In the spirit of the biorefinery concept, an increasing interest in further utilization of technical lignins outside the pulp mills has arisen. In this context optimization of the precipitation process to increase the yield of the lignin recovered is of great importance. The objectives of this investigation have been to study how specific salts and surfactants affect kraft lignin yield during precipitation and washing. From the results it was seen that additions of sodium sulfate increased the yield of precipitation at elevated temperatures at much lower concentrations than sodium chloride. Earlier studies of the effect of monovalent salts on kraft lignin stability have shown that specific ions either increase or decrease the fort-nation of precipitates during kraft lignin aggregation. Thus, the presented results in this study further strengthen this dependency concerning divalent anions. Regarding the role of surfactants as precipitation enhancers, cationic surfactants gave rise to fast aggregation and relatively high yields. This was found mainly due to attractive electrostatic interactions between the cationic surfactant headgroup and the oppositely charged groups on the kraft lignin macromolecules, introducing an increased degree of hydrophobicity of the lignin and thus a decreased stability. The nonionic surfactants tested affected the system very differently. In some cases the aggregation was fast and the aggregates became relatively large before settling, whereas some surfactants induced the formation of relatively dense precipitates that settled rapidly. Concerning kraft lignin precipitate washing, calcium chloride at concentrations in the millimolar region decreased the lignin losses dramatically.


Achieving a greater understanding of natural language syntax and parsing is a critical step in producing useful natural language processing systems. In this thesis, we focus on the formalism of dependency grammar as it allows one to model important head-modifier relationships with a minimum of extraneous structure. Recent research in dependency parsing has highlighted the discriminative structured prediction framework (McDonald et al., 2005a; Carreras, 2007; Suzuki et al., 2009), which is characterized by two advantages: first, the availability of powerful discriminative learning algorithms like log-linear and max-margin models (Lafferty et al., 2001; Taskar et al., 2003), and second, the ability to use arbitrarily-defined feature representations.
This thesis explores three advances in the field of discriminative dependency parsing. First, we show that the classic Matrix-Tree Theorem (Kirchhoff, 1847; Tutte, 1984) can be applied to the problem of non-projective dependency parsing, enabling both log-linear and max-margin parameter estimation in this setting. Second, we present novel third-order dependency parsing algorithms that extend the amount of context available to discriminative parsers while retaining computational complexity equivalent to existing second-order parsers. Finally, we describe a simple but effective method for augmenting the features of a dependency parser with information derived from standard clustering algorithms; our semi-supervised approach is able to deliver consistent benefits regardless of the amount of available training data. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)


In this collection of essays, published posthumously with an introduction by Michael Dummett, R.C. Zaehner, late Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University, wrestles personally with faith. A Roman Catholic by confession and a student of religions by profession, he explores a variety of questions: What God is dead, whether there can be mysticism without love, what lay behind Charles. Manson's conscienceless murders, the evils perpetrated in the name of religion, the scandal of Christian claims about Christ, the appeal of Islam, and the God of the philosophers. Zaehner's dialectical approach makes it difficult to tell where he came out on matters of faith himself. Though he addressed contemporary issues, Pascal's "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob and not of the philosophers" seems to have exerted a special fascination for him, and, if any single theme holds these essays together, it would be that. Zaehner, however, found much more to respect about "the God of the philosophers," especially of Aristotle,


Given the fact that the doctrine of mental violence formed in the theory of criminal law is rather broad and the element of mental violence analyzed in various aspects is subject to the Criminal Law institute where it is used, some problematic fields of this doctrine have been chosen for analysis. The article points out that there is no single opinion of Criminal Law specialists on the potential forms of expression of mental violence. Some authors interpret the forms of mental expression quite broadly by ascribing the threat to mental violence as well as other variants of its expression, for example, physical violence, insult, slander, administering some narcotic or psychotropic substances. Meanwhile others consider various types of threats as the only way of mental violence, because the essence of mental violence is firstly related to causing fear in another person. Physical violence is ascribed to this threatening effect as well. It is worth mentioning that physical violence has always been related to a negative effect on a person's psyche, however, not all such abuse should be regarded as mental violence. Therefore, physical violence can be considered as mental violence only if the perpetrator tries to frighten a person while attacking one physically or using other types of abuse. The article also discusses the issue of the blackmailing dilemma, which is related to the substantiation problems of criminalization of this deed, analyzed in most works by Criminal Law specialists. Economic and liberal theories, as well as the theory of the third party, have been invoked as the basis of the analysis of the blackmailing dilemma.


Fetal movements that are a signal representing the life of the baby while still in the womb. Not making any movements or decreased fetal movements are an important signs telling that the fetus could be in a danger. Counting the fetal movement manually for the pregnant women is one of the methods to assess the fetal well – being, that is to prevent the intra – uterine fetal death; if it's being helped early. Counting and recording the numbers of fetal movements is the essential roles of nurses to recognize and put more effort pregnant women in the self care and the fetal care based on the concept of pregnant women's participation. The hospital and its related agencies should have this system as a guideline for record and count of fetal movements. Having the same guideline can help to communicate effectively and to build confi dence in the process of counting and recording of the fetal movements for pregnant women. Including research on the methods to implement a proper way to count the fetal movements that the pregnant women can apply this method conveniently and it is the most acceptable methods used. This will encourage and motivate pregnant women to count and record the fetal movements by themselves.


With the proliferation of smart-phones and tablet PCs, the data rates of wireless communications have been soaring. Hence, the need for power-efficient communications relying on low-complexity multiple-stream detectors has become more pressing than ever. As a remedy, in this paper we design low-complexity soft-input soft-output quantum-assisted multi-user detectors (QMUD), which may be conveniently incorporated into state-of-the-art iterative receivers. Our design relies on extrinsic information transfer charts. Our QMUDs are then employed in multi-carrier interleave-division multiple-access (MC-IDMA) systems, which are investigated in the context of different channel code rate and spreading factor pairs, whilst fixing the total bandwidth requirement. One of our QMUDs is found to operate within 0.5 dB of the classical maximum a posteriori probability MUD after three iterations between the MUD and the decoders, while requiring only half its complexity, at a BER of 10-5 in the uplink of a rank-deficient MC-IDMA system relying on realistic imperfect channel estimation at the receiver, while supporting 14 users transmitting QPSK symbols.


To cognitive linguists, metonymy is a powerful cognitive tool. It plays a very important role in human life and language use and reflects a significant form of human cognition. This paper analyzes the cognitive mechanisms of metonymy.


Miniaturization and increased complexity of electronic devices are two major trends in the electronic industry. Recent research indicates that inkjet printing can be successfully used in building smaller and more complex structures. This paper describes new methods for generating inkjet printable dispersions of highly dispersed silver and gold nanoparticles. The patterns deposited with a 'drop-on-demand' inkjet printer were sintered at different temperatures and converted into thin, highly conductive metal layers. In the case of silver, we show that the film microstructure and electrical resistivity can be tailored by using bimodal particle size distributions.


Motion planning with constraints is an important part of many real-world robotic systems. In this work, we study manifold learning methods to learn such constraints from data. We explore two methods for learning implicit constraint manifolds from data: Variational Autoencoders (VAE), and a new method, Equality Constraint Manifold Neural Network (ECoMaNN). With the aim of incorporating learned constraints into a sampling-based motion planning framework, we evaluate the approaches on their ability to learn representations of constraints from various datasets and on the quality of paths produced during planning.


We present a quantitative analysis of the effects of population aging and pension reform on international capital markets. First, demographic change alters the time path of aggregate savings within each country. Second, this process may be amplified when a pension reform shifts old-age provision towards more pre-funding. Third, while the patterns of population aging are similar in most countries, timing and initial conditions differ substantially. Hence, to the extent that capital is internationally mobile, population aging will induce capital flows between countries. All three effects influence the rate of return to capital and interact with the demand for capital in production and with labor supply. In order to quantify these effects, we develop a computational general equilibrium model. We feed this multi-country overlapping generations model with detailed long-term demographic projections for seven world regions. Our simulations indicate that capital flows from fast-aging regions to the rest of the world will initially be substantial but that trends are reversed when households decumulate savings. We also conclude that closed-economy models of pension reform miss quantitatively important effects of international capital mobility.25 August, 2004


Sacrum of guinea pig was triangular in shape. Sacrum was formed by fusion of four and three sacral vertebrae in male and female guinea pigs respectively. Adorsal sacral and two lateral sacral crests were present on the dorsal surface of sacrum. Wings presented an articular area in the lower part of its lateral aspect for the ilium. Anterior articular processes were present and faced upwards. Slender transverse processes were two at the caudal part of sacrum and projected backwards. Sacral spinal canal had a cranial triangular opening whereas posteriorly resembled an aperture. The number of dorsal and ventral sacral foramina differed in both the sexes. The morphometric measurements namely, length and width of sacrum were measured.


A unified risk reduction strategy that uses fault tree analysis, proposes modifications in chemical operations that include the process flowsheet, control system, and operating procedures. The modifications commonly involve the establishment of stationary states. These states allow for longer process time constants and support intermediate-state verification. Relative importance is used to identify quantitatively the dominant causes of risk, which are modified to produce safer and more reliable processes. The strategy is tested on the design of a pump system startup, and risk reduction of several orders of magnitude is achieved


1. What, how and when was the picturesque garden? The aesthetic, literary and historical origins of the idea of the 'picturesque' - 2. Early English picturesque Garden designs and theories of Kent, Walpole and gentleman amateurs like Shenstone famous gardens including Painshill, Stourhead, Hestercombe love of the exotic (Chinese, etc) - 3. The picturesque climax: theory and practice Famous later 18th-century gardens and designer theorists, including Gilpin, Payne Knight, Uvedale Price, Repton - 4. Translating from the English France's indebtedness to England, and its independent theories of the picturesque - 5. French picturesque in practice Distinctively French contributions (Ermenonville, Monceau, Mereville) - 6. Beyond Anglomania Scandinavia, German-speaking territories, Poland and Russia, Italy


Although the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union has already became a fully binding act of primary EU law, the controversies concerning the area of Charter's application do not seem to cease. Nevertheless, this phenomenon should not surprise since the core of this discussion rests upon the fundamental rules of the functioning of the European Union. While the uniform stand concerning the scope of application of the Charter vis-a-vis national legislation has not yet been elaborated upon, an analysis of the trends emerging in the ECJ case-law seems to be useful. The discussion is still open and two approaches - strict (formal) and flexible (liberal) - compete. Recent case-law of the ECJ proves the existence of specific "gear mechanisms" or "legal connectors" which serve the purpose of determination of the field of the Charter's application on the areas traditionally not covered by the EU law. The case-law at hand also determines the framework in which the existing jurisprudence concerning the general principles of EU law can be applied for delineating the field of the Charter's application. The questions mentioned above are being explored in light of the prospective ratification of the European Convention of Human Rights by the European Union and discussion about the degree of influence of a Member State's constitutional traditions on interpretation and application of the Charter.


The first half of this introduction to Qoheleth reads the book as a record of ideas mulled over by a dandy at a series of salons. While scholars have attempted to impose order on the book's structure and classify it according to genres, I formulate an understanding of the speaker's lively wisdom from the extraneous voices of John Galsworthy, Beau Brummell and Oscar Wilde. Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (The Tailor Retailored) serves as a model of fictional philosophy that allows us to appreciate Qoheleth's existential concerns as both ironic and serious. I keep references to biblical commentaries at bay and create a typology within which the biblical sage comes to life as a social creature of comfort. Part II will draw a specific parallel between the book's first chapter and a collage by the conceptual dandy Marcel Duchamp. For the moment Qoheleth's charms are given a fresh face via creative interdisciplinary comparison.


A series of clinical studies by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group have compared the relative effectiveness of single drugs and of multiple drug combinations in the treatment of stage III and IV Hodgkin's disease. Following six-week courses of treatment, vinblastine sulfate was superior to cyclophosphamide, but a combination of vinblastine sulfate (0.2 mg/kg), cyclophosphamide (10 mg/kg), and prednisone (1.0 mg/kg) improved on the results achieved with vinblastine alone. Although an improved complete remission rate (38%) and longer unmaintained remission time (6.2 months) were seen following combination chemotherapy, these results were not accompanied by any increase in average survival time (30 months). Current studies employ a longer duration of initial treatment with a four-drug combination. In addition, nonspecific immune stimulation effect is being studied through use of Calmette-Guerin bacillus given during remission.


Aromatic, medicinal and spice plants have been valued since antiquity as food supplements, preservatives and sources of flavors, aromas, medicinal drugs and essential oils. We have embarked on a long-term project to identify and isolate genes that encode key enzymes in aroma formation in plants. Lemon basil (Ocimum basilicum L. Lamiaceae) is known to accumulate essential oils rich in monoterpenes such as citral (geranial and neral) and sesquiterpenes, such as germacrene D, β-caryophyllene, α-bisabolene and α-zingiberene in glandular trichomes localized on the surface of the aerial parts of the plant. We have isolated mRNA from such glandular trichomes and produced a database of the genes that are expressed in them. Information on three basil lines with different chemical compositions was thus generated. Bioinformatic analysis of these databases yielded genes encoding key enzymes involved in mono- and sesquiterpene formation. cDNAs of these genes were functionally expressed in E. coli to validate their biochemical role. They include geraniol synthase (GES), a gene encoding the enzyme that converts geranyl diphosphate into the rose-scented compound geraniol, and α-zingiberene synthase (ZIS), a gene that encodes a multifunctional enzyme able to produce 13 monoterpenes from geranyl diphosphate and 15 sesquiterpenes from farnesyl diphosphate. To test the potential of metabolic engineering to effectively modify aroma and taste properties of tomato, we diverted the tomato terpenoid pathways by expression the lemon basil GES and ZIS genes. Expression of GES in tomato fruit caused elevated levels of geraniol and several other geraniol derivatives, resulting in dramatic changes in the aroma and overall flavor of the transgenic fruits, as judged by a panel of untrained taste panelists. Expression of the lemon basil ZIS gene in tomato fruit resulted in the enhanced accumulation of mono- and sesquiterpenes, bringing about improved aroma characteristics of the fruits. Our data clearly indicate that the utilization of genes originating in lemon basil for the genetic engineering of tomato fruit aroma and taste is feasible and that this approach has the potential for modifying the aroma and taste of other carotenoid-accumulating vegetables and fruits.


This paper presents an electrode shape design method for the multi-mode sensors that could deteict the selected structural multiple modes. The structure used for this study is an isotropic cantilever beam type with a PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) which is bonded onto the structure as a sensor. The shape optimization problem is solved by using Genetic Algorithm (GA) with an appropriate objective function. The performance of analytical optimal shape sensor is compared with that of experimental work. The results show that the, obtained electrode shape sensors have good performance to detect the multiple vibration modes simultaneously.


Cationic polymer microparticles have received much attention especially in the field of biotechnology, such that their analysis and separation have become important. So far, the separation of cationic polymer particles with different size using CE has not been achieved and the cationic particles migrated as if they are negatively charged, probably due to electrostatic interaction between capillary wall and cationic polymer particles. In this paper, the separation of cationic polymer microparticles by CE was investigated in detail. The separation of cationic particles with different size was achieved in CE by taking into account the interaction between sample particles and the inner surface of capillaries. By employing a poly(vinyl alcohol)‐coated capillary, a better size separation of amine‐modified latex particles was obtained compared to a Polybrene‐coated capillary. It was elucidated that the composition, concentration, and pH of the background solution were also important factors in the separation of colloidal particles to avoid the surface adsorption and the characteristic aggregation of polymer particles. Furthermore, the CE analysis was applied to the characterization of cationic protein‐immobilized particles.


Abstract The Transdanubian Volcanic Region (TVR) is composed mainly of Pliocene alkali basalts, basanites, olivine basalts and olivine tholeiites, as well as rare nephelinites. The partial melting and genesis of alkali basaltic liquids is a consequence of an upwelling of the upper mantle which also caused thinning of the lithosphere and recent sinking of the Pannonian Basin. Four different types of lower crustal and upper-mantle xenoliths are found within the TVR: garnet-free and garnet-bearing granulites, clinopyroxenites and spinel lherzolites. We present mineralogical and geochemical data on granulite facies and clinopyroxenite xenoliths from three localities in the Hungarian part of the TVR (Bondoróhegy, Szentbékálla and Szigliget). It is concluded that, whilst the protoliths of the granulite facies xenoliths were tholeiitic igneous rocks and could be part of an ancient crust, the clinopyroxenite xenoliths represent recent underplating and may have formed from an alkali basaltic liquid similar to the host lava. Planar contact relations between clinopyroxenites and spinel lherzolites as observed in composite xenoliths, as well as high Al-contents in clinopyroxenes, point to a high-pressure genesis in the upper mantle for these rocks. In contrast, geobarometrical estimates yielded only a moderate pressure range characteristic of lower crustal levels for the garnet-free granulite xenoliths (7–9 kbar). Nevertheless, two-pyroxene geothermometry yielded high temperatures of equilibration (>900°C) for these xenoliths, probably caused by advective heat transfer connected with underplating and in agreement with the high present-day geothermal gradient of this region. In the Central Range localities only garnet-free granulite xenoliths occur, whereas at the border of the TVR both garnet-free and garnet-bearing granulite facies nodules are found. It is possible that the incoming of garnet is retarded by higher temperatures in the lower crust below the Central Range. It is also suggested that the difference in seismically measured crustal thickness between the Central Range and adjacent basin areas may be connected with different thermal conditions below these regions and that the seismically defined Moho and the petrological Moho do not necessarily coincide.


Lifestyle disorders are the disorders linked with the way of people live their life. These are commonly caused by unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical activity, alcohol, drugs, smoking, unhealthy daily routine. Diet and lifestyle are major factors that influence such diseases. In India, Lifestyle disorders that appear to be increased in frequency include Cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity, Cancer, Osteoporosis, Gatrointestinal issues, Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, Hypertension, Depression.
          The basic principle of Ayurveda is focusing on 'Swasthasya Swasthya Rakshanam', meaning maintaining the health of the healthy, more than 'Aturasya Vikara Prashamanam' meaning to treat the disease of a person. Ayurveda has approach of intervention that is targeted towards complete physical psychological and spiritual well-being which makes this science a potential option for prevention and treatment of lifestyle disorders.


We have demonstrated multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) based sensors, which are capable of detecting alcohol vapor with ultra-low power. We fabricated the Si-substrate sensors using an AC electrophoretic technique so as to form bundled MWCNTs sensing elements between Au microelectrodes. The I-V measurement illustrates that we can activate the sensors at the Ohmic region of the sensors (at 10 muA), which is without any overheat effect. The sensors only need an ultra-low power (~1 muW) to detect the alcohol vapor. They exhibit fast, reversible and repeatable response. We have tested the response of the sensors with alcohol concentrations from 10 ppth to 400 ppth (ppth = parts per thousand). Our result shows that there is a linear relation between the resistance of the sensors and alcohol concentration. Also, we can easily reverse the sensor to the initial reference resistance by annealing them at 100-250 muA current within 6 minutes. Moreover, the sensors are selective with respect to flow from air, water vapor, and alcohol vapor. Finally, we have also studied how the temperature of the sensors affects their response towards alcohol vapor. The result shows that the performance of the sensors will deteriorate as the temperature of the sensors increase. Also, the cooling effect of the vapor is not a dominating factor in determining the response of the sensor. Based on our experiments, we prove the feasibility of turning the MWCNTs sensors into a commercialized alcohol sensor with ultra-low power requirements


The study was conducted on Bergobindapur baor at Chaugachha upazila under Jessore district. The study period was February to June, 2015. Data were collected by using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools and personal observation. Net return was loss in 2013-2014 and the loss amount was BDT 254200. Cost benefit-ratio in 2013-2014 was 0.99. Major income (83.30%) of the fishermen community was drawn from the fishery activities of Bergobindapur baor . In 2014-2015, average income of fishermen was BDT 25250 during the fishing period. Within the household of fishermen community, the expenditure for food was 19%, clothing, 3%, children's education, 19%, medical, 3%, dowry and religion, 33%, agriculture, 13% and others, such as business, accommodation, sanitation etc. 10%, which came from baor activities. The findings of this study indicated that Bergobindapur baor plays a vital role for the support of livelihood of fishermen and net profit from baor was not satisfactory. A long-term strategy should be developed to make the baor profitable. The developed strategic plans should be initiated immediately for the profitability of the baor as well as improving the livelihood conditions of the fishermen engaged with the boar fishery activities. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. September 2016, 2(3): 436-441


Heterocyclic skeletons are widespread among natural products as well as bioactive molecules. Cycloaddition reaction has created new opportunities to access heterocycles of great complexity due to its advantage of multiple bond formation in a single step. Here, we describe an unprecedented formal [5 + 2] cycloaddition of nitrone with o-carboryne to afford carborane-fused seven-membered heterocycles. Experimental and theoretical data suggest that a sequence of [3 + 2] cycloaddition, N-O bond cleavage, oxygen migration and rearomatization is involved in this unprecedented reaction. In this process, the nitrone moieties serve as five-atom coupling partners with both heteroatoms being incorporated into the framework of the final products. This new methodology also offers new insight into the chemistry of nitrones.


The study investigated some physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the Blue Nile River in Khartoum State. Four sites were chosen and studied namely , River Transport Corporation, Burri and Bahri Power Stations and Manshiya Bridge (under construction) between May and July 2003. Four classes of phytoplankton were encountered: Chlorophyceae, Chrysophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Cyanophycaeae; with the last two classes being the most dominant. The zooplankton was represented by the genera Copepoda – the dominant one , Cladocera and Rotifera. River Transport Corporation site showed higher Total Coliform Counts during May and June, while all four stations showed the highest count ( >100 MPN per 100ml ) in July. Values for Total Coliform and feacal bacteria were higher than previous studies which could be an indication that the Blue Nile River is polluted with both total coliform and feacal coliform bacteria. Pollution indicators were also manifested in relatively higher values of BOD, COD, and NO3 – N, NO2-N. This could be attributed to anthropogenic activities such as brickeries, agricultural runoff, human and animal waste. Some of the changes were attributed to the natural hydrological regime of the Blue Nile River such as increase of temperature, transparency and pH, at low flood period and the increase in TDS and conductivity ; decline in transparency besides the disappearance of plankton with the onset of floodwater. The site of Manshiya Bridge exhibited lowest transparency values due to dredging activities. The investigation within the Manshiya Bridge Site (under construction), albeit done in a preliminary way, is the first of its kind in Sudan. The data indicate that the Blue Nile River within Khartoum State has undergone physical, chemical and biological changes. The magnitude, causes and trends are yet to be elucidated. The study calls for an urgent, proper and long-term investigation of the Blue Nile as well as the major rivers in Sudan.


The aim of the study was to analyse whether and to what de- gree the use of RRR-d-α-tocopherol in diets containing an oil rich in linoleic or linolenic acid (soyabean or linseed oil, respectively) would make it possible to halve the dosage of this antioxidant with respect to that of α-tocopherol without negatively affecting the metabolic status and rearing performance of slaughter turkey hens. A study was performed on 480 one-week-old turkey hens reared until the 16 th week of life. The hens in groups I and II received soyabean oil, in groups III and IV linseed oil in feed mixture. The birds in groups I and III received dl-α-tocopherol acetate, whereas those in groups II and IV RRR-d-α-to copherol. The body weight gain and feed intake were monitored. Selected haematologi- cal and biochemical parameters were estimated in blood. The linseed oil was found to improve production effects and carcass traits in turkey hens. It may also contribute to stimulation of erythropoiesis. It should be emphasized, however, that it may overburden the organism, as indicated by the increased activity of liver enzymes. It may be possible to use the natural form of tocopherol in diets rich in linoleic and linolenic acid (soyabean/linseed oil) without detrimental effect on metabolic status and rearing performance in turkey hens. Nonetheless, the commonly used tocopherol acetate, despite the higher dosage, is cheaper and has similar effects. Thus, from an point of view perspective the use of linseed oil with the synthetic form of vitamin E can be recommended.


Microbiome
Cataloging of the human microbiota is continuing apace, but our functional knowledge of the key organisms is woeful. O Cuiv et al. have exploited bacterial sex, or conjugation, to isolate and genetically manipulate a broad range of the functionally important Firmicute bacteria from mixed human fecal cultures. The recombinant pEHR5 vectors are stably maintained and can be used to fluorescently label some of the Clostridium -group bacteria, which are poorly understood organisms, despite several species being earmarked as desirable for a healthy gut community. This technique will allow the integration of metagenomics with bacterial genetics and paves the way to discovering what these organisms do and where in the gut they do it.

Sci. Rep , 10.1038/srep13282 (2015).


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of mifepristone on decidua at the cellular level of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) and the mechanism of prolonged uterine bleeding after terminating early pregnancy by mifepristone.

METHODS
Thirty decidua specimens were obtained from pregnant women with amenorrhea of 6-7 week duration, 20 women were treated with mifepristone and 10 given mifepristone plus misoprostol respectively. Immunocytochemical reactions of PR nad ER in decidua were compared among three groups using computer image analysis technology.

RESULTS
In the control group, the nuclei of the decidual cells were stained positively for ER and PR. Their integral values of receptor level were 5,860,790 +/- 311,691 for ER and 4,905,970 +/- 157,319 for PR. Mifepristone treatment reduced ER and PR staining. The integral values were 3,547,180 +/- 191,858 for ER and 3,700,750 +/- 188,322 for PR in this group, and it was more apparent in the group treated with mifepristone plus misoprostol: 2,021,721 +/- 145,281 for ER and 2,528,580 +/- 240,535 for PR.

CONCLUSIONS
The ER and PR level in human decidua decreased after mifepristone or/and misoprostol treatment. This may be related to prolonged uterine bleeding after terminating early pregnancy by mifepristone.


This research was carried out to determine the relationship between some soil properties and viscosity limits of the soils under different land use in Ugrak province. In the study, 12 topsoil (0-15 cm) and 12 subsoil (15-30 cm) samples were taken from three different land use types consist of forest, grassland and farmland. The significant and positive correlations among the clay, organic matter and lime contents, bulk densities and viscosity limits were found. On the other hand, any significant interaction among the silt, sand, pH and electrical conductivity values and viscosity limits were not determined.


In early republican period through Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's aim to raise the nation to the level of contemporary civilizations, a large number of acknowledged specialists were invited from numerous countries and these specialists provided remarkable contributions to the fields of veterinary medicine and animal husbandry in Turkey. These specialists performed visits to livestock establishments and laboratories across the country and carried out research and inspections and then submitted reports to the Ministry of Agriculture. The research on the history of veterinary medicine shows that there has been no comprehensive study that collectively evaluates all of the specialists invited from foreign countries for the improvement of the fields of veterinary medicine and animal husbandry. With this study, which was aimed to investigate the specialists that arrived in Turkey in the early Republican period (1923-1933), 14 brief data relating the specialists were prepared by using archival documents, Ministry of Agriculture Specialists Reports and other sources and 11 photos have been reached. It can be said that the reports of foreign specialists coming to Turkey are presented for the development of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine and that the various opinions and suggestions in the reports can be regarded as important contributions to the progress of the country.


This paper reports on the modeling and control of a flywheel energy storage system used for electric vehicle. First, by the experimental vibration analysis based on the rigid model with H-infinity control, it was found that the main cause of the flywheel rotor instability due to the influence of the first bending backward mode than that of gyroscopic effect. Subsequently, a flexible model was derived using the finite-element method and a mode separation method using the singular value decomposition was proposed for the gyroscopic matrix in order to obtain the reduced-order model. The effectiveness of the reduced-order flexible model and that of H-infinity controller were verified by the simulation. Keywordsmagnetic bearing; gyroscopic effect; H-infinity control; vibration analysis; singular value decompositio; reducedorder model


In a two level system, according to the lifetime of the excited state, optical pumping (short lifetime) or coherence effects (long lifetime) can be observed in a low pressure absorption cell using parallel travelling wave beams. A theoretical analysis will be given.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Congruent cut surfaces are a predisposition for good apposition of donor and recipient during penetrating keratoplasty (PK). The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the intracameral pressure during nonmechanical donor trephination from the epithelial side on the cut angles for experimental human PK.

METHODS
With a Q-switched 2.94 micro m Er : YAG laser a 6 mm sized corneal donor trephination was performed subtotally in 30 human corneas using an artificial anterior chamber device allowing different intracameral pressures (10, 20, and 40 mm Hg). The cut angles were measured immediately after the trephination by ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) at four quadrants: between trephination cut and corneal epithelium (angle 1 = A1-UBM) and between trephination cut and horizontal plane (angle 2 = A2-UBM). The positions of the measures were marked, the corneas were fixed in a buffered 10 % paraformaldehyde solution, and the same positions were analyzed by histology. The histological cuts were digitized, the images printed, and the cut angles measured in paper (A1-histology).

RESULTS
Mean angles were 111.6 degrees /113.5 degrees /126.6 degrees (A1-UBM), 88.4 degrees /93.5 degrees /101.8 degrees (A2-UBM) and 120.4 degrees /125.1 degrees /119.3 degrees (A1-histology) with 10/20/40 mm Hg, respectively. The A2-UBM showed a significant increase of divergence with increasing intracameral pressure (p < 0.03). For A1-UBM cut angles with 10 and 20 mm Hg were significantly smaller compared to those with 40 mm Hg (p < 0.002), but there was no difference of divergence between 10 and 20 mm Hg. The A1-histology cut angle showed no correlation with intracameral pressure (p > 0.09).

CONCLUSIONS
Increasing intracameral pressure using an artificial anterior chamber during donor trephination from the epithelial side for nonmechanical PK using Er : YAG laser results in increasing divergence of cut angles. This may disturb the congruence of the cut angles in donor-recipient apposition. To achieve standardised cut angles for a good donor recipient apposition, similar normotonic intracameral pressures for donor and recipient trephination should be attempted. The UBM has the potential to analyse the cut angle immediately after subtotal trephination preserving the attempted intracameral pressure in the artificial anterior chamber. Histological analysis of the cut angles seems to lack methodological validity.


A single acute IV injection (1 microgram/kg) of the synthetic replicate of Somatocrinin (GRF) in 40 children with growth hormone (GH) deficiency induces a marked plasma GH increase, although heterogeneous. Clinical tolerance is excellent. Compared to Propranolol + Glucagon (P + G), GRF induces a better GH response. It also discriminates better idiopathic GH deficiency (n = 13), where mean GH peak = 6.5 ng/ml (3.3 after P + G) from GH deficiency secondary to a brain tumor (n = 24) where mean GH peak = 15.5 ng/ml (5.0 after P + G) GRF induces a slight Prolactin (Prl) increase, more obvious when basal Prl is elevated. However there is no correlation between GH and Prl responses to GRF even with basal hyperprolactinemia. GH response to GRF seems to slowly decrease after radiation therapy. GRF is a new potent, well tolerated secretagogue of GH and improves the diagnostic quality of the etiology of GH deficiency.


Away from a conductive body, secondary magnetic fields due to currents induced in the body by a time-varying external magnetic field are approximated by (equivalent) magnetic dipole fields. Approximating the external magnetic field by its value at the location of the equivalent magnetic dipoles, the equivalent magnetic dipoles' strengths are linearly proportional to the external magnetic field, for a given time dependence of external magnetic field, and are given by the equivalent dipole polarizability matrix. The polarizability matrix and its associated equivalent dipole location are estimated from magnetic field measurements made with at least three linearly independent polarizations of external magnetic fields at the body. Uncertainties in the polarizability matrix elements and its equivalent dipole location are obtained from analysis of a linearized inversion for polarizability and dipole location. Polarizability matrix uncertainties are independent of the scale of the polarizability matrix. Dipole location uncertainties scale inversely with the scale of the polarizability matrix. Uncertainties in principal polarizabilities and directions are obtained from the sensitivities of eigenvectors and eigenvalues to perturbations of a symmetric matrix. In application to synthetic data from a magnetic conducting sphere and to synthetic data from an axially symmetric elliptic conducting body, the estimated polarizability matrices, equivalent dipole locations, and principal polarizabilities and directions are consistent with their estimated uncertainties.


BACKGROUND: Eccrine hidrocystomas are usually benign, solitary cystic tumors which are mainly treated by surgical measures. Treatment of the rare multiple lesions gets into difficulties because of complications. PATIENT AND METHODS: A 74-year-old woman showed multiple bilateral lesions on the eyelids. Histology revealed eccrine hidrocystomas. The lesions were treated by Argon laser. Laser parameters were as follows: 600-1000 microns spot size, 500-600 mW power, 0.1-0.2 s time. RESULTS: After 6 months follow up no recurrence of any of the tumors was observed. CONCLUSION: Argon laser proved to be successful to treat multiple eccrine hidrocystomas.


Many diverse biological systems are described by randomly moving particles that can be captured by traps in their environment. Examples include neurotransmitters diffusing in the synaptic cleft before binding to receptors and prey roaming an environment before capture by predators. In most cases, the traps cannot capture particles continuously. Rather, each trap must wait a transitory "recharge" time after capturing a particle before additional captures. This recharge time is often overlooked. In the case of instant recharge, the average number of particles captured before they escape grows linearly in the total number of particles. In stark contrast, we prove that for any nonzero recharge time, the average number of captured particles grows at most logarithmically in the total particle number. This is a fundamental effect of recharge, as it holds under very general assumptions on particle motion and spatial domain. Furthermore, we characterize the parameter regime in which a given recharge time will dramatically affect a system, allowing researchers to easily verify if they need to account for recharge in their specific system. Finally, we consider a few examples, including a neural system in which recharge reduces neurotransmitter bindings by several orders of magnitude.


Frailty models have a prominent place in survival analysis to model univariate and multivariate time‐to‐event data, often complicated by the presence of different types of censoring. In recent years, frailty modeling gained popularity in infectious disease epidemiology to quantify unobserved heterogeneity using Type I interval‐censored serological data or current status data. In a multivariate setting, frailty models prove useful to assess the association between infection times related to multiple distinct infections acquired by the same individual. In addition to dependence among individual infection times, overdispersion can arise when the observed variability in the data exceeds the one implied by the model. In this article, we discuss parametric overdispersed frailty models for time‐to‐event data under Type I interval‐censoring, building upon the work by Molenberghs et al. (2010) and Hens et al. (2009). The proposed methodology is illustrated using bivariate serological data on hepatitis A and B from Flanders, Belgium anno 1993–1994. Furthermore, the relationship between individual heterogeneity and overdispersion at a stratum‐specific level is studied through simulations. Although it is important to account for overdispersion, one should be cautious when modeling both individual heterogeneity and overdispersion based on current status data as model selection is hampered by the loss of information due to censoring.


ObjectiveTo report the results of treatment of patients with familial pheochromocytomas in the laparoscopic era. Summary Background DataThe optimal surgical management of pheochromocytomas that arise in familial neoplasia syndromes may be complicated by bilateral involvement and associated endocrinopathies. MethodsTwenty-one patients with familial pheochromocytomas (15 with multiple endocrine neoplasia [MEN] 2A, 4 with MEN 2B, 1 each with von Hippel-Lindau and neurofibromatosis type 1) underwent adrenalectomy between December 1993 and July 2001. Clinical, biochemical, and pathologic data were obtained by retrospective review of perioperative medical records, postoperative biochemical testing, and patient questionnaire. ResultsMean age at diagnosis was 37 ± 11 years. Twenty of the 21 patients had elevated urine catecholamines, and all had radiographic evidence of an adrenal tumor or tumors. Pheochromocytoma-related symptoms were present in 11 patients (52%). One patient with MEN 2B underwent open adrenalectomy due to previous adrenal surgery and megacolon. Laparoscopic adrenalectomy was attempted in the remaining 20 patients (9 right, 11 left, 2 bilateral). Two patients (9.1%) were converted to open adrenalectomy. Intraoperative hypertensive episodes occurred in 15 patients (71%) and were easily controlled medically. Mean operative time was 216 ± 57 minutes, mean postoperative length of stay was 3.1 ± 1.3 days, and mean tumor size was 3.1 ± 1.0 cm. Minor complications occurred in three patients (14.3%) and major complications in two patients (9.5%). During a mean follow-up of 57 months, a contralateral pheochromocytoma developed in four patients with MEN 2 (33%); three of them underwent adrenalectomy. There have been no long-term complications related to hypertension or adrenalectomy. ConclusionsThis study is the largest series of patients with familial pheochromocytoma undergoing adrenalectomy during the laparoscopic era. The results suggest that the laparoscopic approach is safe and effective for managing unilateral or bilateral adrenal medullary disease in this population.


An 800 Watt portable battery charger for electric vehicles is built using a single four-layer printed circuit board for interconnection all of the power components and to form the magnetic component windings which comprise the EMI filter, a high power factor boost rectifier and a series resonant inverter. Low profile planar E-cores are inserted through slots in the PCB to complete the magnetic components. The design and performance of each magnetic device is examined.


The crystallinity and physical properties of complex oxide films are strongly influenced by the quality of the substrate. This is determined by the bulk microstructure (e.g. grains, twin boundaries, vacancies) and by the surface characteristics. In the case of single-crystal films grown on single-crystal substrates, the latter point becomes extremely important and has to be studied in detail at the nanometer scale. In the case of SrTiO3 (001) substrates, the fabrication process usually leads to samples with different surfaces. The topography itself is very sensitive to process parameters, and has exhaustively been studied in the past few years. The terminating layer can be a mixture of both SrO and TiO2 planes. Only few techniques can determine this surface chemical composition, and so far only on a macroscopic scale. We report here, for the first time, the chemical characterization of such a surface, for which we use a combination of annealing and scanning probe microscopy. We then applied the same technique to the characterization of the surface LaAlO3 (001) and SrLaAlO4 (001) substrates. So far, no friction contrast has been observed on these latter surfaces. In the case of LaAlO3, the characteristic twin structure is clearly revealed.


The Tonle Sap is the most fertile and diverse freshwater ecosystem in Southeast Asia, receiving nurturing water flows from the Mekong and its immediate basin. In addition to rapid development in the Tonle Sap basin, climate change may threaten natural flow patterns that sustain its diversity. The impacts of climate change on river flows in 11 sub-basins contributing to the Tonle Sap Lake were assessed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to quantify the potential magnitude of future hydrological alterations. Projected river flows from three General Circulation Models (GFDL-CM3, GISS-E2-R-CC and IPSL-CM5A-MR) for three time horizons (2030s, 2060s and 2090s) indicate a likely decrease in both the wet and dry season flows. The mean annual projected flow reductions range from 9 to 29%, 10 to 35% and 7 to 41% for the 2030s, 2060s and 2090s projections, respectively. Moreover, a decrease in extreme river flows (Q5 and Q95) was also found, which implies there could be a decline in flood magnitudes and an increase in drought occurrences throughout the basin. The results of this study provide insight for water resources planning and adaptation strategies for the river ecosystems during the dry season, when water flows are projected to decrease.


This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Tw4 Twitchell East End Wetland. Site Description - The Twitchell East End Wetland is a newly constructed restored wetland on Twitchell Island, CA. This site and the surrounding region are part of the San Joaquin - Sacramento River Delta drained beginning in the 1850's and subsequently used for agriculture. The site was previously a corn field. The wetland was designed to have a mix of vegetated and open water channels and ponds (due to surface elevation differences). Flooding of the wetland was done gradually beginning in January, 2014. Berms wind throughout the wetland to allow vehicle access. Tule and Cattail plant material from a nearby wetland were spread along the berms immediately prior to flooding to facilitate plant establishment and stabilization of the berms from wind/water erosion. The tower was installed on November 25, 2013.


The adoption of stringent emission control requirements for diesel powered vehicles has generated the need for emission reducing engine controls. An exhaust gas recirculation system controlled by a true mass airflow sensor has been developed for a light duty truck equipped with a 2.2 liter, naturally aspirated, diesel engine to satisfy these requirements. An intake air throttle provides a method of reducing the intake mass airflow to the engine. The air/fuel ratio, which will simultaneously obtain the desired NO/subX/ emission level and minimize any increase in particulates, is achieved by a combination of intake air throttling and introduction of exhaust gas recirculation. The control system reduces emission output in a simple, cost effective manner, without adversely affecting fuel economy or driveability.


Incorporation of recycled fibres in high value paper products can reduce costand environmental loads. Papermaking potential of cellulosic fibres decreaseswith recycling. The phenomenon of fibre hornification during pressing anddrying is normally held responsible for the loss in strength. To study the impactsof recycling on pulp, fibre and paper properties some non conventionalcharacterisation techniques like fibre saturation point, X-rays microtomography,environmental scanning electron microscopic observations, atomic forcemicroscope (PeakForce QNM mode) and inverse size exclusion chromatography(ISEC) were used. In order to achieve good reproducibility of ISEC measurements,a semi-automatic column fabrication pilot system was built. Thetechniques were first validated on refining process before being applied to therecycling process. In this study, it was found that fibre hornification alone cannot fully explain loss in strength during recycling. The loss in strength is muchmore complex and it is required to understand the morphological and ultrastructural changes associated with recycling. Fibre width, cell wall thickness,curl, kink, irregularities decreased during recycling. Fibre became hard andbrittle in dry state. Number of weak points in the fibre wall were increasedinitially and in the later recyclings. The increase in wet breaking length indicatesincreased surface friction and capillary forces with recycling. Decreasein bonded area during first recycle may be caused by the loss of fines and fibreflexibility whereas the increase afterwards may be linked to the lumen collapse.The strength of fibres did not decrease with recycling as shown by zero-spanbreaking lengths therefore the quality of bond may be deteriorated. It wasthought that the partially delaminated P/S1 layers may be responsible for theloss of paper strength. It is suggested since the significant change is associatedwith the pressing and drying of never dried pulp therefore the drying processneeds to be revisited. The delaminated layer should be restored so as to increasethe recyclability of the recovered fibres for high value paper. Influenceof recycled pulp blends on physical properties of paper was also studied. It wasrevealed that small quantity of recycled pulp can be used without significantlyaffecting the mechanical strength properties.


We have developed a lipidic gene transfer vector, LPDII, where DNA was first complexed to polylysine at a ratio of 1:0.75 (w/w) and then entrapped into folate-targeted pH-sensitive anionic liposomes composed of dioleoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE)/cholesteryl hemisuccinate/folate-polyethlene glycol-DOPE (6:4:0.01 mol/mol) via charge interaction. LPDII transfection of KB cells, a cell line overexpressing the tumor marker folate receptor, was affected by both the lipid to DNA ratio and the lipid composition. At low lipid to DNA ratios (e.g. 4 and 6), LPDII particles were positively charged; transfection and cellular uptake levels were independent of the folate receptor and did not require a pH-sensitive lipid composition. Meanwhile, transfection and uptake of negatively charged LPDII particles, i.e. those with high lipid to DNA ratios (e.g. 10 and 12), were folate receptor-dependent and required a pH-sensitive lipid composition. The transfection activity of LPDII was lost when the inverted cone-shaped DOPE was replaced by dioleoyl phosphatidylcholine. LPDII particles with lipid to DNA ratios of 4, 6, 10, and 12 were 20-30 times more active than DNA•3-β-[N-(N′,N′-dimethylethane)carbamoyl]cholesterol cationic liposome complexes in KB cells and were much less cytotoxic. On the sucrose gradient, LPDII particles had a migration rate in between those of the free DNA and the DNA•polylysine complex. An electron micrograph of LPDII showed a structure of spherical particles with a positively stained core enclosed in a lipidic envelope with a mean diameter of 74 ± 14 nm. This novel gene transfer vector may potentially be useful in gene therapy for tumor-specific delivery.


Using first-principles methods, we investigate the effect of Al on the generalized stacking fault energy of face-centered cubic (fcc) CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloy as a function of temperature. Upon Al addition or temperature increase, the intrinsic and extrinsic stacking fault energies increase, whereas the unstable stacking fault and unstable twinning fault energies decrease monotonously. The thermodynamic expression for the intrinsic stacking fault energy in combination with the theoretical Gibbs energy difference between the hexagonal close packed (hcp) and fcc lattices allows one to determine the so-called hcp-fcc interfacial energy. The results show that the interfacial energy is small and only weakly dependent on temperature and Al content. Two parameters are adopted to measure the nano-twinning ability of the present high-entropy alloys (HEAs). Both measures indicate that the twinability decreases with increasing temperature or Al content. The present study provides systematic theoretical plasticity parameters for modeling and designing high entropy alloys with specific mechanical properties.


Constrained Reinforcement Learning has been employed to enforce safety constraints on policy through the use of expected cost constraints. The key challenge is in handling expected cost accumulated using the policy and not just in a single step. Existing methods have developed innovative ways of converting this cost constraint over entire policy to constraints over local decisions (at each time step). While such approaches have provided good solutions with regards to objective, they can either be overly aggressive or conservative with respect to costs. This is owing to use of estimates for"future"or"backward"costs in local cost constraints. To that end, we provide an equivalent unconstrained formulation to constrained RL that has an augmented state space and reward penalties. This intuitive formulation is general and has interesting theoretical properties. More importantly, this provides a new paradigm for solving constrained RL problems effectively. As we show in our experimental results, we are able to outperform leading approaches on multiple benchmark problems from literature.


CFD is applied to evaluate pedestrian wind comfort at outdoor platforms in a high-rise apartment building. Model validation is focused on generic building sub-configurations that are obtained by decomposition of the actual complex building geometry. The comfort study is performed during the design stage, which allows structural design changes to be made for wind comfort improvement. Preliminary simulations are performed to determine the effect of different design modifications. A full wind comfort assessment study is conducted for the final design. Structural remedial measures for this building, aimed at reducing pressure short-circuiting, appear to be successful in bringing the discomfort probability estimates down to acceptable levels. Finally, the importance of one of the main sources of uncertainty in this type of wind comfort studies is illustrated. It is shown that the uncertainty about the terrain roughness classification can strongly influence the outcome of wind comfort studies and can lead to wrong decisions. This problem is present to the same extent in both wind tunnel and CFD wind comfort studies when applying the same particular procedure for terrain relation contributions as used in this paper.


Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is epidemic among young people, especially those at highest risk of acquiring HPV-related cancers. Methods: Youth aged 14–24 years old (N = 1628) were recruited from 13 clinics, community agencies, and social media sites in Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana, that specialized in serving sexual and gender minority youths (SGMY), especially males at risk for HIV. A cross-sectional comparison of sociodemographic and risk histories of HPV vaccinated/unvaccinated youths was conducted using both univariate and multivariate regressions. Results: About half (51.9%) of youth were vaccinated, with similar percentages across states and across genders. Sexual and gender minority youths (SGMY, i.e., gay, bisexual, transgender, and non-heterosexual; 68.8%) and their heterosexual peers (15%) were equally likely to be vaccinated (54%), even though their risk for HPV-related cancers is very different. Vaccinations were higher among younger youth, those not using condoms, youth with greater education, that possessed a primary health care provider, and youth diagnosed with HIV. Vaccinations were lower among youth that were out-of-home due to mental health inpatient hospitalization, drug treatment, homelessness, or incarceration. Conclusions: Special programs are required to target youth experiencing multiple life stressors, especially out-of-home experiences, those with less education, and without the safety net of health insurance or a provider.


Curcumin has well documented beneficial effects against diabetes but its poor bioavailability limits its use. Here, we investigated the effects of two monocarbonyl curcumin analogues - (2E,6E) -2,6-bis[ (2-trifluoromethyl) benzylidene]cyclohexanone (C66) and (2E,6E) -2,6-bis (2-bromobenzylidene) cyclohexanone) (B2BrBC) - on the expression of genes involved in insulin signaling and oxidative stress in pancreas samples from streptozotocin (STZ) -induced diabetic rats. Animals were divided into two experiments: (Experiment 1) STZ injection (60 mg/kg) followed by 30 days treatment with C66 or B2BrBC (both 50 µmol/kg, daily) or (Experiment 2) single-dose treated with C66 or B2BrBC (125 µmol/kg) , 6 hours before STZ injection, and sacrifice after 72 hours. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis was used to assess the expression of: insulin (Ins1) , insulin receptor substrate 2 (Irs2) , Slc2a2 solute carrier family 2 member 2 (Slc2a2) (s. Glut2) , mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (Mapk14) , protein kinase AMP-activated catalytic subunit alpha 1 (Prkaa1) , peroxisome proliferator-activator receptor gamma (Pparg) , BCL2 apoptosis regulator (Bcl2) , BCL2-associated X apoptosis regulator (Bax) , and NF-κB inhibitor alpha (Nfkbia) . Results demonstrated that when C66 and B2BrBC were administered at lower, chronic doses after STZ application (Experiment 1) , they both reversed the effect of STZ on Irs2 mRNA levels in the pancreas, with the effect of C66 being significantly higher. At higher, acute doses (Experiment 2) , C66 ameliorated Ins1 mRNA levels after STZ treatment. Also, although not statistically significant, at higher doses, both C66 and B2BrBC showed a trend to normalize the suppressing effect of STZ on Glut2 mRNA levels. Overall, our data demonstrate that these two monocarbonyl curcumin analogues have direct effects on the expression of insulin signaling pathway-related genes in the pancreas.

 N. Hadzi-Petrushev: None. M. Mladenov: None. J.B. Bogdanov: None. L. Poretsky: None. D. Avtanski: None.

 Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman New York Foundation for Medical Research


Running related injury is a complex, multifactorial phenomenon that remains difficult to explain. However, there are available tools for clinicians allowing prevention (primary or tertiary) and rehabilitation optimization, thus reducing the consequences of the injury and time before returning to participation. These tools rely mainly on training load monitoring and clinical evaluation of stride biomechanical analysis. Unfortunately, they currently remain poorly known by practitioners, while allowing the opportunity to address the challenge of managing the injured runner, including a faster return to run, but also the prevention of a potential recurrence. It requires targeted intervention and education of the patient on the factors leading to the injury.


tion for anaerobes, but surely the criteria by which one judges the significance of a bacterium isolated are the same whether it be an aerobe or an anaerobe. It is useful to have all this information in one volume and medical libraries should possess a copy. For all but the anaerobe enthusiasts the price will be prohibitive. The weight, about 3 lb, is not conducive to armchair or bedside reading. E. JOAN STOKES


Purpose
This paper aims to identify the current situation of higher education institutions in Spain regarding the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals in the classroom, and what is the role of mathematics in this task.

Design/methodology/approach
A review is made of how the concept of sustainability has evolved in higher education, its gradual introduction in the University and the way in which this subject is approached in the field of mathematics.

Findings
The study concludes that higher education has a key role to play in designing strategies that lead to the global sustainability of the planet. This implies major changes in degree curricula, assessment, competences and teacher training. Cross-disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity between different subjects within the same degree is a strategy for students to analyse the Sustainable Development Goals using mathematical techniques.

Social implications
The University as an institution must train socially responsible professionals who are aware of the importance of promoting a sustainable world. Changes should be made to introduce values in the classroom that promote and encourage sustainability. Training should be seen as a continuous process that leads to the preparation of professionals committed to society and nature and who develop strategies aimed at improving the planet through values.

Originality/value
Through practical activities, the Sustainable Development objectives can be analysed from several subjects of the same degree, emphasising the interdisciplinary and transversal nature that should be the central axis of higher education. Each subject can develop a strategy for change in favour of sustainability that will be reinforced and increased by working together on the proposed teaching practice. In this way, the contents of the different subjects are not isolated, but rather the student can see how there is an interrelationship between them and with real life.


The computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) has evolved during the past 25 years, and this evolution has improved the speed and precision in which dentists can deliver high quality esthetic restorations. CEREC is an acronym for "ceramic reconstruction" and is one of the CAD/CAM systems available to dentists in private practice. The University of Tennessee College of Dentistry was one of the first dental schools in the United States to embrace this technology and integrate it into the four-year curriculum. In a dental school setting, this technology can prove to be an educational tool for the dental students, cost effective for the University and provide exceptional service for the patients.


Abstract The posterior tibial slope (PTS) is usually adjusted by less than 5 degrees, without considering its individual difference, during posterior cruciate-substituting (PS) total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The effect of these individual changes of PTS would be important because clinical results depending on postoperative PTS were reported conflictingly. We investigated the effect of the change in PTS on the postoperative range of motion (ROM) and clinical scores after PS TKA. We retrospectively reviewed 164 knees from 107 patients who underwent PS TKA with a 2-year follow-up. We analyzed the preoperative and postoperative PTS, ROM, visual analog scale pain scale, Western Ontario and McMaster University Index (WOMAC), Hospital for Special Surgery Knee Score, Knee Society Score, and Forgotten Joint Score (FJS). The association of the absolute change in PTS with ROM and clinical scores was analyzed using correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. As a result, the mean PTS and mean ROM changed from 9.6 ±  3.4 and 120.1 ±  15.4 degrees preoperatively to 2.0 ±  1.3 and 128.4 ±  9.3 degrees postoperatively, and the mean PTS change was 7.6 ±  3.5 degrees. The PTS change had no statistically significant association with the postoperative ROM and clinical scoring systems, although it did have a weak positive correlation with WOMAC function, No 10 (difficulty in rising from sitting) (correlation coefficient = 0.342, p = 0.041), and moderate positive correlation with the FJS, No. 6 (awareness when climbing stairs) (correlation coefficient = 0.470, p = 0.001). The authors concluded that the amount of change in PTS did not affect the postoperative ROM and clinical scores, although proximal tibial resection with a constant target of PTS resulted in individually different changes in the PTS after PS TKA,


The postprocessing for depicting the magnetic flux density distribution calculated by finite-element analysis strongly influences the accuracy of the distributed density. In the present work, an accurate display method for the density distribution calculated from the magnetic vector potential is proposed. The accuracy of the proposed method and ordinary methods are investigated quantitatively. The proposed approach is shown to be superior to that which uses magnetic vector potential as an unknown variable. The continuity of magnetic flux density at the boundaries of the elements adjoining each other is satisfied. >


In minimally invasive spinal surgery and percutaneous disc surgery the exact preoperative structural analysis of the disc herniation becomes a prerequisite in patient selection. Discography including discal manometry and discographic CT (in addition to CT and MRI) are used to review the anatomy of disc herniations prior to surgery. The analysis of the findings of discography in 360 lumbar discs examined from 1988 to 1994 are presented. In 68 discs operated with hemilaminectomy, later intraoperative findings were available for comparison with preoperative discographic findings. The diagnostic accuracy of determining the exact anatomical location of the herniation with discography alone was 75%. The diagnostic accuracy increased to 99.55% with the use of CT discography. The authors conclude that CT discography is an accurate and useful diagnostic aid.


Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is still burdened by a significant morbidity and mortality. Objectives To determine the prevalence of organ damage, with related risk factors, and mortality in a cohort of SLE patients. Methods The clinical records of patients fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for SLE, followed for at least 1 year in our center were retrospectively reviewed. Organ damage was assessed by the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/ACR Damage Index (DI) at 1 year after diagnosis and then every 5 years, from the beginning until the end of the follow-up in our center. Disease activity was measured by the SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) 2K at the beginning of the follow-up. The comparison of characteristics between patients with and without damage at the end of their follow-up was performed by the Chi Square's, Fisher's exact and Student's t test as appropriate; p<0.05 was considered significant. Results This study included 511 SLE patients (92% females, 95% Caucasians), followed in our Unit between 1972 and 2014, with a mean age at diagnosis of 33 years (±13) and a mean disease duration at the end of the follow-up of 16 (±9) years. One year after diagnosis 40% of patients with measurable DI (n=400) had accrued some damage and its prevalence gradually increased over time (Table I). At 1 year ocular (13%), central nervous system (12%) and skin (8%) damage were the most frequent whereas ocular, skin and musculoskeletal were the most frequent sites of damage (40%) at 35 years. Different features were significantly associated to damage (Table II). The main causes of death in 35 patients (7%) were cancer (33%) and organ failure (22%) after a mean disease duration of 13 years. Conclusions The organ damage that accumulates over time in SLE is partly linked to disease activity, partly defined by clinical profiles (neuro-SLE, renal disease and Antiphospholipid Syndrome) that may require aggressive treatments. New, more effective and less toxic drugs could limit the progression of this process. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Suniland field is located in the west Texas Permian basin. Production is primarily from peritidal shelf dolomites of the Permian (Guadalupian) San Andres Formation. San Andres deposition was highly cyclical, with at least two upward-shoaling megacycles comprising the lower 600 ft (183 m) of the formation; many smaller cycles occur within the megacycles. The field consists of an elongate, low-relief, east-west-trending anticline formed from draping over a pre-San Andres structural high. Hydrocarbon trapping is controlled primarily by structural closure and discontinuity of San Andres reservoir facies. Anhydrite cement precipitation also may cause an updip (northerly) permeability loss. Reservoirs occur in thin, permeable oolitic grainstone intervals possessing primary intergranular porosity in combination with vugular and moldic pore systems. These grainstones interfinger with porous but generally impermeable oolitic packstones. Adjacent wackestones and mudstones are generally nonporous and impermeable. Porosity occlusion is primarily from precipitation of late dolomite cements. Anhydrite cements do not occlude porosity to a high degree. Oil production from the San Andres Formation at Suniland field is from nine separate reservoirs comprising two major pay categories, designated Sand Andres and lower San Andres. Pay depths range from 3,755 to 4,211 ft (1,144 to 1,283 m). Cumulative oil production to Januarymore » 1986 is 7.35 million bbl from 69 wells. Permian (Leonardian) Glorieta production accounts for about 16% of total production. Reservoirs produce from solution gas expansion at low gas-to-oil ratios and high water cuts. Effective porosity in pay zones averages 14%; permeability averages 17 md.« less


We have assessed the clinical applicability of a previously ENscribed new method for analyzing the distribution of conduction velocities (DCV) in peripheral nerve. Surface‐recorded median sensorimotor compound action potentials (CAPs) were found to contain contributions from classes of fibers conducting between 25 and 80 m/sec in the elbow‐to‐axilla segment. Test‐retest correlation coefficients ranged from 0.91 to 0.98. Increasing stimulus intensity recruited additional fiber activity into the CAP with relative preferential activation of faster‐conducting fibers at lower stimulus levels. Changes in limb temperatur altered the conduction velocity of all fiber classes 4% per ENgree Celsius. A comparison of fiber diameter distribution and DCVs in a normal sural nerve gave a correlation of 0.70 over the range of 7 to 12 μ. Diabetic patients with minimal or no clinical polyneuropathy showed varying ENgrees of DCV shift toward the slower conduction velocities, sometimes even in the face of normal conventional nerve conduction studies. These findings indicate that the DCV may be consiENred the electrophysiological counterpart—not equivalent—of the fiber diameter distribution, with the capacity to distinguish subtle differences in conduction properties of normal and diseased human nerves.


Abstract. The behavior of every catchment is unique. Still, we need ways to classify them as this helps to improve hydrological theories. Usually catchments are classified along either their attributes classes (e.g. climate, topography) or their discharge characteristics, which is often captured in hydrological signatures. However, recent studies have shown that many hydrological signatures have a low predictability in space and therefore only dubious hydrological meaning. Therefore, this study uses hydrological signatures with the highest predictability in space to cluster 643 catchments from the continental United States (CAMELS (Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large-Sample Studies) dataset) into ten groups. We then evaluated the connection between catchment attributes with the hydrological signatures with quadratic regression, both in the overall CAMELS dataset and the ten clusters. In the overall dataset, aridity had the strongest connection to the hydrological signatures, especially in the eastern United States. However, the clusters in the western United States showed a more heterogeneous pattern with a larger influence of forest fraction, the mean elevation or the snow fraction. From this, we conclude that catchment behavior can be mainly attributed to climate in regions with homogenous topography. In regions with a heterogeneous topography, there is no clear pattern of the catchment behavior, as catchments show high spatial variability in their attributes. The classification of the CAMELS dataset with the hydrological signatures allows testing hydrological models in contrasting environments.


In this paper we consider the problem of computing spectral approximations to graphs in the single pass dynamic streaming model. We provide a linear sketching based solution that given a stream of edge insertions and deletions to a $n$-node undirected graph, uses $\tilde O(n)$ space, processes each update in $\tilde O(1)$ time, and with high probability recovers a spectral sparsifier in $\tilde O(n)$ time. Prior to our work, state of the art results either used near optimal $\tilde O(n)$ space complexity, but brute-force $\Omega(n^2)$ recovery time [Kapralov et al.'14], or with subquadratic runtime, but polynomially suboptimal space complexity [Ahn et al.'14, Kapralov et al.'19].
Our main technical contribution is a novel method for `bucketing' vertices of the input graph into clusters that allows fast recovery of edges of sufficiently large effective resistance. Our algorithm first buckets vertices of the graph by performing ball-carving using (an approximation to) its effective resistance metric, and then recovers the high effective resistance edges from a sketched version of an electrical flow between vertices in a bucket, taking nearly linear time in the number of vertices overall. This process is performed at different geometric scales to recover a sample of edges with probabilities proportional to effective resistances and obtain an actual sparsifier of the input graph.
This work provides both the first efficient $\ell_2$-sparse recovery algorithm for graphs and new primitives for manipulating the effective resistance embedding of a graph, both of which we hope have further applications.


INTRODUCTION:
Drug Resistant Tuberculosis is a major challenge in tuberculosis high prevalent countries. This challenge becomes bigger where HIV TB coinfection is present. 24.6% of TB deaths occur among HIV positive cases.
AIM OF THE STUDY:
To determine the correlation between clinical, radiological,
microbiological features and the drug resistance pattern of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in patients with HIV tuberculosis co infection.
OBJECTIVES:
1. To determine the relationship between clinical presentation of HIV - pulmonary tuberculosis co infection and drug resistance pattern.
2. Compare each of the variables CD4 count, HIV staging, chest Xray features, sputum smear for AFB, LPA with drug resistance pattern.
3. Prevalence of MDR-TB in HIV TB co-infection.
MATERIALS & METHODS:
It is a prospective study done at Government Hospital of Thoracic medicine, during April 2013 to March 2014.
Inclusion Criteria :
All HIV seropositive patients with pulmonary TB, Age > 18 years.
Exclusion Criteria:
HIV patients with only extrapulmonary TB, Age < 18 years, Patients who are moribund, sick and unable to produce sputum, Patients who are not willing to participate in the study, Patients whose sputum showed no growth in LJ culture medium.
Collection of clinical samples/data: Symptoms duration, HIV diagnosis and treatment history, Antituberculous treatment history, Height & Weight, Chest radiograph, Sputum for AFB staining, LPA, sputum Mtb culture, CD4 count. Allotting score for each of the variable. Predict MDR based on score.
Comparing prediction with sensitivity results and analyse.
OBSERVATION AND RESULTS:
230 patients were included in the study - 198 were male, 32 female. Mean age 39.5. totally 5.2% cases were MDR, 4.8% monoresistant to Rifampicin (R).
Among new case, MDR 3.4%, monoresistants to R 2.7%. Among retreatment cases, MDR was 8.5% and monoresistant to R 8.5%. Odds ratio was 3.18 (95% CI 1.31 - 7.71) when Rif resistance is compared with TB case. 10% of disseminated TB cases are MDR. Association between disseminated TB & Rif Resistance is odds ratio of 2.71 (95% CI 1.07 – 6.09) P value of 0.56 (> 0.05) is obtained when symptoms duration is compared with rifampicin resistance. CD4 count compared with MDR - TB gives odds ratio of 7.30 (95% CI 0.92 – 57.71).
Odds ratio is 2.59 (95% CI 1.08 – 6.03) where HIV stage is compared with rifampicin resistance. Drug sensitivity of 154 cases were obtained by LPA, rest were obtained by culture. 67% of MDR cases were detected using LPA. Odd's
ratio is 2.96 (95% CI 1.23 – 7.12) when score more than 4 compared with Rifampicin resistance.
CONCLUSION:
In summary, prevalence of MDR TB in this study is 2.2% in
new cases and 8.5% in retreatment cases. Prevalence of Rifampicin resistance in new cases is 6.1% and that in retreatment cases is 19%.
History of prior treatment of tuberculosis, HIV stage 4,
disseminated TB were significantly associated with rifampicin resistance.
In this study, CD4 count less than 200 was significantly
associated with MDR TB and drug resistant TB.
HIV treatment was not associated with drug resistance pattern.
Duration of symptoms did not affect prevalence of MDR TB. There was no significant association between chest x ray lesions, cavitation with MDR TB. Sputum smear status had no significant relation with MDR TB.
Sensitivity of line probe assay in this study is 67%.
Scoring with 8 variables with score more than 4 was
significantly associated with Rifampicin resistance. Since the study population is small, further studies with large study population will be helpful in validating this score.


Automatic machine learning performs predictive modeling with high performing machine learning tools without human interference. This is achieved by making machine learning applications parameter-free, i.e. only a dataset is provided while the complete model selection and model building process is handled internally through (often meta) optimization. Projects like Auto-WEKA and auto-sklearn aim to solve the Combined Algorithm Selection and Hyperparameter optimization (CASH) problem resulting in huge configuration spaces. However, for most real-world applications, the optimization over only a few different key learning algorithms can not only be sufficient, but also potentially beneficial. The latter becomes apparent when one considers that models have to be validated, explained, deployed and maintained. Here, less complex model are often preferred, for validation or efficiency reasons, or even a strict requirement. Automatic gradient boosting simplifies this idea one step further, using only gradient boosting as a single learning algorithm in combination with model-based hyperparameter tuning, threshold optimization and encoding of categorical features. We introduce this general framework as well as a concrete implementation called autoxgboost. It is compared to current AutoML projects on 16 datasets and despite its simplicity is able to achieve comparable results on about half of the datasets as well as performing best on two.


The multidimensional nature of usability (including tradeoffs between dimensions) is described, stressing the linkage of the concept to the effective use of documentation by a particular group of readers in performing a certain set of software-related tasks under realistic environmental constraints. Major issues in the evaluation and design of usability are examined. It is argued that the sampling of realistic tasks and target readers is often very difficult, particularly in a laboratory setting, and that additional emphasis must be placed on using multiple observation periods, standardized measures and materials, and multimethod assessments of usability. >


The fading broadcast channel with confidential messages (BCC) is investigated, where a source node has common information for two receivers (receivers 1 and 2), and has confidential information intended only for receiver 1. The confidential information needs to be kept as secret as possible from receiver 2. The broadcast channel from the source node to receivers 1 and 2 is corrupted by multiplicative fading gain coefficients in addition to additive Gaussian noise terms. The channel state information (CSI) is assumed to be known at both the transmitter and the receivers. The parallel BCC with independent subchannels is first studied, which serves as an information-theoretic model for the fading BCC. The secrecy capacity region of the parallel BCC is established, which gives the secrecy capacity region of the parallel BCC with degraded subchannels. The secrecy capacity region is then established for the parallel Gaussian BCC, and the optimal source power allocations that achieve the boundary of the secrecy capacity region are derived. In particular, the secrecy capacity region is established for the basic Gaussian BCC. The secrecy capacity results are then applied to study the fading BCC. The ergodic performance is first studied. The ergodic secrecy capacity region and the optimal power allocations that achieve the boundary of this region are derived. The outage performance is then studied, where a long-term power constraint is assumed. The power allocation is derived that minimizes the outage probability where either the target rate of the common message or the target rate of the confidential message is not achieved. The power allocation is also derived that minimizes the outage probability where the target rate of the confidential message is not achieved subject to the constraint that the target rate of the common message must be achieved for all channel states.


This paper has investigated the effect of wages in the manufacturing sector on remittances outflows from High-Income Countries (HICs). The main theoretical hypothesis of the analysis is that changes in the wages in the manufacturing sector in HICs would affect wages in other sectors of the economy, and hence the amounts of remittances sent by migrants residing in these countries. The study has been performed on a set of 47 HICs, of which 22 old-industrialized countries, and uses both the fixed effects approach as well as the Least Squares Dummy Variables Corrected (LSDVC) estimator. Results have suggested for the full sample, that an increase in the real wages in the manufacturing sector is associated with higher remittances outflows. Interestingly, the magnitude of this positive effect is higher for remittances sent from old-industrialized countries than for remittances sent from other HICs. Moreover, the analysis has revealed that the magnitude of the positive remittances outflows effect of wages in the manufacturing sector increases as this sector expands, that is, as manufacturing export values increase. An important implication of the analysis is that by lowering wages both in the manufacturing sector and in other sectors of the economy, the shrinking of the manufacturing sector in HICs is likely to reduce the income of migrants residing in these countries and consequently lead to lower remittances outflows. The decline in the remittances outflows would severely affect the ability of receiving countries (i.e., developing countries) to tap on this important source of financial flows to finance their development.


SIR,-In the leading article on " Anatomy for Surgeons" (22 February, p. 462) is discussed the topography of the Primary F.R.C.S. The article states, " The anatomical part of this examination is far different from the terror of former years, especially as half the examiners are practising surgeons." But surely this latter fact is exaggerated. I well remember in my Primary in 1910 being examined by the late James Sherren, known to us as the Skipper, and very much in active practice. Personally I would have much preferred to be questioned by Sir Arthur Keith.-I am, etc.,


Coat-hanger die design aims for optimization of the die geometry of the body and the flow distribution manifold, such that through the exit at the die lip homogeneous distribution of the polymer melt is achieved. This paper proposes a novel methodology for deriving the design equations of the coat-hanger die geometry for some specific extrusion materials and provides fluid–solid interaction simulations for validations. The basis for the calculations is the Casson rheological model, analytic velocity profiles for the pseudoplastic flow through circular pipe and slit, and the constant shear rate coat-hanger die design methodology developed by Winter and Fritz. The geometry obtained was then evaluated using the fluid-structure interaction numerical simulation approach. The sensitivity of the outlet velocity uniformity and die body deformation due to the material and mass flow rate change were investigated using the finite element software, Ansys. It was found that the homogeneity of the outlet velocity is very sensitive to the extrusion materials. The structural analysis of the solid die body also resulted in higher deformations when using some other extrusion materials different from the initial design. Mass flow rate increase only resulted in large zones of stagnation, which occurred around the melt as it passes from the manifold to the slit region. Therefore, it is recommended to define the required range of mass flow rate to prevent the formation of stagnation zones.


The need for new antimicrobial agents with activity against Gram-positive organisms has become increasingly important because of emerging resistance. We compared the activity of a new b-lactam antimicrobial agent, RWJ-54428 (MC-02 479), with representatives of other classes of antimicrobial agents against 76 Staphylococcus aureus (including four glycopeptide- intermediate strains), 50 coagulase-negative staphylococci, 20 Enterococcus faecalis, 20 Enterococcus faecium, 10 Enterococcus gallinarum/Enterococcus casseliflavus, 54 Streptococcus pneumoniae and 22 viridans streptococcal isolates. The MIC(90) of RWJ-54,428 was < or = 2 mg/L for all groups of bacteria tested except E. faecium. The activity against four strains of glycopeptide-intermediate S. aureus was similar to that for other methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates (range 0.5-2.0 mg/L).


This paper employs the VAR-MGARCH models to investigate the price causal relationships and volatility spillovers effects between the CSI 300 index futures and spot markets in China. The 5 min high-frequency data from January 4, 2013 to October 31, 2013 are used. Four different multivariate GARCH models (BEKK, diagonal, constant conditional correlation, and dynamic conditional correlation) are compared and contrasted. It is found that the VAR-DCC-MGARCH model fits the data best and generates results showing that there exist bidirectional price causal relationships between the CSI 300 index futures and spot markets and the CSI 300 futures market tends to play a more dominant role in the price discovery process; there exist bidirectional volatility spillovers effects between the two markets and the index futures and spot markets play the almost equal roles in the volatility information transmission; the CSI 300 index futures and spot markets show a very strong linkage and the dynamic conditional correlations vary from 0.479 to 0.959 with time change. These conclusions indicate that at the maturity stage, the price discovery function of the CSI 300 index futures market has worked well, and the operating efficiency of the CSI 300 index futures market has further improved.


Reinforcement learning (RL) is a general framework that allows systems to learn autonomously through trial-and-error interaction with their environment. In recent years combining RL with expressive, high-capacity neural network models has led to impressive performance in a diverse range of domains. However, dealing with the large state and action spaces often required for problems in the real world still remains a significant challenge. In this paper we introduce a new simulation environment,"Gambit", designed as a tool to build scenarios that can drive RL research in a direction useful for military analysis. Using this environment we focus on an abstracted and simplified room clearance scenario, where a team of blue agents have to make their way through a building and ensure that all rooms are cleared of (and remain clear) of enemy red agents. We implement a multi-agent version of feudal hierarchical RL that introduces a command hierarchy where a commander at the higher level sends orders to multiple agents at the lower level who simply have to learn to follow these orders. We find that breaking the task down in this way allows us to solve a number of non-trivial floorplans that require the coordination of multiple agents much more efficiently than the standard baseline RL algorithms we compare with. We then go on to explore how qualitatively different behaviour can emerge depending on what we prioritise in the agent's reward function (e.g. clearing the building quickly vs. prioritising rescuing civilians).


The recent advances in IC technology have led to the trend of designing hybrid systems to benefit both analog and the digital domain. Among analog circuits, multifunctional filter along with multiphase oscillator constitutes a building block of critical importance. In this paper, a digitally reconfigurable multi-input-multi-output voltage mode multifunctional biquadratic filter has been presented. The circuit comprises of two differential voltage current conveyors (DVCCs), two grounded capacitors and two floating resistors. The digital controllability is incorporated using a current-summing network (CSN). Tunability of quality factor is achieved by the use of a 3-bit digital control word while keeping the resonant frequency constant. PSPICE simulations using TSMC 0.25 μm CMOS technology have been performed to validate the theoretically predicted results.


We present an analysis of three new pulsating subdwarf B stars discovered in the Super Wide Angle Search for Planets archive. Two of the stars, J1938+5609 and J0902−0720, are pmode pulsators; J1938+5609 shows a pulsation at 231.62 d−1 (P = 373 s; 2681 μHz) with an amplitude of 4 mmag, whereas J0902−0720 pulsates at frequencies 636.74 (P = 136 s; 7370 μHz) and 615.34 d−1 (P = 140 s; 7122 μHz), with amplitudes 7.27 and 1.53 mmag, respectively. The third star, J2344−3427, is a hybrid pulsator with a p-mode frequency at 223.16 d−1 (P = 387 s; 2583 μHz) and a corresponding amplitude of 1.5 mmag, and g modes in the frequency range 8.68–28.56 d−1 (P = 3025–9954 s; 100–331 μHz) and amplitudes between 0.76 and 1.17 mmag. Spectroscopic results place J1938+5609 and J2344−3427 among the long-period or hybrid pulsators, suggesting there may be further modes in these stars below our detection limits, with J0902−0720 placed firmly amongst the p-mode pulsators.


The goal of this study is to find out what people think about cryptocurrencies and how they feel about it. The study used a questionnaire to assess the factors that influence people's willingness to accept cryptocurrency. The study used a pretest, posttest quantitative analysis to determine the level of awareness among users in the first phase. In the second step, information regarding the conceptual framework was gathered using a survey approach. For the study, 350 university students were chosen as the sample size. Hypotheses about the significant effects of perceived benefits, perceived risks, perceived value, and structural provisions on behavioral intention to adopt cryptocurrency were accepted, while hypotheses about social effects, moderating effect of self-efficacy and personal innovativeness as well as the mediator attitudes towards using cryptocurrency, were not statistically proven. The tested model and resultant findings have brought many managerial and theoretical implications for enhancing the intention to adopt cryptocurrency.


Subsurface integrity assessment for building foundation using geophysical and geotechnical methods was carried out at Oniru, Eti- Osa, Lagos State. A total of twenty-five Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES), five 2-D Resistivity Imaging Survey traverses and two borings with Standard Penetration Test (SPT) were carried out at the study site. The acquired data were processed quantitatively using partial curve matching and computer iteration technique to generate the geoelectric sections, the 2-D model and the SPT logs. The VES results revealed five to six geologic units corresponding to topsoil, clayey sand, sandy clay, clay/peat, and sand while the 2-D resistivity structure corresponds with the VES result. The borehole log reveals sand layers having an N-value of 22-30 which is indicative of medium-dense, brown (medium to fine) sand with occasional gravels from depth 1.50 - 7.50m. The borehole log information correlates well with the VES/2-D result. For the sand layer which connotes dense, grey (medium to fine) sand with occasional gravels from a depth 7.50 – 15.75m with N-value ranging from 26–30m. The study analysis shows that the proposed building could be placed on the dense sand at depth 7.50 – 15.75m, this, however, should depend on the proposed load, length, and breadth of the proposed building. This study has provided useful information about the subsurface condition for engineering structure and zone suitable for the proposed foundation.


Insulin resistance is a major risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic diseases. It is a decrease response to the effect of the hormone, mainly by the liver, skeletal muscles and adipose tissues. Despite its widely reported prevalence among the elderly, information on its prevalence among adolescents is relatively limited. The study was aimed at assessing the prevalence of insulin resistance and its contributing risk factors among the students of a tertiary institutions in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. A total of 260 students who consented to the study were recruited, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and fasting blood insulin (FBI) levels were determined, anthropometric data were collected using meter rule, flexible tape and digital scale for calculation of body mass index (BMI) and waist/hip ratio (WHR). A structured questionnaire was used to collect demographic data and information on lifestyle. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were also measured. The findings showed a 5.4% prevalence of insulin resistance with more in males than in females. Sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics were found to positively correlate with HOMA-IR. A strong association (p < 0.05) was observed between HOMA-IR and lifestyle. The differences in the levels of HOMA-IR within and between the various groups of participants were not statistically significant (p > 0.05) except in gender. The findings of this study may have potential implications with regards to strategies for amelioration and prevention of insulin resistance amongst adolescents.