Summary To understand the swelling phenomenon of wood in liquids,the saturated amount of adsorption of liquids onto wood and the standard free energy changes of the adsorption were determined. The saturated amount of adsorption obtained by regression for several liquids decreased with increasing molecular size of the solvents. The mechanism of wood swelling is discussed systematically taking all the liquids examined in previous experiments into account. Since methanol molecules require more energy for release from cohesive interactions within bulk liquids in the adsorption onto pre-swollen wood,the values of free energy change of adsorption for methanol were lower than the values for acetone,although the relative swelling with methanol was higher. These results suggest that although the cohesive interaction within the bulk liquids reduces adsorptivity,the phenomenon of wood swelling is influenced not only by monolayer adsorption but also by multilayer adsorption. Therefore,the cohesive interaction within the bulk liquids reduces adsorptivity but enhances the condensation which strongly influences the swelling of wood.


The intermodulation (IM) distortion of the collector-up InGaAs/InAlAs/InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) is analyzed using Volterra-series theory. A T-equivalent circuit is used for this analysis. The contribution and interaction of four nonlinear elements: base-emitter resistance, base-emitter capacitance, base-collector capacitance, and common base-current gain are analyzed. For the particular device under investigation, it is found that the cancellation effect is not significant and the base-emitter resistance nonlinearity dominates the third-order IM.


Background and Objectives: Acinetobacter baumanii is ubiquitous, aerobic non fermentative, gram negative cocobacilli, emerging globally as an important cause of nosocomial infection. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and antibiogram of clinically isolated multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter species. Material and methods: Antibiotic susceptibility of 93 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates were performed against ampicillin, ampicillin/sulbactam, piperacillin/tazobactam, ceftazidime, cefepime, ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, amikacin, gentamicin,imipenem, meropenem, tigecycline, polymyxin B and colistin as per standard methods in microbiology laboratory of Nepal Mediciti Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal from January to December 2018. Ethical clearance was taken from the Institutional review committee of Nepal Mediciti Hospital. Results: A total of 93 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates were obtained from sputum, blood, pus, wound swabs , catheter tips and others. Antibiotic susceptibility analyses of the isolates revealed that the resistance to ampicillin was most common (100%), followed by cefotaxime (75.2%), ceftazidime (74.1%), ampicillin/sulbactam (73.1%), cefepime (67.7%). However, almost all isolates were susceptible to tigecycline (100%), followed by colistin (98.9%), and polymyxin B (87.0%). Conclusion: The present study showed the increasing trends of resistance of Acinetobacter speciesto various classes of antimicrobials.Treatment options for infections due to MDR and XDR Acinetobacter baumanii are very limited and tigecycline and colistin may be considered as one of the therapeutic option for the treatment of hospital acquired infections.


We study an alternative to dimensional regularisation of planar scattering amplitudes in [FORMULA] = 4 super Yang-Mills theory by going to the Coulomb phase of the theory. The infrared divergences are regulated by masses obtained from a Higgs mechanism, allowing us to work in four dimensions. The corresponding string theory set-up suggests that the amplitudes have an exact dual conformal symmetry. The latter acts on the kinematical variables of the amplitudes as well as on the Higgs masses in an effectively five dimensional space. We confirm this expectation by an explicit calculation in the gauge theory. A consequence of this exact dual conformal symmetry is a significantly reduced set of scalar basis integrals that are allowed to appear in an amplitude. For example, triangle sub-graphs are ruled out. We argue that the study of exponentiation of amplitudes is simpler in the Higgsed theory because evanescent terms in the mass regulator can be consistently dropped. We illustrate this by showing the exponentiation of a four-point amplitude to two loops. Finally, we also analytically compute the small mass expansion of a two-loop master integral with an internal mass.


Accelerators for sparse matrix multiplication are important components in emerging systems. In this paper, we study the main challenges of accelerating Sparse Matrix Multiplication (SpMM). For the situations that data is not stored in the desired order (row/column order), we propose a compact high performance sparse format, which allows for random access to a dataset with low memory access overhead. We show that using this format results in a 14-49 times speedup for SpMM. Next, we propose a high performance systolic architecture for SpMM, which uses a mesh of comparators to locate the useful (non-zero) computation. This design maximizes data reuse by sharing the input data among a row/column of the mesh. We also show that, with similar memory access assumptions, the proposed architecture results in a 9-30 times speedup in comparison with the state of the art.


ABSTRACT Nineteenth-century interest in reforming nursing took on a greater sense of urgency following the Crimean War. The initiative of the Nightingale Fund to establish a school of nursing at St. Thomas's Hospital in London in 1860 spurred on many provincial hospitals and associations to consider reforming nursing through better recruitment and training of nurses. This paper focuses on an attempt by a group of privileged and assertive women to introduce a modern nursing system in the Lincoln County Hospital in the mid-1860s. The problem of competing authority in the hospital, along with the gender and social class of the protagonists for reform aroused vehement opposition from some of the doctors and governors. The subsequent withdrawal of the reformers to create an independent and successful nursing institution in the city was made possible by the positive effect it had on the care of the poor and in the way it did not challenge the work of the hospital or the private practice of doctors.


In recent years, there is a surge of interest in approaches pertaining to security issues of Internet of Things deployments and applications that leverage machine learning and deep learning techniques. A key prerequisite for enabling such approaches is the development of scalable infrastructures for collecting and processing security-related datasets from IoT systems and devices. This paper introduces such a scalable and configurable data collection infrastructure for data-driven IoT security. It emphasizes the collection of (security) data from different elements of IoT systems, including individual devices and smart objects, edge nodes, IoT platforms, and entire clouds. The scalability of the introduced infrastructure stems from the integration of state of the art technologies for large scale data collection, streaming and storage, while its configurability relies on an extensible approach to modelling security data from a variety of IoT systems and devices. The approach enables the instantiation and deployment of security data collection systems over complex IoT deployments, which is a foundation for applying effective security analytics algorithms towards identifying threats, vulnerabilities and related attack patterns.


An extracellular beta-glucosidase II (beta-Glu II) has been purified to homogeneity by column chromatography from Aspergillus niger CCRC 31494. Its molecular mass was estimated to be 360 kDa by gel filtration and 120 kDa by SDS-PAGE. The enzyme has a pI of 4.0 and has optimum activity at pH 4.5 and 60 degrees C. The beta-Glu II was completely inhibited by 5.0 mM Fe(2+). Methanol (20%, v/v) activated the enzyme activity at 1.8-fold. V(max) values of 10.2 and 464 units/mg were found for p-nitrophenyl beta-D-glucoside (K(m) = 2.2 mM) and for cellobiose (K(m) = 15.4 mM). The enzyme was strongly inhibited by substrates, p-nitrophenyl beta-D-glucopyranoside in excess of 7.5 mM and cellobiose in excess of 50 mM, and was competitively inhibited by glucose with a K(i) of 5.7 mM. Transglucosylation products of cellotriose, methyl beta-glucoside and ethyl beta-glucoside, were obtained under neutral conditions and in the presence of methanol and ethanol, respectively.


Alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects all sexes, however women who develop AUD may be particularly susceptible to cravings and other components of the disease. While many brain regions are involved in AUD etiology, proper function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is particularly important for top-down craving management and the moderation of drinking behaviors. Essential regulation of PFC output is provided by local inhibitory interneurons, yet the effects of chronic drinking on interneuron physiology remain poorly understood, particularly in female individuals. To address this gap, we generated fluorescent reporter transgenic mice to label the two major classes of interneuron in deep layer prelimbic PFC, based on expression of parvalbumin (PV-IN) or somatostatin (SST-IN). We then interrogated PV-IN and SST-IN membrane and synaptic physiology in a rodent model of binge drinking. Beginning in late adolescence, mice received 3-4 weeks of intermittent access (IA) ethanol. One day after the last drinking session, adaptations to PV-IN and SST-IN intrinsic physiology were observed in male mice but not in female mice. Furthermore, IA ethanol precipitated diametrically opposing changes to PV-IN synaptic physiology based on sex. IA ethanol decreased excitatory synaptic strength onto PV-INs from female mice and potentiated excitatory transmission onto PV-INs male mice. In contrast, decreased synaptic strength onto SST-INs was observed following IA ethanol in all groups of mice. Together, these findings illustrate novel sex differences in drinking-related PFC pathophysiology. Discovering means to restore PV-IN and SST-IN dysfunction following extended drinking provides opportunities for developing new treatments for all AUD patients.


The results of the R & D activity of TDI SIE SB RAS in the field of the 3D optical measuring technologies and systems for noncontact 3D optical dimensional inspection applied to atomic and railway industry safety problems are presented. This activity includes investigations of diffraction phenomena on some 3D objects, using the original constructive calculation method, development of hole inspection method on the base of diffractive optical elements. Ensuring the safety of nuclear reactors and running trains as well as their high exploitation reliability takes a noncontact inspection of geometrical parameters of their components. For this tasks we have developed methods and produced the technical vision measuring systems LMM, CONTROL, PROFILE, and technologies for non-contact 3D dimensional inspection of grid spacers and fuel elements for the nuclear reactor VVER-1000 and VVER-440, as well as automatic laser diagnostic system COMPLEX for noncontact inspection of geometrical parameters of running freight car wheel pairs. The performances of these systems and the results of the industrial testing at atomic and railway companies are presented.


The role of silver powder in the stress - strain - critical current relationship of BSPCCO tapes was investigated. The tapes were tested at 77 K and analysed using a TEM to understand the microstructure of the ceramic core in the tapes. The monolithic tapes had an average irreversible strain of 0.19% while the composite tapes with 30% (by volume) silver powder addition to the ceramic core had similar critical current capacity with an average irreversible strain of 0.47%. TEM studies indicate that the major difference between the monolithic and composite tapes is the dislocation density in the centre of the ceramic core. The monolithic tapes had a one order of magnitude higher dislocation density along the edges as compared with the centre of the core, while the composite tapes with the silver powder addition had uniform dislocation density across the entire core section.


We present the study of a hydrographic unit. In this study, theprimaryobjectivewastodeterminechanges in the topography and sediments of a hydrographic unit, so we select the Ponuga river in the district of Santiago, province of Veraguas, Republic of Panama. For this study we used the global positioning system implemented in a Smartphone, which was used as a basic tool for obtaining field data. This data was used in conjunction with the Google® Earth™ program to conduct a comparison (past, present and future), mainly of the topographic and sedimentary changes of the river basin.


Lymphatic cysts, also known as lymphocele, are one of the most common complications after pelvic and paraaortic lymph node dissection in patients with gynecological cancers. Despite the high incidence of this complication, no specific guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of lymphocele have been developed so far. This article analyzes the incidence of lymphatic cysts, risk factors, and currently available options for their diagnosis and treatment.


If the lightest CP-even Higgs boson in the MSSM is discovered at the LHC, two measurements could be made simultaneously: the Higgs mass mh and the event rate Bσ(gg → h → γγ). We study to what extent the combination of these two measurements would allow us to extract parameters in the stop mass matrix, including the off-diagonal mixing term, with a focus on the MSSM golden region where the stops are light and the mixing is large. Even though both the production cross-section and the decay amplitude are not sensitive to supersymmetric parameters outside of the stop sector, the branching ratio depends on the total decay width, which is dominated by the Higgs decay to b quarks and sensitive to both the pseudo-scalar mass mA and the supersymmetric Higgs mass μ. In the end we find mA is an important input in extracting the stop mass parameters, while a fair estimate of the off-diagonal mixing term could be obtained without prior knowledge of μ.


Social media have long been considered a venue in which conspiracy theories originate and spread. It has been no different during COVID-19. However, understanding who spreads conspiracy theories by sharing them on social media, and why, has been underexplored, especially in a cross-national context. The global nature of the novel coronavirus pandemic presents a unique opportunity to understand the exposure and sharing of the same COVID-19 related conspiracies across multiple countries. We rely on large, nationally representative surveys conducted in July of 2020 in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, to begin to understand who shares conspiracies on social media and what motivates them. We find that Americans are no more likely to encounter prominent COVID-19 conspiracies on social media but are considerably more likely to subsequently share them. In all countries, trust in information from social media predicts conspiracy theory sharing, while in the US politics plays a unique role Our results make clear that American behavior on social media has the potential to poison online public discourse globally.


(e chemical composition and physicochemical properties of hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of skin, juice, and seeds of Opuntia dillenii fruit collected from three Moroccan regions (Oujda, Nador, and Essaouira) were studied.(e study revealed that the seed oil extracts presented the highest yield of 13.12%, followed by the skin fraction (1.77%) and the juice extract (0.49%). (e evaluation of fatty acid compositions using GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of linoleic acid as a dominating unsaturated fatty acid with a value of 72.39%, followed by palmitic acid, oleic acid, and stearic acid in all localities. Otherwise, the juice extract of Oujda locality was richer in margaric acid (37.41%), followed by Essaouira skin extract (10.7%) and Oujda seed extract (6.18%). However, the campesterol was detected only in trace in the juice extract. (e physicochemical properties of O. dillenii seed oils such as acid value, peroxide value, ester value, pH value, saponification value, density, and refractive index were all found to be in good agreement with the quality criteria for pure and fresh oils. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were implemented to compare the difference in the chemical composition of the different O. dillenii extracts.


Abstract During recent decades, forests have expanded into new areas throughout the whole of Norway. The processes explained as causing the forest expansion have focused mainly on climate or land use changes. To enable a spatially explicit separation of the effects following these two main drivers behind forest expansion, the authors set out to model the potential for natural forest regeneration following land use abandonment, given the present climatic conditions. The present forest distribution, a number of high-resolution land cover maps, and GIS methods were used to model the potential for natural forest regeneration. Furthermore, the results were tested with independent local models, explanatory variables and predictive modelling. The modelling results show that land use abandonment, in a long-term perspective, has the climatic and edaphic potential to cause natural forest regeneration of 48,800 km2, or 15.9% of mainland Norway. The future natural forest regeneration following land use change or abandonment can now be spatially separated from the effects of climate changes. The different independent model tests support the main findings, but small fractions of the modelled potential natural forest regeneration will probably be caused by other processes than land use abandonment.


This paper examines patterns and determinants of trade among developing countries (South-South trade), with emphasis on the role of production sharing in global economic integration of the Southern economies. It begins with an analytical narrative of the emerging trends and patterns of South-South trade using a classification system that helps delineating trade based on global production sharing (network trade) from total recorded trade. Then it undertakes a comparative econometric analysis of the determinants of South-South and South-North trade using the standard gravity model. There is evidence that the share of South-South trade in world trade has increased significantly over the past two decades. However, this increase has predominantly come from the dynamic East Asian countries, reflecting their growing engagement in global production sharing. The growth dynamism of East-Asia centered production networks depends heavily on demand for final (assembled) goods in the Northern markets; South-South trade is largely complementary to, rather than competing with, South-North trade. While regional trading agreements (RTAs) could play a role at the margin, natural economic forces associated with growth and structural change in the economy and the overall macroeconomic climate as reflected in the real exchange rate, and the quality of trade related logistics are far more important in the expansion of South-South network trade.


Background and aimExcess soil phosphorus often constrains ecological restoration of degraded semi-natural grasslands in Western-Europe. Slow-growing species, often target for restoration, are at a disadvantage because they are outcompeted by fast-growing species. Gaining insight into the responses of plant species and communities to soil phosphorus availability will help understanding restoration trajectories of grassland ecosystems.MethodsWe set up a pot experiment using twenty grassland species with contrasting growth forms (i.e. grasses versus forbs) and nutrient use strategies (i.e. acquisitive versus conservative nutrient use). We quantified the nutrient use strategy of a species based on the stress-tolerance value of the CSR framework (StrateFy, Pierce et al. 2017). We grew these species as monocultures and in mixtures along a soil phosphorus gradient and measured the aboveground biomass and plant phosphorus concentrations.ResultsWe found plant phosphorus to increase with soil phosphorus supply, but observed no biomass response. Forbs had higher plant phosphorus concentrations compared to grasses both in monocultures and mixtures. The species' nutrient use strategy had contrasting effects on plant tissue phosphorus concentrations, depending on the amount of phosphorus supply (interaction effect) and the biomass of the vegetation (dilution effect). Species with conservative nutrient use strategies survived and even thrived in under excess soil phosphorus availability.ConclusionOur findings contribute to the knowledge required for successfull ecological restoration of species-rich grasslands. Adopting a trait-based approach enabled us to link findings from comparative ecological studies with insights from (eco)physiological research.


A small silicon mode (de)multiplexer with cascaded asymmetrical directional couplers is demonstrated experimentally. As an example, a four channel mode (de)multiplexer is designed and realized for TM polarization. The fabricated mode (de)multiplexer has a low excess loss (<1 dB) as well as low crosstalk (≤23 dB) over a broad wavelength range (~20 nm). More channels can be achieved with two sets of orthogonal-polarization modes (e.g., 2N=8) multiplexed when desired.


We present a curve‐fitting approach that permits quantitative comparisons of fatigue profiles obtained with different stimulation protocols in isolated slow‐twitch soleus and fast‐twitch extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles of mice. Profiles from our usual stimulation protocol (125 Hz for 500 ms, evoked once every second for 100–300 s) could be fitted by single‐term functions (sigmoids or exponentials) but not by a double exponential. A clearly superior fit, as confirmed by the Akaiki Information Criterion, was achieved using a double‐sigmoid function. Fitting accuracy was exceptional; mean square errors were typically <1% and r2 > 0.9995. The first sigmoid (early fatigue) involved ∼10% decline of isometric force to an intermediate plateau in both muscle types; the second sigmoid (late fatigue) involved a reduction of force to a final plateau, the decline being 83% of initial force in EDL and 63% of initial force in soleus. The maximal slope of each sigmoid was seven‐ to eightfold greater in EDL than in soleus. The general applicability of the model was tested by fitting profiles with a severe force loss arising from repeated tetanic stimulation evoked at different frequencies or rest periods, or with excitation via nerve terminals in soleus. Late fatigue, which was absent at 30 Hz, occurred earlier and to a greater extent at 125 than 50 Hz. The model captured small changes in rate of late fatigue for nerve terminal versus sarcolemmal stimulation. We conclude that a double‐sigmoid expression is a useful and accurate model to characterize fatigue in isolated muscle preparations.


Worklife balance of women in IT secors is gaining the domain place in highly discussed topics. Family–work conflict and work–family conflict are more likely to exert negative influences in the family domain, resulting in lower life satisfaction and greater internal conflict within the family. Variables such as the size of family, the age of children, the work hours and the level of social support impact the experience of Work family conflict and Family work conflict. It is also significant to note the success level gained by women in career and family inspite of all the stress they undergo at work place. It is also important to consider the consequences these variables have on psychological distress and wellbeing of the working women.Aim: To study various factors which could lead to a in depth knowledge about work life balance and stress undergone by women employees. Findings and Conclusion: The findings of the study emphasized the need to formulate guidelines for the management of work life balance at organizational level as it is related to job satisfaction and performance of the employees.


WareVR is a novel human-robot interface based on a virtual reality (VR) application to interact with a heterogeneous robotic system for automated inventory management. We have created an interface to supervise an autonomous robot remotely from a secluded workstation in a warehouse that could benefit during the current pandemic COVID-19 since the stocktaking is a necessary and regular process in warehouses, which involves a group of people. The proposed interface allows regular warehouse workers without experience in robotics to control the heterogeneous robotic system consisting of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). WareVR provides visualization of the robotic system in a digital twin of the warehouse, which is accompanied by a real-time video stream from the real environment through an onboard UAV camera. Using the WareVR interface, the operator can conduct different levels of stocktaking, monitor the inventory process remotely, and teleoperate the drone for a more detailed inspection. Besides, the developed interface includes remote control of the UAV for intuitive and straightforward human interaction with the autonomous robot for stocktaking. The effectiveness of the VR-based interface was evaluated through the user study in a "visual inspection" scenario.


Kilise Tepe is the only ancient settlement with pre-Hellenistic levels in Goksu Valley in southern Turkey that has been excavated. The archaeological work conducted at the site has produced valuable data about the local culture and its links with the neighbouring areas during the Bronze and Iron Ages. This article presents the preliminary results of the excavations of the Early and Middle Bronze Age levels conducted in 2007 and in 2011, with a general evaluation of the stratigraphy and related ceramics, followed by a brief discussion focusing on the destruction at Kilise Tepe at the end of the Early Bronze Age II period and the cultural changes that occurred subsequently. It is argued that, although the inhabitants of the settlement and the valley had developed cultural ties with the surrounding regions earlier, only during the Early Bronze Age III period the area became substantially integrated into the regional trade network.


MERGA has enjoyed a strong and rich history since its inception over 30 years ago. In that time it has been instrumental in supporting and developing a prominent group of mathematics education researchers who have made a significant contribution to the field. The purpose of this Round-Table Discussion is to consider how MERGA and its members might continue to promote, support and encourage mathematics educators from generation X and generation Y (and beyond), so they can stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before, and continue to build the stellar reputation of mathematics education research in Australasia. This discussion is open to both experienced and novice researchers, and hopefully it will lead to some strategies and ideas for succession planning that will ensure the health of MERGA and mathematics education research into the future.


To inform the design of security policy, task models of password behaviour were constructed for different user groups – Computer Scientists, Administrative Staff and Students. These models identified internal and external constraints on user behaviour and the goals for password use within each group. Data were drawn from interviews and diaries of password use. Analyses indicated password security positively correlated with the sensitivity of the task, differences in frequency of password use were related to password security and patterns of password reuse were related to knowledge of security. Modelling revealed Computer Scientists viewed information security as part of their tasks and passwords provided a way of completing their work. By contrast, Admin and Student groups viewed passwords as a cost incurred when accessing the primary task. Differences between the models were related to differences in password security and used to suggest six recommendations for security officers to consider when setting password policy.


Using data on 51 firms traded in the Egyptian Exchange from 2014 to 2016, this paper aimed to assess the efficiency of corporate governance (CG) and intellectual capital (IC) practices and to explore their influence on the probability of a firm's financial distress.,The relative efficiency of CG and IC practices has been measured under the Malmquist data envelopment analysis model. A modified Z-score model was applied to assess firms' financial distress.,The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed almost insignificant evidence regarding the improvement of CG and IC efficiency over the study period. The efficiency score of CG practices had no impact on the likelihood of financial distress. However, the efficiency score of IC negatively affected the probability of financial distress.,The integration of data envelopment analysis with Tobit regression was required for identifying the significant drivers of efficient CG and IC.,The findings shed light on the role of CG and IC in alleviating the degree of financial distress in Egypt as an emerging market, especially the need to raise firms' compliance with the Egyptian CG code from a voluntary to mandatory status.,This study, using Malmquist data envelopment analysis, is among the first attempts to assess the relative efficiency of CG and IC practices and their effects on financial distress.


Plant-specific YABBY (YAB) transcription factors play multiple roles in plant growth and development process. However, no comprehensive study has been performed in grapevines, especially to determine their roles in berry development and abiotic stress response. A total of seven VviYABs allocated to six chromosomal positions in grapevines were identified and classified into five subfamilies based on phylogenetic and structural analysis. Promoter element analysis and tissue-specific transcriptional response of VviYABs suggested that VviYABs might play vital roles in plant growth and development. VviYAB1, 2, 3, and 5 showed significantly higher expression levels in vegetative/green organs than in mature/woody tissues, implying that VviYABs might be involved in the regulatory switch from immature to mature developmental phases. The expression of VviYAB1, 2, 3, and VviFAS were gradually downregulated during berry developmental and ripening, which can be considered as putative molecular biomarkers between vegetative/green and mature/woody samples, and were used to identify key developmental and metabolic processes in grapevines. Furthermore, VviYAB1 expression was not markedly increased by gibberellic acid (GA3) treatment alone, but displayed significant upregulation when GA3 in combination with N-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-N′-phenylurea (CPPU) were applied, suggesting an involvement of VviYAB1 in fruit expansion by mediating cytokinin signaling pathway. Additionally, microarray and RNA-seq data suggested that VviYABs showed transcriptional regulation in response to various abiotic and biotic stresses, including salt, drought, Bois Noir, Erysiphe necator, and GLRaV-3 infection. Overall, our results provide a better understanding of the classification and functions of VviYABs during berry development and in response to abiotic and biotic stresses in grapevines.


In this work the affect of a threading dislocation localised on the edge of GaN/AlN quantum dot is analysed. A standard piezoelectric continuum model is extended to allow the embodiment of threading dislocations that are modelled as a continuous electro-elastic line defect originating in the matrix material. Two common types of dislocation are considered: an edge-type and a screw-type.

It is demonstrated that the presence of a TD provides local region of tensile strain as a preferential condition for GaN QD growth by reduction of the GaN / AlN lattice mismatch. It is found that dislocation induced potential causes a measurable in-plane shift of the electron/hole localisation and an asymmetric decrease in the band-to-band transition energy. (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


The ultimate purpose of the present study is to explore the bibliometric analysis of the LIBRI: International Journal of Libraries and Information Services journal during the period of 2011-2015. The analysis covers sundry features of the journal such as its yearly output of articles, subject distributions, geographical distributions of authors, authorship patterns, relative growth rate and double time of publication. The result concludes that 140 research articles were pubished  in the LIBRI journal during the stipulated span i.e. 2011-2015, in which 63 (45%) articles were written by a single author whereas 77 (55%) articles were multi-authored. In the study, the average degree of author collaboration was 0.55 and it ranged from 0.57 to 0.58. Keywords: LIBRI. Bibliometric analysis. Authorship pattern. Author productivity. Degree of collaboration. Link: http://www2.marilia.unesp.br/revistas/index.php/bjis/article/view/5821


continue on reverse if necessary and identify by block number Overaging experiments have been conducted on a commercial grade 2519 Al-Cu alloy at a variety of iperatures and times, with and without prior induced strain. Hardness testing and scanning electron roscopy techniques were used to characterize evolution of microstructure during overaging. The further elopment of microstructure during thermomechanical processing by warm rolling was also assessed to ermine whether the coarse particles produced by overaging could serve as sites for particle stimulated leation (PSN) of recrystallization. The thermomechanical processing methods have been shown to produce tily superplastic microstructures in Al-Mg and Al-Mg-Li alloys in previous work at NPS. Optical microscopy tensile tests were conducted allowing a determination of the effect of the processing on the microstructural lution and superplastic behavior of the Al-Cu material. Distribution/Availability of Abstract i unclassified/unlimited same as report DTIC users 2 1 Abstract Security Classification Unclassified Name of Responsible Individual fessor Terry R. McNelley FORM 1473. 84 MAR 22b Telephone (Include Area code) (408) 646-2589 83 APR edition may be used until exhausted All other editions are obsolete 22c Office Symbol MEMC security classification of this page Unclassified


We report on the fabrication of short-channel polymer organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) using nanoimprint lithography. Currently, there is significant interest in OTFTs due to their potential application in inexpensive, large-area electronics. However, polymer carrier mobilities are typically poor, and thus to increase the OTFT drive current per unit area, there is a need for short-channel devices. We have fabricated working devices with channel lengths from 1 μm down to 70 nm with high yields. The performance of these devices was studied as the channel length was reduced. We find that drive current density increases as expected, while the on/off current ratio remains 104. However, at short-channel lengths, OTFTs no longer saturate due to space charge limiting current effects.


The Plane Subgraph Completion problem asks, given a (possibly disconnected) plane graph Γ and a connected plane graph ∆, whether it is possible to add edges in Γ such that the resulting graph remains planar and contains some subgraph that is topologically isomorphic to ∆. We give an algorithm that solves this problem in 2 O(k log k) · n 2 steps where k and n are the number of vertices of ∆ and Γ respectively.


Cellular automata are used for modelling and simulation of many systems. In some applications, the system is formed by a set of subsystems that can be modelled separately, but, in such cases, the existence of interactions between these subsystems requires additional modelling and computer programming. In this paper we propose a modelling methodology for the simulation of a set of cellular automata models that interact with each other. The modelling methodology is described, together with an insight on implementation details. Also, it is applied to a particular cellular automata model, the Sanpile model, to illustrate its use and to obtain some example simulations.


There is a general integro-differential equation governing the change with penetration depth of the probability distribution in total energy loss of an energetic charged particle. A fundamental case belongs to small penetration depths where the total energy losses, in the main, are small compared to the energy of the particle. In the paper is introduced an internal variable, η, of the probability distribution, the variable being dependent on the distribution itself. The variable η suggests an exceedingly simple approximation procedure for finding the probability distribution in energy loss. Comparison with known solutions indicates that the errors of the first and second approximations are less than 10% and 2%, respectively. The method is applied to two modifications of the Landau distribution. It is shown that the Vavilov distributions have scaling properties, and the effect of atomic dipole resonances is estimated.


Marsdeniae tenacissimae Caulis (MTC) is a Chinese herbal medicine used mainly for treatment of cancer, whose pharmacologically active constituents responsible for its in vivo activity and clinical efficacy have not been clearly elucidated. In this study, total aglycones of MTC (ETA) showed the ability to sensitize KB-3-1, HeLa, HepG2 and K562 cells to paclitaxel treatment. More inspiringly, ETA markedly enhanced the antitumor activity of paclitaxel in nude mice bearing HeLa or KB-3-1 xenografts. Compared to treatment with paclitaxel alone, treatment with combination of paclitaxel and ETA achieved significant reduction in volume and weight of HeLa tumors (p < 0.05), and remarkable inhibition to the growth of KB-3-1 tumors (p < 10−6). ETA was characterized by the presence of a group of tenacigenin B ester derivatives, among which four reference compounds, 11α-O-tigloyl-12β-O-acetyltenacigenin B, 11α,12β-di-O-tigloyltenacigenin B, 11α-O-2-methylbutanoyl-12β-O-tigloyltenacigenin B, and 11α-O-(2-methylbutanoyl)-12β-O-benzoyltenacigenin B, accounted for 42.14% of the total peak area of 19 detectable components assayed by HPLC. Our study has identified ETA as a promising sensitizer for cancer chemotherapy.


OBJECTIVES
We aimed to quantify the burden of exercise intolerance in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and explore the disease features that contribute to impaired exercise capacity (measured as peak oxygen uptake, peak VO2) to provide novel mechanistic insights into the causes of physical disability in SSc.

METHODS
Thirty-three SSc patients with no history of cardiac disease and no active myositis underwent cardiac and skeletal muscle MRI, transthoracic echocardiography, pulmonary function tests and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). CPET results were compared to an age-, sex-, and weight-matched controls with no overt cardiopulmonary disease. Native T1 and T2-mapping sequences were used to quantify diffuse fibroinflammatory myocardial disease and qualitative assessment of skeletal muscle oedema was performed. The associations between parameters of cardiorespiratory function and skeletal muscle abnormalities and peak VO2 were evaluated with linear regression analysis.

RESULTS
Exercise capacity was markedly impaired in SSc and significantly reduced when compared to control subjects (percent predicted peak VO2: 70% vs 98%, p < 0⋅01). Diffuse myocardial fibroinflammatory disease (p < 0⋅01) and skeletal muscle oedema (p = 0⋅01) were significantly associated with reduced exercise capacity. There was no association between impaired exercise capacity and left ventricular ejection fraction.

CONCLUSION
SSc is associated with marked functional impairment that is not explained by commonly used parameters of cardiac function such as left ventricular ejection fraction. Rather, only more sensitive measures of organ involvement are associated with impaired exercise tolerance. Our results show diffuse interstitial changes of the myocardium and skeletal muscle affect oxygen uptake and are important contributors to functional limitation in SSc.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the tissue distribution of the diallyl disulfide (DADS) and diallyl trisulfide (DATS) in solid lipid nanoparticles loaded garlic oil (GO-SLN) in rats.

METHOD
The gas chromatography-electron capture detection (GC-ECD) method was established to determined the DADS and DATS simultaneously in the biological samples of rats after administration of 0.5 mL garlic oil injection or GO-SLN (containing about 10 mg garlic oil) via jugular vein cannula. The conditions for gas chromatographic separation were as follows. The oven temperature was set at 110 degrees C and maintained for 15 min. Temperatures at the injection port and detector were 180 degrees C and 300 degrees C, respectively. Ultra-pure nitrogen (purity > 99.999%, Shenyang Kerui Special Gases Co. Ltd., China) was used as a carrier gas and made-up gas at flow-rates of 1 mL x min(-1) and 60 mL x min(-1), respectively. All injections were carried out in the split injection mode with a split ratio of 1:10.

RESULT
The GC-ECD method was fit for determing the concentration of DADS and DATS in garlic oil. The distribution character of GO-SLN in rats had changed to some extent and the concentration of GO-SLN in tissues was higher than that of GO-Injection.

CONCLUSION
The SLN can elevate the passive targeting of drugs and lengthen their action time in tissues.


The Ultrabithorax gene is required to specify the third thoracic and first abdominal segments of Drosophila melanogaster. Mutations in the bithoraxoid region, a 40 kb DNA stretch upstream of the Ultrabithorax promoter, affect cis-regulatory elements of the Ultrabithorax gene. We now have identified specific sites in the bithoraxoid region that exhibit S1 nuclease sensitivity in vitro. These sites are not scattered along the DNA but are grouped instead in specific domains. Some of these S1-sensitive sites correlate with known breakpoint or insertional mutations. Others correspond to putative binding sites for transcription factors. The results suggest that unusual secondary structure might be important in chromosomal translocation within regulatory sequences of the Ultrabithorax product or its transcriptional regulation.


A truck comprising a chassis (1), the two longitudinal members (2, 3) and at least a first and a second cross member (4, 5) between said two longitudinal members (2, 3) includes, and a battery box (6), the rear end of the vehicle between said beams (2, 3) with vibration damping mounting means (7, 8) is arranged, characterized in that the fastening means of the battery box (6) comprises front mounting means (7) mounted on the front of the battery box 6 connect the first adjacent cross member (4) and rear mounting means (8), which connect the opposite of said front rear of the battery box (6) to the second adjacent cross member (5) comprise.


Abstract The paper presents the method and results of numerical simulations of the mutual dynamic interactions between vehicles and the bridge structure, which has defect in the form of excessive permanent deformations. The parametric analyses were carried out taking into account the following parameters: permanent deflections of spans, with a maximum value ranging from 0 to 150 mm, vehicle speed from 10 m/s (36 km/h) to 30 m/s (108 km/h), and two types of heavy vehicle suspension systems, each with very different properties. The presented analyses are based on the characteristics of real motorway bridge structure with permanent deflections of the multi-span main girders, constructed of steel beams and reinforced concrete slab. The proposed procedure of dynamic numerical analysis can also be useful in the assessment of the influence of permanent deflections on the interactions between vehicles and other types of bridge structures.


The frame problem commonly appears in the field of artificial intelligence and in related philosophical literature. It pertains to the difficulty of making meaningful inferences in dynamic contexts. We discuss the frame problem and its manifestations in the practical design of artificial agents, and we set out some criteria against which the effectiveness of such an agent may be judged. Finally, we claim that technology currently exists in the form of a new clustering technique dimensional clustering which can enable an agent to satisfy these criteria. We justify this claim with three case studies where we apply dimensional clustering to data sets of varied nature.


This paper deals with sufficient conditions for existence of forced periodic oscillations in control systems. These conditions use frequency properties of the linear plant and sector estimates of the nonlinearity, under a form closely related to Popov criterion. The results concern a general class of systems with time-dependent nonlinearities, as well as some nonlinearities with memory, especially hysteresis nonlinearities.


The classical and quantum position-dependent mass harmonic oscillators are constructed by means of the supersymmetric approach. The correspondence between the classical and the quantum Hamiltonians is used to fix the ordering of the kinetic term in the quantum framework. Some examples are given for different types of mass function.


Brown plant hopper showed me the way into organic farming. In 2001, I started my practice with logic of legumes just to cut down the 45 percent expenses of my paddy on fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Later as I realized each and every plant carries it's own nutrients, medicinal values and characters. Plants like millets, oil seeds, spices, di-cots, monocots and weeds all being used as a green manure. For all my agriculture problems and crop demands, I look for the answers only through green manures and found almost. Past from 15 years, I still grow in 15 acres with over 45 percent less inputs, 20-25 quintals of paddy yield per acre and my profit has grown 10 times in last 10 years.


Bandung city citizens has grown in every single year, this case can be proved by the data which has been collected from the citizens cencus conducted by the Balai Pusat Statistik (Statistic Centre) every ten years. According to the data from http://bandungkota.bps.go.id, the number of Bandung citizens in 2013 was 2.483.977 , consisted of 1.260.565 male and 1.223.412 female. This research is aimed to know how the impact of Digital Right Management towards application purchasing decision in Apple App Store in Bandung city. This research conducted by spreading questionnaire to 400 respondents who are Apple iOS user living in Bandung. Sampling technique which used is area sampling. This technique uses simple linear regression analysis.This research showed that the impact of Digital Right Management towards application purchasing decision in Apple Store at 40,6%, meanwhile the rest is at 56,4% impacted by othersfactors inaccurately, for example application completion, application quality, and the ease of purchasing and other things which can impact the purchasing decision of Apple user. The suggestion of Apple increases publication about eradication of hijacking application and DRM technology. For instance is by giving special page in App Store about DRM which can easily accessable by Apple user.


Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has been highly successful in controlling HIV replication, reducing viral burden, and preventing both progression to AIDS and viral transmission. Yet, ART alone cannot cure the infection. Even after years of successful therapy, ART withdrawal leads inevitably to viral rebound within a few weeks or months. Our hypothesis: effective therapy must control both the replicating virus pool and the reactivatable latent viral reservoir. To do this, we have combined ART and immunotherapy to attack both viral pools simultaneously. The vaccine regimen consisted of DNA vaccine expressing SIV Gag, followed by a boost with live attenuated rubella/gag vectors. The vectors grow well in rhesus macaques, and they are potent immunogens when used in a prime and boost strategy. We infected rhesus macaques by high dose mucosal challenge with virulent SIVmac251 and waited three days to allow viral dissemination and establishment of a reactivatable viral reservoir before starting ART. While on ART, the control group received control DNA and empty rubella vaccine, while the immunotherapy group received DNA/gag prime, followed by boosts with rubella vectors expressing SIV gag over 27 weeks. Both groups had a vaccine "take" to rubella, and the vaccine group developed antibodies and T cells specific for Gag. Five weeks after the last immunization, we stopped ART and monitored virus rebound. All four control animals eventually had a viral rebound, and two were euthanized for AIDS. One control macaque did not rebound until 2 years after ART release. In contrast, there was only one viral rebound in the vaccine group. Three out of four vaccinees had no viral rebound, even after CD8 depletion, and they remain in drug-free viral remission more than 2.5 years later. The strategy of early ART combined with immunotherapy can produce a sustained SIV remission in macaques and may be relevant for immunotherapy of HIV in humans.


BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease is a new and rapidly evolving pandemic. The physical consequences are well documented but the mental health challenges have been less well considered. AIM: To discuss new onset OCD phenomenon in a patient with history of COVID 19 infection in family members. METHODOLOGY: (Case Report) A 25 yr old, unmarried female, seen in walked in OPD presented with complaints of repeated handwashing and bathing,decreased interest in work, irritability.She was asymptomatic till pre Covid period,when the media buzzed with coronavirus cases all over the world.Patient's mother and younger brother got infected with coronavirus.While taking care of them she developed repeated,intrusive,irrational thoughts of getting infected with the virus which she was unable to control following which she repeatedly washed her hands multiple times in a day despite developing irritant dermatitis due to excessive use of soap.All this led to impairment in her day to day functioning.For all these complaints patient was prescribed fluoxetine 60 mg & clonazepam 1 mg daily & weekly CBT sessions were planned. CONCLUSION: OCD is sixth most disabling psychiatric disorder with lifetime prevalence of 1.9–3.3%. Among wide variety of problems faced by patients of OCD, COVID 19 has aggravated their plight manifold.


Innovation, a concept that has been researched in the organizational behaviour literature for almost 30 years, is extremely important for the sustainable success of organizations. In today's dynamic world along with economic, social and political changes, customer needs and expectations are also changing. The formulas that lead a company to success yesterday mean nothing today. Therefore, for companies to continue their existence in an increasingly changing and complex environment, they need to be able to adapt to the speed of this change and even give direction when necessary. Changes occurring in the world require the restructuring of organizations, the way they do business and the quality of the workforce they need to adapt to this change. Undoubtedly, it is the human resource of the organization that will initiate and maintain this change. At this point, human resources is a strategic power for organization that is as important as the economic and technological power. Having employees with high innovative thinking and behaving skills creates a competitive advantage for companies. There may be many organizational, individual and environmental predictors of innovative behaviours. On the other hand, employees who have enough belief and courage that they can succeed in a job are known to initiate innovations. In other words, the employee's perception of self-efficacy is necessary for innovative behaviours. In this study, the concept of self-efficacy, which is assumed to be a predictor of innovative behaviours, will be discussed. The concept of self-efficacy, which expresses the effort to set new goals for oneself and to reach these goals with courage, determination and relentlessly, is an extremely important determinant for innovative behaviours. Self-efficacy perception has a very important place in an individual's job selection, career success and professional progress. Therefore, it is extremely important to know the factors that affect the perception of self-efficacy. In this study, the following question was asked by considering the perception of self-efficacy in the context of personality traits: Is the concept of self-efficacy affected by the personality trait of openness to innovation? This study was carried out in order to answer this question. In this context, the sample of the research consists of 503 people working in various institutions in the public and private sectors. Qualitative research method was used for this study. Perception of general self-efficacy and openness to innovation have been measured with scales whose validity and reliability have been tested in many studies before. The obtained data were analysed by referring to the relevant quantitative analyses (descriptive statistics, reliability, factor and correlation). As a result of the analyses, significant findings were obtained. The findings were evaluated in the context of the relevant literature in the discussion section. Possible research suggestions for future studies are proposed in this section.


BACKGROUND
To study the delay time to arrive of the hospital and its relation with any variables, of patients with acute myocardial infarction from the province of Teruel (Spain).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A prospective study was carried out from January 1991 to October 1994. We included patients who were diagnosticated of the acute myocardial infarction (212 men and 63 women). We considered the time between the thoracic pain and their arrive at the urgency service. We based the diagnosis in clinical, electrocardiographic and enzymatic criteria.

RESULTS
The mean delay time was 8 h 46 m. The 66.5% arrives before 6 hours. We found no differences between rural or urban patients. The delay time was minor in men than women (7 h 12 m versus 14 h, p = 0.0019), in younger (< 65 years old) than in the older (6 h 3 m versus 10 h 18 m, p = 0.0278), and in those who were admitted to the ICU (7h 16 m versus 20 h 33 m, p = 0.0001). Was longer in patients with arterial hypertension and diabetes. Was minor in patients with dyslipemia and tobacco habit. Many patients to arrive of the hospital by physician order and with own vehicles, it took less time arrive at the hospital than by ambulance (8 h 30 m versus 18 h, p < 0.05). The medium delay in the emergency area was 2 h 35 m. The delay time was longer in patients who died (16 h versus 7h 30 m, p = 0.0018) and in those who present more frequently cardiac failure.

CONCLUSIONS
The mean delay time to arrive at the hospital in patients with acute myocardial infarction from the province of Teruel (Spain) in unreasonable and in takes a poor prognosis, so we consider necessary to study the causes of this delay in order to correct them.


To clarify the nature and existence of the norm, we need to be aware of the domains through which it can be analysed. Wibren van der Burg, through the theory of legal interactionism, considers that the study of the norm, construction and its effects must be achieved through three main areas: legal sociology, legal philosophy and as a measure of completion and uniformity, the legal doctrine.[i]An interdisciplinary approach leads to the best conclusions;[ii]otherwise four debates have emerged between the three disciplines in the understanding and interpretation of the norm. First of all, the distinction between the norm written(institutional) and the norm practised(interactive). Philosophers and lawyers support institutional norm theory, while sociologists embrace the interactive norm.[iii]

[i]The importance of the legal doctrine specializing in civil systems, considered as sources of the norm, was well defensible. The legal doctrine is very important as it creates the legal vocabulary and the ideas that the legislator uses later. The doctrine sets out how the norm should be interpreted and understood. Often, the legislator offers the expression and effect of tendencies developed in doctrine or adopted norms that were created by theorists in Rene David, John E. C. Brierley, Major Legal Systems in the World Today. For example, in the People's Republic of China, the doctrine is not considered the source of law. More details see in Jiangyu Wang,Corporate Law in China. Regulation of Business Organizations in a Socialist Market Economy, University of Singapore, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2014.
[ii]Saane Taekemaand Bart Van Klink, On the Border. Limits and Possibilities of Interdisciplinary Researchin Saane TAEKEMA and Bart van Klink(eds), Law and Method Interdisciplinary Research into Law,  Mohr Siebeck, Tubingen, 2011, pp. 8-9; Also see Douglas W. VICK, Interdisciplinarity and the Discipline of Law,31(2) Journal of Law and Society, 2004, pp. 163–93 quoted by Sanne Taekemaand Wibren van der Burg, Towards a Fruitfull cooperation between legal philosophy, legal sociology and Doctrinal Research: How Legal Interactionsim may Bridge Unproductive Oppositions, Law, Society and Community. Socio Legal Essays in Honour of Roger Cotterell, Edited by Richard Noblesand David Schiff, Ashgate Pub., London, 2014, p.131.
[iii]Sanne Taekemaand Wibren van der Burg, op. cit. p. 131


Even though endothelial dysfunction is known to play a role in migraine pathophysiology, studies regarding levels of endothelial biomarkers in migraine have controversial results. Our aim was to evaluate the role of pentraxin 3 (PTX3) and soluble tumour necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (sTWEAK) as potential biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction in chronic migraine (CM). We performed a case-control study including 102 CM patients and 28 control subjects and measured serum levels of markers of endothelial dysfunction (PTX3 and sTWEAK) and inflammation [high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP)] as well as brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) during interictal periods. Interictal serum levels of PTX3 and sTWEAK were higher in CM patients than in controls (1350.6 ± 54.8 versus 476.1 ± 49.4 pg/mL, p < 0.001 and 255.7 ± 21.1 versus 26.4 ± 2.6 pg/mL, p < 0.0001; respectively). FMD was diminished in CM patients compared to controls (9.6 ± 0.6 versus 15.2 ± 0.9%, p < 0.001). Both PTX3 and sTWEAK were negatively correlated with FMD (r = −0.508, p < 0.001 and r = −0.188, p = 0.033; respectively). After adjustment of confounders, PTX3 remained significantly correlated to FMD (r = −0.250, p = 0.013). Diagnosis of CM was 68.4 times more likely in an individual with levels of PTX3 ≥ 832.5 pg/mL, suggesting that PTX3 could be a novel biomarker of endothelial dysfunction in CM.


The modern world is facing a pandemic of lifestyle disorders that require changes to be made consciously by individuals themselves, and as yoga is the best lifestyle ever designed, it has potential in the prevention, management, and rehabilitation of prevalent lifestyle disorders. Yogic lifestyle, yogic diet, yogic attitudes, and various yogic practices help humans to strengthen themselves and develop positive health, thus enabling them to withstand stress better. This yogic "health insurance" is achieved by normalizing the perception of stress, optimizing the reaction to it, and by releasing the pent-up stress effectively through various yogic practices. This review paper summarizes important findings of a recent research on yoga in lifestyle disorders including a series of studies at Puducherry, India, documenting positive effects. The majority of studies on yoga and cardiovascular and metabolic health show positive trends and this augurs well for the future of health care in general and the use of yoga as a part of integrative health care in particular. Major benefits of yoga may occur due to its lifestyle components (healthy diet, activity, relaxation, and positive attitude) as well as psychosomatic harmonizing effects of pranayama and yogic relaxation. Yoga places a great importance on a proper and healthy lifestyle whose main components are achar (healthy activities), vichar (healthy relationships), vichar (healthy thoughts), ahar (healthy food), and vihar (healthy recreation). The basic yogic principles useful in the management of lifestyle disorders are discussed including psychological reconditioning and development of appropriate attitudes; stress management normalization of metabolism; and relaxation, visualization, and contemplative practices.


This paper is based on the wear-resistant steel NM360 quenching experiments, simulates the steel plate quenching transient temperature field, and analyses the causes of quenching deformation. According to the experimental analysis, the martensitic phase transformation is the main reason of the wear-resistant steel quenching extremely easily deformation, therefore, how to control the time and stress of martensitic phase transformation of the plate surface is the key factor. Through experiments, we found a quenching process of controlling effectively quenching deformation, and it provides some practical experiences for acquiring the higher mechanical properties of this kind of wear-resisting steel.


BACKGROUND
Left ventricular global function index (LVGFI) integrates LV volumetric and functional parameters. In patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), cardiac injury manifests as LV hypertrophy and dysfunction. However, the prognostic value of LVGFI in this population remains unclear.

PURPOSE
To investigate the association of LVGFI with major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients with ESRD.

STUDY TYPE
Prospective.

POPULATION
One hundred fifty-eight ESRD patients (mean age: 54.1 ± 14.4 years; 105 male) on maintenance dialysis.

FILED STRENGTH/SEQUENCE
3.0 T, balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) cine and modified Look-Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) sequences.

ASSESSMENT
LV volumetric and functional parameters were determined from bSSFP images. LVGFI was calculated as the ratio of stroke volume to global volume and native T1 was determined from MOLLI T1 maps. MACE was recorded on follow up. Models were developed to predict MACE from conventional risk factors combined with LVGFI, GLS, native T1, and LV mass index (LVMI), respectively. Subgroup analyses were further performed in participants with LVEF above median.

STATISTICAL TESTS
Cox proportional hazard regression and log-rank test were used to investigate the association between LVGFI and MACE. The predictive models were evaluated and compared using Harrell's C-statistics and DeLong tests. A P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS
Thirty-four MACE occurred during the median follow-up period of 26 months. The hazard of MACE increased by 114% for each 10% decrease in LVGFI in univariable analysis. The predictive model consisting of LVGFI (C-statistic: 0.724) had significantly better predictive performance than the others (all P < 0.001). These results were consistent in patients (N = 79) with LVEF > median (63.54%).

DATA CONCLUSION
LVGFI is a novel marker for MACE risk stratification in patients with ESRD and was better able to predict MACE than native T1 mapping and GLS.

EVIDENCE LEVEL
2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 3.


Postpartum disease is a common occurrence in the dairy cow. Nationally about 7% of calvings and 15% of culls occur in the first 30 days postpartum. Metritis is one of the most common diseases of the postpartum period. Metritis has been shown to occur as often as 37.3% of the time (Markusfeld 2007). Monitoring of the rectal temperature of dairy cows for the first 10 days post partum is a common recommendation (100 day contract Pfizer Animal Health). Treatment with antibiotics is often recommended to be initiated if temperatures are greater than 103 to 104°F. The purpose of this study was to determine the temperature of lactating dairy cows in the first two weeks postpartum, and evaluate temperature as an indication of the need for antibiotic therapy for the treatment of metritis.


Smart building is the building block of a smart city. This work proposes an IoT based smart building for a scientific department providing many services such as lighting, HVAC, security, water management, Fire/ gas alarms and suppression, and smart park which all can be remotely controlled via the Internet by using either the IoT server webpage or the static IP address of the server through smartphones inside and outside the building, PC or laptop. Programming work is achieved for configuring the sensors, gateway, and servers' devices with Java. Python, or Blockly. Standardizations are considered in the work by employing IoT standard technologies and protocols for networking. The paper includes choosing the building of computer and Information department\ College of electronics engineering\ Ninevah University as a prototype for our IoT smart building simulation using Cisco packet tracer v7.3 which provides many components and devices that simulate the real network.


The involvement of histaminergic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of pulmonary oedema observed in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice was investigated. Histamine concentrations in plasma and whole blood of infected and normal mice were determined by radioenzymatic assay during the seven days of the infection. Elevated plasma and whole blood histamine levels were found at the last stages of infection (sixth day and seventh day after ip injection of parasitized erythrocytes), showing a close temporal correlation between the development of oedema and the elevation of the circulating histamine concentrations. However, the treatment of infected mice with the H1- or H2-receptor antagonists, meclizine or cimetidine, did not change the development of pulmonary oedema. The absence of effects of H1- and H2-receptor blockers on this model is a suggestive evidence that histamine does not contribute to P. berghei-induced pulmonary oedema in mice.


ABSTRACT The number of computed tomography (CT) examinations performed in urgent care has been increasing since its introduction in the emergency room (ER). This has led to a substantial increase in hospital costs and patient's exposure to ionizing radiation, which has led to the need for more judicious use of CT in the ER. The aim of this study is to show the difference between clinical (pre-CT), tomographic (post-CT) and definitive diagnoses in patients with abdominal CT in the ER. This is a cross-sectional study, with retrospective data collection through electronic medical records. A total of 834 patients with acute abdominal pain (AAP) lasting less than 7 days, submitted to abdominal computed tomography between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017 were selected. Clinical, tomographic and final diagnoses were recorded and submitted to a concordance analysis by calculating the Kappa coefficient, considering p <0.05 as significant. CT scans were considered unnecessary when the clinical diagnosis was concordant when both final and post-CT diagnosis were also concordant. The most frequent diagnoses were nonspecific abdominal pain (NSAP), obstructive uropathy (OU) and appendicitis (AP), corresponding to 73.6%, 58.5% and 61.3% of all diagnoses, respectively. Data analysis showed a moderate Concordance for NSAP (kappa: 0.41, p ¬<0.001) and for OU (kappa: 0.46, p <0.001) and excellent for AP (kappa:0.87, p <0.001). In total, 52.6% of computed tomography were considered unnecessary for NSAP, 82.4% for OU and 91.7% for AP. It was concluded that there are high rates of CT that may be considered unnecessary for the diagnosis of the main emergency conditions, especially appendicitis. The study warns to the exaggerated use of CT in the ER and raise discussions over the possible causes, such as lack of confidence in the clinical diagnosis, fear of diagnostic errors and fear of malpractice lawsuits, of which possible solutions may be more effective when applied since the medical education basis.


Plantain (Musa spp.) cropping systems of Southern Cameroon can be separated into those based on forest clearing and those based on land already used. Plantain is a major crop starting the forest clearing cycle. It is more than other food crops grown for commercial reasons. However, varietal choice for auto-consumption is different from that for sales. Nevertheless, farmers prefer to plant mixtures of cultivars. All systems rely on the use of natural resources with purchased inputs virtually absent. Labor is mainly provided by household members, capital use is limited to specific operations such as tree felling, digging holes, planting and harvesting. Knowledge on pests and diseases is very limited. Farmers are unaware of infection pathways of nematodes such as Radopholus similis. Contrary to that, farmers are very aware of the causes of yield loss with an overall realistic assessment of totals yield losses, estimated at 50%. The systems could be improved by simple agronomic measures such as regular planting distances to increase densities, separation of cultivars into early versus later producing types to reduce weeding labor. Most important appears to be raising awareness of the major pests and diseases and simple measures to reduce or eliminate nematode and banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus) infestation. Research is required to determine fertilizer response curves, response of different plantain cultivars to planting density, response to weeding frequency and other agronomic measures to increase yields and to increase profitability.


Summary Thromboses in patients with hereditary bleeding disorders are uncommon. However, in some cases, the co-existence of prothrombotic risk factors may increase the likelihood of developing thrombotic complications in such patients. This review summarizes the cases of thrombosis reported in the literature and analyzes the most important risk factors for thrombosis in patients with a congenital bleeding tendency. In particular we focus on central venous catheter (CVC)-associated thrombosis, on the thrombotic complications of coagulation factor concentrate therapy and on the presence of prothrom-botic gene mutations. Data were identified by searches of the published literature, including PubMed, references from reviews and abstracts from the most important meetings on this topic. In conclusion, there is increasing evidence that thrombotic complications in patients with hereditary bleeding disorders have a multifactorial pathogenesis, depending on exogenous (coagulation factor replacement therapy, CVC, HIV infection) and/or endogenous (prothrombotic gene mutations) risk factors.


Hamar is a language spoken in Ethiopia in South Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region by some 46,000 people (CSA 2007). Linguistically it is classified as a member of the Aroid group within the South Omotic branch of the Omotic family of languages (Fleming 1976). Hamar has never been reduced to writing and this is the first attempt to design a practical orthography for the purpose of providing basic literacy in the Hamar language. This orthography is an outcome of an ongoing research on Hamar grammar and it has not been yet approved by local authorities. Neither the script choice has been decided upon. The orthography is presented in its current form only for the purpose of initiating discussion among the stakeholders - the local authorities, community members and other concerned individuals and researchers. This article, therefore, presents a Latin-based orthography along with an update of the phonology of the language.


Oxadiazole is an important heterocyclic compound containing one oxygen and two nitrogen atoms in the five membered ring. 1,3,4-oxadiazole is a versatile heterocyclic nucleus having novel molecule which attract the medicinal chemist to search a new therapeutic molecule. The present review summarizes physicochemical properties, various synthetic procedures and various pharmacological activities of 1,3,4-oxadiazole moiety. 1,3,4-oxadiazole moiety is an important pharmacophore which plays a major role in the pharmaceutical chemistry and broad range of important biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, analgesic, ulcerogenic, antimicrobial, antifungal antitubercular, anticonvulsant, anticancer/antitumor, antiviral, and antihypertensive activities etc. as reported in the literature.


The research on human capital management has extensively emerged in recent years. Organizations need to know how to manage human capital effectively to boost performance. Many literature reviews have been published on the specific aspects of human capital management. However, less attention has been given to bibliometric and network analysis aspects. Hence, the purpose of this study is to visualize the research domain of human capital management by conducting a bibliometric analysis. The analysis was performed using Scopus Analyzer available in the Scopus database and VOSviewer software. A total of 1098 publications concerning human capital management were extracted from the Scopus database ranging from 2008 to 2018. Co-citation and co-word analysis were conducted to graphically illustrate the publication trend and to identify areas of current research interests. The outcome of this study may assist researchers in understanding the nature of human capital management research domain from across the world and suggest future research directions.


We have monitored the flat spectrum radio quasar, 3C 279, in the optical B, V, R, and I passbands from 2018 February to 2018 July for 24 nights, with a total of 716 frames, to study flux, colour, and spectral variability on diverse time-scales. 3C 279 was observed using seven different telescopes: two in India, two in Argentina, two in Bulgaria, and one in Turkey to understand the nature of the source in optical regime. The source was found to be active during the whole monitoring period and displayed significant flux variations in B, V, R, and I passbands. Variability amplitudes on intraday basis varied from 5.20 to 17.9 per cent. A close inspection of variability patterns during our observation cycle reveals simultaneity among optical emissions from all passbands. During the complete monitoring period, progressive increase in the amplitude of variability with frequency was detected for our target. The amplitudes of variability in B, V, R, and I passbands have been estimated to be 177 per cent, 172 per cent, 171 per cent, and 158 per cent, respectively. Using the structure function technique, we found intraday time-scales ranging from ∼23 min to about 115 min. We also studied colour–magnitude relationship and found indications of mild bluer-when-brighter trend on shorter time-scales. Spectral indices ranged from 2.3 to 3.0 with no clear trend on long-term basis. We have also generated spectral energy distributions for 3C 279 in optical B, V, R, and I passbands for 17 nights. Finally, possible emission mechanisms causing variability in blazars are discussed briefly.


We present two laboratory experiments on optical image processing which show complementary modeling approaches. One experiment is based on an optical correlator, where a physical Fourier plane can be identified, and the other is based on the angular response exhibited by a volume grating (Bragg processing) where no Fourier plane is available. In the correlator the frequency content can be visualized as intensity variations in the Fourier plane, whereas in Bragg processing the angular plane waves decomposition of the object is the intuitive approach. Then we have two different approaches to synthesize the transfer function of the system. The combination of the two experiments in a student's lab helps for a deeper understanding of optical image processing, its linear systems mathematical background, and some aspects of volume holography.


Among a group of "high-risk" mothers, limited contact with the newborn at birth was not related to later disorders of mothering. In this prospective, longitudinal study, prematurity and other indices of "bonding failure" did not occur with greater frequency among a subsample of mothers who mistreated their children than among a similar subgroup providing adequate care.


Although surgery for the thymus began as early as 1940 in Japan, resection of a thymic epithelial tumor continued to be challenging for clinical practitioners until the 1970's. Thereafter, introduction of the Masaoka clinicopathological staging system, development of extended thymectomy procedure, advancements in understanding of the pathological and biological characteristics of these tumors, and establishment of the Japanese Association for Study of the Thymus (JART) led to significant progress in clinical practice for treating affected patients. Presently, surgical resection procedures for thymic epithelia tumors are safely performed for more than 2,000 patients each year in Japan, approximately 40% of which are achieved using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). JART and Japanese clinicians are currently involved in global collaboration research activities with the International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG) and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).


When two strains of phage T5 (heat-susceptible form T5st(+) and its heat-resistant mutant T5st) were placed in solutions containing various high concentrations of chelating agents (sodium citrate and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) at room temperature, they could be effectively inactivated by rapid dilution in distilled water of relatively low temperatures (2 to 37 C). This phenomenon has been termed "chelating agent shock" (CAS). The susceptibility of phage T5 to CAS increased with an increase in the concentration of chelating agents and with an increase in temperature of the water used for rapid dilution. Under any given condition, T5st(+) was much more sensitive to CAS than was T5st. Phage T5 was protected against inactivation by the addition of monovalent or divalent metal salts, but not by the addition of nonionic solutes, to the shocking water prior to CAS treatment. This finding is compatible with the view that cations combined with the phage protein are removed by the chelating agent, although no metal ion has been identified in the phage protein. Alternatively, since the chelating agents used are polyanions, they may bind relatively tightly to the protein subunits in the head of T5, thereby distorting the structure of the phage head. Rapid dilution of these distorted particles could lead to loss of phage DNA. No evidence for recovery of phage activity could be obtained by the addition of metal salts to the inactivated phage after CAS. The morphological properties of phage inactivated by CAS are similar to those of heat-inactivated T5 phage. Electron micrographs showed that most of the phage particles consisted of empty head membranes; some of the particles had lost their tails. Both heritable and nonheritable resistance to heat was accompanied by resistance to CAS in phage T5. The sensitive element detected by each test seemed to be the same.


ab The atmospheric fates of Z - and E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 have been studied, investigating the kinetics and the products of the reactions of the two compounds with Cl atoms, OH radicals, OD radicals, and O 3 . FTIR smog chamber experiments measured: k (Cl + Z -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (2.59 (cid:2) 0.47) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 11 , k (Cl + E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (1.36 (cid:2) 0.27) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 11 , k (OH + Z -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (4.21 (cid:2) 0.62) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 13 , k (OH + E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (1.72 (cid:2) 0.42) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 13 , k (OD + Z -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (6.94 (cid:2) 1.25) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 13 , k (OD + E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (5.61 (cid:2) 0.98) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 13 , k (O 3 + Z -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (6.25 (cid:2) 0.70) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 22 , and k (O 3 + E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 ) = (4.14 (cid:2) 0.42) (cid:3) 10 (cid:4) 22 cm 3 molecule (cid:4) 1 s (cid:4) 1 in 700 Torr of air/N 2 /O 2 diluents at 296 (cid:2) 2 K. E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 reacts with Cl atoms to give CF 3 CHClC(O)CF 3 in a yield indistinguishable from 100%. Z -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 reacts with Cl atoms to give (95 (cid:2) 10)% CF 3 CHClC(O)CF 3 and (7 (cid:2) 1)% E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 . CF 3 CHClC(O)CF 3 reacts with Cl atoms to give the secondary product CF 3 C(O)Cl in a yield indistinguishable from 100%, with the observed co-products C(O)F 2 and CF 3 O 3 CF 3 . The main atmospheric fate for Z - and E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 is reaction with OH radicals. The atmospheric lifetimes of Z - and E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 are estimated as 27 and 67 days, respectively. IR absorption cross sections are reported and the global warming potentials (GWPs) of Z - and E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 for the 100 year time horizon are calculated to be GWP 100 = 2 and 7, respectively. This study provides a comprehensive description of the atmospheric fate and impact of Z - and E -CF 3 CH Q CHCF 3 .


German jurist and legal theorist Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) significantly influenced Western political and legal thinking in the last century, yet his life and work have also stirred considerable controversy. While his ideas have been used and diffused by prominent philosophers on both the left and the right, such as Jurgen Habermas and Leo Strauss, his Nazi-era past, especially his active efforts to remove Jewish influence from German law, has cast a cloud over his life and oeuvre. Still, his many supporters have generally been successful in claiming that Schmitt's was an "antisemitism of opportunity," a temporary affectation to gain favor with the Nazis. In "Carl Schmitt and the Jews", available in English for the first time, historian Raphael Gross vigorously repudiates this "opportunism thesis." Through a reading of Schmitt's corpus, some of which became available only after his death, Gross highlights the importance of the "Jewish Question" on the breadth of Schmitt's work. According to Gross, Schmitt's antisemitism was at the core of his work - before, during, and after the Nazi era.

His influential polarities of "friend and foe," "law and nomos," "behemoth and Leviathan," and "ketechon and Antichrist" emerge from a conceptual template in which "the Jew" is defined as adversary, undermining the Christian order with secularization. The presence of this template at the heart of Schmitt's work, Gross contends, calls for a major reassessment of Schmitt's role within contemporary cultural and legal theory.


This paper explores diverse practices of religious place-making in suburban space drawing from a research project on the making of suburban faith in West London. We argue that the creative cultures and spaces of suburban faith communities are often marginalized in enduring narratives of secular suburban materialism. In contrast through an analysis of creative responses to suburban space by different faith communities, at different time periods, we suggest both the persistence of suburban faiths and the creativity of suburban faith communities. We argue that creativity is evident through processes of improvisation in the creation of make-shift places of worship in early 'frontier suburbs' and in the creative re-adaptation and re-invention of former buildings to new places of worship, often by diasporic faith communities. Finally we emphasise architectural innovation in making new places of worship which engage directly and imaginatively with suburban space. Our analysis suggests the importance of suburban faith communities in the making of suburban spaces and cultures, and the relevance of religion, and sacred place-making, in wider re-evaluations of suburban creativity.


PURPOSE
To study the morphology of posterior polar cataracts and posterior lens capsules using modified posterior segment optical coherence tomography (m-OCT).

SETTING
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.

DESIGN
A prospective observational case-series.

METHODS
Patients with clinically diagnosed posterior polar cataracts were included. The routine posterior segment OCT was modified by placing an aspheric +20 diopter lens along its aperture, enabling it to visualize the anterior segment structures. Cases of posterior polar cataract were assessed preoperatively using this method to study the morphology of posterior lens cortex and the posterior capsule. All m-OCT observations were performed by 2 observers, and findings were recorded.

RESULTS
A total of 26 eyes of 17 patients were included. The average age of patients was 53 years. The morphology of the cataract appeared as hyperreflective opacity just anterior to the posterior capsule, subsequently involving it, and with variable hyporeflective spaces. An intact posterior capsule showed a regularly convex contour, whereas a loss in the tracing of posterior capsule at the paracentral region and disturbance in contour with a localized protrusion of lens matter (the "conical sign"), depicted a possible posterior capsule dehiscence. Four of 26 eyes (15.38%) showed the conical sign and this posterior capsule defect was confirmed intraoperatively in all cases.

CONCLUSIONS
In posterior polar cataracts, the conical sign could be a valuable clue to predict preexisting posterior capsule dehiscence, and could be identified on a modified posterior segment OCT.


In recent years, compute performances of GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) dramatically increased, especially in comparison to those of CPUs (Central Processing Units). GPUs are nowadays the hardware of choice for scientific applications involving massive parallel operations, such as deep learning (DL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) workflows. Large-scale computing infrastructures such as on-premises data centers, HPC (High Performance Computing) centers, and public or private clouds offer high performance GPUs to researchers. The programming paradigms for GPUs significantly vary according to the GPU model and vendor, often posing a barrier to their use in scientific applications. In addition, powerful GPUs are hardly saturated by typical computing applications. GPU partitioning may be the key to exploit GPU computing power in an efficient and affordable manner. Multiple vendors proposed custom solutions to allow for GPU partitioning, often with poor portability across different platforms and OSs (Operating Systems). OpenForBC (Open For Better Computing) is an open source software framework that allows for effortless and unified partitioning of GPUs from different vendors in Linux KVM virtualized environments. OpenForBC supports dynamic partitioning for various configurations of the GPU, which can be used to optimize the utilization of GPU kernels from different users or different applications. For example training complex DL models may require a full GPU, but inference may only need a fraction of it, leaving free resources for multiple cloned instances or other tasks. In this contribution we describe the most common GPU partitioning options available on the market, discuss the implementation of the OpenForBC interface, and show the results of benchmark tests in typical use case scenarios.


The view that developing countries ought to offer general subsidies for higher education has many supporters. We use traditional economic logic to specify the conditions under which such an investment policy would promote a so- cially efficient allocation of resources. We identify three necessary conditions. First, the net social benefit from the investment must be positive. Second, pri- vate actors must have insufficient ability or incentive to undertake the socially optimal level of investment. Finally, the investment must generate more net social benefits than competing uses of public funds. We reason that the first condition is likely to be satisfied, the second might not, and third is even more questionable. Without empirical evidence to the contrary, we therefore reason that there is no clear-cut efficiency reason for a general subsidy for higher education in developing countries.


African forest elephants face severe threats from illegal killing for ivory and bushmeat and habitat conversion. Due to their cryptic nature and inaccessible range, little information on the biology of this species has been collected despite its iconic status. Compiling individual based monitoring data collected over 20 years from the Dzanga Bai population in Central African Republic, we summarize sex and age specific survivorship and female age specific fecundity for a cohort of 1625 individually identified elephants. Annual mortality (average = 3.5%) and natality (average = 5.3%) were lower and markedly less variable relative to rates reported for savanna elephant populations. New individuals consistently entered the study system, leading to a 2.5% average annual increase in the registered population. Calf sex ratios among known birth did not differ from parity. A weak seasonal signal in births was detected suggesting increased conceptions during the wet season. Inter-calf intervals and age of primiparity were longer relative to savanna elephant populations. Within the population, females between the ages of 25–39 demonstrated the shortest inter-calf intervals and highest fecundity, and previous calf sex had no influence on the interval. Calf survivorship was high (97%) the first two years after birth and did not differ by sex. Male and female survival began to differ by the age of 13 years, and males demonstrated significantly lower survival relative to females by the age of 20. It is suspected these differences are driven by human selection for ivory. Forest elephants were found to have one of the longest generation times recorded for any species at 31 years. These data provide fundamental understanding of forest elephant demography, providing baseline data for projecting population status and trends.


We consider the problem of wiring together two parallel rows of points under a variety of conditions. The options include whether we allow the rows to slide relative to one another, whether we use only rectilinear wires or arbitrary wires, and whether we can use wires in one layer or several layers. In almost all of these combinations of conditions, we can provide a polynomial-time algorithm to minimize the distance between the parallel rows of points. We also compare two fundamentally different wiring approaches, where one and two layers are used. We show that although the theoretical model implies that there can be great gains for the two-layer strategy, even in cases where no crossovers are required, when we consider typical design rules for laying out VLSI circuits there is no substantial advantage to the two-layer approach over the one-layer approach.


The capacity of ultra-wideband (UWB) systems in presence of narrowband interference (NBI) is studied. By appropriately modifying the Shannon capacity formula, an analytical expression for the capacity of M-ary pulse position modulation (PPM) signals in the presence of NBI is obtained. Performance evaluation results for the capacity of such signals as a function of the NBI carrier frequency and power are also presented.


The substituent constants of the 2- and 1-positions of the π-allylic group of acetylacetonato (a) and cyclopentadienyl (b) derivatives of π-[2-(p-substituted phenyl)allyl]-(I) and π-(p-substituted cinnamyl)-palladium complexes(II) were estimated from their NMR spectra. The differences in the chemical shift (Δν, Hz) between the p-phenylene ring protons H1 and H2 of the complexes was found to be dependent upon the ligand and the substituent X. The plot of Δν against the substituent constant σp+, of X gave a fairly good linear relationship, and from the intercept of the straight line at Δν=0, the substituent constants of the 1-and 2-positions of the π-allylic group in the IIa or IIb complex and the Ia or Ib complex were estimated: σp: at the 1-position, 0.27 (IIa) or 0.24 (IIb), and at the 2-position, 0.21 (Ia) or 0.03 (Ib).


A newly isolated mesophilic anaerobe, Bacteroides cellulosolvens, has the ability to produce cellulase and to degrade cellulose to cellobiose and glucose. It does not utilize glucose, and it lacks β-glucosidase activity. This anaerobe appears to degrade cellulose to cellobiose by cellulase action, and the presence of cells appears necessary for the formation of glucose.


Abstract Ecological threats are one of the major worries of our times. Human beings are becoming aware of their responsibility for the destruction of the world which surrounds them. The interest in these questions of the environment and ecology is widely present within contemporary fiction. Interrogations on the relationships people have with planet earth arise in it continuously and move progressively from an anthropocentric vision to an ecocentric perception of the literary object. This is the case of the French-Canadian author Nancy Huston. In her novel, Le Club des miracles relatifs (2016), she depicts a dehumanised world and a slaughtered nature in a sort of ecologic dystopia, in which she denounces the exploitation of the deposits of bituminous sands in Canada, and presents us annihilated human beings, who have destroyed their own planet. In this article, I aim at presenting an ecocritical approach on the novel, with the purpose of analysing the narrative techniques used on the representation of the ties between humans and the planet they live on. Furthermore, I will look into the relationships between environmental consciousness and literary aesthetics, as well as into the connection between existential crises and the contemporary ecologic calamities.


Longitudinal stent deformation is a recently described complication of percutaneous coronary intervention and is the result of modifications to the stent design that have reduced the number of connectors, reducing longitudinal stent strength. All previous reported cases involved deformation of successfully deployed stents. We report an unusual case of significant longitudinal deformation of a non-deployed Taxus Element stent during withdrawal into the guide catheter. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such case ever reported.


Abstract. The annual evolution of the ground temperatures from Incinerador borehole in Livingston Island (South Shetlands, Antarctic) is studied. The borehole is 2.4 m deep and is located in a massive quartzite outcrop with negligible water content, in the proximity of the Spanish Antarctic Station Juan Carlos I. In order to model the movement of the 0°C isotherm (velocity and maximum depth) hourly temperature profiles from: (i) the cooling periods of the frost season of 2000 to 2005, and (ii) the warming periods of the thaw season of 2002–2003, 2003–2004 and 2004–2005, were studied. In this modelling approach, heat gains and losses across the ground surface are assumed to be the causes for the 0°C isotherm movement. A methodological approach to calculate the ground Enthalpy change based on the thermodynamic analysis of the ground during the cooling and warming periods is proposed. The Enthalpy change into the rock is equivalent to the heat exchange through the ground surface during each season, thus enabling to describe the interaction ground-atmosphere and providing valuable data for studies on permafrost and periglacial processes. The bedrock density and thermal conductivity are considered to be constant and initial isothermal conditions at 0°C are assumed (based in collected data and local meteorological conditions in this area) to run the model in the beginning of each season. The final stages correspond to the temperatures at the end of the cooling and warming periods (annual minima and maxima). The application of this method avoids error propagation induced by the heat exchange calculations from multiple sensors using the Fourier method.


This document reports findings from data collected from large nationally representative samples of high school seniors in the classes of 1985-1989 as part of the Monitoring the Future project. Its primary focus is on the possible costs and benefits of part-time work among high school seniors. The focus of the report is on three psychosocial themes: problem behaviors (drug and alcohol use, aggression, victimization); time use (sleep, exercise, recreation); and subjective experiences (satisfaction, self-esteem). Results are presented which revealed that hours of work were positively correlated with smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, using illicit drugs, interpersonal aggression, theft, trouble with police, arguments with parents, victimization, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and truancy, and negatively correlated with seniors' satisfaction with the way their leisure time was spent and the amount of fun they had. It is also noted that self-esteem showed practically no correlation with hours worked. The document concludes that the interpretation of these findings is difficult since long working hours (and high earnings) are reactions to other factors, some of which may be pre-existing problems. It is suggested that policies aimed at curbing hours or earnings should be viewed with caution at this point. Two tables and 33 figures are included. (NB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** PART-TLME WORK AMONG HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? Jerald G. Bachman and John Schulenberg University of Michigan Paper presented at the 1991 Biennial Meetings of the Society for the Research on Child Development Seattle, Washington April 16, 199