The popularity of the E-learning environment is increasing. The focus of this study is on the roles of teacher and student and the interaction between them in the learning environment. Eight teachers and twenty-nine students with experience of using the E-learning system were interviewed. Based on the interview results and grounded theory, the study presented the role of teacher and student and constructed an interactive model. Utilizing a technological frame model, also examined were the discrepancies in the roles of teacher and student between the E-learning environment and the traditional learning environment. The results of the study were: first, in contrast to the traditional learning environment, the roles of teacher are not only instructor, manager and mentor, but also learner and technologist. Second, students in the E-learning environment learn through two-way interaction, as an instructor, a manager, a mentor and a technologist. Although teacher and student each have five roles, their behavior is not the same. In terms of their roles as instructor, mentor and learner, their behavior is the same; however, their respective behavior as manager and technologist is not the same due to the differences between the position of teacher and that of student. The contribution of this study is to help teachers and students who wish to play a part in the E-learning environment to become aware of the different expectations of each party. Moreover, the study assists both teachers and students in recognizing what they can do in the E-learning environment to minimize the risk of role conflict and role ambiguity.


In a total group of 415 subjects (100 normal controls, 115 with iron deficiency anemia, 100 with the alpha-thalassemia trait, and 100 with the beta-thalassemia trait), the following indexes were analyzed: hemoglobin distribution width, red blood cell distribution width (RDW)-coefficient of variation, and RDW-SD. The hemoglobin distribution width and RDW-coefficient of variation were examined with a laser light scattering system (Technicon H1), whereas the RDW-SD was determined with an impedance autoanalyzer (Sysmex M-2000). All of these parameters helped, to some extent, in the differential diagnosis of microcytic anemia. However, our data suggested a low RDW-SD might provide significantly more value in differentiating thalassemia traits from iron deficiency anemia, as well as from normal controls, while the hemoglobin distribution width gave no help in the differential diagnosis between iron deficiency anemia and the beta-thalassemia trait.


INTRODUCTION
Little is understood about the effects of prematurity on long-term cognitive functioning. No detailed studies have been carried out in a Spanish population to investigate the cognitive performance of adolescents who were born preterm.

AIMS
To utilise the Wechsler intelligence scales to examine the performance of a broad sample of adolescents who were born preterm, to describe the clinical significance of this performance and to analyse the discriminatory powers of the different subtests.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The intelligence quotients of 62 preterm subjects and 62 controls were evaluated by administering the full Wechsler intelligence scales. A number of specific neuropsychological functions were also assessed.

RESULTS
Significant differences were observed in the overall, verbal and manipulative intelligence quotients, as well as in most of the subtests, although less than 30% of the preterm subjects displayed any alterations in their performance. The subtests that were most sensitive to the poor performance of the preterm subjects were vocabulary, coding and picture arrangement. The significant differences in learning, memory, cognitive flexibility and verbal fluency were not upheld on controlling for general cognitive performance.

CONCLUSIONS
Adolescents with a history of prematurity as a group offer low performance on the Wechsler intelligence scale, although most of them achieve scores within the range of what can be considered to be normal. The different subtests that make up this scale do not exhibit the same degree of sensitivity when evaluating the possible difficulties preterm adolescents have in cognitive performance.


Background: Globally, 52 million children under 5-years of age were wasted and 155 million are stunted, while 41 million are overweight/obese. However, the contemporary rate of tumbling malnutrition is not fast ample to reach the World Health Organization global target for dropping malnutrition by 40% by 2025. Hence aimed to assess nutritional status and associated factors among under-five children IMNCI departments in the Bole Sub City Health centers, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: The study was conducted in the Bole sub-city at selected health centers through a cross-sectional study design. 385 Sample were selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected through a face-to-face interview. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 25 was used for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the characteristics of the study population. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression was fitted to identify factors associated with undernutrition. Result: The magnitude of normal nutrition was 69.6%, overweight/obese 3.2%, and undernutrition 27.2 %. Obese mothers increasing odd over nutrition (AOR=9.13, at 95%, CI: 1.05-79.79). While, having counseling about child nutrition (AOR= 18.37, at 95% CI: 4.06-83.08), who feed children (AOR=6.43, 95% CI: 1.11-37.43) and growth monitoring (AOR =0.50, at 95%, CI: 0.26-0.98) were statistically associated with undernutrition.Conclusion: The magnitude of normal nutrition was higher than both under-nutrition and obese/overweight. However, the magnitude of undernutrition chiefly stunting was remained high. Obese mothers, having counseling on nutrition, who feed children, and growth monitoring were statistically associated with nutritional status.


This study was conducted to determine whether the ERK1/2 family of MAPKs can be modulated by physiological regulators of the human corpus luteum, and whether this activation is important for progesterone secretion in human granulosa-lutein (hGL) cells. Human LH (hLH), hCG, and agents that indirectly elevate cAMP [cholera toxin, forskolin, (Bu)(2)cAMP], time- and dose-dependently activated ERK1/2 in hGL cells. ERK1/2 activation was reduced by preincubation with PKA inhibitors, including myristoylated PKI, suggesting that cAMP mediates ERK1/2 activation. Two structurally distinct inhibitors of MAPK kinase (MEK), PD 98059 and U 0126, abrogated hLH/hCG-induced ERK1/2 activation, but had no effect on hLH-, hCG-, or 22R-hydroxycholesterol-stimulated progesterone secretion. In contrast, both inhibitors blocked cholera toxin-, forskolin-, and (Bu)(2)cAMP-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation concomitant with a reduction in progesterone secretion. The known luteotropin, PGE(2), promoted MEK- and cAMP-dependent activation of ERK1/2, and inhibitors of either MEK or PKA decreased PGE(2)-induced progesterone synthesis. Our findings demonstrate that the requirement for ERK1/2 activation as a regulator of progesterone synthesis in hGL cells is stimulus dependent, and that the MEK inhibitor-sensitive step is distal to cAMP generation, but proximal to the conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone.


Government spending should be regarded as a social and political phenomenon, not merely as a technical choice. We argue that there is an implicit contract between the organized elites and politicians which often leads to a pro-elite allocation of public resources. A natural and simple taxonomy of government spending follows from this view: spending in public goods broadly defined which mitigate market failures versus spending in non-social subsidies, mainly a vehicle to serve the elites. We theoretically and empirically show that pro-elite spending biases are costly in terms of economic growth. The empirical findings are exceptionally robust.


While the current literature typically focuses on load-balancing among multiple servers, in this paper, we demonstrate the importance of load-balancing within a single machine (potentially with hundreds of CPU cores). In this context, we propose a new load-balancing technique (RSS++) that dynamically modifies the receive side scaling (RSS) indirection table to spread the load across the CPU cores in a more optimal way. RSS++ incurs up to 14x lower 95th percentile tail latency and orders of magnitude fewer packet drops compared to RSS under high CPU utilization. RSS++ allows higher CPU utilization and dynamic scaling of the number of allocated CPU cores to accommodate the input load while avoiding the typical 25% over-provisioning. RSS++ has been implemented for both (i) DPDK and (ii) the Linux kernel. Additionally, we implement a new state migration technique which facilitates sharding and reduces contention between CPU cores accessing per-flow data. RSS++ keeps the flow-state by groups that can be migrated at once, leading to a 20% higher efficiency than a state of the art shared flow table.


The cytokinins benzylaminopurine, kinetin and isopentenyladenine induce photomorphogenesis in dark-grown gametophytes of the fern Ceratopteris richardii. At sub-nanomolar concentrations each altered the rate and pattern of cell division, elongation and differentiation, mimicking aspects of the light-mediated transition from filamentous to prothallial growth. Untreated dark-grown gametophytes grow as narrow, elongate, asexual filaments with an apical meristem. Cytokinin treatments as low as 10(-12) M reduced the length-to-width ratio through decreased cell elongation, increased periclinal cell division and induced the formation of rhizoid initials in the cells immediately below the apical meristem. Higher concentrations (10(-9)-10(-8) M) induced conversion of the meristem from apical to notch morphology. Cytokinins induced both red- and blue-light-mediated photomorphogenic events, suggesting stimulation of both phytochrome and cryptochrome signaling; however, cytokinin treatment only partially substituted for light in that it did not induce hermaphroditic sexual development or spore germination in the dark. Additionally, cytokinins did not increase chlorophyll synthesis in dark-grown gametophytes, which unlike angiosperms are able to produce mature chloroplasts in the dark. Cytokinin treatment had only slight effects on light-grown gametophytes. These results suggest evolutionary conservation between angiosperms and pteridophytes in the role of cytokinins in regulating photomorphogenesis.


A listing of Books, Videos and other items received by the RichLyn Library. Titles are arranged by collection and by LC Classification.


This paper examines computer virtualization as a solution to issues encountered in maintaining HMI and SCADA systems based on commercial off the shelf computing hardware. Following a brief primer, the paper outlines issues arising from the rapid advancement of personal and server computing hardware, including automation software conflicts with new operating systems, device driver availability for old operating systems, and migrating backup images to new hardware. Opportunities for improvement are identified in backup and recovery, operator access to computing resources, and prototyping HMI and program changes. The concept of a virtual machine is introduced and common architectures are examined, followed by the description of an example virtualized control room. Finally, the paper examines the experiences of a multi-site cement producer in implementing virtualization in two of their plants. This examination explores the reasoning, advantages, disadvantages, and limitations encountered in moving existing systems to a virtualized platform.


Short abstract Compounding is one of the few sequential word formation processes found across sign languages. We examine the properties of compounds in languages in the visual-gestural modality, showing both similarities to spoken language compounds, as well as a modality-specific type of simultaneous compounding. We also explore the development of compounds in a new sign language, (Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language) showing that there is a relationship between conventionalization and grammaticalization of compounds: as particular forms become conventionalized in the community, both morphological and phonological structural properties begin to emerge.


The ideological incommensurability of the worldviews or master narratives represented by the two opposing superpowers during the Cold War and embodied in the image of an impenetrable iron curtain gave particular salience to translation theory while also questioning the very possibility of translation. At the same time, the neoimperialist projects of the two superpowers produced startlingly similar approaches to the instrumentalization of translation as a vehicle for propaganda and diplomacy. Presenting polarization as a distinct state of semiosis, the effects of which are highly unpredictable, this article explores the various ways in which the radical polarization of the Cold War shaped the theory and practice of translation both within and across the ideological divide. Plotting the entanglements of the light and dark sides of translation during this time challenges traditional histories of the field that construe the period as one of progress and liberation.


In this paper, the natural radioactivity levels in a total of 117 samples of 14 different building materials collected from building construction sites and from the retailers in Adana were studied by means of gamma-ray spectrometer with HPGe detector. The mean activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K measured in the studied building material samples ranged from 2.1 to 88.2 Bq kg−1, 1.8 to 52.7 Bq kg−1 and 68.1 to 847.5 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K radionuclide, respectively. The external and internal index, the indoor absorbed dose rate and the corresponding annual effective dose were evaluated for potential exposure risks from the usage of the building material samples. The evaluated values of the external and internal index were below the recommended upper level. All the values of effective annual dose determined were lower than recommended exemption level of 0.3 mSv. The results suggest that the use of the studied building material samples in the construction of buildings is unlikely to give rise to any significant radiation exposure to the residents.


Abstract In Poland, by 2020 430,000 Mg of hazardous waste will be formed annually by the combustion of waste. This waste must be properly managed so as not to endanger the environment. One promising way to manage selected waste is to process it in the synthesis of materials characterised by sorption properties. The results presented in this paper concern the possibility of producing sorbents from waste materials marked with codes 190112 and 190114, which came from two waste incineration plants in Poland. Alkaline activation was performed using two methods: a) hydrothermal, in a solution of 8 M NaOH at 75°C for 24 h; and b) in an autoclave, using a solution of 2 M NaOH at 140°C for 6 h. XRD analyses led to the identification of materials after synthesis of the following zeolite phases: analcime, chabazite and thomsonite. chabazite and analcime can be valuable absorbent materials.


Abstract The main challenge in luminescence dating is to provide accurate ages for sediments derived from hillslope, fluvial and marine environments where grains have been transported and deposited by water. A new methodology has been devised for dating Holocene age sediments from the land-ocean interface. Alkali feldspars are recommended as the ideal dosimeter in these environments as they are: rapidly zeroed, have high sensitivity to dose, have an internal dose rate from the decay of 40K, have signal intensities that are much higher than for quartz, and the equivalent doses (EDs) determined are not affected by chemical weathering. Studies of the fundamental characteristics of feldspars have been used to optimize the luminescence signal for use in dating applications. A quality assurance technique for discriminating between those samples that will give accurate dates and those that will yield inaccurate dates has been developed and is tested here on coastal-zone sediments from Lincolnshire. Sampling from sediment exposures rather than cores minimizes the uncertainties related to past water content fluctuations.


The literature suggests that organizations cannot be competitive if their business and information technology strategies are not aligned. Yet achieving strategic alignment continues to be a major concern for business executives. A number of alignment models have been offered in the literature, primary among them the Strategic Alignment model (SAM) and IT Governance (via ITIL). As there is no published research that attempts to present how effective ITIL V3 is to align business and IT in strategic level, this paper reports on determining aligning roles of ITIL by applying it to the SAM framework. In this regard, the ITIL Strategic Alignment model is proposed to describe ITIL V3 approach of strategic aligning business and IT. The primary aims of this paper are to demonstrate that ITIL has conceptual and practical competencies to strategic alignment of business and IT. It is described that ITIL uses IT as a mean to meet business strategies and goals, support business maturity and recognize new initiatives for the business.


The rate of protein synthesis in skeletal muscle was measured in vivo in rats at various times during the first 2 days after abdominal surgery. Protein synthesis in abdominal muscle at the site of the wound was slightly reduced 2 h after operation, had returned to normal by 24 h and was massively increased by 48 h after surgery. In contrast, there was no change at any time in the rate of protein synthesis in either the gastrocnemius muscle or abdominal muscle distant from the wound site. Surgery had no effect on the weight or protein content of the gastrocnemius muscle, although urinary nitrogen excretion was increased relative to food intake, indicating the presence of a net catabolic response. Changes in whole‐body protein turnover in response to uncomplicated abdominal surgery are thus likely to reflect the anabolic processes of wound healing and repair as well as any catabolic response in uninjured tissues.


This paper presents an ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC)-driven tentacle-like biocompatible flexible actuator with double-section curvature tunability. This actuator, possessing an embedded electrical transmission ability that mimics skeletal muscle nerves in the human body, affords versatile device functions. Novel micromachined copper buckles and grid wires are fabricated and their superiority in electricity delivery and driving the IPMC component with less flexural rigidity is demonstrated. In addition, soft conductive wires realized on a polydimethylsiloxane structure function as electrical signal transmitters. A light-emitting diode integrated with the developed actuator offers directional guiding light ability while the actuator performs a snake-like motion. The electrical conductivity and Young's modulus of the key actuator components are investigated, and flexural rigidity and dynamic behavior analyses of the actuator under electrical manipulation are elaborated.


Potato protein applied at 2–10% level significantly modified rheology of gluten-free dough. The volume of the resulting loaves was higher than control by 8% when the smallest addition was applied, but lower by 26–30% at higher concentration levels. Potato protein caused a decrease in crumb porosity up to 10%, and a change in pore distribution, which also depended on the applied level. Lightness (L*) of bread with potato protein was higher than control at low concentrations and decreased when higher additions of potato protein were applied. Bread hardness increased with rising amounts of the preparation, but the extent of these changes was narrow at small addition levels. Enthalpy of retrograded amylopectin on the first day of storage slightly increased, with no significant variations among the samples, but it decreased on the third day of storage, and the difference between samples with potato protein and control was significant (up to 25%).

Practical applications
Bakery products based on raw materials naturally free of gluten are often characterized by improper technological parameters and nutritional properties. The study was conducted to evaluate the usability of potato protein as a component of gluten-free bread, which could improve its properties and nutritional value. We found that addition of potato protein, significantly influenced bread properties. The exact impact depended on protein level. The analysis of volume changes suggests that, protein, when used in relatively small amounts (2%), causes a diminished density of bread crumb, reduced porosity and increased bread volume. Further increase in protein addition level leads to a deterioration of bread quality, including decrease in its volume. We concluded that potato protein could be a valuable component of gluten-free bread, in terms of its nutritional quality, however the formulation with its share should be optimized by balancing the level of other ingredients and additives.


Radio frequency (RF) fingerprinting-based techniques for localization are a promising approach for ubiquitous positioning systems, particularly indoors. By finding unique fingerprints of RF signals received at different locations within a predefined area beforehand, whenever a similar fingerprint is subsequently seen again, the localization system will be able to infer a user's current location. However, developers of these systems face the problem of finding reliable RF fingerprints that are unique enough and adequately stable over time. We present a visual analytics system that enables developers of these localization systems to visually gain insight on whether their collected datasets and chosen fingerprint features have the necessary properties to enable a reliable RF fingerprinting-based localization system. The system was evaluated by testing and debugging an existing localization system.


The kinetics of addition of a number of primary and secondary aliphatic amines to trans-(2-furyl)nitroethylene in acetonitrile at 25 °C have been studied. It has been shown that the reaction is catalysed both by the amine reagent and by tertiary amines and in the case of primary amines the dependence of the observed second-order rate constant (kobs) on amine concentration takes the form of a hyperbola. The Arrhenius activation energy has been found to be negative for the catalytic reaction route. On the basis of analysing the observed kinetic regularities a stepwise reaction mechanism has been proposed which involves formation of the zwitterionic addition complex (1) at the first equilibrium step (k1, k–1) which is then converted into the reaction product by means of proton transfer in parallel routes, i.e. the non-catalytic one (k2) and that catalysed by the initial (k3) or tertiary (k4) amine. The rate constants of the non-catalytic [k=k1k2/(k–1+k2)] and catalytic [kb=k1k3/(k–1+k2)] reaction routes have been determined for a number of proton-containing amines; for primary amines the nucleophilic attack rate constants (k1) and relations for the constants of conversion of the zwitterionic intermediate (1) into the reaction product and the disintegration of the former into initial compounds (k2/k–1 and k3/k–1) have been determined. A mechanism for proton transfer in the intermediate (1) is discussed.


Monitoring lipid distribution and metabolism in cells and biological fluids poses many challenges because of the many molecular species and metabolic pathways that exist. This study describes the synthesis and study of molecules that contain an alkyne functional group as surrogates for natural lipids in cultured cells. Thus, hexadec-15-ynoic and hexadec-7-ynoic acids were readily incorporated into RAW 264.7 cells, principally as phosphocholine esters; the alkyne was used as a "tag" that could be transformed to a stable dicobalt-hexacarbonyl complex; and the complex could then be detected by HPLC/MS or HPLC/UV349nm. The 349 nm absorbance of the cobalt complexes was used to provide qualitative and quantitative information about the distribution and cellular concentrations of the alkyne lipids. The alkyne group could also be used as an affinity tag for the lipids by a catch-and-release strategy on phosphine-coated silica beads. Lipid extracts were enriched in the tagged lipids in this way, making the approach of potential utility to study lipid transformations in cell culture. Both terminal alkynes and internal alkynes were used in this affinity "pull-down" strategy. This method facilitates measuring lipid species that might otherwise fall below limits of detection.


The article deals with the causes and factors of economic crisis in Ukraine in terms of military and political confrontation in the country's east. Accumulation of disproportionality in the economy of Ukraine in the period up to 2008 was due primarily to the fact that in macroeconomic terms of the transition process for some time accompanied by uncontrolled emissions to support budget spending, and later - external borrowing on a large scale, provided by business and the banking system. The funds were used for the mass foreign currency lending consumer demand, spend the money, primarily for the purchase of imported goods. This is one of the well-known causes of the modern banking system crisis. Taken together, this policy was the result of the fulfillment of certain obligations of the past, new obligations and unjustified assumption that the transition to the market will quickly achieve success.


We are living in an exciting time, as people are living longer, more active lives. This is reshaping how we think about aging. Rather than viewing aging as a problem to be fixed (i.e., a deficit model of aging), many aging researchers are viewing aging as a developmental stage of life to be celebrated and supported, that is, "successful aging." In this article, we embrace this approach and consider it in the context of assistive robot design in an aim to steer the conversation away from deficit models that have limited robot design possibilities. To explore an alternative design approach to the study of aging in human-robot interaction (HRI), we invited five aging researchers (three geriatricians, one gerontologist, and one epidemiologist) and nine older adults to participate in our research. In the study, participants illustrated their interpretations of aging and suggested potential assistive robots. We found that while all participants perceived the importance of potential disabilities due to aging, they considered potential disabilities as only one aspect of the experience of aging. They highlighted other key themes to consider in designing robots to support successful aging, such as older adults' autonomy and resilience. We discuss these findings for the HRI community and call for "robots for successful aging."


Background: Costs are a barrier to medication adherence in patients living with Type 2 Diabetes (PLWD). Financial incentives may lower costs and increase adherence.
 Methods: PubMed, Scopus, and Embase were searched for articles published before March 2022 assessing the impact of financial incentives on medication adherence in PLWD. Search terms included "medication adherence," "T2D," "financial incentive," incentive types, and associated Medical Subject Headings. Two pooled analyses - the mean difference in proportion days covered (PDC) or mean possession ratio (MPR) and the mean difference in percent adherent (PDC/MPR ≥80%) - were conducted. Coehn's d Treatment Effect was calculated for each study using mean difference and standard errors. The overall treatment effect for each pooled analysis was calculated using Bayesian meta-analysis.
 Results: The review included 25 studies. Medication adherence always improved in 21 studies, three indicated they increased adherence only in some populations, and incentives had no effect in one study. Figure 1 illustrates the meta-analysis results for studies with appropriate outcome data. Both pooled analyses demonstrate a small but statistically significant increase in adherence due to financial incentives (d=0.02, p<0.01).
 Conclusion: Financial incentives have the potential to increase medication adherence to antidiabetic drugs.

 D.Winberg: Employee; Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC. T.Tang: None. Z.Ramsey: None. A.N.Bazzano: None. J.Li: None. Y.Lin: None. E.Nauman: None. L.Shi: None.

 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U18DP006523)


A new algorithm for blind signal separation of speech signals that does not require pre-whitening is proposed in this paper. The algorithm is based on second order optimization using Riemannian geometry. The algorithm employs several practical approximations to the Hessian matrix of the maximum-likelihood blind separation cost function, to produce a computationally efficient algorithm that is capable of working on-line. Simulation results show the improved performance of the proposed algorithm with different mixing data


ABSTRACT This work was aimed to study skin blood perfusion, vasomotion and vascular responses of the Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) in different stages of age using spectral. Laser-Doppler flowmetry (LDF) was used to examine the ears and limbs of WKY (12 and 48 weeks old) and SHR (12 and 48 weeks old). The skin blood flow oscillations (SBFOs) were studied by wavelet spectral analysis of LDF tracings. Then, we observed that old groups showed decreased perfusion and SBFO in the ears of both SHR and WKY. The SHR showed obviously lower postocclusive reactive hypera (PORH) ratio at the same age. A decreased peak-time occurred in the SHR of old age group. After PORH test, a statistically significant increase was observed within all subintervals in the absolute amplitude of 12-week WKY and only within IV and III subintervals in the absolute amplitude of 12-week SHR. But, the absolute amplitude of 48-week WKY and SHR showed no statistically significant increase within all subintervals. Results indicated that local regulating function of peripheral vascular was impaired in rat with hypertension and aging. Abbreviations LDF: Laser-Doppler flowmetry; SBF: Skin blood flow; SBFO: Skin blood flow oscillation; PORH: Postocclusive reactive hyperemia; SHR: Spontaneously hypertensive rats; WKY: Wistar-Kyoto rats; LDF: Laser-Doppler flowmetry; LDI: Laser Doppler Imaging; BP: Blood pressure.


BACKGROUND
EMLA cream (AstraZeneca Inc, Canada) (1:1 eutectic mixture of lidocaine 2.5% and prilocaine 2.5%) has traditionally been used for topical anesthesia of the skin. Recent reports of EMLA's use for anesthesia of the oral mucosa suggest an application in topical anesthesia for bronchoscopy.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the amount of local anesthetic administered during bronchoscopy; to assess the time required to obtain topical anesthesia; to assess the quality of the topical anesthesia as described by bronchoscopists; and to document any complications.

METHODS
Fifty-seven unpremedicated patients had 4 mL of EMLA cream applied to the posterior third of their tongues on arrival in the bronchoscopy suite. Liquid lidocaine was applied through the bronchoscope for laryngeal anesthesia.

RESULTS
The mean time from the application of EMLA cream to insertion of the bronchoscope was 5.10+/-0.48 min. Fifty-six patients (98.2%) required no supplemental anesthesia. Bronchoscopy conditions were described as 'excellent' in 55 cases (96.5%) and 'good' in the remaining two cases (3.5%).

CONCLUSIONS
EMLA is an effective alternative for oropharyngeal topical anesthesia that is well-tolerated by patients.


We present an effective tracking and segmentation algorithm in which tracking and segmentation are carried out consecutively. Object tracking in video sequences is difficult since the appearance of an object tends to change. An adaptive tracker that employs color and shape features is adopted to conquer this problem. The target is modeled based on discriminative features selected using foreground/background contrast analysis. Tracking provides overall motion of the target for the segmentation module. Based on the overall motion, we segment object out using the effective graph cut algorithm. Markov Random Fields, which are the foundation of the graph cut algorithm, provide poor prior for specific shape. It is necessary to embed shape priors into the graph cut algorithm to achieve reasonable segmentation results. The object shape obtained by segmentation is used as shape priors to improve segmentation in next frame. We have verified the proposed approach and got positive results on challenging video sequences.


Excavations at Old Dongola in 2018/2019 led to the discovery of a quarter of wattle-and-daub houses located outside the town walls. The houses, dated to the 17th − 18th century, are arranged in compounds and visibly differ from other dwellings. This paper aims to identify the functional and social organisation of domestic space, based primarily on the analysis of access and activity areas. It sheds light on the relations of private and public space as well as gender divisions. The paper also addresses the question of the identity of dwellers and the social structure of the town in the Funj period.


ydrophobically modified ethoxylated urethanes have been synthesized using polyethylene glycol, hexamethylene diisocyanate and cetyl alcohol. These types of thickeners are categorized as nonionic associative thickeners. The HEURs were prepared in two steps. Initially an ethoxylated urethane prepolymer was synthesized through a reaction between a polyethylene glycol (M n=6000) and hexamethylene diisocyanate using the step growth polymerization technique, then modification was carried out by reaction of cetyl alcohol with the obtained prepolymer. HEURs were characterized using 1 H NMR, FTIR and GPC techniques. The rheological properties of incorporated samples in different media proved the considerable thickening efficiency of the produced HEUR. Prog. Color Colorants Coat. 4(2011), 71-77. © Institute for Color Science and Technology.


By means of direct laser writing on Al, a new method to locally modify optical waveguides is proposed. This technique has been applied to silicon nitride waveguides, allowing modifications of the optical propagation along the guide. To study the formed structures, a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) has been used. The laser modifications locally changes the optical properties of the waveguide. The change in the effective refractive index is attributed to a TE to TM mode conversion. Thus, the laser modification might be a new way to fabricate optical mode converters.


Longitudinal structures generated by external vortical and thermal waves in subsonic and supersonic boundary layers are studied in the paper. Particular attention is paid to the boundary conditions at the boundary layer outer edge. It was established that longitudinal velocity and mass flow disturbances inside the boundary layer can exceed the amplitude of external vortical wave in several times. Excitation efficiency decreases with increasing Mach number. Influence of thermal external waves on the flow structure in the boundary layer is much weaker.


PURPOSE
To describe the social support experiences of Hispanic/Latino parents while caregiving for childhood cancer survivors.

RESEARCH APPROACH
Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted among 15 caregivers from a safety-net hospital in Los Angeles. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze data.

FINDINGS
The positive influence of social support throughout their caregiving experience included (1) sharing information-enhanced knowledge, (2) receiving comfort and encouragement, (3) receiving tangible assistance reducing the caregiving burden, and (4) enhancing caregiving empowerment/self-efficacy. Sub-themes regarding the lack of social support included (1) being a single parent and (2) family and friends withdrawing after the child's cancer diagnosis.

CONCLUSION
We found Hispanic/Latino parents strongly value social support as it enables them to have essential resources that support caregiving for their child and themselves. Efforts should ensure that caregivers are routinely screened to identify their supportive needs so that support services for caregivers can be optimized and tailored, as those with a lack of social support may experience excessive caregiver burden.


The author's multimedia art is inspired by memory and cognitive processes. This paper discusses certain human brain functions, including a reflection on the evolution from individual human memory to collective computer memory and the role of the artist in this vital change.


This is an empirical study of which objective is to analyze major determinants of rural poverty particularly wealth and education by using micro survey. The data used in this study is primary and collected from various villages of District Rahim Yar Khan of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. The selected variables are include: age, family size, per capita income, marital status, gender, energy sources, fuel consumption, residence, health care facility, transportation, years of education, and wealth in terms of self as well as inherited. A sample of 300 households was collected and multivariate logistic regression approach was applied to estimate the parameters and enigma of wealth and education as determinant of rural poverty. To pursue the national or international poverty line Rs. 6000/per month of each member of household is used as yardstick as per World Bank criteria mentioned in its Report 2014. The regression results show that almost all variables exists inverse relationship that means minor change in wealth and education will cause variation in rural poverty. Our empirical results shows that chance of household poverty increases due to increase of household size. Similarly, increase in primary as well as technical education will lead to decrease the level of poverty. The evidence also reveals that increase in personal wealth of rural households will also lead to decrease poverty rate but the person will remain poor in term of education. The evidence shows that proper use of wealth and dissemination education will substantially reduce poverty in the poor countries if the results of this study are generalized.


Curt Nimuendajú (1883–1945) was a German ethnographer who became a naturalized citizen of Brazil and spent most of his life doing fieldwork among the country's indigenous people. He gained the attention of the anthropological world when he began producing his studies on the Gê-speaking peoples of central Brazil. These sparked an ongoing correspondence with Robert Lowie, who secured American funding for Nimuendajú, advised him on research sites and topics, and translated and edited his manuscripts. Nimuendajú also maintained a brief correspondence with Claude Lévi-Strauss when the latter was a rising anthropologist and the former a mature ethnographer. Together the letters illustrate one form taken by the relations between anthropologists located in global centers and peripheries during years between the two world wars. This introduction contextualizes Nimuendajú's correspondence with both scholars by tracing relevant aspects of his life, his involvement with Brazilian indigenous people, and his impact on lowland South American anthropology.


Context aware services rely on context information. However, in many cases this information is not available. In this case, the missing context information can often either be inferred from existing knowledge using different inference approaches, or accessed from external context providers. Thereby, dealing with uncertainty is another major concern. In this paper we present a generic approach called alternative context construction trees (ACCTs) that enables the concurrent evaluation and consolidation of different alternative inference approaches, like logic rules, Bayesian networks and CoCoGraphs. In particular, we introduce a common signature structure to make those alternatives comparable in a generic way. Thereby, the approach is able to adapt dynamically to specific service requirements with respect to the accuracy of available context information. In addition, we present so called Bayesian network templates that enable a light-weight inference of high-level context information if only probabilistic knowledge about the causal interdependencies of context artifacts is available.


Using 532 nm parallel nanosecond pulsed laser, the decolorization of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous suspensions of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) was studied. The effects of various experimental parameters, such as irradiation time, laser energy, and initial MB concentration on the decolorization rate were investigated. Experiments using real samples of textile dyeing wastewater were also carried out to examine the effectiveness of the method in more complex samples. From the results, the following conclusions may be drawn: (i) Under the optimum conditions (pH 7.19, 135 mJ laser energy, 4 mg/L MB concentration, and 11.6 mg/L GNP concentration), the rate of MB decolorization could reach 94% in 15 min. The decolorization follows pseudo–first-order kinetics; (ii) The amount of MB decreased rapidly during the decolorization. No intermediates of the decolorization could be detected by high-performance liquid chromatography. These observations indicate that MB was decolorized through a very rapid degradation mechanism; (iii) The rate of MB decolorization increased with the increase in laser energy (at laser energies of 0 to 135 mJ); and, (iv) The efficient decolorization of MB in real samples of textile dyeing wastewater was achieved at a decolorization rate of about 85% in 15 min.


Almost all daily rainfall time series contain gaps in the instrumental record. Various methods can be used to fill in missing data using observations at neighboring sites (predictor stations). In this study, five computationally simple gap-filling approaches—normal ratio (NR), linear regression (LR), inverse distance weighting (ID), quantile mapping (QM), and single best estimator (BE)—are evaluated to 1) determine the optimal method for gap filling daily rainfall in Hawaii, 2) quantify the error associated with filling gaps of various size, and 3) determine the value of gap filling prior to spatial interpolation. Results show that the correlation between a target station and a predictor station is more important than proximity of the stations in determining the quality of a rainfall prediction. In addition, the inclusion of rain/no-rain correction on the basis of either correlation between stations or proximity between stations significantly reduces the amount of spurious rainfall added to a filled dataset. For large gaps, relative median errors ranged from 12.5% to 16.5% and no statistical differences were identified between methods. For submonthly gaps, the NR method consistently produced the lowest mean error for 1- (2.1%), 15- (16.6%), and 30-day (27.4%) gaps when the difference between filled and observed monthly totals was considered. Results indicate that gap filling prior to spatial interpolation improves the overall quality of the gridded estimates, because higher correlations and lower performance errors were found when 20% of the daily dataset is filled as opposed to leaving these data unfilled prior to spatial interpolation.


. Application of thermohydraulic dispatcher (THD) for district heating systems is, to some extent, limited due to insufficient information about its properties and features. At the same time this device has a potential to solve the problem of mutual dependence of heat consumers and to decrease electricity consumption in heat supply systems. This paper deals with experimental research and numerical simulation of THD with the aim of increasing the range of knowledge about its properties. Presented results describe already known properties such as near-to-zero differential pressure at THD and flow rates independence which were checked. Some new properties and peculiarities of THD were obtained during the investigation as well. Among them is differential pressure "variability", hydrodynamic separation under higher velocity, similarity of thermohydraulic processes inside THD under similar velocities in manifolds of THD, absence of thermal stratification in mixing regime, dependence of secondary circuits supply temperature from the height level and secondary circuits return temperature.


This article examines the efforts of two anticolonial politicians from the British Empire who used official visits to London and the rhetoric of the Atlantic Charter (14 August 1941) to advance their political careers and self-government for their territories: Burma's U Saw in 1941, and Nigeria's Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1943. Rather than a repetition of the 'Wilsonian moment', these campaigns show how anticolonial forces long active across the Empire took advantage of the opening offered by the Atlantic Charter to make claims on the British government in its wartime weakness. Both U Saw and Azikiwe had been involved in anticolonial politics long before the Charter, but its appearance provided an opportunity to advance their position vis-à-vis political competitors as well as to win concessions from the imperial state. Although the two leaders had different immediate objectives, they both used the prestige of official visits to London and the ambiguous universality of the Charter's language in pursuit of their aims. Their ability to do so attests to the power of anticolonial movements by the early 1940s, and points to alternative paths which the Empire might have followed.


In this paper, we propose an FPGA-based hardware accelerator platform with Xilinx Virtex-II V3000 in a compact PCMCIA form factor. By partitioning the complex algorithms in the 4G simulator to the hardware accelerator, we apply an efficient Catapult-C methodology to quickly evaluate the area/speed tradeoffs and rapidly schedule synthesizable RTL models for implementation. The simulation time is accelerated by 100/spl times/ for a QRD-M algorithm. This not only enables much faster verification in the 4G standard environment, but also provides software/hardware codesign and rapid prototyping of the core algorithm in a realistic fixed-point platform.


The World Health Organization points out that the opportunistic pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae that causes various infections among others, urinary tract infections (UTIs), is one of the high-priority species due to a global problem of antimicrobial resistance. The aim of this study was to investigate antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities of chosen constituents of essential oils against NDM-1-producing, uropathogenic K. pneumoniae strains. The genes encoding lipopolysaccharide (uge, wabG), adhesin gene fimH (type I fimbriae) and gene encoding carbapenemase (blaNDM-1) for all tested strains were detected by PCR amplification. The K. pneumoniae ATCC BAA-2473 reference strain was uge- and blaNDM-1-positive. The effectiveness of fifteen essential oil compounds (EOCs) (linalool, β-citronellol, linalyl acetate, menthone, (−)-menthol, (+)-menthol, geraniol, eugenol, thymol, trans-anethole, farnesol, β-caryophyllene, (R)-(+)-limonene, 1,8-cineole, and carvacrol) was assessed by determining the MIC, MBC, MBC/MIC ratio against K. pneumoniae strains by the microdilution method. Anti-biofilm properties of these compounds were also investigated. Thymol, carvacrol and geraniol exhibited the best antibacterial and anti-biofilm activities against uropathogenic NDM-1-producing K. pneumoniae isolates. Results of our investigations provide a basis for more detailed studies of these phytochemicals on their application against uropathogenic K. pneumoniae.


Four Malus dwarfing rootstock clones showed a range of rooting success when propagated as layers. Root emergence was largely confined to a nodal position near lateral buds. Anatomical studies revealed nodal rooting to be closely associated with the parenchymatous bud and leaf gaps of the stem. The highest starch concentration was in these tissues and the outer ring of pith cells. Etiolation during layering increased stem starch and decreased the degree of sclerification of the cortex. Rooting success was negatively correlated with degree of sclerification. Etiolated stem cuttings rooted in 7 days under mist propagation, while non-etiolated cuttings failed to root, indicating that etiolation provided a stimulus to root initiation in the non-differentiated, starch-rich gap areas. Inter-relationships of stem etiolation and internal carbohydrate reserves were associated with the rooting process.


Copper-67 (67Cu) has ideal properties for radioimmunotherapy. The 62-h half-life is similar to the residence time of antibodies in tumor, and the therapeutic beta emission of 67Cu is comparable to that of 131I. 67Cu, however, has gamma emissions similar to 99mtechnetium that are favorable for imaging. The macrocyclic chelating agent 1,4,7,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane-N,N',N'',N'''-tetraacetic acid (TETA) binds 67Cu tightly and selectively, facilitating linkage to Lym-1, a mouse monoclonal antibody that preferentially targets malignant lymphocytes. The safety, efficacy, and practicality of 67Cu-2-iminothiolane (2IT)-6-[p-(bromoacetamido)benzyl]-TETA (BAT)-Lym-1 was assessed in this Phase I/II clinical trial for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) who had failed standard therapy. Up to four doses of 67Cu-2IT-BAT-Lym-1, 25 or 50-60 mCi/m2/dose (0.93 or 1.85-2.22 GBq/m2/dose, respectively) were administered; the lower dosage was used when NHL was detected in the bone marrow. 67Cu-2IT-BAT-Lym-1 provided good imaging of NHL, had favorable radiation dosimetry, and had a response rate of 58% (7 of 12). Hematological toxicity was dose-limiting, but no significant nonhematological toxicity was observed. The ability to image and treat NHL patients with a single radiopharmaceutical with useful physical properties makes 67Cu-labeled monoclonal antibody an option for future clinical trials, as this study showed that 67Cu-2IT-BAT-Lym-1 was safe, effective, and practical.


The degree to which grazers maintain the amount (organic matter intake) or the quality (organic matter digestibility) of their diet without adversely affecting the other component was addressed by investigating how sheep managed trade-offs between quantity and quality throughout the grazing season in an upland area of central France. Two groups of five dry ewes, grazing two plots of contrasting areas from April to the end of September 2000, were studied. On the smaller plot (1500 m2), the application of a high stocking rate (HSR) produced a resource of good quality but in low quantity; and on the larger plot (3000 m2), a low stocking rate (LSR) created a sward of low quality but in good quantity. In spring, in both conditions, the sheep maintained their intake of digestible organic matter (OM) at between 1000 and 1250 g/day. Both organic matter intake and digestibility remained high at both stocking rates. In summer, the intake of digestible OM decreased to between 750 and 1000 g/day. On HSR, this was mainly due to a decline of intake in relation to the decrease of intake rate and bite weight. On LSR a decrease in digestibility and to a lesser extent in intake was involved. At both stocking rates, the sheep maximized the digestibility of their diet by selecting the green laminae throughout the grazing season. In spring, the sheep modulated their daily grazing time to compensate the decrease in intake rate and maintained a high daily intake. In summer and autumn, the sheep failed to maintain their daily intake at the same level as previously observed. On both plots they modulated their daily grazing time to cover their needs (730 g/day), but they did not increase it further to maximize daily intake. This may be attributable to the costs involved in selecting (LSR) or taking (HSR) the best components from the sward.


Background : Patients' understanding and knowledge of their illness and its management have a direct impact on the outcome of care. This is particularly true of chronic illnesses like Bronchial Asthma. Opportunities for educating patients with asthma are numerous but are not well-utilised. One such opportunity exists in asthma clinics patients' waiting rooms. Method: A 10-item quiz was handed to patients attending a specialized asthma care clinic in Khartoum on arrival. The patients were requested to read the quiz and tick what they believed was the appropriate answer from a list of possible answers. Only a yes or no answer is possible. The answered quiz was then handed to the clinic receptionist who would immediately provide the patient with the same list of questions but with the correct answers clearly highlighted and explained. Results : 143 patient encounters were recorded. 84 were female patients (58.7%). Age ranged between 12-75 years with a mean of 35 years. Nineteen percent of patients believed that asthma is a psychiatric illness, 51% that it leads to many psychiatric problems and 81% that it causes chronic problems with aging. Thirty percent felt that avoiding allergens/irritants is not important and 47% that antibiotics are helpful to treat exacerbations. Seventy four percent believed inhalers lead to addiction and 77% that steroid inhalers cause serious side-effects. Conclusion: As in many other studies, knowledge about asthma and its treatment in this cohort of Sudanese patients is poor. Hopefully, the answered quiz has helped in making these patients better educated on their illness. Keywords : Asthma control, patient knowledge.


The English-born Captain Thomas Stukeley is the ostensible hero of George Peele's The Battle of Alcazar, yet the play emphasizes the ambiguity of Stukeley's identity as an English hero since he acts on behalf of Catholic interests. While the trope of 'turning' is usually associated with English fears of their countrymen 'turning Turk', Peele's construction of Stukeley's Catholic allegiances evokes this trope. Peele's play thereby investigates the extent to which opposing national and religious identities can coexist. It produces a more conflicted portrait of Stukeley than our traditional understanding of the captain's mythic legacy has previously acknowledged.


Goal setting is an integral component of nutritional counseling. Lower glycemic index (GI) diets can improve outcomes among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Intraindividual variability in intake occurs during goal pursuit and could be captured through mobile ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to develop algorithms for personalized medical nutrition therapy. EMA assessed goal progress toward a lower GI diet among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus using an n-of-1 design. Mean (standard deviation) intake of low GI foods increased by 1.2 (0.1) servings for all participants combined. Three participants met or exceeded their GI goal repeatedly based on EMA reports. Mobile technology through EMA holds promise for the field of personalized medical nutrition therapy.


What does it mean to produce useful work at the interface of psychology's related subdisciplines across the disciplines of the ivory tower, and behind the walls of a large public safety system? For the purposes and process of behavioral science research in corrections, it means that a deep strategic alliance among a network of committed individuals has been formed. It means the network's academics understand that when it comes to the process of offender change, each academy–based science has strengths to be applied and weaknesses for which to be compensated. It means that the network's public safety system administrators and clinicians are sharing resources to evolve their understanding of how offenders change and what can be done to facilitate that process. While not a technical document allowing an appraisal of sampling design and preliminary statistical findings, the descriptive review of Tangney, Mashek, & Stuewig, (this issue) highlights the richly textured, multidimensional nature of the George Mason University (GMU) Inmate Study. Of note, the set of studies proposed under this rubric examine and build upon a solid foundation of theoretical frameworks from social and personality psychology. The testing of such theories in real–world settings remains a contemporary goal and a historically critical element of effective offender research (see Glaser, 1974 for a review of this topic). The study is also notable in selecting "Quadrant IV" (Ruback & Innes, 1988) dependent and independent measures examination, thus assuring that the studies have an impact in both the public health and public safety agencies. Quadrant IV research examines the impact of policy variables—variables that decision makers can change (e.g., offer


Abstract
Schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni were shown to be rapidly killed in vitro by the combined effects of rat neutrophilic leukocytes, IgG antibodies from schistosome-infected rats, and heat-labile factors found in normal serum. A microassay system was developed for characterizing and quantitating this opsonization reaction. Following a single infection, serum opsonin levels reached a peak at approximately 6 weeks and then decreased only slightly until the 18th week post-infection. In the presence of antiserum of high titer, 100% of schistosomula were heavily ensheathed and apparently killed by neutrophils within 20 hours. Ensheathed schistosomula stained heavily with nitroblue tetrazolium dye, indicating the release of lytic enzymes by the neutrophils. Both ensheathment and killing were prevented if normal serum was used in place of antiserum, or if neutrophils were removed from the leukocyte suspension.


Efficient transformer variants with linear time complexity have been developed to mitigate the quadratic computational overhead of the vanilla transformer. Among them are low-rank projection methods such as Linformer and kernel-based Transformers. Despite their unique merits, they usually suffer from a performance drop comparing with the vanilla transformer on many sequence generation tasks, and often fail to obtain computation gain when the generation is short. We propose Memsizer, an approach towards closing the performance gap while improving the efficiency even with short generation. It projects the source sequences into lower dimension representations like Linformer, while enjoying efficient recurrent-style incremental computation similar to kernel-based transformers. This yields linear computation time and constant memory complexity at inference time. Memsizer also employs a lightweight multi-head mechanism which renders the computation as light as a single-head model. We demonstrate that Memsizer provides an improved balance between efficiency and accuracy over the vanilla transformer and other efficient transformer variants in three typical sequence generation tasks, including machine translation, abstractive text summarization, and language modeling.


Delayed rehabilitation in postmeniscectomy patients may be due to a slowly resolving axonal compression syndrome secondary to the use of the pneumatic tourniquet. Twenty-five patients who underwent meniscectomy were examined to determine whether the pneumatic tourniquet used during the procedure caused a neurological dificit detectable by electromyography (EMG). Of these, 18 had postsurgical EMG changes that eventually resolved. Analysis of the data suggests a relationship between the occurrence of EMG abnormalities, the duration of the tourniquet inflation during surgery, and patient's recovery time. Quadricep muscle weakness after knee surgery has generally been attributed to disuse atrophy. In an attempt to prevent this problem, patients participate in a quadriceps exercise program, if possible, before surgery, with continuation after surgery. The persistence of weakness has been believed to be secondary to inadequate exercise.


Taking UNESCO's proposal 'learning how to live together' as a starting point, we examined to what extent visual education can be used as a tool to promote the aims of intercultural education. We analyzed the power of using artistic images from different cultures to change students' perception of cultural differences, thereby facilitating the development of attitudes of respect towards different ethnic/cultural groups. We also investigated to what extent this strategy could contribute to the integration of minority peers into a majority group. Students were assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The experimental treatment consisted of exposing students to several art object images associated with different cultures. Our measurement instrument was based on an adapted version of the 'Draw‐A‐Person‐Test', which we have called the 'Draw‐Two‐Persons‐Test'. We also used a questionnaire to examine attitudes among subjects


We have studied noise properties and magnetocardiographic performance of single-layer second-order YBCO SQUID gradiometers made on STO substrates. A three-loop pickup coil is directly coupled to a step-edge junction SQUID with the coupling polarity of the center loop opposite to that of two side loops. Optimized device parameters for balancing were obtained from 8.8 mm /spl times/ 3.0 mm devices on 10 mm /spl times/ 10 mm substrates and scaled up to the larger devices for use in cardiomagnetic measurements. A 17.6 mm /spl times/ 6 mm gradiometer with a 5.8 mm baseline showed an unshielded gradient noise of 0.84 pT/cm/sup 2//Hz/sup 1/2/ at 1 Hz, which corresponds to an equivalent field noise of 280 fT/Hz/sup 1/2/. A large balancing factor of 10/sup 3/ allowed us to record magnetocardiogram of a human subject.


Highly responsive implementations of corner detection is really expected as it is a key ingredient for other image processing kernels like the motion detection. Indeed, motion detection requires the analysis of a continuous flow of images, thus a real-time processing implies the use of highly optimized subroutines. We consider a tiled implementation of the Harris corner detection algorithm on the CELL processor. The algorithm is a chain of local operators applied to each pixel and its periphery. Such a special memory access pattern clearly exacerbates on the hierarchy transition penalty. In order to reduce the consequent time overhead, tiling is a commonly considered way. When it comes to image processing filters, incoming tiles are overdimensioned to include their neighborhood, necessary to update border pixels. As the volume of "extra data" depends on the tile shape, we need to find a good tiling strategy. On the CELL, such investigation is not directly possible with native DMA routines. We overcome the problem by enhancing the DMA mechanism to operate with non conventional requests. Based on this extension, we proceed with experiments on the CELL with a wide range of tile sizes and shapes, thus trying to confirm our intuition on the optimal configuration.


Session of Tuesday, December 28, 1920 The Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America was held December 28–30, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois, in affiliation with the Seventy-third Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In affiliation with the Geological Society, the Paleontological Society convened in its Twelfth Annual Meeting, the Mineralogical Society of America held its First Annual Meeting, and the Society of Economic Geologists held its First Annual Meeting. All the business and scientific sessions and the annual subscription smoker were held in the rooms of Rosenwald Hall by invitation of the Department of Geology; of the University of Chicago. The annual subscription dinner took place at the Chicago Beach Hotel. The first general session of the meeting was called to order at 9.50 o'clock a. m., Tuesday, December 28, 1920, by President I. C. White, and the Secretary was called on . . .


Recovery scene geometry and camera motion from a sequence of images is an important problem in computer vision. If the scene geometry is specified by depth measurements, that is, by specifying distances between the camera and feature points in the scene, noise sensitivity worsens rapidly with increasing depth. The authors show hat this difficulty can be overcome by computing scene geometry directly in terms of shape, that is, by computing the coordinates of feature points in the scene with respect to a world-centered system, without recovering camera-centered depth as an intermediate quantity. More specifically, the authors show that a matrix of image measurements can be factored by singular value decomposition into the product of two matrices that represent shape and motion, respectively. The results in this paper extend to three dimensions the solution the authors described in a previous paper for planar camera motion (ICCV, Osaka, Japan, 1990).<<ETX>>


Biological data retrieval from web resources often necessitates multi-step access to several information sources. Web services are being developed to interact in a unified manner with heterogeneous databases. Composition of web services is then required to chain several elementary queries. However, web services are not yet available for any data sources thus limiting the scope of such strategy. The X-collect generic application has been designed to execute user-defined multi-step scenarios. Demos can be scheduled at the workshop. Encapsulation into web services makes such user scenarios re-usable and available for invocation by any application. Demos can be scheduled at the workshop. Work in progress deals with metadata registries to facilitate databases and/or web services discovery.


A concise and convergent synthesis of the atorvastatin, the best-selling cardiovascular drug of all time, is presented. Our approach is based on an Ugi reaction, which shortens the current synthetic route and is advantageous over the published syntheses.


Poor farm households and other microentrepreneurs have difficulties in obtaining loans from banks and other financial institutions because they are unable to provide securities or collaterals for the loans. Collaterals on loans reduce uncertainty and moral hazard problems for creditors. They also serve as a measure of the seriousness of the borrower. The limited availability of conventional collaterals in rural financial markets has led to the acceptance of non-traditional methods of loan security referred to as collateral substitutes. This paper reviews loan collaterals and collateral substitutes in the rural financial markets of developing countries. Keywords :: Collaterals, collateral substitutes, rural finance.


In recent years it has been demonstrated that deviations from the normal process of development may occur at certain centers of bone growth in childhood. These changes have been found to take place in the first decade or two of life, before epiphysial ossification has taken place, and may consist of gross irregularities in development, of arrest in normal processes or even of retrogressive changes in the osteochondral portion of the epiphysis of certain bones. Perthes' disease, involving the head of the femur, Osgood-Schlatter disease, with epiphysial changes in the tibial tuberosity, and vertebral osteochondrosis are classic examples of the osteochondral changes referred to and have been grouped under the head of juvenile epiphysitis or osteochondropathy. The exact cause of such osteochondral lesions is not known, but apparently they are primary and should be distinguished from acute and chronic epiphysial lesions which are secondary to pathologic processes occurring elsewhere in


Stress-induced cardiomyopathy is a recently described acute and transient cardiomyopathy with typical left ventricular apical ballooning mimicking the clinical scenario of an acute myocardial infarction. Cesarean delivery causes intense emotional and physical stresses, which may precipitate stress-induced cardiomyopathy. We report a case presenting stress-induced cardiomyopathy occurring during ICU care in the early postpartum period following cesarean delivery.


This paper provides an outline of the development and trialling during 1998 of the English Study Design (ESD), a standards-based programme in Year 12 English adopted by 13 secondary schools in Auckland, Christchurch and Otago-Southland. The programme was developed as an alternative to the unit standard system which the design team considered to be flawed on both pedagogical and administrative grounds. This paper reports on the structure and organisation of the ESD programme, its design philosophy, the assessment procedures employed, the results of the evaluation, and the implications of all of these for the Government's Achievement 2001 initiative. The results of the evaluation show a high level of support for the programme by teachers, but variation between schools in student satisfaction ratings. Of particular significance to the Ministry's Qualifications Development Group are the highly favourable ratings (100% satisfaction) in respect of teacher workloads and administrative manageability. The writers conclude by cautioning against the view that a simple modification of unit standards is all that is needed in order to overcome the shortcomings of the existing system.


Haemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) is a clinical condition in which foetal red blood cells are destroyed by maternal alloantibodies directed against red cells antigens acquired from the father. These antibodies usually belong to the Rhesus (Rh) or ABO blood group systems. ABO-HDN is usually a sub-clinical condition and less severe than Rh-HDN. The placenta is relatively impermeable to naturally occurring IgM anti-A/anti-B antibodies. However, immune anti-A and anti-B of the IgG type will cross the placenta and may thus cause ABO-HDN. ABO-HDN is the commonest in Group O mothers having A infants. Occasionally it is seen in Group O or A (A2) mothers of Group B infants. The most severe disease is seen in immune anti-B rather than anti-A antibodies. There are at present no satisfactory methods to predict ABO-HDN in the antepartum period. We report here a case of ABO-HDN where mother who was B, Rh-positive; delivered a baby girl of A1B, Rh-positive who developed severe haemolytic disease. The baby was the third child. To our knowledge this is the first of this kind of severe ABO-HDN in Bangladesh and one of the rarest ABO-HDN cases in the world.


LTCC technology promises new applications in the wireless age. Advances in LTCC technology include improved characterization and precise modeling of the co-sintering process. In the present work, industrial LTCC systems such as DuPont 951, Heraeus CT2000, Ferro A6-S and silver have been evaluated for their thermo-mechanical properties, such as viscosity using cyclic loading dilatometry. The viscosities are used in Newtonian constitutive laws commonly used to simulate sintering. The viscosity decreases with temperature and increases with relative density and ranges from 0.1-100 GPa.s. Under isothermal conditions, the increase in viscosity is exponential as relative density increased to > 92%. Glass crystallisation has a significant influence on the viscosity. Camber (warpage) evolution in LTCC/Ag systems was examined in real-time and correlated to viscosities of individual components. It was found that the rate of camber depends on: differential strain rate, relative viscosity and relative thickness of the co-fired components. For a given thickness ratio, the amount of camber can be kept to a minimum by optimizing the values of relative viscosity and matching the strain rates. Experimental observations show good agreement with previous theoretical models.


Groundwater is the greatest significant source of water in the Bahr Al-Najaf area. In this research the DRASTIC technique has been utilized, to produce a map of ground water vulnerability for the area. Because of the relation between LULC (Land Use and Land Cover) and groundwater pollution, the LULC map was applied with the standard DRASTIC technique to confirm accuracy of vulnerability for pollution. A LULC map is extracted from Enhanced Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery utilizing several methods in GIS. The LULC map shows that three portions of LULC can be recognized (Agricultural land, Wet land and Barren land). The LULC map was weighted and rated then changed to LULC index map. That index map is a supplementary factor that was combined to the standard DRASTIC technique to modify DRASTIC vulnerability in study area. The final vulnerability was obtained by the DRASTIC technique that varies from (70 to 140). The LULC index map as a modified DRASTIC with ranging of (95-175). The modified LULC of DRASTIC technique has a higher correlation (Pearson's factor) 0.87 per concentration of nitrate values and is suggested as the best suitable technique to be utilized for the area of study.


School socioeconomic environment in relation to adolescent drinking has hardly been studied. Taking Chile as an example of a highly socially stratified education system, this study focused on how adolescent drinking patterns relate to school socioeconomic environment. Two potential mechanisms for this relationship were examined: interaction with parental supervision and mediation by friends' drinking behaviours. Multilevel analyses were conducted on cross-sectional data with a four-level nested structure: students (L1), school classes (L2), schools (L3) and municipalities (L4). Individual-level information was extracted from a nationally representative survey (N=58,148, aged 13 to 18) conducted in 2013 and linked to school-level data (N=1,687). Multilevel logistic regression was used to analyse non-binge drinking (vs. non-drinking) and binge drinking (vs. non-binge drinking). The frequency of binge drinking was analysed using multilevel zero-inflated Poisson regression. Models were stratified by gender and adjusted for sociodemographic and parental characteristics and school type. The results showed that both non-binge drinking and binge drinking were socioeconomically patterned at school level. Boys and girls from more socially disadvantaged schools were less likely to drink alcohol than those from more advantaged schools. Within the group of drinkers, school social disadvantage was positively associated with binge drinking in boys and girls. Results also suggested that boys attending socially advantaged schools were likely to binge drink. However, the number of events of binge drinking in the past month was unrelated to school socioeconomic environment. Both parental knowledge of children's whereabouts and school socioeconomic environment were independently associated with adolescent drinking patterns. There was no evidence to suggest mediation through levels of friends' drinking within the school context. Schools play a role shaping adolescent drinking and should be integrated into a multilevel approach to tackle adolescent alcohol use, especially binge drinking.


Background E2F is a family of transcription factor proteins with multiple functions; E2F proteins are involved in cell cycle regulation, cell differentiation, the DNA damage response and cell death. Studies have shown that E2Fs have prognostic significance in many cancers, but the expression patterns and prognostic values of E2Fs in gastric cancer have not been systematically elucidated. Methods In this study, we used the ONCOMINE database and UALCAN online analysis website to compare the transcriptional levels and expression of eight E2F family members between gastric cancer and normal samples. UALCAN was also used to analyze the relationship between the expression of 8 E2F members and clinicopathological parameters. The prognostic value of the E2Fs were determined by Kaplan-Meier Plotter. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using the STRING database. The functions and pathways of E2F family and its neighboring 50 frequently changed genes were analyzed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) software. Finally, quantitative PCR was used to verify the expression of E2Fs in gastric cancer cells. Results The expression patterns of 8 E2F members were significantly related to the clinical cancer stage and tumor grade of gastric cancer patients. High mRNA expression of E2F1/2/3/4/5 was a prognostic factor for poor OS in gastric cancer patients, while high expression of E2F6/7/8 was associated with better OS. In addition, a high mutation rate (46%) for E2Fs was observed in patients with gastric cancer. The expression levels of E2F1/2/3/5/8 in AGS and HGC27 cell lines were higher than those in normal cells, while E2F7 showed the opposite trend. Conclusions In summary, these results indicate that E2F1/2/3/4/5 can be used as potential therapeutic targets in gastric cancer, and E2F6/7/8 can be used as new prognostic markers to improve the survival rate and prognostic accuracy in gastric cancer.


Many species of seabirds, including the only penguin species breeding on the African continent, are threatened with extinction. The world population of the endangered African penguin Spheniscus demersus has decreased from more than 1.5 million individuals in the early 1900s to c.a. 23 000 pairs in 2013. Determining the trophic interactions of species, especially those of conservation concern, is important when declining numbers are thought to be driven by food limitation. By and large, African penguin dietary studies have relied on the identification of prey remains from stomach contents. Despite all the advantages of this method, it has well known biases. We therefore assessed the African penguin's diet, using stable isotopes, at two colonies in Algoa Bay (south-east coast of South Africa). These represent over 50% of the world population. Various samples (blood, feathers, egg membranes) were collected for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses. Results indicate that the trophic ecology of African penguins is influenced by colony, season and age class, but not adult sex. Isotopic niches identified by standard Bayesian ellipse areas and convex hulls, highlighted differences among groups and variability among individual penguins. Using Bayesian mixing models it was for the first time shown that adults target chokka squid Loligo reynaudii for self-provisioning during particular stages of their annual cycle, while concurrently feeding their chicks primarily with small pelagic fish. This has important ramifications and means that not only pelagic fish, but also squid stocks, need to be carefully managed in order to allow population recovery of African penguin.


Integrated design of nanocatalysts with a preferential surface atomic arrangement, composition, and overall morphology will provide great opportunities to enhance their catalytic activity and durability. In this work, Pt–Ni bimetallic nanobundles (NBs) with branched morphology and stepped surfaces have been prepared by a seed-based diffusion method. For methanol oxidation, the Pt–Ni NBs possess 3.6-fold the activity of conventional Pt nanoparticles (NPs), likely due to the high-density surface atomic steps and the presence of surface Ni species. With the aggregation resistant starlike morphology, the Pt–Ni NBs pertain 55% of initial peak current density after 4000 cycles, while conventional Pt NPs maintain only 10% of that.


Alfalfa, Medicago sativa L., is an important forage crop in the U.S. and worldwide. However, in acid soil, its productivity and persistence dramatically decrease. Acid-soil syndrome causes a severe toxicity that inhibits root growth and development exacerbated by Al +3 . Breeding and genomic approaches to improve acid/Al tolerance provide new opportunities to grow alfalfa in lands considered marginal for alfalfa growth. In this study, three different approaches were used to identify and to evaluate acid/Al tolerance in alfalfa: (1) identification and mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with acid/Al tolerance, (2) evaluation of transgenic plants over-expressing Pseudomonas aeruginosa citrate synthase (CS) and/or a gene coding for a plasma membrane H + -ATPase from Daucus carota (DcPA1), and (3) comparison of genetic gain for acid/Al tolerance as assessed by seedling biomass production in acidic soil under greenhouse conditions. Single-factor analysis and interval mapping identified QTL for Al tolerance on Altet-4 and on NECS-141 linkage groups. The phenotypic variation explained by individual QTL ranged from 9.5 to 35.3%. Some of these QTL were detected in multiple environments and for multiple traits while others were environment-specific. Four isogenic T2 populations, containing neither, one, or both transgenes (CS+DcPA1) were evaluated for acid/Al tolerance. The transgenic populations containing either CS or DcPA1 or both genes showed higher acid/Al tolerance than the non-transgenic population. No advantage of combining both transgenes in the same genetic background was observed. Lower levels of Al in shoot tissue were observed for the transgenic populations over the non-transgenic population. The comparison of selection methods showed that the phenotypic recurrent selection with gridding in unlimed soil was most effective at improving the Bulldog 805 population for shoot dry weight. This method of selection was the most effective in terms of the resources used and the responses achieved. Direct selection in unlimed soil resulted in increased alfalfa growth in acid and Al-rich soils compared to selection in limed soil. The information generated in these three experiments can be useful in improving our understanding of acid/Al tolerance in alfalfa and in developing costeffective and efficient methods to obtain enhanced alfalfa germplasm in the future. INDEX WORDS: alfalfa, greenhouse soil-based assay, unlimed and limed soils, quantitative trait loci, transgenic, citrate synthase, plasma membrane H + -ATPase, recurrent selection, grid selection, among-within family selection IMPROVING ACID AND ALUMINUM TOLERANCE IN ALFALFA USING BREEDING AND GENOMICS


Theoretical investigations of atomic relaxation and electronic states in ultrathin (Ge2)n(ZnSe)n superlattices, for n=1, 2, 3, in (001) and (110) growth directions, have been made using the pseudopotential method and a local density scheme. The bond lengths at relaxed interfaces are in agreement with the concept of Pauling's covalent radii. The nonpolar interface is found to be more stable than the polar interface. The formation enthalpies and band structures of the polar and nonpolar superlattices are discussed in terms of different spatial arrangements of nonocted 'wrong bonds' at the interfaces.


Service and social robot in public scenarios will face various tasks in future applications, such as guiding people or admonishing them to provide assistance or convey social norms. Robots in public spaces might also incorporate roles of authority figures who might admonish people (e.g., security or guard robots). However, recent investigations showed that people ignore the admonishment of robots. Thus, in this work, we are looking at the reasons why people might ignore robots based on the Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT). We present the results of two consecutive field observations where a robot admonishes participants (i.e., pedestrians in a shopping mall) and requests them to stop using a smartphone while walking, which is considered an unmoral behavior. In the first field observation, we approached 160 participants over four days and conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 of them. Approximately half of the people ignored the robot, and half of them followed the instructions. Our interview results show that people who ignore the robot indeed use trivialization as a cognitive dissonance reduction strategy to justify ignoring the robot. Based on our analysis of the results, we developed a counter-trivialization strategy that anticipates this dissonance reduction strategy. We admonished 167 participants in our second field observation over four days, and our results show that significantly fewer people ignore the instructions of the robot when the robot uses a counter-trivialization strategy.


States tread carefully in international affairs to maintain mutual respect for sovereignty. In today's legal order, a head of state is the sovereign state personified. Until the twentieth century, heads of state did not routinely travel outside of their respective domains. Consequently, mutual respect for foreign sovereigns was usually implemented in national courts by recognition of immunity for diplomats and public vessels—paradigmatically, warships. Today, heads of state often travel to other countries, and it is increasingly accepted as customary international law that a head of state cannot be sued or prosecuted in a foreign court on the basis of any of his or her acts, public or private. To permit such prosecution or litigation would invite reciprocal retaliation and ultimately risk a breakdown of relations between the countries involved. But should a head of state's family members also have absolute immunity in foreign countries, particularly for private acts with no plausible connection to official functions? Despite progress in crystallizing the scope of customary international law of head-of-state immunity, there is scant discussion regarding the international law basis of immunity for members of a head of state's family. Some states have invoked the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) to grant head-of-state family members "diplomatic immunity" from local prosecution or litigation. Such action seems plausible when, for instance, first ladies or other family members are accompanying heads of state on official visits or are themselves performing an official act in visiting a foreign nation. Yet, there are many instances involving a head of state's family members in foreign countries that have nothing to do with official business—such as sightseeing, shopping, or studying. In many notable cases involving similar personal business, host nations have accorded a head of state's family members immunity for the sake of diplomacy, though they often invoke a legal basis like the VCDR.


Background. Patients, especially children, are exposed to substantially high doses of ionising radiation during computed tomography (CT) procedures. Children are several times more susceptible to ionising radiation than adults. Diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) are an important tool for monitoring and optimising patient radiation exposure from radiological procedures. The aim of this study is to estimate the ionising radiation exposure doses and set local DRLs for head CT examinations according to age and to compare local DRLs with national and European DRLs and with literature data in other countries. Materials and methods. Scan parameters of single-phase head CT examinations were collected. Patients were grouped by age in the following intervals: <1, 1−5, 5−10, 10−15 and 15−18 years. Local age-based DRLs set as the 3rd quartile of the median dose-length product (DLP) were calculated. Literature analysis was performed on PubMed search engine on inclusion criteria: publication date 2015–2020, used keywords paediatric computed tomography, paediatric CT, diagnostic reference levels (DRLs). The 23 articles discussing paediatric DRLs were further analysed. Results. Data was collected from 194 paediatric head CT examinations performed in 2019. The median DLP values for head CT were 144.3, 233.7, 246.4, 288.9, 315.5 for <1, 1−5, 5−10, 10−15 and 15−18 years old groups. Estimated local DRLs for head CT examinations are 170, 300, 310, 320, 360 mGy*cm for <1, 1−5, 5−10, 10−15 and 15−18 years age groups respectively and 130, 210, 275, 320 mGy*cm for 0−3 months, 3 months−1 year, 1−6 years and ≥ 6 years age groups respectively. Conclusions. Results of this study showed that settled new local DRLs of head CT examinations were 2–4 times lower than national DRLs and about 2 times lower than European DRLs. Moreover, the study indicated that paediatric head CT doses are significantly lower in comparison with those indicated in the majority of published data from other hospitals over the last 6 years. Patient dose assessment and local DRLs establishment plays important role in future exposure optimisation.


Sonochemical procedure was used to synthesize Co/β-cyclodextrin complex. For the first time Fe/β-cyclodextrin complex was also synthesized in alkaline media. Moreover, β-cyclodextrin was modified by citric acid (CA) and reacted with metal salts under ultrasonic irradiation. The prepared catalysts were characterized by using EDX, UV-vis and FTIR analytical techniques. The highest incorporation of metal into β-cyclodextrin was observed in the citric acid cross linked β-CD. The catalase like activity (peroxide scavenging) of Co/β-CD and Fe/β-CD complexes and composites was evaluated by UV–visible spectrophotometer and their superoxide scavenging capacity were measured using the pyrogallol method. The Co3/CA-β-CD complex showed the best catalase mimetic activity (93.2%) even in comparison to catalase enzyme extracted from potato. By contrast Fe3/CA-βCD complex had stronger capability to eliminate superoxide anion radicals.


This volume consists of two sections, written by the two authors. The first section contains a study by Manfred Heuser on The Manichaean Myth According to Coptic Sources. This is the first systematic presentation of the basic myth as reflected in Coptic material. The second part is a collection of essays on Manichaeism by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. The essays are concerned, inter alia, with Manichaean art and symbolism, including newly found examples of Manichaean art from Central Asia.


Due to the increase of bacterial resistance, the search for new antibiotics is necessary and the medicinal plants represent its most important source. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial property of extract and fractions from Protium spruceanum leaves, against pathogenic bacteria. By means of diffusion and microdilution assays, the crude extract was active against the nine bacteria tested being the hydromethanolic fraction the most active. During phytochemical procedures, procyanidin (1) and catechin (2) were identified as the main antibacterial constituents of this fraction. In silico results obtained using PASSonline tool indicated 1 and 2 as having good potential to interact with different targets of currently used antibiotics. These results no indicated potential to none DNA effect and indicated the cell wall as mainly target. Electrophoresis result supported that had no DNA damage. Cell wall damage was confirmed by propidium iodide test that showed increased membrane permeability and by cell surface deformations observed in scanning electronic microscopy. The in vitro assays together with the in silico prediction results establish the potential of P. spruceanum as source of antibacterial compounds that acts on important bacterial targets. These results contribute to the development of natural substances against pathogenic bacteria and to discovery of new antibiotics.


A vast pool of frequency bands from 450 MHz to 3.6 GHz is available for deployment of LTE and LTEAdvanced networks. But with increase in the operating frequency path loss increases which in turn impacts the coverage area of a base station. Accordingly the number of base stations increases which leads to increase in the cost of deployment. Availability of spectrum in high frequency range is not an issue but it has its own pros and cons. This paper discusses the effects of deploying networks at high frequency versus deployment at low frequencies. The LTE system level simulator by Vienna has been used to study the changes in path loss with changes in operating frequencies of 0.8 GHz to 2 GHz.


Technology development has led to rapid increase in demands for multimedia applications. Due to this demand, digital archives are increasingly used to store these multimedia contents. Cloud is the commonly used archive to store, transmit, receive and share multimedia contents. Cloud makes use of internet to perform these tasks due to which data becomes more prone to attacks. Data security and privacy are compromised. This can be avoided by limiting data access to authenticated users and by hiding the data from cloud services that cannot be trusted. Hiding data from the cloud services involves encrypting the data before storing it into the cloud. Data to be shared with other users can be encrypted by utilizing Cipher Text-Policy Attribute Based Encryption (CP-ABE). CP-ABE is used which is a cryptographic technique that controls access to the encrypted data. The pairing-based computation based on bilinearity is used in ABE due to which the requirements for resources like memory and power supply increases rapidly. Most of the devices that we use today have limited memory. Therefore, an efficient pairing free CP– ABE access control scheme using elliptic curve cryptography has been used. Pairing based computation is replaced with scalar product on elliptic curves that reduces the necessary memory and resource requirements for the users. Even though pairing free CP-ABE is used, it is easier to retrieve the plaintext of a secret message if cryptanalysis is used. Therefore, this paper proposes to combine cryptography with steganography in such a way by embedding crypto text into an image to provide increased level of data security and data ownership for sub-optimal multimedia applications. It makes it harder for a cryptanalyst to retrieve the plaintext of a secret message from a stego-object if steganalysis were not used. This scheme significantly improved the data security as well as data privacy.


Mangrove forests, which serve as a natural sea defence, have been degraded by human action during the last decades. To protect and recover these areas, different types of permeable structures consisting of bamboo have been proposed and applied. However, these structures are currently based on engineering judgement, as design rules are not available. The goal of this research is to make a step forward in the design optimization of permeable structures and gain a better understanding of the processes causing the wave dissipation inside the structure. In this study, scale experiments are conducted in the wave flume at Delft University of Technology. An array of aluminum cylinders is used as a schematization of the structure, with an element diameter of 4 cm and a minimum spacing of 2 cm. The tested wave height is 0.13 m,with a water depth of 0.6 m for the first set of experiments. These experiments evaluated wave transformation through a selected number of configurations. The water depth was 0.55 m for the second set, where the velocities and forces were also measured inside the structure. As the applied wave periods are short (T = 1 − 2 s), the tested wave conditions are in the range of small KC-numbers (4 l KC l 13). The first part of this research focuses on effect of different configurations and arrangements on the amount of energy dissipation, by measuring the incoming and reflected wave heights in front of and behind the structure. For the short waves, the horizontal arrangements dissipate more energy, as energy is dissipated by both the vertical and horizontal drag forces. However, the effect diminishes with increasing wave period. Considering the total dissipation and the amount of dissipation per element, the placement of the elements in rows perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation is found to be the most effective. To study the effect of the element diameter on the dissipation, the results are compared with previous research by Haage (2018) on a model with a diameter and spacing of 2 cm. As with the change in diameter also the structure porosity changed, a direct comparison was not possible and a comparison based on a simplified drag coefficient is done. No direct effect of the diameter is observed, as the obtained drag coefficients show the same trend and magnitude when plotted against an adapted Keulegan-Carpenter number (KC∗), which is based on the element spacing instead of diameter. Small KC∗-numbers result in large drag coefficients,which decrease when KC∗ increases. The second part of this research focuses on the processes inside the structure that cause the energy dissipation. A force and velocity sensor are applied at three locations inside the structure in separate experiments, to determine the relation of the force and velocity inside the structure with the undisturbed values. Two methods are applied for the analysis, based on two different principles. Method 1 is based on the assumption of a constant pair of force coefficients and an increase in velocity inside the structure, method 2 is based on the assumption of a constant velocity and an increase in force coefficients inside the structure.By comparing both methods, it is found that an increase in velocity is the most important factor for the increase in drag force, which is the driving factor for the energy dissipation. It is also found that the amplification factor for the velocity is dependent on both the structure porosity and frontal porosity.