Sensorimotor regions of the brain have been implicated in simulation processes such as action understanding and empathy, but their functional role in these processes remains unspecified. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate that postcentral sensorimotor cortex integrates action and object information to derive the sensory outcomes of observed hand–object interactions. When subjects viewed others' hands grasping or withdrawing from objects that were either painful or nonpainful, distinct sensorimotor subregions emerged as showing preferential responses to different aspects of the stimuli: object information (noxious vs. innocuous), action information (grasps vs. withdrawals), and painful action outcomes (painful grasps vs. all other conditions). Activation in the latter region correlated with subjects' ratings of how painful each object would be to touch and their previous experience with the object. Viewing others' painful grasps also biased behavioral responses to actual tactile stimulation, a novel effect not seen for auditory control stimuli. Somatosensory cortices, including primary somatosensory areas 1/3b and 2 and parietal area PF, may therefore subserve somatomotor simulation processes by integrating action and object information to anticipate the sensory consequences of observed hand–object interactions. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Based on the operator theories and Hamiltonian canonical equation, an operator based quantum dynamics equation is established, which has the same effect as the Hamiltonian equation in describing the state evolution of quantized dynamical systems. As the reasonable verification of this equation, Schrodinger equation can be derived theoretically, and the variational principle properties of quantum mechanics are revealed. This work will help to promote the development of quantum theory and to perfect the axiomatic system of quantum mechanics.


Oxygen transport in amorphous (a-GaO1.5) and partially crystalline (a/c-GaO1.5) gallium oxide was studied by means of 18O/16O isotope exchange experiments and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Thin films of a-GaO1.5 were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on alumina substrates at room temperature in an oxygen atmosphere. Oxygen tracer diffusion coefficients D* and oxygen surface exchange coefficients k* were determined as a function of temperature, 300 ≤ T/°C ≤ 370, and as a function of oxygen partial pressure, 2 ≤ p(O2)/mbar ≤ 500 at a temperature of T = 330 °C. The activation energy of oxygen tracer diffusion in amorphous gallium oxide was found to be EA = 0.8 eV. In addition, the time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram of crystallisation of amorphous gallium oxide was determined.


Mining social network data and developing user profile from unstructured and informal data are a challenging task. The proposed research builds user profile using Twitter data which is later helpful to provide the user with personalized recommendations. Publicly available tweets are fetched and classified and sentiments expressed in tweets are extracted and normalized. This research uses domain-specific seed list to classify tweets. Semantic and syntactic analysis on tweets is performed to minimize information loss during the process of tweets classification. After precise classification and sentiment analysis, the system builds user interest-based profile by analyzing user's post on Twitter to know about user interests. The proposed system was tested on a dataset of almost 1 million tweets and was able to classify up to 96% tweets accurately.


Wireless access networks in the form of wireless local area networks, home networks, and cellular networks are becoming an integral part of the Internet. Unlike wired networks, random packet loss due to bit errors is not negligible in wireless networks, and this causes significant performance degradation of transmission control protocol (TCP). We propose and study a novel end-to-end congestion control mechanism called TCP Veno that is simple and effective for dealing with random packet loss. A key ingredient of Veno is that it monitors the network congestion level and uses that information to decide whether packet losses are likely to be due to congestion or random bit errors. Specifically: (1) it refines the multiplicative decrease algorithm of TCP Reno-the most widely deployed TCP version in practice-by adjusting the slow-start threshold according to the perceived network congestion level rather than a fixed drop factor and (2) it refines the linear increase algorithm so that the connection can stay longer in an operating region in which the network bandwidth is fully utilized. Based on extensive network testbed experiments and live Internet measurements, we show that Veno can achieve significant throughput improvements without adversely affecting other concurrent TCP connections, including other concurrent Reno connections. In typical wireless access networks with 1% random packet loss rate, throughput improvement of up to 80% can be demonstrated. A salient feature of Veno is that it modifies only the sender-side protocol of Reno without changing the receiver-side protocol stack.


Upconversion luminescence (UCL) refers to nonlinear optical processes, which can convert near-infrared photons to short-wavelength emission. Recent advances in nanotechnology have contributed to the development of photon upconversion materials as promising new generation candidates of fluorescent bioprobes and spectral converters for biomedical and optoelectronic applications. Apart from the remarkable photoluminescence of the materials under photon excitation, some UCL materials may exhibit intrinsic magnetic, ferroelectric, X-ray absorption properties, and so on. These interesting characteristics provide an opportunity for us to couple a single stimulus or multiple stimuli (electric field, magnetic field, X-ray, electron beam, temperature and pH, etc.) to various types of UCL materials. In this review, we will primarily focus on the stimuli responsive properties of UCL materials beyond light-matter interaction, which can aid both fundamental research and widespread applications of the materials. The mechanisms of the response to various stimuli in the UCL materials are discussed. This article will also highlight recent advances in the development of these materials in response to various stimuli and their applications in multimodal bioimaging, drug delivery and release, electro-optical devices, magnetic, temperature and pH sensors and multiple anti-counterfeiting inks. Lastly, we will present potential directions of future research and challenging issues which arise in expanding the applications of stimuli responsive UCL materials.


This paper describes the implementation of MPEG4 encoder on embedded ALTERA RISCS processors Nios 32. The purpose of this implementation is to validate the platform MERITE. It is an architecture of a versatile platform for wireless sensor networks. This platform acquires environmental data and detects important variations in order to trigger some alarm. When some alarm is triggered on, data of the environment are compressed and sent on a wireless network. The MPEG4 algorithm is used to compress the video data.


Background Bacterial cholangitis and cholecystitis are rarely reported, poorly characterized diseases in the dog. Objectives To characterize the clinical features of these conditions. Animals Twenty‐seven client‐owned dogs with bacterial cholangitis, cholecystitis, or both. Methods Multicenter, retrospective cases series of dogs with bacterial cholangitis, cholecystitis, or both, presenting January 2000 to June 2011 to 4 Veterinary Schools in Ireland/United Kingdom. Interrogation of hospital databases identified all cases with the inclusion criteria; histopathologically confirmed cholangitis or cholecystitis and bile culture/cytology results supporting a bacterial etiology. Results Twenty‐seven dogs met the inclusion criteria with approximately 460 hepatitis cases documented over the same study period. Typical clinical pathology findings were increases in liver enzyme activities (25/26), hyperbilirubinemia (20/26), and an inflammatory leukogram (21/24). Ultrasound findings, although nonspecific, aided decision‐making in 25/26 cases. The most frequent hepatobiliary bacterial isolates were Escherichia coli (n = 17; 16 cases), Enterococcus spp. (n = 8; 6 cases), and Clostridium spp. (n = 5; 5 cases). Antimicrobial resistance was an important feature of aerobic isolates; 10/16 E. coli isolates resistant to 3 or more antimicrobial classes. Biliary tract rupture complicated nearly one third of cases, associated with significant mortality (4/8). Discharged dogs had a guarded to fair prognosis; 17/18 alive at 2 months, although 5/10 re‐evaluated had persistent liver enzyme elevation 2–12 months later. Conclusion and Clinical Significance Bacterial cholangitis and cholecystitis occur more frequently than suggested by current literature and should be considered in dogs presenting with jaundice and fever, abdominal pain, or an inflammatory leukogram or with ultrasonographic evidence of gallbladder abnormalities.


The success of a nation in sports depends increasingly on a number of closely interrelated factors. Previous research provides an overview of important determinants that can lead to international sporting success. Subsequently, many studies have used these determinants as a framework, to compare the elite sports policies of various countries to determine the homogeneity and differences. This study has analysed the elite sports system in India based on the determinants already identified by previous research. The study has used various public documents such as parliamentary standing committee reports, annual reports of Ministry of sports and other policy documents as the sources of data generation. This research exposes the current standing of the sports system in India and the necessary steps that need to be taken to take the Indian sports to new heights.


Advances in sensor technology have led to an increased interest in using degradation-based sensory information to predict the remaining lives of partially degraded components and systems. This paper presents a stochastic degradation modeling framework for computing and continuously updating remaining life distributions (RLDs) using in situ degradation signals acquired from individual components during their operational lives. Unfortunately, these sensory-updated RLDs cannot be characterized using parametric distributions and their moments do not exist. Such difficulties hinder the implementation of this sensor-based framework, especially from the standpoint of computational efficiency of embedded algorithms. In this paper, we identify an approximate procedure by which we can compute a conservative mean of the sensory-updated RLDs and express the mean and variance using closed form expressions that are easy to evaluate. To accomplish this, we use the first passage time of Brownian motion with positive drift, which follows an inverse Gaussian distribution, as an approximation of the remaining life. We then show that the mean of the inverse Caussian is a conservative lower bound of the mean remaining life using Jensen's inequality. The results are validated using real-world vibration-based degradation information.


The two essays in this volume explore how monks in medieval India and China wrote about themselves with their fellow monks. The author translates and discusses biographies and autobiographies of two Jain monks, who lives in the 11th and 14th century CE. The book tells us how a community of Chinese Buddhists viewed the life of the founder of their group, and how his biography reflected the changes that the community underwent. The essays are the result of a joint research project on religious biographies in Asia, carried out with assistance from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.


Taking thermal parameters such as evaporating temperature, condensing temperature, superheating temperature and sub-cooled temperature as the basic variables and serving COP and heating capacity as evaluating indicators, this paper builds a series of mathematical models according to the rationale of WSHP and the correlation of its components and a simulation platform based on Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW), simulates and analyzes the influence of thermal parameters on the performance of WSHP under variable working condition. The results show that evaporating temperature and condensing temperature have more significant effect on the performance of WSHP than both of superheating temperature and sub-cooled temperature and lower condensing temperature and higher evaporating temperature can raise the value of COP but reduce heating capacity. They also show that lower superheating temperature will bring higher value of COP but lower heating capacity and higher sub-cooled temperature can make both COP value and heating capacity increase. On the simulative condition, the influence rates of evaporating temperature, condensing temperature, superheating temperature and sub-cooled temperature relative to COP of WSHP respectively are 2.25%,2.61%,0.7% and 0.51% and the influence rates of these temperatures relative to heating capacity respectively are 1.32%,1.09%,0.58% and 0.77%. These results may provide with some reliable foundations on optimizing operation and control of WSHP under variable working condition.


To ensure the safe and stable operation of lithium-ion batteries in battery energy storage systems (BESS), the power/current is de- rated to prevent the battery from going outside the safe operating range. Most derating strategies use static limits for battery current, voltage, temperature and state-of-charge, and do not account for the complexity of battery degradation. Progress has been made with models of lithium plating for fast charging. However, this is a partial solution, does not consider other degradation mechanisms, and still requires complex optimization work, limiting widespread adoption. In this work, the calendar and cycle degradation model is analysed of fl ine to predetermine the degradation rates. The results are integrated into the current-derating strategy. This framework can be adapted to any degradation model and allows fl exible tuning. The framework is evaluated in simulations of an outdoors-installed BESS with passive thermal management, which operates in a residential photovoltaic application. In comparison to standard derating, the degradation-aware derating achieves: (1) increase of battery lifetime by 65%; (2) increase in energy throughput over lifetime by 49%, while III) energy throughput per year is reduced by only 9.5%. These results suggest that the derating framework can become a new standard in current derating.


Cytogenetic studies were performed in 95 adults with acute leukemia, 39 (41%) of whom had abnormal karyotypes in their leukemic cells. The karyotypes were grouped according to the Denver-Chicago classification, and abnormalities were correlated with clinical variables. The frequency and quality of abnormality was not influenced by age, morphologic type of leukemia, or prior treatment. The frequency of abnormal karyotypes was increased in patients with increasing leukocytosis. Hypodiploidy adversely affected response to treatment and survival. D or E group chromosome deletions were associated with a decreased response to treatment and survival, whereas patients with extra D or E chromosomes had an improved prognosis. The overall distribution of chromosomal abnormalities in the leukemic cells deviated significantly from the expected for random distribution. D+, E+, and G — abnormalities were significantly more frequent than expected. Patients with marrow leukemic cell aneuploidy showed a loss of their abnormality during complete remission and recurrence at the time of relapse. The evidence suggested that chromosomal aberrations occur with increasing frequency as patients approach death. CYTOGENETIC ABNORMALITIES are present in the leukemic cells of 40% to 60% of patients with acute leukemia (1). Although these chromosomal alterations tend to remain constant within a given patient, it has generally been considered that there are no specific abnormalities that characterize the disease (2-4). This contrasts with chronic granu locytic leukemia, where most patients have a specific and characteristic cytogenetic abnormality,


Long concrete structure is frequently used in modern buildings or structures. As the main measures of achieving seamless construction and crack control of long concrete structure, strengthening strip and after-irrigation-strip have been widely applied. However, compared with after-irrigation-strip, the clear advantage of strengthening strip is closure ahead. Therefore, this paper from aspects of theoretical analysis and engineering application replace the after-irrigation-strip with intermittent strengthening strip in one original design of a project. Since the completion of construction, there are no harmful cracks in the structure. This article also describes the project quality control measures and technical and economic analysis for the design and construction of similar projects.


Most finance professors, at least in the North America, are quite familiar with the CRSP database, which contains historical trading data for all American listed stocks. However, few use it in their classrooms for three reasons: it is difficult to retrieve data; time consuming to explain and does not have recently available data, i.e. for yesterday or last month. In this paper, I present an effective way to solve those shortcomings. Two words could be used to describe my method: "trivial" and "fast". "Trivial" means that the method is so simple that it needs just a one-page long instruction. "Fast" means that loading a data set takes just a few seconds. For example, it takes just 5 seconds to load CRSP monthly data (which contains 32,676 stocks over 92 years). Another advantage of my approach is that we could retrieve IBM's data from 1926 up to yesterday by combining CRSP with Yahoo!Finance. Over the last 5 years, more than 50 schools have launched Business Analytics/Data Analytics programs. For those programs, CRSP is an ideal database they should use for machine learning, data visualization, cluster analysis, portfolio optimization and bankruptcy prediction.


Two cases of primary adenocarcinoma of the female urethra are reported. Case 1 was a 75-year-old female presenting with the complaint of genital bleeding. Physical examination revealed a pea-sized tumor in the urethral meatus. Tumor resection was performed under the preoperative diagnosis of caruncles, but, histopathological examination revealed adenocarcinoma. She was readmitted because of recurrence of tumor 7 months after the first operation. En bloc resection including the bladder, urethra and uterus was done followed by ileal conduit for urinary diversion. Case 2 was an 85-year-old female presenting with the complaint of macroscopic hematuria. Physical examination revealed a thumb's-head-sized tumor in the urethral meatus and also the left enlarged inguinal lymph nodes. Tumor resection and biopsy of the left inguinal lymph nodes were performed. Histopathological examination revealed adenocarcinoma. Postoperative irradiation to the left inguinal lymph nodes was given to a total dose of 4,000 rads. Ninety-two cases of primary adenocarcinoma of the female urethra in the Japanese literature including our cases are reviewed.


ABSTRACT Novel Weissella sp. bacteria have recently been reported to be associated with disease outbreaks in cultured rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) at commercial farms in China, Brazil, and the United States. Here we present the first genome sequence of this novel Weissella species, isolated from the southeastern United States.


The electro-optic coefficients of two crystals have been measured by both static and dynamic methods. For NH4H2PO4, r63=2.54, r41=6.25; for KH2PO4, r63=3.15, r41=2.58 (units 10−7 c.g.s., 20°C λ5560). The variation of the electro-optic response with the frequency of the applied field is given and related to the piezoelectric vibrations of the crystal. A theoretical relation for the difference in the electro-optic constants measured at constant stress and at constant strain is derived, which provides a check on the consistency of the presently available electro-optic, photo-elastic, piezoelectric, and elastic coefficients for these crystals. The use of a.c. methods to obtain high precision in polarization measurements is discussed.


Nontoxic goitre is common, even in areas where iodine intake is sufficient. The most important symptoms and signs of nontoxic goitre are caused by compression of vital structures in the neck or upper thoracic cavity. In any patient with goitre the serum concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) should be measured to detect or exclude clinically inapparent (subclinical) hyper- or hypothyroidism. CT and MRI are expensive but very sensitive methods to identify tracheal compression and to determine intrathoracic extension. Thyroid ultrasonography and scintigraphy are not routinely indicated. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy is indicated in patients with fast-growing nodules and nodules that have a firmer consistency than other nodules within the gland. Thyroidectomy is standard therapy for young and otherwise healthy patients, especially when prompt decompression of vital structures is required. Radioiodine therapy is an attractive alternative to surgery in older patients, in those with cardiopulmonary disease, and in those with recurrent goitre. Thyroxin therapy may be tried in young patients with small, diffuse goitres who have normal serum TSH concentrations.


It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 2012 ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology -- VRST'12. VRST has become one of the major scientific events in the area of virtual reality since its debut in 1994 in Singapore. The symposium continues its tradition as an international forum for the presentation of research results and experience reports on leading edge issues of software, hardware and systems for Virtual Reality. The mission of the symposium is to share novel technologies that fulfill the needs of Virtual Reality applications and environments and to identify new directions for future research and development. VRST gives researchers and practitioners a unique opportunity to share their perspectives with others interested in the various aspects of Virtual Reality and owes its existence to a vibrant and productive research community. This year, VRST was held December 10-12, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The call for papers attracted 88 submissions from Asia, Europe, Australia, and North and South America in all areas of Virtual Reality research. Particular attention was given to work on system with a special track focusing on architectures, frameworks, reusability, adaptivity, and performance testing and evaluation. An international program committee consisting of 16 experts in the topic areas and the three program chairs handled the highly competitive and selective review process. Almost every submission received four or more reviews, two from members of the international program committee and two from external reviewers. Reviewing was double-blind, where only the program chairs and the program committee member assigned to identify external reviewers knew the identity of the authors.

In the end, the program committee was able to accept 25 out of 88 submissions, which corresponds to an acceptance rate of 28%. For posters, 15 out of 32 submissions will appear in the proceedings. The topics range from tracking, augmented and mixed reality, interaction, navigation and locomotion, collaboration, haptics, simulation, agents and behaviors to two sessions for a systems track. We hope that these proceedings will serve as a valuable reference for Virtual Reality researchers and developers.


The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between stride-to-stride fluctuations and prosthesis preference. Thirteen individuals with unilateral, transtibial amputation consented to participate. Individuals walked on a treadmill for 3 min with their prescribed and an alternate prosthesis. Stride-to-stride fluctuations were quantified with the largest Lyapunov exponent (LyE) of each joint flexion/extension time series. The change in the LyE was calculated for each major lower-limb joint for both conditions. Participants indicated preference between the prostheses on a continuous visual analog scale. The change in the LyE was correlated with the degree of preference between the two prostheses at the prosthetic ankle. The change in the LyE of the prosthetic ankle was strongly related to the degree of preference (r = 0.629, p = 0.02). Thus, stride-to-stride fluctuations, quantified by the LyE, are strongly related to the patient's perception of the prosthesis. As a result, the LyE is the first objective measure to detect changes in gait that relate to the patient's perception of the prosthesis. The LyE should be further examined as a potentially effective prescriptive and outcome measure in prosthetic rehabilitation.


In this study, convection in a porous medium for a laminar, incompressible, non-Darcy model flow in an inclined channel has been investigated. The flow field considered is composed of porous and clear viscous layers. The solutions are carried out for both clear fluid and porous regions by using the differential transform method (DTM). For the solutions of governing equations, constant values for some parameters such as angle of inclination (φ), porous parameter (σ), and the ratio of the heights of two layers (h) are assigned. In order to verify the applied solution technique, the results obtained are compared to the already existing ones evaluated by perturbation method. It is noticed that the results by two methods are in agreement for small values of Brinkman number (Br). However, for higher values of Br, the solutions carried out by perturbation method lose accuracy but the results of the DTM are still valid. The entropy generation number (N s ) is derived and plotted by using dimensionless velocity and temperature profiles. One of the advantages of this study to similar studies is to give an open form series solution, which gives a tractable and easily applicable recurative form of nonlinear field equations. In similar studies, it is said that the equations are solved; however, neither solution technique nor accuracy or applicability of given technique are clear. In this work, these are well documented.


Networks are used to model many real-world systems, including molecules, transportation systems, social networks, the World Wide Web and communication networks. Some applications require counting network substructures of many different types. The Tutte polynomial is a tool that is widely used for counting substructures in networks. We study several counting functions related to the Tutte polynomial. We focus on networks where every link has a fixed direction. These networks are more complex than undirected networks. We establish fundamental properties of these functions for some networks drawn on surfaces, and networks with one principal node.


The production of cellulosic biofuels often leaves behind solid residues, which can be converted to useful co-products via chemical modification and processing. The objective of this study was to examine the changes in hydroxyl accessibility of a hardwood after the extraction of fermentable sugars (saccharification). Saccharification was performed on milled and dilute-acid pretreated aspen wood and resulted in a glucan-to-glucose conversion of 91%. The unhydrolyzed (solid) fraction was then analyzed for hydroxyl availability using an acetylation method, and the data were related to information of accessible pore volume evaluated using nitrogen adsorption. Different pore volumes were also created by oven-, air-, or freeze-drying of the samples. The results showed that more hydroxyls are available if the physical accessibility (pore volume) of a given substrate is better preserved. Upon saccharification, the accessible hydroxyls were reduced by at least half of that in untreated wood, while the specific pore volume increased 10 times. This finding suggests that future strategies for utilizing saccharification residues for co-products should tap the increased porosity and lower polarity of the substrate.


Bio-sourced hydrogels are attractive materials for diagnosing, repairing and improving the function of human tissues and organs. However, their mechanical strength decreases with an increase in water content. Furthermore, it is challenging to mold these hydrogels with high precision, which significantly limits their applications. Herein, we modified a biocompatible and biodegradable material, hyaluronic acid, with methacrylic anhydride and then cured it with a four-arm star structure cross-linking agent under ultraviolet light. The hyaluronic acid hydrogel was finally cured within 15 s with an adjustable cross-linking degree. The results demonstrated that the developed gel maintained good mechanical strength with a water content of 90%, while achieving micropatterns at a precision of 20 μm. The biological experiments showed that it could effectively promote the release of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which contributed to promoting cell growth, and has favorable biocompatibility. Overall, this hyaluronic acid hydrogel is a promising biomedical material with high forming accuracy, excellent mechanical properties, and favorable biocompatibility, which indicate its potential value in a variety of tissue engineering and biomedical applications.


Results of an experimental investigation to determine downwash and wake characteristics in region of trailing vortex system behind a rectangular half-wing at Mach number 1.91 are presented. The wing had a 5-percent thick symmetric diamond cross section beveled to a knife edge at the tip. At small angles of attack, downwash angles were in close agreement with predictions of linearized theory based on the assumption of an undistorted vortex sheet. At higher angles of attack, the flow was greatly influenced by the rolling up of the vortex sheet.


Fatty acids are commonly preferred as phase change materials for passive solar thermoregulation due to their several advantageous latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) properties. However, further storage container requirement of fatty acids against leakage problem during heating period and also low thermal conductivity significantly limit their application fields. To overcome these drawbacks of capric acid–stearic acid eutectic mixture as phase change material, it was first impregnated with expanded vermiculite clay by melting/blending method and then doped with carbon nanotubes. The effects of carbon nanotubes additive on the chemical/morphological structures and LHTES properties of the composite phase change material and thermal enhanced change phase change materials were investigated by scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis analysis techniques. The differential scanning calorimetry results showed that the form-stable composite phase change materials and thermal enhanced composite phase change materials have melting temperatures in the range of 24.35–24.64℃ and latent heat capacities between 76.32 and 73.13 J/g. Thermal conductivity of the composite phase change materials was increased as 83.3, 125.0 and 258.3% by carbon nanotubes doping 1, 3 and 5 wt%. The heat charging and discharging times of the thermal enhanced -composite phase change materials were reduced appreciably due to the enhanced thermal conductivity without notably influencing their LHTES properties. Furthermore, the thermal cycling test and thermogravimetric analysis findings proved that all fabricated composites had admirable thermal durability, cycling LHTES performance and chemical stability.


Proximate chemical composition and fatty acid (FA) profile of different parts and sexes of ray (Raja clavata) were compared. The proximate values of liver samples significantly differed from other body parts (p < 0.05). Pectoral fin had the highest moisture, protein, and ash contents (78.6, 20.5, and 1.2%, respectively). The highest fat content (39.7%) was observed for liver samples. A significant variation was also observed between sexes in terms of proximate and FA values (p < 0.05). The levels of saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) varied between 27.1–32.1, 14.9–19.0, and 34.3–39.5%, respectively, in total fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). The highest total PUFA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) values were observed in the edible portion of liver for both sexes due to high contents of fat, despite the low values of % total FAME in comparison with other body parts. Significant variations among FA levels were observed for different body parts (p < 0.05). The highest DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) values were found in the edible portion of the liver and calculated as 6.8 and 2.3 g/100 g, respectively, indicating the importance of utilizing the liver of this species.


Volume 14A is an indispensable reference for manufacturing, materials, and design engineers. It provides comprehensive coverage and essential technical information on the process-design relationships that are needed to select and control metalworking operations that produce shapes from forging, extrusion, drawing and rolling operations. This engineering reference book is an invaluable reference resource for process and production engineers and industrial (shop-floor) personnel in the automotive, aerospace, and other industries, as well as for students of metal forming. In-depth discussion of forming equipment, processes, materials, and advanced modeling techniques make it a substantially new updated ASM Handbook. Some of the new topics and coverage include: Innovations with forming processes such as equal-channel angular extrusion and advanced roll-forming techniques Forming of special-purpose materials such as intermetallic alloys and composites) Discussion of advanced thermomechanical processes for both ferrous and non-ferrous alloys New articles dealing with process and material-behavior models, process optimization, and the properties of workpiece and die materials Contents includes: Introduction, Forging Equipment, Forging Processes, Cold Heading and Cold Extrusion, Other Bulk Forming Processes, Forging of Steels and Heat-Resistant Alloys, Forging of Nonferrous Metals, Evaluation of Workability, Modeling and Computer Aided Process Design for Bulk Forming, Reference Information.


Acute heart failure (AHF) is a major cause of hospital admission in patients over 65 years of age (1). Despite improvements in the pharmacologic therapy, clinical outcome remain poor with 1-year mortality rates that reach 20–30% (2). The progression of HF is linked to numerous genetic and epigenetic factors (3), including small regions of highly conserved non-coding RNAs, called microRNAs (miRNAs), that are important regulators of gene expression and modulate numerous processes implied in the pathophysiology of HF (4,5).


: Antisera against tumor-associated and organ-specific antigens of human mammary glands, as well as mammary carcinoma patient sera were used in cross-reactions with the test-system for a nucleoid antigen of Hep-2 retravirus. None of the antigens, revealed in mammary carcinomas and human milk seems to be either viral structural, or virus-induced cellular antigen. No cross-reactivity was revealed between preparations, containing A-type particles, isolated from Hep-2 cells and human milk and mammary carcinomas. Cell surface antigen, nonidentical to viral structural antigens, was detected in Hep-2 cells. It proved to be shared by E16b and some other stable cell lines, however it cannot be detected in mammary fibroadenomas, positive for the D-type nucleoid antigen, and in mammary carcinomas. Only gastric carcinoma homogenates exhibited reaction of identity with the cell surface antigen, shared by Hep-2 and E16b cells. It suggests that some common stem cells might be involved in its synthesis, rather than D-type retravirus genome. This question is worth a special investigation. The findings obtained show the genome of D-type retravirus is repressed in mammary carcinomas in contrast with fibroadenomas, when synthesis of nucleoid antigens was revealed by ILYIN [7].


RFID technologies are gaining much attention as they are attractive solutions to many application domains. Localization based on active RFID technologies provides a much needed added-value to further expand the application domain. LANDMARC was the first attempt using active RFID for indoor location sensing with satisfactory results. However, the LANDMARC approach suffers from two drawbacks. First, it does not work well in a closed area with severe radio signal multi-path effects. Second, to further improve the localization accuracy, more reference tags are needed which is costly and may trigger the RF interference phenomenon. The proposed VIRE approach can overcome the above drawbacks without additional cost. Based on the concept of virtual reference tags, a proximity map is maintained by each reader. An elimination algorithm is used to eliminate those unlikely locations to reduce the estimation error. Our experimental results show that the new method consistently enhances the precision of indoor localization from 17 to 73 percent over the LANDMARC approach at different tag locations in different environments.


Difficulties identifying causally relevant genetic variants underlying patterns of human variation have been given competing interpretations. The debate is illuminated in this article by drawing attention to the issue of underlying heterogeneity—the possibility that genetic and environmental factors or entities underlying a trait are heterogeneous—as well as four other fundamental gaps in the methods and interpretation of classical quantitative genetics: "Genetic" and "environmental" fractions of variation in traits are distinct from measurable genetic and environmental factors underlying the traits' development; Standard formulas for partitioning variation in human traits are unreliable; Methods for translation from fractions of variation to measurable factors are limited; and Variation within groups is different from variation between averages for separate groups. Given these five gaps in the estimation and interpretation of components of variance, high heritability values for traits are not a reliable basis for choosing which traits to investigate by molecular techniques; this helps explain why identification of causally relevant genetic variants has not produced the results and insights hoped for.


The effects of boundary perturbations on eigenvalues are reviewed. The perturbation theory is developed for application to calculations of the buckling of reactors whose lateral surface is shaped like a right circular cylinder or a sphere. It is shown that with the perturbation approach applied, the zeroth-order approximation can be a circular cylinder or a sphere of such a radius that the first-order correction for the buckling is zero. A buckling formula for reactors with a cylindrical side surface has been obtained within the framework of the second-order perturbation theory. An elliptical cylinder and regular polygonal prisms are reviewed for illustration purposes.


The world's first full-scale subsea plant for production of sulphate free or low salinity water for IOR and EOR purposes has been designed, procured, constructed, and commissioned. This has been achieved with the involvement and support of an original equipment manufacturer, the Norwegian Research Council, and several offshore oilfield operators. The full-scale subsea treatment plant has undergone qualification in accordance with API 17N, and this paper shares key design aspects of the plan, operational experience, and the water quality results achieved.
 Subsea seawater treatment for water injection has several inherent advantages compared to topside treatment. One significant aspect is the increased flexibility afforded to reservoir engineers in improving effective reservoir management by providing the opportunity to implement any desired water injection capacity, anywhere and anytime. In addition, the ability to provide 'tailor made' water for injection into oil reservoirs is seen as a game changing opportunity for offshore oilfield production companies wishing to produce more, produce faster, and produce cheaper.
 The process advantages of the seawater treatment plant being on the seabed allows for a design that is simplified compared to a corresponding topside plant. This system design is explained in the paper and how it translates into improved reliability and availability. The all electric design also has the capabilities to be installed, moved, and reused on the seabed with minimum impact on topside infrastructure.
 This paper provides information that has not been presented before about the novel subsea seawater treatment process. It shares commissioning and operational knowledge gained during a six month test period and includes water quality results achieved at progressive points through the treatment plant. The ability to operate a water treatment plant on the seabed necessitates instrumentation and control that provides good condition monitoring of equipment and the ability to check and control water quality. The novel methods that have been employed and tested on this treatment plant are discussed.
 The treatment plant has been fully tested and is now available to clients for installation and operation on an offshore field. Lessons learnt are shared along with showing how the treatment design can be used to provide high-quality water on a wide range of field applications at any stage of a field's lifetime.
 There are several aspects of the design that reduce the health, safety and environment (HSE) impact of water injection in general, including; lower power consumption (reducing carbon footprint) and no (or significantly reduced) liquid chemical requirement; hence, lower handling exposure for operators.


[Purpose] Smartphones are widely used by teenagers and adults for various purposes. As teenagers use smartphones more actively than adults, they are more prone to be addicted to smartphones. Furthermore, excessive usage of smartphones can lead to various psychosocial and physical symptoms. [Subjects and Methods] One hundred teenage subjects were recruited and divided into normal and addiction groups, based on the criteria of the smartphone addiction scale-short version questionnaire. Craniocervical posture and mobility were examined by lateral cephalometric analysis and a cervical range of motion instrument. [Results] Cephalometric analysis showed no significant difference in the craniocervical angles of the resting positions of the two groups. However, measurement using an inclinometer revealed a significantly flexed cervical posture while using smartphones and decreased cervical range of motion in the smartphone-addicted teenagers. The clinical profile of temporomandibular disorders revealed that muscular problems were more frequently presented in the smartphone-addicted teenagers. [Conclusion] These findings suggest that smartphone addiction has a negative influence on craniocervical posture and mobility. Further, it can be postulated that smartphone addiction among teenagers may have contributed to the occurrence of myogenous temporomandibular disorders. In conclusion, smartphone-addicted teenagers may be more frequently subjected to muscular disturbance in the craniocervical area, which probably affects the pathologic process of temporomandibular disorders in teenagers.


A finite element (FE) study was performed to investigate the dynamic response of the brain under impact loading using computational mechanics to better understand the mechanisms of impact induced traumatic brain injury (iTBI). North Dakota State University Finite Element Head Model (NDSUFEHM) was used to investigate the pressure and stress responses of the brain under different impact conditions. The impacts were carried out at a 45o-tilted orientation using two different impact velocity, 10 m/s and 13 m/s, which resulted in a total of two different impact scenarios. LS-Dyna nonlinear FE solver and LS-PrePost were employed to perform all simulations, record data and visualize results. Specifically, the intracranial pressure (ICP), maximum shear stress (MSS), were recorded and analyzed for two different impact velocities. These biomechanical responses were recorded at different locations on and inside the brain to starting from the impact site (coup) to the opposite site (countercoup). This was done to analyze the variations of ICP and MSS through the brain in order to understand the role of these parameters in injury mechanisms. The impact severity was shown to have more effect on the level of pressure response while its effect on peak MSS was not much. ICP variation was linear between coup and countercoup sites. It was observed that unlike pressure, shear stress traveled slower through the brain tissue. Our findings suggested that using only one biomechanical parameter can't justify the fidelity of the FE head models. 


The power from direct drive linear wave energy converter (DDLWEC) consists of frequent power fluctuations and long-term power fluctuations due to oceanic conditions. A 60 kJ superconducting magnetic energy storage is designed to work in conjunction with batteries as a hybrid energy storage system for conditioning the outputs from DDLWECs. The issues of the intrinsic power fluctuations of DDLWECs and the intermittent power generation are both addressed by the hybrid energy storage system.


This paper highlights the three level space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique to control the Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) inverter for energy management in a multi-source system based on a diesel generator, a wind turbine, a PV generator, and a pack of the lithium-batteries for micro grid applications. The contribution of the paper is focused on the multi-source system energy management using the frequency components distribution method between the linked sources according to the dynamic response capability of the each source.


Dzhulamanov, K., Gerasimov, N., Dubovskova, M., & Baktygalieva, A. (2019). Polymorphisms of CAPN1, CAST, GDF5, TG5 and GH genes in Russian Hereford cattle. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 25(2), 375–379 The allelic and genetic polymorphisms of genes of calpain 1 (CAPN1), calpastatin (CAST), growth differentiation factor 5 (GDF5), thyroglobulin 5 (TG5) and growth hormone (GH) was examined in Russian population of Hereford cattle. The studies were carried out on purebred Hereford animals (sires, cows, bull-calves, heifers) from Chelyabinsk Region and Stavropol Territory, Russia. Maximum frequency of the genotype GG was observed at the locus of CAPN1 gene, amounting to 0.632. The study of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CAST gene showed a high prevalence of animals with CC genotype – 0.700. The genetic variability in GDF5 gene locus indicates the predominance of animals with AA genotype in studied population. The allelic polymorphism in thyroglobulin gene (TG5) is characterized by a high concentration of the CC (0.741) homozygous genotypes. The homozygotes concentration in growth hormone gene (GH) is in the range of 0.202-0.494, with the maximum value in LL variant and minimal in VV genotype. The maximum heterozygosity, which varied between 0.289-0.303, was observed for CAPN1 and GH genes across genetic markers studied in Hereford population. Minimum effective number of alleles (1.120) was established in GDF5 gene. A relatively high effective number of alleles was fi xed in GH gene (1.843). The lowest genetic diversity was observed in Russian population. These results can be used to improve the breeding and selection work with Hereford cattle.


Abstract G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play essential roles in various physiological processes, and are widely targeted by pharmaceutical drugs. Despite their importance, studying GPCRs has been problematic due to difficulties in isolating large quantities of these membrane proteins in forms that retain their ligand binding capabilities. Creating water-soluble variants of GPCRs by mutating the exterior, transmembrane residues provides a potential method to overcome these difficulties. Here we present the first study involving the computational design, expression and characterization of water-soluble variant of a human GPCR, the human mu opioid receptor (MUR), which is involved in pain and addiction. An atomistic structure of the transmembrane domain was built using comparative (homology) modeling and known GPCR structures. This structure was highly similar to the subsequently determined structure of the murine receptor and was used to computationally design 53 mutations of exterior residues in the transmembrane region, yielding a variant intended to be soluble in aqueous media. The designed variant expressed in high yield in Escherichia coli and was water soluble. The variant shared structural and functionally related features with the native human MUR, including helical secondary structure and comparable affinity for the antagonist naltrexone (Kd = 65 nM). The roles of cholesterol and disulfide bonds on the stability of the receptor variant were also investigated. This study exemplifies the potential of the computational approach to produce water-soluble variants of GPCRs amenable for structural and functionally related characterization in aqueous solution. Abstract G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play essential roles in various physiological processes, and are widely targeted by pharmaceutical drugs. Despite their importance, studying GPCRs has been problematic due to difficulties in isolating large quantities of these membrane proteins in forms that retain their ligand binding capabilities. Creating water-soluble variants of GPCRs by mutating the exterior, transmembrane residues provides a potential method to overcome these difficulties. Here we present the first study involving the computational design, expression and characterization of water-soluble variant of a human GPCR, the human mu opioid receptor (MUR), which is involved in pain and addiction. An atomistic structure of the transmembrane domain was built using comparative (homology) modeling and known GPCR structures. This structure was highly similar to the subsequently determined structure of the murine receptor and was used to computationally design 53 mutations of exterior residues in the transmembrane region, yielding a variant intended to be soluble in aqueous media. The designed variant expressed in high yield in Escherichia coli and was water soluble. The variant shared structural and functionally related features with the native human MUR, including helical secondary structure and comparable affinity for the antagonist naltrexone ( K d = 65 nM). The roles of cholesterol and disulfide bonds on the stability of the receptor variant were also investigated. This study exemplifies the potential of the computational approach to produce water-soluble variants of GPCRs amenable for structural and functionally related characterization in aqueous solution.


This study was conducted to determine the reinforcement effect of five types of esthetic fibers on the tensile properties of a conventional denture base resin. E-glass, polyester, rayon, nylon 6, and nylon 6/6 fibers were cut into 2, 4, and 6 mm lengths and added into resin randomly at a concentration of 3% by weight. For each formulation, five tensile specimens, as well as control specimens without fibers, were prepared in a dumbbell shape using a stainless steel mold, constructed according to ASTM Standard D638M-91a. Tensile properties were evaluated by using a universal testing machine. Surfaces of the tensile sections were also observed under the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Tensile strength of the specimens reinforced with fibers in varying lengths was found to be lower than that of the unreinforced control group. Among the trial groups, the specimens reinforced with 6 mm long polyester fibers showed the highest tensile strength. All the SEM fractographs indicated both weak adhesion and pull out of fibers from the matrix. None of the incorporated esthetic fibers appeared to improve tensile strength of the resin. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012


This paper proposes a speculative model and control framework for human-robot haptic joint (i.e. collaborative) actions in which the roles human and robot partners play as leaders or followers is not predetermined prior to tasks execution. In this proposed scheme, role switching is made by a homotopy: that is, a time-variant, continuous or setvalue, weighting interpolation function between the two extreme (leader of follower) behaviors for each individual. The role of each individual is changeable anytime with any plausible dynamic all along task execution. The formalism allows arbitrary functions for each partner's leader and follower control laws. We discuss strengths, weaknesses and perspectives of such an approach.


Abstract Causality regarding adverse events following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine is undetermined for vasculitis. Herein, we report the case of an 80-year-old man who presented with a persistent high fever of 7 days' duration that began shortly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. There was also a complaint of persistent lower limb pain and walking difficulty on emergency transportation. FDG PET/CT demonstrated extensive linear hypermetabolic foci along the vessels of both legs, including the hips, and the arms, supraclavicular area, chest wall, and temporal regions, suggesting systemic vasculitis. Subsequent temporal artery biopsy revealed arteritis, which is not typical of giant cell arteritis.


Provides an introduction to resources in the field of dance. This guide is intended as a starting place for researchers, pointing to tools for finding books, scholarly articles, reviews, and other topical and collection-related information.


Many micronutrients are currently being tested for cancer prevention activity. A short-term study recently suggested that two of these nutrients, beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol, may have an adverse interaction, with beta-carotene supplementation leading to markedly decreased serum concentrations of alpha-tocopherol. We have analyzed the effect of beta-carotene supplementation on serum concentrations of alpha-tocopherol in 2319 participants enrolled in the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial who have taken beta-carotene and vitamin A for up to 6 years. One thousand thirty-five participants enrolled in two pilot trials to the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial had serum collected at yearly intervals; an additional 1284 recently recruited participants had serum collected at biennial intervals. Using standard high pressure liquid chromatography techniques, with attention to quality control, these samples were analyzed for beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol. After up to 6 years of supplementation with beta-carotene (30 mg/day) and vitamin A (25,000 international units/day) we found a small but statistically significant increase in the serum concentration of alpha-tocopherol in participants taking the active agents. No evidence of a decrease was found in any of the subpopulations examined. We conclude that long-term supplementation with the combination of beta-carotene and vitamin A does not decrease serum concentrations of alpha-tocopherol. Our long-term trial validates results from several shorter trials conducted by others. The concept of adverse interactions between supplemental micronutrients is important. All cancer prevention trials should closely monitor serum concentrations of micronutrients, as well as the incidence of other significant disease.


Well-defined molecular brushes bearing polypeptides as side chains were prepared by a "grafting through" synthetic strategy with two-dimensional control over the brush molecular architectures. By integrating N-carboxyanhydride ring-opening polymerizations (NCA ROPs) and ring-opening metathesis polymerizations (ROMPs), desirable segment lengths of polypeptide side chains and polynorbornene brush backbones were independently constructed in controlled manners. The N2 flow accelerated NCA ROP was utilized to prepare polypeptide macromonomers with different lengths initiated from a norbornene-based primary amine, and those macromonomers were then polymerized via ROMP. It was found that a mixture of dichloromethane and an ionic liquid were required as the solvent system to allow for construction of molecular brush polymers having densely-grafted peptide chains emanating from a polynorbornene backbone, poly(norbornene-graft-poly(β-benzyl-l-aspartate)) (P(NB-g-PBLA)). Highly efficient postpolymerization modification was achieved by aminolysis of PBLA side chains for facile installment of functional moieties onto the molecular brushes.


IRS-III is the first WSMO compliant system for supporting the Semantic Web Services technologies and it is based on the IRS-II [3]. This paper presents how we integrated the OWL-S [5] service description ontology to IRS-III. We describe how the underlying model of IRS-III supports OWL-S.


Metal hydride (MH) alloy (MmNi3.81Mn0.41Al0.19Co0.76) is modified by the electroless nickel plating and used as the electroactive material of negative electrode in Ni/MH batteries. The effect of the concentrations of reductant (NaH2PO2×H2O), complex agent (Na3C6H5O7×2H2O), reaction time, and reaction temperature on the Ni loadings and the utilization of the modified MH are systematically studied. The experimental results reveal that the appropriate reaction time and temperature of electroless nickel plating are 30 min and 70 °C in this work. The loading amount of Ni-P on MH alloy is increased and decreased by increasing the concentration of reductant and complex agent, respectively. The steady utilization of unmodified MH alloy is 94.7±1.0 % in the forming process under the charge/discharge conditions of 0.2C charge to 160% SOC (state of charge) and 0.2C discharge to 0.95V. The utilization of MH alloys modified with conditions of [NaH2PO2×H2O] = 40 g L-1 and [Na3C6H5O7×2H2O] = 20 g L-1, T = 70 °C, t = 30 min and [MH] = 2g/100 ml, respectively, is improved to 101.9±0.3 %.


Big Data has become a worldwide tendency, having strong presence in the technological sphere as well as an increased growth in all market sectors. In this final evaluation project, extensive exploration on Big Data literature, predictive analytics, client analytics, as well as that of tools and technologies associated with the compilation and processing of mass data was undertaken. Furthermore, the elaboration of a data analysis model is being performed for a company within the ambit of the retail sector in Mexico. The abovementioned, through the development of a pilot test, which consists of three general stages, identification of the client, validation and refinement of the model and a forecast of new clients. The pilot test implies the formulation, refinement and reading of data of mass scale. This is undertaken by making use of three analyses: discriminant analysis, hierarchical cluster and k – media cluster. The methodology employed is DMADV, which is used where there is a need of designing or a re-designing of products and/or processes or, such as this case, the process of data analysis. As a result, a model capable of identifying 5 different segments, which the potential of providing analytical capacities in order to know, grow, monitor and maintain e-commerce clients within the retail business of Mexico.


Patients with PNH may be treated with a number of known agents. As in all patients with a chronic disease, a regimen tolerable over a long period of time must be selected. Knowledge and anticipation of complications and their proper treatment are essential parts in the treatment. When these principals are used, many patients may live reasonable lives for very long periods of time.


Background: Fraud attempts create large losses for financing subjects in modern economies. At the same time, leasing agreements have become more and more popular as a means of financing objects such as machinery and vehicles, but are more vulnerable to fraud attempts. Objectives: The goal of the paper is to estimate the usability of the data mining approach in discovering fraud in leasing agreements. Methods/Approach: Real-world data from one Croatian leasing firm was used for creating tow models for fraud detection in leasing. The decision tree method was used for creating a classification model, and the CHAID algorithm was deployed. Results: The decision tree model has indicated that the object of the leasing agreement had the strongest impact on the probability of fraud. Conclusions: In order to enhance the probability of the developed model, it would be necessary to develop software that would enable automated, quick and transparent retrieval of data from the system, processing according to the rules and displaying the results in multiple categories.


Frequency domain georadar data have several advantages over time domain data but are much more cumbersome to acquire. A medical imaging technique developed in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Calgary known as "tissue sensing adaptive radar" (TSAR) makes use of monostatic radar data acquired in the frequency domain. Simulated data were generated and processed using a workflow that has been previously developed and implemented sucessfully on georadar data. We discover that the simulated TSAR data are mixed phase, violating the minimum-phase assumptions of deconvolution. We show through synthetic examples that deconvolution of these data does not recover reflectivity accurately. Although nonstationary Gabor deconvolution has been shown be effective when applied to georadar data, our work with the TSAR data shows that we must take care to ensure that radar data be minimum phase during deconvolution, especially with data acquired in the frequency domain.


We see various hybrid forms of organization and competition in which domestic and foreign firms may cooperate in some phases of production such as technology development and then compete in product markets. We assume that for a foreign firm to produce a good for export into its rival's domestic market, it has to acquire technology either through research and development (R&D) or licensing from the domestic firm. The domestic firm has an incentive to offer a licensing contract that deters the foreign firm from conducting its own R&D, but this in turn creates an interdependency not considered in the traditional literature. We show that both domestic and foreign optimal policies with licensing can be the exact opposite of optimal policies without licensing. Interestingly, by imposing an export tax on the "foreign" firm, the foreign government can shift the licensing revenue from the "domestic" firm.


Symmetric peripheral gangrene (SPG) presents acutely as symmetric acral necrosis without large vessel obstruction or vasculitis.1While relatively rare, this syndrome has been well described in the critical care literature, mainly in the context of septic shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and as an uncommon presentation of purpura fulminans. Vasopressors have been implicated directly or as a contributory cause in many cases.1 Dermatologists often receive referrals from the intensive care unit, frequently for the evaluation of purpura or necrosis in the setting of septic shock and DIC.2We present 2 cases of dopamine hydrochloride— associated SPG seen over the course of 9 months. Report of Cases. Case 1. A 65-year-old white man with recurrent metastatic transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder presented with vomiting, diarrhea, and a 7.6-kg weight loss. He had received chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin, sodium methotrexate, and vincristine sulfate prior to admission.


There are several problems involving heat loss in pipes, heat exchangers, among others, and one of the points stand out are the steam traps , which although they are small devices , when there are maintenance problems , these values become significant and harmful for any industrial process. This study aimed to quan- tify the financial loss of a particular industrial process due solely to loss of energy (steam) in traps. Concluded that the results obtained a targeted maintenance is beneficial to the industry by reducing these losses


A general numerical algorithm for the computation of the fundamental modes and related cutoff wavenumbers in arbitrary shaped inhomogeneous waveguides is presented. The method exploits a generalized Donsker-Kac formula to express the lowest order modes in terms of asymptotic generalized Wiener-Ito integrals, whose computation is carried out by means of Monte Carlo methods. Comparison with known solutions and computational budget indicate that the proposed method is indeed accurate, versatile, as well as computationally efficient.


Is the world breaking up into three trading blocs, one in the Americas, one in Europe and one in Pacific Asia? If so, is this deviation from the principle of MFN (nondiscriminatory trade policies) good or bad? This paper attempts to answer both questions. Using the gravity model to examine bilateral trade patterns throughout the world, we find evidence of trading blocs in the European Community, the Pacific, and the Western Hemisphere, as in earlier work. Intra-regional trade is greater than could be explained by natural determinants: the proximity of a pair of countries, their sizes and GNP/capitas, and whether they share a common border or a common language. Within the Western Hemisphere, MERCOSUR and the Andean Pact countries appear to function as significantly independent trading areas, but NAFTA much less so (as of 1990). The strongest grouping in most years is APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation,which includes the U.S. and Canada along with the Asian Pacific countries). The intra-regional trade bias within MERCOSUR increased the most rapidly during the 1980s. In East Asia, on the other hand, increased intra-regional trade can be explained entirely by the rapid growth of the economies. We then turn from the econometrics to an analysis of economic welfare. Krugman has supplied an argument against a world of three trading blocs (that they would be protectionist), in a model that assumes no transport costs. He has supplied another argument in favor of trading blocs, provided the blocs are drawn along the "natural" geographic lines of the continents, in a model that assumes prohibitively high transportation costs between continents. In this paper we attempt to resolve the Krugman vs. Krugman debate. We complete the model of the welfare implications of trading blocs for the realistic case where intercontinental transport costs are neither so high as to be prohibitive nor as low as the costs among neighbors. We consider three applications of the model. (1) Continental Free Trade Areas (FTAs). We show that it is not only Krugman's "unnatural" FTAs that can leave everyone worse off than under MFN, but that under conditions of relatively low intercontinental transport costs, FTAs that are formed along natural continental lines can do so as well. We call such welfare-reducing blocs supernatural.(2) Partial regionalization. We find that partial liberalization within a regional Preferential Trading Arrangement (PTA) is better than 100 percent liberalization, in contrast to the Article 24 provision of the GATT. The super-natural zone, where the regional trading arrangement reduces welfare, occurs for combinations of low inter-continental transport costs and high intra-bloc preferences, i.e., when the regionalization of trade policy exceeds what is justified by natural factors. (3) The formation of several sub-regional PTAs on each continent. We find that multiple Mks on each continent could lower welfare, but that multiple PTAs, with partial internal liberalization, would raise welfare. We conclude the paper with an attempt to extract estimates of transportation costs from the statistics. Estimates suggest that trading blocs on the order of the EC are in fact super-natural.


Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) is the premier scientific method that is being currently used for the analysis of maritime safety and for the formulation of related regulatory policy. This paper conducts a critical review of the FSA methodology and proposes ways to improve it. All steps of the FSA approach are looked at and possible pitfalls or other deficiencies are identified. Then proposals are made to alleviate such deficiencies, with a view to achieve a more transparent and objective approach. The results of this paper may be useful if a revision of the FSA Guidelines is contemplated along these lines.


Exploration in Permian (Guadalupian) deep-water sandstones of the Delaware Mountain Group, west Texas and southeast New Mexico, represents a success story of the 1990s derived from reevaluation of reservoirs previously deemed uneconomical. Recent discoveries have concentrated on the Brushy Canyon in New Mexico and, to a lesser extent, the Cherry Canyon in Texas. Brushy Canyon reservoirs in particular previously were overlooked due to indications of poor reservoir quality from log and well test data; however, oil shows observed on mud logs across the northern Delaware basin led to new completion efforts in the late 1980s and 1990s using gel-sand fracture stimulations. Productive reservoirs are very fine to fine-grained arkosic to subarkosic sandstones with porosities of 12-25% and permeabilities typically of 1-5 md. Better reservoir quality is concentrated in massive channel sandstones variably interpreted as deposited by turbidity or saline density currents. Significant clay content, lamination, and close interbedding between oil- and water-bearing units make log analysis and reserve estimates problematic. As a result, the mud log remains the cheapest, most practical indicator of pay. Reservoir sandstones can be divided into a series of major productive trends related to proximal/slope and more distal/basin-floor depositional settings. Well productivity is variable within each trend, but primary recovery rarely exceeds 10%. Options for enhanced recovery include pressure maintenance, waterflooding, and carbon dioxide flooding. Early indications suggest that carbon dioxide flooding may be most appropriate in these low-permeability, clay-bearing reservoirs.


1. Over the last decades, biodiversity in agricultural landscapes has declined drastically. Initiatives to enhance biodiversity, such as agri-environment schemes, often have little effect, especially in intensively farmed landscapes. The effectiveness of conservation management may be improved by scheme implementation near high-quality habitats that can act as a source of species. We evaluated up to what distance high-quality habitats (nature reserves and artificially created flower-rich patches) affect the diversity of forbs and pollinators in intensively farmed landscapes of the Netherlands.


Abstract The deteriorating reasons of banking portfolio loans and some necessary measures for the improvement of this situation will be main topics of this article. The corruption in the banking system, is a phenomenon that has passed unobserved, but for our opinion is very often. Non professional loan officers, who lack the essential knowledge of identifying the clients, are common among the Banks of Albania; The new banking system, appears with the old problems of expansion of loan portfolio during 2005-2007,without the bank capacity to manage them and that for sure will be accompanied with influx of many clients with problems. The objective reason is also economic situation of our country and our region that for sure will reflect in quality of loans portfolio; The measures that are important to take are: a reform in banking system for what it concerned structure management in charge of loans giving. The loan officers reward should be connected with quality of portfolio management. Bank of Albania should enforce banks to spend more for training the loan officer. It may organize itself the training courses by raising a training center. It should control on-site banks more frequently. Should pay attention on giving new loans, which will improve gradually the quality of loan portfolio. Despite the situation must not restraint the loan process in bank. Keywords : Nonperforming loans, loan officer; corruption; financial crisis.


Introduction: Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy (CCM) is a
clinical syndrome in patients with liver cirrhosis characterized by an abnormal and blunted response in cardiac
output and contractility to physiologic, pathologic, or pharmacologic stress
but a normal to increased cardiac response at rest [1-4]. Information on the
epidemiology and natural history of CCM is limited. Methods: All
patients with a diagnosis of cirrhosis (N = 451) seen at gastroenterology
clinic over the four years were evaluated. CCM was defined using echocardiogram
(ECHO) and electrocardiogram (ECG) criteria [1]. Patients with structural or
ischemic heart disease or incomplete information were excluded (N = 220). Results: Among the 231 patients with cirrhosis,
118 (51.1%) met criteria for CCM, and no patient had this problem documented in
their medical record. Those with CCM were older (62.7 vs 57.8 years; p age (OR 1.6 per quartile; 95% CI 1.2-2.0).
Patients with alcoholic and unknown causes of cirrhosis are more likely to have
CCM, (p CCM, a diagnosis of exclusion, defined by ECHO and ECG criteria is
a common problem among cirrhotic patients attending a gastroenterology
practice. Advancing age and female gender were associated with a higher
prevalence of CCM, but the cause of cirrhosis was not possibly limited by
smaller sample size within cause-specific categories.
CCM was not recognized by our clinicians, and routine screening tests
were not performed. Provider awareness of CCM is needed since implementation of
angiotensin receptor blocker and beta-blocker therapy early in the course of
cirrhosis may modify the changes in cardiac function [5,6].


Educators and caregivers now have the opportunity to individualize and differentiate instructions with many technological devices never before available. Assistive Technology is being introduced in the classroom at all levels as a tool for teachers to help deliver instruction to all students. Assistive Technology is widely used to ensure appropriate educational opportunities to all students, including ELL students, students at risk, and students being considered as gifted and talented. The purpose of this article is to describe various assistive technology devices as mathematics tools to help all struggling students, not just students with disabilities, overcome math difficulties.


The aim of this review is to consider variation in mating p among females. We define mating p as the sensory and behavioural properties that influence the propensity of individuals to mate with certain phenotypes. Two properties of mating p can be distinguished: (i) 'preference functions'–the order with which an individual ranks prospective mates and (2)'choosiness' ‐the effort an individual is prepared to invest in mate assessment. Patterns of mate choices can be altered by changing the costs of choosiness without altering the preference function. We discuss why it is important to study variation in female mating behaviour and identify five main areas of interest: Variation in mating p and costs of choosiness could (i) influence the rate and direction of evolution by sexual selection, (2) provide information about the evolutionary history of female p, (3) help explain inter‐specific differences in the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics, (4) provide information about the level of benefits gained from mate choice, (5) provide information about the underlying mechanisms of mate choice. Variation in mate choice could be due to variability in preference functions, degree of choosiness, or both, and may arise due to genetic differences, developmental trajectories or proximate environmental factors. We review the evidence for genetic variation from genetic studies of heritability and also from data on the repeatability of mate‐choice decisions (which can provide information about the upper limits to heritability). There can be problems in interpreting patterns of mate choice in terms of variation in mating p and we illustrate two main points. First, some factors can lead to mate choice patterns that mimic heritable variation in p and secondly other factors may obscure heritable p. These factors are divided into three overlapping classes, environmental, social and the effect of the female phenotype. The environmental factors discussed include predation risk and the costs of sampling; the social factors discussed include the effect of male–male interactions as well as female competition. We review the literature which presents data on how females sample males and discuss the number of cues females use. We conclude that sexual‐selection studies have paid far less attention to variation among females than to variation among males, and that there is still much to learn about how females choose males and why different females make different choices. We suggest a number of possible lines for future research.


OBJECTIVES
We designed two different studies to evaluate two different combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) stopping strategies namely a 'staggered stop' approach (STOP 1 study) and a 'protected stop' approach (STOP 2 study) to find the best 'universal stop' strategy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients who stopped cART for any reason were recruited. In STOP 1, 10 patients on efavirenz continued dual nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) for 1 week after discontinuing efavirenz. Efavirenz concentrations were measured weekly for up to 3 weeks. In STOP 2, 20 patients stopped their cART and replaced it with two tablets of lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra) (100/50 mg) twice daily for 4 weeks. Lopinavir, efavirenz, nevirapine and tenofovir concentrations were measured weekly for up to 4 weeks. Virological and resistance testing were performed.

RESULTS
In STOP 1 five patients still had efavirenz present (median t(1/2)=148.4 h) 3 weeks after stopping. In STOP 2, 15/20 patients had a viral load (VL) of <40 copies/mL and 3/20 patients had a reduction in VL by 4 weeks. Six patients opted not to stop lopinavir/ritonavir and still had <40 copies/mL at week 8. Week 1-4 median trough lopinavir concentrations were well above the EC(95). Six patients still had detectable concentrations of original cART persisting for >1 week after stopping. No patients developed new resistance mutations.

CONCLUSIONS
Plasma efavirenz concentrations can persist up to 3 weeks after patients stop efavirenz-containing regimens. This suggests a strategy of stopping efavirenz only 1 week before NRTIs may not be long enough for some individuals. The use of lopinavir/ritonavir monotherapy for a 4 week period may be an alternative pharmacologically and virologically effective universal stopping strategy which warrants further investigation.


Health care reform and the use of electronic health record systems is dramatically changing the health care community. High adoption of health information technology has created an opportunity to improve population health by leveraging data collected by health systems. This project describes the informatics characteristics of current and emerging clinical data repositories among Minnesota health care providers. Results will provide a critical understanding of the status, challenges, and opportunities for leveraging the large investment in health care data systems to better support public health prevention programs, epidemiology, and surveillance to improve population health, identify health disparities, and advance health equity.


For the last thirty years, Afghanistan has been associated with images of war, of the Soviet occupation, civil strife, and the Taliban—to the point of concealing the extent to which the country once fired the imagination of archaeologists and adventurers of every sort. Is in this country, one of the most unstable in the world , where for nearly a century, the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) has been drawing up an inventory of the archaeological heritage. Thousands of sites have been already discovered and many of them excavated by the French archaeologists. They reveal Afghanistan's remarkable archaeological wealth, including protohistoric, Greek, Buddhist and Islamic remains among others.


Despite type 2 diabetes (T2DM) risk differences by BMI and age among populations of African descent, current T2DM screening criteria regard all black populations as one. Few studies have had opportunity to compare T2DM point prevalence among African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans living in the United States. Objectives: This study evaluated among African American and Afro-Caribbean New Yorkers: a) point prevalence of T2DM, b) odds of T2DM, and c) contributors to T2DM odds in either group. We used 2013/14 New York City Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NYC HANES) data for African Americans (n=208, age 42.7±15.3y (mean±SD), BMI 29.9±7.8 kg/m2) and Afro-Caribbeans (n=111, age 48.3±14.8 years, BMI 28.6±5.7 kg/m2). T2DM was defined as self-reported diagnosis by a physician, or measured HbA1c≥6.5%, or fasting plasma glucose ≥126mg/dL. BMI was based on measured height and weight. Age, socioeconomic variables and health behaviors were self-reported. Weighted logistic regression estimated T2DM odds (aOR), adjusting for age, BMI, income, marital status, smoking, fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity. Results: Compared to African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans had higher T2DM prevalence (20.2% vs. 15.5%). Afro-Caribbeans with T2DM were younger (age 58.8±11.2y) than African Americans with T2DM (age 61.3±15.8y), and had lower BMI of 30.1±4.4 vs. 32.8±7.6kg/m2 respectively. Odds of T2DM were not different among Afro-Caribbeans and African Americans (aOR=1.85 (95%CI 0.71, 2.40, P=0.415). In separate analyses among African Americans, BMI was associated with higher T2DM odds [aOR=1.07 (95%CI 1.01, 1.14), P=0.047]. Among Afro-Caribbeans BMI was not associated with T2DM odds [aOR=1.04 (95%CI 0.96, 1.130), P=0.37]. Conclusion: To enhance detection of T2DM among African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans future screening criteria should reflect differences in T2DM risk by BMI and age by ethnic group. Disclosure M.F. Horlyck-Romanovsky: None.


In version 2.0, IBM ILOG CP Optimizer has been extended by the introduction of scheduling support based on the concept of optional interval variables. This paper formally describes the new modeling language features available to the users of CP Optimizer for resource-based scheduling. We show that the new language is flexible enough to model problems never before addressed by CP scheduling engines, as well as naturally describing classical scheduling problems found in the literature. This modeling power is based on a small number of general concepts such as intervals, sequences and functions. This makes the modeling language simple, clear and easy to learn, while maintaining the highlevel structural aspects of the scheduling model.


This thesis sets out to demonstrate that literature that uses dialogic and syncretic methods to describe a collectively shared experience contributes to cultural memory by recalling the absent and the forgotten and by proposing alternative ways to access and represent the past. I further argue that the intertextual nature and memory work of the texts I evaluate as memorial novels build a complementary and reciprocal relationship with each other and with other texts that respond to Australia's past to allow for the growth and dispersal of meaning. Understanding how literature contributes to cultural memory has significance for contemporary understandings of Australian culture. As literature is involved in a continuous looping back to establish and reinforce cultural memory I argue that it takes a particular type of literature to challenge the common opinion and to insert into cultural memory alternative voices and stories, rather than reinforce official culture that insists on fixed or hierarchical forms and adheres to strict boundaries between genres. Following shifts in historical consciousness and theoretical debates about memory in the nineteen-eighties and nineties, there was a corresponding shift in Australian novels that respond to our past, particularly our violent past. The result was a number of what I call memorial novels, novels that articulate the interplay of history, trauma and memory in an effort to move beyond the familiar and the universal, to step outside official history, language and modes of storytelling, and through a process of reimagining the past recognise and expose narrative and linguistic frames of remembrance, and sometimes propose new ways of remembering. I use Renate Lachmann's theory of cultural memory and intertextuality to trace the way the mechanisms of forgetting and remembering in literature construct cultural memory and how literature as a memory medium recalls previously silenced knowledge, restores outdated knowledge and reintegrates knowledge that was once considered unofficial, such as oral history and family memories as well as those aspects of the past that had been silenced, forgotten or misunderstood. The narratives are pluralist, ambivalent, heterogeneous and unresolved as narrators and characters re-imagine the past to transgress the traditional boundaries of form and content. Memorial novels rely less on the common polarities of good and evil, left and right, and black and white and recognise that Australian culture has "layers of identity" that can exist in a "pluralist and united world" (Pearson, "White Guilt" 245). History, trauma and memory come together in narratives that use hybrid storytelling modes to re-imagine the past, celebrate survival and offer hope for the future. To support my thesis I present a new evaluation of some well known Australian texts and evaluate some more recent texts against my definition of the memorial novel.


For all intent and purposes the United States of America in 1927 was an apartheid state. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 determined that the best social policy for this nation to pursue was one which required racial separation. The Plessy decision essentially capped a series of Supreme Court decisions which underscored the destruction of Reconstruction and the return of "states rights" to southern governments. Decisions like the Slaughter House Cases (1872) and the Civil Rights Cases (1883) gave clear evidence of the federal government9s hasty retreat from serving as an advocate for the civil rights of African Americans.


Most of the posthumous portraits of Louis II, who died in the battle of Mohács in 1526, show him in armour. In some pictures he is wearing fictitious armour, but in other portraits he is clad in the armour which until 1939 was believed to had once been his, but actually had been made in 1533 for the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus and is currently kept in the Hungarian National Museum. The author of the study has examined the latter group of artworks. She describes the armours of Louis II, some only mentioned in archival sources or historical works. Some items that can certainly or presumably be attributed to him are kept in museums abroad. The first paintings in which Louis II is wearing the gilded ornamental armour were painted by István Dorffmeister in the mid-1780s. Since at that time the armour was on display in one of the gala rooms fitted out in Vienna's Kaiserliches Zeughaus in the 1760s, the study discusses the history of the imperial armour and weapon collections and the conception of the arms exhibition in the Zeughaus at that time. After the demolition of the Zeughaus in 1856, the armour was transferred, together with the rest of the imperial collection of armours and weapons, to the war museum wing of the newly built Arsenal. The armour was presented by the Austrian catalogues of the museum as belonging to Louis II, and some items had illustrations added to them. The armour was introduced in Pest in 1876 at a historical exhibition for charitable purposes, and later in 1896 at the Millennial Exhibition. The Hungarian press also devoted articles to it, and several scholarly papers were written about the armour.The prototypes for some of the 19th century artworks depicting Louis II in the Viennese armour – most of them local monuments preserving the memory of the battle – were István Dorffmeister's paintings. His battle scene showing the death of Louis II appears in a sketch of an unrealized monument, dated 1846; in the picture painted on metal that adorned the monument in Mohács in the 1860s and on the bronze relief replacing it in the late 1890s. The antecedents to another group of representations must have been the 19th century Austrian and Hungarian descriptions and illustrations of the armour attributed to Louis II. The ruler wears this armour in several book illustrations and on the statue by Ferenc Vasadi on the Danubian facade of the Hungarian Parliament building.Although these artworks presenting Louis II in Sigismund II Augustus' armour do not satisfy the iconographic criteria of historical authenticity, they were up-to-date for their time, for instead of depicting the fictitious, often waywardly fantastic armours of earlier centuries, they presented the portrayed person in an existing armour made in his own era, that is, with a historically authentic appearance.


We investigate the case of a large scale user oriented research infrastructure, to explicate the repertoire of management strategies that support its organizational ambidexterity. Adopting an ecosystem perspective, our case study unveils, beyond the generic exploitation / exploration tension the multi-level nature of ambidexterity through specific tensions associated to different management levels: (1) responsive versus proactive orientation towards users (2) modular versus architectural technology innovations; (3) competitive versus cooperative orientation towards other organizations. We conclude that ambidexterity is a systemic capability emerging through interactions between nested tensions. Appropriately managing a tension at one level helps to release the innovative energy of tensions at other levels. Synergistic evolution of tensions creates thereby multi-level innovation dynamics.


The error-free operation of an all-Si ion-implanted CMOS-compatible waveguide p-i-n photodiode (PD) is experimentally demonstrated at 1.55 μm with 2.5 and 10 Gb/s data rates. Detector sensitivity as a function of bias voltage is measured for PDs of two different lengths, 250 μm and 3 mm. The photocurrent increase caused by bringing the PD into a highly absorbing state via forward biasing is also measured, and it is shown that a resulting 15 dB improvement in receiver sensitivity can be expected. The limiting factors of the device frequency response are analyzed, and the measured PDs are shown to have comparable dark currents, responsivities, and sensitivities to reported Ge PDs.


In this paper we consider the problem of clustering collections of very short texts using subspace clustering. This problem arises in many applications such as product categorisation, fraud detection, and sentiment analysis. The main challenge lies in the fact that the vectorial representation of short texts is both high-dimensional, due to the large number of unique terms in the corpus, and extremely sparse, as each text contains a very small number of words with no repetition. We propose a new, simple subspace clustering algorithm that relies on linear algebra to cluster such datasets. Experimental results on identifying product categories from product names obtained from the US Amazon website indicate that the algorithm can be competitive against state-of-the-art clustering algorithms.


The transcription factor EGR1 is a tumor suppressor gene that is downregulated in many cancer types. Clinically, loss of EGR1 translates to increased tumor transformation and subsequent patient morbidity and mortality. In synovial sarcoma, the SS18-SSX fusion protein represses EGR1 expression through a direct association with the EGR1 promoter. However, the mechanism through which EGR1 becomes downregulated in other tumor types is unclear. Here, we report that EGR1 is regulated by microRNA (miR)-183 in multiple tumor types including synovial sarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), and colon cancer. Using an integrative network analysis, we identified that miR-183 is significantly overexpressed in these tumor types as well as in corresponding tumor cell lines. Bioinformatic analyses suggested that miR-183 could target EGR1 mRNA and this specific interaction was validated in vitro. miR-183 knockdown in synovial sarcoma, RMS, and colon cancer cell lines revealed deregulation of a miRNA network composed of miR-183-EGR1-PTEN in these tumors. Integrated miRNA- and mRNA-based genomic analyses indicated that miR-183 is an important contributor to cell migration in these tumor types and this result was functionally validated to be occurring via an EGR1-based mechanism. In conclusion, our findings have significant implications in the mechanisms underlying EGR1 regulation in cancers. miR-183 has a potential oncogenic role through the regulation of 2 tumor suppressor genes, EGR1 and PTEN, and the deregulation of this fundamental miRNA regulatory network may be central to many tumor types.


The hypothesis of this thesis is that deterrent regulation could have had prevented or, arguably, at least minimised the myriad forms of fraudulent misrepresentation at the core of the economic crisis. Therefore, white-collar crime had, and has, a central position in causing the economic crisis and deterrent regulation will be essential in reducing the risk of a crisis of this scale infecting in our legal systems again. The background has been evaluated through the definition and origin of white-collar crime and Anglo-Irish bank has been used as a demonstrative example to illustrate this hypothesis. The EU's competence in creating criminal law is examined, through primary law, with the aim of elucidating the boundaries that are provided in the Lisbon Treaty. Before this, however, an evaluation of the definition of criminal law is necessary to establish the relationship between criminal law and administrative sanctions. The relevant bases in the context of the EU's competence are: article 83 TFEU, and article 325 TFEU and the EU's outspoken goals for the Union in the Stockholm programme. Article 83 TFEU is examined as it gives the EU an explicit legal basis for the adoption of criminal directives, thereby ensuring the effective implementation of EU policies that have been subjected to harmonisation measures. Further, article 325 TFEU stipulates the EU's priority in fighting "fraud and any other illegal activities". Through The Proposed Directive on the fight against fraud to the Union's financial interests the article is given a supranational character in creating criminal law on the area of law. The Proposed Directive on the fight against fraud to the Union's financial interest and The Proposed directive on bank recovery and resolution have been found, through their scope and legal bases, to cover what could be argued to be different essential tools in the fight against white-collar crime. The first proposed directive presents a wide range of offences and holds both natural and legal persons liable by "deterrent" legislation i.e. minimum prison sentences. The second proposed directive is presented as a tool for the prevention of the occurrence of another economic crisis utilising the means of administrative sanctions in article 114 TFEU. However, whilst not classified as a "deterrent" (in accordance with the interpretation of deterrent found in article 325 TFEU), administrative sanctions has been given the competence to have a "punitive character" and therefore a controlling function without the competence of criminal law. However, in order to prevent and deter crimes of the magnitude of those that occurred at Anglo-Irish bank, it is argued that its legislation must be made sufficiently "deterrent" by incorporating a fear of being caught, given lengthy sentences and public shaming by thorough criminal investigations, proceedings, trials, convictions and/or a criminal records.


Labisia pumila (LP) plant extract has the potential to be applied in cosmeceutical products due to its anti-photoaging properties. The main purpose of this study was to improve transdermal delivery of LP by encapsulating LP in niosomes. Niosomes loaded LPs were prepared by coacervation phase separation method using non-ionic surfactant (Span 60), labrasol, and cholesterol. The optimum formula obtained were Span 60, labrasol and cholesterol at the mole ratio of 6:1:4. At the optimum formulation, the niosome obtained significantly improved the quality of transdermal penetration of LP compared to free LP.


In the period under review the New Zealand agricultural sector has continued to be sensitive to changes in macroeconomic policies in the economy as a whole. This has not altered with the change of Government in October 1990. The combined forces of low commodity prices, increased costs, and government policy changes brought about a period of readjustment through 1985-86 and 1986-87 which now appears to be completed. Recovery was assisted by favourable terms of trade through 1988-89 and 1989-90. Output from the agricultural sector appears to have stabilised rather than decreased; the downturn in the terms of trade in the 1990-91 season has brought about a further reduction in investment and incomes.