Abstract: Cambrian Eriboll Formation sandstones of the Ardvreck Group that crop out west of the Moine Thrust Zone contain joints and quartz-filled or quartz-lined fractures that resemble cemented joints. Of the fractures containing quartz, five sets strike north, NW to WNW, NE, west and north; according to crosscutting relations this is a progression from the oldest to the youngest set. Sets include opening-mode microfractures, partly visible in transmitted light as fluid-inclusion planes and sharply defined as microveins using SEM-based cathodoluminescence (CL). Dating the oldest north-striking set, using inferred quartz accumulation rates, fluid inclusions and burial history, suggests that these fractures mark a Palaeozoic east–west least horizontal stress trajectory in Laurentia. The youngest two sets of porous fractures are associated with faults that cut and postdate the Moine Thrust Zone. Data indicate that at depth in basins, pervasive fracture systems arising from discrete loading events are ephemeral owing to fracture porosity destruction by cementation.


The aim of the present study was to determine if the measurement of the slope of teh histamine dose-response curve (bronchial reactivity) could provide useful information on the clinical state of asthma. Fifteen adult asthmatic subjects were studied twice at an interval of one year. Their clinical state was assessed by comparing their respiratory symptoms, need for medication, and FEV1 on both visits. Histamine inhalation challenges were carried out in a similar manner both times using a standardised procedure. PC20FEV1 (the histamine concentration causing a 20% fall of FEV1) and reactivity were obtained from the dose-response curves. AS others have shown, we found that PC20FEV1 reflects clinical state. Indeed, changes of PC20FEV1 greater than a single two-fold dilution of histamine were shown by five of six patients who were not in a steady clinical state, and by none of the nine patients who were. Changes of PC20FEV1 were significantly (p less than 0.005) more important in those who were not in a steady state in comparison with those who were. The reproducibility of reactivity was slightly better in those individuals who were in a steady clinical state as compared with those who were not. Nevertheless, changes in reactivity did not allow significant differentiation between the two groups of subjects. We conclude that PC20FEV1 is a more helpful index than reactivity in characterising the clinical state of asthmatics.


Estrogens have many beneficial effects in the brain. Previous studies have evaluated effects of estrogens on specific neurotransmitter systems including dopaminergic, serotoninergic, noradrenergic as well as glutamatergic pathways. However, a comprehensive profile of the collection of neurochemical changes that occur following menopause and estrogen treatments within specific regions of the brain has not been available. Therefore, it is necessary to directly and systematically compare the effect of estrogens on these multiple interacting brain neurotransmitter (NT) pathways between the two clinically relevant menopauses: surgical menopause (OVX) and transitional menopause (VCD).

In the first part of my thesis research, I comprehensively characterized and compared the neurochemical changes associated with surgical and transitional menopausal rat models in three regions of the brain at two time points. Naturally cycling rats sacrificed on proestrus (high estrogen level) and diestrus (low estrogen level) phases were also added to the investigation. Results showed that while many of the effects of surgical vs. transitional menopause were the same, there also were some important differences that varied by brain region and by time following the menopause.

In the second part of this thesis, I further investigated and compared the effects of chronic treatments of estradiol (E2) and selective estrogen receptor (ER) agonists (PPT, DPN, G-1) on brain NT pathways between surgical and transitional menopause at two time points. The results demonstrated significant differences in the effects of ER agonist treatments on neurochemical endpoints in OVX vs. VCD-treated rats and the effects were also brain region-specific and time-dependent.

These results were the first to systematically and simultaneously evaluate the effects of ER agonist treatments on multiple neurochemical endpoints in multiple regions of the brain in two models of menopause. The fact that agonist treatments had lesser effects in VCD-treated rats than in OVX rats may help to explain reports of lesser effects of estrogen replacement on cognitive performance in women that have undergone transitional vs. surgical menopause.


Field experiments were conducted to study the effect of organic matrix based slow release fertilizers (SRFs) on plant growth, nitrate assimilation and seed yield of Brassica juncea L. cv, pusa bold. The agro-waste materials like cow dung, clay soil, neem leaves and rice bran were mixed together in 2:2:1:1 ratio and used as organic matrix for the immobilization of chemical fertilizer nutrients with commercial grade saresh (Acacia gum, 15% solution) as binder. Different fertilizer treatments were organic matrix based slow release fertilizers, SRF-I (542.0 kg ha(-1)); SRF-II (736.5 kg ha(-1)) and chemical fertilizer combinations, boron (3 kg ha(-1))+sulphur (15 kg ha(-1))+nitrogen (80 kg ha(-1)) and boron (3 kg ha(-1)) + sulphur (15 kg ha(-1))+nitrogen (80 kg ha(-1))+phosphorus (15 kg ha(-1))+potassium (100 kg ha(-1)). Organic matrix based SRF-II released ammonium up to 50-d in wetsoil under laboratory conditions which showed maximum retention of the nutrients. Avery significant increase in plant growth, nitrate assimilation and seed yield was recorded in organic matrix based SRF-II applied plants. The maximum percent increase in biomass production was observed with organic matrix based SRF-II (increase of 65.8% in root fresh weight, 38.0% in root dry weight, 45.9% in leaf fresh weight plant(-1) and 27.5 % in leaf dry weight plant(-1) in 60-d old plants). It also increased the acquisition and assimilation of nitrate from the plant's rhizosphere which was evident by 45.6% increase in nitrate, 27.5% in nitrite and 11.7% in nitrate reductase activity (NRA) in leaves of 45-d old plants over control. The organic matrix based SRF-II significantly increased the seed yield by 28% in Indian mustard. Cost analysis revealed thatthis formulation is cost effective as it is based on agro waste materials.


Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder causing synaptic impairment and neuronal cell death, is strongly correlated with aggregation of the amyloid‐β peptide (Aβ). Divalent metal ions such as Cu2+ and Zn2+ are known to significantly affect the rate of aggregation and morphology of Aβ assemblies in vitro and are also found at elevated levels within cerebral plaques in vivo. The present investigation characterized the architecture of the aggregated forms of Aβ(1–40) and Aβ(1–42) in the presence or absence of either Cu2+ or Zn2+ using quenched hydrogen/deuterium exchange combined with solution NMR spectroscopy. The NMR analyses provide a quantitative and residue‐specific structural characterization of metal‐induced Aβ aggregates, showing that both the peptide sequence and the type of metal ion exert an impact on the final architecture. Common features among the metal‐complexed peptide aggregates are two solvent‐protected regions with an intervening minimum centered at Asn27, and a solvent‐accessible N‐terminal region, Asp1–Lys16. Our results suggest that Aβ in complex with either Cu2+ or Zn2+ can attain an aggregation‐prone β‐strand–turn–β‐strand motif, similar to the motif found in fibrils, but where the metal binding to the N‐terminal region guides the peptide into an assembly distinctly different from the fibril form.


The deep subsurface environments in granitic rock can be studied and sampled at the Aspo hard rock laboratory (HRL) close to Oskarshamn in Sweden. Here, the groundwater is anaerobic and total counts give numbers of 10 4 to 10 6 cells mL -1 . However, these measurements do not reveal if the cells are active and alive. Subsequently, an ATP assay measuring biovolume, has in this thesis been shown to be reliable for estimations of the viable number of cells. Viruses are the most abundant biological agent on earth and microbial ecology in all environments is greatly affected by viruses. The world's viral populations in marine ecosystems are known to influence the mortality of bacteria and archaea and biogeochemical cycles, and to have great genetic diversity. At the Aspo HRL, 10 5 to 10 7 mL -1 viral like particles were found when samples down to a depth of 450 m were studied. Using transmission electron microscopy, the viral populations were shown to be morphological diverse and likely to infect both archaea and bacteria. From the viral populations lytic bacteriophages infecting the indigenous sulphatereducing bacterium Desulfovibrio aespoeensis were detected at four out of ten tested sites. Bacteriophages were isolated from the cultures and characterised as within the phage group Podoviriade with a genome size of 40,700 base pairs and to have a narrow host range. When the phage and host were grown in batch cultures, bacterial cells gained immunity towards the phages. In addition, bacteria belonging to the genus Desulfovibrio immune to the isolated lytic phages were isolated from subsurface samples. Temperate phages were found in four out of the ten bacterial isolates, and the presence of prophages in the bacterial genomes might be a protection for the cells towards lytic infection of a similar second phage. Viruses are proposed as a factor controlling the number of micro-organisms in the environment and may allow a diversity of micro-organisms and viruses to co-exist in stable and nutrient limited groundwater systems. The found viruses are further suggested to sustain the activity of the cells in a similar way to how viral populations of marine environments are known to influence the cycling of nutrients via a viral shunt. Viruses are dependent upon the metabolism of their host to multiply. Hence, the viruses found in the deep subsurface imply active microbial communities. The activity of the microbial communities is further supported by ATP assay analysis data since the amount of ATP and the activity and cultivability of micro-organisms have been shown to correlate for subsurface samples. Sulphate-reducing bacteria producing sulphide are potential sources of corrosion on the copper surrounding the spent nuclear waste in the proposed Swedish KBS-3 storage model, and are known to live in the subsurface. Their numbers and the activity of sulphide producing populations are hence important factors for the storage.


Heterogeneous catalyst testing methodology at the lab scale must provide intrinsic kinetics data for reactor design purposes as well as the intrinsic activity ranking during catalyst screening in the field of refining and petrochemistry. The significant downscaling of the past century coupled with the increasingly active catalytic formulations may introduce considerable momentum, mass and heat effects in experiments at small scale. Catalyst dilution has emerged as one versatile and robust way to reduce the impact of momentum and heat effects on heterogeneous catalyst testing. This paper presents a methodology based on global phenomena and catalyst dilution modeling to assess and optimize reactor loading techniques for specific problems. More particularly, the aim is to provide catalysts developers and kinetics experts with concrete guidelines for intensifying gas-liquid mass transfer in lab gas–liquid fixed-bed reactors through catalyst dilution. The methodology is applied to the kinetics determination of the oil residue Hydrodemetallation (HDM) and to the screening of catalysts for benzene hydrogenation. Layered dilution, consisting on the split of the catalyst in two beds separated by an intermediate bed containing an inert material of the same size as the catalyst, poorly improves gas–liquid mass transfer. Uniform dilution, based on the direct mixture of catalyst and inert material of the same size, significantly enhances gas–liquid mass transfer as the reactant local consumption per reactor unit volume is strongly reduced. Combinations of both abovementioned dilution techniques can be used with fast and/or high stoichiometric factor chemical systems operated at conversions higher than 70%. A new criterion is proposed to calculate the minimum dilution factor to guarantee negligible gas–liquid mass transfer limitations as a function of conversion, external mass transfer and global pseudo second-order kinetics.


It has been argued in recent years that software is a significant value-creating factor within the manufacturing sector, leading to an increased interest in understanding the mechanisms by which firms may benefit from software-based innovation. Empirical work in evaluating these mechanisms, however, remains underdeveloped. In this paper, we examine one such process through which software-based innovation may provide value for information technology hardware firms in the U.S. Specifically, we examine the influence of software patents on the extent to which firms are able to benefit from product differentiation in their product markets. Using data on over 380,000 patent grants for innovations filed by 730 public IT hardware firms over the time period 1996-2015, we find that greater levels of software-based innovation within the firm are associated with higher levels of product differentiation in product markets: increases in the intensity of software patents within the firm's patent stock, which we refer to as software intensity, are associated with lower total similarity of product offerings, relative to those offered by rivals, as well as fewer effective competitors in the market. Furthermore, using a different dataset consisting of 23,000 new IT hardware product announcements, we show that firms with greater software intensity subsequently launch a higher number of new products. Moreover, these firms are more likely to launch products that are not only differentiated from those of rivals but also distinct from their own product lines. Our research contributes to the emerging literature on software-based innovation by substantiating an important mechanism through which software helps transform industry sectors, specifically through product differentiation.


The purpose of this study was to provide patient-specific organ dose estimation based on an atlas of human models for twenty tomosynthesis and radiography protocols. The study utilized a library of 54 adult computational phantoms (age: 18-78 years, weight 52-117 kg) and a validated Monte-Carlo simulation (PENELOPE) of a tomosynthesis and radiography system to estimate organ dose. Positioning of patient anatomy was based on radiographic positioning handbooks. The field of view for each exam was calculated to include relevant organs per protocol. Through simulations, the energy deposited in each organ was binned to estimate normalized organ doses into a reference database. The database can be used as the basis to devise a dose calculator to predict patient-specific organ dose values based on kVp, mAs, exposure in air, and patient habitus for a given protocol. As an example of the utility of this tool, dose to an organ was studied as a function of average patient thickness in the field of view for a given exam and as a function of Body Mass Index (BMI). For tomosynthesis, organ doses can also be studied as a function of x-ray tube position. This work developed comprehensive information for organ dose dependencies across tomosynthesis and radiography. There was a general exponential decrease dependency with increasing patient size that is highly protocol dependent. There was a wide range of variability in organ dose across the patient population, which needs to be incorporated in the metrology of organ dose.


In this study, the heat transfer pattern and flow bifurcation in the fluid is observed by the application of low intensity magnetic field in the gradually constricted cavity. The natural convection flow solver with Lorentz force and Boussinesq approximation as a source term is developed in the open-source CFD platform OpenFOAM. The Lorentz force in the flow is altered by varying the Hartmann number of Ha = 0 – 100, however the buoyancy force is kept constant in the flow at fixed Rayleigh number of Ra = 106. The orientation of magnetic field is exposed to be in the y-direction (By). The significance of using the By magnetic field with its various intensity in the constricted enclosure on the heat transfer and flow pattern is reported. It is perceived that the transverse magnetic field (By) and its varying intensity regulates the heat transfer with multiple convection rings. The detail study on the isotherms, streamlines, and the time average Nusselt number is reported.


SIR,-Dr C J Ellis (2 April, p 952) supported by Drs E L C Ong and EM Dunbar (30 April, p 1259) recommends quinine for falciparum malaria because of the death of a patient who received chloroquine for prophylaxis and treatment. In 1976' and 19782 I advised quinine by intravenous infusion in a dose of 5-10 mg/kg over four hours roughly every 12 hours for severe falciparum malaria. In 1982 I recommended quinine by intravenous infusion in all patients because severe falciparum malaria can appear mild clinically.3 Since then most falciparum infections at this hospital have been treated with quinine. We do treat most mild infections with the oral quinine and Fansidar regimen, but when in doubt the intravenous route is used. Since 1977 intravenous quinine in a dose ofup to 10 mg/kg (maximum 500 mg) at least every 12 hours has caused no severe toxicity in 79 patients. On eight hourly dosing, however, nine out of 22 patients developed severe cinchonism (p<0-01). No patients have died of malaria at this hospital since 1978. I recommend that the infusions of quinine should be given about every 12 hours until the patient has greatly improved, when the treatment should be changed to oral quinine for a few doses or Fansidar immediately. Mild cinchonism can occur with 12 hourly dosing, and a flexible response is needed. For example, if the parasitaemia falls rapidly the dose of quinine should be halved or omitted. If the patients are severely jaundiced or in renal failure the dosage interval should usually be 24 hours. I suggest a therapeutic trial of oral chloroquine as an inpatient treatment in pregnant African women with clinically mild falciparum malaria and parasitaemia of less than 1% because of the fear (mostly unfounded) that quinine can cause abortion in therapeutic doses and because chloroquine is usually curative in such patients. Intravenous quinine has been successful and nontoxic here in pregnant women with parasitaemias of 2-30%. ANTHONY HALL Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London NWI OPE


As semiconductor technology develops, conventional bond wires are reaching the limits of their capability. Industry is demanding finer diameter wire coupled with higher strength, and the retention of this strength at elevated temperatures would be a decided advantage.It has been demonstrated that a fine wire of the composition Au-lwt.%Ti, which was originally formulated for high carat jewellery, can be endowed with these beneficial properties by appropriate thermomechanical treatments. A three-fold increase in the strength of 25 μm diameter wire over that of conventional gold wire has been achieved. The mechanical properties are stable even when the wire is subjected to heating at 400 °C for over a year.Wire based on the Au-1wt.%Ti alloy can be made comparable to that of the standard gold products in terms of its electrical properties and bonding characteristics. Moreover, it is more resilient to the demands of the fabrication process.


This paper develops a novel nonlinear block-oriented model for the wind tunnel system. Based on the available signals, the wind tunnel system can be divided into three parts, namely, the exhaust valve loop, the choke finger loop and the flow field. Then the considered plant is described as a nonlinear block-oriented model. The exhaust valve subsystem and the flow field subsystem are both expressed by linear dynamic models, whereas the choke finger subsystem exhibits a nonlinear characteristics and is approximated by a pseudo-Hammerstein model. Based on the above parameterization model, the recursive identification algorithms are presented for three subsystems. Interestingly, the adaptive weighted recursive least squares algorithm is applied to the pseudo-Hammerstein model, and the hierarchical recursive least squares algorithm is used to reduce the computational complexities. Both simulations and experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.46.3.14457


The MIT Visualizing Cultures controversy is linked to a series of anti-Japanese street protests in China during the previous year. As a comparative analysis of these two very different types of protests, this article produces a reading of protest through a series of linked contexts of reception, or interconnected interpretive communities. To elaborate this idea, this article focuses on one of these events, the anti-Japanese protest of April 2005, and in conclusion, compares the reception of this event to the reactions to Visualizing Cultures website. Both events followed a familiar twentieth-century pattern of Chinese youth reacting against perceived insults to China in the realm of international affairs, accusing the Chinese state of weakness in the face of foreign insults. Like the MIT webpage controversy, however, the Shanghai protest unfolded in the borderless context of global media coverage, and also in the particular local and transnational contexts of Shanghai, a rising global city with a large resident foreign population, including the largest Japanese population in any city in the world outside Japan. The interpretations of the protest thus developed across a series of interlinked contexts of reception in Shanghai, in Japan, and further afield. In particular, the article discusses reactions in the Japanese community in Shanghai, and subsequent reactions of Japanese public intellectuals writing about the protest from Japan. Finally, as the events of protest become embedded in opposing nationalist narratives, the article asks how they can be brought back into the classroom, and how the social space of the classroom can serve as an alternative interpretive community for the exploration of both historical memory and the meanings of protest.


This paper proposes a methodology for placement of sectionalizing switches in distribution networks in the presence of distributed generation sources. The multiobjective considerations are handled using a fuzzy approach. The primary objective is reliability improvement with consideration of economic aspects. Thus, the objectives are defined as reliability improvement and minimization of the cost of sectionalizing switches. A fuzzy membership function is defined for each term in the objective function according to relevant conditions. Some considerations incorporated in the proposed model are relocation of existing switches and operating constraints on distribution networks and distributed generation (DG) sources during post-fault service restoration. The ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is adopted to solve the fuzzy multiobjective problem efficiently. The performance of the proposed approach is assessed and illustrated by various case studies on a test distribution system and also a real distribution network.


Adequate fresh water availability is an important factor for human security in many parts of the world. In transboundary river basins, decreased water supply due to local environmental change and global climate change and increased water demand due to growing populations and continued economic development can aggravate water scarcity. Contrary to the claim that water scarcity may result in an increased risk of armed conflict, there is no simple relationship between freshwater availability and violent conflict. Other crucial factors need to be taken into consideration that also directly influence resource availability and personal human well‐being. In this review, we assess the scientific literature on conflict and cooperation in transboundary river systems. Most international river basins are already jointly managed by the riparians, but successful management in times of climate change necessitates the inclusion of more factors besides mere allocation schemes. On the basis of a substantial body of literature on the management of transboundary watersheds, an analytical framework of the water‐security nexus is developed that integrates the physical and socioeconomic pathways connecting water availability with conflict or cooperation. This framework is subsequently applied to two transboundary river basins—the Nile River and the Syr Darya/Amu Darya—as they represent two world regions that could become future water hot spots. An improved understanding of the developments leading to water conflicts and their interaction can help to successfully reduce the risk of water conflicts in these regions and to move toward increased cooperation among the riparians of transboundary river systems. WIREs Water 2016, 3:495–515. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1151


Background. Neurodegenerative processes play an important role in the development of clinical features of multiple sclerosis (MS) as well as in the progression of the disease. At the same time, neurodegenerative mechanisms of MS are not completely clear, which makes researchers pay special attention to pathogenetic aspects of the disease that have not been studied before. Previously it was shown that MS patients can have alterations in the local cerebral blood flow, however, the meaning of the detected abnormalities is still not clear. The aim of our work is to evaluate the perfusion character in the demyelinating lesions and normalappearing brain structures, and to determine their relation to clinical features of MS. Material and methods. 49 patients with relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive MS with clinical and MRI remission were included in the study. The patients underwent contrast-enhanced MR perfusion of the brain on the 3 Tesla MR-tomograph, as well as the Functional System Score, Expanded Disability Status Score and Fatigue Status Score evaluation. The data analysis included automatic construction of perfusion maps of the cerebral blood volume (CBV), cerebral blood flow (CBF) and mean transit time (MTT) values in the normal-appearing brain structures and in the demyelinating lesions and statistical analysis. Results. The received results allow to presume that variation of CBV values in MS lesions can indicate heterogeneity of processes in these lesions – from reactivation of inflammation to remyelination. Significant reduction of perfusion in nucleus lenticularis was revealed. This reduction did not depend on the severity of the disease and correlated negatively with the fatigue score. This allows to suppose that the therapy focused on brain perfusion improvement can be used as symptomatic therapy of MS. Considering the fact that regional hypoperfusion precedes the development of brain structure atrophy, it is hypothesized that the improvement of perfusion may prevent neurodegeneration in MS. The obtained findings need further investigation.


An important input into mathematical models of respiratory infection transmission is the contact duration and rate between people—i.e. who mixes with whom. These rates differ by age of the respondent in all studies to-date. Evidence regarding differences in contact rates by gender and day of the week is available from some locations, and the patterns appear to differ by region or country. In a rural Indian location with known gender hierarchies, low formal employment rates among women, and large household sizes, it is unknown if contact rates are different by the day of the week. This study uses social contact data from 2943 individuals, in 5 villages of the Faridabad district of Haryana, India. Respondents were interviewed on one day from October 20, 2015 to February 29, 2016 about their contacts on the previous day. We examined the differences in the total daily number of contacts per respondent and the total duration spent with others per respondent by different day-types (Sunday vs weekday, holidays vs. non-holidays, school break periods vs non-break periods, and self-reported atypical days vs typical days), sex, and age group. We found that school-aged individuals had more contacts and contact duration on weekdays than Sundays. Females aged 0-4 and 20-59 had more contacts on school break days than on non-school break days, and females ages 20-59 had greater contact duration on school break days. Holidays were not found to be a significant predictor of contact duration or number of contacts. Finally, there were significant differences between different typical and atypical day types, as well as by age category, warranting further investigation into self-reported atypical days as a significant modeling variable. These results expand on existing literature regarding social mixing variation by sex, day type, and age, and can be used to better inform models of respiratory infection transmission. Such models are of great public health significance in their potential to evaluate the efficacy of interventions aimed at limiting the spread of infectious diseases.


Ecophysiological and biochemical criteria have been used to study the effects of stress on the common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) at two sites in Southampton Water. Variations in the population structure, biomass and production were observed. These inter-site differences seem to be attributable to differences in pollution load (especially that due to copper and hydrocarbons) and type of sediment at the two locations. The adenylate energy charge (AEC) was high and differed little between the sites. It is concluded that, for cockles, population criteria are more reliable stress indices than unsupported AEC measurements.


When the opportunity arose in the course of four experiments with mice and one with guinea pigs, all systemically infected with Candida albicans, the animals' bedding, work surfaces, surrounding walls, the balance pan and tools used in homogenization of tissues were sampled with contact plates or by water washing for the presence of viable C. albicans cells. Although substantial viable counts of C. albicans were measured in homogenized samples of kidneys and other tissues, no colonies of the fungus were recovered at any time from the work surfaces, walls or homogenizer stand. Contact samples of the homogenizer dispersal tool made on four occasions during the course of 24 successive homogenizations showed that few viable C. albicans could be cultured from the tool after two water washes, and none at all after two washes with 70% ethanol. Water samples of the contents of three cages that had housed infected mice were all negative for viable C. albicans, however, direct contact plate samples of the bedding material and excreta in seven cages yielded positive cultures with colony counts from 1 to 8 per sample in five instances and 18 in one instance. It is concluded that the potential infection risk to personnel of working with this hazard group 2 fungus is minimal and the highly stringent safety regulations for all organisms in hazard group 2 may err on the side of over-caution.


A kind of new adsorption material for wastewater treatment was made of fly ash as the main composition, with addition of sodium silicate, cement and pore forming material as the accessory materials, etc. Three kinds of practical wastewater were treated by using the new material, they were printing and dyeing wastewater, papermaking wastewater and coking wastewater, respectively. The results showed that removal COD efficiencies of the three kinds of wastewater were 57.89%, 71.43%, 80%, respectively, removal color efficiencies were 90%, 92%, 92%, respectively. The new developed material was mainly used for advanced treatment of the effluent water after biochemical process. It will be a substitute for activated carbon materials and have preferable application prospect.


Image matching is a critical issue in many image processing applications. It is very likely that the real-time sensed image and the reference image have significant differences in terms of brightness, contrast, and angle due to the changing parameters of imaging devices, the illumination conditions, and the view angles. This has greatly affected the precision and the efficiency of the target recognition tasks in remote sensing. We construct a novel moment invariant as a confidence measure for the image matching task. Using the distance between template and local region in a real-time image in the feature space of moment invariant, a target detection algorithm is implemented that does not rely on either the imaging angles or the illumination conditions. Based on the phases of complex moments, the direction of each matching region in relation to the template can also be obtained. The experiments show that the algorithm can be used in target identification with changing conditions of the brightness, contrast, and the rotation angles in relation to the template.


The invention relates to a cellulose material comprised of cellulose fibers (12) which are provided with an impregnation. According to the invention it is provided that an impregnation (13) of the cellulose fibers of electrically conductive polymers, in particular PEDOT: PSS is provided. The impregnation forms a kind of network (14), which can reduce the specific resistance of the cellulosic material due to the electrical conductivity of this network. Thereby, the cellulose material may advantageously be adapted to respective applications with regard to its electrical properties. One use of the cellulosic material is therefore also the electrical insulation of transformers, wherein the cellulosic material is thereby impregnated with transformer oil and adjusting the resistivity of the cellulose material to the resistivity of the oil leads to an improved breakdown strength of the transformer insulation. Moreover, the invention relates to a method for producing the cellulose material described above having a suitable impregnation step for the cellulose material.


Working with the family members of ex-offenders is a daunting and newly developing aspect of offender rehabilitation in Singapore.  A small scale practice research project was carried out by three social work practitioners and two academics over a period of 22 months, with the aim to explore the pertinent issues and challenges in working with family members of ex-offenders.  Systematic documentation of the process of working with three cases was carried out.  Specific skills and strategies were suggested, and recommendations for changes to service delivery and policy for working with ex-offenders and family members were made to the authorities.  This article highlights the enriching journey of collaboration between the academics and practitioners.


Recommendations to guide parents' symptomatic management of febrile illnesses in children have been published in many countries. The lack of systematic appraisal of parents' knowledge and behaviors and their evolution over time precludes an analysis of their impact and identification of targets for future educational messages. We systematically searched for studies published between 1980 and 2016 that reported a quantitative evaluation of knowledge and behaviors of >50 parents for managing fever in children. We used MEDLINE and tracked related articles, citations and co-authors personal files. Study selection and data extraction were independently performed by two reviewers. For each item of knowledge and behaviors, we calculated mean frequencies during the first and last quinquennials of the studied period and assessed temporal trends with inverse-variance weighted linear regression of frequencies over years. We observed substantial methodological heterogeneity among the 62 included articles (64 primary studies, 36,791 participants, 30 countries) that met inclusion criteria. Statistically significant changes over time were found in the use of rectal (98 to 4%) and axillary temperature measurement (1–19%), encouraging fluid intake (19–62%), and use of acetylsalicylic acid (60 to 1%). No statistically significant change was observed for the accurate definition of fever (38–55%), or the use of acetaminophen (91–92%) or ibuprofen (20–43%). Parents' knowledge and behaviors have changed over time but continue to show poor concordance with recommendations. Our study identified future targets for educational messages, including basic ones such as the definition of fever.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the outcome of pregnancy in women with previous one cesarean section in relation to vaginal delivery and maternal and perinatal complications. It also aimed at identifying the factors, which can influence the outcome of trial of scar (TOS).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A retrospective analysis of medical records of 151 women with previous one cesarean section who delivered at the Mafraq Hospital, Abu Dhabi between January-August 2011was carried out. Those women with previous classical cesarean section and those with extreme prematurity were excluded. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20. Continuous and categorical data were presented in the form of mean, standard deviation and percentage, while proportions were analyzed using the chi-square test. A p-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS
Of the 151 women, 115 were candidates for TOS. Of them, 96 (83.47%) had vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) and 19 (16.5%) had a repeat cesarean section. There were four cases of primary postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and two cases of scar dehiscence in the study group. No significant perinatal morbidity was observed. VBAC rate was significantly more in women who had prior vaginal deliveries, especially in those with previous VBAC.

CONCLUSION
In carefully selected cases, trial of labour (TOL) after a prior cesarean is safe and often successful. A prior vaginal delivery, particularly, a prior VBAC are associated with a higher rate of successful TOL.


It is estimated that between 36,000 and 360,000 people are affected by suicide every year in the UK, and a proportion may develop depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or engage in high-risk behaviours. Recent systematic analyses have revealed a clear gap in research on suicide bereavement in minority ethnic groups. This study aimed to understand the experiences and support needs of individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds bereaved by suicide and was the first in the UK to investigate this matter. The study was a secondary analysis of data. Participants were 7158 people residing in the UK who completed an online survey about their experiences of suicide. Free-text qualitative responses of 227 participants who did not identify as White British were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: maladaptive coping strategies, emotional processes following suicide, lack of support from agencies, and the importance of mental health awareness. Ethnic minority groups reported a lack of support despite attempts to engage with services, noted the prevalence of stigma within ethnic minority groups, and expressed a need to tackle this. These preliminary results suggest that ethnic minority individuals require visible and accessible services that can successfully engage with and support them.


Host RNA binding proteins recognize viral RNA and play key roles in virus replication and antiviral defense mechanisms. SARS-CoV-2 generates a series of tiered subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs), each encoding distinct viral protein(s) that regulate different aspects of viral replication. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate the successful isolation of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA and three distinct sgRNAs (N, S, and ORF8) from a single population of infected cells and characterize their protein interactomes. Over 500 protein interactors (including 260 previously unknown) were identified as associated with one or more target RNA at either of two time points. These included protein interactors unique to a single RNA pool and others present in multiple pools, highlighting our ability to discriminate between distinct viral RNA interactomes despite high sequence similarity. The interactomes indicated viral associations with cell response pathways including regulation of cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein granules and posttranscriptional gene silencing. We validated the significance of five protein interactors predicted to exhibit antiviral activity (APOBEC3F, TRIM71, PPP1CC, LIN28B, and MSI2) using siRNA knockdowns, with each knockdown yielding increases in viral production. This study describes new technology for studying SARS-CoV-2 and reveals a wealth of new viral RNA-associated host factors of potential functional significance to infection.


This study aimed to describe the path of the mandibular canal (MC), using computerized tomography, in twenty mongrel cats, with no changes in the oral cavity, from the Zoonosis Control Center of the Federal District. 2mm thick tomographic sections were taken following the entire path of the mandibular canal, considering as reference the region of the mandibular foramen, the distal and mesial roots of premolar and molar teeth, and mental foramen, obtaining measurements from the MC until the buccal, lingual, ventral and alveolar (depth) surfaces of the mandibular body as well as its diameter. MC remained on the lingual aspect of the mandibular body from the mandibular foramen to the mesial root of the first premolar, where it displaced to the buccal surface, emerging from the mental foramen. Regarding the depth, we observed a downward path from the mandibular foramen to the mesial root of the first premolar, where it reached its deepest point, the path continued in gentle ascent until to the mental foramen. Our data contribute to the anatomical study of the feline jaw and allow a better planning and execution of surgical procedures in the mandible of this species.


Objectives and Hypothesis: Studies investigating the change of the DWI volume after thrombolysis have not demonstrated a consistent correlation with clinical outcome. Our objective was to quantify the DWI change at 2 hours and compare to the change in NIHSS in a large homogeneous stroke patient population. Our hypothesis is that patients with a decrease in DWI volume at 2 hours have a better clinical outcome compared to patients with no decrease. Methods: Patients were selected from the Lesion Evolution of Stroke and Ischemia On Neuroimaging (LESION) Project if they: had a pre-treatment MRI with evaluable DWI, were treated with standard IV-tPA, and had post-treatment MRI with evaluable DWI at 2 and 24 hours. A reader measured the DWI volumes using a validated technique. A vascular neurologist scored the NIHSS at pre-treatment, 2 and 24 hours and the mRS at discharge, 5, 30 and 90 days. The Chi-Squared, independent samples median and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to demonstrate differences between groups. Results: Seventy-one patients met the study criteria with a mean (±SD) age of 71.6 (±16.4) years, 58% women (n=41), median baseline NIHSS of 9 (IQR25-75: 4-18), median onset of 45 minutes (30-65) and median first MRI to start of thrombolysis of 47 minutes (39-59). The median pre-treatment and 2 hour DWI volumes were 8.4 ml (2.1-51.5) and 11.4 (3.6-54.7). Sixteen patients (23%) had a decrease in DWI volume > 2 ml at 2 hours versus 55 (77%) had an increase or no change at 2 hours (p=0.000). Of the 16 patients with a decrease in DWI volume > 2 ml at 2 hours, 10 (63%) had a mRS=0 or 1, while 20 (36%) of the 55 patients with no decrease had a mRS=0 or 1 (p=0.192). Limiting the analysis to the 43 patients with a pre-treatment DWI lesion ≥ 5 ml, there was a significant difference in mRS between the 15 patients with a decrease in DWI volume > 2 ml at 2 hours versus the 28 patients with no decrease, median of 1 versus 4, (p=0.014). There was also a significant difference in mRS distribution between these groups, (0-3 versus 2-6, p=0.008). Conclusions: In patients with a substantial pre-treatment DWI lesion volume, the decrease of DWI volume at 2 hours post-thrombolysis is a significant predictor of good clinical outcome.


This Article advocates for law schools to integrate family violence law further into their curricula and proffers reasons why family violence training is critical in preparing students to practice law. The authors posit that although live-client specialty clinics are the most in-depth way to teach family violence law, the topic should also be offered through doctrinal courses, externships, or general subject matter clinics. The Article then describes the authors' own experiences in confounding a child advocacy clinic in New York City, outlining the steps taken to transform a vision into the actual formation of a clinic. Finally, the authors conclude with thoughts about the future of family violence law in legal academia, including mandating family violence law education for all law students.


Negative-contrast electron microscopy revealed that the outer layer of the envelope of rickettsiae is composed of a matrix of tetragonally arranged subunits. The layer projects approximately 7 nm from the cell wall. It is suggested that this outer layer is analogous to the structure considered capsule-like in morphology.


Background: Tissue factor (TF) is the key initiator of the coagulation cascade. Recent evidence suggests that TF plays a role in renal fibrin formation and renal failure in experimental kidney disease. We hypothesized that hyperglycemia is an important stimulus of TF expression in the kidney. Methods: Mice were injected with streptozotocin (STZ) (200 mg/kg) or with control buffer. Three or 10 weeks after injection, fibrin, thrombin and TF staining and TF activity were evaluated in the kidney. The effect of hyperglycemia on TF expression and secretion by tubular epithelial cells was measured in vitro. Results: Kidneys of STZ-treated mice showed a marked increase in thrombin staining (3.0 ± 0.5 vs. 1.2 ± 0.11) (p = 0.002) and an increase in TF clotting activity 10 weeks after STZ injection (33.9 ± 1.3 vs. 25.4 ± 1.0 s) (p < 0.0001). Increased glomerular fibrin deposition was present in 3 out of 6 diabetic mice. Tubular cells incubated with D-glucose (25 mmol/l) for 48 h displayed increased cellular TF (p = 0.05). However, soluble TF levels and TF activity in supernatant of cells incubated with D- or L-glucose were not different. Conclusions: These data suggest that hyperglycemia is a causal factor in procoagulant activity associated with diabetic nephropathy.


Author(s): Price, Derek Jason | Advisor(s): Cocker III, David R | Abstract: Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) pollution has negative impacts on human health and well-being. While efforts have been made to characterize the chemical reactions leading to SOA formation, reduced nitrogen compounds remain a poorly studied class of chemicals contributing to air pollution. Sources of reduced nitrogen compounds include agricultural emissions, biomass burning, carbon capture sequestration and selective catalytic reduction control devices, low vapor pressure volatile organic compounds (LVP-VOC) found in many consumer products, and charbroiled meats. Understanding the atmospheric chemical mechanisms of reduced nitrogen compounds is important for comprehensive design of effective air pollution strategies. Therefore, this study seeks to determine the impact of reduced nitrogen compound chemistry on SOA formation. Experiments were conducted at the UCR College of Engineering – Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) Atmospheric Processes Laboratory. This facility houses several well characterized indoor environmental chambers, which allow for the study of atmospheric processes under controlled conditions. Chamber experiments consisted of a reduced nitrogen compound being reacted with atmospheric oxidants including hydroxyl radical (OH) and nitrate radical (NO3). The chemical composition of the gas and aerosol species were determined through mass spectrometry techniques. The physical properties of the aerosol, including density, volatility, and hygroscopicity, as well as particle concentration and size distribution were measured with a variety of house built particle mobility analyzers. A suite of gas analyzers were used to measure Ozone, NOx, and CO concentrations. Experiments with primary, secondary, and tertiary aliphatic amines have provided insights into previously undiscovered reaction mechanisms. Aqueous phase acid catalyzed aldol addition/condensation reactions were observed in secondary amine experiments under humid conditions. Carcinogenic nitramines were observed in secondary amine reactions with nitrate radical. Longer chain secondary amines formed less dense aerosol, suggesting the formation of fractal shaped particles. The discovery of oligomer formation in the reaction of amines with methyl functional groups (dimethylamine, trimethylamine, 2-dimethylaminoethanol) with atmospheric radicals has important implications for SOA formation in areas with high concentrations of amine emissions. Meteorological factors including humidity and temperature played an important role in the reaction chemistry of reduced nitrogen compounds. Humidity provided additional, aqueous phase, reaction pathways. Temperature had an effect on gas to particle partitioning, particularly with the amine salts. The concentration of aerosol formed during radical oxidation of amino alcohols has implications on the use of these compounds in carbon capture sequestration control devices.


BACKGROUND
 Past studies examining barriers to patient portal adoption have been conducted with a small number of patients and health care settings, limiting generalizability.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study had the following two objectives: (1) to assess the prevalence of barriers to patient portal adoption among nonadopters and (2) to examine the association between nonadopter characteristics and reported barriers in a nationally representative sample.

 METHODS
 Data from this study were obtained from the 2019 Health Information National Trends Survey. We calculated descriptive statistics to determine the most prevalent barriers and conducted multiple variable logistic regression analysis to examine which characteristics were associated with the reported barriers.

 RESULTS
 The sample included 4815 individuals. Among these, 2828 individuals (58.73%) had not adopted a patient portal. Among the nonadopters (n=2828), the most prevalent barriers were patient preference for in-person communication (1810/2828, 64.00%), no perceived need for the patient portal (1385/2828, 48.97%), and lack of comfort and experience with computers (735/2828, 25.99%). Less commonly, individuals reported having no patient portal (650/2828, 22.98%), no internet access (650/2828, 22.98%), privacy concerns (594/2828, 21.00%), difficulty logging on (537/2828, 18.99%), and multiple patient portals (255/2828, 9.02%) as barriers. Men had significantly lower odds of indicating a preference for speaking directly to a provider compared with women (odds ratio [OR] 0.75, 95% CI 0.60-0.94; P=.01). Older age (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02; P<.001), having a chronic condition (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.44-2.33; P<.001), and having an income lower than US $20,000 (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.11-2.34; P=.01) were positively associated with indicating a preference for speaking directly to a provider. Hispanic individuals had significantly higher odds of indicating that they had no need for a patient portal (OR 1.59, 95% CI 1.24-2.05; P<.001) compared with non-Hispanic individuals. Older individuals (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.04-1.06; P<.001), individuals with less than a high school diploma (OR 3.15, 95% CI 1.79-5.53; P<.001), and individuals with a household income of less than US $20,000 (OR 2.78, 95% CI 1.88-4.11; P<.001) had significantly higher odds of indicating that they were uncomfortable with a computer.

 CONCLUSIONS
 The most common barriers to patient portal adoption are preference for in-person communication, not having a need for the patient portal, and feeling uncomfortable with computers, which are barriers that are modifiable and can be intervened upon. Patient characteristics can help predict which patients are most likely to experience certain barriers to patient portal adoption. Further research is needed to tailor implementation approaches based on patients' needs and preferences.


The use of optics to implement the Boolean logic functions traditionally used in conventional electronic computing is an active area of optical computing research. Many proposed optical implementations duplicate the configuration of electronic logic gates and hence may not optimally utilize the full benefits of optical techniques. We present here a new optical gate, the Fredkin gate, which may, in principle, be minimally dissipative (i.e., exhibit reversible logic) and whose response time may be limited in some implementations only by the duration of optical pulses (i.e., in the picosecond range). Such gates, which consist of three input and three output lines, can be programmed to produce a standard set of Boolean functions and appear well matched to the parallelism of optics. We present here a number of optical implementations of Fredkin gates and suggest ways of composing their interconnections to achieve combinatorial logic, circulating memories and generalized interconnects.


A reduced keyboard disambiguating system (50) having a keyboard (54) with a reduced number of keys. A plurality of letters and symbols are assigned to a set of data keys (56) so that keystrokes entered by a user are ambiguous. Due to the ambiguity in each keystroke, an entered keystroke sequence could match a number of words with the same number of letters. The disambiguating system includes a memory (104) having a number of vocabulary modules (110). The vocabulary modules contain a library of objects that are each associated with a keystroke sequence. Each object is also associated with a frequency of use. Objects within the vocabulary modules that match the entered keystroke sequence are identified by the disambiguating system. Objects associated with a keystroke sequence that match the entered keystroke sequence are displayed to the user in a selection list (76). The objects are listed in the selection list according to their frequency of use. An unambiguous select key (60) is pressed by a user to delimit the end of a keystroke sequence. The first entry in the selection list is automatically selected by the disambiguating system as the default interpretation of the ambiguous keystroke sequence. The user accepts the selected interpretation by starting to enter another ambiguous keystroke sequence. Alternatively, the user may press the select key a number of times to select other entries in the selection list. For words that are not in the vocabulary modules, a two-stroke or multiple-stroke method are used to unambiguously specify each letter. The disambiguating system simultaneously interprets all entered keystroke sequences as a word, as a two-stroke sequence, and as a multiple-stroke sequence. The multiple interpretations are automatically and simultaneously provided to the user in the selection list.


The adoption of abundant millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum offers higher capacity for short-range connectivity in various Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-centric communications scenarios. In contrast to the conventional cellular paradigm, where the coordination of connected nodes is highly centralized, the distributed deployments, such as those operating over unlicensed frequency bands, maintain robust interactions in the absence of central control. These agile decentralized systems are being naturally created by dynamic UAV swarms that form a temporary 3D structure without reliance on remote management or pre-established network infrastructures. While much effort has been invested in the performance assessment of distributed, directional, and 3D systems individually, a combination of these three angles allows capturing more realistic UAV swarm scenarios and produces a novel research perspective. This work addresses one of the fundamental challenges in mmWave-based 3D networks – directional deafness – which is known to adversely affect the overall system performance. Particularly, we develop a mathematical framework by taking into account the peculiarities of 3D directional and distributed deployments. We provide a holistic analytical assessment of directional deafness and propose several powerful approximations that capture realistic antenna patterns.


Abstract The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is a measure developed by Mednick (1962) which is used to assess the convergent thinking component of creativity. This study presents a normative database in Spanish including 102 problems based on the RAT. Three sets of problems were built according to the type of between-word associations: semantic, compound, and two-word expressions. These problems were administered to a sample of 309 elementary, high-school, and university students. The results show good internal consistency as well as good convergent validity with insight problems, and discriminant validity using Guilford's Alternative Uses Test. In addition, the results indicate age-related differences in the ability to solve the different types of problems.


There are only a few long-term investigations on root-resected teeth in the literature. This article is a 10-year review of 28 root-resection cases, which mainly had been used as bridge abutments. The periodontal, prosthetic, and endodontic problems were evaluated. After 10 years a total failure rate of 32% was observed. The analysis of the failure causes revealed that endodontic–not periodontal–complications were predominating. The study also includes a comparison of root-resected teeth restored with root screws and composite cores versus those which had been restored with cast gold dowels, showing that both types of reconstruction had the same durability concerning the risk of root fractures or loss of retention.


Ecological forecasting provides a powerful set of methods for predicting short‐ and long‐term change in living systems. Forecasts are now widely produced, enabling proactive management for many applied ecological problems. However, despite numerous calls for an increased emphasis on prediction in ecology, the potential for forecasting to accelerate ecological theory development remains underrealized. Here, we provide a conceptual framework describing how ecological forecasts can energize and advance ecological theory. We emphasize the many opportunities for future progress in this area through increased forecast development, comparison and synthesis. Our framework describes how a forecasting approach can shed new light on existing ecological theories while also allowing researchers to address novel questions. Through rigorous and repeated testing of hypotheses, forecasting can help to refine theories and understand their generality across systems. Meanwhile, synthesizing across forecasts allows for the development of novel theory about the relative predictability of ecological variables across forecast horizons and scales. We envision a future where forecasting is integrated as part of the toolset used in fundamental ecology. By outlining the relevance of forecasting methods to ecological theory, we aim to decrease barriers to entry and broaden the community of researchers using forecasting for fundamental ecological insight.


The next decade will see an abundance of new intelligent systems, many of which will be market-based. Soon, users will interact with many new markets, perhaps without even knowing it: when driving their car, when listening to a song, when backing up their files, or when surfing the web. We argue that these new systems can only be successful if a new approach is chosen towards designing them. In this paper we introduce the general problem of "Hidden Market Design." The design of a "weakly hidden" market involves reducing some of the market complexities and providing a user interface (UI) that makes the interaction seamless for the user. A "strongly hidden market" is one where some semantic aspect of a market is hidden altogether (e.g., budgets, prices, combinatorial constraints). We show that the intersection of UI design and market design is of particular importance for this research agenda. To illustrate hidden market design, we give a series of potential applications. We hope that the problem of hidden market design will inspire other researchers and lead to new research in this direction, paving the way for more successful market-based systems in the future.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for incubating business ideas in rural communities in Portugal. The work provides an example of a bottom-up approach to rural entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyses case study of an entrepreneurial support organisation conceived and used in rural European regions and aiming at local development through entrepreneurial boost. Findings - Although the methodology for incubating business ideas was adapted from a similar situation in France, its originality comes from the description of how the awareness of local specificities requires a calibration of the framework. Research limitations/implications - The case study is the outcome of a pioneering study of incubation of business ideas in rural areas. Further research needs to be taken in order to claim generalisability of these findings to other less favoured target groups. Practical implications - The incubation of business ideas can be used to encourage local development in declining rural regions. It is important to calibrate the framework used to the local/regional reality. Originality/value - Apart from being innovative in providing a supportive entrepreneurial infrastructure with mentoring people-based support in the creation of new firms in rural areas, it is also a nation-wide entrepreneurial service innovation.


What does it mean to be a writer from Northeast India? What does it mean to write from the margins of India? What are the limitations of Indian English writing when it comes to depicting marginal, radical literary traditions that question the idea of India? The author of The House with a Thousand Stories and There Is No Good Time for Bad News, Aruni Kashyap, shares his formative experiences as a writer, including the influences of Indian writers such as Amitav Ghosh, Assamese literary culture, and Indigenous oral storytelling traditions.


TOI-561 is a galactic thick-disk star hosting an ultra-short-period (0.45-day-orbit) planet with a radius of 1.37 R ⊕, making it one of the most metal-poor ([Fe/H] = −0.41) and oldest (≈10 Gyr) sites where an Earth-sized planet has been found. We present new simultaneous radial velocity (RV) measurements from Gemini-N/MAROON-X and Keck/HIRES, which we combined with literature RVs to derive a mass of M b = 2.24 ± 0.20 M ⊕. We also used two new sectors of TESS photometry to improve the radius determination, finding R b = 1.37 ± 0.04 R ⊕ and confirming that TOI-561 b is one of the lowest-density super-Earths measured to date (ρ b = 4.8 ± 0.5 g cm−3). This density is consistent with an iron-poor rocky composition reflective of the host star's iron and rock-building element abundances; however, it is also consistent with a low-density planet with a volatile envelope. The equilibrium temperature of the planet (∼2300 K) suggests that this envelope would likely be composed of high mean molecular weight species, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, or silicate vapor, and is likely not primordial. We also demonstrate that the composition determination is sensitive to the choice of stellar parameters and that further measurements are needed to determine whether TOI-561 b is a bare rocky planet, a rocky planet with an optically thin atmosphere, or a rare example of a nonprimordial envelope on a planet with a radius smaller than 1.5 R ⊕.


ABSTRACT The existence of sulfur compounds in crude oils creates many problems of sulfur deposition in the vicinity of the wellbore hole, in well completion and/or production equipment, and in producing reservoir rocks. The major objectives of this experimental study are to investigate the influences of oil flow rate, initial sulfur concentration of crude oil, and reservoir rock permeability on elemental sulfur plugging in carbonate oil reservoirs. To achieve these objectives, actual crude oils were de-asphaltened to eliminate the effect of asphaltene deposition. Ten dynamic flow experiments were conducted using two actual crude oils of 0.78 and 1.67% sulfur concentrations. Viscosity of crude oils of different sulfur concentrations was measured under different conditions of temperature. The crude oils were flooded through actual carbonate cores of different permeability in the range of 2.34–28.16 millidarcy and under different flow rates of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 cc/min. In-situ sulfur deposited was measured using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to provide the amount of sulfur deposited along the core samples. The results indicated that crude oil of higher sulfur concentration has higher viscosity than that of one of lower concentration. The deposition of elemental sulfur does not take place at the low rate of 0.50 cc/min, starts at 1.0 cc/min and increases as the flow rate increases up to 1.50 and 2.00 cc/min, respectively. In addition, the higher sulfur concentration of the crude oil increases the deposition of sulfur in carbonate oil reservoirs. The results also showed that permeability of carbonate reservoir rocks has a severe effect on sulfur deposition since carbonate rocks of higher permeability do not experience the problem of elemental sulfur deposition while the problem is more severe for lower permeability rocks. In addition, the depositional rate is accelerated rapidly as the rock permeability decreases. The obtained results of this study have important interest in identification of the most important factors affecting the elemental sulfur precipitation in heterogeneous carbonate oil reservoirs and robust implications in the development of reservoir simulation models.


Objective To investigate the inhibitory effects of AP-1 decoy oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) on angiotensin Ⅱ (AngⅡ)-induced proliferation and collagen synthesis in neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts (CFs). Methods The CFs of neonatal SD rats were cultured in serum-free medium for 24 h and stimulated with 10^(7) mol/L AngII in the presence of AP-1 decoy ODNs or mutational AP-1 decoy ODNs at varied concentrations. MTT assay was employed for quantitative evaluation of the CF proliferation. Collagen synthesis in the CFs was assessed with hydroxyproline, and the cell cycle distribution determined with flow cytometry (FCM). Results With the increase of the concentration of AP-1 decoy ODNs, the absorbance at 490 nm (OD490) of the CFs decreased gradually as shown by MTT assay. Treatment with 100 or 200 nmol/L AP-1 decoy ODNs resulted in significantly lowered OD490 of the CFs as compared with that of AngⅡ group. The concentration of hydroxyproline increased significantly after treatment with 10^(-7) nmol/L AngⅡ in comparison with the control group (P<0.05). Hydroxyproline concentration in cells treated with 100 or 200 nmol/L AP-1 decoy ODNs was significantly lower than that in the 10^(-7) moL/L AngⅡ-treated cells. AP-1 decoy ODNs decreased the cell percentage in S phase and increased hydroxyproline concentration, but increased the percentage of cells in G0/G1 phase. AP-1 decoy ODNs at 100 and 200 nmol/L did not obviously affect AngⅡ-induced CF prolifersation and collagen synthesis (P<0.01). Conclusion AP-1 decoy can inhibit AngⅡ-induced rat CF proliferation and collagen synthesis possibly by affecting the cell cycle distribution.


The main purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting entrepreneurial motivations of agricultural students at Razi University. Statistical population of this study consisted of all agricultural undergraduate students (senior) (N=186), that 164 of them were selected as research sample using proportionate stratified sampling method. The main instrument in this study was questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by the panel of experts and its reliability was established by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data was analyzed by SPSSWin20 software. Findings revealed that agricultural students at Razi University have the entrepreneurial motivations at moderate to high level. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that three variables including the attitude toward entrepreneurship, the role model, and the courses of entrepreneurship education can be explaining 35.5 percent of variances of the student's entrepreneurial motivations. Results of this study have applications for planners of higher agricultural education system in order to improving the agricultural student's entrepreneurial motivations.


Text classification is one of the popular problems in classification data mining. It aims to mapping text documents into one or more predefined class or category based on its contents of keywords. This problem has recently attracted many scholars in the data mining and machine learning communities since the numbers of online documents that hold useful information for decision makers, are numerous. However, the majority of the research works conducted on text categorization is mainly related to English corpuses and little works have focused on Arabic text collections. Thus, this paper investigates the problem of Arabic text categorization using different rule-based classification approaches in data mining. Precisely, this research works attempts to evaluate the performance of different classification approaches that produce simple "IfThen" knowledge in order to decide the most applicable one to Arabic text classification problem. The rule-based classification algorithms that the paper investigates are: OneRule, rule induction (RIPPER), decision trees (C4.5), and hybrid (PART). The results indicate that the hybrid approach of PART achieved better performance that the rest of the algorithms.


This work is a part of an on-going research effort to fabricate a device consisting of an array of micro thermoe- lectric coolers (� TECs) for highly localized control of temperature in biological systems. A preliminary lumped 1-D pa- rameter model was developed and numerical simulations were carried out to identify the critical and optimal design pa- rameters for aTEC operating under steady state conditions. The lumped parameter analysis revealed the presence of a new limitation on the maximum possible current through the system, which we denoted as the secondary breakdown cur- rent (as opposed to the primary breakdown current associated with Joules heating). To further understand the effect of contact resistances (thermal and electrical), radiative effects, and lateral effects (interactions betweenTECs) in our de- vice, we developed a 3-D finite element model (FEM) using ANSYS ® . The FEM analysis identified the optimal distance betweenTECs to generate discrete and distinct temperatures within the cells located in the extracellular matrix and thus, generating the optimal design specifications for our device.


CONTEXT
Studies of mortality in celiac disease have not taken small-intestinal pathology into account.

OBJECTIVE
To examine mortality in celiac disease according to small-intestinal histopathology.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
Retrospective cohort study. We collected data from duodenal/jejunal biopsies taken between July 1969 and February 2008 on celiac disease (Marsh stage 3: villous atrophy; n = 29,096 individuals) and inflammation (Marsh stage 1-2; n = 13,306) from all 28 pathology departments in Sweden. A third cohort consisted of individuals with latent celiac disease from 8 university hospitals (n = 3719). Latent celiac disease was defined as positive celiac disease serology in individuals with normal mucosa (Marsh stage 0). Through linkage with the Swedish Total Population Register, we estimated the risk of death through August 31, 2008, compared with age- and sex-matched controls from the general population.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
All-cause mortality.

RESULTS
There were 3049 deaths among patients with celiac disease, 2967 with inflammation, and 183 with latent celiac disease. We found an increased hazard ratio (HR) for death in celiac disease (HR, 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.33-1.45; median follow-up, 8.8 years), inflammation (HR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.64-1.79; median follow-up, 7.2 years), and latent celiac disease (HR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.14-1.58; median follow-up, 6.7 years). The absolute mortality rate was 10.4 (95% CI, 10.0-10.8) per 1000 person-years in celiac disease, 25.9 (95% CI, 25.0-26.8) in inflammation, and 6.7 (95% CI, 5.7-7.6) in latent celiac disease. Excess mortality was 2.9 per 1000 person-years in celiac disease, 10.8 in inflammation, and 1.7 in latent celiac disease. This risk increase was also seen in children. Excluding the first year of follow-up, HRs decreased somewhat.

CONCLUSION
Risk of death among patients with celiac disease, inflammation, or latent celiac disease is modestly increased.


We study quasar proximity zones in the redshift range 5.77 ≤ z ≤ 6.54 by homogeneously analyzing 34 medium-resolution spectra, encompassing both archival and newly obtained data, and exploiting recently updated systemic redshift and magnitude measurements. Whereas previous studies found strong evolution of proximity zone sizes with redshift and argued that this provides evidence for a rapidly evolving intergalactic medium (IGM) neutral fraction during reionization, we measure a much shallower trend ∝ ( 1 + z ) − 1.44 . We compare our measured proximity zone sizes to predictions from hydrodynamical simulations post-processed with one-dimensional radiative transfer and find good agreement between observations and theory, irrespective of the ionization state of the ambient IGM. This insensitivity to IGM ionization state has been previously noted, and results from the fact that the definition of proximity zone size as the first drop of the smoothed quasar spectrum below the 10% flux transmission level probes locations where the ionizing radiation from the quasar is an order of magnitude larger than the expected ultraviolet ionizing background that sets the neutral fraction of the IGM. Our analysis also uncovered three objects with exceptionally small proximity zones (two have R p < 1 proper Mpc), which constitute outliers from the observed distribution and are challenging to explain with our radiative transfer simulations. We consider various explanations for their origin, such as strong absorption line systems associated with the quasar or patchy reionization, but find that the most compelling scenario is that these quasars have been shining for ≲105 years.


This article presents a system for creating an implemented open energy market for future smart grid systems, microgrids, the Internet of Things, and the Industrial Internet of Things. We also investigate and analyze different aspects of blockchain technologies for this purpose in order to choose the appropriate methods, technologies, and approaches for realizing and implementing the system as an open source project. Based on this analysis, we present our resulting functional implementation of this energy market. Including measurements and a quantitative evaluation of the implementation itself. Showing the potential of the approach, where this implantation can be applied, showing its drawbacks, and finally our planned future work.


BACKGROUND
Inherited and sporadic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is an uncommon and challenging malignancy. The American Thyroid association (ATA) chose to create specific MTC Clinical Guidelines that would bring together and update the diverse MTC literature and combine it with evidence-based medicine and the knowledge and experience of a panel of expert clinicians.

METHODS
Relevant articles were identified using a systematic PubMed search and supplemented with additional published materials. Evidence-based recommendations were created and then categorized using criteria adapted from the United States Preventive Services Task Force, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

RESULTS
Clinical topics addressed in this scholarly dialog included: initial diagnosis and therapy of preclinical disease (including RET oncogene testing and the timing of prophylactic thyroidectomy), initial diagnosis and therapy of clinically apparent disease (including preoperative testing and imaging, extent of surgery, and handling of devascularized parathyroid glands), initial evaluation and treatment of postoperative patients (including the role of completion thyroidectomy), management of persistent or recurrent MTC (including the role of tumor marker doubling times, and treatment of patients with distant metastases and hormonally active metastases), long-term follow-up and management (including the frequency of follow-up and imaging), and directions for future research.

CONCLUSIONS
One hundred twenty-two evidence-based recommendations were created to assist in the clinical care of MTC patients and to share what we believe is current, rational, and optimal medical practice.


Background: Inhaled foreign bodies are common paediatric emergencies and a major cause of accidental deaths at home among Nigerian children especially among children below the age of 5 years. Different types of foreign bodies have been reported from the ordinary to the most bizarre. We evaluated the types of foreign bodies and sites of possible impaction of these foreign bodies along the tracheobronchial tree. Materials and Methods: A 6-year case record of 35 patients with foreign body inhalation was reviewed from January 2005 to December 2010 at the Otorhinolaryngology Department of Bayero University/Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano — North-western Nigeria. Basic information such as date of birth, age groups, gender, indication for bronchoscopy, type of foreign bodies, sites of foreign body impaction and surgical outcome were extracted and analysed. Results: Thirty-five patients [18 (51.4%) males and 17 (48.6%) females, aged 6 months-10 years] with a mean age of 5.1 years and median of 5 years (+/- 3.0 Standard Deviation). The most affected age group with 31.4% is 3-5 years. Groundnuts and whistles were the most frequently inhaled foreign bodies with an equal frequency of 25.7%, respectively. Foreign bodies were preferentially lodged in the left main bronchus in 8 (22.9%) patients compared to the right main bronchus in 6 (17.1%) patients. Conclusion: Public enlightenment both in the news/print media on the risk of foreign body aspiration especially among the under-five's is highly advocated. The left main bronchus may be a common site for impaction as well.


Following tooth extraction, significant changes of alveolar ridge contour results from alveolar bone loss. Most of the bone loss occurs during the first 3-4 months following extraction. To prevent this, it is strongly recommended to graft the extraction site with a biocompatible and bioactive osseous graft material at the time of extraction. There are many options available for socket grafting each with its own deficiencies. Most of the synthetic and allograft type bone substitutes preserve the alveolar ridge during the repair phase of the wound healing but subsequently resorb during the following remodeling phase and therefore only achieve partial ridge restoration. Xenografts, on the other hand, do not osseointegrate sufficiently and form "islands" of foreign body within the bone structure. Recently, a novel procedure was developed where the extracted tooth is immediately processed as autologous graft that preserves the alveolar ridge for many years and is biocompatible to the host site in a highly predictable manner. The procedure also helps to keep treatment costs lower then prepackaged graft materials. Autologous graft particulate, made from the extracted tooth of the patient, undergo ankylosis with the newly formed bone i.e. one in which the exposed alveolar bony wall of the tooth extraction socket and particulate implants create a more natural biological union than other alternatives, hence providing a optimal and a more predictable short and long term clinical outcome.


Sensience is the title of a collaborative work realised with a proprietary ultrasonic sensing system and live tenor saxophone. The collaboration allows the acoustic saxophonist to move freely within an ultrasonic performance space and to trigger a range of samples prerecorded by the performer. The aesthetic intention, the musical form and technical design of the work are discussed, along with an overview of the work's performance. The work is briefly contextualized with regard to
interactive computer music practice.


Along with the growing popularity of the Workflow Management Systems, the performance and efficiency of their underlying technology becomes crucial for the business. The development of a representative benchmark for Workflow Management Systems is very challenging, as one needs to realistically stress the different underlying components. However, structured information on how to do so is generally missing. Thus, the users need to arbitrarily make crucial design decisions or to study complex standard benchmarks before designing a benchmark. In this work, we propose a Decision Support System to ease the decision making of the desigh of benchmarks for Workflow Management Systems. We present the conceptual models of the Decision Support System and provide a prototypical implementation of it. Finally, we validate the functionality of our implementation with representative use cases.


The paper discusses some model related issues for time series of the number of shareholders in a stock. The point of departure is an integer-valued autoregressive model of order one. Empirical results are presented for some frequently traded stocks on the Finnish and Swedish stock markets. In these stock markets public records of the number of owners are reported monthly (Finland) and quarterly (Sweden, and initially at biannual) intervals. The aggregate records are useful for, e.g., indirectly estimating average holding times, which are found to vary but to mostly exceed one year.


To determine the functional status of reticuloendothelial system Fc receptors in patients with Sjögren's syndrome, we studied the rate of clearance from the circulation of 51Cr-labeled IgG-sensitized autologous erythrocytes in 19 patients. Fc-receptor-mediated clearance was abnormal in 12 of the 19 patients, with half-lives ranging from 80 to 356 min. There was a significant correlation between clearance rates and clinical manifestations of disease. Clearance rates tended to be normal in patients with disease limited to exocrine glands and abnormal in patients with widespread disease. In contrast, there were no correlations between the rate of clearance of IgG-sensitized erythrocytes and serum immune complex levels, serum complement component levels, or rheumatoid factor titers. The striking correlation between clearance rates and disease manifestations suggests that decreased clearance of immune complexes by defective reticuloendothelial system Fc receptors may contribute to disease pathogenesis.


In this paper we develop a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model for an open economy, and estimate it on Euro area data using Bayesian estimation techniques. The model incorporates several open economy features, as well as a number of nominal and real frictions that have proven to be important for the empirical fit of closed economy models. The paper offers: i) a theoretical development of the standard DSGE model into an open economy setting, ii) Bayesian estimation of the model, including assesments of the relative importance of various shocks and frictions for explaining the dynamic development of an open economy, and iii) an evaluation of the model's empirical properties using standard validation methods.


The dominance of the pictorial world forms the beginning of the effect of new visual civilisation in the 21st century. Today, we already know that photograph, film and television are just fist stage of visual era. The modern phenomena of digitalisation and mass communication related to the development of information and communication technologies and Internet, dramatically saturate the pictures and pictorial messages to public space and thus also to our everyday life. Posters, billboards and various visual posts attack us every day with their pictorial messages, trying to influence us while going to the work or school as well as while being on the road for a joy or relax. The presence of visual impulses is perceived also in the public space, for example in shopping malls. In such an environment, their role is to affect our purchasing habits. The information lettering in pictorial form -iconograms- orientate us on the streets, at the stations of mass transport, at the airports, in shopping malls, in tourism regions. Today, Internet and social networks are mainly the source of information mediated in the form of pictures in multimedia form. In the contemporary world, heavily saturated with pictures and media, our view of what literacy means must be extended, or even re-defined. To read pictures is more than to read and write text, this is the "reading of the world of pictures". The Kaiser Family Foundation Study implies young people devote still greater attention to the pictures in the new media (Internet and social networks). While this was six hours and twenty-one minutes a day in average in 2009, it is seven hours and thirty-eight minutes a day in 2013. The numerical data say there has been a significant shift for 4 years and young people pay greater attention to pictorial information, they devote more of their time to them, by one hour and seventeen minutes. We may state that the use of new media has been intensified for recent 10 years, thus also time capacity devoted to media by young people has been increased too, save one exception – the interest in reading has decreased, yet it still consider it to be the basic, non-excludable literacy. Saying it in more unambiguously, text reading gets to the background and the first place is attained by reading, or perception of pictures in digital media. In the article we present a theoretical model of visual literacy and develop new personnel competencies of children for the 21st century, such as visual perception, visual thinking, visual language and learning visual literacy. Keywords : visual perception, visual thinking, visual language, learning visual literacy


Consumer spending was largely credited with cushioning the economic blow from the 9/11 tragedies and the 2001 recession. Two marquee names in consumer confidence measurements—The University of Michigan9s Index of Consumer Sentiment and The Conference Board9s Consumer Confidence Index—are compared and contrasted as the authors point to indications that job issues have surfaced as paramount concern for consumers, even two years into an economic recovery. This article cautions retail investors with high expectations for 2004 that anxiety over job security will color personal consumption trends, particularly among the low-to-middle income customer.


Writing in its many forms was an important part of the political, economic and cultural landscape of the Levant during the Second Millennium BC. Diverse scripts were used to record both local and foreign languages, and included Egyptian hieroglyphics, cursive hieroglyphics, hieratic, cuneiform, alphabetic cuneiform, Proto-Canaanite, Hittite hieroglyphs and linear Aegean scripts. While the corpus is not large, it is significant and hints at the range of writing practices and knowledge available. This paper will review the evidence for Middle and Late Bronze Age writing from a primarily archaeological perspective, showing how a study of object function, materiality and contexts of use can inform on broader questions of textual availability, awareness and execution. Texts played a variety of roles within the communities they served. Texts could act as educational tools; to exert political authority, impress and intimidate; to enhance objects used in funerary or ritual settings, and to mark personal ownership. Across these roles, we can also evaluate more broadly how writing technique, material and script converge, and what the choices that were being made in this respect can tell us about how writing was being organised and managed. This leads to the conclusion that, despite strong script diversity in the region, most forms of script appear to have been used in discrete environments with little overlap between them. Many uses were confined to a professional setting, with scribes operating within local and imposed administrative networks as representatives of the status quo. Beyond this, writing was generally restricted to elite consumers and so had limited impact on society as a whole. The exception lay in more visible forms of writing, such as publically erected stelae, and in special classes of object such as amulets and amuletic objects, such as the scarab, which could be privately owned by a wider group of people. Accessibility, however, did not necessarily equate with understanding, and for the majority, the significance of a text may well have lain in its visual qualities and associations rather than in the actual words recorded. Ultimately it was the more personal and unofficial applications of writing that proved to be the most robust, and it was these that survived to bridge the gap between the end of the Late Bronze Age, and the emergence of a whole new set of polities and writing practices in the Iron II period.


Study objective: To prospectively explore the underlying regional homogeneity (ReHo) brain-activity deficit in patients with chronic primary insomnia (PCPIs) and its relationship with clinical features. Design: The ReHo method and Statistical Parametric Mapping 8 software were used to evaluate whether resting-state localized brain activity was modulated between PCPIs and good sleepers (GSs), and correlation analysis between altered regional brain areas and clinical features was calculated. Patients and participants: Twenty-four PCPIs (17 females, seven males) and 24 (12 females, 12 males) age-, sex-, and education-matched GSs. Measurements and results: PCPIs disturbed subjective sleep quality, split positive mood, and exacerbated negative moods. Compared with GSs, PCPIs showed higher ReHo in left fusiform gyrus, and lower ReHo in bilateral cingulate gyrus and right cerebellum anterior lobe. Compared with female GSs, female PCPIs showed higher ReHo in the left fusiform gyrus and right posterior cingulate, and lower ReHo in the left cerebellum anterior lobe and left superior frontal gyrus. Compared with male GSs, male PCPIs showed higher ReHo in the right temporal lobe and lower ReHo in the bilateral frontal lobe. The fusiform gyrus showed strong positive correlations and the frontal lobe showed negative correlations with the clinical measurements. Conclusion: The ReHo analysis is a useful noninvasive imaging tool for the detection of cerebral changes and the indexing of clinical features. The abnormal spontaneous activity areas provided important information on the neural mechanisms underlying emotion and sleep-quality impairment in PCPIs.


Objective: Seropositive myasthenia gravis (MG) depends on the presence of acetylcholine receptor antibodies (AchR-Ab) against nicotinic acetylcholine receptors at the postsynaptic neuromuscular junction. In this study, we investigated the effect of AchR-Ab levels to symptoms and treatment in the MG patients underwent surgery for thymic pathology. Materilas and Methods: The records including level of preoperative AchR-Ab, type of thymic pathology, the changes of symptoms and treatment after surgery for thymic pathology of 37 MG patients between January 2007 and December 2015 have been viewed retrospectively. Results: The mean age of 37 patients (21 females, 16 males) was 40.2 ± 14.9 years (range, 18 to 75 years). The mean of the level of AchR-Ab was 144.7 ± 427.6 nmol/L (range, 0.1 to 1806 nmol/L). In the patient group including the reduced use of anticholinesterase after surgery the mean of level of AchR-Ab was 241.3 nmol/L while it was 10.8 nmol/L in the patient group including the non-reduced use of anticholinesterase (p = 0.082) after a mean follow-up period of 23 months postoperatively. The mean levels were 246.7 nmol/L and 8.5 nmol/L for the reduced and non-reduced use of corticosteroid patient groups, respectively (p = 0.001). In the 25 patients with fewer symptom after surgery the mean of the AchR-Ab level was 205.3 nmol/L while it was 18.3 nmol/L in the patients without any changes (p = 0.071). Conclusion: We concluded that the preoperative level of AchR-Ab was associated with postoperative dosage of anticholinesterase and corticosteroids and severity of symptoms postoperatively. We think that the levels of AchR-Ab titers can be a marker for the efficacy of thymic surgery.


Low-rank and medium-rank coal currently dominate Indonesian coal. Unfortunately, while Indonesia produces coal, the country's coal reserves are relatively limited. On the other hand, the use of biomass presents numerous challenges and has low thermal efficiency. Cofiring biomass and coal is thought to be an excellent solution to these issues while also extending the life of power plants. This research aimed to determine the characteristics of coal cofiring with empty fruit bunches and fronds. Coal and biomass fuels were, respectively, mixed with various blend ratios. The LINSEIS thermal analysis equipment is used to investigate combustion characteristics. The test was performed under an inert air atmosphere within atmospheric pressure. Each sample weighed about 5-10 mg, and the temperature was increased to 800 ℃ with a heating rate of 10 ℃ /min. Some combustion parameters are obtained from thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. Results show coal cofiring 75% with 25% biomass (EFB and frond mixture) has the best combustion performance indicated by R max and T max values compared to other coal-biomass mixture combinations. Further investigation will focus on the kinetic aspect of the combustion process, including the impact of cofiring on the tendency to slagging and fouling.


Romanian land resources are immense, but certain land-ownership laws have caused a fragmentation of agricultural areas. Romania suffers from fragmentation of agricultural properties. Compared to other Member States of the European Union, Romania has an average farm size similar to that of Malta or Cyprus, island countries with much less agricultural land than Romania. Almost 75% of farms in Romania have less than 20 ha, and the share of farms under 10 ha represents about 98% of the total number and 38% of the total agricultural area used. In this paper, the authors analyse the situation of cultivated areas and productions in the main crops in Romania under the current conditions. Romania is one of the European countries with the most favourable soil and climate conditions for agriculture. Romania's natural conditions indicate that more than 60% of the total area of our country can be used for agriculture. The role of agriculture is an extremely important one for today's society because it can provide the necessary production of food for the population, raw materials for different industries, as well as production for export. Agriculture is one of the sectors where the Member States of the European Union have agreed to share both public funding and responsibilities. Studies carried out for this paper show that Romania is one of the main agricultural producers at European level and that it ranks among the countries of the European Union in terms of the area under cultivation and production of the main agricultural crops. The authors of the paper conclude that Romania is also one of the top ten exporters of wheat and maize in the world. Analyses show that agriculture is one of the few branches of the economy that have ranked Romania in the European top of the first places in the production of cereals and oilseeds obtained each year.


Abstract Objectives: Recent studies suggest that close-range blast exposure (CBE), regardless of acute concussive symptoms, may have negative long-term effects on brain health and cognition; however, these effects are highly variable across individuals. One potential genetic risk factor that may impact recovery and explain the heterogeneity of blast injury's long-term cognitive outcomes is the inheritance of an apolipoprotein (APOE) ε4 allele, a well-known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. We hypothesized that APOE ε4 carrier status would moderate the impact of CBE on long-term cognitive outcomes. Methods: To test this hypothesis, we examined 488 post-9/11 veterans who completed assessments of neuropsychological functioning, psychiatric diagnoses, history of blast exposure, military and non-military mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs), and available APOE genotypes. We separately examined the effects of CBE on attention, memory, and executive functioning in individuals with and without the APOE ε4 allele. Results: As predicted, we observed a differential impact of CBE status on cognition as a function of APOE ε4 status, in which CBE ε4 carriers displayed significantly worse neuropsychological performance, specifically in the domain of memory. These results persisted after adjusting for clinical, demographic, and genetic factors and were not observed when examining other neurotrauma variables (i.e., lifetime or military mTBI, distant blast exposure), though these variables displayed similar trends. Conclusions: These results suggest APOE ε4 carriers are more vulnerable to the impact of CBE on cognition and highlight the importance of considering genetic risk when studying cognitive effects of neurotrauma.