Higher Education quality and relevance is an increasingly important issue in Ethiopia. Previous reforms have significantly increased financing, access and enrollment as well as transformed governance of the higher education system. This study assessed the status of higher agricultural education in Ethiopia and identified key issues for improving its relevance, quality and contribution to national development objectives. The study involved a desk review of literature, key informant discussions, focused group discussions and analysis. The findings revealed that although access to higher education in Ethiopia has improved significantly in the last two decades, important gaps, including those of quality and relevance, equity, leadership and governance remain. There are currently 176 undergraduate and more than 300 postgraduate academic programs in Ethiopia, with 35% female, and 15% private students enrolment. Of these, 50 undergraduate, 74 Masters, and 22 Doctoral programs are related to agriculture in public universities. Discussions with key informants revealed that there was a low perception of agriculture as a program of study. University programs need to be aligned to employment opportunities and relevant staff employed to support program delivery. Facilities for teaching, particularly the science subjects require improvement. The Ethiopian government should consider mechanisms to support the improved transition of graduates to employment, job creation and other opportunities. Key words: Agricultural development, Agricultural education, Ethiopia, Higher education


The COVID-19 pandemic that was declared in March 2020, caused profound changes to public life across the globe. Restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus were enforced that included staying at home and minimizing social interaction. These changes saw an environment emerge that demanded remote healthcare, and telehealth platforms and applications quickly began to fulfill this demand. One such platform in Saudi Arabia was Seha, a Ministry of Health smartphone application that provides information, self-evaluation, and teleconsultations. To explore Seha users' (patients) attitudes toward the Seha smartphone application during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative, grounded theory approach using thematic analysis of data collected through open-ended semi-structured interviews with seventeen residents of Jeddah. Three themes emerged – 1) COVID-19 and usage patterns, as Seha helped patients reduce person-to-person contact and usage increased, especially for emergencies; 2) ease of use and access, especially to approved doctors and reliable information; 3) time and cost savings, although it was also noted that these are more readily available to individuals and areas with access to sufficient internet infrastructure. Concerns were raised about technical issues or misdiagnoses when using Seha for emergency cases, as the platform may prove unsuitable. Traditional barriers to telehealth adoption seemed to be absent, but these may re-emerge when the immediate crisis is over. Further issues concerned the diminishment of the doctor-patient relationship, especially the lack of information on doctors' profiles, problems that may be experienced by older people, and lack of language variety. These lead to access problems that may be critical in a pandemic or emergency situation. Finally, the 'digital divide' may result in increased health inequality, and such an outcome must be avoided. The pandemic has shown telehealth applications like Seha to be a crucial tool in controlling infection rates, but the loss of face-to-face interaction with medical professionals, technical disparities, and access difficulties for certain groups may present problems for the Saudi health system unless they are taken into account and telehealth is carefully implemented into the system along with appropriate investment in infrastructure.


The detection and analysis of DNA polymorphisms in crops is an essential component of marker-assisted selection and cultivar identification in plant breeding. We have explored several molecular techniques which allow to detect a DNA polymorphism : isozymes, amplification of microsatellite interspaced DNA sequences (AMIS), random PCR amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and restriction fragment lenght polymorphism (RFLP). Number of problems in citrus breeding and systematics can be approached using these techniques : - molecular markers provide a more direct method to screen a large number of plants, at early development stages; - genetic origin identification (parental origin or nucellar/zygotic origin); - genetic linkage map construction to locate genes involved in the development of agronomically interesting characters; markers associated with these genes could then be used for early selection of progenies and possible progenitors for breeding programs; - in new breeding schemes employing somatic hybridization these molecular markers are essential to control the genetic composition of the vitroplantlets and calli arising from protoplast fusion. Presently, the microsatellite marker seems to be the more valuable tool in genetic studies and appears very promising in all breeding applications. (Resume d'auteur)


Stereochemical analysis has been performed for П-modules from the large set of non-homologous protein structures containing the OB-fold. That module consists of two β-strands connected by a loop and placed in different sheets in such a way which looks as Greek letter П. Total 70 non-homologous proteins at resolution not less than 2.5Å have been selected for the analysis from 265 suitable structures belonging to sixteen OB-fold super families. We have disclosed two types of П-modules: the fist with the connecting loop containing α-helix, and second one without helix. Entrance of protein chain into second β-sheet is carried out by the same arch with conformation βββαLβp. In most cases, 85 % of total, α-positions are occupied by glycine residue, while at entrance in the loop such residues are absent. Occupancy frequency of П-modules has been obtained in dependence on the loop length. Spatial pathway of structures of all modules are superimposed very well. Structural alignment of amino acid for П-module sequences allows us to determine the key positions of the hydrophobic, hydrophilic, and glycine residues.


Temporal networks play a crucial role in modeling temporal relations in planning and scheduling applications. Recently, several extensions of temporal networks were proposed to integrate non-temporal information such as resource consumption or logical dependencies. Temporal Networks with Alternatives were proposed to model alternative and parallel processes, however the problem of deciding which nodes can be consistently included in such networks is NPcomplete. In this paper we propose a tractable subclass of Temporal Networks with Alternatives that can still cover a wide range of real-life processes, while the problem of deciding node validity is solvable in polynomial time. We also present an algorithm that can effectively recognize whether a given network belongs to the proposed sub-class.


Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is an emerging method for analysis of metal nanoparticles in single cells. However, two main obstacles, low analytical throughput and lack of commercial reference materials need to be overcome. In this work, we demonstrated the principles of a new approach termed "single-cell isotope dilution analysis" (SCIDA) to remove the two obstacles. For a proof of concept, macrophage cells were chosen as a model to study the uptake of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) at a single cell level. Single cells exposed to AgNPs were placed in an array by a microfluidic technique; each cell in the array was precisely dispensed with a known picoliter droplet of enriched isotope solution with a commercial ink-jet printer; accurate quantification of AgNPs in single cells using by isotope dilution LA-ICP-MS. The average Ag mass of the 1100 single cells, 396 ± 219 fg Ag per cell, was in good accord with the average of the population of cells determined by solution ICP-MS analysis. The detection limit was 0.2 fg Ag per cell. The SCIDA approach is expected to be widely applied for the study of cell-NP interactions and biological effects of NPs at the single cell level.


In a criminal trial, a jury may observe characteristics about the defendant (or victim) and use them to form a belief on the likelihood of guilt. Many evidentiary rules attempt to limit this inference. If jury beliefs are rational, such rules may be counterproductive. Any prohibition on the use of defendant characteristics as a form of evidence will never simultaneously reduce conviction rates for the innocent and increase conviction rates for the guilty. In fact, the opposite will occur under plausible conditions. However, if juries are sufficiently biased in their beliefs about guilt rates within groups of defendants, an evidentiary rule may simultaneously reduce wrongful convictions and increase rightful convictions.


Thermistor is most widely used sensor in the temperature measurement due to its high sensitivity and fast response. The non-linearity of the thermistor gives rise to several difficulties for on-chip interface, direct digital readout, wireless transmission and so on. Hence, an effective lineariser is needed to overcome the difficulties. In this study, an artificial neural network-based lineariser has been developed for the thermistor connected in operational amplifier circuit. Operational amplifier-based thermistor signal conditioning circuit exhibits a stable temperature–voltage relation over a range of 0–100°C with low linearity. A multilayer perceptron feed-forward neural network is used for non-linearity compensation of thermistor circuit to further improve the linearity. A linearity of ±0.3% is achieved over 0–100°C with high temperature stability. A notable feature of the proposed method is the non-linearity error remains low over the entire dynamic range of the thermistor. The efficacy of the method is established through simulation studies and its practicality demonstrated with experimental results obtained on a prototype unit built and tested.


Abstract. This study investigates the characteristics of the quasi 16-day wave in the mesosphere during boreal winter 2011/2012 using observations of water vapor from ground-based microwave radiometers and satellite data. The ground-based microwave radiometers are located in Seoul (South Korea, 37° N), Bern (Switzerland, 47° N) and Sodankyla (Finland, 67° N). The quasi 16-day wave is observed in the mesosphere at all three locations, while the dominant period increases with latitude from 15 days at Seoul to 20 days at Sodankyla. The observed evolution of the quasi 16-day wave confirms that the wave activity is strongly decreased during a sudden stratospheric warming that occurred in mid-January 2012. Using satellite data from the Microwave Limb Sounder on the Aura satellite, we examine the zonal characteristics of the quasi 16-day wave and conclude that the observed waves above the midlatitudinal stations Seoul and Bern are eastward-propagating s = −1 planetary waves with periods of 15 to 16 days, while the observed oscillation above the polar station Sodankyla is a standing wave with a period of approximately 20 days. The strongest relative wave amplitudes in water vapor during the investigated time period are approximately 15%. The wave activity varies strongly along a latitude circle. The activity of the quasi 16-day wave in mesospheric water vapor during boreal winter 2011/2012 is strongest over northern Europe, the North Atlantic Ocean and northwestern Canada. The region of highest wave activity seems to be related to the position of the polar vortex. We conclude that the classic approach to characterize planetary waves zonally averaged along a latitude circle is not sufficient to explain the local observations because of the strong longitudinal dependence of the wave activity.


Changes in the hemostasis system in choledocholithiasis, taking into account the obturation jaundice severity and possibility of the correction conduction, using miniinvasive operative interventions, were studied. Dynamic of changes in the hemostasis system in patients preoperatively, in 1 and 3 days after endoscopic papillosphincterotomy were monitored, using the method of a low--rate piezoelectric thromboelastography. Basing on analysis of the results, the changes in hemostasis in obturation jaundice were classified, taking into account its degree of severity, what have permitted to select a correct tactics for prophylaxis of hemorrhagic complications intraoperatively and postoperatively.


Salminus brasiliensis is a potamodromous fish species that occurs in southern South American rivers. In spite of its ecological and economic relevance, information regarding the reproductive biology of S. brasiliensis is still scarce. This study used data from 18 years of continuous sampling in the Upper Uruguay River Basin, analyzing 718 adult fish (307 males, 243 females, 168 undefined) captured at different months of the year. The results showed that the reproductive timing for S. brasiliensis is wide in the Upper Uruguay River, with the occurrence of mature fish between the month of August and March and spawned individuals between July and May of the next year. These results were sustained by the increase of gonadal somatic relationship (GSR) from August. The reproductive timing of S. brasiliensis in the Upper Uruguay River may start between the middle winter and early spring (from late July to late September), and may extend until the late summer and middle fall (from the middle February to early May). These findings contribute to information on the general biology of S. brasiliensis and provide valuable knowledge to management programs and to conservation efforts of this fisheries resource.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Introduction - Targeting breast cancer (BC) via its microenvironment is a way to avoid tumor plasticity and development of resistance towards therapy. Bisphosphonates (BPs) are used to treat BC bone metastases. Prior studies suggest that BPs also exert an anti tumor effect by interacting with the microenvironment. However, the precise nature of this interaction is unclear. The chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay allows assessment of both human BC and microenvironment cells, circumventing issues of species specificity.

Aim - 1) evaluate whether an indirect anti-BC effect by BPs, can be determined using the CAM assay 2) Assess potential biomarkers for this intervention.

Methods - MTT survival assays were performed to assess a differential effect of BP zoledronic acid (ZA) on survival of human BC cell lines (MCF-7, SUM149 and MDA-MB-231 progeny cell line SCP2) and human stromal cell line Hs27a. For biomarker analysis, excretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A and Transforming Growth Factor (TGF) β was measured in the supernatant of Hs27a and MCF-7 cultures and co-cultures treated with ZA by Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assays (ELISA). The CAM assay was used to study the effect of ZA on a co-culture system of BC- and stromal cells. SCP2 cells were inoculated on the CAM with and without Hs27a cells on day 6 of embryonic development. ZA (200 μM) or PBS was added on the CAM on day 10 and tumors were harvested at day 14. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for pan-cytokeratin was performed to identify BC cells in the tumors.

Results - ZA (4 days continuous incubation) did not induce a direct anti BC effect in vitro (IC50>100 μM), but strongly affected stromal cell survival (IC50 8 μM). ZA treatment decreased TGFβ excretion by Hs27a cells dose dependently (ZA 10, 50, 100 or 500 μM for 48 hours) from 538±63 pg/ml (control) to 446±57 (ns), 285±98 (p<.01), 198±47 (p<.01) and 186±60 pg/ml (p<.001). In the co-culture, ZA (10, 50, 100 or 500 μM for 48 hours) also decreased TGFβ excretion dose dependently from 625±60 pg/ml (control) to 613±33 (ns), 535±83 (ns), 389±48 (p<.01) and 244±55 (p<.001) pg/ml. No TGFβ secretion by sole MCF-7 cells was detectable (<0±60 pg/ml). ZA had no effect on VEGF-A excretion by BC or stromal cells. On the CAM, co-cultures were sensitive to ZA treatment (73±8.27 vs 32±13.15 mm3 (p<.001)), whereas BC cells without stromal cells were resistant to ZA (tumor size: 22±14.35 vs 33±15 mm3 (ns)). In the co-cultures, tumor cell percentage evaluated by IHC tended to be smaller in the ZA treated group compared to control (31±15 vs 12±5 (ns)).

Conclusion - Effects of therapeutic interventions on tumors by microenvironment modulation can be studied using the CAM assay. Our data suggest an indirect anti-BC effect of ZA in vivo via stromal cells in the BC microenvironment. This is accompanied by decreased TGFβ excretion, which may therefore function as biomarker for ZA treatment effect.

Supported by Dutch Cancer Society grant RUG 2010-4739

Citation Format: Hilde H. Nienhuis, Marlous Arjaans, Hetty Timmer-Bosscha, Elisabeth G.E. de Vries, Carolina P. Schroder. Targeting a breast cancer xenograft by modulation of the microenvironment with zoledronic acid. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4950. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4950


Data generation system comprises the game indicative of an operating time with the object 60, based on the sequence data 80 is used as data indicative of the operation time, for each of the touch operation of the game, the sequence data 80 object corresponding to one operation period and the art one particular operation specifies a time (85S), and the specific operation when the time between the next operation timing of which is less than a predetermined value for the operation time (85S) contained in the ( 60), generating a specific operation when the art (85S) before the operation of all the display start time information to set up an early stage add additional sequence data (80c) with respect to the.


Objective To compare the perspectives of medical students in the preclinical and clinical phases of medical training on the issue of rationing scarce medical resources in times of crisis. Methods Questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. Results A total of 201 participants took part in the study, with 100 participants in the preclinical phase group, and 101 in the clinical phase group. A multivariable analysis found that just 14.9% (n = 34) of the clinical phase students were willing to give a short-supplied blood unit to the first-arrived patient to the emergency department when more patients are expected compared to 63.9% in the preclinical group (n = 62) (p < 0.001, OR = 0.75 95% CI: 0.029−0.192). Seventy-four percent (n = 74) of the clinical phase students were found to be willing to remove a patient from a respirator to allocate it to an ill child compared to 35.7% (n = 35) in the preclinical phase group (p < 0.001, OR = 4.168 95% CI: 1.931−8.998). Of the clinical phase group, 46.6% (n = 41) were willing to allocate a short supplied flu medicine to a patient with poor prognosis compared to 57.7% (n = 56) in the preclinical phase group (p = 0.04, OR = 0.457 95% CI: 0.216−0.966). Conclusion Clinical exposure during training may affect the way medical students make ethical decisions, independent of age, sex, as well as marital and parental status.


Introduction: The pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has seriously disturbed the daily life of the general population particularly the life of the pregnant women. Since the obstetricians and gynecologists (OBGYN) are often the primary health care providers during pregnancy, hence the importance of their critical role in preventing and managing COVID-19 infection in their patients.Objectives: This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of OBGYN in order to identify existing gaps and to improve patient and occupational safety.Methods: A cross-sectional study, using an online survey, was conducted during the rapid rise of COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon over the period extending between 20th October and 20th November 2020 among Lebanese OBGYNs. The analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Data collected is subjected to descriptive analysis. A good level of knowledge was defined when the percentage of correct answers reaches more than 80% of the respondents.Results: A total of 279 OBGYNs participated in the survey of which 57% were males. The majority of them (64.2%) were aged more than 45 years, married (79.9%) with large work experience (70.3%). Only 28.3% were reluctant to take care of COVID-19 patient. Most of them feared of contracting COVID-19 or transmitting COVID-19 to their family member due to occupational exposure and 42.3% felt overwhelmed. 62.7% of them considered that policies implemented by the ministry of public health are sufficient. The majority of OBGYNs had a good level of knowledge in different basic and specific domains related to COVID-19 and pregnancy. Furthermore, a good practice score in all relevant aspects (personal, clinic and patient) was revealed.Conclusion: The high knowledge and practice scores, among Lebanese OBGYNs disclose a strong commitment from the part of these physicians to fulfill their responsibilities during this pandemic towards themselves and their patients.


The paper describes the device for measuring the normal- reflection birefringence with using of the compensation method. The suggested scheme may be used for research of optical anisotropy in optical recording disks, inner stress in transparent solid body, birefringence of crystals and for the measuring of temperature, pressure, electrical and magnetic field strength.


We report a self-assisted optothermal trapping and patterning of gold nanorods (GNRs) on glass surfaces with a femtosecond laser. We show that GNRs are not only the trapping targets, but also can enhance the optothermal trapping of other particles. This trapping phenomenon is the net result of thermophoresis and a convective flow caused by localized heating. The heating is due to the conversion of absorbed photons into heat at GNR's longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength. First, we investigated the optothermal trapping of GNRs at their LSPR wavelength on the glass surface with as low as 0.5 mW laser power. The trapping range was observed to be larger than a typical field of view, e.g. 210 µm  ×  210 µm here. Second, by adjusting the distance between the laser focus and the glass surface, ring patterns of GNRs on the glass surface were obtained. These patterns could be controlled by the laser power and the numerical aperture of the microscope objective. Moreover, we examined the spectral emission of GNRs under different trapping conditions using the spectral phasor approach to reveal the temperature and association status of GNRs. Our study will help understanding manipulation of flows in solution and in biological systems that can be applied in future investigations of GNR-induced heating and flows.


1 MOTIVATION Driven by novel 5G use cases like ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) and massive machine-type communication (mMTC), as well as the strife for higher data rates in enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), researchers and engineers evaluate the applicability of new concepts and technologies for future wireless communication systems. Figure 1 provides an overview of the typical life cycle for such a development process. In the beginning, researchers develop a vast number of new ideas. The most promising proposals are then evaluated with the help of extensive software simulations. The network simulator ns-3 [1] is a very well established tool in this area. One important purpose of the simulations is to guide a downselection of concepts and technologies, which are worth spending the e ort of implementation on hardware-accellerated software de ned radio (SDR) platforms. This step is supported by IP like the NI LTE Application Framework [2]. The evaluation of algorithms and compoments in practice and in real-time then allows to identify useful technology to be further evaluated in testbeds can provide end-to-end connectivity. We are proposing a platform that allows make the next step and engage in this stage of the development process. New concepts and technologies that have been proven to work in practice will ultimately nd their way into new standards and lastly, industry will adopt them in future products. The presented system combines an open-source LTE stack and core network, i.e., the LTE EPC Network Simulator (LENA) model in network simulator ns-3, with an FPGA-based real-time implementation of LTE Layer 1, i.e., the NI LTE Application Framework. The resulting platform is a building block for testbeds which assist the design of 5G radio interface and network architecture. It facillitates the prototyping of end-to-end applications, that include


The need to reform the way in which research is undertaken is clear, with reducing research bureaucracy and waste at the forefront of this issue for the UK government, funding organisations, higher education institutions and wider research community. The aim of this study was to describe researchers' experiences of the time, effort and burden involved in funding processes–namely applying for research funding and fulfilling reporting requirements. This was an in-depth qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with researchers who had experience applying for funding and/or completing reporting requirements for a UK health and social care research funder between January 2018 and June 2021. Following thematic analysis, five key themes were identified describing researcher experiences of key issues around time, efforts and burden associated with funding processes. These themes encompassed (1) issues with the current funding model for health and social care research, (2) time and effort involved in funding processes, (3) the need for a streamlined end-to-end process, (4) implications for work-life balance, and (5) addressing the need for better support and communication. The findings from this study describe researcher experiences of tasks in the research pathway that currently take considerable time and effort. It was clear that whilst some of this time and effort is considered necessary, some is exacerbated by inefficient and ineffective processes, such as perceived under-funding of research or lack of clarity with regards to funder expectations. This in turn contributes to unnecessary researcher burden, research waste and negative research culture. Better investment in health and social care research and in the researchers themselves who design and deliver the research, alongside improvements in transparency, streamlining and research support could ensure a more positive research culture, and improve the quality of funded research.


Chloroquine (7-chloro-4-[[4-(diethylamino)-1-methylbutyl]amino]quinoline; CQ) accumulates in the insoluble fraction of rat muscle homogenates with an equilibrium distribution ratio of 7.8 L/kg. This is of a similar magnitude to muscle:plasma ratios observed in vivo. Uptake is approximately linear, even up to concentrations of free CQ greatly exceeding toxic plasma levels. Cell structural integrity is not essential for uptake, indicating that CQ is bound to tissue constituents and not trapped inside cells by an active process. At pH 7.4, binding of ionized CQ at anionic sites on tissue predominates over lipid partitioning of the un-ionized species. Binding to phospholipids is a major component of total muscle binding.


This article by Mr. Stephen Murphy was first published in the Gandhian journal Vigil in the year 1998. The material given here has been mobilized after painstaking research and is of permanent worth. The editor of Vigil had described it as labour of love. We are reproducing it here as the month of January is the month of martyrdom of the Mahatma


The activity of human liver microsomal cytochrome P4502D6 (CYP2D6) is readily estimated by following the O-demethylation of [O-methyl-14C]dextromethorphan. The basis of the assay is the quantitative measurement of [14C]formaldehyde (0.05-4.0 microM) after addition of NaOH to the microsomal incubates and extraction with methylene chloride. The assay is relatively simple, sensitive (limit of detection is approximately 5.0 pmol HCHO/h/mg microsomal protein) and does not require the use of HPLC or an internal standard. Formation of radiolabeled formaldehyde in human liver microsomes is linear for 20 min, up to a final protein concentration of 1.0 mg/ml. Furthermore, the O-demethylase activity in a panel of microsomes prepared from a series of human livers was significantly correlated with the immunochemically determined levels of CYP2D6 protein (r = 0.925, p < 0.001), and was inhibited (> 89%) by quinidine and lobeline. In addition, [O-methyl-14C]-dextromethorphan O-demethylation was exclusively catalyzed by cDNA-expressed CYP2D6 in microsomes prepared from human B-lymphoblast cells. The method is suitable for rapid screening of compounds as potential CYP2D6 cosubstrates and/or inhibitors.


This paper proposes a battery charger solution based on the Zeta DC/DC converter to provide a general interface between batteries and microgrid direct current (DC) buses. This solution enables to interface batteries and DC buses with voltage conversion ratios lower, equal, and higher than one using the same components and without redesigning the control system, thus ensuring global stability. The converter controller is designed to require only the measurement of a single inductor current, instead of both inductors currents, without reducing the system flexibility and stability. The controller stability is demonstrated using the sliding-mode theory, and a design procedure for the parameters is developed to ensure a desired bus performance. Finally, simulations and experiments validate the performance of the proposed solution under realistic operation conditions.


Benchmarking storage systems at scale can be challenging, Within the realm of big data, performance stands out as a significant challenge. Proper storage and maintenance of big data are crucial in order to guarantee accessibility, achieve cost savings, enhance risk management, and gain a deeper comprehension of customer needs. This paper addresses the challenges faced in managing extensive and rapidly growing data volumes and to place importance on maintaining optimal storage performance. The SBK framework is containerized and vendor-neutral, making it easy to use and deploy. A software benchmarking framework designed to evaluate the performance of any storage system inclusive of all types data/payload. This paper demonstrates the use of SBK in benchmarking and to highlight the relevance of benchmark testing in evaluating the storage performance. SBK aims to provide transparency and ease of use for benchmarking purposes. This framework functions correctly with different hardware configurations, operating systems, and software environments.


A hybrid wind instrument is constructed by connecting a theoretical excitation model (such as a real-time computed physical model of a single-reed mouthpiece) to a loudspeaker and a microphone which are placed at the entrance of a wind instrument resonator (a clarinet-like tube in our case). The successful construction of a hybrid wind instrument, and the evaluation with a single-reed physical model, has been demonstrated in previous work [1, 2]. In the present paper, inspired by the analogy between the principal oscillation mechanisms of wind instruments and bowed string instruments, we introduce the stick-slip mechanism of a bow-string interaction model (the hyperbolic model with absorbed torsional waves) to the hybrid wind instrument set-up. Firstly, a dimensionless and reduced parameter form of this model is proposed, which reveals the (dis-)similarities with the single-reed model. Just as with the single-reed model, the hybrid sounds generated with the bow-string interaction model are close to the sounds predicted by a complete simulation of the instrument. However, the hybrid instrument is more easily destabilised for high bowing forces. The bow-string interaction model leads to the production of some raucous sounds (characteristic to bowed-string instruments, for low bowing speeds) which represents the main perceived timbral difference between it and the single-reed model. Another apparent timbral difference is the odd/even harmonics ratio, which spans a larger range for the single-reed model. Nevertheless, for both models most sound descriptors are found within the same range for a (stable) variety of input parameters so that the differences in timbre remain relatively low. This is supported by the similarity of both excitation models and by empirical tests with other, more dynamic excitation models.


We propose data-dependent test statistics based on a one-dimensional witness function, which we call witness two-sample tests (WiTS tests). We first optimize the witness function by maximizing an asymptotic test-power objective and then use as the test statistic the difference in means of the witness evaluated on two held-out test samples. When the witness function belongs to a reproducing kernel Hilbert space, we show that the optimal witness is given via kernel Fisher discriminant analysis, whose solution we compute in closed form. We show that the WiTS test based on a characteristic kernel is consistent against any fixed alternative. Our experiments demonstrate that the WiTS test can achieve higher test power than existing two-sample tests with optimized kernels, suggesting that learning a highor infinitedimensional representation of the data may not be necessary for two-sample testing. The proposed procedure works beyond kernel methods, allowing practitioners to apply it within their preferred machine learning framework.


Using a realistic ten-orbital tight-binding model Hamiltonian fitted to the angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) data on LiFeAs, we analyze the temperature, frequency, and momentum dependencies of quasiparticle interference (QPI) to identify gap sign changes in a qualitative way, following our original proposal [Phys. Rev. B 92, 184513 (2015)]. We show that all features present for the simple two-band model for the sign-changing $s_{+-}$-wave superconducting gap employed previously are still present in the realistic tight-binding approximation and gap values observed experimentally. We discuss various superconducting gap structures proposed for LiFeAs, and identify various features of these superconducting gaps functions in the quasiparticle interference patterns. On the other hand, we show that it will be difficult to identify the more complicated possible sign structures of the hole pocket gaps in LiFeAs, due to the smallness of the pockets and the near proximity of two of the gap energies.


This article presents information drawn from research on brain processes that impact perception, memory, learning, and understandings about the world. This information is related to the use of interactive video and the Web in distance education through a discussion of how best to enhance learning or mitigate problems caused through the use of these technologies.


One writing program administrator (WPA) is convinced that writing program administration constitutes, for the most part, "intellectual work," and that this intellectual work develops a specific kind of understanding that is particularly valuable to those who possess it. WPAs mediate daily between theory, practice, institutional necessities, and personal needs and values, and this can result in a particular kind of intellectual insight. This particular WPA finds that her 12 years of work have transformed the way she reads and analyzes texts and made her acutely conscious of how texts work in the world and how the writing of texts affects writers' lives. She has adapted rhetorical analysis to negotiate between the text, the world, and the writer in ways she would not have imagined a decade and a half ago. Her textual research has dealt with life writing. Her studies of exploration narratives and in particular her research on the papers of Elizabeth Agassiz investigate how genres of nonfiction like biography and exploration narratives were produced, how they have functioned in the institutional or professional contexts in which they circulated, and how they have positioned their authors as professionals. Agassiz's work on the biography of her husband, Louis Agassiz, suggests that developing this academic voice and academic presence was a good thing for her. Theorizing her own experiences with writing program administration has led this particular WPA to think about and shape her writing programs--WPAs know that programs are not developed, courses are not taught, and ideas are not generated without resting at least one foot in theory and one foot in this unofficial underbed of talk, feedback, and gossip. (NKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.


The transport of liquids, vapours and gases through polymer blends is of fundamental importance, and provides not only a valuable means for the characterization of blends, but also plays a vital role in a variety of barrier applications. The characteristic transport phenomena across polymer materials have been discussed. Natural rubber, its blends and interpenetrating networks (IPNs) have been discussed briefly so as to place it in context with the preceding chapter on transport studies. The transport properties of various natural rubber based blends and IPNs have been presented. Factors that affect the transport of liquids, vapours and gases through natural rubber blends and IPNs have been identified, and include the blend composition, miscibility, phase morphology, nature of penetrant molecules, the crosslink density, pressure, and temperature. The effects of these factors on the transport process have been highlighted. The equilibrium sorption of a vapour by natural rubber based blends is utilized in applications such as the separation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in vapour recovery from contaminated air. Similarly, the transport of gases through natural rubber based blends is an area of growing interest, with materials having unique transport properties being used in new, specialized applications. The effects of the presence of absorbed penetrant molecules on the properties of natural rubber based blends and IPNs are also discussed.


Background and Purpose— Brain iron overload plays a detrimental role in brain injury after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). A recent study found that minocycline acts as an iron chelator and reduces iron-induced neuronal death in vitro. The present study investigated if minocycline reduces iron overload after ICH and iron-induced brain injury in vivo. Methods— This study was divided into 4 parts: (1) rats with different sizes of ICH were euthanized 3 days later for serum total iron and brain edema determination; (2) rats had an ICH treated with minocycline or vehicle. Serum iron, brain iron, and brain iron handling proteins were measured; (3) rats had an intracaudate injection of saline, iron, iron+minocycline, or iron+macrophage/microglia inhibitory factor and were used for brain edema and neuronal death measurements; and (4) rats had an intracaudate injection of iron and were treated with minocycline. The brains were used for edema measurement. Results— After ICH, serum total iron and brain nonheme iron increased and these changes were reduced by minocycline treatment. Minocycline also reduced ICH-induced upregulation of brain iron handling proteins and neuronal death. Intracaudate injection of iron caused brain edema, blood–brain barrier leakage, and brain cell death, all of which were significantly reduced by coinjection with minocycline. Conclusions— The current study found that minocycline reduces iron overload after ICH and iron-induced brain injury. It is also well known minocycline is an inhibitor of microglial activation. Minocycline may be very useful for patients with ICH because both iron accumulation and microglia activation contribute to brain damage after ICH.


The development of research-based learning proliferates throughout the world, and it depicts the growth of an academic article's publication globally. To strengthen the paper's quality, particularly in Indonesia, the students need a guideline on writing an academic article. This qualitative and quantitative research would portray the needs analysis in developing a research-based textbook in academic writing. Fifty students and thirty lecturers were involved in the interview, documentation, and survey. The result shows that the skills needed to accommodate are referencing skills, writing the research's significance, and writing the conclusion. This study also suggested nine units of an Academic Writing Textbook needed by the students to produce a good article, namely  Introduction to Academic Article Writing, Strategies in avoiding plagiarism, Writing an introduction, writing a literature review, writing a research method, Presenting Findings and Discussion, Writing a conclusion, Tips on Referencing, choosing the title, and writing an abstract. These findings strengthen the previous studies, which states writing a conclusion of an academic article is challenging, particularly in the English Language Teaching context.


A review of some assumptions made in .the developm-nt and implementation of a bilingual-bicultural curriculum for Navajo students in the early primary grades is presented. The curriculum set out to develop and expand the students° abilities for learning, teaching them how to learn, so they could cope with change. It set out to sensitize them to the two cultures, so that they could cope with both; it also set out to structure what the teachers taught and to generalize how they taught, so that the students could cope with the school situation. The basic heuristic of the curriculum is to find the inherent and make them pervasive like growing veins in the organism. It is what the curriculum considers inherent and what the curriculum has done with the inherent that will chaill'acterize the assumptions reviewed in this paper. These assumptions include: (1) Randomization of pupil participation assures individual attention for all members of the class; (2) Teaching technique affects learning ability; and (3) Teacher-student ratio affect learning progress. (Author/CK) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OP EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED EROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU CATION POSI TION OR POLICY ASSUMPTIONS FOR BILINGUAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY GRADES OF NAVAJO SCHOOLS


Background It has previously been found that the majority of patients with rheumatoid arthritis or seronegative spondylarthritis consult rheumatologists long after their disease onset; therefore, both correct diagnosis and treatment are delayed1,2. The reasons for this delay are unknown. Objectives To assess the level of awareness of the rheumatic diseases in the general population using as criteria i) the knowledge of which system or organs are mainly affected by rheumatic diseases, and) ii) the estimation of the study participants regarding the level of the public education on these diseases. Methods This phone survey was conducted on a randomly selected sample of 3910 adults (≥19 yrs old)in urban, suburban and rural areas in northern, central and southern Greece. The study was based on a standardized questionnaire aiming to reveal i) the level of public awareness regarding which system or organs are mainly affected by rheumatic diseases, and ii) the level of public education on rheumatic diseases on the basis of responses to the question: Do you consider that the level of public education on rheumatic diseases is: nonexistent, minimal, sufficient or high? Results From the 3910 subjects, 3433 (mean age 55.1±16.7 yrs, median 56 yrs, women 75.3%) participated in the study (response rate 87.8%). Of these subjects 2445 were healthy and 988 (28,8%) were patients with non-traumatic pain involving their joints, back or neck. The level of awareness of the rheumatic diseases was very low, since only 13.3% of the study participants considered that these diseases affect mainly the musculoskeletal system or joints. The level of awareness was significantly higher among women (14.4%) compared to men (10%) (p<0.001) as well as in the 19-55 age group (15%) compared to the group aged ≥56 (11.6%) (p=0.004). The percentages of patients who had consulted rheumatologists for non-traumatic pain in their joints, back or neck were significantly higher among those who knew that rheumatic diseases affect the musculoskeletal system or joints (68.4%, 22.7%, 48.4%, respectively) than among those who did not have this knowledge (5.8%, 0.4%, 1.6%, respectively) (p<0.0001 for all comparisons). Public education on rheumatic diseases was considered as nonexistent by 47.1% of the study participants, minimal by 47.5%, sufficient by 5.1% and high by 0.3%. The level of nonexistent public education increased with age from 37.3% in the 19-29 age group to 55% in the group aged ≥70 (p<0.0001). In contrast, the level of minimal public education decreased with age from 56% in the 19-29 age group to 40.2% in the group aged ≥70 (p<0.0001). The level of public education was also significantly correlated with the living location (data not shown). Conclusions The findings of this study suggest that the level of public awareness of rheumatic diseases is very low and it leads to the delayed visit of patients with such diseases to rheumatologists. Moreover, public education on rheumatic diseases is minimal to nonexistent. For these reasons and since rheumatic diseases constitute a major public health problem3, a program for systematic education of the public at a national level on rheumatic diseases is highly needed. References Andrianakos A et al Rheumatology 2006;45:1549-1554 Trontzas P et al Clin Rheumatol 2005;24:583-589 Andrianakos A et al Rheumatology 2005;44:932-938 Disclosure of Interest None Declared


We address a three-tier data-driven approach to solve the inverse problem in complex systems modelling from spatio-temporal data produced by microscopic simulators using machine learning. In the first step, we exploit manifold learning and in particular parsimonious Diffusion Maps using leaveone-out cross-validation (LOOCV) to both identify the intrinsic dimension of the manifold where the emergent dynamics evolve and for feature selection over the parametric space. In the second step, based on the selected features, we learn the right-hand-side of the effective partial differential equations (PDEs) using two machine learning schemes, namely shallow Feedforward Neural Networks (FNNs) with two hidden layers and single-layer Random Projection Networks(RPNNs) which basis functions are constructed using an appropriate random sampling approach. Finally, based on the learned black-box PDE model, we construct the corresponding bifurcation diagram, thus exploiting the numerical bifurcation analysis toolkit. For our illustrations, we implemented the proposed method to construct the one-parameter bifurcation diagram of the 1D FitzHugh-Nagumo PDEs from ∗corresponding author: email@example.com Constructing coarse-scale bifurcation diagrams from data Galaris et al. data generated by D1Q3 Lattice Boltzmann simulations. The proposed method was quite effective in terms of numerical accuracy regarding the construction of the coarse-scale bifurcation diagram. Furthermore, the proposed RPNN scheme was ∼ 20 to 30 times less costly regarding the training phase than the traditional shallow FNNs, thus arising as a promising alternative to deep learning for solving the inverse problem for high-dimensional PDEs.


The outcome of SIR epidemics with heterogeneous infective lifetimes, or heterogeneous susceptibilities, can be mapped onto a directed percolation process on the underlying contact network. In this paper we study SIR models where heterogeneity is a result of the degree dependence of disease transmission rates. We develop numerical methods to determine the epidemic threshold, the epidemic probability and epidemic size close to the threshold for configuration model contact networks with arbitrary degree distribution and an arbitrary matrix of transmission rates (dependent on transmitting and receiving node degree). For the special case of separable transmission rates we obtain analytical expressions for these quantities. We propose a categorization of spreading processes based on the ratio of the probability of an epidemic and the expected size of an epidemic, and demonstrate that this ratio has a complex dependence on the degree distribution and the degree-dependent transmission rates. For scale-free contact networks and transmission rates that are power functions of transmitting and receiving node degrees, the epidemic threshold may be finite even when the degree distribution powerlaw exponent is below γ < 3. We give an expression, in terms of the degree distribution and transmission rate exponents, for the limit at which the epidemic threshold vanishes. We find that the expected epidemic size and the probability of an epidemic may grow nonlinearly above the epidemic threshold, with exponents that depend not only on the degree distribution powerlaw exponent, but on the parameters of the transmission rate degree dependence functions, in contrast to ordinary directed percolation and previously studied variations of the SIR model.


Indirect branch prediction is likely to become more important in the future because indi rect branches tend to be more frequent in object-oriented programs. With indirect branch prediction misprediction rates of around 25% on current processors, such branches can incur a significant fraction of branch misses even though indirect branches are less frequent than the more predictable conditional branches. We investigate the predictability of indirect branches to determine whether the inferior accuracy of the current indirect branch prediction mechanism (branch target buffers) results from an intrinsic unpredictability of indirect branches or is caused by suboptimal branch prediction hardware. Using programs from the SPECint95 suite as well as a suite of C++ applications, we show that prediction accuracy can exceed 95% on average for these benchmarks, assuming an unlimited hardware budget. This result suggests that better indirect branch prediction hard ware can significantly outperform current branch target buffers.


A mutant designated NL-E65, which lacks the expression of entire vpu gene, was constructed from T-cell tropic wild-type (wt) human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) clone and monitored for its replication property in human cells, along with a mutant NL-Ss which expresses a C-terminal truncated Vpu. The mutant NL-Ss could grow in two cell lines and in all peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) preparations to some extent, with kinetics similar to those of wt virus. Likewise, the mutant NL-E65 exhibited a replication property typical to the vpu mutant in the two cell lines and in all PBMC cultures, growing at a low level. Along with the results previously reported, these data indicate that HIV-1 Vpu is dispensable for virus replication in any of the types of cells so far tested.


There is argument whether non-sedative properties of histamine H1-receptor antagonists (antihistamines) are determined by their active extrusions from the brain via P-glycoprotein or their restricted penetration through the blood-brain barrier. We have reported that sedative and non-sedative antihistamines can be well discriminated by measuring changes in their binding to H1 receptors upon receptor internalization in intact cells, which depends on their membrane-penetrating ability. In this study, molecular determinants responsible for sedative and non-sedative properties of antihistamines were evaluated by quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analyses. Multiple regression analyses were applied to construct a QSAR model, taking internalization-mediated changes in the binding of antihistamines as objective variables and their structural descriptors as explanatory variables. The multiple regression model was successfully constructed with two explanatory variables, i.e., lipophilicity of the compounds at physiological pH (logD) and mean information content on the distance degree equality (IDDE) (r(2) = 0.753). The constructed model discriminated between sedative and non-sedative antihistamines with 94% accuracy for external validation. These results suggest that logD and IDDE concerning lipophilicity and molecular shapes of compounds, respectively, predominantly determine the membrane-penetrating ability of antihistamines for their side effects on the central nervous system.


Even if measuring the outcome of binary classifications is a pivotal task in machine learning and statistics, no consensus has been reached yet about which statistical rate to employ to this end. In the last century, the computer science and statistics communities have introduced several scores summing up the correctness of the predictions with respect to the ground truth values. Among these scores, the Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) was shown to have several advantages over confusion entropy, accuracy, F1 score, balanced accuracy, bookmaker informedness, markedness, and diagnostic odds ratio: MCC, in fact, produces a high score only if the majority of the predicted negative data instances and the majority of the positive data instances are correct, and therefore it results being very trustworthy on imbalanced datasets. In this study, we compare MCC with two other popular scores: Cohen's Kappa, a metric that originated in social sciences, and the Brier score, a strictly proper scoring function which emerged in weather forecasting studies. After explaining the mathematical properties and the relationships between MCC and each of these two rates, we report some use cases where these scores generate different values, which lead to discordant outcomes, where MCC provides a more truthful and informative result. We highlight the reasons why it is more advisable to use MCC rather that Cohen's Kappa and the Brier score to evaluate binary classifications.


Abstract Aim The purpose of this study is to introduce a new approach to assess the dosimetry quality of photon beam with energy and irradiation field size. This approach is based on percentage depth dose (PDD) fragmentation for investigating the dosimetry quality. Materials and methods For the investigation of the dosimetry quality of 6 and 18 MV photon beams, we have proceeded to fragment the PDD at different field sizes. This approach checks the overall PDD and is not restricted to the exponential decay regions, as per the International Atomic Energy Agency Technical Reports Series No 398 and the American Association of Physicist in Medicine Task Group 51 recommendations. Results and discussion The 6 MV photon beam deposited more energy in the target volume than the 18 MV photon beam. The dose delivered by the 6 MV beam is greater by a factor of 1·5 than that delivered by the 18 MV beam in the build-up region and the dose delivered by the 6 MV beam is greater by a factor of 2·6 than that delivered by the 18 MV beam in the electronic equilibrium and the exponential decay regions. Conclusion The dose measured at different points of the beam is higher for 6 MV than for 18 MV photon beam. Therefore, the 6 MV beam is more dosimetrically efficient than the 18 MV beam. Using the proposed approach, we can assess the dosimetry quality by taking into account overall PDD not only in the exponential decay region but also in the field.


Per capita carbon emissions are an important concept in international negotiations of climate policies and also in future projections of aggregate carbon emissions. This paper argues that the convergence studies on per capita carbon emissions in the literature are theoretically biased because demographic structure is not considered. The paper therefore links demographic change to carbon convergence analysis and examines historical convergence of per capita carbon emissions for a global sample of countries over the period of 1960-2014. The results show that although demographic structure does not change the existence of carbon convergence, the growth of worker shares is significant in most estimations in this paper, and it also affects the estimates of the convergence speed. The time period of empirical analysis also matters for the convergence results. The paper further extends the IPAT identity by introducing demographic structure as well as economic and energy structure, and argues that the convergence of per capita carbon emissions depends on the convergence of each component, and each component may converge within different time horizons. The paper proposes that emissions rights should be allocated across countries based on a mix of long-term, medium-term and short-term rules.


Seedlessness is a major objective in Morocco Citrus improvement programme. Triploidy has played an important role in the development of new seedless mandarin cultivars for fresh fruit market and has received increasing attention for the consumers. Citrus triploid hybrids can be recovered through 2x x 2x taking advantage of the unreduced (2n) gametes formation. 2x x 4x and 4x x 2x sexual hybridizations are also widely exploited. In that case, many series of diploid crosses were assessed. At maturity, the fruits have been harvested, and small embryos were extracted from undeveloped seed and cultured on the medium of Murashig and Skoog supplemented with 1mg/l gibberellic acid according. Triploids seedling selected by flow cytometry analysis were budded on Troyer citrange and planted in INRA domain with spacing 6 m X 3 m. Two new seedless selections of mandarins have been evaluated in a citrus breeding program at Morocco INRA: Hana and Aya that were compared with their female parent clementine Sidi Aissa. These promising seedless mandarins were identified by easy-peeling, juicy fruits, have a pleasant taste and are sweet like the Sidi Aissa Clementine. These clones, showing commercial interest, were described and registered in Moroccan official catalogue. Triploidy confirmed its importance in obtaining seedless hybrids. This study is significant because it is the first triploids Citrus selection work in Menzeh INRA in Morocco. We found considerable differences most of the pomological characteristics. To make an objective comparison of fruit quality, precocity, and yield of these selected genotypes, they all need to be grown using many rootstocks, soils, climates, and cultural practices. Adaptation studies will also be required for the selected mandarins triploids. Therefore, selected in the first stage of selection should be studied in the second stage of selection.


Serum prolactin levels and milk yield were studied in 27 puerperae with excessive milk production (polygalactia) and compared with 30 normally lactating puerperae. In order to normalize polygalactia, 14 of these women were treated with 2.5 mg bromocriptine per day for 3 days starting on post-partum day 5, 13 women received placebo. Milk flow in polygalactic women started significantly earlier than in puerperae with normal milk yield and developed mean milk volumes of 816 g per day on post-partum day 4. Serum prolactin levels did not differ from levels of puerperae with normal milk yield. There was no correlation between serum prolactin and milk yield. Bromocriptine treatment resulted in a sharp but reversible decline of serum prolactin levels followed by a significant reduction of milk production. Bromocriptine could not be detected in milk specimens, while serum levels showed significant amounts. In placebo treated women prolactin levels and milk yield remained unaffected. These data indicate that serum prolactin concentrations of puerperae with polygalactia are within the normal post-partum range. Short term prolactin suppression by bromocriptine can reduce milk yield, without complete ablactation.


The metallization layers required for a silicon-based reflective liquid crystal light valve have been developed and integrated with a medium-voltage CMOS process using standard microelectronic manufacturing tools. Unique requirements include the following: 1) shielding the Si devices from incident light so that electron-hole pairs are not formed; 2) high optical throughput and contrast, which are dependent on the mirror fill factor, reflectivity, and flatness; 3) pixel storage capacitance to maintain the voltage across the liquid crystal cell with sufficient accuracy to select the desired gray level until the data are updated; and 4) precise control of the liquid crystal cell thickness without spacers obscuring the mirrors. Wafers have been successfully fabricated to support a technology demonstration of a 2048 × 2048-pixel ("four-million-pixel") projection display. The process is based on a medium-voltage CMOS process and uses six masks (for three metal levels, one via level, and two insulator levels) after Si device processing has been completed.


The control of fan beam z-axis position is important for the production of highest-quality computerized tomography (CT) images. The authors describe a special measurement technique that produces an accurate real-time analog measurement of the fan beam z-axis position using a set of triangular masks over conventional detector cells. Data obtained from the masked detector cells are normalized to make the position signal independent of radiological dose and collimator aperture setting. The resulting position signal is ideally suited for closed-loop fan beam position control.<<ETX>>


In the near feature, large-scale wireless sensor networks will play an important role in our lives by monitoring our environment with large numbers of sensors. However, data loss owing to data collision between the sensor nodes and electromagnetic noise need to be addressed. As the interval of aggregate data is not fixed, digital signal processing is not possible and noise degrades the data accuracy. To overcome these problems, we have researched an environmental data recovery technique using polynomial regression based on the correlations among environmental data. The reliability of the recovered data is discussed in the time, space and frequency domains. The relation between the accuracy of the recovered characteristics and the polynomial regression order is clarified. The effects of noise, data loss and number of sensor nodes are quantified. Clearly, polynomial regression offers the advantage of low-pass filtering and enhances the signal-to-noise ratio of the environmental data. Furthermore, the polynomial regression can recover arbitrary environmental characteristics.


4D seismic time-shifts are induced by stress changes in the overburden as a result of depletion from or injection into an underlying reservoir. This represents a powerful technique for tracking unrecovered hydrocarbon resources or identifying leakages from CO2 storage sites. Here we describe how the sensitivity of seismic velocities of overburden shale to reservoir pore pressure changes can be estimated from laboratory experiments. Both ultrasonic and seismic frequency laboratory measurements show stress and stress path dependent velocities. The role of the stress path is seen to be extremely important, which means that geomechanical modeling is required in order to assess in situ stress sensitivity. The experiment presented here shows higher stress sensitivity in the seismic frequency range than for ultrasonic waves.


Beach cusps, uniformly spaced mounds or ridges of sediments that trend at right angles to the shoreline, are observed at Mono Lake, California. The cusps have spacings ranging from 11 to 59 cm, making them some of the smallest examples of natural beach cusps that have been described in geologic literature. They possess all the features observed in the much larger cusps found on ocean beaches: the same basic morphology, similar sediment sorting, and the same water circulation about the cusps. They form best when the lake is essentially glassy smooth and only surging, nonbreaking waves arrive at the shoreline. It is concluded that edge waves, waves trapped by refraction to the nearshore, probably account for the cusp formation and rhythmic spacing.


The influence of carbonate substitution (4.4 wt%, mixed A/B type) in hydroxyapatite ceramics for bone remodeling scaffolds was investigated by separately analyzing the response of pre-osteoblasts and osteoclast-like cells. Carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA) (Ca9.5(PO4)5.5(CO3)0.5(OH)(CO3)0.25-CHA), mimicking the chemical composition of natural bone mineral, and pure hydroxyapatite (HA) (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2-HA) porous ceramics were processed to obtain a similar microstructure and surface physico-chemical properties (grain size, porosity ratio and pore size, surface roughness and zeta potential). The biological behavior was studied using MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblastic and RAW 264.7 monocyte/macrophage cell lines. Chemical dissolution in the culture media and resorption lacunae produced by osteoclasts occur with both HA and CHA ceramics, but CHA exhibits much higher dissolution and greater bioresorption ability. CHA ceramics promoted a significantly higher level of pre-osteoblast proliferation. Osteoblastic differentiation, assessed by qRT-PCR of RUNX2 and COLIA2, and pre-osteoclastic proliferation and differentiation were not significantly different on CHA or HA ceramics but cell viability and metabolism were significantly greater on CHA ceramics. Thus, the activity of both osteoclast-like and osteoblastic cells was influenced by the carbonate substitution in the apatite structure. Furthermore, CHA showed a particularly interesting balance between biodegradation, by osteoclasts and chemical dissolution, and osteogenesis through osteoblasts' activity, to stimulate bone regeneration. It is hypothesized that this amount of 4.4 wt% carbonate substitution leads to an adapted concentration of calcium in the fluid surrounding the ceramic to stimulate the activity of cells. These results highlight the superior biological behavior of microporous 4.4 wt% A/B CHA ceramics that could beneficially replace the commonly used HA of biphasic calcium phosphates for future applications in bone tissue engineering.


---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract – Aluminium and its alloys occupy third place among the commercially used engineering materials. In commercial aluminium casting alloys, Al– Sic base alloys are perhaps most common particularly due to very attractive characteristics such as high strength to weight ratio, good workability, excellent castability, good thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance. In this paper Aluminium LM25+SiC composites containing three different weight percentages 5%, 10%, and 15% of Sic have been fabricated by casting method. Friction and wear characteristics of Al LM25+SiC composites have been investigated under dry sliding conditions and compared with those observed in pure aluminium LM25. Dry sliding wear tests have been carried out using pin-on-disk machine at normal loads of 1, 2 and 3 Kg and analysis is done by using Design Expert 7 Software. Pins of Alloy are prepared in sizes of diameter 8mm and length 30mm. The testing is done on above material by varying load, speed and sliding distance. It appears that the pin-on-disc test can give considerably useful and informative friction and wear results .it was observed that the wear rate varies linearly with normal load but lower in composite compared to that in base material. Further it was found from experimentation that the wear rate decreases linearly with increasing weight fraction of SiC. The best results have been obtained at 10% weight fraction of SiC.


The processes and sources that regulate the elemental composition of aerosol particles were investigated in both fine and coarse modes during the dry and wet seasons. One hundred and nine samples were collected from the biological reserve Cuieiras - Manaus from February to October 2008, and analyzed together with 668 samples that were previously collected at Balbina from 1998 to 2002. Particle induced X-ray emission technique was used to determine the elemental composition, while the concentration of black carbon was obtained from the measurement of optical reflectance. Absolute principal factor analysis and positive matrix factorization were performed for source apportionment, which was complemented with back trajectory analysis. A regional identity for the natural biogenic aerosol was found for the Central Amazon Basin and can be used in dynamical chemical region models.


Plagiarism is a subject of academic misconduct among teaching and research community in higher educational institutions. Information and communication technology has immensely made easy to access information in digital form or electronic form that can lead to copying words/text from any kind of information sources such as Internet, books, magazines, journals, project reports, publications, white papers etc, without acknowledging the original author/ authors with proper citation. Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone else's work and attempting to pass it off as one's own. In the global academic scenario plagiarism occurs due to lack of knowledge or due to ignorance. In the present study an attempt has been made to study the awareness of plagiarism among research scholars of Karnatak University Dharwad. The findings of the study reveal that most of the research scholars are aware of plagiarism, and they have fair knowledge on various issues of plagiarism such as different types of plagiarism, various anti-plagiarism softwares, consequences indulging in plagiarism etc, some of the factors that influence them to involve in plagiarism are also identified from the study. Most of the respondents have opined about the need to conduct awareness program on plagiarism


The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect is predicted to possess, at a zero magnetic field, chiral edge channels that conduct a spin polarized current without dissipation. While edge channels have been observed in previous experimental studies of the QAH effect, their dissipationless nature at a zero magnetic field has not been convincingly demonstrated. By a comprehensive experimental study of the gate and temperature dependences of local and nonlocal magnetoresistance, we unambiguously establish the dissipationless edge transport. By studying the onset of dissipation, we also identify the origin of dissipative channels and clarify the surprising observation that the critical temperature of the QAH effect is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the Curie temperature of ferromagnetism.


Article history: Received: July 10, 2020 Received in revised format: October 18 2020 Accepted: October 25, 2020 Available online: October 25, 2020 Educational institutions are adopting learning management systems (LMS) to facilitate teaching and learning processes. During the last few years, many Universities have started upgrading their existing LMS by shifting to advance LMS. This shift requires students, academic as well as administrative staff to get acquainted with the functioning of the new system at the earliest, as any change in the system may impact their performance. The transition from old to new LMS requires time and affects the performance of users, especially administrative staff performance. The present study tries to investigate the effect of the transition on the performance of the administrative staff. The task-technology fit (TTF) model was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The data analysis was done using the PLS-SEM, to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings of the study confirm that mere usage of the new technology did not improve the performance rather, the task and technology characteristics need to be coordinated appropriately. © 2021 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada


Oilfield reservoir characterization with a nonradioactive Kr isotope tracers with collinear fast beam laser spectroscopy (CFBLS) has been developed in our laboratory and has unprecedented sensitivity, selectivity and dynamic range. It provides efficient method of reservoir mapping, which is much safer than commercially available radioactive isotope based enhanced oil recovery approaches. Our approach can be used in far and near borehole surveys and to quantify fracturing efficiency. The analytical system uses mass separation in conjunction with highly selective laser excitation and sensitive optical detection. For similar applications we also implemented a novel optical spectroscopy based on frequency comb lasers (FCL) that have a regular comb structure of millions of laser modes for ultra broad band detection. Especially in the infrared, a plethora of green house and other gases have molecular fingerprint spectra that can be studied with FCL, based mainly on the Er-, Yb-doped fiber lasers with their wavelength ranges extended by optical parametric oscillation processes, supercontinuum or difference-frequency generation. We present our work on trace isotope detection that utilized both techniques. As examples we describe analysis of crude oil and well gas samples based on the research in Qatar, and the monitoring of the methane content of seawater in the aftermath of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This work was supported by the by the Robert A. Welch Foundation grant No. A1546 and the Qatar Foundation under the grant NPRP 5-994-1–172.


Wood anatomy was examined in 16 species of Meryta (a genus of c. 35 species) and bark anatomy was studied in 12 species. All but two of these taxa form an assemblage corresponding to the Northern Arc clade, one of two major groups identified by a recent molecular phylogenetic study. M. sinclairii and M. tenuifolia (corresponding to the New Zealand/Fiji clade) differ distinctly by having more numerous simple perforation plates, multiseriate rays with few marginal rows, and the absence of sclerified cells in collapsed secondary phloem, a bark feature that has not yet been found elsewhere in Araliaceae. The increase in abundance of simple perforation plates in the wood of these two species is not accompanied by a decrease in the number of bars on scalariform perforation plates. The wood structure of Meryta bears a strong resemblance to members of the Pacific Schefflera clade, sharing similar ranges of variation of several features. Bark characters, such as the diameter of the cortical secretory canals, the types of crystal in cortical cells, the types of axial parenchyma cell in collapsed secondary phloem, and the presence of sheath cells by phloem rays, appear to be of diagnostic value for some species of Meryta. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 153, 363–379.


A 2-year-old girl presented with cutaneous facial, palpebral, back, perianal, and perineal hemangiomas and a subcutaneous neck and parotid voluminous hemangioma, associated with several extracranial vascular abnormalities, such as the absence of the ipsilateral internal carotid artery and hypoplasia of the common carotid arteries. Both vertebral arteries showed an embryonic appearance, without completing their maturation and without obliteration of all the right and left longitudinal neural arteries.


Background: Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) ensure homeostasis and lifelong maintenance of hematopoietic system, but with age, they gradually lose quiescence, self-renewal potential, and system restoration capacity. HSC aging results in a differentiation shift towards myeloid lineage, anemia, thrombocytosis, decrease in T and B cells, imbalance in macrophage function, and increased osteoclast activity. Mechanisms involved in HSC aging include increased mTOR activity and ROS production, impaired autophagy, epigenetic reprograming, and cumulative DNA damage. Intriguingly, cellular and molecular similarities between aging and inflammation have led to a novel concept of "inflammation-associated aging of hematopoiesis". Understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for this process may impact strategies targeting age-related diseases, including neoplasms. However, to date only few primary animal models of inflammation have shown bone marrow failure, so new animal models need to be established to provide mechanistic insight into the long-term implications of chronic inflammation on the hematopoietic system.
 We have previously shown that bone marrow-specific deletion of an adapter protein Abelson interactor-1 (Abi1) leads to a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN)-like disease in 35-56-week-old mice, mechanistically associated with increased activity of Src Family Kinases (SFKs), STAT3 and NF-κB. At both transcript and protein levels, Abi-1 is also significantly reduced in HSCs and granulocytes from patients with primary myelofibrosis (PMF), and Abi-1-deficient HSC in human PMF show increased SFK-STAT3-NF-κB signaling (Chorzalska, ASH 2017).
 Methods: Myeloid/lymphoid, stem/progenitor populations profiling by FACS, bone marrow transplantation assays, transcriptomics and proteomics analyses as well pro-inflammatory cytokine profiling and histopathology analyses were performed on the transgenic Abi-1KO mice carrying bone marrow-selective knockout at 4 weeks post-recombination, upon confirming both inducible inactivation of the Abi1flox allele and loss of Abi-1 protein in the marrow (Fig.1A, B).
 Results: To better understand initial systemic events that lead to the development of MPN-like disease in aged Abi-1KO mice we have now characterized early changes within the hematopoietic system associated with loss of Abi-1. Blood count analysis indicated leukocytosis, anemia and thrombocytosis, and an increase in the fraction of myeloid (CD11b+/Gr-1+) as well as macrophage/monocyte (F4/80+) cells at the expense of lymphoid (B220+) cells in Abi-1KO relative to Abi-1WT mice (Fig.1C). Previously reported 2.6-fold increase in Abi-1KO LT-HSCs (Chorzalska, ASH 2017) was now shown to be associated with 30% increase in number of LT-HSCs is in the S/G2/M phases of the cell cycle relative to Abi-1WT LT-HSCs (Fig. 1D). Lethally irradiated recipient C57BL/6 wild-type mice transplanted with bone marrow cells from Abi-1KO relative to Abi-1WT mice (in the absence of competitor cells) showed progressive loss of chimerism in primary and secondary recipients (Fig. E). Genome-wide gene expression analysis of Abi-1WT vs. Abi-1KO LSK cells showed significant overexpression of genes regulated by or involved in regulation of the NF-κB pathway (Fig. 1F). Plasma cytokine levels showed 2-fold increase in IL-1B, IL-12, IL-17, IL-23, IL-27, and MCP-1 and nearly 10-fold increase in INFγ (Fig. 1G). Label-free, intensity-based quantitative proteomic analysis of bone marrow from 20-week-old Abi-1KO and Abi-1WT mice showed abundance of peptides derived from Mac-1, myeloperoxidase, STAT1, STAT3, and SFKs - Hck and Fgr, confirming not only activation of SFKs and STAT3 signaling, but also increase in proteins associated with myeloid lineages (Fig. 1H). Loss of bone density (Fig. 1I) and a significant decrease in thymus size (Fig. 1J) were observed in Abi-1KO mice relative to Abi-1WT mice.
 Conclusions: In sum, phenotypic analyses performed 4-10-weeks post Abi1 gene inactivation indicate changes consistent with accelerated aging of hematopoietic system that are mechanistically linked to inflammatory SFK-STAT3-NF-κB signaling. To our knowledge this is the first animal model linking accelerated inflammation-driven aging of hematopoietic system to development of an MPN in aged mice.

 Olszewski: Genentech: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Spectrum Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Research Funding. Reagan:Pfizer: Research Funding; Alexion: Honoraria; Takeda Oncology: Research Funding.


This paper examines a recent controversy at the new Canadian War Museum over its exhibition on the Allied Bomber Offensive campaign in the Second World War. Although recent surveys of the public's attitudes towards museums suggest that the public both trusts museums to get the story right and thinks museums are good places to deal with controversial topics, in this case the Museum found itself under attack. In the end, despite generally positive reviews from historians called in to review the display, the Museum was forced to make changes after a Parliamentary sub-committee demanded it do so. The paper argues that the Museum's inability to withstand such intense pressure can be attributed to a number of factors, including its ambiguous nature as a war memorial museum.


Background: Colonoscopy requires insufflation of gas for visualization of the bowel wall. Worldwide, this is usually done using air. The aim of the present study was to assess the risk of postcolonoscopy incontinence, and to investigate whether insufflation of CO2 instead of air may reduce this risk, since it is easily absorbed through the bowel mucosa. Methods: This is a prospective multicenter study of colonoscopy patients undergoing bowel insufflation using air or CO2. A successive series of colonoscopies were reported to a national quality assurance program in Norway between January and December 2009 from 21 endoscopy centers with varying insufflation practices. The study comprised 7812 patients aged 18 years or older who were referred for outpatient colonoscopy. Of these, 5015 underwent colonoscopy performed using air and 2797 colonoscopy using CO2 insufflation. Results: Patient-reported incontinence up to 24 h after colonoscopy was compared using binary logistic regression analysis for the type of gas used for insufflation. The air and CO2 patient groups were comparable with regard to age, sex, indication for colonoscopy, and sedation practice. Incontinence was reported by 336 out of 7812 patients (4.3 %). Incontinence was significantly less frequent in the CO2 group than in the air group [2.1 % versus 5.5 %; adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.38; 95 %CI 0.28 – 0.50; P < 0.001]. Female patients had a higher risk of incontinence than men (adjusted OR 1.77; 95 % CI 1.39 – 2.24; P < 0.001). Conclusion: About every 20th patient undergoing colonoscopy using standard air insufflation experiences postexamination incontinence. This proportion can be reduced by 60 % by converting from air insufflation to insufflation with the absorbable CO2.


Stratigraphic studies in the Wessex Basin, southern England, highlight the occurrence of a significant intra-Cretaceous unconformity which truncates progressively older stratigraphy in a westerly direction from Dorset into Devon. The erosion associated with the event can be traced at least to the west of Exmouth, where the Upper Greensand (U. Albian) sits upon beds of Permian age. A chronostratigraphic correlation diagram (Fig. 1), constructed from coastal outcrops between Hastings in the east and Budleigh Salterton in the west, and which avoids footwall highs, shows the convergent nature of this unconformity. The diagram suggests that the correlative conformity of this event lies between Worbarrow Bay and Swanage in the Valanginian Wealden Beds, below the prominent Quartz Grit bed, rather than in the Aptian as supposed by previous workers. Eastwards, the Wealden Beds thicken rapidly, with progressively more important marine incursions. The same unconformity also appears to be traceable in the Normandy and Brittany regions of France, where the most complete stratigraphy is observed in the Pay de Bray region, northeast of Rouen. Westwards of this point the gap in stratigraphy widens, especially on the periphery of the Armorican Massif where Liassic, Triassic and Permian beds progressively sub-crop the unconformity in a relatively narrow band (less than 30 km wide). Independent analysis of over 90 wells from the Celtic Sea, Western Approaches, English Channel and Brittany Basins reveals that an unconformity, which has a similar character to that observed from onshore, exists in the offshore basins also. The most complete stratigraphy can be found in


The current work explores the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on a one dimensional (1D) silver nano-grating device, simulated on glass substrate, which can sense a very small change in the refractive index of an analyte adjacent to it. The most recent modeling technique finite element analysis is applied in this work by using a COMSOL RF module. The models of 1D grating devices of different slit widths with fixed periodicity and film thickness are simulated. The data is collected and then used to study higher refractive index unit per nanometer (RIU/nm) as well as the effect of the widths of the slits on the RIU. A number of investigations are done by the simulated data, like a dip in the transmission spectra of p-polarized light. This dip is due to SPP resonance with the variation of slit width. Furthermore, the most fascinating part of the research is the COMSOL modeling that provides an opportunity to look into factors affecting higher RIU/nm, while visualizing the cross-sectional view of the grating device and strong electric field enhancement at the surface of the metallic device. When the slit width is almost equal to half of the periodicity of the grating device, SPP resonance increases and it is at maximum for the slit width equal to two-thirds of the periodicity, because the coupling efficiency is at maximum.


Introduction: This study focuses on the strategies of implementing practical activities in children with intellectual disabilities. It is aimed at encouraging and rehabilitating neuropsychological processes of attention, behaviour and cognition (visual and spatial abilities, elemental and complex motor abilities and conceptual functions). Subject: This study was aimed at children with mild intellectual disabilities with the emphasis on their cognitive and behavioural functioning in relation to different aspects of the applied treatment strategies. Material and methods: The sample consists of 124 examinees with mild intellectual disability, of both genders, aged between 8 and 13, attending primary schools in Belgrade. In this research we applied the Trial Making Test (TMT; Reitan, 1971) for attention assessment, the IOWA Conners' Rating Scale for Children for behaviour assessment, and the Test of Concept Utilization (TCU; Crager and Lane, 1981) for the assessment of cognitive functions. Results: The results indicate the presence of developmental disabilities in the examined areas in more than 50% of the tested children and a high statistically significant correlation between the applied treatment modalities and tested abilities and functions (r50.52–0.59, df,0.01). The study points out the necessity of implementing the multimodal approach: team work of professionals and non-professionals (cooperation between professionals and parents), complementary treatment (medical and special treatment, psychosocial interventions, combination of treatment strategies), psychotherapy and psycho-pharmacotherapy when necessary, as well as special education and rehabilitation, based on individual education programs and individual training programs (IEP and ITP) and special rehabilitation procedures and methods. Conclusion: New treatment strategies, with the emphasis on special rehabilitation treatment, were proposed in conclusion.


Some of D'Annunzio's works reflect the poet's fascination with airplanes taking shape in the incarnation of Icarus the aviator. This essay explores how the references to the Icarus Myth are interconnected. It deals first mainly with D'Annunzio's novel Forse che si forse che no. Then, it shows how the theme resurfaces during the poet's participation in World War I and his interest in aviation. Finally, it illustrates how the different patterns of meaning continue to evolve during the last stage of the poet's life to become ultimately, through a synthesizing creative act, D'Annunzio's Icarian mythopoesis.


This thesis is written to analyze the idea of an ideal woman of the main female character in Virginia written by Ellen Glasgow. By discussing the main female character in this novel, the thesis writer wants to find that the idea of Victorian ideal woman really exists in the novel. In order to find it, the discussion is focused on the character traits and the conflicts of the main female character. Besides, the thesis writer sees that there are some influences in the life of the main female character that affect her character traits. Although the main female character is educated based on her custom where she belongs, Southern, her character traits are closer to the Victorian standard. In her marriage's life, she tries to do everything for her family, her husband and her children. She believes that what she does for her husband and her children is to make them happy. She does not care about herself. The only thing that comes out from her mind is to sacrifice her happiness to others. She is to suffer only for her husband and children. All of her life is dedicated to make them happy.


The environmental implications of corporate economic activities have led to growing demands for firms and their boards to adopt sustainable strategies and to disseminate more useful information about their activities and impacts on environment. This paper investigates the impact of board's corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and orientation on the quantity and quality of environmental sustainability disclosure in UK listed firms. We find that effective board CSR strategy and CSR-oriented directors have a positive and significant impact on the quality of environmental sustainability disclosure, but not on the quantity. Our findings also suggest that the existence of a CSR committee and issuance of a stand-alone CSR report are positively and significantly related to environmental sustainability disclosure. When we distinguish between firms with high and low environmental risk, we find that the board CSR/sustainability practices that affect the quantity (quality) of environmental sustainability disclosure appear to be driven more by highly (lowly) environmentally sensitive firms. These results suggest that the board CSR/sustainability practices play an important role in ensuring a firm's legitimacy and accountability towards stakeholders. Our findings shed new light on this under-researched area and could be of interest to companies, policy-makers and other stakeholders.


Academic staff at universities now work in a climate where the need for professional currency in teaching practice is increasingly in evidence. This is most notable in the shift towards teaching and learning as core activities in the development of quality assurance guidelines that emphasise the centrality of the student experience and good teaching practice. Many Australian universities now offer professional development opportunities for staff and accredited programs that lead to a recognised teaching qualification. This article reports on the evaluation of a tertiary teaching program that provides staff with a tertiary teaching qualification. Findings generally support the efficacy of the program as a means of improving the reflective practice and reconceptualising of teaching by university lecturers. On a broader level, the paper indicates directions and strategies that enable such programs to become more fully supportive of quality assurance processes.


The search for new energy sources gained momentum in the 1970s following the oil crisis when the price of energy in the form of fossil fuel rose dramatically and energy insecurity was felt. The obvious choice of a clean energy source which is abundant and could provide security for the future development and growth is suns energy using photovoltaic PV system. A major challenge in using a solar PV source containing a number of cells in series and parallel is to deal with its non linear characteristics and non uniform radiation. Often PV modules are subject to nonuniform radiation and shading over the surface. Shade is a significant design factor and measuring the extent of shade on a solar array can be challenging due to the fact that shadows moves as the position moves throughout the day and the year. This is further complicated by the changes in the source of shade itself. For example a tree can sway in the wind or lose its leaves during winter, changing the type of shade it cast on solar array. Shade impact depends on its severity and area on PV panel. It may cause current mismatch among PV panel which results in loss of PV power. In this paper study of partial shading , design and simulation of a converter based on sigma conversion concept which enables module level dc/dc converters for eliminating the reduction in output power due to partial shading, soiling etc has done. Converters are designed such that it will provide a constant output voltage eventhough shading occurs on certain PV modules. Thus the system is simple, power can be extracted from unshaded module


Vertical Displacements, accelerations and slab twists of the bridge are restricted for traffic safety and passenger comforts in Eurocode, Shinkansen and Korean regulation. However, these limitations are indirect way for the convenience of bridge designer. The traffic safety can be directly estimated from the reduction rates of wheel loads and passenger comforts can be directly evaluated from accelerations of car- bodies. From this reason, it is recommended that bridge/train interaction analysis should be performed for special bridges. In the present study, traffic safety and passenger comforts are estimated directly by bridge/train interaction responses. From results, a speed limitaion can be defined for securing traffic safety and passenger comforts of a extradosed bridge.


We apply quantum error mitigation (QEM) techniques to a variety of benchmark problems and quantum computers to evaluate the performance of QEM in practice. To do so, we define an empirically motivated, resource-normalized metric of the improvement of error mitigation, which we call the improvement factor, and calculate this metric for each experiment we perform. The experiments we perform consist of zero-noise extrapolation and probabilistic error cancellation applied to two benchmark problems run on IBM, IonQ, and Rigetti quantum computers, as well as noisy quantum computer simulators. Our results show that error mitigation is, on average, more beneficial than no error mitigation—even when normalized by the additional resources used—but also emphasize that the performance of QEM depends on the underlying computer.


AIM
To compare penetration depth into dentinal tubules of RealSeal with that of a well-established endodontic sealer (Tubliseal) by means of confocal microscopy.

METHODOLOGY
Twenty sound extracted, single-rooted premolars were selected. Following completion of root canal instrumentation, the teeth were divided into two groups using a stratified sampling method, ranking teeth according to size. In group 1, 10 teeth were filled with Gutta-percha and Tubliseal using cold lateral condensation. In group 2, 10 teeth were filled with RealSeal. Both sealers were labelled with Rhodamine B dye. The teeth were sectioned parallel to their long axis resulting in 20 specimens per group. Confocal microscopy was used to assess the penetration depths of the sealers at three sites for each specimen (coronal, middle and apical). Data were analysed statistically using Stata Release 9.1.

RESULTS
The penetration depth of RealSeal in each one of the thirds of the root canal was found to be higher than that of Tubliseal (P < 0.05). The penetration depths of the two sealers was found to be significantly different (P = 0.001). The mean penetration value for the RealSeal group was 908.8 microm whereas the mean value for the Tubliseal group was 139.5 microm.

CONCLUSIONS
The penetration depth of RealSeal into the root dentinal tubules is significantly greater than that of Tubliseal.


In pursuing the development of bionic devices, Victhom identified a need for technologies that could replace current motorized systems and be better integrated into the human body motion. The actuators used to obtain large displacements are noisy, heavy, and do not adequately reproduce human muscle behavior. Subsequently, a project at Victhom was devoted to the development of active materials to obtain an artificial exomuscle actuator. An exhaustive literature review was done at Victhom to identify promising active materials for the development of artificial muscles. According to this review, metal hydrides were identified as a promising technology for artificial muscle development. Victhom's investigations focused on determining metal hydride actuator potential in the context of bionics technology. Based on metal hydride properties and artificial muscle requirements such as force, displacement and rise time, an exomuscle was built. In addition, a finite element model, including heat and mass transfer in the metal hydride, was developed and implemented in FEMLAB software.