This thesis reports quasi steady state photoinduced absorption measurements from three conjugated polymers: polypyridine (PPy), polyfluorene (PFO) and the emeraldine base (EB) form of polyaniline. The aim of these experiments was to determine the nature of the photoexcited states existing in these materials in the millisecond time domain, as this has important consequences for the operation of real devices manufactured using these materials. The results from the photoinduced absorption experiments are closely compared with published results from pulse radiolysis experiments. In all cases there is very good correspondence between the two data sets, which has enabled the photoexcited states to be assigned with a high degree of confidence. Quasi steady-state photoinduced absorption involves the measurement of the change in absorption of a material in response to optical excitation with a laser beam. The changes in absorption are small, so a dedicated instrument was developed and optimised for each different sample. Lock-in techniques were used to recover the small signals from the samples. The samples involved were thin films of the polymer spin coated onto sapphire substrates in the cases of PPy and EB. Solution state experiments were conducted on EB. The experiments on PFO were conducted on aligned and unaligned thin films provided by Sony. In the case of the aligned PFO samples, the photoinduced absorption spectrometer was modified to enable polarisation-sensitive data collection. In PPy, both triplet excitons and polarons have been shown to be long-lived photoexcitations, with photoinduced absorption features at 2.29 eV (triplet excitontransition), 1.5 eV and 0.8 eV (polaron transitions). In PFO, the one observed photoinduced band at 1.52 eV is assigned to a triplet exciton. Two photoinduced absorption bands are observed in EB, at 1.4 eV and 0.8 eV. These are assigned to aself-trapped CT singlet exciton and triplet exciton, respectively.


Control of protofilament number has been investigated using Drosophila wings at a stage when 15-protofilament microtubules assemble under normal conditions. Microtubule nucleation still progressed at the usual microtubule-nucleating sites in the presence of taxol. However, provided taxol was introduced before microtubule nucleation began, few microtubules with 15 protofilaments assembled. Most microtubules were composed of 12 protofilaments (a previously undetected value for Drosophila) or 13 protofilaments (which is the value for microtubules in most eukaryotic cells). Unexpectedly, a comparatively mild challenge to control of nucleation (in vitro wing culture) also promoted assembly of 13-protofilament microtubules. Hence, the microtubule-nucleating sites may possess a relatively labile control specifying 15 protofilaments superimposed upon that for maintaining 13-protofilament fidelity.


Vowel lengthening is a process that is designed in relation to Sistani dialect vowels. In this dialect, the vowels can be lengthened under some certain conditions. With a little care in gathered information, this point is specified that the structural description is different for lengthening of long and short vowels. The short vowels aren't lengthened naturally. It only occurs when we have omission of a consonant in a word (compensatory lengthening). For example, it can be referred to deletion of (glottal) consonant and compensatory lengthening of preceding vowel. But the long vowels work differently which is discussed in this paper and this dialect, vowel lengthening cannot work meaningfully. In fact, in this dialect, all the vowel lengthening is environmental. That is, it will be produced as a result of elision of consonant (compensatory lengthening) or because of syllable structure.


This special issue advances our understanding and exploitation of evaluation methods. It continues to move studies from methods to evaluators and their customers. Thoughtful studies show when and why methods have specific impacts, supporting a focus on ways to better target method use. It is also the case that a focus on how evaluation customers use usability results reveals the fit between methods and customers. However, evaluation and its influence on redesign is not solely a matter of evaluators and designers or developers. Evaluation and redesign are activities within broader system development contexts. Improvements need commitment and support from management. Organizational fervor for user-centered design is key to effective evaluation. Without management support, usability evaluation cannot be well planned, properly conducted, or effectively exploited, leaving usability specialists to just play with the interplay between design and evaluation. This article reviews contributions in this special issue, noting where they address specific factors in the interplay between design and evaluation and identifying factors that require more attention in future research.


D-Aminoacid oxidase (DAO) was isolated from fresh porcine kidney; its cytotoxic potential was studied under in vitro and in vivo conditions. The isolated DAO was complexed with Fe2O3 nanoparticles and its potential as an oxidation therapeutic agent was analysed. The ability of the complex in eliciting H2O2 mediated cytotoxicity was studied on Dalton's lymphoma ascites cells (DLA). The induction of apoptosis in DLA cells by Fe2O3-DAO complex was studied by morphological examination and alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay). The antitumor activity of the complex was investigated by oral administration of the complex and the substrate D-alanine to tumor bearing Swiss albino mice and by targeting the complex to the tumor site, using an externally applied magnetic field. Fe2O3-DAO along with D-alanine showed remarkable cytotoxicity in a substrate concentration-dependent manner. Both morphological examination and comet assay revealed that Fe2O3-DAO/D-alanine induced apoptosis. Oral administration of Fe2O3-DAO and D-alanine along with magnetic targeting significantly suppressed tumor growth in mice. The present report provides the first evidence for the promising application of enzyme bound nanoparticles for targeted oxidation therapy.


Abstract Aims Therapy with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is established for the prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in high risk patients. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of primary prevention ICD therapy by analysing registry data from 14 centres in 11 European countries compiled between 2002 and 2014, with emphasis on outcomes in women who have been underrepresented in all trials. Methods and results Retrospective data of 14 local registries of primary prevention ICD implantations between 2002 and 2014 were compiled in a central database. Predefined primary outcome measures were overall mortality and first appropriate and first inappropriate shocks. A multivariable model enforcing a common hazard ratio for sex category across the centres, but allowing for centre-specific baseline hazards and centre specific effects of other covariates, was adjusted for age, the presence of ischaemic cardiomyopathy or a CRT-D, and left ventricular ejection fraction ≤25%. Of the 5033 patients, 957 (19%) were women. During a median follow-up of 33 months (IQR 16–55 months) 129 women (13%) and 807 men (20%) died (HR 0.65; 95% CI: [0.53, 0.79], P-value < 0.0001). An appropriate ICD shock occurred in 66 women (8%) and 514 men (14%; HR 0.61; 95% CI: 0.47–0.79; P = 0.0002). Conclusion Our retrospective analysis of 14 local registries in 11 European countries demonstrates that fewer women than men undergo ICD implantation for primary prevention. After multivariate adjustment, women have a significantly lower mortality and receive fewer appropriate ICD shocks.


Induction heating (IH) technology is nowadays widely present in domestic appliances because of its cleanness, high effi-ciency, and faster heating process. All of these advantages are due to its heating process, where the pot is directly heated by the in-duced currents generated with a varying magnetic field. As a result, the glass where the pot is supported is not directly heated and, con-sequently, efficiency and heating times are improved. IH systems are based on dc-link inverters to generate the required alternating current to feed the inductor. Usually, resonant converters are used to achieve higher efficiencies and power densities. In such systems, the maximum output power and efficiency are achieved at the reso-nant frequency, and the switching frequency is increased to reduce the output power. As a consequence, in these converters, the effi-ciency is also reduced in the low-medium output power range. This paper proposes the use of the full bridge inverter to achieve high efficiency in high output power range and also half-bridge inverter in two operating modes to achieve higher efficiency in a wide output power range. The power converter topology can be reconfigured by changing the resonant capacitors through electromechanical relays. As a conse-quence, the entire efficiency of the cooking process is improved with a cost-effective procedure.


The prerequisite condition for maintaining dropwise condensation on a surface is that the condensing surface should have a low surface energy. In the present paper, two different techniques were employed to achieve steam dropwise condensation over a vertical copper tube at atmospheric pressure: one is self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), and the other is electroless composite plating. The use of SAMs of docosanoic acid promotes dropwise condensation. The electroless Ni–P–PTFE coatings also achieve excellent dropwise condensation. Compared with film condensation, the condensation heat transfer coefficient can be enhanced by more than one order of the magnitude on these coated surfaces. The electroless composite coating surface of high PTFE content has a higher condensation heat transfer coefficient than that of low PTFE content. The SAM surface of docosanoic acid has the lowest surface energy which leads to the lowest thermal resistance of liquid condensate, and a negligible thickness of 30 A with a negligible additional heat transfer resistance, thus it has better heat transfer characteristics than those of the Ni–P–PTFE surfaces.


Background and Aim: Investigation of seasonal suicide might help in learning about the etiology of suicide committers' behavior. Literature search indicates that a large number of preliminary studies have been carried out on this subject, in many of which seasonal and climatological aspects of suicide have been investigated. In the present study, the seasonal and time pattern of suicide incidence in Iran was determined based a systematic review. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Search was performed in the national databases, namely, SID, Iranmedex, Magiran and Medlib, as well as international databases such as PubMed, Scopus and Google scholar, using such keywords as Iran/Iranian, seasonality and suicide. The technical quality of papers was assessed using checklists. Data of each of the preliminary studies were extracted in terms of general variables and such specific variables as season, month, hour, weekdays and climatic conditions. RESULTS: Of a total number of 49,522 documents obtained from a primary electronic search, eventually 32 papers were included in this study. The highest numbers of suicides committed were 7 and 8 in summer and spring, respectively. Similarly, among the primary studies that had reported only the monthly occurrence of suicide, the highest rate in 7 cases was spring and 7 in summer. In most of the studies (8 cases) the highest number of suicides had taken place between 1:00 and 6:00 PM. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that suicide occurrence in Iran has a seasonal pattern, most cases committed being in spring and summer. Language: en


This paper discusses the state of the art in CBR ontologies from the perspective of one developing an improved system for case-based legal reasoning. The paper proposes three specific roles for a CBR ontology and illustrates them in the context of the intended output of the new system: a legal classroom discussion of how to decide a case featuring hypothetical reasoning and abstract analogies. The paper distills the ontological requirements for modeling the example's case-based arguments and assesses whether current research can meet those requirements. The concrete example helps to focus on and define goals for improving CBR ontologies.


In this paper we explore the design space of tails intended for self-righting a robot's body during free fall. Conservation of total angular momentum imposes a dimensionless index of rotational efficacy upon the robot's kinematic and dynamical parameters whose selection insures that for a given tail rotation, the body rotation will be identical at any size scale. In contrast, the duration of such a body reorientation depends upon the acceleration of the tail relative to the body, and power density of the tail's actuator must increase with size in order to achieve the same maneuver in the same relative time. Assuming a simple controller and power-limited actuator, we consider maneuverability constraints upon two different types of parameters — morphological and energetic — that can be used for design. We show how these constraints inform contrasting tail design on two robots separated by a four-fold length scale, the 177g Tailbot and the 8.1kg X-RHex Lite (XRL). We compare previously published empirical self-righting behavior of the Tailbot with new, tailed XRL experiments wherein we drop it nose first from a 2.7 body length height and also deliberately run it off an elevated cliff to land safely on its springy legs in both cases.


ThePinuskoraiensis seed oil extracted by supercritical CO2showed antioxidation activity. It also had reducing power caused by unsaturated fatty acids. Proteome analysis proved that Pinuskoraiensis seed oil promoted proteome synthesis related to skin anti-aging in human dermal fibroblasts. Itincreased the expression of collagen synthesis-related proteins in human dermal fibroblast. It also increased the expression level of anti-oxidant enzyme catalase 3.2 times.


Descriptive document clustering aims at discovering clusters of semantically interrelated documents together with meaningful labels to summarize the content of each document cluster. In this work, we propose a novel descriptive clustering framework, referred to as CEDL. It relies on the formulation and generation of 2 types of heterogeneous objects, which correspond to documents and candidate phrases, using multilevel similarity information. CEDL is composed of 5 main processing stages. First, it simultaneously maps the documents and candidate phrases into a common co‐embedded space that preserves higher‐order, neighbor‐based proximities between the combined sets of documents and phrases. Then, it discovers an approximate cluster structure of documents in the common space. The third stage extracts promising topic phrases by constructing a discriminant model where documents along with their cluster memberships are used as training instances. Subsequently, the final cluster labels are selected from the topic phrases using a ranking scheme using multiple scores based on the extracted co‐embedding information and the discriminant output. The final stage polishes the initial clusters to reduce noise and accommodate the multitopic nature of documents. The effectiveness and competitiveness of CEDL is demonstrated qualitatively and quantitatively with experiments using document databases from different application fields.


We hereby present a novel approach for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using water soluble, naturally-derived flavonoids. Quercetin pentaphosphate (QPP), quercetin sulfonic acid (QSA) and apigenin triphosphate (ATRP) were utilized as reducing agents and stabilizers for the gold nanoparticle synthesis. Synthesis was achieved at room temperature using water as a solvent and it requires no capping agents. The AuNPs were characterized using UV-vis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive absorption spectroscopy (EDS), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The resulting AuNPs were spherical, triangular, cubicle, hexagonal and rectangular in shape. The average particle sizes of 4.85 nm, 9.56 nm and 13.54 nm were obtained for the nanoparticles derived from QPP, ATRP and QSA respectively. The surface plasmon resonance peak of the AuNPs derived from QSA, ATRP and QPP was observed at 541 nm, 544 nm and 547 nm respectively. The AuNPs exhibited excellent antibacterial activities of 99.9%, 100% and 99.9% growth inhibition for Escherichia coli ATCC® 25922™, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC® 12228™ and Citrobacter freundii ATCC® 8090 at 104 cfu inoculations. The AuNPs were observed to retain stability after 150 days compared to those reported using conventional approaches of 30 days. This work also provides insights into the mechanism of flavonoid-based nanoparticle synthesis while eliminating the use of hazardous and toxic organic solvents and adopting the use of water as a solvent.


The application of Radio-Over-Fiber (ROF) links are widely used in wireless communications. However, due to the nonlinear characteristics of the link distortion will be introduced as the output of the link. As a result, unwanted frequencies and signals end up being delivered by an antenna. In the thesis, a technique of adaptive digital predistortion is presented. This complex gain predistortion technique requires that no detailed knowledge of the link characteristics and supports tracking of the modifications and drifts in the link characteristic. A prototype of this predistortion system is designed and implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Experiment results show that amplitude and phase nonlinearity of the ROF link are compensated with the system. The experiments demonstrated that this system show promising results and that good compensation of distortion is achieved.


The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne, Australia, is perhaps best known to Blake scholars for its magnificent suite of watercolors illustrating Dante's Divine Comedy, which was purchased from the John Linnell sale at Christie's in London in 1918. The NGV also holds a composite group of fourteen wood engravings that Blake designed and engraved for Dr. Robert Thornton's Pastorals of Virgil, which were purchased in London in 1959 and are believed to have formed part of Linnell's collection as well. At first glance, these wood engravings are underwhelming; four are quite poor impressions, and one is a unique hybrid between a print and an ink wash drawing. Nevertheless, extensive technical examination undertaken by the NGV's paper conservation studio has revealed a range of printing imperfections, attributable to material choice and studio practices, which provide a tangible commentary on the complex history of Blake's Virgil woodblocks and the various artists who printed from them.


The past decade has been marked by extensive change in the organization of health care delivery systems (the "supply side" of health care). There has been relatively less change in the nature of the health care consumer (the "demand side" of health care). The emergence of the Internet as a consumer health care technology, however, should significantly affect the nature of demand. The Internet will prepare health care consumers to better express and evaluate care against their preferences. This will create additional pressure on--but significant positive opportunity for--ambulatory care and ambulatory care providers.


A dynamic, age-structured population model was developed to investigate the potential effects of introducing a closed area to a fishery for a species with limited adult mobility and planktonic dispersal of larvae, using biological and fishery information from a Norway lobster fishery in eastern Scotland. Simulated closure of part of the fishing grounds led to a long-term increase in total biomass and recruitment to the fished zone, but the larval subsidy did not compensate for the loss of fishing ground, and fishery yield was reduced under all modelled combinations of closed-area size and prior fishing effort. Concentration of effort in the fished zone and increased recruitment there led to reduced average size, and therefore value, of animals in the catch, as well as increased destruction of biomass by discarding undersized lobsters. Implementation of a closed area also led to oscillations in stock biomass, recruitment, and yield over several years after the closure, particularly with large closed areas and high fishing effort.


An adhoc network is a collection of mobile nodes connected by a wireless link, where each node acts as a router. In order to facilitate the communication within the network, a routing protocol is needed. Due to bandwidth constraint and dynamic topology of the mobile adhoc Networks supporting Quality of Service (QoS) is challenging ta sk. To have proper traffic management in mobile adhoc Networks, we should be able to effectively determine the available resources at our disposal. Therefore a Quality of service framework for mobile adhoc Networks should be equipped with reliable bandwidth estimation method. In this paper we have propose a two bandwidth estimation technique to calculate the available bandwidth. It uses twotechniques such as busy method and hello method. OLSR protocol is taken and the performance is analyzed based upon delay and throughput. The standard protocol OLSR is compared with modified OLSR protocol and it is found that the modified protocol due to two bandwidth estimation technique gives better performance than standard protocol.


This report presents the results of an investigation to study the effect of water vapor upon the spatial speed of flame in equivalent mixtures of carbon monoxide and oxygen at various total pressures from 100 to 780 mm.hg. These results show that, within this pressure range, an increase in flame speed is produced by increasing the mole fraction of water vapor at least as far as saturation at 25 degrees c., and that the rate of this increase is greater the higher the pressure. It is evident that water vapor plays an important part in the explosive oxidation of carbon monoxide; the need for further experimental evidence as to the nature of its action is indicated.


To assess the role of cAMP on the growth and proliferation of Toxoplasma in HL-60 cells we tested the effect of exogenous cAMP and cAMP analogues to the co-culture system of Toxoplasma and HL-60 cells. cAMP, dbcAMP, and br-cAMP stimulated the growth of Toxoplasma at a specific concentration, i.e., 10(0) mM, 10(0) mM, and 10(-1) mM, respectively. There were differences in growth induction kinetics and in the rate of promotion. These results were further verified by treating the co-culture with adenylate cyclase activator, pNHppG, cAMP phosphodiesterase activators, imidazole and A23187, and cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibitors, IBMX, compound 48/80, and theophylline, separately. When the cytosolic cAMP levels increased by the reagents mentioned above, Toxoplasma in the cytoplasm of HL-60 cells stimulated to proliferate more rapidly with concentration-dependent modes compared to the control, and vice versa. It is suggested that some mechanisms are activated by the high levels of cAMP in the cytoplasm, which result in the stimulation of Toxoplasma proliferation.


Indonesia's transport system was formed largely based on the economic resource base of the archipelago, which consists of more than 17,800 Islands, on which the country is located. The Indonesian Central government's spending on transport has increased significantly in recent years. This allowed the country to expand its transport network and improve access to remote areas of the archipelago. Maritime navigation provides a link between different parts of the country. On some Islands, where there are no good roads, the main transport connection is via large rivers. The most important direction of the country's transport policy is the development of high-speed cargo and passenger sea connections with the most remote and inaccessible regions of the country, primarily with the Eastern part of Indonesia. A variety of vehicles are used on the roads of Indonesia. Bus routes are laid in all areas that have access to the road network. Since 2004, the TransJakarta rapid bus system has been operating in the country. Most of Indonesia's Railways are located in Java and are used for both passenger and freight transport. In March 2019, the Jakarta metro started operating. Indonesia's air transport is the most important means of communication between thousands of Islands throughout the archipelago and other countries. Many residents of the country have switched from land and sea transport to faster and more comfortable air transportation. Indonesia, like other countries, was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Further development of transport depends on how quickly the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and how effectively the authorities deal with its consequences.


The neurocognitive basis of memory retrieval is often examined by investigating brain potential old/new effects, which are differences in brain activity between successfully remembered repeated stimuli and correctly rejected new stimuli in a recognition test. In this study, we combined analyses of old/new effects for words with an item-method directed-forgetting manipulation in order to isolate differences between the retrieval processes elicited by words that participants were initially instructed to commit to memory and those that participants were initially instructed to forget. We compared old/new effects elicited by to-be-forgotten (TBF) words with those elicited by to-be-remembered (TBR) words in both an explicit-memory test (a recognition test) and an implicit-memory test (a lexical-decision test). Behavioral results showed clear directed forgetting effects in the recognition test, but not in the lexical decision test. Mirroring the behavioral findings, analyses of brain potentials showed evidence of directed forgetting only in the recognition test. In this test, potentials from 450–650 ms (P600 old/new effects) were more positive for TBR relative to TBF words. By contrast, P600 effects evident during the lexical-decision test did not differ in magnitude between TBR and TBF items. When taken in the context of prior studies that have linked similar parietal old/new effects to the recollection of episodic information, these data suggest that directed-forgetting effects manifest primarily in greater episodic retrieval by TBR than TBF items, and that retrieval intention may be important for these directed-forgetting effects to occur.


In general this thesis is a survey of the teaching of Physical Education in the schools of Western Kansas, together with recommendations and suggestions for its improvement as the data warrants. The specific purposes of the study are these: first, to discover the extent to which Physical Education is offered in the schools of Western Kansas; second, to ascertain the personal and professional qualifications of the Physical Education directors; third, to determine the amount of Physical Education work required of each student in order to complete a high school course; fourth, to discover if room, equipment, and supplies are furnished by the school authorities in order to carry on the work; fifth, to discover what percent of the student body in these schools receive direct benefit from courses offered in Physical Education; and sixth, to determine a standard of achievement for students of Physical Education.


ABSTRACT Bioassays were conducted to determine the susceptibility of egg masses and young larvae of two pine processionary moth species, Thaumetopoea pityocampa and Thaumetopoea wilkinsoni, to two strains (ARSEF4556, V275) of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum. Mortality of treated eggs by both strains ranged from 96% to 99% but not all of this was caused by M. brunneum since control groups also experienced egg mortality due to saprophytic fungi. Still, larvae hatched in the laboratory from eggs treated with M. brunneum were all killed by this fungus, acquiring M. brunneum conidia, whereas larval mortality was 0% in the control groups. Young larvae of both pine processionary moth species were also highly susceptible to ARSEF4556 and V275 with larval mortality ranging between 94% and 100%, 8 days post-inoculation, with the vast majority of larvae being killed within the first 2–4 days. Larval mortality was dose dependent. Results were consistent across the two pine processionary moth species, showing that the pathogenicity of M. brunneum to both eggs and young larvae might be promising for biological control of these insect pests. The study also showed that non-target parasitoids of pine processionary moth eggs were also susceptible to M. brunneum. Further work is required to understand and reduce the M. brunneum effect on non-target insects.


Both academic and policy documents indicate that poor school management and decision-making at local level are major challenges in creating equitable access to good-quality education in Ethiopia. In principle, educational provision can be improved through better management practices, transparency in the use of resources and accountability to all stakeholders (community, parents, students, teachers, etc.). This study focuses on school management and decision-making in government schools and is based on the qualitative data collected in 2010 as part of the Young Lives school survey. The paper examines the extent to which the involvement of different stakeholders in schools (teachers, headteachers, parents, students, local government administration, etc.) impacts upon critical decision-making at school level. The paper uses qualitative data collected as part of the recent Young Lives school-based research from five of the 20 sentinel sites. Specifically it uses data collected through in-depth interviews with teachers and headteachers. It is only in recent years that the Ethiopian Government has paid attention to the importance of school management and school-level decision-making. Research in the area of school management is almost nonexistent in Ethiopia. However, various reports and policy documents prepared by the Federal Ministry of Education clearly indicate the extent to which the Government has been focusing on improving school management in recent years (MOE 2005; MOE 2010a). The paper examines how headteachers and teachers contribute to the strengthening of the day-to-day management and supervision of schools attended by Young Lives case study children.


This study concerns the creative use of MS Excel in teaching and learning chemistry in Malaysian secondary schools and universities. It is used to explain, explore and understand chemical concepts. Topics such as chemical kinetics, gas compressibility, distribution of molecular speed, period three elements, qualitative analysis, spectroscopy and chemical equilibrium were chosen from Form Six and first/second year university syllabus as examples. For the "qualitative analysis" workbook, a set of videos showing the reactions described are also provided to give the 'intuitive feel' of the experiments described in the worksheets.
Simple functions in Excel such as 'Active X' control tool box, simple macro, chart wizard, hyperlink function and some built in mathematical functions were used extensively in creating the workbooks. These workbooks have provided a stimulative and interesting methodology in learning chemistry. It could offer great benefits to teachers and students in teaching and learning of the said topics.
The chemical kinetics workbooks were tried out in secondary schools and the spectroscopy workbook was brought to local universities as field studies. Opinion survey of 612 students from 12 different secondary schools from three states in Malaysia and 68 undergraduate students from various local universities indicated that students were very satisfied with the use of Excel in teaching and learning of chemistry. Data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics to examine the perception of the respondents and inferential statistics were used to observe the difference in perception between gender and races. The results of the field study showed that most students (>93%) felt that MS Excel program provides a very convenient way for handling experimental kinetic data. It has increased students' appreciation of chemical kinetics and helped develop their computer skills. The activities provided have exposed students to alternative and more innovative ways of learning chemical kinetics. There is significant difference (p=0.038) in perception between male and female students but no significant difference (p=0.820) in perception among different races. All 24 teachers from 12 schools surveyed also gave very positive comments about this approach. More than 95.0% of the teachers involved in this study found that the MS Excel program is very stimulative and motivated students' interest in chemistry lessons. They believed that by using this program, thinking process of the students could be further stimulated and improved.
Undergraduate students also showed very positive perception towards the spectroscopy workbook. Most (>80%) students agreed that the spectroscopy workbook could help them in learning spectroscopy. However, there is no significant difference (p=0.560) between different gender in their perceptions.
This study illustrates how teachers/lecturers can make use of Excel in creating effective and interactive educational environment for teaching and learning chemistry. Workbooks could be created by merely using standard MS Excel program. Simple functions and macros were used to run the task of some buttons created without employing difficult programming or add-ins. With elementary knowledge of Excel, a chemistry teacher would be able to create effective and entertaining teaching aids by using this widely available spreadsheet package in school/university for the benefit of the students.


NX Benefits • More productive product development • Better product quality, faster development, lower costs • More informed decision making • Faster, more efficient modeling • Better compliance with standards and product requirements • Up to 70 percent reduction in simulation modeling and solution time • More analysis solutions for optimization and multi-physics • More productive NC program ming for machinery parts • Faster, more efficient tooling design Summary The NX 8 product development solution from Siemens PLM Software delivers new capabilities and more powerful tools for design, simulation and manufacturing. The latest release builds on Siemens' high-definition PLM technology framework to provide more visual information and analytics that improve collaboration and decision-making. Customer-driven enhancements for CAD modeling, validation, drafting, simulation/CAE, tooling design and machining boost productivity throughout product development to help companies deliver higher quality products faster and at lower costs. High-definition 3D NX 8 includes many extensions of high-definition PLM technologies for product development. The high-definition 3D (HD3D) environment and visual reporting and analytics tools in NX have been expanded to enable rich visual interaction and information delivery for validation, product templates and other applications. HD3D Visual Reporting in NX 8 expands the number and scope of predefined, out-of-the-box reports, providing more information about on-time/late status and other design and project properties. You can also create multi-dimensional reports that include more than one top-level report property, enabling you to color code objects by one property and display visual tags for other properties for richer visual feedback – for example, color code parts by tooling status while displaying tags on the parts for completion schedule. You can switch among the top-level report properties in order to group and sort reported data in different ways. Predefined reports from Teamcenter 9 Report Builder convey information on parts affected by change orders, change requests or problem reports;


Due to prevalence and impairs, intimate-partner-violence (IPV) against women is considered as a problem of high public relevance. IPV causes serious health, social and economic consequences for victims themselves as well as for the whole society. By now a network of advocacy, counselling and shelters is established in Germany informing and supporting victims of IPV. Although the support possibilities are well known, a mere part of women seek help. Research Questions To explore the circumstances which lead women to search actively for support, defined as addressing oneself to the health sector, the police or the counselling/advocacy, the study will be guided by the question: Which factors have an increasing or decreasing influence on victims behaviour: high personal or social resources, demographic factors, by violence affected children, lack of knowledge about support, a history of abuse (multiple violation) and substance abuse? Material and Methods Data of the representative survey Health, Well-Being and Personal Safety of Women in Germany (2004), which includes interviews of more than 10.000 randomly sampled women, aged 16 to 85, will be analysed. Secondary data analysis focuses on victims help-seeking-behaviour. The constructs demographics, personal sources, social resources, health status and violence history will be examined in a regression and variance model to determine their influence on the outcome variable active help-seeking. Using a SEM, possible pathways between the constructs and their influence on the behaviour of victims will be described. Study design and first findings will be presented.


A vaccine consisting of purified Escherichia coli-expressed recombinant full-length outer surface proteins A (OspA) and B (OspB) and the saponin adjuvant QS21 was evaluated for protection against Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Eleven beagles were vaccinated twice and then challenged with 10 field-collected adult female Ixodes scapularis. Xenodiagnosis revealed that all 11 nonvaccinated control dogs and 2 of 10 vaccinated dogs were infected with B. burgdorferi. Six of 11 control dogs also developed fever (0.75 +/- 0.38 degrees C) and were lethargic. One of the control dogs also developed a limp. Both of the infected vaccinated dogs were asymptomatic. Thus, the vaccine prevented tick-vectored infection and associated symptoms of Lyme disease.


Structural Health Control (SHC) is a holistic and comprehensive process that integrates structural analysis, structural health monitoring (SHM), damage assessment, damage prognosis and condition based maintenance (CBM). Main idea of this concept is to use the information of a structural analysis to identify structural parameters as damage indicators. By means of the structural parameters the sensor layout of the SHM system is designed and optimized, which is called Smart SHM. By means of numerical simulations the effect of damages on the post-buckling behavior of a thin plate under compressive loading and its failure modes is analyzed. Appropriate structural parameters are identified to display the post-buckling behavior and the damage effects. These structural parameters are monitored with strain gauges to diagnose damage. The corresponding sensor layout is designed and optimized to measure the structural parameters in a robust and reliable way. This procedure constitutes the Smart SHM system. The subsequent evaluation of the structural parameters, which are monitored during service, diagnoses the damage. The functionality of the Smart SHM system in the context of the SHC concept is verified in tests of a thin aluminum plate.


Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, which will disproportionately affect the continent's small-scale and subsistence farmers. It is thus vital to strengthen institutions to promote alternative agricultural practices and new farming methods. The 2014 AU Strategy on Climate Change views institutional reforms and improved socio-economic development as being crucial in upgrading climate resilience efforts in the agricultural sector. In Tanzania there are numerous impediments to enhancing climate resilience, including the lack of a national climate change policy, limited private sector involvement, inadequate integration of climate change issues into existing sectoral policies, a dearth of linkages between national and sub-national institutions, poor policy implementation, and poor collaboration on climate change resilience efforts. It is necessary to review and assess organisational and institutional arrangements to strengthen the responsiveness of Tanzanian institutions to climate change.


The aim of this study was to investigate plaque formation on natural tooth surfaces by a replica technique, which offers investigation of oral hard tissue surfaces by scanning electron microscopy. This method is recommended in cases where direct investigation is impossible such as when non- extracted teeth are investigated or when extracted teeth are expected to be influenced by the dehydration and drying process. The representative photographs demonstrate the accumulation of plaque in two days.


Imaging methods that visualize the structure and function of the living body are widely used in patient care and biomedical research, but their full potential has not yet been applied to the study and treatment of the severe illnesses caused by pathogens of biodefense concern. "Conventional" imaging techniques (e.g., radiography, computed tomography, ultrasound, or magnetic resonance imaging) delineate anatomic changes in tissues, whereas "molecular" methods employ magnetic resonance, positron emission tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, or optical (fluorescence or bioluminescence) imaging to detect biochemical reactions that accompany pathogen replication or host responses. We review the basic principles of these methods, describe the diseases caused by 6 pathogens classified as category A or B bioterror agents (anthrax, plague, tularemia, filoviral hemorrhagic fever, smallpox, and aerosolized equine encephalitis virus infection), and discuss how imaging could be used to study their pathogenesis in laboratory animals and to diagnose and monitor infection in humans.


Y-chromosome STR markers are not widely used in forensic case work in South Africa. To begin assessing the forensic value of these markers in South Africa, samples were collected from 100 English-speaking Caucasian males and 99 Xhosa males, living in the Cape Town metropolitan area. Allele and haplotype frequencies were determined for nine Y-chromosome STR loci (DYS19, DYS389-I, DYS389-II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, and the duplicated locus DYS385). Unique haplotypes were obtained for 47 Xhosa males and 66 Caucasians. # 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.


The military is at a crossroads in the development of its capabilities for battlespace simulation. The coming computing and networking capabilities can provide simulation environments with hitherto unachievable realism and complexity. However, the cost of software development and the current approach to assembling software and simulation systems may derail this capability. In our view, the development of the next generation of military simulation environments must be undertaken to accommodate unpredictable changes in the defining software. Fortunately, there are a number of recent but currently unexploited technological developments that can improve simulation systems. These technologies can enable simulation system development to be more efficient, less expensive, more interoperable, more maintainable, more modifiable, and more responsive to customer needs. The Dynamic Adaptive Threat Environment (DATE) system software architecture is our approach toward addressing the future needs of military simulation environments. In this paper we describe the architecture of the Dynamic Adaptive Threat Environment (DATE). DATE supports the development and deployment of different types of computer-generated actors (CGAs) in large-scale Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) and High Level Architecture (HLA) based simulation environments. To address issues in software architecture and rapid prototyping, the architecture exploits the technical advantages provided by object-oriented techniques, component software, software frameworks, migration assistants, and containerization to enable composability, flexibility, re-usability, and generality.


With the two leaders of Japan and South Korea having failed to hold an official meeting between them since coming to office, historical issues remain a thorn in the the betterment of Japanese-South Korean relations. There continue to be anti- Korean ultra-nationalist protests in Japan while lingering grievances remain in South Korea. Gestures of goodwill as well as statesmanship are needed on both sides to lessen tensions and put their historical issues behind them. [ISDP Policy review No. 139].


In this paper, we report the characteristics of GaN heteroepitaxial films grown on Si(111)at 700oC using plasma-assisted metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (PA-MOCVD). In this growth technique, H2 plasma was used in addition to N2 plasma. Two sets of samples with different buffer layers were used, i.e. GaN and AlN buffer layers. In the infrared region both samples exhibit similar reststrahlen band shape. However the sample with GaN buffer layer exhibits better optical properties in the visible region compared with its counterpart. This is attributed to its better structural bulk and surface properties.


Deicing fluids are used to remove and prevent ice formation on aircraft before takeoff. These fluids are essentially composed of water, a freeze point depressant (FPD) usually glycol, a surfactant or wetting agent and a corrosion inhibitor. All commercial fluids are qualified to SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) specifications, which test for aerodynamic acceptance, anti-icing endurance, corrosion inhibition, material compatibility, fluid stability and environment. However, these tests have been built around a fluid with a glycol FPD. More recently, with environmental pressure, fluids with other FPDs have been developed and qualified. The other FPDs include: acetates and formate salts, sorbitol, and other undisclosed FPDs. The acetates and formates, which came out in the early 1990s led to suspected corrosion problems. This led to the additional requirement for corrosion tests for non-glycol deicing fluids in paragraph 3.1.1 of AMS1424. This is essentially only a relevant for such a salt based non-glycol fluid. Next, came a sorbitol, or sugar, based fluid in the early 2000s. As with the formate and acetate salts, it passed all the required tests of AMS1424 including the additional corrosion test. But then in field tests, where the fluid was heated as per usual use, there were problems with foam, sticky and slippery residues. All standard specification laboratory tests are conducted on cold fluids, since this is the worst case for glycol-based fluids, where they are most viscous. However, other FPDs may have the fluid increase in viscosity with heating and evaporation. Following the failed field tests, tests were conducted in the laboratory which showed that when the fluid was heated to high levels of evaporation, the aerodynamic acceptance test was not met and with further evaporation, the fluid solidified. This does not occur with glycol-based fluids since glycol is a liquid. Furthermore, in the lab, mold developed on some exposed fluid left out in a Petri dish. The FAA has since removed this fluid from their list of qualified fluids in the official FAA Holdover Time Tables [1]. More recently, there have been newer fluids that are non-glycol-based, or have another FPD along with the glycol (low-glycol). These fluids all are qualified at least for aerodynamic performance and anti-icing endurance and two are on the current FAA list of qualified fluids. However, the specification has no tests to address stickiness, solidification or tendency for mold to form. For the foam, a test was added to the specification since this issue was arising equally with glycol-based fluids. As part of a grant from the FAA, AMIL is developing test protocols to be added to the test specifications to address the new potential issues that may be required of non-glycol fluids before their use on aircraft. Beyond the corrosion and foam issues for which tests currently exist in the specification, test for aerodynamic acceptance on evaporated heated and sheared fluids, tendency to from mold and slipperiness are proposed.


Aerial photography played an important but largely unsung role in New Deal efforts to improve farm income. Established in 1933, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) promoted agriculture secretary Henry Wallace's "ever-normal granary" with production controls (1 934-1 935) and conservation programs (1936-1937) before Congress adopted a combined strategy in 1938. To administer these programs and ensure performance, the AAA set up an innovative hierarchy of state, county, and local committees. Experiments in 1935 and 1936 demonstrated that aerial photography provided costeffective, adequately precise measurements and led to a concerted effort to extend photographic coverage. In 1937, 36 photographic crews flew 375,000 square miles (970,000 square km), and by late 1941 AAA officials had acquired coverage of more than 90 percent of the country's agricultural land. From its initial goal of promoting compliance, the Agriculture Department's aerial photography program became a tool for conservation and land planning as well as an instrument of fair and accurate measurement. Local administration and a widely perceived need to increase farm income fostered public acceptance of a potentially intrusive program of overhead surveillance.


A conic program is the problem of optimizing a linear function over a closed convex cone intersected with an affine preimage of another cone. We analyse three constraint qualifications, namely a Closedness CQ, Slater CQ, and Boundedness CQ (also called Clark-Duffin theorem), that are sufficient for achieving strong duality and show that the first implies the second which implies the third, and also give a more general form of the third CQ for conic problems. Furthermore, two consequences of strong duality are presented, the first being a theorem of the alternative on almost feasibility (also called weak infeasibility), and the second being an explicit description of the projection of conic sets onto linear subspaces, akin to using projection cones for polyhedral sets.


Detecting "toxic" language in internet content is a pressing social and technical challenge. In this work, we focus on Perspective API from Jigsaw, a state-of-the-art tool that promises to score the "toxicity" of text, with a recent model update that claims impressive results (Lees et al., 2022). We seek to challenge certain normative claims about toxic language by proposing a new benchmark, Selected Adversarial SemanticS, or SASS. We evaluate Perspective on SASS, and compare to low-effort alternatives, like zero-shot and few-shot GPT-3 prompt models, in binary classification settings. We find that Perspective exhibits troubling shortcomings across a number of our toxicity categories. SASS provides a new tool for evaluating performance on previously undetected toxic language that avoids common normative pitfalls. Our work leads us to emphasize the importance of questioning assumptions made by tools already in deployment for toxicity detection in order to anticipate and prevent disparate harms.


A99 The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine clinical breast examination (CBE) alone to screen for breast cancer, recommends screening mammography every 1 to 2 years among women aged 40 and older, with or without CBE. Recent studies have suggested that CBE rates may vary according to patient, provider and health care system characteristics.
 We examined the locations where U.S. women received a CBE and other general preventive health care (clinic health center, private doctor's office or HMO, hospital outpatient department (OPD), ER or "other" location, or none) among women aged 40 years and older (n = 11,037) who participated in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We also examined predictors of location of receipt of general preventive health care (and recent CBE). Recent CBE use was defined as within the past two years. The overall household response rate was 86.5%, with an overall response rate for the sample adult module of 69.0.%
 Age-specific and crude rates of CBE use were calculated using SAS and SUDAAN. A multivariate analysis of predictors of locations where women likely received a recent CBE use, including locations where women receive care, was carried out using logistic regression techniques and SUDAAN.
 A majority of the women (79.4%) went to a doctor's office or HMO for routine health care, followed by a clinic or health center (13.6%). About 1.0% of the women went to a hospital OPD for routine health care. At least 4.5% of the women did not receive preventive health care anywhere. The remainder of the women received preventive care at an ER or "other" location. Among all women, 65% reported a recent CBE. The highest rate was found among women receiving routine care from doctors' offices and HMOs (68.5%). CBE use was somewhat lower among women receiving routine care from clinics or health centers (62.9%), and substantially lower among women receiving care from "other" locations (28.4%) or not reporting receiving preventive care (25.3%). Women older than 64 years were generally less likely than women aged 50-64 to report a recent CBE, although this was not significant among women cared for at clinics or health centers. Asian (46.0%) and Hispanic (49.9%) women were less likely than white (66.1%) and non-Hispanic (66.5%) women to report recent CBEs. This was true in both clinics and doctors' offices. Married women were most likely to report an exam. Higher education was also associated with CBE use across settings, as were higher income, being employed, having health insurance or a usual source of care, being from the Midwest compared with the South, being born in the U.S., reporting a recent mammogram, and reporting a recent gynecology visit. In multivariate analysis, women who received routine care in a location other than a clinic or health center, doctors office or HMO, or hospital OPD were less to have received a recent CBE (adjusted OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3, 0.8).
 After adjusting for patient factors, clinics/health centers and hospital OPDs performed as well as doctors' offices/HMOs in delivering CBE. However, women receiving care in other locations were less likely to report CBE. "Healthcare providers should be aware ofrecognize the lower rates of CBE particularly among women with decreased access to health care.
 #


Background: Hypertension if left untreated can lead to arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease. Studies suggest that central pressure may be more strongly related to future cardiovascular events than brachial pressure. Proportion of patients not at goal blood pressure is astounding. The aim of this study was to identify patients with hypertension not achieving goal brachial blood pressure and to investigate the co-relation between brachial blood pressure and central systolic blood pressure by using Pulse Wave Analysis (PWA). Methods: We conducted a single center, prospective, cohort study at the Outpatient Nephrology clinic operated by West Virginia University Hospitals between January 2017 and February 2018. Results: 22 patients met the inclusion criteria for the study, however only 14 (63.6%) followed through with getting at least one follow up PWA testing. 7/14 (50%) were males. 12/14 (85.7%) were older than 60 yrs. 10/14 (71.4%) had elevated central systolic pressures and pulse pressures at the initial visit and 2/14 (14.3%) an elevated augmented index. At the end of the study 9/14 (64.2%) were at goal central systolic blood pressure, 6/14 (42.9%) at goal Pulse pressure, with 8/14 (57.1%) at goal augmented index. At study end there was on average a 8.2mm Hg decrease in the central systolic pressure and 9.8mm Hg reduction in the pulse pressure after the lifestyle and anti-hypertensive regimen modification. Conclusion: Our results showed a predominantly elderly and obese population. Discrepancies between brachial and central systolic blood pressure may exist. Patients may benefit from the management of their blood pressure with the use of central blood pressure, pulse pressure and augmented index measurements as obtained by the Atcor Medical XCEL Pulse wave analysis machine. Further studies are needed to reinforce the importance of the utility of Pulse wave analysis and central blood pressure monitoring in the treatment of hypertension.


OBJECTIVE
Invasive stimulation of the motor cortex has been used for years to alleviate chronic intractable pain in humans. In our study, we have investigated the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive stimulation method, for manipulating the excitability of cortical motor areas on laser evoked potentials (LEP) and acute pain perception. DESIGNS AND SETTINGS: The amplitude of the N1, N2, and P2 LEP components of 10 healthy volunteers were evaluated prior to and following anodal, cathodal, and sham stimulation of the primary motor cortex. In a separate experiment subjective, pain rating scores of 16 healthy subjects in two perceptual categories (warm sensation, mild pain) were also analyzed.

RESULTS
Cathodal tDCS significantly reduced the amplitude of N2 and P2 components compared with anodal or sham stimulation. However, neither of the tDCS types modified significantly the laser energy values necessary to induce moderate pain. In a separate experiment, cathodal stimulation significantly diminished mild pain sensation only when laser-stimulating the hand contralateral to the side of tDCS, while anodal stimulation modified warm sensation.

CONCLUSIONS
The possible underlying mechanisms of our findings in view of recent neuroimaging studies are discussed. To our knowledge this study is the first to demonstrate the mild antinociceptive effect of tDCS over the primary motor cortex in healthy volunteers.


The easy generation of 3D geometries (point clouds or polygonal models) with fully automated image-based methods poses nontrivial problems on how to check a posteriori the quality of the achieved results. Clear statements and procedures on how to plan the camera network, execute the survey and use automatic tools to achieve the prefixed requirements are still an open issue. Although such issues had been discussed and solved some years ago, the importance of camera network geometry is today often underestimated or neglected in the cultural heritage field. In this paper different camera network geometries, with normal and convergent images, are analyzed and the accuracy of the produced results are compared to ground truth measurements.


We have developed a high resolution correlative method involving cryo-soft X-ray tomography (cryo-SXT) and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), which provides information in three dimensions on large cellular volumes at 70 nm resolution. Cryo-SXT morphologically identified and localized aggregations of carbon-rich materials. STORM identified specific markers on the desired epitopes, enabling colocalization between the identified objects, in this case cholesterol crystals, and the cellular environment. The samples were studied under ambient and cryogenic conditions without dehydration or heavy metal staining. The early events of cholesterol crystal development were investigated in relation to atherosclerosis, using as model macrophage cell cultures enriched with LDL particles. Atherosclerotic plaques build up in arteries in a slow process involving cholesterol crystal accumulation. Cholesterol crystal deposition is a crucial stage in the pathological cascade. Our results show that cholesterol crystals can be identified and imaged at a very early stage on the cell plasma membrane and in intracellular locations. This technique can in principle be applied to other biological samples where specific molecular identification is required in conjunction with high resolution 3D-imaging.


Pathomorphism is viewed as relatively steady changes in the pathogenetic mechanisms and manifestations of the disease. Phenomena of positive and negative pathomorphism, the levels, the classification and causes of pathomorphism of mental diseases are discussed. Proceeding from the etiological criterion three types of pathomorphism of mental diseases are distinguished: 1) biological, 2) social and 3) mixed--social and biological. The author believes that the main causes of pathomorphism of mental diseases include the evolutionary development of man, pathomorphism of somatic diseases, and the influence of socio-cultural, demographic factors and prolonged pharmacotherapy.


BACKGROUND
One of the requirements for proper nutrition and maintenance of good health is to supply the body, through diet, with an appropriately increased quantity of bioactive compounds. With this in mind, modern milling and baking industries keep introducing new types of products. The use of such additives as wholegrain flours and bran in baked products provided the basis for research in this paper.

METHODS
The aim of the study was to conduct a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of marketable wheat, barley and oat grain, used as raw materials to produce dehulled kernels, ground grain, wholemeal flour and wheat flour type 550 (all-purpose or plain flour), as well as wheat bran. Additionally, analyses were performed to determine the chemical composition and contents of nutrients, selected bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity.

RESULTS
The studied raw materials in commercial cereal differ in their chemical composition. Dehulling of wheat, barley and oat grains significantly contributed to the reduction of minerals, protein and total dietary fiber (TDF) contents, except for the amount of protein in dehulled wheat and oat grains. Oat bran, in contrast to other oat products, was characterized by the highest contents of minerals, protein, TDF, and the smallest amounts of saccharides and total starch. The lowest content of minerals was recorded in wheat flour type 550. Thermal processes affect the concentration of tocochromanols in the grain, with tocotrienols being more resistant to hydrothermal treatment than tocopherols. Grain dehulling also significantly decreased the total amount of tocochromanols in relation to the original grains.

CONCLUSIONS
Wheat products differ in the contents of their individual components. They are characterized by high contents of tocochromanols, phenolic compounds and water-extractable arabinoxylans, with the exception of white refined wheat flour, which is mainly a source of saccharides. In the case of barley and oat products, the analysis showed no differences between these product groups. It was also shown that dehulling of barley and oat grain causes statistically significant differences in the contents of nutrients and natural antioxidants.


Understanding how environmental factors affect winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend. Thell.) responses to spring N application is an important component of economically and environmentally sound winter wheat production on the southeastern Coastal Plain of the USA. Increasing the amount of N applied to winter wheat grown in this region has been shown to result in a greater severity of drought stress during grain fill and lower individual kernel weights. This 2-yr field study was conducted to determine whether drought-induced reductions in kernel weight with high spring N rates are the result of decreases in the rate or the duration of kernel growth. Winter wheat was grown with different rates of spring-applied N (0, 45, 90, and 135 kg N ha -1 ) under both irrigated and nonirrigated conditions. Increases in the rate of spring-applied N resulted in a greater severity of soil water deficits under nonirrigated conditions. Quadratic increases in grain yield and kernel number per square meter occurred in response to increased spring N under both levels of soil water treatment. Grain yield and individual kernel weight responses to irrigation were greater at the higher N rates than at the lower N rates. Over both years, the average increase in individual kernel weight due to irrigation was 3.9 and 13.3% at the 0 and 135 kg N ha -1 rates, respectively. Similar responses were found for the effective filling period (EFP), where irrigation increased the EFP an average of 3.2 and 14.5% at the lowest and highest spring N rates, respectively. Soil water treatment had no effect on kernel growth rate. Results indicate that high rates of spring-applied N increase the severity of drought stress in nonirrigated winter wheat grown on the Coastal Plain, resulting in reductions in the EFP and, consequently, kernel weight.


The bandwidth of the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation requires high sampling rate which extends the current analog to digital converter capacity. The paper presents an effective basis pursuit (BP) algorithm based on compressive sensing (CS) signals, which is called CS-BP algorithm, for two-dimensional (2-D) DOA estimation of Linear Frequency Modulation (LFM ). The simulation results verified that the method can effectively reduce the sampling data, and improve DOA estimation performance and efficiency.


It has long been known about the need for folic acid for the vital activity of both macro-and micro-organisms. It is necessary for the processes of methylation, nucleotide synthesis and also the formation of methionine and reducing the toxic effect of homocysteine. The addition of synthetic folic acid to the diet of pregnant women, as well as at the stage of pre-pregnancy preparation, significantly reduces the risks of fetal neural tube defects, heart defects, and possibly other organs and systems of the body. In addition, folic acid can help improve fertility potential. However, there is evidence of adverse effects of folic acid proficite on the health of older adults (hiding B12-deficient status) and the offspring of mothers taking high doses prescribed by medical specialists like a risk of infectious-inflammatory and allergic diseases of the upper respiratory tract in children, eczema, also disorders of psychomotor development and insulin resistance. In 1980, the direct excitatory effect of folic acid on synaptic transmission in the central nervous system was proven. This is due to the molecular structure, it contains L-glutamate. Therefore, the aim of the work was trying to prove the existing correlation data on probable neuropathologies, including a reduced threshold of seizures, a high risk of epilepsy in a model of offspring of Wistar rats with an increased dosage of folate throughout gestation and including at the stage of pre-gravidar preparation. In the control group, the average clonus time was 1779.6 seconds, in the experimental group with a 1 mg/kg/diet dosage of 797.3 seconds, and in the second group with a 5 mg/kg/diet 439.7 seconds (p<0,01). The results obtained of the difference in the convulsive threshold may be due to changes in synaptic density as a result of an excess of synthetic folic acid during the formation of NT and subsequently during the differentiation of nervous tissue in the central nervous system (in particular, in the 3rd trimester with a massive appearance of glutamatergic receptors), which can affect the processes of neurogenesis and the formation of neural networks.


Problem statement: The absorption characteristics of coir fiber were analyzed previously.
Analytical method to predict the acoustical behavior of coir fiber has already been developed.
However, compression effects of coir fiber were not explored which might significant for acoustics
absorption during seat padding. In this study, compression effect on the sound absorption
characteristics of coir fiber are demonstrated based on the previous analytical approach such as rigid
frame method with the modification in the physical parameters. Approach: The verification of the
estimated acoustical absorption coefficient in uncompressed condition using rigid frame Johnson-
Allard Model are shown for three different thicknesses of industrially processed coir fiber mixed with
binder latex. Measurements were conducted in impedance tube on normal incidence sound absorption
of coir fiber. It is well known that the absorption behavior of a porous material varies during
compression and affects the physical parameters. In these analyses, formulas proposed by Castagnede
are employed to predict the compression effect on the absorption of coir fiber which takes into account
the modifications of the physical parameters during compression. Results: The agreement between the
analytical and measured results is justified for all three sample thicknesses in uncompressed condition.
Analyses on the acoustic behavior of material during compressed condition show that compression has a
substantial effect on the absorption of coir fiber. It also indicates that the absorption of coir fiber can be
enhanced by compressing the material. In addition, the absorption performances are compared by varying
the compression rate on material at uncompressed and compressed condition. Conclusion: From overall
analyses, it is evident that compression of coir fiber can significantly change the absorption behavior of
coir fiber from the actual acoustical characteristics as estimated at normal condition. Moreover,
compressing the material might be considered as a possible approach to improve the absorption
coefficient of coir fiber. An additional example is presented to show a potential way of enhancing
absorption coefficient of coir fiber utilizing compression effect.


Aquaculture (fish farming) is an agricultural as well as fisheries activity, competing with other agricultural enterprises and artisanal fisheries for the same basic inputs. Therefore , aquaculture is subject to the same basic resource constraints that traditional agricultural activities face. The literature suggests that competition within a value chain is between chains and not individual actors . This study examined the aquaculture value chain in Ken ya, assessing the entire value chain, and determining the appropriate points to participate in economically sustainable ways. The competition analysis assessed attractiveness at each stage of the chain by reviewing the rivalry in terms of five competitive forces within the Kenyan aquaculture industry; competitive rivalry, the threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitutes and bargaining power of buyers. The aquaculture industry in Kenya is assessed using Porter's model with marketing mix (Ps) and factor evaluation matrix (FEM). Input supply is found to be the most difficult value chain function in which to participate because it requires relatively large initial capital outlays and additional operating funds. Although fish farming is the driving function of the entire value chain, the significant capital investments required could be a barrier to entry . Fish farming has largely benefited from the support of government, NGOs and other regional development initiatives. The study established that the easiest sector to enter (in terms of low barriers to entry and exit and low labour requirements) is the fish marketing sector. This chain function provides the most flexibility and liquidity to participants, whether as full -time or part -time occupation. Overall, participation in the Kenya aquaculture value chain will depend on the prospective entrant's level of experience, time, capital commitment and financial goal (long term stability versus liquidity). Aquaculture requires a long term commitment and high capital outlays, as well as persistence, and should therefore be considered by those looking for long term stability and not short term benefits. Established fish farmers may consider diversifying into input supply and value addition as well.


In the present study, an attempt was made to develop the pulsatile drug delivery of Lovastatin to the colon. Formaldehyde treated Capsule bodies were used for the preparation of pulsin caps. It was sealed with unhardened cap of the capsule. The microspheres were prepared by emulsion solvent evaporation technique. Optimized microsphere formulations were selected based on dissolution studies. Hydrogel plug (karaya gum and lactose in 1:1 ratio) having 4.5kg/cm 2 hardness and 100 mg weight was placed in the capsule opening and found that it was satisfactory to retard the drug release in small intestinal fluid and to eject out the plug in colonic fluid and releasing the microspheres into colonic fluid after a lag time criterion of 5 hours. The sealed capsules were completely coated by dip coating method with 5% cellulose acetate phthalate to prevent variable gastric emptying. Dissolution studies of pulsatile capsule device in media with different pH (1.2, 7.4 and 6.8) showed that drug release in colon could be modulated by optimizing the concentration of polymers in the microspheres. Drug–polymer interaction studies indicated no interaction in between the drug and the polymer. Among all the formulations Lovastatin microspheres prepared with Eudragit RS100 in 1:3 ratio shown prolonged release for a period of 12 hours. The obtained results showed the capability of the system in delaying drug release for a programmable period of time and to deliver the drug in the early morning hours when cholesterol synthesis are more prevalent.


Direct methane-to-methanol conversion is a desired process whereby natural gas is transformed into an energy-rich liquid. It has been realised at ambient pressure and temperature in metal ion-exchanged zeolites, where especially copper-exchanged ZSM-5 has shown promising results. The nature of the active sites in these systems is, however, still under debate. The activity has been assigned to a [Cu-O-Cu]2+ motif. One remaining question is whether this motif is general and also active in other metal-exchanged zeolites. Herein, we use first-principles microkinetic modelling to analyse the methane-to-methanol reaction on the [Cu-O-Cu]2+ motif, for Cu and other metals. First, we identify the cluster model size needed to accurately describe the dimer motif. Starting from the [Cu-O-Cu]2+ site, the metal ions are then systematically substituted with Ni, Co, Fe, Ag and Au. The results show that activation of Ag and Au dimer sites with oxygen is endothermic and therefore unlikely, whereas for Cu, Ni, Co and Fe, the activation is possible under realistic conditions. According to the kinetic simulations, however, the dimer motif is a plausible candidate for the active site for Cu only. For Ni, Co and Fe, close-to-infinite reaction times or unreasonably high temperatures are required for sufficient methane conversion. As Ni-, Co- and Fe-exchanged ZSM-5 are known to convert methane to methanol, these results indicate that the Cu-based dimer motif is not an appropriate model system for these metals.


Bali Indonesia as a tourism destination is one area that has a steeper rate of economic growth. To welcome the many needs of residential, deemed necessary by PT Puri Darma Sejati to help meet the needs of the community will be huge demand for residential. Along the way , of course discovered the problem whether a housing development should be feasible . Based on the above issues will be addressed in this research project is to analyze financial Park Housing Development Sastraloka used financial analysis is based on monthly financial reports such as cash flow analysis and analysis of bank capital loan, to be known financial measures to be taken by the management as well as to analyze the feasibility with the Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return ( IRR ) and Benefit Cash Ratio ( BCR ). From the analysis, the financial activities of PT Puri Darma Sejati on this project include: initial capital used in this project comes from the rest of the cash business the previous year. In November 2010 until January 2012 the necessary steps in the form of bank loans due to the financial capital of the company and the sale is insufficient spending for the month. Returns principal bank loans made in May 2011 to February 2012 by using mortgage disbursement. Initial payback company at the end of the activities carried out in November 2012.  At a financial analysis has been done with the Net Present Value ( NPV ) obtained positive results of Rp. 9.101.367.667,77 ( NPV > 0 ). For the calculation of Benefit Cost Ratio ( BCR ) obtained a value of 1.368is greater than one ( BCR > 1 ). Internal Rate of Return ( IRR ) NPV( - ) index not found.


Isothermal kinetics studies of thermal-induced gelation for epoxy functionalized poly(vinyl acetate) emulsion and diamine were investigated rheologically. The change in the viscoelastic material functions such as elastic storage modulus, G', viscous loss modulus, G" and complex dynamic viscosity, η* during the gelation process was evaluated. The isothermal gelation kinetics was also analyzed using an isoconversional method that was based on replicated experimental data and model-free kinetics calculations. This isoconversional method evaluated an effective activation energy.


This paper argues that the word order possibilities of a language are partly determined by the parts-of-speech system of that language. In languages in which lexical items are specialized for certain functionally defined syntactic slots (e.g. the modifier slot within a noun phrase), the identifiability of these slots is ensured by the nature of the lexical items (e.g. adjectives) themselves. As a result, word order possibilities are relatively unrestricted in these languages. In languages in which lexical items are not specialized for certain syntactic slots, in that these items combine the functions of two or more of the traditional word classes, other strategies have to be invoked to enhance identifiability. In these languages word order constraints are used to make syntactic slots identifiable on the basis of their position within the clause or phrase. Hence the word order possibilities are rather restricted in these languages. Counterexamples to the latter claim all involve cases in which identifiability is ensured by morphological rather than syntactic means. This shows that there is a balanced trade-off between the syntactic, morphological, and lexical structure of a language.


Abstract : A non-local differential phenomenological theory for turbulent free-convection boundary layers along a two-dimensional heated vertical plate is described, in which both eddy viscosity and eddy thermal diffusivity are considered unknown. The total viscosity (molecular plus eddy) is taken to be governed by a parabolic rate equation which takes into account turbulent convection, diffusion, generation and decay, while the turbulent thermal diffusivity is based on a constant turbulent Prandtl number. Based on this closed system of partial differential equations, the mean velocity and temperature field as well as the eddy viscosity and the turbulent thermal diffusivity distribution can be mapped out. It is shown for the vertical-plate problem that the generation of turbulence is essentially shear induced, and that the gravity force only influences the mean velocity and temperature fields. A degenerated local theory is developed to interpret and compare with existing experimental data. Calculations show that the turbulent free-convection boundary layer consists essentially of three distinct regions, namely, the viscous sublayer, the inner layer, and the outer layer. The viscous sublayer defined by vanishing eddy viscosity, is shown to have a nonlinear velocity distribution. The inner layer is dominated by the balance of turbulent generation and decay. The outer layer is governed mainly by turbulent convection and diffusion. It is shown that Corrsin's viscous superlayer also exists in the turbulent free-convection case and that temperature fluctuations tend to reduce the sharpness of the turbulent-non-turbulent interface. It has also been found that Grashof number has strong effects on turbulent generation and decay. (Author)


The purpose of the present study was to assess the current practice of cross infection control of dental impressions in governmental & private dental labs & prosthodontic clinics of MoH, Al-Qassim, KSA, evaluating how dentists are communicating with lab personnel about impression disinfection, and, detecting awareness about infection control practices in dental laboratories. Cross-sectional study including self-administered anonymous questionnaires. The sample included 50 dental technicians and 55 dentists in two cities. Technicians and prosthodontists were subjected to questionnaires consisting of 26 and 14 questions, respectively. Forty six questionnaires were completed for technicians and 48 for prosthodontists. More than 60.00% of technicians knew that impressions have been disinfected and 56.25% of dentists notified technicians that impressions have already been disinfected. About 64.00% of technicians had an agreed protocol between lab and clinic, and 40.74% of prosthodontists notified technicians through notes on impression bags. About 61.00% reported that all technicians in lab were vaccinated for HBV. Only 6.40% of technicians apply all protective precautions when receiving impressions. Fifty percent of the prosthodontists aren't sure that technicians disinfect impressions before pouring. About 65.00% of technicians feel that laboratories are adequately instructed for disinfection techniques of different impression materials and on contrary, 66.67% of prosthodontists didn't feel that. Moderate communication between dental technicians and prosthodontists. The majority of dental technicians were vaccinated for HBV. Most dentists didn't pour impressions in their clinics. Lack of communication between prosthodontists and their dental technicians was noticeable. Significant nonconformity of view between dental technicians and prosthodontics was reported.


Manele have become the most successful Romanian music genre to emerge after 1989. Combining Southern Balkan, Turkish and Middle Eastern sounds, but also Euro-American pop and hip-hop influences and sung by mainly Roma musicians, manele are a symbol of the transition to democracy, with its re-examination of social and cultural values and its refashioning of national identities and ethnic hierarchies. This article investigates whether this hybrid musical genre has the potential to connect the Roma to a larger transnational network and in so doing, offer the Roma a path towards fairer representation and equality and the opportunity for new cosmopolitan engagements. This, I argue, would benefit an ethnic minority for whom more traditional paths towards empowerment seem to remain closed. To this end, I explore media and public debates and conduct analyses of manele music and video clips to show how the genre challenges both Eurocentrism and localism and could be seen as a sign of democratization and an opportunity for those culturally and ethnically marginalized to force their way out of a subaltern position.


As part of a systemic study of the spine between D11 and S1 the distribution and severity of anterior and posterior annular tears has been assessed by charting the tears in sagittal slabs of 117 fresh specimens. No significant sex difference was seen. The number of cases with tears in multiple discs increases with age, but exceptions to this trend occurred in both young and elderly spines. Age adjusted correlation coefficients indicate that anterior and posterior tears at L4 and L5 do not predict tears at other levels. At L3 and above, significant positive correlations occur between multiple disc levels, particularly posteriorly. In patients 50o year old or more the mean anterior tear score rises sharply from L5 to peak at L2 and L1, but, in contrast, the mean posterior tear score falls from L4 to L1 in this age group. The increase in severity of anterior tears corresponds with increased mobility in the L4-L1 disc from 50-70 years. The data are compatible with 2 factors causing tears. One affects L4 and L5 in young adults and is possibly mechanical in nature; the second operates at a later age, promotes widespread disc involvement, and is primarily degenerative in nature. The increased prevalence and severity of anterior tears (and the associated increase in mobility) in the upper lumbar region in the middle aged and elderly may be a pathogenic factor in back pain for this age group.


Seasonal coat colour change is an important adaptation to seasonally changing environments but the evolution of this and other circannual traits remains poorly understood. In this study, we use gene expression to understand seasonal coat colour moulting in wild snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus). We used hair colour to follow the progression of the moult, simultaneously sampling skin from three moulting stages in hares collected during the peak of the spring moult from white winter to brown summer pelage. Using RNA sequencing, we tested whether patterns of expression were consistent with predictions based on the established phases of the hair growth cycle. We found functionally consistent clustering across skin types, with 766 genes differentially expressed between moult stages. "White" pelage showed more differentially expressed genes that were upregulated relative to other skin types, involved in the transition between late telogen (quiescent stage) and the onset of anagen (proliferative stage). Skin samples from transitional "intermediate" and "brown" pelage were transcriptionally similar and resembled the regressive transition to catagen (regressive stage). We also detected differential expression of several key circadian clock and pigmentation genes, providing important means to dissect the bases of alternate seasonal colour morphs. Our results reveal that pelage colour is a useful biomarker for seasonal change but that there is a consistent lag between the main gene expression waves and change in visible coat colour. These experiments establish that developmental sampling from natural populations of nonmodel organisms can provide a crucial resource to dissect the genetic basis and evolution of complex seasonally changing traits.


1. In landscapes influenced by anthropogenic activities, such as intensive agriculture, knowledge of the relative importance and interaction of environmental factors on the composition and function of local communities across a range of spatial scales is important for maintaining biodiversity. 2. We analysed five arthropod taxa covering a broad range of functional aspects (wild bees, true bugs, carabid beetles, hoverflies and spiders) in 24 landscapes (4 x 4 km) across seven European countries along gradients of both land-use intensity and landscape structure. Species-environment relationships were examined in a hierarchical design of four main sets of environmental factors (country, land-use intensity, landscape structure, local habitat properties) that covered three spatial scales (region, landscape, local) by means of hierarchical variability partitioning using partial canonical correspondence analyses. 3. Local community composition and the distribution of body size classes and trophic guilds were most affected by regional processes, which highly confounded landscape and local factors. After correcting for regional effects, factors at the landscape scale dominated over local habitat factors. Land-use intensity explained most of the variability in species data, whereas landscape characteristics (especially connectivity) accounted for most of the variability in body size and trophic guilds. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that management effort should be focused on land-use intensity and habitat connectivity in order to enhance diversity in agricultural landscapes. Since these factors are largely independent, specific conservation programmes may be developed with regards to socio-economic and agri-environmental requirements. Changes in either of these factors will enhance diversity but will also result in specific effects on local communities related to dispersal ability and the resource use of species.


Fibers fracture in tensile strained Mg and MgLi matrix composites strengthened with ~10% vol. short δ-Al2O3 fibers (Saffil) is investigated by "in-situ" scanning electron microscopy and ex-situ" determination of the length of fibers chemically recovered from tensile failed composites. Little interfacial reaction in Mg matrix composite results in poor interfacial bond so that composite failure proceeds via fiber pull-out with negligible fiber fragmentation. On the other hand, extensive fiber/matrix reaction in MgLi matrix composites promotes formation of strong interfaces which are linked with multiple fiber cross-breakage during tensile straining. These results are consistent with experimental tensile strengths of related composites.


Embedded systems have entered a new era in which system designers have to consider more and more strict energy consumption constraints. This thesis reviewsprevious studies of the processor energy consumption estimation. Particularly, wefocus on instruction-level energy consumption for embedded processors and explorethe energy consumption model for manycore architecture in real traffic pattern.The purpose of this thesis project is to estimate energy consumption and constructan energy model using an instruction-set simulator for embedded processors. OpenVirtual Platforms (OVP) and Epiphany Single Core Simulator (ESCS) are used toobtain an instruction sequence for a given software. Then, the functionality of energyconsumption estimation is integrated into OVP.Our energy consumption estimation approach categorizes instructions in fourgroups and uses base energy cost of each category to calculate the total energyconsumption for an application that runs on Epiphany core and ARM Cortex M0.The energy consumption estimation for Epiphany core has been successfully testedby BEEBS benchmarks. Details of the derivation process, results and analysis ofenergy consumption estimation methods are provided.


Generally, at least two features are needed to
characterize a growth process fully at any time point: the level of
growth and the rate of growth. The level of growth represents the
current status of a process at a given time point and can be viewed
as a static measure of that process. The rate of growth represents
how fast the level of the process is changing at that time point
and can be viewed as a dynamic measure of the process. The widely
used growth curve models usually focus on the analysis of the level
of growth. However, techniques for analysis of rates of growth are
still relatively rare. Because of the significance of rates of
growth in understanding dynamic processes, a stronger and more
versatile approach is proposed to model them by constructing growth
rate models. The concepts of growth processes and current
analytical techniques are first reviewed and both the simple rate
of growth and the compound rate of growth are defined. Then,
different models are developed to analyze rates of growth. Growth
rate models are constructed to analyze simple rates of growth and
random coefficient models are developed to analyze compound rates
of growth. The proposed models are applied to analyze an empirical
data set – the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) –
consisting of children's mathematics performance data and
covariates of gender and behavioral problems (BPI). Individual
differences are found in both simple and compound rates of growth.
BPI and gender have different relationship with simple rates of
growth at different ages. BPI is also found to be negatively
related to compound rates of growth. Finally, a systematic
simulation study is conducted to validate the results from the
analysis of the NLSY data and to investigate the performance of two
main models, the quadratic growth rate model and the random
coefficient latent difference score model. The simulation results
support the validity of the results from the empirical data
analysis. It is further found that the parameter estimates for both
models are unbiased and the standard error estimates are
consistent.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
In a future warmer subarctic climate, the soil temperatures experienced by dispersed seeds are likely to increase during summer but may decrease during winter due to expected changes in snow depth, duration and quality. Because little is known about the dormancy-breaking and germination requirements of subarctic species, how warming may influence the timing and level of germination in these species was examined.

METHODS
Under controlled conditions, how colder winter and warmer summer soil temperatures influenced germination was tested in 23 subarctic species. The cold stratification and warm incubation temperatures were derived from real soil temperature measurements in subarctic tundra and the temperatures were gradually changed over time to simulate different months of the year.

KEY RESULTS
Moderate summer warming (+2.5 degrees C) substantially accelerated germination in all but four species but did not affect germination percentages. Optimum germination temperatures (20/10 degrees C) further decreased germination time and increased germination percentages in three species. Colder winter soil temperatures delayed the germination in ten species and decreased the germination percentage in four species, whereas the opposite was found in Silene acaulis. In most species, the combined effect of a reduced snow cover and summer warming resulted in earlier germination and thus a longer first growing season, which improves the chance of seedling survival. In particular the recruitment of (dwarf) shrubs (Vaccinium myrtillus, V. vitis-idaea, Betula nana), trees (Alnus incana, Betula pubescens) and grasses (Calamagrostis lapponica, C. purpurea) is likely to benefit from a warmer subarctic climate.

CONCLUSIONS
Seedling establishment is expected to improve in a future warmer subarctic climate, mainly by considerably earlier germination. The magnitudes of the responses are species-specific, which should be taken into account when modelling population growth and migration of subarctic species.


Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass acts as a substrate for photoanode of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). The ITO substrate was irradiated by oxygen ion with different fluence (1x10 and 1x10 ions/cm) at 100 MeV energy. The TiO2 films were also subjected with same ion irradiation at 100 MeV of energy with fluence of 1x10 ions/cm and 5x10 ions/cm. At 100 MeV energy of O ion the electronic and nuclear energy loss for TiO2 film have been measured 7.38x10 KeV/nm and 3.8x10 KeV/nm respectively. However, the electronic and nuclear energy loss of ion irradiation for ITO substrate were 7.4x10 KeV/nm and 4.06x10 KeV/nm respectively. Similarly longitudinal/ lateral straggling of ITO and TiO2 have been found 3.87 μm/2.50 μm and 3.62 μm/1.14 μm respectively. Further, the structural and optical properties of these samples were monitored by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-visible spectroscopy. It was found that oxygen ion (O) irradiation of ITO film has slightly changed the crystallinity and transmission decreases. Furthermore, the particle size of TiO2 thin film has been obtained 80 nm corresponding to (101) plane of XRD pattern. In the case of ITO thin film the crystallite size and band gap changes from 62.35 nm to 53.89 nm and 3.993 eV to 3.971 eV at 1x10 ions/cm respectively. Moreover this paper is also reporting that irradiation by swift heavy ion has changed the transmission of the ITO films, and its values decreases as compared to pristine (ITO) which degraded the performance of DSSC. Consequently, a very small value of absorbance is reported for ITO film. However, the absorbance of TiO2 film has found to increase with irradiation of oxygen ion at fluence of 1x10 ions/cm and decreased at 5x10 ions/cm. It is also confirmed that the absorbance of TiO2 film and TiO2/ITO photoanode increases with irradiation of oxygen ion at fluence of 1x10 ions/cm and decreased at 5x10 ions/cm. The band gap values of TiO2 thin film were obtained to have a change from 3.37 eV (for pristine) to 3.44 eV at 5x10 ions/cm. But the decrease in band gap is also found 3.17 eV at fluence of 1x10 ions/cm. However, N719 dye loaded O (1x10 ions/cm) irradiated TiO2 film show high absorption as compared to other samples. Thus the dose of O irradiation at fluence 1x10 ions/cm may fabricate more efficient DSSC and consequently future prospective of such type of photoanode materials for dye sensitized solar cells seems to be bright. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press.


Inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication by oligonucleotides is a complex process and may be implemented by an array of antiviral mechanisms. These include inhibition of virus adsorption to the host cell, inhibition of transcription via antisense or as the result of triple helix formation, and inhibition of viral encoded enzymes such as reverse transcriptase and integrase. Since the particular mechanism of HIV inhibition depends on the oligonucleotide (ON) sequence and the ON chemical modifications, the design and synthesis of potent HIV inhibitors has been an important and rewarding focus of ON research. In this era of great concern that HIV may rapidly display resistance to any antiviral compound with one mechanism of viral inhibition, oligonucleotides are potentially attractive alternatives for therapy. Several ONs have entered clinical evaluation in AIDS patients. At present Zintevir, which inhibits both HIV adsorption and HIV integrase, is in phase I/II clinical trials.