Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is a rare autosomal recessive congenital condition characterized by reduced or absent production of the pigment melanin by melanocytes. The affected individuals have increased susceptibility to sunburn and skin cancers. Osteoporosis is a disease entity characterized by the progressive loss of bone mineral density and the deterioration of bone micro-architecture, leading to an increased risk of developing low-trauma fractures. There are many causes of osteoporosis, ranging from primary to secondary causes. Short stature is defined as height less than two standard deviations below the age-specific and gender-specific mean (less than the 2.5th percentile). There have been rare case reports of individuals with OCA having associated osteoporosis or low bone mineral density and short stature. These cases have also been associated with severe skeletal, neurological, and psychomotor disabilities. This paper presents a case of a young man with OCA and short stature who sustained a low-trauma intertrochanteric fracture to his femur bone and was subsequently diagnosed to have clinically significant osteoporosis. This case report while attempting to review the literature also emphasizes the importance of further research into the prevalence of these clinical features accompanying certain types of OCA and whether they are part of a single syndrome or just coincidental findings.


The 19 channel Neuromagnetometer system in the Clinical Neurophysiology Unit at Aston University is a multi-channel system, unique in the United Kingdom. A bite bar head localisation and MRI co-registration strategy which enabled accurate and reproducible localisation of MEG data into cortical space was developed. This afforded the opportunity to study magnetic fields of the human cortex generated by stimulation of peripheral nerve, by stimulation of visceral sensory receptors and by those evoked through voluntary finger movement. Initially, a study of sensory-motor evoked data was performed in a healthy control population. The techniques developed were then applied to patients who were to undergo neurosurgical intervention for the treatment of epilepsy and I or space occupying lesions. This enabled both validation of the effective accuracy of source localisation using MEG as well as to determine the clinical value of MEG in presurgical assessment of functional localisation in human cortex. The studies in this thesis have demonstrated that MEG can repeatedly and reliably locate sources contained within a single gyrus and thus potentially differentiate between disparate gyral activation. This ability is critical in the clinical application of any functional imaging technique; which is yet to be fully validated by any other 'non-invasive' functional imaging methodology. The technique was also applied to the study of visceral sensory representation in the cortex which yielded important data about the multiple cortical representation of visceral sensory function.


Within the general field of consumer behavior, a subset of research has emerged in recent years to examine consumer behavior relative to the unique products and services offered in the sport industry. Wells's (1993) discovery-oriented approach is utilized to critique prior sport consumer behavior research and discuss possible directions for scholars in the field. This critique illustrates that research and writing could benefit by a)exploring multiple aspects of the consumer decision-making process, b) greater attention to methodological issues, c) utilization of neighboring concepts, data, and problem solving strategies, d) development of holistic lines of research, and e) conducting research that generates questions, not just words to publish and investigating for the sake of investigating. We hope this broad critique, along with the other articles in the special issue, contribute to this growing subdiscipline and provide some frameworks for our ongoing effort to discover and understand.


A data base system has been developed to analyze root causes of failures and unplanned outages in combined-cycle power plants and related equipments. Raw data in the form of plant work orders and outage reports are provided by thirteen utilities. Data encompasses both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance activities involving all plant equipments of mostly combined cycle installations. Primary objectives are to evaluate combined-cycle plant maintenance records to determine root causes of equipment failures, to analyze maintenance data to identify key areas for reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) improvement, and to develop an automated data processing system for feedback to project participants.ERAS (EPRI Reliability Assessment System) data were analyzed to determine failure rates and mean downtimes of critical equipment used in combined-cycle plants and integrated gasification combined-cycle plants of the future. A primary ERAS data requirement is to document plant equipment failures involving planned outages, unplanned outages, and noncurtailing maintenance. Maintenance data are mailed directly from the plant on a monthly or weekly basis. In order to maintain significant coordination and feedback, documentation is also mailed by ARINC Research to manufacturers and EPRI project personnel.ERAS is foremost a repository, based on dBASE II software, of raw data records which address combined-cycle plant equipment scheduled and unscheduled maintenance activity. By using dBASE II commands, data contained in "DAILY", "MONTHLY", "PROBLEMS", and "FIREHRS" data base files (DBFs) are analyzed in many ways. Data may be separated by manufacturer or utility. RAM statistics may be analyzed according to six data hierarchies, grouping data by common plant design, system, subsystem, or components. Special report forms can be developed depending on specific data processing needs.During 1982 a total of 1744 maintenance records for the thirteen participating plants were processed. Seventy percent of the events were noncurtailing, of which 612 events involved component failures. The data base included 968 failure events to over 200 different combined-cycle plant components each described by a three digit code. Component repairs accounted for over 50 percent of these failures. Detailed descriptions of these failures identifying causes and failed piece parts can be listed by the computer from the "PROBLEMS" DBF using "FRM's SYSCOMP" (failures grouped by components) or "SYSPLANT" (failures grouped by plant).It is concluded that work orders do provide insight into possible root cause and can assist engineering in followup failure investigations, although discussions with power plant personnel are often required for additional insight into root cause. The extent of successful root cause determination in the ERAS data base is difficult to quantify due to different root cause interpretations. However, project efforts have successfully identified the failed piece part in 86 percent of equipment failures. An analysis of plant reliability problems showed that failures of combustion turbine and heat recovery boiler panel controls and remote sensing equipment are the most frequent cause of combined-cycle plant unavailability. Each plant appears to have specific problem areas generic to these control system failures. Generic problems were observed in drum level set points, control valves, panel cards and timers, computers and data links, flame scanners, and thermo-couples. Many of the control related problems documented in ERAS records identify the failed part number of the control circuit affected. It is expected that these documented control system failures will begin to yield better insight into root cause as the number of records increase, and cause and effect relationships are established.Copyright © 1984 by ASME


OF THESIS THE LAW V. THE STRANGER LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION AND LEGAL SPACE IN LEXINGTON, KY This thesis examines the role of interpretation in legal encounter in Lexington, Kentucky. Through an analysis of legal and interpretation practices, this study seeks to ascertain how these practices may affect non-native or low-proficiency English speakers' (LLPs) experiences with both federal and local laws and legal spaces. This place-based study involves in-depth qualitative research. Using the methodological framework of feminist geo-jurisprudence, this research contributes to our understanding of 1) the limits of the publicity of legal space and, more specifically, the ways in which language barriers can prevent legal inclusion; 2) local strategies and tactics for dealing with the challenges to meaningful access before the law in terms of language as outlined by Title IV of the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act; 3) the broader implications of language access for immigrants and non-citizens at the intersection of legal discourse and society (discursive legal space). Furthermore, this research addresses the absence and presence of hospitality (Derrida, 2005) from this site of citizenship negotiation, and it addresses the ethics of hospitality behind the work that attempts to resist legal closure and to enforce laws that protect, rather than persecute, those facing language barriers.


A hyper-crosslinked β-cyclodextrin porous polymer (BnCD-HCPP) was designed and synthesized facilely by β-cyclodextrin benzylation and subsequent crosslinking via a Friedel–Crafts alkylation route. The BnCD-HCPP shows an extremely high BET surface area, large pore volume, and high thermal stability, making it a highly efficient adsorbent for removal of aromatic pollutants from water. The adsorption efficiency in terms of distribution coefficient, defined as the ratio of adsorption capacity to equilibrium adsorbate concentration, ranged from 103 to 106 mL g−1 within a concentration of 0–100 ppm, one order of magnitude higher than that of other β-cyclodextrin-based adsorbents reported previously. The molar percentage of adsorbate to β-cyclodextrin exceeded 300%, suggesting that the adsorption occurred not only in the cyclodextrin cavities via a 1 : 1 complexation, but also in the nanopores of the BnCD-HCPP created during the hyper-crosslinking. The BnCD-HCPP can be further functionalized by incorporation of gold nanoparticles for catalytic transformation of adsorbed phenolic compounds such as 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol.


The effects of aircraft noise on wildlife have received much attention from the environmental community, especially when associated with low altitude aircraft overflights. In the past, much of the research on this subject used surrogate information to describe noise events in field studies. For example, noise exposure was often measured at an observer location, far removed from the animal under study, or inferred from the presence of aircraft flyovers. This paper describes the development and application of an animal noise monitor (or ANM) that can be mounted on a collar and worn by a subject animal over extended periods of time. The approach allows for measurement of noise exposure of the animal whose behavior is being observed, without external interference other than initial capture. The device is capable of recognizing aircraft noise events, calculating a variety of acoustic descriptors associated with these events, and retaining the information in memory for up to 6 months until the ANM is recovered from the field. The ANM, in addition to time‐ and date‐stamping of each event, also contains a monitor that can measure and record the activity of an animal during and immediately after a noise intrusion. The ANM is capable of withstanding harsh environments and operates over a wide temperature range. This instrumentation has been used recently on a caribou noise effects study in Alaska.


The prevalence of cloud and storage-as-a-service has led to users storing and sharing data through such services. However, little is understood about one key element of data management in this new landscape, i.e., data deletion and more critically assured deletion. With regards to deletion, existing research has not explored the deletion needs of users, their preferences and the challenges they face. Nor is there any understanding of the challenges faced by cloud providers should they want to offer assured deletion. Users' deletion needs and their preferences are diverse and vary depending on the context. However, satisfying these needs may be limited to the properties of the infrastructure - what the infrastructure permits and does not. For instance, the cloud infrastructure has various features that may pose different challenges to meeting the needs of users and providing assured deletion. These features include virtualization, multi-tenancy, high availability and On-demand elasticity. The work presented in this thesis is the first to investigate these issues. Thus, it finds that users' motivation to delete are: privacy-, policy-, expertise- and storage-driven. They fail to delete because of the poorly designed interfaces, the way they perceive cloud deletion and lack of information about cloud deletion. Users want to have a choice in how their data is deleted, they want to be able to specify the type of deletion. Their deletion preferences are complex and may always change depending on the context of deletion, i.e., individually or socially. Regarding information about deletion, they want important information that may help them to delete or recover from failures to be easily accessible through the interface. They do not want essential information only to be restricted to privacy policies. Using these findings, this thesis provides a conceptual framework for the design of usable assured deletion in the cloud and then formulates user requirements for usable assured deletion. With regards to providers, by analysing the cloud infrastructure, this work provides a systematization of the challenges that providers face while attempting to assure deletion. It also identifies the cloud provider requirements for usable assured deletion. By considering both sets of requirements, i.e., user and provider requirements, this work provides user requirements and principles for usable assured deletion. Overall, the findings of this work formulate a solid grounding for the design and the development of cloud systems that assure deletion in a usable way. More importantly, it helps in the empowerment of users with regards to assured deletion.


Solitary rectal ulcer syndrome (SRUS) is a benign rectal disease that is rare in pediatric populations due to its underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis in children. It is often misdiagnosed as malignancy, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis due to its wide and varying clinical presentations. Both SRUS and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can present with rectal bleeding, constipation, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Furthermore, macroscopic ulcers and inflammation can be seen in both diseases, making it difficult to diagnose without a biopsy. We present two cases in the pediatric population whose diagnoses of SRUS were delayed because the symptoms and macroscopic findings initially supported the differential diagnosis of IBD. These cases emphasize the difficulty and importance of differentiating between IBD and SRUS, and should encourage practitioners to include this differential diagnosis earlier on to improve diagnostic accuracy and begin implementing effective treatment. This can eventually decrease overall treatment time, unnecessary surgeries and diagnostic testing, and increase the emotional reassurance of the benign nature of the disease. Int J Clin Pediatr. 2021;10(2-3):57-63 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/ijcp422


The work of Shakespeare has been popular to make film adaptations of from the birth of cinema. Macbeth, one of his most often played tragedies, is no exception. But how did Shakespeare portray Lady Macbeth in his play, and how do directors in the 21th century choose to portray her for a modern audience? I will try to find the answer to these questions by analyzing Shakespeare´s play as well as three modern adaptations. I will begin the thesis by looking at scholars´ view in questions regarding gender, free will, adaptations and genre before analyzing the play and the three movies. I will do this so in order to make comparisons between the play and the three adaptations. My conclusion is that Shakespeare wrote Lady Macbeth as a strong woman, an "unwomanly" woman of her time. The three adaptations also portray her as a strong woman, but in three different ways. I cannot draw any overall conclusions as this thesis is a subjective interpretation of text as well as picture, but further analysis of more adaptations of Macbeth can perhaps verify what has been stated in this thesis.


Identifying rumor sources in social networks plays a critical role in limiting the damage caused by them through the timely quarantine of the sources. However, the temporal variation in the topology of social networks and the ongoing dynamic processes challenge our traditional source identification techniques that are considered in static networks. In this paper, we borrow an idea from criminology and propose a novel method to overcome the challenges. First, we reduce the time-varying networks to a series of static networks by introducing a time-integrating window. Second, instead of inspecting every individual in traditional techniques, we adopt a reverse dissemination strategy to specify a set of suspects of the real rumor source. This process addresses the scalability issue of source identification problems, and therefore dramatically promotes the efficiency of rumor source identification. Third, to determine the real source from the suspects, we employ a novel microscopic rumor spreading model to calculate the maximum likelihood (ML) for each suspect. The one who can provide the largest ML estimate is considered as the real source. The evaluations are carried out on real social networks with time-varying topology. The experiment results show that our method can reduce $60 - 90$ percent of the source seeking area in various time-varying social networks. The results further indicate that our method can accurately identify the real source, or an individual who is very close to the real source. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed method is the first that can be used to identify rumor sources in time-varying social networks.


Isolates of Puccinia triticina were obtained from wheat leaf collections made by cooperators throughout the United States and from surveys of wheat fields and nurseries in the Great Plains, Ohio Valley, and Gulf Coast states in 1999. Pathogenic races were determined from virulence/avirulence phenotypes on 14 host lines that are near-isogenic for leaf rust resistance. We found 58 races among 1,180 isolates in 1999. As in previous surveys, regional race distribution patterns showed that the central United States is a single epidemiological unit distinct from the eastern United States. The distinctive racial composition of collections from the Southeast, Northeast, and Ohio Valley indicates that populations of P. triticina in those areas are not closely connected, suggesting epidemics originate from localized overwintering sources.


At work, burnout is one of the most pervasive impediments to mental health. Over the last decade, researchers have distilled six workplace conditions that prevent or curb burnout: feasible job demands, a sense of fit with the job or organisation, recurrent experiences of reward, a feeling of control, a perception of justice, and a connection with the community. Unfortunately, the emerging culture of modern capitalism is characterised by fluctuating demands, aversions towards specialisation, systemic disloyalty, unilateral resolutions, expedient decisions, and transactional relationships - trends that counteract the conditions that prevent burnout. Initiatives that are instituted to curb burnout, therefore, often contradict the imperatives of managers. To resolve this paradox, this article distills a series of initiatives that psychologists can apply to alleviate burnout without counteracting the prevailing culture of modern organisations. To illustrate, employees should be encouraged to seek challenging and stressful experiences, invoke their intuition when composed, and disclose their personal anxieties. This article then integrates these initiatives into a unified theory. According to this theory, practices that prevent burnout all increase the likelihood that individuals experience positive and negative feelings concurrently; these ambivalent emotions seem to enhance wellbeing and contain burnout.


Abstract The link between the renowned palaeoichthyologist Arthur Smith Woodward and the similarly lauded marine reptile collector Alfred Nicholson Leeds may seem an unlikely one, but they formed a close family friendship during their professional acquaintance. Amongst the many fish specimens described by Smith Woodward from Leeds' Oxford Clay collection, the large suspension feeder Leedsichthys problematicus was a challenge that he failed to resolve in print. Work is done to resolve the confused storage history of the material, in order to identify and reappraise the bones that comprised the type material, in the process revealing a key misidentification that undoubtedly coloured Smith Woodward's type description, and his initial understanding and interpretation of the animal.


It would be wrong to expect stability in any large and complex industry today. The Australian telecommunications industry is no exception and in the lead-up to 2017 there have been a number of government reviews and inquiries announced that are certain to add to the instability if the outcomes do not focus on the long-term interests of end users. Whilst stability may not be achievable in an industry that is dependent on rapidly changing technology, there are aspects of telecommunications competition policy that are broken and need to be fixed urgently. Now is not the time to take an axe to the telecommunications competition legislation, especially when the underlying causes of the instability are not being tackled. Mr Graham Shepherd, a leading member of the Telecommunications Association Board and the Journal Board for many years, has retired from the Telecommunications Association Board.


Sociologists have previously argued that our current knowledge and inquiries stem from our standing on the shoulders of giants. Exactly how this occurs, however, may be less clear. This paper identifies how the works of two of the most valued classical social theorists – Durkheim and Marx – have influenced theories of crime causation. In doing so, I reveal that classical social theory continues to be relevant in the advancement of criminological thought. Identifying this lineage is crucial in developing more informed research and policy on crime and social control, which is especially important given the widespread interest in crime and delinquency among students (and citizens more generally).


Microplastics pollution has been recognized as a serious environmental concern, with research efforts underway to determine primary causes. Experiments typically generate bright-field images of microplastic fibers that are filtered from water. Environmental decision making in process engineering critically relies on accurate quantification of mi-croplastic fibers in these images. To satisfy the required standards, images are often analyzed manually, resulting in a highly tedious process, with thousands of fiber instances per image. While the shape of individual fibers is relatively simple, it is difficult to separate them in highly crowded scenes with significant overlap. We propose a fiber instance detection pipeline, which decomposes the fiber detection and segmentation into manageable sub-problems. Well separated instances are identified with robust image processing techniques, such as adaptive thresholding, and morphological skeleton analysis, while tangled fibers are separated by an algorithm based on deep pixel embeddings. Moreover, we present a modified Intersection-over-Union metric as a more appropriate similarity metric for elongated shapes. Our approach improves significantly on out-of-sample data, in particular for difficult cases of intersecting fibers.


as the largest labour flow in human history, the recent rise in migration in china has opened up unprecedented opportunities for millions of chinese to rearrange their lives. at the same time, this process has also posed great challenges to chinese migrants, especially female migrants, who not only face a bias against 'outsiders' but also have a greater need for reproductive health-related services in their migratory destinations. based on data collected via multiple sources in shanghai, china's largest metropolis, this study profiles the changing characteristics of female migrants, presents data on self-reported symptoms of reproductive health-related problems and knowledge on reproductive health issues, compares maternal and child health measures between migrants and local residents, and examines factors related to reproductive health knowledge and migrants' access to health care in urban china. results of this study show a relatively low level of self-reported reproductive health problems among female migrants, coupled with a relatively high level of ignorance in knowledge related to std. both self-reported health status and knowledge of reproductive health are related to migrants' educational attainment and length of stay in the urban destination. this study also finds ample evidence that female migrants' access to urban health care is limited by a number of institutional barriers.


Background: Black women are diagnosed, disabled, and die from obesity and associated chronic diseases at higher rates than any other race or sex. Further exploration is warranted on how advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) can improve culturally relevant health education and counseling delivery. Objective: Explore individualized barriers and the healthcare provider's roles in providing care affecting obesity prevention among Black women. While simultaneously assessing the effectiveness of educating Black women using the Teach-back method to understand health habits and attitudes. Method: A mixed-method design was utilized in group sessions and surveys. Participants identifying with obesity and associated diseases were recruited from a predominantly Black church in Atlanta. After completing a demographic survey and pre-Readiness to Change (RCQ) questionnaire, they engaged in weekly, one-hour educational sessions via Zoom addressing the four common barriers identified in the literature. They ended with a 5-10 minute teach-back session. Participants completed a post-RCQ questionnaire after the 4-weeks. Results: Twenty women completed the intervention. Descriptive statistics and qualitative data from surveys, audio, and emails were used for analysis. Paired sample t-test revealed no statistical significance and showed no correlation between pre and post-test RCQ scores after tailored health education was provided using teach-back. However, correlational analysis between BMI, education, and income level was significant with a p-value of 0.05. Discussion: Black women depend on healthcare providers for counseling and solutions. Furthermore, they require different approaches in screening, health promotion, and interventions that consistently assess individual risks, tailored education, and the use of Teach-back. Results emphasized that Black women experience rates of obesity differently from other races despite income or education level that was predominantly cited to be secondary to stress. Stress was voiced as a considerable contributor to disordered eating, decreased engagement in physical activity, and lack of motivation.


Nowadays the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) has triggered a substantially significant issue among scheduling problems. The purpose of RCPSP is minimizing the duration of the projects due to both limited available resources and precedence constraints. Indeed, it attempts to consume the total resources by finding the best duration for each activity. This paper proposes a new multi-objective mathematical model for multi-mode RCPSP with interruption to minimize the completion time of the project, maximize the Net Present Value (NPV) of the project, and minimize the allocating workforce's costs to perform required skills of all activities. To solve the proposed model, an efficient method based on Me measure is used to cope with the uncertainties, and TH method is utilized to convert the multi-objective method into the single one. Furthermore, this paper presents a novel hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm based on Imperialist Competitive Algorithms (ICA) named Self-Adaptive Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (SAICA) to solve the mathematical model which has never been used to solve this type of problems before. Also, to evaluate the proposed method, its performance is investigated against some meta-heuristic algorithms: Differential Evolution (DE) and Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA). Then, a numerical example, two case studies and a real case study have been carried out to embody both validity and efficiency of the presented approach. The obtained results embody that the proposed SAICA is more effective and practical in comparison with DE, ICA, and BCO in decreasing the project duration and also, the considerable effect on solutions confirms the quality of the proposed method.


Current literature on higher education (HE) performance only considers the production of graduates and not graduate employment. The latter needs to be factored into the HE production model as it not only measures the true impact of HE institutions (HEIs), but also provides policy implications on how resources should be allocated. Furthermore, the current literature on HE does not incorporate student responses into outputs, which should be in order to evaluate the teaching quality of HEIs. This study contributes to the existing literature by employing a network data envelopment analysis model that truly reflects the production process of HEIs and incorporates qualitative and quantitative data drawn from the UK Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to capture the effects from teaching quality and the graduate employment outcomes. The study allows us to compare the actual TEF outcomes with the teaching efficiency scores and determine the sources of inefficiencies which lead to policy implications.


This Article argues that the threat posed by rogue Internet prescribing and dispensing does not justify the level, style, and mechanics of current regulation. Current and emerging regulation may chill the development of lawful, efficient, necessary, and patient-friendly services and recommends alternate approaches. Part I of the Article sets out the key distinguishing features of the aforementioned initiatives and suggests that simple confusion between different and emergent models seem to be misleading legislators and regulators and imperiling patient choice. Part II discusses current regulation of Internet prescribing and dispensing and addresses the areas that most concern regulators. In the process, it examines the regulation of Internet prescribing by state licensing boards and the controversy surrounding transnational prescription dispensing. Parts III and IV of the Article then look beyond the current forms of Internet prescribing and dispensing to identify the stakeholders and critically analyze the regulatory themes that populate the landscape. These themes, including those labeled as uneasy federalism, under-regulation, and over-regulation, help us better understand the ways our legal and regulatory systems create disincentives to the adoption of new technologies or business models. Part V of the Article describes the steps necessary to maintain rigorous control over healthcare quality while avoiding disincentives to the provision of the next generation of effective and efficient healthcare.


According to ancient Indian scriptures, all the creatures are made by five elements viz., the Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space, together known as Panchabhootas, and a disbalance among these results in disease. Cow-derived products have been described in the Vedas and other ancient religious literature. Modern research has proved them to be rich source of essential elements, minerals, vitamins and hormones. Panchgavya comprises of five substances from cow-cow's urine, milk, ghee, curd and dung. Panchgavya Therapy (Cowpathy) is an alternate prophylactic and therapeutic modality for sound livestock and poultry health along with human health. Use of Panchgavya is gaining popularity these days. Some of the potent applications of panchgavya elements, including antimicrobial, immune booster, antidiabetics, anticancer, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, anticonvulsant, aphrodisiac property, blood purifier, suitable medium to deliver medicines, have attracted both medical and veterinary professionals. Some Panchgavya products are now-a-days commercially available. Cow urine concoction is believed to have anticonvulsant and hypoglycaemic effects; and is also useful for treating liver disorders and fever; inflammations and anaemia. Cow milk is a healthy food and is effective in curing fever and pain; tumours; diabetes; kidney disorders and weaknesses. It is also used as a medium to administer medicine. Milk has also got fungicidal properties, when used with leaves of medicinal herbs which possess aphrodisiac property. Milk fat has anticancer properties. Curd (dahi) is a blood purifier useful in treating blood-related problems, piles and gastro-intestinal disorders. Cow ghee has immunostimulatory properties. Cow dung has the ability to kill germs of malaria and tuberculosis. It also has antifungal properties. The usefulness of these valuable products needs to be explored to their full potential particularly in veterinary science and animal health. This article highlights salient biomedical applications and other beneficial usages of panchgavya components for safeguarding health of both animals and humans.


The focus of my research for this paper is the conventions Michael Jackson engaged with to create his music. Specifically, this paper will be looking at the conventions at work in "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" and "Beat It." I'm curious how these songs are similar and different, why Jackson chose the conventions he engages with for these two songs, and what social values the songs express. I want to show how Jackson's choices and the way he engaged with the conventions expressed his social values and the social values that were growing in prominence in American society at the beginning of his post-Motown solo career in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I will look at his use of these conventions and how they express his ideal society, encompassing the plurality of American society, creating, in effect, a new community amongst his fans. Jackson, by drawing from myriad sources to create his original music, placed himself squarely within Postmodernism. Postmodernism in Popular Music Fredric Jameson (1991) claims it is the spatialization created by MTV (p. 300). I don't know if that's correct. I believe there has always been spatialiation in music; for example, in concerts, in opera, in musical theatre, in religious music, in musical performance in general, and even when we perform music casually among friends around a camp-fire or in karaoke. In African American music spatialization is the community that is created in a performance, especially in less formal performance scenarios. Think of a jazz club or blues club where the audience interacts with the performers. In such cases, both performer and audience are participants in the performance, and, therefore, participants in the production of meaning. Susan McClary (2000), describing a performance by gospel group, The Swan Silvertones, asserts: For the duration of the performance, we inhabit a world in which everyone participates, in which tradition balances with individual invention, in which self conjoins harmoniously with community, in which body, mind, and spirit collaborate, in which the possibility of a sustained present replaces tonality's tendency to strain for and against closure. (p. 28) I believe this quality is expressed in popular music as well; specifically, it can be see in Michael Jackson's music. He brings together disparate parts to create something fresh. By doing so, he brings together people of disparate backgrounds. (1) Michael Jackson certainly had a great influence on MTV videos. Before Thriller, videos were for promotion of an album or single, or were video tapings of live performances; Thriller turned videos into an entertainment medium like movies with the soundtrack provided by the song. However, the music became an accompaniment to the images, not unlike in opera and film. MTV provides a postmodern function in the way it reinforces or imposes narrative on the music. Although, the lyrics may suggest a narrative structure, the images in the video provide concrete images thereby interpreting the lyrics for the viewer; for example, the video for "Beat It" reinforces images of conflict and resolution even though the lyrics are about defeat and courage. In this case the images impose an interpretation on the song. I think a useful description of Postmodernism in music is McClary's (2000) description of how 18th-Century composers composed their music: the "process of grabbing established conventions and arranging them according to the needs of the moment" (p. 61). Although she wasn't referring to Postmodernism or popular music, this description is at the heart of Postmodernism. Certainly, "grabbing established conventions" has existed for many hundreds of years; however, in our time, music is defined by its "stylistic pluralism" (p. 32). Therefore, artists are now engaging increasingly with conventions from a variety of genres to express social values in a fresh way rather than only using the conventions that have become hackneyed from overuse in a single genre. …


In cone-beam computerized tomography (CT), projections acquired with the focal spot constrained on a planar orbit cannot provide a complete set of data to reconstruct the object function exactly. There are severe distortions in the reconstructed noncentral transverse planes when the cone angle is large. In this work, a new method is proposed which can obtain a complete set of data by acquiring cone-beam projections along a circle-plus-arc orbit. A reconstruction algorithm using this circle-plus-arc orbit is developed, based on the Radon transform and Grangeat's formula. This algorithm first transforms the cone-beam projection data of an object to the first derivative of the three-dimensional (3-D) Radon transform, using Grangeat's formula, and then reconstructs the object using the inverse Radon transform. In order to reduce interpolation errors, new rebinning equations have been derived accurately, which allows one-dimensional (1-D) interpolation to be used in the rebinning process instead of 3-D interpolation, A noise-free Defrise phantom and a Poisson noise-added Shepp-Logan phantom were simulated and reconstructed for algorithm validation. The results from the computer simulation indicate that the new cone-beam data-acquisition scheme can provide a complete set of projection data and the image reconstruction algorithm can achieve exact reconstruction. Potentially, the algorithm can be applied in practice for both a standard CT gantry-based volume tomographic imaging system and a C-arm-based cone-beam tomographic imaging system, with little mechanical modification required.


Based on the finite element software ETABS, the effect of outriggers on the seismic response of a 50-story steel frame-reinforced concrete core tube structure was analyzed in this paper. Periods of free-vibrations were obtained from mode analysis. Response spectrum on the seismic properties was discussed. Elastic time history method was used to get complete analysis of the structure adopting four seismic waves. Structural horizontal displacement, drift angle, internal force of components and the distribution of internal forces between inner tube and outer frame under earthquake were studied. The rational quantity and locations of outriggers were considered. Further research in elastic time history was presented considering the influence of quantity of outriggers when outriggers were all set in "reasonable locations". Some suggestions about steel frame-reinforced concrete core tube structures with outriggers in earthquake areas were given.


We present observations of temperature, salinity and phytoplankton from late winter of 1999 obtained along a meridional transect running from 52 to 72° N through the northern North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea. The field work was conducted with the intention to find evidence for a postulated relationship between convection and primary production in the open ocean in winter. In the investigated area, convection ventilates water masses in a deep mixed layer which may cover several hundreds of meters, depending on atmospheric forcing and stratification. Inspired by the results of a coupled phytoplankton convection model, we postulated that sinking phytoplankton from the seasonal thermocline in autumn is dispersed within the mixed layer by vertical orbital motions and turbulence induced by convection. Orbital motions allow intermittent visits of plankton to the euphotic layer from much deeper depths. Hence, convection distributes the chance of plankton receiving light over the entire mixed layer. This supports production and allows compensation of losses due to sinking. We hypothesised that a winter stock of living phytoplankton in the open ocean would always coincide with the deep mixed layer formed by convection, irrespective of its depth. Indeed, along the entire meridional transect, living phytoplankton was found within the layer, whereas only marginal amounts or virtually no phytoplankton existed beneath it. The layer extent varied between 300 and 800 m. In the northern North Atlantic, average concentrations of chloro- phyll a (as a measure of phytoplankton biomass) in the mixed layer were about 0.3 mg m -3 , and 0.6 mg m -3 in the Norwegian Sea. We concluded that this winter stock forms the inoculum for a spring production in the open ocean.


We present a dependency-driven parser that parses both dependency structures and constituent structures. Constituency representations are automatically transformed into dependency representations with complex arc labels, which makes it possible to recover the constituent structure with both constituent labels and grammatical functions. We report a labeled attachment score close to 90% for dependency versions of the TIGER and TuBa-D/Z treebanks. Moreover, the parser is able to recover both constituent labels and grammatical functions with an F-Score over 75% for TuBa-D/Z and over 65% for TIGER.


HSV-1 and HSV-2 are closely related viruses with major differences. Both viruses establish latency in neurons from which they reactivate to cause disease. ABSTRACT Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) establishes latent infection in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons after productive (lytic) infection in peripheral tissues. A neuron-specific microRNA, miR-138, favors HSV-1 latency by repressing viral ICP0 and host Oct-1 and Foxc1 genes, yet the role of miR-138 in HSV-2 infection was unknown. The ICP0 mRNAs of HSV-1, HSV-2, and chimpanzee herpesvirus each have one to two canonical miR-138 binding sites. The sites are 100% conserved in 308 HSV-1 and 300 HSV-2 published sequences of clinical isolates. In cotransfection assays, miR-138 repressed HSV-2 ICP0 expression through the seed region and surrounding interactions that are different from HSV-1. An HSV-2 mutant with disrupted miR-138 binding sites on ICP0 showed increased ICP0 expression in Neuro-2a cells. Photoactivatable ribonucleoside-enhanced cross-linking and immunoprecipitation confirmed miR-138 binding to HSV-2 ICP0 and identified UL19 and UL20 as additional targets whose expression was repressed by miR-138 during cotransfection. In Neuro-2a cells, transfected miR-138 and its antagomir decreased and increased HSV-2 replication, respectively, and a knockout experiment showed that miR-138's host targets OCT-1 and FOXC1 were important for HSV-2 replication. In primary mouse DRG neurons, both ICP0 and FOXC1 positively regulated HSV-2 replication, but both overexpressed and endogenous miR-138 suppressed HSV-2 replication primarily by repressing ICP0 expression. Thus, miR-138 can suppress HSV-2 neuronal replication through multiple viral and host pathways. These results reveal functional similarities and mechanistic differences in how miR-138 regulates HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection and indicate an evolutionary advantage of using miR-138 to repress lytic infection in neurons. IMPORTANCE HSV-1 and HSV-2 are closely related viruses with major differences. Both viruses establish latency in neurons from which they reactivate to cause disease. A key aspect of HSV latency is repression of productive infection in neurons. Based on previous work with HSV-1, we investigated the role of a neuron-specific microRNA, miR-138, in HSV-2 infection and established it as a repressor of HSV-2 productive infection in neuronal cells. This repression is mediated mainly by targeting viral ICP0 and host Foxc1 mRNAs, but other pathways also contribute. Despite functional conservation of the role of miR-138 between HSV-1 and HSV-2, many molecular mechanisms differ, including how miR-138 represses ICP0 expression and miR-138 targeting of HSV-2 but not HSV-1 UL19 and UL20. To our knowledge, this study provides the first example of host microRNA regulation of HSV-2 infection.


We propose a new class of variable selection techniques for regression in high dimensional linear models based on a forward selection version of the LASSO, adaptive LASSO or elastic net, respectively to be called as forward iterative regression and shrinkage technique (FIRST), adaptive FIRST and elastic FIRST. These methods seem to work effectively for extremely sparse high dimensional linear models. We exploit the fact that the LASSO, adaptive LASSO and elastic net have closed form solutions when the predictor is onedimensional. The explicit formula is then repeatedly used in an iterative fashion to build the model until convergence occurs. By carefully considering the relationship between estimators at successive stages, we develop fast algorithms to compute our estimators. The performance of our new estimators are compared with commonly used estimators in terms of predictive accuracy and errors in variable selection. AMS 2000 subject classifications: Primary 62J05, 62J05; secondary 62J07.


Abstract. The elastic and anelastic properties of ice are of interest in the study of the dynamics of sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy allows quantitative estimates of these properties and aids calibration of active and passive seismic data gathered in the field. The elastic properties and anelastic quality factor Q in laboratory-manufactured polycrystalline isotropic ice cores decrease (reversibly) with increasing temperature, but compressional-wave speed and attenuation prove most sensitive to temperature, indicative of pre-melting of the ice. This method of resonant ultrasound spectroscopy can be deployed in the field, for those situations where shipping samples is difficult (e.g. remote locations), or where the properties of ice change rapidly after extraction (e.g. in the case of sea ice).


Restoration ecology has made significant advances in the past few decades and stands to make significant contributions both to the practical repair of damaged ecosystems and the development of broader ecological ideas. I highlighted four main areas where progress in research can assist with this. First, we need to enhance the translation of recent advances in our understanding of ecosystem and landscape dynamics into the conceptual and practical frameworks for restoration. Second, we need to promote the development of an ability to correctly diagnose ecosystem damage, identify restoration thresholds, and develop corrective methodologies that aim to overcome such thresholds. This involves understanding which system characteristics are important in determining ecosystem recovery in a range of ecosystem types, and to what extent restoration measures need to overcome threshold and hysteresis effects. A third key requirement is to determine what realistic goals for restoration are based on the ecological realities of today and how these will change in the future, given ongoing changes in climate and land use. Finally, there is a need for a synthetic approach which draws together the ecological and social aspects of the issues surrounding restoration and the setting of restoration goals.


Chitosan nanogels present a very interesting combination of valuable characteristics for drug delivery; those derived from their nanometric size, such as, large surface area, rapid stimuli-response, and easy functionalization; and those emerged especially from their biocompatibility, biodegradability and mucoadhesive nature. Due to this, chitosan nanogels have reached a prominent position as nanocarriers and have originated accelerated research worldwide. Diverse methods to prepare chitosan nanogels have been reported, showing a dependence on final swelling, drug encapsulation capability and release properties with different synthesis variables, in such a way that they can be exploited to be modulated. The present review describes the properties of chitosan nanogels, along with the different methods of crosslinking and confining chitosan in nanosized particles, and the various fields of drug delivery where they have been applied. This work aims to emphasize the connection between the characteristics of chitosan and the synthetic variables with the final properties of chitosan nanogels in order to enhance controlled drug loading and a sustained release.


In the Lower Flint River Basin (LFRB), excessive groundwater withdrawals and possible water supply reservoirs threaten to exacerbate low ow conditions during summer droughts, possibly leading stream temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) levels detrimental to aquatic biota. To evaluate possible effects of human modi cations to stream habitat, summer time-series of stream temperature and DO were monitored over the last three years along these streams. Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) models for temperature and DO were developed and calibrated with these data. The dominant drivers of stream temperature and DO were identi ed by this model. Simulations were conducted with assumed managed ow conditions to illustrate potential effects of various stream ow regimes on stream temperature and DO time-series. The goal of this research is to provide an accurate simulation tool to guide management decisions.


Certain smart grid technologies can reduce the number of customers affected by prolonged outages, and thereby increase reliability through automated switching to restore service. Such technologies are useful, but reactive in nature, performing their function only after a fault occurs and an outage has been detected. They must presume that nonfaulted feeder sections and alternative feeders are healthy and capable of carrying increased power flow. Research at Texas A&M University has demonstrated that sophisticated, automated real-time analysis of feeder electrical waveforms can be used to predict failures and assess the health of distribution lines and line apparatus. Reliability can be substantially improved by detecting, locating, and repairing incipient failures before catastrophic failure, often before an outage occurs. Requirements for data and computation are substantially greater than for devices like digital relays and power-quality meters, but feasible with modern electronics. This paper provides selected examples of failures that have been predicted by intelligent distribution fault anticipation (DFA) algorithms. The data requirements and processing analysis to detect these failures are discussed. The problems related to full-scale deployment of the proposed system in a utility-wide application are presented. The authors use experience gained from their long-term research to propose concepts for overcoming these impediments.


This study examines how the value of information is measured and its role in precision farming. Two types of precision farming are discussed regarding information in use and ways of information collection. Analytical equations have been derived to link the estimation of the value of information to limited parameters available.


The design of CSNS MEBT has two objectives: (1) to match the beam both in the transversal direction and the longitudinal direction from RFQ into DTL; (2) to further chop the beam into the required time structure asked by RCS. It is very difficult and critical to control well the emittance growth and in the meantime to match and chop the beam. Firstly, the optical design is done and optimized, and the multi-particle simulations show that the maximum emittance growth is successfully controlled within 14%. Secondly, based on the different beam envelopes obtained by TRACE-3D and PARMELA, the least deflecting angle of the chopper is determined by TRACE-3D. At last, the field of steering magnet is determined through simulations.


Phosphorylation of DNA ligase I has been analyzed during Xenopus laevis early development. The enzyme, which is involved in DNA replication and DNA repair events, is accumulated during oogenesis to reach a maximum in the stage VI oocyte, and remains at a constant level during maturation. When maturation of the oocyte is induced (in vivo or in vitro), this leads to a post-translational modification of the protein. In stage VI oocytes, a DNA ligase I of apparent molecular mass 180 kDa is detected immunologically whereas a 190-kDa form is found in unfertilized eggs and persists until the tadpole stage. This modification is due to phosphorylation performed by a protein kinase that is turned on 3-4 h after induction of the maturation. Activation of the kinase requires protein synthesis, and appearance of phosphorylated DNA ligase coincides with activation of histone H1 kinase activity. Induction of DNA ligase I modification and maturation are induced in the absence of protein synthesis following injection of maturation promoting factor into oocytes. Immunoprecipitated oocyte DNA ligase I is phosphorylated and its molecular mass modified by purified cyclin B/p34cdc2 in vitro. DNA ligase I phosphorylation is not induced in oocyte extract where only mitogen-activated-protein kinase is induced. Phosphorylation of DNA ligase I induced by cdc2 kinase occurs at the time new DNA replication and recombination activities appear in eggs.


Zero-visibility cops and robber game is a variant of the classical model. The robber is invisible in the zero-visibility game. In this paper, we study the zero-visibility cops and robber game on the cube grid. We first study a partition problem of the cube grid. Then we prove the lower bound on the zero-visibility cop number of the cube grid by using the results in the partition. We also show the lower bound is a quadratic polynomial about n.


One of the most common problems with seismic data obtained on sea ice is the presence of flexural ice wave noise on the seismic raw data. Flexural wave noise occurs on seismic data acquired on ice in the so-called transition zone between the shoreline and deep sea. As the flexural waves are highly dispersive they are manifested as a broad fan of noise on the seismic data, often having an order of magnitude 40-60 dB higher than reflected signals. In addition, the frequency spectrum of flexural ice waves frequently overlaps with reflected signals, and due the low velocities of flexural waves, spatial aliasing commonly occurs. Thus, flexural waves may be difficult to remove using conventional seismic processing techniques. This study outlines how flexural waves can be modelled and discuss various processing techniques for removing energy related to the flexural waves while preserving the reflected signals as much as possible. Modelling and processing help us to understand how various parameters such as ice temperature and ice thickness affect the flexural wave pattern, which can be important when designing a proper processing work flow. For this study, three primary processing methods have been applied and compared on several datasets: conventional frequency-wave number (f − k) processing, slant-stack (τ − p) processing, and radial trace (RT) transform processing. Modelling reveals that a decrease in ice temperature and/or an increase in ice thickness will increase the phase velocity of the flexural waves whereas the same is true for group velocities at lower frequencies only. Testing of processing work flows indicate that when receivers are densely spaced to better exclude spatial aliasing problems, the best results are obtained with conventional f − k filtering. At larger receiver offsets, however, a combination of τ − p and RT filtering produces the best results on both synthetic and real data. Thus, not one single method will always produce the best result, and different processing approaches may be used depending on the data at hand.


OBJECTIVE
To study the oncogenic potential of mouse translation initiation factor 3 (TIF3) and elongation factor-1delta (TEF-1delta) in malignant transformed human bronchial epithelial cells induced by crystalline nickel sulfide (NiS).

METHODS
Abnormal expressions of human TIF3 and TEF-1delta genes in two kinds of NiS-transformed cells and NiS-tumorigenic cell lines were investigated and analyzed by the reverse transcript polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR), respectively.

RESULTS
RT-PCR analysis primarily showed that both human TIF3 and TEF-1delta mRNA expressions in two kinds of NiS-transformed cells and NiS-tumorigenic cell lines were increased as compared with controls. FQ-PCR assay showed that the levels of TIF3 expressions in the transformed cells and tumorigenic cells were 3 and 4 times higher respectively, and the elevated expressions of TEF-1delta cDNA copies were 2.7- to 3.5-fold in transformed cells and 4.1- to 5.2-fold in tumorigenic cells when compared with non-transformed cells, indicating that the over-expressions of human TIF3 and TEF-1delta genes were related to malignant degree of the cells induced by nickel.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings demonstrate that there are markedly abnormal expressions of TIF3 and TEF-1delta genes during malignant transformation of human bronchial epithelial cell lines induced by crystalline NiS. They seem to be the molecular mechanisms potentially responsible for human carcinogensis due to nickel.


While widely studied, the capacity of the human mind remains largely unexplored. As such, researchers are continually seeking ways to understand the brain, its function, and its impact on human behavior. Exploring Implicit Cognition: Learning, Memory, and Social Cognitive Processes explores research surrounding the ways in which an individual's unconscious is able to influence and impact that person's behavior without their awareness. Focusing on topics pertaining to social cognition and the unconscious process, this title is ideal for use by students, researchers, psychologists, and academicians interested in the latest insights into implicit cognition.


A theoretical study into the reactions of the N2O adducts of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) and a V((III)) complex was carried out using DFT calculations. Unlike most transition metal reactions with N2O that simply release N2 following O-atom transfer onto the metal centre, this NHC-based system traps the entire N2O molecule and then cleaves both the N-O and N-N bond in two consecutive reactions. The NHC presence increases the reactivity of N2O by altering the distribution of electron density away from the O-atom towards the two N-atoms. This electronic redistribution enables V-N binding interactions to form a reactive N,O-donor intermediate species. Our results show that bond breaking with concomitant ligand migration occurs via a concerted process for both the N-O and N-N cleavage reactions.


In this work, we address the emerging scheduling problem existed in the design of secure and energy-efficient real-time embedded systems. The objective is to minimize the energy consumption subject to security and schedulability constraints. Due to the complexity of the problem, we propose a dynamic programming based approximation approach to find the near-optimal solutions with respect to predefined security constraint. The proposed technique has polynomial time complexity which is about half of traditional approximation approaches. The efficiency of our algorithm is validated by extensive experiments.


enclosures emerged as a topic of scholarly interest in the 1990s, international studies have proliferated. While some may argue that securitised enclosures are a global phenomenon, case studies of particular regions reveal enclosures take different forms in different nations as housing producers respond to local values, beliefs, and practices. In Malaysia, this study identified two types of enclosures being produced in sub/urban residential areas. In new development projects private developers are building gated communities surrounded by walls containing attractive shared amenities. In older areas, residents' associations organise to create guarded neighbourhoods by erecting physical barriers across public roads, hiring security guards and impose makeshift boundaries to limit outsiders' access. Therefore, through a political-economy approach based on neoliberalism, this study aimed to investigate the proliferation of guarded neighbourhoods in the Selangor state, Malaysia. In particular, this study examined the factors producing them, the role of governance and multiple key actors and the social spatial implications of this kind of community. This study developed these insights from a qualitative research that included in-depth interviews with multiple key actors in the government and communities, reviews of documentation and statistics, and direct-observations assessing guarded neighbourhoods in Selangor state, Malaysia. In-depth interviews revealed that safety and security – that is, fear of crime/other has motivated sub/urban residents to live in guarded neighbourhood. As the middle class has grown, the desire for private and exclusive living and to enhance property values also drives the creation of guarded neighbourhoods. In the context role of the state, research findings revealed that the Malaysian government, corporations, and citizen group's work within a complex governance system to (re)produce guarded neighbourhoods and creating conditions that support enclosure and securitisation of space. A neoliberal government practices provide a regulatory context within which residents organise associations, levy fees, erect barricades, and hire guards to control formerly public streets and spaces. This study also revealed that guarded neighbourhood simultaneously reflect social exclusion—of non-residents and foreigners—and cohesive social action of the politically powerful to produce neighbourhood identity and community coherence. Citizen action to create guarded neighbourhoods reveals emerging class boundaries and reinforces social segregation and urban fragmentation in urban Malaysia. In sum, this study showed that neoliberal market principles fuse with ethnic politics, cultural predilections, and economic imperatives to generate a socially and spatially fragmented urban landscape where security concerns dominate and where citizens culturally, physically, and symbolically segregate themselves from others. As the power of urban practitioners working with the Malaysian government proved limited, this study also recommended some improvements on the existing roles and rules in governing and reproducing guarded neighbourhoods in Malaysia.


"Modern Times" brings together an extraordinary collection of Sartrean gems, many of which have never been translated into English before. From writings on food and sex to a mini portrait of his great friend and rival, Albert Camus, the volume contains an amazing sweep of thematically organised writing. Amidst the grander set pieces on communism and the art of biography, are shorter and more revealing pieces on maternal love and masturbation.


Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have achieved great success in portable electronics, but their applications in electric vehicles (EVs) are still very challenging owing to the lack of high-performance electrode materials with high specific capacities, safety, rate capability and cycling stability. Recently, intercalating Ti2Nb2xO4+5x anode materials have received intensive attention owing to their high specific capacities (388–402 mA h g−1), high safety, prolonged cycling stability, easy state-of-charge evaluation and significant pseudocapacitive behavior. Their limited rate capabilities can be significantly improved by various modifications, including crystal structure modification, formation of a composite conductive phase, particle size reduction, and combined methods. These modified Ti2Nb2xO4+5x materials can be promising and practical anode materials for LIBs in EVs. Here, the research history, crystal structures, characteristics, working mechanisms and various modifications of Ti2Nb2xO4+5x are comprehensively reviewed. The relations between the material composition, material fabrication, material structure, material properties and LIB performance are emphasized. An insight into future directions in this research community is also provided.


Concerns about cross‐allergenicity between sulfonamide antibiotics and nonantibiotic, sulfonamide‐containing drugs persist and can complicate patients' drug therapy unnecessarily. No interaction between the human immune system and the sulfonamide functional group has been demonstrated. The immunologic determinant of type I, immediate hypersensitivity responses to sulfonamide antibiotics is the N1 heterocyclic ring. Nonantibiotic sulfonamides do not contain this structural feature. Non‐type I hypersensitivity responses to sulfonamide antibiotics are largely attributable to reactive metabolites that may cause either direct cytotoxicity or immunologic response. Formation of these metabolites is a stereospecific process that occurs at the N4 amino nitrogen of the sulfonamide antibiotics, a structure also not found on any nonantibiotic sulfonamide drugs. The stereospecificity of these reactions implies that cross‐reactivity with nonantibiotic sulfonamide‐containing drugs is highly unlikely; this assertion is supported by recent literature. However, T‐cell recognition of unmetabolized, nonhaptenated parent sulfonamide antibiotic appears to occur in a small subset of hypersensitive patients. Several of the severe cutaneous reactions associated with sulfonamide antibiotics are mediated by T cells. It is not known whether T‐cell recognition of antibiotic is related to the sulfonamide functional group. Until the mechanism of this recognition is elucidated, cross‐reactivity with nonantibiotic sulfonamides appears to remain at least theoretically possible.


(196/250) 39 Staphylococcus aureus is a notorious human bacterial pathogen with considerable 40 capacity to develop antibiotic resistance. We have observed that human infections 41 caused by highly-drug resistant S. aureus are more prolonged, complicated and difficult 42 to eradicate. Here, we describe a novel metabolic adaptation strategy used by clinical 43 S. aureus strains that leads to resistance to the last-line antibiotic, daptomycin, and 44 simultaneously impacts host innate immunity. This response was characterized by a 45 change in anionic membrane phospholipid composition induced by point mutations in 46 the phospholipid biosynthesis gene, cls2 , encoding cardiolipin synthase. Single cls2 47 point mutations were sufficient for daptomycin resistance, antibiotic treatment failure 48 and persistent infection. These phenotypes were mediated by enhanced cardiolipin 49 biosynthesis, leading to increased bacterial membrane cardiolipin and reduced 50 phosphatidylglycerol. The changes in membrane phospholipid profile led to 51 modifications in membrane structure that impaired daptomycin penetration and 52 membrane disruption. The cls2 point mutations also allowed S. aureus to evade 53 neutrophil chemotaxis, mediated by the reduction in bacterial membrane 54 phosphatidylglycerol, a previously undescribed bacterial-driven chemoattractant. 55 Together, these data illustrate a novel metabolic strategy used by S. aureus to 56 circumvent antibiotic and immune attack, and provide crucial insights into membrane- 57 based therapeutic targeting of this troublesome pathogen. 58


Abstract The unique chemical and physical properties of metals mean that they are extensively utilized by industry in a huge variety of applications, including electronics, materials, industrial catalysts and chemicals. The increased consumer demand from a growing population worldwide with rising aspirations for a better life has resulted in concerns over the security of supply and accessibility of these valuable elements. As such, there is a growing need to develop alternative methods to recover them from waste repositories, current or historic, both for hazard avoidance and potentially, as a new source of metals for industry. Phytoextraction (the use of plants for the recovery of metals from waste repositories) is a green and novel technique for metal recovery, which, if done with the goal of resource supply rather than hazard mitigation, is termed "phytomining". The ability for plants to form metallic nanoparticles as a consequence of phytoextraction could make the recovered metal ideally suited for utilization in green chemical technologies, such as catalysis. This review focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to elemental sustainability and highlights important aspects of metal lifecycle analysis, metal waste sources (including mine tailings), phytoextraction and potential green chemical applications that may result from the integration of these approaches.


Flavor singlet combinations of quark operators ${\cal{O}}_S^{\Gamma} = \bar{u}\Gamma u + \bar{d}\Gamma d + \bar{s}\Gamma s$ contribute to many important physical observables in the low energy region of QCD. Experimentally one finds the values of some of these observables to be in sharp contrast to the naive (perturbative) theoretical expectations. This indicates that non perturbative vacuum properties might play a major role in the comprehension of these phenomena. An example of such a vacuum contribution is the axial anomaly, which appears in the divergence of the flavor singlet axial current and which is connected to the topological properties of QCD. From a field theoretical point of view flavor singlet matrix elements differ from non singlet amplitudes in the occurrence of so called disconnected insertions. These are correlations of hadron propagators with quark-antiquark loops or correlations between quark-antiquark loops, which are mediated by vacuum fluctuations. According to their respective flavor composition, the disconnected insertions cancel largely in non singlet processes, but add in flavor singlet amplitudes. The lattice approach provides an ideal tool to study flavor singlet phenomena. Being a first principle method it should be capable to uncover non perturbative vacuum contributions and to yield, on the long run, reliable results for the size of such contributions in QCD. The present article reviews the status of flavor singlet matrix element calculations in lattice QCD with respect to methods, results and reliability. Special emphasis is paid to the discussion of state of the art calculations of the pion nucleon sigma term $\sigma_{\pi N}$, the flavor singlet axial coupling of the proton $G_A^1$, and the $\eta'$ mass.


Flow networks have attracted a lot of research in computer science. Indeed, many questions in numerous application areas can be reduced to questions about flow networks. Many of these applications would benefit from a framework in which one can formally reason about properties of flow networks that go beyond their maximal flow. We introduce Flow Logics: modal logics that treat flow functions as explicit first-order objects and enable the specification of rich properties of flow networks. The syntax of our logic BFL* (Branching Flow Logic) is similar to the syntax of the temporal logic CTL*, except that atomic assertions may be flow propositions, like $> \gamma$ or $\geq \gamma$, for $\gamma \in \mathbb{N}$, which refer to the value of the flow in a vertex, and that first-order quantification can be applied both to paths and to flow functions. We present an exhaustive study of the theoretical and practical aspects of BFL*, as well as extensions and fragments of it. Our extensions include flow quantifications that range over non-integral flow functions or over maximal flow functions, path quantification that ranges over paths along which non-zero flow travels, past operators, and first-order quantification of flow values. We focus on the model-checking problem and show that it is PSPACE-complete, as it is for CTL*. Handling of flow quantifiers, however, increases the complexity in terms of the network to ${\rm P}^{\rm NP}$, even for the LFL and BFL fragments, which are the flow-counterparts of LTL and CTL. We are still able to point to a useful fragment of BFL* for which the model-checking problem can be solved in polynomial time. Finally, we introduce and study the query-checking problem for BFL*, where under-specified BFL* formulas are used for network exploration.


Abstract
Entrepreneurship education is observed as expanding in both academic and informal settings. Drawing on the Business Schools paradigm, relevant courses deliver contiguous knowledge and competencies applicable to new business creation based on cognitive and experiential instruction. Germane studies explore the entrepreneurial intention of trainees as a consequence of the pursued instruction. This chapter follows a more student-centric perspective which supposes the underlying cognitive schemes of trainees and their evolution as primordial structures that are affected through learning. This focus turns the approach into pure constructivism where the Piagetian concepts of assimilation and accommodation underpin learning. Based on a coherent constructivist online environment, that is the TeleCC platform in Greece, evidence for reflection, critical thinking and meta-learning incidents is investigated amongst the trainees' dialogues and comments. The appearance of these processes verifies the dynamics of constructivist learning and Piaget's equilibration process. There has been minimal attention in research so far into genuine constructivist signatures relevant to entrepreneurial learning; a gap that motivated the research of this chapter. The features of the learning environment and the facilitating role for the educator are crucial presuppositions for deep constructivist learning processes to occur. Else, instructional interventions favour the customary guidance and knowledge or experience transfer. It is maintained that the constructivist approach is an underdeveloped yet innovative perspective for educational research in entrepreneurship that needs good examples and contextualisation of relevant concepts and processes. Its contribution will be especially important and inclusive for the lifelong learning domain where adult learners participate in with repositories of personal life experiences and crystallised and resistant conceptualisations for the phenomena under consideration.


My research involves creating and evaluating adaptive game environments using player models created with data-driven techniques and algorithms. I hypothesize that I will be able to change parts of a game to elicit certain behaviors from players,and that these changes will also result in an increase of engagement and/or intrinsic motivation. Initial results in my testbed game, Scrabblesque, indicate that data-driven models and techniques can be used to influence player behavior and that these changes in play behavior manifest themselves as an increase in engagement and intrinsic motivation.


MAIN OBJECTIVES
to screen for impaired distance visual acuity in older adults living at home, both with and without diabetes mellitus to determine whether diabetes increases the likelihood of visual impairment and to identify associated factors.

DESIGN
case-control study.

SETTINGS
three districts of Wales: North Clwyd, Powys and South Glamorgan, with assessments in subjects' homes.

SUBJECTS
385 with diabetes mellitus and 385 age- and sex-matched controls.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
visual acuity measures, short form (SF)-36 quality of life scores

RESULTS
we observed impairment of visual acuity in 40% of those with diabetes mellitus and 31% of controls. Diabetes was associated with an increased risk of visual impairment [odds ratio 1.50 (95% confidence interval 1.09-2.05), P = 0.013]. The pinhole test identified uncorrected refractive error in 11% of the 63 patients with diabetes and 12% of the 49 controls who wore glasses, and in 51% of the 91 patients and 84% of the 69 controls who did not wear glasses (P < 0.001). Increasing age (P < 0.001) and female sex (P = 0.014) were significantly associated with visual impairment in both groups, whilst history of foot ulceration (P = 0.001), duration of diabetes (P = 0.018) and treatment with insulin (P < 0.001) were significantly associated with visual impairment in subjects with diabetes. We observed a significant association between impaired visual acuity and five domains of the SF-36 (physical and social functioning, mental health, vitality, and health perceptions; P < 0.01 in each case).

CONCLUSION
older adults living at home have a high prevalence of uncorrected visual impairment. Diabetes mellitus is associated with significantly increased risk of visual loss. This impairment is associated with detriments in health-related quality of life. We recommend earlier use of optometry services and assessment of visual acuity by clinicians.


The direct cost of higher education keep rising in the face of shrinking real budgetary allocation to education. In the absence of any documented  evidence, the study sought to determine the  cost of acquiring a degree from the Faculty of Management Sciences at Delta State University, Asaba Campus under the Weekend Degree Programme. Data for this study was collected  from a random sample of 400 final year students. Data was collected and analyzed using simple percentage frequencies due to the nature of the study. Analysis of the data show that the expenditure profile is higher among female students  while the  cost component include tuition, accommodation, feeding and transportation. The study recommends that management should consider building hostels for Weekend Degree students to reduce distractions and cost. The university is also advised to minimize upward review of fees since most students from the catchments area are from average socio-economic backgrounds.


: Purpose: The aim of the conducted research was to show what kind of solutions based on artificial intelligence are used by modern organizations to automate HRM activities and carry out the so-called digital employer branding. Approach/Methodology/Design: Scientific literature and other reports connected with employer branding and AI were analyzed. Choosing from the group of methods, the author of the article used analysis, synthesis, abstraction, analogy, and comparison. Findings: The research results show that solutions based on AI have found application in onboarding, talent management process or improvement of employee competences. Applicant Tracking Systems, Talent Acquisition Systems and Talent Management Systems as well as chatbots are changing the process of employer branding into digital employer branding. Practical Implications: The results are significant to all kinds of organizations among which there are also public organizations. Implementation of new technologies will not only change the image of the organizations but also will make the HRM activities more objective and easily managed especially while remote work. Originality/Value: The research provides theoretical assumptions and practical answers to encourage further research globally.


Research links parenting to youth psychopathology, yet scant research has considered the child, parent reports, and observational measures of parenting to elucidate the complex patterns of risk. This study investigates how the interaction of parents' own reports and observations of parenting relate to youth depressive symptoms. Parents whose self-reports were most discrepant from their observed parenting had children with higher depressive symptoms. Awareness or acknowledgement of one's own parenting may be one consideration for the impact of parenting on youth functioning, and contrasting observed parenting with family members' reports may make a valuable contribution to the assessment and treatment of youth.


Objective: Depression is common among adult survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA), but the intervening processes responsible for this outcome have not yet been fully delineated. The present study investigated the mediating role of perceived parental emotion socialization and alexithymia (difficulties identifying and describing feelings) in explaining the link between CSA and adult depressive symptoms in female veterans. Method: Cross-sectional data were collected from 110 female veterans who completed self-report questionnaires measuring demographics, sexual victimization history, perceived parental emotion socialization, and current symptoms of alexithymia and depression. Results: Linear regression analyses showed that CSA predicted greater depression, which was partly accounted for by alexithymia. Less positive socialization practices by both parents fully mediated the relationship between CSA and alexithymia. When these factors were examined together in a path model, greater CSA severity predicted perceptions of fewer positive socialization practices by mothers, which, in turn, was associated with greater alexithymia and depression. Conclusions: Perceptions of early positive emotion socialization and current alexithymia may contribute to experience of depression among sexually victimized female veterans. Interventions aimed at targeting emotion regulation skills and perceptions associated with other salient childhood experiences such as emotion socialization by parents could help reduce adult depression among CSA survivors. Furthermore, encouraging positive parenting practices for caregivers of abused children could allay subsequent affective symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)


ABSTRACT G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are critical players in tumor growth and progression. The redundant roles of GPCRs in tumor development confound effective treatment; therefore, targeting a single common signaling component downstream of these receptors may be efficacious. GPCRs transmit signals through heterotrimeric G proteins composed of Gα and Gβγ subunits. Hyperactive Gαs signaling can mediate tumor progression in some tissues; however, recent work in medulloblastoma and basal cell carcinoma revealed that Gαs can also function as a tumor suppressor in neoplasms derived from ectoderm cells including neural and epidermal stem/progenitor cells. In these stem-cell compartments, signaling through Gαs suppresses self-renewal by inhibiting the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) and Hippo pathways. The loss of GNAS, which encodes Gαs, leads to activation of these pathways, over-proliferation of progenitor cells, and tumor formation. Gαs activates the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway and inhibits activation of SHH effectors Smoothened-Gli. In addition, Gαs-cAMP-PKA activation negatively regulates the Hippo pathway by blocking the NF2-LATS1/2-Yap signaling. In this review, we will address the novel function of the signaling network regulated by Gαs in suppression of SHH-driven tumorigenesis and the therapeutic approaches that can be envisioned to harness this pathway to inhibit tumor growth and progression.


Background It is well recognised that most patients state a preference to die at home, yet the majority die in hospital. If the proportion of home deaths is to be increased it is important to understand the reasons why this is not being achieved currently. Aims We sought to: ▶ Identify any differences between patients known to hospice services dying in hospital or at home ▶ Identify gaps in service provision ▶ Identify 'predictors' of hospital admission. Method ▶ Comparison of 2 groups of 49 patients, one group dying in the local hospital and the other at home within the period October 2009 – April 2010 ▶ Patients were identified from the Hospice database ▶ Data collected included demographic characteristics, services involved, family support, and knowledge of of the patients' preferred place of care ▶ Questionnaires were completed by the Hospice Palliative Care Nurse Specialists ▶ Hospital notes were checked ▶ Supplementary information was obtained from GP practices, the Primary Care Trust and Hospice records. Results ▶ Most hospital admissions were precipitated by a sudden deterioration of an existing condition or an acute episode ▶ There were slight demographic differences between the two groups, with elderly females living alone being the most likely to die in hospital ▶ Hospice and community services seemed less actively involved with the patients who died in hospital. Conclusions ▶ The majority of patients dying in hospital seemed to have a more rapid terminal decline, with a potentially treatable cause, than those dying at home. ▶ No factors were identified that could have prevented these admissions but timely access to Hospice beds could have prevented a few patients dying in hospital.


Urban China has witnessed rapid urban (re)development since the 1980s, which is featured by the forced relocation of millions of residents and large-scale demolition of old neighbourhoods, such as the old inner city neighbourhoods, danwei communities or urban villages (He et al., 2010; Liu and Wu, 2006). Compared to urban redevelopment programmes in the USA and Western Europe, the scale and numbers of affected residents and neighbourhoods demolished in China is substantial. For instance, between 2008 and 2012, about 12.6 million households were involved in the national Shantytown Redevelopment Projects (SRPs) (MOHURD, 2013), which aim to improve the living conditions of low-income residents and to stimulate the depressed housing market. Their dwellings were demolished by local governments and they were forced to move to relocation neighbourhoods established by local governments, or to purchase dwellings elsewhere within the city, assisted by monetary compensation from local governments. There is still more to come. In 2013, the central state has triggered the second round of large-scale SRPs. It was estimated that approximately 10 million households will be affected by this second round (Li et al., 2017a; The State Council of PRC, 2013). Such extensive residential redevelopment projects have resulted in tremendous social, economic and physical changes in urban areas, parallel to the emergence of massive numbers of relocatees.

Compared with the sheer numbers of affected residents in China, the research on the experiences and perceptions of residents involved in forced relocation and urban redevelopment is still limited. Previous research in China often takes urban redevelopment and forced relocation as a single event and mostly targets the postrelocation situation (Day and Cervero, 2010; Fang, 2006; Gilroy, 2012; He and Liu, 2013; Hu et al., 2015). In addition, some studies and news reports have shown the conflicts and tensions between relocatees and local governments or developers from a macro-, meso- or political-economic perspective (He, 2012; Hin and Xin, 2011; Qian and He, 2012; Sichuan News, 2009; Weinstein and Ren, 2009), which gives an impression that the role of residents in redevelopment projects is always passive. On the one hand, this might reflect wider experiences, since residents in declining neighbourhoods often have limited resources and rights to influence the redevelopment process in order to maximise their own benefits (He, 2012; Shin, 2016). On the other hand, however, this impression can lead to the ignorance of the active role that relocatees may play before and during the process of urban redevelopment and forced relocation; an active role which may be revealed by their behaviours and perceptions regarding their original neighbourhoods, the neighbourhood redevelopment and forced relocation as well as their choices during this process (Ho, 2013; Shi and Zhu, 2013).

In particular, different residents with different perceptions and neighbourhood experiences can have different coping strategies, which means that a seemingly similar intervention (urban redevelopment and forced relocation) is likely to be experienced in various ways by different residents (Kleinhans, 2003; Kleinhans and Van der Laan Bouma-Doff 2008; Posthumus and Kleinhans, 2014). For instance, various forms of neighbourhood decline, such as crime, social disorder or physical environmental deterioration, often have a negative influence on residents' perceived quality of life, which can trigger some residents to move out as shown for the United States, United Kingdom and the Netherlands (Feijten and van Ham, 2009; Livingston et al., 2010; Vale,1997). Forced relocation might be an opportunity for improvement for those who want to move in the context of redevelopment, by using the relative advantages offered by relocation compensation schemes (Kleinhans and Van der Laan Bouma-Doff, 2008). However, other residents, especially those who are deprived (e.g. with low-incomes, unemployed or age-related diseases), might feel disrupted if they are highly dependent on their neighbourhoods in various ways (e.g. closeness to job opportunities, cheap rent, and social networks) (Day and Cervero, 2010; Fried, 1963). In addition, some residents may feel increasingly ambivalent facing forced relocation as they may have both positive and negative experiences in their neighbourhoods which might make it difficult to evaluate the negative and positive influences of urban redevelopment and forced relocation before they actually relocate. Similarly, in China, the effects of forced relocation on relocatees during and after urban redevelopment projects are diverse and not necessarily negative. While several scholars have blamed large-scale property-led restructuring projects in China for causing displacement of low-income residents (Gong, 2012; He, 2012; He and Wu, 2007; La Grange and Pretorius, 2016;), other studies have demonstrated real improvements in relocatees' (perceived) living conditions after relocation (Li and Song, 2009, Wu, 2004a, 2004b; Xia and Zhu, 2013).

Driven by the above concerns, this thesis provides a systematic overview and indepth research of the influence of urban redevelopment and forced relocation on affected residents, by focusing on their pre-relocation perceptions and behaviours and by investigating their neighbourhood experiences with regard to social, economic, physical and psychological aspects. The research takes the state-led urban redevelopment projects in Shenyang as a case study to provide a comprehensive understanding of residents' experiences in the Chinese context. Shenyang is considered as a pioneer of SRPs in China, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban- Rural Development of PRC (MOHURD) has promoted the 'Shenyang Mode' of urban redevelopment nationally due to its success on SRPs (Shenyang Daily, 2016). In particular, the thesis focuses on the complex and dynamic nature of homeowners' lived experiences in declining neighbourhoods that will be target areas of SRPs. Contrary to the majority of existing research, this thesis investigates the pre-demolition stage, i.e., the stage when residents have not yet moved out of their neighbourhoods, but have been informed that their neighbourhoods are going to be demolished due to SRPs.

Therefore, the main aim of the thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how forced relocation and urban redevelopment affect residents of declining neighbourhoods in Shenyang, in terms of their pre-relocation neighbourhood perceptions and behaviours. Section 1.2 provides a theoretical background with regard to residents' overall experiences with urban redevelopment and forced relocation in the Chinese context. In section 1.3, the research questions are presented. Section 1.4 describes the research area – Shenyang, a city in Northeast China. Section 1.5 discusses the data and methods used in the thesis. The last section presents the outline of this thesis.


Data quality from poor and socially deprived regions have given rise to many statistical challenges. One of them is the underreporting of vital events leading to biased estimates for the associated risks. To deal with underreported count data, models based on compound Poisson distributions have been commonly assumed. To be identifiable, such models usually require extra and strong information about the probability of reporting the event in all areas of interest, which is not always available. We introduce a novel approach for the compound Poisson model assuming that the areas are clustered according to their data quality. We leverage these clusters to create a hierarchical structure in which the reporting probabilities decrease as we move from the best group to the worst ones. We obtain constraints for model identifiability and prove that only prior information about the reporting probability in areas experiencing the best data quality is required. Several approaches to model the uncertainty about the reporting probabilities are presented, including reference priors. Different features regarding the proposed methodology are studied through simulation. We apply our model to map the early neonatal mortality risks in Minas Gerais, a Brazilian state that presents heterogeneous characteristics and a relevant socio-economical inequality.


Macroeconomic performance in the United Kingdom has been disappointing in recent years: for most of the post-crisis period, GDP growth has been unexpectedly weak, and inflation unexpectedly strong. That unexpected weakness in GDP reflects a combination of weaker growth in the United Kingdom's trading partners, tighter domestic credit conditions and slower dissipation of uncertainty. Unanticipated rises in energy and other imported costs can broadly account for the surprising strength in inflation since mid-2010. Weak effective supply is likely to have counteracted the impact of weak demand on inflation.


Ninety young children with otitis media, proven by tympanocentesis culture to be due to Hemophilus influenzae, were treated in a prospective double-blind study with one of three antimicrobial regimens: ampicillin, erythromycin ethylsuccinate, or erythromycin ethylsuccinate with concomitant trisulfapyrimidines. Results of efficacy evaluation indicated that the combination was as effective as ampicillin and statistically superior to erythromycin alone. Of the strains of H influenzae identified, 15/9 were typable with 12/9, type b. In vitro sensitivity tests indicated that the strains were sensitive to the antimicrobials studied in clinically attainable levels; however, comparison of individual efficacy ratings with sensitivity results indicated that some children in each treatment group failed to respond as predicted.


Exon trapping is an RNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to clone expressed sequences or exons directly from mammalian genomic DNA. The basic protocol in this unit describes the method for trapping internal exons from cosmid clones and the second basic protocol describes trapping of 3 terminal exons. An describes 3 terminal exon trapping, which avoids subcloning of target DNA by ligating it to the vector for direct transfection. A describes a rapid cloning procedure using uracil DNA glycosylase.


A particle image velocimetry (PIV) system has been proposed for real-time (frame-rate) measurement and is composed of an ultra-high-speed shutter camera and an optical correlator. The ultra-high-speed shutter camera employed in this system has several functions such as optical amplification, high-speed shuttering and multishuttering for forming a double-exposure pattern of a moving object, in order to observe dimmer and high-speed phenomena. The optical correlator used in this system is a joint transform correlator (JTC) using two PAL-SLM's, which are optically addressed spatial light modulators with phase-only modulating function. By utilizing the optical correlator, a real-time fringe analysis of the double-exposure pattern was achieved. It is demonstrated that the system can measure velocity of random-dot patterns on a side of rotating disk with frame-rate response and good linearity at the rate of 10 m/s. We have studied an imaging condition such as ratio between exposure time and repetition time of double-exposure for suitable measurement. Also evaluated is effect of ion-feedback noise caused by an image intensifier in the ultra-high-speed shutter camera. The performance of the system is shown and discussed from a viewpoint of practical measurements. >


Railway systems experience disruptions on a daily basis. We test the use of Dynamic Network Analysis as a methodological tool in order to investigate the communication patterns during the dynamic process of disruption management. The tool was applied to a simulated case of a catenary failure in the Dutch railway system. DNA provides a systematic overview of the communication patterns and tasks associated with the disruption management process. Key actors were identified and the overall structure of the network analyzed. The dynamic component to our network analysis revealed that information is being shared within disconnected parts of the network during the first few minutes, without those parts having a direct link to the source of the information. These findings show that employing only static analysis of networks obscures the real dynamics of information sharing during railway disruptions and potential coordination problems. DNA therefore can be an important method and tool to reveal issues that need to be resolved.