The microenvironmental effects of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) on the twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) of ρ-N, N-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMABA) are investigated using fluorescence spectroscopy. The typical TICT dual fluorescence of DMABA is observed in pure water and aqueous β-CD solution, and β-CD has s remarkable influence on the TICT fluorescence characteristics of DMABA. A linear dependence of the ratio of intensity of TICT fluorescence band (a band) to that of normal fluorescence band (b band) on DMABA concentration is also observed and the introduction of β-CD increases the linear slope. Combined with the results of absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence polarization, and peculiar salt effects, the properties of TICT state of DMABA, the interaction of DMABA with β-CD, and the intrinsic traits of the microenvironmental effects of β-CD are discussed in detail.


High-grade ductal carcinoma in situ is incredibly rare in male patients. The prognosis for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in a male patient is the same as it would be for a female with the same stage disease; therefore, early recognition and diagnosis are of the utmost importance. We present a case of a male with unilateral invasive ductal carcinoma who was diagnosed with DCIS in the contralateral breast. The DCIS presented as microcalcifications on mammography and was found to be biopsy proven grade 3 papillary DCIS. This case also illustrates the importance of family history and risk factors, all of which need to be evaluated in any male presenting with a breast mass or nipple discharge.


We introduce partially-parity-time (pPT)-symmetric azimuthal potentials composed from individual PT-symmetric cells located on a ring, where two azimuthal directions are nonequivalent in a sense that in such potential excitations carrying topological dislocations exhibit different dynamics for different directions of energy circulation in the initial field distribution. Such nonconservative ratchetlike structures support rich families of stable vortex solitons in cubic nonlinear media, whose properties depend on the sign of the topological charge due to the nonequivalence of azimuthal directions. In contrast, oppositely charged vortex solitons remain equivalent in similar fully-PT-symmetric potentials. The vortex solitons in the pPT- and PT-symmetric potentials are shown to feature qualitatively different internal current distributions, which are described by different discrete rotation symmetries of the intensity profiles.


Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include disability and persons with disabilities for example partially sighted or blind. Disability is referenced in multiple parts of the SDGs, specifically in the parts related to education, growth and employment, inequality, accessibility of human settlements and buildings. The paper presents selected technologies that support independent movement blind people inside huge buildings. The paper will refer to two SDGs: No 9 and No 11. There needs to be a future in which cities provide opportunities for all with access to basic services, housing, friendly public buildings, transportation and more, even to people with eye disabilities. This paper presents selected systems for finding objects or places, recognizing objects inside rooms and navigation inside buildings based on nonradio and wireless technologies. The following technologies and solutions were presented and compared: physical items, smartphone cameras, laser rangefinders, pedestrian dead-reckoning, intelligent lighting, Wi-Fi, BLE beacons, magnetic fields and barometric pressure sensors.


Peroxisomes are ubiquitous organelles with multiple metabolic functions, but their precise role in the maintenance of tissues is not well understood. All diseases caused by partial or complete peroxisome dysfunction are characterized by a variety of neurological abnormalities, underscoring the importance of peroxisomes in nervous tissue. The interrelationship between metabolic abnormalities, histological changes, and clinical signs in these peroxisomal diseases has not yet been clarified. During the past decade, a more systematic study of the consequences of peroxisome dysfunction was possible through the generation of knockout mice with generalized or conditional inactivation of peroxisomal proteins. It appears that peroxisomes are necessary for the preservation of axonal integrity and for the formation and maintenance of myelin.


Single-atom catalysts have received widespread attention for their fascinating performance in terms of metal atom efficiency as well as their special catalysis mechanisms compared to conventional catalysts. Here, we prepared a high-performance catalyst of single-Cu-atom-decorated boron nitride nanofibers (BNNF-Cu) via a facile calcination method. The as-prepared catalyst shows high catalytic activity and good stability for converting different nitro compounds into their corresponding amines both with and without photoexcitation. By combined studies of synchrotron radiation analysis, high-resolution high-angle annular dark-field transmission electron microscopy studies, and DFT calculations, dispersion and coordination of Cu atoms as well as their catalytic mechanisms are explored. The BNNF-Cu catalyst is found to have a record high turnover frequency compared to previously reported non-precious-metal-based catalysts. While the performance of the BNNF-Cu catalyst is only of the middle range level among the state-of-the-art precious-metal-based catalysts, due to the much lower cost of the BNNF-Cu catalyst, its cost efficiency is the highest among these catalysts. This work provides a choice of support material that can promote the development of single-atom catalysts.


Navigation is of fundamental importance to humans, just as it is for other species. And, like most other animal species, we possess a number of distinct navigational processes. This thesis examines navigation, focusing particularly on the widely studied phenomenon of reorientation following disruption to spatial behavior. In typical reorientation experiments, subjects rely on the three-dimensional surface layout of an environment to find a desired goal following disorientation, and they do so to the exclusion of other important spatial cues. An influential explanatory framework aims to account for such findings by holding that subjects possess a modular mechanism known as the geometric module, which only operates on geometric information about three-dimensional extended surfaces. This thesis provides a sustained defense of this framework and develops a new type of geometric-module theory of reorientation. I begin by making the case that, if the general geometric-module framework is right, it has deep implications for two foundational debates in philosophy of psychology: the debate about the nature of mental representations and the debate about the structure of the mind. I then address the two most pressing challenges against the framework. The first challenge comes from what I call 'the explanatory inflexibility objection', which holds that the geometric-module framework simply does not have the required flexibility to deal with evidence that non-geometric cues can affect subjects' search behavior in some experimental contexts. The second challenge arises from an alternative explanatory framework, the view-matching framework, which aims to explain subjects' behavior in reorientation experiments by appealing to snapshots, stored representations of the subjects' two-dimensional retinal stimulation at specific locations. In answering these two challenges, I put forward a new type of geometric-module theory which has stronger implications for debates in philosophy of psychology than standard geometric-module models.


Ciprofloxacin (CFX) was loaded on Bana clay (Cameroon) and CFX loadedclays
have been evaluated as drug delivery system. Raw clays and CFX loaded
compounds have been characterized by some physico-chemicals methods. In
vitro release studies have been done in gastric and phosphate buffer experimental
mediums; bacteriological studies have been made up on Escherichia coli
and Staphylococcus aureus. X-ray diffractometry patterns of loaded compounds
show a basal spacing increasing due to CFX intercalation. On Fourier-Transformed
Infrared spectrometry spectra, appearance of CFX characteristic bands
and shifting of certain bands already presents on clay confirmed CFX intercalation.
After 96 h of CFX released from release mediums, prolonged and continue
profiles have been observed. Diffusion tests displayed an inhibition radius
of ~2 cm on gelose seeded with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus
due to CFX. The overall results show a modified release of ciprofloxacin
with an effective antibacterial activity, giving the way for a new ciprofloxacin
drug delivery system using Bana clay as carrier.


Precision, reliability, and fault tolerance is the most essential features of resolvers used in safety and mission critical applications. In this paper a highly reliable two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF), rotational-linear resolver is proposed for 2DOF tubular motors. In this scheme, only one stator/rotor core with helical windings is used to detect both rotational and linear movements. Here, significantly reduced failure rate, volume and cost is aimed simply by eliminating redundancies and complexities of the resolver structure. There is only one excitation and only one signal winding that identifies the proposed resolver from previous 2 DOF resolvers. Furthermore, manufacturing process is also simplified compared to previous designs. The performance of the proposed resolver is investigated using 3-D time stepping finite element analysis (3-D TSFEA).


One hundred and two patients from South India with primary ankylosing spondylitis (AS) were analysed clinically and radiologically. The mean age of onset was 26 years, with a male to female ratio of 16:1. Eleven patients presented as juvenile ankylosing spondylitis. The mode of presentation of AS included axial involvement in 59, peripheral arthritis in 38, heel pain in 18 and acute anterior uveitis (AAU) in 11. The overall incidence of extra axial features was high (90 patients). These included subjects with peripheral arthritis (49), heel pain (35), AAU (14), rib pain (11), aortic regurgitation (8), apical pulmonary fibrosis (5), mitral regurgitation (2) and conduction defects (2). Peripheral arthritis was characteristically asymmetrical and oligo articular, and involved lower limb joints. No renal involvement was noticed. Radiologically, bilateral sacroilitis was seen in 80% of cases.


COSTA, Débora Grassetti Martins da. Last mile deliveries of ecommerce orders: a cross analysis of consumers' and carriers' perceptions. 2020. – Universidade Federal de São Carlos, campus Sorocaba, Sorocaba, 2020. The evolution of e-commerce has triggered a true revolution in the market. Due to that, the increase of deliveries changed the urban freight pattern flows and vehicles' traffic in the cities. These changes have consequences in technological, economic, environmental and social aspects. It is important to highlight that the adoption of good practices and strategies in e-commerce last mile distribution can influence positively the society in general. According to the literature, there is a high potential to use new technologies in the last mile to increase the customer experience, reduce costs, increase security, and support city environmental when delivering e-commerce purchases. Therefore, the aim of this study is to diagnose the e-commerce last mile delivery evaluating new technology solutions proposed by the literature and considering the perceptions from customers and e-commerce carriers. The used method was survey questionnaires applied to consumers and carriers in order to get different perceptions between them in São Paulo city. This region was chosen due to its relevance in the Brazilian demand and complexity in last mile delivery related to productivity, security and urban mobility. Customers and carriers consider more relevant performance and convenience aspects in relation to e-commerce delivery. However, carriers have a greater concern than customers with the points of infrastructure and environment. Demographic and risk data from São Paulo were also analysed and the results support the strategy definition to have pick up points being used to delivery e-commerce purchases in the São Paulo city, predominantly in the most distant areas of the city center.


We show that nonlinear optical cavities under periodic modulations can exhibit dissipative Bloch waves. This can be achieved by a proper choice of the incident field in the cavity that must both compensate for losses and match with the modulation period. Dissipative Bloch waves, unlike their conservative counterparts, spontaneously emerge in the cavity and hence correspond to attracting solutions. This makes it possible to experimentally visualize the band structure of the cavity medium. As an illustration of this phenomenon, we performed our analytical investigations on a degenerate optical parametric oscillator with a modulated transverse refractive index.


In this study, porous hydroxyapatite structures were produced by using urea particles of 600–850 µm size. Samples with two different urea composition (25 and 50 wt%) were prepared along with samples without any urea content by adding urea to commercially available hydroxyapatite in its as purchased and calcined states. The produced pellets were sintered at 1100 ℃ and 1200 ℃ for 2 h. Compression tests and microhardness measurements were conducted and changes in density values were examined in order to determine the effect of the calcination state of the prior hydroxyapatite powder, the sintering temperature and the amount of urea added. Also X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, and scanning electron microscopy analyses were conducted to determine the phase stability, functional groups, and pore morphology, respectively. Calcination is found to negatively affect the densification and sinterability of the produced samples, resulting in a decrease of compressive strength and microhardness. With the control of the urea content and sintering temperature uncalcined hydroxyapatite can successfully be used to tailor the density and mechanical properties of the final porous structures.


CULLEN first described peri-umbilical ecchymoses in 1918 in a short paper on "A new sign in ruptured extra-uterine pregnancy" read to the American Gynecological Association in Philadelphia. The sign has been confused with the blue discoloration of an umbilical hernia following intraperitoneal bleeding but in which there is no true peri-umbilical ecchymosis, as described by Hofstatter in 1909. Of the 61 cases of Cullen's sign reported over half have been due to ruptured extrauterine pregnancies, the remainder to a variety of intraabdominal conditions, including ruptured uterus and peritonitis. The literature of these cases has been summarized by Merrill (1958) and Way (1941).


Described is the design of a foot/pedal interface intended as a research tool in the study of overuse knee injuries in cycling. The interface enables the systematic variation of factors that may affect loads transmitted by the knee joint. It permits two degrees of freedom of movement, inversion/eversion and abduction/adduction rotations, either separately or in combination. The movement permitted by each degree of freedom can be either free or resisted by spring assemblies. Sample data were collected to demonstrate the function of the foot/pedal interface. With no spring resistance, the interface functioned as intended by allowing free movement of the foot. Significant interaction was seen between the two degrees of freedom, with more motion and a larger absolute mean occurring when both degrees of freedom were allowed simultaneously. This emphasizes the need for a multi-degree-of-freedom interface when undertaking a comprehensive study of the factors affecting loads transmitted by the knee.


Background: Aeroallergen skin testing for assessing allergic disease has been in use for well over 100 years. Initially, trepidation to the use of skin puncture testing (SPT) occurred because of reported morbidity and mortality. SPT has most frequently been utilized in the specialist office due to fear of adverse reactions.
Methods: Analysis of 156,335 SPT tests (morbidity and mortality) allowed equivalency testing versus superiority testing to show 95% confidence level. The ninety-five percent confidence interval around the 11.5/100,000 SPT is (11.3-11.7/100,000).
Results: The literature documents 1 death from SPT from 1990 to 2001 and 1 death from 1945 to 1987. These 2 reported deaths have been contrasted with 0 deaths in 125,295 SPT patients reviewed in a primary care setting utilizing United Allergy Service protocols (UAS). Systemic reactions (SR) occurred in only 18 patients. The SR rate amongst subspecialists has been reported as a 0.015-0.023% SR per 100,000 SPT. Statistically, this result is not significantly different from the UAS SR rate of 0.0115% without associated anaphylaxis or deaths.
Conclusion: Based on the findings evident in this study, SPT is safely performed in the primary care (PC) office and allows for a larger percentage of the symptomatic population to be assessed. The observed SR rate of 11.5/100,000 SPT was statistically similar to the lowest published rate of 15/100,000 SPT (p=0.45) and statistically lower than the highest published rate of 23/100,000 SPT (p=0.02). These data suggest that SPT is as safe in the (PC) office as it is in the specialist office.


Stochastic algorithms are widely used in various modeling and optimization problems. Evolutionary algorithms are one class of population-based stochastic approaches that are inspired from Darwinian evolutionary theory. A population of candidate solutions is initialized at the first generation of the algorithm. Two variation operators, crossover and mutation, that mimic the real world evolutionary process, are applied on the population to produce new solutions from old ones. Selection based on the concept of survival of the fittest is used to preserve parent solutions for next generation. Examples of such algorithms include genetic algorithm (GA) and genetic programming (GP). Nevertheless, other stochastic algorithms may be inspired from animals' behavior such as particle swarm optimization (PSO), which imitates the cooperation of a flock of birds. In addition, stochastic algorithms are able to address multi-objective optimization problems by using the concept of dominance. Accordingly, a set of solutions that do not dominate each other will be obtained, instead of just one best solution.
This thesis proposes a multi-objective GP-PSO hybrid algorithm to recover gene regulatory network models that take environmental data as stimulus input. The algorithm infers a model based on both phenotypic and gene expression data. The proposed approach is able to simultaneously infer network structures and estimate their associated parameters, instead of doing one or the other iteratively as other algorithms need to. In addition, a non-dominated sorting approach and an adaptive histogram method based on the hypergrid strategy are adopted to address 'convergence' and 'diversity' issues in multi-objective optimization.
Gene network models obtained from the proposed algorithm are compared to a synthetic network, which mimics key features of Arabidopsis flowering control system, visually and numerically. Data predicted by the model are compared to synthetic data, to verify that they are able to closely approximate the available phenotypic and gene expression data. At the end of this thesis, a novel breeding strategy, termed network assisted selection, is proposed as an extension of our hybrid approach and application of obtained models for plant breeding. Breeding simulations based on network assisted selection are compared to one common breeding strategy, marker assisted selection. The results show that NAS is better both in terms of breeding speed and final phenotypic level.


To characterize von Willebrand factor (vWF) gene polymorphisms at site A1381T             and the correlation of plasma vWF levels with coronary heart disease, the vWF             genotypes at site A1381T were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction             fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in patients diagnosed with coronary heart             disease and normal controls (n=110 per group), and plasma vWF levels were measured             by enzyme‑linked immunosorbent assay. The results showed that the plasma vWF levels             were higher in the experimental group than in the control group and had no association             with gender (t=11.69, p<0.05). In the experimental group, the plasma vWF levels             were higher in the patients with the AG genotype than in those with the GG genotype             (p<0.05). In the control group, the plasma vWF levels of the subjects with             blood type O were significantly lower than those of the individuals with other             blood types (p<0.05). In the experimental group, all blood types had significantly             higher plasma vWF levels than the control group and the difference was significant             among different blood types (p<0.05). In summary, vWF gene polymorphisms at             site A1381T were not associated with coronary heart disease, but plasma vWF levels             were influenced by vWF gene polymorphisms at site A1381T, blood type and coronary             heart disease.


We describe five patients with acute pancreatitis in whom acute renal failure developed in the absence of hypotension. Pancreatitis was diagnosed clinically, with mean serum and urinary amylase levels of 766 +/- 197 (SE) and 2,378 +/- 572 units/100 ml, respectively. Acute renal failure developed within 24 hours after admission in all patients. It was manifested by oliguria, elevated levels of serum creatinine (mean, 6.9 +/- 1.1 mg/100 ml) and BUN (105 +/-28 mg/100 ml); a urinary sodium level of 72.0 +/- 6.6 mEq/liter; and isosmotic urine (355 +/- 31 mOsm/liter). The mean uric acid level was 18.6 +/- 1.6 mg/100 ml. Blood pressure was recorded frequently, and the lowest mean diastolic pressure was 96 +/- 6 mm Hg. The duration of the oliguric phase of acute renal failure was 8.2 +/- 1.7 days, and all patients recovered from both the acute pancreatitis and acute renal failure. In summary, acute pancreatitis, per se, can precipitate acute renal failure. It occurs early in the course of the pancreatitis, and extreme hyperuricemia is frequent finding that does not adversely affect the recovery of renal function.


ABSTRACT It is well-known that donors give considerably more foreign aid to former colonies than to countries lacking past colonial ties. Unfortunately, we know relatively little about why this is the case. For one, there is almost never a theoretical justification for the inclusion of colonial history in statistical models. For the other, the only explicitly made rationale by Bueno de Mesquita and Smith (2009) actually predicts an interpretational problem: colonial history not only increases a former colony's saliency to the donor, but also has left deep marks on recipients' social and political institutions today. Both aspects shape how much aid a donor transfers to the recipient. This leaves ambiguous the meaning of the routinely found positive, sizable, and significant coefficient of colonial history on aid flows. We solve the inferential quandary by using a decomposition approach from labor econometrics. Our results show that about 75–100% of the colony effect on foreign aid stems from the greater saliency that donors give to policy concessions from former colonies.


The article considers feasibility prospect of high-speed railway in modern Russia, based on a qualitatively new and innovative solutions, it gives comparative analysis of similar experiences in other countries, also there are constructed forecasting models for today"s Russian state.


Pyrolysis is a promising technology for sewage sludge (SS) treatment providing several improvements of SS properties for soil application. However, information on the influence of pyrolytic temperature on the availability of nutrients in resulting biochar (BC) is limited. In this study, anaerobically stabilised SS was pyrolysed in a laboratory fixed-bed reactor at 220, 320, 420, 520, and 620 °C for 30 min in the N2 atmosphere. Pyrolysis resulted in a higher total content of all studied nutrients in BCs. Aromaticity and hydrophobicity of BCs increased with increasing temperatures while solubility decreased. Relative availability (% from total content) of nutrients in BCs was in order: Ca > Mg ~ K > S > P. Pyrolysis at 220 °C produced acidic BC with a higher content of acetic acid-extractable nutrients compared to non-pyrolysed control. An increment in pH and a significant drop in the content of available Ca, Mg, K and S were found at temperature 320 °C. Pyrolysis at 320 °C increased the content of available P by 28 % compared to non-pyrolysed SS. At the temperature of 420 °C and higher, available contents of all studied nutrients were lower than in non-pyrolysed SS.


These proposed regulations would implement, in part, section 202 of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 (MCCA), which establishes a new catastrophic drug benefit under Medicare Part B. The new benefit would be added to the drug coverage already available under Medicare, which would continue largely unchanged. The MCCA provides for payment of a catastrophic level of beneficiary expenditures for "covered outpatient drugs". The payment aspect of this benefit will be implemented in separate regulations. The MCCA defines the items and services included as "covered outpatient drugs" to include coverage of outpatient prescription drugs on a much broader scope than is now available under Part B. These proposed regulations describe that new benefit. These regulations also describe the bases that HCFA would use to implement the statutory requirement for establishing standards for the prescribing of each "covered outpatient drug". These standards would be used to identify inappropriate drug prescribing and dispensing and adverse drug reactions and to educate physicians and pharmacists about them. They would not be used to define coverage or payment of covered outpatient drugs. The regulations also describe limits on the supply of a "covered outpatient drug" that Medicare would pay for, and reflect other related changes in Medicare created by MCCA.


Lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) is a common subtype of non-small cell lung cancer. MicroRNAs have been reported to be effective biomarkers for diagnosis and an important target for therapy. MiR-4429 is a newly identified miRNA, which can take part in tumor progression as a tumor inhibitor. Moreover, it is an exosomal miRNA that can be taken by lung ADC cell line A549. Nevertheless, its role in lung ADC has been poorly studied. This research discovered that miR-4429 was low expressed in lung ADC cells. MiR-4429 mimics could alleviate the capacities of cell proliferation and metastasis. The mimics are able to reverse epithelial-mesenchymal transition at the same time. Furthermore, it was verified that miR-4429 could bind to β-catenin and negatively regulate β-catenin expression. Interestingly, SKL2001 can reverse the role of miR-4429 on tumor. Consequently, miR-4429 can inactivate Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway by targeting β-catenin and prevent oncogene expression in lung ADC cells.


A goal of this presentation is to demonstrate that recently observed x-ray emission from comets can be interpreted as a combination of bremsstrahlung and line k-shell radiation produced by interaction of energetic electrons with the cometary atmosphere. Electron energization inside the cometary bow-shock is due to mass-loading of the shocked solar wind flow by newly born heavy cometary ions created by photoionization of the neutral gas outflow. The new ion component in the crossed E × B fields of the host (solar wind) plasma moves in cycloidal orbits, forming an unstable ring distribution, which drives the modified two stream instability and excites lower hybrid waves. These waves have the phase velocity along the magnetic field much larger than across it. For this reason, they can be in simultaneous Landau resonance with both slow unmagnetized ions and fast, but magnetized (field aligned), electrons efficiently transferring ion energy to the electrons and leading to their energization. We have investigated this process in a quasilinear approximation. By solving the Fokker-Planck equation for the field aligned electron energy diffusion, we have been able to calculate fluxes and energy spectra of electrons accelerated by the lower hybrid waves and to determine spectrum and total luminosity of x-ray radiation. Results of theoretical analysis are compared with ROSAT and Beppo-Sax observations of x-ray emission from the different comets.


Malignant ascites is a very serious and difficult to manage problem in the cancer patient. It is a sign of late stage disease and treatment is mainly palliative. Therefore the treatment should produce minimal discomfort and have few side effects. Numerous methods for managing the problem have been attempted, but few have afforded complete remission of the ascites with improved survival. We are reporting a case of complete remission of malignant ascites in a stage IV breast cancer patient. Her condition was managed by a peritoneal dialysis catheter and an aggressive intraperitoneal innovative chemoimmunotherapy protocol.


This paper makes changes in monetary policy rules (or regimes) endogenous. Changes are triggered when certain endogenous variables cross specified thresholds. Rational expectations equilibria are examined in three models of threshold switching to illustrate that (i) expectations formation effects generated by the possibility of regime change can be quantitatively important; (ii) symmetric shocks can have asymmetric effects; (iii) endogenous switching is a natural way to formally model preemptive policy actions. In a conventional calibrated model, preemptive policy shifts agents' expectations, enhancing the ability of policy to offset demand shocks; this yields a quantitatively significant "preemption dividend."


The use of different condensing and phosphorylating agents in conjunction with oxygen-nucleophilic catalysts, such as 4-substituted derivatives of pyridine N-oxide and quinoline N-oxide, leads to a dramatic increase of the rate of the phosphotriester bond formation and minimizes the amount of by-products caused by the modification of heterocyclic bases. The application of these catalysts to the solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis allows to reduce the time needed for the performance of one elongation cycle on a polymer support to 10 min.


Western democracies experience profound conflicts that induce concerns about polarization and social cohesion. Yet although conflicts are a core feature of democracies, the forms, functions, and dynamics of democratic conflicts have rarely been subject of political theory. This paper aims at furthering our understanding of democratic conflicts. It analyzes the theory of conflict in Mouffe's agonistic pluralism, confronts it with sociological conflict theory, and presents concrete points of departure for a more comprehensive theory of democratic conflicts. The paper, thus, contributes to two lines of research: (1) Regarding agonistic theories, the paper shows that agonistic pluralism fails to provide a convincing theory of conflict since it underestimates the mechanisms and effects of conflict dynamics (e.g. intergroup cohesion, intragroup conflict, domination, and escalation) and fails to account for the variety of conflict interactions. Proponents of agonistic pluralism should therefore invest more into clarifying their core concept. (2) For a general account of democratic conflicts, the paper proposes to pursue interdisciplinary research on the cognitive concepts shaping conflict interactions, the linked practices of conflict regulation, and the processual dynamics of conflicts.


ABSTRACT Metacognition is the knowledge and regulation of one's own cognitive system. Possession and use of metacognitive abilities is necessary for learning and the learners who are metacognitively strong are best prepared to learn throughout their lives. Medical students must be prepared to cope with the uncertainty and evolving understanding inherent in medical practice. The study examined the metacognitive awareness of medical students and the impact of metacognitive training on their metacognitive awareness. In this research, mixed methods design was used. In the quantitative research pre- and post- test control group experimental research method was used. Two-way repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA), Bonferroni corrected repeated measures of ANOVA, Bonferroni corrected Mann-Whitney U test were used for analyses. In the qualitative research, 6 open-ended questions were asked to the experimental group. "Content analysis" was used to analyze the 6 open-ended questions which students answered. The research group consisted of 63 first-year (2007-2008) medical students (30 tests, 33 controls) of Ankara University School of Medicine. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory-MAI was used to determine the students' metacognitive awareness. MAI scores of both post-test and follow up test were higher than pre-test scores in experimental group (p=0.003 and p=0.043, respectively), while there could not be found any statistically significant differences in control group (p=0.215). M etacognitive capabilities can be enhanced by training. Informing the students about metacognition and life-long learning, and helping the educators in realizing the importance of metacognition can help the students learn how to learn. Key words: Metacognition; Metacognitive awareness;Medical education; Undergraduate; Lifelong learning


Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP) is a successive pre-equalization technique that arranges all the receivers into a group of layers and then suppresses the interlayer interference in sequence at the transmitter. There are two basic THP structures according to the positions of the diagonal weighted filter-decentralized at the receivers or centralized at the transmitter-which are denoted dTHP or cTHP, respectively. In this paper, the investigation of THP in downlink multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems with imperfect channel state information (CSI) is performed. The interference power caused by imperfect CSI is first derived, and then, the comparison between the two basic THP structures and the linear zero-forcing (ZF) precoding is carried out in terms of the interference power and the system capacity. Furthermore, the cases with different CSI errors among users are considered, through which the independence of the interference power among layers or subchannels is presented, including the cases with single-antenna and multiantenna receivers. Analytical and simulation results indicate that with imperfect CSI, THP leads to less interference power than linear-ZF, and dTHP leads to larger system capacity than cTHP and linear-ZF.


ABSTRACT Emerging research argues that liberal democracy, including American democracy, is showing evidence of erosion and is in retreat around the world. Our research provides a counterbalance to concerns for American democratic decline by exploring the willingness of Americans to grant the president more authority for partisan reasons. We draw from a survey experiment administered to 1000 Americans embedded within the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Elections Survey (CCES). This experiment evaluates the influence of co-partisanship on support for undemocratic actions to empower presidents. We find that on average, respondents oppose a series of intensifying actions, across all partisan groupings and treatment conditions. We also find that co-partisanship with the president affects Democratic responses, but not those of Republicans. Democrats are less opposed to empowering President Obama relative to President Trump. But, overall, Republicans are less opposed to undemocratic acts than Democrats across all conditions. We interpret these results as relatively good news for American democracy. Partisan polarization may drive relative differences in support for expanding presidential power, but overall support for democracy, separation of powers, and institutional checks and balances remain high.


Abstract The aim of this article is to show the results of the lichenometrical and Schmidt hammer measurements performed in 2015 during the AMADEE-15 Mars Mission Simulation in the Ötztal Alps in order to test the capabilities of analogue astronauts and collect information on the geomorphic history of the study area since the Little Ice Age (LIA). The results obtained differ significantly from our expectations, which we attribute to differences in the field experience of participants and the astronauts' technical limitations in terms of mobility. However, the experiments proved that these methods are within the range of the astronauts' capabilities. Environmental factors, such as i) varied petrography, ii) varied number of thalli in test polygons, and iii) differences in topoclimatic conditions between the LIA moraine and the glacier front, further inhibited simple interpretation. The LIA maximum of the Kaunertal glacier occurred in AD 1850, and relative stabilization of the frontal part of the rock glacier occurred in AD 1711.


The purpose of this research was the investigation of the corrosion behavior of a low chromium-content stainless steel, ASTM A1010, for use in steel bridge members. This stainless steel has been marketed as a potential replacement for conventional structural steels for bridges located in highly-corrosive environments, with the potential to provide life-cycle cost savings. Further investigation of the corrosion behavior of A1010 in corrosive environments was required for three bridge-specific applications: the galvanic corrosion of A1010 connected to plates and fasteners composed of dissimilar metals; the crevice corrosion of A1010 plates connected with other A1010 plates; and the effect of varying surface preparation techniques on the corrosion behavior of A1010. These behaviors were studied through the implementation of an accelerated cyclic corrosion test, the modified SAE J2334 Surface Vehicle Standard specification. Results from the accelerated corrosion test indicated the following: galvanic corrosion rates of A1010 with dissimilar metal plates may result in accelerated corrosion rates of the dissimilar metal plates beyond desirable levels; connections to many non-stainless fastener types show cause for concerns with galvanic corrosion, while B8 Class 2 austenitic stainless steel bolt assemblies exhibited superior performance; the relative corrosion-resistance of A1010 is decreased in detailing susceptible to crevice corrosion; and finally, numerous abrasive blasting procedures appear to be suitable for use with A1010. CORROSION BEHAVIOR OF ASTM A1010 STAINLESS STEEL FOR APPLICATIONS IN BRIDGE COMPONENTS


Microelectrode mapping and horseradish peroxidase oxidase histochemistry were combined to study the relationship between the characteristic-frequency representation and the intrinsic connectivity of the primary auditory cortex in the cat. Small extracellular iontophoretic injections of horseradish peroxidase within the characteristic-frequency map resulted in labeling of neuronal processes that, in the tangential plane, radiated out asymmetrically from the injection site over distances of several millimeters. The heaviest concentration of labeled fibers was along an axis parallel with the orientation of the isofrequency line within which the injection had been made. Thus, primary field neurons that have the same or a similar characteristic frequency have the potential of being preferentially interconnected.


This research project offers a study of the current use of the Internet as a marketing tool in a world ofE-commerce, by the hotel industry. Such a study is timely given that the growth rate of the web and E-commerce is overwhelming in the 21st century. Therefore, the hotel industry have adapted to the E-commerce with an aim of improving their customer service and support, sales and revenue, marketing research, relationship marketing and promotion activities. The study has made policy recommendations and suggested areas of implementation for the benefit of all stakeholders in the hospitality industry.': It has also highlighted the concepts, strategies and technologies that can be used to build E-commerce application for profitability and growth by hotel practitioners. Chapter two reviews the available and relevant literature on the six variables focused on the study: Ecommerce, promotion, selling, customer service, relationship marketing, and market research. A descriptive research was used to attain data to answer questions concerning the current status of the subjects in the study and it also focus on the 8 five star hotels in Nairobi. Purposive sampling method was used in the choice of respondents since only the customer contact personnel were used, that is, the marketing and the front office personnel. The primary data was mainly obtained using structured and selfadministered questionnaire, which was pre-tested to ensure reliability and validity. The data collected was analysed using a combination of statistical techniques. Chapter four covers the findings of the study, which can be summarised that though the usage of internet is relatively low and there are many challenges of e-commerce development in Kenya such as poor connectivity and limited access to telephone and electricity, the need to adopt e-commerce is clearly evident as the challenges and costs are outweighed by the benefits accrued as a result of its adoption. Chapter five covers recommendations and implications of e-commerce on the performance of marketing activities in the hotel industry.


Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PES) is one of the most common causes of open-angle glaucoma, with a higher risk of vision loss, a higher maximum and mean intraocular pressure (IOP) at diagnosis, and a wider range of IOP fluctuation compared to primary open-angle glaucoma. Patients with this syndrome have a ten-fold higher risk of developing glaucoma than the normal population. A definite diagnosis can be made by the observation of pseudoexfoliation material (PEM) on the anterior lens surface, ciliary processes, zonules, and iris. PEM deposits on the zonules may explain the clinically observed zonular weakness and lens subluxation or dislocation. An increased incidence of cataract development is also associated with PES. There is growing evidence for systemic associations of PES with peripheral, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular system diseases, Alzheimer's disease, hearing loss, and increased plasma homocysteine levels. Indications for surgery are markedly more common in patients with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma than primary open-angle glaucoma. The goal of this article is to review the latest perspectives on the clinical features, therapy, and systemic associations of this clinically and biologically challenging disease.


The thoracic spines of a group of 48 oncology patients were examined with high field (1.5 T) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Sagittal T1-weighted sections were obtained in all patients. Even using this single sequence an unexpectedly high prevalence of thoracic disk herniation (14.5%) was demonstrated. Thoracic disk herniation shown by MR may not be related to the patients' symptoms.


Obese subjects have increased bone density relative to non-obese subjects yet this relationship is not fully understood. We examined whether alterations in sex hormones or binding proteins might explain the effect of obesity on osteoporosis in 83 premenopausal women from the San Antonio Heart Study, a population-based study of diabetes. We measured total testosterone, oestradiol, oestrone, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-SO4). Bone density was assessed by a Hologic dual photon absorptometer. Lumbar spine and femoral neck density were positively correlated with body mass index (BMI). In addition, femoral neck density was positively correlated with DHEA-SO4. BMI was negatively correlated with SHBG. After adjustment for sex hormones by multiple linear regression a positive association between bone density and obesity still exists suggesting that the association between obesity and bone density is at least partially independent of sex steroids in premenopausal women.


The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of the aminosteroid U74389G on skeletal muscle reperfusion injury in rabbits. In 24 white New Zealand rabbits (weighing 7.0-8.0 lb), the rectus femoris muscle on both sides was completely isolated on a single vascular pedicle (artery and vein) and a major accessory vein. All muscles were weighed using a suspension spring balance and then underwent 4 hours of normothermic ischemia followed by 24 hours of reperfusion. Muscle ischemia was induced by the application of atraumatic vascular clamps to the vascular pedicles. Complete muscle ischemia and reperfusion were documented by a laser flow meter. The animals were divided into three groups; Group I (n = 8) served as control, Group II (n = 8) received an i.v. bolus of U74389G (1.5 mg/kg) five minutes prior to ischemia, Group III (n = 8) was given the same dose of lazaroid five minutes prior to reperfusion. Muscle biopsies were obtained before ischemia and after reperfusion for quantification of myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. At the completion of reperfusion, the muscles were excised, weighed and cut into slices along the longitudinal axis and then incubated for 30 minutes in 0.05% nitroblue tetrazolium. Areas of necrosis were determined by computerized planimetry. The following results indicate that reperfusion muscle necrosis in rabbits is significantly decreased by the administration of the lazaroid U74389G. Leukocyte sequestration was not affected by the lazaroid administration. These beneficial effects were observed whether the lazaroid was administered prior to ischemia or prior to reperfusion and were independent of leukocyte sequestration.


BACKGROUND
Q fever often presents as an undifferentiated febrile illness. Cases occur throughout Australia, with higher rates occurring in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.

OBJECTIVE
This article aims to provide clinicians with an overview of Q fever, and covers epidemiology, clinical features, laboratory diagnosis, sequelae, management and prevention.

DISCUSSION
In Australia, Q fever is the most commonly reported zoonotic disease. Presentation includes fever, rigors, chills, headache, extreme fatigue, drenching sweats, weight loss, arthralgia and myalgia, often in conjunction with abnormal liver function tests. These features make it indistinguishable from many other febrile illnesses. Exposure occurs through contact with livestock and other animals. Coxiella bacteria can survive in dust, where infection may result from inhalation. Laboratory diagnosis is made by serology or polymerase chain reaction. An effective vaccine is available for adults (aged >15 years), but can only be administered after a rigorous pre-vaccination assessment to exclude prior exposure to Coxiella burnetii, requiring a detailed medical history, skin test and serology.


Na+-K+ cotransport was measured in 21 hospitalized geriatric patients, all recovering from hip surgery. Twelve of these had hypertension, and the other 9 were the control group. Although both groups were comparable for age, blood pressure was significantly different. Mean cotransport values in red blood cells showed no significant difference between the two groups. While Na+-K+ cotransport activity may be hereditary, the authors do not feel the test may be used as a genetic marker for hypertension.


"A Light in Dark Times" features a list of contributors who have been deeply influenced by Professor Greene's progressive philosophies. While Maxine Greene is the focus for this collection, each chapter is an encounter with her ideas by an educator concerned with his or her own works and projects. In essence, each featured author takes off from Maxine Greene and then moves forward. This collection of essays should - as Maxine Greene has - influence a wide range of worlds: arts and aesthetics, literature and literacy studies, cultural studies, school change and improvement, the teaching of literacy, teacher education, philosophy of education, peace and social justice, women's studies and civil rights. Contributors include: William Ayers; Jean Anyon and Louise Berman; Leon Botstein; Deborah P. Britzman; Linda Darling-Hammond; Karen Ernst; Michelle Fine; Norm Fruchter; Madeleine R. Grumet; Sandra Hollingsworth; Mary-Ellen Jacobs; Herbert Kohl; Wendy Kohli; Craig Kridel; Peter McLaren; Maureen Miletta; Janet L. Miller; Sonia Nieto; Nel Noddings; Jo Anne Pagano; Frank Pignatelli; William F. Pinar; Kathleen Reilly; Jonathan G. Silin; Sheila Slater; Candy Systra; Carlos Alberto Torres; and Mark Weiss.


The objectives of this study are in order to get appropriate parameters for piecewise-linear operating rule when NSGA-II is applied, to evaluate applicability of the developed operating rule only using historical inflow series, and to provide a probabilistic long-term reservoir storage forecast to the decision maker of reservoir operation. An optimal segment for piecewise-linear operating rule is selected to five with water supply constraint. A total ten different random seeds are used but all the developed operating rules show similar shapes with each other and thus random seed effect is not considerable. The reservoir operation results using historical inflows with each initial storage at the start of year from 2000 to 2006 show a good performance although inflows and initial storages of this period have much different from each other. The probabilistic long-term reservoir storage forecast is provided from the optimization results using the developed piecewise-linear operating rule and 100-year synthetic inflow.


Erythema multiforme is a distinctive hypersensitivity syndrome characterized by skin and mucous membrane lesions and, in its more severe forms, mucosal lesions with constitutional symptoms and, at times, visceral involvement.1,2 It is usually considered acute and self-limiting, but recent observations indicate that it may also behave as a chronic recurrent disorder in many people.1,3,4 The disorder may occur at any age, with its highest incidence in young adults 20 to 40 years of age; as many as 20% of cases are seen in children and adolescents.2 PATHOGENESIS The pathogenesis of erythema multiforme remains unknown. It appears to represent the end result of a hypersensitivity reaction to a number of infectious and other agents: viral, bacterial, protozoal, fungal, or Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Eaton agent) infection; foods or drugs; immunizations; and a variety of other systemic diseases and physical agents. Whereas drug reactions and malignancies are important causes of erythema multiforme in older persons, infectious diseases are the most common precipitants in children and young adults. The most common cause of erythema multiforme appears to be the virus of herpes simplex; a history of cold sores precedes the development of other lesions by about 3 to 14 days. Recurrences are particularly common in this form of erythema multiforme.4,5


Currently the one-to-one coupling between the air traffic controller and all the aircraft under his/her control is seen as a key-limiting factor in capacity growth. The trend towards overcoming this problem is too put the controller in a more standby and supervisory role. Placing the responsibilities for the routing of the aircraft and the safeguarding of separation of aircraft in the hands of pilots and airline operations, and by automating part of the routine tasks of the controllers, the controllers will be freed up from routine duties. They should then, in a supervisory manner, be able to focus more on issues like traffic management, overall system safety, and handling exceptional situations. This paper explores the applicability of this paradigm in advanced air traffic management.


Color inconsistency is an urgent problem to be solved in free viewpoint television. In this letter, a new color correction method is proposed by using disparity vector information. At first, we separate foreground and background from the scene with a method of mean-removed disparity estimation. Then the correction parameters are estimated by adopting linear fitting for foreground and background regions, respectively. Next, with expectation-maximization algorithm, we integrate correction parameters of foreground and background to get the final corrected image. Finally, video tracking technique is performed to correct multi-view video. Experimental results show that the proposed method is quite effective.


Long-term surface ozone observations at 25 National Park Service sites across the United States were analyzed for processes on varying time scales using a time scale decomposition technique, the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD). Time scales of interest include the seasonal cycle, large-scale climate oscillations, and long-term (>10 years) trends. Emission reductions were found to have a greater impact on sites that are nearest major urban areas. Multidecadal trends in surface ozone were increasing at a rate of 0.07 to 0.37 ppbv year−1 before 2004 and decreasing at a rate of −0.08 to −0.60 ppbv year−1 after 2004 for sites in the East, Southern California, and Northwestern Washington. Sites in the Intermountain West did not experience a reversal of trends from positive to negative until the mid- to late 2000s. The magnitude of the annual amplitude (=annual maximum–minimum) decreased at eight sites, two in the West, two in the Intermountain West, and four in the East, by 5–20 ppbv and significantly increased at three sites; one in Alaska, one in the West, and one in the Intermountain West, by 3–4 ppbv. Stronger decreases in the annual amplitude occurred at a greater proportion of sites in the East (4/6 sites) than in the West/Intermountain West (4/19 sites). The date of annual maximums and/or minimums has changed at 12 sites, occurring 10–60 days earlier in the year. There appeared to be a link between the timing of the annual maximum and the decrease in the annual amplitude, which was hypothesized to be related to a decrease in ozone titration resulting from NOx emission reductions. Furthermore, it was found that a phase shift of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), from positive to negative, in 1998–1999 resulted in increased occurrences of La Nina-like conditions. This shift had the effect of directing more polluted air masses from East Asia to higher latitudes over the North American continent. The change in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)/El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) regime influenced surface ozone at an Alaskan site over its nearly 30-year data record.


This paper describes the multi-functional rotor noise and aerodynamics test platform at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). To investigate the noise characteristics of propellers with aerodynamic flows, the test rig is installed in the 2.5×2 (m) low-speed
 and low-noise wind tunnel in the Aerodynamic and Acoustic Facility (AAF) at HKUST. The wind tunnel can facilitate flow from 0 to 40 m/s. The test rig is assembled in a turntable on the ceiling of the tunnel wall, which enables the testing range of pitch angle can vary from 0° (axial flow)
 to 90° (parallel flow), with an accuracy of 0.1°. The noise produced by the rotor is measured by a set of wall-mounted surface microphones. Semi-empirical calibration is conducted to quantify the noise reflection by the tunnel walls. A low-noise struct has been designed and manufactured
 to locate a set of far-field microphones equipped with nosecone, to improve the quality of acoustic measurement inside the flow. In addition, a synchronized system is developed to conduct the phase-locking Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement on the rotor, to study the flow pattern
 to better understand the noise generation mechanism.


We introduce TPLS (Two-Phase Level Set), an MPI-parallel Direct Numerical Simulation code for two-phase flows in channel geometries. Recent developments to the code are discussed which improve the performance of the solvers and I/O by using the PETSc and NetCDF libraries respectively. Usability and functionality improvements enabled by code refactoring and merging of a separate OpenMP-parallelized version are also outlined. The overall scaling behaviour of the code is measured, and good strong scaling up to 1152 cores is observed for a 5.6 million element grid. A comparison is made between the legacy serial textformatted I/O and new NetCDF implementations, showing speedups of up to 17x. Finally, we explore the effects of output file striping on the Lustre parallel file system on ARCHER, a Cray XC30 supercomputer, finding performance gains of up to 12% over the default striping settings.


Introduction Beedi rolling is one of the major unorganised sector activities in India, which employs a large number of women and children. The Government of India estimates that there are about 50.53 million workers in this industry and 44,49,352 identity cards have been issued to beedi workers. (GoI, 2007). Of these, the majority are home-based female workers who live below the poverty line. Only about 10 per cent of beedies are made in regular factories. Beedi workers constitute one of the most vulnerable sections of the country's workforce. Spread over several states of India, their number has been increasing ever since the beginning of the practice of beedi smoking. India is the third largest producer and the eighth largest exporter of tobacco and its product in the world respectively. While India's share in the world's area under tobacco crop has risen from 9 per cent to 11 per cent in the last three decades, its share in production has inched up from 8 per cent to 9 per cent in tobacco industry. China, USA and India are the three leading tobacco-producing nations in the world. Tobacco is consumed in two ways, either by smoking or chewing. While smoking the following tobacco products are consumed: cigarette, cigar, beedi (hand rolled, leaf wrapped country cigarettes). Chewable tobacco products are: raw tobacco, supari (arecanut), gutkha, etc. Beedi manufacturing is the largest tobacco industry in India. In 1998, a total of 858 billion beedies were sold in India and sales are reaching to 1031 billion beedies in 2007 (Country Case Reports: India 1998). The main objective of this research paper is to bring out some facts about home-based beedi industry of Madhya Pradesh and its contribution to the economic development of Madhya Pradesh. This study is based on the secondary data. The data collected mainly in the form of official and un-official statistics and documents. These sources include Inquiry Reports, Various Acts, Annual Reports of Unions, Census Publications, Books, Parliamentary Proceedings, Journals, Internet, ILO Reports on beedi industry and workers and District Handbook of India. A Brief History of Beedi Industry There is no clear evidence as to when the beedi rolling industry began to operate in India, though, production and consumption of tobacco began in India in the 17th century, and it was probably introduced by the Europeans, either by the British or by the Portuguese. It is believed that the native land of tobacco was South America. Columbus discovered America and tobacco in November 1492. One of the peripatetic teams that visited South America and India introduced tobacco into India in the year 1508. The beedi manufacturing industry is one of the oldest industries in India. The first account of beedi is found about in 16th century in India. The Bombay Gazette of 1897 provides the first official note about it. It mentions that the inhabitants of Kheda and Panchmahal districts of Gujarat used to consume tobacco with astra leaves in the form of beedi. M/ s Haribhai Desai is the first company registered with its brand name and trademark in 1901 in Bombay (Report, NCL, 2002). According to another estimate, the cultivation of tobacco began in Andhra Pradesh during the reign of Krishna Dev Rai (Chouhan, 2001). Employment in Beedi Industry Madhya Pradesh has the largest concentration of beedi workers in India. In fact, beedi industry is considered as one of the major industries of this state. Madhya Pradesh is also the major producer of tendu leaf. Today, the beedi industry has come to occupy a very important position in the overall industrial spectrum of the country by providing employment to a large number of people. The industry is employing more than six million workers in its two activities, i.e., in tendu leave collection and beedi rolling stages alone. Beedi rolling itself engages more than four million workers. Statewise estimate of beedi workers shows that the largest number of workers is concentrated in Madhya Pradesh (17. …


The ability of neural radiance fields or NeRFs to conduct accurate 3D modelling has motivated application of the technique to scene representation. Previous approaches have mainly followed a centralised learning paradigm, which assumes that all training images are available on one compute node for training. In this paper, we consider training NeRFs in a federated manner, whereby multiple compute nodes, each having acquired a distinct set of observations of the overall scene, learn a common NeRF in parallel. This supports the scenario of cooperatively modelling a scene using multiple agents. Our contribution is the first federated learning algorithm for NeRF, which splits the training effort across multiple compute nodes and obviates the need to pool the images at a central node. A technique based on low-rank decomposition of NeRF layers is introduced to reduce bandwidth consumption to transmit the model parameters for aggregation. Transferring compressed models instead of the raw data also contributes to the privacy of the data collecting agents.


Optimal strength design of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) laminates and fiber-metal laminates (FML) is studied in this article. An optimization approach that integrates the particle swarm optimization algorithm and a general finite element code ANSYS was developed. ANSYS is utilized to obtain the failure index as fitness function and the optimum fitness is obtained by altering the fiber orientations. The strength behavior of FRP and FML under in-plane load and out-of-plane load is compared based on the optimization results. Results show that for in-plane load, due to the substituting of metal alloy sheet for prepreg layer, the strength behavior in transverse direction is enhanced and FML has better resistance to biaxial load. For out-of-plane point load, FML offers strength performance superior to that of FRP and is more stable for all the boundary conditions investigated.


The European Medicines Agency has been criticised over its plan to allow health technology assessment bodies to provide confidential advice to drug companies in exchange for fees. A coalition of medicine advocates denounced the practice, which they said was a clear conflict of interest.

The agency has provided scientific advice to the drug industry for a fee since 2005. A "basic fee" in 2014 for an initial request for scientific advice on safety and clinical development is €83 600 (£66 000; $113 170). In 2010 a pilot project started that allowed health technology assessment bodies to also give advice to drug companies when they were at an early stage of developing a drug. And in May this year the agency released for public consultation draft guidance to extend this parallel scientific advice.1 The consultation process ended on 14 July.

Health Action International Europe, the International Society of Drug Bulletins, the Medicines in Europe Forum, and the …


Nested clade phylogeographic analysis (NCPA) is a widely used method that aims to identify past demographic events that have shaped the history of a population. In an earlier study, NCPA has been fully automated, allowing it to be tested with simulated data sets generated under a null model in which samples simulated from a panmictic population are geographically distributed. It was noted that NCPA was prone to inferring false positives, corroborating earlier findings. The present study aims to evaluate both single-locus and multilocus NCPA under the scenario of restricted gene flow among spatially distributed populations. We have developed a new program, ANeCA-ML, which implements multilocus NCPA. Data were simulated under 3 models of gene flow: a stepping stone model, an island model, and a stepping stone model with some long-distance dispersal. Results indicate that single-locus NCPA tends to give a high frequency of false positives, but, unlike the random-mating scenario presented previously, inferences are not limited to restricted gene flow with isolation by distance or contiguous range expansion. The proportion of single-locus data sets that contained false inferences was 76% for the panmictic case, 87% for the stepping stone model, 79% for the stepping stone model with long-distance dispersal, and more than 99% for the island model. The frequency of inferences is inversely related to the amount of gene flow between demes. We performed multilocus NCPA by grouping the simulated loci into data sets of 5 loci. The false-positive rate was reduced in multilocus NCPA for some inferences but remained high for others. The proportion of multilocus data sets that contained false inferences was 17% for the panmictic case, 30% for the stepping stone model, 4% for the stepping stone model with long-distance dispersal, and 54% for the island model. Multilocus NCPA reduces the false-positive rate by restricting the sensitivity of the method but does not appear to increase the accuracy of the approach. Three classical tests-the analysis of molecular variance method, Fu's Fs, and the Mantel test-show that there is information in the data that gives rise to explicable results using these standard approaches. In conclusion, for the scenarios that we have examined, our simulation study suggests that the NCPA method is unreliable and its inferences may be misleading. We suggest that the NCPA method should not be used without objective simulation-based testing by independent researchers.


The solvent type strongly affects the nucleation behavior of 12HSA and therefore strongly influences the peak nucleation rate, fiber length, spatial distribution of mass, and degree of branching. Using nonisothermal kinetic models, a correlation was established among the activation energy of nucleation, fiber length, and induction time of 12HSA nucleation in different solvents. However, there was no correlation between any measurable parameter and solvent polarity. Activation energies varied from 2.2 kJ/mol in methyl oleate to 15.8 kJ/mol in glycerol. Nucleation behavior and structure were strong functions of the cooling rate, with distinct regions observed above and below 5-7 degrees C/min for fiber length, induction time, rate constant, and peak nucleation rate. The abrupt changes in the rate of nucleation, crystal growth rate constant, and degree of branching around this cooling rate are related to whether the nucleation and crystal growth processes are governed by mass transfer or thermodynamics. Furthermore, the Avrami equation accurately predicted several structural features of the fibrillar network such as fiber length and, to a lesser extent, induction time.


Analysis of the literary and own authors data about the participation some endogenous bioregulators (prostacyclin, bradykinin, nitric oxide) in the cardiogenic depressor reflexes formation is represented in this review. Possibility of chemosensitivity of the vagal afferent fibers for this substances and its role in the formation of cardiogenic effects on circulation is discussed.


The swim bladder functions to maintain the fish balance at a certain position under water. Although the motoneuron-dependent swim-up behavior is important for swim bladder inflation, the underlying molecular mechanism remains largely unknown. We generated a sox2 KO zebrafish using TALEN and found that the posterior chamber of the swim bladder was uninflated. The tail flick and the swim-up behavior were absent in the mutant zebrafish embryos and the behavior could not be accomplished. As the tail flick behavior is absent, the mutant larvae therefore cannot reach the water surface to gulp air, ultimately leading to the uninflation of the swim bladder. To understand the mechanism underlying the swim-up defects, we crossed the sox2 null allele in the background of Tg(huc:eGFP) and Tg(hb9:GFP). The deficiency of sox2 in zebrafish resulted in abnormal motoneuron axons in the regions of trunk, tail, and swim bladder. To identify the downstream target gene of sox2 to control the motor neuron development, we performed RNA sequencing on the transcriber of mutant embryos versus wild type embryos and found that the axon guidance pathway was abnormal in the mutant embryos. RT-PCR demonstrated that the expression of sema3bl, ntn1b, and robo2 were decreased in the mutants.


The numerical computations of many quantities of theoretical and phenomenological interest are plagued by statistical errors which increase exponentially with the distance of the sources in the relevant correlators. Notable examples are baryon masses and matrix elements, the hadronic vacuum polarization and the light-by-light scattering contributions to the muon g-2, and the form factors of semileptonic B decays. Reliable and precise determinations of these quantities are very difficult if not impractical with state-of-the-art standard Monte Carlo integration schemes. I will review a recent proposal for factorizing the fermion determinant in lattice QCD that leads to a local action in the gauge field and in the auxiliary boson fields. Once combined with the corresponding factorization of the quark propagator, it paves the way for multi-level Monte Carlo integration in the presence of fermions opening new perspectives in lattice QCD. Exploratory results on the impact on the above mentioned observables will be presented.


In this paper, we present a novel methodology for tracking performance evaluation. Considering the continuity of the image sequences in a video, we define a new measurement called tracking difficulty which incorporates the local sequence information among a small image sequence centered at each frame. We subsequently use a reflective model to formulate tracking difficulty. Tracking difficulty curves can not only illustrate at which parts of the video one tracking algorithm performs well or poor, but also provide a way to compare the performance of different tracking algorithms. We further add perturbation analysis to the reflective model to examine how sensitive the tracking algorithm is to noise. Results on data sets are presented to show the effectiveness of our evaluation method.


Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a group of enveloped viruses with nonsegmented, single-stranded, and positive-sense RNA genomes. Apart from infecting a variety of economically important vertebrates (such as pigs and chickens), six coronaviruses have been known to infect human hosts and cause respiratory diseases. Among them, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are zoonotic and highly pathogenic coronaviruses that have resulted in regional and global outbreaks Coronaviruses possess a distinctive morphology, the name being derived from the outer fringe, or corona‖ of embedded envelope protein. Members of the family Coronaviridae cause a broad spectrum of animal and human diseases. Uniquely, replication of the RNA genome proceeds through the generation of a nested set of viral mRNA molecules. Human coronavirus (HCoV) infection causes respiratory diseases with mild to severe outcomes. In the last 15 years, we have witnessed the emergence of two zoonotic, highly pathogenic HCoVs: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Replication of HCoV is regulated by a diversity of host factors and induces drastic alterations in cellular structure and physiology. In this review all (as we possible) information about Corona viruses are given.
Keywords: Corona virus, respiratory, viruses, Hcov, host, RNA.


Medical artificial intelligence is cost-effective, scalable, and often outperforms human providers. One important barrier to its adoption is the perception that algorithms are a "black box"—people do not subjectively understand how algorithms make medical decisions, and we find this impairs their utilization. We argue a second barrier is that people also overestimate their objective understanding of medical decisions made by human healthcare providers. In five pre-registered experiments with convenience and nationally representative samples (N = 2,699), we find that people exhibit such an illusory understanding of human medical decision making (Study 1). This leads people to claim greater understanding of decisions made by human than algorithmic healthcare providers (Studies 2A-B), which makes people more reluctant to utilize algorithmic providers (Studies 3A-B). Fortunately, we find that asking people to explain the mechanisms underlying medical decision making reduces this illusory gap in subjective understanding (Study 1). Moreover, we test brief interventions that, by increasing subjective understanding of algorithmic decision processes, increase willingness to utilize algorithmic healthcare providers without undermining utilization of human providers (Studies 3A-B). Corroborating these results, a study on Google testing ads for an algorithmic skin cancer detection app shows that interventions that increase subjective understanding of algorithmic decision processes lead to a higher ad click-through rate (Study 4). Our findings show how reluctance to utilize medical algorithms is driven both by the difficulty of understanding algorithms, and an illusory understanding of human decision making.


Exposures to complex mixtures of metals in the workplace or environment are more likely to occur than exposures to a single metal alone. The evidence shows that exposures to complex metal mixtures can enhance the risk of cancer in certain human populations. The findings of several studies have suggested, however, that certain metal-metal interactions can inhibit carcinogenic activity. The mechanisms of metal-metal interactions in human carcinogenesis are relatively unknown. Metals represent a highly diverse group of agents: each metal can act through different mechanisms and in one or more steps of the carcinogenic process. Some potential mechanisms may involve direct reactions of the metal with DNA or indirect mechanisms that include modification of DNA repair, DNA methylation status, and metabolic processes involved in DNA replication and expression. Lipid peroxidation and the generation of free radicals induced by certain metals can affect DNA integrity. This review will address the role of metals in carcinogenesis and how concomitant exposure to metal mixtures can influence cancer induction. The most current mechanistic data regarding metal interactions and its implications in human carcinogenesis will be discussed. Furthermore, research gaps will be identified to provide data that will improve risk assessments for complex metal mixtures encountered in the workplace and environment.


Recent findings indicating higher than expected levels of psychopathology amongst British South Asian women over the last decade provided a rationale to investigate the links between acculturation/cultural identity and psychological distress (specifically depression) and the experience of shame. Ninety British South Asian women were drawn from the general population of five culturally diverse cities in the UK and completed measures of acculturation/cultural identity (AIRS-B), psychological distress (GHQ-28) and shame (ESS). Hypotheses and explanations generated in the previous literature to account for the high incidence of mental health problems among British South Asian women were critically examined to assess their usefulness in understanding the cultural factors implicated in the causation of psychological distress. Theoretical and empirical links between the constructs were discussed in relation to evolutionary models of shame (Gilbert, 1997, Lewis, 1987) and Berry's (1980, 1997) bi-dimensional model was applied to the two-way interaction process between minority and majority cultures to determine the psychological adaptation of individuals living in a bi-cultural context. Results indicated that acculturation strategy and level of cultural identity were related to psychological distress and depression but these relationships were mediated by the intervening mechanism of shame. Full or partial identification with South Asian culture was related to higher levels of shame and the vulnerability to experience shame (shame prone-ness) was associated with psychological distress, specifically depression. A preliminary model of possible relations between the different psychological constructs was developed from the findings of the study. The relations between acculturation/cultural identity and shame illuminated the complex processes involved in shaping an individual's sense of self and provided a tentative understanding of the dynamics involved in the development of psychological distress for British South Asian women.


AbstractThe aim of the study was to assess the role of some psychosocial factors in explaining offline and online civic engagement intentions in a sample of Italian and second generation migrant (Albanian and Moroccan) adolescents and young adults living in Italy. The theoretical model was an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour including past experience. The sample included 598 adolescents and young adults (M = 19.32, SD = 3.17). Two hundred were Italian (88 males, 44.0%), 197 migrants of Albanian origin (130 males, 66%) and 201 migrants of Moroccan origin (116 males, 57.7%). Moroccan youth reported higher levels of both past civic engagement and future intentions than Albanian and Italian peers. Perceived effectiveness of civic engagement and past experience are consistently associated with stronger intentions to engage in the future (offline and online) in all groups. Internal efficacy plays a limited role, whereas the role of subjective norms differs according to the group and the sourc...


GaAlAs/GaAs and GaInAs/InP thick layers, single and multiple quantum wells were grown by atmospheric pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Auger electron spectroscopy, wedge transmission electron microscopy, x‐ray diffraction, low‐temperature photoluminescence, and scanning electron microscopy were used to analyze the crystal quality. These analysis techniques show that layers grown using high vapor pressure metalorganic sources present fluctuations in the ternary alloy composition. We propose that these fluctuations are due to the pulse character of the high vapor pressure metalorganic flow. Bubbling experiments were performed to show the relationship between ternary layer composition fluctuation and the pulse character of the metalorganic flow. High vapor pressure metalorganic source like trimethylgallium presents tens of Angstroms growth rate per pulse or bubble whereas a low vapor pressure source like triethylgallium presents few Angstroms growth rate per bubble.


Recyclable nanomaterials are in great need to develop clean technology for applications in the removal of water contaminants. In this work, easily separable montmorillonite/Fe3O4/humic acid (MFH) nanocomposites were fabricated through a facile hydrothermal route. It was found the adsorption ability and stability of MFH was significantly enhanced due to the synergistic effects between montmorillonite, Fe3O4 nanoparticles and humic acid. The MFH nanocomposites are highly efficient and recyclable as they can remove at least 82.3% of Cr(VI) and 95.1% of aniline in six consecutive runs. The adsorption mechanism was investigated by analyzing the kinetic parameters of pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order, and intraparticle diffusion models and describing the equilibrium isotherms of Langmuir and Freundlich models. Results indicated different adsorption mechanisms of Cr(VI) and aniline by MFH. The readily synthesized MFH nanocomposites can act as effective and practical materials for environmental applications.


Recently, we reported that thymocytes expressing the CD8 molecule on their surface can give rise to CD4+CD8+ double‐positive and CD4+ single‐positive progeny following intrathymic transfer into an irradiated host mouse. Thymcoytes expressing a high density of CD8, referred to as CD8hi, and those expressing a low density of the molecule, CD8lo, were both able to differentiate in vivo. In this study we examined the ability of these CD8+ thymocyte populations and of CD4−CD8− double‐negative thymocytes to change their phenotype during brief in vitro culture. CD8− thymocytes were prepared by anti‐CD4 plus complement lysis followed by positive selection of the survivors on anti‐CD8‐coated plates. After 16 h of culture, > 60% of CD8+ thymocytes became double‐positive. Both CD8hi and CD8lo cells were able to show this in vitro change: about 30% of the former and about 80% of the latter became double‐positive. In contrast to this, double‐negative thymocytes which had been depleted of cells expressing low densities of CD8 did not show such a phenotypic conversion in vitro. Further panning experiments suggested that all of the CD8+ thymocytes actually express a low surface density of the CD4 molecule which is undetectable in our cytofluorometric assays.


Details are presented on the STePS (Structured Technique for Program Specifications) method which has been developed to provide a bridge between Systematic Systems Analysis and Design methods and methods used for detailed program/component design. The resultant provision of a seamless software development approach can substantially improve the overall quality of the final product. An overview of the method is given in terms of its position and structure, the techniques and procedures used and its products. The latter are very comprehensive program specifications. The beneficial effects which the use of STePS can have in the areas of: Quality Assurance, Control, Project Management, and Configuration Management are presented and overall conclusions as to the use of the method are given.


Estrogen enhances dopamine-mediated behaviors, which make women and female rats more sensitive to the effects of the psychostimulant drugs, cocaine and amphetamine. How cocaine and amphetamine elicit more robust behavioral responses in females remains unclear, but studies have shown that the Regulator of G-protein Signaling 9-2 (RGS9-2) protein is an important modulator of the behavioral responses to these drugs. Previously, we reported that 17-beta estradiol reduced RGS9-2 mRNA expression in the shell of the nucleus accumbens, but not the core. The present studies were designed to further evaluate the involvement of RGS9-2 in estradiol enhancement of amphetamine-induced place preference behavior and to examine which estrogen receptor subtype mediates the effect of estradiol. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were ovariectomized and treated for 14 days with an inert vehicle or 17-beta estradiol (by Silastic implant or injection [80 microg/kg]). 17-beta-Estradiol-treated female rats had enhanced amphetamine-induced conditioned place preference behavior compared to vehicle-treated, ovariectomized female rats. In situ hybridization histochemistry and Western blotting identified an inverse relationship between RGS9-2 protein expression in the nucleus accumbens shell and the hormonal enhancement of amphetamine-induced place preference behavior. A similar relationship was not found between place preference behavior and RGS9-2 expression in the accumbens core. Moreover, treatment of ovariectomized female rats with the selective estrogen receptor-beta agonist, diarylpropionitrile (1 mg/kg), for 2 weeks also facilitated amphetamine-induced place preference behavior and selectively reduced nucleus accumbens shell RGS9-2 protein expression. These data provide insight into a potential mechanism by which estrogen and/or sex modulate mesoaccumbal dopamine receptor signaling and possibly, addictive behaviors.


email@example.com Counteracting the hematopoietic syndrome following accidental or intentional irradiation remains an important therapeutic challenge. However, the pathophysiology of accidental irradiation has been recently revisited. Indeed irradiation has to be considered as a global illness that is more complex than the juxtaposition of single syndromes. This was especially illustrated in the Tokäı-Mura case where the two highly irradiated victims died from a complex multiorgan distress then failure syndrome (MODS/MOFS) in spite of transient hematopoietic chimerism following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Radiation burns were especially involved in this MOF development. In fact, the pathophysiology of MODS strongly overlaps the systemic inflammatory response syndrome that is mainly the consequence of extensive endothelial cell damage. Clearly, there is a need to develop new therapeutic strategies to counter such radiation-induced extrahematological toxicity, in addition to correcting hematopoietic disorders. Regarding hematopoiesis, the rationale of cytokine/hematopoietic growth factor use is the heterogeneity of bone marrow damage in most documented accidents. Today, early administration of granulopoietic factors is recommended to stimulate residual hematopoiesis in victims irradiated at intermediate dose levels. In complement our group proposes the emergency antiapoptotic cytokine (EACK) therapy in case of high dose irradiation, which consists in preservating and stimulating residual hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells following irradiation. We selected the stem cell factor + Flt-3 ligand + thrombopoietin + interleukin-3 + PegG-CSF antiapoptotic combination that is capable of abrogating thrombocytopenia and reducing neutropenia when given as an early single administration in highly irradiated monkeys (7 Gy gamma) 2 hrs after total body irradiation. Regarding extrahematological toxicity, injection of Keratinocyte growth factor or erythropoietin could be a flexible cytokine complementary/alternative approach to cell therapy (i.e. mesenchymal stem cells grafting). We recently re-evaluated the benefit of using erythropoietin (Epo) as a pleiotropic cytokine to counteract hematologic and extra-hematologic toxicity following lethal irradiation. B6D2F1 mice were globally exposed to 9 Gy gamma (LD90%/30days) and then injected with SFT3 at 2 hours + 24 hours with or without Epo (1000-3000 UI/kg) at 2 hours + 8 days. Epo synergized with SFT3 to rescue lethally irradiated mice from radiation-induced death (60%, 95% and 5% respectively for SFT3, SFT3+Epo and controls at 30 days) whereas Epo alone exhibited no protective effect. Interestingly, hematopoietic parameters did not significantly differ between SFT3 and SFT3+Epo groups. This suggests predominant extra-hematological targets for Epo. Ongoing studies aim at improving EACK strategy in terms of tolerance and efficacy.


Field‐aligned proton beams are a systematic and identifiable feature associated with Jupiter's auroral emissions, transporting 3 ± 2 kg s−1 away from Jupiter's ionosphere. This mass loss occurs at all longitudes sampled by Juno around the southern auroral oval, while the northern hemisphere exhibits upward proton beams predominantly on one portion in System III, near the auroral kink region. These beams are associated with upward inverted‐V structures indicative of quasi‐static magnetic field‐aligned parallel potentials. A lack of bidirectionality indicates these proton populations are pitch‐angle and/or energy scattered and incorporated into the magnetospheric charged particle environment. This mechanism is a significant, and potentially dominant, source of protons in Jupiter's middle and outer magnetosphere. If Jupiter's ionosphere is the primary source for protons in the inner magnetosphere, they are likely sourced equatorward of the main emissions and at energies <100 eV.


With the progressive development of E-business, it takes on much complexity of logic rules, and has deep relativity with diverse technologies. Thereby, E-business is hard and urgent-solving research topic. To narrow the gaps between heterogeneous systems, the business subject generally has to choose suitable architecture to integrate different involved objects into an interactive entity. In recent years, peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies have attracted much attention in commerce domains because the P2P environment is constructed on a decentralized, network-based framework to improve Internet performance. Business-to-business (B2B) transaction means the direct exchange of messages between enterprises. Obviously, this requirement can be satisfied by P2P architecture. In this paper, we propose a SEAP (super Web service based P2P) framework oriented to B2B. In the proposed framework, Web service is used to eliminate the discrepancy (such as: protocols etc). This study adopts an effective manner to integrate both P2P and Web service, at the same time; it can better cater for the need of B2B.


ABSTRACT This article examines the circulation of printed questionnaires as a research strategy among those investigating the constituent parts of the British Isles between the mid-seventeenth and late eighteenth centuries. It traces the origins and development of published 'heads' or 'articles of enquiry' as a means of acquiring information on antiquities, geography, and natural history and pieces together the research networks through which this methodology was shared and elaborated. The learned societies, ecclesiastical infrastructure, and periodical publications of the day are shown to have been instrumental in promoting this practice and in forging links between scholars and the 'learned and ingenious' in the parishes to whom such 'queries' were addressed. It is argued that these questionnaires were an important and insufficiently appreciated aspect of regional studies during the period. Though the responses to them are shown to have been highly variable, both in quantity and quality, it is suggested that they helped to establish what has become an important technique of data collection in modern academic inquiry.


A study on the mixed crystals of formula (1>x>0) has been carried out, using thermal analyses and x-ray diffraction on powder and single-crystal samples at different temperatures. It is shown that mixed crystals with have a transition from the paraelectric to the ferroelectric phase; decreases as the value of x increases. The orientation of the sulphate ion with respect to the crystallographic axes depends on the value of x. Mixed crystals with the paraelectric - ferroelectric transition turn around the b axis when the temperature decreases in the paraelectric phase, while in mixed crystals without a transition the orientation of the sulphate ion does not alter when the temperature varies. The transition is displacive, increasing the value of the parameter a without a soft mode. This is deduced from a study of the crystal structures, the translational and libration tensors and a density map of the sum of the bond valences.


In this study, we carry out a study on how to improve performance of vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) through promoting reaction rate of rate determining vanadium reaction ([VO]2+/[VO2]+). In order to do that, three different carbons like Vulcan (XC-72), CMK3 and MSU-F-C are adopted as the catalysts, while their catalytic activity and reaction reversibility are evaluated using half-cell tests. Their topological images are also measured by TEM. For estimation of the VRFB performance, multiple charge-discharge curves of VRFBs including the catalysts are measured by single cell tests. As a result of that, MSU-F-C shows relatively excellent catalytic activity and reaction reversibility as well as large surface area compared to those of Vulcan (XC-72) and CMK3. Also, in terms of the performance of VRFBs including the catalysts, VRFB including MSU-F-C indicates (i) low charging/discharging over potentials and low internal resistance, (ii) high charge/discharge capacities and (iii) high energy efficiency. These VRFB performance data are well agreed with results on catalytic activity and reaction reversibility. The reason that MSU-F-C induces superior VRFB performances is attributed to (i) its large surface area and (ii) its hydrophilic surface functional groups that mainly consist of hydroxyl bonds that are supposed to play active surface site role for facilitaing [VO]2+/[VO2]+ redox reaction. Based on the above results, it is found that adoption of MSU-F-C as catalyst for VRFB results in improvement in VRFB performance by promoting the languid [VO]2+/[VO2]+ redox reaction.


Abstract Thirty years after the discovery of an Early Neolithic timber hall at Balbridie in Scotland was reported in Antiquity, new analysis of the site's archaeobotanical assemblage, featuring 20 000 cereal grains preserved when the building burnt down in the early fourth millennium BC, provides new insights into early farming practices. The results of stable isotope analyses of cereals from Balbridie, alongside archaeobotanical and stable isotope results from three other sites, indicate that while cereals were successfully cultivated in well-established plots without manuring at Balbridie, a variety of manuring strategies was implemented at the other sites. These differences reinforce the picture of variability in cultivation practices across Neolithic North-west Europe.


In this investigation, attempts are made to fabricate high performance polymer such as polybenzimidazole (PBI) (service temperature ranges from -260°C to +500°C) by nano silicate epoxy adhesive and to see its performance under space radiation. The polybenzimidazole sheets are fabricated by high performance nano adhesive i.e., by dispersing silicate nano powder into the ultra high temperature resistant epoxy adhesive (DURALCO 4703, the service temperature of the adhesive is -260°C to +350°C) with 2 to 20% weight ratios with the matrix adhesive. Prior to fabrication of polybenzimidazole sheet, the surface of the polybenzimidazole is ultrasonically cleaned by acetone followed by its modification through low-pressure plasma by using 13.56 MHz RF Glow Discharge with 30, 60, 120, 240 and 480 seconds at 100 W of power using nitrogen as process gas. It is observed that polar component of surface energy leading to total surface energy of the polymer increases with exposure time of low pressure plasma up to 120 seconds and then it saturates. Nano adhesive bonding of high performance polymer is exposed to two types of radiations (i) mixed field radiation for 24 hours at a dose rate of 37kGy/hr in the pool of a SLOWPOKE-2 (safe low power critical experiment) nuclear reactor and (ii) Co-60 irradiation with 100 % gamma radiation at a dose rate of 4 kGy/hr for 60 hours. Tensile lap shear strength reveals that when the polymer surface is modified by low pressure plasma, joint strength increases from 1 MPa to 13 MPa and increases further up to 23 MPa when the polymer is fabricated by nano silicate epoxy adhesive with increasing weight ratios of silicate nano powder up to 10% and then it deteriorates with the increasing weight ratio of silicate nano powder. When this nano silicate epoxy adhesive joint is exposed to high-energy radiation of mixed field, there is a further considerable increase in joint strength up to 30 MPa. However, when the nano silicate epoxy adhesive joint is exposed to 100 % gamma rays condition, joint strength deteriorates. Therefore, this is possible that mixed field radiation; basically increase the crosslink density of the adhesive resulting in increase in adhesive joint strength and in the second case: gamma radiation is detrimental and which could essentially makes chain scission to the basic adhesive and resulting in significant deterioration of joint strength. Finally, to understand the behaviour of nano silicate epoxy adhesive bonding of Polybenzimidazole, the fractured surfaces of the joints are examined by scanning electron microscope.


This paper presents Tag2Text, a vision language pre-training (VLP) framework, which introduces image tagging into vision-language models to guide the learning of visual-linguistic features. In contrast to prior works which utilize object tags either manually labeled or automatically detected with an off-the-shelf detector with limited performance, our approach explicitly learns an image tagger using tags parsed from image-paired text and thus provides a strong semantic guidance to vision-language models. In this way, Tag2Text can utilize large-scale annotation-free image tags in accordance with image-text pairs, and provides more diverse tag categories beyond objects. As a result, Tag2Text demonstrates the ability of a foundational image tagging model, with superior zero-shot performance even comparable to fully supervised models. Moreover, by leveraging the tagging guidance, Tag2Text effectively enhances the performance of vision-language models on both generation-based and alignment-based tasks. Across a wide range of downstream benchmarks, Tag2Text achieves state-of-the-art results with similar model sizes and data scales, demonstrating the efficacy of the proposed tagging guidance. Code, demo and pre-trained models are available at \url{https://github.com/xinyu1205/recognize-anything}.


Sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island for his part in organizing armed rebellion against South Africa's white rulers, Nelson Mandela stayed faithful to his goal of a peaceful, non-racial democracy, and became for many the symbol of hope for their country at the mercy of Apartheid. His release, 27 years later, had a profound effect on his former adversaries and led to a negotiated settlement. Martin Meredith's biography of this man examines not only the successes, but the failures and tragedies, too - his youthful impetuouness, the savagery of his experiences on Robben Island, and his passionate love for his wife Winnie.