Despite all scientific efforts and many protracted and expensive clinical trials, no new drug has been approved by FDA for treatment of Alzheimer disease (AD) since 2003. Indeed, more than 200 investigational programs have failed or have been abandoned in the last decade. The most probable explanations for failures of disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) for AD may include late initiation of treatments during the course of AD development, inappropriate drug dosages, erroneous selection of treatment targets, and mainly an inadequate understanding of the complex pathophysiology of AD, which may necessitate combination treatments rather than monotherapy. Clinical trials' methodological issues have also been criticized. Drug-development research for AD is aimed to overcome these drawbacks. Preclinical and prodromal AD populations, as well as traditionally investigated populations representing all the clinical stages of AD, are included in recent trials. Systematic use of biomarkers in staging preclinical and prodromal AD and of a single primary outcome in trials of prodromal AD are regularly integrated. The application of amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration biomarkers, including new biomarkers—such as Tau positron emission tomography, neurofilament light chain (blood and Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker of axonal degeneration) and neurogranin (CSF biomarker of synaptic functioning)—to clinical trials allows more precise staging of AD. Additionally, use of Bayesian statistics, modifiable clinical trial designs, and clinical trial simulators enrich the trial methodology. Besides, combination therapy regimens are assessed in clinical trials. The above-mentioned diagnostic and statistical advances, which have been recently integrated in clinical trials, are relevant to the recent failures of studies of disease-modifying treatments. Their experiential rather than theoretical origins may better equip potentially successful drug-development strategies.


During high-throughput sequencing, the outcome microbial community composition can be altered when DNA is incomplete purified or by DNase activity. The objectives are to estimate biases associated with the DNA purification of soils and evaluate the effect of a DNA preservation solution in the composition of the microbial community. To do this, DNA extractions efficiencies were compared among single strains, a mix of strains and soil microbial communities. The 16S ribosomal RNA gene of soils was amplified and sequenced to compare structural differences of microbial communities resulted from two commercial DNA purification kits. Besides, soil samples were collected from the Delta Nigeria and transported to the Netherlands using a DNA preservation solution to evaluate the stabilization of the DNA microbial community. The results suggest a bias in the quantification of Gram positives that is related meanly with cell lysis capacity of the DNA extraction kits. This bias would have important repercussions in microbial ecology studies were the abundance and function of Gram positives may be underestimated.


Many works deal with the subsequence matching problem using automata structures. It is to decide, given two sequences $s$ and $t$, whether $s$ is a subsequence of $t$. Automata like the Directed Acyclic Subsequence Graph (DASG) or the Subsequence Automaton (SA) accept all subsequences of a set of texts. We focus on this last structure and provide some useful results upon dynamically updates of the SA. Indeed, sequences are indexed as soon as they are processed, allowing to dynamically add or to remove sequences from the set of indexed texts. Moreover, the highlight of these properties also makes it possible to update this automaton whenever a sequence of the set is modified.


Abstract Allowing spontaneous respiration during mechanical ventilation requires that the ventilator system can interpret a trigger signal from the patient and then deliver a synchronous breath. The majority of current ventilators are triggered by preset changes in pressure or flow detected in the system as a patient is initiating a breath. However, other triggers such as chest wall motion, waveform alteration, and diaphragmatic electromyograms have also been utilized. The time between initiation of a breath by a patient and delivery of a breath by the ventilator is known as trigger delay. Most trigger delay is inherent in the mechanics of the patient-ventilator interaction. However, recent advances in technology have captured a neural signal from the diaphragm to trigger the ventilator to deliver a breath, reducing trigger delay. Understanding trigger delay is important as it may lead to increased work of breathing and patient-ventilator asynchrony. Types of asynchrony related to the triggering phase are ineffective triggering, double triggering, and autotriggering. The presence of asynchrony has been shown to have deleterious effects on patients, including duration of mechanical ventilation and increased length of hospital stay. Recognizing asynchrony and understanding how to manipulate the trigger variable will reduce adverse effects on patients.


Since 1980, one of the most promising solutions for the exploitation of natural gas hydrate reservoirs was found to be the replacement of methane with carbon dioxide in order to improve the efficiency of methane recovery and, at the same time, permanently store carbon dioxide. However, the process efficiency is still too low and far from reaching technical maturity and becoming economically competitive. In this sense, studying the intrinsic properties of CO2 hydrates formation and dissociation processes may help in better defining the reasons for this low efficiency and finding feasible solutions. This work deals with carbon dioxide hydrates formation in a natural silica-based porous medium and in fresh water. A lab-scale apparatus was used for experiments, which were carried out consecutively and with the same gas–water mixture in order to detect the possible occurrence of the "memory effect". Six tests were carried out: the quantity of gas available for the formation of hydrates led to an initial pressure equal to 39.4 bar within the reactor (the initial pressure was 46 bar; however, the dissolution of CO2 in water during the first test caused a reduction in the quantity of gas available for the process). Each experiment started and ended at temperatures equal or higher than 20 °C. Considering the local pressures, these temperatures ensured the complete dissociation of hydrates. Besides thermodynamic parameters, the gas consumption and the rate constant were evaluated throughout the whole of the experiments. Conversely to what is asserted in the literature, the results demonstrated the weak persistence of the memory effect at a temperature slightly above 25 °C. As expected, ice formation competed with hydrates; however, during tests, it caused the partial release of carbon dioxide previously trapped into hydrates or dissolved in water. Finally, the rate constant completely agreed with the labile Cluster Theory and proved that primordial clusters and hydrate crystals formed and dissociated during the whole test. The first phenomenon was predominant during the formation phase, while the opposite occurred during the following step. The rate constant was found to be an effective parameter to quantify differences between measured and real equilibrium conditions for the system.


Objectives The Esther Network (EN) model, a person-centred care innovation in Sweden, was adopted in Singapore to promote person-centredness and improve integration between health and social care practitioners. This realist evaluation aimed to explain its adoption and adaptation in Singapore. Design An organisational case study using a realist evaluation approach drawing on Greenhalgh et al (2004)'s Diffusion of Innovations in Service Organisations to guide data collection and analysis. Data collection included interviews with seven individuals and three focus groups (including stakeholders from the macrosystem, mesosystem and microsystem levels) about their experiences of EN in Singapore, and field notes from participant observations of EN activities. Setting SingHealth, a healthcare cluster serving a population of 1.37 million residents in Eastern Singapore. Participants Policy makers (n=4), EN programme implementers (n=3), practitioners (n=6) and service users (n=7) participated in individual interviews or focus group discussions. Primary and secondary outcome measures Outcome data from healthcare institutions (n=13) and community agencies (n=59) were included in document analysis. Results Singapore's ageing population and need to transition from a hospital-based model to a more sustainable community-based model provided an opportunity for change. The personalised nature and logic of the EN model resonated with leaders and led to collective adoption. Embedded cultural influences such as the need for order and hierarchical structures were both barriers to, and facilitators of, change. Coproduction between service users and practitioners in making care improvements deepened the relationships and commitments that held the network together. Conclusions The enabling role of leaders (macrosystem level), the bridging role of practitioners (mesosystem level) and the unifying role of service users (microsystem level) all contributed to EN's success in Singapore. Understanding these roles helps us understand how staff at various levels can contribute to the adoption and adaptation of EN and similar complex innovations systemwide.


The annual cost of corrosion to industry exceeded the trillion dollar mark in the US for the first time. This huge cost has led to the need for new developments in corrosion detection. Early detection of corrosion can lead to substantial savings if the corrosion can be abated once detected. Until recently, coatings have hindered the detection of corrosion. This paper describes a microwave method for detecting corrosion under coatings. The paper describes the detection method and provides examples of detection sensitivities and limits.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The King's Fund Grants Committee has set aside £400,000 to improve services for elderly people. Applications for a share of the money are invited from any organisation which is either a commissioner or provider of such services.


A nanostructured disordered Fe(Al) solid solution was obtained from elemental powders of Fe and Al using a high-energy ball mill. The transformations occurring in the material during milling were studied with the use of X-ray diffraction. In addition lattice microstrain, average crystallite size, dislocation density, and the lattice parameter were determined. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to examine the morphology of the samples as a function of milling times. Thermal behaviour of the milled powders was examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results, as well as dissimilarity between calorimetric curves of the powders after 2 and 20 h of milling, indicated the formation of a nanostructured Fe(Al) solid solution.


Current methods of evaluating search strategies and automated citation screening for systematic literature reviews typically rely on counting the number of relevant publications (i.e. those to be included in the review) and not relevant publications (i.e. those to be excluded). Significant importance is put into promoting the retrieval of all relevant publications through great attention to recall-oriented measures, and demoting the retrieval of non-relevant publications through precision-oriented or cost metrics. This established practice, however, does not accurately reflect the reality of conducting a systematic review, because not all included publications have the same influence on the final outcome of the systematic review. More specifically, if an important publication gets excluded or included, this might significantly change the overall review outcome, while not including or excluding less influential studies may only have a limited impact. However, in terms of evaluation measures, all inclusion and exclusion decisions are treated equally and, therefore, failing to retrieve publications with little to no impact on the review outcome leads to the same decrease in recall as failing to retrieve crucial publications. We propose a new evaluation framework that takes into account the impact of the reported study on the overall systematic review outcome. We demonstrate the framework by extracting review meta-analysis data and estimating outcome effects using predictions from ranking runs on systematic reviews of interventions from CLEF TAR 2019 shared task. We further measure how closely the obtained outcomes are to the outcomes of the original review if the arbitrary rankings were used. We evaluate 74 runs using the proposed framework and compare the results with those obtained using standard IR measures. We find that accounting for the difference in review outcomes leads to a different assessment of the quality of a system than if traditional evaluation measures were used. Our analysis provides new insights into the evaluation of retrieval results in the context of systematic review automation, emphasising the importance of assessing the usefulness of each document beyond binary relevance.


The assignment of 13C and 1H NMR signals of synthetic (25R)-5α-spirostanes is presented; the main effects on chemical shifts due to substitution at C-23 are briefly discussed.


Despite the increasing level of detail in biomechanical simulation, human models are not yet valid to represent specific individuals or populations. Therefore, the generic models need adaptation to depict the varying competencies of the respective person or user group aimed to investigate. There have been achievements in scaling single modelling domains (e.g. anthropometry). However, a comprehensive approach is still lacking. This paper extends available methods by introducing a Strength Mapping Algorithm (SMA) for the adaption of individual maximum isometric forces to match empirical strength data. This procedure involves static optimization simulation of predefined body postures to reveal the dependencies between muscle forces and joint torques of a generic model specifying the skeletal and muscular geometry. Based on this information, we determine a set of muscle scaling factors for a given age, gender and strength percentile. As a result, the SMA enables the quick generation of a large number of individuals in order to implement a design for populations paradigm. This leads one step closer to gain deeper insight on how health relevant products and processes are to be developed.


Physico-chemical properties and the environmental impacts were studied relative to the leaching of rubber fly ash and bottom ash. The pozzolanic properties of fly ash and bottom ash were confirmed by the chemical composition, including silicon oxides, calcium oxides, and aluminum oxides. The geo-technical characteristics of rubber wood fly ash and bottom ash, i.e., modified compaction, plasticity, and the soaked California Bearing Ratio, were evaluated to assess the feasibility of fly ash or bottom ash mixed with lateritic soil as aggregate materials for the subbase in road construction in order to optimize the replacement of lateritic soil by fly ash or bottom ash. The leachates from rubber fly ash and bottom ash did not exceed standard thresholds. The measured characteristics of fly ash or bottom ash mixed with lateritic soil were in good alignment with the effective engineering thresholds. Recommendations were developed for safe reuse of byproducts from rubber renewable power plant in subbase road construction.


PURPOSE
To investigate the effect chronic stress in newborn rats on the progression of ligature-induced-periodontitis in adulthood.

METHODS
Ten couples of adult Wistar rats were selected for mating. After birth, the female and their respective offsprings were allocated into two groups. Ligature Group (LG): offsprings were only watched during breast-feeding; Stress-ligature Group (SLG): after 24h of live birth, the offsprings were moved away from their mothers every day for four hours during breast-feeding for 20 days; in both approaches, after reaching ± 250g, ten rats were included in the groups. Periodontal disease was induced by a silk suture placed around the maxillary right second molar. The left side was used as control. After 15 days, the animals were subjected to euthanasia, maxillary bones were removed and stored in 10% formaldehyde. After 48h, radiographs were taken and revealed and were used for bone destruction analysis. Examiner was blind and calibrated for measurements.

RESULTS
Stress-ligature group presented higher bone loss values in relation to ligature group (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Exposure to chronic stress imposed on offsprings produced a greater progression of bone loss induced during adulthood.


In the title compound, C31H29BrN2O2S, the pyrrolidine ring is in a twist conformation and the tetrahydropyridine ring adopts an envelope conformation with the methine C atom adjacent to the NH group as the flap atom; the two rings are trans-fused. The bromobenzene ring and the nearest phenyl ring form a dihedral angle of 82.72 (10)°. The benzyl phenyl and the tosyl phenyl rings are oriented at a dihedral angle of 75.57 (11)°. An intramolecular N—H⋯π interaction is observed. In the crystal, molecules are linked into chains running along [101] by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and the chains are cross-linked via weak C—H⋯π interactions.


This paper considers image deblurring algorithm based on model-based iterative update of the image estimate. The update has two principal terms: (i) integral feedback of blurred image prediction error and (ii) feedback of the past deblurred image estimate. The two feedback terms are computed by applyingtwo FIR operators. The paper shows how these feedback update operators can de designed with a given degree of localization to provide an optimal tradeoff between design objectives such as convergence speed, noise amplification, quality of image restoration, and robustness. The solution to the feedback operator design problem is obtained by Linear Programming optimization. A parallelized implementation of the update algorithm using localized feedback operators is scalable to very large image sizes.


Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized among others by prolonged depressed mood, a loss of interest in enjoyable activities, psychomotor retardation and various cognitive symptoms. Although exact numbers of prevalence may differ between various western countries, partly due to a social taboo of the illness, the life-time prevalence in the USA and Western Europe lies around 15%. Women are more likely to be struck by MDD than men, often with a first episode between 30-40 years of age, with a smaller second peak around 50-60 years of age. Although MDD may appear as a "stand alone" disease, 33% of patients with a chronic illness report symptoms of major depression. In addition, approximately 72% of patients diagnosed with MDD also have a second mental illness diagnosed, in most cases generalized anxiety disorder or a social phobia. Although some patients may only experience a single episode, MDD often appears in multiple episodes.


When it comes to personal items like condoms, it?s definitely a different-strokes-for-differentfolks kind of situation. Generally, polyurethane condoms are recommended as an alternative barrier method for people who have known latex allergies [2] and can?t use latex condoms. While the warning labels may be a little bit confusing (more on this later), this non-latex alternative has been shown to be an effective contraceptive method that are used and stored in the same way as any other condom. It also provides reliable protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV [3]), gonorrhea [4] , and chlamydia [5] (among others). Additionally, some folks prefer polyurethane condoms even if they don't have a latex allergy. Why? Well, polyurethane condoms:


Background: Hyperactivation of the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway is a postulated mechanism of resistance to anti-HER2 therapies and has also been described in triple-negative breast tumors. In HER2−amplified (HER2+) laboratory models, inhibition of this pathway induces activation of upstream receptor tyrosine kinases such as HER3. In triple-negative breast cancer (TN), HER1 overexpression has been identified and models show sensitivity to combined HER1 and mTOR inhibition. We hypothesize that dual inhibition of the PI3K pathway, HER1/2, and induced HER3 may be highly effective in patients with HER2+ or TN breast cancer (BC). This phase I/II trial is designed to determine the tolerability and possible efficacy of the mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus (T) plus the HER1/2 inhibitor neratinib (N) in patients with trastuzumab-refractory, HER2+ or TN BC. We will also explore mutational activation of the PI3K pathway in trastuzumab-refractory tumors as it relates to response to the T-N combination. Methods: The phase I dose-escalation study evaluated T (flat dose IV weekly) plus N (240 mg oral daily) in patients with metastatic HER2+ or TN BC. Cycle length was 4 weeks. Phase I end points included definition of maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and response rate (RR) per RECIST. The phase II study has a Simon two-stage design and evaluates the HER2+ and TN patients separately. Phase II endpoints include progression free survival and duration of response. Response was evaluated radiographically every 8 weeks, toxicity assessed every 2 weeks. All patients underwent biopsy of metastatic disease for biomarker assessment. Activating mutations in PIK3CA were assayed using the Sequenom MassARRAY system. Expression of PTEN was assessed by immunohistochemistry utilizing a published scoring system. Results: The phase I study enrolled 8 HER2+ patients who received a median of 5 (1-13) cycles of therapy. All patients had received trastuzumab and a median of 5.5 (2-12) prior lines of therapy. Frequent treatment-related grade 2 events were: hyperglycemia (4/8), elevated CPK (3/8), diarrhea (2/8), and rash (2/8). Grade 3 diarrhea was the dose-limiting toxicity. Other grade 3 toxicity was hyperglycemia (1/8); hematologic toxicities were not observed. The MTD of temsirolimus with neratinib is 8 mg IV weekly. Six patients treated at MTD were evaluable for response; 4 patients had PR, 1 had SD for a RR of 67%. PI3K pathway activation, through PIK3CA mutational activation or PTEN loss, was identified in 4/6 tumors analyzed and did not preclude response to temsirolimus and neratinib. Updated results reflecting the phase II patients will be reported. Conclusions: Temsirolimus plus neratinib is active in trastuzumab-refractory HER2+ patients. The phase II study is ongoing and additional efficacy and safety data in both HER2−amplified and triple-negative breast cancer patients will be presented. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr PD09-08.


In northwestern Mexico in an annual cycle comprised months 2008–2009, we estimated the effects of cumulative rainfall and previous vegetation status on current vegetative greenness adjusted for soil reflectance [via the Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (TSAVI)] and canopy water content [via the Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII)]. Sample kernels (540 of <0.4 ha) were stratified in nine areas by latitude, distance to the Pacific Ocean and slope across a 15 000 km2 area on the Baja California peninsula. Rainfall data were accumulated over 2‐, 4‐ and 6‐week periods from daily satellite estimates [via the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)]. TSAVI and NDII were calculated from Landsat 5 TM images. When restricted by season, multiple regressions results were 0.59 < radj2 < 0.96 for TSAVI and 0.45 < r2adj < 0.85 for NDII. Rainfall alone accounted for up to an exceptional 70% of the variance in vegetation indices, while the most widely significant factors were the previous vegetation status and its interaction with precipitation. For TSAVI, direct dependence on precipitation was generally much greater for the 4‐ and 6‐week accumulation than for the 2‐week periods. However, none of the factors was universally significant for either vegetation index. Results also showed the importance of scale in the spatial heterogeneity of climate and topography in this arid landscape.


A priori bounds are derived for the discrete solution of second-order elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs). The bounds have two contributions. First, the influence of boundary conditions is taken into account through a discrete maximum principle. Second, the contribution of the source field is evaluated in a fashion similar to that used in the treatment of the continuous a priori operators. Closed form expressions are, in particular, obtained for the case of a conservative, second-order finite difference approximation of the diffusion equation with variable scalar diffusivity. The bounds are then incorporated into a resilient domain decomposition framework, in order to verify the admissibility of local PDE solutions. The computations demonstrate that the bounds are able to detect most system faults, and thus considerably enhance the resilience and the overall performance of the solver.


Significance Diapedesis is a key step in the innate immune response. Emerging evidence suggests that mechanical forces exerted by leukocytes and/or vascular endothelial cells (VECs) could play an important role during diapedesis. However, it is unclear how these forces physically pull the VEC junctions apart and drive the transmigration of the leukocyte. In this study, we quantify the sequence of mechanical events involved in paracellular diapedesis and experimentally demonstrate that the forces exerted by leukocytes can modulate the VEC tensions to open junctional gaps, and subsequently push into the underlying matrix to thrust an invasive protrusion. We also show that diapedesis can be mechanically facilitated by proinflammatory signals that increase VEC contractility, leading to spatial heterogeneities in VEC monolayer tensions. Leukocyte transmigration across vessel walls is a critical step in the innate immune response. Upon their activation and firm adhesion to vascular endothelial cells (VECs), leukocytes preferentially extravasate across junctional gaps in the endothelial monolayer (paracellular diapedesis). It has been hypothesized that VECs facilitate paracellular diapedesis by opening their cell–cell junctions in response to the presence of an adhering leukocyte. However, it is unclear how leukocytes interact mechanically with VECs to open the VEC junctions and migrate across the endothelium. In this study, we measured the spatial and temporal evolution of the 3D traction stresses generated by the leukocytes and VECs to elucidate the sequence of mechanical events involved in paracellular diapedesis. Our measurements suggest that the contractile stresses exerted by the leukocytes and the VECs can separately perturb the junctional tensions of VECs to result in the opening of gaps before the initiation of leukocyte transmigration. Decoupling the stresses exerted by the transmigrating leukocytes and the VECs reveals that the leukocytes actively contract the VECs to open a junctional gap and then push themselves across the gap by generating strong stresses that push into the matrix. In addition, we found that diapedesis is facilitated when the tension fluctuations in the VEC monolayer were increased by proinflammatory thrombin treatment. Our findings demonstrate that diapedesis can be mechanically regulated by the transmigrating leukocytes and by proinflammatory signals that increase VEC contractility.


As a contemporary concept, heritage bridges legal discourse and ethical discourse, national affiliations and a global imaginary, colonial pasts and neocolonial presents. The term often circulates beliefs in cultural authenticity, collective memory, and historical merit under the logic of neoliberal markets and legitimate capital gain, hence the tight connections between cultural heritage, industry, and tourism. While the concept developed as early as the nineteenth century in postrevolutionary France, its expansive political, juridical, and symbolic use has matured only after the Second World War, primarily as a reaction to the mass destruction experienced in European cities. Managing "heritage" in the context of the global political imagination created after the war, UNESCO has become the key player, lead actor, and sole orchestrator of all things/sites/memories—tangible and intangible—defined as World Cultural Heritage. This article looks at recent critical engagement with heritage, and with UNESCO's role in identifying heritage sites, by exploring Refugee Heritage, a recent project of DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency).


A drive device for semiconductor element comprises: a drive circuit for driving a semiconductor element constituting a power conversion device; an alarm generation circuit for generating an alarm signal having a pulse width depending on a protective element in response to the output from a detection circuit that detects information required for the protective operation of the semiconductor element; an output circuit for external output of the alarm signal at a prescribed level; a protection release circuit for generating a protection release signal over a prescribed period in response to the inverted output from a drive suspension signal generation circuit that suspends the driving of the semiconductor element by the drive circuit in response to the output from the detection circuit, and the output from the alarm generation circuit; and an output control circuit for modifying the signal output level from the output circuit in accordance with the protective release signal.


This PhD thesis is an investigation of the characteristics and detection limits for transit signals due to sub-stellar and terrestrial companions to white dwarfs in the SuperWASP survey. The work is described as follow: there is an introductory chapter on the field of white dwarfs and exoplanets. In chapter 2 I describe the SuperWASP project, the two SuperWASP telescopes the problematics of data analysis and the results obtained so far. In chapter 3 I discuss the simulations I performed to investigate the characteristics of the transit signals due to sub-stellar and planetary companions to white dwarfs and the detection limits derived for SuperWASP light-curves by means of my optimised version of Box-Least Square (BLS) algorithm. In chapter 4 I present a study of 194 spectroscopically identified white dwarfs which are a cross-correlation of the McCook & Sion catalogue and the SuperWASP archive. In addition, I derive upper limits to the frequency of sub-stellar and planetary companions to white dwarfs using my sample and the results obtained from my simulations. In chapter 5 I present a variability study for the sample of 194 white dwarfs. I have investigated the light-curves of the 194 white dwarfs in the sample to search for photometric variability due to non-radial pulsations, the presence of star spots in magnetic white dwarfs, and to irradiation and reflection effects on low-mass close companions. Finally, in chapter 6 I conclude and present my project for future work.


Electronic tunnelling through a one-dimensional quantum dot chain is theoretically studied, when two leads couple to the individual component quantum dots of the chain arbitrarily. If there are some dangling quantum dots in the chain outside the leads, the electron tunnelling through the quantum dot chain is wholly forbidden while the energy of the incident electron is just equal to the molecular energy levels of the dangling quantum dots, which is known as the antiresonance effect. In addition, the influence of electron interaction on the antiresonance effect is discussed within the Hartree?Fock approximation.


Simple thermodynamic relationships as well as semiempirical solubility parameter plotting techniques were examined as methods for predicting critical crazing strains of polycarbonate exposed to linear and branched alkanes. In general, measured critical strains correlated with predicted solubilities based on the Flory–Huggins equation. Solubility parameters could also be used to predict critical strains if molecular size differences between specific alkanes were taken into account. These techniques were then extended to polar and hydrogen bonding liquids using two-dimensional solubility parameter plotting representations. A comprehensive listing of critical strains for polycarbonate exposed to over 80 liquids and liquid mixtures is included.


Between the Han and Tang dynasties, the Serial Verb Construction underwent aseries of developments and changes. The BA construction was one result. Interestingly, these changes are mainly revealed in translated Buddhist sutras. The new grammatical forms not only emerged in Buddhist texts earlier than native forms, but also with higher occurrence rates. We compare and contrast the differences of the disposal construction as seen in translated Buddhist sutras and in native Chinese documents, tracing its development processes.


BACKGROUND
More than 10 million under five children die each year of preventable and easily treatable conditions in developing countries. Of these, eight million are infants, half of whom are newborns in their first month of life. A high proportion of babies die in their first month of life, many of them during their first week. The objective of this study is to assess sociodemographic and other determinants of neonatal mortality in Wesley Guild Hospital (WGH), Ilesa, Nigeria.

METHODS
This is a record review of 235 neonatal deaths reported at WGH from January 01 2001 to December 31 2003. Similarly, records of equal number of neonates (235) admitted to the same hospital during the same period but who were discharged alive was also reviewed for comparison. Four hundred and seventy records were reviewed. The two groups were matched for age, sex and within a 7-day period of admission. Information was collected with the aid of predesigned schedule from the patients' case notes, death registers and discharge summaries in the Records Department of the hospital. Information collected included the bio-data of the mothers, birth weight of neonates, estimated gestational age at delivery, age at death or discharge, date of admission, duration of the illness and date of discharge. Others included mode and place of delivery, maternal booking status and complications of pregnancy and birth. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics by computer software, Epi-Info 2002.

RESULTS
Teenage pregnancy, low birth weights (LBW), prematurity and neonatal tetanus were positively associated with neonatal death. Unbooked mothers, deliveries at missions and homes and low socioeconomic status were also positively associated with neonatal death (P < 0.05 in all cases). There was no statistically significant association between the sex of neonate, parity of mother and complications in pregnancy with neonatal death (P > 0.05 in all cases).

CONCLUSION
The major determinants of neonatal deaths were teenage pregnancy, prematurity, LBW, poverty and lack of skilled attendance at delivery. Addressing the basic determinants of neonatal mortality will improve newborn survival and health and this will significantly reduce mortality among under five children in developing countries.


This paper deals with the use of reported speech (RS) in Spanish criminal lawsuits (querellas) and police reports (denuncias) and argues about the most suitable strategies to translate such RS into Italian. In line of principle, the written record of the statements made by the individual(s) who filed the complaint is often the result of an oral cooperation between the plaintiff and the police officer and/or their attorney, whose subjectivity is reflected on the texts in a quite different fashion in the two legal cultures. The so-called 'verbatim assumption' of quotations in direct speech (DS) turns out to be a fallacy in the discussed genres, insofar as the locutor (i.e. the police officer or the attorney responsible for the drafting of the document) often normalizes the original utterances of the enunciator (i.e. the plaintiff whose point of view is represented in the report) in terms of cohesion, register and sentence length. Usually, these texts are translated following a strictly 'interlinear approach', so much so as to result almost illegible. An adequate command  of genre conventions – both in the source and in the target language – and the abidance by the translation universals of simplification and explicitation may help the translator produce a more efficient and readable target text, consistent with the expectations of a jurist in the target culture.


Serological tests used in current brucellosis eradication schemes, such as bacterial tube agglutination, do not readily distinguish between infected animals and those immunized with strain 19 or 45/20 Brucella abortus vaccines. In this study, sera from naturally infected cattle were used to identify serologically important antigens in extracts of virulent B. abortus by gel diffusion techniques. Antisera from rabbits hyperimmunized with selected precipitation lines were used for purification by affinity chromatography of two precipitating and one non-precipitating antigen from crude bacterial extracts. A passive hemagglutination test using these antigens was developed. A number of characterized bovine sera were screened by passive hemagglutination and conventional bacterial tube agglutination test. A considerable improvement in discrimination between sera from infected and vaccinated cattle was obtained with the hemagglutination test compared with bacterial tube agglutination.


In the 1920s and 1930s the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) funded several trips of specially-selected men to report confidentially on the situation and character of Australian universities. This paper examines these reports to understand the CCNY's influence on the modernizing of Australia's universities. In particular, the paper examines how the Carnegie Corporation helped develop new notions of what an Australian university should be in an age of increasing internationalism. These reports represented a new phase in Australian-American relations, one under the radar of official diplomatic relations, and explores the 'soft diplomacy' behind the CCNY's interwar interest in Australian universities.

Dr Julia Horne is University Historian and Senior Research Fellow in the History Department, University of Sydney. Her latest book, co-authored with Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Sherington, is Sydney, the Making of a Public University (Miegunyah, 2012)


A preliminary investigation was made into the effect of fourth-stage Strongylus vulgaris larvae sequestered in the tunica media of ileocolic arteries of pony foals treated with ivermectin. The foals had been reared parasite-free, inoculated with infective larvae and given orally a placebo or ivermectin paste. Two foals received subsequently one or two further inoculations with larvae and treatment with ivermectin. Arteriography was used to identify the lesions in the ileocolic artery following inoculation and their regression following treatment. At necropsy, foals were examined for lesions and larvae grossly and histologically. Ivermectin was highly effective against fourth-stage larvae and those present in the media appeared not to unduly affect the integrity of the ileocolic artery. Increased numbers of larvae were not found in the media of foals receiving repeat inoculations and repeat treatments. Larvae were not found in the media of foals treated with a placebo. The major pathological changes in the arterial wall of all foals were attributed to infection with S. vulgaris and there was no strong tendency for the damaged arteries to return to normal after the S. vulgaris were removed.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the management performance, especially the distribution performance of Zakat institutions in Malaysia. Although this study is carried out in Malaysia, Zakat issues are prevalent religious issues which affect Muslims all over the world and thus this study may offer some insights on Zakat management to interested parties.
The secondary data is used where information on Zakat fund from Zakat institutions are analyzed to determine their performance. Document analysis is carried out on annual reports, published bulletins, brochures, and periodical news of Zakat institutions in the selected region to assess the performance of these institutions. The results suggest that Zakat institutions in their distribution practices have adhered to the stipulated Islamic law, whereby, Zakat fund is distributed to the eight qualified groups of recipients. The main contentious issue in Zakat is the existence of a large percentage of undistributed Zakat which does not appear in any Zakat reporting. This issue is very serious and needs to be addressed by the Muslim communities and this issue may also be present in other Muslim countries. This study provides the public and the stakeholders, first-hand information regarding the existing management issues of Zakat fund in Malaysia and thus, contributes to the sharing of Zakat management experience to other Muslim countries for a better solution.


Markets for heat pumps have been expanding at a healthy rate over recent years. Two major drivers have been uncertainty over energy prices and growing environmental and climate concerns, which have highlighted the need to save energy and optimize renewable energy sources. Heat pump markets in many countries have focused chiefly on residential heat pump applications. Turning to heat pumps for high capacity in commercial and industrial applications has been much less of a natural reflex. Increased energy cost and awareness of the need for reduction of CO2 - emissions are drivers for large heat pumps. The main market barriers are expected to be lack of experience and thus lack of acceptance in market. This paper summarizes the objective of a new started IEA Annex to reduce the use of energy and greenhouse gas emissions by the increased implementation of large heat pumps. This paper will also highlight some successful applications.


The photo-oxidative degradation of polyethylene/montmorillonite (PE/MMT) nanocomposite and microcomposite has been investigated. It has been found that the rate of photo-oxidative degradation of PE/MMT nanocomposite and PE/Mn+MMT (where Mn+ stands for multivalent transition metal cation) microcomposites is much faster than that of pure PE. For the PE/MMT nanocomposite, the acceleration of photo-oxidative degradation is due to the influence of MMT and ammonium ion, in which the influence of ammonium is primary. The decomposition of ammonium ion may create acidic sites on layered silicates; meanwhile, the complex crystallographic structure and habit of clay minerals could also result in some active sites. The reversible photo-redox reaction of transition metal cations has a catalytic effect in the degradation of the polymer matrix. All these catalytic active sites can accept single electrons from donor molecules of polymer matrix and induce the formation of free radical upon UV irradiation. The generation of free radical leads to the oxidization and break of molecular chain. Thus, the materials suffer degradation and their mechanical strength decreases. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3006–3012, 2004


For a constant $K\geq 1$ let $\mathfrak{B}_K$ be the class of pairs $(X,(\mathbf e_n)_{n\in\omega})$ consisting of a Banach space $X$ and an unconditional Schauder basis $(\mathbf e_n)_{n\in\omega}$ for $X$, having the unconditional basic constant $K_u\leq K$. Such pairs are called $K$-based Banach spaces. A based Banach space $X$ is rational if the unit ball of any finite-dimensional subspace spanned by finitely many basic vectors is a polyhedron whose vertices have rational coordinates in the Schauder basis of $X$.
Using the technique of Fraisse theory, we construct a rational $K$-based Banach space $\big(\mathbb U_K,(\mathbf e_n)_{n\in\omega}\big)$ which is $\mathfrak{RI}_K$-universal in the sense that each basis preserving isometry $f:\Lambda\to\mathbb U_K$ defined on a based subspace $\Lambda$ of a finite-dimensional rational $K$-based Banach space $A$ extends to a basis preserving isometry $\bar f:A\to\mathbb U_K$ of the based Banach space $A$. We also prove that the $K$-based Banach space $\mathbb U_K$ is almost $\mathfrak{FI}_1$-universal in the sense that any base preserving $\varepsilon$-isometry $f:\Lambda\to\mathbb U_K$ defined on a based subspace $\Lambda$ of a finite-dimensional $1$-based Banach space $A$ extends to a base preserving $\varepsilon$-isometry $\bar f:A\to\mathbb U_K$ of the based Banach space $A$. On the other hand, we show that no almost $\mathfrak{FI}_K$-universal based Banach space exists for $K>1$.
The Banach space $\mathbb U_K$ is isomorphic to the complementably universal Banach space for the class of Banach spaces with an unconditional Schauder basis, constructed by Pelczynski in 1969.


This chapter introduces the concepts of polarimetry in the case of low frequency radio astronomy. In this regime radio waves are usually not the signature of atomic or molecular transitions lines, but rather that of unstable particle distribution functions releasing their free energy through electromagnetic radiation. As the radio source region is usually magnetized, the propagation medium (at least close to the source) is anisotropic, and the polarization depends on the local magnetic field direction, the propagation mode and the direction of propagation.


The world witnesses the progressive advancement of computing, whether it is in the raising power of data processing and storage, in the enhancement of modeling tools or in the improvement of the capacity to exchange information and knowledge. Today science seems to be dependent on informatics, and because of its nature, the Engineering (or the Exact Sciences, in a more general way) shares this connection even more. A need for understanding some real phenomena and the relentless search for rules that explain the behavior of physical systems drive the modern engineer to develop proper computational mechanisms that could handle the analysis of complex (mathematical) problems. Therefore, the appropriate training of engineering students regarding programming and numerical methods skills should be considered if a society wants to fully use its technological resources. In that sense, this work shares a brief overview of the numerical modeling and computer programming disciplines of the undergraduate civil engineering course of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, towards a basic diagnosis and a critical appraisal of the curriculum. Trying to fill some gaps in the academic formation process, the INSANE (INteractive Structural ANalysis Environment) project was created; an interactive environment of structural analysis conceived to be used as a didactic resource in undergraduate and graduate courses of engineering, as well as a platform of high-level scientific research on numerical methods. Throughout the years, INSANE has contributed to the training of many students, either enabling programming proficiency or in-depth learning of finite element method formulations.


This paper studies the impact of the information and communication technologies (ICT) on U.S. economic growth using a dynamic general equilibrium approach. We use a production function with six different capital inputs, three of them corresponding to ICT assets and other three to non-ICT assets. We find that the technological change embedded in hardware equipment is the main leading non-neutral force of the U.S. productivity growth and accounts for about one quarter of it during the period 1980-2004. As a whole, ICT-specific technological change accounts for about 35% of total labor productivity growth. JEL classification: E22, O30, O40.


In recent years there is an increasing interest about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics) model in education. STEAM is a cross-disciplinary approach which breaks down the barriers among disciplines, offers a dynamic character in teaching and sheds light on various aspects of the aforementioned parts of STEAM equation with multiple benefits for all children including those with disabilities. Furthermore, the increasing interest and the development of museum educational programs for school groups provide unique opportunities in STEAM education that are not available in schools. The museum as nonformal learning environment and its exhibits, the qualitative characteristics of learning and the wide range of the expected learning outcomes enrich the design and implementation of STEAM educational programs providing meaningful learning experiences for all children. The present paper refers to a cross-disciplinary approach which connects STEAM education, Museum Education and Special Education for the design and implementation of an educational program for a school group of children with disabilities. The educational program "Making mosaics with bricks and colors" was based on a. the STEAM approach, b. the characteristics of learning in the museum, c. the principles of Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and d. the unique characteristics of a thematic technological museum for the industrial heritage in Greece where the educational program took place. Based on the experience of the implementation of the educational program and the qualitative data of the evaluation of the program, it is argued that STEAM education as well as collaborations between different specialists and between schools and museums provides meaningful learning experiences to all children including those with disabilities. Article visualizations:


Abstract A combination of a new pulse sequence allowing fast data acquisition in the rotating frame version of NQR (ρ-NQRI) together with a method for slice selection, is reported. The procedure allows us to record the magnetization evolution during its motion in the rotating frame. At the same time a zero-crossing external magnetic field gradient is applied in order to select a determined slice of the object to be imaged. The experiments reported are the first steps toward a fast tridimensional ρ-NQRI; even more, as the spectroscopic information is preserved during the spatial encoding procedure, it could be considered as a 3D spatially resolved NQR spectroscopy technique.


S the rate of secretion of milk and lactation yields is less purely physiological and gives much evidence collected from farm operations. A chapter on milk composition by I. Johansson and O. Claesson seems out of place in this volume: most of the information on the constituents of normal milk can be found in standard textbooks, and it is disappointing that so little is said about the present-day problem of low solidsnot-fat content of milk. As in the previous volumes, all the articles have adequate bibliographies. A regrettable feature is that the chapter on male fertility could not be included in this volume: it is still in preparation, and must be obtained from the publishers later. w. s. FERGUSON


Our problem as communication engineers is to restore the transmitted sequence or, equivalently, to identify the inverse of the channel, given the observed sequence at the channel output. This task is accomplished by adaptive equalizers. Decision feedback equalizers are used extensively in practical communication systems. This paper addresses the techniques of channel equalization by decision feedback equalizer using artificial neural network. In this paper, radial basis function (RBF) network and multi layer perceptron net (MLP) is used to implement DFE. Advantages and problems of this system are discussed and its results are then compared accordingly. Keywords— Neural networks, radial basis function (RBF), decision feedback equalizers, Multi layer perceptron net (MLP)


farmers' behavior indicates someone already knows good knowledge, attitude and skills in rice farming activities. the purpose of this study is the influence of socio-economic factors on the behavior of farmers in rice farming. This research was conducted on 21 September - 10 November 2019 in Sumber Kulon Village, Jatitujuh District, Majalengka Regency, West Java. The method used in this study is a survey with 240 respondents. Data collection techniques using questionnaires and interviews, while data analysis techniques using descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. Patani activities in rice farming are started from land preparation, selection of rice seeds, rice seedbed, planting, maintenance, food and post-harvest. The results showed that the influence of socio-economic factors on farmer's behavior in the level of siginification was 0.05 with 0.006, Educational variable was 0.094, experience variable was 0.552, motivation variable was 0.034, acceptance variable was 0.096, media information variable was 0,000 and agricultural extension variables were of 0.010. This can be seen from the contribution of farmers in social factors by 27% of the behavior of farmers because farmers only depend on rice farming activities. The reasons for choosing to keep doing this activity are, among other things, a family business.
Keywords: Rice, Motivation, Acceptance, Media, Social factors, Farmer's behavior.


The purpose of this research is to address and learn more about privatization, especially in the banking industry in Indonesia. This research will be seen purely from the academic point of views which definitely involving many aspects of the theories that have been developed by expert from overseas and local as well. The focus of this study is to identify the impact of several important variables such as synergy, credibility, new ownership, culture and good corporate governance to the bank performance after privatized. Those five variables are believed to be the critical aspects in the merger and acquisition process. In order to support this research we have developed a simple research model. This model could help simplify the way of thinking and make better framework for the research. A simple questionnaire has also been developed in order to collect the primary data from target respondents, even though the depth of the questionnaire was not proven yet. Respondents who participate in this research are coming from privatized banks, either the bank was privatized through Initial Public Offering or through strategic partner. There were 188 data collected from more than 300 questionnaires distributed to bank officers at the head office of privatized banks in Indonesia. All variables used in this research can not be measured directly. Therefore, to be more accurate, it was done through some of indicators. Sequential Equation Modeling has been chosen as the research methodology and Lisrel 8.30 and SPSS 13.0 has also been chosen as the statistic software to be used.As a result of this research, only two hypotheses can be confirmed and the other nine hypotheses can not be confirmed. These results definitely do not match with the previous research conducted by researchers from other countries, but it could be used to broaden our way of thinking whereby other situation and condition could really produce different result. Keywords: Privatization, Questionaire, Sequential Equation Modeling


We reassess the pattern of Euro Area financial integration adjusting for the role of "onshore offshore financial centers" (OOFCs) within the Euro Area. While the Euro Area records large levels of international investment both within and outside of the currency union, much of these flows are intermediated via the OOFCs of Luxembourg, Ireland, and the Netherlands. These countries have dual roles as both hubs of investment fund intermediation and centers of securities issuance by foreign firms. We look through both roles and restate the pattern of Euro Area investment positions by linking fund sector investments to the underlying holders and securities issuance to the ultimate parent firms. Our new estimates of Euro Area investment allow us to document a number of stylized facts. First, the Euro Area's estimated gross external position is smaller than in official data. Second, the Euro Area is more biased towards euro-denominated assets and away from US dollar and other foreign currency assets than in official data. Third, the Euro Area is less financially integrated than it appears. Fourth, European financial integration occurs disproportionately through securities issued in OOFCs rather than via domestic capital markets. Fifth, there is a North-South bias in Euro Area financial integration whereby Northern European countries are relatively underweight securities issued by Southern European countries.


Abstract This paper analyzes the behavior of cross-country growth rates with respect to resource abundance and dependence. We reject the linear model that is commonly used in growth regressions in favor of a multiple-regime alternative. Using a formal sample-splitting method, we find that countries exhibit different behaviors with respect to natural resources depending on their initial level of development. In high-income countries, natural resources play only a minor role in explaining the differences in national growth rates. On the contrary, in low-income countries, abundance seems to be a blessing but dependence restricts growth.


Since its invention and first use, the fluxgate magnetometer has had sensitivity, stability, speed of response, and other characteristics which were entirely suitable to the needs of both mineral and petroleum exploration, and which were compatible with the limitations and error functions of simple airborne surveying systems. The introduction of nuclear‐precession magnetometers employing the principle of quantum electronics has permitted and forced a revision of surveying systems and techniques to take advantage of the hundred‐fold increase in resolution they afforded. It appears that the new magnetometers have resolution capabilities beyond conventional survey needs, and measurement accuracy better than the accompanying survey positional accuracy.


Over the past decade, ideas and experimental support for the hypothesis that G protein–coupled receptors may exist as dimeric or oligomeric complexes moved initially from heresy to orthodoxy, to the current situation in which the capacity of such receptors to interact is generally accepted but the prevalence, maintenance, and relevance of such interactions to both pharmacology and function remain unclear. A vast body of data obtained following transfection of cultured cells is still to be translated to native systems and, even where this has been attempted, results often remain controversial and contradictory. This review will consider approaches that are currently being applied and why these might be challenging to interpret, and will suggest means to overcome these limitations.


In this paper a novel method for generating HR (High Resolution) image using PDTDFB (Pyramidal Dual-Tree Directional Filter Bank) and Interpolation has been adopted. Generally, in digital images since the different kinds of noise highly affects various image processing techniques it is always better to perform denoising first. Here, first of all the image is decomposed into two different layers namely low pass sub band and high pass sub band after which denoising is being performed on both the layers so as to smoothen the image. The smoothened image is then interpolated using edge-preserving interpolation and then amplified. Finally, the HR image is being obtained by performing image composition.


This paper presents the numerical computation and visualization of electromagnetic fields using the MATLAB based integrated programming language (IPL): ACVEM-a computer aided teaching and learning (CAT/CAL) tool is developed by using IPL for engineering courses. A modularized interactive computation system is designed and built into ACVEM, where a number of numerical methods such as FDM, FEM, MOM and BEM are employed as the numerical computation modules. Two-dimensional and three dimensional static, quasi-static field and wave propagation problems can be solved and visualized by using this integrated programming language.


It seems that the explicit KR-α method (KRM), which was developed by Kolay and Ricles, is promising for the step-by-step integration because it simultaneously integrates unconditional stability, explicit formulation, and numerical dissipation together. It was shown that KRMcan inherit the numerical dispersion and energy dissipation properties of the generalized-α method [1] for a linear elastic system, and it reduces to CR method (CRM), which was developed by Chen and Ricles [2] if ρ∞=1 is adopted, where ρ∞ is the spectral radius of the amplification matrix of KRM as the product of the natural frequency and the step size tends to infinity. However, two unusual properties were found for KRM and CRM, and they might limit their application to solve either linear elastic or nonlinear systems. One is the lack of capability to capture the structural nonlinearity, and the other is that it is unable to realistically reflect the dynamic loading. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Trichuriasis is a disease of poverty for which excretory and secretory (ES) products that induce the protective immunity are being investigated as candidate vaccines antigens. In this study, ES products of T. muris and immune sera were produced. The immune sera recognized more than 20 proteins on a 2D-gel of ES products of T. muris adult worms. Tm16 was one of the proteins identified by mass spectrometry. Tm16 shares 57% sequence identity with Ov16, an immunodominant diagnostic antigen from Onchocerca volvulus. Recombinant Tm16 with a carboxyl terminal hexahistidine was produced using Pichia pastoris. Polyclonal antibodies against rTm16 were generated by one-prime and two-boost immunization of three female Balb/c mice with 25 μg of recombinant Tm16 emulsified with ISA720 adjuvant. These polyclonal antibodies confirmed that Tm16 is localized to the ES products and the soluble fraction of the adult worm. Additionally, the high-resolution crystal structure of Tm16 was solved by molecular replacement. Tm16 belongs to the phosphatidylethanolamine-binding-like protein (PEBP1) family and this is the first structure of a PEBP1 from a parasite.


Al?Mgx metal matrix composites reinforced with TiC (56?vol%) were obtained using a pressureless infiltration technique. It was observed that the infiltration rate of these Al?Mgx alloys increases as the magnesium content increases. Through x-ray diffraction (XRD) no reaction phase was detected, only the presence of aluminium and titanium carbide. In addition, some TEM studies were carried out to characterize the interface and the matrix of the composites. These results suggest that the Mg forms a solid solution with the aluminium lattice. Different morphological and chemical characteristics of the precipitated particles are also reported. To get an insight into the interface phenomena in the HREM images, theoretical simulations have been carried out. The hardness of the Al?Mgx/TiC composites increases as the amount of magnesium is increased. Additionally, hardness measurements have been performed with an atomic force microscope (AFM) and comparison with steel values were carried out. The elastic modulus, on the other hand, decreases slightly with magnesium content.


Introduction: Although thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) commonly infiltrate mediastinal structures, cardiac involvement is uncommon and has not been systematically studied. The purpose of this study was to describe our single-institution experience of the clinical presentation, treatment, and follow-up of cardiac involvement in patients with TETs. Methods: A single-institution retrospective review of cardiac involvement among patients with TETs from 2008 to 2012. Results: The frequency of cardiac involvement was 4%. All five patients with confirmed cardiac disease had left heart involvement. Only one patient was symptomatic. Myocardial invasion was the most common mode of involvement followed by transvenous spread. Surgical resection of the involved area was attempted in three patients: in one, surgery was aborted because of extensive myocardial involvement; in the other two patients, resection was incomplete. Surgery averted a potentially catastrophic hemodynamic complication in one patient. However, cardiac tumor recurred in both patients who underwent incomplete resection. One patient underwent radiation therapy resulting in complete regression of an aortic root mass. Conclusions: This study represents the most comprehensive review of cardiac involvement in patients with TETs. In contrast to previous single-case reports, we found a preponderance of asymptomatic presentation, left heart involvement, and myocardial invasion. Dynamic cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging should be considered in cases when cardiac involvement is suspected. Although immediate surgical resection is indicated for impending hemodynamic compromise, long-term palliation with surgery for myocardial involvement seems poor, especially when complete resection cannot be performed. Radiation therapy should be considered in selected patients.


Differentiation therapy for cancer is a developing treatment modality that is based on the anti-proliferative effects associated with differentiation of the malignant cells. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D) and its analogs are currently being evaluated clinically, alone or in combination with other agents, for treatment of several neoplastic diseases, but their usefulness as single agents may be limited by the enhancement of cell survival in some cell types exposed to 1,25D. In this study we evaluated the role of AKT signaling pathway, known to be anti-apoptotic in diverse cell types, in enhancing the survival of human leukemia HL60 cells induced to differentiate with 1,25D. We found that the phosphorylation and activity of AKT, as well as of its down-stream targets, are increased after the exposure to 1,25D. Treatment of HL60 cells with PI3K inhibitors LY294002 and Wortmannin, which decrease the activity of the AKT pathway, induced apoptosis, but this effect was reduced in cells simultaneously treated with 1,25D. Interestingly, LY294002 and Wortmannin also accentuated the 1,25D-induced G1 to S phase cell cycle block in HL60 cells, and this was associated with an increased expression of p27Kip1. Thus, a combination of 1,25D with inhibitors of AKT pathway is strongly anti-proliferative and should therefore be considered for differentiation therapy of myeloid leukemia.


This paper narrates our experience developing, in a relatively short time, an application to "rasterize" layers of integrated circuit (IC) layout definitions specified in the Calma Graphic Data System (GDS) II file format. We developed software to parse GDS-II IC layouts to generate a bitmap of regions of the chip that are filled with material such as metal, polysilicon, etc. Such bitmaps are useful for analysing the geometry of IC design and implementation. We developed the software in the Python programming language, reputed for use in rapid application development environments. Our experience developing and validating the application provides useful insights into the general methodology of iterative development, and the suitability of Python in non-traditional, rapid prototyping environments. Our experience shows that the choice of a versatile programming language can greatly improve productivity in a rapid application development environment where there is incomplete information at the outset.


This paper describes the development of Puppy, a canine-inspired quadruped robot driven by Festo air muscles. Puppy was designed to be a test bed for implementation and control of pneumatic muscles in legged locomotion. A two-dimensional kinematic model was developed using joint range of motion data and skeletal dimensions from large-breed canines, specifically the adult greyhound. This model was used to predict structural loads, required joint torques, muscle origin and insertion locations, and actuator lengths. Based on this study, the quadruped robot was designed with three degrees of freedom in each leg, all confined to motion in the vertical plane. Festo air muscles were mounted in antagonistic pairs and have been controlled using pulse-width modulation with closed-loop position feedback. Currently, the front legs and spine have been assembled and have successfully tracked position angles during air walking. The two legs can lift a 13.5 kg payload, nearly twice the predicted weight of the entire robot


The study aimed to create an anti-theft device for motorcycle. Specifically, it sought to determine the device's level of efficiency in terms of functionality and operation. The features were as follows: (1) device alerts the owner when the motorcycle is being taken through lifting or pushing; (2) lets current flow through to handles; (3) sounds the alarm and sends a text message to the owner; (4) consists of a fingerprint sensor which turns the motorcycle's engine on or off when it detects the owner's fingerprint; (5) turns the ultrasonic sensor and speedometer on when the motorcycle's engine is off; (6) the ultrasonic sensor turns on the safety features once the motorcycle is lifted up; (7) the speedometer turns on the safety features once the motorcycle is pushed; and (8) the GSM enables and or disables the safety features of the device. This study employed experimental method and descriptive approach to generate the necessary data. The features of the device exhibited very high efficiency as seen in its functionality test and as evaluated by thirty purposively chosen experts from the field of engineering.


We studied paired-pulse facilitation and long-term potentiation/depression in anesthetized rats to determine whether the hippocampal CA1 region inhibits local differences in short-term and long-term synaptic plasticity in its projections to the prefrontal cortex. We compared projections with the PFC from the posterior dorsal and ventral hippocampal CA1 regions (pdCA1 and vCA1 respectively). The two pathways displayed similar properties. However, the PPF properties of the pdCA1, projections differed dramatically from those of the pdCA1 projections. The pdCA1 projections showed the opposite of facilitation (i.e. suppression) at 25–50 ms intervals and more pronounced facilitation at 100–400 ms intervals. These results suggest that there are functional differences between these pathways.


In Hungary, the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) can be considered as the most important fast-growing, stand-forming introduced tree species. Due to its positive growing technological characteristics as well as wood utilization possibilities, at the present, black locust is the most widely planted tree species in Hungary, covering 25% of the country's total forest area. One of the important tasks ahead of Hungarian black locust growers is to improve the quality of black locust stands with introducing selected cultivars. For the estimation of the growth rate and yield a numerical yield table has been constructed on the basis of surveys of the experimental plots established in pure,managed 'Nyirsegi' ,'Ullői' and 'Jaszkiseri' black locust cultivars' plantations which can be suitable for sawlogs production. In the course of 56 stand surveys the key stand characteristics were measured, and then, were reconsidered the average height, diameter (DBH), volume, basal area and stem number given separately for the main (remaining), secondary (removal) and total stands per hectare. The programmable editing procedure allows to extention and formal change of information content of the yield table according to different demands.


Many crotaline snakes exhibit envenomated-prey preference in laboratory experiments. We examined the ability of copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) to distinguish between envenomated and nonenvenomated tobacco hornworm larvae (Manduca sexta). Snakes directed significantly more tongue flicks at envenomated hornworms than at nonenvenomated hornworms, and snakes consumed envenomated hornworms more frequently than nonenvenomated prey. These results support the hypothesis that envenomated tissue is an important stimulus to copperheads during strike-induced chemosensory searching. Copperheads preferred hornworms envenomated by conspecifics in the relative order: Louisiana > Texas > Kansas; this preference matches the relative order of preference and venom potency documented in a previous study of copperheads for envenomated mice. We conclude that the venom protein-prey tissue interaction responsible for the observed behaviour is similar in both invertebrate and rodent prey items.


The present study deals with the application of two major multivariate statistical approaches - Cluster Analysis (CA) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) as an option for assessment of clinical data from diabetes mellitus type 2 patients. One hundred clinical cases of patients are considered as object of the statistical classification and modeling, each one of them characterized by 34 various clinical parameters. The goal of the study was to find patterns of similarity, both between the patients and the clinical tests. Each group of similarity is interpreted revealing at least five clusters of correlated parameters or five latent factors, which determine the data structure. Relevant explanation of the clustering is found based on the pattern of similarity like glucose level, anthropometric data, enzyme level, liver function, kidney function etc. It is assumed that this classification could be of help in optimizing the performance of clinical test for this type of patients and for designing a pattern for the role of the different groups of test in determining the metabolic syndrome of the patients.


2 3 Abstract: Polyethylene packaging and Pre-treatments had significant effect (p<0.05) on overall chemical constituents such as reducing and non-reducing sugars (RS, TIS, SUC) Total Sugars (TS), Sugar Acid Ratio (SAR) and other organoleptic parameters like; Skin Color (SKC), Flesh Color (FLC), Texture (TEX), Taste (TAS) and Flavour (FLA) of Chaunsa white variety of mango fruit at ambient temperature (28-33 C and 56.7- o 69.7% relative humidity) during storage. It was investigated that fruit treated with coating emulsions having fungicide, ethylene absorbent and antiripening agent, packed in polyethylene had lower RS ranged from (8.35-10.70%), TIS (17.78-24.66), SUC (9.07-13.75), TS (17.31-23.93), SAR value (25.31-39.79), lower SKC (.3.83-4.88), FLC (3.84-4.50), TEX (5.05-5.68), TAS (3.21-4.28) and FLA (3.74-4.76) with an average mean of 9.07%, 20.95%, 10.80%, 20.06%, 26.31, 3.93, 4.08, 5.20, 3.70 and 4.09 respectively at ambien t temperature during 30 days of storage. The coated fruit packed in polyethylene had longer shelf life, minimum quality loss and slower increase in RS, TIS, SUC, TS contents, SAR, or lower score of SKC, FLC, TAS, higher TEX and slower increase of FLA respectively of fruit during storage. Whereas, the control sample had greater compositional changes with maximum quality loss, higher RS (9.67%), TIS (28.51%), SUC (19.83%), TS (29.38%), SAR (103.60), SKC (5.82), FLC (4.56), TAS (4.67), FLA (4.81) and lower TEX (4.98) and fruit was unacceptable after 12 days of their storage due to its unattractive skin, brown pulp color and poor taste.


In order to analyze absorption and transport of water and ions in plants affecting the salinization in the root zone through physical and physiological processes, we measured water and ion uptake by roots, transpiration rate, leaf conductance, and ion concentrations in root xylem sap and other plant tissues of corn and sunflower grown under saline conditions using a nutrient film technique system. The rate of root water uptake was lower in corn than in sunflower, where the daytime stomatal closure in response to the excessive water stress induced by the saline solution was occurred in corn but not in sunflower. NO3-, PO43- and K+ were highly concentrated in the xylem sap as a result of the active and selective uptake of nutrients by roots of both corn and sunflower. Na+, which is not an essential element for plant growth, was not highly concentrated in the xylem sap or plant tissues of corn because corn exhibited a poor Na+ absorption and transportation ability. On the other hand, sunflower had a greater ability to absorb water, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl-, and SO42-, and to transport these ions from the roots to the shoot. These differences in absorption and transport of water and ions indicate that sunflower is more salt tolerant than corn. The effects of these absorption and transport characteristics on plant growth and soil salinity should be taken into account for sustainable and effective plant production in salinized crop fields.


The rate of completed suicides continues to rise across nations, cultures, socioeconomic classes, age groups, sexes, military personnel, veterans, and civilians from different backgrounds. Most concerning is the absence of diagnosed mental health disorders in the majority of these cases, per current literature reports. Efforts in the identification and possible prevention of this ultimate, tragic act of self-destruction have been minimally successful. In this article, the authors discuss the possible biological mechanisms including the role for potential markers, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and their association with suicidal behaviors.


The article deals with the influence of presidents in the government formation process (GFP). The authors propose an original classification of roles of presidents, reflecting real constitutional practice, with five categories based on real presidential influence on the GFP, from the weakest to the strongest: observer, notary, regulator, co-designer, and creator. This classification is applied to Czechia, where the formal constitution gives the president great opportunities to intervene in the GFP. The results of the analysis of all cases of GFP show a significant variety of roles the Czech presidents have played: from notary to creator. Two factors are particularly important. Firstly, the timing of elections proved significant. When the GFP directly followed parliamentary elections, the presidents were weaker. In contrast, if the GFP followed a government break-up during the electoral term of the Chamber of Deputies, presidents were significantly stronger. Secondly, it depends on the real power of parties, that is, their ability to act together as a cohesive parliamentary majority. In most cases, the presidents showed their resolve to play a greater role than a notary, but they often faced a firm parliamentary majority that actually did not allow them to exert greater influence on the GFP. In contrast, the political proximity between the president and parliamentary parties appears difficult to assess, because there has been the public desire of non-partisan or "above-partisan" presidents in Czechia.


The paper estimates changes in total factor productivity and technical efficiency change index and technical change index using Malmquist productivity index(MPI) in fisheries wholesale products over the time period of 2006 through 2008. The model considers a number of employees and operating costs as input factors, and sales and EBIT(earnings before tax and interest) as output factors. The results indicate that, between 2006 and 2007, there is in general technical progress in which TCI(Technical Change Index) indicates 2.7994 in the sale scale of 50 million won through 100 million won, while there are no efficiency in TECI(Technical Efficiency Change Index), PECI(Pure Efficiency Change Index) and SECI(Scale Efficiency Change Index) which are estimated to be around 1. Between 2007 and 2008 technical efficiency and technical progress are generally declined, compared to those of 2006 and 2007. Wilcoxon`s rank-sum test shows that there are statistically significant difference of TCI and MPI between two periods at the level of 5%, while there are statistically significant difference of TECI, PECI and SECI between two periods at the level of 5%.


Previous studies have shown that training a reinforcement model for the sorting problem takes very long time, even for small sets of data. To study whether transfer learning could improve the training process of reinforcement learning, we employ Q-learning as the base of the reinforcement learning algorithm, apply the sorting problem as a case study, and assess the performance from two aspects, the time expense and the brain capacity. We compare the total number of training steps between nontransfer and transfer methods to study the efficiencies and evaluate their differences in brain capacity (i.e., the percentage of the updated Q-values in the Q-table). According to our experimental results, the difference in the total number of training steps will become smaller when the size of the numbers to be sorted increases. Our results also show that the brain capacities of transfer and nontransfer reinforcement learning will be similar when they both reach a similar training level.


Conversational recommendation system (CRS) attracts increasing attention in various application domains such as retail and travel. It offers an effective way to capture users' dynamic preferences with multi-turn conversations. However, most current studies center on the recommendation aspect while over-simplifying the conversation process. The negligence of complexity in data structure and conversation flow hinders their practicality and utility. In reality, there exist various relationships among slots and values, while users' requirements may dynamically adjust or change. Moreover, the conversation often involves visual modality to facilitate the conversation. These actually call for a more advanced internal state representation of the dialogue and a proper reasoning scheme to guide the decision making process. In this paper, we explore multiple facets of multimodal conversational recommendation and try to address the above mentioned challenges. In particular, we represent the structured back-end database as a multimodal knowledge graph which captures the various relations and evidence in different modalities. The user preferences expressed via conversation utterances will then be gradually updated to the state graph with clear polarity. Based on these, we train an end-to-end State Graph-based Reasoning model (SGR) to perform reasoning over the whole state graph. The prediction of our proposed model benefits from the structure of the graph. It not only allows for zero-shot reasoning for items unseen in training conversations, but also provides a natural way to explain the policies. Extensive experiments show that our model achieves better performance compared with existing methods.


New forms of cooperative living arrangements have been developing in the United States over the past few years, in order to find alternatives to the well-known "suburban sprawl" which too often characterizes the haphazard development of American cities. Cohousing experiments are a new form of shared housing in which several self-sufficient individual homes are built around a large common house which features shared facilities. While environmental concerns (physical ecology) are important for most of these groups, their primary emphasis is on human ecology, i.e. an attempt "to overcome the alienation of modern subdivisions" and to "recreate neighborhoods with a sense of place and belonging."


Summary Several models for the transport of proteins across membranes predict a role for lipids. If these models are correct, then alterations in lipid metabolism may affect protein export and vice versa. We are investigating this possibility by studying Escherichia coli K-12 mutants with defects in protein export or phospholipid metabolism. A temperature-sensitive secA mutant, which is defective in protein export at 42°C, exhibited severe pleiotropic effects on membrane biogenesis. Incubation of this strain at 42°C resulted in the appearance of intracytoplasmic membranes, in alterations in lipopolysaccharide structure and in decreased cardiolipin and C18: 1 fatty acid content. On the other hand, a pgsA mutant which is defective in the synthesis of acidic phospholipids, exhibited a protein export defect when studied in vivo or in vitro. These results are in agreement with a postulated role of membrane lipids in protein export.


Abstract A total of 511 056 hourly observations of precipitation, taken over a 13-year period at nine stations, were studied to obtain a better understanding of the characteristics of persistence, runs and recurrence. Each hourly precipitation observation was categorized as either none, light, moderate or heavy. Probabilities of each category, except heavy, were estimated from relative frequencies determined from this large data sample and were compared with some theoretical models. The heavy category occurred too infrequently at all of the nine stations to obtain statistically stable relative frequencies from a 13-year period of record. The sample provided sufficient information about the other categories to confidently fit models to the data. The models can be applied to estimate probabilities that precipitation will be observed for sequences of x hours, or more; for exactly x hours; or at time t and also at time t + x hours.


Abstract The paper is organised around the notion of embodied technique. The recent attempts to formulate scientific methodologies for the reconstruction of medieval fighting techniques based on a study of premodern fight books raise questions about the epistemological status of these (re)constructed techniques developed by modern practitioners of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). Approaching the subject from a perspective of cultural history and martial arts studies, the following questions are discussed: What is technique and how is it related to practice? How is technique acquired and transmitted? How can technique be recorded? And finally, how can historical records of technique be understood, interpreted and converted into practice? Following Ben Spatz, technique is defined as the knowledge content of specific practices and the semiotic references between practice, technique, and symbols referring to embodied technique are discussed. By looking at the intersubjective communication of subjective fighting skills and relying on the work of Michael Polanyi, the possibility to record the "tacit knowing" of these skills as explicit knowledge is questioned. Given the low knowledge content of the fight books in regard to the execution of the referenced techniques, modern HEMA techniques therefore are to be addressed as purely modern constructions based on modern fighting practices instead of as reconstructions of medieval technique. The discourses in HEMA are also compared to a similar debate in musicology, where the status and the "authenticity" of attempts to recreate the sound of medieval music based on interpretations of early musical notation systems was vividly discussed until the early 2000s. Fighting techniques are furthermore addressed as elements of complex fighting systems that only exist within a given historical culture of fighting and are transformed when transferred to another societal context.


We have developed a method for producing chronic regional nerve ischemia in rats by creating proximal limb arteriovenous shunts. This procedure results in a 50 to 75% reduction in endoneurial blood flow within the distal sciatic nerve as measured by the iodoantipyrine method. Nerve conduction velocities in sciatic nerves ipsilateral to the shunt fell by 25 to 30% within 2 weeks after creation of the shunt and did not recover for up to 10 months after the procedure. Morphological studies of the ischemic nerves showed structural abnormalities at nodes of Ranvier and mild axonal atrophy. Neither segmental demyelination nor axonal degeneration were evident. These results indicate that reduced endoneurial blood flow, insufficient to cause infarction, may result in measureable functional and morphological abnormalities in peripheral nerves.


The Japanese Islands have long been considered to be the most evolved of all the island arcs in the oceans. A simple scenario has been implicitly accepted for the growth of the Japanese Islands: since subduction started sometime around 520 Ma, the TTG crust has increased over time in association with the steady-state growth of the accretionary prism in front. Here, we show very different dynamic growths of TTG crusts over time than previously thought, i.e., four times more TTG crusts than at present must have gone into the deep mantle due to tectonic erosion, which occurred six times since subduction was initiated at 520 Ma. Tectonic erosion is a major process that has controlled the development history of the Japanese islands. It can be traced as a serpentinite melange belt, which indicates the upper boundary of past extensive tectonic erosion.


A description is given of a system that allows versions to be coded in different programming languages. The system supports both the recovery block scheme and the N-version programming method. It permits fault tolerance to be used for specified modules that could be embedded in a larger program. The system also allows the different versions to be executed on different machines. It has been implemented in C on DEC Vaxes and Sun 3 workstations and operates in a network of Unix-based machines.<<ETX>>


This paper provides an alternating optimization algorithm for large-scale matrix rank minimization problems and its parallel implementation on GPU. The matrix rank minimization problem has a lot of important applications in signal processing, and several useful algorithms have been proposed. However most algorithms cannot be applied to a large-scale problem because of high computational cost. This paper proposes a null space based algorithm, which provides a low-rank solution without computing inverse matrix nor singular value decomposition. The algorithm can be parallelized easily without any approximation and can be applied to a large-scale problem. Numerical examples show that the algorithm provides a low-rank solution efficiently and can be speed up by parallel GPU computing.


In this paper, autoregressive and time-frequency-based techniques have been investigated to predict and monitor the damage in implantable biological electronics such as pacemakers and defibrillators. The approach focuses is on the pre-failure space and methodologies for quantification of failure in electronic equipment subjected to shock and vibration loads using the dynamic response of the electronic equipment. Presented methodologies are applicable at the system-level for identification of impending failures to trigger repair or replacement significantly prior to failure. Leading indicators of shock-damage have been developed to correlate with the damage initiation and progression in under variety of stresses in electronic systems. The approach is based on monitoring critical solder interconnects, and sensing the change in test-signal characteristics prior to failure, in addition to monitoring the transient strain characteristics optically using digital image correlation and strain gages. Previously, SPR based on wavelet packet energy decomposition and the Mahalanobis distance approach have been studied by the authors for quantification of shock damage in electronic assemblies ("Solder-joint reliability in electronics under shock and vibration using explicit finite element sub-modeling," P. Lall, et al. Proc. 56th ECTC, May-Jun. 2006, pp. 428-435, "Life prediction and damage equivalency for shock survivability of electronic components," P. Lall, et al. Proc. ITherm, May-Jun., 2006, pp. 804-816). In this paper, Autoregressive (AR), wavelet packet energy decomposition, and time-frequency (TFA) techniques have been investigated for system identification, condition monitoring, and fault detection and diagnosis in implantable biological electronic systems. One of the main advantages of the AR technique is that it is primarily a signal-based technique. Reduced reliance on system analysis helps avoid errors which otherwise may render the process of fault detection and diagnosis quite complex and dependent on the skills of the analyst. Results of the present study show that the AR and TFA-based health monitoring techniques are feasible for fault detection and damage-assessment in electronic units. Explicit finite-element models have been developed and various kinds of failure modes have been simulated such as solder ball cracking, package falloff, and solder ball failure.


A lead-through robot programming solution with a 6-DOF motion tracking device is presented. The motion tracking device is flexible-linked and can be fixed on the end-effector of a robot to realize lead-through teaching. The programming solution covers data acquiring from the six string sensors of the motion tracking device, data processing, kinematical calculation which converts the sensor signals to the motion tracking device pose, motion planning which generates robot jogging command based on poses of the tracking device and the robot, path recording, smoothing and final robot program generating which takes the recorded path as the input thus a robot can repeat the taught path. A prototype has been built up to verify the programming solution with sound results. With the prototype, different teaching modes can be applied to adapt to different teaching requirements and different application areas.


The object of this study is the idioms found in the Reader's Digest Magazine. The objectives of the study is to describe the types of idioms and to expose the meanings of the idioms in the Reader's Digest Magazine. The data were analyzed based on the theoretical concept by Robby Lou (2007) and Palmer (1979) which concerned about types and the meanings of idioms. The result of this study seeing through the whole data were found the types of the idioms, they were Phrasal Verb, Separable Phrasal Verb, Verb – Noun – Preposition Combination, Preposition – Noun and Preposition – Adjective – Noun Combination, Preposition – Noun – Preposition Combination, Preposition – Adverb and Preposition – Adjective Combination, Adjective – Noun Combination, Noun Phrase and Adjective – Preposition Combination. There were also 11 other categories found in this study. They were Verb Preposition Noun Combination, Conjunction – Preposition – Combination, Noun – Preposition – Combination, Noun – Conjunction – Noun Combination, Determiner – Noun Combination, Adjective – Preposition – Adverb Combination, Proverbial Phrases, Verb – Conjunction – Verb Combination, Verb – Adjective – Combination, Verb – Preposition – Noun Combination, Preposition – Preposition Noun Combination Universitas Sumatera Utara The writer also found two kinds of meaning, Semi Opaque Meaning and Opaque Meaning. Moreover, there were 52 % of the data belonging to semi opaque meaning ( Palmer). Universitas Sumatera Utara


The labeled stochastic block model is a random graph model representing networks with community structure and interactions of multiple types. In its simplest form, it consists of two communities of approximately equal size, and the edges are drawn and labeled at random with probability depending on whether their two endpoints belong to the same community or not. It has been conjectured in [1] that this model exhibits a phase transition: reconstruction (i.e. identification of a partition positively correlated with the "true partition" into the underlying communities) would be feasible if and only if a model parameter exceeds a threshold. We prove one half of this conjecture, i.e., reconstruction is impossible when below the threshold. In the converse direction, we introduce a suitably weighted graph. We show that when above the threshold by a specific constant, reconstruction is achieved by (1) minimum bisection, and (2) a spectral method combined with removal of nodes of high degree.


In this work, experiments were performed to define operating windows for processing parameters for the isolation of oil bodies from soybeans in a mild way. An aqueous extraction process for simultaneous separation of oil bodies and proteins from soybean was tested. The effect of the particle size on the extraction of oil bodies with two different grinding methods, to obtain one coarse flour (d90 300 μm) and one fine flour (d90 40 μm) was studied. The extractability of the coarse flour was better as compared to fine flour: oil recoveries from the cream were very similar (23% and 24.5% of the total soybean oil), and the protein extraction yield was higher for the coarse flour (48% against 40% of the total protein). To enhance the extraction yield of the protein and the oil, three different pretreatments were applied before the aqueous extraction process took place. The pretreatments include: enzymatic hydrolysis, ultrasound and the combination of the two. We found that the pretreatment with ultrasound reduced the remaining insoluble fraction and increased the amount of solids extracted into the aqueous phase. The combination of ultrasound and enzymes resulted in the cream with the highest lipid-to-protein ratio of 10:1. Different aqueous extraction process alternatives were compared with a benchmark process (neither enzymes nor ultrasound).