In recent years, various methods are being considered with appropriate amendments, not with conventional reclamation to recycle deteriorated soils after remediation as agricultural addition, backfilling and construction materials etc. Among these amendments, microbial amendments with effective microorganism(EMs) are known to improve soil qualities such as fertility, strength and toxicity to be recycled into possible utilizations. This study indicates the possibility of recycling the remediated soils by using these EMs most efficiently. Soil samples will be collected from contaminated sites with either heavy metals or petroleum and will be remediated by bench-scale soil washing and thermal desorption. And then the remediated soils will be treated with easily obtainable inocula, substrates (culture media) near our life and they are compared with commercial EM products in terms of the cost and efficiency. Also, after treating with a number of mixing ratios, soil properties of (1) fresh, (2) contaminated, (3) remediated (4) amended soils will be evaluated based on soil quality indicators depending on demands and the optimal mixing ratios which are effective than commercial EM products will be determined. The ratio derived from pre-tests could be applied on the remediated soils with pilot-scale in order to assess suitability for recycling and characterize correlation between soil properties and microbial amendments regarding contaminants and remediation, and furthermore for modelling. In conclusion, application of the established models on recycling remediated soils may help to dispose the remediated soils in future, including environmental and ecological values as well as economical values.


The paper examines parental views regarding the implementation of Educational Legislation 113(I)/99 in Cyprus regarding the integration of children with special needs in the mainstream school. It is based on parental interviews which were taken in the course of a large research project regarding the implementation of the new legislation in primary and pre‐primary education. Parental views are presented in thematic categories and commented upon. Direct quotations from the interviews are used to illustrate the point made. It appears that parents on the whole feel that although the situation is much better now than it used to be before the introduction of the new legislation, a number of serious problems are still faced by the children and their families, some of which are not dissimilar to those existing before the passing of Law 113(I)/99. The paper finishes with specific suggestions about how some of these problems can be solved.


Epithelia in adult mammals exhibit remarkable regenerative capacities owing to the presence of adult stem cells, which self‐renew and differentiate to replace cells lost to normal turnover or injury. The mechanisms supporting tissue homeostasis and injury‐induced repair often differ from each other as well as from those used in embryonic development. Recent studies have also highlighted the phenomenon of cellular plasticity in adult tissues, in which differentiated cells can change fate and even give rise to new stem cell populations to complement the canonical stem cells in promoting repair following injury. Signaling pathways such as WNT, bone morphogenetic protein, and Sonic Hedgehog play critical roles in stem cell maintenance and cell fate decisions across diverse epithelia and conditions, suggesting that conserved mechanisms underlie the regenerative capacity of adult epithelial structures.


Slow-wave instability in a rectangularly corrugated cylindrical waveguide is analyzed. Fields inside corrugation is expressed by a sum of space harmonics satisfying the boundary conditions at the corrugation wall. The corrugation fields are matched to periodic fields outside the corrugation at the boundary of the two regions. Infinitesimally thin annular electron beam is considered including the three-dimensional perturbations. Effects of space harmonics in the corrugation along with the corrugation depth are examined. Slow cyclotron instability in addition to Cherenkov instability occurs when perturbed motions and modulations of infinitely thin surface are included.


We report the findings of a preliminary study of social science researchers' experiences of ethics review from a developing country perspective. Social science researchers' experiences of ethics review were coded as negative (42.6%), positive (21.3%), or mixed (36.2%). Ethics review was primarily experienced as negative for pragmatic reasons such as slow turnaround time, inadequate review and problems with the centralization of review. Our finding that South African researchers experience the same problems and frustrations with RECs as developed country researchers affirms that South Africa's problems with ethics review are not due to it being a less developed system, but to general review practices as they arise naturally in institutions. Developing countries thus have a unique opportunity to learn from the reported dissatisfactions and mistakes of developed countries, to avoid procedures that have hindered ethics review of much social science research in developed countries, and to fashion their own review procedures in ways that are more appropriate to key ethical issues arising in social science research and local conditions and resources.


This study proposes a fast, simple and sensitive ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS)-based method for the detection of abamectin in edible oils. An effective one-step process of extraction and cleanup of abamectin from edible oils is achieved with the use of a humic acid-bonded silica (HAS)-based solid phase extraction (SPE), providing good cleanup performance and satisfactory recovery of abamectin. The effects of experimental variables, such as the amount of sorbents, loading, washing and eluting solvents, and the flow rates of sampling and eluting have been studied in detail. Under optimized conditions, the validation method was performed in terms of linearity, recovery and precision. Good linearity was obtained for abamectin with R2 0.9996, and the limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 0.16 μg kg−1. The recovery methods of abamectin spiked at three concentration levels in a blank sample were from 91.7% to 101.8%, with inter- and intra-day relative standard deviations (RSDs) of less than 7.0%.


A similarity measure is a measure evaluating the degree of similarity between two fuzzy data sets and has become an essential tool in many applications including data mining, pattern recognition, and clustering. In this paper, we propose a similarity measure capable of handling non-overlapped data as well as overlapped data and analyze its characteristics on data distributions. We first design the similarity measure based on a distance measure and apply it to overlapped data distributions. From the calculations for example data distributions, we find that, though the similarity calculation is effective, the designed similarity measure cannot distinguish two non-overlapped data distributions, thus resulting in the same value for both data sets. To obtain discriminative similarity values for non-overlapped data, we consider two approaches. The first one is to use a conventional similarity measure after preprocessing non-overlapped data. The second one is to take into account neighbor data information in designing the similarity measure, where we consider the relation to specific data and residual data information. Two artificial patterns of non-overlapped data are analyzed in an illustrative example. The calculation results demonstrate that the proposed similarity measures can discriminate non-overlapped data.


SUMMARY
A number of parameters affecting acetylene reduction by root nodules of Lupinus angustifolius, L. cosentinii and L. luteus have been studied.

Acetylene reduction could be satisfactorily measured in air provided a sufficiently high pC2H2 was used. However, evacuation of air from containers was not harmful to the nodule system. The maximal rate of acetylene reduction occurred at 23°C but the rate was hardly less at 33°C. Plant age had a marked effect upon the rate of acetylene reduction in its nodules. Rates of acetylene reduction in nodules were maintained at high levels after the onset of flowering but rapid reduction in nodule activity occurred after pods were filled. Decapitation of plants had little or no effect on acetylene reduction by the nodules, but removal of the nodules reduced their activity by 70–85%. Brief rinsing of the nodules and rapid drying with blotting paper had little effect on their acetylene reducing activity, but prolonged wetting markedly decreased it.

Nodulated roots and whole plants responded similarly to pO2. Acetylene reduction was zero in the absence of oxygen, increased to a maximum rate by 0.2–0.25 atm O2, remained constant up to 0.4–0.5 atm O2, and then declined sharply to nearly zero at 0.9 atm.

We detected no diurnal rhythm, attributable to effects of light on supply of photosynthate, with any of the three species.


This text bridges the gap between theory and practice in engineering ethics. The authors provide real-life cases, structured methodology for analyzing cases, and examples of cases that have been analyzed to give students a true understanding of what is involved in practicing ethical engineering. Codes of Ethics are also provided and discussed. This book helps engineering students to carry over their natural analytical talents into a new area: moral deliberation. It shows them the importance of being analytical, stressing the fact that many apparent moral disagreements are really disagreements over the facts or over the definitions of crucial terms, and that the locus of moral disagreement can only be discovered by analysis.


Home Health Care CAHPS (HHCAHPS) Survey results will be "refreshed" or updated each calendar year quarter and published on Medicare's Care Compare website at https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/. HHCAHPS Survey results based on survey responses from a sample of patients who received home health care from Medicare-certified home health agencies (HHAs) at some point between April 2021 and March 2022 are currently available on Care Compare.


Background: Sleep stage classification is a crucial process for the diagnosis of sleep or sleep-related diseases. Currently, this process is based on manual electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis, which is resource-intensive and error-prone. Various machine learning models have been recommended to standardize and automate the analysis process to address these problems. Materials and methods: The well-known cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) sleep dataset is used to train and test an L-tetrolet pattern-based sleep stage classification model in this research. By using this dataset, the following three cases are created, and they are: Insomnia, Normal, and Fused cases. For each of these cases, the machine learning model is tasked with identifying six sleep stages. The model is structured in terms of feature generation, feature selection, and classification. Feature generation is established with a new L-tetrolet (Tetris letter) function and multiple pooling decomposition for level creation. We fuse ReliefF and iterative neighborhood component analysis (INCA) feature selection using a threshold value. The hybrid and iterative feature selectors are named threshold selection-based ReliefF and INCA (TSRFINCA). The selected features are classified using a cubic support vector machine. Results: The presented L-tetrolet pattern and TSRFINCA-based sleep stage classification model yield 95.43%, 91.05%, and 92.31% accuracies for Insomnia, Normal dataset, and Fused cases, respectively. Conclusion: The recommended L-tetrolet pattern and TSRFINCA-based model push the envelope of current knowledge engineering by accurately classifying sleep stages even in the presence of sleep disorders.


We have developed an open source web reader in Iceland for under-resourced languages. The web reader was developed due to the need for a free and good quality web reader for languages which fall outside the scope of commercially available web readers. It relies on a text-to-speech (TTS) pipeline accessed via a cloud service. The web reader was developed using the Icelandic TTS voices Alfur and Dilja, but could be connected to any language which has a TTS pipeline. The design of our web reader focuses on functionality, adaptability and user friendliness. Therefore, the web reader's feature set heavily overlaps with the minimal features necessary to provide a good web reading experience while still being extensible enough to be adapted to work for other languages, high-resourced and under-resourced. The web reader works well on all the major web browsers and has a Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA: Acceptable compliance, meaning that it works well for the largest user groups, people in under-resourced languages with visual impairments and difficulty reading. The code for our web reader is available and published with an Apache 2.0 license at https://github.com/cadia-lvl/WebRICE, which includes a simple demo of the project.


Image Segmentation has been an area for a long time which is providing opportunities for the intellectual communities to do research work. Image segmentation is a process of partitioning an image into meaningful regions. There exist many digital image segmentation techniques which are currently applied on different fields. These image segmentation techniques need comparative analysis for further development and modifications for continuous and consistent improvement. Hence, in this paper an overview of image segmentation and its present techniques is presented which demands a lot of research


Introduction:
Despite considerable efforts directed at developing international evidence based guidelines to improve clinical management, adoption of evidence based practices can be poor in low-income settings including Kenya. Studies in Africa rarely consider the implementation and change processes as influenced by the structural and organizational context in which clinicians are embedded nor how these can influence performance. This thesis builds on existing literature and theory on behavioural change, clinician-managers' identity construction processes and contextualized leadership processes by examining these and their effect on guideline adoption in the complex contexts of Kenyan county hospitals.

Methods:
Methodologically I explored these issues through qualitative ethnographic approaches using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and non-participant observations. I analyzed data inductively and deductively borrowing from the grounded theory approach to develop plausible explanations of collated data and observations.

Results:
Early work indicated limited attention to local dissemination of the new guidelines and poor leadership in implementing Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) as key barriers. However, specially introduced 'study facilitators' as part of an intervention study emerged as leaders of change often acting as role models, friendly supervisors and peer educators to facilitate EBM implementation. Further work reviewing literature on the roles of clinical mid-level managers (MLMs; department leaders) in improving service delivery emphasized the importance of 'soft skills' e.g. building interpersonal relationships, mentoring, coaching and effective communication skills. Subsequent in-depth empiric work on identity transitions of these clinical MLMs indicated that 'identity work', drawing on competing professional and managerial institutional logics resulted into 'willing', 'ambivalent' and 'reluctant' hybrids. Distributed leadership by hybrids was undermined by existing hierarchical professional autonomy and cadre delineations between nurses and doctors in the public county hospitals we studied.

Discussion:
The thesis describes both a set of work and a research journey. My initial work was predominantly based on applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explain behaviour of front-line health workers. However, it quickly became clear that this provided only a partial understanding of guideline adoption within a hospital overlooking the pivotal role of clinical team leaders / in influencing change. There emerged valuable lessons for current Kenyan leadership and management development programmes which are likely to be transferable to other African health systems. Particular recommendations from this work are the importance of a focus on the soft-skills of those stepping into clinical hybrid manager roles and considering the 'practical norms' of Kenyan public hospitals in understanding the gap between desired official institutional norms and health workers actual behavioural practices.


Mixed-methods analysis of >400 online social surveys conducted at an Australian organisation is presented to identify individuals most likely to consider the environmental impact of packaging when making purchase decisions, including bottled water, and/or take their own shopping bags/coffee cups to minimise plastic consumption. Findings are compared for two social groups, the minority (33%) who articulated 'waste' as a personal environmental concern, and the majority. With high disposable coffee cup consumption existing alongside 'most' product-choices based on their pro-environmental packaging, findings further green 'attitude/behaviour' gap explorations. Given legislated plastic reduction initiatives yielded greatest individual behavioural change (bringing/reusing grocery bags) regardless of respondents' waste-production concern, continued promotion of consumer preference-based, non-punitive incentives promoted in research literature may come at high ecological cost.


Keywords: Communication Rights; Disability; Europe; Canada; Policy; Telecommunications; United Nations; Convention; Equality; Discrimination Abstract: In 2000, 191 of the United Nations' member states adopted a number of goals to target major concerns to the global human family to be achieved by the year 2015. It was hoped that the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs) were to "foster collaborative action to reduce poverty, improve health and address educational and environmental concerns around the world's most pressing development problems" (United Nations, 2010). Yet, while the MDGs tackled a variety of crucial needs at the international level (including health, poverty, maternal health, environment, gender equality, child mortality and education). Unfortunately, they have not included the monitoring and evaluation of rights of persons with disabilities; a segment of the world population that is considered to be representing the largest minority in the world. Communication scholars (Thomas, 2005; Lee, 2008) have underscored the importance of "global advocacy" concerning extending communication rights to empower these groups. Nonetheless, it was argued, the communication rights movement has so far focused mainly on debates on issues such as media ownership, regulations within cultural industries, intellectual property rights and failed to prioritize the need to assert the rights of persons with disabilities. Along these lines, and adopting in underscoring the relationship between citizenship and disability rights, this paper aims to analyze, from a communication rights perspective, the significance of underscoring the need to "include" the persons with disabilities to the enforcement and protection of their rights. Specifically, we examine the implementation of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Canada and Europe. Particularly it argues that while the Convention has certainly contributed to a re-emphasis of rights of persons with disabilities and had a positive and reformative effect on disability legislation and policy narratives in both the international and national spheres, it remains to be assessed to what extent its provisions will be translated into policy at a national and regional level. After all, such enforcement is related to a great extent to the social and cultural structure in a given society.


We present an interactive MATLAB‐based demo program devoted to teaching undergraduate students the behavior of the sum of independent random variables. The user chooses the type of the variables, and the parameters of these variables. The sum is shown in the time domain followed by the estimation of the probability density of the sum using a histogram. It is subsequently shown that the probability density of the sum of random variables represents the convolution of the density functions of the corresponding variables. The Central Limit Theorem and the progression of the sum towards this limit are illustrated in terms of the number of summands. The software can be used as a complement to theoretical classes or alone as a self‐study tool. Student evaluation of the program is also included. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 372–385, 2013


Distraction osteogenesis is a surgical technique that produces large volumes of new bone by gradually separating two osteotomized bone segments. A previously proposed mechanical-based model that includes the effect of pre-traction stresses (stress level in the gap tissue before each distraction step) during limb lengthening is used here. In the present work, the spatial and temporal patterns of tissue distribution during distraction osteogenesis in different species (sheep, rabbit) and in the human are compared numerically to predict experimental results. Interspecies differential characteristics such as size, distraction protocol, and rate of distraction, among others, are chosen according to experiments. Tissue distributions and reaction forces are then analysed as indicators of the healing pattern. The results obtained are in agreement with experimental findings regarding both tissue distribution and reaction forces. The ability of the model to qualitatively predict the two animal models and the human healing pattern in distraction osteogenesis indicates its potential in understanding the influence of mechanics in this complex process.


This paper focuses on two typical constraints present in current video delivery platforms such as IPTV: accommodating the diversity of consumer end-devices and coping with various bandwidth constraints of the deployed network access technologies. We propose the use of the Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of H.264/AVC to cope with these two constraints: three different techniques to combine SD and HD versions of a video sequence in one SVC stream are presented and we assess how quality scalability compares to spatial scalability in producing video streams that can be tailored to various bandwidth constraints. The results show that the three proposed techniques for combining SD and HD perform equally good and that, under certain conditions, spatial scalability outperforms quality scalability to cope with various bandwidth constraints.


New Zealand's capital city of Wellington lies in an area of high seismic risk, which is further increased by the sedimentary basin beneath the Central Business District (CBD). Ground motion data and damage patterns from the 2013 Cook Strait and 2016 Kaikōura earthquakes indicate that two- and three-dimensional amplification effects due to the Wellington sedimentary basin may be significant. These effects are not currently accounted for in the New Zealand Building Code. In order for this to be done, three-dimensional simulations of earthquake shaking need to be undertaken, which requires detailed knowledge of basin geometry. This is currently lacking, primarily because of a dearth of deep boreholes in the CBD area, particularly in Thorndon and Pipitea where sediment depths are estimated to be greatest.
A new basin depth map for the Wellington CBD has been created by conducting a gravity survey using a modern Scintrex CG-6 gravity meter. Across the study area, 519 new high precision gravity measurements were made and a residual anomaly map created, showing a maximum amplitude anomaly of -6.2 mGal with uncertainties better than ±0.1 mGal. Thirteen two-dimensional geological profiles were modelled to fit the anomalies, then combined with existing borehole constraints to construct the basin depth map.
Results indicate on average greater depths than in existing models, particularly in Pipitea where depths are interpreted to be as great as 450 m, a difference of 250 m. Within 1 km of shore depths are interpreted to increase further, to 600 m. The recently discovered basin bounding Aotea Fault is resolved in the gravity data, where the basement is offset by up to 13 m, gravity anomaly gradients up to 8 mGal/km are observed, and possible multiple fault strands identified. A secondary strand of the Wellington Fault is also identified in the north of Pipitea, where gravity anomaly gradients up to 18 mGal/km are observed.


The article researches the historical transformation of the dichotomy of civilization and barbarism, which originally in ancient Greece did not have a pejorative connotation. This dichotomy has become relevant today to justify the classification of states according to their degree of acceptance of "civilization standards," which are understood as the standards of the European model of development. The main features of the stereotype of the divide between civilization and barbarism, which took shape in the Roman era, have survived to the present. The premise of "civilizational superiority" of European culture is accompanied by a moral depreciation of other civilizations, turning a barbarian into an enemy of civilization with an explicit racist connotation. Civilization itself is seen as a "vaccination" in the process of missionary work. There emerges the concept of "Eastern barbarism," coupled with the concepts of terra nullis and the innate irrational behavior of the population of these countries, which justify the seizing of territories for a "more rational" resource management. This activity is historically accompanied by colonization and, in the modern world, by forceful forms of "promoting democracy." According to the logic of the divide between civilization and barbarism, non-Western countries are doomed to imitate and perpetually fall behind, which causes the disunity of society and internal hostility of "second-rate Europeanized" nations. The Western mentoring has transformed from protectorate to the creation of governance structures that are headed by Western-educated local elites and are designed to change the cultural patterns of society. There was a conception that the world is divided into spheres, in the first circle of which there is a progressive civilized European world, followed by a number of countries similar in structure and values to the European model, and then there is a sphere of barbarism and backwardness. In the contemporary version, this theory presumes the division of states into "pre-modern," modern, and post-modern states. It the conclusion, it is noted that this divide contradicts to the humane essence of culture and civilization process.


We propose a new empirical representation of the Bass diffusion model, in order to estimate the three key parameters, concerning innovation, imitation and maturity. The representation is based on the notion that the observed data may temporarily deviate from the mean path determined by the underlying hazard rate. Additionally, it rests on the idea that uncertainty about the cumulative process should be smaller, the closer it is to the start of the process and to the level of maturity. Taking this into account, we arrive at an extension of the basic representation proposed in Bass (1969), with an additional heteroskedastic error term. The type of heteroskedasticity can be set by the modeler, as long as it obeys certain properties. Next, we discuss the asymptotic theory for this new empirical model, that is, we focus on the properties of the estimators of the various parameters. We show that the parameters, upon standardization by their standard errors, do not have the conventional asymptotic behavior. For practical purposes, it means that the t-statistics do not have an (approximate) t-distribution. Using simulation experiments, we address the issue how these findings carry over to practical situations. In a next set of simulation experiments, we compare the new representation with that of Bass (1969) and Srinivasan and Mason (1986). We document that these last two approaches often seriously overestimate the precision of the parameter estimators. We also shed light on the effects of temporal aggregation and on the effects of a serious and persisent deviation between the actual data and their mean. Finally, we consider the various empirical representations for a monthly series on installed ATMs.


The auditory brainstem carries out sound localization functions that require an extraordinary degree of precision. While many of the specializations needed for these functions reside in auditory neurons, additional adaptations are made possible by the functions of glial cells. Astrocytes, once thought to have mainly a supporting role in nervous system function, are now known to participate in synaptic function. In the auditory brainstem, they contribute to development of specialized synapses and to mature synaptic function. Oligodendrocytes play critical roles in regulating timing in sound localization circuitry. Microglia enter the central nervous system early in development, and also have important functions in the auditory system's response to injury. This chapter highlights the unique functions of these non-neuronal cells in the auditory system.


Glucose control is a key aspect of diabetes management. After concerns about the cardiovascular safety of several classes of antihyperglycemic agents, culminating with concerns about thiazolidinediones, the US Food and Drug Administration implemented a guidance statement in 2008 (strongly) recommending the demonstration of cardiovascular safety of new antihyperglycemic medications. Practically, these must be tested prospectively in randomized, controlled trials to "definitively show that the upper bound of the two-sided 95% confidence interval for the estimated risk ratio for important cardiovascular events is less than 1.3,"1 meaning that their use does not result in a >30% increase in the risk of major cardiovascular events. The European Medicines Agency next issued similar, although less-stringent, requirements. There was an ensuing flurry of cardiovascular safety trials for all new antihyperglycemic agents. These trials typically compared the new agent with a control group using a matching placebo, with glucose control intended to be managed the same in both arms with other class(es) of antihyperglycemic medications. Therefore, these really are, in fact, placebo-controlled, noninferiority trials using a margin of 1.3. If noninferiority is achieved, one can claim to have established cardiovascular safety in the sense implied by regulators, which can be reformulated as the strange concept of demonstration of noninferiority to placebo.

There are some important benefits to these cardiovascular safety trials. It is always valuable to gather data on the safety and efficacy of drugs such as antihyperglycemic medications, which are used in large numbers of patients, often indefinitely. Indeed, these trials have uncovered unanticipated signals of cardiovascular harm (such as an increase in the risk of heart failure with some but not all dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors)2 or benefit (such as the marked but yet not fully understood cardiovascular benefit of empagliflozin in the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial [BI 10773 (Empagliflozin) Cardiovascular Outcome …


Context. The sterile neutrino is an excellent dark matter candidate, which can be searched for in a wide range of astrophysical sites. It has previously been shown that the optimal search strategy is to consider dwarf galaxies belonging to the Milky Way. Aims. We search for line emission from decaying dark matter. Methods. We analyse publicly available Chandra X-ray observations of the dwarf galaxy Draco. Results. The Draco and blank sky (background) spectra are nearly identical in shape, which allows us to conclude: i) Dwarf spheroidals are ideal for studying dark matter X-ray emission since the baryonic noise is impressively low, ii) there is very little room for line emission, which leads to constraints in the mass-mixing angle parameter space of the sterile neutrino. We compare the standard flux derivation method to a very conservative rebinning approach. The resulting constraints are strongly dependent on the chosen method.


ABSTRACT More than 55 million people are suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD), but there is still no effective treatment for it. Therefore, novel therapeutic approaches and regulatory mechanisms of protein quality control need to be further evaluated and dissected. The lysosome is one of the major degradative organelles that maintain cellular homeostasis and protein quality control. In our recent study, we have identified a group of LYsosome-Enhancing Compounds (LYECs), which significantly promote the activation of TFEB (transcription factor EB) and lysosome biogenesis via inhibiting dopamine transporters (DAT). Injection of LH2-051, a member of the LYECs identified in this study, significantly improves learning, memory, and cognitive function of APP-PSEN1 mice, in which the enhanced capability of lysosomal degradation promotes the clearance of amyloid protein aggregates. In summary, this study reports novel mechanisms of neurotransporter-mediated lysosome biogenesis and shows that DAT inhibition can alleviate the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.


Cervical cancer incidence and mortality have decreased due primarily to screening programs using the pap smear. As more outcome data has become available, screening, and treatment guidelines for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) have evolved. Detection of the disease in a precancerous state, close monitoring, and treatment are paramount in the prevention of cervical cancer. The screening process for cervical cancer involves pap smear cytology of the cervix, along with with human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in certain circumstances.[1]


Black pepper, Piper nigrum L. (Piperaceae), has insecticidal properties and could potentially be utilized as an alternative to synthetic insecticides. Piperine extracted from P. nigrum has a biphasic effect upon cytochrome P450 monooxygenase activity with an initial suppression followed by induction. In this study, an ethyl acetate extract of P. nigrum seeds was tested for insecticidal activity toward adult Musca domestica and Drosophila melanogaster. The effect of this same P. nigrum extract upon differential gene expression in D. melanogaster was investigated using cDNA microarray analysis of 7380 genes. Treatment of D. melanogaster with P. nigrum extract led to a greater than 2-fold upregulation of transcription of the cytochrome P450 phase I metabolism genes Cyp 6a8, Cyp 9b2, and Cyp 12d1 as well as the glutathione-S-transferase phase II metabolism gene Gst-S1. These data suggests a complex effect of P. nigrum upon toxin metabolism.


Dalal et al performed a statistical analysis of field and nozzle O-ring data collected prior to the ill-fated launch of the Challenger in January 1986. The purpose of their analysis was to show how statistical analysis could be used to provide information to decisionmakers prior to the launch, information that could have been expected to lead to a decision to abort the launch due to the low temperatures (~30o F.) present at the launch pad on the morning of the scheduled launch. Dalal et al. performed a frequentist analysis of the O-ring data, and found that a logistic regression model provided a relatively good fit to the past data. In the second portion of their paper, Dalal et al. propagated parameter uncertainties through the fitted logistic regression model in order to estimate the probability of shuttle failure due to O-ring failure at the estimated launch temperature of ~30o F. Because their analysis was frequentist in nature, probability distributions representing epistemic uncertainty in the input parameters were not available, and the authors had to resort to an approximate approach based on bootstrap confidence intervals. In this paper, we will re-evaluate the analyses of Dalal et al. from a Bayesian perspective. Markovmore » chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling will be used to sample from the joint posterior distribution of the model parameters, and to sample from the posterior predictive distributions at the estimated launch temperature, a temperature that had not been observed in prior launches of the space shuttle. Uncertainties, which are represented by probability distributions in the Bayesian approach, are propagated through the model to obtain a probability distribution for O-ring failure, and subsequently for shuttle failure as a result of O-ring failure. No approximations are required in the Bayesian approach and the resulting distributions can be input to a decision analysis to obtain expected utility for the decision to launch.« less


The conserved Notch pathway functions in diverse developmental and disease‐related processes, requiring mechanisms to ensure appropriate target selection and gene activation in each context. To investigate the influence of chromatin organisation and dynamics on the response to Notch signalling, we partitioned Drosophila chromatin using histone modifications and established the preferred chromatin conditions for binding of Su(H), the Notch pathway transcription factor. By manipulating activity of a co‐operating factor, Lozenge/Runx, we showed that it can help facilitate these conditions. While many histone modifications were unchanged by Su(H) binding or Notch activation, we detected rapid changes in acetylation of H3K56 at Notch‐regulated enhancers. This modification extended over large regions, required the histone acetyl‐transferase CBP and was independent of transcription. Such rapid changes in H3K56 acetylation appear to be a conserved indicator of enhancer activation as they also occurred at the mammalian Notch‐regulated Hey1 gene and at Drosophila ecdysone‐regulated genes. This intriguing example of a core histone modification increasing over short timescales may therefore underpin changes in chromatin accessibility needed to promote transcription following signalling activation.


A hypermap is bipartite if its set of flags can be divided into two parts A and B so that both  A and  B are the union of vertices, and consecutive vertices around an edge or a face are contained in alternate parts. A bipartite hypermap is bipartite-regular if its set of automorphisms is transitive on  A and on B . In this paper we see some properties of the constructions of bipartite hypermaps described algebraically by Breda and Duarte in 2007 which generalize the construction induced by the Walsh representation of hypermaps. As an application we show that all surfaces have bipartite-regular hypermaps.


The authors carried out an analysis of literature on gender stereotypes in communication processes among the males and females in context of existing societal views held by different proponents. The article specifically looks at how gender stereotypes are developed and manifested at the work place, social places, media, and literature and in the home environment. Stereotypes can influence people's self-concept and world view. Although stereotypes mainly project issues in a negative way, the paper gives an objective assessment of the gender stereotypes in an attempt to unpack their multifaceted nature. From a communication's perspective, stereotypes ought to be seen beyond the humour which manifests itself on the surface hence misleading or misrepresenting how people relate or view other persons. Gender stereotypes continue to shape the roles and positions that women and men take up in society. Women are seen as the weaker sex, easily dominated by masculine men who are physically strong, emotionally restrained and who are also able to provide for their families. Gender stereotypes fall along distinct lines which are predetermined by race, age, nationality social-class and levels of education among other factors. Within the African context, gender stereotypes are also reinforced by cultural and socio economic features as depicted in the mass media.


An efficient diazo dye degrading bacterial strain, Bacillus sp. DMS2 was isolated from a long-term textile dye polluted environment. The strain was assessed for its innate ability to completely degrade and detoxify Direct Red 81 (DR81) textile dye under microaerophilic conditions. The degradation ability of strain showed significant results on optimizing the nutritional and environmental parameters. Based on statistical models, maximum efficiency of decolorization achieved within 24 h for 100 mg/l of dye supplemented with glucose (0.02%), MgSO4 (0.002%) and urea (0.5%) at 30°C and pH (7.0). Moreover, a significant catabolic induction of a laccase and azoreductase suggested its vital role in degrading DR81 into three distinct metabolites (intermediates) as by-products. Further, toxicity analysis of intermediates were performed using seeds of common edible plants, aquatic plant (phytotoxicity) and the nematode model (animal toxicity), which confirmed the non-toxic nature of intermediates. Thus, the inclusive study of DMS2 showed promising efficiency in bioremediation approach for treating industrial effluents.


ABSTRACT

To estimate the spatial and temporal variation in urban particle number concentrations (PNCs), e.g., for exposure studies, a better knowledge of the exchange of particles between the urban surface and the atmosphere is important. Size-resolved fluxes of PNCs were quantified in Berlin, Germany, using the micrometeorological eddy covariance technique. The method requires measurements of particle number size distributions (PNSDs) by a fast particle spectrometer. The Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS) Spectrometer 3090 (TSI Inc.) is designed for fast (10 Hz), high-concentration measurements of particles in the size range of 5.6–560 nm, e.g., in the exhaust plume of engines. In the urban background environment of Berlin, however, PNCs in some size channels can temporarily fall below the minimum threshold concentration of the analyser, resulting in missing concentrations that lead to gaps in the PNSD. In the present study, three gap-filling methods were applied to derive complete PNSDs: linear interpolation (LI), natural spline interpolation (NSI) and log-normal fitting (LNF). To evaluate the methods, different numbers of artificial gaps were inserted into 105 gapless PNSDs. Using three different data sets, the results demonstrate that LI and NSI (LI: R2 = 0.84–0.94; NSI: R2 = 0.84–0.95) outperform LNF (R2 = 0.78–0.88). With regard to the Berlin data set, NSI is the recommended gap-filling method since it results in a lower average uncertainty of 10.5–21.8% vs. 13.3–22.9% for LI. It is advisable to reject the boundary areas of the PNSD from gap filling, i.e., Dp  200 nm, as this considerably improves the gap-filling quality. This study provides recommendations on how to gap-fill incomplete PNSD data sets obtained with an EEPS.


In this thesis, we study Quebec male prison population with a special focus on recidivism. We are especially interested in quantifying the impact of regional economic variables on the probability of recidivism and the number of reoffenses committed in a year. More precisely, we consider variations in regional unemployment rate, minimum wage and average disposable income. Moreover, we include in our analysis domestic predictors: being married or having a family. Since these two parameters are potentially endogenous with recidivism, we estimate bivariate probit regressions and Poisson regressions with regional sex ratios as instrumental variables. The data provided by the ministère de la Sécurité publique allows us to bring to light several results. We estimate that having a family decreases by 18% the likelihood of recidivism, while the effect marriage is not significant. No effect is found for the number of reoffenses committed, neither for being married or having a family. Finally, we find a significant positive correlation between regional wealth and recidivism, whereas we highlight that an increase in real minimum wage is associated with a decrease in recidivism.


Silicon nitride ceramics are used under conditions where high strength, hardness, and wear resistance are necessary. The increasing use of Si3N4 ceramics in different environments demands an understanding of the relationships between microstructure and corrosion behavior. This study gives an overview of the behavior of silicon nitride in acids, bases, and hydrothermal conditions. It not only summarizes the literature data but also attempts to explain the mechanisms and to give some guidelines for the use of the materials in different environments. The stability of the ceramics against corrosion in acids and bases up to the boiling point is mostly controlled by the stability of the grain boundary. The stability can be predicted using the glass network theory. Materials with grain boundaries exhibiting a strong network, i.e., a high amount of SiO2 in the grain boundary, are stable in acids, but less stable under hydrothermal conditions and in basic solutions. Therefore, tailoring the grain boundaries can change the corrosion stability by several orders of magnitude. At temperatures above 200°C–250°C, the dissolution of the Si3N4 grains becomes a decisive factor determining the stability.


A numerical analysis has been undertaken to study the behaviour of slab-column connections under high gravity shear ratio. A half-scale reinforced concrete slab-column connection with shear reinforcement was modelled in finite element (FE) tool called ABAQUS. The specimen was subjected to combined constant gravity and reversed cyclic lateral load. Prior to executing the numerical modelling of the specimen, one specimen following the model similar to the previous study was first modelled as a means of verification purpose. Upon this phase, further analysis was then performed by merely modifying the magnitude of gravity shear ratio being applied to the specimen with the value of 0.4 specified as the maximum allowable gravity shear ratio for slab-column connection. In addition, the cyclic lateral load was then given afterwards using displacement control method. It is shown that the influence of high gravity shear ratio clearly reduces the lateral drift capacity. The result also resembles the trend of drift capacity versus gravity shear ratio when being compared to the drift limits from the design specification and prior studies.


Determination of the appropriateness of the compensatory response is essential in evaluation of any acid-base disturbance. Adequate compensation supports the presence of a single acid-base event. Inadequate compensation may indicate that a second primary acid-base event is present or, in some circumstances, that time has been inadequate for maximal physiologic compensation. When acid-base disturbances are mixed, treatment of one disorder may unmask the full pH-altering potential of the second disorder. Close monitoring of patients at risk for the development of acid-base disorders permits detection of problems at a time when intervention may prevent serious complications. Relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use chemical analytic systems to assist early diagnosis are now present in many office-based laboratories.


The executive committee of the Solar-Planetary Relationships Section met December 4, 1988, at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco. The following is the President's report on that meeting.

The SPR Section of AGU carries the responsibility for the vitality of the fields of solar, heliospheric and magnetospheric physics and aeronomy. What AGU does and, in particular, what the SPR Section does will affect the course of science in these disciplines by enhancing or diminishing the communication between scientists. In realization of this the SPR executive committee has been working toward improving our meetings and maintaining the high quality of our journals. The present section executive committee consists of the president, president-elect, past president, and secretaries and the chairs of all SPR committees appointed by the president, SPR representatives of AGU committees, and representatives of all SPR-AGU journals.


The presence of both steady and transient loops in active region cores has been reported from soft X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet observations of the solar corona. The relationship between the different loop populations, however, remains an open question. We present an investigation of the short-term variability of loops in the core of two active regions in the context of their long-term evolution. We take advantage of the nearly full Sun observations of STEREO and Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft to track these active regions as they rotate around the Sun multiple times. We then diagnose the variability of the active region cores at several instances of their lifetime using EIS/Hinode spectral capabilities. We inspect a broad range of temperatures, including for the first time spatially and temporally resolved images of Ca xiv and Ca xv lines. We find that the active region cores become fainter and steadier with time. The significant emission measure at high temperatures that is not correlated with a comparable increase at low temperatures suggests that high-frequency heating is viable. The presence, however, during the early stages, of an enhanced emission measure in the "hot" (3.0–4.5 MK) and "cool" (0.6–0.9 MK) components suggests that low-frequency heating also plays a significant role. Our results explain why there have been recent studies supporting both heating scenarios.


The movement to implement a "fat tax" can be traced all the way back to a 1994 New York Times Op-Ed by Yale University's Kelly Brownell. Professor Brownell has continued his advocacy for such taxes, both alone and along with now-former New York City health commissioner Thomas Frieden. Other activists, such as Center for Science in the Public Interest's (CSPI) Michael Jacobson, have over time joined their crusade. These advocates and other sin tax proponents have urged Congress to fund government health care services with a fat tax, an effort which proved unsuccessful. However, states and cities in search of new sources of revenue, and eager to be seen as "doing something" to oppose obesity, have now stepped into the fray. Twenty state and local legislatures are reportedly pursuing taxes on soft drinks.


Cascade testing (i.e., genetic testing of family members of individuals with disease) among families affected by hereditary cancer disorders, such as Lynch syndrome, is suboptimal and thus represents a missed opportunity in cancer prevention. We aimed to fill a gap in the literature by exploring multilevel barriers and facilitators to the implementation of cascade testing for Lynch syndrome. We conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and the Integrated Behavioral Model among key stakeholders (n = 60): Patients with Lynch syndrome and relatives (n = 20), providers (n = 20), and administrators (n = 20). Transcripts were double-coded (20% sample) using template analysis in ATLAS.ti. Barriers identified included (i) low awareness about Lynch syndrome, (ii) psychosocial barriers, (iii) lack of provider follow-up, (iv) accessibility to genetic counseling, and (v) fear of discrimination. Facilitators included (i) motivation to engage in cascade testing and (ii) free genetic testing offered to relatives. Stakeholders also recommended strategies to overcome implementation barriers in the short-term (increasing education, preparing patients for communicating with relatives), medium-term (optimizing clinical workflow and staffing resources), and long-term (nationwide standardization). These findings indicate that modifiable, multilevel barriers to the implementation of cascade testing in Lynch syndrome are experienced across stakeholders. Understanding and targeting implementation barriers is imperative to achieving public health impact of precision health interventions such as cascade testing.


Abstract:
 Tsurykau, A., Golubkov, V. & Kukwa, M. 2014. New or otherwise interesting records of lichens and lichenicolous fungi from Belarus. — Herzogia 27: 111–120. Data on fourteen species of lichenized and lichenicolous fungi from Belarus are presented, of which 5 lichens (Fuscidea arboricola, Lecanora compallens, Lepraria vouauxii, Ochrolechia bahusiensis, Violella fucata) and 7 lichenicolous fungi (Acremonium antarcticum, Epicladonia sandstedei, E. stenospora, Lettauia cladoniicola, Pezizella ucrainica, Phaeopyxis punctum, Taeniolella phaeophysciae) are new to the country. The occurrence of Ochrolechia pallescens is confirmed by thin-layer chromatography in Belarus and the first contemporary record of O. arborea is presented.


The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the methodology and impact of the investment chapter the European Union (EU) proposed for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It focusses on the innovations of an appellate body and the incorporation of a 'right to regulate'-provision, as well as general exceptions that are very similar to Article XX of the GATT. In light of the development that these features have been replicated in the CETA and the EU-Vietnam FTA, it questions why the EU is changing the traditional form of investor-State arbitration in a preferential trade and investment agreement and whether the EU's model is viable, and formulated on a robust design that will stand the test of time.


Metacommunity theory is an extension of metapopulation theory with the goal of understanding how ecological communities vary through space and time. One off-shoot of metacommunity theory deals with understanding how community structure varies along biotic or environmental gradients. The Elements of Metacommunity Structure framework is a three-tiered analysis of metacommunity structure that enables the user to identify metacommunity properties that arise in site-by-species incidence matrices. These properties can then be related to underlying variables that influence species distributions. The EMS framework is now implemented in metacom, an open source R package that allows for the analysis and plotting of metacommunities.


The conductance of a normal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) tunnel junction containing a single impurity localized state in the barrier region is studied. Due to the presence of a strong on-site Coulomb interaction two electrons cannot tunnel simultaneously through the impurity centre. This correlation leads to a strong dependence of the zero-bias conductance on the applied magnetic field.


In the present work pull-in voltage of fixed-fixed end type MEMS switches with variative electrostatic area has been calculated using a distributed model and applying a full nonlinear finite difference discretizing method. The governing nonlinear differential equation has been derived using of the variational principle for multi domain electromechanical coupled system. The numerical results of the beam with variative electrostatic area with the results of Coupled-Domain Finite Element method have been compared and very good agreement has been achieved.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the Guidance Specifying Management Measures for Sources of Nonpoint Pollution in Coastal Waters on January 14, 1993. This document is EPA9s technical guidance on the best affordable ways to reduce or prevent nonpoint source (NPS) pollution in the coastal zone. The authors believe that it is currently the most comprehensive summary of best management practices (BMPs) available. The guidance contains BMPs for the control of NPS pollution from agriculture, forestry, urban areas, marinas, and hydromodification (channels, dams, and stream and shoreline erosion). Wetlands, riparian areas, and vegetated treatment systems are addressed in the guidance as additional options to control nonpoint pollution. The guidance also includes monitoring and compliance tracking techniques to accompany the management measures. EPA and NOAA are developing approaches to help states, local governments, and affected parties understand and use the technical guidance in their coastal nonpoint source programs. Although final decisions have not yet been made, this paper summarizes the current thinking regarding this technical assistance.


BACKGROUND Randomized skin flaps have been used as a basic treatment modality for covering skin defects for a long time but they have always been in the risk of an inherent ischemia. Fibroblast growth factor 1 is a known angiogenic factor in in vitro studies which has shown conflicting results in in vivo investigation. We aimed to determine the effect of recombinant fibroblast growth factor on the angiogenesis rate of random cutaneous flap in animal model of rats. METHODS This experimental study was conducted on 24 adult male rats randomized to 2 groups. In the first group FGF1 was injected subdermally in equally divided doses and distances of random flap surface in days 1, 3 and 5. In second group, normal saline was injected as control. Flap surgery was done on day 21 after first injection. The extent of necrosis and angiogenesis (mean vessel density) were assessed in day 14 after surgery. Results The mean percentage of clinically apparent necrosis was 35.2% (±10.5) in intervention (FGF1) group and 38.1% (±8.7) in control (normal saline), respectively. Mean vessel density was 86.20±5.6/mm2 in control group and 90.17±5.5/mm2 in intervention group, which showed no statistically significant difference. CONCLUSION Mean vessel density and mean percentage of clinically apparent necrosis area were similar in 2 groups of rats with random cutaneous flaps receiving FGF1 or normal saline.


When breast cancer strikes a woman, it poses the danger of emotional harm as well as opportunities for personal growth to both the woman and her spouse. Husbands of breast cancer survivors, like their wives tend to experince posttraumatic growth positive life changes in the aftermath of the trauma.This study set out to identify the social context factors that are associated with personal growth in husbands of breast cancer survivors.


Abstract Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic terranes of the North American Cordillera mostly originated from three distinct regions in Palaeozoic time: the western peri-Laurentian margin, western (Asian) Panthalassa, and the northern Caledonides–Siberia. A review of geological history, fossil and provenance data for the Caledonian–Siberian terranes suggests that they probably occupied an intermediate position between northern Baltica, northeastern Laurentia and Siberia, in proximity to the northern Caledonides, in early Palaeozoic time. Dispersion of these terranes and their westward incursion into eastern Panthalassa are interpreted to result from development of a Caribbean- or Scotia-style subduction system between northern Laurentia and Siberia in mid-Palaeozoic time, termed here the Northwest Passage. Westward propagation of a narrow subduction zone coupled with a global change in plate motion, related to the collision of Gondwana with Laurentia–Baltica, are proposed to have led to initiation of subduction along the western passive margin of Laurentia and development of the peri-Laurentian terranes as a set of rifted continental fragments, superimposed arcs and marginal ocean basin(s) in mid- to late Palaeozoic time. Diachronous orogenic activity from Late Silurian in Arctic Canada, to Early Devonian in north Yukon and adjacent Alaska, Middle Devonian in southeastern British Columbia, and Late Devonian–Early Mississippian in the western USA records progressive development of the Northwest Passage and southward propagation of subduction along western Laurentia.


We fabricate nano-columnar tungsten (W) films on polycrystalline silicon substrates by magnetron sputtering using a grazing angle deposition technique. The deposition process is performed at a base pressure of 5×10−4 Pa. The intersection angle between the direction of the incident beam and the normal direction of the substrate is set as 85°. Separate as well as synergetic irradiations of 30/50 keV deuterium ions and 60 keV helium ions are carried out for the nano-columnar W. Samples of normal structure W are also irradiated under the same conditions as a comparison. Scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction are used to characterize the structure of the as-prepared as well as the irradiated samples. The experimental results show that blisters are difficult to form on the surface of nano-columnar W under the irradiation conditions in this work, which could be due to the particular structure.


This paper discusses the synchronous operation of a brushless doubly fed reluctance machine (BDFRM). Basic operation theory of a ducted rotor BDFRM is reviewed, and mathematical analysis relating to synchronous operation is presented. Corresponding control strategy for synchronous speed operation is discussed. A prototype machine is built and implemented as a motor drive. Subsequently, the BDFRM drive is tested in synchronous mode of operation at varying speed levels and loads.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Increasing demand for live-donor kidneys has encouraged the use of obese donors despite the absence of long-term outcome data and evidence that obesity can adversely affect renal function. We wished to determine whether obesity increased the risk for renal dysfunction and other medical comorbidities in donors several years after donation.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
Ninety-eight patients who donated a kidney 5 to 40 years previously were stratified according to body mass index (BMI) at donation and evaluated for renal dysfunction and risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Patients who were from the 2005 through 2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database; did not have renal disease; and were matched for age, gender, race, and BMI served as two-kidney control subjects.

RESULTS
Renal function in obese (BMI > or =30) and nonobese (BMI <30) donors was similar, and both donor groups had reduced renal function compared with BMI-matched two-kidney control subjects. Obesity was associated with more hypertension and dyslipidemias in both donors and two-kidney control subjects; however, there were no significant differences between the two groups within each BMI category.

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that obese donors are not at higher risk for long-term reduced renal function compared with nonobese donors and that the increased incidence of hypertension and other cardiovascular disease risk factors in obese donors is due to their obesity and is not further exacerbated by nephrectomy. These findings support the current practice of using otherwise healthy overweight and obese donors but emphasize the need for more intensive preoperative education and postoperative health care maintenance in this donor group.


The operational experience of early lagoons is outlined. The construction of a new generation of lagoons of 2000 PE to 1.000.000 PE capacity and associated practical difficulties are described. Those with innovative and space saving features treated in some detail. One includes an anaerobic baffled reactor with sludge draw-off facilities which entered service in September 1986 and which is being monitored for compliance with "Engelberg Requirements". Cost information and space requirements for the different systems under construction are included.It is concluded that lagoon systems properly designed and sited are the most appropriate and indeed the only financially viable sewage treatment option to suit Venezuelan circumstances.


The interaction of high-intensity laser pulses with matter releases instantaneously ultra-large currents of highly energetic electrons, leading to the generation of highly-transient, large-amplitude electric and magnetic fields. We report results of recent experiment in which such phenomena have been studied by using proton probing techniques able to provide maps of the electrostatic fields with high spatial and temporal resolution. The dynamics of ponderomotive channelling in underdense plasmas have been studied with this technique, as also the process of Debye sheath formation and MeV ion front expansion at the rear of laser-irradiated thin metallic foils.


Instabilities resulting in Bose-Einstein condensation and/or modulation of "displacements" in a system of quantum particles described by a two-state Bose-Hubbard model (with an allowance for the interaction between particle displacements on different lattice sites) are investigated. A possibility of modulation, which doubles the lattice constant, as well as the uniform displacement of particles from equilibrium positions are studied. Conditions for realization of the mentioned instabilities and phase transitions into the SF phase and into the "ordered" phase with frozen displacements are analyzed. The behaviour of order parameters is investigated and phase diagrams of the system are calculated both analytically (ground state) and numerically (at non-zero temperatures). It is revealed that the SF phase can appear as an intermediate one between the normal and "ordered" phases, while a supersolid phase is thermodynamically unstable and does not appear. The relation of the obtained results to the lattices with the double-well local potentials is discussed.


This paper provides a mathematician's perspective on Chua's circuit as a paradigm for chaos. It explains why Chua's circuit is of interest not only to radio physicists but to nonlinear scientists from other disciplines as well. It points out why the double-scroll Chua's attractor, which has been proved rigorously to be chaotic in the sense of the Shil'nikov theorem, is fundamentally different and mathematically much more complicated than that of the Lorenz attractor. >


Although a recent report by Devinsky (1983) has suggested that dysfunction at a midbrain levels is most likely to underlie the major symptoms of Tourette's syndrome, several features of the disease including alterations in the severity of the disease during puberty and premenstrually, disorders of appetite, amelioration of tics with rise in body temperature, and sleep point to hypothalamic involvement in the pathophysiology of the disease.


OBJECTIVE
To further understand the advantage of examination and operation for killian's polyp under nasal endoscope.

METHOD
22 cases with Killian's polyps were diagnosed and treated under nasal endoscope.

RESULT AND CONCLUSION
Before operation, examination under nasal endoscope may clearly find origin of the polyp and foci in maxillary sinus, which plays more important role in differential diagnosis and operation than CT or X-ray test. Operative treatment of Killian's polyp under nasal endoscope can not only eradicate foci but also reserve function of mucosa, but for severe foci in the maxillary sinus, the optimum operation should be Caldwell-Luc antrotomy.


The classical hybrid combustion theory is generalized to solid fuels that form a liquid layer on their burning surface. For several classes of liquefying fuels, the layer is hydrodynamically unstable leading to substantial droplet entrainment from the melt layer into the gas stream. The susceptibility of a given fuel to this shear driven instability increases with decreasing viscosity and surface tension of the melt layer. The entrainment mass transfer, which acts in addition to the conventional gasification mechanism, is not affected by the blocking phenomenon induced by blowing from the surface. For practical oxidizer flux levels encountered in hybrid rocket applications, droplet entrainment can dominate direct gasification. Such liquefying fuels can exhibit greatly increased surface regression rates compared to classical materials such as HTPB. One application of the theory is to solid cryogenic hybrids, which utilize frozen materials for the solid propellant. The theory successfully predicts why high regression rates are observed in tests of cryogenic solid pentane, solid pentane and solid oxygen. In addition, the theory explains the dependence of the burning rates of other tested cryogenic materials on the physical properties of the liquid layer. The theory also leads to the conclusion that certain non-cryogenic materials such as paraffin and PE waxes will also exhibit high regression rates. This important result is confirmed by lab scale tests performed at Stanford University on a paraffin-based fuel.


One aspect of the quality of surgical care is the length of the time patients spend in the operating room and under anesthesia. It is generally believed that the longer a surgical procedure, the greater the chance of a complication. But because obtaining procedure and anesthesia times usually involves a direct review of medical records, few large-scale studies are able to examine procedure times. This Issue Brief summarizes new work that validates the use of Medicare billing data as a proxy for anesthesia times, and illustrates how these data can shed light on hospital and patient characteristics that affect procedure duration and surgical quality.


Abstract This paper explores the design and construction of the Des Moines Art Center, revealing a set of distinct approaches to both architectural design and the preservation and extension of existing though not yet historic work. Three architects, Eliel Saarinen, I.M. Pei, and Richard Meier, designed the center in three separate phases. Each of these projects had to take the existing fabric of landscape and building into account, and each adopted startlingly distinctive methods for both preserving and extending the work of their predecessors. The resulting museum, seen as a place for experiencing and making art, and as a record of architectural strategies, forms a unique opportunity for investigation of and reflection upon attitudes toward renovation, preservation, extension, and alteration of recently completed work.


Readings: Chapter 7, Comer. An operating system provides interprocess communication to allow processes to exchange information. Interprocess communication is useful for creating cooperating processes. For instance an 'ls' process and a 'more' process can cooperate to produce a paged listing of a directory. There are several mechanisms for interprocess communication. We discuss some of these below. Processes that share memory can exchange data by writing and reading shared variables. As an example, consider two processes p and q that share some variable s. Then p can communicate information to q by writing new data in s, which q can then read. The above discussion raises an important question. How does q know when p writes new information into s? In some cases, q does not need to know. For instance, if it is a load balancing program that simply looks at the current load in p's machine stored in s. When it does need to know, it could poll, but polling puts undue burden on the cpu. Another possibility is that it could get a software interrupt, which we discuss below. A familiar alternative is to use semaphores or conditions. Process q could block till p changes s and sends a signal that unblocks q. However, these solutions would not allow q to (automatically) block if s cannot hold all the data it wants to write. (The programmer could manually implement a bounded buffer using semaphores.) Moreover, conventional shared memory is accessed by processes on a single machine, so it cannot be used for communicating information among remote processes. Recently, there has been a lot of work in distributed shared memory over LANs, which you will study in 203/243, which tends to be implemented using interprocess communication. However, even if we could implement shared memory directly over WANs (without message passing), it is not an ideal abstraction for all kinds of IPC. In particular, it is not the best abstraction for sending requests to servers, which requires coding of these requests as data structures (unless these data structures are encapsulated in monitors, which we shall study later). As we shall see later, message passing (in particular, RPC) is more appropriate for supporting client-server interaction. We can introduce a service call that lets one process cause a software interrupt in another: Interrupt(process id, interrupt number) and another that allows a process to associate a handler with an interrupt: Handle(interrupt number, handler) …


European floodplain forest is facing increasingly frequent and severe drought events related with ongoing climate change. Moreover, this ecosystem type was frequently affected by river regulation, leading to groundwater table lowering; however, river revitalization has, in some locations, achieved some restoration of groundwater levels. In this study, we investigated the growth–climate sensitivity and growth modulation after groundwater-level manipulation for Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl. and Quercus robur L. in one of the most important floodplain forest complexes in Central Europe. We constructed three different types of tree ring chronologies to reflect the high frequency variability, medium-low frequency variability, and basal area increment. We found F. angustifolia to be more sensitive than Q. robur to both drought and groundwater level fluctuations. Moreover, F. angustifolia showed more pronounced short-term and long-term growth decreases after artificial ground water level alteration than did Q. robur. We also found that the groundwater level increase due to river revitalization reduced the climate sensitivity for both F. angustifolia and Q. robur. The decrease in climate sensitivity associated with revitalization was more pronounced for F. angustifolia which, moreover, showed a greater basal growth after river revitalization. Our results suggest that F. angustifolia will be more threatened than Q. robur by the diminution in groundwater availability and increase in drought with ongoing climate change. They also show that river revitalization can be a suitable management tool to help the adaptation to climate change.


The onset of flange wrinkling in the Swift cup test is analyzed as a plastic bifurcation problem. The flange is modelled as an annular plate made of an orthotropic elastic-plastic material that is isotropic in the plane of the plate. The critical drawing stress and displacement obtained employing a deformation theory of plasticity and a flow theory of plasticity are compared. The effects of flange geometry and material properties on wrinkling are investigated. Employing a simple linear elastic spring model of the blankholder, the effect of blankholder stiffness on wrinkling is studied. The present results for the critical stress at the onset of wrinkling and for the number of wrinkles are compared with those obtained previously employing a beam model of the flange.


Bandwidth depletion Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack can impact the propagation of a mined block in the Bitcoin blockchain network. On Bitcoin Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus several machines try to resolve an expensive cryptographic puzzle faster than anyone else and succeed to mine a valid block. Despite a DoS attack impedes one machine to propagate its mined block allowing it to become valid for most peers, there will be several other peers to resolve the puzzle in time, hence the blockchain will continue to grow. However, from the perspective of the owner of the attacked machine, this can be critical because it will not receive a mining reward. This chapter covers such an attack in the Lisk blockchain that utilizes the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism. A mitigation strategy was created based on two tools that I have created allowing a delegate account to be configured in more than one node, allowing to forge a block even when one of its nodes is under DoS attack. Also, the transaction flood DoS attack is explored, and a mitigation strategy was created for a specific sidechain in the Lisk ecosystem. The mitigation strategy identifies spam transactions and rejects them to be included on the Lisk nodes transaction pool, hence they will not be propagated into the blockchain. Towards the end, I evaluated scenarios and mitigation strategies created for each attack demonstrating solutions for several scenarios.


This study investigated the activity-set hypothesis in reducing warm-up decrement. With regard to the hypothesis, it is predicted that warm-up decrement, which is a temporary loss of skill performance following rest, could be reduced if an appropriate reinstating activity were engaged in just prior to the resumption of practice. Seventy-five subjects were given twenty 20-sec tests on the stabilo-meter (criterion task), and then either (a) rested, (b) rested and then performed on interpolated "activity-set" task, or (c) rested and then performed an interpolated "activation" task. All subjects, after receiving one of the three conditions were then retested on the stabilometer for an additional six trials. An analysis of planned comparisons showed that the activity-set interpolated task was effective in reducing warm-up decrement and that activation was not a factor.


The trachea of the local sheep is a tubular structure that begins at the cricoid cartilage of the larynx and ends when it bifurcates to form the principle bronchi, composed of series of incomplete rings that were incomplete dorsally present between of them longitudinal folds. The study include twelve specimens divided into four groups grossly, histological study, cast and radiography. The anatomical study include the mean total tracheal length from the first ring to the bifurcation about (25.9 cm) , mean number of cartilaginous rings (48.6), mean number of folds (45), measured the length of trachea from the cricoids cartilage to the trachealis bronchus which enter to the cranial lobe of lung which branches from the trachea in last third before divided into two bronchi right and left each of one enter the lung for respiration also measure diameters of each tracheal ring which deference according the position of rings, which decrease of diameters when direction caudally to the root of lung the rings have different shape in the three parts of the trachea cervical, middle and thoracic the histological study showed the trachea lining pseudo stratified ciliated columnar epithelium with goblet cells, the wall of trachea consist of mucosa, submuosa, hyaline cartilage and adventitia and have large amount of tracheal gland,the trachealis muscle composed of elastic fibers interupted with smooth fibers. The cast of trachea showed the bronchial tree and radiography explain the trachea , bronchi and bronchioles.


Flexible side chains have been the central issue in the design of solution-processable polymer semiconducting materials. On identical conjugated backbones, great differences can be made with different side chain densities and substitution positions. Generally, for donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymers, increasing the side chain density could readily improve the solubility of the polymers. However, it also results in backbone distortion and weaker interchain interactions, thus hindering charge transport, which limits the application of highly soluble D–A polymers. Herein, we synthesized two polymers of PD-n-DTTE-7 with both the moieties alkylated. Substituting side chains to DTTE units improved the solubility of the corresponding polymers. Induced by the promoted solubility, high purity of the high molecular weight component was obtained and uniform films were formed with these high molecular weight polymers. In addition, by carefully selecting the conjugation system and substitution positions, ordered packing and backbone coplanarity were also achieved, which facilitate interchain and intrachain charge transport. Through a simple spin coating technique, the polymers, PD-n-DTTE-7s, present the highest hole mobility of 9.54 cm2 V−1 s−1 with high average mobilities of over 5 cm2 V−1 s−1, which are among the highest values for polymer-based field-effect transistors.


A novel biodegradable amphiphilic block copolymer PLGG-PEG-PLGG bearing pendant glucose residues is successfully prepared by the coupling reaction of 3-(2-aminoethylthio)propyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside with the pendant carboxyl groups of PLGG-PEG-PLGG in the presence of N,N'-carbonyldiimidazole. The polymer PLGG-PEG-PLGG, i.e., poly{(lactic acid)-co-[(glycolic acid)-alt-(L-glutamic acid)]}-block-poly(ethylene glycol)-block- poly{(lactic acid)-co-[(glycolic acid)-alt-(L-glutamic acid)]}, is prepared by ring-opening copolymerization of L-lactide (LLA) with (3s)-benzoxylcarbonylethylmorpholine-2,5-dione (BEMD) in the presence of dihydroxyl PEG with molecular weight of 2000 as macroinitiator and Sn(Oct)2 as catalyst, and then by catalytic hydrogenation. The glucose-grafted copolymer shows a lower degree of cytotoxicity to ECV-304 cells and improved specific recognition and binding with Concanavalin A (Con A). Therefore, this kind of glucose-grafted copolymer may find biomedical applications.


Ontologies are becoming central to allowing knowledge sharing and reuse, and to promoting cooperation in many research areas. Up to now, the use of ontologies has been experimented with (and its advantages proven) in diverse areas, ranging from medicine and biology to geography, astronomy, and defense. Less use has been made in the electromagnetic (EM) research area. This paper highlights the advantages of ontologies for electromagnetics, and initiates the EM researcher into ontological modeling by reporting some experiences in the area of antenna-array design.


ABSTRACT The effect of short-term ammonia starvation on Nitrosospira briensis was investigated. The ammonia-oxidizing activity was determined in a concentrated cell suspension with a NOx biosensor. The apparent half-saturation constant [Km(app)] value of the NH3 oxidation of N. briensis was 3 μM NH3 for cultures grown both in continuous and batch cultures as determined by a NOx biosensor. Cells grown on the wall of the vessel had a lower Km(app) value of 1.8 μM NH3. Nonstarving cultures of N. briensis showed potential ammonia-oxidizing activities of between 200 to 250 μM N h−1, and this activity decreased only slowly during starvation up to 10 days. Within 10 min after the addition of fresh NH4+, 100% activity was regained. Parallel with activity measurements, amoA mRNA and 16S rRNA were investigated. No changes were observed in the 16S rRNA, but a relative decrease of amoA mRNA was observed during the starvation period. During resuscitation, an increase in amoA mRNA expression was detected simultaneously. The patterns of the soluble protein fraction of a 2-week-starved culture of N. briensis showed only small differences in comparison to a nonstarved control. From these results we conclude that N. briensis cells remain in a state allowing fast recovery of ammonia-oxidizing activity after addition of NH4+ to a starved culture. Maintaining cells in this kind of active state could be the survival strategy of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in nature under fluctuating NH4+ availability.


Most systems that are encountered in practice are subjected to various uncertainties such as nonlinearities, actuator faults parameter changes etc. Modeling and identification of electro-mechanical systems constitute an essential stage in practical control design and applications. For a electro-mechanical rotational system, the nonlinearities, like Coulomb friction and dead zone, significantly influence the system operation when the rotation changes direction. The paper presents the black-box nonlinear identification of a rotational flexible joint setup. The nonlinear model for the system is obtained based on the discrete second order nonlinear Volterra model. Off-line identification of the nonlinear system model is performed using the least mean square algorithm. Results of the real time experiments are graphically and numerically presented, and the advantages of the nonlinear identification approach are revealed.


We discuss basic prediction theory and its impact on classification success evaluation, implications for learning algorithm design, and uses in learning algorithm execution. This tutorial is meant to be a comprehensive compilation of results which are both theoretically rigorous and quantitatively useful.There are two important implications of the results presented here. The first is that common practices for reporting results in classification should change to use the test set bound. The second is that train set bounds can sometimes be used to directly motivate learning algorithms.


A capacitive-type hydrogen gas sensor with a MIS (metal-insulator-semiconductor) structure was investigated for high-temperature applications. In this work, a tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) layer of tens of nanometers in thickness formed by oxidizing tantalum film in rapid thermal processing (RTP) was exploited with the purpose of sensitivity improvement. Silicon carbide (SiC), which is good even at high temperatures over 500 °C, was used as the substrate. We fabricated sensors composed of Pd/Ta2O5/SiC, and the dependences of the capacitance response properties and the I-V characteristics on the hydrogen concentration were analyzed from the temperature range of room temperature to 500 °C. As a result, our hydrogen sensor showed promising performance with respect to the sensitivity and the adaptability at high temperature.


Drawing on interviews with Australasian surgeons who trained in the 1950s and 1960s, this article discusses where, and on whom, they practised the manual skills involved in surgery, In the twentieth century, elite Australasian surgeons emphasized the importance of the science of surgery and the lengthy experience needed to acquire surgical judgement, and these concerns are reflected in the accreditation procedures adopted by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. However, trainee surgeons also ha to acquire th manual skills that they needed in the operating theatre. The rhetoric of training emphasized the intellectual skills needed in surgery, but in reality the manual skills remained important, and there was also a fascination with the drama and stress involved in operating. In this era, British and Australasian surgical training were closely linked and many Australasian surgeons gained significant cutting experience in Britain.


The higher education of China has achieved significant results in recent years. Therefore, it is important to study management of this system and basic mechanisms used by the party and state institutions. The article is based on the analysis of open data sources, including official documents on the development of the higher education (laws, national programs, projects and plans), and the results of the Russian and Chinese scientific research. The authors consider state and party institutions as a unified system of the education system management: central and local party institutions, party organizations of the central and local government and primary organizations of the party (CPC), central and local executive authorities of the state. Party institutions of the higher education management include executive bodies of the CPC and the local provincial party committees, party organizations of the central and local governments (Ministry of Education and other State Council's structures, local people's governments) and primary party committees of universities. State administrative bodies in the higher education include central (State Council of the PRC including Ministry of Education and other institutions) and local administrative bodies (local people's governments, including education committees of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the central government). The main mechanism that determines activities of the party bodies and the state university management system consists of special projects and plans. The authors present five main plans for the development of the higher education system in China and identify their features and goals.


A bootstrapping technique for passive mixers has been implemented in a fully integrated 1V CMOS front-end. The idea is to improve the linearity of the mixer by making the switching instants independent of the IF output signal. The technique reduces the intermodulation distortion without degradation of the conversion gain or the noise figure. The measured IIP/sub 3/ of the front-end was increased by 5 dB resulting in an increased dynamic range, which is critical for low supply voltages.


This paper discusses a non-explosive pulsed power device used to reproduce the output waveforms of a Flux Compression Generator (FCG) driving a High Power Microwave (HPM) source. This system optimizes the power conditioning components of a HPM source while reducing the time and resources inherent to explosively driven FCG schemes. An energy storage inductor, fuse opening switch, and a peaking gap make up the power conditioning system. This system couples large voltage pulses (∼300 kV), suited for HPM sources, to the load by disrupting the energy storage inductor current (∼40 kA). This paper will show that an optimal fuse length was experimentally searched for by varying the calculated fuse wire base length by ±5, 10, and 15%. Various geometric fuse designs were examined to achieve a 45% reduction in the physical fuse length at constant wire length with acceptable performance losses. This paper will also show that the distance between the electrodes of a peaking gap can be optimized to more efficiently switch in the load. Finally results will be shown that depict the amount of microwave power produced by a vircator before fuse and peaking gap optimization.


Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is higher during drug-induced hypotension than during hypotension resulting from hemorrhage and, among the hypotensive drugs, CBF may be higher during nitroprusside (SNP) than during trimethaphan (TMP) administration. Increased perfusion of the brain does not guarantee better tissue oxygen supply, since perfusion of the capillary microcirculation may be inhomogeneous. In such a situation, minute areas of ischemia may exist while CBF values are normal. In this study, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in circles of parietal cortex approximately 1.5 cm in diameter in the cat. In addition, oxygen tension values (PB02) were measured in minute areas of cortical surface by use of 15-μm platinum oxygen electrodes. Control measurements were made during light anesthesia; blood pressure (BP) was then decreased to 30–35 torr by hemorrhage, TMP, or SNP. In the animals rendered hypotensive with TMP or SNP, a beta blocker, practolol, was also administered. It was found that rCBF was higher with SNP (68 ml/100 g/min) than with TMP (45 ml/100 g/min). PB02 values showed a marked hypoxic shift during hemorrhagic hypotension, but no shift from control during SNP-induced hypotension. The PB02 pattern with TMP was intermediate between the SNP and hemorrhage patterns. PB02 were less than 10 torr in 25 per cent of cortical areas examined during hemorrhage, 12 and 7 per cent of areas examined during TMP-induced hypotension (two studies) and only 1 per cent of areas examined during SNP-induced hypotension. These results agree with those of others in showing higher rCBF during SNP-induced than during TMP-induced hypotension. The PB02 values showed that the well-maintained cerebral perfusion during SNP administration was associated with homogeneous perfusion of the microcirculation. Therefore, brain tissue oxygen availability is greater during SNP-induced than during either TMP-induced or hemorrhagic hypotension.


Lignin biomass is an important renewable woody material that can be converted into high value-added products through physical and chemical reactions, such as paper strength additives. In this study, a cationic methacryloyloxyethyl trimethylammonium chloride monomer (DMC) and anionic acrylic monomer (AA) were grafted onto softwood kraft lignin through free radical polymerization to prepare an amphoteric lignin copolymer. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR), elemental analysis, and charge density analysis methods confirmed that the anionic and cationic monomers were successfully grafted onto the lignin. The grafting ratios of AA and DMC monomer in the lignin-DMC-AA copolymer were 62.4% and 51.3%, respectively. The application of lignin-DMC-AA copolymer as a paper additive for enhancing the physical properties of paper sheets was studied in the papermaking industry. The results indicated that the copolymer had a maximum increase in physical strength at around 2 wt% lignin-DMC-AA. The amount absorbed on the fibers was 18.5 mg/g, and the retention of the lignin-DMC-AA copolymer was over 90%.


Notifications of tuberculosis in England and Wales declined steadily until 1987, when about 5100 cases were reported.1 Since then numbers have begun to rise, reaching a provisional figure of about 5700 in 1994.2 The proportion of isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to one or more conventional first-line antituberculosis drugs has remained steady at about 10%.3 The incidence of tuberculosis is also rising in other countries, but the speed of increase and the proportion of infections that are drug resistant vary. In this article we discuss drug-resistant tuberculosis in the UK and consider its prevention, treatment and control.


As a result of the current circumstances and the spread of crimes, it has become imperative to devise advanced protection methods that use modern technologies to guarantee the safety and security of people. This research focused on using the Internet of Things (IOT) technology, which is considered an emerging technology that focuses on the interconnection between things or devices together.
this paper, proposed an Early warning system to protect commercial and residential place -  Based on the Internet of Things it is an easy-to-use in addition to its low cost, and it is considered an effective system in restricting access to homes or any commercial store, as it sends a notification via e-mail in the event of any penetration of the place  and at the same time sends a notice also to the security man responsible for the security of the residential area
The proposed system used the Internet of Things to send email by the IFTTT server in the event of any intrusion into the place, where the penetration is detected by using the PIR motion sensor, along  with the NodeMCU ESP8266.


This is the first Canadian study to measure physical activity participation and opportunities for outdoor playtime among preschoolers. Preschoolers in the London, Ontario study spent significantly more time engaging in high-intensity indoor activity versus outdoor activity. Daycare providers reported the children in their care had access to approximately 2 hours of daily outdoor playtime. Nearly half the study"s parents reported their preschoolers did not engage in physical activity at the level needed for health gains. Insufficient activity among such a large segment of preschoolers has potentially serious physical and psychological health implications. Daycare settings afford ample opportunity for physical activity programming among this population. Further research using more objective measures on a larger sample is needed.


The efficiency in the management of public and private institutions assets proved to be an important factor to guarantee the development of its main activities. With regard to public companies, greater visibility in the application of these public resources is one of the pillars that support transparency. The disposal of unnecessary assets in one company can become an opportunity to be used in another company that does not have the necessary resources to acquire that item. In order to investigate the disposal process and the respective donation of these types of assets in public educational institutions, the Motirõ project was created, which examined the disposal process at the School of Information Science (ECI) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), based on existing legislation. Using mixed methodology, in a research characterized as qualitative, it was possible to develop the following results in relation to the process of donation of permanent assets of UFMG: schedule; scope of the project; temporality table; glossary of technical terms; manual; digital platform with the list of products available for donation; BPMN model of the mapped process; opening term; acceptance term and this article, which aimed to describe the procedures performed in the creation of information products for a specific ECI process. Based on the results, it was possible to verify whether there is a protocol to be observed for an efficient process of disposal and donation.


This report examines merger incentives of cost asymmetric firms under product differentiation and their welfare implications. Considering a simple contract under which merger profit is distributed according to the proportions of differential marginal costs between duopolistic firms, we show in a stylized model that for almost all parameter ranges (in terms of market competition intensity and marginal cost differential), a low-cost firm may have no incentive to merge with a high-cost firm whereas the high-cost firm always finds merger to be profitable. Only when marginal cost differential is sufficiently low and the degree of product similarity is sufficiently high will both the low-cost firm and the high-cost firm share the common interest in merger. On the other hand, the merger equilibrium is not welfare-improving, regardless of whether the firms initially compete in quantities or prices. Viewed from the perspective of production efficiency, mergers with differentiated products thus create a fundamental conflict between the maximization of consumer and social welfare and the maximization of firm profits. We also examine the scenario that merger takes place when merger profit exceeds the sum of firm profits under duopoly, without considering how merger profit is distributed between the firms. We discuss the conditions under which mergers may or may not be welfare-improving.