The objective of the present work is the in-situ study of the transformation of small oxide precipitates in a metal matrix by conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). As an example the reduction of Mn 3O4 into MnO for nano-sized oxide precipitates in a silver matrix was studied in detail. A convenient method for monitoring the reduction process is shown for a large number of precipitates simultaneously. It is based on two-beam dark-field images showing distinct Moire ́ patterns for the MnO and the various types of Mn 3O4 precipitates embedded within an Ag matrix. A controlling factor of the transformation kinetics appeared to be the rate in which the system can relax the strains due to the accompanying volume reduction of the precipitates. Other interesting aspects of the Mn 3O4 to MnO transformation scrutinized and explained were the shape change of the precipitates upon reduction and the fact that mixed Mn3O4/MnO precipitates were only detected within a small temperature/time interval. Ostwald ripening of the MnO precipitates was observed as well.  2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Preface vii Acknowledgments xiii About the Author xv Introduction 1 Should and Can Today's High Schools Prepare All Students for College and Careers? College Ready and Work Ready: One and the Same? The New Challenge What We Mean by "Ready for College and Careers" Part One: Redefining College and Career Readiness 1 The Four Key Dimensions of College and Career Readiness 19 General Elements of a More Comprehensive Defi nition of College and Career Readiness Current Means to Determine College and Career Readiness An Examination of the Four Dimensions of College and Career Readiness Differences Between High School and College Courses Operational Examples of College Readiness 2 Ways to Develop Key Cognitive Strategies and Key Content Knowledge 53 Focusing on the "Big Ideas" Aligning Courses and Expectations Between High School and College Formative Assessment for College Readiness 3 Ways to Develop Self-Management Skills and "College Knowledge" 72 Elements of Self-Management "College Knowledge" Contextual Skills and Awareness 4 Key Principles of College and Career Readiness 104 Principle 1: Create and Maintain a College-Going Culture in the School Principle 2: Create a Core Academic Program Aligned with and Leading to College Readiness by the End of Twelfth Grade Principle 3: Teach Key Self-Management Skills and Academic Behaviors and Expect Students to Use Them Principle 4: Make College and Careers Real by Helping Students Manage the Complexity of Preparing for and Applying to Postsecondary Education Principle 5: Create Assignments and Grading Policies That More Closely Approximate College Expectations Each Successive Year of High School Principle 6: Make the Senior Year Meaningful and Appropriately Challenging Principle 7: Build Partnerships with and Connections to Postsecondary Programs and Institutions 5 Case Studies of Schools That Succeed 133 Alternative School: University Park Campus School, Worcester, Massachusetts Magnet School: Fenway High School, Boston, Massachusetts Comprehensive High School: Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village, Colorado Charter School: Minnesota New Country School, Henderson, Minnesota Early College High School: Manhattan Hunter Science High School, New York, New York Comprehensive High School: Garland High School, Garland, Texas Magnet School: Polytech High School, Woodside, Delaware Private School: Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Chicago, Illinois 6 Putting It All Together 176 Develop a Profi le of the School's College Readiness Capacity Identify Outcome Measures of Success Assess the District Capacity to Support Improvements Institute Specific Programs to Address the Four Dimensions of College and Career Readiness Institute Professional Development to Support College Readiness Recognize the Importance of Culture and Change Culture Gauge the Progress of Changes in the High School What Are the Eff ects on Student Performance in College? Part Two: Steps on the Road to Readiness 7 Steps High Schools Are Taking to Make More Students College and Career Ready 205 Small Schools and High School Conversions Career Academies Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Programs Early College High Schools Dual Credit Learning from the New Models 8 Steps States Are Taking to Make More Students College and Career Ready 219 State Actions to Date Examples of State Actions State College Readiness Standards: The Example of Texas Clear Messages States Can Send to the Secondary System Clear Messages States Can Send to Th eir Postsecondary Systems Concluding Observations Afterword 265 Appendix A: Two Examples of Tasks Th at Develop and Assess Key Cognitive Strategies 269 Appendix B: Example Items from the School Diagnostic 303 Appendix C: Resource List 307 Index 311


We assembled photoresponsive mono- and bilayer systems with well-defined properties from rod-shaped molecules equipped with different photoswitches. Using properly chosen chromophores (diarylethene-based switch and unidirectional light-driven molecular motor), we then selectively targeted layers made of the same types of photoswitches using appropriate monochromatic light. UV-vis analysis confirmed smooth and unrestricted photoisomerization. To achieve this, we synthesized a new class of triptycene-based molecular pedestals adept at forming sturdy Langmuir-Blodgett films on a water-air interface. The films were smoothly transferred to gold and quartz surfaces. Repeated deposition afforded bilayer systems: one layer containing diarylethene-based photoswitches and the other a unidirectional light-driven molecular motor. Structural analysis of both mono- and bilayer systems revealed the molecules to be tilted with carboxylic functions pointing to the surface. At least two different polymorphs differing in monolayer thickness and tilt angle (⁓40° and ⁓60°) were identified on the gold surface.


There is a dual relationship between sleep quality and hypertension (HTN). Although disordered sleep patterns predispose to hypertension, little is known on the effect of the latter on sleep patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We therefore aimed to describe sleep patterns in hypertensive subjects (HTS) and age- and sex-matched normotensive subjects (NTS) in Yaounde- Cameroon.
METHODS
In our cross-sectional comparative study, HTS and demographically age- and sex-matched NTS were screened using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and the Berlin Questionnaire (BQ). Data were compared between both subjects with level of significance set at p ≤ 0.05 and logistic regression analysis applied for body mass index (BMI).
RESULTS
Overall, 50 HTS and 54 age- and sex-matched NTS were enrolled. HTS were significantly "poor sleepers" (global PSQI>5) (p=0.016), "short sleepers" (<5hrs) (p=0.027) and had a higher risk of having OSA (p=0.01), than NTS. After adjusting for BMI, there was a significant association between sleep quality (aOR=4.18, p=0.005), OSA (aOR=5.15, p< 0.001) and HTN. There was no clear sleep trend observed with respect to the severity of HTN (according to JNC8 classification). Although not statistically significant, there were marked differences in the sleep patterns of those with controlled compared to those with uncontrolled HTN.
CONCLUSION
Correlated to other studies, this first study in Cameroon suggests that hypertension is associated with disordered sleep pattern. These preliminary clinical tools seem convincing in the assessment of sleep patterns in hypertension in our resource-limited context.
KEY WORDS
sleep, sleep disorders, hypertension


Mesoscopic structures, with length scales ∼102 A, were investigated by small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering (SAXS and SANS) in several N-isopropylacrylamide−sodium acrylate (NIPA−SA) copolymeric hydrogels with varying [NIPA]/[SA] ratios and water contents. The SAXS experiments reveal that, depending upon the [NIPA]/[SA] ratio, the dehydrated NIPA−SA gel shows two mesoscopic structures:  one consists of randomly distributed SA-rich islands in NIPA matrix, while the other is a microphase-separated structure, composed of NIPA-rich and SA-rich domains. In addition, the SANS experiments reveal the mesoscopic structural features during the dehydration process. As the concentration of the network polymers increases, NIPA-rich and water-rich domains segregate in the gel. Then, an electrostatic interaction between the segregated domains induces a microphase-separated structure in the limit of the dehydrated NIPA−SA gel.


The article presents a semasiological case study of the Macedonian modal mora , which derives from the common South Slavic modal verb morati 'must', and its collocation with the morpheme da , which is the probably most prominent non-factivity marker of Macedonian used in a broad variety of syntactic functions: as a complementiser, as a main clause marker in "insubordination" phenomena (with hortative and optative functions) as well as a morpheme connecting auxiliary and lexical verb in complex predicates. The latter function forms the starting point for the investigation: the author raises the question whether mora and da should not (in many cases) be analysed as one single unit (in functional and lexicographic terms). Mora can be regarded as a full-fledged modal auxiliary, but it tends to lose its inflectional properties (first, person and number, then tense), so that mora becomes petrified as a form isolated from its paradigm and homonymous with the prs.3sg-form of the inflected verb. Furthermore, it needs to be somehow connected to a finite verb and can cooccur only with da . This distribution, in connection with the successive loss of inflectional categories, conditions a transient stage whereby mora+da appear to become a sentence adverb (or particle) with propositional scope (univerbation toward a function word). Together with this, the split between inflected and uninflected mora correlates with a strong tendency to distinguish deontic (with inflected mora ) vs. epistemic (with uninflected mora ) readings (dynamic readings have largely been ignored). As concerns this distinction, the feature [± inflected] proves more decisive than the choice of pfv. vs. ipfv. aspect for the lexical verb (being under scope of mora da ). Moreover, the only grammatical context for which mora da + Vfin shows a systematic preference for deontic readings, is the pfv. present. All other contexts (and given mora is uninflected) rather favour epistemic readings, and for pfv. present tense (under scope of mora ) the deontic reading can be overridden by some other factors. The article divides into two main parts: in the first, the author provides a systematic analysis of mora ( da ) in virtually all grammatical contexts imaginable for the occurrence of mora ( da ) in monoclausal structures (Section 2). In the second part (Section 3), the author takes issue with the question whether mora+da should not be treated as one linguistic unit, namely a propositional operator marking epistemic necessity (= 'strong epistemic support', in terms of Boye 2012).


The lifetimes of L and LM vacancy states in argon have been determined from the natural widths of L X-ray emission lines in a high resolution experiment.


The objective of this study is to explore a new approach to the forecasting of returns. Here, "returns" refers to used products which can be sorted into resalable products, remanufacturing-able parts, renewable materials, and otherwise disposable waste. This research establishes a model by adopting the Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT) network theory combined with Bill of Material (BOM) to forecast returns. By using this model, the probability, the quantity and the expected timing of the returns can be predicted. Additionally, in line with the product BOM, the corresponding scale of reuse, i.e. remanufacturing-able parts and renewable materials, can also be forecasted. A numeric example is provided at the end of the study.


FIM(Film Insert Molding) is an innovative method of producing decorated parts for a wide range of products. Because it requires fewer steps when compared to conventional production methods, the time and cost of manufacturing high quality components can be reduced considerably. In this paper, the effects of processing conditions on the warpage of film-insert molded plate were investigated by using a design of experiments. The dominant factors affecting warpage were mold temperature and holding pressure. Warpage increased with the temperature difference between stationary mold and fixed one. Even when the mold temperature difference was zero, the plate with a film was bent after ejection such that the film side protruded. As holding pressure increased, warpage decreased significantly. In addition warpage increased with time increment for the film-insert molded plates.


Black-Scholes option pricing model is used to decide theoretical price of different Options contracts in many stock markets in the world. In can find many generalizations of BS model by modifying some assumptions of classical BS model. In this paper we compared two such modified Black-Scholes models with classical Black-Scholes model only for Indian option contracts. We have selected stock options form 5 different sectors of Indian stock market. Then we have found call and put option prices for 22 stocks listed on National Stock Exchange by all three option pricing models. Finally, we have compared option prices for all three models and decided the best model for Indian Options.
Motivation/Background:
In 1973, two economists, Fischer Black, Myron and Robert Merton derived a closed form formula for finding value of financial options. For this discovery, they got a Nobel prize in Economic science in 1997. Afterwards, many researchers have found some limitations of Black-Scholes model. To overcome these limitations, there are many generalizations of Black-Scholes model available in literature. Also, there are very limited study available for comparison of generalized Black-Scholes models in context of Indian stock market. For these reasons we have done this study of comparison of two generalized BS models with classical BS model for Indian Stock market.
Method:
First, we have selected top 5 sectors of Indian stock market. Then from these sectors, we have picked total 22 stocks for which we want to compare three option pricing models. Then we have collected essential data like, current stock price, strike price, expiration time, rate of interest, etc. for computing the theoretical price of options by using three different option pricing formulas. After finding price of options by using all three models, finally we compared these theoretical option price with market price of respected stock options and decided that which theoretical price has less RMSE error among all three model prices.
Result:
After going through the method described above, we found that the generalized Black-Scholes model with modified distribution has minimum RMSE errors than other two models, one is classical Black-Scholes model and other is Generalized Black-Scholes model with modified interest rate.


At a time when historical institutionalism and multilevel policy making of the EU are at critical junctures calling for implementation of austerity measures and public policy reforms all leading to grim belt-tightening, it is clear that the future of the eurozone is more likely to be decided by the real economies. Over the last four years, the transformative potential of the EU has shifted from the margins to the centre prompting an examination of the process by which it has acquired specificity and substance of its increasingly complex political structures, legislative initiatives, national and cosmopolitan forms of citizenship. Whether the eurozone will survive is dependent on the European Council's capacity to establish transitional arrangements like integration of energy, transport, communications, and services, together with higher infrastructure investment which may impede the crisis and restore trust among its members.


Crop production in the Texas High Plains is shifting from irrigated to dryland due to the increase of the depth to the water table from the Ogallala aquifer in regions where the saturated thickness of 9 m, the minimum to sustain irrigation, has been reached. Our objective was to use the mechanistic model ENWATBAL to evaluate the daily and annual water balance for three scenarios of rainfall in this region, a dry (189 mm), an average (449 mm) and a wet (669 mm) year. These three scenarios were applied to two major soil series of this region, Pullman and Amarillo. In all simulations, we used hourly input weather data for a location near Lubbock, Texas and used measured soil hydraulic properties to simulate the water balance for each soil series and the three rainfall scenarios. Results showed that in years with average and wet rain, storage of rainfall occurred in the Pullman but not in in the Amarillo soil series. However, storage of water could be enhanced by combining furrow dikes with minimum tillage along with crop covers that provide a surface residue. The implications of our results for dryland crop production in the semiarid climate of the THP suggest that for years with average and wetter rainfall soils in the Pullman series could store water that would be available for crop use. However, this was not the case for the Amarillo soil series and these soils represent a higher risk for dryland crop production.


SIR—We read with interest the presentation by Cortellazzi et al. on an early preemptive transfusion (hemoglobin independent) and infusion (EPTI) strategy (1). Their attempts at trying to evaluate quality of patient outcome and anesthetic and surgical management in the pediatric population undergoing craniofacial reconstructive surgery is laudable. Management of anesthetic care of small children during procedures with the possibility of large volume blood loss is difficult and complex. Determination of the amount and rate of blood loss at any given moment is difficult and further complicated by the amount and type of fluid replacement to maintain adequate circulatory volume and hematocrit simultaneously as discussed by Cortellazi. Certainly, one method is to replace all volume loss with appropriate proportions of blood and crystalloid and colloid to maintain hematocrit. This is a reasonable strategy, commonly employed in circumstances where the exposure to blood products is inevitable. However, the stated EPTI strategy was developed from a 'group of earlier cranioplasties' and based on the fact that 50% of patients had intraoperative blood loss of >20% of estimated red cell volume (ERCV). The strategy as explained automatically proceeds with transfusion of 20% ERCV at the beginning of the surgery. If 50% of the cases had intraoperative losses of >20% ERCV, then 50% of the cases had blood loss of <20% ERCV. In addition, this strategy was implemented and followed without any stated regard for the starting hematocrit in these children. In fact, in the control (CONT) group, only 22 out of 25 children received blood transfusion. This suggests that 12% of the 34 cases (four children) in the EPTI strategy would not have received blood product transfusion had they not been in the EPTI group. Our concern about this blanket approach is that exposure to blood products is not without risk. Many different complications can occur related to blood product transfusion including exposure to infectious agents and ranging from mild to life-threatening transfusion reactions (2). Great efforts have been made throughout the craniofacial team community to reduce the risks of the procedures through both development of novel surgical techniques as well as blood conservation or sparing interventions (3–5). Efforts to reduce blood exposure in craniofacial reconstructive procedures in children have ranged from preoperative erythropoietin and autologous donation to cell saver and use of antifibrinolytic agents. Surgical advancement has resulted in less invasive surgeries to avoid cranial vault remodeling for scaphocephaly (6,7). The majority of the cases reported in the series by Cortellazzi et al. were for correction of scaphocephaly. Through less invasive procedures, the impact of the anesthetic management has been drastically altered from the traditional cranial vault reconstruction procedure (4). This includes less blood loss, less invasive monitoring requirement, and reduced hospital times. We currently have provided anesthesia for over 100 cases of scaphocephaly (sagittal suture synostosis) correction using the spring-mediated expansion technique. At present, none of the patients required intraoperative transfusion as a result of blood loss during the procedure. Additionally, the children have no need for intensive care unit management postoperatively with an average hospital stay of 36 h. Using a blanket transfusion protocol may have resulted in all of these children being exposed to blood products and the inherent risks. We feel it is critical to continue to provide safe and optimal anesthetic care to all children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction. Adequate oxygencarrying capacity through adequate red cell mass, despite ongoing surgical blood loss, is imperative to assure adequate oxygen delivery and reduce complications. This is eloquently addressed in the quality improvement study by Cortellazzi et al., whereby maintaining adequate red cell mass improved postoperative recovery. However, we feel that caution is to be used in use of protocols that may expose patients to risks that would otherwise not be incurred. Furthermore, continued efforts at reducing blood and blood product exposure in children are mandatory to reduce or prevent life-long effects from exposure to blood products. Differences in the patient, the procedure, the surgeon and even the anesthesiologist should be taken into consideration when deciding the best approach to blood loss and transfusion. D O U G L A S G. R I R I E* T I M O T H Y E. S M I T H* L I S A R. D A V I D† L O U I S C. A R G E N T A† *Department of Anesthesiology †Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Brenner Children's Hospital, Winston-Salem, NC, USA (email: firstname.lastname@example.com) Pediatric Anesthesia 2010 20: 574–583


Fibre optic sensors can measure a range of physics and chemical parameters. Some of the more common fibre optic sensors are the fibre Bragg grating (FBG), the long period grating (LPG), the Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) and various distributed fibre optic sensors based on optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) and optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). Each of these sensor types utilises different interrogator hardware and signal processing software. The goals of this research are to develop new algorithms for multi-parameter sensing and to improve the sensitivity and resolution of fibre optic sensing by developing new approaches. This is done by stepping back from current algorithms, and considering what additional information is expected to be present in and can be extracted from the signal. Recent publications have shown that advanced signal processing techniques can be used for bend sensing, for damage type classification and to improve the spatial resolution of the sensing. Structural health monitoring requires the measurement of different structural parameters to determine the health of a structure. A commonly used definition of structural health monitoring is "SHM is the integration of sensing and possibly also actuation devices to allow the loading and damaging conditions of a structure to be recorded, analysed, localized, and predicted in a way that non-destructive testing (NDT) becomes an integral part of the structure and a material". From this definition four levels of structural heath monitoring are defined: (1) mechanical and environmental load monitoring, (2) identification and location of damage, (3) damage quantification, and (4) prognosis of residual life. The paper will explore how advanced signal processing techniques can drive the development of multi-parameter sensing with fibre optics, and can lead to the goal of integrated fibre optic sensing system for structural health monitoring applications.


The study of automanagement teams is of vital importance in the organizational and global actual context, and foresees that in the future most of the organizations will work integrally with the automanagement teams. This study relates the capabilities of the teams (technical abilities, empowerment, knowledge, etc.), the organizational characteristics of Mintzberg or liner variable (coordination mechanism, formalization and decentralization degree, expertise, technology, integration, communication, training, environment, involvement, patronization, generical, functional and quality/action abilities) and the competitive performances (flexibility, quality, cost, productivity, time, innovation).


This paper is directed towards improving both throughput and reliability of 5G wireless Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RANs) by the synergistic combination of Diversity Coding and Network Coding (DC-NC). In this paper, we directly apply the concept of DC-NC coding to two network scenarios: first, remote radio heads in a CRAN connected to the baseband unit in two hierarchical tiers with optical and wireless fronthaul links, second, most remote radio heads are connected directly to the baseband unit via wireless links. Our results show that the combination of Diversity and Network Coding increases the throughput of fronthaul networks for downlink broadcasting or multicasting applications, while enabling reliable networking with near-instant latency in fault recovery by using forward error control across spatially diverse paths. Moreover, the number of redundant links inherent in Diversity Coding can be decreased using the proposed scheme.


We present a supersonic nozzle apparatus to study homogeneous nucleation of argon and other simple molecules. Experiments can be conducted with pure condensable vapor or with condensable vapor-carrier gas mixtures. The flow through the nozzle is continuous, and expansions typically start at temperatures T(0) in the range of 100<T(0)/K<120, and pressures p(0) in the range of 30<p(0)/kPa<36. The gas mixture is cooled using a tube and fin heat exchanger by evaporating liquid nitrogen on the tube side. The nozzle sidewalls are also cooled with liquid nitrogen to maintain them at a temperature approximately 20 K higher than the stagnation temperature. Static pressure measurements detect the onset of condensation, and the other properties of the flow are derived by integrating the diabatic flow equations. We present sample experimental results for pure argon where at the onset of condensation, temperatures T(on) range from 47.5<T(on)/K<49.5 and pressures p(on) range from 4.2<p(on)/kPa<4.9.


OBJECTIVE
To establish a novel HLA genotyping method for preimplantation genetic diagnonis (PGD) using multiple displacement amplification-polymerase chain reaction-sequencing based technique (MDA-PCR-SBT).

METHODS
Peripheral blood samples and 76 1PN, 2PN, 3PN discarded embryos from 9 couples were collected. The alleles of HLA-A, B, DR loci were detected from the MDA product with the PCR-SBT method. The HLA genotypes of the parental peripheral blood samples were analyzed with the same protocol. The genotypes of specific HLA region were evaluated for distinguishing the segregation of haplotypes among the family members, and primary HLA matching was performed between the embryos.

RESULTS
The 76 embryos were subjected to MDA and 74 (97.4%) were successfully amplified. For the 34 embryos from the single blastomere group, the amplification rate was 94.1%, and for the 40 embryos in the two blastomeres group, the rate was 100%. The dropout rates for DQ allele and DR allele were 1.3% and 0, respectively. The positive rate for MDA in the single blastomere group was 100%, with the dropout rates for DQ allele and DR allele being 1.5% and 0, respectively. The positive rate of MDA for the two blastomere group was 100%, with the dropout rates for both DQ and DR alleles being 0. The recombination rate of fetal HLA was 20.2% (30/148). Due to the improper classification and abnormal fertilized embryos, the proportion of matched embryos HLA was 20.3% (15/74),which was lower than the theoretical value of 25%.

CONCLUSION
PGD with HLA matching can facilitate creation of a HLA-identical donor (saviour child) for umbilical cord blood or bone marrow stem cells for its affected sibling with a genetic disease. Therefore, preimplantation HLA matching may provide a tool for couples desiring to conceive a potential donor progeny for transplantation for its sibling with a life-threatening disorder.


T H E S T U DY O F T R A V E L B E H A V I O R attempts to understand why, when, where, how, and with whom people travel. It then tries to predict how they will travel in the future. Predictions depend on the design and operation of future transportation systems and on changes in population characteristics. Thus, they are useful tools when choosing among alternative designs for future transportation services and sizing facilities to meet future demands. Models, generally mathematical, are means for representing past and future behaviors. It's encouraging to view the accomplishments of travel behavior modeling I nnovations in Travel Modeling BY FRANK S. KOPPELMAN over the last thirty years and to look ahead to future developments. Thirty years ago I was immersed in doctoral studies and my student and faculty colleagues were intensely involved in travel-behavior research. It was a period of great excitement for us. We argued about potential enhancements to our models, knowing that many could not be implemented because of conceptual and computational challenges that were then beyond the profession's capabilities. This did not stop us from envisioning the possibilities. ➢ Frank S. Koppelman is professor of civil engineering and transportation at Northwestern University. This article is drawn from his formal remarks to the 10th Annual UCTC Student Research Conference that met at the University of California, Irvine in February 2005 (email@example.com). A C C E S S NUMBER 27, FALL 2005


The algorithmic independence of conditionals, which postulates that the causal mechanism is algorithmically independent of the cause, has recently inspired many highly successful approaches to distinguish cause from effect given only observational data. Most popular among these is the idea to approximate algorithmic independence via two-part Minimum Description Length (MDL). Although intuitively sensible, the link between the original postulate and practical two-part MDL encodings is left vague. In this work, we close this gap by deriving a two-part formulation of this postulate, in terms of Kolmogorov complexity, which directly links to practical MDL encodings. To close the cycle, we prove that this formulation leads on expectation to the same inference result as the original postulate.


In this paper, we propose a new class of functions called μ-pseudo S-asymptotically periodic function on R by the measure theory. Furthermore, the existence, uniqueness of μ-pseudo S-asymptotically periodic integral solution to partial neutral functional differential equations with finite delay are investigated. Here we assume that the undelayed part is not necessarily densely defined and satisfies the Hille-Yosida condition.


Background: In recent years, research in the field of nutrition has broadened from how best to meet nutritional needs and prevent deficiencies to encompassing the impact nutrition has on health in the longer term. Consequently, a convincing body of evidence has been established which demonstrates that the nutrition experienced early in life (a period that is vital in physiological development) is likely to have a long-term impact on a person's health. Purpose: This review investigated the impact of different levels of protein intake concerning three specific periods of early life: the breastfeeding period, the complementary feeding period and the pre-school period. Methodology: In searching for applicable articles, the search has been done using PubMed and MedLine searching engines and were limited to search peer-reviewed journals only, both were used to set specific criteria. Also, the basic Boolean search operator "AND" was used to narrow down search results as additional parameters. The citation index searching technique was also used to inspect the citation frequency of author's work in other publications. Nutrition, Breastfeeding, complementary feeding and preschool period, all these keywords were used in the search. Findings: A growing number of studies are exploring the potential effects of a high protein intake early in life on growth and obesity risk. These studies cover a wide range of ages, from breastfeeding through to complementary feeding and then on to the pre-school period. Some these studies suggest that a higher level of protein intake during infancy and early childhood is European Scientific Journal December 2015 edition vol.11, No.36 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 18577431 88 associated with more rapid growth and a higher body mass index (BMI) in later childhood. Conclusion: The age period that is the most sensitive to high protein intake remains unclear, and there is limited information on the effects of different types of protein.These findings are of interest; the role of protein intake in the development of overweight and obesity requires further study.


ABSTRACT Group B Streptococcus (GBS) type III capsular polysaccharide (CPS III) was conjugated to recombinant cholera toxin B subunit (rCTB) using three different methods which employed (i) cystamine and N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate (SPDP), (ii) carbodiimide with adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH) as a spacer, or (iii) reductive amination (RA). The CPS III-rCTB conjugates were divided into large- and small-molecular-weight (Mr) fractions, and the immunogenicities of the different preparations after intranasal (i.n.) immunization were studied in mice. Both large- and small-Mrconjugates of CPS III-rCTBRA or CPS III-rCTBADHinduced high, almost comparable levels of CPS-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) in serum, lungs, and vagina that were generally superior to those obtained with CPS III-rCTBSPDP conjugates or a CPS III and rCTB mixture. However, the smaller-Mrconjugates of CPS III-rCTBRA or CPS III-rCTBADHin most cases elicited a lower anti-CPS IgA immune response than the large-Mr conjugates, and the highest anti-CPS IgA titers in both tissues and serum were obtained with the large-Mr CPS III-rCTBRA conjugate. Serum IgG anti-CPS titers induced by the CPS III-rCTBRAconjugate had high levels of specific IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b, and IgG3 antibodies. Based on the effectiveness of RA for coupling CPS III to rCTB, RA was also tested for conjugating GBS CPS Ia with rCTB. As for the CPS III-rCTB conjugates, the immunogenicity of CPS Ia was greatly increased by conjugation to rCTB. Intranasal immunization with a combination of CPS Ia-rCTB and CPS III-rCTB conjugates was shown to induce anti-CPS Ia and III immune responses in serum and lungs that were fully comparable with the responses to immunization with the monovalent CPS Ia-rCTB or CPS III-rCTB conjugates. These results suggest that the GBS CPS III-rCTB and CPS Ia-rCTB conjugates prepared by the RA method may be used in bivalent and possibly also in multivalent mucosal GBS conjugate vaccines.


Objectives The main goal of this study was to characterise the frequency and phenotype of B, T follicular helper (Tfh) and T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells in peripheral blood and the cytokine environment present in circulation in children with extended oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (extended oligo JIA) and polyarticular JIA (poly JIA) when compared with healthy controls, children with persistent oligoarticular JIA (persistent oligo JIA) and adult JIA patients. Methods Blood samples were collected from 105 JIA patients (children and adults) and 50 age-matched healthy individuals. The frequency and phenotype of B, Tfh and Tfr cells were evaluated by flow cytometry. Serum levels of APRIL, BAFF, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, IL-21, IL-22, IFN-γ, PD-1, PD-L1, sCD40L, CXCL13 and TNF were measured by multiplex bead-based immunoassay and/or ELISA in all groups included. Results The frequency of B, Tfh and Tfr cells was similar between JIA patients and controls. Children with extended oligo JIA and poly JIA, but not persistent oligo JIA, had significantly lower frequencies of plasmablasts, regulatory T cells and higher levels of Th17-like Tfh cells in circulation when compared with controls. Furthermore, APRIL, BAFF, IL-6 and IL-17A serum levels were significantly higher in paediatric extended oligo JIA and poly JIA patients when compared with controls. These immunological alterations were not found in adult JIA patients in comparison to controls. Conclusions Our results suggest a potential role and/or activation profile of B and Th17-like Tfh cells in the pathogenesis of extended oligo JIA and poly JIA, but not persistent oligo JIA.


The aim of the bachelor thesis "The Coverage of Art Exhibitions in Newspapers in 2008. The
Example of Eesti Paevaleht and Postimees" was to analyze which information were
emphasised in the articles about art exhibitions and what were the goals of the article's
authors while portraying the exhibitions. An important part of the thesis was focusing on the
differences of the representation between the two newspapers.
Throughout the study the combined method of content analysis and semi-structured expert
interviews were used. The results of the content analysis revealed that the most commonly
used genre was review, not news stories as presumed. Still, there were differences between
the two newspapers: Eesti Paevaleht printed more reviews, whereas Postimees preferred short
news stories. This may be explained by the composition of the staffs. On the contrary to
Postimees, Eesti Paevaleht has employed an art editor with a PhD in art. Postimees uses
freelance authors. Therefore the representation of art exhibition can be considered more
consistent in Eesti Paevaleht, but also more one-sided, since there is basically only one writer.
In Postimees the use of different authors gave the impression of versatile views on art, but
lacked of consistency.
Although it was assumed that the main emphasis in the articles would be on the persona of the
artist, the results showed that the information about the exhibition as a cultural event was
portrayed as most important. The photos printed to illustrate the articles were mostly of
particular works of art from the exhibitions.
The main differences between the two dailies were most apparent in the aims of the articles.
Eesti Paevaleht focused more on the informative and educational aspect, whereas in
Postimees the articles were more emotional and creative.
In conclusion, the present thesis showed that there were differences in the representation of art
exhibitions in the two Estonian national dailies Eesti Paevaleht and Postimees. The
differences manifested in the most commonly used genres as well as the main aims of the
articles.


Candidiasis, cryptococcosis, aspergillosis, histoplasmosis, and coccidioidomycosis are the most commonly recognized visceral mycoses complicating the course of HIV infection and AIDS. Their current management issues are discussed on the ground of the personal experience, and the most recent literature evidences.


Chronic inflammation is inextricably linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Macrophages themselves play important roles in atherosclerosis, as well as acute and chronic heart failure. Although the role of macrophages in CVD pathophysiology is well-recognized, little is known regarding the precise mechanisms influencing their function in these contexts. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as significant regulators of macrophage function; as such, there is rising interest in understanding how these nucleic acids influence macrophage signaling, cell fate decisions, and activity in health and disease. In this review, we summarize current knowledge regarding lncRNAs in directing various aspects of macrophage function in CVD. These include foam cell formation, Toll-like receptor (TLR) and NF-kβ signaling, and macrophage phenotype switching. This review will provide a comprehensive understanding concerning previous, ongoing, and future studies of lncRNAs in macrophage functions and their importance in CVD.


[1] We present our newly developed numerical model of the solar wind interaction with the planet Venus. The model solves three-dimensional, 10-ion-species magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations using a total variation diminishing monotonic upstream scheme for conservation laws, which is implemented on an unstructured grid system. These equations describe the dynamics of both the solar wind and the planetary ionosphere. An excellent performance of the model is verified by comparing our numerical results with the existing numerical and observational data. In particular, profiles of the magnetic field, number densities, velocity, and transterminator flux of ionospheric plasma are shown to reproduce the observational findings. A main goal of this paper is to present the numerical model and its performance for the general dynamics and structures of the solar wind interaction with the ionosphere of Venus.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of Xuefu Zhuyu Oral Liquid, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine for resolving stagnation, on hemorheology in the patients with blood-stasis syndrome due to coronary disease and their relationship with human platelet antigen-3 (HPA-3) polymorphism of membrane glycoprotein IIb (GPIIb).

METHODS
Thirty-two patients with blood-stasis syndrome due to coronary disease were selected in this study. Blood-stasis syndrome scoring was performed and hemorheological parameters were measured in all subjects before and after Xuefu Zhuyu Qral Liquid treatment. The genotypes of GPIIb HPA-3 were determined by TaqMan probe technology.

RESULTS
The hemorheology was improved in the patients with blood-stasis syndrome due to coronary heart disease after the treatment. There were significant differences in the whole blood viscosity, deformation index of red blood cells and scores of blood-stasis syndrome between the patients carrying AC plus CC and the patients carrying AA after the treatment (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Xuefu Zhuyu Oral Liquid can improve clinical symptoms and hemorheology in the patients with blood-stasis syndrome due to coronary heart disease, which is related to GPIIb HPA-3 polymorphism.


The regulation of morphogenetic movements that shape an embryo during its development remains a challenging issue in developmental biology, and may in certain cases involve mechanical sensitivity. Addressing this issue requires novel experimental approaches. We show that the combination of femtosecond laser pulse-induced ablation and multiphoton microcopy can be used to modulate and quantify morphogenetic movements in Drosophila embryos. We characterized the effects of focused nanoJoule pulse trains in developing embryos. We used targeted ablations to locally modify the embryo structural integrity and modulate morphogenesis. Femtosecond-pulse induced ablation was combined with nonlinear microscopy based on two-photon-excited fluorescence (2PEF) and third-harmonic generation (THG).Correlation-based analysis of microscopy data allowed us to track the outcome of ablations and to analyze tissue deformations. These experiments provided insight into the interplay between gene expression and tissue deformations in developing embryos.


The impact of an external electric field on the spin relaxation in a disordered, two-dimensional electron system is studied within the framework of a field-theoretical formulation. Generalized Bloch-equations for the diffusion and the decay of an initial magnetization are obtained. The equations are applied to the investigation of spin relaxation processes in an electric field.


Relationships between seabird breeding and food supply have been subject to much study, but we know little about the influence of food supply in winter on survival and subsequent breeding performance of seabirds, or about the extent to which migrations and winter home ranges of seabirds are influenced by food abundance. The Great Skua Stercorarius skua is a colonially breeding seabird that displays a wide range of feeding techniques during and outside the breeding season. We deployed satellite PTTs and data loggers to determine migration routes and winter quarters of breeding adult Great Skuas. We also studied dietary preferences by direct observations and by use of fatty acid and stable isotope signatures, and measured body condition and breeding performance of individually colour marked birds. Our objective was to develop methods to investigate whether winter foraging conditions may influence subsequent breeding performance, and to collect data to assess whether migrations and winter ranges differed between individuals in ways that may relate to fitness. We found large differences in the winter home ranges of individual Great Skuas, with some wintering off Iberia and others off west Africa. The latter behaviour was unexpected and may represent a new habit to exploit waste from fisheries that have recently developed on the west African continental shelf. Fatty acid signatures provide a clear signal of the presence of demersal fish from fishery discards in skua diet and can be used to assess the feeding preference of individuals. Stable isotopes of C and N in primary feathers show changes in diet of individuals through the period of moult, which is thought to be from September to December. These approaches show that combining the use of data loggers and sampling of forensic markers of colour ringed adults permits the winter diet of individuals to be related to their geographic location in winter and to their subsequent breeding performance.


The existence of abortion is more frequent in cities than in villages, and most of abortions are done deliberatively, especially in the cities. The problems which will be studied are: First, when does life begin based on the medical study? Second, how should the prevailing laws (ius constiuendum) be to protect the unborn child? Related to the protection for unborn child, the research using normative method has already been conducted. The research result shows that: first, life begins since the conception based on the medical finding. Second, as the result, Article 75 verse (2) b of Law of Health both horizontally and vertically is not synchronous with the prevailing regulations of law. For the legal assurance, Article 75 verse (2) b of Law of Health needs to be reviewed.


Recently, Wall et al. proposed a set of computational metrics for quantifying cognitive bias based on user interaction sequences. The metrics rely on a Markov model to predict a user's next interaction based on the current interaction. The metrics characterize how a user's actual interactive behavior deviates from a theoretical baseline, where "unbiased behavior" was previously defined to be equal probabilities of all interactions. In this paper, we analyze the assumptions made of these metrics. We conduct a study in which participants, subject to anchoring bias, interact with a scatterplot to complete a categorization task. Our results indicate that, rather than equal probabilities of all interactions, unbiased behavior across both bias conditions can be better approximated by proximity of data points.


Thrombus formed under low shear conditions in the intravascular compartment consists of red cells enmeshed within a fibrin network framework. The permeability of the network determines the rate of molecular transport by convection. The effect of red cells on the permeability of the fibrin network was examined in networks developed from red cell suspensions in platelet-rich (PRP) and platelet-poor plasma (PPP). Red cell-rich networks developed in PRP were significantly more permeable than those developed in PPP. Network permeability decreased linearly with increase in hematocrit due to volume exclusion and cell surface hydraulic drag. The hydraulic resistance of the red cells was similar in order of magnitude to that of the fibrin fibers. The hydraulic resistance was calculated to be dependent on the surface area of the red cells, as well as on red cell concentration. Calculation of red cell surface area from permeability (45-90 microns2) was found to be lower than the known surface area (145 microns2). From these studies, it is suggested that red cells entrapped within the network are aggregated. Aggregation is promoted by low shear plasma conditions during fibrin polymerization and by fibrin polymerization intermediaries. The degree of red cell aggregation regulates the hydraulic resistivity of the red cells, and the fibrin fiber structure regulates the hydraulic resistivity of the fibrin network. Both are significant determinants of the network permeability and, therefore, of molecular transport in thrombi.


Self-healing in optics generally refers to the ability to reconstruct itself and restore the original state after encountering obstacles in the propagation of the light field. In this research, we observe the processes of the wave fields from perfect to defect in front of the focal plane of the 4f system, finally returning to an intact situation after the plane. According to simulations and experimental results, there is a minimum self-healing distance for the moiré lattice field that positively associates with the radius of the defect (obstacle) in the nondiffracting transmission range. Furthermore, it is observed that the defect self-healing is a process of " repairing the center and then repairing the edges. " These findings can be applied in areas such as optical imaging, capture, and information processing.


Does mood vary as a function of age, sec, or situation? In four investigations, 6,452 persons aged 4 to 99 were interrupted at leisure, at home, at school, and at work and asked to assess their mood as being happy, neutral, or unhappy. Moods of happiness and neutrality were each reported about 45% and unhappiness about 10% of the time. Females more frequently reported moods of happiness or unhappiness than males, while mood did not vary as a function of age. Persons at leisure reported more affectively pleasant moods than those at work, at home, or at school. Persons of higher socioeconomic status reported more happy moods than those of lower status. In another study, a class of 255 students was administered various personality scales and then interrupted 21 times over the course of the quarter and their mood indexed. Tested religiosity negatively correlated with frequency of pleasant moods, the Barron Ego-Strength Scale was uncorrelated with frequency of kind of mood, and the Eysenck Neuroticism Scale correlated with frequency of unpleasant moods.


The literature review presents novel data on the prevalence of age-related hypogonadism and its relationship with aging, its impact on the circulatory system and cardiovascular diseases. This review summarizes the methods for diagnosing age-related hypogonadism, its association with traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as dyslipidemia, insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus, obesity, arterial hypertension. The mechanisms of the possible direct effect of testosterone on endothelium and vascular tone, the role of hormone replacement therapy as a way of preventing cardiovascular diseases are discussed.


Prediction head is a crucial component of Transformer language models. Despite its direct impact on prediction, this component has often been overlooked in analyzing Transformers. In this study, we investigate the inner workings of the prediction head, specifically focusing on bias parameters. Our experiments with BERT and GPT-2 models reveal that the biases in their word prediction heads play a significant role in the models' ability to reflect word frequency in a corpus, aligning with the logit adjustment method commonly used in long-tailed learning. We also quantify the effect of controlling the biases in practical auto-regressive text generation scenarios; under a particular setting, more diverse text can be generated without compromising text quality.


This thesis investigates the function of early Holocene hunter-gatherer ceramic vessels in northern Eurasia. It presents the first systematic application of organic residue analysis (ORA) to Early Neolithic pottery from European Russia and Siberia. During the early Holocene (ca. 9,700 to 5,000 cal BC) pottery was widely produced by hunter-gatherers across Eurasia. One existing theory suggests that the advent of pottery was linked to an intensification of aquatic resource exploitation; the so-called "Aquatic" Neolithic (Gibbs et al. 2017). This theory is supported by recent ORA of early pottery from eastern Asia and northern Europe, where lipid markers derived from aquatic resources were frequently encountered, absorbed in the pots themselves. One area neglected by ORA is the vast territory of what is now Russia where the arrival of pottery marks the start of the Neolithic period, predating agriculture by several thousand years. Despite its importance in defining the Neolithic in this region, little is known about how early pottery was used and what drove its adoption during the early Holocene. Here, ORA was applied to 417 samples, representing 314 ceramic vessels, recovered from three important early Neolithic sites: the East Siberian site of Gorelyi Les, and Rakushechny Yar and Zamostje 2 in the southern and northern part of European Russia respectively. Overall, the results generated by this thesis indicate much greater diversity in the use of early pottery than predicted from the "Aquatic" Neolithic theory. While aquatic products were indeed prevalent at many sites, lipids derived from terrestrial plants and animals were also common and, overall, the initial use of pottery seems to have varied according to the regional context. These results challenge the idea that the widespread adoption of pottery by Holocene Eurasian foragers was driven primarily by the need to process aquatic resources.


The ability to quantify the yield of pancreatic islet tissue after isolation is important for interlaboratory comparisons and for the assessment of islet yield prior to clinical transplantation. Because pancreatic islets contain a much higher concentration of zinc than other tissues, we investigated the analysis of zinc as a measure of islet tissue yield. Rat islets of standard diameter 250 μm were handpicked into samples containing 10–80 islets. The zinc content was measured by EAAS and showed a linear correlation with islet number. A zinc binding fluorescent dye, TSQ, was investigated as a way of simplifying the zinc measurement for routine use. Samples of 10–80 islets of 250 μm were sonicated in 3 ml zinc-free water, 0.18 fimol TSQ was added, and the TSQ-zinc fluorescence was measured at 480 nm. A linear correlation was observed. Exocrine contamination up to 50% barely affected the results. Islet zinc content also was shown to be correlated linearly with islet number for freshly isolated human islets. Measurement of zinc by TSQ fluorescence is a rapid, cheap, and objective measure of islet tissue content.


With the invention of big data era, data releasing is becoming a hot topic in database community. Meanwhile, data privacy also raises the attention of users. As far as the privacy protection models that have been proposed, the differential privacy model is widely utilized because of its many advantages over other models. However, for the private releasing of multi-dimensional data sets, the existing algorithms are publishing data usually with low availability. The reason is that the noise in the released data is rapidly grown as the increasing of the dimensions. In view of this issue, we propose algorithms based on regular and irregular marginal tables of frequent item sets to protect privacy and promote availability. The main idea is to reduce the dimension of the data set, and to achieve differential privacy protection with Laplace noise. First, we propose a marginal table cover algorithm based on frequent items by considering the effectiveness of query cover combination, and then obtain a regular marginal table cover set with smaller size but higher data availability. Then, a differential privacy model with irregular marginal table is proposed in the application scenario with low data availability and high cover rate. Next, we obtain the approximate optimal marginal table cover algorithm by our analysis to get the query cover set which satisfies the multi-level query policy constraint. Thus, the balance between privacy protection and data availability is achieved. Finally, extensive experiments have been done on synthetic and real databases, demonstrating that the proposed method preforms better than state-of-the-art methods in most cases.


Functionalism is the view that a system (or system component) grasps the meaning of its inputs to the extent that it produces the right outputs. If a system retrieves all and only relevant documents in response to a query, we say it understands the query. If a robot avoids bumping into walls, we say it understands its sensors and its environment. If a chess program beats the world champion, we say it understands the game. One kind of functionalism, conventional functionalism, is currently very popular and productive in artificial intelligence and the other cognitive sciences, but it requires humans to specify the meanings of assertions. A second kind of functionalism, natural semantics requires computers to learn these meanings. This paper discusses the limitations of conventional functionalism and describes some robotics work from our laboratory on natural semantics.


Shirley Homes is a private investigator. She is clever with computers, and knows London like the back of her hand. She laughs when people say, 'Was Sherlock Holmes your grandfather?' Sherlock Holmes, of course, was not a real person, but, like Sherlock, Shirley has good eyes, and good ears. And she knows the right questions to ask. And in the Lithuanian Case, the right questions are important. Because Shirley must find a missing person - Carrie Williams, aged fifteen. Where is she? Who is she with?


The objective was to identify the dimension of the process of nursing work in a unit of the Family Health Strategy and correlate the necessary competences for the development of managerial activities. It is a descriptive study using the technique of non-participant observation during 160 hours of activities of four nurses from a unit of the Family Health Strategy, from March to May, 2011. The results showed that the care dimension holds 42% of the time spent by nurses in their activities, followed by management (33%), education (20%) and political participation (2.5%). In managerial dimension, managerial competences were classified as follows: communication (55%), leadership (33%), permanent education (8%) and decision making (4%). These competences are interrelated and developed together with administrative functions: planning, coordination, direction and control. For the development of their attributions in the Family Health Strategies the nurse professionals uses administrative tools demanding constant mobilization of different competences.


BACKGROUND
Previous studies have indicated that healthcare providers do not enjoy taking care of older people, because of poor attitudes towards the elderly.

AIM
The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to identify and describe the attitudes of a worldwide sample of renal nurses towards older people.

METHOD
A convenience sample composed of renal nurses worldwide completed a socio-demographic questionnaire and the Kogan's Attitude towards Old People Scale (KOAP).

RESULTS
We received 1,061 completed questionnaires from nurses in 12 countries. Participants were mainly female (81%), their average age being 42.69 (SD ± 8.70); 74% of nurses had older people in their families and 51% had lived with older people. The sample reported slightly positive attitudes towards the elderly [mean score (± SD) = 151.50 (± 17.9)]. Attitudes were influenced by continent, country, religion, presence of older people in the family and level of nursing education (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION
Our study has shown that renal nurses have slightly positive attitudes towards older people but attitudes could be improved with specific information being provided to renal nurses, to obtain better care.


In 1951, Dragstedt, Oberhelman, and Smith 1 reported that transplantation of the antrum of the stomach into the transverse colon as a diverticulum in dogs produced a sustained hypersecretion of gastric juice with typical peptic ulcer formation. This observation prompted a study of the factors involved in producing this hyperactivity of the endocrine function of the antrum. It was soon found that tension within the antrum, especially that provoked by the hyperperistalsis associated with pyloric stenosis, was an even more profound stimulus to the endocrine function of the antrum than was contact with food or the primary products of digestion. 2 In subsequent experiments Heidenhain pouches were prepared in dogs for the quantitative collection of gastric secretion by methods previously described from this laboratory, 3 and later the antrum was transplanted as a diverticulum into the urinary bladder. It was hoped that the motility of the bladder associated with micturition


The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is currently emerging as an efficient and environmentally friendly power source. The technology is very complex and relies ultimately on materials and components which need further development. One of the major hurdles for advancing the PEMFC technology is currently the demand for new durable low-cost polymeric membranes that will allow fuel cell operation at high temperatures without extensive humidification requirements. Thus, the design and preparation of functional high-performance proton-conducting membranes with the critical set of properties is a major challenge for polymer and materials chemists around the world today. In this context, major efforts are directed towards different durable aromatic main-chain ionomers. In the present thesis project, new fuel cell membrane materials based on polysulfones (PSUs) functionalized with sulfonated or phosphonated moieties via lithiation chemistry have been designed, synthesized and investigated. PSUs are high performance thermoplastics with excellent chemical, mechanical and thermal properties. By isolating the ionic sites on side chains, away from the polymer main chain, the nanophase separation between the hydrophobic and the hydrophilic domains of the hydrated membrane may be manipulated and influenced, which in turn may provide membranes with balanced water sorption characteristics.

Membranes with controlled water uptake were obtained by attaching the sulfonic acid unit to stiff aromatic side chains. This was conveniently achieved by reacting lithiated PSU with 2-sulfobenzoic acid cyclic anhydride in a one-pot reaction. In order to increase the length of the aromatic spacers, a new pathway was developed where lithiated PSU was reacted with 4-fluorobenzoyl chloride. This afforded PSUs with pendant fluorobenzoyl side chains in which the fluoride groups are activated for nucleophilic substitution. As a result, a wide range of nucleophiles may be used to further substitute the polymer. In an initial effort, the activated fluoride groups were replaced by sulfophenoxy or sulfonaphthoxy units in a potassium carbonate-mediated nucleophilic substitution reaction. This reaction proceeded under full conversion and the degree of substitution was easily controlled by the degree of lithiation in the first step. Using a similar methodology, PSUs carrying di- and trisulfonated aromatic side chains were successfully synthesized. In particular, membranes based on a PSU main chain carrying disulfonated napthoxybenzoyl side chains exhibited a distinct phase separation between the hydrophobic polymer main chain and the hydrophilic sulfonated side chains, and formed a well-defined and efficient network of water-filled nanopores. The latter resulted in excellent proton conductivity at controlled levels of water uptake in contrast to conventional sulfonated aromatic polymers.

The investigation of alternative acidic moieties is also of great interest since desulfonation may become a critical issue at high temperatures. This has motivated the search for ionomers based on phosphonic acid units, which generally have a higher hydrothermal stability than sulfonic acid units. Phosphonated PSU was successfully prepared by reacting lithiated PSU with chlorophosphonic acid esters. However, as underlined in a recent literature review, the acidity of phosphonic acid units directly attached to aromatic rings was too low to result in reasonable levels of water uptake. An original approach was therefore developed in which PSU with pendant iodinated benzoyl side chains were prepared via lithiation chemistry. The latter polymer was then further modified to yield the more acidic ?CF2PO3H2 units located on aromatic side chains. Membranes based on ionomers having 0.90 mmol of phosphonic acid units/g of dry polymer took up 6 wt% water when immersed at room temperature, and levels of conductivity comparable to those reached by a membrane based on a sulfonated polysulfone having 0.86 mmol of sulfonic acid/g of dry polymer were recorded.


All else being equal, can an objective-seeming character of moral experience support a presumption in favor of some form of moral objectivism? Don Loeb (2007) has argued that even if we grant that moral experience appears to present us with a realm of objective moral facts—something he denies we have reason to do in the first place—the objective purport of moral experience cannot by itself provide even prima facie support for moral objectivism. In what follows, I contend against Loeb that granting the objective purport of ordinary moral experience is sufficient to shift a presumptive case in favor of moral objectivism, and this by constituting non-explanatory, relational confirmation that incrementally raises the prima facie probability that moral facts exist. More specifically, I appeal to a modest confirmational principle shared by Likelihoodists and Bayesians—namely, the Weak Law of Likelihood—in an effort to show that (i) at a minimum, granting the objective purport of moral experience establishes a middling scrutable probability for a sufficient but not necessary condition of moral objectivism being true, and that (ii) this moderate probability in turn constitutes evidence that makes it prima facie more probable than not that at least some form of moral objectivism is true.


Tree improvement has been one of the most successful collaborative research efforts in history, eliciting participation from a wide variety of players. This effort has included state forestry agencies, research universities, integrated forest industries, and the USDA Forest Service. Tree improvement was organized through cooperatives whose objectives were to distribute responsibilities, rights, and rewards fairly and equally. Mergers, which accelerated in the 1990s, followed by land divestitures from integrated forest industries to institutional investors, and the rise of nursery businesses marketing genetics directly to landowners, have resulted in a much more heterogeneous business environment. With increasing disparity in organizational capabilities, changing economic goals, and the increasing costs along with potential benefits of biological research, it is unclear as to whether collaborative tree improvement efforts will remain viable. Game theory offers an explanation as to why tree improvement collaborations have been successful in the past, points out shortcomings in the current cooperative structure, and offers some insights into how we may choose to manage our future.


Abstract There are an estimated 25,000 heroin addicts in Israel and nearly one out of every five is a woman. Also, about one fourth of the addict population immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union (mostly from Russia and the Ukraine) since 1989. In this study, native born and immigrant female addicts were interviewed to develop an understanding of their background characteristics, patterns of drug use, and attitudes based on group status. Results show that the two groups of women are similar in many respects; however, differences do exist. Russian-speaking women tend to be better educated and have a greater concern about their personal health and maintaining custody of their children. Additionally, immigrant women are more inclined to use heroin and other substances while receiving treatment and are more likely to have a father who abuses alcohol. Discussion is given to the study findings as well as issues relevant to the formation of policy regarding services to female addicts in the country.


Petrobras Transporte S.A. – TRANSPETRO's Gas Pipeline System, composed by 7.3 thousand kilometers, 135 delivery stations and 21 compressor stations, has a very seasonally dependent operation. Highly linked with the Brazilian energy grid, during the dry season of the year a large part of the 77.3 million cubic meters of natural gas daily transportation are used to generate around 6.4 gigawatts to power the country. Additionally, the ever increasing number of power plants and distribution companies around the country demand more and more gas to be offered to supply the system. Among the different sources of natural gas available, the LNG is the most flexible for such seasonal operation.In order to support this current demand and to attend future demands, the regasification ability of Baia de Guanabara LNG Terminal was increased in December 2012, by changing the regasification vessel that supplies the southeast portion of the gas pipeline network, from 14 to 20 million cubic meters per day. To prepare to receive the new ship, some tests were performed to determine the operational limits on system survival time without LNG supply during vessel exchange. This assessment involved two different issues. The ship change operation occurred during a period of high consumption, when the LNG terminal was needed to sustain the network inventory. A long period without this supply, caused by the exchange of LNG vessel, would affect the deliveries. On the other hand, the new ship's commissioning curve would introduce a large amount of natural gas into the system during a short period of time, demanding that the deliveries absorbed such volume. Four planning scenarios were assessed based on some expected pipeline supply and delivery conditions. The work was important as a reference for future changes on operating supply units of TRANSPETRO gas pipeline system, showing the importance of pipeline simulation both as a planning tool for pipeline logistic problems and as operational support.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The use of substances that improve cognitive abilities is now more and more common in many countries. These treatments are not aimed at curing pathologies, but rather at enhancing normal human capabilities, i.e., people are using pharmaceutical products to alter their biological makeup. The following article investigates this phenomenon and questions the role of the State in relation to this practice. The article concludes with an explanation of why the State, unlike what some bioethicists have proposed, should not support the use of cognitive enhancers.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the possible role of ROCK-1 in ovarian cancer invasion and metastasis.

METHODS
ROCK-1 ASODN was transfected into SW626 and Caov-3 cell lines mediated by Lipofectamine 2000. The expressions of ROCK-1 mRNA and protein were detected by RT-PCR and Western-blot assay. Boyden chamber was used to assess the effect of ROCK-1 ASODN on the invasion and migration of the cell lines. The changes in the adhesion and proliferation of the transfected cells were detected by MTT assay.

RESULTS
The expressions level of ROCK-1 mRNA and protein in the cell lines were decreased significantly after transfection at doses of 10 micromol/L and 20 micromol/L ROCK-1 ASODN. When compared with the control group, the invasion capability of transfected cells was inhibited to an extent of 75.6% +/- 3.8% and 54.7% +/- 2.9%, respectively, for SW626 cell line, and 68.8% +/- 4.7% and 50.0% +/- 4.5% for Caov-3 cell line, respectively. The random migratory activity of these two cell lines was inhibited by 80.0% +/- 1.3%, 63.7% +/- 1.9%, 72.5% +/- 3.4% and 55.9% +/- 2.5%, respectively, and the inhibition of chemotaxis activity of the two cell lines was 83.9% +/- 1.4%, 64.1% +/- 1.3%, 72.5% +/- 3.4% and 54.5% +/- 1.9%, respectively. No significant difference was found in the adhesion and proliferation of the cells transfected with ROCK-1 ASODN and control cells.

CONCLUSION
The expression of ROCK-1 was closely related to the invasion capability and migratory activity of ovarian cancer cells. ROCK-1 may play a crucial role in invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer.


Dear friends and colleagues,

We are now three years old, and still growing! We recently published our 500th article, doubling the 2016 score, and the number of submissions is on the rise as compared to last year. Thank you, fellow neuroscientists, for choosing eNeuro to publish your research. What impresses me most is the quality of the science that eNeuro publishes. Many papers made it to the news this year, both in top scientific magazines and in the general media.

eNeuro has found its mark in the publishing landscape. The readership has more than doubled in a year. Given the plethora of scientific journals, it is impossible to read all the tables of contents. Most of us focus on the journals we trust, and where we know we will find the most relevant and reliable scientific information. It is particularly gratifying to see that eNeuro is such a journal. Both authors and readers make our success, so, thank you, all of you.

Note that our audience will continue to increase. We have teamed up with TrendMD, which recommends articles to readers based on what the person is reading at the moment, what they have read in the past, and the behavior of similar readers …


A dynamic model for a random network evolving in continuous time is defined, where new vertices are born and existing vertices may die. The fitness of a vertex is defined as the accumulated in-degree of the vertex and a new vertex is connected to an existing vertex with probability proportional to a function b of the fitness of the existing vertex. Furthermore, a vertex dies at a rate given by a function d of its fitness. Using results from the theory of general branching processes, an expression for the asymptotic empirical fitness distribution {p k } is derived and analyzed for a number of specific choices of b and d. When b(i) = i + α and d(i) = β, that is, linear preferential attachment for the newborn and random deaths, then p k ∼ k -(2+α). When b(i) = i + 1 and d(i) = β(i + 1), with β < 1, then p k ∼ (1 + β)−k , that is, if the death rate is also proportional to the fitness, then the power-law distribution is lost. Furthermore, when b(i) = i + 1 and d(i) = β(i + 1)γ, with β, γ < 1, then logp k ∼ -k γ, a stretched exponential distribution. The momentaneous in-degrees are also studied and simulations suggest that their behaviour is qualitatively similar to that of the fitnesses.


Following the analysis of the indicators characterising the economic viability, efficiency and bankruptcy probability of farms proposed by researchers and employed in practice, the relationships between the indicators and their capacity to predict the prospects of farm activities as well to assess whether or not the indicators are indicative of the same patterns of farm activity, several different researchers' approaches have been identified. Certain researchers have been claiming that all of the indicators provide the same farm performance prospects, while others consider economic viability and efficiency to provide long-term farm performance prospects, while bankruptcy probability-negative profitability in the short term. The methods of convergent and discriminant validation employed allowed for analysis of the risk of potential overlap between the index of economic viability of a family farm and farm economic efficiency coefficient with the already available bankruptcy probability prediction models. For this purpose, categorical regression analysis was employed. This enabled the authors to determine that the index of economic viability of a family farm and coefficient of farm economic efficiency did not repeat the already available and used bankruptcy probability prediction models. Summarizing the results, it could be claimed that the index of economic viability of a family farm and coefficient of farm economic efficiency are not suitable as an alternative for assessment of the bankruptcy probability.


A fossil of lacewings is described and figured. The well-preserved specimen was recovered from the Upper Jurassic Laiyang formation. It belongs to a rare specialized group within the Neuroptera because of the presence of distinctly different fore and hind wings in shape, size and venation. Based mainly on this character, a new family is erected, and its affinity and evolution are also discussed.


The events of the 2011 Arab Spring saw renewed hope for Arab Civil Society, at least in the eyes of Middle East observers. However, with the cases of Libya and Syria descending into civil war and chaos, and the Egyptian military still holding the country in a tight grip, the success of Civil Society at creating a space for itself is questionable. While the fall of seemingly immovable authoritarian regimes did not seem to profit much to Civil Society, Political Islamic movements took advantage of the vacuum to establish their bases and launch operations to implement their ideology. Two to three years after the first Uprisings, Islamist groups are making a strong comeback in certain middle east/north African countries. In Syria, Iraq, towns in Libya, and a town in Lebanon, groups like the Islamic State or Ansar al-Sharia are declaring caliphates in the territories they seize, in an attempt to fulfil the Political Islam ideal of a 'global Islamic caliphate' encompassing the entirety of the Muslim world. This edited collection aims to address common questions about Political Islam, as well as to provide an assessment of ISIS and finally challenge common understandings on the issue of Islam and democracy.


We present the laboratory demonstration of a very high-dynamic range imaging instrument FIRST (Fibered Imager foR Single Telescope). FIRST combines the techniques for aperture masking and a single-mode fiber interferometer to correct wavefront errors, which leads to a very high-dynamic range up to 106 around very near the central object (~ λ/D) at visible to near-infrared wavelengths. Our laboratory experiments successfully demonstrated that the original image can be reconstructed through a pupil remapping system. A first on-sky test will be performed at the Lick Observatory 3- m Shane telescope for operational tests in the summer of 2010.


The agglomeration of fullerenes in solvents is an important phenomenon that is relevant to controlled synthesis of fullerene-based nanowires as well as fullerene-based composites. The molecular aggregation in solvents depends on the atomistic interactions of fullerene with the solvent and is made complicated by the fact that fullerenes accrue negative surface charges when present in solvents such as water. In the present work, we simulated fullerenes of varying size and shape (C60, C180, C240, and C540) with and without surface charges in polar protic (water), polar aprotic (acetone), and nonpolar (toluene) solvents using molecular dynamics method. Our results demonstrate that uncharged fullerenes form agglomerates in polar solvents such as water and acetone and remain relatively dispersed in nonpolar toluene. The presence of surface charge significantly reduces agglomerate size in water and acetone. Additionally, the relative influence of surface charge on fullerene agglomeration depends on the size and geometry of the fullerene with larger fullerenes forming relatively smaller agglomerates. We evaluated the diffusion coefficients of solvent molecules within the solvation shell of fullerenes and observed that they are much lower than the bulk solvent and are strongly associated with the fullerenes as seen in the corresponding radial distribution functions. To correlate agglomerate size with the binding energy between fullerenes, we evaluated the potential of mean force between fullerenes in each solvent. Consistent with the solubility of fullerenes, binding energy between fullerenes is the greatest in water followed by acetone and toluene. The presence of charge decreases the binding energy of fullerenes in water and thus results in dispersed fullerenes.


The solvent-free spin crossover iron(III) complex [Fe(III)(Him)2(hapen)]AsF6 (Him = imidazole, H2hapen = N,N'-bis(2-hydroxyacetophenylidene)ethylenediamine), exhibiting thermal hysteresis, was synthesized and characterized. The Fe(III) ion has an octahedral coordination geometry, with N2O2 donor atoms of the planar tetradentate ligand (hapen) and two nitrogen atoms of two imidazoles at the axial positions. One of two imidazoles is hydrogen-bonded to the phenoxo oxygen atom of hapen of the adjacent unit to give a hydrogen-bonded one-dimensional chain, while the other imidazole group is free from hydrogen bonding. The temperature dependencies of the magnetic susceptibilities and Mössbauer spectra revealed an abrupt spin transition between the high-spin (S = 5/2) and low-spin (S = 1/2) states, with thermal hysteresis.


In this work, a theoretical study on electron-CF{sub 2} collisions in the low and intermediate energy range is reported. More specifically, calculated elastic differential, integral and momentum transfer cross sections, as well as total absorption cross sections are presented in the (1-500) eV energy range. A complex optical potential is used to represent the electron-molecule interaction dynamics, whereas the iterative Schwinger variational method combined with the distorted-wave approximation is used to solve the scattering equations. A comparison of the present results is made with the available theoretical and experimental results for electron collisions with CF{sub 2} as well as with O{sub 3} (an isoelectronic molecule of CF{sub 2})


We propose a novel concept of augmented reality (AR) human-drone interaction driven by RL-based swarm behavior to achieve intuitive and immersive control of a swarm formation of unmanned aerial vehicles. The DroneARchery system developed by us allows the user to quickly deploy a swarm of drones, generating flight paths simulating archery. The haptic interface LinkGlide delivers a tactile stimulus of the bowstring tension to the forearm to increase the precision of aiming. The swarm of released drones dynamically avoids collisions between each other, the drone following the user, and external obstacles with behavior control based on deep reinforcement learning. The developed concept was tested in the scenario with a human, where the user shoots from a virtual bow with a real drone to hit the target. The human operator observes the ballistic trajectory of the drone in an AR and achieves a realistic and highly recognizable experience of the bowstring tension through the haptic display. The experimental results revealed that the system improves trajectory prediction accuracy by 63.3% through applying AR technology and conveying haptic feedback of pulling force. DroneARchery users highlighted the naturalness (4.3 out of 5 point Likert scale) and increased confidence (4.7 out of 5) when controlling the drone. We have designed the tactile patterns to present four sliding distances (tension) and three applied force levels (stiffness) of the haptic display. Users demonstrated the ability to distinguish tactile patterns produced by the haptic display representing varying bowstring tension(average recognition rate is of 72.8%) and stiffness (average recognition rate is of 94.2%). The novelty of the research is the development of an AR-based approach for drone control that does not require special skills and training from the operator. In the future, the proposed interaction can be applied in various fields, for example, for fast swarm deployment in search and rescue missions, crop monitoring, inspection and maintenance.


BACKGROUND
Radical inguinal orchiectomy followed by adjuvant para-aortic radiotherapy has been the standard treatment in stage I seminoma. We have reviewed our experience with reduced total doses (less than 26 Gy) in stage I seminoma to investigate if patients with an elevated beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG) level before orchiectomy possibly require higher total doses of adjuvant radiotherapy (RT).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Two hundred and sixty-seven consecutive patients, with newly diagnosed pure seminoma of the testis, were treated with adjuvant RT between 1992 and 2000. All patients had stage I disease. Serum AFP and beta-hCG levels were analyzed prior to and after orchiectomy in case of an elevated beta-hCG level. The measurements were repeated after RT in routine follow-up at regular intervals. Serum beta-hCG was considered as elevated if the values exceeded the normal range (up to 5 U/L). A median total dose of 25.2 Gy (range, 19.8 to 26.0 Gy) was applied to the para-aortic region.

RESULTS
Fourteen patients were excluded from this analysis because beta-hCG measurement was not available. Nineteen of the remaining 253 patients (7.5%) had an elevated serum beta-hCG, which returned to normal post-operatively by the start of adjuvant radiotherapy. Median serum beta-hCG level before orchiectomy was 27.7 U/L (range, 5.1 to 420 U/L) in the group of patients with initial elevation of serum beta-hCG. This did not correlate with tumor size or rete testis invasion. After a median follow-up of 6.1 years (range, 3.0 to 11.2 years), 11 out of 267 (4.1%) patients had developed lymph node recurrence, resulting in an actuarial 5-year relapse-free survival of 96%. Median time to relapse was 19 months (range, 11 to 47 months) after RT. Only one relapsing patient initially had an elevated serum beta-hCG level of 34.1 U/L. This patient had nodal relapse within the mediastinum without renewed elevation of the serum beta-hCG level.

CONCLUSION
An elevated pre-treatment beta-hCG level appears to have neither importance nor a predictive value in stage I seminoma. Therefore, we recommend the current adjuvant standard treatment without any modification for all beta-hCG-positive stage I seminoma.


The need for habitable and affordable shelter cannot be overemphasized but the high cost of components of shelter such as hollow sandcrete blocks, bricks etc. posed a challenge to our ability to access affordable and habitable shelter. Utilization of already discarded waste foundry sand (WFS) as eco-friendly construction material for production of hollow sandcrete blocks, will save cost and preserve our environment. In this study, impact of locally available waste foundry sand as partial substitute for sharp sand in production of hollow sandcrete blocks was investigated. Sharp sand was partially substituted with WFS at 0, 10, 20 and 30%. A mix ratio of 1:6 (ratio of cement to sharp sand) and a water-cement ratio of 0.5 were used. Hollow sandcrete blocks were subjected to compressive strength tests at 7th and 28th days as well as a water absorption test on the 28th-day. Outcomes of the research showed that an increase in the amount of WFS led to the loss of compressive strength across all curing ages, and that all sandcrete block samples including control samples did not satisfy the minimum 28th day strength requirement of 3.5 MPa stipulated for load-bearing hollow sandcrete blocks. However, block samples containing 0 and 10% of WFS can satisfactorily be used for the construction of non-load bearing walls since they meet the required minimum strength of 1.5 MPa at 28th day. It was also observed that increasing the quantities of WFS from 0 – 30% caused a corresponding increase in the water absorption for all the block samples although the recorded values did not exceed the recommended maximum of 12% except for samples containing 30% WFS. Conclusively, WFS has a negative impact on both compressive strength and water absorption properties of sandcrete blocks and as such cannot serve as a good partial substitute for sharp sand.


As China in the twenty-first century rushes ahead in its quest to become more developed and cosmopolitan, the poor are increasingly cast as outsiders to the nation's new social contract and urban development politics. Nowhere is the contrast between China's urban rich and rural poor as stark as on the land itself. In cities throughout China, land continues to be taken away from the collective and placed into the hands of an increasingly rich and powerful elite. As a new society built upon urban poverty, exclusion, and inequality emerges, and the gap between rich and poor widens, the new political order must wrestle with questions of how to balance the interests of government regulators, business elite and the average citizen, while minimizing social tensions arising over land disputes. Current reforms ignore the real issues - which include the need for the governing regime to define and recognize the property rights of the individual. By clinging to the political rhetoric of demolition and renewal in the "public interest," paving the way for corrupt officials and land-hungry developers to render thousands homeless and landless, China's government continues to operate urban renewal as a "top-down" process. This Article focuses on the current state of economic development in China, and the crisis in governance that it has created, questioning whether increased urbanization necessarily signifies progress in an environment in which the voices of a significant fraction of the population are left out.


Visual segmentation is a key perceptual function that partitions visual space and allows for detection, recognition and discrimination of objects in complex environments. The processes underlying human segmentation of natural images are still poorly understood. In part, this is because we lack segmentation models consistent with experimental and theoretical knowledge in visual neuroscience. Biological sensory systems have been shown to approximate probabilistic inference to interpret their inputs. This requires a generative model that captures both the statistics of the sensory inputs and expectations about the causes of those inputs. Following this hypothesis, we propose a probabilistic generative model of visual segmentation that combines knowledge about 1) the sensitivity of neurons in the visual cortex to statistical regularities in natural images; and 2) the preference of humans to form contiguous partitions of visual space. We develop an efficient algorithm for training and inference based on expectation-maximization and validate it on synthetic data. Importantly, with the appropriate choice of the prior, we derive an intuitive closed--form update rule for assigning pixels to segments: at each iteration, the pixel assignment probabilities to segments is the sum of the evidence (i.e. local pixel statistics) and prior (i.e. the assignments of neighboring pixels) weighted by their relative uncertainty. The model performs competitively on natural images from the Berkeley Segmentation Dataset (BSD), and we illustrate how the likelihood and prior components improve segmentation relative to traditional mixture models. Furthermore, our model explains some variability across human subjects as reflecting local uncertainty about the number of segments. Our model thus provides a viable approach to probe human visual segmentation.


Material flow analysis (MFA) is a widely applied tool to investigate resource and recycling systems of metals and minerals. Owing to data limitations and restricted system understanding, MFA results are inherently uncertain. To demonstrate the systematic implementation of uncertainty analysis in MFA, two mathematical concepts for the quantification of uncertainties were applied to Austrian palladium (Pd) resource flows and evaluated: (1) uncertainty ranges expressed by fuzzy sets and (2) uncertainty ranges defined by normal distributions given as mean values and standard deviations. Whereas normal distributions represent the traditional approach for quantifying uncertainties in MFA, fuzzy sets may offer additional benefits in relation to uncertainty quantification in cases of scarce information. With respect to the Pd case study, the fuzzy representation of uncertain quantities is more consistent with the actual data availability in cases of incomplete databases, and fuzzy sets serve to highlight the effect of uncertainty on resource efficiency indicators derived from the MFA results. For both approaches, data reconciliation procedures offer the potential to reduce uncertainty and evaluate the plausibility of the model results. With respect to Pd resource management, improved formal collection of end‐of‐life (EOL) consumer products is identified as a key factor in increasing the recycling efficiency. In particular, the partial export of EOL vehicles represents a substantial loss of Pd from the Austrian resource system, whereas approximately 70% of the Pd in the EOL consumer products is recovered in waste management. In conclusion, systematic uncertainty analysis is an integral part of MFA required to provide robust decision support in resource management.


Academics and observers of the country's literary landscape have taken pedagogical routes toward literary appreciation of the marginalized genres, i.e, most often and the preservation of the oral tales in the different regions of the country. Linguists and translators of the Philippines initially worked into one mighty anthology toward the recognition of genres which mirrors out the genuine culture of each region. Recently, men of letters began to show interests to these traditions through the possible preservation of such marginalized literature to elevate the cultural roots of the province into its pedestal. This paper examines the word origin of each festival in the towns of Quirino Province, Philippines and give lenses to each genuine traditions and rituals which have been narrated through verbal tales since the early 1950's. Annually, the province of Quirino celebrates seven kinds of festivals to exhibits the agricultural beliefs and to put into pedestal the old rituals of the multi -cultural and multidialectal dwellers of the province. Recently, travel agencies in the region have multiplied because tourists from nearby provinces began to appreciate the antiquated rituals exhibited during town festivals. Snowball sampling, longitudinal interviews and triangulation with the old folks, informants, and leaders of each towns were used in this qualitative research. Since there was no single genre published to preserve this oral etymology of the genuine word origins of the names of festivals associated with rural beliefs locally transferred through verbal narrations, the researcher opt to developed published genres for the purpose of preservation and appreciation among the inhabitants of the province for the whole country to appreciate Quirino's myriads of culturebased festivals.


Post-translational modifications (PTMs) within the first 17 amino acids (Nt17) of the Huntingtin protein (Htt) have been shown to inhibit the aggregation and attenuate the toxicity of mutant Htt proteins in vitro and in various models of Huntington's disease. Our group's previous studies suggested that the Nt17 PTM code is a combinatorial code that involves a complex interplay between different PTMs. Here, we expand on these studies by investigating the effect of methionine 8 oxidation (oxM8) and crosstalk between this PTM and either lysine 6 acetylation (AcK6) or threonine 3 phosphorylation (pT3) on the aggregation of mutant Httex1. We show that M8 oxidation delays but does not inhibit the aggregation and has no effect on the final morphologies of mutant Httex1 aggregates. This delay in aggregation kinetics could be attributed to the transient accumulation of oligomeric aggregates, which disappear upon the formation of Httex1 oxM8 fibrils. Interestingly, the presence of both oxM8 and AcK6 resulted in dramatic inhibition of Httex1 fibrillization, whereas the presence of oxM8 did not influence the aggregation inhibitory effect of pT3. To gain insight into the structural basis underlying these proteins' aggregation properties, we investigated the impact of each PTM and the combination of these PTMs on the conformational properties of the Nt17 peptide by circular dichroism spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulation. These studies show that M8 oxidation decreases the helicity of the Nt17 in the presence or absence of PTMs and provides novel insight into the structural basis underlying the effects of different PTMs on mutant Httex1 aggregation. PTMs that lower the mutant Httex1 aggregation rate (oxM8, AcK6/oxM8, pT3, pT3/oxM8, and phosphorylation at Serine 13) result in stabilization and increased population of a short N-terminal helix (first eight residues) in Nt17 or decreased abundance of other helical forms, including long helix and short C-terminal helix. PTMs that did not alter the aggregation of mutant Httex1 exhibit a similar distribution of helical conformation as the unmodified peptides. These results show that the relative abundance of N- vs. C-terminal helical conformations and long helices, rather than the overall helicity of Nt17, better explains the effect of different Nt17 PTMs on mutant Httex1; thus, explaining the lack of correlation between the effect of PTMs on the overall helicity of Nt17 and mutant Httex1 aggregation in vitro. Taken together, our results provide novel structural insight into the differential effects of single PTMs and crosstalk between different PTMs in regulating mutant Httex1 aggregation. TOC Figure