Cross-scaling simulations of nanoindentation of copper with an infinitely hard tool, em- ploying molecular dynamics concurrently augmented with tight-binding calculations, have been conducted for three crystal orientations of the workmaterial. The effect of introducing tight-binding into the calculation on the normal force experienced by the indenter and the displacement of workpiece atoms has been studied by comparing the results with pure molecular dynamics simu- lations.


The study is to classify the problem triggers in consecutive interpreting especially in listening. The objectives of the research are to find out the relationship between listening skills and sound problem by comparing the test results of English student and non-English student and prove that students' problem triggers are closely related to the writing and reading performances which are caused by listening skill problems such as domain in comprehension, similar word, etc. The method used in the research is descriptive qualitative. The participants are English Department and non English student. Technique of collecting data in the research uses questionnaire, test, and interview. The biggest problem faced by non-English student group is numbering and proper names. It is 34 % which occupy in first rank. Whereas the percentage of English student in comprehension is 27%, then the numbering and proper names, the last is similar word which has 20%. Meanwhile, the test result of English group is 84.5 and non-English group is 60. It represent the background knowledge factors are also play an important role in doing the test. In conclusion, there is relationship between students' problem triggers, writing and reading performances, especially homophone errors. So, the hypothesis is accepted and it strengthens a currently underdeveloped theory that sounds problem play an important role in listening.


Background Perioperative oral management has been reported to be effective for preventing postoperative infectious complications. In addition, severe periodontal disease was identified as the significant risk factor for complications after gastrointestinal surgery. We investigated the bacteriological association between the periodontal pocket, stomach mucosa and drainage fluid to determine whether oral bacteria directly cause intra-abdominal infection after gastrectomy. Methods Patients who were scheduled to undergo surgery for gastric cancer were prospectively enrolled. We evaluated the similarity of bacterial strains in periodontal pocket, stomach mucosa and fluid from drainage tube. Gingival crevicular fluid and dental plaque were collected from the periodontal pocket and cultured to detect bacteria. Specimens from the resected stomach were collected and used for bacterial culturing. Drainage fluid from the abdominal cavity was also cultured. Results All of 52 patients were enrolled. In the periodontal pocket, α-Streptococcus spp., Neisseria sp., and Prevotella sp. were mainly detected. Bacterial cultures in the stomach mucosa were positive in 26 cases. In 20 cases (76.9%), the detected strains were the same as those in the periodontal pocket. Six patients had the postoperative intra-abdominal infection after gastrectomy, and the same bacterial strains was detected in both of drainage fluid and periodontal pocket in two patients with severe periodontal disease. Conclusions We found the bacteriological association that same strain detected in periodontal pocket, stomach and in intra-abdominal drainage fluid after gastrectomy in patients with periodontal disease.


Aluminium-based composite is widely used in aerospace and automobile industries because it is lighter in weight; but the trouble is that it is easily worn-out and life of the components is decreased. To overcome these problems, aluminium silicon carbide composite material has been developed with good wear-resistance, hardness and lighter weight. Silicon carbide has good mechanical properties like wear resistance, hardness, toughness and high melting point. Silicon carbide weight fractions (20, 25, 30 and 35% respectively) have been added to the aluminium matrix to improve the mechanical properties of the composite material. Aluminium silicon carbide composite material properties have been checked for microstructure examination, compressive strength, and hardness. Developed aluminium silicon carbide composite material has been machined using dry EDM process because it is used in an eco-friendly environment, good surface finishing for harder components. A special dry EDM machining unit attachment has been developed on present oil-based EDM machine. Experiments have been carried out using compressed air as a dielectric fluid and copper tubular electrode with varying input parameters like silicon carbide %, discharge current, gap voltage, and pulse-on time, spindle rotational speed and compressed air pressure to check the effect on output parameters like; material removal rate, tool wear rate and surface roughness. And also the effect of individual parameters have been analyzed on output parameters using design of experiment based on center composite design method of response surface methodology. Cite this Article Chirag Patel, Mangal Bhatt. Investigation of Physical Characteristics and Machining Parameters of Improved Al-SiC MMC Using Dry EDM Process for Aerospace Industries. Journal of Experimental & Applied Mechanics. 2018; 9(1): 15–32p.


The sigma -T variation in the quasi-crystalline alloys Al65Cu20+xRu15-x (x = 2, 1, 0 and -1) has been investigated in the temperature range 15 K<T<300 K (in some cases in the range 4.2-300 K) to make the conductivity versus temperature variation intelligible. The electronic behaviour of the stable quasi-crystal in most of the studies carried out so far has been explained in terms of the theories developed for disordered systems and presumed to hold good for quasi-crystals as well. In the present investigation we have analysed our a-T data in terms of the power-law localization of electronic states, giving rise to the power-law dependence of conductivity on temperature: Delta sigma varies as Ta. The applicability of the power law has been demonstrated on the basis of a very good fitting of sigma - T data in accordance with sigma (T)= sigma (0)+CTa in a wide temperature range, from 4.2 K through 15 K to 300 K. The exponent a of the power law has been found to decrease with decreasing Ru concentration. A plausible reason for the decrease in the exponent a has been outlined in terms of a decrease in the atomic potential with decreasing Ru concentration.


Blockchain technology is a peer-to-peer infrastructure based on distributed databases and smart contracts as the business logic. The distributed ledger technology eliminates the need for intermediaries disrupting the ownership model. It can have a tremendous impact on crossorganizational process automation when combined with other innovative technologies such as machine learning and additive manufacturing. Over the past few years as the blockchain technology concept has increasingly attracted many industries. The logistics and supply chain management industry have also realized its potential applications in enabling transparency, efficient information sharing, and food safety. Several companies have identified possible use cases that could benefit from blockchain over existing IT solutions. Thesis report provides an overview of current state of blockchain adoption, its technology architecture, review of how blockchain technology and smart contract works, and the benefits and challenges involved. Further, provided a deep dive into the problem of food safety, and the food supply chain and logistics ecosystem drivers. Highlighted, the current use cases of blockchain technology in supply chain and logistics along with critical success factors that companies consider essential for blockchain technology adoption. In the interviews conducted, digital innovators and senior executives are fairly positive about the blockchain technology and its benefits. However, factors such as under-developed ecosystem, lack of governance model and regulatory uncertainty impact its adoption. The proposed framework consists of a hybrid architecture of private and public blockchains, enabling immutable record sharing and monitoring while maintaining selective data privacy. Thesis Supervisor: Christian Catalini Title: Theodore T. Miller Career Development Professor at MIT, Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management


This research article aims to understand the situation of the Colombian refugees in Venezuela. Nearly 200,000 refugees have arrived in this country during the last 15 years, about 95% of which are Colombians3. In the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (1999), according to its constitution (1999), "the right of asylum and refuge is recognized and guaranteed", however only 3% (5,210) of people in need of international protection are recognized as refugees. The methodology implemented here is qualitative and utilises documental sources through a revision of public policies that focus on this population and research projects that characterize it. The article addresses the Colombian context, the history of migration of Colombians to Venezuela, shelter conditions in the destination country, the legal situation, the refugee process, naturalization, discrimination and access to basic services.


In coalition formation games self-organized coalitions are created as a result of the strategic interactions of independent agents. For each couple of agents (i, j), weight wi,j = wj,i reflects how much agents i and j benefit from belonging to the same coalition. We consider the modified fractional hedonic game, that is a coalition formation game in which agents' utilities are such that the total benefit of agent i belonging to a coalition (given by the sum of wi,j over all other agents j belonging to the same coalition) is averaged over all the other members of that coalition, i.e., excluding herself. Modified fractional hedonic games constitute a class of succinctly representable hedonic games. We are interested in the scenario in which agents, individually or jointly, choose to form a new coalition or to join an existing one, until a stable outcome is reached. To this aim, we consider common stability notions, leading to strong Nash stable outcomes, Nash stable outcomes or core stable outcomes: we study their existence, complexity and performance, both in the case of general weights and in the case of 0-1 weights. In particular, we completely characterize the existence of the considered stable outcomes and show many tight or asymptotically tight results on the performance of these natural stable outcomes for modified fractional hedonic games, also highlighting the differences with respect to the model of fractional hedonic games, in which the total benefit of an agent in a coalition is averaged over all members of that coalition, i.e., including herself.


The Heavy Hydrocarbon Main Injector Program was an analytical, design, and test program to demonstrate an injection concept applicable to an Isolated Combustion Compartment of a full-scale, high pressure, LOX/RP-1 engine. Several injector patterns were tested in a 3.4-in. combustor. Based on these results, features of the most promising injector design were incorporated into a 5.7-in. injector which was then hot-fire tested. In turn, a preliminary design of a 5-compartment 2D combustor was based on this pattern. Also the additional subscale injector testing and analysis was performed with an emphasis on improving analytical techniques and acoustic cavity design methodology. Several of the existing 3.5-in. diameter injectors were hot-fire tested with and without acoustic cavities for spontaneous and dynamic stability characteristics.


The notary has an important role in the development of Islamic economics in Indonesia, where the notary has an extraordinary influence as well as in making an authentic deed that can produce legal certainty for the community. Law Number 30 of 2004 Juncto Law Number 2 of 2014 on the Position of Notary Public does not include the authority of a notary public in terms of making a deed of agreement relating to Islamic economics such as Islamic banking. The authority possessed by a notary in accordance with Law Number 30 of 2004 Juncto Law Number 2 of 2014 relating to the Notary is authorized to make an authentic deed regarding all deeds, agreements and stipulations required by legislation and / or as desired by the parties concerned to be stated in an authentic deed, guaranteeing the certainty of the deed, keep the deed, give a grosse, copy and quote the deed, all of it as long as the making of the Deed is not also assigned or excluded to other officials or other people determined by the law and other authorities. The regulation does not include notary authority in making notarial deeds related to sharia economics. Due to the development of the forms of agreements made by notaries, it is necessary to include a notary authority in making authentic deeds related to Islamic banking. Keywords : Notary, Islamic economics, Authentic deed.


Abstract. Excessive sediment is a major pollutant to surface waters worldwide. In some watersheds, streambanks are a significant source of this sediment, leading to the expenditure of billions of dollars in stabilization projects. Although costly streambank stabilization projects have been implemented worldwide, long-term monitoring to quantify their success is lacking. The objectives of this project were to quantify streambank retreat before and after the stabilization of 18 streambanks on the Cedar River in north central Nebraska, USA; assess the impact of a large flood event; and determine the most cost-efficient practice. The stabilized streambanks included jetties (10), rock-toe protection (1), slope reduction/gravel bank (1), a retaining wall (1), rock vanes (2) and tree revetments (3). Seventeen of the sites were installed from 2000 to 2004 and one in 1950. Streambank retreat and accumulation were quantified using aerial images from 1993 to 2016. Though streambank retreat has been significant throughout the study period, a breached dam in 2010 caused major flooding and streambank erosion on the Cedar River. This large-scale flood enabled us to quantify the effect of one extreme event and evaluate the effectiveness of the stabilized streambanks. With a 70% success rate, we found that jetties were the most cost-efficient practice and yielded the most deposition. If minimal risk is unacceptable, a more costly yet immobile practice such as a gravel bank or retaining wall is recommended.


Hydrothermal effects can significantly influence the failure behavior of high performance epoxy-based composites. As such, it is necessary to determine, for one, the moisture diffusion rates in the composite's principal axes so that moisture densities and distributions can be estimated for life-cycle exposures. In this study, moisture diffusion coefficients are determined for quasi-isotropic Kevlar 49 181-style fabric reinforced Narmco 5208 epoxy laminates, and for the epoxy and fabric components individually. A microbalance technique is employed to continuously monitor the percentage weight gain of specimens exposed to 76 percent relative humidity at room temperature. The anisotropy of moisture diffusivity in the composite laminates is determined by use of a slope ratio (absorption vs time) technique and specimens of appropriate geometry. Results show that moisture diffuses in the laminate plane (6.1 x 10/sup -8/ cm/sup 2//sec) two orders of magnitude faster than through the thickness (1.7 x 10/sup -10/ cm/sup 2//sec). These values compare to a resin diffusivity of 6.5 x 10/sup -10/ cm/sup 2//sec. It is speculated that the rapid inplane diffusion is due to the preferential diffusion of moisture in the filament along its length.


Group 3 Innate lymphoid cells (ILC3) resemble to Th17 cells in their production of effector cytokines and tissue localization. Th17 cells have been shown to be pathogenic in mouse MS models. Previous studies from others and our lab have shown that Sphingosine 1 phosphate 1 (S1P1) receptor impacts Th17 cell biology. S1P1 receptor agonist Fingolimod is used in the treatment of Multiple sclerosis (MS). To this day, however, the effects of fingolimod on human ILC populations have not been studied. In this study, using PBMCs from Fingolimod-receiving or control relapsing-remitting MS patients, combined with ex vivo culture system we characterized the impact of S1P1 agonists on ILC populations via Flow cytometry, real-time qPCR and ELISA. We report that human ILCs express S1P1 receptor, respond to it, as evident in reduced peripheral ILC cellularity in MS patients receiving Fingolimod. Also in culture, exposure to S1P1 agonists reduced gene expression and secretion of GMCSF and IFN-g by human ILC3 and ILC1, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first report to study the impact of fingolimod on ILC populations in MS patients.


The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, ELISA, was developed in a new type of support consisting of discs of sinthetic fabric-resin (ELISA-d) with antigenic components of Cysticercus cellulosae covalently bound for detection of antibodies in sera and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The support fabric-resin consistis of poliester fabric coated with crosslinked resin (N-methylol-acrylamide) containing N-methylol groups able to form covalent bounds with functional groups of proteins and polysaccharides which are present in the antigenic saline extract obtained from Cysticercus cellulosae. Sera titer and CSF titer were determined using only one dilution according to the dose-response standard curves obtained. Thirty-eight sera and 74 CSF from patients with confirmed diagnosis of neurocysticercosis and 50 sera and 107 CSF from a control group (patients suffering from neurological disorders other than neurocysticercosis and supposedly healthy individuals) were assayed The sensitivity and the specificity of ELISA-d were determined: 94.7% and 92.0% for sera and 98.6% and 100% for CSF. The ELISA-d test proved to be efficient for the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis, mainly when carried out in CSF, with the advantages of good stability, easy preparation and execution and low cost.


Abstract 561 Mounting evidence suggests that the molecular classification of CLL into subsets with stereotyped B cell receptors (BcRs) is functionally and clinically relevant. In fact, cases of the same subset can share not only BcR sequence motifs but also biological and clinical features as well. This suggests that the functional antigen reactivity profile of the BcR can be critical in determining the clinical features and outcome even independently of IGHV gene mutational status, at least for selected subsets. A distinctive CLL stereotyped subset, known as subset #8, is defined by the expression of unmutated, IgG-switched IGHV4-39/IGKV1(D)-39 BcRs. Subset #8 patients experience aggressive clinical courses and exhibit the highest risk for Richter′s transformation (RT) among all CLL. In order to obtain biological insight into the underlying reasons for this behavior, we profiled the antigen reactivity of subset #8 vs. other stereotyped subsets, in particular: (1) subset #1: unmutated IGHV1/5/7-IGKV1(D)-39 IgM BcRs, the largest unmutated CLL subset, with bad prognosis; (2) Subset #2: mostly borderline-mutated IGHV3-21/IGLV3-21 IgM BcRs, with bad prognosis; (3) subset #4: mutated IGHV4-34/IGKV2-30 IgG BcRs, the largest mutated CLL subset, with indolent disease. Twenty-five monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from CLL cells were prepared as recombinant human IgG1: 11 subset #1, 6 subset #2, 3 subset #4, and 5 subset #8. The CLL mAbs were used as primary antibodies in ELISA assays against antigens which are representatives of the major classes of established antigenic targets for CLL, namely molecular structures on microbial pathogens, autoantigens and neo-epitopes created by chemical modifications during apoptosis. In particular, we tested the reactivity against lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from E. coli 055:B5, dsDNA, native BSA, malondialdehyde (MDA)-BSA, 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE)-BSA and Advanced Oxidation Protein Products (AOPP)-HSA. Subset #8 CLL mAbs exhibited broad polyreactivity as they bound to all antigens tested, showing in particular strong reactivity to BSA and MDA-BSA, E. coli LPS and dsDNA, but also against the other oxidation markers tested (HNE-BSA and AOPP-HSA), albeit to a lesser extent. This high binding was in clear contrast with the mAbs from all other stereotyped subsets. Indeed, subset #1 mAbs exhibited only medium to low reactivity against MDA-BSA and dsDNA and very low reactivity against E.coli LPS; subset #2 mAbs did not react against any of the tested antigens; and, subset #4 showed low-level reactivity only against MDA-BSA and E. coli LPS. A propos these findings, we previously demonstrated that subset #8 mAbs exhibited the strongest binding also to myosin-exposed apoptotic cells as compared to all CLL mAbs, both unmutated and mutated, including subset #1 and #2 mAbs. In addition, through in vitro functional studies of immune signaling in CLL, we observed an unrestricted and intense response of subset #8 CLL cells to ligands for Toll-like receptors (TLR) 1/2, 2/6, 7 and 9, thus differing significantly from other subsets that respond to ligands for selected TLRs only. Alltogether, these findings help to draw a scenario that may explain the particular aggressiveness of subset#8 and its increased propensity to transform. An unlimited capacity to respond to multiple immune/inflammatory stimuli present in the microenvironment may elicit unabated stimulation thoughout the natural history of these patients, leading to progressive selection of the more aggressive clonal variants. Finally, our work further indicates that immunogenetic information can be used for the rational categorization of CLL, with implications for both research and management of CLL. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Based on the data of modern agricultural development level in Huaibei area, this paper made a comprehensive evaluation on the modern agricultural development of 6 cities in Huaibei area by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). It analyzed the development trend and difference in the level of agricultural input, the level of agricultural output, the level of rural social development and the level of agricultural ecological security. The study shows that the overall level of modern agricultural development in Huaibei area is rising in the past 6 years, with the highest increase in Suzhou City, followed by Huainan City and Huaibei City, and the other cities ranking in the middle. In view of the problems in the process of modern agricultural development in Huaibei area, it came up with recommendations, including strengthening the land consolidation, transfer of agricultural population, improving the rural education and controlling the agricultural pollution.


LWRM was a method for defeating TCG TOCTOU attacks with less overhead during the normal system execution. However, its security capability was evaluated only through experiments. The uncertainty in real experiments may hide the design-level errors. In this paper we explore applying model checking based formal verification techniques to verify whether LWRM can achieve the declared security properties. We first propose a method of modeling LWRM, a kernel-space mechanism, in PROMELA language. Then we detect the design-level vulnerabilities by using SPIN. At last we verify our analysis via experiments and present the challenges to mitigate the vulnerabilities.


This volume explores capital mobility under globalization by studying some of its salient consequences in agriculture and food in North and South America. It probes the manner in which capital mobility alters the organization of the temporal and spatial dimensions that characterize the reproduction of capital. This is an important aspect of globalization because it reproduces the tension between the constant attempt of agents of capitalism to expand their scope of action and accelerate the time of the reproduction of capital, and the fixed nature of the institutions and measures that are employed to regulate capitalism. The analysis of this contradictory aspect of globalization is presented in seven cases that, while global in scope and social implications, are located in North and South America. Areas examined include the organization of labor in the exportation of grapes, fruit producing regions of Argentina and Brazil, the changing character of small town Ontario, migration and farmers in Mexico, and North Atlantic salmon. These original pieces of empirical research are contextualized by the introduction and common themes underscored in the concluding chapter.


The outgoing and incoming editors in chief of JGR: Biogeosciences reflect on recent years of growth and expansion in the journal while they ponder and plan for the challenges ahead.


Available evidence suggests that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection may be implicated in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the correlation between HCMV infection and survival outcomes in CRC patients is unclear. Here, we constructed a flow algorithm to identify HCMV sequences based on the RNA-seq data of CRC patients derived from Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The patients' clinical information matrix was used to calculate Euclidean distance to filter out suitable patients not infected with HCMV, combining with the patient's survival outcome to reveal how HCMV infection is involved in CRC progression.HCMV infection is widespread in CRC patients., The prevalence of HCMV infection is ranging from 10% to 36% in 4 independent CRC datasets with infection being concentrated in carcinoma tissue rather than in normal tissue. In addition, HCMV positive patients had a poor survival prognosis, with three of the HCMV genes associated with poor patient survival outcomes, UL82, UL42 and UL117. Most importantly, we suppose that the regulation of immune function by HCMV may be the key to the poor prognosis of CRC patients. We found that HCMV infection was associated with poor prognosis in CRC patients and identified three prognosis associated HCMV genes. The regulation of immune function caused by HCMV infection was the key factor while HCMV positive CRC patients mostly presented a state of immunosuppression. This may provide new ideas for personalized treatment of CRC patients, especially in immunotherapy.


Selenium (Se) has essential importance for human and animal health. In many areas of the world, the concentration of Se in soil is low, which affects level of Se in feed and food plants and accordingly animal and human health. The concentration of Se in food and feed plants is a reflection of the concentration of Se in soil and its bioavailability. Selenium is not essential element for most of the crop species but has a positive effect on plants, particularly in stress conditions, where it acts as an antioxidant. Concentration of Se in feed and food plants is very important for normal functioning of animals and humans metabolisms. The minimal required Se concentration in animal feed is 0.05–0.10 μg/g DM. In Serbia, Croatia, and in almost all Balkan region, very low levels of Se in forage feeds, cereals, fruit and vegetables has been reported. Selenium deficiency in animals is frequently linked with several pathologies or diseases. Low Se concentrations in soils and feed and food plants in Balkan region and many other areas in Europe resulted in low Se status in humans and animals. The lowest concentration of Se in blood and plasma GPx activities has been reported for animals without Se supplementation. Furthermore, the symptoms of Se deficiency e.g. WMD, retained placenta, is well known in the Eastern Europe and Balkan region, particularly for young animals dominantly feeding on pasture. Therefore, Se supplementation or Se-biofortified feed is necessary to maintain the Se concentration in animals at an adequate level. Although Se supplementation of animals has had positive results, high variation in Se concentration between animals supplemented with Se reflects different farm management including different types and amounts of Se supplementation used. Additionally, difficulties in general Se supplementation of animal always brings potential risk of Se toxicity due to overdose, which has been occasionally documented in the region. In order to enhance Se levels in plants, animals and humans, Se supplementation has to be improved. Agronomic biofortification through Se fertilization of soil and plant has to be considered a safer way to enhance the Se status of feed and fodder crops and subsequently of animals and humans, with possibly less problems related to overdosing. Some countries (i.e. Finland, New Zealand) have adopted such Se fertilization with good results in raising the Se status of animals and humans. Our results from several field experiments in Croatia and Serbia showed that e.g. for wheat foliar Se applications were more effective in increasing the Se than soil application, although both, Se foliar- and soil-fertilization increased Se concentration in grains from to 2.6- to 4.6- fold. Positive effects of Se fertilization of feed crops are also widely known.


This research seeks to derive and examine a multidimensional definition of information security awareness, investigate its antecedents, and analyze its effects on compliance with organizational information security policies. The above research goals are tested through the theoretical lens of technology threat avoidance theory and protection motivation theory. Information security awareness is defined as a second-order construct composed of the elements of threat and coping appraisals supplemented by the responsibilities construct to account for organizational environment. The study is executed in two stages. First, the participants (employees of a municipality) are exposed to a series of phishing and spear-phishing messages to assess if there are any common characteristics shared by the phishing victims. The differences between the phished and the not phished group are assessed through multiple discriminant analysis. Second, the same individuals are asked to participate in a survey designed to examine their security awareness. The research model is tested using PLS-SEM approach. The results indicate that security awareness is in fact a second-order formative construct composed of six components. There are significant differences in security awareness levels between the victims of the phishing experiment and the employees who maintain compliance with security policies. The study extends the theory by proposing and validating a universal definition of security awareness. It provides practitioners with an instrument to examine awareness in a plethora of settings and design customized security training activities.


We study the problem of lifting an Abelian group H of automorphisms of a closed Riemann surface S (containing anticonformals ones) to a suitable Schottky uniformization of S (that is, when H is of Schottky type). If H+ is the index two subgroup of orientation preserving automorphisms of H and R = S/H+, then H induces an anticonformal automorphism τ : R → R. If τ has fixed points, then we observe that H is of Schottky type. If τ has no fixed points, then we provide a sufficient condition for H to be of Schottky type. We also give partial answers for the excluded cases.


We examine the structural stability of Gaussian shadow rate term structure models of Treasury yields over a period that includes the time during which the U.S. policy rate was at its effective lower bound. After a conceptual discussion of several potential sources of a structural break in the context of the shadow rate model, we document various pieces of evidence for structural instability based on predictive tests and Lagrange multiplier tests, as well as with separate estimations of the pre-ELB and post-ELB subsamples. In order to overcome the difficulties associated with the latent-factor nature of the model in testing for a structural break, we focus on objects that can be given intuitive interpretation, such as principal components, or that are constructed to be invariant to factor rotations.


Cashless economies are those that use mostly plastic or digital money and thus minimal cash or money in paper form. The ease of conducting financial transactions is probably the biggest motivator to go digital. The study develops a conceptual framework to understand the working of cashless economy. The paper highlights the various objective of being cashless. It studies the different methods of cashless payment and the essentials for being cashless. The benefits of making a country cashless have also been included. The study also explains the hurdles coming in the way of making an economy cashless. The study examines the effect of adopting cashless payment on economic growth and development of the developing countries. The result put together gives us an important policy direction towards what can enable the country to increase cashless payments. Key words: Cashless, Payment, Economic Growth and Development


The incipient fault feature of offshore wind turbine rolling bearing is difficult to extract. A fault diagnosis method for offshore wind turbine rolling bearing based on variational mode decomposition(VMD) method is proposed. Considering the number of mode components has great influence on the decomposition results, the general principles of determination of the mode components number is proposed, which is based on analyzing the VMD decomposition of different modal components number impact on signal frequency characteristics. The number of mode components is determined by the proposed principles and got certain number of mode components . Then the best selected mode component is processed by envelop demodulation algorithm .The fault type of bearing is diagnosed by analyzing the envelop spectrum. The results of the standard rolling bearing fault data analysis shows that the proposed method can diagnose rolling bearing fault accurately. The incipient fault feature of offshore wind turbine vibration data is effectively extracted shows that the proposed method is significance of research and application.


Aim/Purpose This paper will describe the initial development of systems to evaluate research education activities of a U.S. academic Partnership to train minority students as cancer researchers and provide preliminary data from monitoring Partnership activities during the first six months. Background There is increased focus on multidisciplinary/transdisciplinary research training programs. However, few training programs have included detailed evaluations to assess their outcomes and effectiveness. Methodology The Temple University/Fox Chase Cancer Center and Hunter College Regional Comprehensive Cancer Health Disparity Partnership (TUFCCC/HC Cancer Partnership, or the Partnership) is a recently-initiated center focused on training individuals from under-represented minorities (URMs) as cancer researchers. Evaluation of the training activities involves detailed specification of goals for each of the Partnership's Cores; objectives for addressing each goal; measures and indicators to determine progress towards each objective; and data sources to provide information for the measures/indicators. Contributuion This paper will provide important information for evaluation of training programs focused on students from URM populations and development of trans-disciplinary research education programs. Findings Goals, objectives, measures, and data sources for evaluation of the Partnership's Research Education Core (REC) were developed jointly by personnel from the REC and the Planning Evaluation Core (PEC) in an iterative process. These measures capture the training activities led by the REC (e.g., number of seminars and workshops), scientific output by trainees (e.g., papers and grants), and ability of the program to meet trainees' goals and expectations. Recommendations for Practitioners and Researches Evaluation plans for transdisciplinary training programs need to be developed prior to program initiation. Evaluation measures should be jointly specified by training and evaluation personnel, then reviewed and revised in an iterative process. Impact on Society This program is intended to enhance diversity among cancer researchers and increase studies to address disparities in cancer care. Future Research The PEC will oversee the evaluation of Partnership training activities over the five year period and assist Partnership leaders in ensuring successful outcomes.


Nitric oxide (NO)-releasing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to have improved efficacy and lower toxicity than their parent agents, and are currently in clinical trials as anti-inflammatory agents. The same approach is now being taken with the glucocorticoids, and initial studies show that NO-releasing forms of prednisolone, flunisolide and hydrocortisone (the nitrosterols) are more potent anti-inflammatory agents than their parent molecules in animal models of acute and chronic inflammation. Experimental studies also suggest that the nitrosterols are less likely to cause the side effects associated with glucocorticoids. Thus, to date, the nitrosterols do seem to be a step forward from the steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. However, given that prolonged exposure to high concentrations of NO may be pro-inflammatory, further long-term studies are needed to determine whether the increased anti-inflammatory effects observed with short-term treatment with nitrosterols are maintained.


A rare case of left ventricular myxoma presenting embolization into the brachial artery is reported. The sessile tumor originated from the posteromedial papillary muscle and involved the chorda supporting the posterior mitral leaflet. Complete excision of the tumor with the posterior head of the posteromedial papillary muscle, with the chorda and with the posterior mitral leaflet necessitated valve replacement. The tumor was well visualized by the superior-septal and transaortic approaches. These enabled exploration of all four cardiac chambers so as not to overlook any multifocal myxoma. The left ventricular myxoma should be completely resected with the surrounding endocardium in order to avoid recurrence of the disease.


Migration is critical for policy agendas and government planning as it changes the demographic composition of towns, cities and regions – this requires adjustments to service and infrastructure provision. To develop suitable policy responses, reliable, comparable and timely information is required. Obvious sources of migration data are the national census and household and labour surveys. Socio-economic data have not dealt well with migration. A recent CSIR research project, Spatial and Temporal Evidence for Planning in South Africa1 (StepSA), explored the use of voter registration information as an alternative source of migration data. Anonymised voter registration data were provided by the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa for several consecutive elections covering a 12-year period. The data, once spatialised (and related to a single set of voting districts), could then be processed to extract movement trends between different election periods. This article describes the process applied and the initial analyses conducted.


BACKGROUND
Infantile aseptic meningitis is a rare infection of the central nervous system. Coxsackievirus B5 (CVB5) is an enterovirus that is sometimes associated with aseptic meningitis and encephalitis.

CASE PRESENTATION
We report on three isolated infants with aseptic meningitis caused by CVB5 in the spring and summer of 2016 with nearly identical 404-bp CVB5 Viral Capsid Protein 1 (VP1) sequences. In addition, viral analysis of sewage samples from Chiba Prefecture in 2016 showed similar 404-bp CVB5 VP1 sequences from May to September 2016.

CONCLUSION
These results indicate that viral screening of sewage water may help detect occult outbreaks of viral infection, particularly for enterovirus strains.


The paper outlines the major design objectives of a 94 GHz FM-CW radar with a 4 GHz frequency sweep. It discusses in particular the requirements for frequency sweep linearity and the implementation of a linearization circuit. Results demonstrating a range resolution of a few centimeters are presented, as well as results comparing the measured and theoretical radar cross section of cylindrical target scattering points in horizontal and vertical polarizations. It is demonstrated that the radar can separate scattering points as close as 6 cm apart.<<ETX>>


Servomechanism control problems generally include velocity control, position or tracking control, force control, and multiaxial (synchronous) motion control. This paper presents an innovative real-time system, named "Servomechanism Control Test Bench" (SCTB), designed to provide a benchmark for robust control experiments. The system, including hardware and software, combines a unique experimental apparatus with an easy-to-use software platform based on Matlab, Simulink, and dSPACE. The servomechanism hardware, which is a modular set of motors and drive shafts, can be easily reconfigured to set up a variety of experiments. The software, which consists of a user interfere and a real-time control program, provides an opportunity for users to implement control design on-line and verify the performance of the controllers. Using this integrated setup, servo control design-evaluate-experiment cycles may be completed on a real-time test rig in only a few minutes.


Suppose that there is a population of hidden objects of which the total number N is unknown. From such data, we derive an asymptotic distribution.


Ambient Intelligence (AmI) has emerged in the past 10 years as a multidisciplinary field within ubiquitous computing, attracting considerable research, funding and public attention and leading to many research groups, and conferences specifically focused on Ambient Intelligence topics. From its conception, AmI has always been a field strongly driven by a particular vision of how ICT technologies would shape our future. This has given the AmI vision, essentially as proposed by ISTAG, an excessively central role in shaping the field and setting its research agenda. We argue that this inspiring vision should no longer be the main driver for AmI research and that we should now re-interpret its role in the background of 10 years of research. In this paper, we reflect on what it means for AmI to move behind its foundational vision and we identify a number of emerging trends around some of its core concepts, more specifically the notion of intelligence, the system view and the requirements process. The main motivation is to search for alternative research directions that may be more effective in delivering today the essence of the AmI vision, even if they mean abandoning some of the currently prevailing approaches and assumptions. Overall, these trends provide a more holistic view of AmI and may represent important contributions for bringing this field closer to realisation, delivery and real social impact.


Background: Determination of the causes of flood-related deaths is the precondition for effective interventions aimed at the reduction of such deaths. There is a gap in the design and the development of a valid and reliable tool for measuring underlying factors of death in the flood.Methods: A complete set of causes of flood deaths was collected. After forming the pool of items, an initial questionnaire was designed and divided into two parts of objective and subjective factors. The questionnaire's psychometric evaluation was performed for the subjective part.Results: At the design stage, the objective and subjective sections were designed. During the psychometric evaluation, the number of items was reduced. While measuring the content validity 13 questions were excluded. Finally, a 33-item questionnaire was developed in seven categories. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the KMO coefficient was higher than .05 for all constructs. The internal consistency of the instrument using Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.92. Finally, in order to perform the stability test, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for all questions. This was above .05 and acceptable.Conclusions: FAFDQ can be used to make decisions, identify groups at risk of flood-related deaths, and implement flood-related death-reduction interventions. Indeed, these measures have led to the development of a comprehensive and reliable questionnaire for measuring the factors affecting flood deaths: a comprehensive set of factors that can be scientifically and accurately classified as flood-related deaths, appropriately categorizing the subjective and objective factors, psychometric assessment of the SFAFDQ, confirmatory factor analysis and questionnaire testing in a case-control Study.


An oxidative property has endowed quercetin with numerous biological benefits, and some of quercetin's biological activities may be related, at least partly, to its antioxidant activity. On the other hand, the oxidative property and associated susceptibility to oxidative decomposition has hampered in-depth investigation of the biological targets as well as underlying mechanisms for quercetin's biological activity. This study was undertaken to separate quercetin's biological activities from its antioxidant properties through bioisosteric replacement of the phenolic hydroxyl groups. The novel quercetin derivative 3',4'-difluoroquercetin (2), thus prepared, showed nonoxidizable property with no attenuation of biological activity. Rather, 2 showed a subtle but significant increase in biological activity compared with quercetin, which might be attributed to its lack of oxidative property. The nonoxidizable nature along with the potent biological activity of the quercetin mimic 2 suggests possible oxidation-independent mechanisms for the biological activities of the quercetin that do not require oxidative formation of the highly electrophilic metabolites.


Medical image registration plays an important role in determining topographic and morphological changes for functional diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Manual alignment and semi-automated software still have been used; however they are subjective and make specialists spend precious time. Fully automated methods are faster and user-independent, but the critical point is registration reliability. Similarity measurement using Mutual Information (MI) with Shannon entropy (MIS) is the most common automated method that is being currently applied in medical images, although more reliable algorithms have been proposed over the last decade, suggesting improvements and different entropies; such as Studholme et al, (1999), who demonstrated that the normalization of Mutual Information (NMI) provides an invariant entropy measure for 3D medical image registration. In this paper, we described a set of experiments to evaluate the applicability of Tsallis entropy in the Mutual Information (MIT) and in the Normalized Mutual Information (NMIT) as cost functions for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computed Tomography (CT) exams registration. The effect of changing overlap in a simple image model and clinical experiments on current entropies (Entropy Correlation Coefficient - ECC, MIS and NMI) and the proposed ones (MIT and NMT) showed NMI and NMIT with Tsallis parameter close to 1 as the best options (confidence and accuracy) for CT to MRI and PET to MRI automatic neuroimaging registration.


To evaluate interventions designed to improve the quality of life of people with dementia (PWD), there is a need for psychometrically validated instruments. We tested the psychometric properties of the ICEpop CAPability measure for Older people (ICECAP-O) as a self-report measure of quality of life with PWD. We used data from a randomized controlled trial of Tai Chi with 83 community-dwelling older people with mild and moderate dementia. The ICECAP-O was found to be valid with correlations in the expected directions for fear of falls (r=−0.36, P=0.001) and age (r=0.12, P=0.29), sensitive to change (mean difference=0.051, P=0.04, d=0.51), and have an adequate factorial structure. The ICECAP-O is a valid, generic measure of quality of life for use with PWD without a proxy.


From the Eddington-Weinberg relationship, which may be explained by the holographic principle and the cosmic coincidence in a flat Universe, it follows that the characteristic gravitational acceleration aN associated with the nucleon and its Compton wavelength is of order the Hubble acceleration H0c in this epoch. A natural scaling for the cosmological constant is obtained from this acceleration term. It also happens that the critical acceleration a0 associated with the MOND theory is of order aN.


Eighty-seven experts on the psychology of confessions—many of whom were highly published, many with courtroom experience—were surveyed online about their opinions on 30 propositions of relevance to deception detection, police interrogations, confessions, and relevant general principles of psychology. As indicated by an agreement rate of at least 80%, there was a strong consensus that several findings are sufficiently reliable to present in court. This list includes but is not limited to the proposition that the risk of false confessions is increased not only by explicit threats and promises but by 2 common interrogation tactics—namely, the false evidence ploy and minimization tactics that imply leniency by offering sympathy and moral justification. Experts also strongly agreed that the risk of undue influence is higher among adolescents, individuals with compliant or suggestible personalities, and those with intellectual impairments or diagnosed psychological disorders. Additional findings indicated that experts set a high standard before judging a proposition to be sufficiently reliable for court—and an even higher standard on the question "Would you testify?" Regarding their role as scientific experts, virtually all respondents stated that their primary objective was to educate the jury and that juries are more competent at evaluating confession evidence with assistance from an expert than without. These results should assist trial courts and expert witnesses in determining what aspects of the science are generally accepted and suitable for presentation in court.


Stereo matching by correlation near occlusions is a very challenging problem. When a partial occlusion occurs, most of the standard methods fail to produce acceptable results. This is because the techniques used do not take into account the presence of the occluding region. We propose a robust technique which we call partial correlation. This technique makes use of the least median square method which has recently been used for vision problems such as robust surface reconstruction. It performs better than standard methods near occlusions. It works by first of all disambiguating between the occluding region and the object region in the template and in the candidate window. A binary weighted correlation is then performed on the object regions. We present a comparative study between our approach and two other techniques. Experiment results validate our approach.


The agnoprotein of simian virus 40 (SV40) is a 61-amino-acid protein encoded in the leader of some late mRNAs. In indirect immunofluorescence studies with antisera against SV40 capsid proteins, we show that mutants which make no agnoprotein display abnormal perinuclear-nuclear localization of VP1, the major capsid protein, but not VP2 or VP3, the minor capsid proteins. In wild-type (WT) SV40-infected CV-1P cells, VP1 was found predominantly in the cytoplasm until 36 h postinfection (p.i.), approximately the time that high levels of agnoprotein became detectable under our infection conditions. Thereafter, VP1 localized rapidly to the perinuclear region and to the nucleus. In contrast, in agnoprotein-minus mutant-infected CV-1P cells, perinuclear-nuclear accumulation of VP1 occurred much less efficiently; a significantly greater fraction of cells with predominantly cytoplasmic fluorescence was observed up to 48 h p.i. At 48 and 60 h p.i., more cells with largely perinuclear and little nuclear staining were seen than in WT-infected controls. In similar analyses with stably transfected cell lines constitutively expressing the agnoprotein, VP1 localized to the nucleus before 30 h p.i., regardless of the infecting virus. Delayed nuclear entry of VP1 in a mutant which makes no agnoprotein was also overcome in a revertant which has a second site point mutation in VP1. This suggests that an alteration of VP1 can partially overcome the defect of the agnogene mutation by enhancement of the rate of its own nuclear localization. Taken together, these results indicate that at least one function of the agnoprotein is to enhance the efficiency of perinuclear-nuclear localization of VP1.


In the absence of abundant core data, Formation MicroScanner* (FMS) and Fullbore Formation Microlmager* (FMI) wireline logs from 3 wells in Boonsville Field provided continuous geologic information in a 1000-foot thick, Pennsylvanian (Atoka) interval. Cores provided the most detailed sequence-stratigraphic information, but only 358 ft of core from 4 wells was available to evaluate the 30 mi{sup 2} project area. The FMS and FMI logs thus served as continuous, oriented {open_quote}virtual cores{close_quote} that expanded our stratigraphic database and improved our interpretations, which included the identification of key chronostratigraphic surfaces, lithofacies, sedimentary structures, faults, and fractures. Paleocurrents inferred from the FMS and FMI images suggest that most Bend Conglomerate sandstones are lowstand valley-fill deposits derived from the Muenster and Red River Uplifts, rather than Ouachita-derived deltas. Combined analysis of cores and wireline resistivity imaging technology enabled the development of a fine-scale, sequence-stratigraphic framework which formed the basis for correlation and mapping of the major Bend Conglomerate reservoir zones, and helped us to identify compartmentalization mechanisms within these complex reservoirs.


Abstract Noncanonical nucleic acid structures, such as G-quadruplex (G4) and i-Motif (iM), have attracted increasing research interests because of their unique structural and binding properties, as well as their important biological activities. To date, thousands of small molecules that bind to varying G4/iM structures have been designed, synthesized and tested for diverse chemical and biological uses. Because of the huge potential and increasing research interests on G4-targeting ligands, we launched the first G4 ligand database G4LDB in 2013. Here, we report a new version, termed G4LDB 2.2 (http://www.g4ldb.com), with upgrades in both content and function. Currently, G4LDB2.2 contains >3200 G4/iM ligands, ∼28 500 activity entries and 79 G4–ligand docking models. In addition to G4 ligand library, we have also added a brand new iM ligand library to G4LDB 2.2, providing a comprehensive view of quadruplex nucleic acids. To further enhance user experience, we have also redesigned the user interface and optimized the database structure and retrieval mechanism. With these improvements, we anticipate that G4LDB 2.2 will serve as a comprehensive resource and useful research toolkit for researchers across wide scientific communities and accelerate discovering and validating better binders and drug candidates.


Work towards the standardisation of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), the next generation video coding scheme, is currently gaining pace. HEVC offers the prospect of a 50% improvement in compression over the current H.264 Advanced Video Coding standard (H.264/AVC). Thus far, work on HEVC has concentrated on improvements to the coding efficiency and has not yet addressed transmission in networks other than to mandate byte stream compliance with Annex B of H.264/AVC. For practical networked HEVC applications a number of essential building blocks have yet to be defined. In this work, we design and prototype a real-time HEVC streaming system and empirically evaluate its performance, in particular we consider the robustness of the current Test Model under Consideration (TMuC HM4.0) for HEVC to packet loss caused by a reduction in available bandwidth both in terms of decoder resilience and degradation in perceptual video quality. A NAL unit packetisation and streaming framework for HEVC encoded video streams is designed, implemented and empirically tested in a number of streaming environments including wired, wireless, single path and multiple path network scenarios. As a first step the HEVC decoder's error resilience is tested under a comprehensive set of packet loss conditions and a simple error concealment method for HEVC is implemented. Similarly to H.264 encoded streams, the size and distribution of NAL units within an HEVC stream and the nature of the NAL unit dependencies influences the packetisation and streaming strategies which may be employed for such streams. The relationships between HEVC encoding mode and the quality of the received video are shown under a wide range of bandwidth constraints. HEVC streaming is evaluated in both single and multipath network configuration scenarios. Through the use of extensive experimentation, we establish a comprehensive set of benchmarks for HEVC streaming in loss prone network environments. We show the visual quality reduction in terms of PSNR which results from a reduction in available bandwidth. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that such a fully functional streaming system for HEVC, together with the benchmark evaluation results, has been reported. This study will open up more timely research opportunities in this cutting edge area.


This study aims to provide an overview of the Kobhung and its function in the social, religious, and economic traditions of the Madurese community. This research is a qualitative research with an ethnographic approach. The research concludes that the Kobhung is a typical building of the Madurese community which is different from the langghar due to several characteristics such as the building materials used and the availability of ablution places and bathrooms specifically in the langghar which is not present in the Kobhung. Kobhung is also different from langghar in several functions. The role social functions played by Kobhung are at least: (1) a place to relax with family; (2) a place to receive and entertain guests; (3) the place where the marriage contract (akad nikah) is held; and (4) the place of special invitees (kiai) in weddings and so on. The religion function of the Kobhung in the life of the Madurese community constitute: (1) a place for congregational prayer; (2) the place of prayer for the guests; and (3) the place where religious ceremonies and rituals are held (tahlil, and so on). The economic functions carried out by the community for Kobhung are as follows: (1) a place to store agricultural products; (2) a place to process agricultural products such as tobacco; and (3) the lower part is for shelter and resting for livestock.
Key words: Kobhung, cultural tradition, social, religion, society.


Background Cranial CT (CCT) is the gold standard to rule out traumatic brain injury. The serum level of the protein S-100B has recently been proposed as promising marker of traumatic brain injury. We prospectively investigated whether it might be a reliable tool for CCT triage in mild brain injury at a peripheral trauma centre with limited CT resources. Methods Patients with mild head injury and a Glasgow Coma Score of 13–15 admitted to the emergency department of a peripheral trauma centre were enrolled. Blood samples for S-100B analysis were obtained after clinical evaluation. The cut-off level for positive S-100B was 0.105 μg/l. All patients underwent CCT. The relationship between clinical findings, CCT results and S-100B levels was evaluated. Results 233 patients were enrolled. Median time between injury and sampling was 137 min. CCT was positive in 22 (9%) patients. Of these, 19 (8%) had positive serum S-100B levels. Overall, S-100B had a specificity of 12.2% and a sensitivity of 86.4%, with a positive predictive value of 12.8% and a negative predictive value of 85.7% as a selection tool for CCT triage in patients with mild head injury. Conclusion The S-100B serum level showed a high sensitivity and negative predictive value in the screening of patients with mild head injury. The use of serum S-100B as a biomarker for CCT triage may improve patient screening and decrease the number of CCT scans performed. This would reduce unnecessary radiation exposure and free up capacity in the emergency rooms of peripheral hospitals to enable them to cope better with multiple admissions.


This research aims to design an information system to record assets and inventories at DKI Jakarta Regional Public Service Agency (BLUD). This study is based on the findings from Examination Report (LHP) issued by the Indonesian Supreme Audit Institution (BPK RI) which states that there are quite a few problems about assets at BLUD (BPK RI, 2017). This research is expected to answer research questions about how to design the system of assets and inventories needed by BLUD to assist the process of internal control and asset management. This study uses the Framework for the Application of Systems Thinking (FAST) as a method for systems development popularized by Whitten and Bentley (2007). This study uses a case study approach with the triangulation method, where the qualitative data as primary data by conducting interviews and observations. Unit of analysis in this study is the BLUD responsible for asset management. Currently, the existing asset information systems only record fixed assets and not connected to the financial reporting system. Assets and inventories information need to move manually by re-inputting the value to prepare financial statements. The result of this research is a design of asset information system to enhance internal control.Keywords: Assets, Information Systems, Internal Control Systems


Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides without protein-coding potential. Although these molecules were initially considered as "junk products" of transcription without biological relevance, recent advances in research have shown that lncRNA plays an important role, not only in cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, and metabolism, but also in the pathological processes of cancers, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we focus on the potential regulatory roles of lncRNA in diabetes and the complications associated with diabetes.


Cell adhesion and communication are essential for tissue morphogenesis and repair in healthy multicellular organisms. However, dysregulation of these processes can drive disease progression in conditions such as cancer. Selective cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix is mediated by integrins, a family of transmembrane receptors that compartmentalise signalling and organise the cytoskeleton. Adhesion receptors provide spatial cues to cells to allow them to respond to growth factor and cytokine signals from the tissue microenvironment. This is of key importance during epithelial morphogenesis of the mammary gland. Polarised mammary epithelial cells (MECs) receive adhesion signals from the basement membrane and growth factor signals from the surrounding stroma. This combination of signalling drives cell fate processes such as migration, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. The ErbB family of growth factor receptors (GFRs), which includes EGFR, have key roles during both mammary development and breast carcinoma progression. However, the specific signalling circuitry downstream of adhesion and GFRs has yet to be determined. Using a global, un-biased proteomics approach this study determined the composition of MEC adhesion complexes and elucidated how connections between signalling proteins were altered upon growth factor stimulation. A methodology was generated for the specific enrichment of adhesion complexes from MECs following EGF treatment. This was coupled to a quantitative mass spectrometry analysis workflow and bioinformatic protein-protein interaction network and Gene Ontology analyses to identify EGF-induced changes to isolated adhesion complexes. Analysis of adhesion complexes isolated from EpH4 MECs revealed a decrease in the abundance of adhesion proteins 5 minutes after EGF stimulation. In addition, phosphoproteomic analysis of isolated adhesion complexes revealed differential phosphorylation of adhesion proteins upon EGF treatment. Together with network and Gene Ontology analyses, these data suggested a mechanism of EGF induced receptor endocytosis and adhesion complex turnover, which may regulate cell migration. Network analysis of EGFR and ?1-integrin co-interacting proteins identified Eps8 as a possible candidate regulator of receptor internalisation and cytoskeletal remodelling in MECs. Current knockdown studies are addressing whether Eps8 and its homologue Eps8l2 are functionally involved in these processes. This study presents the first proteomic analysis of isolated adhesion complexes in epithelial cells, and the first proteomic analysis of adhesion-GFR crosstalk in MECs. Further work should provide insights into the altered interaction between adhesion and GFR signalling in breast cancer progression.


The spontaneous drift of the spiral wave in a finite domain in the complex Ginzburg–Landau equation is investigated numerically. By using the interactions between the spiral wave and its images, we propose a phenomenological theory to explain the observations.


The long-term growth and development of agricultural markets depends on access to a range and volume of capital which, over time, naturally eclipses governments' ability to provide that capital directly. As private capital markets and financial service providers become involved in the agricultural finance market, the challenge for governments becomes how to appropriately create, incentivize and regulate space for the private sector. As countries move to higher levels of agricultural productivity, more mature agricultural markets, more sophisticated banking systems, and larger farm sizes, the commercial business case for financial service provision emerges. However, this process can take decades and often remains incomplete with some market segments requiring on-going subsidy to attract financial services. Questions remain: How to accelerate the participation of private sector financial service providers while markets are still developing? How to do so in ways that are aligned with national development goals, including transitioning subsistence farmers to viable livelihoods and ensuring domestic food security? This Briefing Note builds on previous analysis of the natural stages of agricultural finance and interrogates more deeply the transition that coun-tries make from government-led to more bank-led agricultural finance. By adding the historical experiences of Mexico, Turkey, and Uganda (as well as other specific initiatives in other coun-tries around the world) to past research by ISF Advisors into the United States, Germany, and South Korea, we gain a greater understanding into the unique approaches that different coun-tries have taken to make this transition. While these approaches are heavily influenced by each country's macro-level approach to managing the economy, analysis shows the importance of meso-level enablers and more direct micro-level interventions. As we unpack government actions into these different levels and acknowledge the dynamic interplay between the agricultural and finance sides of the market we create a more systemic view of these historical experiences.


A distributed control plane architecture enhances transport networks with dynamic and flexible connection control. As a result, it allows the provisioning of advanced connectivity services, like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), on layer 1 switching networks. Such Layer 1 VPN (LI VPN) services enable multiple customer networks to share a single transport network. In this work, we propose an architecture for LI VPN management. Our approach has been to use Policy-Based Management (PBM) to provide customers with some level of control and management over their LI VPNs. We also present a prototype implemented to validate the proposed architecture and discuss implications of policies for LI VPN configuration management.


Recent public concern has focused on potential reproductive and developmental effects from exposure to low levels of bisphenol A (BPA, CAS number 80-05-7). Two previous published reviews (; ) conducted weight-of-evidence evaluations of in vivo reproductive/developmental toxicity from BPA exposure ≤ 5 mg/kg-d based on studies published through February 2006. Here, an update of those analyses presents additional relevant studies that were published through July 25, 2008, and a weight-of-evidence analysis of the studies evaluated in all three reviews. As with the earlier literature, positive findings: (1) are countered by null findings in more numerous studies; (2) have not been replicated; (3) do not exhibit coherence and plausibility; (4) do not show consistency across species, doses, and time points; and/or (5) were from studies using non-oral exposure routes. Owing to the lack of first-pass metabolism, results from non-oral studies are of limited relevance to human exposure. Exposure levels in most of the low-dose oral and non-oral animal studies are generally much higher than those experienced by even the most exposed people in the general population. The weight of evidence does not support the hypothesis that low oral doses of BPA adversely affect human reproductive and developmental health.


Abstract 3535 Poster Board III-472 Transplantation of hematopoietic cells, tumors or any allogeneic tissue has been hindered in the zebrafish due to poor understanding of the functional major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes and inability to immune-match donors and recipients. Despite this, the zebrafish has been used prominently for the study of hematopoiesis, due to the advantages of large scale forward and reverse genetic and chemical screening methodologies leading to the discovery of novel genetic mechanisms. We created a quantitative long-term hematopoietic reconstitution assay to assess hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function in adult zebrafish. We identified a sublethal radiation dose of 25Gy which was optimal for hematopoietic reconstitution while minimizing the mortality presumably due to radiation damage of other organs. At 3 months post-transplant, primary and secondary recipients showed multi-lineage engraftment, as measured by flow cytometric analysis of GFP-expressing donor cells. Statistical analyses of limiting dilution data suggest that at least 1 out of 65,000 nucleated zebrafish marrow cells contain repopulating activity, consistent with mammalian HSC frequencies. We defined zebrafish haplotypes at the proposed core MHC locus on chromosome 19, testing the functional significance of these haplotypes by performing matched and mismatched hematopoietic transplants. Utilizing a single family for subsequent experiments, we identified the four parental MHC haplotypes by sequencing PCR products amplified for specific MHC genes. MHC-typed recipient fish were transplanted with whole kidney marrow cells from sibling donors, demonstrating that matching the donor and recipient MHC haplotypes at the chromosome 19 locus increases engraftment and percentage of donor chimerism in recipients compared to MHC-mismatched donors and recipients. At 3 months post-transplant, MHC-matched recipients had multilineage engraftment in 13 of 15 fish with mean donor chimerism of 47.86% (range 5.56- 93.44%) for myeloid cells and 10.51% (range 0.92-77.57%) for lymphoid cells. Engrafted animals receiving MHC-mismatched donor marrow (n= 4 of 6) had only 6.45% mean myeloid donor chimerism (range 4.58 to 8.58%) and 1.28% mean lymphoid donor chimerism (range 0.83 to 1.41%). This new assay allows long term HSCs to be distinguished from other hematopoietic progenitor cells and provides the first functional test of zebrafish MHC genes. Our data indicate the zebrafish MHC locus at chromosome 19 is functionally important for immune matching in the setting of transplantation. This method will facilitate MHC-matched long-term transplantation experiments in zebrafish that have previously not been possible, including competitive transplantation experiments with zebrafish mutants already identified in prior genetic screens, and long-term tumor transplantation assays. Note: The first two authors contributed equally to this work. Disclosures: Zon: Stemgent: Consultancy; FATE Inc: Consultancy, Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees.


GABA(A) receptors are the major inhibitory transmitter receptors in the central nervous system. The majority of these receptors is composed of two alpha, two beta and one gamma subunit that assemble around an aqueous pore and form an intrinsic chloride ion channel. Using full-length or truncated chimeric subunits it was demonstrated that homologous sequences from different subunit classes, alpha(1)(54-68), beta(3)(52-66), and gamma(2)(67-81), are important for assembly of GABA(A) receptors composed of alpha(1), beta(3), and gamma(2) subunits. In addition, evidence was provided that these sequences all are located in topologically homologous regions of the different subunits. Finally, it was demonstrated that the sequences investigated cause a selective assembly with certain subunits only and thus influence subunit arrangement within GABA(A) receptors.


Follicular carcinoma of thyroid is the second most common type of carcinoma of thyroid and it may metastasize to bone, lung, brain and skin. However, initial presentation of follicular carcinoma as a large intrathoracic mass without any symptoms of thyroid gland dysfunction is very rare and has not been reported to the best of our knowledge. We hereby report a case of a 40 year old male who presented with chief complaints of chest and low back pain. Preliminary evaluation was suggestive of provisional diagnosis of left sided intarathoracic mass with vertebral metastasis which was suspected to be a case of bronchogenic carcinoma with distant metastasis. Surprisingly, transthoracic biopsy and histopathology revealed metastasis from follicular carcinoma of thyroid. This prompted us for a retrograde evaluation for a primary thyroid malignancy for which an ultrasound and CECT of neck was done which confirmed the presence of a solitary thyroid nodule. USG guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of the nodule revealed follicular carcinoma of thyroid. Histopathological evaluation subsequent to total thyroidiectomy revealed follicular carcinoma thyroid, confirming the diagnosis. The patient was then referred to the department of nuclear medicine and radiotherapy for radionuclide ablation and chemotherapy. We chose to report this case because of its rare presentation as a large intarathoracic mass and the retrograde diagnosis of follicular carcinoma of thyroid. This is the first report to best of our knowledge of this type of follicular carcinoma of thyroid presenting without any symptoms of thyroid dysfunction.


The absence of Latin American women in positions of authority and power is indicative of the career limitations they face. This paper examines the leadership experiences of Latin American women who are leaders and reside in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). I apply a decolonial feminism approach and the concept of intersectionality to examine the intersection of race, gender, and class. Also, I employ qualitative research using 10 in-depth semi-structured, individual interviews. I find that current Latin American women leaders still face barriers that prevent them from continuing their advancement in leadership positions. These barriers include racial and gender discrimination, negative stereotypes, scarcity of networks and mentors, and the struggle to achieve a work-life balance.


Objectives: To determine whether simple methods can improve identification of suprapatellar joint fluid during sonographic evaluation of the knee. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Outpatient orthopaedic clinic. Patients: Fifty-two patients were sequentially recruited from an orthopaedic clinic. Interventions: Bilateral sonographic evaluation of the suprapatellar recess with static scanning, parapatellar pressure, or patient-initiated quadriceps contraction. Main Outcome Measures: Identification of fluid in the suprapatellar recess. Results: Fifty-two patients (104 knees), consisting of 57 (54.8%) painful knees, were examined. Static scanning identified 45 effusions, parapatellar pressure identified 58 effusions, and quadriceps contraction identified 77 effusions. Quadriceps contraction was superior to parapatellar pressure for identifying an effusion {P < 0.001, proportion ratio [PR] = 1.33 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.16, 1.52]}, painful knee effusions [P = 0.036, PR = 1.24 (95% CI = 1.06-1.44)], and painless knee effusions (P = 0.006, PR = 1.50 [95% CI = 1.16-1.93]). Both methods were superior to static scanning. Parapatellar pressure identified effusions in 16.9% of knees not seen on static scanning, whereas quadriceps contraction identified effusions in 54.2% of knees not seen on static scanning. Inter-rater reliability kappa values were 0.771 for static scanning (95% CI = 0.605-0.937), 0.686 for parapatellar pressure (95% CI = 0.531-0.840), and 0.846 for quadriceps contraction (95% CI = 0.703-0.990). Conclusions: Parapatellar pressure and patient-initiated quadriceps contraction both improve sonographic detection of suprapatellar joint fluid with high inter-rater reliability; however, quadriceps contraction was superior to parapatellar pressure when assessing for grade 1 or occult effusions.


From 1914 to 1934 the US government sent Native American girls to work as domestic servants in the homes of white families. "Matrons and Maids "tells this forgotten history through the eyes of the women who facilitated their placements. During those two decades, outing matrons oversaw and managed the employment of young Indian women. In Tucson, Arizona, the matrons acted as intermediaries between the Indian and white communities and between the local Tucson community and the national administration, the Office of Indian Affairs. Based on federal archival records, "Matrons and Maids" offers an original and detailed account of government practices and efforts to regulate American Indian women. Haskins demonstrates that the outing system was clearly about regulating cross-cultural interactions, and she highlights the roles played by white women in this history. As she compellingly argues, we cannot fully engage with cross-cultural histories without examining the complex involvement of white women as active, if ambivalent, agents of colonization. Including stories of the entwined experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women that range from the heart-warming to the heart-breaking, "Matrons and Maids "presents a unique perspective on the history of Indian policy and the significance of women s work. "


MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE WILLIAMS, KRYSTAL LAKEYSHA B.S. CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, 2003 THE CLASS OF KLAMK1N TRIPLES Advisor: Dr J. Ernest Willdns, Jr. Thesis dated May, 2003 We study the cardinal number of the class of triples of consecutive positive integers such that the first of them is the product of a prime numbers, the second the product of b prime numbers, and the third the product of c prime numbers. This set of triples is denoted as Pabc, and any such triple is called a Klamkin triple. We find that the sets Paii, Piie, P121, P212, P213 and P312, are fmite, and list all the triples in each of these sets. Every other set Pak is infinite. This last result depends on a special case of an unproved, but very plausible, conjecture of Bateman and Horn.


Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a well-known cause of severe enteric,
respiratory, and systemic disease in a wide range of animals and in
humans. To understand the route of disease origin and viral transmission
in companion animals, a comparative pan-genomic analysis of coronavirus
sequences originating from major felines and canines were conducted. The
average nucleotide identity (ANI) is a rapid procedure for assessing the
very close antigenic relationship between feline CoV (FCoVs) and canine
CoV (CCoVs) and ANI-based phylogenetic tree that clustered CoVs
according to their respective host species. While pan-genomic analysis
demarcated strains clearly. The distribution of the clinical isolates
all across the categories in the hierarchical phylogenetic model enabled
the visualization of their original ecological niche rather than their
isolation source, as infections are extremely rare events and
evolutionary dead-ends. In polymorphism analysis, we found seven
accessory gene clusters common to the FCoV/CCoV category clade,
including pantropic strains, that perform functions supporting their
pathogenicity. In addition, the gene presence/absence among FCoVs and
CCoVs would provide very valuable information on species-specific
control measures against CoV disease, such as the selection of good
markers for differentiating new species from common and/or pantropic
isolates. Also, the virulent FCoV strains were grouped with human CoV
strains NL63 and 229E confirming hypotheses stating that cats are highly
susceptible to HCoVs, while dogs have low susceptibility to the virus.
In conclusion, the combined analysis allows for better phylogenetic
resolution and the implication of virus origins, recombination, and
virus–host interaction, as well as biomarkers.


Long-term measurement of cardiovascular variables by telemetry in laboratory animals has become indispensable in recent years. However, limited battery life and management of large volumes of recorded data are major drawbacks. These limitations can often be overcome by intermittent sampling of data. The question is, how much data does one need to collect to accurately reflect the underlying average value? To investigate this, 24-h continuous recordings of rabbit heart rate, arterial pressure, and integrated renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) were resampled using a variety of protocols that differed with respect to the number of individual sampling periods used and the total amount of time that was sampled. The absolute percentage errors of estimates of the daily mean, standard deviation, and interquartile range were calculated for each sampling protocol. A similar analysis was repeated using arterial pressure data from rats. The results show that the number of sampling periods spread throughout the day had more effect than the total amount of data recorded. For example, just 2 h of total sampling time spread over 12 evenly spaced 10-min periods gave estimates of the daily mean of blood pressure and heart rate with <1% error and RSNA with <3% error. We show that accurate estimates of the daily mean of arterial pressure, heart rate, and RSNA can all be made using scheduled recording, and we recommend recording a minimum of 2 h/day spread over a number of periods throughout the day.


The past 30 years of reading research has confirmed the importance of bottom-up processing. Rather than a
 psycholinguistic guessing game (Goodman, 1967), reading is dependent on rapid, accurate
 recognition of written forms. In fluent first language (L1) readers, this is seen in the automatic activation of a word's
 phonological form, impacting lexical processing (Perfetti & Bell, 1991; Rayner, Sereno, Lesch & Pollatsek, 1995). Although the influence of phonological form
 is well established, less clear is the extent to which readers are sensitive to the possible pronunciations of a
 word (Lesch & Pollatsek, 1998), derived from the varying consistency of
 grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) (e.g., although 'great' has only one pronunciation, [ɡɹeɪt], the grapheme
 within it has multiple possible pronunciations: [i] in [plit] 'pleat', [ɛ] in [bɹɛθ] 'breath'; Parkin, 1982). Further, little is known about non-native readers' sensitivity to such characteristics. Non-native
 readers process text differently from L1 readers (Koda & Zehler, 2008; McBride-Chang, Bialystok, Chong & Li, 2004), with implications for understanding L2
 reading comprehension (Rayner, Chace, Slattery & Ashby, 2006). The goal of this
 study was thus to determine whether native and non-native readers are sensitive to the consistency of a word's component GPCs
 during lexical processing and to compare this sensitivity among readers from different L1s.


Two novels written exactly 99 years apart start the 20th and 21st centuries. The Immoralist by André Gide and Plateform by Michel Houellebecq, tell hedonistic tales of the modern tourist. This work will analyze the circumstances and the limits of this individualistic and corrupted pursuit in the novels. We will question, alongside Phillipe Muray, the nature and pitfalls of such a global project and its eventual moral cost.


ABSTRACT This longitudinal study describes the effects of recovery-based training on staff knowledge and attitudes to recovery. Mental health staff (n = 101) completed the study questionnaire (the Recovery Knowledge Inventory (RKI-20) and Recovery Attitudes' Questionnaire (RAQ-16)) before training and after six months. On the RKI, significant changes between pre- and post-training scores (p < 0.01) were found. On the RAQ, the scores showed significant changes in Factors 1 (p < 0.001) and 2 (p < 0.009). The results indicate a significant difference in confidence using a recovery model of care following training suggesting that recovery-based training positively affects staff knowledge and attitudes to recovery overall.


A hierarchical reduction method for Petri nets is proposed. After a brief survey on the existing methods of Petri net reduction, concepts such as reducible subnet, degree of subnet, and macronode are defined. The subnets are partially ordered by the degree of subnet, and thus the reducible subnets can be reduced into the macronodes. A reduced net can be obtained without changing the properties (for example, liveness and boundedness). A sequence of reduction results in a hierarchy of reduced Petri nets that allow easy verification and hierarchical decomposition of the system.


Background: High injury rates are to be expected in combat sports. Although case reports and epidemiological studies have documented shoulder injuries in boxers, numbers differ and there is currently no systematic review reporting injury prevalence. Purpose: The aim of this study was to offer an analysis of existing studies documenting shoulder injuries in boxing. Additionally, we wanted to evaluate, if chronic shoulder pathologies seen in former boxers, originate from acute injuries or result from chronic overuse syndromes.Study Design: Systematic ReviewMethods: We performed a systematic database research according to the PRISMA guidelines on PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar for the keywords "boxing", "injury" and "shoulder" or their respective synonyms. Any epidemiological cohort- and cross-sectional studies on boxing, that documented shoulder injuries and were published in German or English language up to January 2020, were included. Statistical analysis including individual and overall proportion with 95% Clopper-Pearson confidence intervals was performed to determine shoulder injury rates for amateur and professional cohorts separately.Results: Methodological quality was assessed using the STROBE statement and a modified Downs&Black's checklist. 13 studies were included, 10 of which met the criteria for statistical analyses. The heterogeneity in study design and cohort characteristics did not allow for detailed quantitative analysis. Overall, shoulder injuries occurred almost twice as often in amateur athletes than in professionals (overall proportion [95% CI]: amateur athletes: 9% [6%; 12%], professionals: 4% [2%; 8%]).Conclusion: No study investigating the long-term effects of boxing on shoulder pathologies was identified. Although specific information on injury type is mostly missing, the few studies addressing it report shoulder dislocations, strains, tendonitis, or chronic impingement syndromes. Unlike head trauma, shoulder injuries do not necessarily lead to cessation of fight, therefore at the ringside gross underreporting of shoulder pathologies must be taken into consideration.


&NA; Acetaminophen is a metabolite of phenacetin, a drug that has been implicated as a causal agent in the development of renal and bladder cancer. We conducted matched case‐control studies to estimate the risk of renal and bladder cancer among heavy users of acetaminophen, using data from Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. For the renal cancer study, we identified 222 incident cases diagnosed in the years 1980‐1991 and 885 controls. For bladder cancer, we identified 504 cases and 2,009 controls. Exposure was defined according to the number of prescriptions for acetaminophen and acetaminophen‐containing drugs filled at the Group Health Cooperative pharmacy. The relative risk estimate for renal cancer for subjects who filled 40 or more prescriptions was 2.6 [95% confidence limits (CL) = 1.1, 6.0], compared with the risk for subjects who did not fill any prescriptions for acetaminophen. We found only a small increased risk of bladder cancer among subjects with heavy acetaminophen exposure (odds ratio = 1.3; 95% CL = 0.6, 2.8).


STUDY HYPOTHESIS
The mouse endometrium harbours stem/progenitor cells that express the stem cell marker mouse telomerase reverse transcriptase (mTert).

STUDY FINDING
We used a mouse carrying a transgenic reporter for mTert promoter activity to identify rare endometrial populations of epithelial and endothelial cells that express mTert.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
Stem/progenitor cells are hypothesized to be responsible for the remarkable regenerative capacity of the endometrium, but the lack of convenient endometrial stem/progenitor markers in the mouse has hampered investigations into the identity of these cells.

STUDY DESIGN, SAMPLES/MATERIALS, METHODS
A mouse containing a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter under the control of the telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter (mTert-GFP) was used to identify potential stem/progenitor cells in the endometrium. mTert promoter activity was determined using fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry to identify GFP(+) cells. GFP(+) cells were examined for epithelial, stromal, endothelial, leucocyte and proliferation markers and bromodeoxyuridine retention to determine their identity. The endometrium of ovariectomized mice was compared to that of intact cycling mice to establish the role of ovarian hormones in maintaining mTert-expressing cells.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE
We found that mTert-GFP is expressed by rare luminal and glandular epithelial cells (0.3% of epithelial cells by flow cytometry), rare CD45(-) cells in the stromal compartment (0.028 ± 0.010% of stromal cells by microscopy) and many CD45(+) leucocytes. Ovariectomy resulted in significant decrease of mTert-GFP(+) epithelial cells (P = 0.029 for luminal epithelium; P = 0.034 for glandular epithelium) and a decrease in the percentage of mTert-GFP(+) CD45(+) leucocytes in the stromal compartment (P = 0.015). However, CD45(-) mTert-GFP(+) cells in the stromal compartment were maintained in ovariectomized mice. This population is enriched for cells bearing the endothelial marker CD31 (10.3% of CD90(-) CD45(-) and 97.8% CD90(+) CD45(-) by flow cytometry). CD45(-) mTert-GFP(+) cells also immunostained for the endothelial marker von Willebrand factor. These results suggest that the endometrial epithelium and vasculature are foci of stem/progenitor activity and provide a system to investigate molecular mechanisms involved in endometrial regeneration and repair.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
The stem/progenitor activity of endometrial mTert-GFP(+) cells needs to be experimentally verified.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
The identification and characterization of mTert-expressing progenitor cells in the mouse will facilitate the identification of equivalent populations in the human endometrium that are likely to be involved in endometrial function, fertility and disease.

LARGE-SCALE DATA
Not applicable.

STUDY FUNDING AND COMPETING INTERESTS
This study was funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia grants (1085435, C.E.G., J.A.D.), 1021127 (C.E.G.), NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (1042298, C.E.G.), the Victorian Infrastructure Support Program, U.S. National Institutes of Health grant R01 DK084056 (D.T.B.) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (D.T.B.). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.


Considerable research has focused on the role of linerboard and medium components in the overall strength of fiberboard. However, limited research has been done on the role of the adhesive in the structural performance of corrugated fiberboard and the container box. This research study proposed to include the glue material in a finite element (FE) model that represents the actual geometry and material properties of corrugated fiberboard. The model is a detailed representation of the different components of the structure (adhesive, linerboard, medium) to perform buckling analysis of corrugated structures under compressive loads. The objective of this analysis was to quantify the influence of the adhesive on the structural performance of corrugated fiberboard. Adhesive parameters are identified in terms of material properties. The modulus of elasticity of the adhesive is taken relative to the modulus of a linerboard material. Three adhesive stiffness properties representing minimum, medium, and maximum moduli values are considered. The analysis also addresses the buckling failure of fiberboard when adhesion is ineffective along a glueline. Results show that increasing the adhesive modulus (20 times that of linerboard) tends to strengthen the fiberboard buckling carrying capacity up to 50%. Loss of adhesive along a fiberboard glueline also substantially decreases the buckling strength of the structure.


Abstract After the fall of Ben Ali's regime, fears were growing as various religious parties have decided to run in the elections to the Constituent Assembly of October 23t , 2011. The Code of Personal Status, the very symbol of Bourguibian modernity, might well be challenged. Beyond their presence on traditional media, feminist movements have organised themselves online so as to make themselves heard and to be able to mobilize public opinion. Facebook has become a place that maximizes visibility, thus allowing Tunisian feminists to make their ideas and their actions widely known. By favouring distanciated commitment, Facebook is a tool that has brought about an upheaval in the various forms of militancy and the militant's relationships to organizational structures. Keywords: Revolution, feminist mobilization, ICT, electronic medias, social networks, Facebook, Tunisia. Introduction Tunisian women's trailblazing and advantageous legal status is considered an exception in Muslim countries. For decades the status has been a showcase for successive Tunisian governments, a forceful argument at election time for President Ben Ali, and an often-used alibi by the authorities when European countries and NGOs challenge the regime about human rights and freedom of the press. We will first show the specificity of the status, then we will have a close look at the role played by social media in the defense of the status as Tunisia is going through a period of political turmoil. In this part we will also show that the defense of women's freedom has brought about new ways of using social networks and that those new forms of mobilization online have now appeared. Legal Specificities for an Outstanding Status The much-vaunted Tunisian Personal Status Code (PSC) is the result of a long process that spread over a century. First reformers' reflections, the national debate of the 1930s over women's liberation and finally Habib Bourguiba's highly symbolic strategic choices all combined to make the Code possible. In the following part, we will present the contribution of Tunisian first reformers and thinkers before explaining the context in which a national debate was made possible after Tahar Haddad's Our Women in the Sharia'a and Society was published in 1929. We will conclude this part with the political decisions and strategic choices made by both Tunisian presidents between 1956 and 2011. The Historical and Intellectual Foundations of the Tunisian Specificity The women's issue arose in Tunisia and was the result of Turkish and Egyptian experiences that had been taking previous Tunisian experiences into account. They were all based, on the one hand, on the ideas of an elite whose members, for most of them, had studied at al-Zitouna University and raised on the concepts elaborated by Middle-Eastern reformers (Rifat Tahtawi, Mohammed Abduh, Rachid Ridha). On the other hand, they were also based on the ideas of intellectuals who had been educated at Sadiki College and then in French universities. Middle-Eastern reformers and Tunisian thinkers have indeed compared French women life to those of their citizens during their stay in France. Thus the have noted the importance of women's education and social integration. This comparison allowed them to propose solutions to what was called the decadence of Arab societies in political, social and economic sectors. There was also the considerable contribution of 19th century Tunisian thinkers who all helped to lay the bases of modernism. Among the first reformers was Private secretary Ahmed Bin Dhiaf who was the first person to talk about women's emancipation and to stress the need to give both professional and religious education. Kheireddine Pacha, for instance forcefully asked in 1877 for a new status for women while emphasizing the need for girls to go to school and get educated. He relentlessly argued against the fears raised by ulemas about women's emancipation. …