Background/Aim .There is no scientific evidence that prophylactic use of antibiotics as a part of the mandibular third molar surgery is effective in suppressing postoperative pain, edema, trismus and dry socket. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of antibiotics from the fluoroquinolone (moxifloxacin) and cephalosporin (cefixime) groups, in reducing inflammatory postoperative sequelae (pain, edema and trismus), as well as in possibly reducing the incidence of dry socket after mandibular third molar surgery. Methods . This double-blind study was completed by 157 subjects, comprising two study groups (who received the aforementioned antibiotics), and a control group, who received placebo-tablets. Subjects were assessed on the first, second, and seventh day following surgery. In the postoperative course, patients were monitored for the occurrence, intensity and duration of postoperative inflammatory sequelae and dry socket. Results. Both antibiotics, especially moxifloxacin, had a pronounced effect on reducing all inflammatory sequelae (pain, edema and trismus) as the most common postoperative complaints following mandibular third molar surgery. It is interesting, however, that both antibiotics, especially moxifloxacin, also contributed to reducing the incidence of dry socket. Conclusion . Antibiotic prophylaxis with cefixime, and especially moxifloxacin, reduced the occurrence of postoperative inflammatory sequelae and alleviated discomfort, suggesting that this is a useful, rather than risky recommendation. It is interesting, however, that both antibiotics, especially moxifloxacin, also contributed inreducing the incidence of postoperative dry socket, which is not provoked by inflammation. Therefore, further research into the underlying mechanisms behind such an effect is warranted.


Automatically creating images that give a sense of content can be useful in a number of settings. Such images can summarize a larger collection of media in novel ways, giving an evocation of the whole, rather than a precise linguistic summary. Paradoxically, such visual summaries are often found to be more useful as indicators of the gestalt of a media than more traditional language summaries. We demonstrate a design pattern based method that creates visual compositions by selecting imagery from the source document(s) and instantiating several design patterns. Each pattern has a set of slots and roles that are filled with source imagery and then constrained to fit within the pattern visual specifications. Examples are given of the process and its end result. A pilot study has shown that these visual summaries lead to faster retrieval of relevant documents than textual summaries.


1 The spatial genetic structure of soil seed banks establishes the initial template for development of spatial genetic structure in above‐ground plants, but is rarely evaluated. 2 We used kinship coefficients to analyse the fine‐scale spatial genetic autocorrelation of plants and of seed banks from different soil depths for Primula modesta at a subalpine fen site on Mt Asama, central Japan. 3 The spatial genetic structure of surface seeds (0–1 cm depth) was significant, while deeper seeds (1–5 cm depth) had no significant genetic structure. We also detected a more pronounced spatial genetic association between the surface seeds and flowering genets than between the deeper seeds and flowering genets. 4 These results suggest that the surface seed bank accounts for a large proportion of the previous season's seed dispersal and therefore represents the transient seed bank, whereas the deeper (persistent) seed bank pools the reproductive output of multiple generations. 5 Directional analysis indicated that secondary dispersal by running water modifies the spatial genetic structure and extends dispersal distances. Over time, this may impact on the spatial pattern of soil seeds, possibly accounting for the absence of spatial genetic structure in deeper seeds. 6 Emerging seedlings and flowering ramets were strongly clustered together at distances up to 20 cm. Surviving seedlings were aggregated at short distances because of the patchy spatial distribution of safe sites for establishment, allowing development and strengthening of the marked fine‐scale spatial genetic structure.


INTRODUCTIONDevelopmental gene expression is analyzed predominantly via whole-mount in situ hybridization using digoxigenin-labeled RNA probes. This protocol describes how to perform this procedure in Amphimedon queenslandica, including fixation, hybridization, and sectioning of embryonic, larval, and post-larval juvenile stages.


Speech recognition technology suffers from a lack of robustness which limits its usability for fully automated speech-to-text transcription, and manual correction is generally required to obtain perfect transcripts. In this paper, we propose a general scheme for semi-automatic transcription, in which the system and the transcriptionist contribute jointly to the speech transcription. The proposed system relies on the editing of confusion networks and on reactive decoding, the latter one being supposed to take benefits from the manual correction and improve the error rates. In order to reduce the correction time, we evaluate various strategies aiming to guide the transcriptionist towards the critical areas of transcripts. These strategies are based on graph density-based criterion and two semantic consistency criterion; using a corpus-based method and a web-search engine. They allow to indicate to the user the areas which present severe lacks of understandability. We evaluate these driving strategies by simulating the correction process of French broadcast news transcriptions. Results show that interactive decoding improves the correction act efficiency with all driving strategies and semantic information must be integrated into the interactive decoding process.


The trials were designed with three replications in a randomized complete block design in order to evaluate the phenological, growth and yield potential of hot pepper varieties such as 'Mareko fana', 'Melka Zala', 'Melka Awaze', 'Melka Shote' and local check. Significant difference was observed between growing year and used varieties. The varieties also performed significantly different (p<0.05) for most of the considered traits in the study. The result revealed that varieties 'Melka Zala', 'Mareko fana' and 'Melka Awaze' were scored highest green pod yield of 8.39, 8.71 and 11.39 ton per hectare, respectively. However, 'Mareko fana' variety was susceptible to disease attack as compared to other varieties. Therefore, promoting both 'Melka Awaze' and 'Melka Zala' varieties for widespread production for Teppi and the areas with similar agro-ecological conditions could contribute to boost the productivity of hot pepper. 'Mareko fana' could also be used for dry pod purpose due to its attractive color.


Error concealment at the decoder restores erroneous macroblocks (MBs) caused by channel errors. In this paper, we propose a novel spatial error concealment algorithm based on prediction modes of intra-blocks which are included in a H.264-coded stream and highly correlated to the direction of local edge within the block. The key contribution is to sequentially interpolate each pixel in a lost MB by utilizing edge directions and strengths efficiently estimated from the neighboring blocks, preserving local edge continuity for more visually acceptable images. The proposed scheme is simple to implement and more reliably recover high-detailed content in corrupted MBs. The experimental results shows the proposed method achieves reduction in speed by 14%~39% as compared to existing method, and outperforms them in PSNR by 0.5~1 dB as well as in subjective visual evaluation.


Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients have lower bone mineral density (BMD) compared with healthy individuals because of general, genetic, disease and medication-related factors. The disturbance of the receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL)/osteoprotegerin (OPG) ratio has been reported to be associated with low BMD in many disorders in adults and children alike. Objectives The objectives of this study were (i) to assess serum OPG, RANKL and RANKL/OPG ratio levels in SLE children and controls, (ii) to determine whether the cumulative glucocorticoid (CGCS) dose had any effect on the concentration of serum RANKL, OPG and RANKL/OPG ratio, and (iii) to determine the relation of these parameters to BMD. Methods We evaluated 50 SLE children and 50 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. RANKL and OPG were assessed in serum and compared between patients and controls. For SLE patients, a univariate followed by multivariable analysis were carried out to detect the possible predictors of the changes in RANKL, OPG and RANKL/OPG ratio levels. Lumbar BMD for all patients was assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan and then correlated to different probable correlated factors. Results RANKL, OPG and RANKL/OPG ratio were significantly higher in SLE patients (p ≤ 0.001). Univariate analysis showed significant correlations of RANKL with CGCS (p ≤ 0.001) and with DXA scan z-score (p = 0.007): OPG was significantly correlated to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) score (p = 0.001) and anti-double-stranded DNA (p = 0.001), whereas RANKL/OPG was significantly correlated to duration of illness and DXA z-score (p = 0.002). The multivariable analysis showed that DXA z-score was an independent predictor of RANKL and RANKL/OPG ratio (p = 0.019 and 0.008, respectively), whereas SLEDAI score was an independent predictor of OPG levels. BMD was negatively correlated to disease duration (p = 0.008) and CGCS dose (p = 0.015), but no significant correlation has been found between BMD and cumulative SLEDAI score (p = 0.29). Conclusions Serum RANKL/OPG ratio is elevated in Egyptian children with SLE and is considered a risk factor for reduced bone mass in these children. Other risk factors for low BMD include high CGCS dose and disease duration, supporting that osteoporosis in SLE is multifactorial.


Accurate and up-to-date information concerning vegetation characteristics is needed for decision-making from individual-tree-level management activities to the strategic planning of forest resources. Outdated information may lead to unbeneficial or even wrong decisions, at least when it comes to the timing of management activities. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) has so far been successfully used for applications involving detailed vegetation mapping because of its capability to simultaneously produce accurate information on vegetation and ground surfaces. The aim of this dissertation was to develop methods for characterizing vegetation and its changes in varying environments. A method called multisource single-tree inventory (MS-STI) was developed in substudy I to update urban tree attributes. In MSSTI stem map was produced with terrestrial laser scanning and by combining the stem map with predictors derived from ALS data it was possible to obtain improved estimates of diameter-at-breast height but also to produce new attributes such as height and crown size. Boat-based mobile laser scanning (MLS) data were employed in substudy II to map riverbank vegetation and identify changes. The overall classification accuracy of 73% was obtained, which is similar to accuracies found in other studies. With multi-temporal MLS data sets changes in vegetation were mapped year to year. In substudy III, open access ALS data were combined with multisource national forest inventory (NFI) data to investigate the drivers associated to wind damage. The special interest was in ALS-based predictors to map areas with wind disturbance and apply logistic regression to produce a continuous probability surface of wind predisposition to identify areas most likely to experience wind damage. The results demonstrated that a combination of ALS and multisource NFI in the modelling approach increased the prediction accuracy from 76% to 81%. The dissertation showed the capability of ALS and MLS for characterizing vegetation and mapping changes in varying environments. The developed applications could increase and expand the utilization of multi-temporal 3D data sets as well as increase data value. The results of this dissertation can be utilized in producing more accurate, diverse, and up-to-date information for decision-making related to natural resources.


In this paper a forward looking (end fire) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is described for the Very deep Autonomous Laser-powered Kilowatt-class Yo-yoing Robotic Ice explorer (VALKYRIE) project. Design and analysis of novel conformal log periodic antennas for the radar and the forward looking SAR ambuguity function is presented. Fabrication and laboratory characterization of the antennas system design and in situ testing of the SAR system are discussed in detail.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to assess the feasibility of risk-contingent credit (RCC) by presenting an experimental and participatory game designed to explain the concept of RCC to Kenyan pastoralists and dairy farmers. The paper investigates the uptake potential of RCC through qualitative assessment of field experiments and focus groups. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper presents a method of community engagement through a participatory game played in a series of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The paper also presents theoretical justification of RCC in credit market structure. Findings - – The game effectively explains the concept and mechanism of RCC by reflecting local situation and production potential. Participatory exercises within focus group discussions indicate that there exists a strong interest and support for RCC. Research limitations/implications - – The methodology described in this paper can be used in extension programs for promoting innovative rural microcredit in developing countries but should be modified according to the local production and associated weather and market risks. Originality/value - – Micro-insurance and credit program delivery can be improved by the innovative approach of community engagement for explaining financial products.


Red is available for the visual artist to investigate, to position and to rework. Within a series of objects/artefacts the writer as a goldsmith has sought a spiritual representation of red. Not confined to its colour, the historic use of red has been applied to convey the Christ figure. A recent group of works, The Entropy of Red,'3 pursued a personal subject in the form of a table, a crown and a trumpet. A primary condition of this is that it is Christological. This exegesis on the condition and spiritual metaphor of red was materialised predominantly in red coloured silver.
These quite large objects were complex and included very fine structures.


Aims The national lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have had a considerable effect on mental health, with reduced access to social interaction through work and leisure activities, and increased barriers to community mental health services. This study aims to evaluate how the presentation of patients with self-injury has changed during the first national U.K. lockdown, at a Plastic Surgery Tertiary Referral Centre in the East of England. Method Retrospectively recorded data from 23 March 2020 to 31 December 2020, spanning the duration of the first two lockdowns in the UK, were compared to the same period in 2019. The demographics of patients, along with the nature, severity and outcomes of the self-injury were recorded and compared. Result The number of patients referred for self-injury reduced by 22.9% during lockdown (2020: N = 42/109, 2019: 67/109) The most common attendance route was via ambulance during lockdown (2020:40.5% 2019: 31.3%) whilst the most common attendance route being via the front door in 2019 (2019: 35.8%, 2020: 26.2%) The number of new presentations with no prior history of self-injury was higher in lockdown 38.1%) compared to 2019 26.9%. The lockdown cohort had a smaller proportion of patients presenting with complications (2020: 9.5% vs 2019: 17.9%), less readmitted (2020: 11.9% vs 2019: 23.9%). Similar re-attendance rate (2020: 40.3% vs 2019: 38.1%) and re-intervention (2020: 13.4% vs 2019: 14.3%). A greater proportion in 2020 met the threshold for inpatient psychiatry input (2020: 52.4% vs 2019: 41.8%). During the lockdown, a higher percentage of flexor tendon injuries involved multiple tendons (60.0% vs 52.2%). A higher percentage of extensor tendon injuries (14.3% vs 7.4%), and a greater proportion of these also involved multiple tendons (66.7% vs 40.0%). More self-injuries were complicated by fractures (7.1% vs 4.5%) and more required soft tissue reconstruction (11.9% vs 3.0%). Conclusion Despite fewer patients presenting with self-injury during the 2020 lockdown, the injuries were more severe. Many of which had multiple structural injuries, and some with life-changing injuries, this is in line with our clinical observations. During lockdown there was a higher proportion of first-time presentations without a history of self-injury and an increased need for inpatient psychiatry input. This may reflect the impact on mental health as a result of restricted social interactions. These findings demonstrate the impact of lockdown on mental-health and may help inform medical services of potential changes in the presentations in future national social restrictions.


We introduce a definition of 'best' currents to apply to an electrode array on the surface of a body in order to distinguish between the conductivity inside the body and a conjectured conductivity. Using these 'best' currents, we illustrate with a simple example the general fact that a single current applied between a pair of electrodes, loses its ability to distinguish between different conductivities as the size of the region over which the current is applied goes to zero. We next introduce approximations to the best currents on systems having L electrodes, and calculate the ability of these systems to distinguish between conductivities as L goes to infinity and the electrode size goes to zero. We conclude with a simple example that illustrates a process for producing the 'best' currents without a previous knowledge of what is inside the body.


Important linkages between daily mood and identity formation have been theorized, but have not been empirically tested as of yet. This study provided a first examination of these linkages within individuals (N = 392; 55.1% boys; Mage at T1 = 13.24, SD = 0.44) across 15 series of 5 days distributed over 5 years. Results revealed negative within-time associations of educational and relational commitment with negative mood. Negative mood was positively associated with educational in-depth exploration and educational and interpersonal reconsideration. Additionally, there were some cross-lagged effects suggesting that identity and mood mutually affect one another across days. These results contribute to the growing knowledge on how identity unfolds in everyday life by revealing important associations with daily mood.


The purpose of community service is to (1) increase the awareness towards the environment; (2) improving the quality of life; and (3) improvelife peace and comfort. The method used is socialization, composting trainingand craft-making training busing household waste. The results of community service is the socienty's standard of living of as individuals and groups was improved through waste management business, the public awareness in saving the environment was increased. The quality of urban environment with waste management was increased through the applying of 3R (Reuse, Reduce and Recycle) and the society's cognitive and conative aspects were also improved regarding to the integrated waste management.


In this paper, interference effect given from nongeostationary orbit link into geostationary orbit link is analyzed by BER performance. To analyze the interference effect with the angle between satellites, the angular separation is changed from 1° to 8°, and the number of the satellite is also changed from 1 to 4 for analyzing it. From the results, the interference effect into the geostationary orbit service from non-geostationary orbit link is more increased according to the angular separation that is decreased. Especially, the small angle gives more interference effects to the geostationary orbit link. Furthermore, more number of interfering satellites gives more interference effect to the geostationary orbit link. However, the angle between the interference orbit and geostationary orbit gives more effect to the system performance then the number of the interference orbit.


The rates of bioremediation of diesel oil-contaminated soil were studied for a period of 12 weeks through changes in microbial population Two kilograms of soil moistened with 10% distilled water (w/v) was mixed thoroughly with diesel oil (5 and 10% concentrations respectively), and 3.6 × 10 6 ml spores of each fungal consortium were inoculated in the soil and exposed to natural conditions in the field for three months. Two controls without fungal inoculants were set up: C1OS (oil + soil-control 1), and C2OS (soil only-control 2). The results revealed that the populations of diesel oil utilizing microorganisms were higher at both 5 and 10% diesel oil pollution in the three soil amendments compared to the unamended control soil. The bacterial isolates were identified as species of Pseudomonas , Bacillus , Micrococcus , Staphylococcus and Escherichia , while the fungal isolates were identified as species of Aspergillus , Scopuloropsis , Cephalosporium , Penicilluim , Geotrichum , Mucor , Trichophyton and Microsporum . The pH (5.02 – 6.18) of the amended soil was lower compared to the unamended control soil (5.01 – 6.49) after 12 weeks. The moisture content of the amended soil (10.09 to 16.42%) was higher compared to the unamended control soil (8.14 to 11.39%) after 12 weeks. The results suggest that the isolates identified utilized the diesel oil as sources of carbon and nitrogen to proliferate. Keywords: Bioremediation, Consortium, Contaminated, Mycoremediation, Soil


The China Family Panel Studies (CFPS ), launched by Peking University, is a nearly nationwide, comprehensive, longitudinal social survey that is intended to serve research needs on a large variety of social phenomena in contemporary China. This article describes the background and characteristics of the CFPS, which was designed with the help of methods learned from the most influential survey projects in the world and their experiences. Extensive information is collected through computer-assisted person-to-person interviews of all family members. The questionnaires not only cover a wide range of topics but also consist of intergraded modules for rural and urban interviews, gathering information on family structure and family members, migrant mobility, event history (e.g., history of marriage, education, and employment), cognitive ability, and child development. The CFPS promises to provide the academic community with the most comprehensive and highest-quality survey data on contemporary China. China has been undergoing a rapid, large-scale, and irreversible social transformation since the late 1980s. The most significant social changes in this great transformation include rapid economic growth, a huge education expansion, and the completion of China's demographic transition (Xie 2011). These dramatic changes have been accompanied by others, such as increased income inequality (Xie and We are grateful to Cindy Glovinsky, Yan Sun, Chunni Zhang, and Yuan Zhou, for their research assistance. The research is supported by the Center for Social Research at Peking University and the Population Studies Center (with support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, R24HD041028), the Survey Research Center, and the Center for Chinese Studies of the University of Michigan. Direct all correspondence to Yu Xie, P.O. Box 1248, 426 Thompson Street, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248; e-mail: email@example.com. 4 ChinESE SoCiologiCal REviEw Zhou 2014) and the erosion of traditional family and marriage values (Xie 2013b). The great transformation in contemporary China is, sociologically speaking, a uniquely Chinese phenomenon that invites scholarly studies that pay specific attention to this particular context, with its unique political, economic, historical, cultural, and social backgrounds and constraints. It would be foolhardy to treat China as simply another data point in a statistical data analysis. Its transformation today is no less significant than those events that are commonly considered historical watersheds, such as the Renaissance that began in fourteenth-century Italy, the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century Germany, or the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth-century Britain (Xie 2011). Hence, we social scientists today are in a privileged position to observe, document, and analyze the social changes now taking place in China but affecting the course of human history. Even highly trained, experienced social scientists, however, may fail to properly understand this transformation and its full ramifications, as individuals' perspectives are easily confounded by the complex and highly heterogeneous nature of what is happening in China today. Furthermore, all humans, even social scientists, are inevitably limited by their own experiences and values and are inclined to make subjective judgments and unsubstantiated deductions. How, then, can we best understand the social changes that have been taking place in China comprehensively and objectively? What is the best way to analyze and describe the social processes underlying those changes? The answer, we believe, is empirical research based on high-quality data that reflect Chinese reality and its dynamics. This is not a truly new idea. In fact, an increasingly large number of social scientists in China have begun to take this approach. Since the 1980s, the social science community has conducted many important social surveys, the best-known of which are the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP), designed by economists (Li, Sato, and Sicular 2013), and the China General Social Survey (CGSS), designed by sociologists (Bian and Li 2012). Treiman, Lu, and Qi (2012) provide a recent overview of many important Chinese surveys. Data from these surveys provide us with important evidence for research on contemporary Chinese society. Most surveys in China to date, however, have been cross-sectional in design and narrowly focused in subject matter. Researchers are in desperate need of high-quality panel data in order to conduct high-quality empirical research (Ren and Xie 2011). The China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) is a general-purpose, nationally representative, longitudinal survey of Chinese society that was launched in 2010 by Peking University. Designed by an interdisciplinary group of scholars, the survey collects individual-, family-, and community-level longitudinal data in contemporary China in order to provide current and future researchers with comprehensive and objective data on Chinese society. The CFPS focuses on the economic as well as the noneconomic well-being of the Chinese population, gathering a wealth of information covering topics such as economic activities, education outcomes, family dynamics and relationships, migration, and health. Four waves of the CFPS (2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014) have been carried out thus far by the Institute of Social


Standard electroweak baryogenesis in the context of a first order phase transition is effective in generating the baryon asymmetry of the universe if the broken phase bubbles expand at subsonic speed, so that CP asymmetric currents can diffuse in front of the wall. Here we present a new mechanism for electroweak baryogenesis which operates for supersonic bubble walls. It relies on the formation of small bubbles of the symmetric phase behind the bubble wall, in the broken phase, due to the heating of the plasma as the wall passes by. We apply the mechanism to a model in which the Higgs field is coupled to several singlets, and find that enough baryon asymmetry is generated for reasonable values of the parameter space.


In this paper, we propose a new systematic approach based on nonquadratic Lyapunov function and technique of introducing slack matrices, for a class of affine nonlinear systems with disturbance. To achieve the goal, first, the affine nonlinear system is represented via Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy bilinear model. Subsequently, the robust H_inf controller is designed based on parallel distributed compensation (PDC) scheme. Then, the stability conditions are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) by utilizing Lyapunov function. Moreover, some slack matrices are proposed to reduce the conservativeness of the LMI stability conditions. Finally, for illustrating the merits and verifying the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the application of an isothermal continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) for Van de Vusse reactor is discussed in details.


The technical literature up to 1994 dealing with the use of antioxidants to decrease the rate of age hardening in bitumen used for roading chipseals was reviewed. Laboratory studies showed that in some cases bitumen treated with antioxidants has reduced hardening rates due to oxidation compared to control bitumens. Much of the work reported does not adequately consider interfering effects such as volatisation or dispersion of the antioxidants during mixing and accelerated aging. The additives' initial effect on bitumen viscosity is also often not properly taken into account. Virtually no research has been done on the chemistry of the antioxidant-bitumen system to attempt to understand why some additives are more effective than others or to explain the general lack of effectiveness compared to antioxidants in other materials subject to autoxidation. Lead dialkyl dithiocarbamate (LDADC) compounds showed promise in laboratory studies. One of these compounds was used in field trials in Australia, and after five years the rate of hardening was reduced by 31 percent at five percent concentration. This reduction was translated to an estimated increase in seal life of 64 percent or seven years. In laboratory studies hydrated lime (Ca(OH)2) has decreased the rate of oxidation and viscosity increase of roading bitumen, but its effect appeared to be limited in the field. Basic research on the chemistry of bitumen antioxidant systems is lacking even though, given the potential benefits of increased seal life, such research would be justified.


Sandia National Laboratories has refined a process for developing inherently safer system designs, based on methods used by the Laboratories to design detonation safety into nuclear weapons. The process was created when the Laboratories realized that standard engineering practices did not provide the level of safety assurance necessary for nuclear weapon operations, with their potential for catastrophic accidents. A systematic approach, which relies on mutually supportive design principles integrated through fundamental physical principles, was developed to ensure a predictably safe system response under a variety of operational and accident-based stresses. Robust, safe system designs result from this thematic approach to safety, minimizing the number of safety critical features. This safety assurance process has two profound benefits: the process avoids the need to understand or limit the ultimate intensity of off-normal environments and it avoids the requirement to analyze and test a bewildering and virtually infinite array of accident environment scenarios (e.g., directional threats, sequencing of environments, time races, etc.) to demonstrate conformance to all safety requirements.


Our previous research showed that students' mental models of friction at the atomic level are significantly influenced by their macroscopic ideas. For most students, friction is due to the meshing of bumps and valleys and rubbing of atoms. The aforementioned results motivated us to further investigate how students can be helped to improve their present models of microscopic friction. Teaching interviews were conducted to study the dynamics of their model construction as they interacted with the interviewer, the scaffolding activities, and/or with each other. In this paper, we present the different scaffolding activities and the variation in the ideas that students generated as they did the hands-on and minds-on scaffolding activities. Results imply that through a series of carefully designed scaffolding activities, it is possible to facilitate the refinement of students' ideas of microscopic friction.


Contextualising Austrian sources dating from 1867 until the end of World War I, this paper gives a critical overview of historical texts about the culture of Istria. By the mid-19th century and towards its end, ethnology, the so-called Volkskunde1 started to be promoted and emphasised by the very leadership of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as important in the definition and production of State culture, and was then implemented on the level of ethnographic collection, both objects and in the form of writings about traditional life. Such an approach to ethnology in Austria was embodied in the personage of the Crown Prince himself and implemented by Michael Haberlandt, founder of the Vienna Ethnographic Museum. However, this view of Istria was preceded by the work of the statistician, Karl Freiherr von Czoernig, published as early as the mid-19th century. It is asserted that these three writers created basic stereotypical constructs which became the formal framework for all evaluation of Istrian culture.


Influenza remains one of the major epidemic diseases worldwide, and rapid virus replication and collateral lung tissue damage caused by excessive pro-inflammatory host immune cell responses lead to high mortality rates. Thus, novel therapeutic agents that control influenza A virus (IAV) propagation and attenuate excessive pro-inflammatory responses are needed. Polysaccharide extract from Radix isatidis, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, exerted potent anti-IAV activity against human seasonal influenza viruses (H1N1 and H3N2) and avian influenza viruses (H6N2 and H9N2) in vitro. The polysaccharides also significantly reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6) and chemokines (IP-10, MIG, and CCL-5) stimulated by A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) at a range of doses (7.5 mg/mL, 15 mg/mL, and 30 mg/mL); however, they were only effective against progeny virus at a high dose. Similar activity was detected against inflammation induced by avian influenza virus H9N2. The polysaccharides strongly inhibited the protein expression of TLR-3 induced by PR8, suggesting that they impair the upregulation of pro-inflammatory factors induced by IAV by inhibiting activation of the TLR-3 signaling pathway. The polysaccharide extract from Radix isatidis root therefore has the potential to be used as an adjunct to antiviral therapy for the treatment of IAV infection.


These days, according to spreading the cognition and effort to decrease the energy consumption and enforcing the regulations in building energy fields, it is required to phase in the developed design methods and to develop the related technologies to cope with the tendency for the energy saving. Korean government announced the Carbon Reduction Target in 2020 which reduces 30% energy consumption compared to BAU (Business As Usual) on August, 2009. Also Korean government suggested "Low Carbon Green Growth". It is not only the passive concept that reduces carbon but active concept that advances new growth power. In building area, energy conservation roadmap was suggested as like regulation of total energy consumption in 2010, to reduce 30% of residential buildings' energy consumption in 2012, 60% in 2017, 60% of non-residential buildings' in 2020 and obligation of zero energy building in 2025. Korean construction companies compete for hegemony in related industry. We have been doing a research project "The demonstration project for convergence and integration technologies to implement the low-energy building" funded by Korean government since 2010. Our objective is to demonstrate the energy saving within the reasonable cost rising in a real office building. To do this, we planned 19 th floor office building and are constructing now. Our energy conservation technologies will be installed from 15 th to 19 th floor, and compared to other reference floor (1 st – 14 th ). Energy performance analysis was conducted to verify that our technologies can satisfy our objective. In this project, we installed various technologies. So, most efficient alternatives (combination of conservation technologies) must be deduced by energy performance analysis. This study proposes a new analysis approach to understand the effect of factors relevant to energy consumption and to predict the energy performance of buildings by Design of Experiments. As a result, this study derived a relationship which predicts the energy consumption of a building according to changes of various factors * Corresponding author email: firstname.lastname@example.com (insulation, solar shading, infiltration, and ventilation performance). Using this means of reduction, this study formulates an envelope design for existing building in the construction stage. This will also be verified through a comparison of the analysis results and actual measurements.


The use of two crossed laser pulses in a plasma for the cathodeless production of high current low emittance electron beams [1] is examined with fully relativistic 21/2D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. Estimates for the number of injected particles, their energy spread, and their emittance are given as functions of the amplitude and timing of the injection pulse relative to the drive pulse of the LWFA. The physical mechanism of the trapping of particles is examined based on single particle phase space trajectories in the self-consistent PIC simulations.


Electrochemical treatment methods have been used to arrest corrosion and protect the service- able life of a structure. This paper analyses the corrosion initiation mechanisms, the chemical reactions taking place at the steel interface and the transportation process. The available options are briefly discussed and their advantages and disadvantages examined. The conclusions drawn, focus on the current practice and how the discussed electrochemical treatments can be used to optimize performance.


A largely understudied aspect of the 1992-95 Bosnian war-the intra-Muslim war in northwestern Bosnia-illustrates the importance of local elites and micro-level economic incentives in civil wars.' Though short factual references to the conflict abound, there exists no systematic explanation as to why the intra-Muslim civil war-which resulted in close to twice the number of battleground deaths as the Serb-Muslim conflict in that area-occurred in the first place.2 Why was there violent conflict within the Bosnian Muslim community at a time when its ethnic group was at war, facing intense violence and forcible expulsion by Serb and Croat forces? Primary source materials, including wartime documents as well as personal interviews with some of the war's leading actors, shed light on the reasons behind this abstruse internecine conflict. In civil wars where the broader conflict is cast in ethnic terms and the opportunity cost of fighting is high, that is, where GDP per capita is high, economic incentives can still seriously affect group behavior. In order to have this effect, there have to be high micro-level economic payoffs as well as local elites who can guarantee the survival of their constituents while providing access to these payoffs. Previous hypotheses fail to explain the puzzle of Bosnia's intra-Muslim war. However, simple tools from consumer choice theory can be utilized to lay out a theoretical conceptualization of the trade-off between ethnicity and economic payoffs during civil wars in the presence as well as the absence of strong local elites. Bosnia's intra-Muslim conflict illustrates this theoretical mechanism.


When people with aphasia have difficulty communicating, there is a risk for miscommunication and negative outcomes related to medical care and safety (Blackstone, Beukelman, & Yorkston, 2015). This risk can be reduced by ensuring that each person with aphasia can communicate effectively when using different types of discourse and at different points in the rehabilitation process. People with aphasia may need communication supports, which could entail use of any intervention program, technique, strategy, training, or modification that supplements their receptive and expressive language skills to increase communicative effectiveness. Effective communication is addressed in best practice recommendations and guidelines for aphasia as well as The Joint Commission Standards for Patient-Centered Communication (Aphasia United, 2014; NHMRC AARP, 2014; N. Simmons-Mackie et al., 2017; The Joint Commission, 2010). This article summarizes how incorporating communication supports into varied forms of discourse and all aspects of aphasia rehabilitation and care aligns with best clinical practices and national accreditation requirements.


OBJECTIVE: To examine patient and physician preferences in regard to 5 colorectal cancer screening alternatives endorsed by a 1997 expert panel, determine the impact of patient and physician values regarding certain test features on screening preference, and assess physicians' perceptions of patients' values.DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey.SETTING: A general internal medicine practice at an academic medical center in 1998.PARTICIPANTS: Patients (N=217; 76% response rate) and physicians (N=39; 87% response rate) at the study setting.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients preferred fecal occult blood testing (43%) or colonoscopy (40%). In patients for whom accuracy was the most important test feature, colonoscopy (62%) was the preferred screening method. Patients for whom invasive test features were more important preferred fecal occult blood testing (76%; P<.001). Patients and physicians were similar in their values regarding the various test features. However, there was a significant difference between physicians' perceptions of which test features were important to patients compared with the patients' actual responses (P<.001). The largest discrepancy was for accuracy (patient actual 54% vs physician opinion 15%) and discomfort (patient actual 15% vs physician opinion 64%).CONCLUSIONS: Patients have distinct preferences for colorectal cancer screening tests that are associated with the importance placed on certain test features. Physicians incorrectly perceive those factors that are important to patients. Physicians should incorporate patient values in regard to certain test features when discussing colorectal cancer screening with their patients and when eliciting their screening preferences.


Address: 821 Bedford Rd., Midway, KY 40347On: 4/7/2015,1:45pmI met with Rick Traylor in his mobile home. According to Zillow, it was built in 1991, and a couple of other people besides the three members of the Traylor family have lived in it since that time. I met Rick while on a drive with Richard. Richard stopped by a gate at which Rick was herding cows, moving them to a different location. I later came by to his home for the interview. He had chickens and some other livestock on a small farm of his own, and a field of crops behind his house. He takes care of the field behind his home, and other fields that belong to members of Richard's family as a tenant farmer.Faktorovich: How did you first become exposed to agriculture? Did you start farming as a child? If so, under which circumstances?Traylor: Yes, I was raised on a farm, and spent all my life on a farm. I farmed tobacco, cattle, corn, hay. I raised tobacco until I couldn't any more, until I got too old, and too broken up. I had to have both of my shoulders operated on for that. I just came out of that. All of it is hard work, putting it up... I worked in the field, hung tobacco in the barn some, housing tobacco. You go wherever you're needed, the field, the barn, that's where you go. Doing it every day. One year, we worked for almost thirty days straight in tobacco. The first three days is just hard, your muscles get so sore, but then you get used to it. One time, we had this big-muscle guy that worked out all the time. His waste was about 28 inches. At 3pm, he looked at me and said, "You guys are the toughest men in the world doing this. I can't do it." He'd press it like weight lifters. What we do is a step and pitch it, not just stand there and holding it up over your head. I was about ten years old when I started driving a tractor on my uncle's farm. I put up hay when I was about six years old. It would take two of us to get a bale of hay to where they can reach it up on a wagon. We worked all day doing that. Then we'd set tobacco; kids follow the setter, and replace planks in case one is missing. It was for money; there isn't any fun in housing tobacco. But, we always had fun because there were three of us: Tim, Ray (my brother) and I on the back wagon. We worked in two rows. The closest row to the wagon goes on the front of the wagon. Then you have to walk it. We were the only ones that could pick up on the back row because we could pitch it and worked hard.Faktorovich: Was your family involved in farming? Did they start in this field or did they do something else before this?Traylor: My father died when I was 5 years old. He cut tobacco, and he'd get so tanned in the summer time just cutting tobacco that he looked like he was black in the distance, until you get up close. See, my skin is kind of dark like that. I can't remember most of my childhood because I was shot in the head in February of 1988.1 was rabbit hunting and I came in and ejected all the shells and then put two in the cylinder, but not in the chamber. My brother started pumping it because he thought it wasn't loaded. When he got to me, he just cut off the top of my head. I was 27 years old at the time. I was in the hospital for ten days. I don't remember anything that happened in the hospital, or the night I got shot. I went into shock, holding my hands together, cradled like a bowl and in my mind, I was catching my brains, or the thoughts in my head. If it had been back another 6 inches, it would've killed me because it would have cut into my brain, and not just my brain line. After that, everything changed. The hospital, Cardinal Hills, they couldn't do anything. I had long-term memory loss. What was gonna come back, was gonna come back. Before I was shot, I tell everybody, I was a surgeon, and then I became a farmer after I got shot.We lease this farm, the three of us. It belongs to Richard Jones and to his mother. I've lived here for just about 30 years, in the same place. …


OBJECTIVES: Patients exhibit a multitude of symptoms that may or may not be allergy related. In this study, we examined the consistency between results obtained by a multiallergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) test and frequent use (3 months or more) of prescribed antihistamines. METHODS: A retrospective examination of 1-year prescription claims records from January 1, 2000, through December 31, 2000, for 4,643 patients enrolled in a 115,000-member managed care organization who received 1 or more prescriptions for an oral antihistamine (loratadine, fexofenadine, or cetirizine). RESULTS: A total of 1,343 health plan enrollees who received an oral antihistamine prescription were continuously enrolled during the year 2000 and diagnosed with allergic rhinitis. Of these patients, 246 (18%) consented to a multiallergen-specific IgE test, and 159 patients (64.6%) had a negative IgE test result. A total of 163 patients were classified as frequent antihistamine users (3 or more antihistamine prescriptions), and 101 (62.0%) of these patients had negative test results. Our study demonstrated no relation between prescribed antihistamine use and patient sensitization status. CONCLUSIONS: Only 35.4% of the patients who used an oral antihistamine and were diagnosed with an allergy tested positive to the multiallergen-specific IgE test, and only 38% of the patients with records of frequent antihistamine use and who were diagnosed as allergic tested positive to the multiallergen-specific IgE test. Apparently, there are patients taking medications prescribed for allergic rhinitis who are, in fact, not allergic, which is both wasteful economically and not indicated medically. Additional evaluation may be advisable to support the clinical diagnosis of allergy for patients presenting with allergy-like symptoms who use antihistamines frequently.


In the present thesis I demonstrated that pathogenic TβSyn cells of wild-type and receptor-transgenic origins could be reliably generated and used for inducing passive transfer EAE; active EAE could be reproducibly induced in receptor-transgenic rats. Both inductions were possible without pre-treatment of recipient animals with pertussis toxin or cyclophosphamide. I additionally described the possibility to induce multiple independent bouts of inflammation and EAE by repeated transfer of TβSynTG(T/T) cells into βSynTG(T/+) recipients.
Additionally, I presented evidence supporting the hypothesis that local re-activation, not cell-intrinsic properties, determined T-cell homing into the target CNS tissue. Motility and gene-expression were highly similar between TβSyn and TMBP cells prior to CNS infiltration. Intravascular crawling of TβSyn cells was found to be dependent on VLA-4, but not LFA-1 or CXCR3, as it has been previously described for TMBP-cell mediated EAE in the Lewis rat. Subsequently, the motility parameters and gene expression of TβSyn cells in the brain suggested an activated state of these cells and resembled the parameters described for locally re-activated TMBP cells located inside the SC. Local overexpression of the βSyn antigen led to an increased recruitment of TβSyn cells into the cortex, further emphasizing the importance of antigen-recognition for T-cell homing.
Addressing the consequence of T-cell mediated inflammation in the brain, I demonstrated that transfer of TβSyn cells, but not of TMBP cells, mediated a transient reduction in synaptic spine density on cortical neurons, thereby providing a direct link between local inflammation and alterations in neuronal connectivity. Finally, I showed that active EAE as well as the repeated transfer of TβSynTG(T/T) cells induced neurodegeneration in βSynTG(T/+) rats, indicated by cortical atrophy.
Taken together, several hallmarks of MS could be reproduced here by targeting the neuronal antigen βSyn, namely meningeal inflammation, synaptopathy and cortical atrophy. These observations recommend the βSyn neuronal EAE model as a suitable model for immune cell-mediated, inflammation-driven cortical neurodegeneration in MS and further underline the importance of researching the neuronal and grey matter aspects of the disease.


This article examines Vsevolod Garshin's 1883 story "The Red Flower" and Chekhov's 1888 story "An Attack of Nerves" in light of contemporaneous work on diagnostic classificatory systems by the German neurologist Paul Julius Möbius and psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin. By situating these Russian stories within a German psychodiagnostic context, rather than seeing them in the tradition of the French experimental novel, it becomes possible to understand these stories not as single instances of illness revealing truth, but as narratives that simultaneously take on diagnosis in its social, medical and legal instantiations. Reading Chekhov's and Garshin's stories in this way opens up a new interpretive possibility: that diagnosis and self-diagnosis could form a model for a creative restructuring concerned less with "proof" than with multiple overlapping narratives of identification. Chekhov's and Garshin's tales illuminate how and when the question of what illness "reveals" can be subordinated to what reveals illness.


OBJECTIVE
To study the influence of congenital bilateral cataract on visual-related quality of life (QoL) in children.

METHODS
The scale of QoL for children with congenital bilateral cataract was used to evaluate the QoL of 81 children with congenital bilateral cataract and 28 healthy children with normal visual acuity. The average age of congenital bilateral cataract candidates was 9.8 years (from 8 to 15 years) and 37 patients were female. Thirty-six cataract children took part in the both preoperative and postoperative investigations. The patients' QoL were also categorized by age, gender, score, visual acuity, surgery and density of cataract. Multiple-linear regression model was applied to analyze the influence factors of QoL.

RESULTS
Statistically significant difference was found at the QoL between healthy children and children with congenital bilateral cataract (P = 0.00). The QoL in children with non-dense cataract was increased after cataract surgery (P = 0.00). A high correlation was found between visual acuity and QoL (r = 0.53, P = 0.00). A statistically significant difference was found in QoL between dense and non-dense cataract (P = 0.00). Three variances enrolled in the multiple-linear regression equation included the density of cataract, surgery and visual acuity. Their partial regression coefficients were 6.14 (P = 0.00), 3.21 (P = 0.01) and 1.07 (P = 0.01) respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with the healthy children, the QoL score was severely impaired in children with congenital bilateral cataract, which was influenced by the density of cataract, surgery and visual acuity. Visual acuity is the most critical factor influencing the QoL.


The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) proposed to introduce new operational strategies across the North Atlantic (NAT) airspace. This includes Minimum Navigation Performance Specifications (MNPS) airspace to increase the capacity and efficiency of the North Atlantic Organized Track System (NAT OTS). A numerical integration and simulation model called North Atlantic Simulation and Modeling (NATSAM) is developed to study the effects of these new strategies on NAT system performance. The model is capable of investigating the effects of implementing different operational policies and strategies proposed by ICAO such as Reduced Lateral Separation Minimum (RLatSM), NAT Region Data link mandate (DLM), Reduced Longitudinal Separation Minimum (RLongSM), cruise-climb profiles, variable Mach number profiles, step-climbs and other operational concepts to be studied by the ICAO. NATSAM models the individual flight performance using the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) 3.9 model to calculate the flight profiles and fuel burn. The model employs simple heuristics to execute flight track assignment in the organized track system for each scenario. Detailed outputs and also aggregated outputs are provided by the model from which various key performance indicators (KPI) can be derived to assess the performance of the system.


The occupation management on acupuncturist in the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949) was analyzed in this article. Documents on registration management and occupation exam of acupuncturist were sorted out as well. Western medical management system was taken as a reference and occupational registration on acupuncture was implemented in China, which regulated the practice of acupuncturists. Requests of anatomic and sterilization knowledge were proposed in the exam which embodied the progress of the times. However, the policies placed restrictions on puncturing of TCM doctor and prescribing of acupuncturists which manifested the incomprehensive understanding of the medical administrative department on traditional medicine. Therefore, it has not promoted the all-round development of Chinese medicine in a real sense.


It is energy-consuming and operationally cumbersome for all users to continuously estimate the channel quality before each transmission decision in opportunistic scheduling over wireless fading channels. This observation motivates us to understand whether and how opportunistic gains can still be achieved with significant reductions in channel probing requirements and without centralized coordination amongst the competing users. To that end, we first study a simple scenario that motivates us to consider the general setup and develop probing and transmission schemes that are amenable to distributed implementation. After characterizing the maximum achievable throughput region under the probing constraints, we provide an optimal probing algorithm. Noting the difficulties in the implementation of the centralized solution, we develop a novel Sequential Greedy Probing (SGP) algorithm, which is naturally well-suited for physical implementation and distributed operation. We show that the SGP algorithm is optimal in the important scenario of symmetric and independent ON-OFF fading channels. Then, we study a variant of the SGP algorithm in general fading channels to obtain its efficiency ratio as an explicit function of the channel statistics and rates, and note its tightness in the symmetric and independent ON-OFF fading scenario. We further discuss the distributed implementation of these greedy solutions by using the Fast-CSMA technique.


Superconducting magnets submitted to large heat loads, as the low-β quadrupoles for the LHC luminosity upgrade, need the development of new concepts of cable electrical insulation featuring a He-II porous wrapping scheme. This paper reports and discusses recent results of dedicated heat transfer measurements performed on different variants of such schemes, with emphasis on the heat transfer enhancements achievable with respect to the state-of-the-art insulation used for the main LHC magnets.


demonstrates the range of options that actors employ to defend or contest property claims. This book successfully demonstrates how complex and unpredictable the consequences of new land legislation can be; as Lund puts it, "laws, regulations, and policies do not determine access and the use of resources as such, but erect a structure of opportunities for negotiation of these rights" (155). Political scientists and policymakers may miss a more systematic assessment of how the frequency and intensity of land conflicts have developed in the region, and how typical these northern Ghanaian conflict trajectories are for other African settings. Anthropologists and historians, by contrast, may contend that Lund's strategy of illustrating theoretical arguments with an assemblage of microhistories that are not intimately interconnected means that the individual case histories cannot be presented in sufficient detail or depth. Moreover, the ritual and social aspects of land tenure are barely addressed. Given the importance to Lund's argument of the 1979 constitutional revision, one might also have expected some discussion of how the new legislation was brought about, as well as why the conflicts triggered by the new legal opportunities emerged only ten or more years after the changes in the legal framework. However, these caveats make this study no less important and insightful. Scholars and policymakers can learn from Lund's analysis that detailed local studies and a historical perspective are important if we want to critique conventional ideas about the prospects of replacing "customary" tenure regimes by, for instance, a system of individual private ownership titles. Carola Lentz Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany


Background An estimated ~110 million workers are exposed to welding fumes worldwide. An IARC working group (WG) re-evaluated the carcinogenicity of welding fumes in 2017, previously classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B) in 1990, based on limited evidence for lung cancer in humans. The WG conducted a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed epidemiologic studies reporting a relative risk for welding (fumes) and lung cancer, accounting for confounding by exposure to asbestos and tobacco smoking. Methodology After comprehensive searches in PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases and reference lists of relevant publications, 23 case-control and 36 cohort and nested case-control studies met our inclusion criteria. We attempted to remove overlapping populations for calculating summary-RRs. Results The summary-RRs were 1.29 (95% CI: 1.24–1.34; I2=47.5%) for "ever" compared with "never" being a welder or being exposed to welding fumes, 1.27 (95% CI: 1.22–1.32; I2=44.7%) among cohort and nested case-control studies, 1.50 (95% CI: 1.34–1.67; I2=39.9%) for case-control studies, 1.09 (95% CI: 0.98–1.20; I2=23%) adjusted for smoking and asbestos exposure, 1.15 (95% CI: 1.02–1.28), among "shipyard welders", 1.00 (95% CI: 0.84–1.17) among "stainless-steel welders" and 1.31 (95% CI: 1.03–1.60) among "mild steel welders". The summary-RR was higher for "gas welders" compared to "arc welders", but not statistically significant. Increased risks were observed over time periods, occupational settings and geographic locations support an evaluation for an increased risk of lung cancer among welders, independent of exposure to asbestos and tobacco smoking.


The interference effect between the nano rotor and aerodynamic rudder was studied experimentally and computationally. Propulsive performance of nano rotor and aerodynamic performance of aerodynamic rudder were achieved experimentally. The disturbed flow field of nano rotor was also analyzed computationally to disclose the flow mechanics of the interaction. Results showed that the nano rotor has a great effect on the aerodynamic performance of aerodynamic rudder. The moment of aerodynamic rudder fluctuated with the rotor-to-rudder spacing and achieved the smallest value at the spacing of 0.5 R. And the moment of aerodynamic rudder varied with deflection angle linearly. Aerodynamic rudder influenced the propulsion performance of the nanor rotor slightly. The thrust coefficient and torque coefficient increased a little with spacing but changed slightly with the deflection angle. Numerical simulation showed that aerodynamic rudder blocked the flow field of the nano rotor and the counter-clockwise rotation of the rotor drives the flow in the downstream rotating in a counterclockwise direction resulting in the different angle of attack between left and right rudder surface.


This article reflects upon a collaborative project involving the Write Now Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (http://www.writenow.ac.uk), and a Business School lecturer who teaches an Honours-level module, International Purchasing. The collaboration was in response to an analysis of module exam results that were disappointing with regard to the lower performing students. A student survey identified which, in particular, fear was thought to have played a significant part in the students' exam preparations. It is the intention of the article to demonstrate how collaborative projects can be employed to address specific issues relating to teaching and learning.


"An extremely important work. . . . John has brought his unprecedented knowledge of the archaeology together with his anthropological and ecological insights, to provide the most thorough synthesis of the predrainage aboriginal use of this area. Now that Congress has mandated the restoration of the Everglades . . . this book will provide researchers as well as the general public with an understanding of what the Everglades were like prior to drainage and how humans utilized this natural wonder."--Randolph J. Widmer, University of Houston Originally prepared as a report for the National Park Service in 1988, Griffin's work places the human occupation of the Everglades within the context of South Florida's unique natural environmental systems. He documents, for the first time, the little known but relatively extensive precolumbian occupation of the interior portion of the region and surveys the material culture of the Glades area. He also provides an account of the evolution of the region's climate and landscape and a history of previous archaeological research in the area and fuses ecological and material evidence into a discussion of the sequence and distribution of cultures, social organization, and lifeways of the Everglades inhabitants.Milanich and Miller have transformed Griffin's report into an accessible, comprehensive overview of Everglades archaeology for specialists and the general public. Management plans have been removed, maps redrawn, and updates added. The result is a synthesis of the archaeology of a region that is taking center stage as various state and federal agencies cooperate to restore the health of this important ecosystem, one of the nation's most renowned natural areas and one that has been designated a World Heritage Site and a Wetland of International Importance. This book will make a key work in Florida archaeology more readily available as a springboard for future research and will also, at last, allow John Griffin's contribution to south Florida archaeology to be more widely appreciated. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series


Early February 2008 saw the celebration of the first 10 years of work by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), the federally funded body charged with promoting the regulatory acceptance of scientifically valid safety testing methods that replace, reduce, or refine the use of animals. ICCVAM also released a five-year plan establishing priorities for research, translation, and validation activities. The plan was unveiled during an anniversary symposium held 5 February 2008 in Bethesda, Maryland.

ICCVAM conducts technical evaluations of alternative testing methods proposed for regulatory use, makes recommendations to regulatory agencies on the usefulness and limitations of new methods, identifies knowledge and data gaps that need to be addressed with further research and development efforts, and coordinates with similar efforts internationally. The National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM), housed at the NIEHS, provides administrative, operational, and scientific support to the inter-agency committee.

To date, ICCVAM's recommendations have resulted in national and international acceptance of alternatives for acute oral toxicity, skin corrosivity, and allergic contact dermatitis, three of the most common types of toxicity assays. ICCVAM has also recommended use of the Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability and Isolated Chicken Eye tests to assess eye irritation; regulatory decisions on these assays are due in April 2008.

William Stokes, director of NICEATM, says the tests reviewed by ICCVAM are essential to translating research findings from bench to bedside. "Our 'bedside' is more effective public health prevention measures," he says. "The improved alternatives recommended by ICCVAM help prevent disease and injury so you don't end up in the bed in the first place."

"ICCVAM is essential," says John Bailey, executive vice president for science at the Personal Care Products Council (formerly the Cosmetics, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association). "It brings the science together, and allows a transparent assessment."

ICCVAM's new five-year plan lists four areas of emphasis: establishing priorities for future testing; identifying and encouraging appropriate research efforts; educating stakeholders about the acceptance and appropriate use of improved methods; and improving partnerships with and between those inside and outside ICCVAM. Some of the approaches emphasized for further development include high-throughput assays, use of species such as roundworms and tadpoles, and better biomarkers of toxic effects.

Despite the committee's successes, ICCVAM's efforts have received mixed reviews. Jessica Sandler, director of the Regulatory Testing Division for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who strongly supported ICC-VAM when it was formed, says progress has been painfully slow. She attributes this in part to ICCVAM not taking advantage of the work of sister organizations such as the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), which has endorsed the use of many more alternative test methods than its U.S. counterpart.

But Stokes explains that ICCVAM, NICEATM, and ECVAM in fact worked very closely in recent years. ICCVAM's activities are limited to the review of test methods applicable to regulatory testing, while ECVAM has a broader mandate to address animal use for all areas of research and testing (e.g., screening to prioritize chemicals for product development). Stokes notes that ECVAM is a center with numerous laboratories and a large full-time staff, whereas ICCVAM is a committee with no laboratories. ICCVAM must also operate with a high level of transparency and the opportunity for broad public and stakeholder input in contrast to ECVAM's less-extensive closed review process. Moreover, Stokes says, many of the assays recommended by ECVAM have not been accepted by European regulatory agencies.

Daniel Krewski, chairman of a National Research Council committee that produced the 12 June 2007 report Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century, affirms the value of ICCVAM's work so far. However, the committee recommends that an entirely different federal framework, possibly with a size and budget akin to that of the National Toxicology Program, be rapidly adopted to overcome ICCVAM's limitations. Such a program would be "quite a paradigm shift from what we're doing now," he says, but ICCVAM could be viewed as a transitional step toward this new direction.

Meanwhile, the new five-year plan may help expedite improvements, says Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group. She has many concerns about the ICCVAM review process but appreciates the plan: "It gives us a benchmark to measure progress." The plan is available at http://iccvam.niehs.nih.gov/docs/5yearplan.htm.


We report the detection of a long-timescale negative lag, where the blue bands lag the red bands, in the nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9, with two independent methods. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) light curves show variability over a wide range of timescales. By measuring time lags between different wavelengths, the otherwise inaccessible structure and kinematics of the accretion disk can be studied. One common approach, reverberation mapping, quantifies the continuum and line lags moving outward through the disk at the light-travel time, revealing the size and temperature profile of the disk. Inspired by numerical simulations, we expect longer lags to exist in AGN light curves that travel inward on longer timescales, tracing the accretion process itself. By analyzing AGN light curves in both temporal and frequency space, we report the detection of long-timescale lags (∼−70 days) in Fairall 9 that propagate in the opposite direction to the reverberation lag. The short continuum lag (<10 days) is also detected and is consistent with reverberation lags reported in the literature. When fitting the longer lag as a function of frequency with a model motivated by the thin disk model, we find that the disk scale height likely increases outward in the disk. This detection raises the exciting prospect of mapping accretion disk structures across a wide range of AGN parameters.


In this present work, spline FEA for the trimmed NURBS surface of the 2D linear elasticity problem is presented. The main benefit of the proposed method is that no additional efforts for modeling of trimmed NURBS surfaces are needed and the information of the trimming curves and trimmed surfaces exported from the CAD system can be directly used for analysis. For this, trimmed elements are searched by using NURBS projection scheme. The integration of the trimmed elements is performed by using the NURBS-enhanced integration scheme. The formulation of constructing stiffness matrix of trimmed elements is presented. In this formulation, the information of the trimming curve is used for calculating the Jacobian as well as for obtaining integration points. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method are investigated through various numerical examples.


In the present work we describe a method which allows the incorporation of surface tension into the GENSMAC2D code. This is achieved on two scales. First on the scale of a cell, the surface tension effects are incorporated into the free surface boundary conditions through the computation of the capillary pressure. The required curvature is estimated by fitting a least square circle to the free surface using the tracking particles in the cell and in its close neighbors. On a sub-cell scale, short wavelength perturbations are filtered out using a local 4-point stencil which is mass conservative. An efficient implementation is obtained through a dual representation of the cell data, using both a matrix representation, for ease at identifying neighbouring cells, and also a tree data structure, which permits the representation of specific groups of cells with additional information pertaining to that group. The resulting code is shown to be robust, and to produce accurate results when compared with exact solutions of selected fluid dynamic problems involving surface tension.


Strain, deformation, and temperature measurements constitute some of the most interesting parameters to be monitored in composite materials or structures. White light interferometry offers good performance even for long-term measurements of these parameters. Based on the Michelson interferometer, a fiberoptic localized extensometer and multiplexing strain-sensing techniques are demonstrated in this article. Related problems such as the effect of optical fiber coating on an embedded sensor and the dual use of one sensor are discussed. Finally, application examples of surface strain and internal strain (0–6000 microstrain) and temperature (22–36 °C) of concrete sample are given.


BIHUNCOVA, I., SOBOTKOVA, E., PETLACHOVA, T., PISOVA, M., KOSŤUKOVA, M., CERNOHORSKA, H.: The eff ect of the size and shape of chestnuts on the identifi cation of horses. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2012, LX, No. 6, pp. 21–32 A study was carried out on 11 horse breeds comprising of the Akhal Teke (n = 23); English Thoroughbred (n = 23); Arabian Thoroughbred (n = 18); Czech Warm-Blood (n = 21); Old Kladrubian horse (n = 20); Hucul horse (n = 20); Czech – Moravian Belgian horse (n = 20); Noriker horse (n = 7); Silesian Noriker (n = 14); Hafl inger (n = 20); Shetland pony (n = 20) to determine the shape and size of chestnuts. Chestnuts of 206 horses classifi ed in three phylogeny classes were measured and drawn. The necessary data (breed; sex; name; sire; dam; sire of dam; age of horse; colour of horse; colour of the chestnut; bone) were entered into a special form. In the form the outlines of the shapes of the chestnuts were drawn; using a calliper we measured the protrusion of the chestnut at its highest point and the width at the widest part of the chestnut. We found no identical or similar shapes of the chestnuts within the breed or phylogeny class. We confi rmed that the outlines of the chestnuts can be used as identifying marks because they are unique for each horse. We also tried to determine how the size of the chestnut is related to the strength of the skeleton but we failed to prove this dependence statistically. Using the general linear model (GLM) we discovered a statistically highly signifi cant eff ect of the phylogeny class on the height and width of the chestnuts on all four limbs. The age factor has a statistically highly signifi cant eff ect on the width of the chestnut on both front legs. Sex has a statistically signifi cant eff ect on the height of the chestnut on both hind legs. horse, breed, chestnut


Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a relatively common clinical entity with significant morbidity and mortality. Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is the most significant complication of DVT and warrants immediate attention. The location of the DVT has a substantial impact on its ability to break off and travel to the pulmonary vasculature, causing a PE. Proximal DVT is more likely to cause a PE than a distal DVT. The widely accepted management for proximal DVT is anticoagulation. However, the management of distal DVT is unclear. This review article discusses factors that increase the risk of PE in patients with distal DVT, guidance on how to categorize patients into high and low-risk categories, and the recommended management for each category.


Electrorheological (ER) polishing is a novel polishing technology having flexible and tunable characteristics. At present, ER polishing uses ER particles to drive abrasive particles to polish the material surface. Under the action of high-speed centrifugation, the abrasive particles are easily separated from ER particles due to their significantly different ER effect, and this can easily cause the degradation of polishing ability. In this work, alumina-doped titanium dioxide ER polishing particles were developed via a sol-gel method. As a classical abrasive, alumina has higher hardness and can improve the ER effect of titanium dioxide by doping. Thus, alumina-doped titanium dioxide particles simultaneously possess high ER effect and high hardness. No phase separation appears in the polishing process and the result shows that alumina-doped titanium dioxide has a good polishing efficiency for materials with Mohs hardness of 3 and below.


The downing of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17th sent shockwaves around the world. The airliner was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over Eastern Ukraine by an surface to air missile, killing all people on board, 283 passengers including 80 children, and 15 crew members. The victims were the nationals of at least 10 different states, with the Netherlands losing 192 of its citizens. This disaster brought the horrors of the Ukrainian war home to us in Western Europe, a hybrid war which started in March 2014 when Putin firstly annexed the Crimea illegally and then set his eyes on Eastern Ukraine (Sascha-Dominik Bachmann, Crimea and Ukraine 2014: a brief reflection on Russia's 'protective interventionism' before the backdrop of NATO's new security concept of Hybrid Threats, JURIST -- Forum, May 18, 2014). This short article highlights some possible responses to the crime with a particular focus on a potential terrorism argument.


These excellently designed books were intended primarily for use in the senior high schools of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. But there is no watering down of the style. College professors and students, as well as other citizens, will find Scott's study helpful in understanding the development of a metropolis, the effect on people of the many activities carried on in a metropolitan area, and the role and possibilities of planning to secure more satisfaction from these activities. The volume by Jones and Wilcox is a straightforward description of the many types of local government in the area and of the activities in which the state and local governments are engaged. Unfortunately, the organization of the book does not emphasize the extent, unapproached elsewhere, to which Los Angeles County functions as a municipality. There is little analysis or even discussion of the problems of establishing a metropolitan government, or of getting existing governments to work together. But this is not the primary purpose of the book. The Haynes Foundation and the authors are to be congratulated for preparing books on a high level of discourse for use in high schools. Both books are profusely illustrated with photographs, charts and maps.—VICTOR JONES, Wesleyan University.


The epidemic caused by coronavirus poses a serious threat to human health, but there is no specific drug or vaccine for the treatment of this kind of virus infection Herein, this article selects typical case studies in recent years and reviews the medicinal chemistry strategies of anti-SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and other coronavirus drugs from the perspective of medicinal chemistry, and tries to provide some clues to current drug research against-SARS-CoV-2


This report documents the first known case of esophageal rupture occurring after chiropractic manipulation of the thoracic and lumbar spine for the treatment of back pain. Physicians should be aware of this potentially lethal complication of chiropractic medicine. The images are presented for educational purposes.


We aim at dimensioning fixed broadband microwave wireless networks under unreliable channel conditions. As the transport capacity of microwave links is prone to variations due to, e.g., weather conditions, such a dimensioning requires special attention. It can be formulated as the determination of the minimum cost bandwidth assignment of the links in the network for which traffic requirements can be met with high probability, while taking into account that transport link capacities vary depending on channel conditions. The proposed optimization model represents a major step forward since we consider dynamic routing. Experimental results show that the resulting solutions can save up to 45% of the bandwidth cost compared to the case where a bandwidth over-provisioning policy is uniformly applied to all links in the network planning. Comparisons with previous work also show that we can solve much larger instances in significantly shorter computing times, with a comparable level of reliability.


The discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as 'mad cow disease', in Japan caused anxiety about consuming beef and beef products. As a result, there was a sudden fall in sales of beef that hurt the Japanese beef industry as well as major beef exporters to Japan. We analyse factors that affect Japanese consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) price premiums for BSE-tested beef and estimate the mean WTP for BSE-tested beef using data obtained from a consumer survey in Japan. A single-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation model is used to recover the premium amount. We find that attitudes to food safety, reduction in beef consumption following the BSE outbreak, and being female all have a statistically significant positive effect on the WTP for BSE-tested beef. Interestingly, demographic variables such as age and income do not affect the WTP, possibly indicating that the BSE scare similarly affected multiple segments of the population. In our sample, consumers are willing to pay a premium on average of greater than 50 per cent for BSE-tested beef.


An improved flame extinguishing criterion is implemented to the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) for gaseous suppressants under the lumped species model with transport-limited combustion (infinitely fast chemistry). The criterion considers the total enthalpy of gas mixture as a function of temperature, and evaluates whether a limiting adiabatic flame temperature can be obtained due to combustion in a cell. The model is validated against a number of experiments in the cup-burner apparatus, a standard means of obtaining the minimum flame-extinguishing concentrations (MEC) for a variety of fuel-suppressant combinations. The results indicate that the model can reproduce the MEC values for all common inert gas agents, as well as some of the fluorinated halocarbon agents. It is further demonstrated in the paper that the flame extinguishment criterion, although validated using grid cells on the order of 1 mm, is equally applicable to larger cell sizes more appropriate for full-scale simulations. This improves the capability of FDS to predict the performance of full-scale fire suppression systems.


Maruca vitrata is a significant constraint to cowpea production in most cowpea growing areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Yield losses caused by M. vitrata in these regions are estimated in millions of tons annually and the prevalence of M. vitrata infestation is steadily increasing. Recombinant DNA technology have led to development of some cowpea lines with  Maruca resistance as well as other important agronomic traits but it is time-consuming and difficult to screen for the resistant trait especially in the segregating populations using conventional screening techniques, which will lead to delay in the development of  Maruca resistant cowpea varieties. The use of allele-based selection tool will make it easier to select plant traits and reduce the time needed to develop new Maruca resistant cowpea varieties. In this study, the efficacy of using Cry1Ab/Ac Bt strip for detecting  Maruca resistant transgene in transgenic cowpea was systematically investigated for the first time through field derived progenies. The results show that the Cry1Ab/Ac Bt strip was effective for detecting the presence of the resistant gene in cowpea genome. Maruca resistant plants were successfully screened from the segregating cowpea plants and the genetics of the gene was monitored. The Cry1Ab/Ac Bt strip was found to be suitable for genetic analysis of the  Maruca resistant transgene in cowpea. This study has demonstrated the precision of using Cry1Ab/Ac Bt strips as a screening tool of transgenic lines containing Cry1Ab gene, this has an importance in the hybridization programme where genotypes having cry gene can be distinguished at seedling stage at lesser time, with the potential of putting the breeding process on a fast track and increase the efficiency of breeding activities. Keywords: Bacillus thuriengiensis , Cry1Ab/Ac Bt strips, transgenic cowpea, Maruca vitrata . African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(40), pp. 5869-5874


Abstract Automatic pronunciation of unknown words (i.e., those not in the system dictionary) is a difficult problem in text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis. Currently, many data-driven approaches have been applied to the problem, as a backup strategy for those cases where dictionary matching fails. The difficulty of the problem depends on the complexity of spelling-to-sound mappings according to the particular writing system of the language. Hence, the degree of success achieved varies widely across languages but also across dictionaries, even for the same language with the same method. Further, the sizes of the training and test sets are an important consideration in data-driven approaches. In this paper, we study the variation of letter-to-phoneme transcription accuracy across seven European languages with twelve different lexicons. We also study the relationship between the size of dictionary and the accuracy obtained. The largest dictionaries of each language have been partitioned into ten approximately equal-sized subsets and combined to give ten different-sized test sets. In view of its superior performance in previous work, the transcription method used is pronunciation by analogy (PbA). Best results are obtained for Spanish, generally believed to have a very regular ('shallow') orthography, and poorest results for English, a language whose irregular spelling system is legendary. For those languages for which multiple dictionaries were available (i.e., French and English), results were found to vary across dictionaries. For the relationship between dictionary size and transcription accuracy, we find that as dictionary size grows, so performance grows monotonically. However, the performance gain decelerates (tends to saturate) as the dictionary increases in size; the relation can simply be described by a logarithmic regression, one parameter of which (α) can be taken as quantifying the depth of orthography of a language. We find that α for a language is significantly correlated with transcription performance on a small dictionary (approximately 10,000 words) for that language, but less so for asymptotic performance. This may be because our measure of asymptotic performance is unreliable, being extrapolated from the fitted logarithmic regression.


The growth in the solar energy technology caused inshortage solar grade Si. As a lowcost, environmental friendly technology, metallurgical method purity silicon is developed significantly. However, as a typical impurity in Si, B is difficult to be removed by directional refining or vacuum melting due to its large segregation coefficient and less evaporation coefficient. In this paper, the big difference of evaporation pressure between Si and B can be applied to separate B from Si, in which, B is remained in molten Si, while most of Si becomes evaporant. Electron beam is applied to scan molten Si and the Si existed in the form of the evaporant is gather on the watercooled crystallizer. The content B in the evaporant is undetectable by ICP-MS.


The relationship between left ventricular wall motion worsening (new asynergy; newly developed or worsened asynergy) in the affected part of old myocardial infarction during exercise two-dimensional echocardiography and the wall thickness at diastole was evaluated in 20 patients with more than 51% diameter stenosis in only the infarcted related artery using symptom-limited graded supine bicycle exercise test and two-dimensional echocardiography. End-diastolic wall thickness at normal part of the wall (WtdN) and infarcted parts (WtdI) on the parasternal short-axis view at the papillary muscle level at rest were measured and the wall thickness ratio, WtdI/WtdN x 100(%), was calculated. The rate pressure product at the time when new asynergy appeared and the appearance time of new asynergy after starting exercise were measured in seconds. Mean values for the 20 patients were wall thickness ratio of 75.7 +/- 10.0% (mean +/- SD), new asynergy appearance time of 219 +/- 116 sec after exercise and rate pressure product of 14,209 +/- 2,997 mmHg. beat/min. Smaller wall thickness ratio was associated with lower rate pressure product levels (r = 0.696, p < 0.01) and shorter appearance time of new asynergy (r = 0.772, p < 0.01). There was no significant correlation between the percentage diameter stenosis of the infarct-related artery and appearance time of new asynergy or rate pressure product. New asynergy appeared at a specific infarcted part of the wall, and thinner walls were associated with shorter appearance time of new asynergy with lower rate pressure product levels, regardless of the severity of stenosis of the infarct-related artery.


Drawing on a new critical history of psychoanalysis in Chile, this paper analyses the appropriations of psychoanalysis in the Chilean political field, particularly in Marxist theory, as it appears in the work of two important intellectuals who published their contributions from the 1930s to the late 1950s. These two case studies are of Juan Marin Rojas, a medical doctor, writer and diplomat born in Chile in 1900, and of Alejandro (born Alexander) Lipschutz, an endocrinologist, physiologist and anthropologist born in Latvia in 1883 and who migrated to Chile in 1926 and naturalized as a Chilean citizen in 1941. This study provides the context and looks at the interactions, debates and problems that arose at the crossroads of psychoanalysis and Marxism in Chile between the 1930s and the 1950s, and consequently opens the door for new perspectives from which to address the local history of psychoanalysis.


Background A number of studies generated induced neural progenitor cells (iNPCs) from human fibroblasts by viral delivering defined transcription factors. However, the potential risks associated with gene delivery systems have limited their clinical use. We propose it would be safer to induce neural progenitor-like cells from human adult fibroblasts via a direct non-genetic alternative approach. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we have reported that seven rounds of TAT-SOX2 protein transduction in a defined chemical cocktail under a 3D sphere culture gradually morphed fibroblasts into neuroepithelial-like colonies. We were able to expand these cells for up to 20 passages. These cells could give rise to cells that expressed neurons and glia cell markers both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions/Significance These results show that our approach is beneficial for the genetic material-free generation of iNPCs from human fibroblasts where small chemical molecules can provide a valuable, viable strategy to boost and improve induction in a 3D sphere culture.


Recent applications to the modeling of emission permit markets by means of stochastic dynamic general equilibrium models look into the relative merits of different policy mechanisms under uncertainty. The approach taken in these studies is to assume the existence of an emission constraints that is always binding (i.e. the emission cap is always smaller than what actual emissions would be in the absence of climate policy). Although this might seem a reasonable assumption in the longer term, as policies will be increasingly stringent, in the short run there might be instances where this assumption is in sharp contrast with reality. A notable example would be the current status of the European Emission Trading Scheme. This paper explores the implications of adopting a technique that allows occasionally, rather than strictly, binding constraints. With this new setup the paper sets out to investigate the relative merits of different climate policy instruments under different macro-economic shocks. Keywords: Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model, emission trading, carbon tax, occasionally binding constraints. JEL codes: Q58, Q54, E2.


This article describes the development and implementation of a rotation programme for Band 5 nurses within the surgical directorate at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. The article highlights the challenges raised for nurses with health service modernization and develops the rationale for the need for a different way of thinking. At Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, the authors evaluation has led to the development of the surgical rotation programme for Band 5 nurses. This rotation programme challenged basic clinical practice and traditional modes of staff placement. Indications, so far, are that quality of care for patients has improved and nurses satisfaction has increased as a result of the implementation of the Band 5 surgical rotation programme.


Results are presented from a search for new physics in the final state containing a photon and missing transverse energy. The data corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb$^{-1}$ collected in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$= 7 TeV by the CMS experiment. The observed event yield agrees with standard model expectations. Using models for the production of dark matter particles($\chi$), we set 90$% confidence level (C.L.) upper limits of 13.6-15.4 fb on $\chi$ production in the $\gamma$+ $\met$ state. These provide the most sensitive upper limits for spin-dependent $\chi$-nucleon scattering for \c{hi} masses between 1 and 100 GeV. For spin dependent contributions, the present limits are extended to M($\chi$) $<$ 3.5 GeV. For ADD models with 3-6 large extra dimensions, our data exclude extra-dimensional Planck scales between 1.64 and 1.73 TeV at 95% C.L.


The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) decoction extract (CDE) on aspirin-induced small bowel injuries. The chemical composition of CDE was analysed by LC-HRESIMS. Experimental animals received CDE (100 mg kg−1, p.o. P.C.) before induction of intestinal injuries by oral aspirin administration. Chromatographic analysis has allowed the identification of 15 phenolic compounds, especially phenolic acids and flavonoids. The intestinal disturbances were assessed by histopathological and biochemical examinations. In vivo, we found that aspirin administration caused intestinal histological alterations accompanied by an oxidative stress status as assessed by increase in a lipoperoxidation and depletion of non-enzymatic antioxidant levels and antioxidant enzyme activities, as well as an intestinal overload of reactive oxygen species such as H2O2, OH˙ and O2˙−. We also showed that aspirin treatment significantly increased the pro-inflammatory mediator (IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α) levels in plasma. CDE treatment suppressed all the histological and biochemical disturbances induced by aspirin intoxication.


Telecommunications systems with Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) structure using Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM) have great potential for efficient application to a network of Internet of Things (IoT) at a high data rate. When the IoT network is among the underwater sensory devices known as the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT), the electromagnetic wave cannot play the role of baseband signal due to rapid fall-off inside the water. Thus, acoustic OFDM is a reliable replacement for conventional OFDM inside the water. A blind structure for MIMO acoustic OFDM using Independent Component Analysis (ICA) brings even further advantages in data rate and energy consumption by avoiding the required pilot and preamble data. This research work presents a blind MIMO Acoustic OFDM blind transceiver for IoUT based on Probabilistic Stone's Blind Source Separation (PS-BSS). The proposed technique has multiple times lower complexity compared to the ICA-based technique while maintaining a comparable efficiency. As observed in the results carried out with 100 Monte Carlo runs of transmission of random data bits over a highly sparse channel that is the common case of an underwater environment, the proposed PS-BSS-based technique dominates the ICA-based one, and as the sparseness of the channel decreases, its efficiency is comparable to the ICA-based technique. Thus, in the case of a highly sparse channel, the proposed technique is superior in both aspects of efficiency and complexity, while over lower sparseness, due to its comparative efficiency, it can be hired as an optimum technique fulfilling a fair tradeoff between efficiency and complexity.