A survey questionnaire was conducted to investigate the use of antibiotics on 136 dairy farms in Khartoum state/ Sudan. The survey revealed that 49.3% of the farms owners were illiterate and 35.3% did not complete their education. 80% of the farms lacked written records, 75.7% had no written plans for treating sick animals with antibiotics, 17.6% of the farms completed the course of treatment and only 4.4% of the farms determined the antibiotic withdrawal period. Antibiotic-treated cows were physically separated from other milking cows in 19% of the visited farms, 8.8% of the farms milked the treated cows in a separate milking units and their milk was added to the farm whole milk in 86% of the farms. Mastitis (89%) followed by pneumonia (79%), enteritis (53%), metritis (46%), foot rot (41%) and eye infection (22%) were the most prominent diseases in dairy farms. Penicillins (83%) and Tetracyclines (78%) were mostly used for the treatment of the cases specially mastitis and in dry cows therapy. Tylosine (65%), Gentamycin (62%) and Sulpha drugs (43%) were mostly used in the treatment of other diseases. These antibiotics were obtained from veterinary pharmacies (89.7%) and venders (10.3%) without prescription and they were used for therapeutic purposes in 81% of the farms. Only 31.6% of the farms allowed veterinarians to administer these antibiotics. Also 78.7% of the antibiotic users and 56% of the milk consumers lack knowledge about the emerging threat of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria and/ or antibiotic residues in animal products. Milk samples were collected and investigated for the presence of penicillins. 37% of the samples were found positive for Penicillin. Taken together, these results obviously demonstrated that antibiotics were extensively misused in the dairy farms. These findings may be useful in preventing the antibiotic resistance and developing new strategies for prudent usage of antibiotics.


Based on the author`s hypothesis that nondestructive examination (NDE) has a major role in predicting the fatigue life of pressure vessels, a project was initiated to develop a defined relationship between NDE and fatigue strength reduction factors (FSRF). Even though a relationship should apply to both base metal and weld metal, the project was limited to weld metal because NDE for base metal is reasonably well established, whereas NDE for weld metal is more variable, depending on application. A matrix of FSRF was developed based on weld type (full penetration, partial penetration, and fillet weld) versus the NDE that is applied. The NDE methods that are included are radiographic testing (RT), ultrasonic testing (UT), magnetic particle testing (MT), dye penetrant testing (PT), and visual testing (VT). The first two methods (RT and UT) are volumetric examinations, and the remaining three are surface examinations. Seven combinations of volumetric and surface examinations were defined; thus, seven levels of FSRF are defined. Following the initial development of the project, a PVRC (Pressure Vessel Research Council) grant was obtained for the purpose of having a broad review. The report (Hechmer, 1998) has been accepted by PVRC. This paper presents the final matrix, the basis more » for the FSRF, and key definitions for accurate application of the FSRF matrix. A substantial amount of additional information is presented in the PVRC report (Hechmer, 1998). « less


We report on the synthesis of a high rate NaTi2(PO4)3/graphene composite for use as an anode material for high power Na-ion hybrid capacitors with the following characteristics; (1) reduction of the particle size of NaTi2(PO4)3 to the nanometer scale in order to reduce the Na+ ion diffusion length, (2) chemical bonding between NaTi2(PO4)3 nanoparticles and graphene in order to improve electrical conductivity, and (3) interconnected nanoporous structures in order to allow easy access of Na+ ions to NaTi2(PO4)3. For this, the NaTi2(PO4)3/rGO microsphere composite was prepared via a facile spray drying method using a solution mixture of graphene oxide, NaH2PO4·2H2O, Ti(OC2H5)4 and NH4H2(PO4)3, in which all the components of the titanium were present as ionic species in order to facilitate the chemical bonding between NaTi2(PO4)3 and rGO in the composite. The NaTi2(PO4)3/rGO microsphere composite had a Ti–O–C bond between NaTi2(PO4)3 nanoparticles (<80 nm) and rGO and interconnected nanoporous structures. The NaTi2(PO4)3/rGO microsphere composite exhibited a near theoretical specific capacity of 133 mA h g−1 at a 0.1 C-rate and excellent rate capability (70% capacity retention at a 50 C-rate) with very stable cycling performance (only 2% capacity loss after 200 cycles at a high rate of 10C). Furthermore, the energy density and power density of the NHC assembled with a NaTi2(PO4)3/rGO anode and an AC-based cathode are far better than those of other NHCs assembled using other metal oxide-based anodes and AC cathodes.


We propose in this paper a numerical particle type model PIC-MC (Particle-In-Cell Monte Carlo) for modeling plasma reactors in the case of DC discharge used for various industrial applications. The model is developed in the case of argon plasma at low pressure, generated in a reactor consisting of two flat electrodes parallel and spaced 3 cm. The collisions treatment is based on the "null collision" method. PIC-MC model can provide the plasma characteristics (potential, field and charge density) in inter-electrodes space, for all reactions in addition to collisions that may occur.


With the amount of email spam received these days it is hard to imagine that spammers act individually. Nowadays, most of the spam emails have been sent from a collection of compromised machines controlled by some spammers. These compromised computers are often called bots, using which the spammers can send massive volume of spam within a short period of time. The motivation of this work is to understand and analyze the behavior of spammers through a large collection of spam mails. My research examined a the data set collected over a 2.5-year period and developed an algorithm which would give the botnet features and then classify them into various groups. Principal component analysis was used to study the association patterns of group of spammers and the individual behavior of a spammer in a given domain. This is based on the features which capture maximum variance of information we have clustered. Presence information is a growing tool towards more efficient communication and providing new services and features within a business setting and much more. The main contribution in my thesis is to propose the willingness estimator that can estimate the callee's willingness without his/her involvement, the model estimates willingness level based on call history. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed willingness estimator is validated with the actual call logs.


The authors endeavor to investigate the intersection and relationship between sustainability, business models and a circular economy. These three concepts are believed to be at the heart of finding a solution to creating and implementing a circular economy. The three pillars of sustainability (society, environment and economics) have been identified as the golden thread when applied to developing circular economies and the business models used in these circular economies. These three pillars highlighted the areas of intersection and engagement between the circular economy and business models. The three pillars, or stakeholders, need to be considered equally and, where there is sacrifice and benefits, they need to be balanced. A scoping review was chosen, as the starting point, to ascertain the literature in the field. The results of the scoping review showed a lack of research conducted at the point of intersection between these three fields. Finding a solution by creating and implementing a circular economy will have positive effects on the economy, environment and society, as there is, proverbially, "not much time left" and everyone in the process will sacrifice and benefit. The research has highlighted the need to explore the intersection and relationship between sustainability, business models and the circular economy as a concept, and future research should develop frameworks to guide the development and implementation of this intersection to include all relevant stakeholders.


Tensor-variate regression approaches have been spotlighted over the past years, due to the fact that many challenging regression tasks in the real world involve in high-order tensorial data. However, these approaches are often computationally prohibitive, which limits the predictive performance for large data sets. In this paper, we propose a computationally-efficient tensor-variate regression approach in which the latent function is flexibly modeled by using online local Gaussian process (OLGP). By doing so, the large data set is efficiently processed by constructing a number of small-sized GP experts in an online fashion. Furthermore, we introduce two efficient search strategies to find local GP experts to make accurate predictions with a Gaussian mixture representation. Finally, we evaluate our approach on a real-life regression task, reconstruction of limb movements from brain signal, to show its effectiveness and scalability for large data sets.


Peyote boxes are the containers that members of the Native American Church use to store and transport the ritual and personal objects used by participants in the night-long religious services of the Church. Peyote boxes can be classified into two basic forms; boxes specifically produced for use by Peyotists and a wide range of containers adapted for such use. In addition to their functional value, Peyote boxes also provide an additional arena for the expressive culture of Peyotism through the various media and methods employed to decorate and embellish their exterior surfaces. Through a lifetime of use, Peyote boxes become highly intimate, portable records of personal experience, both spiritual and secular. Peyote boxes provide a rich context for an examination of the criteria used by museums to collect objects and the potential for biased representations of the material world.


Efforts are under way nationally to reduce avoidable hospital readmissions by changing payments to hospitals, but it is unclear how well or how quickly these policy changes will produce widespread reductions in hospital readmissions. To examine some of the challenges to implementing such approaches, the authors analyzed the early experiences of 3 statewide programs to reduce preventable readmissions that began in 2009. Based on interviews with program participants in 2011, the authors identified 3 key obstacles to progress: the difficulty of developing collaborative relationships across care settings, gaps in evidence for effective interventions, and deficits in quality improvement capabilities among some organizations. These findings underscore the uncertainty of success of current readmissions policies and suggest that immediate improvement in readmission rates through a change in reimbursement may be unlikely unless these other obstacles are addressed expeditiously. In particular, cultivation of productive collaboration across care settings will be critical because these kinds of relationships are not well established or naturally occurring in most communities.


The dysarthrias form a group of diverse, chronic motor speech disorders. The disorders of Parkinson's disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and cerebral palsy are reviewed because they represent important clinical diagnoses in which dysarthria is a frequent and debilitating symptom. The roles played by speech-language pathologists include participation in differential diagnosis, provision of speech treatment, staging of treatment, and timely education so that clients and families can make informed decisions about communication alternatives. Both scientific and clinical evidence is presented that suggests that individuals with dysarthria benefit from the services of speech-language pathologists. Group-treatment studies, single-subject studies, and case reports illustrate the effectiveness of various types of speech treatment. Research into the effectiveness of augmentative and alternative communication systems for individuals with cerebral palsy is also presented.


A scenario in a driving simulator covers what the human participants experience and what the researchers need: the physical scene, predefined traffic flow, simulated vehicles' interactions with the participants and measurements to be collected.
Current methodologies used to orchestrate scenarios regarding the interactions have the following drawbacks: 1) Action sequences that simulated vehicles should follow in scenarios are specified without the contexts of each Action; 2) programming languages always include
platform-dependent details and are not suitable for context modelling and scenario sharing and 3) there is no mechanism to handle scenarios dynamically and deal with failures to deploy a scenario.
To overcome these problems, a concept named Assignment, which represents the task(s) of Virtual Drivers, was first developed to encode the contextual information of proposed Actions for interaction generation, e.g., potential simulated vehicles involved.
The Ontology for Scenario Orchestration (OSO) was then developed to model concepts and their relationships in the domain of scenario orchestration including the concept Assignment. It can also provide a file for machine processing.
An algorithm named NAUSEA (autoNomous locAl manoeUvre and
Scenario orchEstration based on automated action plAnning) was finally generated to utilise Assignments recorded in OSO. Encoded in the driver model SAIL (Scenario-Aware drIver modeL), NAUSEA can be used by a Virtual Driver to control simulated vehicles dynamically.
Failed interactions, generated by corresponding Assignments, can be regenerated if necessary. A framework SOAV (Scenario Orchestration with Autonomous simulated Vehicles) was formed to support SAIL/- NAUSEA and orchestrate scenarios with autonomous vehicles.
Three verification experiments were carried out and showed that SOAV was working properly by producing corresponding interactions based on SAIL/NAUSEA and Assignments. They also demonstrated that OSO can provide contextual information in a human-readable and machine processable manner.
The OSO evaluation showed that OSO has several advantages such as being readable, flexible etc., but how it can be presented to varieties of audiences needs further examination.


Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most important and powerful analytical tools available to the scientific community, and to synthetic chemists in particular. Standard, commercially available, high-field NMR spectrometers (running from 4.7 to 23.5 T, corresponding to 200, respectively 1000 MHz 1H Larmor frequency) have their radiofrequency antennas incorporated in probe heads that allow measuring samples in 5 mm tubes. Commercial probe heads that allow on-flow monitoring of reactions are based on, typically 5 mm, saddle coil designs, but these require relatively large amounts of material and/or have poor filling factors and correspondingly poor mass sensitivity. In 1994 Sweedler and co-workers launched the field of microcoil NMR spectroscopy, and the past two decades have seen several groups starting to fabricate their own small-volume probe-heads. Here we provide an overview of the different types of NMR microcoils that haven been developed to measure volumes in the lower microliter and (sub-)nanoliter scale, and then focus on the main geometries of microcoils exploited for use in reaction monitoring as solenoids, planar spiral, and stripline coils. Several examples are presented of on-flow and stationary reaction monitoring with such microcoils. The rapid progress in the field promises that many more groups will enter the field of NMR microcoil reaction monitoring in the coming years.


OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted to examine the smoking behaviors and the relationship between smoking and other health behaviors among medical students.

METHODS
A self-administrated questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1, 775 students from four medical schools between April and May 2003. Due to the small number of female smokers, the characteristics of smoking behaviors were analyzed only for males.

RESULTS
A total of 1, 367 students (920 males and 447 females) completed the questionnaires, with an overall response rate of 77.7%. The smoking rates for males and females were 31.5, and 2.2%, respectively. Among the male smokers, 70.7% smoked daily, and 39.0% smoked one pack or more per day. Male students on medical course were more likely to smoke daily, and one pack or more per day, than those on premedical course. Male daily smokers desired to quit smoking less than occasional smokers, and 65.0% of male daily smokers were not ready to quit compared with 37.8% of the occasional smokers. Among the male daily smokers, 29.6% were severely nicotine dependent. The most common reason for not to quit smoking among male smokers was 'no alternative stress coping method' (44.4%), followed by 'lack of will power' (25.4%), and 'no need to quit' (19.4%). Compared with male non-smokers, male smokers were more likely to drink alcohol more often and in larger amounts, take coffee more often, eat breakfast less regularly, and be overweight or obese.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study suggest that many male medical students were serious smokers, especially those on medical course. It is necessary to install a smoking prevention program for pre-medical students, provide effective smoking cessation methods for smokers, teach positive stress coping methods, and make the school environment suitable for coping with stress.


Encryption is a useful tool to protect data confidentiality. Yet it is still challenging to hide the very presence of encrypted, secret data from a powerful adversary. This paper presents a new technique to hide data in flash by manipulating the voltage level of pseudo-randomlyselected flash cells to encode two bits (rather than one) in the cell. In this model, we have one "public" bit interpreted using an SLC-style encoding, and extract a private bit using an MLC-style encoding. The locations of cells that encode hidden data is based on a secret key known only to the hiding user.

Intuitively, this technique requires that the voltage level in a cell encoding data must be (1) not statistically distinguishable from a cell only storing public data, and (2) the user must be able to reliably read the hidden data from this cell. Our key insight is that there is a wide enough variation in the range of voltage levels in a typical flash device to obscure the presence of fine-grained changes to a small fraction of the cells, and that the variation is wide enough to support reliably re-reading hidden data. We demonstrate that our hidden data and underlying voltage manipulations go undetected by support vector machine based supervised learning which performs similarly to a random guess. The error rates of our scheme are low enough that the data is recoverable months after being stored. Compared to prior work, our technique provides 24x and 50x higher encoding and decoding throughput and doubles the capacity, while being 37x more power efficient.


If the story of George Gerald Henderson be told merely as a chronological record there would remain for our successors an imperfect picture of a very remarkable man. He was a Scot, and received his scientific education at the University of Glasgow ; in succession he held a lectureship and two professorships of chemistry in his native city and he died full of years in the land he loved. The story as thus told suggests that his life's work was spent in a limited sphere; but that is true only in a geographical sense, for his influence spread far afield and in his day he was recognized as one of the most prominent figures in British chemistry. It will be generally conceded that the period when the nineteenth century merged into the twentieth was a critical time in the development of science in this country. Opportunities for scientific education were expanding rapidly, facilities for original research were becoming more widely available, and the investigator was no longer a solitary worker. These were profound changes, and no country—least of all a small country such as Scotland, firmly wedded to long-established educational tradition—could take a profitable part in what we must regard as an educational revolution, in the absence of wise scientific leadership. That role was played by G. G. Henderson and he played it supremely well. While it is a pious duty, willingly undertaken, to pay tribute to his life's work, it is difficult for me to speak freely of him as a man, for I was bound to him by ties closer than those which usually link master and disciple.


Scientific knowledge alone will not help countries achieve sustainable management of land, water and biota. Everyone now realises that a partnership is needed between land and water users, scientists, managers and the community if countries are to achieve the goal of preserving rural resources.

This book deals with broad issues relating to resource decline and how different groups such as farmers, rural town dwellers, resource managers and government deal with these issues from social, economic and ecological points of view.


From past few years, wireless networks are mostly preferred because of its mobility and scalability characteristics. Mobile Ad hoc network (MANET) is one of such wireless communication mechanisms. A MANET is an infrastructure-less network consisting of self-configuring mobile nodes connected by wireless link. The nodes communicate with each other directly or indirectly with the help of neighbours to store and forward packets. The open medium and wide distribution of nodes makes MANET vulnerable to malicious attacks. To address the security, it is essential to develop an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) specially designed for MANET which can detect malicious attacks before they do any significant damage to the network. For this concern a secure intrusion detection system, EAACK is developed which solves the limitations of earlier systems. The proposed system evaluates EAACK with AODV routing protocol thereby providing better performance for large size MANET.


The deflection (curvature) of embedded single-crystal silicon chips was investigated by rocking curve X-ray diffraction techniques at two significant manufacturing stages in the process chain of printed circuit boards with embedded components. An overview of the curvature deduction by two different approaches was presented: (1) the measurement of the variation of the rocking curve maximum as a function of the lateral sample position along a specific traverse; the slope in such a diagram is then proportional to the corresponding curvature in that direction. (2) The evaluation of the rocking curve width; here the peak width is inversely proportional to the curvature at known beam diameter, diffraction angle, and beam divergence. It was shown that the rocking curve method is applicable to determine the curvature inside single crystalline chips. Furthermore, the method is also suitable to determine the curvature of fully embedded or encapsulated chips. Additionally the absorption of the radiation in the embed medium was quantitatively discussed. The curvature of two different prepared samples was determined at temperatures up to 200 °C in a heating stage attached to the diffractometer device.


Objective(s): Although accumulating evidence has shown that the autonomic nervous system is involved in liver pathology, its role in regulating cancer development remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to elucidate its detailed mechanisms. Methods: A mouse model of liver metastasis of colorectal cancer was used. To elucidate the potential mechanisms involved, we examined the effect of selective hepatic vagotomy on the survival rate and liver-to-body weight. We further evaluated the possible involvement of the hepatic sympathetic nerve fibers in this model. Results: The mortality rate and the liver-to-body weight ratio after cancer inoculation were significantly higher in the vagotomized mice than in the sham-operated mice. The vagotomized mice exhibited a transient decrease in hepatic norepinephrine levels following cancer inoculation. Interestingly, the vagotomy-induced exacerbation of liver metastasis was attenuated by supplementary norepinephrine or phenylephrine, a selective α1-adrenoceptor agonist, but not by clonidine, a selective α2-adrenoceptor agonist. Conclusion: Collectively, these results suggest that the hepatic vagus nerve may play a protective role against liver metastasis. Hepatic sympathetic nerves may also be involved as a protective efferent loop, possibly acting through the α1-adrenoceptor.


Previous high-throughput screens (HTS) to identify mitochondrial toxicants used immortalized cell lines and focused on changes in mitochondrial membrane potential, which may not be sufficient and do not identify different types of mitochondrial dysfunction. Primary cultures of renal proximal tubule cells (RPTC) were examined with the Seahorse Extracellular Flux Analyzer to screen 676 compounds (5 μM; 1 h) from the ToxCast Phase II library for mitochondrial toxicants. Of the 676 compounds, 19 were classified as cytotoxicants, 376 were electron transport chain (ETC) inhibitors, and 5 were uncouplers. The remaining 276 compounds were examined after a 5 h exposure to identify slower acting mitochondrial toxicants. This experiment identified 3 cytotoxicants, 110 ETC inhibitors, and 163 compounds with no effect. A subset of the ToxCast Phase II library was also examined in immortalized human renal cells (HK2) to determine differences in susceptibility to mitochondrial toxicity. Of the 131 RPTC ETC inhibitors tested, only 14 were ETC inhibitors in HK2 cells. Of the five RPTC uncouplers, one compound was an uncoupler in HK2 cells. These results demonstrate that 73% (491/676) of the compounds in the ToxCast Phase II library compounds exhibit RPTC mitochondrial toxicity, overwhelmingly ETC inhibition. In contrast, renal HK2 cells are markedly less sensitive and only identified 6% of the compounds as mitochondrial toxicants. We suggest caution is needed when studying mitochondrial toxicity in immortalized cell lines. This information will provide mechanisms and chemical-based criteria for assessing and predicting mitochondrial liabilities of new drugs, consumer products, and environmental agents.


This study evaluates the metabolic and physiologic effects of Verapamil on isolated, perfused rat hearts subjected to 1 hour of global ischemia. Hearts were perfused with a modified Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer with glucose. During working heart perfusion, mean aortic systolic pressure, heart rate, and aortic and coronary flows were measured. Cardiac output and minute work were calculated. In three groups of eight hearts, 60-minute global ischemia was followed by a 40-minute reperfusion to assess physiologic recovery. Three groups of 11 hearts were assayed for myocardial high-energy phosphates after ischemia. Untreated hearts recovered less than 15% of function and lost 50% of their high-energy phosphate stores. Hearts treated with Verapamil (2 microg/cc) prior to ischemia recovered greater than 85% of function and retained normal adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and 40% decreased creatine phosphate (CP) levels. The metabolic and physiologic effects of Verapamil lasted 20 minutes longer than potassium, possibly related to membrane binding and dissociation of Verapamil. Verapamil was shown to have cardioplegic and protective effects, both probably secondary to inhibition of calcium flux across the sarcolemmal membrane.


The paper presents a contribution to a Modelica benchmark suite. Basic ideas for a tool independent benchmark suite based on Python scripting along with models for testing the performance of Modelica compilers regarding large systems of equation are given. The automation of running the benchmark suite is demonstrated followed by a selection of benchmark results to determine the current limits of Modelica tools and how they scale for an increasing number of equations.


Post-treaty instruments (PTIs) are informal instruments adopted by consensus of the treaty parties as follow-up decision to a particular provision in a treaty. PTIs are potentially significant instruments for advancing environmental global governance, as the treaty parties may use them to transform indeterminate treaty provisions into more specific environmental rules and decisions. While a number of PTIs are rightly characterized as exercises of authority, this article seeks to demonstrate how certain environmental PTIs with rule-setting character ('PTRs') amount to evasions of authority by reducing international authority over States' environmental policies, or alleviate rather than tighten the treaty parties' obligations, through their content or legal status. First, some PTRs avoid authoritative language, requiring little or no concrete action by the treaty parties. Some treaty-based assignments to adopt PTRs are never even acted upon. Other PTRs simply water down the obligations of the treaty parties compared to the underlying treaty provisions. Second, PTRs possess an ambiguous legal status both in legal doctrine and in the practice of domestic and EU courts. The article further argues that consensual decision-making may well be at the root of this ambivalent practice. As a broader contribution to the debate about International Public Authority (IPA), the proposition is advanced that we need to scrutinize more carefully what kind and degree of authority an instrument exercises exactly – or not. Evasions of authority and alleviations of obligations – which can be conceived as a special type of exercising authority through inaction – have important implications for what future legal frameworks of international public law must deliver in terms of effective and legitimate procedural design.


This chapter reviews different ceramics and the influence of luting agents on the durability of ceramic inlays and onlays. The dental literature was reviewed for longitudinal, controlled clinical studies of ceramic inlays and onlays; luted with different luting agents. Longevity and annual failure were determined. Phosphate cements, light-cured resin composites, and conventional glass-ionomer cements showed unacceptable, high clinical failure rates and are not suitable for luting dental ceramic inlays. Dual-cured and chemically cured resin composites and a resin-modified glass-ionomer cement showed better durability. Inlays of pressed ceramics and computer-aided design/computer assisted manufacture (CAD/CAM)-produced ceramics showed better longevity than fired-ceramic inlays.


Using recent pooled data from several developed nations, the paper uniquely examines whether the composition of payment instruments has a bearing on the prevalence of corruption in a country. Our results suggest that the choice of instruments matters. Paper credit transfer transactions are consis-tently associated with corrupt activities, while credit card transactions tend to reduce them. Cheques generally increase corruption, the results with respect to nonpaper credit transfers are mixed, while direct debits fail to show significant effects on corruption. These findings hold for alternative corruption measures and when allowance is made for endogeneity of payment instruments. Keywords: Corruption; Cheques; Credit card; Cash; Direct debit; Payment instruments JEL classification codes: K4; G3; H3; F3


Vitamin K is known to play an essential role in the coagulation cascade; however, a growing body of research has found that a subtype of this vitamin, vitamin K2 (menaquinone), may have a beneficial effect in osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of recent literature regarding menaquinone and its role in human health. This review discusses the physiology of menaquinone, its clinical benefits in cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and cancer, and how it may interact with certain medications. The authors conclude that menaquinone supplementation has been shown to improve carboxylation of osteocalcin and matrix-Gla protein to their active forms, two proteins that possess important roles in calcium distribution. In the setting of cardiovascular disease, menaquinone intake has been shown to lower the risk of coronary calcification and coronary heart disease, and a randomized controlled trial has demonstrated that it can reduce arterial stiffness. In osteoporosis, menaquinone has been shown in numerous randomized controlled trials to decrease the rate of bone loss at the lumbar spine and forearm and reduce the risk of fracture. In cancer, menaquinone intake has been shown to reduce overall incidence and mortality; clinical trials have suggested that it may have a role in reducing recurrence and death from hepatocellular carcinoma. However, in all clinical settings, more large randomized controlled trials are needed to definitively determine the clinical benefits of menaquinone supplementation, as many studies have failed to show any significant benefit. Lastly, more research is needed to determine how menaquinone supplementation interacts with medications such as warfarin, bile-acid sequestrants, orlistat, mineral oil and CYP3A4 substrates.


The evolving educational landscape rendered by the introduction of accountability measures such as Compass, Common Core, and PARCC has created significant challenges for K-12 educators in Louisiana and has contributed significantly to a revolving door among many educators in and out of the profession. Consequently, the recurring problem of teacher attrition continues to be an issue for educators in America and the relationship that teachers develop with their leaders becomes increasingly important. A quantitative study was conducted to explore a possible relationship between leader member exchange and teacher job satisfaction. Incorporating the theoretical lens of the Leader Member Exchange Theory, data was collected using the LMX-7, Job Satisfaction Survey, and a demographic questionnaire developed for teachers at three schools in a single school district in Louisiana.


Objective: To evaluate the impact of three types of social cognitive theory (SCT)-based elementary school classroom physical activity (PA) training on teachers' implementation rates, attitudes, knowledge and behaviour. Design: Key stakeholder focus groups informed development of phase II which took the form of a randomised controlled trial of three different intensities of teacher training to conduct classroom-based PA sessions. Setting: The study was conducted over one school year (2016–2017), across four elementary schools in the USA. Methods: Researchers delivered professional development to teachers, focusing on effective methods for PA use in the classroom through three formats: webinar, in-person training and in-person with personalised assistance. Training content was built on SCT constructs. This study examined the impact of the PA training on SCT construct outcomes among elementary school classroom teachers (n = 41). Study outcome measures included reciprocal determinism, behavioural capability, outcome expectations and self-efficacy. Over the 12-week period following the training, teachers completed surveys to measure SCT construct outcomes. Results: Results of the intervention demonstrated an increase in teacher self-efficacy and knowledge (p < .01 and p < .01). There was a significant increase of teachers who started using PA in the classroom who indicated no use at baseline (from 21% to 6% not using). Conclusion: The use of SCT to provide a teacher training is an effective method to increase classroom PA, while improving teacher self-efficacy and knowledge concerning PA implementation.


PURPOSE
To characterize the disease expression of an autosomal recessive human retinal degeneration associated with a mutation in TULP1 (tubby-like protein 1), a gene with currently unknown function.

METHODS
Homozygotes and heterozygotes from an extended Dominican kindred with a TULP1 splice-site gene mutation (IVS14+1,G-->A) were studied clinically and with visual function tests. Sequence analysis of TULP1 was also performed in unrelated patients with severe retinal degeneration from a North American clinic population.

RESULTS
Homozygotes had nystagmus, visual acuity of 20/200 or worse, color vision disturbances, bull's eye maculopathy, and peripheral pigmentary retinopathy. Younger patients had a relatively wide extent of kinetic visual fields; older patients had only peripheral islands. No rod function was measurable by psychophysics in any of the patients; markedly reduced cone function was detectable across the visual field of younger patients and in the remaining peripheral islands of older patients. Rod and cone electroretinograms (ERGs) were not detectable using standard methods; microvolt-level cone ERGs were present in some patients. Heterozygotes had normal visual function. No putative pathogenic sequence changes in TULP1 were observed in North American patients with comparably severe retinal phenotypes, mainly in the diagnostic category of Leber congenital amaurosis.

CONCLUSIONS
This TULP1 splice-site mutation in homozygotes causes early-onset, severe retinal degeneration involving macular and peripheral cones and rods. The constellation of phenotypic findings suggests that the TULP1 gene product is critically important for normal photoreceptor function and may play a role in retinal development.


The research was conducted in Ada'a district of the Eastern Shoa Zone, Ethiopia. This study was undertaken to investigate the major causes of chicken mortality under village production system and the intervention measures by farmers against the major causes of chicken mortality under village conditions. Data were collected through structured questionnaire from 180 households. Simple random sampling method was used to select the peasant associations and the households. The majority of the respondents put predation (91.9%) and disease (86.4%) as major causes of mortality in chicken older than 7 days. More than half of hatched chicks are lost due to mismanagement (29.4%), predation (67.8%) and other causes were also mentioned by less than 10% of the respondents. Significant proportion of the respondents (48.3%) did not provide modern medicine and those using, utilize mainly broad spectrum medicines without consulting veterinarians. The traditional medicaments included different medicinal plant species. As a conclusion, chicken in the study areas are highly affected by mortality due to predation and diseases. Appropriate management should be taken, therefore, to control the incidence of disease and reduce the loss of chicken kept under village chicken production systems due to predation and mismanagement.


The information systems literature frequently models project performance of information systems projects as a function of user participation. Markus and Mao (2004) consolidate the literature on user participation in a theoretical framework and call for its instantiation and empirical investigation. In this study, we answer this call by using meta-analytic structural equation modeling to fit the framework to a meta-analytic sample of 226 studies with a total of 42,330 information systems projects. We instantiate the original framework in three important ways. First, we differentiate between capacities and capabilities of project stakeholders to include users. Second, we differentiate between formal and informal mode of user participation. Third, we include residual risk as an important factor in the relationship between user participation and project performance. Our results offer support but also a nuanced perspective on the theoretical framework by Markus and Mao (2004) of user participation and suggest new directions for future research. User participation is necessary to improve project outcomes but not sufficient to ensure project outcomes.


To the Editor,

From time to time, conventional wisdom is subjected to scientific scrutiny and challenge with occasionally surprising results. Change came after a scientifically sound association was observed between sudden infant death (SID) and the old conventional wisdom of placing infants on their tummies to sleep. The resulting American Academy of Pediatrics Back to Sleep campaign was associated with a clinically and statistically large reduction in the rate of SID. 'Conventional wisdom' had been reversed and this feat is now celebrated as a major accomplishment.1

The paper, 'Can …


The value and ultimate usefulness of any treatment for extensive thermal burns depends upon conclusive demonstration that the illness is favorably affected in some objective way, preferably by improved survival. This report will present survival data from the first 225 consecutive burned humans whose wounds were treated with gauze dressings continuously wet with 0.5% aqueous silver nitrate. Population Sample The study sample consists of all burned patients who were admitted to the Hartford Burn Unit, Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, between June 20, 1964, and June 30, 1966, and to the Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, Fla, between July 1, 1965, and April 1, 1967. These individuals range in age from newborn to 96 years and were first seen 15 minutes to five months after burning. Prior treatment, if any, usually consisted of exposure, sterile gauze dressings, or nitrofurazone gauze and, frequently, systemic antibiotics. The extent of partial- and full-thickness thermal injury


Detailed kinetic model is one of the most important basic research items that the chemic synthesis techniques will have been commercialized from laboratory. A great breakthrough has been made in the detailed mechanistic kinetics of the chemic synthesis, but LM (Levenberg-Marquardt) algorithm still plays a leading role in estimating parameters of the kinetic model. As an unlimited algorithm, LM algorithm often makes an erroreous conclusion because of parameters exceeding limit. Its computation deeply depends on the initial point, and easily falls into non-global optima. It is a new attempt to apply GA(Genetic Algorithm) to the solutions of optimization problems of FTS(Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis) parameters. After a number of systemic tests, comparatively satisfying results of parameters-estimating and a lot of precious experience on GA have been obtained. The detailed kinetic model of FTS is provided by Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.


Ever more detailed subsurface images of the Alberta Foothills and Front Ranges obtained from improving seismic techniques, coupled with an ever expanding base of information from deep wells and improved structural analysis techniques, have produced an understanding of fold-thrust deformation that is probably applicable to other fold-thrust belts. Comprehensive subsurface data obtained by the petroleum industry are used to outline and analyze the three-dimensional configuration of fold-thrust deformation of Paleozoic carbonate strata. These data indicate that displacement changes smoothly along individual thrusts, but displacement changes along strike may be large, marked by considerable horizontal rotation (20°–30° or more) of hanging-wall stratigraphic cutoffs relative to the footwalls. Stacking of thrusts with varying displacements has produced summed horizontal rotations of hanging-wall cutoffs of as much as 45°–50°. The three-dimensional trajectories of the thrusts through the stratigraphy are smooth for large distances, interrupted by abrupt offsets at lateral and oblique ramps. These are more common than previously realized. The intersections of these ramps with other thrusts produce complex three-dimensional links between thrusts with concomitant abrupt displacement changes. Some simple examples of these linkages are examined with a three-dimensional geometric analysis. The predictions of the analysis are consistent with structural geometries observed in two case studies of subsurface structures. The links at lateral ramps imply simultaneous displacement on parts of the thrusts connected by the ramps. Since the ramps extend downdip 20 km or more, displacement occurred simultaneously on structures occupying relatively interior and exterior positions in the thrust belt. The smooth and long radius-of-curvature folding of many upper detachments indicated by reflection seismic data also is consistent with simultaneous or overlapping periods of motion on groups of thrusts distributed along regional dip. Most major Alberta Foothills thrust sheets terminate southward at lateral ramps at the Paleozoic level. The abrupt southwest-northeast offsets at these features are most clearly apparent on a palinspastic reconstruction. These offsets cause the Paleozoic deformation front to step out east and northeast around the southern and eastern margins of the main arc of the Foothills. In contrast, northward thrust terminations at the Paleozoic level commonly occur at both tip lines and lateral ramps. Subsurface data reveal that there have been some misconceptions regarding large-scale structural relationships. For example, the McConnell and Livingstone sheets are actually portions of the same thrust sheet, as are the Bighorn and Nikanassin sheets. When corrected for these misconceptions, the data from the Alberta Foothills suggest that maximum displacement has a nonlinear relationship to thrust length, although a linear relationship cannot be ruled out.


An isothermal hydrothermal reaction scheme has been developed to produce pure, ultrafine crystalline lanthanum titanate from lanthanum nitrate-titanium tetrabutyloxide-water- alcohol. It was found that the pH of the hydrothermal reaction medium and the initial (La)/(Ti) (molar ratio) were critical factors in forming stoichiometric La 2/3 TiO 3 . By varying the pH of the reaction medium, different end products could be obtained. With (La)/(Ti)=0.5, the as-prepared La 2/3 TiO 3 was in the cubic perovskite phase, and the structure did not change when the temperature was increased from room temperature to as high as 1000 °C. The optimum synthesis conditions including the ratio of (La)/(Ti), the concentration of NaOH and the lowest synthesis temperature were investigated. Under hydrothermal conditions, the La 2 O 3 -3TiO 2 system can tolerate the solid solubility of TiO 2 .


During the last decades, the world has been going through major technological, economic and social changes. The evolutionary process has brought people together through flows of communication into global digital networks to an extent that scientists have started to talk of the rise of a new geological era called "Anthropocene". The paper "Programming the State—Digital Technology and Institutional Design" focuses on political aspects of the on-going technological transformation bringing us into a digital society. The aim is to discuss the relation between political and technological change by applying historical institutional theory to explain and understand how ideas and ideology are embedded into digital political institutions. The discussion starts by explaining the basic concepts used in historical institutional theory such as path dependency and formative moments. I then turn to a theory of history formulated by R.G. Collingwood, as this help to understand how the formation of political institutions may be studied in terms of a design process. My argument is that in order to understand the design of political institutions we have to include the study of political ideology since ideologies serve as the design plan for specific institutional solutions. If we are to understand the logic of digitalization we have to be aware of which ideas that are embedded into digital technological solutions. The presentation ends with a discussion on the implications that may be drawn by this argument and whether or not it is possible to turn back from a path once chosen to step upon.


Possible role of electrochemical potential as driving force for exogenous DNA penetration inside Ca2+ treated Escherichia coli was investigated using carbonyl-cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrasone (CCCP), an uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation. CCCP at concentrations of 10(-6) -10(-5) M did not affect the number of plague forming units. The inhibitory effect was observed under higher concentrations (5.10(-5) -10(-4). This effect was not due to the loss of cell viability and is attributed to the reduced capacity of the cells to interact with DNA. It is suggested that conformational changes in biomembranes might be at least partially involved. It is concluded that the electrochemical potential is not the driving force for penetration of exogenous DNA inside Ca2+ -treated E. coli cells. Bronian movement is suggest as an alternative.


Recent years have shown the emergence of numerous local energy initiatives (prosumer
communities) in the Netherlands. Many of them have set the goal to establish a local and sustainable
energy provision on a not-for-profit basis. In this study we carried out exploratory case studies on a
number of Dutch prosumer communities. The objective is to analyse their development process, to
examine the barriers they encounter while organising their initiative, and to find how ICT could be
applied to counteract these barriers and support communities in reaching their goals. The study
shows that prosumer communities develop along a stepwise, evolutionary growth path, while they
are struggling with organising their initiative, because the right expertise is lacking on various issues
(such as energy technology, finance and legislation). Participants stated that, depending on the
development phase of their initiative, there is a strong need for information and specific expertise.
With a foreseeable growing technical complexity they indicated that they wanted to be relieved with
the right tools and services at the right moment.
Based on these findings we developed a generic solution through the concept of a prosumer
community shopping mall. The concept provides an integrated and scalable ICT environment,
offering a wide spectrum of energy services that supports prosumer communities in every phase of
their evolutionary growth path. As such the mall operates as a broker and clearing house between 2
prosumer communities and service providers, where the service offerings grow and fit with the
needs and demands of the communities along their growth path. The shopping mall operates for
many prosumer communities, thus providing economies of scale. Each prosumer community is
presented its own virtual mall, with specific content and a personalised look-and-feel.


The Ldb1/GATA-1/TAL1/LMO2 complex mediates long-range interaction between the β-globin locus control region (LCR) and gene in adult mouse erythroid cells, but whether this complex mediates chromatin interactions at other developmental stages or in human cells is unknown. We investigated NLI (Ldb1 homolog) complex occupancy and chromatin conformation of the β-globin locus in human erythroid cells. In addition to the LCR, we found robust NLI complex occupancy at a site downstream of the (A)γ-globin gene within sequences of BGL3, an intergenic RNA transcript. In cells primarily transcribing β-globin, BGL3 is not transcribed and BGL3 sequences are occupied by NLI core complex members, together with corepressor ETO2 and by γ-globin repressor BCL11A. The LCR and β-globin gene establish proximity in these cells. In contrast, when γ-globin transcription is reactivated in these cells, ETO2 participation in the NLI complex at BGL3 is diminished, as is BCL11A occupancy, and both BGL3 and γ-globin are transcribed. In these cells, proximity between the BGL3/γ-globin region and the LCR is established. We conclude that alternative NLI complexes mediate γ-globin transcription or silencing through long-range LCR interactions involving an intergenic site of noncoding RNA transcription and that ETO2 is critical to this process.


We show that the physical mechanism for the equilibration of closed quantum systems is dephasing, and identify the energy scales that determine the equilibration timescale of a given observable. For realistic physical systems (e.g those with local Hamiltonians), our arguments imply timescales that do not increase with the system size, in contrast to previously known upper bounds. In particular we show that, for such Hamiltonians, the matrix representation of local observables in the energy basis is banded, and that this property is crucial in order to derive equilibration times that are non-negligible in macroscopic systems. Finally, we give an intuitive interpretation to recent theorems on equilibration time-scales.


This report, prepared for the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, analyzes the 2010 Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity and how it may affect U.S. researchers working in the field of synthetic biology. The objective of the Protocol is to provide a transparent framework for the acquisition and sharing of genetic resources on fair and equitable terms that facilitate the conservation of biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge. The report finds significant uncertainty surrounding the temporal scope of the Agreement as well as the types of genetic material that will be covered at the implementing country level. Even though the United States is not a signatory to the Protocol, the report recommends that U.S. researchers should engage in discussions regarding the crafting of implementing legislation as they develop, verify the origin of the genetic material that they use, and ensure that such material was taken in compliance with the domestic law of a provider country.


Some bioethicists consider older age as a limiting factor for receiving special medical care. Older adults comprise the majority of home enteral nutrition patients (neoplams of the head, neck, and upper gastrointestinal tract neuromuscular swallowing disorders, dementia, etc) On the contrary, there are very few data on Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN) in the elderly. We report these of a 75 years old man affected from a severe short bowel syndrome due to mesenteric thrombosis. After a hospital stay of two months he was sent home on HPN. His current caregiver was her wife, a 72 year old woman suffering from incipient Parkinson's disease. HPN lasted for 11 years and was stopped because of clinical deterioration. During this time he presented 5 catheter-related infections (1.3 episodes/1,000 days). 5 catheters were used (average length 788 days). He was hospitalized four times because of HPN complications. Functional status was maintained along almost all the length of HPN. Conclusions: The rate of complications in this patient was similar to other groups of age receiving HPN. The technique was not burdensome for the family. Older age cannot be consider, by itself a limiting factor when receiving long term nutritional support. (Nutr Hosp. 2009;24:357-360)


Abstract Hong Kong construction safety has witnessed substantial improvement in the last three decades, however, accidents still occur frequently as more than 4,000 accidents are reported in the year 2017. Against this background, this research, firstly, aims to investigate the effectiveness of safety training for construction personnel in Hong Kong. A questionnaire is designed to explore the efficacy and weaknesses of mandatory basic safety training. The results indicate the inadequate knowledge of the concept of personal protective equipment as the main weakness of the workers. Secondly, to overcome the training weakness, an Internet-of-Things (IoT) based innovative safety model is designed to provide real-time monitoring of construction site personnel and environment. The proposed model not only identifies real-time personnel safety problems, i.e., near misses, to reduce the accident rates but also stores the digital data to improve future training and system itself. The proposed model in this research provides a cost-effective solution for optimal construction safety to the stakeholders. A cost comparison analysis suggests that the IoT system can provide 1) 78% cost-savings with respect to the traditional manual system and 2) 65% cost-savings with respect to the traditional sensor system.


ABSTRACT European Union (EU) implementation research has neglected situations when member states go beyond the minimum requirements prescribed in EU directives (gold-plating). The top–down focus on compliance insufficiently accounts for the fact that positive integration actually allows member states to transcend the EU's requirements to facilitate context-sensitive problem-solving. This study adopts a bottom–up implementation perspective. Moving beyond compliance, it introduces the concept of 'customization' to depict how transposition results in tailor-made solutions in a multilevel system. The study analyses the hitherto unexplored veterinary drug regulations of four member states. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and formal theory evaluation, this article assesses how policy and country-level factors interact. Results reveal the countries' different customization styles. The latter simultaneously reflect the interplay of domestic politics with institutions, and the 'fit' of EU regulatory modes with domestic, sectoral interventionist styles. Compliance approaches cannot fully explain these fine-grained patterns of Europeanization.


A man in his early seventies underwent low anterior resection and partial resection of the liver for the rectal cancer and liver metastasis. However, 4 months after the surgery, he was found to have a liver tumor at S5 and S7 by abdominal CT scan. Then, he underwent chemotherapy (mFOLFOX6), but the metastatic tumor was progressive. We selected FOLFIRI + cetuximab regimen for second-line therapy to resect the metastatic tumor. As the metastatic lesion was become smaller after 4-course of the regimen including cetuximab, we decided to perform a radical resection. We conducted a right lobectomy of the liver, and the tumor was completely resected.


Systemic administration of the noradrenergic neurotoxin DSP-4 results in a complete loss of staining of noradrenergic (NA) axons in the dorsal horn and intermediate zone of the rat spinal cord. NA axon staining in the ventral horn and in the intermediolateral cell column is only slightly decreased by the drug treatment. We have taken advantage of this differential effect of DSP-4 on NA axons to determine the location and number of cells that give rise to NA axons in the ventral horn and the intermediolateral cell column. Retrograde transport of the fluorescent tracer True blue was combined with dopamine-beta-hydroxylase immunohistochemistry 2 weeks after treatment of rats with 50 mg/kg of DSP-4. Compared with controls, the drug treatment resulted in a more than 90% decrease in the number of retrogradely labeled NA neurons in the locus coeruleus and an only 30– 50% reduction in the number of retrogradely labeled NA cells in the A5 and A7 groups. The results reveal different sites of termination in the spinal cord of NA axons originating in the LC and in NA cells of the A5 and A7 groups: the LC distributes fibers mainly to the dorsal horn and the intermediate zone, while NA cells of the A5 and A7 groups project to motoneurons of the ventral horn and the intermediolateral cell column.


Abstract. Laboratory and field studies have revealed that iron has multiple roles in phytoplankton physiology, with particular importance for light-harvesting cellular machinery. However, although iron-limitation is explicitly included in numerous biogeochemical/ecosystem models, its implementation varies, and its effect on the efficiency of light harvesting is often ignored. Given the complexity of the ocean environment, it is difficult to predict the consequences of applying different iron limitation schemes. Here we explore the interaction of iron and nutrient cycles in an ocean general circulation model using a new, streamlined model of ocean biogeochemistry. Building on previously published parameterizations of photoadaptation and export production, the Biogeochemistry with Light Iron Nutrients and Gasses (BLING) model is constructed with only four explicit tracers but including macronutrient and micronutrient limitation, light limitation, and an implicit treatment of community structure. The structural simplicity of this computationally-inexpensive model allows us to clearly isolate the global effect that iron availability has on maximum light-saturated photosynthesis rates vs. the effect iron has on photosynthetic efficiency. We find that the effect on light-saturated photosynthesis rates is dominant, negating the importance of photosynthetic efficiency in most regions, especially the cold waters of the Southern Ocean. The primary exceptions to this occur in iron-rich regions of the Northern Hemisphere, where high light-saturated photosynthesis rates allow photosynthetic efficiency to play a more important role. In other words, the ability to efficiently harvest photons has little effect in regions where light-saturated growth rates are low. Additionally, we speculate that the phytoplankton cells dominating iron-limited regions tend to have relatively high photosynthetic efficiency, due to reduced packaging effects. If this speculation is correct, it would imply that natural communities of iron-stressed phytoplankton may tend to harvest photons more efficiently than would be inferred from iron-limitation experiments with other phytoplankton. We suggest that iron limitation of photosynthetic efficiency has a relatively small impact on global biogeochemistry, though it is expected to impact the seasonal cycle of plankton as well as the vertical structure of primary production.


Microbial volatilomics is a rapidly growing field of study and has shown great potential for applications in food, farming, and clinical sectors in the future. Due to the varying experimental methods and growth conditions employed in microbial volatilomic studies as well as strain-dependent volatilomic differences, there is limited knowledge regarding the stability of microbial volatilomes. Consequently, cross-study comparisons and validation of results and data can be challenging. In this study, we investigated the stability of the volatilomes of multiple strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli across three frequently used nutrient-rich growth media. Volatilomic stability was assessed based on media-, time- and strain-dependent variation across the examined bacterial volatilomes. Strain-level specificity of the observed volatilomes of E. coli and P. aeruginosa strains was further investigated by comparing the emission of selected compounds at varying stages of cell growth. Headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) sampling coupled with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze the volatilome of each strain. The whole volatilomes of the examined strains demonstrate a high degree of stability across the three examined growth media. At the compound-level, media dependent differences were observed particularly when comparing the volatilomes obtained in glucose-containing brain heart infusion (BHI) and tryptone soy broth (TSB) growth media with the volatilomes obtained in glucose-free Lysogeny broth (LB) media. These glucose-dependent volatilomic differences were primarily seen in the emission of primary metabolites such as alcohols, ketones, and acids. Strain-level differences in the emission of specific compounds in E. coli and P. aeruginosa samples were also observed across the media. These strain-level volatilomic differences were also observed across varying phases of growth of each strain, therefore confirming that these strains had varying core and accessory volatilomes. Our results demonstrate that, at the species-level, the examined bacteria have a core volatilome that exhibits a high-degree of stability across frequently-used growth media. Media-dependent differences in microbial volatilomes offer valuable insights into identifying the cellular origin of individual metabolites. The observed differences in the core and accessory volatilomes of the examined strains illustrate the complexity of microbial volatilomics as a study while also highlighting the need for more strain-level investigations to ultimately elucidate the whole volatilomic capabilities of microbial species in the future.


Familial glucocorticoid deficiency is a condition that occurs when the adrenal glands, which are hormone-producing glands located on top of each kidney, do not produce certain hormones called glucocorticoids. These hormones, which include cortisol and corticosterone, aid in immune system function, play a role in maintaining normal blood sugar levels, help trigger nerve cell signaling in the brain, and serve many other purposes in the body.


The aim of this report is to design a management by objectives tool for self directed team based on Key Performance Indicators. While the process of implementing Key Performance Indicators in organisations is complex, this makes the task of designing the tool very interesting. The competition between companies in the same market today makes it necessary for companies to use performance measurement to survive. The car manufacturer within the motor industry has high expectations on their suppliers. The demands regarding quality, delivery accuracy and delivery time becomes higher and higher. DriveSol Dalstorps have decided to design a management by objectives tool to as on step on the way to live up to these demands. This thesis has been performed in different phases. First we did a study of the existing research regarding performance measurement. Next a study of the companies existing work with performance measurement was conducted. Finally the design of the management of objectives tool was worked out from the analysis of the companies Key Performance Indicators and the performance measurement system. While it's the information from the performance measurement that shows the company its present status, the importance of a working performance measurement system is obvious. The performance measurement system must provide the company with the information that is needed to decide which measures to use. The measures need to reflect on the demands from different interested parties. The management of objectives tool is design to help the self directed team to plan and improve the production. Also it's supposed to help the team to evaluate implemented improvements. The self directed teams consist of employees from different departments within the company, such a qualityresponible a coordinator and a maintenance technician. Their task is to plan and improve a small part of the value chain. The management of objectives tool is based on the companies chosen Key Performance Indicators parameters.


In the Central Metasedimentary belt of the Grenville orogen, we recognize two contrasting packages of rocks within what traditionally has been interpreted as a continuous, intact stratigraphic sequence metamorphosed under upper amphibolite–facies to granulite-facies conditions. The two packages are separated by a thrust fault, the hanging wall of which was transported northwestward relative to rocks of the footwall. Upper greenschist– to lower amphibolite–grade marbles make up the footwall, whereas the allochthon contains granulites, metamorphosed prior to deposition of an unconformably overlying quartzite and intrusion of a compositionally diverse suite of 1179–1162 Ma plutons. Emplacement of the pluton-saturated allochthon occurred at ∼1161 Ma and metamorphosed platformal carbonates into the marbles of the footwall. We interpret this thrust as part of a fundamental suture within the Grenville orogen.


This dissertation addresses the widespread practice of calling the patient a consumer in contemporary discourses about health and medicine in the United States. Despite its common usage, little is known of the historical origins of this construct, how it entered popular discourse, and the symbolic and social significance of conceptualizing the patient as a consumer to current health care debates. Through historical research that spans the years 1930 to 2006, this study traces the patient-consumer metaphor to the patients' rights movement of the 1960s. Ideas about patient empowerment and rights emerged only after that decade's social and cultural transformations reduced the public's trust in traditionally authoritative and paternalistic institutions such as medicine. Calling the patient a consumer was a rhetorical tactic first popularized by the 1960s social movements involved in expanding patients' rights, including the consumer movement led by Ralph Nader. This periodization is supported by findings from a historical textual analysis of mainstream magazine articles on health and medicine from 1930 to 1969 that indicate the patient as an empowered health care consumer was not part of normative expectations of patienthood before the 1960s. Textual analysis of self-help literature, magazine and newspaper articles since the 1970s show how the patient- consumer metaphor's connotations of empowerment and personal autonomy in health decisions were co-opted and reduced to simple messages about consumer sovereignty by the 1980s as the US health care sector became increasingly corporatized under successive neoliberalist administrations. This dissertation's findings contributes to a more nuanced, historically based understanding of the ramifications of patient consumerism to better enable and support critiques of the American health care system


Productivity gaps for 321 groundnut farmers from Uganda and Kenya were analysed using data from the 2009 growing seasons. Farmers who planted improved varieties enjoyed output advantages of 143% in Uganda and 58.6% in Kenya over those who planted only local varieties. Farmers had a mean technical efficiency of 54.6% in Uganda and 54.4% in Kenya. No significant differences were found in the mean technical efficiencies of research and non-research farmers, and between maleand female-managed plots. Productivity therefore could be enhanced if high-efficiency households invest more in improved varieties and if low-efficiency households make better use of their existing technology. Continued development of improved varieties will further shift the production frontier outward. The apparent spill-over effect of the technical support received by research and nonresearch farmers suggests that farmer education has a multiplier effect. An improvement in extension service delivery could help to enhance the managerial skills of both farmer categories.


Purpose: The effects of delayed laser photocoagulation (LP) for ROP patients who received intravitreal anti–vascular endothelial growth factor injections (IVAs) on peripheral vascularization and disease recurrence in ROP patients. Methods: A total of 26 consecutive infant eyes of 14 patients who received IVA treatments were retrospectively investigated. The patients were divided into two groups depending on the initial treatment as follows: IVA group and prompt LP group. Recurrence of ROP, growth of the retinal vessels, and associated complications were evaluated. Results: There were 16 eyes in the IVA group and 10 eyes in the LP group. In the IVA group, delayed LP was performed in six eyes due to recurrences of ROP. In 16 eyes of the IVA group, the retinal vessels grew upto Zone III in eyes received IVA only. Among the IVA groups, Delayed LP was needed in six eyes due to ROP recurrence following IVA. Delayed LP was performed average 7~8 weeks after IVA, which could give the immature neurovascular tissues time to continue vascular development upto Zone II without further ROP recurrence. However, the prompt LP group did not show vessel development beyond the laser scar. Conclusions: Delayed LP following IVA might provide a chance for retinal vessel development in the immature retina to continue without unexpected ROP recurrences.


Children typically experience more mild symptoms of COVID-19 when compared to adults. There is a strong body of evidence that children are also less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection with the ancestral viral isolate. However, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) has been associated with an increased number of pediatric infections. Whether this is the result of widespread adult vaccination or fundamental changes in the biology of SARS-CoV-2 remains to be determined. Here, we use primary nasal epithelial cells from children and adults, differentiated at an air-liquid interface to show that the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 replicates to significantly lower titers in the nasal epithelial cells of children compared to those of adults. This was associated with a heightened antiviral response to SARS-CoV-2 in the nasal epithelial cells of children. Importantly, the Delta variant also replicated to significantly lower titres in the nasal epithelial cells of children. This trend was markedly less pronounced in the case of Omicron. It is also striking to note that, at least in terms of viral RNA, Omicron replicated better in pediatric NECs compared to both Delta and the ancestral virus. Taken together, these data show that the nasal epithelium of children supports lower infection and replication of ancestral SARS-CoV-2, although this may be changing as the virus evolves.


In the present work, the biodegradation behaviors were compared and calculated for a commercial polycaprolactone and a synthesized polycaprolactone (PCL) in different enzyme solutions. The enzymes were esterase, lipolase, and savinase which are in the hydrolase class; the enzyme solutions were prepared one by one as an enzyme cocktail solution. Degradation experiments were carried out at 37°C and a pH 7.4. Two quantitative methods were used to follow the biodegradation. All samples were characterized by gel permeation chromatography and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy. The weight and bond structures were recorded during the period of biodegradation. The degradation rates constant (k) values of all the experiments were evaluated from the changes in the number average of the molecular weight. The results showed that the lipolase enzyme solutions could erode polymer films, but that the esterase enzyme solution could only decrease molecular weights of polymers and enzyme solutions which include savinase which had lower erosion times than the other enzyme cocktails. Degradation rates for the decreasing of molecular weight and changing of polymer chains was very different between commercial and synthesized polymer films. Molecular weight change rates of synthesized PCL samples were higher than the


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Abstract. In the construction industry, there is growing attention of using effective external strengthening techniques such as bonding of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) composites onto the external deficient faces of the structural members due to their ease of installation, low invasiveness, high corrosion resistance, and high strength to weight ratio. As a result, the center of consideration of the majority of previously published studies was either only on the impact of fibers on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete elements or using CFRP composite as external strengthening for flexural or shear. The intent was to arrive at the vital CFRP strengthening technique that provides an effective increase in the flexural and shear strength while maintaining ductile failure mode. Therefore, this paper investigated the behavior of simply supported RC beams strengthened using CFRP and subjected to combined bending and torsion using Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (NLFEA). Twenty-six models have been constructed and divided into six groups to scrutinize the effect of clear span to depth ratio; CFRP length; CFRP strip spacing; and CFRP depth. The results showed that the increase in the clear span to depth ratio as well as length of CFRP leads to a notable increase in the ductility and decreases the ultimate load. The models with zero spacing CFRP strips (Fully) showed a higher considerable effect than the models with strips wrapping. Furthermore, this enhancement was the highest for group six which contains the models with the highest CFRP depth.


Filaroides hirthi was identified in large numbers in the lungs of a British bred beagle dog that had received 10 monthly intra-articular injections of a corticosteroid. The dog was terminally hyperpnoeic and eosinophil and reticulocyte counts were raised. At autopsy, the lungs failed to collapse and minute black and red foci were found throughout the lung parenchyma. These foci were identified histologically as parasites and focal haemorrhage. Migrating larvae were found in the liver and mesenteric lymph nodes. F hirthi has not previously been definitively identified in British dogs and the principal features of its identification and control are discussed.


. In the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) environment, things are interconnected but not interlinked. Interlinking relevant things offers great opportunities to discover implicit relationships and enable potential interactions among things. To achieve this goal, implicit correlations between things need to be discovered. However, little work has been done on this important direction and the lack of correlation discovery has in-evitably limited the power of interlinking things in IoT. With the rapidly growing number of things that are connected to the Internet, there are increasing needs for correlations formation and discovery so as to support interlinking relevant things together effectively. In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) architecture to extract correlations between smart things. Our MAS system is able to identify correlations on demand due to the autonomous behaviors of object agents. Specifically, we introduce a novel open-sourced framework, namely CEIoT, to extract correlations in the context of IoT. Based on the attributes of things our IoT dataset, we identify three types of correlations in our system and propose a new approach to extract and represent the correlations between things. We implement our architecture using Java Agent Development Framework (JADE) and conduct experimental studies on both synthetic and real-world datasets. The results demonstrate that our approach can extract the correlations at a much higher speed than the naive pairwise computation method.


Impressive in size, emotional and visual impact, the buildings of Hamburg-based architects Bothe Richter Teherani are also remarkable for their attention to finishing detail, functionality and financial accountability, and have won international recognition. BRT s style is provocative and controversial; it took the city of Cologne 10 years to come to terms with their glass crane structures, predestined to become the heart of the Rhine and Ruhr valleys, and BRT s project to build Europe s highest building in the waters of Hamburg harbour is the subject of heated discussion. BRT s labyrinthine yet systematic concepts to maximize space in office buildings, the futuristic connotations of space shuttles and zeppelins, and their treatment of urban and public spaces are documented in this volume. The accompanying essays and text contributions investigate the aims of the architects, somewhere between pragmatism and vision, between fine detail and the greater complexity of urban life.


The Escherichia coli structural gene for glutathione synthetase, gshB, was cloned into pBR322. Plasmids containing gshB were able to complement the glutathione requirement of a trxA gshB double mutant, and cells containing the plasmids were found to have elevated levels of glutathione synthetase. A mutant gshB allele was constructed by inserting the kan gene from pUC4K into a unique HpaI site located within gshB. The resulting plasmid-encoded allele was used to replace a genomic gshB+ by homologous recombination. The resulting strain had no detectable glutathione synthetase activity. The gshB allele containing the kan insertion was used to map gshB on the E. coli chromosome by P1 transduction. The results indicated that gshB is located at 63.4 min, between metK and speC. The allele was further localized to a region of 3,100 to 3,120 kilobase pairs on the physical map (restriction map) of E. coli by DNA-DNA hybridization to a series of lambda bacteriophages (Y. Kohara, K. Akiyama, and K. Isono, Cell 50:495-508, 1987).


Cities in Motion: Interior, Coast, and Diaspora in Transnational China, edited by Sherman Cochrane and David Strand. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 2007. 313 pp. US$25.00 (paperback). Cities in Motion is a loose collection of essays exploring Chinese cities "not as stand alone entities but as the sites of enterprise and action that extend beyond city walls, city limits, and regional and national boundaries" (p. 2). Ostensibly, then, the volume examines early-twentieth-century China from the perspective of translocal and transnational urban networks and hierarchies, with a focus on the movements and flows of people and things along these networks and hierarchies. This topic puts the volume's editors, and several of its contributors, in direct conversation with the work of G. William Skinner and with the legacy of Skinner's work in China studies. Like Skinner before them, the editors and contributors to Cities in Motion are interested in how urban centers are linked to each other in networks and hierarchies not primarily defined by political-administrative relationships. Unlike Skinner, however, these authors find much local variation, contingency and ambiguity in analyzing the nature of urban networks and the flows that link them together. Cities in Motion is thus positioned to weigh in on the surprising persistence of what we might refer to as the "Skinnerian paradigm" in China studies. Indeed, several chapters take Skinner's approach to task for being, as Brett Sheehan puts it in his chapter on Republican-era banking networks, "too simplistic and too rigid" (p. 83). Sheehan adds: "Local details and particularities are as important as meta-theories in understanding urban systems" (p. 83). Similarly, Elizabeth Sinn's chapter on Hong Kong's role in the repatriation of corpses between diaspora communities abroad and home places in China points up the role of Hong Kong as a significant outlier in Skinner's framework. Her chapter notes the important role played by transnational networks in China's urban system and how these networks defined "a very different spatiality from that examined by Skinner" (p. 251). Robert Weiler and C. Julia Huang's chapter on the transnational Compassion Relief movement offers a fascinating account of how "alternative religious spaces" influence urban networks. Playing off Skinner's use of central places in his models, Weiler and Huang ask what happens to our understanding of networks and hierarchies when central places are defined by charismatic, rather than economic or political, power. They find that "charisma creates its own kinds of centrality" which complicate the straightforward assumptions of Skinner's approach (p. 294). Despite these important interventions, Cities in Motion is only loosely organized around the theme of interrogating Skinner's legacy. The editors have collected a broad array of empirical studies of movements within China's urban networks, but only those mentioned above address Skinner's models directly. Caroline Reeves examines the infusions of modernity into traditional burial practices in the treatment of corpses during the 1911 Revolution; Kristin Stapleton explores the impact of war on Republican urban administration; Allison Rottman looks at Communist recruitment in wartime Shanghai; Vimalin Rujivacharakul discusses the transnational contexts in which China's "heroic" urban architects emerged; Karl Gerth writes about the fusion of consumerism and nationalism in Shanghai's fashion industry; Klaus Muhlhahn looks at the role of prisons in establishing modern norms of urban administration in China; and Madeline Hsu explores the transnational norms of homeosociality among the bachelor communities of Chinese men in California. …


A four-dimensional time-dependent tomographic algorithm, named Multi Instrument Data Analysis System (MIDAS), is used to image the equatorial and low-latitude ionosphere over the central-eastern sides of the Brazilian territory. From differential phase data obtained by a chain of ground-based GPS receiver the total electron content (TEC) is estimated and then, together with a modeled ionosphere from International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model, the electron density distribution is reconstructed and the parameters of the F2-peak layer are accessed from the images. This paper presents the first study of ionospheric tomography using real dual-frequency data from the Brazilian Network for Continuous GPS Monitoring (RBMC). Ionospheric F2-peak electron density (NmF2) accessed from the images are compared to concurrent measurements from three ionosondes installed across Brazil. One year of data during the solar maximum period from March/2001 to February/2002 is used to analyze the seasonal and hourly variation of the F2-layer peak density. The accuracy with which MIDAS images the electron density during geomagnetic quiet periods is investigated through its correlation and deviation with the ionosonde and IRI model data, respectively. The main aspects of the reconstruction results at the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) region over Brazil are highlighted and discussed.


Iliofemoral bypass is available to patients with unilateral iliac occlusive disease. Experience with iliofemoral bypass in terms of graft patency and patient outcome is reviewed. From January 1981 to February 1991, iliofemoral grafts were placed in 19 patients. Of these, 16 had medical records available for review; all were men and the mean age was 65 (range 46–72) years. Risk factors associated with peripheral vascular disease included tobacco use (16 patients), hypertension (ten), coronary artery disease (seven) and diabetes mellitus (four). Six patients had undergone previous peripheral vascular procedures. Angiography revealed an ipsilateral iliac artery suitable for bypass. Indications for operation included claudication (five patients), rest pain (six) and non-healing ulcer or gangrene (five). Ten bypasses were placed on the left and six on the right. The mean(s.d.) ankle: brachial pressure Index before operation was 0.39(0.24): 0.55(0.19) in patients with claudication and 0.29(0.22) in those treated for threat of limb loss. After surgery patients with claudication demonstrated improvement of this index to a mean(s.d.) of 0.83(0.24); in those with threat of limb loss it improved to 0.60(0.16). One wound infection resolved with antibiotic therapy alone. Two patients had early (< 30 days) graft failure leading to amputation and subsequent perioperative death. Three other grafts failed, one each at 8, 9 and 13 months. All five grafts failed in patients with preoperative threat of limb loss. The cumulative patency rate was 72% at 1 year and 64% at 2–5 years. It is concluded that: iliofemoral bypass is an alternative procedure in patients with unilateral iliac occlusive disease: graft failures occurred early and resulted in low patency rates: the perioperative mortality rate was high, which perhaps reflects the medical condition of patients before surgery: and iliofemoral bypass should be reserved for patients with unilateral iliac occlusive disease that cannot be treated by transluminal angioplasty and who are not candidates for aortofemoral bypass because of pre-existing medical illness.


Although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV) does not explicitly list craving as a diagnostic criterion for pathological gambling, theories of disordered gambling and research on relapse precipitants suggest that cravings--among other factors--provoke and maintain episodes of gambling. Assessment of craving to gamble is complicated by questions regarding (a) the emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological components of such craving; (b) the degree to which craving is viewed as an acute and fluctuating experience or as a relatively stable preoccupation with or inclination to gamble; (c) the threshold separating mild desire from pathological craving to gamble; and (d) the degree to which disordered gamblers are aware of, and able to report on, their experience of craving. Our literature search revealed various self-report methods that could be used to assess craving to gamble, including single-item rating scales, multi-item questionnaires, and application of the think-aloud procedure. In addition, psychophysiological reactivity (e.g., heart rate, brain activation) to gambling-related stimuli and reaction time (RT) tasks (e.g., gambling Stroop, Lexical Salience Task) may serve as proxy measures of subjective craving to gamble. Although researchers have assessed elements of reliability and validity of many measures, most require additional evaluation to examine their predictive and construct validity and their utility across different modes of gambling. The field would also benefit from further research to develop and evaluate additional self-report and proxy measures.


System dynamics models help decision makers to organize knowledge through assisting system design; the goal is to cope with complex systems. The criminal justice apparatus is an example of a complex system; it can be conceived as a purposeful arrangement of heterogeneous and loosely interrelated actors whose missions are to enforce the law and to prosecute and rehabilitate offenders. This article explores the problem of the growing congestion of criminal cases in a recently implemented reform introduced by the Colombian government; in particular the focus is the criminal process as stipulated by the new accusatory system formally implemented in 2005. A simulation model of this new criminal process system was developed for the Corporation for Excellence in Justice (Corporación Excelencia en la Justicia). The paper depicts the main aspects of the model. It also offers selected analyses focused on the way that criminal cases are accumulated and evacuated through the main stages of the new accusatory system. The model shows that this system is largely driven by accumulations which provide a pervasive inertia. But what is more important is that such distinctive characteristic seems to be unnoticed for decision making processes. The paper underlines the importance of understanding the significant dynamics associated with accumulations and how this learning can be promoted through simulation.


Effectively using full syntactic parsing information in Neural Networks (NNs) for solving relational tasks, e.g., question similarity, is still an open problem. In this paper, we propose to inject structural representations in NNs by (i) learning a model with Tree Kernels (TKs) on relatively few pairs of questions (few thousands) as gold standard (GS) training data is typically scarce, (ii) predicting labels on a very large corpus of question pairs, and (iii) pre-training NNs on such large corpus. The results on Quora and SemEval question similarity datasets show that NNs using our approach can learn more accurate models, especially after fine tuning on GS.


Chocolate samples (22 in total, including 11 samples of milk chocolate) were bought from retail store in Prague and tested for their CBEs contents in relation to the declaration of CBE addition on the product labels. The modified method of Padley and Timms was employed for determining selected triglycerides (C50, C52 and C54). The presence of CBEs in chocolate was evaluated using the following relationship: %C50 < 44.095 - (0.737 x %C54). The content of CBE in chocolate was determined using the method of Young, modified by the replacement of the original graphical procedure with the numerical processing of the results. 19 samples i.e. 90% of the total, satisfied the requirements of Directive 2000/36/EC. In view that no official methods for CBE detection and quantification in chocolate have been published up to now and older methods were used in this work, the results published here should be considered as indicative and satisfying the requirements for screening only.


Introduction: Benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer are common pathologies of the prostate which could lead to morbidity and quality of life problems in urological patients. The study aimed to determine and compare the demographic, clinical, and pathologic characteristics of patients histologically diagnosed with these pathologies in our center. Methods: This was a prospective study carried out in 105 consecutive patients with the histological diagnosis of benign prostatic hyperplasia or prostate cancer over a period of 1 year. Information on demographic details, clinical presentation, prostate volume, prostate-specific antigen level, and histopathologic data was obtained. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences with P < 0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: Benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer were diagnosed in 71.4% and 28.6% of the patients, respectively. Patients with prostate cancer had a significantly higher prostate-specific antigen (P = 0.001) and prostate volume (P = 0.005) than those with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Difficulty in urination was the most common presenting symptom in both pathologies (90% vs. 92%, P = 0.713), whereas the occurrence of erectile dysfunction was significantly higher in patients with prostate cancer (50% vs. 24%, P = 0.010). The mean Gleason's score in the patients was 7, and the majority of the prostate cancer patients (96.7%) had advanced disease. There was associated histologic prostatitis in 10.7% of patients with nodular hyperplasia. Conclusion: Benign prostatic hyperplasia is more commonly diagnosed than prostate cancer in our center. Except for erectile dysfunction, the burden of other complications is similar in these patients. There is the need for community advocacy to encourage early presentation in those with lower literacy level, especially patients with prostate cancer, in order to reduce the morbidities associated with the disease.


In reply to the polemics and comments on my bookLogic and ArgumentationThis article contains the reply to the polemics and comments on my book Logic and argumentation. Since the most controversial issue among the commentators was my "radical attack on formal logic", the first part of the text generally addresses this criticism. Firstly, I thoroughly explain what my doubts regarding the formal logic are. I am not questioning the great, even spectacular, successes of formal logic in the field of mathematical logic, nor its extraordinary contribution to the foundation of computer technology. I only find that for the traditional goal of logic — that of studying the principles of reasoning, inference and definition — formal methods have failed in confrontation with practice. I am developing this thesis in detail and I am trying to justify it, first of all by referring to the practice of reasoning in the field of mathematics. In the second part, I respond to specific criticisms and comments from individual authors. Many of the comments are correct, some are based on misunderstandings, while some, in my opinion, are wrong.


Thermocompression bonding of electroplated gold is a promising technique for achieving low temperature, wafer level hermetic bonding without the application of an electric field or high temperature. Silicon wafers were completely bonded at 320 at a pressure of 2.5. The interconnection between the packaged devices and external terminal did not need metal filling and was made by gold films deposited on the sidewall of the via-hole. In the hermeticity test, packaged wafers had the leak rate of 2.74 ± 0.61 × 10-11 Pa m3/s. In the result of application in packaging of FBAR filter, the insertion loss is increased from -0.75dB to -1.09dB at 1.9.


Gelcasting is a novel method of forming ceramics and has been increasingly employed in preparing complex-shaped, near-net-shape advanced materials. In this work, alumina, zirconia and alumina-zirconia bioceramics were shaped by gelcasting, using MAM-MBAM monomer system, with subsequent sintering and characterization. High purity tetragonal ZrO2 (3mol%Y2O3) and .Al2O3 powders were used as starting powders. Powder mixture containing 80 wt.% of alumina and 20 wt.% of tetragonal zirconia were obtained by milling/homogenization. In all cases, the suspension obtained had at least 55 vol.% solid loading. Ceramic bodies were demolded, dried and characterized by green relative density. The compacts were sintered in air at 1550 and 15750C, for 120 minutes, with controlled heating-rate to facilitate organic compounds removal. Sintered samples were characterized by relative density, and analyzed by X-Ray diffraction and scanning electronic microscopy. Hardness and fracture toughness were determined using Vicker's indentation method.