Following previous efforts to render the Conformational Space (CS) of flexible compounds by Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM), this polyvalent mapping technique is here adapted to the docking problem. Contact fingerprints (CF) characterize ligands from the perspective of the binding site by monitoring protein atoms that are "touched" by those of the ligand. A "Contact" (CF) map was built by GTM-driven dimensionality reduction of the CF vector space. Alternatively, a "Hybrid" (Hy) map used a composite descriptor of CFs concatenated with ligand fragment descriptors. These maps indirectly represent the active site and integrate the binding information of multiple ligands. The concept is illustrated by a docking study into the ATP-binding site of CDK2, using the S4MPLE program to generate thousands of poses for each ligand. Both maps were challenged to (1) Discriminate native from non-native ligand poses, e.g., create RMSD-landscapes "colored" by the conformer ensemble of ligands of known binding modes in order to highlight "native" map zones (poses with RMSD to PDB structures < 2Å). Then, projection of poses of other ligands on such landscapes might serve to predict those falling in native zones as being well-docked. (2) Distinguish ligands–characterized by their ensemble of conformers–by their potency, e.g., testing the hypotheses whether zones privileged by potent binders are clearly separated from the ones preferred by decoys on the maps. Hybrid maps were better in both challenges and outperformed the classical energy and individual contact satisfaction scores in discriminating ligands by potency. Moreover, the intuitive visualization and analysis of docking CS may, as already mentioned, have several applications–from highlighting of key contacts to monitoring docking calculation convergence.


BACKGROUND
Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) experience a high risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and are further made vulnerable by their situation in low levels of workplace and societal hierarchies of power and privilege.

OBJECTIVE
This study applies structural vulnerability theory to CNA WMSD experiences in order to identify structural factors that may influence such injuries.

METHODS
A sample of CNAs (n = 26) working in Nursing and Residential Care Facilities (NRCFs) was selected from workers who filed a claim during 2011-2014 for a WMSD of the back, shoulder, knee, or hand/wrist in the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries workers' compensation system. Interviews included questions about workers' injury experiences and work contexts. Qualitative data was analyzed for themes related to structural vulnerability theory and occupational safety and health (OSH) models.

RESULTS
Themes illustrate a work environment in NRCFs with major organizational deficiencies for CNA safety and a broader structural environment that appears to mediate them. CNAs described policies and practices that result from management priorities being diverted away from worker safety. These difficulties are compounded by several aspects of CNAs' socio-economic vulnerability.

CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates the utility of a structural perspective for OSH disparities research and points to the need for occupational health intervention on a structural level.


We have successfully developed High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) MicroElectroMechanical (MEM) switches for RF applications. A typical switch is composed of a superconducting Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/) coplanar waveguide structure with a gold bridge membrane suspended above an area of the center conductor covered with Barium Titinate (BaTiO/sub 3/) ferroelectric. A control voltage applied between the membrane and transmission line causes the membrane to collapse on top of the dielectric layer by electrostatically induced force; this in turn allows the RF signal to capacitively shunt to ground. Initial testing of switches showed very promising RF behavior with insertion losses less than 0.1dB with 30 dB isolation at 3 GHz. These switches rely on the "ON/OFF" impedance ratio to achieve switching; this is determined by the dielectric constant of the BaTiO/sub 3/ ferroelectric. These switches will be operated at cryogenic temperatures; we have investigated the impedance behavior vs. temperature of the HTS/ferroelectric/metal heterostructure to better understand the behavior of the insulating layer at cryogenic temperatures.


An edge is a bisector of a simple path if it contains the middle point of the path. Let T=(V,E) be a tree. Given a source vertex s /spl isin/ V, the single-source tree bisector problem is to find, for every vertex /spl upsi/ /spl isin/ V, a bisector of the simple path from s to /spl upsi/. The all-pairs tree bisector problem is to find for, every pair of vertices u, /spl upsi/ /spl isin/ V, a bisector of the simple path from u to /spl upsi/. In this paper, it is first shown that solving the single-source tree bisector problem of a weighted tree has a time lower bound /spl Omega/(n log n) in the sequential case. Then, efficient parallel algorithms are proposed on the EREW PRAM for the single-source and all-pairs tree bisector problems. Two O(log n) time single-source algorithms are proposed. One uses O(n) work and is for unweighted trees. The other uses O(n log n) work and is for weighted trees. Previous algorithms for the single-source problem could achieve the same time O(log n) and the same optimal work, O(n) for unweighted trees and O(n log n) for weighted trees, on the CRCW PRAM. The contribution of our single-source algorithms is the improvement from CRCW to EREW. One all-pairs parallel algorithm is proposed. It requires O(log n) time using O(n/sup 2/) work. All the proposed algorithms are cost-optimal. Efficient tree bisector algorithms have practical applications to several location problems on trees. Using the proposed algorithms, efficient parallel solutions for those problems are also presented.


The great amount of waste produced by food industry contains interesting bioactive compounds. The extraction of these compounds requires the by-products previous stabilization being the convective drying one of most used techniques to this end. Drying conditions can affect both drying kinetics and final quality of products. The apple skin, byproduct of apple juice or cider industries, is rich in functional compounds such as polyphenols or vitamin C. The main goal of this contribution was to quantify the influence of temperature and ultrasound application in drying kinetics of apple skin. For this purpose, drying experiments at different temperatures (-10, 30, 50 and 70 ºC) and with (20.5 kW/m3) and without application of ultrasound were carried out. Drying kinetics were modelled by using a diffusion based model. As can be expected, the higher the temperature the faster the drying. Ultrasound application accelerated the process at every temperature tested being the influence slightly lower than found from the literature for other products. This can be attributed at the physical structure of the apple skin, less porous than the pulp. In any case, the application of ultrasound significantly reduced the drying time. Keywords: by-products; dehydration;diffusivity; mass transfer


Large, multi-use sports and recreational facilities provide a unique, yet challenging, opportunity for energy conservation due to their large process loads. The proposed paper describes the use of building simulation to aid in mechanical system and architectural design to improve heat recovery from process heat generation to satisfy building loads. The focus of this study is a recreational facility that consists of an NHL-size ice arena, 8-sheet curling rink, a gymnasium, change and restrooms, offices, library, fitness studios, a large glazed atrium, as well as 50 metre lap, leisure, outdoor and whirl pools. The ice plant providing refrigeration to generate and maintain the ice surfaces produces large amounts of waste heat when in operation. Traditionally, ice plant waste heat has been recovered for rink-related hot water loads only (i.e. snow melt pits, ice resurfacer fills for ice resurfacing, and sub-floor freeze protection), with the excess being rejected to the ambient environment. With this project, the proximity of the rinks and pools offers a unique opportunity for a more thorough recovery and reuse of the ice plant's waste heat. When designing to reuse waste heat, difficulty lies in balancing the availability and grade of reclaimed heat with a corresponding building or process load. To accurately predict this balance, two building energy simulation tools were employed, one to predict building HVAC loads (eQUEST) and a second to describe the system energy flows (TRNSYS). Initially, hourly end-use process loads were determined based on applicable literature and historical data and knowledge gained from similar facilities operated by the regional parks board owner. These loads were then included in a whole-building energy simulation to determine overall HVAC and building energy consumption. A second simulation, specific to the building's mechanical systems, was then used to calculate the dynamics of demand and availability of heat, taking into consideration the grade of heat available from the heat sources (ice plant, solar hot water collectors, heat recovery, and building heating equipment). The results of these complimenting simulations aided in determining the design of the building's mechanical systems including sizing a hot water storage system intended to balance the inherent time lag. This paper describes the procedure employed to predict the transient nature of athletic facility process loads, the combinination of multiple building simulation tools to predict and balance heating loads with process waste energy, and the necessary integrated design process required.


The chain‐of‐states (CoS) constant advance replicas (CAR) method and its climbing image variant (CI‐CAR) for locating minimum energy paths (MEPs) and transition states are reported. The CAR algorithm applies the Lagrange multiplier method for imposing holonomic constraints on a chain‐of‐replicas, aiming to maintain equal mass‐weighted/scaled root‐mean‐square (RMS) distances between the adjacent replicas by removing the sliding‐down displacements contributed by the potential gradients during path optimization. Two contextual regularization schemes with clear geometrical interpretations are implemented to jointly promote high convergence and numerical robustness of the CAR algorithm. We show that the constrained reaction path can be solved normally within 5 steps of Lagrange multiplier updates with remarkably high numerical precision via the CAR approach. The efficacy of the CAR methods is demonstrated by testing on multiple analytical, classical, and quantum mechanical transition paths: the Müller potential, the alanine dipeptide isomerization, the helix unwinding of the VIVITLVMLKKK 12‐mer peptide, and the Baker set of reactions. We also explore the potential of applying adaptive momentum (AdaM) optimizers for locating optimal transition paths under complex conformational changes. Most importantly, we discuss extensively the differences and connections between our newly proposed CAR methods and several related methods, with focuses on the reaction path with holonomic constraints (RPCons) approach of Brokaw et al. [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2009, 5 (8), 2050–2061] and the state‐of‐the‐art string method (SM) of E et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 2007, 126 (16), 164103]. The CAR approach represents a latest update to the general theoretical framework of reaction path finding algorithms in the two‐ended CoS regime.


Many recent studies have convincingly demonstrated that network traffic exhibits a noticeable self-similar nature which has a considerable impact on network performance. Therefore, we present a novel scheme for optical burst switching (OBS) networks, called logical cascaded private subnet. We define the concept of `canoe' relative to `cluster' in self-similar traffic, and introduce a new device named payload segregator at the edge node as a gateway to the core node in OBS networks. According to the changes in the edge node framework, we put forward the concept of cluster private subnet and canoe private subnet in the core node correspondingly. Performance study indicates that, the new scheme is robust under self-similar traffic


Prussian blue analogue (PBA) molecular magnetic materials have opened up the possibility of combining the molecular functionalities with their magnetic properties. A tremendous effort is on for finding appropriate PBAs that are suitable for memory and sensor applications. We have observed the magnetic pole reversal in multi-metal Prussian blue type compounds {CuxMn1-x}1.5[Fe(CN)6].zH2O. Our molecular field theory calculations agree very well with the observed temperature dependent magnetization reversal behaviour. As the applied magnetic field is increased, the negative magnetization keeps changing its character and finally becomes positive with typical ferrimagnetic/ferromagnetic type behaviour. A highly reversible-bipolar switching of magnetization using low applied magnetic fields is demonstrated. Possible applications of the observed magnetic pole reversal phenomenon in novel magneto-electronic devices such as volatile magnetic memory and thermo-magnetic switches have been revealed.


It is well known that the acoustic cavity inside the tire-wheel assembly contributes to vehicle interior noise. In this paper, we have performed acoustic and structural modal testings to investigate the influences of the acoustic cavity resonance on structural vibration characteristics for the tire in free-suspension and for the loaded tire. The testings have given us some findings, which are reported in this paper.


As development of the Arctic grows in intensity, semi-submersible platforms are one of promising type of offshore structures used for arctic oil exploitation. Generally a good ice management is equipped by a moored floating platform to reduce ice loads to manageable levels, thus the most common scenario for a polar operating semi-submersible platform is pack ice conditions. The resistance test of a 4-columns structure is performed in a normal towing tank in China using synthetic non-refrigerated material with similar density to model sea ice. Three component load cells on top of each column and a batch of single component load cells embedded in the surface of the columns near the waterline are used to measure indirect and direct ice loads on the structures. The effects of a series of parameters such as column shapes, orientations, column spacing ratios, ice floe shapes, ice drift speeds and ice concentrations are analyzed.


Despite their exceptional flexibility and popularity, the Monte Carlo methods often suffer from slow mixing times for challenging statistical physics problems. We present a general strategy to overcome this difficulty by adopting ideas and techniques from the machine learning community. We fit the unnormalized probability of the physical model to a feedforward neural network and reinterpret the architecture as a restricted Boltzmann machine. Then, exploiting its feature detection ability, we utilize the restricted Boltzmann machine for efficient Monte Carlo updates and to speed up the simulation of the original physical system. We implement these ideas for the Falicov-Kimball model and demonstrate improved acceptance ratio and autocorrelation time near the phase transition point.


Social problems in society often occur in increasingly complex social environments. Many things happen which are in line with human life that continues to evolve and fluctuate especially it happens in developing countries. This is usually caused by the existence of social sustainability in a community group and arousing social jealousy, thus generate to behavior with certain characteristics. Through several theories, the behavior is reviewed and the symptoms are also observed. Finally, a simple understanding is obtained, that social problems are caused by, among others; 1) young generation movements, 2) poverty groups, 3) education groups. It is not the wrong educational process, but the supporting factors that are not in line with the values in the learning process are the factors that support the problem insociety.


Plants have evolved efficient strategies for utilizing nutrients in the soil in order to survive, grow, and reproduce. Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is a major macroelement source for plant growth; however, the availability and distribution of Pi are varying widely across locations. Thus, plants in many areas experience Pi deficiency. To maintain cellular Pi homeostasis, plants have developed a series of adaptive responses to facilitate external Pi acquisition, limit Pi consumption, and adjust Pi recycling internally under Pi starvation conditions. This review focuses on the molecular regulators that modulate Pi starvation-induced root architectural changes.


In order to observe the protein compositions of soluble extracts of P. westermani, and their changes during early developmental stages, the crude saline extracts of 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 week-old worms which were harvested from experimentally infected dogs were analysed by disc-PAGE. The results were as follows: A total of 15 bands were identified from electrophoregrams of respective developmental stages. Of them, 5 bands were recognized throughout the developmental stages. The number and protein amount of identified bands changed according to the worm development from 4 weeks to 12 weeks. However, the banding patterns of 4 and 6 week-old worms and 8 and 10 week-old worms were similar each other. Of 15 identified bands, band 1 was recognized only in 12 week-old worms whereas bands 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 15 gradually lowered their amount according to development to disappear in 12 week-old. In addition, band 5 became a major band in 12 week-old while band 6 turned to a minor band at tha same age. The possible relations of changing patterns of protein bands with worm development were discussed.


research currently done in psychology of religion implies existence of a new term "spirituality" which is both related to the concept of religiousness and different from it. The aim of this article is to examine differences and similarities between religiousness and spirituality, and to answer the question whether it is possible to integrate both concepts within methodological issues of psychology of religion. conducted analyses pointed at differences between religiousness and spirituality e.g. in the scope of the concepts, in their relations with personality, and among references to other spheres of human functioning. At the same time many similarities were discovered that occur on structural and functional levels. Therefore, the optimal solution it to consider religiousness and spirituality as not covering, but overlapping constructs. it implies a postulate of conducting further common research on both concepts which can give us a more precise understanding of connections between psychological functioning of individuals and their relations to the transcendent sphere.


A riveting tour through the history of man's evolution, drawing upon the latest findings in all related sciences including genetics, paleoanthropology, archeology, and ecology. Kingdon's provocative theory asserts that human evolution was driven by our lust for new tools and technologies. Covers new developments in the "Out of Africa" theory and explores the potential for human extinction due to environmental destruction.


The in vitro activities of 12 beta-lactam agents against 100 thermophilic Campylobacter strains were tested. Beta-Lactamase production was detected in 88% of all strains tested. Clavulanic acid was the best inhibitor by susceptibility testing. The beta-lactams which displayed high levels of in vitro activity against Campylobacter isolates were imipenem, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, and cefepime and, to a lesser degree, amoxicillin, ampicillin, and cefotaxime.


Three studies were conducted to examine effect of water temperature on rumen temperature, digestion and fermentation in sheep. Four, 2-yr-old wethers were used in a Latin square design among four water temperature treatments: 0, 10, 20 and 30 C. Rumen temperature was depressed most by 0 C water followed by 10 C, 20 C and 30 C water. For 0, 10, 20 and 30 C water, respectively, 108, 96, 96 and 72 min were needed to reach initial rumen temperature. Water temperature had no significant effect on N balance or percentage dry matter digestibility, crude protein digestibility and crude fiber digestibility although lowest digestion coefficients were observed for the 0 C treatment. Numerical differences were observed in rumen pH or volatile fatty acid (VFA) and ammonia-N concentrations at the various water temperatures; however, the effects were not significant. Rumen pH was maximally depressed at 2 h postfeeding for 0 C water, 3 h for 10 C water, 4 h for 20 C water, and 3 and 4 h for 30 C water. By 4 h postfeeding, the 0 C water treatment produced the highest concentration of all VFA and ammonia-N; however, by 4 h not all of the VFA or ammonia-N concentrations had reached maxima for 10, 20 or 30 C water treatments. The 0 C water treatment produced the lowest concentrations of ammonia-N and VFA (except acetate) by 5 h postfeeding.


AbstractThis research aims to determine the relationship between doctor and patient in a therapeutic agreement, as provided for in Informed Consent and  the law of medical practice for doctors and patients understand the obligations and responsibilities as well as provide insights for health professionals, especially physicians about the importance of treaties in creating therapeutic medical services appropriate to the patient.The research was conducted at two hospitals in the city of Makassar is Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospitals and Hospitals Grestelina. Primary data collection instruments and interviews conducted with the data sender done with literature study and data collection at two institutions. Data were analyzed qualitatively.The results showed that the Therapeutic relationship that occurs between doctor and patient is currently well underway with the hospital where doctors and Grestelina Wahidin Sudirohusodo been clearly understood to provide information needed by patients from both phases of history, diagnosis/ so that everything recorded in prognosis medical records. The patient could complain of illness, but patients tend to be resigned to that advice from doctors is not done. Doctors and hospitals Wahidin Sudirohusodo Grestelina has done its responsibility in caring for patients with always do a routine for inpatients and how to be polite and respect the limits of its competence by following per under the oath that doctors say. Patients have appreciated doter with trying to provide honest information in which the function of creating belief between doctor and patient. Sudirohusodo Wahidin hospital doctors and medical services Grestelina have done in the form of counseling to the patient in choosing the appropriate medication and treatment conditions quickly for emergency room patients are by the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). SOP (Standard Operating Procedure also regulates every doctor who wants to practice in the hospital, and Grestelina Wahidin Sudirohusodo must have the STR (letter of registration) and SIP (Permit Practice) through the provisions made by the Institute COUNCIL (Physician Discipline Committee) and the Organization of Ethics.


While companies were denying in the 1960s and 1970s their impact on the environment, an environmental revolution for the last three decades has made today"s companies take their responsibilities in this respect. Sustainable business is a way of doing business that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, on community, society, or economy; a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) (Cooney, 2009).
The Royal Embassy of the Netherlands in Pretoria plays an important role in the development of sustainable business by Dutch companies in South Africa. In order to do so, the Embassy tries to set an example for these companies. Besides promoting sustainable business, they highlight its benefits and monitor companies on their actions. The relevance of sustainable business is unquestionable, since political and scientific consensus worldwide has confirmed the immense scale of environmental challenges governments, businesses and individuals are facing.
This project has resulted in an in-depth understanding of the differences and similarities between South African and Dutch companies in doing "sustainable business" in the logistics sector, specifically regarding the different views on "sustainable business", differences in practices, and the perceived impact on business performance. This project has enhanced the Dutch Embassy"s knowledge regarding the current state of play and how it can support Dutch companies in increasing their sustainability, becoming forerunners, and staying ahead of the "sustainable" competitors. The following research question was answered in this study:
"What are the differences and similarities in doing sustainable business between South African and Dutch companies in the logistics sector and in which way can the Dutch Embassy support Dutch companies in South Africa in doing sustainable business?"
Both theory and results have confirmed that sustainable business is a very broad definition. In this respect 55% of the companies focused on the environment and 46% on the economical aspects. With regard to the P"s, 55% focused on the people aspect, 46% on the profit aspect, and 18% on the planet or environmental aspect. It was concluded from this that the environmental aspect is probably a higher or strategic goal to strive for, but that in practice they try to reach this goal by means of the people and profit aspects. The results have shown that especially the larger companies focus on the environmental aspects, while the smaller companies focus more on the social aspects. The medium companies use a mix of environmental, social and economical aspects. The sample consisted for the larger part of smaller and larger companies, so the results apply more to these than to medium sized companies, which focus on a mix of factors. This is also consistent with several respects of this research, since the larger and smaller companies use only several of the component of
VI
TBL and strive for one or maybe two higher goals, while medium sized companies use a mix of components and strive often also for a mix of higher goals.
Striving for certain aspects of TBL does not guarantee that companies practice this in reality. The results have shown that especially smaller companies do not always pursue sustainable business. The reasons for not pursuing sustainability differed. On a larger scale it could be the case that the smaller companies do not have the means to pursue sustainability; therefore they focus more on aspects they find more important. If they do not pursue sustainability, they will also not develop an awareness of hampering factors. Larger and medium sized companies showed more awareness in this respect. A large group of the sample also focused on technological aspect, as a consequence of an increasing attention for sustainable business and brand value.
The research model has shown that characteristics of the Netherlands and South Africa will influence sustainable business in logistics, and that commercial diplomacy also would be able to exert influence. The results have shown that sustainable business is not always pursued in South African companies, especially in smaller ones, even when the focus is on one of the TBL factors. In general, the focus and implementation of sustainability issues in South African companies is much less than in Dutch companies. There are differences in Dutch and South African companies in logistics, so it seems that characteristics of a country can influence sustainable business in logistics. Also, the embassy has several resources to support sustainable business, which also seem to be able to exert influence, like a big network, consulates, information on the country, which can give them a competitive advantage and money in terms of funding projects.
This research was done in times of economical crisis, so companies are spending not much money on sustainability, especially when it is not available in huge amounts. When the economy is becoming stable again, new research can give different results with regards to the sustainability issue. Also, the research was done in eleven companies, with a mix of small, medium and large companies. The sample was small, so future research should be done with larger samples to either confirm or deny the results. Furthermore, the changing of personnel every four years in the Embassy can be a cause for the low support in practice; also a factor that can be explored in future research. Finally, another factor for future research is the amount of knowledge a company has on the elements of TLB, namely people, profit and planet. It should be made clear how a company defines these concepts and the concept of sustainability to be able to make reliable comparisons.


A seamless and intuitive search capability for the vast amount of datasets generated by scientific experiments is critical to ensure effective use of such data by domain specific scientists. Currently, searches on enormous XML datasets is done manually via custom scripts or by using hard-to-customize queries developed by experts in complex and disparate XML query languages. Such approaches however do not provide acceptable performance for large-scale data since they are not based on a scalable distributed solution. Furthermore, it has been shown that databases are not optimized for queries on XML data generated by scientific experiments, as term kinship, range based queries, and constraints such as conjunction and negation need to be taken into account. There exists a critical need for an easy-to-use and scalable framework, specialized for scientific data, that provides natural-language-like syntax along with accurate results. As most existing search tools are designed for exact string matching, which is not adequate for scientific needs, we believe that such a framework will enhance the productivity and quality of scientific research by the data reduction capabilities it can provide. This paper presents how the MapReduce model should be used in XML metadata indexing for scientific datasets, specifically TeraGrid Information Services and the NeXus datasets generated by the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) scientists. We present an indexing structure that scales well for large-scale MapReduce processing. We present performance results using two MapReduce implementations, Apache Hadoop and LEMO-MR, to emphasize the flexibility and adaptability of our framework in different MapReduce environments.


Despite voluminous literature identifying invasive species impacts, understandings of monetary costs remain limited. Recently, profound impacts have been attributed to invasive crustaceans, but associated monetary costs lack synthesis. Here, we analyse globally reported costs of invasive freshwater crayfish across taxonomic, spatial and temporal descriptors. Moreover, we compare their cost magnitude to other invasive crustaceans — crabs, amphipods and lobsters. Between 2000 and 2020, crayfish caused US$ 1.28 billion in reported costs; the vast majority (95%) attributed to Astacidae (principally the signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus) and the remainder to Cambaridae. According to reports, crayfish costs mostly impacted European economies (US$ 1.23 billion), followed by costs reported for North America and Asia. Despite well-known damages caused by invasive crayfish, costs were unreported elsewhere, highlighting knowledge gaps and challenges in cost quantifications. Invasive crayfish costs increased exponentially in the last two decades, averaging at US$ 61 million per-annum. Invasive crabs caused costs of similar magnitude (US$ 1.25 billion; US$ 53 million per-annum) but were mostly confined to North America (95%). Damage-related costs dominated for both crayfish (83%) and crabs (99%), with management spending lacking. Reported economic impacts from amphipods (US$ 178.8 thousand) and lobsters (US$ 44.6 thousand) were considerably lower. We identify burgeoning economic costs from these invasive groups yet highlight pervasive knowledge gaps at multiple scales. Further cost reporting is required to better-ascertain the true scale of monetary costs caused by invasive aquatic crustaceans.


Rapid useful and easy spectrophotometric method for the quantitative analysis of (Atorvastatin calcium) (ATV) in raw material and tablets pharmaceutical formulation has been described. This method is based on the formation of yellow ion-pair complex between Atorvastatin calcium and Bromocresol purple (BCP) in Dichloromethane medium.   Different parameters affecting the reaction such as: effect of solvents, stability, reagent concentration, correlation ratio, etc. were optimized. The absorbance of the formed compound was measured by visible spectrum at absorption maximum 405 nm. The range of linearity was 3.02 – 42.33 µg/mL, , regression analysis had a good correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9994. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were to be 0.463 µg/mL and 1.403 µg/mL respectively. The (average percent recovery) was found to be (99.26 – 99.85) % for (Atorvastatin Calcium). This study was applied on Syrian pharmaceutical products: (Atoraz 20 mg & Atoraz 40 mg). The method was successfully applied for the determination of Atorvastatin calcium in tablets pharmaceutical formulation. The proposed method is simple, direct, sensitive doesn't require any )extraction(  process. Thus, the method could be ready to apply in routine analysis and quality control.


This paper describes a novel learning control scheme for tracking periodic trajectories in mechanical systems with friction. It is based on the fact that the solution of the closed-loop system tends to be periodic in steady state. When the closed-loop system reaches the steady state, the proposed learning control scheme updates the control input. By doing this iteratively, the proposed learning control scheme eventually can drive the tracking error to zero. Neither the information of the system mass nor the parametric model for friction is required for successful tracking. In particular the proposed learning control scheme can be implemented at cheap cost on a commercially available microprocessor. Furthermore, its generality is well supported through rigorous convergence analysis.


In this study, the ultrasound-assisted extraction of polysaccharides (PSA) from Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum Cum Alumine (PRPCA) was optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). The structural characteristics of PSA were analyzed by UV-vis spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, high performance gel permeation chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography, respectively. In addition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of PSA were studied by different in vitro assays. Results indicated that the optimal extraction conditions were as follows: the ratio of water to raw of 30 mL/g, extraction time of 46.50 min, ultrasonic temperature of 72.00 °C, and ultrasonic power of 230 W. Under these conditions, the obtained PSA yield (13.21 ± 0.37%) was closely agreed with the predicted yield by the model. The average molecular weights of the PSA were estimated to be 5.34 × 103 and 6.27 × 105 Da. Monosaccharide composition analysis indicated that PSA consisted of mannose, galactose uronic acid, glucose, galactose, arabinose with a molar ratio of 1.83:0.55:75.75:1.94:0.45. Furthermore, PSA exhibited moderate antioxidant and antibacterial activities in vitro. Collectively, this study provides a promising strategy to obtain bioactive polysaccharides from processed products of herbal medicines.


Abstract We present in situ measurements of the unit-cell volume of a natural terrestrial ilmenite (Jagersfontein mine, South Africa) and a synthetic reduced ilmenite (FeTiO3) at simultaneous high pressure and high temperature up to 16 GPa and 1273 K. Unit-cell volumes were determined using energy-dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction in a multi-anvil press. Mössbauer analyses show that the synthetic sample contained insignificant amounts of Fe3+ both before and after the experiment. Results were fit to Birch- Murnaghan thermal equations of state, which reproduce the experimental data to within 0.5 and 0.7 GPa for the synthetic and natural samples, respectively. At ambient conditions, the unit-cell volume of the natural sample [V0 = 314.75 ± 0.23 (1σ) Å3] is significantly smaller than that of the synthetic sample [V0 = 319.12 ± 0.26 Å3]. The difference can be attributed to the presence of impurities and Fe3+ in the natural sample. The 1 bar isothermal bulk moduli KT0 for the reduced ilmenite is slightly larger than for the natural ilmenite (181 ± 7 and 165 ± 6 GPa, respectively), with pressure derivatives K0′ = 3 ± 1. Our results, combined with literature data, suggest that the unit-cell volume of reduced ilmenite is significantly larger than that of oxidized ilmenite, whereas their thermoelastic parameters are similar. Our data provide more appropriate input parameters for thermo-chemical models of lunar interior evolution, in which reduced ilmenite plays a critical role.


We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of a stonefly, Amphinemura claviloba (Wu, 1973), of the family Nemouridae (Insecta: Plecoptera). The mitogenome was 15,707 bp long and contained typical 37 genes with an A+T content of 68.5%. All protein-coding genes (PCGs) use standard initiation codons (methionine and isoleucine), except ND1 and ND5 which starts with TTG and GTG, respectively. Two of the 13 PCGs harbor the incomplete termination codon. All tRNA genes have typical clover secondary structures, except the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of tRNASer(AGN) forms a simple loop. Secondary structure models of the ribosomal RNA genes of A. claviloba are similar to those proposed for other insects. We also found some structural elements in the control region, such as tandem repeats, poly-C stretch and microsatellite-like elements, etc. Phylogenetic analyses showed the clades for the Nemoura, Amphinemura, and (Mesonemoura + Sphaeronemoura + Indonemoura + Protonemura) are well supported in a polytomy.


This issue of Neurosurgical Focus is dedicated to the evaluation and management of vestibular schwannomas (VSs). Perhaps there is no greater or longerstanding controversy in all of neurosurgery than how to evaluate and treat these lesions. Almost a century ago, the mortality rate from surgical treatment of VSs was higher than 70% at most prominent centers throughout Europe. Harvey Cushing deserves credit for advocating for an approach involving a wide bilateral posterior fossa decompression and subtotal "intracapsular" resection of the VS, which reduced the mortality rate to approximately 20%. This heralded an era in which having a VS was no longer a fatal diagnosis and patients could survive surgery and resume a reasonable quality of life after treatment. However, just a decade later, Cushing's most prominent pupil, Walter Dandy, proposed a unilateral approach and complete VS resection (and the necessary sacrifice of the facial and vestibulocochlear nerves). During the mid-20th century, many advances remarkably improved the outcomes of VS treatment, including improvements in neuroanesthesia, the introduction of the operating microscope (and subsequent improvements in mechanics, lighting sources, and optics), and cranial nerve monitoring, to name just a few. Also, it became common that a team consisting of a neurosurgeon and neuro-otologist worked in tandem, bringing together unique areas of expertise to improve intraoperative and postoperative patient care. As is so often the case in medicine, some of the original controversies from almost 100 years ago still surface today. This issue of Neurosurgical Focus offers a wide variety of interesting articles that provide insight into current surgical techniques, controversies, and new technological advancements. Hoshide et al. provide an impressive series of 45 patients with moderately large tumors (> 3.0 cm) surgically treated through a "key-hole" or tailored approach. The outcomes were outstanding; 84% of patients had good VII nerve function at last follow-up; and useful hearing was saved in 3 (37.5%) of 8 patients who had hearing preoperatively. The authors from the University of Wisconsin demonstrate equally good outcomes in their group of patients when the results obtained in 33 cystic VSs were compared with those acquired in a group with solid VSs. Whether or not cystic VSs are more difficult to remove has been extensively debated over the past several decades, as these authors discuss. In their time, Cushing and Dandy sparred in the literature and by personal communication about the advisability of complete versus subtotal removal of VSs. Starnoni et al. provide a nice review of the literature to date on the technique of subtotal resection and stereotactic irradiation of large VSs performed in an attempt to maintain excellent cranial nerve function. Reviewing 9 studies encompassing 248 patients, good facial nerve function (House-Brackmann grade I–II) was achieved in 96.1% of cases and serviceable hearing was preserved in an incredible 59.9%! Advances in technology to aid surgical resection include the handheld CO2 lasers and the use of the angled endoscope to view the very fundus of the internal auditory canal (below the transverse crest) during a middle fossa approach. These advancements can carry over into the management of complications as Lucke-Wold et al. describe in their submission regarding a minimally invasive way to repair refractory lateral skull base CSF leaks. Finally, the authors from Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, dos Santos Neto and colleagues provide an intriguing discussion of hearing rehabilitation in VS patients who have undergone cochlear implantation (CI). There is a lot of evidence that CI can effectively suppress tinnitus, which can indeed be very disabling to some patients. Whether or not insurance companies will agree to cover CI for unilateral deafness remains to be seen. We hope you enjoy this issue of Neurosurgical Focus and find the articles informative and thought provoking.


Flat fibers and hollow fibers were prepared through the high-speed melt spinning of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and the structures of these fibers were compared with those of circular fibers. The cross-sectional shape of each fiber changed to a dull shape in comparison with that of the respective spinning nozzle. The change in the cross-sectional shape was slightly suppressed with an increase in the take-up velocity. There was a significant development of structural variation in the cross section of flat fibers in that the molecular orientation and crystallization were enhanced at the edge. Despite the difference in the cross-sectional shape, the structural development of flat, hollow, and circular fibers with increasing take-up velocity showed almost similar behavior. Considering that the tensile stress at the solidification point of the spin line is known to govern the structure development of high-speed spun PET fibers, it was speculated that the effects of the enhancement of cooling and air friction on the tensile stress at the solidification point cancel each other. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 1575–1581, 2001


Summary

Advances in fungal biosystematics and molecular genetics have clarified relationships among the wood-decay fungi and are providing new tools for their detection and identification. Species complexes of forest pathogens, including those within Heterobasidion, Armillaria, Laetiporus, and Phellinus, are being resolved. The ability to isolate fungal DNA directly from wood without in intermediate culturing step will greatly facilitate sampling and disease detection and has applications in forest disease management, hazard tree assessment, invasive species detection, and carbon cycling, sequestration and climate change research. Recent changes in fungal nomenclature and their application to forest pathology are discussed.


We consider noncanonical embeddings of the MSSM in high-dimensional orbifold grand unified theories (GUTs) based on the gauge symmetry SU(N), N=5, 6, 7, 8. The hypercharge normalization factor k(Y) can either have unique noncanonical values, such as 23/21 in a six-dimensional SU(7) model, or may lie in a (continuous) interval. Gauge coupling unification and gauge-Yukawa unification can be realized in these models by introducing new particles with masses in the TeV range which may be found at the LHC. In one such example there exist color singlet fractionally charged states.


A linguistic analysis shows differences in the way narcissistic and non-narcissistic users communicate on Twitter. Because narcissism is marked by attention-seeking, and is related to negativity and perceived victimization, we hypothesized that narcissists would use more words about anger and negative emotions. Conversely, we further hypothesized that they would use fewer words about social interaction and positive emotions. An analysis of over 1,000 users supported these hypotheses.


Abstract Open dielectric waveguides are structures used to guide electromagnetic energy in integrated circuits above the cutoff or as leaky wave antennas propagating the energy transversely out of the waveguide in a narrow region below the cutoff. In this study, the related operating regions for the hybrid EH modes of a cylindrical dielectric rod were obtained analytically. Analyses of the leaky wave characteristics of the hybrid EH modes for various radii of the rod and various dielectric constant values were performed. The guided modes existing above the cutoff with a pure real propagation constant, and the leaky wave modes existing below the cutoff with a complex propagation constant, were obtained from the coefficient matrix of the characteristic equations system of the structure using the bisection method and Davidenko's method, respectively. Additionally, the guided modes of the structure were obtained and designated in the light of previous studies in the literature. The results show that the frequency spectrum of the antenna mode region increases as the value of the dielectric constant and the radius of the dielectric rod decrease. In addition, a circular dielectric with a smaller radius and dielectric constant had a larger frequency spectrum in the leaky wave antenna applications.


Cold acclimation is a well‐known strategy for enhancing cold tolerance in ectotherms including insects. Nevertheless, information on the physiological mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon is still limited. Biological membrane integrity is critical for insects to perform at low temperatures, and an advantage is conferred on those insects that can adjust the composition of their membrane phospholipids. Such changes contribute to homeoviscous adaptation, a process that allows membranes to maintain a liquid–crystalline (fluid) state at low temperatures. Here we investigated phospholipids in the flesh fly Sarcophaga similis acclimated to various temperatures. Significant differences were observed in the composition of their fatty acyl chains: flies acclimated to low temperatures showed a higher proportion of palmitic and oleic acids at the expense of palmitoleic acid. Other fatty acids (stearic, linoleic, linolenic, arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic acids) were not significantly changed. The degree of unsaturation decreased in cold‐acclimated flies, but the difference was quite small. The weighted average chain length and number of double bonds were unchanged among flies acclimated to different temperatures. As temperatures decreased, the percentage of phosphatidylethanolamine increased to twice that of phosphatidylcholine. We discuss the role of these phospholipid changes in cold acclimation.


This paper presents an automated system for mass segmentation and detection in mammograms. Initially, breast segmentation is applied to separate the breast and non-breast area. Then, image enhancement is employed to improve the contrast of the tissues structure in mammograms. Finally, constraint region growing based on local statistical texture analysis is applied to detect and segment out the mass from the mammograms. The system is develop and evaluated with 322 mammograms from Mammographic Image Analysis Society Database. The verification results show that the proposed technique has a sensitivity of 94.59% and the number of false positive per image is 3.90. Key-Words: Image processing; image segmentation; mammogram images; medical imaging; mass detection


The present work is a critical approach of the existent relationships between the mathematics and the biological sciences, emphasizing in the importance and reciprocity that have both branches of the knowledge as fundamental part of the modern scientific research. It emphasizes the necessity to carry out changes in the models of teaching of these two areas in the current superior education. It shows in a differential way the focus from the mathematics to the service of the reality and the reality to the service of the mathematics. At the time that ratifies the current value of the mathematical models like road of explanation of natural phenomenons.


Herein, we have reported the wavelength-scanned (WS) SERS spectra of 4-mercaptopyridine molecules (4-MPy) adsorbed on gold nanoparticles immobilised in a Langmuir Reverse Schaefer (L-RSh) film matrix of 5CB molecules. The WS-SERS spectral profile exhibited an increment in the intensity of the enhanced Raman bands of 4-MPy with an increase in the wavelength of the excitation laser source. The rationale behind the experimental observations was supported by the simulated extinction spectra and the enhancement factor measurements of the modelled systems using the T-matrix formalism. The SERS intensity fluctuations in the band located at 1000 cm-1 for the 4-MPy molecule, as obtained from three different locations in the L-RSh film substrate, were also analyzed. Surprisingly, depending on the spatial locations of the substrates, the intensity fluctuations of the abovementioned band exhibit both Poisson and Gaussian distributions but the maximum number of probe molecules that can reside in the scattering areas under investigation cannot exceed sixteen. These observations suggest that the origin of SERS from single/few molecules or from the ensemble-averaged system cannot be inferred from the statistical distributions of the Raman intensity fluctuations. The present experimental observations also revealed the relation between the near-field plasmonic behaviors of the substrate with the corresponding far-field SERS spectra of the 4-MPy molecule.


A simple coumarin hydrazine Schiff base bearing a thioether recognition fragment (compound CBBS) has been rationally designed and easily prepared. CBBS exhibited an excellent selectivity for Pd(II) and a low detection limit of 65 nM (S/N = 3). The fluorescence emission intensities of CBBS at 495 nm were linear to Pd(II) concentrations in a wide range from 0 to 80 μM. Moreover, CBBS has been well used in fluorescence imaging of Pd(II) in living A549 cells. CBBS as a simple coordination-based fluorescent probe will inspire the researchers to develop a polymer for selective detection and adsorption of Pd(II).


Cloud computing is becoming a key element in service provision on the Internet. Businesses are seizing the availability of infrastructure as service to obtain cost effective infrastructure solutions. However, in businesses the power of services emerges from the ability to combine different services in order to obtain some value added services. Cloud services composition presents some challenges like, service discovery and real time service evaluation; which are addressed in this paper by introducing a primal framework that enables dynamic specification of SLAs, in addition to SLA-based verification and composition of services on the Cloud. The verification is used as input to the composition and consists of verifying the functional and non-functional properties of the cloud service under test. An ongoing prototype implementation will evaluate the verification scheme and prove its importance in composing and selecting services on the cloud.


My hypothesis is that the qualities that produce well-being among physicians in today's health care environment are synonymous with the qualities that produce effective leaders in health care and other parts of our society. In fact, a more radical restatement of this proposition is that the absence of these qualities in an individual physician leads to dis-ease and dysfunction. This belief is borne out of my observation that the leadership task confronting physicians is a large and psychologically rooted undertaking.


Occasionally, the distinction between malignant and benign is challenging in superficial shave biopsies of squamoproliferative lesions. This phenomenon is compounded by the increasing prevalence of conditions encountered that weaken the immune system, such as chemotherapy, immune deficiency diseases, and antirejection medications for organ transplantation that have all been shown to increase the risk of the development of squamous cell carcinoma that are sampled. We collected 30 cases (10 invasive SCC, 10 SK and 10 VV) and performed immunohistochemical staining using a panel approach composed of markers important for proliferation and cell cycle, including Ki-67, p16, p53, and PHLDA1. The results demonstrate that the invasive SCC group was enriched for high PHLDA1 (80% with PHLDA1 score=3, 100% with PHLDA1 score ≥ 2) and high p53 (50% of SCC with p53 score ≥ 2 vs. 60% of SK and 90% of VV with p53 score=1). The SK group was enriched for low p16 (100% with p16 score ≤ 1) and high p63 scores (100% with p63 score=3). A panel approach may be utilized to help in the distinction between benign keratoses and carcinoma and may be increasingly critical to promote quality care.


In a well-known article, Hodnett pointed out that Virgil emphasizes the peacefulness and quiet of the sea, its immensity and limitlessness, in contrast to the view articulated by the Roman poets of the Republic, which presents the sea as deceptive and fearsome. Among the many terms used in the Aeneid to denote the sea, aequor stands out precisely because it is the term most frequently used by Virgil in place of the word mare .


The one overriding theme used to describe the modern Supreme Court is its revival of federalism. Ever since the New Deal era, federalism concerns had been largely absent from the Court's decisions. However, under the leadership of the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, the Court has attempted to resuscitate the constitutional role and authority of the states by revitalizing constraints on national power such as the Tenth Amendment and state sovereign immunity.Despite the modern Court's dramatic move toward political federalism, it has not made a corresponding move in the area of individual rights. Rather than encouraging a decentralized rights-federalism, in which states have greater leeway to balance social values with a more particularized view of individual rights, the Court has consolidated the matter at the national level, with the Court dictating to the entire nation a uniform view and application of individual rights. Thus, while there has been decentralization regarding congressional regulation of the states, there has been no decentralization regarding the judiciary's dictates and formulation of individual rights. In other words, the Court's federalism revolution has coincided with an opposite move regarding individual rights, where centralization has occurred despite the growing diversity of the United States. With issues ranging from how best to protect religious freedom; what limits should be placed on abortion; how convicted murderers may be punished; whether pornographic speech can be kept from minors; and how public religious symbols may be displayed, the Court has refused to permit much diversity in state policies and has ruled that only it can act with one uniform mandate to the entire country. The alternative to this high-court monopolization lies in the Constitution's structural provisions designed to protect liberty. These structural provisions - e.g., federalism and separation of powers - offer a constitutional path for the decentralization of rights and a greater reliance on the democratic process to protect liberty. This structural path to liberty is outlined in this Article-a path that offers a more democratic means of protecting individual rights in an increasingly diverse nation. The Article offers examples of how the Court has centralized the whole area of individual liberty, despite the Constitution's original conception of how liberty would be safeguarded. The Article also examines how this judicial centralization of rights, particularly through the use of substantive due process, has affected the political process, and how it will continue to affect that process in the future.


In this paper, I study the branching ratio of the rare radiative decay Bs → νν̄γ in the framework of the Fourth-Generation Standard Model and the TwoHiggs-Doublet Model. It is shown that this quantity is a very effective tool for establishing new physics beyond the Standard Model. It is observed that there is a region in the parameter space in both extensions of the Standard Model for which the branching ratio show considerable departure from the Standard Model.


Cappadocia, which is popular with its natural scenic beauty, also has many important and special vernacular architectural features. In this study, architectural examples which were built in Cappadocia were analyzed in terms of energy saving, economic efficiency and compatibility with nature design in the areas which are similar to Cappadocia geologically and climatically. The necessity and advantages of an integration of today's technology and vernacular architecture for today's architecture can be explained by working on the solutions for material problems, natural ventilation, chimney design and natural lightning of the buildings of Cappadocia, which are rock-cut, rock-cut& masonry and masonry.


1. A very large OR staff that deals with a multitude of specialty areas may find it difficult to keep up skill and knowledge levels in all areas. This may lead to staff dissatisfaction and a high turnover rate. 2. Partially by allowing staff to chose their own clusters, cluster staffing works to increase staff satisfaction, to increase the clinical knowledge "comfort zone," to improve efficiency, and to reduce the turnover rate. 3. The results of cluster staffing at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center indicate that staff are happier, are more relaxed, focus more on patient care, and work together more efficiently.


The research in order to find an optimal, efficient, and reliable design of brushless dc motor increase significantly. The compact design with high power to weight ratio will support the application of motor drive in electric vehicle. This paper presents the design and analysis of axial flux Brushless DC motor. To analyze the electrical parameters of brushless dc motor such as torque, efficiency, looses, and electric field strength which is modeled and simulated through the Finite Element Analysis Method (FEM). The proposed design is proved with the simulation software with the product of axial flux brushless dc motor with the size of 220 cm using 12 stator slots and 10 rotor poles, generates output power about 27 kW, with a speed of 2388 RPM and torque 109 Nm. This motor has a DC voltage rating of 400 V and the input current to the motor of 101 A.


Between October 1986 and February 1987 two young men with coarctation of the aorta and a hypoplastic isthmus were treated by a combined resection and isthmusplasty with implantation of the left internal mammary artery to the distal aorta. An appreciable drop in the systolic gradient was seen in both patients after the mammary artery anastomosis and haemodynamic variables across the repair continued to improve postoperatively. Digital transvenous subtraction angiography five months after operation showed a satisfactory mammary artery conduit across the repaired coarctation.


This paper presents a switching architecture for any large port number optical cross connecting switch. We show the switching arrangement and the construction process to realize mirror-type optical switches. The proposed architecture refers to the Waksman network. Compared to other switching architectures, this architecture uses a minimum number of mirrors. Four guiding rules of the mirror arrangement method are proposed to assist building up a large port number mirror-type optical switch in an efficient way. By the analysis of all loss sources, the design parameters of the mirror are identified. The expandability and feasibility are verified. Furthermore, by an expert system, we can build up a lookup table to reduce the control complexity. The generalized simulation results show that the optical switch architecture of this paper is capable to archive the Bell Communications Research (BELLCORE) specification requirements for low and high port numbers.


Our proposed deeply-supervised nets (DSN) method simultaneously minimizes classification error while making the learning process of hidden layers direct and transparent. We make an attempt to boost the classification performance by studying a new formulation in deep networks. Three aspects in convolutional neural networks (CNN) style architectures are being looked at: (1) transparency of the intermediate layers to the overall classification; (2) discriminativeness and robustness of learned features, especially in the early layers; (3) effectiveness in training due to the presence of the exploding and vanishing gradients. We introduce "companion objective" to the individual hidden layers, in addition to the overall objective at the output layer (a different strategy to layer-wise pre-training). We extend techniques from stochastic gradient methods to analyze our algorithm. The advantage of our method is evident and our experimental result on benchmark datasets shows significant performance gain over existing methods (e.g. all state-of-the-art results on MNIST, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and SVHN).


This paper describes an ESD verification methodology that is applied at several points in the design process. By identifying ESD reliability hazards at each step in the design flow, the amount of redesign needed to address ESD reliability issues is greatly reduced. The checker efficiently computes power bus parasitic resistances, allowing it to be used during floor planning when the library is unavailable; it finds the three shortest ESD paths between any two external pads, allowing the checker to be used during IO ring placement before completion of the chip layout; it processes the GDS file and checks the voltage drop between any two ESD devices; it simulates the voltage drop across each ESD device in the discharge path in order to detect ESD design flaws. The ESD checker can be used with or without the actual extracted netlist, i.e., with either a DSPF or a DEF file.


In this paper, we focus on a tandem network, and design an AQM mechanism called FI-RED (fairness improvement for RED) for improving the fairness among heterogeneous TCP connections. In FI-RED, ECN (explicit congestion notification) mechanism is used for differentiating the packet marking probability of RED according to the CE (congestion experienced) bit of arriving packets. Namely, FI-RED suppresses congestion indication to TCP connections with a large number of hops (i.e., connections with a high probability that the CE bit is marked). With such a simple modification to the original RED, a TCP connection with a large number of hops suffers almost the same packet marking probability as one with a small number of hops. Therefore, it is expected that FI-RED improves fairness among TCP connections with different numbers of hops; i.e., bias against the number of hops. We analyze the steady state behavior of FI-RED and perform simulation experiments in several network configurations. We quantitatively show that the fairness among TCP connections is significantly improved compared with RED


The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama in January of 2009.  This legislation enables an employee to sue more easily for wage discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In this article, we examine the impact that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act has had on gender pay equity discrimination complaints and on how the lower courts have interpreted it since it was signed into law in January of 2009.  First, we will provide a brief background about the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and a description of the legislation itself.  Then we will examine any changes in discrimination complaints since its passage, and we will analyze how lower courts have interpreted the legislation. We conclude by arguing that passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act has offered little redress for gender wage discrimination since its passage six years ago. Keywords:  gender discrimination, equal pay complaints, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act


Methylation of histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4) is a major epigenetic system associated with gene expression. In mammals there are six H3K4 methyltransferases related to yeast Set1 and fly Trithorax, including two orthologs of fly Trithorax-related: MLL3 and MLL4. Exome sequencing has documented high frequencies of Mll3 and Mll4 mutations in many types of human cancer. Despite this emerging importance, the requirements of these sister genes in mammalian development have only been incompletely reported. Here we examined the null phenotypes to establish that MLL3 is first required for lung maturation whereas MLL4 is first required for migration of the anterior visceral endoderm (AVE) that initiates gastrulation and is the first collective cell migration in development. This migration is preceded by a columnar to squamous transition in visceral endoderm cells that depends on MLL4. Furthermore, Mll4 mutants display incompletely penetrant, sex distorted, embryonic haploinsufficiency and adult heterozygous mutants show aspects of Kabuki syndrome, indicating that MLL4 action, unlike MLL3, is dosage dependent. The highly specific and discordant functions of these sister genes argues against their action as general enhancer factors. Summary statement The H3K4 methyltransferases MLL3 and MLL4 have strikingly different null phenotypes during mouse development; MLL3 is required for lung maturation whereas MLL4 is required for anterior visceral endoderm migration.


Broadly definable as an interdisciplinary study of religion, music, literature, and history, this thesis analyzes the music of Kanye West and its evolution from the tradition of African-American art and religious thought. Tracing the roots of West's rap music lyrically and thematically to its foundations in the slave songs, the blues, the literature/art of the Harlem Renaissance era, and the gangsta rap of Tupac Shakur, I explore how the catalog of his albums show a (post)modern evolution of African-American religious thought that first began in the slaves' paradoxical re-appropriation of the hegemonic religion of their masters. Furthermore, I illustrate how West's music evinces an evolution of the slaves' divided religious identity and contributes to the subversions against the hegemony and oppression of white (supremacist) Christianity by African Americans throughout history. In demonstrating how the frameworks of both race and religion interact and collide in the historical battles over the metaphysical significations and color of Christ, I emphasize how each representation of Christ—whether the massa Jesus of the slave songs, the black lynched Jesus of the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Jesuz of Tupac Shakur's gangsta rap, or the sacrilegious Yeezus/Jesus of Kanye West—reflects the contextual realities of African Americans.


The integration of external software in project development is challenging and risky, notably because the execution quality of the software and the trustworthiness of the software provider may be unknown at integration time. This is a timely problem and of increasing importance with the advent of the SaaS model of service delivery. Therefore, in choosing the SaaS service to utilize, project managers must identify and evaluate the level of risk associated with each candidate. Trust is commonly assessed through reputation systems; however, existing systems rely on ratings provided by consumers. This raises numerous issues involving the subjectivity and unfairness of the service ratings. This paper describes a framework for reputation-aware software service selection and rating. A selection algorithm is devised for service recommendation, providing SaaS consumers with the best possible choices based on quality, cost, and trust. An automated rating model, based on the expectancy-disconfirmation theory from market science, is also defined to overcome feedback subjectivity issues. The proposed rating and selection models are validated through simulations, demonstrating that the system can effectively capture service behavior and recommend the best possible choices.


By ensuring optimal dosing, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) improves outcomes in critically ill patients by maximizing effectiveness while minimizing toxicity. Current methods for measuring plasma drug concentrations, however, can be challenging, time-consuming, and slow to return an answer, limiting the extent to which TDM is used to optimize drug exposure. A potentially promising solution to this dilemma is provided by biosensors, molecular sensing devices that employ biorecognition elements to recognize and quantify their target molecules rapidly and in a single step. This paper reviews the current state of the art for biosensors regarding their application to TDM of antibiotics in the critically ill, both as ex vivo point-of-care devices supporting single timepoint measurements and in vivo devices supporting continuous real-time monitoring in situ in the body. This paper also discusses the clinical development of biosensors for TDM, including regulatory challenges and the need for standardized performance evaluation. We conclude by arguing that, through precise and real-time monitoring of antibiotics, the application of biosensors in TDM holds great promise for enhancing the optimization of drug exposure in critically ill patients, offering the potential for improved outcomes.


Following the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s and the war years of the early forties the Perth Observatory was left in a rather dilapidated state. Its principal activities during this period were the time service and seismology and the former was a valuable contribution to the war effort. However due to economic constraints the Observatory staff had been reduced to two and this was barely sufficient to maintain these essential services.

With the retirement of the second Government Astronomer for Western Australia, H.B. Curlewis, in 1940 a young surveyor Hyman Solomon Spigl, was appointed as his replacement. He faced a daunting task of reviving the fortunes of the Perth Observatory in a difficult economic climate. However, he applied himself to the task and soon succeeded in having the Perth Astrographic Catalogues printed in Europe. This was a huge task involving the analysis of hundreds of photographic plates collected over 40 years of careful study. These plates were analysed at the Royal Edinburgh Observatory as a result of Spigl's persistence and dedication. The Perth Astrographic Catalogues are now universally recognised as a valuable contribution to astronomy and their publication kept faith with a commitment made by the first Government Astronomer, Ernest Cooke in 1896.

Spigl also succeeded in maintaining and modernising the time service and this was an essential requirement for a modem industrial society. He fought tenaciously to retain the seismology service but the Commonwealth Government eventually took over control of this from the State, partly for defence purposes. Subsequently he tried to develop some scientific work in seismology at the Observatory but this was stifled by politics and a shortage of funds.

As the economic climate improved in the fifties, Spigl directed his efforts towards developing new projects for the Perth Observatory. He negotiated with American astronomers to install a Markowitz Moon Camera on the 13" astrographic refractor. This was used to determine the Moon's position accurately by star occultations with the aim of deriving absolute measures of latitude and longitude. The project was of considerable interest to mapping agencies in Australia and overseas and this project was part of an international effort coordinated by the United States. Spigl made several visits to the USA for consultations on this project and other international cooperative ventures.

One of these was the international satellite tracking project known as Moonwatch, which began in the late fifties. This involved collaboration between the Perth Observatory and the Astronomical Society of WA in tracking the orbits of the first Earth satellites. This was a subject of great public interest and also of significance for defence purposes. This collaboration between amateur and professional astronomers was an excellent example of how high quality astronomical research could be carried out at a minimum cost.

Through these efforts Spigl built support in the community for astronomy and the Perth Observatory began to expand again in the late fifties. New staff were appointed and plans were made for the eventual move from Kings Park to Bickley. Unfortunately, H.S. Spigl died in 1962, at the age of 51, at the height of his career, and his work was completed by his assistant B.J. Harris.

This thesis explores the role of Spigl as a scientist interacting with Government, industry and the public to maintain a complex scientific institution in a difficult economic and political climate. It examines the difficulties that he faced in dealing with agencies and leaders who had short-term priorities and a lacked understanding of the long-term needs of scientific research. The success of Spigl's efforts despite these obstacles illustrates the skill required of scientists these days in managing major research facilities.


Ophthalmologists are frequently called in consultation to see patients that are bedridden, and it is difficult to determine the extent of that patient's visual acuity unless some special equipment is carried along for the purpose. Since vision is the primary reason for eyes in the first place, it is essential in every eye examination that an estimation of the visual efficiency be made. In an attempt to provide a solution to the problem, the following simple device is offered. It consists of a reduced A. M. A. vision chart calculated to be read at 24 in., placed on the ophthalmoscope handle, and held in position by a transparent plastic sleeve. The chart then becomes a permanent part of the ophthalmoscope and provides an easily transported convenient method of determining vision. Recording of the results of this test can be made by the same basic method as is used for vision


Space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique is being increasingly used because of its easy digital implementation. Multiphase load like six-phase motor drive is an active area of research and industrial applications, but very less work has been done on multiphase inverters. In this paper a six-phase inverters circuit has been taken as a representative problem of multiphase inverters to investigate the best converter topology and its modulation technique such that output has minimum or optimal. This paper presents implementation of SVPWM technique to a six-phase inverter using unified approach. Simulation results are provided to validate the proposed theory. It has been found that a three-phase space vector based inverter topology has better THD than a six phase topology.


Abstract Microstructure as well as micro-mechanical and tribological properties of hard surface layers formed on Timetal 834 alloy during its nitridation or oxynitridation under glow discharge were investigated. The tests show that both layers exhibited higher microhardness and Young's modulus as well as much better wear resistance than the untreated alloy. The microstructure investigations, performed by light microscopy and analytical transmission electron microscopy methods, show that improved micro-mechanical and tribological properties of surface-treated alloy are related to the presence of a multiphase micro/nanostructure containing several sublayers with different morphologies and composition.


Background: Patient-centered research requires a focus on the needs and priorities of patients. Because patient engagement can result in the discovery of important topics not currently prioritized by research programs, topic generation, and prioritization activities conducted with patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders are essential. To develop patient-centered research agendas for obesity and diabetes, the Research Action for Health Network conducted topic generation and prioritization activities with multistakeholder research advisory groups. Objectives: The purpose of this case study was to demonstrate how methods for engaging patients in topic generation and prioritization can be implemented in practice for the development of a patient-centered research agenda. Research Design: Four multistakeholder groups comprising patients, clinicians, and researchers met 4–5 times between November 2014 and July 2015 to generate and prioritize topics for obesity and diabetes research. Topics were prioritized using an iterative engagement process, in which themes were identified and resulting topics were refined and ranked over multiple meetings. Participants: Sixty-four patients, clinicians, and researchers participated in 2 obesity and 2 diabetes advisory groups. The majority of participants (64.0%) were patients, followed by clinicians (23.4%), researchers (9.4%), and parents of children with diabetes (3.1%). Results: Ten and 12 priority topics were identified for obesity and diabetes, respectively. The resulting research agendas were disseminated to patients, researchers, and clinicians. Conclusions: Patient engagement has the potential to enrich our understanding of patient priorities for research. The results from this process suggest that convening in-person multistakeholder groups can be an effective way to generate research topics that reflect patients' priorities. Engagement strategies should be focused not only on the development of patient-centered research topics but also on the implementation of these topics into research studies.


Rotationally resolved vibrational overtone spectra of several CH stretch bands of CF3H have been obtained using a combination of jet-cooling, infrared-optical double-resonance, and infrared laser assisted photofragment spectroscopy detection. The high selectivity and sensitivity of this combination allows measurement of spectral splittings that determine the secondary time scales of vibrational energy redistribution. The spectroscopic results show that in the energy region of the v(CH)=3-5 CH stretch levels, the vibrational energy would remain localized in the mixed CH stretch-bend states on time scales longer than 13-130 ps if coherently excited. This is as much as 2500 times longer than the time scale for energy transfer between the CH stretch and the LICE bend vibrations. Moreover, the results confirm that the energy redistribution dynamics are sensitive to the character of the bath states and not simply to the total vibrational energy. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.


The evidence base for weight loss programs in men is limited. Gaining a greater understanding of which personal characteristics and pretreatment behaviors predict weight loss and attrition in male-only studies would be useful to inform the development of future interventions for men. In December 2010, 159 overweight/obese men (mean age = 47.5 years; body mass index = 32.7 kg/m2) from the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, participated in a randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of two versions of a 3-month gender-targeted weight loss program. In the current analyses, social–cognitive, behavioral, and demographic pretreatment characteristics were examined to determine if they predicted weight loss and attrition in the participants over 6 months. Generalized linear mixed models (intention-to-treat) revealed weight change was associated with education level (p = .02), marital status (p = .03), fat mass (p = .045), sitting time on nonwork (p = .046), and workdays (p = .03). Workday sitting time and marital status accounted for 6.5% (p = .01) of the variance in the final model. Attrition was associated with level of education (p = .01) and body fat percentage (p = .01), accounting for 9.5% (p = .002) of the variance in the final model. This study suggests men who spend a lot of time sitting at work, especially those who are not married, may require additional support to experience success in self-administered weight loss programs targeting males. Additional high-quality evidence is needed to improve the understanding which pretreatment behaviors and characteristics predict weight loss and attrition in men.


Internet is the prototype of the global information infrastructure. Firms are using the Internet primarily for sales and service by advertising and providing customers with relevant information about a product or service. This paper describes the emerging implications of Internet technology as an evolving medium that offers restaurants limitless opportunities for e-commerce and for creating lasting relationships with customers. It dampens the bargaining power of channels by providing companies with new and more direct avenues to customers .The Internet provides an efficient means to order products. Online ordering being one of the e-commerce initiatives has emerged as an alternative avenue for food outlets to grow their sales. It offers more opportunities for interactive and personalised marketing as well as ease, speed and precision for the consumer. Food-outlets are able to offer the service through their own websites, multi-restaurant sites, mobile applications, and text ordering. Studies have shown that online food ordering can result in an increase in revenue, average check value, volume of sales, frequency of sales, order accuracy, productivity, improved convenience and customer relationship management. On line food ordering is new in Kenya. Few studies have been done in Kenya to determine the extent and distribution of online ordering by food outlets, and preference for distribution channels. From a population of 408 middle to upscale food outlets in Nairobi, this study sought answers to these questions. The results show that 23.7% of the outlets currently offer online ordering. The offerings were found to be independent of the restaurant type, but dependent on the type of cuisine offered. The characterization provided by this study lays the ground work for future work on the impact adoption has had on business performance.


OBJECTIVE: To explore a new surgical management of multiple fingers degloving injury. METHODS: In 1994 to 1997, 47 cases with multiple fingers degloving injury were sutured by two reverse "s"-type skin flaps on abdominal flank. RESULTS: The skin flaps in 46 cases survived and the wounds obtained primary heal. CONCLUSION: The application of abdominal flank "s"-type skin flap is reliable and convenient in the treatment of multiple fingers degloving injury.


In order to determine the frequency rate of urinary stress incontinence (S.I) after delivery and related factors a longitudinal study carried on primiparous women in Arash Hospital in 1379. Through a non probability sampling, 400 eligible women were recruited from available population. Patient with complain of urinary stress incontinence on third day after delivery, were examined and undergone for required diagnostic tests. After stabilizing the diagnosis of urinary stress incontinence, they were followed on 6th week, 3th month and the first year after delivery. The mean of maternal age was 23.5±4.3 years and the mean of gestational age was 37.9±2.1 weeks. The vaginal delivery and cesarean section rates were 83.7 percent and 16.3 percent respectively. From the cases, 50 women (12.5 percent) had S.I on third day after delivery, which 28 of them had this problem from their pregnancy (grup A), and in 22 patients (5.5 percent), S.I were began after delivery (group B). On first year after delivery, only 6 patients (1.5 percent) had complaint of S.I, totally. All patients with S.I had a vaginal delivery and no cases of S.I had found in cesarean section group (65 women). This difference was significant (P=0.019). Comparison of 3 groups A, B and C (including 285 women without S.I after vaginal delivery) had represented that the mean of maternal age and gestational age were significantly higher in group B than other two groups (P=0.0001 and P=0.0009 respectively).


Kurchatovite occurs as colorless granular crystals up to 1 mm at the Fuka mine, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The mineral is associated with shimazakiite, calcite and johnbaumite. The Vickers microhardness is 441 kg mm−2 (50 g load), corresponding to 41⁄2 on the Mohs' scale. The calculated de sity is 3.23 g cm−3. Electron microprobe analyses of kurchatovite gave empirical formulae ranging from Ca0.987(Mg1.004Fe0.020Mn0.001)Σ1.025 B1.992O5 to Ca0.992(Mg0.466Fe0.523)Σ0.989B2.013O5 based on O = 5, and kurchatovite forms a continuous solid solution in this range. The mineral is orthorhombic, Pbca, and the unit cell parameters refined from XRD data measured by a Gandolfi camera are a = 36.33(14), b = 11.204(3), c = 5.502(17) Å, V = 2239(12) Å3. It is formed by a layer of MgO6–octahedra, a layer of CaO7–polyhedral and B2O5 consisting of two BO3–triangles. The kurchatovite from the Fuka mine was probably formed by supplying Mg and Fe to shimazakiite from hydrothermal solution at a temperature between 250 to 400 °C.


Thirty-seven patients with non-traumatic cerebellar haemorrhage were treated in our department between 1984 and 1999. The outcome was retrospectively analysed according to the neurological status, CT findings and the selected treatment modality (conservative therapy vs. surgery). Our data indicate that in that sample size, the size of the haematoma was the only significant predictor of the outcome (p = 0.04). The prediction of the outcome by a logistic regression model includes both the size of the haematoma and the treatment modality (surgery or conservative) as variables. The data suggest that patients in a good neurological status on admission (Glasgow Coma Scale 13–15) with a small haematoma (<3 cm) should be treated conservatively. In all patients with large haematomas (>3 cm), including those in a good neurological status, and in all comatose patients, surgical evacuation is indicated. A different haematoma size as a cut-off point for choosing surgery as the preferred therapeutic modality, as well as the indication for ventriculostomy as a temporizing measure or a substitute for surgery are yet undetermined and need further investigation in a randomized trial.


Abstract The recession that started in the United States in December 2007 has had a significant impact on the Spanish economy through a large increase of the unemployment rate and the bursting of the housing and financial bubbles. We explore how the crisis and changes in the labor, housing, and financial markets might have impacted retirement patterns of Spanish men and women nearing retirement age. We find that the recession primarily reduced women's retirement likelihood by 27%. The effect, which was associated with the labor market deterioration, as captured by higher unemployment rates, was circumscribed to women already at work, who chose to stay at work longer. In contrast, for the most part, men's retirement likelihood did not change with the labor, housing, and financial market fluctuations. Overall, the findings suggest that working women might have prolonged their working lives to make up for lost household income.


Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE) over semiconductor photocatalysts is usually constrained by the limited light-harvesting and separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Most of the reported systems focusing on PHE are facilitated by consuming the photoinduced holes with organic sacrificial electron donors (SEDs). The introduction of the SEDs not only causes the environmental problem, but also increases the cost of the reaction. Herein, a dual-functional photocatalyst is developed with the morphology of sandwiched-like hollowed Pd@TiO2 @ZnIn2 S4 nanobox, which is synthesized by choosing microporous zeolites with sub-nanometer-sized Pd nanoparticles (Pd NPs) embedded as the sacrificial templates. The ternary Pd@TiO2 @ZnIn2 S4 photocatalyst exhibits a superior PHE rate (5.35 mmol g-1 h-1 ) and benzylamine oxidation conversion rate (>99%) simultaneously without adding any other SEDs. The PHE performance is superior to the reported composites of TiO2 and ZnIn2 S4 , which is attributed to the elevated light capture ability induced by the hollow structure, and the enhanced charge separation efficiency facilitated by the ultrasmall sized Pd NPs. The unique design presented here holds great potential for other highly efficient cooperative dual-functional photocatalytic reactions.


Introduction
Globally, asthma is one of the major non-communicable diseases, with 235 million people currently suffering from the condition. In Saudi Arabia, there is a 4% prevalence of asthma among the adult population. This study aimed to develop an adult asthma patient self-management education programme that took into account the Saudi context and culture.

Systematic review
A systematic review was conducted to determine the most effective way of delivering asthma self-management education programmes. It was shown in the review that asthma was more prevalent in individuals with less education, and that nurses had an important role in educating patients with this disease. Following analysis of this evidence alongside the Saudi context, small-group education programmes delivered by nurses were selected as the most appropriate means of delivering education, which considered patient individual needs and cultural values to improve their health outcomes in terms of self-management.

Methods
An explanatory sequential complementary mixed-methods design was adopted. This design encompassed a quasi-experiment using a pre- and post-test comparative study, followed by a qualitative part using face-to-face interviews with patients. The intervention was an educational programme that included topics selected based on patients' needs in the review and following the Saudi Initiative for Asthma (SINA) guidance.1 The programme was tested to determine whether it provide patients with the necessary knowledge and skills to self-manage their asthma and consequently reduce their visits to emergency departments. Further, the programme was approved and co-designed with nursing staff who provide care for patients with asthma in the selected hospital and following consultation with patients. The programme was delivered by nurses and other professionals who were trained to ensure the quality of delivery. Data were collected pre-, post- and at 3 and 6 months following the intervention and included topics related to asthma, Asthma Control Test, Asthma Self-Management Questionnaire, the Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire and the Patient Activation Measure (PAM) instrument. Prior to data collection, instruments were all translated to Arabic, the language of participants, and validated to assure the validity of patients' responses. Patients in the control group were able to receive the intervention after 6 months, the last data collection point in the study.

Findings
Analysis of the responses between the pre- and post-tests demonstrate that patients with higher levels of knowledge had higher PAM scores. Patients' scores in all datasets in phase 2 were higher than those in phase 1, which indicated that the education was effective and increased confidence in patients' self-management of their asthma. Results to date suggest that the bespoke education is relevant and provides the necessary knowledge to increase confidence and patient activation towards disease self-management and reducing complications.

Study progress
Longer-term follow-up data and qualitative interviews will be completed in late February 2019. It is anticipated that these results will confirm that the educational programme is suited to the Saudi Arabian context, improves knowledge and increases confidence in the self-management of asthma.


We present the case of a man that had a rapidly growing nodule on his face. Removal of the lesion was more difficult than anticipated because it was tightly adherent to adjacent tissue. Pathology from the lesion showed a malignant neoplasm thought to have arisen at a distant site. The evaluation of this patient may provide insights into the workup for patients that present with cutaneous metastatic malignancies of unknown etiology. In general, these patients need to be fully evaluated in an attempt to locate the primary lesion. When a primary lesion can not be ascertained, careful surveillance of the patient is warranted. We present suggestions for evaluation of patients with cutaneous metastatic lesions without an obvious primary. It is clear that molecular pathology will provide additional information to help identify the primary lesion. Scanning of areas likely to be the source using CT PET/ CT and MRI studies may also yield information. Finally, a careful history and physical examination are also important for these patients. J Drugs Dermatol. 2018;17(7):804-806.


This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of Schizolobium amazonicum wood, specifically its performance in bleached kraft pulp production and the characteristics of its pulp. Chips of Schizolobium amazonicum and Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus urophylla (reference) were used. The following parameters were evaluated in the wood: basic density, total extractives, total lignin, holocellulose, and fiber morphology. The pulping simulations were carried out in a laboratory digester, with parameters set to obtain pulp with kappa number 19 ± 0.5. Both pulps were bleached in a PFI mill and submitted to physical-mechanical tests. The results showed that S. amazonicum wood has low basic density and higher content of extractives when compared to E. grandis x E. urophylla wood. For pulping, S. amazonicum required higher alkali charge and H factor to achieve the same delignification level of E. grandis x E. urophylla, resulting in a lower yield, pulp with lower viscosity, and higher wood specific consumption. During bleaching, the brightness gain and final viscosity of S. amazonicum pulp were lower than E. grandis x E. urophylla pulp. Moreover, S. amazonicum pulp had worse physical-mechanical characteristics than E. grandis x E. urophylla.


This paper offers insights for the elaboration of public policy to promote the development of telecommunications services in Brazil, by means of a broad summary of where it interfaces with different sectoral dimensions and a discussion at what level it is aligned to the evolution of telecommunications services. The analysis is based on the sectoral system of innovation approach, with the sector decomposed in three dimensions that coevolve: (i) science and technology fields; (ii) users, demand and applications; and (iii) actors, networks and institutions. It begins with an analysis of technological – convergence – and institutional – commercial and regulatory liberalization – transformations and its impacts on the public policy framework developed then. Following that, the analysis turns to forecasting each dimension, in order to identify future evolution perspectives for a set of variables. Finally, the prospective vision is compared to the current public policy framework. It is expected from this analysis the verification of at what level this agenda is aligned to what it is foreseen as the future of this sector and in which points tensions arise.


Mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy secondary to gastrointestinal metastases rarely have been reported and have been considered to occur only in conjunction with lymphangitic lung spread. The current report is of 15 cases of hilar and mediastinal metastases secondary to pancreatic, gastric, and colonic primary tumors. In only three of these cases was lymphangitic lung involvement noted. Possible pathways of spread of these tumors to the mediastinal lymph nodes are discussed.


Most vehicle head faces have one window, two illuminative lamps and a license plate, a method is proposed using features about them to detect vehicle head face. Edges of window are straight lines commonly, in the projection histogram whose direction is not parallel to window edge, there is an abrupt change at the edge location. This property can be used to locate window candidate position. If lamps and license plate have all been located, the candidate is verified surely and truly. In order to recognize vehicle type, a hybrid neural network is designed to analyze the extracted features. The network contains two parts, the 1/sup st/ part uses support vector machines, the 2/sup nd/ part contains four perceptrons which verifies the output of 1/sup st/ and produces recognized result. Synthetic experiment of this method is given and some discussions have also been made.