Despite the political unification of the German Empire in 1871, the longstanding confessional divide between German Catholics and Protestants persisted through the early Wilhelmine era. Because confessional identity and difference were pivotal to how Germans imagined a nation, the meaning of German national identity remained contested. But the formation of German national identity during this period was not neutral—confessional alterity and antagonism was used to imagine confessionally exclusive notions of German national identity. The establishment of a "kleindeutsch" German Empire under Prussian-Protestant hegemony, the anti-Catholic policies of the Kulturkampf, and the 1883 Luther anniversaries all conflated Protestantism with German national identity and facilitated the marginalization of German Catholics from early Wilhelmine society, culture, and politics. While scholars have recognized this "confessionalization of the German national idea" they have so far neglected how proponents of church unity imagined German national unity and identity. This paper examines how Ut Omnes Unum—an ecumenical group of German Catholics and Protestants—challenged the conflation of Protestantism and German national identity and instead proposed an inter-confessional notion of German national identity that was inclusive of both Catholics and Protestants.


The articles [16], [7], [9], [10], [18], [6], [8], [12], [17], [15], [14], [5], [1], [11], [2], [3], and [4] provide the terminology and notation for this paper. We consider structures of the type algebra which are systems 〈types, a left quotient, a right quotient, a inner product〉, where the types constitute a non-empty set and the left quotient, the right quotient, the inner product are a binary operation on the types. Let s be a structure of the type algebra. A type of s is an element of the types of s. We adopt the following rules: s will denote a structure of the type algebra, T , X, Y will denote finite sequences of elements of the types of s, and x, y, z will denote types of s. We now define three new functors. Let us consider s, x, y. The functor x \ y yields a type of s and is defined by: (Def.1) x \ y = (the left quotient of s)(x, y). The functor x/y yields a type of s and is defined as follows: (Def.2) x/y = (the right quotient of s)(x, y). The functor x · y yields a type of s and is defined by: (Def.3) x · y = (the inner product of s)(x, y). Let T1 be a tree, and let v be an element of T1. The branch degree of v is defined by: (Def.4) the branch degree of v = card succ v.


BACKGROUND
It is unclear whether patients understand that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) reduces only chronic stable angina and not myocardial infarction (MI) or associated mortality.

OBJECTIVE
To compare cardiologists' and patients' beliefs about PCI.

DESIGN
Survey.

SETTING
Academic center.

PARTICIPANTS
153 patients who consented to elective coronary catheterization and possible PCI, 10 interventional cardiologists, and 17 referring cardiologists.

MEASUREMENTS
Patients' and cardiologists' beliefs about benefits of PCI. All cardiologists reported beliefs about PCI for patients in hypothetical scenarios. Interventional cardiologists also reported beliefs for study patients who underwent PCI.

RESULTS
Of 153 patients, 68% had any angina, 42% had activity-limiting angina, 77% had a positive stress test result, and 29% had had previous MI. The 53 patients who underwent PCI were more likely than those who did not to have a positive stress test result, but angina was similar in both groups. Almost three quarters of patients thought that without PCI, they would probably have MI within 5 years, and 88% believed that PCI would reduce risk for MI. Patients were more likely than physicians to believe that PCI would prevent MI (prevalence ratio, 4.25 [95% CI, 2.31 to 7.79]) or fatal MI (prevalence ratio, 4.83 [CI, 2.23 to 10.46]). Patients were less likely than their physicians to report pre-PCI angina (prevalence ratio, 0.79 [CI, 0.67 to 0.92]). For the scenarios, 63% of cardiologists believed that the benefits of PCI were limited to symptom relief. Of cardiologists who identified no benefit of PCI in 2 scenarios, 43% indicated that they would still proceed with PCI in these cases.

LIMITATION
The study was small and conducted at 1 center, and information about precatheterization counseling was limited.

CONCLUSION
Cardiologists' beliefs about PCI reflect trial results, but patients' beliefs do not. Discussions with patients before PCI should better explain anticipated benefits.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE
None.


Magnetic recording based on coherent rotation is hitting its physical limitations. An alternative of driving magnetization reversal using an oscillating field has been proposed. We performed systematic studies of the magnetization reversal process in the presence of oscillating fields. The oscillating field reduces the coercivity significantly, and for isolated particles, we observed consistent results reported previously. For a circularly polarized field, we obtained a hysteresis loop that exhibits a behavior that would not be observed in the absence of oscillating fields.


Wearout reliability and diffusion kinetics of Au and Pd-coated Cu (PdCu) ball bonds are useful technical information for Cu wire deployment in nanoscale semiconductor device packaging. This paper discusses the HAST (with bias) and UHAST (unbiased HAST) wearout reliability performance of Au and PdCu wires used in fine pitch BGA packages. In-depth failure analysis has been carried out to identify the failure mechanism under various wearout conditions. Intermetallic compound (IMC) diffusion constants and apparent activation energies (Eaa) of both wire types were investigated after high temperature storage life test (HTSL). Au bonds were identified to have faster IMC formation, compared to slower IMC growth of PdCu. PdCu wire was found to exhibit equivalent or better wearout reliability margin compared to conventional Au wire bonds. Failure mechanisms of Au, Cu ball bonds post-HAST and UHAST tests are been proposed, and both Au and PdCu IMC diffusion kinetics and their characteristics are discussed in this paper.


The increase penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) into the European power system has introduced a significant amount of variability and uncertainty in the generation profiles raising the needs for ancillary services as well as other tools like demand response, improved generation forecasting techniques and changes to the market design. While RES is able to replace energy produced by the traditional centralized generation, it cannot displace its capacity in terms of ancillary services provided. Therefore, centralized generation capacity must be retained to perform this function leading to over-capacity issues and underutilisation of the assets. Large-scale reversible hydro power plants represent the majority of the storage solution installed in the power system. This technology comes with high investments costs, hence the constant search for methods to increase and diversify the sources of revenue. Traditional fixed speed pump storage units typically operate in the day-ahead market to perform price arbitrage and, in some specific cases, provide downward replacement reserve (RR). Variable speed pump storage can not only participate in RR but also contribute to FRR, given their ability to control its operating point in pumping mode. This work does an extended analysis of a complete bidding strategy for Pumped Storage Power, enhancing the economic advantages of variable speed pump units in comparison with fixed ones.


Abstract A new computer-assisted technique for analyzing large corpuses of natural speech, in this case 50 tape-recorded conversations with upper middle-class Parisians, has revealed a general rule of progressive nasal assimilation, in which the acoustic realization of the /b/ in une chamb (re) de bonne /yn∫ãbdÉ™bcn/ is identical to that of the /m/ in une âme de bonne /ynamdÉ™bcn/, at least as far as nasality is concerned. This phenomenon occurs in the context nasal vowel + stop + word juncture + consonant; (1) almost without exception in cases such as the above, where final -re or -le have been suppressed and where another word beginning with a stop or a fricative follows without pause; (2) quite frequently in cases such as grande ville where there is no suppressed –re or –le but the following word begins with a voiced stop or fricative, and in cases such asprend(re) le Metro where a liquid or a nasal consonant follows suppressed word-final –re or –le; and (3) occasionally in cases such as langue populaire where there are no suppressions but where the second word begins with a voiceless consonant, and in the words done, quand and cinq when their final consonant is exceptionally pronounced before another consonant. These results have been corroborated by instrumental measurements of nasal acoustic output versus closure timing and by the results of a questionnaire dealing with the Frenchmen's preferences.


This study concerns to apply numerical methods and derives a comparative Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA). An accuracy comparison has been made using the index of rupturing risk versus one computed index. The study examines some factors such as age, Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP), stress-strain via the arterial wall stress (?), wall strength(S), and wall thickness (t). The qualms of AAA wall thickness are the most prevailing endogenous factors, as well as the wall stress and wall strength. A comparison between the Probabilistic Wall Rupture Index (PWRI), diameter-based index, and the output of the numerical method was done considering prediction power. Data records were taken from patients who underwent CT-Scan and ultrasound. Ten patients without rupturing cases were included in the statistical assessments. A matched diameter of a ruptured sample (n=7) and an unruptured sample (n=7) AAA was then considered. All the uncertainties that were observed in the thickness of the AAA wall and its strength were considered based originally on Laplace modified equation and PRRI analysis. The criteria for fitting a straight line to the data points were used for data graphing regarding the random nature of the collected data points.  Statistical analysis (and plotting) of data was performed using MinitabTM, SPSSTM, and MatlabTM. The collagen-to- elastin ratio was taken as a measure of the AAA wall stiffness and tensile strength. The obtained results show that modified equations give a considerable coincide and minimum error compared with the original equation, and PRRI indicated a strong sensitivity more than the numerical models.


Dalit literature articulates the oppressions and exploitations faced by Dalits in a caste ridden society. Dalit writing as a political form of writing records the cultural and social lives of Dalits and ideologically the writing offers a call for resistance. Bama is a Tamil Christian Dalit writer who writes about the lives of Dalit Women in Tamil Nadu. This paper attempts a look at Bama's novel Sangathi as a site representing Dalit women and analyses how caste and gender act as tools of double oppression in their life. This critical feminist reading of the novel from a Dalit Feminist perspective focuses on how women are discriminated in the Paraiya community in their relations with different social institutions like education, marriages, electoral politics etc. Simultaneously, we see how this text through its form and theme builds up a resistance against the oppressions the women face in their everyday lives.


This focus of this paper is centered on the extent to which rural women entrepreneurs can be used as a vital tool for economic development in the State when availed micro credit. The paper discussed the rate at which the micro savings from microfinance banks influenced rural Women's entrepreneurial success in Oyo State. Two research questions were raised, two hypotheses were formulated and were tested at 0.05 level of significant. The study is premised on Gary Becker's human capital theory of entrepreneurship which stipulates that all human behavior is based on the economics of self-interest of individuals which operate freely within the competitive market, and Dunford Chris classical theory of microfinance. The instrument for data collection was personal interview and questionnaire tagged: Influence of Microfinance Banks on Rural Women's Entrepreneurial Success in Oyo State. This paper found that, rural women entrepreneurs significantly differ in their responses regarding extent to which micro credits influence their entrepreneurial success based on age grade. Also, the second finding revealed that single women entrepreneurs rated the influence of micro savings on their entrepreneurial success higher than the married women. However, micro savings for entrepreneurial purpose is good for both single and married rural women entrepreneurs for continuity of their businesses during financial crises. The study recommended that government should release fund to microfinance banks with specifications on sex and age so that women will be accessible to grants and loans with low interest in order to reduce poverty in our society especially among women.


Context. The chemical tagging technique is a promising approach to reconstructing the history of the Galaxy by only using stellar chemical abundances. Multiple studies have undertaken this analysis and they have raised several challenges.
Aims. Using a sample of open cluster stars, we wish to address two issues: minimize chemical abundance differences whose origin is linked to the evolutionary stage of the stars and not their original composition and evaluate a phylogenetic approach to group stars based on their chemical composition.
Methods. We derived differential chemical abundances for 207 stars, belonging to 34 open clusters, using the Sun as reference star (classical approach) and a dwarf plus a giant star from the open cluster M 67 as reference (new approach). These abundances were then used to perform two phylogenetic analyses: cladistics (maximum parsimony) and neighbor joining, together with a partitioning unsupervised classification analysis with k-means. The resulting groupings were finally confronted to the true open cluster memberships of the stars.
Results. We successfully reconstruct most of the original open clusters when carefully selecting a subset of the abundances derived differentially with respect to M 67. We find a set of eight chemical elements that yield the best result and discuss the possible reasons for these elements to be good tracers of the history of the Galaxy.
Conclusions. Our study shows that unraveling the history of the Galaxy by only using stellar chemical abundances is greatly improved provided that i) we perform a differential spectroscopic analysis with respect to an open cluster instead of the Sun, ii) select the chemical elements that are good tracers of the history of the Galaxy, and iii) use tools that are adapted to detect evolutionary tracks such as phylogenetic approaches.


A new coding and decoding method for digital levels is proposed. It is based on an area-array CCD sensor and adopts mixed coding technology. By taking advantage of redundant information in a digital image signal, the contradiction that the field of view and image resolution restrict each other in a digital level measurement is overcome, and the geodetic leveling becomes easier. The experimental results demonstrate that the uncertainty of measurement is 1 mm when the measuring range is between 2 m and 100 m, which can meet practical needs.


ABSTRACT Objectives: The aims of this study are: to analyze the factor structure of the EURO-D depression scale; to explore the variables associated with depressive symptoms in the total sample and in the EURO-D factors; and to compare the presence of depressive symptoms and the factor distribution in 15 European countries. Method: 62,182 participants in Wave 5 (2013) of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were included. Instruments: The SHARE study and the EURO-D scale. Factor, bivariate and multilevel analyses were performed. Results: Higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with a poorer self-perception of physical health (η2 = 0.22) and economic difficulties (η2 = 0.07). Factor analysis of the EURO-D identified two factors: Suffering and Motivation. Higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with female gender and younger age (≤60) in the Suffering factor, and with less activity and exercise, older age (≥71), widowhood and lower educational level in the Motivation factor. Poorer self-perception of physical health and economic difficulties were associated with higher depressive symptomatology in both factors. Conclusions: Poorer self-perception of physical health, female gender, economic difficulties, widowhood, lower levels of activity and exercise and lower educational level were associated with higher depressive symptomatology. In the countries of southern Europe, the Motivation factor predominated.


Cereals such as wheat serve as staples for a large proportion of the world's population. However, they contain relatively low concentrations of essential micronutrients such as zinc (Zn) in their edible tissues. This is a major issue for human nutrition and food security. The process of Zn uptake and partitioning in plants is highly controlled, with systems present for sensing and responding to Zn status. In the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, two transcription factors, bZIP19 and bZIP23, are thought to act as Zn sensors mediating the increased expression of Zn membrane transporters, ZIPs (Zrt/Irt-like proteins), in response to low Zn status. In this thesis the identification and characterisation of homologous bZIP transcription factors and ZIP transporters in wheat are described. TabZIP sequence analysis confirmed the presence of motifs characteristic to the F-group of bZIP transcription factors. Expression of these wheat bZIPs in an Atbzip19 bzip23 line showed a conservation of function between the Arabidopsis and wheat group F bZIPs. A key question is whether the wheat bZIP transcription factors and ZIP transporters are regulated by Zn. Gene-expression analysis indicated that the wheat transcription factors TabZIP1, 3a, 3b, 4 & 5, and the wheat ZIP transporters, TaZIP1, 4, 5, 6 & 7 are induced by Zn-deficient conditions. The Zn-transport capability of TaZIP1, 5, 6, 7 & 8 was confirmed using heterologous yeast expression. Additionally, the binding ability of TabZIPs to regulatory-elements in the promoters of TaZIPs was demonstrated. This links TabZIPs and TaZIPs in the Zn-regulatory mechanism of wheat. This research has identified key genes involved in the regulation, uptake and distribution of Zn in wheat. The molecular mechanisms elucidated will be important in the development of Zn biofortified wheat varieties as well as cultivars which maintain high yield in Zn-deficient conditions. These may prove vital in achieving global food security.


We determined the prevalence of keratosis punctata of the palmar creases (KPPC) in 5000 individuals. The group screened included patients, visitors and children. Fifteen (0.3%) cases were discovered to have characteristic KPPC lesions. The patients were mainly young with a male predominance (14M : 1F). The lesions in almost all cases were asymptomatic. No predisposing factors could be ascertained by history. Histopathologically, the lesions consisted of focal hyperkeratosis, and an epidermal depression corresponding to the pits. Special stains did not reveal any dermal components in the keratin masses. On comparing our findings with those reported earlier it appears that KPPC is not so rare as believed.


Malaria is one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide. This review elucidates the genetic cause of treatment failure in Plasmodium falciparum infection. One hundred ninety eight (198) million of malaria cases are reported globally and estimated 584000 deaths occur in 2013. Single point mutation of asparagine to tyrosine in codon 86 (N86Y) of pfmdr-I gene and some other polymorphisms, like 184Y, 1034N, N1042D and D1246Y is associated with CQ resistance. Different point mutations including K76T in pfcrt gene were highly associated with chloroquine resistance. Antifolate Sulfadoxine/ pyrimethamine (SP) combination has been used as a second-line therapy against chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Polymorphism in pfdhfr codon 108 (S108N) and other point mutation in pfdhfr N51I and C59R confer higher levels of resistance. Mutation in pfdhps A437 is associated with sulfadoxine resistance, while additional changes (S436A, K540E, A581G, A613T/S) appear to increase the degree of resistance. Perseverance of SP resistance in relation to treatment outcome is visualized when at least two pfdhfr and one pfdhps mutation occurs. Increasing failure of predominantly used chloroquine (CQ) and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) has been a serious obstacle towards the global malaria control. The combination of artesunate (AS) and sulfadoxinepyrimethamine (SP) (ACT) has replaced the single use of CQ and SP. Artemisinin resistance is strongly associated with an increase in parasite clearance half-life (PCHL), which imitates the reduced susceptibility of ring-stage parasites. Different codon of pfkelch13 gene point mutation (441codon and other) was highly correlated with ACT failure as well as increased PCHL and RSA thereby resistance to AS. Genetic polymorphism of different candidate genes leads to drug resistance in malaria parasite which makes a global problem to eradicate malaria.


The most important thing in the construction of toll roads, especially elevated toll roads, is the erection girder. The implementation of this erection girder certainly requires a long time and a large cost, so it requires the right work method in its implementation. The construction of the X Section A Toll Road Project is the construction of an elevated toll road where its implementation is limited by time and cost so that it requires the right work method to achieve timely and cost-efficient project completion. The girder used in this project is a box girder with the implementation method using the crane and launcher method. This study aims to analyze the time and cost of comparing the implementation method of erection box girder using cranes and launchers to obtain a more efficient and effective implementation method. This research was conducted through field observations to observe the erection box girder time and collect secondary data regarding the method of implementing erection box girder. The analysis carried out in this study includes time calculation analysis by calculating the average time value of the erection box girder implementation using statistical formulas and cost analysis carried out by referring to the PUPR Ministerial Regulation Number 28/PRT/M/2016 concerning Analysis of Unit Prices for Public Work. Based on the outcomes of the calculation of time and cost analysis, the duration of the erection box girder with the crane method is 70.65 minutes and requires a cost of Rp 23,769,579 and the launcher method takes 48.12 minutes and costs Rp 11,834,500. Thus, it can be seen that the more efficient and effective erection box girder method is the launcher method with a cost difference of Rp 11935,079 and 32% efficiency. when compared to the crane method.


The attitude control of an asteroid-orbiting spacecraft based on immersion and invariance (I&I) theory is the subject of this paper. It is assumed that the moment of inertia matrix and the gravitational parameters are not known. The objective is to attain nadir pointing attitude on an elliptic orbit. First, based on the I&I principle, an adaptive attitude control system using the Modified Rodrigues Parameters (MRPs) is derived. Through the Lyapunov stability analysis, the asymptotic convergence of the MRP trajectories to the origin is established. Interestingly, in contrast to traditional adaptive systems, the trajectories of the closed-loop system converge to an attractive manifold in an extended state space. Then, for the purpose of comparison, this MRPs-based control law and a quaternions-based control system (also designed using the I&I principle) are simulated for the attitude control of the spacecraft in eccentric orbits around asteroid 433 Eros. It is observed that while each I&I-based control law can accomplish precise attitude control, for identical design parameters in these two control systems, the MRPs-based control law requires smaller control magnitude and accomplishes smoother convergence of trajectories to the attractive manifold, but requires larger settling time for the attitude trajectories, compared with the quaternions-based adaptive control law.


This study had two objectives: (a) estimating the force exerted by pitchers in generating the spin of a fastball and (b) examining the factors that influence the spin rate of a fastball. Thirteen baseball pitchers participated in this study. The resultant forces acting on the ball was measured using an accelerometer placed in the baseball, and the force was decomposed into two frequency components using maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) between the integration of the high-frequency component of acceleration and the variation in the tangential velocity was high (ICC(3,1) = 0.64 ± 0.16). The ball spin per velocity (SPV) was significantly correlated with the peak value of the high-frequency component of the resultant forces (r = 0.66, p < 0.01). The high-frequency component of the resultant forces reflected the force in the tangential direction, and this force was one of the factors that adjusted the ball spin rate. The SPV did not significantly correlate with the peak value of the low-frequency component of the resultant forces (r = 0.50, p > 0.05). This indicates that decomposing the resultant forces into two frequency components is necessary to investigate the function of the finger during pitching.


Security exploits can include cyber threats such as computer programs that can disturb the normal behavior of computer systems (viruses), unsolicited e-mail (spam), malicious software (malware), monitoring software (spyware), attempting to make computer resources unavailable to their intended users (Distributed Denial-of-Service or DDoS attack), the social engineering, and online identity theft (phishing). One such cyber threat, which is particularly dangerous to computer users is phishing. Phishing is well known as online identity theft, which targets to steal victims' sensitive information such as username, password and online banking details. This paper focuses on designing an innovative and gamified approach to educate individuals about phishing attacks. The study asks how one can integrate self-efficacy, which has a co-relation with the user's knowledge, into an anti-phishing educational game to thwart phishing attacks? One of the main reasons would appear to be a lack of user knowledge to prevent from phishing attacks. Therefore, this research investigates the elements that influence (in this case, either conceptual or procedural knowledge or their interaction effect) and then integrate them into an anti-phishing educational game to enhance people's phishing prevention behaviour through their motivation.


Crew Resource Management (CRM) and Threat and Error Management (TEM) are known to be reliable techniques to improve human performance by preventing and avoiding flight errors in cockpit. Neither CRM nor TEM,however,has carried out an in-depth systematic analysis on the error-inducing navigation behavior and,as a result,there is a lack of reliable behavior objectives or effective evaluation measures for implementing trainings on error preventing skills,problem diagnosis on navigation behaviors,and effective evaluation on safety performance. Although a relatively comprehensive evaluation system for technical-skill assessment on airline pilots has already been adopted in some countries,the system for evaluating non-technical skills remains weak. The current situation characterized by more emphasis on examining technical skills while little on evaluating and training non-technical skills/human factor skills leads to one of the major reasons for the lasting high accident rates induced by human factors in current aviation safety field. The fundamental key to this issue,necessarily,is to start with evaluating and diagnosing the standardization of navigation safety behaviors of airline pilots. Unlike other industries adopting the rate of accidents and incidents or injury rate as safety index,the airline industry has adopted "the standardization of navigation behaviors of airline pilots" as a fairly effective index to evaluate safety operation performance,and diagnose operating errors,due to its character of being able to objectively and veritably capture various potential risk behaviors leading to flight accidents or incidents. On the basis of combining CRM and TEM models with the characteristics of Chinese aviation safety culture,the present study established a multidimensional evaluation method to assess navigation safety behaviors of Chinese airline pilots,aiming at providing a set of objective and effective assessing instruments for selecting and training Chinese airline pilots,and evaluating and diagnosing the standardization of navigation behaviors in airline flight. All the 118 subjects came from China Southern Airlines Ltd. as college graduates with good physical and mental health. They met physical examination standards formulated by Civil Aviation Administration of China. Through literature review,expert interview,and open-ended questionnaire survey,twenty-seven representative aircrew behavior patterns which could influence modern airline flight safety were selected,which,in turn,composed the test items for assessing navigation safety behaviors under Chinese culture background. Four flight experts were invited to conduct Level Evaluation on the actual flight performance of the 118 airline pilots,according to the test content throughout the following four flight phrases:preparation/skidding,taking off/climbing,cruise,and descending/approach/landing — from "Lower than the Anticipated level (1)" to "Crew Paragon (4)". The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) conducted on the evaluation data concerning the navigation safety behaviors of 118 Chinese airline pilots indicated that the four-dimension model composed of Automation System Understanding,Leadership and Management,Situation Awareness and Decision-making,and Interpersonal Communication and Cooperation was the best fit of data among the 5 hypothesized models. Moreover,it is of satisfying reliabilities and construct validities throughout the four flight phases. With safety performance accessing data of 86 pilots (in terms of Safety Regulations,Flight Style,Flight Skills and Aircrew Management) as criterion variables,and the pilots' flight performance data throughout the different phases of airline flight as predictive variables,a series of hierarchical regression analyses were implemented,respectively. The results showed that the present multidimensional scale had high differential validity and predictive validity; the four dimension variables contributed significantly to the evaluation of navigation safety behaviors in different flight phases,with differentiated contribution levels according to different mission requirements in varied flight phases. In sum,the multidimensional scale developed in this study not only provides an effective tool to standardize the navigation safety behaviors of crewmembers,to identify the errors in aircrew navigation behaviors,and to examine safety performance,but also lays a solid theoretical foundation for developing programs specifically for pilot selection and aircrew CRM trainings.


This paper proposes a pattern partitioning algorithm that maps multiple target patterns onto homogeneous memory-based string matchers. The proposed algorithm adopts the greedy search based on lexicographical sorting. By mapping as many target patterns as possible onto each string matcher, the memory requirements are greatly reduced.


Ephemeral gullies (EGs) are incised channels resulting from concentrated overland flow that often form in a similar location every year. These erosional features add to producers' management efforts and costs. Locating EGs and predicting their length is crucial for estimating sediment load and planning conservation strategies. Since topography plays an important role in the formation of EGs, this study investigated the prediction of EG location and length in two agricultural areas (S1 and S2) in two different physiographic regions using four topographic index models: compound topographic index (CTI), slope area (SA), wetness topographic index (WTI), and slope area power (SAP). The impacts of digital elevation model (DEM) resolution, agricultural land use mask data source, and topographic model critical thresholds were also evaluated. Automated geospatial models were developed to locate and derive EG length. Results show that the SA model predicted EG occurrence and length better than other models tested. The SA and CTI model predictions had similar patterns in terms of locating EG trajectory; however, the CTI model had greater discontinuity along the trajectory. The method developed to derive length in this study was sensitive to discontinuity, so the performance of the CTI model was poor. Finer-resolution DEMs (2 m) predicted EG location and lengths better than coarser-resolution DEMs (10 m or greater). Use of actual field-level reconnaissance data instead of NASS data for agricultural land use masking decreased false negative classification by 16% or more for all models. Detailed calibration of the SA model yielded different optimal thresholds for the two study regions: TSA = 30 for S1 and TSA = 50 for S2. Topographic index models were found to be useful in locating EGs and estimating expected lengths, but site-specific calibration of the topographic index model threshold was required, which might limit the general utility of these methods.


Reproduction is a critical fitness component in large herbivores. Biogeographic models predict that populations occurring at the edges of the range may have compromised reproductive rates because of inferior habitat at range peripheries. When reproductive rates are chronically low, ungulate populations may lack the resiliency to rebound quickly after periods of environmental stress, and this effect may be greatest for heat-sensitive organisms at their southern range limit. To assess the demographic vulnerability of moose (Alces alces), we studied relationships between reproductive rates, maternal age, and rump fat in the southernmost naturally occurring moose population in North America. For prime-aged moose in our study, pregnancy rates were high (92%), but moose aged < 3 or > 9 years had low pregnancy rates (32% and 38%, respectively). The relationship between rump fat and pregnancy was nonlinear such that a threshold of at least 2 mm of rump fat yielded a high probability of being pregnant midwinter. In contrast, among pregnant moose, the probability of both producing a calf and recruiting it until spring increased linearly with rump fat. We also conducted a meta-analysis of pregnancy and twinning rates for adult (≥ 2 years) moose across a latitudinal gradient to compare reproductive rates from our study to other populations in North America. Moose living at southern latitudes tended to have lower reproductive rates than those living in the core of moose range, implying that southern moose populations may be demographically more vulnerable than northern moose populations.


A study of mechanical stress is carried out for a-Si:H films deposited at different substrate temperatures and using plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition from hydrogen-diluted silane. The film thickness has been varied in the range of 150-600 nm. A dependence of compressive intrinsic stress on film thickness has been observed for films deposited at substrate temperatures ranging from 180 to 270 °C. In films deposited at 150 °C stress distribution is uniform. Linear stress profiles are established in films deposited at higher temperatures, provided that during the growth of surface layers no structural or compositional changes proceed in the bulk of the film. The compressive stress increases in the direction from the interface to the film surface. The observed nonuniformity across the film thickness is discussed.


North of Boston was published in 1914, just a year after A Boy's Will, while the Frost family was in England's scenic West Country. The poems, many of which are long, dramatic narratives, are mostly inspired by the people, nature, and society of rural New England, but we do see some influence of his time in the United Kingdom, most notably in the poem "Mending Wall." The poetic subjects and sources in North of Boston are similar to those in A Boy's Will, but Frost introduces more precision into his poetry by using proper nouns and technical terms, especially those related to farming and botany. Poems such as "The Death of the Hired Man" and "After Apple-Picking" contain examples of specific agricultural and botanical language.


Sediment cores from the Norwegian Sea were studied to evaluate interglacial climate conditions of the marine isotope stage 5e (MIS 5e). Using planktic forminiferal assemblages as the core method, a detailed picture of the evolution of surface water conditions was derived. According to our age model, a steplike deglaciation of the Saalian ice sheets is noted between ca. 135 and 124.5 Kya, but the deglaciation shows little response with regard to surface ocean warming. From then on, the rapidly increasing abundance of subpolar forminifers, concomitant with decreasing iceberg indicators, provides evidence for the development of interglacial conditions sensu stricto (5e-ss), a period that lasted for about 9 Ky. As interpreted from the foraminiferal records, and supported by the other proxies, this interval of 5e-ss was in two parts: showing an early warm phase, but with a fresher, i.e., lower salinity, water mass, and a subsequent cooling phase that lasted until ca. 118.5 Kya. After this time, the climatic optimum with the most intense advection of Atlantic surface water masses occurred until ca. 116 Kya. A rapid transition with two notable climatic perturbations is observed subsequently during the glacial inception. Overall, the peak warmth of the last interglacial period occurred relatively late after deglaciation, and at no time did it reach the high warmth level of the early Holocene. This finding must be considered when using the last interglacial situation as an analogue model for enhanced meridional transfer of ocean heat to the Arctic, with the prospect of a future warmer climate.


In order to reduce CO2 emissions, reduce capital costs and increase the percentage of renewable energy in the electricity grid, common drivers of fossil power plant evolution continue to be efficiency, increased electricity output and operating flexibility.For CCPP, the efficiency level has reached more than 60%. Besides new and updated gas turbine frames, an improved bottoming cycle also contributes to this achievement. Without increasing steam temperatures above 565°C, improving steam turbine inner efficiency and enhancing the cold end, the overall efficiency of >60% would not be feasible.Extensive thermodynamic optimization is required to determine steam temperatures and condenser pressures. In addition, from a design standpoint, an optimum product strategy has to be developed. In order to minimize risks with future designs, both the practical and theoretical experiences from both ultra super critical applications at coal-fired steam power plants as well as from the CCPP steam turbine fleet have to be incorporated. For advanced technologies and components appropriate validation programs have to be defined.This paper presents the approach being taking to develop steam turbines for CCPP with modern gas turbines and it also displays the operating results of the first unit.Operational validation included the thermal behaviour of the high and intermediate pressure parts, a new last stage blade for the low pressure turbine and a patented start-up procedure. In particular, the paper focuses on the validation of three dimensional CFD calculations of the high and intermediate pressure turbine.Copyright © 2012 by Siemens Energy Inc.


Decentralized reputation systems help to enforce discipline and fairness in large unstructured and ad-hoc systems by rewarding good behavior and penalizing dishonest or greedy behavior. They are essential in large networks of independent nodes where centralized monitoring of node behavior is difficult due to the sheer size of the network. Sybil nodes pose a threat to the reputation systems by false referrals through sybil identities. We propose a scalable and distributed algorithm to identify attack edges and quarantine sybil clusters. This algorithm works well with dynamic trust graphs as nodes do not need to store any pre-computed data.


Objective: S100A8 (calgranulin A, MRP8) and S100A9 (calgranulin B, MRP14) are calcium-binding proteins highly expressed by activated myeloid cells and thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. Circulating levels of S100A8/S100A9 are elevated in both human and experimental models of autoimmune disease, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Mice deficient in S100A9 (S100A9 − /−) and wild-type controls were immunized using standard techniques for the K/BxN serum transfer or the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) model. Results: S100A9 − /− animals, with defective expression of both S100A8 and S100A9 proteins, had similar arthritis and histopathology to that of wild-type controls in both mouse models. Conclusion: S100A8 and S100A9 are not essential for disease expression in either the K/BxN serum transfer or the CIA model of inflammatory arthritis.


Twitter, the social network service, is a rich source of information on customer response to a live event such as a television show. In this paper we present a case study where we analyzed publicly available tweets that were posted when a popular TV show was aired for the first time in a season. We use standard text-mining techniques to answer questions such as, what were the main themes during the show, what drove the popularity of the show and what were the kind of viewers who were tweeting on the show. This kind of business intelligence can be used by content producers in improving future shows, in targeted marketing to audience, in gathering competitive intelligence and many other ways.


This guide helps users search in Factiva, Mint Global, Westlaw AU, Westlaw, LexisNexis AU, Web of Science and Scopus. Scopus & Web of Science


Malaria is a vector-borne contagious disease which remains a public health burden for decades. It is highly endemic in Sub-Saharan African, and an estimated number of two hundred and twenty-eight million cases was reported in 2018 around the world. We develop and examine a deterministic model which describes the transmission dynamics of malaria between mosquito and human populations and examine the impacts of control interventions with their level of awareness on its control. The malaria-free equilibrium of the model is shown to be locally asymptotically stable if the threshold quantity R0 < 1. We study the stability of the endemic equilibrium and the conditions for the existence of backward bifurcation are presented. A sensitivity analysis was done to measure the outcome of the control intervention parameters on the reproduction number. The result shows that residual spray and bed-net usage are the most important parameter on the reproduction number. A numerical simulation was carried out and the result shows that combining bed-net usage and residual spray will reduce the burden of malaria faster. Particularly, results suggest that awareness and proportion of bed-net usage and residual spray should be priorities and increased to at least 75% for the possibilities of eliminating malaria.


Increasingly, investigators conduct interviews with eyewitnesses from different cultures. The culture in which people have been socialised can impact the way they encode, remember, and report information about their experiences. We examined whether eyewitness memory reports of mock witnesses from collectivistic (sub-Saharan Africa) and individualistic (Northern Europe) cultures differed regarding quantity and quality of central and background details reported. Mock witnesses (total N = 200) from rural Ghana, urban Ghana, and the Netherlands were shown stimuli scenes of crimes in Dutch and Ghanaian settings and provided free and cued recalls. Individualistic culture mock witnesses reported the most details, irrespective of detail type. For each cultural group, mock witnesses reported more correct central details when crime was witnessed in their own native setting than a non-native setting, though for different recall domains. The findings provide insight for legal and investigative professionals as well as immigration officials eliciting memory reports in cross-cultural contexts.


Among different methods that can be used to estimate the State of Charge of a battery in a dynamic profile, the data-driven method based on Neural Network (NN) is one of the most promising. This work investigates for dynamic automotive applications a time-recurrent Neural Network, such as Nonlinear Autoregressive with Exogenous Input Neural Network, to analyze its performance using two different battery datasets. Initially, tests that comprehend current, voltage, and temperature as input data have been performed. In the same step, a sensitivity analysis for three different timesteps has been investigated. In the following step, interpolation and extrapolation processes run on different battery temperature cycles have been considered. The third phase of this work introduced noise in input data to replicate a real-life case with its problems and finally, in the last step, it has been provided a generalization of the process, where the test datasets were different from the training ones. Throughout all the steps, NARX-NN shows good performances together with relatively low computational time.


So SAS/AF® supports object-oriented programming (OOP), but does that mean that all applications developed using SAS/AF® are object-oriented? Not so. This paper provides an outline of an objectoriented approach to producing true object-oriented applications. The paper emphasises a focus on objects, not processes, combined with proper objectoriented analysis (OOA) and design (OOD). Techniques and practices covered in more detail include the use of CRC (Class, Responsibility, and Collaboration) cards, the UML (Unified Modelling Language), software modelling, and an iterative approach to OO projects.


Abstract Objective: To assess predictors and costs of multiple sclerosis (MS) relapse, a potential outcome measure in payer-manufacturer risk-sharing agreements for disease-modifying drugs (DMDs). Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis of medical/pharmacy claims was used. Study patients had ≥1 DMD (interferon beta, glatiramer, natalizumab) claim, without DMD claims in a 6-month pre-period before DMD initiation; were aged 18–64 years and continuously enrolled from the pre-period through a 24-month post-period; and had ≥2 MS medical claims during the 30-month study period. Post-period relapse cohorts included: (1) severe (hospitalization with MS diagnosis); (2) moderate (outpatient services including intravenous methylprednisolone); and (3) none. Poisson regression modeled severe relapse frequency, logistic regression modeled ≥1 severe relapse, and generalized linear modeling predicted healthcare costs. Tested predictors included demographics, insurance type, index DMD, pre-period health status, and DMD medication possession ratio (MPR). Results: Severe relapse was experienced by 14.5% and moderate relapse by 13.8% of 2291 patients. In logistic regression, severe relapse was predicted by plan type; age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.018, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.005–1.031); pre-period Charlson Comorbidity Index (OR = 1.307, 95% CI = 1.166–1.464); pre-period proxy measure indicating impaired activities of daily living (OR = 1.470, 95% CI = 1.134–1.905); pre-period MS hospitalization (OR = 2.174, 95% CI = 1.537–3.074); and DMD non-adherence (MPR OR = 0.101, 95% CI = 0.068–0.151). Poisson regression results were similar. Predicted mean [standard deviation] all-cause healthcare expenditures were tripled for patients with severe compared with moderate relapse ($48,173 [$8665] and $13,334 [$1929], respectively). Limitations: Commercially insured patients from a single payer; use may have been inconsistent with approved indications; proxy relapse measure may have misclassified patients. Conclusions: Severe MS relapses requiring hospitalization, although affecting less than 15% of patients initiating DMD treatment, are associated with high medical costs. The only actionable predictor of severe relapse identified in observational analysis was MPR, raising questions about the feasibility of using observational data to guide outcomes-based contracting.


Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy AIDP is an immune mediated disorder that affects the peripheral nerve reflected in myelin damage and sometimes in axonal loss. Upper respiratory infection, gas- trointestinal infection or nonspecific febrile processes are clinical entities that usually precede neurological symptoms represented by progressive weakness of the extremities and attenuation of tendinous reflexes. In the setting of HIV infection AIDP is a peripheral nerve disorder that usually occurs shortly after seroconversion when the CD4 count is higher than 500 cells/µl. It is presumed to be immune mediated, although the offending antibody has not been identified yet. We report two clinical cases of atypical AIDP in the setting of HIV infection: The first with a T lymphocyte CD4 count lower than 100 cells /µl and the second in context of immunologic reconstitution inflammatory syndrome IRIS. Both entities are uncommon phenomena. The patients recovered satisfactorily after receiving intravenous immunoglobulin and temporary cessation of antiretroviral therapy respectively.


While causal consistency is one of the most fundamental consistency models weaker than sequential consistency, the decidability of safety verification for (finite-state) concurrent programs running under causally consistent shared memories is still unclear. In this article, we establish the decidability of this problem for two standard and well-studied variants of causal consistency. To do so, for each variant, we develop an equivalent "lossy" operational semantics, whose states track possible futures, rather than more standard semantics that record the history of the execution. We show that these semantics constitute well-structured transition systems, thus enabling decidable verification. Based on a key observation, which we call the "shared-memory causality principle," the two novel semantics may also be of independent use in the investigation of weakly consistent models and their verification. Interestingly, our results are in contrast to the undecidability of this problem under the Release/Acquire fragment of the C/C++11 memory model, which forms another variant of causally consistent memory that, in terms of allowed outcomes, lies strictly between the two models studied here. Nevertheless, we show that all these three variants coincide for write/write-race-free programs, which implies the decidability of verification for such programs under Release/Acquire.


A problem in the field of semantic sentence similarity is the inability of
sentence similarity measures to accurately represent the effect perception
based (fuzzy) words, which are commonly used in natural language, have
on sentence similarity. This research project developed a new sentence
similarity measure to solve this problem. The new measure, Fuzzy Algorithm
for Similarity Testing (FAST) is a novel ontology-based similarity measure
that uses concepts of fuzzy and computing with words to allow for the
accurate representation of fuzzy based words. Through human
experimentation fuzzy sets were created for six categories of words based
on their levels of association with particular concepts. These fuzzy sets were
then defuzzified and the results used to create new ontological relations
between the fuzzy words contained within them and from that a new fuzzy
ontology was created. Using these relationships allows for the creation of a
new ontology-based fuzzy semantic text similarity algorithm that is able to
show the effect of fuzzy words on computing sentence similarity as well as
the effect that fuzzy words have on non-fuzzy words within a sentence. In
order to evaluate FAST, two new test datasets were created through the use
of questionnaire based human experimentation. This involved the generation
of a robust methodology for creating usable fuzzy datasets (including an
automated method that was used to create one of the two fuzzy datasets).
FAST was evaluated through experiments conducted using the new fuzzy
datasets. The results of the evaluation showed that there was an improved
level of correlation between FAST and human test results over two existing
sentence similarity measures demonstrating its success in representing the
similarity between pairs of sentences containing fuzzy words.


Cell-based therapeutics are one of the most promising and exciting breakthroughs in modern medicine. Modification of the cell surface with ligands, biologics, drugs, and nanoparticles can further enhance the functionality. Previously, we described the synthesis of a dioctadecyl indocarbocyanine Cy3 analog (aminomethyl-DiI) for efficient and stable modification (painting) of mouse erythrocytes with small molecules, enzymes, and biologics. Here, we synthesized a near-infrared aminomethyl dioctadecyl derivative of Cy7 (aminomethyl-DOCy7) and systematically compared it to aminomethyl-DiI as an anchor for the modification of human erythrocytes, Jurkat cells, and primary T cells with immunoglobulin G. To enable copper-free click chemistry modification of cell membranes, we conjugated a methyltetrazine (MTz) group to the amino-indocyanine lipids via a polyethylene glycol (PEG) linker. DOCy7-PEG3400-MTz showed over 99% modification efficiency of human red blood cells (RBCs) at 25 μM. Reaction of trans-cyclooctene (TCO) modified immunoglobulin G (IgG) with DOCy7-PEG4-MTz-modified RBCs (2-step method) resulted in ∼80,000 IgG molecules per erythrocyte, whereas modification with a preconjugated DOCy7-PEG3400-IgG construct (1-step method) resulted in ∼20,000 IgG molecules per erythrocyte as detected by immuno dot-blot. The number of IgG/RBC was controlled by the concentration of IgG. The incubation of RBCs with DiI-PEG3400-MTz resulted in a similar number of IgG/RBC. Modification of the T-lymphocyte cell line Jurkat with IgG resulted in ∼1 × 106 IgG/cell with the 1-step and 2-step methods, and the efficiency was similar for DOCy7 and DiI constructs. Finally, we used DOCy7 and DiI constructs to demonstrate efficient modification of primary CD3+T cells from healthy donors. In conclusion, click indocarbocyanine conjugates represent a novel multicolor chemical biology tool kit for efficient surface modification of different cells types and can be used for potential imaging and drug delivery applications involving engineered cells.


QSAR analysis using multiple linear regression and partial least squares methods were conducted on a data set of 47 pyrrolidine analogs acting as DPP IV inhibitors. The QSAR models generated (both MLR and PLS) were robust with statistically significant s, F, r, r2 and r2 (CV) values. The analysis helped to ascertain the role of shape flexibility index, Ipso atom E-state index and electrostatic parameters like dipole moment, in determining the activity of DPP IV inhibitors. In addition to QSAR modeling, Lipinski's rule of five was also employed to check the pharmacokinetic profile of DPP IV inhibitors. Since none of the compounds violated the Lipinski's rule of five indicating that the DPP IV inhibitors reported herein have sound pharmacokinetic profile and can be considered as potential drug candidates for diabetes mellitus Type II.


In recent years, phishing scams have become the crime type with the largest money involved on Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain platform. Meanwhile, graph neural network (GNN) has shown promising performance in various node classification tasks. However, for Ethereum transaction data, which could be naturally abstracted to a real-world complex graph, the scarcity of labels and the huge volume of transaction data make it difficult to take advantage of GNN methods. Here in this paper, to address the two challenges, we propose a Self-supervised Incremental deep Graph learning model (SIEGE), for the phishing scam detection problem on Ethereum. In our model, two pretext tasks designed from spatial and temporal perspectives help us effectively learn useful node embedding from the huge amount of unlabelled transaction data. And the incremental paradigm allows us to efficiently handle large-scale transaction data and help the model maintain good performance when the data distribution is drastically changing. We collect transaction records about half a year from Ethereum and our extensive experiments show that our model consistently outperforms strong baselines in both transductive and inductive settings.


This deliverable concerns the Task 4 of the VIP project: Modularity issues. This report aims to sum up the results that have been obtained during the project and that are related to composition issues.


After lethal irradiation (800 R) Friend virus (FV-P)-infected leukemic DBA/2 mice were transplanted with normal bone marrow cells. Isogeneic transplantation led to an immediate relapse of leukemia. Therefore, allogeneic bone marrow cells were taken from almost FV-P resistant C57BL/6 mice. A measure of leukemia development was given by the number of erythropoietin-independent erythroid colonies (CFU-EI) in bone marrow and spleen, characteristic for the Friend leukemia. Even after allogeneic transplantation leukemia recurred after 5 to 19 days. By an electrophoretic analysis of the hemoglobin, it could be shown that the transformed erythropoiesis was donor derived. Thus, marrow of C57BL/6 origin loses its FV-P resistance in allogeneic leukemic lethally irradiated recipients and is transformed by the surviving virus.


Abstract The details of the weather are not predictable beyond one to two weeks. At longer time ranges, averages of the weather over space and time can be usefully predicted only to the extent that the variations of the averages exceed the "noise" produced by the omnipresent but unpredictable transient weather. This margin of potential predictability is not large, but parts of it are being exploited in routinely issued monthly and seasonal forecasts. The format and utilization of these forecasts, the methods by which they are routinely produced, and prospects for improvements are discussed.


This study was carried out to inves- tigate the effects of a low hypochlorite con- centration as a cleaning substance on pul- monary functions. For this purpose, 23 clean- ing workers from the Faculty of Medicine of Suleyman Demirel University were selected as the study group and 14 people from technical personnel as the control group. The study group consisted of 17 females and 6 males with a mean age of 26.4-5.6 years and the mean duration of exposure to the substance in question was 10.3-10.7 months without any atopy history. The control group consisted of 12 females and 2 males with a mean age of 24.4-5.4 years. There was no atopy history. The total IgE level and the total blood eosinophil count of the study group and those of the control group were similar. Pulmonary function tests were applied three times to all the subjects on Monday morning, and Mon- day and Friday afternoon. In the study group, 16 subjects were symptomatic under the working circumstances and the results of the physical examination were positive in 5 out of the symptomatic subjects. The baseline values of FVC (%), FEV1 (%), FEV1/FVC (%), FEF25-75 (%), PEFR (L/s), and PEFR (%) were higher than those of the control group. It was found that the decreases in the FEV1 (L), FEV1 (%), FEV1/FVC (%), PEFR (L/s), and PEFR (%) values of pulmonary function tests measured on Monday afternoon and the decreases in all the test values except the FVC value measured on Friday afternoon were sta- tistically significant. There were no differ- ences between the baseline values of pul- monary function tests except the FVC (L) value of the symptomatic and the nonsympto- matic subjects. There were significant decreases in the FEV1 (%), FEV1/FVC (%), and PEFR (%) weekend values of the non- symptomatic group. There were statistically significant increases in the FEV1 (L) and FEV1/FVC (%) weekend values of the control group compared to the baseline values. There were statistically significant decreases in the FEV1 (L), FEV1 (%), FEV1/FVC (%), and PEFR (%) weekend values of the study group compared to those of the control group. These results suggest that even a low concen- tration of hypochlorite can affect the pul- monary functions by causing irritation in the


This brief paper focuses on Dutch outbound tourism, i.e. international flows with the Netherlands as a place of origin. Using data provided by CBS Statistics Netherlands, we show that the total number of international holidays, both in absolute terms and per capita, has significantly grown in the last three decades, denoting a significant increase in the propensity of Dutch residents to engage in international tourism; moreover, year-by-year variations seem to be positively, but weakly, associated with the general conditions of the Dutch economy. In terms of the composition of international holidays by destination country, we found evidence of some instability in the relative importance of different destinations, with an increase in the diversity of choices by Dutch tourists and in the distance of their preferred destination.


To visualize the structure and function of biomolecules and biological membranes in the cell, optical dyes are important tools where in particular fluorescent probes provide a sensitive and selective detection. When cellular compartments are investigated it is crucial that the probe selectively binds to the area of interest and not exhibits unspecific binding affinity. In this thesis a series of three ruthenium complexes varying in lipophilicity are studied with the aim of investigating binding preferences towards biomolecules and lipid membranes as well as the cellular localization and the cellular uptake of the complexes. The complexes are studied both in vitro in solutions of DNA, RNA and lipid vesicles by spectroscopy and in vivo where their cellular staining patterns are compared with commercially available probes by employing confocal laser scanning microscopy. Three styryl dyes with the ability to probe electrostatic fields in membranes are also investigated with respect to their spectral properties in different solvents as well as their membrane interaction and orientation in two different model membrane systems. The dyes are shown to exhibit environment sensitive absorption and emission and they display different membrane binding properties. The results, for both categories of membrane and biomacromolecular probes, overall demonstrate that even relatively small changes in structure of probes may affect their binding affinity and other interaction characteristics.


Now we are at home. But home does not preexist: it was necessary to draw a circle around that uncertain and fragile center, to organize a limited place. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari The XXIst annual conference of SAHANZ calls for papers addressing the theme of 'LIMITS'. A limit can be considered a decisive line of demarcation, a threshold where different conditions meet, or a boundary that may be approached, crossed or exceeded. Architecture is an art that operates within and responds to key nominated or historically situated limits and constraints. It is also a professionally bounded discipline that necessarily interfaces with a range of other fields of knowledge. Here we are concerned with identifying and investigating the plurality of different, often competing limits with which the discipline of architecture contends. By identifying and questioning its limits, the discipline of architecture defines itself historically, theoretically, technically, culturally, and politically. What are the implications of the limits that have been placed historically on the role of the architect as artist, technician, thinker, and/or maker? How might the discipline of architecture reconsider its historical, current, and future formulations? Architectural history, for instance, can be framed through a consideration of the practices architects have employed to respond to nominated or given limits and constraints. The status of constraining limits has shifted historically, from the unavoidable limits of distance and resource in the colonial period, to the imposed limits of modernism and rationalism. Different approaches to the constitutive possibilities of the limit as a contemporary concern are offered by engagement with the minimal as an aesthetic condition, with urban strategies for responding to situated limits and constraints, and with the supposedly limitless bounty of emerging technologies. The particular geo-political situation of Australia and New Zealand at the edge of Asia and the Pacific demands the exploration of other kinds of cultural limits in post-colonial, migrant, indigenous and bi-cultural scholarship. The limit is especially topical at the present socio-political juncture. It marks the material coastline as an exclusionary border-limit to refugees and undesirable others. In the emerging post-industrial economy, the pervasive pressures of global media, capital and culture, cross national borders and redefine regional relationships. This years SAHANZ forum registers the crossing of a culturally significant threshold. It is our 21st. This offers a timely opportunity for celebration, critical reflection, and the consideration of future aspirations. The figure of the limit, with its various allusions to thresholds, constraints, frameworks, boundaries, borderlines, betweeness, otherness, abjection, interruption, difference, liminality, the sublime, and so forth, defines the locus of many potential questions for the discipline of architecture. This conference is concerned less with these as problems in a negative sense, than with the affirmative limit, the line in the sand that can be forever redrawn.


SUMMARY 241 1. INTRODUCTION 242 1.1 Milestones in the history of HS 244 1.2 Solvation forces 245 2. PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE HOFMEISTER SERIES 246 2.1 Extension of the properties of HS from inorganic to organic cosolutes 246 2.2 Effect of salts on the stability of biomolecules 247 2.3 Effect on enzyme activity 248 2.4 Influence of salts on the crystallization of biological macromolecules 249 2.5 Effects of salts on DNA–protein interactions 250 2.6 Interactions at receptor sites and effects on ion channels 251 2.7 Water-coordinating properties of salts as determined by gel chromatographic behaviour 254 3. INTERFACIAL FREE ENERGY 254 3.1 Types of forces 254 3.2 Distance dependence of the interactions 257 4. THE NATURE OF SURFACES AND LIQUIDS 259 4.1 Proteins 259 4.2 Adsorbing surfaces 260 4.3 Water 261 5. THE EFFECT OF COSOLUTES ON WATER 263 5.1 Electrochemistry 263 5.2 Neutron scattering 264 5.3 Vibrational spectroscopy 265 5.4 Nuclear magnetic resonance 265 6. COSOLUTE EXCLUSION FROM SURFACES 266 6.1 Cosolute enrichment 268 7. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK 268 8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 269 9. REFERENCES 269 A. GLOSSARY 276 B. LIST OF PRINCIPAL SYMBOLS 276 Advances in experimental and computational methodologies have led to a recent renewed interest in the Hofmeister series and its molecular origins. New results are surveyed and assessed. Insights into the underlying mechanisms have been gained, although deeper molecular understanding still seems to be elusive. The principal reason appears to be that the Hofmeister series emerges from a combination of a general effect of cosolutes (salts, etc.) on solvent structure, and of specific interactions between the cosolutes and the solute (protein or other biopolymer). Hence every system needs to be studied individually in detail, a state of affairs which is likely to continue for some time. A deeper understanding of the Hofmeister series can be an extraordinarily valuable guide to designing experiments, including not only those probing the series per se, but also those designed to elucidate the adsorption, aggregation and stabilization phenomena which underlie so many biological events. The aim of this review is to provide an up-to-date framework to guide such understanding, consolidating recent advances in the many fields on which the Hofmeister series impinges.


So far as is known, the result to which the present note refers was first given in the special form which it assumes for an incompressible material in a note written by Sir G. H. Darwin entitled, "On Variations in the Vertical due to Elasticity of the Earth's Surface," included in the British Association Report for 1882 as an Appendix to the Report of a Committee appointed for the "Measurement of the Lunar Disturbance of Gravity." Sir G. H. Darwin and Lord Kelvin (then Sir William Thomson) were members of this Committee. On p. 108 ( loc. cit .) Darwin writes, "Before proceeding further I shall prove a very remarkable relation between the slope of the surface of an elastic horizontal plane and the deflection of the plumb line caused by the direct attraction of the weight producing that slope. This relation was pointed out to me by Sir William Thomson, when I told him of the investigation on which I was engaged; but I am alone responsible for the proof as here given. He writes that he finds that it is not confined simply to the case where the solid is incompressible, but in this paper it will only be proved for that case."


In this work, we have produced nanostructured thin films with an absorption that has been varied as a function of the distribution of the nanocrystals (NCs). The NCs have been distributed in layers whose periodicity has been modeled in order to design the required response. To achieve consistent results an experimental-modeling feed-back approach has been followed. The results show that the optical transmission of such a system can be varied from that of a nanocomposite material in which the metal NCs are uniformly distributed in the dielectric volume and thus exhibiting a standard absorption resonance to that of a photonic structure. Some of these configurations have been experimentally produced and the agreement between modeled and experimental results is excellent.


Objective: To evaluate the effects of ghrelin, leptin and lipid levels on growth status of healthy infants fed with breastmilk (BF) and formula (FF). Material and Metods: This study was performed in 46 healthy infants. The study group was subdivided into two subgroups according to nutrition status as breastfed and formula infants. These infants were evaluated at two different times (mean of the second and fifth months, respectively). The ghrelin, leptin, triglyceride and total cholesterol levels of infants were studied at the first visit. Results: Plasma total ghrelin concentrations were significantly higher in BF group than FF group(p<0.05). Although the serum leptin level was not statisticaly significant, it was higher in BF group. In BF group, positive correlations were found between total ghrelin concentrations and mid-arm circumference and triceps skinfold thickness (TST) at first visit. Serum leptin levels were positively correlated to BMI at both visits (p<0.05) and TST at second visit (p<0.01). In the FF group, positive correlations were found between total ghrelin levels and head circumferences at first visit and body weight at second visit (p<0.05). One breastfeeding period was longer, feeding frequency and defecation frequency were higher in BF group than FM group (p<0.01, p<0.01, p<0.05; respectively). Conclusion: High ghrelin and leptin levels in BF group suggests that these hormones pass to the baby with breast milk, high ghrelin levels are effective on a more rapid weight gain in the first few months and have long term effects on energy metabolism. The lower ghrelin and leptin may be associated with contents of FF or type of bottle feeding in FF group.


We study the regularity problems for unbounded spin systems of anharmonic oscillators, that approximate multi-dimensional Euclidean field theories. The main attention is paid to the effect of anharmonism on the C-regularity properties of evolutional semigroup. Our approach is based on a new class of nonlinear estimates on variations, that permit to obtain regular properties for essentially nonlinear equations.


The Swedish building sector uses a considerable amount of all materials and all energy used in Sweden. Knowledge about the existing building stock, its impact on the environment related to the use of material and energy, however, is limited and target settings for environmental objectives and decision making are based on vague information. To achieve environmental improvement and to pursue environmental objectives, descriptions of the environmental status of building stocks on building stocks' environmental performance is needed in a structured form. A computer-based Environmental Building Stock Information System for Sustainable Development (EBSISSD) is suggested. In the thesis the conceptual model for EBSISSD is developed and the conditions for establishing such a system are examined. The feasibility and relevance of an EBSISSD has been investigated through interview studies and literature studies. Modelling aspects of an EBSISSD have also been elaborated through studies on state-of-the-art, study trips and test runs of data sets with Goteborg as a case. Concerning modelling, issues regarding time, space and flows and deposits of material, energy and water related to buildings have been formulated. A broad scan of the building stock research field in Sweden and internationally and the environmental informatics field has identified existing information structures BSAB, SPINE and GIS as the bricks for construction of the EBSISSD database structure. Moreover, a top-down and bottom-up approach are proposed in combination with a spatial age-use matrix. Concerning relevance, several potential users are identified both on the regional and local level such property managers, municipal authorities and researchers. Potential applications comprise benchmarking, planning issues and scenario studies. Concerning feasibility, existing data and data sources to support EBSISSD are surveyed. The level of coverage is evaluated as good for energy-use data but less satisfactory for material-use data. The Goteborg case study establishes an energy model based on delivered data and shows the potentials of a spatial age-use matrix. In conclusion, it is possible to construct EBSISSD, there are certain interest groups and data are available. However, it is recommended to develop EBSISSD in close co-operation with users and to start on the local level.


A single systemic dose of cyclophosphamide (CY) has been shown to enhance cellular immunity in a variety of antigen models. The immunoenhancing effects of CY have been attributed to its ability to selectively abrogate suppressor cell function. Previous studies from our group have demonstrated that local administration of distinct cytostatic drugs at the sensitization site can induce a similar enhancement of delayed-type hypersensitivity as systemic CY, with the obvious advantage of avoiding systemic side-effects. In the present study we investigated the effects of local administration of an optimally immunopotentiating dose of the active CY-derivative Z 7557 and, in selected experiments, of etoposide (VP-16) and systemic CY on mononuclear cells in draining lymph nodes. Whereas CY caused a long-lasting and marked depletion of B-cell areas, locally administered Z 7557 and VP-16 relatively spared B cells and even induced an increase in B- and T-cell numbers in (keyhole limpet haemocyanin-) sensitized mice. At Day 4 the CD4/CD8 ratio was slightly reduced in drug-treated mice. Interestingly, drug treatment reduced the proportion of interdigitating cells staining with the monoclonal antibodies NLDC-145 and MIDC-8. Upon isolation, dendritic cells (DC) from sensitized, Z 7557-treated mice showed longer dendritic protrusions and an enhanced accessory cell function compared to DC from saline-treated controls. These findings suggest that immunoenhancing effects of cytostatic drugs may occur via an effect on DC.


ABSTRACT Background The complexity of the healthcare environment and intense workloads may negatively impact the health and professional quality of life (ProQOL) of nurses. Prior research has identified a significant association in nurses between ProQOL and health. Developing an intervention to improve the ProQOL and health of nurses may benefit the quality of nursing care. Purpose The aim of this study was to explore the effects of a compassion fatigue Resiliency, mindfulness Respiration, and Relatives and friends' support (i.e., 3Rs) educational program on ProQOL, physical health, and mental health in nurses. Methods A cluster experimental design was used in this study to recruit registered nurses at two regional teaching hospitals in southern Taiwan as participants. The experimental group (n = 67) attended the 4-week (2-hours-per-week) 3R educational program. The control group (n = 57) received no intervention. The outcome variables, including compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, physical health, and mental health, were measured at baseline, at the end of the intervention (immediate effect), at 4 weeks postintervention (short-term effect), and at 12 weeks postintervention (medium-term effect). The study was conducted from May 2017 to December 2017. Results Increases in compassion satisfaction and mental health and decreases in secondary traumatic stress were significantly greater in the experimental group than in the control group between baseline and all three posttest time points. Moreover, burnout decreased and physical health improved more significantly in the experimental group than in the control group between the baseline and end of intervention time points (p < .001). Conclusions/Implications for Practice The 3R educational program intervention, integrating compassion fatigue resiliency, mindfulness respiration, and support from relatives and friends, had immediate and positive effects on ProQOL as well as physical and mental health. Moreover, the intervention was shown to have short-term and medium-term positive effects on compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and mental health. Nursing managers may apply programs that integrate compassion fatigue resiliency, mindfulness respiration, and relatives and friends' support to improve ProQOL and health in nurses.


T his review makes a significant contribution to the study of the "learning-by-exporting" effect. The article offers a detailed overview of the various views and studies on the subject. The work helps to review the evolution in the field of learning-by-exporting research through bibliometric analysis. Thirdly, this paper focuses on the most cited publications, as well as on the work of the last two or three years. Also, this article discusses the relationship between the learning-by-exporting and the self-selection hypothesis.


Plasma phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) plays a critical role in lipoprotein metabolism and reverse cholesterol transport. We have studied the biosynthesis and secretion of PLTP using a stably transfected inducible HeLa cell line. Pulse-chase analysis revealed that: i) the major secreted forms of PLTP carry complex N-glycans; ii) N-glycosylation is crucial for PLTP secretion; iii) Endo H-resistant forms of PLTP could not be enriched using a 20 degrees C temperature block, indicating that the transport of PLTP from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus is exceptionally sensitive to low temperatures; and iv) treatment of the PLTP-producing cells with the reducing agent dithiothreitol caused a reversible secretion arrest, suggesting a role of disulfide bonds in the correct folding of PLTP. Transient expression of C-terminally truncated PLTP variants in COS cells demonstrated that: i) the 30 C-terminal amino acids are dispensable for PLTP secretion, whereas deletion of 35-50 residues results in a complete absence of secretion; and ii) the deletion of 30 C-terminal amino acid residues almost completely abolished the phospholipid transfer activity of PLTP. The present study describes for the first time the biosynthesis of phospholipid transfer protein and provides tools for detailed elucidation of the structure-function relationships in the protein.


Deep clustering has been dominated by flat models, which split a dataset into a predefined number of groups. Although recent methods achieve an extremely high similarity with the ground truth on popular benchmarks, the information contained in the flat partition is limited. In this paper, we introduce CoHiClust, a Contrastive Hierarchical Clustering model based on deep neural networks, which can be applied to typical image data. By employing a self-supervised learning approach, CoHiClust distills the base network into a binary tree without access to any labeled data. The hierarchical clustering structure can be used to analyze the relationship between clusters, as well as to measure the similarity between data points. Experiments demonstrate that CoHiClust generates a reasonable structure of clusters, which is consistent with our intuition and image semantics. Moreover, it obtains superior clustering accuracy on most of the image datasets compared to the state-of-the-art flat clustering models.


ABSTRACT A leading Slavist in Europe and North America, Wolfgang Kasack promoted a unified vision of Russian literature for the twentieth century. In addition to his prolific scholarship, he wrote over eighty reviews of reference works in Russian literature for research libraries for the print and online journal Informationsmittel: IFB between 1996 and 2003. Many of these reviews were published in English in abridged form in the journal Reference Reviews Europe Annual during that same period.


The University of Illinois and the GCA Corporation launched a series of four Nike Apache rockets from Wallops Island, Virginia, on July 24, 1968, for the study of changes of lower ionosphere electron densities with solar zenith angle on the same day. An improved method of data analysis is outlined. Profiles of electron density for each of the four rockets are presented and compared with two profiles from years of quiet sun, 1964 and 1965. Evidence is found for an initial increase of free electrons followed by a decrease and then an increase in electron number density as the solar zenith angle changes from 94° to 18°. This pattern suggests a sequence of processes; i.e., electron detachment, recombination, and photo-ionization.


The World Bank has been established that psychological and neurological research must be of importance to understand all about cognitive processes in illiterate adults. Such research could result in better educational practices in developing countries. Although it is not exhaustive, this article review some research about brain plasticity, memory, neuropsychological processes, and differences between literate and illiterate adults in processing spoken language, mostly Castro-Caldas (2004; Castro-Caldas, Reis, & Guerreiro, 1997; Castro-Caldas & Reis, 2000; Petersson et al., 2007) team research in Portugal. With this partial revierw of literature, we wanted to put some perspective about the importance of the neurological research for developing better psycho educative practices for illiterate adults, or adults in the process of learning to read and write.


As one of the key parts of discharging system in the diluted zone at the bottom of high consistency bleaching tower, the spraying water pipe would be used to dilute the pulp uniformly while it was rotating, with a range from 0 to 90 rpm. Fluid dynamics of the three kinds of spraying water pipes such as straight-shaped, spindle-shaped and waist-shaped were studied by performing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. Simulated velocity fields were compared with experiment PIV data. The results from the simulations and experiments are in good agreement. The works show that CFD simulations using the Realisable κ–ϵ model combined with the MRF technique can predict the hydrodynamic characteristics in industrial scales spraying water pipes. Spindle-shaped spraying water pipe would be better finished equal consistency spraying water.


Immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab, are transforming clinical oncology. Yet, insufficient overall response rate, and accelerated tumor growth rate in some patients, highlight the need for identifying potential responders. To construct a computational model, identifying response predictors, and enabling immunotherapy personalization. The combined dynamics of cellular immunity, pembrolizumab, and the melanoma cancer were modeled by a set of ordinary differential equations. The model relies on a scheme of T memory stem cells, progressively differentiating into effector CD8+ T cells, and additionally includes T cell exhaustion, reinvigoration and senescence. Clinical data of a pembrolizumab-treated patient with advanced melanoma (Patient O') were used for model calibration and simulations. Virtual patient populations, varying in one parameter or more, were generated for retrieving clinical studies. Simulations captured the major features of Patient O's disease, displaying a good fit to her clinical data. A temporary increase in tumor burden, as implied by the clinical data, was obtained only when assuming aberrant self-renewal rates. Variation in effector T cell cytotoxicity was sufficient for simulating dynamics that vary from rapid progression to complete cure, while variation in tumor immunogenicity has a delayed and limited effect on response. Simulations of a-specific clinical trial were in good agreement with the clinical results, demonstrating positive correlations between response to pembrolizumab and the ratio of reinvigoration to baseline tumor load. These results were obtained by assuming inter-patient variation in the toxicity of effector CD8+ T cells, and in their intrinsic division rate, as well as by assuming that the intrinsic division rate of cancer cells is correlated with the baseline tumor burden. In conclusion, hyperprogression can result from lower patient-specific effector cytotoxicity, a temporary increase in tumor load is unlikely to result from real tumor growth, and the ratio of reinvigoration to tumor load can predict personal response to pembrolizumab. Upon further validation, the model can serve for immunotherapy personalization.


The interfacial dead-layer (DL) effects at the interfaces between Hf-silicate films and Pt or RuO2 gate metals are examined. The Si content in the Hf-silicate film was controlled to vary the dielectric constant (k). The DL effect was strongly dependent on the k value of the Hf-silicate layer, and was suppressed when the Si content was increased to ∼80% (k ≈ 6). This Si content also coincides with the Fermi level pinning-free composition. Therefore, the optimum high-k gate dielectric structure could be a higher-k layer HfO2 capped with a lower-k layer (k ≈ 6) with minimum thickness (∼1 nm) for the best dielectric performance.


The thesis concentrates on the development of extensive reading in English language teaching at primary school (age six to fifteen). It aims to present this approach as a means of developing reading skill. The theoretical part firstly outlines the concept of communicative competence in the context of reading skill, with particular emphasis on extensive reading. Secondly, the role of a text is discussed, and the choice of suitable material is considered due to its key role in teaching extensive reading. Thirdly, the extensive reading approach is compared and contrasted with the intensive one to determine its position in the development of reading skill, leading to the conclusion that motivation is crucial for extensive reading to be established. The aim of the practical part was to improve current situation in the English language class via the development of extensive reading. Moreover, evidence of the possibility of introducing extensive reading to a primary school should be provided. The action research served as an optimal method to accomplish the objective. Several strategies were chosen to incorporate extensive reading successfully into the curriculum. Appropriate research tools served for mapping the situation and collecting data, which were analysed, interpreted and subsequently helped to form the conclusion of the thesis. KEY–WORDS: concept of communicative competence – English language teaching – reading skill – text – an extensive reading approach – motivation.


Abstract:Nietzsche's portrayal of Epicurus in his middle period of 1878–82 is one of an inspiring figure and kindred spirit, which is then generally considered by commentators to change to a more ambivalent one in his later writings, particularly those from 1886 to 1888. In this article, I argue that this change in Nietzsche's opinion of Epicurus can be explained by his gradual realization that Epicurus advocates a particular form of Greek decadence, which neither Nietzsche nor the secondary literature on him ever formally name. As a consequence of this promotion of a life-inhibiting value that potentially undermines the flourishing of humanity, Nietzsche thinks Epicurus should be construed not just as a "decadent" but, in fact, a "typical" one, which I will argue is a distinct opprobrium that the secondary literature to date often cites but does not fully expound.


Objectives: Bone is one of the most common organ for metastasis. Bone scintigraphy is widely used for staging of cancer patients before initiation of chemotherapy and adjuvant therapy and it can detect both symptomatic and asymptomatic bone metastases. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and site of metastatic bone lesion detected by bone scintigraphy in newly diagnosed asymptomatic cancer patients who werwe referred to National Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences (NINMAS) for bone scintigraphy.Patients and Methods: This cross sectional observational type of study was carried out in NINMAS from July 2015 to June 2016. A total of 116 newly diagnosed asymptomatic cancer patients referred for the first time bone scintigraphy were included in this study.Results: Of the total 116 patients (57 male and 59 female; mean age: 54.8 ± 14.0 years), 46 (39.7%) patients had carcinoma breast, 30 (25.9%) patients had carcinoma prostate, 12(10.3%) patients had carcinoma lung, 8(6.9%) patients had carcinoma urinary bladder, 4(3.4%) patients had renal cell carcinoma and 16(13.8%) patients had other cancer. Bone scan was found positive for metastatic disease in 44.8% patients. Most common sites of bone metastases in different types of cancer in newly diagnosed asymptomatic cancer patients were rib, then hip bone, vertebral column (lumbar vertebra, thoracic vertebra respectively), sternum and skull.Conclusion: In this study, it was revealed that newly diagnosed asymptomatic cancer patients are frequently associated with metastatic bone disease, those can be detected by bone scintigraphy.Bangladesh J. Nuclear Med. 20(1): 14-18, January 2017


The effects of potassium depletion, calciferol-induced hypercalcemia, hyaluronidase, hypercapnia, and adrenal steroids on the water uptake of intact frogs were studied. The findings suggest that potassium depletion and hypercalcemia interfere with water uptake. Hyaluronidase and adrenal glucocorticoids in doses used were without effect on water transport. Water uptake after oxytocin was greatly decreased by exposing frogs to a high concentration of CO 2 in air. The data obtained with frog skin in vivo are discussed in relation to in vitro studies with anuran membranes reported by others.


A sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay without an extraction step was developed for somatostatin in duck plasma. Degradation of Tyr1-125I-labelled somatostatin-14 (S-14) averaged 2% for blood collected with EDTA and zymofren. Recovery of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI), added to the plasma, averaged 91% for S-14 and 86% for S-28. Chromatographic analysis of portal plasma on Sephadex G-25 showed three peaks: one peak coeluted with cytochrome c (mol. wt 12500) in the void volume and was called 'big' somatostatin; of the two smaller forms, one coeluted with synthetic S-28 and the other with synthetic S-14; these were immunologically and physicochemically indistinguishable from synthetic S-28 and S-14. In peripheral plasma only the large form of somatostatin, 'big' somatostatin, was found. The mean portal plasma concentration of SLI was 4.1 +/- 0.41 microgram/l (n = 11, range 2.8-5.1 micrograms/l). In peripheral plasma the SLI concentration was 1.05 +/- 0.45 microgram/l (n = 11, range 0.84-1.2 microgram/l). The metabolic clearance rate, distribution volume and calculated half-life values were 63.1 +/- 14 ml/kg per min, 40.9 +/- 8.9 ml/kg and 1.06 +/- 0.19 min for S-14 compared with 45.7 +/- 7 ml/kg per min, 14.8 +/- 2.5 ml/kg and 2.14 +/- 0.54 min for S-28. These results indicated that S-28 was cleared from plasma at a slower rate than S-14 in the duck. It was concluded that: (1) portal plasma SLI was four times higher than peripheral SLI; (2) SLI in portal plasma existed as 'big' somatostatin, S-28 and S-14, whereas in peripheral plasma it existed mainly as 'big' somatostatin; (3) in-vivo studies indicated that S-28 was metabolized less rapidly than S-14.


On the basis of the structural diagram of the thermal aggregate temperature ACS with structural limitations and assumptions liberalized the control system. Parameters of the PID controller were optimized in accordance with the required quality parameters. Check of the adequacy of the Simulink-model showed good convergence between the results of mathematical modeling and full-scale experiment. Due to the presence of dead zones in the characteristic of the thyristor voltage regulator: delayed transient rise of temperature in the thermal aggregate, the growth process is oscillatory. presented the transient graphs with the following results: good coincidence of natural experiment and mathematical modeling results (rms error is 5.7 ОС); because of the dead zone in the characteristics of the thyristor voltage regulator: delayed transition process growth temperature in the thermal aggregate and the growth process is oscillatory; transients rise in the temperature of the furnace takes place without overshoot. Identified options PIDcontroller, providing specified quality parameters. Developed the Simulink-model ACS furnace temperature with the structural restrictions. Check of the adequacy of Simulink - model showed a good convergence of results of mathematical modeling and natural experiment.


2017) ABSTRACT . A 3D network with the (4 2 ·6·8 3 ) topology of metal-organic framework possessing an open 1D channel was synthesized by rigid and planar tetracarboxylic acid 5,5'-(1H-2,3,5-triazole-1,4-diyl)diisophthalic acid (H 4 L). The luminescent properties of 1 shows highly sensitive response to nitrobenzene, Fe 3+ and CrO 42- through luminescence quenching effects, making it a promising luminescent sensor for nitro aromatic compounds, Fe 3+ and CrO 42- X-ray diffraction


The sealing performance of a brush seal is studied in this article. At present, the mostly used model to analyze the performance of a brush seal is porous medium model in which the effect of bristle deformation is not considered. Here, a combined numerical method is proposed. First, the deformation of bristle is calculated in a fluid–solid coupling model with a simplified bristle model, and then the results of the bristle deformation is imported to a porous media model as the boundary conditions. More accurate media flow and leakage variation law of the brush seal are obtained with this calculation model.


To evaluate the relevant factors of left ventricular peak filling velocity, M-mode echocardiograms showing the left ventricular cavity were recorded and digitized for 81 patients with hypertrophic hearts (HTH) due to hypertensive heart disease (HHD, n = 30), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM, n = 25), aortic valve stenosis (AS, n = 9), and HHD and HCM with congestive heart failure (HHD and HCM with CHF, n = 17). Peak rates of increase or decrease in dimension (Vf and Ve, respectively) and peak values of instantaneous circumferential fiber lengthening and shortening velocities (Vf/D and Ve/D, respectively) were determined by computer analysis of left ventricular internal dimensions. Systolic excursion (SE), percent fractional shortening (%FS), mean circumferential fiber shortening velocity (mVcf), thickness of the interventricular septum and posterior wall at end-diastole and the sum of them (WThivs, WThpw, and WThivs + pw, respectively) were also calculated. Their variables were compared with those of normal subjects (n = 24). The results obtained were as follows: Systolic functions in HTH without CHF were similar to those of the normal subjects, but Vf and Vf/D were significantly decreased. Differences in Vf and Vf/D between various HTH without CHF were not significant. In AS and HTH with CHF, Vf and Vf/D were significantly decreased together with systolic function. Vf correlated significantly with WThivs + pw, SE, Ve, and WThivs, and Vf/D with %FS, SE, Ve/D, and Ve.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)