Objectives The notion of intrapsychic conflict has been present in psychopathology for more than a century within different theoretical orientations. However, internal conflicts have not received enough empirical attention, nor has their importance in depression been fully elaborated. This study is based on the notion of cognitive conflict, understood as implicative dilemma (ID), and on a new way of identifying these conflicts by means of the Repertory Grid Technique. Our aim was to explore the relevance of cognitive conflicts among depressive patients. Design Comparison between persons with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and community controls. Methods A total of 161 patients with major depression and 110 non-depressed participants were assessed for presence of IDs and level of symptom severity. The content of these cognitive conflicts was also analysed. Results Repertory grid analysis indicated conflict (presence of ID/s) in a greater proportion of depressive patients than in controls. Taking only those grids with conflict, the average number of IDs per person was higher in the depression group. In addition, participants with cognitive conflicts displayed higher symptom severity. Within the clinical sample, patients with IDs presented lower levels of global functioning and a more frequent history of suicide attempts. Conclusions Cognitive conflicts were more prevalent in depressive patients and were associated with clinical severity. Conflict assessment at pre-therapy could aid in treatment planning to fit patient characteristics. Practitioner points Internal conflicts have been postulated in clinical psychology for a long time but there is little evidence about its relevance due to the lack of methods to measure them. We developed a method for identifying conflicts using the Repertory Grid Technique. Depressive patients have higher presence and number of conflicts than controls. Conflicts (implicative dilemmas) can be a new target for intervention in depression. Cautions/Limitations A cross-sectional design precluded causal conclusions. The role of implicative dilemmas in the causation or maintenance of depression cannot be ascertained from this study.


The S-genotypes of a set of Turkish and Hungarian apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of their S-RNase intron regions. In addition, the S-genotyping method was extended to the SFB gene to detect the non-functional SC-haplotype and hence reliably identify self-compatible apricot cultivars. We determined the complete S-genotype of 51 cultivars and the partial S-genotype of four cultivars. A total of 32 different S-genotypes were assigned to the 51 cultivars, and many of them (28) were classified into newly established cross-incompatibility groups III through XIV. Another 12 cultivars dem- onstrated unique incompatible genotypes and seven self-compatible cultivars were identified in the examined accessions. The fact that Turkish and Hungarian apricot cultivars carry 12 and five S-alleles, respectively, and all five alleles detected in Hungarian cultivars were also present in Turkish apricots furnished molecular evidence supporting the long-suspected historical connection between Hungarian and Turkish apricots. The connection between these two gene pools appeared to be relatively recent and associated with historical events dating back 300 years. Our results confirm that Turkish germplasm contributed considerably to the development of several desirable Hungarian apricot cultivars. Results suggest that the mutation rendering the SC-haplotype non-functional might have occurred somewhere east of central Turkey.


Abstract Portfolios are often used in higher education for learning, promotion, assessment and appraisal. Thanks to technical developments in recent years, portfolios are increasingly digital rather than physical. E-portfolios provide a comprehensive way to document personal progress, to reflect on work activities, to support learning and to serve as a tool for feedback and evaluation. However, there has been very little research conducted on the use of e-portfolios for learning purposes in higher education. This paper focuses on the use of e-portfolios in teacher education. Six students in a master programme work with e-portfolios in the course of their practical vocational training. In a mixed-methods design, the students were interviewed about their experiences and the process of writing e-portfolios. In addition, a document analysis of the e-portfolio entries has been conducted in terms of content and structure. The findings of this study provide indications on how e-portfolios can be used effectively in teacher training and which promoting and inhibiting conditions students encounter.


This paper presents a new approach for efficient object detection and matching in images and videos. We propose a stage based on a classification scheme that classifies the extracted features in new images into object features and non-object features. This binary classification scheme has turned out to be an efficient tool that can be used for object detection and matching. By means of this classification not only the matching process becomes more robust and faster but also the robust object registration becomes fast. We provide quantitative evaluations showing the advantages of using the classification stage for object matching and registration. Our approach could lend itself nicely to real-time object tracking and detection.


Distributed physical user interfaces comprise networked sensors, actuators and other devices attached to a variety of computers in different locations. Developing such systems is no easy task. It is hard to track the location and status of component devices, even harder to understand, validate, test and debug how events are transmitted between devices, and hardest yet to see if the overall system behaves correctly. Our Visual Environment Explorer supports developers of these systems by visualizing the location and status of individual and/or aggregate devices. It visualizes the current event flow between devices as they are received and transmitted, as well as the event history. Events are displayable at various levels of detail. The visualization also shows the activity of applications that use these physical devices. The tool is highly interactive: developers can explore system behavior through spatial navigation, zooming, multiple simultaneous views, event filtering, details-on-demand, and time-dependent semantic zooming.


The paper describes construction and the principles of activity, attributes and potential of 3phase Z-type inverters. The paper focuses on the basic system and suggested 3-level system of a NPC type Z-inverter, which was elaborated by authors. Simplified theoretical analysis of both systems has been verified by detailed simulation research. In the last section of the article, the possibility to build multilevel Z-inverters based on Diode Clamped typology is presented


Training multiple-layered deep neural networks (DNNs) is difficult. The standard practice of using a large number of samples for training often does not improve the performance of a DNN to a satisfactory level. Thus, a systematic training approach is needed. To address this need, we introduce an innovative approach of using metamorphic relations (MRs) as "knowledge carriers" to train DNNs. Based on the concept of metamorphic testing and MRs (which play the role of a test oracle in software testing), we make use of the notion of metamorphic group of inputs as concrete instances of MRs (which are abstractions of knowledge) to train a DNN in a systematic and effective manner. To verify the viability of our training approach, we have conducted a preliminary experiment to compare the performance of two DNNs: one trained with MRs and the other trained without MRs. We found that the DNN trained with MRs has delivered a better performance, thereby confirming that our approach of using MRs as knowledge carriers to train DNNs is promising. More work and studies, however, are needed to solidify and leverage this approach to generate widespread impact on effective DNN training.


Grammatical Evolution (GE) is applied to the problem of load balancing in heterogeneous cellular network deployments (HetNets). HetNets are multi-tiered cellular networks for which load balancing is a scalable means to maximise network capacity, assuming similar traffic from all users. This paper describes a proof of concept study in which GE is used in a genetic algorithm-like way to evolve constants which represent cell power and selection bias in order to achieve load balancing in HetNets. A fitness metric is derived to achieve load balancing both locally in sectors and globally across tiers. Initial results show promise for GE as a heuristic for load balancing. This finding motivates a more sophisticated grammar to bring enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination optimisation into an evolutionary framework.


The ensemble of conformers of globular protein molecules immediately following transfer from unfolding to folding conditions is assumed to be collapsed though still disordered, as the first steps of the folding pathway are initiated. In order to test the hypothesis that long loop closure transitions are part of the initiation of the folding pathway, our groups are studying the initiation of the folding transition of a model protein by time-resolved excitation energy transfer (trFRET) detected fast kinetics experiments. Site-specific double labeling is used to study the timing of conformational transitions of individual loop forming chain segments at the microsecond time regime. Previously, it was shown that at least three long loops in the Escherichia coli adenylate kinase (AK) molecule close within the first 5 ms of folding of AK, while the main global folding transition occurs in a time regime of seconds. In order to enhance the time resolution of the kinetics experiments to the microsecond time regime and determine the rate of closure of the two N terminal loops (loop I residues 1-26 and loop II residues 29-72), we applied a continuous flow based double kinetics experiment. These measurements enabled us to obtain a microsecond series of transient time dependent distributions of distances between the ends of the labeled loops. Analysis of the trFRET experiments show that the N terminal loop (loop I) is closed within less than 60 μs after the initiation of refolding. Loop II is also mostly closed within that time step but shows an additional small reduction of the mean end-to-end distance in a second phase at a rate of 0.005 μs(-1). This second phase can either reflect tightening of a loosely closed loop in the ensemble of conformers or may reflect two subpopulations in the ensemble, which differ in the rate of closure of loop II, but not in the rate of closure of loop I. This study shows the very fast closure of long loops in the otherwise disordered backbone and fine details of the very early hidden pretransition state steps that are essential for the fast and efficient folding of the protein molecule.


ABSTRACT A growing corpus of anthropological scholarship demonstrates how science and medicine in Mexico are imbued by national concerns with modernization. Drawing on ethnographic research in a public hospital located in the south of Mexico City, I unpack one manifestation of this dynamic, which is the conjugation of the normal and the modern in Mexican reconstructive surgery. The aspiration toward normality underlies everyday clinic practices and relationships in this field, including why parents want surgery for their children and how doctors see their patients and their responsibilities toward them. It is also central to the professional ethic of reconstructive surgeons. I argue that the realities of health care provision in Mexico coalesced with this ethic to produce reconstructive surgeons as political subjects. They aimed to modernize craniofacial surgery in Mexico and so make the bodies of craniofacial patients normal.


In banner advertising, Click Through Rate (CTR) is one of the most important indicators to evaluate one advertisement's quality. Advertisers create massive number of banner candidates in empirical ways, then proceed to actual tests by delivering advertisement to measure each banner's effectiveness. This process is expensive and therefore our CTR prediction helps reducing online advertising costs. In this work, we propose a method to classify 'effective' and 'ineffective' advertising banners based on image processing using state-of-the-art CNN. We first focus only on images then conduct experiments including metadata (product, advertiser, etc) to increase the CTR prediction accuracy and demonstrate which metadata is the most influential. Subsequently, each approach is compared to human performance. In the second part of our work, we detect which parts of the image contribute predominantly to increase the CTR by generating heat maps for each classes. This work leads to a deeper understanding of a banner advertising success and helps making decisions on how to improve it.


So much has been said about the sanitary work done by the government at the camps and cantonments that what Mr. Greeley says in this number about sanitation at the shipyards is a timely tribute to a group of men which has been doing a fine piece of work without receiving any recognition for it. The enormous shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation called for the construction of new villages and new transportation facilities almost overnight. The need for ships has been most pressing. The managers of these yards thought of ship ways and shops and tracks and storage; they had no time to think of sanitation, except casually. It was to help them keep their mushroom enterprises safe in a sanitary sense, that Colonel Doane was engaged. He and his men have been out on the job most of the time. During the fiye months I was employment manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation I saw him only once, at a staff dinner. He was too busy to waste any time in an office chair. But he has kept the ship yards in good sanitary condition in spijte of serious difficulties, and he has done such a satisfactory piece of work that nobody was surprised when the War Department told him recently to get ready to return to the army. J. M. Goodell.


Two young women were suffered from several symptoms after the intake of royal jelly at their first time. According to the positive skin prick test reactions of raw royal jelly, royal jelly allergy was diagnosed. As the reasons why the symptoms appeared at the time of their first intake, we guessed the possibility that 1) they had been sensitized for royal jelly formerly, or 2) their symptoms were induced by the cross-reactivity between royal jelly and other allergens such as bee, honey and pollens. As to our cases, no related allergens were found in one case, but in another case co-existence of mugwort allergy was suspected from the results of both skin prick test and specific IgE titers. Originally royal jelly allergy has been regarded as class 1 allergic reaction developed by the sensitization of itself. But we speculated the possibility that there can also be cases of class 2 royal jelly allergy by the mechanism of cross-reaction with pollens.


The innovative ambidexterity lens classifies agripreneurs as having exploratory, exploitative, or ambidextrous postures.Exploratory agripreneurs exhibit fast and radical innovative behavior, exploitative agripreneurs slow and incremental innovative behavior, whereas ambidextrous agripreneurs are in between. This article proposes a typology of Filipino agripreneurs based on four dimensions of innovative ambidexterity. Data on one hundred and seventy-four (174) Filipino agripreneurs from administrative regions in the Philippines, were derived from the 2013 to 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Surveys (GEM-APS) and analyzed using unsupervised K-means. Three clusters of Filipino agripreneurs emerged: (1) generally exploratory; (2) purely exploitative; and (3) mixed ambidextrous. Based on the results, many of the highly exploratory agripreneurs came from the Southern Mindanao and Caraga regions. A closer look at the formal, and informal institutional support in these regions reveals an enabling environment from government agencies in the aforementioned regions. Meanwhile, most of the mixed ambidextrous agripreneurs were from Ilocos, Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan (MIMAROPA), Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, Central Mindanao, and Caraga. One commonality among these regions was their all having international airports, which is important to facilitate the transport of products to Manila and international markets. As a recommendation, regional development policies must aim to develop agripreneurs with exploratory, as well as ambidextrous postures. An enabling formal and informal institutional environment (i.e., economic, technological, natural, and political-legal factors, as well as, networks) must be put in place at the regional level for these innovative postures to be developed and for innovations in agripreneurship to be accelerated in the country.


Sycorax peruensis sp.n. is the first blood sucking fossil Psychodidae in South America. The new species mainly differs from all recent Neotropical Sycoracinae in its number of antennal segments. It is described from the middle Miocene Western Amazonian amber, which included an intertropical entomofauna previous to the land connection with Central and North America that occurred in the latest MiocenePliocene. Insects from this material are diverse with normal bias for amber inclusions of Diptera and Hymenoptera and small-sized specimens.


Objective: to develop a detailed three-dimensional geometrically and biomechanically accurate finite element model of the human lower cervical spine, and to further investigate the biomechanical responses of the simulated ligamentous and articulating facets injured human cervical spine. Study design: the study comprised the development of a finite element model of human lower cervical spine and validation by direct comparison of the model prediction against published data under axial compressive, flexion and extension loading configurations. The effects of ligamentous and facets injuries in the overall movement response of the spinal motion segment under sagittal moments were then studied by varying the necessary parameters of the validated model. Background: the complex shapes of the vertebrae, the overlaying facets, intervertebral disc and the attaching ligaments have made modelling a laborious task. Attempts to quantify the clinical stability of cervical spine due to ligamentous and facets damage in vitro also limited due to the insufficient study samples to perform a statistical analysis. Race, age and occupational-related the normative values for geometry and biomechanical properties were not specifically available. Accordingly, the pathological alteration in the tissues and facets could only be best performed ex vivo using numerical simulation to quantify the subjective manner. Methods: based on the digitised geometrical data of the dried cadaveric cervical spine, protocols for the creation of surface profile and generation of "watertight" solid volume that truly preserves the topography of the original vertebrae for the reconstruction of finite element model were developed. Based on published data available, the cortical shell, cancellous bone, the ligaments and intervertebral disc were incorporated to complete the modelling of the lower cervical spinal motion segment. The model was analysed under sagittal moments and axial compressive loading, and the predicted results were compared against published experimental data and existing finite element models. A parametric study was performed to analyse the moment deflection of simulated injured segments (segment without ligaments, and segment with both ligaments and facets). Results: the protocols used in the generation of vertebral finite element mesh and the use of published data for the modelling of lower cervical spinal motion segment have reliably developed. The model was able to predict the force displacement response that agreed well with published data. Furthermore, the model was able to predict the non-linear force displacement response of the human lower cervical spine function unit. Results from the parametric study on the roles of ligaments and facets shows that ligaments or facets are crucial to maintain the stability movement of the normal cervical spine under flexion or extension, respectively. Conclusions: based on the digitising technique of extracting the geometric data of the surface profile of the vertebrae and the incorporation of associated tissues based on published data, a geometrical and biomechanical accurate model of lower cervical spine was developed. The surface and solid volume development protocols permit the fine tuning of the model for detailed quantitative assessment of the prevalence of pathological changes in ligaments and facets in cervical spine. The predicted response of injured spine will provide additional information for the clinical assessment of cervical spinal stability and the design and analysis of spinal implant device. This validated finite element model will be served to explore the effect of potentially detrimental influences of injury to vertebrae, ligaments, disc and facets in individual cases.


In ten white New Zealand rabbits a one cm long human arterial cord graft was transplanted after resection of 0,5 cm of isthmus by microsurgical technique. The umbilical artery was previously prepared under microscope and treated for suppression of cord antigens. After two episodes of mating, no pregnancies were observed in the operated side, but total patency was demonstrated in 2 case (20%) and only distal occlusion in 2 more (20%). In 4 cases (40%) the growth of mucosa by apocrine metaplasia was histologically observed and in 5 cases (50%) the presence of foreign body reaction was detected. The hystological findings are presented and the results discussed.


Twenty three male Wistar rats were divided into five groups and were immunized with five overlapping synthetic peptides (Group I (n=5), peptide 12-30; Group II (n=5), 24-44; Group III (n=4), 308-328; Group IV (n=5), 324-344; and Group V (n=4), 339-364) of human thyrotropin receptor (TSHR), which had been conjugated with rabbit serum albumin. Sera obtained 34 days after the first immunization were investigated for their ability to displace 125I-TSH binding to thyrotropin receptor (thyrotropin binding inhibitor immunoglobulins (TBII)). In addition, biological activity, namely thyroid stimulating (TSAb) or blocking (TSBAb) activities in them were tested with cultured porcine thyroid cells. TBII activities in Group I, II, III, IV, and V rats were 12.6±4.1% (range 9.2-17.2%), 16.3±4.0% (range 11.7-22.0%), 16.7±4.9% (range 13.2-20.1%), 14.5±5.7% (range 8.1-19.0%), and 13.8±6.3% (range 8.1-14.3%), respectively, which were not significantly different from control rat sera (12.3±6.7%, range 1.2-20.1%). TSAb activities in Group I, II, III, IV, and V rats were 608±675% (range 275-1813%), 234±26% (range 209-265%), 313± 175% (range 187-568%),190±63% (range 145-301%), and 134±24% (range 107-158%), respectively. TSAb activities in Group I, II, III, and IV rats were significantly higher than those from control rat sera (P<0.01) while those of Group V were not significantly different from control rat sera. None of the rats in each group exhibited TSBAb activity. Measurement of serum T3 and T4 in each group of rats has shown a significant positive correlation between serum T3 and TSAb activity (r=0.55, P<0.05). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the major binding site of immunoglobulins with TSAb activity is located in residues 12-30. Localization of TSBAb binding site(s) was not clear from our present investigation.


Background and objectives Enthesitis with new cartilage and bone formation, which leads to joint ankylosis, is a hallmark of spondyloarthritis (SpA). Ankylosis is thought to occur initially in entheseal sites, however, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that regulate this process. Previously, the authors proposed the 'entheseal stress' hypothesis, defining entheseal microdamage as a starting point for AS. Mechanical strain has been shown to be osteogenic in other cell types and given that BMPs are increased in models of AS, the authors aimed to study changes in gene expression resulting from the application of acute and chronic mechanical strain to primary human periosteal cells (hPDCs) in the presence and absence of BMP2. Methods Mechanical strain was applied using a custom made bioreactor. Cells were seeded in a Uniflex six-well plate, grown for 48 h and serum-starved prior to mechanical stimulation. Cells were subjected to cyclic, uniaxial stretch (1 Hz, 20 kPa, 3.5% strain) while sham controls were placed in a control bioreactor without mechanical stimuli. Both sham and stretch samples were also treated with BMP2 for 5 h prior to stretch. Acute stretch experiments involved a single bout of 1800 cycles, while chronic experiments involved application of 1800 cycles once per day for 3 days. RNA samples were collected at 1 and 18 h poststretch for acute and chronic regimes respectively. Gene expression was measured using Taqman PCR assays. Results Acute stretch induced large increases in c-fos, a target validation gene for mechanical strain, but there was no significant stretch induction of BMP2 or the BMP target gene, Id1. As expected, Id1 was induced by BMP2, indicating that BMP2 treatments were effective, however, 6 h of BMP2 exposure was not sufficient to induce CXCL6. Despite increasing trends in both Sox9 and Runx2, high experimental variation determined that these increases were not statistically significant. Chronic stretch induced small, but statistically significant increases in c-fos, yet BMP2 and Id1 required both stretch and BMP2 to be moderately increased (p<0.05, analysis of variance). Stretch alone produced a significant increase in Sox9 expression and BMP2 treatment alone increased CXCL6. Conclusion Data suggests that the application of a chronic stretch regime results in a gene expression profile that is likely to induce chondro- and osteogenic changes in hPDCs. The amplification of gene expression in the presence of BMP2 and stretch indicates that BMPs play a role not only in the progression of ankylosis, but also in biomechanical aspects of SpA.


This paper describes how one can use the well-known Bayesian prior to posterior analysis of the Dirichlet process, and less known results for the gamma process, to address the formidable problem of assessing the distribution of linear functionals of Dirichlet processes. In particular, in conjunction with a gamma identity, we show easily that a generalized Cauchy-Stieltjes transform of a linear functional of a Dirichlet process is equivalent to the Laplace functional of a class of, what we define as, beta-gamma processes. This represents a generalization of the Markov-Krein identity for mean functionals of Dirichlet processes. A prior to posterior analysis of beta-gamma processes is given that not only leads to an easy derivation of the Markov-Krein identity, but additionally yields new distributional identities for gamma and beta-gamma processes. These results give new explanations and intepretations of exisiting results in the literature. This is punctuated by establishing a simple distributional relationship between beta-gamma and Dirichlet processes.


English for specific purposes (ESP) represents one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today. The ESP has grown considerably over the past few years which has led to a rapid growth in English courses aimed at specific disciplines. The conference targets on both theoretical and methodological topics relating to current approaches and trends in ESP. We wish to bring together teachers and experts to share their knowledge, experience and research results at the conference and follow-up discussion. Submissions are welcome in the following areas: Methodological aspects of teaching ESP at universities; current approaches and methods in ESP teaching; communicative competence in ESP teaching; the role of translation in ESP teaching; syllabus/curriculum design for ESP at universities; analysis and evaluation of different aspects of ESP textbooks; different approaches to the ESP syllabus design and the processes of curriculum development; the specifics of professional content in ESP materials; university management's support for teaching ESP; organizational and financial support; participation in research projects and the situation of ESP teachers at universities.


Cafestol and kahweol are expressive furane-diterpenoids from the lipid fraction of coffee beans with relevant pharmacological properties for human health. Due to their thermolability, they suffer degradation during roasting, whose products are poorly studied regarding their identity and content in the roasted coffee beans and beverages. This article describes the extraction of these diterpenes, from the raw bean to coffee beverages, identifying them and understanding the kinetics of formation and degradation in roasting (light, medium and dark roasts) as the extraction rate for different beverages of coffee (filtered, Moka, French press, Turkish and boiled). Sixteen compounds were identified as degradation products, ten derived from kahweol and six from cafestol, produced by oxidation and inter and intramolecular elimination reactions, with the roasting degree (relationship between time and temperature) being the main factor for thermodegradation and the way of preparing the beverage responsible for the content of these substances in them.


Objectives Abdominal cysts are frequently detected in fetuses through routine prenatal ultrasound. In female fetuses such cysts are most often originated from ovaries under the stimulus of maternal hormones, and can grow to a rather large size. We present our survey of prenatally detected ovarian cysts (OC) and we propose a management and follow-up protocol. Methods A retrospective review of all cases of abdominal cysts in female fetuses detected in our institution from jan. 2007 to jan. 2012 was conducted. Among all cases of abdominal cystic formations, 28 were originated from the ovary, and resulted at antenatal US scan ranging in diameter from 15 to 90 mm. 17 cases showed spontaneous regression up to a complete remission, 13 of them measuring < 50 mm, while all other cases were managed surgically with a laparoscopic approach. When ovarian parenchyma was macroscopically evident it has been preserved. In 4 cases pathologic examination showed absence of any trace of ovarian parenchyma. Results 11 cysts, all showing associated fluid corpuscular content were treated surgically, 8 of them larger than 50mm and. Among these, 5 presented torsion and one auto-amputation. In one case anaphylactic shock occurred during surgery. In all cases in which ovarian parenchyma was preserved, US follow-up at three months after surgery showed vital ovarian tissue. Conclusions Ovarian cysts with size exceeding 50 mm are related to high risk of torsion. Cysts with corpuscular content show almost no tendency to regression after depletion of maternal hormones stimulation: surgery appears to be indicated after proper clinical observation.


The three-level full-bridge (TLFB) dc−dc converter has been widely used in high-voltage, high-power applications. In the experimental test, the neutral-point voltage deviation appears; moreover, it has also been found out that if the flying capacitors are introduced, the input capacitor voltages could realize self-balance even if no active balancing solutions are adopted. In the previous publications, the role of flying capacitors is generally considered to extend the range of soft switching; however, the self-balance ability has not been mentioned or investigated in any publications thus far. In order to fill this gap, this paper provides the detailed mode operation analysis of the TLFB converter and reveals the cause of the imbalance. In addition, the mechanism of the self-balance ability provided by the flying capacitors is explained in detail, which gives a deep insight into the converter. At last, the influence factor of the voltage error in steady state has been analyzed, and the specific expression of the voltage error is also derived. The feasibility of the theoretical analysis is verified by the simulation and experimental results.


Foreword by Joyce A. Logan Preface AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Analysis of African American Women's Experiences in the U.S. Criminal Justice System 1I Profiles and Narratives of African American Women in the U.S. Criminal Justice System A Currently Incarcerated Women Don Alda Cynthia Mamie Elizabeth Rae Ann Donna Martha Marilyn B Formerly Incarcerated Women Bettie Gibson Joyce Ann Brown Betty Tyson Karen Michelle Blakney Ida P. McCray Millicent Pierce Joyce A. Logan Donna Hubbard Spearman C Criminal Justice Officials and Support Networks Judge Juanita Bing Newton Assistant Warden Gerald Clay Grace House Administrators: Rochelle Bowles, Mary Dolan, Annie Gonzalez, and Kathy Nolan Sandra Barnhill, Director, Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers (AIM)Rhodessa Jones, Director, Medea Theater Project Professor Brenda V. Smith A Family Story: Renay, Judy, Debbie, and Kito III Conclusions and Recommendations Afterword by Angela J. Davis Appendix A: Self-Study Course on African American Women's History Appendix B: Resource Directory Notes Bibliography Index About the Author


The scholarly communication and research evaluation landscape is locked into historical paradigms which inadequately reflect the opportunities of the digital era. Why hasn't the Internet disrupted the practices and the economics of scholarly publishing? This article traces how university library budgets have become dominated by a small number of multinational publishers and attempts at scholarly communication change have only had limited impact, despite the opportunities for increased global distribution of research scholarship. Open access initiatives are assessed in relation to future scholarly communication change in which university libraries play an increasing role in campus scholarly ecosystems.


The d.c. conductivity and the electric a.c. response from 100 Hz up to 40 MHz of poly(3n-decylpyrrole) were measured in the 80-330 K interval to characterize the charge transport behaviour of the system. The d.c. conductivity well fitted the variable range hopping model, and the loss factor, after having deducted the d.c. contribution, showed a relaxation peak when the conductivity versus frequency started to rise. The strength of this relaxation increased with temperature and became too large to be related to a dipolar relaxation; moreover, the temperature dependence of the loss peak frequency and d.c. conductivity coincided. The observed relaxation was attributed to the hopping charge transport, as further confirmed by the temperature behaviour of the relaxation strength and by the frequency dependence of the exponents of the power law which locally approximate the conductivity behaviour. As the activation energy of the d.c. conductivity differed from the frequency of the loss peak, the theoretical prediction concerning the selfsimilarity of the a.c. conductivity was roughly verified.


The sacculi of five species of catfishes were studied by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. In four species, the sagitta exhibited a multifluted anterior part and a tapered posterior part; in Corydoras aeneus, however, the fluted part was absent, and a vertical component extended dorsally to terminate near the opening of the transverse canal. In all species, the otoliths had a laminar structure. An otolithic membrane was present, and hair cell bundles projected into cavities on the macular surface of the membrane. Attachments of the otolithic membrane to the neuroepithelium included short extensions of the membrane to the tallest components of the hair cell bundles of the peripheral cells and more delicate connections to the kinocilium and taller stereocilia of central cells; in addition, attachments to the microvilli of supporting cells were present. In both hair cells and supporting cells single microtubules and bundles of microtubules were present; the bundles had an orderly arrangement and were associated with cytoplasmic densities surrounding the desmosomes. The hair cells were innervated by both afferent and efferent nerve endings. Studies of the polarization of the hair cells in all species (except C. aeneus) showed that there was a single longitudinal axis that divided dorsally polarized cells from those oriented ventrally. In Doras spinosissimus and Bunocephalus bicolor, an additional line of polarization was evident in a small area in the anterior part of the macula; therefore, in these forms there was a double bipolar orientation.


Treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations improves outcomes; however, responses to treatment are variable, and patients with COPD often delay presentation or fail to seek therapy. The impact on exacerbation outcomes, hospitalization, and health status of delaying or failing to seek treatment is poorly understood. We studied between 1996 and 2002 a cohort of 128 patients with COPD, mean (SD) FEV(1) of 1.07 (0.43) L. Patients recorded respiratory symptoms daily and reported exacerbations to the outpatient-based study team or to their primary care physician; 1,099 exacerbations were recorded by the patients, of which 658 were reported to a physician. The time between exacerbation onset and treatment was a median (interquartile range) of 3.69 (2.0-5.57) days, and the exacerbation recovery time was 10.7 (7.0-14.0) days. Earlier treatment was associated with a faster recovery (regression coefficient 0.42 days/day delay) (confidence interval, 0.19-0.65; p < 0.001). Patients who reported a higher proportion of exacerbations for treatment had better health-related quality of life than those patients with more untreated exacerbations (rho = -0.22, p = 0.018). Failure to report exacerbations was associated with an increased risk of emergency hospitalization (rho = 0.21, p = 0.04). Patient recognition of exacerbation symptoms and prompt treatment improves exacerbation recovery, reduces risks of hospitalization, and is associated with a better health-related quality of life.


The knowledge of the carbon levels in forests is important for quantifying and planning activities related to carbon sequestration. The purpose of this study was to analyze the carbon contents in tree species of the 'Araucaria' Forest in General Carneiro, State of Parana. Thirty-eight species were identified in a forest inventory. The components (stem wood, bark, foliage, live and dead branches) of each species, as well as the interaction between species and components, were analyzed. Regarding the studied species, the highest carbon content was found in Prunus brasiliensis. The creation of 19 groups was observed through the averages. Five groups of components were formed and foliage presented the highest carbon content. The analyses indicated great heterogeneity on the carbon contents between the species and even within one single species.


Social media got unpredictable fast growth and now social media is used in all aspect of life. Social media has influenced all areas of life and politics. Government organization using social media to be in touch with their workers and communication of office work where as political parties are using social media for sharing party activities and manifesto among the volunteers and people. It is not only that even social media is very important tool to attract new workers towards party manifesto even social media is used as a propaganda tool across the world. In Modern democracy the politicians are using social media in very short period of time to engage their voters and citizens are into discussion and direct dialogue. Values of media are not appropriate followed by people. Political representative is engaged in creating social media a platform to be in connection with workers but people consider it as a platform to ventilate themselves and in struggle of to expose political representative. In this study, it is measured that Social Media and Media Ethics are associated to each other. For this Pearson correlation was used Demographic Statistic, And Regression Analysis were Applied to understand the reality eventhickness of data was tested through Cronbach ' s alpha. This study concluded ethics of politics and values of media are associated but not properly understood by people.


Scientific technical vocabulary in Serbian is amply susceptible to the adoption of new words due to the constant development of science and technology and to the emergence of new scientific fields of knowledge, so term formation is of a vital role in lexicology and terminology evolution, and the area of physical education and sports terminology in Serbian is no exception. Gloss formation systems and their language units are highly influenced by syntactic means of nomination, namely syntagmas. Not all syntagmas are evenly represented in contemporary language. Consequently, several questions are posed and tackled in this paper: (1) can, this language unit, (syntagma and syntagma construction) assume term values in sport and physical education terminology in Serbian and the answer to this question is positive, and then (2) what is the best way to recognize when a syntagma or syntagma construction assumes a terminological value. This research will probe into the analysis of the structural grammar characteristics of syntagmas and their lexical and grammar classes and subclasses using the faculty course books for the Serbian corpus. The paper then identifies and describes language structures of syntagmas that in sports language in Serbian assume term values (that is term usage values). On the basis of the obtained research results one can conclude that in sports games terminology in Serbian, within the class of two parts syntagmas, the dominant role is ascribed to the noun syntagmas in several different models, with the verb, that is with the noun as the main word.


Using site-visit data from the Community Tracking Study, we show that specialists are increasingly forming large single-specialty medical groups, particularly in orthopedics and cardiology, where new technologies have increased the number of diagnostic imaging and surgical services that can be provided in outpatient settings. Specialists are also forming large groups to gain negotiating leverage with health plans; the decline of managed care and the fading of the perception of a specialist surplus has made single- rather than multispecialty groups an attractive means to gain leverage. We explore possible consequences of this shift in physician practice organization and its policy implications.


Hybrid nanostructures based on graphene and transition metal oxides hold great promise as high‐performance electrode materials for next‐generation lithium‐ion batteries. In this work, the rational design and fabrication of NiCo2O4 nanosheets supported on reduced graphene oxide (denoted as rGO/NiCo2O4) is presented as a novel anode material for highly efficient and reversible lithium storage. A solution method is applied to grow Ni‐Co precursor nanosheets on rGO, in which the addition of trisodium citrate is found crucial to guide the formation of uniform Ni‐Co precursor nanosheets. Subsequent thermal treatment results in formation of crystalline NiCo2O4 nanosheets on rGO without damaging the morphology. The interconnected NiCo2O4 nanosheets form hierarchically porous films on both sides of rGO. Such a hybrid nanostructure would effectively promote the charge transport and withstand volume variation upon prolonged charge/discharge cycling. As a result, the rGO/NiCo2O4 nanocomposite demonstrates high reversible capacities of 954.3 and 656.5 mAh g–1 over 50 cycles at current densities of 200 and 500 mA g–1 respectively, and remarkable capacity retention at increased current densities.


Abstract Context: In 2007, The National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME) instituted a policy to address the accuracy and integrity of postencounter written documentation recorded during the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination Level 2-Performance Evaluation (COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE). This policy was instituted not only to protect the integrity of the examination, but also to highlight that overdocumentation of clinical findings not obtained during patient encounters may jeopardize patient safety. Objective: To investigate overall and domain pass/fail patterns of candidates who misrepresented clinical findings with regard to past and subsequent performance on COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE. Specifically, to investigate what percentage of candidates failed because of misrepresentation on first attempts and how they performed on subsequent administrations, as well as the previous performance patterns of candidates who failed because of misrepresentation on examination retakes. Methods: Historical records from NBOME's COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE database (testing cycles 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010) were used to analyze overall and domain pass/fail patterns of candidates who failed at least once because of misrepresentation of clinical findings. Results: Of the 24 candidates who failed because of misrepresentation of postencounter (SOAP) notes, 20 candidates (83%) were first-time examinees. Four candidates (17%) were repeating the examination, 2 of whom were making a third attempt to pass. Among these 20 candidates who failed because of misrepresentation of clinical findings on their first attempt, 19 passed on their next attempt. At the time of study analysis, all but 2 candidates eventually passed the examination in subsequent attempts. Conclusion: Among candidates found to have misrepresented clinical findings on postencounter written documentation on COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE, no pattern existed between their past or subsequent performance with regard to overall or domain pass/fail results. The vast majority of these candidates passed the examination on subsequent administrations, and none failed twice because of misrepresentation. Consequences of misrepresentation of clinical findings on COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE are severe and may serve to both raise awareness and prevent these types of errors in the future.


Conventional optical lithography is recognized to be approaching its limit for critical dimensions in the range of 0.1 pm [1,2]. There is considerable interest in candidates for imaging below this dimension. While several technologies (x-ray, EW, e-beam, etc. ) offer the resolution to print sub-O.1 Fm features, it is not clear if any of them will be production worthy in time to maintain traditional development cycles. In this paper we assess the maturify of X-ray proximity printing using a 1Gb DRAM technology routinely practiced with 248 nm DW lithography for all critical levels [3,4]. For this exercise several experimental lots were run with four critical levels printed with X-ray lithography. This paper reports the results from these lots and compares them to the baseline optical process in terms of electrical results and identifies logistical issues unique to X-ray lithography.


In this paper, an extension of the minimum cost flow (MCF) algorithm dealing with a sparse data grid, which allows the unwrapping of multitemporal differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferograms for the generation of deformation time series, is presented. The proposed approach exploits both the spatial characteristics and the temporal relationships among multiple interferograms relevant to a properly chosen sequence. In particular, the presented solution involves two main steps: first of all, for each arc connecting neighboring pixels on the interferometric azimuth/range grid, the unwrapped phase gradients are estimated via the MCF technique applied in the temporal/perpendicular baseline plane. Following this step, these estimates are used as a starting point for the spatial-unwrapping operation implemented again via the MCF approach but carried out in the azimuth/range plane. The presented results, achieved on simulated and real European Remote Sensing satellite SAR data, confirm the effectiveness of the extended MCF unwrapping algorithm


Turn of Phrase: Contrastive Pre-Training for Discourse-Aware Conversation Models Roland Laboulaye Department of Computer Science, BYU Master of Science Understanding long conversations requires recognizing a discourse flow unique to conversation. Recent advances in unsupervised representation learning of text have been attained primarily through language modeling, which models discourse only implicitly and within a small window. These representations are in turn evaluated chiefly on sentence pair or paragraph-question pair benchmarks, which measure only local discourse coherence. In order to improve performance on discourse-reliant, long conversation tasks, we propose Turn-of-Phrase Pre-Training, an objective designed to encode long conversation discourse flow. We leverage tree-structured Reddit conversations in English to, relative to a chosen conversation path through the tree, select paths of varying degrees of relatedness. The final utterance of the chosen path is appended to the related paths and the model learns to identify the most coherent conversation path. We demonstrate that our pre-training objective encodes conversational discourse awareness by improving performance on a dialogue act classification task. We then demonstrate the value of transferring discourse awareness with a comprehensive array of conversation-level classification tasks evaluating persuasion, conflict, and deception.


Mobile robot concept is one of the most commonly used nonholonomic system for industrial and academic autonomous applications. There are many types of mobile robot design concepts and control strategies which have been continuously developed by researchers. In this study, two wheeled differential drive mobile robot (DDMR) is used for trajectory tracking study under different conditions.Reference trajectory, dynamic and kinematic motion models of DDMR are defined as mathematical expressions in computer software.For tracking the reference trajectory, error between current pose and reference pose was decreased by Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) and Proportional–Integral–Derivative controller (PID) with Kinematic Based Backstepping Controller (KBBC) respectively. A reference path which consists of sinusoidal and linear parts tracked by both controller combinations in first simulation to examine controller tracking performances. In order to examine and compare; responsiveness, stability and robustness of the controllers, an additional mass vertically added to the mobile robot body which affects motion dynamics of DDMR during trajectory tracking application. All results and discussions comparatively stated at the end of the study with related error figures and evaluations.


Canadian municipalities have noted that 59% of their water systems needed repair and the status of 43% of these systems is unacceptable. In the United States, ASCE assigned a near failing grade of D– to the condition of water system infrastructure. Therefore, municipalities face a great challenge of managing the expected large replacement and new installation projects of water mains. This research aims at designing a robust model in order to assess the condition and predict the performance of water mains. Data are collected from three different Canadian municipalities: (1) Moncton (New Brunswick); (2) London (Ontario); and (3) Longueiul (Quebec). An integrated model and framework, using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and artificial neural network (ANN), are developed. In addition, an automated, user-friendly, web-based infrastructure management tool (CR-Predictor) is developed based on the integrated AHP/ANN model to assess water main condition. The developed tool and models are validated in which they show robust results (98.51%) — the average validity percent. They are expected to benefit academics and practitioners (municipal engineers, consultants, and contractors) to prioritize inspection and rehabilitation planning for existing water mains.


Research Findings: The present study examined the role of demographic risk factors in the development of children's behavioral regulation. We investigated whether being from a low-income family and being an English language learner (ELL) predicted behavioral regulation between prekindergarten and kindergarten. Results indicated that children from low-income families began prekindergarten with significantly lower behavioral regulation than their more economically advantaged peers. Furthermore, English-speaking children from low-income families exhibited a faster rate of behavioral regulation growth than low-income ELLs. English-speaking children from low-income families narrowed the gap with their more economically advantaged English-speaking peers by the end of kindergarten, but ELLs from low-income families did not. Practice or Policy: Discussion focuses on the importance of understanding the effects of being an ELL and being from a low-income family for the demands of formal schooling.


The poor educational outcomes and labour market difficulties of ethnic minorities are often attributed to their residential location and their segregation in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In this article, we seek to determine whether the educational and employment trajectories of young people with at least one parent born in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa or in the Middle East are equivalent to those of young people whose parents were both born in France, holding sociodemographic characteristics and place of residence constant. To this end, we exploit fine-scale geolocation data at the level of the infra-communal census district (IRIS) provided by the 1998 and 2004 Generation surveys. The specifications used in the regression models enable us to measure the effect of the origin variable after controlling for a wide range of individual variables and for the geographic fixed effect at the IRIS level (conditional logit). Our results highlight the large differences between the children of African immigrants and the children of French-born parents. These differences persist even after controlling for geographic effects.


We present a type system over language definitions that classifies parts of the operational semantics of a language in input, and models a common language design organization. The resulting typing discipline guarantees that the language at hand is automatically type sound. Thanks to the use of types to model language design, our type checker has a high-level view on the language being analyzed and can report messages using the same jargon of language designers. We have implemented our type system in the lang-n-check tool, and we have applied it to derive the type soundness of several functional languages, including those with recursive types, polymorphism, exceptions, lists, sums, and several common types and operators.


We study the problem of personalized article recommendation, in particular when the user's preference data is missing or limited, which is knowns as the user cold-start issue in recommender systems. We propose POLAR++, an active recommendation framework that utilizes Bayesian neural networks to capture the uncertainty of user preference, actively selects articles to query the user for feedback, and adaptively learns user preference with one-shot learning. For the article recommendation, we design an attention-based CNN to quantify the similarity between user preference and recommended articles, which significantly improves the performance with only a few articles rated by the users. We evaluate the proposed POLAR++ on datasets of different scale and sources. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. We have successfully deployed POLAR++ into AMiner as the recommendation engine for article recommendation, which further confirms the effectiveness of the proposed model.


Bacterial wilt, a severe disease involving vascular system blockade, is caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. Although both plant immunity and dehydration tolerance might contribute to disease resistance, whether and how they are related remain unclear. Herein, we showed that immunity against R. solanacearum and dehydration tolerance are coupled and regulated by the CaPti1-CaERF3 module. CaPti1 and CaERF3 are members of the serine/threonine protein kinase and ethylene responsive factor families, respectively. Expression profiling revealed that CaPti1 and CaERF3 were upregulated by R. solanacearum inoculation, dehydration stress, and exogenously applied abscisic acid (ABA). They in turn phenocopied each other in promoting resistance of pepper to bacterial wilt not only by activating salicylic acid-dependent CaPR1, but also by activating dehydration tolerance-related CaOSM1 and CaOSR1, and inducing stomatal closure to reduce water loss in an ABA signaling-dependent manner. Yeast-two hybrid assay showed that CaERF3 interacted with CaPti1, which was confirmed using co-immunoprecipitation, bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and pull-down assays. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed that upon R. solanacearum inoculation, CaPR1, CaOSM1, and CaOSR1 were directly targeted and positively regulated by CaERF3 and potentiated by CaPti1. Additionally, our data indicated that the CaPti1-CaERF3 complex might act downstream of ABA signaling, as the exogenously applied ABA did not alter regulation of stomatal aperture by the CaPti1-CaERF3 module. Importantly, the CaPti1-CaERF3 module positively affected pepper growth and response to dehydration stress. Collectively, the results suggested that immunity and dehydration tolerance are coupled and positively regulated by CaPti1-CaERF3 in pepper plants to enhance resistance against R. solanacearum.


The present invention provides a semiconductor device which comprises a substrate, a first semiconductor chip on a substrate, a second semiconductor chip on the first semiconductor chip, and an adhesive sheet between the first and second semiconductor chips. The second semiconductor chip has a mirrored back surface, and the adhesive sheet contains a metal impurity ion trapping agent.


Background: Palestinians exhibit a substantially greater prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence and CVD mortality in comparison to Israelis. In view of Palestinians' increased insulin resistance, known to be associated with an adverse lipoprotein pro�le, we aimed at showing lipoprotein variations between Palestinian and Israelis residing in Jerusalem. Methods: The study included, 968 Palestinians and 707 Israelis, ages 25-74 years, who underwent fasting and 2h post oral challenge plasma glucose determinations. We evaluated metabolic risk by measuring sub-populations of VLDL, LDL and HDL particles, using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic analysis. Results: Palestinians exhibit higher levels of very large VLDL including chylomicrons, in comparison to their Israeli counterparts, whereas levels of medium and small VLDL were similar between the two populations. Small oxidized LDL levels were higher among Palestinians while intermediate and large LDL were similar between the two groups. Levels of large HDL were higher among Israelis while levels of medium and small HDL were similar between the two populations. Small oxidized LDL levels were higher among Palestinians in comparison to Israeli participants. Levels of large HDL were higher among Israelis in comparison to Palestinians. Limiting the analysis to young participants with normal glucose tolerance, showed greater levels of large VLDL including chylomicrons, medium and small VLDL and oxidized LDL in Palestinians. Conclusions: Palestinians, including healthy young participants, exhibit an adverse pro-atherogenic lipid pro�le compared to Israelis. These �ndings may explain the increased CVD morbidity and mortality observed in Palestinians.


Al-Sarī al-Raffā' al-Mawsilī was an Arabic poet known for his descriptive poetry who lived and worked in the tenth century in Iraq and Syria. Al-Sarī al-Raffā' played an important role in the expansion and development of short descriptive poetry in Arabic in the late ninth and tenth centuries. This genre of poetry uses elaborate rhetoric to provide a nuanced commentary on the role of material things, bodies (both human and non-human), and locations in social life. Short descriptive poetry is part of an expansion of the cultural sphere, which includes yet extends beyond the political sphere at this time. An important feature of short descriptive poetry is an interest in the bodily pleasures enjoyed in the context of informal sociability. Descriptions of locations in which pleasure gatherings take place situate the interiority of the pleasure scene in counterpoint to the world beyond the pleasure scene, which includes politics, the military, morality, social hierarchy, and religion. In addition, nature serves as a transition space between the interiority of the pleasure scene and the cultural sphere of the outside world. Al-Sarī's descriptions of mills, bath houses, and rooms in which birds have nested illustrate this counterpoint between the drinking party and the outside world, and between the time out for pleasure and the flow of time and events in the outside world.


This paper uses theoretical analysis to provide a new perspective that the President of the United States (POTUS) in coordinated obsequiousness and complicity with the leaders of the Republican Party and other co-equal branches of government can subvert the rule of law and reverse the economic, political, and social (EPS) institutions. Studies have not examined the POTUS and the EPS institutions nexus because of the questionable and controversial perspective that the EPS institutions are strong enough to rein in any POTUS with autocratic aspirations. The assertion is that presidential leadership matters because the 45th POTUS's autocratic aspirations are instrumental in subverting the rule of law and reversing the EPS institutions. This paper further asserts that the adherence to democratic norms by all POTUS prior to 2017 mattered in building and strengthening the EPS institutions. In support of these assertions, this study uses theoretical institutional functions for periods before and after 2017 to provide a new perspective based on real evidence from the intentions-revealing, self-projections and self-deceptions statements of the 45th POTUS. This study derives the built and strengthened EPS institutions coefficients for pre-2017 periods in comparison to the post-2017 subvert and reverse EPS institutions coefficients to demonstrate that presidential leadership matters. The contention is that the future of the rule of law and the EPS institutions in the United States depends on the extent to which Congress is willing and able to exert its oversight powers in curtailing the 45th POTUS's autocratic aspirations and the abuses of executive powers; and that when these institutions cannot curtail the autocratic aspirations of the 45th POTUS, only the uncompromising and courageous voters can.


This paper presents a 3-dimensional model for fuel mixing in fluidized bed combustors. The model accounts for the mixing patterns experimentally shown to govern the mixing in the different zones of the riser and the return leg and can be applied both under bubbling and circulating regimes. Thus, the semi-empirical basis of the model was previously validated in different large-scale fluidized bed combustors and is combined with a model for fuel particle conversion to obtain the fuel concentration. Results obtained with the model are compared with experimental data from the Chalmers 12 MWth CFB combustor, yielding reasonably agreement.


A novel impulse noise filter that preserves the image details and effectively suppresses high-density noise has been proposed in this work. The proposed filter works in two phases: (i) noise pixel detection phase and (ii) noise pixel restoration phase. In the detection phase, the impulse noise corrupted pixels are detected using a neighbourhood decision approach. In the second phase, the true values of corrupted pixels are restored using a first-order neighbourhood decision approach. Experiments are carried out with both grey scale and colour images of various resolutions, texture and structures. The proposed scheme has high peak-signal-to-noise ratio and better visual quality in comparison to the standard median filter, modified decision based unsymmetrical trimmed median filter and improved fast peer-group filter with a varying noise density from 10 to 90%.


Neutron-rich silver isotopes were populated in the fragmentation of a Xe-136 beam and the relativistic fission of U-238. The fragments were mass analyzed with the GSI Fragment Separator and subsequently implanted into a passive stopper. Isomeric transitions were detected by 105 high-purity germanium detectors. Eight isomeric states were observed in Ag122-126 nuclei. The level schemes of Ag-122,Ag-123,Ag-125 were revised and extended with isomeric transitions being observed for the first time. The excited states in the odd-mass silver isotopes are interpreted as core-coupled states. The isomeric states in the even-mass silver isotopes are discussed in the framework of the proton-neutron split multiplets. The results of shell-model calculations, performed for the most neutron-rich silver nuclei are compared to the experimental data. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.87.034308 (Less)


The Argan is a multipurpose tree, endemic of South-west of Morocco and Algeria. It populates the Sahara and gives it a very particular physiognomy which is that of the sparse forest. The argan forest is a patchwork of species occupying distinct environmental niches across the Hamada of the South-west region of Algeria. It covers a region characterized by the aridity of the climate and extreme xericity with geological and pedological diversity that are the source of the broad range of magnificent landscapes (Hamada, wet-lands, escarpments, wadis, Regs, mountains). The association of plants with landscapes, reveals an environmental heterogeneity influencing the richness in species and allowing a dynamic and development of a diversified floristic cover mainly xerophilic and thermophilic. The originality of its flora is as-cribed to the presence of Saharo-sindian elements, Mediterranean and en-demic. This particular diversity is due to its biological characterization, sys-tematic and phytogeographic. Unfortunately, this ecosystem and its poten-tial for biological resources are today highly threatened and face degradation from disturbances and uncontrolled exploitation of the plant environment by anthropogenic activities, that requires the development of a preservation strategy. Our work emphasizes the importance of this genetic heritage and its original ecosystem, where the preservation must be secured through the establishment of a strict protection system of species throughout their natu-ral range.


Background: The outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 that began from March 2020 is yet to be contained. Consequences of the ongoing pandemic may have a negative impact on the mental health of affected individuals. This particularly refers to those quarantined. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is currently one of the biggest health issues worldwide, a higher demand emerges for research concentrating on the worsening of psychological well-being among the general and the quarantined population, as well as on individual coping strategies that may moderate the occurrence of psychopathologies. Method: Data were collected within the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Participants represented quarantine (+) and quarantine (–) groups. Quarantine (+) group, different from quarantine (–), consisted of people who experienced it themselves or someone close to them did after contacting an infected individual. To measure psychopathological symptoms a General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used. For measuring PTSD symptoms, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) was used. This study followed the coping strategies manifested among the participants using the MiniCope questionnaire. Results: A total of 2,036 individuals participated in this study. Quarantine (+) individuals had significantly higher total and subscales GHQ-28 scores (anxiety, insomnia, and somatic symptoms) as well as a higher IES-R arousal score. The quarantine (+) individuals were more likely to use self-distraction as a coping strategy. This research identified positive and negative correlations between presented coping styles and manifested psychopathology. Conclusion: This nationwide study suggests occurrence of negative effects on mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. It is observed on most of the measured psychopathological symptoms. The present research provides a line of action that should be followed in the future in case of another epidemic and in the event restrictions like quarantine have to be introduced again.


The physical properties of the ionic conductor, obtained by dissolution of lithium trifluoromethanesulphonylimide in polyethylene oxide, (PEO)nLi+((CF3SO2)2N)- have been investigated for several values of n. The phase diagram has been established from both DSC and NMR techniques. The diffusion coefficients of 7Li and 19F containing Species, determined by the pulsed magnetic field gradient (PMFG) technique, are interpreted as the measures of the cationic and anionic transport numbers, which are concentration dependent, and t+ reaches a value close to 0.3. This study is complemented by a systematic analysis of the behaviour of the 7Li relaxation time T1 versus temperature and concentration which is correlated to the glass temperature Tg.


Young people's aspirations remain an enduring focus of education policy interest and concern. Drawing on data from an ongoing five-year study of young people's science and career aspirations (age 10–14), this paper asks what do young people aspire to at age 12/13, and what influences these aspirations? It outlines the main aspirations and sources of these aspirations as expressed by young people in England in the last year of primary school (survey of 9000+ Y6 pupils, aged 10/11, interviews with 92 children and 76 parents) and the second year of secondary school (survey of 5600+ Y8 pupils, aged 12/13, interviews with 85 pupils). We demonstrate how aspirations are shaped by structural forces (e.g. social class, gender and ethnicity) and how different spheres of influence (home/family, school, hobbies/leisure activities and TV) appear to shape different types of aspirations. The paper concludes by considering the implications for educational policy and careers education.


Remote sensing and GIS techniques were employed for prioritization of the Zerqa River watershed. Forty-three 4th order sub-watersheds were prioritized based on morphometric and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), in order to examine the effectiveness of morphometric parameters in watershed prioritization. A comparison has been carried out between the results achieved through applying the two methods of analysis (morphometric and PCA). Afterwards, suitable measures are proposed for soil and water conservation. Topo sheets and ASTER DEM have been employed to demarcate the 43 sub-watersheds, to extract the drainage networks, and to compile the required thematic maps such as slope categories and elevation. LANDSAT 8 image (April-2015) is employed to generate land use/cover maps using ENVI (v 5.1) software. The soil map of the watershed has been digitized using Arc GIS software. Prioritization of the 43 sub-watersheds was performed using ten linear and shape parameters, and three parameters which are highly correlated with components 1 and 2. Subsequently, different sub-watersheds were prioritized by ascribing ranks based on the calculated compound parameters (Cp) using the two approaches. Comparison of the results revealed that prioritization of watersheds based on morphometric analysis is more consistent and serves for better decision making in conservation planning as compared with the PCA approach. The recommended soil conservation measures are prescribed in accordance with the specified priority, in order to avoid undesirable effects on land and environment. Sub-watersheds classified under high priority class are subjected to high erosion risk, thus, creating an urgent need for applying soil and water conservation measures. It is expected that decision makers will pay sufficient attention to the present results/information, activate programs encouraging soil conservation, integrated watershed management, and will continue working on the afforestation of the government-owned sloping lands. Such a viable approach can be applied at different parts of the rainfed highland areas to minimize soil erosion loss, and to increase infiltration and soil moisture in the soil profile, thus, reducing the impact of recurrent droughts and the possibility of flooding hazards.


BACKGROUND
Pharmacological treatment improves survival in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. The use of sacubutril/valsartan and ivabradine has been recently approved and incorporated in the latest guidelines.

AIM
To identify candidates eligible for these therapies among patients treated in a heart failure clinic, considering the inclusion criteria for the PARADIGM-HF and SHIFT trials.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Cross-sectional study on 158 patients aged 62 ± 11 years (67% male) with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, with at least three months of follow-up and without decompensation. The percentage of patients complying for the inclusion criteria for the PARADIGM-HF y SHIFT trials was determined.

RESULTS
In 37%, the etiology of heart failure was ischemic, 49% were in functional class I, their ejection fraction was 33 ± 11% and their median Pro-brain natriuretic peptide was 800 pg/mL. Ninety five percent were treated with vasodilators, 97% with beta-blockers and 82% with aldosterone antagonists. Using PARADIGM-HF and SHIFT criteria, 11 patients (7%) were eligible for sacubitril / valsartan and 21 patients (13.3%) for ivabradine. Among the main causes of non-eligibility for sacubitril / valsartan were being functional class I (48.7%) and not achieving a stable dose of enalapril ≥ 20 mg / day or losartan ≥ 100 mg / day (24.7%). In the case of ivabradine, apart from those in functional class I, the absence of sinus rhythm and a heart rate < 70 / min when receiving a maximal tolerated dose of beta-blockers, were present in 22%.

CONCLUSIONS
A low percentage of our patients were eligible for these therapies. Among the causes that explain these results were clinical stability, a high percentage of patients in functional class I and being in a disease modifying treatment.


In May 2021, there was a COVID-19 outbreak on board a construction support ship traveling from India to Thailand. Controlling the outbreak on this offshore vessel from 11 May to 2 June 2021 was applied. This case report describes the teamwork management of COVID-19 control on the vessel in the Gulf of Thailand. We summarized the COVID-19 outbreak control process on board, including active COVID-19-infected cases (CoIC) and close contacts (CoCC) identification, isolation, quarantine, treatment, and clinical monitoring using telemedicine to report their health measurements twice daily, including emergency conditions if they occurred. Active COVID-19 cases were identified by two rounds of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests in all crew members, in which 7 of 29 (24.1%) showed positive results. Both the CoIC and CoCC were strictly and absolutely isolated and quarantined on the vessel. No serious medical conditions were reported during the monitoring. The third-round RT-PCR tests were conducted, and all tested negative one week later. Teamwork management in proactive COVID-19 case identification, isolation, comprehensive treatment, and close monitoring of health conditions using telemedicine devices is beneficial for controlling the COVID-19 outbreak on board.


The starting assumption is that consciousness (subjective experience), rather than being an epiphenomenon, has a causal role in the optimization of certain human behaviors. After briefly outlining some of the critical properties of consciousness, this chapter reviews empirical studies that demonstrate how much can be achieved in the way of action and decision making in the absence of relevant conscious experience. Thereafter, it considers, in detail, the experience of action and suggests that this has two key components: the experience of being an agent, which causes events in the world, and the belief that we could have done otherwise. Such experiences enable us to justify our behavior to ourselves and to others and, in the longer term, to create a cultural narrative about responsibility. Finally, the experience of regret is explored (i.e., the recognition that one could and should have acted otherwise). Regret is a powerful, negative emotion that is suggested to integrate group norms and preferences with those of the individual. The transparent and embodied nature of the experience of regret ensures that cultural norms become an inescapable part of the self-narrative. The conclusion is that conscious experience is necessary for optimizing flexible intrapersonal interactions and for the emergence of cumulative culture. 198 C. D. Frith and T. Metzinger


Impossible differential attacks, which are taking advantage of differentials that cannot occur, are powerful attacks for block cipher primitives. The power of such attacks is often measured in terms of the advantage — number of key-bits found during the key sieving phase — which determines the time complexity of the exhaustive key search phase. The statistical model used to compute this advantage has been introduced in the seminal work about the resistance of the DEAL cipher to impossible differential attacks. This model, which has not been modified since the end of the 1990s, is implicitly based on the Poisson approximation of the binomial distribution. In this paper, we investigate this commonly used model and experimentally illustrate that random permutations do not follow it. Based on this observation, we propose more accurate estimates of the advantage of an impossible differential attack. The experiments illustrate the accuracy of the estimate derived from the multivariate hypergeometric distribution. The maximal advantage –using the full codebook– of an impossible differential attack is also derived.


In attempting to find a spectrally and power efficient channel code which is able to exploit maximum diversity from a wireless channel whenever available, we investigate the possibility of constructing a full antenna diversity space-time turbo code. As a result, both three-antenna and two-antenna (punctured) constructions are shown to be possible and very easy to find. To check the decodability and performance of the proposed codes, we derive non-binary soft-decoding algorithms. The performance of these codes are then simulated and compared with two existing space-time convolutional codes (one has minimum worst-case symbol-error probability; the other has maximal minimum free distance) having similar decoding complexity. As the simulation results show, the proposed space-time turbo codes give similar or slightly better performance than the convolutional codes under extremely slow fading. When fading is fast, the better distance spectra of the turbo codes help seize the temporal diversity. Thus, the performance advantage of the turbo codes becomes evident. In particular, 10/sup -5/ bit-error rate and 10/sup -3/ frame-error rate can be achieved at less than 6-dB E/sub b//N/sub 0/ with 1 b/s/Hz and binary phase-shift keying modulation. The practical issue of obtaining the critical channel state information (CSI) is also considered by applying an iteratively filtered pilot symbol-assisted modulation technique. The penalty when the CSI is not given a priori is about 2-3 dB.


Whenever people enter an interaction, listen to a briefing or read an article they unconsciously form opinions about the person or people initiating the communication and the nature and credibility of the communication itself. Based on these opinions, people form an attitude towards communicator and communication, and that attitude will dictate whether they believe what is being said, whether they trust the communicator's judgment, and whether they offer any feedback. More often than not these opinions are not based on the content of the message being delivered, nor on the types of channel it is being delivered through, or on any informed knowledge about the initiator. The opinions are based on other factors — the communicator's mannerisms, the way they look, and the kind of language they use. This paper will look at how such opinions are affected by the language used in communication. It will draw on a number of linguistic studies that illustrate this process in action and will demonstrate, through a case study, how manipulating this process can help to build more effective corporate communication.


The electron-transfer (ET) reaction of cytochrome c (Cytc) protein with biomolecules is a cutting-edge research area of interest in understanding the functionalities of natural systems. Several electrochemical biomimicking studies based on Cytc-protein-modified electrodes prepared via electrostatic interaction and covalent bonding approaches have been reported. Indeed, natural enzymes involve multiple types of bonding, such as hydrogen, ionic, covalent, and π-π, etc. In this work, we explore a Cytc-protein chemically modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE/CB@NQ/Cytc) prepared via π-π bonding using graphitic carbon as an underlying surface and an aromatic organic molecule, naphthoquinone (NQ), as a cofactor for an effective ET reaction. A simple drop-casting technique-based preparation of GCE/CB@NQ showed a distinct surface-confined redox peak at a standard electrode potential (E°) = -0.2 V vs Ag/AgCl (surface excess = 21.3 nmol cm-2) in pH 7 phosphate buffer solution. A control experiment of modification of NQ on an unmodified GCE failed to show any such unique feature. For the preparation of GCE/CB@NQ/Cytc, a dilute solution of Cytc-pH 7 phosphate buffer was drop-cast on the GCE/CB@NQ surface, wherein the protein folding and denaturalization-based complication and its associated ET functionalities were avoided. Molecular dynamics simulation studies show the complexation of NQ with Cytc at the protein binding sites. The protein-bound surface shows an efficient and selective bioelectrocatalytic reduction performance of H2O2, as demonstrated using cyclic voltammetry and amperometric i-t techniques. Finally, the redox-competition scanning electrochemical microscopy (RC-SECM) technique was adopted for in situ visualization of the electroactive adsorbed surface. The RC-SECM images clearly show the regions of highly bioelectrocatalytic active sites of Cytc-proteins bound to NQ molecules on a graphitic carbon surface. The binding of Cytc with NQ has significant implications for studying the biological electron transport mechanism, and the proposed method provides the requisite framework for such a study.


Background: Metabolomics is widely used to accurately find the basic characteristics and material basis of life activities. The purpose of this study is to use metabolomics to discover biomarkers for the diagnosis of early gastric cancer.Methods: We collected the blood samples and clinical data of 63 patients with gastric cancer from the First Hospital of Jilin University, including 26 patients with advanced gastric cancer (group A), 37 patients with early gastric cancer (group B), and 18 healthy volunteers (group C). Chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is used for detect metabolites and obtain metabolic profile. Support vector machine (SVM) is used to screen the differential metabolites with a weight of 100% from the blood sample. Total ion current diagram, principal component analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are used to identify differential metabolites. PCA and the quadratic discriminant analysis were used to evaluate the similarity between samples. The receiver characteristic curve (ROC) is used to evaluate the diagnostic ability of metabolites. After the nuclear ratio of the selected metabolites is imported into the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB), the structure is identified to determine the corresponding substances, and then the verification group is used to test the accuracy of the metabolites.Results: Through LC-MS, TIC, ANOVA and PCA, differential metabolites were found in different blood samples. Cluster analysis showed similar metabolites in the three groups A, B, and C. ROC curve represented the diagnostic ability of metabolites. The different metabolites between group A and C were spermine, enterostatin, heparin sulfate, and triacylglycerol. The difference metabolites between group A, group B and group C were same as those between group A and C. The cluster analysis and ROC also showed that all four metabolites had high specificity and sensitivity in the verification group. And the results of verification group were consistent with the experimental group.Conclusion: Spermine, enterostatin, heparin sulfate, and triacylglycerol may be potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of early gastric cancer.


Changes induced by mutations in rhodopsin that are associated with the degenerative visual disease retinitis pigmentosa result in an altered pattern of light absorption according to quantum mechanical simulations and reference experimental works. Eleven single‐point mutations associated with retinitis pigmentosa at and in the proximity to the retinal binding pocket of rhodopsin have been modeled in silico and their spectra calculated with the NDOL (Neglect of Differential Overlap accounting L azimuthal quantum number) a priori method. The altered pattern of absorption found would lead to cumulative consequences in energy dissipation with aging. Different energy balances in the case of mutants at the very molecular level, compared to native nonmutated rhodopsin, can cause permanent cellular stress and would play a role in the progression of the retine degenerative process. It could explain the worsening of the pathological condition mostly in adults and suggests the probable beneficial effects of using quenching drugs and protection devices against excess of light in the early stages of life for avoiding or reducing potential damage. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Anecdotally, engineering faculty members complain students taking sophomore engineering science courses are not prepared with respect to mathematics and mechanics-based physics. However, evidence has rarely been systematically collected and analyzed to determine the veracity of these assertions. Therefore, the paper intends to address two questions: • With respect to first-year mathematics and first-year physics mechanics knowledge, what do engineering faculty members expect students to know and be able to do when they begin a sophomore statics and dynamics course? • To what extent do students satisfy these expectations? To address these questions, the following steps were taken. First, engineering faculty members who taught a sophomore statics and dynamics course at Texas A&M University were asked for problems involving first-year mathematics and physics mechanics they thought students should be able to solve entering the course. Learning outcomes were abstracted, and two instruments were developed and administered near the beginning of the statics and dynamics course. After administering the instruments and analyzing results, faculty members have a better idea of the background of their students. Furthermore, there is evidence to examine the extent to which students are prepared in first-year mathematics and physics mechanics to begin a core engineering science course.


Tooling is a primary target for current additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, technology because of its rapid prototyping capabilities. Molds of many sizes and shapes have been produced for a variety of industries. However, large tooling remained out of reach until the development of large-scale composite AM manufacturing processes like the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) worked with TPI Composites to use the BAAM system to fabricate a wind turbine blade mold. The fabricated wind turbine blade mold was produced in 16 additively manufactured sections, was 13 meters long, had heating channels integrated into the design, and was mounted into a steel frame post fabrication. This research effort serves as a case study to examine the technological impacts of AM on wind turbine blade tooling and evaluate the efficacy of this approach in utility scale wind turbine manufacturing.


This paper presents buckled nitride thin-film encapsulation using anti-adhesion layer assisted transfer technique and BCB/nitride bilayer wrinkling due to elastic property mismatch between the two attached materials. A 900 nm silicon nitride film is deposited on a Si carrier wafer coated with hydrophobic monolayer and then non-patterned nitride film is directly bonded to BCB sealing rings prepared on a target wafer at 250 °C. As bonding and subsequent cooling proceed, shearing force generated by BCB shrinking is applied to the thin nitride film. After bonding, the Si carrier wafer is mechanically separated leaving only nitride membrane inside BCB ring. Thus, self-patterning and self-alignment have been achieved. Interestingly, most of different size nitride membranes are successfully transferred even though large-size ones have partially collapsed or highly deformed. Also, FEM modelings have been carried out to comprehend the formation of the wrinkling of thin elastic film on compliant substrate as well as the debonding of the transfer process of the thin film. It is found that the Young's modulus of compliant substrate is significant to the wavelength of the wrinkle and maximum deflection of the buckled film. The debonding may apply substantial force to the elastic film and thus the nitride membrane needs stabilization time as its shape changes after the debonding.


Moringa oleifera is a multipurpose tree as it is cultivated for vegetable, spice, cosmestic oil and medicinal plant. M. oleifera oil contains all the main fatty acid including oleic acid which is very stable when used for frying. Moreover, it has the potential to become a new source of high oleic acid oil. Previous study only focused on medicinal and nutritional aspects of the tree parts. However, there is lack of information on the morphological and genetic variations of M. oleifera grown in Malaysia. Thus, the objectives of the study were to determine the phenotypic and genotypic variations among M. oleifera accessions, the performance of stem cuttings of two selected accessions as propagation material, and the growth and maturation of pod of a selected accession.
 Morphological characteristics and ISSR molecular markers were used to assess levels of polymorphism across 20 accessions of M. oleifera in situ and ex situ. There were
variations on morphological characteristics between accessions of M. oleifera based on stem girth, leaf length, leaf width, pod length, pod diameter, pod weight, seed
number/pod, seed diameter and seed weight indicating the presence of genetic variability among accessions. Among the 20 accessions S05 had the highest seed weight followed
by S04, with a difference of 3.7% seed weight. As for seed number/pod, accession P05 had the highest value followed by P03, with a difference of 4.7%. These two characteristics are beneficial in the selection of M. oleifera as they contribute to the total yield. The molecular analysis by using ISSR showed high polymorphism and abundance of ISSR sequences in M. oleifera. There were six cluster in the dendrogram with the majority of accessions from Perak and Selangor states being clustered separately.
 In the experiment on the performance of stem cuttings, two accessions (S05 and P05) were selected as propagation materials based on the highest seed weight (S05) and seed
number/pod (P05). Six types of cuttings, fresh and dried hardwood, fresh and dried semi-hardwood and fresh and dried softwood were evaluated as the most suitable as planting materials. M. oleifera could be propagated successfully by using fresh semihardwood cutting compared to the other five types of cuttings. Cuttings from fresh semihardwood
had better shoot and adventitious root production, thus had a good overall growth performance.
 For the determination of pod growth and maturation, accession S05 was selected to be grown in the field plot. In this experiment, pod and seed characteristics were determined 5-9 days after anthesis (DAA). Pod size increased gradually at 9 DAA, followed by a rapid increment at 9-37 DAA. Pods were observed to be at edible stage at 35-37 DAA. Pod size increased slowly between 37 to 44 DAA as pods were observed to become fully matured (oil extraction stage). Then, the increase in pod size levelled off at 44 DAA. Colour of edible pods and fully matured pods were observed to be light green and brown, respectively.
 Morphological characteristics and ISSR molecular markers showed high polymorphism and grouped to the accessions in six clusters. Subsequently, for selection of propagation
materials, cuttings for fresh semi-hardwood showed optimum growth performance compared to other materials. For growth and development of seeds and pods, full maturity was achived at 44 DAA. These findings could be used as background information for breeding and improvement program of M. oleifera in Malaysia.


Despite intensive information on possible side effects and complications of performance-enhancing substances in sports, the use of AAS (anabolic androgen steroids) is far common. Particularly in sports like bodybuilding or weight lifting AAS are used for setting up muscle mass and increasing muscle power. We present the case of a 27 year old bodybuilder, who was transferred due to suspected malignant expansion of the upper limb to a department of orthopaedic surgery, not knowing that the patient had injected AAS. At biopsy the tumor was found to be an abscess formation, that had to be treated surgically with curettage. The microbiological analysis detected an infection with Pseudomonas fluorescens and Erwinia species. Erwinia species are associated with plants, Pseudomonas fluorescens is found in feces, sewage and soil. It is obvious, that the infection is caused by an inappropriate injection of AAS or by the contamination of the injected substances.


Work on high energy hadron collisions in the geometrical picture, performed under the ERDA Contract No. E(38-1)-946, is summarized. Comparisons with new experimental results are made. Specific items discussed include the hadronic matter distribution for mesons and the comparison of theoretical prediction with a recent experiment, the possible existence of a second minimum in elastic pp scattering at very high energies, the analysis of the energy dependence of opaqueness in pp collisions, and the study of spin effects in high energy polarized Kd elastic scattering.


Consumer protection and its enforcement have become an important part of both market design and regulation. Increasing levels of world trade call for integrated policies with the adoption of framework, bilateral and trilateral, agreements between the European Community, the U.S. and Asia, particularly India and China. But how different are still the regional institutional frameworks? How is the evolution of each region dependent upon the developments of other areas? Are we observing a coevolutionary pattern of growth, or is regulatory competition the dominant feature of the relationship between different regional legal systems of consumer protection enforcement? In order to answer these questions one needs to examine the important legislative changes occurring both in Europe and in the U.S. Both 'regions' are reshaping their global policies, redefining the balance between private and public enforcement. Changes are made looking not only inside their legal systems but also at the global level. Existing differences presumably require complex solutions, integrating regional and global regulatory frameworks for consumer protection in a new multilevel system. The relationship between public and private enforcement has changed in different ways. Relevant transformations have taken place in the domain of public enforcement, rethinking the regulatory strategies concerning consumer enforcement. Private enforcement in aggregate forms has only recently entered the scene in Europe. Its evolution has not always been entirely consistent. While it is clear that aggregate litigation will complement administrative enforcement in consumer protection, the rationales for its use may differ across sectors.


by chapters on chronobiological aspects of putative mechanisms of serotonergic and beta-adrenergic systems, and the higher regulatory mechanisms. There is an interesting chapter on studies in humans, with some illuminating preliminary results for rational prescribing: the most effective time ofadministration of chlorpromazine for achieving antipsychotic effect is in the morning while its toxicity is greatest when adminis tered at bed time, the pharmacokinetics of diazepam and amitriptyline are markedly different between morning and evening administration, and anticholiner gic effects of amitriptyline are most prominent when administered in the morning in association with more rapid absorption. This book should appeal to neuroscientists and clinicians with academic interest in psychopharma cology. It is of little value to trainees and practising psychiatrists since the state of knowledge of this area is not such that it could inform therapeutic practice.