This study investigated the shear performance of an RC beam strengthened in shear with externally bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips, subjected to a cyclic loading for 2 million cycles at 1 Hz. The stress level in the stirrups caused by the cyclic loading used in this study was higher than those typically used in fatigue studies, which could have caused the yielding of some stirrups from the beginning of cyclic loading. This was done to reflect the fact that many RC beams in need of shear strengthening do not meet the minimum stirrup requirement for the new and increased shear demand. The experimental results obtained in this study and a comprehensive review of the existing literature showed that RC beams strengthened in shear with externally bonded CFRP could survive 2 million cycles of cyclic loading without failure. Furthermore, the residual shear strength of the FRP-strengthened beam appeared to be greater, albeit slightly, than the static shear strength of the unstrengthened control beam. This study's results also suggested that limiting the interfacial stress in CFRP strips to less than 1.5 MPa or 25% of its ultimate interfacial strength would increase fatigue life by avoiding debonding of CFRP strips.


"New Active Birth" will help you and your partner prepare for and experience an Active Birth. Naturally, throughout time and the world over, women have chosen to walk, stand, squat, lie - to move their bodies freely and actively to find the most comfortable positions for labour and birth. It is only we in the west who have the extraordinary notion that a woman should lie on her back in a position that defies the laws of nature and gravity. With this book, you can learn to develop all your body's resources to deal with the instinctive experience of childbirth. It is also for partners, teachers, midwives and everyone involved, to help mothers get up off the delivery table and to bring back some of the common sense which has been overlooked by modern obstetrics. "New Active Birth" is the new and revised edition of Janet Balaskas' pioneering and acclaimed "Active Birth" covering over 180 clear black and white photographs and line drawings throughout. Fully updated and extended with new information - includes sections on Water Birth and Recovery After Birth. It offers revised and expanded prenatal and postnatal exercises with step by step photographs. It presents a detailed up-to-the minute section covering every aspect of Active Birth at home and in hospital and the Active Birth Movement. Janet Balaskas is the founder of the Active Birth Movement. The mother of four children, she trained with the National Childbirth Trust and is a counsellor for childbirth.


which is frequently an important factor in the causation, the severity,and the persistenceof the trouble. If he has undertakensome serious study of the psychodynamicsof domesticrelationshipshe is in a unique position to recognize and assessthe disturbance,and to offer help, often at an early stage in the trouble, long before the partners might seek marriage counselling on their own initiative. His relationshipwith all membersof the family may well give him a particularly good opportunity to use his knowledge and experienceto the best possible effect.


All fisheries-management models incorporate simplifying assumptions about ecological and oceanographic mechanisms that are fundamentally uncertain or stochastic, but exploited fisheries are also subject to equally important uncertainties associated with fisherman behavior. Fishermen make decisions ranging from long-term entry/exit decisions to daily or even hourly decisions about where and how to fish. These decisions are influenced by regulations, technology, weather, and expectations about prices, costs, and abundance. They ultimately determine the spatial and temporal pattern of mortality in'an exploited fishery. Although biologists have tried to incorporate fisherman behavior into management models, much of the work is ad hoc, whereas economics has a rich tradition of both conceptual and empirical behavioral modeling. This paper is an attempt to demonstrate the potential usefulness of economics-based behavioral modeling, with data collected for biological management. A model of participation and spatial choice is constructed, and the economic model is linked to a biological model of metapopulation dynamics and used to forecast the implications of management measures that might be applied to the red sea urchin fishery in California. The results show that modeling spatial behavior strongly affects the predicted outcomes of management policies even if the policies are not spatial in character.


Like any other learning process, learning a new language might be accompanied with various problems, which includes errors. Errors may be considered as markers of the learner's transitional competence. They are considered an obligatory feature of the learning process. Besides, they can provide evidence with regard to the system of the language that L2/FL learners are using or have learnt at a particular point throughout the language learning process. By analysing errors in learners' written production, it is probable that strategies employed in their SLA may be discovered (Ellis, 2008; Lim, 2010; Al-Khresheh, 2011; Al-Qudah, 2012).
Among the areas where Jordanian learners of English face much difficulty while writing in English is mostly in word order. It has always been a source of great difficulty, not only for Jordanian learners, but also for learners from other linguistic backgrounds. The use of English L2 word order by Jordanian EFL learners can be very challenging at times. While there is much research done on the acquisition of English as a FL by Arab learners, the literature suggests that there is limited research on the misuse of word order. This fact has been clearly acknowledged by several researchers who declared that word order has not been given enough attention. Therefore, this study was aimed to fill that gap through an in-depth investigation on word order use by Jordanian EFL learners. Specifically, this study aimed at identifying the linguistic factors causing errors in the use of word order, namely: interlingual and intralingual interference. It also aimed at identifying the most common English L2 word order errors and comprising them under a linguistic taxonomy, based on the linguistic category taxonomy. Identification of word order similarities and differences between the subjects' L1 and L2 was also carried out by this study. To achieve the main
iv
objectives, a composition test was carried out on a group of 447 Jordanian school students. Following the producers of Error Analysis approach, the data was collocated, analysed and explained.
The findings of the study confirmed that English and Arabic are completely different from one another with respect to word order. While English shows a rigid order in its grammatical and syntactic structures, Arabic has a rather free choice. Secondly, the findings also suggested that both interlingual and intralingual interference possess their own linguistic effect on the process of SLA. These were major problems for the present subjects in their use of English L2 word order structures. Thirdly, the subjects committed a total of 2331 word order errors. Of these, 1179 errors were due to interlingual interference from subjects' L1. The remaining 1152 word order errors were ascribed to intralingual interference from the subjects' TL itself. Fourthly, the most common types of English L2 word order errors made by subjects were identified and classified into various grammatical categories. The process of identification as well as analysis was based on a data-driven approach. On the basis of these findings, pedagogical implications were discussed and a list of noteworthy recommendations for further research was put forward.


We introduce graphene antidot lattice waveguides: nanostructured graphene where a region of pristine graphene is sandwiched between regions of graphene antidot lattices. The band gap in the surrounding antidot lattices enable localized states to emerge in the central waveguide region. We model the waveguides via a position-dependent mass term in the Dirac approximation of graphene, and arrive at analytical results for the dispersion relation and spinor eigenstates of the localized waveguide modes. To include atomistic details we also use a tight-binding model, which is in excellent agreement with the analytical results. The waveguides resemble graphene nanoribbons, but without the particular properties of ribbons that emerge due to the details of the edge. We show that electrons can be guided through kinks without additional resistance and that transport through the waveguides is robust against structural disorder.


'Home' and the connotations of this term are little understood in the context of post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. While modern suburban living was rather unusual in this region under socialism, more and more people live in suburbia today. This article concerns itself with the homes of residents in the former socialist-era summerhouse settlements in Estonia. Its aim is to further an understanding of the origins and (dis)continuities of the notion of home for individuals living in a post-socialist environment. This study is based on ethnographic fieldwork. In this article, we present socialist and post-socialist housing in context and describe how it has been shaped by changes in society. Our findings show that the homes of informants appear to strengthen their sense of freedom, autonomy and stability, while simultaneously inspiring their dreams and imaginations of home.


We present a generalization of Zubov's method to perturbed differential equations. The goal is to characterize the domain of attraction of a set which is uniformly locally asymptotically stable under all admissible time varying perturbations. We show that in this general setting the straightforward generalization of the classical Zubov's equations has a unique viscosity solution which characterizes the robust domain of attraction as a suitable sublevel set.


The precise pressure control in common rail is the prerequisite for the excellent performance of common rail diesel engine. Because of the complexity of engine working conditions, conventional PID controller cannot meet the demand of flexible control of common rail pressure, especially when engine load changes largely and rapidly. To overcome the shortcomings of conventional PID, feed forward Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) has been applied in the common rail pressure control system. The high pressure common rail system layout is drawn and the principle of common rail pressure control is introduced. Four control functions are carried out: "Rail pressure set point calculation", "Feed forward controller", "ADRC controller", and "Flow to duty cycle". Finally, experimental results comparing between feed forward ADRC controller and conventional PID controller shows that: feed forward ADRC controller is more effective than conventional PID controller because it is smaller in error, quicker in track speed and stronger in anti-jamming ability. It ensures the common rail engine meet the strict specification of the law based on the good dynamic performance.


We present an exhaustive analysis of the numerical evolution of the Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations for the case of a real scalar field endowed with a quadratic self-interaction potential. The self-gravitating equilibrium configurations are called oscillatons and are close relatives of boson stars, their complex counterparts. Unlike boson stars, for which the oscillations of the two components of the complex scalar field are such that the spacetime geometry remains static, oscillatons give rise to a geometry that is time-dependent and oscillatory in nature. However, they can still be classified into stable (S-branch) and unstable (U-branch) cases. We have found that S-oscillatons are indeed stable configurations under small perturbations and typically migrate to other S-profiles when perturbed strongly. On the other hand, U-oscillatons are intrinsically unstable: they migrate to the S-branch if their mass is decreased and collapse to black holes if their mass is increased even by a small amount. The S-oscillatons can also be made to collapse to black holes if enough mass is added to them, but such collapse can be efficiently prevented by the gravitational cooling mechanism in the case of diluted oscillatons.


As the foundation of cloud computing, Server consolidation allows multiple computer infrastructures running as virtual machines in a single physical node. It improves the utilization of most kinds of resource but memory under x86 architecture. Because of inaccurate memory usage estimate and the lack of memory resource management, there is much service performance degradation in data centers, even though they have occupied a large amount of memory. Furthermore, memory becomes insufficient for a physical server when a lot of virtual machines depend on it. In order to improve this, we present a dynamic memory scheduling system called DMSS, which can manage memory resources in server consolidation environments and allocate memory among virtual machines on demand. We have designed and implemented the corresponding memory scheduling policy based on Xen virtualization platform to enhance memory efficiency and achieve service level agreement. The benchmark shows that DMSS can make an accurate and rapid response to memory changes and save more than 30% physical memory with less than 5% performance degradation. DMSS actually brings in economic benefits to cloud service providers because more virtual machines can be accommodated at lower costs.


We have been working on optically driven microrobots capable of single cell manipulation and real-time reaction force sensing in liquid. In this report, we have developed three key technologies to realize 3D manipulation, imaging and sensing of a single living cell. (1) Fluorescent microrobot for long time imaging. (2) Surface functionalization of the robot for effective capture of cells. (3) 3D manipulation and imaging system for realtime observation. These results should lead to integrated micro robotic system that can remotely manipulate living cells in liquid to study cell-cell interactions, cellular response to mechanical stimulation, and to assemble cells into 3D structures for tissue engineering.


MALAPA bulletin is a supplemental teaching material that is attractively presented to give new nuance in teaching and learning process and to make the students able to understand the materials at ease. This research is meant to create a new product; MALAPA bulletin, that is appropriate to be used in teaching and learning process. The purposes of this research are: to produce na valid bulletin, to describe student's interests and to know student's thinking abilities toward the USAge of Mari Belajar IPA (MALAPA) bulletin. The development design implemented in this research was 4-D development model. The results of the research show that the bulletin is valid category with 4.11 of expert validity. Student's interest percentage toward the teaching and learning uses MALAPA bulletin is 83.54% with a good category. Student's critical thinking ability percentage acquired 78.5% with a good category. MALAPA bulletin developed is weekly published where it contains materials that is modified as attractive as possible like warta sains, komik strip, TTSains, pantun sains, as well as the exercises. Based on this research result, it can be concluded that MALAPA bulletin is appropriate to be used as an interesting supplemental teaching material.


Recently, the notion of Dataspace has been introduced as a virtual space where many data sources are managed regardless of their structures and locations; this, with the aim to return best efforts answers to user's queries. In fact, a dataspace is a set of participants which are data sources connected to the dataspace and a set of relationships between those participants. A data source, a participant, could be a file, a relational database, XML repository, web pages and so on. However, no formal definitions about relationships which could be built among the data sources have been proposed. Therefore, one of the challenges occurring in this new abstraction of data management is to incrementally build meaningful relationships between sources. In this paper, we introduce SEM-HDM, a SEMantics-based Heterogeneous Data Management which aims at constructing semantic relationships between heterogeneous sources of data based on a defined syntax and semantics. In fact, SEM-HDM first constructs a Semantic dictionary and then a reasoning dictionary which is improved incrementally by analyzing user's activities on a given dataspace. We show on an example of three heterogeneous sources of data how SEM-HDM builds his semantic and reasoning dictionary.


Purpose: To evaluate an efficient iterative deconvolution method (RSEMD) for improving the quantitative accuracy of previously reconstructed breast images by commercial positron emission mammography (PEM) scanner. Materials and Methods: The RSEMD method was tested on breast phantom data and clinical PEM imaging data. Data acquisition was performed on a commercial Naviscan Flex Solo II PEM camera. This method was applied to patient breast images previously reconstructed with Naviscan software (MLEM) to determine improvements in resolution, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and contrast to noise ratio (CNR.) Results: In all of the patients' breast studies the post-processed images proved to have higher resolution and lower noise as compared with images reconstructed by conventional methods. In general, the values of SNR reached a plateau at around 6 iterations with an improvement factor of about 2 for post-processed Flex Solo II PEM images. Improvements in image resolution after the application of RSEMD have also been demonstrated. Conclusions: A rapidly converging, iterative deconvolution algorithm with a novel resolution subsets-based approach RSEMD that operates on patient DICOM images has been used for quantitative improvement in breast imaging. The RSEMD method can be applied to clinical PEM images to improve image quality to diagnostically acceptable levels and will be crucial in order to facilitate diagnosis of tumor progression at the earliest stages. The RSEMD method can be considered as an extended Richardson-Lucy algorithm with multiple resolution levels (resolution subsets).


Bite traces on fossilised bones can provide important information on predator-prey relations and interactions in ancient environments. In 2009, two new ichnotaxa, Linichnus serratus and Knethichnus parallelum , were introduced to develop the application of bite traces as an ichnological tool. Ichnotaxa defined by theropod bite traces can provide useful information for understanding feeding behaviour. However, objective interpretation of possible bite traces can be difficult using traditional visual inspection. In this study, the bite traces on a fossilised dinosaur bone were comprehensively examined by correlating traditional naked-eye in spection with computed to mography (CT) imaging, used to visualise the internal morphology of the bite traces and in particular, to clarify the appearance of one possibly healed bite trace. A forensic pathologist visually examined the bone with the aid of stereomicroscopy and a radiologist analysed the CT scans. Sixteen different scanner settings were used to optimise the CT parameters and avoid signal at tenuation, in the form of hypointense artefacts in the central trabeculated part of the bone fragment. The use of CT scanning provided information on internal morphology from the vicinity of the bite trace, including hyperdense zones, not identified using visual inspection alone. By applying the extended CT scale, the dense and radiopaque cortical bone layer could be clearly identified and applied as a pathomorphological marker to correctly distinguish non-healed from healed wounds. In conclusion, the authors demonstrate that external visual examination of trace fossils by ichnologists in combination with interior examination using CT imaging can be applied to characterise ichnotaxa defined by bite traces and potentially provide clues on ancient feeding behaviour.


We report on our experience in using various grammar-based test suite generation methods to test 61 single-pass compilers that undergraduate students submitted for the practical project of a computer architecture course. We show that (1) all test suites constructed systematically following different grammar coverage criteria fall far behind the instructor's test suite in achieved code coverage, in the number of triggered semantic errors, and in detected failures and crashes; (2) a medium-sized positive random test suite triggers more crashes than the instructor's test suite, but achieves lower code coverage and triggers fewer non-crashing errors; and (3) a combination of the systematic and random test suites performs as well or better than the instructor's test suite in all aspects and identifies errors or crashes in every single submission. We then develop a light-weight extension of the basic grammar-based testing framework to capture contextual constraints, by encoding scoping and typing information as ``semantic mark-up tokens'' in the grammar rules. These mark-up tokens are interpreted by a small generic core engine when the tests are rendered, and tests with a syntactic structure that cannot be completed into a valid program by choosing appropriate identifiers are discarded. % We formalize individual error models by overwriting individual mark-up tokens, and generate tests that are guaranteed to break specific contextual properties of the language. We show that a fully automatically generated random test suite with 15 error models achieves roughly the same coverage as the instructor's test suite, and outperforms it in the number of triggered semantic errors and detected failures and crashes. Moreover, all failing tests indicate real errors, and we have detected errors even in the instructor's reference implementation.


In this research, fatigue tests were carried out to investigate the fatigue behavior of corroded structural members in boundary with concrete. Specimens were corroded by accelerated exposure tests and then used in the fatigue tests. FEM analyses were also performed on the models of the corroded surfaces of the specimens and the simulated corrosion surfaces to investigate the stress concentration at the corrosion pit in the boundary. The experimental and analytical results clarified the fatigue behaviors of corroded steel plates in boundary with concrete. The method for evaluating and predicting the fatigue life of corroded steel members were also proposed.


The sintering behavior of B4C can be significantly affected by the additions of Si. The B4C based ceramics are prepared via hot pressing. The mixtures that contained initially 15wt% Si sintered at 1830°C for 0.5h, 98.7% relative density reched. The composition and microstructure of the composites are characterized by means of XRD and SEM. Some reactions occurred during the sintering of the two powders. The products are B4C, SiB6, SiC and B sub>12.97 Si.03 C2 when B4C+15wt%Si eutectic composite sintered at 1830°C for 0.5h. The Flexural Strength and Fracture Toughness of composites reached 447.2MP and 4.62 MPa•m sup>1/2 highly be improved respectively.


ABSTRACT:This article applies a citizenship lens to a narrative of personal and familial trauma, refugee flight, immigration, psychosis, and, over time, the building of a life and rebuilding of sense of self. Rowe's citizenship model offers a useful framework for considering the familial, social, governmental, and societal conditions that shape people's lives and minds. It supports the thesis that substantial possession of the 5 Rs of Citizenship (rights, responsibilities, roles, resources, and relationships), plus a sense of belonging (Rowe, 2015) in at least a few of the systems we occupy— familial, social, educational, vocational, civic, and faith— are essential to a person's ability to establish or maintain a full and productive life within society. Although the article largely reflects a single, personal narrative, it touches upon current research and practice to support its thesis that citizenship as a social and existential construct is multifaceted, requiring an understanding of the impact that legal, material, relational/contextual, and perceptual factors have upon a person's ability to live, and thereby build, a life.


The interventional nature of recommendation has attracted increasing attention in recent years. It particularly motivates researchers to formulate learning and evaluating recommendation as causal inference and data missing-not-at-random problems. However, few take seriously the consequence of violating the critical assumption of overlapping, which we prove can significantly threaten the validity and interpretation of the outcome. We find a critical piece missing in the current understanding of information retrieval (IR) systems: as interventions, recommendation not only affects the already observed data, but it also interferes with the target domain (distribution) of interest. We then rephrase optimizing recommendation as finding an intervention that best transports the patterns it learns from the observed domain to its intervention domain. Towards this end, we use domain transportation to characterize the learning-intervention mechanism of recommendation. We design a principled transportation-constraint risk minimization objective and convert it to a two-player minimax game. We prove the consistency, generalization, and excessive risk bounds for the proposed objective, and elaborate how they compare to the current results. Finally, we carry out extensive real-data and semi-synthetic experiments to demonstrate the advantage of our approach, and launch online testing with a real-world IR system.


Endothelin (ET) receptors activate heterotrimeric G proteins that are members of the Gi, Gq, and Gs families but may also activate members of other families such as Gα12/13. Gα13 has multiple complex cellular effects that are similar to those of ET. We studied the ability of ET receptors to activate Gα13 using an assay for G protein α-chain activation that is based on the fact that an activated (GTP-bound) α-chain is resistant to trypsinization compared with an inactive (GDP-bound) α-chain. Nonhydrolyzable guanine nucleotides and AlMgF protected Gα13 from degradation by trypsin. In membranes from human embryonic kidney 293 cells that coexpress ETB receptors and α13, ET-3 and 5'-guanylylimidodiphosphate [Gpp(NH)p] increased the protection of α13 compared with Gpp(NH)p alone. The specificity of ETBreceptor-α13 coupling was documented by showing that β2receptors and isoproterenol or ETAreceptors and ET-1 did not activate α13 and that a specific antagonist for ETB receptors blocked ET-3-dependent activation of α13.


A method for computing lower bounds on capacities of 2-dimensional constraints having a symmetric presentation in either the horizontal or the vertical direction is presented. The method is a generalization of the method of Calkin and Wilf (SIAM J. Discrete Math., 1998). Previous best lower bounds on capacities of certain constraints are improved using the method. It is also shown how this method, as well as their method for computing upper bounds on the capacity, can be applied to constraints which are not of finite-type. Additionally, capacities of 2 families of multi-dimensional constraints are given exactly.


In Texas, great egret Casmerodius albus chicks attack younger nestmates, often fatally (siblicide). By contrast, the young of neighboring great blue herons Ardea herodias seldom strike or kill siblings. These interspecific differences seem related to prey size: only fish provided by egret parents are small enough for chicks to monopolize (a process facilitated by aggression). Experimentally cross-fostered heron chicks raised on small prey by egret parents became siblicidal, but the reverse procedure of cross-fostering egret chicks did not reduce aggression or siblicide.


This paper provides an overview of the current economic situation in North Korea and suggests some possible strategies for recovery, including ways of mobilizing financing and implementing essential market reforms. Throughout the 1990s, North Korea suffered a severe economic downturn after the abrupt collapse of the cooperative network of socialist countries. Because the needs of the military had been given first priority and foreign trade was limited, infrastructure and capital stock deteriorated. At present North Korea is in a poverty trap, and the plans of the State Planning Commission no longer work. In addition to the official economy, North Korea's overall economic structure includes economies run by the Workers Party, the military, and ordinary citizens (the informal market). Efforts to promote foreign investment and trade, combined with only small changes in this inefficient economic structure, are unlikely to succeed. North Korea's economic rehabilitation should begin with more market-oriented policy reforms and capital formation, but because the country is unable to design and implement economic reforms or to accumulate capital stock on its own, assistance must be sought from outside.


AT a recent meeting with a new dairy client I was informed that the herd was 'closed' as no cattle had been purchased for 20 years. However, this herd is typical of many – expanding cow numbers without expanding housing facilities on the main holding, requiring housing and grazing at premises away from home. On visiting the other premises there were bulling and in-calf heifers grazing with nose-to-nose contact with a neighbour's cattle. Managing biosecurity under such circumstances is challenging.

The …


A survey of family physicians was carried out among members of the state academies of family practice and graduates of residency programs in Ohio and North Carolina. Results of the survey demonstrated both an increasing number of laboratories in the offices of all family physicians as well as in increasing variety of laboratory procedures offered. It was found that solo practitioners frequently perform laboratory work themselves, while group practitioners more often delegate laboratory work to other office staff, such as certified laboratory technicians or nurses. Quality control was offered in one-half of the private offices surveyed, and in three-quarters of the office that employed certified laboratory technicians. Results of this study suggest that the increasing number of family practice residency graduates may result in an increased demand for certified laboratory technicians in private office laboratories.


Source- and age-related biomarker and isotopic data were measured for more than 1000 crude oil samples from wells and seeps collected above approximately 55N latitude. A unique, multitiered chemometric (multivariate statistical) decision tree was created that allowed automated classification of 31 genetically distinct circum-Arctic oil families based on a training set of 622 oil samples. The method, which we call decision-tree chemometrics, uses principal components analysis and multiple tiers of K-nearest neighbor and SIMCA (soft independent modeling of class analogy) models to classify and assign confidence limits for newly acquired oil samples and source rock extracts. Geochemical data for each oil sample were also used to infer the age, lithology, organic matter input, depositional environment, and identity of its source rock. These results demonstrate the value of large petroleum databases where all samples were analyzed using the same procedures and instrumentation.


BACKGROUND: Management of patients with giant hemangiomas of the liver encounters persistent controversy. Although recent case series suggest a low complication rate with nonoperative management, the classic paradigm of preventive operative resection remains. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of 492 patients with giant hepatic hemangioma ( 4 cm in size) diagnosed between 1985 and 2005 at Mayo Clinic Rochester. Long-term outcomes were assessed by patient survey, with a follow-up of 11 6.4 years. RESULTS: Of 492 patients, 289 responded to the survey. In the nonoperative group (n 233), 20% had persistent or new onset of hemangioma-associated symptoms, including potentially lifethreatening complications in 2%. In the operative group (n 56), perioperative complications occurred in 14%, including potentially life-threatening complications in 7%. None of the operative patients had persistent or new onset of hemangioma-associated symptoms after resection of the dominant hemangioma. In group comparison, the rate of adverse events was similar (20% versus 14%; p 0.45) with an overall low risk for potentially life-threatening complications (2% versus 7%; p 0.07). Size of hemangiomas was not associated with adverse events in either group. Subjective health status and quality of life at follow-up were similar in both groups (p 0.54). CONCLUSIONS: Clinical observation of patients with giant hemangioma of the liver has a similar rate of complications compared with operative management, but might prevent the need for invasive interventions in some patients. Clinical observation is preferred in most patients and operative treatment should be reserved for patients with severe symptoms or disease-associated complications. ( J Am Coll Surg 2010;211:724–730. © 2010 by the American College of Surgeons)


This article analyses the social and legal construction of an interactive advertising project. The project consisted in the transmission of multimedia content, via Bluetooth, to the mobile phones of users at stations in the Paris underground. In this case the legal qualification of the Bluetooth identifier and the modalities for obtaining users' consent to receive a commercial call are important and contested issues. They reveal the contrasting positions of actors from the technical, legal and commercial worlds, as well as the compromises that were reached as the project advanced, up to its submittal to the CNIL* for assessment with respect to potential privacy threats. This process of configuration, leading to a process of construction, is generally neglected in studies on uses, which all too often consider the environment as "given". The project studied here exemplifies a more general tension between two different conceptions of the accessibility of mobile passers-by in urban public spaces, which also paint different pictures of urbanity and the public sphere: accessibility based on proximity, and accessibility based on connectivity and reachability through mediated communication.


Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment Act or the TIME Act Directs the Secretary of Labor to discontinue issuing to any new profit or non-profit or governmental entity special wage certificates (which permit individuals with disabilities, including individuals employed in agriculture, to be paid at lower than minimum wages). Prescribes requirements for a three-year phase-out of all certificates. Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to repeal authority and requirements for the issuance of such certificates three years after enactment of this Act. Requires revocation of any certificates remaining at that time.


Near-field scanning optical microscopy is a technique providing images of structures with spatial resolution better than A/2, which is undetectable in far-field where the Abbe law of limiting resolution is critical. In parallel to the optical imaging, topography maps are also acquired. Near-field scanning optical microscopy measurements can be performed both in air and liquid environments. The later makes the technique very useful for biomaterials analysis offering information that could not be obtained with other methods. Our work presents the results of recent studies on application of near-field scanning optical microscopy to imaging of cells in air as well as in physiological buffers. Differences in cell's topography and morphology have been noticed between two cell lines from human bladder non-malignant (HCV29) and malignant (T24) cancers. Pre sented results are part of the research that characterizes physiological changes of cells depending on stage of cancer.


Scleroderma may be one of the most severe forms of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). We retrospectively evaluated its incidence, predictor variables and outcome in 133 patients who survived at least 4 months after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The 5-year cumulative incidence was 15.5% in patients with chronic GVHD. The generalized form had a progressive course despite immunosuppressive therapy. Eosinophilia, autoimmune markers, and previous skin involvement by chronic GVHD with disorders of pigmentation were significantly associated with an increased probability of developing scleroderma.


Magnetic susceptibility of single liposomes sized 1-10 m was measured. Solid magnetic susceptibility of lipid-egg lecithin equalling chi et = -(5.038 +/- 0.035) X 10(-7) e.m.u./cm3 was determined. The liposome susceptibility was shown to be proportional to the number of bilayers in it and to reflect its packing.


Gerald Murnane's Landscape With Landscape is an intriguing book, full of contradictions and inconsistencies, teasing in the way it seems to be deliberately constructed to escape interpretation. Its anonymous, subversive and conceited first-person narrator cum protagonist, recognizable from other books by Murnane, is also the alleged writer of the six stories in the volume. In this capacity he gradually distances himself from his readers and finally, as will be further discussed, divests himself of all credibility. Thematically, truth and reality are key concepts but the narrative slides precariously between events that are 'really' taking place and a set of events that exist only in the deceptive narrator's imagination. All the stories start with a definition of place, a vantage point or a scene of departure. Significantly, as the title indicates, place and spatial perspectives are far more important than time. Seemingly matter-of-fact introductory descriptions like "I am in the backyard of my three-bedroom house in the City of Heidelberg…" or "I stood on a hill northeast of Melbourne and looked across the folds of suburbs…" turn out to be just as unreliable as the person who defines them. What the narrator claims to be a Paraguayan setting turns out to be decidedly Australian, for example. Beneath and beyond what is usually defined as reality, depths and vistas of unreality are exposed. This indeterminacy related to landscapes and perspectives affects the reading experience making the interpretation of the text fraught with intriguing uncertainty.


This dissertation documents the selection of the engine for Formula SAE car. This dissertation also documents the design and testing of the intake manifold, exhaust system, carburettor and the intake restrictor for the USQ Motorsport Formula SAE engine. Before selecting the engine thorough research into all types of engines and designs was carried out. Once the type of engine that was suitable for the Formula SAE competition was determined, all of the parameters that impacted on the selection of the engine were analysed. To accurately predict which engine was the 'optimum engine' a model of the Formula SAE car's acceleration performance was created and the calculations were undertaken using Matlab. The engine that was purchased for the Formula SAE car was sourced from a 600cc water-cooled motorcycle. Once the engine had been purchased it was possible to design the fuelling system for the Formula SAE car. In this project the fuelling system incorporated the method of aspiration, fuel mixture preparation system, the intake manifold, the intake restrictor and the exhaust system. A feasibility study that encompassed forced air induction systems for the Formula SAE car was carried out and the utilisation of multi-point fuel injection was also examined. However due to budgetary restraints neither of these systems were feasible. Therefore it was decided that the engine would be naturally aspirated and carburetted. The merits of fixed venturi carburettors and constant velocity carburettors were explored in order to select the most suitable type of carburettor for the Formula SAE engine. Research was carried out in order to find the intake manifold configuration that best suited the Formula SAE car. The USQ workshop was also liased with during the initial design period in order to ensure that the machining capabilities at the USQ could produce the required design. In order to determine if the final design of the intake manifold was feasible a prototype manifold was constructed. In order to design the restrictor various standards that are used to design flow measurement devices were incorporated. Several prototype restrictors were constructed and tested using an airflow bench. The design of the exhaust system was also investigated. It was found that the best solution in regards to the exhaust system was to retain the original exhaust manifold and purchase an aftermarket muffler. As the project developed it became clear that cooling requirements of the engine were a concern. For this reason experimental procedures were devised to determine if the original motorcycle radiator would be sufficient. Because all of the components that were designed or specified in this project are part of a system they were tested together, on the engine. Unfortunately it was not possible to obtain any meaningful test results. The reason for this was that the rest of the car was not at a stage of completion that would allow testing on dynamometer. For this reason, at the time of writing, it is uncertain whether the systems that were designed in this project matches the design criteria, which are outlined in chapter 2.


Bamboo shoots are considered as one of the useful health foods because of their rich contents of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, fibres, and minerals and very low fat. Though bamboo shoots provide lots of health benefits, their consumption is confined mostly to Southeast Asian and East Asian countries. The acceptability of bamboo shoots as popular vegetable crop is very less due to their high pungent smell and bitter acidic taste. The use of bamboo as food in India is mainly restricted to Northeastern part of the country where they form an indispensable part of several traditional speciality dishes. The different ethnic communities take fresh or fermented bamboo shoot as one of most preferred traditional food items. Some of the important bamboo based traditional foods are ushoi, soibum, rep, mesu, eup, ekhung, hirring, and so forth. Bamboo shoots should be properly processed before they are consumed as freshly harvested shoots have high content of toxic cyanogenic glycosides which may pose serious health problems. The prospect of bamboo shoot industry in Northeast India is bright due to its rich genetic resources of bamboos. However, habitat destruction and extensive use of bamboos for food, handicraft, and construction purposes have resulted in severe depletion of natural bamboo resources. This review stresses upon the high nutritive values and health benefits of bamboo shoots and their usage as important traditional foods in Northeast India. The bamboo market potential of the region and use of in vitro plant micropropagation methods as effective means of bamboo conservation are also emphasized in this paper.


This article illustrates a mode of inquiry for reaping the benefits of experiencing vicarious trauma that can be utilized in interpreter education, mentoring and supervisory relationships, debriefing, and personal reflection. An adaptation of constructivist self-development theory and a narrative therapy approach are described. The latter approach includes the uncovering of what is absent but implicit, the uncovering of actions reflective of one's personal agency, the relevant skills that one utilizes, and the social/relational history of these skills. Mitigating the risks and reaping the benefits of vicarious trauma may catalyze significant professional and personal growth such as clarification of values, self-identity, and skills, and provide interpreters with the essential fuel to sustain their passion for the work they do and the lives they live.


severe acidosis at birth are known the contribution of antenatal, intrapartum, and neonatal factors to outcome remain speculative. It does not help assessment of asphyxia at birth to continue to equate birth asphyxia solely with the Apgar score. The umbilical cord arterial blood gas concentrations are a measure of the metabolic state at which the neonate must not only establish effective respiration, but if acidotic must compensate in addition. There is a further difficulty in that it also seems from our results that the chemical drive to breathing is not a major factor in the onset of breathing: the presence or absence of hypoxaemia and hypercapnia at birth has little influence on it. This means that the presence of appreciable acidaemia at birth cannot be predicted either by the presence of spontaneous breathing or by a satisfactory Apgar score. Neither is the converse true, since normal acid-base status is found in non-breathing infants with a low Apgar score. Although Dr Addy seems to presume that continuous intrapartum fetal monitoring may benefit fetal well being, this view is not supported by the findings of the five randomised controlled studies of fetal monitoring.3 One possible reason why fetal monitoring has become established but has failed to be of proved value in gauging fetal well being is that the Apgar scoring system has been used in many studies as the index of asphyxial assessment. One feels that Dr Addy's conclusions, and particularly his practical proposals, depend on his firm acceptance of scientifically based definitions and methodology in fetal and neonatal assessment. It does not appear that his evaluation of recently published material alters the imprecision and uncertainty that confronts the clinician faced with choosing from an increasing array of resuscitative measures. The knowledge of the acid-base status at birth, so easily obtained, offers the following help to clinical care. (1) It is a guide to the obstetrician of the success or otherwise of his intrapartum surveillance and whether an intervention for "fetal distress" was or may have been appropriate. After all, current methods of fetal monitoring, almost entirely based on continuous monitoring of heart rate, remain a fairly blunt tool. (2) The contribution of respiratory and metabolic components to the pH, as well as arteriovenous differences, further help in the interpretation of the cause or extent of the degree of acidaemia present at birth. (3) The knowledge as to whether acidosis existed at birth and whether one's resuscitative efforts in the early postnatal period were effective by repeating sequential blood gas measurements is of immediate value to the clinician. (4) It would seem more logical at least to look more closely at the infants (2 20o in our study) that have both a low Apgar score and a low pH.


The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of hostile and favourable spectators on the performances of motor tasks. For the purpose of this study a total of 50 students of LNUPE were selected and randomly divided into two groups A and B, 25 each (15 male and 10 female). These subjects were tested on the selected variables such as bent knee sit ups, pull-ups (male)/flexed arm hang (female), bass stick test (crosswise), field goal speed test and dribbling test. Total 200 students of LNUPE were selected as spectators and were asked to first act as hostile spectators and then as favourable ones in order to create the two atmospheres for the study. Hostile spectators tried to disturb the subjects while they were performing by whistling, taunting, booing, shouting and hooting them whereas favourable spectators helped in facilitating the performance by clapping, cheering and appreciating the performance efforts in order to create an appropriate atmosphere. These variables were particularly chosen because of their administrative feasibility and they could be conducted very close to the spectators as the size of the spectators was a smaller one. 't Test' was employed at 0.05 level of significance to compare the performance of both the groups under hostile and favourable situations types of spectators on the performance of motor tasks. The statistical findings revealed that the performance of pull ups (male)/flexed arm hang (female), bass stick test (static balance) and field goal speed test showed a significance differences on comparison whereas bent knee sit-ups and dribbling test showed no significant differences on comparison of performances when performed under the presence of hostile and favourable spectators.


Summary Haemostatic impairments are studied in vivo using one of several murine bleeding models. However it is not known whether these models are equally appropriate for assessing coagulation or platelet function defects. It was our study objective to assess the performance of arterial, venous and combined arterial and venous murine bleeding models towards impaired coagulation or platelet function. Unfractionated heparin (UFH) or αIIbβ3 inhibitory antibody (Leo.H4) were administered to mice, and their effects on bleeding in saphenous vein, artery, and tail tip transection models were quantified and correlated with their effects on plasma clotting and ADP-induced platelet aggregation, respectively. All models exhibited similar sensitivity with UFH (EC50 dose = 0.19, 0.13 and 0.07 U/g, respectively) (95% CI = 0.14 – 0.27, 0.08 – 0.20, and 0.03 – 0.16 U/g, respectively). Maximal inhibition of ex vivo plasma clotting could be achieved with UFH doses as low as 0.03 U/g. In contrast, the saphenous vein bleeding model was less sensitive to αIIbβ3 inhibition (EC50 = 6.9 µg/ml) than tail transection or saphenous artery bleeding models (EC50 = 0.12 and 0.37 µg/ml, respectively) (95% CI = 2.4 – 20, 0.05 – 0.33, and 0.06 – 2.2 µg/ml, respectively). The EC50 of Leo.H4 for ADP-induced platelet aggregation in vitro (8.0 µg/ml) was at least 20-fold higher than that of the tail and arterial, but not the venous bleeding model. In conclusion, venous, arterial and tail bleeding models are similarly affected by impaired coagulation, while platelet function defects have a greater influence in models incorporating arterial injury.


The increase in computational power of off-the-shelf hardware offers more and more advantageous tradeoffs among efficiency, cost and availability, thus enhancing the feasibility of of cryptanalytic attacks aiming to lower the security of widely used cryptosystems. In this paper we illustrate an GPU-based software implementation of the most efficent variant of Data Encryption Standard (DES), showing the performance of a software breaker which effectively exploits the multi-core Nvidia GT200 graphic architecture. The key point is to assess how well the structure of a symmetric key cipher can fit the GPU programming model and the single instruction multiple data architectural parallelism. The proposed breaker outperforms the fastest general purpose CPU-based implementations by an order of magnitude, and, due to the vast availability of GPUs on the market, the speedup translates into a sound improvement in the cost efficiency of the attack. As opposed to solutions based either on application specific or reconfigurable hardware, the proposed implementation does not require any specific technical knowledge from the attacker in order to be successfully built, once our implementation is available. This turns out in a better cost-availability tradeoff and minimizes the required setup time for such an attack to be mounted.


This study examines the performance of disease modeling during the covid-19 pandemic, and its associated effects upon the public health measures adopted to mitigate its course. Specific attention is given to the failure of the Imperial College model, which severely overstated mortality in 189 out of 189 countries under both its "do nothing" and "mitigation" models, and 170 out of 189 countries under its extreme "suppression" model. The Covid-19 policy response is analyzed as a failure in central planning, with specific attention to the public health dimensions of the same. Public health is identified both historically and in the present day as being acutely susceptible to knowledge problems, which in turn foster the conditions for a public choice trap that causes proposed policy measures to become ineffectual or even counterproductive in disease mitigation.<br>


This study aims to investigate the mechanical properties of gold nanowires using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The effects of the cross section size and the defects on the stress strain curves of the nanowires are examined. Moreover, the inception as well as the processing of dislocationin the nanowire is accounted by means of the centro-symmetry parameter and meanwhile, the energy variation during the dislocation is calculated. Results indicated for the pristine gold nanowire, as the cross section size increases, Youngs modulus increases, but the yielding stress decreases accordingly. Once the ultimate linear point is attained, the dislocation takes place abruptly from the nanowire surfaceand extended along the {111} planes. On the other hand, for the nanowire with defect, it was found that the dislocation is initiated from the defect which can significantlyreduce the yielding stress of the nanowires.


This article examines the prospective valuation relationship between MVA and EVA. The author classified companies in the Stern Stewart Performance 1000 Universe in terms of whether they are in a tier 1 wealth profile (top-100 MVAranked companies), a tier 5 wealth profile, or a tier 10 wealth profile (bottom-100 MVA-ranked companies). Overall, the results that the market discounts economic earnings and that the wealth profile of a company matters in particular. Specifically, indicate the market discounts economic earnings for wealth creators, as opposed to the middle-to-low MVAranked companies. Consistent with financial theory, this implies that reliably positive EVA—such as that evident in the wealth creators—has intrinsic value, whereas relatively lowto-negative EVA—as present in low MVA-ranked companies—has questionable fundamental value. The author argues that wealth creators know how to rationalize capital, as they pursue positive NPV opportunities where the return on capital is higher than the cost of capital. On the other hand, low-to-negative MVA-ranked companies face risk pricing challenges as investors question the efficacy of their ability to create shareholder value. Although caveats apply, this prospective valuation of EVA has important pricing implications for investors and managers.


It is all too clear that when we are stressed we find it hard to sleep. A large proportion of you will have experienced sleep disturbances, say, before exams; even the best sleepers occasionally suffer from sleepless and seemingly endless nights before big events. The undeniable links between stress and sleep have also been highlighted in the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), where sleep difficulties (including difficulties falling and staying asleep) are amongst symptoms for the stress-related anxiety disorder PTSD. Of course, stress and sleep are linked in children too – relevant stressors documented in previous research include separations from key figures (e.g. parents, siblings, friends) as well as rarer events such as inhabiting war-zones (for a review, see Sadeh, 1996).

While it is clear that stressful events and poor sleep can occur at the same time, what is less clear is whether stress experienced early in life is linked to sleep difficulties later on. Here we refer to studies examining this issue and provide examples of mechanisms that could underscore these associations.


Emerging high-performance architectures are anticipated to contain unreliable components (e.g., ALUs) that offer low power consumption at the expense of soft errors. Some applications (such as multimedia processing, machine learning, and big data analytics) can often naturally tolerate soft errors and can therefore trade accuracy of their results for reduced energy consumption by utilizing these unreliable hardware components. We present and evaluate a technique for reliability-aware optimization of approximate computational kernel implementations. Our technique takes a standard implementation of a computation and automatically replaces some of its arithmetic operations with unreliable versions that consume less power, but may produce incorrect results with some probability. Our technique works with a developer-provided specification of the required reliability of a computation – the probability that it returns the correct result – and produces an unreliable implementation that satisfies that specification. We evaluate our approach on five applications from the image processing, numerical analysis, and financial analysis domains and demonstrate how our technique enables automatic exploration of the trade-off between the reliability of a computation and its performance.


: For the first time in the Krasnoyarsk region the population Haemaphysalis concinna ticks were found to be infected with the causative agents of three natural focal tick-borne infections--tick-borne encephalitis, tick-borne rickettsiosis and tularemia. The existence of the combined natural focus of these three infections has been confirmed by epidemiological data. Ticks Dermacentor nuttalli also play a similar role in combined foci of tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne rickettsiosis in these focal territories.


Development of strategies for controlling P loss from upland agricultural watersheds requires an ability to identify specific source areas of P at field and farm scales, and to predict their resultant effects at the watershed scale. Key to identification of P source areas is defining the interaction between P availability over the landscape and its potential for movement to the watershed outlet by runoff and erosion. A current weakness in quantifying this interaction is determining specific zones of runoff and erosion within a watershed, that is, source areas for the P transport mechanisms. Research results from a series of studies within a small, upland agricultural watershed in east-central Pennsylvania show that the zones of runoff production, and consequently the areas ultimately controlling most P transport, are often a limited and identifiable portion of the landscape. Quantifying the hydrologic controls on P transport within and from a watershed in this way allows us to focus management options on small and definable portions of the total watershed that contribute most P export.


A six hour old baby girl presented with shortness of breath and haematemesis five hours after accidental ingestion of sulfuric acid. We report the clinical presentation of corrosive ingestion in a neonate a rare and sparsely reported occurrence at such tender age. Key words : Acid ingestion, corrosives injuries, caustic substances, chemical ingestion, newborn.


The problem of building a team to perform a complex task is often more than an optimal assignment of subtasks to agents based on individual performances. Subtasks may have subtle dependencies and relations that affect the overall performance of the formed team. This paper investigates the dependencies between subtasks and introduces some desired qualities of teams, such as preserving privacy or fairness. It proposes algorithms to analyze and build teams by taking into account the dependencies of assigned subtasks and agent performances. The performance of the algorithms are evaluated experimentally based on a multiagent system that is developed to answer complex queries. We show that by improving an initial team iteratively, the algorithm obtains teams with higher performance.


Troels Myrup Kristensen and Lea Stirling, eds. The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture: Late Antique Responses and Practices . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016. 424 pp. 91 illustrations and 1 table. ISBN: 9780472119691. $85.00.

Late Antiquity was a period of great change in the Roman Empire, when Christianity became the dominating religion, old traditions were abandoned, and temples were destroyed or adapted to suit new secular or religious purposes. In this process, the statuary decorating the private, official, and religious buildings and open areas was either preserved and reused in new contexts, destroyed and reused as spolia in building structures, or burned in lime-kilns to provide lime for new building works.

Troels Myrup Kristensen and Lea Stirling have assembled a collection of papers on this highly interesting topic that developed out of two international seminars held at Aarhus University in 2008 and 2011. The final product engagingly analyzes the reuse and afterlife of ancient sculpture in Late Antiquity, and we may congratulate the editors for managing to gather an impressive group of international scholars to discuss and publish the results of their most recent studies.

The volume presents a selection of case studies for the history of Greek and Roman statues in Late Antiquity from various parts of the Roman world. The editors provide in their introduction a general view for the topic, discuss issues of methodology and interpretation, and present a chronology of the fate of the ancient statues under examination. The papers that follow are divided into three topics. Part I, "Practices of Deposition and Reuse," includes three papers; Part II, "Regional Perspectives," includes seven; and Part III, "Grand Narratives," contains four. As can be seen from this structure, the main emphasis has been given to the presentation of regional studies that give us an interesting insight into local practices at Sagalassos in Asia Minor, Athens, Corinth, Ostia, Roman Germany, Sicily, and on the Lower Danube.

The editors' introduction has a poignant subtitle, "From Use to Refuse," that marks the multiple uses …


Consumer Behavior in Electronic Market is one of the urgent issues to be investigated in MIS and Marketing areas. This study adopts the comparative approach to examine the consumer preference between the sales channels. Majority of the confirming dimension (MCD) decision strategy, which allows the consumer to consider the alternatives in pair, is used as the underlying concept of preference. The pair of alternative in this study is the choices of the Internet and the conventional stores. The study additionally proposes a new scale for measuring consumer's preference and behavior. The preference is categorized into attribute-based and attitudebased preference in the structural equation model. The relationship between the two preferences and consumer behavior are hypothesized and tested. The results of LISREL support the research hypothesis and the scale is validated. In addition, the result verifies the role of mediator of attitude-based preference in the relationship.


Addressing our growing planetary crisis and attendant symptoms of human and human-ecological disconnect, requires a profound epistemological reorientation regarding how societal structures are conceived and articulated; named here as the collective work of decolonisation. While global dynamics are giving rise to vital transnational solidarities between Indigenous peoples, these same processes have also resulted in complex and often contradictory locations and histories of peoples at local levels which unsettle the Indigenous–non-Indigenous binary, providing new and necessary possibilities for the development of epistemological and relational solidarities aimed at increasing social–ecological resilience. The International Resilience Network is an emerging community of practice comprised of Indigenous and settler–migrant peoples aimed at increasing social–ecological resilience. This article narrates the story of the Network's inaugural summit, and provides an overview of contextual issues and analysis of particular pedagogical aspects of our approach; foregrounding ruptures between ontology and epistemology that inevitably occur when culturally and generationally diverse groups who are grounded in different daily realities and related agency imperatives come to share overlapping worldviews through learning 'in place' together. Developing pedagogical practices for naming and negotiating associated tensions within the collective work of decolonisation is, we argue, a critical step in enabling practices conducive towards the shared goal of increased human–ecological resilience.


One promising way to accelerate the market implementation of integrated biorefineries is to promote small (regional) biorefinery initiatives. Small-scale biorefineries require relatively low initial investments, and therefore are often lacking the financing problems that larger facilities face. They are potentially able to make use of available local resources and involve stakeholders and product markets that create a common foundation for joint development and market deployment. Furthermore, by using modular and transportable units, the refinery process potentially can be operated at several locations, increasing their operation window, and therefore their market competitiveness. Small-scale biorefinery processes seem to be specifically interesting for the efficient and sustainable valorisation for relatively wet agro-crops (grass, beets, maize, etc.), agro-residues (leaves/foliage), food processing residues and aquatic biomass (microalgae, duckweed, etc.).


Since diarrhea is responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality in India as well as in developing and developed countries, public health specialists strive to develop vaccines against various pathogens which cause diarrhea. Rotavirus (RV) causes 20-40% of severe diarrhea among 6-24 month olds. So they hope for a single dose vaccine against all 4 RV serotypes which can be administered to newborns, but such a vaccine does not yet exist. The bovine and rhesus vaccines are the only heterologous candidate vaccines available, (as of the end of 1989). Another candidate vaccine is the human-animal reassortant RV vaccine where scientists incorporate the VP7 surface protein of human RV into animal RV. The 3rd type of RV candidate vaccine include the naturally attenuated human RV (nursery strains). Vibrio cholerae also causes significant diarrhea in India. Researchers have conducted field trials of many cholera vaccines since the mid 1990s, but they could not find a vaccine which could be used for mass vaccination against cholera. In fact, the cholera vaccine currently used only provides 50% protection, lasts 3-6 months, does not affect carriers, and does not protect against all strains. Salmonella typhi also causes diarrhea, especially among school age children and young adults. The results of large scale field trials in the 1960s reveal that 2 doses of the acetone inactivated typhoid vaccine performed the best of the injectable killed whole cell vaccines. In fact, it provides 79-93% protection and lasts 3-4 years. Further the live oral Ty21a lyophilized vaccine reconstituted in a liquid form and given in multiple doses provides comparable protection (71-96%) against typhoid as well as some protection against paratyphoid. Moreover they induce no side effects. Shigella species also cause diarrhea, especially in children. Various candidate vaccines against shigellosis include the spontaneously attenuated vaccines, streptomycin dependent vaccines, toxoid against exotoxins, and mutant hybrid strains.


In this paper, we present a new algorithm for unconstrained optimization problem with the form of sum of squares minimization that is produced in the procedure of model parameter estimation for nonlinear systems. The new algorithm is composed of conventional BFGS and analytical exact line search where the line search step is calculated by an analytical equation in which the second derivative matrix called Hessian matrix is approximated by the product of Jacobian matrices of objective function. Two case studies show that the new algorithm exhibits excellent convergence performance in terms of computation time and initial values requirement.


This article examines changes in the New Labour core executive's approach to regulation and its relationship with risk, through analysing documentary, legislative and press sources concerning approaches to regulatory decision-making. It claims that an initial commitment to 'better regulation' has gradually been replaced by explicit support for deregulation. A reduction in the scope of regulation was also promoted by the Thatcher and Major governments. The New Labour core executive shares previous (Conservative) administrations' concern to include business in deregulatory decision-making. However, the article claims that there is one significant difference in the New Labour deregulatory approach: a new toleration of risk. Deregulation is, now, described as a corrective to regulators' over-reactions to perceived risks, which, it is claimed, are holding back economic and technological progress. However, this new approach excludes competing views concerning how risk should be regulated. In particular, it does not engage with widespread popular views that governments should continue to protect against risk.


Insects are commonly utilized in biomedical research and have become increasingly popular in museum collections and as pets. Despite this, objective evaluation of insect euthanasia is scarce. This study investigated the effectiveness of targeted injections of ivermectin or potassium chloride (KCl) for the euthanasia of anesthetized thorny devil stick insects (Eurycantha calcarata). Ten clinically healthy mature insects (six males, four females) were enrolled. Insects were weighed and anesthetized via exposure to a cotton ball soaked with 1.6 mL of liquid isoflurane in a 1 L sealed chamber until loss of righting reflex and response to stimulation (induction). Insects then received one of three treatments: ivermectin 100 mg/kg (n = 4), KCl 200 mEq/kg (n = 4), or 0.9% sodium chloride 100 mL/kg (n = 2) injected along the ventral thoracic midline between the first leg plate and the caudal adjacent plate. Following injection, insects were serially monitored for return of spontaneous movement and righting reflex. Death was defined as the absence of spontaneous movement for 48 h. Median (range) induction time and isoflurane concentration at induction was 36 (22–39) min (n = 9) and 22 (19–22)%, respectively. Euthanasia was successful in 4/4, 3/4, and 0/2 isoflurane-anesthetized insects receiving ivermectin, KCl, or 0.9% sodium chloride, respectively. Recovery was prolonged at 10.5 (sodium chloride female), 11.0 (KCl male), and 18.0 (sodium chloride male) hours. This is the first prospective investigation of euthanasia in adult E. calcarata. In this preliminary study, ivermectin 100 mg/kg via ventral midline injection was effective for euthanasia of thorny devil stick insects.


Streptomyces natalensis is an actinomycete which produces the antifimgal agent pimaric in (also known as natamycin) as a second arymetabolite. This research involves
an investigation into the growth and morphology of Streptomyces natalensis in submerged culture with a view to optimising both characteristics. Four maintenance and cultivation techniques were investigated, involving the use of different inoculum sizes and different inoculum media, in a preliminary attempt to optimise grow than dpimaric in
production. Analgorithm was developed and validated to characterise the morphology of the organism, (in terms of hyphalelements, clumps orpellets) using an Optimas Image
Analyser (as emi-automated image analysis system). Further, this system and a Lasentec Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement (FBRM) probe were comparatively evaluated in terms of their potential to develop a morphologicalpro file of the organism.

On the basis of the work performed it was determined that maintenance and cultivation techniques significantly affected growth and secondary metabolite production. It was
concluded that YED was the preferred in oculummedium in term so fbiomass and subsequent pimaric in production levels. Two fermentation media , SPG and phosphate-
limited medium, were considered suitable for production of the secondary metabolite. Recorded pimaric in levels were, however, significantly lower than those obtained by
other researchers. Cultivation of the organism in YEME medium, using a sporeinoculum, resulted in high levels of biomass (~ 5 g/L).

Validation of the image analysis technique included an investigation of these insitivity of the re su lts to (i) the level of microscopic magnification employed, (ii) sample dilution (iii) the number of entities counted. Ensuring that 10-15 % of the to talarea available in
the region of interest was occupied by entities of interest, as used by Treskatis et al. (1997), it was determined that x lO (as opposed to x 4 magnification) gave a more accurate representation of the morphology present. Also, having investigated samples of up to 1000 entities, it was concluded that measurement of 600 entities was sufficient to accurately portray the morphological state of the organism.

Volume-based analysis of the morphological data (as opposed to number-based) was found to be beneficial in terms of providing a more accurate portrayal of the existing morphology, using the image analyser. Hyphal contribution, on this basis, was discovered to be negligible. During the early stages of a batch fermentation, numbers and sizes of
both 'larger' and 'smaller' entities increase, followed by a subsequent reduction (and corresponding increase) in the former and latter, respectively, upon entry of the organism
into the stationary phase.

Limited trials performed using the FBRM probe suggested the potential of this system for on-line morphological measurements of fermentation organisms. However this work also highlighted the inherent difficulty of drawing direct comparisons between data collected using an image analyzer and those resulting from the FBRM.


Evaporation‐induced self‐assembly of colloidal particles is one of the most versatile fabrication routes to obtain large‐area colloidal crystals; however, the formation of uncontrolled "drying cracks" due to gradual solvent evaporation represents a significant challenge of this process. While several methods are reported to minimize crack formation during evaporation‐induced colloidal assembly, here an approach is reported to take advantage of the crack formation as a patterning tool to fabricate microscopic photonic structures with controlled sizes and geometries. This is achieved through a mechanistic understanding of the fracture behavior of three different types of opal structures, namely, direct opals (colloidal crystals with no matrix material), compound opals (colloidal crystals with matrix material), and inverse opals (matrix material templated by a sacrificial colloidal crystal). This work explains why, while direct and inverse opals tend to fracture along the expected {111} planes, the compound opals exhibit a different cracking behavior along the nonclose‐packed {110} planes, which is facilitated by the formation of cleavage‐like fracture surfaces. The discovered principles are utilized to fabricate photonic microbricks by programming the crack initiation at specific locations and by guiding propagation along predefined orientations during the self‐assembly process, resulting in photonic microbricks with controlled sizes and geometries.


In order to guide the planning of urban microclimate, the influencing variables of the heat island intensity (UII) of tall residential quarter in mountain city in spring and summer is quantitatively analyzed. Through experiments and simulations, 6 variables including wind speed(WS), green ratio(GR), impervious ratio(IR), average surface temperature(AST) , shadow ratio(SR), H / W were chosen and summarized as factors by dimension reduction in factors analysis; further, the dominant variables and factors in different time were confirmed through multiple linear regression analysis of the factors/ variables and UII. Results revealed that in the microclimate tests, it is appropriate to make factor analysis when the cumulative contribution rate of a factor is higher than 50%, and the significant correlated factor of UII is horizontal surface factor (HSF) in three fifths of the testing time in July. The variable analysis revealed that the significance of WS on UII is more in cloudy days than that in sunny days; the significance of SR is higher in summer than that in transition seasons and is most in 15:00, it demonstrates that optimal utilization of the building shadings is an effective way to improve the outdoor thermal environment in residential quarters.


This article advances a theory of why autocratic coalitions adopt constitutions. We argue that autocratic rulers adopt constitutions in the nascent stages of an autocratic coalition taking power, when uncertainty about leader intentions is high. Constitutions can serve to consolidate a new distribution of power, allowing a launching organization (LO) to codify and defend their rights. Autocratic coalitions that adopt constitutions should therefore last longer in power than those that do not. Using new data compiled on constitutions created under autocracy in Latin America from 1950 to 2002, we show that autocratic coalitions who adopt and operate under constitutions extend their survival. This result holds after controlling for the presence of other autocratic institutions, country fixed effects, and after using an instrumental variables strategy to address reverse causation. A case study of Mexico details the mechanism by which this relationship between constitutions and stability occurs.


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic debilitating autoimmune disease affecting people worldwide. Increasing numbers of RA patients in the west are resorting to various complementary and alternative medicine modalities for relief of symptoms and well-being. Herbal products and acupuncture representing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are two of the most commonly used forms of complementary and alternative medicine. Frequently, their efficacy against RA and safety have been inferred from anecdotal experience or pilot testing on a relatively small number of patients following inadequate study designs. Accordingly, significant efforts need to be invested in objectively testing TCM in clinical trials that are sufficiently powered, randomized, blinded, possess appropriate controls and follow standard criteria for assessment of the outcomes. In addition, the mechanisms underlying the immunomodulatory and other antiarthritic activities of TCM modalities need to be better defined. These efforts would help validate the scientific rationale for the use of TCM for the management of RA.


Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) aminopeptidases ERAP1 and ERAP2 (ERAPs) are essential for the maturation of a wide spectrum of proteins involved in various biological processes. In the ER, these enzymes work in concert to trim peptides for presentation on MHC class I molecules. Loss of ERAPs function substantially alters the repertoire of peptides presented by MHC class I molecules, critically affecting recognition of both NK and CD8+ T cells. In addition, these enzymes are involved in the modulation of inflammatory responses by promoting the shedding of several cytokine receptors, and in the regulation of both blood pressure and angiogenesis. Recent genome-wide association studies have identified common variants of ERAP1 and ERAP2 linked to several human diseases, ranging from viral infections to autoimmunity and cancer. More recently, inhibition of ER peptide trimming has been shown to play a key role in stimulating innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune responses, suggesting that inhibition of ERAPs might be exploited for the establishment of innovative therapeutic approaches against cancer. This review summarizes data currently available for ERAP enzymes in ER peptide trimming and in other immunological and non-immunological functions, paying attention to the emerging role played by these enzymes in human diseases.


Background and Aims: During direct laryngoscopy (DL), intubation using armored endotracheal tubes (ETTs) requires help of bougies, stylets, or Magill's forceps, which leads to unnecessary prolongation in the intubation times. The channeled blade of King Vision (KV) video laryngoscope is likely to obviate the need of these equipments for a successful intubation using armored tubes. Material and Methods: After approval from Institutional Ethics Committee and informed consent, 100 patients were randomized to receive endotracheal intubation using armored ETTs either with KV video laryngoscope (VL) channeled blade or with Macintosh laryngoscope. Time to intubation, success rate, time for best glottis view, number of attempts, optimization maneuvers, or complications if any were recorded. Ease of device use was also assessed in terms of insertion, glottis visualization, and intubation. Continuous variables were tested using unpaired t-test and categorical variables with Pearson's Chi-square test. P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Result: First attempt success rate was 92% in group KV and 74% in group DL (P = 0.017). Time for successful intubation was less in group KV as compared with group DL (P < 0.0001). Optimization maneuvers such as "BURP" was needed in three patients of group KV and 11 patients of group DL (P = 0.0218). Bougie was needed in 13 patients of group DL and none from group KV (P = <0.001). Ease of device use was similar in the two groups. Conclusion: KVVL offers faster intubating conditions for tracheal intubation requiring armored ETTs in comparison to DL using Macintosh blade.


In these experiments, we used a strain of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) germline null mutant mice, generated by J. H. Krege and co-workers (J. H. Krege, S. W. M. John, L. L. Langenbach, J. B. Hodgin, J. R. Hagaman, E. S. Bachman, J. C. Jennette, D. A. O'Brien, and O. Smithies. Nature 375: 146-148, 1995), to examine the effect of chronic ACE deficiency on the magnitude of tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF) responses. The genotype was determined by PCR on DNA extracted from the tail and was verified after each experiment by assessment of the blood pressure response to an injection of ANG I. To assess TGF responsiveness, we determined the change in stop-flow pressure (PSF) caused by increasing NaCl concentration at the macula densa by using micropuncture techniques. When loop of Henle flow rate was increased from 0 to 40 nl/min, PSF fell from a mean of 42.3 ± 1.95 to 33.6 ± 2.09 mmHg ( n = 6, P = 0.005) in wild-type mice (+/+), fell from 40.6 ± 2.35 to 38.6 ± 1.93 mmHg in heterozygous (+/-) mice ( n = 7, P = 0.014), and did not change in homozygous ACE (-/-) mice [36.7 ± 2.02 mmHg vs. 36.4 ± 2.01 mmHg; n = 4, P = not significant (NS)]. During an infusion of ANG II at a dose that did not significantly elevate blood pressure (70 ng ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1), TGF response magnitude (PSF 0 - PSF 40) increased from 6.5 ± 1.4 to 9.8 ± 1.19 mmHg in +/+ ( P = 0.006), from 1.14 ± 0.42 to 4.6 ± 1.3 mmHg in +/- ( P = 0.016), and from 0.42 ± 0.25 to 4.02 ± 1.06 in -/- mice ( P = 0.05). Absence of TGF responses in ACE null mutant mice and restoration of near-normal responses during an acute infusion of ANG II supports previous conclusions that ANG II is an essential component in the signal transmission pathway that links the macula densa with the glomerular vascular pole.


Nazareth is the largest Palestinian Arab city inside Israel and one of the holiest Christian cities on earth. In the New Testament the town is described as the childhood home of Jesus and as such is a centre of Christian shrines and pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events. Although according to the 1947 UN Partition plan the city was part of the Palestinian Arab state, it was conquered in 1948 by the Israeli army and annexed to the Israeli state. On 16 July, three days after the mass expulsion of the Palestinian cities of Lydda and Ramle by the Israeli army, Nazareth surrendered to Jewish forces and its inhabitants were allowed to remain in situ. In 1948 the Zionist attitude towards the Palestinian Christian communities in Galilee was generally less aggressive than the attitude towards the local Palestinian Muslims. This article addresses the question: how and why did Nazareth survive the 1948 Nakba and mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Galilee? While exploring this Christian dim...


Increasing awareness of food safety issues has brought a boost in sanitary and phytosanitary regulations and standards. Although is likely that these regulations have increased health and welfare in the countries that impose them, they may also have an important effect in exporting countries, affecting especially small producers in developing countries. Other papers have found that individual quantitative measures of regulatory stringency have an impact on trade, but none has looked into broader SPS regulation stringency indicators. Through a survey that asked Chilean fresh fruit exporters to evaluate the stringency for 16 countries and four fresh fruits, we create and index that incorporates several aspects of SPS regulation. Our estimations suggest that, on average, quality standards and packaging and labeling issues are considered the most stringent. We also estimate a gravity model and find that SPS regulatory stringency, measured by this broad index, has negative and significant effect on traded volume


Gold is found in bedrock reefs and lodes, generally in its elemental form, as well as in secondary deposits formed by weathering and erosion of these primary occurrences (for example, alluvial gold). After quartz, the mineral most commonly associated with gold is pyrite (iron sulphide) also known colloquially as 'fools gold' or 'mundic'. This association has guided prospectors to new lode gold deposits, but also plagued attempts to extract the gold where the two minerals are rather too intimately associated. In these refractory ores the gold is commonly locked in the pyrite as small, in some cases sub-microscopic, inclusions or even dissolved in the pyrite host. Up until the end of the nineteenth century refractory gold ores, including those at such famous deposits as the Golden Mile, Kalgoorlie, and some of the ores on the Witwatersrand in South Africa, posed a major challenge to metallurgists. In many cases, some gold could be released by fine grinding, but a significant proportion was lost with the pyrite in the tailings. Various methods of roasting and chemical treatment, particularly using chlorination and cyanidation, were ultimately developed to recover this 'lost' gold.


Currently the basis for standard X-ray computed tomography (CT) is absorption. A volumetric map of a specimen in three dimensions is generated from a set of absorption radiographs. The contrast of details strongly depends on a difference in absorption coefficient between the detail and the environment. However, when the absorption difference is low, sufficient contrast for a good quality X-ray image can be not obtained. During the last decade, a number of novel X-ray imaging methods have been developed, which are based on the phase shift of the X-ray beam passing through a material. This contrast mechanism allows for a significant increase of the contrast enhancing the interface. X-ray computed tomography phase imaging methods can be classified into (1) interferometric methods, (2) techniques using an analyser (or diffraction enhanced imaging) and (3) free space propagation based methods (also called in-line based methods). In this presentation, we compare an interferometric CT method based on the Talbot-Lau interferometer with propagation based phase contrast CTmethod and discuss the possibilities, advantages and restrictions in the field of non-destructive testing and evaluation.


One of the key promises of model-based reinforcement learning is the ability to generalize using an internal model of the world to make predictions in novel environments and tasks. However, the generalization ability of model-based agents is not well understood because existing work has focused on model-free agents when benchmarking generalization. Here, we explicitly measure the generalization ability of model-based agents in comparison to their model-free counterparts. We focus our analysis on MuZero (Schrittwieser et al., 2020), a powerful model-based agent, and evaluate its performance on both procedural and task generalization. We identify three factors of procedural generalization -- planning, self-supervised representation learning, and procedural data diversity -- and show that by combining these techniques, we achieve state-of-the art generalization performance and data efficiency on Procgen (Cobbe et al., 2019). However, we find that these factors do not always provide the same benefits for the task generalization benchmarks in Meta-World (Yu et al., 2019), indicating that transfer remains a challenge and may require different approaches than procedural generalization. Overall, we suggest that building generalizable agents requires moving beyond the single-task, model-free paradigm and towards self-supervised model-based agents that are trained in rich, procedural, multi-task environments.


Facing global warming and increasing energy consumption, eyes have fallen on wind power as a renewable source of energy at the turn of the 20.century. The era of hydropower development has been said to come to an end, as nearly all Norwegian lakes, rivers and waterfalls are developed or protected against hydropower industry. Controversy on localization of hydropower has played a crucial role in this history, and is an important backdrop for this thesis.Entering the planning of a wind-power station with 33 wind turbines on the mountain Harbakfjellet on the west coast of Trondelag (see figure 1 and 2), the study examines how views on nature and landscape are mobilized and expressed in the formal and informal processes of planning. The combination of dossiers, local and regional newspapers and informal interviews with 10 key informants, are used to show the meanings of nature and landscape, and how they manifest themselves, in the local discourse. As important participants in the local decision process, landowners and planners, politicians and business life representatives share their views and illuminate how personal/individual experiences, as well as collective and shared cultural symbolic history is important for the foundation of knowledge. Stating in this way that knowledge is local, this local case of planning with its negotiation of meaning and struggle for power, shows how people relate differently to nature and landscape and how they make sense of their personal experiences when knowledge about their environment is established.Borrowing a classification from Milton, (2002) views on nature is examined as 'personal' identification or a more or less impersonal or 'rational' attitude to the external environment. Further, the thesis, in line with Latour (2004), discusses briefly how the nature-culture dualism in similar ways is reproduced by many human geographers and other spokesmen for the social construction of knowledge, despite their efforts not to. The study is closed by questioning if labeling some local knowledge as alienated by romantic ideology and at the same time celebrating the local knowledge of people who make their living from the land as 'utilize-romanticist', themselves suppress and marginalize 'local heroes' who 'dare' to have a personal view on nature and promote subjective values in their landscape.


This paper deals with the robust and parameter-dependent PID controller design problem in finite frequency domain for linear parameter varying systems. To reduce the design conservatism, three finite frequency domain performance criteria with controller design are presented in various frequency ranges. Nonlinear dynamic equations of a Wheeled Mobile Robot are described in the state-space form where the parameters are part of the state (angular velocities of the wheels). With the aid of the newly developed linearization techniques, the design methods are presented in terms of solutions to a set of linear matrix inequalities. Experimental results are presented by a comparative study with computed torque plus PD controller. The simulation results validate the validity of the controller.


Alpha-1-Antitrypsin is a protein that functions as a protease inhibitor specifically for neutrophil elastase, an enzyme which breaks down elastin in the lungs. Mutations in the Alpha-1-Antitrypsin gene can ultimately result in various liver and lung diseases from deficient or ineffective protein. Literature searches were conducted to (1) gather information on normal and abnormal amino acids and corresponding codon sequences in the gene, (2) effects on the body, and (3) susceptibility of disease for the most prevalent mutations that cause a deficiency in Alpha-1-Antitrypsin. Having this resource of information divided into four categories (normal, deficient, null, and dysfunctional) will aid in creating a library of mutated forms of Alpha-1-Antitrypsin in the laboratory. Understanding and having access to the null mutant form, Hong Kong which results in a truncated form of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin, as well as other mutated versions will allow for future studies of inhibitory capacity of various forms of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin.  Studies to be conducted in the near future include: (1) using a restriction enzyme other than EcoRI in an effort to cut the Null-Hong Kong gene from a plasmid stored in the lab (a process that has not worked using EcoRI), (2) checking that the plasmid has the correct gene sequence that codes for the truncated form, and (3) exploring the viability of an alpha complementation experiment to confirm that the mutated form is inserted into the plasmid.


Graphene is of great significance for applications of fabricating new functional materials, due to its unique physical and chemical structure and properties. Modification of graphene with different polymeric chains has been widely investigated by a range of synthetic methods to extend its application. An efficient way to prepare 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl-functionalized graphene sheets (GS-TEMPO), which can be used as grafting sites, has been reported by our group. Herein, Br-terminated poly(2-acryloxyethyl ferrocenecarboxylate) (PAEFC) homopolymers prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) were selected as the grafted brushes to be anchored on the surface of GS-TEMPO via atom transfer nitroxide radical coupling (ATNRC) chemistry for construction of functional electrochemical platforms. The product of the grafting reaction, graphene-PAEFC (GS-PAEFC) nanocomposite, was characterized by 1H-NMR, FT-IR, XPS, TGA, DTG, TEM and AFM. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements show that the redox responsiveness of PAEFC is retained after surface functionalization. Moreover, GS-PAEFC nanohybrids are dispersible and stable in a wider range of organic solvents than the graphene oxide precursor nanosheets, paving the way for the development of smart nanocomposites.


An observational study of chemical abundances in the galactic planetary nebulae NGC 1535, NGC 2438, NGC 2440, NGC 3132, NGC 3242, NGC6302, and NGC 7009 based on long-slit spectra of high signal-to-noise ratio in the 3100 to 6900 A range is presented. We determined the N, O, Ne, S, and Cl abundances from collisionally excited lines and the He and O ++ abundances from recombination lines. The O ++ /H + estimates derived from recombination lines are about a factor of four and two higher than those derived from forbidden lines for NGC 7009 and NGC 3242, respectively. Spatial profiles of O ++ /H + abundance from OII permitted lines and from [OIII] forbidden lines were obtained for the planetary nebula NGC 7009. The differences between O ++ /H + derived from recombination and from forbidden lines present smooth variations along the nebular surface of NGC 7009, with the differences decreasing from the center to the edges of the nebula. If these abundance differences are explained by the presence of electron temperature fluctuations, quantified by the parameter t 2 , a value of about t 2 = 0.09 is required for NGC 3242 and NGC 7009.


Heavy metal toxicity has serious adverse effects on the environment. The metal sequestering characteristics of a novel metal binding peptide (Glu-Cys)11 Gly+linker+hexahistidine (EC11:His6) was investigated to determine if it can absorb Cu2+ or Zn2+ cations. Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out using a model of 6 Cu2+ or Zn2+ and other ions enclosed in a fully hydrated simulation box with the designed peptide. Totally, 240 nano second (ns) simulations were done in three phases. Results showed that the selected linker is able to separate two domains of this peptide and that the carboxyl oxygens of Glu residues of EC11 in the designed peptide can absorb these ions. Sequestration of Cu2+ or Zn2+ ions by the designed peptide does not change overall tertiary and secondary structures of peptide.


We presented an approach to estimate the emission zone (EZ) positions in high efficiency phosphorescent OLEDs with a thin emitting layer. Two devices with different distances between the emitting layer and the cathode (i.e. they are optically different), but exhibiting same current density-voltage characteristics (i.e. they are electrically the same) were used for this purpose. Mean EZ positions in the OLEDs were extracted from the comparison of the experimental luminous intensity ratio vs. the current density with the calculated intensity ratio vs. the EZ position. The validity of the approach was confirmed by the agreement between calculated and experimental spectral changes.


Although mortality rate after cardiac surgery has been drastically reduced, neurological complications remain a significant problem. Several etiologic factors have been proposed, including previous unrecognized neurological abnormality, embolic events, hypoxic insult, low cardiac output, systemic inflammatory response, and altered cerebral blood flow (CBF) and metabolism. Cerebral ischemia can occur when cerebral oxygen is insufficient to meet the global or regional cerebral oxygen consumption. Cerebral circulation is normally regulated by several complex mechanisms, such as metabolic stimuli, chemical stimuli, perfusion pressure, and neural stimuli [1].