Abstract Traditional rough set theory is mainly used to reduce attributes and extract rules in databases in which attributes are characterised by partitions, which the covering rough set theory, a generalisation of traditional rough set theory, covers. In this article, we posit a method to reduce the attributes of covering decision systems, which are databases incarnated in the form of covers. First, we define different covering decision systems and their attributes' reductions. Further, we describe the necessity and sufficiency for reductions. Thereafter, we construct a discernible matrix to design algorithms that compute all the reductions of covering decision systems. Finally, the above methods are illustrated using a practical example and the obtained results are contrasted with other results.


Image super-resolution (SR) plays a vital role in medical imaging that allows a more efficient and effective diagnosis process. Usually, diagnosing is difficult and inaccurate from low-resolution (LR) and noisy images. Resolution enhancement through conventional interpolation methods strongly affects the precision of consequent processing steps, such as segmentation and registration. Therefore, we propose an efficient sparse coded image SR reconstruction technique using a trained dictionary. We apply a simple and efficient regularized version of orthogonal matching pursuit (ROMP) to seek the coefficients of sparse representation. ROMP has the transparency and greediness of OMP and the robustness of the L1-minization that enhance the dictionary learning process to capture feature descriptors such as oriented edges and contours from complex images like brain MRIs. The sparse coding part of the K-SVD dictionary training procedure is modified by substituting OMP with ROMP. The dictionary update stage allows simultaneously updating an arbitrary number of atoms and vectors of sparse coefficients. In SR reconstruction, ROMP is used to determine the vector of sparse coefficients for the underlying patch. The recovered representations are then applied to the trained dictionary, and finally, an optimization leads to high-resolution output of high-quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the super-resolution reconstruction quality of the proposed scheme is comparatively better than other state-of-the-art schemes.


Background: Papillon-Lefevre syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder which is characterized by palmar plantar hyperkeratosis with precocious progressive periodontal disease that results in premature exfoliation of primary and permanent dentitions. Consanguinity of parents is evident in about one third of cases.
Context: Here we report a case of 22 year old male who presented with Papillon-Lefevre syndrome. The etiopathogenesis, investigations, differential diagnosis, complications and management of this syndrome are also discussed here.
Importance: It is a serious condition leading to social stigma as the individual suffering from this disorder often faces an edentulous state at a very early age. Early recognition and treatment especially with oral retinoids have shown promising results to some extent. However stem cell therapy can be expected to be a turning point in the dental treatment of such patients.


This is a detective story set in 1980s Shrewsbury and Toronto. A social worker, Philip Eyre, searches for the father of a baby girl and finds himself obsessed by the girl's mother who ends up in psychiatric hospital after trying to commit suicide. While investigating the case, Philip comes to question his own life – his own fathering and father.

The case apparently solved, Philip takes a job in Toronto as a researcher but becomes haunted by his own past. He returns to England, and a new obsession with the case gathers pace. Is the baby related to him? Are they connected by some strange literary provenance – Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre? By now he is randomly switching from one possibility, one bizarre plot about orphans and illegitimacy, to the next. He suffers a breakdown; the pursuit of an answer has turned back in on him; now he is the one who feels pursued.

The Book of Guardians is a haunting novel that leaves readers wondering whether it is possible to recall and know your own past with any degree of certainty.


ABSTRACT Background: In the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) pandemic crisis that has hit Indonesia since early March 2020, urgent action is needed to overcome the situation while maintaining and improving relationships with customers so that they are still satisfied with the quality of services in hospitals, especially inpatient services. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant decrease in the number of inpatient visits at Siloam Hospitals TB Simatupang. This study aimed to analyze the comparison of the level of quality of patient service before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in installation of Siloam hospital TB Simatupang installation. Subjects and Method: This was a descriptive observational study conducted at Siloam Hospitals TB Simatupang from September 2020. A sample of 88 patients was selected by purposive sampling. The data was collected by questionnaire. The operationalization of this research variable is service quality, which is measured from five dimensions, namely Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. The data analysis used a series of tests such as validity test, reliability test, descriptive statistics and independent sample T-test. Results: During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients had a better perception than before the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be seen from service quality (Mean= 4.11), while during the COVID-19 pandemic (Mean= 4.250). Conclusion: Quality of services provided in outpatient installations during the COVID-19 pandemic is better than before the COVID-19. Keywords: service quality, COVID-19, outpatient Correspondence: Dian Agnesa Sembiring. Magister Program in Hospital Administration. Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com DOI: https://doi.org/10.26911/the7thicph.04.23


Generally, pelvis fractures are caused by high energy accidents, and, in the majority of the cases, young people of the working age are the ones affected because they are more prone to being exposed to this type of injuries. From all the possible injuries of the musculoskeletal system, pelvis fractures occur approximately 3-4% of the time, and 5% of them are mechanical and hemodynamically unstable. Its incidence is of about 35 fractures for every 100,000 people. The mortality rate is really high. In closed fractures, the rate is about 10-20%, in which 2 patients out of 10 die, and, when the case involves an exposed fracture, the mortality rate increases in about 50%, which means that out of 2 patients, 1 will die. When thoracoabdominal injuries or Cranioencephalic trauma also occur, this rate increases in a linear way. Because of all these reasons, the present article has the mission to help as a concrete guide about what people should do when different types pelvic fractures occur, and also, to be able to «Control the damage» to be able to reduce the mortality rate and all the other injuries and sequels that tend to come with this specifi c type of injuries.


Estrone sulfate (E1S) is the most abundant estrogen in the circulation of adults. The present study was undertaken to assess estrone (E1) and estradiol formation from E1S in freshly resected bone [bone fragments (BFs)] and osteoblast-like cells (hOB) cultured from BFs. Furthermore, we compared estrogen formation from E1S in rat and human osteosarcoma (OS) cell lines and that of estrogen formation from E1S with that of aromatization of androstenedione and testosterone in BFs and those from E1S and androstenedione in hOB cells. The bone used was from the head of the femur from a total of 15 women and 12 men. Steroid sulfatase activity (STA) was found, and the formation of estrone and estradiol from E1S was demonstrated. STA was similar in cells derived from BFs of men and women. STA was significantly lower in OS cell lines, compared with hOB cells. Estrogen formation from E1S in BFs was at least 20 times higher than that from androstenedione and about 50 times higher than that from testosterone. Similarly, estrogen formation from E1S in hOB cells exceeded the values derived from aromatization of androstenedione by two orders of magnitude. Based on these results, we conclude that hOB cells express the same pattern of E1S metabolism as resected bone and thus may accurately mirror the in vivo situation in man. In comparison with hOB cells, STA is fundamentally lower in widely used OS cell lines that express an osteoblastic phenotype. This shortcoming precludes their use as model cell lines to unravel STA metabolic pathways and its regulation in nontumorous bone. E1S is a major source of local bioactive estrogen formation in human bone. Because bone is highly susceptible to estrogen action, local estrogen formation from E1S may play an important role in bone maturation and homeostasis, particularly in elderly adults.


Classical archaeologists and anthropologists are well aware of the importance of communal eating and drinking, from mythic or actual events of splendour or horror to the love-feasts of the mystery religions and the Christian Eucharist. Here Professor Dunbabin has concentrated on Rome, though she has taken frequent glances back to Etruria and Greece, for Roman custom was very much influenced by foreign precedents. By and large the Romans greatly expanded the range of the banquet as a culinary experience. At the same time respectable women would sometimes dine with men, even reclining on couches, a situation impossible in the Greek andron where the only women around were hetaerae. Not that this aspect of human nature was submerged in the Roman world, where girls in a state of undress still appear drinking with men, and beautiful boy-servants with perfumed faces and long hair were there to serve the aesthetic and sexual needs of their masters right down to Late Antiquity. There is plenty in the archaeological and historical record of Rome to demonstrate the way in which dining reflects the stratification of that society, centred on mutual interdependence between patrons and clients. Where one was placed on the couch was very significant. At public feasts the 'unimportant' guests might simply be assigned a side table where the fare would be merely a cup of wine and a cake (the distinctions apparent in medieval feasts, and still present in the appalling differentiation between high and low tables at a standard Oxbridge college, come to mind). The splendour of drinking vessels made of silver or cut in openwork in gemstones or glass naturally reinforced distinctions between the upper classes and those of inferior station. The feast, as far as the archaeologist is concerned, carried on beyond this life and is a major theme on tomb monuments. Clearly one aspect of the banquet-monument ('Totenmahl') is to emphasize that the deceased was one of those who, in life, could afford periods of otium. Sometimes an accompanying inscription tells the reader to eat and drink now because such pleasures cease at death; in other cases the feast may hint at belief in the pleasures of the afterlife. This latter aspect is not considered sufficiently, perhaps, for on many tombstones images of dining are accompanied by otherworldly imagery such as soul-birds, tritons and dolphins. Moreover, excavated graves with drinking vessels and food offerings also suggest positive attitudes. As we might expect from Dunbabin's other works, the reader is presented with a clear, immensely scholarly, but somewhat mundane narrative accompanied by many beautifully produced and often unusual images, mainly drawn from Italy and the Mediterranean basin. If the reader might feel he or she has only imbibed the mulsum and eaten the honey-cake that is because too much has been left out. For instance, there is a great deal of interesting information from the north-western provinces where much might have been made of well-excavated grave groups, including, for example, the Welwyn and Folly Lane burials, both from Hertfordshire, which demonstrate how native Britons of the ruling class were being civilized, or from Tacitus' viewpoint, 'enslaved', by Roman custom. Other evidence ranges from the varied banquet-tombstones of Chester to the Simpelveld sarcophagus and from the enigmatic Mysteries mosaic at Trier, showing preparations for a sacred feast, to the evidence of silver employed in similar feasting from Thetford, all of which deserve consideration. This omission is presumably just another instance of the way in which Mediterranean and Provincial archaeology have continued to diverge. Thetford and Trier bring to mind the important representations of feasts in the Catacombs where Dunbabin's treatment is not really adequate, given the importance of the theme to Christianity. The Roman banquet is, after all, still deeply meaningful, still symbolically enacted daily in the mystery of the Eucharist. Eating and drinking are not just about power relationships, but essentially about fellowship and sharing the resources of the earth, and in such cases the banquet is both sacramental and liberating. Finally, it has to be said that there is also a surprising lack of fun in the account; it is a pity that Professor Dunbabin did not take time and space to explore the recipes of Apicius or recount anecdotes and poems showing how Romans really enjoyed themselves. This book will instruct the reader but he or she should be warned that fully to enter into the spirit of the illustrations, it would be necessary to provide one's own amphora.


The longitudinal vibration of the drill pipe contains considerable energy which can be used to improve the rock-breaking efficiency during drilling. It is very important to the development of drilling speed-up tools to have a comprehensive understanding of the energy conversion efficiency of downhole drill string vibration. In this paper, the characteristics of downhole bit load and longitudinal vibration of drill string under different conditions were studied in the experiment, and the analysis method of energy conversion efficiency from drill string vibration to spring potential energy was proposed. The experimental analysis showed that the fluctuation of the downhole bit load was reduced by 10%–90% after the spring was installed in the bottom hole assembly. The rotation rate and the spring elastic stiffness had a significant and positive influence on the fluctuation amplitude of the downhole bit load. Meanwhile, the longitudinal vibration amplitude and acceleration of the drill string peaked at the elastic stiffness of 1 kN/mm. The closer the spring position to the drill bit was, the more severe the longitudinal vibration of the drill string above the spring component was. The bit load and the rotation rate had a positive influence on the severity of longitudinal vibration. The analysis of energy conversion efficiency showed that the available mechanical energy range of the longitudinal vibration of the drill pipe was about 200–420 kW. The work power of the drill string vibration to the spring component increased sharply and then decreased with the increasing of elastic stiffness. The energy conversion efficiency came to the optimal value when the elastic stiffness was between 1 kN/mm and 2 kN/mm. Increasing the rotation rate, keeping the bit load below 134.5 kN and installing the spring component near the drill bit are beneficial for improving the energy conversion efficiency of drill string vibration. This paper reveals the main factors affecting the energy conversion efficiency of drill string vibration and their influencing laws, and determines the range of WOB, rotation speed, spring position and stiffness to obtain the best energy conversion efficiency.


Bis(trimethylsilyl)amide-ligated iron-sulfur cubane clusters [Fe(4)(mu(3)-S)(4)(N{SiMe(3)}(2))(4)](z) (z = 0, 1-, 2-) are accessible by the reaction of FeCl(N{SiMe(3)}(2))(2)(THF) (1) with 1 equiv of NaSH (z = 0), followed by reduction with either 0.25 (z = 1-) or 1 equiv (z = 2-) of Na(2)S as needed. The anionic clusters are obtained as the sodium salts [Na(THF)(2)][Fe(4)S(4)(N{SiMe(3)}(2))(4)] and [Na(THF)(2)](2)[Fe(4)S(4)(N{SiMe(3)}(2))(4)]; in the solid state, these two clusters both possess a unique contact ion pair motif in which individual sodium ions each coordinate to a cluster core sulfide, an adjacent amide nitrogen, and two THF donors. The monoanionic cluster can also be prepared as the lithium salt [Li(THF)(4)][Fe(4)S(4)(N{SiMe(3)}(2))(4)] by the reaction of 1 with 1:0.5 LiCl/Li(2)S. The characterization of the three-membered redox series allows an analysis of redox trends, as well as a study of the effects of the amide donor environment on the [Fe(4)S(4)] core. Bis(trimethylsilyl)amide terminal ligation significantly stabilizes oxidized cluster redox states, permitting isolation of the uncommon [Fe(4)S(4)](3+) and unprecedented [Fe(4)S(4)](4+) weak-field cores.


We present Aereal, a framework for analyzing exception flow in architecture descriptions. Aereal works as a customizable architectural-level exception handling system that can be further constrained or have some of its rules relaxed. Since different architectural styles have different policies for exception flow, Aereal makes it possible to specify rules on how exceptions flow in a given style and to check for violations of these rules. As enabling technologies. Aereal uses Alloy, a first-order relational language, ACME, an interchange language for architecture description, and their associated tool sets.


A high-speed, non-invasive velocity diagnostic has been developed for measuring plasma rotation. The Doppler shift is determined by employing two detectors that view line emission from the identical volume of plasma. Each detector views through an interference filter having a passband that varies linearly with wavelength. One detector views the plasma through a filter whose passband has a negative slope and the second detector views through one with a positive slope. Because each channel views the same volume of plasma, the ratio of the amplitudes is not sensitive to variations in plasma emission. With suitable knowledge of the filter characteristics and the relative gain, the Doppler shift is readily obtained in real time from the ratio of two channels without needing a low throughput spectrometer. The systematic errors--arising from temperature drifts, stability, and frequency response of the detectors and amplifiers, interference filter linearity, and ability to thoroughly homogenize the light from the fiber bundle--can be characterized well enough to obtain velocity data with + or - 1 km/sec with a time resolution of 0.3 msec.


Very little is known about the characteristics of highly cited scientists in Africa. This is unfortunate as highly cited researchers are seen as key drivers of knowledge production for their countries and as important conduits of frontier knowledge into the local academic research community and society in general. In this article, we combined bibliometric and survey data to identify which researchers are producing highly cited research in Africa, and we employed econometric analysis to understand which characteristics are associated with the likelihood of being highly cited. Overall, our results suggest that, on average, researchers who produce more scientific publications in a year, collaborate more often with non-African partners, and do their highest qualification in an Anglo-Saxon university (the USA, the UK, Canada, or Australia), have a higher probability of producing highly cited research. We conclude by arguing about the duality of our results. On the one hand, collaborating with frontier universities seems to be a crucial mechanism that allows researchers to develop scientific capabilities. On the other hand, policy makers should be aware that research assessment in African countries should go beyond measuring scientific impact in the academic community. Otherwise, incentives will be in place to stimulate winners that are already well connected with the global scientific elite.


Hinckdentine A, a marine-sponge-derived tribrominated indole alkaloid bearing a unique indolo[1,2-c]quinazoline skeleton, was completed in 12 steps featuring the construction of the Nα-quaternary carbon center by asymmetric azo-ene cyclization. A novel organocatalyst was developed to promote high-yielding tribromination, which represents a challenging process encountered in previous syntheses. Density functional theory calculations scrutinized viable substrates and deciphered the origin of the enhancement of C8 electrophilic bromination with a bifunctional organocatalyst. Moreover, the application of organocatalyst-enabled bromination on various substrates was demonstrated to highlight future late functionalizations of biologically intriguing targets.


There were several studies about expatriate leadership that conducted in Indonesia, but those are only focuses on the experience of living and working abroad. Consequently, this study aims to investigate the role of cultural intelligence (CQ) in cross-cultural leadership effectiveness, within the context of Indian-Indonesian cultural differences. Besides, what kind of leadership style that practiced by an expatriate leader as the result of CQ's role. This study used a qualitative method and conducted in one of the international schools in Semarang. The participants of this study contain 5 peoples (an Indian Principal, 2 school coordinators, and 2 teachers). Each participant delivered briefly about all the points that used in this study. The data were gathered by using in-depth interviews to revealed that all aspects in CQ (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, behavioral) thoroughly have the main role in the Principal's cross-cultural leadership effectiveness. The result of the data analysis indicate that the Principal has some characteristics of an effective leader, such as communicative, pay attention to the well-being of the staffs, listen carefully to the suggestion from the staffs, and directly see the conditions that faced by the staffs. Besides, the role of CQ also resulted in the Principal's leadership style, which shows bureaucratic but with a touch of nurturant side inside. The Principal is task-oriented, but still,  keep a good relation with the staffs through motivation and praise.


ABSTRACT A spinal cord injury is a devastating, life-changing neurologic event that challenges patients, families, and caregivers. A myriad of neurologic and medical sequelae occur subsequent to the original insult. This article discusses epidemiology, primary and secondary injuries, acute therapy, and neuroprotective agents as well as the exciting areas of spinal cord recovery and regeneration, with an emphasis on cellular transplantation. Neurologic neurorehabilitation techniques and equipment are also reviewed, with a focus on their relation to increasing the independence and functional capacity of the patient. The article concludes with the clinical presentation and management of common spinal cord injury complications.


A numerical simulation is reported of the parameters of laser radiation after its propagation through an axisymmetric dense plasma. It is shown that, for typical laser plasma and Z pinch parameters, the depolarisation of probe radiation is considerably less than in the case of the magneto-optical Faraday effect. The conclusions drawn from this simulation are supported by experimental probing of a laser plasma. New direct methods for measuring the magnetic induction and the frequency of electron—ion collisions are proposed.


Introduction . When solving a number of practical problems the usage of multichannel images is common practice. Multichannel of this data permits or increases the efficiency of solving the problem, or allows to obtain useful information, which in principle cannot be extracted from the single-channel images. One of the main types of noise occurring in a multichannel image is uncorrelated noise. The optimal image filtering algorithms require enormous computational cost. Therefore, the important practical value is the synthesis of multi-channel image filtering algorithms, providing the required performance indicators at moderate computational cost. Theoretical results . Using conditional independence properties, the expression for the a posteriori probability density of pixels at the two-stage multi-channel image filtration with causal frame processing in the presence of uncorrelated noise is obtained. Gaussian algorithm for determining the estimates of image pixels and error variance estimation with causal intra and inter-frame processing is obtained in the case of multichannel image. Experimental results . The developed algorithm for considered example allows increasing the filtration accuracy of the sequence of homogeneous Gaussian images on a 20% - 45% compared to inter-frame averaging algorithm. Conclusion . Optimal and quasi-two-stage multi-channel image filtration algorithms were synthesized. In algorithms the first stage is one-dimensional causal filtration along each of the coordinates, and the second is the union of the results. These algorithms allow reducing the computational cost in comparison with the optimal algorithm and thus ensuring acceptable accuracy characteristics.


Background/Aims:Childhood-acquired cerebellar studies to date have appeared to present a concordant pattern of specific neuropsychological profiles depending on lesion site. The aim was to determine the impact of a cerebellar tumour specifically on language function in children by reporting both the general and high-level language abilities of 4 cases with differing sites of hemispheric and vermal involvement. Methods: The language abilities of 4 children (aged from 7 years 9 months to 13 years), treated with surgery and/or radiotherapy for cerebellar tumour 6 months to 3 years previously, were examined. A standardized battery of general and high-level language assessments was administered. Results: Analysis revealed intact abilities across all 4 cases on measures of general language, including receptive language, expressive language, receptive vocabulary and naming. While 2 of the 4 cases also demonstrated intact high-level language skills across all measures, the remaining 2 demonstrated specific deficits in linguistic problem solving at 6 months after treatment. Follow-up assessment of 1 case also demonstrated further decline in this area 12 months later. Conclusion: Findings of high-level language deficits in problem solving in 2 of the 4 cases examined supported previous reports of specific impairments in high-level language and in thinking flexibility and problem solving following cerebellar hemispheric damage in childhood.


It is well known that J.R.R. Tolkien said that he wanted to make "a mythology for England". Well known, but not true. This paper investigates how Tolkien really used the word mythology, and also looks at the relation


The prominent maneuverability of flapping flight is enabled by rapid and significant changes in aerodynamic forces, which is a result of surprisingly subtle and precise changes of wing kinematics. The high sensitivity of aerodynamic forces to wing kinematic changes demands precise and instantaneous control of the flapping wing trajectories, especially in the presence of various types of uncertainties. In this work, we first present a dynamic model of a pair of direct-motor-driven flapping wings while taking into consideration the parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. We then present an Adaptive Robust Controller (ARC) to achieve robust performance of high-frequency (over 30Hz) instantaneous wing trajectory tracking with onboard feedback. The proposed control algorithm was experimentally validated on a 7.5 gram flapping-wing MAV which showed excellent tracking of various wing trajectories with different amplitude, bias, frequency, and split-cycles. Experimental results on various model wings demonstrated that the ARC can adapt to unknown parameters and show no performance degradation across wings of different geometries. The results of ARC were also compared with those of open-loop and classical PID controllers.


This research aims to determine the level of efficiency production cost of goat farming in the lowland and the highland areas in Mojo Sub-district of Kediri Regency. Location determination and 60 respondents based on purposive sampling method from the total of all farmers in Mojo Sub-district of Kediri Regency. Data collection was done by questionnaire technique, interview technique and documentation. To analyzed the data in this research used Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approachMeasuring the efficiency production cost of goat farming used input variable that consist of the cost of shrinkage of cages, shrinkage tools, seeds, feeds, medicines and labor. Variable output was the revenue from the goats sale. The results showed that the efficiency of production cost of lowland goat farming was varies, farmers who achieve efficiency value equal to 1 was 9 farmers or 30% of the total respondents and 70% inefficient. Farmers in the highland who achieved the same level of efficiency as 1 was 15 farmers or 50% and the remaining 50% was inefficient. The use of input production costs in lowland and highland areas had a slack input value. Farmers in the lowland area could reduce the use of production costs in the form of 18% shrinkage of cages, 13% tool shrinkage, 6% seed, 2% feed, 6% medicine and 1.4% labor whereas breeders in the highland could reduce the use of costs production of 12% shrinkage of cages, 23% tool shrinkage, 11% seed, 10% feed, 12% medicine and 7% labor.

Keywords—Data Envelopment Analysis, efficiency of production cost, goat farming, highland, lowland


Newer methods of management and harvesting of sugarcane are being considered to improve soil and water conservation in Brazil. Our aim in this study was to evaluate soil C dynamics under sugarcane cultivation as influenced by the use of conservation management, using measurements from four different management systems and land use histories, i.e. conventional management with preharvest burning, no burning with residue retention and two systems without burning plus additional organic amendments. Field sites also differed in terms of soil texture. We compared field measurements of soil C stocks, 13C and microbial biomass with simulated results from the Century ecosystem model for each of the sites and management histories. We also did long‐term simulations of the management treatments and sites to approximate steady‐state SOC levels, to explore potential management‐induced differences in SOC stocks and interactions with soil texture. The model accurately represented treatment and site differences for total SOC stocks, in which SOC stocks were strongly affected by both rates of organic matter input to soil and soil clay content. However, the model tended to underestimate the relative contribution of sugarcane‐derived C to total SOC for sites with high residue and external organic matter amendments. Measured microbial biomass C across the sites was closely aligned with relative amounts of organic matter input but did not appear to be strongly affected by soil texture, whereas the model predicted that both texture and organic matter input rate would impact microbial biomass C. Long‐term simulations of the conservation management alternatives suggested that SOC stocks could be maintained at or above levels in the original native Cerradão vegetation, whereas conventional practices using residue burning would result in a reduction of SOC to ca. 60% of native levels. Our results support the use of the CENTURY model as an aid to assess the impacts of different soil management practices on SOC stocks under sugarcane in Brazil.


Determination of the factors that affect the d-band center of catalysts is required to explain their catalytic properties. Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) enables direct imaging of electronic transitions in the d-band of Pt catalysts in real time and in realistic environmental conditions. Through a combination of in situ, temperature-resolved RIXS measurements and theoretical simulations we isolated and quantified the effects of bond-length disorder and adsorbate coverage (CO and H2) on the d-band center of 1.25 nm size Pt catalysts supported on carbon. We found that the decrease in adsorbate coverage at elevated temperatures is responsible for the d band shifts towards higher energies relative to the Fermi level, whereas the effect of the increase in bond-length disorder on the d-band center is negligible. Although these results were obtained for a specific case of non-interacting support and weak temperature dependence of the metal-metal bond length in a model catalyst, this work can be extended to a broad range of real catalysts.


BACKGROUND
The efficacy of various partial-mouth recording (PMR) systems is analyzed in the evaluation of periodontal status, using index teeth and different combinations of quadrants.

METHODS
The study group was formed of 108 adults aged 25 to 65 years old. A full-mouth examination (FME) was performed in all participants to determine the periodontal probing depth (PD) and clinical attachment level (CAL) at six sites per tooth. The results of PMR using the Ramfjord teeth, the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs teeth, and the four quadrants individually and combined in pairs were compared to the results obtained with FME.

RESULTS
Concordance with FME in terms of the prevalence of patients with PD ≥4 mm, CAL ≥2 mm, and CAL ≥4 mm was lowest with examination of single quadrants and highest with combinations that included one superior and one inferior quadrant.

CONCLUSIONS
PMR systems, particularly with combinations of a superior plus an inferior quadrant, could be useful to evaluate periodontal status based on PD and CAL. This tool could be useful for epidemiologic surveys on periodontal status.


This paper introduces a public transit system called Jerney, which is a peer-to-peer shared ride on fixed routes. It takes the advantage of fixed route shared public transit (such as bus and rail systems) in order to keep the fare rate down compared to taxicabs, and provide a convenience of the peer-to-peer ride (such as Uber and Lyft) over the public transit such as bus and rail systems. Jerney system consists of three main components; passenger app, driver app, and dispatch system. Passenger books a shared ride via a mobile app by specifying origin and destination locations. The dispatch system then assigns a driver to the passenger and informs the passenger with pick-up and drop-off stations. Driver location can be monitored by the passenger once the ride has been booked. Jeryney system has been evaluated with real users in a user experience study from which there were positive feedbacks from the users, as they felt that the Jerney system was useful and easy to start using.


The infrared (IR) radiation emitted or reflected in an off- normal direction from a smooth surface is partially polarized. This principle can be used for enhanced discrimination of targets from backgrounds in a marine environment. It has been shown that (man-made) targets do not demonstrate a pronounced polarization effect when observed from near normal direction whereas the sea background radiation has a certain degree of polarization in slant observation path. A measurement setup has been constructed for collecting polarized IR imagery. This setup contains a rotating polarization filter that rotates synchronously with the frame sync of the camera. Either a long wave IR (LWIR) or a mid wave IR (MWIR) camera can be mounted behind the rotating polarization filter. The synchronization allows a sequence of images to be taken with a predefined constant angle of rotation between the images. Out of this image sequence three independent Stokes images are constructed, containing the normal intensity part, the vertical/horizontal polarization and the diagonal polarization. Up to 20 full linearly polarized images can be acquired per second. Measurements are taken at the North Sea coast with this setup. The recorded images are analyzed to determine the influence of polarization on the detection of small targets in such an environment. Furthermore differences between polarization contrasts in MWIR are analyzed.


Use of features in order to
achieve the integration of design and manufacture has been considered to be a
key factor recent years. Features such as manufacturing properties form the workpiece. Features are structured
systematically through object oriented modeling. This article explains an
object coding method developed for prismatic workpieces and the use of that
method in process planning. Features have been determined and modeled as
objects. Features have been coded according to their types and locations on the
workpiece in this given method. Feature codings have been seen to be very
advantageous in process planning.


In these days, properties of concrete has been demanded to be high performance because concrete structure was bigger and higher. So studies on high strength concrete and lightweight concrete has been frequently done. But lightweight concrete has been used to limited non-structural elements in th country. Lightweight aggregate mixed with lightweight concrete was only coarse aggregate in case of the structural lightweight concrete. In the country studies on the lightweight concrete was poor and unvaried. Also it is difficult to be practical use of lightweight concrete was that it has been expensive. It was study on the using fine lightweight aggregate with lightweight concrete to crushed by-products and wastes to get to make foamed glass with recycled glass. So it was tested by fine aggregate standard and mixed with.


Background High-dose recombinant human interleukin-2 (aldesleukin) elicits durable anti-tumor immunity and gained FDA approval two decades prior to checkpoint blockers. However, use of aldesleukin is limited due to treatment-related life-threatening toxicities. Second generation efforts to alleviate toxicities have largely focused on eliminating binding to IL-2Rα, often with half-life extension. We have determined that mice and non-human primates (NHPs) treated with a 2nd generation IL-2 surrogate that does not bind IL-2Rα still experience characteristic dose-limiting toxicities, including vascular leak syndrome (VLS), and exhibit dysregulated peripheral immune function due to reduced Treg activation. To overcome these toxicities and improve the therapeutic index of IL-2 as an anti-tumor immunotherapy, we employed protein engineering to generate XTX201, a highly potent 3rd generation IL-2 that is designed to be selectively active in tumors, stimulating cytolytic responses against tumor cells while sparing systemic immune activation. Methods XTX201 binding interactions were measured with SPR, and bioactivity was measured using STAT-5 phosphorylation in human PBMCs and reporter cell lines. Anti-tumor efficacy and immune activation was evaluated in tumors compared to peripheral organs in syngeneic tumor mouse models. Safety and pharmacokinetics were evaluated in rodents and NHPs. Results Non-activated XTX201 showed no detectable binding to IL-2Rα or IL-2Rβ, and limited IL-2R-dependent STAT-5 signaling in vitro. Activation of XTX201 resulted in high-affinity binding to IL-2Rβ and no binding to IL-2Rα, leading to a ~1000-fold reduction in Treg activation as compared to WT IL-2, while retaining CD8+ T and NK cell activation. Mice and NHPs treated with a 2nd generation IL-2 surrogate experienced toxicities that are commonly observed in patients treated with aldesleukin, including pulmonary edema, VLS, fever and lethality. However, XTX201 did not induce toxicities at exposures 100-fold higher than the MTD of the activated version, and achieved similar anti-tumor efficacy in mice. Experiments in primary human solid tumors and human plasma indicated that XTX201 is preferentially activated in the tumor microenvironment. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that 2nd generation IL-2s that are systemically active and lack binding to IL-2Rα exhibit dose-limiting toxicities unless further engineered for selective activity in tumors. XTX201, a 3rd generation, tumor-selective IL-2, exhibits a long half-life and is innocuous outside of tumors. XTX201 is activated within tumors to release an IL-2Rβ/γ biased cytokine that inhibits tumor growth in syngeneic models, and exhibits tumor-specific pharmacodynamic effects without peripheral toxicities. XTX201 has the potential to be a best-in-class IL-2 immunotherapy by expanding the curative anti-tumor activity of aldesleukin while minimizing dose-limiting toxicities.


Mechanical rebar couplers are preferable in the advanced building construction and structural design of antiseismic elements. The paper presents destructive inspection techniques used to investigate stress fields (tensile and compressive) and deformation curves for mechanical rebar splicing. The properties of mechanical rebar splicing are investigated by the non-destructive testing digital radiography. The behavior of real connections (column-to- column, beam-to-column) is studied under static and dynamic loads. Investigation results allow the elaboration of recommendations on their application in the universal prefabricated antiseismic structural system developed at Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building, Tomsk, Russia.


&NA; This article seeks to address an old and recurring theme in development economics—the slow adoption of new technologies by farmers in many developing countries. We explore a somewhat novel explanation for this puzzle—the link between market access and the incentives to adopt a new technology when there are non‐convexities. We develop a theoretical model to guide the empirical analysis that uses spatially disaggregated agricultural production data from the International Food Policy Research Institute and Living Standards Measurement Study survey data for Nigeria. We estimate the impact of transport costs on crop production, adoption of modern technologies, and the differential impact on returns of modern versus traditional farmers. To overcome the limitation of data availability on travel costs for much of Africa, we combine road survey data and GIS roads networks to generate the most thorough and accurate road network available, to our knowledge. Using these data and the Highway Development Management Model (HDM‐4), we compute minimum travel costs from each location to the market. Consistent with our theory we find that transportation costs are critical in determining technology choices, with a greater responsiveness among farmers who adopt modern technologies, and at times a perverse (negative) response to lower transport costs among those who employ more traditional techniques. In sum, we present compelling evidence that the constraints to the adoption of modern technologies and access to markets are interconnected, and so should be targeted jointly.


This paper tries to show that emergence of any novelty cannot take place without some kind of indeterminism. Determinism and indeterminism both are aspects of reality and they are interconnected. A General Systems Theory has to include indeterminism which apparently exists in most basical systems (e.g. quantum systems) as well as in highly specific systems (human minds and societies).


Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has a very shiny nose and if you ever saw it, you might even say it glowed. The purpose of this paper is to find out how much energy, in the form of carrots, Rudolph would need to help guide Santa's sleigh through thick clouds and fog with his nose. By comparing his nose to a 40W incandescent light bulb, we conclude that approximately 151 carrots would be required to provide power for the 12-hour night shift.


From the NC machining principle of spiral bevel gear, the motion relationship of machine tool, cutter and workpiece during machining spiral bevel gear was analyzed. Based on the machine coordinate system, the tooth surface equation and the cone equation of cutting edges of spiral bevel gear were put forward. 3D solid model of spiral bevel gear was constructed using Pro/E Wildfire2.0 software. The NC milling simulation was carried out by the VERICUT software, and at the same time, the experiment was researched. Simulation and experimental results show that the spiral bevel gear can adopt the method of CNC machining, and can ensure the high quality, especially for single or small batch production.


Ginsenoside Rc is one of the active components used in traditional Chinese medicine. We aim to explore how ginsenoside Rc can be used in the treatment of osteoporosis. Micro-CT demonstrated that the treatment of ovariectomized (OVX) mice with ginsenoside Rc significantly inhibited the decrease in bone mineral density, bone volumetric fraction, and trabecular number, and the increase in trabecular separation. Histological staining, qRT-PCR, and Western blot demonstrated that ginsenoside Rc enhances the microstructure of trabecular bone, and promotes the expression of bone formation-related genes. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining, Alizarin Red staining, qRT-PCR, and Western blotting demonstrated that ginsenoside Rc dose-dependently promoted the osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. A ginsenoside Rc-induced increase in the expression of β-catenin, p-GSK-3β, collagen-1, ALP, and RUNX-2 family transcription factor-2 was significantly attenuated upon 10 μM XAV-939 treatment, while the decrease in the expression of GSK-3β and p-β-catenin was significantly enhanced. Ginsenoside Rc promotes bone formation in ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in vivo and promotes osteogenic differentiation in vitro via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.


In this paper I propose a hypothesis linking elements of a model of theoretical syntax with neural mechanisms in the domain of sensorimotor processing. The syntactic framework I adopt to express this linking hypothesis is Chomsky's Minimalism: I propose that the language-independent 'Logical Form' (LF) of a sentence reporting a concrete episode in the world can be interpreted as a detailed description of the sensorimotor processes involved in apprehending that episode. The hypothesis is motivated by a detailed study of one particular episode, in which an agent grasps a target object. There are striking similarities between the LF structure of transitive sentences describing this episode and the structure of the sensorimotor processes through which it is apprehended by an observer. The neural interpretation of Minimalist LF structure allows it to incorporate insights from empiricist accounts of syntax, relating to sentence processing and to the learning of syntactic constructions.


DNA sequencing in a lab-on-a-chip aims at providing cheap, high-speed analysis of low reagent volumes to, e.g., identify genomic deletions or insertions associated with genetic illnesses. Detecting single base-pair insertions/deletions from DNA fragments in the diagnostically relevant range of 150−1000 base-pairs requires a sizing accuracy of S < 10-3. Here we demonstrate S = 4×10-4. A microfluidic chip was post-processed by femtosecond-laser writing of an optical waveguide. 12 blue-labeled and 23 red-labeled DNA fragments were separated in size by capillary electrophoresis, each set excited by either of two lasers power-modulated at different frequencies, their fluorescence detected by a photomultiplier, and blue/red signals distinguished by Fourier analysis. Different calibration strategies were tested: a) use either set of DNA molecules as reference to calibrate the set-up and identify the base-pair sizes of the other set in the same flow experiment, thereby eliminating variations in temperature, wall-coating and sieving-gel conditions, and actuation voltages; b) use the same molecular set as reference and sample with the same fluorescence label, flown in consecutive experiments; c) perform cross-experiments based on different molecular sets with different labels, flown in consecutive experiments. From the results we conclude: Applying quadratic instead of linear fit functions improves the calibration accuracy. Blue-labeled molecules are separated with higher accuracy. The influence of dye label is higher than fluctuations between two experiments. Choosing a single, suitable dye label combined with reference calibration and sample investigation in consecutive experiments results in S = 4×10-4, enabling detection of single base-pair insertion/deletion in a lab-on-a-chip.


Breeds of domesticated animals are often overlooked as contributing to biodiversity. Their unique role at the junction of natural and human-influenced environments makes them important potential contributors to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Effective conservation of livestock breeds rests upon valid recognition of breeds as repeatable genomic packages with a reasonably high level of predictability for performance. Local or landrace breeds that lack breeder organization are especially difficult to conserve due to lack of formal recognition as breeds. Achieving success with them involves three major steps: Discover, Secure, and Sustain. Early in the process an evaluation of candidate populations for status as genetic resources is essential. This process is aided by a phenotypic matrix which can be used alongside historical investigations and genetic (DNA) studies. The goal is to include all qualifying animals and to exclude all those that do not qualify. Securing some populations depends on careful rescue protocols for maximizing the recovery of genetic variation, and this can then be followed by breeding protocols that provide for maintaining the population's production potential along with a healthy and viable genetic structure for long-term survival and use. Sustaining breeds for the long term is also enabled by assuring market demand for the breed and its products.


File systems for multimedia applications must support high bandwidth streaming with strict rate guarantees. Recently we proposed a distributed file system built using autonomous disks (S. Mukherjee et al., 1999). Autonomous disks are attached directly to the network and are able to perform lightweight processing. The paper describes the methodologies used to make the file system quality of service (QoS) aware and real-time sensitive. We propose efficient bandwidth allocation and enforcement policies that can keep the servers stateless. The policies are implemented in Linux kernel along with the file system. Using experimental results we show the effectiveness of the policies, and the enforcement of bandwidth allocation and usage in a fair manner. We also show that the overhead of the proposed mechanism on the overall system performance is very minimal.


The decomposition of GaN at a range of temperatures has been studied by Rutherford backscattering (RBS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The development of a surface defect peak is a consequence of preferential N2 loss at elevated temperatures. Additionally, the emergence of a direct scattering peak approximately 0.25 µm beneath the surface at 1100 °C can be attributed to the buildup of extended defects. At such temperatures severe roughening of the surface is observed through AFM scans. Nevertheless, Ga droplet formation is not detected from our samples as verified by XPS. Our results show that GaN remains thermally stable in N2 up to 900 °C. At higher temperatures, significant decomposition occurs and gives rise to degradation of the structural and morphological properties of the film.


The Paris museum of rare letters and manuscripts (Musee des lettres et manuscrits) preserves the letters from Vasily V. Kandinsky, written during his living in Munich, to his friend A.A. Pappe. This correspondence from the early 1900's gradually reveals the fundamental principles of the progressive European art education at the turn of the 20th century. Kandinsky was a student of the renowned art teacher Anton Azhbe, whose art studio was a center of the artistic learning and enlightenment for artists from Europe, the USA and Russia. Azhbe's unique art system which nowadays became a part of the academic education was preserved due to the recollections of his contemporaries.
 The letters of Kandinsky to Pappe signifi cantly amplify the collection of the prominent writings devoted to this subject. However, the real value of these documents lies in the fact that this correspondence is the first documented evidence of the transfer of knowledge which would be the base of the pedagogical activities of the famous Russian avant-garde artist.


The magnetic rigidity spectrum of primary cosmic rays with Z ≥ 6, in the rigidity interval 2·5 to 16·0 GV, has been determined by means of a Cerenkov counter carried in the satellite Ariel. The integral spectrum shows a well-defined change in slope near 8·5 GV, indicating that this is probably the upper limit to the solar modulation process at this time (May and June 1962). In the rigidity interval covered by these measurements the integral spectrum is adequately represented by a power law with an exponent ca. 1.2 below 8.5 GV and ca. 1.5 above this rigidity. Under the plausible assumption that the integral galactic spectrum of these particles is represented by a power law with exponent 1·5, it follows that the solar modulation process in the 2·5 to 8·5 GV region is of the form JE = J∞[p/po]0·3, where JE is the intensity at the Earth of particles with rigidity greater than p , where p is in GV, J∞ is the corresponding intensity outside the solar system, and p0 ~ 8·5.


This study aimed to update the taxonomic data of two tiger moths which were earlier based upon the taxonomic characteristics of adult specimens only like male and female genitalic features. This study is an attempt to prove that the ultrastructural characteristics of the egg chorion of these tiger moth species are also important and they can be used in early taxonomic identifications of these species based on egg characteristics as they are also found to be species-specific. A scanning electron microscope was used to inspect, characterize and depict eggs of two species referable to Spilarctia Butler and Cladarctia Koda of the Erebidae family. The descriptions and comparative morphological analyses of the eggshells of Spilarctia multiguttata (Walker) and Cladarctia quadriramosa (Kollar) were compiled to present the structural complexity of these tiny eggs and depict the distinct patterns of structural features including the central micropylar pit, micropylar rosette, number of micropyles and aeropyles. The SEM analysis revealed their unique architecture which allows for unrestricted exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide while limiting water loss because of the presence of minute air pores all over the chorion. From the results, it is evident that the ultrastructural egg chorion characters are of great taxonomic value at specific as well as generic levels and these types of investigations must be amplified to improve and escalate the morphological personation of tiger moths.


A subgroup of 351 subjects with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing were available from the Framingham Heart Study for analyses to identify associations with obesity. The subjects consisted of 143 males and 208 females aged 58-88 years at the 15th biennial examination in 1978. The obese classification was based on maximum body mass index (BMI) over the 16 available biennial examinations of the Framingham Heart Study. The subjects were classified as obese if they exceeded the 95th percentile of BMI for 20- to 29-year-old subjects as described in the NHANES II study; males were obese if BMI greater than 31.1 and females were obese if BMI greater than 32.3. There were 27 obese males (18.9%) and 44 obese females (21.2%) in the sample. Gene frequencies were compared between the nonobese and obese groups for the pooled sample as well as by sex. Among alleles previously shown to be related to obesity, HLA Bw35 appeared to be more frequent in obese females but these data did not confirm a difference for the B18 or Cw4 alleles. More importantly, HLA Aw30 was found to be significantly higher among the obese subjects in both males and females. Further analyses adjusting for potential confounding variables reduced the estimated relative risk for obesity for subjects with the Bw35 allele to approximately 1.30 and no longer significant for this sample size. In contrast, the relative risk for Aw30, while reduced, remained significant after adjustment for confounding variables. Based on these data, individuals with the Aw30 allele have a relative risk of 2.61 for obesity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


During 2001, Gyrodactylus specimens were collected from
Barbatula barbatula originated in Hana River and two sampling
sites on Vlara River, Czech Republic, in monthly samples of
fifteen fishes. Thirty-one specimens of Gyrodactylus were from
different seasons were stored for molecular analysis.
Sequencing of the complete internal transcribed spacer (ITS)
rRNA genes of Gyrodactylus specimens parasitising B. barbatula
from locality Hana revealed sequence differences on the species
level. According to the sequence comparison, the presence of at
least three Gyrodactylus jiroveci-like species was predicted.
Further analysis was required to confirm existence these
species according to standard morpholometrical description,
using drawings and measurements of the hard part of parasite
haptor. According to the shape of marginal hook sickle, the
specimens were divided into 3 groups. Measurements of the hard
parts of haptor (ten characters) from two species-groups (80
specimens from four seasons) were analysed. Using K mean
cluster test and PCA plot, two species-groups were
discriminated into two isolated group. Results of this
preliminary analysis suggest presence of G. jiroveci and
Gyrodactylus papernai (recently used as synonymum for G.
jiroveci) in central europeans rivers. The third species-group
was determined as Gyrodactylus pseudonemachili that is
originally described from Asia, and this species seemed to
occurred very rarely in Central Europe. Due to limited number
of collected specimens of G. pseudonemachili, this species was
not included in metrical analyses.


The article is dedicated to Ephrem Osipovich Mukhin (1766-1850), a native of Ukraine, professor of the Moscow University. The decisive role he had played in the moulding of N. I. Pirogov as a physician and scientist is revealed.


Abstract This study compared digestate from two anaerobic digesters of different feedstocks (food waste and dairy manure) and produced solid and liquid fertilizer products for inclusion in a farm-scale tomato plant growth experiment. Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate vibratory screening and membrane filtration and to characterize elemental flows during the processing of two digestates. Solid and liquid fertilizer products were produced in a developed pilot scale integrated vibratory screen, membrane filtration, and ambient drying system. Experimental results showed that the elemental compositions of the two digestates were different but shared some similarities. The food waste digestate had higher N and Na, similar P and K, and lower Mg contents than the dairy manure digestate. The coarse solids of both digestates were nutrient poor and the K and Na were present mostly in the liquid obtained following filtration with 0.45 µm membrane. The dairy manure digestate had a higher amount of fine solids between 0.45-75 µm than the food waste digestate but the majority of N was contained in these fine solids for both digestates. P and Mg were present in larger particle sizes for the food waste digestate than the dairy manure digestate. For the fertilizer products produced with pilot scale equipment, the TKN in the liquid product for the food waste and dairy manure digestate was 2.3 and 1.2 g/L, respectively, over 90% of which was contributed by NH 4 -N. The dried solid products of approximately 60% moisture content contained TKN concentrations of 6.3% and 4.7% for the food waste and dairy manure digestates, respectively (dry basis).


Previous reports have provided suggestive evidence for a role of endogenous opiates in modulating feeding behavior as well as insulin secretion from the pancreas. This evidence includes pharmacologic studies as well as studies of endogenous opioid peptides in tissues of genetically obese rodent models. In the present study, content of three opioid peptide immunoreactivities (beta-endorphin, met-enkephalin and leu-enkephalin) were measured in pituitary and pancreas of two recently described, genetically obese rats, the LA/N-cp and the SHR/N-cp. Although both of these inbred strains carry the same cp allele, the SHR-cp rat is obese and diabetic by 8 weeks of age, while the LA/N-cp is obese but remains euglycemic. There were no significant differences in content of immunoreactive beta-endorphin, met-enkephalin or leu-enkephalin in whole pituitary, posterior or anterior lobes of the pituitary, or pancreas which could be ascribed to the effect of the obese phenotype. These data are in contrast to previously reported studies in which significant alterations in opioid peptide immunoreactivities were found in genetically obese Zucker fa/fa rats, C57BL/6 ob/ob mice and C57BL/Ks db/db mice. The present work provides no support for pathological involvement of opioid peptides in the genetically obese cp/cp rat.


The long exposure of structural components to high temperatures (above 600 °C) negatively changes their mechanical properties, severely compromising the structural capacity of buildings and other structures in which safety is a primary concern. Developing new cheaper fire-resistant steels with better mechanical and thermal performances represents a challenging, cutting-edge materials science and engineering research topic. Alloying elements such as Nb and Mo are generally used to improve the strength at both room and high temperatures due to the formation of precipitates and harder microconstituents. This study shows that adding small amounts of boron in Nb-microalloyed fire-resistant steels may be crucial in maintaining mechanical properties at high temperatures. The widely used 66% yield-strength criteria for fire resistance was achieved at ≈574 °C for the B-added alloys. In contrast, for those without boron, this value reached ≈460 °C, representing a remarkable boron-induced mechanical strengthening enhancement. First-principles quantum mechanics calculations demonstrate that boron additions can lower 11.7% of the vacancy formation energy compared to pure ferrite. Furthermore, for Nb-added steels, the reduction in the vacancy formation energy may reach 33.2%, suggesting that the boron-niobium combination could act as an effective pinning-based steel-strengthening agent due to the formation of B-induced higher-density vacancy-related crystalline defects, as well as other well-known steel strengthening mechanisms reported in the literature. Adding boron and niobium may, therefore, be essential in designing better structural alloys.


The process of charging and discharging of lithium-ion batteries results in the periodic intercalation and ejection of lithium ions in the anode material. High-capacity anode materials that are of significant interest for next-generation batteries, such as silicon, undergo large deformation during this process. The ensuing electro-chemo-mechanical stresses and accompanying microstructural changes lead to a complex state of inelastic deformation and damage in the silicon electrode that causes a significant capacity loss within just a few cycles. In this study, we attempt to understand, from an atomistic viewpoint, the mechanisms underlying the plasticity behavior of Si-anode as a function of lithiation. Conventional molecular dynamics simulations are of limited use since they are restricted to loading rates in the order of 10 s. Practical charging-discharging rates are several orders of magnitude slower, thus precluding a realistic atomistic assessment of the highly ratedependent mechanical behavior of lithiated silicon anodes via conventional molecular dynamics. In this work, we use a time-scaling approach that is predicated on the combination of a potential energy surface sampling method, minimum energy pathway, kinetic Monte Carlo, and transition state theory, to achieve applied strain rates as low as 1 s. We assess and compare the atomistic mechanisms of plastic deformation in three different lithium concentration structures: LiSi2, LiSi, and Li15Si4 for various strain-rates. We find that the strain rate plays a significant role in the alteration of the deformation and damage mechanisms including the evolution of the plastic deformation, nucleation of shear transformation zone, and void nucleation. Somewhat anomalously, LiSi appears to demonstrate (comparatively) the least strain rate sensitivity. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4045545]


Recursive descent parsing has the advantage of more convenient semantic processing than in the case of bottom-up parsing. However, it is limited to LL(1) grammars, which has often prevented its use for popular programming languages, such as Java or C#. The authors extended their compiler generator Coco/R, which generates recursive descent parsers, so that the user can specify rules for LL(1) conflict resolution. The simple technique works by evaluating user-defined Boolean expressions to allow the parser to make its parsing decisions where a one-symbol lookahead does not suffice. Thus multi-symbol lookahead or even semantic information can now guide the parsing process as well. Using their extended compiler generator, the authors implemented a compiler front end for C# that can be used as a framework for implementing a variety of tools, two of which are described in more detail: a white-box testing tool that measures path coverage, and a performance hint tool that evaluates source code according to user-defined rules about performance enhancements or coding style.


Secondary amyloidosis is a well recognised complication of rheumatic diseases, but the association with systemic lupus erythematosus is very unusual. We report the case of a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus who developed proteinuria due to renal amyloidosis. We also review the cases previously reported and the hypothesis on the pathogenic mechanisms.


Tuba is a novel scaffold protein that functions to bring together dynamin with actin regulatory proteins. It is concentrated at synapses in brain and binds dynamin selectively through four N-terminal Src homology-3 (SH3) domains. Tuba binds a variety of actin regulatory proteins, including N-WASP, CR16, WAVE1, WIRE, PIR121, NAP1, and Ena/VASP proteins, via a C-terminal SH3 domain. Direct binding partners include N-WASP and Ena/VASP proteins. Forced targeting of the C-terminal SH3 domain to the mitochondrial surface can promote accumulation of F-actin around mitochondria. A Dbl homology domain present in the middle of Tuba upstream of a Bin/amphiphysin/Rvs (BAR) domain activates Cdc42, but not Rac and Rho, and may thus cooperate with the C terminus of the protein in regulating actin assembly. The BAR domain, a lipid-binding module, may functionally replace the pleckstrin homology domain that typically follows a Dbl homology domain. The properties of Tuba provide new evidence for a close functional link between dynamin, Rho GTPase signaling, and the actin cytoskeleton.


To provide the polyethylene terephtalate (PET) plastic material with photocatalytic property, anatase TiO2 powders were plasma sprayed under various plasma spraying conditions. The effects of spraying parameters and surface morphology of substrates such as PET and PET pre-coated with Cu on the microstructure, phase composition and photocatalytic activity of TiO2 coating were systematically studied. The photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 coating was evaluated by the decomposition test of acetaldehyde gas. From the experimental result, it was found that fabrication of TiO2 coating was possible on PET substrate at arc currents of 200, 300 and 400A. The TiO2 coatings were thicker with increasing arc current. However, the coating was not attained when the plasma spraying was carried out on steel substrate even at a high arc current of 400 A. In case of plasma spraying on PET substrate pre-coated with Cu, the coating was locally formed at the arc current of 200 A. At the current of 300 A, the coating was attained. It was found that all fabricated TiO2 coatings exhibited photocatalytic activity regardless of undercoat materials and spraying parameters from the acetaldehyde decomposition test. Even coatings with thin and locally formed layers also showed the same photocatalytic performance as other thick coatings. From the XRD analysis, the reason for the efficient photocatalytic activity in the coatings was due to the high anatase phase content.


We previously reported that follistatin-related protein (FRP)/TSC-36 was one of the target antigens of autoantibodies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and that the appearance of serum autoantibodies to FRP correlated to disease activity in RA. However, the significance of FRP in autoimmunity remained to be explained due to the unknown function of FRP. Here, we disclose in part the function of FRP. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta augmented FRP gene expression in synovial cells. FRP reduced synovial production of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, MMP-3 and prostaglandin E(2), potent agonists of joint destruction in RA. In contrast, autoantibodies to FRP from patients with RA increased their production by blocking FRP activity, probably in the autocrine system. Moreover, FRP down-regulated synovial expression of FOS (c-fos), which seemed responsible for the reduction in MMP-1 and MMP-3 caused by FRP. Therefore, FRP and its autoantibody can be regarded as defensive and offensive factors respectively in rheumatoid arthropathy. The major epitope of autoantibodies to FRP was mapped to the sequence LKFVEQNE (residues 169-176) and homologous sequences were found in proteins from Escherichia coli, Epstein-Barr virus, etc. FRP and its autoantibody may provide some clues to elucidate the process of disease development and a new approach to the design of therapeutics in RA.


Perhaps the most striking finding in relation to the antibacterial activity in the respiratory system is the sterility of the bronchopulmonary apparatus from the primary bronchi downward. That these structures are ordinarily sterile, despite the continuous entry of droplet nuclei containing bacteria, has been known for more than 50 years (3). The mechanism by which the bronchopulmonary tree retains its sterility under ordinary circumstances is just beginning to be understood. Our attention was drawn to the problem by the considerations that if, in fact, the bronchopulmonary tree were normally sterile, and if in chronic bronchitis the lower bronchial secretions were ordinarily heavily populated with bacteria, there might be a basis for investigating the pathogenesis of chronic bronchopulmonary infections from the standpoint of breakdown of mechanism of local antibacterial activity. Initial investigations, therefore, were directed toward the study of the bacteriological flora of the bronchopulmonary secretions, with the use of extreme precautions to avoid contamination of the cultured material by bacteria coming from the upper respiratory passages. These studies (10) confirmed earlier observations (1, 11) that bacteria were rarely found in the bronchopulmonary secretions unless there was manifest inflammation or exudation. By the same token, when such exudation was found, the bacteria tended to be present in large numbers (>106 colonies per milliliter of secretion), and often the bacteria in the bronchial secretions were


This article analyzes the unique legal position of the European Community (EC) in the world trading system. Its polycephalous anatomy derives from the fact that all 27 Member States of the EC are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) along with the EC itself. This means that when referring to the EC, the whole as well as its parts are independent Members of the WTO. This has legal and political consequences related to the allocation of powers between the national and supranational levels that will be analyzed. The article explains what is meant by a mixed agreement and analyzes the various existing types of mixed agreements in the field of the European Community's external relations. The effects of the EC's international agreements vis-a-vis third parties are examined. EC Treaty practice has become increasingly dominated by mixed agreements for they reflect the legal and political reality that the EC is not a single State for the purposes of international law. Problems raised by mixed agreements do not exist within the context of exclusive EC competence, but instead relate to the EC's functioning. Within the EC treaty-making, there is a tendency to sign mixed agreements rather than pure Community agreements in areas dealing with the EC external relations. This shows their importance for the European Community and for its position in the world. The article concludes with some suggestions on what might be the optimal way to move forward in the complex field of external relations law of the EC and the European Union (EU).


In this paper we look at one of the effects of irradiation on a warped accretion disc in the context of active galactic nuclei (AGN). A warp will catch a substantial amount of the radiation emitted by the central object. We consider the fluid motions that may arise inside a warped disc when the surface is subject to a radiation stress, and also the net mass flows that result. We find that, to first order, we have a balance of the viscous and Coriolis-type forces. The radial radiation stress causes outward motion of the surface layer, but only the azimuthal Poynting–Robertson drag leads to an increase in the net accretion rate. We investigate the distribution of the velocity perturbations and find them to be significant in determining the local structure of the disc.

An unexpected result is that the picture changes significantly when we take into account the periodic illumination of the warped disc. A type of resonance at the local Keplerian rotation frequency causes a flow that penetrates the whole thickness of the disc; these flows are faster than the flows due to unchanging illumination. They totally dominate the induced flows in terms of sheer mass, but significant impact on disc structure still occurs only near the surface, where velocity perturbations typically go up to some kilometres per second.


The two recent macroeconomic shocks that hit the world economy - the surge of oil and food prices and the subprime crisis – have revived the attention of policy makers and economists on the consequences of shocks, symmetric and asymmetric, and on the appropriateness of the EMU institutional framework to respond to these shocks. The briefing paper outlines the doctrine that underlies the ECB response to the shock, i.e. an exclusive focus on inflation, and argues that this policy is likely to be ineffective, while it will certainly have deep distributional consequences, having the same analytical effect as of a regressive tax on low income wage earners. The paper then discusses in more general terms how the European institutions face difficulties in the classical instrument/objective assignment problem, which stems from an excess of confidence in market adjustment mechanisms. This contrasts with the case of the US, where market forces and policy interventions complement each other in a virtuous way. The paper then concludes with a number of proposed changes in the economic governance of Europe, which would make the policy reaction to shocks easier and more effective.


Novel La Sakakin fi Mathabikhi hadzihil-Madinah (LSMHM) is considered to have an intense ideological and political nuance for its narration on conflict. It is worth reading this novel to observe the measures chosen by the characters in dealing with existing conflict and its impacts. Sociological approach to literature is applied to reveal the strategy. The reading reveals that the characters in this novel have various strategies in dealing with conflict and related problems. Contending, yielding, problem solving, withdrawing, and inaction are the possible strategies. However, none of the characters choose yielding or problem solving. The existing preferences seem to be the writer's outlook on that conflict. The conflict itself has been inflicting refuge, social manipulation, excision, and harassment.


Cachexia is a common finding in various diseases such as chronic renal failure, HIV infection, malignancies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and rheumatoid arthritis. It is estimated that 30% of patients with malignancies will appear with cachexia, and up to 80% of patients with progressive metastatic disease will be affected. Cachexia is associated with decreased overall survival rates, and decreased beneficial effects of chemotherapy treatment. The underlying pathological processes in cachexia are not completely understood. It is believed that tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) plays an essential rule in cachexia induction and propagation. This article reviews and discusses current anti-cachexia treatments, with special emphasis on anti-TNF-alpha treatment in malignancies and various other diseases.


Re-Impact "Rural Energy Production from Bioenergy Projects" is a project funded by the European Union Aid Cooperation office which is promoting a sustainabilty assessment framework for bionergy project focussed on rural development in developing countries. The project has case studies in China, India, Uganda and South Africa. This paper provides an overview of the analysis of regional bioenergy policies in the case studies. In China the focus of attention has been the transition to modern biomass in Yunnan Province, looking both at Jatropha and forest; in India, the implememtation of the biofuels strategy in the State of Chhattisgarh; in South Africa, the potential for biofuels in the SADC region; and in Uganda the potential for biomass power plants based on short rotation plantations. The case studies show the need for more evidence-base policies that take into account land use and equity issues in rural development. Bioenergy projects needs to be based on sound management models with technical and economic viability.


With a widespread growth in the potential applications of Wireless Sensor Networks, the need for reliable security mechanisms for them has increased manifold. This paper proposes a scheme, Privacy for Police Patrols (PPP), to provide secure data aggregation that relies on multilevel routing. Privacy factors have been identified and implemented. Aggregates are prepared and the summary of information is gathered and stored in a repository. The above defined approaches are integrated in police patrol applications and preliminary results are obtained.


Recently, cylinder liners of automotive and aircraft engines are encountered severe wear due to piston slap occurred by the repeated sliding stroke of piston. This research focuses on providing an alternative material for cylinder liners, which can be obtained through friction stir processing on AA7075 with different weight ratios of reinforcements like Al2O3 and SiC. Friction stir processing is executed with a tool rotational speed of 1000 r/min and traveling speed of 56 mm/min at 2° tool tilt angle. The images of optical microscopy reveal the fine-grains with a homogeneous distribution of secondary phase particles and also offer decrement in particle clustering except at some localized regions. It is identified that addition of 3.7 wt.% Al2O3 + 3.0 wt.% SiC in AA7075 enhanced the microhardness about 33.96% higher than base matrix. Hence, wear resistance of the specimen is improved. Dry sliding wear behavior of specimens is analyzed using pin on disc at 20, 40, and 60 N load conditions to create the actual sliding behavior of piston on cylinder wall. Increasing the wt.% of Al2O3 particles enhanced the wear resistance of AA7075 surface hybrid composites at 20 N load due to the formation of protective tribofilm. Specimen with 3.7% Al2O3 + 3.0% SiC has better lubrication and load-bearing capacity that exhibits superior tribological behavior at 40 and 60 N. Higher Fe content of 5.44 wt.% has been obtained through spectroscopy analysis in S5, which is 8% and 6% higher than S3 (7.5% of Al2O3) and S7 (6% of SiC), respectively. The scratching action of this hard specimen on the counterpart brings more Fe content. Increase of Al2O3 particles paved the way for tribofilm formation and identified through scanning electron microscopy micrographs. The observation from worn specimens shows that finer wear debris had increased by adding more quantity of SiC particles due to abrasive wear mechanism.


Staphylococcal food poisoning is a result of ingestion of Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) produced by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. SEs cause gastroenteritis and also cause activation of T cells and massive cytokine release. A current method for the detection of active SEs relies on its emetic effect on monkeys or kittens. However this costly procedure has low sensitivity and raises ethical concerns. This present study overcomes the limitations of such bioassays by providing an alternative method based on the alteration of TCR Vβ8 protein levels expressed on Jurkat T cell-line. We demonstrated that increasing concentrations of SEE, the causative agent in foodborne outbreaks in France, UK and USA, reduced TCR Vβ8 protein levels in a dose dependent manner and similarly alters the luciferase gene expression under the regulation of nuclear factor of T-cell activation (NFAT). Unlike previous studies that show accessory cells are not required for T cell activation by SEA or SEB, this present study demonstrated that accessory cells are required for T cell activation by SEE and SEE has greater affinity for the accessory cells than the Jurkat T cell. It is advantageous to use fixed dead cells where possible to reduce cell culture work. In this study we show that fixed accessory cells lacking any metabolic function without processing can present intact SEE and consequently alter TCR Vβ8 levels and the reporter gene expression.


To determine whether or not the two heads of myosin from striated adductor muscles of scallop are nonidentical and the main intermediate of the ATPase reaction, MADPP, is produced only on one of the two heads, the Pi-burst size, the amount of total bound nucleotides and the amount of bound ADP during the ATPase reaction were measured in this study. The Pi-burst size was 1 mol per mol in the presence of 0.1-5 mM Mg2+ ions. The amount of total nucleotides bound to myosin was 2 mol per mol. Both the amounts of bound ADP and ATP at sufficiently high ATP concentrations were 1 mol per mol of striated adductor myosin, and the affinity for ADP binding was higher than that for ATP binding. These findings indicate that MADPP or MATP is produced on each of the two heads of striated adductor myosin on its interaction with ATP. The fluorescence intensity at 340 nm of striated adductor myosin was enhanced by about 7% upon addition of ATP. The time for the half maximum fluorescence enhancement, tau 1/2, at 5 microM ATP was 0.25 s, which was almost equal to the tau 1/2 values for the Pi-burst and for the dissociation of actomyosin reconstituted from striated adductor myosin and skeletal muscle F-actin. The dependences on ATP concentration of the extent of the fluorescence enhancement and the dissociation of actomyosin could be explained by assuming that these changes are associated with the formation of MADPP on one of the two heads of myosin. The Pi-burst size and the amount of bound ADP of smooth adductor myosin were slightly but significantly larger than 1 mol per mol. Both ATPase reactions of striated and smooth adductor myofibrils showed the substrate inhibition. The extent of substrate inhibition of ATPase of smooth adductor myofibrils was less than that of striated adductor myofibrils. All the present findings support the view that the nonidentical two-headed structure is required for substrate inhibition of the actomyosin ATPase reaction.


The purpose of this study was to develop the couple relationship improvement program for college students and to examine the effects of the program based on the family of origin and attachment. Does based on Bowen's theory of differentiation of self, adult attachment, group counseling for this and establishes program goals according to systematic group counseling program development model and composed program. In order to attain like this research objective, six male and female couples attending colleges were divided into the participating group and comparison group; the students were from H University in Daejeon, Korea, and they had the experience of participating in the comprehensive group program. The changes shown by the couples were studied, and the cases were analyzed by examining the minutes and reports, which supplemented the quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of the group counseling program. The analysis of the effectiveness of the program showed the following. The case showed that goals of the individuals and couples, enhancing the understanding of self and partners by understanding the self-differentiation and adult attachment while having a positive impact on understanding, acceptance, disclosure of self partner and couple relationship based on the social support of the cognitive emotion regulation strategies.


We study a generalized nonlinear Boussinesq equation by introducing a proper functional and constructing the variational iteration sequence with suitable initial approximation. The approximate solution is obtained for the solitary wave of the Boussinesq equation with the variational iteration method.


I would like to use this occasion to discuss the relationship between sociology and ideology. My view of the subject, which has been much influenced by the work of M N Srinivas, is that it is desirable to keep the two apart, although it has proved difficult, particularly in India, to insulate the practice of sociology from the demands of ideology. In what follows I will have something to say both about the justification for keeping the two apart and the difficulty of doing so in a clear and consistent way.

Those who wish to keep the two apart are obliged to explain, no matter how briefly, what they mean by sociology and by ideology. This is not an easy thing to do. Sociologists are by no means in complete agreement about the nature and scope of their discipline as an intellectual pursuit; and, moreover, their conception of the aims and objectives of sociology as a discipline may not correspond very well with their practices as sociologists. The concept
of ideology has, if anything, an even wider range of connotations, and those who use it generally avoid giving it a clear or definite meaning.


1. A method for estimating the proportions of bacterial- and protozoal-N in the total non-ammonia-N reaching the lower gut of the ruminant under steady-state conditions was evaluated. Three trials using two different diets were conducted with a Holstein steer equipped with a rumen cannula and duodenal re-entrant cannulas. 2. An intraruminal primed infusion of (15nh4)2so4 was administered for 68 h during each trial. Bacteria and protozoa samples were isolated from rumen fluid at approximately 6 h intervals during each infusion period. Total non-ammonia-N was isolated from duodenal digesta samples taken at approximately the same times. All of these samples were analysed for 15N enrichment. A computer program was used to fit equations to the 15N-enrichment curves of bacterial- and protozoal-N. Models of both bacterial- and protozoal-N kinetics consisted of a small pool which equilibrated rapidly with rumen NH3 and a large pool with a fractional turnover rate of 0.045–0.070/h for bacterial-N and 0.056–0.069/h for protozoal-N. 3. Abomasal fluid turnover was estimated by a single injection of polyethylene glycol (molecular weight 4000) into the rumen followed by sampling of rumen fluid and duodenal digesta. 4. Estimates of abomasal fluid turnover, bacterial-N turnover, and protozoal-N turnover were entered into an equation which was adjusted by computer iteration to fit the 15n-enrichment curve of duodenal digesta non-NH3-N generated from each (15nh4)2so4 infusion period. The computer fit of this equation to the observed results gave estimates of 0.39–0.45 and 0.22–0.41 for the proportion of duodenal non-NH3-N derived from bacterial-N and protozoal-N respectively. 5. This method is potentially useful in estimating microbial protein passage to the lower gut in ruminants. Sampling digesta from the omasum rather than the duodenum would simplify the method and possibly increase the reliability of the estimates.


The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) is one of approximately 76 facilities currently managed by the ORNL Surplus Facilities Management Program (SFMP). This program, as part of the DOE national SFMP, is responsible for the maintenance and surveillance and the final decommissioning of radioactively-contaminated surplus ORNL facilities. A long range planning effort is being conducted that will outline the scope and objectives of the ORNL program and establish decommissioning priorities based on health and safety concerns, budget constraints, and other programmatic constraints. In support of this SFMP planning activity, preliminary engineering assessments are being conducted for each of the ORNL surplus facilities currently managed under the program. These efforts, in general, are designed to: (1) provide an initial assessment of the potential decommissioning alternatives; (2) choose a preferred alternative and provide a justification for that choice, and (3) provide a preliminary description of the decommissioning plan, including cost and schedule estimates. Because of several issues which cannot be evaluated quantitatively at this time, this report on the MSRE does not select a most probable decommissioning mode'' but rather discusses the issues and representative alternatives for disposal of the MSRE fuel salts and decommissioning of the facility. A budget and schedulemore » representative of the types of activities likely to be required is also suggested for preliminary use in the SFMP Long Range Plan.« less


Background: Malnutrition is the root causes of morbidity and mortality amongst pre-school and school going children in Bangladesh. In addition, malnutrition not only affects individuals but its effects are passed from generation to generation. Hence, the study aimed to investigate the latest nutritional status of under-five children and identify the risk factors of child malnutrition in Bangladesh using Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey-2014 along with its distribution and composition.
Data and methodology: The data used for the present study has been derived from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS-2014). Sample of size 6965 has been used in this study extracted from 7886 kids' record of BDHS-2014 with information on height and weight. Descriptive analysis has been performed to know the characteristics of the study subjects. Distribution of the z-scores is investigated, too. Then nutritional status has been clustered to gender, residence and division. And finally, binary logistic regression analysis has been used to identify influential factors that are significant to child malnutrition.
Results: It has been found that 12.20% of under-five children are severely stunted and 24.91% are moderately stunted. It has been also found that 3.19% of under-five children are severely wasted, 11.74% are moderately wasted, 8.34% are severely underweighted and 24.69% are moderately underweighted. The malnutrition status (stunted) does not differ significantly to gender (p-value=0.239), but does significantly differ to residence (pvalue<0.001) and to division (p-value<0.001). When adjusted to all the factors, children of age group 18-23 months are significantly and about 7 times more likely to be stunted than children of less than 6 months age (adjusted odds ratio, AOR= 6.72, 95% confidence interval (CI)=4.94, 9.14). It has been found that Female children are less likely to be stunted than male (AOR=0.89, 95% CI=0.80, 0.99). Birth interval less than 24 months is another correlates of child malnutrition (AOR=1.37, 95% CI=1.10, 1.70). Underweighted mothers are more likely to have stunted child. Children of educated parents are less likely to be stunted. Children of Sylhet division are most likely to be stunted. Children of rural areas are 16% less likely to be stunted than urban area (AOR=0.84, 95% CI=0.74, 0.96). Children of richest families are 60% less likely to be stunted than poorest group (AOR=0.40, 95% CI=0.32, 0.50). However, job of parents is not found to have significant association with nutritional status of under-five children in Bangladesh.
Conclusion: In conclusion, it can be said that increasing educational facilities for mothers and fathers can improve the child nutrition. Government and policymakers may take comprehensive and concrete challenge to overcome wealth inequities. Therefore, immediate actions are required to address all these issues to improve the nutritional status of children in Bangladesh.


Politics in Ghana's fourth republic is an interesting phenomenon. The intricacies in Ghanaian politics is one that requires constant analysis. In this paper, we examine some of these intricacies – the question and role of identity in politics in Ghana. We particularly analyse how ethnicity and religion influence elections in one of Africa's promising democracies. The analysis is based primarily on the scrutiny of official reports and detailed review of published works. The paper concludes that the tendencies to engage in over ethnicization and excessive religious undercurrent in Ghana's fourth republic, if not properly managed, can lead to ethnic and religious clashes, especially during electioneering periods. It is in view of this that we recommend that religious and traditional leaders make conscious efforts to promote peaceful and decorous campaigns. Moreover, there is the need for political leaders to avoid inciting ethnic groups against one another, even as societal groups embark on educating and sensitizing the general population.


The application of extreme-value theory for estimation of extreme percentiles of arbitrary continuous distributions is discussed and the use of a generalised extremevalue distribution is proposed. This distribution is given in a form containing three parameters: a location parameter, a scale parameter and a shape parameter. A method of estimating the parameters of the distribution is developed. It uses order statistics and general least-squares theory and is shown to be suitable for censored as well as uncensored samples. Tables of expectations of order statistics for certain sample sizes and certain values of the shape parameter are provided. An application, illustrating the numerical procedures is given, using data from the field of Applied Physiology.


The modernization of the electric grid, utilizing advances in information technologies, has uncovered opportunities for improved communication and efficiency of power systems. While this smart grid environment offers significant economic and reliability benefits, it has also divulged a substantial range of cyber attack issues. Attacks on embedded microprocessor-based devices, like Stuxnet, have demonstrated that the firmware of control equipment can be susceptible to security breaches able to cause great damage to the system. Despite the numerous studies on power systems security, researchers do not have a representative set of benchmarks and taxonomy classes to be able to develop proper detection and mitigation strategies against such attacks. To this end, we provide a taxonomy for firmware Trojans and develop firmware Trojan benchmark cases for four devices commonly found in smart grid deployments.


Second primary tumours represent one of the major causes of failure in the treatment of head and neck cancer. Advances in early diagnosis and treatment have improved the patient's disease-specific survival. However, the increase in the occurrence of second primary tumours negatively influences the patient's chance of long-term survival. To understand the molecular events underlying the appearance of head and neck multiple tumours, the clinical history has been evaluated in 2 patients both of whom developed 3 primary tumours of the head and neck. To establish the genetic relationship between the different head and neck cancers which had developed in these 2 patients, loss of heterozygosity was investigated using microsatellite markers located on chromosomes 3p, 9p, 11q, 13q, and 17p. These markers were selected as they frequently demonstrate loss of heterozygosity in head and neck cancer. The following markers were used: D3S1234, D3S1300, D9S170, D11S490, and D17S158. Primer sequences were obtained from the genome database for all of these markers. The third tumour that developed in the first patient, 13 years after the primary, showed loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 17p (in the locus for the gene TP53), which was not present in the previous tumours. All tumours in the second patient showed heterozygosity of chromosome 11 at the locus D11S490. These 2 cases show that multiple tumours can be derived from a genetic alteration of a subclone from previous tumours or from an independent preneoplastic cell clone present in the head and neck mucosa.


Configurational statistics of heteropolymer with quenched disordered sequence of links is investigated with the aid of replica approach. It is shown that frozen states with broken ergodicity exist in this system. The features of nonergodic state as well as the freezing transition depend drastically on the dimensionality of space d. For d > 2 the model is analogous to Potts glass and there exists the first-order phase transition with discontinuous behaviour of the order parameter–replica overlaps–but without specific heat. The set of states in the frozen phase is not ultrametric and the number of states decreases when the heterogeneity of the chain increases. For d < 2 the transition is of the second order, the set of states is ultrametric and the number of states does not depend on heterogeneity of the polymer.