Rate control for congestion mitigation and avoidance has received significant attention in the sensor networks literature. Existing rate control schemes dynamically assign rates in a distributed manner. In this paper, we take a step back and ask: is a near-optimal quasi-static centralized rate allocation even feasible for wireless sensor networks? Intuition would suggest otherwise, since wireless conditions vary dynamically, and optimal centralized rate allocation is known to be computationally intractable. Surprisingly, however, we find that, quasi-static centralized rate allocation performs well at time-scales of tens of minutes on a 40-node testbed. Our approach relies on a relatively simple, lightweight rate allocation heuristic that uses topology and loss rate information, and adapts at relatively long time-scales to channel variability. Extensive experiments on a 40-node wireless testbed show that sensor nodes achieve a goodput very close to their allocated rate, even in harsh wireless conditions. Furthermore, this achieved goodput is nearly 50% higher than that achieved by IFRC, a recently-proposed distributed rate control scheme, and within 13% of an empirically-determined optimal rate. We also evaluate extensions to our heuristic to support weighted fairness and networks with multiple base stations.


BACKGROUND: Studies on food intake in the UAE especially in relation to the student life are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To investigate eating habits of undergraduate students. METHODS: A cohort of 146 undergraduate students studying Physiology at Zayed University completed a semi-structured questionnaire. A student response was accepted for analysis only those weeks with adequate responses not more than six. RESULTS: The mean student age was 19.28 (1.22) years with a minimum-maximum 18-23 years. The mean weight was 56.67(13.31) with a minimum-maximum of 40-89 kg. Of 1,250 United Arab Emirates Dirham; 10 indicated they worked but did not specify income; and three were married. More foods were consumed seven times in a week. Amongst the principal foods consumed were: bread, cereal, starch; white bread, cornflakes and rice; fruits - apple, banana and orange; vegetables - cucumber, tomato and lettuce; meat - fish, chicken and beef; and eggs and dairy - (milk, cheese and yoghurt). CONCLUSION: Dubai female undergraduates have a height intake of milk and fruits and less fanciful breads. Further studies should measure the exact quantity/mass of foods consumed per week. WAJM 2011; 30(1): 42-46.


Huang, H.; Qie, K.; Jeong, M.-H.; Jeon, S.B., and Lee, W.P., 2019. Detecting anaomalous vessel dynamics with functional data analysis. In: Lee, J.L.; Yoon, J.-S.; Cho, W.C.; Muin, M., and Lee, J. (eds.), The 3rd International Water Safety Symposium. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 91, pp. 406-410. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Advances in location-acquisition technology open up new areas of applications in maritime monitoring and security. Automatic identification system (AIS) data provide dynamic information on vessel movements. This research proposes a new method for detecting anomalous vessel dynamics using functional data analysis. Empirical investigations of this approach demonstrate the effective detection of outlier flows in terms of ship traffic volume. However, alternative methods such as the 3-sigma rule and the MAD-Median rule fail to detect anomalous vessel traffic. This investigation suggests that the method proposed can improve the safety and operation of ship-to-shore vessel traffic management.


A tilting head angles an abrasive waterjet's nozzle as it moves along the cutting path, resulting in a taper-free cut. This paper offers insight into the product development process of this innovative concept — a mechanism that allows the nozzle to tilt about the jet entry point with minimal compensation motions in the X, Y and Z direction. Tilting and compensation motions are computed with a mathematical model of the 5-axis motion system and interpolated into motor steps along the cutting path. Use of servomotors and harmonic drives, as well as other precision components, ensure high motion accuracy. Error mapping on each individual tilting-head assembly further enhances precision. In each cutting application, a built-in taper model considers material type and thickness, radius of curve and other process parameters to accurately predict the corresponding taper angle, which is then removed by the tilting head. A taper offset feature is also available to offset any remaining taper. Cutting tests prove that tilting head produces virtually taper-free parts.


Numerous attempts have been made by various investigators to produce goiter experimentally in animals. In a review of the literature it is striking that there are so many diverse experimental solutions of a problem about which so little is known. In many instances the observer was too anxious to note hyperplasia of the thyroid gland, and possibly because of enthusiasm alone he found it. Moreover, the question of control for such experiments repeatedly arises. Were they adequately controlled? It does not seem sufficient, especially in endemic goiter regions, to have the thyroid gland of a dog examined grossly and microscopically for the first time at the end of the period that a trial stimulus has been applied and to pronounce it hyperplastic by comparing it with a gland from an entirely different dog. Because of the great number of the experimental methods that have been reported as successful in the


Why psycholoinguistic assessment? what do tests really test? the assessment framework a developmental speech processing model psycholinguistic profiling using this approach in practice and research designing your own test items.


A key component for networks with Quality of Service (QoS) support is the egress link scheduling algorithm. An ideal scheduling algorithm implemented in a high-performance network with QoS support should satisfy two main properties: good end-to-end delay and implementation simplicity. Table-based schedulers try to offer a simple implementation and good latency bounds. Some of the latest proposals of network technologies, like Advanced Switching and InfiniBand, include in their specifications one of these schedulers. However, these table-based schedulers do not work properly with variable packet sizes, as is usually the case in current network technologies. We have proposed a new table-based scheduler, which we have called Deficit Table (DTable) scheduler, that works properly with variable packet sizes. Moreover, we have proposed a methodology to configure this table-based scheduler in such a way that it permits us to decouple the bounding between the bandwidth and latency assignments. In this paper, we thoroughly review the provision of QoS with the DTable scheduler and our configuration methodology, and evaluate the performance of our proposals in a multimedia scenario. Simulation results show that our proposals are able to provide a similar latency performance than more complex scheduling algorithms. Moreover, we show the advantages of our decoupling configuration methodology over the usual ways of configuring this kind of table-based schedulers.


This paper describes a project aimed at introducing a practical approach to Organisational Learning in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The approach is based on the utilisation of a Group Support System in order to enable groups of employees within a SME to explore their feelings with respect to political and emotional aspects of organisational life. The Group Support System involves the use of individual radio handsets which are used to collect information from members of the group, and a personal computer which summarises and presents this information back to the group to support focussed dialogue. A number of group sessions have been conducted in several SMEs and the results are encouraging, demonstrating the ability of this approach to surface largely hidden feelings. Issues raised in this way become the focus of attention for actions and change. The mode of operation of the technology, the design of the group process, and the approach of the facilitator are critical elements to minimising defensive reactions of group members while seeking to maximise group communication and learning.


To figure out whether spermidine (Spd) can alleviate oxidative damage on rice (Oryza sativa L.) caused by submergence stress, Ningjing 3 was used in this study. The results showed that, spraying Spd on rice leaves at a concentration of 0.5 mM promoted the growth recovery of rice after drainage, such as green leaves, tillers, and aboveground dry mass. According to physiological analysis, Spd accelerate restored chlorophylls damage by submergence, and decreased the rate of O2·− generation and H2O2 content, inhibited submergence-induced lipid peroxidation. Spd also helped to maintain antioxidant enzyme activities after drainage, such as superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and GR, which ultimately improved the recovery ability of submerged rice. With the effect of Spd, the rice yields increased by 12.1, 17.9, 13.5, and 18.0%, of which submerged for 1, 3, 5, 7 days, respectively. It is supposed that exogenous Spd really has an alleviate effect on submergence damage and reduce yield loss of rice.


The study focused on Almanagil plateau, located in central Sudan, within three states of Gezira, Sennar, and White Nile, which was excluded from the Geizera Agricultural Scheme. Various coping strategies carried by inhabitants were studied as means of climate change adaptation. A structured questionnaire (50 small-scale farmers), key-informant interview and group discussions were undertaken in seven villages within this plateau. Questions covered coping strategies with drought and flood shocks, suggestions for water shed managements, improving surface, subsurface and ground water availability, in addition to willingness to participate in adaptation and mitigation activities. Secondary data included meteorological rainfall data for the last 6 years (20052010), expectations for water requirements for the next coming 10 years (20102016). Sources of water and quantities consumed by households and animals were studied. Remote sensing and GIS and GPS survey level data were used to provide information on potentialities for improving water sources for human consumption and irrigation. All of the surveyed villages lie within S2 with moderate suitability for irrigation but with different soil characteristics, generally slightly calcareous, susceptible to erosion. All respondents in all villages expressed shortages in water availability for both human and animal consumptions. Coping strategies with drought or floods reported were temporal migration, selling part of their animals or properties, turning to other activities. Willingness to participate in natural resource conservation was expressed by all respondents. Suggestions to improve water resources included building dams on streams, terracing, extending water pipes from canals to farmers' field, ponds construction, enlarging and deepening of streams beds, establishing water pumps. It was concluded that the concept of multi water use services could meet farmers' needs for cooking and sanitation and promote small enterprises as livestock raising, horticulture and crop production. In areas with gentle sloping, surface run-off could be collected and used for supplementary irrigation during dry spells.


This report investigates the role of behavioural science and nudging in promoting productivity and fostering innovative practices within the context of the UK's 'Levelling Up' local and regional economic development agenda. A literature review is conducted to this end. This report finds positive evidence for using behavioural science in promoting productivity, mixed evidence in fostering innovation, and positive evidence in promoting adoption of innovative practices and technologies. However, in all instances, the efficacy of these interventions seems enhanced by, or contingent upon, the use of non-behavioural policy tools, such as financial incentives. Furthermore, in some contexts, behavioural interventions appear sub-optimal compared to financial incentives in fostering productivity and innovation. Therefore, the central recommendation of this report is that behavioural science appears to offer some benefits for policymakers and businesses in conjunction with traditional approaches.


The competition between two group V atoms is significant in epitaxy growth and it is attributable to the higher difference of incorporation rates and the characteristics of atoms themselves. It could result such that atoms join into the lattice with difficulty, which could promote desorption of extra atoms that have escaped from among incident molecules. The authors have developed a combination for the precursor state and the associated thermodynamic model in order to describe the competition between Sb and As atoms during the pseudomorphic growth of GaAsSb/GaAs multiple-quantum wells on GaAs (100) substrates by gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy. The strain-induced incorporation coefficient due to lattice mismatch between the growing film and the substrate is also taken into account. The calculated results for the model are in good agreement with the experimental data at different substrate temperatures.


Virtual Reality (VR) could be an interesting tool to combat obesity and sedentariness in children. During the last years a multidisciplinary research team comprised of engineers, psychologists, physiotherapists and paediatricians have been testing these technologies. Throughout the tests, physiological (cardiovascular and metabolic response with biomedical sensors (smart fabrics TIAS) and psychological responses have been collected. The results presented in this paper reflect two main aspects: 1) the feasibility of the monitoring techniques employed and 2) the validity of virtual reality and exergaming technologies as promoters of physical activity and their potential as tools in clinical intervention programs. In the first study (n=90) children, a commercial platform was tested as support tool to aerobic exercise in a treadmill. Results showed a more physiological effort by obese group and limitations to measure effort perception with Borg scale especially in obese group. In second study (n=126) a new VR platform was developed (VREP) and tested as support of aerobic activities, a difference of first study, all the boys completed both conditions (same Aerobic exercise with/without support VR). 59.5% felt that they had to exert more effort in the traditional condition. Regarding to acceptability in both studies the vast majority of the participants liked the idea of combining physical activity with the VR platform as a form of treatment to increase physical activity. The capacity of VR technology to create controllable, multisensory, interactive 3D stimulus environments within which children's performance can be motivated, recorded, and measured, has been tested in these studies, offering clinical assessment and intervention options which are not possible using traditional methods.


We present a manipulation planning framework that allows robots to plan in the presence of constraints on end-effector pose, as well as other common constraints. The framework has three main components: constraint representation, constraint-satisfaction strategies, and a general planning algorithm. These components come together to create an efficient and probabilistically complete manipulation planning algorithm called the Constrained BiDirectional Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) – CBiRRT2. The underpinning of our framework for pose constraints is our Task Space Regions (TSRs) representation. TSRs are intuitive to specify, can be efficiently sampled, and the distance to a TSR can be evaluated very quickly, making them ideal for sampling-based planning. Most importantly, TSRs are a general representation of pose constraints that can fully describe many practical tasks. For more complex tasks, such as manipulating articulated objects, TSRs can be chained together to create more complex end-effector pose constraints. TSRs can also be intersected, a property that we use to plan with pose uncertainty. We provide a detailed description of our framework, prove probabilistic completeness for our planning approach, and describe several real-world example problems that illustrate the efficiency and versatility of the TSR framework.


A desirable property when dealing with frames is that the low and up bounds of frames should be close to each other. This can accelerate the convergence speed in computing the dual-frame and simplify the process of recovering the signal from its frame coefficients. In this letter, a new 2-D continuous wavelet transform tiling scheme, which uses different rotation factor sampling methods for different scales, is proposed. The upper/lower bound of the 2-D wavelet family based on this new tiling scheme is derived. The upper/lower bound of the 2-D Morlet wavelet family is estimated, and the results show that the 2-D wavelet family based on the new tiling scheme can provide a higher lower bound and a lower upper bound compared with the 2-D wavelet family based on the old tiling scheme.


Detailed detector simulation models are vital for the successful operation of modern high-energy physics experiments. In most cases, running detailed models requires a significant amount of computing resources. It is desired to have approaches that are less resource-intensive. In this work, we demonstrate the applicability of Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) as a basis for such fast-simulation models for the case of the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) at the MPD detector at the NICA accelerator complex. Our prototype GAN-based model of TPC works faster than the detailed simulation in an order of magnitude without any noticeable drop in the quality of the high-level reconstruction characteristics for the generated data. Approaches with direct and indirect quality metrics optimization are compared.


Murine leukaemia virus (MuLV) exhibits two kinds of interaction with mouse cells transformed by murine sarcoma virus (MSV) in vitro (Bassin, Tuttle & Fischinger, 1970): an apparent cytocidal interaction accompanied by virus replication and the rescue of infectious MSV. It is not known whether the entire virus genome of MuLV is necessary for these interactions, as has been previously observed in the avian sarcoma-leukaemia system (Levinson & Rubin, 1966). In order to measure the relative target sizes of the genetic information responsible, we studied the kinetics of u.v. inactivation of both the replicating ability of MuLV and the ability of this virus to rescue MSV.
The 3T3FL mouse cell line (Bassin et al. 1970), XC cell line (Svoboda, 1960) and S + L - mouse cell line (Bassin et al. 1970) were employed for virus assays.
For irradiation experiments we employed two Moloney leukaemia virus (MLV) stocks: V9-MV, which contained 7 × 105 focus inducing units (f.i.u.)/ml. was purchased from Electro-Nucleonics Laboratories, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, and IC virus (Fischinger, Moore & O'Connor, 1969) that contained 5 × 106 f.i.u./ml.


To clarify the heat and smoke propagation in multi-compartments under the spread of cable fire, a large-scale multi-compartment fire test (hereinafter the CFS-2 test) was performed by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) in France within the framework promoted by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) program PRISME2 (OECD/NEA, 2017). In the CFS-2 test, two rooms of a large-scale facility were adopted and these rooms have an identical volume (120 m3) enclosed with fire walls and were connected by a doorway (0.8 m in width and 2.17 m in height). As a fire source, five-layer cable trays (tray length of 2.4m, tray width of 0.45m and separation distance between trays of 0.3 m) with a fire-retardant PVC cable (77 kg) were used and ignited by a propane gas burner. The power level of the propane gas burner was set to around 80 kW. Moreover, all rooms were mechanically ventilated, and the renewal rate was 15 times per hour (3600 m3/h). During the fire test, the mass loss rate of fuel, gas and soot mass concentration, gas temperature, and etc. were measured. The measured peak values of the HRR, the mass loss rate and gas temperature were about 800 kW, 58 g/s and greater than 600 °C, respectively (Zavaleta, 2017).
 As a fire model predicting fire characteristics in a compartment, a two-zone model, which divides the fire room into the hot smoke upper layer and lower layer consisting of cool fresh air, is widely used due to the advantages of the brevity of the calculation routine and the reliability of the calculation results. Among them, the BRI2 series, developed in Japan, is now reaching the current BRI2002 software (Wakamatsu, 2004) after several upgrades to improve the calculation precision. The Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) introduced the cable tray fire source model based on the FLASH-CAT (Flame Spread over Horizontal Cable Trays) developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (McGrattan, 2012) into the zone code BRI2002. By comparing the numerical results with the experimental values measured during the CFS-2 test, the methodology for ignition time delay of each tray and horizontal flame propagation speed for each tray were discussed.


Lantana camara L. is a recognized weed of worldwide significance due to its widespread distribution and impacts on nature conservation. In this study physicochemical properties of soil were analysed from different high and low Lantana infested areas. Significant site effect was frequently observed than effect due to invasion status. The present study tested the impact of soil properties in the measured and calculated attributes of Lantana by randomly sampling soil from the highly invaded and less invaded sites in different habitats using the Modified Whittaker plot design. Ten samples were collected at high invaded and ten at less invaded sites per habitat totalling to 120 which were obtained and analysed. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) results indicated that edaphic factors such as soil pH, total nitrogen, soil organic carbon, Phosphorus and Potassium content positively influenced the growth of Lantana and helped in the further invasion process. These factors were also positively influencing the measured and calculated attributes of Lantana such as canopy coverage, average crown diameter, shrub canopy area, phytovolume and biomass from all sites. However some attributes like shrub height and stem diameter were negatively influenced by these soil factors. The level of these soil nutrients was found elevated in all Lantana invaded sites as compared to less invaded sites. The present results reveal that Lantana invasion can not only significantly improve the soil nutrient level but also positively increase the chances of its further invasion with more copious plant attributes.


Aim—To determine interobserver and intra-observer agreement in the assessment of cytological grade and intraduct necrosis in pure duct carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast. Methods—Sixty unselected cases with illustrated diagnostic criteria were circulated to 19 practising histopathologists. Results—Overall agreement was moderate for cytological grade in three categories: 71% agreement; weighted κ (κw), 0.36; intraduct necrosis in three categories (absent, present, extensive): 76% agreement; κw, 0.57; and the Van Nuys classification system: 73% agreement; κw, 0.48. Agreement was no better among observers participating in the National External Quality Assurance Programme. Intra-observer agreement for cytological assessment (69.6% agreement; κw, 0.52) and intraduct necrosis (68.3% agreement; κw, 0.48) was moderate, suggesting that individual variation rather than precision of criteria contributes to the lack of agreement. Conclusions—Moderate agreement on observations can be achieved by non-specialist pathologists, with better agreement on necrosis than cytological grade. There was evidence of consistent individual bias towards over or under scoring cytological grade, which could be corrected with adequate and prompt feedback.


OBJECTIVE
In a Japanese study, the C6607T SNP mapping to intron 1 of the SLC22A4 gene encoding the OCTN1 protein was found to be associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Similarly, a G24658C transversion in intron 6 of the gene encoding the RUNX1 transcription factor that regulates OCTN1 and also likely OCTN2 expression was also found to confer susceptibility to the disease.

METHODS
We investigated the prevalence of these two SNPs by RFLP analysis in a cohort of 209 Hungarian rheumatoid arthritis patients, and 217 healthy controls. Since both the OCTN1 and OCTN2 play a central role in the transmembrane transport of carnitine, we also determined the quantitative serum carnitine ester profile by ESI tandem mass spectrometry.

RESULTS
No statistically significant differences were found comparing the genotype prevalence rates between the patients and the controls for either the SLC22A4 genotypes or for the RUNX1 SNPs. There was no significant difference in the serum carnitine ester profile when the rheumatoid arthritis patients were compared with the controls; furthermore, no significant difference in the carnitine esters could be detected when genotype specific subgroups of the patients and the controls were studied.

CONCLUSION
Data of the current study do not confirm the universal and population independent susceptibility role of the SLC22A4 C6607T and RUNX1 G24658C variants for rheumatoid arthritis; furthermore, the data presented here show, that there are no significant carnitine-metabolism associated functional consequences of the different genotypes evidenced by the lack of detectable differences in the carnitine ester profiles.


Electron-beam vapor sources are now widely used in material processing sciences and coating technologies, such as the semiconductor industry for producing aluminum films on Si wafers; the metallurgical industry for melting, evaporating, and refining metals; and at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for vaporizing metals for laser isotope separation applications. Power for these sources ranges from the kW regime in the semiconductor industry to the multi-MW regime in laser separation technology. Operations of these sources can generate copious amounts of x rays by the direct and indirect interactions of the energetic electrons with the target materials. In this paper, we present the results of our calculations regarding the x-ray emission intensity, angular intensity and energy spectrum distribution, and shielding characteristics for vapor sources with acceleration voltages from 10 kV to 60 kV. 4 refs., 12 figs., 2 tabs.


Hospital Activity Analysis (HAA) data relating to operations for glue ear and tonsillectomy performed on residents of the North Western Region, aged 0-9 years during the period 1975-1984 were studied. The rate of surgery for glue ear has risen from 45/10,000 to 107/10,000 representing an increase of 137 per cent. The tonsillectomy rate by comparison has undergone a more modest increase of 19 per cent. The study casts doubt on a 'vacuum effect', as has been argued by Black. Marked variation in rates of surgery between Districts in the Region were noted, and the possible explanations discussed. A review of the literature revealed considerable controversy concerning the management of glue ear and the need for a definitive trial is highlighted.


In this thesis, I present a novel theory of musical meaning. This theory posits a complementary relationship between the theories described in Lerdahl and Jackendoff's Generative Theory of Tonal Music and Arnie Cox's Music and Embodied Cognition. Each of these theories explain particular aspects of musical meaning (semantic and grammatical, respectively), though I argue that by unifying these theories into a broader framework, they can explain more about musical meaning than they could individually. This unification is performed via the novel theory I present: the Analogical Argument. This argument suggests that Lerdahl and Jackendoff's Generative Theory of Tonal Music is theoretically analogous to Noam Chomsky's theory of Generative Linguistic Grammar (Chomsky, 1966). Given the success of Chomsky's theory, as well the cognitive approach he employs more generally, in explaining how we construe linguistic meaning, we should expect similar if not analogous processes to be responsible for the construal of musical meaning. Thus, the Generative Theory of Tonal Music is sufficient for explaining how the musical meanings explained by Arnie Cox's mimetic hypothesis are cognized so as to give rise to the emergent musical meaning that is characteristic of musical experiences.


Terengganu is one of the states in East Coast Peninsula Malaysia that provides the natural habitat for the herbal plants and
non-tree plants. The question of the relationship between herbal and non-tree plants, their abundance and relationship with
edaphic factor is still unsolved. This study was conducted at Chemerong Recreational Forest, Dungun, Terengganu to determine
the abundance and diversity of herbal and non-tree plants species, and its relationship with the physico-chemical soil properties.
Two types of forest were chosen which are riparian forest and inland forest. Two plots with the sizes of 5m x 10 m were
built in each forest types and which means the total of area sampling in this study was 200m2. Result shows that a total of
885 individuals of herbal and non-tree plants were recorded from 68 species, 40 genera and 22 families. Riparian forest plot
recorded 558 individuals from 55 species, 37 genera and 21 families while inland plot recorded 327 individuals from 36
species, 27 genera and 15 families. Significant difference was observed in soil physico-chemical properties, phosporus (P),
electric conductivity (EC), nitrate (NO3
-), ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3
+), moisture content and organic matter (OM) between
these two forest types. Based on Cannonical Correspondance Analysis (CCA) there was a strong relationship between species
abundance and edaphic factors in the study site. Results from this study could contribute to new information on conserving
and preserving the herbal and non-tree plants as the natural green asset of Terengganu and Malaysia.


Background The incidence of Escherichia coli bloodstream infections (EC-BSIs), particularly those caused by antibiotic-resistant strains, is increasing in the UK and internationally. This is a major public health concern but the evidence base to guide interventions is limited. Methods Incidence of EC-BSIs and E. coli urinary tract infections (EC-UTIs) in one UK region (Oxfordshire) were estimated from anonymised linked microbiological and hospital electronic health records, and modelled using negative binomial regression based on microbiological, clinical and healthcare exposure risk factors. Infection severity, 30-day allcause mortality, and community and hospital co-amoxiclav use were also investigated. Findings From 1998–2016, 5706 EC-BSIs occurred in 5215 patients, and 228376 EC-UTIs in 137075 patients. 1365(24%) EC-BSIs were nosocomial (onset >48h post-admission), 1863(33%) were community (>365 days post-discharge), 1346(24%) were quasi-community (31-365 days post-discharge), and 1132(20%) were quasi-nosocomial (≤30 days postdischarge). 1413(20%) EC-BSIs and 36270(13%) EC-UTIs were co-amoxiclav-resistant (41% and 30%, respectively, in 2016). Increases in EC-BSIs were driven by increases in community (10%/year (95% CI:7%–13%)) and quasi-community (8%/year (95% CI:7%–10%)) cases. Changes in EC-BSI-associated 30-day mortality were at most modest (p>0·03), and mortality was substantial (14-25% across groups). By contrast, co-amoxiclav-resistant EC-BSIs increased in all groups (by 11%-19%/year, significantly faster than susceptible EC-BSIs, pheterogeneity<0·001), as did co-amoxiclav-resistant EC-UTIs (by 13%-29%/year, pheterogeneity*0·001). Co-amoxiclav use in primary-care facilities was associated with subsequent co-amoxiclav-resistant EC-UTIs (p=0·03) and all EC-UTIs (p=0·002). Interpretation Current increases in EC-BSIs in Oxfordshire are primarily community-associated, with high rates of co-amoxiclav resistance, nevertheless not impacting mortality. Interventions should target primary-care facilities with high co-amoxiclav usage. Funding National Institute for Health Research. Research in context Evidence before this study We searched PubMed for publications from inception up until October 26, 2017, with the terms "Escherichia coli", "E. coli", "bacteraemia", "bloodstream infection", restricting the search to English language articles, and also reviewed references from retrieved articles. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the most common cause of bloodstream infection, and the incidence of E. coli bloodstream infection, and particularly antibiotic-resistant infections, is increasing in the UK and internationally. Although the UK government aims to reduce healthcare-associated E. coli bloodstream infection, there is only limited evidence to inform appropriate interventions. Added value of this study We investigated potential drivers for these increases in incidence by exploiting available linked electronic health records over 19 years for ~5200 patients with E. coli bloodstream infection and ~140000 with E. coli urinary tract infection, together with community antimicrobial prescribing data for the most recent six years. Our study identified several findings with significant implications for health policy and patient care: Increases in the incidence of E. coli bloodstream infections were driven mainly by non-hospital-associated cases; however, neither patients with previous urinary tract infections nor having previously had urine specimens sent from catheters appeared to be driving the increases Co-amoxiclav-resistant bloodstream infections rose significantly faster than co-amoxiclav-susceptible bloodstream infections, with the greatest number of co-amoxiclav-resistant bloodstream infections in 2016 being in patients discharged more than a month previously (i.e. community-associated) Higher co-amoxiclav use in primary care was associated with higher rates of both co-amoxiclav-resistant E. coli urinary tract infections and E. coli urinary tract infections overall, supporting drives to reduce broad-spectrum and inappropriate antibiotic use in primary care Despite substantial increases in co-amoxiclav-resistant bloodstream infections there was no evidence that mortality was increasing in these cases; this does not support moving to broader empiric antibiotic prescribing in hospitals (i.e. carbapenems, piperacillin-tazobactam) Implications of all available advice This suggests that government strategies to effectively reduce E. coli bloodstream infections should target community settings, as well as healthcare-associated settings. The absence of an increased mortality signal suggests that co-amoxiclav resistant E. coli infections are either being successfully treated by dual empiric therapy in severe cases (e.g. with concomitant gentamicin), can be "rescued" once isolate susceptibilities become available, or currently deployed phenotypic susceptibility testing breakpoints do not adequately correlate with clinical outcome.


The growth of smart city applications is increasingly around the world, many cities invest in the development of these systems intending to improve the management and life of their residents. This increase is mainly due to the emergence of new technologies such as Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT). Some of the biggest challenges in applying these systems, relate to the processing, visualization, and analysis of the generated data, since most systems tend to work connected, thus generating a large mass of data that deviates from the standard of previously used systems. For data visualization, one of the main devices used is the reduction of dimensionality, in an attempt to bring data from one dimension N to two or three dimensions and thus be noticeable to human eyes. There are several algorithms used for dimensionality reduction, the linear ones that as the name implies, solve linearly separable problems and so these are very limited and the nonlinear ones, that solve more complex problems, but usually have an excessive runtime, making them or often inappropriate to apply. This article presents the parallel implementation of the nonlinear dimension reduction algorithm t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), showing better results than its conventional version in terms of runtime, thus showing that parallelism can make the problem of dimensionality reduction treatable, bringing greater scalability and delivering results within an acceptable time frame.


Several numerical modeling studies have identified the surface-based cold pool as a critical factor in the organization of deep precipitating convection (e.g., Thorpe et al. 1982; Rotunno et al. 1988; Fovell and Ogura 1989; Szeto and Cho 1994; Trier et al. 1997; Parker and Johnson 2004). However, direct observations of cold pools have been limited, due to the sparsity of the operational rawinsonde network in space and time. In particular, the evaluation of theories based on numerical models requires observations near the leading edge of a mesoscale convective system (MCS), preferably within the MCS convective region; this area is rarely measured, and usually not with the operational network.


Conformance testing is a crucial activity which aims at stimulating the communication system under test (SUT) to detect errors and unexpected behaviors with regard to the standards. However, when considering distributed systems, the joint and linked stimulation of distributed entities is not easy. The correlation of verdicts obtained from these entities is most of the time impossible in a real environment because of inherent constraints and specific assumptions. In this paper, we present a novel distributed testing architecture based on a formal definition of test cases dependencies to test the conformance of distributed systems in a black box context. Finally, using the ETSI TDL standard, we successfully apply our approach to a real IMS/SIP testbed and perform the tests through two SIP use cases.


On 13 May 2009, 13 surface‐based observing stations within central and western Oklahoma recorded maximum wind speeds in excess of 22.5 m s−1, along with gusts exceeding 28 m s−1 in isolated locations, during a localized wind storm that lasted in excess for over an hour. These wind speeds were associated with an enhanced mesoscale pressure gradient that developed during the late evening of 12 May 2009 and early morning hours of 13 May 2009, which then slowly propagated from west to east. Ultimately, the event produced localized wind damage in northern portions of Oklahoma City. Analysis of the synoptic and mesoscale conditions present at each stage of the event revealed that specific parameters associated with heat bursts occurred during the event, but with the inclusion of varying mesoscale and microscale influences. As such, a close examination of the mesoscale pressure field indicated that a dynamically variable mesoscale convective system (MCS) produced a mesohigh/mesolow couplet that ultimately created the strong pressure gradient. The result was a prolonged period (in excess of 1 h) of enhanced wind speed values across a swath approximately 300 km in length and 50 km in width that were not directly associated with the anomalously warmer and drier conditions that occurred due to the heat burst. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to select specific targets locating on the surface of epithelial ovarian cancer cells.

METHODS
Peptide phage display library was used to isolate specific ligand to ovarian cancer cell receptors. The diluted library was incubated with the normal ovarian cells that primarily cultured before hand, and then the supernatant of nonbonding phage was added to the first epithelial ovarian cancer cell line A2780. Phage that binds to the cell surface are eluted and then amplified to be used in the next round. After the third round of panning, the elute was used as input phage for the next cell line biopanning. Four epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines were used one by one in this way. Finally the positive clones were identified by ELISA assay. Sequencing analysis was carried out for further identification.

RESULTS
10 positive clones were chosen and one was regarded as target clone. A candidate sequence (YYGLAEVDAGGS) was identified by amino acid sequence assay.

CONCLUSION
The phage peptide library provides an efficient selection system for searching special targets locating on the cell surface.


The human inflammatory periodontal diseases are amongst the most common of chronic diseases to affect adults. Periodontitis is regarded as "an inflammatory lesion, mediated by complex host-parasite interactions, that leads to the loss of connective tissue attachment to root surface cementum and adjacent alveolar bone". Substantial data are available in the literature on the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants in disorders such as the inflammatory diseases. However, remarkably little information is available on the periodontal diseases, which show many of the pathological features of other chronic inflammatory diseases. The periodontal tissues also provide an ideal medium within which to study mechanisms of ROS mediated tissue damage and of antioxidant defense in response to bacterial colonisation, through the non-invasive collection of GCF. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the novel chitosan based functional drug delivery systems which can be successfully incorporated into "dual action bioactive restorative materials" containing common antibiotics such as tetracycline, krill oil, aloe and aspirin as commonly used antioxidant species. Methods: The novel hydrogels will be investigated with respect to the antioxidant capacity and drug release capacity of the tetracycline from the designer drug delivery system, the use of SEM imaging for the characterization of the surfaces and reactive features of novel materials with antimicrobial potential. Results: A steady slow release of tetracycline, while maintaining antibiotic effects against the tested bacteria, for at least 10 days was shown from designer chitosan-antioxidant hydrogels. Within the limitations of the study design chitosan-antioxidant hydrogels are suitable materials for functional restorative and periodontal applications in vitro. The addition of antioxidants to the tetracycline containing prototype delivery system had a beneficial effect on the design of the hydrogel by slowing down the release of tetracycline and thereby enabling a sustainable antifungal activity over time.


During the National Dissemination Seminar of the 1998 Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey, panelists highlighted the national decline in fertility from 4.1 children/woman in 1990-93 to 3.7 in 1995-98. This decline is accompanied by an increase in contraceptive use, with traditional methods accounting to 40% of all contraception used. Prevalence of contraceptive use is 47%, with female sterilization as the most common method. However, there still exists a 40% contraceptive discontinuation, which was largely attributed to contraceptive failure resulting to unplanned pregnancy. In response, the National Seminar planned the implementation of workshops at the regional level to present survey findings and elicit feedback on the implications and possible solutions to the problems encountered. Furthermore, analyses studies are underway on fertility preferences and the transition of the two child norms, and contraceptive use dynamics.


Geospatial metadata is description information of geography related data and resource, and it may effectively help users to get information for geography location, geospatial data evaluation, data comparison, data acquisition and other geography related data. Core issues of remote sensing (RS) image metadata system was discussed in this paper including RS image metadata database, RS image metadata standard, RS metadata management mode etc. A remote sensing image metadata issue system was design and implemented based on distributed metadata management.


The surgical management of large body wall defects presents special challenges. The prosthetic materials employed for these defects, although readily available, have the disadvantage of susceptibility to infection. Autologous tissue is frequently not available in sufficient quantity. The long-term functional and histologic results of the use of preserved human dura for closure of abdominal wall and diaphragmatic defects have been evaluated. Dural patches were sutured into abdominal wall and diaphragmatic defects of six dogs, using interrupted sutures of Dexon and Prolene. The animals were killed eight, 16 and 24 weeks after patch placement. The strength of the material was tested with a pneumoperitoneum prior to death and in all animals it appeared firmly incorporated into the host tissue. Histologically there was a mononuclear inflammatory response seen at eight weeks, with resolution by 24 weeks. Ingrowth of surrounding collagen and muscular tissue produced a firm union between the homologous material and the host tissue. The results of this study indicate that preserved human dura is an excellent material for closure of body wall defects. It appears to be well tolerated by host tissue and maintains its strength over prolonged periods of time.


The mathematical formulation of the two-dimensional (2D) L 1 -method for designing of the 2D-finite impulse response (FIR) filter is introduced in this study. It features the 2D-FIR filter with narrow transition width and flatter passband and stopband response. The 2D complexity is reduced using the quadrant symmetricity concept for the reduction of filter coefficients to be evaluated. Here, the unique features of the 2D L 1 -method are exploited for the efficient design of the 2D-FIR filter. To study the effectiveness of the 2D-FIR filter using the proposed method, its performance is compared with other existing 2D-FIR filter methods. Simulation results for five design example of 2D lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop filters and 2D differentiator are presented to prove the efficacy of the proposed design in terms of passband ripple, stopband ripple, passband error, stopband error and magnitude response.


[1] We present Cassini observations of a plasma vortex in Saturn's dayside outer magnetosphere. The vortex encounter took place on 13 December 2004 as Cassini was travelling toward the planet. The spacecraft crossed the magnetopause 3 times, before being immersed in the low-latitude boundary layer. During the transition between the boundary layer and the magnetosphere proper, the spacecraft observed deflected boundary layer plasma, a twisted magnetic field topology, and high-energy (>20 keV) directional electron fluxes. These observations are consistent with an encounter with a vortex on the inner edge of the boundary layer, an interface that is expected to be susceptible to the growth of the Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability due to its low magnetic shear. The size of the vortex is determined to be at least 0.55 RS, and a simple model of the current system resulting from the formation of the vortex is proposed. The possible acceleration mechanisms responsible for the high-energy electrons are discussed. The identification of the structure provides compelling evidence of the operation of the nonlinear K-H instability at Saturn's morning magnetospheric boundaries and has implications for our understanding of the transfer of energy and momentum between the solar wind and Saturn's magnetosphere.


The utilization of gels, which are used for fluid drilling of seeds, as carriers of Bradyrhizobium japonicum for soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) inoculation was studied. Gels of various chemical composition (magnesium silicate, potassium acrylate-acrylamide, grafted starch, and hydroxyethyl cellulose) were used, although the hydroxyethyl cellulose gels were more extensively investigated. Gel inocula were prepared by mixing gel powder with liquid cultures of B. japonicum (2% [wt/vol]). The population of B. japonicum USDA 110 did not change in each gel type during 8 days of incubation at 28°C. These fluid gels were prepared with late-exponential-growth-phase cells that were washed and suspended in physiological saline. Mid-exponential-growth-phase B. japonicum USDA 110, 123, and 138 grew in cellulose gels prepared with yeast extract-mannitol broth as well as or better than in yeast extract-mannitol broth alone for the first 10 days at 28°C. Populations in these cellulose gels after 35 days were as large as when the gels had originally been prepared, and survival occurred for at least 70 days. Soybeans grown in sand in the greenhouse had greater nodule numbers, nodule weights, and top weights with gel inoculants compared with a peat inoculant. In soil containing 103 indigenous B. japonicum per g of soil, inoculation resulted in increased soybean nodule numbers, nodule weights, and top weights, but only nodule numbers were greater with gel than with peat inoculation. The gel-treated seeds carried 102 to 103 more bacteria per seed (107 to 108) than did the peat-treated seeds.


This study is concerned about foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth across the world for the period of 1991-2001. This article produces fresh empirical evidence on the relation between FDI and economic growth obtained from single-equation and simultaneous equation estimates for 140 countries using macro economic variables. The results indicate that a positive and statistically significant estimate of coefficient of FDI is obtained from single equation ordinary least squares method for real per-capita GDP regressions in all but one case. There exists a positive and statistically significant relation between the real per-capita GDP and FDI in the case of many countries but correlation coefficient between exportsGDP ratio and percentage FDI is found to be insignificant. Country risk rating and the telecommunications variables are significant in all the relevant regressions and correlation estimates.


BACKGROUND: Death anxiety is one of the most common problems among women with cancer, which can affect the useful treatment process. With regard to the superior role of spiritual well-being over other aspects of health, the present study is aimed to compare the relationship between spiritual well-being and death anxiety among women with breast and cervical cancers and women with gastric and colorectal cancers. METHODOLOGY: This was a descriptive–correlational study. Research statistical population included Iranian women with cancer at major hospitals in Isfahan, Iran. 160 research samples were selected through convenience sampling method based on inclusion criteria using a demographic questionnaire, spiritual well-being scale (Paloutzian et al.) and death anxiety scale (Templer). Research data were analyzed through SPSS 22 using independent t-test, Pearson's correlation, and analysis of variance at significance level 0.05. RESULTS: The study findings indicated a significant inverse relationship between death anxiety and spiritual well-being (at 0.05) in both groups. As a result, people with higher spiritual well-being would experience less anxiety about death. In addition, the relationship between death anxiety and spiritual well-being in women with gastric and colorectal cancers was stronger than those with breast and cervical cancers. CONCLUSION: Spiritual well-being is of effective factors of death anxiety among women suffering from cancer. Spirituality and meeting spiritual needs are considered as nursing care priorities for these women. Furthermore, paying attention to the spirituality by nurses may shield against individual difficulties.


Author(s): Adams, Heather | Advisor(s): Teranishi, Robert | Abstract: The individual context and life course of women returning to higher education places them on a unique student development arc—one that does not necessarily align with the residential, youth-culture tradition of large public research universities. With this in mind, the aim of this study was to better understand the personal experiences and ecological dynamics of women transfer students over the age of 25 as they pursued a degree at UCLA. Currently, very little research literature focuses on age, gender, and the transfer student experience within the four-year university context, particularly within the R1 research university environment. This study helps fill this gap in the literature. I conducted interviews with 30 women to understand the challenges they faced as they juggled multiple roles—including parent, partner, employee, and student—and navigated a university that was not necessarily designed to meet their needs or prepared to engage students who arrived with rich life experience and knowledge. Study participants described major challenges that arose from traversing multiple roles and responsibilities while they were students. They reported feeling isolated, describing obstacles to their sense of connection that included issues related to navigating an institution set up to serve residential and financially dependent students. Moreover, age and a related sense of disconnect with the majority of other (typically younger) students were significant factors in their college experience. The women in the study desired to connect with others who shared their collective identity and to engage and develop in the campus environment. Although the women perceived a relative lack of institutional awareness regarding how their needs and experiences might differ from those of younger, residential students, the university did provide some key spaces. In doing so, the university demonstrated that these women and their peers were important and valued by the institution. When the women did have the opportunity to connect with others who shared their collective experience, they felt a strong sense of belonging and believed it enriched their academic experience as a whole. The people on campus who understood the transfer and non-traditional student context and the spaces and places that were designed to address the women's specific needs helped to generate pride and institutional loyalty for the study participants. The narratives and rich life experiences of the women interviewed for this study provide context and insight that can inform higher education policy and practice, particularly in relation to the post-traditional transfer student experience at the R1 university level. The dissertation includes recommendations for future research, policy, and practice to better serve this community of students. Recommendations for future research include continued investigation of the effect age and gender have on various aspects of the transfer student college experience at four-year universities. Particularly, how age may influence the socio-academic needs and integration of post-traditional students, as well as what impact students over the age of 25 have on the university community. Broad scale accountability and financial policies that effectively support post-traditional students such as outcomes-based funding, Pell Grant reform, and affordable child-care and housing options are discussed. Lastly, practice that deliberately fosters campus awareness regarding the post-traditional student experience and rallies ongoing university support for the community, such as inclusivity of women students over the age of 25 in the recruitment conversation and materials, staff and faculty professional development, unification of university messaging, and assessing and effectively meeting student need are suggested as immediate solutions to explicitly demonstrate that this community is recognized and valued by the university.


Different experimental approaches to determine the meson-nucleus optical potential are discussed. The experiments have been performed with the Crystal Barrel/TAPS detector system at the ELSA accelerator in Bonn and the Crystal Ball/TAPS at the MAMI accelerator inMainz. Experimental results about the real and imaginary part of the η′and ω-nucleus optical potential are presented. The imaginary part of the meson-nucleus optical potential is determined from the in-medium width of the meson by the measurement of the transparency ratio. Information on the real part of the optical potential is deduced from measurements of the excitation function and momentum distribution which are sensitive to the sign and depth of the potential. The results are discussed and compared to theoretical predictions. The data for both mesons are consistent with a weakly attractive potential. The formation and population of ω-nucleus and η′-nucleus bound states is additionally discussed.


It is quite common to think that any successful account of the standard of reasonable care in negligence law must revolve around the question of what reasonable care is. It is further conventional to suppose that an answer to that question will provide us with the normative materials to address the question of how to assess conformity with the standard's prescriptions (whatever they are). Indeed, tort theorists proceed by presupposing that the manner in which reasonableness is measured is derivative of, and so fully compatible with, the standard's content and its corresponding value (be that efficiency in the case of lawyer economists or formal equality in the case of corrective justice theorists).

However, I shall seek to show that this presupposition is wrong: The manner in which reasonable care is assessed is inconsistent with, and therefore frustrates, either the economic or the corrective justice account of this standard, or, for that matter, any tort theory that fails to take seriously the independent work that the how-to-assess question purports to do. Whereas both economic and corrective justice approaches advocate symmetric measurement of reasonable care across the defendant/plaintiff distinction, this article demonstrates that, in fact, the law applies this standard asymmetrically. Defendants are expected to discharge an objectively-fixed amount of care, whereas plaintiffs are for the most part assessed by reference to a subjective measurement of reasonable care. I shall argue that an asymmetric assessment of care, because it combines an unfavorable assessment of defendant's negligence with a favorable assessment of plaintiff's negligence, means that the victim gets to fix the terms of the interaction between them. This way of attending to the interests of others resonates well with a powerful notion of respect for persons — that to attend to others respectfully is to engage them on their own terms (including, most importantly, their distinctive judgments and sensibilities). And to the extent that the standard of care captures the moral center of negligence law, the asymmetry in care assessment suggests that the notion of true respect, rather than social welfare or formal equality, is the first virtue of the legal institution of negligence.


Mechanisms underlying the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have not yet been elucidated. In this study, we evaluated the balance of T cell subsets in BALB/c mice model of SLE induced; using Con A and polyamines as DNA immunogenicity modifiers. BALB/c mice were immunized subcutaneously with 50 µg extracted DNA from cells cultured in different conditions: splenocytes+ polyamines (group P), splenocytes+ Con A (group A), splenocytes+ polyamines+ Con A (group PA) and splenocytes only (control). Anti-double-stranded DNA -(ds-DNA) antibodies, proteinuria, and antinuclear autoantibodies were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Bradford method, and immunofluorescence respectively. Transcription factors of different T helper subsets were examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The serum level of the anti-dsDNA antibody in group PA was higher than that in the other groups (p>0.05). Antinuclear antibody (ANA) titer increased in groups A and PA. Proteinuria level in group PA was significantly higher than that in the control group (p<0.001). Expression of Foxp3 was decreased in group A (p=0.001). Additionally, the ratios of T-bet/GATA3 and T-bet/Foxp3 were also increased in group A. (p>0.05). Our results revealed an increased ratio of Th1 to Th2 and decreased expression of Foxp3 in group A, but group PA manifested more obvious signs of the disease. These results suggest that other mechanisms rather than disturbance in T cells' balance may involve the development of disease symptoms.


Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors with novel mechanical behaviors and electronic features are highly sought for a variety of potential applications. In this paper, by means of first-principles theory we study the mechanical and electronic properties of 2D IV–VI materials in detail, including SiS, SiSe, and Si2SSe. We reveal that the large values of negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) make these monolayers promising candidates for auxetic materials. Specifically, the in-plane NPR value of SiS monolayers reaches up to −0.19 in the x direction. In addition, the electrons in SiS monolayers have remarkably high mobility in the x direction, while the holes prefer to conduct in the y direction. Furthermore, under biaxial strain, the bandgaps of all these monolayers can be tuned effectively with ranges over 1.2 eV. All these appealing properties make SiS monolayers promising candidates for nanomechanic and optoelectronic applications.


Incorporation of all relevant information by stock prices in combination with investors' rational expectations and utility maximization is the one of the fundamentals that the modern portfolio theory is based upon. This brings long-term equilibrium and ensures that no one can persistently beat the market. However, as it is mentioned, this is the state of things in the long-term horizon, which, as numerous evidence suggest, may not hold for short-term horizon. Additionally, violation of any one of the fundamentals, such as presence of investors' herding behavior or information asymmetry makes the movement of stock prices to deviate from random walk pattern, thus providing a room for short-term outperformance. Up to date no absolutely efficient markets are known for world academic and investment community. The best know long-term approximation is represented by mature capital markets. As for emerging markets, so there is a long-term debate about their efficiency. Generally, emerging markets due to underdeveloped local economies, loose securities regulation, poor investors' rights protection, political instability and high exposure to external shocks are considered as inefficient. In this context the role of capital markets of the Central and Eastern Europe is quite ambiguous: on one hand having among themselves high-income economies with stable political systems and being closely located to developed economies they are considered as remote types of mature capital markets with corresponding high-level efficiency, while, on the other hand, having among themselves middle-income economies, some of which are even not members of the European Union, thus being characterized as less developed economies with low level of political stability and low quality governance, they are characterized as emerging capital markets with corresponding low-level efficiency. In the light of stated above the paper aims to test market efficiency of the emerging capital markets in 11 high- and middle-income economies from the Central and Easter Europe (here and after CEE) for the time span from 2000 to 2015. Following established practice a set of standardized efficiency test will be employed and data from Bloomberg terminal will be used.


Seizures are one of the most common neural disorders, and may be sporadic or recurrent (epilepsy) crisis. In the case of people with epilepsy, these must be treated throughout their lives, being a major phenytoin prescription for seizure control medicines out. However, despite having several decades in the market there is very little information about their genotoxic effects. Therefore in this study to evaluate the ability of phenytoin to induce genotoxic damage for 30 days using the micronucleus test in mice Mus musculus CD-1 strain. It was determined that the three doses of phenytoin used (2.8, 4.2 and 6.64 mg/kg) induced clastogenicity in mouse chromosomes, that at higher doses the damage is greater. Furthermore, also inhibiting cytotoxic damage induced cell kinetics for doses of 4.2 and 6.64 mg/kg.


Code updates, such as those for debugging purposes, are frequent and expensive in the early development stages of wireless sensor network applications. We propose AdapCode, a reliable data dissemination protocol that uses adaptive network coding to reduce broadcast traffic in the process of code updates. Packets on every node are coded by linear combination and decoded by Gaussian elimination. The core idea in AdapCode is to adaptively change the coding scheme according to the link quality. Our evaluation shows that AdapCode uses up to 40% less packets than Deluge in large networks. In addition, AdapCode performs much better in terms of load balancing, which prolongs the system lifetime, and has a slightly shorter propagation delay. Finally, we show that network coding is doable on sensor networks in that (i) it imposes only a 3 byte header overhead, (ii) it is easy to find linearly independent packets, and (3) Gaussian elimination needs only 1 KB of memory.


Over time various drivers affecting information technology architecture design have been proposed which favored more centralization or decentralization. The last major shift towards centralization starting in the late 1990s was motivated by standardization, integration, and cost issues. With the advent of ubiquitous computing, the next inflection point heading towards decentralization might arise. This paper aims to improve the understanding of the decentralization debate by investigating the drivers that influence the design decision on whether to store data on tag or not. The manufacturing domain is taken as an example for discussion from which key factors and management implications are derived. These form a model that can guide companies wishing to implement Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) on how to design their application.


People often forget and sometimes fantasize. This paper reports a large-scale experiment on memory errors and their relation to preferential traits including time preference, attitudes toward risk and ambiguity, and psychological characteristics such as anticipatory feelings. We observe systematic incidences of false memory in favor of positive events and positive amnesia in forgetting past negative events. Both positive delusion and positive confabulation significantly relate to present bias, but this is not the case for positive amnesia. In an intraperson, multiple-self model, we demonstrate that positive false memory, rather than selective amnesia, serves to enhance confidence in one's future self in equilibrium, thereby accounting for our experimental findings.


OBJECTIVES--To examine the clinical correlates of catatonia in depression, to validate a scale for catatonia, and to assess the validity of the DSM-IV criteria of the catatonic features specifier for mood disorders. METHODS--A series of 79 consecutive patients with depression and 41 patients with Parkinson's disease without depression were examined using the modified Rogers scale (MRS), the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (UPDRS), and the structured clinical interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). RESULTS--Sixteen of the 79 depressed patients (20%) had catatonia. Depressed patients with catatonia had significantly higher scores on the MRS than non-catatonic depressed patients matched for severity of depression, or non-depressed patients with Parkinson's disease matched for severity of motor impairment. Depressed patients with catatonia were older, had a significantly higher frequency of major depression, more severe cognitive impairments, and more severe deficits in activities of daily living than depressed non-catatonic patients. The DSM-IV criteria of catatonia separated depressed catatonic patients from patients with Parkinson's disease matched for motor impairment, with a specificity of 100%. Catatonic signs did not improve after apomorphine. CONCLUSIONS--catatonia is most prevalent among elderly patients with severe depression. The study showed the validity of the MRS for the diagnosis of catatonia in depressed patients, as well as the specificity of the DSM-IV criteria of the catatonic features specifier.


This research entitled "Model of increasing rubber plantation production as the base sector in Jambi Province". This research started from the problem of low PDRB of regency / city in Jambi Province which has the potential to produce rubber. This phenomenon is related to the low productivity of rubber plantations in Jambi Province. In terms of rubber plantation has the potential to become the base sector in the region's economy. The production improvement model developed so far is still limited to multiple linear regression models. The problem of increasing rubber plantation productivity is much more complex. Therefore, this research will develop model of increasing rubber plantation production with simultaneous equation model and analyzed by Multiple Regression Model to obtain Model of productivity improvement of rubber plantation. This study will use secondary data released by institutions and related agencies, especially BPS. Data analysis will be done with eviews application program. The results of research will be useful as information for the next author's research in order to write a dissertation that the author is carrying out. The results of this study can also be used for policy making in increasing rubber plantation productivity. The results showed that 1) The development of rubber plantation production in Jambi Province is quite rapid, that in 2001 the production amount was 239,330 tons and in 2015 the production of rubber plantation increased to 350,457 tons. The growth rate is also quite convincing, ie an average of 2.65% per year. 2) The results showed that the regression model used in data analysis is good enough so as to explain the effect of independent variables of 96%. It can be explained also that the factors of rubber plantation area and the number of rainy days have a significant influence on rubber plantation production, while the variables of rubber farmers and rubber prices do not significantly affect the production of rubber plantations in Jambi Province. 3) The results also showed that the model of rubber price increase to two independent variables, the length of asphalt road and the capacity of rubber plant. However, the regression model obtained is not good enough to explain, where the variable length of the asphalt road and the capacity of the rubber plant is only able to explain 58% to the variable of rubber price in Jambi Province.


The availability of high-quality digital seismic data has never been better than it is today. Through consortia such as the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) and Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology (ORFEUS), waveform data from stations of many worldwide networks are available via the Internet to the international community of seismologists. When a user examines a segment of data, it is assumed that the time displayed is the exact time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) at which the motion was recorded. In general, when retrieving data segments from a waveform repository, there is no independent confirmation of the validity of the time stamp. In this paper, I discuss a case where a user discovered an erroneous time stamp on data from a single-site station. A fortuitous source of repeating seismic signals, together with data from another nearby station, facilitated measurement of the timing anomaly during the period in question. Erroneous timing on seismograms might be more widespread than assumed; the identification and documentation of such cases requires more attention.

The IRIS/GEOFON/AWI seismic station at King's Bay Station (KBS) is situated near Ny Alesund, King's Bay, on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen (figure 1). The location is important in the context of nuclear-explosion monitoring due to the relative proximity of the Russian island of Novaya Zemlya, the site of numerous Soviet-era nuclear tests, the last known event being on 24 October 1990. Also on Spitsbergen, a highly sensitive small-aperture seismic array, SPITS, became operational in 1994 and is now a designated Auxiliary Seismic Array (AS72) of the International Monitoring System (IMS) of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO). However, the KBS station is still of great importance given both the high quality of the continuous seismic data and the availability of the historical data recorded at that site. …


The high speed tomographic technique has been used to study premixed flame propagation in stagnation flow stabilized flames. Studies are performed on CH4/Air and C2H4/Air flames with equivalence ratios ranging from 0.75 to 1.0. The gas velocity at the nozzle exit is 5 m/s, the turbulence intensity is varied from 5% to 7% and the turbulence Reynolds number is 70. The light source is a copper vapor laser which produces 20ns, 5 mJ pulses at a 4KHz repetition rate. Cylindrical lenses transform the 38 mm circular laser beam to a sheet 50 mm high and 0.6 mm thick. A high speed Fastax camera is used to record the tomographic images. The films are digitized and the flame front extracted from the images by a thresholding technique. A fractal analysis was performed on the flame boundaries in order to characterize the flame geometry and provide an estimate of the flame surface area. The flame area increase was found to give a reasonable estimate of the burning rate when compared with other methods if the effects of flow tube divergence were considered. Characteristic wrinkle sizes were found to be much larger than the length scales of the turbulence in the reactant stream.more » 8 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.« less


Context. The chemistry of the diffuse interstellar medium rests upon three pillars: exothermic ion-neutral reactions ("cold chemistry"), endothermic neutral-neutral reactions with significant activation barriers ("warm chemistry"), and reactions on the surfaces of dust grains. While warm chemistry becomes important in the shocks associated with turbulent dissipation regions, the main path for the formation of interstellar OH and H2O is that of cold chemistry. Aims. The aim of this study is to observationally confirm the association of atomic oxygen with both atomic and molecular gas phases, and to understand the measured abundances of OH and OH as a function of the available reservoir of H2. Methods. We obtained absorption spectra of the ground states of OH, OH and O iwith high-velocity resolution, with GREAT onboard SOFIA, and with the THz receiver at the APEX. We analyzed them along with ancillary spectra of HF and CH from HIFI. To deconvolve them from the hyperfine structure and to separate the blend that is due to various velocity components on the sightline, we fit model spectra consisting of an appropriate number of Gaussian profiles using a method combining simulated annealing with downhill simplex minimization. Together with HF and/or CH as a surrogate for H2, and H i λ21 cm data, the molecular hydrogen fraction f N H2 = N(H2)/(N(H) + 2N(H2)) can be determined. We then investigated abundance ratios as a function of f N H2 . Results. The column density of O i is correlated at a high significance with the amount of available molecular and atomic hydrogen, with an atomic oxygen abundance of 3 × 10−4 relative to H nuclei. While the velocities of the absorption features of OH and OH are loosely correlated and reflect the spiral arm crossings on the sightline, upon closer inspection they display an anticorrespondence. The arm-to-interarm density contrast is found to be higher in OH than in OH. While both species can coexist, with a higher abundance in OH than in OH, the latter is found less frequently in absence of OH than the other way around, which is a direct consequence of the rapid destruction of OH by dissociative recombination when not enough H2 is available. This conjecture has been substantiated by a comparison between the OH/OH ratio with f N H2 , showing a clear correlation. The hydrogen abstraction reaction chain OH(H2,H)H2O (H2,H)H3O + is confirmed as the pathway for the production of OH and H2O. Our estimate of the branching ratio of the dissociative recombination of H3O + to OH and H2O is confined within the interval of 84 to 91%, which matches laboratory measurements (74 to 83%). – A correlation between the linewidths and column densities of OH features is found to be significant with a false-alarm probability below 5%. Such a correlation is predicted by models of interstellar MHD turbulence. For OH the same correlation is found to be insignificant because there are more narrow absorption features. Conclusions. While it is difficult to assess the contributions of warm neutral-neutral chemistry to the observed abundances, it seems fair to conclude that the predictions of cold ion-neutral chemistry match the abundance patterns we observed.


Summary
 Blow fly development is frequently used to help determine a time of colonization, which can be used to infer a minimum postmortem interval (mPMI) in death investigations. Fifty larvae of the blow fly Lucilia coeruleiviridis were studied at 25 °C, 14:10 h L:D and ∼60–70% RH. Daily observations were made, and total development times were determined. To our knowledge, this is the first study to record development times for this species.


Over the past few decades, increase in life expectancy has facilitated longevity of family members but decreasing fertility rates have reduced the number of members to support each other, thereby giving birth to more complex family structures. This change in inter-personal dynamics has instigated major scientific attention towards its possible implication on various facets of intergenerational relationships and family life. Although the Theory of Intergenerational Solidarity and Theory of Ambivalence, have been by far the most widely utilized theoretical contributions, borrowed from social sciences, for conceptualization of this interpersonal exchange, however, they do not essentially cover all the underlying dynamics and therefore it is argued that still a need exists for theoretical guidance and further consolidation of the discipline, specially from the psychological and developmental perspective. With this respect, in the present article, the usefulness of the concept of generativity, from Erikson's theory of life span development, is reviewed and its contributions, limitations and prospects for understanding intergenerational relationships have been explored.


The thermosolutal convection in a couple-stress fluid layer heated and soluted from below in porous medium is considered to include the effects of uniform vertical magnetic field and uniform vertical rotation. Following the linearized stability theory and normal mode analysis, the dispersion relation is obtained. For the case of stationary convection, the stable solute gradient and rotation have stabilizing effects on the system. In the presence of rotation, the medium permeability has a destabilizing (or stabilizing) effect whereas magnetic field and couple-stress parameter have stabilizing (or destabilizing) effect on the system. On the other hand, in the absence of rotation, medium permeability has a destabilizing effect whereas magnetic field and couple-stress parameter have a stabilizing effect. The dispersion relation is also analyzed numerically. The stable solute gradient, rotation and magnetic field introduce oscillatory modes in the system, which were nonexistent in their absence. A condition for the system to be stable is obtained by using Rayleigh-Ritz inequality.


We compared platelet aggregation with changes in fibronectin (FN) plasma levels in children with various forms of primary CGN. We found that a rise in platelet aggregation and plasma FN level depends on CGN clinical form, extent of inflammation and sclerotic changes in nephric tissue. The greatest changes occurred in patients with nephrotic CGN and with segmentary glomerulosclerosis.


Objective To examine the relation between time from onset of symptoms and coming under ambulance and hospital care on fatality in patients with evolving acute myocardial infarction, and on the proportions who survive because of resuscitation and thrombolytic treatment. Design Prospective community and hospital study over two years. Delay was measured from the onset of symptoms to arrival at hospital, and from the onset to coming under care from ambulance personnel. Setting Four general hospitals serving three United Kingdom health districts. Patients 2213 patients under 75 years of age, 111 of whom had been successfully resuscitated from out of hospital cardiac arrest. Interventions Resuscitation from cardiac arrest; thrombolytic treatment. Main outcome measures 30 day fatality and lives saved by the two forms of treatment. Results Times from symptom onset to coming under hospital care and to starting thrombolytic treatment (given to 53% of patients) were ⩽ 1 hour in 15% and 2% of patients respectively, ⩽ 2 hours in 54% and 25%, and ⩽ 4 hours in 67% and 55%. Overall, 30 day fatality was 138/1000 patients treated; 64/1000 (95% confidence interval 54 to 74) survived because of treatment, and 80% of this salvage was attributable to resuscitation. Delay was an important factor: 107/1000 (60 to 144) lives were saved for those coming under care within 1 hour compared with 21/1000 (5 to 37) for those who delayed for more than 12 hours. Further analysis including the 111 patients with out of hospital arrest showed that 34% of those coming to hospital by ambulance came under ambulance care within 1 hour; for this subset, 30 day fatality was 173/1000, and 136 (109 to 163) lives were saved by treatment. Conclusions Results of treatment are strongly related to delay in coming under care. Reduction in delay can reduce mortality from acute myocardial infarction.


This article argues that the contemporary American empire displays two structural limits. The first refers to geographical limits. As opposed to most of its imperial predecessors, the logic of contemporary US power militates against direct, territorial domination as a means of sustaining global hegemony. The second limitation, tightly linked to this first one, is that of power defined in a conventional sense as the capacity to secure outcomes. Consequently, since 1945 the USA has generally projected its global power through open doors (capitalist markets) and closed frontiers (sovereign territorial states). The article explores the peculiar limits to US empire with reference to two of its principal western precursors — the Roman and British empires — and concludes that the recent invasion and occupation of Iraq highlights the perils of an American strategy that seeks to conquer territories militarily and politically control their populations.


While many developed countries have typically been facing problems related to four-wheeled traffic, developing countries are facing problems related to small motorized vehicles, such as motorcycles. However, very few studies have been conducted to the traffic operation of motorcycles in the existing literature. This study proposes the methodology to estimate the motorcycle unit (MCU) with a consideration of dynamic characteristics of moving vehicles. It expresses the relationship between speeds and occupied spaces with respect to motorcycles and other types of vehicles. A case study is introduced in order to estimate the parameters of proposed formula by using microscopic traffic data at three mid- blocks in Hanoi, Vietnam. Then, the proposed methodology is compared with previous methods. The results show that the proposed formula represents the best among them. The findings provide useful information that can be used to develop the speed-flow relationship, estimate highway capacity, analyze level of service, and formulate effective traffic regulation and control measures.


The increasing diffusion of the 4-quadrant approach (private equity, public equity, private debt, public debt) in the real estate investment opens up new questions to the theory and practise of asset allocation. Within the common top-down approach of asset allocation the question whether quoted real estate companies are to be regarded as a real estate investment or as a isector playi within the stock allocation is especially controversially discussed. From a traditional Finance perspective, real estate stocks are often assigned to stocks as a result of relatively high correlation with stocks and (superficially) low correlation with direct real estate investment. As a result of a fundamental economic analysis this approach is questionable. Apart from some real-economic differences (leverage, tax, etc.), which can be isolated, the underlying assets are the same within the same market segment. Due to this fact, arbitrage possibilities led to the convergence of pricing between the different quadrants. The traditional approach of asset allocation, based on Modern Portfolio Theory, has severe limitations due to difficulties in measuring risks and correlations of direct real estate investment. Therefore, I will argue in my paper that for investors with a long time horizon, the asset allocation should start with a basis decision in which degree an investment in real estate is favourable for the overall portfolio. This decision should be based primarily on economic fundamentals. Subsequently, the allocation within the 4 quadrants can be done on a second level, separately for real estate and business case (double 4-quadrant approach).


Combined heat and power (CHP) plants have opportunities to work as distributed power generation for providing heat and power demand. Furthermore, CHP plants contribute effectively to overcoming the intermittence of renewable energy sources as well as load dynamics. CHP plants need optimal solution(s) for providing electrical and heat energy demand simultaneously within the smart network environment. CHP or cogeneration plant operations need appropriate techno-economic dispatching of combined heat and power with minimising produced energy cost. The interrelationship between heat and power development in a CHP unit, the valve point loading effect, and forbidden working regions of a thermal power plant make the CHP economic dispatch's (CHPED) objective function discontinuous. It adds complexity in the CHPED optimisation process. The key objective of the CHPED is operating cost minimisation while meeting the desired power and heat demand. To optimise the dispatch operation, three different algorithms, like Jaya algorithm, Rao 3 algorithm, and hybrid CHPED algorithm (based on first two) are adopted containing different equality and inequality restrictions of generating units. The hybrid CHPED algorithm is developed by the authors, and it can handle all of the constraints. The success of the suggested algorithms is assessed on two test systems; 5-units and 24-unit power plants.


Single crystals of dark-red MgB(7) were grown from the elements in a Cu-melt. The crystal structure (Pearson symbol oI64; space group Imma; a = 10.478(2) Å, b = 5.977(1) Å, c = 8.125(2) Å, 2842 reflns, 48 params, R(1)(F) = 0.018, R(2)(I) = 0.034) consists of a hexagonal-primitive packing of B(12)-icosahedra and B(2)-units in trigonal-prismatic voids. According to the UV-vis spectra and band structure calculations MgB(7) is semiconducting with an optical gap of 1.9 eV. The long B-B distance of 2.278 Å within the B(2)-unit can be seen as a weak bonding interaction. The new Mg(∼5)B(44) occurs beside the well-known MgB(12) as a byproduct. Small fragments of the black crystals are dark-yellow and transparent. The crystal structure (Pearson symbol tP196, space group P4(1)2(1)2, a = 10.380(2) Å, c = 14.391(3) Å, 4080 reflns, 251 params, R(1)(F) = 0.025, R(2)(I) = 0.037) is closely related to tetragonal boron-II (t-B(192)). It consists of B(12)-icosahedra and B(19+1)-units. With a charge of -6 for the B(19+1)-units and a Mg-content of ∼20 Mg-atoms per unit cell the observed Mg content in Mg(∼5)B(44) is quite close to the expected value derived from simple electron counting rules. All compositions were confirmed by EDXS. The microhardness was measured on single crystals for MgB(7) (H(V) = 2125, H(K) = 2004) and MgB(12) (H(V) = 2360, H(K) = 2459).


This paper analyses a variable reconstruction technique for identifying a faulty sensor. The reconstruction is associated with the application of principal component analysis (PCA) and attempts to remove "fault information" from the sensor reading. It is shown that the reconstruction (i) affects the geometry of the PCA decomposition (ii) leads to changes in the covariance matrix of the sensor readings and (iii) alters the determination of PCA based monitoring statistics in terms of their confidence limits. These changes must be incorporated into the monitoring scheme, as false alarms may otherwise be encountered. Consequently, an improved reconstruction based fault diagnosis is proposed here.


The passage of a tube through the nose to the epipharynx is potentially dangerous during the nasotracheal intubation because of the possibility of cuff damage, obstruction of the tube, the impossibility of advancing the tube and contamination. It seems therefore useful to protect the cuff e.g. by a finger stall, but using this procedure complications can occur which are reported. A better solution to protect the cuff will be shown.


Traditionally the gene expression pathway has been regarded as being comprised of independent steps, from RNA transcription to protein translation. To date there is increasing evidence of coupling between the different processes of the pathway, specifically between transcription and splicing. To study the interplay between these processes we derived a transcription-splicing integrated network. The nodes of the network included experimentally verified human proteins belonging to three groups of regulators: transcription factors, splicing factors and kinases. The nodes were wired by instances of predicted transcriptional and alternative splicing regulation. Analysis of the network indicated a pervasive cross-regulation among the nodes; specifically, splicing factors are significantly more connected by alternative splicing regulatory edges relative to the two other subgroups, while transcription factors are more extensively controlled by transcriptional regulation. Furthermore, we found that splicing factors are the most regulated of the three regulatory groups and are subject to extensive combinatorial control by alternative splicing and transcriptional regulation. Consistent with the network results, our bioinformatics analyses showed that the subgroup of kinases have the highest density of predicted phosphorylation sites. Overall, our systematic study reveals that an organizing principle in the logic of integrated networks favor the regulation of regulatory proteins by the specific regulation they conduct. Based on these results, we propose a new regulatory paradigm postulating that gene expression regulation of the master regulators in the cell is predominantly achieved by cross-regulation.


—Requirement prioritization is recognized as an important decision-making activity in requirements engineering and software development. Requirement prioritization is applied to determine which requirements should be implemented and released. In order to prioritize requirements, there are several approaches/techniques/tools that use different requirements prioritization criteria, which are often identified by gut feeling instead of an in-depth analysis of which criteria are most important to use. Therefore, in this study we investigate which requirements prioritization criteria are most important to use in industry when determining which requirements are implemented and released, and if the importance of the criteria change depending on how far a requirement has reached in the development process. We conducted a quantitative study of one completed project from one software developing company by extracting 32,139 requirements prioritization decisions based on eight requirements prioritization criteria for 11,110 requirements. The results show that not all requirements prioritization criteria are equally important, and this change depending on how far a requirement has reached in the development process.


The metalloproteinase from Thermoactinomyces sp. 27a (Mpr) represents secretory thermolysin-like metalloproteinases of the M4 family. The Thermoactinomyces enzyme is synthesized as a precursor consisting of a signal peptide, N-terminal propeptide, mature region, and C-terminal propeptide. The functional molecule lacks the signal peptide, N-terminal propeptide, and C-terminal propeptide, which indicates the processing of these regions. Until now, it remained unclear if the N-terminal propeptide is involved in the formation and functioning of Mpr, and the role of the C-terminal propeptide was also unclear. In this work, a Bacillus subtilis AJ73 strain expressing Mpr without the C-terminal propeptide- encoding region being involved has been obtained. The absence of the Mpr C-terminal propeptide had no significant effect on the formation of the functional molecule and did not interfere with the protease secretion in B. subtilis AJ73 cells. Strains producing the N-terminal propeptide, mature region, and mature region covalently bound to the N-terminal propeptide were generated from Escherichia coli BL-21(DE3) cells. Functionally active Mpr forms could be produced only in the presence of the N-terminal propeptide, either covalently bound to the mature region (in cis) or as a separate molecule (in trans). Thus, the Mpr three-dimensional structure is formed according to the propeptide-assisted mechanism with no requirement of a covalent bond between the N-terminal propeptide and mature region. Moreover, Mpr variants generated in cis and in trans differed in their specificity for certain synthetic substrates.


This paper presents a novel combdrive configuration of a linear magnetic microactuator. We discuss in detail the influence of the air-gap geometry on the plunger motion and give design rules to avoid pull-in behavior. This analysis results in a new configuration, which is, so far, only known for electrostatic actuators. The magnetic flux is guided over several interdigitating comb structures with moderate large gap width of 25 mum instead of one single plunger, as reported for earlier designs. This results in larger forces, scaling with the number of comb fingers, until the material reaches saturation. The new configuration linearizes the characteristics and saves driving power without sacrificing fabrication stability, which would arise from small air-gap widths. Several combdrive actuators featuring one, two, and eight comb fingers were fabricated in LIGA technology, simulated, and tested. For a driving current of 40 mA, the achievable stroke is measured to increase by 800% for eight comb fingers in comparison to one finger. Alternatively, for a given stroke, a reduction of the driving current of more than 50% is measured.


Background: Low serum zinc concentration is associated with obesity, and its deficiency has been linked to many pathogenesis aspects of obesity. The present study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of zinc deficiency in the obese adults with increased appetite in Shiraz, Fars province, south of Iran. Furthermore, we aimed to evaluate the serum zinc correlation with some demographic and anthropometric indices. Methods: In this study, 260 adults with the ages ranged from 25 to 55 years old were selected for serum zinc concentration. Age, sex, job, education level, physical actively, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), and waist to hip ratio (WHR) were also recorded for each participants. Using calorimeter method, we considered the serum level of zinc less than 70μg/dL as deficient. Results: Mean serum level of zinc was 96.37 ± 18.24 μg/dL. The prevalence rate of zinc deficiency was 8%, which was more prevalent among female participants than male ones with no significant difference (9.8% and 4.6%, respectively, Pvalue = 0.14). The participants' characteristics were not statistically different between normal and deficient groups, and serum zinc concentration had no correlation with age, sex, height, weight, BMI, WC, HC, and WHR. Conclusions: Zinc deficiency in obese adults living in Shiraz is as prevalent as other population groups, and also other regions of Iran. Zinc deficiency is considered as a possible risk factor for obesityrelated diseases, and requires more investigations.


Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a novel optical sensing technique with a unique ability to monitor molecular binding in real-time for biological and chemical sensor applications. Interferometry is an excellent tool for accurate measurement of SPR changes, the measurement and comparison is made for the sensitivity, dynamic range and resolution of the different analytes using interferometry techniques. SPR interferometry can also employ phase detection in addition to the amplitude of the reflected light wave, and the phase changes more rapidly compared with other approaches, i.e., intensity, angle and wavelength. Therefore, the SPR phase interferometer offers the advantages of spatial phase resolution and high sensitivity. This work discusses the advancements in interferometric SPR methods to measure the phase shifts due to refractive index changes. The main application areas of SPR sensors are demonstrated, i.e., the Fabry-Perot interferometer, Michelson interferometer and Mach-Zehnder interferometer, with different configurations. The three interferometers are discussed in detail, and solutions are suggested to enhance the performance parameters that will aid in future biological and chemical sensors.