Abstract Objective: To determine whether inflammatory cytokine concentrations (Il-1β, Il-6, Il-8 and G-CSF) in umbilical cord blood are useful predictors of an early-onset neonatal infection. Material and methods: 240 women and their newborns were enrolled in our study and umbilical cord blood samples collected from neonates (n = 240) were subjected to ELISA for Il-1β, Il-6, Il-8 and G-CSF. Clinical outcome of the neonates was followed and documented. Placenta histology was also available in majority of the cases (n = 195). Results: Early-onset neonatal infection was diagnosed in 5.4% of neonates (13/240) and placental examination showed histologic chorioamnionitis in 17.9% (35/195). Both Il-1β and Il-6 cord blood concentrations were elevated in association with histologic chorioamnionitis (Il-1β – 2.7 vs. 2.1 pg/ml, p < 0.05 and Il-6 15.6 vs. 12.8 pg/ml, p < 0.005). Only Il-6 was elevated (16.0 vs. 13.2 pg/ml, p < 0.05) in neonates with early-onset bacterial infections. ROC analysis showed acceptable diagnostic performance of Il-6 in the identification of acute histologic chorioamnionitis and clinical neonatal infection. Conclusion: Il-6 in umbilical cord blood seems to be a promising predictor for early-onset neonatal infections.


Even though school principals have many responsibilities, dealing with destructive behavior such as bullying among students is something that cannot be avoided. Scant attention has been paid especially to sources of influence on school principal's self-efficacy regarding to dealing with bullying and what actually is their ability when they deal with this type of problem. The purpose of this study is to identify the overall source of influence that contributes to school principal's self-efficacy and what are the levels of their self-efficacy in terms of dealing with bullying in secondary schools. Responses to sources of influence and their sense of efficacy when dealing with bullying among students in secondary schoolswere sought from 428 in-service  school principals across Malaysia by sending (mailed) questionnaires to respective respondents. Based on the result of this study the level of school principals' self-efficacy in terms of dealing with bullying in secondary school was moderate. Although  there is no documented record of local research that examine the sources of influence onschool principals' self-efficacy in dealing with bullying among students, one clear finding that arises from this study is that, mastery experience is prominent predictor ofschool principals self-efficacy in dealing with bullying among students in secondary schools. This  result is in line with Bandura's finding (1977, 1997) where he had identified that mastery experience as the most important determinant of  self-efficacy.Should there any developmental program for school principal  regarding the issue of bullying among students in secondary schools, it is recommended that it should explicitly address this particular source of  influence with specific types of training and educational experiences that focus on mastery building through cognitive and meta cognitive strategies as well as cultivating self-regulation competencies.


This study explored the reasons for the failure of accreditation (i.e., APR, ABC) in Canadian public relations and communications. An extensive mixed-methods research design (22 in-depth interviews, 231 completed surveys, and content analysis of 600 job postings) was used to determine both the attitudes towards and tangible benefits of accreditation. It was found that the majority of practitioners are investing in applied graduate degrees (i.e, MCM, MPR, MAPC, MPC) rather than accreditation. The CPRS and IABC designations have been available in Canada since 1968, however, as of 2014 only 793 practitioners possess them. Conversely, applied graduate programs for mid-career practitioners have graduated 973 practitioners since 2001. Academic credentials and experience in public relations and communications are the most important qualifications to the industry, employers, and practitioners. The APR and ABC designations have failed to demonstrate value and relevance to the practice over the past four decades.


In recent years, the development of FinTech has brought profound changes to the banking industry. In the field of inclusive finance, the use of the latest IT technologies such as big data, cloud computing, AI and blockchain has given new solutions to the financial constraint problems of SMEs. For this reason, as representatives of traditional financial institutions, commercial banks have also begun to apply financial technology actively and have started strategic transformation. At the same time, people are generally concerned about the extent to which FinTech can empower commercial banks, and what changes will be brought to the market structure.In the process of transformation, large banks represented by state-owned banks and national joint-stock banks often invest hugely and comprehensively, relying on their advantages in capital, technology and talents. However, small and medium banks have comparative advantages in shorter decision-making chains and more flexible responsiveness. Therefore, to which side will the use of FinTech bring more help is a question worth discussing. Using Python tools to crawl web pages, this paper constructs the FinTech application index of commercial banks, and uses data from 261 Chinese banks in 2010-2018 to conduct research. The results show that, large commercial banks have significantly reduced their own risk levels and improved risk tolerance ability after applying FinTech, and the improvement is better than that of small and medium banks.In addition to the impact on individual banks, FinTech will also change the structure of the market. FinTech application has reduced the information asymmetry between banks and enterprises, and narrowed the gap between large banks and small and medium banks in their ability to acquire soft information. In the meanwhile, by virtue of advantages in lower capital cost, large banks are therefore able to identify and more easily attract SMEs with relatively low risks, thus forming a "dimensional reduction" on small and medium banks in the field of inclusive finance, which has brought negative impacts on small and medium banks. The results show that by the application of FinTech, large banks' loans to SMEs have increased significantly, but the risks have not changed significantly. In contrast, small and medium banks' loans to SMEs have not increased significantly, but the risks have increased significantly. This phenomenon reflects the loss of high-quality customers in small and medium banks and the existence of market crowding-out effect.The main contributions of this paper are as follows: Firstly, based on the existing literature, we use Python tools to improve the "text mining method", constructing the FinTech application index that is detailed to the individual level of commercial banks; Secondly, for the first time we quantitatively examine the heterogeneous impact of FinTech on traditional banks and the interaction between different banks from the perspective of commercial banks applying FinTech; Thirdly, for the first time we quantitatively examine the crowding-out effect between large banks and small and medium banks by applying FinTech in the field of inclusive finance. This paper has innovations in the index construction and mechanism testing, and is meaningful to the commercial banks that use FinTech for digital transformation, as well as competition and structural changes in banking industry caused by FinTech development.


Johann Rodolph Von Valltravers was one of those Anglo'Swiss citizens of the eighteenth century who performed such a useful purpose in effecting a link of cultural exchange between the two countries. Less well-known than his compatriots Fuseli, Planta, Haldimand, or De Luc, Valltravers surpassed them in the relations which he established with many of the greatest scientists and men of letters of his day. It is unlikely that his qualifications would be found sufficient at the present time for election into the Fellowship of the Royal Society, but there is little reason to doubt that at the time when he lived, which, from the point of view of science was very fallow, he was rightly elected not only by this Society but also by many others all over the world. His life may therefore serve as a sample of the sort of existence lived by many who did their best to keep up the tradition of the promotion of natural knowledge, after Newton's greatness had made most men seem small, and before Darwin had again raised human stature.


Blood-brain barrier breakdown occurring in glioblastoma is a temporary condition often denounced by contrast enhancement upon neurological examination. This condition is useful to increase the intracranial concentration of anti-cancer drugs. The prognosis of glio- blastoma and its resistance to conventional therapy has stimulated interest in the search of biomarkers able to unmask and monitor brain barrier breakdown to calibrate the treatment. Despite numerous studies had evidenced the role of circulating tumor and endothelial cells to monitor brain tumor, the mechanism of tumor cells release in the bloodstream and its prognostic significance remain unclear. In this chapter, we want to furnish an update on the relationship between the vascular damage occurring during glioblastoma disease and the reactivity of innate immunity focusing on the cytokines network. Our aim is answer to the question: when and why the liquid biopsy is useful in glioblastoma disease.


In the present study hydrodistilled essential oil and total methanol extracts of Tanacetum argenteum subsp. flabellifolium have been evaluated for their antimicrobial and antioxidant effects. The chemical composition of the oil and the crude extract were determined by GC/FID, GC/MS and LC/DAD/ESI-MS systems respectively. β-thujone (47.1%), α-pinene (19.1%) and α-thujone (10.5%) were the main compounds of the essential oil while the 5-Ocaffeoylquinic acid, 1,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 4,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid were identified as flavonoid content of the crude extract. The oil and the methanol extract were demonstrated moderate antimicrobial effects (MIC range; 0,062-2,0 mg/mL) against 21 different pathogenic micro organism. Total phenolic content was determined as 63 mg GAE in g extract and the DPPH radical scavenging effect was determined as 0.16 mg/mL (IC50) and TEAC was determined as 0.21mMol.


A low-power fully integrated synthesizer for Bluetooth applications is presented. The circuit with quadrature output signals at 2.45 GHz and 15-mW power dissipation has been designed in a digital 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process with 1.8-V supply voltage. The only external component is a 64-MHz crystal. Measurements have been performed on packaged samples mounted on an FR-4 board and show that the Bluetooth requirements are met. The measured phase noise is below -120 dBc/Hz at 3-MHz offset, and the resulting residual frequency modulation is 7.4-kHz rms. The tuning range consists of an analog and digital tuning mechanism, resulting in more than 15% overall tuning range.


Purpose of review Immunotherapy is the only treatment that may alter the natural course of disease. From that perspective, treatment in children might be very valuable. An overview of the recent literature is discussed. Recent findings The recent literature shows a shift from injectable immunotherapy to noninjectable routes of administration. A systematic review focussing on all forms of immunotherapy in children indicates that there is a lack of high-quality studies to provide evidence for the use of subcutaneous immunotherapy; moreover, evidence for the use of sublingual immunotherapy is still a matter of debate in spite of previous positive meta-analyses. New forthcoming studies may be promising. The 10 years follow-up of the Preventive Allergy Treatment study further underwrites the preventive properties of immunotherapy. Summary Taking the potential preventive action of immunotherapy into account, there is a case to start treatment early in life. However, evidence of the efficacy should be provided by large randomized controlled trials. The lack of high-quality studies with subcutaneous immunotherapy in children requires new studies to fill the gap. The current variation in clinical trials hampers the formulation of clear-cut recommendations on how to perform sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) in terms of doses, doses schemes, target populations, allergens and specific products from manufacturers.


Objective: The aim of the research inquiry was to find out about fake news, the manipulation of its recognition by social media users with the question formulated as follows: what might be the social resistance to fake news as a media product in the post-truth era? The hypothesis was put forward that fake news causes a lack of social resistance to fake news despite the declared knowledge of users regarding fake news. The research was conducted under a grant from the Ministry of National Defense. Desigh/Methodology/Approach: The presented results of combining the analysis of secondary sources (literature, studies, reports) with the empirical part (questionnaire survey) allowed us to confirm the main thesis of the article, which is that fake news as a media product in the post-truth era causes lack of social resistance to false content. Findings: The results of the study indicate the vulnerability of social media users to fake news despite their knowledge on the subject. The conclusion points to the need for appropriate media courses, trainings, and media campaigns that will improve the knowledge of social media users making them more resistant to fake news. Practical implications: The article synthetically presents the conclusions from the research, pointing out the directions of research in the field of information security in the context of national security, indicating the necessity of education and training in this area, as well as social campaigns. Originality/value: The presented research results have not been previously shown in this form, they provide knowledge about the increasing risk of false content in social media. They recommend the necessity of monitoring, repeating the research, implementation of specific actions that should be taken by the government to ensure social resilience to fake news.


This article addresses the question of whether tense markers in Modern Tamil were historically aspectual in function, as Zvelebil (1962) has claimed. The methodological approach employed is that developed by Hopper (1979a, 1979b, 1982) for the analysis of foreground and background in narrative discourse. Narrative texts representing three historical periods — Old Tamil (5th c), Middle Tamil (12th c), and Modern Tamil (20th c.) — are analyzed for correlations between foreground-background marking and the distribution of alleged 'tense' forms. On the basis of the grounding analysis, it is discovered that the forms function aspectually in Old Tamil, analogous to the functioning of aspectual auxiliary verbs in the modern language. The overall diachronic picture which emerges is one in which surface forms and categories undergo change, while underlying functional contrasts remain remarkably stable over time.


We present a heuristic algorithm for the solution of a network problem with variable upper bounds. This algorithm is motivated by the desire to exploit the special structure of the variable upper bound (VUB) constraints and to maintain as much of the characteristics of pure network problems as possible. Our solution technique for the VUB problem consists of solving two sequences of pure network problems. One sequence yields tighter lower bounds on the optimal objective value by considering the Lagrangean relaxation in which the VUB constraints are dualized. The second sequence yields upper bounds on the optimal value for the problem. This sequence is obtained by considering a reformulation of the VUB problem based on parametric changes in the variable upper bound. The algorithm has been tested on problems with as many as 1500 nodes, 6600 arcs, and 3000 VUB constraints. Computational experience with the solution of randomly generated fixed-charge network problems, capacitated warehouse location problems, and production smoothing problems is also reported.


Ursolic acid (UA) is a natural triterpene compound found in various fruits and vegetables. There is a growing interest in UA because of its beneficial effects, which include anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-apoptotic, and anti-carcinogenic effects. It exerts these effects in various tissues and organs: by suppressing nuclear factor-kappa B signaling in cancer cells, improving insulin signaling in adipose tissues, reducing the expression of markers of cardiac damage in the heart, decreasing inflammation and increasing the level of anti-oxidants in the brain, reducing apoptotic signaling and the level of oxidants in the liver, and reducing atrophy and increasing the expression levels of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase and irisin in skeletal muscles. Moreover, UA can be used as an alternative medicine for the treatment and prevention of cancer, obesity/diabetes, cardiovascular disease, brain disease, liver disease, and muscle wasting (sarcopenia). In this review, we have summarized recent data on the beneficial effects and possible uses of UA in health and disease managements.


Nanocomposites are nanometrical material particles embedded in a specific matrix. The degree of organization of the nanostructures and their properties depend on the nature of the organic and inorganic components of the structure that can generate synergic interactions. Polymeric nanocomposites are related to a class of hybrid materials where inorganic substances of nanometric dimensions are dispersed in a polymeric matrix. In the present work, nanocomposites of nylon 6,12 with different concentrations of pseudoboehmite obtained by sol-gel process were prepared with and without the presence of octadecylamine. After preparation, the samples were irradiated with a 200 kGy radiation dose in an electron accelerator. The pseudoboehmite nano particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, differential thermal analysis and thermo gravimetric analysis. The nanocomposites were characterized by thermal and mechanical tests. The addition of pseudoboehmite promoted a reduction of the melting flow during the production of the composites evidencing the interaction of pseudoboehmite with the polymeric matrix, probably modifying its crystalline structure.


A claim for damages for loss caused by a public authority gives a court the opportunity to do justice for the claimant, and also to impose the rule of law on the administration. The challenge is to do both without interfering in the administrative pursuit of public goods, and without creating public compensation funds that only a legislature can legitimately create. It is an important constitutional principle that liabilities in the law of tort apply to public authorities, just as to private parties. But there is no general liability to compensate for public action that was unlawful; the impugned conduct must meet the standard requirements of the tort liability of private parties, with the exception of the one public tort: misfeasance in a public office. This chapter discusses trespass to property, statutory liabilities, negligence, misfeasance in public office, and damages under the Human Rights Act 1998 and under European Union law.


Mannose‐binding lectin (MBL) is a serum protein, which functions as an opsonin and initiator of the lectin pathway of complement. The serum concentration of MBL shows great interindividual variation because of common polymorphisms in the MBL2 gene. Although several quantitative MBL immunoassays have been developed more automated platforms for MBL analysis is urgently needed. To pursue this, we set out to develop a flexible bead‐based MBL immunoassay. Serum was obtained from 98 healthy individuals and 50 patients investigated for possible immunodeficiencies. We used the Luminex® xMAP bead array technology employing a mouse monoclonal anti‐MBL antibody both for coating and detection. The assay was fast and reliable for measurements of MBL concentrations both in the lower and upper range. The lower detection limit was found to be 6.5 μg/l. The intra‐assay coefficient and the interassay coefficient were found be 7.88% and 5.70%, respectively. A close correlation between the new assay and a reference MBL measurement ELISA was found (ρ 0.9381, P < 0.0001). The bead‐based assay was less sensitive to interfering anti‐murine antibodies in the blood samples than when the antibodies employed were used in the reference polystyrene‐based ELISA. The new assay could be performed in 3 h with less than 25 μl serum required of each sample. These results show that MBL can be measured readily using a bead‐based platform, which may form an efficient basis for a multiplex approach to measure different antigens in the same sample.


A new National Science Foundation supported curriculum, Interactions in Physical Science™, was evaluated on students' conceptual change in the twelve concept areas of the national physical science content standard (B) for grades 5–8. Eighth grade students (N=66) were evaluated pre and post on a 31-item multiple-choice test of conceptual understanding developed by the Harvard -Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Significant student gains (p<. 05, t-test, two-tailed) occurred in all concept areas in the category of properties and changes in properties of matter; for the force concept areas in the category motions and forces; and for the heat transfer and light interactions areas in the category of transfer of energy. Two of the six concept areas in the category of transfer of energy, chemical and nuclear reactions and the sun as a major source of energy, were not addressed in this study. Significant learning gains as item percent correct were typically close to 20%, though effect sizes were small to medium in magnitude (d = 0.3–0.6). Implications of the study for conceptual change curriculum and teaching are discussed.


This paper is intended as a short summary of 20 years of research on the Adriatic Sea carried out by the Oceanography Department of IRPeM-CNR. The objective is to give a general overview of the sea and describe the environment in which anchovies live. The Adriatic Sea is a narrow basin elongated from north-west to south-east for about 800 km with a maximum width of 200 km at Bari and a minimum width of 100 km in front of Rimini. It communicates with the Ionian Sea through the Otranto Straits (74 km wide and 800 m sill depth). It is the most continental sub-basin of the Mediterranean, defined between two mountain chains: the Apennins to the west side and the Dinaric Alps and Balkans to the east. The Adriatic can be divided into three distinct sub-basins: Northern, Middle and Southern. Due to the geographical position, its orography and bathymetry, the Adriatic Sea hydrography is strongly influenced by meteorological conditions, particularly in the north. Climatologically, temperature variations greater than 20°C are observed between winter and summer, and about 8 °C from north to south in winter, as well as a salinity gradient of about 3 psu (practical salinity unit) between the western coastal water and the offshore water. Interannual variability has been evident from the first systematic oceanographic observations of this sea and is remarkable. There are three principal water masses in the Adriatic Sea: the Adriatic Surface Water (AdSW), the Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) and the Adriatic Deep Water (AdDW) (every sub-basin has its own characteristic deep water). The general circulation is cyclonic with a flow towards the northwest along the eastern side and a return flow towards the southeast along the western side. The circulation in the three sub-basins is often dominated by their own cyclonic gyres that vary in intensity according to the season. The sub-gyre of the southern Adriatic tends to persist throughout the year. The sub-gyre of the middle Adriatic is more pronounced in summer and autumn, while in the north, a cyclonic gyre is evident, in front of the Po river mouth, only in autumn.


Selective breeding of dairy cattle has enabled milk composition to be modified by manipulation of the relatively small naturally occurring gene pool. Advances in molecular biology have widened our understanding of the control of gene structure and expression and may be utilised to construct genes encoding protein variants, whose physical properties have been altered. The mouse has proved to be an ideal choice of animal for the study of genetic manipulation of milk proteins because of its short generation time (21 days), large litter sizes and low cost in comparison to larger ruminants. The main drawback however is the relatively small volumes of milk, (about 1 ml) produced by the animals. The principal aim of this project was to develop methods for the quantitative separation of the main protein components of mouse milk and utilise these methods to analyse the expression of proteins in the milk of genetically modified animals. Separation of the major caseins and whey proteins was achieved by cation exchange FPLC. The conditions necessary for the complete dissociation of the murine casein micelles were more extreme than those used in the analysis of milk from other species, particularly the inclusion of the non-ionic detergent n-octyl beta-D-glucopyranoside together with 8M-urea. kappa-, beta- and alpha-caseins were identified by comparing the amino acid compositions of the purified proteins with their translated cDNA sequences. Another, unidentified acid precipitable casein was also detected. The concentrations of the major acid precipitable proteins in mouse milk were calculated to be WAP, 15.3; kappa-casein 4.7; beta-casein 25.2 and alpha-casein 51.7 mg ml-1 The separation was then scaled up using the Hi-Load system which gave sufficient amounts of the beta- and alpha-casein components to be used in the raising of antibodies to these individual proteins. Milk from two lines of transgenic mice which expressed a foreign protein in their milk was also analysed. The first line secreted normal ovine beta-lactoglobulin in their milk and the effect on the expression of individual mouse milk proteins was investigated. It had previously been shown that in this line, the amount of total protein secreted in the milk was unaltered even although it contained a relatively high proportion of ovine beta-lactoglobulin. The actual amounts of the individual murine milk proteins secreted were reduced, the most obvious of which was the alpha-casein. The concentrations of milk proteins were calculated as WAP, 9.6 mg ml-1; kappa-casein, 2.8 mg ml-1 beta-casein, 14.3 mg ml-1, alpha-casein, 20.4 mg ml-1 and ovine beta-lactoglobulin, 50.1 mg ml-1 The other line of transgenic mice expressed ovine beta-lactoglobulin which had been genetically modified to contain an oligomer containing a casein kinase recognition sequence on a readily accessible part of the protein molecule. It was hoped that the inclusion of this oligomer would result in the normally unphosphorylated protein being phosphorylated. As was demonstrated by its staining with the cationic dye Stains-all, the protein did not appear to be phosphorylated. To rule out the possibility of dephosphorylation due to the presence of endogenous phosphatases in the milk, the milk was collected and stored in a phosphatase inhibitor. Since this had no effect on protein staining with Stains-all, it can be concluded that protein phosphorylation requires more than just the appropriate kinase recognition sequence. The last line of mice to be studied were ones in which the murine beta-casein gene had been deleted. In this line the overall level of casein decreased by 11.5% and that of whey protein increased by about 16%. The increased level of whey protein could however be accounted for by changes in the partitioning of these proteins between the acid precipitated and supernatant fractions and suggests that beta-casein may be important in influencing the isoelectric precipitation of whey proteins in native mouse milks. Again, changes in the levels of expression of the remaining caseins were not uniform and may indicate that the proteins are secreted by different pathways.


Within the past decade, mobile computing has morphed into a principal form of human communication, business, and social interaction. Unfortunately, the energy demands of newer ambient intelligence and collaborative technologies on mobile devices have greatly overwhelmed modern energy storage abilities. This paper proposes several novel techniques that exploit spatiotemporal and device context to predict device interface configurations that can optimize energy consumption in mobile embedded systems. These techniques, which include variants of linear discriminant analysis, linear logistic regression, non-linear logistic regression with neural networks, and k-nearest neighbor are explored and compared on synthetic and user traces from real-world usage studies. The experimental results show that up to 90% successful prediction is possible with neural networks and k-nearest neighbor algorithms, improving upon prediction strategies in prior work by approximately 50%. Further, an average improvement of 24% energy savings is achieved compared to state-of-the-art prior work on energy-efficient location-sensing.


The present study examined whether college students who have academic majors that are incongruent with their career aims experience diminished career development. Because the value placed on self-expression differs across cultures, we tested hypotheses in both the United States (N = 301) and South Korea (N = 200). Similar proportions of American (20.2%) and South Korean students (25.5%) reported having an incongruent major. In both samples, students with incongruent majors reported significantly lower levels of career decision self-efficacy, meaningful work, and calling, with medium effect sizes. Potential moderators and mediator in the link of major incongruence to calling and meaningful work were also examined. The patterns of relations among major incongruence and career development indicators (i.e., career decision self-efficacy, meaningful work, and calling) did not differ by nationality or the levels of collectivism, indicating no significant moderating effects. Career decision self-efficacy was found to partially mediate the relation of major incongruence to calling and meaningful work in both samples. These results indicate that major incongruence relates to lower sense of calling and meaningful work in part because of decreased career decision self-efficacy. Directions for future research are discussed.


The Ok Ma dam (Ok is a local word meaning river) was to form part of the permanent tailings disposal system designed for the Ok Tedi gold and copper opencast mine located at Mount Fubilan in the Star Mountains of Papua New Guinea. During the construction works a landslide involving approximately 35 million cubic metres of soil and rock moved downslope to partially fill the foundation excavations of the dam. The failure of this landslide was the start of an insurance litigation that finally reached the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea in November 1989. The geotechnical, geomorphological and engineering geological data that were available at the time of the failure are presented together with an evaluation of the key deductions from the case study.


A number of challenges exist for genetically modified (GM) crop development at the production level. Contract strategies can resolve these challenges. Contracts can be designed to induce legal adoption of GM wheat by varying technology fees, violation detection, and penalties. The primary objective of this research is to analyze contracting strategies to determine terms to minimize technology agreement violation and to induce legal adoption of GM wheat. A simulation model of a crop budget for Hard Red Spring wheat was developed. Results illustrate that contracts can be designed to induce desired behavior. Technology fee, probability of detection, and the level of non-GM premium were the most notable factors influencing adoption decisions.


Continuum modeling of free-standing graphene monolayer, viewed as a two dimensional 2-lattice, requires specification of the components of the shift vector that acts as an auxiliary variable. If only in-plane motions are considered, the energy depends on an in-plane strain measure and the shift vector. The assumption of geometrical and material linearity leads to quadratic energy terms with respect to the shift vector, the strain tensor, and their combinations. Graphene's hexagonal symmetry reduces the number of independent moduli then to four. We evaluate these four material parameters using molecular calculations and the adaptive intermolecular reactive empirical bond order potential and compare them with standard linear elastic constitutive modeling. The results of our calculations show that the predicted values are in reasonable agreement with those obtained solely from our molecular calculations as well as those from the literature. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to measure mechanical properties when graphene is modeled as a hexagonal 2-lattice. This work targets at the continuum scale when the insight measurements come from finer scales using atomistic simulations.


Identification of malaria parasites in red blood cells has been done, with the aim of as tools to identify experts microscopic parasites more quickly. This study aimed to compare the level of accuracy in the results to identify and classify parasites based on the pattern shape and texture patterns. The comparison is based on the characteristics of the pattern used, the steps being taken in this study is the image quality improvement process, the process of segmentation with Otsu method, feature extraction process on the image data to be tested. The process of pattern recognition and pattern shapes texture. The last step is to test the identification and classification of plasmodium falciparum parasite into 12 classes using methods Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ). The results of this study indicate that the pattern forms can provide a higher level of accuracy compared to LVQ texture pattern. LVQ with input shape pattern successfully identified 91% of image data correctly and input texture successfully identified 48% of image data properly.


The article aims to show that in the second half of the XIX th Century the European Romantic trend in literature became even in Italy part of the launch pad for the first "Fanta-clinic" and "Medical-thriller" novels. According to the lesson of the coeval French literature it also baptized a kind of modern poetry turned to epater le bourgeois through the transfiguration of Anatomy and later through the use of the scientific method in composing verses and novels. This paper aims to focalize some links between Literature and Medicine by concerning literary inspirations felt by many coeval writers about Paolo Gorini (1813-1881) and Efisio Marini (1835-1900). The paper tries to demonstrate that the dark suggestions offered by the two scientists to some well known names of the Italian Literature (from Carlo Dossi to Matilde Serao) grew up strong in the Northern part of Italy as well as they did in the Southern part.


The objective of this study is to determine the main adverse impacts that may be caused by tourism architecture upon island ecosystems consisting of small islands or islets and to propose an architectural and landscape design with a focus on the environmental sustainability of the same. A study of projects was undertaken in Cayo Guillermo, located to the north of Ciego de Avila in Cuba using methods of life-cycle assessment of buildings, matrix methods of the activities that caused severe environmental impact and statistical processing through multivariate analysis. Conclusions were reached on the need for designs that did not harm the ecosystems of islands with high ecological fragility. It has been determined that suitable construction intervention would decrease the negative impact and would allow the natural resources of these valuable ecosystems that are the basis for responsible sun and sand tourism to be preserved.


In the near future, data on the order of hundreds of Petabytes will be spread in multiple storage systems worldwide dispersed in, potentially, billions of replicated data items. Users, typically, are agnostic about the location of their data and they want to get access by either specifying logical names or using some lookup mechanism. A global namespace is a logical layer that allows the view of data resources independently from the physical location. Usually, the naming scheme is designed to be easily interpreted by humans and it is organized into a purely user-defined directory hierarchy. Within this model, a data resource is uniquely addressed by file name and path. Nevertheless, this hierarchical structures of logical namespace lacks adequate flexibility to manage sophisticated organization of data. In particular the implicit classification of the data item derived from the path is not enough meaningful to classify data objects when different orthogonal dimensions are considered. In this paper we expose an enriched namespace able to support a new type of data access authorization policy based on tags. The tags are organized in well-defined hierarchies providing a simple representation of the domain ontology. Only authorized users can label data resources with different tags taken from the domain tag hierarchies. In this way an overlay of classical hierarchical structure of logical namespace with faceted hierarchical tags provides a semantics classification of data entities. Authorization policies defined in respect of tags are content-aware.


The foreign development of high-tech start-ups is an important issue, since international activity requires specific knowledge that new firms may find it difficult to locate and acquire. It has been found that the pattern of foreign development in high-tech start-ups differs from that of conventional companies, starting to act in foreign markets soon after their establishment. This study utilizes a social capital approach, based on embeddedness prospective, to identify the possible resources useful to realize abroad both the knowledge acquisition and the knowledge exploitation, reinforcing the internationalization propensity of start-ups. We seek to articulate, by drawing on social capital theory and its link to knowledge concept, how social network ties may influence internationalization of start-ups. Basing on research of Yli-Renko, Autio e Sapienza (2001), we argue that different dimensions of social capital embedded in relationships between high-tech start-ups and their foreign customers improve the start-ups' knowledge acquisition from these relationships and that this acquired knowledge may then be exploited for competitive advantage abroad. The hypotheses are tested with face to face survey data from start-ups in Italy. Our findings confirm the hypothesis that the internationalization propensity of start-ups is conditioned by social relationships, which may either facilitate or bind such a propensity through a direct influence on processes both of knowledge acquisition and of knowledge exploitation abroad. Consequently, by affirming the strategic link between social capital, knowledge acquisition and knowledge exploitation, we seek to contribute to a further convergence between the domains of entrepreneurship and internationalization research.


Candida albicans is a commensal fungus that can cause systemic disease in patients with breaches in mucosal integrity, indwelling catheters, and defects in phagocyte function. Although circulating human and murine monocytes bind C. albicans and promote inflammation, it remains unclear whether C-C chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2)- and Ly6C-expressing inflammatory monocytes exert a protective or a deleterious function during systemic infection. During murine systemic candidiasis, interruption of CCR2-dependent inflammatory monocyte trafficking into infected kidneys impaired fungal clearance and decreased murine survival. Depletion of CCR2-expressing cells led to uncontrolled fungal growth in the kidneys and brain and demonstrated an essential antifungal role for inflammatory monocytes and their tissue-resident derivatives in the first 48 hours postinfection. Adoptive transfer of purified inflammatory monocytes in depleted hosts reversed the defect in fungal clearance to a substantial extent, indicating a compartmentally and temporally restricted protective function that can be transferred to enhance systemic innate antifungal immunity.


This article problematizes the growing tendency to characterize organized crime as a national security threat, referring primarily to the situation in the United Kingdom but also drawing on international and comparative examples. Three distinct arguments are presented contesting this comparison. First, it is questionable whether either concept is sufficiently clear in a definitional sense for the comparison to be meaningful analytically. The second empirical argument suggests that organized crime, as it is defined and encountered usually in the United Kingdom, does not yet constitute such a threat. Third, and regardless of the validity of the preceding arguments, it is argued in a normative sense that such a comparison should be resisted to the greatest extent possible, given the extraordinary legal consequences it entails. These claims indicate how caution must be exercized in making such a connection.


In this study we investigate numerically how a partially slippery bubble mattress can be employed to enhance momentum and mass transport. The bubble mattress, which is a superhydrophobic surface, consists of an array of slippery gas bubbles with no-slip walls in between. We consider a pressure-driven laminar flow over the bubble mattress, with a solute being supplied from the gas bubbles. The results show that, because of effective wall slip, solute transport can be enhanced significantly with respect to a fully saturated no-slip wall. The enhancement depends on the interface geometry of the bubble mattress, i.e. on the bubble size, protrusion angle, and surface porosity. In addition, we demonstrate that the mass transfer enhancement disappears below a critical bubble size. The effective slip vanishes for very small bubbles, wherefore interfacial transport becomes diffusion dominated. For large bubbles, solute transport near the interface is convection enhanced.


We report the discovery of the scattered emission from a hidden broad-line region (BLR) in a Seyfert 2 galaxy, Mrk 573, based on our recent spectropolarimetric observation performed at the Subaru Telescope. This object has been regarded as a type 2 active galactic nucleus (AGN) without a hidden BLR by previous observations. However, our high-quality spectrum of the polarized flux of Mrk 573 shows prominent broad (∼3000 km s-1) Hα emission, broad weak Hβ emission, and subtle Fe II multiplet emission. Our new detection of these indications for the presence of the hidden BLR in the nucleus of Mrk 573 is thought to be because of the high signal-to-noise ratio of our data, but the possibility of a time variation of the scattered BLR emission is also mentioned. Some diagnostic quantities such as the IRAS color, the radio power, and the line ratio of the emission from the narrow-line region of Mrk 573 are consistent with the distributions of such quantities of type 2 AGNs with a hidden BLR. Mrk 573 is thought to be an object whose level of the AGN activity is the weakest among the type 2 AGNs with a hidden BLR. In terms of the systematic differences between the type 2 AGNs with and without a hidden BLR, we briefly comment on an interesting Seyfert 2 galaxy, Mrk 266 SW, which may possess a hidden BLR but has been treated as a type 2 AGNs without a hidden BLR.


This article reviews the complex ordered structures induced by chirality in liquid crystals. In general, chirality favours a twist in the orientation of liquid-crystal molecules. In some cases, as in the cholesteric phase, this favoured twist can be achieved without any defects. More often, the favoured twist competes with applied electric or magnetic fields or with geometric constraints, leading to frustration. In response to this frustration, the system develops ordered structures with periodic arrays of defects. The simplest example of such a structure is the lattice of domains and domain walls in a cholesteric phase under a magnetic field. More complex examples include defect structures formed in two-dimensional films of chiral liquid crystals. The same considerations of chirality and defects apply to three-dimensional structures, such as the twist-grain-boundary and moiré phases.


In this paper we study the problem of tracking a reference signal from the H 1 point of view. As opposed to general H 1 problems, where only suboptimal solutions are obtained, we show that for both the full information and measurement feedback tracking problems the H 1-optimal solutions can be explicitly found. The results also indicate an interesting dichotomy between minimum phase and non-minimum phase plants: for minimum phase plants the best causal tracker performs as well as the best noncausal tracker, whereas for non-minimum phase plants, causal trackers cannot reduce the H 1 norms from their a priori values. We also mention some remedies for the non-minimum phase case, such as adding more actuators (control inputs) or allowing for some nite delay. For causal tracking of non-minimum phase plants, we show that a delay equal to at least the number of non-minimum phase zeros of the plant is required.


Indecency regulation by the Federal Communications Commission and Supreme Court is the product of word taboo — the subconscious, emotional, involuntary avoidance of certain words out of fear that some harm will occur if they are spoken. Acting in tandem, the Court and the Commissioners create institutionalized word taboo based upon the assumption that broadcast media's pervasive and intrusive presence into the home endangers unsupervised children. Technological innovation renders this premise invalid today, but institutionalized word taboo remains. This article (1) traces the rise of indecency regulation, (2) explains the invalidity of the assumptions used to justify it, (3) introduces word taboo as an explanation for the resilience of regulation, and (4) offers preferable options providing a path for science and reason to triumph over institutionalized word taboo.


A long pulsed laser ablation with a moving target at high speed technique was applied to prepare tellurium nanoparticles from a tellurium target under argon gas at atmospheric pressure. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The influence of the moving speed of the target on the size, morphology and crystallographic structure of the nanoparticles was investigeated. The results show that for the target moving at high speed without burning of the target the production of isolated nanoparticles is obtained. The diameter of the nanoparticles is ranging from 30 to 200 nm.


We calculate the effect of vibronic coupling on the charge transport parameters in crystalline naphthalene, between 0 and 400 K. We find that nuclear fluctuations can cause large changes in both the energy of a charge on a molecule and on the electronic coupling between molecules. As a result, nuclear fluctuations cause wide distributions of both energies and couplings. We show that these distributions have a small temperature dependence and that, even at high temperatures, vibronic coupling is dominated by the effect of zero-point fluctuations. Because of the importance of zero-point fluctuations, we find that the distributions of energies and couplings have substantial width, even at 0 K. Furthermore, vibronic coupling with high energy modes may be significant, even though these modes are never thermally activated. Our results have implications for the temperature dependence of charge mobilities in organic semiconductors.


Introduction Double balloon endoscopy (DBE) has been reported to have a high diagnostic yield in obscure overt gastrointestinal bleeding (OGB). There is paucity of studies of DBE for the indication of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) alone particularly in the young. We investigated the utility of DBE in patients referred with IDA according to age. Methods All consecutive patients undergoing DBE for IDA and OGB, between June 2006 and January 2016, across 3 teaching hospitals in the UK and Italy were included in the study. Demographic and clinical data were collected and patients were categorised by age (≥55 and <55 years) and those undergoing DBE for IDA or OGB. Diagnostic and therapeutic yields as well as complication rates were determined and compared. A secondary comparison was made between patients with IDA and overt bleeding in similar age groups. Results 213 patients underwent DBE for IDA. 142 (66.7%) were age ≥ 55 years (mean age 69.6±8.6, 49.3% male) and 71 (33.3%) age <55 years (mean age 42.7±9.2, 66.2% male). The most common pathologies found at DBE (≥55 vs <55 years) were angioectasias (45.1% vs 18.3%, p < 0.05), tumours (4.9% vs 5.6%, p = 1), and ulcers (4.9% vs 8.5%, p = 0.37). Diagnostic yield was higher in those aged ≥55 years (≥55 vs <55 years; 64.1% vs 39.4%, p < 0.05). Therapeutic yield and complication rates on the other hand were comparable across both groups (30.3% vs 21.1%, p = 0.19 and 2.1% vs 4.2% p = 0.40 respectively). Further comparisons between young patients aged <55 years with IDA and those in the same age group with OGB (n = 23, mean age 43.5±8.8, 47.8% male) revealed similar frequencies of angioectasias (18.3% vs 13%, p = 0.75), tumours (5.6% vs 8.7%, p = 0.63) and ulcers (8.5% vs 0%, p = 0.33). There was no difference in the rate of positive capsule endoscopy findings preceding DBE between the two groups (59.2% vs 47.8%, p = 0.47). Diagnostic yield (39.4% vs 47.8%, p = 0.63) and therapeutic yield (21.1% vs 17.4%, p = 1) were also comparable while the difference in complication rates did not reach statistical significance (4.2% vs 0%, p = 1) between young IDA and OGB patients. Conclusion We present the first multicentre study evidencing the safety and high diagnostic yield of DBE in patients with IDA. Although the diagnostic yield is lower in the young, significant pathology is detected including tumours and ulceration, supporting the role of DBE in young patients with IDA. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The number of Native Americans entering college is higher now than it has been over the past 40 years; however, the degree completion rate has been less than half that of White students. This research study was a bounded case study of Native American students enrolled in the teacher education program. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify the perceived factors influencing the retention rate of Native American college students. Some of the theoretical models that explain why students stay or leave an institution before earning a college degree look more toward explaining this phenomenon in a quantitative analysis, although some of the methods can be applied to a qualitative case study. Some traditional theories on student retention emphasize the importance of students' backgrounds and positive encounters with other ideas and people (Guillory, 2008). The data collection procedures included interviewing participants, taking field notes, and reviewing documents and federal initiatives. From the data analysis, major themes and topics emerged, which included (a) cultural identity, (b) the institution, (c) factors for success, and (d) barriers to success. The findings of this study signify the need for higher education to incorporate Native American cultural aspects into their programs. The needs of Native American students are complex and require administrators, faculty members, and students in higher education to get involved. The retention rate of Native American students will remain low unless more attention is given to the financial, academic counseling, mentoring, spiritual, and relational aspects of college life. Descriptors: retention, degree completion, higher education, Native American college students, persistence


DNA-encoded chemical libraries are increasingly used to identify leads for drug discovery or chemical biology. Despite the resurging interest in covalent inhibitors, libraries are typically designed with synthon filtered out for reactive functionalities that can engage a target through covalent interactions. Herein, we report the synthesis of two libraries containing Michael acceptors to identify cysteine reactive ligands. We developed a simple procedure to discriminate between covalent and high affinity non-covalent inhibitors using DNA display of the library in a microarray format. The methodology was validated with known covalent and high affinity non-covalent kinase inhibitors. Screening of the library revealed novel covalent inhibitors for MEK2 and ERBB2.


The study was conducted to investigate the activity budgets on social interactions and reproductive behaviour of olive baboon ( Papio anubis ) at Gashaka Gumti National Park (GGNP). A habituated baboon troop referred to as the Gashaka troop, consisting of 16 individuals: 4 adult females, 1 adult male, 1 sub-adult male, 3 juvenile females, 4 juvenile males and 3 infants was studied for a period of 12 months. Time fixed-point focal sampling method was adopted to determine the proportion of time the baboons allocated to various social and reproductive activities. The results obtained indicated the proportion of time baboons spent in various activities as follows: aggression (17.93%), infant handling (9.89%), grooming (33.08%), presentation of hindquarters (26.74%), mount and thrust (7.57%), mount no thrust (4.48%). Results of polyspecific association shows that the baboons spent 14.29% of the time in association with red flanked duikers, 14.29% with black-and-white colobus monkeys, 57.14% with tantalus monkeys and 14.29% with waterbucks. The percentage activity of the baboons when in polyspecific association indicate that 100.0% of the time was spent feeding when in association with red flanked duikers, waterbucks as well as black-and-white colobus monkeys. However, 50.0% of the time was spent feeding during association between baboons and tantalus monkeys. It is recommended that the GGNP Management should intensify effort toward protection of the Park as activities of poachers were frequently encountered during the study period. Keywords: Activity, baboon, behaviour, interactions, polyspecific


In many endangered species, reproductive failure is a major barrier to recovery. The critically endangered kākāpō Strigops habroptilus exemplifies this challenge: 61% of their eggs fail to hatch, and of these 73% show no sign of development. Undeveloped eggs have previously been attributed to male infertility, but recent studies of non‐threatened bird species suggest fertilisation failure is rare in the wild. The underlying causes of fertilisation failure and embryo death differ, so distinguishing between them is essential for effective conservation management. Here we show that the majority (72%, n = 124) of undeveloped kākāpō eggs are fertilised, and combine this with conservation programme data on natural copulations, artificial inseminations, and paternity of developed eggs, to generate the most precise estimate to date of fertility in a wild population. We also demonstrate, for the first time in a wild bird, that artificial insemination results in greater numbers of sperm reaching the egg.


The water supply system in Sweden consists mainly of large waterworks supplying most of the inhabitants with drinking water. This makes it an interesting target for terrorism. Along the water's way from source to subscriber it passes a lot of dangerous spots where an attack is possible. The biological and chemical threats to the water supply exist in a range from not so dangerous to lethal. The biggest problem is how to detect them. The physical threats are not as critical but can give severe damage and disturb the water supply for a long time. Visits at selected water works have shown large differences in resources and ambition for the safety. All waterworks does follow the regulations. Several authorities are involved in the planning and implementation of security measures for the water supply systems in Sweden. The responsibilities are complicated and unclear and the law does not give a good foundation for the security work.


The introduction of rubber tracks on tractors has allowed more engine power per unit weight than with steel-tracked tractors, together with a reduction in soil compaction and higher on-road speeds. Recently, triangular rubber tracks able to be adapted on conventional wheeled tractors have been introduced. In this context, the goal of the paper is to evaluate the performance of a tractor with four triangular rubber tracks with respect to those of a wheeled tractor; the comparative tests consist of ploughing under on low trafficable and workable soil. The results obtained have shown a higher tractive efficiency, lower soil compaction and up to 20% lower specific fuel consumption for the fully tracked tractor. These results are in accordance with previous tests conducted with the triangular rubber tracks on highly trafficable soil, although in the present case, the dynamic traction ratio is markedly lower due to the low trafficable soil. The use of triangular rubber tracks is therefore justified on low trafficable soils and more in general on different soil conditions, since the soil is less compacted by such traction device.


Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between Carotid atheromatous plaque in carotid artery with periodontal health and disease clinically and ultrasonographically and secondarily whether these relations are dependent on the level of serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Materials and Methods : The cross-sectional study was carried out on 60 subjects. Of which 30 subjects with chronic periodontitis and 30 subjects with healthy periodontium were recruited and they underwent ultrasound scanning of common carotid arteries to determine carotid plaque thickness. Clinical parameters measured were probing pocket depth, clinical attachment loss, plaque index, gingival index and biochemical parameters included total cholesterol, triglycerides, and HDL levels. Results : Periodontal disease is positively associated with carotid atherosclerosis. Plaque thickness and prevalence of carotid atheromatous plaque were significantly higher in the test group as compared to the control group. In the test group the mean carotid atheromatous plaque thickness was found to be 2.18 mm whereas in the control group it was found to be 0.14 mm. In test group, there was a positive and highly significant correlation of probing depth (PD) with triglycerides and total cholesterol levels and carotid atheromatous plaque thickness but a negative correlation between PD and HDL, triglycerides and total serum cholesterol levels in healthy subjects. HDL was significantly less in test group when compared with a control group with a P = 0.004. Conclusion: An inter-relationship between periodontal disease and the presence of atheromatous plaque exists. The prevalence of both periodontitis and atherosclerosis is very high. Periodontitis should be diagnosed and treated at its earliest and hence that clinician and public health practitioner can control the epidemic of cardiovascular diseases and reduce mortality.


Summary 1. More than a century of forest management, including fire exclusion, livestock grazing and tree harvesting, may have affected forest structure and composition in south-western USA. Dendroecological techniques were used to reconstruct an 1876 baseline against which modern conditions could be compared. We assessed the magnitude of changes on the San Francisco Peaks in five distinct forest types: ponderosa, mixed conifer, aspen, spruce‐fir and bristlecone. 2. We established a systematic grid of 135 plots, each 0·1 ha in size, over a 1117-m altitudinal band. 3. In the contemporary forest, density was greatest in spruce‐fir and least in bristlecone whereas basal area was greatest in spruce‐fir and lowest in ponderosa. In 1876, all forest types had significantly lower densities and basal areas. 4. The period since 1876 was associated with increased forest density, a shift in species composition as a result of invasion of shade-tolerant conifers, and a trend for mesic species to migrate to lower altitudes. Changes were least evident in the highest altitude forests. Climate and human-caused and natural biotic disturbance factors probably all played a role in forest change, but we argue that the most prominent factor was probably exclusion of the thinning effect of fire, especially on fire-susceptible mesic species. 5. Synthesis and applications. Mesic species have encroached to lower altitudes and forest density has increased since 1876. These changes have created to conditions opposite to those suitable for warmer, drier future climates that will display increased fire risk, setting the stage for sudden and severe change. Management is complex because of heavy fuel loading, administrative constraints and high public visibility. However, 'sky island' landscapes such as the Peaks represent protected ecosystems of great importance in arid regions. Testing of wildland fire use and other management interventions to restore composition and fuel structures more resilient to warmer climate should proceed.


The effect of guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate (GTP[S]) on PtdIns and PtdIns(4)P kinase activities was measured in rat liver plasma membranes. The addition of [32P]ATP resulted in the rapid incorporation of 32P into PtdIns(4)P and PtdIns(4,5)P2, with maximal levels reached within 30 s. GTP[S] (25-500 microM) increased the rate and magnitude of [32P]PtdIns(4)P and [32P]PtdIns(4,5)P2 formation by 50 and 120% respectively. Similar stimulatory effects were induced by guanosine 5'-[beta gamma-imido]triphosphate, GTP, GDP and guanosine 5'-[beta-thio]diphosphate. The stimulation of PtdIns phosphorylation by GTP[S] occurred in the presence of 2 mM-EGTA, a condition which fully inhibited phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C. GTP[S] did not stimulate phosphomonoesterase activity, and its action was not due to the binding of magnesium. However, the overall ATP-hydrolysing activity of the membrane preparation was inhibited by GTP[S] and the other guanine nucleotides. There was a direct correlation between the extent of this inhibition and the stimulation of polyphosphoinositide formation. The results indicate that stimulation of polyphosphoinositide formation by guanine nucleotides in rat liver plasma membranes can be accounted for by an inhibition of ATP hydrolysis. These data are inconsistent with a specific GTP-binding protein (G-protein)-mediated stimulation of PtdIns or PtdIns(4)P kinase.


Developing conservation strategies to restore populations of threatened species has been signaled as an important task by the Convention on Biological Diversity 2011–2020 targets. Species are being threatened not only by habitat loss and fragmentation but increasingly by climate change. As resources for conservation are often limited, and restoration is among the most expensive conservation strategies, developing approaches that help in the prioritization of areas for restoration efforts is a critical task. In this study, we propose a spatial multicriteria decision analysis (SMCDA) framework for identifying potential areas for plant species restoration initiatives that can explicitly take into account future climatic change. As a way to show how the framework can be applied, we took advantage of freely available niche modeling software and geospatial information to identify regional‐scale priority areas for restoration of two threatened endemic tree species (i.e. Bielschmiedia miersii and Pouteria splendens) of the "Chilean Winter Rainfall‐Valdivian Forest" Hotspot. The SMCDA framework allowed us not only to identify priority areas for species restoration but also to analyze how different environmental conditions and land‐use types may affect the selection of areas for species restoration. Our analysis suggests that the inclusion of climate change is a key factor to assess the potential areas for species restoration because species may respond differentially to future climatic conditions. This framework is conceived to be used as a complementary approach to available landscape‐scale spatial conservation planning tools.


Over the past six years, the nation has moved rapidly from punch cards and levers to electronic voting systems. These new systems have occasionally presented election officials with puzzling technical irregularities. The national experience has included unexpected and unexplained incidents in each phase of the election process: preparations, balloting, tabulation, and reporting results. Quick technical or managerial assessment can often identify the cause of the problem, leading to a simple and effective solution. But other times, the cause and scope of anomalies cannot be determined. In this paper, we describe the application of a model of forensics to the types of technical incidents that arise in computer-based voting technologies. We describe the elements of e-voting that current forensic techniques can address, as well as the need for a more structured analysis, and how this can be achieved given modifications to the design of e-voting systems. We also demonstrate how some concrete forensic techniques can be utilized today by election officials and their agents, to understand voting system events and indicators. We conclude by reviewing best practices for structuring a formal forensics team, and suggest legal steps and contractual provisions to undergird the team's authority and work.


DeKalb County has transformed significantly over the past 80 years. There have been flows of immigrants and transnationals into the area since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, making present-day DeKalb a very diverse community. The children of transnationals in the U.S. find themselves at once students and teachers of their cultures and languages. Whether we speak our family's languages or not, many of us born to parents from another country desire a connection to our linguistic heritage so that we can journey towards comfort and a sense of belonging. Drawing from the revolutionary Latin American literary genre, Testimonios (Saavedra, 2011), we share our stories with the hopes of planting a seed for new directions. From a decolonizing, postcolonial framework, we suggest ways to support bilingual and transnational students and groups by connecting to their cultural and linguistic assets through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) and Funds of Knowledge (Ladson Billings, 2009; González et al., 2005). The article begins with our theoretical framework, followed by an overview of DeKalb County's history and demographics. We continue with our testimonios and conclude with suggestions for connecting with bilingual students and communities.


Considering that individuals can fulfill some of their needs at the workplace, we may assume that, from the moment people choose a job, they are oriented toward those organizations that ease needs' satisfaction and quitting that job is less likely when the dominant work needs are met. This paper aims to identify and analyze the needs of public servants from the North-West Region of Romania. The research was conducted in two distinct parts: the identification of needs was made using interviews and the analysis was based on data collected by self-administrated questionnaires. Specific needs of public servants were identified, along with general needs which are expressed by employees from other sectors. 77 needs were analyzed and they were grouped in 22 dimensions following the application of a questionnaire to 343 employees. The results showed that there are three major needs that public servants have namely the need for an optimal organizational climate, the need to have a career and the need to have specific work characteristics.


The birth of X, Y, Z and Alpha generations cannot be denied, given the rapid development of technology. The formation of the character of Alpha Generation or Gen-A which was born in 2010 is a concern and a challenge for parents in shaping the personality of a civilized and humanitarian child. This article is motivated by a critical review of the conditions of intolerance among religious people. Where the soul of intolerance that arises in a person is due to the absence of a sense of humanity and civilized human elements in themselves. One of the main causes is the influence of misuse of technology which has led to the birth of the Alpha Generation that is enslaved by technology. A person's social life deteriorates so that he does not respect differences. The use of technology well can avoid the anti-tolerant nature and be able to form prospective generations who are civilized and humane in accordance with Islamic values. The provision of technological education for children of old age can not be separated from the role of parents as the first madrasa for children. The habit of children will be difficult to change when from the beginning parents do not do education in the family through parenting education. Parenting education is one of the efforts made by parents in educating, nurturing and teaching children.


This study was conducted to characterize the morphological peculiarities and performance characteristics of Mursi cattle in its production environment managed by Bodi and Mursi pastoral communities in Southern Ethiopia. A structured questionnaire survey, group discussion, cattle morphological measurements and morphological descriptions were used to collect data. One hundred and two household heads were selected to administer the questionnaire and 201 adult cattle were selected for morphological description and body measurements. The Mursi cattle population was found to have variable coat colour type (85.9 percent) and coat colour pattern (51.3 percent). Body length, chest girth, withers height, rump width and rump length of Mursi cattle were 122.1 ± 0.9, 144.5 ± 0.9, 113 ± 0.1.1, 36.9 ± 0.3 and 20.4 ± 0.3 cm, respectively. Morphological measurements of most linear traits show no difference in the two locations but all measurements vary (P < 0.001) between males and females. Estimated age at first calving was 4.6 years and was significantly (P < 0.0001) higher in the Mursi area, while the calving interval (14.5 months) and cow reproductive life (14.2 years) were the same in both locations. Average daily milk yield (2.1 litres) and lactation length (7.8 months) of Mursi cattle in the two locations were similar. Cattle production was constrained by high disease prevalence, seasonal feed availability, and water shortage, with frequent drought. Trypanosomosis, black leg, anthrax and skin diseases are major cattle diseases reported in the two study areas. Because of its peculiar morphological characteristics, including large body frame, higher production performance, and survivability in the harsh environment, the Mursi cattle can be used as an alternative genetic resource for production improvement programs.


A This paper presents a novel one-class classification approach to intrusion detection based support vector data description. This approach is used to separate target class data from other possible outlier class data, which are unknown to us. SVDD-intrusion detection enables determination of an arbitrary shaped region that comprises a target class of a dataset. This paper analyzes the behavior of the classifier based on parameter selection and proposes a novel way based on genetic algorithm to determine the optimal parameters. Finally some experiments are finally reported with DARPA' 99 evaluation data. The results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other two-class classifiers.


Tourism Industry in Sub Sahara Region has been operating on competition poses basing on the same resources which are wildlife and nature as the products in service. Many of the areas to visit by the tourists are still natural and some of them are exist under diminishing status because of the use since establishment. That needs resources engineering to motivate the tourists who wish to visit and are mostly changing the tourism tests all the time. Tanzania has about 30% of its territorial land for Natural resources where tourism is basically commenced. Tourism is a leading industry that contributes about 7.1% to the Tanzania GDP; therefore it needs some resources rehabilitation and re-designed to motivate the visitations. Ngorongoro Conservation being one of the protected areas in Tanzania gets about half of the tourists (611,767 by 2014) who visit Tanzania (1,410,156 by 2014). The resources for tourism are in different status i.e. , Developed and Over utilized, Developed and Underutilized, Undeveloped and over utilized, Undeveloped and underutilized. These are the areas that needs status evaluation and developed to motivate the visitors for more stay in the Ngorongoro area and realize more revenue gains . With 725 questionnaires collected during survey, visitors category identified and their expectations were measured and all that revealed the fact that the Ngorongoro resources needs rehabilitation (Push factor) to motivate the visitors to select the area as a destination to visit (pull factor). Capacities for a tourist buy a vacation were measured through income of the respondents which is important factor during resources development to motivate the tourists. The response from Non residents respondents were 40% who they earned less than $50,000/year, which is more than those under 29 years old (33%) and 77% earned under $100,000/year. Only 7% claimed an income over $250,000/year which would be considered upper middle to wealthy in Western societies. With the income status, awareness of the Ngorongoro as destinations were measured and level of package for visitation were measured. The findings revealed that most of the visitors know the Ngorongoro from Tour Operators package or programs (29.2%) of the respondents against the NCAA trade fairs and Expo attending campaign (2.2%). The marketing strategies for Ngorongoro Conservation area should look the possibilities to creating imagination impacts to the visitors before their arrivals to the NCA. It was further discovered that there is no enough efforts have been put on resourced development and use of the available resources to motivate the tourists. More effort is required for marketing the unique resources available in Ngorongoro Conservation Area; convince more stay of the tourists, accruing more revenue and maneuver the a challenge over the tourism threats identified in the area.


The work presented in this thesis focus on the hydrogen production by high temperature water gas shift reaction in conjunction to reforming process, as a significant industrial method for hydrogen generation. This thesis is a summary of three scientific papers. The work is directed towards synthesis of catalyst, evaluation for kinetic parameters and reaction mechanism, and sorption enhanced study to produce fuel cell grade hydrogen focusing high temperature water gas shift reaction. The main objective has been to achieve hydrogen rich product stream for fuel cell purpose and to screen a better catalyst for this purpose.The first paper describes a much simplified route for the preparation for Ni-Co hydrotalcite derived catalysts as potential candidates for various hydrogen production processes. In this aspect, we designed catalysts by one- step spray drying technique with advantages of time economical, no separation steps, controlled morphology and promising yields with reasonable production cost as compare to conventional coprecipitation method. The results show crystalline structured, regular micro-spherical shaped catalysts with narrow particle size distribution, reasonable metallic dispersions and high surface area properties.In the second paper, we report kinetic study over Ni-Co bimetallic system for high temperature WGS reaction, which is relevant for the pre-reforming of natural gas and the sorption enhanced reforming processes. Dependence of the reaction rate on temperature and partial pressures of CO, H2, CO2 and H2O has been determined. The reaction order was found to be negative first order in hydrogen, zero order for carbon dioxide, and first order with respect to both carbon monoxide and water partial pressures. Whereas at relatively low partial pressure condition of hydrogen, the reaction order was observed to be +0.5 with respect to hydrogen and water order goes to zero. The WGS reaction mechanism on Ni-Co catalysts by a detailed kinetic modeling in a wide range of operating conditions was elucidated. In this regard, we demonstrated two mechanisms namely redox mechanism and mechanisms with COH formation to explain experimental data. Furthermore, the catalyst performance was accessed for methanation reaction occurring as side reaction during water gas shift reaction. Particular attention is paid to develop a catalyst with high WGS activity but low methanation activity.The third paper focus on sorption enhanced water gas shift (SEWGS) process. Here we established both experimentally and thermodynamically that integration of in-situ CO2 capture to high temperature water gas shift reaction as one pot process can effectively produce fuel cell grade hydrogen at optimum temperature of 500oC. Below this temperature the reaction is kinetically limited, whereas at higher temperatures it is thermodynamically constrained. The process optimization factors, such as temperature, steam/CO and CO partial pressure were studied. Catalysts play a significant role in CO conversion via WGS, methanation and methane steam reforming reactions. Pd promoted Ni-Co catalyst (1%Pd-20%Ni-20%Co) derived from hydrotalcite-like material (HT) showed a high activity of WGS and methane steam reforming. The methanation activity was further reduced on 30%Ni-10%Co. We demonstrated also a challenge for hydrogen production at high CO pressures where CO pressures show a negative influence on the WGS activity and an induction period exists. The CaO-based mixed oxide CO2 sorbent showed good CO2 capture capacity and stability in the cyclic operation of SEWGS reaction.


Top-down (i.e., predation), bottom-up (i.e., food availability), and physical factors may influence blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) distribution. To assess the role of bottom-up and physical process in blue crab distributions, we concurrently measured density of the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), density of its principal prey, the Baltic clam (Macoma balthica), and physical characteristics in mud and sand habitats spanning various spatial scales (1-10 km and 10-50 km) in the York River, Chesapeake Bay. Clam and crab densities were intermediate in mud, low in downriver sand, and high in upriver sand. Clam and crab densities were not correlated in mud, whereas in sand, they were significantly and positively con-elated at both the local scale (1 km) and at the broadest spatial scale (10-50 km). Crab density also correlated with salinity at the broad spatial scale. After removing the effect of salinity, crab density remained significantly correlated with clam density. Using a hydrodynamic model for the York River. potential transport of clams from downriver coves was primarily to upriver habitats, but transport of crabs was mainly to downriver seagrass habitats. At the local scale, upriver zones where crab and clams were abundant, crab density was highly correlated (r 2 = 0.93) with clam density, but not with salinity, suggesting that the distribution of blue crabs was driven mostly by their primary food item-clams. The collective findings are consistent with the hypotheses that crab density is driven by both food availability and salinity at broad spatial scales (10-50 km), whereas food availability is a primary control at smaller spatial scales (1-10 km). Bottom-up control of upper trophic levels may be distinctive; thus far, in marine and freshwater systems, bottom-up control has not been demonstrated to filter from basal to upper trophic levels. Furthermore, unvegetated habitats where food, such as clams, is abundant may be important in the population dynamics of the blue crab, even in systems where seagrass beds are common.


Avocado by-products present a waste issue for cold-pressed avocado oil processors in New Zealand. The avocado seed contains many extractable compounds that are beneficial to health. This work aims to evaluate the effects of roasting fermented avocado seed to produce a food ingredient with beneficial antioxidant and anticancer properties. Avocado seeds were subjected to natural fermentation and inoculated fermentation with either Lactobacillus plantarum or kefir. The fermented samples were evaluated in terms of total plate count values of lactic acid bacteria acetic acid bacteria and yeasts. The number of microorganisms increased significantly (p < 0.001) over the 7 days of fermentation for all samples. Fermentation with L. plantarum resulted in significantly (p < 0.05) higher total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activities compared to kefir and naturally fermented samples. The fermented avocado seeds were further subjected to roasting to yield a shelf-stable dried powder. Roasted samples fermented by L. plantarum had significantly (p < 0.001) higher total polyphenolic content and antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power assays) compared to kefir and naturally fermented samples. The avocado seed powder showed the best inhibition effect on Hep G2 followed by the MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cancer cell lines. The roasting conditions for optimal antioxidant and anticancer activities were determined to be at 127°C for 24.7 min. This study demonstrated that fermentation of avocado seeds in combination with roasting yielded a powder with good antioxidant and anticancer activities, which can potentially be incorporated into food for added health benefits.


BACKGROUND
The role of patient satisfaction continues to play an important role in health care quality measures. The use of online review platforms has been adopted by patients to share their perceptions about the quality of care provided by physicians. Chronic pain practice has unique challenges regarding patient satisfaction.

OBJECTIVES
The main goal of this study is to identify the themes associated with positive and negative reviews of chronic pain physicians at publicly available online review platforms.

STUDY DESIGN
A retrospective study design.

SETTING
We evaluated publicly available online patient-generated reviews of chronic pain physicians from Yelp and Healthgrades.

METHODS
This retrospective study evaluated patient-generated reviews of chronic pain physicians from 2 online platforms-Yelp and Healthgrades-between the September 1, 2018 through November 1, 2018. Ninety chronic pain physicians were randomly selected from 4 diverse geographic cities in the United States: New York (NY), Houston (TX), Chicago (IL), and Seattle (WA). Primary outcome was defined as high and low rating scores. Secondary outcome was the proportion of positive and negative attributes (patient, physician, procedure, and administrative attributes) that was associated with high and low rating scores.

RESULTS
A total of 1,627 reviews were extracted from 90 physicians evaluated at Yelp and Healthgrades. Of this total review, 1,296 (79.7%) were high scoring and (331) 20.3% were low scoring. Chronic pain providers who were high scoring had positive reviews that consisted of physician attributes (63.5%), administrative attributes (23.4%), and patient attributes (12.2%). The highest proportion of the first 3 physician attributes associated with high ratings were knowledgeable, helpful, and caring. Chronic pain providers who were low scoring had negative reviews that consisted of physician attributes (41.4%), administrative attributes (52.1%), and procedure attributes (5.2%). The highest proportion of the first 3 physician attributes associated with low ratings were disrespectful, unhelpful, and uncaring.

LIMITATIONS
First, this study looks at reviews of 4 large cities, thus we may have excluded patient populations with substantially different preferences as health care consumers. Second, it is impossible to confirm the validity of individual reviewers' interactions with the pain management specialist who provided care or validate the identity of the reviewers. Third, it is very difficult, or even impossible, to tell if the rater is a patient or someone posing as a patient, such as an unhappy employee or a business competitor.

CONCLUSIONS
Online platforms provide a medium that facilitates immediate communication among patients. These platforms may provide timely data for chronic pain physicians to gain more insight into the quality of care perceived by patients, thereby aiding providers to improve on ways to optimize patient-care experiences and encounters.

KEY WORDS
Chronic pain practice, online review, patient review, patient satisfaction.


A novel continuous flow process for selective hydrogenation of α, β-unsaturated aldehyde (cinnamaldehyde, CAL) to the unsaturated alcohol (cinnamyl alcohol, COL) has been reported in a tube reactor coated with a Pt/SiO2 catalyst. A 90% selectivity towards the unsaturated alcohol was obtained at the aldehyde conversion of 98.8%. This is a six-fold improvement in the selectivity compared to a batch process where acetals were the main reaction products. The increased selectivity in the tube reactor was caused by the suppression of acid sites responsible for the acetal formation after a short period on stream in the continuous process. In a fixed bed reactor, it had a similar acetal suppression phenomenon but showed lower product selectivity of about 47–72% due to mass transfer limitations. A minor change in selectivity and conversion caused by product inhibition was observed during the 110 h on stream with a turnover number (TON) reaching 3000 and an alcohol production throughput of 0.36 kg gPt−1 day−1 in the single tube reactor. The catalysts performance after eight reaction cycles was fully restored by calcination in air at 400 °C. The tube reactors provide an opportunity for process intensification by increasing the reaction rates by a factor of 2.5 at the reaction temperature of 150 °C compared to 90 °C with no detrimental effects on catalyst stability or product selectivity.


Aim: To do a review on the different non invasive methods of sedation in paediatric dentistry Objective: To learn the advantages and disadvantages of the different techniques of sedation. Background: Dental anxiety and fear of the dental treatment have been recognised as a source of problems in children management which can affect the quality of the treatment. The dental procedure can be easily done with the help of sedation Procedural sedation is the administration of sedative or dissociative agents, with or without analgesics, to induce a state that allows the children to tolerate unpleasant procedures while maintaining cardio respiratory function. Reason: To know about the various techniques of sedation which helps us to manage the uncooperative children and elicit a successful treatment.


Recent studies of our group have shown that the oxidation of the substituted anthraquinone skeleton is involved in the biotransformation of mitoxantrone. In this report the importance of this process with regard to the mode of action of the drug is investigated. This communication describes a new high performance liquid chromatography separation for mitoxantrone and its metabolites allowing the direct coupling of high performance liquid chromatography to mass spectrometry. Application of this technique to bile of mitoxantrone-treated pigs reveals the formation of several metabolites in addition to the drug-derived compounds found in urine. Seven biliary metabolites are identified as thioether derivatives of mitoxantrone and its side chain oxidation products. Independent synthesis and structural elucidation of 3 thioether conjugates of the drug provides unequivocal evidence that the hydroquinone moiety of mitoxantrone is the site of reaction with glutathione. Furthermore, the formation of the thioether conjugates in HepG2 hepatoma cells and in rat hepatocytes during cell incubations is demonstrated. Inhibition of cytochrome P-450 with metyrapone prevents the formation of the thioether conjugates and leads to a complete loss of the cytotoxicity of mitoxantrone in HepG2 cells and rat hepatocytes up to concentrations of 200 to 400 microM thereby indicating that mitoxantrone has a negligible effect by itself. Rat hepatocytes were found to be more susceptible for the oxidation-induced cytotoxicity than HepG2 cells. These results demonstrate that the acute cytotoxicity of mitoxantrone depends on prior oxidation of its 1,4-dihydroxy-5,8-diaminoanthraquinone moiety.


This research was done to identify and assess the key determinants of service quality and the
level of quality service from customer's perception offered by Northport, Klang. The literature
review identified eight important service quality factors in a port. Data for this research were
collected via questionnaire directed to operational managers or marketing managers of
shipping companies, the customers of Northport, Klang. The first step in this research is to
examine the gap between customer's service expectation and the actual services received. In
the second step, importance-performance analysis was used to construct service attributes
evaluation map to identify areas for improvement. Results revealed that all of satisfaction
rating for 26 attributes were lower than the expectation rating. The gap between customer
satisfaction and customer expectation exist. These results indicate that respondents did not
receive the services as expected. Other results showed that respondents were not concerned
about two service factors in Northport, Klang, port charge or cost and port location. They are
more concerned about port management, employee, information availability of port related
activities, facilities available, customer convenience and time factors


School districts can be liable for peer-on-peer harassment when the school has actual knowledge of harassment, acts with deliberate indifference, and the harassment is severe and pervasive enough to deprive a student of educational benefits. It is unclear whether a school district could ever be liable for their response to harassing behavior that occurred off school grounds and after school hours. This creates a major void in the law because off-campus student designed web pages are becoming more and more common. The web pages are highly critical of other classmates and are written in explicit, often vulgar language. This article explores the tests courts are creating for regulation of student speech and prevention of peer-on-peer harassment and the tensions that result. In light of the sheer number of such pages, this article is not just a far-flung theoretical discussion. Instead it focuses on issues that schools must confront every day.


This paper considers the complex challenges entailed in leading and developing interdisciplinary research (IDR) and suggests that, while structural support is vital, cultural change may be equally critical. It argues that, while IDR is commonly encouraged in rather utilitarian terms, as helpful in addressing complex societal and
environmental issues, there are deeper intellectual reasons for fostering collaborative research across disciplinary boundaries. The comparison, exchange and synthesis of specialised systems of knowledge can be transformational, enabling new ways of thinking about and conducting research. Emphasising the overarching unity of
the academy, the paper argues that successful IDR has the potential to reunite areas of knowledge that have fragmented over time. It examines some interdisciplinary experiments in the UK, and considers how the participants have navigated the obstacles that attend each stage of collaboration to produce exciting and coherent outcomes. Articulating the practices and principles that underlie successful IDR, it discusses how universities can assist such research developments, both in practical ways and through cultural and ideological change.


This paper defines the notion of class discrepancy for families of functions. It shows that low discrepancy classes admit small offline and streaming coresets. We provide general techniques for bounding the class discrepancy of machine learning problems. As corollaries of the general technique we bound the discrepancy (and therefore coreset complexity) of logistic regression, sigmoid activation loss, matrix covariance, kernel density and any analytic function of the dot product or the squared distance. Our results prove the existence of epsilon-approximation O(sqrt{d}/epsilon) sized coresets for the above problems. This resolves the long-standing open problem regarding the coreset complexity of Gaussian kernel density estimation. We provide two more related but independent results. First, an exponential improvement of the widely used merge-and-reduce trick which gives improved streaming sketches for any low discrepancy problem. Second, an extremely simple deterministic algorithm for finding low discrepancy sequences (and therefore coresets) for any positive semi-definite kernel. This paper establishes some explicit connections between class discrepancy, coreset complexity, learnability, and streaming algorithms.


Objectives: Increased expression of serum creatine kinase muscle type (CK-MM) in muscle overuse or injury has been documented in many situations. However, the expression of CK-MM and its correlation with the extent of traumatic damage to skeletal muscle tissue has not been explored. We studied the pattern of expression of CK-MM in substantially damaged muscle tissue and attempted to correlate its expression with the extent of muscle damage. Methods: At level 1 trauma center, 15 patients with mangled lower limb were prospectively evaluated. All patients underwent primary amputation (mangled extremity severity score ≥7) using specific criteria. Muscle tissue samples were obtained intraoperatively from 3 different zones (chosen arbitrarily based on clinical parameters of muscle viability, Zones A, B, and C) for all patients. Samples were evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining with polyclonal CK-MM antibody. Results: H and E staining correlated with the clinical extent of muscle death in Zones A, B, and C; the percentage of viable muscle fibers was 6.7% in Zone A, 20% in Zone B, and 73% in Zone C. Least CK-MM expression was noted in muscle tissues on IHC in Zone A (most necrotic area) and most in Zone C (most viable area). The score developed by us corroborated with the extent of muscle damage and viability. Conclusion: IHC staining for CK-MM can be used as a definite biomarker of muscle integrity and can be used as an adjunct to clinical evaluation to help define limb viability as well as levels of amputation when that is required.


: In summary, the effective treatment of certain disorders of male infertility is possible. As in all areas of medicine, the more specific the diagnosis, the more specific the treatment, and, as expected, the greater the success of treatment. Much of the confusion regarding the efficacy of the medical treatment of infertility has been generated by the use of empiric treatment modalities without thorough diagnostic evaluation. Further advances in knowledge pertaining to the mechanism of infertility should increase the precision of our forms of treatment, thus producing increased rates of success.


Fast pyrolysis bio-oils (FPBOs) originating from forest residues contain extractive-derived substances, which may form a separate, sticky layer with char particles on the surface of these bio-oils. In this study, first, the removal of extractive-derived substances from the bio-oil top phase was studied by common solvents with different polarities. In this case, the results indicated that when aimed at the maximum yield of single-phase fuel oil and thus the maximum amount of extractives removed, the use of n-heptane or n-hexane seems to be of benefit for this purpose. For safety reasons, the use of n-heptane was recommended. Second, an analysis practice (extraction time and the way of mixing) was optimized. In order to reduce the extraction time and enhance the extraction yield, it was important to break the oil surface in extraction. Third, based on the characterization results of the n-heptane extract by gas chromatography and ultraviolet spectroscopy, the detected compounds were classified as fatty acids, resin acids, esterified fatty acids, terpenoids, and steroids, and their total content (27 wt %) was lower than that of lignin-derived compounds (70 wt %). The extraction of the FPBO top phase with n-heptane followed by this analysis practice was a useful way to estimate the content and composition of lipophilic extractives.