A water-focused computable general equilibrium and microsimulation models were applied to analyze the economywide and distributional impacts of the multipurpose Mwache dam investment in the coast region of Kenya. The results show that the dam is likely to contribute to the regional economic growth with highest results under the combined allocation scenario of 80 percent for domestic users and nonagricultural economic sectors and 20 percent for irrigation purposes. In the coast region, water allocation to agriculture is key for inclusive growth and poverty reduction. With irrigation water, increased production of maize, pulses, oil crops, fruits, and vegetables in the hitherto drought-prone region fuels agricultural productivity growth that benefits the regional and national economies. Thus, allocation of water to irrigation can have considerable effects on food availability and food and nutritional security in the region, which suffers from persistent food deficits. Provision of domestic water supply is necessary but not sufficient for overcoming extreme poverty. Increased water availability benefits all industries operating in the coast region, in particular, those relatively more intensive in water.


Liquid hydrocarbons are formed from phytoplankton deposited in marine sediments. Phytoplankton are not distributed uniformly throughout the ocean surface waters. They are sparse over most of the area of the ocean, but are abundant in zones of upwelling where water rich in nutrients is brought to the lighted surface waters. Locations of these organically productive upwelling zones in the past can be predicted using a combination of paleogeographic and paleo-oceanographic modeling. This provides valuable information on likely times and geographic areas in which oil source beds were deposited. Upwelling is caused by steady, prevailing winds resulting in divergence of currents or the movement of currents away from landmasses. These winds are parts of major atmospheric circulation systems. Their characteristics depend on latitude, season, and the sizes and positions of oceans and continents, but have a physical basis. They can, therefore, be modeled for past continental configurations, and it follows that upwelling can also be predicted. Atmospheric circulation and upwelling maps for seven stages in the Paleozoic, using new paleogeographic reconstructions, show that upwelling zones of each stage are related to regions with source beds of that age. Although upwelling does not automatically result in source beds and all source beds do not occur in ancient End_Page 507------------------------------ upwelling zones, knowing the past areas of upwelling and abundant phytoplankton productivity is vital for assessing the potential richness and extent of possible oil source beds. End_of_Article - Last_Page 508------------


Hypotheses on the neurobiology of a mindfulness‐dissociation continuum are presented. Crucial to the hypotheses are the observations of a reciprocal interaction between the cognitive and affective subdivisions of the anterior cingulate cortex and the unilateral activation of right anterior cingulate in hypnotic dissociation and in post-traumatic syndromes. It is proposed that the unilateral activation can cause a loss of the reciprocal relationship between the subdivisions and that in the case of peri-traumatic dissociation the subsequent syndrome responds to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) through restoration of the bilateral activation and reinstatement of the reciprocal relationship between the subdivisions. Bilateral activation of the cognitive subdivisions is proposed to underlie the attentional state of concentration mindfulness in which affect is well regulated.


The coordination assembly of 1,3,5-trispyridylbenzene with Cu on a Au(111) surface has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. An open two-dimensional (2D) metal-organic network of honeycomb structure is formed as the 2D network covers partial surface. Upon the 2D network coverage of the entire surface, further increment of molecular density on the surface results in a multistep nonreversible structural transformation in the self-assembly. The new phases consist of metal-organic networks of pentagonal, rhombic, zigzag, and eventually triangular structures. In addition to the structural change, the coordination configuration also undergoes a change from the two-fold Cu-pyridyl binding in the honeycomb, pentagonal, rhombic and zigzag structures to the three-fold Cu-pyridyl coordination in the triangular structure. As the increment of molecular packing density on the surface builds up intrinsic in-plane compression pressure in the 2D space, the transformation of the structure, as well as the coordination binding mode, is attributed to the in-plane compression pressure. The quantitative structural analysis of the various phases upon molecular density increment allows us to construct a phase diagram of network structures as a function of the in-plane compression.


Introduction: One of the major challenges confronting the development of any nation results from fraudulent practices among the citizens of the country. This is also true for the banking sector: business has become more complex with the recent developments in information and communication technology. This has changed the nature of bank fraud and fraudulent practices. Objective: This study investigates the integration of forensic accounting and the management control system as tools for combating cyber fraud. It is geared towards the minimisation of the cost of employed capacities for forensic and management control systems in order to mitigate cyber fraud. The study also explores the effect of integrating forensic accounting and management control systems on banks' reputation and the huge loss of revenue resulting from cyber-fraud. Methodology: The study develops a conceptual model to show the relationship between forensic accounting, the management control system and cyber-fraud in the banking sector. A linear programming approach was employed to express the relationship amongst the variables considered in this study with a view to reduce cyber fraud, minimize cost and improve the reputation of financial institution (banks). This resulted in the formulation of a model which gives an idea of the feasibility of combining the components of forensic accounting, management control system and bank reputation in order to combat cyber fraud. This was validated using the genetic algorithm solver which resulted in an acceptable, a logical and feasible fitness value and penalty value. Findings: The ease of convergence of the fitness and penalty values of the solutions show that the developed model is feasible and suitable for achieving the set objectives. Conclusion and Recommendation: This study suggests that government should introduce a legislation that would ensure strict cybersecurity disclosure norms as this would defend companies' critical assets as well as its anti-fraud programmes, while the banking sector should implement a control on fraud risk management to ensure reputation and regulatory compliance.


Wireless power transfer is going to play a major role in transportation electrification due the convenience, flexibility, safety, and high-efficiency. Achieving high power levels is important in order to reduce the charge times and provide more convenience to electric vehicle (EV) owners while keeping the efficiency high and electric and electromagnetic field emissions lower than the limits set by the international guidelines. This study presents a 20-kW wireless charging system designed for a Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle for stationary charging with a dc-to-dc (high-frequency inverter input to the vehicle battery terminals) efficiency exceeding 95% over four power conversion stages. Additionally, the modeling, analysis, and sensitivity of the wireless charging system are presented for series-series resonant tuning configuration.


ABSTRACT: In March 1447, a great fire broke out in Valencia, caused by a former member of the municipal government. This fire destroyed many houses and craft workshops around the Market Square, the economic centre of the city. The municipal government had to compensate the citizens, who had lost everything, and restore everyday life in the area. A versatile Italian watchmaker living in Valencia was chosen to supervise the rehabilitation of the area. Under his direction, the debris was removed. Then after a conscious campaign of urban planning aimed at eliminating any traces of the old Islamic city, the streets were reconstructed according to the norms of the western city.


Aim: Recent developments in technology aim to reduce operative time and improve safety, albeit at significant cost. Thyroi dectomy is a common procedure worldwide and an assessment of costefficiency is important. Materials and methods: An audit of prospectively collected data on all thyroidectomies performed by a single endocrine surgeon at two private hospitals from 2009 to 2013. The technique was a conventional open dissection emphasizing capsular dissection with ligature and ligaclip and without intraoperative nerve monitoring (IONM). The operative duration was compared to those reported in literature with the use of vessel sealing devices (VSDs). Estimated timedependent operating theater cost was used to determine the amount of time saving required by VSDs to match the costefficiency of our technique. Results: There were 503 thyroidectomies with the expected mix of pathologies. There were zero permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries (0.5% temporary, 746 nerves at risk), 0.6% permanent hypoparathyroidism (19.5% temporary, 308 completion and total thyroidectomies) and 0.6% hematoma. These outcomes compare favorably with published best practice. The median skin to skin operating time was 59 minutes for total and 35 minutes for hemithyroidectomies which are shorter than those reported with VSDs. The minimum time reduction required by VSDs to match the costefficiency of our technique was 27 minutes for hemithyroidectomy and 15 minutes for total thyroidectomy, which are longer than those reported in the literature. Conclusion: Despite the current popularity of VSDs and the promotion of IONM, their routine use may not be justified. Technique is more important than technology.


Abstract : Ventriculocisternal perfusion is regarded as a precise method of measuring the rate of formation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) but possesses inherent potential sources of error not commonly appreciated. Using the technique to measure CSF formation rate in the rhesus monkey, rate changes were observed when none was expected. Most puzzling has been the steady decline of CSF formation rate at 4 percent each hour during the final 5 hours of a 7-hour perfusion although variables known to affect CSF formation remained stable. In addition, artifactitious alterations in rate were observed in experiments in which craniospinal blood volume was changed by sudden changes of either PCO2 or central venous pressure. Mobilization of sequestration of incompletely equilibrated CSF is believed responsible. In other experiments, a small increase of intracranial pressure produced by increasing outflow resistance was quickly followed by an apparent reduction of CSF formation. Here we speculate that when intracranial pressure is increased above normal, some newly formed CSF may be diverted to drainage channels before it can mix with perfusion fluid. We have concluded that to assess accurately the effect of a variable on the rate of CSF formation, one must control perfusion time and craniospinal blood volume as well as intracranial pressure. Knowledge of the normal rate of formation of CSF is necessary before this model can be used to study relation of CSF dynamics to central nervous system trauma and disease.


A clinician faces a problem in how best to counsel the woman with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer about her options for pregnancy prevention. The physician must guide her as she makes new and complex decisions. Recent data strongly support an amplified effect of the estrogens in oral contraceptives for the woman with a genetic risk for breast cancer. Nonetheless, a woman's immediate need to prevent pregnancy may be much more important to her than worrying about the long-term risk of breast cancer. Another factor is that oral contraceptives prevent ovarian cancer, so the physician may wish to prescribe them to protect her from ovarian cancer. In some genetic backgrounds, however, oral contraceptives not only do not prevent ovarian cancer, but they may raise the risk of breast cancer so significantly that they should not be taken. With other genetic backgrounds, oral contraceptives will protect the woman from ovarian cancer without much effect on her breast cancer risk. When does each of these cancer risks or benefits become significant? The clinician can provide an important benefit to a woman who must prevent pregnancy yet worries about her cancer risk. The physician can help her evaluate the evidence, with its gaps and uncertainties, in the context of her own preferences. To assist in this evaluation, this decision aid provides base-line estimates of the cancer risk that accompanies each of a woman's options. In some cases, genetic testing is likely to provide valuable information as she makes choices about contraception and the risks vs. benefits of different alternatives available to her.


The sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the one of the most
important food sources for animals, such as pigs and chickens. Due to
this aspect it would be important to obtain an effective in vitro
regeneration system in order to obtain new cultivars with desirable
agronomical characteristics. The aim of this research was to obtain an
efficient regeneration system. Mature seeds of the sorghum hybrids
Chaguaramas III and VII were cultured in the MS medium supplemented
with several hormones (2.4-D, NAA and K, BA or TDZ). Two steps were
involved in the regeneration process: I. Callus induction and II. Plant
regeneration (in absence of 2.4-D). Calli showing different
morphologies were obtained: non embryogenic, embryogenic, with roots,
buds or combined of these. The embryogenic frequency was greater with 3
mg.L-1 of 2.4-D + ANA and 1 mg.L-1 of K, whereas the regenerative
frequency was greater with BA. When increasing the BA concentration,
the organogenesis was favored as indicated by vitrified buds, while the
somatic embryogenesis was inhibited. The regeneration occurred by
indirect organogenesis or/and somatic embryogenesis, and the origin of
the later was unicellular and multicellular. When using BA and TDZ,
plants and buds showed non permanent foliar deformations, as well as
albino plants. The induction, regeneration and oxidation process varied
according to the cultivar.


This document lists the different mechanisms that enable applications
using Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) to maintain their RTP Network
Address Translator (NAT) mappings alive. It also makes a
recommendation for a preferred mechanism. This document is not
applicable to Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) agents.


This study proposes a thermal sensor based on whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in a polymer core optical ring resonator (PCORR). The thermal sensitivity and detection limit (i.e., the temperature resolution) for WGMs of various orders and polarizations are theoretically studied as a function of the ring wall thickness. The results show that the temperature detection limits can be as low as 4×10(-5) and 6×10(-6)  K for laser linewidths of 2 and 0.3 MHz, respectively. The ultrahigh temperature resolution makes the PCORR a very promising platform for temperature measurement. The analysis also shows that the WGM of a lower order has better thermal sensing performance and a thinner optimal thickness of the ring resonator.


Estimation of parameter values in hydrological models has gradually moved from subjective, trial‐and‐error methods into objective estimation methods. Translation of nature's complexity to bit operations is an uncertain process as a result of data errors, epistemic gaps, computational deficiencies, and other limitations, and relies on calibration to fit model output to observed data. The robustness of the calibrated parameter values to these types of uncertainties is therefore an important concern. In this study, we investigated how the hydrological robustness of the model‐parameter values varied within the geometric structure of the behavioral (well‐performing) parameter space with a depth function based on α shapes and an in‐depth posterior performance analysis of the simulations in relation to the observed discharge uncertainty. The α shape depth is a nonconvex measure that may provide an accurate and tight delimitation of the geometric structure of the behavioral space for both unimodal and multimodal parameter‐value distributions. WASMOD, a parsimonious rainfall‐runoff model, was applied to six Honduran and one UK catchment, with differing data quality and hydrological characteristics. Model evaluation was done with two performance measures, the Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency and one based on flow‐duration curves. Deep parameter vectors were in general found to be more hydrologically robust than shallow ones in the analyses we performed; model‐performance values increased with depth, deviations to the observed data for the high‐flow aspects of the hydrograph generally decreased with increasing depth, deep parameter vectors generally transferred in time with maintained high performance values, and the model had a low sensitivity to small changes in the parameter values. The tight delimitation of the behavioral space provided by the α shapes depth function showed a potential to improve the efficiency of calibration techniques that require further exploration. For computational reasons only a three‐parameter model could be used, which limited the applicability of this depth measure and the conclusions drawn in this paper, especially concerning hydrological robustness at low flows.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if body condition score (BCS) influences the sedative effect of intramuscular (IM) premedication or the dose of intravenous (IV) propofol required to achieve endotracheal intubation in dogs.

STUDY DESIGN
Prospective clinical study.

ANIMALS
Forty-six client-owned dogs undergoing general anaesthesia.

METHODS
Dogs were allocated to groups according to their BCS (BCS, 1 [emaciated] to 9 [obese]): Normal-weight Group (NG, n = 25) if BCS 4-5 or Over-weight Group (OG, n = 21) if BCS over 6. Dogs were scored for sedation prior to IM injection of medetomidine (5 μg kg(-1) ) and butorphanol (0.2 mg kg(-1) ) and twenty minutes later anaesthesia was induced by a slow infusion of propofol at 1.5 mg kg(-1)  minute(-1) until endotracheal intubation could be achieved. The total dose of propofol administered was recorded. Data were tested for normality then analyzed using Student t-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, chi-square tests or linear regression as appropriate.

RESULTS
Mean ( ± SD) propofol requirement in NG was 2.24 ± 0.53 mg kg(-1) and in OG was 1.83 ± 0.36 mg kg(-1) . The difference between the groups was statistically significant (p = 0.005). The degree of sedation was not different between the groups (p = 0.7). Post-induction apnoea occurred in 11 of 25 animals in the NG and three of 21 in OG (p = 0.052).

CONCLUSIONS
Overweight dogs required a lower IV propofol dose per kg of total body mass to allow tracheal intubation than did normal body condition score animals suggesting that IV anaesthetic doses should be calculated according to lean body mass. The lower dose per kg of total body mass may have resulted in less post-induction apnoea in overweight/obese dogs. The effect of IM premedication was not significantly affected by the BCS.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Induction of general anaesthesia with propofol in overweight dogs may be expected at lower doses than normal-weight animals.


Behavioral adaptation and cognitive control are crucial for goal-reaching behaviors. Every creature is ubiquitously faced with choices between behavioral alternatives. Common sense suggests that errors are an important source of information in the regulation of such processes. Several theories exist regarding cognitive control and the processing of undesired outcomes. However, most of these models focus on the consequences of an error, and less attention has been paid to the mechanisms that underlie the commissioning of an error. In this article, we present an integrative review of neuro-cognitive models that detail the determinants of the occurrence of response errors. The factors that may determine the likelihood of committing errors are likely related to the stability of task-representations in prefrontal networks, attentional selection mechanisms and mechanisms of action selection in basal ganglia circuits. An important conclusion is that the likelihood of committing an error is not stable over time but rather changes depending on the interplay of different functional neuro-anatomical and neuro-biological systems. We describe factors that might determine the time-course of cognitive control and the need to adapt behavior following response errors. Finally, we outline the mechanisms that may proof useful for predicting the outcomes of cognitive control and the emergence of response errors in future research.


Raspberry waste, obtained from two cultivars, Meeker (ERM) and Willamette (ERW) was subjected to evaluation antioxidants and antitumour activities as a potential source of phenolics. Some phenolic acids and flavonoids were identified and quantified by HPLC. Antioxidant activity was tested by measuring ability to scavenge DPPH• and •OH by ESR spectroscopy. IC50DPPH• varied from 0.67 for ERM to 0.54 mg/mL for ERW, while IC50•OH values varied from 3.73 for ERM to 1.23 mg/mL for ERW. Cytotoxic activity was investigated using in vivo model of Ehrlich Ascite carcinoma cells (EAC) in mice. Pretreatment with extracts exhibited potent cytotoxic activity against EAC cells (up to 60%) and both extracts inhibited the tumour growth. Activity of xanthine oxidase (XOD) was extremely increased in pretreated animals, while the activity of enzyme complex glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) was significantly increased. This study suggests that raspberry pomace could be used as nutraceutic resource and functional food ingredient.


A new ligand L– with two adjacent pyrazole–pyridine moieties, which are linked by a CHO– unit was developed and utilised to synthesise three multinuclear metal complexes. The reaction of HL with NEt3 and zinc(II) halides or cobalt(II) chloride leads to complexes of the type [M2L2]2+ (M = Co, Zn). Temperature-dependent magnetic measurement of [Co2L2](PF6)2 (I) showed a ferromagnetic coupling of the Co ions. Subsequently, the reactivity of these complexes with O2 was investigated. Complex I reacts with O2 to form a cobalt(II) complex in which the ligand is oxygenated at the central carbon atom, that is, a gem-diol is formed. As [Zn2L2](PF6)2 (II) does not react with O2, the Co ions mediate the oxygenation of the ligand in [Co2L2]2+. The reaction of Zn(OAc)2 with HL under inert conditions leads to the formation of the trinuclear complex [Zn3L(OAc)5] (III), which decomposes in air. Further investigation showed that O2 causes ligand oxidation in the central carbon position, which leads to the corresponding ketone upon decomplexation. The primary decomposition products are presumably gem-diolate zinc species. These results point to different reaction mechanisms for the activation of dioxygen by I and III.


Six intradermal melanocytic nevi, two with and four without intercellular slitlike spaces, were examined by light microscopy and electron microscopy of deparaffinized tissue. The spaces were partially lined by elongated nevus cells and contained a few collagen fibrils. Other features in both groups included an abundance of (1) immature elastic tissue comprised of aggregates of microfibrils lacking an amorphous component and (2) collagen fibrils that were finer than in normal dermis and did not form compact bundles. We propose that these elastic tissue and collagen fiber changes diminish the resistance of the dermis to the mechanical stress of the biopsy procedure and histologic processing, resulting in the formation of artifactual clefts.


Ad hoc wireless network with black hole attacks, denial of service attacks and malicious attacks are investigated to study if we can detect harmful activities in a timely manner. A popular simulator NS2 was used to create a controlled wireless network environment. The network was built with 33 nodes with AODV protocol and traffic data was collected from the network. The probability based Naïve Bayesian classifier was used with 10 attributed derived from the traffic data. The classification rates obtained is over 97% when numeric attribute values are discretized in Naïve Bayesian classifier. It is observed that in our network simulation, denial-of-service attacks and black hole attacks are always correctly detected while malicious attacks and normal traffic are not.


The aim of the study was to study the dynamics of clinical and allergic characteristics of patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) in Samara over the past 5 years. Clinical and allergological examination was performed in 1526 patients from 2012 to 2018. For skin prick testing, 16 names of standard allergens were used. In 2018, the most common forms of AR were seasonal – 40.7 % and combined (seasonal and perennial) forms of AR – 39.8 %. Over the past 5 years, there has been a 1.5-fold increase in seasonal forms of AR (pollinosis). The structure of sensitization revealed an increase in pollen allergy from 39.2 % to 50.6 %, and a decrease in the level of hypersensitivity to epidermal allergens from 29.9 % to 14.5 %. Sensitization to weeds remains dominant in patients with pollinosis and ranges from 82.8 % to 75.2 % in 2012 and 2018, respectively. The predominance of polysensitization to different groups of allergens over monosensitization remains: 55.8 % and 44.2 %, respectively.


It is a pleasure to read a book by Sir Russell Brain. We have been accustomed to expect clarity of style, precise organization of thought, and masterful economy of words. This small book dealing with a subject of general interest does not disappoint the reader. The author combines his extensive personal experience with an up-to-date integration of recent developments in the field of speech disorders. His objects in writing this booklet are expressed best in the preface. First, he gives a comprehensive account of the subject, discussing theories of the origin of speech and its development in the child, as well as its normal psychophysiology and breakdown in aphasia. He also gives a historical account of thought about aphasia, leading to a description of the symptoms of this and the closely related disorders apraxia and agnosia. The entire book is written as a critical review based on the thesis that


In this paper we shall make use of a new theory of economic systems as networks formed by individuals acting on the basis of their psychology and social position (Markey-Towler, 2016) to obtain a new vision of the diffusion of behavioural change and the role of narratives (Shiller, 2017) therein. This vision is obtained by making use of the "Chinese Whispers" theorem which identifies necessary and sufficient conditions for diffusion in economic systems so conceived, and the "Made to Stick" theorem which elaborates the likelihood of ideas and narratives being incorporated into individual worldviews (Markey-Towler, 2016) whence they may influence behaviour. The diffusion of behavioural change supported by the spread of ideas is related to the emergence of bubbles, herd behaviour the uptake of technology and the effect of policy changes. The vision of these phenomena presented here is unique in that it places human psychology and the role of ideas therein at the core of a systematic model of group dynamics. A major, practical improvement for policymakers and entrepreneurs alike arrived at thus is the understanding offered of the limits of the diffusion of behavioural change as well as the extent and the manner in which this is determined by non-substitutability as much as by the network structure of the socioeconomic system. This builds on the work of Michelle Baddeley (2010); Baddeley (2013); Baddeley (2015) and constitutes an improvement on purely mechanistic models of network contagion (Newman, 2003; Gai et al., 2010; Gai et al., 2011; Giansante et al., 2012; Markose et al., 2012; Markose, 2013; Ghedini et al., 2014; Jackson et al., 2014; Acemoglu et al., 2015) as well as models of population dynamics based on predator-prey or epidemiological models (Kermack et al., 1927; Page et al., 2002; Munz et al., 2009; Foster, 2005; Haas, 2015; Klarl, 2014) which tend to obscure the role of human psychology in the diffusion of behavioural change.


This paper focuses on the improvement of the power quality that is being distraught by same elements that defines a power system namely reactive power need of load time to time and harmonic distortion due to some switching of power electronic devises as well, which are couple of many. MATLAB Simulink model is used to show the performance of D-STATCOM (Distribution Static Synchronous Compensator), which is dealing with a balanced reactive load which will introduce deficit in the reactive power of the system and a resistive inverter load which will introduce harmonics in the system. The effects of these loading condition before the D-STATCOM is connected and after it is connected are compared chronically, and the effects on Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and on power factor as well. Altered form of Synchronous Reference Frame (SRF) theory is used in the controller of D-STATCOM which controls the compensating current at PCC. Simulation results shows the effectiveness of D-STATCOM in compensating reactive power following the improvement of THD as well as the sending end power factor.


Increased eutrophication in the recent years has resulted in considerable research focus on identification of methods for preventing cyanobacterial blooms that are rapid and efficient. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of dihydroartemisinin and artemether on the growth of Microcystis aeruginosa and to elucidate its mode of action. Variations in cell density, chlorophyll a, soluble protein, malondialdehyde, extracellular alkaline phosphatase activity (APA), and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (Fv/Fm, ΦPSII, ETR, rapid light curves, fast chlorophyll fluorescence curves on fluorescence intensity, and relative variable fluorescence) were evaluated by lab-cultured experiments. Our results demonstrated that both dihydroartemisinin and artemether inhibited the growth of M.aeruginosa by impairing the photosynthetic center in photosystem II and reducing extracellular APA, with a higher sensitivity exhibited toward artemether. The inhibitory effects of dihydroartemisinin on M.aeruginosa increased with concentration, and the maximum growth inhibitory rate was 42.17% at 24 mg·L-1 after 120h exposure, whereas it was 55.72% at 6 mg·L-1 artemetherafter 120h exposure. Moreover, the chlorophyll fluorescence was significantly inhibited (p<0.05) after 120h exposure to 12 and 24 mg·L-1 dihydroartemisinin. Furthermore, after 120h exposure to 6 mg·L-1 artemether, Fv/Fm, ΦPSII, ETR and rETRmax showed a significant decrease (p<0.01) from initial values of 0.490, 0.516, 17.333, and 104.800, respectively, to 0. One-way analysis of variance showed that 6 mg·L-1 artemether and 24 mg·L-1 dihydroartemisinin had significant inhibitory effects on extracellular APA (p<0.01). The results of this study would be useful to further studies to validate the feasibility of dihydroartemisinin and artemether treatment to inhibit overall cyanobacterial growth in water bodies, before this can be put into practice.


Abstract In this paper we analyse to what extent the Nordic economies are vulnerable to external shocks. Specifically, we assess the conventional wisdom that the Nordic countries are small open economies that are significantly engaged in international trade, specialised in only few specific industries and, as a consequence, extremely dependent on the competiveness of their tradable sector and exposed to external shocks. To study this conventional wisdom, we employ a comprehensive set of indicators about trade openness, specialisation and vulnerability. While we do find that the Nordic countries are open economies, though not to an exceptional degree, we also find significant heterogeneity across these countries with respect to their vulnerability.


Abstract Objectives: To study the frequency, severity, and long-term outcome of renal injury in Cortinarius orellanus poisoning, to evaluate the association between the ingested amount of C. orellanus and outcome, and to evaluate the effect of N-acetylcysteine and corticosteroid treatment on outcome. Methods: Case series of eight patients. Diagnosis and severity of acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) were classified according to current AKI and CKD definitions. N-acetylcysteine and corticosteroids were administered to six patients, former according to the standard for paracetamol poisoning. Main findings: All patients developed AKI, six in the most severe stage and four required renal replacement therapy (RRT). After 12 months, seven patients presented with CKD, of whom three required chronic RRT and further two were in advanced CKD. AKI and CKD severity highly correlated with the consumed amounts of Cortinarius orellanus (r = 0.98, p < 0.001 and r = 0.78, p = 0.02, respectively) but not with N-acetylcysteine and corticosteroid treatment. Conclusions: AKI and CKD by current definitions and classifications are frequent and severe after Cortinarius orellanus poisoning. The ingested amount of Cortinarius orellanus correlates with the severity of both AKI and CKD. N-acetylcysteine and corticosteroid treatment do not seem to have a beneficial effect on either AKI or CKD.


How can harmony in diverse idioms be represented in a machine learning system and how can learned harmonic descriptions of two musical idioms be blended to create new ones? This paper presents a creative melodic harmonisation assistant that employs statistical learning to learn harmonies from human annotated data in practically any style, blends the harmonies of two user-selected idioms and harmonises userinput melodies. To this end, the category theory algorithmic framework for conceptual blending is utilised for blending chord transition of the input idioms, to generate an extended harmonic idiom that incorporates a creative combination of the two input ones with additional harmonic material. The results indicate that by learning from the annotated data, the presented harmoniser is able to express the harmonic character of diverse idioms in a creative manner, while the blended harmonies extrapolate the two input idioms, creating novel harmonic concepts.


In 1996, a 38-year-old nulliparous woman died from complications of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was approximately 9 weeks' pregnant with triplets at the time of her death. The patient had undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) and was being treated with anticoagulants (heparin and aspirin) and intravenous immunoglobulin at the time of her death. This report summarizes the investigation of this case by state and county health departments with assistance from CDC.


Incoherent scatter observations of E and F region drifts over Millstone Hill (42.6°N) were made routinely from May 1976 to November 1977 at monthly intervals. Some 667 hours of data gathered over this 19-month period were analyzed to yield the F region polarization electric field in the magnetic south and magnetic east directions. The data have been used to construct an analytical model for these two field components as functions of (1) local time, (2) day of year, and (3) magnetic activity (represented by the Kp index). Models were constructed both with and without the constraint that the daily average of the E-W field be zero. The model employs 35 coefficients for each electric field component which were found by a least mean squares fit to the data and are tabulated.


All-electron relativistic calculations on the ground and valence excited states of the GaCl molecule have been performed using extended internally contracted multireference electron correlation techniques. The potential energy curves (PECs) of all the 12 Λ–S states and the 23 Ω states generated from them are plotted, and the spectroscopic constants (SCs) of bound states are fitted. This seems to be the first time that a study has been made of the spin–orbit coupling effects of valence states and the transition properties of A 3Π0+, B 3Π1 and C 1Π1 states of the GaCl molecule in a theoretical way. On comparison of the calculated results obtained from different multireference electron correlation methods, we find that the size-extensivity corrections improve the theoretical Te, re and ωe results significantly, and the multireference average quadratic coupled cluster method well reproduces the experimental values in most cases. The PEC shape and the SCs of the C 1Π1 state are affected by both the avoided crossing rule among Ω states of the same symmetry and the size-extensivity correction. The C 1Π1 state has a very shallow potential well . The lifetime of the C 1Π1 state is of the order of a nanosecond, while that of the A 3Π0+ and B 3Π1 states is of the order of a microsecond.


We have used computer simulations to investigate the potential of triptycene-based rotors mounted on the Si(100)-2 × 1 surface. Two concepts are explored for attaching the triptycene to the Si surface: –COOH and –OH groups. We find the –COOH produces an axle with too many degrees of freedom, creating too flexible a coupling to the substrate. By contrast, the calculations suggest that the –OH coupling should provide a useful stiff axle.


A mixture of two triamines, one diamine, 2-formylpyridine and a Zn(II) salt was found to self-sort, cleanly producing a mixture of three different tetrahedral cages. Each cage bound one of three guests selectively. These guests could be released in a specific sequence following the addition of 4-methoxyaniline, which reacted with the cages, opening each in turn and releasing its guest. The system here described thus behaved in an organized way in three distinct contexts: cage formation, guest encapsulation, and guest release. Such behavior could be used in the context of a more complex system, where released guests serve as signals to other chemical actors.


Background: Perioperative myocardial infarction (PMI) and prognostically relevant myocardial injury following non-cardiac surgery (MINS) increases perioperative mortality. Studies in vascular patients show an increased incidence and mortality from PMI. However, there remains limited data on the relative prognostic importance of PMI and MINS in South African vascular surgical patients. The primary objective was to evaluate the incidence and prognosis of PMI and MINS in vascular surgical patients admitted to intensive care. The secondary objective was to identify predictors of PMI and hospital mortality. Methods: A retrospective electronic patient record review of all patients aged at least 45 years admitted to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH) intensive care unit (ICU) following vascular surgery between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2013 was carried out. Results: A total of 140 vascular patients were reviewed; 24.3% of the patients had a PMI and a further 25% had MINS. PMI was associated with significantly increased hospital mortality of 58.8% (p < 0.01) and MINS was not (20%, p = 1.00). Increasing age, the highest postoperative B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and a blood transfusion within the first three days postoperatively were independent predictors of PMI. PMI and a history of congestive cardiac failure were independent predictors of hospital mortality. Conclusion: PMI and MINS are present in nearly 50% of vascular patients admitted to intensive care postoperatively. PMI but not MINS in these patients was significantly associated with hospital mortality. MINS requires strict diagnostic criteria in the intensive care where other non-ischaemic pathologies may be associated with myocardial injury.


Twenty (1.5%) of 1,350 patients with malignant melanoma treated during a 17-year period had their primary lesion in the nail bed. The thumb (5 patients) and big toe (7) were the most commonly involved digits. Mean delay before diagnosis was 1.4 years. Thirteen patients were black and 7 white. Eight patients (40%) were initially misdiagnosed as having traumatic, infective or benign lesions. Four patients presented with recurrent local disease after inappropriate nail excision or inadequate nail biopsy, while 2 patients had regional nodal spread and 2 had systemic metastases. Mean Breslow depth was 5.7 mm. The histogenetic subtypes were acral lentiginous melanoma (12 patients) and nodular melanoma (4 patients); 4 lesions were unclassifiable. All patients underwent amputation of the involved digit and 12 required node dissection (therapeutic in 11, prophylactic in 1). Five patients (25%) are alive (mean 52 months, range 29-99 months); 4 are disease-free and 1 has brain metastases. Overall median survival was 32 months with a 26% 5-year survival rate. Delayed diagnosis and advanced disease at presentation contributed to the poor prognosis in nail bed melanoma.


The railway vehicle has an auxiliary power unit for supplying power to the associated electronic control devices and passenger service unit. Typically, input voltage from the catenary for rolling stock is highly fluctuating according to the substation capacity, vehicle propulsion and regeneration. Especially, the frost and freezing on contact wire in winter can cause a blackout inside vehicle, and also brings about electronic components damaging and the system down. To prevent this problem, a large filter and capacitor is used. But this is not a perfect solution, because it is increasing weight of the unit. In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed to suppress the disturbance without adding devices. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has performance to suppress the disturbance at the sudden input voltage variations.


Social comparison theory asserts that we establish our social and personal worth by comparing ourselves to others. In in-person learning environments, social comparison offers students critical feedback on how to behave and be successful. By contrast, online learning environments afford fewer social cues to facilitate social comparison. Can increased availability of such cues promote effective self-regulatory behavior and achievement in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)? We developed a personalized feedback system that facilitates social comparison with previously successful learners based on an interactive visualization of multiple behavioral indicators. Across four randomized controlled trials in MOOCs (overall N = 33, 726), we find: (1) the availability of social comparison cues significantly increases completion rates, (2) this type of feedback benefits highly educated learners, and (3) learners' cultural context plays a significant role in their course engagement and achievement.


Worldviews, cultures, spirituality, and history not only influence how societies define "food" and "waste", they also shape how we consume food and the relationship we have with the broader food system. While food waste has emerged as a global concern and a complex "wicked problem" that impacts stakeholders at all scales of operations, the issue is often framed as an environmental and economic problem, and less so as a social problem. As the food waste literature expands at a rapid pace, there is still a dearth of studies that focus on cultural and intergenerational approaches to food preservation and food waste reduction. This exploratory study emerged from an upper-year research-based course entitled Building Sustainable Food Systems (REM 363- now REM 357) at Simon Fraser University and offers three vignettes through intergenerational and multicultural interviews from Siksika First Nation (Canada), Pakistan and China. Students from the class explored the roles of intergenerational storytelling and informal learning by conducting key informant interviews with close relatives to document traditional food preservation techniques.  This study created a transformative intergenerational and multicultural bonding opportunity, which allowed students to better understand their relationships to food, culture, and their relatives. The students also documented how the relationship to food has changed over time. Findings from the study suggest that intergenerational storytelling can help reduce food waste by increasing food literacy, improving cultural connections, and raising awareness about alternative worldviews that challenge the commoditization of food.


N (nitrogen) is an essential element that is very complex to manage. Adjustment to different application methods of N containing urea can be a crucial option for effective management of N. The experiment was carried out at the BRAC Agricultural Research and Development Centre, Gazipur during 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 growing seasons with the objectives to find out the response of genotypes and different urea fertilizer application methods on growth parameters, yield and yield attributes of Boro rice. The experiment was arranged in split-plot design with three replications having two genotypes viz. (i) V1 = GSR I Sal Y 1242 and (ii) V2 = BRRI dhan28 placed in main plot and four urea application methods viz. (i) T1 = 220 kg ha-1 PU at three equal splits (ii) T2= 2% foliar spray @ 80 kg ha-1 (iii) T3= 75 kg N ha-1 USG (2.7 g) and (iv) T4= LCC based urea @ 67.5 kg ha-1 placed in sub plot. Results showed that genotypes had non-significant influence for most of the growth parameters and yield components, whereas urea fertilizer application methods had significant effect on all growth parameters, yield and yield attributes except plant height at 40 DAT and 50% flowering stage. . With different methods of urea application, T4 achieved significantly the highest value of all growth parameters, yield and yield components with total N content hill-1 (3.859%) and harvest index (50.70%) except filled grain panicle-1 (82.98) at harvest. Among the interactive treatments, the highest number of tillers m-2 (351.66), dry weight hill-1 (88.13 g), panicle number m-2 (340.83), panicle length (23.33 cm) and grain yield (7.32 t ha-1) was obtained at V1T4. So, in aspect of yield and other parameters, V1T4 was the best treatment under the present study.


Abstract Tensile tests have been carried out on a commercial Al–Mg–Si-alloy after simultaneous deformation and artificial ageing. Extruded and solution heat treated specimens were deformed 2%, 5% and 10% (engineering strain) and simultaneously artificially aged at two different temperatures (175 and 190°C) for various times (depending on the strain rates used for pre-deformation) before tensile testing. A comparison with previously obtained tensile properties following sequential pre-deformation and artificial ageing shows that the simultaneous mode generally displays better mechanical strength and after shorter ageing times. The best performing alloy has been obtained by using a split artificial ageing procedure for 10% deformed sample simultaneously aged for 40 min at 175°C followed by additional ageing for 60 min at the same temperature.


Pressure tubes for CANada Deuterium Uranium Pressurized Heavy Water reactors are made from Zr-2.5Nb by extruding preheated hollow billets into tubes that are cold-worked 30 percent to size. The fabrication process produces fine elongated α-grains with a high dislocation density which makes a large contribution to the tensile strength of the tubes but increases in-reactor creep and growth rates. The alloy Excel (Zr-3.5Sn-0.8Mo-0.8Nb) is stronger and more creep resistant than Zr-2.5Nb and is being developed as a pressure tube material. Tubes have been fabricated that are as strong as the Zr-2.5Nb tubes but they have more equiaxed α-grains with much lower dislocation densities. The tubes corrode faster than the Zr-2.5Nb tubes and will require 0.1 mm more corrosion allowance on the 4.1-mm-thick walls. However, their in-service axial elongation and diametral expansion due to irradiation creep and growth will be 70 percent less than the Zr-2.5Nb tubes.


Applying the spinor representation of the electromagnetic field, this paper present a quantum-mechanical description of waveguides. As an example of application, a potential qubit generated by photon tunnelling is discussed.


Iron deficiency is the most prevalent nutritional issue worldwide. The fortification of food products could help covering the iron requirements, mainly in certain population groups where prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia is high because its amount in the diet is poor and/or presents low bioavailability. In this regard it is worth to mention that the population groups with higher prevalence of iron deficiency are both women at childbearing age and children. However, iron fortification should take into account several variables that determine its effectiveness being the bioavailability of the iron form used and its interaction with the matrix the most crucial ones. The aim of this thesis is to obtain a fortified food product with a high bioavailable iron while being accepted by consumers and stable towards oxidation. In this regard, a sandwich-type cookie filled with a chocolate cream has been selected as example of heme iron fortification in bakery products. The presence of chocolate, apart from making the food product to be more appealing to children, may help disguise the intense colour of the heme iron ingredient, which is intended to be used for its high bioavailability. Since palm oil is widely used in the manufacture of biscuits, cakes and pastries, it is planned to previously study those strategies that minimize oxidation in a model based on palm oil fortified with heme iron before these are employed in the final food products. By means of this model, we assessed the efficacy of the following strategies: the addition of antioxidants; the heme iron ingredient encapsulation and the combination of both strategies. The strategies that were shown to be efficient in this fortified palm oil model were further assessed on sandwich-type chocolate cookies fortified with heme iron. In these cookies and over a period of one year of storage in the dark at room temperature, the oxidative stability and consumers' overall acceptability has been studied By combining the two strategies, the addition of an antioxidant (ascorbyl palmitate) and the encapsulation of heme iron by co-spray-drying it with calcium caseinate, the cookies were oxidative stable and accepted by consumers over one year of storage at room temperature in the dark.


• The research examined the digital development of the Slovenian wood industry, especially the implementation of the concept of Industry 4.0 into practice. Within this, the implementation of speci fi c technological pillars was studied, with the emphasis on smart factories and smart, innovative products. In the empirical part of the research, we prepared a survey and interviewed selected managers and entrepreneurs. We compared answers regarding sub-sectors, the size of the companies and the level of digitalization. The general results show that around half of the surveyed companies are already implementing the Industry 4.0 concept into their businesses, while the rest are beginners when speaking about digitalization. The biggest obstacles to the implementation of the concept are the high investments in equipment and the lack of fi nancial support from the state. The lack of digital competencies, which is especially prevalent among older workers, is another major barrier that businesses face. Only 30 % of the surveyed companies are engaged in the production of smart products. We can conclude that digitalization in the Slovenian wood industry is still at a relatively low level, but with the latest strategic orientations at both the state and business level, this situation will certainly improve in the near future.


The recent significant reduction in operative mortality associated with surgical completion of the Fontan circulation is clearly multi-factorial. Better understanding of the fundamental physiological and anatomical issues have led to refinements in operative technique, early neutralization of potential risk factors, widespread use of a staged approach, and selective application of the concept of fenestration or incomplete partitioning. While further reduction of operative mortality is important, and may be anticipated in the future, major emphasis now must be placed on optimizing functional outcome, and understanding and managing the late complications associated with the unique physiology produced by the Fontan circulation.


Effect of konjac flour (0.5 and 1%) incorporated with soy protein isolate (SPI) (5 and 10%) against wheat flour on physical, chemical and sensory properties of reduced-fat chiffon cakes prepared with 50% vegetable oil replacement with water were investigated. The addition of konjac flour and SPI produced reduced-fat cakes with significantly lower (p < 0.05) in specific volume, but higher (p < 0.05) in weight loss and water activity. All reduced-fat formulations were significantly darker (p < 0.05) than the control. The high concentration of SPI produced the cakes with higher L*(lightness) but lower a*(red) and b*(yellow). The addition of konjac flour incorporated with SPI significantly decreased (p < 0.05) hardness, cohesiveness and springiness of reduced-fat cakes. Sensory results indicated that the cakes with konjac flour and SPI tended to be darker, juicy, sweet and flavour, but less hard than the control; nevertheless, the cake with 0.5% konjac flour and 10% SPI was rated as tender as the control. Also, the reduction of fat and total caloric value of this cake were about 37.9 and 14.6%, respectively, whereas the increment of protein was 24.5% in relation to 100 g of the control cake.


Visual Abstract Significance Statement ESKD is increasing in incidence and a limited number of organs are available for transplantation. Therefore, researchers have focused on understanding how cellular signaling influences kidney development to expand strategies to rebuild a kidney. However, the extracellular matrix (ECM), another critical component that biomechanically regulates nephrogenesis, has been largely neglected. Proteomics and 3D imaging of the murine kidney resolved previously undescribed dynamics of the interstitial matrix in the cortex and corticomedullary junction during development. Combined with cells and growth factors, scaffolds modeled after the composition and organization of the developmental ECM have the potential to improve engineered models of the kidney. Background The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a network of proteins and glycosaminoglycans that provides structural and biochemical cues to cells. In the kidney, the ECM is critical for nephrogenesis; however, the dynamics of ECM composition and how it relates to 3D structure during development is unknown. Methods Using embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5), E18.5, postnatal day 3 (P3), and adult kidneys, we fractionated proteins based on differential solubilities, performed liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, and identified changes in ECM protein content (matrisome). Decellularized kidneys were stained for ECM proteins and imaged in 3D using confocal microscopy. Results We observed an increase in interstitial ECM that connects the stromal mesenchyme to the basement membrane (TNXB, COL6A1, COL6A2, COL6A3) between the embryo and adult, and a transient elevation of interstitial matrix proteins (COL5A2, COL12A1, COL26A1, ELN, EMID1, FBN1, LTBP4, THSD4) at perinatal time points. Basement membrane proteins critical for metanephric induction (FRAS1, FREM2) were highest in abundance in the embryo, whereas proteins necessary for integrity of the glomerular basement membrane (COL4A3, COL4A4, COL4A5, LAMB2) were more abundant in the adult. 3D visualization revealed a complex interstitial matrix that dramatically changed over development, including the perinatal formation of fibrillar structures that appear to support the medullary rays. Conclusion By correlating 3D ECM spatiotemporal organization with global protein abundance, we revealed novel changes in the interstitial matrix during kidney development. This new information regarding the ECM in developing kidneys offers the potential to inform the design of regenerative scaffolds that can guide nephrogenesis in vitro.


OBJECTIVES
To establish the prevalence of microalbuminuria in a group of patients with systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) to analyze the association between this parameter and cardiovascular risk factors as well as with SAH treatment.

METHODS
This is a sub-analysis of 564 patients of Mexico, extracted from an international, observational, and cross-sectional study followed by specialists, The study included patients with SAH without any other causes of microalbuminuria.

RESULTS
Microalbuminuria in these patients had a prevalence of 63.8% (95% IC 58.4, 69,3) and correlated with a wide variety of risk factors and concomitant cardiovascular diseases Most patients with microalbuminuria already received treatment with angiotensin II receptor antagonists (50%), without pretending to establish the impact of the drugs on the microalbuminuria values.

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of patients with SAH and high cardiovascular risk is high in this study and justifies their management and care with multifactorial strategies aimed to adequately control their blood pressure and to modify other current cardiovascular risk factors.


Behavioural science and managerial - sciences have witnessed tremendous advance since turn of this Century. Making behavioural - directed behavioural strategy - based judgements is a complex management action. Hominids share designed structural sphere and project stimulus on behavioural strategy - based judgement processes. Behavioural science, along with cognito - management, has made unprecedented insights into human brain and nature. Fissures amongst judiciousness - based scrutiny adopt proxies and anthropological comportment in shepherding behavioural exploration on behavioural strategy - based judgement making. Business actors, models and axioms of management tend to focus on either competences of business 'actors' or resources of organisation. Actor's behavioural strategy - based judgement dynamics has extended from behaviourist approach to cognitive that focuses on processes prior to response. 'Deciding to Decide', 'Preferring to Prefer', 'Deciding to Prefer' and 'Preferring to Decide' are four 'bordered boundaries' where business actor has to arrive at an optimal behavioural strategy - based judgement. Managers ('Actors') contract high uncertainty, ambiguity, time pressure and emotional stress. Neural mechanisms of behavioural strategy - based judgement making require integration of evidence over time until a response threshold is reached. Cognito - management investigates behavioural strategy - based judgement making by using 'cognito - tactical monikers' (CTM) to investigate how brain behaves in circuit of higher cognitive functions. This has transitioned from mapping confined effects to evolving extrapolative models that assimilate data scattered across brain structures. In a progressively complex management milieu, managers struggle between tactical arrangements and precise methods to gauge degree of accomplishment of predetermined goals. Behavioural strategy - based judgement - oriented planning assists as 'catalyst' in terms of cognitive behaviours. There is need to understand behavioural - biological 'drivers' for investigating underlying behavioural - computational formulation mechanisms of behavioural strategy - based judgement processes that underlie behavioural strategy - based judgement making. These are skills to meet new age challenges. In this, scope is to understand how managerial traits mapping divulge behavioural insight. The factual lateral lies on analysis of available verifiable, reliable and significant information, filtering and sieving of available information and accessing expressive information. This is supplemented by actions of behavioral cells to further process interactive - oriented actions.

Managers' generally count on heuristics in an air of improbability. In real world, encountered with multifaceted choice circumstances, managerial judgments surface from complex, complicated, cognitively demanding and intertwined set of data and information. Perceptive procedures are principal 'drivers' to calculate diverse optimal alternatives to grasp a judgement. 'Transmitter' owns power - driven chattels ('transmitter' conductance') that transform on relatively short time gauge of minutes allied to psycho - behavioural strategy - based judgmental techniques. As a representation for neural action, trans-disciplinary 'transmitter' - conductance driver' aid merger of all behavioural strategy - based judgement - related aspects. This 'driver' noise for 'agent - oriented' sculpting and psycho - managerial investigation efforts. Imaging tools have motivated behavioural - managerial 'transmitter' - conductance driver' of internal order of behavioural strategy - based judgement making. 'transmitter' - conductance driver' exhibits potential for fundamental changes in how 'Smart Managers' contemplate, perceive and archetype judgement. Through 'transmitter' - conductance driver', 'transmitter' absorbs data, recognizes and edges problematical 'business climate' towards suitable responses. 'Smart Managers' decide on judgments that represent 'conflicting principles'. Question is how 'Smart Managers' makes judgments in a climate of vicissitudes in 'transmitter' conductance. How judgments are carried out in 'transmitter' of 'Smart Managers'? Curiosity is on possibilities, philosophies, behaviours and stratagems that 'Smart Managers' uses to make judgments. How do portions of 'Smart Managers' 'transmitter' administer judgement crafting, synchronize and engross in tactical explanation while deciding? There are unsolved problems in 'transmitter' geometry' where behavioural management seeks to explain 'behaviour shapes' (coherent 'transmitter' geometry') towards behavioural strategy - based judgement crafting? This experimental paper aims at exploring prospects and challenges in significant role of 'behavioural - computational formulation mechanisms' in prototyping managerial behavioural strategy - based judgments. Points of focus are on driving 'information - agents' and 'information - elements'. What behavioural - strategic choices underpin behavioural strategy - based judgements? Does systemic analysis reveal behavioural factors that contribute to explain effective mapping of behavioural strategy - based judgments? In a quasi - experiment, a set of Managers were chosen and subject to information based behavioural strategy - based judgement mapping. Results indicate that 'information - agents' and 'information - elements' do have a positive influence on behavioural strategy - based judgement edifice of behavioural strategy - based judgement prototyping. This paper attempts to analyse approaches to behavioural thinking in behavioural - scientific philosophy of biology experiments. CTM techniques explain neural basis of behavioural strategy - based judgement making and endeavors to reconnoiter 'transmitter' - geometry' phenomenon to screen theoretic contexts and empirical methods for appreciating heterogeneity of behavioural strategy - based judgement circuit. Objective and Methodology is to screen theoretic and empirical contexts in behavioural - 'transmitter' geometry' framework of 'behavioural strategy - based judgement circuit'. Purpose is to assess that 'transmitter' geometry' have stimulus on managers' choice. Focus is on comparing behavioural - observations to replicate philosophy of biology in research. Results demonstrate indications for spontaneous counterfactual replication in province of high - level reasoning. Major finding is that manager attempts to address a behavioural - circuit using 'transmitter' geometry' medium. Paper discusses findings and future directions to guide biology in behavioural strategy - based judgement behavioural science via behavioural apparatus. Research offers 'Golden Anchorage' of behavioural - locking of 'transmitter' and behavioural strategy - based judgement making dynamics to appreciate how 'Smart Managers' make judgement to behavioural strategy - based judgmental questions.


ABSTRACT Background: Most of the previous studies attempted to disentangle the relationship between disability and depressive symptoms were limited to observation periods of only few years. Moreover, evidence is missing regarding the complex co-occurrence of disability and depressive symptoms in old age in Germany. In order to close the research gap, we aimed at disentangling the complex co-occurrence of disability and depressive symptoms in old age in Germany over a longer time frame. Methods: Based on data from a representative survey of the German general population aged 75 years and older, the course of disability as well as depressive symptoms was observed every 1.5 years over six waves. While disability was quantified by the Lawton and Brody Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptoms. Taking into account the complex co-occurrence of depressive symptoms and disability, a panel vector autoregressive model was used. By taking the first differences, unobserved heterogeneity was taken into account. Results: In the total sample and in both sexes, we revealed a robust positive association between an initial change in depressive symptoms and subsequent changes in disability. No robust association between an initial change in disability and a subsequent change in depressive symptoms was detected. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the importance of changes in depressive symptoms for future changes in disability in old age.


The British Library at St Pancras opened its doors for the first time on 24 November 1997. This article describes the project to implement the new automation system which provides readers with a system for research which is quick, accurate and is able to conduct searches for all possible sources. This was not previously possible using the manual system. The project was one of the most important of its kind undertaken in this country and required the appropriate project and risk management skills. Not only are these skills difficult to define in terms of a job description but they are increasingly difficult to find in the IT market. The solution was a team which included those with library expertise and detailed knowledge of the specific requirements at St Pancras and the technical skills required for developing and implementing a new automation system.


Studies on metal pollution (cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, manganese and nickel) in South African terrestrial environments are severely lacking. Due to being relatively unaffected by industrialisation, the Thohoyandou region may provide data on natural levels of metals for use as baseline data. The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) was chosen as a bio-indicator of metal pollution due to its abundance, non-migratory lifestyle and close association with humans. The aims were to determine the viability of using feathers as a non-lethal bio-indicator tissue compared with muscle. Plume feathers, flight feathers and muscle tissue were analysed using ICP-OES techniques. Analyses of tissue metal concentrations identified the following trend: plume feather > flight feather > muscle tissue. Within the Thohoyandou region, Magondi, which was affected by anthropogenic activities at the time of sampling, had significantly higher concentrations (p ≤ 0.05) for each of the metals, indicating potential metal contamination from various sources. Alternatively, Makonde had the lowest metal concentrations and may be an important reference site for future comparative studies. The results showed that the House Sparrow can be used as a bio-indicator organism in South African terrestrial environments. The plume feathers indicate that they are a good non-lethal tissue for determining metal pollution levels on a temporal scale, indicating recent metal exposure.


For the continuum and discrete elastic equations, we derive exact artificial boundary conditions (ABCs), often referred to as transparent boundary conditions, that can be applied at a planar interface below which there are no forces. Solution of the elasticity equations can then be performed using this interface as an artificial boundary, often with greatly reduced computational effort, but without loss of accuracy. A general solvability requirement is presented for the existence of an artificial boundary operator for discrete systems (such as discrete elasticity) on an unbounded (semi-infinite) domain. The solvability requirement is validated by introducing a sum-of-exponentials ansatz for the solution below the artificial boundary. We also derive a new expression for the total energy for the system, involving only the region above the artificial boundary. Numerical examples are provided to confirm and illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the results.


Aim: Although retained foreign bodies are a rare and preventable problem, it is one of the medical errors in surgery can have heavy medico-legal consequences. Retained sponges can cause significant morbidity, prolonged hospital stay, postoperative complications, pain and disabilities. Also the costs associated with treatment of retained surgical items can be considerable. The study was undertaken to determine the current implementations related to instruments and sponges counts in the operating rooms in Turkey.
Method: This descriptive study was carried out with 261 operating room nurses. The data collection tool was a questionnaire which was designed on the Google Drive application using the internet. Thereafter its internet link was distributed throughout Turkey using nursing, surgical nursing and operating room nursing social media websites; the answers were gathered in the same way.
Results: Ninety-five percent of participants stated that instruments and sponges were usually counted by the scrub nurses (88.5%). Sponges (97.7%), pads (95.4%), tampons (89.2%), surgical instruments (88.1%) and needles (70.4%) were the items which were usually counted. According to 81.6% of the nurses, a written count protocol exists for their hospitals, however, they noted there was a significant difference in implementation among the various institutions (p=0.026). While 49.8% of participants stated that the count before surgery was done by nurses, 23.7% reported that the count was performed by operating room employees. Furthermore, 81.2% of the nurses noted that if the scrub nurses were replaced during surgery, the surgical count would be repeated. Nurses stated that last count was usually done just before applying skin sutures (72.7%), and if there were a problem with the count, radiological imaging would be done (73.5%) and the count irregularity would be signed by staff (31.0%).
Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that because surgical counts were generally done by the scrub nurses, changing of scrub nurse have high risk for surgical count error. In addition, although most of the hospitals have a count protocol, a serious issue concerns the use of unprofessional hospital employees who carry out this task, thus jeopardizing patient safety to be operating room employess join the count are other problems related to surgical count. There is not any comprehensive research related to surgical instrument and material count in Turkey. The current study enables us to obtain information concerning surgical count protocol in the operating rooms in Turkey.


The optically induced spin dynamics of a single Mn atom embedded into a single semiconductor quantum dot can be strongly influenced by using the optical Stark effect. The exchange interaction gives rise to simultaneous spin flips between the quantum dot electron and Mn. In the time domain these flips correspond to exchange induced Rabi oscillations, which are typically off-resonant. By applying a detuned laser pulse, the states involved in the flipping can be brought into resonance by means of the optical Stark effect increasing the amplitude of the Rabi oscillations to one. In this paper we study theoretically how this spin dynamics can be monitored in time-resolved spectroscopy. In the spectrum the exchange interaction leads to a splitting of the exciton line into six lines, each corresponding to one of the six Mn spin states. The dynamical behavior of the Mn spin is reflected by the strength of the individual lines as a function of time. When an off-resonant optical pulse is applied the spectral positions of the lines shift, but still the flipping dynamics is visible.


Fine-grained entity typing aims at identifying the semantic type of an entity in KB. Type information is very important in knowledge bases, but are unfortunately incomplete even in some large knowledge bases. Limitations of existing methods are either ignoring the structure and type information in KB or requiring large scale annotated corpus. To address these issues, we propose an attributed and predictive entity embedding method, which can fully utilize various kinds of information comprehensively. Extensive experiments on two real DBpedia datasets show that our proposed method significantly outperforms 8 state-of-the-art methods, with 4.0% and 5.2% improvement in Mi-F1 and Ma-F1, respectively.


A family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides known as MXenes has received increasing attention since the discovery of Ti3C2 in 2011. To date, about 30 different MXenes with well‐defined structures and properties have been synthesized, and many more are theoretically predicted to exist. Due to the numerous assets including excellent mechanical properties, metallic conductivity, unique in‐plane anisotropic structure, tunable band gap, and so on, MXenes rapidly positioned themselves at the forefront of the 2D materials world and have found numerous promising applications. Particular interest is devoted to applications in electrochemical energy storage, whereby 2D MXenes work either as electrodes, additives, separators, or hosts. This review summarizes recent advances in the synthesis, fundamental properties and composites of MXene and highlights the state‐of‐the‐art electrochemical performance of MXene‐based electrodes/devices. The progresses in the field of supercapacitors and Li‐ion batteries, Li‐S batteries, Na‐ and other alkali metal ion batteries are reviewed, and current challenges and new opportunities for MXenes in this surging energy storage field are presented. In the focus of interest is the possibility to boost device‐level performance, particularly that of rechargeable batteries, which are of utmost importance in future energy technologies. Very recently, the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the inventors of the Li‐ion battery. For sure, this will provide an additional stimulation to study fundamental aspects of electrochemical energy storage.


Organization and Management of a Radiation Safety Office (Steven H. King and Rodger W. Granlund). Organization and Management of a Nonionizing Radiation Safety Program (Zorach R. Glaser). Organization and Management of a Laser Safety Program (Kelly L. Classic). Management of Low-Level Radioactive Waste (John R. Vincenti). Management of Monitoring Programs (R. Craig Yoder). Management of Radiation Therapy Patients (Donald E. Velkley). Management of Emergency Care for Radiation Accident Victims (Mary Ellen Berger and Robert C. Ricks). Evaluation and Control of Internal Radiation Exposures on the Basis of Committed Dose Equivalent (Kenneth W. Skrable). Properly Relating Radiation Protection Requirements to Relative Radiotoxicity and Risk (Allen Brodsky). Radiation Emergency Planning - Damage, Evaluation, and Control Procedures (Robert G. Gallaghar). Planning for and Management of Radiation Accidents (Sydney W. Porter, Jr.). Emergency Response Decisions in the Planning Process - Predetermined Conditions for Predetermined Actions (James A. Martin, Jr.). Accident Consequence Projection (Thomas J. McKenna and Joseph G. Giitter). Education and Training in Radiation Protection (Allen Brodsky, Phyllis L. Brodsky, and Kenneth L. Mossman). Education and Training for Radiation Protection in Nuclear Power Plants (Charles A. Willis). Requirements and Preparation for Passing the American Board of Health Physics Certification Examinations (Charles A. Willis). Education and Training of Radiologic Technologists (Dolores A. Thomas). Summary of Experience in Radiation Litigation (Vincent P. Collins). Legal Aspects of Health Physics Record Keeping (Donald E. Jose). Preparing for Court Appearances (Donald E. Jose). Radiological Controls Documentation in Radiation Injury Litigation (Gordon M. Lodde).


This paper discusses a multi-agent framework for the control of robot systems along with an integrated programming environment which takes advantage of it. An agent society is engaged in a competitive or cooperative interaction under a control metalevel while a particular agent represents the real-time robot machine. By virtue of the support of adequate tools, this schema well lends itself both to a general increase of robot programming capability and flexibility and to rapid prototyping of different architectural solutions. The overall programming environment is built upon the integration of a distributed, extended logic programming environment with a real-time RCCL-based robot server. It is also interfaced to a graphical simulator in which a sensory driven task can be given a preliminary validation. An example of application of the environment to a simple test case concludes the paper.<<ETX>>


The immunological response in contact hypersensitivity is incited by small electrophilic compounds, known as haptens, that react with endogenous proteins after skin absorption. However, the identity of hapten-modified proteins seen as immunogenic remains as yet largely unknown. In a recent study, we have for the first time identified a hapten-modified protein in the local lymph nodes of mice treated topically with the model hapten tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate (TRITC). The TRITC modification was located on the N-terminal proline of the protein macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). The focus of the current study was to investigate the presence of the same hapten-protein conjugate in blood samples from mice treated topically with TRITC. Furthermore, TRITC modifications of the two major blood proteins, namely hemoglobin (Hb) and albumin (Alb), as well as TRITC modifications of MIF other than the N-terminal proline, were examined. Following incubation with different molar ratios of TRITC, a proteomic approach was applied to characterize conjugate formation of the three aforementioned proteins, using high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The targeted screening of the TRITC-treated mice blood and lymph node samples for these sites led to the identification of only the same TRITC-MIF conjugate previously detected in the lymph nodes. No Hb and Alb conjugates were detected. Quantification of both the TRITC-modified and unmodified N-terminal peptide of MIF in blood and lymph node samples gave interesting insights of MIF's role in murine contact hypersensitivity. Incubation of MIF with four different haptens encompassing different reactivity mechanisms and potencies, showed adduct formation at different amino acid residues, suggesting that MIF can be the preferred target for a wide variety of haptens. The present study provides essential progress toward understanding of hapten-protein conjugate formation in contact hypersensitivity and identifies hapten-modified MIF as a potential biomarker for this condition. Further investigation of MIF as a target protein can be a next step to determine if MIF is a biomarker that can be used to develop better diagnostic tools and targeted therapeutics for individuals with allergic contact dermatitis.


Gr1+CD11b+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) promote tumor angiogenesis and are refractory to VEGF antibodies treatment. Bv8 expressed in MDSCs has recently been shown to modulate MDSCs mobilization and tumor angiogenesis. Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion moclecule-1(CEACAM1) is highly expressed on Gr1+ myeloid cells, however the role of CEACAM1 in myeloid cells mediated tumor angiogenesis has not been investigated. We have demonstrated that tumor growth and angiogenesis was significantly enhanced in Ceacam1-/- mice, which was independent on T and B cells . Meanwhile MDSCs infiltration in tumor, spleen and blood was increased. Tumors coinjected with MDSCs from Ceacam1-/- mice exhibited increased angiogenesis compared to coinjection with MDSCs from control mice. Depletion of Gr1+ cells inhibited tumor growth and angiogenesis in control and Ceacam1-/- mice. MDSCs from Ceacam1-/- mice expressed higher Bv8 in vitro and in vivo. Further we have shown that CEACAM1 recruited Src-homology-phosphatase-1 (SHP-1) to attenuate granulocyte colony-stimulating factor receptor (G-CSFR)-Bv8 pathway. Reconsititution of CEACAM1 into Ceacam1-/- bone marrow cells restored tumor growth and angiogenesis to normal level, and mutations of immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs ITIMs abolished this restoration. Therefore, we identified CEACAM1, as an inhibitory regulator of G-CSFR-Bv8 pathway, negatively regulates myeloid-cell-dependent tumor angiogenesis.


In machining workshops, workpieces are produced according to dimensions known as manufacturing dimensions. For the same workpiece and the same manufacturing plan, several sets of manufacturing dimensions can be used but none satisfies simultaneously the two main missions workshops need to fulfil: (a) ensuring conformity of products to their design dimension tolerances (also called blueprint tolerances); and (b) steering machines in order to compensate for tool wear. The set of manufacturing dimensions obtained from the design dimensions using the minimal chain of dimensions method is optimal for a conformity check of workpieces but is practically unusable for steering machines because of the complexity of its relationships toward the tool correctors and tools dimensions. The pilot dimensions method consists of, on the one hand, identifying and representing these tool correctors and these tool/program dimensions on the production drawings (besides the manufacturing dimensions) and, on the other hand, determining their correction values through a mathematical set of relations after having measured the manufacturing dimensions on a workpiece. Doing so will strongly reduce adjustment time, reduce the number of workpieces used for adjustments and greatly enhance the quality of workpiece batches.


Disseminated BCG infection (BCGitis) is a rare complication of antituberculous vaccination and usually affects children presenting an immune deficiency. We report the Tunisian experience of about 12 cases of disseminated BCGitis. Methods We retrospectively studied 12 cases of disseminated BCGitis enrolled into the paediatric departments of Tunisia during a 15 year period (1990–2004). Results There were 9 boys and 3 girls belonging to 11 unrelated Tunisian families. Parental consanguinity was noted in the half of cases and deaths in the low age in 2 cases. After BCG vaccine was received in all cases at birth, the first clinical symptoms appeared at age 3 months on average (extreme:16 days to 5 months) whereas age of diagnosis was 9 months on average (extreme:3 to 28 months). Immunogenetic studies identified immune deficiency in 10 cases: IL12p40 deficiency in 5 cases, IL12 receptor β1 deficiency in 2 cases, severe combined immunodeficiency in 2 cases and chronic granulomatous disease in 1 case. Immunological investigation remained negative in 2 cases. All patients have received antituberculous treatment and 2 among them interferon gamma. Evolution was favourable in only the half of cases. The 6 other patients died: 2 patients at an evolved stage of the disease and 4 by severe infection. Conclusions BCG vaccination, which is compulsory at birth in Tunisia, had probably favoured the emergence of disseminated BCGitis occurring in genetically immunodeficient children. Disseminated BCGitis cases were clinically and genetically heterogeneous. However, genetic defects in the IL12/IFN pathway found in 7 cases were the most frequent aetiology of this disorder.


Java (de)serialization is prone to causing security-critical vulnerabilities that attackers can invoke existing methods (gadgets) on the application's classpath to construct a gadget chain to perform malicious behaviors. Several techniques have been proposed to statically identify suspicious gadget chains and dynamically generate injection objects for fuzzing. However, due to their incomplete support for dynamic program features (e.g., Java runtime polymorphism) and ineffective injection object generation for fuzzing, the existing techniques are still far from satisfactory. In this paper, we first performed an empirical study to investigate the characteristics of Java deserialization vulnerabilities based on our manually collected 86 publicly known gadget chains. The empirical results show that 1) Java deserialization gadgets are usually exploited by abusing runtime polymorphism, which enables attackers to reuse serializable overridden methods; and 2) attackers usually invoke exploitable overridden methods (gadgets) via dynamic binding to generate injection objects for gadget chain construction. Based on our empirical findings, we propose a novel gadget chain mining approach, GCMiner, which captures both explicit and implicit method calls to identify more gadget chains, and adopts an overriding-guided object generation approach to generate valid injection objects for fuzzing. The evaluation results show that GCMiner significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques, and discovers 56 unique gadget chains that cannot be identified by the baseline approaches.


Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) is generally considered as the domain of fatigue lifetime beyond 10 million (107) load cycles. Few examples of structural components which are subjected to 107-109 load cycles during their service life are engine parts, turbine disks, railway axles and load-carrying parts of automobiles. Therefore, the safe and reliable operation of these components depends on the knowledge of their fatigue strength and the prevalent damage/failure mechanisms. Moreover, the fatigue life of materials in the VHCF regime is controlled by the fatigue crack initiation and early growth stage of short cracks.This study was focussed on the evaluation of fatigue properties of duplex stainless steels in the VHCF regime using the ultrasonic fatigue testing equipment. The ultrasonic fatigue tests were conducted on the cold rolled duplex stainless strip steel and hot rolled duplex stainless steel grades. Two different geometries of ultrasonic fatigue test specimens were tested. Considerable attention was devoted to the evaluation of fatigue crack initiation and growth mechanisms using the high resolution scanning electron microscopy. The fatigue crack initiation was found to be surface initiated phenomena in all the tested grades, albeit different in each case.The second part of this thesis work was the development of a distributed dislocation dipole technique for the analysis of multiple straight, kinked and branched cracks in an elastic half plane. Cracks with dimensions much smaller than the overall size of the domain were considered. The main goal of the development of this technique was the evaluation of stress intensity factor at each crack tip. The comparison of results from the stress intensity factor evaluation by the developed procedure and the well-established Finite Element Method software ABAQUS showed difference of less than 1% for Jacobi polynomial expansion of sixth order in the dipole density representation.


Two-colour fluorescence flow cytometry was utilized to define subsets within the Leu-3+ (T4+) helper-inducer and the Leu-2+ (T8+) cytotoxic-suppressor T cell subpopulations in recipients of unmanipulated HLA-identical sibling bone marrow transplants. The absolute number of activated cytotoxic-suppressor T cells expressing the HLA-DR and OKT10 activation antigens was increased. The proportion (or relative number) of cells bearing each of these activation antigens was also elevated in both the Leu-2+ and the Leu-3+ subpopulations, with up to 60% of Leu-2+ cells and up to 40% of Leu-3+ cells expressing them. Interestingly, absolute numbers of cells expressing two other activation-associated antigens, the interleukin-2 (IL-2) and transferrin receptors, were not increased in either major T cell subpopulation, although the relative number of Leu-3+ cells expressing both these surface structures was increased early post-transplant. Three putative functional subsets were also enumerated: the Leu-3+, Leu-8+ suppressor-inducer subset was depressed in absolute and relative numbers at most time points post-transplant. The Leu-4+, Leu-15+ suppressor-effector subset subpopulation was normal at all time points posttransplant, while the Leu-2+, 9.3+ cytotoxic precursor subset showed low relative and absolute numbers both early and late post-transplant. None of the abnormalities demonstrated in the present study was correlated with presence or absence of graft-versus-host disease. The study further demonstrates the heterogeneity of the abnormalities in the immune system after human marrow transplantation and lays the basis for functional studies involving these cell populations.


Cassava is generally grown by poor farmers living in marginal areas with adverse climatic and soil conditions. The crop is very suitable for these conditions because of its exceptional tolerance to drought and to acid, infertile soils. It is often grown on sloping land because of its minimal requirement for land preparation, and its ability to produce reasonably good yields on eroded and degraded soils, where other crops would fail. It has been shown (Quintiliano et al., 1961; Margolis and Campos Filho, 1981; Putthacharoen et al., 1998), however, that growing cassava on slopes can result in severe erosion, with high soil and nutrient losses. Thus cassava cultivation on slopes requires adequate cultural and soil conservation practices that minimize erosion (Howeler, 1994). Cassava is well adapted to poor or degraded soils because of its tolerance to low pH, high levels of exchangeable aluminium (Al) and low concentrations of phosphorus (P) in the soil solution. Studying the effect of pH on the growth of several crops grown in flowing nutrient solution, Islam et al. (1980) reported that cassava and ginger (Zingiber officinale) were more tolerant of low pH (< 4) than tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) or maize (Zea mays L.). Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT; 1978) and Howeler (1991a) also reported that cassava and cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) were more tolerant of acid soils with high levels of exchangeable Al, and were much less responsive to lime applications than common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), rice (Oryza sativa), maize and sorghum (Sorghum vulgaris).


Social public security management is an important component in the current construction of intelligent cities in China. There have been scale construction of information system for social public security management, which has been widely applied, generating abundant information data in the city's "grid" management process. However, in the actual construction process of intelligent city, due to the data conversion between various information systems and various restrictions for interconnection, further promotion and use of the social public security management has been seriously affected. In some big cities, every day there are tens of millions of new sensors collecting big data and store it for a long time. And it is difficult to meet the requirement of real-time management through the exchange between traditional information systems, urgently needing intelligent analysis and process to give full play to the application value. Taking solving "noise disturbance" as an example, introduces that the "Fast Big Data Analysis" method will dynamically realize the perception of social public security situation, performs predictive judgment and management guidance based on city-level data resource sharing and urban "grid" management, to effectively improve the overall management performance of the social public security management in the intelligent city.


To mitigate the spread of fake news, researchers need to understand who visit fake new sites, what brings people to those sites, where visitors come from, and what content they prefer to consume. In this paper, we analyze web traffic data from The Gateway Pundit (TGP), a popular far-right website that is known for repeatedly sharing false information that has made its web traffic available to the general public. We collect data on 68 million web traffic visits to the site over a month period and analyze how people consume news via multiple features. Our traffic analysis shows that search engines and social media platforms are main drivers of traffic; our geo-location analysis reveals that TGP is more popular in counties that voted for Trump in 2020; and our topic analysis shows that conspiratorial articles receive more visits than factual articles. Due to the inability to observe direct website traffic, existing research uses alternative data source such as engagement signals from social media posts. To validate if social media engagement signals correlate with actual web visit counts, we collect all Facebook and Twitter posts with URLs from TGP during the same time period. We show that all engagement signals positively correlate with web visit counts, but with varying correlation strengths. Metrics based on Facebook posts correlate better than metrics based on Twitter. Our unique web traffic data set and insights can help researchers to better measure the impact of far-right and fake news URLs on social media platforms.


The aim of the study was to assess the dose dependence of the antiatherogenic effect of verapamil (Isoptin, Lek Ljubljana, Yugoslavia) in rabbits fed 1% cholesterol diet. Verapamil was administered subcutaneously at doses of 0.25, 1 and 2 mg.kg-1/day at 12-hour intervals for 8 weeks. The results indicate verapamil administered s.c. exerts a preventive anti-atherosclerotic effect only in therapeutic doses (0.25 mg.kg-1). The beneficial effect of low-dose verapamil can also be seen in the spectrum of serum lipids as the drug lowers the levels of total cholesterol and triacylglycerols. Compared with the results obtained from a group receiving diet without Ca-antagonist premedication, high doses do not reduce the extent of atheromatous plaques.


A wall flow trace method using micro particles has been established in order to visualize leak flow through a narrow gap between impeller and casing wall of a miniature Magnetically Suspended Centrifugal Blood Pump. The size of the gap is so narrow that the oil film method cannot be easily applied to this flow.In this method, CaCO 3 micro particles suspended freely in water form flow patterns on the impeller disk as a result of their adherance to the impeller's surface made of alminium. The results show that the flow patterns obtained by this method are clear enough to detect the flow direction, and also that the peripheral velocity of fluid near the inlet, in some cases, is faster than that of the impeller.


Effects of glucocorticoids on lipid metabolism, hepatic metabolism, haematological parameters and milk yield in high-yielding cows in the early stages of lactation. The assumption is widespread that glucocorticoids promote lipolysis and fatty liver in ruminants. But there are contrary experimental results. Therefore we investigated the effects of dexamethasone (in the form of Voren suspension) in cows with very high milk yields (herd average 10.000 kg/year) between 7 and 15 days post partum, when high levels of lipolysis occur. Nine cows were given Voren 7 and 11 days post partum at doses of 0.02 mg/kg body weight. Glucose and insulin concentrations rose whilst FFA concentrations fell. Hepatic lipid levels were unchanged compared to a control group (n=8). There were also no changes in the various liver function parameters tested (beta-hydroxybutyrate, bilirubin, cholesterol, albumin, aspartat-amino-transferase, glutamat-dehydrogenase), which suggests that liver damage did not occur. Each of the two doses of Voren resulted in typical glucocorticoid-related changes in the differential leukocyte count. There was only a very slight reduction in daily milk yield. This studies show that, in ruminants, glucocorticoids have an indirect antilipolytic effect in vivo and do not aggravate or accelerate fatty degeneration of the liver.


We study the effect ionizing radiation has on light transmission in the wavelength range 190–1100 nm for a number of optically clear epoxies. We find that the transmittance of traditional, commercially available, optical epoxies show significant degradation for exposures of 1×1012 MIPs/cm2. Degradation of light transmission progresses from the shortest wavelengths at low doses to longer wavelengths as the dose increases. In epoxy joints that are 0.1 mm thick, we observe that more than 5% of the light is lost for wavelengths less than 400 nm for traditional optical epoxies. Our studies have identified an optically clear epoxy that shows little degradation for radiation exposures up to 5.9× 1014 MIPs/cm2 (≈ 220 kGy).