The aim of this work was to establish whether plastidial phosphoglucomutase is involved in the starch biosynthetic pathway of potato tubers and thereby to determine the form in which carbon is imported into the potato amyloplast. For this purpose, we cloned the plastidial isoform of potato PGM (StpPGM), and using an antisense approach generated transgenic potato plants that exhibited decreased expression of the StpPGM gene and contained significantly reduced total phosphoglucomutase activity. We confirmed that this loss in activity was due specifically to a reduction in plastidial PGM activity. Potato lines with decreased activities of plastidial PGM exhibited no major changes in either whole-plant or tuber morphology. However, tubers from these lines exhibited a dramatic (up to 40%) decrease in the accumulation of starch, and significant increases in the levels of sucrose and hexose phosphates. As tubers from these lines exhibited no changes in the maximal catalytic activities of other key enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism, we conclude that plastidial PGM forms part of the starch biosynthetic pathway of the potato tuber, and that glucose-6-phosphate is the major precursor taken up by amyloplasts in order to support starch synthesis.


Introduction Follicular lymphoma (FL) constitutes the second most common non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the Western world. FL carries characteristic recurrent structural genomic aberrations. However despite recent advances, knowledge regarding the coding genome in FL is still evolving and is currently incomplete.

Methods To further our understanding of the genetic basis of follicular lymphoma (FL), we used solution exon capture of sheared and processed genomic DNA isolated from FACS-sorted lymphomatous B-cells and paired CD3+ T-cells isolated from twenty three cases of FL and one case of DLBCL (which was transformed from prior FL), followed by paired-end (96-101 base pair read length per side) massively parallel sequencing. The sequence data were characterized by a mean depth of coverage of 41, and 90% of bases in the target region were covered by at least 10 reads. Bioinformatics pipelines developed by our bioinformatics core served as the primary data source to nominate candidate mutated genes in downstream data analysis.

Results The bioinformatics pipeline nominated 711 distinct candidate mutations in 24 FL cases. Sanger sequence validation confirmed 39 recurrently (≥ 2 FL cases) mutated genes. Genes with confirmed mutations in ≥ 2 FL cases in the discovery cohort were subsequently selectively expanded into a combined FL validation cohort of 114 cases. In addition to frequent mutations in MLL2 , CREBBP, BCL2 , TNFRSF14, EZH2, OCT2, ARID1A, IRF8 and MEF2B , we here report novel mutations in STAT6 in FL. STAT6 mutations were identified in 11% (12/114) of FL and predominantly affected the DNA binding domain (DBD; comprising STAT6 amino acids 268-430). Two FL cases each carried two distinct STAT6 mutations, presumably targeting both alleles. Of interest, the majority of FL-associated STAT6 mutations affected a single amino acid codon (codon 419), resulting in the STAT6 mutants p.419D>D/G or p.419D>D/H. These FL-associated STAT6 mutations are distinct from mutations previously described in primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL).

Given the involvement of STAT6 in signal transduction pathways activated by multiple cell surface receptors, as well as the recently described involvement of STAT6 in antiviral innate immunity (involving an interaction between the STAT6 DBD and the protein STING), we are currently exploring functional consequences of the novel STAT6 mutations in FL and cell line models.

Conclusion We report identification of somatic mutations in STAT6 in 11% of FL. These mutations predominantly affected the STAT6 DNA binding domain. We identify a novel STAT6 mutation hotspot in STAT6 codon 419 (p.419D>D/G or p.419D>D/H).

Disclosures: Lebovic: Genentech: Speakers Bureau; Allos/Spectrum: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Onyx: Speakers Bureau.


: Due to the high-speed displacement of vehicles, various computing resources in the Internet of Vehicles have such characteristics as limited communication bandwidth, unstable network connections, and dynamic changes in network topology. Therefore, establishing a trusted service offloading location and supplying consumers with dependable and low-latency services in a resource-constrained mobile edge computing system is still a significant difficulty. This paper proposes a "device-edge-cloud" collaborative trusted edge computing-aware network model, and presents an intelligent computing-aware routing service offloading method based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization for this system model. First, a trustworthiness model for data transmission across distributed computing resources in the Internet of Vehicles environment is proposed. Then, the literature overview points out that the trustworthiness of computing resources is relative, dynamic, reflexive, symmetrical, and not transitive. Based on the trustworthiness model, a multi-dimensional QoS attribute model for computing resources is established, and the scheduling problem for computing resources is abstracted into a multi-objective optimization problem. Finally, an intelligent computing-aware routing scheduling method based on a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed for solving the task scheduling problem in the Internet of Vehicles environment. Simulation results show that in comparison with the random scheduling algorithm and the greedy scheduling algorithm, the MOPSO scheduling algorithm is significantly better with regard to the reliability of calculation results and communication cost.


Food and alcohol are the key elements of celebrating a Mexican fiesta. I show that drinking at patronal feasts can be the way of constructing a respectful position, as presented in the ethnographic material collected in the three suburban communities of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca (in the years 2012–13). I discuss the relation between drinking alcohol at fiestas, participation and collective identity. I analyse the issue of prestige in the context drinking at fiestas and its relation to gender. I also discuss the role of alcohol in ritual exchanging of gifts at the patronal feasts which were under study and its relation with prestige. Other questions being analysed include the problem of refusing drink and the Catholic and non-Catholic critiques of patronal feasts as based on perceptions of excessive drinking.


A stochastic model (G-O) for the software failure phenomenon based on a nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) was suggested by Goel and Okumoto (1979). This model has been widely used but some important work remains undone on estimating the parameters. The authors present a necessary and sufficient condition for the likelihood estimates to be finite, positive, and unique. A modification of the G-O model is suggested. The performance measures and parametric inferences of the new model are discussed. The results of the new model are applied to real software failure data and compared with G-O and Jelinski-Moranda models. >


In India, the population of the Indian spiny-tailed lizard is extinct in many parts of its past distribution. Currently, the species is mainly confined to the desert areas of northwestern India. The present study was carried out from January 2014 to May 2017 in the Thar desert of Rajasthan (TDR) to know the population status and habitat suitability of the species and to assess the threats it faces. For this, the population was estimated through active burrow counting in selected 15mx15m quadrats. GIS-based weighted overlay analysis was used for habitat suitability analysis for which habitat and microhabitat information was collected through 'perambulation,' and 'quadrat sampling-time constrained'methods. Threats were documented using various methods viz. through vehicular surveys, perambulation, opportunistic searches, and by interacting with local people as well as forest staff. The species was recorded in six districts of the TDR. The overall density of the lizard was found to be 314.6±142.1 active burrows/ha in the study area. The maximum density was observed in the Jaisalmer district (362.5±102.3/ha) and the lowest in Jodhpur district (228.0±49.1/ha). Suitability analysis identified different potential habitat zones of the species in the TDR which are 1.71%, 13.49%, 59.51%, 10.65%, and 14.64% as most suitable, moderately high suitable, moderately low suitable, low suitable and unsuitable respectively. The majority of most suitable areas found to fall in the Jaisalmer district of western Rajasthan that needs to be protected immediately. The study also revealed the species had been continuously facing various threats in the TDR that lead to local extinctions.


The purpose of the study was to investigate Ghanaian secondary school students' attitudes towards mathematics. In particular, the study investigated the students' attitudes along the following seven dimensions: Confidence in learning mathematics; Usefulness of mathematics; Success in mathematics; Effective motivation; Mathematics anxiety; Mathematics as a male domain; Understanding mathematics; and Like doing mathematics. The study involved 1419 students from 12 secondary schools in the Central and Western Regions of Ghana. Data was collected using a questionnaire consisting of 65 items, some of which consisted of statements to which the students were required to agree or disagree to reflect their feelings and attitudes towards mathematics. The results of the study indicate differences in attitude between sexes in single-sex and mixed schools. Girls in mixed schools expressed the least success and confidence in doing mathematics as well as had higher mathematics anxiety. Less than half the students had mathematics anxiety. Slightly more than half the students were not effectively motivated to do mathematics. Over eighty percent of male students in single-sex schools like mathematics but only about half of the females in mixed schools did. While girls in single-sex schools expressed more confidence, girls in mixed schools expressed far less confidence than boys in both single-sex and mixed schools. In general the students had positive attitudes towards mathematics especially along the attitudinal variables, usefulness of mathematics, like mathematics and success in doing mathematics.No Abstract. Mathematics Connection Vol. 4 2004: 1-13


Although photoluminescence from gallium-arsenide (GaAs) deep-centers was first observed in the 1960s, semiconductor lasers have always utilized conduction-to-valence-band transitions. Here we review recent materials studies leading to the first GaAs deep-center laser. First, we summarize well-known properties: nature of deep-center complexes, Franck-Condon effect, photoluminescence. Second, we describe our recent work: insensitivity of photoluminescence with heating, striking differences between electroluminescence and photoluminescence, correlation between transitions to deep-states and absence of bandgap-emission. Room-temperature stimulated-emission from GaAs deep-centers was observed at low electrical injection, and could be tuned from the bandgap to half-the-bandgap (900–1,600 nm) by changing the electrical injection. The first GaAs deep-center laser was demonstrated with electrical injection, and exhibited a threshold of less than 27 mA/cm2 in continuous-wave mode at room temperature at the important 1.54 μm fiber-optic wavelength. This small injection for laser action was explained by fast depopulation of the lower state of the optical transition (fast capture of free holes onto deep-centers), which maintains the population inversion. The evidence for laser action included: superlinear L-I curve, quasi-Fermi level separations satisfying Bernard-Duraffourg's criterion, optical gains larger than known significant losses, clamping of the optical-emission from lossy modes unable to reach laser action, pinning of the population distribution during laser action.


ABSTRACT This study explores the impact of different ownership types on the efficiency of water utilities. Theories and evidence have shown a puzzling relationship between ownership and performance. Moreover, relatively recent contributions (Andrews et al. 2011) have argued that this relationship can be further convoluted by the effect of organisational and environmental variables. The current study aims to contribute to this literature by providing some empirical evidence for Italy, by proposing a methodology that combines non-parametric efficiency estimation and cluster analysis. Our main findings indicate that privately owned utilities indirectly controlled by a public organisation reach the highest level of efficiency but, when size and geographical location enter the analysis, ownership has a stronger significant effect on efficiency, and mixed utilities gain higher cost efficiency. Therefore, we may conclude that administrative reforms about privatisation and the institutional setting should consider a set of variables that characterise each individual organisation.


Dynamic CT in combination with intravenous bolus injection of contrast material provides a study of the pharmacokinetics in great vessels as well as in tissues. If the enhancement in the region of interest is plotted against time, the time-enhancement diagrams obtained reflect the contrast material passage mathematically. In abdominal tumours a great variety of patterns in time-enhancement diagrams is available. Some characteristic patterns could be related to the theoretical aspects of contrast medium distribution in vessels and tissues, i.e. the rapid arterial enhancement corresponding to aortic perfusion, a portal enhancement in liver and portal vein and a rather slow "extravascular" enhancement due to diffusion into the extravascular space. The very short period just behind the capillary passage of contrast material seems to be the most interesting one concerning identification of benign and malignant tumours. In 48 abdominal tumours time-enhancement diagrams were taken and correlated to the histological findings; preliminary findings are discussed concerning to a possible differential diagnosis between benign and malignant tissue.


Design of a Micro Wireless Instrumented Payload for Unmanned Vehicle Testing Benjamin Edward Hastings The testing of unmanned vehicles presents a need for an independent device capable of accurately collecting position and orientation data. While commercial-off-the-shelf components could be pieced together to sense and record this information, this is an expensive, large, and heavy solution, not suitable for small or aerial vehicles. The micro wireless instrumented payload, or μWIP, was designed precisely for this purpose. The μWIP includes a GPS receiver, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, and 3-axis magnetometer which are used to measure an unmanned vehicle's position and orientation. The device also uses a secure digital card for data storage, and an 802.11b module to provide wireless connectivity. Additionally, the μWIP contains a on-board battery and the circuitry required to charge it. Firmware for the ARM7 processor was written to allow sensor calibration and data transmission, and a user interface was designed to run on a personal computer. The finished design is a tiny 3"x5"x1", and weighs a mere 0.8 pounds including battery and antennas. It is capable of continuously streaming accurate GPS and inertial data over an 802.11b wireless network for over 5 hours. Having a bill of materials cost just over $600, the μWIP is also more cost effective than any alternative solutions. This thesis details the hardware and software design of the μWIP, as well as the initial testing, calibration, and evaluation of the device.


Aim. To assess the health parameters in preschool and schoolchildren with acute and chronic respiratory diseases using functional methods of investigation. Materials and methods. Functional testing of 143 children (aged 5-15) divided into two groups was carried out. Group I joined 22 children with recurrent acute diseases of the upper and lower airways (RAD UaLA) and 20 patients with bronchial asthma (BA). Group II included schoolchildren: 45 – with RAD UaLA, 42 – with BA. The following methods were used: anthropometric, functional, quantitative assessment of physical health status (PHS), general capacity for work (GCW), estimation of adaptation abilities by means of adaptive potential (AP) and endurance coefficient (EC). Results. Anthropometric data indicate prevalence of children with body deficit among patients with RAD ULA and body weight excess among patients with BA, irrespective of age. According to physiometry data, children with RAD UaLA more often than BA patients demonstrated low parameters of respiratory and strength tests. More than a half of preschool children with RAD UaLA had low PHS parameters and significantly lower adaptive abilities of the body with regard to AP and EC. Conclusion. Children with respiratory diseases, irrespective of nosologic form, should have a corrected diet and/or nutritive support, should strengthen locomotor system, elevate physical readiness and reserve abilities of respiratory and cardiovascular system of the body. The initial physical health status assessed in preschool and schoolchildren with acute and chronic respiratory pathology using functional methods of investigation will permit to understand deeper the causes of their "ill health" and to develop an individual complex of rehabilitation measures.


Experiments and theory are needed to decode the exact structure and distribution of components of a passivation layer formed at the anode surface of Li metal batteries, known as the Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI). Due to the inherent dynamic behavior as well as the lithium reactivity, the SEI structure and its growth mechanisms are still unclear. This study uses molecular simulation and computational chemistry tools to investigate the initial nucleation and growth dynamics of LiOH and Li2O that provide us with thermodynamics and structural information about the nucleating clusters of each species. Following the most favorable pathways for the addition of each of the components to a given nascent SEI cluster reveals their preferential nucleation mechanisms and illustrates different degrees of crystallinity and electron density distribution that are useful to understand ionic transport through SEI blocks.


A chitosan-based nanocomposite film with tannic acid (TA) as a cross-linker and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2) as a reinforcing agent was developed with a solution casting technique. TA and TiO2 are biocompatible with chitosan, and this paper studied the synergistic effect of the cross-linker and the reinforcing agent. The addition of TA enhanced the ultraviolet blocking and mechanical properties of the chitosan-based nanocomposite film. The reinforcement of TiO2 in chitosan/TA further improved the nanocomposite film's mechanical properties compared to the neat chitosan or chitosan/TA film. The thermal stability of the chitosan-based nanocomposite film was slightly enhanced, whereas the swelling ratio decreased. Interestingly, its water vapor barrier property was also significantly increased. The developed chitosan-based nanocomposite film showed potent antioxidant activity, and it is promising for active food packaging.


Nitraria retusa is one of the leading shrubs in steppes, deserts and salines forming almost pure stands on the periphery of marshes and occurs mainly in inland salines, but sometimes reaches the sea shore (e.g. Egypt). It is definitely Saharo-Arabian with some trends towards Sudanian territories. Its distribution in Egypt includes the Nile region, oases of the western desert, the Mediterranean and Red Sea coastal strips, eastern and western deserts and Sinai. The phytochemical investigation of this plant reveals the presence of carbohydrates and/or glycosides, reducing sugars, tannins, saponins, sterols, alkaloids, flavonoids, sulphates and chlorides. Thirteen free amino acids and four unsaturated fatty acids were also detected. Nitraria retusa is an indicator of shallow water table, sand controller, palatable to grazing animals, phytoremidator of polluted soil, used as fuel and its fruits are edible by birds and local inhabitants. The effective flowering process occurs during two periods: March-May and October-December. This salt tolerant bush has considerable tolerance for drought due to deep and well developed root system, and has the ability to form huge phytogenic mounds which conserve considerable moisture in its body. The maximum seed germination of this plant was 35%, thus further studies are recommended to explore the reasons of this dormancy. Its size structure along the Egyptian Red Sea coast is characterized by the preponderance of the young individuals comparing with the old ones.


ABSTRACT This article reviews available research literature in the field of lecturer self-efficacy beliefs produced between 1988 and 2020. Given the growing interest in lecturer self-efficacy beliefs in recent years, and the global challenges the Higher Education sector will face following the current Covid-19 pandemic, the time to conduct such a review seems appropriate. Fifty-five empirical papers in English, Spanish and Portuguese were identified and examined. Findings show that papers investigated the beliefs of lecturers from 23 countries using mostly quantitative cross-sectional approaches involving questionnaires. Among the eight main themes that emerged, 'teaching self-efficacy' featured prominently and received most attention, while other aspects of the work of lecturers, including research, service-related and other administrative activities, were also considered. Concerning personal variables like gender, there was no consensus over whether different characteristics affected self-efficacy beliefs more than others. Conclusions point to the need for additional mixed-methods and qualitative studies with more refined and contextualised methodological approaches to better understand the field, to identify actual sources of self-efficacy themselves and to more fully inform policy, practice, the distribution of resources and building capacity.


Ultra Wide Band (UWB) communication systems operate in the frequency range between 0 and 10.6 GHz so they induce the Scientific Community to solve the problem of coexistence with concurrent telecommunication services. This is the leading reason why both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) gave strict indications about the spectral limits to be respected and require the transmitter and receiver to be compliant with these spectral masks. To this end, it is mandatory to carefully shape the UWB pulse, for this can be accurately designed so as to avoid severe performance reduction while guarding inter-systems coexistence. The UWB technology and, more, the pulse shaping allow to apply the cognitive paradigm where the transmitter and receiver are the actors of this functionality since the performance are tied to channel features and interference presence. The widespread choice of Gaussian-like pulses has proven, however, largely suboptimal from a power emission point of view since they fail to optimize performance. Goal of this contribution is to show how to achieve a good compromise between spectral emission, rate and synchronization errors robustness, via a modified version of the Parks-McClellan method, considering channel impairments due to its frequency-selective nature and to the inter-pulse interference.


Objective: verify the association between socioeconomic and clinical characteristics and the factors associated with a diagnosis of fluid volume deficit risk in patients who are on hemodialysis. Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study done at the dialysis unit of a university hospital in northeastern Brazil. Featuring 50 patients, it was conducted through interviews and physical examinations. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to analyze the data. Results: A number of significant associations were verified; namely, knowledge deficit and hemodialysis time (p = 0.037); weight extremes and family income (p = 0.040); weight extremes and ultrafiltration volume (p= 0.010), and fluid loss through abnormal pathways and ultrafiltration volume (p = 0.000). Conclusions: Associations were identified between the factors associated with a nursing diagnosis of fluid volume deficit risk and the socioeconomic and clinical characteristics of patients who are undergoing hemodialysis. The factors associated with that diagnosis can be influenced by socioeconomic characteristics and clinical aspects.


Pollution of high voltage insulators is a problem for outdoor substation installations as in the case of transmission lines. Composite materials can provide a solution in this case also. However there are limitations especially for the already installed equipment, where the use of composite housings is not technically or financially in profit for the electrical utility. RTV SIR coatings are an efficient alternative in this case, since they can demonstrate a behavior similar to a composite insulator and in the same time can be applied on the already installed equipment. In this paper the performance of coatings installed in a coastal high voltage substation is investigated by measurements of leakage current. The measurements indicated the improvement achieved by the use of coatings and further reveal the importance of the wetting mechanism, for these specific environmental conditions.


This work is an excellent introduction to diverse trends in contemporary democratic theory, and is distinctive not only for its clear and concise presentation of major theories, but also for its critical and analytic approach to the underlying issues. Its focus is contemporary Western political theory, and it deals primarily with Anglo-American thought, though some important Continental European developments are also analyzed. The author mentions ecological and environmental issues, and occasionally makes important points concerning them, but on the whole there is little discussion of political ecology and green politics. Yet despite its limitations in scope, the work will be very valuable for political ecologists or anyone else who desires a wide overview of contemporary theories, an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each, and an exploration of the key issues on which they diverge or converge.


Abstract. Many birds migrate at night, but little is known about whether they base nocturnal settlement decisions on visual or acoustic cues. Studies of conspecific attraction have found that songbirds and seabirds are attracted by day to call playback or decoy models, and birds will also settle preferentially in certain environments based on the presence of vegetation or water bodies. Remotely activated broadcasts and Autonomous Recording Units were applied to study whether Soras (Porzana carolina), common nocturnally migrating rails in central Illinois, could be enticed to settle in farm field habitats. At three study areas (farms) we used cues to attempt to attract Soras, with our experimental design consisting of Sora vocalizations, small ponds (Sora habitat), both cues, and no cues. Neither conspecific playback, visual pond cues, nor their combination significantly influenced Sora settlement. However, there were significant differences between farms in Sora calls recorded. One study area, Franklin Farm, had the most Sora detections during the study period, consistent with its high-quality habitat status as a Nature Conservancy restored wetland. As nocturnal calls were detected at every farm sampled, these results may assist wetland managers in promoting Sora settlement in critical breeding habitats in Illinois and beyond.


Exoneura richardsoni is a common allodapine bee which, in southern montane Victoria, primarily nests in dead fronds of tree ferns. We sampled intact colonies from the Dandenong Ranges from August 1992 through to February 1993. The bee is univoltine, with egg production commencing in later winter and adult eclosion occurring over summer. The majority of colonies in both re‐used and newly founded nests contain more than one female. Intra‐colony relatedness is very high (r =± s.e., 0.759 ± 0.087) in re‐used nests and moderately high (0.498 ± 0.152) in newly cofounded colonies, indicating maintenance of kin integrity during nest re‐use and kin recognition during foundress association. This is only the second time that kin cofounding has been demonstrated in a primitively social bee species. Samples during winter and early summer show that per capifa brood production increases with colony size up to about 3 or 4 females per nest, and this may explain the high degree of social nesting in this species. Whilst eusociality could occur in some nests, the opportunities for older, adult brood members to help rear younger siblings are very limited. It seems likely that in E. richardsoni and at least some other Australian allodapine bees, the selective maintenance of high levels of social nesting and kin recognition does not depend on the existence of eusociality.


Introduction Skp2 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that plays an important role in modulating tumor progression. The mechanisms underlying Skp2 in the promotion of proliferation and its function in the primary resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in human CML remain to be determined. This study aimed to investigate the function of Skp2 in CML progression as well as its effects on TKI sensitivity. Methods Expression of Skp2 in leukocytes from patients with CML and normal blood samples was analyzed by qRT-PCR. Cell proliferation was analyzed by EdU incorporation and cell counting assays. Luciferase reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were used for examination of the effects of CREB on Skp2 expression. The apoptosis in vitro of K562 cells was analyzed by MTT and caspase 3/7 activity assays. Results The present study demonstrates that Skp2 was expressed at a higher level in patients with CML compared with healthy donors, and the elevated expression of Skp2 is critical for CML cell proliferation. Mechanistically, Skp2 was transcriptionally upregulated by CREB responsive to the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Furthermore, inhibition of Skp2 expression by shRNAs or blocking the PI3K/Akt/CREB pathway greatly enhances the sensitivity of CML cells to Imatinib treatment. Conclusion We conclude that the PI3K/Akt/CREB axis regulates the sensitivity of K562 cells to Imatinib via mediating Skp2 expression. The present study revealed an unknown role of Skp2 in CML progression and provided new aspects on the Skp2-modulated TKI sensitivity in CML, contributing to the development of potential therapeutic anticancer drugs.


Present commercial titanium alloy implants have an elastic modulus higher than 100 GPa, whereas that of the cortical bone is much smaller (17–28 GPa). This elastic modulus mismatch produces a stress shielding effect and the resorption of the bone surrounding the implant. In the present work, a <100> fiber texture is developed in β type Ti-42Nb (wt%) alloy ingots generated by laser-directed energy deposition (LDED) in order to achieve anisotropic mechanical properties. In addition, we demonstrate that laser-deposited β type Ti-42Nb alloy ingots with an intense <100> fiber texture exhibit a very low elastic modulus in the building direction (Ez < 50 GPa) and high yield (σ0.2z > 700 MPa) and tensile (UTSz > 700 MPa) strengths. Laser-deposited Ti-42Nb alloy enhances the osteoinductive effect, promoting the adhesion, proliferation, and spreading of human osteoblast-like cells. Hence, we propose that laser-deposited β type Ti-42Nb alloy is a potentially promising candidate for the manufacturing of pioneering biomedical implants with a very low elastic modulus that can suppress stress shielding.


The aim of this study is to establish a relationship between 11 correlated climatic indices and rainfall and runoff in the Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB). The climatic indices are functions of sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP) differentials. There are six Pacific Ocean indices, three Atlantic Ocean indices, one Indian Ocean index and one from the Southern Ocean. Trends in the climatic indices are investigated by fitting seasonal trend models using generalized least squares. Relationships between the indices are described by correlation analysis and factor analysis. Correlation analysis of the pre‐whitened series is first presented and this is used to guide the choice of climatic indices for the regression models. Regression analyses are then used to investigate the effects of climatic indices on rainfall and runoff at the monthly level during the period 1957–2009. This is undertaken using data from three stations in the southeast region of the MDB, namely Tooma River Basin, Jingellic Catchment and Ovens Catchment. Regression models are fitted using all or a sub‐set of the climatic indices and their interactions, and these are compared with regression models based on estimates of latent factors and their interactions. Typical R2 values of 20% were obtained. The Akaike Information Criterion indicated that statistically significant improvement could be obtained from a benchmark model using seasonality, trends and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). However, the gain in information is generally modest. This conclusion is specific to the southeast region of the MDB, but the methods used are generally applicable. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society


Background: Abdominal obesity is associated with insulin resistance, in turn, hyperinsulinemia and visceral adiposity lead to an increased uric acid (UA) absorption in renal tubules. Aim and Objectives: Accumulation of visceral fat is an underlying component of metabolic syndrome. Furthermore, the waist-hip ratio is an indirect tool for assessing visceral fat. The present study evaluates the association of UA levels with the waist-hip ratio. Materials and Methods: 160 subjects aged 18–60 years were enrolled in the study (those having any anatomical deformity, diabetes, and/or hypertension for more than 5 years were excluded from the study). Their anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, lipid profile, fasting plasma glucose, and serum UA levels were measured. Results: The study population was divided into three groups based on UA levels. The waist-hip ratio in a group of the hyperuricemic population was more as compared to groups of normal and below normal UA levels population and the association of UA level with waist-hip ratio was found to be significant (P = 0.045). Conclusion: The over-inflow of free fatty acid to the liver from accumulated visceral fat may be linked to the de novo purine synthesis through the pentose phosphate pathway, which may accelerate the production of UA.


Steady increase of the fishing pressure on open ocean fish communities worldwide is evident. However magnitude of human impact on the pelagic elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) is still poorly documented in many oceans. Long-term consistent time-series of quantitative and biological data are rare for the most of species due to lack of research efforts, under-reporting in the fisheries statistics and misidentification. We analysed an unique dataseries (from 1961 to 2011) on elasmobranch catches in the Western Indian Ocean (by species or higher taxa) in the pelagic longlines. Data were collected during ocean-wide research cruises and during onboard scientific observations of commercial longline fisheries. Temporal trends in the elasmobranch abundance and diversity were analysed for spatially stratified subsets: by biogeographic provinces, distance from the coast and vertical habitat. Our results demonstrate a decrease of species richness during observed period. However probable misidentifications during early years of research could distort real pattern. Declines of both nominal catch per unit effort and individual mean weight are also demonstrated for major species. The current status of the Indian Ocean pelagic elasmobranch community, its conservation and knowledge gaps are discussed.


The first study in which amounts of cyclophosphamide were found in the urine of nurses handling cytotoxic drugs using gas chromatography was published in 1984. We carried out a similar investigation on six pharmacy technicians involved in the preparation of antineoplastic agents (25,000 doses per year) but the analysis was performed with a more sensitive method: gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (LOQ = 0.1 ng/ml). Cyclophosphamide was found in two urine samples (out of 104) from two different workers. The rates detected were just above the limit of quantification. No correlation was found between the amounts of cyclophosphamide handled and the urinary excretion. The mean urinary levels measured in this study are lower than those reported by other investigators. In addition, only 1.9% of the collected samples are positive to cyclophosphamide. The drug was detected for two different technicians during two different sampling periods, suggesting that pollution is not repeated. No relationship could be seen between urinary detection of cyclophosphamide and individual or general work in the cytotoxic preparation unit. As supported by recent datas, transdermal resorption seems to be the most important way of incorporation. Further investigations are necessary to prove this hypothesis if we want to prevent occupational exposure of people handling these drugs.


Precipitation records from 78 stations distributed across Nepal were analysed and all-Nepal (1948–1994) and subregional records (1959–1994) were developed. The all-Nepal and regional precipitation series showed significant variability on annual and decadal time scales. Distinct long-term trends were not found in these precipitation records. The all-Nepal record agrees well with the precipitation records from northern India, while it does not compare well with the all-India precipitation record.

The all-Nepal monsoon record is highly correlated with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) series. The exceptionally dry year of 1992 recorded in Nepal coincides with the elongated El Nino of 1992–1993 and the Mount Pinatubo eruption. A remarkable cooling in the region covering the Tibetan Plateau also occurred in 1992, suggesting that Pinatubo aerosol played a major role in the drought of that particular year in Nepal. In other years, the correlation between the precipitation record from Nepal and the temperature of the Tibetan Plateau is not significant, while a stronger correlation with temperature over the Indian Ocean and southern India exists. This provides further support for the strong relationship between the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and precipitation fluctuation in Nepal. The correlation is stronger between all-Nepal monsoon precipitation and SOI averaged over seasons following the monsoon compared with seasons preceding the monsoon. Copyright © 2000 Royal Meteorological Society


The representation of root activity in models is here confined to considerations of applications assessing the impacts of changes in climate or atmospheric [CO2]. Approaches to modelling roots can be classified into four major types: models in which roots are not considered, models in which there is an interplay between only selected above-ground and below-ground processes, models in which growth allocation to all parts of the plants depends on the availability and matching of the capture of external resources, and models with explicit treatments of root growth, architecture and resource capture. All models seem effective in describing the major root activities of water and nutrient uptake, because these processes are highly correlated, particularly at large scales and with slow or equilibrium dynamics. Allocation models can be effective in providing a deeper, perhaps contrary, understanding of the dynamic underpinning to observations made only above ground. The complex and explicit treatment of roots can be achieved only in small-scale highly studied systems because of the requirements for many initialized variables to run the models.


Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the world, with an incidence rate approximately equivalent to the death rate. The very poor prognosis for pancreatic cancer can be attributed to late diagnosis and the ineffectiveness of drug delivery to the primary tumor. Poor tissue perfusion plays a substantial role in preventing adequate drug exposure to primary pancreatic tumors. The systemic administration of gemcitabine, the current standard-of-care chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, has shown limited efficacy for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, with only 5 to 10% of patients demonstrating an objective radiographic response at the primary tumor site. Furthermore, the toxicity associated with systemic chemotherapy has been found to reduce the quality of life of the patient and in extreme cases can be fatal. In an attempt to address the lack of effectiveness of systemically administered chemotherapy and associated toxicity, we have developed modalities for the localized delivery of chemotherapies to pancreatic tumors. These devices rely upon an applied electric potential difference between electrodes to drive chemotherapy into the tumor. This use of an electric potential for local delivery of chemotherapies offers the capability of overcoming considerable flow and pressure gradients. Significant work using an applied electric potential difference for drug transport has been performed in transdermal drug delivery. In the area of oncology, electric field-assisted delivery techniques have been proposed for skin and ocular cancers and have been clinically translated to the treatment of bladder cancers in the electromotive delivery of mitomycin C. This technique, combined with novel device approaches, is particularly well suited for the local treatment of the primary pancreatic tumor. Herein, we report the development of electric field-assisted delivery devices and the testing of these devices in a patient-derived orthotopic xenograft mouse model of pancreatic adenocarcinoma and a healthy canine animal model. The results show that our devices provide a significant increase in the local delivery of gemcitabine while limiting systemic toxicity. Citation Format: James Byrne, Adrian O9Neill, Raheel Jajja, Mary Napier, James C. Luft, William Zamboni, Jen Jen Yeh, Joseph DeSimone. Electric-field assisted delivery of gemcitabine for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5610. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-5610


Ldb1 is a ubiquitous nuclear protein that functions by interacting with and/or recruiting specific partners (including LMO2, SCL and GATA-1) to form multi-molecular DNA-binding transcription complexes. In the hematopoietic lineage, expression of Ldb1 is highest in lineage−Sca1+c-kit+ (LSK) multipotent progenitors. Ldb1 gradually decreases as cells mature within lymphoid or granulocyte/macrophage lineages, but remains high in erythroid lineage cells. We investigated the role of Ldb1 in hematopoiesis by conditional deletion of Ldb1 using a cre transgene driven by the Tie2 promotor; or by following the fate of Ldb1-null embryonic stem (ES) cells in mouse blastocyst chimeras. The number of Ter119+ (erythroid lineage) cells was decreased dramatically in Tie2Cre+Ldb1flox/flox mice, revealing a critical role for Ldb1 in erythropoiesis. Ldb1-null ES cells were capable of generating LSKs in the fetal liver and these cells could give rise to both myeloid and lymophoid lineage cells; however, the number of Ldb1−/− LSKs was markedly decreased at later stages of development. Following adoptive transfer, Ldb1-null fetal liver LSKs were rapidly lost indicating a failure of self-renewal or survival. Loss of Ldb1 was associated with an increase in multipotent progenitor (MPP) cells and a decrease in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), suggesting that Ldb1 participates in stem cell maintenance. These data provide the first evidence that LIM domain binding proteins function in hematopoiesis, and identify Ldb1 as a critical factor in regulating HSC maintenance/self-renewal.


The Cretaceous Queen Charlotte Group has traditionally been divided into three lithostratigraphic units in the type region: the Haida, Honna, and Skidegate formations. The sandstone member of the Haida Formation is commonly rich in fossil molluscs, and its Albian age is well documented. Megafossils are less abundant in the shale member of the Haida Formation and in the Honna and Skidegate formations; consequently, the ages of these units have not been well defined. In the last century, however, the early Turonian bivalve Mytiloides labiatus (s.l.) was identified from both the shale member of the Haida and the Skidegate Formation; unfortunately, the stratigraphic significance of these occurrences was not fully appreciated at that time. More recent collections of fossil molluscs from the Queen Charlotte Group have verified that both the Skidegate Formation and the upper part of the Haida shale member include strata of Turonian age, thus indicating the two units are, at least in part, lateral equivalents. Based on the presence of the megafossils Peroniceras (s.s.) sp. and Plesiotexanites sp., it is concluded that the greater part of the Honna Formation is of Coniacian age and caps the stratigraphic sequence.


Africa's trade and investment relations with China and the UK has changed drastically over the last few decades, especially with Chinese economic growth. However, while economic openness, trade and investment appear to have come hand-in-hand with poverty reduction in the rise of the "Asian Tigers" and, recently, in China itself, the links appear, so far, to be less clear in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent research analysing UK and Chinese trade and investment relations and their impacts on poverty reduction with Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa highlights how both countries can play a complementary role in aid-led investment and meeting local demand. Trilateral Cooperation on Trade and Investment: Implications for African Industrialisation


We explore three issues for the development of concept–to–speech (CTS) systems. We identify information available in a language–generation system that has the potential to impact prosody; investigate the role played by different corpora in CTS prosody modelling; and explore different methodologies for learning how linguistic features impact prosody. Our major focus is on the comparison of two machine learning methodologies: generalized rule induction and memory–based learning. We describe this work in the context of multimedia abstract generation of intensive care (MAGIC) data, a system that produces multimedia briefings of the status of patients who have just undergone a bypass operation.


In order to achieve a common goal in a society, sometimes the exchange of messages can be biased, therefore it is important how the communication patterns in giving a support to the elopement, so that problems do not arise in the future. Therefore, the writer wants to see and know the communication patterns that take place in the granting of sanctions to the elopement in BatuEjung village. This type of research is qualitative research, data sources in this study were taken from primary data and secondary data, data collection techniques were carried out by interview observation and documentation. Analysis techniques by data reduction, data presentation, then drawing conclusions / verification. The results of studies of various types of communication patterns, ranging from primary communication patterns, secondary communication patterns, linear communication patterns and circular communication patterns, the most suitable and approaching in sanctioning elopement actors are primary communication patterns because they include which elements in the pattern This is divided into two symbols, verbal symbols and nonverbal symbols. In verbal or language symbols, it can be seen how dialogue patterns that occur between indigenous people and the host convey the problem directly, in a nonverbal pattern the process of communicating thoughts by the communicator to the communicant using a symbol, known as "tepunjung" both yellow arbor and white arbor, and payment of a fine in cash.
Keywords: communication patterns, customs, elopement


Solid-oxide fuel cells with Cu-ceria anodes are shown to provide stable power generation through the direct oxidation of hydrocarbon fuels having sulfur levels similar to that in gasoline and can be regenerated by steam after being poisoned with higher sulfur levels.


Background:
 In Gaucher disease type 1 (GD1), deficient lysosomal acid β-glucosidase activity leads to accumulation of glucosylceramide and formation of lipid-laden macrophages known as Gaucher cells. Patients experience a range of disease manifestations including anemia, thrombocytopenia, hepatosplenomegaly, and debilitating bone complications that impair quality of life. Hematologists are central to disease recognition and management. Most patients, even those without overt symptoms of bone involvement, have radiologic evidence of bone disease. Eliglustat, an oral substrate-reduction therapy, is a first-line treatment for adults with GD1 who have extensive, intermediate or poor CYP2D6 metabolizer phenotypes (>90% of patients). Oral eliglustat partially inhibits glucosylceramide synthase, thereby reducing glucosylceramide accumulation, unlike enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), the historic standard of care for GD1, which augments acid β-glucosidase activity in mononuclear phagocytes and is administered in biweekly infusions.
 Methods:
 We analyzed bone mineral density T- and Z-scores and occurrence of bone pain and bone crises in 4 completed clinical trials sponsored by Sanofi Genzyme that involved 393 GD1 patients treated with eliglustat for 4-8 years: Phase 2 (NCT00358150), Phase 3 ENGAGE (NCT00891202), Phase 3 ENCORE (NCT00943111), and Phase 3 EDGE (NCT01074944). Healthy reference scores are >-1 for T-scores and >-2 for Z-scores. Bone marrow burden (BMB) scores and changes in macrophage inflammatory protein 1β (MIP-1β) were also analyzed in the 3 Phase 3 trials. BMB, an MRI-based scoring system to evaluate marrow infiltration of both the lumbar spine and femur, and MIP-1β, a biomarker produced by inflammatory phagocytes surrounding Gaucher cells, are associated with active and evolving bone disease in GD1.
 Results:
 In treatment-naïve patients (Phase 2, N=26; ENGAGE, N=40), mean spine T-scores moved from the osteopenic range (>-2.5 to ≤ -1) at baseline to the healthy reference range after 2-3 years of eliglustat, with continued improvement thereafter in both trials. Mean±SEM spine T-score increased from -1.55±0.28 to -0.59±0.34 (n=14; mean±SEM increase from baseline: 0.96±0.32), after 8 years in Phase 2, and increased to -0.53±0.27 in ENGAGE patients with bone data at 4.5 years (n=9; mean±SEM increase from baseline: 0.53±0.16). Spine Z-scores for both trials showed similar improvements; femur T- and Z-scores in both trails remained in the normal range. In the ENCORE trial of patients stabilized after a mean of 10 years of ERT (N=157), T- and Z-scores (spine and femur) remained in the reference ranges for up to 4 years; least square mean spine Z-scores improved by 0.29 (P<0.0001). In EDGE (N=170, mostly ERT switch), randomized patients stabilized on eliglustat during a 6- to 18-month Lead-In Period maintained normal T- and Z-scores (spine and femur) through the dose regimen arm of the study and the succeeding extension period. Mean total BMB scores improved from 10 (in the marked to severe range) to 8 (moderate range) in ENGAGE (treatment-naive patients), and remained stable at 8 throughout ENCORE and EDGE (switch/mostly switch patients). The proportion of patients experiencing recent (≤4 weeks) bone pain decreased after treatment in all 4 trials, and reported pain became less severe. No patient in Phase 2 or ENGAGE had a bone crisis while on eliglustat. Bone crises were reported in 3/157 (1.9%) ENCORE patients over the trial duration. In EDGE, the only trial to enroll patients with active bone disease, 6/170 (3.5%) patients had bone crises during the trial, 3 of whom had bone crises during the 6 months prior to trial entry. Bone crises decreased with increasing time on eliglustat, with only 1 bone crisis reported during the 2- to 3-year trial extension. In ENGAGE (treatment-naïve), median MIP-1β levels elevated 3-fold at baseline normalized. In ENCORE and EDGE (switch/mostly switch), MIP-1β levels remained in the normal range. Across the 4 trials, most adverse events were mild/moderate (97%) and considered unrelated to eliglustat (86%); 9 (2.3% overall) patients withdrew due to adverse events considered drug-related.
 Conclusions:
 Long-term eliglustat treatment induced continued improvement in bone parameters in treatment-naïve patients. These parameters remained stable in trials involving patients who had been previously treated. Eliglustat was generally well-tolerated.

 Mistry: Sanofi Genzyme: Honoraria, Other: Principal Investigator for the eliglustat ENGAGE and ENCORE trials; ReceivedTravel Reimbursement; Member of the ICCG North American Advisory Board; , Research Funding. Charrow:Sanofi Genzyme: Honoraria, Other: Principal investigator, eliglustat EDGE trial; Member of advisory boards, Research Funding. Cox:Sanofi Genzyme: Honoraria, Other: Principal investigator for the eliglustat ENCORE trial; received travel reimbursement, Research Funding. Lukina:Sanofi Genzyme: Honoraria, Other: Principal investigator in the eliglustat Phase 2, ENGAGE, ENCORE, and EDGE trials; receives travel reimbursement; member of advisory boards, Research Funding. Marinakis:Sanofi Genzyme: Other: Principal investigator for the eliglustat EDGE trial, Research Funding. Foster:Sanofi Genzyme: Employment. Gaemers:Sanofi Genzyme: Employment. Peterschmitt:Sanofi Genzyme: Employment.


The aim of this study was to investigate the sustainability, stress tolerance and growth parameters of an ex situAcorus calamus population as well as the availability of the rhizome segments (ramets) for propagation. The main stress factors for semi aquatic plants, like A. calamus are the competition from dicot weeds and the severe dry conditions. We compared two experimental plots of different competition levels: low competition (moderate weeding) and high competition: without weeding. We noticed that there were differences between the competition levels only in terms of the life span of the leaves and the length of the shoots (aboveground parts). For the propagation we compared the ramets derived from the apical and lateral parts of the rhizomes as vegetative propagules. Plants derived from both types of rhizome parts showed dynamic development. We detected significantly higher leaf numbers in plants grown from lateral rhizome segments. The newly propagated plant population was kept free from weeds. However, its experimental plot was surrounded by a weedy lane. We found that the leaf number is correlated with the spatial arrangement of the individuals, namely the proximity of weeds decreased the leaf number of the plants in the periphery of the plot.


The Donnan membrane equilibrium, applied to the sedimentation–diffusion (SD) equilibrium for charged colloids in gravity or an ultracentrifuge, yields limiting laws for the SD density profile and the recently predicted macroscopic electric field (van Roij 2003 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 S3569) which necessarily accompanies the colloid density gradient as is also illustrated by the Donnan model. For SD equilibrium in an ultracentrifuge the radial 'Donnan' electric field accounts for the significant apparent mass reduction in thelow-salt limit already discussed by Tiselius (1926 Z. Phys. Chem. 124 449). Several other aspects are discussed, such as the striking analogy between the macroscopic Donnan condenser and the usual colloidal diffuse double layer.


ABSTRACT Objectives Gambling is a problem that has dated back to early history, across the world and in most cultures. Gambling behavior has a lot of negative health, social and environmental effects. The purpose of this study is to determine the risk factors influencing the gambling behavior of husbands of married women in Turkey. Method This study utilized a micro dataset from "National Research on Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey" conducted by Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies in 2014. The factors affecting on the gambling behavior of the husbands of married women were determined by gompit and binary logistic regression analyses. Results The analysis results concluded that the best model was the gompit regression model. The findings from the application of this model suggested that variables of regional differences, household welfare level, men's alcohol and drug use influenced the gambling behavior of married women's husbands. Conclusion In order to develop preventive strategies to reduce gambling behavior, individuals living in Southern Turkey and households with low-income should be primarily addressed, and men who use alcohol and drugs, should be addressed as well.


Check valves for checking reverse water flows in drainage systems sometimes make large impacts through their sudden closure caused by accidental cutoff of drain pumps. In order to characterize such phenomena and to find design criteria for impactless check valves, we observed the motion of a check valve and measured its impact acceleration and pressures in the drainage pipe, using a subscale drainage system. Two peaks of impact acceleration were observed; The first one seemed due to collision of the check valve and the valve seat, whereas the second one did due to water column separation and recombination caused by the low pressure during the closure state of the valve. The former can be reduced by adding mass to the check valve and by setting an appropriate valve-seat angle. The latter possibly can be reduced by relaxing the low pressure during the closure. Subsequently, the check valve opened through the water-column recombination impacts and sometimes showed opening-closing oscillation.


The emergence of antibiotic resistance among important foodborne pathogens like Escherichia coli O157:H7 has become an important issue with regard to food safety. In contrast to the case for Salmonella, antibiotic resistance has been slow in its development in E. coli O157:H7 despite the presence of mobile antibiotic resistance genes in other E. coli organisms that inhabit the same animal host. We set out to determine if rumen fluid influences the transfer of plasmid-mediated, antibiotic resistance to E. coli O157:H7. A commensal E. coli strain from a dairy cow was transformed with conjugative R plasmids and served as the donor in matings with naladixic acid-resistant E. coli O157:H7. R plasmids were transferred from the donor E. coli strain to E. coli O157:H7 in both Luria-Bertani (LB) broth and rumen fluid. R plasmids were transferred at a higher frequency to E. coli O157:H7 during 6 h of incubation in rumen fluid at rates comparable to those in LB broth, indicating that conditions in rumen fluid favor the transfer of the plasmids to E. coli O157. This finding suggests that the cow's rumen is a favorable environment for the genetic exchange of plasmids between microflora and resident E. coli O157:H7 in the bovine host.


Verifying whether an ontology meets the set of established requirements is a crucial activity in ontology engineering. In this sense, methods and tools are needed (a) to transform (semi-)automatically functional ontology requirements into SPARQL queries, which can serve as unit tests to verify the ontology, and (b) to check whether the ontology fulfils the requirements. Thus, our purpose in this poster paper is to apply the SWIP approach to verify whether an ontology satisfies the set of established requirements.


This study investigates the characteristics of system noise sampled by the Precipitation Radar (PR) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite. First, we examine the long-term trend in system noise. The result shows that the system noise level was quite stable for a long time period except for a few sudden change events. The averaged system noise shows a periodic change that relates to the temperature of the PR. This change corresponds to the changes in the solar beta angle, and the amplitude of the fluctuation is about 0.15 dB. The contribution of surface emission from the ocean to the system noise is also examined by averaging the system noise data under a no-rain condition over a long period (e.g., one month) to remove the effect of the temperature fluctuation related to the solar beta angle. The resulting amplitude is less than 0.1 dB, and the spatial distribution almost corresponds to the pattern of the sea surface temperature. These results confirm that the system noise of the PR is quite stable, indicating that the fluctuation of the sampled system noise is caused mainly by the fading effect. The characteristics of the system noise of three rain categories - ldquorain certain,rdquo ldquorain possible,rdquo and ldquono-rainrdquo - are examined by taking a histogram. Because the PRpsilas system noise is supposed to be stable, broadening the system noise level of about 2.5 dB almost corresponds to the fading effect. The histograms of rain-certain and of no-rain show a similar shape with a difference of a few tenths of decibels. The higher noise levels in rain-certain conditions are caused by the emission from raindrops. In contrast, the rain-possible histogram shows a widespread and skewed shape. It can be explained by saying that the rain-possible pixels are obtained when the sampled noise level is made accidentally small by the fading effect. Therefore, a fixed noise level threshold is introduced to the rain/no-rain classification for a more reliable rain-possible classification. The result shows that the rain area increases by about 15%, and the amount of rainfall increases by about 1% by adding reliable rain-possible pixels to the current standard product.


The Dendron research station is, well, as the name suggests, a research station, set in a tropical rainforest. The site of the station is an extinct volcano with a collapsed caldera found in the country of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The caldera has 1 km high walls and has been isolated from the rest of the world for at least 200 000 years, leading to an isolated evolution of flora and fauna found in the caldera. The research station aims at aiding scientists in the field of canopy research, where the work of the scientists is mainly about cataloguing existing species and discover new such for the sake of science, seeing that the isolated evolution might have generated new species yet to be described to science. The research station is suspended in mid-air 45+ metres high up in the canopy layer of the rainforest. It utilizes the liana system found in the forest for suspension, and derives its building material and techniques from the vernacular architecture of the natives of PNG, where the aforementioned happens to be bamboo and the latter incorporates reciprocal weaving techniques.


Abstract Background To evaluate the impact of adding universal varicella vaccination (UVV) to the existing childhood vaccination programme in Jordan, and identify the most cost-effective strategy. Methods A dynamic transmission model of varicella infection was calibrated to available varicella seroprevalence data within the region and validated against local epidemiological data. Local direct and indirect costs and healthcare utilization data were used. We considered the health and economic impact of one dose UVV administered concurrently with MMR at 12 months of age with 95% coverage, and two dose strategies with short (6 month) and long (4 year) intervals between First and Second dose. We took the societal perspective (direct and indirect costs) and discounted costs and QALYs by 3%/year to assess cost-effectiveness. Results The model estimated the current burden of varicella at 172,000 cases/year, an incidence rate of 2,200/100,000 persons. In the 5th/25th year after vaccination, all strategies substantially reduced total varicella incidence by 89.5%/96.6% (1 dose), 92.3%/98.0% (2 dose short), and 90.5%/98.3% (2 dose long), compared with no vaccine (Figure 1). In the absence of vaccination, an estimated $47.89 M ($28.81 M direct, $19.08 indirect) was spent annually on varicella treatment. The average annual total treatment costs over 25 years from the societal perspective were $4.01M (1 dose), $3.34M (2 dose short), and $3.43M (2 dose long). Considering a willingness to pay (WTP) threshold of $3,600 USD / QALY and the societal perspective, the 1 dose program was the most cost-effective with cost savings of $83.40 USD and health gain of 4.127 × 10−5 QALYs per person. 2 dose programs are similarly cost-saving and highly effective, compared with a scenario of no vaccination; however, moving incrementally from a 1 dose strategy, incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERS) were $6.9M/QALY (short vs. 1 dose) and $13.5M/QALY (long vs. short), both well as above the WTP threshold. All strategies reached. Conclusion One or two dose UVV in Jordan will significantly reduce varicella disease burden and is cost saving relative to no vaccine over 25 years. Disclosures W. Hayajneh, Merck & Co., Inc.: Consultant, Consulting fee. J. Maalouf, Merck & Co., Inc.: Employee, Salary. B. Kuter, Merck & Co., Inc.: Employee, Salary.T. Weiss, Merck & Co., Inc.: Employee, Salary. V. Daniels, Merck & Co., Inc.: Employee, Salary. L. Wolfson, Merck & Co., Inc.: Employee, Salary.


We have performed numerical simulations of the electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical properties of a REBaCuO ring-shaped bulk with various reinforcement structures during pulsed-field magnetization (PFM). Compressive and tensile electromagnetic stresses, σθmag , are developed in the ring-shaped bulk during the ascending and descending stages of PFM, respectively. These stresses increase at lower operating temperatures and for higher applied pulsed fields. In order to reduce these stresses, the ring-shaped bulk was fully encapsulated by outer and inner ring with upper and lower plates made by Al alloy. In particular, this reinforcement structure can achieve the lowest electromagnetic compressive stress, which corresponds to about 54% of that for a conventional ring reinforcement structure, and the electromagnetic tensile stress was also reduced. We also compared the simulation results of the electromagnetic stresses for the ring-shaped bulk to those for a disk-shaped bulk.


One of the most rewarding of recent approaches to the study of Deutero-Isaiah has been the attempt to understand his teaching against the background of his ministry to the second generation of Jewish exiles in Babylonia. Two factors have been taken into account: the nature of the Israelite religious tradition which the exiles had inherited from the past, and the actual circumstances of their life in Babylonia, where they were subject to the cultural and religious pressures of their environment. Each of these may be expected to have exercised some influence on the teaching of Deutero-Isaiah. Dr Whybray's study of this one short passage has been made in order to explore the relationships between the two factors. The passage, which has long been the subject of vigorous controversy, admirably raises the question of the sources of Deutero-Isaiah's theology. This detailed study, which employs as far as possible all the techniques of modern critical investigation, is an attempt to shed some light on the interpretation of Deutero-Isaiah as a whole.


A flux-difference splitting type algorithm is formulated for the steady Euler equations on unstructured grids. The polynomial flux-difference splitting technique is used. A vertex-centered finite volume method is employed on a triangular mesh. The multigrid method is in defect-correction form. A relaxation procedure with a first order accurate inner iteration and a second-order correction performed only on the finest grid, is used. A multi-stage Jacobi relaxation method is employed as a smoother. Since the grid is unstructured a Jacobi type is chosen. The multi-staging is necessary to provide sufficient smoothing properties. The domain is discretized using a Delaunay triangular mesh generator. Three grids with more or less uniform distribution of nodes but with different resolution are generated by successive refinement of the coarsest grid. Nodes of coarser grids appear in the finer grids. The multigrid method is started on these grids. As soon as the residual drops below a threshold value, an adaptive refinement is started. The solution on the adaptively refined grid is accelerated by a multigrid procedure. The coarser multigrid grids are generated by successive coarsening through point removement. The adaption cycle is repeated a few times. Results are given for the transonic flow over a NACA-0012 airfoil.


The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual model of purchase intentions, positive emotion, and e-servicescape that is defined as the online environment factors that exist during service delivery. Survey research method was used to gather data regarding consumers" perceptions of e-servicescape. Surveys were administered to 681 college students who experienced purchasing fashion products on the Internet. The results showed that e-servicescapes perceived by fashion consumers were composed of three dimensions: (1) Aesthetic appeal, (2) Ambient conditions, and (3) Layout & functionality. These dimensions of e-servicescape influenced consumers to lead positive emotions and purchase intentions. Additionally, positive emotions constituted a key variable for the purchase intention of fashion products during online exchange. The study revealed that consumers" interpretations of online environments exerted a powerful influence over positive emotion and purchase intentions. Also, it strongly endorsed the view that the purchase intentions of customers were linked to the extent to which they feel positive emotions by the e-service provider. This study provides insights into how consumers" interpretations of e-servicescape affect their subsequent positive emotions and ultimately their intentions to purchase. The findings of this study also have numerous implications for both services managers and internet developers related to fashion products.


The purposes of this study were to investigate the names and locations of beauty-related high schools, and to examine the cources and subjects of beauty-related high schools according to types of high schools. Data were obtained from 8 beauty-related high schools, which consisted of 2 schools for each beauty-related high schools types and permitted the investigation of their curriculum. The findings of this study were as follows: First, These were about 30 beauty-related high schools that were mostly industrial high schools, located in Busan and Kyungsang Province, and almost used "Beauty" or "Aesthetics" as the name of department. Second, the rates of common and professional courses of business high schools and industrial high schools were similar to those suggested from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources. But for specialized high schools and integrated high schools, the rate of these courses were not in accord with those of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources. Third, The credit hour of special study in beauty-related high schools largest in hair care, followed by skin care and makeup courses. But nail and foot care were established only 2-3 beauty-related high schools. Fourth, The number of subjects of special study were largest in specialty high school. Industrial high schools offered the least number of subjects of special study. Fifth, as a result of making a comparative analysis of their subjects of special study, eight high schools offered hair care, skin care, public health and makeup courses, which had the same or similar titles. The independence titles were established nail care and foot care. The others titles were established actual training, food and nutrition, digital image processing, accounts theory, coordinatin.


Background
Malaria control in endemic areas still faces the challenge of ensuring that scale-up of interventions is sustainable, cost-effective and equitable. However, there have not been adequate studies monitoring equity effects or changes in socioeconomic inequalities of these
Interventions over time even. The existence of socioeconomic health inequalities is a barrier to achieve universal health coverage and sustainable development goals.

Methods: Secondary datasets have been used in these microeconomic evaluations including eight years of repeated annual cross-sectional surveys from 2006 to 2013 involving 19,000 individuals in Siaya County, western Kenya. Data from a two-year cluster randomized Mass Test and Treat (MTAT) study conducted between 2013 and 2015 were also used. Further, malaria-related mortality and morbidity data from health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) surveys from 2006 to 2014 have been used. Lastly, data on costs and effects of Long-Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLIN) distribution channels were collected from national to local levels in Busia County, western Kenya to assess the cost-effectiveness of LLIN distribution channels from a provider and household perspectives. Household socioeconomic status (SES) was established using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), socioeconomic inequalities were assessed using concentration indices, and multi-level mixed-effects generalized linear regression models (GLM) were used to compare prevalence ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Disability-adjusted life years and cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated to answer research questions. Data were compared between the poorest and less poor individuals at the household and population level.
12

Results: The poorest individuals, children, and women, bore the greatest burden of malaria measured in terms of morbidity, mortalities and disability-adjusted life years but the health inequality gap between the poor and less poor has reduced over time. There were no significant inequalities in medication use and care-seeking for fever between the poorest and less poor which represents equity gains for the poorest individuals. The MTAT intervention resulted in equity gains amongst the socio-economic groups in terms of access to medication, care-seeking, use of LLINs and averting malaria deaths in the participating communities. Mass distribution of LLINs combined with the use of community health volunteers remains the most cost-effective and equitable method of achieving universal coverage.

Discussion. Malaria remains a disease of poor individuals across age groups and gender but is mostly concentrated amongst children and women. While intensification of malaria control activities has resulted in a reduction of socioeconomic inequalities in rates of infections, mortality, care seeking and medication for fever, pro-poor and mass campaigns for control interventions should be to be integrated to reduce inequalities and inequities. The results from these studies are vital for monitoring socioeconomic inequalities and equity trends towards achieving universal health coverage and sustainable development goals.


Given the expansion of urban agriculture (UA), we need to understand how this system provides ecosystem services, including foundational societal needs such as social cohesion, i.e., people's willingness to cooperate with one another. Although social cohesion in UA has been documented, there is no framework for its emergence and how it can be modeled within a sustainability framework. In this study, we address this literature gap by showing how the popular cascade ecosystem services model can be modified to include social structures. We then transform the cascade model into a bottom-up causal framework for UA. In this bottom-up framework, basic biophysical (e.g., land availability) and social (e.g., leadership) ecosystem structures and processes lead to human activities (e.g., learning) that can foster specific human attitudes and feelings (e.g., trust). These attitudes and feelings, when aggregated (e.g., social network), generate an ecosystem value of social cohesion. These cause-effect relationships can support the development of causality pathways in social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) and further our understanding of the mechanisms behind social impacts and benefits. The framework also supports UA studies by showing the sustainability of UA as an emergent food supplier in cities.


Biomass is an interesting renewable energy resource as it is widespread in nature and low cost. The development of bio-oil derived from biomass as a fuel is still a scientific and industrial challenge. In this context, we demonstrate the synthetic method of bio-oil upgrading catalysts based on hierarchical zeolites and open up interesting perspectives for bio-oil upgrading processes. The hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite has been successfully prepared via a direct hydrothermal synthesis with the aid of a commercial organosilane surfactant (TPOAC). The influences of TPOAC content and Si/Al ratio on hierarchical structures were also systematically studied. To illustrate their catalytic performances, an esterification reaction of various organic acids such as (acetic acid and levulinic acid) and alcohols was performed as the model reaction representing the bio-oil upgrading application. The synergic effect of acidity and the hierarchical structure of catalysts can greatly enhance the catalytic performance in terms of activity, product yield, coke formation, and reusability of the catalysts. For example, they can convert almost 100% of reactant in 8 h in the esterification of acetic acid and alcohols, whereas the conventional zeolite reveals significantly lower activity (<20%). Interestingly, the hierarchical zeolite can also greatly improve the catalytic activity of the esterification of levulinic acid and ethanol to produce ethyl levulinate that can be used as a diesel miscible biofuel (DMB). In addition, the efficiency of hierarchical catalysts obtained by different synthesis methods is also discussed. This first example demonstrates that the hierarchical zeolite obtained via a direct synthesis approach can benefit bio-oil upgrading applications via the esterification of various carboxylic acids.


A systematic study is conducted on variation regularities for such properties of SMA wires with the diameter of wires, strain amplitude and loading cycles as the stress-strain curve, characteristic stresses, energy dissipation capacity, equivalent damping ratio. The results show: The diameter increase of SMA wires can degrade the mechanical properties of SMA wires; SMA wires can exhibit a good and stable hysteretic performance when the strain amplitude is 6% and the loading cycle is 15. Utilizing the superelasticity of SMA and combining the operating principle of the tuned mass damper, a new kind of SMA suspension pendulum damping system, which is easy to disassemble, was designed and fabricated with the trained SMA wires. Corresponding experiments were conducted to analyse the natural frequency of the damping system, phase relations between the mass vibrators and the controlled structure, variation regularity of the equivalent damping force with the mass vibrators and length of pendulum rod. The results indicate that phase relations between the mass vibrators and the controlled structure can desirably fall within 150°~180° when this damping system subjected to the sine waves and real earthquake waves. Meanwhile, the equivalent damping force increases significantly with the amplitude of external loads. In conclusion, this kind of damping system can provide a stable and efficient damping force and be simply applied to structural vibration control, thus to protect structures free from strong dynamic disasters.


Like criminal prosecutors, family court prosecutors have immense power. Determining which cases to prosecute and which to divert or dismiss goes to the heart of the delinquency system's balance between punishment and rehabilitation of children and the child protection system's spectrum of family interventions. For instance, the shift a generation ago to prosecute about 100,000 more delinquency cases is as significant a development as any other. Yet scholars have not examined the legal structures for these charging decisions or family court prosecutors' authority in much depth.
This article shows how family court prosecutors' role has never been fully theorized. Family courts historically avoided prosecutors (or lawyers of any kind). When children's and parents' lawyers appeared in the 1960s-70s, family court prosecutors soon followed, but without any consensus about how they should make charging decisions and how their authority intersects with agencies or intake officers. This article provides the first detailed description and critique of varying state laws governing family court prosecutors.
This article argues that family court prosecutors should work for and represent juvenile justice or child protection agencies, which should have authority to determine which cases to file. Agencies are best suited to balance the competing interests at stake in family court cases and to choose specific cases on which to focus their limited resources. Agency control over intake could reduce delinquency prosecutions for relatively lower level offenses, which have particularly large racial disparities. Finally, an agency model should lead to limited judicial review of decisions to prosecute cases — a long-elusive goal in scholarship regarding criminal prosecutors.


BACKGROUND: Despite the known mental health burden among children with congenital heart disease (CHD), the literature is constrained by a lack of comparison cohorts and population-based follow-up data. We examined the incidence of mental health conditions among children with CHD, relative to 3 comparison cohorts. METHODS: This population-based cohort study identified all children with CHD (<18 years of age; n=16 473) in Denmark from 1996 to 2017, through linkage of individual-level data across national registries. This allowed for complete follow-up of the population. Comparison cohorts included children from the general population (n=162 204), siblings of children with CHD (n=20 079), and children with non-CHD major congenital anomalies (n=47 799). Mental health conditions were identified using inpatient and outpatient hospital discharge codes, prescription data, and data on use of community-based psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy services. We computed cumulative incidence by 18 years of age, incidence rates, and adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) using Cox regression. aHRs accounted for sex, year of CHD diagnosis, parental mental health, and socioeconomic status. All estimates were stratified by age, sex, and CHD complexity. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of mental health conditions by 18 years of age in the CHD cohort was 35.1% (95% CI, 34.0%–36.1%), corresponding to aHRs of 1.64 (95% CI, 1.58–1.71), 1.41 (95% CI, 1.30–1.52), and 1.02 (95% CI, 0.98–1.07) compared with the general population, sibling, and major congenital anomaly cohorts, respectively. Mental health incidence rates showed prominent peaks in early childhood and adolescence. Males and children with severe or single-ventricle CHD demonstrated higher incidence rates of mental health conditions relative to females and children with mild or moderate CHD, respectively. Compared with the general population and sibling cohorts, incidence rates and aHRs in the CHD cohort were highest for severe stress reactions, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorder. Compared with children in the major congenital anomaly cohort, the aHRs were close to 1. CONCLUSIONS: More than one-third of children with CHD were diagnosed or treated for a mental health condition by 18 years of age. Mental health conditions began early in life and were most prominent among males and children with severe or single-ventricle heart disease.


Recent interest in the application of computed tomography (CT) to the evaluation of laryngeal tumors, and the fact that the larynx offers the unique opportunity of whole organ study after total laryngectomy, led to a prospective study of laryngoscopy, conventional tomography, and CT in relation to pathologic findings. The results showed that CT gives an exact assessment of laryngeal anatomy and tumor involvement, particularly in the paracordal and pre-epiglottic spaces. The laryngeal cartilages, which are not well demonstrated by any other means, are accurately delineated by CT. There is also good demonstration of the laryngeal surface of the epiglottis, including the anterior commissure, which is poorly shown by other radiologic methods and is sometimes poorly seen on laryngoscopy. Because CT and conventional tomography present images at 2 different planes, at right angles to each other, we believe that CT is entirely complementary to conventional tomography.


Stepwise conversion of pyrimidin-2(1H)-one to 2-amino-5-aryloxazoles via oxazolo[3,2-a]pyrimidinium salts is reported. The sequence involves, (i) regioselective N-alkylation of pyrimidone by phenacyl bromides, (ii) cyclization of obtained 1-(2-aryl-2-oxoethyl)pyrimidin-2(1H)-ones into oxazolo[3,2-a]pyrimidinium salts under the action of fuming sulfuric (or triflic) acid, and (iii) reaction of the obtained salts with hydrazine leading to 2-amino-5-aryloxazoles.


The energy density of the Universe is dominated by dark energy and dark matter, two mysterious components which pose some of the most important questions in fundamental science today. Euclid is a high-precision survey mission designed to answer these questions by mapping the geometry of the dark Universe. Euclid's Visible-NIR imaging and spectroscopy of the entire extragalactic sky will further produce extensive legacy science for various fields of astronomy. Over the 2008-2009 period, Euclid has been the object of an ESA Assessment Phase in which the study of the Euclid Imaging instrument was under the responsibility of the Euclid Imaging Consortium (EIC). The EIC Science Book presents the studies done by the EIC science working groups in the context of this study phase. We first give a brief description of the Euclid mission and of the imaging instrument and surveys. We then summarise the primary and legacy science which will be achieved with the Euclid imaging surveys, along with the simulations and data handling scheme which have been developed to optimise the instrument and ensure its science performance.


The ability to form a ground-state charge-transfer (CT) complex between an electron acceptor, p-benzoquinone (BQ) and an electron donor, 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (DMOPh) was found to be enhanced by H-bonding of BQ to a hydrogen-bond donor, trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and H-bonding DMOPh to a hydrogen-bond acceptor, 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAPy) [Chem. Phys. Lett. 2005, 401, 200]. Here is reported density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study the effect of H-bonding to electron donor and electron acceptor moieties on the ground-state CT complex formation ability between the aforementioned electron donor/acceptor pair. DFT calculations using B3LYP with the 6-311G(d,p) basis set show that the HOMO and LUMO energies of BQ drop on H-bonding to TFA through its C=O groups and the HOMO and LUMO energies of DMOPh increase on H-bonding to DMAPy via its O-H group. BQ molecules hydrogen-bonded as 1:1 and 1:2 complexes to TFA act as stronger acceptors than the bare molecule, while 1:1 complexes of DMOPh and DMAPy act as better donors. Vertical excitation energies for electronic transitions from the ground state to the first few excited states of BQ, DMOPh, DMAPy, and their different complexes have been investigated in the framework of time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) to simulate and interpret experimental ultraviolet absorption spectra. Good agreement between experimental and calculated spectra is established. The enhancement of the CT complex formation ability between the BQ and DMOPh pair is favored by the strong H-bonding interaction of BQ with TFA as well as by the H-bonding interaction of DMOPh with DMAPy.


Seed to seed production experiments for cowpea (Vigna ungiculata) was conducted at Agronomy farm at IAAS Lamjung, and to compare production potentialities of given cowpea genotypes under the given sets of conditions. The treatment consists of two cowpea varieties viz. Prakash (Standard Check) and Malepatan (Local check) and four genotypes; IT 99K-573-2-1, IT 86F-2062-5, IT 93K-452-1, IT 98K-205-8. The experiment was conducted on RCBD design. .All other activities were carried out according to prepared working calendar almost from August 2016 to December 2016.  Data collection were done for pre-determined growth and other yield parameters and was analyzed using MSTAT. Major parameters were Grain yield, Seeds/plant, Pods/plant, plant height, pod length, harvest index and test weight. Result shows maximum grain yield and harvest index was found for Prakash (Standard Check).Plant height and Pods /Plant was found highest for IT 99K-573-2-1. Similarly highest seed weight was found for Prakash (Standard Check) and Seeds/Plant and Pod length was maximum for IT 86F-2062-5. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(3): 382-385


ABSTRACT Dvarionienė, J.; Zobėlaitė-Noreikienė, G.; Kruopiene, J., and Stasiškienė, Z., 2013. Application of the life-cycle assessment method for pollution prevention in Klaipėda sea port, Lithuania. Lithuania is one of the countries that have ratified the Marpol 73/78 Convention, which foresees the tools of reduction and prevention of sea pollution by bilge water and other substances. The Directive of the European Parliament and Council 2000/59/EB is addressed to the reduction of waste onboard ships and its wash overboard. Analysis of the ships entering Klaipėda sea port has estimated that oil waste constitutes about 74% of the whole collected waste amount. Engine bilge water is specific and hazardous to the environment because it is a liquid compound of water and oil products capable of making steady emulsions. It also acquires specific properties during various technological processes. Equipment, technological processes, specificity of the control related to combustibility and flammability, as well as conformity to the requirements of the International and European Union Rights, technological process management, and documents are needed for the management of this specific waste. For this reason, separation of this oily water from the common oil-polluted waste and analysis of these streams of waste treatment are of great importance to enhance the effectiveness of environmental protection during the management process of this oily waste. Applying a system approach to the oily waste in the port, we set up a waste management system algorithm based on the life cycle. The system of port waste management is a set of technological processes, each of them performing a certain function and requiring stock, electric energy, fuel, transport, heat, technological equipment, etc. Having made the environmental assessment, a suggestion was made to convert the waste resulting from the engine bilge water treatment into energy and to use it in a technological process when closing (finishing) the life cycle. In this paper, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to identify and quantify the environmental impacts caused by the ship-generated waste management, focusing on oily waters of the port of Klaipėda. LCA methodology was used to evaluate the environmental performance of ship-generated waste management of Klaipėda port, according to international standards.


Abstract In this paper, the harmonic contribution of the broken rotor bar of an induction machine is investigated using an effective combination of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and a band stop filter. The winding, spatial, grid fed and fault-based harmonics are investigated. Since the fundamental component is the most powerful component as compared to the other frequencies, it decreases the legibility of spectrum, making logarithmic scale inevitable. It also remains a potential threat of burying the fault representative side band frequencies because of its spectral leakage. In this paper, a band stop Chebyshev filter is used to attenuate the fundamental component, which makes the spectrum clearer and easier to understand even on the linear scale. Its good transition band and low passband ripples make it suitable for attenuating the main supply frequency with low impact on the neighbouring side band frequencies. To study the impact of fault on magnetic flux distribution, simulation is done using finite element method with good number of mesh elements and very small step size. The line current is calculated and frequency spectrum is investigated to segregate the spatial and fault frequencies using the proposed technique. The results are further validated by implementing the algorithm on the data measured in the laboratory environment including the grid fed harmonics.


The time-frequency peak filtering (TFPF) is an effective tool in random-noise attenuation and has been applied to seismic record denoising in recent years. The window length (WL) of the time-frequency distribution (TFD) is the key to the conventional TFPF technology. A fixed WL is not optimal for both the low- and high-frequency components at the same time; an adaptive WL results in serious distortion of the reflected waveform. In this letter, we discuss a modified TFPF along the radial-trace direction and prove its advantage in TFD window selection. Experiments on both synthetic models and field data show that the radial-trace TFPF result is no longer much influenced by the WL as the conventional TFPF. Furthermore, it can provide better performance in both random-noise attenuation and reflected signal preservation with a fixed WL.


Every persons have their own unique way of walking which is called gait. Gait can be used to identify a person. Gyroscope is a sensor used to detect vibration and measure acceleration based on direction or orientation. This paper presents an individual recognition based on gait using gyroscope sensor embedded in smartphone. The gait data is processed and analyzed by implementing Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) and k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN). LPC is used to extract features from gait data. It produces feature vector based on combination of p-previous signal and takes only important value of the feature data. Then, k-NN is used for classification, using some calculation methods such as Euclidean, Cityblock, Cosine, and Correlation distance. The gait signals contain x,y,z axis and the signal magnitude. In this paper x,y,z axis and the signal magnitude are also combined to improve the accuracy. The highest accuracy of 99.58% is achieved using signal combination x-y-z-m. Overall, this person detection system produces accuracy between 50% to 99.58%.


We study the number of comparisons in Hoare's Find algorithm. Using trivariate generating functions, we get an explicit expression for the variance of the number of comparisons, if we search for the jth element in a random permutation of n elements. The variance is also asymptotically evaluated under the assumption that j is proportional to n. Similar results for the number of passes (recursive calls) are given, too.


ABSTRACT Analytical SEM observations show that the inorganic fraction of interstitial matrix and coatings of pyrite framboids consists only of A1 and Si compounds. XRD patterns from bulk concentrates of the pyrite reveal the presence of both kaolinite and quartz in this fraction from marine and nonmarine mud rocks and, dominantly, quartz with little or no kaolinite from coal. These minerals are inferred to be present within framboidal interstices and coatings and can be alternate to or in association with organic matter in these positions. The strata are of Westphalian-C age at the Gastrioceras listeri marine horizon, near Sheffield, England. The mineral and organic material are regarded as early diagenetic, the kaolinite and quartz being syndepositional with the pyrite: the organic com onent may be of this age or later, probably having undergone some subsequent maturation.


Background and Purpose— In 1998, 2947 patients in metropolitan Phoenix were hospitalized for acute cerebral infarction. Only 2 of the 26 regional hospitals satisfied criteria for primary stroke center (PSC) designation. Fewer than 1% of patients with ischemic stroke received tissue plasminogen activator for thrombolysis. We sought to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a metropolitan prehospital emergency medical system for effectively identifying and transporting patients with acute stroke to a matrix of predesignated PSCs and increasing to 20% the proportion of all such patients receiving tissue plasminogen activator. Methods— The American Stroke Association Phoenix Operation Stroke partnered with the Arizona Emergency Medical Systems in 1998 to 1999 to list goals and objectives, identify key stakeholders, and develop committees to address community education, emergency medical system training, and PSC designation. Results— Over 8 years, emergency medical system personnel were trained to identify and transport patients with acute stroke to PSCs, 8 hospitals met PSC criteria, the metropolitan matrix of PSCs became operational (in 2003), and 18% of patients with acute ischemic stroke received thrombolysis. Conclusions— It is feasible to develop and operationalize a successful metropolitan-wide matrix of PSCs to accommodate emergency medical system-identified and transported patients with acute stroke in a 9000-square-mile region with a population of 3.5 million people.