a distractor, which has been previously ignored, is response, due to inhibition of the information when it was originally a distractor. It was found that inhibition of such distracting information was reduced in schizophrenics. This finding is seen as providing some support for Frith's (1979) theory that the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia are due to awareness of processes that normally occur preconsciously.


This work explores the applications of CD-SEM overlay metrology for double patterned one-dimensional (1D) pitch split features as well as double patterned ensembles of two-dimensional (2D) complex shapes. Overlay model analysis of both optical overlay and CD-SEM is compared and found to give nearly equivalent results. Spatial correlation of the overlay vectors is examined over a large range of spatial distances. The smallest spatial distances are shown to have the highest degree of correlation. Correlation studies of local overlay in a globally uniform environment, suggest that the smallest sampling of overlay vectors need to be ~10-15μm, within the spatial sampling of this experiment. The smallest spatial distances are also found to have to tightest mean distributions. The distribution width of the CD-SEM overlay is found to scale linearly with log of the spatial distances over 4-5 orders of magnitude of spatial length. Methodologies are introduced to examine both the overlay of double pattern contacts at the edge of an array and lithographic process-induced overlay shift of contacts. Finally, a hybrid optical- CD-SEM overlay metrology is introduced in order to capture a high order, device weighted overlay response.


Over the last decade, femtosecond lasers have been used extensively for the fabrication of optical elements via direct writing and in combination with chemical etching. These processes have been an enabling technology for manufacturing a variety of devices such as waveguides, fluidic channels, and mechanical components. Here, we present high quality micro-scale optical components buried inside various glass substrates such as soda-lime glass or fused silica. These components consist of high-precision, simple patterns with tubular shapes. Typical diameters range from a few microns to one hundred microns. With the aid of high-bandwidth, high acceleration flexure stages, we achieve highly symmetric pattern geometries, which are particularly important for achieving homogeneous stress distribution within the substrate. We model the optical properties of these structures using beam propagation simulation techniques and experimentally demonstrate that such components can be used as cost-effective, low-numerical aperture lenses. Additionally, we investigate their capability for studying the stress-distribution induced by the laser-affected zones and possible related densification effects.


The quality parameters of coke produced from a particular coal blend can be significantly influenced by the coal preparation technique adopted. In Indian coking industry, generally 8-10 types of coals are used as raw material base for carbonization and they differ widely in terms of their grindability characteristics, caking/coking properties, dulatation characteristics, petrographic analysis etc. The Indian coals contain very low percentage of vitrinite ( 1.6 Sp. gr. fraction) and higher ash content (18-23%). Conventional blend crushing of these coals together for carbonization leads to concentration of inerts and middlings/rejects in the coarser size fraction (+6 and 6-3 mm) of the charge leading to heterogeneity in the properties of different size fractions. Difference thermal transformation to plastic state and shrinkage characteristics in the semi-coke state between coarser and finer fractions generates internal stresses in the coke matrix leading to poor strength characteristics.With the use of increased percentage of low ash imported coal in the blend (15-40%), the SAIL plants are trying to contain the coal blend ash to a level of about 17%. The imported coals generally have low mineral matter content, high HGI values and increased proportion of fines (60-65% below 3 mm), These circumstances have necessitated development of new coal preparation schemes for carbonization viz. groupwise crushing, blend crushing with prescreening of fines and groupwise crushing with prescreening of fines. The paper discusses in detail the above new coal preparation techniques along with the methodology to determine the degree of homogeneity of the coal blend.


In an attempt to identify a method of insulating people with hypothermia that can be recommended for worldwide use, the authors of this Norwegian study compared the metabolic and thermal effects of three thermal insulating methods.


The effectiveness of alpha-MPG management was evaluated in terms of changes in the liver cell depuration fraction in patients who presented reduced a levels. There was a marked improvement occasionally to the point of normalisation, in patients with toxic hepatosis. Variations were less significant in cirrhosis, especially in patients with a very low liver metabolism flow. No conclusions could be draw in the case of subjects with chronic heaptitis of various aetiology, since their DF was normal under basal conditions. It seems reasonable to suppose that further improvements are obtainable from prolonged administration of the drug.


New generation radio interferometers encode signals from thousands of antenna feeds across large bandwidth. Channelizing and correlating this data requires networking capabilities that can handle unprecedented data rates with reasonable cost. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) correlator processes 8-bits from N=2048 digitizer inputs across 400~MHz of bandwidth. Measured in $N^2~\times $ bandwidth, it is the largest radio correlator that has been built. Its digital back-end must exchange and reorganize the 6.6~terabit/s produced by its 128 digitizing and channelizing nodes, and feed it to the 256-node spatial correlator in a way that each node obtains data from all digitizer inputs but across a small fraction of the bandwidth (i.e. `corner-turn'). In order to maximize performance and reliability of the corner-turn system while minimizing cost, a custom networking solution has been implemented. The system makes use of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) transceivers to implement direct, passive, full-mesh, high speed serial connections between sixteen circuit boards in a crate, to exchange data between crates, and to offload the data to a cluster of 256 graphics processing unit (GPU) nodes using standard 10~Gbit/s Ethernet links. The GPU nodes complete the corner-turn by combining data from all crates and then computing visibilities. Eye diagrams and frame error counters confirm error-free operation of the corner-turn network in both the currently operating CHIME Pathfinder telescope (a prototype for the full CHIME telescope) and a representative fraction of the full CHIME hardware providing an end-to-end system validation.
An analysis of an equivalent corner-turn system built with Ethernet switches instead of custom passive data links is provided.


The aim of our work was to find the positivity rate of antibodrrelian antibodies (IgG) in wild-living rodents in a locality situated in north Moravia, Czech Republic. Results of a survey for heart rinses (172) and sera (2) antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) from 6 species of 174 wild rodents from the northern part of the Czech Republic are presented. Samples were obtained in 2001-2002 at one locality (Studenka, 49 degrees 44', 18 degrees 05'). Host samples included yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis, n = 106), wood mouse (A. sylvaticus, n = 170) and striped field mouse (A. agrarius, n = 13) from Muridae and bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus, n = 3) and common/field vole (Microtus sp., n = 5) from Microtidae families. An indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antibody test was used for testing heart rinses. Goat immunoglobulins against mouse were used as a conjugate. Antibodies to B. burgdorferi s.l. were found in all species. The highest positivity rate (58.8 % ) was recorded for wood mouse (58.8 % ), bank vole (45.5 % ), and yellow-necked mouse (44.3 % ). Mean positivity rate for both years of collection was 43.7 %, mean annual positivity rate was 60.6 % in 2001, and the value of 21.3 % in 2002 appeared significantly different. Three times as many of the Muridae as of the family Microtidae were caught and the actual number of seropositive Muridae was not significantly higher than Microtidae. Positivity of compared males and females was not significantly different. Results indicate that spirochaetes were widely represented in the northern part of the Czech Republic.


Naturally occurring regulatory T cells (nTreg cells) are crucial for the maintenance of peripheral tolerance. We have previously shown that a key mechanism of their suppressive action is based on a contact-dependent transfer of cAMP from nTreg cells to responder T cells. Herein, we further elucidate the important role of cAMP for the suppressive properties of nTreg cells. Prevention of cAMP degradation by application of the phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor rolipram led to strongly increased suppressive potency of nTreg cells for Th2 cells in vitro and in vivo. Detailed analyses revealed that rolipram caused, in the presence of nTreg cells, a synergistic increase of cAMP in responder Th2 cells. In vivo, the application of nTreg cells in a strictly Th2-dependent preclinical model of asthma had only a marginal effect. However, the additional treatment with rolipram led to a considerable reduction of airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation in a prophylactic as well as in a therapeutic model. This amelioration was correlated with enhanced cAMP-levels in lung Th2 cells in vivo. Collectively, these data support our observation that cAMP has a key function for nTreg cell-based suppression and they clearly demonstrate that the effect of cAMP on T responder cells can be greatly enhanced upon application of phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitors.


Stability of disperse systems is always a challenging task for formulator and thus assurance of physical stability of such system by proper evaluation is mandatory. The efficiency of suspension is related to the efficient dispersion of drug particles in the vehicle at the time of dosing. Patient compliance is difficult to assure, if redispersibility is poor. Present study shows the effect of ? -cyclodextrin on physical stability of nimesulide suspension which also includes formulation and evaluation. These formulations were evaluated for sedimentation volume, redispersibility, pH measurement, viscosity measurement, particle size, and drug content estimation at various time intervals for 3 months. It also includes DSC studies in order to assess the complexation with ? -cyclodextrin. Outcomes of all quality parameters suggest that nimesulide suspension formulations F4 i.e. drug: â -cyclodextrin with 1:1.5 ratio was optimum.


This is the reading of the MSS. (with the usual change of αύτις), which is printed by both M u r r a y and GrIsgoere. But this text does not produce satisfactory sense. The only conjectures considered in the apparatus of the Oxford and Bude texts are K i r c h h o f f ' s κακώς and Bothe ' s άλλ' οΰτις ε στ' άκαιρος. P l a t n a u e r outlines the objections to the former, and the latter involves needless alterations to the MSS. The only change required is a small one: κοινός for καινός, which was suggested by M a r k l a n d in 1770 and which lately has been ignored. If we read κοινός the line means: 'Well it (the point that has occurred to Pylades) too will be shared by us both if it is satisfactory'. The three aspects of their agreement already dealt with have involved both Iphigenia and Pylades, i. e. they have both sworn an oath, named a deity as witness, and stated the penalty attendant on the breaking of their promises. Iphigenia's point is that this latest consideration mentioned by Pylades will similarly involve them both provided that it can be suitably incorporated into the agreement. For the confusion of κοινός and καινός (perhaps caused by the proximity of λόγος) cf. E. Tr. 55 where Ρ has κοινόν and V καινόν.


The non-isotropic image interrogation technique is applied to study the compressible supersonic and hypersonic flow regimes. Supersonic flow experiments are performed in a blow-down windtunnel where the wake turbulence downstream of a wedge-plate model configuration is studied in the transonic M=1.35 regime. The hypersonic experiments are conducted in a short duration facility at Mach 6 and the flow over a sphere is studied. The technical challenges to achieve PIV measurements in compressible flows are discussed with respect to seeding techniques, particle imaging and the analysis of the recordings. Particular attention is given to the analysis of flow features such as shock waves and compressible shear layers with the possibility to enhance the spatial resolution by means of an adaptive interrogation scheme. The image interrogation method is based on the adaptation of the interrogation window shape (elliptical) and its orientation with respect to the velocity components spatial curvature. The analysis of the hypersonic flow case is performed with a fixed and free window method respectively showing that shock waves may be better resolved with the non-isotropic approach. In the case of the supersonic wake flow the measurements of the compressible turbulent separated shear layer attempts the characterization of the shear layer spatial growth rate.


Phalaris aquatica is a cool-season perennial grass species that is extensively cultivated in Australia, with additional usage in other areas of the world. Phalaris displays a number of desirable agronomic characteristics, although unfavourable traits include excessive seed shattering, sensitivity to aluminium toxicity, and several toxicosis syndromes. Varietal development has to date been based on traditional selection methods, but would benefit from the application of genomics-based approaches, which require the development of large-scale sequence resources. Due to a large nuclear DNA content, methods that target the expressed component of the genome and reduce the complexity of analysis are most amenable to current sequencing technologies. A reference unigene set has been developed by transcriptome sequencing of multiple tissues from a single plant belonging to the variety Landmaster. Comparisons have been made to gene complements from related species, as well as reference protein databases, and patterns of gene expression in different tissues have been evaluated. A number of candidate genes relevant to removal of undesirable attributes have been identified. The reference unigene set will provide the basis for detailed studies of differential gene expression and identification of candidate genes for potential transgenic deployment, as well as a critical resource for genotypic analysis to support future genomics-assisted breeding activities for phalaris improvement.


Abstract Graph product yields a new structure from two initial given structures. The computation of topological indices for these sophisticated structures using the graph product is a critical endeavor. Petersen graph is a structure which consists of ten vertices and fifteen edges. It is commonly used as a counter example to graph theory conjectures. In this paper, we generate simple Petersen graph by using graph product and then explicit expressions of the first and second Zagreb indices, forgotten topological index, first hyper and first reformulated Zagreb index, reduced second Zagreb index and Y-index of the Peterson graph in terms of cyclic graph C5 are computed.


With the era of Grid computing, data driven experiments and simulations have become very advanced and complicated. To allow specialists from various domains to deal with large datasets, aside from developing efficient extraction techniques, it is necessary to have available computational facilities to visualize and interact with the results of an extraction process. Having this in mind, we developed an Interactive Visualization Framework, which supports a service-oriented architecture. This framework allows, on one hand visualization experts to construct visualizations to view and interact with large datasets, and on the other hand end-users (e.g., medical specialists) to explore these visualizations irrespective of their geographical location and available computing resources. The image-based analysis of vascular disorders served as a case study for this project. The paper presents main research findings and reports on the current implementation status.


We present the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation of vibrationally resolved valence shell photoionization of BF3 leading to the state of , where vibronic coupling and shape resonances are known to be important. The experimental vibrational branching ratios for multiple quantum excitations of the symmetric stretching mode of the ion as well as for the single vibrational excitation of the asymmetric stretching mode are compared with the predictions of single-channel Schwinger variational calculations performed within the Chase adiabatic approximation to obtain vibrational-state specific cross sections. The presence of a shape resonance in the continuum of symmetry is seen to lead to significant non-Franck–Condon intrachannel vibronic coupling effects. The breakdown in the Franck–Condon approximation is due to the sensitivity to the asymmetric stretching mode of the energy of the resonance and the magnitude of the transition moment for exciting the resonance. However, there are indications that interchannel vibronic coupling effects may also be significant in this system.


Introduction This study was designed to explore the differences between two frictionless mechanics for canine retraction i.e., dual force cuspid retractor and T-loop segmental arch. T-loop for canine retraction creates a biomechanical system to deliver a predetermined force and a relatively constant moment-to-force ratio whereas dual force cuspid retractor uses power arms on buccal as well as palatal aspects for canine retraction. Bodily tooth movement can be achieved by both methods, but in this study, our main focus was to reduce the canine retraction timing with better three-dimensional control. Method This split-mouth study was conducted on a total of 20 cuspids of ten patients (five male and five female). Where one side of the arch was selected for T-loop and the other side for dual force cuspid retractor, randomly. Inclusion criteria for this study were; no congenitally missing teeth (excluding third molar), class I or class II molar relationship, no previous history of orthodontic treatment, good oral periodontal status, patients in whom extraction of maxillary first premolar during treatment was indicated. Both groups were compared for the duration of canine retraction, anchorage loss; tipping, and rotation of cuspid and molar, individually, after retraction. Result The result of this study showed that the duration of canine retraction was significantly less in group one, i.e., dual force cuspid retractor 73.8 ± 12.38 days, than in group two, i.e., T-loop 109.4 ± 16.71 days. The anchorage loss in group one was 0.60 ± 0.61 mm and that in group two was 2.40 ± 0.87 mm. Also, the amount of tipping and rotation of the cuspid and molar individually was significantly lesser in group one than in group two. Conclusion In this study, the dual force cuspid retractor shortens the duration of canine retraction with better three-dimensional control and better anchorage preservation when compared to T-loop.