Despite a historical pessimism about the possibility of helping people with schizophrenia using psychological therapies, a great deal of progress has been made recently using cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) approaches. These treatments have been developed from changing understandings of schizophrenia, and focus on reducing the distress of psychotic symptoms through coping strategies and altering distressing beliefs. There is increasing evidence that suggests CBT may be helpful for a significant portion of people with psychosis. Limited information on the factors implicated in differing outcomes is available. The present study investigated factors differentiating individuals with good and poor outcomes on the basis of accounts of CBT for psychosis from eight therapist/client dyads.

Four therapists and eight of their clients (two associated with each therapist) were interviewed about their experiences of CBT. Topics covered included, effect of the therapy, elements felt to be helpful and the therapeutic relationship. Interview data was analysed using a qualitative, "grounded theory", methodology.

The analysis produced a number of major categories which differentiated clients who progressed and did not progress in CBT. These included ability to let go of distressing beliefs, logical thought, holding therapy, and presence of a shared goal. Overall, clients who progressed were better able to understand, hold and engage with ideas put forward by the therapist. Additionally, clients' views of CBT were positive and therapists and clients felt that non-specific benefits accrued from the therapy even when CBT specific progress did not occur.

The results were consistent with previous studies suggesting that ability to consider disengaging from distressing beliefs are important in therapeutic progression. However further research is required to clarify the role of logical thought, holding therapy and therapeutic alliance in progress and in predicting outcome. Reasons considered for the inability to progress include, emotional investment in psychotic beliefs and information processing factors.


Background and aims Although exposure to asbestos is known to cause adverse health effects like asbestosis and cancer, and the use of asbestos has been banned in most countries, it is still present throughout modern society due to the use of asbestos for several purposes in the past. Recently, the Dutch government has decided to lower the occupational exposure limit (OEL) from 10.000 to 2.000 fibres/m3 chrysotile (and amphibole) asbestos, and the Dutch Health Council has advised an even lower OEL of 300 fibres/m3 for amphibole asbestos. These changes have large implications for ensuring a safe working environment as well as from an analytical point of view. Methods At this moment, TNO collaborates with stakeholders from government and industry in research to update and improve the currently used framework for exposure and risk assessment, with a primary focus on the Dutch asbestos-removal sector. Available exposure data has been gathered and combined into an extensive exposure database (range 100 – 147.320.000 fibres/m³, mainly task-based measurements), which forms the basis of further research. For relevant product groups used in practice (e.g. board or asbestos-cement roofing material) exposure levels as well as determinants of exposure are being identified and used to improve the currently used risk classification system. The aim of future research is to develop a predictive exposure model. Furthermore, this data is used to identify safe working practices and stimulate innovations leading to improved working methods and/or practical control measures. Also possibilities to improve the sensitivity of the analytical methods are explored. Conclusion These new developments with regard to exposure assessment and (risk) classification of asbestos in the workplace are necessary to meet the requirements set by the Dutch legislation, and current joint efforts from all stakeholders involved are a big step forward in meeting these requirements.


Purpose: The present study was to examine the effect of sphingosine kinase-1 (SPHK1) on chemotherapeutics-induced apoptosis in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, which is relatively insensitive to chemotherapy, and its clinical significance in NSCLC progression. Experimental Design: The correlation of SPHK1 expression and clinical features of NSCLC was analyzed in 218 paraffin-embedded archived NSCLC specimens by immunohistochemical analysis. The effect of SPHK1 on apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutics was examined both in vitro and in vivo, using Annexin V staining and TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–mediated dUTP nick end labeling) assays. Western blotting and luciferase analysis were performed to examine the impact of SPHK1 on the PI3K/Akt /NF-kB signaling. Results: The expression of SPHK1 was markedly increased in NSCLC and correlated with tumor progression and poor survival of patients with NSCLC. Upregulation of SPHK1 significantly inhibited doxorubicinor docetaxel-induced apoptosis, associated with induction of antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-xl, cIAP1, c-IAP2, and TRAF1. In contrast, silencing SPHK1 expression or inhibiting SPHK1 activity with specific inhibitor, SK1-I, significantly enhanced the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutics both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we demonstrated that upregulation of SPHK1 activated the PI3K/Akt/NF-kB pathway, and that inhibition of the PI3K/Akt/NF-kB pathway abrogated the antiapoptotic effect of SPHK1 on NSCLC cells. Conclusions: Our results suggest that SPHK1 is a potential pharmacologic target for the treatment of NSCLC and inhibition of SPHK1 expression or its kinase activity might represent a novel strategy to sensitize NSCLC to chemotherapy. Clin Cancer Res; 17(7); 1839–49. 2011 AACR.


The Australian Government introduced a Petroleum Resource Rent Tax
(PRRT) on offshore oil and gas deposits in 1984 and since then it has
raised in excess of an additional $1 billion a year in revenue over and
above the normal company tax on income. The Australian Government
has introduced a Mineral Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) on iron ore, coal
and gas from coal seams effective from 1 July 2012. The MRRT has been
met with criticism from certain mining companies and noted economists.
However, Australia currently has a budget deficit and an MRRT is being
viewed by the government as a possible solution to balancing the budget.
A Resource Rent Tax (RRT) has been used by a number of countries such
as the United Kingdom and Norway to increase government revenue from
their 'North Sea' oil reserves. It would appear that this type of tax has a
number of desirable attributes, especially in relation to efficiency. Is it
now time for governments to consider a wider application of a rent tax to
other industries and resources? A 'rent tax' being a tax on land is now an
accepted form of taxation in many western economies such as Australia,
New Zealand and the United Kingdom. There are a number of businesses
such as the airline industry, the fishing industry, the Australian funeral
industry and the timber industry that generate an economic rent due to
their dominance in a particular business sector. This paper examines a
number of those industries and contends that, due to the super profits
being generated by these businesses, governments should consider the
imposition of a rent tax.


In a traditional health system, it merely depends on doctors' initiative reports to discover infectious diseases, which causes late responses from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and therefore may result in snowballed loss of lives and economy. Sometimes, the disease has spread when doctors realize it is infectious, and the CDC has to invest more human and material resources to control it. In this article, we propose a new secure infectious diseases detection system with the help of the IoT-based e-health platform. In our system model, the hospitals collect patients' electronic health records (EHRs) and outsource the encrypted EHRs to the contracted cloud. The CDC can regularly send a test query to the cloud server to check whether there are patients who have similar symptoms or some increasing signs, which are regarded as signs of infectious diseases. With this system, the CDC can find the small signs of infectious diseases so that it can make appropriate and timely measures to save more lives. To enable the cloud server to perform the required test, we propose a new cryptographic notion, called public-key encryption with DFET (PKE-DFET), with which we can check whether the underlying messages of two ciphertexts are equal or not after ignoring the bits on designated positions without decryption. The cloud server can utilize the PKE-DFET to flexibly count the number of patients with similar symptoms following the CDC's instructions. We first instantiate the PKE-DFET into a concrete construction, where anyone can be a tester to perform the DFET on ciphertexts. Finally, we extend our PKE-DFET construction to enable it to be flexible in different actual application scenarios.


The California contractors licensing exam tests aspiring contractors on their knowledge of the construction industry on other legal and trade topics. This paper is a case study that evaluates the contractors licensing exam and its ability to evaluate contractors. It concludes that the test itself is not responsible for increasing quality due to it being a simple process of memorization, but that California's strict licensing requirements correlate to lower percentages of negative reviews. Various contractors from California were interviewed to understand their opinions of the licensing exam and how the knowledge from the exam related to their time in the industry. The licensing process in California could be improved by revising the exam to better reflect knowledge needed in the construction industry and to better test contractors and their ability to work in the construction industry. These changes would better serve consumers and help to improve standards and increase quality in the California construction market.


Education in Nigeria is more of a public enterprise that has witnessed government complete and dynamic intervention and active participation (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1981). It is the view of the formulated education policy in Nigeria to use education as a vehicle in achieving national development. Education being an instrument of change, in Nigeria education policy has been a product of evolution through series of historical developments. Improving the education is not only a goal in itself for a better quality of life but also its positive impact on the economic development of a country is far-reaching. The provision of education is a key element of a policy to promote broad-based economic growth. The main asset of the poor is clearly their labour and education improves the productivity and earnings of workers. Education is considered a major remedy for many problems faced by developing countries. For example, high fertility rates are adding to population pressures in several countries. From a global perspective, economic and social development is increasingly driven by the advancement and application of knowledge. Education, in general, and higher education in particular, are fundamental to the construction of a knowledge economy and society in all nations (World Bank, 1999). Yet the potential of higher education systems in developing countries to fulfil this responsibility is frequently thwarted by long-standing problems of finance, efficiency, equity, quality and governance. As a result, developing economies cannot be said to be reaping the benefits of a knowledge economy. It, therefore, become imperative with the aid of the Earnings Model developed by Mincer (1974) which is founded on the Theory of Investment in Human Capital, as well as the model by Moretti (2002) for social returns to education, to assess the development impact of higher education in Nigeria with a view to establishing the link between Nigeria's higher educational system and her economic growth, as well as explicating how Nigeria can participate in the global knowledge economy. The result also reveals that a well educated labour force possessed a positive and significant impact on economic growth through factor accumulation and on the evolution of total factor productivity. Also, the amount of government expenditure on education significantly influences output per worker growth.


International efforts to screen children have previously focused on the problem of malnutrition in the preschool years. The new World Health Organization–derived but US-based data for "optimum" growth in school-aged children may not be accepted in more than a few countries. Currently, an international perspective suggests that those school-aged children's BMIs that, on a percentile-ranking basis, track to adult BMIs of ≥25 kg/m2 are likely to be associated with an appreciable increased risk of the comorbidities associated with weight gain. There is limited evidence on the value of individually directed help for children with higher BMIs as a national policy, but national surveillance systems are badly needed to allow a better focus on the development of both public health and individual treatment policies.


Computed Tomography (CT) is an important and most common modality in medical imaging. In CT examinations there is trade off between radiation dose and image quality. If radiation dose is decreased, the noise will unavoidably increase degrading the diagnostic value of the CT image and ifthe radiation dose is increased, the associated risk of cancer also increases especially in paediatric applications. Image filtering techniques perform image pre-processing to improve the quality of images. These techniques serve two major purposes. One is to maintain low radiation dose and another is to make subsequent phases of image analysis like segmentation or recognition easier or more effective. This paper presents the effect of noise reduction filter on CT images particularly that of anisotropic diffusion filter and Gaussian filter in combination with Prewitt operator. Anisotropic diffusion is Selective and nonlinear filtering technique which filters an image within the object boundaries and not across the edge orientation. Simulation results have shown that the anisotropic diffusion filter can effectively smooth noisy background, yet well preserve edge and fine details in the restored image. Gaussian filter smoothens the image while Prewitt operator detects the edges, so the combination of Gaussian filters and Prewitt operator works like a nonlinear filter.Thus these two filtering techniques improve an image quality and allow use of low dose CT protocol


We investigated the silicification activity of hyperphosphorylated peptides in combination with long-chain polyamines (LCPA). The bioinspired in vitro silicification experiments with peptides containing different amounts of phosphorylated serines showed structure-activity dependence by altering the amount and morphology of the silica precipitate. Our study provides an explanation for the considerable metabolic role of diatoms in the synthesis of hyperphosphorylated poly-cationic peptides such as natSil-1A1. The efficient late-stage phosphorylation of peptides yielded a synthetic heptaphosphopeptide whose silicification properties resemble those of natSil-1A1. As opposed to this, unphosphorylated poly-cationic peptides or LCPA require concentrations above 1 mM for silicification. Hyperphosphorylated peptides showed a linear dependence between the amount of dissolved peptides and the amount of precipitated silica in the concentration range below 1 mM. Under mildly acidic conditions and short precipitation times, the concentration of the added LCPA determined the size of the silica spheres.


In this paper, the poplar LVL was reinforced with monolayer fiberglass mesh. The reinforcing effect of lay angle between the weft of fiberglass mesh and the veneer grain was studied. And three different nondestructive testing (NDT) methods, such as the longitudinal transmission method, longitudinal vibration method and flexural vibration method (out-plane and in-plane), were used to test the dynamic Young's modulus of the reinforced poplar LVL. The correlativity was investigated between the dynamic Young's modulus and the static MOE of the reinforced poplar LVL. The reinforcing effect was best when the lay angle of fiberglass mesh was 30°. And the flexural vibration method and longitudinal vibration method had better accuracy to estimate the static MOE.


These essays are concerned with the problem of cooperation among individuals in a household and among households in a community under lack of commitment. The first chapter provides a theoretical investigation of consumption patterns in a household in which income is stochastic and some expenditures are public to household members. It is shown that in the constrained efficient agreement, private expenditures of household members do not necessarily co-move, as they do in both the first-best agreement and the constrained efficent agreement when all expenditures are private. In particular, the absence of co-movement of private expenditures in the household do not necessarily imply the absence of mutual insurance; and, indeed, negative correlation in private expenditures can be consistent with a cooperative agreement. These results indicate that caution should be used in interpreting the correlation of private expenditures of household members as a measure of cooperation and mutual insurance within the household. Chapter two investigates the effect of lack of commitment on household savings in a constrained efficient mutual insurance agreement among different households. It is shown that a saving rule is part of the agreement if and only if risk aversion changes with wealth. If not, no gains can be had from contracting on savings. Under reasonable assumptions about risk preferences, the constrained efficient agreement tends to depress savings to a greater extent for poorer individuals than for richer individuals, thus increasing inequality in consumption and wealth over time relative to the case where savings are not contracted. Chapter three (co-authored with Harounan Kazianga) provides evidence, using a survey of agricultural households in Burkina Faso, that plots owned by the head of the household is farmed much more intensively than plots, with similar characteristics and planted to the same crops, owned by other household members (of both genders). As in previous studies, this evidence is inconsistent with the assumption of Pareto efficiency in household decisions, but additionally suggests that status within the household rather than gender per se may be the most important factor in determining the allocation of productive resources within the household. We argue that the higher yields achieved by the household head may be explained in terms of social norms that require him to spend the earnings from some farms under his control exclusively on household public goods, as has been observed in the anthropological literature on this region. Thesis Supervisor: Abhijit Banerjee Title: Professor of Economics Thesis Supervisor: Bengt Holmstrom Title: Professor of Economics


ABSTRACT Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy is associated with poor prognosis and risk of acute heart failure after liver transplantation or interventional procedures. We aimed to assess the relationship between the severity of cardiac impairment and hepatic disease. Eighty patients and eighty controls underwent echocardiography, tissue Doppler imaging and speckle tracking measures. We assess the correlation between echocardiographic parameters and Child and MELD scores. Systolic parameters function (s wave, p < 0.001) and global longitudinal strain (p < 0.001) as well as diastolic parameters were significantly more impaired in cirrhotic patients compared to controls. There were no differences among the different groups in 'Child score' regarding systolic function as well as diastolic function. Paradoxically, the left atrium size correlated positively to both Child (p = 0.01, r = 0.26) and MELD scores (p = 0.02, r = 0.24). Left ventricular ejection fraction was significantly lower in decompensated patients as compared to compensated patients(p = 0.02).. We did not identify any association between severity of liver disease and cardiac dysfunction. Therefore, a transthoracic echocardiography should be performed in all cirrhotic patients before interventional and surgical procedures regardless of the severity of liver disease.


In order to adjust the lack of sufficient ductility of ultra-high strength concrete (UHSC), different types of fiber were used in this study. This research investigates the effect of glass, polypropylene and steel fibers on the impact resistance and crack propagation of fiber reinforced UHSCs by implementing slab specimens with a dimension of 300×300×30 mm. The experimental program includes 18 specimens with 1%, 1.5% and 2% of concrete volume for each type of fiber which was made with two different mixing methods (Ordinary fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) and high performance fiber reinforced concrete (HPFRC)). In this study, specimens were placed under a low-velocity impact loading (5.42 m/s) within a fixed rigid constrained setup. The health index and the crack propagation correlation are two criteria for determining the trend of degradation and impact resistance reduction. Results demonstrate that the FRCs show higher impact resistance in comparison with the HPFRC because the HPFRC method doesn't provide enough cohesion between concrete and fibers. The obtained results also show that FRC specimens include polypropylene, endure higher impact resistance with a greater amount of health index rather than other specimens. By increasing the fiber's volume in the specimens fabricated with glass and polypropylene, a more homogenous composite was formed and energy spread more uniform over all faces of FRC specimen. Review History:


Background There is anecdotal evidence that families who have a child with a life-limiting condition experience isolation and stress because people avoid engaging with them about issues around death, dying and bereavement. Scotland has a number of organisations who are now focusing on how to encourage a societal shift in attitudes. As a children's palliative care organisation, there is a responsibility to families to contribute to this work. The 100% Project is a community engagement project which aims to start conversations about death, dying and bereavement in a life-affirming way. Aim The 100% Project comprises a range of events and social media activities which aims to: Promote positive attitudes to death, dying and bereavement Tackle the silence and isolation experienced by those affected by death, dying and bereavement Raise awareness amongst those involved with the organisation, including service users, staff, volunteers, the public; and develop people's skills and confidence in this area Promote community involvement with and understanding of issues relating to life-shortening conditions Approach The 100% Project will build gradually towards more difficult conversations around death and dying, by starting with a range of accessible, non-challenging activities. These include a social media poll to decide Scotland's Top Tear-jerker film; as well as engaging individuals in submitting uplifting pictures, quotes and stories. The 100% Book Club aims to generate conversations, bringing small groups together in local communities. In partnership with Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, "Before I Die Walls" will generate positive publicity about the campaign across Scotland. Outcomes and Implications for Practice It is hoped that this project will reduce the misconceptions that surround children's hospice care, and contribute to a national conversation in Scotland about Death, Dying and Bereavement, ultimately improving quality of life for families.


The development of the commodity programs in the 2008 Farm Bill involved the origination of two complex revenue support initiatives. The two new programs, Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) and Supplemental Revenue Assurance (SURE), expanded the risk management tool kit of agricultural producers. The SURE program is a permanent disaster assistance program, whereas the ACRE program is a revenue-based commodity program offered as an alternative to the price-based Direct and Counter-Cyclical Program (DCP) created in the 2002 Farm Bill. For the 2009 signup, only 7.7% of eligible U.S. farms enrolled in the ACRE program. In the southern region, three states had no farms electing ACRE and four others had less than 50. Excluding Oklahoma, less than 1% of all farms in 13 southern states made the ACRE election.


In this article we report on collaborative, ethnographic research investigating the first regional tobacco control office in the U.K. and some of the dilemmas it poses. The ideal of collaboration is fully realisable in this setting, where the participants are both eager and qualified to contribute meaningfully to the project. However, the fulfilment of such an ideal poses its own problems. For example, the educational level and professional expertise of some participants allows them to fully engage with the theoretical framework to the extent that they could, if allowed, rewrite manuscripts. Other issues are more subtle, such as how to establish appropriate boundaries
between the researcher and the tobacco control office staff. We suggest that the collaborative research model presupposes differentials of power, education and culture between
researchers and participants that do not necessarily apply in the case of research in such settings. Where these differentials are lacking, the field is open for dominant participants to assume 'undue influence' over the research project. To prevent this, we
have reinstated boundaries between object and subject that were originally dissolved as part of the collaborative model. As a result, our project is maintaining a delicate balance
between the conflicting aims of objectivity and collaboration.


The dehiscence after median transesternal sternotomy used as surgical access for cardiac surgery is one of its complications and it increases the patient's morbidity and mortality. A variety of surgical techniques were recently described resulting to the need of a classification bringing a measure of objectivity to the management of these complex and dangerous wounds. The different related classifications are based in the primary causal infection, but recently the anatomical description of the wound including the deepness and the vertical extension showed to be more useful. We propose a new classification based only on the anatomical changes following sternotomy dehiscence and chronic wound formation separating it in four types according to the deepness and in two sub-groups according to the vertical extension based on the inferior insertion of the pectoralis major muscle.


Background and purpose: Methyl tertiary-butyl (MTBE) is an organic volatile compound that is used to improve gasoline as the replacement of tetraethyl lead. This compound can be absorbed into the blood in different ways and leave toxic effects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of MTBE on blood parameters and liver tissue in NMRI albino female mice. Materials and methods: This study was conducted in 45 mature NMRI albino mice, which were placed into three groups, including two experimental groups (groups A and B) and a control group. Group A received 0.4 cc of MTBE (0.06 cc of MTBE and 0.04 cc of distilled water) at graded dose of 1600 mg/kg body weight once a day. Group B received the same compound along with 0.1 cc of physiological serum. After weighing and anesthetizing the mice, their blood samples were collected. Then, the liver and blood parameters were measured by MOTIC software as well as macroscopic and microscopic observations, using slides. Results: The number of red blood cells, hematocrit, and plasma density elevated in group A, but hemoglobin level showed no increase, which indicate the toxic effects of this substance. In group A, hyperemia and liver inflammation were considerably associated with the increase in the diameter of lobular and interlobular central veins as well as sinusoids. The mean ratio of nucleus to cell size decreased; on the other hand, compared to mononuclear cells, the number of binuclear hepatocytes raised. There were statistically significant differences between the two experimental groups and between the control group and group A in most cases (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to our findings, the variations in blood parameters and liver tissue were due to the toxic effects of MTBE. As indicated, the use of physiological serum in group B reduced these changes. Hence, alternative compounds with lower risk should be used to improve gasoline.


A robust and efficient anomaly detection technique is proposed, capable of dealing with crowded scenes where traditional tracking based approaches tend to fail. Initial foreground segmentation of the input frames confines the analysis to foreground objects and effectively ignores irrelevant background dynamics. Input frames are split into non-overlapping cells, followed by extracting features based on motion, size and texture from each cell. Each feature type is independently analysed for the presence of an anomaly. Unlike most methods, a refined estimate of object motion is achieved by computing the optical flow of only the foreground pixels. The motion and size features are modelled by an approximated version of kernel density estimation, which is computationally efficient even for large training datasets. Texture features are modelled by an adaptively grown code-book, with the number of entries in the codebook selected in an online fashion. Experiments on the recently published UCSD Anomaly Detection dataset show that the proposed method obtains considerably better results than three recent approaches: MPPCA, social force, and mixture of dynamic textures (MDT). The proposed method is also several orders of magnitude faster than MDT, the next best performing method.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder. Our understanding of the disease has been enhanced by the discovery of gene mutations in rare families with eariy-onset autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism (ARJP). The first gene to be identified was parkin and two further genes have been identified namely, DJ-1 and PINK1. The latter was discovered in our laboratory. The work of this thesis has aimed to increase our understanding of how these newly discovered genes play a role in neuronal survival and how disease-causing mutations result in neurodegenerarJon. Utilising gene transfer techniques and transient and stable cell culture expression systems, the function of parkin and PINK1 was investigated in human dopaminergic SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell lines. The work of this thesis has confirmed and extended previous reports that parkin over-expression confers neuroprotection against a variety of cellular stresses implicated in PD. Moreover, this work has showed for the first time that endogenous parkin protein can localize to aggregates known as "aggresomes' following stress and that the formation of these parkin positive aggresomes can be dissociated from parkin's effect on neuronal survival. Furthermore, this work describes the first functional characterization of PINK1. It demonstrates that PINK1 localizes to the mitochondria in neuronal cells where it may play a neuroprotective role against cellular stress. Moreover, this effect is abrogated by disease causing mutations in PINK1. This work also reports on the characterisation of novel PINK1 antibodies and shows for the first time that PINK1 can localize to aggresomes and the mechanism is linked to mitochondrial recruitment. The work of this thesis sheds light on the increasing importance of the ubiquitin proteasome system and mitochondria in the pathogenesis of PD. Improved understanding of these cellular processes should lead to more effective treatments for this devastating disease.


The literature analysing the impacts of livestock banks is limited to a small number of papers, mostly of a qualitative nature. This paper contributes to the knowledge on the impacts of this type of intervention on short- term household food security through the analysis of original data form 112 households that participated in a pig bank in Laos. Taking advantage of the staggered implementation of the program, we use propensity score matching the show that receiving pigs reduces household rice production by approximately 34 percent in the first harvest after participation commenced. However, the effects are differentiated across initial wealth status of the beneficiary: if the household was classified as being poor before the start of the program, participation has no meaningful impact on rice production. The policy implications of the analysis are examined.


Abstract A growing number of researches suggest that microRNAs (miRNAs) as oncogene or tumor suppressor genes play a fundamental role in various kinds of cancers. Among them, miR-24-3p, as a star molecule, is widely studied. However, the prognostic value of miR-24-3p is unclear and controversial. We conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of miR-24-3p in a variety of cancers by integrated existing articles from four databases. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library (last update in March 2020) were searched for approach literature. Hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs) were used to evaluate the association between miR-24-3p expression levels and prognostic value or clinicopathological characteristics, respectively. A total of 15 studies from 14 literature were finally qualified and concluded in the present meta-analysis. A significantly worse overall survival was observed in higher expression of miR-24-3p cancer group for OS (overall survival) of log-rank tests and Cox multivariate regression by fixed effects model. Also, we found a significant correlation between elevated miR-24-3p levels to RFS (recurrence-free survival) and DFS (disease-free survival). In addition, the pooled odds ratios (ORs) showed that evaluated miR-24-3p was also associated with the larger tumor size (≥5 cm) and advanced TNM stage (III and IV). Built on the above findings, elevated expression levels of miR-24-3p may serve as a promising biomarker used to predict the worse prognosis of cancer patients.


In this research, a sol-modified composite electrodeposition technique that combines the sol-gel method with the conventional electrodeposition process was utilized to deposit Ni-TiO2 nanocomposite coatings. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques were applied to study the influence of the TiO2 sol concentration on the deposits' electrochemical behavior. The results clearly showed that for higher sol concentrations, the onset potential of the nanocomposite deposition decreased compared to that of the pure Ni. The Scharifker-Hill model was utilized at the initial times of deposition to study the nucleation mechanism. It was demonstrated that the nucleation mechanism of the nanocomposite at low overpotentials followed the progressive system, whereas at higher overpotentials it was found to be instantaneous with the three-dimensional growth mechanism. The weight percentages of the codeposited TiO2 nanoparticles were measured, and according to the results, the higher sol concentrations in the plating bath led to a higher TiO2 nanoparticle content. The XRD results confirmed the presence of the anatase phase in the Ni-TiO2 nanocomposite coatings after 3 hours of heat treatment at 450°C. The surface morphology was studied by the scanning electron microscopy, confirming that the addition of higher sol concentrations refined the microstructure, particularly under higher deposition overpotentials. This was attributed to increased nucleation sites and the slow growth rate of the nuclei.


Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a cytosolic enzyme that catalyzes deacetylation of several proteins. Acetylated tubulin has been recently identified as a physiological substrate of HDAC6. However in previous reports, all in vitro binding and enzymatic assays were accomplished with only partially purified protein samples. Therefore, it still remained unclear whether HDAC6 alone could interact with tubulin and catalyze deacetylation. In this study, both binding and enzymatic assays were conducted using recombinant-derived HDAC6 and purified α/β tubulin to eliminate possible contamination. The results clearly demonstrated that interaction between HDAC6 and tubulin is independent of other proteins. In addition, HDAC6 can independently catalyze deacetylation of both tubulin dimer and microtubule polymer.


In this paper, the influence of a 10-nm-thick silicon-dioxide layer, as a passivation or as a gate insulation, on the performance of heterojunction field-effect transistors (HFETs) and metal-oxide-semiconductor HFETs (MOSHFETs), based on an undoped AlGaN/GaN heterostructure on a SiC substrate, was investigated. Channel-conductivity results yield a nearly 50% increase of mobility in the MOSHFET samples compared to the unpassivated HFETs. This increase of the transport properties of the MOSHFET channel is confirmed by a similar 45% increase of the cutoff frequency, from 16.5 to 24 GHz. Hall measurements, however, show a 10% decrease of the mobility in the heterostructure with a SiO2 top layer. In this paper, the superior performance of the MOSHFET transistor, in contradiction to the Hall results, is attributed to the screening of the Coulomb scattering of the charged surface defects by the gate-metallization layer


Drained peatlands are hotspots for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which could be mitigated by rewetting and land use change. We performed an ecological/economic analysis of rewetting drained fertile peatlands in a hemiboreal climate using different land use strategies over 80 years. Vegetation, soil processes, and total GHG emissions were modeled using the CoupModel for four scenarios: (1) business as usual—Norway spruce with average soil water table of −40 cm; (2) willow with groundwater at −20 cm; (3) reed canary grass with groundwater at −10 cm; and (4) a fully rewetted peatland. The predictions were based on previous model calibrations with several high‐resolution datasets consisting of water, heat, carbon, and nitrogen cycling. Spruce growth was calibrated by tree‐ring data that extended the time period covered. The GHG balance of four scenarios, including vegetation and soil, were 4.7, 7.1, 9.1, and 6.2 Mg CO2eq ha−1 year−1, respectively. The total soil emissions (including litter and peat respiration CO2 + N2O + CH4) were 33.1, 19.3, 15.3, and 11.0 Mg CO2eq ha−1 year−1, respectively, of which the peat loss contributed 35%, 24%, and 7% of the soil emissions for the three drained scenarios, respectively. No peat was lost for the wet peatland. It was also found that draining increases vegetation growth, but not as drastically as peat respiration does. The cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is sensitive to time frame, discount rate, and carbon price. Our results indicate that the net benefit was greater with a somewhat higher soil water table and when the peatland was vegetated with willow and reed canary grass (Scenarios 2 and 3). We conclude that saving peat and avoiding methane release using fairly wet conditions can significantly reduce GHG emissions, and that this strategy should be considered for land use planning and policy‐making.


Abstract Objective To investigate whether the US News & World Report (USNWR) ranking of the medical school a physician attended is associated with patient outcomes and healthcare spending. Design Observational study. Setting Medicare, 2011-15. Participants 20% random sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 years or older (n=996 212), who were admitted as an emergency to hospital with a medical condition and treated by general internists. Main outcome measures Association between the USNWR ranking of the medical school a physician attended and the physician's patient outcomes (30 day mortality and 30 day readmission rates) and Medicare Part B spending, adjusted for patient and physician characteristics and hospital fixed effects (which effectively compared physicians practicing within the same hospital). A sensitivity analysis employed a natural experiment by focusing on patients treated by hospitalists, because patients are plausibly randomly assigned to hospitalists based on their specific work schedules. Alternative rankings of medical schools based on social mission score or National Institute of Health (NIH) funding were also investigated. Results 996 212 admissions treated by 30 322 physicians were examined for the analysis of mortality. When using USNWR primary care rankings, physicians who graduated from higher ranked schools had slightly lower 30 day readmission rates (adjusted rate 15.7% for top 10 schools v 16.1% for schools ranked ≥50; adjusted risk difference 0.4%, 95% confidence interval 0.1% to 0.8%; P for trend=0.005) and lower spending (adjusted Part B spending $1029 (£790; €881) v $1066; adjusted difference $36, 95% confidence interval $20 to $52; P for trend <0.001) compared with graduates of lower ranked schools, but no difference in 30 day mortality. When using USNWR research rankings, physicians graduating from higher ranked schools had slightly lower healthcare spending than graduates from lower ranked schools, but no differences in patient mortality or readmissions. A sensitivity analysis restricted to patients treated by hospitalists yielded similar findings. Little or no relation was found between alternative rankings (based on social mission score or NIH funding) and patient outcomes or costs of care. Conclusions Overall, little or no relation was found between the USNWR ranking of the medical school from which a physician graduated and subsequent patient mortality or readmission rates. Physicians who graduated from highly ranked medical schools had slightly lower spending than graduates of lower ranked schools.


Abstract la‐bearing dendritic cells (DC) are a class of bone marrow‐derived antigen‐presenting cells that appear to possess an increased capacity to stimulate resting T lymphocytes. DC from different tissues share several morphologic, phenotypic and functional attributes. For example, freshly isolated DC from spleen resemble phenotypically and functionally freshly isolated Langerhans cells (LC) from epidermis; in addition, during short‐term culture both DC and LC undergo several parallel changes including modifications affecting phenotype, capacity to present protein antigens, and ability to route surface la molecules into intracellular acidic compartments (J Immunol 1990: 145: 2820–2826). In the present study we show, using immunoelectron microscopy with anti‐la and anti‐33Dl monoclonal antibodies, freshly isolated DC in suspension to have a smooth cell surface with few and short cytoplasmic projections. By contrast, cultured DC display conspicuous bulbous cytoplasmic protrusions. In addition, spleen DC following culture for 24–48 hours exhibit an increased ability to stimulated allogeneic T lymphocytes in the primary mixed leukocyte reaction. These changes, similar to those described for freshly isolated and cultured LC respectively, further substantiate the close relationship between DC and LC.


In this article, the relationship between Johannes Althusius' federal views of civil government – as expressed in his Politica methodice digesta – and John Calvin's conception of the role and function of public authorities, is examined in the light of three sermons on Deuteronomy 17 preached by Calvin in 1555.  The discussion takes its starting point in the consideration of the kind of politico-theological connection denied or ignored in today's secularized France, with a particular historical reference to the regime of the Terreur in 1793-1794. The question of the influence which Calvin's ecclesiology as well as subsequent Calvinistic ecclesiological developments in the Netherlands may have had on Althusius' theory of government and of political life is raised in the light of the fact that Althusius not only held a degree in civil law, but also in Church law (both obtained in Basel the same year, under strong Luthero-Calvinist influence). If elements of a relation do indeed appear, they still remain to be established with more precision. Still, in their views both Calvin and Althusius clearly point towards a unified vision of society under the norm of God's rule. With Althusius, this norm – embodied in the Decalogue – is refracted in the various spheres constitutive of human activity associated with each other in a federative way, each one retaining its own mode of operating. https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.82.2.2355


The odd-even staggering of the yield of final reaction products has been studied as a function of proton (Z) and neutron (N ) numbers for the collisions 84 Kr + 112 Sn and 84 Kr + 124 Sn at 35 MeV/nucleon in a wide range of elements (up to Z ≈ 20). The experimental data show that staggering effects rapidly decrease with increasing size of the fragments. Moreover the staggering in N is definitely larger than the one in Z. Similar general features are qualitatively reproduced by the GEMINI code. Concerning the comparison of the two systems, the staggering in N is in general rather similar, being slightly larger only for the lightest fragments produced in the n-rich system. In contrast the staggering in Z, although smaller than that in N , is sizably larger for the n-poor system with respect to the n-rich one.


Sudden changes in the stiffness of a structure are often indicators of structural damage. Detection of such sudden stiffness change from the vibrations of structures is important for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and damage detection. Non-contact measurement of these vibrations is a quick and efficient way for successful detection of sudden stiffness change of a structure. In this paper, we demonstrate the capability of Laser Doppler Vibrometry to detect sudden stiffness change in a Single Degree Of Freedom (SDOF) oscillator within a laboratory environment. The dynamic response of the SDOF system was measured using a Polytec RSV-150 Remote Sensing Vibrometer. This instrument employs Laser Doppler Vibrometry for measuring dynamic response. Additionally, the vibration response of the SDOF system was measured through a MicroStrain G-Link Wireless Accelerometer mounted on the SDOF system. The stiffness of the SDOF system was experimentally determined through calibrated linear springs. The sudden change of stiffness was simulated by introducing the failure of a spring at a certain instant in time during a given period of forced vibration. The forced vibration on the SDOF system was in the form of a white noise input. The sudden change in stiffness was successfully detected through the measurements using Laser Doppler Vibrometry. This detection from optically obtained data was compared with a detection using data obtained from the wireless accelerometer. The potential of this technique is deemed important for a wide range of applications. The method is observed to be particularly suitable for rapid damage detection and health monitoring of structures under a model-free condition or where information related to the structure is not sufficient.


Objective: In clinical practice, small lung nodules can be easily overlooked by radiologists. The paper aims to provide an efficient and accurate detection system for small lung nodules while keeping good performance for large nodules. Methods: We propose a multi-planar detection system using convolutional neural networks. The 2-D convolutional neural network model, U-net++, was trained by axial, coronal, and sagittal slices for the candidate detection task. All possible nodule candidates from the three different planes are combined. For false positive reduction, we apply 3-D multi-scale dense convolutional neural networks to efficiently remove false positive candidates. We use the public LIDC-IDRI dataset which includes 888 CT scans with 1186 nodules annotated by four radiologists. Results: After ten-fold cross-validation, our proposed system achieves a sensitivity of 94.2% with 1.0 false positive/scan and a sensitivity of 96.0% with 2.0 false positives/scan. Although it is difficult to detect small nodules (i.e. < 6 mm), our designed CAD system reaches a sensitivity of 93.4% (95.0%) of these small nodules at an overall false positive rate of 1.0 (2.0) false positives/scan. At the nodule candidate detection stage, results show that a multi-planar method is capable to detect more nodules compared to using a single plane. Conclusion: Our approach achieves good performance not only for small nodules, but also for large lesions on this dataset. This demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of our developed CAD system for lung nodule detection. Significance: The proposed system could provide support for radiologists on early detection of lung cancer.


Thank you for downloading essays on life art and science. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their favorite readings like this essays on life art and science, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some malicious bugs inside their desktop computer. essays on life art and science is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Our book servers hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the essays on life art and science is universally compatible with any devices to read.


'At last a book that not only describes what collective biography is but also explains how to use it! The book describes how to set up collective biography workshops in which participants examine how discursive structures and power relations have both enabled and limited the conditions of possibility for their lived experience. Focusing on a more complicated reflexivity than is usually described in social science research, collective biography, inspired by Frigga Haug and refined by Davies, will no doubt be used increasingly by researchers interested in the production of subjects in a postmodern world' - Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre, University of Georgia, USA. This book introduces the reader to collective biography, an innovative research methodology for use in education and the social sciences. The methodology of collective biography overcomes the theory/practice divide, by putting theory to use in everyday life, and using everyday life to understand and to extend theory." Doing Collective Biography" provides guidelines for developing a collective biography project and demonstrates how these guidelines emerged from and were shaped by projects on such topics as subjectivity, power, agency, reflexivity, literacy, gender, and neoliberalism at work. Each chapter gives a detailed example of collective biography in practice, showing how a group of students and/or scholars can work collaboratively to investigate aspects of the production of subjectivity, and clearly demonstrates how poststructural theory can be elaborated and refracted through the experiences of ordinary everyday life. This is key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on Education and social science courses with a research element, as well as for academics and professionals undertaking research projects.


Summary
1Many internally-fertilizing animals produce seminal fluid which is transferred along with sperm during mating. Seminal fluid typically contains a diverse range of chemicals that coordinate sperm storage, moderate sperm motility, provide advantages in sexual selection and influence female physiology.
2Seminal fluid is well-studied in Drosophila melanogaster, a species in which it has been suggested to 'incapacitate' the sperm of rival males (e.g. by killing them) and thereby provide an advantage in sperm competition. This hypothesis has been tested several times over many years, but different studies have yielded conflicting conclusions. Here, I use fluorescent staining to directly measure the effects of D. melanogaster seminal fluid on the survival of sperm from the same male or from a rival. The results suggest that seminal fluid improves sperm survival, even if the sperm are from a different male. This study therefore provides strong evidence that seminal fluid does not kill rival sperm, and instead can actually protect them. This study also tested whether chemicals in the female reproductive tract harm sperm as in another Drosophila species, but found no evidence of this.
3These findings suggest that residual seminal fluid inside females could benefit the sperm of subsequent mates, affecting the outcome of sperm competition and influencing the evolution of ejaculates and mating systems.


Author(s): Ochaba, Joseph | Advisor(s): Thompson, Leslie | Abstract: The disruption of protein quality control networks that ensure proper folding and degradation of cellular proteins is likely central to pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), and other "protein misfolding" diseases (La Spada and Taylor, 2010; Wilkinson et al., 2010). A detailed understanding of the proteostasis network components and their contributions to pathology are therefore crucial to developing improved therapeutic interventions. HD is caused by the abnormal expansion of a CAG repeat within the HD gene resulting in an expanded stretch of polyglutamines in the Huntingtin (HTT) protein (Group, 1993a). A key pathological feature is the accumulation of mutant HTT protein (mHTT) (Cisbani and Cicchetti, 2012; Zhao et al., 2016). Post-translational modifications of HTT, including SUMOylation and phosphorylation (Ehrnhoefer et al., 2011; Pennuto et al., 2009), appear to contribute to mechanisms underlying mHTT function, clearance, and accumulation (O'Rourke et al., 2013; Ochaba et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2016).The work presented here represents an innovative conceptual shift to address questions fundamental to HD and other diseases where protein homeostasis is affected. This approach may therefore provide insight into a broad spectrum of protein misfolding disorders.. My dissertation utilized gain-of and loss-of-function approaches to query the importance of HTT function, modulation of PIAS1-regulatory networks, and SUMO-interaction motifs in the context of cell culture and in vivo mouse model systems to assess the impact on critical disease regulatory networks and HD pathogenesis. The precise mechanisms involved in the aforementioned have not yet been elucidated, nor has the PIAS and SUMO pathways been tested in vivo for its relevance to the following: the accumulation of neurodegenerative disease-causing proteins, neuroinflammation, protein clearance networks, or overall impact on disease phenotypes. My dissertation suggests that PIAS1 may link protein homeostasis and neuroinflammation in HD through a combination of modulating accumulation of toxic HMW species of HTT and compensating for dysfunctional inflammatory signaling cascades between neurons and microglia, potentially allowing improved flux through protein clearance pathways, of which HTT itself is likely involved in regulating.


There are many applications throughout the military and commercial industries whose thermal profiles are dominated by intermittent and/or periodic pulsed thermal loads. Typical thermal solutions for transient applications focus on providing sufficient continuous cooling to address the peak thermal loads as if operating under steady-state conditions. Such a conservative approach guarantees satisfying the thermal challenge but can result in significant cooling overdesign, thus increasing the size, weight, and cost of the system. Confluent trends of increasing system complexity, component miniaturization, and increasing power density demands are further exacerbating the divergence of the optimal transient and steady-state solutions. Therefore, there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way thermal and packaging engineers approach design to focus on time domain heat transfer design and solutions. Due to the application-dependent nature of transient thermal solutions, it is essential to use a codesign approach such that the thermal and packaging engineers collaborate during the design phase with application and/or electronics engineers to ensure the solution meets the requirements. This paper will provide an overview of the types of transients to consider—from the transients that occur during switching at the chip surface all the way to the system-level transients which transfer heat to air. The paper will cover numerous ways of managing transient heat including phase change materials (PCMs), heat exchangers, advanced controls, and capacitance-based packaging. Moreover, synergies exist between approaches to include application of PCMs to increase thermal capacitance or active control mechanisms that are adapted and optimized for the time constants and needs of the specific application. It is the intent of this transient thermal management review to describe a wide range of areas in which transient thermal management for electronics is a factor of significance and to illustrate which specific implementations of transient thermal solutions are being explored for each area. The paper focuses on the needs and benefits of fundamentally shifting away from a steady-state thermal design mentality to one focused on transient thermal design through application-specific, codesigned approaches.


A developmental pediatrician I know likes to joke that I probably have an undiagnosed case of autism.

I am not autistic — I don't walk on tippy-toes or get hypnotized by Wheel of Fortune, and I do make eye contact — but it's a nearer thing than you might think. I went to graduate school to study math, for starters. And I get frustrated when people don't just say what they mean. And then there's this odd thing I do with my hands and my nose when I'm excited and I think nobody's looking.

So, although I don't have autism, I may well be on some distant end of the "autism spectrum."

That's what it's called, the continuum that joins autism and Asperger's syndrome and the merely peculiar. The autism spectrum. The use of this term might not last long: some well-meaning advocacy group will notice how pediatricians are now using "spectrum," it'll become a dirty word and we'll have to find some other way to describe these people. But, for now, they're "on the spectrum." And maybe so am I, with my analytical brain and spotty people skills.

Now, whatever I may or may not understand about people in general, I do understand kids. I don't have to think about it very much, but I know what kids like.

And what they like is SpongeBob SquarePants.

Any adults I know who are into SpongeBob generally fall into one of three categories: the childish, the facetiously intellectual and the chemically altered. Kids fit, tautologically, into the first group, but not (one hopes) into either of the other two. So, knowing why some grown-ups might be fascinated by the antics of a particular porifer in Bikini Bottom doesn't help me consciously understand the appeal for kids. But intuitively I know the appeal is there.

I'm not above taking advantage of this; I've put SpongeBob and his popularity to work for me. On my hospital ID badge, right where there's supposed to be a picture of me, I have stuck a zany SpongeBob sticker. That absurd invertebrate turns out to be very useful, even beyond concealing a photo of me that I don't like.

It's a rare child, and an almost equally rare parent, who doesn't notice SpongeBob on my ID. Depending on the age of the kid, I might joke that it's not SpongeBob at all, but is really a picture of me. Sometimes I even try to duplicate SpongeBob's loony expression. Everybody loves this stuff. SpongeBob, even in ID badge form, is a big hit with all comers.

Including this little girl I saw one day during my child development rotation. As her parents told their family's story, a painful tale of their daughter's increasing peculiarity and their escalating concern, this girl seemed to be trying very hard to make her parents' description of her life look understated. In silence, she wandered around the room as though nobody else were there. She spun about and bounced up and down. Fed up with being there, she awkwardly tried to use her mother's hand, like an ill-designed can-opener, to open the door. Finally, frustrated by her inability to leave this strange place, she sat down and began masturbating. Watching all of this, her parents' embarrassment soon became obvious grief.

It was an easy diagnosis to make. She had autism. She was on the spectrum.

In this light, I looked back on what she had done when she came into the room. At first it struck me as a little odd, but also a little charming. She had quickly surveyed the room and then had walked straight over to me, got up in my lap, took hold of the ID badge hanging around my neck, and peered intently at SpongeBob. Odd but charming. Only, once I recognized her diagnosis, it became cartoonishly tragic. The odd march across the room. The way she climbed up on me like I was person-shaped furniture. The absence of any sign of happiness as she stared SpongeBob in the face. Her failure to say anything. The not-quite-rightness of it all.

Later that day, while eating my lunch, I found myself unsettled by this girl, and by my interaction with her. I felt as if SpongeBob and I had tricked this girl, lured her into tipping her strange hand. I felt that I had allied myself with a fictitious yellow idiot against this helpless kid, a child with whom I possibly had some kinship. I thought about firing SpongeBob, peeling him off my ID and going back to the unflattering picture of me. Or maybe replacing him with Spiderman or Bob the Builder, somebody less universally riveting. But I didn't, perhaps out of obstinacy or vanity or laziness. SpongeBob stayed, continuing to accompany me to work every day.

Now every time some toddler I'm examining looks at my ID and yells "Pongeba!" I am reminded a little of the autistic girl, and I wonder a little whether it's fair of me to be baiting kids like this. But mostly I marvel at good old SpongeBob, reliably doing his job.

Paul Moorehead Pediatrics Resident Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, Nfld.


INTRODUCTION In the development of the recent investigations concerning leptospira, Noguchi (1) emphasized the importance of finding some accurate method for the species identification of the many strains isolated in various parts of the world. He obtained typical strains of L. icterohaemorrhagiae from Japan, Belgium, and America; guinea pigs which had been actively immunized to the Japanese strain were found to resist inoculation with the Belgian and American strains. Similarly, the one from Belgium produced an immunity which was equally effective against all of these three strains; Noguchi therefore considered them to be identical. Thus it would appear that successful cross-immunization affords satisfactory evidence of the identity of these strains of leptospira. Obviously, the final acceptance of this single test for species identification is not advisable until an extensive amount of experience has accumulated.
Thus far, three species of pathogenic leptospira have been described, namely, L. icterohaemorrhagiae of Weil's disease, L. hebdomadis of seven day fever, and L. icteroides in yellow fever.


To the Editor.— The following case report is of tuberculous and zoster virus infection (bilateral) which occurred during the course of lupus erythematosus and corticosteroid therapy. Report of a Case A Chinese woman, aged 52 years, was admitted to the hospital for fever, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea of three weeks' duration. An erupion consistent with lupus erythematosus was present on the skin of the face and neck, and the parotid, cervical, and axillary glands were enlarged ×2 approximately. Scars in groins and lumbar skin resulted from Pott's disease of the spine which had occurred in childhood. Investigation revealed leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, proteinuria, and elevated γ-globulin levels. Serum complement was 20% of normal. Antinuclear factor was positive. Basement membrane antibodies were present. Findings from skin biopsy were consistent with LE. No history could be obtained of drug therapy which might have induced an LE-like illness. The patient received prednisone, 60 mg


A targeted drug delivery system is the need of the hour. Guiding magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with the help of an external magnetic field to its target is the principle behind the development of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as novel drug delivery vehicles. SPIONs are small synthetic γ-Fe2O3 (maghemite) or Fe3O4 (magnetite) particles with a core ranging between 10 nm and 100 nm in diameter. These magnetic particles are coated with certain biocompatible polymers, such as dextran or polyethylene glycol, which provide chemical handles for the conjugation of therapeutic agents and also improve their blood distribution profile. The current research on SPIONs is opening up wide horizons for their use as diagnostic agents in magnetic resonance imaging as well as for drug delivery vehicles. Delivery of anticancer drugs by coupling with functionalized SPIONs to their targeted site is one of the most pursued areas of research in the development of cancer treatment strategies. SPIONs have also demonstrated their efficiency as nonviral gene vectors that facilitate the introduction of plasmids into the nucleus at rates multifold those of routinely available standard technologies. SPION-induced hyperthermia has also been utilized for localized killing of cancerous cells. Despite their potential biomedical application, alteration in gene expression profiles, disturbance in iron homeostasis, oxidative stress, and altered cellular responses are some SPION-related toxicological aspects which require due consideration. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of SPIONs with regard to their method of preparation, their utility as drug delivery vehicles, and some concerns which need to be resolved before they can be moved from bench top to bedside.


The Nepali Compensation Relating to Torture Act (1996) is one of the earliest pieces of specific anti-torture legislation adopted in the global South. Despite a number of important limitations, scores of Nepalis have successfully litigated for monetary compensation under the Act, on a scale relatively rare on the global human rights scene. Using a qualitative case study approach, this article examines the conditions under which survivors of torture are awarded compensation in Nepal, and asks what lessons does this have for broader struggles to win monetary compensation for torture survivors? We end by suggesting that there can be practical tensions between providing individual financial compensation and addressing wider issues of accountability.


In a prospective study, 15 patients with squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck and clinical fixed cervical lymph node metastases were examined to determine the value of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and high resolution real time ultrasonography in preoperative recognition of muscle and vessel infiltration. The preoperative findings were compared with the microscopic results of neck specimens and the operative reports. For each diagnostic method sensitivity, specificity, and effectivity were calculated. Ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography can assess muscle infiltrations as well. Metastatic infiltrations of carotid arteries are best recognised by ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging. Both methods are more valuable than computed tomography. All methods are unsuccessful in detecting infiltrations of the jugular vein. In conclusion, metastatic infiltrations of surrounding tissue, as described by imaging methods, are rarely confirmed by histological results.


Food and agricultural commodity value chains in developing and transition countries have undergone tremendous changes in the past decades. Companies and property rights have been privatized, markets liberalized, and economies integrated into global food systems. The liberalization and privatization initially caused the collapse of state-controlled vertical integration. More recently, private vertical coordination systems have emerged and are growing rapidly as a response to consumer demand for food quality and safety on the one hand and the farms' production constraints caused by factor market imperfections. In this paper we (a) demonstrate the importance of these changes, (b) discuss the implications for efficiency and equity and (c) provide empirical evidence on the effects in several developing and transition countries.


The purpose of this report is: 1) to document the natural resources of Carpinteria Marsh, 2) outline the uses those resources receive, 3) enumerate the problems and conflicts of use that affect those resources, and 4) recommend measures that will protect and enhance the marsh and its resources. It is intended as a guide for citizens, planners and administrators of all private and public entities interested in the status and future of the marsh.
This report has been prepared under contract to and fully funded by the Office of Biological Services of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The goals and purpose of this federal office are to review the impact on fish and wildlife resources of land, mineral and water development practices, such as offshore oil and gas exploration, development and
production; construction of inshore pipeline canals and refineries; power plant construction/operation and urban development. This report, and five other southern California reports, covering Agua Hedionda (San Diego County), Anaheim Bay-Huntington Harbor (Orange County), Mugu Lagoon
(Ventura County), the Northern Santa Barbara County Coastal Wetlands and the Nipomo Dunes and Wetlands (San Luis Obispo County), are scheduled to be part of the Department's "Coastal Wetland Series" that includes reports
on the natural resources of Upper Newport Bay (Orange County), Goleta Slough (Santa Barbara county), Bolinas Lagoon (Marin County), Elkhorn Slough (Monterey County), San Diego Bay and Los Penasquitos Lagoon (San Diego County), Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo County), Humboldt Bay and
the Eel River Delta (Humboldt County), Lake Earl and the Smith River Delta (Del Norte County) and Bodega Harbor (Sonoma County). (103pp.)


We report a case of subclinical retroperitoneal tumor in a young patient. Although different diagnostic techniques were utilized (US, urography, CT, etc.), the tumor type could not be determined preoperatively. A malignant tumor was suspected, therefore surgical excision was warranted. The pathological analysis disclosed an angiomyolipoma in the psoas muscle, a benign tumor in an uncommon site. The foregoing finding prompted us to report the present case.


Spectral filters are experiencing an increasing demand in several applications of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Many works have demonstrated that arbitrary frequency responses can be synthesized by apodizing the coupling coefficient profile of an integrated Bragg grating. However, the high index contrast of the SOI platform hinders their practical implementation, due to the difficulty of achieving the precise control required in the Bragg strength. In this paper, we propose the implementation of spectral filters using an architecture based on placing loading segments within the evanescent field region of a photonic wire waveguide. The Bragg coupling coefficient can be accurately controlled by simply moving the segments away from, or closer to, the waveguide core. The layerpeeling algorithm, in conjunction with a Floquet-Bloch modal analysis, allows to determine the spatial distribution of the segments that synthesizes the desired spectrum. The proposed topology is verified by designing a filter with five arbitrary passbands.


Simple self-assembly techniques to fabricate non-spherical polymer particles, where surface composition and shape can be tuned through temperature and the choice of non-solvents was developed. A series of amphiphilic polystyrene-b-poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) block copolymers were prepared and through solvent exchange techniques using varying non-solvent composition a range of non-spherical particles were formed. Faceted phase separated particles approximately 300 nm in diameter were obtained when self-assembled from tetrahydrofuran (THF) into water compared with unique large multivesicular particles of 1200 nm size being obtained when assembled from THF into ethanol (EtOH). A range of intermediate structures were also prepared from a three part solvent system THF/water/EtOH. These techniques present new tools to engineer the self-assembly of non-spherical polymer particles. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 750–757


INTRODUCTION Cephalopods may be divided into five types according to their buoyancy. Members of several families such as the Octopodidae, Loliginidae and Ommastrephidae are negatively buoyant and must swim to stay in midwater and are therefore highly muscular animals. Others have mechanisms to make them neutrally buoyant so they can remain suspended in midwater without effort. Nautilus, Spirula and cuttlefishes have low pressure gas-filled chambers and their flesh is muscular and non-buoyant (Denton & Gilpin-Brown, 1973). Squids of one family, the Gonatidae, have a low density oil in their livers to give buoyancy but most of their body is muscular. Some oceanic octopods have very watery tissues in which lighter chloride ions replace sulphate ions (Denton & Shaw, 1961). In 12 of the 26 teuthoid families the buoyancy is provided by low-density ammonia-rich solution in their body and head tissues or in an expanded coelomic cavity (Clarke, Denton & Gilpin-Brown, 1979). These ammoniacal squids are extremely abundant in the oceans of the world and form a large part of the diet of birds, cetaceans, seals and fish (Clarke, 1977). When their biomass is estimated from their utilization by predators it is important to know their properties as food and, in particular, their calorific values. As pointed out by Croxall & Prince in a review of the calorific values of cephalopods (1982), all the known values are of muscular, negatively buoyant species because they are of value as food for humans but no measurements have been made on the ammoniacal or oily species which are probably as important, or even more important, in the economy of the ocean (Clarke, 1983).


questions. What i s more, since values are held by individuals and the sample in each district is restricted to leaders elected to Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Sainitis, to generalize for a real unit from data pertaining to indi\iduals 15 to commit what W.S. Robinson characterised long ago as the "inditidiiali\tic" fallacy. Without going into further details, i t must be emphawed that the entire chapter olrerg no more thiin ;I prcliminary exercise in k t rumen t validation: thc relation>hip bctHeen \iilue> a n d le,idcrs remains grammatical rather than thcoretical.


Experimental and complementary modelling studies on the potential use of iron oxide nanoparticles in chemical looping reforming processes have been performed. In order to avoid coarsening of the nanoparticles, and thereby loss of reactivity, at relevant process temperatures (700-900°C), the active metal oxide was embedded in an inert support material of lanthanum silicate. Micro reactor tests indicate that partial combustion occurs in reactions of reduced iron oxide with methane instead of pure reforming. Density Functional Theory and kinetic Monte Carlo calculations have been used to support and complement the experiments. The modelling supports efficient reactivity towards exposure of hydrogen, which is also observed experimentally. Reactivity towards methane is only tested for the fully oxidized state, Fe2O3, and not for the reduced oxide, giving results that are complementary to the experiments. Copyright © 2018 VBRI Press.


BRAF V600E mutations have been successfully treated with targeted therapy in melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and thyroid cancer. Interestingly, these mutations have also been identified in a subset of pediatric and adult brain tumors, with several cases reportedly responding to targeted therapy. However, these reports have been limited to single-agent BRAF inhibitor therapy and recurrent disease. Herein, we report dramatic clinical and radiographic responses to combination dabrafenib (BRAF inhibitor) and trametinib (MEK inhibitor) in 2 adults with high-grade gliomas (HGGs), with 1 patient treated in the first-line setting. These observations, together with prior case reports, advocate for routine screening of BRAF point mutations in adult HGGs, and suggest that treatment with dual-targeted therapy, even in newly diagnosed cases, is safe and effective.


Previous studies have examined methods of reducing laboratory use, without great success. We studied the effects of the financial unbundling of clinical biochemistry determinations in a university outpatient clinic. After eliminating the charge structure that promoted panel use, the ordering of chemistry 19 panels fell dramatically, accompanied by an increase in orders for electrolyte and chemistry 6 panels. The total number of biochemical assay determinations fell by one third after this administrative intervention. Only orders for potassium and creatinine measurements remained relatively unchanged and eventually increased. The ordering of five analytes of the chemistry 19 profile was reduced by at least 50%. Reassessment of the intervention six months later demonstrated the sustained decline in laboratory use. We conclude that physicians are attuned to price inefficiencies in basic laboratory testing and can alter their ordering behavior accordingly. Facilities can change patterns of use by altering charge structures alone. The decline in laboratory testing also indicates that physicians receive unnecessary clinical data when they order biochemical profiles. Financially bundled chemistry profiles could be replaced by physiologically based test groupings.


Purpose To evaluate the neuroprotective and neurite outgrowth effects of maltol, a natural aroma compound, on retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) under oxidative stress in vitro. Methods Mouse primary RGCs were isolated using immunopanning–magnetic separation and exposed to H2O2 in the presence of maltol. The cell viability and apoptosis were determined by using adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) assay and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate (dUTP) nick end labeling (TUNEL), respectively. Neurite outgrowth was assessed by immunofluorescence for α-tubulin. The activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) was also evaluated using immunofluorescence. Results When the RGCs were exposed to 20 μM of H2O2 for 16 h, their viability dropped to 40.3±3.4%. However, the maltol treatment restored the cells in a dose-dependent manner. The viability recovered to 73.9±5.1% with 10 μM of maltol and even reached 175.1±11.3% with 2 mM of maltol, as measured by ATP assay. This oxidative stress significantly increased the number of TUNEL-positive RGCs, but the maltol drastically reduced the proportion of those apoptotic cells. The oxidative stress hampered the neurite outgrowth of the RGCs, whereas maltol restored their ability to sprout neurites. Regarding NF-κB, the active form of phosphorylated NF-κB (pNF-κB) increased the oxidative stress level but the maltol treatment again reduced it to an unstressful level. Conclusions Our data revealed that maltol attenuated the oxidative stress–induced injury in the primary mouse RGCs. Its neuroprotective and neurite outgrowth effects seemed to be related to NF-κB signaling. Maltol has potential as a new neuroprotective therapeutic agent for oxidative stress–related ocular diseases, including glaucoma.


BACKGROUND
It is strongly recommended that individuals ending treatment for cancer have a "survivorship plan," and new standards require survivorship planning for accreditation, However, a comprehensive plan is often neglected.

OBJECTIVE
To present the development and field test results of a web-based, breast cancer survivorship care planning system.

METHODS
The Polaris Oncology Survivorship Transition (POST) blends input from the electronic health record (EHR), oncology care providers (OCPs), and patients to create a survivorship care plan (SCP). The content of the POST program was created with the assistance of end-user input (patients, oncologists, and primary care providers (PCPs)) and the full program was piloted on women ending treatment for breast cancer. This paper presents the pilot study that field-tested the POST In a clinical setting. Patients were recruited from outpatient care clinics and chemotherapy units in a comprehensive care center. The study included 25 women ending treatment for breast cancer in the past year, 4 OCPs, and PCPs. Patients received the POST computeπzed assessment and a tailored SCP.

RESULTS
The POST assists providers in crafting efficient and comprehensive SCPs and was rated highly satisfactory by all end-users.

DISCUSSION
The POST program can be used as a cancer survivorship planning program to assist OCPs in care planning for their patients ending treatment for breast cancer.

CONCLUSION
This study provides support for Incorporating computerized SCP programs into clinical practice. Use of the POST in clinical practice has the potential to improve survivorship planning.


Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder among adults, especially affecting individuals of advanced age or with neurodegenerative disease. Humans with insomnia often expand the amount of time they spend in bed in an attempt to compensate for inability to sleep. However, this mismatch of time in bed (high) with sleep ability (low) perpetuates insomnia symptoms. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line insomnia treatment. Sleep restriction – a key component of CBT-I – addresses mismatch between sleep opportunity and ability by restricting time in bed to an amount equal to average sleep ability, leading to enhanced sleep drive and consolidation. Though effective, limited accessibility of practitioners and long duration of therapy are barriers to broad implementation of CBT-I. Deciphering a molecular basis for this behavioral therapy has potential to open new treatment avenues. In Chapter 1, I discuss the utility of modeling insomnia, behavioral therapy, and neurodegenerative disease in Drosophila. In Chapter 2, we develop a Drosophila model for sleep restriction therapy (SRT). We find that restriction of sleep opportunity through manipulation of environmental cues improves sleep efficiency and continuity in multiple short-sleeping Drosophila mutants. We apply SRT to a Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease, in which Aβ accumulation causes decreased and fragmented sleep, and demonstrated that sleep restriction reverses these sleep deficits, with associated extension in lifespan. In Chapter 3, we expand our search for fly models of human neurodegenerative disease associated with short-sleeping phenotypes. We find that overexpression of human TDP-43, the protein deposited in intracellular inclusions in ALS and FTD, cause profound sleep disturbances that can be rescued by SRT. TDP-43 flies also exhibit increased arousal threshold and extended longevity with SRT, suggesting deeper sleep with sleep opportunity restriction confers health benefits. In Chapter 4, I discuss ongoing work investigating the intracellular localization of TDP-43, and how improved sleep might mediate toxicity of this protein. Finally, I discuss use of this model to identify molecular signals mediating the response to sleep restriction therapy. These findings have important implications for our understanding of behavioral sleep therapy and its potential as a therapeutic intervention for neurodegenerative disease. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Neuroscience First Advisor Matthew S. Kayser


Somatosensory tinnitus is a generally agreed subtype of tinnitus that is associated with activation of the somatosensory, somatomotor, and visual-motor systems. A key characteristic of somatosensory tinnitus is that is modulated by physical contact or movement. Although it seems common, its pathophysiology, assessment and treatment are not well defined. We present a scoping review on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of somatosensory tinnitus, and identify priority directions for further research. Methods: Literature searches were conducted in Google Scholar, PubMed, and EMBASE databases. Additional broad hand searches were conducted with the additional terms etiology, diagnose, treatment. Results: Most evidence on the pathophysiology of somatosensory tinnitus suggests that somatic modulations are the result of altered or cross-modal synaptic activity within the dorsal cochlear nucleus or between the auditory nervous system and other sensory subsystems of central nervous system (e.g., visual or tactile). Presentations of somatosensory tinnitus are varied and evidence for the various approaches to treatment promising but limited. Discussion and Conclusions: Despite the apparent prevalence of somatosensory tinnitus its underlying neural processes are still not well understood. Necessary involvement of multidisciplinary teams in its diagnosis and treatment has led to a large heterogeneity of approaches whereby tinnitus improvement is often only a secondary effect. Hence there are no evidence-based clinical guidelines, and patient care is empirical rather than research-evidence-based. Somatic testing should receive further attention considering the breath of evidence on the ability of patients to modulate their tinnitus through manouvers. Specific questions for further research and review are indicated.


Archaeological excavations carried out in the archaeological site of São Pedro (Southern Portugal) revealed a Chalcolithic settlement occupied in different moments of the 3rd millennium BC. The material culture recovered includes different types of materials, such as ceramics, lithics and metals. The later comprises about 30 artefacts with different typologies such as tools (e.g. awls, chisels and a saw) and weapons (e.g. daggers and arrowheads) mostly belonging to the 2nd and 3rd quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. In the present work the collection of chalcolithic metallic artefacts recovered in São Pedro was characterized. Analytical studies involved micro energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (micro-EDXRF) to determine elemental composition, together with optical microscopy and Vickers microhardness testing for microstructural characterisation and hardness determination. Main results show copper with variable amounts of arsenic and very low content of other impurities, such as iron. Moreover, nearly half of the collection is composed by arsenical copper alloys (As > 2 wt.%) and an association was found between arsenic content and typology since the weapons group (mostly daggers) present higher values than tools (mostly awls). These results suggest some criteria in the selection of arsenic-rich copper ores or smelting products. Furthermore, after casting an artefact would have been hammered, annealed and sometimes, finished with a hammering operation. Additionally, microstructural variations in this collection reveal somewhat different operational conditions during casting, annealing and forging, as expected in such a primitive metallurgy. Moreover the operational sequence seems to be used to achieve the required shape to the object, rather than to intentionally make the alloy harder. Overall, this study suggests that Chalcolithic metallurgists might have a poor control of the addition of arsenic and/or were unable to use this element to increase the hardness of tools and weapons. Finally, the compositions, manufacturing processes and hardness were compared to those from neighbouring regions and different chronological periods.


Hypothesis: Intraoperative monitoring by distortion-product otoacoustic emissions reflects the cochlear function changes in the real-time domain during removal of cerebellopontine angle tumors. Background: Cerebellopontine angle tumor surgery is associated with a significant risk of damaging internal auditory canal contents. Although monitoring facial nerve function intraoperatively has already been effectively developed, such efficacious monitoring of auditory function remains to be established. The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions for intraoperative monitoring of the cochlear function in humans during removal of cerebellopontine angle tumors. Methods: Continuous intraoperative monitoring of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions was performed in 20 of 62 patients undergoing surgical removal of cerebellopontine angle tumors. All of these 20 patients, who underwent the retrosigmoid approach, had distortion-product otoacoustic emissions present preoperatively. Depending on the amplitude and frequency band at which distortion-product otoacoustic emissions were present, monitoring was carried out at 2.0 to 6.0 kHz with primary stimulus tone amplitudes of 60 to 70 dB sound pressure level. Results: In patients operated on for cerebellopontine angle tumors, various patterns of distortion-product otoacoustic emission amplitude reductions and recoveries were observed. Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions recorded from the basal part of the cochlea (i.e., high frequencies) changed earlier and more profoundly than those from the middle and apical sections (i.e., lower frequencies). In some cases, cochlear function was affected irreversibly as reflected by loss of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions. Microcoagulation of small vessels, tumor debulking, and compression or stretch of the internal auditory canal contents were found to be procedures affecting distortion-product otoacoustic emissions. The status of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions at the conclusion of tumor dissection correlated with postoperative hearing levels. Conclusion: Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions were used to monitor in the real-time domain auditory function during cerebellopontine angle tumor removal operations. The status of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions at the conclusion of the operations was related to postoperative hearing.


Solar energy for chemical production with high product selectivity under ambient conditions has attracted considerable attention. The development of photocatalytic nanomaterials as antennas to absorb light irradiation plays a pivotal role. Hence, catalysis science and technology is indispensable in these transformations in order to achieve a high conversion and selectivity. This review mainly deals with the development and structure design of photocatalytic plasmonic nanomaterials in the synthesis of clean chemicals and highlights the mechanism of regulating catalytic selectivity.


Version Control Systems (VCS) are an important source of information for developers. This calls for a principled understanding of developers' information seeking in VCS—both for improving existing tools and for understanding requirements for new tools. Our prior work investigated empirically how and why developers seek information in VCS: in this paper, we complement and enrich our prior findings by reanalyzing the data via a theory's lens. Using the lens of Information Foraging Theory (IFT), we present new insights not revealed by the prior empirical work. First, while looking for specific information, participants' foraging behaviors were consistent with other foraging situations in SE; therefore, prior research on IFT-based SE tool design can be leveraged for VCS. Second, in change awareness foraging, participants consumed similar diets, but in subtly different ways than in other situations; this calls for further investigations into change awareness foraging. Third, while committing changes, participants attempted to enable future foragers, but the competing needs of different foraging situations led to tensions that participants failed to balance: this opens up a new avenue for research at the intersection of IFT and SE, namely, creating forageable information. Finally, the results of using an IFT lens on these data provides some evidence as to IFT's scoping and utility for the version control domain.


This thesis presents the first measurement of the d*(2380) (hexaquark) electromagnetic coupling, extracted from the deuteron photodisintegration (~γd → d∗ → ~np) reaction. The experiment was carried out at the Mainzer Microtron (MAMI) facility in the Institut für Kernphysik in Mainz, Germany. A racetrack microtron at the MAMI facility provided a 1557 MeV longitudinally polarised electron beam. This electron beam was directed onto a thin radiator to produce a bremsstrahlung photon beam. Diamond and amorphous (metallic) radiators were used to produce linearly and circularly polarised photons respectively. The produced bremsstrahlung photon beam was energy 'tagged' with a resolution of ∼4 MeV over the photon-energy range of 150–1400 MeV using the Glasgow Photon Tagger. The tagged photons were incident on a 10 cm long liquid deuterium target. This target was surrounded by a new nucleon recoil polarimeter apparatus and placed within the Crystal Ball calorimeter at MAMI. An array of PbWO4 and BaF2 detectors (TAPS) was used to provide calorimetry at forward angles. The newly constructed large acceptance recoil polarimeter measures the polarisation of the nucleons in the final state. The combination of this new apparatus with the polarised photon beam facility gives access to a number of single and double polarisation observables. The photon beam asymmetry, Σ, and the double polarisation observable, Cx′ , were examined in measurements of the reaction d(~γ,~n~ p) over a large range of energies with a close to full angular coverage. The observable Cx′ is determined for the neutron produced in deuteron photodisintegration for the first time. The new data constrains mechanisms of deuteron photodisintegration and assesses the existence and contribution of the d*(2380) resonance.


Now that she's 13 years old, it's time for young Kiki to start tinking about her future. So one night, under the light of a full moon, she grabs her black cat, Juju, hops on her mother's broom and heads off into the night. The next day she alights upon a friendly oceanside city, and this, she tells her loyal and furry companion, is where she'll spend the next year learning how to become a real, honest-to-goodness witch.


Multiple-objective metaheuristics, e.g., multiple-objective evolutionary algorithms, constitute one of the most active fields of multiple-objective optimization. Since 1985, a significant number of different methods have been proposed. However, only few comparative studies of the methods were performed on large-scale problems. We continue two comparative experiments on the multiple-objective 0/1 knapsack problem reported in the literature. We compare the performance of two multiple-objective genetic local search (MOGLS) algorithms to the best performers in the previous experiments using the same test instances. The results of our experiment indicate that our MOGLS algorithm generates better approximations to the nondominated set in the same number of functions evaluations than the other algorithms.


The aim of this study is to optimize the design of a screw heat exchanger (SHX) in terms of varying coil aspect ratio (CAR) as a liquid-suction heat exchanger (LSHE) in a vapor compression refrigeration system through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. The novelty of this study is that it focuses on the fluid-to-fluid heat transfer of SHX to measure its heat transfer effectiveness as compared to many research studies that focus only on helical duct heat exchanger under constant wall temperature and constant heat flux. Optimization of the SHX was done through conjugate heat transfer in a CFD model. High confidence on the computational package was determined as the results of the package on heat transfer between water flows through a shell-and-coil heat exchanger match well with available experimental data of the same setup in related literature.The performance of SHX with square coil section (SHXSCS) was compared to that of the SHX with circular coil section (SHXCCS). The optimum SHXSCS was then compared to a commercially available LSHE in the form of tube-in-tube heat exchanger (TTHE) which is the most commonly used LSHE in vapor compression refrigeration systems.The SHXSCS has nominal degrees of superheat of 22.17 °C and nominal degrees of subcool of 17.63 °C. The ratio of the heat of superheating to that of subcooling is seen to increase with increasing CAR and NTU. The RE of SHXSCS is larger by an average of 3.87%, 18.25% and 26.46% compared to those of the SHXCCS, TTHE and the standard vapor compression cycle (VCC), respectively. The COP of the SHXSCS is 2.55%, 10.74% and 5.94% higher than those of the SHXCCS, TTHE and the standard VCC, respectively. The SHXSCS is more capable than SHXCCS in splitting the heat due to the less complicated square cross sections of flows and even less interface materials for heat transfer. Moreover, the SHXSCS is more effective in splitting the heat from subcooling into moderated superheating and largely to the surounding compared to the TTHE mainly due to longer length of interaction of the flows.Copyright © 2015 by ASME