This thesis examines how writing can be used to retrieve what a building has lost, the layers of its cultural significance, through creative and critical consideration of past uses and current possibilities, to aid in its cultural recovery and contribute to the future use of its architecture. It posits a new means of recovery through 'writing the building', and develops this method of architecture writing for use in practice, education and re- search, and as a tool in the processes of regeneration. Alexandra Palace is the case study (1873; rebuilt 1875, 1988), and at time of writing, extensive redevelopment works are in process by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, following a masterplan by Farrells (2012).
Research questions
Can a building exist and have its life extended in words through recap- turing what it has lost or is missing there?
How can language articulate the immaterial traces (of uses, users and their memories) within a building in order to reinvigorate it or direct/ redirect redevelopment?
Can connections between architectural space and the interior land- scapes of its users be made manifest through writing?
Methodology
Plurivocity is part of an experimental approach to writing as methodology, developed as a means of responding to these research questions. As a method of writing the building, plurivocity is designed to respond to the building's unique significance, to capture and represent different opinions and experiences, whether of the past or present, marginal or official. It is an imaginative method based on the factual that disrupts the categories of creative and critical writing so that each contributes to the other and then creates something different. Historiographical writing generated by the architecture in turn initiates and inspires critical, thematic and character-led writing. Using diverse materials from archival sources, interviews and chance conversations, the strands of writing respond to the building in its various iterations – the feedback loop of abduction of Grounded Theory. This feedback mechanism is a crucial element in the plurivocal model, its subject as well as method. Instrumentalising writing like this is in itself a form of reuse, a means of recovery, re-presenting (and representing), and demonstrates how imaginative writing might contribute to programming, and future uses in refurbishment of a building. The project also extends the temporal index of architecture writing to include the future. The building is alive with the voices of users, and the polyvocal form mirrors this, in order to revitalise the building, which has been destroyed, rebuilt or repurposed, even temporarily relocated.
Ethnography
 The research follows ethnographic practice in gathering information and inspiration from site visits, observation and interviews. Constructing a se- ries of 'characters' brings more comprehensive sources into contention. Enabling users' experience to be documented also helps to identify the unanticipated values a building provided, for greater understanding about the use that particular communities claim for public spaces or expect them to supply. Using Hans-Robert Jauss's version of Reception Theory, interviewees include those involved in the current physical project, along with volunteers and users, who are embedded into the category of makers of the building.
In these ways, this research and its outcome in writing practice establish another strand of architecture writing, one that suggests and emulates the building's multiple and particular layers, creating and occupying a new cultural and historical space.


Existing centralised market places such as Ebay enable companies to gather large amounts of personal data that can be used to manipulate users. Furthermore, users can frequently perform fraud without severe consequence. Reputation systems only solve this problem partially as malicious users can re-join the network with a new identity if their reputation is too low. By performing a Sybil attack, i.e., joining with multiple seemingly distinct identities, malicious participants can further boost their own reputation. In this paper, we present MarketPalace. MarketPalace relies on a peer-to-peer infrastructure to realize a decentralized market place during trading. Only when registering, users communicate with a central server to verify that they are not Sybils. More concretely, our system leverages self-sovereign identity to detect and undermine repeated joins by the same user. We implemented MarketPalace and demonstrated its feasibility for small regional markets.


Abstract: The stem cells discipline represents one of the most dynamic areas in biology and biomedicine. The vast majority of research on stem cells is being conducted in vertebrate models. Currently, over 98% of all cell lines are of mammalian origin, which represent only 0.4% of the extant identified metazoan evolution. In particular, aquatic invertebrates as a whole show the largest biodiversity and the widest phylogenetic radiation on Earth but have not yet significantly contributed to cell lines. Yet, with over 500 publications since the 1960s, the current lack of cell lines does not result from a lack of attempts at cultivating these cells but rather from fragmented research efforts in highly taxonomically diverse model species, a paucity in reports of negative results and persistent knowledge gaps in their in vitro metabolic requirements. To promote the establishment of aquatic invertebrate cell lines, there is thus a need for comprehensive knowledge mapping across taxa to identify adequate, possibly cell type-specific, protocols. Here, we review strategies for preparing an optimal inoculum, for optimizing culture conditions and for cell lineage authentication to monitor the quality of cell cultures. Finally, we conclude with our view on promising research perspectives towards establishing aquatic invertebrate cell lines.


The necessity of using animals to test whether new chemicals and products are eye irritants has been questioned with increasing frequency and fervor over the last 20 years. During this time many new nonanimal methods have been proposed as reliable alternatives to the traditional rabbit (Draize) test. To date, however, none of these nonanimal (in vitro) tests have become universally accepted as a complete replacement for the Draize test. To understand why a complete replacement has not been found, one has to first understand the reasonably complex structure of the eye, the standard Draize scoring scale--which is based on a qualitative evaluation of three different tissues--the differences between human and rabbit eyes, the intrinsic variability of the animal test, and the details of the different in vitro tests that have been proposed as replacements. The in vitro tests vary from relatively simple assays using single cells to more sophisticated assays that use discarded animal tissue or artificially constructed human tissue. It is clear that appropriately designed in vitro tests will eventually give more useful mechanistic information about ocular injury from which we can more comfortably predict the risk of human eye irritation from new products and ingredients. ImagesFigure 1Figure 2


The R&D on the micro-Resistive-WELL (u-RWELL) detector technology aims in developing a new scalable, compact, spark-protected, single amplification stage Micro-Pattern Gas Detectors (MPGD) for large area HEP applications as tracking and calorimeter device as well as for industrial and medical applications as X-ray and neutron imaging gas pixel detector. The novel micro-structure, exploiting several solutions and improvements achieved in the last years for MPGDs, in particular for GEMs and Micromegas, is an extremely simple detector allowing an easy engineering with consequent technological transfer toward the photolithography industry. Large area detectors (up 1 x 2 m^2) can be realized splicing u-RWELL_PCB tiles of smaller size (about 0.5 x 1 m^2 - typical PCB industrial size). The detector, composed by few basic elements such as the readout-PCB embedded with the amplification stage (through the resistive layer) and the cathode defining the gas drift-conversion gap has been largely characterized on test bench with X-ray and with beam test.


The requirement of the stiffness of the magnetic suspension beams in Large Gantry Machining Center is different from that of the magnetic suspension trains and other magnetic suspension devices. According to its characteristics, a kind of suspension technology, which combines the permanent magnet and the electromagnetism together, is presented and could obviously reduce power consumption. In order to solve the impact of the change of current in magnet coils on the overall stiffness, a double closed loop control system, which introduces a current loop into the position loop for forming a position and current double closed loop control system, is adopted. According to the process characteristics of the machine tool and the choice of parameters in the controller as the fuzzy control rules, a genetic algorithm (GA) fuzzy PID controller to meet the requirement of suspended beams on the machine tool is designed. The simulation results show that the fuzzy PID controller using the GA can increase the stiffness of the suspension system to meet the precision requirement of the magnetic suspension beams system on the machine tool. The optimization effect of the GA is very outstanding, which makes the choice of every parameter in fuzzy PID controller more comprehensive and scientific.


Different new vertical domains are coming everyday so running a sophisticated ranking model Is no longer enviable as the domain are different and building a separate model for each domain is also not favorable because there much time required for labeling the data and training the samples. In this paper we are managing the above problem by regularization based algorithm called as ranking adaptation SVM (RA-SVM), the algorithm is used to adapt existing ranking model of sophisticated search engine to new domain. Here performance is still guaranteed and times taken to label the data training the samples are reduced. The algorithms only requires prediction from existing ranking model and do not require internal structure of it. Adapted ranking model concentrate on specific domain to achieve superior results which are relevant to the search, further it reduces the searching cost also as the most appropriate search results are shown.


Nowadays many techniques are being used to increase the reliability of human identification systems. Iris is a part of human body that is desirable for biometric identification and has favorable factors. We have focused on the reality that iris is a fractal phenomenon in this paper. During the production of new fractals, some features will be extracted by Chaos Game mechanism. These features are useful and effective in iris identification. There are three steps for iris identification with fractal and Chaos Game Theory. The first step is making a new fractal. The second step includes extracting features during the first step. Finally, the iris identification based on extracted features is the third step. We have named this technique Iris Identification based-Fractal and Chaos Game Theory (Iris-IFCGT). This technique has some fractal properties like stability against zoom, removing part of the iris image, no sensitivity on rotation and so on as well as desirable speed which helps preventing time consuming process of pattern recognition.


Anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation), which is a reaction that oxidizes ammonium to dinitrogen gas using nitrite as the electron acceptor under anoxic conditions, was an important discovery in the nitrogen cycle. The reaction is mediated by a specialized group of planctomycete-like bacteria that were first discovered in man-made ecosystems. Subsequently, many studies have reported on the ubiquitous distribution of anammox bacteria in various natural habitats, including anoxic marine sediments and water columns, freshwater sediments and water columns, terrestrial ecosystems and some special ecosystems, such as petroleum reservoirs. Previous studies have estimated that the anammox process is responsible for 50% of the marine nitrogen loss. Recently, the anammox process was reported to account for 9-40% and 4-37% of the nitrogen loss in inland lakes and agricultural soils respectively. These findings indicate the great potential for the anammox process to occur in freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The distribution of different anammox bacteria and their contribution to nitrogen loss have been described in different natural habitats, demonstrating that the anammox process is strongly influenced by the local environmental conditions. The present mini-review summarizes the current knowledge of the ecological distribution of anammox bacteria, their contribution to nitrogen loss in various natural ecosystems and the effects of major influential factors on the anammox process.


To improve the wind turbine shutdown early warning ability, we present a generalized model for wind turbine (WT) prognosis and health management (PHM) based on the data collected from the SCADA system. First, a new condition monitoring method based on kernel entropy component analysis (KECA) was developed for nonlinear data. Then, an aggregate statistic T was designed to express the state change of the monitoring parameters. As the features were submerged because of the diversity and nonlinearity of SCADA data, an enhanced generalized regression neural network (GRNN) method—KECA-GRNN—for failure prediction was developed by adding KECA for feature extraction to improve the predictive performance. Finally, the results of the KECA-GRNN model were visualized by a bubble chart, which made the health assessment results of the WT more intuitive. Similarly, the fusion residual was defined to analyze the health trend of the WT, and the health status of the WT was represented by two visualization methods—bubble chart and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Furthermore, they were evaluated using SCADA data that were collected from a wind farm. Observations from the results of the model indicated the ability of the approach to trend and assess turbine degradation before known downtime occurrences.


Lung cancer is a type of dangerous cancer and it is difficult to detect. It usually causes death for both men and women, so it is more necessary to take care to immediately and properly examine the nodules. Accordingly, several techniques have been implemented to detect lung cancer in its early stages. In this paper, a comparative analysis of different machine learning-based techniques for lung cancer detection was presented. In recent years, too many methods have been developed to diagnose lung cancer, most of them use CT images and some of them use X-rays. In addition, several classification methods are paired with many segmentation algorithms to use image recognition to identify lung cancer nodules. From this study, it was found that CT images are more suitable for accurate results. Therefore, CT scans are mostly used to detect cancer. Also, marker-driven watershed segmentation provides more accurate results than other segmentation techniques. In addition, the results obtained from methods based on deep learning techniques achieved higher accuracy than methods that were implemented using classical machine learning techniques.


In the course of development, we found that light leakage in the dark state was observed when a thin-film transistor (TFT) driving twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystal display (LCD) was switched in a particular frame-switching sequence. The light leakage in the dark state was caused by the disclination line in the sub-pixel. Further study showed that the disclination line can be eliminated by flattening topology of the inner surface of the cell or by increasing pre-tilt angle of the LC cell.


In order to understand cultural value orientations of Korean employees, in the study I adopted the concept of dynamic collectivism, defined as the tendency of showing high on both collectivism and individualism at the individual level. I hypothesized that employees with collective dynamism
 would show organizational commitment and creativity in performance. I tested the hypothesis with 384 employees of Korean firms representing different industries. As predicted, dynamic collectivism increased both organizational commitment and creativity in performance. Beyond this finding,
 the results indicated that collectivism increased organizational commitment but decreased creativity, and individualism dampened organizational commitment and increased creativity. I concluded that dynamic collectivism is key to understanding organizational dynamics and employees' orientations
 in Korean firms.


BACKGROUND
Previous work has suggested that the brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of a neural protein involved in synaptic transmission, VGF (a noninitialism), may be altered in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease (AD). The objective of the current work is to examine the potential of CSF levels of a peptide derived from VGF to predict conversion from MCI to AD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Using multivariate analytical approaches, the performance of the conventional biomarkers (CSF Aβ1-42 and phosphorylated tau +/- hippocampal volume) was compared with the same biomarkers combined with CSF VGF peptide levels in a large publicly available data set from human subjects.

RESULTS
It was observed that VGF peptides are lowered in CSF of patients with AD compared with controls and that combinations of CSF Aβ1-42 and phosphorylated tau, hippocampal volume, and VGF peptide levels outperformed conventional biomarkers alone (hazard ratio=2.2 vs. 3.9), for predicting MCI to AD conversion.

CONCLUSIONS
CSF VGF enhances the ability of conventional biomarkers to predict MCI to AD conversion. Future work will be needed to determine the specificity of VGF for AD versus other neurodegenerative diseases.


" Approximately half the oral contraceptives prescribed in the United Kingdom contain 75 yg. or more of oestrogen in the form of either mestranol or ethinyloestradiol; the remainder contain only 50 fg. " Reports of suspected adverse reactions received by the Committee on Safety of Drugs now provide evidence that the incidence of thromboembolism is higher among women taking preparations containing larger doses of oestrogen than among those taking preparations containing the smaller dose. " The Committee has no evidence that oral contraceptivescontaining 50 ug. of oestrogen are less effective than the others and recommends that oral contraceptives containing the smaller dose of oestrogen should normally be prescribed." The Committee has no evidence on which to base any advice about the incidence of thromboembolism during the use of any oral contraceptive containing progestogen alone. The relation between the use of oral contraceptives and thromboembolism has been well established, but the Committee is of the opinion that the risk of this complication is less with the lower oestrogen dose. The Committee is not suggesting that any of these preparations should not be available for the treatment of gynaecological disorders, and the early warning refers solely to their use as oral contraceptives. Arrangements had been made to ensure that the profession was informed before any public announcement was made. Unfortunately premature press publicity necessitated an urgent public announcement in order to allay undue anxiety and to allow of informed press comment. The Coummittee regrets that this should have been necessary and apologizes to the profession as a whole that events have occurred in this inappropriate order through no fault of its own. None of the work which has been undertaken would have been possible without the help of a large number of the profession, and the Committee is very grateful for that collaboration. It would, however, urge an increased vigilance on the profession as a whole in relation to adverse reactions from contraceptive medication and asks that the Committee should be informed at the earliest opportunity of all adverse reactions. It is only by this full collaboration that drug safety problems can be identified and early warnings given.-I am, etc., E. F. SCOWEN, Chairman, London S.W.1. Committee on Safety of Drugs.


Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com http://complex.luxbulb.org/content/d4d-challenge AbstrAct In a network of devices in close proximity such as Device to Device (D2D) communication, we study the dissemination of public safety information at country scale level. In order to provide a realistic model for the information dissemination, we extract spatial distribution of the population of Ivory Coast from census data and determine migration pattern from the call detail records obtained during the Data for Development (D4D) challenge [1]. We latter apply epidemic model towards the information dissemination process. We then propose enhancements to the dissemination model by adding latent states and beamforming to the epidemic model. In this paper, we study the transient states towards the evolution of the population having the information for different cases. Through the results we show that enhancements in the dissemination process can be achieved in large and realistic scenarios. context: DisseminAtion of emergency informAtion in metApopulAtion AnD DynAmic network using epiDemic moDel.


The physical simultaneity between two events can differ from our point of subjective simultaneity (PSS). Studies using simultaneity judgments (SJ) and temporal order judgments (TOJ) tasks have shown that whether two events are reported as simultaneous is highly context-dependent. It has been recently suggested that the interval between the two events in the previous trial can modulate judgments both in SJ and TOJ tasks, an effect named rapid recalibration. In this work, we investigated rapid recalibration in SJ and TOJ tasks and tested whether centering the range of presented intervals on perceived simultaneity modulated this effect. We found a rapid recalibration effect in TOJ, but not in SJ. Moreover, we found that centering the intervals on objective or subjective simultaneity did not change the pattern of results. Interestingly, we also found no correlations between an individual's PSS in TOJ and in SJ tasks, which corroborates other studies in suggesting that these two psychophysical measures may capture different processes.


The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore interior design students' understanding of their design thinking, and to investigate how they view digital technology's role in these activities. The research questions are: 1. How do interior design students conceptualize interior design as a discipline? 2. How do these students conceptualize their design process? 3. What value do students place on the "process book"1 as a representation of their design breadth and depth in a given project? 4. How do students view computer technology's role in their design thinking and their design products? Participants viewed interior design as more sensitive to the human condition than architecture. AutoCAD was one software package that was used both in the process and the end product, but other more common software programs (word processors, spreadsheets) were only minimally utilized. Hypermedia and databases were not mentioned by any participants as tools in their design processes. 1 The process book acts as a way in which the professor or outside critics could view the students' process. It, theoretically, is supposed to capture some or all of a students' thinking, rationale, investigations, and evaluations that are inherent in design projects.


Under the guidance of the scientific,comprehensive,operational and comparative principles and based on fundamentals of forest ecology and system science,this paper puts forward that the composite index system of regional forest ecosystem service quality evaluation is composed of forest ecosystem productivity,forest ecosystem health,distribution of forest and background of eco-environmental quality.The value of forest ecosystem service quality for the provinces in China is analyzed by the method of AHP and the weighed average composite quality index.On the basis of such an analysis,cluster analysis on weighted evaluation indicators of the provinces is made.Then,the provinces are divided into 5 classes for forest ecosystem service quality.The results reveal that the fundamental spatial pattern is characterized by high levels distributed in the southeast provinces probably due to relatively higher precipitation,Then the levels rapidly decrease from the southeast provinces to the northwest provinces.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the safety and effectiveness of the application of high-volume hemofiltration (HVHF) in children with sepsis combined with acute kidney injury.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A total of 76 child patients were enrolled and randomly divided equally (n=38) into control and the observation groups respectively. The control group received conventional volume hemofiltration (the ultrafiltration rate of 35-50 ml/kg/h), and the observation group received HVHF (50-100 ml/kg/h).

RESULTS
The serum Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumor Necrosis Factor-a (TNF-α) and creatinine levels were significantly lower in the observation group than the control group at 6 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h of hemofiltration (p<0.05). The efficacy rate of treatment was improved. The mortality rate and incidence rate of complications were decreased, and the treatment course was significantly shortened (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The application of HVHF in children with sepsis combined with acute kidney injury has a better safety and effectiveness.


Background and objective: Low flow desflurane and sevoflurane anaesthesia were administered to children and compared for haemodynamic response, renal and hepatic function, recovery time and postoperative nausea and vomiting. Methods: Eighty ASA I‐II patients aged 5‐15 yr were included in the study. Midazolam was given for premedication. Anaesthesia induction was performed with fentanyl, propofol and atracurium. After intubation, the first group received desflurane, oxygen and nitrous oxide at 6 L min−1 and the second sevoflurane, oxygen and nitrous oxide at 6L min−1. Ten minutes after induction the flow was decreased to 1L min−1 in both groups. Haemodynamic parameters, preoperative and postoperative renal and hepatic function, the times of operation and anaesthesia, and early recovery data were recorded. Modified Aldrete scores were noted at the 10th and 30th minutes postoperatively and postoperative nausea, and vomiting were assessed. Results: There were no significant differences in haemodynamic parameters, renal and hepatic functions, postoperative recovery and postoperative nausea and vomiting between groups. The recovery time was shorter in the desflurane group compared to the sevoflurane group. Conclusion: Low flow desflurane and sevoflurane anaesthesia do not adversely affect haemodynamic parameters, hepatic and renal function in children. Desflurane may be preferred when early recovery from anaesthesia is warranted.


This work presents the design, fabrication and testing of a novel plastic biosensor which utilizes a stimuli responsive polymer for early detection of circulating hydroperoxides in blood. The system, is composed of interdigitated microelectrodes (IDME) coated with a thin film of a responsive polymer which is sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS). In presence of hydroperoxides such as lipid hydroperoxide, an early biomarker for atherosclerosis, the morphology of polymer on the surface of the IDME changes as a result of ROS generated from the decomposition of hydroperoxides. This generates a measurable electrical signal that correlates with the amount of hydroperoxides present in the sample.


BOSTON, Oct. 18—A new study has found that while the number of adults arrested for murder has declined since 1985, there has been a stunning increase in the number of boys under 18 charged with homicide.
 "Murder is plunging to a much younger age group," said James Alan Fox, dean of Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice and a co-author of the report. "What is so dangerous about this is that a 15-year-old with a gun in his hand is a much more volatile individual than a 40-year-old or even an 18-year-old," Mr. Fox said.
 The study, by the National Crime Analysis Project at Northeastern University, found that the number of 17-year-olds arrested for murder climbed 121 percent from 1985 through 1991, and the number of 16-year-olds arrested rose 158 percent. But the biggest increase—217 percent—was in the arrest of 15-year-olds. Even the number of arrests of boys 12 and under soared 100 percent in that time.
 These figures are the clearest statistical confirmation of what had been just anecdotal evidence...


The idea of curiosity has evolved over time and is a major building-block in the foundation and expansion of museums and their precursors, cabinets of curiosity. These proto-museums began in Italy and spread throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Cabinets of curiosity and museums transformed as visitors traveled to burgeoning collections across the Continent and England. Individuals visited curiosities for a variety of reasons. Some treated outings to collections as social events in which they could see others in their social circles and perhaps rise in social status if seen by the correct people. Others were merely curious and hoped to see rare, astonishing, monstrous, and beautiful objects. Scholars of the era often desired to discover new items and ideas, and discuss scientific and philosophical matters. The British Isles are removed from the main body of Europe, but still play a major role in the history of collecting. A number of private collectors and the eventual foundation of the British Museum contributed seminally to the ever-increasing realm of curiosities and historic, cultural, and scientific artifacts. The collectors and collections of Oxford and London and its surrounding areas, drew a diverse population of visitors to their doors. Individuals, both foreign and local, female and male, visitors and collectors in Early Modern England chose to actively participate in the formation of a collecting culture by gathering, visiting, discussing, writing about, and publishing on collections.


Social policy is a reflection of changing ideological stances; and ideological stances are influenced by social conditions and events. Policy-makers and social welfare administrators need to be acutely aware of the existing ideologies and the subtle or dramatic shifts as they occur and affect perceptions of clients, programmatic components, and the nature of social service delivery. The author offers a dichotomy of ideological positions as they are applied to the issues of social problems vs sub-populations, societal vs individual responsibility, residual vs institutional welfare, enforceable rights vs revocable privilege, existential vs preferential attention to social needs, government regulation vs deregulation, and governmental aid vs voluntary philanthropy.


Various countries have been encouraged to adopt electronic voting because it can reduce operational cost and time spent for tabulation process. In the current research, it has been mentioned several problem arised in term of technical aspects, voters' trust, machine vulnerabilities and privacy right in which experts argued the election system have been compromised. In short term, the certain faction will try to exploit the system weaknesses for their own benefit, while in the long term, it can create public distrust to the government, which decrease the voters turn out, break the participation willingness and downgrade the quality of voting. Thus, the government should deal with previous issues in the election before adopting electronic approach while at the same time align with voters' expectation to provide better election in serve citizen through comprehensive analysis. This study provide initial step to analyse the readiness of electronic voting from the social perspective in response to how Indonesia view the initiative to adopt new tech in voting system.


Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) have built a strong relation since 1986 under the Treaty of Mutual Respect, Friendship, and Cooperation. Both countries have agreed to promote economic and political goals. Economically, Indonesia and PNG share a strong commitment to boost economic development in numerous strategic fields; and politically, both countries strongly adopt the principle of non-interference and subscribe to the notion of territorial integrity. To secure the goals, Indonesia and PNG have signed a number of MoUs in wide range of areas both in soft cooperation such as capacity building for oil and energy exploration and hard cooperation to combat crossborder crimes, drug smuggling and terrorism. Addressing the cooperation between Indonesia and PNG is the key to understand the dynamics of West Papua ongoing struggle within Melanesia forums such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). Having said that, this essay specifically addresses two main points. First, it examines the political interests of Indonesia throughcooperation with PNG and how this cooperation affects Papua status within Indonesia. Second, it discusses the strategic roles of Papua which shapes the cooperations. The essayargues that Indonesia uses the cooperation to secure its political goals to gain support from PNG and other Melanesian states to maintain its territorial integrity and to combat separatism and such cooperation is best understood in terms of Papua strategic roles for Indonesia.


The influence of the local-field on the photoabsorption cross section of the atomic silver is studied in detail by using the Clausius–Mossotti (CM) model and the Onsager model separately. The variations of the photoabsorption cross section of atomic silver with number density and radius of the environmental interaction cavity are studied systematically by using more general expressions for the photoabsorption cross sections, proposed by Sun et al recently. It has proved to be reasonable to model the optical response properties of bulky material by coupling the property of isolated atom with the environmental effects in the present work.


Preface BASIC PROBLEMS OF CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING AND POTENTIAL OF MEMBRANE REACTORS Challenges in Chemical Reaction Engineering Concepts of Membrane Reactors Available Membranes Illustration of the Selectivity Problem Reaction Rate, Conversion, Selectivity and Yield Distributed Dosing in Packed-Bed and Membrane Reactors Kinetic Compatibility in Membrane Reactors Current Status of Membrane Reactors of the Distributor Type MODELING OF MEMBRANE REACTORS Introduction Momentum, Mass and Heat Balances Transport Kinetics Reduced Models Solvability, Discretization Methods and Fast Solution Implementation in FLUENT, MooNMD, COMSOL and ProMoT Conclusion CATALYSIS AND REACTION KINETICS OF A MODEL REACTION Introduction The Reaction Network of the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane Catalysts and Structure-Activity Relations Derivation of a Kinetic Model TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN POROUS MEMBRANES AND MEMBRANE REACTORS Introduction Aspects of Discretizing Convection-Diffusion Equations Velocity Fields in Membrane Reactors Determination of Transport Coefficients and Validation of Models Analysis of Convective and Diffusive Transport Phenomena in a CMR Parametric Study of a CMR Conclusion PACKED-BED MEMBRANE REACTORS Introduction Principles and Modeling Model-Based Analysis of a Distributed Dosing via Membranes Experimental Results for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane to Ethylene Results for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane Summary and Conclusions FLUIDIZED-BED MEMBRANE REACTORS Introduction Modeling of the Distributed Reactant Dosage in Fluidized Beds Experimental Conclusions SOLID ELECTROLYTE MEMBRANE REACTORS Introduction Operational and Material Aspects in Solid Electrolyte Membrane Reactors Modeling of Solid Electrolyte Membrane Reactors Membrane Reactors Applying Ion-Conducting Materials Conclusions NONLINEAR DYNAMICS OF MEMBRANE REACTORS Introduction Limit of Chemical Equilibrium Pattern Formation Conclusions COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT MEMBRANE REACTORS General Aspects Regarding Membrane Reactors of the Distributor Type Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane in Different Types of Membrane Reactors General Conclusion


The Internet has become an important social context in the lives of older adults. Extant research has focused on the use of the Internet and how it influences well-being. However, conflicting findings exist. The purpose of the study was to develop an integrative research model in order to determine the nature of the relationships among Internet use, loneliness, social support, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Specifically, loneliness and social support were tested as potential mediators that may modify the relationship between Internet use and indicators of well-being. Data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used, and the association among Internet use, social support, loneliness, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being was explored. The sample consisted of 5,203 older adults (aged 65 years and older). The results indicated that higher levels of Internet use were significant predictors of higher levels of social support, reduced loneliness, and better life satisfaction and psychological well-being among older adults.


The pathogenesis of accelerated liver damage in subjects coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) remains largely unknown. Recent studies suggest that ongoing chronic liver inflammation is responsible for the liver injury in HCV-infected patients. We aimed to determine whether HIV-1 coinfection altered intrahepatic inflammatory profiles in HCV infection, thereby hastening liver damage. We used a real-time RT-PCR-based array to comparatively analyze intrahepatic inflammation gene profiles in liver biopsy specimens from HCV-infected (n = 16), HCV/HIV-1-coinfected (n = 8) and uninfected (n = 8) individuals. We then used human hepatocytes to study the molecular mechanisms underlying alternations of the inflammatory profiles. Compared with uninfected individuals, HCV infection and HCV/HIV-1 coinfection markedly altered expression of 59.5% and 50.0% of 84 inflammation-related genes tested, respectively. Among these genes affected, HCV infection up-regulated the expression of 24 genes and down-regulated the expression of 26 genes, whereas HCV/HIV-1 coinfection up-regulated the expression of 21 genes and down-regulated the expression of 21 genes. Compared with HCV infection, HCV/HIV-1 coinfection did not dramatically affect intrahepatic gene expression profiles of cytokines and their receptors, but profoundly altered expression of several chemokine genes including up-regulation of the CXCR3-associated chemokines. Human hepatocytes produced these chemokines in response to virus-related microbial translocation, viral protein stimulation, and antiviral immune responses. Conclusions HIV-1 coinfection profoundly alters intrahepatic chemokine but not cytokine profiles in HCV-infected subjects. The altered chemokines may orchestrate the tissue-specific and cell-selective trafficking of immune cells and autoimmunity to accelerate liver disease in HCV/HIV-1 coinfection.


ABSTRACT We monitored the dynamic changes in the bacterial population in milk associated with refrigeration. Direct analyses of DNA by using temporal temperature gel electrophoresis (TTGE) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) allowed us to make accurate species assignments for bacteria with low-GC-content (low-GC%) (<55%) and medium- or high-GC% (>55%) genomes, respectively. We examined raw milk samples before and after 24-h conservation at 4°C. Bacterial identification was facilitated by comparison with an extensive bacterial reference database (∼150 species) that we established with DNA fragments of pure bacterial strains. Cloning and sequencing of fragments missing from the database were used to achieve complete species identification. Considerable evolution of bacterial populations occurred during conservation at 4°C. TTGE and DGGE are shown to be a powerful tool for identifying the main bacterial species of the raw milk samples and for monitoring changes in bacterial populations during conservation at 4°C. The emergence of psychrotrophic bacteria such as Listeria spp. or Aeromonas hydrophila is demonstrated.


Freight transport plays a very important role in economic activities. However, in some cases, the local transportation authority often disregards its existence, including in parking management issues. This research is aimed at developing an optimization model for off-street parking space management that considers freight cars and passenger cars as two different entities. Optimization aims at minimizing the joint function of the parking index of freight cars and the parking index of passenger cars. Weighting is given to both parking indexes to represent the interest level of parking operator to both types of vehicles. Parking space of both vehicles is at any time is arranged in a dynamic manner based on the inflow and outflow rate of vehicles at previous times. The parking index is limited by the maximum parking index desired by the management. The proposed model is applied to the parking activity in Jatinegara Trade Center (JTC), Jakarta, and shows that the model solution provides a better parking index than the actual parking index (without optimization).


INTRODUCTION
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and its treatment may lead to impairment of kidney function. The aim of the present study was to evaluate kidney function in children after treatment of ALL. We used our 99mTc-DTPA (diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid labeled with 99mTc) dynamic scintigraphy protocol.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study group consisted of 48 ALL patients, aged 79-275 months, in complete remission (mean duration 51 months). Treatment was according to the guidelines of the Berlin Frankfurt Münster (BFM) BFM 86 and BFM 90 protocols in 36 (75%) and 12 (25%) children, respectively. Follow-up after treatment was up to 12 months in 10 (21%) children (group I), 12-60 months in 21 (44%) children (group II), and more than 60 months in 17 (35%) children (group III). 99mTc-DTPA dynamic renal scintigraphy was done in all patients. The glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was determined according to Gates and the diuretic test was done after 18 minutes of the examination.

RESULTS
The glomerular filtration rate at the end of the 5-year follow-up was less than 80 mL/min/1.73 m2 (p < 0.002) in 3 (25%) children treated with the BFM 86 protocol. In the remaining 45 (94%) patients, GFR exceeded 80 mL/ min/1.73 m2. Normal renogram curves were obtained in 40 (83%) patients. Eight (17%) children had cumulative curves with normal clearance. This finding was interpreted as non-obstructive uropathy. There was no statistical correlation between outflow disorders seen during dynamic scintigraphy, type of chemotherapy protocol, and assignment to risks group.

CONCLUSIONS
1. There was no clinically significant kidney function impairment in children after treatment of ALL. 2. Dynamic renal scintigraphy can be a valuable and non-invasive method for the assessment of kidney function in patients with a risk factor in the form of previous potentially nephrotoxic antitumor treatment.


In Conjoining Meanings, I argue that meanings are composable instructions for how to build concepts of a special kind. In this summary of the main line of argument, I stress that proposals about what linguistic meanings are should make room for the phenomenon of lexical polysemy. On my internalist proposal, a single lexical item can be used to access various concepts on different occasions of use. And if lexical items are often "conceptually equivocal" in this way, then some familiar arguments for externalist conceptions of linguistic meaning need to be reevaluated.


Three monocot lectins from underground tubers of plants belonging to the family Araceae were investigated for their mitogenic potential towards human peripheral blood lymphocytes. All the three lectins turned out to be potent mitogens in the [3H]-thymidine uptake assay. Gonatanthus pumilus lectin was mitogenic at an optimum concentration of 25 micrograms/ml while Alocasia indica and Sauromatum guttatum lectins were most effective at a concentration of 50 micrograms/ml. [3H]-thymidine incorporation studies further revealed that the lectins were T-cell mitogens and did not induce any appreciable DNA synthesis in B-enriched lymphocytes. The proliferation kinetic studies detected maximum incorporation on day 3 and the mitogenic response was shown to be inhibited by asialofetuin in a concentration-dependent manner.


The abrupt flow of blood in the meninges or in the brain after fissure or rupture of an arterial aneurysm still remains a medico-surgical emergency which includes the mobilisation of important technical and financial means which justifies itself by the reduction of the occurrence of a more severe accident and to give the patient its best chances. The cure of a cerebral aneurysm and its intracranial consequences must not be dissociated from its clinical context. Surgical indication must take into account the cause of the vascular lesion, the background on which it has evoked, its natural outcome which is characterised by rebleeding and vasospasm. Surgical cure of intracranial aneurysm is one of the great achievement of modern surgery. A better understanding of the malformation, the improvement of neuro-anesthesia and intensive care, and the use of pre-operatoire adjuvants have considerably improved the surgical results over the years. At the moment, alternative treatment start to emerge such as selective vascular catheterism with ejectable balloon which become more feasible and seductive.


To the Editor: Previously, we reported complete neurologic recovery following a prolonged cardiac arrest in which the resuscitation was guided by continuous capnography.1 Herein we report a similar incident in a man with a long period of pulselessness and eventual recovery in which both continuous capnography and subsequent therapeutic hypothermia were used.

A 61-year-old man told his wife that he was "not feeling well," proceeded to the bathroom in their residence, and collapsed. His wife confirmed that he was unresponsive and called 911 emergency services. With coaching from the dispatcher, she attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but chest compressions were frequently interrupted by competing attempts to arouse her husband or communicate with the dispatcher. A sheriff's deputy arrived 9.2 minutes after receipt of the 911 call and attached an automated external defibrillator (AED) (HeartStart FR2+, Philips Medical Systems, Seattle, WA). The AED algorithm determined that ventricular fibrillation (VF) was present but not of sufficient amplitude, frequency, and conduction properties to warrant a shock, and therefore the rescuer was directed to perform 2 minutes of CPR before the first shock (Figure). This type of VF represents a rhythm that has degenerated over time into a nonshockable state. Emergency medical technicians from the community volunteer Emergency Medical Services arrived and continued CPR. They inserted a Combitube airway (Nellcor, Pleasanton, CA) and ventilated the patient with 100% oxygen. During the next 28 minutes, 10 shocks were delivered by the AED for recurrent VF, with each shock momentarily converting the rhythm, after which VF resumed. Thereafter paramedics and a medical helicopter flight crew arrived. An advanced life-support monitor/defibrillator (Zoll M Series, Zoll Medical Corp, Chelmsford, MA) was attached, which confirmed VF, and a shock was delivered. As with the preceding AED shocks, VF was only momentarily terminated. An intraosseous infusion was begun, the trachea was intubated, and end-tidal carbon dioxide tension monitoring was initiated (Respironics Novametrix, Wallingford, CT). Except for a brief period during which the end-tidal carbon dioxide tension was in the range of 13 to 21 mm Hg, the measurement was in the 28 to 35 mm Hg range, consistent with good pulmonary blood flow. Epinephrine 1 mg was injected, and subsequently two 300-mg doses of amiodarone were administered because of continued recurrence of VF, requiring a total of 6 shocks with the paramedic defibrillator. During the brief moments when VF was terminated by a shock, a pulse was never palpable. Another 1-mg dose of epinephrine was administered. After the sixth of these shocks, 50 mEq of sodium bicarbonate was injected because of the long duration of the cardiac arrest. Epinephrine was used sparingly because of the presence of recurrent VF and because the end-tidal data indicated an apparently adequate perfusion pressure during most of the resuscitation.1 After the sixth paramedic shock, followed by a period of CPR, an organized rhythm was present on the monitor, and the end-tidal carbon dioxide tension was 37 to 43 mm Hg. The calculated time interval from collapse to restoration of a sustained spontaneous circulation was 63 minutes. Ice packs were applied (around the neck, in the axillae, and over the groins), an intravenous infusion was initiated by the flight crew, and iced 0.9% saline solution was administered during helicopter transport. During transport to the hospital, the patient maintained a spontaneous circulation. Therapeutic hypothermia using the Arctic Sun Temperature Management System (Medivance Inc, Louisville, CO) was initiated. This intervention has been shown to improve survival and neurologic outcome in patients who remain comatose after resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with VF as the presenting rhythm.2 A 12-lead electrocardiogram revealed ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and the patient was taken to the cardiac catheterization laboratory where coronary angiography confirmed the presence of coronary artery disease and an intracoronary thrombus in the left anterior descending coronary artery. He underwent successful percutaneous coronary intervention and stent placement. An intra-aortic balloon pump was inserted to maintain hemodynamic stability.

Figure.

Presenting rhythm. This is nonshockable ventricular fibrillation as described in the text.

For editorial comment, see page 1038

The postintervention period in the coronary care unit was accompanied by respiratory and renal failure, requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation and venovenous hemodialysis. The patient recovered from both of these insults and underwent a brief period of brain rehabilitation. One month after the event, he was discharged home with a cerebral performance category score of 1, representing a fully conscious state, alertness, and normal cerebral function except for a mild memory deficit.

As we previously reported, resuscitation from a very prolonged cardiac arrest caused by recurrent VF can result in a favorable outcome with aggressive interventions. Guidance of resuscitation by continuous capnography provides an objective quantitative measure of the adequacy of chest compressions and the likelihood that a spontaneous circulation can be restored.3,4 Use of continuous capnography during resuscitation followed by therapeutic hypothermia in similar prolonged VF arrests may offer new opportunities for a favorable outcome, even when the arrest is very prolonged and seemingly intractable.


believes that child mortality can be a sensitive indication of health conditions, especially to the social and economic backgrounds. The overall picture may give the impression 'that a dream of social paediatrics is being realized'. The reductions of the male birth surplus by neonatal death are gradually being countered and the effects also in the pre-school age group are such as will enable the male surplus to change only a little. From 1 to 4 years of age the child's chance of dying becomes less as' his age increases. However, the death rate of the 1 to 4-yearolds is still as high as that of the 35 to 40-year-olds. The higher mortality due to accidents is the main cause of the persistence of an excess mortality of boys. Seasonal factors in the mortality are evident. In general, winter adds to the stresses and strains. The complex factors causing decline of mortality has a greater effect in summer. There is a slightly higher mortality rate in rural areas than in towns. Some emphasis is laid upon the state of health of the child before the fatal illness as a significant determinant of the end. This was especially noted in undeveloped areas. In the figures given, the remarkably favourable trend in tuberculosis is clear, but the sad story concerning violent death, especially since 1950, is related. By comparison, Canada seems a dangerous place for pre-school children (50 deaths per 100,000), in the Netherlands 45, and in England and Wales 24; in 1950 in West Germany 59, in Norway 52, in Australia 38, in France 33, in U.S.A. 38. The situation is, therefore, fairly general in its contribution to pre-school deaths. The author draws a conclusion that the mortality due to road accidents in pre-school children proves to be not directly dependent on the intensity of traffic, but rather on the care and supervision in the family and in general on the related social and hygienic conditions. Deaths from poisoning add to the violent deaths in similar manner. Accident-proneness is considered in relation to the possibilities of the child's individual psychic structure; but little is really known about this. It does suggest any campaign against accidents is of a medical character. Mortality from tumours remains steady, but there is a slightly increasing figure for the reticuloses. It is noted that Holland is still troubled with fatal diphtheria in the pre-school age group. Child mortality (age 1-4) in the period 1900-50 fell by 90% in Netherlands, 92% in Sweden, 93% in England, 85% in France. In other words, the author would have us note that the pre-school age mortality is an even more sensitive criterion of social and hygienic conditions than the infant mortality, and that this decline started earlier than the fall in infant mortality and that the pre-school age mortality showed higher peaks during the war years. Dr. van Gelderen is optimistic: the expectation is warranted that within 15 years the pre-school mortality will decrease to less than 1 per 1,000, or nearly half the present. Then, he states, accidents, congenital defects, neoplasms and reticuloses will account for 75%. Perhaps new discoveries and a betterment of the accident rate will even improve upon this hopeful expectation. This volume is very readable and has a comprehensive bibliography.


Wear debris microparticle release associated with total joint arthroplasty may contribute to harmful inflammation, osteolysis and implant failure. We examined the role of different molecular signaling pathways in microparticle-mediated inflammation. Intraperitoneal inoculation of cobalt chrome (CoCr) in mice induced a robust innate type 2 response with increases in Th2 cytokines, M2 macrophages, eosinophils and neutrophils compared to controls given vehicle only. Furthermore, this type 2 innate particle-induced response was independent of MYD88/TRIF and partially dependent on Caspase-1 signaling pathways. Blockade of the PGE-2 signaling pathway by administration of Aspirin or Celecoxib prior to CoCr inoculation caused a significant reduction in both neutrophils and macrophages with no effect on eosinophils and Th2 cytokines compared to the mice treated with CoCr + vehicle. Blockade of the SYK signaling pathway with the inhibitor BAY61-3606 or the BTK signaling pathway with Ibrutinib completely abrogated the CoCr-mediated innate inflammation and Th2 cytokines. These studies indicate that the type 2 immune response caused by solid particles is partially modulated by Caspase-1 and PGE-2 pathways and largely abrogated by blockade of upstream SYK and BTK signaling pathways. These studies provide potential targets for controlling the wear debris-mediated inflammation in synovial tissues that can contribute to aseptic loosening and implant failure.


Monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) metabolizes dopamine and plays an important role in oxidative stress by altering the redox state of neuronal and glial cells. MAO-B inhibitors are a promising therapeutical approach for Parkinson's disease (PD). Herein, 24 melatonin analogues (3a–x) were synthesized as novel MAO-B inhibitors with the potential to counteract oxidative stress in neuronal PC12 cells. Structure elucidation, characterization, and purity of the synthesized compounds were performed using 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HRMS, and HPLC. At 10 µM, 12 compounds showed >50% MAO-B inhibition. Among them, compounds 3n, 3r, and 3u–w showed >70% inhibition of MAO-B and IC50 values of 1.41, 0.91, 1.20, 0.66, and 2.41 µM, respectively. When compared with the modest selectivity index of rasagiline (II, a well-known MAO-B inhibitor, SI > 50), compounds 3n, 3r, 3u, and 3v demonstrated better selectivity indices (SI > 71, 109, 83, and 151, respectively). Furthermore, compounds 3n and 3r exhibited safe neurotoxicity profiles in PC12 cells and reversed 6-OHDA- and rotenone-induced neuronal oxidative stress. Both compounds significantly up-regulated the expression of the anti-oxidant enzyme, heme oxygenase (HO)-1. Treatment with Zn(II)-protoporphyrin IX (ZnPP), a selective HO-1 inhibitor, abolished the neuroprotective effects of the tested compounds, suggesting a critical role of HO-1 up-regulation. Both compounds increased the nuclear translocation of Nrf2, which is a key regulator of the antioxidative response. Taken together, these data show that compounds 3n and 3r could be further exploited for their multi-targeted role in oxidative stress-related PD therapy.


. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the possibilities of identifying the mathematical giftedness in elementary schoolers with the help of Olympiad problems. For this, the authors clarify the concept of "mathematical giftedness", show the relationship between the concepts of "mathematical giftedness" and "mathematical abilities", and indicate the most significant abilities of elementary schoolers from the set of mathematical giftedness. The role of mathematical Olympiads in identifying mathematically gifted elementary schoolers is substantiated. This role consists in creating situations where the participants of the Olympiad are forced to make mental efforts to perform the following actions: analysis of a problem situation to identify essential relationships, modeling a new way of action to solve the proposed problem, combining available methods of action to apply in a new situation in limited time. The criteria for compiling Olympiad tasks for identifying mathematically gifted students are formulated, the most important of which is the clear focus of each task on demonstrating a mathematical ability of a certain type, as well as the selection of the mathematical content of the Olympiad problems strictly from the elementary course of mathematics. The problems of one Olympiad should be based on the content of different sections of the elementary mathematics course. The examples of the Olympiad problems based on the content of the elementary mathematics course are provided and the substantiation of their role in demonstrating the mathematical abilities of the Olympiad participant in solving them is given. The results of observing the educational achievements of students (during their entire stay at school) who showed mathematical abilities at the Olympiads are provided as well as the prospects and certain difficulties of further research on ways to solve the problem.


Metabolism of PGE-2 and PGF-2 alpha by cytosolic fractions (100,000 g supernatant) of the uterus, oviduct and lung of rabbits treated with hCG and endotoxin (20 microgram/kg) was measured. Endotoxin caused immediate decreases in metabolism of both PGs by uterus at 1 h, and these decreases became significant at 2 h for PGE-2 and 6 h for PGF-2 alpha. The metabolism of both PGs remained depressed throughout the 24 h study. Metabolism by oviduct tissue differed in that at 1 h metabolism of both PGs increased but then remained depressed between 2 and 24 h. Metabolism of PGs by lung also showed a different pattern: that of PGE-2 was depressed only briefly (at 2 h), while that of PGF-2 alpha was consistently depressed between 2 and 24 h. Pre-treatment with hCG did not affect the response: tissues from animals killed 6 h after endotoxin but not given hCT responded like those from animals treated with endotoxin 24 h after hCG and killed 6 h later. Much of the increased PG levels in venous drainage after endotoxin treatment can be explained by depressed ability of cells to metabolize PGs.


Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder; it requires constant monitoring of glucose levels. Currently the diagnosis of diabetes is achieved only by analysing blood glucose levels, which is an invasive method and is physically and psychologically traumatic to the patient. This study is done to ascertain whether glucose present in saliva can be used to monitor the diabetes patients.
Aim: This study is done to estimate and correlate the glucose levels in blood and saliva of diabetic patients, to assess if salivary glucose can be used as an alternative non-invasive tool for diagnosing and monitoring diabetes.
Materials & methods: 200 diabetic patients were chosen for the study (100 controlled & 100 uncontrolled). 50 control subjects were age and gender matched. Quantitative estimation of glucose in the blood and saliva was performed by Hexokinase method. Glycosylated haemoglobin
(Hba1c) levels were also estimated to confirm the diabetic status of the patient. Tabulation and Statistical analysis of the data was done.
Results & Conclusion: Positive significant correlation between plasma and salivary glucose levels (<0.01). Salivary glucose was significantly higher in diabetics (<0.01). Significant positive correlation between glycosylated haemoglobin and salivary glucose levels (<0.01). The results showed that salivary glucose concentration can be used as a non-invasive tool for diagnosing and monitoring diabetic patients.


Short-term load forecasting (STLF) plays a significant role in the operation of electricity trading markets. Considering the growing concern of data privacy, federated learning (FL) is increasingly adopted to train STLF models for utility companies (UCs) in recent research. Inspiringly, in wholesale markets, as it is not realistic for power plants (PPs) to access UCs' data directly, FL is definitely a feasible solution of obtaining an accurate STLF model for PPs. However, due to FL's distributed nature and intense competition among UCs, defects increasingly occur and lead to poor performance of the STLF model, indicating that simply adopting FL is not enough. In this paper, we propose a DRL-assisted FL approach, DEfect-AwaRe federated soft actor-critic (DearFSAC), to robustly train an accurate STLF model for PPs to forecast precise short-term utility electricity demand. Firstly. we design a STLF model based on long short-term memory (LSTM) using just historical load data and time data. Furthermore, considering the uncertainty of defects occurrence, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm is adopted to assist FL by alleviating model degradation caused by defects. In addition, for faster convergence of FL training, an auto-encoder is designed for both dimension reduction and quality evaluation of uploaded models. In the simulations, we validate our approach on real data of Helsinki's UCs in 2019. The results show that DearFSAC outperforms all the other approaches no matter if defects occur or not.


Many development analysts stress the importance of land use planning and development projects but few document the involvement of traditional leaders and the role they play. In South Africa the role of municipal officials in traditional authority areas is compounded with those of traditional leaders. The Municipal Structures Act of 2000 does not provide a clear definition of role traditional leaders should play in land use planning and development projects. Consequently traditional leaders argue they were given a back seat role of only public participation and not those related to decision making with regard to planning in their areas of jurisdiction. This has led to conflicts more often than co-operation between traditional leaders and municipal officials. The research focuses on Limpopo Province to discuss the challenges on community development. It analysis whether the current proposed legislation: Spatial Planning and Land Use management Act 2014 can address the challenges.


To understand the distribution of the cultivable fungal community in plant tissues from nature farming tomato plants, we sampled plants of seven different tomato cultivars and recovered 1742 fungal isolates from 1895 stem tissues sampled from three sites in Japan. Overall, the isolation frequency was low (3–13%) and the isolation and colonization frequencies did not vary significantly as a function of the cultivar. The fungi were divided into 29 unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with 97% ITS gene sequence identity, the majority of which belong to Ascomycota (99.3%). The dominant genera of cultivable endophytic fungi were Fusarium (45.1%), Alternaria (12.8%), Gibberella (12.0%), and Dipodascus (6.8%). The alpha diversity of the fungal endophytes varied among tomato cultivars. Ordination analysis performed to investigate patterns of endophyte community assemblages on the various cultivars revealed that host cultivars had a significant impact on the endophyte community assemblages in all the study sites. Some of the taxa Fusarium, Alternaria, and Penicillium were found on all cultivars, while few were uniquely present in different cultivars. The dominant taxa may be adapted to the particular microecological and physiological conditions present in tomato stems.


This clinical case details the teeth reconstruction and root canal retreatment, with recovery of the lost biological space invaded by maladjusted crowns and its subsequent reconstruction with fiberglass preformed poles for the cementation of splinted crowns by the decrease of the crown-root proportion. It is concluded that we must take into account the amount of remaining dental tissue, the periodontal status (biological width), the aesthetic requirements, the root morphology, the location of the tooth in


Background. Now actively used the method of repair with the use of coupling metal structure. It is use to restore the carrying capacity of active pipelines that are working for a long time.
The coupling is installed on the defective area, and the undercoupling space is sealed and filled under pressure with a self-hardening mass. In this case, the stresses in the pipe walls and coupling are aligned with each other. The parameters of the filling process the undercoupling space determine the quality of the entire coupling repair and require precise testing.
Objective. The purpose of this article is to analyze the parameters for testing the filling of the under-coupling space using ultrasonic non-destructive testing methods.
Methods. Strength improvement of the spots of the active pipeline is realized by installing an active main pipeline of couplings. Strengthening the pipeline with the coupling is to redistribute part of the load from the pipe to the wall of the coupling, which leads to a decrease of the stress level in the pipe wall. The reinforcement efficiency of the pipeline could be evaluated by the degree of reduction of circumferential stresses in the wall of the repaired pipe. The article describes the analysis of the possibility of testing the filling of the under-coupling space of the glues-welded and brazed-welded couplings using ultrasonic methods of non-destructive testing.
Results. The use of the most common piezoelectric transducers is ineffective. This is due to the high temperature of the brazed-welded coupling during working using molten metal, determined by its melting temperature. In this case, it is proposed to use an electromagnetic (EMA) transducer as a radiator and receiver of ultrasonic vibrations. The results of theoretical and experimental studies of the control of filling the undercoupling space of soldered-on sleeves with molten metal have confirmed the effectiveness of using the EMA-method for controlling the formation of the undercoupling space. It is shown that the proposed method of ultrasonic testing allows to achieve maximum efficiency in testing the filling of the brazed-welded coupling with the molten metal.
Conclusions. The analysis of the possibility of using an ultrasonic method of non-destructive quality control of filling a undercoupling space with a self-hardening substance showed the theoretical possibility of testing the filling of the undercoupling space of glueswelded couplings with both the compounded filling of the undercoupling space and the filling with molten metal.
The results of experimental studies of the control of filling the under-coupling space of the glues-welded couplings with molten metal using the EMA-method confirmed the effectiveness of using the EMA-method for testing the formation of the undercoupling space.


The intermediate lobe of the pituitary contains the alpha-amidated peptide alpha-melanotropin and high levels of a copper and ascorbate-dependent peptidylglycine alpha-amidating monooxygenase (PAM) capable of converting peptides terminating in -X-Gly into amidated products (-X-NH2). As reported previously, the ability of cultured intermediate pituitary cells to produce alpha-amidated alpha-melanotropin declined rapidly. A decline in PAM activity assayed in vitro under optimized conditions failed to account quantitatively for the lack of production of alpha-amidated product, while a 100-fold decline in cellular levels of ascorbate could account for the lack of production of alpha-amidated product. Incubation of intermediate pituitary cultures with ascorbate partially restored the ability of the cells to produce alpha-amidated product without significantly increasing the level of PAM activity. In intermediate pituitary cultures made competent to produce alpha-melanotropin by addition of ascorbate, the actual extent of amidation occurring was modulated by the presence of specific secretagogues (bromocriptine or corticotropin-releasing factor). Cultured anterior pituitary cells showed a similar rapid 3-fold decline in PAM activity assayed in vitro under optimized conditions. Cellular levels of ascorbate also declined rapidly to levels 100-fold below those in the intact anterior pituitary. The addition of ascorbate to the anterior pituitary cultures rapidly restored the enzyme activity assayed in vitro to the levels in the initial cell suspension. Thus, production of amidated product peptide may be regulated by cellular levels of ascorbate, by cellular levels of PAM activity, and by the concentration of specific secretagogues to which the cells are exposed.


In recent years, we have witnessed advances in the understanding of molecular events that lead to breast cancer. This knowledge allowed, among other things, the development of novel therapies that target critical pathways involved in this disease. One of these pathways is the PI3K pathway, whose signaling axis has implications on cancer cell growth, survival, motility and metabolism. In the present review, the potential role of PI3K inhibitors in the treatment of breast cancer is discussed. The fast pace of development of these drugs urges the discussion on the advantages and pitfalls of their application and impact in the future therapy of breast cancer.


Following a brief historical introduction, we first demonstrate that proper elements are quasiintegrals of motion and show how they are used to classify asteroids into families and study the long-term dynamics of asteroids. Then, we give a complete overview of the analytical, semianalytical, and synthetic theories for the determination of proper elements of asteroids, with a special emphasis on the comparative advantages/disadvantages of the methods, and on the accuracy and availability of the computed proper elements. We also discuss special techniques applied in some particular cases (mean motion and secular resonant bodies). Finally, we draw conclusions and suggest directions for future work.


Despite its biological importance, understanding of serotonin roles in insect physiology is limited. To address this, the current study aimed to answer basic questions associated with serotonin-related distribution patterns in the Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito) digestive tract. The rationale behind such analyses is based on the fact that serotonin effects are determined by its distribution and availability. Therefore, investigating such patterns is a pivotal step towards elucidating the serotonergic functions and significance. Two stages of the mosquito development cycle, those of larva and adult (female), were the focus of investigations. Their differential modes of feeding (continuous vs. discontinuous), diets, gut morphology and physiology make them a useful system to study and understand the fundamentals of the serotonergic mechanisms that regulate food processing in insects. Immunolocalization studies were the main approach carried out, and have not only identified differential aspects of the serotonergic network between the two stages but, importantly, have provided evidence assigning novel putative roles for serotonin in Aedes aegypti physiology. Overall, the midgut of both mosquito stages is innervated with serotonergic axons. However, while in the larval midgut, axon patterns vary significantly between the anterior and posterior section, in the female adult midgut, such differences were not observed. The posterior midgut (pMG) in both mosquito stages is richly innervated with serotonergic axons containing multiple but small release sites that, apart from regulating the gut epithelial cells, may mediate the Malpighian tubules (MT) functions. This statement is corroborated by AaSer-1 (a putative serotonin receptor) expression in the MT of both larvae and adults. Since MT are resting on the pMG surface, it is likely that the serotonergic source affecting them originates from the pMG. Thus, a new model has been proposed which attests (previously questioned) serotonin roles in diuresis. To further elaborate on the serotonergic-related profiles and significance during blood digestion, the expression of AaSer-1 in the adult female gut was investigated. While AaSer-1-specific immunofluorescence in sucrose-fed female adults is rather 'unremarkable' and mainly limited to the MT, in the blood-fed mosquitoes, expression patterns suggest receptor involvement in the nuclear, tracheal, muscular, and MT functions during blood digestion and absorption. Vol-4, Issue-3 PP. 136-151 ISSN: 2394-5788 137 | P a g e 3 0 M a r c h 2 0 1 7 w w w . g j a r . o r g Associations of AaSer-1 with tracheoblast formations and mediation of nuclear functions during blood digestion indicate novel putative roles of serotonin in mosquito (insect) physiology. Taken together, results provide strong evidence for the serotonin significance and complexity in the regulation of mosquito feeding-related processes.


People manage a spectrum of identities in cyber domains. Profiling individuals and assigning them to distinct groups or classes have potential applications in targeted services, online fraud detection, extensive social sorting, and cyber-security. This paper presents the Uncertainty of Identity Toolset, a framework for the identification and profiling of users from their social media accounts and e-mail addresses. More specifically, in this paper we discuss the design and implementation of two tools of the framework. The Twitter Geographic Profiler tool builds a map of the ethno-cultural communities of a person's friends on Twitter social media service. The E-mail Address Profiler tool identifies the probable identities of individuals from their e-mail addresses and maps their geographical distribution across the UK. To this end, this paper presents a framework for profiling the digital traces of individuals.


Abstract This article studies the pull-through resistance of a titanium carbon fibre-epoxy resin laminate fastener. Coupons with fastener holes made with different methods were compared – drilled, milled on a CNC plotter and special fibre application during laminate production. The tests were conducted according to the ASTM D7332 test standard. The studies showed that the fastener hole preparation method impacts the laminate's resistance to fastener pull-through. Coupons with holes made with standard (drilling and milling) methods showed fastener pull-through resistance higher, on average, by 6.5% than in coupons with holes placed during plate production. Fastener work to rupture was also higher for coupons with milled and drilled holes. Microscopic observations in UV-light, using a fluorescent penetrant, showed differences in failure mechanisms between individual coupons, especially the lack of fibres in the 0° direction, in immediate vicinity to a hole prepared during laminate application.


Background: Although engagement with mobile phone-delivered smoking cessation programs is assumed to improve intervention success, the trajectories of program use over time, and their associations with baseline characteristics and treatment outcomes have not been examined yet.
Methods: We performed a secondary data analysis on a dataset from a study that compared an Internet- and mobile phone-delivered integrated smoking cessation and alcohol intervention to a smoking cessation only intervention for adolescents (N= 1418). During the three months of the intervention that was based on the Health Action Process Approach, participants in both intervention groups received one text message prompt per week that either assessed smoking-related target behaviours or encouraged participation in a quiz or a message contest. Sequence analyses were performed to identify program use trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of typical trajectories.
Findings: Three trajectories of program use emerged: 1) stable active participation (n= 646, 45.6%), 2) decreasing participation (n=501, 35.3%), and 3) stable non-active participation (n=271, 19.1%). Adolescents who were younger, who had no immigration background, who saw more benefits of quitting smoking and who reported binge drinking preceding the baseline assessment were more likely to have an active program use trajectory. Decreasing participation was associated with highest tobacco reduction rates, followed by stable active participation and stable non-active participation.
Discussion: The majority of participants showed an active program use. However, decreasing engagement with the program might be a stronger indicator of behavior change initiation than stable active engagement.


Social networks have revolutionized the world. We all display personal information on social networks, thereby leaving a digital footprint on the Internet. The analysis of personal information can help companies conduct interviews, as it will give employers a full picture of a person, with a description of his/her personality and social behavior. Among the main problems of the analysis conducted there were the effective working groups formation and the allocation of deviant behavior based on the analysis of information from personal profiles on the social network VKontakte. In the course of this study, the data was collected, pre-processed, analyzed. After that users were organized into groups using machine learning and deep machine learning techniques. The analysis of data from users' social networks was carried out using neural networks and other machine learning methods, the K-means clustering algorithm being used for clustering users by interests.


The nutritional status of a woman during pregnancy is important as a suboptimal diet impacts negatively on the health of the mother, the fetus and the newborn. There is limited knowledge in the area of malnutrition and factors' affecting it among pregnant women despite evidence showing that maternal nutrition has important direct and/or indirect consequences for all other age. The objective of the study was to assess the determinants of dietary diversity and nutritional status of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at Armed Forces Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. The study was cross-sectional and conducted by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to draw 320 samples, pregnant women. The women were selected in random through balloting among the first five pregnant women to arrive at the antenatal clinic and thereafter systematic sampling was used and every fourth woman that arrived were sampled until the sample size is met. The data were analyzed by using a software STATA version 14. Descriptive statistics to determine the dietary diversity and nutritional status were done and also to characterize the nutritional status. The statistical model namely, logistic and ordered logistic regression was used for factors affecting the dietary diversity and nutritional status. A P value of <0.1 was considered statistically significant. According to the logistic model interpretation, negative relation implies that the dependent and independent variables are inversely related; while the positive association is the outcome and independent variable have direct relations. The findings of the descriptive analysis indicated that low dietary diversity was experienced by 61.56 percent of the respondents and the rest of the study population was in a high dietary diversity. Based on Mid-upper arm circumference cut-offs 0.31 percent were severely malnourished, while 3.44 percent were moderately malnourished and 96.25 percent were well nourished. Findings from logistic regression revealed that income, meals that were eaten in the last 24 hours, and anemia have positively and significantly affects dietary diversity while not taking iron-fortified foods affects negatively. The results from the ordered logit model indicate that severe undernutrition is determined by not taking micronutrient daily positively where ever income and cleaning utensil properly impact negatively, although moderate undernutrition is associated with not taking micronutrient daily positively and negatively with cleaning utensil properly. Though being nourished is affected by not taking micronutrient daily negatively and positively by cleaning utensil properly. Whereas by World Health Organization hemoglobin cut-offs 2.50 percent, 11.56 percent, and 85.94 percent were in severe anemia, moderate anemia, and normal hemoglobin level respectively. The results from the multinomial regression model reveal that severe anemia is negatively associated with dietary diversity. At the same time, moderate anemia is affected positively by not taking micronutrient daily and negatively by age, dietary diversity score and morbidity status of the pregnant women. Similarly being in normal hemoglobin cut-off was affected positively by age, dietary diversity and morbidity, negatively affected by not taking micronutrient daily. Finally, the findings conclude that dietary diversity and nutritional status were very poor and socio-demographic, socio-economic, micronutrient supplementation, morbidity, environmental factors, and dietary diversity influence the nutritional status of pregnant women. It is recommended that promotion of dietary diversity and modification of diets be carried out through practical demonstrations in the community and health facilities and there should be income generation practices and entrepreneur encouragements should be practiced.


It is essential to start this text with a reference to Portuguese culture, which has overlooked the phenomenon of periodical journalism, and seen it as a poor relation when it is, in my view, the richest melting pot of knowledge about the people in the nineteenth century. We must remember, revisit, and breathe life into this memory so that it is not definitively erased. It is within this perspective that I wish here to highlight the journal O Movimento: periodico semanal (1835-1836),which also arises from the need to bring to light figures in the shadows of the history manuals, a situation which is aggravated when it comes to addressing notable figures in the writing of periodicals, such as the editor of the aforementioned periodical. Using periodicals to enter the daily political life of the penultimate decade of the first half of the nineteenth century is a wonderful experience because it enables us to see many of the reasons why the Revolution did not have the success desired by many. However, rather than making history, this involves bringing to light and life a political culture and a world that has been reproduced, with other epistemological assumptions, in the 21st century.


Surgery with robotic systems is known to have several advantages despite laparoscopy, even in colorectal cancer. However, there is no standard procedure to maximize the advantages of the DaVinci® Si Surgical System. The authors describe their personal single stage totally robotic technique, applying the robotic system during all of the dissection steps in left colon and rectal cancer surgery with a single docking. From March 2012 to March 2016, 83 consecutive patients affected by left colon or rectal cancer were selected for robotic-assisted colorectal resection with DaVinci® Si Robotic System (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, CA); clinical and pathological outcomes were prospectively collected and reviewed. All patient underwent left colectomy (LC) or low anterior resection (R-LAR) with a single stage, totally robotic dissection, performed following these steps from the top downwards in a clockwise direction to avoid arm collision, splenic flexure mobilization, legation of inferior mesenteric vessels and medial to lateral colon dissection, mobilization of descending and sigmoid colon, TME and rectal dissection, rectal transection and anastomosis. We treated 83 consecutive patients of which 41 (49%) were men and 42 (51%) were women, mean age was 70 (range, 42–92) years. All patients suffered from sigmoid (41pts) an rectal (42 pts) cancer. Clinical and oncologic outcomes, short term complications were analyzed: the circumferential margin, for rectal cancer, was positive in one patient, 17.9 (range, 6–48) lymph nodes were harvested, tumor's distance from distal margin's resection was 2.4 cm (range 1-9). The length of hospital stay after surgery was 6 (range, 4–33) days. Anastomotic leak rate was 1.2% and were managed by ileostomy. There were 4 major complications (4.8%); no mortality occurred. The global conversion rate to laparoscopic and/or open procedure for surgical reasons was 0%. The mean total operative time was 215 minutes, while the mean robotic time was 130 minutes. Single docking for left colon and rectal surgery can be a suitable procedure to reduce operative time and to maximize the advantages of robotic approach. More studies are needed to standardize the surgical procedure.


Abstract Despite numerous studies on the environmental health and safety (EHS) of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), most studies looked into their gross toxicities with rather limited understanding on their labyrinthine implicit effects on the target sites, such as the endocrine system. Burgeoning evidence documents the disrupting effects of AgNPs on endocrine functions; however, little research has been invested to recognize the potential impacts on the mammary gland, a susceptible estrogen-responsive organ. Under this setting, we here aimed to scrutinize AgNP-induced effects on the development of pubertal mammary glands at various concentrations that bear significant EHS relevance. We unearthed that AgNPs could accumulate in mouse mammary glands and result in a decrease in the percentage of ducts and terminal ducts in the adult mice after chronic exposure. Strikingly, smaller sized AgNPs showed greater capability to alter the pubertal mammary development than larger sized particles. Intriguingly, mechanistic investigation revealed that the reduction of epithelial proliferation in response to AgNPs was ascribed to reduced ERα expression, which, at least partially, accounted for diseased epithelial morphology in mammary glands. Meanwhile, the decline in fibrous collagen deposition around the epithelium was found to contribute to the compromised development of mammary glands under the exposure of AgNPs. Moreover, as an extension of the mechanism, AgNPs diminished serum levels of estradiol in exposed animals. Together, these results uncovered a novel toxicity feature of AgNPs: compromised development of mouse pubertal mammary glands through the endocrine-disrupting actions. This study would open a new avenue to unveil the EHS impacts of AgNPs.


This is a pre-planned finalised statistical analysis plan (SAP) detailing statistical methods used for the analyses of the Endometrial Scratch Trial. Amendments from previous versions with explanations are detailed in the SAP.Details concerning trial registration, funding, and research ethics are provided on the leading page of the SAP.


In the sustainable development era, massive land-use for electricity production represents a crucial challenge for environmental and social systems. Available information about the use of land in this sector is limited, for that reason in this paper we include the power density methodology to evaluate land-use in Colombia to produce electricity. The power density metric depicts the relation between energy produced and area used in this process, considering extraction-conversion-storage. The analysis between power electricity generation and land-use is made for the Colombian electric system, finding that there is no direct relationship between the area occupied by a generation plant and the electricity produced, since the evidence does not show that at larger areas greater power is obtained. Hydropower plants have large spectrum values of power densities, depending on the dam construction purpose (river-flow control). Fossil-fired power plants require less land for its production even including the fuel extraction area. Photovoltaic and wind-power plants in this comparison have the lowest power density values, accordingly, they require far larger areas and represent a risk for sustainability in this perspective.


In this paper an approach to testbench development for synchronous parallel-pipeline designs is considered. The approach is based on cycle-accurate formal specifications of a design under verification. Specifications include descriptions of control flow graphs of the design's operations and definitions of the microoperations with the help of Hoare triples. The approach allows to automate testbench development for complex synchronous designs with control flow branching and parallel starting operations.


Based on multiple studies in animal models, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)‐based therapy appears to be an innovative intervention approach with tremendous potential for the management of kidney disease. However, the clinical therapeutic effects of MSCs in either acute kidney injury (AKI) or chronic kidney disease (CKD) are still under debate. Hurdles originate from the harsh microenvironment in vivo that decreases the cell survival rate, paracrine activity and migratory capacity of MSCs after transplantation, which are believed to be the main reasons for their limited effects in clinical applications. Melatonin is traditionally regarded as a circadian rhythm‐regulated neurohormone but in recent years has been found to exhibit antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory properties. Because inflammation, oxidative stress, thermal injury, and hypoxia are abnormally activated in kidney disease, application of melatonin preconditioning to optimize the MSC response to the hostile in vivo microenvironment before transplantation is of great importance. In this review, we discuss current knowledge concerning the beneficial effects of melatonin preconditioning in MSC‐based therapy for kidney disease. By summarizing the available information and discussing the underlying mechanisms, we aim to improve the therapeutic effects of MSC‐based therapy for kidney disease and accelerate translation to clinical application.


The layer growth of the A15 (Nb3Sn) superconducting phase produced by the internal tin method on model monofilament wires was studied by neutron diffraction and electron microscopy techniques. Different ratios of the inner part of the wire (Sn/Cu) and the effect of the addition of 1% of zirconium to niobium were studied. The high temperature heat treatment plays a key role on the A15 formation and on the cost of the final wires produced. Different temperatures in the range 650-725°C and different annealing times in the range 8-200 hrs have led to the preparation of 72 different samples. The neutron diffraction study has evidenced the different phases formed during the heating treatment and the electron microscopy study has evidenced a power law for the growth rate of the A15 phase. In both studies the addition of zirconium in niobium is very effective on the growth rate of the A15 phase.


Compact neural network offers many benefits for real-world applications. However, it is usually challenging to train the compact neural networks with small parameter sizes and low computational costs to achieve the same or better model performance compared to more complex and powerful architecture. This is particularly true for multitask learning, with different tasks competing for resources. We present a simple, efficient and effective multitask learning overparameterisation neural network design by overparameterising the model architecture in training and sharing the overparameterised model parameters more effectively across tasks, for better optimisation and generalisation. Experiments on two challenging multitask datasets (NYUv2 and COCO) demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method across various convolutional networks and parameter sizes.


Urbanization and the trend towards complex infrastructure development has challenged the traditional two dimensional cadastral representations used in conventional land administration. Three dimensional representations, using three dimensional geometric primitives, are argued to serve as the future basis upon which to define rights, restrictions and responsibilities more accurately in these environments. The challenge manifests itself in Delhi, the metro and capital city of India, where horizontal expansion via new settlements in peri-urban areas, and vertical expansion by densification of city infrastructure are witnessed. The need to manage this increasingly 3D infrastructure environment presents a great challenge for both the Delhi Development Authority, the primary agency responsible for land planning and development, and the Municipal Corporation in Delhi, responsible for the maintenance of a large part of the city. This paper explores the current status of three dimensional representations in land related planning, development and management works in Delhi. To achieve this purpose, the outcomes of several research activities are consolidated. Underpinning the work was an analytical framework, informed by international works, enabling assessment of the existing form, function, and implementation of three dimensional cadastre. A questionnaire of employees from within the focus organizations was conducted with random sampling used to identify participants. The questionnaire enabled participants to outline current practices and understandings regarding three dimensional representations, potential benefits, organizational capacity and available technologies. In parallel, qualitative analysis was performed in the form of a literature review on the potential application of conceptual models related to land administration (LADM), data models about city infrastructure representation (CityGML) and building level information (BIM) etc. in context of Delhi as a case study. Based on the results, itis concluded that current practices related to 3D representation are immature and not adequate for capturing the future vertical growth of Delhi. This could lead to legal and physical boundary inconsistencies, irregularities, and dispute cases. However, adopting the international standard approaches, the agencies have the potential to enhance and support processes in the respective organizations. To realize this potential, internal and external factors related to policy, institutional setups, technical and financial arrangements need to be calibrated. It is recommended to initially focus on raising awareness for the widespread adoption of 3D representations in such organizations in Delhi.


Experimental measurements in conjunction with theoretical predictions were used to determine the extent of load supported by the fluid phase of cartilage at the articular surface. The u-p finite element model was used to simulate the loading of six separate porcine knee joints and to predict surface deformations of the cartilage layer on the lateral femoral condyle. Representative geometry for the condyle, contact pressures, and intrinsic material properties of the cartilage layer were supplied from experimental measures (see Part I). The u-p finite element predictions for surface deformations of the cartilage layer were obtained for several load partitioning states between the solid and fluid phases of cartilage at the articular surface. These were then compared to actual surface deformations obtained experimentally. It appeared from the comparison that approximately 75 percent of the applied load was borne by the fluid phase at the articular surface under this loading regime. This was qualitatively in agreement with the hypothesis that an applied load to articular joints is partitioned at the surface to the two phases according to the surface area ratios of the solid and fluid phases. It appeared that the solid phase was shielded from the total applied stress on the articular surface by the fluid and could be a reason for the excellent durability of the tissue under the demanding conditions in a diarthrodial joint.