A development of oil palm pruner and harvester machinery design implemented in the field still faces a problem due to the lack of effective and efficient design which is need to be solved. It was noted that in order to develop the design, an early data and information of physical and mechanical properties of palm oil frond and stem fruits is critically important. The objective of the research was to obtain the physical and mechanical properties of palm oil frond and stem in order to develop the design of pruner and harvester machinery. The result showed that tool machinery was been advantageous by the physical properties of the plant i.e. the total weight of frond and leaf which enable to support the cutting process. The average of total weight of frond and leaf was 16.8 kg. The diagonal cutting trajectory was been more advantageous because of total weight and frond shape toward to the different of the plant tissue area. The measurement result shows that cutting curve follows the time required for cutting. The comparison among cutting curve shows differences in cutting thickness or length. In this case, the thickness is linear with cutting time. Besides, those curves show differences at the height which determine the maximum value of tested material cutting resistance. Alternative solution for machinery development design is pruner-harvester for height plant below 6 m and among 6 to 12 m. For below 6 m, pruner-harvester was designed by incorporating motor as power source and cutter-disc as the knife cutter. That condition was relied on that estate which was maintenance intensively commonly used cutter-disc. Pruner-harvester above 6 m and up to 12 m was improved based on manual egrek-designed by adding fresh fruit bunch alley supply glide in order to keep the fruits still in intact form. The consideration was based on affectivity and efficiency. It also considers homogenous ecological of palm oil plant which should be maintained to reduce global warming effect. Information obtained in this research could become positive consideration and alternative solution to provide problem solvingat early development design of palm oil pruner and harvester machinery. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12777/ijse.4.2.2013.69-74 [How to cite this article : Intara, Y.I., Mayulu, H., and Radite , P.A.S. (2013). Physical and Mechanical Properties of Palm Oil Frond and Stem Bunch for Developing Pruner and Harvester Machinery Design . International Journal of Science and Engineering , 4(2),69-74. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12777/ijse.4.2.2013.69-74 ]


The saturation strategy for symbolic state-space generation is very effective for globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous discrete-state systems. Its inherently sequential nature, however, makes it difficult to parallelize on a NOW. An initial attempt that utilizes idle workstations to recognize event firing patterns and then speculatively compute firings conforming to these patterns is at times effective but can introduce large memory overheads. We suggest an implicit method to encode the firing history of decision diagram nodes, where patterns can be shared by nodes. By preserving the actual firing history efficiently and effectively, the speculation is more informed. Experiments show that our implicit encoding method not only reduces the memory requirements but also enables dynamic speculation schemes that further improve runtime


In this paper, we propose an efficient scene change detection algorithm for direct processing of MPEG-2 video bitstreams. The proposed algorithm utilizes the hierarchical structure of the compressed bitstreams and statistical characteristics of the coded parameters, thus greatly reducing computational requirement compared to pixel domain processing with full decompression. Occurrence of scene change is checked first in a GOP level, and if the result is affirmative it is checked again in lower levels: sub-GOP and each picture. We used several metrics for different levels: variance of DC images for I-pictures, number of macroblock types for P-pictures and motion vector types for B-pictures.


For companies, increasing the value of the company is considered very important to strengthen its financial stability, because changes in the capital structure can cause changes in the value of the company. A good capital structure is one whose value is less than one. If the value of the capital structure is more than one, the company is considered to have a greater amount of debt than the amount of its own capital. This study aims to examine the effect of the current ratio, net profit margin, and total asset turnover on the capital structure. This study uses a quantitative approach with a sample population of 74 companies. By using purposive sampling, the sample that meets the criteria is 31 companies. The results show that the current ratio partially affects the capital structure. Partially, net profit margin and total asset turnover have no effect on capital structure. Simultaneously the current ratio, net profit margin and total asset turnover affect the capital structure of the basic and chemical industries listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2018-2020 period.


In this paper, we prove Banach fixed point theorem for digital images. We also give the proof of a theorem which is a generalization of the Banach contraction principle. Finally, we deal with an application of Banach fixed point theorem to image processing. c ©2015 All rights reserved.


The effects of titanium dioxide passive film crystal structure, thickness, and crystallinity on C3 adsorption from diluted human plasma were measured. Titanium dioxide surfaces created include (1) 70-nm anatase and rutile films comprising a mixture of amorphous and microcrystalline titanium dioxide, (2) 140-nm anatase and rutile films with greater crystallinity than the 70-nm films, (3) 70-nm aged anatase films with approximately the same crystallinity as that of the 140-nm anatase films, (4) sintered anatase and sintered rutile with no underlying metal, representing completely crystalline oxide films of infinite thickness, and (5) electropolished titanium. All combinations of experimental variables of surface type, exposure time, and plasma dilution were replicated four times. Anatase and rutile C3 surface concentrations increased with increased oxide thickness and crystallinity. The 70-nm aged anatase film isotherm more closely matched that of the 140-nm than of the 70-nm film, indicating that some property associated with oxide crystallinity is more influential in C3 adsorption than properties associated with oxide thickness alone. Concentrations of C3 were equal for equivalent anatase and rutile surfaces, except at high plasma concentrations and long exposure times, in which more C3 was adsorbed to anatase, suggesting that crystal structure may not be a significant controlling factor.


This study sought to assess the efficacy of treatment for cocaine abuse and to compare the relative effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention treatment with that of a Twelve-Step recovery support group in an outpatient group treatment setting. One hundred ten subjects seeking treatment were alternately assigned to relapse prevention or Twelve-Step treatment. Self-report data were collected at baseline, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up. There were no differential effects of treatment type on cocaine or marijuana use over time. However, subjects in both treatment conditions reduced cocaine and marijuana use at posttreatment. Subjects in both groups reduced their alcohol use from pretreatment to posttreatment. Subjects receiving Twelve-Step treatment showed greater increases from posttreatment to 6-month follow-up in alcohol use than did relapse prevention participants. Treatment attendance was negatively related to cocaine use at posttreatment and cocaine and marijuana use at 6-month follow-up. Difficulties in conducting cocaine treatment outcome research are discussed as are treatment and research implications of the findings.


The concept that lymphomagenesis is a multistep process is now widely accepted. Various factors are involved in the development and malignant progression of B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders. The most frequently recognized alterations in these disorders are chromosomal translocations which lead to the activation of proto-oncogenes (c-myc) or genes encoding for proteins involved in the control of the cell cycle (cyclin D1), differentiation (bcl-6) and apoptosis (bcl-2). In addition, genetic changes that inactivate tumor suppressor genes (p53, Rb, p16) have recently been identified. Infectious agents may also play a role in lymphomagenesis either by directly driving B-cell proliferation (EBV) or by inducing a chronic antigenic stimulation (EBV, HCV, HBV, helicobacter pylori). Finally, several data indicate that local cytokine networks and, in particular, autocrine (IL-6, IL-10) and/or paracrine (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6) loops probably play a contributory role in the development and evolution of B-cell lymphoproliferation. In the last few years, the advent of molecular biology techniques has allowed important advances in the definition of the events involved i the earlier phases of lymphoma development. This has been made possible, in particular, by the study of a series of oligoclonal or monoclonal lymphoproliferative disorders characterized by an indolent or "smoldering" clinical course, such as follicular lymphoma and the lymphoproliferation associated with autoimmune diseases, which are at high risk of evolution to a highly malignant lymphoma. In nearly all of these conditions, the clonal B-cells responsible for the early stages of the disease are probably not fully transformed and retain various degrees of responsiveness to a wide variety of microenvironmental stimuli (antigen or autoantigen stimulation, interactions with "reactive" T lymphocytes, local cytokine networks). These latter in turn may induce the regression of pathological lesions, maintain the disease in an active state or contribute to the evolution towards an overtly malignant lymphoma. These findings open new avenues for the design of unconventional strategies of intervention aimed at preventing the malignant evolution of pre-lymphomatous lesions and controlling the clinical course of certain low-grade B-cell lymphomas.


Currently, the importance of the condominiums technical management and the organization of their annual budgets (with an enormous preponderance of the funds reserve) is not recognized in the decision-making process regarding the maintenance and rehabilitation actions of multi-family buildings. For this reason, it is of particular interest the development of models and technical tools, some that could help to list/report pathologies/anomalies as well as the correlation between the listed pathologies/anomalies and the building, and some others that may consolidate the technical legacy, in order to understand the importance of maintenance labor in the quality and durability of buildings. In this context, the article reflects, in its essence, a proposal for guidelines elaboration for the conditions assessment of the current multi-family buildings envelope in a condominium regime, carried out within the scope of a curricular unit and an ongoing PhD thesis project. The demonstration of the methodologies and tools developed for this evaluation, with the differentiation between a preliminary evaluation and a detailed evaluation, complemented by the brief presentation of a case study, is of particular importance in this work. The work also includes the reference of the importance of this study in the future development of the thesis, as well as the schematic demonstration of other complementary works for it.


The purpose of the study was to identify how influential waking day stress, personality, and emotions can be on the frequency and distress of nightmares. It was hypothesized that higher ratings of waking day stress, neuroticism, and negative emotions would be associated with increased frequency and distress of nightmares. Participants included 52 individuals who filled out questionnaires such as the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) and the Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999). The study found that waking day stress, neuroticism, and negative emotions were significantly positively correlated with nightmare distress. In contrast, extraversion was significantly negatively associated with nightmare frequency, whereas openness to experience had a significant positive correlation with nightmare frequency. This study used self-report data in order to understand which aspects of waking day life can have an impact on nightmare frequency and distress. Limitations and future directions are also addressed.


In order to meet the requirements of talent cultivation for emerging engineering education and solve the problems existing in talents training, this paper further studies the teaching mode of school-enterprise collaborative talent cultivation based on the analysis of current talent cultivation mode, introduces enterprise courses into the curriculum system of network engineering specialty, carries on the resource construction to the courses, and gradually establishes a complete curriculum knowledge system. The implementation of school-enterprise cooperation has achieved good results, improved students' professional level and practical ability, and has a good promotion value.


The cm-wavelength radio flares on Cygnus X-3 have been studied for many years. Our recent paper (Spencer et al., 2022) looked again at the minor flares (flux density S of a few 100 mJy) and compared their properties with those of a sample of major flares (S>1 Jy). We find that the minor flares have rise times and duration of ~ 1 hour, as opposed to ~ days for the major flares. Minor flares show more rapid expansion of the synchrotron radiation emitting material than in the strong flares. They also appear closer to the binary, whereas the large flares form a more developed jet, i.e. the jets formed in minor flares are short and wide, those in major flares are long and thin. We used the results of Fender&Bright (2019) to calculate the magnetic field and expansion velocity as a fraction B of the speed of light under minimum energy conditions when the source is optically thick for samples of minor and major flares. The minimum power in the source was found using the rise time of the flares. The minor flares have lower minimum power but have larger velocities and energy densities than the major flares. Minor flares can occur while a major flare is in progress, suggesting an indirect coupling between them. The spectral evolution of the minor flares can be explained by either an expanding synchrotron source or a shock model. Further investigation requires high resolution VLBI observations at the 1 mas level if we wish to understand the development of the source. The problem is that Cygnus X-3 is strongly scattered by the interstellar medium so high frequencies in the several 10s of GHz are required for the resolution needed. The minor flares are rapid [...] and hence only short snapshot VLBI observations can capture the structure. Large numbers of telescopes are required which is a problem at the highest frequencies. We discuss the VLBI possibilities and trade-offs for this awkward object.


abstract:It remains largely uncontested that students from low-income households—as well as the schools they attend—require additional resources to offset the challenges low-income students typically confront relating to access to equal educational opportunity. Federal elementary and secondary education programs, including Title I, supplement financial resources for students in poverty and schools that serve high concentrations of low-income students. Because federal programs operate within a complex, multi-level school finance system, however, tests of their ability to offset student poverty's "penalty" require empirical approaches that reflect the school finance system's multiple layers. Results from this study—which draw from 2016 school district-level data, focus on three common per pupil spending metrics, and exploit multilevel regression models—suggest that a student poverty penalty persists and is robust to multiple per pupil spending approaches. While these findings generally comport with prior and related empirical research, less clear, however, is what can be plausibly inferred from these findings. To some degree a persistent student poverty penalty is one, perhaps inevitable, artifact of the nation's traditional reliance on local property tax revenues for elementary and secondary public school funding. Alternative explanations include inconsistencies in how various states and school districts implement Title I. Whatever the cause (or causes), the persistence of a student poverty penalty—and the discomforting challenges it poses to the equal educational opportunity doctrine more generally—warrants similarly persistent careful study and policy attention.


There are currently no fully ordained nuns in the Theravada Buddhist system. The doctrinal reason is because ordination ritual guidelines require the presence of senior nuns (of which, due to the dissolution of the nun orders, there are none) at a female's ordination. A more critical reason offered by feminists is that sexism (textual, traditional, and institutional) maintains the status quo. We argue that the Ritual Form Hypothesis of McCauley and Lawson (2002) best explains the continued lack of nun ordinations by making claims about cognitive constraints on ritual efficacy. Furthermore we predict that the institutional prevention of full nun ordinations will persist unless a new superhuman agent (i.e. a new Buddha) emerges with a new doctrine or unless Buddhists discover a different teaching that stipulates new conditions for ordination. Both are unlikely, however, given Theravada's theological conservatism.


Searching for biomarkers of high productivity in chickens is currently one of the relevant tasks facing poultry farming. Thus, the research was aimed at studying genetic traits of laying hens. The hens belonged to parental stock of the «Arbor Acres Plus» hybrid cross and varied according to the productivity abilities. The study was carried out in 2018-2019 at the PRODO Tyumen Broiler factory located in Tyumen, Tyumen region on three groups of chickens numbering from 6000 to 6085 bird units. Raising and evaluation of laying hens were carried out in accordance with the «Arbor Acres Plus» guidelines and standards for breeding of the parental generation and the regulations for the technology of the parent stoсk management and bird weighing which were developed on the basis of those guidelines and standards and adopted at the factory. The practice of raising the «Arbor Acres Plus» hybrid cross revealed a distinct differentiation of laying hens by body weight during the growth period. There were distinguished fast-growing «large» individuals, «small» individuals and «medium» individuals occupying an intermediate position. At the beginning of the experiment, during the 18th week of age the average mass of «small» chickens was 106 g less than that of chickens from the «medium» group. The average mass of chickens from the «medium» group was 139 g less than the indications in the «large» group, and the differences between the «large» and the «small» hens amounted to 245 g. Such differences remained until the 35th week, and then they leveled out substantially. The differences between groups of chickens were observed also in egg production rates, which decreased with increasing the age of laying hens (by 31-33 weeks). The amount of eggs per layer per week averaged out at 71.1 % for "small" hens, 72.8 % for the «medium», and 74.4 % for the «large» ones. To assess the genetic polymorphism of chickens the ISSR-PCR method was applied. Seven primers were used to study the genetic polymorphism of laying hens: (AG)8G, (AG)8T, (CA)8G, (GT)8C, (AC)8T, (TC)8C, (TG)8A. The experimental groups of laying hens differed both in the frequencies of ISSR bands and in the average indicators of polymorphism. Higher parameters of the proportion of polymorphic bands (P), genetic diversity (h), apparent (ne) and effective number of alleles (na) were observed in the group of «large» laying hens, while the «medium» and «small» groups had lower rates and did not significantly differ in the level of polymorphism among themselves. Higher rates of ISSR polymorphism observed in the group of fast-growing («large») laying hens could be a marker of a higher level of genetic diversity in this group compared to chickens from the other two groups. The conducted studies showed that ISSR markers can be recommended as a simple tool for monitoring the genetic diversity of stocks of laying hens.


This study aims to determine the trend of palm oil production, the trend of the value of production, trends of CPO(crude palm oil) export volume, trend value of Indonesian exports, as well as to determine the factors that influence the Indonesian CPO exports and to know the benefits of Indonesia's CPO. The data that used are annual data which were analyzed using regression analysis to estimate the influential factors, the analysis of RCA (Revealed Comparative Abvantage) and AR (Acceleration Ratio) were used to determine the comparative advantage of the Indonesian palm oil in international market. The results showed that the trend of Indonesian palm oil production on average was increased, while the trend of the value of production, the export volume trend, and the trend of Indonesian CPO export value also increased from year to year. The high productivity of Indonesian palm oil production allows the State Indonesia's CPO to exports to neighboring countries, such as China, India, and the Netherlands. From the results of research on the factors that influence the CPO exports to China state that the International CPO price, exchange rate, per capita income, population, and the price substitution (soybean). Factors affecting the CPO exports to China were the CPO price International, capita income of, population, and the price substitution. Factors that affecting CPO exports to Netherland countries were the domestic price, capita income, population, trend, and subtitusi price. Analysis to determine the comparative advantage to Indonesian CPO market showed that Indonesian CPORCA value was higher than the value of the RCACPO World wide  average, while the World RCA value of 1,06, this showed that the market share of Indonesian CPO superior and capableto compete in international market. The growth of Indonesian CPO export has accelerated and higher than other countries in the World (AR =1,009).


Long-term settlement of MSW landfills is a complex process, which is explained by the following two mechanisms: (1) the mechanical long-term compression of degradable organic solids (DOS) and un-degradable organic solids (UDOS); and (2) the decomposition-based compression of the DOS. Based on these two distinct settlement mechanisms, in this study, the authors propose a new estimation model to predict the long-term settlement of a MSW landfill. An optimization process using a real-coded genetic algorithm (GA) is performed to evaluate the parameters of the proposed estimation model, based on the settlement data measured at the Mountain View Landfill located near San Jose, California, USA. In comparison with the existing settlement models, the model predicts settlement very close to the measured data and closely conformed to the Grisolia and Napoleoni's long-term settlement curve. Unlike the existing models, it is the only model that can produce estimation for both long-term and short-term settlement reliably and consistently.


Abstract Objectives African Americans are differentially affected by most cancers compared to other racial groups. Social participation has demonstrated beneficial effects on mental health in older adults with a history of cancer. The purpose of the present study is to examine and compare the effects of specific social participation activities on depressive symptoms among older African Americans with and without a history of cancer. Method The study sample included 2,000 older African Americans selected from the National Health and Aging Trends Study. Waves from 2011 to 2018 were used. Mixed-effects logistic regressions were applied to examine the effects of four social participation activities on depressive symptoms among older African Americans with or without a history of cancer. Results Among older African American who had a history of cancer, visiting family and friends and attending religious services were related to lower odds of depressive symptoms. However, among older African Americans without a history of cancer, joining organized activities and going out for enjoyment predicted lower odds of depressive symptoms. Conclusion Older African Americans with a history of cancer tend to benefit from visiting family and friends and attending religious services in coping with depressive symptoms. Mental health services for this group could focus interventions on promoting social participation activities with family, friends, and religious congregants.


BACKGROUND
Substantial bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV)-related production losses in North American alpaca herds have been associated with BVDV type Ib infection.

OBJECTIVES
To classify and differentiate the long-term clinicopathological characteristics of BVDV type Ib infection of alpaca crias, after natural virus exposure. We hypothesized that persistently infected (PI) alpacas specifically demonstrate growth retardation, clinicopathological evidence of opportunistic infections, and early mortality.

ANIMALS
Thirty-five crias naturally exposed to BVDV (18 acute, 3 chronic, 14 PIs), and 19 healthy cohort controls of 5 northeastern alpaca farms were prospectively evaluated over 2 years (September 2005-September 2008).

METHODS
Observational cohort-control study.

RESULTS
Chronically (viremia >3 weeks) and PI crias demonstrated significantly lower birth weights, decreased growth rates, anemia, and monocytosis compared with control animals. Common clinical problems of PI alpacas included chronic wasting, diarrhea, and respiratory disease. Median survival of PI alpacas that died was 177 days (interquartile range, 555) with a case fatality rate of 50% within 6 months of life. Transplacental infection was confirmed in 82% (9/11) of pregnant females on 1 farm, resulting in the birth of 7 PI crias (7/10 deliveries; 1 animal was aborted). Mean gestation at the beginning and end of BVDV exposure was 64 and 114 days, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
Natural BVDV type 1b infection during early pregnancy resulted in a high incidence of PI offspring. Although PI alpacas may have distinct clinical characteristics, verification of persistent viremia in the absence of endogenous, neutralizing antibodies is essential to differentiate persistent from chronic infection.


A series of experiments have been conducted to test the hypothesis that blooms of dinoflagellates ("red tides") may adversely affect year-class strength of northern anchovy, particulary if the red tide occurs during the anchovy spawning season. Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of a variety of dinoflagellate species on the feeding, growth and survival of first-feeding larval anchovy, Engraulis mordax. The dinoflagellate species tested were Gyrodinium dorsum, G. resplendens, Gonyaulax grindleyi, G. polyedra, Protogonyaulax catenella and Gymnodinium splendens. All species occur in southern California waters. Growth experiments were conducted at 16-17oC using dinoflagellate concentrations > 1,000 mg C liter-1. Larvae were reared for a period of 9 days. Highest growth rates were obtained on Gymnodinium splendens. Lowest growth rates and survival - no different than on filtered seawater - were obtained on Gonyaulax grindleyi. Survival ranged from almost 90% on Gymnodinium splendens to < 10% on Gonyaulax polyedra and G. grindleyi. Feeding experiments yielded results which are consistent with results of the growth experiments. Fully half the species we investigated appear to have deleterious effects on feeding, growth and survival of larval anchovy. It is concluted that, in years when anchovy are spawned during blooms of Gonyaulax polyedra or Protogonyaulax catenella, poor year-classes may result.


Background: Actinomycosis is a rare cause of unexplained origin fever (FUO). The NGS, particularly in cases of FUO in conventional microbiology, is a promising and advantageous technology for earlier diagnosis and more success. It gives new insights in the management of FUO, especially in infectious diseases.Case presentation: We present a case of a 71-year-old woman who had FUO that the etiology was endobronchial actinomycosis eventually diagnosed by next-generation sequencing of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. She was admitted to the our department with intermittent fever up to 40.0℃, chills, cough with white sputum, chest distress and slightly dyspnea over one month. According to special clinical course and laboratory data of the patient, she was given intravenous sulbenicillin sodium for 11 days and oral amoxicillin at 500 mg every 8 h for another 1 month. When she returned for follow-up, she reported a notable improvement in her cough, dyspnea, sputum production and fever that was completely absent.Conclusion: In obscure causes of FUO, clinicians should consider the possibility of thoracic actinomycosis and actively use next-generation sequencing to help diagnose.


Background: One aspect of the distancing measures imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is that telemedicine consultations have increased exponentially. Among these consultations, the assessment and follow-up of patients with chronic diseases in a non-presential setting has been strengthened considerably. Nevertheless, some controversy remains about the most suitable means of patient follow-up. Objective: To analyze the impact of the telemedicine measures implemented during the COVID-19 period on chronic patients. Material and Methods: A systematic review was carried out using the following databases: PubMed, Pro-Quest, and Scopus. The systematic review followed the guidelines outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The search equation utilized descriptors sourced from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus. The search equation was: "hypertension AND older AND primary care AND (COVID-19 OR coronavirus)" and its Spanish equivalent. Results: The following data were obtained: 14 articles provided data on 6,109,628 patients and another 4 articles focused on a study population of 9684 physicians. Telemedicine was less likely to be used by elderly patients (OR 0.85; 95% C.I. 0.83–0.88; p = 0.05), those of Asian race (OR 0.69; 95% C.I. 0.66–0.73; p = 0.05), and those whose native language was not English (OR 0.89; 95% C.I. 0.78–0.9; p = 0.05). In primary care, lower use of telemedicine was associated with residents of rural areas (OR 0.81; p = 0.05), patients of African American race (OR 0.65, p = 0.05), and others (OR 0.64; p = 0.05). A high proportion (40%) of physicians had no prior training in telemedicine techniques. The highest quality in terms of telephone consultation was significantly associated with physicians who did not increase their prescription of antibiotherapy during the pandemic (OR = 0.30, p = 0.05) or prescribe more tests (OR 0.06 p = 0.05), i.e., who maintained their former clinical criteria despite COVID-19. Conclusions: Telemedicine is of proven value and has been especially useful in the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed remote–presential model is most efficient. Appropriate training in this area for physicians and patients, together with correct provision, is essential to prevent errors in implementation and use.


In light of the recent economic and financial crisis and its detrimental effects on EU labour markets, both academics and policymakers are paying increasing attention to the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in job creation. SMEs, defined by the European Commission (2003) as companies with fewer than 250 employees and turnover of up to €50 million or a balance sheet total of up to €43 million, constitute 99.8% of all businesses in the European non-financial business sector (Muller et al, 2015). In 2014, these 22.3 million companies accounted for 67% of total employment and contributed considerably to job growth despite employment in the EU being 1.3 percentage points below the 2008 level.


Comprehensive sampling of genomic biodiversity is fast becoming a reality for some genomic regions and complete organelle genomes. Genomic biodiversity is defined as large genomic sequences from many species, and here some recent work is reviewed that demonstrates the potential benefits of genomic biodiversity for molecular evolutionary analysis and phylogenetic reconstruction. This work shows that using likelihood-based approaches, taxon addition can dramatically improve phylogenetic reconstruction. Features or dynamics of the evolutionary process are much more easily inferred with large numbers of taxa, and large numbers are essential for discriminating differences in evolutionary patterns between sites. Accurate prediction of site-specific patterns can improve phylogenetic reconstruction by an amount equivalent to quadrupling sequence length. Genomic biodiversity is particularly central to research relating patterns of evolution, adaptation and coevolution to structural and functional features of proteins. Research on detecting coevolution between amino acid residues in proteins demonstrates a clear need for much greater numbers of closely related taxa to better discriminate site-specific patterns of interaction, and to allow more detailed analysis of coevolutionary interactions between subunits in protein complexes. It is argued that parsing out coevolutionary and other context-dependent substitution probabilities is essential for discriminating between coevolution and adaptation, and for more realistically modelling the evolution of proteins. Also reviewed is research that argues for increasing the efficiency of acquiring genomic biodiversity, and suggests that this might be done by simultaneously shotgun cloning and sequencing genomic mixtures from many species. Increased efficiency is a prerequisite if genomic biodiversity levels are to rapidly increase by orders of magnitude, and thus lead to dramatically improved understanding of interactions between protein structure, function and sequence evolution.


Treatment of children with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) poses various challenges. While these have been studied extensively in affluent countries, data from developing regions are scant. In most rich countries, state-of-art management and financial and social support are provided by the government or available through insurance, and prognosis for even young children is improving. In contrast, most low-income countries, either lack in facilities for renal replacement or these are not afforded by the vast majority, and a large number of patients succumb for lack of treatment. In rare settings where such treatment is provided free of cost, the inability to meet costs of related expenses such as transport and accommodation result in families discontinuing management for most patients. Studies should define the extent and determinants of these concerns for children with ESKD in developing countries.


In this paper, we develop an information theoretic differential side-channel attack. An embedded device containing a secret key is modeled as a black box with a leakage function whose output is captured by an adversary through the noisy measurement of a physical observable e.g. the power consumed by the device. We assume only that the measured values depend somehow on the leakage and thus on the word being processed by the device. Without any knowledge on the particular dependency, this fact is exploited to mount a side-channel attack. We build a distinguisher which uses the Mutual Information between the observed and the leaked values as a statistical test. The Mutual Information is maximal when the hypothetical key guessed by the attacker equals the key in the device. Our approach is confirmed by experimental results. We perform power analysis on an embedded device using our Mutual Information based distinguisher and show that the correct key is clearly distinguishable. Finally, our approach allows to compute a good estimate of the minimal number of traces required to perform a successful attack and gives an upper bound on the information leakage in a single observation.


Given that Social Networking Service (SNS) has emerged as the most influential platform, which can lead users to addictive smartphone use, it is necessary to investigate which psychological variables lead smartphone-based SNS users to addictive smartphone use. Still, studies on the relationship between psychological variables and addictive smartphone use among smartphone-based SNS users remain to be explored. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the role of psychological factors on smartphone addiction proneness (SAP). A total of 433 smartphone-based SNS users were collected from 5003 adults in Korea. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and path analysis using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 23.0. The results of a parallel-mediation path analysis demonstrated that Behavioral Inhibition (BIS), Behavioral activation (BAS) drive, anxiety, and low self-control directly influenced SAP, separately. BIS and BAS _drive also had significant indirect effects on SAP through the effect of anxiety. BIS and BAS_fun had significant indirect effects on SAP through the effect of low self-control. The study variables accounted for 38.4 of the total variances of SAP. Thus, when establishing interventions to reduce the users' addictive smartphone use, these interactive relationships of the variables should be considered.


Introduction -From being predominant as the leading causes of morbidity and mortality communicable diseases are now being replaced by chronic non-communicable diseases as the major causes of public health concern. By the year 2020, 80% of the disease burden in the developing countries of the world is expected to come from chronic conditions. Compounding the problem is the fact that adherence to therapies for chronic conditions can be as low as 20%. This results in poor health outcomes at a very high cost to society, governments, and families. Methods- A cross sectional community based study was conducted in the urban field practice area of M S Ramaiah Medical College using modified cluster sampling technique. All persons who were ill or on long term medication or were hospitalized for a period more than three weeks in the last one year were interviewed. A semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire which contained questions regarding duration of treatment ,regularity of treatment and reasons for irregularity/stopping of treatment was used for the purpose of collection of data which was carried out by interview method by house-to-house visits Results -Prevalence of chronic illness was highest in the age group of >60 with 46.6% followed by 46-60 age group with a prevalence of 31.4%. . The mean duration of illness was 58.44 months and mean duration of treatment was 54.58 months. (table 1) . In the study population 60.4 % were regular with their treatment . Regularity of treatment was significantly associated with social class , literacy level. and occupation.Symptomatic improvement was the most common reason (18.8%) for irregularity or stopping of treatment followed by cost considerations (11.5%). Multivariate analysis of 32 variables included in the study showed association of regularity of treatment with sex, social class and family income. Conclusion -Role of socio-demographic factors in ensuring treatment compliance as found in the present study calls for involvement of families of people suffering from chronic illnesses in ensuring compliance to treatment.


It is known that there exist computational problems that can be solved on a parallel computer, yet are impossible to be solved sequentially. Specifically, no general purpose sequential model of computation, such as the Turing Machine or the Random Access Machine, can simulate a large family of computations (for example, solutions to certain real-time problems), each of which is capable of being carried out readily by a particular parallel computer. We extend the scope of such problems to the class of problems with uncertain time constraints. The first type of time constraints refers to uncertain time requirements on the input data, that is, when and for how long are the input data available. A second type of time constraints refers to uncertain deadlines on when outputs are to be produced. Our main objective is to exhibit computational problems in which it is very difficult to find out (read 'compute') what to do and when to do it. Furthermore, problems with uncertain time constraints, as described here, prove once more that it is impossible to define a 'universal computer', that is, a computer able to perform (through simulation or otherwise) all computations that are executable on other computers. Finally, one of the contributions of this paper is to promote the study of a topic, conspicuously absent to date from theoretical computer science, namely, the role of physical time and physical space in computation. The focus of our work is to analyze the effect of external natural phenomena on the various components of a computational process, namely, the input phase, the calculation phase (including the algorithm and the computing agents themselves), and the output phase.


This paper encounters the problem of the identity of rice and paddy farmers in Nepal and in the Himalayan region. It examines discursive practices in three different regimes of knowledge that constitute rice and paddy cultivation in Nepal and the Himalayas; mythological, socio-cultural, and Techno-political. For the analysis, it has brought descriptions of materials from the comprehensive compendium on 'Rice Sciences and Technology in Nepal', (2017). The compendium is the major source of materials or 'corpus of the statement' in relation to each of the domains of knowledge in paddy cultivation for analysis. The analysis exposes the meanings and identities of rice and paddy farmers and farmers' positions in each of the regimes. This paper argues that the contemporary discourse of rice/paddy cultivation is dominated by the techno-political regime of knowledge which has specific implications for the production of the identity of rice and paddy farmers. Furthermore, this mediation reproduces rice as a commodity to sell in the open market and paddy farmers as the passive recipients of the information and skills from the modern agriculture agencies like the state, scientists, media, and agro-companies. It utilizes Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) method while approaching the different domains of knowledge. The argument is based on the 'non-essentialist' theory within the anthropological framework of political ecology as proposed by a senior post-modern anthropologist Arturo Escobar.


The purpose of the present study was to devise a method for the identification of Nocardia species that is more technically simple, accurate, and rapid than current standard methods of identification. We focused on a commercial bacteria identification system that contained chromogenic test substrates. Two MicroScan products were selected for use in the study on the basis of their content of chromogenic and conventional substrates. They were the Rapid Anaerobe Identification and the HNID panels. A total of 85 strains of Nocardia representing five species were used in the study. All isolates were identified as Nocardia species by the use of standard methods. The beta-naphthylamide-labeled substrate L-pyrrolidonyl-beta-naphthylamide (PYR), the nitrophenyl-labeled substrate p-nitrophenyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside (MNP), and indoxyl phosphate were found to be useful for identification purposes. N. farcinica and N. nova were the only species positive for PYR, whereas N. brasiliensis was the only species that hydrolyzed MNP. All strains of N. brasiliensis, N. otitidiscavarium, and N. farcinica were positive for indoxyl phosphate, whereas strains of N. nova and N. asteroides sensu stricto were always negative. Agreement between the standard and enzymatic identification methods was 100%. In summary, detection of preformed enzymes appears to be a simple and reproducible method for the identification of Nocardia spp.


Several so-called "smart" dressings are available for burn injuries to promote faster wound healing, and this technology has recently reported substantial advancements. However, the selection of an appropriate dressing for partial-thickness burns requires consideration of several crucial elements, including exudate management, conformability, antimicrobial properties, ease of application and removal, patient comfort, and cost-effectiveness. This preliminary feasibility study uses a porcine model to test the INTELIGELS product (Smart Bandage) for partial-thickness burns treatment. Artificially made wounds, mimicking partial-thickness burns, were assessed in two studies with and without antimicrobial additives, where wounds were randomly assigned to the experimental group treated with Smart Bandage and two control groups treated with a simple saline gauze dressing or Aquacel® products with and without silver additives. In addition, all dressings were evaluated for their ability to reduce wound size, quantified by histological analysis using punch biopsies. This study demonstrates comparable healing properties of Smart Bandage and Aquacel® dressings that are superior to the simple saline gauze dressing. The superiority is demonstrated by better regeneration, less inflammation of the epidermis and dermis, and better dermis remodeling with more granulation tissue maturation within the wound area when Smart Bandage/Aquacel® dressings are applied as compared with the simple gauze dressing.


Virtual network embedding (VNE) can effectively deploy virtual networks (VNs) onto shared substrate network (SN) resources. However, with the consistent changing scalability and diversity demands of VNs, traditional VNE methods prove to be a challenging task for current cloud service platforms. Thus, we model a repeatable multi-dimensional virtual network embedding (RMD-VNE) problem for implementing multi-dimensional virtual networks (MD-VNs) that involves real servers, virtual machines, containers, and network simulators. The MD-VN is preprocessed and embedded via a heuristic method denoted as ReMiDvne. Following its transformation for the containers and simulation networks, the MD-VN topology undergoes a process of coarsening, partitioning, and uncoarsening. ReMiDvne then applies a topology-aware repeatable embedding solution to complete the embedding stage. Experimental results demonstrate that ReMiDvne outperforms seven baseline approaches through small-, 1,000- and 10,000-scale VNE simulation experiments. Remarkably, ReMiDvne improves the average rates of acceptance ratio, revenue, and revenue-cost ratio by up to 40.45, 40.45, and 299.03 percent, respectively, and reduces the average rate of cost by up to 64.16 percent. Furthermore, real-world VNE experiments are conducted based on the OpenStack platform. The results reveal the ability of ReMiDvne to efficiently reduce communication costs by up to 45.93 and 63.43 percent for download and upload, respectively.


In the preimplantation mammalian embryo, cells of the inner cell mass can differentiate into any cell type present in the more mature embryo. As of 1981, in mice and 1998 in humans, it has been recognized that embryonic stem cells (ESCs) with a prolonged proliferative capacity can be derived from the inner cell mass in vitro (Evans and Kaufman 1981; Thomson, Itskovitz-Eldor et al. 1998). ESCs are pluripotent cells that can contribute to all tissues in vivo and to the three primary germ layers as well as extraembryonic tissues in vitro. Because pluripotency is maintained in these cells even after prolonged periods of culture, human ESCs have great therapeutic potential for tissue regeneration. Indeed, embryonic and adult stem cells (SCs) hold great promise for regenerative medicine, tissue repair, and gene therapy. Careful molecular characterization of embryonic pluripotency should help to optimize and scale up the in vitro production of ESCs for clinical applications. The mechanisms regulating self-renewal and cell fate decisions in mammalian stem cells are poorly understood. As compared with differentiated cell types, stem cells express a significantly higher number of genes (represented by expressed sequence tags) of unknown function. The properties that distinguish stem cells from other cells are largely unknown, and the identification of signals that regulate stem cell differentiation remains fundamental to our understanding of cellular diversity. Embryonic and adult stem cells have many similarities at the transcriptional level. The overlapping set of expressed gene products represents a molecular signature of stem cells (Bhattacharya, Miura et al. 2004; Assou, Le Carrour et al. 2007). A list of human and mouse genes involved in stemness has been generated (Assou, Le Carrour et al. 2007) and includes 92 stemness genes known to be expressed in mouse or human ESCs, e.g., OCT3/4, NANOG, Cripto/TDGFI, Cx43 and Galanin (Richards, Tan et al. 2004). Work in the field of embryogenesis has also contributed to our understanding of the function of these pluripotency-associated genes. The four most significantly overexpressed genes in undifferentiated embryonic tissues are Galanin, POU5FI, NANOG and DPPA4 (Zeng, Miura et al. 2004). In most studies, galanin has been highlighted as the most abundant transcript in ES culture as well as human and rodent embryonic tissues (Anisimov, Tarasov et al. 2002; Zeng, Miura et al. 2004). Both galanin and galanin receptors are expressed in ES cells, indicating a potential functional role for this protein (Tarasov, Tarasova et al. 2002). This chapter will be devoted to a description of the galanin expression profiles in embryonic tissues and stem cells as well as its possible functional role.


This project is to study about the petrology of the southeastern part of the Gunung Jerai. The objective of this study is to understand the distribution of the rocks by constructing the geological map and understand the degree of the metamorphism occur in the southeastern part of Gunung Jerai. The southeastern part of Gunung Jerai is dominated by metamorphic rocks followed by igneous rocks. The metamorphic rocks present are quartzite and hornfels while the igneous rocks found are granite and pegmatite. The metamorphic rocks formed in the area by contact metamorphism mechanism and produce low grade metamorphic rocks with no foliation. The analysis done on the samples of the rocks shows the exact characteristics and properties of the rocks. The findings of this study can be correlated with the previous study done by other researchers, with the addition of hornfels in the proposed geological map.


Truth commissions have been multiplying rapidly around the world and gaining increasing attention in recent years. They are proposed for different reasons and driven by diverse motives. They can be used firstly, for the purpose of national reconciliation and in the interests of the society; secondly, sometimes they can be used to avoid accountability or prosecution and merely to shield an offender from justice. It is important to look at their relationship to prosecutions and justice in an immediate and historical sense. Are TRC's designed to generate more truth, more justice, reparations, and genuine institutional reform? Or are they designed to undermine the state's and society's legal, ethical and political obligations to their people? This gives us an opportunity to share views on adequate truth commissions and their relationship with prosecutions.


ABSTRACT While changes in society continue to inform understandings of what leisure is and how it manifests itself, the emergence of Chinese outbound tourists, with specific motivations, travel styles and leisure choices are having powerful impacts on multiple host destinations. While university campuses have long been marked as visitor attractions in China, this study explores the motivations and implications of outbound Chinese tourists visiting university campuses abroad for leisure. On site qualitative interviews took place with 25 fully independent Chinese tourists at three campuses in Seoul, South Korea and a campus in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The study results found that Chinese visitors mark specific university campuses as attractions and are motivated to visit because of their prestige, by novelty and exploration, emotion and nostalgia and learning and knowledge seeking. This study argues that campus tourism may be difficult to develop and manage as a well-defined product that meets the needs of Chinese tourists, university governors and university stakeholders. The study explores the implications for universities and recommends universities begin a critical evaluation of prestige markers and especially those markers present in the Chinese cultural, pop-culture and (social) media context, which may be counterproductive to the primary mission of universities.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact that crisis had on quality management and basic business processes using INSEAD's industrial excellence framework (IEF) towards large Greek industrial units. This study proposes a modified version of the IEF which can help firms to operate through a turbulent environment.

Design/methodology/approach

Data that were collected during the current financial crisis were compared with a matched sample of business units surveyed a decade earlier. The variables that were used to measure performance were grouped into two categories, quality management and process improvement.

Findings

Through the examination of these cases, the authors identify the characteristics that empowered those BUs so as to remain alive during the turbulence. According to the results, the survivors train their staff systematically, have closer relationships with their suppliers, assess their processes and follow up with action plans. Findings also suggest cultural differences between survivors vs non-survivors. Survivors display a cultural profile typical to adhocracy since they describe themselves as more flexible and externally focused instead of being stable and internally focused. These findings are discussed and avenues for future research are presented.

Practical implications

The results of the study can be applied by quality managers of industrial organizations to achieve higher performance and overcome a turbulence of the external environment.

Originality/value

Previous research on the business excellence frameworks neglects the essential issue of sustainability and how an organization can survive a crisis. The study provides new insights into the long-term benefits of applying an excellence framework.


The geometry of a pulse x-ray diffraction survey is suggested to obtain a multipeak x-ray diffraction pattern from a single crystal sample in planar impact experiments. This geometry allows simultaneous recording of x-ray reflections from different crystal planes. The corresponding mathematical expressions for screen (detector) positions of the reflections produced by both strained and unstrained crystals are developed. In the case of the reflections from (200) and (220) crystal planes, the expressions enable the strain tensor components to be extracted from the relative shifts of diffraction peaks. The expressions were applied to interpret the multipeak diffraction patterns obtained from NaCl single crystals both shock-compressed and unloaded after the shock compression. The lattice strain alterations observed may be explained within the framework of dislocation theory of plastic deformation.


The growth in the usage of the web, especially e-commerce website, has led to the development of recommender system (RS) which aims in personalizing the web content for each user and reducing the cognitive load of information on the user. However, as the world enters Big Data era and lives through the contemporary data explosion, the main goal of a RS becomes to provide millions of high quality recommendations in few seconds for the increasing number of users and items. One of the successful techniques of RSs is collaborative filtering (CF) which makes recommendations for users based on what other like-mind users had preferred. Despite its success, CF is facing some challenges posed by Big Data, such as: scalability, sparsity and cold start. As a consequence, new approaches of CF that overcome the existing problems have been studied such as Singular value decomposition (SVD). This paper surveys the literature of RSs and reviews the current state of RSs with the main concerns surrounding them due to Big Data. Furthermore, it investigates thoroughly SVD, one of the promising approaches expected to perform well in tackling Big Data challenges, and provides an implementation to it using some of the successful Big Data tools (i.e. Apache Hadoop and Spark). This implementation is intended to validate the applicability of, existing contributions to the field of, SVD-based RSs as well as validated the effectiveness of Hadoop and spark in developing large-scale systems. The implementation has been evaluated empirically by measuring mean absolute error which gave comparable results with other experiments conducted, previously by other researchers, on a relatively smaller data set and non-distributed environment. This proved the scalability of SVD-based RS and its applicability to Big Data.


Abstract Food waste produced in homes represents the largest fraction of food waste generated along the food chain. Therefore, adequate prevention measures based on the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the problem need to be put in place to reduce waste. The objective of the review was to identify areas of interest in relation to the food waste in households, considering the family unit as a whole as well as individual family members. Quantifying the problem is an important aspect in order to know its scope and dimension, but prevention also involves knowing the causes in a home. This is a complex issue, which, on a family level, is related to socioeconomic status, educational level, composition and number of members of the household as well as culinary and buying food habits. Individual variables such as age, sex, values, awareness, lifestyle and time spent on food preparation were included to characterize consumers. The focus of the problem is also important because most consumers consider food waste from a social perspective, without being aware of the serious environmental and economic problems. Habits and customs of consumers are considered the leading cause of food waste in homes and knowledge of this issue raises consumer awareness as a preventive tool.


The aim of this study was to evaluate developmental changes in thyroid hormone and other key endocrine hormones/molecular markers produced by testicular cells, in relation to breed differences in proliferation and maturation of Sertoli cells and general testicular morphological development in Meishan (MS) and White Composite (WC) boars. Blood samples and testes were collected on days 60, 75, 90 and 105 post coitum (dpc) and days 1, 7, 14 and 25 post partum (dpp). Testes were immunostained for thyroid hormone receptor-beta1 (THRbeta1), GATA4, Müllerian-inhibiting substance (MIS), 17-alpha-hydroxylase (P450(c17)) and inhibin subunits (alpha, betaA, betaB). In addition, protein levels were determined by densitometry. Plasma concentrations of free triiodothyronine (T(3)) were greater in MS (hyperthyroid) compared with WC (hypothyroid) boars (P<0.01) during fetal life, but the reverse was evident postnatally. Elevated levels of free T(3) during fetal life were associated with increased levels of THRbeta1, suggesting increased thyroid responsiveness of the testis during this time, contrasting with observations during early postnatal life. Localization patterns of THRbeta1, MIS, GATA4 and the inhibin subunits were consistent with previous studies. MIS protein levels declined more rapidly (P<0.001) in MS compared with WC Sertoli cells postnatally, consistent with earlier maturation of Sertoli cells as indicated by our previous study. In this study, transient neonatal hyperthyroidism in MS boars during late gestation was associated with a decline in proliferation and early maturation of Sertoli cells, followed by early onset of puberty in this breed. These observations indicate a possible role for thyroid hormone in the modification of Sertoli cell development, thereby influencing growth and differentiation of the testis in pigs.


The purpose of this study is to re-examine what is meant by character education, how to apply character education in several elementary schools, including methods and results, and to try to reformulate the appropriate character education model in the era of industrial revolution 4.0. The methodology of the study carried out in this paper is an analysis of studies from various sources of theory about character education and industrial revolution 4.0, and an analysis of studies of several character education practices carried out in several elementary schools / madrasah ibtidaiyyah (MI) in Banyuwangi region as well in the Jogjakarta Region. The results of the research from both the theoretical and of the practical analysis in this paper is that the application of character educationstill does not produce the results as expected. However, so far, there have been many elementary school level that have implemented character education according to the abilities of educator resources. Educator resources are the main determinant in achieving or not the goal of character education for each school that applies it, especially in terms of determining programs as a form of character education. It was also found that the results of character education applied to each school also varied, depending on how the educator's resources interpreted the objectives of the character education program in their respective schools.


We report the molecular investigations of a large influenza A(H3N2) outbreak, in a season characterised by sharp increase in influenza admissions since December 2016. Analysis of haemagglutinin (HA) sequences demonstrated co-circulation of multiple clades (3C.3a, 3C.2a and 3C.2a1). Most variants fell into a novel subclade (proposed as 3C.2a2); they possessed four unique amino acid substitutions in the HA protein and loss of a potential glycosylation site. These changes potentially modify the H3N2 strain antigenicity.


Wind, solar, and other renewable energy important part of any present-day energy the portion of energy they supply to the certainly be increasing over the next few Arguably, large-scale wind power has reached technological maturity, and with more than 100 GW of capacity ample experience exists on integrating wind systems. Solar technologies, on the other emerging, and substantial R&D investments are being made to achieve parity with retail electricity costs in the near future. As this happens, annual capacity additions of solar power will become significant.


Forty-four patients, with admission APACHE II scores between 5 and 24, undergoing mechanical ventilation in the intensive therapy unit, received a sedative regimen consisting of continuous infusions of propofol and alfentanil. Patients were randomly allocated to one of three groups to receive either alfentanil 0.25 microgram kg-1 min-1 (10 patients), 0.50 microgram kg-1 min-1 (15 patients) or 0.75 microgram kg-1 min-1 (18 patients) for analgesia. An infusion of propofol 20-200 mg h-1 ran concurrently to maintain a satisfactory level of sedation. Patients received the infusions for between 4 and 260 h and 38 patients spent more than 90% of this time at satisfactory sedation levels. After stopping the infusions all patients had short times to wakening (mean 3-18 min) and to establish spontaneous respiration (mean 8-28 min), suggesting no significant cumulation. Some depression of blood pressure was seen on starting the infusions, which was in general easily treated with fluids or small increases in inotropic agents. One patient, however, was withdrawn from the trial because of haemodynamic instability. This combination of drugs can be recommended for sedation of general intensive-therapy patients, provided the cost is not felt to be prohibitive.


We sought to determine whether selected cytokines, known to stimulate profoundly B-cell activation and differentiation, also have as yet unrecognized effects upon the glycosylation of secreted Ig and/or membrane-associated proteins. The glycosylation of both secreted IgM and membrane-bound MHC Class-I synthesized by CH12LX cells was detected by enzyme-lectin conjugates in immunoabsorption assays. Stimulation of B cells with IL-4 plus IL-5 significantly decreases the terminal glycosylation of secreted IgM, whereas LPS has a minor effect, despite the fact that both stimuli are equipotent for IgM secretion. Neither LPS nor IL-4 plus IL-5 affect MHC Class-I expression. However, IL-4 plus IL-5 substantially increases the terminal glycosylation of MHC Class-I produced from both mIgM(+)and mIgA(+)CH12LX cells. LPS has no or a modest effect on the terminal glycosylation of MHC Class-I produced from CH12LX cells. These results suggest that Th(2)-derived cytokines differentially influence the glycosylation of secreted and membrane-associated glycoproteins of B cells. In turn, this might elucidate the basis of aberrant glycosylation reported in conditions such as IgA nephropathy, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.


Drawing on on our work in the area of distributed artiicial intelligence, we put forth a framework for modeling a human user interacting with a knowledge-based system. We assume that the human user is situated in some decision making setting, and view the computer system as taking an active role in supporting the user's decision making and problem solving activities. The model the system has of the decision making situation and of the user can be applied to determine what the system should do, both in terms of the system's physical action, if such is possible, as well as in terms of the information that should be transmitted to the user. An important part of the user's model is the model that the user may have of the system itself, and, further, how the user may think it is being modeled by the system, and so on. Our framework, the Recursive Modeling Method (RMM), explicitly represents this nesting of models. RMM lets the system coordinate with the expected actions of the human user, and rationally choose an optimal form of communication.


The contradiction between urban development and ecological environment protection is particularly obvious in rapidly expanding urban areas. It is necessary to build a reasonable urban ecological security pattern. to balance urban expansion and ecological security. This paper takes Zhengzhou as an example, based on spatial principal component analysis, a comprehensive assessment of urban ecological security is carried out by using natural characteristics, human characteristics, and natural and human interaction characteristics, and ecological sources are extracted; Based on the ecological corridors extracted by the minimal cumulative resistance (MCR) model, the edge-betweenness index is used to optimize the model, and redundant corridors are eliminated, the first-level ecological corridors and ecological nodes on the first-level ecological corridor are extracted. Through experiments, 25 important ecological sources, 24 first-level ecological corridors, and 32 ecological nodes were extracted. Important ecological sources, first-level ecological corridors and ecological nodes constitute the basic ecological security pattern of Zhengzhou, which effectively alleviate the contradiction between rapid urban expansion and ecological protection, and ensuring urban ecological security at the same time.


Michael Paul Mason is a brain-injury case manager at the Brookhaven Hospital Neurologic Rehabilitation Institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In Head cases, he provides a very useful commentary on the outcome of brain injury that should be considered by patients and their families, health-care professionals and administrators, and those responsible for public policy on health-care delivery.

Drawing on the author's professional experience, Head cases is essentially a personal narrative organized into a series of patient vignettes. Each chapter focuses on the outcome of a patient's brain injury, both in terms of the specific medical impairment and of the consequences this has for the patient's ability to continue with life. Typically, postinjury life is impaired and differs substantially from the patient's preinjury lifestyle. However, there are some poignant examples in which good may arise from the outcome, which helps to illustrate the complex and individual nature of brain injuries.

There is a suitably broad representation of the range and severity of brain injuries and the long-term impact these have on patients and their loved ones. In an early chapter, Mason successfully introduces the basic neurobiology and neuropsychology underlying the vast range of outcomes that can result from a momentary and localized brain injury. The term brain insult is used to define the point of injury, and Mason explores the extended meaning of this term with regard to the consequences that the patient must live with following this pivotal event. Examples are given of injury resulting in severe seizures, memory loss, aggression, dissociative fugue state, and cognitive impairment. There is a particularly enlightening example of locked-in syndrome, a condition in which a patient is awake and aware but unable to move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body. Pathology-derived injury is also addressed through examples of brain tumors and viral infection. A chapter describing brain injury and the consequences of posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraq War veterans is particularly moving and conveys the urgent need for rational reform of rehabilitation policy, as one considers the long-term care requirements of the injured, both military and civilian.

What makes Head cases significant is not that the author has these experiences to relate but that he achieves a consistent and well-developed narrative that ties these individual stories into a comprehensive commentary on our ability to care for and accommodate these most vulnerable members of our society. The text is well written, reflecting an engaging style with strong and precise narrative construction distilling each vignette into a powerful, self-contained message that leaves the reader pausing to reflect. Classical references, philosophical musings, and discussion of the separation of mind and brain serve the author's purpose of humanizing the brain-injury patient. As the author states in conclusion, "Their brains have undergone irrevocable change, but their humanity abides."

Head cases is not a call to action, but rather a call to understanding. Mason compels us to consider whether the current state of care for these patients is appropriate, without forcing a specific policy upon the reader. Brain injury may not always respond to rehabilitation, and long-term personalized care may be needed. Thus, this patient group, perhaps more than any other, illustrates that there is no single treatment plan or health-care policy that will meet the needs of all patients. Health-care professionals and administrators may find some of the matter-of-fact observations uncomfortable at times. But the real obstacle to progress identified in this book is the neglect of long-term care of brain-injury patients engendered by inadequate policies and insufficient resources. Unfortunately, the patchwork or absent provisions in many states are consistent with many aspects of health-care delivery in the US. One chapter tells the compelling story of a patient with a poor care outcome due to living on the wrong side of a state boundary.

Empathy may be rekindled in reading, but policy change requires more dispassionate measurements to effect systematic change. There is a need to fund and conduct careful studies documenting the benefits and success rates of the longer and more intensive patient-tailored rehabilitative processes advocated in this book. Such data are needed to truly influence policy, and this book will have made an important contribution if it encourages such studies.

Head cases is compelling reading and will bring needed information and a sense of community and realism to brain-injury patients and their families. However, it also provides a valuable commentary on the health-care field and should be read by those in a position to influence public policy on rehabilitation programs. For the research community, Mason presents a humbling realization of how difficult the challenge of neurological restoration is while underscoring how important it is to pursue.


Despite unprecedented global sequencing and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, timely identification of the emergence and spread of novel variants of concern (VoCs) remains a challenge. Several million raw genome sequencing runs are now publicly available. We sought to survey these datasets for intrahost variation to study emerging mutations of concern. We developed iSKIM ("intrahost SARS-CoV-2 k-mer identification method") to relatively quickly and efficiently screen the many SARS-CoV-2 datasets to identify intrahost mutations belonging to lineages of concern. Certain mutations surged in frequency as intrahost minor variants just prior to, or while lineages of concern arose. The Spike N501Y change common to several VoCs was found as a minor variant in 834 samples as early as October 2020. This coincides with the timing of the first detected samples with this mutation in the Alpha/B.1.1.7 and Beta/B.1.351 lineages. Using iSKIM, we also found that Spike L452R was detected as an intrahost minor variant as early as September 2020, prior to the observed rise of the Epsilon/B.1.429/B.1.427 lineages in late 2020. iSKIM rapidly screens for mutations of interest in raw data, prior to genome assembly, and can be used to detect increases in intrahost variants, potentially providing an early indication of novel variant spread.


The Western Cascade Series (WCS) is a 3.5-km-thick, crudely homoclinal (east dipping) calcalkaline volcanic sequence of mid-Oligocene to early Miocene age that crops out near the southern tip of the Cascade Range in northern California. The mean direction of remanent magnetization in the WCS is D, 4.9°; I, 57.6° (N, 53; k, 14.4; α95, 5.3°). When compared to a reference direction for the North American craton, the WCS direction indicates that the southern Cascade Range has rotated 14.0° ± 9.0° since the WCS accumulated. A difference in mean direction between the lower and upper halves of the WCS suggests that much of this rotation occurred during the late Oligocene. Six other paleomagnetic studies of rock units of an age roughly comparable to the WCS also are available from western Oregon, northwestern California, and southwestern Washington. All show statistically significant clockwise rotation (inclinations of all but one are concordant). Comparison of directions indicates that the Pacific Northwest did not rotate as a rigid body, but neither did it behave as a collection of small, independently rotating domains. The amount of rotation found throughout the area increases to the west or northwest, suggesting a driving force for rotation operating at the continental margin.


: Nitrogen (N) mineralization makes a considerable contribution to crop-available N and is difficult to estimate. Reliable methods for measuring N mineralization are needed to produce data sets for developing N-mineralization models, as a component in fertilizer recommendation algorithms, and to assess the effect of management practices on N mineralization. Numerous methods are available for estimating N mineralization. Laboratory methods are relatively easy but may not reflect conditions in the field, and field methods are usually labor-intensive. A study was conducted to compare N-mineralization estimates using anaerobic and aerobic laboratory methods and an in situ field method for the 0- to 15-cm depth of a silt loam soil under irrigated corn ( Zea mays L.). Mineralization estimates were also compared to N mineralization based on crop N content. Estimates of N mineralization were 101 kg ha 2 1 for the anaerobic laboratory method, 284 kg ha 2 1 for the aerobic laboratory method, and 134 kg ha 2 1 for the in situ field method. The in situ field method provided a reasonable estimate of N mineralization (0 to 15 cm) when compared to the estimate of mineralized N (root zone) based on crop N content (215 kg ha 2 1 ). The in situ field method can be used to measure N mineralization during the growing season and for comparing N mineralization among management practices.


It is difficult to be really bad at something, but the people in this book manage to succeed! The book features tales of drivers who can't drive, travellers who get lost all the time and policemen who can't catch criminals. "Penguin Readers" is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre-20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. "Penguin Readers" are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from "Easystarts" with a 200-word vocabulary, to Level 6 (Advanced) with a 3000-word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub-categories: "Contemporary", "Classics" or "Originals". At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack. Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying "Penguin Readers Factsheets" which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.


Recent years, from about the early 2000s, have been characterized by global broadband penetration, Fixed-Mobile-Convergence, Triple Play, and content provisioning over All-IP multimedia networks. Increasing demands in group-based multimedia sessions and market forces are fuelling the design of the future Internet, which is expected to fundamentally change the networking landscape in the upcoming years. Context, understood as sensed information that changes over time, has already led, to some extent, to service adaptation in terms of recognizing and using simple context, e.g. location. Context may also include network or personal state, location, or weather. To allow for session adaptation, it is important to use network and user context to enhance the existing service, keeping the user satisfied throughout the session. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-845-3.ch012


Full movement from the destination principle to the origin principle would lead to changes in VAT revenues in EU countries. Hence a clearing mechanism is necessary to rectify such imbalances. To estimate the relevance of VAT evasion this study quantifies the annual amounts of hypothetical VAT revenues based on national-accounts data. The relation between hypothetical and collected revenues indicates the tax collection performance rate, and this determines the extent of VAT evasion. Macroeconomic clearing is supposed to occur in the EU, based on the national share of hypothetical revenues of the member countries. Yet this system suffers from adverse incentives for individual nations, since those with a higher evasion ratio will gain: For those countries with an above-EU-average evasion rate the sum of apportioned VAT revenues will be larger than the anticipated collected revenues in the case of prevailing current tax practice.


Body protectors in horse-riding are characterized by a specific tight-fitting garment construction, and by sophisticated materials focused on body protection against impacts, such as falls and kicks from the horse. Both construction and materials affect the heat transfer between the human body and the environment, and add extra burden to the rider's metabolic heat production that has already been increased by the sport activity. With the above considered, this study investigated the application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics as a substitute for conventionally used foam inserts. Using the thermal manikin test method, the thermal properties of equestrian body protectors based on conventional foam, on spacer fabrics, and on combinations of both had been measured and evaluated. In addition, the Transplanar water transport tester was used to assess the liquid transport properties of the applied protective materials. The results of the study support the usability of warp-knitted spacer fabrics in impact-protective clothing.


In a survey of Catholic Health Association member hospitals, 92 percent indicated they have formal ethics committees at their institutions. Sixty-two percent said their ethics committees were formed between 1983 and 1989. The survey found that current ethics committees are still committed to their traditional roles--education, policy development, and case review--but the education is directed to more diverse audiences than in the past. Support for medical and nursing staffs may be emerging as another possible function of ethics committees. The issues that precipitated the formation of institutional ethics committees have become more complex. In particular, questions involving the appropriate use of technology, the renewed awareness of patients' rights, changing relationships among healthcare providers, and conflicting social values have continued to require the intervention of ethics committees. However, the frequency with which respondents said their committees provide case consultations seems lower than it should be if committees were used to their full advantage. The institutional ethics committee can play a part in enlarging the current healthcare reform debate and promoting moral values. It can address such important questions as, Should the well-being of individuals take precedence over the well-being of communities?


In the Asian monsoon region, variations in the stable isotopic composition of speleothems have often been attributed to the "amount effect". However, an increasing number of studies suggest that the "amount effect" in local precipitation is insignificant or even non-existent. To explore this issue further, we examined the variability of daily stable isotopic composition (δ 18 O) in precipitation from September 2011 to November 2014 in Nanjing, eastern China. We found that intra-seasonal variations of δ 18 O during summer were not significantly correlated with local rainfall amount but could be linked to changes in the moisture source location and rainout processes in the source regions. Our findings suggest that the stable isotopes in summer precipitation could signal the location shift of precipitation source regions in the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) over the course of the monsoon season. As a result, changes in moisture source location and upstream rainout effect should be taken into account when interpreting the stable isotopic composition of speleothems in the Asian monsoon region. In addition, the temperature effect on isotopic variations in non-monsoonal precipitation should also be considered because precipitation in the non-monsoon season accounts for about half of its annual precipitation.


The focus of this paper is on the relatively under-researched area of the influence of management on innovation activities for firms in emerging economies. Many emerging economies adopt a strategy of outward-oriented development with the aim to enhance innovation performance through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and international trade. However, attention should be paid to firm mechanisms, including intangibles, that may enable a firm to benefit from the more tangible performance-enhancing effects. It is through such a lens that we examine firm innovation in emerging economies, focusing on how variations in management experience, management practices and management incentives impact innovation performance. We employ a production function approach to identify the effect of the management environment on innovation diversity for firms in emerging economies. Our diversity of innovation measure takes account of five types of innovation activity, and is indicative of the degree of 'innovativeness' that the firm possesses. A Tobit estimation technique is employed. Innovation decisions typically involve managers as filtering mechanisms to consider a range of external and internal factors that enhance the likelihood of innovation outcomes. Our results indicate that management experience, management practices and management incentives are all important in determining innovation activities in firms from emerging economies. Our analysis reveals the importance of the management environment in explaining innovation differences at the level of the firm in emerging economies. Therefore, strategies to empower and support managers in emerging economies should be considered alongside outward-orientated development strategies.


Rapid Freeze Prototyping (RFP) is a rapid prototyping method that uses water freezing into ice to make three-dimensional parts. Each layer of a geometry is deposited and allowed to freeze before the next layer is added. Using a support material in RFP is a relatively new addition to the process. Validating the successful use of a support material in conjunction with the main build material of water is presented in this paper. The support material selected for use is a eutectic sugar solution. The selection criteria, properties, and characteristics of the support material are discussed. Of particular interest is the diffusion between the support and main build material, which must be minimized to an acceptable level for producing good quality, reproducible, complex parts.


The review article provides an insight on various adsorbents and their efficiency in fluorideremoval fromdrinking and waste water. The capacity of fluoride removal of adsorbent is dependent on pH, contact time,temperature, surface area of adsorbent and initial concentration of fluoride solution etc. In comparison tothe traditional natural methods, the synthetic and nanostructure-based adsorbents, exhibited higherperformance and efficiency of defluorination which provides a sustainable approach to safe drinking waterquality. The present paper deals with some widely adopted natural adsorbent, synthetic and nanostructurebasedadsorbents. The natural adsorbent includes, thermally treated lateritic soil, modified natural magnetiteore (Fe3O4) with aluminum and lanthanum ions, lateritic soils, Titanium hydroxide, limestone (LS) andaluminium hydroxide, sedimentation with calcium and aluminium. The Synthetic adsorbent includes,Surface-functionalized polyurethane foam (SPUF); Schwertmannite; Carbonaceous material from pyrolysisof sewage sludge; Chitosan. And the effective adsorbent nano scale structure includes, nanoscale aluminiumoxide hydroxide (AlOOH), Magnetic iron oxide/aluminium hydroxide composite, sulfatedoped Fe3O4/Al2O3 nanoparticles, nano-scale aluminum oxide hydroxide (nano-AlOOH), Graphene Nanoparticlesadsorbent, Al2O3/Bio-TiO2 nano composite (ABN), Green synthesized Fe3O4/Al2O3nanoparticles with coatedpolyurethane foams etc. The activated alumina is most conventional fluoride adsorbing material. However,activated alumina performs well in acidic environment with complex regeneration issue. Although othertraditional adsorbents remove fluoride from water but they have lower efficiency, which restrict theirapplication. In case of synthetic and nano structured based adsorbents, due to increased surface area, nontoxicnature, limited solubility in water and high adsorption efficiency, these methods are widely accepted andproven environmentally suitable.


We study the escape from metastability for a gas of particles under the conservative
Kawasaki dynamics at low temperature and inside a two-dimensional box
with exponentially large volume in the inverse temperature.
We first analyse the typical trajectories followed by the system, in the local
version of the model, during the first transition between metastability and stability.
We describe geometrically the configurations along these typical trajectories and
we show that the whole evolution goes, with very large probability, from "quasisquares"
to larger "quasi-squares" and that the growing cluster of this nucleation
process "wanders" around the box which it is contained in. In addition, along these
trajectories, the fluctuations of the dimensions of the cluster are bounded: if a
rectangle l×L circumscribes one of these clusters then L−l 1+2pL. We show that
fluctuations of this order cannot be neglected: they take place with probabilities
that are "non exponentially small" in . As a consequence the process is very
different from the typical nucleation of the non-conservative Glauber dynamics,
especially as far as the supercritical part is concerned.
Then we prove a property of planar random walks which allows to extend the
results obtained for the local version of the model to the original Kawasaki dynamics.
We give a lower bound of the non-collision probability in a long tine T for a system
of n random walks with fixed obstacles. By "collision" we mean collision with
the fixed obstacles as well between the particles themselves. We explain how this
property allows to describe in terms of "Quasi Random Walks" a rarefied gas of
particles under the Kawasaki dynamics.
On the basis of these results we can predict the main features of the escape from
metastability for the original Kawasaki dynamics.


The goal of the present paper is to establish some new results on the existence, uniqueness and stability of periodic solutions for a class of third order functional differential equations with state and time-varying delays. By Krasnoselskii's fixed point theorem, we prove the existence of periodic solutions and under certain sufficient conditions, the Banach contraction principle ensures the uniqueness of this solution. The results obtained in this paper are illustrated by an example.


This article is a commentary on Bernard Horowitz' paper entitled FISA and the "Wall" (to be published contemporaneously), which focuses on the revelations of irregularities in the FISA surveillance process targeted on Carter Page. This commentary pulls back from that narrow topic, to place these particular problems in a longer and broader context of larger forces at work that may make addressing the current problems more problematical.

The commentary identifies four larger forces at work that played at role at producing these current abuses.

First, Americans have long suffered from a mistaken self-perception of discomfort or ineptitude with their own security arrangements, particularly with respect to intelligence and counter-intelligence. Using the example of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, the commentary shows that, in fact, America was well-served by its pre-war preparations and the performance of its intelligence services. Nevertheless, a mythology arose that Pearl Harbor was an "intelligence failure," and that mythology has affected America's security and intelligence arrangements ever since, influencing the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947, which still today serves as the foundation on which our current national security institutions are built. This same pattern of perception of an "intelligence failure" and a legislative response to re-structure intelligence arrangements was echoed in the national response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. But these are not isolated events. In between Pearl Harbor and 9/11, Americans continued to wring their hands about America's "intelligence failures" in a wide variety of otherwise dissimilar historical events, through which walked the specter of Pearl Harbor mythology, which evokes Americans' self-doubts about intelligence capabilities.

Second, the development of intelligence and surveillance methods has led to their improper use against American citizens, as was revealed during the Church Committee hearings in the 1970's. Part of the aftermath of those hearings was the creation of FISA, which seeks to distinguish between "domestic" intelligence surveillance, which is a crime without an order under Title III, and "foreign" intelligence surveillance, which can be authorized under the more permissive standards of FISA. Because both types are conducted by the same Bureau of the same Department, this arrangement introduces a duality and moral relativism into both agents and prosecutors of the Department of Justice, leading to a temptations to shift law enforcement efforts into the inherently criminal nature of intelligence and counter-intelligence activities.

Third, there has been an increasing use of secretive and deceptive methods in all forms of law enforcement, which has been accompanied over the last 30 years with a decline in the state of prosecutorial ethics. These factors have exacerbated the problems introduced both by FISA and by the Classified Information Procedures Act of 1980. A classified information bureaucracy has arisen largely without accountability or legal control, which in turn has produced the misuse of the classification system to further attenuate the accountability of prosecutors. During this same period, the judiciary's willingness to police the prosecutors has become more lax, and the Justice Department itself has developed a clubbish atmosphere that fails to police itself, and to some extent even rewards prosecutorial overreaching.

Fourth, given the protracted nature of the decline in prosecutorial ethics, effective internal reform seems less likely than ever, and the problem is further exacerbated by the rise of careerism within federal prosecutors, which is a sharp change from previous decades.

The article concludes that these larger forces indicate that the problems within the Department of Justice go far deeper than the Carter Page/FISA episode. A free people will not long endure a Justice Department that does not pursue justice rather than litigating advantage. It is time to restore the traditional ethics of federal prosecution, and observe fairness to all, including the prosecuted defendant.

As for "Crossfire Hurricane" itself, though its codename was sophomoric, the execution was infantile. The unprofessional aspects are baffling, but there are still a number of loose ends, which may need to be tied up before a final judgment may be made.


This study made use of data collected during 1981-82 from a random sample of 1.960 nine-year-old students from 124 elementary schools involved in a national assessment of educational progress in science sponsgred by the National Science Foundation. This data base was used in secondary analyses which probed the validity of a model of educational productivity involving a set of nine aptitudinal. instructional, and environmental variables which require optimization to increase student learning. When'contrelled for other factors,' ability, motivation, class environment, home environment, amount of television viewing (negative 0 .v o direction), gender, and race were all found to be significantly related to achievement. For an attitude Outcome. the factors linked with attitudinal attainment were ability, motivation, class environment, andrace. These results for 9-year-olds were compared with those emerging froM secondary analyses of data provided by 1,950 17-year-old and 2,025 13-year olds participating in the same national assessment. Overall the findings supported the model of educational productivity and suggested that science students' achievement and attitude are influenced jointly by a number of factors rather than one or two dominant ones. Also the study attests to the potential value of science education recearrher performing secondary analyses on the high quality random data bases generated as part of national assessments. I.


In this study weve evaluated psychic status of men and women with colorectal cancer of 3 and 4 stages before an operation and after it. Weve used Lushers color test, Spielberger test (Spielberger C. D., 1970) to evaluate the situational and personal anxiety level processed by Hanina Y.L. [9] and personal anxiety scale according Tailor. Weve discovered that patients, especially women, had serious stress reaction, had neurologic syndromes and anxiety-depression condition with adaptation disorders.