This paper formalizes a general technique to combine different methods in the solution of large systems of nonlinear equations using parallel asynchronous implementations on distributed-memory multiprocessor systems. Such combinations of methods, referred to as team algorithms, are evaluated as a way of obtaining desirable properties of different methods and a sufficient condition for their convergence is derived. The load flow problem of electrical power networks is presented as an example problem that, under certain conditions, has the characteristics to make a team algorithm an appealing choice for its solution. Experimental results of an implementation on an Intel iPSC/860 Hypercube are reported, showing that considerable speedup and robustness can be obtained using team algorithms.


The Millsey Williamson site (41RK3) is an 18th century Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery situated on an alluvial terrace on the east side of Martin Creek in the Sabine River basin. Some portions of the site are now covered by the waters of Martin Creek Lake, constructed in the 1970s. The site was first investigated in the 1930s, when at least 11 historic Caddo burials were excavated in the cemetery at the western end of the landform. Buddy Calvin Jones excavated a disturbed historic burial at the site in 1955, and also occasionally collected glass beads from the surface of the site. The funerary offerings placed with this disturbed burial were not clearly enumerated by Jones, as his description of artifacts from the site included artifacts he examined in several other collections. He did note 275 sherds from the surface of the site and 12 whole or restored ceramic vessels from an unknown number of burials. Most of these sherds were recorded by Jones as being grog– (52 percent) or bone–tempered (43 percent), but 4 percent were tempered with shell. Perttula and Nelson recently documented 11 vessels from the Millsey Williamson site in the collections of the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM). These vessels include a Emory Punctated–Incised (shell– tempered) collared jar; a Maydelle Incised jar; a Bullard Brushed jar; a jar with brushing only on the body; a Ripley Engraved, var. unspecified carinated bowl; Simms Incised carinated bowl; two unidentified engraved carinated bowls with a continuous stepped rectilinear scroll design; a carinated bowl with a sprocket rim with a continuous negative scroll design; a carinated bowl with diagonal opposed and cross–hatched engraved lines on the rim; and a plain olla. The ceramic vessels are of diverse manufacture, form, and decorative methods. Most are carinated bowls and jars tempered with grog and bone, and fired in a reducing environment, and the former are decorated with engraved lines, while the latter are decorated incised, punctated, or brushed utility wares. On their own stylistic merits, none of these vessels in the GCHM collections is that of a recognizable Historic Caddo type, such as Natchitoches Engraved, Simms Engraved, var. Darco, or Keno Trailed, and in fact, most of these vessels cannot be identified as examples of specific types. The vessels that can be typed include Emory Punctated–Incised, Maydelle Incised, and Bullard Brushed jars and a Ripley Engraved, var. unspecified carinated bowl; one vessel has been dubbed Simms Incised because it is of a form and decorative style that matches Simms Engraved, except the motif is executed with incised lines. Also recovered from the site were clay and limonite pipes, ochre and vermillion, animal teeth, glass beads, metal gun parts, gun flints, iron knives, iron arrow points, and awls in the Millsey Williamson collection. There were also a variety of brass objects: a brass tinkler, coils, hawk bells, and unworked pieces of sheet brass.


This paper aims to identify the future Industry 4.0 centers of knowledge production in Europe. We expect Industry 4.0 Technologies (I4Ts) to thrive in regions where they can draw on local resources from related technologies. We use OECD-REGPAT data to identify I4T-related technologies, and find that I4Ts are located at the periphery of the knowledge space. Regions with a high potential in terms of I4T-related technologies were more likely to diversify successfully in new I4Ts in the period 2002-2016. We find big differences across EU regions: some show high but most regions show weak I4T potential.


Fault tolerance capabilities are becoming a fundamental requirement in many designs. Improving these systems' dependability under demanding environmental and operating conditions requires new techniques that use concurrent error detection (CED) strategies to guarantee data integrity. The system-level algorithmic CED methodology uses selective redundancy for online monitoring of system-level properties, without requiring any modifications to the target system.


Provided is a novel anticariogenic agent having no side effects, said anticariogenic agent being capable of exerting an anticariogenic effect even on people who are highly sensitive to oligosaccharides or sugar alcohols. Also provided is an agent for preventing periodontal diseases or an agent for treating periodontal diseases that is capable of exerting an effect of preventing or treating periodontal diseases and has little side effects. The present invention relates to an anticariogenic agent and an anticariogenic composition each containing a bifidobacterium, a bifidobacterium-containing agent and composition for preventing periodontal diseases, and a bifidobacterium-containing agent and composition for treating periodontal diseases.


Background : Atypical and exceptional clinical presentation of full blown AIDS may be observed in sub-Saharan Africa. We report herein the case of a Central African 37-year-old male patient presented with full blown AIDS, a typical picture of slim disease with marked cachexia and wasting faces. In addition, the patient was suffering from very extensive genital ulcer with complete loss of substance of the genitalia. Methods : Extensive histological and microbiological analysis of the genital lesion was carried out. Results : HIV-1 serology was positive, the HIV-1 RNA plasma viral load was 5.3 log copies/ml and CD4 T cell count was 1 per μL. Search for  Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum and urine was negative by direct microscopic examination with Ziehl-Neelsen staining. Testing for syphilis serology was negative. Direct immunofluorescence detection on genital ulcer scraping was negative for Chlamydia trachomatis and Treponema pallidum . Furthermore, the infections with Haemophilus ducreyi and Chlamydia trachomatis were excluded by PCR on genital swabs.Genital PCR was positive for herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 2. Marked improvement was observed within 6 weeks after starting empirical therapy including first-line antiretroviral therapy, cotrimoxazole, doxycycline and valacyclovir, with progressive healing of genital ulcer and negativity of HSV PCR. Conclusion : Taken together, the extensive genital ulcer in this patient is likely the result of a multifactorial process, involving both profound cellular immune depression and complex genital infectious process in which herpetic infection may have participated as a chronic worsening co-factor. Key words : Slim disease, HIV, Extensive genital ulcer, Herpes simplex virus type 2.


With higher levels of automation in vehicles, the need for robust driver monitoring systems increases, since it must be ensured that the driver can intervene at any moment. Drowsiness, stress and alcohol are still the main sources of driver distraction. However, physiological problems such as heart attacks and strokes also exhibit a significant risk for driver safety, especially with respect to the ageing population. In this paper, a portable cushion with four sensor units with multiple measurement modalities is presented. Capacitive electrocardiography, reflective photophlethysmography, magnetic induction measurement and seismocardiography are performed with the embedded sensors. The device can monitor the heart and respiratory rates of a vehicle driver. The promising results of the first proof-of-concept study with twenty participants in a driving simulator not only demonstrate the accuracy of the heart (above 70% of medical-grade heart rate estimations according to IEC 60601-2-27) and respiratory rate measurements (around 30% with errors below 2 BPM), but also that the cushion might be useful to monitor morphological changes in the capacitive electrocardiogram in some cases. The measurements can potentially be used to detect drowsiness and stress and thus the fitness of the driver, since heart rate variability and breathing rate variability can be captured. They are also useful for the early prediction of cardiovascular diseases, one of the main reasons for premature death. The data are publicly available in the UnoVis dataset.


Removing the topographic component in the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) phase is conventionally conducted using an external digital elevation model (DEM). However, with an increasing spatial resolution of SAR data, the external DEM is becoming less qualified for this purpose, resulting in notable phase residues and even decorrelation in differential interferograms. Although topographic residuals can be parameterized and estimated by multi-temporal InSAR (MTInSAR) techniques, its accuracy is limited by several factors. Instead of providing accurate height information, shortening the length of baselines is an alternative for DEM phase mitigation. We propose here an MTInSAR processing framework that can retrieve the deformation time series without the estimation of topographic residuals. Within the framework, we generate a set of pseudo interferograms with near-zero baselines by integer combination and take these pseudo interferograms as observations of MTInSAR model, where deformation becomes the only signal that needs to be parameterized. The deformation time series is then retrieved directly from wrapped phases by ridge estimation with an integer ambiguity detector. It is noted that although atmospheric artifacts might be magnified during the combination, their differential components at arcs constructed with neighboring points that are not significantly enlarged. The proposed method is particularly suitable for infrastructure deformation monitoring in urban areas where no accurate external DEM is available. It also has promising potential for retrieving deformation from SAR data stacks with short acquisition intervals since the combination can enlarge the signal of interests in pseudo-observations. Semisynthetic and real data tests indicate that the proposed method has satisfied performance on DEM error mitigation and deformation time series estimation.


Exogenous application of an electric field can direct cell migration and improve wound healing; however clinical application of the therapy remains elusive due to lack of a suitable device and hence, limitations in understanding the molecular mechanisms. Here we report on a novel FDA approved redox-active Ag/Zn bioelectric dressing (BED) which generates electric fields. To develop a mechanistic understanding of how the BED may potentially influence wound re-epithelialization, we direct emphasis on understanding the influence of BED on human keratinocyte cell migration. Mapping of the electrical field generated by BED led to the observation that BED increases keratinocyte migration by three mechanisms: (i) generating hydrogen peroxide, known to be a potent driver of redox signaling, (ii) phosphorylation of redox-sensitive IGF1R directly implicated in cell migration, and (iii) reduction of protein thiols and increase in integrinαv expression, both of which are known to be drivers of cell migration. BED also increased keratinocyte mitochondrial membrane potential consistent with its ability to fuel an energy demanding migration process. Electric fields generated by a Ag/Zn BED can cross-talk with keratinocytes via redox-dependent processes improving keratinocyte migration, a critical event in wound re-epithelialization.


A circular disk resonator is used to study the gas sensing properties of carbon nanotubes. It detects the presence of gases based on the change in the dielectric constant rather than electrical conductivity of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) upon gas exposure. A conducting circular disk is coated with electric arc prepared SWNTs and degassed by heating under a high vacuum. It exhibits noticeable shifts in resonant frequency to both polar (NH3 and CO) and nonpolar gases (He, Ar, N2, and O2). Gas concentrations as low as 100 ppm can be detected using this sensor configuration.


Enterprise Social Responsibility aims to link the enterprise with its internal and external actors with adequate professional practices, outlining the role of the organization, both in economic and social activities. A descriptive correlation research was carried out, applying a 9-dimensional survey, in a sample of 58 private health clinics in Quito, calculating the indexes of compliance with social responsibility and competitiveness and applying factorial analysis, in order to determine the components that denote the most important relationships between both variables. The three fundamental components defined were levels of social responsibility with active participation in the community, internal and external results of organizational structure and labor practices and innovation.


An experiment was carried out at the research field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh with the objective of verifying the effects of different salinity levels on the germination, growth and yield of four irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars. The experiment was performed with 6 NaCl concentrations viz. 0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 mM. It was observed that seed germination, plant height, tiller number and leaf area index are negatively influenced by different salinity levels in all the rice varieties. All the yield components that is number of panicles, panicle length, spikelets per panicle, filled grain and grain weight also significantly decrease with the increased salinity stress. An increase of NaCl concentration up to 150 mM decreased 36-50% of the grain yield of all the four rice varieties. Among the varieties BRRI dhan41 showed better performance at salinity stress up to a certain level.


In this paper, we propose a new language model based on dependent word sequences organized in a multi-level hierarchy. We call this model MC$_{n}^{\nu}$, where $n$ is the maximum number of words in a sequence and $\nu$ is the maximum number of levels. The originality of this model is its capacity to take into account dependent variable-length sequences for very large vocabularies. In order to discover the variable-length sequences and to build the hierarchy, we use a set of $233$ syntactic classes extracted from the $8$ French elementary grammatical classes. The MC$_{n}^{\nu}$ model learns hierarchical word patterns and uses them to reevaluate and filter the n-best utterance hypotheses outputted by our speech recognizer MAUD. The model has been trained on a corpus of $43$ million words extracted from a French newspaper and uses a vocabulary of $20000$ words. Tests have been conducted on $300$ sentences. Results achieved $17\%$ decrease in perplexity compared to an interpolated class trigram model. Rescoring the original n-best hypotheses resulted in an improvement of $5\%$ in accuracy.


According to the Italian Health Ministry in 2017, more than 850,000 individuals in Italy have requested mental health services for various symptoms associated with psychological distress. Moreover, stress can affect not only individuals, but also their romantic relationships. To date, there is a lack of empirically validated measures that assess individuals' perceptions of chronic and acute stressors. As such, the goal of the present study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chronic and Acute Stress Index (CASI), a multi-item self-report measure designed to assess perceptions of chronic and acute stressors that originate from individuals and affect their romantic relationships. Utilizing self-report data from 849 individuals from Italy collected before June 2019, the CASI was found to have good reliability and showed appropriate convergent validity with stress and negative affect, and discriminant validity with relationship satisfaction and positive affect. Limitations and future directions as they pertain to research, practice, and consultation are discussed.


The publication in August 2009 of the European Commission (EC)'s Communication on 'GDP and Beyond: Measuring progress in a changing world' and the release of the 'Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission' (SSFC) report gave a boost to better measuring social, economic and environmental developments, including complementing GDP with environmental and social indicators (i.e. measuring quality of life and wellbeing), more accurate reporting on inequalities, and extending national accounts to environmental and social issues. The ESS' response to this renewed policy environment was the creation of a Sponsorship Group 'Measuring progress, well-being and sustainable development' which prepared recommendations on households' perspective and distributional aspects of income, consumption and wealth, on environmental sustainability and on the multidimensional measurement of quality of life. The Sponsorship Group's report identifies about 50 concrete actions (to be carried out by 2020), which have been integrated in the EC's Statistical Work Programme. These actions are now being implemented in line with the EC's Communication towards robust quality management on European statistics 5 and according to the EC's Communication on the production method on statistics (Eurostat's vision).The 50 actions cover three priority areas: a) better measuring households' income, consumption and wealth and their joint distributions, b) better measuring the environmental dimensions of growth and progress – including extending national accounts to cover environmental and social issues and c) developing social indicators related to quality of life and well-being.


: Background: Migraine headache is one of the most common and disabling disorders of nervous system that impairs the quality of life. Combination of nortriptyline and propranolol can be effective in prophylaxis of migraine. Objective: Our aim was to compare the efficacy of nortriptyline and propranolol used as monotherapy and in combination in terms of reduction of number of attacks and duration of pain of migraine. Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at outpatient clinic, Neurology department, Sir Ganga Ram hospital Lahore from May 2018 to December 2018. Data was collected from 60 patients (15-50 years of age) who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of migraine using non-probability consecutive sampling technique. They were divided into three groups of 20 patients each. Group A received nortriptyline, group B propranolol and group C combination of both drugs. Results: In group A after three months 8 patients (40%), and after 6 months 12 patients (60%), in group B after three months 7 patients (35%) and after 6 months 11 patients (55%) and in group C at three months 12 patients (60%),at 6 months 16 patients(80%) have 50% or more reduction in number of migraine attacks per month. Similarly, there was significant reduction in duration of pain in group C as compared to group A and B. Conclusion: The efficacy of nortriptyline and propranolol in combination is significantly greater than used as monotherapy in terms of reduction of number of migraine attacks and duration of pain.


TREGRO, a model of tree physiological response to environmental stress, was developed to examine the details of tree response to the interaction between ozone sum and nutrient deficiency. TREGRO was used to test the hypothesis that the nutrient deficiency would exacerbate growth reductions caused by ozone. When TREGRO was applied to a range of multiple-stress scenarios involving these two stresses, the simulated effects of the combined stresses in reducing red spruce (Rcea rubens Sarg.) tree growth were less than the sum of the effects simulated when each stress was acting alone. Red spruce, a species with a growth strategy involving low maximum potential growth rates and storage in C reserves, showed simulated patterns of allocation that minimized the added effect of ozone when Mg nutrient availability was low. In contrast, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl.), a species that allocated C to the construction of new tissue preferentially, showed little ability to ameliorate ozone stress under low nutrient conditions. In neither case were the effects of ozone increased by nutrient deficiency. It is speculated that a species which maintains maximum C demand rates considerably below rates of C supply may be better able to adjust to conditions of multiple stresses. 22more » refs., 12 figs., 1 tab.« less


Antibody 15A9 is unique in its ability to catalyze the transamination reaction of hydrophobic D-amino acids with pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP). Both previous chemical modification studies and a three dimensional (3-D) homology model indicated the presence of functionally important tyrosine residues in the antigen-binding cavity of antibody 15A9. To gain further insight into the hapten, ligand binding, and catalytic mechanism of 15A9, all tyrosine residues in the complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) and the single arginine residue in CDR3 of the light chain were subject to an alanine scan. Substitution of Tyr(H33), Tyr(L94), or Arg(L91) abolished the catalytic activity and reduced the affinity for PLP and N(a)-(5'-phosphopyridoxyl)-amino acids, which are close analogues of covalent PLP-substrate adducts. The Tyr(H100b)Ala mutant possessed no detectable catalytic activity, while its affinity for each ligand was essentially the same as that of the wild-type antibody. The binding affinity for the hapten was drastically reduced by a Tyr(L32)Ala mutation, suggesting that the hydroxyphenyl group of Tyr(L32) participates in the binding of the extended side chain of the hapten. The other Tyr --> Ala substitutions affected both binding and catalytic activity only to a minor degree. On the basis of the information obtained from the mutagenesis study, we docked N(alpha)-(5'-phosphopyridoxyl)-D-alanine into the antigen-binding site. According to this model, Arg(L91) binds the alpha-carboxylate group of the amino acid substrate and Tyr(H100b) plays an essential role in the catalytic mechanism of antibody 15A9 by facilitating the Calpha/C4' prototropic shift. In addition, the catalytic apparatus of antibody 15A9 revealed several mechanistic features that overlap with those of PLP-dependent enzymes.


William Quarrier Kennedy, one of the most farseeing geologists of this century, divided his professional service almost equally between the Geological Survey of Great Britain, of which he was a member from 1928 to 1945, and the University of Leeds where he occupied the Chair of Geology from 1945 to 1967. During most of his time with the Geological Survey, Kennedy worked in his native Scotland, but with his move to Leeds he was able to range farther afield, in particular into Africa. In that continent his remarkable ability to discern geological relations on a large scale, previously concealed by small scale complications, which had already led him to a series of major discoveries in Scotland, found ever wider scope. Quick to perceive, but with the patience to spend years marshalling evidence around a germinating idea, he had great clarity of mind and an exceptional memory. These qualities are reflected in his published work and in his successful leadership of the Research Institute of African Geology he founded at the University of Leeds in 1955 and which he directed until his retirement. A slim man of no more than average height Kennedy was always neatly dressed whether in the laboratory or in the field. This neatness was reflected in his work, for his office was well ordered as were his lectures, professional papers and geological maps. His charm of manner and sparkling intelligence won him friends throughout his career. The affection and esteem in which he was held by colleagues at Leeds, emerges particularly clearly in the book African magmatism and tectonics brought out in his honour after his retirement and which opens with an appreciation by R. M. Shackleton.


The pathogenesis of endometriosis is still controversial, although it is known that the inflammatory immune response plays a critical role in this process. The resolution of inflammation is an active process where the activation of endogenous factors allows the host tissue to maintain homeostasis. The mechanisms by which pro-resolving mediators (PRM) act in endometriosis are still little explored. Thus, this integrative review aims to synthesize the available content regarding the role of PRM in endometriosis. Experimental and in vitro studies with Lipoxin A4 demonstrate a potential inhibitory effect on endometrial lesions' progression, attenuating pro-inflammatory and angiogenic signals, inhibiting proliferative and invasive action suppressing intracellular signaling induced by cytokines and estradiol, mainly through the FPR2/ALX. Investigations with Resolvin D1 demonstrated the inhibition of endometrial lesions and decreased pro-inflammatory factors. Annexin A1 is expressed in the endometrium and is specifically present in women with endometriosis, although the available studies are still inconsistent. Thus, we believe there is a gap in knowledge regarding the PRM pathways in patients with endometriosis. It is important to note that these substances' therapeutic potential is evident since the immune and abnormal inflammatory responses play an essential role in endometriosis development and progression.


Plants defense responses to abiotic stresses, including salinity stress, involve stimulation of defense related pathways such as biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and induction of endogenous antioxidant enzyme responses. In the present study, a single seed origin clonal line of Swertia chirayita inoculated with Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) was grown under different salinity levels. Control had no LP inoculation. S. chirayita inoculated with LP showed higher accumulation of proline, low proline dehydrogenase activity, up-regulation of pentose phosphate pathway, down-regulation of succinate dehydrogenase activity (Krebs cycle) and low total phenolic content with increased salt concentrations. In comparison, S. chirayita without LP adopted a different biochemical mechanism to counter salt stress (NaCl) by up-regulating both pentose phosphate pathway and Krebs cycle along with stimulation of phenolic biosynthesis. Guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) activity increased with and without LP treatment in response to increasing concentrations of salt. These results indicate that S. chirayita inoculated with LP exhibits a greater salinity stress tolerance than S. chirayita without LP by adopting a more energy efficient defense responses and potentially efficiently partitioning carbon flux between primary and secondary metabolism to counter salt induced oxidative stress.


Purpose - This study seeks to explore the effect of social capital (SC) on knowledge management (KM) practices. The main problem under investigation is to assess the importance of SC within an organization and to ascertain how it can ensure that knowledge activities would continue to be fitting and proper in the organization. Design/methodology/approach - Based on the notion that certain factors can affect knowledge management, this paper examines the effect of the various aspects of social capital on the knowledge management practices. The research method is descriptive and correlational. The population of the research consists of managers and senior experts of NIOPDC (National Iran Oil Product Distribution Co). A sample of 273 subjects was selected using statistical sampling. Data were collected through questionnaire consisting of 25 questions. Findings - The study has found that there are meaningful relationships between all of the dimensions of SC and KM practices. They can also facilitate knowledge management practices. The findings further suggest that among various dimensions of SC, trust has the most influential effect on KM practices. Research limitations/implications - In spite of lacking considerable empirical research investigating the correlations between KM and SC, this research not only extends the understanding of the effect of SC on KM, but also the interrelationship between various aspects of SC and their joint effects on knowledge management practices. Originality/value - Existing research has concentrated on studying the effect of SC on KM, by and large. There is little empirical research investigating the correlations between KM and SC. This paper addresses this gap and contributes understanding of how organizations can promote the effectiveness of KM practices through developing their social capital.


This paper examines the ways in which environmental threats are socially constructed and the implications of such environmental securitisation. Specifically, the paper focuses on the issue of river development and water allocation between states of international transboundary river basins. Building on recent studies that attempt to refine securitisation theory of the Copenhagen School and applying hydropolitical power analysis, the paper takes a sociological understanding of the securitisation of shared waters. Using the case study of the Tanakpur Barrage project on the Mahakali River between Nepal and India in the Ganges River basin, it shows how securitisation discourse framed the shared river as a threat that posed detrimental flooding to both territories. It is argued that the Indian government effectively used its technical and institutional expertise to frame the discourse. Hydropolitical power analysis helps explain how compliance to the project agreement – a necessary measure to avert hydrological crisis, as argued by the Indian government – was gained from the Nepali government. The implications of securitising shared rivers on water resources management and basin-wide governance are discussed.


The endogenous development of canine Isospora rivolta (Mahrt, J Protozool 14: 754--759, 1967) was compared with the development of I. ohioensis (Dubey, Parasitology, 1978, In press) in intestines of dogs. A new name, Isospora neorivolta, is proposed for the canine I. rivolta because of developmental differences from I. ohioensis. The major difference between these 2 coccidia is their site of development. Isospora neorivolta develops predominantly in the lamina propria of the posterior half of the small intestine, whereas I. ohioensis develops only in the epithelium and infection occurs throughout the small intestine. Additional information on the development of I. neorivolta in dogs is given.


People have increased the amount of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in the environment as a result of food production methods and consumption choices. However, the connection between dietary choices and environmental impacts over time has not yet been studied in China. Here we combine a nitrogen footprint tool, the N-Calculator, with a food chain model, NUFER (NUtrient flows in Food chains, Environment and Resources use), to analyze the N footprint of food in China. We use the NUFER model to provide a detailed estimation of the amounts and forms of Nr released to the environment during food production, which is then used to calculate virtual nitrogen factors (VNFs, unit: kg N released/kg N in product) of major food items. The food N footprint consists of the food consumption N footprint and food production N footprint. The average per capita food N footprint increased from 4.7 kg N capita−1 yr−1 in the 1960s to 21 kg N capita−1 yr−1 in the 2000s, and the national food N footprint in China increased from 3.4 metric tons (MT) N yr−1 in the 1960s to 28 MT N yr−1 in the 2000s. The proportion of the food N footprint that is animal-derived increased from 37% to 54% during this period. The food production N footprint accounted for 84% of the national food N footprint in the 2000s, compared to 62% in the 1960s. More Nr has been added to the food production systems to produce enough food for a growing population that is increasing its per-capita food consumption. The increasing VNFs in China indicate that an increasing amount of Nr is being lost per unit of N embedded in food products consumed by humans in the past five decades. National N losses from food production increased from 6 MT N yr−1 in the 1960s to 23 MT N yr−1 in the 2000s. N was lost to the environment in four ways: ammonia (NH3) emissions and dinitrogen (N2) emissions through denitrification (each account for nearly 40%), N losses to water systems (20%), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions (1%). The average per capita food N footprint in China is relatively high compared with those of developed countries in the 2000s. To reduce the food N footprint in China, it is important to both reduce the Nr losses during food production and encourage diets associated with a lower N footprint, such as shifting towards a more plant-based diet.


The spatial architecture of signaling pathways and the inter-action with cell size and morphology are complex but little understood. With the advances of single cell imaging and single cell biology it becomes crucial to understand intracel-lular processes in time and space. Activation of cell surface receptors often triggers a signaling cascade including the activation of membrane-attached and cytosolic signaling components, which eventually transmit the signal to the cell nucleus. Signaling proteins can form steep gradients in the cytosol, which cause strong cell size dependence. We show that the kinetics at the membrane-cytosolic interface and the ratio of cell membrane area to the enclosed cytosolic volume change the behavior of signaling cascades significantly. We present a mathematical analysis of signal transduction in time and space by providing analytical solutions for different spatial arrangements of linear signaling cascades. These investigations are complemented by numerical simulations of non-linear cascades and asymmetric cell shapes.


This paper presents a novel approach for the design of inductive dichroic mirrors used in the beam-waveguide feed system of deep-space antennas. The traditional design approach is based on the optimization of the performance of the mirror under single plane-wave illumination at the nominal incidence angle. This methodology does not allow for controlling the radiation pattern transmitted by the feed/dichroic system. A novel design strategy, consisting in optimizing the dichroic mirror also considering the overall feed/dichroic system, permits to overcome the limitation of the traditional approach. A dichroic mirror operating in S/X/Ka band has been designed with the two methodologies and its performance is discussed in the two cases.


The pituitary is an important endocrine gland located at the base of the brain. It is involved in nearly all processes of homeostasis, as well as growth and development. This gland commonly develops pathology, which may result in a mass effect on adjacent intracranial structures or be hormonally active. Pituitary adenomas are present in 14% of autopsy studies and 23% of radiology studies. Given the high prevalence, either due to symptoms from an underlying disease process or through incidental discovery, it is crucial to understand the methods for imaging pituitary lesions. This article will discuss the various imaging modalities for the pituitary gland, their indications as well as their limitations.


Positive attitude towards learning, ability to independently think and work, ability to inquire, good command over English language are often considered characteristics of a tertiary education student. To excel, the student must be able to read and make meaning out of what is read as reading underlies all forms of academic study and is crucial to academic success (Grabe, 2009). This study investigated the state of reading among tertiary education students. The sequential explanatory mixed method design was employed for the study. Systematic and convenient sampling techniques were used to sample 1169 students from which data was sought through the use of questionnaire and observation check list. Data was analysed using both descriptive (frequency counts, means and standard deviation) and inferential (t-test and ANOVA) statistics. The study findings indicated the existence of poor reading attitude among tertiary education students as the reading culture of majority of the students was the reading of their course materials only. To improve reading habits among tertiary students, recommendations provided include: sensitization of lecturers and students, giving tasks that require students to read beyond their course materials and presentation of greater sections of courses through individual and group presentation to enhance their development of good and critical reading skills and ensure improvement in their reading habits.


Few contemporary poets writing in Bengali are more widely read than is Jivanananda Das. He is considered in many respects the most modern of Bengali poets, as well as the one most independent of the influence of Rabindranath Tagore. His orginality has even been considered eccentric, but another leading Bengali poet, Buddhadeva Bose, says this of him: "He is important because he has brought a new note to our poetry, a new tone of feeling, and has tuned our ears to a subtle melody drawn from apparently conventional patterns of verse, for, despite the metrical seductions of modern Bengali, he has confined himself throughout to a single metrical norm, and that the oldest. It is rather remarkable that, though metrically a hermit, he has yielded to the prose poem and made it as haunting as his verse."


Introduction Blood-stream infection (BSI) is one of the principle determinants of the morbidity and mortality associated with advanced HIV infection, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the last 10 years, there has been rapid roll-out of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and cotrimoxazole prophylactic therapy (CPT) in many high HIV prevalence African countries. Methods A prospective cohort of adults with suspected BSI presenting to Queen's Hospital, Malawi was recruited between 2009 and 2010 to describe causes of and outcomes from BSI. Comparison was made with a cohort pre-dating ART roll-out to investigate whether and how ART and CPT have affected BSI. Malawian census and Ministry of Health ART data were used to estimate minimum incidence of BSI in Blantyre district. Results 2,007 patients were recruited, 90% were HIV infected. Since 1997/8, culture-confirmed BSI has fallen from 16% of suspected cases to 10% (p<0.001) and case fatality rate from confirmed BSI has fallen from 40% to 14% (p<0.001). Minimum incidence of BSI was estimated at 0.03/1000 years in HIV uninfected vs. 2.16/1000 years in HIV infected adults. Compared to HIV seronegative patients, the estimated incidence rate-ratio for BSI was 80 (95% CI:46–139) in HIV-infected/untreated adults, 568 (95% CI:302–1069) during the first 3 months of ART and 30 (95% CI:16–59) after 3 months of ART. Conclusions Following ART roll-out, the incidence of BSI has fallen and clinical outcomes have improved markedly. Nonetheless, BSI incidence remains high in the first 3 months of ART despite CPT. Further interventions to reduce BSI-associated mortality in the first 3 months of ART require urgent evaluation.


OBJECTIVE
Very few studies have compared the symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) and rates of comorbid psychiatric disorders between depressed children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to reproduce and extend these findings.

METHOD
The Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, present version (KSADS-P) was administered to parents (about their children) and in face-to-face interviews with 916 subjects aged 5.6 to 17.9 years with MDD (DSM criteria) (715 adolescents and 201 children; 348 male and 568 female). The subjects were consecutive referrals to an outpatient mood and anxiety disorders clinic.

RESULTS
Depressed adolescents had significantly more hopelessness/helplessness, lack of energy/tiredness, hypersomnia, weight loss, and suicidality compared with children (p values < or = .001). In comparison with children, adolescents had significantly more substance abuse and less comorbid separation anxiety disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (p values < or = .001). Depressed female adolescents had significantly more suicidality than depressed male adolescents (p < or = .001). There were no other sex differences between males and females. The symptoms of depressed adolescents grouped into 3 factors (endogenous, negative cognitions/suicidality, and appetite/weight), whereas the symptoms in children grouped into 2 factors (endogenous/negative cognitions/suicidality and appetite/weight).

CONCLUSIONS
These results provide further evidence for the continuity of MDD from childhood to adolescence.


Background and Purpose— Although risk factors for carotid artery stenosis caused by atherosclerosis are known, it is unclear what triggers "activation" of the atherosclerotic plaques and the ensuing thromboembolic cerebral events. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether thrombophilic factors, platelet glycoprotein (GP) polymorphisms, and homocysteine are associated with a risk of ischemic events in patients with significant carotid stenosis. Methods— Consecutive patients with ≥50% carotid stenosis, whether symptomatic (with ipsilateral ischemic events) or asymptomatic, who were evaluated and followed in a neurovascular clinic were tested for plasma levels of homocysteine, C677T mutation in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, G20210A mutation of factor II, factor V Leiden, antiphospholipid antibodies, and polymorphisms of platelet membrane GP: human platelet antigen (HPA)-1, GP Ia (C807T), and GP Ib (variable number of tandem repeats, Kozak, and HPA-2). Results— Eighty-six asymptomatic and 67 symptomatic patients were evaluated. The former group was older (73.7±6.9 versus 69.5±9.1 years, P =0.02). Major risk factors for stroke were similar in both groups. In symptomatic patients versus asymptomatic patients, hyperhomocysteinemia was 3-fold more frequent (34.3% versus 12.8%, respectively;P =0.002) and HPA-1a/b was almost 2-fold more common (38.8% versus 20.9%, respectively;P =0.01). All other thrombophilic factors and platelet polymorphisms studied did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that hyperhomocysteinemia and the HPA-1a/b genotype conferred a significant risk of cerebral ischemic events, with odds ratios (95% CI) of 4.07 (1.7 to 9.7) and 3.4 (1.5 to 7.8), respectively. Conclusions— Hyperhomocysteinemia and HPA-1a/b are independent risk factors for ischemic events in patients with significant carotid stenosis.


Legal history is practiced differently in Latin America and the United States. While US legal history strives to be a form of social critique, questioning the role of law in producing and legitimizing social hierarchies, legal history in Latin America has mostly been developed as a form of antiquarianism. This paper attempts to describe the historical and theoretical reasons that explain this methodological divide, including the role that lawyers have played in either opening the field of law to the social sciences or insulating it from other disciplines.


Training deep neural networks (DNNs) usually requires massive training data and computational resources. Users who cannot afford this may prefer to outsource training to a third party or resort to publicly available pre-trained models. Unfortunately, doing so facilitates a new training-time attack (i.e., backdoor attack) against DNNs. This attack aims to induce misclassification of input samples containing adversary-specified trigger patterns. In this paper, we first conduct a layer-wise feature analysis of poisoned and benign samples from the target class. We find out that the feature difference between benign and poisoned samples tends to be maximum at a critical layer, which is not always the one typically used in existing defenses, namely the layer before fully-connected layers. We also demonstrate how to locate this critical layer based on the behaviors of benign samples. We then propose a simple yet effective method to filter poisoned samples by analyzing the feature differences between suspicious and benign samples at the critical layer. We conduct extensive experiments on two benchmark datasets, which confirm the effectiveness of our defense.


Utility spark ignition gasoline engines are deployed worldwide for a variety of functions including transportation, power generation, and fluid movement. These engines are typically air-cooled and employ cost-effective carburetors and fixed angle spark ignition systems. Although utility engines are generally operated on the same gasolines available for highway vehicles, there are remote applications where gasoline formulations may be substantially degraded. Until recently, two and four stroke utility engines have not been a focal point for performance enhancement or pollution control technology. However, the growing awareness of small engine pollution, as well as legislated federal and state requirements, presents many engineering challenges. In this paper, an analytical and empirical model is presented to describe the behavior of internal combustion spark ignition utility engines. The nonlinear engine model will support the design of model-based and intelligent control algorithms prior to dynamometer testing. An electronic control system architecture is introduced using a multi-purpose programmable engine controller which is capable of regulating fuel injection and electronic spark ignition subsystems.


ABSTRACT The doping of polymer electrolytes (PEs) with liquid crystal (LC) materials has been shown to improve the performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). This is achieved by promoting ionic conduction and increasing optical path length through multiple-light scattering within the photovoltaic devices. In LCs, it is well known that the length of the alkyl chain plays an important role since the LC morphology and mesophase stabilisation depend strongly on the alkyl group. In this work, liquid crystal-polymer composite electrolytes (LC-PEs) are prepared using nematic LCs with different alkyl chain lengths. The morphology of the LC-PEs is investigated and correlated with their electrical properties. Subsequently, DSSCs are prepared using the LC-PEs as a direct example of its application. It is shown that increasing the alkyl chain length of the LCs reduces the efficiency of the solar devices. The longer alkyl chains are speculated to intertwine, thus trapping the mobile ions and reducing the bulk ionic conductivity. For the same reason, longer alkyl chain LCs are thought to be unable to passivate the TiO2 surface through the adsorption of cyanobiphenyl groups and hence the higher probability of back recombination reaction between the electrons in TiO2 and PE. Graphical Abstract


Visible-infrared person re-identification (ReID) aims to recognize a same person of interest across a network of RGB and IR cameras. Some deep learning (DL) models have directly incorporated both modalities to discriminate persons in a joint representation space. However, this cross-modal ReID problem remains challenging due to the large domain shift in data distributions between RGB and IR modalities. % This paper introduces a novel approach for a creating intermediate virtual domain that acts as bridges between the two main domains (i.e., RGB and IR modalities) during training. This intermediate domain is considered as privileged information (PI) that is unavailable at test time, and allows formulating this cross-modal matching task as a problem in learning under privileged information (LUPI). We devised a new method to generate images between visible and infrared domains that provide additional information to train a deep ReID model through an intermediate domain adaptation. In particular, by employing color-free and multi-step triplet loss objectives during training, our method provides common feature representation spaces that are robust to large visible-infrared domain shifts. % Experimental results on challenging visible-infrared ReID datasets indicate that our proposed approach consistently improves matching accuracy, without any computational overhead at test time. The code is available at: \href{https://github.com/alehdaghi/Cross-Modal-Re-ID-via-LUPI}{https://github.com/alehdaghi/Cross-Modal-Re-ID-via-LUPI}


We report on studies of Bose-Einstein correlations and color reconnection in hadronic W pair production at LEP. Bose-Einstein correlations between identical particles from the decay of different W's are studied by comparing the particle correlation in hadronic W pair decays to those in events which are constructed from the combination of the hadronic parts of two events where one of the Ws decays leptonicaly. The LEP combined result of the strength of the effect is consistent with zero and can be used to limit the systematic uncertainty due to Bose-Einstein correlations on the W mass measurements. Color reconnection is expected to affect the production of particles in hadronic decays of W pairs. Measurements of inclusive charged particle multiplicities, and of their angular distribution with respect to the four jet axes of the events, are used to test models of color reconnection. The results are both consistent with models without color reconnection and models with moderate color reconnection. They can be used to exclude more extreme models of color reconnection and thereby limit the uncertainty due to color reconnection on the W mass measurement.


Bacterial pili are cell-surface organelles that are critically involved in adhesion to host cells, leading to the colonization of host tissues and the establishment of infections. Whereas the pili of Gram-negative bacteria have been extensively studied, those of Gram-positive bacteria came to light only recently after the discovery and characterization of Corynebacterium diphtheriae pili. These newly discovered pili are formed by the covalent polymerization of pilin subunits catalyzed by sortase enzymes, making them fundamentally different from the noncovalent pilin assemblies of Gram-negative bacteria. Here, the expression, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of SpaA, which forms the shaft of one of the three types of pili expressed by C. diphtheriae, are reported. SpaA(53-486) crystals diffracted to 1.6 A resolution and belonged to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 34.9, b = 64.1, c = 198.7 A, alpha = beta = gamma = 90 degrees .


ABSTRACT Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) is a domestic hub-airport in Japan; however, the increasing number of passengers has brought it close to its capacity. In addition, there has been strong demand for the development of an international-flight network. Consequently, a new runway, called the "D-runway," was planned and constructed from March 2007 to October 2010. Because some of the D-runway runs through a river mouth, a hybrid structure consisting of piled pier and reclamation fill was adopted. To overcome the geotechnical difficulties in constructing this hybrid structure on the soft clay deposit, various technologies in design and construction were adopted. This paper provides an outline of the project, the ground investigation, and the design of the D-runway structure from a geotechnical engineering view point. From the results of the site investigation, the stratigraphic model at the site was clarified. For the clay layers, a representative depth-profile for each soil parameter was determined. Some local soil properties which tended to be overlooked when only employing an engineering point of view can be appropriately captured by linking the geological and geotechnical information. In the construction of the D-runway, not only the ground improvement technologies (SD, SCP, and CDM) but also the new developed construction materials (the pneumatic mixing of cement treated soil and air-foam treated lightweight soil) were utilized. In the-D-runway project, various technologies used in previous airport constructions were brought together and applied to the ground investigation, design, construction work, and even maintenance. The construction of the D-runway was completed safely, rapidly, and economically, and it came into use on 21 October 2010, on schedule.


Clinical ultrasound image quality is degraded by tissue velocity inhomogeneities that distort the phase of the traveling ultrasonic wavefronts. degrading image resolution and contrast. This paper investigates an entirely new approach for aberration measurement that uses a modified DORT (French acronym for decomposition of the time reversal operator) method, which uses imaging transmission schemes to acquire the time reversal operator. In this novel scheme, the aberration profile is directly estimated from the unwrapped phase of the first DORT eigenvectcr. We term this method focused DORT (FDORT). We compared the FDORT method with a correlation-based, least-mean-squares (LMS) method using 1D arrays on: simulated data; experimental phantom data with a thin-film rubber aberrator; and in-vivo breast data. Measurements were carried out in regions of speckle and point-like scatterers, and corrections were performed using a near-field phase screen aberration model. In simulation, the residual rms error (between applied and estimated aberrator) was 12.5ns with FDORT and 19.5ns with LMS; the point target brightness improvement was 122% (/spl plusmn/29%) for FDORT and 132% (/spl plusmn/20%) for LMS. The phantom experiments showed 46% (/spl plusmn/25%) and 48% (/spl plusmn/22%) improvements in point target brightness for FDORT and LMS, respectively. In clinical data, microcalcifications were identified and used to estimate the aberrations. FDORT measured an average 65ns rms, 6.5mm FWHM aberrator with an average brightness improvement of 58% (n=3). LMS measured an average 50.2ns rms, 5.7mm FWHM aberrator with an average improvement of 61% (n=3). FDORT is observed to follow wavefront variations, even where LMS does not perform well due to low correlation values. This is particularly evident in the breast data where coherent wavefronts do not extend across the entire aperture. The initial results presented here indicate that FDORT is a useful method to estimate aberration profiles for adaptive imaging. LMS breaks down in the presence of interfering wavefronts from off-axis and multiple strong scatterers. MORT is able to identify this situation since the individual wavefronts are associated with different eigenvectors. We see the potential for FDORT to cope with these conditions and thereby estimate aberrations with greater robustness.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of music therapy on the spirituality of persons in an in-patient hospice unit as measured by self-report. Participants (N = 10) were used as their own control in an ABAB design format. Session A consisted of approximately 30 minutes of music therapy, after which the patient/subject responded to a spiritual well-being questionnaire; Session B consisted of approximately 30 minutes of a nonmusic visit, after which the patient/subject responded to a spiritual well-being questionnaire. The spiritual well-being questionnaire used in this study is an 18-item, religiously nonspecific, self-report questionnaire using a Likert Scale of 6 degrees adapted from the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (Ellison & Paloutzian, 1982). All participants gave written consent prior to participation in the study. Data results were graphically and statistically analyzed after four visits and four spiritual well-being questionnaires were completed for each subject. Results indicate a statistically significant increase in spiritual well-being scores on music days.


During the hemorrhagic stages of Eimeria tenella infection, the mean hematocrits of testosterone-injected male and female birds were significantly lower than those of uninfected testosteronetreated chicks but remained significantly greater than those of infected, oil-injected animals. In each of 3 experiments, testosterone-injected young male and female chicks showed significantly elevated mean hematocrits compared with oil-injected control fowl. Testosterone-treated chicks also showed somewhat reduced growth rates when compared to controls. By 9 days after E. tenella infection, the hematocrits of 19 oil-injected and 21 testosterone-injected chicks were not significantly different from those of uninfected, oil-injected controls. During the course of E. tenella infection in testosterone-injected and oil-injected chicks, there were no consistently significant differences in cecal lesion score, growth indexes, or mortality between these groups. The results of these experiments indicate that, although testosterone injection caused a significant increase in the hematocrit of young chicks, it offered no protection against the cecal pathology, weight loss, and mortality which occurred during cecal coccidiosis. Eimeria tenella (Railliet and Lucet, 1891) Fantham, 1909, infections in chickens are manifest by the characteristic symptoms of muscular weakness, loss of appetite, lowered body temperature, and bloody droppings. Cecal hemorrhage begins about 90 hr after infection and forms a major part of the cecal coccidiosis syndrome. Lowered hematocrit can first be detected 5 days after E. tenella infection and hematocrit determinations are a sensitive and convenient indicator of the severity of the disease (Natt and Herrick, 1955; Joyner and Davies, 1960). Both cecal coccidiosis and artificial bleeding of chickens by heart puncture produce similar packed red cell volume decreases (Natt and Herrick, 1955) and adrenal ascorbic acid depletions (Challey, 1960). Cecal hemorrhage has therefore been suggested as the most likely cause of mortality. However, Joyner and Davies (1960) found that, in light infections, significant hematocrit decrease occurs without mortality, and others have suggested that toxins produced by the coccidium may be the cause of death (Burns, 1959; Rikimaru, Galysh, and Shumard, 1961). Yet most mortality occurs during the period of acute hemorrhage, and dietary vitamin K significantly reduces this mortality (Joyner, 1963). If hemorrhage and its resultant adverse Received for publication 3 October 1972. * This study was supported by a Brown-Hazen Grant from Research Corporation and by the Foundation of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. physiological effects (anemia, hemodilution, anoxia, hematopoietic stimulation) are the most important consequences of E. tenella infection, treatments to counteract these effects should be useful in protecting chickens from the cecal coccidiosis syndrome. Gorshein and Gardner (1970) suggest that steroid metabolites which have erythropoietic activity might prove clinically useful in treating anemia in man. Testosterone has been shown to stimulate erythropoiesis in the chicken, and packed red cell volume increased significantly 2 days after testosterone propionate injection (Glick, 1969). The present study was undertaken to determine if testosterone injections could protect chicks from the lethal consequences of E. tenella infections. The severity of the cecal coccidiosis syndrome was assessed by mortality, hematocrit, weight gain, and cecal lesion score. MATERIALS AND METHODS One-day-old White Rock chicks were obtained from a local hatchery (Holly Farms, Indian Trail, North Carolina). They were housed in electrically heated battery brooders, maintained on continuous artificial illumination, and fed an all-mash, unmedicated ration (CFR LAYER 17; Security Mills Inc., Knoxville, Tennessee). The sex of the chicks was determined at necropsy. The E. tenella oocysts were obtained from a pure strain maintained for many years in the laboratory of Dr. W. C. Burns, Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, and were kindly donated for this study. They were routinely harvested in this laboratory from donor birds 7 days after oral inoculation, sporulated, separated from host tissue and cecal debris by the method of Wagenbach, Challey, and Burns (1966), and


Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language has the vocabulary of mostly tatsam (borrowed from Sanskrit and kept intact) and tadbhav (derived from Sanskrit and modified) words. The examination of the root forms shows that most of the verbs are intransitive at base but the present paper argues that morphology cannot be the reliable basis to decide this. Hence, the need of the hour is to probe into their semantico-syntactic behaviour and classify them according to that criterion. The paper provides a detailed semantic-syntactic classification of Hindi verbs. This classification will also provide a range of information regarding the linguistic properties of the verbs. It will be a powerful resource for various NLP applications as well as research in the area of cognitive linguistics.


Hypertension is predominantly a disorder of populations in which the fundamental problem is the tendency for blood pressure to rise with age. This phenomenon, which varies markedly across populations, is determined largely by environmental factors. We argue that the most important factors in the development of hypertension at the population level are calorie excess (as manifest by obesity), high salt intake, low potassium intake, physical inactivity, heavy alcohol consumption and psychosocial stress. Potential interactions between these factors (and the genetic endowment) are emphasized. We consider data from studies of blood pressure in children and adolescents and from intervention studies. The hypothesis that essential hypertension is initiated in fetal life is reviewed briefly. It is clear that the current high risk approach to prevention should be supplemented by a population based approach. There is controversy however regarding the value of certain interventions, such as salt restriction, at the population level. Ultimately community intervention trials will be required to resolve these issues.


The comparatively greater cost of producing biodiesel in comparison to petroleum diesel is one of the key drawbacks. Eggshells and leftover chicken fat are examples of poultry wastes that can be used to produce biodiesel at a low cost as catalysts and oil, respectively. In this study, eggshell-derived CaO and its doping with sodium methoxide catalyst for enhancing catalytic activity was synthesized for the transesterification of waste chicken fat and characterized by FT-IR and XRD analyses. XRD studies confirmed the crystalline structure of the developed catalyst and doping of sodium with eggshell-derived CaO. The transesterification reaction was performed at different reaction parameters such as the catalyst loading, the methanol to oil ratio, the reaction temperature, and the reaction time. The biodiesel produced at the maximum yield was evaluated by gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. A maximum yield of 96% biodiesel was obtained with catalyst loading of 2 wt% of oil, as well as a methanol to oil ratio of 13:1 at 60 °C in 1 h. The output demonstrates that eggshell waste is a potentially accessible source of biomass-derived nano catalyst for the synthesis of biodiesel using chicken fat as a feedstock.


Bauer ( 1967) does not understand our pa per (Giovine tto and others, 1966). The only assumption tha t we make in delineating the ice-drainage divide is that ice flows in the direc tion of the ice-surface slope. Bauer is wrong in implying tha t our estimated error is a cla im of " precision" in the estima te of the net m ass budget. An estimated error is simply an attempt to quantify the word "approximately", which now and for years to com e must precede net-budget es timates of large features such as ice sheets. If no er ro r is stated a nd there is a conclusion about the net budget, the reader is led to believe tha t the error in the es timate is not greater than one-third of the net budget. For example, a sta tem ent such as " the nett balance of the [Greenland ] ice cap is nega tive and a bout 100 km] of water per year" (Ba uer, (955) implies that the error in the estimate is not greater than ± 33 km] yearI. W e doubt if Ba uer could substantiate such " precision ". W e certainly do not cla im it for our own figures.


The effect of molecular weight and long-chain branching on the crystallization analysis fractionation (CRYSTAF) of ethylene homopolymers was investigated. Several ethylene homopolymers were prepared with different molecular weights and levels of long-chain branching to isolate these effects from the dominant effect of comonomer content on crystallizability measured by CRYSTAF. Molecular weight effects might be significant for samples with number-average molecular weights below 5000, but this effect can be corrected if terminal methyl groups are taken into account. Long-chain branching has only a very small effect on the CRYSTAF profile of the samples investigated in this study.


1. The plant cell has the following cytoplasmic inclusions: (a) Mitochondria (chondriome). (b) Plastids (plastidome), probably derived from mitochondria. (c) Golgi elements (osmiophilic platelets of Bowen). 2. Plant cells often contain vacuolar spaces filled with a watery fluid. These spaces are sometimes canalicular in arrangement, as shown by Bensley eighteen years ago. 3. There is no evidence that these vacuoles are: (a) Formed from self-perpetuating primordia. (b) Possessed of a lipoid membrane. (c) Associated with the Golgi elements (platelets). 4. There is no reliable evidence that the plant-cell cytoplasm contains any type of protoplasmic inclusion not also found in animal cells, for the plasts are probably enlarged mitochondria, as has been suggested by Mottier, Guilliermond, and others. 5. The so-called 'vacuome' drawn by Bowen (this paper, p. 391) is found almost always in Weigl (Mann-Kopsch) preparations. Such 'vacuoles' and primordia are possibly corrosive-osmic artefacts caused by the non-ability of water to wash out the corrosive sublimate of the Mann9s fluid, previous to osmication. 6. The osmiophilic platelets are demonstrable by the Kolatchev and Mann-Kopsch methods, but we have not so far succeeded in showing them with Benda, Flemming-without-acetic, haematoxylin, Champy-haematoxylin, or the silver-nitrate Golgi methods. They resemble closely the dictyosomes of Hemipterous germ cells.


Purpose of reviewAdvances in the field of monocyte and macrophage biology have dramatically changed our understanding of their role during homeostasis and inflammation. Here we review the role of these important innate immune effectors in the lung during inflammatory challenges including lung transplantation. Recent findingsNeutrophil extravasation into lung tissue and the alveolar space have been shown to be pathogenic during acute lung injury as well as primary graft dysfunction following lung transplantation. Recent advances in lung immunology have demonstrated the remarkable plasticity of both monocytes and macrophages and demonstrated their importance as mediators of neutrophil recruitment and transendothelial migration during inflammation. SummaryMonocytes and macrophages are emerging as key players in mediating both the pathogen response and sterile lung inflammation, including that arising from barotrauma and ischemia-reperfusion injury. Ongoing studies will establish the mechanisms by which these monocytes and macrophages initiate a variety of immune response that lay the fundamental basis of injury response in the lung.


The fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) test is as specific as, and much more sensitive than, the Treponema pallidum immobilization test. The FTA-ABS test may detect syphilis earlier than the venereal disease research laboratories test for syphilis (VDRL), and it will rule out biologic false reactors with a high degree of accuracy. The FTA-ABS test likewise will permit the diagnosis of syphilis in many instances of late symptomatic syphilis which are nonreactive with routine reagin tests. Tests employing protein derived from the Reiter treponeme as antigen cause confusion because of lower sensitivity. The Kolmer test with Reiter protein (KRP) Reiter protein complement fixation test (RPCF) should be considered obsolete with the present availability of the FTA-ABS test.


The Multiple Point Criticality Principle (MPCP) states that action parameters - in for example a field theory - take on values corresponding to the junction of a maximum number of phases in the phase diagram of a system that undergoes phase transitions. The phases to which physical significance is ascribed are normally regarded as artifacts of a regulation procedure. In the context of a Y-M lattice gauge theory, the MPCP is applied to the system of different (Planck scale) lattice phases that can be provoked using a suitably generalised action with a gauge group that is taken to be the Planck scale predecessor to the Standard Model Group (SMG) - namely the $N_{gen}$-fold Cartesian product of the SMG. Here $N_{gen}$ is the number of fermion generations. Ambiguities under mappings of the gauge group $SGM^{N_{gen}}$ onto itself result in the Planck scale breakdown to the diagonal subgroup which is isomorphic to the usual SMG. Assuming the validity of the MPCP, the three SMG gauge couplings at the Planck scale are predicted to be equal to the diagonal subgroup couplings correspond- ing to the multiple point action parameters in a lattice gauge theory with the gauge group $SMG^{N_{gen}}$. This prediction gives agreement with experiment to within 10 \% for the non-Abelian couplings and 5\% for the U(1) gauge coup- ling. In a more general context, the MPCP is proposed as a fundamental princi- ple of Nature that can also explain other fine-tuning enigma in high energy physics. It is argued that the MPCP implies having long range nonlocal inter- actions which are identical between fields at all pairs of spacetime points. Such interactions are allowed in a very general form of a reparameterization invariant action. This phenomenologically unobjectionable form of nonlocality would quite naturally be incorporated into our theory as constants of Nature.


Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify research perspectives/clusters in the field of urban tourism (city tourism) in narrow sense and tourism cities (cities and tourism) in the broader sense to examine the complex relationship through the optics of science mapping. This paper believes that the existing qualitative assessments of this field can be experimentally verified and visualized.

Design/methodology/approach
First, the key conceptual dilemmas of research perspectives in urban tourism are highlighted. Based on the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection and the VOSviewer (computer program for visualizing bibliometric networks), the data will be analyzed. Clustering is used to evaluate information retrieval (inclusivity or selectivity of the search query), publication patterns (journal articles), author keywords, terminology and to identify the respective cities and author collaborations between countries.

Findings
Terminological specificities and their contextuality (authors' preferences) are elaborated, as the topic is studied by authors from different disciplinary fields. Compared to other specific tourisms, urban tourism includes geographic terms (variations of city names) and terms with different connotations (travelers, visitors). Recent Spanish (also Portuguese) linguistic/geographic contexts are noticeable and a strong presence of WOS Emerging Sources Citation Index papers. Research perspectives are represented in the network of clusters of connected terms. If the search is based on a narrower sense of strict urban tourism, then tourism-business topics predominate. If tourism and cities are less closely linked, socio-cultural and environmental-spatial perspectives emerge, as does tourism/cities vulnerability (climate change and health issues).

Research limitations/implications
The construction of a search syntax for the purpose of retrieval is always marked by compromises, given different terminological usages. A narrow search query will miss many relevant documents. On the other hand, if the query is too general, it returns less relevant documents. To this end, this paper tested queries on three different levels of inclusivity or selectivity. More consistent use of terms would benefit authors in the field of urban tourism when searching for references (information retrieval) and, as a consequence, would allow better integration of the field.

Practical implications
This study provides a practical method for evaluating cities and tourism in combining the expertise of an information scientist and a sociologist. It points out numerous caveats in information retrieval. It offers an overview of publishing just prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, thus providing an opportunity for further comparative studies.

Originality/value
This study is the first to examine urban tourism using such a method and can serve as a complement to the existing systematization of qualitative approaches. The findings are consistent with numerous qualitative assessments of weak the research interconnection between the specifics of cities and tourism in terms of broader socio-spatial processes. However, the study suggests that such research linkage is increasing, which is noticeable in relation to issues of social sustainability (e.g. overtourism, Airbnb and touristification).


Summary form only given, as follows. The Advanced Products Research and Development Laboratory (APRDL) is Motorola's most advanced semiconductor process development facility. APRDL continuously develops leading-edge, cost effective technologies. Such development work requires many experiments while maintaining a high product mix and a low wafer inventory. As a result, APRDL has numerous one-of-a-kind tools and a large number of single wafer and split lots. A significant percentage of our inventory is on hold at any given time. For these reasons, monitoring performance at critical tools presents a greater challenge within an R&D pilot line than in a manufacturing facility. In order to dispatch lots effectively, APRDL's Manufacturing Management Team has chosen a multidimensional approach making use of a variety of tools. Lot scheduling is based on meeting objectives including priority, lot commitments, cycle time and throughput goals, and on-time delivery using the Theory of Constraints. This is realized through a dynamic lot dispatching system. Bottleneck and critical tools are identified, future tool requirements are determined and what if scenarios are explored using discrete event factory simulation. The operational requirements are aided using several different tools. Real-time data from the line is closely monitored through a real-time graphical based information system. Staffing levels are monitored and staff moved to ensure operator/technician coverage at critical tools. Special projects are identified and engineering efforts are applied. Finally, daily and weekly line metrics are tracked and reported during daily meetings. This presentation will explore the necessity of such a multidimensional approach, the required reporting tools, and the operational considerations. It will also discuss the improvements that have been achieved.


A new method for the continuous measurement and recording of sweat rate has been developed. The sweat rate is determined by continuously measuring the change in resistance of a sensing element which, in turn, reflects the change in moisture content of a small volume of air. In operation, a chamber containing the element is fastened against the skin. Dry air is passed through the chamber at a sufficient rate to maintain an arbitrarily predetermined level of humidity within the chamber. A variation in sweat rate produces a change in the moisture content of the air and, consequently, a change in the resistance of the element. This change is nullified by means of a servo system which adjusts the flow of dry air so as to restore the original level of moisture. Thus, the air flow across the element at any time is a measure of the sweat rate.


In this paper we address the problem of the adaptation of a speech recognition system to a new environment. The aim of adaptation is to compensate the mismatch between training and testing conditions without retraining completely the recognition system. The questions are what has to be compensated and how? We propose to compensate the means and variances of the Gaussian pdfs, representing the acoustic models, using the linear transformations and ML and MAP estimations. To better take into account the variability of the adaptation data, the pdfs of models are organised in a tree. This tree structure is used also for the definition of prior densities of transformations. The approach is called Structural Maximum a Posteriori adaptation (SMAP). SMAP is developed for a segment-based model, the Mixture Stochastic Trajectory Model (MSTM). Experimental results on RM task for supervised speaker adaptation show that SMAP significantly outperforms the MLLR adaptation for the same amount of adaptation data and the same number of transformation parameters.


An improved global convergent computed torque algorithm is presented for adaptive control of rigid robots. The algorithm eliminates the restrictive assumption on the boundedness of the inverse of the estimated inertia matrix and the subsequent need to modify the parameter update law, which is required in similar computed torque adaptive control algorithms. The algorithm is further modified to achieve robustness to bounded disturbances.<<ETX>>


At low concentrations of a glutathione redox buffer, the protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) catalyzed oxidative renaturation of reduced ribonuclease A exhibits a rapid but incomplete activation of ribonuclease, which precedes the steady-state reaction. This behavior can be attributed to a GSSG-dependent partitioning of the substrate, reduced ribonuclease, between two classes of thiol/disulfide redox forms, those that can be converted to active ribonuclease at low concentrations of GSH and those that cannot. With catalytic concentrations of PDI and near stoichiometric concentrations of glutathione disulfide, approximately 4 equiv (2 equiv of ribonuclease disulfide) of GSH are formed very rapidly followed by a slower formation of GSH, which corresponds to an additional 2 disulfide bond equiv. The rapid formation of RNase disulfide bonds and the subsequent rearrangement of incorrect disulfide isomers to active RNase are both catalyzed by PDI. In the absence of GSSG or other oxidants, disulfide bond equivalents of PDI can be used to form disulfide bonds in RNase in a stoichiometric reaction. In the absence of a glutathione redox buffer, the rate of reduced ribonuclease regeneration increases markedly with increasing PDI concentrations below the equivalence point; however, PDI in excess over stoichiometric concentrations inhibits RNase regeneration.


Objective: Postoperative Vomiting (POV) is a common complication in intraabdominal operations. The use of intravenous lidocaine infusion in adult patients who underwent abdominal surgery may prevent POV. We aimed to evaluate the anti-emetic effect of intravenous lidocaine infusion used as an adjuvant to general anesthesia in intra-abdominal operations. Patients: ASA I-III adult women aged 30 to 70 years scheduled for elective adnexal mass operations were selected. Intervention: We have standardized the induction and maintenance of anesthesia in our oncological surgery rooms. Patients were randomly administered lidocaine (1.5 mg.kg-1 intravenous (i.v) lidocaine followed by 2 mg.kg-1.h) or only 0.9% saline (same proportion and volume) for 5 minutes. Infusions were continued until the end of the surgery. Results: 200 women with adnexal mass were operated. In the lidocaine group, 60 (60%) of the 100 patients had POV and 80 (80%) of the 100 patients had POV in the Saline group. The probability of having POV was 20% less than patients receiving lidocaine in the Saline group. The mean lidocaine plasma concentration was 4.1 µg.ml-1 (range: 0.87 to 4.88). Conclusion: The use of intravenous lidocaine infusion as an adjunct to general anesthesia reduced POVN in oncology patients.


Two sand and gravel quarry sites, one a surface and the other a deep excavation, and a hillside limestone quarry were studied in northern Trinidad with the purpose of recommending rehabilitation measures using native plant species. In addition, two control sites were examined, a rehabilitated hillside quarry, and an abandoned site where natural regeneration of plants has taken place. Based on the existing abiotic and biotic conditions at the three study sites the following rehabilitation options are considered: regeneration of natural forest cover, agroforestry, recreational or commercial development, and landfill. The environmental impact of these rehabilitation options is examined.


Distal radius fractures are one of the most common types of injuries treated by an orthopedic surgeon. The overall results may not be as favorable as once thought. As a distinct subgroup, the young adult deserves special consideration. Management of distal radius fractures in these patients is difficult due to the higher energy involved, amount of comminution, and associated soft tissue damage. Functional outcome has been best when an anatomical reduction has been achieved. Many surgical options are available: external fixation, percutaneous pin fixation and open reduction are the mainstays. The complications may be minimized with careful attention to and knowledge of the techniques used and early intervention when closed treatment fails.


Magnetoelectric (ME) composites have recently attracted many researchers because of their significant applications in devices like sensors, energy harvesters etc. In this work, a unique phenomenological nonlinear constitutive model for ferromagnetic material has been developed and further, this model is extended to study the ME coupling coefficient of ME composites. The proposed model is based on metal plasticity approach for ferromagnetic material and is also thermodynamically consistent. A robust non-iterative scheme has been proposed and the developed model is incorporated into the computational scheme which renders computationally efficient simulations. In order to validate the proposed model, firstly, a press fit assembly of ME composite has been considered. The prestress developed due to the press fit is numerically evaluated using ABAQUS. The simulated results for the press fit configuration are compared with the experimental observations. To illustrate the generality of this model, a layered ME composite configuration has also been studied. Finally, a parametric study has been conducted and the influence of volume fraction of constituents, boundary conditions and the aspect ratio for the press fit ME composite assembly are reported.


Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the ability to prevent caries has greatly improved. This is due to both increased knowledge about the origin of dental caries, and to the availability of effective aids to oral hygiene, such as fluoride toothpaste. The effect of oral hygiene on the general population has also risen because more and more people brush their teeth.


Construction works along a causeway at Mubarraz Island near Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in the Arabian Gulf necessitated the salvaging and replanting of 300 mangroves (Avicennia marina). Mangroves were excavated manually by shovel (smaller trees and saplings) or mechanically using a backhoe excavator (larger trees), transported with the root ball wrapped in burlap and replanted in a newly created tidal channel. Relocated mangroves were exposed to two different watering regimes and two tidal inundation levels, and were monitored for survival, plant height and leaf health (percentage of green leaves) at 0 and 1 weeks, and then at 3, 7 and 12.5 months. Tree mortality was high in the first week (24%) in mid-summer, with further losses (43%) during the next 3 months. After 12.5 months, 31% of the transplanted trees had survived. There was a significant effect of the duration of tidal inundation on survival and leaf health (higher survival in shallow than deeper plots). There were no significant effects of initial tree height or freshwater treatment on survival or plant performance. These results demonstrate that salvaging of larger mangroves is technically feasible, potentially providing faster ecosystem services (e.g. shoreline protection, source of new propagules) than newly planted seedlings in arid regions where growth is extremely slow.


The mineralogy, geochemistry, and in some cases, the mode of origin of many Phanerozoic sedimentary manganese orebodies are fairly well known, but the effects of the important variables represented by changing ocean chemistry, sea level, and climate on ore formation are only recently being considered. The high degree of mobility of manganese, particularly through redox processes, insures that it can change phase during weathering, transport, deposition, and diagenesis.During chemical weathering, manganese is solubilized in acid, reducing conditions and carried in surface and subsurface waters to the coastal zone, where many of the exploitable deposits can form in slightly reducing (carbonate ores) to oxidizing conditions (oxide ores). Rainfall controls ground-water acidity through fostering vegetation growth. Major deposits at Groote Eylandt, Australia, and the extensive deposits of the Paratethys seaway in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union accumulated as a result of large-scale delivery of dissolved Mn to restricted black shale basins during marine transgressions. The deposits show compositional zoning and display evidence of having been deposited in shallow-marine environments following accumulation of a dilute ore solution in the basin interiors. Manganese was precipitated when the environments of the basin became oxidized, apparently during the early stages of marine regressions.During the Phanerozoic the concentrations of dissolved oxygen and carbon in the oceans varied significantly, in response to large changes in the burial rate of organic carbon. When the rate was high, there was a drawdown of atmospheric CO 2 , which led to global reverse-greenhouse cooling. Later, upon oxidation of sea-floor organic matter, CO 2 was released and greenhouse warming eventuated. Manganese is now known to have precipitated rapidly as crusts in the oceans late in the glacial and early in the interglacial stages of the Quaternary, probably as a result of extensive sea-floor oxidation accompanying the release of CO 2 . This same set of processes, operating over geologic time, may have played a significant role, first, in generating large reservoirs of dissolved manganese in intracratonic basins and in the oceans, and second, by providing the metal for the formation of ore deposits when conditions changed.


The fIrst oil crisis of 1973-74 and the questions it raised in the economic and social fIelds drew attention to energy issues. Industrial societies, accustomed for two decades or more to energy sufficiently easy to produce and cheap to consume that it was thought to be inexhaustible, began to question their energy future. The studies undertaken at that time, and since, on a national, regional, or world level were over-optimistic. The problem seemed simple enough to solve. On the one hand, a certain number of resources: coal, the abundance of which was discovered, or rather rediscovered oil, source of all the problems ... In fact, the problems seemed to come, if not from oil itself (an easy explanation), then from those who produced it without really owning it, and from those who owned it without really control ling it natural gas, second only to oil and less compromised uranium, all of whose promises had not been kept, but whose resources were not in question solar energy, multiform and really inexhaustible thermonuclear fusion, and geothermal energy, etc. On the other hand, energy consumption, though excessive perhaps, was symbolic of progress, development, and increased well being. The originality of the energy policies set up since 1974 lies in the fact they no longer aimed to produce (or import) more, but to consume less. They sought, and still seek, what might be emphatically called the control of energy consump tion, or rather the control of energy demand."


Constant mean curvature surfaces (CMCs) have many interesting properties for use as a form for doubly curved structural envelopes. The discretization of these surfaces has been a focus of research amongst the discrete differential geometry community. Many of the proposed discretizations have remarkable properties for envelope rationalization purposes. However, little attention has been paid to generation methods intended for designers. This paper proposes an extension to CMCs of the method developed by Bobenko, Hoffmann and Springborn (2006) to generate minimal S-isothermic nets. The method takes as input a CMC (smooth or finely triangulated), remeshes its Gauss map with quadrangular faces, and rebuilds a CMC mesh via a parallel transformation. The resulting mesh is S-CMC, a geometric structure discovered by Hoffmann (2010). This type of mesh have planar quads and offset properties, which are of particular interest in the fabrication of gridshells.


The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) profoundly impacts in- dustry and work. It therefore is important for vocational education and training to em- phasize on the development of digital competences. However, we still know very little about how these skills are distributed among students in vocational education and train- ing (VET) in general, and the so-called 'cooperative study programmes' (CSP) in parti- cular. CSPs combine vocational education components with university coursework lead- ing up to a journeymen certificate and an academic degree simultaneously. This study analyses the digital competences of first-year students in a business-focussed CSP at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Germany, using a Ger- man version (the D21-Index) of the European framework for digital competences (DigComp) to assess students' competence levels. A latent profile analysis revealed four competence profiles (reserved digitised, reserved appreciative, constructive digitised, and reflective digitised). Interestingly, our subsequent analysis showed that none of the student characteristics we assessed turned out to be distinctive for any of the four pro- files. Considerations of relevant inset points for VET institutions nationally and interna- tionally to develop tailored support of digital competence development of their students are integrated in the conclusions.


The authors explore the influence of the global financial crisis on the volatility spillover between the Mainland China and Hong Kong stock markets. The data collection period is from January 04, 2002 to December 31, 2013, broken into two sub-periods: pre-crisis (January 04, 2002 to June 30, 2007) and crisis (July 01, 2007 to December 31, 2013). The authors apply asymmetric BEKK-GARCH and adopt the VAR approach as a robustness test. The results indicate that while there is no volatility spillover in the pre-crisis period, strong bi-directional volatility spillover exists in the crisis period. Meanwhile, one month 1 minute high frequency data is applied to explore intraday volatility spillover. The researchers draw three interesting conclusions: The global financial crisis enhanced the economic linkage between the Mainland China and Hong Kong stock markets; and while it did not directly influence the Mainland China market, global financial risk flowed into this region through the Hong Kong market; there exists a bi-directional daily aggregated volatility spillover, but from a microscopic view, a random volatility spillover process is concluded.


Recreational Tourism: Demands and Impacts is a second edition of sorts. It is a revamped version of Ryan's earlier text, Recreational Tourism: A Social Science Perspective, published in 1991 by Routledge. With this earlier edition in mind, Ryan's objectives are tied to some of the lessons learned in tourism research over the last decade. The original text was 'motivated by a wish to structure the determinants of tourism demand' (2003: viii). Consequently, this text takes demand at a tourism destination and explores it through a framework of economic, social and psychological determinants. In theory these determinants interact, but in practice it may not be that simple due to factor interdependence. As the text's title indicates, a second objective is 'to examine the effects of tourism, and to illustrate the nature of the challenge posed for destination planners' (2003: ix). The transition between the two themes of demand and impact occurs in Chapters 5 and 6 of the book. The tourist experience, a subject Ryan has written on extensively (see Ryan, 2002), is the first of these chapters and focuses on how the three fore-mentioned determinants relate to generating a satisfactory holiday. A number of key issues emerge in Ryan's discussion of creating tourist satisfaction. The first of these issues, authenticity, is presented in a historical context for tourism and changes in thinking since the early 1990s. Authenticity is also presented in terms of its relativity and authorisation. Other key issues discussed in Chapter 5 are the role of expectations, the interpretation of experience and the quality of a tourist 'event'. Tourist experience, when placed under all these lenses is an exceedingly complex issue, 'if the nature of the tourism product is an experience of place at a particular time, with either different groups of people or alone, then any study of tourism is bound within a psychological, geographical and cultural milieu' (2003: 327). The other transition chapter, Chapter 6, is not quite as clear as the first. Examining the tourist resort zone, this chapter jumps from concept to concept. While starting very basically in outlining four possible approaches for analysis and even detailing the basics of GIS, the chapter then discusses the role of destination image, measuring physical attractiveness, spatial models and finally implications for planning. Having expected this chapter to serve as an example or case study, it came across as a disappointing and rather convoluted introduction to far too many concepts. Impacts, as the other theme of the book, are again broken into the three key determinants: economic impacts, impacts on the environment and social impacts. The beauty of these three separate chapters is the realisation that breaking impacts down into such categories is in fact cliché; Ryan argues the


The authors determined the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus markers among Danish dentists in 1985 in an effort to assess occupational risk factors. A case-control study approach was applied using pedodontists as zero-exposure controls. The study further allowed serologic and epidemiologic follow-up of dentists who participated in a similar study in 1976. The authors sought to determine whether exposure to hepatitis B virus in this population sometimes leads to immunization without infection (antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) positivity only). A total of 922 dentists (22% of all Danish dentists) gave blood; of these, 254 (28%) participated in the 1976 study. Serum samples were tested using commercial solid phase radioimmunoassays. The prevalences of anti-HBs and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) were 7.2% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 5.7-9.0) and 5.2% (95% CI = 3.8-6.6), respectively. Twenty-one dentists (31%) only had anti-HBs (without prior vaccination). Age-standardization of the two data sets (1976 and 1985) indicated no substantial change in seroprevalence. Private practitioners, especially those working in Copenhagen, had an increased odds ratio (OR) of being seropositive compared with that of pedodontists (OR = 3.0 (95% CI = 1.3-6.8) adjusted for age and sex and OR = 2.4 (95% CI = 1.1-5.2) adjusted for age and site of practice). The proportion attributable to occupational exposure was approximately 50%. In a logistic regression model, site of practice and type of specialty were associated with hepatitis B virus seropositivity (p = 0.01 and 0.05, respectively), whereas age, sex, hours of oral surgery per week, and use of gloves were not. Four persons had become seropositive in the follow-up study, for a seroconversion rate of 0.2% per year. Seven out of 18 dentists who were anti-HBs positive in 1976 were found to be anti-HBs negative in 1985. Most of these dentists had values below 10.0 units by S/N ratio (ratio of counts per minute of sample compared with the mean number of counts per minute of negative controls). The findings do not justify institution of a large-scale vaccination program for dentists, but there are certain subgroups of dentists which constitute candidates for vaccination.


By using an experimental setup based on thin and thick double-sided microstrip silicon detectors, it has been possible to identify the fragmentation products due to the interaction of very high energy primary ions on different targets. Here we report total and partial cross-sections measured at GSI (Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung), Darmstadt, for 500 MeV/n energy 12C beam incident on water (in flasks), polyethylene, lucite, silicon carbide, graphite, aluminium, copper, iron, tin, tantalum and lead targets. The results are compared to the predictions of GEANT4 (v4.9.4) and FLUKA (v11.2) Monte Carlo simulation programs.


In order to understand a natural language expression it is usually not enough to know the literal ("dictionary") meaning of the words used in this expression and compositional rules of the corresponding language. Much more knowledge is actually involved in discourse processing; knowledge, which may have nothing to do with the linguistic competence but is rather related to our general conception of the world. Suppose we are reading the following text fragment.