The Persian language is one of the languages in Middle-East, so there are significant amount of Persian documents available on the Web. But there are relatively few studies on retrieval of Persian documents in the literature. In this experimental study, we assessed term and N-gram based vector space model and a query expansion method, namely, local context analysis using different weighting schemes on a realistic corpus containing 160000+ news articles. Then we compared our results with previous works reported on Persian language. Our experimental results show that among the assessed methods, 4-gram based vector space model with Lnu.ltu weighting scheme has acceptable performance and Local context analysis has the best performance for Persian text retrieval so far.


Reciprocal transplantation of D-region-histoincompatible thyroid grafts between mice of the B10.S and B10.S(7R) strains resulted in acceptance of all B10.S thyroid grafts by B10.S(7R) recipient mice and acute rejection of 93% of the thyroid grafts in the opposite direction. Evidence of expression of D region gene products on the surface of cells of B10.S thyroid grafts was supported by acute second-set rejection of B10.S thyroid grafts by B10.S(7R) recipients preimmunized with a B10.S skin graft. In vitro analysis of reciprocal immune responses between B10.S and B10.S(7R) mice demonstrated that the unidirectional thyroid graft rejection correlates with a relatively high frequency of cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursors (CTL-P). The frequency of B10.S splenic CTL-P reactive with B10.S(7R) (1/1131) was similar to that against the entire H-2 difference (i.e., B10.S anti-B10.BR, 1/776). However, B10.S anti-B10.S(7R) CTL-P frequency was about 5-fold higher than the reciprocal CTL-P frequency of B10.S(7R) anti-B10.S. The correlation between the high CTL-P frequency and the ability to reject thyroid grafts, as well as possible causes for the difference in the reciprocal CTL-P frequencies are discussed.


Berridge, Dennis C. PhD, Purdue University, December 2015. Generating LowPressure Shock Waves for Calibrating High-Frequency Pressure Sensors. Major Professor: Steven P. Schneider. Measurements of hypersonic boundary-layer instabilities have recently been performed in a wide range of wind tunnels with fast-response pressure transducers. In order to achieve accurate amplitude measurements, the calibration and frequency response of the sensors must be understood. Hypersonic instabilities are high-frequency, low-amplitude waves, so relevant calibrations must use similar inputs. This is particularly important for the PCB-132 sensors which have been widely used to measure hypersonic boundary-layer instabilities despite the lack of low-amplitude calibrations or frequency response information. This work demonstrates the creation of extremely low-amplitude shock waves in a shock tube, which can be used to calibrate sensors for instability measurements. The shocks are created using weak diaphragms and low driven pressures on the order of 1 millitorr. A method for automatically measuring the shock arrival time and amplitude was developed. The method uses a rising-edge detector, a minimum peakwidth criterion, and a simple low-pass filter to detect small shock waves in traces with low signal-to-noise ratio. Shock amplitudes as low as 0.001 psi are demonstrated. The flow is shown to agree with theoretical expectations within the existing uncertainties. Calibrations of PCB-132 sensors were performed between 0.001 and 1 psi. The sensors were found to have a linear calibration over the entire range within the sensor uncertainty. Step responses were measured for PCB-132 and Kulite sensors. The PCB-132 step responses are complicated and vary between sensors, but they are repeatable. They


Previous studies from this laboratory have demonstrated that Na-K-Cl cotransport of vascular smooth muscle cells is inhibited by hormones that increase intracellular adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) levels (e.g., catecholamines) and is stimulated by hormones that increase intracellular guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) levels (e.g., atrial natriuretic peptides). Others have suggested that calcium may also modulate Na-K-Cl cotransport of vascular smooth muscle cells. The goal of the present study was to characterize the mechanism of angiotensin II stimulation of Na-K-Cl cotransport of early passage cultured vascular smooth muscle cells. We found that when vascular smooth muscle cells were treated with angiotensin II or a calcium ionophore, Na-K-Cl cotransport was markedly enhanced above basal levels. We found that when calcium influx was blocked with the calcium chelator EDTA or with three different chemical types of calcium-channel blockers, the stimulatory effects of angiotensin II on Na-K-Cl cotransport were markedly inhibited. Furthermore, when intracellular calcium mobilization was blocked with high concentrations of the calcium chelator quin2 or with the intracellular calcium antagonist 8-(diethyl-amino)octyl 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoate (TMB-8), the stimulatory effects of angiotensin II on Na-K-Cl cotransport were also substantially inhibited. These results suggest that both calcium influx via receptor-operated calcium channels and intracellular calcium mobilization may play a role in stimulation of Na-K-Cl cotransport of vascular smooth muscle cells in response to angiotensin II.


Abstract The aim of the study was to explore the impact of oxidative stress on frozen seminal plasma in fertile and infertile men by examining the total antioxidant capacity. Patients: Infertile patients from male infertility clinic with various diagnoses and fertile men. Design: Seminal plasma from proven fertile men [n=50] and infertile patients [n=50] were examined for total antioxidant capacity (TAC) level, semen parameters such as morphology, motility and concentration, and DNA integrity test. Interventions: Seminal plasma TAC measurement by luminometric assay using the TAC assay kit, semen analysis parameters, DNA integrity test. Fertile men showed higher TAC values (median and SD): 1201µM (SD±548), as compared with the infertile patients: 831μM (SD±343). The result from sperm morphology of fertile patients showed a mean percentage of 4.8 % (SD±1.68) whereas the percentage in the infertile group was 2.68% (SD ±1.68). The same group of samples, analyzed for DNA damage showed a mean of DFI 10.38% (SD±5.17%) in fertile men and a mean of DFI 17.22% (SD±7.22%) in infertile men. Total antioxidant capacity of the seminal plasma as measured by the luminоmetric assay is a reliable and simple test for diagnosing and management of male infertility.


The world is becoming more dependent on wireless and mobile services, but the ability of wireless network infrastructures to handle the growing demand is questionable. As wireless and mobile services grow, weaknesses in network infrastructures become clearer. Failures not only affect current voice and data use but could also limit emerging wireless applications such as e-commerce and high-bandwidth Internet access. As wireless and mobile systems play greater roles in emergency response, including 911 and enhanced 911 services, network failures take on life-or-death significance. Therefore, in addition to directing some attention to designing survivable wireless and mobile networks, developers must also keep in mind that increasingly pervasive and demanding services will further escalate the importance of reliability and survivability requirements. The authors explain several options providers must consider to decrease the number of network failures and to cope with failures when they do occur.


Abstract
Traditionally, monetary policy in Latin America followed the recommendations of the missions of the monetary "doctors" who defended an independent central bank and a pro-cyclical monetary policy, adhering to the automatic adjustment of the gold standard. A key function of central banks was to support fiscal stability. The effects of the Great Depression and its aftermath in the periphery countries questioned these recommendations and gave way to a shift in monetary policy. An illustrative example is provided by the creation of the Central Bank of the Argentina Republic (BCRA) under the auspices of Raul Prebisch, and the technical assistance missions of the United States Federal Reserve to several Latin American countries some of which were led by Robert Triffin. Prebisch actively participated in mission to Paraguay and the Dominican Republic bringing the experience he had acquired as director of the BCRA and the tools devised to adapt monetary policy to a changing external context and circumstances. The use of the discount window and exchange controls, among other instruments, was seen in this new view as necessary to pursue counter-cyclical policies and to provide support for industrialization and full employment in the periphery.


A 44 year old woman presented with decreased vision and floaters, started since 4 days before, in her right eye referred to our ophthalmology clinic. On examination, it was found that the best corrected visual acuity was limited to R-E: 20/80 and that of the left eye: 20/20. Fundus examination of the right eye revealed a rhegmatogenous subclinical retinal detachment and vitreous hemorrhage 15 months after surgery for myopia, but the left fundus was normal. Barrier diod laser photocoagulation around the tear was done. Subclinical retinal detachment and vitreous hemorrhage resolved one month after barrier laser photocoagulation, but visual acuity of patient reduced to 3/200 due to development of macular pucker.


This report describes the research work that was conducted under PATH Task Order 5215 and its extension Task Order 6215, "Methods for Identifying High-Concentration Collision Locations (HCCL).†The subject matter is related to regularly published Caltrans reports, so-called Table C, that are used to screen for and investigate locations within the California State Highway System that have collision frequencies significantly greater than the base or expected numbers when compared to other locations. The accuracy and reliability of such reports are critical as Table C is the basis for follow-up field investigation as well as potential safety improvements. In recent years, a Caltrans Table C Task Force reviewed the practices of Table C and subsequently made recommendations for improvements based on the feedback from the users of such reports. Some immediate revisions were made to correct certain issue addressed by the Task Force, yet it was clear from the review that a more thorough research effort should be made to establish solid and sound methodologies to carry out the screening and identification of HCCL so that the overall execution of safety investigation and safety improvements performed over the California State Highway Network can be more efficient and consistent. This project arises from the needs to address these problems. During the course of the project, the research team from the Traffic Safety Center and California PATH Program of University of California at Berkeley conducted extensive literature reviews and surveys, and interacted with a number of out-of-state agencies and experts to gather the latest information and techniques in dealing with the HCCL subject matters. The issues involving HCCL are broad as they cover a wide range of spatial and temporal parameters. Furthermore, the methodologies deserve to be investigated in depth as there are many mathematical and statistical details that may affect the outcome of the Table C process.


Abstract : Data on underwater one-way acoustic propagation times were collected during five traverses of the first convergence zone in the deep waters north of Puerto Rico. This data was obtained on three consecutive days in November 1958 by equipment located aboard two ships. The source ship utilized an acoustic transducer, transmitting 500-msec pulses at 1090 Hz, at depths of 20, 100, and 300 ft, and the receiving ship utilized a hydrophone at depths from 20 to 420 ft. The horizontal range between the ships varied from 68 to 79 kiloyards. The values of sound speed obtained at all depths ranged from 1639 to 1647 yd/sec, increasing from the start to the end of the convergence zone. There was a significant change in the variability of sound speed values from one day to the next. Variations in the sound travel time measurements were least at the 420-ft depth. The mean horizontal sound speed derived from the measured data was compared with values computed from an exact ray trace solution and also from an approximation utilized in the correction of sonar data. There is a general correspondence between these calculations and experimental data within the first convergence zone. (Author)


In 1983 a fisherman in the Thames estuary at Pan Sand trawled up a Roman amphora filled with olives which had been preserved in defrutum syrup. The jar is dated c. AD 70 ± 15. An attempt is made to relate the olive varieties at Pan Sand to those described in the ancient documentary sources. The Pan Sand jar exemplifies a new category of amphora, called London 555. They were produced in the province of Baetica in Roman Spain; claims that the form was made in the Rhône valley are regarded as unproven. Stratified finds from Britain show the form was current from c. AD 50/55 until c. AD 125/150. London 555 develops from Haltern 70 and continues the trade represented by that form. The last London 555 amphoras explain part of the Dressel 17 phenomenon. London 555 was not the only category of amphora used to export preserved olives from Baetica after Haltern 70; the trade continued until the late Empire and helps explain finds of olives from late contexts in Roman Britain.


Introduction:life is impossible without respiration if we can't breath, the life would stopped after a short time. Respiration means transportation of oxygen to cell and it's consumption in cellular level. This process is possible with the help of respiratory apparatus. The present study has been done in order to determine the respiratory capacities among workers for curing the respiratory apparatus and potential dangers which threaten this vital organ. Materials and methods: This study is analytical and the domain of its investigation is in the range of Ilam province factories with more than 50 personnel who are exposed to harmful chemical factors. all workers have done spearometry test and their demographical features were recorded in order to categorizing the workers in different classes, the proportions of (FEV1/FVC) and (FVC/PFVC) were calculated in relation to their respiratory capacity, by using the miller's standard table and divided according to various amounts of these two proportion in groups with normal respiratory statues, with limiting and obstructing discovers, limiting discovers and obstructive ones. Findings: An analysis was performed after data gathering and calculating the respective proportion by statistical methods and useful software. Research finding: considering the respiratory capacities based on miller's index showed that 43/1 of workers have normal respiratory capacities and the following relations were simultaneously (FVC/PFVC) *100> 75 & (FEV1/FVC) *100>75. A group of workers who have proportional relation with (FVC/PFVC) *100< 75 & (FEV1/FVC) *100<75 were placed in the group of workers with limiting and obstructive disorders and were 29/2 of the investigated society. And finally 27/2 has limiting disorder. No one observed with obstructive disorder. The relation between respiratory condition and worker's background was meaningful (p= 0/039, df = 6, x2 =13/2) Results: the results showed the effect of background on respiratory capacities. as in the group with less than 12 months labor, 46/7 have normal respiratory condition, 34/4 with limiting and obstructive condition and 18/9 with constricting respiratory condition.these percentage be longed to a group with constricting respiratory position, 13-24 months, 27/5 and more than 73 months, 35/5, i.e more increasing background, more increasing the percentage of afflicted people.


To address the challenges posed by global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision recommended an "additional loss absorbency requirement" for these institutions. Along these lines, I develop a microfounded design of capital surcharges that target the interconnectedness component of systemic risk. These surcharges increase the costs of establishing interbank connections, which leads to a non-monotonic welfare effect. While reduced interconnectedness decreases welfare by restricting the ability of banks to insure against liquidity shocks, it also increases it by reducing contagion when an interconnected bank fails. Thus, the regulator faces a trade-off between efficiency and financial stability. Furthermore, I show that capital requirements are more effective than default fund contributions when tail-risk exposure is the private information of banks. I conclude by analyzing how resolution regimes and stable funding requirements interact with these surcharges.


The proof of Clandestine Marriages as now celebrated is attended with insuperable difficulties. Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 1753 The many notorious and scandalous Abuses of the Sacred Institution of Matrimony, which have been justly complained of for some Years past, could not but give Uneasiness to every serious and devout Christian. A Gentleman of the Temple, 1754 Canon law is "the collection of rules, found in a diversity of sources of formal and other regulatory instruments of a particular church, designed to fulfil the purposes for which that church exists in the public sphere of its internal life: governmental, ministerial, pastoral, doctrinal, liturgical, ritual, proprietorial." Norman Doe, 1998(1) If there are laws of history, the law of unintended consequences is perhaps the most obvious. In the history of early modern England, dealing with marriage has resulted in some vivid examples of unintended consequences. If Henry VIITs conscience had not "crept too near another lady," to quote Shakespeare, the English Reformation could have turned out differently.2 If Elizabeth I's chastity were not a "living art...shrined in her breast," to quote Spenser, the political and religious controversies of the seventeenth century might have been avoided.3 The law of unintended consequences is certainly one useful interpretative tool by which to understand the relations between church, state, and society in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. No doubt the regicides of 1649, who argued that King Charles I's death would bring peace and normality to the Commonwealth, did not expect the 'martyr king' to be so venerated in the future that relics associated with his death would acquire considerable value and the king become the doyen of a reborn Catholic wing of the Church of England/In 1717, the members of a committee of Convocation who charged that Benjamin Hoadly, the bishop of Bangor, attempted to "subvert all government and discipline in the Church of Christ, and to reduce his kingdom to a state of anarchy and confusion" by preaching a sermon before George I on the text "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18.36) did not intend their action to result in the silencing of Convocation as an official voice of the Church of England until 1855.5 Neither did "the populace and the very lowest of the clergy," as Horace Walpole described them, whose clamor in 1754 resulted in the repeal of the Jewish Naturalization Act, suspect that their ardor for a Christian or, more precisely, Anglican state would be perceived by later generations as the reason why such a state could not exist in England.6 Of all the eighteenth-century events which lend themselves to interpretation by the law of unintended consequences, the "Act for the better preventing of Clandestine marriages"' is best suited. When the attorney general, Sir Dudley Ryder, stood up in the House of Commons on 14 May 1753 and opened the debate on the second reading of the bill, he believed firmly that passing it into law would bring to an end a sordid chapter in English social and legal history. The bill, according to Ryder, was "designed for putting an end to an evil which has been long and grievously complained of, an evil by which many of our best families have often suffered, and which our laws have often endeavored to prevent, but always hitherto without success."8 Ryder certainly would have agreed with his colleague Lord Chancellor Hardwicke that clandestine marriages posed "a general mischief" to the public.9 However, rather than finding a means "to prevent effectually all clandestine marriages and all the mischievous consequences flowing from them,"10 Ryder and other proponents of the bill set off a chain of events which occupied the attention of Parliament and the Church of England until 1835 when other aspects of the marriage law became more pressing.11 The story of the Marriage Act of 1753, usually referred to as Lord Hardwicke's Act or the Clandestine Marriage Act, has been examined in detail by historians. …


The chubbyhead barb, Barbus anoplus, underwent a population explosion in the early phases of filling of Lake Le Roux on the Orange River. This successful colonization was possibly related to the survival strategy of the young stages of this minnow. It is suggested that some of the development traits of B. anoplus enabled it to become the most widespread freshwater fish species south of the Limpopo River. The development and behaviour of embryos and larvae of B. anoplus are descriptionbed and discussed with reference to their survival strategy and potential colonizing ability. Some of the protolarvae were pelagic and the relevance of this behaviour is noted.


This thesis aims at increasing the knowledge on past changes in extremes through the analysis of historical records of observations at meteorological stations. The key question addressed is:
How did the extremes of daily surface air temperature and precipitation change in Europe's climate of the 20th century, and what can we learn from this?
The contents is structured along the lines of four follow-up questions: Are the available observational datasets adequate to analyse extremes? Which trends are observed for the daily extremes of surface air temperature and precipitation? Can the observed changes in temperature extremes in recent decades be regarded as a fingerprint of anthropogenic climate change? Do the observed changes guide the development of temperature scenarios for our future climate?
Europe is one of the regions of the world that lacked a readily available and accessible dataset of high-resolution observational series with sufficient density and quality to study extremes. Such a dataset was developed for temperature and precipitation and used to detect statistically significant and non-trivial changes in extremes. The temperature trends indicate a coarsening of our climate and the precipitation trends indicate an increase of wet extremes. The calculated trends represent changes that can be due to natural internal processes within the climate system and/or external forcing, which can either be natural (solar irradiance, volcanic aerosols, ozone, etc.) or anthropogenic (greenhouse gases, etc.). Comparisons between the trend patterns of temperature extremes in the station records, the patterns associated with natural variability in the observations, and the patterns of future warming and natural variability as simulated by a climate model reveal fingerprints of anthropogenic warming over Europe. The last part of this thesis goes beyond the observations of the climate of the past and speculates on future changes in extremes. It presents a 'what- if scenario with seasonal details for a Gulf Stream induced cooling of the temperature climate in Western Europe as a result of a shutdown of the thermohaline ocean circulation.
Although our knowledge on past changes in extremes improved, the new daily dataset needs to be updated at a regular basis, as well as further quality controlled and elaborated with metadata information to keep its value for climate change research. The physical causes of the observed trends in extremes are unresolved even though the detected trends are statistically significant. Formal climate change detection / attribution studies require fingerprints that are well represented by climate models. Finally, the Gulf Stream scenario describes one of many possible futures. We still don't know how extremes will change.


This thesis investigates the Canadian state's response to the Idle No More movement and associated direct actions that took place between December 2012 and March 2013. I critically examine Idle No More protest policing and surveillance operations carried out by a wide range of Canadian institutions as strategies of settler-colonial pacification. I offer evidence that the pacification strategies employed by law enforcement agencies, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and the Canadian military were coordinated through the Government Operations Centre and guided, at least in part, by the production of integrated intelligence that framed Idle No More as a national security threat. By taking an "anti-security" approach, this thesis contributes to a larger political and analytical project that aims to challenge the securitization of discourse surrounding the policing and surveillance of dissent emanating from Indigenous struggles for self-determination.


Understanding the dynamic process of microwave-assisted magnetization reversal (MAMR) in a dipole–dipole coupled granular perpendicular medium is essential for its application to future magnetic storage devices. We experimentally investigated the magnetization reversal process in CoCrPt–SiO2 granular films in terms of the dependence of the switching field on the strength of an applied in-plane radio-frequency magnetic field. The reversal process changed from non-uniform rotation to uniform rotation when the frequency increased toward the ferromagnetic resonance frequency. In the resonant condition, the switching field agreed well with a model assuming uniform rotation of the magnetization in each grain. The agreement suggests that the decoherence of ferromagnetic resonance due to a dynamic dipolar field is weak in adequately exchange-coupled granular films with a saturation magnetization of 415 emu/cm3. This finding is significant for the development of the practical medium necessary for MAMR writing.


Spatial control of cell position is essential for numerous studies in tissue engineering, such as generation of linearly patterned muscle tissues, radially patterned liver lobule tissues, and circularly formed anal sphincter. This study proposes a novel method capable of patterning cells in a certain shape on a cell cultivation substrate. The concept is to pattern cells along the nodal position of resonance vibration on a cell cultivation substrate. Note that there are numerous resonance vibrations with different nodal patterns. In this study, we constructed a cell cultivation device consisting of a metallic cell cultivation substrate that can be excited to generate resonance vibration using a piezoelectric ceramic disk glued to the back of the substrate. In this study, we generated resonance vibration with a cross-circle nodal pattern. The cultivation substrate was a ø40 mm × 1 mm stainless steel plate, and the resonance frequency of the vibration was 21.4 kHz. Using the device, we conducted cell patterning experiments employing calf chondrocytes using various vibration amplitudes (1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 μmp-p). Cells were cultured for 2 hours. After the experiment, the cell density distribution on the substrate was measured by staining viable cells with calcein. Additionally, we con rmed the viability of the patterned cells after exposure to acoustic pressure produced by the resonance vibration by counting the number of cells attached to the substrate. Viable cells were successfully patterned along the nodal position when the vibration amplitude was 1.5 μmp-p. The number of cells attached to the substrate was 99.2% of that without vibration. Conversely, when the amplitude was 1.0 μmp-p, the cells were not patterned. The acoustic pressure produced by 1.0-μmp-p vibration was not large enough to move cells. Similarly, the cells could not be patterned when the amplitude was 2.0 μmp-p. In this case, ow of the culture medium induced by the high acoustic pressure probably prevented the cells from patterning. In conclusion, cells can be patterned along the nodal position of resonance vibration generated with an appropriate vibration amplitude. We believe that this method has great potential for use in tissue engineering.


The hydrogen diffusion behavior and hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility of dual phase (DP) steels with different martensite content were investigated using the slow strain-rate tensile test and hydrogen permeation measurement. Results showed that a logarithmic relationship was established between the hydrogen embrittlement index (I HE) and the effective hydrogen diffusion coefficient (D eff). When the martensite content is low, ferrite/martensite interface behaves as the main trap that captures the hydrogen atoms. Also, when the D eff decreases, I HE increases with increasing martensite content. However, when the martensite content reaches approximately 68.3%, the martensite grains start to form a continuous network, D eff reaches a plateau and I HE continues to increase. This is mainly related to the reduction of carbon content in martensite and the length of ferrite/martensite interface, which promotes the diffusion of hydrogen atoms in martensite and the aggregation of hydrogen atoms at the ferrite/martensite interface. Finally, a model describing the mechanism of microstructure-driven hydrogen diffusion with different martensite distribution was established.


In the remote areas of the Indian Himalayan Region, the inhabitants largely depend on medicinal plants for curing diseases and income generation. But, proper documentation of the medicinal plants has been poorly attempted. The value of medicinal plants in traditional healthcare practices provides clues to latest areas of research in biodiversity conservation. Keeping this in view, the present study has been conducted to study the diversity, distribution and indigenous uses of medicinal plants of Parbati valley in Kullu district of the Himachal Pradesh. A total of 402 species of medicinal plants belonging to 98 families and 266 genera were recorded and used by the inhabitants of the area for curing various ailments. These medicinal plants comprise of 34 trees, 301 herbs, 61 shrubs, and climbers and ferns, 03 species, each. Maximum medicinal plants were reported in the altitudinal zone, 1100-1800m and decreased with increasing altitudes in the study area. Of the total medicinal plants, 207 were natives, 04 endemic and 44 near endemic. The continued over-exploitation, habitat degradation and changing environmental conditions may lead to the extinction of these species within a few years. Therefore, regular monitoring of population and habitats using standard ecological methods, development of conventional and in-vitro propagation protocols, establishment of species in in-situ and ex-situ conditions have been suggested.


Nature's color has three main sources: pigments, structural colors and bioluminescence. Structural color is a special one, which is the color produced by micro- or nano-structures, and is bright and dazzling. The most common mechanisms of structural colors are film interference, diffraction grating, scattering and photonic crystals. Biological colors are mainly derived from film interference, which includes thin-film and multi-film interference. The diffraction grating mechanism is found in, for example, seed shrimp, mollusk Haliotis Glabra and the Hibiscus trionum flower. Scattering includes coherent and incoherent scattering. Well-known examples of coherent scattering include colors produced by brilliant iridescent butterfly wing scales and avian feather barbules, such as the peacock's tail. Examples of colors produced by photonic crystal structures include opal in beetles and iridescent spines in the sea mouse. Coloration changes occur through structural changes for camouflage, predation, signal communication and sex choice. This paper presents an overview of lessons from nature and various relevant mechanisms. Examples of bioinspired fabrication methods and applications are also presented in this paper.


This paper studies the effects of areal cable cars on mode of transport, time use and employment in the metropolitan area of La Paz, Bolivia. Using an instrumental variables approach, we estimate local average treatment effects of cable car use for residents who use the system due to proximity to a cable car station. Results suggest that cable-car users substitute private transport in favor of public transit and experience large savings in commute time, which is reallocated toward educational and recreational activities. Users also increase self-employment activities, potentially reflecting improved access to local labor markets. The positive effects of the cable-car are driven by residents of the city of El Alto, a city with high concentration of poor and indigenous households on the high plateau bordering La Paz. The economic benefits of the cable car outweigh costs by a ratio of 1.05 to 2.16.


The Argo dataset is used to obtain estimates of the heat storage and heat divergence with the aim of the assessing the usefulness of the Argo array for investigating the North Atlantic heat budget. The accuracy of the Argo-based mixed layer heat storage varies significantly throughout the North Atlantic. Errors are smallest, around 10-20 Wm-2 on monthly timescales for 10° x 10° boxes, reducing to 5-10 Wm-2 on seasonal scales in the subtropics and eastern basin. Heat storage errors over a fixed 300 m layer are higher, but typically remain below 20 Wm-2 on seasonal timescales away from the western boundary. The heat budget is closed (using net heat fluxes from the NCEP climatology and NOC reanalysis) within the estimated error throughout the subtropical and eastern North Atlantic, indicating the value of the Argo dataset in studies of this nature. However, within the western boundary the heat budget residual typically exceeds 50 Wm-2, with the heat storage overestimated or the heating from the net heat flux and/or advective and diffusive divergence underestimated. Assuming that heat storage error estimates are accurate and considering results in the literature regarding the bias in net heat flux products, it is likely that heating from divergence is underestimated. The heating contribution from this term may be large on scales that cannot be resolved using Argo. In the eastern and subtropical North Atlantic, the errors in the Argo-based heat budget terms are smaller than the uncertainty in the net heat flux products and can thus be used to provide insight into which atmospheric dataset (the NCEP reanalysis or the NOC climatology) may be more accurate. The NOC net heat flux is more accurate than that from NCEP throughout the year in the subtropics and during the first half of the year in the eastern mid-latitudes. The errors in the mixed layer heat storage are smaller than the interannual variability in this term. Thus Argo can be used to investigate variability on this scale. While the current Argo dataset is on the short side for studies of this nature, continued funding of the array is expected to provide more insightful results.


Health insurance markets face two forms of adverse selection problems. On the demand side, adverse selection leads to plan price distortions and inefficient sorting of consumers across health plans. On the supply side, adverse selection creates incentives for plans to inefficiently distort benefits to attract profitable enrollees. These problems can be addressed by features of health plan payment systems such as reinsurance, risk adjustment, and premium categories. In this paper, we develop Harberger- type measures of the efficiency consequences of price and benefit distortions under a given payment system. Our measures are valid, that is, based on explicit economic models of adverse selection. Our measures are complete, in that they are able to incorporate multiple features of plan payment systems. Finally, they are practical, in that they are based on the ex ante data available to regulators and researchers during the design phase of payment system development, prior to observing actual insurer and consumer behavior. After developing the measures, we illustrate their use by comparing the performance of the payment system planned for implementation in the ACA Marketplaces in 2017 to several policy alternatives. We show that, in protecting against both types of selection problems, a payment system that incorporates reinsurance and prospective risk adjustment out-performs the planned payment system which includes only concurrent risk adjustment.


J. Propp and T. Roby isolated a phenomenon in which a statistic on a set has the same average value over any orbit as its global average, naming it homomesy. They proved that the cardinality statistic on order ideals of the product of two chains poset under rowmotion exhibits homomesy. In this paper, we prove an analogous result in the case of the product of three chains where one chain has two elements. In order to prove this result, we generalize from two to n dimensions the recombination technique that D. Einstein and Propp developed to study homomesy. We see that our main homomesy result does not fully generalize to an arbitrary product of three chains, nor to larger products of chains; however, we have a partial generalization to an arbitrary product of three chains. Additional corollaries include refined homomesy results in the product of three chains and a new result on increasing tableaux. We conclude with a generalization of recombination to any ranked poset and a homomesy result for the Type B minuscule poset cross a two element chain.


The aim of the present study was to determine neurobehavioral and genotoxic activities of ethanol extract of Erythrina falcata Benth., Fabaceae, leaves on rats. Animals were treated with ethanol extract of E. falcata (100, 300 or 500 mg/ kg; i.p.) and the open field and elevated plus-maze tasks were used as behavioral models to investigate a possible effect on the locomotor and exploratory activity and anxiety, respectively. Genotoxic effect was investigated using the Comet assay. Ethanol extract of E. falcata leaves decreased the number of crossings and rearings in the open field task and increased the latency to start locomotion, though it was not able to affect habituation to apparatus measured 24 h after the first session. Behavioral parameters in the plus-maze test were not affected by E. falcata. Ethanol extract did not increase damage index and damage frequency in blood or brain, indicating no genotoxic effect. The results suggest that ethanol extract of E. falcata leaves was able to affect locomotion, exploration, and motivation of animals without anxiolytic/anxiogenic effect, indicating a possible depressant action on the central nervous system. Furthermore, the lack of DNA damage in brain is an indicative that ethanol extract of E. falcata leaves may not induce neurotoxic effects.


In previous paper, we extended the designing method proposed by Keel et al., which originated from robust eigenvalue assignment, to a system with time-varying uncertainties which are exhibited by the linear combination of time-varying parameters and time-invariant matrices specifying the structures of uncertainties. Moreover, we proposed a novel algorithm to obtain a state feedback that achieved a robustly stable closed-loop system. In many practical cases, it may be impossible to measure all of the state variables in the system. It shall be required to stabilize the system by use of output feedback controller. This paper presents a new method for robust stabilization of the above-mentioned system by means of output feedback controller with low-order compensators, in which the closed-loop eigenvalue assignment is relaxed, that is, discrepancies between the desired and the achieved closed-loop eigenvalues are permitted. Based upon the Gronwall's lemma, a sufficient condition with respect to the uncertainty tolerance is also prepared for the asymptotical stability of the closed-loop system. Furthermore, we state the relation between the robustness of the stability and the order of dynamic compensator. For example, designs of lateral autopilot system of a missile are shown.


The specific aims of this study are twofold. First, measure 2007 rates of gambling and underage gambling among public school students. Second, compare rates of gambling, frequent gambling, and underage gambling from 1992 to 2007. The 2007 sample includes 40,605 male and 42,655 female Minnesota public school students enrolled in the 9th and 12th grades and similar sample sizes from 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2004. Students were administered the Minnesota Student Survey, a 126-item, anonymous, self-administered, paper-and-pencil questionnaire that inquires about multiple health-related content domains, including gambling behavior. In 2007, most students gambled at least once during the past year, however, most did not gamble frequently. Gambling participation has shown a gradual and consistent decline from 1992 to 2007 for both boys and girls. Underage gambling has also shown declines over time. Conversely, rates of frequent gambling (weekly or more often) have remained fairly stable over time. There have been two fluctuations of note, a peak in lottery play in 1998 and a peak in card playing in 2004 with subsequent declines in both.


We present a detailed analysis of the guided modes of a one-dimensional photonic bandgap (PBG) waveguide that consists of a high-index guiding layer placed between two identical Bragg reflectors. Using a zigzag wave model, we calculate the modal characteristics of the waveguide including dispersion curves, field distributions, cutoff conditions, and confinement factors. We also investigate the effects of truncating the Bragg reflectors with either a high- or a low-index medium on the modal characteristics of the waveguide. The study provides a rigorous discussion of the two guiding mechanisms in the waveguide, namely index guiding and bandgap guiding. The results are useful not only for the design of PBG slab waveguides but also for a better understanding of the more complicated two-dimensional structures of the same nature, such as photonic crystal fibers and waveguides, which are not amenable to rigorous analytical studies.


(La0.7Sr0.3)MnO3 (LSMO) thin films were prepared on Si (100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Both structure and surface morphology of the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Furthermore, the chemical states and chemical composition of the films were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) near the surface. The results indicate that the films grown on Si (100) substrates have a single pseudo cubic perovskite phase structure with a high (100) orientation. The XPS results show that La, Sr and Mn exist mainly in the forms of perovskite structure and a SrO layer was found on outermost surface.


Abstract. The Differential Emissivity Imaging Disdrometer (DEID) is a new evaporation-based optical and thermal instrument designed to measure the mass, size, density, and type of individual hydrometeors and their bulk properties. Hydrometeor spatial dimensions are measured on a heated metal plate using an infrared camera by exploiting the much higher thermal emissivity of water compared with metal. As a melted hydrometeor evaporates, its mass can be directly related to the loss of heat from the hotplate assuming energy conservation across the hydrometeor. The heat-loss required to evaporate a hydrometeor is found to be independent of environmental conditions including ambient wind velocity, moisture level, and temperature. The difference in heat loss for snow versus rain for a given mass offers a method for discriminating precipitation phase. The DEID measures hydrometeors at sampling frequencies up to 1 Hz with masses and effective diameters greater than 1 µg and 200 µm, respectively, determined by the size of the hotplate and the thermal camera specifications. Measurable snow water equivalent (SWE) precipitation rates range from 0.001 to 200 mm h−1, as validated against a standard weighing bucket. Preliminary field-experiment measurements of snow and rain from the winters of 2019 and 2020 provided continuous automated measurements of precipitation rate, snow density, and visibility. Measured hydrometeor size distributions agree well with canonical results described in the literature.


We have identified a novel stop-codon mutation in the mtDNA of a young woman with a multisystem mitochondrial disorder. Histochemical analysis of a muscle-biopsy sample showed virtually absent cytochrome c oxidase (COX) stain, and biochemical studies confirmed an isolated reduction of COX activity. Sequence analysis of the mitochondrial-encoded COX-subunit genes identified a heteroplasmic G-->A transition at nucleotide position 6930 in the gene for subunit I (COX I). The mutation changes a glycine codon to a stop codon, resulting in a predicted loss of the last 170 amino acids (33%) of the polypeptide. The mutation was present in the patient's muscle, myoblasts, and blood and was not detected in normal or disease controls. It was not detected in mtDNA from leukocytes of the patient's mother, sister, and four maternal aunts. We studied the genetic, biochemical, and morphological characteristics of transmitochondrial cybrid cell lines, obtained by fusing of platelets from the patient with human cells lacking endogenous mtDNA (rho0 cells). There was a direct relationship between the proportion of mutant mtDNA and the biochemical defect. We also observed that the threshold for the phenotypic expression of this mutation was lower than that reported in mutations involving tRNA genes. We suggest that the G6930A mutation causes a disruption in the assembly of the respiratory-chain complex IV.


Several experimental insecticide treatments alone or in combinations were evaluated and demonstrated efficacy against Bemisia argentifolii [silverleaf whitefly (WF) also known as sweet potato WF, B. tabaci 1. At each rating date following each of four applications, the number of adult and immature WF were reduced relative to the untreated check CGA215944 (Ciba) treatment combinations were similar at each rating date and significant differences could not be distinguished between the addition of fenoxycarb (Ciba) or CGA -59205 (Ciba). Combinations of insecticides or alternating with insect growth regulators (IGR's) also significantly reduced numbers of WF adults and immatures similar to the standard treatment of bifenthrin (Capture®) plus endosulfan. A single application of pyriproxyfen (Valent) was followed by different treatments [endosulfan followed by fenpropathrin (Danitol ®) plus methamidaphos (Monitor®) followed by endosulfan] at each application date. Buprofezin (Applaud ®) was combined or alternated with endosulfan at each application and similar reduction of WF was observed. Pyridaben (BASF) did not adequately reduce WF adults and immatures relative to the standard treatment in this test. The Ciba compounds and single or multiple applications of the IGR's, pyriproxyfen and Applaud were highly effective in substantially reducing WF immatures and adults in this test.


Background: Elderly constitutes a vulnerable group for depression, as they are especially prone to suffer adverse consequences of a depressive episode and have greater rates of completed suicides. This study aims to estimate the prevalence and determinants of geriatric depression.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among 250 elderlies from 1st January 2019 to 1st January 2020 in the different rural blocks of Ernakulam district, India. The multistage sampling technique and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-30) were used to collect the data. A score of 0 9 is considered "normal", 10 19 is labeled as "mildly depressed", and 20 30 as "severely depressed". Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS software. The Chi-square test /Fisher's exact test was used to study the association between the socio-demographic and behavioral variables with depression.
Results: The mean age was 69.33 ± 7.41years and male: female ratio was 0.55: 1.The overall prevalence of depression was 52.4%. Advanced age over 70years [OR=2.04;95% CI, 1.227 – 3.394; P=0.006], female gender[OR=2.844;95% CI,1.663-4.865; P =<0.001], lack of gainful employment [OR=3.504; 95% CI, 1.833–6.699; P =<0.001], physical dependence [OR=0.365;95% CI,0.162–0.821; P =0.012], financial dependence [OR=0.388; 95% CI, 0.219–0.687; P =<0.001], presence of medical co morbidities [OR=0.428; 95% CI, 0.212–0.866; P =0.016],poor lifestyle including the lack of regular exercise [OR =2.020; 95% CI,1.174–3.473; P =0.010], addiction to alcohol [OR=4.932;95%CI,1.600-15.208; P =0.004] and addiction to tobacco smoking [OR=2.905;95%CI,1.273-6.628; P =0.009] and poor family support [OR= 5.180;95% CI,716–15.636; P = 0.002] were found to be significantly associated with depression.
Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among the elderlies was high, and hence early diagnosis and prompt treatment are essential to reduce its burden in the community.


The article "Radiosurgery for Metastatic Spinal Tumors: Follow-Up MR Findings" (2012;33:382– 87) contained an incorrect abstract. The authors regret this error. The correct abstract is reproduced below: Background and Purpose: MR imaging is the primary tool for evaluation and monitoring of spinal tumors. We retrospectively analyzed the MR imaging findings before and after SRS for metastatic spinal tumors. Materials and Methods: We reviewed MR imaging findings on 79 metastatic spinal tumor lesions in 44 patients (29 male and 15 female) who had undergone radiosurgery between November 2003 and April 2008. Posttreatment MR imaging was evaluated retrospectively for 3 aspects: 1) changes in tumor volume; 2) changes in T2 signal intensity; and 3) changes in contrast enhancement patterns. Results: With regard to tumor volume on MR images, 32 lesions (40.5%) decreased in volume (group 1), 39 (49.4%) showed no change (group 2), and 8 (10.1%) increased in volume (group 3). T2 signal intensities were unchanged in 4 lesions (type 1), homogeneously increased in 3 (type 2), and changed to a homogeneously dark signal in 4 (type 4). The T2 signal intensity was increased and intermixed with dark signal intensity (type 3) in 68 lesions. A decrease in contrast enhancement with or without non-enhancing foci was seen in 73 lesions. A persistent homogeneous enhancement pattern was seen in all 4 of the type 1 lesions, in 1 of the 3 type 2 lesions, and in 1 of the 68 type 3 lesions. Conclusions: Main MR imaging features of locally controlled metastatic spinal tumors included no increase in tumor volume, increased T2 signal intensity with intermixed T2 dark signal intensity, and decreased contrast enhancement. Follow-up MR imaging also provided several patterns of tumor recurrence.


The combination of silicon fusion bonding fabrication technology and detailed finite-element modeling is used to provide a framework for implementing a new concept in silicon microvalves. The device described is specifically designed for potential use in a current-to-pressure converter. The pressure inside the expansion chamber is controlled by adjusting the flow rate in a leakage path between the orifice and the chamber. Flow rate is regulated by a small valve, typically electromagnetically or piezoelectrically actuated, at flow rates of about 20 cm/sup 3//s. When the valve is fully open, the pressure in the chamber is minimized (3 psi); when the valve is closed, the pressure in the chamber is maximized (15 psi). Optimization of design features using finite-element analysis increased the deflection capability of the valve flapper by at least a factor of 5, over +or-75 mu m.<<ETX>>


Background The genetic background of atherosclerosis in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is complex and poorly understood. Studying genetic components of intermediate phenotypes, such as endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress, may aid in identifying novel genetic components for atherosclerosis in diabetic patients. Methods Five polymorphisms forming two haplotype blocks within the GTP cyclohydrolase 1 gene, encoding a rate limiting enzyme in tetrahydrobiopterin synthesis, were studied in the context of flow and nitroglycerin mediated dilation (FMD and NMD), intima-media thickness (IMT), and plasma concentrations of von Willebrand factor (vWF) and malondialdehyde (MDA). Results Rs841 was associated with FMD (p = 0.01), while polymorphisms Rs10483639, Rs841, Rs3783641 (which form a single haplotype) were associated with both MDA (p = 0.012, p = 0.0015 and p = 0.003, respectively) and vWF concentrations (p = 0.016, p = 0.03 and p = 0.045, respectively). In addition, polymorphism Rs8007267 was also associated with MDA (p = 0.006). Haplotype analysis confirmed the association of both haplotypes with studied variables. Conclusions Genetic variation of the GCH1 gene is associated with endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress in T2DM patients.


It is a common view that the assembly process heavily affects a product's final quality and cost. The continuously shortening product life cycle requires a faster response speed as well as a lower defect rate in assembly production. In this situation, assembly quality control is becoming one of the most demanding problems in the modern manufacturing environment. The main causes of assembly defects can be classified into four categories, i.e., improper design, defective part, variance in assembly system, and operator error. The first three categories have been studied for many decades. However, elements of the operator error have not been fully explored. In this paper, using a copier assembly as an example, the problem of assembly defects caused by mistakes of operators is investigated systematically. A novel defect-rate prediction model is derived from the study of two complexity factors, namely, the design-based assembly complexity factor and the process-based assembly complexity factor, which are defined according to the structure and production characteristics of the copier. Several case studies consistently demonstrate that the new prediction model is accurate and stable for evaluating the copier assembly quality. Moreover, another case study offered in this paper demonstrates that the prediction model can provide effective assistance in the improvement of assembly quality.


Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between phenotypic resistance and genotypic resistance of isolated serotyped pathogenic Escherichia coli isolates from the clinically diseased broiler. Materials and Methods: A total of 160 samples (heart, liver, kidney, and lung) were collected from 18 to 34 days old clinically diseased broiler from 40 broiler farms (3-5 birds/farm) reared in Giza and Kaluobaia Governorates for the isolation of pathogenic E. coli. Various E. coli isolates were tested for the pathogenicity based on Congo red (CR) dye binding assay. The obtained CR-positive E. coli isolates were subjected to serological identification using slide agglutination test. Disc diffusion test was used to study the sensitivity pattern of E. coli isolates to available 12 antibiotics. Polymerase chain reaction was performed for the detection of antimicrobial resistance genes in the studied pathogenic E. coli isolates. Results: The results revealed that 56 samples (35 %) were positive for E. coli. The results of the CR assay indicates that 20 isolates of 56 (35.7%) were positive and 36 isolates (64.3%) were negative. Identified E. coli serotypes of CR-positive isolates were 1 (O24), 2 (O44), 2 (O55), 5 (O78), 2 (O86), 1 (124), 3 (O127), 1 (O158), and 3 untyped. Resistance rate in disc diffusion test was 85% to oxytetracycline and kanamycin; 80% to ampicillin (AMP), clindamycin, and streptomycin (S); 75% to enrofloxacin; 65% to chloramphenicol; 55% to cefotaxime and gentamicin (CN); 45% to trimethoprim+sulfamethoxazole; 35% to erythromycin (ERI); and 30% to oxacillin. All strains are multidrug-resistant (MDR). Antibacterial resistance genes CITM, ere, aac (3)-(IV), tet(A), tet(B), dfr(A1), and aad(A1) were detected in 14 (70%), 12 (60%), 12 (60%), 8 (40%), 11 (55%), 8 (40%), and 9 (45%) of tested 20 isolates, respectively. Multidrug resistance was detected in the form of resistance to 42%-83.3% of tested 12 antibiotics. Three isolates (15%) of 20 tested isolates showed a relationship between phenotype and genotype and 17 (85%) showed irregular relation. Strains are sensitive and show resistant gene (P-G+) presented in three isolates for AMP (beta-lactam), one for ERI (Macrolide), as well as five isolates for trimethoprim (pyrimidine inhibitor). E. coli isolates had resistance and lacked gene (P+ G-) reported meanly in one isolate for CN (aminoglycoside), two isolates for tetracycline, four isolates for ERI, seven isolates for trimethoprim, and eight isolates for S (aminoglycoside). Conclusion: The study demonstrates that E. coli is still a major pathogen responsible for disease conditions in broiler. E. coli isolates are pathogenic and MDR. Responsible gene was detected for six antibiotics in most of the isolates, but some do not show gene expression, this may be due to few numbers of resistance genes tested or other resistance factors not included in this study.


This article traces the role of the state in developmental theory and practice, paying particular attention to public sector management. The early orthodoxy of modernisation theory put the state at the centre of development, giving it prime responsibility for generating development. Realisations of the shortcomings of modernisation theory and disappointment with its results led to the rise of neoliberal approaches in development thinking and action, with a focus on the shrinking state. However, in turn, the efficacy of neoliberalism has been questioned, and its human toll has been critiqued. Coupled with evidence of the success of the East Asian developmental states, the result has been a rethinking of the state and a new acknowledgment of its central role in development. Strong institutions and efficient, effective and responsive public sector management have been identified as key ingredients of capable states that made development happen. In outlining this trajectory, the article introduces the case studies that comprise this symposium.


Abstract : Software architecture competence is the ability of an individual or organization to acquire, use, and sustain the skills and knowledge necessary to carry out software architecture-centric practices. Previous work in architecture has concentrated on its technical aspects: methods and tools for creating, analyzing, and using architecture. However, a different perspective recognizes that these activities are carried out by people working in organizations, and those people and organizations can use assistance towards consistently producing high-quality architectures. This report lays out the basic concepts of software architecture competence and describes four models for explaining, measuring, and improving the architecture competence of an individual or a software-producing organization. The models are based on the following: (1) the duties, skills, and knowledge required of a software architect or architecture organization; (2) human performance technology, an engineering approach applied to improving the competence of individuals; (3) organizational coordination, the study of how people and units in an organization share information; and (4) organizational learning, an approach to how organizations acquire, internalize, and utilize knowledge to improve their performance. The report also shows how the four models can be synergistically applied to produce an evaluation instrument to measure an organization's architecture competence.


The aim is to deepen understanding about learning contents by empirically investigating relations between preschool teachers' teaching and child ren's content learning. The aim is also to present an analysis method that facilitates these investigations. Research has shown that early childhood science education is based on education and care, sometimes stressed as a dichotomy. Additionally, ECE rese arch seldom concerns teachers and their teaching activities, i.e. what they do when they teach. There is therefore a need for more research into what teaching in early childhood education actually entails. The approach is informed by John Dewey's pragmatic philosophy and his use of transactions. A transactional analysing tool called SLQA (Substantive Learning Quality Analysis) is developed and used to facilitate investigations of specific learning qualities in terms of which learning content the teacher gui des towards. The empirical material consists of video - recorded situations where preschool children (1 - 3 years of age) experience nature together with their teachers In this study the preschool teachers and the parents gave their written approval and the pa rticipants were told that they could withdraw at any time during the recordings. The analyses show that the relations between teaching and learning processes and content are intertwined and include education and care. The teachers guide towards aesthetical , moral, cognitive and physical qualities in learning. A multi - dimensional approach on quality can be useful for teachers as a tool for reflections about teaching and learning content in preschool in their work within the area of pedagogical documentation.


Abstract We have investigated the fluctuation in the electro-hydrodynamic convection(EHC) by developing a method for dynamic image analyses. The fluctuation of images is characterized by the two-time correlation function of the spatial Fourier coefficients of images. We measured the time correlation function of patterns in the two turbulent states of EHC:(i) the dynamic scattering mode(DSM) 1 and (ii)DSM2 states. It was found that in the DSM2 state, the correlation time, defined by the time at which the correlation function becomes a half of the initial value, decreases monotonically as the increase of the wave number. In the DSM1 state, on the other hand, the correlation time along the direction perpendicular to the rubbing direction has a peak at the wave number corresponding to the thickness of the cell. The peak value decreases as the applied electric field is raised, and vanishes entirely when the system undergoes the transition from DSM1 to DSM2.


The "underground economy" literature has generated a plethora of vague terms (shadow, hidden, subterranean) that have served to confuse rather than clarify the substantive issues raised by the finding that significant segments of economic activity may be imperfectly accounted for in the conventional data bases that form the foundation of empirical inquiry in economics. This paper outlines a taxonomic framework that clarifies the distinction between "unrecorded" and "unreported" economic activities and examines the appropriate empirical counterparts of these concepts. All too often, the under-recording of income in National Income and Product Accounts has been confused with the underreporting of income on tax forms. The concept of a "full compliance deficit" is introduced in order to distinguish between structural, cyclical and compliance components of budget deficit measures. Reference: The Unofficial Economy, Alessandrini and Dallago (eds.) Gower, 1987. pp. 83- 106.


Abstract 'Globalisation' is all too often understood as a monolithic process that produces broadly similar outcomes in a wide range of settings. This examination of the impact of globalisation on the restructuring of public sector universities in South Africa in the 1990s demonstrates that the picture is far more complex. Over the last thirty years, globalisation has been intertwined with neoliberal capitalist economic and ideological restructuring. This is refracted, in the first instance, through State policy, and, in the second, through specific local sites of power relations and class struggles that are, in turn, structured by the resources and responses of different actors. While the neoliberal component of globalisation has played a decisive role in shaping State higher education policy in South Africa, the actual implementation of the model of the market-orientated university receiving minimal support from a deficit conscious State has varied considerably between universities. Using a case study of the rise of support service outsourcing in the campuses, this paper demonstrates that management capacity and labour resistance play a central role in explaining divergence in the sector. The conclusion is that local struggles play a central role in shaping the extent to which globalisation is able to shape given sites of social relations, and that globalisation is refracted through, and reproduces, existing configurations of power.


The problems of this study are: who and to whom are the Madurese kinship address terms used by the Madurese and what social factors influenced the choice of kinship address terms used by the Madurese. The method of this study is descriptive?qualitative research because it only attempts to describe the phenomena that happen in human life. Then, the writer takes the dialogues randomly from the Madurese who live in the Mayangan district of Probolinggo to collect the data. Based on the data that have been collected, Madurese address terms used in Probolinggo district can be grouped into: pronoun, family terms, loan terms and personal name. In this study, the writer was concerned with four address terms, namely term emmak (mother), term eppak (father), term cebbing (daughter) and term kacong (son). Based on the result and discussion, the writer draws conclusion that Madurese address terms used in Probolinggo are related to the person being addressed and the person who addresses the other, related to the status of the users and the person addressed, to the ages, situation and the closeness between the addresser and the addressee. There are some factors influencing the address terms used in Probolinggo district, such as; ages, sex, situation, relationship, etc. Furthermore, people must pay attention to the correct usage of each term to whom, where, and when the term should be used in the society. At last, the writer suggests that to avoid misunderstanding, the use of kinship address terms should be given more attention.


The optimal production control problem of deterministic pull flow lines with multiple part types is considered in this paper. The last machine is assumed to be the bottleneck. The objective is to minimize the total inventory and backlog costs over time. We give an optimal production policy and its computational complexity.


The Turkish government commenced banking deregulation reforms with the objective of
fostering competition in the early 1980s. Yet several financial crises emerged in the
aftermath of the reforms, indicating structural weaknesses. The financial crisis in 2001 has
been a cornerstone of the regulatory framework, changing the policy focus from
deregulation to stability. This study aims to investigate the evolution of the regulatory
reforms on cost structure characteristics and on ownership. It also evaluates the impact of
reforms on the dynamic of competition in the loan market. Changes in accounting rules
and introduction of re-regulation policies took place as of 2002, resulting in previous
literature focus on either side of the change. This thesis builds a homogenous data set to
allow for accounting changes and to look at the whole reform process, enabling it to draw
more robust comparisons and policy implications. It accordingly uses a comprehensive and
unique panel dataset of 51 banks for the period 1988-2016, capturing the pre- and postreform periods.
To examine the impact of reforms on cost efficiency and ownership, a stochastic cost
frontier with inefficiency determinants is estimated. The results suggest that pure cost
technology trend worsens over time, confirming that banks have yet to adjust to the new
regulatory environment. The trend in cost efficiency shows a non-monotonic pattern over
time, implying that efficiency gains have been unsustainable. The results also suggest that
reforms influence the ownership-cost efficiency relationship. Specifically, domestic private
and foreign banks appear to benefit from an environment with operational freedom and
functional autonomy during the pre-reform period. The implementation of tighter
prudential norms in the aftermath of the 2001 crisis seems to have had adverse impacts for
all ownerships at the early stages. Yet state banks and domestic private banks in particular
are initially better equipped to adapt to the new regulatory environment compared to
foreign banks. The results of the persistence of profits (POP) model indicate that the
reforms had no discernible effect on the competitive conditions of the lending market.
Furthermore, the foreign bank entry also did not improve competition. The complementary
analysis undertaken using the Boone indicator (BI) suggests that competitive conditions
are stronger in the early stages of prudential reforms yet it significantly worsens after 2008,
implying that once again the reform package does not seem to have had the desired
competition-inducing effects


Abstract The folded belt construction has been developed to reduce the shear stress concentrations at the belt edge and to stabilize the bending interaction with the carcass at the shoulder. An analysis is given to obtain the characteristic distributions of interply shear stresses and coupled extensional‐torsional and extensional‐bending deformations of the folded belt comprised of a one‐layer Cord Reinforced Rubber (CRR) sheet under axial tension. It was shown that the interply shear stress concentrations surely disappeared at the folded belt edge but appeared alternatively at the free end of the rolled‐up belt sheet and the tensile stress in the axial direction concentrated heavily in the laminated belt part. The experimental verification of the predicted distribution of the interply shear stresses was conducted by measuring the in‐plane shear membrane force of a belt sheet.


Smartphones are now ubiquitous and valuable in many professions and yet have also been blamed for creating an 'always on' culture, blurring boundaries between work and home. Research has shown that checking e-mails out-of-hours via computer makes workers feel more overloaded with work but also increases their sense of coping. A total of 94 participants completed a survey exploring whether the same pattern would emerge for accessing e-mail on smartphones, showing that those who use smartphones for work e-mail experienced lower levels of overload, but not coping, and push notifications were associated with greater use of smartphones for e-mail. However, there were no significant correlations between coping or overload and e-mail use or quantity, suggesting that lower overload is not due to the ability to processes or read more e-mails outside of work.


Infantile myofibromatosis is the most common form of fibromatosis in children. It can be solitary, mainly affecting the bone or soft tissues, or multicentric with the possibility of visceral involvement. Solitary forms of visceral localization are exceedingly rare. The authors report the observation of a newborn female infant, with solitary jejunal infantile myofibromatosis which after reviewing relevant litterature on the subject appears to be the sixth case of its kind. This form must be considered in the differential diagnosis of the neonatal intestinal obstruction.


Emma is portrayed in the nuptial relationship which situates her to be conditional upon her husband power. She seemingly portrayed as a stereotype figure of a married woman. In fact, the closely reading gives us another insight of Emma where we can see her identity from another angle. The feminist angle in literary works was regarding patriarchal society which dominates the women's portrayal of that time. The patriarchal flourished the society's perception which considers that is men who ruled and controlled over women. This tradition had been stumped the women desire for approval of their existence. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the female protagonist identity and her desire portrayed and focused in "The Harness." In order to reveal Emma's identity and her desire, the study focus not only on Emma only but also Peter is analyzed as well, analyzing the relationship between the couple. Emma appears to be strong and independent. Although she is portrayed as a little skinny old woman who lies sick most of her lifetime, she can direct Peter not only to wear the harness but also to run and keep both their house and their farm as she wants them to be. Emma, in this sense, is very powerful and "masculine" from a modern gender point of view. Her identity seemingly is far from feminine in its reality.


Skyrmions can be transformed into lumps or baby Skyrmions by being trapped inside a domain wall. Here we find that they can also be transformed into sine-Gordon kinks when confined by vortices, resulting in confined Skyrmions. We show this both by an effective field theory approach and by direct numerical calculations. The existence of these trapped and confined Skyrmions does not rely on higher-derivative terms when the host solitons are flat or straight. We also construct a Skyrmion as a twisted vortex ring in a model with a sixth-order derivative term.


For a given set of background interference signals, it is well known that the optimal sequence can be obtained by solving an eigenvalue problem. However, one usual practical constraint on the sequences is that the sequence elements should have a constant amplitude. We show that when the choice is limited to binary sequences, the sequence assignment problem is NP-hard. We propose a local search method to find suboptimal solutions. This method can also be applied when polyphase sequences are used. Performance evaluation when applied to multipath channels is made.


Abstract. Planktic foraminifera are heterotrophic mesozooplankton of global marine abundance. The position of planktic foraminifers in the marine food web is different compared to other protozoans and ranges above the base of heterotrophic consumers. Being secondary producers with an omnivorous diet, which ranges from algae to small metazoans, planktic foraminifers are not limited to a single food source, and are assumed to occur at a balanced abundance displaying the overall marine biological productivity at a regional scale. With a new non-destructive protocol developed from the bicinchoninic acid (BCA) method and nano-photospectrometry, we have analysed the protein-biomass, along with test size and weight, of 754 individual planktic foraminifers from 21 different species and morphotypes. From additional CHN analysis, it can be assumed that protein-biomass equals carbon-biomass. Accordingly, the average individual planktic foraminifer protein- and carbon-biomass amounts to 0.845 μg. Samples include symbiont bearing and symbiont-barren species from the sea surface down to 2500 m water depth. Conversion factors between individual biomass and assemblage-biomass are calculated for test sizes between 72 and 845 μm (minimum test diameter). Assemblage-biomass data presented here include 1128 sites and water depth intervals. The regional coverage of data includes the North Atlantic, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and Caribbean as well as literature data from the eastern and western North Pacific, and covers a wide range of oligotrophic to eutrophic waters over six orders of magnitude of planktic-foraminifer assemblage-biomass (PFAB). A first order estimate of the average global planktic foraminifer biomass production (>125 μm) ranges from 8.2–32.7 Tg C yr−1 (i.e. 0.008–0.033 Gt C yr−1), and might be more than three times as high including neanic and juvenile individuals adding up to 25–100 Tg C yr−1. However, this is a first estimate of regional PFAB extrapolated to the global scale, and future estimates based on larger data sets might considerably deviate from the one presented here. This paper is supported by, and a contribution to the Marine Ecosystem Data project (MAREDAT). Data are available from http://www.pangaea.de ( http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.777386 ).


Two unusual cases of purpura simplex raise the problem, as yet unsolved, of the pathogenesis of the purpuric eruption. Together with a previous observation of hemorrhagic purpura made by Roskam, they show the inconstancy and variability of the vascular fragility test.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This paper was translated by Raymond G. Gottschalk, M.D., whose cooperation is gratefully acknowledged.


Selective manipulation of single cells is an important step in sample preparation for biological analysis. A highly specific and automated device is desired for such an operation. An ideal device would be able to selectively pick several single cells in parallel from a heterogeneous population and transfer those to designated sites for further analysis without human intervention. The robotic manipulator developed here provides the basis for development of such a device. The device in this work is designed to selectively pick cells based on their inherent properties using dielectrophoresis (DEP) and automatically transfer and release those at a transfer site. Here we provide proof of concept of such a device and study the effect of different parameters on its operation. Successful experiments were conducted to separate Candida cells from a mixture with 10 μm latex particles and a viability assay was performed for separation of viable rat adipose stem cells (RASCs) from non-viable ones. The robotic DEP device was further used to pick and transfer single RASCs. This work also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of our current setup and illustrates the future steps required to improve the performance of this robotic DEP technology.


Mesoporous CeO2 core–shell microspheres were obtained by pyrolysis of a Ce–asparagine coordination polymer precursor. Then, upon a sheath-coating process via solvothermal treatment with Co(CH3COO)2·4H2O, Co3O4 species were uniformly dispersed on the CeO2 core–shell microsphere surface to generate the CeO2@Co3O4 composite. When used as catalysts for the oxidation of CO to CO2, the temperature required for full CO conversion was 280 °C and 170 °C for the core–shell microspheres CeO2 and CeO2@Co3O4-20 wt%, respectively. The porous structure with a core–shell architecture provided a larger surface area and abundant oxygen vacancies to adsorb and activate the CO molecules, resulting in an enhanced catalytic activity. Moreover, the CeO2@Co3O4 core–shell microspheres could maintain complete CO conversion after 30 h reaction. The enhanced CO conversion performance of the CeO2@Co3O4 core–shell microspheres was ascribed to the synergistic interaction between Co3O4 and CeO2.


We propose a variable decomposition algorithm-greedy block coordinate descent (GBCD)-in order to make dense Gaussian process regression practical for large scale problems. GBCD breaks a large scale optimization into a series of small sub-problems. The challenge in variable decomposition algorithms is the identification of a sub-problem (the active set of variables) that yields the largest improvement. We analyze the limitations of existing methods and cast the active set selection into a zero-norm constrained optimization problem that we solve using greedy methods. By directly estimating the decrease in the objective function, we obtain not only efficient approximate solutions for GBCD, but we are also able to demonstrate that the method is globally convergent. Empirical comparisons against competing dense methods like Conjugate Gradient or SMO show that GBCD is an order of magnitude faster. Comparisons against sparse GP methods show that GBCD is both accurate and capable of handling datasets of 100,000 samples or more.


Chronic transfusion therapy has played a central role in extending life expectancy for patients with hemoglobinopathies such as thalassemia. However, this life-saving therapy is associated with numerous complications that now comprise the bulk of management considerations for patients with thalassemia. This review reports on the experience of the Thalassemia Longitudinal Cohort and reviews available literature to establish guidelines for the management of patients with thalassemia.


BACKGROUND
Neuroimaging has a reasonable accuracy to differentiate behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) from other neurodegenerative disorders, its value for the differentiation of bvFTD among subjects with acquired behavioral disturbances is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the diagnostic accuracy of MRI, additional [18F]FDG-PET, and their combination for bvFTD among subjects with late onset behavioral changes.

METHODS
Patients with late onset behavioral changes referred to a memory clinic or psychiatric services were included. At baseline, 111 patients had a brain MRI scan and 74 patients received an additional [18F]FDG-PET when the MRI was inconclusive. The consensus diagnosis after two-year-follow-up was used as the gold standard to calculate sensitivity and specificity for baseline neuroimaging.

RESULTS
27 patients had probable/definite bvFTD and 84 patients had a non-bvFTD diagnosis (primary psychiatric diagnosis or other neurological disorders). MRI had a sensitivity of 70% (95% CI 52-85%) with a specificity of 93% (95% CI 86-97%). Additional [18F]FDG-PET had a sensitivity of 90% (95% CI 66-100%) with a specificity of 68% (95% CI 56-79%). The sensitivity of combined neuroimaging was 96% (95% CI 85-100%) with a specificity of 73% (95% CI 63-81%). In 66% of the genetic FTD cases, MRI lacked typical frontotemporal atrophy. 40% of cases with a false positive [18F]FDG-PET scan had a primary psychiatric diagnosis.

CONCLUSION
A good diagnostic accuracy was found for MRI and additional [18F]FDG-PET for bvFTD in patients with late onset behavioral changes. Caution with the interpretation of neuroimaging results should especially be taken in cases with a genetic background and in cases with a primary psychiatric differential diagnosis where [18F]FDG-PET is the only abnormal investigation.


Aniline is a harmful substance that pollutes the environment and seriously endangers human health. In the present study five different bacteria were enriched and isolated from the soil around Shiraz refinery (Iran) as aniline degrading bacteria. They were identified as Enterobacter ludwigii KH-A5, Raoultella planticola KH-A2, Alcaligenes faecalis KH-A3, Serratia marcescens KH-A4 and Microbacterium barkeri KH-A1 based on 16S rDNA gene sequencing. The highest aniline degradation rate (96%) was observed by E. ludwigii KH-A5. This strain with the greatest amount of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was the most aniline resistant bacterium. The optimum pH and temperature that supported biodegradation of aniline by strain KH-A5 were 7.0 and 28-35 °C, respectively. The maximum growth and biodegradation of aniline by KH-A5 were observed at the initial aniline concentration of 100 mg l. The strain could growth on aniline up to concentration of 700 mg l with the degradation rate of 11%. Further studies demonstrated that the addition of 0.5 g l glucose or potassium nitrate as a second carbon or nitrogen source could slightly enhance the biodegradation efficiency from 96.0% to 99.0%. However, even more addition of glucose or potassium nitrate could not further enhance the biodegradation process but delayed the biodegradation of aniline by the strain KH-A5. It could be concluded that these new strains, particularly E. ludwigii KH-A5, have a potential use for bioremediation of the site contaminated with aniline.


Fast and strong interacting systems are hard to control from both performance and control effort points of view. Moreover, multiple objective functions or objectives with various identifiers of varying weights can hold unfeasible solutions at times. A novel cost objective function is proposed here to overcome both feasibility set limitations and computational burdens. An application example is used to illustrate its added value, which is a fast and strong interacting multivariable system: a landscape office lighting regulatory problem. New lighting technology and an intelligent control system have been produced to improve control accuracy and reduce power consumption. While optimizing the hardware of the lighting system, the energy consumption can be further reduced by applying advanced control strategy in the lighting system. This paper designed a fractional order distributed model predictive control (FOMPC) scheme to realize the reference tracking and stability control of multiple illuminations at the same time. In order to test the efficiency of the control strategy, an experiment was carried out on the lighting setup based on the dSPACE control system. The FOMPC scheme was analyzed through simulation and lighting experiments based on the dSPACE control system. Through a comparison with the mode predictive control (MPC) scheme, the superiority of the FOMPC scheme for the dynamic behavior and control performance of multiple lighting systems was verified. The research results provide a basis for multiple lighting control and its application.


Curcumin is known to possess potent antiinflammatory and antiarthritic properties. This pilot clinical study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of curcumin alone, and in combination with diclofenac sodium in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Forty‐five patients diagnosed with RA were randomized into three groups with patients receiving curcumin (500 mg) and diclofenac sodium (50 mg) alone or their combination. The primary endpoints were reduction in Disease Activity Score (DAS) 28. The secondary endpoints included American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for reduction in tenderness and swelling of joint scores. Patients in all three treatment groups showed statistically significant changes in their DAS scores. Interestingly, the curcumin group showed the highest percentage of improvement in overall DAS and ACR scores (ACR 20, 50 and 70) and these scores were significantly better than the patients in the diclofenac sodium group. More importantly, curcumin treatment was found to be safe and did not relate with any adverse events. Our study provides the first evidence for the safety and superiority of curcumin treatment in patients with active RA, and highlights the need for future large‐scale trials to validate these findings in patients with RA and other arthritic conditions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The actions of epinephrine on muscles are not dependent on either oxidative metabolism or on the energy produced from carbohydrate through the Embden-Meyerhof glycolytic pathway. Nonetheless, the activation of glycogenolysis may be important for the muscular effects of epinephrine. The apparent discrepancies of the two statements relating to carbohydrate metabolism may be resolved by findings which implicate the hexosemonophosphates in the control of muscle contractility. In their responses to epinephrine, muscles appear to fall into two groups: 1) excited smooth muscles which lose potassium, and 2) inhibited smooth muscle, skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle which retain or increase their potassium. Changes in the ionic environment of various muscle cells modify the degree of response and, in some instances, the duration of the response to epinephrine.


Ant colony algorithm (ACA) is employed and improved in routing protocol of information acquisition of manufacturing process based on wireless networks. Weighting factor for paths selection is defined as an exponential variable in adaptive ACA. In this way, it prevents the weighting factor from excess increasing or rapid reducing to 0 which results in local optimum. This approach can dynamically adjust paths selection and improve global search ability by optimizing global policy. Adaptive ACA consumes the least time in the process of searching the most optimized paths and searches the shortest paths under the same of iterative loops. Under the same condition of the information heuristic factor and the expected heuristic factor, the algorithm shows good adaptation, realizes the load balancing between paths and resolves the dynamic adjustment problem.


Substantial work has been undertaken in the field of human resource management (HRM) as it applies to large organizations. However, for small business these models frequently do not apply. The small business lacks adequate systems to ensure the efficient management of human resources. Further, most small businesses are the product of their owners, whose personality and personal involvement dominate. Drawing upon evidence from four case studies of small business owners who have experienced growth the aim of the paper is to examine the point at which these owners became aware of the need for team building and delegation within their companies and how they responded. All have found finding, motivating and retaining good staff a critical bottleneck in their business growth. Of importance, appears to be their beliefs, attitudes and values. A shift in these areas was necessary before change could be undertaken. The point of awareness for many came from the managerial training programs but was tempered by their beliefs and the growth cycles of their companies. Prior to change being possible these owner‐managers needed to develop skills and competencies in leadership, coaching and management before effective delegation and team building could take place. These findings are linked to the existing body of knowledge relating to HRM. A theoretical model of the small business HR process for small business growth is presented. Future, implications for small business management and research are discussed.


Education means reconstruction (or) reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experiences. The goal of education is to shape people so that they develop integral multi-facet personalities and is able to carry out fully their social role by developing their intellectual, physical and spiritual capacities and encouraging remove elevated level of human feeling and aesthetic taste, thus turning the ideological principle into personal connections and habits of behavior. Professors are groups of people with common goals who have attempted to institutionalise or systematize their patterns of behaviour. All professions attempt to establish a standard of behaviour which clearly evident to member and non member alike. As much as there are many professions, there is likely to be a wide variety of standards. Professional development training courses are not only applicable to people in business or management, but are also important for professionals such as teachers, technicians, nurses and engineers. Some of these professional courses are officially recognized and certify the candidates, on completion. This recognition is an added advantage of being trained at professional development institutes. The knowledge and skills that teachers gain during their pre-service education days may not serve them for all time to come in a rapidly changing world. Professional development programs or in-service education is meant for updating and broadening the knowledge and skills of teachers. Survey of literature suggests various models of inservice education or professional development prevalent in different countries. There are three dimensions of classroom environment - the physical dimension (the material order of things), the human dimension (the human actors i.e. the teacher/s, children), and the social dimension (the interaction amongst the actors). Classroom management involves managing this environment in all its dimensions for the goal of learning. The other important aspect of classroom processes is appropriate learning strategies to teach each of the constituents of literacy at the primary level reading, writing and mathematics/ numeracy.


We present an overview of project R2074/CATALYST, an attempt to demonstrate the applicability of satellites in the provision of broadband island interconnection across Europe. This project, which is part of the RACE II initiative, will set up a demonstrator network to implement the interconnection of various LAN architectures. We focus on a study of the expected user performance through the CATALYST network based upon mathematical and simulation models. We investigate the performance of a mix of client/server architectures using Novell NetWare and Network File System protocols, which are supported by either the IEEE 802.3/Ethernet LANs, linked via LAN/ATM/satellite interface units. Areas of further investigation, and the implication of our analysis on the actual network architecture are discussed.


Cognitive diagnosis is a fundamental issue in intelligent education, which aims to discover the proficiency level of students on specific knowledge concepts. Existing approaches usually mine linear interactions of student exercising process by manual-designed function (e.g., logistic function), which is not sufficient for capturing complex relations between students and exercises. In this paper, we propose a general Neural Cognitive Diagnosis (NeuralCD) framework, which incorporates neural networks to learn the complex exercising interactions, for getting both accurate and interpretable diagnosis results. Specifically, we project students and exercises to factor vectors and leverage multi neural layers for modeling their interactions, where the monotonicity assumption is applied to ensure the interpretability of both factors. Furthermore, we propose two implementations of NeuralCD by specializing the required concepts of each exercise, i.e., the NeuralCDM with traditional Q-matrix and the improved NeuralCDM+ exploring the rich text content. Extensive experimental results on real-world datasets show the effectiveness of NeuralCD framework with both accuracy and interpretability.


It is increasingly recognized that immigration laws affect immigrants' integration. Most recently there has been growing attention to how immigration enforcement affects families through forced separations caused by deportations and long-term family separations across national borders stemming from unauthorized entry to the United States. However, beyond enforcement, there has been little systematic account of how other provisions of immigration law contribute to family separations. In this article we examine how four key provisions in immigration law, far from creating conditions for immigrant families to reunite, contribute to keeping families apart. As such, these provisions shape, in fundamental ways, the structure and composition of immigrant families. Relying on data from the American Community Survey and ethnographic interviews in Phoenix, Arizona, we find evidence consistent with the premise that immigration laws affect the formation, composition, and structure of immigrant families with potential long-term consequences.


Prior researchers have deployed the Vietnam-era draft lottery as an instrument to estimate causal effects of military service on health and income. This research has shown that effects of veteran status on mortality and earnings that appeared shortly after the war seem to have dissipated by 2000. While these are important outcomes to economists, by focusing on them, researchers may be neglecting an area of life that could be more sensitive to the psychological effects of military service: household and family life. In the present study we use the same IV approach to model the causal impact of Vietnam- era military service on four novel outcomes: residential stability, marital stability, housing tenure and extended family living arrangements. In analysis of the 2000 U.S. Census and the 2005 American Community Survey, we find that veteran status has no effect on housing tenure or residential stability. However, in the ACS sample, being a veteran appears to lower the likelihood of marital disruption, and results for extended family living arrangements appear to change signs across the two samples. Meanwhile, results tend to be strongest for whites.


There is little information regarding bond strengths of polyglass to metal alloys. This study evaluated the influence of bonding system on shear bond strength of a composite resin (Artglass/Heraeus Kulzer) to cast titanium (Ti). Twenty metallic structures (4mm in diameter, 5mm thick) of titanium grade I were cast shaped and abraded with 250mm aluminum oxide and separated into two groups. For each group was applied one bonding system (Siloc or Retention Flow) before opaque and dentin polymer superposition. This procedure was managed using teflon matrices. They were manipulated and polymerized according to the manufacturer's recommendations. The samples were stored in distilled water for 24 hours at 37o and thermocycled (5o and 55oC/500 cycles). Shear bond strength tests were performed by using an Instron Universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 5mm/min. Results were analyzed statistically with one-way ANOVA (a=0,5) and they indicated that the Retention Flow system was statistically better than Siloc (20.74 MPa and 11.65 MPa , respectively). It was possible to conclude that the bonding agent influenced the adhesion between polymer and cast titanium.


Objectives: The aim of the study was to identify the preoperative ultrasound measurements of tubal ectopic pregnancies which correlate best with surgical findings. Methods: This was a prospective study of women diagnosed with a tubal ectopic pregnancy and managed in the Early Pregnancy Unit (EPU) at University College London Hospital (UCLH) between November 2015 and August 2016. Each tubal ectopic pregnancy was measured in three perpendicular planes using the following protocol: