➤ Background: Violence against women is a world health problem which is to be targeted by educational nursing programmes. Objective: To explore knowledge and attitudes among students in an educational nursing programme regarding myths and beliefs about intimate partner violence (IPV). Method: Data were collected through questionnaires and focus groups interviews. Results: Survey data suggest that some nursing students did not believe in the myths about IPV. The students who still believed in the myths marginally manifested a change in attitude towards the myths. The focus group interviews yielded three main themes: "guilty or not guilty"; "a complex story"; and "from uncertainty to security", and showed an increase of knowledge in IPV. Conclusion: Prior to their training, the students manifested both a belief in common myths about IPV and appropriate knowledge and understanding. Post-training demonstrated a minor increase of knowledge and change in beliefs. Training may alter these beliefs and contribute to changes in behaviour.


School violence constitutes one of the central issues on public agenda in Israel and multiple other countries, since the figure of those students involved in such violence is considerable high according to international standards. The aim of this study is to examine the teachers' perceptions of the impact of educational climate on reducing violence in Arab schools in Israel. The tools used to collect data were a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. 352 teachers participated in the study: the number of participants filling in the school climate questionnaire was 302 and the number of participants in the interview were 50 teachers. All the participants in the study are from East Jerusalem and work in both state and private Arab schools. The findings of the study indicate that, according to the teachers' opinions, there is a positive relationship between maintaining an optimal educational climate and the reduction of violence in the Arab schools.


Background: A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients. There are three types of stroke ischemic stroke hemiplegic stroke and transient ischemic stroke. Objective: To determine the association of lower extremity somatosensory deficit in balance and gait in sub-acute stroke patients. Methods: Cross sectional survey was used in this study. The age group of participants was 40 to 75 years. Sample size was 204 calculated from Rao software and non-probability convenient sampling technique was used. Data was collected from Lahore General Hospital. Data was obtained from patient by applying distal proprioception test to assess the joint position sense. For the assessment of two point discrimination bolay gauge was used. The cutaneous vibration sensation was assessed through tuning fork. Soft goat hair brush was used to check the light touch pressure. For balance assessment berg balance scale and time up and go test was used. Gait was observed through Wisconsin gait index. Results: Mean value and standard deviation of age of participants were 62.99and 6.592 respectively. There was association of berg balance scale with two point discrimination test, light touch pressure and distal proprioception. There was no association between berg balance scale and vibration sense. Mean value and standard deviation of Wisconsin gait index was 23 and 4.986 respectively. Association between TUG and two point discrimination was found. There was no association of TUG with vibration sense, distal proprioception test and light touch pressure. Conclusion: This study concluded that balance was affected in sub-acute stroke patients due to the somatosensory deficit. Fall risk increased in the sub-acute stroke patient as the patients performance measured in time up and go test and berg balance scale. It was also inferred that while patients performing Wisconsin gait index scale, gait was affected in sub-acute stroke patients. Keywords: Balance, Gait, Sub-acute Stroke, fall risk, Somatosensory, Lower extremity


An illumination forward modelling feasibility study conducted in year 2017 over K-field, Offshore Sabah has demonstrated multi-component Ocean Bottom Node (OBN) seismic as a viable method in achieving the subsurface objectives particularly utilising mode-converted shear waves (Ps) that will not be affected by the gas overburden; thus, allowing imaging the structure and characterizing the reservoir underneath it. The seismic survey design was optimized further through Compressive Seismic Imaging (CSI) where seismic sampling is unregularized to improve imaging based on the increase in fold, trace density and bandwidth while optimizing cost through reduced sail line kilometers. The acquired data was then reconstructed to enables denser sampling and higher unaliased bandwith.


Bile acids wear many hats, including those of an emulsifier to facilitate nutrient absorption, a cholesterol metabolite, and a signaling molecule in various tissues modulating itching to metabolism and cellular functions. Bile acids are synthesized in the liver but exhibit wide-ranging effects indicating their ability to mediate organ-organ crosstalk. So, how does a steroid metabolite orchestrate such diverse functions? Despite the inherent chemical similarity, the side chain decorations alter the chemistry and biology of the different bile acid species and their preferences to bind downstream receptors distinctly. Identification of new modifications in bile acids is burgeoning, and some of it is associated with the microbiota within the intestine. Here, we provide a brief overview of the history and the various receptors that mediate bile acid signaling in addition to its crosstalk with the gut microbiota.


Carruthers presents evidence concerning the cross-modular integration of information in human subjects which appears to support the "cognitive conception of language." According to this conception, language is not just a means of communication, but also a representational medium of thought. However, Carruthers overlooks the possibility that language, in both its communicative and cognitive roles, is a nonrepresentational system of conventional signals – that words are not a medium we think in, but a tool we think with. The evidence he cites is equivocal when it comes to choosing between the cognitive conception and this radical communicative conception of language.


In the present work, we develop a two‐stage allocation rule for binary response using the log‐odds ratio within the Bayesian framework allowing the current allocation to depend on the covariate value of the current subject. We study, both numerically and theoretically, several exact and limiting properties of this design. The applicability of the proposed methodology is illustrated by using some data set. We compare this rule with some of the existing rules by computing various performance measures. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A series of catalysts comprising well-distributed Pd nanoparticles incorporated on silylated SiO2 were fabricated by the wet impregnation method and investigated in the selective hydrogenation of paracetamol to 4-acetamidocyclohexanone. The catalysts calcined at different temperatures were characterized by TG, FT-IR, N2 physisorption, TPR and XPS. The results showed that organic modification led to a catalyst surface composed of stable Si–(CH3)3 species even after calcination at 300 °C. Also, changes occurred in the size and electronic properties of the Pd particles through the different amounts of grafted groups on the SiO2 support. The mode of adsorption of the paracetamol molecule was influenced by the quite bulky organic groups on the support, resulting in a significant improvement in selectivity towards 4-acetamidocyclohexanone and preventing full hydrogenation to some extent. The best result was obtained on the silylated Pd catalyst calcined at 500 °C, with 64.9% selectivity to keto at the paracetamol conversion of 60.5%, while the non-silylated SiO2 supported Pd catalyst gave 4-acetamidocyclohexanone selectivity of 29.1% at 53.8% conversion.


During thunderstorm activity in the Netherlands, electromagnetic and infrasonic signals are emitted due to the process of lightning and thunder. It is shown that correlating infrasound detections with results from a electromagnetic lightning detection network is successful up to distances of 50 km from the infrasound array. Infrasound recordings clearly show blastwave characteristics which can be related to cloud‐ground discharges, with a dominant frequency between 1–5 Hz. Amplitude measurements of CG discharges can partly be explained by the beam pattern of a line source with a dominant frequency of 3.9 Hz, up to a distance of 20 km. The ability to measure lightning activity with infrasound arrays has both positive and negative implications for CTBT verification purposes. As a scientific application, lightning studies can benefit from the worldwide infrasound verification system.


Sports entertainment is a multi-billion dollar industry in America and the NFL is the leading brand. Almost 17 million people flock to NFL games annually and the league's marketers seek to grow. To further develop brand-loyal fans, team marketers are creating ancillary opportunities to reach prospective fans. However, very little is known about the marketing efforts' efficacy with different spectator segments. Using rarely-available primary data collected from actual NFL game-day spectators, and working closely with team marketing officers, our research examines specific marketing efforts designed to connect with (non) tailgating spectators of a NFL team and their effect on key marketing outcomes. INTRODUCTION


This paper presents the proposal of a load balancing algorithm implemented in two of the most popular controllers for Software Defined Networks (SDN): OpenDaylight and Floodlight. A comparative study in terms of the available bandwidth and delay time of the packet forwarding was performed by means of simulation modeling in a base network in which a shortest path algorithm was implemented as well. The results show that the proposed load balancing algorithm improves significantly the performance of a SDN in terms of the offered QoS of a OpenDaylight based controller. The effect of the proposed load balancing algorithm in the Floodlight controller shows a smaller impact mainly on the bandwidth allocation due to its in-build modules that by default perform specific routing and forwarding operations efficiently according to the traffic demand.


Maleic anhydride and hexamethylbenzene in a solution in methylcyclohexane from a charge-transfer complex with the absorption maximum at 340 mµ. Spectral data appear to indicate the absence of stable complexes of other than the 1 : 1 stoicheiometry. Formation constants of the complex at 25, 40, 50, and 60°, and its bonding enthalpy were calculated (Kc= 1·5 ± 0·2M–1 at 25°; ΔH=–4·0 kcal.mole–1). From the latter value the contribution of the dative structure was obtained. It amounts to 2·3% in the ground state, and in the excited state to about 90%, depending on the assumption made as to the value of the overlap integral. From the integrated absorption intensity, the difference between the dipole moments of the dative and the no-bond structures was calculated and compared with the value obtained by addition of dipole moments expected to characterise the model structure of the complex.Attempts to prepare a crystalline charge-transfer complex were unsuccessful. The phase diagram of maleic anhydride and hexamethylbenzene indicated no evidence for the presence of stable complexes in the solid state.


Learning communities have been demonstrated to dramatically improve student outcomes by engaging students in their learning. This book constitutes a comprehensive guide for readers who want a broad strategic view of learning communities, enabling them to identify which type of LC best meets the learning needs of their students, and the context and mission of their institution. It also provides the tools for planning, designing and implementing what the authors define as "powerful" LCs, and for understanding the assessment implications of their decisions. The potential power of LCs is realised through effective facilitation, appropriate team-building activities, linkages, planning, and active collaboration that promotes learning of the group and the individual group members - all of which topics are covered in this volume. This book is organised around the three themes of setting the stage, designing an LC, and building or enhancing a powerful LC, and covers three types of learning communities - student, professional (faculty, staff), and institutional LCs concerned with student learning - providing a range of tools and forms to facilitate planning. The authors also address designing and maintaining hybrid and virtual LCs. This book is intended as a practical resource for anyone at any level in higher education who wants to champion, develop or redesign student or professional LCs, or even explore broader initiatives to develop their institution into a "learning organisation". Administrators in academic and student affairs administrators will find guidance for setting appropriate policies and allocating resources. The book may also serve as a textbook for graduate courses in institutional leadership and policy studies, curriculum and instruction, student affairs, or assessment/evaluation. This is a radically revised new edition of The Powerful Potential of Learning Communities: Improving Education for the Future (1999).


The Bioterra ANR project aims to identify, characterize and offer solutions with low environmental impact, to microbial proliferation on earth bio-based products (bricks and plasters). As part of this project, this paper deals with the mechanical characterization of earth plasters: the objective is to identify products meeting the main conditions of use for construction, as a basis for further research on microbial development. Several testing methods are presented and are applied on 2 different plaster formulations composed of clay, sand, water and various natural fibers. The following properties are studied : shrinkage, compressive strength, flexural and Brazilian tensile strength, abrasion. The testing procedure includes the preparation of large plaster slabs to ensure a representative fiber distribution within the test specimens. The plates are dried under stable humidity conditions and the drying process is monitored by successive weightings. Then the specimens are cut inside the plate for mechanical testing. The paper shows a full description of the testing procedure and presents the resistances obtained for various plaster formulations. It yields interesting results about the expected properties of natural fiber-reinforced earth plasters and proposes some criteria for product acceptability.


This paper aims to examine the impact of audit quality on stock crash risk in Tehran Stock Exchange. Down-to-up volatility (DUVOL) and whether or not experience crash month (CRASH) have been used as two criteria to measure stock crash risk. In addition, auditor industry specialization has been considered as an indicator of audit quality. The hypotheses are tested by using data from 74 firms listed in the Tehran stock exchange from the year 2003-2013, multivariate linear regression, and logistic regression method. The results indicate that there is a negative and significant relationship between audit quality and DUVOL. On the other hand, there is an insignificant negative relationship between audit quality and crash. Recent scandals in Iran show that the audit quality level in Iran is very low. On the other side, the Stock Exchange does not have a long history and stock market is not efficient either. As such, the stock crash risk is significant for current and potential investors. However, stock crash risk has not been examined in Iran as it should be. So this article tries to cover this phenomenon.


Inherited retinal degenerations are a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of blinding diseases characterized by progressive degeneration of the neuroretina and/or the retinal pigment epithelium. Currently, over 300 genes have been implicated in retinal degenerations (RetNet: https://sph.uth.edu/RetNet/). While mutations, or causative variants, in each of these genes are relatively rare, taken together they are a significant cause of blindness, especially in working-age individuals, which increases their economic and societal impact. Clinically, inherited retinal degenerations vary from retinitis pigmentosa and Leber congenital amaurosis, which are often manifest at birth and initially involve rod photoreceptors in the retinal periphery, to early-onset macular degeneration, which is a progressive degeneration affecting central vision (1). Inherited retinal degenerations can show autosomal-dominant, autosomal-recessive, and X-linked inheritance, as well as more complex or multifactorial inheritance patterns, especially for some of the later-onset progressive diseases. While mutations in the same gene usually show the same inheritance pattern, it is not uncommon for mutations in the same gene to cause two or more forms of retinal disease, complicating the nosology of this group of diseases (2). In addition, the presence of disease-associated alleles at one gene can affect the penetrance or expressivity of mutations at a second, resulting in complicated family histories and in some cases even digenic diallelic (3) or digenic triallelic (4) inheritance. In PNAS, Hanany et al. (5) address this intimidating set of related diseases by developing a system to identify disease alleles at each of the associated genes and, beyond that, to calculate the gene-specific carrier frequency and the prevalence of homozygosity for variants causing autosomal recessive retinal degenerations. While appearing somewhat mundane on the surface, this work actually has far-reaching implications for both the basic science of the retina and the clinical practice of ophthalmology.

The genes associated with retinal degeneration and the changes …

[↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: hejtmancikj{at}nei.nih.gov.

 [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1


Purpose of review Huge progress has been made over the last few years in the field of small molecule therapies targeting cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), the protein defective in patients with cystic fibrosis. This review describes the progress and areas of future research. Recent findings Ivacaftor is the first drug of its kind to be licensed for clinical use in patients with a number of mutations resulting in defective gating (opening). For patients with more common mutations, characterized by misfolding, a combination approach is required with both corrector drugs which allow the protein to correctly localize and potentiators to improve protein function. A number of other CFTR modulators are at earlier stages of clinical development. Summary With the advent of such precision medicine, patient genotype is now highly relevant. Areas of current unmet need include drugs to cover all mutation classes, increasing access to younger children with the design of rational and tailored clinical trials, and ensuring equality of access globally.


A common explanation for electoral victories is that the winning candidate adopted issue positions that appealed to voters, implying that citizens' choices are based on policy preferences. However, it is not straightforward to determine the causal direction between citizens' issue preferences and their party choice. An alternative possibility, strongly supported by prior research, is that voters adopt the positions of the parties they vote for to rationalize their votes. The 2017 French presidential election offers a unique opportunity to address that question, as it saw the victory of a candidate who was not backed by one of the established parties. Using panel data, we show that policy preferences measured prior to Macron's emergence as a candidate led voters with a particular bundle of preferences to support him. We conclude that policy preferences clearly do matter to vote choice and that this effect is most visible when a new party emerges.


This report gives an overview of the presence of women in the Executive Board and Supervisory Board (together: 'the Board') of Dutch listed companies per September 2009. The companies have been ranked by the percentage women in the Board. A difference analysis has been made at personal level (characteristics such as age and nationality of the female directors have been compared with same characteristics of their male colleagues). Moreover a difference analysis has been made at company level, to examine characteristics (such as indices or industry) of companies with women on the Board and whether these differ from companies without female directors.


Genetic modification of mosquitoes offers exciting possibilities for controlling malaria, but success will depend on how transformation affects the fitness of modified insects. The expression of an exogenous gene, the mutations caused by its insertion, and inbreeding while transformed lines are established can all lead to reductions in fitness. Factors influencing fitness were investigated in cage experiments with four lines of transgenic Anopheles stephensi, a vector species of human malaria. The results indicate direct costs of the introduced transgene in at least three out of the four lines, as well as an apparent cost of the inbreeding involved in making transgenic homozygotes.


We extend expected utility theory to situations in which agents experience feelings of anticipation prior to the resolution of uncertainty. We show how these anticipatory feelings may result in time inconsistency. We provide an example from portfolio theory to illustrate the potential impact of anticipation on asset prices.


A series of Tn5-induced mutants which showed enhanced symbiotic effectiveness (Eff++) was isolated from Rhizobium meliloti strains CXM1-105 and CXM1-188. Alfalfa plants inoculated by the Eff++ mutants had significantly higher shoot dry mass than plants inoculated by the parental strains. In the greenhouse, the most effective mutants increased the shoot dry mass of the host plants by 23-26% and plant total nitrogen by 23-27%. Interestingly, the frequency of the Eff++ mutants in strain CXM1-188 was higher than in the strain CXM1-105 (1.1% versus 0.4%); this was also the case for the auxotrophic mutants (1.2% in CXM1-188 versus 0.3% in CXM1-105). Genetic analysis of the mutants showed that the enhanced symbiotic effectiveness was cotransducible with Tn5. By the use of Southern hybridization and plasmid transfer, it was found that ten Tn5 insertions were located in the chromosome, five in megaplasmid 1, and six in megaplasmid 2.


Numbers of buds within a leaf axil and of leaf primordia within a bud varied with node of insertion, both in intact pea (Pisum sativum) seedlings and in cultured axillary shoots. Normally one or more nodes bore no visible buds. At the higher nodes naked buds and aberrant forms were observed. Shoots dissected from the embryo bore five or six leaf primordia and buds were present at the cotyledonary node and at three nodes immediately above. Benzylaminopurine in the nutrient medium promoted vegetative growth of cultured shoots. The height and extent of proliferation of cultured shoots varied both with the parental node from which explants were derived and with benzylaminopurine concentration. Results are discussed in relation to correlative inhibition.


In this paper, we study a portfolio selection problem in which an agent trades a risk-free asset and multiple risky assets with deterministic mean return rates and volatility and wants to maximize the $\alpha$-quantile of her wealth at some terminal time. Because of the time inconsistency caused by quantiles, we consider intra-personal equilibrium strategies. We find that among the class of time-varying, affine portfolio strategies, the intra-personal equilibrium does not exist when $\alpha>1/2$, leads to zero investment in the risky assets when $\alpha<1/2$, and is a portfolio insurance strategy when $\alpha=1/2$. We then compare the intra-personal equilibrium strategy in the case of $\alpha=1/2$, namely under median maximization, to some other strategies and apply it to explain why more wealthy people invest more precentage of wealth in risky assets. Finally, we extend our model to account for multiple terminal time.


British Cultural Studies includes over thirty essays written by expert contributors, covering almost every aspect of culture and identity in Britain today and addressing the current transformations of British culture and identity in the context of globalization. The opening section of the book deals with different conceptions of Britishness and identity, including English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Asian and Black British identities. Section Two then analyses the interplay between tradition and heritage in contemporary culture, whilst the final section looks at the world of lifestyle groups, subcultures, and cultural politics and the way in which they have come in many ways to substitute for notions of Britishness.


Epitaxial and polycrystalline SnO2 thin films were prepared by the excimer laser annealing of amorphous SnO2 films on TiO2 (001) and MgO (001) substrates. The amorphous SnO2 film was prepared by a metal organic deposition (MOD) using di-n-butylbis (2, 4-pentanedionate) tin at 300°C. The crystallinity and orientation of the product films were investigated by the XRDΘ—2Θ, pole figure and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. At 200 mJ/cm2, the (002) oriented SnO2 films were obtained by KrF laser irradiation. Using the XRD scanning measurement and TEM, it was found that the oriented SnO2 films were epitaxially grown on the (001) TiO2 substrate. On the other hand, the polycrystalline SnO2 film was obtained on the MgO (001) substrate. It was found that the grain size of the SnO2 film on the MgO substrate near the surface is larger than that of the near substrate based on crosssectional bright field TEM micrographs.


H and E plane Tee junctions are the most common junctions in microwave communication and radar systems. They are extensively analyzed as evident from the literature. However co-planar E-H plane Tee junction is derived from H plane Tee junction. In this type of junction, Tarm is rotated by 90° and coupling takes place through inclined slot in the narrow wall of primary guide. Vertical slot in the narrow wall does not radiate and hence it is not used as slot antenna. Inclined open slot radiators are used to produce horizontally polarized fields. But due to the inclination the slot radiated fields contain cross polarized components. In order to suppress such cross polarized fields co-planar E-H junctions are extremely useful. An analysis of a T –Junction which differs from conventional H-plane T – junctions in that the T arm is rotated by 900 and coupling takes place through an inclined slot is presented. The variations of conductance, susceptance, coupling and VSWR with the angle of inclination of the slot, and with frequency, are presented and results have been verified practically.


Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC) is a unique entity of renal cell carcinoma and has a low malignant potential. A correct cytological diagnosis can help to decide the suitable management and operation. I present here a case with an imprint cytology of ChRCC focusing on the correlation with the histological and ultrastructural features. A 69-year-old male underwent partial nephrectomy and imprint cytology. The cellular smear consisted of predominantly granular eosinophilic cells with round nuclei, a well-defined cytoplasmic membrane and accentuated cell borders. The cytoplasm was characterized by variable granularity with reticulated clearing or vague perinuclear vacuolization. Distinct perinuclear halos were infrequently noted. The histological, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural findings were compatible with ChRCC.


Medical system for personal health management recently changes its paradigm from hospital service to self home care based on ubiquitous technology for healthcare anywhere at any time. The present study developed a wireless bio-signal measurement system for patients to self manage pulmonary disease and benign prostate hyperplasia(BPH), both of which are chronic diseases with increasing frequency in modern society. Velocity-type respiratory air flow transducer adapted to develop respiratory module for pulmonary disease management was simplified in structure to measure uni-directional flow since most important diagnostic parameters are evaluated on the expiratory flow signal only. Standard weight measurement technique was introduced to obtain urinary flow signal for BPH management. Three load cell signals were acquired for averaging to minimize noise, followed by accuracy evaluation. Transmission and receiver modules were also developed with user program for wireless communication. Averaged relative errors were 2.05 and 1.02% for respiratory volume and maximal flow rate, respectively, and the relative error was 2.17% for urinary volume, demonstrating that both modules enabled very accurate measurements. Wireless communication distance was verified within 15m, long enough for home care application. The present system allows the user to select a necessary measurement module on a particular health demand and to immediately provide the self-test results, thus better quality health care would be possible.


Intraventriculare injections have brough evidence that alpha-adrenomimetic norepinephrine and beta-adrenomimetic isopropylnorepinephrine augment in the senso-motor region of the cortex the amplitude of primary responses evoked through a dental pulp stimulation. The alpha-adrenoblocking agents--dihydroergotoxin and phentolamine and the beta-edrenoblocking agent propranolol force down the amplitude of primary responses. The sphere of the drugs action is presumed to be the thalamic nuclei.


A guided-ion beam tandem mass spectrometer is used to study the reactions of Pt(+) with methane, PtCH(2)(+) with H(2) and D(2), and collision-induced dissociation of PtCH(4)(+) and PtCH(2)(+) with Xe. These studies experimentally probe the potential energy surface for the activation of methane by Pt(+). For the reaction of Pt(+) with methane, dehydrogenation to form PtCH(2)(+) + H(2) is exothermic, efficient, and the only process observed at low energies. PtH(+), formed in a simple C-H bond cleavage, dominates the product spectrum at high energies. The observation of a PtH(2)(+) product provides evidence that methane activation proceeds via a (H)(2)PtCH(2)(+) intermediate. Modeling of the endothermic reaction cross sections yields the 0 K bond dissociation energies in eV (kJ/mol) of D(0)(Pt(+)-H) = 2.81 +/- 0.05 (271 +/- 5), D(0)(Pt(+)-2H) = 6.00 +/- 0.12 (579 +/- 12), D(0)(Pt(+)-C) = 5.43 +/- 0.05 (524 +/- 5), D(0)(Pt(+)-CH) = 5.56 +/- 0.10 (536 +/- 10), and D(0)(Pt(+)-CH(3)) = 2.67 +/- 0.08 (258 +/- 8). D(0)(Pt(+)-CH(2)) = 4.80 +/- 0.03 eV (463 +/- 3 kJ/mol) is determined by measuring the forward and reverse reaction rates for Pt(+) + CH(4) right harpoon over left harpoon PtCH(2)(+) + H(2) at thermal energy. We find extensive hydrogen scrambling in the reaction of PtCH(2)(+) with D(2). Collision-induced dissociation (CID) of PtCH(4)(+), identified as the H-Pt(+)-CH(3) intermediate, with Xe reveals a bond energy of 1.77 +/- 0.08 eV (171 +/- 8 kJ/mol) relative to Pt(+) + CH(4). The experimental thermochemistry is favorably compared with density functional theory calculations (B3LYP using several basis sets), which also establish the electronic structures of these species and provide insight into the reaction mechanism. Results for the reaction of Pt(+) with methane are compared with those for the analogous palladium system and the differences in reactivity and mechanism are discussed.


Introduction and objectives Nintedanib (OFEV®) is the second drug licensed for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Evidence from the INPULSIS study demonstrated that it reduced annual FVC decline by approximately 50%. Nintedanib has been available in the UK from October 2014 through the Individual Patient Supply Programme (IPSP); initially for those with FVC >50% predicted, latterly available for all with a diagnosis of IPF regardless of FVC. We present preliminary findings of clinical experience with nintedanib in routine UK clinical practice. Methods A multi-centre, cohort review was undertaken across 6 NHS Trusts. Data were collected from clinical records of individuals receiving nintedanib for the treatment of IPF from October 2014 to July 2015. Results 210 patients (161 male) had consented to nintedanib IPSP by July 2015. Mean age (±S. D.) at diagnosis was 70.0 ± 7.7 years. Reasons for starting nintedanib included ineligibility for pirfenidone (FVC >80% predicted: 67 (31.9%) and FVC <50% predicted: 12 (5.7%)), intolerance to pirfenidone 63 (30%), patient preference 54 (25.7%), and clinical progression on pirfenidone 8 (3.8%). Pre-treatment lung function was FVC 72.2 ± 19.0% and DLCO 40.1 ± 17.2% predicted (Domiciliary oxygen was administered to 66 (31.4%) of the cohort. Mean duration of treatment was 2.4 months (range 0 – 8 months) and 78 patients had completed 3-month follow up. Of these 14/78 patients (17.9%) had discontinued nintedanib due to diarrhoea (5 patients), other GI side effects (3), death/lung transplant (2/1), miscellaneous reasons (3). The commonest potential adverse drug reaction (ADR) was diarrhoea occurring in 21/78 (26.9%), which required a dose reduction in 11 patients. Other common ADRs included nausea 11/78 (14.1%), abdominal pain 11/78 (14.1%), decreased appetite 7/78 (9.0%), and weight loss 5/78 (6.4%). Conclusions These data demonstrate that at 3 months follow up, Nintedanib is generally well tolerated when used in routine UK practice in patients with IPF across a wide range of FVC's. The incidence of diarrhoea at 3 months is much lower than the 12 month reported rate in the INPULSIS study. Ongoing longitudinal follow up of this cohort will further inform our understanding of the use of nintedanib for the treatment of IPF.


The computation of upper and lower bounds to error probability in digital transmission over nonlinear channels with a finite memory is considered. By using orthogonal Volterra series, the authors derive a canonical representation for discrete nonlinear systems, based on a linear convolutional code and a memoryless mapper. This representation shows that finite-memory, discrete nonlinear systems can be analyzed in much the same way as TCM (trellis-coded modulation) schemes. In particular, TCM over nonlinear channels can be analyzed. A technique is derived that expresses an upper bound to error probability based on the computation of the transfer of a state diagram with N branches, and whose branch labels are matrices rather than scalars. Some examples of its application are given. In particular, error bounds are derived for nonlinear TCM schemes and for TCM schemes operating on nonlinear channels. >


Sepsis involves a complex interaction between bacterial toxins and the host immune system. Endotoxin, a component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, is involved in the pathogenesis of sepsis producing proinflammatory cytokines and activating the complement system, and is thus an ideal potential therapeutic target. Direct hemoperfusion using polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (PMX-F) has been shown to bind and neutralize endotoxin in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Therefore, this extracorporeal therapy with PMX-F can potentially interrupt the biological cascade of sepsis. A systematic review of the published literature found positive effects of PMX-F on blood pressure and dopamine/dobutamine use, the PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio, endotoxin removal, and mortality. It should be noted, however, that many of the analyzed studies were of suboptimal quality, which may then exaggerate the magnitude of these effects. Since this meta-analysis, other studies have been published including a multicenter randomized controlled trial on abdominal septic shock. In this study, PMX-F, when added to conventional therapy, significantly improved hemodynamics and organ dysfunction, and reduced 28-day mortality in this targeted population. There is clear biological rationale for endotoxin removal in the clinical management of severe sepsis and septic shock. The current literature seems to provide some support for this premise, and provides the basis for further rigorous study.


This paper describes the creation of a service design exhibition, from two different points of view, that of the service designer, and that of the exhibition designer. The outputs of service design projects are often immaterial, consisting of plans, maps, reports and blueprints that explain complex systems of interventions. Often the design process is highlighted in the traditional presentation methods used to present service design projects, such as conference posters and presentations, while the physical outputs, which could be any number of products, graphics, interfaces, spaces, conversation guidelines, etc. take on a secondary role. Exhibiting service design in a gallery setting requires therefore a redesign not only of the exhibition space, but also of the outputs to be exhibited, so that the exhibition speaks to the viewer in an immediate and meaningful way.

In this paper we discuss three case studies of different service design projects, each requiring different interventions to create a single exhibition that would communicate to a non specialist audience during the London Design Festival.


In this study, we investigate the synchronization phenomena in a ring of van der Pol oscillators coupled by Time-Varying Resistor (TVR). We realize the TVR by switching a positive and a negative resistor periodically. When the frequency is high, positive resistor and negative resistor switch quickly. We use three TVRs, and each TVR has different frequencies. And, we observe the synchronization phenomena in the proposed circuit system by changing the frequency of TVRs and the duty ratio.


Background: The ERBB2/HER2 gene has long been known as an important oncogene in human cancer. Overexpression of HER2 influences the development of various cancers, and amplification of the gene is often found in aggressive forms of breast cancer, leading it to be an important biomarker in many targeted therapies. The goal of our study is to (i) detect the presence of HER2 amplification in plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) using two approaches: shallow Whole Genome Sequencing (sWGS) and digital droplet PCR (ddPCR). Methods: Tumor biopsy DNA from 3 patients was collected from surgeries performed either at diagnosis, disease progression, or relapse prior to enrollment on the trial. Plasma and matched control (buffy coat) were collected from patients before treatment (baseline) and at disease progression. The time of collection between tumor and baseline plasma was 71-913 days. Tumor specimens were analyzed using MSK-IMPACT, a comprehensive 468 gene platform, while plasma cfDNA and matched buffy coat DNA was analyzed using sWGS, ddPCR (using an assay previously reported that detection HER2 amplification by targeting regions on HER2 and a reference region 17q21.31), and a deep targeted sequencing assay that interrogate 60 frequent cancer drivers. Results: MSK-IMPACT revealed HER2 amplifications (1.5-15.4 fold) in all tumor samples. DdPCR analysis revealed HER2 amplification in all matched plasma samples (1.25-29.82). SWGS analysis of cfDNA detected HER2 amplifications in 5 of the 6 samples (2 baseline and all progression), and missed in one sample, which later confirmed to have the lowest low mutant allele fraction (MAF) among all samples analyzed: deep targeted sequencing analysis of that particular sample reveals a APC X215 mutation at 3% at baseline which later increased to 25% at disease progression, accompanied by the detection of HER2 amplification. In that particular patient, deep sequencing data reveal distinct dynamics of TP53, APC and PIK3CA, indicating the underlying tumor molecular evolution is highly heterogeneous. Conclusions: These results confirm that the detection of gene amplification in cfDNA is dependent on both the magnitude of amplification and the amount of tumor-derived MAF in the particular plasma sample. Noninvasive analysis of cfDNA allows the tracking of gene amplification and the dynamics of multiple cancer drivers during targeted therapies. Citation Format: Erika Gedvilaite, Caitlin Stewart, Julie Yang, Jonathan Reichel, Dennis Stephens, Michael D. Offin, Xiaohong Jing, Fanli Meng, Daoqi You, Michael F. Berger, Bob Li, Dana WY Tsui. Noninvasive profiling of molecular dynamics in patients receiving HER2 targeted therapies by cell-free DNA analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-228.


Objective: To establish a method for the determination of manganese in urine by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) without the use of matrix modifier. Methods: The urine samples were 5 times diluted with 1% nitric acid then directly determined by AAS. Zeeman was used for background correction. Results: The linear range for determination of manganese in urine was 5~60 μg/L (urine) . The correlation coefficient was greater than 0.995 with the detection limit of 1.5 μg/L and with the lower limit of quantification of 5.0 μg/L. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of within-run precision was between 1.1%~4.3%, the RSDs of between-run precision was between 3.3%~7.0%. The average recovery was 102.6%. The samples can be stored for 14 days at room temperature, 4℃, -8 ℃ and -35 ℃. Conclusion: The method is feasible for determination of manganese in urine.


The circular economy requires high-value material recovery to enable multiple product lifecycles. This implies the need for additive manufacturing to focus on the development and use of low-impact materials that, after product use, can be reconstituted to their original properties in terms of printability and functionality. We therefore investigated reprintable materials, made from bio-based resources. In order to equally consider material properties and recovery during development, we took a design approach to material development. In this way, the full material and product life cycle was studied, including multiple recovery steps. We applied this method to the development of a reprintable bio-based composite material for extrusion paste printing. This material is derived from natural and abundant resources, i.e., ground mussel shells and alginate. The alginate in the printing paste is ionically cross-linked after printing to create a water-resistant material. This reaction can be reversed to retain a printable paste. We studied paste composition, printability and material properties and 3D printed a design prototype. Alginate as a binder shows good printing and reprinting behaviour, as well as promising material properties. It thus demonstrates the concept of reprintable materials.


This article traces the evolution of the laws governing the use of water for consumption, waste disposal, public purposes and environmental protection. It provides a unique integration of water resources law and environmental law, two fields that are otherwise highly fragmented in the United States. Both the historic tensions and the emerging collaborations among federal, state, tribal and private interests in managing water resources are assessed in an effort to illuminate future pathways for conservation and the restoration of degraded waterways. The article begins with colonial America and proceeds through five significant eras in U.S. history: the Gilded Age of industry; the Progressive Era of wise use; the rise of the administrative state and first generation environmental regulations during the New Deal; the conservation movement of the postWar years; and, finally, the late twentieth century era of beneficial use tempered by second generation command and control regulation. In the early days, discharges of sewage and industrial toxins, depletion of stream flows and the contamination of drinking water supplies were addressed only haphazardly, and almost exclusively at the local level. The federal government influenced water policy through navigational enhancements and reclamation works, but took a deferential stance toward state and local law on water rights, land use and public welfare. Beginning in the New Deal years of the 1930s, Congress and the federal agencies assumed active involvement in multiple-use development of hydropower, floodplains and recreation. Rigorous requirements to protect the integrity of waterbodies and the fish and wildlife species that depended on them were not embraced, however, until the 1970s. The command and control regulatory programs initiated in the 1970s are as powerful today as they were then, but the low-hanging fruit has been harvested and additional "next generation" tools are needed to restore and protect the nation's waterways. Meanwhile, organic, ever-evolving common law norms will likely play a revitalized role in the sustainable management of water resources, but only if complemented by a strong, ecologically based federal regulatory baseline.


A novel method for guidance of vision-based autonomous vehicles for indoor security patrolling using scale-invariant feature transformation (SIFT) and vehicle localization techniques is proposed. Along-path objects to be monitored are used as landmarks for vehicle localization. The localization work is accomplished by three steps: SIFT-based object image feature matching, 2-D affine transformation using the Hough transform, and analytic 3-D space transformation. Object monitoring can be simultaneously achieved during the vehicle-localization process, and most planar-surfaced objects can be utilized in the process, greatly enhancing the applicability of the proposed method. Vehicle trajectory deviations from the planned path due to mechanic error accumulation are also estimated by setting up a calibration line on the monitored object image and applying the 3-D space transformation. Moreover, a path-correction technique is proposed to conduct a path adjustment and guide the vehicle to navigate to the next path node. Analysis of the accuracy of the vehicle-localization and path-correction results is finally included. The experimental results show that the proposed method, utilizing only a single view of each object, can guide the vehicle to navigate accurately and monitor objects successfully.


The popularity of Internet technology has brought great impact to retail business. On the one hand, online retail has become a trend, and on the other hand, the relationship between retail businesses, customers and suppliers has also undergone substantial changes under the Internet environment. For retail business, how to make timely innovation of business model with the advantage of offline operation has become the key to stimulate the retail businesses vitality in the ever-changing market competition. At present, the domestic research on the business model is still in infant stage. Some researches on the business model innovation of retail business often find it difficult to grasp the advantages of the traditional retailers, and they do not reflect the development trend of "new retail" in future. Based on this, this paper attempts to start from the advantages of traditional retail business, combine the current status and development trend of the current retail industry, and summarizes the commercial multi-dimensional innovation model of retail business under the Internet economic environment.


A survey on lichen diversity was carried out in five EU habitats of interest of the Sexten Dolomiten Natural Park (S Tyrol, NE Italy). The aim was to evaluate the importance of lichens for biodiversity conservation in an alpine environment. Five 20 x 20 m plots were located in different habitats (codes: 6170, 4060, 9410, 4070, 6520) along an altitudinal gradient in the Tre Cime di Lavaredo area, from the alpine to the montane belts. In each plot a complete floristic survey was carried out on different substrates. 154 infrageneric taxa were found. The main differences among habitats are due to elevation, geomorphology, substrates and eutrophication. The percentage of rare species is higher in natural grasslands above treeline, and in Pinus mugo and Larix formations.


ABSTRACT A growing concern is arising to recognize that ecosystem services (ES) production often requires the integration of non-natural capital with natural capital in a process known as co-production. Several studies explore co-production in different terrestrial ecosystems, such as agriculture or water delivery, but less attention has been paid to marine ecosystems. Coastal activities such as aquaculture, shellfish harvesting, and small-scale fishing deliver important benefits for seafood provision, but are also inextricably linked to cultural and recreational ES. The degree to which co-production can determine the provision of ES in marine systems has yet not been explored. This paper addresses this key topic with an exploratory analysis of case studies where marine ES are co-produced. We look at five small-scale fisheries that range from intensive semi-aquaculture in Galicia (Spain), to wild harvesting in Northern Portugal, and discuss to what extent co-production influences ES delivery. We find that a direct relationship exists between co-production level and ES delivery in the case of provisioning ES (e.g., fish harvest), but not necessarily in the delivery of other ES. We also find that management practices and property regimes may be affecting trade-offs between co-production and ES. EDITED BY Evangelia Drakou


The dependence of an emission wavelength on the crystal temperature was first investigated for a diode-pumped continuous-wave ${{\rm Yb}^{3 + }}$Yb3+-doped ${{\rm CaGdAlO}_4}$CaGdAlO4 (Yb:CALGO) laser. A maximum output power of 11 W was obtained, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 19.8%. The output wavelength varied from 1051.10 nm to 1054.72 nm with increased absorbed pump power. This wavelength shift is attributed to a change in the crystal temperature. This observation is, to our best knowledge, an original conclusion about this phenomenon in a Yb:CALGO laser. We use a temperature-dependent model to explain the emission wavelength shifts that can be generalized to any such quasi-three-level materials.


Part I: The problem of Bose-Einstein condensation of an ideal gas is dealt with to determine the condensate statistics. A brief description of the inter-relations between various ensembles of statistical mechanics is given. Thereafter, various canonical ensemble methods applied to the trapped ideal Bose gas are discussed in great detail. Further, strategies to convert the canonical ensemble results into the microcanonical ensemble description are also discussed. Part II: Various topics bound by a common theme based on the principle of atomic coherence are studied in the second part. First a scheme exploiting interference of incoherent pump processes to achieve strong control over the total spontaneous emission from a three-level atom is discussed. Thereafter various schemes to achieve radiative cooling without the presence of spontaneous emission on the cooling transition are considered. This allows cooling to an internal absolute zero of temperature in an atomic system in very small number of steps. In the last chapter a transient regime for gain without inversion is considered in a three level lambda system that may be easier to implement.


Abdominal wall endometriosis is a very rare site for extragenital endometriosis. We present 4 cases diagnosed and treated in two gynecological services of IaE™i, Romania, and we review the literature data on this topic. The endometriotic implant in our cases occurred in the post-cesarean section scar, and was diagnosed after 1-4 years from the intervention. The main symptom was local pain (in 2 cases with a cyclical pattern). The initial diagnostic was endometriosis in 3 cases, and granuloma in one case. The ultrasound adequately described the situation and the consistency of the tumor in 2 cases. The treatment was surgical excision, and the post-operative evolution was favorable. In conclusion, although a rare disease, endometriosis is accessible for the diagnostic and treatment, being a pathology that both surgeons and gynecological should consider.


Background: The Corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been a global health crisis and has affected Nepal also. As a strategy to control the disease outbreak, the government of Nepal had introduced a four-month nationwide lockdown. This study aims to evaluate the impact of the national lockdown in orthopedic services in Chitwan Medical College.
Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study included all the patients admitted and treated in the orthopedic department of Chitwan Medical College during lockdown period from 24 March to 21 July 2020, which was compared with the same four-month interval from 24 March to 21 July in 2019. Data collected included patient demographics, mechanism of injury, anatomical location, waiting time before surgery and hospital stay.
Results: A total of 247 patients were treated during lockdown, with a reduction of 45.4% from 2019 (452 patients). Also, there was 39.1% (340 vs 207, p=0.009) reduction in trauma cases and 35.7% (347 vs 223, p=0.000) reduction in cases operated in lockdown. There was a decrease in pediatric patients during lockdown (p=0.044). Fall was the most common mechanism of injury in both groups (p=0.158) with decrease in road traffic accidents during lockdown 27.1% (n=56) vs 45% (n=153) in 2019 (p=0.000). The waiting time before surgery and hospital stay were also shortened (p=0.000).
Conclusions: The impact of lockdown resulted in decreased number of orthopedic trauma admissions and cases operated. On such a crisis, only urgent and semi-urgent cases need to be managed while also protecting healthcare workers and patients


Cochlear microphonics were recorded in response to Gaussian noise from the round window of Mongolian gerbils. A nonlinear systems identification procedure provided the frequency-domain parameters of a third-order polynomial equation describing cochlear mechano-electric transduction (MET). Exposure to an 8 kHz pure tone at 100 dB SPL for 20 min reduced the magnitude of the linear, quadratic, and cubic terms significantly. Animals exposed to a 1- or 4-kHz pure tone showed changes in the quadratic term. Differentiation of the polynomial equation and algebraic manipulations of the coefficients provided physiologic indices of MET. The sensitivity, saturation voltages, and sound pressures required to saturate MET were altered in animals exposed to an 8-kHz pure tone. Limited changes occurred in animals exposed to a 1- or 4-kHz pure tone.


Many intra-logistics systems, such as automated container terminals, distribution warehouses, and crossdocks observe parallel process flows, which involve simultaneous (parallel) operations of multiple independent resources while processing a job. Due to the unknown service time of the job, stochastic modeling of the parallel process flows is quite complex. For modeling simplicity, researchers tend to assume sequential operations of the resources. This paper proposes a novel modeling approach using two-phase servers to model the simultaneous operations of resources. We develop a closed queuing network model to estimate the performance measures of a system which observes parallel process flows. To solve the resulting queuing network model, we construct two solution methods: an extended approximate mean value analysis and a network aggregation dis-aggregation approach. We derive insights on the accuracy of the solution methods using numerical experiments. Although both solution methods are quite accurate in estimating performance measures, the network aggregation dis-aggregation approach consistently performs best. We illustrate the proposed parallel modeling approach for two intra-logistic systems: an automated container terminal with automated guided vehicles and a robotic compact storage system. Results show that approximating the simultaneous operations as sequential operations underestimates the container terminal throughput on average by 28% and a maximum up to 47%. Similarly, considering sequential operations of the resources in the compact storage system results in underestimation of the throughput capacity up to 9%.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used in many applications, both military and civilian. There is a push by researchers to implement coordinated behaviors in groups of autonomous UAVs. Such coordinated behavior requires a reliable degree of communication between cooperating aircraft. Therefore, this research examines one such group behavior, namely formation flight, from a network standpoint. A mobility model is described that represents stressful flying conditions, and a series of simulations are run to explore the network constraints that are placed on a formation of flying autonomous UAVs. The results of these simulations are useful for UAV operators to know the limits of the formation from a wireless network standpoint. Furthermore, these simulations provide a starting point for further research into protocols that can yield improved results


We study the utility of wavelets for detecting the redshift evolution of the dark energy equation of state w(z) from the combination of supernovae (SNe), CMB and BAO data. We show that local features in w, such as bumps, can be detected efficiently using wavelets. To demonstrate, we first generate a mock supernovae data sample for a SNAP-like survey with a bump feature in w(z) hidden in, then successfully discover it by performing a blind wavelet analysis. We also apply our method to analyze the recently released ``Constitution'' SNe data, combined with WMAP and BAO from SDSS, and find weak hints of dark energy dynamics. Namely, we find that models with w(z) < −1 for 0.2 < z < 0.5, and w(z) > −1 for 0.5 < z < 1, are mildly favored at 95% confidence level. This is in good agreement with several recent studies using other methods, such as redshift binning with principal component analysis (PCA) (e.g. Zhao and Zhang, arXiv: 0908.1568).


Many seismic experiments result in multiple time series which can be decomposed into signal and additive noise, where the noise has both a coherent and an incoherent component. The signal and the two noise components are stationary second-order random functions. The time shifts, called moveouts, of the signal and coherent noise are random variables with known distributions. Wiener filter theory is used to design the filter system that gives the optimal signal estimate, based upon the moveout distributions and the power spectra of the various components of the data. Velocity filters are useful in seismic data processing to separate signal from noise on the basis of moveout (velocity) differences without distorting the basic shape of the signal.


This course guide will help you locate articles and books for Dr. David Speak's PLS 431 course assignment on Pre-Renaissance Political Theorists (including Confucius, Plato, Alfarabi, and Medieval Christian writers).


In preparation for the coming High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) upgrade, the New Small Wheel (NSW) will replace the Small Wheel of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer as part of the 2018 ATLAS Phase-I upgrade. Micromegas (MM) detectors will serve as one component of the NSW. These gaseous micro-mesh detectors will accommodate the higher luminosity and trigger rate of the future HL-LHC.In order to predict performance of MM after several years in the HL-LHC, radiation aging tests were conducted in the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) using a Cs 137 source. Two small MM prototype "T" chambers were irradiated and studied over the course of several months to accelerate the aging process and characterize chamber behavior. This report outlines a record of the aging process thus far and demonstrates techniques used to describe aging effects, namely measurements of average current, integrated charge, and gain. These will be used in the ongoing aging analysis of the T chambers and in future aging studies of the most recent Micromegas Small Wheel prototype.


INTRODUCTION
Oral contraceptives are one of the risk factors for gingival disease. Oral contraceptives can affect the proliferation of cell, growth and differentiation of tissues in the periodontium. Nowadays recent research has suggested that the newer generation oral contraceptives have less influence on gingival diseases.

AIM
The purpose of this study was to systematically review the effect of oral contraceptives on periodontium.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A literature review was performed; PubMed, PubMed Central and Cochrane Library, Embase, Google Scholar were searched from 1970 up to December 2015 to identify appropriate studies.

RESULTS
Out of the total 94 titles appeared 13 articles fulfilled the criteria and were selected for the review. Two articles which were hand searched and one article which was through e-mail was also included. The hormones progesterone and estrogen have direct impact on immune system of the body and thus, affect the pattern and rate of collagen production in the gingiva. Furthermore, the review also shows that longer duration usage of oral contraceptive could lead to poorer oral hygiene status, gingival inflammation and increased susceptibility to periodontal disease.

CONCLUSION
There are relatively few studies evaluating the effect of oral contraceptives on periodontium. It was found that oral contraceptives have a marked effect on periodontium. The gingival changes after use of oral contraceptives are pronounced in the first few months and with the passage of time these changes get enhanced.


This paper describes our German and English Speech-to-Text (STT) systems for the 2016 IWSLT evaluation campaign. The campaign focuses on the transcription of unsegmented TED talks. Our setup includes systems using both the Janus and Kaldi frameworks. We combined the outputs using both ROVER [1] and confusion network combination (CNC) [2] to archieve a good overall performance. The individual subsystems are built by using different speaker-adaptive feature combination (e.g., lMEL with i-vector or bottleneck speaker vector), acoustic models (GMM or DNN) and speaker adaption (MLLR or fMLLR). Decoding is performed in two stages, where the GMM and DNN systems are adapted on the combination of the first stage outputs using MLLR, and fMLLR. The combination setup produces a final hypothesis that has a significantly lower WER than any of the individual subsystems. For the English TED task, our best combination system has a WER of 7.8% on the development set while our other combinations gained 21.8% and 28.7% WERs for the English and German MSLT tasks.


A three-dimensional DNS is performed in a particle-laden turbulent mixing layer to investigate effects of a parcel modeling on particles spatial dispersion, exchange of momentum, and interphase mass transfer which is represented by nonreactive scalar distribution evaporated from dispersed particles. Two parcel models in which each parcel has the same volume (volume fixed model, VFM) and represents the same number of particles (number fixed model, NFM) are discussed by comparing with directly tracking one by one particle without parcel model as a referred case (reference case, RC). Results show that difference in the characteristics of particle dispersion is observed between VFM and RC, while good agreement is found between NFM and RC at the upstream region of the mixing layer. However, it is found in comparing with RC that an underestimation of momentum transfer appears for VFM and NFM in whole region of the mixing layer. This is because the parcels exchange a large amount of momentum in the limited small spaces and the relative velocity is decreased locally, and then the momentum exchange is suppressed. Parcel models also cause an underestimation of evaporation from particles compared to RC. Especially, VFM is more likely to underestimate the total amount of evaporation compared to NFM.


This is the first political and social history in English of Stalin's industrial revolution during the first Five-Year Plan, 1928-1932. The rapid diversion of vast resources into industrialization severely squeezed national consumption, imposing a heavy burden and sacrifice upon the entire nation. Dr Kuromiya argues that Stalin and his advisers made industrialization politically possible by presenting it as 'class war.' True to their ideological convictions, mercilessly suppressed those suspected of opposition as 'class enemies' and 'wreckers,' and actively sought the support of industrial workers, Komsomols (members of youth organizations) and Communists. Examining the vision, passion, commitment, and resentments of these people, the author shows that Stalin's leadership gained an important degree of support while brutally crushing resistance. Stalin's industrialization was also a war of central economic planning against market forces. This book vividly describes the way in which the objectives and capabilities of various institutions and organizations affected the formation of the Soviet planned economy.


By applying a phenomenological theory for long-wavelength polar optical oscillations to mesoscopic layered semiconductor structures, we calculate the normal modes of a quantum wire and of a free-standing wire, the cylindrical geometry is adopted with circular cross-section of radius r0. The displacement field u and the electric potential phi are calculated for the different modes, as well as the dispersion relation curves. The case of the GaAs/AlAs structure is analysed. We limit ourselves to the study of oscillations perpendicular to the wire axis. The electron-phonon interaction Hamiltonian is derived for the present problem using the second-quantization formalism.


Writing, for Michael Snow, is as much a form of "art-making" as the broad range of visual art activities for which he is renowned, including the "Walking Woman" series and the film Wavelength. Conversely, many of the texts included in this anthology are as significant visually as they are at the level of content -- they are meant to be looked at as well as read. Situated somewhere between a repository of contemporary thought by one of our leading Canadian artists and a history book as it brings to light some important moments in the cultural life of Canada since the 1950s, these texts tell their own story, marking the passage of time, ideas and attitudes. The works included here, ranging from essays and interviews and record album cover notes to filmscripts and speeches (which, in Snow's hands, often fall into the category of performance art), are not only "built for browsing," they offer insights into both the professional and the private Snow. Together, they expand the context of Snow's work and show the evolution of a great Canadian artist, beginning with his early attempts at defining art, to his emergence and recognition on the international art scene. This book is one of four books that are part of the Michael Snow Project. Initiated by the Art Gallery of Ontario and The Power Plant Gallery, the project also includes four exhibitions of his visual art and music.


From the beginning of the deterministic chaos research, the unpredictability has been its central theme. Interesting questions arise here: What are the consequences of chaos for the fine tuned processes? Are there fine tuning systems in reality? We investigate the possibility of defining a fine tuning parameter in terms of the Lyapunov principal exponent. We will critically evaluate the existing formulation of Hetesi and Vegh. We argue that such a quantification of a fine tuning parameter may be useful in the context of the debate between indifference and fine tuning principles for the Universe. We also propose how to define fine tuning evolutional paths of the Universe by using concepts of dynamical systems, namely the method of separatrices in the phase space.


Metformin may potentially reverse various age-related conditions; however, it is unclear whether metformin can also mitigate or delay the deterioration of immunological resilience that occurs in the context of infections that are commonly observed in older persons. We examined whether metformin promotes the preservation of immunological resilience in an acute S. pneumoniae (SPN) infection challenge in young adult mice. Mice were fed metformin (MET-alone) or standard chow (controls-alone) for 10 weeks prior to receiving intratracheal inoculation of SPN. A subset of each diet group received pneumococcal conjugate vaccine at week 6 (MET + PCV and control + PCV). Compared to controls-alone, MET-alone had significantly less infection-associated morbidity and attenuated inflammatory responses during acute SPN infection. Metformin lowered the expression of genes in the lungs related to inflammation as well as shorter lifespan in humans. This was accompanied by significantly lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL6). MET + PCV vs. control + PCV manifested enhanced SPN anticapsular IgM and IgG levels. The levels of SPN IgM production negatively correlated with expression levels of genes linked to intestinal epithelial structure among MET + PCV vs. control + PCV groups. Correspondingly, the gut microbial composition of metformin-fed mice had a significantly higher abundance in the Verrucomicrobia, Akkermansia muciniphila, a species previously associated with beneficial effects on intestinal integrity and longevity. Together, these findings indicate metformin's immunoprotective potential to protect against infection-associated declines in immunologic resilience.


The analysis and understanding of the neutron flux (NF) signals of nuclear reactors (NRs) is imperative for ensuring safe and optimal (expressed in terms of minimal fuel use for maximal energy production) on-line NR operation. The NF perturbations are of particular interest, as they provide detailed information concerning the instantaneous changes in NR operation/status. In this piece of research, general regression artificial neural networks (GRNNs) are proposed for concurrently identifying NR deviations from steady-state operation as well as neutron detector (ND) malfunctions in a timely, reliable and efficient manner. On the one hand, the use of (a) raw, minimalistic NF signals and (b) complementary signal encodings – derived from pertinent and limited in size ND configurations – of the problem space, renders the proposed approach timely/efficient, modular as well as flexible. On the other hand, the GRNN characteristics of (i) transparency of construction, (ii) low computational (time/space) complexity of training and testing, (iii) accuracy, consistency and good generalization in the identification of the cause(s) behind deviating-from-normal NR behaviour and (iv) efficient operation and partial only GRNN retraining following modification of the training set, support the use of the proposed methodology. It is envisaged that, by appropriately combining the responses derived from different GRNNs, both accuracy and sensitivity of deviation detection as well as of malfunction localization shall be further improved at minimal additional computational load.


This is clearly observable in media reporting, legislative processes, national and international posturings on the subject of child labour. The Indian scene has been rendered more complex due to lack of factual knowledge (even among the researchers) on regional, gender and rural dimensions of its incidence. This lacuna has nothing to do with absence of statistical data or hard facts available in public domain. The available statistics are hardly processed, analysed and deceminated. The problem is neither ignorance nor lack of data. But rather shallow and partial understanding of the issues involved. Among many articulate and determined interest groups facts are not allowed to come in the way of their opinions and unexamined beliefs This paper is an attempt to provide a tentative framework for an objective, factual and systematic look at important dimensions of the child labour problem in rural India. The paper is divided into various sections. This Section are with history of the child labour phenomena in industrialised market economies. Clarifies the changing meaning and concepts of child labour and ILO's views on the subject. Devoted to the growth of child population and school education. Section IV brings out gender dimensions of child labour and Nowhere Children in Rural India. Section V deals with sectoral distribution of child labour and with age composition of child labor With fragmented and urban oriented policy response to the child labour problem. Last Section brings out limitations of the existing policy responses to the challenge of child labour in rural limitations of the existing policy responses to the challenge of child labor in rural India and elsewhere and the need for their orchestration.


Finding optimal operating conditions of solar-based power and cooling systems is always a challenge. Performance of these systems is highly dependent on several important parameters, which not only impact the long-term efficiency but also its technical and economic feasibility. This paper studies the operation/configuration problem of an ammonia-water power and cooling cycle using an exergetic analysis. Thermodynamic performance of the combined cycle was addressed by using analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis. Modeling was done in Matlab®, using Refprop 9.0 to calculate the thermodynamic properties of the ammonia-water mixture. Convergence issues were observed on the thermodynamic properties estimation carried out by Refprop when the stream had high ammonia mass fraction. To solve this issue an averaging algorithm was implemented online to estimate such properties using pure ammonia data and high, but stable, ammonia concentration data. After this implementation, small differences between current and reference model were seen.Optimum operating conditions were obtained using response surface technique. The response variable used was the ratio between exergetic efficiency and exergy destruction. Results showed that the response variable is mainly influenced by the ammonia concentration, pressure ratio, turbine efficiency and temperature gradient in the heat exchanger. Finally integration of the power/cooling cycle with a solar field was performed using two types of concentrated solar collectors: Linear Fresnel Collector (LFC) and Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC). The analysis showed that LFC technology can be a viable alternative for small scale applications combined with power/cooling systems.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


ABSTRACT A GH8 family enzyme involved in xylan depolymerization has been characterized. The enzyme, Rex8A, is a reducing-end xylose-releasing exo-oligoxylanase (Rex) that efficiently hydrolyzes xylooligosaccharides and shows minor activity on polymeric xylan. Rex8A hydrolyzes xylooligomers of 3 to 6 xylose units to xylose and xylobiose in long-term incubations. Kinetic constants of Rex8A were determined on xylotriose, showing a Km of 1.64 ± 0.03 mM and a k cat value of 118.8 s−1. Besides linear xylooligosaccharides, the enzyme hydrolyzed decorated xylooligomers. The catalytic activity on branched xylooligosaccharides, i.e., the release of xylose from the reducing end, is a newly described trait of xylose-releasing exo-oligoxylanases, as the exo-activity on these substrates has not been reported for the few of these enzymes characterized to date. Modeling of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of Rex8A shows an (α/α)6 barrel fold where the loops connecting the α-helices contour the active site. These loops, which show high sequence diversity among GH8 enzymes, shape a catalytic cleft with a −2 subsite that can accommodate methyl-glucuronic acid decorations. The hydrolytic ability of Rex8A on branched oligomers can be crucial for the complete depolymerization of highly substituted xylans, which is indispensable to accomplish biomass deconstruction and to generate efficient catalysts. IMPORTANCE A GH8 family enzyme involved in xylan depolymerization has been characterized. The Rex8A enzyme from Paenibacillus barcinonensis is involved in depolymerization of glucuronoxylan, a major component of the lignocellulosic substrates. The study shows that Rex8A is a reducing-end xylose-releasing exo-oligoxylanase that efficiently hydrolyzes xylose from neutral and acidic xylooligosaccharides generated by the action of other xylanases also secreted by the strain. The activity of a Rex enzyme on branched xylooligosaccharides has not been described to date. This report provides original and useful information on the properties of a new example of the rarely studied Rex enzymes. Depolymerization of highly substituted xylans is crucial for biomass valorization as a platform for generation of biofuels, chemicals, and solvents.


This study analyzes the impact of media framing on aggregate attitudes and expectations of Israelis toward the Oslo peace process with the Palestinians during a time period of eight years (1995—2003). It presents three main contributions: First, it provides a long-term analysis of the impact of media coverage of a peace process on public opinion, while controlling for the influence of real life events. Second, it presents empirical evidence that the strength of media framing effects varies among different facets of public opinion. Specifically, framing effects are stronger on aggregate future expectations compared with their effects on aggregate current attitudes. The fact that the information transmitted by the media evaluative tone was a central source of influence on future expectations underlines the central role of the media in political and social phenomena. Third, in line with previous studies, it shows that the public response to negative framing is much stronger than to positive framing. This may have a negative effect on a government's ability to rally the public in support of a peace process. Since most media coverage of the peace process and conflict focused on negative developments while ignoring positive ones, the media effect on public opinion was that of peace spoilers.


Objective: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk for occupational injury associated with contaminated blood and body fluids. This study aims to examine the frequency and type of occupational injuries and to determine best practices after exposure. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Haydarpasa Teaching Hospital in December 2010. The questionnaires were completed by healthcare workers with face-to-face interviews. The questionnaire was evaluated occupational injuries in the hospital practice. Results: In total, 300of 350 healthcare practitioners (85.7%) answered the questions; 125 (41.6%) of them were nurses, 96 (32.0%) were physicians, 36 (12.0%) were cleaning staff, 23 (7.6%) were student nurses, and 20 (6.6%) were laboratory technicians. The number of HCWs who contact with blood and body fluids was 175 (58.3%). Forty-five HCWs (15.0%) have had injuries in the past year. The physicians had significantly lower injury rates (p=0.004), while nurses had significantly higher (p<0.001) injury rates. Needle-stick injuries resulting in transmission of contaminated blood and body fluids occurred in 144 (82.2%) HCWs. Among 175 injured HCWs, 54 (30.8%) reported their injuries at the time of injury. Twenty-seven nurses (%50) (p=0.882), nine doctors (16.6%) (p=0.126), eight cleaning staff (14.8%) (p=0.448), seven laboratory technicians (12.9%) (p=0.162), and three student nurses (5.5%) (p=0.831) had reported their injuries. Conclusion: Taking standard precautions against contact with contaminated blood and body fluid samples, reporting injuries, and not neglecting post-exposure prophylaxis may reduce risk of occupational exposure in HCWs.


AbstractThis essay examines the invented Caribbean island of St. Caesare and its relation to the representational space of "Ulster" in Montserratian poet E.A. Markham's collection Letter from Ulster and the Hugo Poems (1993). As the title of the book implies, it unites two of the poet's home islands, Ireland and Montserrat. Ireland was Markham's home at the moment when he drafted many of these poems, as he was Writer-in-Residence at the University of Ulster at Coleraine from 1988 to 1991. However, as a Caribbean writer of Afro-Irish heritage, Ireland is also home in that it represents a "hinterland". Of the Caribbean islands, Montserrat is the most closely identified with Ireland owing to its Irish cultural inheritance, which has earned it the nickname "The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean". This article surveys Markham's depictions of St. Caesare and "Ulster" as analytical spaces that enable him to chart the palimpsestic topologies of Montserrat and Northern Ireland. The author argues that Markham limns St....


Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is causing morbidity, mortality and economic damage in an unprecedented manner across the world. Many non-pharmacological interventions such as restricting community mobility, social distancing, handwashing and face mask use have been carried out to prevent COVID-19. Promising vaccine results and their approval for emergency use in some countries has created much interest in their use as the ultimate solution to control the outbreak at global level, Sri Lanka being no exception. Objective of this study was to compare the success of a COVID-19 vaccination with or without social distancing during a simulated outbreak of widespread transmission of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. The beta version of the online application of the mathematical model developed by the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene using the Susceptible, Exposed, Infected and Removed Model was used for the simulation. The results show that COVID-19 vaccination in Sri Lanka without social distancing is unlikely to reduce case number, symptomatic admissions or deaths. In the absence of social distancing, making vaccines available earlier, faster or in increased quantities will not contribute to any meaningful reduction of the disease outcomes. The continued adherence to social distancing is recommended for any benefits of vaccination to be meaningful.


For moderate and slow rotation, magnetic activity of solar-like stars is observed to strongly depend on rotation. These observations do not yet have a solid explanation in terms of dynamo theory. To work towards such an explanation, we numerically investigated the rotational dependency of dynamo drivers in solar-like stars. We ran semi-global convection simulations of stars with rotation rates from 0 to 30 times the solar value, corresponding to Coriolis numbers, Co, of 0 to 110. We measured the turbulent transport coefficients describing the magnetic field evolution with the help of the test-field method, and compared with the dynamo effect arising from the differential rotation. The trace of the $\alpha$ tensor increases for moderate rotation rates with Co$^{0.5}$ and levels off for rapid rotation. This behavior agrees with the kinetic $\alpha$, if one considers the decrease of the convective scale with increasing rotation. The $\alpha$ tensor becomes highly anisotropic for Co$\gtrsim 1$, $\alpha_{rr}$ dominates for moderate rotation (1<Co<10), and $\alpha_{\phi\phi}$ for rapid rotation (Co $\gtrsim 10$). The turbulent pumping effect is dominating the meridional transport of the magnetic field. Taking all dynamo effects into account, we find three distinct regimes. For slow rotation, the $\alpha$ and Radler effects are dominating in presence of anti-solar differential rotation. For moderate rotation, $\alpha$ and $\Omega$ effects are dominant, indicative of $\alpha\Omega$ or $\alpha^2\Omega$ dynamos in operation, producing equatorward-migrating dynamo waves with the qualitatively solar-like rotation profile. For rapid rotation, an $\alpha^2$ mechanism, with an influence from the Radler effect, appears to be the most probable driver of the dynamo. Our study reveals the presence of a large variety of dynamo effects beyond the classical $\alpha\Omega$ mechanism.


Introduction:
 Controversy still exists about the long-term cardiovascular and metabolic effects of coffee consumption in hypertension. Aim of the study was to assess the predictive capacity of coffee use for cardiovascular events (CVE) and to ascertain whether the coffee-CVE association was mediated by the long-term effects of coffee on blood pressure (BP) and glucose metabolism.

 Design and methods:
 The analysis was made in 1201 participants from the HARVEST, a prospective cohort study of non-diabetic subjects aged 18-45 years, screened for stage 1 hypertension. BP was measured with ambulatory monitoring in all.

 Results:
 Among participants, 26.3% were abstainers, 62.7% were moderate coffee drinkers (1-3 cups/day) and 10.0% were heavy coffee drinkers (>3 cups/day). During a 12.5 year follow-up there were 60 CVE. In multivariable Cox analyses, coffee was a significant predictor of development of hypertension needing treatment with hazard ratios (HR) of 1.5 (CI,1.1-1.9) for heavy drinkers and 1.1 (0.9-1.3) for moderate drinkers compared to abstainers. Also, coffee was a predictor of future prediabetes with HRs of 2.0 (1-3-3.1) and 1.3 (0.9-1.7), in the heavy and moderate drinkers, respectively. In multivariable Cox analyses, including other lifestyle factors, age, sex, parental CVE, BMI, total cholesterol, 24h ambulatory BP, 24h ambulatory heart rate and follow-up changes in body weight, both coffee categories were independent predictors of CVE with HRs of 4.3 (1.3-13.9) for heavy coffee drinkers and 2.9 (1.04-8.2) for moderate drinkers. Inclusion of hypertension development in the regression attenuated the strength of the coffee-CVE association with HRs of 3.9 (1.2-12.5) for heavy and of 2.8 (0.99-7.8) for moderate drinkers. When future prediabetes was also incorporated, the relationship was of boderline significance for heavy coffee drinkers (HR, 3.2, 0.94-10.9) and was no longer significant for moderate drinkers (HR, 2.3, 0.8-6.5).

 Conclusions:
 Coffee use is linearly associated with increased risk of CVE in stage 1 hypertension. The effect of coffee on CVE seems to be at least partially mediated by its long-term effects on BP and glucose metabolism. Coffee consumption should be reduced in young-to-middle-age patients with hypertension.


Background: Human cancer genomes contain tens of thousands of mutations. APOBEC (apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like) family of cytidine deaminases normally function in innate immune responses that protects against retrovirus and retrotransposon propagation. However, these enzymes can also deaminate cytosines in the host genome and generate C to T mutations. APOBEC3B is overexpressed in several human cancer types, and this overexpression correlates with the pres[not]ence of the APOBEC3B mutation signature. Recent studies have demonstrated APOBEC3B as a source of mutations in various malignancies including breast cancers. However, the relationships between the expression of APOBEC3B in breast cancer and the clinicopathological features have not been fully elucidated. Aims: To investigate the expression of APOBEC3B mRNA in primary breast cancers and to evaluate the relationships between the APOBEC3B mRNA expression and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in the primary breast cancer of Japanese women. Methods: Specimens were obtained from 305 patients with primary breast cancers who underwent surgery without neoadjuvant systemic therapy. APOBEC3B mRNA expression was analysed using quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR). The APOBEC3B expression level was normalized to that of the constitutive housekeeping gene TATA binding protein (TBP). Four breast cancer subtypes were determined by the immunohistochemical analysis of ER, PR and HER2; hormone receptor (HR; ER and/or PR)+/HER2-, HR+/HER2+, HR-/HER2+(HER2) and triple negative (TN). Results: Expression of APOBEC3B mRNA was detected in 277 tumors, while it was not detected in 28 tumors. The APOBEC3B expression was significantly higher in ER-negative, PR-negative, high grade tumors. The APOBEC3B expression was positively correlated with Ki67 index and highest in TN and lowest in HR+/HER2- subtype. There were no correlations between the APOBEC3B expression and age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis and the stage. The APOBEC3B expression was not statistically different between invasive ductal carcinoma and DCIS, suggesting that the APOBEC3B expression is related to the carcinogenesis of breast cancer. High expression of APOBEC3B was significantly associated with the poor recurrence free survival in all cases and ER-positive cases; however, APOBEC3B expression was not related to the prognosis in ER-negative tumors. Conclusions: The high APOBEC3B expression was related to the aggressive phenotype of breast cancer and the poor prognosis. Citation Format: Eriko Tokunaga, Nami Yamashita, Kimihiro Tanaka, Yuka Inoue, Hiroshi Saeki, Eiji Oki, Hiroyuki Kitao, Yoshihiko Maehara. Expression of APOBEC3B in primary breast cancer of Japanese women [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-06-06.


In nearly all of the previous multicentre studies evaluating serological tests for Trypanosoma cruzi infection, sera samples from Central or South American countries have been used preferentially. In this work we compared the reliability of the serological tests using Mexican sera samples that were evaluated in four independent laboratories. This included a reference laboratory in Brazil and three participant laboratories, including one in Central America and two in Mexico. The kappa index between Brazilian and Honduran laboratories reached 1.0 and the index for the Mexican laboratories reached 0.94. Another finding of this study was that the source of antigen did not affect the performance of the serological tests.


Intermediate layers of various metals ranging from reactive metals to noble metals have been applied to friction bonding of SiC (pressureless-sintered silicon carbide) to Cu (oxygen-free copper), and their influences on the bond strength and microstructures of the joint have been systematically investigated by means of TEM observations. When a thin foil of reactive metal, Al, Ti, Zr, or Nb, was applied as the intermediate layer, the bond strength of SiC to Cu was improved considerably. In contrast, when an intermediate layer of Fe, Ni, or Ag was applied, the SiC specimen separated from the Cu specimen immediately after the bonding operation without the application of external load, similar to the case of bonding without an intermediate layer. During friction bonding with an intermediate layer of reactive metal, the intermediate layer was mechanically mixed with Cu lo form a very complicated microstructure extending over a region as wide as a few 100 μm TEM observations have revealed that very thin reaction layers between the SiC and reactive metals were formed. When the Ti intermediate layer was applied, a TiC layer 10-30 nm thick was formed over almost the entire area along the interface, and between this layer and the SiC matrix a very thin layer of a Cu solid solution was detected. On the other side of the TiC layer, a Ti 5 Si 3 layer ∼100 nm thick was partially observed. When the Nb or Zr intermediate layer was applied, a very thin interfacial layer, in which Nb or Zr was significantly concentrated, was observed in addition to the reaction layers of Nb 5 Si 3 , NbC, and ZrC. These interfacial layers can he characterized by their much smaller thickness and finer grain size than those observed in diffusion-bonded and brazed joints. Apart from the layers mentioned above, amorphous silicon oxide layers were occasionally observed, suggesting that the reactive metal enhanced the removal of the oxide film on the SiC surface.


The principal commercial requirement of any manufacturing system is directed towards a growth in productivity. One of the options for achieving higher productivity is reducing the cycle time. Cycle time comprises of the following time element: operation, loading/unloading, set-up and idleness. In this work a case study of a reputed construction equipment manufacturing company of India is considered where in it was observed that the demand for the 4Ton compactors remained unmet as there were no dedicated fixtures for the tack welding operation of those compactors. This welding work was being performed using hook and carrier by trial and error method. This led to inefficient utilization of man, machine, money and increase in manufacturing time. So there was a need to design the dedicated fixture so as to reduce the cycle time of tack welding operation. Benefits of this new fixture are twofold. It reduces setup time because it eliminates marking for each job, positioning by trial and error method and hence increases the productivity of 4Ton compactor. Also, usage of fixture calls for semiskilled labor instead of skilled labor, reducing labor cost for improved production rate.Keywords: Productivity, compactor, fixture, setup time, cycle time


The characterization of the noise emissions of DC-DC converters at system level is critical to optimize the design of the detector and define rules for the integration strategy. This paper presents the impedance effects on the noise emissions of DC-DC converters at system level. Conducted and radiated noise emissions at the input and at the output from DC-DC converters have been simulated for different types of power network and FEE impedances. System aspects as granularity, stray capacitances of the system and different working conditions of the DC-DC converters are presented too. This study has been carried out using simulation models of noise emissions of DC-DC converters in the real scenario. The results of these studies show important recommendations and criteria to be applied to integrate the DC-DC converters and decrease the system noise level.


Linguistics, in its study of language, brings out the essential role communication plays in the daily lives of human beings. The roles are particularly revealed in semantics, the study of meaning. These meanings have as much different shades as they are used for interaction at the different levels of word, phrase and sentence. It is against this background that this paper focuses on "Holophrastic Utterances: Types and Semantic Dimensions in Igbo". One of the objectives of the study is to make known the meaning of adult holophrastic expressions. The study is also purposed to categorize such utterances, reveal their contexts of usage and their dimensions of meaning in Igbo. The approach adopted for the study is descriptive. And it is the Use Theory of Meaning that guides the study. The research discovers that adult holophrastic utterances are such that go beyond the involvement of children's type of simple one-word utterances used in their stages of development to embrace the use of such single words by adults to reveal the social or common background they share in their interactional relationships. It is the expression of a complex of ideas in a single word or in a fixed phrase. The holophrastic utterances have been discovered to be classifiable into interrogative, affirmative, consolatory, greeting, appeal, appreciative, disapproval, advisory, imperative and condemnation. It has also been found out that the names of the different classes are synonymous with their contexts and purposes.


This paper reports on the measurement of temperature dependent apparent specific heat of ex-vivo porcine liver tissue during radiofrequency alternating current heating for a large temperature range. The difference between spatial and temporal evolution of experimental temperature, obtained during electrosurgical heating by infrared thermometry, and predictions based on finite element modeling was minimized to obtain the apparent specific heat. The model was based on transient heat transfer with internal heat generation considering heat storage along with conduction. Such measurements are important to develop computational models for real time simulation of electrosurgical procedures.


Abstract With tourism industry becoming the most important economic activity along the northwest cost of Baja California, new and expensive coastal developments are being built, increasing the relevance of gathering local wave data, even when this span a short period of time. Moreover, the value of this wave data improves if they are used to show that deep-water wave characteristics obtained from a remote location can be extrapolated to fairly represent local wave conditions. In this work wave observations during winter 2001–2002 in four sites within Todos Santos Bay, Baja California, Mexico, are used to document wave characteristics and their spatial variability within the Bay. The possibility of extrapolating into the Bay deep-water wave data from a remote location is also investigated. Results show a marked wave height spatial variability within the Bay, where in some places wave heights can be as much as 2.5 times higher than those measured at other sites. Wave height spatial variability is induced mainly by a combination of a shoaling effect, a convergence of energy, induced by wave refraction as waves enter the Bay, and a shelter effect, produced by the presence of Todos Santos Islands. Regression analysis between wave heights inside Todos Santos Bay and a deep-water station in southern California show a highly coherent wave climate between both places which provides the opportunity to reconstruct the wave climate for Todos Santos Bay from the long-term deep-water wave measurements.