Due to the multifactorial etiology of scoliosis, a comprehensive treatment plan is essential for conservative management. Physiotherapeutic scoliosis-specific exercise (PSSE) methods have lately gained popularity for the conservative treatment of scoliosis. The aim of this study was to analyze the PSSE methodologies used for conservative treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), as well as their effectiveness. The study was based on an extended literature search conducted in the PubMed, Google Scholar, PEDro, eLABA, and BioMed Central databases. A total of 123 articles were selected for this study (including articles overviewed in systematic reviews and meta-analyses) after applying the inclusion criteria. The study revealed that inappropriate management of AIS could result in serious health problems. Conservative interventions that aid in stabilizing spine curvature and improving esthetics are preferred for scoliosis treatment. Bracing has traditionally been the mainstay of treatment, but growing evidence suggests that PSSE physiotherapy allows effective management of idiopathic adolescent scoliosis. Currently, there are the following PSSE physiotherapy schools in Europe: Schroth, SEAS, BSPTS, FED, FITS, Lyon, Side Shift, and DoboMed. The methodologies of these schools are similar, in that they focus on applying corrective exercises in three planes, developing stability and balance, breathing exercises, and posture awareness. Although high-quality research supporting the effectiveness of PSSE physiotherapy in the treatment of AIS is lacking, existing evidence indicates that PSSE physiotherapy helps to stabilize spinal deformity and improve patients' quality of life. Among the abovementioned methodologies, Schroth is the most widely studied and has been proven to be effective. However, both SEAS and BSPTS effectively stabilize and even reduce the Cobb angle of scoliosis. Data supporting the validity of other methodologies are very limited. Only the Schroth method significantly reduces the angle of trunk rotation, while both SEAS and Schroth methods greatly improve the quality of life indicators. In any case, the available evidence is insufficient to confirm the advantage of one specific physiotherapy technique over others.


The scriptural interpretation that pervades First Corinthians initiates a process of education and formation among the addressees: They must learn to employ Scripture as a standard for shaping their existence "in Christ." In this regard, discussions over the meaning of Paul's letter within the heterogeneous congregation are significant. Such discussions are stimulated through 1Cor 2:6–16 and 14:20–25, passages that lead the readers to a "mature" judgement concerning the gifts of God's spirit as well as appropriate behaviour. To that end, they appeal to Scripture in a twofold way: First, an explicit citation substantiates Paul's position in his debate with the Corinthians; second, an oblique reference – which, as soon as it is detected, helps to resolve the ambiguities in his reasoning – brings about agreement between him and those believers who are more familiar with Scripture. Apparently, only sufficient competence in interpreting and applying Scripture paves the way towards spiritual "maturity."


This study was conducted to analyze the negative sentiment of the impact of news coverage at a Padang restaurant in Jakarta with rendang innovation made from pork. This is unprincipled from the origins of the cultural philosophy, namely Adat Basandi Syara', Syara' Basandi Kitabullah associated with the principle of halal products as one of the characteristics of Padang food. However, it turns out that there are many public responses that view this as not reflecting tolerance in culture and religion, one of the social media used in analyzing these opinions and responses is the social media Twitter. This study uses a mix method approach with the data collection technique used is conversations (tweets) from the Twitter social media application with a special topic approach using the 'hashtag' feature. Data collection was carried out using the Twitter API (Application Programming Interface) tool. The text and sentiment analysis is carried out using several tools and stages of data analysis, including data mining assistance, namely using python with stages covering the process of crawling data, text preprocessing, language adjustment, and the results of sentiment classification (labelling) technically using Vader-TDIF. The results of these sentiments by researchers are then transformed into Alan Race's theory. This aims to apply, translate, and perceive in a simpler way social-psychological perceptions. Alan Race's typology which includes Exclusivism, Inclusivism, Pluralism is the basis for categorizing the sentiments of Twitter users in interpreting a popular issue. The sentiment results formed from the prediction model with the Naive-Bayes algorithm show the result that the percentage of dominant sentiment is neutral or represents pluralism with the highest yield, namely 47.9%. , negative sentiment represents exclusivism, namely 21.23%, and positive sentiment or inclusivism, namely 30.87% with an accuracy rate of 66.43%. By knowing the conditions of community sentiment and views, this research is expected to become a reference in decision making and increase the intensity of relevant campaigns on social media Twitter specifically in the context of religious and cultural differences in order to further enhance the understanding of tolerant religious moderation in a plural-multicultural society.


Background The aim of the analysis was to designate the morphological symptoms that appear during the Cystic Endometrial Hyperplasia - Pyometra complex (CEH-P), diagnosed by microscopic examination. The investigation were conducted on the uteri of 120 bitches in age between 1–16. The microscopic examinations were based on histological stainings. The aim of examinations was to find the differences in morphology of endometrium in the specimens of the uteri wall (H&E stain). All of the uteri were divided into three pathological groups (GI – GIII), created on the basis of clinically symptoms of analyzed diseases. Uteri without symptoms were classified as a control group (C).Results Histopathological analysis that were conducted have confirmed preliminary macroscopic evaluation for control group with unchanged uteri, group GII with cystic endometrial hyperplasia of uteri (CEH), and group GIII with uteri with pyometra. The confirmation of compatibility of both macroscopic and microscopic evaluation of the uteri were observed in groups GII and GIII. In the uteri of the group GI a severe congestion of endometrium have been observed – it is typical for the inflammation – which was not confirmed during histopathological examinations. Those examinations revealed only endometrial haemorrhage.Conclusions The results are showing that during classification of research material microscopic examinations are required. The diagnose based on the macroscopic changes in typical for CEH-P symptoms might be incorrect, if it is not supported by detailed research. More than that, in all uteri with the closed pyometra the CEH was also observed. It suggest that pyometra may occur as a consequence of cystic endometrial hyperplasia and bacterial infections ended with inflammation. The results obtained can be used to create a basis for pathologic classification of endometrial hyperplasia, including CEH-P complex in bitches.


Respecting patients' dignity has been described as a fundamental part of nursing care. Many studies have focused on exploring the concept of patients' dignity and satisfaction from the patient and nurse perspective, but knowledge is limited regarding nursing perceptions of the impediments they pose to patients' satisfaction and experiences of the patients themselves. The main objective of the study was to explore the issue of patients' rights and satisfaction from the perspective of patients. The study used the descriptive survey technique and the sample size for the study was 700 respondents.  The study comprised all persons who were 15 years and above and were currently residing at Winneba in the central region of Ghana for the past two years and simple random techniques under probability sampling procedure was used in selecting respondents for the study. Questionnaire, observation and structured interview were the research instruments used to collect the data. All the respondents (100%) strongly agree and agree that patients' rights violations has serious implications if not checked, and all the respondents (100%) strongly agree and agree that public education, awareness of human rights, improving the health facilities and resourcing health workers are required to deal with the practice in Ghana. The study concluded that patients' rights violations a social canker in various Ghanaian communities which clearly violates the protection of the fundamental human rights and has serious implications on Ghanaians.  The root cause of the abuses at the hospitals is the impoliteness and corruption on the part of health workers. The study recommended that the media and other bodies in Ghana should continue educate citizens and create human rights awareness among the entire populace particularly health workers to desist from violating human rights especially the rights of the sick. Hospitals apply all the safety and quality standards to Health as spelt out in the patients act. This is crucial to ensure patient safety and confidence in Health services. Keywords: Patients right, health service, rights violations, abuses, human rights, patients satisfaction


Jenny was sixteen, small, had short red hair and brilliant green eyes. She had just finished inpatient treatment for chemical dependency. Her drug of choice was "acid" — LSD. She had also used marijuana, beer, wine coolers, vodka and cocaine. A year before she had had an abortion which her parents knew nothing about. Jenny had one suicide attempt. She lived in one of Cleveland9s affluent eastern suburbs.


Subtle alterations in stromal tissue structures and organizations within the extracellular matrix (ECM) have been observed in several types of tissue abnormalities, including early skin cancer and wounds. Current microscopic imaging methods often lack the ability to accurately determine the extent of malignancy over a large area, due to their limited field of view. In this research we focus on the development of simple mesoscopic (i.e. between microscopic and macroscopic) biomedical imaging device for non-invasive assessment of ECM alterations over a large, heterogeneous area. In our technology development, a telecentric lens, commonly used in machine vision systems but rarely used in biomedical imaging, serves as a key platform to visualize alterations in tissue microenvironments in a label-free manner over a clinically relevant area. In general, telecentric imaging represents a simple, alternative method for reducing unwanted scattering or diffuse light caused by the highly anisotropic scattering properties of biological tissue. In particular, under telecentric imaging the light intensity backscattered from biological tissue is mainly sensitive to the scattering anisotropy factor, possibly associated with the ECM. We demonstrate the inherent advantages of combining telecentric lens systems with hyperspectral imaging for providing optical information of tissue scattering in biological tissue of murine models, as well as light absorption of hemoglobin in blood vessel tissue phantoms. Thus, we envision that telecentric imaging could potentially serve for simple site-specific, tissue-based assessment of stromal alterations over a clinically relevant field of view in a label-free manner, for studying diseases associated with disruption of homeostasis in ECM.


Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a severe viral disease that is having an impact on the cattle industry. The disease is now widespread in the majority of African countries, and it has lately expanded beyond the continent into the Middle East area. The disease's symptoms include an initial period of fever, followed by swollen lymph nodes, circumscribed firm skin nodules, and ulcerative lesions. It occurs in all agroclimatic situations, although it is more common in low-lying areas and beside watercourses. It is transmitted by insect vectors among cattle that share comparable pasture and watering sites and gather in the same barn. In this article, the lumpy skin disease virus, its epidemiology, and diagnostic methods are reviewed.


Binary regression models represent a popular model-based approach for binary classification. In the Bayesian framework, computational challenges in the form of the posterior distribution motivate still-ongoing fruitful research. Here, we focus on the computation of predictive probabilities in Bayesian probit models via expectation propagation (EP). Leveraging more general results in recent literature, we show that such predictive probabilities admit a closed-form expression. Improvements over state-of-the-art approaches are shown in a simulation study.


A novel heuristic approach is proposed here for time series data analysis, dubbed Generalized weighted permutation entropy, which amalgamates and generalizes beyond their original scope two well established data analysis methods: Permutation entropy and Weighted permutation entropy. The method introduces a scaling parameter to discern the disorder and complexity of ordinal patterns with small and large fluctuations. Using this scaling parameter, the complexity-entropy causality plane is generalized to the complexity-entropy-scale causality box. Simulations conducted on synthetic series generated by stochastic, chaotic, and random processes, as well as real world data, are shown to produce unique signatures in this three dimensional representation.


There have been a growing number of the outbreaks of human diseases with typical zoonotic infections, which have previously occurred exclusively in veterinary practice. Among them is monkeypox, whose first occurrence outside the African continent was registered in the USA in the spring of 2003. An important factor contributing to the penetration of infections into the human population is a close contact of people with fauna representatives in the context of intensively growing cities. Therefore, research into new zoonotic diseases, which are potentially dangerous to humans, seems to be critically important. Thus, retrospective studies carried out among the Peru population in 2009 revealed the cases of the encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) (Picornaviridae family, Cardiovirus genus) infection in people having suffered from acute febrile illness. A new virus strain belonging to the same genus was described during the infection outbreak among primates of the Sukhumi Monkey nursery (Republic of Abkhazia) in 1990–1999. This strain was also identified during the outbreak among the monkeys of the Primatological Centre in the Krasnodar Krai in 2012. In this review, we generalize the data available on the structure, virulence factors and distribution of EMCV.


In An Age of Infidels: The Politics of Religious Controversy in the Early United States, Eric R. Schlereth traces connections between arguments over belief and the new American nation's partisanship, print culture, and civil society. He explores deists and free enquirers whose full-throated criticisms of organized Christianity and its power within the nascent American polity – a power also explored in Amanda Porterfield's Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation (1) – fascinate and surprise. Schlereth's work should provoke us to ponder not only the consequences of the way early Americans wrote about religion, but also the consequences of the way contemporary scholars do.


In this research, efforts have been exerted to identify how fourth grade students of the Music Teaching Department look at and benefit from the School Experience course which has been taught at the Music Teaching Department. For this reason, in the academic year of 2009-2010 a 20-question-survey, 18 of them have been multiple choice and 2 of them have been open ended questions, were directed to 43 fourth grade students. As a result of this, problems which occured during the practice of the School Experience course have been identified.


I think that this sheds some (admittedly offbeat) light on the communication/information design discussion for three reasons:  empirical grounding The paper notes a long series of clever cognitive-psychology experiments that have gradually revealed how people learn from examples (and hence how to design examples that help people learn).  historical depth Example design has been a professional issue at least as far back as Fleming and Levi's Instructional Message Design (1978) and it is a recurring theme among instructional designers today (and that is one strand of general info design).  cultural breadth The paper notes that example elaboration has implications not only for traditional computer documentation but also for areas as diverse as literacy outreach and "constructivist" theory. Precisely because this topic is often overlooked in "grand" information design discussions I think it deserves more attention from thoughtful practitioners. And I'm pleased to report that while last year (at this time) Google found about 40 references to this paper, it now finds about 80.


ABSTRACT. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) mandates that European Union (EU) member states achieve GoodEnvironmental Status (GEnS) based on an ecosystem-based approach to management. For commercial fisheries, the primary targetunder the MSFD is one of maximum sustainable yield. Of Black Sea riparian nations, only Romania and Bulgaria are EU memberstates. Focusing at the supranational level, we review institutions and instruments relevant to management of the Black Sea. Theeconomic values of current fish catches are assessed, and the results of a recent analytical assessment of fish stocks are used to estimatepotential future values based on maximum sustainable yields. In the Black Sea region, despite long-standing attempts to improvefisheries management, there remains a lack of effective regional cooperation. Evidence from the scenario analysis suggests that achievingGEnS would not have an undue negative impact on overall fishery sector incomes, and could, with appropriate investments in processingand marketing, deliver increased economic benefits for Black Sea countries. The ongoing policy debate between and within Black Seacoastal states needs to be extended to include recognition of the potential economic and social benefits of effective fisheries management.More work is required to assess returns on investment in interim management measures to deliver GEnS.Key Words:


This study investigated the relationship between household food insecurity and nutrition status with a focus on the implications for child survival. Data were collected on 746 women of child-bearing age (15 - 49 years) in five states in south western Nigeria. The study finds that household food security increased with income and education. The findings show that child survival is not only about improving nutrition status in the household or improving household food security, but also activities that mothers undertake to enhance child survival.?


Functional changes after total laryngectomy, including voice quality, hyposmia and dysgeusia, nasal discharge, swallowing and smoking habits were studied by means of a structured interview with 63 laryngectomized patients. Eighty per cent of the patients reported that they were satisfied with the quality of their voice including speaking on the telephone. Significant correlations were found between the quality of the voice and fatigue, frequency of making telephone calls and anxiety about speaking (P < 0.01). Vocal rehabilitation was achieved in the majority of patients (78%) with the indwelling Provox voice prosthesis. Forty-five per cent of the patients complained about annoying eructation. Hyposmia was reported by 52% of the patients, while 15% experienced dysgeusia. A significant correlation was found between hyposmia and dysgeusia (R = 0.43, P < 0.001). All patients with a taste problem also reported a poor sense of smell. Daily nasal discharge was reported by 38% of the patients. Due to difficulties in swallowing solid food, about one quarter of the patients changed their diet. All but one patient had been heavy smokers pre-operatively. Only 9% continued to smoke post-operatively. These results, along with the previously reported respiratory problems resulting from total laryngectomy, should be taken into account in counselling patients who are candidates for this surgical procedure.


4845 Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. About 350 new cases occur each year in the US with a peak incidence around 5 years of age. Cerebellar granule neuronal precursors (CGNPs) are thought to be the cells of origin of MBs. Proliferation of CGNPs is controlled by growth factors such as the mitogen Sonic Hedgehog (Shh), Wnt, and Notch ligands, and mutations in these signaling pathways are found in a subset of MB patients. The cyclin D-dependent kinase inhibitory protein, p18Ink4c, is transiently expressed in mouse CGNPs as they exit the cell cycle. Co-inactivation of p53 and Ink4c in mice results in MB with up to 25% penetrance, whereas mice heterozygous for Ptc1 (encoding the receptor for Shh) and lacking either one or two Ink4c alleles develop MBs with 50% incidence. Importantly, CDKN2C/INK4C expression is extinguished in a significant subset of MB patients, implicating this cell cycle regulator in the genesis of MBs in humans. The protracted tumor onset in these mouse models (∼2-5 months) implies that loss of Ink4c together with p53 or Ptc1 is not sufficient to induce MB, and that additional mutations must occur for tumor formation. One goal has been to identify genes that collaborate with inactivation of Ink4c, p53, or Ptc1 in MB formation. By use of Affymatrix Gene Chip microarrays, we have identified a panel of ∼30 genes that are consistently overexpressed in tumor cells, as compared to their expression levels in postnatal day 5 (P5) cerebellum. We have now purified CGNPs from the developing postnatal cerebella of tumor-prone knock-out mice, infected these cells with retroviruses encoding candidate genes together with a green fluorescence protein (GFP), and reinjected the marked cells into the brains of recipient mice under a cranial window. This enables us to follow tumor growth by observing GFP-marked cells in living mice. Our preliminary results show that CGNPs from Ink4c,p53 doubly-deficient mice infected with genes that are overexpressed in MB, such as N-Myc, not only exhibit a proliferative advantage in culture but also induce MBs in the cerebra of recipient mice. These primary tumors are transplantable subcutaneously in immunocompromised mice. This approach will allow the characterization of genes important for MB formation, will define the genetic networks involved in the development of this disease, and will generate new preclinical mouse models for testing new modes of therapy.


Stress intensity factor is the one of most important parameters in rock fracture mechanics. In practice, this factor is commonly calculated by various numerical techniques such as finite element and boundary element methods. These methods encounter mesh-related difficulties in dealing with fracture mechanics problems. In this paper the Element Free Galerkin method based on the linear elastic fracture mechanics was used to determine tension-mode stress intensity factor in jointed rock medium using stress extrapolation method. The visibility criterion was applied to model the rock fractures. In addition, Lagrange multipliers method was employed to enforce the boundary conditions. To verify the computational capability and accuracy of the method, an example of jointed sample including horizontal joint was considered under tension load and the stress intensity factor was determined and evaluated. The stress extrapolation method with %7 difference in comparison with analytical method has high precision and it also shows good agreement with the displacement extrapolation method based upon finite element method.


Directly after the introduction of cocain to the medical and dental professions, a number of accidents were reported, many of them fatal. The novelty of the drug and its effects were fascinating, and the want of experience and knowledge of its dangers, unrealized as they were by the majority of physicians, made it an extremely dangerous agent in other than the most careful hands. In common with most practitioners, I had my share of cases of cocain poisoning, though fortunately none proved fatal. By far the greater number of deaths occurred in the hands of dentists. The use of the drug was an almost daily occurrence in their practice, and they seemed especially prone to disregard its dangers. About fifteen years ago I had as a next-door neighbor a dentist with a very large extraction practice, and it became a not uncommon occurrence for me to be called in hurriedly to


The tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris) is an endemic and highly cryptic bird of the rainforest canopy of Samoa. According to the recently released Tooth-billed Pigeon Recovery Plan (2020–2029), one of the greatest obstacles to conservation efforts is the inability of ornithologists to reliably separate its advertising coo call from that of the common and sympatric Pacific imperial pigeon (Ducula pacifica). Because tooth-billed pigeons are very rarely seen, acoustic methods of identifying them, which have been problematic for ornithologists, would be helpful for population surveys. Our study examines the traditional ecological knowledge and skill of Samoan hunters, peer selected for knowledge and reliability from six villages located on Upolu and Savaii islands, to determine whether they can consistently identify the species based on the calls. Through use of automatic devices, we recorded pigeon coo calls at nine forest sites recommended by reliable hunters within four key biodiversity areas of the islands of Upolu and Savaii from March to June 2016. We isolated and filtered 104 clear coo call sequences from these recordings. The two top hunters separately and confidently identified which of the two pigeon species were calling for 80 of the 104 sequences. On 54 of these 80 call sequences the hunters were in agreement, both assigning a call to the one species. We measured seven sonographic variables on each of the coo calls of each of these 54 sequences in order to investigate potential differences between the calls of Didunculus and Ducula. Two clear differences emerged: a strongly statistically significant difference in the highest frequency of the coo call, and the more regular spacing of the coo calls of Didunculus than of Ducula. Only the second rhythm outcome is consistent with a recent independent analysis by other authors. This regularity of the intervals between coo calls in a sequence may be the key to separation of the two species in the field.


Using data from a nationally representative survey in Poland, this study looks at the links between post-election attitudes, ideology and conspiratorial distrust toward public sphere. The reference point is an argument made by Joseph Uscinski and Joseph Parent. They provide evidence that conspiracy theories are more popular among election losers in the United States. Data presented in the article shows a limitation of the argument and the special role of anti-system party in the Polish parliamentary election of 2015. Therefore, the more comprehensive understanding of conspiracy theories within the field of political science is discussed.


Diazotization of primary aromatic amines with isoamyl nitrite in benzene at room temperature was studied employing EPR and spin trapping techniques. Nitrosodurene (ND), 2-methyl-2-nitrosopropane (MNP), and 5,5-dimethyl-pyrroline N-oxide (DMPO) were used as spin trapping agents. Aryl radicals were detected employing ND and MNP. Using DMPO as a spin trap most of the amines produced EPR spectra ascribed to adducts with aniline-type radicals (N-centred radicals). The assignments were verified using 15N-labeled anilines. Similar spectra of DMPO adducts were recorded from amines treated with benzoyl peroxide or benzophenone plus UV. Possible mechanisms of formation of these adducts (radical trapping versus nucleophilic addition to DMPO followed by oxidation) during treatment of the amines with isoamyl nitrite are discussed.


Rates of gene flow among populations of cooperatively breeding birds have been inferred primarily from distributions of observed distances of dispersal from birthplace to place of first breeding. However, for most cooperative breeders, characteristics of geographic population structure and extent of realized gene flow as measured by genetic markers are not known. To estimate rates of gene flow in a cooperatively breeding bird, I conducted a continent-wide survey of DNA sequence diversity in the most variable part of the mitochondrial (mt) genome among 163 grey-crowned babblers (Pomatostomus temporalis) throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea. The variability found among 86 types of mtDNA was used to infer genealogical trees relating sequences within both eastern (P. t. temporalis) and western (P. t. rubeculus) babblers. The genealogies imply low but detectable levels of gene flow between populations separated by over 1000 km. In addition, they suggest that genes from unrelated migrants contribute to genetic diversity in 5 of 50 (10%) social groups, occasionally producing large (> 3%) intragroup sequence differences. However, on average, the fraction of sequence diversity apportioned among populations (Fst) and among social groups within populations (Fgs), was substantial for both P. t. temporalis and P t. rubeculus, implying a large opportunity for the spread of social behaviours in both lineages of babblers.


The authors report the evaluation of the impact of a comic book about condom use distributed to Gabonese high school students in Libreville and Lambarene in 1999. This evaluation was conducted through a self-administered questionnaire completed by 954 students in 11 high schools immediately before distribution of a comic book about condoms and by 771 students 15-30 days afterwards. The anonymous questionnaire contained multiple-choice and open questions about knowledge, attitudes and practices. During the second survey (same schools and same classes), the questions tested knowledge about AIDS and about the stories in the book. The student populations who responded to the two questionnaires were homogeneous for sex, age, school class, and province of residence. Knowledge about the modes of HIV/AIDS contamination improved substantially between the two questionnaires, with knowledge about the mother-child transmission pathway increasing from 47% to 75% of responders. At the same time, and without any significant difference by sex, class or province, individual adhesion to the role of the condom as a means of prevention against AIDS progressed from 64% to 95%. The students questioned wanted AIDS prevention information to be better integrated into their curriculum and, in particular, they wanted educational activities in this area in their school, either by their teachers or in special information areas. Thus, the 48-page comic book by young Gabonese artists was perceived as a good method of condom education for the young (75%) and as an excellent method for inducing awareness about it among them (89%). The book's contents had been absorbed, and the students found that the stories and the message were well matched. Moreover, the extension of the readership beyond the initial distribution at the first evaluation (7.5 readers reported per copy) showed that the messages in the book spread well beyond the student group.


We investigated the effects of laser irradiation on sessile droplets of three well-known liquid crystalline 12 materials (5CB, 8CB, E7) deposited on the surface of an iron-doped lithium niobate (LN:Fe) crystal. The static electric 13 field, which is generated via the bulk photovoltaic effect in the LN:Fe substrate, produces the merging of smaller 14 droplets into filaments oriented in the radial direction with respect to the laser spot. It also induces filament jetting 15 from the rim of larger droplets toward the center of the illumination area. When the laser beam is focused directly 16 onto the larger droplets, they abruptly disintegrate via the formation of several jet streams. The described effects are 17 present in the nematic and also in the isotropic phase. We attribute them to a large gradient of the surface electric field 18 that produces driving forces via the induced dipole moments of the droplets, analogous to electric field-based droplets 19 transport mechanisms known for standard dielectric liquids.


In this paper we examine a formalization of feature distribution learning (FDL) in information-theoretic terms relying on the analytical approach and on the tools already used in the study of the information bottleneck (IB). It has been conjectured that the behavior of FDL algorithms could be expressed as an optimization problem over two information-theoretic quantities: the mutual information of the data with the learned representations and the entropy of the learned distribution. In particular, such a formulation was offered in order to explain the success of the most prominent FDL algorithm, sparse filtering (SF). This conjecture was, however, left unproven. In this work, we aim at providing preliminary empirical support to this conjecture by performing experiments reminiscent of the work done on deep neural networks in the context of the IB research. Specifically, we borrow the idea of using information planes to analyze the behavior of the SF algorithm and gain insights on its dynamics. A confirmation of the conjecture about the dynamics of FDL may provide solid ground to develop information-theoretic tools to assess the quality of the learning process in FDL, and it may be extended to other unsupervised learning algorithms.


Ineffective sorting of post-consumer plastics remains one of the major obstacles in the recycling of plastics. Consequently, these highly heterogeneous, mixed post-consumer plastics will end up in landfill or have to be incinerated as repurposing them directly would lead to a polymer blend with inferior quality for many end-uses. In this work, we demonstrate the use of carbon fibers (CFs) to practically upgrade the mechanical properties of mixed plastics, adding value to them. This will create a stronger demand for mixed plastics to be used in various engineering applications. Using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP) as the model immiscible polymer blend, we showed that the incorporation of CFs increased the tensile, flexural, and single-edge notched fracture toughness of the resulting CF-reinforced PET/PP composite blends. Despite the high environmental burden associated with the production of CFs, cradle-to-grave life-cycle analysis showed that CF-reinforced PET/PP composites have a lower environmental impact than the life-cycle scenarios of "doing nothing" and repurposing immiscible PET/PP blends as it is without CF reinforcement. This can be attributed to the weight saving achieved, a direct result of their higher mechanical performance. Our work opens up opportunities for the use of mixed plastics in various higher value applications such that they can be diverted away from landfill or incineration, in line with the concept of circular economy.


Female sexual pain disorders are prevalent and have a deleterious effect on women's well-being. Because there are psychological elements to this pain, cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) may be a viable treatment alternative, particularly when compared to more physically invasive treatments such as surgery or medication. This article provides a critical analysis of research studies in this area by evaluating each study in detail, identifying gaps in the research base, and providing directions for future study. For the most part, all of the studies reviewed in this article found CBT to be effective. However, CBT modalities with minimal therapist direction or interaction were found to be problematic. In addition, there may be other noninvasive treatment types that are equally or more effective, such as biofeedback or supportive psychotherapy.


ABSTRACT A novel subclass B3 metallo-β-lactamase (MBL), SMB-1, recently identified from a Serratia marcescens clinical isolate, showed a higher hydrolytic activity against a wide range of β-lactams than did the other subclass B3 MBLs, i.e., BJP-1 and FEZ-1, from environmental bacteria. To identify the mechanism underlying the differences in substrate specificity among the subclass B3 MBLs, we determined the structure of SMB-1, using 1.6-Å diffraction data. Consequently, we found that SMB-1 reserves a space in the active site to accommodate β-lactam, even with a bulky R1 side chain, due to a loss of amino acid residues corresponding to F31 and L226 of BJP-1, which protrude into the active site to prevent β-lactam from binding. The protein also possesses a unique amino acid residue, Q157, which probably plays a role in recognition of β-lactams via the hydrogen bond interaction, which is missing in BJP-1 and FEZ-1, whose Km values for β-lactams are particularly high. In addition, we determined the mercaptoacetate (MCR)-complexed SMB-1 structure and revealed the mode of its inhibition by MCR: the thiolate group bridges to two zinc ions (Zn1 and Zn2). One of the carboxylate oxygen atoms of MCR makes contact with Zn2 and Ser221, and the other makes contact with T223 and a water molecule. Our results demonstrate the possibility that MCR could be a potent inhibitor for subclass B3 MBLs and that the screening technique using MCR as an inhibitor would be effective for detecting subclass B3 MBL producers.


We compare the effects of local features (LF) and branch features (BF) of the inflaton potential on the spectrum of primordial perturbations. We show that LF affect the spectrum in a narrow range of scales while BF produce a step between large and small scales with respect to the featureless spectrum. We comment on the possibility of distinguishing between these two types of feature models from the analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation data. We also show that there exists a quantitative similarity between the primordial spectra predicted by two of the BF potentials considered. This could lead to a degeneracy of their predicted CMB temperature spectra which could make difficult to discriminate between the models from a CMB analysis. We comment on the possibility that the degeneracy can be broken when higher order terms in the perturbations are considered. In this sense non-Gaussianity may play an important role in discerning between different inflationary models which predict similar spectra.


6. The primary, though not the only object, in the preventioni of these attacks of puerperal fever, will then be to procure a firm, complete, and persistent contraction of the uterus after the birth of the child, and thus effectually to shut off all circulation within the vessels of this organ. But it remains to be seen how far these conclusions accord with the results of previous observers. [To be continued.]


The stability of two-dimensional diverging and converging flows in an annulus between two permeable cylinders is examined. The basic flow is irrotational and has both the radial and azimuthal components. It is shown that for a wide range of the parameters of the problem, the basic flow is unstable to small two-dimensional perturbations. The instability is inviscid and oscillatory and persists if the viscosity of the fluid is taken into consideration.


Abstract In studying the effect of syntax and focus on prosodic phrasing, the main issue of investigation has been to explain and predict the location of a prosodic boundary, and not much attention has been given to the nature of prosodic phrasing. In this paper, we offer evidence from intonation patterns of utterances that prosodic phrasing can be formed differently phonologically and phonetically due to its function of marking syntactic structure vs. focus (prominence) in Yanbian Korean, a lexical pitch accent dialect of Korean spoken in the northeastern part of China, just above North Korea. We show that the location of a H tone in syntax-marking Accentual Phrase (AP) is determined by the type of syntactic head, noun or verb (a VP is marked by an AP-initial H while an NP is marked by an AP-final H), while prominence-marking accentual phrasing is cued by AP-initial H. The difference in prosodic phrasing due to its dual function in Yanbian Korean is compared with that of Seoul Korean, and a prediction is made on the possibility of finding such difference in other languages based on the prosodic typology proposed in (Jun, Sun-Ah. 2014b. Prosodic typology: by prominence type, word prosody, and macro-rhythm. In Sun-Ah Jun (ed.), Prosodic Typology II: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing. 520–539. Oxford: Oxford University Press).


We study the relationship between two key concepts in the theory of (di)graphs: the quotient digraph, and the lift Γ α of a base (voltage) digraph. These techniques contract or expand a given digraph in order to study its characteristics, or obtain more involved structures. This study is carried out by introducing a quotient-like matrix, with complex polynomial entries, which fully represents Γ α . In particular, such a matrix gives the quotient matrix of a regular partition of Γ α , and when the involved group is Abelian, it completely determines the spectrum of Γ α . As some examples of our techniques, we study some basic properties of the Alegre digraph. In addition we completely characterize the spectrum of a new family of digraphs, which contains the generalized Petersen graphs, and that of the Hoffman-Singleton graph.


The lack of three-dimensional (3D) content is one of the challenges that have been faced by holographic 3D display. Here, we proposed a real 3D scene acquisition and 3D holographic reconstruction system based on ultrafast optical axial scanning. An electrically tunable lens (ETL) was used for high-speed focus shift (up to 2.5 ms). A CCD camera was synchronized with the ETL to acquire multi-focused image sequence of real scene. Then, the focusing area of each multi-focused image was extracted by using Tenengrad operator, and the 3D image were obtained. Finally, 3D holographic reconstruction visible to the naked eye can be achieved by the layer-based diffraction algorithm. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method have been demonstrated by simulation and experiment, and the experimental results agree well with the simulation results. This method will further expand the application of holographic 3D display in the field of education, advertising, entertainment, and other fields.


Aim: To determine frequency of undiagnosed hypoxia in pts which was medically sick admitted in chest wards. Study design: Cross-sectional. Place and duration of study: Department of Medicine, Social Security Hospital, Multan Road Lahore from 1st January 2020 to 30th June 2020. Methodology: Two hundred and ninety patients were included in this study. Patients detailed demographics age, sex, and body mass index were recorded after taking written consent and admitted in chest wards. Presented patients were aged between 20-70 years. Pulse oximeter was used to measure the oxygen saturation levels. Mean time of hospitalization was also measured. Results: There were 170(60%) males and 120(40%) females with mean age of the patients were 40.78±18.64 years. Mean BMI was 27.78±12.64 kg/m2. Majority of the patients 160(55.17%) were from the age group 35-70 years. Calculated oxygen saturation rate was 91.98±9.42% in which minimum rate was 80% and the maximum rate was 105%. Mean heart rate was 92.96±19.20 per minute. Patients were admitted due to tuberculosis were 102(35.17%), patients with chronic pulmonary disease were 70 (24.17%), patients with pleural effusion were 30(10.34%) and the patients of asthma were 20(6.9%). In this study hypoxia was observed in 44 (15.17%) patients and was absent in 246 (84.83%) patients. Conclusion: The frequency of hypoxia was most prevalent in male patients with increasing age as compared to females and in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients, it was observed more commonly. Keywords: Pulse oximeter, Oxygen saturation, Undiagnosed hypoxia


In this study, we consider a system with two processes (A,B) sharing a single resource. Through out the study we assume that each box consists of a single transition, and processes A and B work in a cyclic manner according to the temporal constraints. An ordinary timed Petri net is introduced, which demonstrates both conflicts and concurrency. The objective of this study is to describe the dynamics of the system when there is no conflict and focus on the natural sequence. We then analyse the situation when the conflict is introduced into the system.<<ETX>>


X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) were used to characterize the dentin surface, to determine the effects of different pre-conditioning procedures on the elemental composition of the dentin surface, and to investigate the interaction between dentin and a dentin bonding agent (ScotchBond) by studying the changes in the elemental composition of dentin as a result of the interaction. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize sample surface morphology, which was then correlated with surface elemental composition. The results showed that: (a) the elemental composition of the smear layer was similar to that of the underlying dentin; (b) cleaning with hydrogen-peroxide did not produce any modification in the elemental composition of the dentin surface; and (c) acid-etching led to an almost complete demineralization of the dentin, leaving behind an organic-rich surface. The results suggest that bonding systems that use acid-etching as a pre-conditioning procedure should be based on agents able to interact with the organic components of dentin, since bonding agents that rely on a chelation-to-calcium reaction are unlikely to be successful. The investigation of the interaction between the bonding agent and dentin led to a postulated adhesive-bonding reaction mechanism and suggested a partially cohesive failure in the bonding agent during fracturing of a dentin-bonding-agent-bonded assembly.


This paper develops a model that provides the means to calculate the errors and uncertainties in radiation thermometry measurements affected by reflections. This addresses the serious and frequently encountered problem of ensuring traceability when measuring the temperature of non-black objects. Measurement strategies are outlined for the three situations where there exists an extraneous source of radiation at a much lower, similar, and much higher temperature than that of the object of interest. In the first strategy shorter-wavelength thermometers have smaller reflection errors and experimental uncertainties than longer-wavelength thermometers. In the second strategy there is an optimum operating wavelength that makes a compromise between the reflection error and the uncertainty. In the third strategy, which corrects for the reflection error, there is also an optimum wavelength for which the uncertainty attains a minimum value. By considering all of the practical factors involved, this approach reveals limitations in previous error analyses which concluded that the longest-wavelength thermometers should be used to minimize reflection errors. Recommendations are given for the use of the three strategies in minimizing reflection errors and uncertainties.


In order to find novel antiviral agents, a series of allosteric MEK1 inhibitors were designed and synthesized. Based on docking results, multiple optimizations were made on the coumarin scaffold. Some of the derivatives showed excellent MEK1 binding affinity in the appropriate enzymatic assays and displayed obvious inhibitory effects on the ERK pathway in a cellular assay. These compounds also significantly inhibited virus (EV71) replication in HEK293 and RD cells. Several compounds showed potential as agents for the treatment of viral infective diseases, with the most potent compound 18 showing an IC50 value of 54.57 nM in the MEK1 binding assay.


Experimental Fowler-Nordheim plots taken from orthodoxly behaving carbon nanotube (CNT) field electron emitters are known to be linear. This shows that, for such emitters, there exists a characteristic field enhancement factor (FEF) that is constant for a range of applied voltages and applied macroscopic fields $F_\text{M}$. A constant FEF of this kind can be evaluated for classical CNT emitter models by finite-element and other methods, but (apparently contrary to experiment) several past quantum-mechanical (QM) CNT calculations find FEF-values that vary with $F_\text{M}$. A common feature of most such calculations is that they focus only on deriving the CNT real-charge distributions. Here we report on calculations that use density functional theory (DFT) to derive real-charge distributions, and then use these to generate the related induced-charge distributions and related fields and FEFs. We have analysed three carbon nanostructures involving CNT-like nanoprotrusions of various lengths, and have also simulated geometrically equivalent classical emitter models, using finite-element methods. We find that when the DFT-generated local induced FEFs (LIFEFs) are used, the resulting values are effectively independent of macroscopic field, and behave in the same qualitative manner as the classical FEF-values. Further, there is fair to good quantitative agreement between a characteristic FEF determined classically and the equivalent characteristic LIFEF generated via DFT approaches. Although many issues of detail remain to be explored, this appears to be a significant step forwards in linking classical and QM theories of CNT electrostatics. It also shows clearly that, for ideal CNTs, the known experimental constancy of the FEF value for a range of macroscopic fields can also be found in appropriately developed QM theory.


The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the operation and nature of a low-voltage AC microgrid with various distributed energy resources (DERs). First, a 400 V low-voltage AC microgrid integrated with a 30 kW microturbine generator, a 13 kW photovoltaic generation system, a 10 kW fuel cell generation system, and a 10 kVA wind turbine generator was employed as the sample system. Second, a sequential three-phase power flow program was developed by implicit ZBUS Gauss method. The program was tested in the Matlab environment to ensure its accuracy. Finally, system natural and steady-state operations of the proposed microgrid were analyzed and discussed by using the developed three-phase power flow program. The outcomes of this paper are helpful for researchers to realize the operation characteristics of AC low-voltage microgrids.


Purpose – The paper aims to present a three‐step approach that enables companies to define and quantify what customers value, systematically deploy their resources to deliver greater value than the competition, and capture a greater share of the value delivered to customers.Design/methodology/approach – Each of the three the three steps in the value creation cycle is examined, and the tools and approaches that leading companies use to maximize shareholder wealth are outlined.Findings – A customer‐value based approach to management can help companies instill a fact‐based decision‐making process in the enterprise. This promotes faster growth through differentiated customer investment. It ensures that the highest return initiatives are prioritized. Enterprises using this disciplined three‐step approach will be well positioned to better understand value potential, creating value, delivering value, and managing their market position to maximize the value they capture.Originality/value – Mastering the value cyc...


Background:Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is an important public health concern worldwide. Iran is among the most CL-affected countries, being listed as one of the first six endemic countries in the world. In order to develop targeted interventions, we performed a spatial-time visualization of CL cases in an urban area to identify high-risk and low-risk areas during 2016-2019.Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted in the city of Mashhad. Patient data were gathered from Mashhad health centers. All cases (n=2425) were diagnosed in two stages; the initial diagnosis was based on clinical findings. Subsequently, clinical manifestation was confirmed by parasitological tests. The data were aggregated at the neighborhood and district levels and smoothed CL incidence rates per 100,000 individuals were calculated using the spatial empirical Bayesian approach. Furthermore, we used the Anselin Local Moran's I statistic to identify clusters and outliers of CL distribution during 2016-2019 in Mashhad. Results:The overall incidence rates decreased from 34.6 per 100,000 in 2016 to 19.9 per 100,000 individuals in 2019. Both cluster analyses by crude incidence rate and smoothed incidence rate identified high-risk areas in southwestern Mashhad over the study period. Furthermore, the analyses revealed low-risk areas in northeastern Mashhad over the same 3-year period.Conclusions:The southwestern area of Mashhad had the highest CL incidence rates. This piece of information might be of value to design tailored interventions such as running effective resource allocation models, informed control plans and implementation of efficient surveillance systems. Furthermore, this study generates new hypotheses to test potential relationships between socio-economic and environmental risk factors and incidence of CL in areas with higher associated risks.


Background : Some individuals with severe non-fluent aphasia do not respond in a functional way to any form of communication therapy. Others show improved ability to communicate with treatment focused on alternative communication modalities such as drawing, gesturing, or using a computer. An important difference between these two patient groups may lie in their nonverbal executive function abilities. Executive functions refer to a range of cognitive abilities including goal formulation, planning, carrying out goal-directed plans, and monitoring the effects of actions. Aims : We aimed to determine whether individuals with severely restricted verbal output due to aphasia could significantly improve their functional communication skills by using an alternative communication computer program called C-Speak Aphasia. We examined several factors to determine how they related to individual patients' ability to communicate expressively using C-Speak Aphasia, including linguistic factors related to semantic processing and extent of executive system dysfunction. Methods and Procedures : Results from five patients who received at least 6 months of treatment to learn C-Speak Aphasia are presented. Communication skills on five untrained tasks were repeatedly probed throughout training to assess carryover of treatment effects. Response to treatment was then examined with respect to baseline measures of language and non-linguistic executive functioning. Outcomes and Results : Using C-Speak Aphasia three of the five participants communicated significantly more information on selected probe tasks than they did without the computer. Executive function skills were more relevant to treatment response than severity of aphasia or semantic knowledge. Subjects with more intact executive function skills responded better to treatment with this alternative communication method than subjects with relatively greater impairment in these skills. Conclusions : These results suggest that executive function impairments may underlie poor response to treatment of alternative modes of communication, and that non-linguistic measures of executive functioning should be part of every aphasia assessment when attempting to determine candidacy for certain types of treatment programmes.


Hello all! The editorial board of the Canadian Geriatrics Journal is delighted to present the research abstracts from the 7th Canadian Consensus Conference on Dementia, which just wrapped up in Vancouver. Both as a member of the CCD executive and as editor of the CGJ, I am pleased to help disseminate the latest in Canadian dementia-related research.

Additionally, this issue contains a number of original articles covering a wide range of gerontological topics. Dr. Heckman examines the value of admission clinical data in diagnosing heart failure in the long-term care setting. The role of low Vitamin D levels and delirium is examined in an intriguing retrospective cross-sectional study by Dr. Ford. Drs. Heckman, Molnar, and Lee have written a comprehensive opinion piece examining the potential role geriatric medicine providers can play in the redesign of the Canadian medical system to meet increased fiscal pressures. As well, a qualitative analysis of the role of support services in reducing social isolation in socially-disadvantaged urban older adults is presented by Dr. Ngygen.

This is our last publication for 2013. Once again my associate editor Dr. Mark Rapoport and I would like to thank the membership of the Canadian Geriatrics Society for their continued support of our Journal. It is due to the selfless contributions of the CGS membership that we can continue to promote gerontological research in Canada. See you in 2014!


[1] Small-scale suspended sediment dynamics involve transport modes where grouping of suspended particulate matter (SPM) forms distinct patterns in the water. Field data on suspended matter dynamics at a particular location of a tidal channel show the frequent occurrence of turbidity clouds. These appear at spatial scales of tens of meters and temporal orders of minutes. In situ grain-size analysis reveals that the turbidity clouds are mainly composed of aggregates around 0.35 mm in size. Although the SPM signal reveals similar oscillations as the transporting current, no direct correlation was observed between the occurrence of clouds and local hydrodynamic characteristics. To test how the formation of turbidity clouds can be related to the hydrodynamic environment and particle motion, we developed a numerical model for the simulation of particle grouping. The simulations show stable and weakly stable modes of particle clustering, depending on the environmental conditions. A prominent dependence of group stability on the amplitude of current velocity oscillations is revealed. As the local dynamics can be considered to be near the derived threshold of stable and weakly stable grouping, the temporal occurrence of turbidity clouds is explained by the temporal exceedance of a critical oscillation amplitude and the availability of suspended matter as the main limiting factors.


As the volume of Web pages on the Internet is increasing rapidly, it is becoming hard for users to discover valuable Web resources. It is especially difficult for naive users to discover informative pages by popular Web search engines, since they don't have background and domain knowledge about the status of Web systems. Therefore, many kinds of Web search engines have been developed in order to support the processes of Web information retrieval. We are developing the Japanese Web search engine "Mondou (RCAAU)". Though our engine is one of the first generation of Web search engines, we tried to implement the rapidly emerging technologies of data mining in our search engine from 1995. We are also implementing Java applets based on information visualization. The author presents technical overviews of the Mondou Web search engine. One of the most important techniques is the text mining algorithms based on the primitive association rules. Mondou provides highly relevant feedback keywords to users, in order to support search steps. Using the associative keywords, users can modify the combination of keywords in the initial query. We also introduce the concept of an integrated query mechanism for different search engines based on the KQML agents. Furthermore, in order to visualize the characteristics of search results, we are developing Java applets to display the ROC graph and the clusters of specific documents. We are also trying the improve Web robots for the Mondou system from the view point of data cleaning. Finally, we discuss the effectiveness and performance of our Web search engine.


Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common clinical entity associated with high morbidity and mortality and clinical costs. The pathophysiology is multifaceted and involves inflammation, tubular injury, and vascular damage. Recently identified components include necroptosis, a special form of cell death, and autophagy. Most of the pathophysiological knowledge is obtained from animal models but these do not directly reflect the reality of the clinical situation. Tubular cells have a remarkable capacity to regenerate, and the role of stem/progenitor cells is discussed. Acute kidney injury is frequently associated with chronic kidney disease, and the implications are widespread.


This study proposes a new type of self-centering damper equipped with novel buckling-restrained superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) bars. The new solution aims to address some critical issues related to degradation and loss of superelasticity observed in existing tension-only SMA-based self-centering devices, and in addition, to encourage enhanced material utilization efficiency. The cyclic tension-compression behavior of individual SMA bars is experimentally studied first, and subsequently, two proof-of-concept self-centering dampers are manufactured and tested. A simple yet effective numerical model capturing the flag-shaped response of the dampers is then established, and a preliminary system-level analysis is finally conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed damper in structural seismic control. The individual SMA bar specimens show asymmetrical flag-shaped hysteretic responses with satisfactory self-centering capability and moderate energy dissipation. Through a specially designed configuration, the proposed damper shows desirable symmetrical and stable hysteretic behavior, and maintains excellent self-centering capability at 6% bar strain. The system-level dynamic analysis indicates that the dampers, as a means of retrofitting, could effectively reduce both the peak and residual inter-story drift ratios of a six-story steel frame. In particular, the mean residual inter-story drift ratio is reduced from over 0.5% to below 0.2% under the maximum considered earthquake, implying elimination of necessary structural realignment even after strong earthquakes.


The sequential extraction procedure was applied for partitioning of metals in
 river sediments collected along the course of the river Tisa (Serbia). Eight
 elements (Sb, Sn, As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn) from twenty-one sampling site
 were analyzed using the modified BCR sequential extraction procedure in
 combination with ICP-OES. The results of sequential extraction, statistical
 analyses and calculation of EF and lithogenic and anthro?pogenic ratio of
 metals are similar. In the river Tisa sediments Sn, Cd, Hg, Pb and Zn are of
 anthropogenic origin, while As, Cu and Sb are of lithogenic and
 anthropogenic origin. The sediments from the river Tisa show high risk for
 Cd, medium risk for Hg and Zn, low risk for Sn, As, Cu and Pb, whereas Sb
 does not show the risk for the aquatic environment.


We propose and implement a load balancing Web cluster architecture supported differentiated service. By adjusting the resource quotas assigned to different classes in back-ends and with Maximum Idle First load balancing strategy, the Web cluster system achieves Proportional Delay Differentiation Service and an efficient and fair resource allocation among back-ends. Compared to Least Connection Schedule (LCS) and Round Robin (RR), our method increases the total throughput by 33% and reduces the average delay by 21%.


Objective: Determine the technically efficient behavior for any agent in the economy, being responsible for its environmental performance.

Methodology: Review of the state of the art of the literature on the analysis of technical efficiency from an environmental perspective.

Results: Determine a behavior for an economy and ecological efficiency in order to assume a sustainable development.

Limitations: Given the theoretical modelling developed, the main drawbacks are: the non-presence in the predictive models of the cost of the environmental impact, the lack of tools to collect adequately those impacts that are delayed in time and, finally, the limitations to investigate the influence of the uncontrollable natural factors.

Practical implications: Action guides for individuals, firms and states to meet their needs with the least impact on the environment. Special attention to supply to decision-makers with an adequate study for the proper design of environmental regulations.


Jihadi terrorism may be understood as a military tool used for political and military purposes of an actor in international relations. This article develops the concept of the Global insurgency, formulated by David Kilcullen. It is argued that Global Insurgency is a specific single actor with a distinctive strategic culture. The author examines the strategic culture of global insurgency from various angles through Gray's framework of seventeen dimensions of strategy. It is argued that the Global Insurgency operates on multiple levels of strategy with a high degree of coherence and with distinct strategic culture.


Schizophrenia is a psychotic brain disorder in which patients exhibit aberrant connectivity between different regions of the brain. Neuroimaging is a state-of-the-art technique that is now increasingly been employed in clinical investigation of Schizophrenia. In the present study, we have used resting-state functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging (rsfMRI) to elucidate the cause-and-effect relationships among four regions of the brain including occipital, temporal, and frontal lobes and hippocampus in Schizophrenia. For that, we have employed independent component analysis, a seed-based temporal correlation analysis, and Granger causality analysis for measuring causal relationships amongst four regions of the brain in schizophrenia patients. Eighteen subjects with nine patients and nine controls were evaluated in the study. Our results show that Schizophrenia patients exhibit significantly different activation patterns across the selected regions of the brain in comparison with the control. In addition to that, we also observed an aberrant causal relationship between these four regions of the brain. In particular, the temporal and frontal lobes of patients with schizophrenia had a significantly lowered causal relationship with the other areas of the brain. Taken together, the study elucidates the dysregulated brain activity in Schizophrenia patients, decodes its causal mapping and provides novel insights towards employment in clinical evaluation of Schizophrenia.


The present survey was conducted in different terrains, habitats and ecosystems of Kachchh, Gujarat, India, for consecutive 3 years (2001-2002) in all possible climatic seasons, to know the present status of 6 less known rare and threatened plant species viz ., Ammannia desertorum , Corallocarpus conocarpus , Dactyliandra welwitschii , Limonium stocksii , Schweinfurthia papilionacea and Tribulus rajasthanensis . Distribution, abundance and population dynamics of these species were derived.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/on.v11i2.9541 Our Nature 2013, 11(2): 152-167


Squamous cell cancer of head and neck (HNSCC) is the sixth most common malignancy worldwide. One of the most common HNSCC types is oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. Tripartite motif 21 (TRIM21) has been reported to play an important role in different cancer types. We found a correlation between TRIM21 and survival of HNSCC patients, but little information exists about how altered TRIM21 expression contributes to tumorigenesis. Thus, we investigated the combined effect of TRIM21 polymorphisms and exposure to environmental carcinogens on the susceptibility and clinicopathological characteristics of OSCC. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of TRIM21 (rs4144331, rs915956) from 1194 healthy controls and 1192 OSCC patients were analyzed by real-time PCR. Among 1632 smokers, TRIM21 polymorphism carriers with the betel-nut chewing habit had a ~4.8-fold greater risk of OSCC than TRIM21 wild-type carriers without the betel-nut chewing habit. After adjusting for other covariants, OSCC patients with G/T at TRIM21 rs4144331 had a high risk for distant metastasis compared with G/G homozygotes. This study is the first to examine the risk factors associated with TRIM21 SNPs in OSCC progression and development. Thus, our findings suggest that this study is the first to examine the risk factors associated with TRIM21 SNPs in OSCC progression and development and suggest that interactions between mutant genes may alter the susceptibility to OSCC.


ABSTRACT It is generally assumed that there is a good correlation between systematics and the secondary compounds found in plants. However because of the frequent homoplasy of chemical characters this has been difficult to test using statistical methods. Here we applied two nonparametric tests on a published data set, where 50 species of New Caledonian Cunoniaceae were screened for bioactivity against several pathogenic strains. Using Moran's I index we showed that in two of nine tests against pathogenic strains there was a significantly higher similarity than expected in bioactivities between species belonging to the same genus and a significantly higher than expected dissimilarity in bioactivity between species belonging to different tribes. When considering the bioactivities against all pathogenic strains with Mantel tests, we also found significant correlation between bioactivity and phylogenetic distance in two of four tests. This has implications in screening and conservation. Searches for new molecules and bioactivity should preferentially be made on species spread across the tree of life. There is also a need to preserve as much phylogenetic diversity as possible to make sure that the widest reservoir of natural compounds remains available for future generations.


Over the past decade we have seen a rise in the adoption and proliferation of social technologies, and along with these a move to build on the capacity to embrace new pedagogies and practices that can open our boundaries for both teaching and learning. How do we determine what we mean by space specifically in online environments and how can we examine whether our intentions for learning in them are effective? How can these spaces be enacted  as  learning spaces and how do we design for them? We will need to develop new methods and frameworks for analysis which takes into consideration how we conceive, perceive and enact our digital spaces and how this impacts on our practices and approaches to teaching and learning within these spaces. This paper will explore how we envision space, how a spatial perspective might be used to help assess and design these spaces, and will provide an analytical framework to examine the tensions we encounter when teaching and learning in open digital spaces.


A generic approach that allows extracting functional nonlinear dependencies and mappings between atmospheric or ocean state variables in a relatively simple form is presented. These dependencies and mappings between the 2-and 3D fields of the prognostic and diagnostic variables are implicitly contained in the highly nonlinear coupled partial differential equations of an atmospheric or ocean dynamical model. They also are implicitly contained in the numerical model output. An approach based on using neural network techniques is developed here to extract the inherent nonlinear relationship between the sea surface height anomaly and the other dependent variables of an ocean model. Specifically, numerically generated grid point fields from the real time ocean forecast system (RT-OFS) model of NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) are used for training and validating this relationship. The accuracy of the NN emulation is evaluated over the entire domain of the NCEP's RT-OFS. The differences in the accuracies of the technique in the coastal areas and in the deep water are discussed. Accurate determination of such relationships is an important first step to enhance the assimilation of the sea surface height measurements into an ocean model by propagating the signal to other dependent variables through the depth of the model.


Background: HBV and HCV coinfection is common, particularly in endemic areas and among high risk groups. In this study we have investigated the prevalence of HBV/HCV coinfection and compared the biochemical and serological characteristics of such patients compare with the patients having hepatitis C infection alone. Methods: We studied 207 patients diagnosed as having chronic hepatitis C, with HCVAb and HCV-RNA, to detect HBsAg, HBcAb and HBV-DNA. HBsAg and HBcAb were detected by commercially available ELISA kits. HBV-DNA was evaluated using PCR methods and liver enzymes (ALT and AST) were measured by automated instruments. Results: Twenty three of the 207 patients (11.1%) were positive for HBV-DNA (coinfection). Of these 23 patients, 17 were HBsAg negative. Twenty six of the HCV infected patients were HBcAb positive of whom 21 had coinfection. This finding showed the significant prevalence of coinfection that many of these subjects may not be found by routine serological methods. Biochemical parameters showed no significant differences between the two groups.


China experienced another widespread Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak recently caused by the Omicron variant, which is less severe but far more contagious than the other COVID-19 variants, leading local governments to focus efforts on eliminating the spread of the disease. Previous studies showed that after "recovering" from the virus, some patients could re-test positive for COVID-19 with nucleic acid tests, challenging the control of disease spread. In this study, we aimed to analyze the clinical and laboratory characteristics of re-positive COVID-19 patients in Northeast China. We retrospectively analyzed data from confirmed reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) re-positive COVID-19 patients who were admitted to the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin Province, China, from March to June 2022. Detailed clinical symptoms, medical history, anti-Corona Virus (CoV) IgG and IgM levels, and CoV nucleic acid cycle threshold (Ct) values during the re-positive period were collected and analyzed. A total of 180 patients were included in this study, including 62 asymptomatic cases and 118 mild cases. The cohort included 113 men and 67 women, with an average age of 45.73 years. The median time between recovery from the virus and re-positivity was 13 days. Our results showed that the proportion of re-positive patients with symptoms was lower, and the nucleic acid test-positive duration was shorter during the re-positive period. Furthermore, in patients with underlying disease, the proportion of patients with symptoms was higher, anti-CoV IgG levels were lower, and the total disease duration was longer. In conclusion, during the re-positive period, the symptoms were milder, and the CoV nucleic acid test-positive course was shorter. The concomitant underlying disease is an important factor associated with clinical symptoms, and the overall course of COVID-19 re-positive patients may be associated with lower anti-CoV IgG levels. Large-scale and multicenter studies are recommended to better understand the pathophysiology of recurrence in patients with COVID-19.


This essay examines the ways in which affective desire and new media technologies were mobilized by Japanese female fans of Hong Kong films and stars to produce a fan subjectivity that was at once cult and transcultural. The origins of this fandom, which flourished from around 1985 through the 1990s, lay in structural affinities of the Japanese and Hong Kong entertainment industries of the 1980s, as well as the ways in which popular stars of both places were expected to perform their stardom. In particular, a shared valuing of stars' relatability and approachability translated, for Japanese fans, into a seemingly paradoxical sense of intimacy with the stars of another culture, an intimacy that was fostered and heightened by women's pursuit of Hong Kong media outside the official distribution channels of the Japanese media industry. I examine the knowledges required by women to seek out favorite stars' films on VHS and VCD, as well as the sites of such consumption, which combined in the production of what I tentatively term a trans-cult-ural fan subjectivity that was at once cultish in its intensity and desire for ownership, as well as transcultural in its performance by fans.


Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate the nature of the humanitarian aid supply chain and discuss the extent to which certain business supply chain concepts, particularly supply chain agility, are relevant to humanitarian aid.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies elements of good practice in conventional business supply chains and applies them to the humanitarian aid supply chain, making use of published practice-based literature and web sites associated with humanitarian aid. Particular emphasis is placed on the concept of "agility" in supply chain management. A model of an agile supply chain for humanitarian aid is developed.

Findings – Humanitarian supply chains have similarities with business supply chains, but there are significant differences. Many humanitarian supply chains have a short and unstable existence with an inadequate link between emergency aid and longer-term developmental aid. Unlike many business supply chains, typical emergency aid appeals assign inventory to a particular destination at the supply chain source.

Practical implications – This research note is a starting-point for empirical studies to test the agile humanitarian supply chain model.

Originality/value – This paper seeks to integrate humanitarian aid practice with concepts in the academic supply chain literature. In particular, proposes that humanitarian donors need convincing of the value of supply chain processes.


The contribution is devoted to the dependent multiple life insurance of married couple. A more realistic assumption of dependent lifetime of married couple is investigated as distinct from classical approach, which assumes the independent lives. Two models: first is based on the Markov chain and second uses the copulas, mainly Archimedean are studied. The actuarial values of three cases of pensions: widow's, n-year joint-life and n-year last survival annuities are calculated in these models. The differences between the values of pensions in the independent model and model based on the dependences are investigated using the empirical data from Poland. The results will be compare with the results obtained in the author's earlier investigations.


Subsea processing is a key aspect of ExxonMobil's subsea technology qualification efforts. Consequently, the reliable delivery of high voltage power to subsea equipment offshore, such as multi-phase pumps, is essential. The base case involves power delivery up to 30 kV via copper cables embedded in umbilicals to a water depth of 1,500m over a design life of 30 years. Since umbilicals are often suspended from a floating facility in deepwater, the power cables are subjected to static load due to the umbilical weight and to cyclic loads in response to the floating facility motions. Therefore, sufficient mechanical resistance to preclude electrical failure is needed to achieve safe and cost-effective designs.To that end, an experimental program was completed aimed at developing a qualification methodology and collecting data on the effect of static and cyclic loads on the mechanical and electrical performance of copper power cables. This paper presents the experimental approaches and results obtained from creep, fatigue, and electrical tests performed on 18/30kV, 95mm2 copper conductor cable specimens.Specifically, the program included (a) five monotonic tension tests to failure to characterize the cable, (b) 11 creep tests to develop a load-time performance curve, and (c) 59 fatigue tests under pulsating tension, of which 50 used short-cable samples to evaluate the effect of mean load and nine used long samples for electrical testing following fatigue. A fatigue curve is proposed that includes the effect of mean load and temperature. However, fatigue results can be sensitive to the cable material and mechanical characteristics of a particular cable.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Background: Mucinous carcinoma (MC) is a rare breast malignancy with a large extracellular mucin secretion. It has a good prognosis in comparison to other breast malignancies.
Case presentation: We report a 32 years old female with multiple hard palpable masses in the left breast with rapid growth in 6 months. She was mentally retarded with lower limb varicose veins associated with mucocutaneous lesions on the face. She underwent ultrasound examination of the breast, thyroid and lower extremity veins. Core needle biopsy and fine needle aspiration from left breast lesions and right thyroid nodules showed MC and follicular lesion with hurtle cell change, respectively. Suspected metastasis in the left rib and calvarium in the subsequent bone scan survey and brain magnetic resonance imaging was reported. She underwent radical mastectomy and right hemi-thyroidectomy.
Conclusion: Pure mucinous carcinoma with micropapillary pattern (MUMPC) is a new histology variant of Pure Mucinous Carcinoma (PMC) that shows favorable prognosis with less aggression and occurs in older patients. However, PMC in our patient occurred at a young age with greater aggression.


Several Latin-American authors (Breilh, Almeida Filho, Czeresnia, among others) and some Europeans (as Tognoni) argue critically about the ways of constructing knowledge in epidemiology. They coincide in pointing out the limitation of the expert eye to account for the processes collective health. They debate how to manage knowledge and mechanisms to coordinate the management of institutional knowledge to the collective management of knowledge, in order to generate conceptual and methodological tools to impact effectively on the life stage of communities. We hypothesise that co-management of knowledge, as inter-subjective process between academics and communities, promotes the transforming and democratising actions. In this regard, two national universities in the province of Cordoba, along with a local institution of healthcare built since 2008 an area of informal training, the Permanent Seminar of Epidemiology Community (EC), whose line of work is health as indicator of life, autonomy, knowledge and democracy in the communities. Participants are workers and health promoters from different districts of the province, members of community-based organizations and universities (students and teachers). In this context, it has been done during 2009–2010 a province-wide survey of experiences in community health, encouraging integration of community members to the EC research network. The progress made in terms of health monitoring and community organising around health is the subject of a manual about EC co-management of knowledge, and realises the real possibilities of achieving them.


It is generally recognized that the AIDS epidemic will have a negative effect on the orphans' school education. However, few studies have been carried out to examine the school performance and school behavior of AIDS orphans and vulnerable children (children living with HIV-infected parents). Using both self-report and teacher evaluation data of 1625 children from rural central China, we examined the impact of parental HIV/AIDS on children's school performances (academic marks, educational expectation, and student leadership) and school behaviors (e.g., aggression, shy/anxious and assertive social skills). Results indicate that AIDS orphans and vulnerable children had disadvantages in school performances in comparison to their peers from the same community who did not experience AIDS-related death and illness in their family (comparison children). AIDS orphans had the lowest academic marks based on the reports of both children and teachers. Educational expectation was significantly lower among AIDS orphans and vulnerable children than comparison children from teacher's perspective. AIDS orphans were significantly more likely to demonstrate aggressive, impulsive and anxious behaviors than non-orphans. Moreover, orphans have more learning difficulties. Vulnerable children were also at a disadvantage on most measures. The data suggest that a greater attention is needed to the school performance and behavior of children affected by AIDS. The findings also indicate that AIDS relief and assistance program for children should go beyond the school attendance and make efforts to improve their school performance and education aspiration.


Antifungal protein (AFP) from Aspergillus giganteus was assayed for toxicity against the Fusarium oxysporum wild-type strain and mutants in genes involved in cell signaling (DeltapacC, pacCc Deltafmk1) or cell-wall biogenesis (DeltachsV, Deltachs7, Deltagas1). The mutants were classified into two groups according to their sensitivity to AFP: DeltapacC, Deltagas1 and Deltachs7, which were significantly more resistant to AFP than the wild-type, and pacCC, Deltafmk1 and DeltachsV, which were more sensitive. Western blot analysis revealed increased binding of AFP to the three resistant mutants, DeltapacC, Deltagas1 and Deltachs7, but also to DeltachsV, indicating that differential binding may not be a key determinant for sensitivity. Addition of Ca2+ or K+ dramatically reduced antifungal activity and binding of AFP, suggesting that these cations compete for the same targets as AFP at the surface of the fungal cell.


We present novel insight on like-spin domains (LSD) in cooperative spin transition solids by following the photo-transformation and the subsequent relaxation of a [Fe(ptz)6](BF4)2 single crystal in the vicinity of the light-induced instability. Self-organization under light is observed, accompanied by Barkhausen-like noise and jumps which reveal the presence of elastic interactions between LSDs. The light-induced phase separation process is discussed in terms of a dynamic potential providing spinodal instability in the corresponding temperature range. This useful concept is applicable to all types of switchable molecular solids.


Numerous studies have shown that bullying is a significant problem in schools. However, until recently, little attention has been given to the social context in which bullying occurs. Although research exploring the peer group's role in bullying has now begun to emerge, studies in the area have lacked a theoretical basis. Consequently, the current research explored whether the application of social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and self-categorisation theory (SCT; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987) can help to explain the role the peer group plays in the problem of childhood bullying. The first study in this program of research focussed on the development of two questionnaires, one assessing bullying and the other problem behaviours. Items for these questionnaires were generated via focus groups and a review of relevant literature, before being piloted on 43 children (aged 9 to 13 years). Two full-scale administrations of the questionnaires then occurred. Three hundred and nineteen students (aged 9 to 13 years) and 19 teachers participated in the first administration, with a further 351 students (aged 8 to 14 years) and 17 teachers participating in the second. During each administration, peer-, self-, and teacher-reports were collected. This process resulted in the development of the four-factor Bullying Questionnaire (BQ) and the three-factor Problem Behaviour Questionnaire (PBQ). Results indicated these scales were both reliable and valid. The BQ and PBQ were subsequently used in the second study, which explored whether a social identity perspective could assist in explaining bullying within naturally formed friendship groups. Specifically, the relevance of the concepts of within-group similarity, group norms, group identification, and intra-group position (i.e., the relative prototypicality of group members) was explored. Results revealed Bullying in Schools iii that within-group similarities in bullying behaviour were apparent. Further, children involved in bullying were likely to engage in other problem behaviours, with intragroup homogeneity in such behaviours also being evident. Greater involvement in bullying was also reported when 1) group norms endorsed such behaviour and 2) children were prototypical, rather than peripheral, members of bullying groups. In contrast, group identification and the interaction of group identification and intra-group position did not contribute significantly to the prediction of bullying. The final study utilised an experimental simulation to further explore the relevance of SIT and SCT to bullying. Three hundred and fifty-six participants (aged 8 to 14 years) were randomly assigned to teams for a drawing competition. They were then provided with information regarding their team's norms (bullying versus helping), their level of identification with the team (high versus low), and their position within the team (prototypical versus peripheral). Subsequently, several situations involving the inand out-group were described and the children were asked to rate the likelihood that they would become involved in bullying of the out-group. As in Study 2, initial analyses revealed that group norms and intra-group position were associated with bullying behaviour, but group identification was not. However, supplementary analyses did provide some indication that identification might also play a role in determining bullying behaviour. Overall, these results supported the application of SIT and SCT to the problem of childhood bullying. The findings of the current research have important implications for the way in which bullying is conceptualised, as well as for the development of antibullying programs. Bullying in Schools iv Declaration of Originality I declare that this work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. ___________________________ Amanda L. Duffy August 2004 Bullying in Schools v


In Ni–Mn–Ga ferromagnetic shape memory alloys, the crystallographic nature of martensitic variant interfaces is one of the key factors governing the variant reorientation through field-induced interface motion and hence the shape memory performance. So far, the crystal structure studies of these materials – conducted by means of transmission electron microscopy – have suffered from uncertainties in determining the number of unit cells of modulated superstructure, and consequently improper interpretations of orientation correlations of martensitic variants. In this paper a new approach is presented for comprehensive analysis of crystallographic and morphological information of modulated martensite, using automated electron backscatter diffraction. As a first attempt, it has been applied for the unambiguous determination of the orientation relationships of adjacent martensitic variants and their twin interface characters in an incommensurate 7M modulated Ni–Mn–Ga alloy, from which a clear and full-featured image of the crystallographic nature of constituent twin interfaces is built up. Certainly, this new approach will make it feasible not only to generalize the statistical analysis of martensitic variant distributions for various materials with modulated superstructure, but also to give insight into the crystallographic characteristics of martensitic variant interfaces and the variant reorientation mechanism of new advanced materials for interface engineering.


Phoenix dactylifera , commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Dates are very rich in nutritive components, viz., carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins and dietary fibres. Dates are of two types Unpitted and pitted. Pitted dates are fruits that had their stones removed.  Pitted dates without the pit are loaded with natural sweetness and can be used for noshing or baking. Pitted dates are firm, easy to chop up and can be used in variety of recipes. They can be stuffed with various fillings such as nuts (walnuts and almonds). The dates are directly consumed without any processing. Exposure of heavy metals to human beings has risen dramatically in the last 50 years. In today's urban and industrial society, there is no escaping from exposure to toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Humans are more likely to be exposed to heavy metal contamination from the dust that adheres to edible plants than from bioaccumulation. The objectives of this study was to determine the concentrations of lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) in Unpitted and Pitted dates received from different parts of India and also to assess whether the fruits were safe for human consumption. Out of 50 samples of unpitted dates, only 12 samples were showing low level of Lead (Pb) ranges from 0.0093 ppm to 1.9516 ppm. As per FSSAI, the maximum permissible limit in "food not specified category "is 2 ppm (max.). Out of 51 samples of pitted dates analysed, 9 samples were showing low level of Lead ranges between 0.0018 ppm to 0.2461 ppm. It clearly indicates that all the samples were found to contain Lead (Pb) within the permissible limit as specified by FSSAI. Out of 50 samples of Unpitted dates analysed, 8 samples were contain low level of Copper (Cu) content ranges from 0.0043 ppm to 1.9038 ppm. In case of pitted dates, 10 samples were found to contain Copper (Cu) content ranges from 0.0089 ppm to 0.128 ppm. As per FSSAI, the maximum permissible limit in "foods not specified category" for Copper (Cu) is 30 ppm. It clearly indicates that all the samples were found to contain Copper (Cu) within the permissible limit as specified by FSSAI. The fruits of date palm are safe for human consumption. The concentration of Lead (Pb) and Copper (Cu) in all the dates samples (both unpitted and pitted) collected from different regions of India is within the safe limits as prescribed by FSSAI.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of solid-state fermentation (SSF) by Aspergillus niger on phenolic contents and antioxidant activity in Sambucus nigra L. and Sambucus ebulus L. berry pomaces. The effect of fermentation time on the total fats and major lipid classes (neutral and polar) was also investigated. During the SSF, the extractable phenolics increased with 18.82% for S. ebulus L. and 11.11% for S. nigra L. The levels of antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts were also significantly enhanced. The HPLC-MS analysis indicated that the cyanidin 3-sambubioside-5-glucoside is the major phenolic compound in both fermented Sambucus fruit residues. In the early stages of fungal growth, the extracted oils (with TAGs as major lipid fraction) increased with 12% for S. nigra L. and 10.50% for S. ebulus L. The GC-MS analysis showed that the SSF resulted in a slight increase of the linoleic and oleic acids level.


Energy research Centre of the Netherlands ABSTRACT: Global warming, caused largely by energy consumption, has become a major problem. During the last decades the introduction of energy saving technologies has strongly reduced energy consumption of buildings. In comfort control strategy there is an exciting development: the user's preferences and their behaviour have become central in the building services control strategy. Synergy between end-user and building is the ultimate in the intelligent comfort control concept. This new comfort control technology, based on the use of the latest ICT development in agent technology, can further reduce energy consumption of buildings. This paper reviews Multi Agent Intelligent Internet mediated control and combines the most useful insights into a new technology; FACT, Forgiving Agent Comfort Technology. The TU/e (University of Technology Eindhoven) is developing this FACT technology further into a concept for Caring Buildings (CB). Keywords: energy, comfort, agent technology


The effect of benzotriazole (BTA) on the corrosion of a new type copper‐manganese‐aluminium (CMA) alloy in artificial seawater was investigated using dynamic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (DEIS), linear polarization resistance, and Tafel extrapolation methods. Measurement results obtained from those three methods showed that corrosion rates decreased while BTA concentration increased. This clearly indicates that BTA inhibits the corrosion rate of CMA in artificial seawater. Although there are consistent results obtained from all these three methods, the results of the percent inhibition efficiency, IE (%), values obtained from DEIS method should be calculated from the charge transfer resistance (Rct) values obtained after 5 h.