Azobenzene (azo) polymer photoactuators with full room-temperature reprogrammability, reprocessability, and photomobility are highly desirable for large-scale applications, but their development remains a daunting challenge. Herein, a strategy is first presented for fabricating such advanced photoactuators from a high-molecular-weight main-chain azo crystalline poly(ester-amide) (PEA) prepared via Michael addition polymerization. This azo PEA can be readily processed into both physically cross-linked, uniaxially oriented fibers and films with high mechanical robustness and reversible photoinduced bending/unbending at room temperature. Importantly, the presence of both amide unit-induced hydrogen bonding and crystalline domains in such films and fibers endows them with dynamic, yet stable cross-linking points, which enable their easy reprogrammability under strain at room temperature into various three-dimensional (3D) shapes (e.g., film helicoid and spiral ribbon, fiber spring) capable of showing completely different shape-dependent photomobile modes. In particular, these reshaped photoactuators can maintain their accurate 3D shapes and highly reversible photoinduced motions even after being kept at 80 °C for 20 days or at 100 °C for 2 days. They can also be reprocessed and recycled from solution at room temperature. Such a multifunctional main-chain azo crystalline PEA can serve as a versatile platform for fabricating various photoactuators with desired 3D shapes and motion modes under mild ambient conditions.


BACKGROUND
Capture-recapture methods have been widely employed in the study of wildlife populations and have recently been applied to count various human diseases and conditions. We have estimated the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus by adjusting for the degree of undercount using a two-sample model of capture-recapture among men and women aged 50-69 in Oguni town, Japan.

METHODS
Oguni town diabetes registry data were utilized as the first source. In the registry, only those who had experienced fasting plasma glucose of > or = 7.8 mmol/l (140 mg/dl) or 2 h plasma glucose after a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) of > or = 11.1 mmol/l (200 mg/dl) were counted as having diabetes. A second source was a sample study selecting 200 men and 200 women aged 50-69 randomly, which was conducted in August 1991. A 75 g OGTT was done in the morning. The 1985 World Health Organization criteria were used to classify the diabetes status of the participants. A two-sample model of capture-recapture methods was employed to estimate the total number of cases of diabetes and determine the ascertainment rates of the registry.

RESULTS
The prevalence estimated by the diabetes registry was 7.1%. The prevalence from the sample study was 8.8% with a participation rate of 74%. Estimated prevalence employing the capture-recapture method was 13.1%. The ascertainment rate of the registry was 53.8%.

CONCLUSIONS
Little is known about the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in local areas in Japan, the US and the world. Capture-recapture methods are likely to provide a means to accurately assess the prevalence of diabetes.


Introduction and Objective: Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of mortality in young adults. Several physiological and biochemical parameters were defined for this purpose. Our objective was to investigate the correlation between mortality and the biochemical parameters, hemogram parameters and blood gas parameters. Materials and Methods: 768 patients, who had applied to the emergency unit of the Ataturk University Research Hospital due to the traffic accident between 01.01.2017 and 01.07.2017, were retrospectively investigated. Two groups were formed from patients, who died (Group 1) and discharged (Group 2). The information about the patients and the biochemical parameters, hemogram parameters, blood gas analyses were retrieved from the electronic patient files and application files in the emergency department. Data were analyzed with SPSS  v20 software package. The accepted limit of significance was p<0.05. Results:  42.2 % of patients were hospitalized and treated in the clinics and 1.4 % died. There was a significant difference between the groups regarding pH, lactate, HCO₃, SBC, PCO₂,  calcium and albumin levels. However, the differences in respect of hematocrit, platelet,WBC levels were insignificant (Table). Discussion and Conclusion: An increase in the base deficit, which emerges due to the metabolic acidosis and lactic acidosis as a result of hypovolemia, was described in several studies focused on the patients injured in traffic accidents. Our study confirmed the findings in the literature and showed that the values of pH, HCO₃, SBC, SBE, calcium and albumin were lower in the patients, who died, compared to the discharged patients.


The research question guiding this study is: What are effective forms of resistance of long-term unemployed in Germany against the government of unemployment? Following Michel Foucault, the government of unemployment is understood as the institutions, procedures, analyses, calculations and tactics forming a set of solutions to unemployment and its social and personal effects. The government of unemployment exercises power over the unemployed through the creation of individualized and politically marginalized subjectivities. The group KEAs e.V. responds to the political marginalization of the unemployed through independent self-organization. Furthermore, they challenge the individualized subjectivities imposed by the government of unemployment by fostering solidarity and practicing "agonal" resistance collectively and individually. This study is based on qualitative research conducted with the KEAs in the form of semi-structured in-depth interviews and participant observation.


The focus of the symposium was to examine existing and planned avionics technology processes and products and to recommend necessary changes for strengthening priorities and program emphases. Innovative changes in avionics technology development and design processes are needed to support the increasingly complex, multi-vehicle, integrated, autonomous space-based systems. Key technology advances make such a major initiative viable at this time: digital processing capabilities, integrated on-board test/checkout methods, easily reconfigurable laboratories, and software design and production techniques.


Ithank Li and colleagues for their interest in our article "CT Scanning in Suspected Stroke or Head Trauma: Is it Worth Going the Extra Mile and Including the Chest to Screen for COVID-19 Infection?" Our article title is a question, which does not imply that using chest CT to screen for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in this patient population may add value. The Fleischner Society's position article on the use of chest imaging during the COVID-19 pandemic did not specifically address whether additional chest CT should be performed to detect COVID-19 in patients who undergo extrathoracic CT in regions of high COVID-19 prevalence. Our study provides new scientific information, and we address the possible pros and cons of performing additional chest CT for COVID19 detection in patients who undergo head CT for suspected stroke or head trauma in a COVID-19–endemic region. We clearly stated that the data from our study may be used to weigh the potential advantages and disadvantages of performing additional chest CT. This is up to the readers of our article. However, I certainly appreciate that Li and colleagues are sharing their valuable thoughts. They relied on reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for diagnosing COVID-19 infection. Unfortunately, RT-PCR is an imperfect test, with a reported pooled sensitivity of 89% (95% CI, 81%–94%). Even repeat RT-PCR testing may yield a false-negative result in patients with COVID-19. Li and colleagues did not perform chest CT. Therefore, from a scientific point of view, it remains speculative whether chest CT would truly have had a low diagnostic yield in their stroke population during the rise and peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Compressed sensing techniques make it possible to exploit the sparseness of radar scenes to potentially improve system performance. In this paper compressed sensing tools are applied to MIMO radar to reconstruct the scene in the azimuth-range-Doppler domain. Conditions are derived for the radar waveforms and the transmit and receive arrays so that the radar sensing matrix has small coherence and sparse recovery becomes possible. Theoretical performance bounds are presented and validated by numerical simulations.


This thesis is based on the problem of transferring knowledge across different cultures. It is a qualitative research, which takes place in Uganda and Tanzania, consisting of six interviews with participants from two batches in the Sida program, two observations and one workshop. The point of departure were two questions: 1) What cultural aspects affect the knowledge transfer within the Sida:s "Child Rights, Classroom and School Management Program"? and 2) How do the culture aspects affect the process of transferring knowledge between different cultures? The theories used to answer these questions are Hofstede's cultural index, as well as a model which looks at knowledge flow as a function of five different factors. The research findings shows that knowledge transfer can be hindered when the knowledge is based on cultural values which are different from the receiving culture, and that people thus can be resistant towards absorbing this knowledge and thus embrace change. The sender (the participants from the Sida program) thus have to package and adjust the knowledge so that it fits the receiver's cultural values and beliefs in order to facilitate knowledge transfer. This is achieved by taking baby steps, and adjusting the knowledge slowly.


The detection of DNA using nanoparticles as labels is an interesting alternative to the standard fluorescence technique. It requires simpler detection equipment, resulting in higher stability and lower costs. Besides easier detection, metal enhancement allows a higher sensitivity of detection. The signal-response curve for labelled DNA before and after silver enhancement was studied, applying both atomic force microscope (AFM) and optical (reflection/transmission) measurements. The dynamic range and the sensitivity were determined for nanoparticle labelling with and without metal enhancement. Nanoparticle concentrations down to the fM range could be detected. The ultimate limit of detection, the identification of individual labels, is demonstrated for the optical readout. Therefore, AFM images of the particles were correlated with the optical signal of individual or clustered particles. We demonstrate that the optical signal allows the identification of single particles.


The first nanoliter-scale regenerable ion sensor based on microstructured optical fiber (MOF) is reported. The air holes of the MOF are functionalized with a monoazacrown bearing spiropyran to give a switchable sensor that detects lithium ions down to 100 nM in nanoliter-scale volumes. Ion binding is turned on and off on upon irradiation with light, with the sensor being unaffected by multiple rounds of photoswitching. Unbound ions are flushed from the fiber in the 'off' state to allow the sensor to be reused. The integration of an ionophore into the sensor paves the way for the development of highly specific light-based sensing platforms that are readily adaptable to sense a particular ion simply by altering the ionophore design.


The automotive industry is currently experiencing a paradigm shift from conventional, diesel and gasoline-propelled vehicles into the second generation hybrid and electric vehicles. Since the battery pack represents the most important and expensive component in the electric vehicle powertrain, extensive monitoring and control is required. Therefore, extensive research is being conducted in the field of electric vehicle battery condition monitoring and control. In this paper, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used for Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery state-of-charge (SOC) estimation. When properly trained using the random current profile described in this paper, a single-layered Neural Network is capable of capturing the non-linear characteristics of a battery. The ANN is able to estimate a non-measurable parameter such as battery SOC level based on battery measurable parameters such as voltage and current. The ANN in this paper is trained using experimental data generated from an experimental battery using a R-RC model with SOC/OCV relationship. The SOC/OCV relationship was derived from a commercial 3.6V 3.4Ah Li-Ion battery cell. The network is trained using current, and voltage as inputs and SOC as the output. The trained network is tested using benchmark driving cycles to be capable of estimating the battery SOC with a relatively high degree of accuracy.


Applied behaviour analysis (ABA)-based programmes are endorsed as the gold standard for treatment of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in most of North America. This is not the case in most of Europe, where instead a non-specified 'eclectic' approach is adopted. We explored the social validity of ABA-based interventions with 15 European families who had experience with home-based, mainly self-managed, ABA-based programmes for their own child/ren with ASD. The results of the study highlighted the overwhelmingly positive impact that ABA-based interventions had on their children in areas such as social skills, challenging behaviour, communication, gross and fine motor skills, concentration, interaction, independence, overall quality of life and, most importantly, a feeling of hope for the future. Implications for European policy on ASD are discussed.


The design and prototype tests of the Very Low Angle Detector (VLAD) for epithermal neutron scattering at low momentum transfers are presented. The detector will be installed on the VESUVIO spectrometer at the ISIS spallation neutron source for so-called High-energy Inelastic Neutron Scattering (HINS) experiments. It will consist of an array of Resonant Detectors (RD) covering the scattering range 1/spl deg/-5/spl deg/. The results of prototype tests with a reduced set of RD units demonstrate the feasibility of the measurement in the adverse environmental conditions of ISIS. Simulations of particle interactions using the GEANT4 code show that the envisaged detector design can meet the requirements in terms of efficiency, cross-talk between detection channels and neutron scattering events in the detector.


A tectonic study of the metamorphic rocks of the Outer Hebrides has revealed two periods of regional metamorphism in the Lewisian complex. During the younger metamorphism granite-gneiss was formed, the apparent age of which as determined by the analysis of radioactive minerals is 1·1×109 years (Holmes, 1955). This conforms with the ages of the Svecofennian in Scandinavia and of the Laurentian in Canada. It has been demonstrated that there exists a strong symmetrological analogy between the Hebridean Thrust and the Moine Thrust.


The testing of ADCs can be performed either with the aim of globally assessing the performance of the converter in response to a standard stimulus, or with the aim of setting up a model of ADC operation which may help in predicting the response to an arbitrary stimulus. The first approach can be used for rough comparisons of similar devices, while the development of effective ADC models opens the way to calibration. In this context, the paper reviews some recent results in the strictly related fields of modeling and testing.


Defining the optimal duration of antibiotic treatments is crucial to reduce toxicity and the emergence of resistance. Community acquired pneumonia can be treated in 5 days when the clinical response is rapidly favorable, as determined by simple clinical criterias. Acute cystitis can be treated by a 5-day course of nitrofurantoïne, or 3 days of trimethoprim-sulfaméthoxazole, saving the use of quinolones for complicated urinary tract infections or when the upper urinary tract is involved. Antibiotics are rarely needed for the treatment of sinusitis. When indicated, a 5-day course should suffice. There is no consensus for the duration of antibiotic treatment in skin infections. The benefit of inflammation biomarkers to diminish the duration of antibiotics has not yet been established for common infections.


The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) reliable server pooling (RSerPool) group provides a protocol framework that supports server redundancy and session failover providing fault tolerance. The RSerPool protocol framework allows a pool of redundant information sources to be viewed as a single transport end point and is thereby able to provide persistent connections for end users. A performance evaluation of the RSerPool protocols show that early arriving registrars are disproportionately loaded as compared to late arriving registrars. This results in an unbalanced load across registrars and leads to performance degradation of the overall reliable server pooling system. In this paper, we propose a methodology based on the chord algorithm for balancing the load across all registrars. A performance evaluation is carried out to showcase the effectiveness of the algorithm.


—A new method to improve the performance of digital current-mode controllers used in dc-dc power conversion is introduced. The proposed scheme is based on a simple prediction method which offers more time for DSP calculations than its conventional counterparts. Therefore, there will be less DSP computational time delay, which results in faster dynamic response and more accuracy and stability in power electronic converters. Principles of operation of the proposed prediction method as well as its application to several digital control techniques are presented.


We present detailed stress analysis in a deep well drilled in the northern Newark Rift Basin and evaluate the risk of induced seismicity for underground fluid injection at the locality. In situ stress orientation and magnitudes were estimated using quantitative analysis and modeling of borehole breakouts identified in high-resolution wellbore images. The distribution of breakouts and natural fractures in the well suggests significant variability in orientation of the principal horizontal stresses in the depth range of 450–1450 m. Evidence from surface seismic reflection imaging indicates potential presence of faults at about 800 m and 1200 m that bound zones of distinctly different stress orientation at this locality. Stability of natural fractures and faults under injection conditions was evaluated for a range of potential stress magnitudes and the observed stress variability with depth. Shallow crust above ~800 m appears to be critically stressed under ambient conditions, and further pore pressure increase would put it at risk of frictional failure on favorably oriented fractures and faults. Deeper reservoirs, however, may allow over 10 MPa increase in pore pressure without fault reactivation due to a more relaxed state of stress. Additional in situ test data are needed to more accurately constrain the magnitude of the minimum horizontal stress in the basin and to enable a more complete assessment of the induced seismic risk from potential CO2 injection in the region.


The Masters Swimming Program is over 40 years old and has achieved international status, with thousands of participants competing in five-year age categories between 18 and 99. Early studies of Masters swimmers by age groups found an increase in times for most events of about 1% per year, and later studies showed a significant correlation with the age-associated decline in maximal oxygen uptake. As larger sample sizes have become available, the age-related decline in performance among national champion Masters swimmers, both men and women, and for both short and longer swims, has been shown to be linear at about 0.6% per year up to age 70. Beyond age 70, the age-related decline accelerates exponentially for both men and women, with considerably more variability than in younger age groups. Several factors may be related to the accelerated performance decline beyond the of age 70, including accelerated physiological aging, chronic physical disabilities, acute illnesses requiring relatively lengthy recovery, effects of multiple medications, and social issues such as transportation problems, all of which can lead to increasing difficulty in maintaining a regular workout schedule. Masters Swimming is a "user-friendly" aerobic sport, imposing little excess strain, and thus is particularly suitable for the elderly. Masters coaches are gaining increasing experience with the over-70 age groups, tailoring workouts to accommodate their need for longer warm-up periods, longer rest periods between swimming sets, less overall distance, less emphasis on "breath control", and more time between workouts. With these accommodations, the motivation of elderly Masters swimmers to compete remains strong, and their ranks should continue to increase.


Depression is the most common psychological disorder during the perinatal period, and its negative effects extend to mothers, babies, their family and society. Scientific evidence points to the urgency of designing preventive interventions and concludes that the gestational period is the most appropriate time to implement these interventions. However, many pregnant women do not seek professional help due to a lack of knowledge about the importance of mental health, its impact, and the available intervention options, as well as a lack of time and financial resources. E-health interventions can be an efficient, cost-effective, and accessible resource for preventing postpartum depression that can circumvent the barriers that pregnant women face. This randomized clinical trial will examine the efficacy of Healthy Moms and Babies, an app aimed at preventing postpartum depressive symptomatology. The second objective of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the tool in preventing anxious symptomatology. The primary outcome measure is the difference in the mean score between the intervention and control groups on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) at the end of the intervention and at 3 and 6 months postpartum. The secondary outcome will be determined by using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener (GAD-7) at the same time points. The research findings can be used to determine pregnant women's use of the e-health application for the prevention of postpartum depression, whether the Healthy Moms and Babies intervention app is an effective and useful resource, and what modifications will need to be made to the tool in future updates.


Two main findings are reported. 1) The absorption of heme iron from a composite meal was very little if at all influenced by the subject's iron status at doses in the usual physiological range, but at high doses of heme iron there was a strong correlation with the subject's iron status. A hypothesis is presented to explain the regulation of iron absorption, so as to account for the impact of the subject's iron status, which is always evident with non-heme iron absorption but occurred only at high doses with heme iron. 2) Meat enhanced the absorption of heme iron. A probable explantation for the influence of meat on the separate absorbing mechanisms is that meat may stimulate the digestion of food, so that iron in either form is more efficiently released and made available for absorption.


The cell-specific expression of herpes simplex virus 1 thymidine kinase (HSV-1-tk) has provided a simple and highly efficient technique to achieve conditional ablation of targeted cell types in transgenic mice. The ablation is induced by treating transgenic animals expressing HSV-1-tk with the antiherpetic drug ganciclovir. In lymphoid tissues of mice expressing HSV-1-tk from an immunoglobulin promoter, administration of ganciclovir leads to massive destruction of B- and T-cell lineages. Tissues not expressing HSV-1-tk are insensitive to drug treatment. After depletion of greater than 99% of total thymocytes, a number of progenitor cells remain that are able to repopulate all T-cell lineages within 7 days. The ability to control and direct ablation allows for creation of conditional mutant phenotypes at precise periods of development. This technique also provides a potential means to enrich stem cell populations as well as permitting the creation of animal models for particular pathological conditions.


BACKGROUND
Although network formation is considered an effective method of stimulating the integrated delivery of palliative care, scientific evidence on the usefulness of network formation is scarce. In 1998 the Ministry of Health of The Netherlands started a 5-year stimulation program on palliative care by founding and funding six regional Centres for the Development of Palliative Care. These centers were structured around pivotal organizations such as university hospitals and comprehensive cancer centers. As part of the stimulation program a locoregional network model was introduced within each center for the Development of Palliative Care to integrate palliative care services in the Dutch health care system.

OBJECTIVE
We performed a study on network formation in the southwestern area of The Netherlands with 2.4 million inhabitants. The study aimed to answer the following questions: (1) how do networks in palliative care develop, which care providers participate and how do they function? (2) which are the achievements of the palliative care networks as perceived by their participants? (3) which are the success factors of the palliative care networks according to their participants and which factors predict the achievements?

DESIGN
Between September 2000 and January 2004 eight local palliative care networks in the region of the Center for Development of Palliative Care-Rotterdam (southwestern area of The Netherlands) were closely followed to gain information on their characteristics and developmental course.

MEASUREMENTS
At the start of the study semistructured interviews were held with the coordinators of the eight networks. The information from these interviews and from the network documents were used to constitute a questionnaire to assess the opinions and experiences of the network participants.

RESULTS
According to the vast majority of responders, the most important reason to install the networks was the lack of integration between the existing local health care services. The networks were initiated to stimulate mutual collaboration, improve accessibility to health care services and increase the quality of these services. The most important achievements obtained by the palliative care networks were: increase in personal contacts between colleagues in a region, improved engagement and collaboration between participating organizations, enhanced insight in the health care provisions, joined initiatives for the development of new care products, and organization of patient-tailored care. Important success factors for the networks were deemed: fruitful mutual contacts, regular funding and the collective development of care products. By logistic regression analyses, the collective development of new care products and the organization of case discussions between caregivers from different health care services turned out to be the most important predictors for success of the palliative care networks.

CONCLUSIONS
Projects that stimulate the communication between professionals appear to improve the mutual collaboration between individual participants and between the participating organizations, which consequently enhances the quality of palliative care.


This paper examines the effect of timing errors on QPSK/FDMA signals regenerated by a SAW-based group demodulator. The presence of a timing offset not only degrades the performance of that channel, but also increases the amount of its interference into other channels. Time windowing of the input to the chirp Fourier transform is shown to reduce the impact of the timing errors, but at the cost of an increased output noise variance. Measurements are presented for the bit-error rate (BER) performance of a single channel with a fixed timing offset using a surface acoustic wave (SAW) group demodulator based on the convolve-multiply-convolve (CMC) configuration with Kaiser-Bessel windowing.


World rice production has increased from 240 million t in 1966 to 599 million t in 2000, equivalent to an increase of 150%. This growth in production needs to continue to meet the demands of an ever-increasing population and the nutritional requirements of the poor. Future production gains need to be achieved with less agricultural resources such as land, water, and labor, and on a sustainable basis. Furthermore, gains need to be achieved in the face of an overall decline in agricultural research funding. These scenarios pose serious challenges for the future. Impact assessment is one of the tools to help ensure better management, planning, and priority setting for raising the efficiency of agricultural research. It also ensures accountability to stakeholders and illustrates the impact of their contribution to research. This paper briefly outlines the different types of impact assessment, the potential indicators of research impact, and the nature of IRRI's collaboration with national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) for impact generation.


Are European national risk prevention regulations reflecting different cultural attitudes towards risk? This article replies positively to this question by elaborating the results of an investigation led between 2004 and 2008 by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The investigation focused on the European national implementations of Article 12 of Directive Seveso II on Dangerous Substances (96/82/EC) and aimed at providing an overview of different methodological approaches to the matter of land use planning in areas subject to the risk of major accidents. Five countries were selected for in‐depth analysis and comparison. This article focuses on one aspect of their different approaches to land use planning in at‐risk areas that was not considered by the European investigation: the influence of national cultural backgrounds on the implementation of Article 12 within the respective national legislations and practices. To explain whether different cultural orientations may have affected them, the article refers to one cultural index in particular, namely the uncertainty‐avoidance index (UAI) proposed by the Dutch sociologist Geert Hofstede. This index provides a key of reading of the different methodological orientations adopted for regulating land uses in the vicinity of hazardous establishments in these countries; by applying it, the study demonstrates that different cultural attitudes towards uncertainty may be a determinant factor in the approaches to and the regulation of the matter of hazardous facility siting. In the conclusions, the regulatory as well as ethical implications of this finding are discussed.


The decline of party activism and membership in European democracies has been well documented, but not effectively explained. This article examines the state of party membership and activism across a wide spectrum of democratic countries and shows that membership is in decline in most of them. It tests two rival explanations of the decline using a cross-sectional multi-level analysis of data from the ISSP Citizenship survey of 2004. One hypothesis is that the decline is due to 'state capture', or excessive state regulation brought about by an ever-closer relationship between parties and the state which has the effect of stifling voluntary activity at the grassroots level. A second suggests that parties are being undermined by the growth of relatively new forms of participation, notably cheque book participation, and consumer and Internet participation. These provide alternative outlets for political action outside traditional forms of participation such as party involvement. There is evidence to support the first of these hypotheses, but not the second.


The title compound, C(17)H(14)F(6)O(2)S(2), a photochromic diarylethene, is one of the most promising materials for optical memories and other optoelectronic devices. The hexafluorocyclopentene group and the two thiophene rings are all planar, and the dihedral angles between the cyclopentene ring and the adjacent thiophene rings are 46.4 (1) and 49.5 (1) degrees.


This book provides a feminist analysis of how women's bodies are represented in Western culture. It begins with an historical overview of some images in art and literature to demonstrate the interplay between the erotic child and the infantilised woman. Nabokov's Lolita is used to explain the prevalence of the girl-child for two reasons: first, Nabokov's Lolita has come to represent the iconic figure of the girl-child; and, second, Humbert provides an insight into our own desires for the girl-child figure. This dissertation takes this analysis a stage further by examining why women who are slim and youthful are presented as the only desirable females in contemporary popular culture. Finally, the book discusses why we desire this unattainable image. This book will be useful to analysts of body image, as well as professionals in the field of the sociology of women and infantilisation.


Computed tomography (CT) has been regarded as the method of choice for detecting the presence, site and cause of gastrointestinal tract perforation. In addition to determining the presence of perforation, CT can also localise the perforation size and demonstrate direct and indirect findings relative to the perforation. In this case study, we report the CT results in a patient with perforated duodenal ulcer associated with anterior abdominal abscess, and highlight the diagnostic value of CT imaging.


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Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland has done what most people hoped she would. On her inauguration as director general of the World Health Organisation, she has swept away the existing secretariat (thoughkeeping some members on as advisers), and announced her own carefully chosen cabinet to an increasingly optimistic staff. Of the 10 new appointments, eight come from outside the organisation and six are women.1 There is an even split between the north and south, and all of the WHO's six regions are represented. Along with the new cast come plans for a new way of working—reducing overlap and increasing convergence between individual programmes.

The speed of the appointments has taken the organisation …


The key drivers for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) solutions in photovoltaic (PV) power plants are independency from solar panels, fast tracking of irradiance and temperature variations, and efficiency of conversion capacity. In the most available MPPT solutions, some issues such as high implementation burden and performance degradation during abrupt changes have not been sufficiently investigated. To tackle these issues, an optimized scheme for MPPT is implemented in large-scale PV power conversion system, which is designed based on improved circuit of the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) configuration. The developed method is featured through an optimized version of Finite-Control-Set Model Predictive Control (FCS-MPC) to be an enabler for steadying the harvesting mechanism of solar power. The estimation design provides the current sensors elimination in PV panels against commonly utilized MPPT algorithms, which is hampered by costly sensing devices used in situ. By designing such control strategy, fast tracking response for the PV system along with an acceptable control bandwidth are implemented to account for solar irradiation transients and PV panels uncertainties. The improved power circuit of conversion topology allows decreased number of solar cells and energy storage sizing by half in comparison to the basic MMC. The effectiveness of the designed MPPT method over the solar irradiance variations is compared with both Ripple-Correlation Control (RCC) and Fractional Open-Circuit Voltage (FOCV) control schemes. The performance of the discussed PV power station is also assessed with respect to different operational scenarios via simulations to validate the developed concept.


Castro, Miranda G. (M.A., English) "Artibus Ornatissimus": Embodied Materiality and Affect in The Praise of Folly and Utopia Thesis directed by Professor Katherine Eggert This project begins by contextually and historically investigating Desiderius Erasmus's and Thomas More's relations to the institutionalized thinking they are bound by, but also observes the highly critical positions they stake through this contextual analysis and especially in their satires: The Praise of Folly and Utopia. I will establish that Erasmus and More are conscious of the highly constructed psychological implications of hierarchical exhibitions of wealth and the corrupt relation to the material world that hierarchical figures maintain. This observation is demonstrated in both of their satires. I argue that the state, in Utopia, transgresses traditional notions of materiality by re-appropriating the value of certain material items—for instance, by forcing prisoners, slaves, and children to wear traditionally coveted items like gold chains, diamonds, and pearls. Not only does the state enforce public displays of punishment for criminal subjects, but by making enfranchised people wear these items during public punishment they construct a narrative that sharply contrasts happiness and suffering. Similarly, in The Praise of Folly, the personified Folly asks her audience to question the reality of their own state of mind, despite the ways in which regulatory figures have influenced them to think about their own wellbeing and happiness. These narratives force regular citizens to consider their own lack of suffering, but it is, in fact, through these material signifiers and formulated ideologies that subjects are able to conceive of their own happiness.


During July 1989 a SEAMARC II seismic reflection profile survey was conducted around the deep-water margins of carbonate platforms along the North American-Caribbean plate boundary where the southeast Bahamas are actively colliding with Hispaniola. Results indicate that the small, isolated carbonate banks of the southeast Bahamas are clearly remnants of once-larger platforms. A variety of processes appear to be responsible for the retreat of these platforms. Backstepping has resulted in the majority of retreat producing a single, large deep-water plateau along the northern margin of the southeast Bahamas and a series of deepwater, steplike terraces to the south that may be fault related. SEAMARC side-scan images have also defined spectacular, large-scale scalloped margins as well as well-developed upper gullied slopes which appear to be responsible for continued gradual retreat. Well-defined avalanche chutes, which may be the result of periodic collapse, extend down the deep margin of northern Silver Bank, funneling large volumes of debris over the Bahama Escarpment. The retreating nature of the isolated southeast Bahama Banks, located in a tectonicaily active setting, contrast sharply with the large, coalesced banks of the more passive northwest Bahamas.


In this paper, an artificial neural network based on simulated annealing was constructed. The mapping relationship between the micro-scaled flow channels' electrochemical machining parameters and the shape of the channel was established by training the samples. The depth and width of micro-scaled flow channels electrochemical machining on stainless steel surface were predicted, and the flow channels experiment was carried out with pulse power supply in NaNO3 solution to verify the established network model. The results show that the depth and width of the channel predicted by the simulated annealing artificial neural network with a "4-7-2" structure are very close to the experimental values, and the error is less than 5.3%. The predicted and experimental data show that the etching degree in the process of channel electrochemical machining is closely related to voltage and current density. When the voltage is less than 5V, a "small island" is formed in the channel; When the voltage is greater than 40V, the lateral etching of the channel is relatively large, and the "dam" between the channels disappear. When the voltage is 25V, the machining morphology of the channel is the best.


Abstract In order to carry out real-time dynamic error correction of transducers described by a linear differential equation, a novel recurrent neural network was developed. The network structure is based on solving this equation with respect to the input quantity when using the state variables. It is shown that such a real-time correction can be carried out using simple linear perceptrons. Due to the use of a neural technique, knowledge of the dynamic parameters of the transducer is not necessary. Theoretical considerations are illustrated by the results of simulation studies performed for the modeled second order transducer. The most important properties of the neural dynamic error correction, when emphasizing the fundamental advantages and disadvantages, are discussed.


Abstract. 3D city models in Level-of-Detail 2 (LoD2) are nowadays inevitable for many applications such as solar radiation calculation and energy demand estimation. City-wide models are required which can solely be acquired by fully automatic approaches. In this paper we propose a novel method for the 3D-reconstruction of LoD2 buildings with structured roofs and dormers from LIDAR data. We apply a hybrid strategy which combines the strengths of top-down and bottom-up methods. The main contribution is the introduction of an active sampling strategy which applies a cascade of filters focusing on promising samples in an early stage and avoiding the pitfalls of RANSAC based approaches. Such filters are based on prior knowledge represented by (non-parametric) density distributions. Samples are pairs of surflets, i.e. 3D points together with normal vectors derived from a plane approximation of their neighborhood. Surflet pairs imply immediately important roof parameters such as azimuth, inclination and ridge height, as well as parameters for internal precision and consistency, giving a good base for assessment and ranking. Ranking of samples leads to a small number of promising hypotheses. Model selection is based on predictions for example of ridge positions which can easily be falsified based on the given observations. Our approach does not require building footprints as prerequisite. They are derived in a preprocessing step using machine learning methods, in particular Support Vector Machines (SVM).


Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are key flow structures associated with extratropical cyclones. They transport moist air from the cyclone's warm sector poleward and upward close to the tropopause level, leading to the formation of elongated cloud bands, intense latent heating and surface precipitation. In this study a comprehensive dataset of airborne lidar observations of moisture and wind from different campaigns has been investigated with a trajectory‐based approach to identify 'lucky encounters' with WCBs. On 19 July 2007, an upstream flight over the Iberian Peninsula during the European THORPEX Regional Campaign (ETReC 2007) in Central Europe intersected two WCBs: one in the upper tropospheric outflow region about 3 days after starting the ascent, and the other one in the boundary layer inflow region over Spain just prior to the strong ascent. Comparison of the lidar humidity measurements with analysis fields from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reveals significant positive deviations, equivalent to an overestimation of the modelled humidity, in this low‐tropospheric WCB inflow region (of about 1 g kg−1 (14%) on average and with peak deviations up to 7 g kg−1). It is noteworthy that this substantial bias occurs in a potentially dynamically highly relevant air mass that will be subsequently lifted within a WCB to the upper troposphere. A Lagrangian moisture source diagnostic reveals that these large moisture deviations occur within air masses that, according to the ECMWF analyses, are coherently transported from the western Mediterranean towards Spain and experience intense moisture uptake over the Ebro valley. It is suggested that inaccuracies in surface evapotranspiration, horizontal moisture advection, and turbulent vertical transport of moisture in the atmospheric boundary layer potentially contribute to the erroneous low‐tropospheric humidity in the inflow region of this particular summertime WCB over Spain in the ECMWF analyses. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society


The aim of this study is to figure out the preference features on design components of shop facade on the basis of the questionnaire survey on short-term memory and sensory memory of human right after an image experiment. As for a preceding research, this study examined the design features of facade into tangible elements and intangible elements, and also classified them into physical, aesthetical, marketing and symbolic components in detail. And, it extracted 5 representative elements in preceding studies including shape, material, pattern, color and sign, which is the standard of a questionnaire survey and preference analysis. The subjects of the experiment were 30 men and women who were over 20 years old majoring interior design. They were exposed to 20 images with 10 seconds respectively through a video, and were asked to respond the questionnaire promptly. The findings of preference analysis of design components of facade including shape, material, pattern, color and sign are as follows. Firstly, shape was the most interesting and attracting component, and designs applied with shape of objects such as 'web', 'drawer', 'wheel' and 'button' obtained high preference. Secondly, as for material, block, steel, exposed concrete board attracted higher preference as memorable materials than other materials. Material was affected by shape, pattern and color. Thirdly, pattern was the most lasting element. Designed pattern had higher preference than simple pattern. Fourthly, as for color, red and green with strong stimulation and attention attained priority having long lasting memory. Fifthly, when visiting a shop, sign out of 5 elements of shape, material, pattern, color and sign drew attention the most. As for the preference of location of sign, 'center top' was the most noticeable. The findings of this study could be utilized for facade design, and also could be used for commercialization considering highly preferred components, and top preference aspects of such elements. advised that to give an impression to customers is important to make a successful design for sales marketing, which, in turn, would lead customers to revisit the shop.


Leishmaniasis is one of the World's most problematic diseases in developing countries. Traditional medicines to treat leishmaniasis have serious side effects, as well as significant parasite resistance problems. In this work, two alkaloids 1 and 2 were obtained from Corydalis govaniana Wall and seven alkaloids 3–9, were obtained from Erythrina verna. The structures of the compounds were confirmed by mass spectrometry and 1D- and 2D-NMR spectroscopy. The leishmanicidal activity of compounds 1–9 against Leishmania amazonensis was tested on promastigote forms and cytotoxicity against J774 (macrophage cell line) was assessed in vitro. Compound 1 showed potent activity (IC50 = 0.18 µg/mL), compared with the standard amphotericin B (IC50 = 0.20 µg/mL). The spirocyclic erythrina-alkaloids showed lower leishmanicidal activity than dibenzoquinolizine type alkaloids.


Polarization spectroscopic effects caused by drift selfalignment of ions drifting slowly in a plasma have been analysed theoretically and observed experimentally. The complex experimental-theoretical approach to a model laboratory gas discharge in a hollow cathode enables us to put forward a new optical method for remote sensing of low drift velocities of ions and the distribution of electric fields in ionized gases of different physical nature.


The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of financial distress in the Nigerian banking industry as it affected job satisfaction, perceived stress and psychological well-being of employees and depositors. The research adopted case study as a strategy and employed independent groups design in order to get a balanced assessment of the subject. Variables of interest were not manipulated in order to allow for accuracy of judgment and results. Self administered questionnaire - perceived stress scale by Blaus (1965); psychological well-being scale by Goldberg (1978); job satisfaction scale by Ugwuegbu (1985) and a self-developed questionnaire by the researchers to solicit information from bank employees and depositors - was administered to 105 respondents comprising of 61 bank employees and 44 bank customers. The questionnaire had a Cronbach alpha coefficient of α = 0.88 thus confirming the reliability of the data collecting instrument. A total of 5 hypotheses were formulated and tested. The results showed that employees in healthy banks were more satisfied with their jobs than those in distressed banks; but the difference between their mean scores did not reach a significant level thus suggesting that employees in distressed banks equally enjoyed their jobs like their colleagues in healthy banks. Curiously, depositors in healthy banks experienced higher level of stress than depositors in distressed banks; while employees in healthy banks experienced higher job satisfaction than those in distressed banks. Finally, the results also showed that employees in distressed banks did not experience higher stress level than those in healthy banks.

 Key words: Bank employees, bank depositors, bank distress, job satisfaction, perceived stress, psychological well-being.


We illustrate two As2S3 waveguide designs for four-wave mixing, which can generate 3.03 μm mid-infrared light from a 1.55 μm near-infrared signal source and a 2.05 μm pump source. Through simulations, we verify that four-wave mixing phase-matching efficiencies up to 100% can be achieved using dispersion engineering to maintain the dispersion at 2.05 μm near to zero. The best conversion efficiency is –10 dB. When the waveguide length is 1 cm, the parametric conversion bandwidth is 1525 nm. We also evaluated the shift of 100% phase-matching efficiency wavelengths based upon fabrication tolerances.


Electrical machines are widely used in industrial and transportation applications which are essential to industrial processes. However, the lack of reliability and unpredictable life cycles of these machines still present opportunities and challenges for condition monitoring research. The breakdown of an electrical machine leads to expensive repairs and high losses due to downtime. The motivation of this research is to improve the reliability of electrical machines and to classify different kinds of failures via non-intrusive methods for conditionbased maintenance and early warning of failure. Major potential failure types in electrical machines are winding and mechanical failures, which are caused by dynamic load state, component ageing and harsh working environments. To monitor and characterise these abnormal situations in the early stages, this thesis proposes stray magnetic field-based condition monitoring allowing fault diagnosis with the help of finite element models and advanced signal processing technology. By investigating the interaction between stray flux variations and machine failure, different kinds of faults can be classified and distinguished via numerical and experimental studies. A non-intrusive stray flux monitoring system has been developed and can provide both static and transient stray flux information and imaging. The designed monitoring system is based on a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor used to capture low stray flux fields outside the electrical machine's frame. Compared with other monitoring systems, its small size, low cost, non-inventive and ease of setting up make the designed system more attractive for in many long-term monitoring applications. Additionally, integration with the wireless sensor network (WSN) means that the latter's unique characteristics makes the proposed system suitable for electrical machine monitoring in industrial applications replacing existing expensive wired systems. The proposed system can achieve real-time data collection and on-line monitoring with the help of spectrogram and independent component analysis. Three cases studies are conducted to validate the proposed system with different failures and loading states, using load fatigue, winding short-circuit failure and mechanical testing. In these case studies, electrical and mechanical failures and dynamic loads are investigated, collecting stray flux information with different kinds and sizes of electrical machines using both simulation and experimental approaches. Stray flux information is collected for different situations of winding failure, unbalanced load and bearing failures. Comprehensive transient feature extraction using spectrogram is implemented with respect to multiple failures and load variations. Spectrograms of stray flux can provide time-frequency information allowing the discrimination of different failures and load states. Different faults can be distinguished through independent component analysis of stray flux data. Compared with traditional and current detection strategies, stray flux-based monitoring can not only provide failure indicator and better resolution but also gives location information. Additionally, by applying different feature extraction methods, different failure types can be separated based on stray flux information, which is likely to be difficult to achieve using traditional monitoring approaches. However, stray flux monitoring systems suffer from issue of noise and instability, and more case studies and investigations are needed for further refinement.


Lithium-ion batteries continue to transform consumer electronics, mobility, and energy storage sectors, and the applications and demands for batteries keep growing. Supply limitations and costs may lead to counterfeit cells in the supply chain that could affect quality, safety, and reliability of batteries. Our research included studies of counterfeit and low-quality lithium-ion cells, and our observations on the differences between these and original ones, as well as the significant safety implications, are discussed. The counterfeit cells did not include internal protective devices such as the positive temperature coefficient or current interrupt devices that typically offer protection against external short circuits and overcharge conditions, respectively, in cells from original manufacturers. Poor-quality materials and lack of engineering knowledge were also evident on analyses of the electrodes and separators from low-quality manufacturers. When the low-quality cells were subjected to off-nominal conditions, they experienced high temperature, electrolyte leakage, thermal runaway, and fire. In contrast, the authentic lithium-ion cells performed as expected. Recommendations are provided to identify and avoid counterfeit and low-quality lithium-ion cells and batteries.


A purple cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) extract (CP) was encapsulated in double emulsions (DE) gelled with gelatin (DE-CP-G) and with gelatin and transglutaminase (DE-CP-GT), as well as in a DE with a liquid external aqueous phase (DE-CP), in order to study the retention of betanin as colorant agent. Both gelled DEs showed a predominantly elastic behavior, in contrast with DE-CP. The degradation rate constant of betanin was significantly higher in DE-CP-GT (90.2 x 10−3 days-1) than in DE-CP-G (11.0 x 10−3 days-1) and DE-CP (14.6 x 10−3 days-1) during cold-storage (4 °C). A shift towards yellow color was found in all the systems during cold-storage (4 °C) and after thermal treatment (70°C/30 min), especially in DE-CP-GT, denoting a higher degradation of betanin. Betalamic acid, cyclo-Dopa 5-O-β-glucoside, 17-decarboxy-betanin and neobetanin were identified by UHPLC-MS/MS as degradation products of betanin.


This paper presents the application of particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique for solving the dynamic economic dispatch (DED) problem. The DED is one of the main functions in power system planning in order to obtain optimum power system operation and control. It determines the optimal operation of generating units at every predicted load demands over a certain period of time. The optimum operation of generating units is obtained by referring to the minimum total generation cost while the system is operating within its limits. The DED based PSO technique is tested on a 9-bus system containing of three generator bus, six load bus and twelve transmission lines.


Mr. Christopher Rennick received his B.A.Sc., Honours Electrical Engineering in 2007 and his M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 2009, both from the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Chris is currently a PhD student in Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo. Since 2010, he has been employed with the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada as teaching staff.


Legume-rhizobium symbiosis has become a model system for studying beneficial symbiosis between eukaryotic hosts and bacterial symbionts. Hosts are predicted to exert control over beneficial bacterial symbionts to prevent the evolution and spread of exploitative genotypes. Since nitrogen is exchanged in legume-rhizobium symbiosis and legumes can acquire nitrogen from soils, there can context dependent effects from nitrogen-enriched soils that can dramatically alter legume-rhizobium symbiosis. Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition has been enriching terrestrial ecosystems for more than a century and is accelerating in some regions. One prediction is that nitrogen enrichment can relax selection to maintain host control traits, leading to evolution and spread of exploitative rhizobia and/or an breakdown in symbiosis if legumes cease to gain benefit from rhizobial infection. Lotus strigosus is an annual legume that experiences variable nitrogen deposition and mineral nitrogen contexts across California. To examine the potential for adaptation to mineral nitrogen enrichment in L. strigosus, inbred lines of L. strigosus from populations that have experienced either little nitrogen deposition or more than seven decades of intense nitrogen deposition were exposed to a simulated nitrogen deposition gradient and Bradyrhizobium that vary in growth benefit provided to L. strigosus. To examine the effects of mineral nitrogen saturation on a host control in a legume that has historically experienced nitrogen-poor soils, L. strigosus from a pristine site were exposed to growth saturation mineral nitrogen and infected with either combinations of Bradyrhizobium strains that vary in benefit to L. strigosus and individual strains that vary in benefit. Lotus exhibited little evidence of adaptation to use mineral nitrogen more efficiently in response to simulated nitrogen deposition. Symbisois with Bradyrhizobium was reduced at very high fertilizer levels, but this was most likely because of nitrogen toxicity rather than a loss of benefit from symbiosis.Host control traits in L. strigosus from a pristine site over pairs of Bradyrhizobium strains were resilient to growth saturating nitrogen, contrary to expectations if such traits are costly. When inoculated with single strains of Bradyrhizobium in different mineral nitrogen contexts, L. strigosus exhibited fine tuned investment in Bradyrhizobium to prevent exploitation.


Interstellar dust is described as consisting predominantly (by mass) of tenth micron (mean size) silicate core-organic refractory mantle particles which have evolved over galactic time scales of the order of 5 billion years. These particles were incorporated into comets and asteroids in the presolar nebula 4.5 billion years ago. The fragmentation of those primitive bodies gives rise to solar system debris which shows up as comet dust, zodiacal light, IDP's and meteorites. The chemical and morphological structure of comet dust is derived here as fluffy aggregates of interstellar dust. The chemical and morphological structure of the chondritic porous IDP'S are then derived from comet dust which has evolved in the solar system. Zodiacal light particles are interpreted as various stages between comet dust and IDP's. Meteorites appear to be a side branch in the evolution from interstellar to solar system particles.


We present results relevant for the extension of threshold resummation beyond the next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) order for QCD hard-scattering processes. As an example, we consider dihadron production H1H2 → h1h2X , where the produced pair has a large invariant mass. Taking into account the non-trivial color structure of the partonic hard-scattering process, we determine the hard and soft matrices in color space. In our numerical studies we find a significant improvement compared to previous results at NLL accuracy. In particular, the scale dependence of the resummed cross section is greatly reduced. In addition, we comment on the extension of the techniques developed in this work to other observables relevant for hadronic collisions.


The goal of this study was to investigate the usefulness of cyclodextrins (CDs) for the removal of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo furans (PCDDs/PCDFs) in soil and water. Five CDs having different molecular cavities and active functional groups were selected and evaluated for their ability to include (trap) PCDDs/PCDFs in soil and water. For the soil experiments, CDs were added to the soil on day one and the concentrations of unbound PCDDs/PCDFs were monitored over a 28-day period. Parallel control experiments were conducted to assist in the process performance evaluation. The ability of CDs to remove PCDDs/PCDFs from the contaminated soil was dependent upon the type of CD used and constituents of PCDDs/PCDFs. Among the five CDs investigated, hydroxypropyl-β -cyclodextrin (HPBCD) gave the highest removal efficiency for all components of PCDDs/PCDFs. The removal efficiency of total PCDDs/PCDFs was 81% one day after application of CDs and then increased to 96% after 28 days. The α -cyclodextrin (ACD) and β -cyclodextrin (BCD) removed only 45% and 50% of the total PCDDs/PCDFs after 28 days, respectively, whereas hydroxypropyl-γ -cyclodextrin (HPGCD) removed 80% of the total PCDDs/PCDFs.


The association between spondylolisthesis and scoliosis was studied in 84 patients who presented during a 30-year period with symptomatic spondylolisthesis. The incidence of scoliosis was 42 per cent, the majority of cases being lumbar or thoracolumbar curves of less than 15 degrees. The incidence was highest in the group of patients with spondylolisthesis at L4--5 where all except one had scoliosis. Scoliosis was present in 47 per cent of patients with dysplastic spondylolisthesis at the lumbosacral junction; in this group, the incidence of scoliosis was greater where the displacement exceeded 25 per cent. The lowest incidence (25 per cent) was found in the group with isthmic spondylolisthesis at the lumbosacral junction. There appeared to be no relationship between excessive lumbar lordosis or tightness of the hamstrings and scoliosis.


Intranasal route of administration is one of the best routes for delivery of drug to brain. For the delivery of drugs from nose to brain, the low dose is required. This route of administration avoids first pass effect, onset of action is rapid, bioavailability is more and it has no degradation in GIT or toxicity in lungs and it does not cause pain. The capability of the drugs to target through the BBB and possibility of nasal delivery of drug is higher. In the recent years the intranasal route is considered as the superior delivery route for many drugs because of following factors like high permeability, high vascularity, low enzymatic activity, manageable surface area and it avoid first pass metabolism of lungs. Drug delivery systems, such as liposomes, microspheres, microemulsion, nanoemulsion and hydrogels have been shown that it has good bioadhesive to biological system and are briefly discussed in present review. An enormous range of neurotherapeutics, both macromolecules and low molecular weight drugs, can be delivered to the central nervous system (CNS) via this route.


Electron-phonon coupling is a fundamental inelastic interaction in solid-state physics and superconductors. Here we probe electron-phonon and superconducting coupling strength by tuning the indium composition in In qPb1- q superconducting bimetallic alloys. A crossover from weak to strong coupling strength was observed through the analysis of crystal structure and superconducting phase diagrams. The hole-doped Pb solid solution showed suppressed TC and subverted coupling strength due to decreased density of state N(0) and hardened phonons, while the electron-doped In solid solution revealed enhanced TC and stronger coupling strength because of increased N(0) and softened phonons. Our results are in agreement with the Ginzburg-Landau theory calculations regarding the dirty limits and are well described by the Allen and Dynes formula within the framework of the McMillan formalism.


Investment consultants market their services by claiming that their fund manager recommendations add significant value. Using detailed data from the leading investment consultants we find no such evidence. A forensic analysis of consultants' disclosures reveals a number of practices that explain their claims: comparisons to benchmarks rather than to peers, inclusion of simulated and backfilled returns, use of rating survivorship conditions, and unexplained exclusions of products from the analysis. We find that recommended products have similar return and risk characteristics to products that are not recommended, but deviate less from their benchmarks.


In this study, an improved dansyl-chloride derivatization technique using a microwave synthesizer was used for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of biogenic amine in the fresh meat samples. The derivatization technique was optimized in terms of temperature, reaction time, and spinning speed. The derivatization method together with a validated reversed-phase HPLC-DAD method was used for the determination of biogenic amines in chicken, beef, and mutton sold in the wet market. The results of the analyses showed that tryptamine, putrescine, and histamine were generally detected in all the three types of meat. Higher levels of histamine were found in chicken and beef. However, low levels of histamine were observed in mutton. Tyramine was either detected low or moderate in all the three types of meat. The biogenic amines of the fresh meat sold in the wet market is generally higher than the reported values. The mechanisms of biogenic amines-dansyl-chloride formation were investigated and proposed. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The biogenic amine derivatization method was improved. The improved derivatization method can be potentially used for various food products beside meats for routine biogenic amine analyses due to its fast analysis time and simplicity. High levels of biogenic amines were generally found in the meat sold in the wet markets. However, proper handling of the raw meat can reduce the risk of infection.


Thoracic injury from restraint loading is the principle causative factor of death, which was shown to be particularly significant for older drivers. To characterize thoracic response to belt loading of older drivers, detailed finite element models of the adult and aged thorax were developed. The geometry of the 50th percentile adult male was chosen for the adult FE model. The thoracic FE model was validated against data obtained from results of PMHS pendulum impact tests. The quantified patterns of age-related shape and well-established material changes were applied to the adult model to develop the aged model. Belt force and chest deflection were applied to the developed two types of models. Rib fracture risk obviously increased at the sternum and clavicle rib of the aged model. The simulations showed that larger rib angle and reduced material properties of the ribcage produced more higher risk of injury in the older driver.


Abstract Most of the Scandinavian languages and dialects exhibit a tonal accent distinction. Invariably the lexical tone is associated to the primary stressed syllable. The chief variables which instantiate the accent typology include the value of individual tones (L, H, LH), the use of spreading and interpolation, and the behaviour of the prominence tone (usually, but not always, the tone used for focus). Variables related to the prominence tone involve the association (or not) to a secondary stress, and rightward/leftward orientation (i.e. alignment). Beside the phonological typology, the article briefly discusses a couple of distributional sub-typologies relating to morphology and the lexicon.


A case is reported of a patient with a benign appendiceal neoplasm presenting incidentally with mucin in an inguinal hernial sac. Only one such case of a benign tumour, and one such case of cystadenocarcinoma, have previously been reported. In neither of these cases was laparoscopy used in diagnosis or staging of the disease. We review the management of such cases in light of recent proposed changes to pathological classification.


We consider a boundary feedback stabilization problem of the plate equation in a square, in the case where the geometric condition of Ammari-Tucsnak (6) is not satisfied. We prove a polynomial decay for regular initial data. Moreover, we prove an exponential stability result for some subspace of the energy space. Finally, we give a precise estimate on the analyticity of reachable functions where we have an exponential stability.


This study was conducted to analyze the situated meaning of Lincoln's speech on Lincoln movie. The writer used qualitative method to conduct the research. The data were collected and transcribed from Lincoln movie. The writer used Gee's situated meaning theory to know what the situated meaning of Lincoln's speech that the movie tried to enact with the help of seven building tasks. The results of the situated meaning conveyed by the movie were the characteristics of an ideal president, equality, and building nationalism. The writer found that the Significance building tool on the movie brought the idea of Lincoln's success to pass the 13thamendment to abolish slavery as the cure of the Civil War. Lincoln was pictured as an ideal president who build nationalism feeling to the people surround him. On Activities building tool, the movie showed that Lincoln's activity on telling stories was his attempt to spread out his ideology of equality to the people surround him. Later, Identities building tool portrayed Lincoln as an ideal president who could maintain different identities for different context. Next, Relationships building tool showed Lincoln as an ideal president who could sustain good relationship with the people surrounds him. Moreover, Politics building tool supported Lincoln on distributing the social goods of equality and building nationalism. Next, Connections building tool defined Lincoln as an ideal president for his ability on connecting two things and making them relevant. The last, Sign Systems and Knowledge building tool described Lincoln as an ideal president who masters the right choice of words.


One of the main methods to decrease NO emission during the combustion of gases is the use of diluents. This study is interested in the effects of CO 2 , N 2 , and H 2 O dilutions in the adiabatic, turbulent, partially premixed combustion of synthesis gas. The amounts of NO emissions are computationally determined. The results show that NO maximizes at 1.39 of equivalence ratio under humid burning air conditions. The best reductive effect on NO emissions indicates H 2 O dilution followed by CO 2 and N 2 . The increase in the dilution rates gradationally reduces NO. The rising pressure enhances NO emissions with/without diluters. The increasing inlet air and premixed mixture temperatures raises NO.


A novel optical transceiver with 4 transmitter plus 4 receiver channels designed for coupling to multicore multimode fiber has been fabricated and characterized. The transceiver is based on the holey Optochip concept where 4-channel VCSEL and photodiode arrays are flip-chip attached to a single-chip SiGe IC using AuSn solder. Optical vias (holes) are fabricated into the SiGe IC to enable optical access to the conventional topside emitting 850-nm optoelectronic arrays. The optoelectronic arrays are arranged in a quad-VCSEL and quad-photodiode configuration where the 4 devices are on a 2 × 2 array on a dense 50-μm pitch. The transceiver module is completed by flip-chip soldering the Optochip onto a 8 mm × 8 mm high-speed high-density organic carrier. Optical access through the backside of the IC is provided through 2 optical vias. Electrical I/O is supplied through BGA pads on 0.8 mm pitch at the bottom of the module. High-speed characterization was carried out between 2 modules soldered to test cards, a transmitter (TX) and a receiver (RX) module. Each of the 4 optical outputs from the TX Optochip was coupled into a MMF and directed to individual photodiodes in the RX module. Eye-diagrams were measured for TX outputs as well as TX-to-RX links at data rates 20 Gb/s to 42 Gb/s. The 4 optical links operate error free up to 40 Gb/s, achieving a record data rate for multimode parallel optical transceivers.


Molecular-scale Network-on-Chip (mNoC) crossbars use quantum dot LEDs as an on-chip light source, and chromophores to provide optical signal filtering for receivers. An mNoC reduces power consumption or enables scaling to larger crossbars for a reduced energy budget compared to current nanophotonic NoC crossbars. Since communication latency is reduced by using a high-radix crossbar, minimizing power consumption becomes a primary design target. Conventional Single Writer Multiple Reader (SWMR) photonic crossbar designs broadcast all packets, and incur the commensurate required power, even if only two nodes are communicating. This paper introduces power topologies, enabled by unique capabilities of mNoC technology, to reduce overall interconnect power consumption. A power topology corresponds to the logical connectivity provided by a given power mode. Broadcast is one power mode and it consumes the maximum power. Additional power modes consume less power but allow a source to communicate with only a statically defined, potentially non-contiguous, subset of nodes. Overall interconnect power is reduced if the more frequently communicating nodes use modes that consume less power, while less frequently communicating nodes use modes that consume more power. We also investigate thread mapping techniques to fully exploit power topologies. We explore various mNoC power topologies with one, two and four power modes for a radix-256 SWMR mNoC crossbar. Our results show that the combination of power topologies and intelligent thread mapping can reduce total mNoC power by up to 51% on average for a set of 12 SPLASH benchmarks. Furthermore performance is 10% better than conventional resonator-based photonic NoCs and energy is reduced by 72%.


When information or infectious diseases spread over a network, in many practical cases, one can observe when nodes adopt information or become infected, but the underlying network is hidden. In this paper, we analyze the problem of finding communities of highly interconnected nodes, given only the infection times of nodes. We propose, analyze, and empirically compare several algorithms for this task. The most stable performance, that improves the current state-of-the-art, is obtained by our proposed heuristic approaches, that are agnostic to a particular graph structure and epidemic model.


Purpose: The use of prophylactic antibiotics is the current standard of care after elective colorectal surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis with dual antibiotic therapy and triple antibiotic therapy after elective colorectal surgery. Methods: We studied consecutive patients underwent elective colorectal surgery from January to June, 2007. Patients of triple-therapy group were administered second cephalosporin, metronidazole, and aminoglycoside for early 3 mo and dualtherapy group were administered second cephalosporin and metronidazole for next 3 mo. The prophylactic antibiotics were administered 2-3 doses for 24 hr after surgery. The surgery for diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and colon obstruction were excluded. Wound conditions were checked on alternate days during the hospital stay and follow up at least for 30 days after discharge. Results: Over 6 mo, 110 patients were enrolled (59 dual-therapy group, 51 triple-therapy group). In two group, sex, age, American Society of Anesthesiology score, body mass index, combined diseases, and location of disease were similar. Wound infection rate were 1.7% in dual-therapy group and 2.0% in triple-therapy group (P=1.0). Anastomotic leakage rate were 5.1% in dual-therapy group and 2.0% in triple-therapy group (P=0.622). Conclusion: The addition of aminoglycoside to dual antibiotic therapy, second cephalosporin-metronidazole showed no advantage in prevention of postoperative wound complications. Further studies are required to establish appropriate guideline of antibiotic prophylaxis after elective colorectal surgery.


Optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) is surface-specific and has the sensitivity to detect submonolayers of molecules. It can be applied to study molecular adsorbates at the interface between any two centrosymmetric media. This has been demonstrated by using dye and p-nitrobenzoic acid (PNBA) molecules adsorbed on smooth fused quartz substrates as examples. With resonant SHG, the S/sub 0/ A..-->.. S/sub 2/ transition of the adsorbed dye molecules was measured. From the polarization dependence of the SHG, the orientation of PNBA at both the air/quartz and the ethanol/quartz interfaces was deduced. By varying the concentration of PNBA in ethanol, an adsorption isotherm for PNBA at the ethanol/quartz interfaces was also obtained.


Although not a decision making body, the Tri Council for nursing has provided a forum for cooperation among the major nursing organizations. It has also served as a voice for the profession in addressing policymakers, legislators, and the general public.


The perception of the corporate image may be investigated to the distinctiveness of the service given the great diversity of the service industries. The purpose of this research is to identify the factors used by public transport users in evaluating the image of their local transit providers. Based on the samples of one region of western part of Hungary, we carried out an empirical research and found support for the research questions. Our results show that in the local public transport company four factors are significant affecting the passengers' perception of the corporate image. The predictability of each factor on overall corporate image was examined by discriminant analysis. The implications of our findings are discus sed


The development of private forests can provide benefits for farmers because timber commodity has a good selling point. In addition, there is added value if the farmer combining forestry commodity with other commodities such as fruits and crops. Farmers in the Cibatok Dua Village develop private forests and earn additional income for their household needs. This study aims to calculate the contribution of agroforestry in the management of private forests in Cibatok Dua Village to farmers income and identify the types of forestry plants, fruit trees, and the types of agricultural crops with agroforestry systems in the Cibatok Dua Village. The results showed that farmers develop simple agroforestry system with intercropping patterns. That system combining forest trees and agricultural crops as well as fruits between them. The tree that planted was Albisia (Albizia moluccana) and intercropped plants were banana, papaya, coconut, sweet potato, cassava, maize, yam, cloves, pandan, and galangal. Yields from community forests contributes 36% of the total income of farmers. Based on the financial analysis performed by the Discounted Cash Flow method, obtained NPV of Rp 64,197,125, IRR 15%, and Net B / C 2. It means that private forest management by Cibatok Dua Village farmers is financially feasible.


Architectural proteins play a key role in the folding, organization and compaction of genomic DNA in all organisms. By bending, bridging or wrapping DNA, these proteins ensure that its effective volume is reduced sufficiently to fit inside the cell or a dedicated cellular organelle, the nucleus (in bacteria/archaea and in eukaryotes respectively). In addition, the properties of many of these proteins permit them to play specific roles as architectural cofactors in a large variety of DNA transactions. However, as architectural proteins often bind DNA with low sequence specificity and affinity, it is hard to investigate their interaction using biochemical ensemble techniques. Single-molecule micromanipulation approaches that probe the properties of DNA-binding proteins by pulling on individual protein-DNA complexes have, in this respect, proved to be a very powerful alternative. Besides revealing architectural properties, these approaches can also reveal unique parameters not accessible to biochemical approaches, such as the binding kinetics and unbinding forces of individual proteins.


Online action detection is a task with the aim of identifying ongoing actions from streaming videos without any side information or access to future frames. Recent methods proposed to aggregate fixed temporal ranges of invisible but anticipated future frames representations as supplementary features and achieved promising performance. They are based on the observation that human beings often detect ongoing actions by contemplating the future vision simultaneously. However, we observed that at different action progressions, the optimal supplementary features should be obtained from distinct temporal ranges instead of simply fixed future temporal ranges. To this end, we introduce an adaptive features sampling strategy to overcome the mentioned variable-ranges of optimal supplementary features. Specifically, in this paper, we propose a novel Learning Action Progression Network termed LAP-Net, which integrates an adaptive features sampling strategy. At each time step, this sampling strategy first estimates current action progression and then decide what temporal ranges should be used to aggregate the optimal supplementary features. We evaluated our LAP-Net on three benchmark datasets, TVSeries, THUMOS-14 and HDD. The extensive experiments demonstrate that with our adaptive feature sampling strategy, the proposed LAP-Net can significantly outperform current state-of-the-art methods with a large margin.


We report the results of the monitoring of resistance to ampicillin, vancomycin, and teicoplanin in enterococci by an Italian network of clinical microbiology laboratories. A total of 16,226 strains were analyzed; 9,169 of these strains were Enterococcus faecalis, 913 were Enterococcus faecium, and 6,144 were Enterococcus species. The average rate of resistance to ampicillin was 1.9% (range, 0-6.5%) for E. faecalis and 70% (range, 33.3%-98.7%) for E. faecium; the average rate of resistance to vancomycin was 1.1% (range, 0.1%-2%) for E. faecalis and 8.5% (range, 0-36.1%) for E. faecium; and the average rate of resistance to teicoplanin was 0.8% (range, 0-2.4%) for E. faecalis and 8.7% (range, 0-36.1%) for E. faecium.


In this paper, we show that the metric space (Q, G) is a positively-curved space (PC-space) in the sense of Alexandrov. We also discuss some issues like metric tangent cone and exponential map of (Q, G). Then we give a stratification of this metric space according to the signature of points in Q. Some properties of this stratification are shown. The second part of this paper is devoted to some basic analysis on the space (Q, G), like the direct sum and L p space, which can be of independent interest. In the end, we give another definition of derivative for multiple-valued functions, which is equivalent to the one used by Almgren. An interesting theorem about regular selection of multiple-valued functions which preserves the differentiability concludes this paper.


SOD1 is the major superoxide dismutase responsible for catalyzing dismutation of superoxide to hydrogen peroxide and molecular oxygen. It is well known as an essential antioxidant enzyme for maintaining cellular redox homeostasis. SOD1 dysregulation has been associated with many diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cancer, accelerated aging, and age-related diseases. Recent studies also revealed that SOD1 can serve as a regulatory protein in cell signaling, transcription, and ribosome biogenesis. Notably, SOD1 is localized in the nucleus under both normal and pathological conditions, contributing to oxidative stress response and growth control. Moreover, increasing evidence points to the importance of nuclear SOD1 in the pathogenesis of ALS and cancer.


Modern clinical practice requires obligatory use of results of laboratory researches, international experience demonstrates the need of the clinic in laboratory information for making up to 70% of medical decisions. Described a large number of biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases, high diagnostic efficiency with sufficient level of evidence is shown not for all. In article the possibilities of a modern laboratory in determining markers of myocardium damage (troponins, hFABP), myocardial stress (natriuretic peptides) and neurohumoral regulation (copeptin), the diagnostic and predictive importance of these researches are considered.


Trace detection of explosives is an important challenge in both humanitarian landmine clearance and in homeland security scenarios. The ability to detect the presence of explosives across an area of interest would be of particular use in technical surveys of suspected minefields. In this paper we present the development and application of fluorescence-based trace-explosives sensors based on organic semiconductor thin films. We show that these can be used to detect nano-gram level quantities of nitroaromatic (TNT-like) molecules, and combine them for the first time with a novel preconcentration approach to detect buried explosives. Initial field trials on a test minefield will also be presented, in which the sensors are used to detect trace explosives collected by colonies of foraging honeybees.


We surveyed pediatrics bacterial meningitis epidemiology from January 2007 to December 2008 in Japan, with the following results: Cases numbered 287-160 male and 127 female-equivalent to 1.54-1.62 of 1,000 pediatric hospitalization per year. Children under 1-year-old accounted for the highest number of cases, which decreased with increasing age. Haemophilus influenzae was the most common cause of infection, followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae, group B streptococcus (GBS), and Escherichia coli. GBS and E. coli were major pathogens in children under 4 months of age, while H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae mainly accounted for those over 4 months of age. Susceptibility tests showed that 51% of H. influenzae isolates and 56.5% of S. pneumoniae isolates in 2008 were drug-resistant. Ampicillin combined with cephem antibiotics effective against GBS, E. coli, and Listeria, were mainly used to initially treat those under 4 months of age. In those over 4 months of age, carbapenem antibiotics are effective against PRSP and cephem antibiotics against H. influenza.


[reaction: see text] A total synthesis of (+)-peloruside A has been successfully achieved. The strategy was highlighted by a late stage aldol coupling of two complex fragments followed by an intramolecular hemi-ketal cyclization, a MOM group participated epoxide ring fragmentation reaction, and a highly selective methylation. This convergent route allows access to rationally designed analogues.


Owing to the insufficient supply and indifferent quality of the water at Harwich, several attempts have from time to time been made to improve that supply by means of deep wells in the Tertiary sands and the Chalk. None of these having been attended with the desired success, although in 1824 and 1826 two borings were carried down to a depth of 293 feet and 192 feet in the Chalk, a public work of great spirit has lately been undertaken under the superintendence of Mr. Peter Bruff, C.E., to bore deep into, and, if necessary, through the Chalk. I saw this well in August 1856. It had not then traversed the Chalk. In November last, however, the Rev. J. H. Marsden informed our Assistant-Secretary that the boring had been successfully carried through the Chalk, Upper Greensand, and Gault, and that immediately beneath the latter a "black rock" had been found, of which he sent up a specimen. Mr. Marsden shortly afterwards favoured us with the following section (Column 2), on which, as the geological results are so curious and important, I purpose making a few remarks, as well as on a suite of specimens which Mr. Bruff kindly submitted for examination. The well, which is situated near the Pier and a few feet only above the level of the river, was commenced in July 1854, and in May 1857 had reached its present great depth.


The exiting DEA methods generally consider energy consumption as input indicator. It is reasonable from the perspective of economy or energy conservation. But from the perspective of environment or clean energy utilization, a region using more energy to generate lower pollutants is considered to be more efficient. Thus, energy consumption should be regarded as output indicator. If we consider the two perspectives at the same time, it will be difficult to judge energy consumption as input indicator or output indicator. To solve this problem, we incorporate Nash bargaining game (NBG) into DEA model to estimate the economic efficiency, environmental efficiency and united efficiency for China's 30 provinces during 2000–2011. It is found that the economic efficiency, environmental efficiency and united efficiency during 2000–2011 in China present distinct stage characteristics. The results obtained by employing the Mann and Whitney rank sum test imply that three efficiency measures among east area, central area and west area of China have significant heterogeneity, and the differences of provinces on the three performance measures are significant. On the basis of clear understanding about performance difference among provinces of China, it will contribute to realizing the win-win strategy as regard to the economy and environment on the whole by carrying out targeted economic and environmental policies for different regions.


Ceilings on lending rates remain a widely used policy tool that is intended to lower the overall cost of credit or protect consumers from exorbitant rates. Interest rate caps come in many forms and scopes and, according to their rationale, ceilings can affect a small segment or the overall market. Over the past years, many countries have introduced new or tightened existing restrictions, while only a few have removed or eased them. This paper takes stock of recent developments in interest rates caps globally and classifies them according to a novel taxonomy. The paper also presents six case studies of different types of interest rate caps. The case studies indicate that while some forms of interest rate caps can indeed reduce lending rates and help to limit predatory practices by formal lenders, interest rate caps often have substantial unintended side-effects. These side-effects include increases in non-interest fees and commissions, reduced price transparency, lower credit supply and loan approval rates for small and risky borrowers, lower number of institutions and reduced branch density, as well as adverse impacts on bank profitability. Given these potential negative consequences of interest rate caps, the paper discusses alternatives to reduce the cost of credit.


The objective of this work is micromechanics-based prediction of the effective longitudinal and transverse thermal conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites at high temperatures, when pyrolytic thermal decomposition of the polymer matrix takes place. Microstructure of the composite evolves with temperature and consists of polymer phase, growing pores, which represent pyrolytic gaseous phase, and continuous carbon fibers. Volume fractions of polymer and pores at different temperatures are obtained from the Arrhenius-type equation describing decomposition of the polymer matrix. The char residue produced during pyrolytic thermal decomposition is not considered in this study. Microstructure generation algorithms are developed to create densely packed, randomly distributed, poly-dispersed, particle filled microstructures consisting of circular (representing fibers) and elliptic (representing pores) inclusions. Statistical analysis of the generated microstructures is discussed to demonstrate their suitability. A two-step numerical homogenization technique is used to compute the effective directional thermal conductivities of the composite. The computational results for the effective transverse and longitudinal thermal conductivities are obtained for the AS4/3501-6 composite in a temperature range up to 700 K.


The performance of field effect transistors based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is determined by their chirality the potential barrier at the SWNT/electrode interface, and defects in the SWNTs. Kelvin-probe force microscopy (KFM) is a powerful technique that can measure local surface potential (SP) on SWNTs for investigating local electrical properties at the interface and defects. However, the electrical potential measurement of SWNTs is often hindered by the surrounding trapped charges on the silicon oxide surface. We performed KFM imaging on an SWNT aligned between the electrodes on a silicon oxide surface by KFM using the frequency modulation (FM) method. We investigated the effect of these surface charges on the electrical potential of the SWNT measured by FM-KFM, especially in terms of the tip-sample distance. We introduced a novel two-dimensional (2D) SP mapping method in which the tip is scanned in a plane normal to the sample surface while recording the SP. The 2D SP map showed that the SP measured on the SWNT was significantly affected by the surrounding trapped charges, even when the tip-sample distance was minimized, and the electrical potential of the SWNT could not be measured accurately. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2011.210]


We analyze the density profiles and virial radii for a sample of 90 nearby clusters, using galaxies with available redshifts and positions. Each cluster has at least 20 redshifts measured within an Abell radius, and all the results come from galaxy sets of at least 20 members. Most of the density profiles of our clusters are well fitted by hydrostatic-isothermal-like profiles. The slopes we find for many cluster density profiles are consistent with the hypothesis that the galaxies are in equilibrium with the binding cluster potential. The virial radii correlate with the core radii at a very high significance level. The observed relationship between the two size estimates is in agreement with the theoretical one computed by using the median values of the density profile parameters fitted on our clusters. After correcting for incompleteness in our cluster sample, we provide the universal distributions functions of core and virial radii (obtained within half an Abell radius).


Summary Aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase of mouse skin is inducible by benz(a)anthracene or 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) and is inhibited by 7,8-benzoflavone. 7,8-Benzoflavone inhibits the formation of covalently bound complexes of DMBA with DNA, RNA, and protein and also inhibits tumor formation caused either by a single application of DMBA, followed by croton oil treatment, or by the repeated application of DMBA. These results indicate that DMBA requires metabolic activation by aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase for its carcinogenic activity. The inhibitory effect of 7,8-benzoflavone is limited to its application within 12 hr of administration of the DMBA, suggesting that the metabolic activation of DMBA is completed within 12 hr. The level of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase and DMBA tumorigenesis varies markedly in different mouse strains, indicating either that there are genetic differences in the profile of DMBA metabolite formation or that metabolic activation is necessary but not sufficient for DMBA tumorigenesis.


We report the syntheses of 1,4-diazacycles by diol-diamine coupling, uniquely made possible with a (pyridyl)phosphine-ligated ruthenium(II) catalyst (1). The reactions can exploit either two sequential N-alkylations or an intermediate tautomerization pathway to yield piperazines and diazepanes; diazepanes are generally inaccessible by catalytic routes. Our conditions tolerate different amines and alcohols that are relevant to key medicinal platforms. We show the syntheses of the drugs cyclizine and homochlorcyclizine in 91% and 67% yields, respectively.