Quality engineering education requires a proper balance between an up-do-date specialized training and a general broad background in key areas of scientific and social human knowledge. The strengthening of interdisciplinary aspects in the engineering curriculum combined with a more decisive exposure to frontier ideas of modern science can provide a viable antidote to a damaging fragmentation of knowledge into numerous and poorly interacting "areas of expertise". Active exposure to interdisciplinary areas stimulates curiosity, encourages self-directed learning and positively contributes to an individual's creativity and intellectual independence.


Objective
Chronic subdural haematoma (CSDH) is a common neurosurgical problem, and treatment includes evacuation of the haematoma by burr hole drainage. Commonly, these procedures are performed under local anaesthesia, general anaesthesia or, recently, with monitored anaesthesia care (MAC). We compared dexmedetomidine- and propofol-based sedation along with scalp nerve block for burr hole evacuation of CSDH.

Methods
In this prospective randomised study, 62 patients were divided into the following two groups of 31 patients each: Group D and Group P. Group D received dexmedetomidine 1 μg kg-1 over 10 minutes as a loading dose, followed by 0.2-0.7 μg kg-1 hr-1. Group P received propofol 1 mg kg-1 over 10 minutes as a loading dose, followed by 1-3 mg kg-1 hr-1. The heart rate (HR) and blood pressure were measured at different intervals. The recovery parameter and satisfaction score were also recorded.

Results
There were no significant differences noted in the demographic profile. A significant decrease in HR compared to preoperative value was seen in Group D compared to Group P. Blood pressure values were statistically significantly lower in both study groups, compared to preoperative values during the whole procedure and after surgery (p<0.05). Time to achieve modified Aldrete score of 9-10 was not significantly different between the groups (p=0.354). Surgeon satisfaction was significantly better in Group D compared to Group P (p<0.05), but patient satisfaction was similar between the groups (p=0.364).

Conclusion
Dexmedetomidine-based sedation compared to propofol, along with scalp block for MAC in patients undergoing burr hole evacuation of CSDH is associated with haemodynamic stability and greater surgeon satisfaction.


Auxin and ethylene are shown to be important mediating factors in depth accommodation in Nymphoides, as in other water plants. Control of growth by both these regulators is shown to depend on their capacity to affect extensibility of the cell wall. Neutral sugar composition in the fraction of the cell wall most likely to be the site of the wall- loosening reactions is assayed, but no change in the proportions of the constituent monosaccharides was detected even where large increases in length were induced by auxin and ethylene. Thus no light was shed on this aspect of cell growth.

Using a variety of techniques, the effects of ethylene and auxin are assessed in the light of current theories on the mode of action of plant growth regulators; both auxin and ethylene are shown to stimulate proton excretion when they promote extension. Acid alone also stimulates extension. It is thus concluded that auxin and ethylene promote growth by an "acid-growth" mechanism i.e. they stimulate hydrogen ion efflux from the cytoplasm into the cell wall, the resultant pH drop in the wall causes an increase in WE and thereby leads to a substantial increase in the rate of cell expansion.

This is the first reported finding that ethylene works by an acid- growth mechanism when it promotes growth. The extension of "acid-growth" to this novel situation of rapid-growth promotion is important support for the theory. In a second species, Regnellidium diphyllum, predictions of the "acid-growth" theory were tested but despite repeated attempts, were not fulfilled. This is the only known tissue which shows rapid growth in response to auxin, but not to acid. Implications for the "acid-growth" theory, of the findings on both Nymphoides and Regnellidium are discussed.


The ionic requirements for the generation of action potentials in the ventral longitudinal muscle fibres of the stick insect, Carausius morosus , were investigated. Ca-free Ringer rapidly and reversibly abolished the action potential. In the presence of tetraethylammonium (TEA) ions (to suppress outward currents) the overshoot of the action potential changed 26 mV for a 10-fold change in [Ca]o. The maximum rate of rise of the action potential (measured in TEA Ringer) showed saturation at high [Ca]o. Cobaltous ions (20 mM) and the organic Ca antagonist D 600 (5×10−4g/ml) reversibly inhibited the action potential; the inhibitory effect of 1 mM-La3+ was irreversible. Barium and strontium, but not magnesium, were able to substitute for calcium as charge carriers. These results suggest that an inward movement of Ca2+ underlies the action potential of Carausius fibres.


Presentation of the main approaches to build phylogenetic trees from sequence data. The focus will be on : (1) probabilistic models of sequence evolution (JC, K2P, HKY, GTR, JTT, WAG and LG) ; (2) modeling of rates accross sites using gama distributions ; (3) likelihood calculations; (4) tree inference approaches ; (5) bootstrap and other branch supports. I'll both explain the theory and train the students with practicals using standard programs and web servers (PHYLIP, PhyML, Phylogeny.fr).


Click-Through Rate (CTR) prediction, crucial in applications like recommender systems and online advertising, involves ranking items based on the likelihood of user clicks. User behavior sequence modeling has marked progress in CTR prediction, which extracts users' latent interests from their historical behavior sequences to facilitate accurate CTR prediction. Recent research explores using implicit feedback sequences, like unclicked records, to extract diverse user interests. However, these methods encounter key challenges: 1) temporal misalignment due to disparate sequence time ranges and 2) the lack of fine-grained interaction among feedback sequences. To address these challenges, we propose a novel framework called TEM4CTR, which ensures temporal alignment among sequences while leveraging auxiliary feedback information to enhance click behavior at the item level through a representation projection mechanism. Moreover, this projection-based information transfer module can effectively alleviate the negative impact of irrelevant or even potentially detrimental components of the auxiliary feedback information on the learning process of click behavior. Comprehensive experiments on public and industrial datasets confirm the superiority and effectiveness of TEM4CTR, showcasing the significance of temporal alignment in multi-feedback modeling.


118 Background: The use of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for the treatment of prostate cancer (CaP) has been widely promoted due to the hypothesized benefit of low late toxicity.

METHODS
The SEER-Medicare database was queried for CaP patients treated with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), 1991-2007. CPT billing codes were used to identify patients treated with IMRT or standard EBRT (sEBRT), which was comprised of conformal radiotherapy or a four-field technique. Patients without a treatment billing code were excluded from the analysis. Information on dose is unavailable. CPT codes were also used to identify procedures associated with gastrointestinal (GI) or genitourinary (GU) toxicity related treatments. Cumulative incidence rates for GI and GU toxicity were calculated with death treated as a competing event.

RESULTS
A total of 137,427 patients who were 65 years or older at the time of CaP diagnosis and who had CaP as their only cancer diagnosis were retrieved from the SEER-Medicare database: 60,806 were treated with EBRT and a treatment billing code was identified for 35,388 patients. No patient received combined therapy. Seventeen percent of patients received IMRT. The median follow-up for patients receiving IMRT is 40 months (mo) (range 2-157) vs 77 mo (range 0-203) for patients receiving sEBRT. Overall, 3,699 (10%) patients experienced a toxicity requiring an intervention. The five year rate of GI The gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) toxicity comparisons are listed in the table. For both endpoints, rate of toxicity at five years was higher for the IMRT group. The most common GU toxicity for both groups was dilation of a urethral stricture (3.8% of all sEBRT patients vs 3.4 of all IMRT patients). Cauterization of rectal bleeding was the most common GI toxicity (2.4% of all sEBRT patients vs 1.6 of all IMRT patients).

CONCLUSIONS
While the rates of GI toxicity between IMRT and sEBRT are comparable, of concern is the higher rate of GU toxicity for the IMRT patients despite this group having a shorter follow up than the sEBRT group. [Table: see text].


The traffic congestion detection based on the internet of vehicles is gaining enormous research interest. A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)-based method for the detection of road traffic congestion is proposed. Firstly, a fuzzy controller was constructed based on the vehicle speed, traffic density, and traffic congestion rating system, and the level of local traffic congestion was evaluated. Then, the level of local traffic congestion of neighbouring vehicles was queried based on V2V communication, and the level of regional traffic congestion was obtained based on a large sub-sample hypothesis test. Finally, a simulation test platform was built based on vehicles in network simulation, and the back-off time slots and received packets of vehicle nodes were calculated. The accuracy of the proposed method for detecting road traffic congestion was compared to the cooperative traffic congestion detection (
 CoTEC
) method and the geomagnetic coil
 method. The results show that the detection accuracy of the proposed method increased by 5.5 and 7.5%, respectively, compared to the geomagnetic coil
 method and CoTEC
 method. The V2V communication network overhead of the proposed traffic congestion detection method is reduced by 90.8% compared to the adopted CoTEC
 method. The communication overhead of the vehicle node using the proposed method is significantly decreased when there is no traffic congestion.


OBJECTIVE
To study the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) gene in breast cancer and its clinicopathologic characteristics.

METHODS
With beta-actin gene as reference, the COX-2 mRNA was monitored in 30 specimens of breast cancer tissue and adjacent normal breast tissue by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

RESULTS
The COX-2 mRNA expression was significantly upregulated in most breast cancer tissues with range of 0.05 - 0.91 (median 0.56), which was rare in normal breast tissue with range of 0 - 0.09 (median 0). The difference of COX-2 mRNA expression between cancer and normal breast tissue was significant (rank sum test, P < 0.05). COX-2 overexpression in breast cancer was related to its lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05) but not to age, tumor size, pathologic grade or pathologic type (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The level of COX-2 mRNA expression is obviously higher in the breast cancer tissue than that in normal breast tissue. COX-2 overexpression may play a crucial role in the carcinogenesis, development of cancer and lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients.


Fermentation of tea-leaf was compared with different leaf ages, grades of leaf withering, temperatures and aerations. Fermentation was known to be very important for the final quality of tea. Careful estimation of redox potential proved suitable for study of fermentation in a single leaf. Potentiometric titration under aerated water (so not as normally in factories) showed that 'Buds' ('Pecco': best quality leaves) contained more ascorbid acid (AA) and fermented more rapidly than older leaves. More withered leaves fermented more actively and completely. Optimum temperature for fermentation was found to be about 26°C. Aeration to a certain point encouraged fermentation strongly. Thorough grinding promoted fermentation most. AA had to be oxidized to allow reddish brown discoloration of fermenting tea-leaves. 'Buds' oxidized AA much quicker than older leaves. It was assumed that 'potential quality' of a fresh leaf was correlated with active fermentation. So in practice leaves had to be rolled often but briefly, while the rolling and fermenting rooms should be thoroughly aerated, although the leaves should not be allowed to dry. Ascorbic dehydrogenase, polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase were involved in the oxidation of AA. Traces of CU2 +(occurring in the prosthetic groups of ascorbic dehydrogenase and polyphenol oxidase) accelerated oxidation of AA in leaf extracts. Fe3 +less so. By rectilinear adjustment fermentation activity could be calculated. It was higher for 'Buds' than for older leaves. /HTML>


Background: Inappropriate case management of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) is one of the factors responsible for the high ARI mortality in developing countries. Identification of factors which influence ARI case management by health workers is key for interventions to improve Quality of case management.

Objective: To identify factors which determine correct case management of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) in children by primary health care workers in Ibadan.

Design: A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out from June to December 1999 in Ibadan South East LGA and Lagelu LGA. Study materials included observation checklists, validation checklist, and health worker interview questionnaires.

Results: Twenty-five health workers and 20 health workers were observed managing 390 children and 386 children in Ibadan South East and Lagelu LGA respectively. More than half of Pneumonia cases were correctly treated in the two LGAs (62.3% and 66.1% respectively). Sex and category of health workers was significantly associated with correct treatment of mild ARI with female workers and Nursing staff doing better (Odds ratio 4.57, 95% CI 2.15, 9.95 and 4.61, 95% CI 2.57, 8.31 respectively). Health workers who had been trained performed better in the management of Pneumonia though it was not statistically significant.
Conclusions: There is a need for targeted research to identify the relative contribution of the myriad of factors influencing health worker performance in specific localities in order to improve the quality of care in child health programmes.
 Keywords : Factors, Case Management, ARI, Health workers. NQJHM Vol. 16 (1) 2005: pp. 14-19


This paper introduces the new ability of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in estimating speed and controlling the separately excited DC motor. The neural control scheme consists of two parts. One is the neural estimator which is used to estimate the motor speed. The other is the neural controller which is used to generate a control signal for a converter. These two neurals are training by Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation algorithm. ANNs are the standard three layers feedforward neural network with sigmoid activation functions in the input and hidden layers and purelin in the output layer. Simulation result are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of this neural and advantage of the control system DC motor with ANNs in comparison with the conventional scheme without ANNs.


There is growing concern among healthcare providers worldwide regarding the prevalence of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii). Some of the worst hospital-acquired infections, often in intensive care units (ICUs), are caused by this bacterial pathogen. In recent years, the rise in multidrug-resistant A. baumannii has been linked to the overuse of antimicrobial drugs and the lack of adequate infection control measures. Infections caused by this bacterial pathogen are the result of prolonged hospitalization and ICU stays, and they are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. This review outlines the epidemiology, risk factors, and antimicrobial resistance associated with A. baumannii in various countries, with a special focus on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In response to the growing concern regarding this drug-resistant bacteria, fundamental information about its pathology has been incorporated into the development of vaccines. Although these vaccines have been successful in animal models, their effectiveness in humans remains unproven. The review will discuss the development of A. baumannii vaccines, potential related obstacles, and efforts to find an effective strategy against this pathogen.


Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of rheumatoid cachexia and analyze factors that might be associated with it. Methods This was a cross-sectional study using the data from 83 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Demographic and socio-economic parameters were collected. The disease activity was assessed by the tender joint count (TJC), swollen joint count (SJC), pain assessed by a visual analogue scale (pVAS), global activity disease evaluated by the physician and the patient using a visual analogue scale (gVAS) and blood markers of inflammation (erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP)). Anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI)) were recorded for each patient. WC was interpreted and classified according to recommendations of WHO in 2 categories of risk of metabolic complications: low risk (WC≤93.9 cm in men and WC ≤79.9 cm in women) and high risk (WC≥102.0 cm in men and 88.0 cm for WC≥ woman). The skinfold thickness was measured using the clamp Harpenden in 4 sites: triceps, biceps, subscapular and suprailiac regions. Fat-free mass index (FFMI) and fat mass index (FMI) were calculated using the equation of Durnin and Wormersley and the equation of Siri. Rheumatoid cachexia has been defined by an FFMI <10th percentile and a FMI>90th percentile. Results 83 patients were included with a mean age of 51.7±13.3 years and a female predominance (87%). The median of RA duration was 7 years [4 to 14]. 9 patients (15.5%) have a rheumatoid cachexia, 8 of them (88.9%) are women with a normal BMI. The rheumatoid cachexia was associated with advanced age and a high metabolic risk (p<0.001). There was no association between rheumatoid cachexia and parameters of disease activity: TJC (p=0.9); SJC (p=0.2); pVAS pain (p=0.5); gVAS (p=0.6); ESR (p=0.5); CRP (p=0.3). Conclusions This study suggests that rheumatoid cachexia is frequent in patients suffering from RA, which may be associated with advanced age, a normal BMI and the risk of metabolic complications. These results should be verified by studies on a larger scale. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate uses and application of quality engineering in general and Taguchi methods in particular in Ethiopian Plastic Share Company (EPSC) main processes. As a methodology, secondary data from the company has been collected and used to identify process variation and their associated losses. In addition, this data has been an input to conduct the experiment. The result clearly shows that the uses of design of experiment to parameter design ensure about 90% reduction of the company's losses. Often the company's management associated these losses to the employee's technical capability. This conforms with Deming's teaching that 80-90% of an organization's problems are attributed to the parameter design than the employees.  Key Words: Quality Engineering, Taguchi's Method, Design of Experiment, Taguchi's Loss Function, Orthogonal Array


Based on the success in the design of a new global search procedure on the development of a novel trail updating mechanism and the introduction of an elitist strategy to available ant colony optimization (ACO) methods, an improved ACO algorithm is proposed. In order to facilitate the implementation of the search procedure, the available local search phase is simplified also. The algorithm is tested on a mathematical function and an inverse problem, and its performances are compared with those of other well designed methods.


The development of a testis requires the proper spatiotemporal expression of the SRY gene and other genes that act in a dosage‐sensitive manner. Mutations in the SRY gene account for only 10–15% of patients with 46,XY gonadal disorder of sex development (DSD). To enable the diagnostics of deletions and duplications of genes known to be involved in different forms of DSD, we developed a synthetic probe set for multiplex ligation‐dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analysis. Here, we report the results from the analysis of 22 patients with 46,XY gonadal DSD. The analysis with the DSD probe set has led to the identification of two copy number variations, an 800‐kb NR0B1 (DAX1) locus duplication on Xp21 in a patient with isolated partial gonadal dysgenesis and a duplication of the SRD5A2 gene that represents a rare normal variant. The described MLPA kit represents an optimal complement to DNA sequence analysis in patients with DSD, enabling screening for deletions and duplications of several genes simultaneously. Furthermore, the second identification of an NR0B1 locus duplication in a patient with isolated gonadal dysgenesis, without dysmorphic features and/or mental retardation, highlights the importance of evaluating NR0B1 duplication in patients with gonadal dysgenesis.


The effect of right- and left-brain lesions on pentobarbitone-chlorpromazine induced tremor-bursts was studied in guinea pigs. The left-brain transections did not affect these tremor bursts except post-thalamic sections, which caused a complete disappearance of extensor jerks with coinciding tremors at four legs. These tremor bursts simultaneously occurring at four legs completely disappeared after a right-forebrain transection at the level of the rostral striatum. Extensor jerks without tremors continued to occur, however. It is concluded that the postural system is asymmetrically controlled and the rostral right brain is responsible for the tonic postural activity in guinea pigs.


A thermofluid model combining a lumped parameter heat transfer model and an air-flow model of a typical axial-field permanent-magnet (AFPM) machine is developed. The accuracy and consistency of the derived model are assessed by comparing the calculated flow rate and temperature values of a prototype machine with the measured ones. The developed thermofluid model is shown to perform thermal calculations with reasonable accuracy.


A fast and efficient spatial-spectral fusion method for resolution enhancement of hyperspectral imagery is proposed in this paper. A linear mixture model and fully constrained least squares based unmixing algorithm are applied for spectral unmixing of the hyperspectral imagery and the resulted fractional images are processed using a spatial-spectral information correlation model through a learning-based super-resolution mapping technique. To validate the performance of the method, experiments are carried out on real images. The obtained results validate the reliability of the technique. The main advantages of the proposed method include its autonomous nature so that it doesn't need any high resolution secondary source of data, its acceptable performance, and its low computational cost which makes it favorable for realtime target recognition and tracking applications.


Measurement systems are based on analog to digital converters because they offer easy data processing, storage and transmission. Since the majority of the measuring instruments includes ADCs, it is important for students studying Electric and electronic measurements to learn about the parameters of an ADC. INL (Integral nonlinearity) and DNL (Differential nonlinearity) are two of the most important parameters that characterize an ADC, but the process is also time consuming. The present paper presents an automated test system for didactic laboratory. The DUT is a NI DAQ card, the reference instrument is a high accuracy voltage source and the associated software is developed in LabVIEW. The tested parameters are calculated automatically during the process and are displayed on graphs as well as stored in a data file. As conclusions the results are analyzed for comparing the digital code data and the calibrated voltage data.


We define here tonal melodies and spectral melodies: For sounds containing only octaves, the former correspond to fundamental frequency variations and the latter to spectral envelope variations. In this paper we give statistical results of judgements showing that tonal melodies are better perceived by the right ear. Conversely the left ear is more able to recognize spectral melodies.


We propose a human behaviour recognition system based on video sequences. Our aim is to identify one among several kinds of actions performed by a single person in a particular scenery. Each frame will be processed, detecting the moving objects and using a new statistical-based algorithm to erase shadows. The final step consists of the extraction of different kinds of other human contour points. Correspondences between each contour pattern and posture will be achieved by using classical pattern classifiers (K-neighbours and Mahalanobis distance), and also with a modified self organized map (SOM). We will analyze and compare the obtained results, combining the contour patterns with some information concerning temporal relationship in consecutive movements, in order to improve the correct action detection.


This paper investigates the underlying causes of financial mismanagement in public schools and focuses on the perceptions of various role players in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The various Departments of Basic Education in South Africa allocate funds to schools each year, and expect school principals and school governing bodies to manage it appropriately. The problem is that in some schools, the principals, teachers and school governing body members are perpetrators of various financial mismanagement activities related to financial mismanagement. This article reports on qualitative research used to arrive at an in-depth understanding of why financial mismanagement occurs in certain schools. For this purpose, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with principals, finance officers and departmental officials and analysed thematically. The findings revealed a lack of knowledge of legislation and skills, poor monitoring and control of funds, unavailability of financial policies in schools, omission to act against culprits, and lack of honesty, openness and trustworthiness. The article proposes remedies that might bring financial management in public schools in line with the principles of good governance. Keywords: Accountability; Corruption; Financial maladministration; Financial mismanagement; Misappropriation; Principals; Public schools; School governing bodies


OBJECTIVE
To establish the culture system of fetal bovine intestinal epithelial stem cells (IESCs) in vitro, identify specific markers of the cell lines and analyze the differentiation potential into hepatocyte-like cells.

METHODS
IESCs were isolated from the 3- to 5-month fetal bovine intestine by the digestion of collagenase I, and cultured in the DMEM/F12 medium. The cell morphology was observed, and the proliferation ability and multiple differentiation potential were demonstrated by subculturing and its growth curve. The mRNA expressions of the surface markers Bmi1, Hes1, Lgr5 and cytokeratin 19 (CK19) were determined by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), and the protein levels of Bmi1, LGR5 and CK19 were detected by immunofluorescence cytochemistry. Under the induction of fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF-4) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), the cell differentiation into hepatocyte-like cells was assayed by the glycogen staining and RT-PCR.

RESULTS
IESCs cultured in vitro expressed Bmi1, Hes1, Lgr5 and CK19 mRNAs, and CK19, Bmi1 and LGR5 proteins. The differentiated cells were positively stained by glycogen, and RT-PCR showed that the cells expressed α-fetoprotein (AFP) and albumin (ALB) mRNAs.

CONCLUSION
The culture system of IESCs in vitro is successfully established, and the cells are differentiated into hepatocyte-like cells.


This paper presents a strong (k,n) threshold-based ramp secret sharing scheme with k access levels. The secrets are the elements represented in a square matrix S. The secret matrix S can be shared among n different participants using a matrix projection technique where: i) any subset of k participants can collaborate together to reconstruct the secret, and ii) any subset of (k-1) or fewer participants cannot partially discover the secret matrix. The primary advantages are its large compression rate on the size of the shares and its strong protection of the secrets


The Wikidata project provides a structured knowledge base that is curated by bots and humans alike. The quality and completeness of data contained is naturally influenced by the users who enter and maintain the data in the form of items described by statements on the platform. Users who are new to the Wikidata environment and its underlying data model, but are, nonetheless, experts in their fields, are confronted with a steep learning curve when aiming to enter information on Wikidata (e.g. regarding the choice of suitable properties for creating statements). In this work, we propose a recommendation-based annotation platform where users who currently work with or on a text are supported in finding suitable Wikidata entities for data extracted from the underlying text source to ultimately feed this structured information to the Wikidata platform. Such recommendations not only support users in annotating their data according to Wikidata's terminological knowledge, but also expand the number of references on the Wikidata platform that reveal the origin of existing statements.


ABSTRACT This study focuses on high school students' profile choices and the choice for or against the Nature and Technology (NT) profile in the Netherlands. A mixed-methods approach is used to study cultural values that affect this choice. The quantitative part of the study shows that being female is negatively correlated with the choice for the NT-profile, irrespective of the grade average for mathematics, chemistry and physics. It further shows that students' ethnic background does not have a significant effect on this choice. The qualitative part of the study reveals that students' choice processes towards or away from NT can be categorised in three ideal types: the postmodern perfectionist, the pragmatic hedonist and the materialist maximalist. Gender differences appear to be more pervasive across these types than differences in ethnic background.


For more than four decades, sulfasalazine has been administered for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. Unfortunately, the successes achieved by this agent in the therapy of the acute attack and in the prolongation of the remission period have not been without a concomitant history of significant side effects. This two-edged sword property is based on the two released components of sulfasalazine. The prevailing evidence indicates that the therapeutic effect resides in the 5-ASA moiety, while most of the adverse actions are ascribed to its sulfapyridine portion. Sodium azodisalicylate was synthesized with the expectation that the elimination of the sulfapyridine group would create a drug retaining sulfasalazine's therapeutic efficacy, but associated with less toxicity. Clinical trials are presently addressing this hypothesis.


There has been a significant increase in the adoption of technology in cricket recently. This trend has created the problem of duplicate work being done in similar computer vision-based research works. Our research tries to solve one of these problems by segmenting ball deliveries in a cricket broadcast using deep learning models, MobileNet and YOLO, thus enabling researchers to use our work as a dataset for their research. The output from our research can be used by cricket coaches and players to analyze ball deliveries which are played during the match. This paper presents an approach to segment and extract video shots in which only the ball is being delivered. The video shots are a series of continuous frames that make up the whole scene of the video. Object detection models are applied to reach a high level of accuracy in terms of correctly extracting video shots. The proof of concept for building large datasets of video shots for ball deliveries is proposed which paves the way for further processing on those shots for the extraction of semantics. Ball tracking in these video shots is also done using a separate RetinaNet model as a sample of the usefulness of the proposed dataset. The position on the cricket pitch where the ball lands is also extracted by tracking the ball along the y-axis. The video shot is then classified as a full-pitched, good-length or short-pitched delivery.


This paper describes a friction-driven gyro generator that works under arbitrary vibrations and generates more than 1 W of power. Vibrational generators are energy harvesters that convert environmental vibrations into electrical power via the inertial force of pendulums. In conventional generators that use simple vibration, the power is less than 10 mW for a wearable size because vibrations in the natural environment are as low as 1 Hz. Gyroscopic generators increase the inertial force by rotating a pendulum at high speed and creating a gyro effect. In this generator, a palm-size product that generates 0.1 W and weighs 280 g has already been commercialized, but this device operates only under a particular vibration that synchronizes rotor precession and stalls under random vibration. To solve this problem, in this research, two gimbals and a precession spring are introduced to support the rotor. We developed a prototype generator with straight tracks measuring 16 cm × 11 cm × 12 cm with a mass of 980 g. Under a vibration of 4 Hz and ±20 degrees, power generation of 1.6 W was confirmed. Next, a prototype circular track was made. Power generation of 0.2 W with a vibration of 1 Hz and ±90 degrees was confirmed. Finally, a simple formula to estimate the upper limit of the generation power is derived. It is suggested that the circular-type generator is suitable for low-frequency vibration and can generate twice the power of a straight-type generator.


AIMS. To determine the contribution of social distancing and face mask wearing in the prevention of COVID-19 infections in Argentina. METHODS. Attendance to the funeral of ex-soccer star Diego Maradona was estimated by the area occupied by the mourners and their density. The people congregated to celebrate the America's Cup victory was deduced mainly from TV ratings. The proportion of individuals wearing or not face masks was calculated from photographs taken at both events. The COVID-19 epidemiological data used was released by the Argentinean Ministry of Health from March 3rd 2020 to August 31st 2021. RESULTS. We estimated that Maradona's funeral was attended by approximately 250,000 mourners. On the other hand, approximately 5.084.000 followed by television the America's cup final in Buenos Aires alone. Extrapolating to the whole country suggests that over 4 million individuals congregated in person to celebrate the victory. The percentage of individuals not wearing face masks at the funeral was 54.0% ± 5.2 % and at the soccer victory celebrations 84.5 % ± 6.9 %, both estimates with a confidence of 99%. Daily COVID-19 infections in Buenos Aires remained at less than 5,000 per day during 30 days before- as well as during 24 days following-the funeral. New infections in Argentina remained less than 21,000 during 10 days before as well as 30 days following the soccer cup celebrations. CONCLUSIONS. Considering that SARS-CoV-2 median incubation is 5.1 days, the time periods following Maradona's funeral and the America Soccer Cup celebrations provided ample time for COVID-19 to flare up if significant contagion would have proliferated amongst the crowds. The lack of an increase in COVID-19 infections after two independent and large gatherings with people in close proximity and limited wearing of face masks, contradicts any beneficial effect of social distancing and of mask wearing during the pandemic. These findings seem particularly important when considering that social distancing and mask wearing limited attendance to public events, negatively impacted commerce, burdening restaurants and many other businesses; and overall taxed society unnecessarily, according to the data presented here. (A summary of some of these findings were presented at the European Society of Medicine Annual Meeting. August 04, 2022. Entitled: Unexpected effect of sunlight, the environment, and public health measures in the progression of COVID-19) https://esmed.org/video-detail/?id=86 )


Objective: To explore the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) . Methods: A retrospective study identified 91 patients diagnosed with ALCAPA at Shanghai Children's Medical Center from March 2010 to August 2017. According to the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at the time of consultation, patients were divided into the cardiac insufficiency group (n=54) and the normal cardiac function group (n=37). Clinical features (age of onset, clinical performance, etc) and auxiliary examinations (electrocardiogram, echocardiography, etc) between the two groups were compared using a t-test and a Chi-square test. Prognostic factors were analyzed by an ordered logistic regression and a Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: (1) The age of diagnosis of patients in the cardiac insufficiency group who were usually misdiagnosed as cardiomyopathy was (10.0±2.6) months (20/54) , whereas the age of diagnosis of patients in the normal cardiac function group who were usually misdiagnosed as valvular diseases was (40.0±7.8) months (4/37). According to the pathophysiological mechanism, forty of the 54 (74%) patients in the cardiac insufficiency group were infantile type, and 78% patients (29/37) in the normal cardiac function group were adult type. (2) Preoperative electrocardiogram showed the deep Q wave in lead I occurred more frequently in the cardiac insufficiency group than in the normal cardiac function group (28/54 vs. 11/37, χ(2)=4.388, P=0.036). (3) Twenty patients died in the cardiac insufficiency group including 12 patients who died from postoperative cardiac pump failure and 8 children who did not undergo surgery due to poor prognosis and died from other reasons. There was no death in the normal cardiac function group. (4) Preoperative LVEF was the unique risk factor affecting prognosis (F=16.872, P=0.005). The preoperative LVEF was significantly lower than the postoperative LVEF ((37±11)% vs. (45±14)%, t=3.614, P=0.001) in the cardiac insufficiency group. During the follow-up period, 6 patients in the cardiac insufficiency group still presented with postoperative cardiac dysfunction, and the patients in the normal cardiac function group still had normal cardiac function. Conclusions: Preoperative LVEF was the unique risk factor affecting prognosis of ALCAPA. Patients with infantile type ALCAPA and preoperative cardiac insufficiency should receive long-term follow-up treatment.


ABSTRACT The herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) UL21 gene encodes a 62-kDa tegument protein with homologs in the alpha-, beta-, and gammaherpesvirus subfamilies. In the present study, we characterized a novel UL21-null virus and its genetic repair to determine whether this protein plays a role in early stages of the HSV-1 replication cycle. Single-step growth analyses, protein synthesis time courses, and mRNA quantifications indicated that the absence of UL21 results in a delay early in the HSV-1 replication cycle.


Abstract : The article is written in the style of Scientific American. A minimum of mathematics is used in the presentation of a new approach to the understanding of the Second Law of thermodynamics. The intended readers are engineering students who have been exposed to a standard version of undergraduate thermodynamics (such as AE 2042). It is shown here that, by extending the use of entropy and of temperature to nonequilibrium situations, a more complete formulation of the Second Law is possible. Applications of the foegoing concept to fluid flow, to chemical reactions, and to lasers are presented. (Author)


Facial burns present many psychological and rehabilitation challenges. Many of our patients with facial burns who are children and adolescents have expressed that they prefer to wear the transparent face mask instead of the Jobst hood (Beiersdorf Jobst Inc, Charlotte, NC) with an underlying silicone face pad. However, questions have been raised about the consistency and amount of pressure provided by the transparent face mask. Pressure was measured under the customized transparent face mask, under the customized silicone face pad with a Jobst hood, and under the customized Jobst hood to ascertain pressure differences for a single patient. No significant difference in pressure was observed between the transparent facemask and the silicone face pad with a Jobst hood. We recommend the use of the transparent face mask on patients with severe facial burns who may require pressure to improve the appearance of their scars.


The name Osteoid Osteoma was first proposed by Jaffe to designate a benign condition of the bone characterized by the formation of a nidus of vascularized osteoid tissue with sclerosis of surrounding bone7. The incidence of osteoid Osteoma in vertebrae is about 0-25% with average of about 10%6.Patients with Osteoid Osteoma complain of a typical history of pain at night, subsiding on consuming salicylates or NSAIDS. Our patient had a history of chronic back pain more at night associated with radiating pain to his right lower limb mimicking IVDP for which he was treated elsewhere with medication and physiotherapy for 2 years. MRI of the lumbosacral spine was suggestive of infection and when a CT guided biopsy was being done, he was incidentally diagnosed to have osteoid osteoma. He was treated as chronic lumbosacral strain; Disc prolapsed, and even suspected to have tuberculosis of the sacrum after an MRI scan report suggested infection. On examination of the patient, he had point tenderness over the right side of the Sacrum and over the right Sacroiliac joint. Straight leg raising test was negative, Hips were found to be normal. Spinal movements were normal. No neurological deficit was noticed. Though we suspected tuberculosis after the MRI, we wanted to do a CT- guided biopsy of the lesion to prove the same. When a CT-scan was done, the typical feature of Osteoid Osteoma of the right 2nd sacral vertebral lamina was observed by the radiologist. CT-scan showed a central nidus1. Measuring <0.5mm, surrounded by sclerosed bone measuring 0.5mm , following which he was


Intelligent agents have the potential to play an important role in meeting the challenge to provide tools and interfaces for people to productively interact with the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week (24x7). This paper describes a novel agent-oriented architecture called ShadowBoard with a novel user interface called ShadowFace. Both the architecture and interface draw on concepts from cognitive psychology. The architecture has been embedded in a software framework called ShadowSpaces, and has been used to develop a prototype lab manager for booking services and providing advice to potential users of the Interaction Design lab at the University of Melbourne. An overview of the architecture, interface, framework and implementation are all presented.


In companies that constantly develop new software releases for large markets, there continually arrive new requirements, written in natural language that may affect the development work. Before any decision is made about the requirements, these must be analysed and understood, and related to the current set of implemented and queued requirements. This task is time-consuming owing to the high inflow of requirements, and decision-making would be facilitated by any support that would reduce the requirements analyst's workload. One of the main tasks is finding requirement duplicates and requirements with similar content and different NLP methods have been tried for this. Simple word matching is one of the methods used for linkage between requirements. If links could be set up not only between words, but also between concepts at different semantic levels, the chances of finding content-corresponding requirements would be greater. One goal of this project is to establish a terminology for requirements as well as to establish (Wordnet-type) semantic relations between terms, in order to enable multi-level linkage. For this purpose, we use a corpus consisting of 1,932 authentic software requirements, written in English of varying grammatical and stylistic quality. First, term candidates were extracted using the WordSmith Keyword function, with BNC Sampler as reference corpus. To find out whether there is any terminology specific to the 'requirements' sub-domain of the 'software' domain, the documentation associated with the software to which the requirements relate was also used as a reference (separately). Then, lexico-semantic patterns according to Hearst (1992) were used to find hyponymy–hyperonymy relations, and to confirm manually established relations. These analyses were performed on the text both 'as is' and, reducing noise somewhat, after POS-tagging by means of the Brill tagger (Brown Corpus tag-set). The results so far suggest that corpus-based methods are of importance to the management or requirements analyses. (Less)


The role of the tea commodity in the economy of Indonesia is quite strategic. Various types of microorganisms in nature have been known to increase the benefit of the root function, suppress disease, and accelerate plant growth. This study aimed to determine the potential of indigenous bacteria (Azoto II-1, Acinetobacter sp., bacteria Endo-5, bacteria Endo-65 and Endo-76) on the growth of tea plants and their potential in increasing resistance to blister blight disease. The test of microbes' potential effect on growth and blister blight was conducted in Gambung, West Java in an experimental field using a randomized block design (RBD) with six treatments and each treatment was replicated four times. The com-position of the treatments was: A) Endo-5; B) Endo-65; C) Endo-76; D) Azoto II-1; E) Acinetobacter sp.; and F) control (without microbes). Bacterial suspension was applied directly to the soil at a dose of 2 l · ha − 1 . The bacterial suspension was applied six times at 1 week intervals. The results of field observations indicated that the intensity of blister blight decreased in all treatments but did not significantly differ from the control. Meanwhile, the results of Acinetobacter sp. treatment in tea shoots was 17.26% higher than the control.


GROSS dilatation of the tracheobronchial tree associated with chronic recurrent respiratory tract infection was described initially by Mounier-Kuhn1in 1932. Since that time approximately 16 case reports of this rare condition have been documented. The term, tracheobronchiomegaly, has been advocated by Katz and his co-workers2and more recently by Levowitz et al3in describing this condition. Essentially, this anatomic abnormality appears to arise as a congenital defect or atrophy in the tracheobronchial musculature and elastic tissue. Saccular diverticula may or may not be present; the pathogenesis of these diverticula is thought to be herniation of tracheal mucosa between cartilaginous rings. Chronic infection both contributes to and is caused by this alteration in pulmonary structure. Most patients present in early adulthood, and long-standing respiratory symptoms are often elicited.4,5 Bronchoscopy may reveal redundant mucous membrane, cavernous dilatation of the tracheobronchial tree, or no obvious abnormality whatever. Secondary


Air-to-refrigerant heat exchangers (HXs) have been the topic of exhaustive research as they are fundamental components of HVAC&R systems. It has been well-established that the large airside thermal resistance dominates the HX thermal resistance, and thus significant research efforts have focused on improving the air-side performance of these heat exchangers. As HXs continue to become more compact, thermal resistance reduction is typically realized through the utilization of extended secondary heat transfer surfaces such as fins. However, past research has shown that the thermal-hydraulic trade-offs provided by fins are often not attractive enough to warrant their use, especially for small diameter tubes. Yet, the inadequate primary surface area provided by compact HXs essentially mandate the necessity of fins to meet thermal resistance requirements. In recent years, advancements in computational tools such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and optimization algorithms, coupled with the advent of additive manufacturing technologies, have allowed engineers to expand conventional HX design ideologies to include such concepts as shape and topology optimization. This lends itself directly to primary heat transfer surface optimization and even the potential removal of finned surfaces altogether. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review investigating air-to-refrigerant HX shape and topology optimization. The fundamentals of both shape and topology optimization, model development, and experimental validations are all separately discussed. Studies featuring manufactured prototypes and/or experimentally validated optimal designs are treated with additional emphasis. This paper concludes by identifying key research gaps and proposing future research directions for HX shape and topology optimization.


Despite the significant relevance of the "cultural imperialism" framework to our understanding of how communication flows influence "militarization," war and hegemonic foreign policies, critical theorists have not adequately investigated how foreign audiences have responded to the recent wave of US international broad-casting. To address this gap, this article investigates how foreign media audiences interact with international broadcasting by analyzing Al-Hurra's reception among Arabic speaking audiences. Using a critical media audience reception framework, this article situates Al-Hurra within the larger context of US international broadcasting emanating from the Cold War as a strategic weapon to influence the attitudes of foreign publics. Specifically, these field research-based findings indicate that audiences' "negative" and "hostile" perceptions of Al-Hurra messages curtail the influence of the broadcaster's impact on Arabs' attitudes toward political re-form. Finally, the study also proposes a loose "taxonomy" that can be used to understand the complex reactions of foreign audiences to US international broadcasting.


The Florey Institute has a long and proud history. In this volume some representative work from scientists at 'the Florey' are presented. In a way, they represent the evolution of the Florey over its history from its birth as the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine in the early 1960s, to its current form where it is focused primarily on brain research. A wonderful overview of the evolution of the Florey and its earlier activities has been given as a contribution in this volume by its first director, Derek Denton (Denton, 2013).

The original Howard Florey Institute has gradually evolved by a series of amalgamations with other neuroscience-based institutes. As well as the Howard Florey Institute, the amalgamations included the National Stroke Research Institute, the Brain Research Institute and, more recently, the Mental Health Research Institute. The drive to do this was to increase the critical mass of researchers and enable large science platforms to be purchased which could not have been done at the Institute's original size. The end result has been an outstanding success. The Florey now has over 550 staff located on two main campuses. The first of these is near the original building on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other on the campus of the Austin Hospital, one of the major University of Melbourne teaching hospitals. On the Parkville campus, the majority of research is discovery science, whereas on the Austin campus a stronger translational element is present.

A further indication of the success of the formation of The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health was the level of funding it was able to attract from both state and federal governments as well as a significant philanthropic contribution. This has allowed a new 20,000 m2 facility to be built close to the original Howard Florey Institute building on the Parkville campus and a 5000 m2 facility on the Austin Hospital campus. A collaborative translational research facility is also embedded within the Royal Melbourne Hospital, only 100 m from our new laboratories in Parkville. Platforms such as clinical imaging, animal behaviour and microscopy have therefore been able to be adequately funded.

The science within the Florey is organised across campuses in 10 divisions consisting of Brain Development and Regeneration, Cognitive Neuroscience, Epilepsy, Imaging, Mental Health, Multiple Sclerosis, Neurodegeneration, Neuropeptides, Stroke, and Systems Neurophysiology. The papers in this issue of The Journal of Physiology come from the divisions of Cognitive Neuroscience, Epilepsy, Neurodegeneration and Systems Neurophysiology. The first paper was published in an earlier issue. Here Madsen et al. (2012) relate structure to function and address the neuroanatomical substrates underpinning reward seeking in mice that have had protracted abstinence. A second paper from the Cognitive Neuroscience group elegantly shows the differential effects of early environmental enrichment on emotionally driven behaviour in mice with a Huntington's phenotype (Renoir et al. 2013). The cellular and molecular basis for epilepsy is still poorly understood, but Vargus et al. (2013) have provided insight into this area using genetic and pharmacological approaches to modulate giant depolarizing potentials in the neonatal hippocampus, and shown that this is directly related to increased susceptibility to seizures.

Two papers from the Neurogeneration group have investigated the development of neural circuits, and then the role that cell transplantation plays in circuit reconstruction. Wright et al. (2013) report that generation of striatal projection neurons now extends into the early developmental period in the rat brain. In a mouse model of Parkinson's disease, Kauhausen et al. (2013) were able to demonstrate how cell intrinsic and extrinsic factors facilitate an enhancement of neural circuits following cell transplantation. Systems Neurophysiology has been one of the foundation areas of the Florey. Ramchandra et al. (2013) have continued with this tradition in their sheep model of heart failure, where they have established direct neurophysiological evidence linking abnormal excitation from the paraventricular nucleus to both renal and cardiac sympathetic hyperactivity that is a hallmark of heart failure. Finally, Subramanian & Dutschmann (2013) from the same division are building on our understanding of the neural networks controlling breathing, where they have identified an important role for mid brain neurons in regulating the respiratory brainstem network.

It is wonderful to see there is still a strong physiological element to these studies, which makes them suitable for publication in The Journal of Physiology. The very roots of The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health lie in physiology, and as outlined by Derek Denton, significant discoveries were made in sheep models that still are used at the Institute today. We look forward to even greater contributions from the Florey to The Journal in future years.


ABSTRACT Since the time of E. B. Huey (1908), there have been clear indicators that oral language as a reflection of a child's linguistic ability has been clearly related to°his or her reading achievement or comprehension. P. McKee (1937) and W. S. Gray (1937) both speculated that reading difficulties might parallel language deficiencies. G. Hildreth (1949) saw "linguability" as critical to the reading process. R. W. Shuy (1969) called for a new system of language arts instruction based on the child's language facility. Following E. L. Thorndike's study (1917), which found that'reading comprehension was influenced by the relation of elements within a sentence, other researchers have found much the same evidence. Even with direct relationships established, researchers throughout the decades have found distinct differences between speech and reading modes. Nevertheless reading specialists have continued to stress the critical importance of oral language to reading acquisition. A number of researchers have all stressed the absolute necessity of basing reading instruction on strong oral language development. Nonetheless, coming decades will have to resolve many unanswered questions, such as: What skills are essential to oral language growth? Are quantity and quality, synonymous with general language ability? and, 7s there a hierarchy of language skills? Until these questions are addressed, reading theorists have a good way to go before a language-based reading model may be developed. (HOD)


− In this study, we attempt to produce a semi-elliptical riblet with a shark skin-like surface using wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) and micro molding techniques. Our design for the production of the semi-elliptical mold includes an electrode, a winding roller, and a guide on the WEDM system. A replication mold with negative riblets is machined using WEDM, and a shark skin inspired surface with positive riblets is fabricated using a micro molding technique. For a comparison with the original shark skin, a shark skin replica is also produced using the micro molding technique directly from a shark skin template. Droplet contact angles on a flat surface, the shark skin replica, and the epoxy resin-based micro riblet shark skin-like surface are evaluated. The effect of a Teflon coating on the contact angles for the three different surfaces is also investigated. The results show the micro riblet with a shark skin-like surface has a similar contact angle as the shark skin replica, which means that the simplified riblet shark skin surface strongly influences the performance of wettability. This study confirms the effectiveness of using the WEDM method to prepare hydrophobic surfaces with diverse surface patterns.


Abstract. The concentration and chemical composition of non-refractory fine particulate matter (NR-PM1) and black carbon (BC) levels were measured during the summer of 2012 in the suburbs of two Greek cities, Patras and Athens, in an effort to better understand the chemical processing of particles in the high photochemical activity environment of the eastern Mediterranean. The composition of PM1 was surprisingly similar in both areas, demonstrating the importance of regional sources for the corresponding pollution levels. The PM1 average mass concentration was 9–14 μg m−3. The contribution of sulfate was around 38 %, while organic aerosol (OA) contributed approximately 45 % in both cases. PM1 nitrate levels were low (2 %). The oxygen to carbon (O : C) atomic ratio was 0.50 ± 0.08 in Patras and 0.47 ± 0.11 in Athens. In both cases PM1 was acidic. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was applied to the high-resolution organic aerosol mass spectra obtained by an Aerodyne High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS). For Patras, five OA sources could be identified: 19 % very oxygenated OA (V-OOA), 38 % moderately oxygenated OA (M-OOA), 21 % biogenic oxygenated OA (b-OOA), 7 % hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA-1) associated with traffic sources and 15 % hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA-2) related to other primary emissions (including cooking OA). For Athens, the corresponding source contributions were: V-OOA (35 %), M-OOA (30 %), HOA-1 (18 %) and HOA-2 (17 %). In both cities the major component was OOA, suggesting that under high photochemical conditions most of the OA in the eastern Mediterranean is quite aged. The contribution of the primary sources (HOA-1 and HOA-2) was important (22 % in Patras and 35 % in Athens) but not dominant.


The ability to safely and reproducibly decontaminate enclosed areas like isolators and rooms is an important consideration to many industrial, research, and healthcare facilities. Traditionally, formaldehyde has been used, but safety and efficacy concerns have highlighted the need for alternative methods. Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide, as used in STERIS Corporation's VHP® Technology, is a dry gaseous method that has been used as a reliable alternative for aseptic processing isolators and more recently for room/facility decontamination. In this report the antimicrobial efficacy of VHP Technology has been studied under worst-case test conditions, including the presence of contaminating soils which may be present under certain applications. Geo-bacillus stearothermophilus spores were verified as being the most resistant organism to the fumigation process while paper was identified as the most resistant material. Efficacy was then verified in the presence of 10% and 50% whole blood, as representative soils to ensure fumigant penetration. Typical VHP fumigation processes in rigid and flexible-walled isolators showed a ≥ 6 log10 reduction under these worst-case test conditions. Like other biocides, the microbiocidal activity of vaporized hydrogen peroxide is affected by the presence of soil, but these results confirm that VHP Technology can decontaminate under soiled conditions within a routine decontamination process.


Although many peach QTLs responsible for the variability of traits have been identified and published so far, the number of molecular markers currently used in breeding is still limited. One of the reasons is the large QTL intervals produced, in part, by the limited progeny size. Here we report a QTL mapping approach that enlarges the progeny size by analyzing jointly multiple progenies. Our analysis included 1467 individuals from eighteen Prunus progenies, 13 from intra-specific crosses and five inter-specific between peach and closely related species. The progenies were grown in five locations, with no duplication between orchards. Data from phenology, tree, flower and fruit traits, fruit quality and yield measured in different locations and years were subjected to different standardization methods and integrated in a single data file. The populations were genotyped with the 9K SNP Illumina array, which increased considerably the marker density compared to previous studies. The QTL analysis was conducted with FlexQTLTM software. Here we describe and discuss the preliminary QTLs obtained for some of the traits analyzed (maturity date, percentage of red skin color and soluble solid content). The identification of donors of favorable alleles will represent an important tool for marker-assisted breeding. This study has been conducted in the frame of the Fruit Breedomics European project.


A numerical study of the dispersive limit of the quantum hydrodynamic equations for semiconductors is presented. The solution may develop high frequency oscillations when the scaled Planck constant is small. Numerical evidence is given of the fact that in such cases the solution does not converge to the solution of the formal limit equations.


COVID-19, is a disease caused by the novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2 hat shows symptoms like flu or may even remain asymptomatic. Most people who develop Covid 19 recover, but current evidences suggest that, approximately 10 % to 20% people experience a lot of effects after they recover from this illness. The common symptoms include headache, sleep problems, depression or anxiety, fatigue, post-exertional malaise, difficulty breathing, rashes and sometimes recurrence of fever itself. These mid and long term effects are collectively called as post covid 19 conditions. The patients visiting the post covid clinics are increasing day by day. The researchers are working with patients who develop post covid 19 condition to better understand about its causes, symptoms and effects. In this current situation, it is very important to analyse this in an Ayurvedic perspective. Ayurveda has mentioned a condition called Punaravartaka jwara, in the context of Jwara chikitsa in Caraka Samhita that describes that, if a person, who has become free from jwara, resorts to prohibited factors before gaining strength, then the Jwara may reappear. Sometimes, the Dosas causing Jwara undergo Paripaka in the Dhatus and the Jwara may subside but manifest later as harmful symptoms like, Dīnata, Svayathu, Glani, Panduta, loss of appetite, itching, urticaria, pimples and suppression of the power of digestion. So, the manifestation of Punaravartaka Jwara has similarity with the post covid 19 conditions. So, the present article aims to review the analogy of the contributing factors and clinical presentation of Punaravartaka jwara and post covid condition and to plan a treatment protocol


It's very important to make an effective and optimized production schedule for the small-to-medium-sized factory which have high-variety low-volume manufacturing properties. And now people say that MES is very useful to make scheduling more effectively. But for small-to-medium-sized factory, it is very difficult to build MES system because of fewer infrastructures in the factory, and more to keep it's continuous maintenance and improvement. Therefore it is more important to systematize the production scheduling generation using simpler and easier tools like EXCEL sheet. And it will be needed a new method to make simple MES construction for more efficient production scheduling. This paper proposes the method which can build simple MES easily using a tool of EXCEL VBA for a small-to-medium-sized factory, and introduces an applied case by the proposed method and EXCEL VBA.


Education in the 21st century demands a model for understanding a new culture of learning in the face of rapid change, open access data and geographical diversity. Teachers no longer need to provide the latest information because students themselves are taking an active role in peer collectives to help create it. This paper examines, through an Australian case study entitled 'Design Minds', the development of an online design education platform as a key initiative to enact a government priority for state-wide cultural change through design-based curriculum. Utilising digital technology to create a supportive community, 'Design Minds' recognises that interdisciplinary learning fostered through engagement will empower future citizens to think, innovate, and discover. This paper details the participatory design process undertaken with multiple stakeholders to create the platform. It also outlines a proposed research agenda for future measurement of its value in creating a new learning culture, supporting regional and remote communities, and revitalising frontline services. It is anticipated this research will inform ongoing development of the online platform, and future design education and research programs in K-12 schools in Australia.


The performance of the ileal conduit (Bricker's operation) is a well and minutely known surgical procedure (choice of a particular ileal loop; uretero-ileal anastomosis; uretero-cutaneostomy); however we can still observe several and different details in the operative technique management. The Authors, on the basis of their own experience of 55 cases, and after a complete review of the literature, emphasize the technical controversies of ileal loop urinary diversion; moreover they analyze the technic changes previously pointed out be several Authors, to avoid surgical complications. They conclude that the ileal conduit urinary diversion shall have less complication if: 1) the ileal loop is a short one, but with a very good blood supply; 2) antireflex techniques are not used; 3) Brooke's technique is used in performing uretero-cutaneostomy.


Background Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is associated with an increased risk of clinical and subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD), including endothelial dysfunction. This elevated CVD risk is multifactorial, but is in part due to exposure to both systemic inflammatory disease activity and corticosteroids. Endothelial microparticles (EMPs) are membrane-bound subcellular particles produced by endothelial cells in response to a variety of activation triggers, including shear stress, inflammatory cytokines and classic CVD risk factors. EMPs are considered to reflect endothelial damage and their levels are elevated in high CVD risk states (such as end-stage renal failure) and may correlate with other measures of endothelial function. Their levels and correlation with endothelial function are unknown in SLE. Objectives The present study aimed to compare EMP levels in a cohort of patients with active SLE compared to controls. The correlation of EMP levels with endothelial function as assessed by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery was also examined. Methods Patients with active SLE (≥4 CR criteria) requiring escalation in their anti-inflammatory therapy were recruited. Disease activity (BILAG 2004 and SLEDAI 2K), disease damage (SLICC-DI), current therapies, and clinical features were recorded. Healthy age-matched controls free of CVD risk factors were also assessed. FMD (%) of the brachial artery was measured using 2D ultrasound and automated edge-tracking software, according to international guidelines. EMPs were quantified (number/ml) using flow cytometry after incubating platelet-poor-plasma with the cell surface markers CD31, CD42b and Annexin-V. Events positive for annexin-V and CD31, and negative for CD42b, were classified as EMPs. Continuous data were compared using Mann-Whitney test, and Spearman's Rank was used to correlate EMP levels with % FMD. Results 27 patients with SLE (mean (SD) age 41.5 (14.1) yrs) and 22 controls (mean age (SD) 38.5 (9.3) yrs) underwent assessment of endothelial function. The SLE patients had active disease with a mean (SD) SLEDAI-2K of 8.2 (5.5) and 26 BILAG "A" and 16 BILAG "B" scores overall. Endothelial-dependent FMD (%) was significantly reduced in the SLE group compared to controls (median (IQR) FMD1.63% (-1.22, 5.32) vs. 5.40% (3.02, 8.57); p=0.05). Endothelial-independent dilatation of the brachial artery (following administration of sub-lingual GTN 300mcg) was however similar in both groups (median (IQR) GTN-response 15.3% (11.9, 19.06) vs. 12.0% (10.3, 20.5); p = ns), confirming impaired endothelial function. EMPs (n/ml) were significantly elevated in the SLE cohort compared to controls (median (IQR) 157,548/ml (59,906, 272,643) vs. 41,025 (30,179, 98,082); p=0.003). Overall, EMPs demonstrated a significant negative correlation with %FMD (correlation coefficient -0.42; p=0.008). Conclusions Endothelial function is significantly impaired in young SLE patients compared to healthy controls, reflecting the increased CVD risk observed in the disease. EMPs are significantly elevated in active SLE and their levels correlate with FMD, an established measure of endothelial function. EMPs may therefore act as a biomarker for CVD risk in SLE. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


This paper is the second paper in a series of three papers on Global Value Chains (GVCs), developed under the auspices of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. It provides a clear understanding and comparison of existing theories and methodologies for mapping value chains and offer a demonstration of the use of such methodologies in the context of S3 and strategic interventions at regional, national and cluster level. The paper provides an overview of five distinctive theoretical frameworks to global value chain research, and related to them methodologies for mapping GVCs, and analysis of patterns of industry diversification and integration. The paper highlights that mapping interconnected industry capabilities at a global scale and GVC analysis requires the use of data on the operations of multinational enterprises (MNEs). This discussion is intricately linked to the third paper in the series, which presents a new methodological approach using a bespoke database of the most innovative biopharma MNEs, describing the step-by-step procedure for building the MNE database and mapping the biopharma GVC at country, region and cluster level. Our policy recommendations are co-aligned with the existing framework - EU industrial policy: 'Towards Industrial Renaissance', Regional growth through Smart Specialisation Strategy, COSME programme for SME support, building Circular Economy for sustainable and inclusive growth, cluster internationalisation, and other relevant policy initiatives by the European Commission.


We develop a general approach to estimation and inference for income distributions using grouped or aggregate data that are typically available in the form of population shares and class mean incomes, with unknown group bounds. We derive generic moment conditions and an optimal weight matrix that can be used for generalized method-of-moments (GMM) estimation of any parametric income distribution. Our derivation of the weight matrix and its inverse allows us to express the seemingly complex GMM objective function in a relatively simple form that facilitates estimation. We show that our proposed approach, which incorporates information on class means as well as population proportions, is more efficient than maximum likelihood estimation of the multinomial distribution, which uses only population proportions. In contrast to the earlier work of Chotikapanich, Griffiths, and Rao, and Chotikapanich, Griffiths, Rao, and Valencia, which did not specify a formal GMM framework, did not provide methodology for obtaining standard errors, and restricted the analysis to the beta-2 distribution, we provide standard errors for estimated parameters and relevant functions of them, such as inequality and poverty measures, and we provide methodology for all distributions. A test statistic for testing the adequacy of a distribution is proposed. Using eight countries/regions for the year 2005, we show how the methodology can be applied to estimate the parameters of the generalized beta distribution of the second kind (GB2), and its special-case distributions, the beta-2, Singh–Maddala, Dagum, generalized gamma, and lognormal distributions. We test the adequacy of each distribution and compare predicted and actual income shares, where the number of groups used for prediction can differ from the number used in estimation. Estimates and standard errors for inequality and poverty measures are provided. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are increasingly adopted in several domains where reliability is fundamental, such as self-driving cars and autonomous systems. Unfortunately, GPU devices have been shown to have a high error rate, while the constraints imposed by real-time safety-critical applications make traditional (and costly) replication-based hardening solutions inadequate. This work proposes an effective methodology to identify the architectural vulnerable sites in GPUs modules, i.e., the locations that, if corrupted, most affect the correct instructions execution. We first identify, through an innovative method based on Register-Transfer Level (RTL) fault injection experiments, the architectural vulnerabilities of a GPU model. Then, we mitigate the fault impact via selective hardening applied to the flip-flops that have been identified as critical. We evaluate three hardening strategies: Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR), Triple Modular Redundancy against SETs ( $\Delta $ TMR), and Dual Interlocked Storage Cells (Dice flip-flops). The results gathered on a publicly available GPU Model (FlexGripPlus) considering functional units, pipeline registers, and warp scheduler controller show that our method can tolerate from 85% to 99% of faults in the pipeline registers, from 50% to 100% of faults in the functional units and up to 10% of faults in the warp scheduler, with a reduced hardware overhead (in the range of 58% to 94% when compared with traditional TMR). Finally, we adapt the methodology to perform a complementary evaluation targeting permanent faults and identify critical sites prone to propagate fault effects across the GPU. We found that a considerable percentage (65% to 98%) of flip-flops that are critical for transient faults are also critical for permanent faults.


Midwives are central to caring for pregnant women in labour, including Deaf women. It is the midwife's responsibility to communicate and establish a relationship with the pregnant woman in labour, despite the accompanying challenges. Explore fourth-year undergraduate Midwifery Students' and their Lecturers' perceptions of the challenges faced by Deaf pregnant women in accessing maternity health care when in labour. A qualitative content analysis approach with purposive sampling allowed for the invitation of Midwifery lecturers (n=2) and Bachelor of Nursing Degree Midwifery students (n=25). Data were collected through four focus group discussions and two individual interviews. Data analysis was guided by Elo and Kyngäs approach and trustworthiness was achieved. Two categories with four subcategories emerged. All pregnant women, inclusive of the often "inaudible" Deaf pregnant woman, are entitled to equitable, accessible, available person-centred maternal health care.


The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.


We begin with the story of a project one of us undertook in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) with tertiary students. We then draw out of it some points for our arguments about the complex mix of literacy, learning and technology practices that contribute to tertiary education. In two respects this story might not seem immediately relevant to discussions of distance education. First, the students were present on campus. However, we believe that all learning – on or off campus – occurs in a variety of contexts, which are spread or "distributed" over time and space. Some kinds of learning occur in company with others, present in the flesh or through their words; other learning happens when one is alone with one's thoughts and materials, even in a crowd. And all learning occurs by means of various technologies (pens, blackboards, books, classrooms). Second, the events happened in 1997 – a very long time in computerised education! – although similar stories of opportunities and challenges created today or tomorrow.


Patients with enduring kidney ailment frequently want clinical interventions for vascular access then used for therapeutic problems correlated towards comorbid situations. Perioperative morbidity and mortality rates are increased in these patients. Preoperative consideration to mutual medical difficulties that occur in patients through impaired renal function can minor around surgical hazards. Hyperkalemia can remain provisionally enhanced through the intravenous management of an insulin-dextrose grouping or bicarbonate, and polystyrene binding mastics or dialysis can eliminate additional supplies of potassium. Improved hemorrhage interrelated to uremic platelet dysfunction can be accomplished by the management of desmopressin, cryoprecipitate, or estrogens, then in circumventing the usage of medications through antiplatelet belongings near toward the period of operation. Transfusions of red blood cells would remain reserved for usage in patients through clinically important anemia, because the antibody construction may be decreasing the possibility of effective renal replacement in the upcoming. Cardiovascular virus is the maximum mutual origin of death in patients through renal virus. Patients through chronic kidney virus might be have high blood pressure and hypoglycemia in the perioperative dated. Preoperative testing might be essential in the patients through cardiac risk issues. If upcoming vascular access splicing is to considered, intravenous line assignment and plasma draws would be circumvented in a patient's nondominant armrest. The kidneys strainer unused and extra liquid from the blood. As kidneys fail, unused builds up. Symptoms mature gradually and aren't definite to the virus. Some people have no indicators at very and are identified by a lab test. Medication helps manage symptoms. In later stages, filtering the blood with a machine (dialysis) or a transplant may be required.


Abstract. Magnetic-field measurements are essential to the success of many scientific space missions. Outside of the earth's magnetic field the biggest potential source of magnetic-field contamination of these measurements is emitted by the spacecraft. Spacecraft magnetic cleanliness is enforced through the application of strict ground verification requirements for spacecraft equipment and instruments. Due to increasingly strict AC magnetic-field requirements, many spacecraft units cannot be verified on the ground using existing techniques. These measurements must instead be taken close to the equipment under test (EUT) and then extrapolated. A traditional dipole power law of −3 (with a field fall-off proportional to r−3) cannot be applied at these close distances without risk of underestimating the field emitted by the EUT, but we demonstrate that a power law of −2 is too conservative. We propose a compromise that uses a power law of −2 up to a distance equal to 3 times the unit size, beyond which a dipole power law can be applied. When extrapolating from a distance of 0.20 m to 1.00 m from the centre of a 0.20 m wide EUT, we demonstrate that this method avoids an under prediction of the field, and is at least twice as accurate as performing the extrapolation with a fixed power law of −2.


Abstract. Chiral chemodiversity plays a crucial role in biochemical processes such as insect and plant communication. However, the vast majority of organic aerosol studies do not distinguish between enantiomeric compounds in the particle phase. Here we report chirally specified measurements of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) at the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) at different altitudes during three measurement campaigns at different seasons. Analysis of filter samples by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has shown that the chiral ratio of pinic acid (C9H14O4) varies with increasing height above the canopy. A similar trend was recently observed for the gas-phase precursor α-pinene, but more pronounced. Nevertheless, the measurements indicate that neither the oxidation of (+/−)-α-pinene nor the incorporation of the products into the particulate phase proceeds with stereo preference and that the chiral information of the precursor molecule is merely transferred to the low-volatility product. The observation of the weaker height gradient of the present enantiomers in the particle phase at the observation site can be explained by the significant differences in the atmospheric lifetimes of reactant and product. Therefore, it is suggested that the chiral ratio of pinic acid is mainly determined by large-scale emission processes of the two precursors, while meteorological, chemical, or physicochemical processes do not play a particular role. Characteristic emissions of the chiral aerosol precursors from different forest ecosystems, in some cases even with contributions from forest related fauna, could thus provide large-scale information on the different contributions to biogenic secondary aerosols via the analytics of the chiral particle-bound degradation products.


We formulate a new class of conditional generative models based on probability flows. Trained with maximum likelihood, it provides efficient inference and sampling from class-conditionals or the joint distribution, and does not require a priori knowledge of the number of classes or the relationships between classes. This allows one to train generative models from multiple, heterogeneous datasets, while retaining strong prior models over subsets of the data (e.g., from a single dataset, class label, or attribute). In this paper, in addition to end-to-end learning, we show how one can learn a single model from multiple datasets with a relatively weak Glow architecture, and then extend it by conditioning on different knowledge types (e.g., a single dataset). This yields log likelihood comparable to state-of-the-art, compelling samples from conditional priors.


This paper uses a randomized information intervention to shed light on whether poor understanding of social insurance, both the process of enrolling and costs and benefits, drives the relatively low rates of participation in urban health insurance and pension programs among China's rural-urban migrants. Among workers without a contract, the information intervention has a strong positive effect on participation in health insurance and, among younger age groups, in pension programs. Migrants are responsive to price: in cities where the premiums are low relative to earnings, information induces health insurance participation, while declines are observed in cities with high relative premiums.


Address delivered by E. H. Bensley of the Department of the History of Medicine at the Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Banquet of the Osler Society of McGill University, April 1, 1971.


Drawing upon cases studies from Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia, this article addresses the following questions pertaining to the rise of China and its impact upon Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) in the region over the past two decades. By employing theoretical insights of positionality, nudging and de‐territorialisation and by focusing on various strategies pursued respectively by CVAs and the state, we conclude: (i) the growing economic ties between China and Southeast Asia serve as the platform through which the reconstruction of the CVAs take place; (ii) the reconstitution of the CVAs has been significantly driven by their own initiatives to compete in a new economy, in which knowledge of and connection with a rising China as an expanding market and a culture has advantages; (iii) the states in both China and Southeast Asia have played a part in the reconfiguration of the CVAs, motivated by their respective political and economic agendas; and (iv) it is imperative to go beyond the conventional approaches in understanding CVAs (internal structure and external connections) that have dominated much of the existing literature; and we argue that it is in the interactions and intersections between the internal dynamics and external political economy that a new type of CVAs has emerged.


In the present article I seek to discuss, following a diachronic approach, the close-knit relationship that can be found between journalistic discourse and the genre of the short story in Anglophone South African literature over a time span of fifty years, between the late Twenties and the Eighties. In particular, I intend to explore this genre negotiation by close reading selected short stories and/or newspaper articles by four non-white South African writers: R. R. R. Dhlomo, Can Themba, Alex La Guma, and Miriam Tlali. The intersections between the two different genres and discourses in these hybrid texts can be identified at the level of both content and form. A close reading of selected short stories and/or articles may call for a revaluation of this "South African New Journalism" as a creative experimentation that challenges conventional generic categorisations.


Frailty is considered a preoperative risk factor for complications after esophagectomy while impaired gastric conduit perfusion is associated with anastomotic leaks. Patients with impaired conduit perfusion may be candidates for gastric ischemic preconditioning, a surgical procedure performed prior to definitive esophagectomy to improve gastric conduit perfusion. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between radiographic determinants of frailty (morphomics) and gastric conduit perfusion assessed during esophagectomy.

 Patients undergoing an esophagectomy with a cervical esophagogastric anastomosis (2015–2021) were included. Preoperative CT scans were processed using semiautomated algorithms (MATLAB; MathWorks, MA) to assess skeletal muscle (cross-sectional area, Martin's criteria), subcutaneous fat (cross-sectional area, decreased when below the cut-off) and bone mineral density (decreased when below the cut-off). Indocyanine green perfusion was assessed intraoperatively (SPY Elite; Stryker, MI) and Ingress Index was calculated (standardized perfusion at the evaluated point). The morphomic index (MI), as an indicator of frailty, was determined using the number of decreased morphomic factors present (0–3). Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the data.

 One hundred and thirty-six patients were evaluated, with 25 patients developing anastomotic leaks (18.4%). Morphomic indices (MIs) of 2 or 3 were independently associated with reduced Ingress Index (p = 0.019 and 0.004, Table). In a sub-analysis for MI, MIs of 2 or 3 were associated with higher age (p = 0.029), lower BMI (p = 0.003), and cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure, and vascular disease, p = 0.017). Other patient demographic factors including age, sex, and comorbidities did not affect Ingress Index.

 Higher Morphomic Index (indicating lower than normal radiographic measures) were associated with impaired gastric conduit perfusion. More patients will be needed to investigate whether increased MI also is associated with development of anastomotic leaks. These findings may be useful in risk stratification and preoperative decision making in patients undergoing esophagectomy. Patients with MI of 2 or higher should be considered for gastric ischemic preconditioning.


Background Physicians have observed patients with COVID-19 without respiratory distress despite marked hypoxaemia and extensive radiographic abnormalities, a controversial phenomenon called 'silent hypoxaemia'. We aimed to compare the relationship between RR and peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) in patients with COVID-19 versus patients without COVID-19 when breathing air on admission. Methods We conducted a retrospective multicentre ED cohort correlational study. We used the Spanish Investigators on Emergency Situations TeAm network cohort of patients with COVID-19 admitted to 61 Spanish EDs between March and April 2020. The non-COVID-19 cohort included patients with lower respiratory tract bacterial infections admitted between January 2016 and April 2018. We built a multivariable linear model to investigate the independent predictive factors related to RR and a logistic multivariate regression model to analyse the presence of 'silent hypoxaemia'. Results We included 1094 patients with COVID-19 and 477 patients without COVID-19. On admission, RR was lower (20±7 vs 24±8/min, p<0.0001), while SpO2 higher (95±5% vs 90±7%, p<0.0001) in patients with COVID-19 versus patients without COVID-19. RR was negatively associated with SpO2 (RR decreasing with increasing age, beta=−0.37, 95% CI (−0.43; −0.31), p<0.0001), positively associated with age (RR increasing with increasing age, beta=0.05, 95% CI (0.03; 0.07), p<0.0001) and negatively associated with COVID-19 status (RR lower in patients with COVID-19, beta=−1.90, 95% CI (−2.65; −1.15), p<0.0001). The negative RR/SpO2 correlation differed between patients with COVID-19 aged <80 and ≥80 years old (p=0.04). Patients with COVID-19 aged ≥80 years old had lower RR than patients without COVID-19 aged ≥80 years old at SpO2 values <95% (22±7 vs 24±8/min, p=0.004). 'Silent hypoxaemia' defined as RR <20/min with SpO2 <95% was observed in 162 (14.8%) patients with COVID-19 and in 79 (16.6%) patients without COVID-19 (p=0.4). 'Silent hypoxaemia' was associated with age ≥80 years (OR=1.01 (1.01; 1.03), p<0.0001) but not with gender, comorbidities and COVID-19 status. Conclusion The RR/SpO2 relationship before oxygen administration does not differ between patients with COVID-19 and those without COVID-19, except in elderly patients.


The dilatometer curves of continuous cooling transformation of 12Mn steel were measured with Formastor-FⅡthermal mechanical simulator.The steel's undercooled austenite phase continuous cooling transformation curves ( CCT curves) were established by means of the dilatometer method and the metallographic-hardness measurement method. The effect of cooling rate on microstructure and hardness of the steel was studied. CCT curve of test steel was simulated by JMatPro. The results show that the Ac1 and Ac3 of the experimental steel are 692 ℃ and 855 ℃ ; the microstructure obtained is made of ferrite,pearlite and bainite.The ferrite transformation and pearlite transformation occur at a slower cooling rate,in which the ferrite is dominant. When the cooling rate is greater than 4.25 ℃ / s bainite transformation happens.As the cooling rate increases,microstructure or grains become finer.The hardness of the tested steel with increasing cooling rate shows a trend of first fast increase and soon decrease.The simulation results are consistent with the measured CCT law. The high temperature mechanical properties of 12mn steel round billet were tested by gleeble-1500d thermal / mechanical simulator. The tensile strength, reduction of area and stress-strain curves of the billet were obtained in the range of 600-1300 ℃.


At the Australian Catholic University (ACU) an ePortfolio may be used as a product, to display parts of one's Personal Learning Environment (PLE), or as a process, referred to as a Personal Learning Network (PLN). This is challenging to institutions and their Executive, as academics can use it both as an assessment 'of' learning and as a vehicle 'for' learning. It promotes metacognitive awareness of learning (awareness of one's own thinking and problem solving) providing opportunities for selfdirected learning by exploiting its digital affordances, enabling users (teachers or students) to reflect upon, profile, and transform learning, teaching, and engagement with peers in one's profession using a Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT) approach [1]. Reflection is an essential part of academic learning and continuous improvement. In Teacher Education courses, community reflective practice [2] helps profile evidence used to show continuing achievement against professional teaching standards in an evolving life-long learning journey.


The liberalization of political and intellectual life in China and the rise of Tibetan exile communities throughout the world have produced a resurgence of spoken and written Tibetan. These developments, together with increasing contacts between Western scholars and Tibetans, have created a widening circle of English-speakers - in government, business, academia, and elsewhere - who need to speak or write Tibetan with precision and clarity. For these people, and for others who want to communicate with Tibetans in their own language, Professor Goldstein's Dictionary will be an indispensable aid. The first scholarly English-Tibetan dictionary, as well as the only one that is semantically sensitive, this work specifies the Tibetan terms that correspond to the submeanings of a single English term. Containing roughly 16,000 main entries, most of which have multiple subentries, the Dictionary treats a total of 45,000 lexical items. Each entry includes both the written Tibetan orthography and a phonemic notation to indicate pronunciation. Grammatical features are also noted, and all examples of usage are presented with the romanticization of the written Tibetan and phonemic notation of the spoken forms. An introductory essay familiarizes users with the main features of Tibetan grammar.


This paper presents and evaluates a method for simultaneously tracking a target while localizing the sensor nodes of a passive device-free tracking system. The system uses received signal strength (RSS) measurements taken on the links connecting many nodes in a wireless sensor network, with nodes deployed such that the links overlap across the region. A target moving through the region attenuates links intersecting or nearby its path. At the same time, RSS measurements provide information about the relative locations of sensor nodes. We utilize the Sequential Monte Carlo (particle filtering) framework for tracking, and we use an online EM algorithm to simultaneously estimate static parameters (including the sensor locations, as well as model parameters including noise variance and attenuation strength of the target). Simultaneous tracking, online calibration and parameter estimation enable rapid deployment of a RSS-based device free localization system, e.g., in emergency response scenarios. Simulation results and experiments with a wireless sensor network testbed illustrate that the proposed tracking method performs well in a variety of settings.