Axons are unique compartments of neurons that extend tremendous distances throughout the body. Neurodegenerative or traumatic damage to axons destroys neuronal function and thus necessitates axonal repair. Mammalian peripheral neurons can regrow their axons following injury, providing a robust system to study the molecular mechanisms of axon regeneration. Injury induces a large transcriptional program that drives regeneration. While many regeneration-associated genes are known, the mechanisms by which injury activates them are less well understood. Identification of new injury signals has been limited by in vivo approaches. To address this challenge, I developed and performed a loss-of-function pharmacological screen in cultured adult mouse sensory neurons for proteins required to activate this program. Well-characterized inhibitors were present as injury signaling was induced, but were removed before axon outgrowth to identify molecules that block induction of the program. The top hits were inhibitors to heat shock protein 90 (HSP90), a chaperone with no known role in axon injury. HSP90 inhibition blocks injury-induced activation of several regeneration-associated genes and proteins. These phenotypes mimic loss of the pro-regenerative MAP3K, dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK), a critical neuronal stress sensor that drives axon degeneration, axon regeneration, and cell death. HSP90 is an atypical chaperone that promotes the stability of signaling molecules. In neurons, HSP90 and DLK demonstrate the two hallmarks of a HSP90-client relationship: 1) HSP90 binds DLK and 2) HSP90 inhibition leads to rapid degradation of existing DLK protein. Thus, this dissertation demonstrates that HSP90 chaperones DLK and is required for DLK functions, including pro-regenerative axon injury signaling. Further, this work introduces a high-content, unbiased method to identify novel components of axon injury signaling.


Mechanics properties of lime-steel slag stabilized soil for pavement structures are investigated. Firstly, the chemical composition of the fine grain steel slag is analyzed by spectral analysis test. In view of the materials compositions, 5 kinds of mix proportion projects are defined. Compaction tests of all mix proportion projects are carried out in different water conditions to obtain the optimum moisture contents. Then the optimum mix proportion project is demarcated by the unconfined compressive strength test and the compression rebound modulus test. Finally, the pavement structures design for a highway of lime-steel slag stabilized soil road sub-base is made. As comparisons, the pavement structures of other types of lime industrial wastes stabilized soil road sub-base are computed. It is shown that lime- steel slag stabilized soil is suitable for flexible pavement or semi-rigid pavement because of its good strength and rigidity which can effectively reduce thickness of the lower pavement and basic deflection.


Hoop-petticoat daffodils are a morphologically congruent group comprised of two distinct lineages in molecular phylogenetic trees of Narcissus. It is possible that the morphological similarity is a product of both historic and current low-level gene flow between these lineages. For the first time, we report population sampling from across the entire range of distribution covering the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco. In total, 455 samples were collected from 59 populations. Plastid DNA sequences of matK and ndhF were generated alongside 11 microsatellite loci to permit comparison between plastid and nuclear lineage histories. The plastid DNA phylogenetic tree was highly congruent with previous molecular studies and supported the recognition of these two lineages of hoop-petticoat daffodils as separate sections. Assignment of samples to sections sometimes differed between plastid DNA and (nuclear) microsatellite data. In these cases, the taxa had previously been the focus of dissent in taxonomic placement based on morphology. These discrepancies could be explained by hybridization and introgression among the two lineages during the evolution of hoop-petticoat daffodils, and shows that placement of species in sections is dependent on the source of data used. This study underlines the complex evolutionary history of Narcissus and highlights the discrepancies between floral morphology and phylogeny, which provides a continuing challenge for the systematics of Narcissus.


A deep learning based approach is proposed to accurately recover shock signals measured from a damaged high-g accelerometer without modifying the hardware. We first conducted shock tests and collected a large dataset of shock signals with different levels of acceleration by using an efficient experimental apparatus. The training data is composed of a pair of signals simultaneously obtained from a faulty accelerometer and a high-end accelerometer (served as the ground truth). A customized autoencoder neural network is designed and trained on this dataset, aiming to map the faulty signals to their reference counterparts. Experimental results show that, with the help of deep learning, shock signals can be accurately recovered from the faulty measurements. Compared with conventional approaches that require diagnosing and replacing faulty parts, the proposed data-driven method demonstrates a highly promising solution that allows recovering corrupted signals without introducing extra work to upgrade the hardware at almost zero cost. The dataset and code of this work are made publicly available on GitHub at https://github.com/hope-yao/Sensor_Calibration.


Numerous high-voltage applications require symmetrical bi-directional power flow control and protection circuitry. While mechanical contactors and circuit breakers provide bi-directional fault protection, they have slow actuation and suffer severe degradation during repeated fault isolation. The normally-on (N-ON) SiC vertical-channel Junction-Field-Effect-Transistor (VJFET) is an efficient solution for bi-directional circuit-breaker applications due to its low conduction/switching losses, +500°C operational capability, ON-state match of the no-fault operating mode of the system, efficient gate-drive operation under unipolar biasing, and majority carrier device scalability. Efficient 600-V/10-A symmetrical bi-directional power flow was demonstrated using 0.1-cm2 1200-V rated N-ON VJFETs with a gate driver applying 0-V and -34 V gate biases during the ON and OFF states, respectively. A self-aligned trenched guard-ring structure provides reliable edge termination.


The management of knowledge (knowledge management) is very important in aninstitution or organization to acquire and share knowledge (knowledge sharing) in order todevelop the human resource potential and manage the company's assets or intellectualinstitutions, thus becoming close attention of Peternakan Budidaya Leopard Gecko 68 ReptilesFarm Surabaya. The purpose of this study was to keep knowledge possessed employees, andbuilt a knowledge sharing application based on android which can assist employees inknowledge sharing activity and it expected to increase the productivity of employees . Themethod of this research is descriptive quantitative method which supported by The MostAdmired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE), and a model of knowledge management systemknowledge management system architecture by Amrit Tiwana. The results of this study basedon questionnaires of the implementation application of knowledge sharing for employees basedon android that are on the 4.20 – 5.00, the average value of the entire statement at 4:21 is verywell accepted. n


There is a growing body of work on violence against women of black and minority ethnic (BME) origin who live in the UK. This study adds to this body of work by exploring the nature of sexual violence experienced by Nigerian women both in Nigeria and England. It draws upon in-depth narrative interviews conducted with 12 women of Nigerian origin who had experienced sexual violence. Women's accounts were analysed thematically. The women described experiencing different, sometimes multiple forms of sexual violence over the life course including, sexual abuse and female genital mutilation (FGM) in childhood, sexual assaults, rape, sex trafficking and sexual violence from an intimate partner. Drawing upon a feminist-intersectional theoretical framework this article illuminates how: (1) the intersection of age, gender, poverty, cultural socialisation and religious practice could provide the conditions for the perpetration of child sexual abuse, (2) patriarchal ideologies relating to gendered roles and expectations support men's notion of uncontested sexual access to women, (3) men's need to exercise power and control could contribute to women's experiences of rape, and (4) the intersection of FGM and gender continue to disempower women within heterosexual relationships.Key messagesEffective intervention in child sexual abuse cases in Nigerian families require a consideration of situational conditions resulting from the intersection of age, gender, poverty, cultural socialisation and religious practices that may lead to revictimisation.Violence against women (VAW) practitioners need to understand the unique ways gender, male power, gendered norms, cultural practices, and insecure immigration status interact to create contexts that directly shape women's experiences of sexual violence, and revictimisation in order to ensure holistic and meaningful support.


We have developed a problem-solving framework, called ConClass, that is capable of classifying continuous real-time problems dynamically and concurrently on a distributed system. ConClass provides an efficient development environment for describing and decomposing a classification problem and synthesizing solutions. In ConClass, decomposed concurrent subproblems specified by the application developer effectively correspond to the actual distributed hardware elements. This scheme is useful for designing and implementing efficient distributed processing, making it easier to anticipate and evaluate system behavior. The ConClass system provides an object replication feature that prevents any particular object from being overloaded. In order to deal with an indeterminate amount of problem data, ConClass dynamically creates object networks that justify hypothesized solutions, and thus achieves a dynamic load distribution. A number of efficient execution mechanisms that manage a variety of asynchronous aspects of distributed processing have been implemented without using schedulers or synchronization schemes that are liable to develop bottlenecks. We have confirmed the efficiency of parallel distributed processing and load balancing of ConClass with an experimental application. >


This thesis is a conversation analytic study of how people talk in clinical group supervision sessions. The study sought to describe and elucidate patterns of discourse by which group supervision members talk the institution of supervision 'into being' (Heritage, 1984:290). The data comprise a core of 21 audio recorded sessions. The recordings were made in a British University's Practice-Based Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Clinic. All recordings are of one supervision group comprising of an experienced supervisor and three counsellors. The counsellors also all worked as clinicians in the clinic's counselling agency. The recordings cover fortnightly supervision sessions over the course of one year. The thesis presents a detailed analysis of communications amongst the participants. In particular the thesis will show how they begin the business of supervision, with an 'business-opening' activity phase, which functions as an interim stage between small talk and getting down to business and orients the interactional activity to 'feelings talk'. It shows how participants co-ordinate the presentation of case studies in a sequentially managed way. The thesis will also show how the use of 'modelling talk enactments' by the supervisor is responded to as advice-giving and shows how the interactants negotiate and align to the enactment with reference to an inference regarding 'who knows what' and 'who knows most'. And finally, the thesis demonstrates how interactants organise laughter for negotiating the 'tricky' aspects of professional consideration, such as 'liminal' ethical aspects; appointing or accepting 'responsibility' for institutional problems and for negotiating where delicate matters between group members may be incipient. The study contributes to conversation analytic knowledge regarding CA literature on institutional interaction, particularly on therapeutic discourse and opens up directions for further CA research. The study also offers the findings to supervision research comprising a rare study into the 'real-life' interactions in group supervision.


COX-2 overexpression has been associated with parameters of tumor aggressiveness and unfavourable clinical outcome in solid tumors. We investigated by immunohistochemistry the expression of COX-2 in normal vulvar tissue (n1⁄4 18), NNED lichen sclerosus (LS, n1⁄4 6) and squamous cell hyperplasia (SCH, n1⁄4 7), vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN, n1⁄4 20) and invasive vulvar cancer (IVC, n1⁄4 36). Sections were incubated with rabbit polyclonal antiserum against human COX-2. The results were reported as mean þ/ standard error (SE). Kruskal-Wallis non parametric test was used to analyze the distribution of COX-2 staining values in IVC according to clinico-pathological parameters. In normal vulvar skin COX-2 is expressed in a few basal cells. On the other hand, we found strong COX-2 immunoreaction spread over the entire epithelium of high grade VIN with respect to low grade VIN, where only the basal layers show COX-2 immunostaining. NNED, such as SCH and LS, exhibited intense cytoplasmic COX-2 immunoreaction. In IVC, higher levels of tumor/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio were found in stage III-IV (mean þ/ SE1⁄4 3.5þ/ 0.8) than stage I-II disease (mean þ/ SE1⁄4 1.4þ/ 0.3) (p value1⁄4 0.040). In stage I, tumor/ stroma COX-2 IDV values were higher in T1b than T1a cases (mean þ/ SE1⁄4 1.6þ/ 0.3 vs mean þ/ SE1⁄4 0.6þ/ 0.1) (p1⁄4 0.033). Moreover, we observed higher tumor/stroma COX-2 IDV in cases with metastatic lymph node than cases ithout node involvement (mean þ/ SE1⁄4 3.5þ/ 0.8 vs mean þ/ SE1⁄4 1.3þ/ 0.4) (p1⁄4 0.037).This study suggests that COX-2 expression may contribute to vulvar tumorigenesis and progression. The correlation of tumor/stroma COX-2 IDV ratio with tumor extension and metastatic lymph node involvement implies that this biological marker could have a prognostic role in IVC.


Document Clustering is an important tool for many Information Retrieval (IR) tasks. The huge increase in amount of information present on Web poses new challenges in clustering regarding to underlying data model and nature of clustering algorithm. Document clustering techniques mostly rely on single term analysis of document data set. To achieve more accurate document clustering, more informative feature such as phrases are important in this scenario. Hence first part of the paper presents phrase-based model, Document Index Graph (DIG), which allows incremental phrase-based encoding of documents and efficient phrase matching. It emphasizes on effectiveness of phrase-based similarity measure over traditional single term based similarities. In the second part, a Document Index Graph based Clustering (DIGBC) algorithm is proposed to enhance the DIG model for incremental and soft clustering. This algorithm incrementally clusters documents based on proposed cluster-document similarity measure. It allows assignment of a document to more than one cluster. The DIGBC algorithm is more efficient as compared to existing clustering algorithms such as single pass, K-NN and Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC) algorithm.


Synopsis The Osteostraci are currently regarded as the sister taxon to jawed vertebrates and, as such, osteostracan phylogeny, notably their hypothetical ancestral morphotype, has far reaching ramifications for early vertebrate evolution. The polarity of the group and the monophyly and interrelationships of the proposed constituent clades have not been tested. Here a new phylogeny is proposed for the Thyestiida, the most controversial and informative of the five main orders of Osteostraci. A comprehensive global parsimony approach is applied for the first time. The monophyly of the group, including genera of suspected thyestiid affinities, is firmly demonstrated, as is the monophyly of some constituent groups such as the Siberian Tannuaspidinae. The phylogeny supports the proposals of Janvier (1985a‐c) and is inconsistent with previous 'Tremataspis‐basal' models of Osteostracan evolution. Application of the phylogeny to the stratigraphical record demonstrates an early evolution and origin for the Osteostraci and indicates a missing fossil record for the group in the Llandovery, strongly related to facies bias.


This paper summarizes the work completed under the CRADA between NREL and American Superconductor (AMSC). The CRADA combined NREL and AMSC resources to benchmark high temperature superconducting direct drive (HTSDD) generator technology by integrating the technologies into a conceptual wind turbine design, and comparing the design to geared drive and permanent magnet direct drive (PMDD) wind turbine configurations. Analysis was accomplished by upgrading the NREL Wind Turbine Design Cost and Scaling Model to represent geared and PMDD turbines at machine ratings up to 10 MW and then comparing cost and mass figures of AMSC's HTSDD wind turbine designs to theoretical geared and PMDD turbine designs at 3.1, 6, and 10 MW sizes. Based on the cost and performance data supplied by AMSC, HTSDD technology has good potential to compete successfully as an alternative technology to PMDD and geared technology turbines in the multi megawatt classes. In addition, data suggests the economics of HTSDD turbines improve with increasing size, although several uncertainties remain for all machines in the 6 to 10 MW class.


Based on the Rayleigh scattering theory, the radiation forces and the trap stiffness on Rayleigh dielectric sphere induced by a focused Laguerre-Gaussian correlated Schell-model (LGCSM) beam are theoretically studied. It is found that by choosing the appropriate transverse coherence width, mode orders, transverse beam width, and focus lengths, a Rayleigh particle whose refractive index is larger or smaller than the ambient medium can be trapped. Our results will have some theoretical reference value for optical trapping.


The political aspects of the formation of the civil society and the rule of law in modern Azerbaijan coincide with the general trends in the development of globalization and political processes in the modern world. The nature of the civil society formation in Azerbaijan is inseparably linked with the regional political processes. In particular, the analysis of internal political and regional processes, conducted on the basis of consideration of the legal framework and political structures of the country, the main stages of post-Soviet development, and tendencies in the development of civil society, which are mainly manifested through such forms of social life as the activities of non-governmental organizations, civic engagement, corruption and bureaucracy, authoritarianism in various echelons of power, showed that the civil society in Azerbaijan had not yet met the advanced standards of open society and democratic development. The formation of the rule of law is hampered by the regional contradictions, in particular, the Nagorno-Karabakh confl ict, as well as high legal illiteracy of the population, the traditions-bound nature of the social structure, elements of corruption and authoritarianism in management at certain levels.


VANETs are constituted of vehicles that are equipped with onboard units with GPS receivers. Therefore, it is natural to assume each vehicle knows its location. GPS provides position information with accuracy of 10m, and the differential GPS (DGPS) technology can complement it up to 1-3m (Navigation Center, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2009). Also technologies such as dead reckoning and map matching using information from multiple sensors can enhance the accuracy. Also, other useful information on movement such as velocity and acceleration can be obtained. Using such information, position-based routing can be developed; we may let each vehicle transmit data packets to appropriate neighbors so as to maximize throughput and reliability or to minimize delay and traffic overhead. Furthermore, it is often difficult to know the destination vehicles' IDs in VANETs. Due to this nature, applications may want to deliver data to vehicles in a specific region (and in a certain abStract


The microstructure and photophysics of low-band gap, all-polymer photovoltaic blends are presented. Blends are based on the donor polymer BFS4 (a dithienyl-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b]dithiophene/5-fluoro-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole co-polymer) paired with the naphthalene diimide-based acceptor polymer P(NDI2OD-T2). Efficiencies of over 4% are demonstrated, with an open circuit voltage of greater than 0.9 V achieved. Transmission electron microscopy reveals a relatively coarse phase-separated morphology, with elongated domains up to 200 nm in width. Near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements reveal that the top surface of BFS4:P(NDI2OD-T2) blends is covered with a pure BFS4 capping layer. Depth profiling measurements confirm this vertical phase separation with a surface-directed spinodal decomposition wave observed. Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) measurements confirm that BFS4 and P(NDI2OD-T2) are semicrystalline with both polymers retaining their semicrystalline nature when blended. Photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals incomplete photoluminescence quenching with as much as 30% of excitons failing to reach a donor/acceptor interface. Transient absorption spectroscopy measurements also find evidence for rapid geminate recombination.


Purpose: To report a case of simultaneous bilateral Fleischer and Kayser-Fleischer rings two years prior to appearance of any sign, symptom or laboratory data of the Wilson's disease Case report: In this observational case report the examination and laboratory information of a 17-year-old Iranian female with blurred and decreased vision is introduced in a 2 years follow-up period. Complete ophthalmic examination, corneal topography, Orbscan corneal topography, laboratory tests [complete blood count (CBC), serum ceruloplasmin level, urine ceruloplasmin level, serum copper level, urine copper level] were done. Results: In slit-lamp examination Kayser-Fleischer (KF) and Fleischer rings along with a corneal inferior cone was revealed. The topography and Orbscan imagings confirmed the diagnosis of keratoconus (KCN). Patient did not suffer from any systemic sign or symptoms. Her systemic physical examination was normal. All laboratory tests (liver function tests, serum and 24 hours urine copper level, serum ceruloplasmin level) were within normal limits. After two years of followup, fine hand tremors started, so she was referred for more investigations to neurologists. They confirmed that the signs might be due to Wilson's disease central nervous system involvement. In her latest laboratory examinations, her serum ceruloplasmin level was reported beneath the normal limits. Conclusion: In our literature review there was no other resembling case in literature of coincidence of Wilson's disease and KCN. Hence we prefer to name it the first "double corneal ring" patient.


Prostate Cancer Awareness Week was begun in 1989 to investigate whether men could be recruited to participate in free prostate cancer screening. Initially designed to raise public awareness of "the ignored male disease", it has become the largest single cancer screening program in the United States. In 1992, more than 500,000 men were examined by digital rectal examination (DRE) and more than half of these also by measuring prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Although the populations examined have been generally better educated than the national average, predominantly white, and typically (> 40%) experiencing some symptom of prostate disease, adherence to annual prostate examinations remains low among successive cohorts of participants. Prostate cancers detected through this program exhibit a more favorable stage distribution than the national average. From 1989 through 1992, many cancers were detected by using the effective combination of DRE and PSA testing, which resulted in more stage A disease being diagnosed and fewer stage B, C, and D tumors. Data from 1992 suggest that increasing sophistication is possible with PSA test results, and age-specific PSA reference ranges have been developed.


SBA-15 materials exhibit important properties including large surface area, highly ordered mesopores, and high stability in a variety of catalytic reactions. In this study, Al and Zr-loaded SBA-15 materials (Si/Zr = 30, Si/Al = 30), 50 molar ratio with Pd (1, 2, and 4% (w/w)) and Pt (0.5 and 1% (w/w)) were tested in the isomerization of C5-C7 linear alkanes. These solids were characterized using thermal gravimetric analysis-differential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), nitrogen physisorption, and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). Interestingly, the low porosity SBA-15 materials loaded with 2% (w/w) Pd were most active catalysts for n-heptane isomerization. The mechanochemical addition of tungsten also resulted in the increase of catalytic activity for the reaction. The results herein demonstrate the possibilities of SBA-15 catalysts as a commercial catalyst alternative in the catalytic isomerization of hydrocarbons.


The Saint Joseph chapel in the city of Caluire et Cuire, France is an historic monument built in 1885 by the architect Sainte Marie Perrin. CSTB has been asked to study the acoustics of the chapel. The aim is to create an acoustic environment that permits non-amplified performances such as chamber music with the goal of a reverberation time of 1.5 s. Characterizing acoustic measurements have been done in the chapel. The measurement results are presented. They show a reverberant acoustic which is too high for classical music. After analysis of the acoustic measurements, CSTB was asked to propose modifications to improve the acoustics. These proposed modifications have to take into account the constraints due to the historical shape and architecture of the chapel. Two different solutions are proposed. The first solution is based on greatly increasing the absorbing surfaces and comes close to the ideal acoustic for classical music. The second solution allows the improvement of the actual acoustic with less absorbing material. Some diffuse and mode breaking surfaces are added. This second solution also includes a proposal for adapted music in this architectural and acoustical framework.


Hospitals are under continual pressure to improve turnaround times for surgical procedures and to find ways to release sterilized product without the need to wait for biological indicator (BI) results. Current procedures used in healthcare do not allow for release of sterilized products based on parameters because hospitals do not validate their sterilization processes. Once a sterilization process is validated for a particular product family, those loads may be released based upon evaluation of the sterilization parameters achieved in the cycle, i.e., parametric release. Typically, hospitals do not perform validation studies to demonstrate that a sterility assurance level (SAL) of 10(-6) is being achieved in the sterilized product, relying instead on inactivation of BIs and/or chemical indicators (CIs) in each load. If a healthcare facility can demonstrate achievement ofa SAL of l0(-6) in a particular product family then it will be possible to release the products in that product family based on achievement of parameters without waiting for BI results. This does not mean that the healthcare facility can eliminate use of all BIs and CIs as part of the criteria for a comprehensive quality assurance program, but dependence on their results and the cost of their use may be greatly reduced. Validation provides another component in a quality assurance program to demonstrate that the highest SAL possible is being provided to patients while still providing the services required by today's healthcare facility.


Meeting the health information needs of diverse communities is a challenge for librarians. Libraries of many types have a duty to identify and maintain contact with constituents having a variety of health information needs. Assessing community needs includes identifying specific population groups, the languages that they speak, the health issues affecting their lives, and their preferred methods of obtaining information. Locating, acquiring, and disseminating materials that address relevant health issues in an accessible manner takes commitment, funding, and a variety of collection development techniques. Library efforts have improved access to health information for diverse communities, but significant barriers to accessing health information remain. Reaching communities effectively includes community outreach via programming and partnering with communitybased organizations and local health care agencies. By assisting information creators and health care providers in understanding how materials are being used and what materials need to be developed, library staff can play an important role in promoting the development of culturally and linguistically appropriate health information. Libraries worldwide are dedicated to meeting the information needs of the populations they serve. Meeting the health information needs of diverse populations is challenging for many reasons. Individual health information is intrinsically intimate and personal, time frames may be short, and there


Local governments are in a position to act as bridges between the publics they represent and the management of archaeological heritage. Since First Nations and municipal councillors in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, make decisions on behalf of their communities, I focus this thesis on their perspectives of archaeology. Through surveying and interviewing local government representatives, seven key themes emerged: Relevance, Knowledge, Interest and Exposure, Value, Protection Issues, Management Responsibility, and Working Together. First Nations and municipal councillors' perspectives reveal general areas of divergence on the relevance, protection, and management of archaeological heritage, and convergence on the values of archaeology and working together on heritage issues. Although local governments uniquely situate archaeology through distinct views, they can bridge this disconnect through dialogue on shared perspectives. I provide recommendations to encourage this process of communication between First Nations and municipal governments, and their publics, on the management of archaeological heritage.


We consider the problem of training a statistical parser in the situation when there are multiple treebanks available, and these treebanks are annotated according to different linguistic conventions. To address this problem, we present two simple adaptation methods: the first method is based on the idea of using a shared feature representation when parsing multiple treebanks, and the second method on guided parsing where the output of one parser provides features for a second one. To evaluate and analyze the adaptation methods, we train parsers on treebank pairs in four languages: German, Swedish, Italian, and English. We see significant improvements for all eight treebanks when training on the full training sets. However, the clearest benefits are seen when we consider smaller training sets. Our experiments were carried out with unlabeled dependency parsers, but the methods can easily be generalized to other featurebased parsers.


In the paper some approach to connection between surface seismic data and wells data, which characterize reservoir features, is presented. This connection is based introduces relationship between two combined parameters. One parameter is estimated from images of stacks in processing of the Proni filtration. Another parameter is a generalized characteristic of the logging data. As a result, we obtain equations which allow translation of the surface parameters into the interval values of the logging data. The estimating interval values provide basis for more accurate interpretation of the dynamic characteristics of the surface seismic data. We used this approach for determination of reservoir production features. The results were verified with the independent well data and provided good quality.


We systematically investigate the influence of atomic potentials on the above-threshold ionization(ATI) spectra in onedimensional(1D) cases and compare them with the three-dimensional(3D) case by numerically solving the time-dependent Schr¨odinger equation. It is found that the direct ionization plateau and the rescattering plateau of the ATI spectrum in the 3D case can be well reproduced by the 1D ATI spectra calculated from the supersolid-core potential and the soft-core potential,respectively. By analyzing the factors that affect the yield of the ATI spectrum, we propose a modified-potential with which we can reproduce the overall 3D ATI spectrum. In addition, the influence of the incident laser intensities and frequencies on the ATI spectra calculated from the proposed modified potential is studied.


Exercise referral schemes are designed to support people with non-communicable diseases to increase their levels of exercise to improve health. However, uptake and attendance are low. This exploratory qualitative study aims to understand uptake and attendance from the perspectives of exercise referral instructors using semi-structured interviews. Six exercise referral instructors from one exercise referral scheme across four exercise referral sites were interviewed. Four themes emerged: (i) the role that instructors perceive they have and approaches instructors take to motivate participants to take-up, attend exercise referral and adhere to their exercise prescription; (ii) instructors' use of different techniques, which could help elicit behaviour change; (iii) instructors' perceptions of participants' views of exercise referral schemes; and (iv) barriers towards providing an exercise referral scheme. Exercise referral instructors play an important, multifaceted role in the uptake, attendance and adherence to exercise referral. On-going education and peer support for instructors may be useful. Instructors' perspectives help us to further understand how health and leisure services can design successful exercise referral schemes.


Real-world data inevitably contains noisy labels, which induce the poor generalization of deep neural networks. It is known that the network typically begins to rapidly memorize false-labeled samples after a certain point of training. Thus, to counter the label noise challenge, we propose a novel self-transitional learning method called MORPH, which automatically switches its learning phase at the transition point from seeding to evolution. In the seeding phase, the network is updated using all the samples to collect a seed of clean samples. Then, in the evolution phase, the network is updated using only the set of arguably clean samples, which precisely keeps expanding by the updated network. Thus, MORPH effectively avoids the overfitting to false-labeled samples throughout the entire training period. Extensive experiments using five real-world or synthetic benchmark datasets demonstrate substantial improvements over state-of-the-art methods in terms of robustness and efficiency.


This essay describes the discovery and significance of Etude 1 (1967), a previously unknown work by media artist Nam June Paik. Composed at Bell Labs and written in an early version of the computer-programming language FORTRAN, Etude 1 stands as one of the earliest works of digital art—though whether Etude 1 was intended to be a film, the "computer opera" that Paik mentions elsewhere in his writings, or some other kind of art work altogether. By exploring Etude 1's uncertain status, as well as more conceptual indeterminacies concerning the relationship between image and code, music and media, and the analog and the digital, this essay demonstrates how such indefinite artifacts allow for a rethinking of cinema's digital past, film's place in computational media, and the nature of the archive.


In hypersonic flight of reentry vehicles the radio blackout is a typical problem, in particular because it arises during a critical mission operation point. To mitigate this radio blackout the magnetic window concept is proposed. In this work a numerical model is presented to accurately simulate the effect of a magnetic field interacting with ionized plasma surrounding the vehicle. The numerical model is based on the MHD flow equations. Initially, the code is validated for pure hypersonic gas dynamics. Diverse high resolution spatial discretisation schemes, within a Finite Volume framework, are analyzed for robustness. Afterwards, the numerical code is further validated for MHD flows using the well-known Hartmann case. A very good comparison between numerical and analytical results is verified. This allows a proper validation of the method in terms of Lorentz force, in particular under low-magnetic Reynolds number conditions. A very tough test-case is finally computed, being typical of a reentry capsule geometry. The accuracy of the model is then verified for different applied magnetic fields.


This paper has three sections. In the first one, 1 expose and discuss Davidson's semantic account of adverbial sentences: the basic idea is that these sentences involve quantification over events, and 1 defend that view frorwopposing perspectives like the theory of adverbs as predicate modifiers. In the second section 1 defend the claim that in english constructions following the scheme: "X did V by T-ing", we are referring to the same action of X; what is sometimes called "The Anscombe Thesis". Again 1 discuss competing theories only to conclude that the Anscombe Thesis is true. In the third section, however, it is shown that to assume as prernisses these two theses -Davidson's account and the Anscombe Thesisleads to a serious conflict. Alternative solutions are worked out and rejected. It is also argued that the only tenable solution depends on certain metaphysical assumptions. Finally, however, 1 will cast doubt on this solution


The use of significance tests in science has been debated from the invention of these tests until the present time. Apart from theoretical critiques on their appropriateness for evaluating scientific hypotheses, significance tests also receive criticism for inviting misinterpretations. We presented six common misinterpretations to psychologists who work in German universities and found out that they are still surprisingly widespread - even among instructors who teach statistics to psychology students. Although these mi-sinterpretations are well documented among students, until now there has been little research on pedagogical methods to remove them. Rather, they are considered "hard facts" that are impervious to correction. We discuss the roots of these misinterpreta-tions and propose a pedagogical concept to teach significance tests, which involves ex-plaining the meaning of statistical significance in an appropriate way.


Two new species of rainbowfishes are described from the southwestern Birds Head region of western New Guinea (Papua Barat Province, Indonesia). Melanotaenia ammeri n. sp. is described on the basis of 19 specimens, 46.5-82.2 mm SL, collected near Gusimawa Village, Arguni Bay. It is most closely related to M. kokasensis n. sp., also described as new from 25 specimens, 27.2-68.5 mm SL, collected near Kokas Village on the northern Fakfak Peninsula. The two species are easily distinguished on the basis of colour pattern: M. ammeri has a distinctive pattern of alternating mauve to greyish blue and yellow stripes and the colour pattern of M. kokasensis is dominated by a broad, black midlateral stripe. In addition, males of M. ammeri are sig- nificantly deeper bodied (maximum body depth as % of standard length 39.3 versus 34.5) than those of M. kokasen- sis. Analysis of genetic relationships based on cytochrome b sequences indicates a close relationship between the two species and demonstrates that they are part of the unique rainbowfish clade found mainly on the Vogelkop Peninsula and some offshore islands. The new species differed in their mean Kimura 2-parameter genetic divergences by 2.4% from each other. Both were between 5.4 and 5.6% divergent from M. parva, the next most closely related species that we obtained genetic data for. Zusammenfassung Two new species of rainbowfishes are described from the southwestern Birds Head region of western New Guinea (Papua Barat Province, Indonesia). Melanotaenia ammeri n. sp. is described on the basis of 19 specimens, 46.5-82.2 mm SL, collected near Gusimawa Village, Arguni Bay. It is most closely related to M. kokasensis n. sp., also described as new from 25 specimens, 27.2-68.5 mm SL, collected near Kokas Village on the northern Fakfak Peninsula. The two species are easily distinguished on the basis of colour pattern: M. ammeri has a distinctive pattern of alternating mauve to greyish blue and yellow stripes and the colour pattern of M. kokasensis is dominated by a broad, black midlateral stripe. In addition, males of M. ammeri are sig- nificantly deeper bodied (maximum body depth as % of standard length 39.3 versus 34.5) than those of M. kokasen- sis. Analysis of genetic relationships based on cytochrome b sequences indicates a close relationship between the two species and demonstrates that they are part of the unique rainbowfish clade found mainly on the Vogelkop Peninsula and some offshore islands. The new species differed in their mean Kimura 2-parameter genetic divergences by 2.4% from each other. Both were between 5.4 and 5.6% divergent from M. parva, the next most closely related species that we obtained genetic data for.


Amplification or overexpression of growth factor receptors is a frequent occurrence in malignant gliomas. Using both expression profiling and in situ hybridization, we identified insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) as a marker for a subset of glioblastomas (GBMs) that lack amplification or overexpression of EGF receptor. Among 165 primary high-grade astrocytomas, 13% of grade IV tumors and 2% of grade III tumors expressed IGF2 mRNA levels >50-fold the sample population median. IGF2-overexpressing tumors frequently displayed PTEN loss, were highly proliferative, exhibited strong staining for phospho-Akt, and belonged to a subclass of GBMs characterized by poor survival. Using a serum-free culture system, we discovered that IGF2 can substitute for EGF to support the growth of GBM-derived neurospheres. The growth-promoting effects of IGF2 were mediated by the insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 and phosphoinositide-3-kinase regulatory subunit 3 (PIK3R3), a regulatory subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase that shows genomic gains in some highly proliferative GBM cases. PIK3R3 knockdown inhibited IGF2-induced growth of GBM-derived neurospheres. The current results provide evidence that the IGF2–PIK3R3 signaling axis is involved in promoting the growth of a subclass of highly aggressive human GBMs that lack EGF receptor amplification. Our data underscore the importance of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt pathway for growth of high-grade gliomas and suggest that multiple molecular alterations that activate this signaling cascade may promote tumorigenesis. Further, these findings highlight the parallels between growth factors or receptors that are overexpressed in GBMs and those that support in vitro growth of tumor-derived stem-like cells.


In recent years, gangsterism and gang related activities among Indians are perplexing and alarming. Although this issue is considered as an old phenomenon, researches related to underlying factors for gangsterism are still lacking. With this in mind, this study aimed to explore psychological and criminogenic factors behind gangsterism among Indians in Malaysia. This study utilized a non-experimental research design. This study is a qualitative research (semi-structured, face-to-face individual interview guide) that makes use of the inductive approach based on a combination of subjectivism and interpretivist philosophies. Six ex-gangsters and four police personnel were interviewed; and their experiences of gangsterism were used to gain a reality-based understanding regarding the factors underlying gangsterism. The thematic analyses generated three psychological factors (negative emotional responses, low self-control, and high impulsivity) and three criminogenic factors (substance abuse, having antisocial peers, and dysfunctional families). One new theme emerged: monetary gain, with three sub-themes (ease of obtaining money, amount and immediacy, and benefits derived from illegal monetary gains). The outcome of this explorative research provides insight to the growing body of knowledge on gangsterism in Malaysia and is useful for community leaders and law enforcement agencies to strategize appropriate intervention, prevention, and suppression efforts to combat gangsterism.


As a traditional high energy-consuming industry, the forging industry consumes a lot of energy. In order to solve the typical charging optimization problem regarding how to separate workpieces with different holding temperature intervals and holding time intervals and combine them for charging in forging, a charging combination model for forging is proposed. The discrete shuffled frog leaping algorithm (DSFLA) based on the same furnace heating rules is adopted to optimize and solve the model in order to reduce energy consumption in forging . An instance is illustrated to prove the effectiveness of the proposed model and the algorithm. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.22.5.13191


Although redoximorphic features (RMFs) are commonly used in place of direct observation to estimate the depth of the seasonal high water table (SHWT), little is known about the relationships between RMFs and the duration of the water table. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of how the expression of RMFs relates to the depth and duration of the water table in moderately welldrained soils of southern New England. The 20 soils studied included Dystrudepts, Quartzipsamments, and Psammaquents; of these, 17 met the criteria for Oxyaquic (8) or Aquic (9) subgroup classification. Water table levels were monitored for 18 mo from February to July of the following year to compare the depth and cumulative duration of the water table (cumulative saturation) to RMFs within soil horizons. Average seasonal high water table level (ASHWT) was correlated (p , 0.05) tothedepth ofthefirstloamy horizonwith.2%RMFs(r 2 5 0.65–0.72). Water table levels occurred within horizons with no RMFs for as much as 13% of the 18 mo study period. Mean cumulative saturation for soils with textures finer than loamy sand ranged from 3% for horizons with no RMFs to 36% for horizons with a depleted matrix. For horizons with textures of loamy sand and coarser, the mean cumulative saturation ranged from 8% for horizons with no RMFs to 45% for horizons with .2% depletions. (Percentage of cumulative saturation would have likely been less if we monitored for a full 2 yr, as the late summer and fall of the second year were not monitored.) Our results suggest that the abundance of RMFs increases as the percentage of time the water table is present within a horizon increases. Additionally, coarse-textured horizons are less expressive in regards to RMF abundance than are loamy-textured horizons with similar cumulativesaturation.For land-use decisions, soil morphology should be used to provide both an estimate of the depths of a defined SHWT and cumulative saturation.


Cytokines are the key mediators of inflammation in the IBD and are focus of renewed interest to plan therapeutic strategies against this disease. However, there are gaps in our knowledge at present and a lot of questions need clear answers. Even with a therapy as specific as anti-TNF antibody, it is not clear if the benefit is attributable to simple binding and clearance of TNF-alpha or to binding on the cell surface and subsequent deletion of the activated macrophage. When a drug appears to be less effective than pre-clinical models suggest, can failures in effectiveness from delivery or dosing the differentiated? The disappointing results of clinical trials with IL-10 is at odds with the prediction of benefit from animal models. It even brings into question the validity of those models as well as the soundness of design of the clinical trials on which efficacy of IL-10 is assessed. Other exciting new methods to treat IBD could be use of monoclonal antibodies to effector T cell molecules (such as CD4 or CD44v7) removal of such cytokine secreting cells (apheresis), antibodies to proinflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-alpha, IFN-alpha, IFN-gamma, and IL-12) or administration of anti-inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-10, IL-11). Challenges in developing new therapeutic strategies include not only identifying novel agents, but also improving the definitions of clinical endpoints and defining efficacy at the biologic level. There is also need to further refine our knowledge about genetic elements and environment initiators to comprehensively manage IBD.


Many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have emerged over the last few years. In such networks resource-constrained sensor nodes are deployed to probe their surroundings and send the collected data to one or multiple gateways for processing. Therefore, proper placement of sensors and gateways in the area of interest facilities communications and allows for better operation of the network. While sensors in many WSN applications are randomly deployed, gateways often can be placed in a controlled manner. In this paper, we introduce two novel algorithms for proper positioning of gateways in WSNs. We employ genetic algorithms for selecting the best spot for placing each gateway so that sensors' data can be delivered to a gateway with the least latency. The two algorithms differ in their complexity and the quality of the solution that they can achieve and thus enable a design level trade-off. Validation results confirm the effectiveness of both algorithms in reducing the data delivery delay and their positive impact on other performance metrics such as the network lifetime.


Regulatory agencies have been investigating a number of alternatives for classifying lakes into hydogeologically and ecologically similar assemblages that will facilitate establishment of attainable water quality standards. Concerns over the ability of traditional statistical classifiers to effectively classify environmental data have led to increasing interest in machine (predictive) learning classification tools such as decision trees. This paper compares the performance (classification strength) of a classi fication tree-based watershed classification model of Nebraska reservoirs to a discriminant analysis (DA)-based watershed classification system and reservoir classes derived from Omernik's Level IV Ecoregions. The performance of classification tree and DA-based watershed classification methods were also compared with respect to their cross-validation prediction errors. The results suggest that both watershed-based classification approaches (classification tree and DA) were more effective than Omernik's Level IV ecoregi ons in accounting for observed variations in water quality characteristics of Nebraska reservoirs. Moreover, this study demonstrates the utility of a classification tree algorithm, either as a supplement or alternative to DA, in handling the complexities of watershed variables and classifying Nebraska reservoirs for the purpose of water quality management. The classification tree also provides water resource managers with a useful interpretive classification interface.


Sugar is one of the staples food that is widely consumed by the public. Sugar demand continued to increase along with increasing growth of population. Sugar factory revitalization made in order to support food security system, especially for staples food. Revitalization is aimed for increasing the production capacity of sugar factories, productivity and content of sugarcane and expansion of plantation. Revitalizing sugar factory aims to meet the needs of sugar demand in order to attain self-sufficiency in sugar by 2014. One program of revitalization is the rejuvenation of the old machines which have decreased performance resulting in lower efficiency of sugar mills. Restructuring needs big investment with a long repayment period so that the feasibility analysis is needed to see whether the restructuring Kremboong Sugar Mill machines feasible and can provide better profit. Based on the analysis aspect of the market, technical, socio-economic, and management found that the restructuring of the machine is feasible. This is indicated by the availability of a broad market, a clear corporate management, creation of employment, as well as the accuracy of the use of technology in their production processes. Financial analysis through investments in the eligibility criteria of 14% discount rate produces NPV Rp52.414.490.686,68, IRR of 50%, Net B/C ratio of 3.68, and 8.88-year payback period (8 years 10 months 17 days). From the results of financial analysis can be concluded that the restructuring decent machine to run.


NiCrAlY coatings were prepared by the detonation spraying (DS) and high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) spraying processes, respectively. The DS NiCrAlY coating has higher oxidation rate than the HVOF NiCrAlY coating at 1100 oC due to its rougher surface and more mixed oxides. The residual compressive stress in thermally grown oxides (TGO) on the DS NiCrAlY coating is higher than that on the HVOF coating because the θ-Al2O3 to α-Al2O3 transformation causes the tensile stress in the TGO on the HVOF coating.


The estimation of maize inbred lines of theLancastergroup for immature embryos response to cultivation in vitro was made. It was noted that ability to callusogenesis was genotypically determined and depended on the presence of the subplasm Oh43 lineage. It was established that frequency of morphogenic callusogenesis in sensitive to cultivation Lancastergroup lines was at the level of 30–84 %. Promising maize inbreds cell and genetic engineering by an ability to produce morphogenic calli were identified.


Our previous work implicates γδ T cells as an inflammatory driver in ART-suppressed HIV infection and suggests that this unique T cell population serves distinct roles in the 'inflamm-aging' that occurs with and without virally controlled HIV. In this study, we honed our previous findings to determine the precise γδ T cell subsets that are driving inflammation with age +/− HIV infection. We performed in depth immunophenotyping of circulating γδ T cells via multi-color flow cytometry and analysis of plasma markers of inflammation, coagulation, and intestinal permeability from subjects of our HIV and Aging cohort, which includes ART-suppressed HIV+ individuals and matched uninfected controls stratified by age into younger (≤35yo) and older (≥50yo) groups. We found discrete differences in the combinational expression the inhibitory receptors (IRs) TIGIT, PD-1, and CD160 between the Vδ1+ and the Vδ2+ γδ T cell subsets with HIV infection and healthy aging. Also, we found that specific IR signatures of Vδ1+ and Vδ2+ γδ T cells correlated with plasma inflammatory markers; however, different connections between the plasma analytes were found for each of the two γδ T cell subsets. Taken together, these data indicate that Vδ1+ and Vδ2+ γδ T cells exist in distinct states and possess divergent roles in the 'inflamm-aging' found in aviremic HIV+ infection and with normal aging. Further investigation into the anatomical locations, ex vivo functions, and additional surface markers that define γδ T cell subsets may reveal novel therapeutic targets to abrogate the aberrant inflammation found with HIV infection, aging, and other inflammatory conditions.


Abstract Introduction: Leptospirosis affects a wide range of mammals, humans, and even a few poikilothermic animal species. In Pakistan, serological studies of equine leptospirosis have reported a prevalence of over 40%, but no study has ever been conducted towards molecular detection of Leptospira in horses. Material and Methods: Blood samples from 128 horses were screened using ELISA and 41 positive samples were examined for the presence of leptospiral DNA using specific primers for 16S rRNA gene. Results: Out of 41 tested samples, 20 samples were found to be PCR-positive, revealing a fragment of 306 bp after gel electrophoresis. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of positive samples revealed circulation of pathogenic Leptospira spp. in Pakistani horses. No evidence of circulation of intermediate species was found in this study. Conclusion: This study reports the first molecular evidence of equine leptospirosis in Pakistan and lays ground for further research in this area. It also confirms the efficiency of 16S rRNA for the diagnosis of equine leptospirosis.


Drug treatment for cancer is now widely utilized and in selected neoplasms offers the opportunity for prolonged remission or even cure. Knowledge of the clinical pharmacology of these agents is critically important to successful therapy. Severe and potentially fatal toxicity may occur unless these agents are administered with meticulous attention to details by physicians experienced in their use. Knowledge of functional impairment of organs responsible for the metabolic breakdown or excretion of these agents and awareness of drug-drug interactions are essential in guiding selection and dosage. The late complications that may result are particularly relevant in patients who achieve prolonged remission or cure and in those for whom these agents are used for benign disorders.


At the interstices of cultural geography and performance studies, this article continues the author 's earlier research and writing on Jamaica 's dancehall culture, and analyzes the applicability of insights gained to other black performance genres, most notably South African kwaito. Through research methods including interviews and participant observation, a comparative perspective on dancehall and kwaito reveals unexplored parallels, particularly ideological and spatial ones. I therefore expand the focus beyond musical and symbolic elements by privileging the spatial category. This focus reveals striking similarities across nations and their diasporas, and how identity, ideology and history merge in the articulation of self for the disenfranchised youth in a cross-cultural context. Ultimately, this article contributes to a broader project of mapping New World performance geographies, in this instance using dancehall and kwaito as its main cases.


This study focused on the synthesis of chitosan-alginate (CH-ALg) nanoparticles by ionotropic gelation technique using sodium alginate and calcium chloride. The particle size of the synthesized nanoparticles was confirmed by atomic force microscope (AFM) and it was 61.9 nm. While the nature of functional groups present in chitosan nanoparticles was determined by FT-IR analysis. The antibacterial activity of chitosan-alginate was tested against multidrug resistance (MDR) gram- positive (Enterococcus faecalis) and gram-negative (Proteus mirabilis) bacteria. The results showed a significant effect against MDR isolates. The nanoparticles were loaded with the antibiotic doxycycline in order to improve the antibacterial activity and drug delivery efficiency. The synergistic effects of the biosynthesized chitosan-alginate and the loaded doxycycline at different concentrations against MDR bacteria were also investigated. The results showed that doxycycline-loaded nanoparticles have superior effectiveness compared to native doxycycline against gram negative and gram positive bacteria.


Authors Vomshi P R, Prof. Mr. Shashidhara H.S. Department of Information Science and Engineering, MS Ramaih Institute of Technology, MSR College Road, MSR Nagar, Bangalore 560054,Karnataka, India Email: email@example.com, 8971485844 Abstract At present scenario, data owners are storing their data in semi trusted cloud storage. Since the cloud storage is not fully trusted the data should be encrypted and stored in cloud. If the stored data volume is huge, for retrieval there should be a search engine and index keyword. If hackers are getting the index keyword they have the clue of the important files so that, in this system we are introducing searchable chipertext keywords. That means the keywords are in encrypted form. Consider access control over the cloud data, the technic at present used are Attribute Based Encryption (ABE) or Identity Based Encryption (IBE) these techniques requires lot of computation and slow in retrieval process. In proposed system we are using Bloom Filter based Chipertext index keywords which provide the search result very quickly with less computation and process. Keywords— Access Control. Data Security and Integrity. Attribute Based Encryption. Qucik Search. Verifiable Keyword. Ciphertext keyword. identity based Encryption.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to determine the incidence and the main clinical data of inflammatory bowel disease in Brittany.

METHODS
According to EPIMAD registry's methodology, private and public gastroenterologists (n = 139) of Brittany (2836418 inhabitants) referred all patients consulting for the first time, in 1994 and 1995 with clinical symptoms compatible with inflammatory bowel disease. An interviewer practitioner completed at the gastroenterologist's consulting room a standard questionnaire for each patient. Each case was reviewed separately by four experts to assign a diagnosis of definite, probable, possible Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, unclassifiable chronic colitis, or acute colitis (onset of symptoms < 6 weeks).

RESULTS
657 cases were recorded: 205 Crohn's disease (31%), 165 ulcerative colitis (25%) including 75 ulcerative proctitis (46%), 42 unclassifiable chronic colitis (7%), 245 acute colitis (37%). The crude mean annual incidence (per 10(5) inhabitants) based on definite and probable cases only was 2.8 for Crohn's disease and 2.9 for ulcerative colitis. The female/male ratio was 0.9 for Crohn's disease and 0.5 for ulcerative colitis. The median age at time of diagnosis was 27 for Crohn's disease and 36 for ulcerative colitis. The median time between onset of symptoms and diagnosis was equal to 3 months for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

CONCLUSION
In Brittany the observed incidence of ulcerative colitis is similar to that of Crohn's disease and close to that observed in northern France. The incidence of Crohn's disease is lower. However, the real incidence of inflammatory bowel disease is currently underestimated due to the large number of acute colitis requiring a follow up and the cases of Crohn's disease classified as possible not taken into account.


Preface. Color Tables. 1 Light-Emitting Diodes and Lighting. Introduction. 1.1 Current-Conduction Mechanism in LED-Like Structures. 1.2 Optical Output Power. 1.3 Losses and Efficiency. 1.4 Current Crowding. 1.5 Packaging. 1.6 Perception of Visible Light and Color. 1.7 Visible-Light Terminology. 1.8 Inroads by LEDs. 1.9 Nitride LED Performance. 1.10 On the Nature of Light Emission in Nitride-Based LEDs. 1.11 LED Degradation. 1.12 LED Efficiency. 1.13 Monochrome Applications of LEDs. 1.14 Luminescence Conversion and White-Light Generation with Nitride LEDs. 1.15 Approaches to White-Light Generation. 1.16 Toward the White-Light Applications. 1.17 Organic/Polymeric LEDs (OLED, PLED). 2 Semiconductor Lasers. Introduction. 2.1 A Primer to the Principles of Lasers. 2.2 Waveguiding. 2.3 Loss, Threshold, and Cavity Modes. 2.4 Optical Gain. 2.5 Coulombic Effects. 2.6 Numerical Gain Calculations for GaN. 2.7 Threshold Current. 2.8 Analysis of Injection Lasers with Simplifying Assumptions. 2.9 Recombination Lifetime. 2.10 Quantum Efficiency. 2.11 GaN-Based LD Design and Performance. 2.12 Gain Spectra of InGaN Injection Lasers. 2.13 Near-UV Lasers. 2.14 Reflector Stacks and Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs). 2.15 Polariton Lasers. 2.16 GaInNAs Quaternary Infrared Lasers. 2.17 Laser Degradation. 2.18 Applications of GaN-Based Lasers to DVDs. 2.19 A Succinct Review of the Laser Evolution in Nitrides. 3 Field Effect Transistors and Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors. Introduction. 3.1 Heterojunction Field Effect Transistors. 3.2 The s-Parameters and Gain. 3.3 Equivalent Circuit Models, Deembedding, and Cutoff Frequency. 3.4 HFET Amplifier Classification and Efficiency. 3.5 AlGaN/GaN HFETs. 3.6 Electronic Noise. 3.7 Dielectrics for Passivation Purposes or Gate Leakage Reduction. 3.8 Heat Dissipation and Junction Temperature. 3.9 Hot Phonon Effects. 3.10 InGaN Channel and/or InAlN Barrier HFETs. 3.11 FET Degradation. 3.12 Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors. 3.13 Concluding Comments. 3.14 Appendix: Sheet Charge Calculation in AlGaN/GaN Structures with AlN Interface Layer (AlGaN/AlN/GaN). 4 Ultraviolet Detectors. Introduction. 4.1 Principles of Photodetectors. 4.2 Particulars of Deep UV Radiation and Detection. 4.3 Si and SiC-Based UV Photodetectors. 4.4 Nitride-Based Detectors. 4.5 UV Imagers. 4.6 Concluding Comments. References. Index. Appendix.


I. IntroductionIn recent years, numerous scholars have acknowledged that the experiences of women in post-conflict societies are unlike those of men. This article addresses the situation of women in one post-conflict society-Rwanda. In particular, it addresses Rwandan women's problems in gaining access to land for residential and agricultural purposes following the war of 1990-1994. During the war, hundreds of thousands of women were forced to flee their communities. After the war, many women returned to their own and other communities, without husbands or male relatives, only to discover that the land that they hoped to claim was occupied by other refugees. Without husbands or male relatives to help them regain their land or to acquire new land, Rwandan women had few options but to struggle for land rights on their own.1 Similar to women in many other post-conflict societies, they were compelled to maneuver within a system of land law that had been greatly altered by war.Section II of this article covers the effects of Rwanda's civil war on women. Section III discusses Rwanda's legal system, including the history and current state of customary land law and modern land legislation. This section emphasizes women's rights to land under customary land law and the pending land legislation. Section IV argues that a gap exists between the customary and modern legal systems, creating both land access opportunities and constraints for women. Section V presents the results of my field research on women's presumed land rights and their actual land access, both of which currently exist under conditions of legal uncertainty. This section examines, through specific case studies, how women first assess their status within the complex hierarchy of rural land rights, and thereafter, how they work within the constraints and opportunities presented by their immediate circumstances in order to retain or to gain control over land. Section VI discusses the case studies as a group in order to demonstrate the patterns according to which Rwandan women are creatively bridging the gap between a rapidly evolving system of customary land law and a modern system of land law in-the-making. Finally, section VII offers several conclusions regarding my research findings and suggests that government officials should work to achieve land policy and legislation that specifies and guarantees women's land rights in both theory and practice.II. The Effects of Rwanda's Civil War on WomenThe tiny central African country of Rwanda2 was a centralized kingdom from the fourteenth century until the late 1890s, at which time Germany assumed control of both Rwanda and neighboring Burundi and ruled them as part of German East Africa. Following the German defeat in World War I, the Eeague of Nations mandated control of the two territories to Belgium, which had already colonized neighboring Congo.3 Rwanda achieved independence in 1962.4Over the years, Rwandans have experienced several outbreaks of violence, beginning with the social revolution in 1959 when a Hutu5 government came to power and more intensely with the start of civil war in 1990 when the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda from Uganda.6 Many observers have attributed this violence to ethnic tensions and political competitions for power and control of increasingly scarce resources, including land.7 The ongoing hostilities in Rwanda reached a fevered pitch on April 6, 1994 after the plane of the Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down outside the country's capital, Kigali, killing everyone on board.8 Within minutes of the crash, ultranationalists, primarily representing the majority Hutu ethnic group, began implementing a plan to systematically eliminate their enemies, including members of the minority Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutus who favored a power-sharing arrangement with the Tutsis. During the war and genocide, which were carried out by armies, militias, and ordinary citizens, members of both ethnic groups killed members of the opposite group and sometimes members of their own group, although the Tutsis sustained the greatest losses. …


Physiochemical stress induces tissue injury as a result of the detection of abnormal molecular patterns by sensory molecules of the innate immune system. Here, we have described how the recently discovered C-type lectin collectin-11 (CL-11, also known as CL-K1 and encoded by COLEC11) recognizes an abnormal pattern of L-fucose on postischemic renal tubule cells and activates a destructive inflammatory response. We found that intrarenal expression of CL-11 rapidly increases in the postischemic period and colocalizes with complement deposited along the basolateral surface of the proximal renal tubule in association with L-fucose, the potential binding ligand for CL-11. Mice with either generalized or kidney-specific deficiency of CL-11 were strongly protected against loss of renal function and tubule injury due to reduced complement deposition. Ex vivo renal tubule cells showed a marked capacity for CL-11 binding that was induced by cell stress under hypoxic or hypothermic conditions and prevented by specific removal of L-fucose. Further analysis revealed that cell-bound CL-11 required the lectin complement pathway-associated protease MASP-2 to trigger complement deposition. Given these results, we conclude that lectin complement pathway activation triggered by ligand-CL-11 interaction in postischemic tissue is a potent source of acute kidney injury and is amenable to sugar-specific blockade.


Objective:  to analyze the comfort of formal and informal caregivers to palliative care patients, identifying the variables associated with the difficulties for home care.  Methods:  cross-sectional study involving 50 caregivers of palliative care patients attended in the Family Health Strategy, using the General Comfort Questionnaire.  Results:  most caregivers were women (86.0%), with a mean age of 52 years, with partners (68.0%) and practicing some religion (72.0%). The comfort scores ranged between 202 and 263, with a median of 235. An inverse relation was verified between the General Comfort Questionnaire score and caregiver reports of some difficulty in care delivery to palliative care patients (OR=0.90; 95.0% CI 0.81-1.01). Conclusion:  the comfort level of the palliative care patients' caregivers was relatively good and was associated with the difficulties in home care.


In Zimbabwe today, the State - through its various agencies - is the dominant player in die mining sector, from issuing prospecting licenses right up to marketing. The Mines and Minerals Act (chapter 21: 05) vests authority to administer granting of prospecting rights, acquisition of mining claims and payments of levies in the Mining Affairs Board, a body appointed by the Minister of Mines, Environment and Tourism. The Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe Act of 1982 resulted in the formation of the Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe which is the sole marketing and selling agent for all minerals exported out of Zimbabwe, except gold and silver, which fall under the control of the Reserve Bank. The bulk of mineral revenue accrues to the government ahead of Rural District Councils (RDCs) who have responsibilities towards road maintenance and provision of other services, and local communities who bear the brunt of environmental damage due to mining activities. A study into the structure of revenue sharing showed that RDCs obtained less than 0.1 % of the revenue (Owen and Maponga, 1996). This revenue is from two main sources. In terms of section 96(1 Ob) of the Rural District Councils Act, Chapter 29: 13, RDCs may charge levies to owners of mining locations situated on rural land in their areas. The levy is based on either the number of employees or output in tonnes in the case of precious metals. The levy is in the form of unit tax. Section 188 of the Mines and Minerals Act entitles RDCs to receive landowners' fees from mining activities in their areas. This is because, although RDCs are not the legal owners of the communal land under their jurisdiction (the land belongs to the state represented by the president in terms of section 4 of the Communal Land Act, Chapter 20: 04), sub-section (7) of section 188 specifically provides that they are regarded as the landowners for the purpose of receiving landowners' fees. The fees are pegged at $1.50 per hectare for an operational mine and $0.60 for a non-operational one. Mining royalties are not collected in Zimbabwe - they were last collected in 1975 as a measure to attract investment in the mining sector.


Interdisciplinary research is critical to the prevention of hearing loss in children and young adults. To meet that goal, this paper focuses on the relationship between the prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss, attitudes to noise and exposure, and how hearing protection use seems to be linked to cultural and socioeconomic factors. Results of a series of studies point to attitudes as one explanatory factor. Additionally, the experience of hearing symptoms such as tinnitus and noise sensitivity increases the likelihood that adolescents and young adults will choose to wear earplugs when attending clubs or discotheques. This behavior can be referred to as an important ''trigger'' mechanism for the development of health-related behavior. Some general theories on health behavior are discussed to understand the role attitudes play for hearing prevention in young people. Finally, the finding that adolescents seeking professional help for tinnitus appear to have strong fears related to anxious thoughts and reactions associated with the condition is addressed. These fears can be a sign of a phobic reaction, something that most often first appears during adolescence. For these reasons, interdisciplinary research in the investigation of tinnitus distress and hearing conservation in young people seems to be the most relevant approach.


Portrait of Ed Reed (on right), Belle Starr's son, and Edgar Clark of Denton, Texas, with an unidentified man on the left. They are standing by a wooden contraption and in front of a painted backdrop. Both men are wearing similar rings on their left ring fingers. According to the 1900 U.S. Census, Edgar Clark was born in May of 1870 and living with his widowed mother and siblings at the Clark home located at the corner of Center (which is now Carroll Blvd) and Mulberry streets in Denton, Texas. His occupation was listed as "bartender." James "Ed" Edwin Reed was born in California on February 22, 1871 to Myra Maybell Reed, who later became known as Belle Starr. He was shot and killed in Claremore, Indian Territory [Oklahoma], on December 14, 1896 while attempting to arrest two men - J. N. Clark and Joe Gibbs - charged with peddling whiskey. He was previously a deputy U.S. Marshall and was known for the killing of two outlaw brothers in Wagoner, Oklahoma: Zeke and Dick Crittendon. Ed Reed's notorious past included horse theft and stolen property in Fort Smith, Arkansas (c1889), and along with his brother, Russell, the murder of James Rich in Echo, Texas (1893). Reed later turned state's evidence in another case, was released and made into a deputy marshal [-Cherokee Advocate, Dec.19, 1896].


The built environment is responsible for approximately 20% of New Zealand's carbon footprint. Sustainable design strategies may potentially present an opportunity to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings. To this end, this thesis will focus on the effect design decisions have on that use of finite resources/ building material in medium density housing (MDH).
As a response to New Zealand's housing crisis and affordability, there is a changing perspective around MDH. The demand for MDH in New Zealand since 2017 was projected to increase 6% per year (BRANZ, 2017, p. 1). Of the projected MDH, approximately 51% of the dwellings are to be built in the Auckland region (Page, 2017, p. 14). This thesis posits and tests sustainable design strategies of MDH dwellings that do not compromise aesthetic qualities for functionality. Design-led research will identify the relationship between design and carbon, providing conclusions on how MDH can be designed to have a lower impact on the environment.


A review of the work done to elucidate the mechanism of stress-corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless steels is presented. The major emphasis is placed on the cracking which occurs in chloride environments, although other environments are mentioned. This paper is intended to update earlier reviews and is concerned mainly with works published in the period 1960-1971. The various studies on the effects of environmental and metallurgical factors on the kinetics of the cracking process are reviewed in detail. Variables such as temperature, chloride concentration, pH, stress, and metallurgical state are discussed. Also, the various studies on the electrochemistry of the system are reviewed. The major theories on the mechanism of the cracking process are divided into two groups: The electrochemical theories postulate that the effect of tensile stress is to accelerate the localization of the corrosion process at crack sites. These theories include stress assisted segregation of damaging elements in the steel to the crack region, moving crystal imperfections including dislocations, and slip steps. The hydrogen entry theories, such as the formation of an easily corroded hydride phase or eta martensite formation, also fall into this category. The quasi-mechanical theories involve a mechanical fracture step in addition to corrosion. Tunnel pitting, corrosion produced wedging, and reduction of stress energy required to propagate a crack through chemical adsorption are examples of these theories. Finally, some areas of future work are discussed, and questions which need to be resolved are delineated.


Aim/Purpose Multi-threaded software design is considered to be difficult, especially to novice programmers. In this study, we explored how students cope with a task that its solution requires a multi-threaded architecture to achieve optimal runtime. Background An efficient exploit of multicore processors architecture requires computer programs that use parallel programming techniques. However, parallel programming is difficult to understand and apply by novice programmers. Methodology The students had to address a two-stage problem: (1) design an optimal runtime solution to a given problem with no additional instructions; and (2) provide an optimal runtime multi-threaded design to the same problem. Interviews were conducted with a representative group of students to understand the underlying causes of their provided designs. We used qualitative research methods to gain refined insights regarding the students' decision making during the design process. To analyze the gained data, we used content analysis tools. Contribution The case study presented in this paper will help the teacher to stress the merits and limitations of various parallel architectures and confront students with the consequences of their solutions via performances' benchmark. Findings Analysis of the student's solutions to the first stage revealed that the majority of them did not provide a multi-threaded solution ignoring the optimal runtime requirement. At the second stage, seven various architectures were provided differing in the number of involved threads, the data structures used, and the synchronization mechanism employed. The majority of the solutions were sub-optimal and only a few students provided an optimal one. Recommendations for Practitioners We recommend conducting class discussions that will follow a task similar to the one used in this study. Novice and Multi-threaded Software 76 Recommendations for Researchers To be able to generalize the received results this research should be repeated with larger study participant groups from various academic institutions. Impact on Society Understanding the difficulties of novice programmers may lead to quality software systems. Future Research To be able to generalize the received results this research should be repeated with larger study participant groups from various academic institutions.


The Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS) was founded at Dartmouth College in 2000 as a national center of security research and development. The Institute conducts interdisciplinary research and development projects addressing the challenges of cyber and homeland security, to protect the integrity of the Internet, computer networks, and other interdependent information infrastructures. ISTS also develops technology for providing the information and tools necessary to assist communities and first responders with the evolving, complex security landscape. ISTS is a member of and administers the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P), a consortium of 24 leading academic institutions, non-profits and federal laboratories that brings industry, academia and government together to articulate and focus on problems that need to be solved to help ensure the nation's information infrastructure is safe, secure, and robust.


Most of the R&D on fuel cells for portable applications concentrates on increasing efficiencies and energy densities to compete with other energy storage devices, especially batteries. To improve the efficiency of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) systems, several modifications to system layouts and operating strategies are considered in this paper, rather than modifications to the fuel cell itself. Two modified DMFC systems are presented, one with an additional inline mixer and a further modification of it with a separate tank to recover condensed water. The set point for methanol concentration control in the solution is determined by fuel efficiency and varies with the current and other process variables. Feedforward concentration control enables variable concentration for dynamic loads. Simulation results were validated experimentally with fuel cell systems.


The factors which affect the extent of laminar flow on airplanes for hypersonic flight are discussed on the basis of the available data. Factors considered include flight Reynolds number, surface roughness, angle of attack, angle of leading-edge sweepback, and aerodynamic interference. Test data are presented for one complete configuration.


Anesthesiology 2013; 118:460-71 467 Correspondence Matthieu Biais, M.D.,* Alexandre Ouattara, M.D., Ph.D., Gérard Janvier, M.D., Ph.D., François Sztark, M.D., Ph.D. *Hospital Pellegrin, CHU de Bordeaux, and Université Bordeaux, Adaptation cardiovasculaire à l'ischémie, Bordeaux, France. matthieu.biais@chu-bordeaux In Reply: The authors sincerely thank Dr. Roth for his letter regarding their recent article1 and are happy to respond to his comments and anecdotes. The problematic of chest wall compliance is of interest and is not new. In 1989, Pizov et al.2 demonstrated in a canine model that reducing chest wall compliance by external chest compression induced an increase in the deltadown component of the systolic pressure variation, suggesting a decrease in the venous return. More recently, Mesquida et al.3 found an increase in pulse pressure variations and stroke volume variations after reduction in chest wall compliance induced by chest and abdominal binders in an experimental study. As suggested by Dr. Roth, decrease in chest wall compliance may be due to truncal rigidity. This situation may be related to a lack of sedation (which contraindicates the use of dynamic indices) or may be provoked by high doses of opioids (an uncommon practice actually even in cardiac surgery). In contrast, a decrease in chest wall compliance secondary to abdominal hypertension is a common situation in an operating room (laparoscopy) or an intensive care unit. As highlighted in the article, abdominal hypertension may lead to an increase in pulse pressure variations in this setting.1 to our knowledge, the ability of dynamic index to predict fluid responsiveness in the specific obese population has not yet been tested. The possible impact of obesity should be more complex than stated by Dr. Roth. Indeed, a direct effect of the fat distribution in obese patients is a reduction in the respiratory system compliance due to the reduction in lung and chest wall compliance.4,5 As mentioned previously, decrease in chest wall compliance will induce an increase in pulse pressure variations. In contrast, during decreased lung compliance, airway pressure transmission is reduced such that the cyclic changes in intrathoracic pressure could be attenuated even in case of marked changes in alveolar pressure.6 Thus, Monnet et al.7 recently demonstrated that the predictive value of pulse pressure variations is related to lung compliance. The clinical impact of these hypothetic mechanisms, which is probably low, except for morbid obese patients, remains to be demonstrated. We do not agree with Dr. Roth when he claims that administering neuromuscular blockade may result in a lower volume infusion. This affirmation is not supported by any publication. The impact of neuromuscular blockade administered in anesthetized patients without pathological decrease in chest wall compliance on dynamic index has never been demonstrated. Furthermore, most of the patients included in validation studies of dynamic index in intensive care unit were not paralyzed.8 On the contrary, we totally agree with Dr. Roth that stroke volume variations and its surrogates should not be the endpoint of therapy. As clearly mentioned in the article, the dynamic index must be considered as useful tools to predict an increase in stroke volume after volume expansion. But they clearly cannot help to answer the following question: Does my patient need an increase in stroke volume?


This study was aimed at finalizing the details of a standardized test to determine the Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness of laminated composites. A large number of end-notched flexure tests were performed on glass/epoxy, two graphite/epoxies, and on graphite/bismaleimide specimens. Tests were performed directly from the preimplanted insert as well as from Mode II precracks. Results were combined with those from previous experimental and numerical studies and used to extract recommendations for the proposed standard. A compliance calibration method of data reduction was used. It was found that the results from only two compliance tests, along with the compliance from the fracture toughness test, are sufficient to characterize a specimen's compliance versus crack length relation. Furthermore, the unloading line and compliance data from the non-precracked toughness test can be used to accurately locate the new crack front, which allows determination of both the non-precracked and precracked toughness from the same specimen. It is shown that accurate and repeatable toughness values are obtained provided that the ratio of crack length to half-span length is 0.6, that compliance tests are performed to a target maximum load corresponding to 0.25 GIIc at each crack length, and that toughness values are only accepted if the actual energy release rate during compliance testing is in-between 15 and 35 % of the computed value of GIIc.


We propose a novel extension to traffic accident simulation by means of semantic 3D environment information allowing for a broader view by incorporating the entire close-by environment. In this course, the effect of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can be simulated, as well as the visibility of objects from people's perspectives. We present an enclosed pipeline generating 3D objects, their extents and relative positions as well as their semantic class from a combination of photogrammetric recordings and LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) scans. By adjusting the desired level of detail, these objects are suitable for both direct integration into the 3D scene reconstruction for use in the accident simulation software PC-Crash, as well as for fine tuning parameters in traffic flow simulations and for convincing visualization and presentation of simulation results, be it in courts or to policy makers in urban planning.


When a programmer is faced with the task of modifying code written by others, he or she must first gain an understanding of the concepts and entities used by the program. Comments and identifiers are the two main sources of such knowledge. In the case of identifiers, the meaning can be hidden in abbreviations that make comprehension more difficult. A tool that can automatically replace abbreviations with their full word meanings would improve the comprehension ability (especially of less experienced programmers) to understand and work with the code. Such a tool first needs to isolate abbreviations within the identifiers. When identifiers are separated by division markers such as underscores or camel-casing, this isolation task is trivial. However, many identifiers lack these division markers. Therefore, the first task of automatic expansion is separation of identifiers into their constituent parts. Presented here is a comparison of three techniques that accomplish this task: a random algorithm (used as a straw man), a greedy algorithm, and a neural network based algorithm. The greedy algorithm's performance ranges from 75 to 81 percent correct, while the neural network's performance ranges from 71 to 95 percent correct.


This article examines how builders and users contested the cultural, political, and social mission and meaning of the Hà Nội Central Library [Bibliothèque centrale de Hanoi] from 1919 to 1941. I argue that the central library was not just a symbol of Western modernity, but a public space in which modern practices were defied and defined by Vietnamese students, urban readers, and administrators. Library readers freely accessed diverse print matter, practiced self-directed learning, and created a social space for study, research, and leisure. Through this historical study, I reveal how the library was a contested colonial institution and a formative space of urban social life.


Ultracytochemical localization of ATPase during development of rice endosperm was performed using a lead phosphate precipitation technique. The results indicated that, at the coenocyte and ceilularization stages, active ATPase was mainly distributed in an embryo sac wall, nucleus, and plasma membrane. At the early stage of development and differentiation, active ATPase was observed in the plasma membrane. At the grain filling stage, ATPase was highly active in the plasma membrane, intercellular space, and plasmodesmata in aleurone, moderately active on the plasma membrane in subaleurone. In starchy endosperm, ATPase was localized in the plasma membrane and degenerated nucleus. ATPase activity also appeared around vacuole and protein body in endosperm cell. The relationships between the ultracytochemical localization of ATPase and its function during the development of rice endosperm were discussed. Overall, ATPase was involved in the process of nutrition absorption and protein synthesis.


Dissimilar weld region located at the cooling tube of pump was damaged and failed. We performed a root cause analysis using the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy for the fractured surface. Many internal defects were shown in the fracture section. Root cause analysis shows that the failure is due to welding at higher temperature over 1000. This was confirmed by high-temperature cracks observed with SEM. In this study Failure scenario including initial crack generation, propagation of corrosion cracks and final failure, has been constructed and verified.


Thesis: Ph. D. in Climate Physics and Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2016.


Background: To date no effective therapy has been demonstrated for COVID-19. In vitro, studies indicated that ivermectin (IVM) has antiviral effect. Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of ivermectin (IVM) as add-on therapy to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin (AZT) in treatment of COVID-19. Methods: This Pilot clinical trial conducted on hospitalized adult patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 diagnosed according to WHO interim guidance. Sixteen Patients received a single dose of IVM 200Mcg /kg on admission day as add on therapy to hydroxychloroquine ( HCQ)and Azithromycin (AZT) and were compared with 71 controls received HCQ and AZT matched in age, gender, clinical features, and comorbidities. The primary outcome was percentage of cured patients, defined as symptoms free to be discharged from the hospital and 2 consecutive negative PCR test from nasopharyngeal swabs at least 24 hours apart. The secondary outcomes were time to cure in both groups and evaluated by measuring time from admission of the patient to the hospital till discharge. Results: Of 87 patients included in the study,t he mean age {+/-} SD (range) of patients in the IVM group was similar to controls [44.87 {+/-} 10.64 (28-60) vs 45.23 {+/-} 18.47 (8-80) years, p=0.78] Majority of patients in both groups were male but statistically not significant [11(69%) versus 52 (73%), with male: female ratio 2.21 versus 2.7-, p=0.72) All the patients of IVM group were cured compared with the controls [ 16 (100 %) vs 69 (97.2 %)]. Two patients died in the controls. The mean time to stay in the hospital was significantly lower in IVM group compared with the controls (7.62 {+/-}2.75 versus 13.22 {+/-}.90 days, p=0.00005, effect size= 0.82). No adverse events were observed Conclusions : Add-on use of IVM to HCQ and AZT had better effectiveness, shorter hospital stay, and relatively safe compared with controls. however, a larger prospective study with longer follow up may be needed to validate these results.


Abstract. Visibility is a common measure to describe the spatial properties of an environment related to the spatial behaviour. Isovists represent the space that can be seen from one observation point, and they are used to analyse the existence of obstacles affecting or blocking intervisibility in an area. Although point clouds depict the as-built reality in a very detailed and accurate way, literature addressing the analysis of visibility in 3D, and more specifically the usage of point clouds to visibility analysis, is rather limited. In this paper, a methodology to evaluate visibility from point clouds in indoor environments is proposed, resulting in the creation of 3D isovists. Point cloud is firstly discretized in a voxel-based structure and voxels are labelled into 'exterior', 'occupied', 'visible' and 'occluded' based on an occupancy followed by a visibility analysis performed from a ray-tracing algorithm. 3D Isovists are created from the boundary of visible voxels from an observer position and considering as input parameters the visual angle, maximum line of sight, and eye gaze direction.


The lead concentration in soil and of plant (Eucalyptus) samples from different areas in Baghdad city (Zafarana, Sheikh Omar Street and Al Zawara Park). The results shows that the concentration of lead element is higher than the world average of uncontaminated soils. Depending on the results of the Geoaccumulation index it can be seen that the soil samples collected from Al Zawara Park were moderately polluted while the soil samples collected from the Zafarana district were moderate to severely contaminated and the soil samples collected from the Sheikh Omar street were heavily contaminated with lead element and this is clearly evident as a result of the impact of industrial activity in the region. Furthermore, the highest values of BCF were observed in Al Zawara Park and this evidence may be related to the plant age in this area.


A development study is presented here for the analysis and processing of crosswell seismic data. This work uses direct arrivals and reflections to construct an image. Use of reflections in addition to transmissions promises to provide higher resolution sections. To this end, high frequency crosswell data, from the Midale field of southeastern Saskatchewan, have been processed for reflections. The data were acquired by Shell Development Company for Shell Canada Ltd. as part of their EOR monitoring studies. Raw field data showed a complex assortment of wave modes that included direct compressional and shear waves, head waves, guided waves, converted transmitted waves and reflected shear waves. A traveltime inversion technique (layer-stripping via raytracing) was developed to obtain Pand S-wave interval velocities from the respective direct arrivals. Further analysis of the receiver-gathered data showed evidence of primary reflected downgoing arrivals as well as the primary reflected upgoing arrivals. Downgoing primary reflections were selected and processed with the upgoing reflections to obtain a subsurface image. The reconstruction method used is similar to conventional VSPCDP mapping. Crosswell geometry is shown to provide an extended subsurface coverage away from the borehole which can complement the interpretation of well logs.