This study investigates methods for reducing air pollution in the shipping sector, particularly in port areas. The study examines the use of fuel cells as an alternative to diesel generators. Environmental pollution at ports remains a critical issue, so using fuel cells as an alternative to conventional energy systems warrants further research. This study compares commercial fuel cell types that can be used on a case study very large crude carrier (VLCC) vessel specifically, although the technology is applicable to other vessels and requirements. Seven different fuel cell types were ranked based on five criteria to accomplish this. The proton-exchange membrane cell type was found to be the most suitable fuel cell type for the case study vessel. Based on the input fuel, ammonia-based hydrogen storage has been identified as the most promising option, along with using an ammonia reforming unit to produce pure hydrogen. Furthermore, this study provides an integrated fuel cell module and highlights the economic, environmental, and maintenance aspects of implementing the proton-exchange membrane fuel cell module for this case study. It also calculates the required space as a crucial constraint of implementing fuel cell technology at sea.


The dichroism in the 4f photoelectron spectra of laser-aligned Eu atoms has been determined with linearly polarized vacuum ultraviolet radiation. The experimental results disagree with the prediction of the three-parameter model based on the absolute magnitude and relative phase of the 4f d, g transition matrix elements. It is suggested that strong configuration interactions, confirmed in high-resolution photoelectron spectra, are the cause of the breakdown of the three-parameter model.


Abstract Standard deviations of wind direction fluctuations at 76 m at Riso for the first half year of 1975 have been analyzed as functions of wind speed and temperature lapse rate, either measured near the surface or near the level of the azimuth variations. Between 31 and 37% of the variance of the standard deviations (σA) is accounted for by the predictors. For strong winds, σA approaches a constant, about 3.5°. This is consistent with the value expected for overwater trajectories. For lower speeds, σA generally increases with decreasing hydrostatic stability. Largest values are found with weakest winds. In unstable air, σA always decreases with increasing wind speed. In stable air, there is a minimum σA for a particular wind speed. These properties are compared with a new theory of fluctuations of horizontal wind components. An analysis of independent data (July–October, 1975) showed the same pattern but significantly higher values of σA with strong winds. This is presumably due to the fact that in th...


A 62-year-old Chinese woman was admitted to the hospital with a four-day history of fever associated with chills, rigors, and headache. She also complained of postural giddiness, five episodes of vomiting, and shortness of breath on exertion for one day. She denied any abdominal pain or bleeding manifestations. Her past medical history was unremarkable, and she had not travelled out of Singapore. Clinical evaluation revealed tympanic temperature of 38.2 ̊C, blood pressure of 140/80 mmHg, and pulse rate of 92 beats per minute. The patient was alert and orientated with a Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) of 15. She had a faint maculopapular rash, but physical examination was otherwise unremarkable; the lungs were clear to auscultation, and there was no abdominal tenderness or hepatomegaly. Hematology and biochemistry results on admission are summarised in Table 1. Chest radiograph was normal, with no radiographic evidence of pleural effusion. Serum dengue NS1 antigen was positive, and dengue IgM and IgG were negative (SD BIOLINE Dengue Duo Cassette, Alere). During the initial two days of her admission, the patient did not develop any further dengue warning signs, such as abdominal pain, hepatomegaly, persistent vomiting, or bleeding manifestations. Her platelet count nadir was 62 x 10/L (day 5 of illness). She developed confusion and receptive and expressive aphasia with inability to recognize her family members on day 6 of illness. On examination, she was afebrile, GCS was E4V2M5, and there were no signs of meningism. Apart from the receptive and expressive aphasia, a full neurological examination did not reveal any motor or sensory deficit. A computed tomography scan of the brain that day showed no acute cerebral infarct or hemorrhage. Her hematocrit had risen by 6.8% but did not fulfil criteria for significant hemoconcentration; thrombocytopenia was mild, and although transaminitis was worse, it rapidly improved (shown in Table 1). Workup for nosocomial infection comprising blood cultures and urinalysis was unrevealing. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis revealed a nucleated cell count of 62 cells/uL (97% lymphocytes, 2% macrophages, 1% neutrophils), an erythrocyte count of 9 cells/uL, a protein count of 2.33 g/L, and a glucose count of 3.5 mmol/L (serum glucose 5.9 mmol/L). CSF Gram stain and culture, tetraplex polymerase chain (PCR) testing for Cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella zoster virus (VZV), and Toxoplasma gondii were negative. CSF enterovirus PCR testing was negative, as were tests for CSF measles and mumps serology. We proceeded to do magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and angiography with contrast the next day (day 7 of illness and day 2 of confusion) due to the persistent confusion with aphasia. There was no evidence of restricted diffusion or abnormal susceptibility, with no focal abnormal signals in


PURPOSE
The objective of this project was to develop new sentence test materials drawing on a basic non-native English lexicon that could be used to test speech recognition for various listener populations. These materials have been designed to provide a test tool that is less linguistically biased, compared with materials that are currently available, for sentence recognition for non-native as well as native speakers of English.

METHOD
One hundred non-native speakers of English were interviewed on a range of 20 conversational topics. Over 26 hr of recorded non-native English speech were transcribed. These transcriptions were used to create a lexicon of over 4,000 unique words. The words from this lexicon were used to create the new materials based on a simple syntactic sentence structure frame.

RESULTS
Twenty lists of 25 sentences were developed. Each sentence has 4 keywords, providing 100 keywords per list. Lists were equated for rate of occurrence of keywords in lexicon, high-frequency count (total number of affricates and fricatives), number of syllables, and distribution of syntactic structure. Listening-in-noise results for native-English-speaking, normal-hearing listeners indicated similar performance across lists.

CONCLUSION
The Basic English Lexicon materials provide a large set of sentences for native and non-native English speech-recognition testing.


Introduction Vertebral fragility fractures (VFFs) are the most common type of osteoporotic fracture found in older people, resulting in increasing morbidity and excess mortality. These fractures can cause significant pain, requiring admission to hospital. Vertebroplasty (VP) is effective in reducing pain and allowing early mobilisation in hospitalised patients. However, it may be associated with complications such as cement leakage, infection, bleeding at the injection site and fracture of adjacent vertebrae. It is also costly and not readily accessible in many UK hospitals. A recent retrospective study reported that spinal medial branch nerve block (MBNB), typically used to treat facet arthropathy, had similar efficacy in terms of pain relief compared with VP for the treatment of painful VFF. However, to date, no study has prospectively compared MBNB to VP. We therefore propose a prospective feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT) to compare the role of MBNB to VP, in hospitalised older patients. Method A parallel, two-arm RCT with participants allocated on a 1:1 ratio to either standard care-VP or MBNB in hospitalised patients aged over 70 with acute osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Follow-up will be at weeks 1, 4 and 8 post intervention. The primary objective is to determine the feasibility and design of a future trial, including specific outcomes of recruitment, adherence to randomisation and safety. Embedded within the trial will be a health economic evaluation to understand resource utilisation and implications of the intervention and a qualitative study of the experiences and insights of trial participants and clinicians. Secondary outcomes will include pain scores, analgesia requirements, resource use and quality of life data. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was granted by the Yorkshire & the Humber Research Ethics Committee (reference 21/YH/0065). AVERT (Acute VertEbRal AugmentaTion) has received approval by the Health Research Authority (reference IRAS 293210) and is sponsored by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (reference 21HC001). Recruitment is ongoing. Results will be presented at relevant conferences and submitted to appropriate journals for publication on completion. Trial registration number ISRCTN18334053.


Sparse matrix factorization is the problem of approximating a matrix $\mathbf{Z}$ by a product of $J$ sparse factors $\mathbf{X}^{(J)} \mathbf{X}^{(J-1)} \ldots \mathbf{X}^{(1)}$. This paper focuses on identifiability issues that appear in this problem, in view of better understanding under which sparsity constraints the problem is well-posed. We give conditions under which the problem of factorizing a matrix into \emph{two} sparse factors admits a unique solution, up to unavoidable permutation and scaling equivalences. Our general framework considers an arbitrary family of prescribed sparsity patterns, allowing us to capture more structured notions of sparsity than simply the count of nonzero entries. These conditions are shown to be related to essential uniqueness of exact matrix decomposition into a sum of rank-one matrices, with structured sparsity constraints. In particular, in the case of fixed-support sparse matrix factorization, we give a general sufficient condition for identifiability based on rank-one matrix completability, and we derive from it a completion algorithm that can verify if this sufficient condition is satisfied, and recover the entries in the two sparse factors if this is the case. A companion paper further exploits these conditions to derive identifiability properties and theoretically sound factorization methods for multi-layer sparse matrix factorization with support constraints associated to some well-known fast transforms such as the Hadamard or the Discrete Fourier Transforms.


This paper analyzes the participation of small farmers in the fresh fruit and vegetable supply systems of supermarkets in Mexico, using the case of small-scale guava farmers in the state of Michoacan. Three findings emerge. (1) The most important determinant of access of these farmers to more modern markets is their territorial (spatial) context and the way in which those territories interact with different markets, followed by fixed capital assets. Farm size, education and participation in organizations are not significant determinants. (2) Farmers working in the more modern markets compared to those in the traditional markets, are labor-constrained and overuse chemical inputs to a lesser extent. (3) Farmers that have accessed the more modern market channels, have substantially higher net income per hectare. Policies and projects aimed at promoting the inclusion in more modern markets of small-scale farmers such as those producing guava in Michoacan, must act on the territorial dimension of the problem of inclusion/exclusion, and not restrict themselves to actions aimed at improving the supply chains or the capacities of the households or their farms and organizations.


This is a continuation of previous work where we developed a discrete time-invariant linear state/signal systems theory in a general setting. In this article, the state space is required to be a Hilbert space, as earlier, but the signal space is taken to be a Kreı̆n space. The notion of the adjoint of a given state/signal system is introduced and exploited throughout the paper, and in particular, in the definition and the study of passive and conservative state/signal systems, which is the main subject of this paper. It is shown that each fundamental decomposition of the Kreı̆n signal space is admissible for a passive state/signal system, meaning that there is a corresponding input/state/output representation of the system, a so-called scattering representation. The connection between different scattering representations and their scattering matrices (i.e. transfer functions) is explained. We show that every passive state/signal system has a minimal conservative orthogonal dilation and minimal passive orthogonal compressions. Passive signal behaviours are defined, and their passive, conservative, and H-passive realizations are studied. It is shown that the set of all positive self-adjoint operators H (which need not be bounded or have a bounded inverse) for which a state/signal system S is H-passive coincides with the set of generalized positive solutions H of the Kalman– Yakubovich–Popov inequality for an arbitrary scattering representation of S; and consequently, this set does not depend on the particular representation. Under an extra minimality assumption this set contains a minimal solution which defines the available storage, and a maximal solution which defines the required supply. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Bidirectional DC-DC converters are an essential part of modern power systems, such as electric vehicles and renewable energy . The paper presents a comparative analysis of bidirectional DC-DC converters suitable for high power density application without galvanic isolation. It is based on the comprehensive comparative analysis of conduction losses, voltage stress on semiconductors and passive component size. Continuous conduction mode of three widely used bidirectional topologies (cascaded, two-phase interleaved with and without charge-pump) are analysed. Selected analytically calculated evaluation criteria are compared for a wide range of the output voltage level. The best solution is selected for experimental realization based on GaN transistors. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eie.24.6.22287


Reactivation of fetal hemoglobin in adult red blood cells benefits patients with sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia. BCL11A is one of the predominant repressors of fetal γ-globin transcription and stands as an appealing target for therapeutic genome manipulation. However, pharmacologic perturbation of BCL11A function or its co-regulators remains an unmet challenge. Previously, we reported the discovery of the erythroid-enriched protein kinase HRI as a novel regulator of γ-globin transcription and found that HRI functions in large part via controlling the levels of BCL11A transcription (Grevet et al., Science, 2018). However, the specific mechanisms underlying HRI-mediated modulation of BCL11A levels remain unknown.
 To identify potential HRI-controlled transcription factors that regulate BCL11A, we performed a domain-focused CRISPR screen that targeted the DNA binding domains of 1,447 genes in the human erythroid cell line HUDEP2. Activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) emerged as a novel γ-globin repressor. Prior studies reported that ATF4 production is under positive influence of HRI. Specifically, HRI phosphorylates translation factor EIF2α which in turn augments translation of ATF4 mRNA. As expected, HRI deficiency reduced ATF4 protein amounts in HUDEP2 and primary erythroid cells. We further found that the degree of γ-globin reactivation was similar in ATF4 and HRI-depleted cells.
 ATF4 ChIP-seq in both HUDEP2 and primary erythroblast identified 4,547 and 3,614 high confidence binding sites, respectively. Notably, we did not observe significant enrichment of ATF4 binding or even the presence of an ATF4 consensus motif at the γ-globin promoters, suggesting that ATF4 regulates the γ-globin genes indirectly. However, ATF4 specifically bound to one of the three major BCL11A erythroid enhancers (+55) in both cell types. This was the sole binding site within the ~0.5Mb topologically associating domain that contains the BCL11A gene. Eliminating this ATF4 motif via CRISPR guided genome editing lowered BCL11A mRNA levels and increased γ-globin transcription. Capture-C showed that ATF4 knock-out or removal of the ATF4 site at the BCL11A (+55) enhancer decreased chromatin contacts with the BCL11A promoter. Forced expression of BCL11A largely restored γ-globin silencing in cells deficient for ATF4 or lacking the ATF4 motif in the BCL11A (+55) enhancer.
 An unexplained observation from our prior study was that HRI loss did not significantly lower Bcl11a levels in murine erythroid cells. Therefore, we mutated the analogous ATF4 motif in the Bcl11a enhancer in the murine erythroid cell line G1E. Unlike in human cells, Bcl11a mRNA synthesis was decreased only very modestly, and there was no effect on the murine embryonic globin genes whose silencing requires Bcl11a. This suggests that the species specific regulation of BCL11A by HRI results from divergent functional roles of ATF4 binding at the BCL11A (+55) enhancer.
 In sum, our studies uncover a major pathway that extends linearly from HRI to ATF4 to BCL11A to γ-globin. Moreover, these results further support HRI as a pharmacologic target for the selective regulation of BCL11A and γ-globin.

 Blobel: Pfizer: Research Funding; Bioverativ: Research Funding.


In the course of revision of Polytrichaceae for the moss flora of Russia, among collections previously referred to Lyellia aspera from southern part of Siberia and Far East, the second species of the genus, Lyellia crispa was found. This is the first record for Russia of this species that was known up to now from Himalayas and China. Descriptions, illustrations and habitat data are given and the distribution in Russia is mapped. The differentiation of these two species is discussed.


Aim: To summarize data for cervical loop electrosurgical excision procedures (LEEP) in Israel from 2001 to 2007 inclusive. Methods: 16 colposcopy specialists in Israel completed yearly questionnaires that assessed their LEEP. Results: Of the 2,681 LEEP reported, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2/3 (CIN 2/3) and CIN 1 were the main indications, with 63.2 and 20.5%, respectively. CIN 2/3 was detected in 111 (20.4%) of those for whom CIN 1 was the indication for LEEP. Of those diagnosed with CIN 2/3 following LEEP, 34.8% (426/1,225) were in the 18- to 34-year age range. The agreement between punch and LEEP biopsies was 80.15% and the ĸ value was 0.536 (moderate agreement). Complications included severe bleeding in 3.02% during the procedure(s) and 2.99% in the 3 weeks following LEEP. Conclusions: In one-fifth of the women for whom CIN 1 was the indication for LEEP, CIN 2/3 was the final diagnosis. More than one-third of the cases of CIN 2/3 and carcinoma were diagnosed in women under the age of 35, the age at which Pap screening is offered in Israel. Based on these findings, the Israeli Society of Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy prepared guidelines for the treatment of CIN.


Matthew Marshall of Tunstall explains the role that telehealth is playing in supporting health and social care professionals and enabling them to deliver more integrated, flexible and person-centred care. He discusses the approach three PCTs have taken for more preventative, community based care and how their use of telehealth has transformed chronic disease and long term condition management, shifting the balance away from a reliance on hospitals and into the community setting.


Balanced chromosomal rearrangements leading to fusion genes on the molecular level define distinct biological subsets in AML. The four balanced rearrangements (t(15;17), t(8;21), inv(16), and 11q23/MLL) show a close correlation to cytomorphology and gene expression patterns. We here focused on seven AML with t(8;16)(p11;p13). This translocation is rare (7/3515 cases in own cohort). It is more frequently found in therapy-related AML than in de novo AML (3/258 t-AML, and 4/3287 de novo, p=0.0003). Cytomorphologically, AML with t(8;16) is characterized by striking features: In all 7 cases the positivity for myeloperoxidase on bone marrow smears was >70% and intriguingly, in parallel >80% of blast cells stained strongly positive for non-specific esterase (NSE) in all cases. Thus, these cases can not be classified according to FAB categories. These data suggest that AML-t(8;16) arise from a very early stem cell with both myeloid and monoblastic potential. Furthermore, we detected erythrophagocytosis in 6/7 cases that was described as specific feature in AML with t(8;16). Four pts. had chromosomal aberrations in addition to t(8;16), 3 of these were t-AML all showing aberrations of 7q. Survival was poor with 0, 1, 1, 2, 20 and 18+ (after alloBMT) mo., one lost to follow-up, respectively. We then analyzed gene expression patterns in 4 cases (Affymetrix U133A+B). First we compared t(8;16) AML with 46 AML FAB M1, 41 M4, 9 M5a, and 16 M5b, all with normal karyotype. Hierachical clustering and principal component analyses (PCA) revealed that t(8;16) AML were intercalating with FAB M4 and M5b and did not cluster near to M1. Thus, monocytic characteristics influence the gene expression pattern stronger than myeloid. Next we compared the t(8;16) AML with the 4 other balanced subtypes according to the WHO classification (t(15;17): 43; t(8;21): 40; inv(16): 49; 11q23/MLL-rearrangements: 50). Using support vector machines the overall accuracy for correct subgroup assignment was 97.3% (10-fold CV), and 96.8% (2/3 training and 1/3 test set, 100 runs). In PCA and hierarchical cluster analysis the t(8;16) were grouped in the vicinity of the 11q23 cases. However, in a pairwise comparison these two subgroups could be discriminated with an accuracy of 94.4% (10-fold CV). Genes with a specific expression in AML-t(8;16) were further investigated in pathway analyses (Ingenuity). 15 of the top 100 genes associated with AML-t(8;16) were involved in the CMYC-pathway with up regulation of BCOR, COXB5, CDK10, FLI1, HNRPA2B1, NSEP1, PDIP38, RAD50, SUPT5H, TLR2 and USP33, and down regulation of ERG, GATA2, NCOR2 and RPS20. CEBP beta, known to play a role in myelomonocytic differentiation, was also up-regulated in t(8;16)-AML. Ten additional genes out of the 100 top differentially expressed genes were also involved in this pathway with up-regulation of DDB2, HIST1H3D, NSAP1, PTPNS1, RAN, USP4, TRIM8, ZNF278 and down regulation of KIT and MBD2. In conclusion, AML with t(8;16) is a specific subtype of AML with unique characteristics in morphology and gene expression patterns. It is more frequently found in t-AML, outcome is inferior in comparison to other AML with balanced translocations. Due to its unique features, it is a candidate for inclusion into the WHO classification as a specific entity.


The formation of a stable complex between proteins lies at the core of a wide variety of biological processes and has been the focus of countless experiments. The huge amount of information contained in the protein structural interactome in the Protein Data Bank can now be used to characterise and classify the existing biological interfaces. We here introduce ARCTIC-3D, a fast and user-friendly data mining and clustering software to retrieve data and rationalise the interface information associated with the protein input data. We demonstrate its use by various examples ranging from showing the increased interaction complexity of eukaryotic proteins, 20% of which on average have more than 3 different interfaces compared to only 10% for prokaryotes, to associating different functions to different interfaces. In the context of modelling biomolecular assemblies, we introduce the concept of "recognition entropy", related to the number of possible interfaces of the components of a protein-protein complex, which we demonstrate to correlate with the modelling difficulty. The identified interface clusters can also be used to generate various combinations of interface-specific restraints for integrative modelling. The ARCTIC-3D software is freely available at https://github.com/haddocking/arctic3d and can be accessed as a web-service at https://wenmr.science.uu.nl/arctic-3d


This thesis studies the development of the figure of Jesus Christ in William Blake's poetry, affirms that this figure lies at the heart of Blake's prophetic message, and clarifies the meaning of the idea of a 'radically Christian Christ'. To say that Blake's Jesus Christ is radically Christian means that he is grounded in Scripture (and is therefore intended to recall Gospel stories about Christ) but also that he transcends the restrictions of orthodox dogma, especially by his intimate association with Imagination. This view is not to be confused with the opinion that Blake's Jesus is basically a symbol for Human Imagination. Although this opinion, in various guises, is shared by the majority of Blake critics, it fails to grasp the full significance of the figure of Jesus Christ, because it comes to its conclusion in the symbol itself. The statement that Jesus Christ is a symbol can only be made if we realize that, as a symbol, he points beyond himself to himself. It is not the symbol itself which liberates but rather the reality behind the symbol, the reality to which the symbol points. This reality is Jesus Christ. By re-examining pertinent passages and themes in the poetry it is shown that Blake grasped the basic information about Jesus' life, work, and death as he found it in the Gospels and then transformed it in his poetry. Here events such as incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection assume an urgent, apocalyptic, Christian vitality as Blake demonstrates how they are re-enacted in each Individual. Blake did not believe that he had invented this vision but rather that he had restored a truth about Jesus Christ long buried by the orthodox Church. The figure of Jesus is intimately associated with imagination but not because this word defines him. It is rather because he dwells in Hioman Imagination and because through this faculty humanity encounters, not just a symbol, but the real being of Jesus Christ. He is eternal, immanent, transcendent, and Christian beyond dogma. This is the vision which this thesis affirms and clarifies. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


This article is primarily concerned with investigating whether and to what extent legal doctrine actually influences judicial decision-making process in Ukraine and others countries. It is concluded that legal doctrine not only assists judges, but somehow restricts their exercise of discretionary power.


Prediction of radio coverage, also known as radio "hear-ability" requires the prediction of radio propagation loss. The Irregular Terrain Model (ITM) predicts the median attenuation of a radio signal as a function of distance and the variability of the signal in time and in space. Algorithm can be applied to a large amount of engineering problems to make area predictions for applications such as preliminary estimates for system design, surveillance, and land mobile systems. When the radio transmitters are mobile, the radio coverage changes dynamically, taking on a real-time aspect that requires thousands of calculations per second, which can be achieved through the use of recent advances in multicore processor technology. In this study, we evaluate the performance of ITM on IBM Cell Broadband Engine (BE). We first give a brief introduction to the algorithm of ITM and present both the serial and parallel execution manner of its implementation. Then we exploit how to map out the program on the target processor in detail. We choose message queues on Cell BE which offer the simplest possible expression of the algorithm while being able to fully utilize the hardware resources. Full code segment and a complete set of terrain profiles fit into each processing element without the need for further partitioning. Communications and memory management overhead is minimal and we achieve 90.2% processor utilization with 7.9× speed up compared to serial version. Through our experimental studies, we show that the program is scalable and suits very well for implementing on the CELL BE architecture based on the granularity of computation kernels and memory footprint of the algorithm.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the following techniques on the isolation of volatiles of importance for the aroma/flavor of fresh cashew apple juice: dynamic headspace analysis using PorapakQ(®) as trap, solvent extraction with and without further concentration of the isolate, and solid-phase microextraction (fiber DVB/CAR/PDMS).

RESULTS
A total of 181 compounds were identified, from which 44 were esters, 20 terpenes, 19 alcohols, 17 hydrocarbons, 15 ketones, 14 aldehydes, among others. Sensory evaluation of the gas chromatography effluents revealed esters (n = 24) and terpenes (n = 10) as the most important aroma compounds.

CONCLUSION
The four techniques were efficient in isolating esters, a chemical class of high impact in the cashew aroma/flavor. However, the dynamic headspace methodology produced an isolate in which the analytes were in greater concentration, which facilitates their identification (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) and sensory evaluation in the chromatographic effluents. Solvent extraction (dichloromethane) without further concentration of the isolate was the most efficient methodology for the isolation of terpenes. Because these two techniques also isolated in greater concentration the volatiles from other chemical classes important to the cashew aroma, such as aldehydes and alcohols, they were considered the most advantageous for the study of cashew aroma/flavor.


Background: One of the disorders experienced by gout arthritis sufferers is pain in the joints. Joint pain in patients with gouty arthritis occurs due to deposits of monosodiumuric crystals that accumulate in the joints as a result of high levels of gout arthritis in the blood. One of the interventions that can be given to reduce the pain scale in sufferers of gouty arthritis is the administration of warm cinnamon compresses. The essential oil in cinnamon bark contains eugenol, where eugenol has a very hot and spicy taste so it can open the skin's pores. So that pain can be reduced with the warm cinnamon compress.
Purpose: The effect of the warm cinnamon compress aims to determine the benefits of the warm cinnamon compress to reduce the pain scale in sufferers of gout arthritis.
Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental method with a pre and post control group approach. The sample in this study amounted to 50 respondents, the sample was taken by stratified random.
Results: The results of the Wilcoxon test showed that the p value in the control group was 0.850 and the intervention group obtained a p value of 0.000. The results of the Paired T-test showed that the p value in the control group was 0.594 and the intervention group obtained a p value of 0.000. Independent T-test results obtained p value 0.000 <0.05, meaning that there is an effect of warm cinnamon compresses on reducing pain in patients with gout arthritis before and after giving warm cinnamon compresses between the intervention group and the control group.
Conclusion: The warm cinnamon compress has an effect on reducing the pain scale in people with gouty arthritis.
Keywords: gout arthritis, pain, cinnamon warm compress


A technique of perfusion through pig donor spleen has been described with regard to peculiarities of the young age. Good therapeutic effect was observed during 12 splenoperfusions performed to 8 patients with septic conditions aged 12 days to 14 years. The technique suggested is simple and can be used under adequate anesthesiologic supply in children's hospitals.


Abstract The paper offers a framework and a specific proposal for the re-regulation of key components of the U.S. financial system in the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis. It begins with a review of those aspects of the subprime crisis that required the large, observed government interventions, namely the feared bankruptcy of individual banks, insurers, and government sponsored enterprises with the potential to create a meltdown of the entire financial system. The paper then develops legislative responses that would make future systemic failures and bailouts of this magnitude highly unlikely. The paper's key analytic device is to distinguish two financial firm activities: (1) risky investment activities ("hedge fund" division) capable of causing firm bankruptcy, and (2) market-making and related activities ("infrastructure" division), the failure of which would have systemic implications. The goal of the proposed regulatory change is to ensure that the infrastructure division is bankruptcy remote and can operate on a stand-alone basis if necessary even when losses from the hedge fund division threaten the holding company's solvency.


Objective: This study aimed at exploring the current development status and problems of health emergency management in China and provides a reference for improving, constructing, and implementing a public health emergency management system. Methods: Cases of major and severe public health emergencies in China were analyzed along with the relevant health emergency management literature from the last decade. Results: China's health emergency system gradually improved during the study period. Monitoring and early warning systems were significantly strengthened. Material reserves and transfer management systems were constantly improved. However, the operational efficiency of command and decision systems was low, versatile talent accounted for a relatively small proportion, and emergency fund investment was insufficient. Conclusion: Constructing a sound and scientific emergency management mechanism is a lengthy and challenging process. To establish an emergency management mode for public health emergencies that is appropriate for China, it is necessary to solve existing problems and learn from the models and experiences of developed foreign countries.


Every day, the human brain processes an immense volume of visual information, relying on intricate neural mechanisms to perceive and interpret these stimuli. Recent breakthroughs in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have enabled scientists to extract visual information from human brain activity patterns. In this study, we present an innovative method for decoding brain activity into meaningful images and captions, with a specific focus on brain captioning due to its enhanced flexibility as compared to brain decoding into images. Our approach takes advantage of cutting-edge image captioning models and incorporates a unique image reconstruction pipeline that utilizes latent diffusion models and depth estimation. We utilized the Natural Scenes Dataset, a comprehensive fMRI dataset from eight subjects who viewed images from the COCO dataset. We employed the Generative Image-to-text Transformer (GIT) as our backbone for captioning and propose a new image reconstruction pipeline based on latent diffusion models. The method involves training regularized linear regression models between brain activity and extracted features. Additionally, we incorporated depth maps from the ControlNet model to further guide the reconstruction process. We evaluate our methods using quantitative metrics for both generated captions and images. Our brain captioning approach outperforms existing methods, while our image reconstruction pipeline generates plausible images with improved spatial relationships. In conclusion, we demonstrate significant progress in brain decoding, showcasing the enormous potential of integrating vision and language to better understand human cognition. Our approach provides a flexible platform for future research, with potential applications in various fields, including neural art, style transfer, and portable devices.


Frequent changes in climatic conditions especially unpredictable drought occurrences are challenging food security. The present investigation was carried out to improve the grain yield in Improved White Ponni rice under reproductive stage drought stress. This variety is very well known for its grain quality. Physiological changes, grain yield and related traits under drought were evaluated in the advanced breeding lines of Improved White Ponni (IWP) X Apo introgressed with qDTY 3.1. The experiment was conducted in Department of Rice, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural university, Coimbatore during 2020. Two superior backcross inbred lines of IWP X Apo, donor parent and recipient parent were raised under water stress in rain out shelter as well as in well irrigated conditions in replications. Soil moisture content was reduced to 12.7% in drought field showing the stress severity. Physiological parameters such as photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll content and relative water content, Yield and related traits such as days to fifty percent flowering, productive tillers, spikelet fertility, grain yield and grain weight were recorded in the BILs and parents during flowering stages. Reduction was observed in all these traits under water stress. However, in comparison with IWP (94.6%) which lacks qDTY 3.1, BILs with qDTY 3.1 showed less reduction in grain yield (63%) and other traits. Earliness was also observed in qDTY 3.1 containing BILs under drought stress (BILs 106 days, IWP-117 days) and controlled conditions (BILs83 days, IWP-107 days) when compared to IWP. Grain quality estimates in the BILs showed similarity to IWP. These BILs need to be evaluated further for confirmation of drought tolerance and they are effective resources for utilisation in drought breeding programmes.


ABSTRACT This paper explores how development banks should deploy appropriate financial instruments to encourage real economic risk-taking while minimizing financial engineering risks. We distinguish real economic risks from financial engineering or intermediary risks and argue that using complex financial instruments to leverage additional private financing may undermine policy steer and lead to too much risk being taken by development banks. We then explore comparative advantages of different financial instruments such as loans, guarantees, equity, and insurance in tackling risks in normal times. Then we synthesize common features of development banks' responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Finally, we propose future research directions.


The predictability of real estate returns has been a subject of significant examination by real estate research. Several studies have found that real estate returns are predictable suggesting the existence of profitable trading opportunities. Empirical linear and non-linear methods have been employed, which use a number of series as predictors including interest rates and their differentials, dividend yields and inflation. The present study extends the existing work and focuses on the structure of yields between broad asset classes (real estate, equities and government bonds) and the implications for portfolio allocation decisions and real estate investment. It is based on the premise that investment asset markets are integrated and that differentials in the yields on assets trigger switching of funds among asset classes. Therefore we investigate the claim that the yield ratios of indirect to direct real estate and of real estate to equities or bonds contain useful information for determining the likely direction of future real estate returns. A Markov switching regime approach is deployed to allow for different states in yield differentials. The Markov model identifies distinct regimes for the yield ratios of indirect to direct real estate, indirect real estate to equities and direct real estate to gilts. Trading rules are developed based on the filtered O real time O probabilities of the regime switching models. It is observed that the regime switching trading rules generate a superior risk-return profile than simple buy-and-hold strategies.


The advances of green technology had contributed to the preparedness of all the stakeholders in the housing industry into perspective. The housing developers in particular, were urged to develop new housing scheme by adopting green technology into their developments. Therefore, these organizations were required to implement changes to their operations due to sophisticated of technology made in this industry. Drawing on theory of organizational change, the organizational characteristics were acknowledged have significant roles in influencing the organization to embrace new ideas, approaches and practices. Hence, this paper is aimed to examine the relationship between the organizational factors in influencing housing developers to develop green homes in Malaysia. Quantitative method has been used in this study. A total of 395 sets of questionnaires have been distributed to the housing developers in eight distinct state branches of Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (REHDA) Malaysia. This study successfully received 249 (63.03%) completed questionnaires. The result of Pearson Correlation revealed that the Organizational Culture, Organizational Climate and Organizational Structure have a positive relationship in persuading Malaysian housing developers to develop green homes development.


Abstract A two-dimensional numerical model employing a fully transformed σ-coordinate system in the vertical direction is developed to analyze the scalar transport in an estuary. For a preliminary step of developing the numerical model, the influence of a coordinate transformation on the accuracy of the numerical simulation is investigated by comparing the computational results in both z- and σ-coordinates with analytical solutions. In addition, the numerical errors due to the transformation are investigated according as whether the diffusion term is fully derived or not. The numerical accuracy attributable to the full transformation is examined by comparing predicted results with those of the model employing only the partial transformation in a simply sloped topography. Finally, the numerical model developed in this study is applied to the Keum River estuary in Korea, for a salinity intrusion simulation. The calculated results showed good agreement with the observed field data, both of which clearly indicate that the tidal effect on the salinity intrusion are clearly discerned in the estuary.


The antigen recognition interface formed by T helper precursors (Thps) and antigen-presenting cells (APCs), called the immunological synapse (IS), includes receptors and signaling molecules necessary for Thp activation and differentiation. We have recently shown that recruitment of the interferon-γ receptor (IFNGR) into the IS correlates with the capacity of Thps to differentiate into Th1 effector cells, an event regulated by signaling through the functionally opposing receptor to interleukin-4 (IL4R). Here, we show that, similar to IFN-γ ligation, TCR stimuli induce the translocation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) to IFNGR1-rich regions of the membrane. Unexpectedly, STAT1 is preferentially expressed, is constitutively serine (727) phosphorylated in Thp, and is recruited to the IS and the nucleus upon TCR signaling. IL4R engagement controls this process by interfering with both STAT1 recruitment and nuclear translocation. We also show that in cells with deficient Th1 or constitutive Th2 differentiation, the IL4R is recruited to the IS. This observation suggest that the IL4R is retained outside the IS, similar to the exclusion of IFNGR from the IS during IL4R signaling. This study provides new mechanistic cues for the regulation of lineage commitment by mutual immobilization of functionally antagonistic membrane receptors.


This paper analyzes tensions within current models of partnership between law and organizing. It draws on the insight developed from recent projects to propose further development of "Law as Organizing" as a new synthesis in which social movement lawyers incorporate organizing principles and techniques into their practice. Part II traces the historical trajectory of public interest lawyering, leading from impact litigation, through rebellious lawyering, and into Law and Organizing. Part III focuses in on "Know Your Rights" trainings as a common site of collaboration between organizers and lawyers, in order to draw out the tension between litigation-oriented and organizing-oriented frameworks in law and organizing. This analysis is based on articles by prominent practitioners and theorists as well as on primary source research conducted by the author in 2012. Part III concludes by articulating the challenge presented to social movement lawyers seeking to address the contradictions in the partnership model. Part IV proposes moving away from the partnership model, and toward a synthesis between law and organizing. This approach draws on principles and techniques of organizers and popular educators, and thereby moves toward relationship-building over longer periods, and focuses on a problem as a socio-political question, not merely a discrete legal issue. The current examples of synthesis are analyzed with an eye toward ongoing tensions, and the potential benefits that may be found in such a synthesis. † Aaron Samsel is from Richmond, Virginia where he worked as an immigrant rights organizer and co-founded the Wayside Center for Popular Education. While living in New York City, he interned at numerous immigrant and workers' rights organizations, including Brandworkers International, Make the Road New York, and Common Law Inc., and worked as a law clerk at Outten & Golden LLP and the National Labor Relations Board Division of Judges. Mr. Samsel was also a Peggy Browning Fellow at CASA de Maryland. He received the 2014 Samuel M. Kaynard Award from the New York State Bar Association for his accomplishments defending the rights of lowwage workers. Prior to moving to New York, he completed a Master's program in Socio-Legal Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is a 2015 graduate of City University of New York School of Law.


Aim: To compare the effect of vildagliptin versus metformin on pancreatic beta-cell function among newly diagnosed, non-obese Asian Indians with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in 2 years. Methods: Randomized, multicentric, controlled, parallel-group study of 2 years treatment with vildagliptin or metformin in drug-naive T2D persons (baseline HbA1c - 7.0 - 8.5% and body mass index (BMI) Results: In the metformin group 36% and in the vildagliptin group 27.2 % required only monotherapy for a median duration of 48 weeks (25 - 70 weeks). At the end of the study, changes in the area under the curve of insulin to glucose were non-significant in both groups. There were no changes in the postprandial C-peptide. Reduction in insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was similar in both groups. Insulin sensitivity (Matsuda Index) increased significantly at 6 and 12 months with metformin but no change was seen in the vildagliptin group. The HbA1c level decreased significantly in both groups until 18 months. The fasting plasma glucose decreased significantly till 12 months in both groups. Postprandial plasma glucose decreased only with vildagliptin till 12 months. Occurrences of adverse events were similar in both groups. Higher C-peptide and lower HbA1c values at the baseline predicted better glycemic control with vildagliptin. Lower baseline HbA1c predicted good glycemic control with metformin. Conclusion: Both metformin and vildagliptin had similar protective effects on the beta-cell function, reduced insulin resistance and glycemic levels. Improved insulin sensitivity was seen with metformin. Disclosure K. Satheesh: None. C. Snehalatha: None. A. Nanditha: None. A. Raghavan: None. R. Vinitha: None. P. Susairaj: None. A. Ramachandran: None. Funding India Diabetes Research Foundation


Studies on automatic dialogue systems, which allow people and computers to communicate with each other using natural language, have been attracting attention. In particular, the main objective of a non-task-oriented dialogue system is not to achieve a specific task but to amuse users through chat and free dialogue. For this type of dialogue system, continuity of the dialogue is important because users can easily get tired if the dialogue is monotonous. On the other hand, preceding studies have shown that speech with humorous expressions is effective in improving the continuity of a dialogue. In this study, we developed a computer-based humor discriminator to perform user- or situation-independent objective discrimination of humor. Using the humor discriminator, we also developed an automatic humor generation system and conducted an evaluation experiment with human subjects to test the generated jokes. A t-test on the evaluation scores revealed a significant difference (P value: 3.5×10-5) between the proposed and existing methods of joke generation.


Principles of cognitive psychology are considered, not primarily as they inform classroom practice, but as they inform school organization and administrative practice in schools. Theories of knowledge as distributed, social, situated, and based on prior beliefs and knowledge are applied to organizational learning within schools. Collaborative problem solving is explored as a means that schools might employ to become smarter. The study is situated within a Midwestern high school that is striving to improve itself. This school employs collaborative strategies to learn and adapt to changed expectations and circumstances. In the school examined, this collaboration is orchestrated through the creation of discourse communities among teachers and cognitive apprenticeships among teachers and administrators.


In this issue of the Journal of Vegetation Science, Lezama et al. confirm the hypothesis that the effects of grazing increase with productivity, based on data from steppes and prairies in Argentina and Uruguay. Their study can serve as a starting point for further studies addressing questions on the mechanisms behind vegetation dynamics in grassland, emphasizing the need for experimental studies over larger climatic gradients.


Abstract : This report reflects our thoughts and recommendations on ways that Navy Medicine can optimize the delivery of ambulatory primary care and mental health care in Navy MTFs, and ways to employ eHealth in doing so. It draws on our work with the Navy Medicine primary care and mental health advisory boards, but goes beyond that work to also incorporate general lessons and principles we have gleaned from the literature, from our site visits to Navy and other MTFs over the past 2 years, from data analyses we conducted in support of those advisory boards, and from some of our discussions with advisory board members. The focus of the report is on various interventions that Navy Medicine can make to better organize, manage, and integrate its primary care and mental health assets to best achieve optimization goals, including clinical eHealth applications for each board's respective area of health care. The purpose of this document is to support the optimization-related efforts of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) and these two advisory boards. In this report, we view optimization as a property of a system that refers to how effectively and efficiently the system transforms available resources to achieve its purposes (system goals) given its environmental context and constraints. As such, optimization is making the best (optimized) use of available resources (i.e., optimizing resource use) by combining, organizing, and structuring the use of its resources through an infrastructure that most effectively and efficiently uses them in the performance of system goal attainment processes. The central question this report addresses is: What are some likely interventions that Navy Medicine can take in building the infrastructure of ambulatory primary care and mental health in Navy treatment facilities to optimally allocate, integrate, organize, and use the human, physical, and technical resources directly or indirectly available to it to achieve the capacity, accessibili


Numerical simulations are performed for laminar continuous and pulsed jets impinging on a surface in order to investigate the effects of pulsing frequency on the heat transfer characteristics. The time-averaged Nusselt number of pulsed jets is larger in the impinging jet region as compared to the continuous jet, while it is smaller in the outer wall jet region. At the stagnation point, the mean and RMS Nusselt numbers become larger and smaller, respectively, as the pulsing frequency increases. Unsteady behaviors of vortical fluid motions and temperature field are also investigated to understand the underlying mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement.


Biochemical reactions in living cells often produce stochastic trajectories due to the fluctuations of the finite number of the macromolecular species present inside the cell. A significant number of computational and theoretical studies have previously investigated stochasticity in small regulatory networks to understand its origin and regulation. At the systems level regulatory networks have been determined to be hierarchical resembling social networks. In order to determine the stochasticity in networks with hierarchical architecture, here we computationally investigated intrinsic noise in an autocratic reaction network in which only the upstream regulators regulate the downstream regulators. We studied the effects of the qualitative and quantitative nature of regulatory interactions on the stochasticity in the network. We established an unconventional scaling of noise with average abundance in which the noise passes through a minimum indicating that the network can be noisy both in the low and high abundance regimes. We determined that the bursty kinetics of the trajectories are responsible for such scaling. The scaling of noise remains intact for a mixed network that includes democratic subnetworks within the autocratic network.


-4n important future element of International Safeguards instrumentation is expected to be the merging of containment/sunreillance and nondestructive assay equipment with domestic physical protection equipment into integrated systems, coupled with remote monitoring. Instrumentation would include interior monitoring and assessment and entryiexit monitoring. Of particular importance is the application of interior monitors in spaces of declared inactivity; for example, in nuclear material storage locations that are entered infrequently. The use of modem interior monitors in International Safeguards offers potential for improving effectiveness and efficiency. Within the context of increased cooperation, one can readily envision increased interaction between International Safeguards and Domestic Safeguards, including increased joint use of State System of Accounting and Control data.


This paper describes a CMOS implementation of a linear voltage regulator (LVR) used to power up implanted physiological signal systems, as it is the case of a wireless blood pressure biosensor. The topology is based on a classical structure of a linear low-dropout regulator. The circuit is powered up from an RF link, thus characterizing a passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. The LVR was designed to meet important features such as low power consumption and small silicon area, without the need for any external discrete components. The low power operation represents an essential condition to avoid a high-energy RF link, thus minimizing the transmitted power and therefore minimizing the thermal effects on the patient's tissues. The project was implemented in a 0.35-μm CMOS process, and the prototypes were tested to validate the overall performance. The LVR output is regulated at 1 V and supplies a maximum load current of 0.5 mA at 37°C. The load regulation is 13 mV/mA, and the line regulation is 39 mV/V. The LVR total power consumption is 1.2 mW.


The development of cavernous weathering features such as tafoni remains poorly understood. In particular, the roles played by internal moisture and case hardening remain unclear. In this study, Electric Resistivity Tomography (ERT) has been used to map moisture distribution within inner walls of tafoni developed in sandstone, and an Equotip device used to measure rock surface hardness as a proxy measure of the degree of weathering and case hardening. Seven large tafoni in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa), varying in size and degree of development have been monitored. A dynamic relationship between surface hardness, degree of weathering and internal moisture regimes has been found. We propose a new conceptual model which illustrates the complex interaction between case hardening and internal moisture and suggests a new direction for cavernous weathering research. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


"If only NOAA would embrace the Landsat satellite system, rather than trying to abandon it, then NOAA would be taking a giant step toward establishing its proper leadership role in global environmental science." This statement was made by James H. Scheuer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Agriculture Research and Environment at a hearing on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fiscal Year 1992 budget, on April 11.

Responding to a report by the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES), which stated that Landsat data is critical to the understanding of global warming, Scheuer is perplexed that NOAA would not want to fund Landsat 7 and that NOAA can have towering leadership and support of global climate research but tepid support of the Landsat part of the program. NOAA requested a 66% increase in funding for FY92 for the Global Climate Change Research program ($31 million total). Operational costs of Landsat 4 and 5, currently in orbit, and Landsat 6, scheduled for launch in May 1992, are part of NOAA's FY92 budget. Total cost, said NOAA comptroller, Rodney Weiher, will be almost $19 million, of which $9.15 million will come out of the NOAA budget and the remaining $9 million from other agencies.


Round seeds are desirable for food-type soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivars and an understanding of the heritability of seed shape would benefit the development of these cultivars. The objectives of this study were to estimate heritability of seed shape and seed size by parent-offspring regression parent-offspring correlation, and realized heritability, and to determine the correlation between seed size and seed shape in germplasm ranging in seed size. From parents differing in seed shape, four populations (three oilseed-type and one small-seeded natto-type) were generated. A total of 694 random F 2 plants, grown in 1994 at Ottawa, ON, and their resulting F 2:3 progeny, grown in unreplicated rows in 1995 at Ottawa, were used for analysis. Seed shape was quantified by two aspect ratios (the ratio of minimum to maximum seed diameter), each calculated from a different seed orientation with digital image analysis. Seed size (cross-sectional area) was measured in the same two orientations. Estimates of heritability for seed shape varied across the four populations; parent-offspring regression coefficients ranged from 0.55 to 0.75, parent-offspring correlation coefficients ranged from 0.49 to 0.76, and realized heritability estimates ranged from 0.59 to 0.79. Estimates of heritahility for seed size ranged from 0.19 to 0.56 across populations. There were significant positive correlations between the aspect ratios calculated from the two different orientations; therefore, selection for round shape in one orientation would result in indirect selection for round shape in the other orientation. There was no consistent association between seed shape and seed size. In the natto population, <5% of the F 3 lines were smaller or rounder than the smallest- roundest-seeded parent. Heritability estimates indicate that plant breeders can select for round seed shape, on a single plant basis in early generations of populations ranging in seed size.


Ubiquitous mobile communication creates an increasing demand for high data rates, complex modulation schemes and low power design. The cost and performance benefits of conventional lithographic scaling are diminishing as process cost increases exponentially. 3D integration has the potential to keep driving performance forward while keeping cost down. The possibility to integrate separate dies with low-parasitic, dense interconnect and shorter routing provides area and power benefits. However, new challenges must be addressed in order to enable design in this new dimension and provide system level improvements. This thesis explores the impact, challenges and advantages of using 3D integration for combining digital and analog circuits for RF applications. The use of a vertical solenoid inductor in a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is proposed. The inductor design utilizes the through-silicon-vias of the 3D stack as part of its geometry. The solenoid inductor exhibits a 28% larger inductance and a 6 dB higher quality factor compared to a conventional planar inductor occupying the same area. The VCO circuit phase noise is improved by 6 dB and exhibits an improved immunity to coupling from adjacent digital clock lines routed on the bottom tier of the 3D stack. An efficient hardware implementation is presented for an LTE uplink channel. The proposed design processes input data for cellular transmission. The core of the computation includes a variable-length, high-order, mixed-radix FFT and IFFT blocks. The use of energy efficient circuits and algorithms enables achieving an energy efficiency of up to 95 pJ/Sample and additional power savings of up to 24% for different operation modes. Both designs are combined along with digital-to-analog conversion to create a partial cellular transmitter in 3D-IC. Highly flexible and configurable design allows for various partitioning of the system. The 3D design has a digital link energy efficiency of up to 0.37 pJ/bit, compared to the 33.3 pJ/bit consumed in a multiple die partitioning and 0.83 pJ/bit for a 2.5D interposer emulated design. The use of the solenoid VCO along with digital-analog partitioning between the die tiers enables high immunity to noise and reduction of spurs at the VCO output. Thesis Supervisor: Anantha P. Chandrakasan Title: Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering


In recent years, the mobilization and use of investment capital, especially foreign investment capital, have significantly affected the country's speed and quality of economic growth and each locality. Attracting and effectively using investment capital is always a complex problem for locations that are still weak in infrastructure, financial sophistication, attractive policies, the efficiency of using capital sources, and many inadequacies when implementing investment projects. Therefore, this study aims to identify factors affecting the investment capital attraction for sustainable economic growth in Dong Nai province. The study surveyed 1.000 managers related to enterprises with investment capital in Dong Nai province, but 939 samples processed and answered 39 questions. The data collected from June 2020 to November 2020. The authors tested Cronbach's Alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation (SEM). Based on the research results, the authors propose policy implications for attracting investment capital for sustainable economic growth in Dong Nai province.


Background: This study is aimed at determining the safety, efficacy and expulsion of PPIUCD. This study also aims to determine the rates of complications (bleeding, pelvic infection, lost strings, and displacement) following PPIUCD insertion among the women in one year period.
Methods: This study was conducted at department of obstetrics and gynecology, Late B.R.K.M Govt. medical college, Jagdalpur, Chattishgarh. Women admitted and delivered were counseled and those who fulfilled the medical eligibility criteria and had no contra indication for PPIUCD were provided the PPIUCD services.
Results: Total women 600, lost to follow-up 329, complications 162 (expulsion 14, bleeding 35, string problem 44), removal 102.
Conclusions: The PPIUCD (Cu380A) is demonstrably safe, effective, has high retention rate. The expulsion rate is not very high and it can be reduced with correct techniques, correct selection of clients, and correct time selection for the client.


This article analyses the figure of Celia, questioning the description that emerges from the main account of Beckett's early women. This account, originally developed by Bryden (1993), claims that women in Beckett's early prose are represented through the filter of the male gaze, and are constructed in opposition to, and as an obstacle for, the male hero. This article argues that, in Murphy, the mechanisms set to reduce Celia to a stereotypical Woman, are foregrounded, and hence disrupted, by the presence of several contradicting perspectives, including Celia's own perspective.


A study was conducted to assess the fertility status of the soils of 44 guava orchards in Kohat District of Pakistan. Results showed that the soils generally contained large proportion of silt followed by sand with very small proportion of clay. Average organic matter content in the surface soil was 2.24% and in subsoil 1.42%. Soil pH ranged between 7.8 and 8.8. Soils at surface were non saline except one sample with EC ranging from 0.49 to 1.8 dS m-1 and in subsoil from 0.55 to 7.26 dS m-1. Soils were strongly calcareous with lime content ranging from 15 to 25%. Extractable P ranged from 1 to 22 mg kg-1 in both depths. Available K was between 103 and 393 mg kg-1, Nine, 16 and 43% of the orchards were low, 20, 18 and 48% marginal and 71, 66 and 9% were adequate in Zn, Fe and B in the surface soil while 7, 14 and 41% were low, 48, 27 and 52% marginal and 45, 59 and 7% of the orchards were adequate in Zn, Fe and B in the subsoil, respectively. Copper and Mn were adequate in all the orchards. Leaf P was low in 86% of the orchards.  Potassium was marginal in 16% and high in 84%. Eleven percent of the orchards were low in Zn, 16% in Cu, 50% in Fe, 16% in Mn and 9% in B. Orchards found deficiency in the nutrients should be fertilized in order to supply the needed nutrients.

 Key words: Guava, soil analysis, micro nutrients, soil fertility, Kohat.


Recently we argued that a particular model of string-inspired quantum space-time foam (D-foam) may induce oscillations and mixing among flavoured particles. As a result, rather than the mass-eigenstate vacuum, the correct ground state to describe the underlying dynamics is the flavour vacuum, proposed some time ago by Blasone and Vitiello as a description of quantum field theories with mixing. At the microscopic level, the breaking of target-space supersymmetry is induced in our space-time foam model by the relative transverse motion of brane defects. Motivated by these results, we show that the flavour vacuum, introduced through an inequivalent representation of the canonical (anti-) commutation relations, provides a vehicle for the breaking of supersymmetry (SUSY) at a low-energy effective field theory level; on considering the flavour-vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor and comparing with the form of a perfect relativistic fluid, it is found that the bosonic sector contributes as dark energy while the fermion contribution is like dust. This indicates a strong and novel breaking of SUSY, of a non-perturbative nature, which may characterize the low energy field theory of certain quantum gravity models.


Background: This study was aimed to improve the information adequacy of clinical Morning Reports by developing a structured reporting model. Methods: This study was a qualitative research conducted in three phases at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of three educational hospitals in northeastern Iran. After investigating the current status of MR sessions, the content of 120 reports were included extracted. The items were assigned subject groups for primary structuring while their validation getting confirmation using a two-round Delphi technique involving 10 specialists. Then, the structured model of clinical MRs was developed in two formats: structured paper-based form (SPF) and structured electronic format (SEF). The final evaluation was conducted comparing three practices of SPF, SEF, and conventional formats.Results: All studied MR samples were found unstructured in content. From 120 collected samples, 58 items were extracted and categorized into four categories. During the first Delphi round, all existing information were preserved with varying weights. but the participating experts also suggested six additional items to be included. In the second round, 11 items with the lowest scores were removed. Results of the comparative evaluation showed that the SPF format scored highest on the preference of use, ease of archiving and retrieval, application in future research, and ease of reporting. The SEF format scored highest on the clear understanding of patient status and readability.Conclusion: Using a standardized structured morning report based on the preference of local experts improves the quality of morning reports in various matters including efficiency, adequacy, and ease.


The catching efficiency of traditional traps: Ayunan and Tamba were tested in Sungai Batang River, South Kalimantan of Indonesia. Trials consisted of 320-trap hauls/type using 1-day submersion time of 24 hr. The baited traps sampling accounted for 82 specimens assigned to 5 species of 5 families. There was a large variability in number of catch between prawns and fish species collected (T=2.318, P<0.05). The prawns catch was represented by only the species Macrobrachium rossenbergii with total of 53 and 1,015 g weight. The prawns weight of Tamba was significantly higher than that of Ayunan (T=3.453, P<0.01).The fish catch composed of Mystus gulio 79%, Osteochilus hasselti 10%, Hypostomus plecostomus 7%, and Macrognathus aculeatus 3%, with total weight ranged from 35 to 560 g. A clear difference was found in catching efficiency. Comparative fishing trials showed that Tamba collected specimens were 1.8 times higher than Ayunan (T=2.223, P<0.05). Catch per unit effort for Tamba ranged from 58.13 to 80.00, and for Ayunan ranged from 5.31 to 7.19. The gear modifications and various treatments (e.g. bait odor, light) are necessary to be taken to increase their relative catching efficiency.


The well-known Deutsch Algorithm (DA) and Deutsch-Jozsha Algorithm (DJA) both are used as an evidence to the power of quantum computers over classical computation mediums. In these theoretical experiments, it has been shown that a quantum computer can find the answer with certainty within a few steps although classical electronic systems must evaluate more iterations than quantum computer. In this paper, it is shown that a classical computation system formed by using ordinary electronic parts may perform the same task with equal performance than quantum computers. DA and DJA quantum circuits act like an analog computer, so it is unfair to compare the bit of classical digital computers with the qubit of quantum computers. An analog signal carrying wire will of course carry more information that a bit carrying wire without serial communication protocols.


Drought stress will play a major role in the 21st century in Europe's agriculture. Rye will be affected more than other crops, because rye is typically grown in marginal regions with sandy soils of low water-holding capacity and less rainfall. Therefore, drought tolerant rye cultivars are urgently needed. The main objective of our study was o evaluate the drought stress tolerance of rye hybrids using large-scaled field experiments. We evaluated three populations. Pop A und Pop B tested with 220 F3:4 lines each belong to the 'Petkus' gene pool, Pop C tested with 240 F3:4 lines belongs to the 'Carstens' gene pool. All lines were testcrossed and evaluated at three locations: Wohlde and Petkus in Germany and Walewice, Poland. Pop A und B were tested in 2010 and 2011, Pop C in 2011 and 2012. All genotypes were evaluated in irrigated and non-irrigated variants in a split-block-design. Natural drought stress occurred mainly in the second quarter of all three years. The most sensitive trait was grain yield. Grain yield differences ranged from 2 to 41% with an average of 19%. Differences between irrigated and non-irrigated variants were significant in 15 out of 18 environment-population combinations. Significant genotype×irrigation interaction variance occurred in nine combinations, but had only a minor effect on genotype ranking. Higher error variances caused lower heritabilities in the non-irrigated variant. In conclusion, indirect selection for drought-tolerant genotypes under irrigated conditions would increase selection gain and also lead to higher yielding cultivars under drought stress.


The use of antiplatelet agents in chronic glomerular disease is reviewed, with emphasis on drugs affecting thromboxane A2 synthesis or action. The results of short-term and long-term studies in human as well as animal models suggest a role for enhanced intrarenal synthesis of thromboxane A2, though not clearly defining the potential platelet vs glomerular targets of drug action. The availability of novel inhibitors and antagonists may provide new therapeutic strategies against thromboxane-A2-dependent loss of renal function.


At the Fifth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, A. Dvoretzky [4] presented a paper on "Certain Optimal Stopping Rules." In this paper he proved the existence of an optimal stopping rule for the following situation: let Xi, X2, Xz, • • • be a sequence of independent, identically distributed, real-valued random variables with zero means and unit variances defined on the probability space (Qi, (Fi, Pi). Then for (fixed) j8> J, there exists a positive, integer-valued random variable n (called a stopping rule) defined on Qi, whose value for any sample point cois a function only of the observable variables Xi(co), ^(co), • • • , X»(W)(co) and which realizes the maximum value of £{»-*£«: !*<} over all such random variables, i.e. stopping rules. In his proof, Dvoretzky was lead to conjecture concerning the asymptotic behavior of the stopping boundary which provided the definition of his optimal rule. Theorem 1 of this announcement provides an explicit description of the asymptotic behavior of this boundary. Theorem 2 gives an optimal stopping rule for an analogous situation for a continuous time process, namely Brownian motion. The paper of Y. S. Chow and H. Robbins [2], which initiated work in this area of stopping rule problems, and the paper of H. Teicher and J. Wolfowitz [7] are also related to the results announced herein. Many of the ideas used to achieve these results were suggested by techniques exhibited in the paper by Teicher and Wolfowitz. While completing the writeup of the results announced herein, the work of L. A. Shepp [5] came to the attention of the author, in which Shepp obtained the same results as given by Theorem 1 and Theorem 2 for the case when ]8 = 1. Concise statements of these two theorems require the definition of some notation. The sequence X\> X^ Xz, • • • is as suggested above,


It is difficult for large research facilities to quantify a return on the investments that fund their operations. This is because there can be a time lag of years or decades between an innovation or discovery and the realization of its value through practical application. This report presents a three-part methodology that attempts to assess the value of federal investment in XSEDE: 1) a qualitative examination of the areas where XSEDE adds value to the activities of the open research community, 2) a "thought model" examining the cost avoidance realized by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the centralization and coordination XSEDE provides, and 3) an assessment of the value XSEDE provides to Service Providers in the XD ecosystem. XSEDE adds significantly to the US research community because it functions as a unified interface to the XD ecosystem and because of its scale. A partly quantitative, partly qualitative analysis suggests the Return on Investment of NSF spending on XSEDE is greater than 1.0. -- indicating that the aggregate value received by the nation from XSEDE is greater than the cost of direct federal investment in XSEDE.


Label-free methods neither cause cell damage nor contribute to any change in cell composition and intrinsic characteristics. Indeed, there is much interest in the scientific community to learn more from existing methods and to develop new label-free based methods for detection and classification of cells. Cell classification using optical measurements has been frequently utilized. When cells interact with light, due to differences in the composition of different types of cells, changes in the optical absorption and transmission response result. This work combined the advancement in optical measurements and Prony techniques to enhance the classification of cells based on their measured optical profiles. In this work, six types of cells, HeLa, 293T, lung- cancer and normal, and liver- cancer and normal, were suspended in their corresponding medium and their transmission characteristics were assessed. After media de-embedding, the transmission profiles were fitted with a sum of exponentially decaying signals using the Prony algorithm. After that, the optical response of each cell was modeled with a set of extracted parameters: amplitude, frequency, phase, and damping factor. The four parameters extracted via the Prony method are related to the coefficients and locations of the poles for each fitted model. A figure of merit (FOM) has been introduced, whose distribution in the complex z-plane plays a major role in the classification of cell type. The changes in the values of FOM are due to the changes in cell composition and intrinsic characteristics of different cells.


Dangerous goods are transported as air freight in commercial aircrafts. Using plastic jerrycans or plastic containers, liquids or gases can escape by leakage or permeation effects. Prior research by the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) showed that the lower explosion limit can be reached when transporting dangerous goods in sea-freight containers under normal transportation situations. This motivated the presented study of the transportation situation of dangerous goods in cargo compartments of commercial airplanes. The scope of this paper is to present the experimental method used for validating a numerical model for CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations. The CFD model will be used in a future study to evaluate the potential risk from transporting dangerous goods.The objective of this paper is to present the model mock-up of an aircraft cargo compartment and some examples of three dimensional velocity profiles of the air flow in the mock-up. The velocity profiles are calculated using numerical simulations and measured by Laser-Doppler-Anemometry (LDA) experiments. The mock-up is a generic model of a wide-body aircraft lower deck cargo compartment in a 1:10 scale. Geometry, air exchange rates and inlet as well as outlet flow conditions in the cargo compartment are modeled using realistic boundary conditions. The commercial CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code ANSYS CFX 14 is used for numerical flow simulations applying RANS (Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes) equations and turbulence models. The turbulence models studied are the renormalization group k-e-model (RNG), the Reynolds-Stress model by Launder, Reece and Rodi (LRR) and the SST-k-ω-model by Menter (SST).The flow measurement with LDA in the mock-up of a cargo compartment proves to be a feasible method for producing data to validate CFD simulations. Qualitative evaluation of the results shows a good overall agreement between numerical and experimental results. The experimental validation indicates that the implemented CFD model is capable of reproducing the flow situation in the model mock-up.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of smoking on both the oral malodor and oral microbiome in smokers compared with a control group of non-smokers. Methods: The study population consisted of 37 patients with complete data for oral malodor, periodontal condition, and oral health behavior. The number of bacteria was determined by real-time PCR analysis. Results: Levels of hydrogen sulfide in smokers (n=9) were significantly higher than those from non-smokers (n=28). The mean numbers of total bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum and Campylobacter rectus recovered in saliva were significantly higher in smokers. In addition, a multiple linear regression analysis showed that smoking influenced oral microbiome. Bacteria in tongue coatings from 21 patients with no tongue cleaning habit were also investigated. The detection rates of F. nucleatum and C. rectus per total bacteria in smokers were 3.03% and 0.60%, respectively, this correspond to approximately 5 fold the rates detected in nonsmokers. The number of F. nucleatum and C. rectus also showed positive correlation coefficients with all volatile sulfur compounds (VSC) values. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that smoking promotes colonization of periodontopathogenic bacteria in tongue coatings and influences oral malodor by increasing the amount of VSC.


In the presence of non-gaussian noise, we propose a method for the detection of underwater ship-radiated signal. The wavelet decomposition of the underwater signal yields a natural tree structure, which is further modeled by the Hidden Markov Tree (HMT). Therefore, the signal is represented as the parameter of the correspondent HMT. We analysis the likelihood defined on the parameters and form the new detection criteria. Experimental results demonstrate a reliable and robust solution of our method.


Current federal regulations allow a legally authorized representative (LAR) to give permission on behalf of another person to participate in research, but defer to the states to define LAR. Since most states have not addressed the issue, most researchers and Institutional Review Boards currently operate in a gray area of law and ethics when it comes to proxy consent for adult research. Despite decades of discussion, a consensus remains elusive.1 But what we are learning about the decisionally impaired may help inform future policy. The article by Guerrera et al. in this issue of Neurology 2 (although their focus is on treatment consent) adds to the growing body of neuropsychological studies on decision-making capacity3 by showing that, even across various instruments for assessing decisional abilities, there may be informative neuropsychological underpinnings to each ability.

We are also learning that the abilities of persons with dementia challenge the stereotypes often assumed in policy discussions. For example, …


Chronic lithium administration for the treatment of bipolar disorder leads to nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI), characterized by polyuria, natriuresis, kaliuresis, and collecting duct remodeling and cell proliferation among other features. Previously, using a 2-week lithium-induced NDI model, we reported that P2Y2 receptor (R) knockout mice are significantly resistant to polyuria, natriuresis, kaliuresis, and decrease in AQP2 protein abundance in the kidney relative to wild type mice. Here we show this protection is long-lasting, and is also associated with significant amelioration of lithium-induced collecting duct remodeling and cell proliferation. Age-matched wild type and knockout mice were fed regular (n = 5/genotype) or lithium-added (40 mmol/kg chow; n = 10/genotype) diet for 5 months and euthanized. Water intake, urine output and osmolality were monitored once in every month. Salt blocks were provided to mice on lithium-diet to prevent sodium loss. At the end of 5 months mice were euthanized and serum and kidney samples were analyzed. There was a steady increase in lithium-induced polyuria, natriuresis and kaliuresis in wild type mice over the 5-month period. Increases in these urinary parameters were very low in lithium-fed knockout mice, resulting in significantly widening differences between the wild type and knockout mice. Terminal AQP2 and NKCC2 protein abundances in the kidney were significantly higher in lithium-fed knockout vs. wild type mice. There were no significant differences in terminal serum lithium or sodium levels between the wild type and knockout mice. Confocal immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that lithium-induced marked remodeling of collecting duct with significantly increased proportion of [H+]-ATPase-positive intercalated cells and decreased proportion of AQP2-positive principal cells in the wild type, but not in knockout mice. Lithium-induced collecting duct cell proliferation (indicated by Ki67 labeling), was significantly lower in knockout vs. wild type mice. This is the first piece of evidence that purinergic signaling is potentially involved in lithium-induced collecting duct remodeling and cell proliferation. Our results demonstrate that genetic deletion of P2Y2-R protects against the key structural and functional alterations in Li-induced NDI, and underscore the potential utility of targeting this receptor for the treatment of NDI in bipolar patients on chronic lithium therapy.


BACKGROUND
The microsurgical anatomy of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) is of particular interest to the cerebrovascular surgeon. The purpose of this study was to define the microsurgical anatomy of the MCA and its various branches in the Indian population.

METHODS
Ten MCAs were studied from five cadaveric brain specimens. The authors studied the outer diameter, length, branches, perforators and site of these on the main trunk (M1), the division of the main trunk, the secondary trunks and their various cortical branches using the operating microscope under 5-20x magnification.

RESULTS
The outer diameter of the MCA main trunk ranges from 2.5 to 4 mm with a mean of 3.35 mm. The superolateral branches consisted of polar temporal artery and anterior temporal artery that had a common origin and sometimes the uncal artery or the accessory uncal artery. Perforators or lenticulostriate arteries were seen in the inferomedial surface all along the length of M1. Eight bifurcations and two trifurcations were noted. Cortical branches and their origin are discussed.

CONCLUSION
Although the microsurgical anatomy of the MCA in Indian population correlated with the findings in the western literature, some structural and statistical variations were noted.


STRANGE CRIMES. By H. ASHTON-WOLFE. lOS. 6d. (Hurst & Blackett.) FOR years the author studied at firsthand the methods of Alphonse Bertillon, and in this volume tells the story of some of the strange cases upon which they worked together. The omission of dates and the absence of an index lessens the value of the book for reference purposes, and it appears throughout to have been written for the general reader rather than for the specialist. The student of criminology should not omit it from his library on that account, of course, any more than he would for the same reason avoid reading newspapers. It may not at first be evident that these sidelights on the methods of an expert who died eighteen years ago are of other than historical value, for since that time criminal investigation has made tremendous strides. Human nature, however, does not change in two decades, and the difference between the mentality of French and English criminals is substantially the same to-day as it was in the time of Bertillon. In that fact lies much of the value of Strange Crimes, for one learns to appreciate that the problems of the Surete are basically different from those of Scotland Yard. Such monsters as Madame de Verneuil, who planned the murder of her husband to take place months after her own death, or Dr. Hellyer, the mad vivisectionist who endeavoured to preserve living human brains after removing them from their bodies, seem almost incredible to the Anglo-Saxon mind. One is tempted to speculate upon the degree of success which the strictly controlled procedure of British detective work would achieve in such cases. After working for years to perfect the system of identification which bears his name, Bertillon not unnaturally regarded the finger-print system with disfavour. He was certainly justified in the case described by Mr. Ashton-Wolfe under the title of ' The Shadow on the Blind.' A man was arrested on suspicion of having murdered a woman who had blackmailed him, and the official impression of his middle finger appeared to correspond with a print found on a wine bottle in the victim's room. Careful examination of photographic enlargements of the latter revealed, however, that it was an impression from the outer edge of the murderer's hand and not a fingerprint at all. Further inquiry led to the capture of the real criminal and the release of the man first arrested. Bertillon himself admitted that this was an exceptional case, but it indicates the scrupulous care necessary when an isolated print found at the scene of a crime is used as evidence.


Background Transportation-related events are the leading cause of death among emergency medical services personnel. Previous research has focused, primarily, on factors associated with emergency vehicle (EV) drivers; however, factors associated with civilian drivers involved in EV-related crashes have not been examined adequately. Aims/Objectives/Purpose Identify internal (driver-specific) and external (environmental-related) risk factors associated with civilian drivers involved in crashes with an EV in use. Methods Using 2002–2010 data from the US National Automotive Sampling System, multivariate logistic regression enabled identification of potential risk factors, based on internal and external exposures of interest for EV- versus non-EV civilian-related crashes. Potential confounders were selected using directed acyclic graphs. Results/Outcomes Respective ORs and 95% CIs for internal factors identified increased risks for civilian drivers who were distracted (1.9, 1.6 to 2.3) and under the influence of substances (4.6, 1.9 to 11.3). For external factors, risks increased for drivers when: their vision was obscured by buildings, billboards or other structures (36.4, 18.4 to 71.9), parked vehicles (3.4, 2.2 to 5.2), and trees, crops and vegetation (4.5, 1.7 to 12.0); traffic control devices were controlled by persons (eg, flagmen) (6.7, 3.1 to 14.2), and automatic traffic signals (2.5, 2.1 to 2.9); driving straight through an intersection (3.1, 1.3 to 7.0), and one that contains four or more points (2.1, 1.3 to 3.4). Consequences for civilian drivers in EV- versus non-EV crashes included increased risks for sustaining an injury (1.8, 1.4 to 2.3) and receiving violations for failing to yield the right-of-way (3.0, 2.5 to 3.6). Significance/Contribution to the Field Results suggest areas in which interventions can be targeted to reduce motor vehicle crashes with emergency vehicles.


A sporadic case of Hallervorden-Spatz Syndrome was diagnosed before death. The diagnosis was made on clinical manifestations and histopathology of the tissue fragments obtained from the globus pallidus by stereotaxic brain biopsy. The involvement of thoracolumbar spinal cord is discussed. The cranial computed tomography showed caudate atrophy with bicaudate index (CC/OTcc) of 0.2, and the quotient FH/CC of 1.43, which were indistinguishable from Huntington's disease.


Primary tillage parameters and their effects on tractor efficiency , fuel consumption management and cost reduction are very important in mechanization. The main goal of th is study was to determin e some performance parameters in three conventional tractors Massey Ferguson 285 (MF 285), Universal 650 (U650) and John Deer 3140 (JD3140) to primary tillage practices in some area of Iran. These parameters are important for select ing tractor s to set up mechanization program in a large scale. The sampling method was random in 10 regions with seven replications.  After data gathering, results were analyzed using SPSS software. Results indicated that average drawbar power for plowing without considering of area and tractor type was 15 kW. The maximum and minimum drawbar powers were 19.20 kW and 11.10 kW for Esfahan and Fars areas respectively at 1% level significance. There were significant differences between values of rolling resistance of JD3140 tractor with other tractors at 1% level of significance.  Besides, no significant differences were observed between tractors of U650 and MF285.  Slippage percentage was similar for most areas. The maximum and minimum slippage was recorded for MF285 tractor in Moghan area and JD3140 tractor in Esfahan area respectively. The optimum soil moisture was 15% for slippage reduction . Average Power Delivery Efficiency (PDE) was 25.5%.  It was low in comparison with world standards and requires improvement. Tractor of JD3140 had maximum fuel consumption (0.012 m 3 h -1 ) as compared to other types of tractor. Use of the U650 tractor was recommended to farmer and other data can be use d for mechanization programs. Keywords: d rawbar power, p rimary tillage, s lippage, p rimary tillage parameters, r olling resistance


A series polyacrylamide/Na-montmorillonite nanocomposites was prepared by in situ free radical polymerization in aqueous medium using benzoyl peroxide (Bz2O2) as a radical initiator. To characterize the resultant nanocomposites, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis techniques were used. The moisture retain, water uptake, antibacterial properties, BET specific surface area and specific nanopore volume of nanocomposites were determined. The X-ray diffraction pattern showed that the polyacrylamide was intercalated up to 60.0 mass% acrylamide concentration, and then montmorillonite layers exfoliated into the polyacrylamide matrix. The interlayer spacing (d001) of the montmorillonite increased from 1.19 to 1.90 nm by intercalation. Transmission electron microscopy views showed that the Na-montmorillonite partially exfoliated in polyacrylamide. The nanocomposites exhibited better thermal stability than the pure polyacrylamide.


This article considers utopian international legal thought. It makes three inter-connected arguments. First, it argues that international law and international legal theory are dominated by a 'blueprint' utopianism that presents international law as the means of achieving a better global future. Second, it argues that such blueprintism makes international law into what philosopher Louis Marin describes as a "degenerate utopia" – a fantastical means of trapping thought and practice within contemporary social and political conditions, blocking any possibility that those conditions might be transcended. Third, it argues for an iconoclastic international legal utopianism – Utopia not as a 'blueprint' for a better future, operating within the confines of existing social and political reality, but as a means of seeking to negate and exit from that reality – as the only way to maintain the idea that international law offers a path towards a truly better future.


In-house monitoring of elders and automatic fall detection using intelligent sensors is a very desirable service that has the potential of increasing autonomy and independence while minimizing the risks of living alone. The efforts of building such systems have been spanning for decades, but there still is a lot of room for improvement. This paper proposes a novel approach to make a successful monitoring and assistive services for elderly. Moreover, we present our current progress of data collection, parameters extraction and parameters selection that are essential phases of our project. Our results on the data demonstrate that the proposed system methods are efficient and accurate and can be easily used in a real fall detection system.


We consider a class of abstract control system of parabolic type with observation which the state, input and output spaces are Hilbert spaces. The state space operator is assumed to generate a linear exponentially stable analytic semigroup. An observation and control action are allowed to be described by unbounded operators. It is assumed that the observation operator is admissible but the control operator may be not. Such a system is controlled in a feedback loop by a controller with static characteristic being a globally Lipschitz map from the space of outputs into the space of controls. Our main interest is to obtain a perturbation theorem of the small-gain-type which guarantees that null equilibrium of the closed-loop system will be globally asymptotically stable in Lyapunov's sense.


This concluding chapter summarizes the key points of the book. The year 1939, when executions moved behind prison walls and thus definitively exited the public stage, marked the beginning of remote governance, a new stage in the transformation of the public sphere: power no longer had to manifest itself directly, but could instead use various media platforms to assert itself. The disappearance of public executions also signaled the advent of the civilizing process, which sought to conceal anything that might provoke anxiety or negative emotions. The criticism levied at, and the final disappearance of, public executions illustrates a historical moment when a technology of power was gradually modified, eliminated, and concealed thanks to the efforts of the elites as well as, most likely, to the efforts of executionary spectators, because the emotions that executions unleashed were in contradiction with society's desire to reject violence. The elimination of publicity did not resolve the problem of violence in the Republic nor immediately solve the issue of the death penalty, which would drag on for another four decades, but it did demonstrate that people were no longer willing to tolerate a certain kind of state violence. It also revealed a phase in the evolution of the psychological landscape in which self-control came to be determined by the authorities and their instruments.