Failure modes taxonomy is a framework of describing, classifying and naming failure modes associated with a system. Main uses of failure modes taxonomies are in the performance of reliability analyses and in the collection of operating experience (failure data) of technological systems. The Nordic NKS/NPSAG/SAFIR financed project DIGREL and the parallel OECD/NEA Working Group RISK activity DIGREL aim at developing technically sound and feasible failure modes taxonomy for reliability assessment of digital I&C systems for probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), and to provide guidelines on the use of taxonomy in modelling, data collection and quantification of digital I&C reliability. The scope of the taxonomy will include both protection and control systems of a nuclear power plant (with primary focus on protection systems) and both hardware and software related failure modes. The taxonomy will be developed jointly by PSA and I&C experts which have slightly different views and needs on defining the failure modes. The PSA experts' perspective follows the needs of PSA modelling in order to capture relevant dependencies and to find justifiable reliability parameters. I&C experts are focused on failure mechanisms and their recovery means, e.g. V&V measures. An important aspect in the development of the taxonomy is for PSA and I&C experts to define the "meeting point" for the two perspectives. The paper will describe results of the DIGREL activity so far and discuss the commonalities and differences in PSA and I&C experts' perspectives on failure modes.


In the eight-month period of study of all urine samples processed in our routine laboratory, only 85 out of 12 152 specimens yielded a bacteriologically significant growth of either Staphylococcus epidermidis or micrococci. Their growth on MacConkey medium was strictly comparable to that on cysteine lactose electrolyte-deficient (CLED) media. Most micrococci isolated were from urine samples of non hospitalised women patients, were resistant to a novobiocin (5 micrograms) disc, and belonged to Baird Parker type 3. Staph. epidermidis came mainly from postoperative surgical in-patients. Their antibiotic sensitivity patterns are variable whereas micrococci are fully sensitive to all urinary antibiotics. We agree that the use of a novobiocin (5 micrograms) disc for provisional identification of micrococci and Staph. epidermidis is simple and practical for a busy routine diagnostic laboratory. The use of more extensive systems to biotype these organisms in a routine laboratory is not practical and not relevant to patient management.


An electron microscopic study of resting cysts and their organelles in Paraurostyla weissei has revealed that:⑴The cyst wall is composed of four layers named from outside to inside:ectocyst,mesocyst,endocyst,and granular layer.The granular layer is delimited by the cell pellicle.Both the layer and pellicle contain a few vesicles.⑵Tubular mitochondria are apparent contrast to their surrounding cytoplasm.The mitochondria are mostly converged to each other,except that a few of those separately scattered in cytoplasm.⑶There are a lot of autophagic vacuoles which contain digested ,undigested mitochondria and other organelles,and,these vacuoles undergo digestivelly cyclic changes.⑷The well developed endomembrane system are widely dispersed over cytoplasmic area.It is supposed from these observations that:⑴The above vesicle are the structure of resting cell,which would be used in exchange for the matter between the granular layer and cytoplasm on both sides of the pellicle.⑵The digestion within autophagic vacuoles might be the main way to supply material and energy in the resting cell.And,as an important source,the membranous structures,which exist in the cytoplasm,would be used to form the membrane of autophagic vacuoles.


Dual-selective enrichment of phosphopeptides and glycopeptides of post-translational modifications (PTMs) in the complex biological samples are challenging. In this work, considering the versatile properties including surface abundant metal sites and electrostatic attraction between Ti3 C2 -layers and Al-layers, layered ternary carbides Ti3 AlC2 nanomaterials was successfully applied for the first time as an affinity adsorbent for the dual-selective capture of phosphopeptides and glycopeptides. Especially, the Ti3 AlC2 nanomaterials had an excellent detection sensitivity for phosphopeptides (1×10-11  M) and a good selectivity for glycopeptides with a low molar ratio of 1 : 500 of HRP (horseradish peroxidase) to BSA (bovine serum albumin). Furthermore, Ti3 AlC2 nanomaterials was also applied for dual-selective enrichment of phosphopeptides and glycopeptides from mouse brain neocortex lysate and human serum lysate respectively before mass spectrometry (MS) analysis, yielding twenty-two unique phosphopeptides from thirteen phosphoproteins and fifty-three unique glycopeptides from thirty-seven glycoproteins, respectively. This work will open a new avenue and will greatly promote sample preparation for mass spectrometric analysis in phosphoproteomics and glycoproteomics research.


Along with scientific development and technological growth which have created a lot of convenience to mankind there have also raised a deep cynicism towards the religious and spiritual aspects of life. Value crisis of humanity marked by the crisis of spirituality increased. Many societies are facing deep crisis. This condition makes the world vulnerable to violence and conflicts. Therefore, modern world society has been challenged to to be more attentive than before to deal with religious and spiritual values. This paper asserts that religion continues to be an important since it combines both personal and public character. Social problems faced by the modern world society such as cultural diversity, environmental preservation, economic equity, and conflict resolution are theologically reflected within the teaching of Islam. Sufism as a form of Islamic spiritualities offers some applicable answers for this phenomenon. In addition, characteristic of Sufism (mysticism) is commonly well known in almost all religions. Sufism cherishes from the private sphere into a popular Islamic culture. This research would like to see how the phenomenon of spiritual movement in the dimension of Sufism has a real powerful to improve social problem of the modern world.


Guided tours offer special opportunities for lively and varied presentations that match the methods of interpretation to the characteristics of the participating visitors. Most tour guides rely on rather limited, unidirectional (guide-to-visitor) communication. Instead, this paper outlines six different pathways of communication that are possible among guide, visitors, and object. Each pathway offers several specific types of communicative acts. In addition, 35 guided tours in several different kinds of venue were examined to identify the pathways and types of acts that were used. The professional literature describes other types of acts, and more have been developed at the writer's home museum. All in all, the 58 different types of communicative acts described here present a wide range of opportunities for guides to communicate with visitors.


The ability to assess green biomass is of particular interest in a number of wheat breeding environments. However, the measurement of this and similar traits is either tedious and time-consuming or requires the use of expensive, sophisticated equipment, such as field-based spectroradiometers to measure vegetation indices (VIs). Here, conventional digital cameras are proposed as affordable and easy-to-use tools for gathering field data in wheat breeding programmes. Using appropriate software, a large set of images can be automatically processed to calculate a number of VIs, based on the performance of simple colour operations on each picture. The purpose of this study was to identify a set of picture-derived vegetation indices (picVIs) and to evaluate their performance in durum wheat trials growing under rainfed and supplementary irrigation conditions. Here, zenithal pictures of each plot were obtained roughly 2 weeks after anthesis, and the picVIs that were calculated were compared with the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), an index derived from spectroradiometrical measurements, and with the grain yield (GY) from the same plots. The picVIs that performed best were the Hue, CIE-Lab a* and CIE-Luv u* components of the average colour of each picture, the relative green area (GA) and the 'greener area', similar to GA but excluding the more yellowish-green pixels. Our results showed a high correlation between all these picVIs and the NDVI. Moreover, in rainfed conditions, each picVI provided an estimation of GY similar to or slightly better than that provided by the NDVI. However, in irrigated conditions during anthesis, neither these picVIs nor the NDVI provided a good estimation of GY, apparently because of the saturation of the VI response in conditions of complete soil cover and high plant density.


The increased power capacity and networking requirements in Extremely Fast Charging (XFC) systems for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and the resulting increase in the adversarial attack surface call for security measures to be taken in the involved cyber-physical system (CPS). Within this system, the security of the BEV's battery management system (BMS) is of critical importance as the BMS is the first line of defense between the vehicle and the charge station. This study proposes an optimal control and moving-target defense (MTD) based novel approach for the security of the vehicle BMS) focusing on the charging process, during which a compromised vehicle may contaminate the XFC station and the whole grid. This paper is part of our ongoing research, which is one of the few, if not the first, reported studies in the literature on security-hardened BMS, aiming to increase the security and performance of operations between the charging station, the BMS and the battery system of electric vehicles. The developed MTD based switching strategy makes use of redundancies in the controller and feedback design. The performed simulations demonstrate an increased unpredictability and acceptable charging performance under adversarial attacks.


A definition of empirical anisotropy is proposed, which allows for a quantitative measurement. This theory is applied to RNA free energy landscapes. It is shown that the biophysical GCAU landscapes are highly anisotropic, while the synthetic GCXK landscapes become isotropic for long chains. The major part of the anisotropy of the GCAU landscapes arises from the difference of the G identical to C and the A = U stacking parameters.


In this paper, a novel evolutionary-based method, called Average and Subtraction-Based Optimizer (ASBO), is presented to attain suitable quasi-optimal solutions for various optimization problems. The core idea in the design of the ASBO is to use the average information and the subtraction of the best and worst population members for guiding the algorithm population in the problem search space. The proposed ASBO is mathematically modeled with the ability to solve optimization problems. Twenty-three test functions, including unimodal and multimodal functions, have been employed to evaluate ASBO's performance in effectively solving optimization problems. The optimization results of the unimodal functions, which have only one main peak, show the high ASBO's exploitation power in converging towards global optima. In addition, the optimization results of the high-dimensional multimodal functions and fixed-dimensional multimodal functions, which have several peaks and local optima, indicate the high exploration power of ASBO in accurately searching the problem-solving space and not getting stuck in nonoptimal peaks. The simulation results show the proper balance between exploration and exploitation in ASBO in order to discover and present the optimal solution. In addition, the results obtained from the implementation of ASBO in optimizing these objective functions are analyzed compared with the results of nine well-known metaheuristic algorithms. Analysis of the optimization results obtained from ASBO against the performance of the nine compared algorithms indicates the superiority and competitiveness of the proposed algorithm in providing more appropriate solutions.


Since its 3.3 release, Modelica offers the possibility to specify models of dynamical systems with multiple modes having different DAE-based dynamics. However, the handling of such models by the current Modelica tools is not satisfactory, with mathematically sound models yielding exceptions at runtime. In this article, we propose several contributions to this multifaceted issue, namely: an efficient and scalable multimode extension of the structural analysis of Modelica models; a systematic way of rewriting a multimode Modelica model, based on this analysis, so that the rewritten model is guaranteed to be correctly compiled by state-of-the-art Modelica tools; a proposal for the handling of the consistent initialization of multimode models; multimode structural analysis algorithms that handle both multiple modes and mode change events in a unified framework, coupled with a compile-time algorithm for identifying and quantifying impulsive behaviors at mode changes. Our approach is illustrated on relevant example models, and the performance of our implementations is assessed on a variable dimension large-scale model.


Clean Water service in Tapa District still be very low, because of clean water processing system still use the system of Tardy Sand Filter processing (SPL) where its processing building still very simple and have old, network of distribution pipe a lot leak so that requirement of water resident will be clean cannot be fullfiled better. For that needed by a complete processing development planning so that clean amount of water required in Tapa District can be fullfiled. Planning clean water processing development use the projection analysis sum up the resident with the method aritmatika. This method assumed by a accretion sum up the constant resident so that can plan the domestic clean amount of water required, non domestic, clock culminate, head loss and capacities produce the water up to year 2015. Research result indicate that the clean amount of water required reach 70 litre/second, so that existing processing system this time that is SPL represent the processing which still modestly in its processing building meaning not yet complete, so that have improper again utilized because unable to again provide the water besih of]according to resident requirement. For that need the clean water processing planning by using Processing Installation Complete with system branch network of distribution pipe to fulfill resident requirement up to year 2015 by kontinu, with quality and amount.


In current wireless networks, channel access is controlled via either a TDMA- or a CSMA-based scheme. While usable in single-hop networks, these techniques are far from optimal and result in significant per-hop and per-packet delay an jitter. This makes multi-hop mesh networks unsuitable for several in-demand applications, including VoIP. We present a new medium access control (MAC) protocol for wireless mesh networks caring delay-sensitive isochronous data. In our scheme, nodes use simple local mechanisms to form adaptive transmission schedules which attain the desired quality of service. Simulations show that our scheme achieves near-optimal capacity, minimal jitter, and a weaker correlation between route length and end-to-end delay.


Multimedia data is a popular communication medium, but requires substantial storage space and network bandwidth. Vector quantization (VQ) is suitable for multimedia data applications because of its simple architecture, fast decoding ability, and high compression rate. Full-search VQ can typically be used to determine optimal codewords, but requires considerable computational time and resources. In this study, a hybrid VQ combining a tree structure and a Voronoi diagram is proposed to improve VQ efficiency. To efficiently reduce the search space, a tree structure integrated with principal component analysis is proposed, to rapidly determine an initial codeword in low-dimensional space. To increase accuracy, a Voronoi diagram is applied to precisely enlarge the search space by modeling relations between each codeword. This enables an optimal codeword to be efficiently identified by rippling an optimal neighbor from parts of neighboring Voronoi regions. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach improved VQ performance, outperforming other approaches. The proposed approach also satisfies the requirements of handheld device application, namely, the use of limited memory and network bandwidth, when a suitable number of dimensions in principal component analysis is selected.


Objective. To study whether gene variants associated with lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) phenotypes are also associated with hip osteoarthritis (OA). Methods. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based hip OA changes for 345 twins were assessed and 99 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were analyzed. Results.Variants in the COL9A2 (rs7533552, p = 0.0025) and COL10A1 (rs568725, p = 0.002) genes showed association with hip OA. Conclusion. The associating G allele in COL9A2 changes a glutamine to arginine or to tryptophan and may predispose to both hip OA and LDD, making it a candidate for degenerative connective tissue diseases. (First Release Dec 15 2010; J Rheumatol 2011;38:747–52; doi:10.3899/jrheum.100080)


The primary concern of instructed SLA is how best to improve the efficacy of L2 teaching and learning at both specific and general levels. At specific levels such as vocabulary learning, a large body of literature has focused on examining relative effects of varying cognitive techniques on learning. However, no research has examined the effects of principled explicit instruction combined with incidental exposures relative to the coursebook-based teaching approach in terms of acquisition of formulaic sequences. At general levels, substantial research has provided evidence concerning factors other than cognitive ability such as metacognitive, social or motivational variables that contribute to overall language achievement. However, in the narrow realm of instructed L2 vocabulary learning, only a handful of studies have investigated how motivational dispositions facilitate cognition to lead to better learning. Still, among these studies none was conducted on the learning of formulaic sequences in a classroom setting. This thesis attempted to fill these gaps.
Two studies were carried out at different points of time, on two different samples at similar low proficiency levels in Vietnam. The first study investigated the relative effectiveness of varying (cognitive based) teaching approaches on the learning of formulaic sequences. Sixty-nine formulaic sequences occurring in a coursebook were selected for the study. The participants were 60 university students. Learning was measured by two multiple-choice tests of receptive knowledge of form and meaning. Findings indicated that explicit teaching combined with incidental exposure to formulaic sequences in the coursebook was superior to the traditional coursebook instruction approach. Further, the results from explicit instruction with context sentences did not differ significantly from those of instruction without context.
The second study employed a mixed methods quasi-experimental design to investigate whether the principled integration of motivational strategies and mental imagery (i.e. visionary techniques) could enhance the explicit vocabulary teaching approach that was effectively used in the first study. The findings indicated that deliberate and systematic employment of motivational techniques could facilitate the (effective) cognitive methods in terms of increasing the learning of receptive knowledge of form and meaning of target formulaic sequences, and that the novel visionary techniques were superior to the traditional motivational strategies. The deeper level of engagement associated with mental imagery was corroborated by a delayed posttest.
In short, the findings of the first study presented in this thesis first underscores the superiority of the cognitive approach that used the systematic manipulation of explicit learning mechanisms to foster vocabulary acquisition. More importantly, it is revealed in the second study that the principled integration of motivational influences, especially the visionary techniques, can increase the effectiveness of the systematic explicit vocabulary instruction. Further research is needed though to confirm the findings of this study in different contexts.


"General Rules for Gastric Cancer Study," published by the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association (JGCA), has contributed greatly to advances in both the diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer in Japan. In March 2001, the Association published a new book, "Gastric Cancer Treatment Guidelines," a set of guidelines prepared by a committee of the Association. This is the first time in Japan that guidelines have been published for the treatment of cancer. These guidelines are expected to promote evidence-based medicine in the field of gastric cancer. In addition, an explanation of the guidelines for the patients and their families was published last December. This book provides clear, easy-tounderstand information for the general public and may point to a new trend in the practice of cancer treatment.


Abstract. A large amount of descriptive information is available in geosciences. This information is usually considered subjective and ill-favoured compared with its numerical counterpart. Considering the advances in natural language processing and machine learning, it is possible to utilise descriptive information and encode it as dense vectors. These word embeddings, which encode information about a word and its linguistic relationships with other words, lay on a multidimensional space where angles and distances have a linguistic interpretation. We used 280 764 full-text scientific articles related to geosciences to train a domain-specific language model capable of generating such embeddings. To evaluate the quality of the numerical representations, we performed three intrinsic evaluations: the capacity to generate analogies, term relatedness compared with the opinion of a human subject, and categorisation of different groups of words. As this is the first attempt to evaluate word embedding for tasks in the geosciences domain, we created a test suite specific for geosciences. We compared our results with general domain embeddings commonly used in other disciplines. As expected, our domain-specific embeddings (GeoVec) outperformed general domain embeddings in all tasks, with an overall performance improvement of 107.9 %. We also presented an example were we successfully emulated part of a taxonomic analysis of soil profiles that was originally applied to soil numerical data, which would not be possible without the use of embeddings. The resulting embedding and test suite will be made available for other researchers to use and expand upon.


The objective of this work is to demonstrate a seamless tube fabrication method for obtaining uniform fine grained microstructures by a novel shear deformation process for tubular metal products. The manufacture of fine grained RRR Nb superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities, and other tubular Nb products requires strict microstructure control with respect to grain size and texture for good formability. The major challenges in SRF cavity fabrication and performance stems from: a) the high cost of pure Nb, b) a poor and inconsistent microstructure in the starting material, and c) seam welding to manufacture multi-cell cavities. The approach presented by the authors indicates a possible strategy to obtain fine grain Nb tube by an innovative shear process. Grain size less than 30μm and tensile ductility greater than 40 percent in the orthogonal direction are achieved. The tensile properties correlate with the strongest texture component in the processed tube. Based on preliminary results, the proposed ...


To investigate the clinical presentation, diagnosis and therapy of the postpartum ovarian vein thrombosis. Retrospective analysis was made of one case in our hospital of postpartum ovarian vein thrombosis. Literature was reviewed to investigate the clinical presentation,diagnosis and therapy of postpartum ovarian vein thrombosis. The patient presented with fever, abdominal pain, lower back pain, and ultrasound showed pyelectasis. Her blood and urine bacterial culture was negative, and the antibiotic treatment had no significant effect, which was diagnosed by CT finally. The patient's blood routine returned to normal 3 days after anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant therapy, and thrombosis was significantly reduced. She was followed-up and her condition was stable. Postpartum ovarian vein thrombosis patients often present with high temperature with unknown causes and one side abdominal pain, and CT diagnosis is needed. Timely and effective anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant therapy can significantly improve the prognosis.


Neuropilin 1 (Nrp1), a coreceptor for class 3 semaphorins and growth factors, is highly expressed in vascular cells and myeloid cells, including macrophages. Unlike well-characterized proangiogenic functions of endothelial cell Nrp1, the contributions of macrophage Nrp1 within the context of metabolic dysfunction remain to be established. The aim of this study was to determine the contributions of macrophage Nrp1 in high-fat diet (HFD)-instigated insulin resistance in vivo. Insulin sensitivity and Nlrp3 inflammasome activation were monitored in wild-type (WT) and myeloid cell-specific Nrp1 knockout (Nrp1myel-KO) mice fed an HFD (60% kcal) for 16 weeks. HFD-fed mice exhibited insulin resistance with reduced levels of Nrp1 in macrophages compared with chow-fed mice. Further, HFD-fed Nrp1myel-KO mice displayed accentuated insulin resistance, enhanced systemic inflammation, and dramatically increased Nlrp3 inflammasome priming and activation. Importantly, knockout of Nlrp3 ablated HFD-induced insulin resistance and inflammation in Nrp1myel-KO mice, indicating that Nrp1 reduction in macrophages instigates insulin resistance by increasing macrophage Nlrp3 inflammasome activation. Mechanistically, Nrp1 deletion activates the nuclear factor-κB pathway, which in turn accentuates the priming of Nlrp3, promotes Nlrp3-ASC inflammasome assembly, and results in the activation of Nlrp3. We conclude that the HFD-instigated Nrp1 reduction in macrophages exacerbates insulin resistance by promoting Nlrp3 inflammasome priming and activation.


The multiscalar analysis of pottery traditions in south central Africa opens a new perspective on the study of ancient polities. Focusing on an area of central Africa known for the existence of great kingdoms, I show how past political entities have left lingering traces in the cultural landscape and, more specifically, in the pottery traditions. As ceramics are one of the major tools in the archaeological arsenal, the way they can be related to political structures is of interest to archaeologists around the world. Analysing the chaine operatoire of living pottery traditions, at an individual and regional level, I characterize the geographic extent of a series of technical behaviours. These technical domains fit with other aspects of society such as languages or matrimonial strategies, but also with economic and political aspects such as salt making and distribution networks and past political entities. They are the materialization of resilient social spaces created by ancient political entities.


Project management in a matrix organization is complex because project managers share the organization resources (budget and human), and cooperation between managers is critical for effective resource sharing. Therefore, training project managers in the matrix structure to work as a team is required. A simulator-based method to train managers to work as a team is presented. A project team builder (PTB) simulating a dynamic, stochastic multiproject environment was designed and implemented in a project management course for graduate students in systems engineering. Recording the learning history and having a debriefing mechanism were implemented as mechanisms to facilitate team learning. A total of 132 participants composed of graduate students, representing experienced managers, and undergraduate students as inexperienced managers, assigned into teams of three participants each, used the simulator in a multiuser multi-project mode. The findings indicate that for the initial learning phase and transfer to a different scenario, the three factors, history, debriefing, and experience, affected the performances. Furthermore, the interactions between the debriefing and history factors, between the experience and debriefing factors, and between the history and experience factors were all significant. Based on these findings, a new paradigm for a simulation-based team learning is presented.


In recent years we have witnessed a boom in Internet of Things (IoT) device deployments, which has resulted in big data and demand for low-latency communication. This shift in the demand for infrastructure is also enabling real-time decision making using artificial intelligence for IoT applications. Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) is the combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and the IoT infrastructure to provide robust and efficient operations and decision making. Edge computing is emerging to enable AIoT applications. Edge computing enables generating insights and making decisions at or near the data source, reducing the amount of data sent to the cloud or a central repository. In this paper, we propose a framework for facilitating machine learning at the edge for AIoT applications, to enable continuous delivery, deployment, and monitoring of machine learning models at the edge (Edge MLOps). The contribution is an architecture that includes services, tools, and methods for delivering fleet analytics at scale. We present a preliminary validation of the framework by performing experiments with IoT devices on a university campus's rooms. For the machine learning experiments, we forecast multivariate time series for predicting air quality in the respective rooms by using the models deployed in respective edge devices. By these experiments, we validate the proposed fleet analytics framework for efficiency and robustness.


In this study, we analyzed the plantar shear stress and normal pressure in lateral heel diabetic foot patients during walking by using in-shoe local shear stress and plantar pressure measurement systems. The shear force transducer based on the magnetic-resistive principle, was a rigid 3-layer circular disc. Shear transducers were mounted on the locations of four metatarsal heads and heel in the insole. Twelve normal subjects and three diabetic foot patients with diabetic neuropathy in the lateral heel participated in this study. The center of pressure in lateral heel diabetic foot patients moved more medially and directed toward the first, medial to the second metatarsal heads, and the hallux during late stance, making pressure at the medial heel and the second metatarsal head significantly larger than in the normal. Shear stress at the heel changed significantly in early stance and the magnitude of shear stresses in each metatarsal head also changed. Further studies would be very helpful to design foot orthoses in patients with diabetic neuropathy or other diseases.


This article describes modern corruption in Ukraine. A communication-dyad with unequal power distribution was taken as the basic element for corruption modeling. Based on the analysis of 51 cases it uncovers the phenomenology of corruption and its psychological insides. It was shown that power gradient and obedience within the dyad are the key preconditions for the initiation of corrupt action. An active misuse of power discrepancy is also essential for sustainable proliferation of corruption. According to the data, about one third of corruption cases are accomplished exclusively by the involvement of state servants. In 31.4% of the cases, one finds the signs of organizational support of corruption. Moreover, in another 21.5% of the cases one finds a rather supportive position of state organization towards an act of corruption. 49% of the cases describe corrupt operations on a regular basis, which means that corrupt actions are run systematically on daily, weekly, or monthly bases depending on the specific organization. These findings uncover an active and aggressive nature of corruption, which is described by the dyadic model of coercive corrupt relationship. The power- discrepancy within dyad is intentionally used for the extraction of resources from the subjects with low power or from the budget.


This article presents a two-stage framework for optimal Electric Vehicle (EV) charging/discharging strategy for DC Microgrid (MG) with Distributed Generators (DGs). A multi-objective optimisation task aimed at minimising system losses and EV battery degradation with Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) peak shaving service has been realised. This coordinated EV integration into the DCMG was formulated as a directed weighted single source shortest path problem that was solved using a modified Dijkstra's algorithm. The weights of the edges were obtained using primal-dual interior point method. The proposed framework has been experimentally verified using simulations with a test DCMG system with practical IEEE European low voltage test feeder load profiles. Results show realisation of peak demand shaving leveraging on EV discharge with minimal on-board battery degradation as well as reduced system losses. It is also shown that the proposed two-stage framework reduces the battery state of charge (SOC) sample space requirements in the analysis, thus, reducing the computational burden.


Shadow removal from a single image is generally still an open problem. Most existing learning-based methods use supervised learning and require a large number of paired images (shadow and corresponding non-shadow images) for training. A recent unsupervised method, Mask-ShadowGAN [13], addresses this limitation. However, it requires a binary mask to represent shadow regions, making it inapplicable to soft shadows. To address the problem, in this paper, we propose an unsupervised domain-classifier guided shadow removal network, DC-ShadowNet. Specifically, we propose to integrate a shadow/shadow-free domain classifier into a generator and its discriminator, enabling them to focus on shadow regions. To train our network, we introduce novel losses based on physics-based shadow-free chromaticity, shadow-robust perceptual features, and boundary smoothness. Moreover, we show that our unsupervised network can be used for test-time training that further improves the results. Our experiments show that all these novel components allow our method to handle soft shadows, and also to perform better on hard shadows both quantitatively and qualitatively than the existing state-of-the-art shadow removal methods.


The experience with application of gangliolytic drugs in the surgical treatment of 1,380 cancer patients is discussed. It was found that cancer patients' increased sensitivity to the said drugs is due to disorders in neuro-humoral regulation of adaptation and vascular tension as well as occult hypovolemia. These disturbances are intensified with tumor advancement. Recommendations to improve preoperative premedication are given. The dosage of gangliolytic drugs used for anesthesia in cancer patients should be 20-30% lower than that in general surgical cases.


There have been several references 1 in recent journals questioning the advisability of utilizing blood transfusions under pressure because of the possibility of the blood leaving the system too rapidly and air entering the body, with resulting fatal air emboli. It is generally agreed that if the person who is introducing the air under pressure into the transfusion bottle has nothing else to do, he can stop the transfusion before air enters the vein. Recently, however, instances have been reported to me in which during the stress of operating attention was diverted from the transfusion bottle and air entered the recipient's veins, with fatal air emboli resulting. The device presented here has been designed with the knowledge that it involves no new principle, but it is felt that its use in connection with pressure transfusions is new and can serve as a life-saving safety mechanism. As can be seen from


The PCP ligand can be introduced into the coordination sphere of Re by metalation in a reaction with L2Re(O)Cl3 precursors, leading to an octahedral (PCP)Re(O)Cl2 (2), in which the aryl donor of PCP is cis to the oxo ligand. Halide exchange with Me3SiBr or Me3SiI furnished analogous (PCP)Re(O)Br2 (3) and (PCP)Re(O)I2 (4). Treatment of 2 with LiAlH4 resulted in the isolation of (PCP)ReH6 (5) upon workup. NMR data suggest a classical hexahydride nature for 5. 5 reacted with PMe3 and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) by losing H2 and forming adducts (PCPiPr)ReH4(PMe3) (6) and (PCP)ReH4(DMAP) (7). On the other hand, reaction of 5 with CO resulted in loss of all the hydrides and formation of the Re(I) compound (PCPiPr)Re(CO)3 (8). Finally, thermolysis of the hexahydride 5 led to loss of half the hydrides as H2 and formation of the dimeric species formulated as (PCPiPr)2Re2H6 (9).


We have studied the I-V characteristics and the behaviour of the critical current density of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-x films, prepared by sputtering, at different values of applied magnetic field and of temperature. The superconductor was deposited onto polycrystalline ZrO2 (8 mol % Y 2 O 3 ). The I-V characteristics were obtained by using a short current pulse measurement technique in order to avoid heating phenomena. We have used a theoretical model to describe the I-V characteristics, based on a statistical treatment of the motion of vortices in an arbitrary pinning potential. Besides the determination of the critical current density J c , this model allows to characterise the pinning sites by a function giving their energetic distribution. In this way we have been able to make a clear distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic pinning in sputtered YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-x films.


The improvement of saline and sodic soils aims to reduce the dissolved salts in the soil solution. In this context, an integrated management approach is required, which not only improves its effectiveness in improving soil properties but also increases water productivity and yields. To mitigate the negative effects of soil salinity, improvement of soil properties and yield –water productivity of rice plant, a field trial was carried out at El-Hamoul region, Kafer El-Sheikh, Egypt, during the summer seasons of 2019 and 2020. The experiments were conducted in split plot design, with three replicates. The main plots were assigned to soil amendments (control, compost (C) 10.0 Mg ha -1 , gypsum (G) 100% from gypsum requirement 13.512 Mg ha -1 and G+C).Sub main plots were assigned to foliar application (control (tap water), compost tea (50 L ha), proline (3.6 g ha -1 ), and combination of compost tea + proilne). Generally, results showed that the impacts of main plots were in the following order: compost + gypsum ˃ gypsum ˃ compost ˃ control in both growing seasons. Also, soil amendments had a significant effect on decreasing some soil chemical properties i.e. pH, EC, ESP and increasing of Original Research Article Amer et al.; IJPSS, 33(1): 1-15, 2021; Article no.IJPSS.66373 2 CEC compared control treatment. The treatment compost +gypsum more pronounced the other treatment on soil bulk density and total porosity. Soil basic infiltration rate (IR) and hydraulic conductivity (K) high significantly increased by application of compost, gypsum and gypsum + compost and recorded the highest value by application of compost + gypsum. Chlorophyll, proline content, 1000-grain weight, straw and grain yield of rice were significant increased and recorded the highest values due to the interaction between compost + gypsum and foliar of compost tea and proline during two growing seasons. Water productivity (WP) and productivity of irrigation water (PIW) for grain yield of rice were high significantly increased and recorded the highest values due to the interaction between soil amendments, compost tea and proline. Total return, net return, benefit cost ratio and total return from water unit for rice yield were significant increased with treatment and recorded highest values due the interaction compost + gypsum and foliar application of compost tea and proline.


In this study, we assess the relative contribution of plants' self-selection and agglomeration economies to a region's productivity level. We focus on manufacturing plants by region in the Chilean food industry, which is not only a major source of employment and exports but also spatially dispersed. Our estimation of plant-level productivity corrects for possible simultaneity between productivity and conventional inputs and plants' self-selection to locate in specific markets. Moreover, we account for three sources of externalities: localization, urbanization and demand-driven scale economies in our estimation. Then, a censored regression model relates regional productivity-distribution measures to agglomeration economies. We find that high-productivity (exporting) plants locate in a region where other plants in food industry agglomerate, industrial structure is diversified and market size is large. Our results suggest that plants' self-selection outweighs the contribution of agglomeration economies in increasing a region's productivity level.


Abstract: Guppies, or Poecilia reticulata , display various different mating signals. These signals range from small signs such as fin spreading to openly biting at the female fish. Many studies have been conducted concerning the guppies' courtship routines and mating preferences. During this lab, we want to investigate what qualities may attract a male guppy as he is selecting a mate. We believe that the male guppies will be more attracted to females that are larger or more brightly colored, as this may have reproductive benefits.


Abstract Mycosis fungoides and Sèzary syndrome are the most studied subtypes common cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. The current treatment objective is to improve the clinical manifestations of the disease in the affected areas, to relieve symptoms and to halt disease progression. Patients with early-stage mycosis fungoides are usually managed with skin-directed therapies, whereas patients with resistant or advanced-stage mycosis fungoides or Sèzary syndrome often require systemic drugs. Over the last decade, new drugs have been developed, increasing the breadth of treatment options for cutaneous T-cell lymphomas patients. Mogamulizumab is a first-in-class defucosylated humanized IgG1 κ monoclonal antibody, which exerts its anti-tumour action by selectively binding to C-C chemokine receptor 4 and increasing antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity activity against malignant T-cells. Several clinical trials showed that mogamulizumab is able to effectively control the cutaneous T-cell lymphomas in each site (skin, blood, lymph nodes and viscera), improving patients' symptoms, function and overall quality of life with a manageable safety profile. In this report, we discuss 12 cases of patients with mycosis fungoides or Sèzary syndrome successfully treated with mogamulizumab in real-life clinical practice in Italy.


Nowadays, data mining and machine learning techniques are applied to a variety of different topics (e. g., healthcare and disease, security, decision support, sentiment analysis, education, etc.). Educational data mining investigates the performance of students and gives solutions to enhance the quality of education. The aim of this study is to use different data mining and machine learning algorithms on actual data sets related to students. To this end, we apply two decision tree methods. The methods can create several simple and understandable rules. Moreover, the performance of a decision tree is optimized by using an ensemble technique named Rotation Forest algorithm. Our findings indicate that the Rotation Forest algorithm can enhance the performance of decision trees in terms of different metrics. In addition, we found that the size of tree generated by decision trees ensemble were bigger than simple ones. This means that the proposed methodology can reveal more information concerning simple rules.


3-Methyllumiflavin promotes conversion of C6H5CH2NH2 to N-benzylbenzaldimine 4 under acid catalyzed thermal conditions. Aerobic oxidative dehydrogenation of C6H5CH2NH2 is catalyzed by molybdenium-vanadium salt to yield 4. Clay-catalyzed reaction of benzylamine is suggested to involve C6H5CH=NH2 that react another C6H5CH2NH2 for the formation of 4. Polypyrrole catalyst is effective in the dehydrogenation of C6H5CH2NH2 with O2 to make 4. The same reaction is also catalyzed by a aniline trimer. Monoamine oxidases catalyze the oxidation of primary amines to give iminium cation that is hydrolyzed to form the aldehydes. Mn(III) ions are known to catalyse various oxidative free radical reactions. We'd like to herein report the oxidative coupling of benzylamines utilizing Mn(II)/tert–BuOOH. Benzylamine was oxidized under various conditions to determine the role of each component for the reaction (Table 1). Entry 2 indicates the importance of the catalyst. The oxidation does not occur in the absence of oxidant, tertbutylhydroperoxide (TBHP) (entry 3). Variously substituted benzylamines undergo coupling reaction to give N-benzylbenzaldimines by the catalysis of Mn=O that is formed from Mn/tert-BuOOH. The reaction takes place within 3-4 h to give the desired product in 93% yield (Table 2). Mn(II) ion may make a complex with TBHP to give Mn=O that may provoke electron transfer from C6H5CH2NH2 forming aminium radical cation, C6H5CH2 H2 1. The intermediate 1 becomes acidic enough to expel benzylic proton to produce C6H5 HH2 2 that is oxidized by Mn(III) with formation of C6H5CH= H2 3. C6H5CHO might result from hydrolysis of 3. However, control experiment under the condition of entry 1 of Table 1 at room temperature shows no trace of benzaldehyde (aldehydic proton: δ = 10 ppm) but indicates instead gradual increase of benzylic CH2 of 4 (chemical shift: δ = 4.84 ppm) with reaction time of 5, 10, 15, 30 min, and 1 h, respectively. This


A human factors study was conducted to seek ways to assist elder drivers' understanding of dynamic message sign (DMS) messages. The study employed a computer based questionnaire survey and a driving simulation experiment to measure drivers' preferences and responses to various DMS displays and formats, the results of which are included in this paper. While the age of the subjects studied ranged between 20 and 94, results for drivers over 60 were of special concern. The survey assessed drivers' preferences toward different types of graphics, use of graphics in place of text, color of the message, color of the graphic, message flashing, animation, text alignment, abbreviations, shadowing , and wording sequence. Sixty subjects from Rhode Island participated in the survey. Survey results indicated that drivers preferred text only messages compared with messages displaying graphics in place of text, and preferred animated graphics over stationary ones. Subjects differed on their preferences toward color, however. The same sixty subjects also participated in the video based driving simulation experiment to measure their responses to DMS displays in different colors and graphical formats. Results from the driving simulation experiment demonstrate that drivers responded faster to amber messages and messages that use graphics in place of text. Older drivers responded slower and less accurately than younger drivers, but their response time and accuracy improved with the use of graphics in the DMS messages. Correlations and discrepancies between the results of the survey and simulation are also discussed.


abstract:This article examines the process of diffusion of bird-pair antenna-style daggers and swords in southern Manchuria, the Korean peninsula, and northern Kyushu, analyzing the distribution of the daggers and swords, classifying them, and establishing a chronology. The daggers are classified into three types and sub-divided based on blade, handle, and pommel characteristics. Each form was produced and used at different time periods and in different areas, emerging first in the Jilin-Changchun region, then expanding into the Northern Liao region, Pyongyang, and as far as Tsushima and northern Kyushu. The bird-pair antenna-style dagger of Northeast Asia is unlikely to have been a trade item imported from outside of the region. It is more likely a local development as indigenous cultures that manufactured mandolin-shaped or slender bronze daggers were influenced by the bronze cultures of northern Asia and Ordos, the upper part of the Yellow River. This new type of dagger possibly represented a symbolic or prestige good reflecting political or economic alliances within the Puyŏ state of southern Manchuria or the early Wiman Chosŏn state in Pyongyang or among the statelets of Pyŏnhan and Chinhan in the Yŏngnam region. The bird-pair antenna-style daggers eventually flourished in the Yŏngnam region, where a local style developed. These daggers in turn diffused via immigration and trade to Tsushima in the mid-first century b.c.e.


Clock domain crossing (CDC) interfaces constitute an increasingly essential part of large digital systems and Systems on Chip (SoCs). These interfaces are inherently difficult to design and debug. In this paper, we demonstrate how probabilistic model checking can be employed in the verification of CDC protocols. Popular CDC interfaces are modeled as Markov Decision Processes and verified using the PRISM model checker.


Lung and breast cancers are among the most common cancers. In the present work, initially, 6-bromo-; and 6-chloro-3-hydroxychromone compounds were prepared. In the next step, a series of 8-bromo-; and 8-chloro-dihyropyrano[3,2-b]chromene derivatives were synthesized by one-pot three component reaction of these two compounds, aromatic aldehydes, and ethyl cyanoacetate in the presence of triethylamine in EtOH at reflux conditions. The synthesized compounds were tested for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against A549 (lung cancer) and MCF-7 (breast cancer) cell lines. It was found that some compounds have high to moderate cytotoxicity, which makes them potential candidates for further studies. This study can be the basis for further studies to design and synthesis potent anticancer compounds and investigating their mechanism of action.


Students' ability to mathematical literacy is very important in their math learning process. Less ability of mathematical literacy as students' way of thinking, argumentation, and creating is no improvement so they face difficulties in solving math problems in their learning process related to real life. The analysis of the result from students of SMP Kristen 1 Mollo Selatan shows that they are still a low inability of mathematical literacy. The effect is questions that used as the exercise are common questions and not related to real life. To solve this problem, the researcher implemented Problem Based Learning (PBL) as a teaching literacy to improve students' mathematical literacy abilities. This study will compare two classes in which one of them treated with PBL one of the other ones was not treated with PBL. A quasi-experiment quantitative method that used in this study with nonequivalent control group design. Two classes were selected as the sample by using simple random sampling. An essay test related to students' mathematical literacy ability was used as the instrument to collect the data. The analysis technique in this study was an independent sample t-test to the result showed that the class which was treated used the PBL method was better than the class which was not treated used the PBL method. Students' mathematical literacy ability in the PBL class was significantly proved in the high category with the score gain 0,8


Epoxidized diethanolamides were synthesized by reacting diethanolamine (DEA) with mixture of Epoxidized Palm Olein (EPOo ,40% w/w) and Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Kernel Olein (RBDPKOo , 60% w/w) at 1:3 molar at 80°C for 5 h and continued at 110°C for another 4 h of reaction time. Synthesized diethanolamides with high content of epoxides were reacted with isocyanate in the presence of AlCl3-THF complex catalyst to produce oxazolidone linkages in polyurethane network. The rigid polyurethane foam produced is of better quality as compared to the commercially available foam.


The mammalian brain shows a complex and hierarchical architecture, whose assessment at all functionally relevant scales requires the establishment of multiomics approaches. In this work, we propose a correlative workflow, which is based on large-scale overview PC-CT scans using the extended beams offered by laboratory μCT sources and parallel beam synchrotron radiation (SR), with subsequent zooms into specific regions-of-interest using cone-beam recordings with nanofocused laboratory sources or SR, and finally FIB-SEM in controlled and well-identified sub-volumes obtained before. We demonstrate the workflow at the example of rOTO-stained murine corpus callosum tissue, a brain region rich in myelinated nerve fibers. Based on two different and complementary techniques, PC-CT and focused ion-beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), we approach the establishment of a correlative imaging workflow. As we show here, the workflow can be applied (i) in a correlative study, in order to add further quantitative value, for instance, or (ii) in a multiscale approach, to which PC-CT can contribute volume throughput, while FIB-SEM can contribute resolution. The findings from this work demonstrate the complementary strength of each modality in terms of resolution (FIB-SEM) and FOV or volume throughput (PC-CT).


This study investigates empirically on the business analysis of fixed mobile convergence telecommunication service. As for the stage of empirical analysis, the process was carried out in the order elaboration of a test model, selection of sample, empirical analysis and interpretation of result. We report our Preliminary results on the fixed mobile convergence telecommunication service demand pattern forecasting by Bass model. The results show that the fixed mobile convergence telecommunication service may sustain profitability over the next ten years in the market. In conclusion, the practical implication of the result attained by this study is that in order to create a fixed mobile convergence in the korean business world, practical tools such as WiBro service is no less important than fixed service and Mobile service, and that users may be rightfully encouraged to adopt WiBro service


The article focuses on the legal media discourse as a contemporary and complex communicative phenomenon, which is at the interface of two major and widespread institutional types of discourses – the legal and the media discourses. Having closely intertwined with each other, the legal and the media discourses form a special type of discourse known as the legal media discourse which is realized in the field of mass communication and aimed at integrating mediated legal topics and categories in a daily reality. Moreover, the author also considers the position of legal media discourse in the discursive area. The author proposes the hypothesis that the legal media discourse is a kind of media discourse and -increasingly– institutional discourse that has specific features related to its mass informational nature. This hypothesis is based on the arguments and conclusions of the scientists studying the legal discourse as a meaning-reproducing activities aimed at regulating and supervising the public relations through a system of social control, which is created with the help of such institutions as education, religion and the media; and considering the media discourse as any kind of discourse, realized in the field of mass communication produced by the media. Author argues that the legal media discourse is seen as a special kind of media discourse, as a result of mediatization of the legal discourse, which is characterized as a process of broadcasting and interpretation of mass information of the social and legal nature by the mass media. In this case, the media are an important tool not only in the interpreting and popularizing of the legal concepts and reality to a wide audience, but also in the improving of legal literacy and legal culture. Thus, having many similarities, the author concludes that the media discourse and legal discourse intersect in some area of its application. Keywords : discourse, legal discourse, media, legal media discourse, mediatization.


In this paper an inductive sensor with a new and simple contactless structure to determine the concentration of an electrolytic solution is presented. The authors propose a novel idea of designing the sensing coil of the sensor so that the magnetic field is focused inside the conducting liquid, thereby increasing the sensitivity of the sensing coil. By detecting the change in inductance of the sensing coil due to a solution of known concentrations of a particular electrolyte, a database is created. With the help of this database it is possible to estimate the unknown concentration of an electrolytic solution. It was tested for various concentrations of NaCl and it shows a distinct response for each concentration.


We have generated effector T cells from tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLN) that are efficacious in adoptive immunotherapy. We now examine the effect of concomitant tumors on the generation of effector T cells. We inoculated methylcholanthrene (MCA) 205 in the flanks of normal mice and mice bearing MCA 205 lung metastases. TDLN cells from these mice were activated and expanded in vitro, and adoptively transferred to mice bearing lung metastases. Effector T cells generated from TDLN in mice with only flank tumor mediated potent antitumor activity. However, antitumor efficacy of the effector T cells generated from TDLN in mice with pre-existent lung tumor (cTDLN) was reduced. Phenotyping studies showed that dendritic cells in cTDLN expressed higher levels of B7-H1, whereas cTDLN T cells expressed higher levels of PD-1. The levels of IFNgamma were reduced, and the levels of CD4(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells were increased in cTDLN versus TDLN. The in vitro activation of cTDLN was increased by blocking B7-H1 or transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta. Importantly, we found a synergistic up-regulation of IFNgamma with simultaneous blockade of B7-H1 and TGF-beta that was much greater than observed with TDLN. In vitro activation of cTDLN with anti-B7-H1 and anti-TGF-beta and in vivo administration of these antibodies after adoptive transfer resulted in the abrogation of the suppression associated with cTDLN. These results show a major role for the B7-H1/PD-1 axis and TGF-beta as synergistic suppressive mechanisms in cTDLN. Our data have clinical relevance in the generation of effector T cells in the tumor-bearing host.


The duration of vasoconstriction and magnitude of cold vasodilatation of 11 experienced fish filleters was compared with 9 controls by immersion of the left hand in stirred ice and water mixtures. Vasodilatation occurred significantly earlier in the filleters, whose hand skin temperatures were significantly higher during immersion, in both the initial vasoconstriction and after vasodilatation. Results similar in some respects were obtained by immersion of the hands in water initially at 5 C. Several of the controls fainted and all were distressed, whereas most of the filleters were unaffected by the cold water. The difference is considered to show the characteristics of acclimatization, and the fact that the filleters are accustomed to working with their hands in very cold water is considered to be the stress producing the acclimatization response. Submitted on July 31, 1961


ABSTRACT Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a heterogeneous neoplastic hematologic disorder with worse overall survival. Half of CMML have mutations, but case with concomitant mutations of DNA methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) and Internal tandem duplications of the juxtamembrane domain of FLT3 (FLT3-ITD) in CMML was not reported before. We reported a 51-year-old man who had CMML with concomitant mutations in DNMT3A and FLT3-ITD.The patient received decitabine and sorafenib combined treatment. In this report, we reviewed DNMT3A mutation and FLT3 mutation, and we reviewed treatment of decitabine and sorafenib. This report is significant. First: This is the first report on CMML with double-mutations of DNMT3A and FLT3-ITD. Second: It shows the importance of targeted drug in combined treatment of CMML.


Abstract Hyperspectral 1-m-resolution remote sensing has the potential to reduce the time spent sampling and reduce spatial sampling errors found in traditional forage nutritive analysis over large areas. The objective of this study was to investigate if 1-m-resolution hyperspectral techniques are useful tools to provide reliable estimates of forage nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) in Yellowstone National Park. The vegetative communities investigated varied in the amount of canopy coverage and species diversity, and ranged from xeric, semiarid environments to mesic, wetland/riparian environments. A large number of simple ratio-type vegetation indices (SRTVI) and normalized difference-type vegetation indices (NDTVI) were developed with the hyperspectral dataset. These indices were regressed against N, P, and NDF values from ground collections. We found that 1) there were strong linear relationships between selected SRTVI and N (R2 = 0.7), P (R2 = 0.65), and NDF (R2 = 0.87) nutritive values on an area basis (g·m−2); and 2) there were no strong linear relationships (R2 < 0.3) between a variety of SRTVI and NDTVI and N, P, and NDF on a dry matter basis (g·g−1 × 100). The lack of relationship is related to 1) the highly variable relationship between the dry matter biochemical signal and total plant biomass and water content and 2) the weakening of the biochemical signal from exposed soil in low-canopy situations, from nonphotosynthetic vegetation (bark, stems, and litter), and from different plant species.


Three multicores were studied in the Central Red Sea off Port Sudan at a W—E transect in order to reconstruct palaeoceanographic conditions of the past ~6000 years. Downcore fluctuations in the relative abundance of the epipelagic planktic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber versus that of the deeper dweller G. sacculifer, together with the presence/absence pattern of the mesopelagic pteropod Limacina bulimoides, reflect variations in the mixed layer and intermediate water column properties and enabled a division of the past ~6000 years into five zones. These palaeoceanographic changes reflect late-Holocene climate fluctuations. Two distinct climate systems regulate the hydrography of the central Red Sea: the Mediterranean climate system to the north controls the formations of the deeper waters, at times of drier and harsher winters, with periods of increased abundance of G. sacculifer reflecting a vigorous deep-water formation in the northern Red Sea. The second is the monsoonal climate system that regulates the nutrient input from the south and the shifting northward position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) at times of monsoon intensification. Increasing abundances in G. ruber indicate greater influence of the monsoonal climate system. The most arid interval (4200—3400 yr BP) is associated with high abundance of G. sacculifer and maximum abundance of Limacina bulimoides , linked to the Mediterranean climate system. This period is of a wide regional scale and also coincides with a pulse of weakening in the Indian Ocean monsoonal system.


Listing and counting triangles in graphs is a key algorithmic kernel for network analyses including community detection, clustering coefficients, k-trusses, and triangle centrality. We design and implement a new serial algorithm for triangle counting that performs competitively with the fastest previous approaches on both real and synthetic graphs, such as those from the Graph500 Benchmark and the MIT/Amazon/IEEE Graph Challenge. The experimental results use the recently-launched Intel Xeon Platinum 8480+ and CPU Max 9480 processors.


Arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) was used to characterize Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1. Cells from a single colony could be subtyped by AP-PCR within a few hours. The discrimination between strains of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 by AP-PCR was equivalent to that by monoclonal antibody analysis and ribotyping. Four strains representing the monoclonal antibody pattern most frequently associated with outbreaks all yielded unique amplicon patterns by AP-PCR.


The aim of this position paper is to establish an initial approach to the automatic classification of digital images about the Outsider Art style of painting. Specifically, we explore whether is it possible to classify non-traditional artistic styles by using the same features that are used for classifying traditional styles? Our research question is motivated by two facts. First, art historians state that non-traditional styles are influenced by factors "outside" of the world of art. Second, some studies have shown that several artistic styles confound certain classification techniques. Following current approaches to style prediction, this paper utilises Deep Learning methods to encode image features. Our preliminary experiments have provided motivation to think that, as is the case with traditional styles, Outsider Art can be computationally modelled with objective means by using training datasets and CNN models. Nevertheless, our results are not conclusive due to the lack of a large available dataset on Outsider Art. Therefore, at the end of the paper, we have mapped future lines of action, which include the compilation of a large dataset of Outsider Art images and the creation of an ontology of Outsider Art.


The contingentist/inevitabilist debate contests whether the results of successful science are contingent or inevitable. This article addresses lingering ambiguity in the way contingency is defined in this debate. I argue that contingency in science can be understood as a collection of distinct concepts, distinguished by how they hold science contingent, by what elements of science they hold contingent, and by what those elements are contingent upon. I present a preliminary taxonomy designed to characterize the full-range positions available and illustrate that these constitute a diverse array rather than a spectrum.


A pulsed discharge plasma in water and in contact with water have been attracting much attention as a promising technology in various fields such as agriculture and environmental remediation. The pulsed power technology enables the instantaneous production of non-thermal plasma which produces various chemical species, such as hydroxyl radicals and ozone. These species play an important role in sterilization effect and the decomposition of organic compounds in wastewater. In this paper, characteristics of plasma discharge inside bubble generated using a pulsed power generator and chemical are described. The decomposition of persistent organic compounds such as 1,4-dioxane, formic acid and dichloromethane by the plasma discharge are demonstrated for environmental application. A nutrient solution treatment system using plasma is developed for practical use in hydroponics for agricultural application. Its performance of enhancement of plant growth rate and inactivation of bacteria in nutrient solution are demonstrated.


Conventional cultivars with high yield, good seed quality and disease resistance are required for organic farming, soy food production, and some specific markets. Soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] 'Brookings' (Reg. No. CV-512, PI 667735) was developed at South Dakota State University (SDSU), Brookings, SD, and released by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station in 2012, for its high yield potential, good seed quality, and resistance to Phytophthora root rot, as well as adaptability to South Dakota and similar regions. Brookings (experimental line SD05-240) is a maturity group (MG) I cultivar (relative maturity 1.7). It originated from the F 5 progeny of a single F 4 plant derived from the cross of A00-711063 × SD98595 by a single-pod descent method. Following yield trials within the SDSU soybean breeding program, it was further evaluated for yield and seed quality traits through the USDA Northern Regional Uniform Soybean Preliminary Tests (UPT) in 2008, Uniform Soybean Tests (UT) in 2009 and 2010, and the South Dakota Crop Performance Tests (CPT) in 2009 and 2010. The yield of Brookings in the SD CPT averaged 4257 kg ha -1 , 14.2% higher than the check cultivar Deuel and 8.9% higher than 'MN1410' (P < 0.05). In the MG II UPT (11 locations) and MG I UT tests (29 environments), Brookings exhibited a mean yield comparable to check cultivars IA1022 and MN1410. The average protein concentration of Brookings was higher than IA1022 but lower than MN1410, and its oil content was similar to MN1410 but lower than IA1022. It had the best seed quality among the test entries. In addition, Brookings has the Rps1k allele for resistance to Phytophthora sojae, which is derived from the parent SD98-595, and exhibited resistance to races 4 and 7 of P. sojae. Brookings is a conventional MG I cultivar and thus a good option for producers of non–genetically modified soybeans in South Dakota and similar regions.


With the continuous implementation of China's go-global strategy, overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are receiving more and more attention as an effective way for enterprises to quickly acquire overseas resources and enhance international competitiveness. This paper is a comparative case study of overseas M&A of two Chinese companies, Sany Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. and Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co. Ltd., which measures the M&A performance and studies the impact of management characteristics on overseas M&A performance. The finding outlines the fact that the M&A approaches adopted by the two companies are mainly focused on the pursuit of technological innovation, expansion of the international market and enhancement of brand competitiveness. By comparison, Sany is better than Liugong in pursuing technological innovation and expanding international market, and is more performant thanks to the unique characteristics of its management being run by younger staff members with Ph.D degrees, high-level engineering capabilities and international background.


In this thesis we examine the news driven business cycle hypothesis which posits that business cycles might arise purely on the basis of expectations of future changes. Although the news shocks literature often concentrates on news about future technological changes, we on the other hand, study news about a country interest rate and a monetary policy interest rate in the context of small open economies (SOEs). Country interest rate news shocks refer to the anticipated changes in the rate at which the SOE borrows/lends in the international financial markets. Monetary policy news on the other hand refers to the anticipated changes of the policy rate usually transmitted to the public through 'forward guidance'. We argue that such pieces of news about interest rates change the expectations of economic agents and influence current economic activity without any actual change ever occurring. Further, we extend our SOE framework to study an optimal monetary policy rule for Canada. In Chapter 2, we examine how anticipated changes in future country interest rates influence the business cycles of emerging SOEs like Argentina and Mexico. To this end, we introduce country interest rate news shocks in a SOE model. We use annual iii PhD Thesis Sabreena Obaid McMaster University Economics Argentine data from 1900-2005 to estimate our model using Bayesian methods. We find that anticipated shocks to country interest rates explain a good deal of variations in the growth rate of investment and trade balance-output ratio of Argentina. The model also generates business cycles statistics that are consistent with those of Argentina. We find similar results for Mexico as well. In Chapter 3, we extend our SOE framework of Chapter 2 to a New Keynesian SOE model in order to explore the role of monetary policy news shocks in Canadian business cycles. Once again, we perform a Bayesian estimation of the model with Canadian and US data from 1981Q3-2012Q4. The novel feature of the monetary policy rule employed in this study is the inclusion of US interest rate deviations in the Canadian monetary policy rule motivated by the highly correlated US and Canadian short term nominal interest rates over the above mentioned time period. Our estimation results show that the response coefficient of Canadian monetary policy to US interest rate deviations is indeed positive. Moreover, both the unconditional and conditional variance decomposition of variables in the model reveal that although monetary policy news shocks explain some of the variation in the growth rate of output and consumption, overall they are not a major source of Canadian business cycles. However, they explain a good portion of the variation in money supply growth and inflation in Canada. Chapter 4 builds on the New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) framework developed in Chapter 3. In this chapter, we ask the following iv PhD Thesis Sabreena Obaid McMaster University Economics question: does reacting to US interest rate changes help the central bank achieve its mandate? To this end, we represent the mandate of the central bank by a loss function which is a linear combination of the variances of inflation, output gap and nominal interest rate changes which the central bank seeks to minimize. The weights attached to each of the three terms of the loss function represent different policy regimes. We assess the performance of the estimated interest rate rule of Chapter 3 with and without reaction to US interest rate deviations in achieving the central bank's mandate under different policy regimes. We find that under the estimated rule, reacting to US interest rate deviations neither helps nor hurts the central bank to achieve its mandate. Next, we ask the following questions: what values of the policy coefficients would minimize the loss function and would the optimal simple rule include US interest rate deviations in it? We find that the optimal rule has a positive coefficient on US interest rate deviations (larger than its Bayesian estimate) for all the policy regimes. It also has a large coefficient on inflation. Therefore, our analysis suggests that the central bank should include US interest rate deviations in its reaction function and should react even more aggressively to US interest rate changes and inflation than it did based on our Bayesian estimates.


The aim of this study was to estimate the exposure dose level of ocular corpuscles during the common interventional procedures of interventional radiology workers. This article retrospectively analyzed the general instruments and equipment of interventional therapy, the general methods and steps of interventional therapy, and the influence of X-ray of interventional surgery. The related contents of eye protection for interventional radiology workers were summarized. This study found that there was a significant linear correlation between the equivalent dose of lens and the exposure time. The tube voltage, tube current, and the size of fluoroscopic field of vision also have an impact on the radiation of workers during surgical exposure. Interventional surgery is difficult and easy. The exposure time of difficult surgery is relatively long, so the dose received by interventional staff is large. The intervention staff should improve their professional knowledge, be proficient in the operation technology, and try to reduce the exposure without affecting the diagnosis and treatment effect. During the intervention operation, the eye substance of the operator is exposed to a certain dose of radiation, and the wearing rate of protective lead glasses of the intervention staff is very low. Therefore, we must pay attention to the protection of the eyes, strengthen the protection management, and reduce the exposure dose of the intervention staff as much as possible.


Incubate, The modern meaning of providing warmth to assist growth or development, e.g. of bacteria or a clutch of eggs, is derived from the Latin incubare: to lie upon or sit upon, e.g. eggs, (c.f. incubus: a nightmare), but is believed to originate from an early GreacoRoman custom of spending the night sleeping in a sanctuary, e.g. an Asclepion, to be healed or cured of illness. Telesphorus, the child god and legendary son of Asklepios, is depicted in a cloak with a hood, the garment ritually worn while sleeping in a temple of healing i.e. during "incubation". Syringe, a tube for ejecting or injecting


Background: Antisynthetase syndrome is an autoimmune rheumatologic disease characterized by the presence of specific antibodies that are known as antisynthetase antibodies and with a varied clinic, including arthritis, myositis or interstitial lung disease (ILD), among others. ILD is the manifestation that associates the highest morbi / mortality and can occur with different characteristic radiological patterns: usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), organized pneumonia (OP) Objectives: Describe the clinical, serological and prognostic characteristics of patients with antisynthetase syndrome with interstitial pulmonary involvement (ILD) based on their radiological pattern. Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of patients with a clinical diagnosis of antisynthetase syndrome in which they show positive for some antisynthetase antibody and with clinical follow-up of at least 6 months in a reference center consultation between the period from January 2008 to September 2019. In those patients who presented interstitial lung involvement clinical, analytical and prognostic variables were evaluated (including spirometry) based on the radiological pattern presented by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the chest Results: 32 patients (24 women and 8 men) were included in the study. 7 cases (21.9%) did not present pulmonary involvement, while the remaining 25 cases (78.1%) presented with interstitial lung involvement. Of the patients diagnosed with ILD, 4 cases (12.5%) had an interstitial pattern UIP, 17 cases (53.1%) had an interstitial pattern of NSIP and another 4 (12.5%) interstitial pattern of OP. From an analytical point of view, the most frequent antisynthetase antibody in our sample was antiJo1 with 29 cases (96.9%) and less frequently the antiPL12 antibody with 2 cases and antiPL7 with 1 case. The specific characteristics depending on the type of EPID pattern are summarized in Table 1. Conclusion: ILD is a frequent and serious manifestation that can occur in patients with antisynthetase syndrome, which may have different radiological patterns. In our series, the most observed radiological pattern has been the NSIP pattern with 68%. The pattern most associated with the Ro 52 antibody was the UIP pattern and the NSIP pattern. As for the group that required the largest numbers of drugs (including biological therapy) it was the NSIP pattern. When evaluating changes in respiratory function tests, the pattern that shows a tendency to improve over time is organized pneumonia with improvement of the DLCO, FVC, FEV1, FEV1 / FVC, while the UIP pattern showed a worsening of the DLCO and the FVC. Disclosure of Interests: None declared


Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been widely implemented by numerous firms throughout the industrial world. While success stories of ERP implementation abound due to its potential in resolving the problem of fragmented information, a substantial number of these implementations fail to meet the goals of the organization. Some are abandoned altogether and others contribute to the failure of an organization. This article seeks to identify the critical factors of ERP implementation and uses statistical analysis to further delineate the patterns of adoption of the various concepts. A cross-sectional mail survey was mailed to business executives who have experience in the implementation of ERP systems. The results of this study provide empirical evidence that the theoretical constructs of ERP implementation are followed at varying levels. It offers some fresh insights into the current practice of ERP implementation. In addition, this study fills the need for ERP implementation constructs that can be utilized for further study of this important topic.


Introduction: In a multicentre study, we contrasted cerebrovascular disease profiles in Pacific Island (PI)-born patients (Indigenous Polynesian [IP] or Indo-Fijian [IF]) presenting with transient ischaemic attack (TIA), ischaemic stroke (IS) or intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) with those of Caucasians (CSs). Methods: Using a retrospective case-control design, we compared PI-born patients with age- and gender-matched CS controls. Consecutive patients were admitted to 3 centres in South Western Sydney (July 2013–June 2020). Demographic and clinical data studied included vascular risk factors, stroke subtypes, and imaging characteristics. Results: There were 340 CS, 183 (27%) IP, and 157 (23%) IF patients; mean age 65 years; and 302 (44.4%) female. Of these, 587 and patients presented with TIA/IS and 93 (13.6%) had ICH. Both IP and IF patients were significantly more likely to present >24 h from symptom onset (odds ratios [ORs] vs. CS 1.87 and 2.23). IP patients more commonly had body mass indexes >30 (OR 1.94). Current smoking and excess alcohol intake were higher in CS. Hypertension, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease were significantly higher in both IP and IF groups in comparison to CS. IP patients had higher rates of AF and those with known AF were more commonly undertreated than both IF and CS patients (OR 2.24, p = 0.007). ICH was more common in IP patients (OR 2.32, p = 0.005), while more IF patients had intracranial arterial disease (OR 5.10, p < 0.001). Discussion/Conclusion: Distinct cerebrovascular disease profiles are identifiable in PI-born patients who present with TIA or stroke symptoms in Australia. These may be used in the future to direct targeted approaches to stroke prevention and care in culturally and linguistically diverse populations.


Plurality (first-past-the-post), majority and proportional electoral formulae all translate vote shares into seat shares in different ways. The consequences of these differences are the subject of a large literature, and the virtues and vices attributed to the plurality rule are particularly numerous. That is not surprising given the discrepancies between seat and vote shares it generates. What is surprising is that the literature has not examined the plurality rule's effectiveness, that is the extent to which it achieves its intended goals. We take effectiveness to be a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for an electoral rule's acceptability. At the very least, a given rule ought to produce the consequences it is designed to create. This short Note is intended to assess the extent to which the plurality system passes this minimum test.


We investigate the dynamics of genuine three-qubit entanglement in the Ising model of three spins. A scheme is presented for generating the genuine three-qubit entanglement by the nearest-neighbour couplings. The effect of magnetic fields on the dynamics of genuine three-qubit entanglement is also discussed.


Sand dust can enter into an engine lubrication system through the intake manifold. The effect of calcite and silica sand dust particles in an engine on oil particle contamination was investigated. The presence, amount, and size of silica and calcite particles in engine oil were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Four levels of silica and calcite particles were obtained through engine oil sampling from farm tractors at the east of Isfahan (Iran) then, used to investigate their effect on the wear of engine moving parts after 20 hours of engine operation. The ICP analysis showed the amount of iron, aluminum, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead increased in the engine oil with increasing silica content, whereas aluminum and copper increased as the calcite content increased. In zero, 1, 2, and 3 g/L of the silica content of the engine oil, there were 6.2, 136.7, 176.3, and 1758.6 mg/L of iron particles, 0.18, 27.38, 46.65 and 47.85 mg/L of aluminum particles, and 0, 3.54, 5.85, and 10.73 mg/L of chromium particles, respectively. Thus, the quality of filters in agricultural tractors is to be improved to prevent engine wear by sand dust.


Introduction: Understanding of anatomy is fundamental for clinical practice; Anatomy must be taught and learnt within a context that is clinically meaningful and related to the competencies required by new medical graduates so that students understand its relevance to their future practice. Hence in this study we decided to implement interactive clinical anatomy lecture. Aim: To assess the impact of the interactive teaching learning methods on student cognitive outcomes and to evaluate the perceptions of students about interactive teaching learning approach. Materials and Methods: Faculty members were sensitized. The study was approved by institutional Ethics Committee. Written informed consent was taken from students. The anatomy knowledge was evaluated by a pre-test and post-test (10 MCQ), which were designed based on the learning objectives of the sessions. Student's perception was evaluated through prevalidated questionnaires. The topic was chosen for interactive sessions namely "Venous drainage of lower limb" and we were including video clips and demonstration of Trendelenburg test in this session. Students had learned this topic already during didactic lecture as a part of routine timetable. The pre-test and post-test results of the study group were compared using 'paired t' test. Students feedback was determined by analysis of questionnaires based on 5 point Likert scale. Results: Total participants were 150. The mean score of pretest and posttest were 3.7 and 4.2 respectively. Standard deviation for pretest and posttest were 1.52 and 1.51 respectively. t value of this study was 7.99 and P value was 0.0000. Here P value is less than 0.001, it shows the highly significant difference between the mean of pretest and posttest score. It indicates definite improvement in the knowledge of students. In the prevalidated feedback questionnaires, 64.7% students had agreed that session was better than didactic lecture and 82.7% students had agreed that it was more effective in fulfilling learning objective. 70.7% students wanted the need to conduct more such sessions on the other topics also. All faculties agreed that this method increases student interest in learning and better understand clinical aspects of anatomy. However faculties believed that this method requires planning, extra effort, infrastructure and also some training. Discussion: Introducing clinical knowledge in interactive teaching is beneficial in assessment also, it can lead to improvement in anatomy scores. Educational research has shown that students who are actively involved in the learning activity will learn more than students who are passive recipients. Learning and its retention is facilitated when the subject matter of the topic is linked to authentic contexts since the students experience the essentiality of knowing the topic for future clinical practice. Conclusion: This study determined that the interactive and engaging learning strategy can be used as an effective learning tool in anatomy. So there was not only significant improvement in anatomy knowledge with its applied aspects but also it helps to improve students communication.


Sclerotherapy for esophageal varices was performed on six patients for a total of 16 injections. The sclerosant contained 5% ethanolamine oleate and technetium Tc 99m sodium pertechnetate solution at the volume ratio of 9:1. At each injection session 5 to 20 mL of this solution was injected into one varix. The distribution of the injected material was observed by a scintillation camera. Systemic dissemination of the sclerosant through the portal vein was demonstrated in five procedures, in which the injections were correctly intravenous. In three dogs 4 mL of 5% ethanolamine oleate made from oleic acids labeled with iodine 131 was injected into the gastric coronary vein. Most of the substance injected was washed out within five minutes, and systemic dissemination became evident.


Intestinal duplications are rare developmental abnormalities that may occur anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract. The possibility of a malignant change occurring in these duplications is very low. We present a case of adenocarcinoma arising in a duplication of the cecum. A 41-year-old male patient was admitted because of a palpable abdominal mass. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a 6-cm, peripheral wall-enhanced, round, cystic mass in the cecal area. Excision of the mesenteric mass and a right hemicolectomy was performed. Upon histologic examination, the patient was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma arising in a duplication of the cecum.


Abstract Hybrid olivine grains from locally concordant contact zones between bodies of iron-rich ultramafic pegmatite (postcumulate) and layered harzburgite (cumulate) are distinguished from cumulus olivine grains by petrographic features and compositional differences. The hybrid olivines, which in comparison with the cumulus crystals are Fe-Mn-rich and Mg-Ni-poor, represent an arrested stage of replacement and exhibit unusually high NiO/MgO ratios. These features are explained by a disequilibrium process of cation-for-cation exchange between crystals and silicate liquid i.e. magmatic metasomatism. Plots of cations across a contact zone give straight line relationships, a function of the extent to which the metasomatizing liquid infiltrated the cumulate layer. A plot of NiO against MgO enables a distinction to be made between metasomatic olivine and olivine that has fractionally crystallized from a tholeiitic magma. These metasomatic olivines all formed by the replacement of pre-existing cumulus olivine and no chemical evidence has been found to support the formation of olivine in iron-rich ultramafic pegmatite bodies by metasomatism of other phases.


The wide demand for natural biostimulants encourages the search for new, alternative sources of substances with high biological activity. Chitosan can promote plant growth and root system development, enhance photosynthetic activity, increase nutrient and metabolite content. Eucomis bicolor, commonly known as the 'pineapple lily', is not widely known in terms of cultivation and biological activity. The aim of the experiment was to determine the effect of chitosan on growth of Eucomis bicolor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to describe the effect of chitosan on morphological features of Eucomis bicolor. The results showed that soaking Eucomis bicolor bulbs in a chitosan solution before planting has stimulated the growth, flowering and yield of bulbs. Treating the plants with chitosan at 50 mg/L had the most beneficial effect on the number of leaves per plant, the relative chlorophyll content in the leaves as well as the number of bulbs per plant. Chitosan has a multi-directional, positive effect on plant growth and can be used as a potential biostimulant.


This action research is aimed to improve learning outcomes of electricity and magnetism subject throughincreased activity of students in preparing for and carrying out presentations on technologies that apply theconcept of electrostatic. Presentation topic is selected in the application of the concept of electrostatic in thetechnology products and natural phenomena that is familiar to students. Subjects were 59 students of PhysicsEducation of Faculty of Education Riau University at semester 6 academic year 2008/2009. This researchuses Kemmis Model with three cycles. Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that the quality of thepresentation slides are prepared by students which increases each cycle until it reaches reaching the highcategory in cycle-3. Activity of presentation also increased of each cycle despite only reaching into thecategory of middle on a cycle-3. Student learning outcomes are categorized as high. When compared with thelearning outcomes of the previous year, the result of this learning strategy has increased. Meanwhile,students' motivation has increased between before and after learning.


The isolated perfused rat liver preparation was employed to study hepatic disposition of the model drugcarrier conjugate fluorescein‐lactosylated albumin (F‐LnHSA) with special reference to the influence of the organic anion fluorescein on liver cell specificity of the endocytosed neoglycoprotein. Hepatic clearance of fluoresceinated neoglycoproteins was significantly faster than clearance of radioiodinated neoglycoproteins. Perfusate clearance of F‐L7HSA and F‐L25HSA could not completely be inhibited by a dose of 10 mg asialoorosomucoid that saturates the hepatocyte receptor‐mediated endocytic process. From these data, we inferred an additional hepatic uptake mechanism, competing with the Ashwell‐receptor‐mediated internalization of galactoseterminated glycoproteins. Clearance experiments with fluoresceinated 125I‐human serum albumin in the presence of the polyanionic probe dextran sulfate revealed a nearly complete (∼90%) inhibition of hepatic uptake, while also a pronounced effect was obtained with colloidal carbon. These data point to nonparenchymal cell uptake of fluoresceinated protein via interaction with scavenger receptors. In wash‐out studies, it was shown that about 25% of ligand sequestrated by sinusoidal liver cells escaped degradation and recycled to the perfusion medium. Our results show that care should be taken in the use of neoglycoproteins as drug carriers to hepatocytes, since a load of only 2 to 3 moles fluorescein permole neoglycoprotein considerably affects intrahepatic distribution. The relative contribution of nonparenchymal cell uptake by coupling of acidic drugs to the neoglycoproteins is very probably inversely related to the number of exposing galactose groups per molecule neoglycoprotein. This phenomenon of "inversed targeting" could therapeutically both be useful or detrimental, dependent on the spectrum of cell types that should be reached by the drug.


Due to their peculiar qualities, metal-based nanostructures have been extensively used in applications such as catalysis, electronics, photography, and information storage, among others. New applications for metals in areas such as photonics, sensing, imaging, and medicine are also being developed. Significantly, most of these applications require the use of metals in the form of nanostructures with specific controlled properties. The properties of nanoscale metals are determined by a set of physical parameters that include size, shape, composition, and structure. In recent years, many research fields have focused on the synthesis of nanoscale-sized metallic materials with complex shape and composition in order to optimize the optical and electrical response of devices containing metallic nanostructures. In This work, we study nickel nanoparticles supported on aluminum oxide, prepared by impregnation with ionic exchange. In a first stage, the fixing conditions of the nickel precursor on aluminum oxide are optimized. In the second stage, the samples are calcined at temperature (T= 750 °C). Several experimental techniques are used for the characterization of the samples at the various stages of their elaboration (SEM, DRX, and VSM). A change of morphology of the aluminum oxide grains was observed by Scanning Electron Microscope. The X-rays diffraction shows the formations of nanoparticles Al3Ni2 of near size 16.7 nm. The extracted magnetic measurements show the good and the easy magnetization


Multiorbital correlated materials are often on the verge of multiple electronic phases (metallic, insulating, superconducting, charge and orbitally ordered), which can be explored and controlled by small changes of the external parameters. The use of ultrashort light pulses as a mean to transiently modify the band population is leading to fundamentally new results. In this paper we will review recent advances in the field and we will discuss the possibility of manipulating the orbital polarization in correlated multi-band solid state systems. This technique can provide new understanding of the ground state properties of many interesting classes of quantum materials and offers a new tool to induce transient emergent properties with no counterpart at equilibrium. We will address: the discovery of high-energy Mottness in superconducting copper oxides and its impact on our understanding of the cuprate phase diagram; the instability of the Mott insulating phase in photoexcited vanadium oxides; the manipulation of orbital-selective correlations in iron-based superconductors; the pumping of local electronic excitons and the consequent transient effective quasiparticle cooling in alkali-doped fullerides. Finally, we will discuss a novel route to manipulate the orbital polarization in a a k-resolved fashion.