We analysed the status of the taxonomical knowledge on Afrotropical and Palaearctic Eupelmidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea), by assessing the historical accumulation of valid new species and synonyms through time, as well as the factors that have determined the process of description of good species and synonyms in these regions. The species accumulation curves for valid species names show that a significant proportion of the taxa remains to be described in both areas. On the contrary, the historical accumulation of synonymic names seems to reach an asymptote in both areas, although the proportion of synonyms compared with the total number of names is higher in the Palaearctic region. We assessed factors influencing the probability of a species being discovered and the probability of being described several times under different names. Both probabilities seem to be affected by the same factors. Distribution range size and geographical location of taxa affect both the processes of discovering good species and producing synonyms in either region. Models using all these predictors explain (1) 36% and 40% of the variance in the year of description of valid names for the Afrotropical and Palaearctic regions respectively, and (2) 56% and 40% of the variation in the number of synonyms per valid species in these two areas. For the species with available information, trophic specialization is also a significant determinant of these probabilities. However, its effect is also accounted for by geographical range size, which can thus be used as a surrogate of the ecological correlates of discovery and redundant description probabilities. In general, the ecologically generalist, widely distributed and early described taxa living in northern and western areas of both regions have been subject of redundant description more times. Further, taxonomical effort is needed in the south and east of the Palaearctic, as well as in the whole of the Afrotropics, where additional effort in a revision of Eupelmid systematics is needed.


Sakai, Kelko; Political Parties and Social Networks in Iraq, 1908-1920; submitted for M.A. in Faculty of Social Sciences. C.M.E.I.S.; 1994 This study is to analyze the principal patterns of proto-nationalism as they emerged in the anti-colonial movement in the first two decades of twentieth century. The earliest party political activities were based on notions of Arab separatism from the Ottoman Empire and on anti-Western attitudes on the part of some religious Shi'i. On the eve of the award of the mandate for Iraq to Britain, two major political parties were actively opposed to the British occupation, and this opposition found expression in the country-wide uprising in 1920.At this stage Iraqi nationalism, in the sense of both qawmiya and wataniya. was only at a very early stage of development. The popularity and breadth of the uprising was largely due to its being based on a combination of existing social networks, and the way in which it acted as a focus for proto-national and anti-colonial sentiments. Haras al-Istiqlal succeeded in mobilizing 'traditional society' and managed at least in part to overcome tribal, religious, sectarian and urban/ rural differences, especially with a support it attracted from Shi'i "ulama and sada'. al-'Ahd al-'Iraqi. on the other hand, originally established as an 'Arabist' society by former Ottoman officers, also tried to mobilize tribal society, mainly in northern Iraq, after becoming separated from its Syrian- based founders. This caused antagonisms between the organization's headquarters in Damascus and tribal and other local political forces in Iraq. Both parties attempted to mobilize sentiments which can be described loosely as 'Iraqist'. Although the idea of Iraqi wataniya was still vague in 1920, this early expression of Iraqism as a proto-nationalist force has functioned as a source for reproduction and the imagining of Iraqi national identity.


In the above paper, it proposes a deadlock prevention policy for a flexible manufacturing system (FMS), which needs the complete state enumeration of the FMS that is modeled with Petri nets. The reachability graph of a Petri-net model is divided into two parts: the live zone (LZ) and the deadlock zone (DZ). The states in the LZ of the reachability graph of a Petri net constitute the legal behavior of the net from the viewpoint of deadlock prevention. The concept of first-met bad markings is proposed. A first-met bad marking is a node in DZ, whose father nodes are in LZ. The deadlock prevention policy is used in an iterative way. At each iteration, a first-met bad marking is identified from the reachability graph of a Petri net to be controlled. The reachability of a first-met bad marking is prohibited by adding a monitor, establishing a marking invariance relationship between the additional monitor and the activity places that are marked under the first-met bad marking. To achieve this, without a formal proof, [Lemma 1] is developed as shown in this article.


Soil chemical field data typically do not satisfy the required statistical assumptions, and this renders statistical tests based on normal theory either invalid or not particularly powerful. The objective of this study was to compare the t-test and two nonparametric tests (Wilcoxon signed rank and the Sign test) for a theoretical data set and 3 yr of soil atrazine (2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-s-triazine) concentration field data, to demonstrate how the sample distribution affects the statistical analysis. The theoretical data set was contructed to emulate a soil chemical data set in which a minimum detection limit resulted in multiple zeros within the data. These data were non-normal, and the normal-theory tests were not valid. The converse was also demonstrated. The performance of the nonparametric tests was evaluated when the data were from a normal distribution. The Wilcoxon signed rank test performed well on normal data, although there were some data for which the t-test was more powerful. Actual soil atrazine concentration data from 78 sampling events were analyzed both with the paired t-test, Sign test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test. Thirty-three percent of the events were not from normal distributions, and 15% of these resulted in different decisions regarding the null hypothesis if the paired t-test was used instead of the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Of the 66% of data sets that were from normal distributions, 5.7% of these resulted in different decisions regarding the null hypothesis if the Wilcoxon signed rank test was used instead of the t-test. It is recommended that all soil chemical data sets be tested for normality. If the data are not normally distributed, the appropriate nonparametric test should be used rather than attempting to transform the data to normality. Several other nonparametric tests are presented.


Being caught out in a storm is every sailor's worst nightmare. Doubts and fears are hard to banish when a boat is being battered by the elements. Will the helmsman cope with the huge waves piling up behind? Can the rigging take the strain? Should you weather the storm or run for shelter? A storm needn't end in disaster, and being prepared for bad weather is the best way to ensure that. This book is packed with practical advice to help sailors cope, explaining how storms develop, how to avoid them, and survival tactics if they can't be avoided. It also includes information on design features for heavy weather, handling crew, what to do in emergencies, and much more. 'Thoroughly recommended, interesting and crammed with advice that would be well received by sailors young and old' Nautical Magazine 'Highly recommended' The Lifeboat


We tested the explanatory usefulness and policy relevance of Holling's (2001) "adaptive cycle" theory in exploring processes of "collapse," also called "release," and recovery in regional socialecological systems (SESs) in Zimbabwe and Australia. We found that the adaptive cycle is useful in recognizing changes in system behavior during the various phases. However, our small sample of cases did not generally show either the sequential passage of stages or the prerelease decline in resilience that adaptive cycle theory implies. In all cases, however, the reasons for releases were apparent with hindsight. On the other hand, our examples mostly supported the proposition that resilience is controlled by slowly changing variables. Although we found the adaptive cycle, and complex system theory in general, to be useful integrating frameworks, disciplinary theories are required to explain causes and effects in specific cases. We used theories linking distribution of political power to institutional change; to investment in natural, human, social, and physical capitals; and to access to financial capital. We explored patterns of change of these capitals before, during, and after release and reorganization. Both the patterns of change and relative importance of the different capitals during reorganization varied widely, but the importation of resources from broader scales was often a key to recovery. We propose that the resilience of most regional or national SESs can be explained in these terms. The capacity to self-organize emerged from our studies as a critical source of resilience. Although rebuilding this capacity at times requires access to external resources, excessive subsidization can reduce the capacity to self-organize. The policy implication is that cross-scale subsidization should end when self-organization becomes apparent, because subsidization can increase the vulnerability of the system as a whole. When the aim is to recover without changing the system fundamentally, the focus should be upon conserving or investing in the elements of capital critical for this. If the current system is not viable, it is necessary to invest in forms of capital that will enable fundamental change. It will also be necessary to stop investing in the capitals that maintained the unviable regime. The political difficulty of doing this is why SESs so often remain maladapted to current conditions and opportunities and eventually reach the point of collapse.


removed before the aluminium regime is commenced,and concurrently with the long-range aluminium plan there must be a reduced intake of phosphorus in the food. "Hyalgel" (or, failing this, "Aludrox") is best given in one ounce doses,with meals, proferably four times a daythat is, about 120 millilitres of the medicineper day. The drug is given with meals to allow maximum time of admixture with the food, the basic principle being that aluminium hydroxide reacts with the phosphatesin the food, precipitatingthem as the highly insoluble aluminium phosphate. Most of the phosphorusingested is therefore not absorbedand excretedby the kidneys, but leaves the body by' the bowel. Pyrah, Raper and Smith admit that, 'since the averageduration in this series is a little less than one year, the results are not so far of great significance. However, they are of great interestwhen taken in conjunction with the results reported by Shorr and 'Carter; these, though only moderately successful, were observedover periodsof up to sevenyears.


Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease is a chronic disease characterized by the recurrent ascension of some of the gastric contents in the esophagus. Indeed, gastric acid secreted by parietal cells and the gastric pepsin activity, but not the intestinal alkaline content, are the most important pathogenic factors of GER. Several pathophysiological mechanisms are involved, the most important of which is the imbalance of the redox state of the esophageal tissue. Indeed, several studies have shown that reflux esophagitis is mediated by oxygen-derived free radicals. In this chapter, we describe the pathophysiology and important pathways, especially acid gastric contents and reactive oxygen species involved in pathology of GER.


Boesenbergia rotunda , traditionally used to relieve stomach, abdomen, joint, muscle, and rheumatic pain was also reported for its antinociceptive effect on a mouse model. However, the possible pain relief effect of Boesenbergia rotunda ethanolic extract (BREE) via the inhibition to the neural pain pathway remains to be elucidated. This study investigated the inhibitory effect of BREE on compound action potentials (CAPs) and the possible involvement of the opioid receptors. The changes in the CAPs amplitudes of the frog's sciatic nerves were evaluated following the exposure to three different dosages of BREE (1, 3 and 10 mg/ml and morphine (3 mg/ml). In another set of experiment, the nerves were pretreated with a non-selective opioid receptor antagonist, naloxone (0.1 mg/ml), before exposing the nerve to BREE (1 mg/ml) to investigate the involvement of opioid receptors in the CAPs inhibitory mechanism. The outcome showed a reduction in the CAPs amplitudes when treated with BREE (1, 3 and 10 mg/ml) whereby the effect was reversible. The CAPs inhibition by BREE was absent when the opioid receptors were blocked. Taken together, these findings suggest that BREE-induced CAPs amplitude reduction involves the activation of opioid receptors.


The Korean Journal of Orthodontics enjoyed another great successful year in 2016. Hundreds of well-prepared manuscripts have been submitted from many countries for publication and, in reviewing of those manuscripts, our orthodontic experts have contributed in various ways to maintain a higher standard of the Journal. Among them, we hopes to extend our special thanks to the following international reviewers invited in 2016. Their expertise, dedication, and uncompromising demand for scientific sophistication were all instrumental to assuring the high quality expected by our readers.


Substantial changes, not only in the demographic composition of the Australian workforce, but also,in the roles and expectations of men and women, have led to organisational and employee attempts to reconcile work and non-work demands. Research suggests that when work-family balance practices are introduced they can greatly enhance organisational efficency. However factors embedded in the organisational culture can undermine these policies rendering them ineffective. This quantitative study examined the relationship between the perceptions of a supportive work culture and some work and non-work experiences of Australian male civil engineers. The research investigated the prevalence of organisational values supportive of work-life balances as well as the level of work-family conflict perceived by those engineers. This paper reports some initial results of the study. These indicated that male civil engineers experienced moderate levels of work-family conflict but do not perceive their organisations to be very supportive of employee nneeds to balance work and personal life. However those that reported a supportive work environment also reported higher levels of organisational commitment, greater job and life satisfaction as well as lower level of work-family conflict and lower intentions to quit. The implications of the findings for organisations employing civil engineers are discussed.


The purpose of the study is to examine why Farmers suicide is a burning issue in India. Farmers are life savers then why they are killing themselves. Is there any nexus between farmers' suicide and government actions. Agriculture sector data like GDP for 1960–2016, Share of agriculture sector to GDP and disparities in Agriculture and Non agriculture income also agriculture census data from 1951 to 2011 were obtained. Study depicts about what NSSO and NCRB data says about farmers' distress in India. Doubling farmers' income by 2022–23 could become the only panacea for thwarting farmers' suicide in India comparison of agricultural income with non agricultural income also another area of study. In this way farmers suicide issues challenges and remedies has been discussed.


The aircraft met with an accident on December 24, 2007. The control linkage and the bolt recovered from the wreckage were forwarded to the laboratory for investigation. From the evidences, it appears most probable that the bolt at the fork end of the lever connecting the tail plane link had come out in air, resulting in loss of control of the aircraft leading to the accident. A detailed analysis is presented in this report


Selection of the optimized bit is the most important factor to prevent the high Cost per meter and approaching the long interval drilling and ROP. The goal of this paper is to investigate the PDC bit performance in the 12 1⁄4" hole section From Hith-Eva.B for one of the gas fields in Iran. The interval is mainly composed of thick white anhydrite beds, dolomitic streaks and limestone. It was also observed traces of cherts in the layers of gray claystone throughout the interval. At this interval, the optimized one is PDC with 8 blades of 13mm cutter size, Nozzle Quantity: 8 and 30.7 square inches Junk Slot Area. The average $/m is good amount and ROP for this bit is 12 m/h respectively for drilling 4 various wells. The most important feature for this bit is related to hard formation with high compressive strength. The recommendations that must be noticed for this bit are manufactured based on matrix body with heavy cutter layout density, Force balanced design ensures less vibration while drilling, Special enhanced gauge protection and dynamic flow simulating technology is used for hydraulic design to ensure optimum bottom hole flow pattern and anti-balling and benefit for increasing ROP.


Using Earthquake Preparedness to Connect Churches to Corporately and Compassionately Serve Bellflower, California Tom Hocking Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2013 This project demonstrates the redemptive potential of a unified Church by connecting Bellflower Brethren with three other Bellflower congregations in a coordinated effort to upgrade the earthquake preparedness of their shared neighborhoods. It reveals that churches of differing theological traditions can work together for the greater good of their shared context. The project will deepen the spiritual vitality of participating church members as they serve together, helping them appreciate and maximize their shared unity in Christ. The participating members also will receive training in how to engage in a redemptive way the unsaved neighbors who live near their church's campus. Additionally, this project will provide opportunities for the members of these churches to reflect on what the Bible has to say about the importance of partnering with other Christians in the shared spaces of life. This discussion is presented in three major sections. Part One examines the demographics and unique features of the City of Bellflower and Bellflower Brethren to demonstrate how both are uniquely positioned for this earthquake-preparedness initiative. Part Two develops the biblical theologies of "place" and "partnership," which are foundational for this contextualized ecumenical project. Part Three offers a blueprint for the earthquake-preparedness missional initiative. That blueprint includes specific cognitive, affective, and behavioral goals and identifies the qualifications and responsibilities of the required facilitators. Finally, Part Three presents a timeline for the implementation of the initiative and describes the resources needed both to train volunteers and assess the effectiveness of the initiative. Content Reader: Joe Colletti, PhD Words: 245


One of the challenges for the Aluminium industry is to reduce the costs and lead times of the development of novel alloys. This can be achieved by applying increasingly sophisticated models to predict the microstructures and properties of novel chemistries and processing routes. At Corus RD&T, several physically based microstructure models and one process model have been developed and integrated into a Through Process Model (TPM). The TPM presented here is constructed from microstructural sub-models that predict precipitation, work-hardening, recovery and recrystallisation. Furthermore, there is a finite difference based process model that predicts the local process variables like strain, strain rate and temperature. The final sub-model translates the predicted microstructures into product properties. In this paper the integrated model has been applied to the production chain of brazing sheet (AA3103) covering all steps from homogenisation to the braze cycle as applied by the manufacturers of for instance heat exchangers. The model predictions have been verified by comparing them to the results of full-scale a plant trial. Microstructure and mechanical properties were experimentally characterized and predicted at various production steps. Due to the limited space, here, only the results of the through process modelling on microchemistry are presented. Nevertheless it can be concluded that the (fully predictive) results of the models compare well with those found experimentally which opens up the option to use such models for alloy development.


An improved control method of the buried-type interior permanent magnet (IPM) bearingless motors has been presented. It is shown that the conventional method is not applicable to this type of IPM bearingless motor for loaded conditions. In IPM bearingless motors, the armature reaction flux is present due to high magnetic permeance with thin permanent magnets and small airgap length. An increase in d-axis flux linkage is caused by armature reaction as a torque-component flux is increased. Thus, it is likely that magnetic saturation occurs in the stator teeth. In addition, a magnetic attractive force caused by the displacement force factor is dependent on the armature reaction flux. A new decoupling controller for the IPM bearingless motor considering magnetic saturation is proposed in this paper. It also considers the influence of magnetic attractive force variations. In addition, a new parameter identification method for the decoupling controller is also proposed. The new controller is found quite suitable to realize successful stable operation of the experimental IPM bearingless motor.


Research on food security and resilience has focused primarily on improving production of traditional crops and livestock (agriculture, crop science, genetics etc.). However significant losses occur after this initial production phase during storage, transportation, processing and preparation. Whilst increased competition and margin pressures within this sector are constant drivers for efficiency improvements and waste reduction, they can also have unintended consequences on the resilience of food manufacturers and their supply chains. This paper examines how current trends and initiatives could impact the resilience of the UK food manufacturing sector and their wider impacts on UK food security.


1. The ionic composition of the blood of insects, unlike that of vertebrates and most other invertebrates, shows a wide range of values, especially in regard to the physiologically important ions of sodium and potassium. 2. Preparations are described in which the effect of potassium on the active nerve and muscle properties of Locusta migratoria have been investigated. 3. The nerve axons are depolarized by high concentrations of potassium ions in the same way as vertebrate and crustacean axons. 4. The whole nervous system is surrounded by a sheath which is an effective barrier to the diffusion of potassium ions. 5. The muscle-fibre membrane is also depolarized by high concentrations of potassium ions in a similar way to muscle-fibre membranes of other animals which have been previously investigated. 6. The tracheolated membranes surrounding the muscles, and the close arrangement of the constituent fibres, delay the passage of potassium ions through the muscles. 7. It is predicted that the mechanical properties of the muscles of a herbivorous insect will be found to be subject to fairly marked changes if the blood potassium rises or falls to an appreciable extent.


Selecting pivot features that connect a source domain to a target domain is an important first step in unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA). Although different strategies such as the frequency of a feature in a domain (Blitzer et al., 2006), mutual (or pointwise mutual) information (Blitzer et al., 2007; Pan et al., 2010) have been proposed in prior work in domain adaptation (DA) for selecting pivots, a comparative study into (a) how the pivots selected using existing strategies differ, and (b) how the pivot selection strategy affects the performance of a target DA task remain unknown. In this paper, we perform a comparative study covering different strategies that use both labelled (available for the source domain only) as well as unlabelled (available for both the source and target domains) data for selecting pivots for UDA. Our experiments show that in most cases pivot selection strategies that use labelled data outperform their unlabelled counterparts, emphasising the importance of the source domain labelled data for UDA. Moreover, pointwise mutual information (PMI), and frequency-based pivot selection strategies obtain the best performances in two state-of-the-art UDA methods.


The basic polyamine spermine was tested for antibacterial activity at two pH levels by the modified cup method against a variety of gram-positive and gram-negative organisms isolated from urine. At pH 6.4, with concentrations ranging from 39 to 2,500 mug per 0.1 ml, there were no clear zones of inhibition seen with any of the gram-negative test organisms, although some adverse effect on growth within the area of the cylinder was noted in 36%. Three of 17 gram-positive strains were inhibited at this pH. Spermine was more active at pH 7.4, but even at the highest concentrations only 16% of the gram-negative and 47% of the gram-positive bacteria tested showed definite zones of inhibition. It is concluded that spermine probably plays little, if any, role in natural resistance to urinary tract infections in vivo.


This paper estimates the impact of fertility on mothers' labour supply in Australia, using exogenous variation in family size generated by twin births and the gender mix of siblings. Results show that having more than one child decreases labour market participation by 15.5 percentage points and hours worked by around 6 hours per week. Having more than two children reduces labour market participation by between 12 and 20 percentage points and hours worked by between 3 and 8 hours a week, depending on the instrument used. Interestingly, fathers also reduce both their labour market participation (by 10 percentage points) and their number of hours worked per week (by 4 hours) when having more than one child. Compared with the results obtained with the same methodology for other countries, the effects for Australia are large, which partly reflects the constraints on public childcare and the lack of a national paid parental leave scheme prior to 2011.


The development of neutralizing antibody (NAb) is important for the immunological control and clinical quiescence in horses infected with equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV). Over time, however, viral genotypes evolve that resist NAb, resulting in recrudescence of clinical disease. Our long-term goal to develop an effective vaccine for EIAV will be aided by identification of epitopes that facilitate viral immune escape from neutralizing antibody. There are eight variable regions, V1-V8, in the surface envelope glycoprotein (SU) of EIAV. Two neutralizing epitopes recognized by mouse monoclonal antibodies are found in V3, in a region termed the Principal Neutralizing Domain (PND). A third neutralization epitope is found in a conserved region of V5. Studies in our laboratory have shown that variation outside of these regions modify sensitivity to neutralization. In this study we investigated the role of variable regions V5, V6, and V7 in neutralization of EIAV. Six chimeric viruses that differed in V5, V6, and/or V7 sequences were created with the cell culture-adapted EIAV19 and the virulent wild-type EIAVwyo. These viruses were then tested in neutralization assays against a panel of serum collected from horses naturally or experimentally infected with EIAV. Preliminary results indicate the presence of an additional neutralization epitope in the V6 region. In addition, sensitivity to neutralization was modified by variation in V7 that added a potential N-linked glycosylation site. These results indicate that genetic changes outside the PND contribute to antigenic variation and immune escape. Further characterization of these epitopes could enhance design of safe and effective vaccines for EIAV. 1. Abstract


I have examined the adaptive significance of polyandry using the Australian field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. Previous studies of polyandry have examined differences in offspring production by females mated multiply to a single male or females mated multiply to different males. Here I combine this approach with a study of parentage of offspring produced in the later group. Females mated to two different males had a higher proportion of their eggs hatching than did females mating twice with a single male. Offspring fitness parameters were not effected. There was little evidence to suggest that females elevate their hatching success via fertilizing their eggs with sperm from genetically compatible males. Although the average paternity points towards random sperm mixing, there was considerable individual variation in sperm competition success. Patterns of parentage were consistent across females mating twice or four times. Sperm competition success was not related to offspring viability or performance. Thus, the notion that competitively superior sperm produce competitively superior offspring is not supported either. The mechanism underlying increased hatching success with polyandry requires further study.


During the past few decades, paleomagnetism has been used as a fundamental tool to assess kinematic models of curved orogenic systems around the world because of its great potential in quantifying vertical axis rotations. The Mediterranean area shows a large number of narrow arcs, defining an irregular and rather diffuse plate boundary. In Italy, two curved mountain belts are well documented: the Northern Apennines and the Calabrian Arc, which show distinct evolution and mode of arc formation. The Northern Apennines consists in thrust sheets with a regional structural trend that range from NW-SE in the northern part to N-S in the southern part. The origin of its curvature has been debated since a long time, as paleomagnetic results gave rise to contrasting interpretations. The accurate revision of the existing paleomagnetic data suggest that it is a progressive arc mainly formed during the Neogene. The Calabrian Arc represents one of the tightest arcs in the Mediterranean region. Paleomagnetic rotations highlight the peculiarity of the formation of the Calabrian Arc curvature and imply that either an oroclinal bending model or a progressive arc model cannot be simply applied to its formation. For the Calabrian Arc, the progressive curvature is framed within the space-time evolution of the Ionian subduction system. Citation: 2010. Curved orogenic systems in the Italian Peninsula: a paleomagnetic review. In: (Eds.) Marco Beltrando, Angelo Peccerillo, Massimo Mattei, Sandro Conticelli, and Carlo Doglioni, Journal of the Virtual Explorer, volume 36, paper 17, doi: 10.3809/jvirtex.2010.00239 Journal of the Virtual Explorer, 2010


ABSTRACT The potential of a solution-based hybridization assay using peptide nucleic acid (PNA) molecular beacon (MB) probes to quantify 16S rRNA of specific populations in RNA extracts of environmental samples was evaluated by designing PNA MB probes for the genera Dechloromonas and Dechlorosoma. In a kinetic study with 16S rRNA from pure cultures, the hybridization of PNA MB to target 16S rRNA exhibited a higher final hybridization signal and a lower apparent rate constant than the hybridizations to nontarget 16S rRNAs. A concentration of 10 mM NaCl in the hybridization buffer was found to be optimal for maximizing the difference between final hybridization signals from target and nontarget 16S rRNAs. Hybridization temperatures and formamide concentrations in hybridization buffers were optimized to minimize signals from hybridizations of PNA MB to nontarget 16S rRNAs. The detection limit of the PNA MB hybridization assay was determined to be 1.6 nM of 16S rRNA. To establish proof for the application of PNA MB hybridization assays in complex systems, target 16S rRNA from Dechlorosoma suillum was spiked at different levels to RNA isolated from an environmental (bioreactor) sample, and the PNA MB assay enabled effective quantification of the D. suillum RNA in this complex mixture. For another environmental sample, the quantitative results from the PNA MB hybridization assay were compared with those from clone libraries.


The article is an entry in a long-standing debate concerning the soundness of the state action principle in American constitutional law. According to that principle, exercises of private rights by private people are not subject to the constitutional rules that apply to the government, even though those private decisions are supported by the government's coercive power. For many decades, some scholars have argued that the principle is irrational and also inconsistent with the purpose of some of the constitutional norms that it limits, such as the First Amendment. The article defends the principle from its critics, a group that includes a number of important contemporary constitutional theorists. We maintain that the state action principle is a reasonable implementation of the Constitution's basic distinction between public and private decision makers, and that it is consistent with a plausible and we think persuasive, understanding of the particular constitutional rules that the critics maintain the state action principle arbitrarily limits.


This essay articulates the principles and practices of New Monetarism, our label for a recent body of work on money, banking, payments, and asset markets. We first discuss methodological issues distinguishing our approach from others: New Monetarism has something in common with Old Monetarism, but there are also important differences; it has little in common with Keynesianism. We describe the principles of these schools and contrast them with our approach. To show how it works, in practice, we build a benchmark New Monetarist model, and use it to study several issues, including the cost of inflation, liquidity and asset trading. We also develop a new model of banking.


Static analyses, as points-to analysis, are useful to determine and assure different properties about a program, such as security or type safety. While existing analyses are effective in programs restricted to static features, precision declines in the presence of dynamic language features, and even further when the system behavior changes dynamically. As a consequence, improved points-to sets algorithms taking into account such language features and uses are required. In this paper, we present and extension of the point-to sets analysis to incorporate the language abstractions introduced by context-oriented programming adding the capability for programs to adapt their behavior dynamically to the system's execution context. To do this, we extend WALA to detect the context-oriented language abstractions, and their representation within the system, to capture the dynamic behavior, in the particular case of the Context Traits JavaScript language extension. To prove the effectiveness of our extension, we evaluate the precision of the points-to set analysis with respect to the state of the art, over a set of context-oriented programs taken from the literature.


In this work, a novel genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed for the design of multiplierless linear phase finite impulse response (FIR) filters. The filters under consideration are of high order and wide coefficient wordlength. Both the single-stage and cascade form are considered. In a practical filter design problem, when the filter specification is stringent, requiring high filter order and wide coefficient wordlength, GAs often fail to find feasible solutions, because the discrete search space thus constructed is huge and the majority of the solution candidates therein can not meet the specification. In the proposed GA, the discrete search space is partitioned into smaller ones. Each small space is constructed surrounding a base discrete coefficient set which is obtained by a proposed greedy algorithm. The partition of the search space increases the chances for the GA to find feasible solutions, but does not sacrifice the coverage of the search. The proposed GA applies to the design of single-stage filters. When a cascade form filter is designed, for each single-stage filter meeting the filter specification generated during the course of GA, an integer polynomial factorization is applied. Design examples show that the proposed GA significantly outperforms existing algorithms dealing with the similar problems in terms of design time, and the hardware cost is saved in most cases.


A methodology based on Asymmetric Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (AsFlFFF) coupled with UV-Vis absorption spectrometry and ICP mass spectrometry (ICPMS) has been developed and applied to the study of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and dissolved species of silver in culture media and cells used in cytotoxicity tests. The effect of a nano-silver based product (protein stabilized silver nanoparticles ca. 15 nm average diameter) on human hepatoma (HepG2) cell viability has been studied. UV-Vis absorption spectrometry provided information about the nature (organic vs. nanoparticle) of the eluted species, whereas the silver was monitored by ICPMS. A shift towards larger hydrodynamic diameters was observed in the AgNPs after a 24 hour incubation period in the culture medium, which suggests a "protein corona" effect. Silver(I) associated with proteins present in the culture medium has also been detected, as a consequence of the oxidation process experimented by the AgNPs. However, the Ag(I) released into the culture medium did not justify the toxicity levels observed. AgNPs associated with the cultured HepG2 cells were also identified by AsFlFFF, after applying a solubilisation process based on the use of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) and Triton X-100. These results have been confirmed by transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) analysis of the fractions collected from the AsFlFFF. The effect of AgNPs on HepG2 cells has been compared to that caused by silver(I) as AgNO3 under the same conditions. The determination of the total content of silver in the cells confirms that a much larger mass of silver as AgNPs with respect to AgNO3 (16 to 1) is needed to observe a similar toxicity.


Statical analysis of infilled frame structure was conducted on 3D finite element models by means of software ANSYS10.0. Analyses on relevant parameters of infilled frame walls with or without openings have been carried out seperately, and it is found that the relevant stiffness of the model gradually increases with the ratio of the wall's width to its height. However, the effection of the width to height ratio of the wall on its structural lateral stiffness becomes much smaller when the value of the width to height ratio is larger than 1.5. The effection can be basically ignored when the width to height ratio is larger than 1.8. It is investigated that the ratio of posts inertia moment to beams has great influence on model's relevant stiffness. The relevant stiffness of frame structure decreases with the growth of the ratio of posts inertia moment to beams (I2/I1). For a long time, Filling Wall is widely used in multi-storey buildings and Civil Construction Structures, for its flexible architecture flats and large interior space, etc. However, because of the imperfection in analysis methods and the defects in model, pure- framework design is used in civil architectures, and the weight of filling wall is calculated by converting to the Line Load on the beam. According to the analysis of 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake[1], the early filling wall absorbs a large earthquake because of its stiffness, while its Adhesive Tensile Strength is low, which making the earthquake-damage to the filling wall is more serious than that to the frame structure. By analyzing the parameters in non-opening and opening filling wall and changing a given parameter, while keeping other parameters unchanged. This paper studies the influence on the Lateral Stiffness of Frame Structure, to provide Earthquake Fortifying Areas with reference data in the design process of filling wall.


Recent advances in batch (offline) reinforcement learning have shown promising results in learning from available offline data and proved offline reinforcement learning to be an essential toolkit in learning control policies in a model-free setting. An offline reinforcement learning algorithm applied to a dataset collected by a suboptimal non-learning-based algorithm can result in a policy that outperforms the behavior agent used to collect the data. Such a scenario is frequent in robotics, where existing automation is collecting operational data. Although offline learning techniques can learn from data generated by a sub-optimal behavior agent, there is still an opportunity to improve the sample complexity of existing offline reinforcement learning algorithms by strategically introducing human demonstration data into the training process. To this end, we propose a novel approach that uses uncertainty estimation to trigger the injection of human demonstration data and guide policy training towards optimal behavior while reducing overall sample complexity. Our experiments show that this approach is more sample efficient when compared to a naive way of combining expert data with data collected from a sub-optimal agent. We augmented an existing offline reinforcement learning algorithm Conservative Q-Learning with our approach and performed experiments on data collected from MuJoCo and OffWorld Gym learning environments.


Amphiphilic Janus particles in a flow are thought to experience a torque due to the asymmetry in slip at their surfaces. This effect has the potential to destabilise self-assembled Janus structures in flows due to the forces and torques applied to individual Janus nanoparticles. In this work, we investigate the stability of amphiphilic Janus dimers and homogeneous hydrophobic dimers in shear flow using molecular dynamics, and study possible break-up mechanisms. In particular, we consider the influence of the activation enthalpy and entropy on the thermal break-up rate of these dimers. Janus dimers are less stable than hydrophobic dimers, and increasing the applied shear rate has a greater effect on break-up for Janus dimers. Two mechanisms leading to increased break-up in shear flow are studied, namely the rotational speed of the dimers and the orientation of individual spheres in the dimers, and we propose a descriptive equation for calculation of the break-up rate. Overall, the results indicate that the stability of dimers in shear flow depends on the slip length at the spheres' surfaces, and that the slip length difference on Janus dimers could contribute to destabilisation.


GAs (Genetic Algorithms) and GP (Genetic Programming) are investigated for finding robust Technical Trading Strategies (TTSs). TTSs evolved with standard GA/GP techniques tend to suffer from over-fitting as the solutions evolved are very fragile to small disturbances in the data. The main objective of this thesis is to explore optimization techniques for GA/GP which produce robust TTSs that have a similar performance during both optimization and evaluation, and are also able to operate in all market conditions and withstand severe market shocks. In this thesis, two novel techniques that increase the robustness of TTSs and reduce over-fitting are described and compared to standard GA/GP optimization techniques and the traditional investment strategy Buy & Hold. The first technique employed is a robust multi-market optimization methodology using a GA. Robustness is incorporated via the environmental variables of the problem, i.e. variablity in the dataset is introduced by conducting the search for the optimum parameters over several market indices, in the hope of exposing the GA to differing market conditions. This technique shows an increase in the robustness of the solutions produced, with results also showing an improvement in terms of performance when compared to those offered by conducting the optimization over a single market. The second technique is a random sampling method we use to discover robust TTSs using GP. Variability is introduced in the dataset by randomly sampling segments and evaluating each individual on different random samples. This technique has shown promising results, substantially beating Buy & Hold. Overall, this thesis concludes that Evolutionary Computation techniques such as GA and GP combined with robust optimization methods are very suitable for developing trading systems, and that the systems developed using these techniques can be used to provide significant economic profits in all market conditions.


Pigeons received lights of varying wavelengths paired with sounds of varying frequencies; pecking was reinforced only at one stimulus combination. Then either the light or the sound was held constant at its reinforced value, while the other stimulus continued to vary. Subsequent tests showed that the constant stimulus had lost much of its control over the birds' responses.


In this paper, a new approach for extracting three-dimensional information from single camera vision system is presented. Only one plan view of the object will be obtained from a camera when the object is placed in the air, even if the threshold of the camera is varied. The result will be however significantly different when the object is located in a colour liquid. It is due to high absorption of the light in a colour liquid. The amount of absorption varies with the depth of the liquid. This allows different plan views related to the depth of an object to be produced by changing the threshold level of the camera. The different layers of the plan view can be combined to generate a 3-D map of the object. The vertical cross-section of the object at any point can be then obtained by processing this 3-D information.


Risk of serious abdominal injury in motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) is substantially reduced with the proper use of seatbelts [1]. However, a significant increase in occurrence of gastrointestinal tract injury exists with belt loading [2]. Crash-induced injuries of the stomach that occur in MVCs include gastric rupture and laceration [3]. To characterize the biomechanical response of the stomach associated with these failure modes, the multidirectional failure properties of cruciate tissue samples were investigated with high-rate biaxial stretch.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Background: Intramedullary nailing is the method of choice in the treatment of acute femoral shaft fractures in adults. It is associated with a high fracture union rate and a low complication rate. Nonunion as well as its other rare complications are treated by exchange femoral nailing. Objective: To look at the use of the Kuntscher nail in the management of femoral shaft fracture and to look at complications of Kuntscher nailing that require intramedullary nailing. Design: This was a ten year observational study. Setting: Ward 6D, Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Patients and methods: All patients admitted to ward 6D, Kenyatta National Hospital with fracture shaft of femur and treated by Kuntscher nailing between 1 st January 2001 and 30th April 2011 were followed up. Those who developed a complication requiring exchange femoral had the exchange femoral nailing performed by the authors. Results: Over the study period, four patients underwent exchange femoral nailing.The indications for the exchange nailings were infection,two cases, malrotation, bent nail, and long Kuntscher nails. Infection coexisted with malrotation and a long Kuntscher nail. Exchange involved using both the conventional Kuntscher nail and a Russel-Taylor interlocking nail. Conclusions: Exchange femoral nailing was undertaken in only 0.24% of Kuntscher nailings over this ten year's study period.


With bidentate alkoxy alkoxide and alkoxy alcohol ligands, respectively, a series of oxovanadium complexes in the oxidation state +4 is synthesized starting from oxovanadium(V) compounds. The reaction of two or more equivalents of 2-methoxyethanol with VOCl3 in n-hexane yields a mixture of the monomeric oxovanadium(IV) complex cis-[VOCl2(HOCH2CH2OMe-κ2O)(HOCH2CH2OMe-κO1)] and the alkoxide-bridged oxovanadium(IV) dimer syn-[VOCl(µ-OCH2CH2OMe-κ2O)]2, which are separated by fractionated crystallization. The same reaction with 2-ethoxy- and 2-iso-propoxyethanol gives only the alkoxide-bridged oxovanadium(IV) dimers anti-[VOCl(µ-OCH2CH2OR-κ2O)]2 (R = Et, iPr). All alkoxide bridged oxovanadium(IV) dimers are furthermore obtained as decomposition products of the chloride-bridged oxovanadium(V) complexes [VO(µ-Cl)Cl(OCH2CH2OR-κ2O)]2 (R = Me, Et, iPr) by Cl2 elimination and react inversely with Cl2 to the vanadium(V) compounds.


Dear Editor, Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are the leading cause of injuryrelated deaths globally. The road safety crisis has become a global epidemic comparable to diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis or HIV. About 1.35 million people globally die every year in road accidents, and more than one-fourth of these fatalities are estimated to happen in South Asia1. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank have noted that, by 2020, deaths from RTAs would become a main cause of mortality in many countries2. There has been an alarming rise in road traffic accidents in Bangladesh over the past few years, which has become a national problem. Every day about eight people die in RTAs, but the actual rate of fatality is likely to be higher3. In 2019, at least 5227 people were killed and 6953 injured in 4702 road accidents across the country4, with accompanying increased healthcare costs for Bangladesh. Moreover, there is a shortage of traffic laws in Bangladesh, which has the lowest traffic law compliance rate compared to other countries in South Asia5. Bangladesh loses 1.2 billion pounds per year due to RTAs, which is equivalent to 2% of GDP and all of the foreign aid it receives annually6. Over 70% of poor households report that their household income and food consumption decreased and 61% were forced to arrange a loan after a road death in Bangladesh7. RTAs in Bangladesh have yet to get proper attention, which is alarming and the time has arrived to confront this challenge. A common factor to reduce RTAs is the collection and use of comprehensive data. The interpretation of these data can lead to a better understanding of operational problems, accurate diagnosis of accident problems, and the development of remedial measures. However, there is a lack of adequate research on RTAs in Bangladesh and more research is needed to identify the actual causes and ways to reduce RTAs.


Throughout the era of socialist Yugoslavia, the Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera 'Torlak' in Belgrade was a well known producer and exporter of vaccines. After the dissolution of the country, it gradually lost its significance in both global and domestic vaccine markets. However, in Serbian public discourse, Torlak's vaccines are still remembered as of the highest quality. Many people would willingly vaccinate themselves or their children with Torlak's vaccines. But how do overly positive Yugoslav vaccination experiences influence vaccination narratives in contemporary postsocialist Serbia? To answer this question, I analysed electronic word of mouth from 2005 until 2020 from Serbia's main daily news sources. Public narratives on Torlak's vaccine production seem to be a local response and a consequence of global changes in the international vaccine market. Furthermore, this study shows that public calls for the revival of Torlak's vaccine production are part of wider public yearning for 'normal life' in postsocialist Serbia. In this respect, positive memories of Torlak vaccines do not serve as a strategy for dealing with the past. As a special form of Yugo-nostalgia and as a 'material embodiment' of normal life under socialism, narratives represent a strategy for dealing with the present: a therapy for dealing with the 'abnormality' of life in today's Serbia. Contemporary public vaccination attitudes are shaped both by collective memory of the production and administration of Torlak's vaccines in socialist Yugoslavia, and by narratives on Torlak's unfavourable current position. They also reflect wider opinions, hopes and yearning for the restoration of the country's political, health and economic institutions.


This paper concerns how retributive sentencing theory would have us sentence individuals who have been convicted of multiple offenses. A purely consecutive approach to sentencing would have multiple offenders serve the sentences for their crimes one right after the other, with no "bulk discounts." A purely concurrent approach would have multiple offenders serve only the sentence for their most serious offense. This would, in effect, grant multiple offenders substantial bulk discounts. I argue that neither approach is satisfactory and defend a moderate consecutivism, according to which multiple offenders should receive bulk discounts but should have to serve longer sentences than purely concurrent approaches would require of them. I then illustrate my proposal by considering different kinds of multiple offenders.


Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) gastropathy is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, which result in high costs to both the patient and society. The subset of patients who are at greatest risk for developing NSAID gastropathy continues to be better defined, but various risk factors, such as age and previous gastrointestinal tract disease, have been identified. In patients receiving older NSAIDs, the choice of NSAID should be based on differences in formulations at the lowest effective dose. Gastroprotective cotherapy should be instituted if treatment with older NSAIDs is continued in at-risk patients; misoprostol is currently the only agent approved for this indication. The impact of misoprostol on clinical gastrointestinal tract end points has recently been documented. Newer NSAIDs may have an improved safety profile over older NSAIDs; some have a clinically documented reduction in the incidence of adverse gastrointestinal tract effects. An understanding of these issues should enable the informed clinician to choose an NSAID on the basis of risk-benefit and costbenefit considerations. Arch Intern Med. 1996;156:1623-1628


This study aims to analyze the previous ijtihad fuqaha towards the designation of waqf land was aimed at the benefit of the people in accordance with the social conditions at that time. Likewise, the ijtihad of Indonesian scholars towards the development of waqf objects is for the benefit of mankind which is adapted to the needs and social settings at this time. Because basically the law is the articulation of human thought and activity in his life. Legislation is the main way of creating laws. Regulations is the main joint of the national legal system in Indonesia. The research method used by the author is normative juridical research. This scientific method approach is used to find the truth based on the theory of normative legal experts. In addition, legislation is a very effective instrument in law reform because of its binding and coercive legal force. Legal politics has a very important role in the formation of laws and regulations and Indonesian national law, considering that legal politics is used as a basic guide in the process of determining values, establishing and developing national law in Indonesia. Waqf as an institution derived from Islamic law plays an important role in the religious and social life of Muslims. In conclusion, the waqf legal regulations that are applied to Indonesian Muslims today can be found in book III of the Compilation of Islamic Law (KHI) and Act No. 41 of 2004 concerning Waqf.


Wouldn't it be great if there were a systematic method for derivation of non functional con- straints available at design time that made it possible to verify design and make implementa- tion a much clearer task? This kind of methods are needed since systems of increasing com- plexity has to be developed, and the cost for failing has proven to bee too high. The problem is how to derive the design time constraints into implementation time constraints, maintaining the traceability for the individual constraints, and early on get indications whether a project is about to fail or not. A method for implementation time constraint derivation has been developed and is presented in this thesis. Along with the basic method, several extensions are proposed. Evaluations of the practical usefulness of the method and the method's scalability have been done. To prove the method's importance in real development projects, a method for evaluation of the usability of this kind of methods has also been developed. The evaluation of the practicality shows that it is possible to find close to optimal solutions (within percent) in short time (within minutes). The evaluation of the scalability shows that the run time for finding implementable solutions scales polynomial with the size of the task graph. The evaluation of the usability shows that using the proposed method always leads to lower development cost than using an ad hoc method, in the case that the implementation is about to fail.


There is an accumulating literature over the last decade on collaborative learning in various types of settings, from more focussed learning tasks to open enquiry to problem-based projects. Project-based teamwork was valued as students were required to work together for knowledge sharing, knowledge building and problem-solving, and thus provide them with opportunities to be acculturated as members of a knowledge community. Over the last couple of years, it has also become extremely popular in Hong Kong schools to assign group projects to students. This was often justified on the grounds that project work promotes the information retrieval and self-directed learning abilities of students; collaborative learning is good and students should learn to collaborate with each other. However, as a pedagogical strategy, very little is known about the actual impact of group projects on learning in Hong Kong and whether the assumed advantages and expected learning outcomes do come about. Is group-based projects the panacea for the evils of teacher-centred delivery? This paper explores the question "what happens in project-based learning?" based on the observations made during the SLITS (Self-directed Learning with Information Technology Scheme) project. The project involved 40 groups of students working on projects of their own choice, each group being facilitated by a teacher. There were several key findings from this study: 1. Participation in such a project may not necessarily lead to deep learning; 2. Learning to collaborate in a group is in itself an important part of the problem-solving process; 3. There are different models of collaboration and only those models which engage the students continuously in interactive decision making during the learning process would lead to collaborative knowledge building; 4. Effective collaboration is in itself crucial for sustaining motivation and interest in the learning process; and 5. Facilitation is required for guiding both the collaborative as well as the enquiry processes. This paper will report on these findings as well as describe the key features of good collaboration and good facilitation identified through the study. Project-based Learning, Collaborative Learning and Knowledge Construction Project work is a complex cognitive and metacognitive process that requires both hands-on and minds-on learning, that is, concrete subject-based knowledge and abstract high-order thinking skills (Puntambekar and Kolodner, 1998). Project-based learning is action-oriented and focuses on doing something rather than learning about something (Moursund, 1999). In projects, students engage in a complex process of learning, enquiry and knowledge construction. The result is an artifact-a product of student knowledge that can be shared and critiqued. The resulting artifact becomes a product for review and reflection (Guzdial, 1998). Projects can bring with them real world contexts that involve issues and topics which, if properly chosen, help to situate


The study on the establishment and maintenance of the traceability on radon measurements at the Ningyo-toge Environmental Engineering Center of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA Ningyo-toge) is illustrated in this paper. The primary standard is a radium solution provided by the National Bureau of Standard (present the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in the USA, and the secondary standard is the method with gas-filled ionization chambers calibrated with the solution. The radon reference chamber is utilized to provide reference atmospheres in calibration experiments for other monitors. Through the intercomparison experiments among the international reference institutes, it was confirmed that the reliability and consistency of the secondary standard of the JAEA Ningyo-toge have been retained since 1984. It shows that the calibration and measurement techniques associated with the traceability system constructed have been maintained well at the JAEA Ningyo-toge. Since there is no reference field as a national standard and no method regulated by the Japanese Industrial Standard, this paper provides not only reliability and accuracy of the radon measurements at the JAEA Ningyo-toge, but also useful information for the standardization of radon measurements in Japan.


We present a method for the design of mismatched filters minimizing the interference from unwanted targets (point target or clutter) under the constraint of matched filtering loss. The method method seeks to find the optimum filter minimizing the interference and having a desired cross-correlation with a given transmitter waveform. The method is applied to get the minimum integrated side-lobe level filters and to optimize the receivers of the pulse diversity systems.


1. The present study examined whether primary cultured rat A2B5+ cerebrocortical oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC) were susceptible to Zn2+- and excitotoxin-induced cell death. 2. Initial pharmacological studies demonstrated the selective ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists' kainate and (S)-5-Iodowillardiine induced OPC death after 24-hour exposure. (S)-AMPA and L-glutamate only induced cell death in the presence of 100muM cyclothiazide (a selective AMPA receptor desensitisation blocker). The selective AMPA- receptor antagonists, GYKI 52466 and Evans' Blue, attenuated 300muM kainate-induced toxicity and therefore suggested OPC excitotoxic insult was via AMPA receptor activation. 3. Metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) involvement was also established as (S)-DBPG (100muM), a selective group I mGluR agonist, afforded significant (p<0.05) protection against 300muM kainate-induced toxicity. The selective mGIuR antagonist (S)-MCPG reversed the effects of (S)-DHPG protection. 4. OPC death was partially prevented by the broad-spectrum caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-fmk (100muM) at 6-hour and 24-hour paradigms. Hoechst 33342 staining revealed the presence of pyknotic nuclei following 6-hour kainate (300muM) exposure and Western Blotting using anti-caspase-3 antibody and anti-a-fodrin antibody indicated potential activation of the apoptotic executioner caspase-3. 300muM Kainate-induced OPC death did not appear to result in the activation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). 5. Zn2+ exposure over 24-hours resulted in OPC death (pECso 4.1+0.1). 100muM Zn2+- induced OPC death was not potentiated by 300muM kainate and Evans Blue afforded no protection. Nicardipine also failed to influence OPC viability. The lack of effect of kainate and nicardipine was confirmed by 65Zn2+ uptake studies. 6. 100muM and 300muM Zn2+-induced OPC death did not appear to result in activation of ROS. Hoechst 33342 staining revealed the presence of chromatin condensation with 300muM Zn2 (6-hour exposure). 100|muM and 300muM Zn2+ (24-hour exposure) was not influenced by Z-VAD-fmk or PD 150606. 7. Zn2+-induced OPC toxicity resulted in significant ATP depletion 6-hours following 300muM Zn2+ exposure (p<0.05) and was attenuated in the presence of 5mM pyruvate. These data therefore suggest the mechanisms of Zn2+ toxicity may involve disruption of the glycolytic cascade.


An electrical conducting copper coating on the glass substrate is deposited by means of wire exploding spray coating (WESC). The coating system basically consists of a high voltage pulsed power supply and a coating chamber. A pulsed voltage is produced by the power supply upon the metal wire in the coating chamber. The whole process is under taken at atmosphere pressure and room temperature. The coating is more uniform when a higher discharging voltage is applied, which means more energy is deposited into the copper wire in the identical time, so the wire will be destructed more efficiently. A 20 kV discharging voltage is applied in this paper for the balance of coating quality and harmless to the glass substrate. The coating samples are analyzed by a series of tests. The SEM photograph shows that the copper particles penetrate deeply into the glass substrate, which results in a strong adhesion of the coating, and the thickness of the coating is about 400 to 500 μm after sprayed three times. The electrical conductivity of the copper coating is about 1.837*104 1-1·m-1 tested by a Kelvin electric bridge, and the 50 Hz withstand voltage of the glass tube before and after the spray coating is about 40 kV and 38 kV, respectively, with no obvious decrease.


Background The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a major effect on the consumption of health care services. Changes in the use of routine diagnostic exams, increased incidences of postacute COVID-19 syndrome (PCS), and other pandemic-related factors may have influenced detected clinical conditions. Objective This study aimed to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the use of outpatient medical imaging services and clinical findings therein, specifically focusing on the time period after the launch of the Israeli COVID-19 vaccination campaign. In addition, the study tested whether the observed gains in abnormal findings may be linked to PCS or COVID-19 vaccination. Methods Our data set included 572,480 ambulatory medical imaging patients in a national health organization from January 1, 2019, to August 31, 2021. We compared different measures of medical imaging utilization and clinical findings therein before and after the surge of the pandemic to identify significant changes. We also inspected the changes in the rate of abnormal findings during the pandemic after adjusting for changes in medical imaging utilization. Finally, for imaging classes that showed increased rates of abnormal findings, we measured the causal associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19–related hospitalization (indicative of COVID-19 complications), and COVID-19 vaccination and future risk for abnormal findings. To adjust for a multitude of confounding factors, we used causal inference methodologies. Results After the initial drop in the utilization of routine medical imaging due to the first COVID-19 wave, the number of these exams has increased but with lower proportions of older patients, patients with comorbidities, women, and vaccine-hesitant patients. Furthermore, we observed significant gains in the rate of abnormal findings, specifically in musculoskeletal magnetic resonance (MR-MSK) and brain computed tomography (CT-brain) exams. These results also persisted after adjusting for the changes in medical imaging utilization. Demonstrated causal associations included the following: SARS-CoV-2 infection increasing the risk for an abnormal finding in a CT-brain exam (odds ratio [OR] 1.4, 95% CI 1.1-1.7) and COVID-19–related hospitalization increasing the risk for abnormal findings in an MR-MSK exam (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.9-5.3). Conclusions COVID-19 impacted the use of ambulatory imaging exams, with greater avoidance among patients at higher risk for COVID-19 complications: older patients, patients with comorbidities, and nonvaccinated patients. Causal analysis results imply that PCS may have contributed to the observed gains in abnormal findings in MR-MSK and CT-brain exams.


In this work we put constraints on the primordial non-Gaussianities by using recent Large Scale Structure (LSS) surveys. The importance of measuring the amplitude of the primordial non-Gaussianity lies in the fact that it is the most prominent observational probe of the very early Universe. The plethora of the inflationary scenarios describing the early Universe makes it urgent to decide between them and create a solid physical theory for this era. The different inflation models predict different amount of non-Gaussianity in the primordial density perturbations, which will seed the LSS we observe. Therefore here we use the clustering results of prominent LSS surveys in order to test if they have the statistical power to constrain the primordial non-Gaussianity. We review the clustering of the radio sources from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey at z ∼ 1. The non-Gaussianity measured is one of the best determinations coming from LSS in the literature, f_{NL}= 62 ± 27 (68% CL). We also use the full scale range clustering of the LRG's from the CMASS of SDSS BOSS DR8 at z = 0.55. By using the scale dependence of the bias, originating from the existence of primordial non-Gaussianity, we fit non-Gaussian models to the large scales of our sample in order to measure the f_{NL}. The resulting fits show that there is room in this sample for non-Gaussianity. Although due to the large scale uncertainty errors the standard ΛCDM model cannot be excluded. Recently the measured non-Gaussianity from the SDSS BOSS CMASS sample, −92 < f_{NL} < 398 at 95% CL, shows that the constraints are not tight. This was expected because of the large scale statistical uncertainties in the clustering of this sample. Our best-fit measured f_{NL} = 71 ± 11 (1σ) is consistent with their measurements. The H-a emitters from HiZELS at a narrow redshift selection z = 2.23 are a promising survey for non-Gaussianity, but in order to gain any interesting constraints we have to wait for a larger sample. Finally we analyze the clustering of the ∼ 30, 000 quasar sample of SDSS BOSS DR9 at an effective redshift of z_{eff}= 2.4. The results show an amplitude excess in the clustering of the sample at the large scales. By fitting non-Gaussian models to the correlation function we measure, f_{NL} = 135 ± 9 at 1σ CL. ΛCDM fits the clustering results until 40 h-1 Mpc. However we cannot exclude the standard cosmological model since at the large scales that constrain f_{NL}, our results remain sensitive to the effects of systematic errors. We check the quasar sample for any potential systematics and particularly for the systematic effects of galactic extinction, seeing, sky brightness and foreground stars. Similar to previous studies the largest systematic comes from the presence of foreground stars. When we correct for such systematics we find, f_{NL}= 63 ± 16 (1σ). The measured amount of non-Gaussianity after correcting for the systematic effects is consistent with the results coming from the NVSS radio sources sample. Since the large scale amplitude of the clustering results is directly affected by systematics, we need to apply a more sophisticated method for correcting such effects. In any case, our original results show that the quasar sample shows excellent potential for determining the amplitude of primordial non-Gaussianity.


This concept note is about the 'screening' of social incidents within the global mining industry. In this context, 'screening' refers to a preliminary step when an incident is assessed as to whether it warrants investigation. Identifying, investigating, and addressed social incidents in mining falls within the field of 'risk management'. Social incidents are often 'screened out' of investigation and risk management processes because they are not considered to be significant to the business. In doing so, mining companies are missing opportunities for corrective action and remedy. This concept note provides a rationale for improving social risk management, and a schematic for orientating the screening process so that significant incidents involving local communities and project-affected people are investigated and prioritised for learning. Investigative processes, which include techniques that range from fact-finding, other forms of evidence gathering and analysis, help to understand the conditions and causality of an incident. When learnings are incorporated into planning processes, investigation findings can be used to avoid future harm.


PMMA is one of the most versatile polymeric materials for applications in various technological areas including optics and electro-optics. While the current applications of PMMA in optics and electro-optics are limited by their linear optical behavior, we report here in this paper the unique nonlinear optical behavior of nanohybrids consisting of nanocrystalline TiO2 in PMMA. Transparent thin films of TiO2–PMMA nanohybrid on substrates were synthesized by in-situ sol–gel and polymerisation, assisted by spin coating. Using titanium isoproproxide (Ti-iP) as the starting material for nanocrystalline titania, together with methyl methacrylate and 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate, nanohybrids containing up to 80% Ti-iP in PMMA were successfully realized. The resulting nanohybrid thin films coated on quartz substrates are optically transparent and demonstrate large nonlinear optical behavior, with an ultrafast response of <1.5 ps. The highest two-photon absorption coefficient (β) and nonlinear refractive index (n2) are observed with the nanohybrid thin film of 60 wt% Ti-iP in PMMA, as confirmed by the Z-scan technique.


This paper describes the development and evaluation of a novel equivalent fluid circuit model capable of accurately predicting the performance of a load-type bi-stable supersonic fluidic oscillator. The model utilizes some aspects of previous models that are available in the literature. It is based on a quasi-steady assumption and includes a special non-linear element to account for certain aspects of the oscillator switching mechanism in addition to the traditional fluid resistance, capacitance, and inductance. A new technique for modelling a junction in a fluid duct network is also presented. Unlike previous studies which made use of empirical experimental data or analytical assumptions to estimate the fluid element parameter values and form of the non-linearity, the current method utilizes steady, computational fluid dynamic techniques to evaluate the parameters and non-linearity which cannot be accurately determined analytically. A simplification of the model is also used to establish the criteria for oscillations to exist. The transient solution of the model equations is then shown to give good quantitative agreement with previous experimental values of the oscillation frequency and amplitude. The model is also capable of predicting certain operational limitations and other trends in the data. Finally, the usefulness and robustness of the model are also demonstrated by showing the ease with which a parameter and design changes can be investigated.


Summary
1. The ability to identify key ecological processes is important when solving applied problems. Increasingly, ecologists are adopting Akaike's information criterion (AIC) as a metric to help them assess and select among multiple process-based ecological models. Surprisingly, however, it is still unclear how best to incorporate AIC into the selection process in order to address the trade-off between maximizing the probability of retaining the most parsimonious model while minimizing the number of models retained.

2. Ecological count data are often observed to be overdispersed with respect to best-fitting models. Overdispersion is problematic when performing an AIC analysis, as it can result in selection of overly complex models which can lead to poor ecological inference. This paper describes and illustrates two approaches that deal effectively with overdispersion. The first approach involves modelling the causes of overdispersion implicitly using compound probability distributions. The second approach ignores the causes of overdispersion and uses quasi-AIC (QAIC) as a metric for model parsimony.

3. Simulations and a novel method that identifies the most parsimonious model are used to demonstrate the utility of the two overdispersion approaches within the context of two ecological examples. The first example addresses binomial data obtained from a study of fish survival (as related to habitat structure) and the second example addresses Poisson data obtained from a study of flower visitation by nectarivores.

4. Applying either overdispersion approach reduces the chance of selecting overly complex models, and both approaches result in very similar ecological inference. In addition, inference can be made more reliable by incorporating model nesting into the selection process (i.e. identifying which models are special cases of others), as it reduces the number of models selected without significantly reducing the probability of retaining the most parsimonious models.

5. Synthesis and applications. When data are overdispersed, inference can be improved by either modelling the causes of overdispersion or applying QAIC as a metric for model parsimony. Inference can also be improved by adopting a model filtering procedure based on how models are nested. The general simulation approach presented in this paper for identifying the most parsimonious model, as defined by information theory, should help to improve our understanding of the reliability of model selection when using AIC, and help the development of better selection rules.


ECVAM initiated its workshop programme in 1994, to enable it to become well informed about the state of the art of non-animal test development and validation, and about the possible incorporation of alternatives into regulatory requirements for safety testing. Fifty-one such workshops had been held on specific topics, up to 2002. In these workshops, the current status of in vitro tests and their potential uses were reviewed and recommendations were made as to the best ways forward to progress and enhance the use of in vitro methods. Reports for 46 of these workshops have been published in ATLA. Most of the workshops focused on in vitro replacement methods, although an increasing number have dealt with reduction and refinement. The recommendations in the ECVAM workshops have been progressed further by: a) the formation of ECVAM task forces; b) the organisation of further workshops; c) the activities of scientific committees; d) the provision of earmarked research funding; and e) the conduct of validation studies. Examples of each of these activities are discussed. Some individual workshops are covered in more detail, and several recommendations that have so far not been acted on are also considered. The workshops and their reports have had a substantial effect on the development and implementation of alternative methods, and have been a major factor in contributing to the success of the first nine years of ECVAM's existence. It is strongly recommended that ECVAM continues to organise workshops and to publish their findings, and suggestions are made for topics for future workshops.


The purpose of this investigation was to correlate oropharyngeal swallow efficiency (OPSE), a summary measure of swallowing function, with its component variables. Videofluorographic assessment of oropharyngeal swallow resulted in the measurement of multiple measures of swallow function in five patient populations and a group of normal volunteers. In total, 759 swallows were studied in 149 persons. Specific dimensions of impairment were identified in the patient groups. Multiple regression analyses were used to relate multiple component variables to OPSE. In patient groups with distinct swallow impairments, OPSE was shown to be representative of the dimensions of impairment. In patient groups with limited impairment and in normal volunteers, the strongest correlates of OPSE were bolus transit times. In all groups, at least four variables were significantly related to OPSE and the squared multiple correlation coefficients ranged from 76% to 89%. We conclude that oropharyngeal swallow efficiency is a representative summary measure of swallowing function across populations characterized by a wide range of swallowing impairment.


Results from a study of mesospheric turbulence, using a VHF radar with a height resolution of 150 m, are presented. Three types of turbulence structures have been identified: blobs, sheets and layers. Blobs and sheets occurred sporadically, predominantly at heights of 60–70 km. Above 70 km, layers thicker than 1 km were dominant, which were advected with the background wind. Velocity fluctuations in these structures were proportional to their thickness. The role of partial or Fresnel reflections is discussed and possibility of diffuse reflections below 70 km is noted. Problems in estimating transport coefficients from radar data are outlined.


The purpose of this work was to distribute the hand grip force between the muscles of the hand by means of a non-linear model solved with static optimization. The force was measured in three pairs of flexion angles corresponding to the shoulder and elbow. (90°-90°, 135°-45°, and 160°- 30). A total of 22 participants completed the study, 6 men and 6 women between 18 and 25 years old. A MicroFET® handgrip dynamometer (0-200 pounds) and an adjustable angle arm support were used during the data collection. The moment arms of the forearm were predicted using a model proposed in the literature. The distribution of force was modeled as a non-linear problem of static optimization and solved with the fmincon optimizer of the Matlab® optimization toolbox. The results obtained in the calculation of the moment arm show that they decrease as the angle of flexion of the elbow decreases. The static optimization model used for the three scenarios related to the flexion angle of the elbow always assigned muscle force to the extensor muscles.


Stadiums like those used for sporting or concert events, are distinct from other civil engineering structures due to several different characteristics. Some challenges mainly originate from the interaction with the human factor, as stadiums are subjected to both synchronized and random motion of large crowds. The investigations in the literature on this topic clearly state that stadiums designs are in urgent need of more reliable load quantification and modeling strategies, deeper understanding of structural response, generation of simple but efficient human-structure interaction models and more accurate criteria for vibration acceptability. Although many aesthetically pleasing and technologically advanced stadiums have been designed and constructed using structurally innovative methods, recent research on this field still calls for less conservative and more realistic designs. This article aims to highlight the recent advances in this field and to provide a follow up to the 2008 literature review on vibration serviceability of stadiums structures. The article will also discuss new sensing and monitoring techniques on load-time history measurements and their regeneration, as well as crowd motion, stadium health monitoring, and human comfort analysis. Operational effects of crowds on the dynamic properties are also discussed. The paper concludes with a forward look on the recommended work and research for dynamic assessment of stadiums.


Introduction: The increasing rate of prevalence of diabetes in the last 50 years make concerns on the remarkable dangers of diabetes for the population health. Objectives: Regarding the importance of changing the serum creatinine level over time and limited data and information in Iran about the examining functional changes of creatinine level in diabetic patients, we designed this study for analyzing longitudinal data on serum creatinine. Patients and Methods: Around 7778 cases, is gathered from suffering diabetes (type 2) and at least two times referral to the department during the survey period. To consider the ethical issues, only the information related to the biological correlation of the patients, without mentioning their name and features, has been used. Variables like sex, age, period of diabetes (the time distant between the diagnosis of the disease and the time of individuals participation in the survey), the type of treatment (the type of treatment they have achieved when they referred department), fasting blood sugar (FBS), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, triglyceride, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) have been considered as independent variables and creatinine as dependent variable. Results: After modifying time and other variables in the final model, only associations between changes of creatinine level with sex, age, period of diabetes, FBS and BMI remained significant. Conclusion: This study showed the impact of gender, blood glucose control and weight on renal function and finally its effect on the survival of diabetic patients. Core tip In a-10-year follow-up of 7778 diabetic cases, we found only associations between changes of creatinine level with gender, age, period of diabetes, FBS and BMI remained significant. Citation: Hosseini SM, Amini M, Roosta S, Beigrezaei S. Trends of serum creatinine among patients with type 2 diabetes in Isfahan endocrine and metabolism research center; a longitudinal study. J Prev Epidemiol. 2017;2(1):e01.


Magnetosonic waves, also known as equatorial noise emission, were found to have discrete frequency structures, which is consistent with instability caused by proton ring distribution. Nonetheless, nondiscrete structure, i.e., a broadband spectrum over a continuous frequency range, has been reported. We investigate the question whether proton ring distribution can generate nondiscrete spectra for perpendicularly propagating magnetosonic waves. We propose discrete and nondiscrete characteristics of the local instability for explaining the observation of discrete, continuous, and mixed spectra. The criterion for transition from discrete and continuous instability is given, γ >∼ Ωh/2, where γ is wave growth rate and Ωh is proton cyclotron frequency. The condition is verified by particle‐in‐cell simulation using more realistic electron‐to‐proton mass ratio and speed of light than in previous studies. Such criterion of generating a continuous spectrum can be tested against simultaneous in situ measurement of wave and particle. We also find that the modes at low Ωh harmonics, including the fundamental Ωh, can be still excited through nonlinear wave‐wave coupling, even when they are neutral modes (γ = 0) according to the linear kinetic theory. Comparison with magnetosonic waves in cold plasma limit and electromagnetic ion Bernstein mode is also discussed.


Froth flotation is an adsorptive-bubble separation method based on the selective attachment of particles on the surfaces of gas bubbles passing through a suspension. Reagents as collectors, frothers and pH modifiers are added to perform specific roles to facilitate and to improve the separation. In the present work the process of apatite flotation in column has been investigated experimentally. The influence of the reagents (collector and frother dosages and interactions), percentage of solids and pH value on the column flotation of coarse particles of apatitic ore was analyzed. Percentage of solids was the variable that more influenced on the apatite recovery and the P2O5 grade was more affected by varying pH. The best results were achieved by using lower pH values and lower pulp density. Frother addition only had significant effect for lower collector dosage.


This guide presents selected print and electronic resources in dental, legal, and medical office administration available through the Camosun College Library and open access web sites.


This work describes the interactions of molten bismuth with other low-melting point metals (Sn, In, Ga and Zn) under sonication. Binary combinations of bismuth and one of these metals were melted together in hot silicone oil and irradiated with ultrasonic energy to form micro/nano alloy particles. The morphology, composition and crystal structure of these particles were analyzed. It was found that bismuth forms metal matrix composites with tin and zinc, intermetallic compounds with indium and an alloy with gallium. We also followed the structural changes in the system by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and electron microscopy.


For radiation protection of the environment, a voxel-based frog phantom was developed using cryosection data, which have been available on a Web site of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The voxel-based frog phantom includes 16 segmented organs/tissues: brain, blood vessel, duodenum, eye, heart, ileum, kidneys, intestine, liver, lung, nerve, skeleton, soft tissue, spleen, stomach, and stomach contents. The voxel-based frog phantom has a mass of 3.37 � 10 � 2 kg. The dimensions are 7:1 ðlength Þ� 3.3 ðwidth Þ� 2.4 ðheightÞ cm 3 . The voxel size is 0.0175 � 0.0175 � 0.0175 cm 3 .I n this paper, the voxel-based frog phantom is applied to evaluating photon absorbed fractions (AFs) in the segmented organs/tissues. The sources were assumed to be monoenergetic in the photon energy range from 10 keV to 4 MeV. The radiation transport was simulated using the Monte Carlo method. Consequently, it was confirmed that the photon AFs for organ self-absorption are dependent on the masses of the source/target organs. It would appear that the photon AFs for organ self-absorption are expressed by a continuous function of photon energy emitted by the source. The photon AFs for organ crossfire might be subject to the geometry effect, such as size and shape of source/target and distance between the source and target.


The agonist-induced androgen receptor NH2- and COOH-terminal (N/C) interaction is mediated by the FXXLF and WXXLF NH2-terminal motifs. Here we demonstrate that agonist-dependent transactivation of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and probasin enhancer/promoter regions requires the N/C interaction, whereas the sex-limited protein gene and mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat do not. Transactivation of PSA and probasin response regions also depends on activation function 1 (AF1) in the NH2-terminal region but can be increased by binding an overexpressed p160 coactivator to activation function 2 (AF2) in the ligand binding domain. The dependence of the PSA and probasin enhancer/promoters on the N/C interaction for transactivation allowed us to demonstrate that in the presence of androgen, the WXXLF motif with the sequence433WHTLF437 contributes as an inhibitor to AR transactivation. We further show that like the FXXLF and LXXLL motifs, the WXXLF motif interacts in the presence of androgen with AF2 in the ligand binding domain. Sequence comparisons among species indicate greater conservation of the FXXLF motif compared with the WXXLF motif, paralleling the functional significance of these binding motifs. The data provide evidence for promoter-specific differences in the requirement for the androgen receptor N/C interaction and in the contributions of AF1 and AF2 in androgen-induced gene regulation.


Phylogenetic analyses based on 79 ribosomal proteins of 38 metazoans, partly derived from 6 new expressed sequence tag projects for Ectoprocta, Entoprocta, Sipuncula, Annelida, and Acanthocephala, indicate the monophyly of Bryozoa comprising Ectoprocta and Entoprocta, 2 taxa that have been separated for more than a century based on seemingly profound morphological differences. Our results also show that bryozoans are more closely related to Neotrochozoa, including molluscs and annelids, than to Syndermata, the latter comprising Rotifera and Acanthocephala. Furthermore, we find evidence for the position of Sipuncula within Annelida. These findings suggest that classical developmental and morphological key characters such as cleavage pattern, coelomic cavities, gut architecture, and body segmentation are subject to greater evolutionary plasticity than traditionally assumed.


Transitioning from closed courses and educational resources to open educational resources (OER) and open courseware (OCW) requires considerations of many factors beyond simply the use of an open licence. This paper examines the pedagogical choices and trade-offs involved in creating OER and OCW. Eight factors are identified that influence openness (open licensing, accessibility and usability standards, language, cultural considerations, support costs, digital distribution, and file formats). These factors are examined under closed, mixed and most open scenarios to relatively compare the amount of effort, willingness, skill and knowledge required. The paper concludes by suggesting that maximizing openness is not practical and argues that open educators should strive for 'open enough' rather than maximal openness.


A major limitation of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells is a short electron diffusion length, which is due to fast recombination between electrons in the TiO2 electron-transporting layer and holes in the 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) hole-transporting layer. In this report, the sensitizing dye that separates the TiO2 from the Spiro-OMeTAD was engineered to slow recombination and increase device performance. Through the synthesis and characterization of three new organic D-π-A sensitizing dyes (WN1, WN3, and WN3.1), the quantity and placement of alkyl chains on the sensitizing dye were found to play a significant role in the suppression of recombination. In solid-state devices using Spiro-OMeTAD as the hole-transport material, these dyes achieved the following efficiencies: 4.9% for WN1, 5.9% for WN3, and 6.3% for WN3.1, compared to 6.6% achieved with Y123 as a reference dye. Of the dyes investigated in this study, WN3.1 is shown to be the most eff...


We have developed an organosilane-directed growth-induced etching strategy to prepare hollow periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) nanospheres with perpendicular mesoporous channels and a clear hollow interior as well as an amphiphilic framework. This facile strategy is simple, efficient, and highly controllable. Silica nanospheres were utilized as hard templates to obtain hollow PMO nanospheres through a one-step route, with the structure parameter highly controlled by adjusting the synthesis conditions. Different organosilanes were used to obtain bridged hollow PMO nanospheres of different organic groups and showed different directed capacities. The integrity of the bridged organic group was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations showed that the growth of the PMO shell and the dissolution of the silica nanosphere core occurred simultaneously for each nanosphere, while 29Si NMR spectra revealed that the dissolved silica species from the silica nanospheres transformed into PMO shells by co-condensation with hydrolyzed organosilane oligomers. As a result, the obtained hollow nanospheres were amphiphilic, which can even be used as a particle emulsifier for O–W or W–O emulsion in various systems. These materials can also be served as an efficient sorbent for removal of hydrophobic contaminants in water. Using the proposed formation mechanism, this strategy can be extended to transform silica-coated composite materials into yolk–shell structures with a functional interior core and a perpendicular mesoporous amphiphilic shell. As a nanoreactor, the –Ph– bridged amphiphilic shell showed a faster diffusion rate for organic reactants in water than the hydrophilic silica shell, and thus better catalytic activity for reduction of 4-nitrophenol.