The Lower DOF parallel robot rely on strictly geometrical constraints of axis of pairs in and between limbs to obtain the reduced number of DOF .In practice ,these constraints will never been perfectly fulfilled due to the inevitability of errors, and hence produce series bad effects and problems. Using screw theory and set theory as mathematical tools, the DOF and constraint system of 3-CRR parallel robot, were systematically summarized and in-depth studied. Kinematics design of a limited DOF parallel robot, a 3-CRR pure translational parallel robot, is presented that takes into account the error. The errors presented in the paper consist of two kinds. The errors is defined as the position error of rotation center of the platform caused by errors in the kinematics constants, such as axis error The above research results provided an insight into the error of 3CRR parallel robot.


There are many articles published in recent years on the use of CBCT in endodontics and this diagnostic technique is increasingly required in order to have a more accurate prognosis of the teeth to be treated. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the use of Conical Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) in the field of endodontics. This issue is controversial at the moment because of the increase in the radiation to which patients are being subjected; however, we know that some-times the X-rays taken with different angles in relation to some teeth depending on the different cases are incompatible in form and density, which does not allow us to make an exact diagnosis. The use of CBCT would have provided an image of greater diagnostic value in those cases. In addition, the use guidelines published by the American Endodontics Association and the American Radiology Association jointly mark the way forward and the use we can give the CBCT for the diagnosis of complex cases.


Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Ocean Science & Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February 2019.


Due to the heterogeneity of the environment, in which hosts may have different bandwidth capacities and network distances between hosts vary, current mesh-based multicast protocols for video streaming over the Internet tend to in efficiently utilise the available bandwidth and often transfer large amounts of data between distant hosts. This limits system throughput, which results in reduced video quality, and imposes significant costs on Internet service providers (ISPs) caused by network traffic outside a provider's own network. This paper presents MeshTV, a mesh-based peer-to-peer (P2P) multicast protocol for streaming live video from a transmitter to numerous viewers. MeshTV proposes an algorithm for adapting the mesh overlay in which nodes explore their possible neighbour nodes and select neighbours so that data throughput is optimised and data is transmitted between nearby (low-latency) nodes, typically within the same ISP thus reducing the costs to ISPs. Our evaluation demonstrates that the adaptation algorithm used in MeshTV can improve video streaming throughput by over 100 % and typically reduces the distances (network latencies) between interacting nodes by 50 % compared to unoptimised mesh overlays.


Chrastil (1982) established that the solubility of a substance in a supercritical fluid can be correlated with the density of the pure supercritical gas. Recently, the solubility of supercritical fluids in different organic liquids was successfully correlated as a function solely of the supercritical fluid density, since we demonstrated that the supercritical fluid density also defines the solubility of the gas in the liquid phase. In this work, the solubility of supercritical carbon dioxide in high-molecular weight substances, such as high-molecular weight paraffins, alcohols, fatty acids, fatty acid methyl and ethyl esters, has been correlated and constants provided. More than 20 binary systems comprising around 1000 solubility data points were correlated, obtaining regression coefficients greater than 0.96 and confirming the goodness of the density-dependent equation previously reported. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011


We have hypothesized that permanent changes caused by poor growth during early development due to maternal malnutrition may be exacerbated by overnutrition of offspring in later life. To test this hypothesis, rats were exposed to a maternal 20% protein diet or an isocaloric 8% protein diet during fetal and postnatal life. All offspring were weaned onto laboratory chow. At 6 wk, rats were fed laboratory chow or a highly palatable diet (high fat and high calorie with adequate protein) and studied at 12 wk after a 48-h fast. The highly palatable diet resulted in excess weight gain and higher plasma insulin levels in all animals. Plasma insulin concentrations were significantly increased in male offspring of dams fed a reduced-protein diet compared with male offspring of dams fed an adequate-protein diet, but no differences were observed between the female offspring. The key hepatic enzymes of glucose homeostasis programmed in offspring of protein-restricted rat dams retained the ability to respond to overnutrition during adult life. In these offspring, however, the enzymes were regulated around a "set point" that was different from that in the controls.


Research performed by Nicholl and his colleagues at Sheffield University has shown that private health care provision in the United Kingdom trends to be concentrated among certain activities, in particular those activities falling under the broad heading of elective surgery. Consequently although total private provision is dwarfed by the aggregate provision of health care under the national health service, whether measured in bed availability, expenditure or throughput, the private sector is found to be a much more significant supplier of certain procedures. In this paper the findings of the Sheffield "team" are considered along with the policy issues that they give rise to for one particular activity, total hip replacement (THRs).


Exact lower bounds for the exponent of critical slowing down of the timeMependent order-parameter correlation and autocorrelation functions have been derived by Abe and Hatano and by Halperin, respectively. Moreover, Suxuki proved an exact inequality among the exponents characterizing the critical slowing down of the order parameter and energy fluctuations. In the present work we extend these results to include lower bounds for the exponents associated with the critical energy fluctuations and an inequality among the exponents characterizing the critical slowing down of the time-dependent autocorrelation functions. This is achieved by extending Mori's generalLM, d Langevin~uation approach to the case of two variables, namely the order-parameter fluctuations and the energy fluctuations. The general results based on this approach hold for all Hermitian kinetic Ising models. Exact results are found revealing the failure of the extended conventional theory of slowing down. It is shown that this theory does not even hold in Ae mean-6eld approximation, which is expected to be exact at dimensionality d =4.


Abstract:This article contrasts a secular definition of "academic freedom" with a Catholic model, where freedom of discussion and investigation is one component of a wider process that leads to the Church's judgment about a particular teaching. Three questions arise about academic freedom:(1) its purpose and goal, (2) its limits, and (3) its relationship to the Church. While there is sometimes tension between some people and the teaching office, fruitful doctrinal development usually takes place within the–sometimes heated–world of theological discussion. A postscript describes the mandatum as a concrete expression of the intrinsic role that the magisterium has in Catholic theology and the role of the university and faculty in relation to the wider church.


A comparative analysis of the time course of age-related acute myocardial infarction incidence rates among men and women was based upon the results of an epidemiological study in Krasnoyarsk. Myocardial infarction incidence rates in men aged 20 to 69 (general as well as primary and secondary infarction incidence) were twice as high as in women of the same age. The time course of primary and secondary myocardial infarction incidence had common regularities. Under 60, incidence rates in men were higher than in women, over 60 just the opposite. Incidence rates in younger age groups were higher than in older age groups. No growth in the general morbidity of myocardial infarction was established in the period of the study. However its significant growth in men aged 50 to 59 ("rejuvenation" of myocardial infarction) was revealed.


Ocean acidification is expected to have wide-ranging and complicated impacts on organismal physiology, notably metabolism. Effects on metabolism may have numerous consequences at the whole-organism level, in particular costs to growth, locomotion, reproductive output, and homeostasis. Negative effects on these metrics may further cascade up to impact ecosystem structure and function, and thus human society. As such, the study of metabolism in response to ocean acidification is a pivotal research avenue within the study of global ocean change. Here, the metabolic responses of marine species to ocean acidification are reviewed and examined through meta-analysis. We reviewed a total of 44 published studies and used a traditional meta-analysis to identify broad-scale trends in the metabolic responses of species to ocean acidification. Results from this study indicate varied metabolic strategies in response to OA, further complicating our predictive power to forecast ecosystem-level consequences of ongoing CO 2 increases. However, strong effects were observed with respect to ontogeny, marine ecosystem, motility, and taxonomic origin, thereby reinforcing the need for a multi-faceted approach to both management of sensitive species and mitigation of future impacts.


OBJECTIVES
We aimed to quantify time performing chest compressions (CCs) per year of individual providers in a pediatric ED and to project a rate of opportunity for CC based on median clinical hours per provider category.

METHODS
This was an observational study of video-recorded resuscitations in a pediatric ED over 1 year. Events where CCs were performed for more than 2 minutes were included. Identification of providers and duration of CCs per provider were determined by video review. Time of CCs was totaled per provider over the study period. Data were expressed as median and interquartile range (IQR). Rate of opportunity for providing CC to a child was calculated by dividing the median clinical hours per year per provider type by the number of CC events per year.

RESULTS
Twenty-three CC events totaling 340 minutes of CCs were analyzed. Chest compressions were performed by 6 (13%) of 45 attending physicians, 3 (25%) of 12 fellows, 32 (22%) of 143 nurses, and 19 (59%) of 32 technicians. The median amount of time performing CC was 182 seconds (IQR, 91-396 seconds); by provider category, median amount of time was as follows: attending physicians, 83 seconds (IQR, 64-103 seconds); fellows, 45 seconds (IQR, 6-83 seconds); nurses, 128 seconds (IQR, 93-271 seconds); and technicians, 534 seconds (IQR, 217-793 seconds). The projected hours needed for an opportunity to perform CCs was 730 hours (91 shifts) for attending physicians, 243 hours (30 shifts) for fellows, and 1460 hours (121 shifts) for nurses and technicians.

CONCLUSIONS
Performing CCs on children in the ED is a rare event, with a median of 3 minutes per provider per year. Future studies should determine training methods to optimize readiness for these rare occurrences.


The use of Internet technology for corporate reporting is now a well-established activity in countries that have developed securities markets, raising many questions for the provision of audit and assurance on such reports. This paper reviews the state of guidance provided by securities regulators and audit standards setters. We find that, notwithstanding the recognition by various audit standards bodies of the need for further guidance to auditors on the implications of Internet financial reporting; the actual pronouncements made thus far by the various bodies around the world fall considerably short as a response to the challenges that arise from current and future Internet reporting technologies. We point in particular to shortcomings related to the way in which users interact with Internet financial reporting web sites, the implications of this interaction and on what we term 'information component' technologies such as the XML-based eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). The paper sets out a range of institutional, standards setting and technological solutions to these issues.


First-principles many-body theory and time-dependent density functional theory were used to study the dimension effects on the band alignment and optical properties of s-triazine and graphitic C3N4. The inclusion of quasiparticle corrections is very important to describe the quantum confinement and the enhancement of the electron–electron (e–e) interaction. The calculated quasiparticle gaps range from 4.0 eV (monolayer) to 3.21 eV (tetralayer). The position of the valence band maxima is found to be almost constant, whereas the conduction band minima show a strong quantum confinement effect with a variation of 0.7 eV respective to the bulk structure. The calculated frequency-dependent imaginary part of the dielectric function using the Bethe–Salpeter equation shows prominent excitonic effects, where there is a strong redistribution of the spectral weight to lower photon energies in the ultraviolet frequencies where the major part of the absorption occurs. On the other hand, a less intense excitonic absorption in the visible region is due to light polarization perpendicular to the surface plane. In contrast, time-dependent density functional theory also shows a redistribution of the spectral weight in the ultraviolet but it fails to describe the excitonic features in the visible region.


Due to the ever-increasing demand for electricity in the one hand and the environmental constraints to use clean energy on the other hand, the global production of energy from remote renewable sources, particularly from large hydropower plants and offshore wind farms and their connection to the grid are expected to grow significantly in the future. Consequently, the demand to carry this electric power by high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology will increase too. The most suitable HVDC power transmission technology to deliver large amounts of power, exceeding a capacity of 5 GW per bipolar system over long distances with lower losses is by using compact HVDC gas insulated transmission lines (DC GIL) and gas insulated switchgears (DC GIS) with rated voltage (maximum continuous operating voltage) of ±550 kV and 5000 A which are presently under development worldwide. Among the critical challenges for the development of these HVDC gas insulated systems, there are the epoxy cast resin insulators that are used to separate gas compartments also called spacers. Indeed, thorough research studies have been and still being carried out to well understand and clarify the electrical insulation characteristics of HVDC spacers using mainly cylindrical samples and small insulator models, where useful results have been obtained and proposed for implementation in real compact gas insulated systems. However, few practical investigations have been undertaken on real size spacers (product scale) to verify such research outcomes and validate the reliability of the spacers to collect experiences or for commercial use. This paper reviews the current achievements of real size HVDC spacers development. It describes the basic electric field calculation and spacers design, the verification of the insulation performance and validation testing. It gives today's commercially available compact HVDC GIS/GIL and finally it presents the envisaged future research and development.


Nikulas saga leikara (Nsl.) tells the story of Nikulas, king of Hungary. His
foster-father, Earl Svivari, convinces him to stop playing with magic and try to win
Princess Dorma of Constantinople as a bride. Svivari makes a secret betrothal with
Dorma, contrary to her father's wishes. Nikulas then travels to Constantinople where he
poses as a merchant in order to insinuate himself into the Byzantine court. Nikulas meets
with Dorma secretly, and the couple escape from Constantinople. Valdimar's
Scandinavian mercenaries capture Dorma by employing magic, but Nikulas re-captures
his bride, also using magic. The final battle is precluded by Valdimar's accidental killing
of his own mercenaries. Valdimar accepts Nikulas, and Nikulas becomes king over
Constantinople upon Valdimar's death.

Nsl. is an Icelandic romance which survives in sixty manuscripts dating from the
seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. Despite the saga's popularity in Iceland, Nsl.
has received little attention from saga scholars. Nsl. is clearly a fictional saga, and
neither the action nor the protagonist are related to Scandinavia. Consequently, scholars
who regarded saga as history, as well as those who wished to define a unique medieval
literature for Iceland - or other Scandinavian countries - had no interest in this saga.
However, recent scholarship has discovered that sagas such as Nsl. are rich in both
Icelandic and continental literary styles and motifs. Nsl. may therefore be seen as a
particulariy Icelandic form of medieval romance.

The present translation of Nsl. will make the saga available for further study of
native Icelandic romance. Of the two redactions ofNsl., the edition ofNsl. (Nks. 331,
8vo) which is part of this study represents the longer, more popular version. With this
edition, it is hoped that scholarly attention will be drawn to a saga which was read and
enjoyed in Iceland over at least four centuries.


The Iranian Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (MSRT) English Proficiency Test (EPT) has been in use since 1992. While the MSRT-EPT is generally claimed to be reliable, valid, and practical, it does not assess speaking and writing skills. In this exploratory study, a qualitative approach was used to examine the MSRT-EPT test-takers experiences and language education experts' beliefs about the test as well as their congruence with each other through semi-structured telephone interviews. Convenience and purposive sampling procedures were used to select 15 participants. Inductive coding method was applied to determine invariant constituents. Then, the constituents were reduced to categories, and finally the categories were clustered into 11 themes. Dependability and validity of the study were established through triangulation, inter-coder agreement, and member checking technique. The problems associated with the MSRT-EPT and a lack of productive skills included a lack of correspondence between the test content and Ph.D. Candidates'' needs, negative washback effect, non-theory-based content, inappropriate listening conditions, and a lack of test items originality. On the other hand, the candidates' and experts' perspectives were highly congruent. In light of these findings, the importance of designing a more comprehensive test including all facets of the language proficiency construct was highlighted, and some suggestions were made for future research.


This study focuses on the modal proposition that group work in the context of higher education has the potential to enhance learning among students, but has yet to reach its valid zenith of utility value in didactical practice. The particular characteristics of the small group in the context of higher education are described and supplemented by an explication of the small group learning process students partake in. This is followed by a brief examination of structured activities for group work; the assessment of group work; and the implications for the managing of group work in higher education. Empirically, the study explores the perceptions of students regarding group work. Results show that students are positively inclined towards group work and have constructive views regarding the nature of group work as a learning mode. Theoretically speaking, group work has a wealth of potential to offer to the lecturer and the learner. The complexity of the phenomenon leaves the lecturer with no choice but to take great care in the use of group work. The fact that group work is not viewed as a mismanaged evil leaves the door open for further use of this mode of teaching, learning and assessing in higher education. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.18(2) 2004:131-149


This paper describes two problems related to the digital implementation of control laws in the infinite dimensional family of matching control laws, namely state estimation and sampled data induced error. The entire family of control laws is written for an inverted pendulum cart. Numerical simulations which include sampled data and a state estimator are presented for one of the control laws in this family.


Despite the frequent call for a strengthened customer orientation in performing arts organizations, no efforts have been made to investigate customer satisfaction in opera so far. The paper aims at filling this gap by suggesting a first integrative model of customer satisfaction in opera. This model integrates insights from both services marketing literature (i.e., general services marketing and performing arts marketing) and performing arts literature (i.e., music perception and theater studies). The model is tested in afield study interviewing 116 visitors of a public German opera house. Results reveal visitors' level of appraisal to be the main antecedent of their satisfaction, followed by their perception of the artistic quality, empathy/identification with the actors on stage, and recall from memory. Furthermore, differences within the audience regarding the relative importance of the antecedents of customer satisfaction in opera are investigated. Using gender and attendance frequency as segmentation variables, only minor differences are found, though. Managerial implications for opera marketing are discussed in conclusion. First, efforts in opera marketing should rather concentrate on the core service quality instead of the peripheral service quality. Second, professional opera companies may attract broader audiences if they focus on the emotional satisfaction of their customers. Third, since only minor and mostly insignificant differences between men and women, and occasional compared to frequent visitors are found, a need for further research to explore alternative segmentation variables in the opera context is identified.


Our research highlights the structuring effect of initiatives that mobilize social economy and community action resources with the aim of promoting the conversion of local spaces and the implementation of a dynamic of local development and socioterritorial inclusion. Using the case study of the establishment of La TOHU in the Saint-Michel neighbourhood in Montreal (Quebec, Canada), for which we conducted a literature review and an interview survey, we show how urban conflicts contributed to the construction of a cohesive environment. In the path taken by Saint-Michel, one of the most sensitive neighbourhoods in Canada, our confl ict analysis sheds light on (1) the relationship between urban confl icts and legitimate representation for sites of consensus-building, (2) the importance of the instances allowing for debate and discussion between the various types of actors (social, business community, public) such as to generate strong coalitions centered on the social development of the local community and the improvement of the quality of life for citizens, and (3) the relationship between consensus-building among the actors and the development of compromises for the territory under study. The debates provoked by the conflicts thus allowed for the social construction of rallying points, which in turn promoted the reaching of compromises, in this case, the one leading to the establishment of La TOHU. However, although La TOHU was a success as a strategy of integration and socio-territorial connectivity, the roots of the borough's socio-economic problems have not been resolved: Saint-Michel is still a poor neighbourhood in which socio-territorial exclusion has not disappeared. Finally, the 2008 riots which took place in Montreal-North, an adjacent neighbourhood, point to an important direction to pursue in our continuing research on the role and place of conflicts in socio-territorial regulation: the analysis of ethnic riots and conflicts related to social integration.


For the design and application of ultra-high speed aerostatic spindle, it is often difficult to determine the load capacity of bearing gas film because of nonlinear problem, especially when the gas film is very thin. As ultra-high speed aerostatic spindle is working, rotational velocity of spindle ranges up to 300,000 rpm, while Reynolds number of air flow also increases in aerostatic bearing, so we need to consider the impact of gas inertia on the load capacity. In order to improve design accuracy of ultra-high speed aerostatic spindle, it is vitally necessary to consider hydrodynamic effect of aerostatic bearings. By using finite element analysis software ANSYS software as analysis platform, through finite element the analysis of the internal flow field of aerostatic thrust bearing, this paper obtains the relationship of rotation speed and load capacity of aerostatic thrust bearing.


Face occlusions, covering either the majority or discriminative parts of the face, can break facial perception and produce a drastic loss of information. Biometric systems such as recent deep face recognition models are not immune to obstructions or other objects covering parts of the face. While most of the current face recognition methods are not optimized to handle occlusions, there have been a few attempts to improve robustness directly in the training stage. Unlike those, we propose to study the effect of generative face completion on the recognition. We offer a face completion encoder-decoder, based on a convolutional operator with a gating mechanism, trained with an ample set of face occlusions. To systematically evaluate the impact of realistic occlusions on recognition, we propose to play the occlusion game: we render 3D objects onto different face parts, providing precious knowledge of what the impact is of effectively removing those occlusions. Extensive experiments on the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW), and its more difficult variant LFW-BLUFR, testify that face completion is able to partially restore face perception in machine vision systems for improved recognition.


We first study the behavior of a current-mode-controlled boost converter and exhibit its chaotic behavior (when the duty cycle exceeds 50%). We then introduce a practical method (sliding mode control) aiming at totally eliminating chaos and at keeping the desired current-controlled property. Indeed, the standard method (slope compensation) only partly cures this major drawback, even though it eliminates chaos, the converter is not current-controlled any more. Our control method does not only provide stability, it also increases the input voltage variation domain for which the system remains stable. The sliding-mode controlled converter always remains current-controlled, i.e. independently of the duty cycle. We finally establish a mathematical modeling of the whole circuit (close-loop) and study its performance in detail.


Violent Men: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Violence (New, Revised Edition) by Hans Toch. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1992, 286 pp. In Violent Men, Hans Toch presents a scientifically sound examination of the intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that underlie recurrent violent behavior in men. Grounded in social learning theory, this book evaluates personal attributes (e.g., personality factors, attitudes, perceptions) of violent men as well as the social context in which their violence occurs. However, Toch does not simply lay out a list of "risk factors" for violence. Rather, by conducting highly detailed interviews of men within the criminal justice system (those profiled in Violent Men include incarcerated inmates and police officers); he provides very detailed and dynamic insights into the thoughts, motivations, and experiences of men with a propensity for violence. Thus, this book will be of interest to psychologists, criminologists, sociologists, social workers, and any other professional whose work intersects violence and the criminal justice system. This revised edition was as relevant when published in 1992-amid recent race riots, reports of police brutality, and disturbing crime statistics-as was its predecessor when published in 1969 in the wake of assassinations and race and student riots. Indeed, the need to advance our scholarly understanding of the roots of violent behavior and the methods that may reduce it is consistently en vogue. Unfortunately, a considerable amount of the data reported in Violent Men is drawn from this first edition and, as such, feels dated to the reader. More importantly, this now 15-year-old revised edition is obviously unable to consider emerging empirical and theoretical advancements in the conceptualization and treatment of violent offenders. Nevertheless, this book still merits attention. The ideas advanced by Toch will still be inspiring and thought provoking to any scientist or clinician with an interest in violence. Moreover, the scientifically sound, qualitative methodology provides a solid foundation from which contemporary researchers may continue to build. Violent Men focuses primarily upon men who are involved in the criminal justice system and are recurrent perpetrators of violence. Chapter 1 introduces a social psychological conceptualization of recurrent violent behavior and describes the methodology utilized to obtain case histories. Specifically, data were collected via highly detailed interviews of inmates within the California Department of Corrections and officers of the San Francisco and Oakland police departments. Many of these interviews were conducted by "non-professional" researchers who shared similar cultural and demographic backgrounds with interviewees. …


We present the 3 mm wavelength spectra of 28 local galaxy merger remnants obtained with the Large Millimeter Telescope. Sixteen molecular lines from 14 different molecular species and isotopologues were identified, and 21 out of 28 sources were detected in one or more molecular lines. On average, the line ratios of the dense gas tracers, such as HCN (1–0) and HCO+(1–0), to 13CO (1–0) are 3–4 times higher in ultra/luminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) than in non-LIRGs in our sample. These high line ratios could be explained by the deficiency of 13CO and high dense gas fractions suggested by high HCN (1–0)/12CO (1–0) ratios. We calculate the IR-to-HCN (1–0) luminosity ratio as a proxy of the dense gas star formation efficiency. There is no correlation between the IR/HCN ratio and the IR luminosity, while the IR/HCN ratio varies from source to source ((1.1–6.5) × 103 L ☉/(K km s−1 pc2)). Compared with the control sample, we find that the average IR/HCN ratio of the merger remnants is higher by a factor of 2–3 than those of the early/mid-stage mergers and nonmerging LIRGs, and it is comparable to that of the late-stage mergers. The IR-to-12CO (1–0) ratios show a similar trend to the IR/HCN ratios. These results suggest that star formation efficiency is enhanced by the merging process and maintained at high levels even after the final coalescence. The dynamical interactions and mergers could change the star formation mode and continue to impact the star formation properties of the gas in the postmerger phase.


Different classes of receptors mediate norepinephrine and epinephrine effects, one of the most recently discovered being the beta 3 adrenergic ones. The paper has proposed itself to present the history of the discovery of beta 3 adrenergic receptors, different techniques for their identification, their structure, localization, genetic data and also the mechanism of regulation of their functions. It also contains an exhaustive approach regarding the histological localization and functions of beta 3 adrenergic receptors in different apparatus and systems, making evident their effect on glucidic, lipidic and energetic metabolism. The substances that influence beta 3 adrenergic receptors activities, especially the agonists, have been studied regarding their practical applications in the treatment of diabetes mellitus and of the disturbances of lipid metabolism.


This paper is a survey of the growing body of theory concerned with parallel algorithms and the complexity of parallel computation. The principal computation that we consider is the parallel random-access machine (PRAM), in which it is assumed that each processor has random access in unit time to any cell of a global memory. This model permits the logical structure of parallel computation to be studied in a context divorced from issues of interprocessor communication. Section 2 surveys efficient parallel algorithms for bookkeeping operations such as compacting an array by squeezing out its "dead" elements, for evaluating algebraic expressions, for searching a graph and decomposing it into various kinds of components, and for sorting, merging and selection. These algorithms are typically completely different from the best sequential algorithms for the same problems, and their discovery has required the creation of a new set of paradigms for the construction of parallel algorithms. Section 3 studies the relationships among several variants of the PRAM model which differ in their implementation of concurrent reading and/or concurrent writing, presents lower bounds on the time to solve certain elementary problems on various kinds of P RAMs, and compares the PRAM with other models such as bounded-fan-in and unbounded-fan-in circuits, alternating Turing machines and vector machines. Section 3 also introduces NC, a hierarchy of problems solvable by deterministic algorithms that operate in polylog time using a polynomial-bounded number of processors. Section 4 discusses specific problems within NC. Among the problems shown to lie at low levels within this hierarchy are the basic arithmetic operations, transitive closure and Boolean matrix multiplication, the computation of the determinant, the rank an d inverse of a matrix, the evaluation of certain classes of straight-line programs and the construction of a maximal independent set of vertices in a graph. Section 4 also discusses the randomized version of NC, and gives fast randomized parallel algorithm s for problems such as finding a maximum matching in a graph. Section 4 concludes by exhibiting several problems that are complete in the sequential complexity class P with respect to logspace reducibility, and hence unlikely to lie in NC.


With their ever-growing prevalence, obesity and diabetes represent major health threats of our society. Based on estimations by the World Health Organization, approximately 300 million people will be obese in 2035. In 2015 alone there were more than 1.6 million fatalities attributable to hyperglycemia and diabetes. In addition, treatment of these diseases places an enormous burden on our health care system. As a result, the development of pharmacotherapies to tackle this life-threatening pandemic is of utmost importance. Since the beginning of the 19th century, a variety of drugs have been evaluated for their ability to decrease body weight and/or to improve deranged glycemic control. The list of evaluated drugs includes, among many others, sheep-derived thyroid extracts, mitochondrial uncouplers, amphetamines, serotonergics, lipase inhibitors, and a variety of hormones produced and secreted by the gastrointestinal tract or adipose tissue. Unfortunately, when used as a single hormone therapy, most of these drugs are underwhelming in their efficacy or safety, and placebo-subtracted weight loss attributed to such therapy is typically not more than 10%. In 2009, the generation of a single molecule with agonism at the receptors for glucagon and the glucagon-like peptide 1 broke new ground in obesity pharmacology. This molecule combined the beneficial anorectic and glycemic effects of glucagon-like peptide 1 with the thermogenic effect of glucagon into a single molecule with enhanced potency and sustained action. Several other unimolecular dual agonists have subsequently been developed, and, based on their preclinical success, these molecules illuminate the path to a new and more fruitful era in obesity pharmacology. In this review, we focus on the historical pharmacological approaches to treat obesity and glucose intolerance and describe how the knowledge obtained by these studies led to the discovery of unimolecular polypharmacology.


A passive acoustic system, consisting of a set of acoustic nodes and a central processing node, is a good candidate for the covert detection of low flying aircraft as they cross our nation's borders. Small arrays of microphones have been used to estimate aircraft speed, heading, frequency spectrum and altitude at the closest point of approach. We extend this work by considering maneuvering aircraft and by testing a narrowband algorithm that gives angle estimates sooner, and over a longer period of time, than the broadband version. A new narrowband algorithm is provided for estimating position versus time as the aircraft flies through a grid of widely spaced omni-directional microphones (separated by several miles). We classify aircraft as helicopter, piston engine aircraft (specifically, numbers of propeller blades and cylinders), turboprop aircraft or jet aircraft. Our approach has been validated via testing at various airports against ground truth data.


Panoply of influences operates to shape particular food choices. Thus, probing into the drivers of people's healthy food choices is primordial to addressing the public health issue of obesity. The aim of the current study was to investigate the factors that influence University students' choice for healthy and unhealthy foods. For the cross-sectional study, data using a structured questionnaire were collected from a stratified sample of 370 students at the University of Mauritius. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tools namely factor analysis, Pearson correlations and independent sample t-tests were used for data analysis. Choice decisions were affected by various factors. Students who attached significantly more importance to health, weight control and natural content ate more healthily as opposed to those who were influenced by the social & physical factor. Decisions to choose foods varied significantly with respect to gender. Girls considered factors such as health, weight control, convenience and attitude to be more important and ate more healthily as opposed to boys (p < 0.05). Health benefits derived from foods were perceived as the predominant food motive for students believed that their current diets were nutritionally adequate. These results are salient for health professionals and suggest that interventions should be geared to increase awareness about the nutritional inadequacy of diets consumed by University students and should specifically target boys. To the best of one's knowledge, this is the only explicit research on food motives of University of Mauritius students.


Emotions are seen as a driving force in students' learning, but students' involvement can also be problematic from a teaching perspective if the subject matter is upsetting in a negative way. When aesthetics are part of the teaching, it is more likely that emotional aspects are taken into account. Here, the emotional dimension of teaching will be addressed in connection with Education of Sustainable Development and Drama in Education. Three examples – a wholeclass teaching event, an individual student's learning process and an example of process drama – are presented in order to discuss how different instructional designs affects the teacher's possibilities to address students' emotions. A conclusion is that emotionallyloaded subjects require an elaborated teaching strategy in order to develop deeper knowledge. When the teaching includes an aesthetic approach, like educational drama, emotions are not seen as a problem but as an integrated part of the whole.


Automatic garbage collection (GC) prevents certain kinds of bugs and reduces programming overhead. GC techniques for sequential programs are based on reachability analysis. However, testing reachability from a root set is inadequate for determining whether an actor is garbage because an unreachable actor may send a message to a reachable actor. Instead, it is sufficient to check termination (sometimes also called quiescence): an actor is terminated if it is not currently processing a message and cannot receive a message in the future. Moreover, many actor frameworks provide all actors with access to file I/O or external storage; without inspecting an actor's internal code, it is necessary to check that the actor has terminated to ensure that it may be garbage collected in these frameworks. Previous algorithms to detect actor garbage require coordination mechanisms such as causal message delivery or nonlocal monitoring of actors for mutation. Such coordination mechanisms adversely affect concurrency and are therefore expensive in distributed systems. We present a low-overhead reference listing technique (called DRL) for termination detection in actor systems. DRL is based on asynchronous local snapshots and message-passing between actors. This enables a decentralized implementation and transient network partition tolerance. The paper provides a formal description of DRL, shows that all actors identified as garbage have indeed terminated (safety), and that all terminated actors--under certain reasonable assumptions--will eventually be identified (liveness).


The glutathione thiol/disulfide couple is the major redox buffer in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER); however, mechanisms by which it contributes to the tightly regulated redox environment of this intracellular organelle are poorly understood. The recent development of genetically encoded, ratiometric, single green fluorescent protein-based redox-sensitive (roGFP) sensors adjusted for more oxidative environments enables non-invasive measurement of the ER redox environment in living cells. In turn, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensors based on two fluorophore probes represent an alternative strategy for ratiometric signal acquisition. In previous work, we described the FRET-based redox sensor CY-RL7 with a relatively high midpoint redox potential of −143 mV, which is required for monitoring glutathione potentials in the comparatively high oxidative environment of the ER. Here, the efficacy of the CY-RL7 probe was ascertained in the cytosol and ER of live cells with fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The sensor was found to be fully reduced at steady state in the cytosol and became fully oxidized in response to treatment with 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, a depletor of reduced glutathione (GSH). In contrast, the probe was strongly oxidized (88%) upon expression in the ER of cultured cells. We also examined the responsiveness of the ER sensor to perturbations in cellular glutathione homeostasis. We observed that the reductive level of the FRET sensor was increased two-fold to about 28% in cells pretreated with N-acetylcysteine, a substrate for GSH synthesis. Finally, we evaluated the responsiveness of CY-RL7 and roGFP1-iL to various perturbations of cellular glutathione homeostasis to address the divergence in the specificity of these two probes. Together, the present data generated with genetically encoded green fluorescent protein (GFP)-based glutathione probes highlight the complexity of the ER redox environment and indicate that the ER glutathione pool may be more oxidized than is currently considered.


Correlative array tomography (CAT) makes use of the fixative agent glutaraldehyde and requires heavy metal staining for ultrastructural contrast. A key component of array tomography (AT) relies on the production of arrays of ultrathin sections from resin‐embedded biological samples. The need for correlative light and electron microscopy lies in the intrinsic properties of biological tissues, namely the intricate relationship between the molecular and physical architectures. Fixation, dehydration, and resin embedding are necessary steps in order to visualize biological tissue in electron microscopes. This chapter summarizes the key differences between CAT protocols for circuit tracing and for proteometric analysis. It briefly reviews several AT‐compatible techniques for the collection of ultrathin sections of resin‐embedded tissue. The chapter details imaging procedures for the two modalities: light microscopy and electron microscopy. Finally, it presents an application that demonstrates the power of CAT applied to the analysis of brain circuits.


Column-Stores has gained market share due to promising physical storage alternative for analytical queries. However, for multi-attribute queries column-stores pays performance penalties due to on-the-fly tuple reconstruction. This paper presents an adaptive approach for reducing tuple reconstruction time. Proposed approach exploits decision tree algorithm to cluster attributes for each projection and also eliminates frequent database scanning. Experimentations with TPC-H data shows the effectiveness of proposed approach.


The logistic growth model and the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) framework are utilized for the mathematical modelling of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in India Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra, three states of India, are selected based on the pattern of the disease spread and the prominence in being affected in India The parameters of the models are estimated by utilizing real-time data The models predict the ending of the pandemic in these states and estimate the number of people that would be affected under the prevailing conditions The models classify the pandemic into five stages based on the nature of the infection growth rate According to the estimates of the models it can be concluded that Kerala is in a stable situation whereas the pandemic is still growing in Karnataka and Maharashtra The infection rate of Karnataka and Kerala are lesser than 5% and reveal a downward trend On the other hand, the infection rate and the high predicted number of infectives in Maharashtra calls for more preventive measures to be imposed in Maharashtra to control the disease spread The results of this analysis provide valuable information regarding the disease spread in India © 2020, International Information and Engineering Technology Association


Rib-turbulators have been widely used in turbine blade cooling designs to enhance internal heat transfer. However, application of the ribs in blade cooling channels inevitably causes large pressure losses and lower heat transfer areas behind the ribs and at the joint parts of the ribbed wall with sidewalls in comparison to smooth channels. Semi-attached rib having two rectangular holes at the bottom of the ribs at the joint regions of the ribbed wall and two sidewalls is able to reduce friction losses and alleviates lower heat transfer in the channels. This paper presented a method of combining computational fluid dynamic simulation with an optimization method to optimize the performance of a channel with semi-attached ribs and to discuss the effects of hole geometric variables on both pressure losses and heat transfer enhancement. A fully automatic multi-objective genetic algorithm based on the Non-dominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm-II is applied for a one-pass squared channel with 60° inclined semi-attached ribs. Four geometrical variables are widths and heights of the two rectangular holes, and two objective functions are the maximum of area-averaged Nusselt number on the rib roughend wall and the minimum of friction factor. The Kriging model is constructed by using the Latin hypercube sampling method to choose 15 experimental points in the design space. The results showed that the optimization method helps to increase the channel performance and to eliminate nearly all low heat transfer areas by appropriately adjusting the heights and widths of the holes. Compared to solid ribs, the optimal semi-attached rib increases the area-averaged Nu number on the rib-roughened walls by 9.45%, whereas the friction factor in the channel is decreased by 6.95%, which corresponds to an increase of 12.13% in thermal performance. In the optimal model, the existence of large holes on the right side of the optimal semi-attached ribs moves the vortex core of the secondary flow downstream of the ribs from the right side of the solid-ribbed channel to the middle, which causes a large increase in Nu number on the middle and left side of the rib roughened walls and only a moderate reduction in Nu number on the right part of the walls. In the whole range discussed, heat transfer coefficient on the rib-roughened walls increased with the height of the right holes, but it increases with the width of the hole only in the range of 8–10mm. For the holes on the left, heat transfer coefficient deteriorates as the height and width increase. Increasing width and height of the holes on both sides of the semi-attached ribs reduces the channel friction losses.


Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Material and methods: 142 eyes of 71 consecutive patients with COPD who are applied to ophthalmology clinic were included in the retrospective study from January 2012 to August 2013. Trauma, ophthalmologic surgery history, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, chorioretinitis, retinitis pigmentosa, retinal detachment and tears in the anamnesis and ophthalmologic examination were excluded from study. The visual acuity of the patients was assessed using Snellen chart. Intraocular pressure was measured with applanation tonometry. Fundus examination was performed using +90D lens after pupil dilation with 0.5% tropicamide following biomicroscopic anterior segment examination. All patients underwent peripheral retinal examination with Goldmann three-mirror lens to detect the presence of retinal tear. A and B mode ultrasonography was performed to patients. Results: 142 eyes of 71 patients, 5 of whom were female (7%) and 66 of whom were male (93%) were included to the study. The patients were aged between 43-80 years and the mean age of the cases was 62.61 ± 8.34. The average visual acuity was found as 0.78 ± 0.25 (0.05-1). Mean intraocular pressure was found as 12.5 ± 2.26 mmHg (8-18 mmHg). PVD was detected in 87 eyes of 142 eyes. The prevalence of PVD was found as 61.26%. 46 (52.87%) patients of 87 cases were symptomatic. Conclusion: The PVD prevalence was higher in this age group in COPD patients than normal population. The reason of this may be concussion by increased cough reflex and amount in COPD. Pathologies that may cause increased cough reflex like COPD can be evaluated for risk factors and tendency to PVD. In conclusion, PVD is an important situation because it may lead to vitreoretinal pathologies like retinal tear, retinal detachment, intravitreal hemorrhage, macular hole. Therefore COPD patients should be evaluated by an ophthalmologist for early diagnosis and treatment.


Environmentally transmitted diseases are comparatively poorly understood and managed, and their ecology is particularly understudied. Here we identify challenges of studying environmental transmission and persistence with a six-sided interdisciplinary review of the biology of anthrax (Bacillus anthracis). Anthrax is a zoonosis that is capable of maintaining infectious spore banks in soil for decades (or even potentially centuries), and the mechanisms of its environmental persistence have been the topic of significant research and controversy. In sites where anthrax is endemic, it plays an important ecological role, shaping the dynamics of entire herbivore communities. The complex eco-epidemiology of anthrax, and the mysterious biology of Bacillus anthracis during its persistence in the environment, have necessitated an interdisciplinary approach to pathogen research. Here, we illustrate different disciplinary perspectives through key advances made by researchers working in Etosha National Park, a long-term ecological research site in Namibia that has exemplified the complexities of anthrax's enzootic process over decades of surveillance. Through the lens of microbiologists, geneticists, immunologists, ecologists, epidemiologists, and clinicians, we discuss how anthrax dynamics are shaped at the smallest scale by population genetics and interactions within the bacterial communities up to the broadest scales of ecosystem structure. We illustrate the benefits and challenges of this interdisciplinary approach to disease ecology, and suggest ways anthrax might offer insights into the biology of other important pathogens.


Advanced glycation endproduct (AGE)-induced vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production are emerging as important mechanisms of diabetic vasculopathy, but little is known about the molecular mechanism responsible for the antioxidative effects of statins on AGEs. It has been reported that statins exert pleiotropic effects on the cardiovascular system due to decreases in AGE-induced cell proliferation, migration, and vascular inflammation. Thus, in the present study, the authors investigated the molecular mechanism by which statins decrease AGE-induced cell proliferation and VSMC migration. In cultured VSMCs, statins upregulated Nrf2-related antioxidant gene, NQO1 and HO-1, via an ERK5-dependent Nrf2 pathway. Inhibition of ERK5 by siRNA or BIX02189 (a specific ERK5 inhibitor) reduced the statin-induced upregulations of Nrf2, NQO1, and HO-1. Furthermore, fluvastatin was found to significantly increase ARE promoter activity through ERK5 signaling, and to inhibit AGE-induced VSMC proliferation and migration as determined by MTT assay, cell counting, FACS analysis, a wound scratch assay, and a migration chamber assay. In addition, AGE-induced proliferation was diminished in the presence of Ad-CA-MEK5α encoding a constitutively active mutant form of MEK5α (an upstream kinase of ERK5), whereas depletion of Nrf2 restored statin-mediated reduction of AGE-induced cell proliferation. Moreover, fluvastatin suppressed the protein expressions of cyclin D1 and Cdk4, but induced p27, and blocked VSMC proliferation by regulating cell cycle. These results suggest statin-induced activation of an ERK5-dependent Nrf2 pathway reduces VSMC proliferation and migration induced by AGEs, and that the ERK5-Nrf2 signal module be viewed as a potential therapeutic target of vasculopathy in patients with diabetes and complications of the disease.


A multichannel fiber-optic delay-line architecture based on optical polarization switching is proposed that uses non-polarization-maintaining optical fibers. Critical birefringence-compensation and noise-reduction techniques are introduced and demonstrated for these delay lines, which show a high optical polarization extinction ratio (>39 dB) and a high electrical signal-to-noise ratio (>92 dB).


Social networks, date webs, multi-player online games and other technological resources enabling remote personal interactions have a rising social impact that is changing some paradigms of the human relationships. The rise of such impact is determining that governs are adapting their legal system to affront new challenges arising from those new technologies. In this paper, it has been assessed whether personal interaction trough immersive virtual environments allow, or even enhances, collective creativity thanks to technological features as described below. First, the possibility to overcome technological barriers found in the physical world. Second, a different symbolic connection emerges from the lack of face-to-face contact. Third, individuals should focus their attention on the environment, in this case, Second Life (SL), during the rehearsal. Fourth, the wide diversity of age, ethnic and geographical features of the participants. To assess these insights, a case-study, focused on the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (AOM), an orchestra based on SL, has been performed based on a participative observation, where valuable parameters have been identified during an immersive experience of the researcher. After then, participants of the case-study orchestra were subjected to specific test describing their experience and impressions at the social and creative levels in Second Life. Thus, it has been found that, in the AOM, the virtual environment could have created an appropriate space promoting the collective creativity.


Housing has been one of the defining issues of our times. Enabling strategies were implemented to address the housing challenges for the past decade with limited success. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of government-led large-scale programmes to provide low-income housing. New network of collaborations have created new rules and shifted boundaries to achieve the scale. In India, Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) aims to build 20 million new units by 2022. Likewise in Brazil, Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) was launched to deliver millions of affordable homes. This paper argues that the emergence of the state-led housing means the value of enabling has not been supplanted but supplemented, as the shift does not herald the end of enabling strategy but a renewed commitment to the expansion of enabling principles where the state is an active agent. The state-led housing development and related assertions are creating and formalizing new areas of market engagement, and are far less radical and transformative than is assumed. State housing programmes such as MCMV and PMAY are inevitability highly profitable transactions, advantageous to the economy and housing markets and come at a point when the profiteering and resource-extracting neoliberalism is at its zenith.


In this work, the effects of quantum confinement on the ground state energy of a correlated electron–hole pair in a spherical and in a disc-like quantum dot have been investigated as a function of quantum dot size. Under parabolic confinement potential and within effective mass approximation Ritz's variational method is applied to Hylleraas-like trial wavefunction. An efficient method for reducing the main effort of the calculation of terms like rehk exp(−λreh) is introduced. The main contribution of the present work is the introduction of integral transforms which provide the calculation of expectation value of energy and the related matrix elements to be done analytically over single-particle coordinates instead of Hylleraas coordinates.


Upon high throughput screening of 6700 microbial fermentation extracts, we discovered a compound, designated orthoformimycin, capable of inhibiting protein synthesis in vitro with high efficiency. The molecule, whose structure was elucidated by chemical, spectrometric, and spectroscopic methods, contains an unusual orthoformate moiety (hence the name) and belongs to a novel class of translation inhibitors. This antibiotic does not affect any function of the 30S ribosomal subunit but binds to the 50S subunit causing inhibition of translation elongation and yielding polypeptide products of reduced length. Analysis by fluorescence stopped flow kinetics revealed that EF-G-dependent mRNA translocation is inhibited by orthoformimycin, whereas, surprisingly, translocation of the aminoacyl-tRNA seems to be unaffected.


Risk for ischemic stroke is mediated by both environmental and genetic factors. Although several environmental exposures have been implicated, relatively little is known about the genetic basis of predisposition to this disease. Recent studies in Iceland identified risk polymorphisms in two putative candidate genes for ischemic stroke: phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) and 5‐lipoxygenase activating protein (ALOX5AP). A collection of North American sibling pairs concordant for ischemic stroke and two cohorts of prospectively ascertained North American ischemic stroke cases and control subjects were used for evaluation of PDE4D and ALOX5AP. Although no evidence supported linkage of ischemic stroke with either of the two candidate genes, single‐nucleotide polymorphisms and haplotypic associations were observed between PDE4D and ischemic stroke. There was no evidence of association between variants of ALOX5AP and ischemic stroke. These data suggest that common variants in PDE4D may contribute to the genetic risk for ischemic stroke in multiple populations. Ann Neurol 2005;58:351–361


The work presented in this thesis was re-submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in July 2011 by Graham Dinsdale and is entitled ?Optical Coherence Tomography: applications and developments for imaging in vivo biological tissue?.In this thesis the design and build of a high-speed, video-rate optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system is described. The system was designed for the purpose of imaging human skin in vivo, particularly that of patients suffering from conditions such as systemic sclerosis. Component selection and design decisions are discussed in the context of the intended final application. Initial test images from the system are presented. In the context of building an OCT system, a supercontinuum light source was characterised and tested for its suitability for use in the OCT environment. Parameters such as coherence length were measured using simple interferometry techniques, while practical considerations such as portability and ease of system integration were also considered.Several applications of OCT imaging techniques were also investigated, using two commercially-available OCT systems from Thorlabs, Inc. A liquid-based skin and blood flow model was constructed using narrow glass capillary tubes, pumped through with scattering solutions of Intralipid or suspensions of polystyrene microspheres. The concentration of the solutions was tuned by dilution in order to best model the scattering parameters of blood. The model also used similar liquid solutions to model static tissue surrounding the blood vessels. Doppler OCT images of the model under various conditions were recorded, and velocity profiles of the flowing liquids were extracted.Using the same commercial OCT systems, imaging over two separate wavelength regions was also performed on the skin of several different species of neo-tropical tree frog, some of which have interesting reflective properties due to the presence of a pigment called pterorhodin. Cross-sectional OCT images of the skin are presented, and averaged depth profiles extracted from them. This is the first time that OCT imaging has been applied to this problem.A clinical study of skin thickening and microvascular function in patients with systemic sclerosis compared to healthy controls was also carried out, again involving a Thorlabs, Inc. commercial OCT system. This study was carried out at Salford Royal Hospital under the supervision of the rheumatology research group. Skin thickness was assessed using OCT and high-frequency ultrasound imaging. Microvascular function was measured using nailfold cappilaroscopy and laser Doppler imaging. Images from the study are presented here.


Objectives: To study the maternal mortality and the common complications leading to maternal death over a period of 7 years from January 1999 to December 2005. Methods: A retrospective study of hospital records and death summaries of all maternal deaths over the 7 year period was carried out. Results: Maternal mortality rates (MMR) of 258.14 to 683.9 per 100,000 live births were observed over the 7 years. Of the women who died 92.3% were from rural areas. 70.8 percent were unbooked for delivery. 78.5 percent were in 21-30 year age group. Hemorrhage was the commonest cause of death followed by eclampsia. Anemia was the major indirect cause of maternal mortality. Conclusions: Hemorrhage and eclampsia were major causes of death. Anemia was an important indirect cause of death.


The effect of sea level rise on the growth of Spartina anglica seedlings and on key sed- iment biogeochemical variables (oxygen concentrations and sulfur cycling) was studied for 4 mo in a laboratory experiment. S. anglica, grown under drained and waterlogged conditions, showed no significant differences in leaf elongation and above-ground biomass between treatments. Sulfate reduction rates were not significantly different between treatments (4.1 and 5.3 mmol m -2 d -1 , respec- tively), and although pools of reduced sulfides were high (12.1 to 14.9 mol S m -2 ), no dissolved sulfides were detected in the sediments. Measurements of oxygen concentrations in rhizosphere sediment done with microelectrodes revealed a distinct oxic microzone of up to 2.5 mm around the roots of S. anglica. The oxic microzone comprised 30 to 60% of the S. anglica rhizosphere sediment, suggesting that the root-mediated oxygen supply to the rhizosphere has profound effects on the microbial pro- cesses in the sediments. The sulfate reduction was probably hampered due to the root-mediated loss of oxygen from the plants. There was no difference in oxygen dynamics in the rhizosphere between treatments, indicating that S. anglica is efficient in oxidizing the sediments also under waterlogged conditions. The root-mediated loss of oxygen from S. anglica counteracts the expected changes in sediment conditions as a consequence of sea level rise, e.g. accumulation of phytotoxic compounds such as sulfides. The results suggest that possible negative impacts of sea level rise are more likely to be found for plants with less developed root systems.


The existing empirical evidence does not yet provide a clear understanding of how leverage and expected equity returns are related. While some studies show a positive relationship between financial leverage and returns, others conclude that returns are either insensitive or decrease with leverage, after controlling for size and book-to-market. We re-examine this evidence by explicitly accounting for the dynamic nature of a firm's optimal leverage policy in the presence of frictions. Specifically, consistent with recent dynamic models of capital structure, we allow firms to temporarily deviate from their optimal capital structure due to adjustment costs. For each firm we estimate target leverage, and compute relative leverage as the difference between observed and target leverage. We find that relative leverage is positively and significantly related to expected equity returns, and has a dominant effect over size and book-to-market. The relative leverage premium shows a remarkable symmetry for over- and under-leveraged firms. Finally, the relative leverage premium is not captured by Fama and French's three-factor model, and it appears to be consistent with rational asset pricing. We conjecture that risk-averse investors require a higher expected return for over-leveraged stocks than for under-leveraged ones because the former are counter-cyclical, while the latter are cyclical.


BACKGROUND
Infection and obstruction are the most common indications for performing tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. In the past, infection was the main indication for these procedures; however, in the last few decades obstruction is said to be more prominent as an indication when compared to infection.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to report our observations of indications for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is a 2 year retrospective analysis of case records of patients aged 0-18 years who have had tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and adenotonsillectomy performed in a tertiary hospital.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED
IBM SPSS (for windows, version 19) software was used to analyze this data.

RESULTS
A total of 115 patient's records were reviewed. Moreover, 33.9% were children under 3 years, 60.0% were between 4 years and 10 years and 6.1% were between the ages of 11 years and 18 years. Obstruction accounted for a total of 68.7% while infection accounted for only 31.3% of the indication for these procedures.

CONCLUSION
Obstruction as an indication is proportionally higher in younger children while infection is proportionally higher in older children.


The pollution caused due to the fire work is becoming one of the major problems in both environmental safety and human health. The greenhouse gases released during the burning of crackers causes global warming and eventually increase the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere. The pollutants from burning the crackers cause health hazard in human being. The particulate matters in the dust such as PM2.5 and PM10 are easily inhaled by the human beings and affect the human health. So a new mixture which has less pollutant, particulate matter as compared with the existing mixture is formed with the help of Boron Carbide as fuel and Potassium Nitrate as the oxidizer. The newly formed mixture is completely Barium free and is much safer to handle than the Barium nitrate. The Boron carbide is implemented in the smoke flare and was found to have the performance as same as the existing composition. So the alternative for the Barium nitrate is proposed and various tests are done for the new mixture.


Located on a small campus serving approximately 750 graduate students pursuing professional master's degrees, our centrally situated library at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, remains open longer than any other department. At least one staff member and one student assistant is always available for service. When students enter the library, our front desk, and the people who work there, are the first sights they see. With a central service desk, students can quickly learn where to go when they have questions just by walking in and out of the library. Nonetheless, it can be easy for students to walk past the desk without interacting with us. Approaching our large, L-shaped front desk can be intimidating, especially for the many students who may not be aware that the librarians want to help, and that it is appropriate to speak with us, as well as the student assistants. To help spark conversations and foster relationships between library users and the staff, we have taken advantage of our entryway lobby to create a welcoming environment and invite participation.


Research thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of master of public health - (monitoring and evaluation) in the school of public health of Kenyatta University


The paper explores the possibility that English syntax includes a particular sort of non-overt (occult) element, corresponding to the overt links that have been identified as very general elements in the languages of the world, serving the function of connecting elements to the head of the phrase in which they appear. Evidence is presented that occult links are ubiquitous, occurring in all the major phrase types of English, including at least NP, VP, AP, AdvP, PP, and QP, and exerting a strong influence on the form of these phrases. The effects consist of constraints on the types of phrases that can appear in pre-head positions, the frequent need for certain components of pre-head phrases to be extraposed, and the impossibility of extracting items from pre-head positions. These phenomena can be explained if one hypothesizes occult links in the types of positions in which overt links occur, with properties that overt links are known to have.


ABSTRACTThe application of grapefruit seed extract (GSE) and air ions to filters was investigated with the goal of collecting indoor bioaerosols. GSE exhibits antimicrobial activity because it contains flavonoids such as naringin. Air ions are usually generated by electric ionizers and can inactivate bacteria, viruses, and fungi. In this study, GSE particles were coated onto three different filters: polypropylene (PP), activated carbon fiber (ACF), and metal foam (MF). Ions were supplied to the filter surface using an ionizer. The rate of surface inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus was measured. When only GSE was applied to the filters, the inactivation rate was about 60%; when air ions were applied, the rate was about 70–80%. When both GSE and ions were applied simultaneously, the inactivation rate increased to 80–90%. The physical collection efficiencies of the as-purchased filters were in the following order: PP > ACF > MF. However, when ions were supplied to the filters, the collection efficiencies increased to over 98% for each filter. The inactivation rate of the ACF filter was the highest (92.5%). Therefore, we conclude that the ACF filter is the most efficient of these three filters for inactivating S. aureus.


There are numerous reports of carbon dioxide fire extinguishers or significant loads of dry ice causing actual or potential carbon dioxide intoxication leading to accidents or incidents, both in the military and in the airlines. To evaluate the significance of the problem in general aviation, dry ice sublimation reported in literature and measured sublimation was theoretically applied to general aviation aircraft, and carbon dioxide from fire extinguishers was measured, both in static and flight condition. The results indicate that the use of carbon dioxide fire extinguishers or the transportation under some conditions of dry ice could produce levels which could cause severe anxiety due to respiratory stimulation or actually produce pilot impairment and contribute to or cause accidents. Language: en


The authors discuss bioethical problems appearing in usage of genetic tests as a technology of personalized medicine for prevention and early diagnosis of occupational diseases, and connected with question "Who has a right to know results of genetic test?". Analysis covered principles and legal norms, regulating human rights for security of health information, and causes of anxiety about workers' discrimination due to genetic test results. The authors necessitate differentiation between discrimination and reasonable restrictions favorable for workers in cases when work conditions can be a health hazard for person due to genetic predisposition.


In patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC), the presence or absence of regional lymph node metastases in the neck is the most striking determinant for both prognosis and treatment planning. Adequate determination of the nodal status in these patients is therefore crucial. Unfortunately, current diagnostic imaging modalities (i.e. magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and ultrasonography with fine-needle aspiration of suspicious nodes) lack sufficient sensitivity to detect small nodal metastases. As a result, a significant amount of about 30% of patients with small tumors unsuspected for lymph node metastasis, the so-called early OSCC (clinically T1-2N0), has occult nodal metastasis. Therefore, new diagnostic modalities are needed to improve the accuracy of determining the nodal status and pave the road for a more individualized treatment. In this thesis, molecular diagnostics on epigenetic, genetic and proteomic level were used to find prognostic biomarkers with could predict the presence or absence of these occult nodal metastasis in early OSCC. A well-known epigenetic event in carcinogenesis is promoter hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes (TSG), which could lead to the inability to transcribe the gene and subsequent expressional suppression of the TSG. Although no correlation between promoter hypermethylation and nodal metastases was found, patients with early OSCC with two or more hypermethylated genes had an improved (disease specific) survival. Besides epigenetic events, series of well-defined structural genetic changes play a major role in the carcinogenesis of OSCC, for example DNA mutations and copy number aberrations in both oncogenes and TSGs. In a pilot study, 1.977 genes were sequenced to find somatic mutations or mutational altered pathways which could trigger the primary tumor to metastasize. This so-called "cancer mini-genome" includes all up today known oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, all kinases and important pathways related to carcinogenesis and anti-cancer treatment. This gave a good insight in the mutational landscape of early OSCC. However, no correlation between the mutational landscape of the cancer mini-genome and nodal metastases was found. Copy number aberrations (CNA) of 36 genes were analyzed using in a consecutive cohort of 164 OSCC, including 144 clinically early OSCC, to investigate their value as prognostic biomarker for occult nodal metastasis. Gain of chromosomal region 11q13 (CTTN, FADD, CCND1 and FGF4) had the strongest correlation with occult LNM, with a negative predictive value of 81%. A literature review with meta-analysis confirmed the correlation between amplification of CCND1 and the presence of nodal metastasis in OSCC. However, evidence as biomarker for occult nodal metastasis in early OSCC was sparse. Therefore, the correlation of amplification of CCND1 as well as protein overexpression of its encoding protein Cyclin D1 was confirmed and validated in a multicenter study in early OSCC. This revealed Cyclin D1 overexpression as the best prognostic biomarker for occult lymph node metastasis in early floor of mouth OSCC.


Abstract Clinicians treating patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) use information and guidance from a wide array of sources ranging from laboratory experiments, clinical data, health services research, intuition, and personal experience. Each of these sources of information brings unique methodology and information, but each is inherently limited. Because ARDS is a syndrome (and not a disease), the clinician or scientist must take additional care when applying knowledge to individual patients among a group - as patients often do not have identical lung pathophysiology. Yet an overwhelming body of knowledge has accumulated in the field from multiple sources. In this Review we describe the nature of some of these sources as they relate to ARDS, and review examples of where they have succeeded (and sometimes failed) in shaping practice or advancing knowledge about ARDS.


ABSTRACT This article reflects on possible effects on income and earning capacity of creative workers of three measures that were recently introduced or that are being discussed to combat the vulnerability of non-standard working conditions in the cultural and creative sector in the Netherlands: the Balanced Labor Market Act, the Fair Practice Code for Culture, and a call for certain unified agreements, for instance in the form of minimum tariffs for self-employed workers. Each of these measures separately has its merits and the intention to improve working conditions. Therefore, the power lies in their joint introduction, which combines general legislation with a moral benchmark and subsector-specific solutions. However, in this combination several unintended consequences loom, such as the possible separation between professional and amateur creative workers, a higher threshold for talent to enter the sector, threats to artistic and aesthetic innovation, and the prioritization of fairness over equality.


ABSTRACT The Pentagon announced a third "offset" strategy in 2014, claiming that the United States faces threats from Russia, China, and elsewhere that require the development and deployment of cutting-edge technologies – robots, autonomous systems, and 3D printing, for example – to maintain US military superiority. The authors compare the new offset with earlier offsets that gave the United States a military advantage over the Soviet Union during the Cold War, even though the Soviets had massive conventional forces. This time around, though, the authors conclude that an offset is unnecessary to keep the United States in the lead, and that it is really just an excuse to increase defense spending.


Abstract : Empowerment of human resources in the company right will result in an increase thecompany's ability to obtain and retain the best people in the field. Utilization of human resourcesmanagement right can also motivate each individual to perform the work in accordance with companyobjectives. No matter how modern technology is used, or how much money it is prepared, but without ahuman resources professional it all becomes meaningless.This study aims to determine whether Transformational Leadership and OrganizationalCommitment to Achievement employees working at PT Bank Sulawesi (Central Office). This study used aquantitative approach. The main variable in this study is Transformational Leadership OrganizationalCommitment and Employee Job Performance.In this study population of 252 respondents PT. Bank of North Sulawesi with a sample of 45employees. From the results of the data obtained through questionnaires and calculated with SPSS 19using the multiple correlation analysis and multiple regression has obtained significant data. Afteranalyzing the correlation and regression methods were then tested with hypothesis testing, in this case thehypothesis testing using t-test testing. In testing the t test assumed in transformational leadershipvariable count T T able and accept H 1 when T count T table = 5.925> 1.682.The results of calculation between Transformational Leadership and Organizational CommitmentAgainst Employee Job Performance with regression analysis showed that the TransformationalLeadership and Organizational Commitment influential Against Employee Job Performance In NorthSulawesi PT Bank (Central Office).Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Organizational Commitment, Employee Job Performance


This work is focused on 'emerging model species', i.e. question-driven model species which have sufficient molecular resources to investigate a specific phenomenon in molecular biology, developmental biology, molecular ecology and evolution or related molecular fields. This thesis shows how transcriptomic data can be generated, analyzed, and used to investigate such phenomena of interest even in species lacking a reference genome. The initial ButterflyBase resource has proven to be useful to researchers of species without a reference genome but is limited to the Lepidoptera and supports only the older Sanger sequencing technologies. Thanks to Next Generation Sequencing, transcriptome sequencing is more cost effective but the bottleneck of transcriptomic projects is now the bioinformatic analysis and data mining/dissemination. Therefore, this work continues with presenting novel and innovative approaches which effectively overcome this bottleneck. The est2assembly software produces deeply annotated reference transcriptomes stored in the Chado database. The Drupal Bioinformatic Server Framework and genes4all provide species-neutral and an innovative approach in building standardized online databases and associated web services. All public insect mRNA data were analyzed with est2assembly and genes4all to produce the InsectaCentral. With InsectaCentral, a powerful resource is now available to assist molecular biology in any question-driven model insect species. The software presented here was developed according to specifications of the General Model Organism Database (GMOD) community. All software specifications are species-neutral and can be seamlessly deployed to assist any research community. Further through a case studies chapter, it becomes apparent that the transcriptomic approach is more cost-effective than a genomic approach and therefore sequence-driven evolutionary biology will benefit faster with this field.


INTRODUCTION
Quibdó, a municipality in Chocó, has poor public services and weather and social conditions that favor dengue transmission. However, there are few studies about this problem in this district.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the frequency of dengue infection in patients with acute febrile syndrome and to compare clinical features among dengue infected patients with other febrile diseases.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted from January, 2008, to March, 2010. The study population comprised patients with febrile syndrome of seven or fewer days of evolution, recruited from hospitals in the town. Dengue diagnosis was made in serum samples by detection of IgM antibodies, NS1 antigen, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and virus isolation. Clinical and laboratory information from the patients was obtained.

RESULTS
During the study period, 469 patients with acute febrile syndrome were recruited, of whom 98.3% were Afro-descendant. Dengue fever was found in 28.4% of the cases. Four dengue serotypes were identified with DENV-1 predominance. The ages ranged from zero to 76 years. From all patients, 70.7% of cases were classified as dengue without warning signs. Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, cough, nasal congestion and sore throat were significantly more frequent in patients with another febrile disease.

CONCLUSIONS
Active surveillance of the acute febrile syndrome allowed for the detection of undiagnosed cases of dengue; the observed frequency of this infection suggests that the study area has a high risk of dengue infection.


: In the absence of high vacuum, the mobility of ions in an electric field is dependent on the charge, mass, shape and size of the ions. To achieve accurate calibration for ion mobility measurements, it is important to select calibrants with comparable physical properties to the molecular ions of interest. The size of an ion is often referred as its collision cross section (CCS). Currently, the information on the CCS values of various types of molecular ions are limited, thus representing a challenge to the calibration of ion mobility spectrometry. In this study, instead of finding a way to improve the calibration of ion mobility measurements, the intrinsic by-products of the conventional matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) technique, namely MALDI matrix cluster (MAC) ions, are being used as internal references for ion mobility measurements. The standard MALDI matrix and sample preparation method are used. During the MALDI ionization process, MAC ions are generated and co-exist with the molecular ions of interest within the ion source. Our results indicate the MAC ions do possess suitable ion mobility characteristics, thus allowing the MAC ions to serve as internal reference for ion mobility measurements. The MAC ions cannot be used as internal standard or calibrants for ion mobility measurements, because their molecular structures as well as their CCS are unknown. However, the detection of MAC ions can allow us to determine whether the normal operation as well as the expected performance on the sensitivity and resolution of ion mobility spectrometry are achievable and reproducible. The MAC ions can also facilitate the transfer of specific experimental protocols between ion mobility instruments and/or laboratories. No extra materials, equipment or procedure are required for using MAC ions. For the proof of concept, all experimental work in this study was carried out on a traveling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry platform.


Pefloxacin has been in clinical use in France since 1985. During this period of time, the Rhone-Poulenc Drug Safety Department has received 213 spontaneous reports concerning patients who experienced a total of 316 adverse events. The level of such spontaneous reporting from physicians depends upon the frequency and the clinical significance of the events. Skin, musculoskeletal and CNS problems were the events most frequently reported. Thrombocytopenia was the most frequently reported laboratory abnormality, use of heparin being associated with this in many cases. From these data, pefloxacin in routine clinical use appears to be well tolerated. For the agent to be used in children in the future, its safety in this population should first be carefully investigated. At present it is contraindicated in children under 15 years of age.


Well-established and some little-known treatments of axial spondyloarthritis / ankylosing spondylitis (AS), which have appeared in recent years are discussed, also discussed are emerging trends for AS treatment.


Bottled raphia palm wine was cultured in a laboratory medium amended with 0.5% acetic acid (pH 4.8). Two cultures of identified heat resistant yeast (HRY) and one unidentified yeast species were isolated. Cultures of the isolates grown on potato dextrose agar for 10 days at 26°C, survived pasteurization temperature at 80°C for 20 min and 85°C for 15 min. Of these HRY identified were Byssochlamys nivea,Byssochlamys zollerniae and one unidentified yeast species. To determine the source of contamination, fresh un-pasteurized Raphia palm wine was cultured. Result revealed that, colonies of the three HRY were higher compared with the pasteurized Raphia palm wine. Frequencies of occurrence at 80°C, 85°C and in un-pasterurized raphia palm wine were B. nivea 15.2, 6.1 and 24.2%; B. zollerniae6.1, 3.0 and 12% and yeast species 9.1, 6.1 and 18.2% respectively. The thermal destruction time were B. nivea 90°C for 15 min, B. zollerniae 90°C for 5 min and yeast species 90°C for 10 min. The result indicates they are acid tolerant and thermophilic yeasts with B. nivea having the highest frequency of occurrence.

 Key words: Culture, pasteurization, spoilage, identification, thermophilic.


The genome of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae codes for two proteins with N-terminal dioxygenase (DOX) and C-terminal cytochrome P450 (CYP) domains, respectively. One of them, MGG_13239, was confirmed as 7,8-linoleate diol synthase by prokaryotic expression. The other recombinant protein (MGG_10859) possessed prominent 10R-DOX and epoxy alcohol synthase (EAS) activities. This enzyme, 10R-DOX-EAS, transformed 18:2n-6 sequentially to 10(R)-hydroperoxy-8(E),12(Z)-octadecadienoic acid (10R-HPODE) and to 12S(13R)-epoxy-10(R)-hydroxy-8(E)-octadecenoic acid as the end product. Oxygenation at C-10 occurred by retention of the pro-R hydrogen of C-8 of 18:2n-6, suggesting antarafacial hydrogen abstraction and oxygenation. Experiments with 18O2 and 16O2 gas confirmed that the epoxy alcohol was formed from 10R-HPODE, likely by heterolytic cleavage of the dioxygen bond with formation of P450 compound I, and subsequent intramolecular epoxidation of the 12(Z) double bond. Site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that the cysteinyl heme ligand of the P450 domain was required for the EAS activity. Replacement of Asn965 with Val in the conserved AsnGlnXaaGln sequence revealed that Asn965 supported formation of the epoxy alcohol. 10R-DOX-EAS is the first member of a novel subfamily of DOX-CYP fusion proteins of devastating plant pathogens.


The emission of propagating MHD waves from the boundaries of flow channels that are unstable to the Kelvin‐Helmholtz Instability (KHI) in magnetized plasma is investigated. The KHI and MHD wave emission are found to be two competing processes. It is shown that the fastest growing modes of the KHI surface waves do not coincide with efficient wave energy transport away from a velocity shear boundary. MHD wave emission is found to be inefficient when growth rates of KHI surface waves are maximum, which corresponds to the situation where the ambient magnetic field is perpendicular to the flow channel velocity vector. The efficiency of wave emission increases with increasing magnetic field tension, which in Earth's magnetosphere likely dominates along the nightside magnetopause tailward of the terminator, and within earthward Bursty Bulk Flows (BBFs) in the inner plasma sheet. MHD wave emission may also dominate in Supra‐Arcade Downflows (SADs) in the solar corona. Our results suggest that efficient emission of propagating MHD waves along BBF and SAD boundaries can potentially explain observations of deceleration and stopping of BBFs and SADs.


Control applications are often implemented on highly cost-sensitive and resource-constrained embedded platforms, such as microcontrollers with a small on-chip memory. Typically, control algorithms are designed using model-based approaches, where the details of the implementation platform are completely ignored. As a result, optimizations that integrate platform-level characteristics into the control algorithms design are largely missing. With the emergence of cyber-physical systems (CPS)-oriented thinking, there has lately been a strong interest in co-design of control algorithms and their implementation platforms, leading to work on networked control systems and computation-aware control algorithms design. However, there has so far been no work on integrating the characteristics of a memory architecture into the design of control algorithms. In this paper we, for the first time, show that accounting for the impact of on-chip memory (or cache) reuse on the performance of control applications motivates new techniques for control algorithms design. This leads to significant improvement in quality of control for given resource availability, or more efficient implementations of embedded control applications. We believe that this paper opens up a variety of possibilities for memory-related optimizations of embedded control systems, that will be pursued by researchers working on computer-aided design for CPS.


The resource based view has emerged as a significant theoretical perspective in terms of contribution to Strategic management literature. It now is trying to emerge as a perspective which is in a position to develop a theory of the firm. Yet, it faces a serious limitation of poor empirical support for its main postulates. The main reason being poor or an inherent difficulty of operationalisation of its main concepts of resources and Sustained competitive advantage. Reviews have suggested certain procedures to be followed for improved operationalisation. This paper takes a view that the key to proper operationalisation of RBV concepts lies in the proper understanding of the definitions of its key concepts. The key lies in defining the specificity of resources and their linkage to performance and therefore Sustained competitive advantage. It also means use of intervening outcome variables which show such a linkage while avoiding use of aggregate performance indicators. Based on a larger dissertation, this paper uses an iterative grounded approach to identify VRIN type resources which enabled units providing rural health care to consistently achieve programme objectives ahead of other similar units. These resources – identified as 'key resources' – were shown to be valuable because they enabled execution of multiple services in different programme activities and were essential for such an execution. They were Rare as the production of such resources was limited and they had no known substitutes except themselves and because of this were inimitable to a large extent. By identifying the logic for proper operationalisation and some key dimensions which enable identification of VRIN type resources, this paper solves a persistent and seemingly intractable issue faced by the Resource based view. In doing so it opens the path for further renaissance of this key perspective.