The 205-kD microtubule-associated protein (205K MAP) is one of the principal MAPs in Drosophila. 205K MAP is similar to the HeLa 210K/MAP4 family of MAPs since it shares the following biochemical properties: it is present in several isoforms, has a molecular mass of approximately 200 kD, and is thermostable. Furthermore, immuno-crossreactivity has been observed between mouse MAP4, HeLa 210K, and Drosophila 205K MAP. Currently, there is little information concerning the biological function of this group of nonmotor MAPs. We have used a classical genetic approach to try to identify the role of the 205K MAP in Drosophila by isolating mutations in the 205K MAP gene. An F2 lethal screen was used to acquire deficiencies of 100EF, the chromosomal location of the 205K MAP gene. Drosophila bearing a homozygous deficiency for the 205K MAP region are fully viable and show no obvious phenotype. A recently developed polymerase chain reaction screen was also used to recover five P-element insertions upstream from the 205K MAP gene. Western blot analysis has shown that these insertions result in hypomorphic mutations of the 205K MAP gene. As was seen with animals that have no 205K MAP, these mutations appear to have no phenotype. These data unambiguously demonstrate that the 205K MAP gene is inessential for development. These results also suggest that there may exist protein(s) with redundant function that can substitute for 205K MAP.


This paper assesses the labour market impact of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) LNG project – the largest resource project ever completed in PNG. It discusses employment during the construction phase from 2010 to 2014 and the subsequent production phase. While national employment figures in the formal economy grew substantially during LNG construction, many jobs were held by foreign workers. Many Papua New Guineans living close to LNG construction sites were employed for short periods of time without the opportunity to develop skills or gain enough work experience to facilitate their permanent transition into the formal workforce. The major LNG developers have been criticised for not providing more training opportunities for local workers and instead heavily relying on foreign workers. Many PNG government departments were taken by surprise by the project, and training institutions were not ready to provide training in relevant areas. The paper ends with recommendations for the future, including the upcoming Papua LNG project.


We like to think we own our memories. If we could ever dampen or erase a memory, the decision to do so, it may seem, should be ours and ours alone. On occasion, for example, patients unexpectedly regain consciousness while undergoing major surgery. Many are horrified by the experience and subsequently develop post-traumatic stress disorder. If there were a way to avoid such trauma by blocking or erasing the memory of one's own surgery, surely patients should ordinarily be given the opportunity to do so. Indeed, intraoperative awareness presents a rare opportunity to erase a memory with limited downside.

But while we should certainly have rights to alter memories,1–3 our freedom of memory has limits. Some memories are simply too valuable to society to allow us the unfettered right to change them. Imagine a patient who regains consciousness during surgery and realises she is being raped by one or more members of her surgical team. If futuristic memory erasure could eliminate her horrifying memories, it could spare her from debilitating post-traumatic stress. But memory erasure might also eliminate the only opportunity to prosecute the offenders.

In some cases, we might be able to record a victim's recollections before erasing them so they could later be used in court. But some memory-altering techniques require treatment before the legal system would have a good opportunity to record pertinent testimony. In addition, out-of-court statements are often deemed inadmissible 'hearsay' evidence. Thus, we may face difficult questions about whether doctors should be permitted to prescribe a memory-erasing drug to willing patients when doing so will eviscerate a memory essential to a criminal …


Since the first integrated circuits in the late 1950s, the semiconductor industry has enjoyed exponential growth. This observation is illustrated by Moore's law which states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit (chip) doubles roughly every two years. Other examples of approximately exponential behavior are the increase in clock speed at which digital circuits run and the decrease in size of features that can be printed by manufacturing equipment. Due to improvements in manufacturing technology, the performance of chips is increasingly determined by the lengths of the wires that connect the functional elements of a chip. These wires are realized (routed) very late in the design flow. Mismatch between routing resources and routing demand is known as congestion and can lead to detoured wires and too many vias. Such surprises usually have detrimental effect on performance and yield and should be avoided. In order to prevent routing problems later on, congestion needs to be considered at earlier stages of the design flow than is traditionally the case. Congestion maps display congestion hotspots, and are a means to communicate (potential) resource conflicts. In this thesis, two methods for fast estimation of such maps are proposed. The first uses a probabilistic approach, and the second is essentially a global router with focus on speed rather than overflow minimization. Using such methods, algorithms earlier in the design flow can take routing considerations into account without the need to actually invoke the routers, allowing for more effective and accurate decisions and optimizations. Many algorithms require that multi-pin connections are broken down into two-pin connections. This thesis introduces the concept of routing freedom for measuring the amount of flexibility in such connections and decompositions. In the face of uncertainty about what will happen later on in the design flow, it can be beneficial to create as much flexibility as possible. Unfortunately, more freedom also corresponds to more vias under certain conditions. This thesis demonstrates how freedom analysis can be used to optimize net decomposition using Steiner tree algorithms and improve global routing. During chip implementation there are typically multiple considerations. Important examples are congestion, vias and run time. Equivalently, (heuristic) algorithms may base decisions on several criteria. In this thesis, tiebreakers are used to deal with such situations instead of more traditional approaches based on weights. This approach is used extensively in a net decomposition algorithmand during global routing. The problems encountered in chip implementation are huge in size and complexity. Often, approaches without guarantee of optimality are therefore used, as is the case for many of the algorithms presented in this thesis. Such approaches need to be validated and compared by benchmarking. Therefore, an extensive software package implementing the ideas presented in this thesis has been developed. A large number of experiments have been conducted demonstrating the effectiveness and limitations of the proposed methods and the tradeoffs that need to be made.


Recent works in the context of large-scale adaptive systems, such as those for the Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, promote aggregate programming [3], a development approach for distributed systems in which one programs the aggregate of computational devices instead of individual ones. This makes the resulting behaviour highly insensitive to network size, density, and topology, and as such, intrinsically robust to failures and changes to working conditions (e.g., location of computational load, communication technology, and computational infrastructure). In this paper we are concerned with how this approach can impact mainstream software development, and hence outline a Scala-based support of aggregate programming, leveraging Scala advanced type system, DSL support, and actors mechanisms.


ABSTRACT The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) eukaryotic transcription factors have the ability to form multiple dimer combinations. This property, together with limited DNA-binding specificity for the E box (CANNTG), makes them ideally suited for combinatorial control of gene expression. We tested the ability of all nine Saccharomyces cerevisiae bHLH proteins to regulate the enolase-encoding gene ENO1. ENO1 was known to be activated by the bHLH protein Sgc1p. Here we show that expression of an ENO1-lacZ reporter was also regulated by the other eight bHLH proteins, namely, Ino2p, Ino4p, Cbf1p, Rtg1p, Rtg3p, Pho4p, Hms1p, and Ygr290wp. ENO1-lacZ expression was also repressed by growth in inositol-choline-containing medium. Epistatic analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments showed that regulation by Sgc1p, Ino2p, Ino4p, and Cbf1p and repression by inositol-choline required three distal E boxes, E1, E2, and E3. The pattern of bHLH binding to the three E boxes and experiments with two dominant-negative mutant alleles of INO4 and INO2 support the model that bHLH dimer selection affects ENO1-lacZ expression. These results support the general model that bHLH proteins can coordinate different biological pathways via multiple mechanisms.


This paper presents Pando, a completely contention-free data dissemination protocol for wireless sensor networks. Pando encodes data by Fountain codes and disseminates the rateless stream of encoded packets along the fast and parallel pipelines built on constructive interference and channel diversity. Since every encoded packet contains innovative information to the original data object, Pando avoids duplicate retransmissions and fully exploits the wireless broadcast effect in data dissemination. To transform Pando into a practical system, we devise several techniques, including the integration of Fountain coding with the timing-critical operations of constructive interference and pipelining, a silence-based feedback scheme for the one-way pipelined dissemination, and packet-level adaptation of network density and channel diversity. Based on these techniques, Pando can accomplish data dissemination entirely over the fast and parallel pipelines. We implement Pando in Contiki and for TelosB motes. We evaluate Pando with various settings on two large-scale open test beds, Indriya and Flocklab. Our experimental results show that Pando can provide 100% reliability and reduce the dissemination time of state of the art by  $3.5\times $ .


Author(s): Raziperchikolaei, Ramin | Advisor(s): Maglio, Paul P | Abstract: Ordinary differential equations (ODE) are used extensively in science and engineering to model dynamical systems. In this dissertation, we use noisy observations to address two learning tasks regarding dynamical systems. The first one is called ODE parameter estimation, where the shape of the ODEs are known, and we try to learn (estimate) the parameters. The second task is called learning the governing equations, where we learn both the shape and the parameters of the ODEs.In the first part of this dissertation, we address the ODE parameter estimation problem. We propose and analyze a block coordinate descent proximal algorithm (BCD-prox) for simultaneous filtering and parameter estimation of ODE models. The main idea is to learn the states and the parameters in an alternation, where the states are restricted to change slowly from one iteration to the next. As we show on ODE systems with up to $d=40$ dimensions, as compared to state-of-the-art methods, BCD-prox exhibits increased robustness (to noise, parameter initialization, and hyperparameters), decreased training times, and improved accuracy of both filtered states and estimated parameters. We show how BCD-prox can be used with multistep numerical discretizations, and we establish convergence of BCD-prox under hypotheses that include real systems of interest.In the second part of this dissertation, we address the problem of learning the governing equations given the noisy observations. While we use powerful neural networks to learn the ODEs, we propose a novel structure that makes our network interpretable. The idea is to use the neural network to learn a set of one-dimensional and multi-dimensional shape functions, whose linear combinations give use the equations. To make our method robust to the noise in the observations, we learn the clean states and the parameters of the network simultaneously using the block coordinate descent proximal algorithm (BCD-prox). As we show in our experiments, our method is robust to its hyperparameter, robust to the noise, and outperforms the state-of-the-art methods by achieving more accurate state predictions.


Commercially successful ideas in the creative world are often imitated or adapted. Television formats, in particular, are routinely copied. From early radio formats to game shows and reality programme formats of today, producers have accused others of "stealing". Although formats constitute one of the most important exports for British TV producers, there is still no certainty about the legal protection of TV formats from copycat versions. Since TV formats fail to fall neatly within the definitions of protected material under international copyright and trade mark regimes, producers have been trying to devise innovative means to protect their formats from copycatting and plagiarism.
 Though the globalization of cultural and entertainment markets may itself have contributed to the rise of TV formats, interconnecting programming industries in a world of multiplying channels, this paper theorizes that global broadcasting and programme marketing strategies can also be used by TV format producers to protect their intellectual property rights. Specifically, eight different strategies may be used: (a) trade show infrastructure and dynamics; (b) visual brand identity and channel fit; (c) brand extension and merchandising; (d) corporate branding; (e) national branding; (f) genre branding; (g) constant brand innovation; (h) fan communities. The paper prepares the ground for evaluating the use and effectiveness of these eight strategies in preventing the copying of formats.


This paper discusses the main lines used to model intelligent agents that will operate in a Collaborative Online Learning Environment-COLE. The aim of COLE is to evaluate the contribution that Information Technology and Multiagent Systems can bring to the discussion about new adult learning processes. The work hypothesis is that online environments can better handle the huge mass of data related to human interactions in social learning processes than the face-to-face educational ones. Acquiring and managing expanded sets of data has been an obstacle to implement educational practices that consider students in broader dimensions, far beyond content assessment. Elements of the Social Learning Theory, specifically concepts from the Communities of Practice base COLE implementation. A brief description of Project Based Learning - PBL and portfolios (here conceptual maps) give elements to understand the project approach. The SAAS method, used to identify the agents is described. Use cases related to the "Librarian Agent" and the "Portfolio Agent" are presented and windows related to the "portfolio" and "active reading annotation" services illustrate the work.


This paper investigates technical and economically efficiency of 62 organic and 62 conventional olive producing farms in Turkey. According to the study results; by using the crS model which is input and output-oriented, the average technical efficiency of organic olive farms is 67.68%, the average technical efficiency of conventional olive farms is 47.93%. The technical efficiency of the output-oriented V rS model is 74.78%, and the technical efficiency of the input-oriented V rS model is 93.46%. Also, considering the same model, the average efficiency of the conventional olive farms in the input and output are 59.58% and 94.97%, respectively. Therefore, according to the Data Envelopment Analysis, the technical efficiency in conventional olive farms is less than in the organic ones. When the farms have been evaluated one by one in the light of the total potential improvement values, inputs and outputs, improvement is needed in all values.


Based on material data obtained by several researchers at Forest Research in New Zealand, with respect to variations in the main material properties from pith to bark, the distortion model developed earlier for Norway spruce has been further modified for radiata pine. Numerical simulations were performed for both pine and spruce to investigate how different sawn pattern options affect the shape stability of individual boards. Results for spruce presented earlier have shown clearly that warping of the timber products is strongly influenced by the annual ring patterns within the individual boards. Comparisons between the two species were performed to study how the radial variations in the basic properties such as shrinkage parameters, stiffness parameters, and spiral grain have influence on the warping. Generally, the intrinsic patterns of variation in wood properties within stems were similar, and both species show a tendency to distort with changing moisture environment. There are strong indications that intelligent re-combination of material in glued products may overcome many of the inherent problems in using biological material with predictable variation in material properties.


Quantitative generalizations of classical languages, which assign to each word a real number instead of a Boolean value, have applications in modeling resource-constrained computation. We use weighted automata (finite automata with transition weights) to define several natural classes of quantitative languages over finite and infinite words; in particular, the real value of an infinite run is computed as the maximum, limsup, liminf, limit average, or discounted sum of the transition weights. We define the classical decision problems of automata theory (emptiness, universality, language inclusion, and language equivalence) in the quantitative setting and study their computational complexity. As the decidability of the language-inclusion problem remains open for some classes of weighted automata, we introduce a notion of quantitative simulation that is decidable and implies language inclusion. We also give a complete characterization of the expressive power of the various classes of weighted automata. In particular, we show that most classes of weighted automata cannot be determinized.


In many domains data is currently represented as graphs and therefore, the graph representation of this data becomes increasingly important in machine learning. Network data is, implicitly or explicitly, always represented using a graph shift operator (GSO) with the most common choices being the adjacency, Laplacian matrices and their normalisations. In this paper, a novel parametrised GSO (PGSO) is proposed, where specific parameter values result in the most commonly used GSOs and message-passing operators in graph neural network (GNN) frameworks. The PGSO is suggested as a replacement of the standard GSOs that are used in state-of-the-art GNN architectures and the optimisation of the PGSO parameters is seamlessly included in the model training. It is proved that the PGSO has real eigenvalues and a set of real eigenvectors independent of the parameter values and spectral bounds on the PGSO are derived. PGSO parameters are shown to adapt to the sparsity of the graph structure in a study on stochastic blockmodel networks, where they are found to automatically replicate the GSO regularisation found in the literature. On several real-world datasets the accuracy of state-of-the-art GNN architectures is improved by the inclusion of the PGSO in both node- and graph-classification tasks.


The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will require passenger rail operators in the United States to develop a System Safety Program using a risk-based hazard management approach. Identified as 49 CFR, Part 270 System Safety Rule [1], the NPRM describes the basic requirements for a system safety program plan, including the need for a method for accepting risk. The NPRM does not, however, identify how the responsible party should actually go about managing risk. That is left up to the railways themselves.In Europe, hazard management is applied in the railroad industry (including high-speed rail systems) under the regulatory authority of the European Union. European Commission Regulation 352/2009/EC [2] outlines a Common Safety Method (CSM) on Risk Evaluation and Assessment for Railways of the European Union, commonly known as the CSM Regulation and the heart of the railway safety program in Europe. The CSM Regulation includes the standard risk assessment process elements: identification of the hazards, corresponding risks, mitigation measures to reduce the risk, and the resulting safety requirements to be fulfilled by the system under assessment. What sets the CSM Regulation apart from other risk assessment programs is that it provides a methodology for determining when acceptable risk is achieved. The risk acceptability of the system under assessment is evaluated using one or more of the following risk acceptance principles:a) The application of relevant codes of practice;b) A comparison with similar systems (reference systems);c) Explicit risk estimation.In essence, the responsible party can accept risk that has either been regulated to an acceptable level by an authority having jurisdiction or a widely-accepted industry practice, or if the risk has been successfully addressed by a similar railway system through that railway's engineering and operational controls. If neither of these cases applies the responsible party can estimate the risk and choose to accept it or not. A common approach, even internationally, is to develop an explicit risk estimation process based on the U.S. Department of Defense Military Standard 882E (MIL-STD-882E) [3]. Safety hazards are identified, analyzed for risk (severity and probability), and mitigations are progressively applied until a level of safety is achieved that is as low as reasonably practicable.The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has adopted a risk-based hazard management program to achieve an acceptable level of safety for the design, construction, implementation and operation of the California High-Speed Rail System. CHSRA has deliberately used both domestic and international guidance and standards in the development of this program in an effort to apply the most up-to-date processes and philosophies, and to draw upon the impressive safety legacy of international high-speed railway operators.This paper will describe the relevant regulations and guidance (both domestically and internationally), review the elements of a risk acceptance program based upon the CSM Regulation, and apply the program to a select set of hazards to demonstrate how appropriate mitigations can be determined and residual risk accepted. The paper will also identify potential future applications for the CSM Regulation here in the United States, and will challenge the reader to manage hazards using a risk-based approach that incorporates the basic framework of the CSM Regulation.Copyright © 2016 by ASME


We're Still Vulnerable: Todd Haynes's Safe in 2011 Todd Haynes's Safe, Culver City, Calif.: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, 1994 Todd Haynes's Safe was shot in and around Los Angeles while the city was besieged with aftershocks from the Northridge earthquake (6.7 on the Richter scale). Highways had collapsed all over the city office buildings were in ruins, and damage to homes was widespread. This backdrop is probably not incidental to the film's tone. As a California native, what I remember about waiting for aftershocks is a menacing quiet. You don't know when they'll hit, but the earth and air around you change entirely when they do. Usually they're minor, but you never know when one might be devastating. You're vulnerable, and you know it. Haynes's Poison (1991) was stylized and confrontational, echoing the Act Up-Queer Nation chant, "We're here, we're queer, get used to it." Safe seems to murmur a different slogan with a broader we in mind: " We're vulnerable, we know it, and we'd better find a way to live with it." We're waiting for aftershocks. We're not safe. When Haynes made Safe in 1994, he was still working with tiny budgets, Bill Clinton was in his first term, HIV was still generally understood as a death sentence, most people hadn't heard of chemical sensitivity disorder or Monica Lewinsky, and Julianne Moore was not yet a star. By the time he made his next film, Velvet Goldmine (1998), all that had changed. The world had changed. Watching Safe in 2011 is sort of like opening a time capsule. You knew it was there, but it manages to surprise you anyway. Safe is a film in three acts. Act 1: The opening shot oi Safe looks at a suburban street from the point of view of a car - in reality, Haynes's parents' car moving up the street to their house. (Many of the films' locations are the homes of Haynes's southern California relatives.) Moore, who is in nearly every shot of the film, has yet to be introduced. The cars-eye view suggests a sterile suburb. The carparks, Carol White (Moore) gets out, and then we cut to her buried under her husband s limply thrusting body. She's the victim of bad sex. We know where we are: the suburbs. And we know what the problem is: suffocating suburban life. And suburban life suffocates because it fails to acknowledge vulnerability. Carol's body begins to revolt, attuning her immune system to the poisons of her environment. Her carpets, sofas, cleaning fluids - her husbands clothes - are making her sick. Act 2: Carol is energized by her disease and the community of fellow sufferers she finds through it. She comes to understand that she's "allergic to the twentieth century." Act 3: Carol finds Renwood, a creepy retreat in the California desert, which is supposedly free of toxins, brimming with oppressive New Age dogma that amounts to a simple message: If you're sick, it's your fault. In the arms of this cushioning community, Carol gets more and more frail. Her skin becomes papery and bruised. She shuffles around Renwood with an oxygen tank while her new community smiles at her as though she's finally found her place in the world. Safety, it turns out, is not just a myth. It will kill you. "We all have a little Carol White in us," Haynes jokes in the commentary for the DVD release of the film. Carol wants to please; she doesn't want to be in anybody's way; but she wants a voice and some room in the world too. In that same commentary, Moore explains that to play Carol she spoke "above" her vocal chords, speaking without projecting. She conceived Carol's breathy speech to create the sense that her voice was "bodyless." As her friends and family respond with suspicion to her growing list of symptoms, it becomes clear that Carol's suburbs are a place where people eschew the idea that mind and body have anything to do with each other. Carol sees a physician and a psychiatrist, both of whom seem to be in the business of dislocating her mental life from her physiology. …


It was studied antibodies to saprophytic microorganism Bacillus megaterium H glycoprotein in healthy, oncological, non-oncological gastrointestinal patients and animals. High level of antibodies to microbial glycoprotein in blood sera was revealed in cancer and precancer patients. Analogical results were obtained in mice A/Sn and Balb/c with inductive or transplanted tumors. It has been suggested the use of Bacillus megaterium H glycoprotein (M. m. 65-70 kD) for immunological monitoring.


Author(s): Cooke, Abigail Montague | Advisor(s): Rigby, David L | Abstract: The research presented in this dissertation examines the impacts of trade from low-wage countries on U.S. labor markets. Analysis explores how imports from low-wage countries influence the wages of workers with high- and low-levels of education and how such trade may be related to growing wage inequality. Linkages between import competition and low-wage imports at the national level are extended to individual census regions to provide some of the first sub-national data linking trade and wage inequality. Standard models of trade impacts by education-skill categories also are extended to capture the influence of task-based characteristics of work. Finally, the effects of import competition from low-wage countries on the likelihood of plant closure are examined. Engaging with the most recent theoretical models of trade, the empirical analysis presented in this dissertation uses detailed microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau. Those data are used to link individual workers to manufacturing plants and firms. The resulting employer-employee files are appended with data on the task characteristics of different occupations and with measures of import competition built-up from individual trade transaction data. The result is one of the most comprehensive datasets yet built connecting measures of trade to the characteristics of jobs, workers and business establishments spanning the years 1992-2007. Analysis of these data yields insights into the socially and spatially uneven consequences of trade. This dissertation finds that low-wage import competition is significantly related to increased inequality, driving down wages for workers with low levels of formal education and driving up wages for workers with high levels of education. The results indicate that import competition increases the nonproduction worker share of total wages within establishments, another measure of wage inequality related to differences in worker skills/education. It also reveals that the relationship between wage inequality and low-wage import competition varies substantially across U.S. regions. Furthermore, this dissertation finds that task intensity measures of routineness, complexity, and interpersonal interaction in a worker's occupation significantly mediate the effect of low-wage import competition on workers' wages. It also finds that low-wage import competition significantly raises the likelihood of manufacturing plant closure.


A particle exposure experiment inside a large climate-controlled chamber was conducted. Data on spatial and temporal distribution of nanoscale and fine aerosols in the range of mobility diameters 8 - 600 nm were collected with high resolution, for sodium chloride, fluorescein sodium and silica particles. Exposure scenarios studied, included constant and intermittent source emissions, different aggregation conditions, high (10 h-1 ) and low (3.5 h-1 ) air exchange rates (AERs) corresponding to chamber Reynolds number respectively equal to 1.105 and 3.104 . Results are presented and analysed to highlight the main determinants of exposure and to determine if the assumptions underlying two-box models hold under various scenarios. The main determinants of exposure found were the source generation rate and the ventilation rate. The effect of particles nature was indiscernible and the decrease of airborne total number concentrations attributable to surface deposition was estimated lower than 2% when the source was active. A near-field/far-field structure of aerosol concentration was always observed for the AER=10 h-1 but for AER=3.5 h-1 a single field structure was found. The particle size distribution was always homogeneous in space but a general shift of particles diameter (-8% to +16%) was observed between scenarios in correlation with the AER and with the source position, presumably largely attributable to aggregation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Recent studies have recognized sea ice as a source of reactive iodine to the Antarctic boundary layer. Volatile iodinated compounds (iodocarbons) are released from sea ice, and they have been suggested to contribute to the formation of iodine oxide (IO), which takes part in tropospheric ozone destruction in the polar spring. We measured iodocarbons (CH3I, CH2ClI, CH2BrI, and CH2I2) in sea ice, snow, brine, and air during two expeditions to Antarctica, OSO 10/11 to the Amundsen Sea during austral summer and ANT XXIX/6 to the Weddell Sea in austral winter. These are the first reported measurements of iodocarbons from the Antarctic winter. Iodocarbons were enriched in sea ice in relation to seawater in both summer and winter. During summer, the positive relationship to chlorophyll a biomass indicated a biological origin. We suggest that CH3I is formed biotically in sea ice during both summer and winter. For CH2ClI, CH2BrI, and CH2I2, an additional abiotic source at the snow/ice interface in winter is suggested. Elevated air concentrations of CH3I and CH2ClI during winter indicate that they are enriched in lower troposphere and may take part in the formation of IO at polar sunrise.


The theoretical sensitivity of Love wave and layer-guided shear horizontal acoustic plate mode (SH-APM) sensors for viscoelastic guiding layers and general loading by viscoelastic materials is developed. A dispersion equation previously derived for a system of three rigidly coupled elastic mass layers is modified so that the second and third layers can be viscoelastic. The inclusion of viscoelasticity into the second, wave guiding layer, introduces a damping term, in addition to a phase velocity shift, into the response of the acoustic wave system. Both the waveguiding layer and the third, perturbing layer, are modeled using a Maxwell model of viscoelasticity. The model therefore includes the limits of loading of both nonguided shear horizontal surface acoustic wave and acoustic plate mode (APM) sensors, in addition to Love wave and layer-guided SH-APM sensors, by rigidly coupled elastic mass and by Newtonian liquids. The three-layer model is extended to include a viscoelastic fourth layer of arbitrary thickness and so enable mass deposition onto an immersed Love wave or layer-guided SH-APM sensor to be described. A relationship between the change in the complex velocity and the slope of the complex dispersion curve is derived and the similarity to the mass and liquid sensor response of quartz crystal microbalances is discussed. Numerical calculations are presented for the case of a Love wave device in vacuum with a viscoelastic waveguiding layer. It is shown that, while a particular polymer relaxation time may be chosen such that the effect of viscoelasticity on the real part of the phase speed is relatively small, it may nonetheless induce a large insertion loss. The potential or the use of insertion loss as a sensor parameter is discussed.


This paper presents an experiment performed to test the properties of an innovative bargaining mechanism (called automated negotiation) used to resolve disputes arising from Internet-based transactions. The main result shows that the settlement rule tends to chill bargaining as it creates incentives for individuals to misrepresent their true valuations, which implies that automated negotiation is not able to promote agreements. However, this perverse effect depends strongly on the conflict situation. When the threat that a disagreement occurs is more credible, the strategic effect is reduced since defendants are more interested in maximizing the efficiency of a settlement than their own expected profit. The implications of these results are then used to discuss the potential role of public regulation and reputation mechanisms in Cyberspace.


Metamorphic studies are increasingly striving to integrate timing information with petrographic analysis and thermobarometry – the developing field of petrochronology. Recent advances in analytical techniques, in particular a variety of in situ methods that can potentially extract the information preserved in disequilibrium features, have reinvigorated metamorphic studies. The strength of petrochronology lies in linking the isotopic age directly to the metamorphic stage, in contrast to earlier studies where accessory phase ages existed in isolation from the thermobaromatric data with which they were tentatively linked. Garnet has proved itself an invaluable tool in metamorphic studies, yielding microstructural, thermobarometric, geochemical and even geochronological information. Although common in amphibolite-facies pelitic metasediments, garnet does not easily yield its chronological data, so the common accessory phase monazite has been used more routinely. Typically, monazite isotopic ages cannot be linked to the development of different metamorphic assemblages because their textural relationships, especially with fabric-forming phases, are commonly obscure. However, their distribution as matrix grains versus inclusions in porphyroblast minerals such as garnet, or in retrograde textures, can yield useful information. In situ investigations of chemical zoning in both monazite and garnet offer the potential to link crystallisation of the two minerals more closely. Since both monazite and garnet incorporate rare earth elements (REE), their equilibrium partitioning behaviour provides not only a useful test of equilibration, but also a way of linking time to temperature. Previously reported garnetmonazite partitioning data record the behaviour expected under granulite-facies (>750°C) conditions. We document REE concentration data from sub-solidus amphibolite-facies (~650-700°C) rocks from the eastern Himalaya (Bhutan), where age and inclusion relationships suggest that garnet and monazite grew simultaneously. The garnet/monazite ratios show steeper heavy REE patterns than those reported from the higher-temperature experimental data. These data suggest either that the partitioning relationships vary with temperature, or that different relationships hold in sub-solidus vs. supra-solidus rocks. Bhutan is an excellent location to test these relationships; abundant pelitic metasediments within a single tectonic unit span metamorphic grades ranging from sub-solidus to supra-solidus. Moreover, these metamorphic rocks (and their counterparts along the strike of the orogen) have been extensively studied in recent years both in terms of their metamorphism and their monazite geochronology, providing an ideal framework for petrochronological research with applications to all major orogens.


In this paper we compare the changing pattern of unionization in OECD countries, review existing evidence, and present new information on cross-country differences in union/non-union differentials in labour market outcomes, largely from the micro data files of the International Social Survey Programme cross-country surveys of 1985-1987. Our analysis shows that American unions have a larger effect on wages, but not on other outcomes, than unions in other countries. We argue that the high union wage premium in the US contributed to the decline in US union density and to the consequent divergence of the US industrial relations system from those in most OECD countries. Looking to the future, our findings suggest that US unions must make major innovations in their tactics and policies to regain a position of strength in the private sector and that the nation will have to develop new industrial relations institutions to avoid the Congress and the judiciary intervening frequently in workplace decisions.


This paper examines the relationship between the explicit and the implicit memory and learning systems in terms of recent findings in neuropsychology and outlines the implications for technology education in terms of student learning. The psychological Dual Systems Theory situates the processing of perception, assessment, decision-making and action in two parallel but different cognitive systems. The Declarative/Explicit system is conscious, remembering facts and episodes; it is rational and logical but also limited in complexity and speed. Working Memory's (WM) capacity, an "end station" of this system, is severely limited. Depending on modality between 4 and 9 variables or steps in a sequence may be handled at once. More will lead to cognitive loading and impasse. Since WM probably is our consciousness, we will not be able to analyse what was dropped out or what happened, we will just get confused. The narrow view of conscious vision, the slow speed and the problems with details and complexity in space and time makes this system less suitable for real time, real complexity work. The non conscious Implicit System on the other hand does not use Working Memory and will not be hampered by cognitive overload; it's a pattern recognition system with very fast recognition of earlier encountered situations and objects. It has several important functions: 1- To direct conscious attention to what is important and relevant in a situation. 2- To give a fast assessment, built upon somatic markers incorporated in memory. 3- To start an automatic reaction to what is perceived, The lifespan of this memory system is long, and it seems very hard to erase or to change them. Most of what we usually refer to as skill seems to be connected to learning in this system. The Dual Systems model has recently been supported with neurophysiologic results showing, two different anatomical systems. The somatic markers have been identified, the secondary implicit vision system and concepts such as tacit knowing, automaticity, flow and intuition are starting to be understood. This model gives a new way of understanding what we do in technology education, gives clues of how to promote creativity, holistic learning, system thinking, forward reasoning and more.


Background: It has been found that patients have expressed favourable attitudes towards hospital settings (Weinstein, 1979) but more recently, evidence from service user feedback has indicated the experience of psychiatric admission can be felt to be neither safe nor therapeutic (Department of Health, 2002). There has been lack of qualitative research exploring individuals' experiences of psychiatric admission in the context of acute psychosis.

Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the experience and perceptions of psychiatric admission for individuals with psychosis using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Method: Five participants with psychosis who were currently admitted to a psychiatric ward were interviewed using a semi-structured interview.

Results: Three super ordinate themes emerged, which were labelled: "I feel like a, a prisoner in here…", "'..my life is in their hands.." and "There is an awful lot of stigma put on mental health patients..."

Conclusions: The emergent themes suggested individuals felt imprisoned, disempowered and experienced a sense of loss due to their admission but also due to their experiences of psychosis. This was also accompanied by a lack of awareness and understanding from others, which resulted in feelings of stigma but acceptance within hospital. The themes are discussed in relation to previous research and current Government and National Health Service (NHS) initiatives.

Declaration of interest: None


Ankarafantsika National Park, one of the largest and last remaining sections of dry deciduous forest in Madagascar, is filled with critically endangered and endemic species. A major highway bisects the park. Road kill continues to be a problem facing park management. In 2007 two speed bumps were constructed along the highway system inside the park. While it is assumed that speed bumps decrease incidence of road kill by slowing vehicles, no studies have conclusively determined that speed bumps protect wildlife. This project analyzes data collected from 2005 to 2007 to determine if speed bumps reduced the amount of road kill inside the park. The speed bumps were found to substantially reduce the amount of road kill across all faunal classes. The fact that reductions in road kill occurred along the entire road suggests that the speed bumps might act as psychological deterrent as well as a physical obstacle.


One of the most revealing political engagements of recent years was between members of the British left, with the work of the right-wing economist and anti-socialist political theorist, Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992). This paper focuses on the work of Andrew Gamble, and more specifically on his claim that 'Hayek has much to contribute to the renewal of the socialist project'. Whilst accounts of Hayek's work by the left during much of the post-war period were rare, by the 1990s several historical shifts had led Gamble and others to re-examine their attitudes to their old enemy. Gamble claimed that there were two sides to Hayek: Hayek the ideologue, and Hayek the social scientist, whose work contained lessons of which socialists should take note. Gamble's engagement with Hayek represented a rejection of those statist forms of socialism which had been dominant during the 20th century and his argument, after undergoing this engagement with Hayek's work, bore many similarities to the new liberalism of the early 20th century. As such, Gamble's work can be seen as part of a much wider mutation of those political categories that dominated the 20th century. By the end of that century, in place of statist forms of socialism and conservatism, the debate between left and right was largely carried out within two sides of the liberal tradition.


Ultrafine slag, which is ground with the process of vertical mill, is tested with the laser granulometric distribution apparatus quickly. The characteristics of granulometric distribution of ultrafine slag are analyzed using fractal theory. The fractal dimension of different fineness powders is tested and counted. The result shows that ultrafine slag powders have self-similar characteristics. With the laser granulometric distribution apparatus, the fractal dimension of its powders might be tested and counted with the fractal theory and its characteristics might be fast evaluated. The inherent law between powders fineness and activity is studied, and the mathematical model is built with the results. The fractal characteristics of powders might be used to meticulously evaluate fineness of ultrafine powders and be used to describe complexity of powders. The test of activation indicates that the slag fineness appraised by fractal dimension has fine linear relevant characteristic with its 7 d, 28 d activity.


This paper describe a method in the growth of high-purity Si thin film on low-purity silicon substrate by liquid phase epitaxial (LPE) growth, in order to eliminate the effect of melt substrate on the matrix, we simulate the matrix temperature effect on the epitaxial substrate temperature choice and the growth of thin film thickness with the growth time, then we carried out experiment according to the simulation result. Through the analyses experimental results, we found that on the low-purity silicon substrate can grow very good high-purity silicon thin film by liquid phase epitaxial (LPE) growth and thickness with growth time have little difference between the simulation. So we come to the conclusion: The growth of high-purity Si thin film on low-purity silicon substrate by liquid phase epitaxial (LPE) growth is a good way to make solar cell material; through the numerical simulation, we can effectively reduce the test energy consumption and test repeat times, which provide a good theoretical basis for the experiment successfully conduct.


Little is known about how active stream network expansion during rainstorms influences the ability of riparian buffers to improve water quality. We used aerial photographs to quantify stream network expansion during the wet winter season in five agricultural catchments in western Oregon, USA. Winter stream drainage densities were nearly two orders of magnitude greater than summer stream densities, and agricultural land use was much more abundant along transient portions (e.g. swales, road ditches) of stream networks. Water moving from agricultural fields into expanded stream networks during large hydrologic events has the opportunity to bypass downstream riparian buffers along perennial streams and contribute nonpoint‐source pollutants directly into perennial stream channels. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In Sicily, the academic botanical gardens of Catania, Messina and Palermo have been historically exerting a multiplicity of activities ranging from maintenance of ex situ collections to plant conservation policy, practice and ecological restoration, along with more traditional functions related to education and academic research. In the last decade's, two new botanical gardens the "Nuova Gussonea" and the "Bernardino da Ucria", were created in Sicily, with the aim to play more delimited, yet modern and complementary roles. The garden "Nuova Gussonea", within the Etna Natural Park, is mostly devoted to collect and preserve the native flora of the Mount Etna, with a special focus on endemic and rare plants and their promotion to a wider public. The garden "Bernardino da Ucria", in the Nebrodi Natural Park, is mainly specialized in promoting the local culture and to collect and preserve the agro-biodiversity of officinal plants of the Nebrodi territory. It is located in the homonymous village in the Messina district where the famous "demonstrator of plants" and co-founder of the Botanical Garden of Palermo University was born. Noteworthy, within Sicily the Nebrodi area is undoubtedly the widest and richest in traditional activities regarding agriculture, sheep farming and sylviculture, which produced an agrobiodiversity heritage often representative of individual community cultures. Initially promoted by Palermo University and sustained by the Nebrodi Regional Park, this garden comprises the "Banca vivente del Germoplasma vegetale dei Nebrodi". Accessions conserved in vivo so far include cultivars of crops (Corylus, Pyrus, Malus, Prunus sp. pl., Ficus, Juglans), vegetables (Phaseolus and Lycopersicum) and officinal plants, that are in part representative of local agricultural practices. Among crops, the collections of Ficus, Pyrus and Corylus are remarkable; while among vegetables, the beans (Phaseolus) are represented by over 65 distinct cultivars, comprising 57 climbing and 8 dwarf species (1). Additionally, the garden's bank hosts several botanical collections unrelated to the local flora, representative of officinal and ornamental genera, such as Salvia, Helleborus, Paeonia and Camellia. The cryopreserved accessions so far encompass the bean cultivars, mainly found within the Nebrodi Park area. The aim of this particular collection is to further exploit the local agricultural and food heritage by recovering and spreading among local farmers of autochthonous cultivars under extinction risk. Moreover, the garden has recently been equipped with a molecular biology laboratory, performing studies on the genetic diversity of the accessions, as well as activities instrumental to the creation of a related DNA bank, interconnected with the Palermo Botanical garden bank (HBP-Bank). In 2011, the botanical garden of Ucria hosted the Summer School "Knowledge, conservation and management of plant biodiversity of the Mediterranean mountain systems", organized by Palermo University together with OPTIMA, and financially supported by the Nebrodi Park. Similarly, the Summer School "Management of plant biodiversity in the Mediterranean: ex situ conservation and germplasm banks" will be held in 2016. The activities of the new Ucria botanical garden and its germplasm bank, is supported by a dedicated Consortium, established by the Nebrodi Park together with Palermo University. The botanical garden "Bernardino da Ucria" is open to public in the spring and summer period. It is also offering didactic visits for educational purposes to several schools.


Eosin-Y exhibits high affinity and emission based spectral response to most of the major ions in water samples. In the present study we performed selective spectrofluorimetric analysis of manganese with eosin-Y in the presence of potential interferents. We employed green chemistry reagents, ionic liquids (ILs) and two different micelles, to suppress the effect of conventional cations and anions on the response of eosin-Y. The experimental data revealed that different test moieties caused enhanced analytical response to Mn$^{2+}$. The highest analytical signal of eosin-Y was obtained in the presence of Triton X-100 at a concentration of 2.0 $\times $ 10$^{-3}$ mol L$^{-1}$. Presence of the green chemistry reagents ILs enhanced the limit of quantification for Mn$^{2+}$ 10-fold with respect to the IL-free moieties. The interfering effects of the metal ions of Ca$^{2+}$, Cu$^{2+}$, Hg$^{+}$, Hg$^{2+}$, As$^{5+}$, Li$^{+}$, Al$^{3+}$, Cr$^{3+}$, Co$^{2+}$, Ni$^{2+}$,$^{}$ and the anionic groups were completely suppressed in the presence of the ILs and micelles. Additionally, the tolerance limit of Na$^{+}$ and Zn$^{2+}$ ions increased 6-fold in the presence of IL and sodium dodecyl sulfate. The presented method did not use any harmful conventional solvents and was employed successfully for the detection of Mn$^{2+}$ ions in real water samples.


In 19th century Australia, democrats such as Henry Parkes could not emphasise too much how important it was to elect a Parliamentary representative who was honourable, decent and able to work on behalf of the public good. He provided some advice for those voting for the first time when universal manhood suffrage was introduced into New South Wales. The primary quality he said to look for in a representative was "personal integrity".


The usefulness and limitations of the CNDO/S method for calculations of rotational strengths of inherently chiral chromophores are illustrated with examples from bridged biphenyls. The more empirical Schellman matrix method is employed to calculate CD spectra of compounds containing two chirally disposed chromophores. Analysis of the CD spectra of a compound containing two interacting thioamide groups gives detailed conformational information. Analysis of the CD spectra of two closely analogous 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-2-aryl-N-formyl-pyridines with spiro structure shows how a small structural change can lead to the appearance of a nearly mirror image CD spectrum with retained configuration at the spiro atom. Chirality 12:162–171, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


Public transport plays an important role in a city's economy and its social equity. It is also instrumental in reducing automobile dependence and traffic congestion. Several factors must come together to achieve well-functioning public transport systems. One major factor is the level of accessibility offered by the public transport system. To better understand and consequentially enhance accessibility, we must be able to measure it and map it, which is the key aim of this paper. The methodology in this study, which was originally developed by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and later adopted by Transport for London (TfL) has been adapted to the case study city of Ahmedabad, India. A GIS mapping tool was used to generate a visual representation of public transport accessibility levels (PTAL) taking into account average walk speed and time, distances to public transport stops, and peak-hour route frequencies of different public transport modes. The paper concludes with initiation of a discussion on the potential uses of PTAL mapping to enhance planning practice, such as formulating development/master plans with land use–transport integration, prioritizing public transport and supporting investments, formulating parking policies, and developing transit-oriented zoning regulations.


The authors have developed a vision system for automatic car following and object classification. The CARTRACK system can reliably detect, track, and identify the back of an automobile in a dynamic image taken from a following car in the same lane or in a neighbor lane. The detection and tracking system exploits the symmetry property of the rear view of normal cars. The class of objects that are detected by CARTRACK includes normal cars of all sizes as well as trucks and conventional trailers. Parallel to the tracking process, a model-based identification module identifies the type of vehicle being followed. For objects of known size, it also facilitates distance estimation. Deformable 2D models (planar feature graphs) constructed from various visual features are used. The image features in a region of interest selected by the symmetry-based detection process are matched with the model objects by means of an elastic net technique.<<ETX>>


This study examines the feasibility of Brazilian ethanol dealers using the U.S. ethanol futures contracts as a price-risk management vehicle. This application is appropriate given that the U.S. and Brazil are the world's largest and second largest ethanol producers. This specific application is part of a larger consideration as to how U.S. futures markets perform for hedging international commodities. This study considers the reasons why U.S. ethanol contracts might and might not work as hedging vehicles for Brazilian ethanol inventories prior to conducting an empirical investigation. Our empirical hedge ratio model formulates three components of price risk for international users of U.S. futures markets. These are (1) the risk of commodity price change given the initial currency exchange rate, (2) the risk of exchange rate change, given the commodity's initial price, and (3) the risk of covariation between the commodity's price and the currency exchange rate. Based on these sources of price risk, the hedging portfolio consists of the U.S. ethanol futures contract and the Brazilian real futures contract. Our analysis reveals that the U.S. ethanol futures contract provides little price-risk protection for Brazilian ethanol holder while the Brazilian real futures contract offers some protection. In contract, we present results from crude oil futures markets in which the U.S. crude oil futures contract gives the bulk of price risk protection and the currency futures contract provides much less. We conclude (1) that the ethanol findings are not universal and depend on the provisions of the U.S. ethanol futures contract and (2) the contracts traded on the Brazilian futures exchange do not compete directly with the U.S. contracts.


The Internet technology revolution is a technological revolution, conceptual revolution and social revolution that has occurred after human entered the post-industrial society. Internet technology has profoundly changed human information transmission methods, resource allocation methods, production factors combination methods and daily production lifestyles, and promoted and deepened the social interaction. Internet technology attributes manifest itself in the Internet revolution as an information infrastructure, which actually pushes the human society from the transport revolution to the transmission revolution, and maximizes the utility of network data resources. The extended nature of the Internet is reflected in the increasingly rich social life embedded in the Internet technology, and the increasingly open degree of society and the level of sharing and cooperation. The Internet technology revolution has experienced four stages of development: popularization, commercialization, intelligentization and Internet+". From +Internet" to Internet+", the Internet technology revolution has completed a great revolution from technology and means to thinking and concept, and has created a new development mode of synergetic sharing. It has gradually become a basic innovation platform leading the country's innovation-driven development and an important factor for improving the country's comprehensive competitiveness. It has realized the interconnection between people, people and things, and things and things. It further liberates humanity. The value and significance of human beings have been demonstrated in the Internet technology revolution. The creative potential of human beings has been stimulated and the social classes have been broken. However, when an individual is positioned in a systematic and date-oriented life in the Internet world, there is also a risk of weakening of the human subjectivity and human alienation. People indulge in the online world, which leads to the blurring boundary between man and thing, and interpersonal communication drawing away from real situations and real emotions. People are enslaved by technology, which leads to the weakening of people's originality, sociality and subjectivity, and the illusion of technological progress leads to self-deception. The human alienation" brought by the Internet technology revolution should not be ignored and should be treated objectively and rationally. The value orientation of equality, sharing and universal benefits of the Internet technology revolution is in harmony with the construction of a community of shared future for mankind. The network information resources in the era of intelligent connection are shared by people as production materials. The cooperation between people has become an inevitable requirement. The human society in the Internet era is more closely connected than ever before. The current Internet technology revolution is deepening. In the future, it is necessary to give full play to the above propound value concept of the Internet to promote the construction of a community of shared future for mankind, and to eliminate the human alienation" caused by Internet technology.


Risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including high cholesterol, high homocysteine, hypertension and inflammation, increase the risk of dementia, including its most common form, Alzheimer's disease (AD). High cholesterol is also associated with elevated beta-amyloid (Abeta), the hallmark of AD. Oxidative damage is a major factor in cardiovascular disease and dementia, diseases whose risk increases with age. Garlic, extracted and aged to form antioxidant-rich aged garlic extract (AGE or Kyolic), may help reduce the risk of these diseases. AGE scavenges oxidants, increases superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione levels, and inhibits lipid peroxidation and inflammatory prostaglandins. AGE reduces cholesterol synthesis by inhibiting 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase and is additive with statins in its action. Inhibition of cholesterol, LDL oxidation, and platelet aggregation by AGE, inhibits arterial plaque formation; AGE decreases homocysteine, lowers blood pressure, and increases microcirculation, which is important in diabetes, where microvascular changes increase heart disease and dementia risks. AGE also may help prevent cognitive decline by protecting neurons from Abeta neurotoxicity and apoptosis, thereby preventing ischemia- or reperfusion-related neuronal death and improving learning and memory retention. Although additional observations are warranted in humans, compelling evidence supports the beneficial health effects attributed to AGE in helping prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and lowering the risk of dementia and AD.


ABSTRACT Chile and Norway are two 'natural resource-intensive economies', which have had different development trajectories, yet are closely similar in industrial structure and geophysical conditions. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate about how and why some economies based on natural resource activities have been more dynamic and innovative than others by indicating contributing factors of key differences in one natural resource sector both countries developed, namely mining. I explore how comparable knowledge organizations developed knowledge and how they help to understand differences in development. More knowledge was developed and accumulated in Norway than in Chile, which indicates that there was a knowledge gap between the two countries. Mining instructions were similar, but there were striking differences when it came to (1) number of graduates, (2) number of travel arrangements for practical learning and (3) organised geological mapping and ore surveys. These differences contribute to explain the emerging gap of the two sectors, which in turn may be linked to the role of the state. In Norway, the state was much more active in supporting knowledge development through funding of education, scholarships and the National Geological Survey. In Chile, these key knowledge organizations were given lower priority by political decision-makers.


This paper proposes a simulation methodology to optimize MIMO antenna designs for the system performance parameters. The proposed design flow provides a co-simulation bench to evaluate MIMO antenna designs with system-level criteria. In one example, two MIMO antenna designs are considered, where both of them meet conventional antenna design parameters. The proposed methodology identifies the antenna design which statistically results in higher system throughput.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was conducted to compare and evaluate the efficacy of four chemically different immersion types of commercially available denture cleansers on recently fabricated complete dentures in healthy patients, using microbiological quantification method. Materials and Methods: Ten healthy subjects aged 60 – 70 year were selected. Chemical denture cleansers used were divided into four groups; Group I – Sodium hypochlorite solution 0.02% , Group II – Trisodium phosphate , Group III – Sodium perborate and Group IV – Chlorhexidine gluconate 0.2%. Posterior half of the tissue – bearing surface of the denture was swabbed using sterile cotton swabs at four different sites and cultured on blood agar .Net percentage reduction in the colony forming units before and after treatment with each of the above test agents on cultures from above four sites was calculated, tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis Results For all the groups the difference of means were statistically significant. The percentage reduction in streptococcus species count in log units for Groups I, II, III, and IV was found to be 28%, 16%, 10%, and 9% respectively. Conclusion: Cleansing agents were found to be effective in the following order, Sodium hypochlorite solution (0.02%), Trisodium phosphate, Sodium perborate and Chlorhexidine gluconate (0.2%). Clinical Implications: Treatment of dentures with denture cleansers significantly decreases the amount of subsequently formed plaque. The significant reduction in the number of microorganisms observed in this study suggests that the use of chemical cleansers is suitable method for cleaning dentures in geriatric patients.


The discovery and exploration of hydrothermal vents on the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) yielded invaluable samples for further resolution of the biogeography of chemoautotrophic symbioses. Mytilid mussels were collected from 2 CIR hydrothermal vent fields and preliminary molecular analyses suggested phylogenetic affinity with the western Pacific vent mussel Bathymodiolus brevior. Resolving whether this mussel, designated B. aft. brevior, hosts a dual symbiosis, as characterized for the 2 Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vent mussel species, or a single chemoautotrophic symbiosis, as seen in the Pacific vent mussel species, will provide insight into the evolutionary history of mytilid symbioses. Ultrastructural, physiological, and molecular evidence are reported herein which support the presence of a single endosymbiont phylotype with chemoautotrophic metabolism. Phylogenetic analyses placed this symbiont in the same clade as the vesicomyid clam symbionts, prompting discussion regarding the evolutionary origin of chemoautotrophic symbioses in vent bivalves.


With limited resources and attention, managers have sought ways to categorize and prioritize stakeholders. The underlying assumption is that some stakeholders matter more than others. However, in the information age, stakeholders are increasingly interconnected, where a firm's actions toward one stakeholder are visible to others and can affect members of the stakeholder ecosystem. Actions by a firm toward any of its stakeholders can signal its trustworthiness and determine to what degree other stakeholders will assume vulnerability and engage in future exchange relationships. In this conceptual article, I present a model of stakeholder connectedness and describe the conditions in which a firm's actions toward one stakeholder can build or erode trust across stakeholders. This work contributes to current tensions in stakeholder theory by elucidating how the treatment of a single stakeholder, or a narrow group of stakeholders, can have cascading effects on a broader group of stakeholders.


The study of aggressive interactions between species has, to date, usually been restricted to interactions among small numbers of ecologically close competitors. Nothing is known about interspecific dominance hierarchies that include numerous, ecologically varied species. Such hierarchies are of interest because they could be used to address a variety of research questions, e.g. do similarly ranked species tend to avoid each other in time or space, and what will happen when such species come into contact as climates change? Here, we propose a method for creating a continental-scale hierarchy, and we make initial analyses based on this hierarchy. We quantified the extent to which a dominance hierarchy of feeder birds was linear, as intransitivities can promote local species' coexistence. Using the existing network of citizen scientists participating in Project FeederWatch, we collected the data with which to create a continent-spanning interspecific dominance hierarchy that included species that do not currently have overlapping geographic distributions. Overall, the hierarchy was nearly linear, and largely predicted by body mass, although there were clade-specific deviations from the average mass–dominance relationship. Most of the small number of intransitive relationships in the hierarchy were based on small samples of observations. Few observations were made of interactions between close relatives and ecological competitors like Melanerpes woodpeckers and chickadees, as such species often have only marginally overlapping geographic distributions. Yet, these species' ranks—emergent properties of the interaction network—were usually in agreement with published literature on dominance relationships between them. Interspecific dominance hierarchy, aggression, displacement, citizen science LAY SUMMARY When it comes to fighting over food, bigger is better but woodpeckers are best. The outcome of aggressive encounters between birds frequently determines which individual gains access to contested resources like food, but until now, little was known about such encounters between individuals of different species. We partnered with citizen scientists to record interspecific behavioral interactions at bird feeders around North America, and assembled these interactions into a continental dominance hierarchy.


Intracellular free calcium concentrations (Ca++i) were studied in polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) from 13 athyreotic patients who had been previously treated by total thyroidectomy and radioiodine therapy for differentiated thyroid carcinoma, and from age- and sex-matched euthyroid healthy controls. Patients were studied twice, when hypothyroid (visit 1) and after restoration of euthyroidism by L-T4 TSH-suppressive therapy (visit 2). PMNs from patients at visit 1 had significantly lower resting (Ca++)i levels compared to both visit 2 and controls. Values at visit 2 did not differ from those of the controls. Stimulus-induced (Ca++)i rise was also significantly blunted at visit 1 and normalized at visit 2, possibly through a differential contribution of distinct intracellular Ca++ stores, as suggested by the response pattern to the chemotactic agent, N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (fMLP), to the selective SERCA pump inhibitor, thapsigargine, and to the mitochondrial uncoupler, carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenyl-hydrazone (FCCP). In vitro treatment of PMNs from healthy subjects with high TSH concentrations impaired intracellular Ca++ store function. Both resting (Ca++)i levels and fMLP-induced (Ca++)i rise increased in the presence either of low-concentration TSH or of T4, but effects of TSH and T4 were not additive. T3, rT3, and TRIAC had no effect. In conclusion, this study provides evidence for a direct relationship between thyroid status and (Ca++)i homeostasis in human PMNs, mainly related to direct actions of TSH and T4 on these cells.


Daptomycin is a cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic that targets the lipid membrane of Gram-positive bacteria. Membrane fluidity and charge can affect daptomycin activity, but its mechanisms are poorly understood because it is challenging to study daptomycin interactions within lipid bilayers. Here, we combined native mass spectrometry (MS) and fast photochemical oxidation of peptides (FPOP) to study daptomycin-membrane interactions with different lipid bilayer nanodiscs. Native MS suggests that daptomycin incorporates randomly and does not prefer any specific oligomeric states when integrated into bilayers. FPOP reveals significant protection in most bilayer environments. Combining the native MS and FPOP results, we observed that stronger membrane interactions are formed with more rigid membranes, and pore formation may occur in more fluid membranes to expose daptomycin to FPOP oxidation. Electrophysiology measurements further supported the observation of polydisperse pore complexes from the MS data. Together, these results demonstrate the complementarity of native MS, FPOP, and membrane conductance experiments to shed light on how antibiotic peptides interact with and within lipid membranes.


Over a year swabs were taken from 87 untreated bite wounds in dogs seen by veterinary practitioners in Harare, Zimbabwe. Swabs were also taken from normal skin adjacent to the wound site, and gingival swabs were collected from normal dogs coming to the same clinics. The swabs were cultured aerobically for pathogens, particularly Staphylococcus intermedius, and the antibiotic sensitivities of the pathogens were determined by disc diffusion assay. The most common pathogens isolated from the wounds were S intermedius (23 per cent), Escherichia coli (18 per cent) and non-lactose-fermenting coliforms (14 per cent). S intermedius was common on the normal skin of the dogs with infected wounds, and was associated with wounds on the abdomen, hindlimbs and tail and wounds that were more than three days old. This organism was, however, isolated only infrequently from the gums and there was little correlation in general between the prevalence of pathogens in the mouth and their prevalence in wounds. Of the S intermedius isolates from wounds, 30 per cent were resistant to penicillin and multiple antibiotic resistance was common among the enterobacterial isolates. The majority of the pathogens were sensitive to cotrimoxazole.


Controlled feature selection aims to discover the features a response depends on while limiting the false discovery rate (FDR) to a predefined level. Recently, multiple deep-learning-based methods have been proposed to perform controlled feature selection through the Model-X knockoff framework. We demonstrate, however, that these methods often fail to control the FDR for two reasons. First, these methods often learn inaccurate models of features. Second, the"swap"property, which is required for knockoffs to be valid, is often not well enforced. We propose a new procedure called FlowSelect to perform controlled feature selection that does not suffer from either of these two problems. To more accurately model the features, FlowSelect uses normalizing flows, the state-of-the-art method for density estimation. Instead of enforcing the"swap"property, FlowSelect uses a novel MCMC-based procedure to calculate p-values for each feature directly. Asymptotically, FlowSelect computes valid p-values. Empirically, FlowSelect consistently controls the FDR on both synthetic and semi-synthetic benchmarks, whereas competing knockoff-based approaches do not. FlowSelect also demonstrates greater power on these benchmarks. Additionally, FlowSelect correctly infers the genetic variants associated with specific soybean traits from GWAS data.


Introduction: The prevalence of sleep disorders (SD) has increased significantly in recent decades in parallel to the worldwide obesity epidemic. The presence of SD provides an increased risk of postoperative complications, requiring greater care in these patients. The gold standard for evaluation and diagnosis of SD is polysomnography, but it is an expensive and highly complex exam, making the questionnaires and scales more accessible for diagnosis and screening. Objectives: To evaluate the presence of SD and to analyze the influence of anthropometric measures on the scores of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), snoring (ERS) and Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS) in obese patients. Method: An observational, cross-sectional study performed from August 2015 to August 2016. The patients in the preoperative group of bariatric surgery of the University Hospital were submitted to anthropometric evaluation and application of the ESS, ERS and SSS during the preoperative physiotherapy evaluation. Results: Were evaluated 100 obese (78 women), mean age of 41.4±10.7 years and BMI of 46.1±7.8kg/m2. SD were identified in 25% by ESS and 21% by SSS of obese. There were no differences between genders for the scales scores. The score of the ERS correlated itself with waist (r=0.20, p=0.04) and neck (r=0.33, p=0.001) circumferences. Conclusion: The use of scales for diagnosis of SD is useful in the follow-up of the preoperative of bariatric surgery and our study found that 25% of patients present daytime somnolence. We also observed the influence of waist and neck circumferences on increasing snoring scale.


Abstract. A growing number of research works, experiments and applications is investigating the potential at the intersection of augmented reality (AR) and the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Project management, project communication, collaborative design, maintenance and construction progress documentation, construction site safety, and training are some of the cases that can benefit from blending real and virtual views through mobile devices. In recent years, research also highlighted how mixed reality and building information modeling (BIM) could cooperate to provide effective communication between multiple agents and closer interaction between digital information and the building site. Nevertheless, consolidated applications in these fields are still limited, especially when compared to other areas of AR adoption. This paper presents the development of an AR-based mobile app for exploring telecommunications tower sites and interacting with a related BIM database. The project aims to provide easy-to-use tools to maintain both the physical assets and an up-to-date model. We discuss critical issues in developing a scalable and interoperable application, supporting the feasibility study of similar solutions in the AEC sector.


Traditional "industrial model" schooling was created for a different era. Student outcomes have flat-lined, and student motivation is disturbingly low. To see both the change and leap in outcomes students deserve, we must engineer a new design of school for the 21st century. One of the most significant barriers to developing and spreading relevant school models is the lack of research and development in education (R&D). Transcend is a nonprofit organization created in 2015 to build an R&D engine and accelerate innovation in the core design of "school." As a doctoral resident with Transcend, my project question was: how might Transcend build the relationships necessary to deliver on its promise of new breakthrough school design? Through illuminating connections between Transcend's organizational resources, activities, and desired long-term outcomes; identifying cross-sector sources of value that are relevant to Transcend's mission; framing and communicating Transcend's value to multiple stakeholder groups strategically and across the education sector; and exchanging value with stakeholders in alignment with Transcend's current or emerging capabilities, this work led to: (1) moderately strong coherence among internal staff to undertake relevant community-building activities with partners; (2) favorable, but as of yet inconclusive, evidence that current partners find it advantageous to work with Transcend as they collectively pursue breakthrough school design; and (3) strong evidence that Transcend's network is attracting new partners to advance its mission for breakthrough school design.


Abstract:This essay examines the representation of odor in Joyce's fiction and epistolary writing. The significance of (mal)odor in Joyce's writing has attracted extensive critical commentary. I argue, however, that the interrelationship between Joyce's visual impairment and his alleged olfactory paraphilia urges closer consideration. By situating Joyce in the context of other smell savants such as Helen Keller and Le Pétomane, this study offers a fresh reading of Joyce's scatological correspondence of 1909 and his representation of blindness in Ulysses. The linkage of farts and cecity offers a means of exploring Joyce's conception of individual identity. This reframing of Joyce's depiction of olfaction, as informed by sensory augmentation, enables a linkage between the sensorium as a cooperative/dysfunctional system of disparate sense modalities and the representative capabilities of language as a system constructed of discrete lexical items. A central feature of Joyce's writing on odor is his reliance upon analogy and similitude to evoke a powerful, yet inarticulable, sensory experience. Joyce's fiction strives fully to encode the affective impact of the foul and the fragrant, yet his letters enact the futility of seeking to make language odorous, to be the object it represents.


In the process of nasal tissue remodeling, nasal fibroblasts serve an important role via myofibroblast differentiation and the production of extracellular matrix (ECM). Nasal fibroblast abnormalities can lead to conditions such as chronic rhinosinusitis. Salvianolic acid B (Sal B), a water-soluble active pharmaceutical compound extract from the root of the traditional Chinese medicine Salvia miltiorrhiza, displays antioxidative, antiproliferative and antifibrosis properties. The present study aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying the effects of Sal B on nasal polyp fibroblast (NPF) myofibroblast differentiation and ECM accumulation. Primary NPFs were obtained from nasal polyps of patients with chronic sinusitis. The proliferative and cytotoxic effects of Sal B on NPFs were evaluated by performing the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The Transwell assay was conducted to assess cell migration. α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), TGF-β1 receptor (TβR)-I, TβR-II, Smad2/3 mRNA and protein expression levels and (p)-Smad2/3 phosphorylation levels were measured via reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting, respectively. Type III collagen and fibronectin levels were analyzed by ELISA. The results indicated that Sal B significantly downregulated TGF-β1-induced α-SMA, fibronectin and collagen III expression levels in NPFs. Similarly, Sal B significantly decreased TGF-β1-induced TβR-I, TβR-II, p-Smad2/3, MMP-2 and MMP-9 mRNA and protein expression levels in NPFs. Furthermore, Sal B significantly decreased TGF-β1-induced NPF migration. Therefore, the present study indicated that Sal B inhibited myofibroblast differentiation and ECM accumulation in nasal fibroblasts, suggesting that Sal B may inhibit nasal polyp formation via certain mechanisms.


Realistic representations of sectoral water withdrawals and consumptive demands and their allocation to surface and groundwater sources are important for improving modeling of the integrated water cycle. To inform future model development, we enhance the representation of water management in a regional Earth system (ES) model with a spatially distributed allocation of sectoral water demands simulated by a regional integrated assessment (IA) model to surface and groundwater systems. The integrated modeling framework (IA‐ES) is evaluated by analyzing the simulated regulated flow and sectoral supply deficit in major hydrologic regions of the conterminous U.S, which differ from ES studies looking at water storage variations. Decreases in historical supply deficit are used as metrics to evaluate IA‐ES model improvement in representating the complex sectoral human activities for assessing future adaptation and mitigation strategies. We also assess the spatial changes in both regulated flow and unmet demands, for irrigation and nonirrigation sectors, resulting from the individual and combined additions of groundwater and return flow modules. Results show that groundwater use has a pronounced regional and sectoral effect by reducing water supply deficit. The effects of sectoral return flow exhibit a clear east‐west contrast in the hydrologic patterns, so the return flow component combined with the IA sectoral demands is a major driver for spatial redistribution of water resources and water deficits in the US. Our analysis highlights the need for spatially distributed sectoral representation of water management to capture the regional differences in interbasin redistribution of water resources and deficits.


The aim with this work is to understand and point out how significant Facebook is for teenager´s identity-construction. Through interviews with six teenagers, three boys and three girls in the age of sixteen and seventeen, I investigated how teenagers use Facebook and what purpose these interviewees put out to be members at Facebook. The interview-material then was analyzed from selected sociological/social psychology theories and also previous research. The study showed that the interviewees self-presentations for the sake of their awareness was more characterized of reflexivity than spontaneity. Because of their broad audience they choose to not write or publish too private information about themselves on Facebook. Despite a reflexive approach the identity-construction on Facebook could be affected of other people in a negative direction. The study also showed that the teenagers had conflicting emotions about being members at Facebook.


The goal of this study is to analyze undergraduate elementary school pre-service teachers' conceptions and misconceptions of physical and virtual manipulative materials using an interpretive framework. The framework involved the use of the Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract cognitive levels combined with the Virtual-level, or CPVA-framework. The CPVA instrument was used to answer two research questions related to participants' understanding of CPVA-levels using the framework during a mathematics methods course. Pre-, post and follow-up test scores were analyzed. The participants demonstrated improvement from pre-test to post- and follow-up-tests. However, this improvement was limited by their understanding of the Virtual-level.


Imeglimin (IME) is a novel glucose-lowering agent improving insulin secretion in response to glucose and insulin sensitivity by targeting mitochondrial bioenergetics. IME is currently in phase 3 in Japan. The toxicity of high glucose or fructose concentrations in INS-1 cells was linked to the opening of the permeability transition pore (PTP), a mitochondrial channel involved in cell death. IME has been shown to prevent PTP opening in human endothelial cells under oxidative stress. This study investigated whether IME could also prevent PTP opening and cell death induced by high glucose or fructose concentrations in INS-1 cells and human pancreatic islets. PTP status in intact cells was assessed by confocal microscopy by measuring mitochondrial membrane potential (TMRM) and NAD(P)H (autofluorescence). Cell viability was measured by flow cytometry. In INS-1 cells and human islets, 30 mM Glucose or 2.5 mM Fructose for 24h led to PTP opening (increase in the NAD(P)H/TMRM ratio), this phenomenon being prevented by 100µM IME. Compared to normal glucose concentration (100%), cell viability significantly decreased (p Disclosure S. Lablanche: Other Relationship; Self; Poxel SA. E. Tubbs: None. C. Cottet-Rousselle: None. F. Lamarche: None. A. Moisan: None. V. Persoons: None. P.Y. Benhamou: Consultant; Self; Abbott, Sanofi, Novo Nordisk Inc.. Other Relationship; Self; Eli Lilly and Company, Roche Diabetes Care Health and Digital Solutions. Advisory Panel; Self; Diabeloop S.A.. S. Hallakou-Bozec: None. E. Fontaine: Other Relationship; Self; Poxel SA.


Context. We study the evolution of a small-scale emerging flux region (EFR) in the quiet Sun, from its emergence in the photosphere to its appearance in the corona and its decay.
Aims. We track processes and phenomena that take place across all atmospheric layers; we explore their interrelations and compare our findings with those from recent numerical modelling studies.
Methods. We used imaging as well as spectral and spectropolarimetric observations from a suite of space-borne and ground-based instruments.
Results. The EFR appears in the quiet Sun next to the chromospheric network and shows all morphological characteristics predicted by numerical simulations. The total magnetic flux of the region exhibits distinct evolutionary phases, namely an initial subtle increase, a fast increase with a Co-temporal fast expansion of the region area, a more gradual increase, and a slow decay. During the initial stages, fine-scale G-band and Ca II H bright points coalesce, forming clusters of positive- and negative-polarity in a largely bipolar configuration. During the fast expansion, flux tubes make their way to the chromosphere, pushing aside the ambient magnetic field and producing pressure-driven absorption fronts that are visible as blueshifted chromospheric features. The connectivity of the quiet-Sun network gradually changes and part of the existing network forms new connections with the newly emerged bipole. A few minutes after the bipole has reached its maximum magnetic flux, the bipole brightens in soft X-rays forming a coronal bright point. The coronal emission exhibits episodic brightenings on top of a long smooth increase. These coronal brightenings are also associated with surge-like chromospheric features visible in Hα, which can be attributed to reconnection with adjacent small-scale magnetic fields and the ambient quiet-Sun magnetic field.
Conclusions. The emergence of magnetic flux even at the smallest scales can be the driver of a series of energetic phenomena visible at various atmospheric heights and temperature regimes. Multi-wavelength observations reveal a wealth of mechanisms which produce diverse observable effects during the different evolutionary stages of these small-scale structures.


Simulation of recoverable foams is usually based on hyperelasticity. Since foams are always strainrate dependent, the viscosity of the material has to be considered additionally in the material model. One disadvantage of a viscous description is the time-consuming parameter identification associated with the determination of the damping constants. An alternative is given by tabulated formulations where stress-strain relations based on uniaxial static and dynamic tensile tests at different strain rates are used directly as input. This approach is implemented in the material law no. 83 (Fu-Chang-Foam) in LS-DYNA, see [1] and [2]. We briefly show the theoretical background and the algorithmic setup of the tabulated Fu-Chang model and demonstrate the applicability of the model to non-uniaxial loading. Major problems occur in the simulation of unloading processes. These difficulties are due to the identification of unloading by the product of strain and strain rate as implemented in material law no. 83 so far. If the strain rate oscillates strongly, a unique identification of loading and unloading is no longer possible. Therefore, an extension of the model with elastic damage is presented that is capable of identifying unloading in a natural way, i.e. by a decrease of the stored hyperelastic energy of the system. With our model, hysteresis effects can be simulated and energy is dissipated. The model is formulated in a user-friendly way by a tabulated description of damage.


CONTEXT
There are several genetic and molecular evidences suggesting dysregulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in thyroid neoplasia. Activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/AKT pathway by RET/PTC and mutant RAS has already been demonstrated, but no data have been reported for the BRAF(V600E) mutation.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the activation pattern of the mTOR pathway in malignant thyroid lesions and whether it may be correlated with known genetic alterations, as well as to explore the mechanisms underlying mTOR pathway activation in these neoplasias.

RESULTS
We observed, by immunohistochemical evaluation, an up-regulation/activation of the mTOR pathway proteins in thyroid cancer, particularly in conventional papillary thyroid carcinoma (cPTC). Overactivation of the mTOR signaling was particularly evident in cPTC samples harboring the BRAF(V600E) mutation. Transfection assays with BRAF expression vectors as well as BRAF knockdown by small interfering RNA revealed a positive association between BRAF expression and mTOR pathway activation, which appears to be mediated by pLKB1 Ser428, and emerged as a possible mechanism contributing to the association between BRAF mutation and mTOR pathway up-regulation. When we evaluated the rapamycin in the growth of thyroid cancer cell lines, we detected that cell lines with activating mutations in the MAPK pathway show a higher sensitivity to this drug.

CONCLUSIONS
We determined that the AKT/mTOR pathway is particularly overactivated in human cPTC harboring the BRAF(V600E) mutation. Moreover, our results suggest that the mTOR pathway could be a good target to enhance therapy effects in certain types of thyroid carcinoma, namely in those harboring the BRAF(V600E) mutation.


Patients undergoing emergency surgery typically require resuscitation, either because they are hemorrhaging or because they are experiencing significant internal fluid shifts. Intravascular hypovolemia is common at the time of anesthesia induction and can lead to hemodynamic collapse if not promptly treated. Central pressure monitoring is associated with technical complications and does not improve outcomes in this population. Newer modalities are in use, but they lack validation. Fluid resuscitation is different in bleeding and septic patients. In the former group, it is advisable to maintain a deliberately low blood pressure to facilitate clot formation and stabilization. If massive transfusion is anticipated, blood products should be administered from the outset to prevent the coagulopathy of trauma. Early use of plasma in a ratio approaching 1:1 with red blood cells (RBCs) has been associated with improved outcomes. In septic patients, early fluid loading is recommended. The concept of "goal-directed resuscitation" is based on continuing resuscitation until venous oxygen saturation is normalized. In either bleeding or septic patients, however, the most important goal remains surgical control of the source of pathology, and nothing should be allowed to delay transfer to the operating room. We review the current literature and recommendations for the resuscitation of patients coming for emergency surgery procedures.


Fibre reinforced composite materials offer superior specific mechanical properties in reference to their weight. In the past years, composite materials such as carbon or glass reinforced plastics (CFRP or GFRP) are used increasingly in all sectors of transportation and for industrial or leisure products. The composite consists of a load bearing fibre architecture, usually in the form of a continuous fabric architecture, and an embedding matrix, usually a thermoset such as epoxy. With regard to the energy efficiency and carbon footprint, due to their lightweight nature, these composite materials in general offer interesting properties, if applied in long-term operations. However, the raw materials used for the production of both typical fibre materials and thermoset resins are still based on crude oil, and the refining and processing up to the semi-finished good consume a significant amount of embodied energy. In this study, composites made of glass or flax fibres and resin systems based on condensed tannin and furfuryl alcohol, both extracted or derived from plant tissues, were manufactured using vacuum infusion (VI) and resin transfer moulding (RTM) processes. The results show that mechanical properties close to common fiber/resin combinations like glass fiber and epoxy or phenolic resins can be reached by these materials. Copyright © 2018 VBRI Press.


This paper introduces a novel big feature data analytics scheme for integration toward data analytics with decision making. In this scheme, a split and combine approach for a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) algorithm termed SC-LDA is proposed. The SC-LDA replaces the full eigenvector decomposition of LDA with much cheaper eigenvector decompositions on smaller sub-matrices, and then recombines the intermediate results to obtain the exact reconstruction as for the original algorithm. The splitting or decomposition can be further applied recursively to obtain a multi-stage SC-LDA algorithm. The smaller sub-matrices can then be computed in parallel to reduce the time complexity for big data applications. The approach is discussed for an LDA algorithm variation (LDA/QR), which is suitable for the analytics of Big Feature data sets. The projected data vectors into the LDA subspace can then be integrated toward the decision-making process involving classification. Experiments are conducted on real-world data sets to confirm that our approach allows the LDA problem to be divided into the size-reduced sub-problems and can be solved in parallel while giving an exact reconstruction as for the original LDA/QR.


The forward push lifting mechanism of a dump truck is simplified to a combination of a four-bar linkage and a triangular arm. Based on quasi-static assumption, using linear transform and vector operations, an explicit analysis method is proposed to calculate joints' dynamic position of the link lifting mechanism, which overcomes the difficulties of traditional method: roots discriminating of quadratic equations method and angle quadrant discriminating trigonometric functions method. And the pushing force of the stroke is solved from a linear system of only two equations. The validity of this proposed method is illustrated with a real engineering problem.