Long-term companionship, emotional attachment and realistic interaction with robots have always been the ultimate sign of technological advancement projected by sci-fi literature and entertainment industry. With the advent of artificial intelligence, we have indeed stepped into an era of socially believable robots or humanoids. Affective computing has enabled the deployment of emotional or social robots to a certain level in social settings like informatics, customer services and health care. Nevertheless, social believability of a robot is communicated through its physical embodiment and natural expressiveness. With each passing year, innovations in chemical and mechanical engineering have facilitated life-like embodiments of robotics; however, still much work is required for developing a " social intelligence " in a robot in order to maintain the illusion of dealing with a real human being. This chapter is a collection of research studies on the modeling of complex autonomous systems. It will further shed light on how different social settings require different levels of social intelligence and what are the implications of integrating a socially and emotionally believable machine in a society driven by behaviors and actions.


Aims: One-year of comprehensive continuous care intervention (CCI) through nutritional ketosis significantly improves HbA1c, body weight and liver enzymes among type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients. Here, we report the effect of CCI on surrogate scores of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and liver fibrosis. Materials and methods: This was a non-randomized longitudinal study, including adults with T2D who were self-enrolled to CCI (n=262) or to receive usual care (UC, n=87) during 1 year. The NAFLD liver fat score [N-LFS] > -0.640 defined the presence of fatty liver. The NAFLD fibrosis score [NFS] of > 0.675 identified subjects with advanced fibrosis. Changes in N-LFS and NFS at one year were the main endpoints. Results: At baseline, NAFLD was present in 95% of patients in the CCI and 90% of patients in the UC. At one year, weight loss of ≥ 5% was achieved in 79% of patients with CCI vs. 16% of patients with UC (P<.01). N-LFS mean score levels were significantly reduced in the CCI (-1.85 ± 0.33) compared with UC (+0.19 ± 0.64) (P<.01). NFS was significantly reduced in the CCI group (-.370 ± 0.10, P<0.01) whereas it increased in the UC group (.256 ± 0.20, P=0.21) (P<.01 between two groups). In the CCI group, the presence of advanced fibrosis was reduced from 27% at baseline to 17% at 1 year (P<.01). Conclusions: One-year of a digitally supported CCI significantly improved surrogates of NAFLD and advanced fibrosis in type 2 diabetes patients. (Word count: 245)


Vpre-B and lambda 5 genes, respectively, encode V-like and C-like domains of a surrogate immunoglobulin light chain (psi L). Such psi L complex is expressed in early progenitor B (pro-B) cells, before conventional immunoglobulin heavy (microH) and light (L) chains are produced. We raised a wide panel of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against soluble recombinant Vpre-B proteins to study early events in human B cell development. One of these antibodies, B-MAD688, labeled surrogate Ig-complexes on the surface of microH- pro-B cell lines and normal bone marrow cells in immunofluorescence assays. Immunoprecipitations using surface-labeled pro-B cells and B-MAD688 mAb indicated that human psi L is associated with high molecular weight components homologous to the surrogate heavy (psi H) chains described in mouse. Using B-MAD688 and SLC2 mAbs, we were able to distinguish between psi H psi L and microH psi L complexes on the surface of human pro-B and later precursor, pre-B, cells. The finding of psi H psi L complexes in mouse and man lead us to hypothesize a role for psi H- containing receptors in B cell development.


Asia Pacific region is one of the prominent region for the global powers due to its strategic importance as the major trading routes. Japan, India, Australia, China, and South Korea and ASEAN holds the prominent position in the region. The researchers in the article discussed about the competition between the Washington and its allies with the growing power/influence of Beijing in the region. Beijing's influence not only confined to the east of Asia but it stretched further in west under the BRI and CPEC projects as well as also with recent agreement with Tehran. The researchers have discussed the importance of China in the region as a major competitor and a balancer to the Washington power. The region is now one of the major centres of the battle for supremacy between the two major competitors Washington and Beijing. The researchers have discussed the policies carried by both the power centres in the region to gain the superiority in the region.


In this paper, we report on recent experimental results on electron acceleration using two counterpropagating ultrashort and ultraintense laser pulses. We demonstrate that the use of a second laser pulse provides enhanced control over the injection and subsequent acceleration of electrons into plasma wakefields. The experimental results show that the electron beams obtained in this manner are collimated, monoenergetic, tuneable, and stable. Simulations of the process emphasize the crucial role of kinetic effects and the need for self-consistent models.


Abstract Recent data suggest that the north-central Gulf of Mexico coast has undergone an increase in the number of tropical cyclone landfalls over the past decade. Louisiana State University and the U.S. Geological Survey have monitored the Florida panhandle and Alabama coasts since the mid 1990s using airborne LIDAR and field surveys. The resultant data sets provide a unique time series capturing morphological change and post-storm adjustment due to three powerful events (Hurricanes Opal [1995], Ivan, [2004], and Katrina [2005]), weaker hurricanes and numerous tropical storms. In this paper we document a unique response of this coast to storm surge/wave inundation and present the concept of "barrier mass conservation." In several events, erosion-deposition couplets were delineated where sediment eroded from the nearshore-beach-dune system was deposited across the barriers as large, expansive overwash deposits (Fig. 1). Pre-and post-storm bathymetric/topographic comparisons indicate negligible sediment loss to the barrier system. We also demonstrate the significance of locally-generated, high-frequency waves in estuaries/bays during winter storms and discuss their role in the short-term evolution of Holocene barriers along this region of coast. In an otherwise tectonically-stable region of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, the coast appears to be storm dominated and undergoing a reduction in sediment volume in the subaerial barrier unit, a phenomenon that appears attributable to storm dominance. Along the Louisiana coast, barrier islands are routinely breached and/or stripped of their coarser (fine sand) fraction of sediment that overlays an organic, silty-muddy, cohesive core (Fig. 2). While the sand veneer is typically infused into the finer-grained bay sediments, the organic and fine-grained core material is exposed due to turbulence associated with storm waves. This response was noted after Hurricane Andrew (1992), Tropical Storm Isidore (2002), and Hurricane Lili (2002). Larger chains that constitute those barriers west of the modern delta were not significantly impacted by either Hurricanes Katrina (2005) or Rita (2005). Similar to during Hurricane Ivan (2004), the Chandeleur Islands were severely breached during Katrina (Fig. 3). West of the Atchafalaya delta, a predictable response occurred along the chenier plain and coast farther west during Hurricanes Lili (2002) and Rita (2005). Fine sand was eroded from the upper shoreface and beach and deposited on the adjacent marsh surface as a well defined veneer which widened considerably to between 100-150 m west towards the point of landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border. Significant contrasts in post-storm adjustment are evident over decadal time-scales on contrasting the sediment-rich Florida-Alabama coast and the barriers of south-central Louisiana. Longer-term monitoring along the Florida coast implies post-storm adjustment can take up to 10 yrs for recovery of approximately 75% of the sediment budget after major events (e.g., Hurricanes Frederic [1979] and Hurricane Opal [1995]). Although post-storm adjustment of the Louisiana coast is considerably slower, infusions of sand from updrift and offshore sources are apparent. Nevertheless, the multi-decadal trend is a distinct down-turn in the sediment budget.


This paper describes the results of experiments and simulations made to examine the waveform of leakage current flowing through the surface of HTV (high temperature vulcanized) silicone rubber specimen exposed to clean fog. Water droplets were placed on the surface of specimen energized with AC voltage and investigations of the surface state were done by a high-speed video camera in a wet condition produced by sprayed clean fog. Simultaneously, according to the experimental condition, a dynamic 3-D model was built to calculate the electric field and current density distribution on the specimen surface by a finite element software. A conducting water layer is formed due to the deformation of droplets and the development of dry band arcing. This caused large distortion and nonlinearly which increased the odd harmonic components in the leakage current waveform. This is in good agreement with the simulating calculation. The information from the leakage current frequency characteristic was extracted and correlated with the insulation surface condition. It can be considered as a diagnostic index for electrical characteristics and insulation state of polymer insulators in the wet condition.


Securing code update is essential for military and health care applications. The functionalists of the sensor nodes in military and health monitoring region depend on their environmental conditions. The sensor nodes will be divided into different multi cast groups based on their location. For each multi cast group a different code update will be sent. We have developed a scheme for secure code update for multi-cast groups. In order to securely communicate the code update for each multi cast group, a key agreement protocol is developed. This protocol provides confidentiality and immediate authentication. The Protocol is implemented on Tiny OS platform, tested using Tossim simulator and evaluated the Performance. SCUMG protocol is resilient to malicious code update by compromised nodes and provides security against various attacks.


We discuss a general scheme of extracting new knowledge on crystal structures from crystallographic databases. We exemplify the proposed scheme by creating a knowledge database that contains a number of structural descriptors, which reflect geometrical and topological properties of coordination compounds. The initial crystallographic information on 7690 crystal structures was retrieved mainly from the Cambridge Structural Database and processed with the ToposPro program package. We have used a number of machine learning methods to develop a predictive scheme and proved that the Random Forest method provides the best prediction of the overall topological properties (dimensionality and underlying topology) of coordination networks. We show how the developed knowledge database and predictive scheme can be considered as a prototype of an artificial intelligence system, which can be used to answer typical questions that arise in the design of coordination compounds.


Our work is focused on the identification of defects responsible for current fluctuations at the origin of low frequency noise or random telegraphic signals in 4H-SiC MESFETs on semiinsulating (SI) substrates. We show that devices having instabilities have DC output characteristics with random discrete fluctuations of the drain current. The RTS noise parameters analysis (amplitude, high and low state time durations) as a function of temperature and bias voltage provides the signature of the involved traps (activation energy and cross section both for emission and capture). From the power spectral density of the drain current noise (PSD) we have measured the cut-off frequency of a single trap even at very low frequencies (from 0.1 Hz) and we propose that the noise responsible of RTS fluctuations is a generation-recombination noise. Finally, it is shown that the frequency analysis of the random telegraphic signal is a well-suited tool for the study of single defects in very small devices.


Previous experiments have indicated that eosinophilopoiesis is stimulated in lymphoid cell-dependent eosinophil responses to certain antigens. In order to study if the potential for this stimulation of eosinophilopoiesis is a function of lymphoid cells and can be expressed on challenge with the eosinophilia-inducing antigen, the diffusion chamber technique for the culture in vivo of murine hemopoietic cells has been modified. A quadrachamber diffusion assembly allows for the simultaneous maintenance in the same host of four cell populations, pairs of which are separated by a cell-impermeable Millipore diffusion membrane of defined porosity. Spleen cells for chambers were from normal mice and mice primed with tetanus toxoid; secondary challenge induces eosinophilia. These spleen cells were placed transfilter from isogeneic bone marrow cells and cultured in vivo for 6 days in normal mice that received tetanus toxoidintraperitoneally following chamber-assembly implant. The marrow cell transfilter from spleen cells of primed-donor origin exhibited significantly greater eosinophilopoiesis than contiguous-chamber marrow transfilter from normal spleen cells. Such stimulated eosinophilopoiesis was independent of total chamber marrow cellularity. The data indicated that antigen-stimulated lymphoid cells may be the source of an eosinophilopoietic factor.


Purpose
Prediabetes can affect the central nervous system and lead to changes including impaired cognition and spatial memory. Isoflavones, especially genistein and daidzein, can increase spatial memory. Tempeh is a soy product with high levels of genistein and daidzein. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of tempeh on spatial memory of prediabetic Wistar rat.

Design/methodology/approach
A pre-and post-test randomised control group design was used. In total, 15 male Wistar rats were divided into three equal groups, Treatment 1 (T1), Treatment 2 (T2) and Treatment 3 (T3). All rats were injected with alloxan (120 mg/Kg body weight) to induce prediabetes. T1 was maintained on a diet of standard food for 14 days. T2 and T3 were given 9 g/200 g body weight and 18 g/200 g body weight of tempeh, respectively, for 14 days. The Morris water maze (MWM) test was used to test spatial memory.

Findings
While there were no statistically significant differences between the treatment groups, there was a difference with the tempeh-treated rats improving their spatial memory following tempeh ingestion with a decrease in the travel time to negotiate the MWM [T1(−8.36), T2 (−5.48) and T3 (3.66)]. Differences of travel time of the three groups was not significant (p = 0.677).

Originality/value
The result of the study indicates that tempeh may act as a functional food in reducing cognitive impairment associated with prediabetes and diabetes. However, as the result is not statistically significant, further research using animal models and human studies is warranted.


Summary

Biological pest control is a key ecosystem service, and it depends on multiple factors acting from the local to the landscape scale. However, the effects of soil management on biological control and its potential interaction with landscape are still poorly understood.

In a field exclusion experiment, we explored the relative effect of tillage system (conservation vs. conventional tillage) on aphid biological control in 15 pairs of winter cereal fields (barley and wheat) selected along a gradient of landscape complexity. We sampled the abundance of the main natural enemy guilds, and we evaluated their relative contribution to aphid predation and parasitism.

Conservation tillage was found to support more abundant predator communities and higher aphid predation (16% higher than in the fields managed under conventional tillage). In particular, both the abundance and the aphid predation of vegetation- and ground-dwelling arthropods were increased under conservation tillage conditions. Conservation tillage also increased the parasitism rate of aphids.

A high proportion of semi-natural habitats in the landscape enhanced both aphid parasitism and predation by vegetation-dwelling organisms but only in the fields managed under conventional tillage. The better local habitat quality provided by conservation tillage may compensate for a low-quality landscape.

Synthesis and applications. Our study stresses the importance of considering both soil management and landscape composition when planning strategies to maximize biological control services in agro-ecosystems, highlighting the role played by conservation tillage in supporting natural enemy communities. In simple landscapes, the adoption of conservation tillage will locally improve biological control provided by both predators and parasitoids mitigating the negative effects of landscape simplification. Moreover, considering the small scale at which both predation and parasitism responded to landscape composition, a successful strategy to improve biological control would be to establish a fine mosaic of crop and non-crop areas such as hedgerows, tree lines and small semi-natural habitat patches.


Random number generation is one of the important issues of cryptography. Based on the efficient Mycielski predictor, we propose a new random number generation algorithm, denoted by Anti-mycielski, which generates a new data at the end of a sequence by making it orthogonal to the prediction. By taking the initial sequence as a key, it is possible to use the algorithm for encryption purposes by masking. The algorithm works on binary sequences and each 8 bit block is converted to integers. Since the complexity of the algorithm is of non-polynomial order, it is necessary to occasionally chop the history of the predictor. The effect of history length and the length of the key is analyzed in terms of the quality of the generated random sequence.


The infectious bacterial diseases, footrot and scald, are still the most prevalent causes of lameness in sheep flocks in the UK, with an estimated 3 million sheep being lame at any one time (Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) 2011). Lameness constitutes a major animal welfare and economic challenge across the sheep sector, costing an estimated £24 million to the industry (Nieuwhof and Bishop 2005), and can be seen as a considerable barrier to sustainable production. The 2011 FAWC opinion on sheep lameness set a target of reducing lameness to less than 5 per cent by 2016, and to less than 2 per cent by 2021 (FAWC 2011). The aim of this study was to develop and validate an achievable farm-level solution, the Five Point Plan, to reduce lameness levels to FAWC targets.

The Five Point Plan was developed using existing published science on sheep lameness, and practical experience from farmers who had achieved sustained low levels of lameness. The Five Point Plan has five action points that support the animal in three different ways: building resilience, reducing disease challenge and establishing immunity (Fig 1, Table 1). The Five Point Plan was then implemented on a UK sheep farm over a four-year study period (2009–2013). The …


The implementation of internal store carriage on stealthy military aircraft has accelerated research into transonic
cavity flows. Depending on the freestream Mach number and the cavity dimensions, flows inside cavities can become
unsteady, threatening the structural integrity of the cavity and its contents (e.g., stores, avionics, etc.). Below a critical
length-to-depth ratio, the shear layer formed along the cavity mouth has enough energy to span across the opening.
This shear layer impacts the downstream cavity corner and the generated acoustic disturbances propagate
upstream, causing further instabilities near the cavity front. Consequently, a self-sustained feedback loop is
established. This extreme flow environment calls for flow control ideas aiming to pacify the cavity by breaking the
feedback loop and controlling the breakdown of the shear layer. This is the objective of the present work, which aims
to assess changes of the cavity geometry and their effect on the resulting flow using detached-eddy simulation. For the
cases computed in this work, quantitative and qualitative agreement with experimental data has been obtained. All of
the devices tested achieved similar reductions in overall sound pressure level in the rear half of the cavity; however, a
slanted aft wall provided the largest noise reduction in the front half of the cavity.


This article concerns the analysis of court practices for criminal cases relating to female victims of domestic violence who have been charged with murder or intentional infliction of grievous bodily injuries of their partners. The author directly connects the observance of women's rights in domestic violence self-defense cases with the problem of the lack of legal mechanisms of protection against violence in Russia. Russia remains the last country in the Council of Europe which has yet to create legal mechanisms to protect women against domestic violence. The lack of a law against domestic violence, a mechanism for protection orders, standards for investigating domestic violence, and comprehensive social support for victims are recognized as the main barriers in the access of victims of domestic violence to justice. While today, Russian society and the academic community in particular can talk about victims of domestic violence as victims of delinquency and crime, the discussion of situations where women who are subject to violence are charged with murder or causing grievous bodily injuries has only started recently. Based on the examples of several sentences of women, the author aims to trace how domestic violence is regarded by courts in similar cases. An analysis of court proceedings on criminal cases where women are charged with the murder of or the infliction of serious harm to the health of their partners in situations of domestic violence self-defense demonstrates that the judges are often guided by gender stereotypes and myths of domestic violence when sentencing. Law enforcement officers (police, investigators, and prosecutors) do not consider domestic violence against charged women as a significant circumstance relevant to the criminal case of the murder or causing bodily injuries to their partners or other male relatives. Non-recognition of domestic violence as a phenomenon in the legal field of Russia, stereotypical attitudes towards cases of domestic violence and survivors, and refusal to investigate domestic violence incidents showcases that women charged with crimes in the situation of domestic violence self-defense have lost their right for access to fair justice.


Field experiments were conducted during winter seasons of 2013 and 2014 on the alkaline and silty loam soils of NWRP, Bhairahawa to study the interaction of the most promising wheat genotypes with different nitrogen levels under different agro-ecological zones and recommend the appropriate dose of nitrogen for newly released varieties. The experiment was laid out in split plot design: four nitrogen levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg/ha) as a whole plot and six wheat genotypes (BL 3623, BL 3629, BL 3872, NL 1008, NL 1055 and Vijay) as a sub-plot which were replicated three times. There was significant effect of varieties and nitrogen levels on plant height, number of spikes, thousand grain weight and grain yield in both the years. In first year, the highest grain yield of 3.35 t/ha was obtained from the application of nitrogen @ 150 kg/ha with the genotype BL 3872 which is followed by the genotypes BL 3623 (3.15 ton/ha) and NL 1055 (3.05 ton/ha). Similarly in second year, the genotype NL 1055 gave the highest grain yield of 4.01 ton/ha followed by genotypes BL 3629 (3.83 ton/ha) and BL 3623 (3.81 ton/ha) from the application of nitrogen @ 150 kg/ha. Based on two years results, it can be concluded that N was a limiting factor in the productivity of wheat. Nitrogen @ 150 kg per ha produced higher yield and yield attributing characters. Similarly, the wheat genotypes NL 1055, BL 3629, BL 3623 and BL 3872 were superior among the genotypes.


Product differentiation, a prerequisite for successful state promotion of state branded farm products, may be reflected by differences in the own-price, cross-price and income elasticties of demand between a state's brand and other products. This paper tests for such differentiation by estimating demand functions for tomatoes available at the retail level in New Jersey. The "Jersey Fresh" brand is shown to have higher own-price and income elasticities of demand. It is thus perceived to be of higher quality than others. Consumers are also found to be origin biased. Promotion based on the Jersey Fresh's unique attributes and on encouraging further origin bias may have a good chance of success.


Visual odometry can augment or replace wheel odometry when navigating in high slip terrain which is quite important for autonomous navigation on Mars. We present a computationally efficient and robust visual odometry algorithm developed for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. This algorithm is a significant improvement over the algorithm developed for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission because it is at least four time more computationally efficient and it tracks significantly more features. The core of the algorithm is an integrated motion estimation and stereo feature tracking loop that allows for feature recovery while guiding feature correlation search to minimize computation. Results on thousands of terrestrial and Martian stereo pairs show that the algorithm can operate with no initial motion estimate while still obtaining subpixel attitude estimation performance.


This paper examines and tries to estimate the importance of various characteristics that go into attributing specific dollar values to cricketers. The auction process employed in the Indian Premier League enables one to associate players with specific monetary values and this paper uses various performance criteria to assess what the key variables are towards creating a highly valued cricket player. This paper finds that various batting statistics are of significance in addition to the age and nationality of players.


The effects of NO synthase (NOS) blockers, NO donors, and anti-ovarian antibodies (AOABs) on the amount of oocytes isolated from murine ovary and their meiotic maturation were studied. It was established that the NOS blockers inhibit the their meiotic maturation of oocytes, while NO donors influenced neither the number of oocytes nor their ability to meiotic maturation in diaestrus or oestrous cycle. The AOAB effect on the gametogenesis was dose-dependent: inhibition for large doses and activation for small doses. The NO/NOS ovarian system is involved into mechanism of the AOAB action on murine oocytes. It is suggested that a decrease in the ovarian NO production, as well as the AOAB-induced inhibition of the murine oogenesis, are factors influencing female infertility.


We calculate the density of states, the squared optical matrix element along the x direction, and the band gap of Si nanosphere with radius r smaller than 1.2 nm using the method of linear combination of atomic orbitals. It is shown that the quantum confinement effect of Si nanocrystals exists obviously, fulfilling E = 1.92 + 0.23/r^1.8,but the band gap exhibits fluctuation with nanocrystal size, which is caused by the dangling bonds of atoms ino uter layers. The obtained result indicates that the surface chemical bonds have larger influence on the energy band structure of Si nanosphere when its radius is smaller than 1.2nm.


ABSTRACT Research indicates that customer engagement in online communities has positive effects on related businesses, and that, on an aggregated level, community activity and service spending are positively related. Therefore, marketing efforts tend to focus on promoting the community activity of customers. However, aggregates might not properly reflect processes at the individual level. We argue that in contexts in which both service consumption and community activity deplete resources, the latter might actually substitute for the former. Substitution effects can emerge from reveling: customers partly satisfy their need for a service by habituating to it during engagement in communities without actually consuming it. The present study reports empirical evidence of the so-called reveling effect in the online gaming context and suggests that theories motivating a positive relationship between engagement and service spending are oversimplified; for the relatively inactive community members an increase in engagement leads to increased spending, but for the already active members increasing engagement decreases spending. For marketers, it is important to know that increases in engagement might not lead to increased spending for the already engaged individual.


Placental growth can be achieved by either cellular proliferation or hypertrophy. Tissue regeneration and the nutrition of the fetus via embryotrophe require high rates of cellular turnover and the so-called pre-term 'maturation' of the placenta is correlated with a reduction of maternal crypt epithelial cells. Placentomes of 45 pregnant cows were collected from an abattoir to assess the role of proliferation and apoptosis in placental physiology and pathology. Placentomes were also taken from five cows undergoing premature Caesarean section and from ten naturally calving cows immediately after the expulsion of the fetus. Five of these animals had not released the fetal membranes after 12 h. Tissue sections of placentome were assessed for the Ki-67 protein; the TUNEL procedure was performed and verified by transmission electron microscopy. The maternal crypt epithelium and the fetal chorionic epithelium had a higher percentage of Ki-67-positive cells than the stroma. The percentage of Ki-67-positive cells increased significantly during pregnancy in fetal chorionic epithelium and was significantly decreased in fetal chorionic epithelium and maternal crypt epithelium after the expulsion of the fetus in comparison with tissue from month 9 of pregnancy. The number of apoptotic cells increased significantly during pregnancy in maternal crypt epithelium, maternal stroma and fetal chorionic epithelium as detected in slaughtered animals. Significantly more apoptotic fetal chorionic epithelial cells were found in animals retaining their fetal membranes in comparison with prepartum cattle during month 9 of pregnancy, at premature section and in animals releasing the fetal membranes completely. The results strongly indicate that bovine placentomes have cell type-specific rates of cellular turnover reflecting tissue growth, embryotrophe and placental maturation. Retention of fetal membranes is characterized by a large number of fetal chorionic epithelial cells undergoing apoptosis immediately after the expulsion of the fetus. This finding indicates that incomplete maturation of placentomes plays an important role in fetal membrane retention and that massive apoptosis after the expulsion of the fetus should be the consequence of diminished blood supply to the uterus, as verified in a recent study.


Algorithms are presented to improve the eA ciency for the generation of trial orientations and for the calculation of the Rosenbluth weight in a con® gurational-bias Monte Carlo (CBMC) simulation. These algorithms were testedfor N p T and N V T simulations of n-octane, 3-methylheptane, and 3,4-dimethylhexane at diA erent temperatures and densities using a preliminary version of the TraPPE united-atom representation for the CH3, CH2 and CH groups. It was found that for a system of 144 molecules these algorithms speed up the calculation three times for n-octane and almost four times for 3,4-dimethylhexane, resulting in a decreased diA erence in simulation time between a branched molecule and a linear isomer. For larger systems the speedup is even greater. It is shown that the excluded volume of an atom is the dominant term for the selection of a trial orientation, which leads to an improved CBMC algorithm called dual cutoA con® gurational-bias Monte Carlo (DC-CBMC).


This paper presents a multi-level methodology for near real-time seismic damage assessment of multi-story buildings, tailored to the available level of knowledge and information from sensors. The proposed methodology relates changes in the vibratory characteristics of a building—evaluated via alternative dynamic identification techniques—to the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98) damage grades. Three distinct levels of knowledge are considered for the building, with damage classification made through (i) empirical formulation based on quantitative ranges reported in the literature, (ii) analytical formulation exploiting the effective stiffness concept, and (iii) numerical modelling including a simplified equivalent single-degree-of-freedom model or a detailed finite element model of the building. The scope of the study is twofold: to construct a framework for integrating structural health monitoring into seismic damage assessment and to evaluate consistencies/discrepancies among different identification techniques and model-based and model-free approaches. The experimental data from a multi-story building subject to sequential shaking are used to demonstrate the proposed methodology and compare the effectiveness of the different approaches to damage assessment. The results show that accurate damage estimates can be achieved not only using model-driven approaches with enhanced information but also model-free alternatives with scarce information.


This paper discusses human factors issues of low cost railway level crossings in Australia. Several issues are discussed in this paper including safety at level railway crossings, human factors considerations associated with the unavailability of a warning device, and a conceptual model for how safety could be compromised at railway level crossings following prolonged or frequent unavailability. The current paper summarises and extends pertinent literature that must be considered for effective interventions to improve safety and to advance our theoretical understanding of human behaviour at level crossings. Although the results of our research are not presented, we describe our experimental approach to progress the current lack of knowledge in this area. In particular we highlight where we can improve previous research methodology (independent & dependent variables) when investigating right-side failure at level crossings, which can produce results with greater validity and meaning. Our research aims to quantify risk to motorists at level crossings following right-side failure using a Human Reliability Assessment (HRA) method, supported by data collected using an advanced driving simulator. This method aims to identify human error within tasks and task units identified as part of the task analysis process. It is anticipated that by modelling driver behaviour the current study will be able to quantify human reliability. Such a risk assessment for the impact of right-side failure at level crossings is currently absent in the literature. Therefore it is crucial to offer quantification of success and failure of this intricate system. The task analysis allows human error identification for the precursors to risky driving to be achieved. If task analysis is not employed the error reduction method may be unsuitable and eventually unsuccessful. Our aim is also to determine those contexts that allow the system to operate successfully with the smallest probability of human error. Human behaviour during complex tasks such as driving through a level crossing is fundamentally context bound. Therefore this study also aims to quantify those performance-shaping factors that may contribute to vehicle train collisions by highlighting changes in the task units and driver physiology. Finally we consider a number of variables germane to ensuring external validity of our results. Without this inclusion, such an analysis could seriously underestimate risk.


The globalization of markets appears to be limited by key social factors still present in the mind of the consumer. One of those factors is ethnocentrism, which protects local products against foreign products. Another factor is animosity, which distinguishes foreign products between those that are favored and those that are rejected on the basis of a specific country of origin. Both constructs have been defined on a nationalistic basis, and prior research has focused on country-to-country relationships and interaction. However, either construct may not impact similarly one country's consumers. Key antecedents include demographic characteristics of the consumer. American consumers were surveyed regarding their attitudes towards Japan and Japanese products. Results indicate that various demographic measures do, indeed, have a significant impact on the presence of animosity and/or ethnocentrism. This confirms that sub-national segmentation can be a critical consideration.


Abstract Introduction: Obesity is treatment-resistant, and is linked with a number of serious, chronic diseases. Adult obesity rates in the United States have tripled since the early 1960s. Recent reviews show that an increased ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids contributes to obesity rates by increasing levels of the endocannabinoid signals AEA and 2-AG, overstimulating CB1R and leading to increased caloric intake, reduced metabolic rates, and weight gain. Cannabis, or THC, also stimulates CB1R and increases caloric intake during acute exposures. Goals: To establish the relationship between Cannabis use and body mass index, and to provide a theoretical explanation for this relationship. Results: The present meta-analysis reveals significantly reduced body mass index and rates of obesity in Cannabis users, in conjunction with increased caloric intake. Theoretical explanation: We provide for the first time a causative explanation for this paradox, in which rapid and long-lasting downregulation of CB1R following acute Cannabis consumption reduces energy storage and increases metabolic rates, thus reversing the impact on body mass index of elevated dietary omega-6/omega-3 ratios.


Discussing what has or has not been said in the historiography written in English about themes from Portuguese history runs the risk of being transformed into a string of constantly repeated lamentations. As a general rule, there is almost always a tendency to fall back on a comment made by Laura de Mello e Souza in the first published review (1995) of Maxwell's book about Pombal: "peripheral, both in the past and in the present, Portugal has ended up being miniaturized by European historians, who have placed it well below its real dimensions or have simply ignored it." 2 Nonetheless, the eighteenth century has a number of quite distinctive marks, which are best not forgotten.


Abstract Glass forming ability of lone-pair semiconductors was analyzed for (x = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10) system. Values of lone pair electrons L were calculated using average coordination number of valence electrons. These values were found to decrease, as the system was moving towards the rigid region. L > 3 values showed vitreous state. Deviation of the stoichiometry confirmed the chalcogen-rich region. A linear correlation was found between the mean bond energy and glass transition temperature. Chemical Bond Approach model was applied to calculate the cohesive energy of the system. A linear relationship was found to exist between the cohesive energy and the theoretical band gap, calculated using Shimakawa relation. A decrease in both parameters was explained on the basis of average stabilization energy and electronegativity of the system. The density values were found to increase and may account for higher refractive index of the system. Large Bohr radius of the Bi atom accounted for an increase in the polarizability. Other parameters viz. degree of covalency, packing density, compactness, molar volume, free volume percentage, excess volume and polaron radius were also calculated. An effort was made to correlate the effect of Bi addition to Ge12Se76 - xAs12Bixlone-pair semiconductor on the basis of the structure of the glassy matrix or the connectedness of the material.


The climate of the Arctic is warming rapidly and this is causing major changes to the cycling of carbon and the distribution of permafrost in this region. Tundra lakes are key components of the Arctic climate system because they represent a source of methane to the atmosphere. In this paper, we aim to analyze the geometry of the patterns formed by large (> 0.8 km 2 ) tundra lakes in the Russian High Arctic. We have studied images of tundra lakes in historical maps from the State Hydrological Institute, Russia (date 1977; scale 0.21166 km/pixel) and in Landsat satellite images derived from the Google Earth Engine (G.E.E.; date 2016; scale 0.1503 km/pixel). The G.E.E. is a cloud-based platform for planetary-scale geospatial analysis on over four decades of Landsat data. We developed an image-processing algorithm to segment these maps and images, measure the area and perimeter of each lake, and compute the fractal dimension of the lakes in the images we have studied. Our results indicate that as lake size increases, their fractal dimension bifurcates. For lakes observed in historical maps, this bifurcation occurs among lakes larger than 100 km 2 (fractal dimension 1.43 to 1.87 ). For lakes observed in satellite images this bifurcation occurs among lakes larger than ∼100 km 2 (fractal dimension 1.31 to 1.95 ). Tundra lakes with a fractal dimension close to 2 have a tendency to be self-similar with respect to their area–perimeter relationships. Area–perimeter measurements indicate that lakes with a length scale greater than 70 km 2 are power-law distributed. Preliminary analysis of changes in lake size over time in paired lakes (lakes that were visually matched in both the historical map and the satellite imagery) indicate that some lakes in our study region have increased in size over time, whereas others have decreased in size over time. Lake size change during this 39-year time interval can be up to half the size of the lake as recorded in the historical map.


Norepinephrine increases the intracellular level of adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) in clonal cell lines of nerve, glia, smooth muscel, and skeletal muscle. The largest response is in skeletal muscle, where the cyclic nucleotide concentration is elevated more than 500-fold. Glia and muscle cells, but not nerve cells, respond to dopamine with increased cyclic AMP accumulation. This response appears to be mediated through a beta-adrenoreceptor.


We set out an analytical strategy to examine variations in resource use, whether cost or length of stay, of patients hospitalised with different conditions. The methods are designed to evaluate (i) how well diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) capture variation in resource use relative to other patient characteristics and (ii) what influence the hospital has on their resource use. In a first step, we examine the influence of variables that describe each individual patient, including the DRG to which the patients are assigned and a range of personal and treatment-related characteristics. In a second step, we explore the influence that hospitals have on the average cost or length of stay of their patients, purged of the influence of the variables accounted for in the first stage. We provide a rationale for the variables used in both stages of the analysis and detail how each is defined. The analytical strategy allows us (i) to identify those factors that explain variation in resource use across patients, (ii) to assess the explanatory power of DRGs relative to other patient and treatment characteristics and (iii) to assess relative hospital performance in managing resources and the characteristics of hospitals that explain this performance.


Study Design. Retrospective review of radiographic data. Objectives. This study sought to define interoberserver and intraobserver variability to further delineate reliable means by which radiographs of patients with neuromuscular scoliosis can be examined. Summary of Background Data. Previous studies analyzed the use of Cobb angles in the measurement of idiopathic and congenital scoliosis, but no study until now describes a critical analysis of measurement in evaluating neuromuscular scoliosis. Methods. Forty-eight patients with neuromuscular scoliosis radiographs were reviewed. These were evaluated for Cobb angle, end vertebrae selection, Ferguson angle, apex of the curve, C7 balance, pelvic obliquity, Risser sign, status of the triradiate cartilage, kyphosis Cobb angle, endplate selection for kyphosis, and kyphotic index. Interclass and intraclass variability was examined with statistical analysis. Results. Cobb angle had an intraobserver variability was 5.7° and the interobserver variability was 14.8°. The intraobserver and interobserver variability for Ferguson angle was 6.8° and 20.6°, respectively. The kyphotic Cobb angle intraobserver variability was found to be 17.4°, and the interobserver variability was 24.01°. Conclusions. Neuromuscular scoliosis radiographs can be reliably analyzed with the use of Cobb angle. Other forms of analysis, such as Ferguson angle, are not as reliable. Pelvic obliquity should be measured from the horizontal, as other methods are not as reliable. Kyphosis is best evaluated with the use of the kyphotic Cobb angle. Finally, it is felt that a separate anteroposterior pelvis radiograph should be used to assess skeletal maturity, as scoliosis films often truncate the vital anatomy necessary to determine skeletal maturity.


The law, after all, is meant to express our values and our aspirations for our society. -Senator Joe Lieberman1 Foreword Discrimination based on sexual orientation has been a fact of American social and political life for much of the country's history. As American values and aspirations change over time, so too do its laws evolve. Perhaps the greatest strength of American democracy is the document upon which it is built, the United States Constitution. The Constitution is living law that prescribes the goals of our democratic society and establishes the framework and the limits within which those goals may be pursued; it is flexible enough to accommodate the changing cultural face of America without losing its grounding in the fundamental ideals of equity and equality that underpin democracy. In the latter half of the twentieth century attitudes toward the issue of discrimination against gays and lesbians have changed considerably. While it is by no means universally accepted in the United States that discrimination based on sexual orientation should be prohibited by law in all cases, a consensus is developing with respect to the issue of sexual orientation discrimination in what for the purposes of this paper I will refer to as "public" contexts. More people in the United States are coming to the conclusion that discrimination based on sexual orientation in contexts such as the political process, the workplace, housing, and public assistance, for example, is unfair and should be IMAGE FORMULA9 prohibited by law. The primary areas in American life in which there is still a pronounced lack of consensus on gay rights issues are those that I will refer to as "private" contexts, such as religion, the family, marriage, and private accommodations.3 Recognition of this dichotomy makes recent Supreme Court jurisprudence on gender issues easier to decipher and, in particular, informs the political and legal strategies of those who litigate toward the development of an American law that is more equitable to gays and lesbians. Romer v. Evans is the Supreme Court case that arose as a result of the challenge to Amendment 2 of the Colorado state constitution. Colorado voters passed Amendment 2 in a statewide referendum in 1992. The provision, which became Article II sec 30b of the Colorado Constitution, read as follows: NO PROTECTED STATUS BASED ON HOMOSEXUAL, LESBIAN, OR BISEXUAL ORIENTATION. Neither the State of Colorado, through any of its branches or departments, nor any of its agencies, political subdivisions, municipalities or school districts, shall enact, adopt or enforce any statute, regulation, ordinance or policy whereby homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices, or relationships shall constitute or otherwise be the basis of, or entitle any person or class of persons to have or claim any minority status, quota preferences, protected status IMAGE FORMULA12 or claim of discrimination. This Section of the Constitution shall be in all respects self-executing.4 Most commentators believed that the effect of this law would be to eliminate any non-federal cause of action for discrimination based on sexual orientation and to prevent organs of the state and municipal governments from passing new laws or enforcing existing laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. It was upon this interpretation of Amendment 2's language that the challenge to the law was made. This paper explores the story of Colorado's Amendment 2 and seeks to provide a window into a key example of successful civil rights litigation as a culturally-informed6 process through which social change is advanced within the cultural and political boundaries of majority values. To this end, I will argue that Amendment 2 was ultimately invalidated as a result of the plaintiff's exposure of the law as an instrument designed to greatly limit the access of gay rights advocates to commonly available remedies against public context discrimination based on sexual orientation,7 an object generally inconsistent with mainstream American values. …


The present study analysed data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System All Injury Programme to examine trends in emergency department visits (EDs) for fall-related fractures in adults aged 65 years or older between 2001 and 2020. Overall, the estimated number of ED's visits for fall-related fractures increased from 574 000 in 2001 to 9 84 000 in 2020. After adjusting for age, fall-related fracture rates increased annually by 1.1% (95% CI: 0.4%, 1.7%) in women and by 1.3% (95% CI: 0.4%, 2.2%) in men between 2001 and 2012. Moreover, a non-significant increase in fracture rates was seen in both sexes between 2012 and 2016. From 2016 onward, fracture rates decreased annually in women by −5.0% (95% CI: −7.9%, −2.0%) and did not significantly change in men. This downward trend was mostly attributed to a decrease in fall-related fractures of the arm/hand, lower trunk, and among subjects aged 75 years and older. Therefore, it appears that fall-related fracture rates have recently decreased in U.S. older women.


Fundamental unit commitment approaches are of central importance in energy system modeling for the generation of detailed power plant schedules. However, existing approaches, which reduce complexity in a multi-stage process, often fail to generate realistic electricity prices. A new type of singlestage approach considers market-coupling implicitly so that, in addition to detailed power plant schedules, electricity prices reflecting real prices very well can be generated. In this paper, we show in a back-test for 2014 that an endogenously modeled market-coupling is the driving factor for the quality of resulting electricity prices. Conversely, it can be concluded that conventional multi-stage approaches show a significant distortion of modeled electricity prices due to missing price signals from neighboring market zones. Against the background of expanding trading capacities between market zones within the European power system, this issue becomes increasingly relevant when fundamentally modeling energy prices.


A simple N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligand linked to a flexible propylene linker allows the formation of "Cu-Cu"- and "2 Cu"-type geometries inside a molecular framework. The incorporation of two Cu(i) ions in close proximity was observed in the Cu-Cu-type geometry but not in the 2 Cu-type geometry. In this study, the ground-state geometries of solid-state di-copper(i) complexes containing NHC ligands with ethyl substituents were modulated by external stimuli. A crystal with the 2 Cu-type geometry was obtained by the mechanical grinding and heating of a crystal with the Cu-Cu-type geometry, as confirmed by the disappearance of the absorption peak attributed to cuprophilic interaction in the diffuse reflection spectrum. The mechanical grinding of both crystals afforded composite states comprising small crystallites of the corresponding crystalline phases and an amorphous domain. This structural transition was accompanied by tribochromism and chronochromism. The results suggest that these di-copper(i) complexes show promise for the development of stimuli-responsive photoluminescent Cu(i) complexes.


Studies were conducted in growth chambers to characterize absorption and translocation of 14C-glyphosate applied alone or in mixture with MSMA in browntop millet and Palmer amaranth. MSMA antagonized activity of glyphosate in both weed species. Absorption of 14C-glyphosate in Palmer amaranth was rapid and increased with time from 11.1% at 0.5 h after treatment to 68.1% at 168 HAT. Absorption of 14C-glyphosate in browntop millet ranged from 1.6% at 0.5 HAT to 39.1% at 168 HAT. MSMA in mixture with glyphosate did not affect the absorption of glyphosate. In browntop millet, only 2.8% of the applied radioactivity translocated out of the treated leaf to the rest of the plant when glyphosate was applied in mixture with MSMA compared to 10.8% when glyphosate was applied alone at 72 HAT. Similarly, in Palmer amaranth, 3.2% of the applied radioactivity had translocated out of the treated leaf when glyphosate was applied in mixture with MSMA compared to 10.6% when glyphosate was applied alone. Reduced translocation appears to be the cause of the previously observed antagonism of glyphosate by MSMA. Nomenclature: Glyphosate, MSMA, browntop millet, Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf PANRA, Palmer amaranth, Amaranthus palmerii S. Wats. AMAPA


An polyacrylonitrile fiber is one that contains at least 85% by mass of acrylonitrile comonomer in the polymer chain. The nitrile group (-C≡N) in polyacrylonitrile fiber is converted to carboxyl group(–COOH) after hydrolysis in NaOH aqueous solution.This research explores the hydrolysis of copolyacrylonitrile fiber in sodium hydroxide solution and characterization by chrome yellow method. The optimum hydrolytic technology is sodium hydroxide mass fraction is 12%, the time of hydrolysis is 10min, the temperature of hydrolysis is 80°C. In addition, the surface morphology of the polyacrylonitrile fiber and the modified polyacrylonitrile fiber were observed by SEM. The strength of the hydrolysed fiber is decline and the moisture regain is increased compared with the polyacrylonitrile fiber.


The physiological demands of rugby league are complex, requiring players to concomitantly develop speed, agility, muscular strength, power and aerobic capacity. Studies indicate that injury rates are higher in rugby league than other collision sports. The incidence of injury in semiprofessional rugby league players has been reported to be as high as 825 per 1000 player-position game hours. Sports teams with a common epidemiology of injuries often undertake musculoskeletal preparticipation screening (MPPS) in an attempt to reduce the incidence of these injuries. The aim of this study was to undertake a general MPPS for a Super 8 BUCS Rugby League team. 30 players volunteered to undertake a MPPS at the start of preseason training. The MPPS consisted of 10 assessments including (1) single-leg supine bridge hold (transversus abdominis stability), (2) straight leg raise (hamstring flexibility) (3) modified Thomas test (abductor, iliopsoas and rectus femoris contracture), (4) gluteus maximus and hamstring muscle recruitment for hip extension, (5) manual muscle test of gluteus medius and minimus, (6) plumbline assessment of standing posture, (7) Trendelenburg test, (8) overhead squat with shoulder width grip, (9) in-line lunge and (10) single-leg squat. Results showed a prevalence of poor physical preparedness. All subjects were deficient in transversus abdominis, gluteus medius and single-leg strength. All subjects were hypertonic in hip abductors, iliopsoas and hamstrings. All subjects recruited hamstrings before gluteus maximus for hip extension. None of the subjects could perform a single-leg squat, nor achieve all of the competencies required in the overhead squat. All subjects demonstrated shoulder protraction in standing posture. A prehabilitation programme was implemented for all players after assessment with modifications to strength and conditioning programmes.


The present study aimed to determine the digital reading habits of pre-service Turkish language teachers. The study was conducted with relational screening model. The study sample included pre-service Turkish language teachers ( n = 140) who were faculty of education students at a state university. To determine the digital reading habits of pre-service teachers, a digital reading habits scale was developed by the author based on the field literature. The developed scale was individually delivered to pre-service teachers in the sample to collect the study data. The obtained data were analysed using arithmetic mean, independent samples t -test and one-way analysis of variance (Anova) statistical techniques. The study findings demonstrated that psychological factors associated with reading (interest, anxiety, motivation, etc.) were occasionally influential on the reading process using digital media, and pre-service teachers mostly utilised digital media on a daily basis. It was observed that digital media manuscripts were read to obtain information, for entertainment and to chat with others. Furthermore, it was determined that Internet use on a mobile phone, as well as owning a web page and a social media account, were effective on digital reading habits. Keywords: digital; habit; pre-service Turkish language teacher; printed; reading


International law has recently recognized that sexual atrocities can be acts of genocide. This precedent was pioneered through a landmark lawsuit in New York against Radovan Karadžić, head of the Bosnian Serbs (Kadic v. Karadzic, 1993-2000), a case in which I played a central role. I argue that we may situate this development philosophically in relation to Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. She aims to secure a better understanding of genocide than was achieved at the Nuremberg Trials (1945) and at the Eichmann trial (1961). Arendt claims that these trials were limited by formalism because they applied familiar paradigms onto these new experiences in a manner that obscured what was distinctive about them and that demanded original thinking and a new paradigm. Nuremberg obscured genocide by miscasting it as a traditional "war crime," a problem that the Jerusalem court exposed but could have better clarified. Through a first-hand account, I show how we too had to secure a new paradigm by treating the facts on their own terms and coining the crime as "genocidal rape." We had to wrest this paradigm from a prevailing approach that also formally applied the category of "war crimes" onto these experiences in a way that obscured them and interfered with justice.


Scanning electron microscopic studies of myoblasts from 11‐to 13‐day‐old chick embryonic breast muscle cultred on collagen‐coated glass coverslips showed six stages of development into multinucleated myotubes: (1) growth of flattened, spread‐out cells for 20–30 hr following initiation of monolayer cultures; (2) extension of microprocesses (1–150 μm) from cells that have become spindle shaped; (3) contact and adherence of microprocesses from adjacent cells; (4) thickening of fused processes; (5) approximation of the cells; and (6) coalescence of the cells to form a spindle‐shaped myotube. When the calcium‐ion concentration in the growth medium was lowered‐either by increasing the concentration of ethylene‐glycol‐bis (aminoethyl ether) N, N'‐tetraacetate (EGTA) or by decresing the concentration of free calcium ion used‐the number of microprocesses present on the cells was reduced. Presumably, however, these microprocesses could still fuse together, provided that the calciumion concentration was greater than 160 μM. Indirect immunofluorescence assay with actin‐specific antibody indicated that actin is a major component of the myoblasts' microprocesses. Cytochalasin B (5μg/ml) caused the microprocesses to retract within 15 min and the myoblasts to round up and detach from the glass substrate. This was presumably caused by the action of the drug on actin filaments.


Nicotine potentiates, in a dose dependent manner, the sleep time induced by sodium pentobarbital but not by ethanol. Mecamylamine, a nicotinic receptor antagonist, blocked the nicotine induced increase in sleep time. Atropine itself reduced sleep time but did not change the nicotine effect. It is hypothesized that the central and the peripheral nicotinic receptors play an important role in potentiating sodium pentobarbital induced sleep time.


OBJECTIVES
Emergence of multiresistant Gram-negative organisms in intensive care units (ICUs) throughout the world is a concerning problem. Therefore we undertook a study to follow the resistance patterns of the most common clinically isolated Gram-negative organisms within our ICU following an antibiotic stewardship intervention to evaluate whether a reduction in broad-spectrum antibiotics improves local antibiotic resistance patterns.

METHODS
This prospective study was conducted over a 7 year period within an ICU at a tertiary teaching hospital in Melbourne, Australia. All clinically isolated Gram-negative organisms were identified and extracted from the hospital pathology system. Three monthly antibiograms were created. The pre-interventional period occurred between January 2000 and June 2002 (10 quarters) and the post-interventional period was defined from July 2002 to December 2006 (18 quarters). Segmented linear regression was used to analyse for a difference in the rates of change in susceptibility.

RESULTS
A total of 2838 Gram-negative organisms were isolated from clinical sites from ICU patients during the study period. There was significant improvement in susceptibility of Pseudomonas to imipenem 18.3%/year [95% confidence interval (CI): 4.9-31.6; P = 0.009] and gentamicin 11.6%/year (95% CI: 1.8-21.5; P = 0.02) compared with the pre-intervention trend. Significant changes in the rates of gentamicin and ciprofloxacin susceptibility were also observed in the inducible Enterobacteriaceae group although these were less clinically significant.

CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates improved antibiotic susceptibility of ICU Gram-negative isolates including Pseudomonas following an intervention aimed at reducing broad-spectrum antibiotics.


The distribution of specific glycoprotein receptors on the external surfaces of red cells was mapped, by the freeze-etching technique, to determine if the receptors coincided with the underlying 75-A intramembranous particles. Phytohemagglutinin, ferritin-conjugated phytohemagglutinin, and influenza virus were used as labeling agents since they can be seen by freeze-etching techniques and each reacts with a different site on the same glycoprotein molecule. The distribution of these labels was studied on intact human red cells, isolated ghost membranes, and trypsin-treated ghost membranes. The results show that the receptors for these labels are distributed uniformly over the surfaces of normal red cell membranes in the same apparent distribution as that of the 75-A particles within the membrane. The association between the external receptors and the underlying particles is especially evident when trypsin-treated ghost membranes are labeled: the labeled receptor sites and the intramembranous particles both form sharply defined, reticulated networks, which overlap. These results provide further support for the idea that membrane-bound glycoproteins are oriented so that their carbohydrate-rich segments, which bear the antigenic sites and receptors, are exposed to the external medium, while hydrophobic segments of the same molecules interact with lipids, and possibly other proteins, to form the intramembranous particles.


Why are we deeply moved by the misfortune of Anna Karenina if we are fully aware that she is simply a fictional character who does not exist in our world? But what does it mean that fictional characters do not exist? The present article is concerned with the ontology of fictional characters. The author concludes that successful fictional characters become paramount examples of the 'real' human condition because they live in an incomplete world what we have cognitive access to but cannot influence in any way and where no deeds can be undone. Unlike all the other semiotic objects, which are culturally subject to revisions, and perhaps only similar to mathematical entities, the fictual characters will never change and will remain the actors of what they did once and forever.


Since human nutrition is responsible for about 30 % of the global natural resource use and in order to decrease resource use to a level in line with planetary boundaries, Lukas et al. (2016) proposed a re-source use reduction in the nutrition sector by a factor 2 (Material Footprint). The catering sector needs clearly defined indicators to assess their business activities' impact on ecology, social aspects, economic value, and health status. Within the project NAHGAST two sets of indicators, called NAHGAST Meal-Basis and NAHGAST Meal-Pro were developed. The indicator sets are proposed to measure several, with sustainability-associated challenges, such as such as the ecological, social and economical effects, which may come along with the production and the consumption of a meal. Basically, the NAHGAST Meal-Basis deals with qualitative indicators, such as the amount of organic food per serving or the percentage of food wasted. This set is supposed to enable leaders to assess the sustainability of their meals and to visualize future improvements on a simplistic level. The NAHGAST Meal-Pro deals with a more sophisticated set of indicators, such as the carbon and material footprint or the cost recovery per meal. Both sets are underpinned with sus-tainable targets and elaborated as an Excel-based assessment tool, which is tested within a one-year case study. The usefulness and the limits of the tool, as well as current results of the implementation including pro-posed challenges, are discussed.


Self-assembling complex systems exhibit properties that involve a broad spectrum of thermal, structural, morphological, and optical transitions. Various techniques have been used to assess different aspects of the phase transitions in these complex systems. However, because of inherent technical constraints, structural information is usually provided only within narrow ranges of concentrations and temperatures. We show here that by effectively suppressing multiple scattering, low-coherence dynamic light scattering permits assessing the aggregation dynamics of self-assembling systems in a completely passive manner and over ranges of concentration and temperatures well beyond the limits of traditional approaches. The power spectral analysis of scattered intensity fluctuations permits a reliable characterization of multiple relaxation times. We demonstrate that the entire phase diagram can be covered in a consistent way and structural phase transitions can be mapped over a broad optical regime from weak to strong scattering.


The power house of Yantan extended hydropower project, with complex geological conditions such as fault f211 below the power house and quartzite on top of it, is a huge underground cavern with large span and high wall. In order to evaluate the stability of the power house surrounded by such complex geological structure, the numerical simulation excavation of power house with different location schemes were studied by the elasto-plastic 2D FEM method. The deformation and evolutive process of the stress with the progress of excavation were analyzed. On the condition ensuring the whole stability of surrounding rock mass, comparison optimization analyses were conducted on the power house location scheme. The rational location scheme was demonstrated. The final analyses results show that: (1) The mechanical properties of quartzite and its relative location to the power house has no obvious influence to the stability of surrounding rock mass.(2) The f211 is the main bad geological structure which affect the stability of power house. (3) The case of moving 10m upward of power house is the most rational scheme for the whole stability of power house. (4) The Supporting measures, which would has an obvious effect in controlling the influence on the stability of surrounding rock mass by weak geological structure, are suggested at the out-crop of f211.


The safe management of a country's radioactive substances in both the short and the long term implies a cost to its present society and necessitates financial resources to cover these costs. Once they are needed, these financial resources may prove to be insufficient or even completely lacking, leading to a nuclear liability. By virtue of article 9 of the Belgian law of 12th December 1997, the Belgian Government wishes to avoid the occurrence of such nuclear liabilities. This law charges ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials with the mission to draw up a register of the localisation and the state of all nuclear sites and all sites containing radioactive substances, to estimate the costs of their decommissioning and remediation, to evaluate the existence and adequacy of the provisions for financing these future or current operations and to update the resulting inventory of nuclear liabilities on a five-yearly basis.This paper outlines the methodology put in place by ONDRAF/NIRAS to accomplish this assignment and highlights some of the results of this third inventory. It then focuses on the main recommendations ONDRAF/NIRAS made to the Belgian Government on the field of avoiding potential nuclear liabilities.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


OBJECTIVE To evaluate long-term clinical outcomes and survival in young-onset type 2 diabetes (T2DM) compared with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) with a similar age of onset. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Records from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Diabetes Clinical Database, established in 1986, were matched with the Australian National Death Index to establish mortality outcomes for all subjects until June 2011. Clinical and mortality outcomes in 354 patients with T2DM, age of onset between 15 and 30 years (T2DM15–30), were compared with T1DM in several ways but primarily with 470 patients with T1DM with a similar age of onset (T1DM15–30) to minimize the confounding effect of age on outcome. RESULTS For a median observation period of 21.4 (interquartile range 14–30.7) and 23.4 (15.7–32.4) years for the T2DM and T1DM cohorts, respectively, 71 of 824 patients (8.6%) died. A significant mortality excess was noted in T2DM15–30 (11 vs. 6.8%, P = 0.03), with an increased hazard for death (hazard ratio 2.0 [95% CI 1.2–3.2], P = 0.003). Death for T2DM15–30 occurred after a significantly shorter disease duration (26.9 [18.1–36.0] vs. 36.5 [24.4–45.4] years, P = 0.01) and at a relatively young age. There were more cardiovascular deaths in T2DM15–30 (50 vs. 30%, P < 0.05). Despite equivalent glycemic control and shorter disease duration, the prevalence of albuminuria and less favorable cardiovascular risk factors were greater in the T2DM15–30 cohort, even soon after diabetes onset. Neuropathy scores and macrovascular complications were also increased in T2DM15–30 (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Young-onset T2DM is the more lethal phenotype of diabetes and is associated with a greater mortality, more diabetes complications, and unfavorable cardiovascular disease risk factors when compared with T1DM.


Abstract The result of this study is the chemical characterization of sapwood (SW) and heartwood (HW) of Fraxinus angustifolia native to Algeria. Lipophilic and hydrophilic extractives were isolated by means of an accelerated solvent extractor (ASE) using hexane and the acetone/water mixture respectively. The acid hydrolysis and methanolysis methods were used to determine cellulose and hemicelluloses contents. The Tappi Standards T 222 and UM 250 allowed Klason and acid-soluble lignin quantification respectively. Alkaline hydrolysis of wood samples followed by HPLC analysis was performed to determine the acetyl groups. The method detailed in TAPPI T 211 (2002) for determining the ash content was used. It was found that the SW and HW of Fraxinus A. had almost similar amounts of the main components, averaging 40.00 wt% cellulose, 28.00 wt% hemicelluloses within 18.00 wt% of xylan, 22.00 wt% lignin, 3% extractives and 0.83 wt% ash. However, the HW contained more triglycerides (0.08 wt%) than the SW (0.02 wt%). On the other hand, mannitol was the most predominant hydrophilic extractive in SW (1.60 wt%) than in HW (1.02 wt%). These findings are useful for practitioners in the paper, biofuel, cosmetics, food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries for the assessment of Fraxinus A. wood chemical treatment parameters.


In contemporary politics many groups make claims for self-determination. Some of these claims are recognised by existing political authorities or the international community, whilst others are denied. Often this is regardless of the fact that the reasons why groups make claims for self-determination differ from group to group. This thesis assesses whether groups who make claims for self-determination should have their claims recognised or denied and for what reasons this should be the case. This thesis, therefore, provides an answer to the question 'which groups have justified claims for self-determination?' My thesis is that groups who are dominated have justified claims for this right.
This thesis is in two parts: the first is a critical examination of three existing theories of self-determination, and the second is a defence of a constructive alternative to these theories – it details a republican theory of self-determination. In part one I assess three theories in the existing literature on self-determination: the choice-based, nationalist, and just-cause theories of self-determination. I argue that none of these theories provides a framework that is satisfying enough to assess which claims for self-determination should be taken as justified in political practice. I argue that the ideas of the freedom to choose which political authority one should be subject to, nationhood, and the violation of human or social rights – which respectively reflect the justificatory basis of each of the existing theories – do not provide a satisfying enough framework to assess which claims for self-determination should be justified in political practice.
In part two I provide an alternative to the existing theories and argue that republican political theory provides a more compelling justificatory framework to assess claims for self-determination, with its idea of domination. I argue, that in comparative consideration of the three existing theories and the republican alternative, republicanism provides the most satisfying justificatory framework to assess the claims groups make for self-determination. I argue that groups that either: (i) fail to be afforded rights of self-government, or (ii) have the exercise of their rights to self-government constrained whilst other citizens sufficiently exercise these rights, are dominated and have sufficient justification for their claims to self-determination.


Abrasion mechanism of thermocouple cannula is studied in this article. For different working position and condition, different material should be selected to ensure the working characteristics of thermocouple cannula. Several protection methods were introduced to prolong the sevice life of thermocouple cannula. 1. M-Al series intermetallic compound coating protection method. 2. Metal/ceramic compound coating protection method. 3. Development of new abrasion-resisting material for high temperature according to some special work conditions of thermocouple cannula. With the adoption of those new technologies, thermocouple cannula's service life can be prolonged to 3~5 times of that untreated.


The main objective of this study is to investigate the economy-wide effect of improving road transport infrastructure. The study uses the updated and adjusted version of the 2005/2006 social accounting matrix of Ethiopia. The study applies a single country computable general equilibrium model. The simulation scenario is a reduction of trade and transport margin and an increase in the total factor productivity (TFP) of activities that produce trade and transport services due to public investment in road infrastructure (and hence better access to road infrastructure). The simulation results indicate that improving road transport infrastructure reduced the purchaser and supply price of marketed commodities. This facilitates transportation of commodities to the market and stimulates production; leading to an increase in domestic production in agriculture, trade, and manufacturing sector. The simulation results also indicate that expansion of road infrastructure results in welfare improvement among rural and urban households. Furthermore, better road transport infrastructure facilitates investment flow, foreign trade and hence accelerates economic growth (GDP) of the country. Therefore, public investment in road transport infrastructure should be considered as one of the policy pillars in the design of development policy and strategies of Ethiopia.

 Key words: Road transport infrastructure, trade and transport margin, computable general equilibrium model, social accounting matrix, Ethiopia.


There were 20 of 103 length of pipe found cracks on the extrados surface of the bent pipe made of Φ406.4×10mm L360 Longitudinal Submerged Arc Welding (LSAW) pipe, the cracks were mostly distributed in the extrados surface and the arc initial point of the bent pipe, the cracks were spindle-shaped and narrow at both ends with the longitudinal direction vertical to the axis of bent pipe. The mechanism and the causes of the cracks were studied by macro inspection, mechanical property test, microscope, scanning electron microscopy and energy spectrum analysis, which shown that the cracks were result from the contamination of copper or its alloy during or before the bent pipe production. The contaminated material like copper infiltrated and diffused into the base metal at high temperature, and could hardly stead to and transfer the normal stress from the base metal where the inertial crack was shaped. Meanwhile, the new crack was formed at the tip of inertial crack after the new infiltration and diffusion under the condition of both high temperature and tensile stress, so that the crack progressed and extended in this way.


Chemical and phase compositions of the surface of Venus could reflect a history of gas–rock and fluid–rock interactions, recent and past climate changes, and a loss of water from the Earth's sister planet. The concept of chemical weathering on Venus through gas–solid type reactions was established in the early 1960s after the discovery of the hot and dense CO2-rich atmosphere of the planet, inferred from Earth-based and Mariner 2 radio emission data. Initial models suggested carbonation, hydration, and oxidation of exposed igneous rocks and a control (buffering) of atmospheric gases by solid–gas type chemical equilibria in the near-surface rocks. Carbonates, phyllosilicates and Fe oxides were considered likely secondary minerals. From the late 1970s onward, measurements of trace gases in the sub-cloud atmosphere by the Pioneer Venus and Venera entry probes and by Earth-based infrared spectroscopy challenged the likelihood of hydration and carbonation. The atmospheric H2O gas content appeared to be low enough to allow the stable existence of H2O-bearing and a majority of OH-bearing minerals. The concentration of SO2 gas was too high to allow the stability of Ca-rich carbonates and silicates with respect to sulfatization to CaSO4. In the 1980s, the detection of an elevated bulk S content at the Venera and Vega landing sites suggested ongoing consumption of atmospheric SO2 to surface sulfates. The supposed composition of the near-surface atmosphere implied oxidation of ferrous minerals to Fe oxides, magnetite and hematite, consistent with the infrared reflectance of surface materials. The likelihood of sulfatization and oxidation has been illustrated in modeling experiments in simulated Venus' conditions. The morphology of Venus' surface suggests contact of atmospheric gases with hot surface materials of mainly basaltic composition during the several hundreds of millions years since a global volcanic/tectonic resurfacing. Some exposed materials could have reacted at higher and lower temperatures in a presence of diverse gases at different altitudinal, volcanic, impact, and atmospheric settings. On highly deformed tessera terrains, more ancient rocks of unknown composition may reflect interactions with putative water-rich atmospheres and even aqueous solutions. Geological formations rich in salt, carbonate, Fe oxide, or silica will indicate past aqueous processes. The apparent diversity of affected solids, surface temperatures, pressures, and gas/fluid compositions throughout Venus' history implies multiple signs of chemical alterations that remain to be investigated. The current understanding of chemical weathering is limited by the uncertain composition of the deep atmosphere, by the lack of direct data on the phase and chemical composition of surface materials, and by the uncertain data on thermodynamics of minerals and their solid solutions. In preparation for further atmospheric entry probe and lander missions, rock alteration could be investigated through chemical kinetic experiments and calculations of solid-gas/fluid equilibria to constrain past and present processes.


In confronting neoliberal models and their emphasis on state–market alliances, new developmentalism has emerged as a powerful alternative, received with enthusiasm by progressive forces. It has certainly been responsible for unquestionable advances in fighting inequalities, particularly in Latin America where it has been adopted by leftist governments from 2000 on. However, it has been unable to redefine the old formula of a 'strong, self-sufficient state' and the centralising political practices characteristic of the 'old' developmentalism. Therefore, the article argues that the new developmental state has ended up by draining the potential of participatory democracy, which had brought together hopes for inclusive and sustainable development policies and had announced a new alliance between state and society through which rights could be ensured and democracy deepened.


Eight spontaneous orocutaneous papillomas of adult, wild-caught brown bullheads Ictalurus nebulosus and 4 anatomically matching control tissue samples were examined by electron microscopy. Ultrastructural characteristics of normal and neoplastic Malpighian epithelial cells were compared and neoplastic cells were described. Normal Malpighian epithelial cells of brown bullheads were similar to those of other teleosts. Euchromatic nucleus, abundant nuclear pores and numerous ribosomes suggested elevated protein synthetic activity in both normal and neoplastic Malpighian cells. Three morphological alterations were consistently present In neoplastic cells: loss of zonal cytoplasmic distribution of organelles, well-developed vesicular system and disorganization of bundles of intermediate filaments (cytokeratin, presumably) with frequent whorl formation. These changes suggest a hlgh membrane-generating activity and imperfect differentiation in these cells, which would be compatible with their neoplastic nature. There were no other significant morphological differences between normal and neoplastic Malpighian epithelial cells. No virus particles were detected in the 8 papillomas examined.


Background: Episodes of malnutrition in early childhood can produces alterations in the salivary glands. The investigation of mechanisms that can reduce the impact of malnutrition on the defenses of the organism is of the utmost important and interest to public health. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of low-level laser on the saliva of children aged 1 to 5 years with energy-protein malnutrition. Methods: Mandatory inclusion criteria are diagnosis of malnutrition. The sample will consist of 50 men and women malnourished children aged 12 to 71 months. Saliva will be collected and the volume of saliva will be measured and the salivary flow rate will be determined (mL/min). Concentrations of salivary IgA in all samples will be measured using a commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Low-level laser (laser diode) will be administered in the region of the parotid glands bilaterally as well as in the regions of the submandibular and sublingual glands. Discussion: This study will be the first that investigate the effects of local laser therapy on the salivary glands of malnourished children. Trial registration: Clinical.trials.gov as NCT03355313, first received in 21 November 2017.


The Biodiversity Heritage Library's holdings include dozens of manuscript collections that are largely hidden due to minimal descriptive metadata and the absence of machine readable facsimiles. Transcription projects for collections are time consuming, intellectually intensive, and expensive for an organization to facilitate. Crowdsourcing has been identified as a sustainable model for generating transcriptions for large collections and institutions with diverse holdings and may improve data collection from a diverse range of users to enhance descriptive metadata. Manuscript transcriptions also must fit into the larger BHL objective of producing and making available large scale datasets for users and researchers to study and manipulate. While generating only full-text transcriptions will improve discoverability, items remain isolated from other literature and collections. The GNA machine learning and named entity recognition algorithms allow BHL to extract, index, and attach page records to scientific names in order to create additional access points to biodiversity literature. These tools depend on imperfect optical character recognition (OCR), which contain spelling and layout errors and outdated naming conventions and can be added to BHL's larger crowdsourcing platform to solicit corrections. Transcriptions, similarly, introduce antiquated taxonomic data and common names and must be optimized for use with GNA's name finding tools. Improving named entity recognition by correcting OCR output and enhancing transcribed manuscript items will allow BHL to better connect ‡ © Mika K. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. content across collections and ultimately provide a broader and more complete picture of biodiversity.


In order to solve the active vibration control of piezoelectric smart structures, focus problems on the structural analysis of the dynamic characteristics. To piezoelectric smart structure for the research object, finite element modal analysis, solving the natural frequency and response characteristics. Firstly, analyzed the problems of structural eigenvalues and eigenvectors problems, then prepared dynamic response analysis program of FEM based on MATLAB, and complete the theoretical model calculations. At the same time, using ANSYS software to simulate and analyze, theresults show that, ANSYS simulation result is consistent with the theoretical value, so as to study the piezoelectric active vibration control of smart structures and lay a good foundation.


Heterojunctions of the low bandgap semiconductor bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) with bulk multilayered graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and few layered graphitic carbon nitride sheets (g-C3N4-S) are synthesized and investigated as an active photoanode material for sunlight driven water splitting. HR-TEM and elemental mapping reveals formation of a unique heterostructure between BiOI platelets and the carbon nitride (g-C3N4 and g-C3N4-S) network that consisted of dendritic BiOI nanoplates surrounded by g-C3N4 sheets. The presence of BiOI in g-C3N4-S/BiOI and g-C3N4-S/BiOI nanocomposites extends the visible light absorption profile from 500 nm up to 650 nm. Due to excellent charge separation in g-C3N4/BiOI and g-C3N4-S/BiOI, evident from quenching of the carbon nitride photoluminescence (PL) and a decrease in the PL lifetime, a significant increase in photoelectrochemical performance is observed for both types of g-C3N4–BiOI heterojunctions. In comparison to heterojunctions of bulk g-C3N4 with BiOI, the nanocomposite consisting of few layered sheets of g-C3N4 and BiOI exhibits higher photocurrent density due to lower recombination in few layered sheets. A synergistic trap passivation and charge separation is found to occur in the g-C3N4-S/BiOI nanocomposite heterostructure which results in a higher photocurrent and a lower charge transfer resistance.


Abstract A novel structural integrity assessment technique using uncertain response information is under development by the research team at the University of Arizona. The team successfully verified the method for two dimensional truss and frame structures. The team is now in the process of extending the method for three dimensional (3D) truss type structures. The essential feature of the procedure is that it is a finite element based linear system identification technique which can accurately identify a structure without causing any disruption to the normal operating condition. Using only the noise contaminated response information, the procedure is capable of identifying defect at the element level of a structure by tracking changes in the stiffness parameters of the elements. The information on the dynamic excitation is not necessary. The procedure identifies the dynamic loading as a by-product. It is referred in this paper as the 3D Modified Iterative Least Squares with Unknown Input (3D-MILS-UI). The procedure and its verification are presented in this paper. The procedure is verified assessing structural integrity of a 3-D truss type offshore tower. The tower is subjected to one or multiple sinusoidal loadings and impact loadings; types of loadings expected during the operation of the tower. Three types of damage scenarios of the tower are considered – multiple broken members, multiple damaged elements in terms of the reduction in the cross sectional areas and a combination of broken members and damaged elements. Both noise-free and noise-contaminated responses are considered for the defect identification purpose. The results indicate that the 3D-MILS-UI procedure can accurately assess structural integrity by locating the defective elements and quantifying the severity of defects in them.


A number of effective treatments are available for patients with hairy cell leukemia (HCL). 2-Chlorodeoxyadenosine (2-CdA) induces more than 80% complete responses, but is associated with profound suppression of CD4+ lymphocyte counts. However, the duration of each is uncertain. We have analyzed a previously reported cohort of 40 patients who had responded to 2-CdA. Eight patients (20%) have relapsed at a median of 16 months (range, 3 to 23 months). The remaining 32 patients were observed for a median of 30 months (range, 7 to 43 months). No patients have died. At 3 years, the actuarial disease-free survival rate is 77% (95% confidence interval, 70% to 84%). The median CD4+ lymphocyte count before therapy was 743/microL (range, 58 to 2,201/microL). The median CD4+ nadir after treatment was 139/microL (range, 25 to 580/microL). There was a single opportunistic infection and no second malignancies observed. Although there was evidence of some improvement in CD4+ lymphocyte counts on sequential testing, CD4+ counts remained significantly lower than baseline (P < .0001) at a median of 23 months after therapy (median, 237/microL; range, 25 to 514/microL), and were also lower than baseline (P < .002) in those patients with more than 1 year of follow-up (median, 27 months; range, 13 to 42 months). The median time to reach an absolute CD4+ lymphocyte count of 365/microL, the lower limit of the normal range, was 40 months. Although responses to 2-CdA are durable in the majority of patients with HCL, the uncertain long-term consequences of the observed CD4+ lymphocytopenia suggest caution in the broad application of this therapy.


During the Westernization process of Ottoman State that aims to regulate the social structure, which started during the Tanzimat reform era, integration and compromising with the authentic cultural accumulation of the society became evident as a problematic condition. The Ottoman State has a fragmentary cultural texture. During the 19th century, a certain intelligentsia, who was observing the developments in thought, literature, and art in the West, dealt with this issue. At the same time, this is an attempt to create and a esthetic context to comprehend the current era for painting art. Prominent changes in art and culture were realized by artists who were educated in military schools such as School of Engineering and Military College. A shield of immunity, provided by being a states man, has enabled this generation of "soldier painters" to paint three dimensional figure paintings and Works that criticize the restricting gaze of religion. It can be seen in the Western art that a development emerged through in dependence from there striction of the formal ideology and the gaze of wealthy sovereign class. With their works carried out with the technical and a esthetic equipment they obtained, Turkish painters who were educated in the Western countries were described as "imitators" in their country which did not undergo this development. While analyzing the past, it was found out that many of these artists have paved the way for the contemporary Turkish painting with different aesthetic contexts they discovered in their own condition. Despite restrictive approach of various religious or ideological tools, Osman Hamdi Bey and Şeker Ahmet Paşa, who are from these cond generation of Turkish painting under the Western effect, and Avni Lifij and Namık İsmail, who are from the third -1914generation, are painters that accelerated the cultural transformation through their plastic equipment, choice of subject, and aesthetic context.


Currently economic integration in East Asia is accelerating along with a political movement towards creation of an East Asia Community. Regional economic integration could promote sustainability through generating higher incomes and facilitating clean technology transfer on the one hand, but equally it could cause natural resource degradation due to overexploitation and could harm equity in the region. Policy choices will determine which of these futures results from economic integration. Development of appropriate environmental policies that can both mitigate negative impacts and enhance positive impacts of regional economic integration is thus an imperative to promote sustainable development in this region. As a part of an attempt to develop appropriate environmental policies not imposing excessive economic and social costs through conducting impact assessment of environmental policy implementation, we con- ducted an environmental impact assessment of future regional economic integration in East Asia region using the global trade model combined with sectoral emission factors. Environmental impacts caused by regional economic integration will depend largely on the degree of integration, which is associated with high degree of uncertainty. In order to address this future uncertainty, we employ scenario approach in which the future regional economic integration will be represented as a set of scenarios that cover the plausible range of the degree of integration. The impacts of future economic integration represented by scenarios are simulated using the GTAP model with updated datasets in recursive dynamic manner in which projection data of growth rates in population, skilled and unskilled labour force, physical capital and GDP are given as exogenous drivers. Then, the associated environmental impacts in terms of air pol- lutant emissions in Japan were estimated using emission factors which were updated based on projected clean energy shares to the total industrial energy consumption.