Abstract Non‐sex‐linked color polymorphism is common in animals and can be maintained in populations via balancing selection or, when under diversifying selection, can promote divergence. Despite their potential importance in ecological interactions and the evolution of biodiversity, their function and the mechanisms by which these polymorphisms are maintained are still poorly understood. Here, we combine field observations with life history and molecular data to compare four sympatric color morphs of the coral reef fish Paracirrhites forsteri (family Cirrhitidae) in the central Red Sea. Our findings verify that the color morphs are not sex‐limited, inhabit the same reefs, and do not show clear signs of avoidance or aggression among them. A barcoding approach based on 1,276 bp of mitochondrial DNA could not differentiate the color morphs. However, when 36,769 SNPs were considered, we found low but significant population structure. Focusing on 1,121 F ST outliers, we recovered distinct population clusters that corresponded to shifts in allele frequencies with each color morph harboring unique alleles. Genetic divergence at these outlier loci is accompanied by differences in growth and marginal variation in microhabitat preference. Together, life history and molecular analysis suggest subtle divergence between the color morphs in this population, the causes for which remain elusive.


End-to-End (E2E) automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems used in voice assistants often have difficulties recognizing infrequent words personalized to the user, such as names and places. Rare words often have non-trivial pronunciations, and in such cases, human knowledge in the form of a pronunciation lexicon can be useful. We propose a PROnunCiation-aware conTextual adaptER (PROCTER) that dynamically injects lexicon knowledge into an RNN-T model by adding a phonemic embedding along with a textual embedding. The experimental results show that the proposed PROCTER architecture outperforms the baseline RNN-T model by improving the word error rate (WER) by 44% and 57% when measured on personalized entities and personalized rare entities, respectively, while increasing the model size (number of trainable parameters) by only 1%. Furthermore, when evaluated in a zero-shot setting to recognize personalized device names, we observe 7% WER improvement with PROCTER, as compared to only 1% WER improvement with text-only contextual attention.


Abstract Outdoor behavioral healthcare (OBH or wilderness therapy) is an out-of-home adolescent treatment option serving tens of thousands of youths annually for behavioral, substance, and mental health issues in the United States. About half of OBH participants attend involuntarily and are transported by services specialized for "uncooperative" youth. Transportation has been argued by some researchers to have little impact on youth in treatment, and Tucker and colleagues found little difference in outcomes between not transported and transported youth. Ethical and empirical concerns arise from these findings, and we apply a critical perspective to address these concerns. Specifically, we examined the claim in OBH research that being transported has no significant bearing on client treatment outcomes. We propose that the findings of no difference were random, rather than systematic, because they were constructed on a post hoc measure of perceived voluntariness. To demonstrate, we used data from OBH to construct five different measures of voluntary/involuntary, also fabricated post hoc. All five operationalizations resulted in statistically significant differences across a variety of social and psychological outcomes, demonstrating inconsistencies across the findings. Further independent and rigorous research is called for in OBH to understand the use and ethics of forced transportation, coercion, and involuntary treatment.


Domestic violence victims in Haredi Jewish communities face serious obstacles to leaving their abusers and escaping domestic violence. Leaving their abusers often entails divorce and fierce custody disputes. For many Haredi women who have experienced domestic violence, leaving their abusers also involves leaving their religious sect or even religious observance in general. This paper will explore the dynamics that contribute to these concerns for Haredi Jewish domestic violence survivors and address how courts deciding child custody can inadvertently perpetuate domestic violence. This paper will then recommend changing the courts' analysis in child custody cases to a "friendly religious co-parent" model in order to better protect victims of domestic violence.


When seeking answers to the question "Why are there so few eminent women?" Silverman (1995) addressed the inner experiences of gifted children suggested that the combination of their emotional intensity and cognitive complexity renders them vulnerable to underachievement. She proposed that the emotional component of giftedness is more inclusive of the female experience and that this vulnerability implies the need for modifications in parenting in order for gifted girls to develop optimally. Researchers have investigated relationships between parents and gifted children, between fathers and sons, between mothers and daughters; but no research has been conducted investigating the structure of the relationship between a father and his gifted daughter that is supportive of her giftedness. Thus the current research utilized a qualitative methodology to develop a grounded theory of father support of giftedness in order to: (a) discover what the modifications in fathering gifted girls might be that would facilitate gifted girls' optimal development; and (b) identify what processes account for success without deriving hypotheses from the literature and then experimenting on them. This research investigated personal constructs of father support of giftedness from an intergencrational perspective in eight intact families with gifted daughters who had completed their first or second year of college. Data from three 90-minute in-depth interviews with each father and each daughter, and one 90-minute interview with each mother resulted in over 2,000 pages of cleaned data which were coded and analyzed. A theoretical model of father support of giftedness emerged from the data which expressed (a) intervening conditions influencing support, (b) causal conditions fostering support, (c) phenomenon of father support, (d) context fostering support, (e) context within which support is perceived, (f) action/interaction strategies, and (g) consequences of support. Subcategories for each category of the model were identified. Findings from this qualitative research implied that in these families, the supportive relationship between a gifted girl and her father was basic to her optimal development. Findings in these families indicate that where fathers held high expectations of their daughters, and provided encouragement, advocacy, and guidance, their daughters demonstrated perseverance, and persistence, with a sense of equanimity.


We studied the mechanism of impaired calcium absorption with aging in 51 healthy women whose ages ranged from 26 to 88 years. Serum concentrations of 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25‐(OH)2D, mean of four measurements per subject] increased with age by 22% (P < 0.05) but, by split‐point analysis, plateaued or decreased slightly after age 65. In a subset of 20 subjects, [3H]1,25‐(OH)2D3 kinetic analysis showed that this increase with age resulted from both increased production and decreased metabolic clearance of 1,25‐(OH)2D. Despite the increase in serum 1,25‐(OH)2D concentration, true calcium absorption did not change with age. The expected inverse correlation between true fractional calcium absorption and dietary calcium intake, however, was easily demonstrated (r = 0.66, P < 0.001). Serum intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) increased with age by 35% (P < 0.02) and serum bone gla protein (BGP, osteocalcin) increased by 47% (P < 0.001); the increases in serum PTH and serum BGP were directly correlated (r = 0.32, P < 0.05). The data are consistent with the following hypothetical model: (1) intestinal resistance to 1,25‐(OH)2D action accounts for the increase in serum 1,25‐(OH)2D concentrations with aging with no change in true calcium absorption; (2) this results in a compensatory increase in PTH secretion and in 1,25‐(OH)2D production that prevents true calcium absorption from decreasing; (3) the previously described defect in 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (25‐OHD) 1α‐hydroxylase activity in aging animals and humans acccounts for the leveling off in serum 1,25‐(OH)2D concentration after age 65 years; and (4) the secondary hyperparathyroidism leads to increased bone turnover and thus contributes to age‐related bone loss.


COVID-19 poses a real threat to patients with comorbid conditions such as diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, cardiovascular, renal or hepatic disorders. Kidney damage is very likely in people with diabetes who have undergone a new infection, and the risk of developing acute renal injury is associated with mortality. Potential mechanisms of kidney involvement in the clinical picture of the disease may include cytokine damage, cross-organ damage, and systemic effects that determine the treatment strategy. These mechanisms are closely interrelated and are important for individuals on extracorporeal therapy and kidney transplants. Autopsy data provide evidence of SARS-CoV-2 virus invasion into kidney tissue with damage to tubular epithelium cells and podocytes, and red blood cell aggregation in severely COVID-19 patients. By including individuals with chronic kidney disease in planned COVID-19 research protocols, an evidence base for effective and safe treatments can be generated.


Background: The Baveno VI Consensus Workshop defined criteria (liver stiffness measured by transient elastography <20 kPa and platelet count >150 × 109 cells/L) to identify those patients with compensated advanced chronic liver diseases (cACLD) who are unlikely to have varices needing treatment (VNTs) and can safely avoid variceal screening endoscopy. This meta-analysis aimed to quantify the safety and efficacy of these criteria in suspected cACLD with liver stiffness >10 kPa and in compensated chronic liver diseases (cCLD) irrespective of liver stiffness. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in nine databases for studies discussed cACLD or cCLD and tested Baveno criteria against variceal screening endoscopy. The main safety and efficacy endpoints were missed VNT rate and spared endoscopy rate (SER), respectively; calculated with the random effect model. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated with the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic model. For all outcome measures, 95% confidence intervals were computed. Heterogeneity was tested with I2-statistics. Results: The search yielded 13 studies including 4,464 patients which reported on suspected cACLD. Pooled missed VNT rate was 0.3% (0.1–0.6%; I2 = 45.5%), pooled SER was 32.8% (24.8–41.4%; I2 = 97.0%). Sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of Baveno criteria were 97% (95–98%), 41% (27–57%), and 96% (94–97%), respectively. In the subgroups of cACLD from hepatitis C and B viruses, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/steatohepatitis, or alcohol, missed VNT rates were 0.0% (0.0–0.3%), 1.2% (0.4–2.2%), 0.0% (0.0–1.3%), or 0.0% (0.0–0.4%), while SERs were 24.2% (20.5–28.1%), 24.9% (21.7–28.4%), 38.6% (10.9–70.8%), or 27.0% (16.9–38.4%), respectively. If we expanded the study population to cCLD, 27 studies included 7,534 patients. Missed VNT rate was 0.2% (0.1–0.5%; I2 = 39.8%) with a SER of 30.5% (25.2–36.2%; I2 = 96.1%) while Se, Sp, and AUC were 97% (93–99%), 35% (27–44%), and 80% (77–84%), respectively. Conclusions: The application of Baveno criteria significantly reduces the number of unnecessary variceal screening endoscopies while being safe: cACLD patients with liver stiffness <20 kPa and platelet count > 150 × 109 cells/L carry a very low chance (i.e., 0.3%) of having VNTs. The criteria preserve low missed VNT rate with lower diagnostic performance among cCLD patients.


In the months before and years since Medicare Part D's implementation in January 2006, many have been concerned with beneficiaries' ability to benefit from the complex program. A systematic review of published Medline and gray literature from January 1, 2005, to August 20, 2009, was undertaken to evaluate Medicare beneficiaries' knowledge about Part D and how this knowledge informed decisions regarding enrollment and plan choice. Thirty articles that reported original results describing seniors' knowledge of the Part D benefit, decision to enroll, or selection of plans; results from patient surveys addressing these issues; or results that analyzed enrollment data or plan selection patterns were included. Of these 30 articles, 10 described beneficiaries' knowledge, 12 described enrollment and plan choices, and eight described knowledge and choice. Across studies and years, beneficiaries' knowledge of the Part D program and benefit structure and design was poor, particularly with regard to the coverage gap and the low‐income subsidy. Beneficiaries had great difficulty choosing the lowest‐cost Part D plans and were disinclined to switch plans to improve their benefits. Knowledge deficits, enrollment problems, and plan choice difficulties were most pronounced during Part D implementation in early 2006 but persisted in subsequent years of the benefit. Beneficiaries' knowledge and choices should be monitored on an ongoing basis to inform potential changes to the Part D program.


The difference in the response of a chiral molecule to left and right circularly polarized light is proportional to d/λ times the total response, where d is a typical internuclear distance and λ the wavelength of the light. Hence, while circular dichroism in electronic transitions in chiral molecules has been studied for many years, vibrational circular dichrosim (VCD) and differential Raman optical activity (ROA) have only been observed in the last 20 years. Major advances in experimental techniques have brought VCD and ROA to the point where differential vibrational spectra of large molecules can be recorded in a reasonable time. The basic theory of the rotational strength for vibrational transitions and of ROA is reviewed. The sum of the rotational strengths of all vibrational transitions from the ground state is shown to be zero. The differential absorption of left and right circularly polarized IR radiation by chiral molecules can also be attributed to the different forces acting on the nuclei that are proportional to the nuclear charge times the local electric field. The prospects for future applications of VCD and ROA are briefly discussed.


Solution-based atomic layer deposition (sALD) processes enable the preparation of thin films on nanostructured surfaces while controlling the film thickness down to a monolayer and preserving the homogeneity of the film. In sALD, a similar operation principle as in gas-phase ALD is used, however, with a broader range of accessible materials and without requiring expensive vacuum equipment. In this work, a sALD process was developed to prepare CuSCN on a Si substrate using the precursors CuOAc and LiSCN. The film growth was studied by ex situ atomic force microscopy (AFM), analyzed by a neural network (NN) approach, ellipsometry, and a newly developed in situ infrared (IR) spectroscopy experiment in combination with density functional theory (DFT). In the self-limiting sALD process, CuSCN grows on top of an initially formed two-dimensional (2D) layer as three-dimensional spherical nanoparticles with an average size of ∼25 nm and a narrow particle size distribution. With increasing cycle number, the particle density increases and larger particles form via Ostwald ripening and coalescence. The film grows preferentially in the β-CuSCN phase. Additionally, a small fraction of the α-CuSCN phase and defect sites form.


Previous studies have suggested the presence of an H(+)-K(+)-ATPase in rat cortical and medullary intercalated cells with similar properties to the gastric proton pump. The purpose of this study was to determine the functional contribution of an H(+)-K(+)-adenosinetriphosphatase(ATPase) to total CO2 (tCO2) transport along the rat collecting duct. After baseline determination of tCO2 transport in isolated perfused collecting duct segments, Sch 28080 (10 microM) was added to either the perfusate or bath. When Sch 28080 was added to the perfusate, there was no effect in the cortical collecting duct (CCD, 20.8 +/- 6.7 vs. 25.3 + 3.0 pmol.mm-1.min-1), but a marked decrease in tCO2 absorption was effected in both the outer medullary (OMCD, 37.6 + 6.2 vs. 10.7 +/- 4.1 pmol.mm-1.min-1) and initial inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD1, 34.4 +/- 8.1 vs. 16.2 +/- 5.6 pmol.mm-1.min-1). In the CCD from rats with acute alkalosis in vivo, Sch 28080 added to the bath inhibited tCO2 secretion in the CCD (-17.1 +/- 4.4 vs 3.5 + 3.3 pmol.mm-1.min-1). These findings suggest that 1) H(+)-K(+)-ATPase is important in tCO2 absorption in the OMCD and IMCD1 and in tCO2 secretion in the CCD, 2) HCO3(-)-absorbing intercalated cells differ functionally in the cortex and medulla, 3) HCO3- secretion is not the reverse process of HCO3- absorption in the CCD, and 4) H(+)-K(+)-ATPase is important in distal acidification under normal and altered acid-base conditions.


One of several irregular, plagioclase-phyric felsic veins in the Lillevik ophiolite fragment (Gratangseidet Igneous Complex) in Narvik, northern Norway, yielded a U–Pb zircon age of 494 ± 5 Ma. The veins cut deformed, compositionally layered, light REE-depleted gabbros that arguably constituted part of the now-dismembered ophiolite stratigraphy. The felsic veins were themselves deformed, probably during Silurian Scandian deformation, but the cross-cutting relationships suggest that they post-date initial deformation of the ophiolitic rocks. The felsic veins are strongly depleted in heavy REE and have moderately juvenile Lu–Hf zircon compositions, with εHf494 between 6.2 and 9.9. By analogy with felsic rocks in other Caledonian ophiolites and supported by cross-cutting relationships, the chemical and isotopic data can be interpreted to reflect formation by partial melting of basaltic rocks in the presence of residual garnet. In this case, the felsic veins probably post-date ophiolite formation and obduction onto a continental margin. We therefore interpret the age of 494 Ma to represent the minimum age of formation of the Lillevik ophiolite fragment. Previously published age, isotopic and chemical data from the region document an at least 20 Myr-long complex magmatic evolution following ophiolite obduction. The new data show that Late Cambrian to Early Ordovician ophiolite fragments extend along most of the length of the Scandinavian Caledonides. The tectonic significance of a previously published age of 474 Ma from the Gratangseidet Igneous Complex and 481 to 469 Ma ages from a tonalite sheet in the nearby Lyngen ophiolite, both interpreted to reflect ophiolite formation, needs to be tested by obtaining whole-rock geochemical data from these units. ablation cathodoluminescence LA–ICP–MS using ablation.


ICTS have transformed all services in all sectors of the global economy. Library services have not been exception. In deed ICTS have revolutionized the manner information is processed, stored, retrieved and transferred to the would be users. This paper examines ICT as a necessity for libraries and Librarians in Nigerian Universities in the 21 st century. Information and Communication Technology may be seen as the hardware and software that enables the society to create, collect, consolidate and communicate information in multi-media formats for variety of purpose. The paper examines the impact of ICT in libraries to include creation of On-line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), creation of virtual libraries and Institutional Repository, resource sharing, networking and for electronic theft detector system. The efforts of government at developing ICT infrastructure through the National Virtual (Digital) library project and the Nigerian Research Education Network(Ngren) which resulted in promoting the low ICT skills of Nigerian librarians is commendable. The paper suggested an intensive inhouse training by individual university library management for librarians as a means of increasing their ICT skills. © 2014 Pak Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.


Basic requirements for obtaining injection laser action in III-V semiconductors are discussed briefly. A detailed review is presented of materials suitable for lasers emitting at 0.67, 1.44, 1.93, and 2.5 micrometers. A general approach to the problem is presented, based on curves of materials properties published by Sasaki et al. It is also shown that these curves, although useful, may need correction in certain ranges. It is deduced that certain materials combinations, either proposed in the literature or actually tried, are not appropriate for double heterostructure lasers, because the refractive index of the cladding material is higher than the index of the active material, thus resulting in no waveguiding, and high threshold currents. Recommendations are made about the most promising approach to the achievement of laser action in the four wavelengths mentioned above.


The problem solving that occurs in this forklift starts from the analysis of the ability of the forklift to lift weights. The weight of the load is 3600kg. Then the writer calculates the lift force on the hydraulic(FH) the results obtained for the calculation are 35.28kN. Then the writer calculate force of cylinder base on the data specificaion of cylinder. The result for F2 = 60.03kN. After the calculation is complete and concluded that theoretically the forklift should be able to lift the load. Then writer make a calculate to get the power of hydraulic pump issued. The condition of forklift not yet liftting the weight the power of hydraulic pump issued is 17.06kW, while the power of hydraulic pump normaly issued is 22,08kW. Conclusion the power issued of hydraulic pump reduce amount 5,02kW so need more analyze the parts that affect the ability to lift the forklift, namely: lift cylinder and gear pump which is the part that most influences the lift strength of the forklift. As a result the author found several problems in these parts. The problem is the condition of several parts that are not in accordance with the standard. Then the author replaces the part and performs hydraulic strength testing. After mprovement the condition of forklift FD 30 has returned to normal condition. The result of measuring the hydraulic pressure on the lift cylinder is 185 bar (standard 181 bar) at 3000 rpm.


Thirty cows were allocated to three comparable groups based on previous milk yield, age and liveweight. The cows in group I did not received any feed supplement to grazing but the cows in groups II and III received coconut meal and molasses respectively, fed according to the amount of milk produced during the previous week. The differences between groups in total milk production, after adjustment for differences in previous yields, were significant. The cows in groups II and III produced more milk and butterfat than those in group I (P < 0.001). The cows in group II produced more milk than those in group III (P < 0.05). The Same differences were apparent in butterfat production. Although coconut meal feeding produced greater responses in yield, feeding molasses for butterfat production was economic at current prices but coconut meal feeding was not. Coconut meal and molasses were both economic for whole milk production.


According to the literature on export-led growth models differences in income elasticities of demand for imports and exports among countries bring about different degrees of external constraint on growth. However, there is not in this literature an explanation that uses the Evolutionary concept of National Innovation System (NIS) that shows why there are differences in income elasticities among countries. Moreover, there is not a consensus about the exogenicity of the elasticities. Some authors highlight the high level of income elasticity of demand for exports in sectors with high level of technological intensity. However these authors seem to not explain the motive for this. The aim of this paper is to theoretically show the causal relation between an economy's NIS, its income elasticities and its Current Account performance. It also aims to show the role of NIS in the exogeinicity/endogeinicity of the income elasticities. Empirical evidence and a Granger Causality Test are presented and do not reject the core argument of the paper.


In animals, PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) silence transposable elements (TEs), protecting the germline from genomic instability and mutation. piRNAs have been detected in the soma in a few animals, but these are believed to be specific adaptations of individual species. Here, we report that somatic piRNAs were likely present in the ancestral arthropod more than 500 million years ago. Analysis of 20 species across the arthropod phylum suggests that somatic piRNAs targeting TEs and mRNAs are common among arthropods. The presence of an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in chelicerates (horseshoe crabs, spiders, scorpions) suggests that arthropods originally used a plant-like RNA interference mechanism to silence TEs. Our results call into question the view that the ancestral role of the piRNA pathway was to protect the germline and demonstrate that small RNA silencing pathways have been repurposed for both somatic and germline functions throughout arthropod evolution.


This report describes a melt-lubrication model of the liquid film interface in solid-armature railguns that includes the effects of turbulence. The liquid film is modeled as a high-speed Couette flow with viscous heating. The model focuses strictly on mechanical wear and does not include magnetohydrodynamic body forces or Joule heating. The effects of turbulence are incorporated by using Prandtl's mixing-length theory and semiempirical methods. Turbulent viscosity is added to the laminar viscosity for the solution of the momentum equations. Thermal resistance is accounted for at the thermal contact between the melt film and rail. Expressions are obtained for the quantities of film thickness and melt wear rate. Results from the model are compared with experimental data that measured high-speed mechanical wear of 7075 aluminum sliding against ETP copper for face pressures ranging from 45 to 150 MPa in railguns. Although the model reproduces general trends in the data, it predicts melt speeds that are significantly greater than measured; in this regard, a previously published laminar model provides a better fit. However, given the shortcomings of both models, it is quite possible that a purely thermal hydraulic formulation is inadequate to the task of modeling high-speed, high-pressure mechanical wear, and that viscoplastic processes in the slider should be considered next.


Author(s): Schile, Lisa Marie | Advisor(s): Kelly, Maggi | Abstract: Tidal wetland ecosystems are dynamic coastal habitats that, in California, often occur at the complex nexus of aquatic environments, diked and leveed baylands, and modified upland habitat. Because of their prime coastal location and rich peat soil, many wetlands have been reduced, degraded, and/or destroyed, and yet their important role in carbon sequestration, nutrient and sediment filtering, flood control, and as habitat requires us to further research, conserve, and examine their sustainability, particularly in light of predicted climate change. Predictions of regional climate change effects for the San Francisco Bay Estuary present a future with reduced summer freshwater input and increased sea levels, resulting in higher estuarine salinities throughout the growing season, increased saline influence in brackish and freshwater marshes, and increased depth and duration of inundation. Experimentally testing, monitoring across scales, and spatially modeling the responses of dominant wetland vegetation to the substantial predicted climate change effects are among the critical threads of knowledge needed to understand how this estuary and others along the Pacific coast might respond to significant changes in physical drivers and community interactions. My dissertation research focused on possibilities for wetland resilience in a changing climate in the San Francisco Bay Estuary across scales and using a suite of methodologies.Tidal wetland resilience to predicted sea-level rise requires an understanding of both individual plant and community-level responses in addition their interactions with sediment supply and adjacent land uses. Through a large field experiment simulating sea-level rise, I found that wetland plants have a high tolerance for increases in inundation in the short term and that community interactions need to be incorporated into plant responses to increased sea-level rise. Scaling measurements of plant production up to the site level and across landscapes requires the integration of field measurements with remotely sensed measurements. Investigating remote sensing techniques of measuring carbon stock, I found that the presence of dense standing plant litter common in Pacific coast freshwater wetlands can hinder the ability to find a reliable way of measuring plant production remotely. Finally, I was able to successfully calibrate an ecogeomorphic mechanistic model for wetland accretion across four wetlands in the San Francisco Bay Estuary and examine potential wetland resiliency under a range of sea-level rise scenarios. At sea-level rise rates 100 cm/century and lower, wetlands remained vegetated. Once sea levels rise above 100 cm, marshes begin to lose ability to maintain elevation, and the presence of adjacent upland habitat becomes increasingly important for marsh migration. Results from this study emphasize that the wetland landscape in the bay is threatened with rising sea levels, and there are a limited number of wetlands that will be able to migrate to higher ground as sea levels rise. Despite these challenges, my dissertation presents a robust and new understanding of how tidal wetlands might respond to predicted climate change.


Totem poles at Kitselas Canyon representing the four clans of the Gitselasu; the Wolf, the Eagle, the Raven and the Killer Whale. Carved by Stan Beven


For the purpose of optical simulation, a plethora of formats exist to describe the properties of a light source. Except for the EULUMDAT and IES formats which describe sources in terms of aperture area and far field intensity, all these formats are vendor specific, and no generally accepted standard exists. Most illumination simulation software vendors use their own format for ray sets, which describe sources in terms of many rays. Some of them keep their format definition proprietary. Thus, software packages typically can read or write only their own specific format, although the actual data content is not so different. Typically, they describe origin and direction of each ray in 3D vectors, and use one more single number for magnitude, where magnitude may denote radiant flux, luminous flux (equivalently tristimulus Y), or tristimulus X and Z. Sometimes each ray also carries its wavelength, while other formats allow to specify an overall spectrum for the whole source. In addition, in at least one format, polarization properties are also included for each ray. This situation makes it inefficient and potentially error prone for light source manufacturers to provide ray data sets for their sources in many different formats. Furthermore, near field goniometer vendors again use their proprietary formats to store the source description in terms of luminance data, and offer their proprietary software to generate ray sets from this data base. Again, the plethora of ray sets make the ray set production inefficient and potentially error prone. In this paper, we propose to describe ray data sets in terms of phase space, as a step towards a standardized ray set format. It is well known that luminance and radiance can be defined as flux density in phase space: luminance is flux divided by etendue. Therefore, single rays can be thought of as center points of phase space cells, where each cell possesses its volume (i.e. etendue), its flux, and therefore its luminance. In addition, each phase space cell possesses its spectrum, and its polarization properties. We show how this approach leads to a unification of the EULUMDAT/IES, ray set and near field goniometer formats, making possible the generation of arbitrarily many additional rays by luminance interpolation. We also show how the EULUMDAT/IES and individual ray set formats can be derived from the proposed general format, making software using a possible standard format downward compatible.


Background. The Cooperative Ewing Sarcoma Study (CESS 86), conducted by the German Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (GPOH), was planned on the basis of the results of the preceding CESS 81 study. The prognostic significance of tumor volume in localized Ewing sarcoma of bone was well documented in the CESS 81 trial. As a consequence, the treatment intensity was adapted to volume in the follow-up CESS 86 trial: the four-drug combination used in CESS 81 was amended for patients with large tumor volume (≥ 100 ml), where ifosfamide was substituted for cyclophosphamide. Procedure. From January 1986 to June 1991, 177 protocol patients with localized Ewing sarcoma of bone were registered in CESS 86. The prognostic implication of tumor volume and several covariates was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier life table analysis and Cox's proportional hazard model. Results. The estimated 5- and 8-year event-free survival (EFS) rates were both 59%. Age, gender, tumor site, and a tumor volume of 100 ml did not distinguish groups of patients with different prognosis. However, the prognosis of patients with tumors >200 ml (8-year EFS rate: 42%) was significantly inferior compared to patients with tumors both of 100 to 200 ml (70%) and of <100 ml (63%). In contrast to CESS 81, the histological response to chemotherapy was no longer a significant prognostic factor (EFS: 64% for good and 50% for poor responders, respectively). Conclusions. Despite risk-adapted treatment intensity, tumor volume retained its prognostic significance; the cut point, however, was shifted toward larger volumes.


Observational evidence suggests that compared to non-forested areas, forests have a cooling effect on daytime land surface temperature (LST) and a warming effect on nighttime LST in many regions of the world, thus implying that forests dampen the diurnal temperature range. This feature is not captured by current climate models. Using the Community Land Model 5.0 (CLM5.0), we show that this diurnal behavior can be captured when accounting for biomass heat storage (BHS). The nighttime release of energy absorbed by the vegetation biomass during the day increases both nighttime LST and ambient air temperature in forested regions by more than 1 K. The daytime cooling is weaker than the nighttime warming effect, because the energy uptake by the biomass is compensated by a reduction in the turbulent heat fluxes during day. This diurnal asymmetry of the temperature response to BHS leads to a warming of daily mean temperatures, which is amplified during boreal summer warm extremes. Compared to MODIS, CLM5.0 overestimates the diurnal LST range over forested areas. The inclusion of BHS reduces this bias due to its dampening effect on diurnal LST variations. Further, BHS attenuates the negative bias in the nighttime LST difference of forest minus grassland and cropland, when compared to MODIS observations. These results indicate that it is essential to consider BHS when examining the influence of forests on diurnal temperature variations. BHS should thus be included in land surface models used to assess the climatic consequences of land use changes such as deforestation or afforestation.


The article deals with the translation of the Swiss Historical Encyclopaedia and is mainly based on the experiences of three collaborators.
The Encyclopaedia is being published simultaneously in the three official languages German, French and Italian as well as in an abbreviated version in Rhaeto-Romance. The multilingual work concept implies considerable administrative planning and reveals terminological obstacles, as the different regions of Switzerland have been exposed to variable historical influences.
The article describes detailed and concrete problems of translating texts on historical topics the difficulties of which are generally underestimated. The translators need not only a solid linguistic knowledge, but also of Swiss and European history from the prehistoric period to present times. Comparing the different versions of the same article is an excellent quality control of the text's linguistic and scientific level.
The fact that the Encyclopaedia is written in the national languages is to strengthen the Swiss consciousness and identity in times where English seems to become the standard communication language. The translators work with traditional methods (including Internet!), but without referring to translation programmes.


A simulation study is conducted to assess the feasibility of a Wave Energy Converter Power Electronic Converter architecture to achieve a four quadrant torque demand resulting from an active control strategy. The system consists of four induction generators controlled by three phase inverters, a DC bus with short term energy storage provided by supercapacitors and batteries, and an active rectifier to control the DC bus voltage and provide AC power to the grid. The components are realistically modelled and it is shown that the torque and speed requirements of the active control strategy can be achieved and that the electrical energy storage can provide required reactive power on a wave-by-wave time scale and longer term energy supply during a lull in wave excitation. The WaveSub WEC is used as a target device in order to make a meaningful study with realistic inputs. However the architecture of the PEC system is applicable to any device with a bi-directional rotary PTO requiring four-quadrant active control at the generators. Furthermore the PEC architecture and simulation model are readily expandable to arrays of wave energy converters.


Multistage radial compressors are major components in many industrial applications. Today, compressor downsizing for CAPEX (capital expenditure) reduction is of utmost importance. To attain the most compact design, the pressure ratio must increase, and there must be no reduction in performance levels achieved in more conventional machines. To investigate the complex flow in the stator parts of multistage centrifugal compressors and to increase the confidence level of numerical methods, a new test rig was developed. This test rig allows for the separation of stationary flow effects from time-variant effects, leading to in-depth insight into physical flow features. The aim is to investigate the flow in different stator designs for varying flow coefficients. Additive manufacturing techniques were applied for the production of parts to be tested with the aim to achieve low costs simultaneously with short production time. In this paper, the test rig design is described in detail. The configuration of the measuring planes is depicted, and the multiple measuring techniques are described. The measurement accuracy and uncertainties are discussed. Subsequently, measurement data such as pressure as well as velocity profile plots for steady-state conditions are presented. Finally, the performance of stator parts regarding pressure loss and pressure recovery coefficients is discussed.


Employers and labor organizations in the United States use apprenticeships to provide workers with technical education and paid on-the-job training leading to wage increases and higher-skilled jobs. When English learners participate in apprenticeships, employers benefit from an expanded pipeline of qualified employees and a more diverse workforce, and immigrant workers gain the qualifications and experience they need to realize their potential at work. This research study involved 66 interviews with ESL instructors, program staff, and thought leaders to learn to what extent English learners are participating in apprenticeships, what are the key elements of apprenticeships serving English learners, and what will be needed to sustain and scale apprenticeships equitably. Findings suggest that adult education providers have the tools to support ESL students' successful participation in apprenticeships, and that additional guidance and alignment of public and private resources will be needed to sustain and scale a more inclusive apprenticeship model.


In this paper we developed a framework for resource allocation in multi-class traffic CDMA system using adaptive power control and antenna array multiuser receiver. We devised a new scheme in which both transmit power and receiver filter adapt to the time-varying channel state. An antenna array multiuser receiver that jointly processes received signal vectors from multiple antennas and maximizes the signal-to-interference ratio for each user is proposed. It is combined with adaptive power control based on target SIR for each user. Our scheme can support multi-class traffic with different SIR requirements and guarantee their quality of service in multipath fading environment. A theoretical bound is derived to characterize capacity of CDMA system using adaptive power control and antenna array multiuser receiver in multipath fading environment. Simulations show that actual system capacity in multipath finding environment is close to the theoretical bound at large power constraint. Capacity at various power constraints can be characterized by a notion of bandwidth utility. It is also demonstrated that the antenna array multiuser receiver is quite effective in increasing capacity of users with higher SIR requirement and lower power constraint.


One of the major challenges to design efficient Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) is the scarcity of energy and computational resources. We address this problem with particular reference to algorithms for efficient source and channel coding.Distributed source coding (DSC) is a general framework which applies to highly correlated signals that are coded separately and decoded jointly. In WSN, DSC schemes provide closed loop algorithms that exploit the correlation of data sensed by the nodes to reduce the amount of information that each node transmits, thus saving energy. A study is herein carried out along with an implementation of the aforementioned algorithms with the Matlab environment. The stability of the closed loop algorithms is then tested by means of simulations.Minimum energy coding schemes can be superimposed on top of the previous DSC algorithm to achieve further gains. In our work, we investigate and extend two existent energy-efficient minimum energy coding schemes [1][2]. In this context, we analyze the performance of the WSN in terms of power consumption and bit error probability, where a detailed wireless channel description is taken into account. We characterize the problem of efficient coding by means of stochastic optimization problems. This more accurate model of the system (compared to those previously existent [1][2]) allows us to propose new solutions to reduce power consumption while ensuring adequate bit error probabilities.As a relevant part of our work, a test-bed has been set up by using the Berkeley Telos Motes, along with a Matlab application interface, for the adaptive source coding algorithm. According to the results obtained by the ABSTRACT experimental work we have carried out, the energy consumption can be effectively reduced.


Manually labeling documents for training a text classifier is expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, a classifier trained on labeled documents may suffer from overfitting and adaptability problems. Dataless text classification (DLTC) has been proposed as a solution to these problems, since it does not require labeled documents. Previous research in DLTC has used explicit semantic analysis of Wikipedia content to measure semantic distance between documents, which is in turn used to classify test documents based on nearest neighbours. The semantic-based DLTC method has a major drawback in that it relies on a large-scale, finely-compiled semantic knowledge base, which is difficult to obtain in many scenarios. In this paper we propose a novel kind of model, descriptive LDA (DescLDA), which performs DLTC with only category description words and unlabeled documents. In DescLDA, the LDA model is assembled with a describing device to infer Dirichlet priors from prior descriptive documents created with category description words. The Dirichlet priors are then used by LDA to induce category-aware latent topics from unlabeled documents. Experimental results with the 20Newsgroups and RCV1 datasets show that: (1) our DLTC method is more effective than the semantic-based DLTC baseline method; and (2) the accuracy of our DLTC method is very close to state-of-the-art supervised text classification methods. As neither external knowledge resources nor labeled documents are required, our DLTC method is applicable to a wider range of scenarios.


Introduction Cooperative multi-agent systems are of current interest due to their relevance to both robotics and networking. Researchers often create machine learning environments to explore these domains; however, the lack of reuse of previous environments prevents comparisons between the works of research groups. Further, while a growing understanding of the relationships between problem domains and machine learning techniques has emerged over time, there have been few attempts to systematically measure the performance of machine learning techniques as domain characteristics vary. Our primary goal is to create TASER, the Team Agent Simulator for Efficient Research—a non-trivial simulation system aimed at the efficient comparison of machine learning algorithms given a wide variety of conditions, concentrating on cooperative tasks. Our secondary goal is the adoption of TASER by other researchers.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of different in vitro tests on the ranking of four dentin bonding systems (OptiBond FL, Solid bond, OptiBond Solo, Etch&Prime 3.0) and to determine operator influence on push-out test results.

METHOD AND MATERIALS
One-hundred eighty extracted human molars were used in this study. For all bonding systems, bond strengths were determined using the shear, tensile, and push-out tests. In the push-out test, two series of specimens were bonded by two operators. Additionally, margin adaptation in Class V cavities was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy and dye penetration.

RESULTS
Both test methods and bonding systems revealed a significant influence on bond strength. Ranking of mean bond strengths was identical in the shear and tensile tests but different in the push-out test. In addition, material ranking in the push-out test was found to be operator dependent. No correlation was observed between bond strength and margin adaptation. A weak correlation was found between the percentage of gap formation and dye penetration in Class V cavities.

CONCLUSION
Comparisons of dentin bonding systems based on the results of different in vitro tests may be misleading. Operator influence on the results of push-out tests require further consideration.


Carl Schmitt's critique of liberalism has gained increasing influence in the last few decades. This article focuses on Schmitt's analysis of international law in The Nomos of the Earth, in order to uncover the reasons for his appeal as a critic not only of liberalism but of American hegemonic aspirations as well. Schmitt saw the international legal order that developed after World War I, and particularly the "criminalization of aggressive war," as a smokescreen to hide U.S. aspirations to world dominance. By focusing on Schmitt's critique of Kant's concept of the "unjust enemy," the article shows the limits of Schmitt's views and concludes that Schmitt, as well as left critics of U.S. hegemony, misconstrue the relation between international law and democratic sovereignty as a model of top–down domination. As conflictual as the relationship between international norms and democratic sovereignty can be at times, this needs to be interpreted as one of mediation and not domination.


Pathomorphological changes in dentine covered with artificial crown were studied in 40 decalcified teeth extracted from patients aged 35-61 years. The study of the decayed dentin microscopic structure revealed the uniform mineralization of dentinal tubules in 20% of cases, while in the absence of visually apparent caries it was present in 80% of cases. Irregular dentin structure was seen in 45% of caries cases and in 30% of observations with no signs of caries. Predentine distrophy and odontoblasts elimination in the decayed teeth was found in 55% of the observations while in the absence of caries lesions these features were seen in 70% of cases.


We consider the problem of deliberately manipulating the direct and indirect light flowing through a time-varying, general scene in order to simplify its visual analysis. Our approach rests on a crucial link between stereo geometry and light transport: while direct light always obeys the epipolar geometry of a projector-camera pair, indirect light overwhelmingly does not. We show that it is possible to turn this observation into an imaging method that analyzes light transport in real time in the optical domain, prior to acquisition. This yields three key abilities that we demonstrate in an experimental camera prototype: (1) producing a live indirect-only video stream for any scene, regardless of geometric or photometric complexity; (2) capturing images that make existing structured-light shape recovery algorithms robust to indirect transport; and (3) turning them into one-shot methods for dynamic 3D shape capture.


Purpose
While the Ohio State leadership approach had been forgotten for several decades, scholars in the field of leadership have begun revisiting the validity and the role of leader consideration and initiating structure. Building on self-expansion theory, this study suggest the effects of leader consideration and initiating structure on employee task performance. Also, integrating self-expansion theory and regulatory fit theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose and examine the moderating role of employee regulatory focus on the relationship between the Ohio State leadership behaviors and employee task performance, which was mediated by emloyees' creative behavior as well as citizenship behavior.

Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypothesized model of this study, cross-sectional data were collected using questionnaires. Pairs of survey packages, which included group-member surveys and a group-leader survey, were handed out to employees in organizations. The authors collected data from 47 groups and 143 group members in 25 private companies in the Republic of Korea, including from financial, technology, manufacturing, and research and development organizations.

Findings
The results showed that leader consideration exerts significant effects on employee task performance. Also, the authors found the moderating role of employee regulatory promotion focus on the relationship between leader consideration/initiating structure and employee task performance, which were mediated by creative behavior and citizenship behavior.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the advancement of the Ohio State leadership approach by integrating self-expansion theory and regulatory fit theory to investigate the distinct mechanisms and boundary conditions of its leadership process. The current study also contributes to the literature on extra-role behavior that the Ohio State leadership behavioral dimensions can be considered as one of the antecedents of employees' creative and citizenship behavior.


The article introduces a robust algorithm for the computation of minimum energy paths transiting along regions of near‐to or degeneracy of adiabatic states. The method facilitates studies of excited state reactivity involving weakly avoided crossings and conical intersections. Based on the analysis of the change in the multiconfigurational wave function the algorithm takes the decision whether the optimization should continue following the same electronic state or switch to a different state. This algorithm helps to overcome convergence difficulties near degeneracies. The implementation in the MOLCAS quantum chemistry package is discussed. To demonstrate the utility of the proposed procedure four examples of application are provided: thymine, asulam, 1,2‐dioxetane, and a three‐double‐bond model of the 11‐cis‐retinal protonated Schiff base. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


, high-Objectives: Diabetes is both a risk factor associated with increased incidence and a prognostic determinant for various cancer types. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of diabetes on prostate cancer outcomes. Methods: The study included patients diagnosed with prostate cancer either at non metastatic stage at diagnosis and later developed metastasis or at metastatic stage at diagnosis. The characteristics of disease including patient age, date of diagnosis, gleason score (GS), stage, PSA level, time-to-distant metastasis for non-metastatic disease at diagnosis and time-to-castration resistance for metastatic disease, presence of diabetes, last date of control were reviewed retrospectively. Results: A total of 149 patients were included in the study. Median overall survival of patients with diabetes was 32 months whereas it was 66 months for those without diabetes (HR=2; 95% CI:1.33–3; p=0.001). For non-metastatic disease at diagnosis, median time-to-distant metastasis was 48 months for those with diabetes, and 63 months for those without (p=0.13). Median time-to-castration resistance was 12 months vs. 27 months for patients with diabetes and without diabetes (HR=3.66; 95% CI:2.46–5.45; p=0.000). Conclusion: Presence of diabetes is a robust and reliable prognostic marker for predicting poor survival outcomes including time-to-distant metastasis, time-to-castration resistance and overall survival in prostate cancer.


ABSTRACT A weighted space is introduced and some of its properties are highlighted. This is done with the aim of defining a space such that the transform of a class of functions exists. Certain properties of a new class of discrete and integral transforms are highlighted, including the codomain of the transform being a set of continuous functions and continuity of the operator associated with the space. The shifting and convolution properties are introduced and it is proven that the weighted space is closed under the convolution operation. Several examples which fall in this class of transforms are given, including the Dirichlet series, the Z transform and the Laplace transform. Some conditions are stated which imply that any member of a class of discrete operators is injective. Following this, it is established that the weighted space is a Banach algebra where the convolution is the underlying product.


Abstract Until the advent of bifocal hydrogel lenses, monovision or reading glasses were the modes of correction for hydrogel contact lens wearing presbyopes. Recent design innovations and improvements in the manufacturing technology of soft contact lenses have made possible new developments in bifocal hydrogel lenses. Patient selection and patient education play key roles in optimizing patient success. There are several hydrogel bifocal designs that are possible for the presbyope. The variations of these designs and their pertinent considerations are discussed.


This thesis examines within the institutional framework settings how the concept of
Sustainable and Responsible Property Investment (SRPI) has developed and to the extent
SRPI has been adopted in a developing country, namely Malaysia. The question of
Sustainable and Responsible Property Investment (SRPI) interpretation is important in this
context given that developing countries represent the most rapidly expanding economies and
most lucrative markets for property investment. Specifically the thesis examines the
understandings of SRPI and the concept link with SRI, and the drivers and barriers to SRPI
practice. Specifically, the thesis investigates how particular Malaysian Property Investment
organisations (MPIOs) have interpreted the concept of SRPI, and whether the overall
concept of SRPI has taken similar or different form than the practice in developed market.
The study used a mixed-method approach. It uses triangulation of data collection methods
and multiple techniques including content analysis and Delphi technique. The study used a
modified institutional framework to aid in explaining, interpreting and understanding the
divergence/convergence of SRPI in the developing country context. Content analysis of
selected public listed property investment organisations in Malaysia i.e. real estate
investment trusts (REITS), property companies and institutional investor reports from 2008
to 2011 proceeded through line-by-line analysis and coding according to inductively
generated categories. The results from content analysis revealed a narrow representation of
SRPI in the MPIOs reports. Despite the requirement by the Bursa Malaysia to report on CSR
and sustainability activities, there were minimal disclosures on environmental and social
impacts caused by their property management and investment activities, on most reports
shows emphasis of MPIO's on philanthropic activities.
The Delphi study aims to explore, examine and build on the views of experts and influential
people in SRPI. It was also felt necessary to combine local expertise and experts from
developed countries. Overall, SRPI in Malaysia takes different form than SRPI in countries
where is SRPI mainstreamed. The study points in the direction of SRPI "cross-vergence",
whereby global convergence and local divergence forces are interacting synergistically. The
National and Cultural religious value in particular are two strong elements supporting the
drivers of divergence of SRPI. Through the rigorous exploration this thesis contributes to
the further understanding of sustainable and responsible investment and the drivers. The
proposed framework has provided the principles, whereas the empirical work translated the
principles into practice. The results of the thesis contribute to the literature by providing new
evidence on the drivers of SRPI in emerging market. These findings would be of use to
property investors and other actors in the industry, including fund manager.


The transport of bile acid was studied in basolateral membrane vesicles isolated from rat small intestine. Taurocholate transport into an osmotically reactive intravesicular space was Na+ independent. The uptake of taurocholate in jejunal and ileal vesicles preloaded with sulfate was stimulated with respect to uptake in unpreloaded vesicles. Glycocholate inhibited the transstimulation of taurocholate uptake by sulfate. Sulfate and taurocholate uptake in ileal vesicles preloaded with bicarbonate was stimulated with respect to uptake in unpreloaded vesicles. Taurocholate inhibited the transstimulation of sulfate uptake by bicarbonate. When ileal vesicles were loaded with p-aminohippurate, an early transstimulation of taurocholate was found that exceeded equilibrium uptake, was insensitive to a K+ diffusion potential, and was cis-inhibited by taurocholate, glycocholate, pyruvate, p-aminohippurate, probenecid, chloride, sulfate, and bicarbonate. These data indicate the presence of an anion exchanger in intestinal basolateral membrane vesicles that may be involved in the exit of bile acids from the enterocyte.


Thia-Claisen rearrangements have been carried out using N-benzylpyrrolidine-2-thione and chiral allylic bromides derived from D-mannitol. Introduction of a bromine atom onto the double bond of the allylic bromide reverses the sense of diastereoselectivity in the [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement. Density functional theory calculations lead us to rationalise the observed selectivity in terms of a Cíeplak effect.


In recent years, the ethnic and cultural diversity of the U.S. has increased as large numbers of immigrants and refugees have resettled here.  Many of the recent immigrants and refugees have arrived from African countries, and human scientists and Extension professionals must be prepared to engage with the families.  To inform the work of professionals, a comprehensive search of the literature on family engagement in K-12 education and out-of-school time with African families was conducted using multiple keywords in several database searches.  Two books and three peer-reviewed journal articles were identified that focused on family engagement with African families.  After reviewing the publications, three relevant themes for professionals seeking engagement with African families were identified: (a) culture, (b) potential challenges, and (c) program components.  These themes and their subthemes are explored, and recommendations are made for Extension professionals to increase their engagement with African families in family life programs.


We demonstrate that surface plasmon resonances excited by photon tunneling through an adjacent dielectric medium enhance the photocurrent detected by a graphene photodetector. The device is created by overlaying a graphene sheet over an etched gap in a gold film deposited on glass. The detected photocurrents are compared for five different excitation wavelengths, ranging from λ 0 = 570 nm to λ 0 = 730 nm . Although the device is not optimized, the photocurrent excited with incident p-polarized light (which excites resonant surface plasmons) is significantly amplified in comparison with that for s-polarized light (without surface plasmon resonances). We observe that the photocurrent is greater for shorter wavelengths (for both s- and p -polarizations) with increased photothermal current. Position-dependent Raman spectroscopic analysis of the optically-excited graphene photodetector indicates the presence of charge carriers in the graphene near the metallic edge. In addition, we show that the polarity of the photocurrent reverses across the gap as the incident light spot moves across the gap. Graphene-based photodetectors offer a simple architecture which can be fabricated on dielectric waveguides to exploit the plasmonic photocurrent enhancement of the evanescent field. Applications for these devices include photodetection, optical sensing and direct plasmonic detection.


In recent years, the increase of fuel price and implementation of targeted subsidies have the different effects on the economic sectors and especially on the road transportation sector. For this, the road transportation sector has been considered as main sectors in transportation system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of fuel price on the road transportation demand during 1997-2014. The empirical econometric model has been estimated by TVP and Kalman-Filter algorithm. The main findings of this study reveal that the fuel price and age of transportation system have negative and other explanatory variables such as national income and numbers of vehicles have positive and significant impact on the road transportation in Iran during the period of study. Moreover, the targeted subsidies rule in Iran has led to decrease of road transportation shipment. Hence, the effects of new vehicle and national income are positive in final state and time varying situations.


The MammoGrid project has deployed its Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)-based Grid application in a real environment comprising actual participating hospitals. The resultant setup is currently being exploited to conduct rigorous in-house tests in the first phase before handing over the setup to the actual clinicians to get their feedback. This paper elaborates the deployment details and the experiences acquired during this phase of the project. Finally the strategy regarding migration to an upcoming middleware from EGEE project will be described. This paper concludes by highlighting some of the potential areas of future work.


The aim of the study was the evaluation of the incidence of chronic liver and bile duct diseases, the analysis of biochemical parameters of liver function and their relation to the clinical course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in children. Materials and Methods The study comprised 92 children, aged 3–18 years with IBD. In all the patients the following examinations were performed: biochemical tests evaluating liver and bile duct function, immunological examinations—levels of IgA, M, G, autoantibodies (ANCA, ASCA, ANA, AMA, ASMA and LKM) and ultrasound examination of the abdomen. Results The mean values of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin and gammaglutamyltranspeptidase were higher in the patients with ulcerative colitis than in the children with Crohn's disease. Increased levels of alanine aminotransferase were observed in 11/48 children with ulcerative colitis (23%) and in 6/44 children with Crohn's disease (13.6%). Elevated values of gammaglutamyltranspeptidase were found in 5/48 (10.48%) children with ulcerative colitis. In all these children the further diagnostics (histopathological examination of liver bioptates and cholangio-MR) revealed primary sclerosing cholangitis. A coexistence of autoimmune hepatitis was diagnosed in one boy with ulcerative colitis. Conclusions 1. The control of liver function parameters and cholestatasis is necessary in all children with IBD. In children with ulcerative colitis increased parameters of liver cell damage were observed much more frequently in comparison with the patients with Crohn's disease. 2. It seems that the presence of ANCA antibodies may indicate a potential, future development of PSC in patients with diagnosed ulcerative colitis.


Azalea lace bugs (Heteroptera: Tingidae) are common pests of azaleas in the landscape and in plant production. Adults and nymphs feed on foliage causing stippling damage, which persists for multiple seasons. This study was conducted to determine the speed of translocation and residual longevity of various soil-applied neonicotinoid insecticides for control of azalea lace bugs in the landscape. Mass plantings of azaleas were treated with different formulations and application rates of clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam. Treatments were evaluated at intervals of 3, 7, 14, 30 d, and 1 yr using a laboratory assay with excised shoots and field-collected adult lace bugs. A sample of field populations was taken 2 mo after the initial treatment. Plant health was determined by rating the severity of leaf injury and percent of damaged leaves per shoot. Dinotefuran and thiamethoxam provided the best control after 3 and 7 d in lab assays. A greater application rate improved efficacy of granular dinotefuran and thiamethoxam formulations in the 3-14 d evaluations. After 2 mo, azalea lace bug populations, primarily composed of nymphs, were lower than the controls. A laboratory choice test indicated that adult lace bugs do not avoid treated plants as has been shown for other sucking pests. After 12 mo, survival of lace bugs across all treatments averaged 61% and at least 1 product containing dinotefuran, thiamethoxam, and imidacloprid was significantly different from untreated controls. Plant appearance was also improved relative to untreated controls with fewer damaged leaves per plant on all treated plants after 1 yr.


Somali refugees who fled the collapse of their homeland and resettled in EU narrate 'who they are' through the graphic novel Meet the Somalis. This paper explores their counter/story to undermine the Fortress Europe's discourse. The main issue is to look at the diaspora through the trajectory of the journey and the "settling in" phase. The graphic novel as "remarkable antidote" (Said, 2002) narrates stereotypes, racisms and successes of the Somali people, helping the reader to understand them as individuals, with distinct experiences and separate stories.


In the last two decades, Emoji have become a mainstay of digital communication, allowing ordinary people to convey ideas, concepts, and emotions with just a few Unicode characters. While emoji are most often used to supplement text in digital communication, they comprise a powerful and expressive vocabulary in their own right. In this paper, we study the affordances of "emoji-first" communication, in which sequences of emoji are used to describe concepts without textual accompaniment. To investigate the properties of emoji-first communication, we built and released Opico, a social media mobile app that allows users to create reactions — sequences of between one and five emoji — and share them with a network of friends. We then leveraged Opico to collect a repository of more than 3700 emoji reactions from more than 1000 registered users, each tied to one of 2441 physical places. We describe the design and architecture of the Opico app, present a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Opico's reaction dataset, and discuss the implications of Emoji-first communication for future social platforms.


The test data produced by automatic test data generators are often 'unnatural' particularly for the programs that make use of human-recognisable variables such as 'country', 'name', 'date', 'time', 'age' and so on. The test data generated for these variables are usually arbitrarylooking values that are complex for human testers to comprehend and evaluate. This is due to the fact that automatic test data generators have no domain knowledge about the program under test and thus the test data they produce are hardly recognised by human testers. As a result, the tester is likely to spend additional time in order to understand such data. This paper demonstrates how the incorporation of some domain knowledge into an automatic test data generator can significantly improve the quality of the generated test data. Empirical studies are proposed to investigate how this incorporation of knowledge can reduce the overall testing costs.


BACKGROUND
Salivary gland scintigraphy allows a non invasive, morphological and functional assessment of parotid and submaxillary salivary glands.

AIM
To describe the main features of salivary gland scintigraphy in patients with Sjögren syndrome, rheumatic fibromyalgia and normal controls and compare the results with lip biopsy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Sixty one normal controls, 66 patients with Sjögren syndrome and 18 patients with rheumatic fibromyalgia were studied. For the diagnosis of Sjögren syndrome and fibromyalgia rheumatica, the Modified European and American College of Rheumatology criteria were used, respectively. Lip biopsies were obtained in 52 patients with Sjögren syndrome. Scintigraphy was done with a gamma camera and computer after the administration of 99mTc-pertechnetate, obtaining images during 30 min and creating time/activity curves. Scintigraphy was classified as normal, with mild or severe alterations.

RESULTS
Scintigraphy was normal in 74% of control subjects and in 26%, it had mild alterations. In 72% of patients with rheumatic fibromyalgia, scintigraphy was normal whereas in 28%, it had mild alterations. In 27% of patients with Sjögren syndrome, scintigraphy was normal, in 27% it had mild alterations and in 46%, severe alterations. There was a positive and significant correlation between pathological alterations of salivary glands and scintigraphic alterations (r = 0.642, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Severe scintigraphic alterations of salivary glands strongly support the diagnosis of Sjögren syndrome. Mild alterations are non specific and a normal scintigraphy does not exclude the diagnosis.


SoC systems are now being increasingly constructed using a hierarchy of subsystems or silicon intellectual property (IP) cores. The key challenge is to use these cores in a highly efficient manner which can be difficult as the internal core structure may not be known. A design methodology based on synthesizing hierarchical circuit descriptions is presented. The paper employs the MARS synthesis scheduling algorithm within the existing IRIS synthesis flow and details how it can be enhanced to allow for design exploration of IP cores. It is shown that by accessing parameterised expressions for the datapath latencies in the cores, highly efficient FPGA solutions can be achieved. Hardware sharing at both the hierarchical and flattened levels is explored for a normalized lattice filter and results are presented.


In this paper, we present the results of a comparative study of the internal combustion engines used to the operation of machines from agriculture, transport and industry. Internal combustion engines convert the kinetic energy of the combustion gases into mechanical energy, by the action of their own pistons that have an alternative translation motion. Through the connecting rods the translation motion becomes a rotation motion of the crankshaft. At the four-stroke cycle, the succession of the processes is carried out at four piston strokes, i.e. at two rotations of the crankshaft. The periodic resumption of the motor cycle requires the emptying of the cylinders of the combustion gases, followed by the filling of the cylinders with another air-fuel mixture. The caloric energy, produced by the combustion of the fuel, is converted into mechanical energy by 2540%, which represents the yield of the internal combustion engine. The power transmitted by the internal combustion engine, through the crankshaft, is given by the product between the torque and the engine speed. The increase of the power can be achieved by two ways: by increasing the maximum speed or by increasing the torque. The speed increase is limited by the mechanical strength of the moving parts, so this solution is not sustainable. Increasing the torque can be done in two ways: by increasing the engine displacement or by turbocharging of the engine. Increasing the engine displacement results in increased engine mass, increased fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. The turbocharger causes the mass of the fuel mixture in the cylinder to increase, respectively increasing the engine power. In conclusion, to increase the power of an internal combustion engine, the mass of the engine and / or the speed of the crankshaft must be increased. Taking into account of these, were analyzed the technical and functional characteristics for several types of internal combustion engines. The parameters analyzed in this study were: the engine power, the engine speed, the engine torque, the engine displacement, mass of the engine, fuel consumption, ratio of engine mass to engine power, ratio of engine speed to engine power. The conclusions and recommendations resulting from this study refer to the optimal use of internal combustion engines in different fields of activity.


It has long been known that dream recall, along with various other features of dreaming, changes as a function of time of night. Yet the processes which might account for these time-dependent variations remain obscure. Here we assess the contribution of homeostatic and circadian factors to the generation of NREM mentation across the diurnal cycle. Assuming that previously reported time-of-night mentation effects are primarily driven by a circadian activation cycle which approximates the core body temperature (CBT) rhythm, it was hypothesized that more content would be reported from daytime nap awakenings as compared to night awakenings. Afternoon Nap reports were compared to previously-collected nocturnal reports from Circadian Nadir and Late Morning time points. Contrary to our hypotheses, both amount of mentation reported and propensity to report any mentation at all were lower in Nap as compared to Late Morning reports. A purely circadian influence following the CBT cycle is inadequate to explain this pattern of mentation production.


1. Intradermal injection of high dilutions of drugs with a nicotine-like action (acetylcholine, nicotine, alpha-lobeline) caused an outbreak of sweat on the human skin in an area with a 2 to 5 cm. diameter around the wheal. 2. Intradermal acetylcholine produced sweating in two ways: directly by its muscarine-like action, and reflexly by its nicotine-like action. 3. Drugs with nicotine-like action also caused an outbreak of sweat droplets on the foot pad of the cat when injected into the pad. 4. This sweat response is abolished by infiltration of the skin with local anesthetics, remains active in areas anesthetized by nerve block, and can be elicited in extirpated cat9s toe pads. 5. It is concluded that the sweating is effected through an axon reflex involving the terminal ramifications of the postganglionic sympathetic fibers supplying the sweat glands. 6. The nerve pathway over which this axon reflex occurs is 10 to 20 times as sensitive to local anesthetics as are sensory nerves. 7. The receptor point of the axon reflex behaves like an autonomic ganglion cell in being stimulated by small concentrations of drugs with nicotine-like action and paralyzed by large concentrations. 8. Attempts to demonstrate an anhidrotic effect of large doses of drugs with a nicotine-like action administered intravenously in cats or subcutaneously in man were unsuccessful.


In this article I argue that the enforcement of international law remains hamstrung by the constitutional competencies afforded to the Permanent Five members of the Security Council; so long as these powers remain, the enforcement of international human rights law will remain highly selective and inconsistent. Though the Responsibility to Protect has emerged as a widely heralded concept, its capacity to influence international politics is profoundly diminished by virtue of its recognition of the systemic status quo. I argue that so long as the Security Council has a right rather than a duty to protect individuals from mass atrocities, they will exercise politically motivated discretion, regardless of their rhetorical commitment to concepts like R2P.


This paper examines the determinants of occupational attainment and the impact of occupation on earnings. Results for both the native born and foreign born are presented, and these provide insights as to the earnings penalties associated with the less-than-perfect international transferability of human capital skills. It shows that around 50 percent of the earnings gains associated with years of schooling derives from inter-occupational mobility. When occupation is held constant, there is a large increase in the effect on earnings of pre-immigration labor market experience for the foreign born, but little change in either the payoff to labor market experience for the native born, or in the premium for post-arrival labor market experience for the foreign born. The estimates of the models of occupational attainment show that years of schooling, and, among the foreign born, proficiency in English, are the key factors determining access to high-paying occupations. Labor market experience has little effect on occupational outcomes among the native born. However, evaluated at 10 years, foreign labor market experience has a modest negative impact on current occupational status. Examination of this negative effect using quantile regression shows that it is concentrated among those in high status jobs.


This study is about the influence of the processes of neighbourhood consolidation and urban
transformation in three self-help neighbourhoods in El Alto, a city on Bolivia's plateau,
adjacent the capital city of La Paz. Special attention was paid to the developments in the
housing conditions, land use, economic activities, socio-economic characteristics and
demographic composition of the inhabitants and mobility in the period 1984-1999.
One important view the longitudinal research provided, is that - within the government's regulating framework - the inhabitants take care of development, regardless the fact if they are autochthonous or not.
This research showed that an important part of the inhabitants of the Zona 16 de Julio
succeeded in improving their shelter conditions and their socio-economic position. In order
to do so, they made use of the presence of the periodic market and the favourable situation of
the Zona. Together with the neighbourhood upgrading that has taken place, these have
stimulated the population to transform their neighbourhood. This initiative from within the
population fits wonderfully well in the current thinking about urban development. It is a clear
illustration of the fact that it is not the governments that can alter living conditions in
neighbourhoods. In the Zona 16 de Julio, a facilitating government has proved that it can
stimulate the local inhabitants to develop their surrounding and the condition in which they
are living. However, it is the people who have brought about the urban transformation of the
Zona 16 de Julio.
In trying to reproduce the processes of change in a schematic way, the model of Baken et al.
(1992) is a useful point of departure. In this model the effects of consolidation on the
(local) economic development are shown. In a new model, first of all, the distinction between
consolidation and transformation has to be pointed out. As we have seen in this study, these
are separate processes. We have to record that the effects of these processes are sometimes
erroneously mixed up and labelled 'consolidation'. The three processes of change being the effect of the consolidation process (legal, social and physical-spatial), remain unchanged. New in the model is the urban transformation. This process consists of the relative change in location and the change in function as is described in this study. In the new model, we substitute densification by the effects of mobility. Mobility is not limited to either consolidation or transformation. Both processes can result in (different) effects on migration. This is why mobility receives mentioning with both processes in our model.
Our model now schematically describes the influence of two processes (consolidation &
transformation) by six types of change (legal, social, physical-spatial, mobility, function,
relative location) on the local economic development. But, this development strongly
influences the ongoing consolidation and transformation processes. And so, we finally have to
conclude that consolidation and transformation also affect each other.


Digital human modelling (DHM) has today matured from research into industrial application. In the automotive domain, DHM has become a commonly used tool in virtual prototyping and human-centred product design. While this generation of DHM supports the ergonomic evaluation of new vehicle design during early design stages of the product, by modelling anthropometry, posture, motion or predicting discomfort, the future of DHM will be dominated by CAE methods, realistic 3D design, and musculoskeletal and soft tissue modelling down to the micro-scale of molecular activity within single muscle fibres.

As a driving force for DHM development, the automotive industry has traditionally used human models in the manufacturing sector (production ergonomics, e.g. assembly) and the engineering sector (product ergonomics, e.g. safety, packaging). In product ergonomics applications, DHM share many common characteristics, creating a unique subset of DHM. These models are optimised for a seated posture, interface to a vehicle seat through standardised methods and provide linkages to vehicle controls. As a tool, they need to interface with other analytic instruments and integrate into complex CAD/CAE environments.

Important aspects of current DHM research are functional analysis, model integration and task simulation. Digital (virtual, analytic) prototypes or digital mock-ups (DMU) provide expanded support for testing and verification and consider task-dependent performance and motion. Beyond rigid body mechanics, soft tissue modelling is evolving to become standard in future DHM.

When addressing advanced issues beyond the physical domain, for example anthropometry and biomechanics, modelling of human behaviours and skills is also integrated into DHM. Latest developments include a more comprehensive approach through implementing perceptual, cognitive and performance models, representing human behaviour on a non-physiologic level. Through integration of algorithms from the artificial intelligence domain, a vision of the virtual human is emerging.


We investigated the localization of APUD (amine content and amine precursor uptake and decarboxylation) cells and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-negative, aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC)-positive neurons (D neurons) in the hypothalamus of the bird (Melopsittacus undulatus) and the lizard (Varanus exanthematicus), and compared the differences between the two species. L-DOPA was demonstrated in the paraventricular organ (PVO) which is a characteristic region in the hypothalamus of the bird and the lizard. In the PVO of the grass parakeet, there were a small number of dopamine neurons in addition to APUD cells. However, in the PVO of the lizard, there were APUD cells but no dopamine neurons. Furthermore, TH-negative, AADC-positive neurons (D neurons) were found in the medial part of nucleus arcuatus of the bird, but not of the lizard


Anthocyanin content in berries has been reported to promote antioxidant properties that mitigate the occurrence of noncommunicable diseases. However, only a few studies have investigated the benefits of anthocyanin-rich food products from mulberry fruit to reduce the cardiometabolic risk factor in dyslipidemia subjects. Anthocyanin-rich mulberry fruit jelly was formulated using mulberry fruit powder (MFP), and its activities on serum cardiometabolic risk factors in dyslipidemia subjects were studied. Morus alba var. Chiang Mai was used as the ingredient for MFP jelly containing 14 g MFP (191 mg anthocyanin) per serving size (170 g). To investigate the effect of MFP jelly on reduction of cardiometabolic risk factors, sixteen dyslipidemia subjects were given one serving of MFP jelly every day for seven days. After MFP jelly intervention, fasting blood cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and inflammatory markers including interleukin-6 levels of the subjects were significantly lower. Postprandial blood parameters were measured at 0–240 min after consuming a high-fat meal before and after MFP jelly intervention. Postprandial blood glucose at 30 min (p<0.05) and insulin at 60 and 90 min (p<0.01) were lower in MFP than in placebo jelly. The area under the curve of insulin in MFP jelly was smaller than in placebo by 31.2%. Therefore, MFP jelly intervention increased insulin sensitivity. For antioxidant activity markers, postprandial oxygen radical absorbance capacity after MFP jelly intervention gave a smaller decrease after high-fat meal intake compared to after placebo jelly intervention. Moreover, for the oxidative stress markers, postprandial malondialdehyde level was significantly lower in MFP jelly. Seven days of intervention by one serving size of MFP jelly containing 191 mg of anthocyanins reduced cardiometabolic risk factors by lowering blood total cholesterol, LDL, and inflammation, and improving insulin sensitivity and postprandial blood antioxidant-oxidative stress activity in dyslipidemia subjects. This trial is registered with TCTR20200415003.


The stability of the histone acetyltransferase CBP must be maintained to promote cytokine release and inflammation in the lung. Targeting CBP stability Acetylation of histone H4 by the histone acetyltransferase CBP during sepsis switches chromatin to an open state, which enables the expression of genes encoding proinflammatory cytokines. Understanding the regulation of CBP stability could help in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Wei et al. showed that the E3 ubiquitin ligase subunit FBXL19 ubiquitylated CBP, targeting it for proteasomal degradation. The authors also showed that the deubiquitylase USP14 reversed this process, enhancing CBP stability. Furthermore, signaling by the bacterial product LPS prevented the FBXL19-CBP interaction and enhanced USP14 activity, thus promoting inflammatory cytokine production. Pharmacological inhibition of USP14 led to reduced CBP abundance and decreased cytokine production, suggesting that manipulation of CBP stability may provide a means to control inflammatory responses to infections. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) response element–binding protein (CREB)–binding protein (CBP) is a histone acetyltransferase that plays a pivotal role in the control of histone modification and the expression of cytokine-encoding genes in inflammatory diseases, including sepsis and lung injury. We found that the E3 ubiquitin ligase subunit FBXL19 targeted CBP for site-specific ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation. The ubiquitylation-dependent degradation of CBP reduced the extent of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)–dependent histone acetylation and cytokine release in mouse lung epithelial cells and in a mouse model of sepsis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the deubiquitylating enzyme USP14 (ubiquitin-specific peptidase 14) stabilized CBP by reducing its ubiquitylation. LPS increased the stability of CBP by reducing the association between CBP and FBXL19 and by activating USP14. Inhibition of USP14 reduced CBP protein abundance and attenuated LPS-stimulated histone acetylation and cytokine release. Together, our findings delineate the molecular mechanisms through which CBP stability is regulated by FBXL19 and USP14, which results in the modulation of chromatin remodeling and the expression of cytokine-encoding genes.


Placental transport produces concentrations of amino acids in fetal blood greater than those of maternal blood. Competitive inhibition studies of zwitterionic amino acid transport in isolated vesicles from the microvillous (maternal facing) plasma membranes of syncytiotrophoblast defined three transport systems: 1) a sodium-dependent system that supports methylaminoisobutyric acid (MeAIB) transport and has the characteristics of an A system; 2) a sodium-independent system with a high affinity for leucine and other amino acids with branched or aromatic side chains; and 3) a sodium-independent system with a preference for alanine as a substrate. The two sodium-independent systems could be further discriminated by marked specificity for trans stimulation with alanine or with leucine. System ASC, known to be present in whole placenta, and the neutral brush-border or imino systems of other polarized epithelia were apparently absent. Kinetic characteristics of the A system make it the probable primary driving force for concentrative transfer of its substrate amino acids to the fetus. Characteristics of the high-affinity leucine system demonstrated that it is saturated by normal serum leucine concentrations. Regulation of either system has the potential to alter placental amino acid uptake and transfer to the fetus.


Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the treatment outcomes of radiotherapy (RT) for breast cancer with ipsilateral supraclavicular (SCL) and/or internal mammary (IMN) lymph node involvement. Materials and Methods A total of 353 patients from 11 institutions were included. One hundred and thirty-six patients had SCL involvement, 148 had IMN involvement, and 69 had both. All patients received neoadjuvant systemic therapy followed by breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy, and postoperative RT to whole breast/chest wall. As for regional lymph node irradiation, SCL RT was given to 344 patients, and IMN RT to 236 patients. The median RT dose was 50.4 Gy. Results The median follow-up duration was 61 months (range, 7 to 173 months). In-field progression was present in SCL (n=20) and/or IMN (n=7). The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival rates were 57.8% and 75.1%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, both SCL/IMN involvement, number of axillary lymph node ≥ 4, triple-negative subtype, and mastectomy were significant adverse prognosticators for DFS (p=0.022, p=0.001, p=0.001, and p=0.004, respectively). Regarding the impact of regional nodal irradiation, SCL RT dose ≥ 54 Gy was not associated with DFS (5-year rate, 52.9% vs. 50.9%; p=0.696) in SCL-involved patients, and the receipt of IMN RT was not associated with DFS (5-year rate, 56.1% vs. 78.1%; p=0.099) in IMN-involved patients. Conclusion Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery and postoperative RT achieved an acceptable in-field regional control rate in patients with SCL and/or IMN involvement. However, a higher RT dose to SCL or IMN RT was not associated with the improved DFS in these patients.


We present biochemical evidence for the functional similarity of Escherichia coli RecO protein and bacteriophage T4 UvsY protein to eukaryotic Rad52 protein. Although Rad52 protein is conserved in eukaryotes, no sequence homologue has been found in prokaryotes or archeabacteria. Rad52 protein has two unique activities: facilitation of replication protein-A (RPA) displacement by Rad51 protein and annealing of RPA–single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) complexes. Both activities require species-specific interaction between Rad52 protein and RPA. Both RecO and UvsY proteins also possess the former property with regard to their cognate ssDNA-binding protein. Here, we report that RecO protein anneals ssDNA that is complexed with only its cognate ssDNA-binding protein, suggesting the involvement of species-specific interactions. Optimal activity for RecO protein occurs after formation of a 1:1 complex with SSB protein. RecR protein, which is known to stimulate RecO protein to facilitate SSB protein displacement by RecA protein, inhibits annealing by RecO protein, suggesting that RecR protein may regulate the choice between the DNA strand invasion versus annealing pathways. In addition, we show that UvsY protein anneals ssDNA; furthermore, ssDNA, which is complexed only with its cognate ssDNA-binding protein, is annealed in the presence of UvsY protein. These results indicate that RecO and possibly UvsY proteins are functional counterparts of Rad52 protein. Based on the conservation of these functions, we propose a modified double-strand break repair model that includes DNA annealing as an important intermediate step.


In this research, the optimal design of corrugated bulkheads being used in ship structures is explored by means of the state-of-theart genetic algorithms. The influences of genetic parameters, such as population sizes, crossover probability and mutation probability, on the optimal design of corrugated bulkheads are carefully examined. An objective function defined for the cost of materials and labors is to be minimized to attain the least cost of panel production. The obtained optimal values of each design variable must satisfy the predescribed constraints and some restrictions on fabrication. The optimal values of minimum weight and minimum cost of a panel production are obtained. Finally, a comparison between the method of genetic algorithm and the sequential linear programming optimization algorithm is made to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed genetic algorithms. The numerical simulation results reveal that the genetic algorithms can efficiently minimize panels' weight and costs in production.


Abstract Pumpkin ( Cucurbita pepo ) is increasingly being accepted as an important food crop in Kenya mainly due to increased awareness on its nutritional benefits and ease of crop cultivation in several agro-ecological zones. It is important to dry pumpkin in order to increase diversification and development of pumpkin value chain.  The purpose of this work is to evaluate the possibility of using dehumidified solar dryer in drying of the pumpkins and study the effect of the drying treatment on vitamin C content of the pumpkin. The desiccant used was hydrogel. The experimental set up consisted of a cabinet solar dryer, a cotton double membrane with hydrogel placed at the inlet and drying trays . Drying experiments were carried out outdoors for drying pumpkin slices to study the drying characteristics and the dryer performance under two modes: (a) Solar drying with integration of the desiccant unit (b) Solar drying without the integration of desiccant unit. Open sun drying was used as a control for this study. Evaluation of the desiccant bed solar dryer in drying the pumpkin was carried out and analysis of variance performed to ascertain whether or not the use of desiccant had any significant effect on relative humidity of drying air. The losses in vitamin C for dehumidified, un-dehumidified and open sun drying were 68.25, 70 and 81% respectively. The results revealed that the effect of desiccant on relative humidity of drying air was significant (p < .005). In addition, results showed that drying time using desiccant was reduced by about 11.25% compared to drying without desiccant. The study demonstrates that hydrogel can be used as a desiccant in dehumidifying drying air in a cabinet solar dryer for drying of agricultural products. Key words: Desiccant, hydrogel, pumpkin slices, drying rate, vitamin C