In this paper we present a robust real-time optimization method for the online linear oil
 blending process. The blending process consists in determining the optimal mix of
 components so that the final product satisfies a set of specifications. We examine
 different sources of uncertainty inherent to the blending process and show how to address
 this uncertainty applying the Robust Optimization techniques. The polytopal structure of
 our problem permits a simplified robust approach. Our method is intended to avoid
 reblending and we measure its performance in terms of the blend quality giveaway and
 feedstocks prices. The difference between the nominal and the robust optimal values (the
 price of robustness) provides a benchmark for the cost of reblending which is difficult to
 estimate in practice. This new information can be used to adjust the level of conservatism
 in the model. We analyze the feasibility of a blend to be produced from a set of
 feedstocks when the heel of a previous blend is used in the composition of the new blend.
 Additional critical information for the control system is then produced.


This survey article reviews the harvest of empirical world cities research since its formal inception about a decade ago. Taylor's (1997) delineation of 'the problem of evidence' in this literature is used as a cue to assess the merits and inadequacies of recent empirical studies. To get a handle on the literature as a whole, a taxonomy of empirical approaches is developed. Major features of the dominant approaches in general and some important studies in particular are discussed. This discussion is thereupon used to analyse the extent to which these studies have managed to construct meaningful measures of transnational inter-city relations. This analysis reveals that significant steps have been taken, but some new points of attention can be raised, such as the lack of suitable theoretical reference points in some recent empirical studies and the disproportionate focus on a relatively narrow range of formal economic processes.


Introduction: Under-nutrition during childhood, a major public health problem of Nepal, can have everlasting consequences. It is one of the primary causes of ill health and premature deaths in many developing countries like Nepal. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of under-nutrition among under-five children of Bharatpur municipality of Chitwan district of central Nepal. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted in Bharatpur municipality of Chitwan district. Anthropometric measurement of children and information regarding nutrition along with different exposures were taken from 402 randomly sampled mothers. WHO criteria was used to compare with the calculated Z-score using Anthro V3.2.2 software. Informed consent was taken from concerned authority. Descriptive statistics were calculated and binary logistic regressions was used to determine the influence of selected variables for underweight. Results: Majority of the respondents were from relatively advantaged groups and house makers. Almost 54% of the children were boys and the greatest share of children was of age group 25-36 months. Almost one in 10 children of Bharatpur had lower weight-for-height score (wasted). Likewise, more than one quarter (26.4%) were stunted and another 13.4% were under-weight. Families with less than four family members were less likely to have under-weight children and those who had more than two children had more chance of having under-weight children (P=0.002). Children having diarrheal episodes within 2 weeks period of study had higher odds of being malnourished. Conclusion: The study shows that female children have higher risks of being malnourished. Higher prevalence of underweight was seen with the increasing age of children. The size of family also matters the nutrition status of children. It is recommended that Ministry of Health needs to have more attention for the necessary intervention addressing the combined exposures factors for underweight. Birat Journal of Health Sciences Vol.2/No.3/Issue 4/Sep- Dec 2017, Page: 266-272


An important problem in the inlet tract dynamics of four-cycle, four cylinder internal combustion engines is the cylinder to cylinder variation in the air-fuel ratio. In particular, the inlet runner geometry and the valve timing over the wide range of engine speeds encountered may have profound effects on the charge delivered to a particular cylinder. Using a two-dimensional compressible, hydrodynamic model, results are presented from flow field calculations performed with the DELTA computer algorithm. The aim is to assess the feasibility of using such techniques on inlet manifold design.


The purpose of this study is to analyze architectural characteristics of domestic and foreign unit modular housing products for development of affordable housing as case study. A document research and field survey were used to analyze and classify the architectural characteristics of four unit modular housing products, Staco, Muto as domestic, Spacebox and Caledonian of Europe. Based on the results of the critical review, The framework of this study was composed of four dimensions such as ubiquity, flexibility, sustainability and affordability. The results of this study suggest that unit modular housing not only has typical benefits of prefabricated building such as shorter build time and budget reduction, but also can get flexibility, sustainability, affordability and proved quality via mass production. This research can be a basis for the application of the unit modular housing to the affordable housings for college students, further, officer and workers.


Sometimes creative ideas come to mind following a step-by-step conscious reasoning, other times they rush into consciousness unexpectedly as sudden insights. Research on insight problem solving began about a century ago with a chimpanzee having an Aha! moment on how to pile up some boxes to reach a banana that was hanging from the ceiling (Köhler, 1917). Thanks to the development of neuroscientific techniques, researchers gained a better understanding of the physiology associated with insight, supplemented classic theories, and raised new questions about the cognitive processes involved in it. With the final goal of sketching a comprehensive understanding of the neurocognitive bases of insight, this chapter describes and updates the knowledge we gained about its functioning. A review of the last two decades of research on the 'markers of insight' revealed that: a) insights are paired with an internal attention allocation; b) the right anterior temporal lobe is a key node for insights, and if stimulated the frequency of insights increases; c) the feeling of pleasure and excitement that accompanies insights is warranted by the involvement of the reward-dopamine system; d) pupil dilation marks the switch into awareness of Aha! moments. Taken together these results indicate that insight below awareness processing might be explained by the involvement of subcortical areas responsible for learning, alertness, and emotions which are evolutionary more ancient than the cortex and it involves areas of the cortex responsible for information integration presumably together/after the switch into awareness. In conclusion, I summarize these points in terms of the defining characteristics of having an insight.


During processing of cattle carcasses, contamination may occurs with the transfer of microbiota of animals feaces to carcasses. This contamination many times may be byEscherichia coli carriers of virulence factor as stx and eae genes being classified as Shiga like toxin. Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is recognized wordwide as human pathogen. A survey was performed to determine the sensibility profile to several antimicrobial drugs of STEC in carcasses obtained from an abattoir in Brazil between March 2008 and August at 2009. A total of 120 STEC were isolated. All isolates were confirmed as being E. coli by their biochemical analysis and submitted to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of stx, eae and ehly genes. No strains was isolated being carriers of ehly gene. The number of isolates carriers of eae gene were 48/120. The most frequent resistance was seen against cephalothin (84.0%), streptomycin (45.0%), nalidixic acid (42.0%) and tetracycline (20.0%). Multidrug resistance (MDR) to three or more antimicrobial agents was observed in 46 (38.3%) E. coli isolates. The findings of STEC and MRD show that cattle carcasses may be a reservoir of pathogenic bacterial for the consumer public.

 Key words: Multi-drug resistance, Escherichia coli, shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli(STEC).


ABSTRACT Thin-layer drying data was collected for rough rice from 108 treatments. Four thin-layer equations were derived by regression analysis to predict the drying behavior for deep-bed drying of rough rice. The proposed equations consider the effects of drying air temperature, drying air absolute humidity, drying time interval, and tempering time interval. Drying air temperature range was 35–65°C, drying air absolute humidity range was 10–26 g/kg of dry air, drying time interval was 5–15 min, and tempering time interval was 40–120 min. In addition, the variations of moisture content with tempering time intervals and drying time intervals were considered. Within the tempering time interval range of 40–120 min and drying time interval of 5–15 min, a shorter drying time interval and a longer tempering time interval are preferable in a recirculating type rice dryer.


Polarization-dependent nonlinear absorption in the Co2+:MgAl2O4 crystal was investigated by the pump-probe technique. The nonlinear transmission curves of the [100]-cut Co2+:MgAl2O4 crystal for the linear polarized probe light were measured experimentally, when the crystal was excited by a linear polarized pump light. The measurement results showed that the transition into the near-infrared (NIR) absorption band was not only polarized along the C3 local symmetry axis, but also along the direction perpendicular to the C3 axis. And the absorption intensity of the latter transition was much weaker than the former. The structural model of Co2+ centers in the MgAl2O4 crystal, in which the Co2+ ion and surrounding O2- ions formed a tetrahedron deformed along the C3 local symmetry axis, was proposed. This structural model allowed us to explain the anisotropy of nonlinear absorption in the Co2+:MgAl2O4 crystal.


This paper presents personal reflections on the history, current status and the future of research on smoking relapse. Relapse was traditionally viewed primarily as an outcome, to be reduced with increased treatment. In the 1980s, relapse research was invigorated by a focus on the process of relapse, focusing on the specific situations in which lapses to smoking occurred, and on the processes that mediated progression from a lapse to a relapse. This line of research had substantial influence on treatment, but has currently been displaced by a return to a pure outcomes-focus, driven in part by the practical need to find treatments that work and to package them for dissemination. At the same time, technological and methodological developments have enabled detailed monitoring of experience and behaviour throughout the relapse process, and progression of these developments will make monitoring of relapse process compelling in the future. The need to understand how interventions work will also drive a resurgence of research on the relapse process. Finally, the same technological and conceptual developments that enable detailed monitoring of behaviour will spawn the development of just-in-time interventions that are offered and implemented as needed, rather than being addressed in the abstract in advance of the need.


Protecting confidential data in today's computing environments is an important problem. Information flow control can help to avoid information leakage and violations introduced by executing the software applications. In software development cycle, it is important to handle security related issues from the beginning specifications at the level of abstract. Mu [1] investigated the problem of preserving information flow security in the Event-B specification models. A typed Event-B model was presented to enforce information flow security and to prevent direct flows introduced by the system. However, in practice, timing behaviours of programs can also introduce a covert flow. The problem of run-time flow monitoring and controlling must also be addressed. This paper investigates information flow control in the Event-B specification language with timing constructs. We present a timed Event-B system by introducing timers and relevant time constraints into the system events. We suggest a time-sensitive flow security condition for the timed Event-B systems, and present a type system to close the covert channels of timing flows for the system by ensuring the security condition. We then investigate how to refine timed events during the stepwise refinement modelling to satisfy the security condition.


The Arab Spring has been described as a youth rebellion driven by grievances about unemployment and dissatisfaction with existing regimes. In this article, we assess these claims by examining the characteristics of the current youth generation in the Arab world in comparison with earlier cohorts. We find that some of the conventional assumptions about this generation—that they are less religious, more likely to be unemployed, and more likely to protest—are true, but others—that they are more supportive of secularization, more interested in politics, and more dissatisfied with their regimes—should be reconsidered. Using the first wave of the Arab Barometer survey, we discuss how patterns of political attitudes and behavior vary across cohorts, and cast doubt upon the claim that the Arab Spring was the result of an angry youth cohort that was especially opposed to the old regimes.


Age related histochemical and biochemical decrease in succinic dehydrogenase (SDH) and myofibrillar ATPase (m-ATPase) activity was observed in diaphragm, leg and heart muscles of rat. The effects of ageing varied in intensity in different muscle types and were more pronounced in fast muscles. Decrease in m-ATPase may be the result of age related decrease in number of contractile elements revealed by low content of electrophoretically analysed myofibrillar proteins. Restructuring in nerve muscle junction reported, was in relation to normal variation in functional demands of rat from different age groups because of transient changes in work load.


This article presents a review of the literature about memory development, organized according to the different storages or memory systems. The development in sensory memory, working memory, explicit memory and implicit memory is analysed from the preschool period on. Although significant changes take place in the working and explicit memory, the perceptual implicit memory remains invariant with age.


Abstract Riverine cetaceans are threatened globally by increasing anthropogenic impacts, and the Yangtze river dolphin Lipotes vexillifer is already extinct. The Amazon river dolphin Inia geoffrensis is widely distributed, but is categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Drowning in gillnets and being hunted for fish bait are probably the main causes of its decline. A long-term (25-year) study of the biology and ecology of I. geoffrensis in and near the Mamirauá Reserve in Amazonas state, Brazil, has produced estimates of survival and reproductive rates based on the individual recognition of > 650 animals. Concurrently, monthly standardized counts of dolphins along a fixed transect in the Reserve over 22 years demonstrated a sustained, profound decline. In this study we tested whether the measured rate of population decline is consistent with population parameters estimated from independent data, using population viability analysis. With the known parameters as input, programme Vortex predicted population extinction in all scenarios and a 95% loss of dolphins within 50 years. With default parameters, the model predicted a 5.5% annual decline, which is consistent with that observed. We conclude that the Amazon river dolphin population is in severe decline because of human pressures, even in one of the better protected parts of its range. Unless the accidental and deliberate killing of this species is rapidly reduced, it is highly likely that the Amazon river dolphin will follow its Yangtze counterpart to extinction.


We find that a relatively high level of average U.S. industry- or firm-level idiosyncratic stock volatility is usually associated with a future appreciation in the U.S. dollar. This relation is highly significant for most foreign currencies in both in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting tests. We also document a positive and significant relation between a country's idiosyncratic volatility and the future U.S. dollar price of its currency - in France, Germany, and Japan. Given that idiosyncratic volatility forecasts GDP growth in both U.S. and foreign countries, our results appear to be consistent with monetary models of exchange rates.


The terms "Obesity Epidemic" and more recently "Globesity" have been used to communicate the enormity of the health crisis being faced by authorities across the world. The incidence of obesity in adults in the United States (U.S.) has more than doubled in the last 20 years and costs associated with obesity have been estimated by Health Authorities to have risen from $46 billion in 1990 to $147 billion in 2008. This situation is not unique to the U.S. and similar trends are being observed in many parts of the western world. Currently, there are very few therapeutic agents approved for the treatment of obesity and they are limited in their effectiveness. Bariatric surgery, or weight loss surgery, is now the preferred treatment for obesity, as it is the most successful weight loss method available. While it has increased 10-fold in both the United States and Australia over the last decade, bariatric surgery is expensive, remains high risk and its suitability as a safe long term treatment for obesity is still under evaluation. The need for safer and more effective therapeutic drugs, and how this might be achieved, is discussed during this dissertation. A general review of pharmaceutical treatments for obesity, including recently developed compounds that are under patent and in clinical trials, is undertaken. The various biological mechanisms being targeted by different research groups to treat obesity are outlined. The lessons learnt from the ill-fated use of fenfluramine as a weight loss drug are discussed. Fenfluramine was considered the best treatment for obesity in the early 1990s but was withdrawn from the market in 1997 due to major side effects that caused heart valve defects and, to a lesser extent, high blood pressure. Weight loss from fenfluramine was attributed to 5-HT2C receptor agonism and the side effects were due to 5-HT2B, and to a lesser extent 5 HT2A receptor agonism. Our research focus on the development of selective 5-HT2C receptor agonists is described in this dissertation. The development of a pharmacophore model with a secondary amine in a ring to restrict rotation is discussed, as well as the learning from the new generation of emerging drug candidates and how this can be applied to improve drug selectivity. The design and synthesis of Series 1 compounds, twenty 4 phenylpiperidines and six 4 phenyl 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines aimed at increasing 5 HT2C receptor selectivity is presented. The concurrent design and preparation of a series of alkyl-4-piperidones required for the synthesis of Series 2 compounds is reported. Structural elucidation of relevant Series 1 compounds, as well as alkyl-4-piperidones using NMR spectroscopy is described. The biological test results from Series 1 indicated that 4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines exhibited considerably stronger agonism at the 5-HT2C receptor than 4-phenypiperidines, thereby directing the choice of scaffold for Series 2. The focus for target compounds became 4 phenyl alkyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines, and their similarity to MPTP which metabolizes to the known dopaminergic neurotoxin MPP+ is reviewed in this dissertation. The synthesis, isolation, structural characterization and biological testing of a series of 4 phenyl alkyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines (Series 2) is described. The biological test results indicate that a number of compounds in the second series exhibit strong agonism at the 5 HT2C receptor, and weak antagonism at the 5 HT2A and 5 HT2B receptors, fulfilling the aim of the project. Possible future directions arising from this work are reviewed in the closing remarks section of this dissertation.


In this paper, we perform the assessment of a CAD for the tumoral masses classification in mammograms by the uncertainty propagation through the system. Carrying on the work of the authors concerning the metrological characterization of the developed CAD, we validate the features extraction, features selection, and classification steps in this paper. In particular, suitable metrics such as the Receiving Operating Curve (ROC) and the Area Under ROC (AUC) are widely used in order to provide a quantitative evaluation of the performance. Finally, we implement a Monte Carlo simulation in order to provide the confidence interval for some coverage probabilities for all involved parameters. The procedure is tested on mammographic images containing both malignant and benign breast masses.


"The first part of this report assesses the congestion at George Bush International Airport (IAH) by analyzing taxi times and flight data during different hours of the day. The capacity of IAH is investigated by examining the number of departing flights on the ground. It reveals that IAH is operating close to the capacity most of the time. Since increasing airport capacity can mitigate the congestion, the second part of this report develops a surface operation model based on the analyzed results to achieve this aim."


Objectives To identify postmenopausal women with risk of osteoporosis through quantitative ultrasound imaging (QUI) and to value the medical intervention after the determination of the bone mineral density (BMD). Methods Cross-sectional descriptive study developed in a community pharmacy. During the month of June of 2005 the community pharmacy enrolled postmenopausal women into the study. Women in treatment with calcium, vitamin D, hormone replacement therapy, estrogen receptor modulators, calcitonin or biphosphonates were considered criteria for exclusion. To all the women that consent to participate, the pharmacist measured BMD with the device Sahara Hologic Ultrasound Bone Densitometer at right calcaneus. Following the World Health Organization, women were classified as osteoporotic if their T-Score was less than -2.5 and as osteopenic if their T-Score ranged between -2.5 and -1.0. Results Of the 100 women screened, 11 (11%) presented risk of osteoporosis and 61 (61%) of osteopenia. The 18.5% postmenopausal women with body mass index lesser than 30 presented risk of osteoporosis and the 63.0% osteopenia. Conclusions The QUI constitutes a useful tool in community pharmacy for the screening of osteoporosis and it supposes a greater integration of the community pharmacy within the health care.


Stigma is a barrier to accessing care and treatment for perinatal women with pain and opioid dependency, resulting in increased maternal/neonatal morbidity and mortality, prolonged neonatal hospitalizations, and increased healthcare-related costs. This theory-generating qualitative meta-synthesis includes 18 qualitative research reports and describes the stigma-related experiences of perinatal women with opioid dependency. A model emerged consisting of cyclical yet pivotal care points, facilitators/deterrents of stigma, and stigma experiences including infant-associative stigma. Findings of this qualitative meta-synthesis include the following: (a) Perinatal stigma experiences may prevent women from accessing care; (b) Infant-associative stigma may influence the woman to deflect stigma from her infant onto herself; and (c) There is the risk of mothers withdrawing their infants from healthcare to protect from future anticipated stigma. Implications reveal ideal time points to enact healthcare interventions to reduce perinatal stigma experiences and its consequences on maternal/child health and wellness.


We introduce an approach for texture-based annotation and retrieval. Given the outputs of 12 Gabor filters, we derive a texture feature space where the sensitivity of the features to illumination changes is attenuated by a suitable normalisation. We then annotate images by defining and selecting codes representing the quantised levels of the texture features appearing in each image. The annotations are stored in a hash table for retrieval efficiency. Ranking schemes are proposed to order the images retrieved at query time. In particular, we use results from psychological studies on the human perception of similarity to formulate a similarity measure. The choice of quantisation of the texture feature space can influence the accuracy of the retrieval. We compared several quantisation schemes in retrieval experiments involving texture images. We found that a uniform quantisation and a quantisation heuristically taking the variance of the texture features into account lead to the best retrieval performance.


Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), direct decendant of Korea National Astronomy Observatory, has been publishing Korean Astronomical Almanac since in 1976. The almanac contains essential data in our daily lives such as the times of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset, conversion tables between luni-solar and solar calendars, and so forth. So, we are planning to register Korean astronomical almanac data for national Standard Reference Data(SRD), which is a scientific/technical data whose the reliablity and the accuracy are authorized by scientific analysis and evalution. To be certificated as national SRD, reference data has to satisfy several criteria such as traceability, consistency, uncertainty, and so on. Based on similarity among calculation processes, we classified astronomical almanac data into three groups: Class I, II, and III. We are planning to register them for national SRD in consecutive order. In this study, we analyzed Class I data which is aimed to register in 2009, and presented the results. Firstly, we found that the traceability and the consistency can be ensured by the usage of NASA/JPL DE405 ephemeris and by the comparsion with international data, respectively. To evaluate uncertainty in Class I data, we solved the mathematical model and determined the factors influencing the calculations. As a result, we found that the atmospheric refraction is the main factor and leads to a variation of seconds in the times of sunrise and sunset. We also briefly review the histories of astronomical almanac data and of standard reference data in Korea.


We find expressions for the weak decay amplitudes of baryons containing two b quarks (or one b and one c quark -- many relationship are the same) in terms of unknown reduced matrix elements. This project was originally motivated by the request of the FNAL Run II b Physics Workshop organizers for a guide to experimentalists in their search for as yet unobserved hadrons. We include an analysis of linear SU(3) breaking terms in addition to relationships generated by unbroken SU(3) symmetry, and relate these to expressions in terms of the complete set of possible reduced matrix elements.


The appeal is signed by the membres fondateurs, including the names of all the most distinguished French Orientalists and officials connected with Indo-Ohina. The terms of membership are : a minimum annual subscription of 5 fr., or single donation of 100 fr. Givers of 200 fr. and upwards become thereby membres donateurs. Subscriptions should be sent to Monsieur Louis Knot, Hon. Secretary, 11, Rue Poussin, Paris (XVI), or to Monsieur Sylvain Levi, Hon. Treasurer, 5, Rue Guy-de-laBrosse, Paris (V).


Apple is one of the economically and culturally most important fruit crops and has many health-related benefits. Apple production is, however, sensitive to several fungal diseases including blue mold, caused by Penicillium expansum. Problems are more pronounced in organic production or in countries where postharvest application of fungicides is prohibited. To limit or overcome this problem, many studies have been focused on investigations of the mechanism of resistance/tolerance. No major gene(s) have as yet been identified, but quantitatively inherited traits, some of which are related to fruit texture and content of chemical compounds, have been shown to affect the ability of cultivars to withstand storage diseases. In the present thesis, inter-cultivar variation in terms of resistance to fungal storage diseases was investigated at two locations, i.e. Balsgard in Sweden and Njos in Norway. The association of harvest date, fruit firmness and softening with lesion decay was investigated on large sets of cultivars. The contribution of four fruit texture-related genes (Md-ACO1, Md-ACS1, Md-Exp7 and Md-PG1) in explaining the fruit texture characteristics was examined. Fruit content of chemical compounds with a potential impact on disease resistance was also investigated, and finally the regulation of apple genes upon fungal infection was studied in order to identify candidate genes responsible for disease resistance.

Inoculation-based screening indicated large variation across the investigated cultivars in terms of blue mold and bitter rot susceptibility. Harvest date and softening rate of fruits during storage had a large impact on resistance to fungal diseases, thus cultivars with moderate to firm fruits that soften comparatively little during storage could withstand the fungal infection comparatively well. Softening rate is, in its turn, closely associated with harvest date whereas four fruit texture-related genes had lower predictive power than expected. Quantifying the chemical compounds in the fruit samples revealed that some of these compounds, especially flavonols and procyanidin B2, could contribute to resistance against blue mold, whereas contents of malic acids or total titratable acidity had considerably less impact. Differential expression of FLS, LDOX, and CHS genes involved in biosynthesis of flavonoids and PGIP, TT10, WAK1 and CTL1 genes related to cell wall structure indicate the importance of fruit characteristics and biochemical compounds in the resistance mechanism.


Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) procedures for performance-based seismic design of building structures have been in existence in design guidelines and provisions for decades. However, several issues still remain regarding the application of these procedures to inelastic multi-storey buildings. Three main issues are identified and investigated in this research.

Firstly, the gap between code-specified design response spectra and base shear demands of inelastic flexible-base multi-storey buildings is bridged by introducing a strength reduction factor RF and a Multi-Degree-Of-Freedom (MDOF) modification factor RM. The strength reduction factor RF, derived based on the combined (and similar) effects of SSI and structural yielding, allows base shear demands of a flexible-base yielding Single-Degree-Of-Freedom (SDOF) structure to be calculated directly from code design response spectra. The MDOF modification factor RM links base shear demand of a MDOF structure to that of its SDOF counterpart.

Secondly, the effect of frequency content of ground motions on elastic and inelastic flexible-base buildings located on very soft soil profiles is examined. Results showed that normalising the equivalent period of a SSI system Tssi by the corresponding predominant periods resulted in more rational spectra for seismic design purposes. In the elastic response spectra, Tssi is normalised by the spectrum predominant period TP corresponding to the peak ordinate of a 5% damped elastic acceleration spectrum, while for nonlinear structures Tssi should be normalised by the predominant period of the ground motion, Tg, at which the relative velocity spectrum reaches its maximum value.

It is shown that an actual SSI system can be replaced by an equivalent fixed-base SDOF (EFSDOF) oscillator having a natural period of Tssi, a viscous damping ratio xissi and a global ductility ratio of mussi. The EFSDOF oscillator performed well for linear systems while, in general, overestimated ductility reduction factor Rmu of SSI systems with high initial damping ratio, which consequently led to an underestimation of inelastic displacement ratio Cmu.

The two issues stated above were addressed by results of a large number of response history analyses performed using a simplified SSI model where the foundation response was assumed to be linearly elastic and frequency-dependent. The soil-foundation model, developed on the basis of the cone theory, has been verified to be a reliable tool for simulating dynamic soil-foundation interaction.

Finally, in order to take into account foundation nonlinearity in preliminary seismic design of building structures, a simplified nonlinear sway-rocking model was developed. The proposed model is intended to capture the nonlinear load-displacement response of shallow foundations during strong earthquake events where foundation bearing capacity is fully mobilised. Emphasis is given to heavily-loaded structures resting on a saturated clay half-space. The variation of soil stiffness and strength with depth, referred to as soil non-homogeneity, is considered in the model. Although independent springs are utilised for each of the swaying and rocking motions, coupling between these motions is taken into account by expressing the load-displacement relations as functions of the factor of safety against vertical bearing capacity failure (FSV) and the moment-to-shear ratio (M/H). The simplified model
is calibrated and validated against results from a series of static push-over and dynamic analyses performed using a more rigorous finite-difference numerical model. Despite some limitations of the current implementation, the concept of this model gives engineers more degrees of freedom in defining their own model components, providing a good balance between simplicity, flexibility and accuracy.


The synthesis of polar functionalized cyclic olefin copolymers (COCs) from the coordination copolymerization of norbornene (NB) and polar monomers catalyzed by late transition metal catalysts has been a recent research hotspot. However, few catalysts have achieved efficient copolymerization with commercial vinyl-type polar monomers, such as methyl acrylate (MA). In this contribution, nickel complexes bearing 2-(diarylphosphino)-N-phenylbenzenamine ligands were synthesized and applied as pre-catalysts to catalyze the (co)polymerization of norbornene. Upon the activation of methylaluminoxane (MAO), these nickel catalysts were active for norbornene polymerization with the highest activity achieved being 3.6 × 106 g mol−1 h−1 and the highest number average molecular weight (Mn) of polynorbornene (PNB) reaching 27.4 × 105 g mol−1. Moreover, these nickel catalysts also promoted the copolymerization of norbornene and MA to furnish high-molecular-weight NB/MA copolymers (Mn up to 6.20 × 104 g mol−1) with reasonable MA contents (3.07−5.90 mol%). The molecular weight of PNB and NB/MA copolymers obtained by the present nickel catalysts are remarkably higher than those of the (co)polymers from our previous reported dimethyl substituted phosphinobenzenamine nickel catalyst, suggesting significant progress in this field.


The purpose of this article is (1) to establish that increasing punitiveness characterizes criminal justice policies in Japan and (2) to explain this trend in terms of the penal populism promoted by crime victims and supporting politicians. This article first examines newspaper articles to illuminate the increasingly punitive character of recent criminal justice policies in Japan in terms of both legislation and judicial decisions. The next section discusses the main contributing factors behind this trend and its public acceptance. The next two sections discuss two related issues: the public's subjective sense of security, and the lack of a role for empirical criminologists in criminal justice policy making in Japan. The concluding section compares the Japanese and Anglo-American situations and argues that the same penal populism seen in Anglo-American countries is rapidly rising in Japan, and that public distrust of government has ironically increased the state's investigative, prosecutorial, and sentencing powers in Japan. This article closes with the conjecture that police, prosecutors, and judges are unlikely to relinquish their increased power in the event that they gain the public's trust and equally unlikely in the event of a change of the ruling party.


This paper deals with the eigenvalue problem of a coupled rectangular cavity comprising five rigid walls and one flexible panel frequently employed in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to derive explicitly the eigenpairs of the coupled cavity, which are yet to be found. First, the coupling orthogonality conditions the eigenpairs need to satisfy are derived, thereby enabling the verification of the eigenpairs newly sought or already existent. Using the coupling orthogonality conditions, the modal equation of the coupled cavity system is then obtained, permitting one to deal with a forced response of the coupled cavity. It is shown that the eigenfunctions governing the dynamics of the sound field are expressed as the infinite sum of degenerate eigenfunctions. The characteristic matrix equation is then derived, specifying the eigenpairs of the coupled cavity. In order to investigate the fundamental properties of the eigenpairs derived, a numerical analysis is conducted, revealing the presence of evanescent modes in addition to the conventional standing wave modes.


Background: The Conventus Distal Radius System (DRS) is an intramedullary fixation scaffold inserted into the lateral aspect of the distal radius. The purpose of this study was to identify insertion site anatomy to illustrate risks associated with the minimally invasive nature of radial-sided implant application. Methods: Ten cadavers were utilized. Using fluoroscopy, the 1.1-mm Kirschner wire and template was introduced per manufacturer's guidelines, access guide assembled, and dissection carried out to the superficial radial nerve (SRN) with preservation of the native location. The access guide marked the insertion location for the side-cut drill. This point was measured in relationship to structures nearby, including the SRN, brachioradialis (BR), lateral antebrachial cutaneous nerve (LABCN), and radial styloid (RS). Results: The large guide contacted the SRN in 4 of 10 cadavers and was volar to it in 6 of 10. When volar, the mean distance was 1.7 mm. The tip of the RS to the large access guide averaged 44.5 mm. The small guide contacted the SRN in 2 of 10, was volar to it in 4 of 10, and between the bifurcation in 4 of 10. When volar, the distance averaged 3.25 mm. When bifurcated, the distance from the small guide to both the dorsal and volar branches was 3.5 mm. The distance from the RS to the small guide averaged 37.8 mm. The LABCN was found in the field of dissection in 4 of 10 cadavers. Conclusions: Several structures are at risk during insertion of the Conventus DRS; thus, knowledge of the relevant anatomy of this minimally invasive approach is crucial to optimize outcomes and patient satisfaction, and to avoid nerve injury.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

BACKGROUND:

Recent evidence suggests that dysregulation of tumor metabolism is a key feature in the progression of normal prostate epithelium to cancer, and may also reflect disease aggressiveness and metastatic potential. Identifying the altered metabolic processes driving prostate cancer progression is of particular importance in understanding the biology of this disease.

METHODS:

mRNA was extracted from the tumors of 404 participants of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Physicians' Health Study diagnosed with incident prostate cancer (113 lethal (prostate cancer death or metastases) and 291 non-lethal cases), and from adjacent histologically normal tissue available for 202 of these cases. mRNA expression was analyzed for 426 metabolic genes encoding enzymes involved in seven metabolic pathways: Fatty Acid metabolism, Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis, Oxidative Phosphorylation, Pentose Phosphate, Purine metabolism, Pyrimidine metabolism and the TCA cycle. Gene and pathway-level differences in expression between lethal and non-lethal tumors were assessed, and the findings compared to the expression patterns in adjacent normal tissue. Potential confounders and effect modifiers including cohort, age, year of diagnosis, BMI at diagnosis, clinical tumor stage and Gleason grade were explored and multiple testing was accounted for.

RESULTS:

Two thirds (99/130) of the genes significantly (p<0.05) associated with lethality were overexpressed in the lethal compared to non-lethal tumors, including POLR2K (p = 5.8×10-9), RRM2 (p = 7.7×10-9), ATP6V1A (p = 7.8×10-8) and POLE2 (p = 7.4×10-7). ALDH2 (p = 4.7×10-8) and PDE4DE (p = 7.1×10-8) were the top genes expressed at lower levels in lethal vs. non-lethal cancer. Purine metabolism (p = 5.6×10-9) Pyrimidine metabolism (p = 1.3×10-7) and Oxidative Phosphorylation (p = 5.3×10-6) were the metabolic pathways most strongly upregulated in lethal tumors, while Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis (p = 8.7×10-12) was inversely associated with lethality. There was no difference in expression of metabolic genes in normal adjacent tissue among the lethal compared to non-lethal cases, however genes in the Pentose Phosphate, Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis and Fatty acid metabolism pathways were differentially expressed in normal compared to tumor tissue. Results were robust to adjustment for, and stratification by potential confounders including Gleason grade.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results support the hypothesis that metabolic changes in tumors may have utility in predicting and understanding lethality. A better comprehension of the dysregulation in specific metabolic genes and pathways may offer novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Citation Format: Rachel S. Kelly, Jennifer A. Sinnott, Jennifer R. Rider, Ericka Ebot, Travis Gerke, Kathryn Penney, Michaela Bowden, Massimo Loda, Philip W. Kantoff, Neil E. Martin, Edward L. Giovannucci, Andreas Pettersson Pettersson, Svitlana Tyekucheva, Kathryn M. Wilson, Matthew Vander Heiden, Lorelei A. Mucci. Tumor metabolism as a driver of lethal prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5168. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5168


A 36-year-old woman with no prior history of thyroid dysfunction developed Graves' disease (hyperthyroidism with exophthalmos) 4 months after her maintenance lithium therapy was stopped. Although a causal relationship between these events cannot be established, several hypotheses are presented. The possibility that lithium may mask the hyperthyroidism of Graves' disease but allow the exophthalmos to develop cryptically is discussed. Hyperthyroidism and mania have similar symptoms, but in the case presented two psychiatrists were able to distinguish between these two conditions by careful examination.


In the 1980s, there was a huge increase in the outflow of foreign direct investment from Sweden to the EC. The EC market is the most important for Swedish firms and it is during the last decade that EC has undergone major changes. This paper uses a unique data set on individual Swedish MNCs for the years 1978, 1986 and 1990 to determine how FDIs in the EC have affected firms' propensity to invest in the home country. The model includes a financial constraint for MNCs which is consistent with the assumption that different investment projects are competing for scarce funds.


In this paper, we present a novel cluster-based data storage (CBDS) management protocol addressing environment monitoring application in wireless sensor networks, where the query for data is not real-time and the sensing data must be stored for future analysis. Since the amount of data generated by sensor nodes is much greater than the nodes' available storage, the CBDS need to reduce the data size by clustering and aggregating the raw data on temporal and spatial dimensions according to the observer's requirement. This strategy can store the data for long time. It provides significant saving in the size of stored data, which makes the WSN to work for longer time period without exhausting storage space. Furthermore, CBDS performs load balancing of energy power and storage resource (ICCT'06).


A new single-tilt technique for performing TEM stereomicroscopy of strain fields in crystalline materials has been developed. The technique is a weak beam technique that involves changing the value of g and/or sg while tilting across a set of Kikuchi bands. The primary benefit of the technique is it can be used with single-tilt TEM specimen holders including many specialty holders such as in situ straining, heating, and cooling holders. Standard stereo-TEM techniques are almost always limited to holders allowing two degrees of rotational freedom (i.e., double-tilt or tilt/rotation holders). An additional benefit of the new technique is that it eliminates the need to focus with the specimen height control. These advantages make it useful for stereo viewing or for quantitative stereomicroscopy provided necessary consideration is given to errors that may result from the technique.


A prototype of the Elliptical Multipole Wiggler (EMW) has been assembled, tested and tuned at the APS. This prototype has a period of 160 mm with 7 poles for the hybrid structure and 10 poles for the electromagnet part of the EMW. The hybrid structure of the EMW produces a vertical magnetic field of 0.83 T with K/sub y/=12 for a gap of 27 mm, and the electromagnetic structure provides a horizontal field change up to 100 Hz with a maximum field of 0.12 T (I=0.6 kA, K/sub x/=1.6). The current pulse has a trapezium-type shape with a switching time to change the current polarity of about 2 ms. The measurements and tuning were done for direct current (DC) mode and alternating current (AC) mode. Fine adjustment during the test at the NSLS X-ray ring using the BPMs and active correction system allowed to achieve about 1 /spl mu/m of beam distortion. It corresponds to the peak-to-peak variations during the time less than /spl plusmn/0.5 G-cm and /spl plusmn/100 G-cm/sup 2/ of the first and second horizontal field integrals respectively.


This article explores the history of "truth-in-testing" legislation nationally, and the educational, legal, and political consequences of law enacted in California and New York. It describes in detail the requirements of existing law and proposed legislation to require public filing of standardized admission tests. Conclusions are drawn concerning the efficacy of existing law, the adequacy of agencies' response to the law, and the prospects for broader legislation in the future. A major finding is that the New York law establishes a de facto national standard for "limited" test disclosure (i.e., disclosure of some but not all tests). Even though New York has experienced difficulty in implementing this statute, the law demonstrates that legislation requiring "limited" test disclosure is feasible for many, if not all, standardized admissions tests. However, several complex legal and Constitutional issues related to due process and property rights remain unresolved.


The vessels of the celiac axis were evaluated in 16 healthy volunteers with three‐dimensional gray scale ultrasonography. Sonographic volume data sets were obtained from both sagittal and transverse planes. The visualization of specific branches of the celiac artery (hepatic, splenic, left gastric, gastroduodenal, left hepatic, right hepatic, right gastric) was evaluated, and each vessel was placed in one of four categories on the basis of the appearance of the specific vessel and image clarity (not seen, poorly seen, adequately seen, well seen). Each vessel was evaluated on an initial two‐dimensional scan and on a second scan using the entire volume to optimize and follow the designated vessel using rotating, referencing, and scrolling display capabilities. The ability to manipulate an entire volume improved visualization of the selected vessels as noted by an improved score. The proportion of vessels in the "not seen" and "poorly seen" categories decreased from the initial scan (62.5%) to the scan utilizing the entire volume (36%). Alternatively, the percentage of vessels in the "adequately seen" to "well seen" categories improved from 37.50% on the initial examination to 64% on the scans using the entire volume to depict vascular anatomy. The optimal plane to image each vessel depended on the course of a specific vessel. For optimal imaging of all the selected vessels, both sagittal and transverse volume acquisitions and both sagittal and transverse planes were needed. Three‐dimensional imaging provided a new imaging plane (coronal) that was useful in following and identifying vessels, especially those vessels coursing in a right to left direction. Vascular variants were identified by this technique in two of 16 subjects. Vascular imaging was improved with three‐dimensional ultrasonography, and this imaging method may provide additional assistance in decision making when evaluating abdominal vessels.


A 122-channel d.c. SQUID magnetometer with a helmet-shaped detector array covering the subject's head has been operational in the Low Temperature Laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology since June 1992. The new system allows simultaneous recording of magnetic activity all over the head. The probe employs 122 planar first-order thin-film gradiometers in dual units with two exactly orthogonal channels at 61 measurement sites. The performance of the device is analyzed and compared with more conventional axial gradiometer arrays by considering signal-to-noise ratios, spatial sampling theory, confidence intervals for the estimated equivalent current dipole positions, and information-theoretical channel capacity. The signal-to-noise ratio and the resolution of the planar and axial arrays with the same number of channels are found practically equal. The number of channels and their spacing in our new Neuromag-122 system are found fully adequate for neuromagnetic measurements. An example of whole cortex recordings of auditory evoked brain activity is presented and analyzed.


An electrostatically enhanced phenol is utilized as a straightforward, sustainable, and potent one-component organocatalyst for the atom-economic transformation of epoxides to oxazolidinones under microwave irradiation. Integrating a positively charged center into phenols over a modular one-step preparation gives rise to a bifunctional system with improved acidity and activity, competent in rapid assembly of epoxides and isocyanates under microwave irradiation in a short reaction time (20-60 min). A careful assessment of the efficacy of various positively charged phenols and anilines and the impact of several factors, such as catalyst loading, temperature, and the kind of nucleophile, on catalytic reactivity were examined. Under neat conditions, this one-component catalytic platform was exploited to prepare more than 40 examples of oxazolidinones from a variety of aryl- and alkyl-substituted epoxides and isocyanates within minutes, where up to 96% yield and high degree of selectivity were attained. DFT calculations to achieve reaction barriers for different catalytic routes were conducted to provide mechanistic understanding and corroborated the experimental findings in which concurrent epoxide ring-opening and isocyanate incorporation were proposed.


This concisely written book makes a powerful argument that the focus of research in the cancer field should be shifted from full-stage cancer to the more promising area of precancer. The entire book encompasses less than 200 pages, including an extensive glossary aimed at clarifying terminology with which a person lacking a research background may be unfamiliar. Because explanations of scientific terminology are located in the glossary, Berman and Moore have prevented the book from being too elementary for an advanced scientist. The logical organization of the chapters results in this becoming quite an easy book to read. [...]


Strain engineering has attracted extensive attention as a valid method to tune the physical and chemical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Here, based on first-principles calculations and by solving the semi-classical Boltzmann transport equation, we reveal that the tensile strain can efficiently enhance the thermoelectric properties of the GeS2 monolayer. It is highlighted that the GeS2 monolayer has a suitable band gap of 1.50 eV to overcome the bipolar conduction effects in materials and can even maintain high stability under a 6% tensile strain. Interestingly, the band degeneracy in the GeS2 monolayer can be effectually regulated through strain, thus improving the power factor. Moreover, the lattice thermal conductivity can be reduced from 3.89 to 0.48 W/mK at room temperature under 6% strain. More importantly, the optimal ZT value for the GeS2 monolayer under 6% strain can reach 0.74 at room temperature and 0.92 at 700 K, which is twice its strain-free form. Our findings provide an exciting insight into regulating the thermoelectric performance of the GeS2 monolayer by strain engineering.


A study of the extraction of oak wood compounds with subcritical water-ethanol mixtures as extractants, with an ethanol content bel',,veen 0 and 60%, is reported. Identification and characterization of the extracted compounds were achieved by spectrophotometry and by gas chromatographywith either flame ionization or mass spectrometric detection. Extraction was performed statically by use of a single cycle or repeated cycles. All variables affecting the extraction process were studied and optimized. Extraction time and temperature were 60 min and 200 ~ respectively. Comparison of the extract thus obtained with commercial extracts showed the former to be rich in compounds characteristic of the commercial extracts. The method also enables manipulation of extract composition by changing the temperature and the water/ethanol ratio used. It is faster than traditional procedures for obtaining wood extracts.


The paper examines a plausible reason why the results are inconsistent about family business financial performance. Less agency cost is a common explanation when family businesses perform better than non-family businesses. Nonetheless minimizing agency cost through trust and strong social and emotional bonds in the family can lead to lower financial performance in several cases, because control is less strong. Therefore, less agency cost is not enough to make a general explanation. In the behavioural agency model family business managers do not seem to be risk avoiders. Instead, they avoid loss even if it means riskier decisions. They preserve the socioemotional wealth of the family, which) is the most important capital for them. Behavioural agency model explains why family business performance measures are inconsistent. Under certain circumstances family businesses risk tolerance is not static, socioemotional wealth is used as a reference point.


Background: Individual genetic variability may influence the course of multiple sclerosis (MS). The interleukin (IL)-8C>T rs2227306 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) regulates IL-8 activity in other clinical conditions; however, its role in MS has never been investigated. Objectives: To explore the association between IL-8 SNP rs2227306, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) IL-8 concentrations, clinical, and radiological characteristics in a group of newly diagnosed MS patients. Methods: In 141 relapsing-remitting (RR)-MS patients, rs2227306 polymorphism, CSF levels of IL-8, clinical, and demographical characteristics were determined. In 50 patients, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures were also assessed. Results: An association between CSF IL-8 and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) at diagnosis was found in our set of patients (r = 0.207, p = 0.014). CSF IL-8 concentrations were significantly higher in patients carrying the T variant of rs2227306 (p = 0.004). In the same group, a positive correlation emerged between IL-8 and EDSS (r = 0.273, p = 0.019). Finally, a negative correlation between CSF levels of IL-8 and cortical thickness emerged in rs2227306T carriers (r = −0.498, p = 0.005). Conclusion: We describe for the first time a role of SNP rs2227306 of IL-8 gene in regulating the expression and the activity of this inflammatory cytokine in MS.


The interactions between luminophore [Ru(bpy)3]2+, and the lacunary Dawson heteropolyanions, [P2W17O61(FeOH2)]7-, [P2W17O61(FeBr)]6- and [P2W17O61]10- were investigated using a combination of photophysics, optical and Raman spectroscopy. Extensive quenching of the excited state of [Ru(bpy)3]2+ was observed in each case. Quenching is attributed to the formation of association complexes between [Ru(bpy)(3)]2+ and the heteropolyanions in which the charge on the heteropolyanions is fully compensated for by the ruthenium polypyridyl species. The interaction appears to be principally electrostatic in nature producing [Ru(bpy)3]3.5[P2W17O61(FeOH2)], [Ru(bpy)3]3[P2W17O61(FeBr)] and [Ru(bpy)3]5[P2W17O61]10-. The association constants for formation of the clusters were obtained from photophysical studies and surprisingly, despite the electrostatic nature of the interaction, there was no correlation between the charge on the polyoxometallate and the association constant. In particular, the unsubstituted lacunary, [P2W17O61]10-, showed considerably weaker association compared to the transition metal substituted lacunaries, in spite of its 10- charge. Difference absorption spectroscopy revealed a new transition at ca. 480 nm for each of the cluster complexes. From resonance Raman spectroscopy the origin of this transition was found to involve the polyoxometallate. Unlike previously reported adducts, the cluster complexes formed were not luminescent. In all cases the cluster complexes exhibit remarkable photostability, with no photodecomposition or photo-induced ligand exchange reactions evident in acetonitrile, under conditions where [Ru(bpy)3]2+ alone exhibits considerable photolability.


Memory studies is a well-established academic discipline, but the revised issue of ethnicity poses a new set of research questions, particularly in relation to the problem of the operational character of memory and ethnicity in the context of traumatized identity. Contemporary political processes in Europe, populism, and nationalism, in addition to ethnic challenges in the form of demographic shifts have created a situation in which new national identities have been developed simultaneously with emerging competitive historical memories. Memory, Identity, and Nationalism in European Regions is an essential scholarly resource that investigates the interactions between politics and managed historical memory and the discourse of ethnicity in European regions. Featuring topics such as anthropology, memory politics, and national identity, this book is ideally designed for scholars, practitioners, specialists, and politicians.


In electrical devices poured by epoxy resin, there are a lot of interfaces between epoxy resin and other solid dielectrics, i.e. solid-solid interfaces. Experiments were carried out to study the flashover characteristics of two typical solid-solid interfaces (epoxy-ceramic and epoxy-PMMA) under steep high-voltage impulse for different electrode systems (coaxial electrodes and finger electrodes) and different types of epoxy resin (neat epoxy resin, polyether modified epoxy resin and polyurethane modified epoxy resin). Results showed that, the flashover of solid-solid interface is similar to the breakdown of solid dielectric, and there are unrecoverable carbonated tracks after flashover. Under the same distance of electrodes, the electric stress of coaxial electrodes is lower than that of finger electrodes; and after the flashover, there are more severe breakdown and larger enhanced surface conductivity at interface for coaxial electrodes, as compared with the case of finger electrode. The dielectric properties are also discussed.


Aneurysms of the extracranial internalcarotid artery are rare. There are few reports in the medical literature about the etiology of this disease, relating it to atherosclerosis, arteritis and alterations due to trauma or after a surgical procedure. The natural history of this disease has not been defined. However, the potential risk of embolism or rupture creates a need for intervention. We will present the case of a 71 year old woman with pulsatile headaches who was diagnosed a 3 cm aneurysm of the right extracranial internal carotid artery. After an unsuccessful attempt at endovascular treatment, we performed an aneurysmectomy and primary arterial anastomosis near the cranium base.


The article discusses the problems that may appear in the federative cooperation between the central level and municipalities and generate divergence around offered programs. Empirically, we analyze the National Program of Support to Fiscal and Administrative Management of Brazilian Municipalities (PNAFM) turned to modernize municipal management because it permits to evaluate the contrasting viewings between federal agencies (Department of the Treasury (MF)/Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF)) and municipalities. Theoretically, the argument to be discussed is that the existence of contradictory positions between federal agencies offering programs and local governments as recipients may create federative dissonances that result in low performance in terms of adhesion from subnational governments. This is a qualitative (we did interviews and documentary analysis) and quantitative research (we applied a survey in Brazilian municipalities and compiled information of the signed contracts according to reports obtained with the CEF. It was found that the federative dissonance expressed through numbers of municipal adhesion and by the opposed viewings of the feds and locals as the interviews with representatives of MF, CEF and municipalities. In terms of intergovernmental cooperation to promote municipal state capacities the analyzed case evidences as the optimism and capacities of enforcement from federal managers can approach the ambition of goals of a program with the failures of implementation and timidity of reached results.


Fruit quality of 'York' tomatoes harvested at breaker and pink stages was investigated at different storage temperatures. The storage temperatures for the breaker fruits were 5, 10, 15℃ and room temperature, while those for the pink fruits were 1, 5, 10℃ and room temperature. Soluble solid contents were highest in the pink fruits stored at lower temperatures. Glucose and fructose contents were 8.1-8.9 and 8.2-8.7 mg·g -1 FW in breaker and pink fruit at harvest and showed no significant difference between both stages. Decreases in organic acid content was greater in treatments of higher storage temperatures than those in the other treatments. Water content and firmness of the fruits stored at higher temperatures rapidly declined, especially in the breaker fruits. Symptoms of chilling injury such as soaking, delay of coloration and unattractable appearance were found when tomatoes were stored at lower than 5℃. Storability of the breaker fruits, which was evaluated by elapsed days to red ripe stage could be stored for 7, 11, and 18 days when they were stored at room temperature, 15, and 10℃, respectively. On the other hands, storability of the pink fruits could be 4 and 7 days at room temperature and 10℃, respectively. Results indicate that the optimum storage temperature to maintain the quality of breaker fruits is about 10℃, while that for the pink fruit is between 5-10℃.


Spintronics and spin-based technology rely on the ultra-fast unbalance of the electronic spin population in quite localized spatial regions. However, as a matter of fact, the low susceptibility of conventional materials at high frequencies strongly limits these phenomena, rendering the efficiency of magnetically active devices insufficient for application purposes. Among the possible strategies which can be envisaged, plasmonics offers a direct approach to increase the effect of local electronic unbalancing processes. By confining and enhancing free radiation in nm-size spatial regions, plasmonic nano-assemblies have demonstrated to support very intense electric and magnetic hot-spots. In particular, very recent studies have proven the fine control of magnetic fields in Fano resonance condition. The near-field-induced out-of-phase oscillation of localized surface plasmons has manifested itself with the arising of magnetic sub-diffractive hot-spots. Here, we show how this effect can be further boosted in the mid-infrared regime via the introduction of higher order plasmonic modes. The investigated system, namely Moon Trimer Resonator, combines the high efficiency of a strongly coupled nano-assembly in Fano interferential condition with the elevated tunability of the quadrupolar resonance supported by a moon-like geometry. The fine control of the apical gap in this unique nanostructure, characterizes a plasmonic device able to tune its resonance without any consequence on the magnetic hot-spot size, thus enabling an efficient squeezing in the infrared.


The dust cover of this book states: "His [Dr. Beard's] scientific observations were set down piece by piece and published by the University of W. A. Press. The present book is an interpretation designed for the general reader." And a nice interpretation it is. What appears from the outside to be just another book of pictures of wildflowers is a presentation of the vegetation-types of Western Australia; a summation of about 30 years of work by the author in the realm of descriptive ecology. Though written for the layperson, the book manages to be easy to understand without being overly simplistic or condescending. It assumes an intelligent reader. The Introduction provides a brief history of ecological botany in Australia, and defines basic terms and concepts. The second chapter, entitled "The Environment," describes the physical features of Western Australia that influence the vegetation. The remaining three chapters describe and illustrate the major vegetation provinces. In these last three chapters the provinces are broken down into regions, and then further subdivided. Whatever the ultimate division, the geology, climate, topography and soils are described. A detailed description of the region is provided giving floristic composition, structure (strata), and growth-form. The dominant species are given in the discussion but are also listed by class (tree, shrub, etc.). The vegetation-types are abundantly illustrated with color photographs. Particularly attractive or interesting plants are also presented through the photos. A glossary and index are provided at the end. This book makes enjoyable reading. Both the text and figure captions are replete with anecdotes and trivia which not only keep one's interest, but also impart Dr. Beard's obvious enthusiasm for his subject. If I have one criticism it is of the quality of the reproduction of the photos (this may only concern my copy of the book). Overall, they are a little washed out and reddish. In spite of this I would heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in descriptive ecology or Australian plants. It would also be a nice addition to a collection of more traditional wildflower-photo books.--JAMES GRIMES, New York Botanical Garden.


We introduce a series of evolutionary robotics simulations that address the behaviour of individuals in socially contingent interactions. The models are based on a recent study by Auvray, Lenay and Stewart (2006) on tactile perceptual crossing in a minimal virtual environment. In accordance, both the empirical experiments and our simulations point out the essential character of global embodied interaction dynamics for the sensitivity to contingency to arise. Rather than being individually perceived by any of the interactors, sensitivity to contingency arises from processes of circular causality that characterise the collective dynamics. Such global dynamical aspects are frequently neglected when studying social cog-nition. Furthermore, our synthetic studies point out interesting aspects of the task that are not immediately obvious in the empirical data. They, in addition, generate new hypotheses for further experiments. We conclude by promoting a minimal but tractable, dynamic and embodied account to social interaction, combining synthetic and empirical findings as well as concrete predictions regarding sensorimotor strategies, the role of time-delays and robustness to perturbations in interactive dynamics.


Before analysing the strategic choices that the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice has implemented in recent years, the essay reflects on certain assumptions that affect the economics of opera. After noting that opera production meets «market failure», because this activity can't achieve economic self-sufficiency - which explains why public and private sectors should support it by providing appropriate funding - it analyses the specific economic balance of an opera house, the proceeds attainable (contributions and box office) and the cost (permanent staff, cast, fixed expenses). The essay then identifies the strategies to pursue, depending on the context in which the institution operates, and finally it discusses the strategy of productivity - the optimal use of available resources - which integrates the traditional «seasons» (eight new productions a year) with repertoire (the revival of productions presented in previous years). This pattern has been successfully implemented by the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, thanks also to the tourist flow through the city of Venice, and can be a benchmark for many Italian opera houses which have recently required rescue packages from the state. Of course, this strategy can only be used as an adjunct to government and/or private grants, which are still of vital importance to opera theatres.


Background: Although a widespread problem, victimisation research on primary school children is limited, especially in disadvantaged regions. The aim of the current research was to address this absence in the literature with the analysis of the first wave data from a longitudinal study as part of the "Healthy Schools" programme in a disadvantaged urban region. Method: The current study explored victimisation incidences among 458 seven to twelve year old Irish primary school children, and associations with depression, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and social support. Results: Victimisation frequency (33.8%) was consistent with recent literature, with scores positively correlating with depression levels. On the stand-alone victimisation question, victims scored lower on all HRQoL subscales compared to non-victims. Further categorisation of victimisation behaviours revealed that frequent-victims scored lower on four of these subscales, compared to non-victims. Conclusion: Although from an area considered to be disadvantaged, rates of victimisation were consistent with data from more affluent areas. Results stress an importance on specific bullying behaviours when measuring victimisation rates, along with corresponding health consequences. Future research should continue to adopt the behaviour based assessment of victimisation to provide an overall picture of the problem.


Currently, fluorescent nanoparticles are considered as promising enhancers of photodynamic activity of traditional photosensitizers in the procedures of photodynamic therapy of can-cer and inactivation of pathogens. On the one hand, such nanoparticles act as a nanoplatform for target delivery of dye molecules to cells, on the other – as light-harvesting antennas that increase the effective absorption cross-section of the dye. In this paper the influence of semiconductor CdSe/ZnS quantum dots coated with a polymer shell on the photostability of zinc or aluminum polycationic phthalocyanines was studied. It was shown that in presence of the quantum dots the rate of photobleaching of phthalocyanines increases significantly both with direct illumination of phthalocyanine by red light and with the quantum dot-mediated illumination by blue light. This effect can be explained by the fact that phthalocyanine is the primary target for the attack of reactive oxygen species inside the polymer shell of the quantum dot. The rate of bleaching of chemical trap of the reactive oxygen species 4-nitroso-N,N-dimethylaniline in phthalocyanine solution increases in the presence of the quantum dot under red light illumination. We believe that the chemical trap is concentrated in the polymer shell of the quantum dot, which increases the probability of its damage by active oxygen species generated by the phthalocyanine. Since the diffusion of reactive oxygen species from the polymer shell of a nanoparticle into the surrounding solution is slow, the use of quantum dots as an enhancer of the photodynamic action of phthalocyanines can be effective only in the absence of significant steric obstacles to the diffusion of reactive oxygen species to the target molecules of photodynamic inactivation.


Arapuni Dam, located on the Waikato River 55 km upstream from Hamilton New Zealand, has a history of seepage incidents, relating to its rock foundation, since first filling in 1927. The latest seepage event led to a comprehensive investigation to determine the extent of the foundation features requiring treatment to prevent further incidents from developing. A targeted cost effective solution involving drilling and concreting overlapping vertical piles from the dam crest through the dam and underlying rock formation to a total depth of 90m was selected to form four separate permanent cut-off walls at discrete locations beneath the dam. The discrete cut-off solution removes the risk of further piping incidents at Arapuni, restores the foundation seepage condition to that typical of a concrete dam and, with coverage of approximately half the crest length of the dam, is considerably cheaper than providing a cut-off over the full length of the dam crest. This solution was enabled by an extensive exploratory drilling and testing investigation before hand. Investigation drill holes and weirs connecting to foundation underdrains were instrumented and monitored providing near real-time pressure and flow data. Safety of the dam was thus monitored during cut-off construction and cut-off effectiveness was verified subsequently.


: The Ecuadorian indigenous movement emerged just as the binaries that once defined the Indian/white boundary became acknowledged internal polarities of indigenous society. In this article, I argue that these divergences energized indigenous communities, which built material infrastructure, social networks, and political capital across widening gaps in values and incomes. They managed this task through a kind of vernacular statecraft, making the most of list making, council formation, and boundary drawing. As the movement shifts into electoral politics, the same community politics that launched it now challenges the national organization. As they work to define a coherent national program, the principal organizations of the national movement must reproduce the local contacts and relations among communities that made Ecuador's indigenous pluriculturalism such a potent presence in the 1990s.


Memory and communication architectures have a significant impact on the cost, performance, and time-to-market of complex multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) designs. The memory architecture dictates most of the data traffic flow in a design, which in turn influences the design of the communication architecture. Thus, there is a need to cosynthesize the memory and communication architectures to avoid making suboptimal design decisions. This is in contrast to traditional platform-based design approaches where memory and communication architectures are synthesized separately. In this paper, the authors propose an automated application-specific cosynthesis framework for memory and communication architecture (COSMECA) in MPSoC designs. The primary objective is to design a communication architecture having the least number of buses, which satisfies performance and memory-area constraints, while the secondary objective is to reduce the memory-area cost. Results of applying COSMECA to several industrial strength MPSoC applications from the networking domain indicate a saving of as much as 40% in number of buses and 29% in memory area compared to the traditional approach


Lilik Handayani
Politeknik Perkapalan Negeri Surabaya
(email@example.com)
Abstract
The present study was a case study undertaken to investigate the learning strategy employed by
an EFL student and improvement of his listening comprehension. Participant"s learning
strategy was measured by Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) questionnaire and
Strategic Listening Interview (SLI). The participant"s listening comprehension skill was
measured by an EFL listening comprehension test. The result of SILL questionnaire was
calculated and analyzed to determine the most dominantly applied learning strategy. It was
triangulated to the result of SLI, whereas the result of listening comprehension test was linked to
the learning strategy. The findings revealed that the higher the level of strategic listening score
the student obtained, the higher the score he attained on the listening comprehension test and
vice versa.
Keywords: learning strategy, SLI, SILL


The machine translation efficiency task challenges participants to make their systems faster and smaller with minimal impact on translation quality. How much quality to sacrifice for efficiency depends upon the application, so participants were encouraged to make multiple submissions covering the space of trade-offs. In total, there were 53 submissions by 4 teams. There were GPU, single-core CPU, and multi-core CPU hardware tracks as well as batched throughput or single-sentence latency conditions. Submissions showed hundreds of millions of words can be translated for a dollar, average latency is 5–17 ms, and models fit in 7.5–150 MB.


Summary
The isoquinoline drugs UK2054 and UK2371 were tested for activity against rhino-viruses. UK2054, but not UK2371, decreased the yield of rhinovirus types 2, 4, 9 and 43 from HeLa cells maintained in medium containing the drug. This activity was not demonstrable in a semi-continuous line of human embryo lung fibroblasts, HEL-218. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, human volunteers were experimentally infected with rhinovirus type 9 and given prophylactic and therapeutic UK2054 by mouth. No significant antiviral activity was found in this trial.
We thank Messrs Pfizer Ltd for supplies of drug and placebo tablets, Miss M. D. Turnbull for help with clinical observations, and Mrs Susan Finniss for valuable technical assistance. We also thank Dr D. A. J. Tyrrell and Dr E. J. Stott for much helpful advice.


OBJECTIVE
to analyze the AIDS epidemic trend from 1988 to 2012, in a tri-border area.

METHOD
Ecological time-series study with data from the Department of informatics from the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS).

RESULTS
A total of 1427 cases of AIDS were registered, and 82.1% were aged 20-49 years and 56% in males. The relationship man/woman went from 9/1 to 1/1 and increased the number of cases among individuals with more years of education, also, people aged more than 50 years old the age group from 20 to 34 years old. The most common exposure category was heterosexual, significantly higher among women; on the other hand, drug injection use was associated with male gender.

CONCLUSION
seeking to embrace the changes in the epidemiological scenario of AIDS, nursing professionals should implement intervention strategies for people identified as the most vulnerable to HIV infection.


The colour locus historically referred to as C in the horse is linked to microsatellites markers on horse chromosome 21. Preliminary results demonstrated linkage of Ccr, thought to be the cream dilution variant of the C locus, to HTG10. An analysis of horse chromosome 21 using additional families confirmed and established a group of markers linked to Ccr. This work also improved the resolution of previously reported linkage maps for this chromosome. Linkage analysis unambiguously produced the map order: SGCV16-(19.1 cM)-HTG10-(3.8 cM)-LEX60/COR73-(1.3 cM)-COR68-(4.5 cM)- Ccr-(11.9 cM)-LEX31. Comparative and synteny data suggested that the horse C locus is not tyrosinase (TYR).


Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed type of cancer in women in all world regions. About 1.7 million cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year. Breast cancer is the most common cause of death in women worldwide. There were approximately 0.5 million deaths worldwide from breast cancer in 2012, several serum tumor markers have been evaluated in breast cancer. CA15-3 is the most important serum biomarkers used for diagnosis and monitoring of breast cancer. Objective: To evaluate the level of CA15-3 of studied groups according to age categories, residence nearby industries, and history of breast feeding. Patients and Methods: This study was carried out at the Breast Surgery Outpatients and the Oncology Clinic at Oncology Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. It included 50 women who were newly diagnosed by oncology group to have had breast cancer and didn't receive chemotherapy yet and 50 healthy women as control. Results: There was significant increase at (P> 0.05) in serum CA15-3 level of patients with age category (71-80) years (198.33 ± 136.60 U/ml) and significant elevation in serum CA15-3 level of patients who lived near industries or incinerators (120 ± 94.52 U/ml) also there was significant increase in serum CA15-3 level in healthy women with breast feeding history (25.8 ± 15.26 U/ml). Conclusion: CA15-3 level significantly elevated in elderly patients with age category (7180) years and in patients with residence nearby industries or incinerators. Therefore, those patients at high risk of developing metastatic breast cancer or advanced stages of breast cancer.


Hope is an important factor in life which influences all other factors of life including Quality of Life. The study on 'Impact of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy on Hope and Quality of Life in PL-HIV' was carried out in 2 NGOs in Ooty, the Nilgiris District. Fifty eight PL-HIV registered under the two NGOs were screened using the Beck's Hopelessness Scale and the Quality of Life Questionnaire. Forty Six PL-HIV with high Hopelessness and  low Quality of Life were selected for the study by Convenience Sampling Method. They were18 male and 28 female PL-HIV between the age range of 20-54 years (Mage= 37.46). Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, a psychological intervention was given to each sample individually 2 days a week for 16 weeks. On the whole, 32 sessions were given to the entire sample. The duration of each session was 45 minutes to 1 hour. After 16 weeks of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, the entiresample was re-assessed using the Beck's Hopelessness Scale and the Quality of Life Questionnaire. The experimental design used was 'Assessment before and after treatment without control group'. Before and after  therapy, there is a negative influence of Hopelessness over Quality of Life. ANOVA test  showed that the psychological intervention of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy played a vital role in dealing with Hopelessness in PL-HIV.


The ionic motion in connection with the redox transformation of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) conjugated polymer have been studied by both experimental-electrochemical (electrochemical quartz crystal nanobalance, EQCN) and spectroscopic (infrared spectroscopy, IR-ATR)-and theoretical methods. The observations have been completed by direct, semiquantitative analytical data, provided by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) microanalysis. The EQCN results suggested an anomalous behavior, since only cationic movements have been observed for films deposited from chloride solutions. Chloride ions were proved to be immobile also when bulky tetrabutylammonium (Bu(4)N(+)) cations were substituted with even larger (hexadecyltrimethylammonium) cations. Since PEDOT films synthesized in the presence of other spherical, not too large anions-such as perchlorate and tetrafluoroborate-endowed mixed ion exchange behavior together with the Bu(4)N(+) cation, the possibility of a special interaction between chloride and the polymeric chain has been assumed. Semiempirical and DFT calculations indicated that chloride ions interact with the α carbon atoms of the thiophene rings of the oxidized EDOT oligomers, creating sp(3) type perturbations in the polymer chain. FTIR-ATR spectra evidenced the appearance of C-Cl bonds. Elementary analysis, performed by EDX spectroscopy with eight polymer samples at different doping levels clearly showed the permanent presence of constant amount of chlorine, independently of the oxidation state of the PEDOT layer. Finally, the presented observations call attention to the fact that unique dopant-polymer interactions during the electrochemical polymerization are of prime importance, being able to rule over conventions for the charge compensation of conjugated polymers, often solely based on steric parameters.


A new family of codes is described for representing serial binary data, subject to constraints on the maximum separation between successive changes in value (0 \rightarrow 1, 1 \rightarrow , or both), or between successive like digits ( 0 's, 1 's, or both). These codes have application to the recording or transmission of digital data without an accompanying clock. In such cases, the clock must be regenerated during reading (receiving, decoding), and its accuracy controlled directly from the data itself. The codes developed for this type of synchronization are shown to be optimal, and to require a very small amount of redundancy. Their encoders and decoders are not unreasonably complex, and they can be easily extended to include simple error detection or correction for almost the same additional cost as is required for arbitrary data.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunist pathogen of low invasiveness which can cause serious disease in patients with abnormal defence mechanisms against infection. Advances in medicine and surgery have resulted in an increase in such patients and Ps. aeruginosa has therefore assumed greater importance in hospital practice. During the years 1974-1980 Pseudomonas organisms were cultured from the blood of 69 patients at East Birmingham Hospital. The records of these patients have been reviewed with the intention of identifying those at risk and suggesting a rational approach to the management and prevention of pseudomonas infections. The importance of differentiating pseudomonas septicaemia from transient bacteraemia or contaminated blood cultures is stressed.


BackgroundAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) among bacterial pathogens is a fast-growing public health concern. AMR in non-typhoidal Salmonella species among food animals is of special concern as this may transmit resistant pathogens to humans during handling or consumption of animal products. In Nepal, the possibility of AMR Salmonella species among food animals is an important area of research, particularly in light of the rapidly growing poultry industry, lack of surveillance, and paucity of studies that have been conducted. MethodsTaking one health approach, a cross-sectional study was carried out in Chitwan district of Nepal between May and October 2017. Various environmental samples viz. farm litter, feed, water, poultry feces, vehicle swabs, farm swabs from 12 broiler poultry farms and various sections of poultry carcasses from 21 slaughter houses were aseptically collected. These were microbiologically assessed for the presence of non-typhoidal Salmonella and their phenotypic and genotypic indicators of antimicrobial resistance. ResultsOverall, Of 62 environmental samples collected, 31(50%) tested positive for Salmonella enterica serovars with environmental swabs (70%, 8/12) being the most culture positive sample types. Similarly, of 159 tissue samples collected from 24 carcasses, 79% (126/159) were culture positive for Salmonella enterica. Nearly 97% (153/157), 11% (17/157), 5% (8/157) and none of isolates showed resistance to tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin and meropenem respectively. Some 83% (131/157), 40% (64/157), 8% (13/157) and 0.6% (1/157) of isolates tested positive for tetA, QrnS, mefA and VIM-1 AMR genes corresponding to the above antimicrobials respectively.ConclusionsThis study revealed gross contamination of farms and subsequent poultry meat samples with Salmonella enterica serovars that were resistant to several clinically applicable antimicrobials. This reinforces an urgent need to implement proper biosecurity approaches from farms to slaughter houses and strengthen policies to cease the rampant use of clinically important antimicrobials in poultry.


The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Acciona Energy North America are working together to design and implement a process system that provides a permanent solution to the issue of hydrogen buildup at parabolic trough power plants. We are pursuing a method that selectively removes hydrogen from the expansion tanks that serve as reservoirs for the heat transfer fluid (HTF) that circulates in the collector field and power block components. Our modeling shows that removing hydrogen from the expansion tanks at a design rate reduces and maintains dissolved hydrogen in the circulating HTF to a selected target level. Our collaborative work consists of several tasks that are needed to advance this process concept to a development stage, where it is ready for implementation at a commercial power plant. Our main effort is to design and evaluate likely process-unit operations that remove hydrogen from the expansion tanks at a specified rate. Additionally, we designed and demonstrated a method and instrumentation to measure hydrogen partial pressure and concentration in the expansion-tank headspace gas. We measured hydrogen partial pressure in the headspace gas mixture using a palladium-alloy membrane, which is permeable exclusively to hydrogen. The membrane establishes a pure hydrogen gas phase that is in equilibrium with the hydrogen in the gas mixture. We designed and fabricated instrumentation, and demonstrated its effectiveness in measuring hydrogen partial pressures over a range of three orders of magnitude. Our goal is to install this instrument at the Nevada Solar One power plant and to demonstrate its effectiveness in measuring hydrogen levels in the expansion tanks under normal plant operating conditions.The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Acciona Energy North America are working together to design and implement a process system that provides a permanent solution to the issue of hydrogen buildup at parabolic trough power plants. We are pursuing a method that selectively removes hydrogen from the expansion tanks that serve as reservoirs for the heat transfer fluid (HTF) that circulates in the collector field and power block components. Our modeling shows that removing hydrogen from the expansion tanks at a design rate reduces and maintains dissolved hydrogen in the circulating HTF to a selected target level. Our collaborative work consists of several tasks that are needed to advance this process concept to a development stage, where it is ready for implementation at a commercial power plant. Our main effort is to design and evaluate likely process-unit operations that remove hydrogen from the expansion tanks at a specified rate. Additionally, we designed and demonstrated a method and instrumentati...


Note on the nomenclature of Uncinula spiralis B. & C. Burrill and Earle, in their Parasitic Fungi of Illinois, Part II, p. 406, have described this species under the name Uncinula ampelopsidis Pk., giving U Americana Pk. (1872), U. spiralis B. & C. (1876), and U. subfusca B. & C. (1876) as synonyms in the order named. These authors evidently overlooked the fact that as long ago as 1857 Berkeley, in his Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany (p. 278, fig. 64), figured two appendages and a six spored ascus of what is undoubtedly this fungus, giving below the figure the name Uncinula spiralis Berkeley & Curtiss. There seems to be no good reason why we should not accept this name which is adopted by Farlow & Seymour in their Provisional Host Index. As the scope of the latter work forbids explanations we thought the present one might not be out of place. Accepting Berkeley and Curtiss' name, we have for the species, then, the following synonymy: UNCINULA SPIRALIS B. & C., Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany, p. 278, fig. 64, 1857. U. ampelopsidis Pk., Trans. Albany Inst., Vol. VII, p. 216, 1872. U. Americana Howe, Erysiphei of the United States, Journal of Botany, 1872. U. subfusca B. & C., Grev. IV. p. 160, 1876.-B. T. GALLOWAY, Washington, D. C.


Internet of Things devices are popular in civilian and military applications, including smart device cities, smart grids, smart pipelines, and medical Internet of Things. Among them, carsharing supported by the Internet of Things is developing rapidly due to their advantages in environmental protection and reducing traffic congestion. The optimization of the carsharing system needs to consider the uncertainty of demand and the coupling relationship of multiple decision variables, which brings difficulties to the establishment of mathematical models and the design of efficient algorithms. Existing studies about carsharing optimization are mainly divided into four subproblems: the operation mode selection, vehicle type selection, demand analysis, or decision-making, rather than comprehensive consideration. This paper summarizes the four subproblems from the perspective of mathematical models, solving algorithms, and statistical methods and provides references for more comprehensive research in the future.


P-glycoproteins transport a wide variety of hydrophobic compounds out of cells. While the diversity of transported molecules suggests a mechanism involving broad specificity, there is evidence of significant discrimination within given classes of molecules. One example of this behavior is transport of corticosteroids by the murine mdr1 P-glycoprotein. The presence of hydroxyl groups, associated with specific steroid carbon atoms, regulates the ability of corticosteroids to be transported. This specificity is demonstrated here by experiments measuring the ability of steroids to inhibit drug transport. The results indicate that a keto oxygen associated with the 3- and 20-carbon atoms, as well as a 17-carbon hydroxyl group, each acts to enhance steroidal P-glycoprotein inhibitory activity. Moreover, inhibitory steroids can be used for directed selection of variant cells, expressing mutated P-glycoproteins with a severely impaired ability to transport dexamethasone. The five mutations, reported here, are located within transmembrane domains 4–6, proximal to the cytoplasmic interface. The altered P-glycoproteins exhibit reduced capacity to be inhibited by specific steroids, suggesting decreased capacity to bind these molecules avidly. Studies comparing the relative inhibitory activity of a series of steroids indicate that these mutations alter recognition of the 17α-hydroxyl group and the 20-keto oxygen atom.


This work aimed to investigate the phytochemical compositions and in-vitro antimicrobial activities of ethanolic extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam against isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. This involved phytochemical screening and antimicrobial testing of ethanol extracts of Moringa oleifera using basic pharmacognostic procedures and agar well diffusion assay on test pathogens respectively. Alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins and tannins were detected in all extracts with the exception of root which was devoid of saponins and the seeds which contained no tannins. The agar well diffusion assay showed that M. oleifera extracts showed antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Minimum Inhibitory concentrations (MIC) values were (25 mg/ml and 50 mg/ml for the root), (100 mg/ml for the seed) and (50 mg/ ml and 100 mg/ml for the pod) against the three organisms. The leaf extracts was active against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus but not against Candida albicans. Standard Ciprofloxacin and Ketoconazole (controls) inhibited the test organisms by 100% at 50 mg/ml and 25 mg/ml concentrations respectively. The leaf extracts had the greatest antimicrobial activity against test bacteria (12 mm at 50 mg/ml) while bark extract had the least activity (8 mm at 50 mg/ml). However, only pod extract showed significant antifungal activity (10 mm at 50 mg/ml) while other extracts at the same concentration, showed no antifungal activity. Findings from this study revealed that ethanolic extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam exhibit significant antimicrobial activities on test pathogens and thus suggests need to refine and standardize these extracts as alternative source of antimicrobial medicines.