As part of our co-operation with the Telecommunication Agency of the Netherlands, we want to formulate an accident analysis method and model for use in incidents in telecommunications that cause service unavailability. In order to not re-invent the wheel, we wanted to first get an overview of all existing accident analysis methods and models to see if we could find an overarching method and commonalities between models. Furthermore, we wanted to find any methods that had been applied to incidents in telecommunication networks or even been designed specifically for these incidents. In this article, we present a systematic literature review of incident and accident analysis methods across domains. We find that accident analysis methods have experienced a rise in attention over the last 15 years, leading to a plethora of methods. We discuss the three classes in which they are often categorized. We find that each class has its own advantages and disadvantages: an analysis using a sequential method may be easier to understand and communicate and quicker to execute, but may miss vital underlying causes that can later trigger new, similar accidents. An analysis using an epidemiological method takes more time, but it also finds underlying causes the resolution of which may prevent accidents from happening in the future. Systemic methods are appropriate for complex, tightly coupled systems and executing such a method takes a lot of time and resources, rendering it very expensive. This will often not be justified by the costs of the accident (especially in telecommunications networks) and it will therefore be too expensive to be employed in regular businesses. We were not able to find any published definitions of structured methods specific to telecommunications, nor did we find any applications of structured methods specifically to telecommunications.


Reinforced concrete design (RCD) activity requires the services of design table to pick bar sizes and area of specific bar groups. This allow reinforced concrete (RC) designers to use their intuition to pick the right bar size for detailing of RC Structures which virtually enhance reliable and satisfactory answers to RCD problems. With the advent of computer with its powerful memory, most RCD software available automatically generates Steel Properties thus, jeopardising user's contribution in terms of their perception. RCD Tables are conventionally small but not limited in use. By the skilful and innovative integration of available concepts and techniques, the power of the RCD Tables are enhanced to check for deflection, minimum and maximum area of steel, and display alert to users. Visualization RCD Table interface was designed as a dialog box. Simply Supported Reinforced Concrete Beam Structure (SSRCBS) tool was modified to accommodate the new tool. Statistical analysis revealed that the significance of time was borderline between SSRCBS tool and the modified tool. It was also found that as the tasks became more complex, the modified tool advantage increases in terms of task-by-task satisfaction and users understanding of the logic behind RCD.


In recent years, senior UN officials have raised concerns about the decline of Western contributions to UN peace operations. Although this is a worrying trend for supporters of the UN, it does not mean that the West is playing a smaller role in peace operations per se. Instead, the West has increased its contribution to `hybrid' peace operations and missions that take place outside of the UN system. This article examines the West's contribution to both UN and non-UN peace operations since the Brahimi Report and assesses whether its contribution has markedly changed and what impact any changes have had on international peace and security. It proceeds in three sections. The first provides a historical overview of the West's ambivalent relationship with UN peace operations since 1948. The second analyses the West's contribution to UN, hybrid and non-UN peace operations. The final section explores what Western policies mean for international peace and security by assessing their impact on the UN's authority, the extent to which they save lives and their contribution to building stable peace. The article concludes that while in the short term the West's willingness to participate in hybrid operations displays a commitment to finding pragmatic solutions to some difficult problems, over the longer term this approach may weaken the UN's ability to maintain international peace and security.


: Internet users are constantly confronted with metric information about the popularity of goods, services, and content. These popularity cues (PCs)—which we define as metric information about users' behavior or their evaluations of entities —serve as social signals for users who are confronted with them. Due to the high relevance that PCs have for organizations, consumers, and scholars, this article provides a systematic overview of PC research. First, we present a theoretical conceptualization for the effects of PCs. Second, we analyze empirical research that focuses on PCs by providing a review of academic, peer-reviewed studies on the direct effects of PCs in online media ( N = 61). Third, we utilize the results of our literature review to address current shortcomings in the literature and to provide insights for future research.


Few studies have been conducted to identify users' desired semantic levels of image access when describing, searching, and retrieving photographs online. The basic level, or the level of abstraction most commonly used to describe an item, is a cognitive theory currently under consideration in image retrieval research. This study investigates potential basic levels of description for online photographs by testing the Hierarchy for Online Photograph Representation (HOPR) model, which is based on a need for a model that addresses users' basic levels of photograph description and retrieval. We developed the HOPR model using the following three elements as guides: the most popular tags of all time on Flickr, the Pyramid model for visual content description by Jörgensen, Jaimes, Benitez, and Chang, and the nine classes of image content put forth by Burford, Briggs, and Eakins. In an exploratory test of the HOPR model, participants were asked to describe their first reaction to, and possible free-text indexing terms for, a small set of personal photographs. Content analysis of the data indicated a clear set of user preferences that are consistent with prior image description studies. Generally speaking, objects in the photograph and events taking place in the photograph were the most commonly used levels of description. The preliminary HOPR model shows promise for its intended utility, but further refinement is needed through additional research.


Polysaccharide from Limonium bicolor Kunze (Bge.)(LBPs) was extracted with the assistance of ultrasonic.Box-Behnken design(BBD) was employed to optimize extraction time; extraction temperature;ultrasonic extraction power and ratio of water to raw material to obtain a high LBPs yield.The optimum extraction conditions were as follows: extraction temperature 81.23°C, ultrasonic power 190.86W, extraction time 42.39 min and ratio of water to raw material 15.4ml/g.The yield of polysaccharide was 7.11% based on the above mentioned conditions. Close agreement between experimetal and predicted values was found.


OBJECTIVE
PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway plays important roles in tumor pathogenesis. mTOR is up-regulated and miR-214 is down-regulated in cervical can-*cers. This study investigated whether miR-214 regulated mTOR expression and affected cervical cancer cell proliferation, apoptosis or invasion.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Cervical cancer tissues were collected in parallel with normal epithelium for measuring the expression of miR-214 and mTOR. Dual luciferase expression assay was performed to evaluate the targeted relationship between miR-214 and mTOR. In vitro cultured SiHa cells were treated with miR-214 mimic or si-mTOR followed by measuring mTOR, p-mTOR and Bcl-2 expression. Cell apoptosis, proliferation and invasion were measured by flow cytometry and transwell assay.

RESULTS
Bioinformatics analysis showed targeted binding sites between miR-214 and 3'-UTR of mTOR mRNA. Dual luciferase reporter assay confirmed this regulatory relationship between miR-214 and mTOR mRNA. Compared to normal cervical epithelium, cancer tissues had lower expression of miR-214 and higher mTOR, both of which were correlated with TNM stage and tissue pathology grade. Compared to Ect1/E6E7 cells, SiHa cells had lower level of miR-214 and higher mTOR/p-mTOR and Bcl-2 expression. Transfection of miR-214 mimic or si-mTOR significantly decreased mTOR/p-mTOR or Bcl-2 expression, inhibited cell proliferation or invasion, and enhanced cell apoptosis.

CONCLUSIONS
miR-214 down-regulation plays a role in elevating mTOR expression and in facilitating cervical cancer pathogenesis. Over-expression of miR-214 inhibits cervical cancer cell proliferation or invasion, and facilitates apoptosis via targeted inhibition of mTOR expression.


Smart Grid is expected to provide a reliable power supply with fewer and briefer outages, cleaner power, and self-healing power systems through advanced Power Quality (PQ) monitoring, analysis and diagnosis of the PQ measurements and identification of the root cause, and timely automated controls. It is important to understand that signal processing has been an integral part of advancing and expanding the horizons of this PQ research significantly and the capabilities and applications of signal processing for PQ are continually evolving. This paper thus presents a survey on the proven and emerging signal applications for enhancing PQ, focusing on algorithms for estimating system modal parameters because resonant frequencies and their damping information are critical signatures in evaluating the PQ. In particular, we discuss the need for investigating time-varying and nonlinear characteristics of the modal parameters due to dynamic changes in system operating conditions and introduce promising signal processing techniques for this purpose.


The strength of polycrystals is largely controlled by the interaction between lattice dislocations and grain boundaries. The atomistic details of these interactions are difficult to discern even by advanced high-resolution microscopy methods. In this paper we present results of atomistic simulations of interactions between an edge dislocation and three symmetric tilt grain boundaries in body-centred cubic tungsten. Our simulations reveal that the outcome of the dislocation–grain-boundary interaction depends sensitively on the grain boundary structure, the geometry of the slip systems in neighbouring grains, and the precise location of the interaction within the grain boundary. A detailed analysis of the evolution of the grain boundary structures and local stress fields during dislocation absorption and transmission is provided.


Planets and satellites can undergo physical librations, which consist of forced periodic variations in their rotation rate induced by gravitational interactions with nearby bodies. This mechanical forcing may drive turbulence in interior fluid layers such as subsurface oceans and metallic liquid cores through a libration‐driven elliptical instability (LDEI) that refers to the resonance of two inertial modes with the libration‐induced base flow. LDEI has been studied in the case of a full ellipsoid. Here we address for the first time the question of the persistence of LDEI in the more geophysically relevant ellipsoidal shell geometries. In the experimental setup, an ellipsoidal container with spherical inner cores of different sizes is filled with water. Direct side view flow visualizations are made in the librating frame using Kalliroscope particles. A Fourier analysis of the light intensity fluctuations extracted from recorded movies shows that the presence of an inner core leads to spatial heterogeneities but does not prevent LDEI. Particle image velocimetry and direct numerical simulations are performed on selected cases to confirm our results. Additionally, our survey at a fixed forcing frequency and variable rotation period (i.e., variable Ekman number, E) shows that the libration amplitude at the instability threshold varies as ∼E0.65. This scaling is explained by a competition between surface and bulk dissipation. When extrapolating to planetary interior conditions, this leads to the E1/2 scaling commonly considered. We argue that Enceladus' subsurface ocean and the core of the exoplanet 55 CnC e should both be unstable to LDEI.


Field-induced electron transport in an InxGa1−xN(x 0.4) sample grown on GaN has been studied by subpicosecond Raman spectroscopy. Non-equilibrium electron distribution and electron drift velocity due to the presence of piezoelectric and spontaneous fields in the InxGa1−xN layer have been directly measured. The experimental results are compared with ensemble Monte Carlo calculations and reasonable agreements are obtained.


The paper brings general information on Bosnian members of the territorial militia - mustahfizes, and on foot soldiers – azabs, as the most numerous local guards and crew members of Bosnian fortresses. It further investigates the occurrence of the term mustahfiz in the Ottoman edicts, analyzing data on mustahfizes in Bosnia mentioned in the earliest books and protocols. As for azabs who were originally presented as light infantry in battles for conquering of new lands and fortresses, there is interesting information included in certain documents that speak of not only their moving from one fortress to another but of the change in their assignments which allowed for their becoming permanent fortress guards. It was in 1662 that a new mustahfizes ordinance was issued. The mustahfizes term is in the beginning introduced as a generic term but the goal of this paper is to discuss differentiation between mustahfizes as fortress guards and mustahfizes as timar leaders, and to describe specificities of their service. As typical examples, we mention documents belonging to Cerimovic family of Ljubuski that had for over a century served as mustahfizes of the Ljubuski fortress. This collection of documents contains the ordinance by Abdulkerim (Abdul-Kerim) dated 1716. By presenting of the documents, especially the sharia court registers of 1556-57 and those signed by mustahfizes that date as far back as 1794 and 1803, we want to show that mustahfizes as timar leaders had different competencies in relation to other fortress crew members.


Climate-related changes in glacierized watersheds are widely documented, stimulating adaptive responses among the 370 million people living in glacier-influenced watersheds as well as aquatic and riparian ecosystems. The situation denotes important interdependencies between science, society, and ecosystems, yet integrative approaches to the study of adaptation to such changes remain scarce in both the mountain- and non-mountain-focused adaptation scholarship. Using the example of glacio-hydrological change, it is argued here that this analytical limitation impedes the identification, development, and implementation of "successful" adaptations. In response, the paper introduces three guiding principles for robust adaptation research in glaciated mountain regions. Principle 1: Adaptation research should integrate detailed analyses of watershed-specific glaciological and hydro-meteorological conditions; glacio-hydrological changes are context-specific and therefore cannot be assumed to follow idealized trajectories of "peak water". Principle 2: Adaptation research should consider the complex interplay between glacio-hydrological changes and socio-economic, cultural, and political conditions; responses to environmental changes are non-deterministic and therefore not deducible from hydrological changes alone. Principle 3: Adaptation research should be attentive to interdependencies, feedbacks, and tradeoffs between human and ecological responses to glacio-hydrological change; research that does not evaluate these socio-ecological dynamics may lead to maladaptive adaptation plans. These principles call attention to the linked scientific, social, and ecological dimensions of adaptation, and offer a point of departure for future climate change adaptation research in high mountains.


Quarrying activities and rock extraction generally cause several environmental effects on the surrounding areas. The alteration of landscape due to activities like excavation, drilling or blasting, in particular, often generates a visual impact on the receptors set in the surroundings. Among these effects, the shape, extent, or chromatic contrast of the mining surface with the original land form may represent a huge loss of appeal for the growth of new urban settlements. To eliminate, or if not possible, at least to reduce these effects, two different approaches may be developed. The first, based on the reclamation of the post mined quarry surface is aimed at restoring the ecological balance taking into account geological parameters but also local flora and climate. It may be effective however it requires many years to be developed and above all it implies rock extraction to be suspended. On the other hand the way of prevention is based on the assessment of visual impact when the quarry plant is to be set or when receptor location is to be settled. The contents of this paper are focused on the results of a case study developed in the northern area of Rome in which the existence of a grey dark basalt quarry represented the opportunity to test this preventive approach: in the surroundings of the quarry plant some contractors aimed to build a residential area and a preliminary scheme was in progress. So, in the first part, the two most important visual assessment methods such as that defined by the EC decision 272/02 and the Lvi (Level of Visual Impact) are performed and compared. Some scenarios are studied by varying not only the receptor location but the quarry exploitation method too. Then, with regard to the threshold limit values and quality classes defined in the EC decision, the construction of Lvi maps is performed by means


This paper presents an empirical investigation of scaling and the multifractal properties of financial asset returns. It discusses the key intuition relative to the applicability of scaling processes and the broader class of multifractal processes to financial phenomena. The cumulative return distribution of positive and negative tails at the different time intervals are linear. This presents strong evidence that returns exhibit power-law scaling in the tails. To test the multifractal properties of returns, we use the sample absolute moment of the aggregated return series. These moments do not scale linearly with different lags. In the other words, the scaling exponent is nonlinear in lags. These results indicate that the returns are multifractal.


Mobile search has inherent difficulties with a small screen and an inconvenient input method. As such, deploying a conventional search engine and its user-system interaction method presents problems. Considering the constraints and new opportunities associated with a mobile phone, we propose a novel interaction method with the notion of Mobile Hypertext that encompasses proactive search. Both dynamic and static parts of Mobile Hypertext are created automatically for a variety of personal information stored in a mobile phone. Our experiment shows that the interaction mode provided by Mobile Hypertext can save a significant amount of searching and browsing efforts as the number of information objects to be browsed through is reduced significantly.


This article argues that information literacy instruction has a unique role to play in increasing academic motivation among African-American college students. Drawing on recent work in student motivation, this article argues that perception of faculty encouragement is the single most important predictor of African-American college students' academic self-concept, trumping both academic performance (e.g., grades) and school environment (i.e., historically Black colleges or universities vs. predominantly White colleges or universities). Given this link between encouragement and academic self-concept, information literacy instruction becomes an arena in which librarians may support the development of students' self-concept, thus increasing motivation. This article discusses the role of encouragement in information literacy instruction and suggests how to achieve greater perception of encouragement both during and after instruction. Lastly, this article considers ramifications for instructional services programs at historically Black colleges or universities by reviewing recent experiences at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina.


In Max Weber's And Ernst Troeltsch's interpretation of the religious and social development of Western civilization, the concept of natural law has a pivotal role. Weber's thesis runs as follows: In the reception and transformation of the Stoics's concept of natural law the Christian faith finds the key that makes it possible to mediate between the originally world-denying claims of the gospel and the "norms of the world."(1) Since natural law must be regarded as having "the purest type of normative rational validity,"(2) its prevalence is of central importance for the rationalization that is linked to the Christian faith. The backdrop for this thesis is provided by Troeltsch's far more detailed and extensive studies of the social doctrines of various Christian churches and groups.(3) According to Troeltsch's interpretation, the reception of the Stoic concept of natural law is as crucial to Christian ethics as the reception of the concept of logos is to Christian dogmatics.(4) Just as the concept of logos mediates between the truth of revelation and the truth of reason, so the concept of natural law mediates between the moral demands of the gospel and the principles of a worldly ethos. Since there is a distinction between an absolute natural law, which is identical with the radical ideal of the Sermon on the Mount, and a relative natural law, substantially corresponding to the Ten Commandments and to political and social reality,(5) such a mediation--which must be oriented on the relative natural law--must qualify the original radical Christian claim.(6) Whereas the old church allowed both forms of the natural law to stand alongside each other without mediation and was therefore unable to overcame their estrangement within the surrounding social reality,(7) the Christian Middle Ages succeeded in uniting both forms by replacing the distinction between the gospel (or church) and the world with a distinction between the natural and the supernatural,(8) interpreting each as a level of a metaphysical whole.(9) When this idea of a metaphysical hierarchy of reality, attached to the concept of natural law, became linked to the notion of society as a structured organism, as taught by Aristotle and Paul,(10) the concept of natural law assumed a virtually fundamental status: it grounded both moral(11) and social(12) philosophy and enabled the rise of the unified culture"(13) characteristic of the Christian Middle Ages, from which the Reformation later departed in order to regain the radicalism of the gospel.(14) By linking the concept of natural law to the organic interpretation of the social, the Christian Middle Ages could also assign a central role to the church: just as the divine law is the bracket that binds together the levels of moral laws, so the church is the bracket that holds together the members of the social organism.(15) Its interpretation as the "boundless, comprehensive, and guiding institution of salvation,"(16) together with the strong attachment of natural law to eternal and immutable principles, must, in the last consequence, lead to a "conservative, organically patriarchal natural law."(17) Consequently, those elements that were already contained in the medieval form of the natural law but not in the Platonic interpretation of the social order, and which in its later secular form gave it its progressive, even revolutionary, power, remain repressed: the idea of the dignity of the person, the associated' freedom and autonomy of individual reason, the resulting responsibility of personal conscience, and the significance of one's vocation, which stems from the place of the individual within the whole.(18) With the thesis that the doctrine of natural law represents an essential contribution of the Christian Middle Ages to the course of Western development, and that this contribution is particularly effective in the doctrine of natural law found in Thomas Aquinas,(19) Troeltsch and Weber formulated an insight that stands the test of contemporary research, regardless of their highly questionable presentation of this doctrine in detail. …


Research funding for CAM is inadequate, resulting in too few good quality studies to support its use. Widespread use of CAM, as well as its media promotion, make this a vital public health issue, and the Australian government has a social and ethical obligation to respond by developing a research infrastructure (as has been done by the United Kingdom and United States governments). We propose a funding model that neither draws directly from the CAM industry nor from current health research budgets, yet would strengthen Australia's international role in CAM research. Establishing and applying focused research methods in CAM is imperative for strengthening its evidence base and creating fresh options for safe and effective patient care.


Why Christian Leaders Must Acquire Wisdom. Brian Tung Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2017 The thesis of this project is that intentional and explicit wisdom development in Christian leaders needs cultivated using current leadership development approaches. Like other nations, the Israelites valued wisdom. In the Old Testament, hokhmahi is used to identify the insight into the nature of things obscured by complexity and uncertainty. Israel's wisdom is exegeted by Jesus Christ. The nature of things can now only be properly understood in him. This dissertation argues that the nurture of wisdom among Christian leaders is a much-needed addition to their development. Leadership development is determined by what leadership is. The first part of this dissertation considers the contemporary understanding of leadership. The Christian understanding of leadership and how it compares with the general understanding of leadership is then considered. Lastly, observations is made on the role of wisdom in leadership. In the second part, the current research on wisdom is considered. Furthermore, biblical wisdom is compared to the general understanding of wisdom. Drawing from observations from the first part about what makes good leaders, reasons why acquiring wisdom may help leaders to become better leaders are explained. Leaders must make good judgments in a context of chaos and uncertainty, balancing the demands of the self and the environment, between personal, interpersonal and interpersonal interests, between the present and the distant future, between the good and right for the individual and that of the whole, and between results and values. Wisdom will enable a leader to better meet these challenges. Although knowledge can be directly transferred and its reception and acquisition tested, the nature of wisdom and the task of Christian leadership defies the direct teaching of wisdom. Hence, in the final section, an analysis takes place regarding models for wisdom nurturing and how these can help shape similar processes for the development of Christian leaders. Content Reader: David Augsburger, PhD


Yellow vein of Eupatorium chinense var. simplicifolium caused by a geminivirus (Osaki and Inouye, 1979) had long been attracted attentions by some Japanese botanists and plant pathologists. A poem written by the Empress Koken on the yellow leaf of Eupatorium in the year of 752 that appeared in "Manyoshu" would be the first record in all over the world in the literature of the possible plant virus disease.


Abstract We present a data-driven approach to characterizing nonidentifiability of a model's parameters and illustrate it through dynamic as well as steady kinetic models. By employing Diffusion Maps and their extensions, we discover the minimal combinations of parameters required to characterize the output behavior of a chemical system: a set of effective parameters for the model. Furthermore, we introduce and use a Conformal Autoencoder Neural Network technique, as well as a kernel-based Jointly Smooth Function technique, to disentangle the redundant parameter combinations that do not affect the output behavior from the ones that do. We discuss the interpretability of our data-driven effective parameters, and demonstrate the utility of the approach both for behavior prediction and parameter estimation. In the latter task, it becomes important to describe level sets in parameter space that are consistent with a particular output behavior. We validate our approach on a model of multisite phosphorylation, where a reduced set of effective parameters (nonlinear combinations of the physical ones) has previously been established analytically.


In this volume the author considers what the purpose and method of advanced Japanese studies should be. He believes that the study of Japanese history should be, not an end in itself but an integral part of world history. He discusses areas of controversy in interpretation which arise when a comparative method is used and Japanese history is examined in correlation with world history.


Ginkgo biloba, a relict plant, has been popularized and planted in most areas of China for its leaves, timber, and fruits. In the present study, the dynamic changes in leaf color, leaf pigment content during the color change period, and photosynthetic characteristics in different growth periods were studied to explore the coloring mechanism and adaptability of five late-deciduous superior Beijing G. biloba cultivars (LD1–LD5). The results showed that the leaf color change of each superior cultivar was relatively stable, and the discoloration period of LD3 and LD5 was later than that of others. From September to November, the chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll content in all superior cultivars showed a downward trend, except in LD3, in which the pigment content was slightly higher in October than in September. Except in LD3 and LD4, the ratio of carotene content to total chlorophyll content in other cultivars slightly decreased in October. In May, the photosynthetic capacity of LD5 was stronger than that of other cultivars. The photosynthetic capacity of LD3 was strong in July and October. Our results imply that LD3 and LD5 are suitable for mixed planting with common G. biloba to increase the overall leaf color viewing period. Ginkgo biloba leaves turn yellow in autumn because of both a decrease in the chlorophyll content after leaf senescence and an increase in the Car content during leaf senescence. Although LD5 presented rapid seedling emergence, LD3 grew faster during the vigorous and late growth stages and is thus suitable for agricultural production.


Tunable fiber optic filter has extensive applications in telecommunications, spectroscopy, and fiber optic sensing. Many research attempts have been devoted to develop a filter with a wide tuning range, a fast tuning speed, a fine tuning resolution, and high reliability. Despite of the progress made so far, a tunable fiber optic filter that combines all these qualities is still a subject of intensive research. This thesis describes the design, fabrication and test results of a high performance tunable fiber optic filter. The filter is piezo-driven using a flexural hinge structure for displacement magnification and an axial strain of a fiber Bragg grating. Finite element analysis was used to design the mechanical structure to achieve the required displacement magnification and reaction force for grating compression. A passive thermal compensation design was implemented with two spacers of different coefficients of thermal expansion to compensate the thermal-induced wavelength drift. A feedback control system with a linear variable differential transformer was employed to control the displacement and to achieve the designed tuning accuracy. A tuning range of 13.7 nm, a maximum closed loop switching time of 17.3 ms, and a wavelength drift of 1.4 pm/C were achieved. The flexural-hinge structure, that offers noise-free motion, no need of lubricants and no wear, ensures its long-term reliability.


The paper describes an unsupervised neural model for classifying the methods of Web APIs into a large number of classes specified by a domain ontology. As a result of the classification, each method of a Web service is associated to one ontology concept, the name of the concept being further used to semantically annotate the method. The ontology concepts define some functionalities to be offered by different API methods. The names of these concepts are linguistically denoted by verbs or verb phrases that define the action performed by a method. The framework is based on a model of hierarchical self-organizing maps. The methods of the web APIs are encoded in a bag-of-words style, by counting the words that occur in their javadoc documentation. We experimented this automatic semantic annotation model with a data set consisting of APIs of RDF storage tools. The ontology and the APIs to be classified in our experiments are collected from this dataset.


Imagine a world in which scientific data can be readily accessed by anyone seeking them. This, in a nutshell, is the premise of the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY), one of the "international science years" commemorating the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). In the Earth and space sciences, as in other disciplines, ready and open access to the vast and growing collections of cross-disciplinary digital information is the key to understanding and responding to complex Earth and space system phenomena that influence human survival. We have a shared responsibility to create and implement strategies to realize the full potential of digital information and services for present and future generations.


Hepatoprotective effect of flaxseed and its protein on ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity in adult Wistar rats was investigated. The rats were divided into eight groups of which two served as control (group I: Control for AIN-93M diet groups and group II: Control for cereal-pulse diet groups) and six groups received ethanol orally every day. After 10 days along with ethanol, the rats received AIN-93M diet (group III); AIN-93M diet and commercial hepatoprotective formulation (CHF) (group IV); casein replaced by flaxseed protein in AIN-93M diet (group V); cereal-pulse diet (group VI); cereal-pulse diet and CHF (group VII); cereal-pulse diet containing flaxseed (group VIII) for four weeks. The flaxseed and its protein significantly prevented the elevation of plasma markers of hepatic damage, lowered lipid peroxidation, mitigated changes in antioxidant enzymes, and suppressed histopathological signs of hepatic damage. The hepatoprotective effect of flaxseed and its protein was comparable to CHF. These findings implicate the ameliorative effect of flaxseed and its protein on ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Owing to globalization and an increase in earning capacity, alcohol consumption is becoming a part of social life and gradually transforming to addiction. Binge drinking is highly prevalent among low socioeconomic status population, which poses severe risks to health. Alcohol abuse is a public health problem causing three million deaths annually worldwide. Alcohol consumption is known to be a major cause of liver damage worldwide and has contributed to 44% of deaths from liver disease. As abstaining from alcohol is a challenging task, there is an escalating need to formulate potential hepatoprotective agents to prevent alcohol-induced hepatic damage. This study investigates the efficacy of flaxseed and its protein in conferring protection to the liver against ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity. This study also explores the benefits of incorporating flaxseed in the staple cereal-pulse diet. Findings of this study suggest that incorporation of flaxseed or its protein in food formulations can prevent hepatotoxicity and improve the overall quality of life among alcoholics.


The article discusses the results of medicamentous denervation of the stomach performed in 69 patients with various forms of pancreatitis 1-4 days after the onset of the disease. The efficacy of treatment was significantly higher statistically in the group of patients who were subjected to endoscopic medicamentous denervation of the stomach practically in all degrees of severity. By reducing the effect of the vagus nerve on the pathological process, this method makes it possible to improve considerably the results of treatment of patients with acute pancreatitis and shorten the terms of therapeutic fasting and in--patient treatment. Endoscopic medicamentous denervation of the stomach is indicated for all patients with acute pancreatitis in the immediate period after the onset of the disease, and the results are best when it is undertaken before destructive processes develop in the pancreas.


The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of impending layoff on employees' entrepreneurial intention and gestation actions in Kenya. Results from a sample of 394 employees drawn from three Kenyan firms facing possibility of retrenchment show that an impending layoff adversely affected individual's entrepreneurial intention both directly and indirectly, with the indirect negative effect being mediated by entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and gestation actions. The results highlight the importance of cultivating employees' positive perceptions about themselves and helping them view the layoff exercise as an opportunity to turn a new page.


This research examines impact of corporate governance regulation and practice on dividend policy using case study of First and Zenith Bank. The objective of this research is to examine, investigate and evaluate if and how corporate governance regulation and practice affect or influence dividend policy in banks. This research adopted a mixed
method approach that is using both qualitative and quantitative approach. The research instruments used in data analyses were descriptive analyses, chi-square and multiple linear regressions. The findings in this research were; corporate governance regulation and practice has impact on dividend policy, non-executive directors are very essential in dividend policy decisions as to whether they pay or do not pay dividends, that corporate governance disclosure, board size and size of executive directors are major contributors to the dividend policy adopted and that dividend payments can be used as a corporate governance measure to reduce agency cost. This research re-validates and supports the use of agency theory that major studies regarding corporate governance support. This research also supports that corporate governance regulation and practice have impact on dividend policy. This research shows that Nigeria can rely on the details in this research.


Five subtypes of melanocortin receptors (MC1-MC5R) mediate a wide range of physiological actions, including control of skin tanning, inflammation and food intake. The natural ligands for these receptors are the melanocortins, which are linear peptides 11 to 39 amino acids long. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions between melanocortin receptors and melanocortins using computational modeling tools.Two three-dimensional (3D) models of the MC, receptor were created using homology modeling. The first model was based on the 3D structure of bacteriorhodopsin, while the second was based on the two-dimensional map of rhodopsin. Cyclic analogues of the melanocortins containing the core sequence motif HFRW, common to all melanocortins, could be docked into the receptor models. According to these models, the ligand binding pocket was located between the receptors' first, second, third, sixth and seventh transmembrane regions. The rhodopsin based model indicated that the His residue of the melanocortin's core sequence showed only minor interactions with the receptor. Synthesis and receptor binding of cyclic peptide analogues lacking this His residue gave experimental support for the modeling results. Support for the 30 models had also been obtained in binding studies using chimeric MC1MC3 receptors. However, the visual analysis of this binding data was subjective. A novel objective approach was developed for the analysis of data of chimeric proteins interacting with peptides. The new approach, which is based on the use of multivariate analysis tools, such as PLS, gave a very exact picture for the interactions of melanocortin receptors with their ligands. Moreover, the results of the 3D modeling and PLS modeling agreed well. The novel method seems applicable for the analysis of almost any interactions between several target and ligand molecules.


The Co-60 irradiation facility at Ruđer Boskovic Institute in Zagreb allows for gamma irradiation in a large range of doses from a maximum of 30kGy/h down to 30Gy/h. Recently, a setup for the radiation tolerance study of readout electronics has been built inside the irradiation chamber. This setup allows for performing tests in conditions similar to ones that will be experienced at HL-LHC experiments. The irradiation dose rate is close to the dose rate at 3cm from the p-p interaction point, the temperature inside cold boxes is controlled by using chilled water and Peltier elements, and the relative humidity is defined by dry air flushed through the cold boxes.

The setup is used for irradiation of ATLAS and CMS pixel detector prototype readout chips, called RD53A. This chip is built in 65 nm CMOS technology that demonstrates a radiation damage dependence on the irradiation dose rate. In this paper the setup itself and a few preliminary results of the radiation damage received at the low dose rate will be presented.


Age-momentum correlation (AMOC) spectroscopy, which can sensitively probe momentum distributions of positrons and positronium (Ps), was conducted for studying the pick-off process of the triplet bound state ortho-Ps (o-Ps) with electrons at the walls of the free volume holes. Influences of different chemical elements forming free volume and the size of the free volume are investigated. It is found that the momentum distribution of o-Ps pick off annihilation sensitively depends on the electronic state. The feasibility of the chemical analysis relevant to the free volume in insulating materials is discussed.


The long heating season and cold soils of Alaska provide a harsh testing ground for ground source heat pumps (GSHPs), even those designed and marketed for colder climates. Fairbanks, Alaska has 7,509°C heating degree-days18 (13,517°F HDD65) and only 40°C cooling degree-days18 (72°F CDD65). This large and unbalanced heating load creates a questionable environment for GSHPs. In addition, soil temperatures average around freezing (0°C/32°F); the soil may be permafrost year-round, just above freezing, or in an annual freeze-thaw cycle. In 2013 the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) installed a GSHP at its facility in Fairbanks. The heat pump replaced an oil-fired condensing boiler heating a 464 m (5,000 ft)office space. The ground heat exchanger was installed in a marginal area underlain with permafrost near 0°C (32°F). The intent of the installation was to observe and monitor the system over a 10-year period in order to develop a better understanding of the performance of GSHPs in ground with permafrost and to help inform future design. The system enjoyed one season of better-than-expected performance, averaging a COP of 3.7its first winter. By the third winter, the COP had dropped to an annual average of 3.2 and ice had started to develop in the area around the heat extraction coils. A combination of physical monitoring and numerical modeling is used to evaluate the heat pump system.


A survey of potential vector sand flies was conducted in the neighboring suburban communities of Vake and Mtatsminda districts in an active focus of visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) in Tbilisi, Georgia. Using light and sticky-paper traps, 1,266 male and 1,179 female sand flies were collected during 2006–2008. Five Phlebotomus species of three subgenera were collected: Phlebotomus balcanicus Theodor and Phlebotomus halepensis Theodor of the subgenus Adlerius; Phlebotomus kandelakii Shchurenkova and Phlebotomus wenyoni Adler and Theodor of the subgenus Larroussius; Phlebotomus sergenti Perfil'ev of the subgenus Paraphlebotomus. Phlebotomus sergenti (35.1%) predominated in Vake, followed by P. kandelakii (33.5%), P. balcanicus (18.9%), P. halepensis (12.2%), and P. wenyoni (0.3%). In Mtatsminda, P. kandelakii (76.8%) comprised over three fourths of collected sand flies, followed by P. sergenti (12.6%), P. balcanicus (5.8%), P. halepensis (3.7%), and P. wenyoni (1.1%). The sand fly season in Georgia is exceptionally short beginning in early June, peaking in July and August, then declining to zero in early September. Of 659 female sand flies examined for Leishmania, 12 (1.8%) specimens without traces of blood were infected including 10 of 535 P. kandelakii (1.9%) and two of 40 P. balcanicus (5.0%). Six isolates were successfully cultured and characterized as Leishmania by PCR. Three isolates from P. kandelakii (2) and P. balcanicus (1) were further identified as L. infantum using sequence alignment of the 70 kDa heat-shock protein gene. Importantly, the sand fly isolates showed a high percent identity (99.8%–99.9%) to human and dog isolates from the same focus, incriminating the two sand fly species as vectors. Blood meal analysis showed that P. kandelakii preferentially feeds on dogs (76%) but also feeds on humans. The abundance, infection rate and feeding behavior of P. kandelakii and the infection rate in P. balcanicus establish these species as vectors in the Tbilisi VL focus.


Starting flow through a nozzle or orifice typically results in the transient formation of a leading vortex ring and trailing jet. Experiments are conducted to investigate the dynamics of this process in the case of a temporally variable nozzle exit diameter, with the aim of understanding these flows as they occur in Nature and emerging technologies. By kinematically decoupling the source flow from the nozzle motion, comparison across several classes of exit diameter temporal variation is facilitated. Kinematic models of the starting flows are used to accurately predict the fluid circulation produced by the vortex generators, and to emphasize the special role of the nozzle boundary layer in dictating the nature of the global flow patterns. A dimensionless temporal parameter is derived in order to track the vortex formation process for the various classes of nozzle motion. Dynamics of vortex ring disconnection from the source flow are studied in this new dimensionless framework. We show that temporally increasing the nozzle exit diameter as the starting flow develops results in higher-energy vortex ring structures with peak vorticity located further from the axis of symmetry relative to a static nozzle case. In addition, the normalized energy supplied by the vortex generator is increased in this process. We do not observe a delay in the onset of vortex ring disconnection from the trailing jet, as predicted by previous numerical simulations. In contrast, growth of the leading vortex ring is substantially augmented by temporally decreasing the nozzle exit diameter during fluid ejection, as noted in a previous experiment. Normalized vortex ring circulation is increased 35% in these cases, and the normalized energy of the generated vortex rings is equivalent to that of Hill's spherical vortex. These observed effects are explained by considering the measured vorticity distribution and energy of the starting flows. Strategies are suggested to exploit the discovered dynamics for various pulsed-jet applications.


A study conducted in a Montreal area psychiatric institution focuses on the impact of chronic patients on in-patients services delivery system. This article shows a disarticulation of the system, from the first to the second line and within the second line. The authors suggest that when the length of stay is extended beyond a certain time frame, it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile continuity and complementarity of services: by congesting the system, chronic psychiatric population is decreasing the accessibility of services.


Micah Kiel discusses the overly simplistic nomenclature ('Deuteronomistic') given to Tobit's perspective on retribution and attempts to show, by coordinating it with Sirach and parts of 1 Enoch, how the book's view is much more complex than is normally asserted. Kiel argues that the return of Tobit's sight is a catalyst that ushers in new theological insight, specifically, that the world does not run to the tightly mechanized scheme of act and consequence. Kiel's close comparison between Tobit and selected contemporaneous literature provides context and support for such narrative observations. Sirach and parts of 1 Enoch demonstrate how authors at the time of Tobit were expressing their views of retribution in the realm of creation theology. The created order in Tobit is unruly and rises up in opposition to God's righteous characters. By way of this quirky tale, the author of Tobit suggests that God does not function strictly according to old formulae. Instead, a divine incursion into human reality is necessary for the reversal of suffering.


The pathophysiology of chronic cough and its association with dsymotility and laryngopharyngeal reflux remains unclear. This study applied high-resolution manometry (HRM) to obtain a detailed evaluation of pharyngeal and esophageal motility in chronic cough patients with and without a positive reflux-cough symptom association probability (SAP). Retrospective analysis of 66 consecutive patients referred for investigation of chronic cough was performed. Thirty-four (52%) were eligible for inclusion (age 55 [19-77], 62% female). HRM (ManoScan 360, Given/Sierra Scientific Instruments, Mountain View, CA) with 10 water swallows was performed followed by a 24-hour ambulatory pH monitoring. Of this group, 21 (62%) patients had negative reflux-cough SAP (group A) and 13 (38%) had positive SAP (group B). Results from 23 healthy controls were available for comparison (group C). Detailed analysis revealed considerable heterogeneity. A small number of patients had pathological upper esophageal sphincter (UES) function (n=9) or esophageal dysmotility (n=1). The overall baseline UES pressure was similar, but average UES residual pressure was higher in groups A and B than in control group C (-0.2 and -0.8mmHg vs. -5.4mmHg; P<0.018 and P<0.005). The percentage of primary peristaltic contractions was lower in group B than in groups A and C (56% vs. 79% and 87%; P=0.03 and P<0.002). Additionally, intrabolus pressure at the lower esophageal sphincter was higher in group B than in group C (15.5 vs. 8.9; P=0.024). HRM revealed changes to UES and esophageal motility in patients with chronic cough that are associated with impaired bolus clearance. These changes were most marked in group B patients with a positive reflux-cough symptom association.


Background: Bilateral ureteric injury, although rare is a complication that could follow obstetric, gynaecologic and other pelvic surgeries. Majority of cases are diagnosed postoperatively, hence a high index of suspicion is required in patients who develop acute kidney injury (AKI) following abdomino-pelvic surgeries. Early diagnosis and intervention is key in the reversal of this uncommon type of AKI Methods: We reviewed the case notes of a 47 year old female who was managed for AKI following abdominal hysterectomy. Results: We present a case of 47 year old female who was referred to us 24 hours after she developed acute kidney injury following emergency abdominal hysterectomy on account of uterine rupture. There was significant haemorrhage before and during the surgery. Estimated glomerular filtration rate at presentation was 17 mls/min/1.73m 2 and abdominopelvic ultrasound showed bilateral obstructive uropathy. She received blood transfusion, haemodialysis, explorative surgery where both ureters were found to be ligated with evidence of bilateral hydroureters within 72 hours of referral. Bilateral ureteroneocystostomy was done with subsequent complete renal recovery. Conclusion: Ureteric injuries should always be considered in all patients who develop AKI following abdomino-pelvic surgeries even in the presence of other possible causes such as haemorrhage. Abdominopelvic ultrasound scan should be done in these patients and early referral for specialist care is key to reducing associated morbidity and mortality. Keywords: Bilateral ureteric injuries, acute kidney injury


Contributors Acknowledgements Editor 's introduction An introduction by Professor the Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, MD, FRCP SECTION 1 SETTLING IN Chapter 1 In the beginning Nick Southorn and Jamie Mackler Day one What is physiotherapy? A brief history of physiotherapy Physiotherapists at work International organizations Swatting up Books to buy Equipment Freshers ' week Study tips Being a member of the representative body of physiotherapy Chapter 2 Things I wish they'd told me before I started Stuart Porter What am I letting myself in for? Not sure I deserve to be here What is different about studying at degree level? The language of the university How to conduct yourself What your lecturers expect from you How do I get through the first year? What you should expect from your lecturers How to get through your exams Finally SECTION 2 STUDYING PHYSIOTHERAPY Chapter 3 Anatomy and physiology Nick Southorn Introduction - anatomy Visualizing anatomy Mnemonics and chants Introduction - physiology Learning physiology 'Tool box' In the clinic Conclusion Chapter 4 Musculoskeletal physiotherapy Nick Southorn So what is musculoskeletal therapy? Initial subjective assessment Initial objective assessment Clinical semaphore Treatments Maitland Cyriax/orthopedic medicine McKenzie Acupuncture Muscle energy techniques Myofascial therapy Pilates Exercise therapy Massage In the clinic Chapter 5 Electrotherapy Tim Watson What is it? Why is it important? Useful ways to study Resources and information Chapter 6 Cardiopulmonary physiotherapy Mandy Jones Learning the theory Tips for learning anatomy Tips for learning physiology Tips for learning physiotherapy Preparation for clinical placement Tips for clinical placement Hazards of clinical placement Conclusion Chapter 7 Neurologic physiotherapy Nick Southorn What you need to know Basics Conditions Assessment Treatment of the neurologic patient In the clinic Chapter 8 Pharmacology Nick Southorn How do I get my head around all of this? It's all about class! What do I need to know about these drugs? In the clinic Conclusion Chapter 9 Biopsychosocial approach Paul Watson Why a biopsychosocial perspective? A biopsychosocial model of pain disability So what are the important things to consider? In the clinic Integrating assessment into practice Conclusion Chapter 10 Pediatrics Nick Southorn Be a child, it helps! Childhood diseases How to assess a child patient Subjective assessment Objective assessment Treatments Conclusion Chapter 11 Clinical placement Nick Southorn How to prepare What you need to know before you get there Uniform etiquette What you need to know when you get there The learning agreement Marking criteria The role of the clinical educator The role of the academic tutor Conclusion SECTION 3 THE FINAL STRETCH Chapter 12 Clinical audit and research Herbert Thurston Clinical audit Research Types of research Getting started in research Real-life researchers Chapter 13 The degree continues Nick Southorn and Nick Clode Professional practice Evidence-based practice Portfolio development What is a CPD portfolio? Why do I need to keep a CPD portfolio? What does a portfolio look like? What should it contain? Portfolio keeping - what you need to know Online versus paper-based portfolio systems Steps in setting up a CPD portfolio Finally Reflection Chapter 14 You think it's all over . Nick Southorn and Nick Clode Results What to do with your textbooks Opportunities for the graduate Looking for jobs in the UK Websites Recruitment agencies Interviews Interview format Preparation Interview tips Appearance On the day Conclusion


Purpose: The larynx plays a role in swallowing, respiration, and voice production. All three functions change during ontogeny. We investigated ontogenetic shape changes using a mouse model to inform our understanding of how laryngeal form and function are integrated. We understand the characterization of developmental changes to larynx anatomy as a critical step toward using rodent models to study human vocal communication disorders.Method: Contrast-enhanced micro computed tomography image stacks were used to generate three-dimensional reconstructions of the CD-1 mouse (Mus musculus) laryngeal cartilaginous framework. Then, we quantified size and shape in four age groups: pups, weanlings, young, and old adults using a combination of landmark and linear morphometrics. We analyzed postnatal patterns of growth and shape in the laryngeal skeleton, as well as morphological integration among four laryngeal cartilages using geometric morphometric methods. Acoustic analysis of vocal patterns was employed to investigate morphological and functional integration.Results: Four cartilages scaled with negative allometry on body mass. Additionally, thyroid, arytenoid, and epiglottic cartilages, but not the cricoid cartilage, showed shape change associated with developmental age. A test for modularity between the four cartilages suggests greater independence of thyroid cartilage shape, hinting at the importance of embryological origin during postnatal development. Finally, mean fundamental frequency, but not fundamental frequency range, varied predictably with size.Conclusion: In a mouse model, the four main laryngeal cartilages do not develop uniformly throughout the first 12 months of life. High-dimensional shape analysis effectively quantified variation in shape across development and in relation to size, as well as clarifying patterns of covariation in shape among cartilages and possibly the ventral pouch.Supplemental Material S1. Methods.Riede, T., Coyne, M., Tafoya, B., & Baab, K. L. (2020). Postnatal development of the mouse larynx: Negative allometry age-dependent shape changes, morphological integration and a size-dependent spectral feature. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00070


Foothills of Trans Ili Alatau is a recreational area with buildings and sports facilities and resorts, sanatoriums, etc. In summer and winter there are a very large number of skiers, climbers, tourists and workers of organizations which located in the mountains. In this regard, forecasting natural destructive phenomena using GIS software is an important task of many scientific fields. The formation of avalanches, except meteorological conditions, such as temperature, wind speed, snow thickness, especially affecting mountainous terrain. Great importance in the formation of avalanches play steepness (slope) of the slope and exposure. If steep slopes contribute to the accumulation of snow in some places, increase the risk of flooding of the slope, the various irregularities can delay an avalanche. According to statistics, the bulk of the avalanche is formed on the slopes steeper than 30°. In the course of research a 3D model of the terrain was created with the help of programs ArcGIS and Surfer. Identified areas with steep slopes, the exposure is made to the cardinal. For dangerous terrain location is divided into three groups: favorable zone, danger zone and the zone of increased risk. The range of deviations from 30-45° is dangerous, since the angle of inclination of more than 30°, there is a maximum thickness of sliding snow, water, the upper layer of the surface and there is an increase rate of moving array, and the mountain slopes at an angle 450 above are the area increased risk. Created on DTM data are also plotted Weather Service for the winter of current year. The resulting model allows to get information upon request and display it on map base, assess the condition of the terrain by avalanches, as well as to solve the problem of life safety in mountainous areas, to develop measures to prevent emergency situations and prevent human losses.


The theory of endogenous money supply forms one of the cornerstones of Post Keynesian economics. It has been developing rapidly during the last twenty years, but is still neglected as a theoretical background for practical central bank policy. This may be (among other reasons) due to the existence of different approaches to money endogeneity within Post Keynesian economics. Post Keynesian economics thus lacks a general formulation of money endogeneity. Naturally, one may ask whether reinterpretation of current approaches to endogeneity – structuralism and horizontalism – into more general theoretical framework is possible. This paper aims at finding an answer to this question. Two approaches to reinterpreting structuralism and horizontalism into more general theoretical framework are identified and discussed. Despite some progress in this area, however, the paper argues that a general formulation of money supply endogeneity is still an impossibility.


During World War II, the United States Office of War Information (OWI) produced and distributed posters, news reels, and radio broadcasts during the war.  Many of these messages were produced for the home front, and advised citizens on how men, women, and children were to act and behave in society, how they should support the war effort, increase production, ration supplies, and fulfill their roles as citizens. This presentation will focus on how government propaganda portrayed the "ideal citizen" during World War II.   The government expected citizens to know why America was in the war, and how their efforts would shape and influence the outcome of the war. This research will contribute to the scholarship on World War II through an exploration of the way that propaganda tries to shape national goals and citizens' behaviors.


International alliances in space efforts have resulted in a more rapid diffusion of space technology. This, in turn, increases pressure on organizations to push forward with technological developments and to take steps to maximize their inclusion into the research and development (R&D) process and the overall advancement and enhancement of space technology. To cope with this vast and rapidly growing amount of data and information that is vital to the success of the innovation, the Information Management Committee (IMC) of the Research Technology Agency (RTA) developed the science, technology and research network (STARNET). The purpose of this network is to facilitate access to worldwide information elements in terms of science, technology and overall research It provides a virtual library with special emphasis on international security; a "one stop" information resource for policy makers, program managers, scientists, engineers, researchers and others.


A new measure of motivation toward sport has been developed in French, namely the Echelle de Motivation vis-a-vis les Sports. Two studies were conducted to translate and validate this new measure in English. The Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) consists of seven subscales that measure three types of Intrinsic Motivation (IM; IM to Know, IM to Accomplish Things, and IM to Experience Stimulation), three forms of regulation for Extrinsic Motivation (Identified, Introjected, and External), and Amotivation. The first study confirmed the factor structure of the scale and revealed a satisfactory level of internal consistency. Correlations among the subscales revealed a simplex pattern confirming the self-determination continuum and the construct validity of the scale. Gender differences were similar to those obtained with the French-Canadian version. The more self-determined forms of motivation were associated with more positive responses on related consequences. In a second study, the SMS was administered on two oc...


The wave of mergers, acquisitions and consolidations in the financial industry since 1994 changed the spatial environment. This paper investigates features of core and peripheral metropolitan areas in Ohio. From a spatial perspective, the Cleveland metropolitan area possesses financial characteristics more closely matched to those of a high-end benchmark financial- core such as Charlotte, North Carolina than to those of medium-size MSAs within the state. Findings suggest that medium-size MSAs are unlikely to be financial-core areas and that they are not evolving in that direction. Although peripheral areas lack a comparative advantage for developing depth and breath of financial services and are subject to a retailing function from large out-of-market institutions, there was no explicit evidence of funds drainage from medium- size peripheral areas because of compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act.


This paper demonstrates increasing and necessary role of European Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) and development banks for reaching success of European exporters in developing markets. Construction and engineering industries have been heavily affected by recent economic conditions and debt crises on national levels. Such a situation resulted in shortage of construction bids in the whole Europe. Taking advantage of national export credits and guarantee programs can result in significant competitive advantage in company's expansion to developing markets worldwide. The markets of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia are specific with neglected infrastructure and represent a huge potential for European firms possessing necessary exporting know-how and technologies. In order to withstand the pressure resulting from increasing market competition, exporting firms are forced to come out with tailor made solutions and high level of value added. Delivering project construction together with secured project financing proved to be the key success factor in developing markets which enables European firms to succeed in highly competitive international bids. Ambition of this paper is to introduce and compare export financing programs including availability of credit insurance in the Czech Republic and Germany.


Ablating surfaces with a pulsed laser system in milling processes often leads to surface changes depending on the milling depth. Especially if a constant surface roughness and evenness is essential to the process, structural degradation may advance until the process fails. The process investigated is the generation of precise thrust by laser ablation. Here, it is essential to predict or rather control the evolution of the surfaces roughness. Laser ablative milling with a short pulse laser system in vacuum (≈1 Pa) were performed over depths of several 10 µm documenting the evolution of surface roughness and unevenness with a white light interference microscope. Power spectral density analysis of the generated surface data reveals a strong influence of the crystalline structure of the solid. Furthermore, it was possible to demonstrate that this effect could be suppressed for gold.


Satellite observations of infrared brightness temperature and rainfall have shown offshore propagation of diurnal rainfall signals in some coastal areas of the tropics, suggesting that diurnal rainfall is coupled to land‐sea breeze circulations. Here we utilize satellite observations of surface winds and rainfall to show the offshore copropagation of land breeze and diurnal rainfall signals for 300–400 km from the east coast of India into the Bay of Bengal. The wind observations are from the 2003 Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT)‐SeaWinds "tandem mission" and from 17 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI); the rainfall observations are from the TRMM 3B42 product and from TMI. The surface wind convergence maximum leads the rainfall maximum by 1–2 h in the western part of the bay, implying that the land breeze forces the diurnal cycle of rainfall. The phase speed of the offshore propagation is approximately 18 m s−1, consistent with a deep hydrostatic gravity wave forced by diurnal heating over India. Comparisons with a cloud system‐resolving atmospheric model and the ERA‐Interim reanalysis indicate that the models realistically simulate the surface land breeze but greatly underestimate the amplitude of the rainfall diurnal cycle. The satellite observations presented in this study therefore provide a benchmark for model representation of this important atmosphere‐ocean‐land surface interaction.


This paper sets out to analyse the impact of milk quotas had on the dairy farm structure of the Netherlands. In addition projections on the likely farm structure under different milk quota scenarios are explored. Moreover mobility indicators characterizing structural change are developed and calculated. A Markov probability model is estimated relying on a generalized cross entropy approach. The introduction of milk quotas as of April 1, 1984 froze the dairy farm structural adjustment, at least initially. However, later on mobility started to increase, which is likely to reflect the quota tradability and lease possibilities. Moreover there is evidence that the milk quota regime has increased concentration of dairy production among farms with 50-69 cows. If after quota abolition the dairy farm structural dynamics would be the same as in the 1972-83 period, then quota abolition in 2015 will lead to a substantial increase in the number of farms in 2022 as compared to the current status quo.


Investment is the commitment of funds into stocks, savings and others for the purpose of obtaining a profit. Risk perception influences investors' decision to invest. The objectives of this study are to study the relationship between information asymmetry, financial knowledge and overconfidence, and risk perception of investors in Kota Kinabalu. Age, gender and education level were also
examine to determine their contingent effect on the relationships. A validated self-administered questionnaire, using a 7 point Likert-scale was distributed to 150
respondents at Innosabah Securities Limited Company. A total of 100 questionnaires were completely filled. Data were analyzed using factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, Multiple regression and Hierarchical regression analysis. A p
value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Respondents were 46% female, 56% male, age ranged from 24 years to 60 years and 50% had university education. The analysis shows that only financial knowledge (p<0.048) and overconfidence (p<.000) were found to be positively related to risk perception. There were no significant value that age, gender and education level moderates the relationship between information asymmetry financial knowledge and
overconfidence, and risk perception. These findings are expected to assist financial advisors on portfolio assessment and indirectly provide better advice to investors.


Abstract Endothelial dysfunction characterized by decreased nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability is the first stage of coronary artery disease. It is known that one of the factors associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease is a high plasma level of uric acid. However, causative associations between hyperuricaemia and cardiovascular risk have not been definitely proved. In this work, we tested the effect of uric acid on endothelial NO bioavailability. Electrochemical measurement of NO production in acetylcholine-stimulated human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVECs) revealed that uric acid markedly decreases NO release. This finding was confirmed by organ bath experiments on mouse aortic segments. Uric acid dose-dependently reduced endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation. To reveal the mechanism of decreasing NO bioavailability we tested the effect of uric acid on reactive oxygen species production by HUVECs, on arginase activity, and on acetylcholine-induced endothelial NO synthase phosphorylation. It was found that uric acid increases arginase activity and reduces endothelial NO synthase phosphorylation. Interestingly, uric acid significantly increased intracellular superoxide formation. In conclusion, uric acid decreases NO bioavailability by means of multiple mechanisms. This finding supports the idea of a causal association between hyperuricaemia and cardiovascular risk.


Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, Amrita School of Pharmacy, Amrita Viswavidyapeetham University, AIMS Health Science Campus, Ponekkara P.O, Kochi-682041, Kerala, India ABSTRACT Herbal medicines are widely used since time immemorial indicating that herbs are a growing part of modern, high-tech medicine.India has an ancient heritage of traditional herbal medicine. The World Health Organization estimates that about 80% of the populations living in the developing countries rely almost exclusively on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs. The use of herbal drugs for treating various diseases predates human history forms the origin of much of the modern medicine.The medicinal plants are used for various diseases because of their safety and effectiveness. The problem of microbial resistance is growing and the outlook for the use of antimicrobial drugs in the future is still uncertain. Therefore, actions must be taken to control the use of antibiotic, to develop research to better understand the genetic mechanisms of resistance, and to continue studies to develop either synthetic or natural new drugs. Numerous studies have been done on herbals confirming their potential antimicrobial property against microorganisms. One of the strategies towards attaining this objective is the rational localization of bioactive phytoconstituents. This review provides the important methods for evaluating the antibacterial potency of selected plants and also the mechanism of action responsible for antimicrobial potency.


Parallel processing is a natural choice to achieve higher performance for many applications from the area of scientific computing. Among them, the models of atmospheric circulation attract public attention, since they can be used for the simulation of the impact of human activities on our environment. The paper promotes the use of object-oriented design techniques to implement large data parallel applications. Object-parallelism is a very natural means to express concurrency inherent in an application. Above this we feel, that in an object-oriented environment it is much easier to provide fairly general solutions for problems common to parallel processing. One of the challenging problems of parallel processing is load balancing. For a wider acceptance of parallel computers solutions must be offered by the parallel operating systems. Of course this cannot be done irrespective of the applications, when efficiency has to be taken into account, Here again an interface on object level is the appropriate choice to combine generality with efficiency. We present a case study for the object-oriented redesign of a simulation program. Based on an analysis of this application we show that its inherent load imbalances can be redressed by integration of a simple load balancing strategy. A performance improvement by 25% has been achieved.<<ETX>>


Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurologic disorder in paediatric neurology and the predominant aetiologies are birth injury and congenital abnormalities. Epilepsy has a tendency to recurrent seizures. Most of these will have primary or idiopathic epilepsy (i.e., no underlying cause will be evident), but some will have secondary epilepsy due to a cause such as head injury, meningitis, or birth asphyxia. The international classification of epileptic seizures divides the epilepsies into those that are generalized, where the whole brain is involved, and the partial seizures, where the aberrant activity involves only a part of the brain (Koch & Poulsen, 2009). In infants, birth injuries and congenital defects are the primary causes of epilepsy. Birth injuries, genetic factors, infections, and trauma are major contributing factors in children and adolescents from 2 to 20 years of age. For individuals between 20 and 30 years of age, brain tumors and other structural lesions are the foremost contributing causes. In those older than 50 years of age, cerebral vascular accidents and metastatic tumors are significant causes of seizure activity (Aragon & Burneo, 2007). Epilepsy is the most common neurological problem of childhood, and its incidence is the highest in the first decade of life, a period during which children begin and complete a critical part of their social and educational development. Epilepsy is a common chronic neurologic disorder that affects 1–3% of the population, and almost 10% of the population will have one or more seizures at some time in their lives (Hauser et al., 1996). The epilepsies form an array of more or less discrete epilepsy syndromes, characterized by age of onset, hereditary factors, seizure types, electroencephalogram (EEG) abnormalities, and prognosis (Roger, 2005). A seizure is classified as "partial" when the electrical discharge causing it to occur in a specific area of the brain or "generalized" when the discharge affects the entire brain cortex. When there is loss of awareness, seizures are termed complex. The classification of epilepsy is similar. Epilepsy can be partial or generalized. Based on the cause, it can be symptomatic (caused by a developmental malformation), idiopathic (when a genetic condition is responsible) or cryptogenic (when the cause is unknown) (Aragon & Burneo, 2007). Epilepsy is the most common disorder in paediatric neurology and the predominant aetiologies are birth injury and congenital abnormalities.


Author(s): Bappy, Md Jawadul Hasan | Advisor(s): Roy-Chowdhury, Amit K | Abstract: Most of the computer vision methods assume that data will be labeled and available beforehand in order to train a good recognition model. However, it becomes infeasible and unrealistic to know all the labels beforehand with the huge corpus of visual data being generated on a daily basis. In most image and video analysis tasks, selection of the most informative samples from a huge pool of training data in order to learn a good recognition model is an active research problem. Furthermore, it is also useful to reduce the annotation cost, as it is time-consuming to annotate unlabeled samples. In this thesis, we aim to design information-theoretic approaches which exploit inter-relationships between data instances in order to find informative samples in image or videos. Moreover, in recent years, the advent of high-tech journaling tools facilitates an image to be forged in a way that can easily evade state-of-the-art image tampering detection approaches. The recent success of the deep learning approaches in different recognition tasks inspires us to develop a high-confidence detection framework which can localize forged/manipulated regions in an image. Unlike semantic object segmentation where all meaningful regions (objects) are segmented, the localization of image forgery focuses only the possible tampered region which makes the problem even more challenging.We present two distinct information-theoretic approaches for selecting samples to learn recognition models, and a deep learning based method for localizing manipulation from images. In first approach, we show how models for joint scene and object classification can be learned online. A major motivation for this approach is to exploit the hierarchical relationships between scenes and objects, represented as a graphical model, in an active learning framework. To select the samples on graph, which need to be labeled by a human, we formulate an optimization function that reduces the joint entropy of scene and object variables. The second approach we propose is motivated by the theories in data compression, which exploits the concept of typicality from the domain of information theory in order to find informative samples in videos. Typicality is a simple and powerful technique which can be applied to compress the training data to learn a good classification model. Both of the approaches lead to a significant reduction in the amount of manual labeling effort for similar or better performance when compared with a model trained with the full dataset. In the final chapter, we explore a deep learning architecture to localize manipulated regions from an image. Our proposed framework utilizes resampling features, Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) cells, and encoder-decoder network to segment out manipulated regions from non-manipulated ones. The overall framework is capable of detecting different types of image forgeries.


Micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has been fabricated with NiO-YSZ hollow fiber as anode support and La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Cu0.2O3−δ-Sm0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (LSCCu-SDC) composite cathode. The NiO-YSZ hollow fiber anode was prepared by the immersion-induced phase inversion technique and shows a special asymmetrical structure with porous sponge-like structure in the middle and finger-like structure on the inner and outer side of the hollow fiber. A thin and dense electrolyte membrane (about 12μm) was deposited on the anode by a vacuum-assisted dip-coating process. The performance of the as-prepared hollow fiber SOFC (HF-SOFC) was tested at 600-800°C with humidified H2 as fuel and ambient air as the oxidant. The peak power densities of 531.1, 362.5 and 214.6mWcm-2 can be obtained at 800, 700 and 600°C, respectively. The good performance at intermediate temperature (IT) indicates promising applications as power sources for portable devices for the prepared YSZ-based micro-tubular SOFCs with LSCCu-SDC composite cathode.


Two different optical fiber probes for combined Raman and fluorescence spectroscopic measurements were designed, developed and used for tissue diagnostics. Two visible laser diodes were used for fluorescence spectroscopy, whereas a laser diode emitting in the NIR was used for Raman spectroscopy. The two probes were based on fiber bundles with a central multimode optical fiber, used for delivering light to the tissue, and 24 surrounding optical fibers for signal collection. Both fluorescence and Raman spectra were acquired using the same detection unit, based on a cooled CCD camera, connected to a spectrograph. The two probes were successfully employed for diagnostic purposes on various tissues in a good agreement with common routine histology. This study included skin, brain and bladder tissues and in particular the classification of: malignant melanoma against melanocytic lesions and healthy skin; urothelial carcinoma against healthy bladder mucosa; brain tumor against dysplastic brain tissue. The diagnostic capabilities were determined using a cross-validation method with a leave-one-out approach, finding very high sensitivity and specificity for all the examined tissues. The obtained results demonstrated that the multimodal approach is crucial for improving diagnostic capabilities. The system presented here can improve diagnostic capabilities on a broad range of tissues and has the potential of being used for endoscopic inspections in the near future.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical characteristics of postburn scars and determine the independent risk factors specific to these patients. While burns may generate widespread and disfiguring scars and have a dramatic influence on patient quality of life, the prevalence of postburn pathologic scarring is not well documented, and the impact of certain risk factors is poorly understood.

METHODS
A retrospective analysis was conducted of the clinical records of 703 patients (2440 anatomic burn sites) treated at the Turin Burn Outpatient Clinic between January 1994 and May 15, 2006. Prevalence and evolution time of postburn pathologic scarring were analyzed with univariate and multivariate risk factor analysis by sex, age, burn surface and full-thickness area, cause of the burn, wound healing time, type of burn treatment, number of surgical procedures, type of surgery, type of skin graft, and excision and graft timing.

RESULTS
Pathologic scarring was diagnosed in 540 patients (77%): 310 had hypertrophic scars (44%); 34, contractures (5%); and 196, hypertrophic-contracted scars (28%). The hypertrophic induction was assessed at a median of 23 days after reepithelialization and lasted 15 months (median). A nomogram, based on the multivariate regression model, showed that female sex, young age, burn sites on the neck and/or upper limbs, multiple surgical procedures, and meshed skin grafts were independent risk factors for postburn pathologic scarring (Dxy 0.30).

CONCLUSION
The identification of the principal risk factors for postburn pathologic scarring not only would be a valuable aid in early risk stratification but also might help in assessing outcomes adjusted for patient risk.


This article assesses the desirability of our current, arms' length based, transfer pricing regime by analyzing its theoretical and practical effectiveness in application to transfers of intangibles. A detailed analysis of the practice of valuation of intangibles, which is the key component in the application of this regime, exposes its weaknesses that result in undesirable market incentives. These incentives create a strong bias in favor of large multinational enterprises, yet, even if one favored such bias, it is achieved using an uncontrollable, costly and wasteful legal mechanism. The article particularly criticizes the regime's disregard of the unique characteristics of intangibles that make them difficult to valuate; its disregard of the differences between types of intangibles; and its extraordinary narrow and limited approach to valuation. The article demonstrates that the undesirable reliance of our transfer pricing regime on the arms' length principle is the primary reason for the grim picture portrayed, and therefore advocates its replacement with a formula-based regime. The article's contribution in this regard is the argument that it is not only practically more desirable and less costly, but that it is also more coherent and natural to our general international tax regime; therefore, in terms of design, transfer pricing reform should take into account the basic premises of such regime. Some of the criticism and conclusions of this article are about our general transfer pricing regime, while the analysis is limited to the valuation of intangibles' aspects, yet, since this is probably the area that presents the most acute challenge to the current regime, so building upon it may be an important step towards reform.


Language models (LMs) like BERT and GPT have revolutionized natural language processing (NLP). However, privacy-sensitive domains, particularly the medical field, face challenges to train LMs due to limited data access and privacy constraints imposed by regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Federated learning (FL) offers a decentralized solution that enables collaborative learning while ensuring the preservation of data privacy. In this study, we systematically evaluate FL in medicine across $2$ biomedical NLP tasks using $6$ LMs encompassing $8$ corpora. Our results showed that: 1) FL models consistently outperform LMs trained on individual client's data and sometimes match the model trained with polled data; 2) With the fixed number of total data, LMs trained using FL with more clients exhibit inferior performance, but pre-trained transformer-based models exhibited greater resilience. 3) LMs trained using FL perform nearly on par with the model trained with pooled data when clients' data are IID distributed while exhibiting visible gaps with non-IID data. Our code is available at: https://github.com/PL97/FedNLP


Examining complex economic problems with classic analytical methods usually requires making numerous simplifying assumptions, for example that agents behave rationally or homogeneously. Recently, widespread availability of computing power gave rise to a new field in economic research that allows the modeling of heterogeneity and forms of bounded rationality: Computational Economics. Within this new discipline, computer based simulation models are used for analyzing complex economic systems. In


Creating shared knowledge structures using cooperative hypermedia is a joint activity. The knowledge structures created should fit into the real world environment and reflect the common ground reached and evolved in the cooperation process of the knowledge workers. In order to facilitate the development of shared understanding among knowledge workers, Herbert Clark's theory on language use and Jean Piaget's cognitive theory are applied to the use of hypermedia language in cooperative work settings. To make the theories easier to apply, a conceptual framework is derived from them, which can inform the design and comparison of cooperative hypermedia systems and the use of hypermedia in cooperative settings.


This thesis focuses on the Elizabethan and Jacobean aristocracy and upper gentry to yield the first detailed study of the elite needleworking woman as fashioner of her social personage, and of the objects she produced as indices of social persona, religious conscience and political agency.
The first chapter explores how needlework mediates between wtiwomeann d their social context. It surveys the way in which needlework, both as practice and as object, functioned as a vehicle for projecting persona and personage into a social context which interpreted needlework according to complex value systems of personal virtue and the husbandries of conspicuous wealth. The chapter explores needlework as a site for intellectual expression. The theories developed in the first chapter are tested in a case study of Bess of Hardwick, whose textiles show her construction of a virtuous aristocratic persona proclaiming its self-assured place in the social hierarchy.
Chapter Two is the first study to consider the needlework of Elizabethan and Jacobean Catholics in the light of the Protestant proscription of iconic vestments. It recovers the history of lost needlework from English convents on the Continent, and of the English recusants' covert provision of vestments to Jesuit missioners. The first detailed case studs' of Helena Wintour's vestments reads Wintour's Jesuit-influenced Marian floral emblems and iconography alongside Hawkins's meditation handbook Partheneia Sacra to theorise Wintour's devotion to the Immaculate Conception, and explores the vestments' relationship to the liturgy and their iconographical importance to the Mass.
Chapter Three considers needlework gifts as political currency within patronage structures at the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts. Narrated with a contemporary vocabulary of grace, needlework gifts contribute to the construction of court-crown relations, symbolised by needlework gifts in Jacobean court masques. Through needlework gifts a `feminine commonwealth' availed itself of power structures at the court of James's consort that parallel his departments, and the women's political agency in a female political hierarchy is seen encoded within gifts of needlework in the Queen's Courts final masque. The case study uses Mary's needlework gifts to Elizabeth as an index of changes in their relationship. Mary's needlework joins parallel texts such as poetry, portraiture and planned masques in developing an iconographical vocabulary centring on the Judgement of Paris, with which diplomatic negotiations sought to clarify the Queens' relative positions.


This study describes the preparation and characterization of a model protein (bovine serum albumin; BSA)-loaded alginate microspheres. BSA was encapsulated within alginate microspheres by the emulsification technique. The average particle size was 11.96 ±0.043 μm of the prepared microspheres. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were about 0.73 and 37%, respectively. The in vitro release profile showed a fast release rate of BSA, and 90% of the BSA was released from alginate microspheres in 48 hours. The structural integrity of BSA was investigated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The SDS-PAGE analysis demonstrated that BSA integrity was not affected by the encapsulation procedure or release conditions. Alginate microspheres might be promising delivery systems for protein delivery.


There has recently been considerable concern regarding the degradation of the
environment caused by depletion of natural resources, air pollution, global warming and
the lack of consideration paid to the earth's ecosystem. The principles of sustainable
construction are thus being widely adopted by many countries all over the world. This
quest towards sustainable development throughout the world has put a spotlight on the
construction industry. Sustainable construction is a major concept underlying a variety
of efforts to ensure a good quality of life for the present and future generations. Most
developing countries have experienced a fast uptake of urbanisation and the acceleration
of infrastructure development, all of which fuel the necessity of establishing sustainable
construction principles; this is true in Saudi Arabia as in other countries. This research has carefully investigated the current situation of Value Management
(VM) and Sustainable Construction (SC) in the Saudi construction industry in terms of
their application, clients' attitudes, barriers to implementation, identification of enablers
that could overcome these barriers and improve their implementation, and determination
of the level of existent knowledge about both subjects among people who work in the
Saudi public sector. It has also defined Sustainable Construction principles in three
dimensions, in Saudi Arabia: environmental, economic and social.
The research findings have revealed that SC principles are not a major consideration in
the Saudi construction industry and many people who work in the Saudi public sector
have little or no experience in sustainable development. On the contrary, VM has been
applied in the Saudi construction industry for more than three decades and its
application is mandatory in all governmental projects funded by the Saudi government.
This enables those people who work in the VM sector to possess great experience, skills
and knowledge. However, there are a number of barriers that could impede or affect the
VM performance in the Saudi construction industry which were taken into account in
this research. (Continues...).


This paper justifies the use of literary works and their filmed version, offering an extended lesson plan using five combinations of films and books for upper-intermediate and advanced students. In the first part we argue in favour of using both modes (the visual and written ones) for improving students' general level of proficiency. The two codes constitute authentic sources of comprehensible input, increase students' learning time outside the classroom and provide a linguistic and paralinguistic context that supplies a relevant schema background for understanding language. Moreover, their comparison also allows for a critical analysis. In the second part 5 lesson plans to carry out throughout the course is provided, combining books and their filmed version. For every book and visual adaptation previous, while and follow-up reading and viewing activities are proposed, integrating the four skills and promoting negotiation.


The current South African Beef Carcass Classification System classifies carcasses using physical attributes such as age, fatness code and the conformation of the carcass as the only indicator of tenderness, implying that optimal tender meat is obtained from carcasses from animals with no permanent teeth. Research shows that if we take modern technologies (use of beta-agonists, growth hormones and electrical stimulation amongst others) into account, this is not necessarily true. In this study m. longissimus lumborum samples were collected from Nguni breed animals, snap frozen and stored at −80 oC for further use in search of protein markers that can be used to predict tenderness in a non-invasive manner. Proteins were extracted in 1 mL TES buffer, isoelectrically focused on strips (pH 5 - 7) and separated by 2D SDS PAGE, stained with coomassie brilliant blue G250) and imaged by a Chemi-doc Mp imager. The results showed differences in protein expression, e.g. some proteins are present at 1 hour post mortem (Day 0) but absent at 3 days post mortem (Day 3). Other proteins showed an increase in expression as ageing progresses. These proteins correlated with myofibril fragments and Warner Bratzler changes which were measured. There are several factors that may be responsible for these changes in differential expression during ageing such as proteolytic action (i.e. calpains and calpastatin system, cathepsins) or maybe apoptosis. The proteins in the profiles of Nguni breed animals which showed differential expression in response to ageing are still to be determined. Keywords : Nguni breed, protein markers for tenderness, two dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D SDS PAGE)


The oxidation of a NiCr bond coat during air plasma spraying was controlled by designing a gas shroud system that attached to the plasma torch nozzle. Two nozzles, termed as "normal" and "high speed" nozzles examined the effect of nozzle internal design on the microstructure and phase structure of coatings. X-ray diffraction and SEM morphologies showed that the shroud system reduced the oxidation of NiCr particles during the spray process. Compared with conventional air plasma spraying, the argon gas shroud reduced the coating hardness because the volume fraction of partially melted particles increased. The high speed nozzle reduced the oxidation and hardness of NiCr coatings due to the increase of partially melted particles in the coatings.