Cratonic lithospheric mantle plays an integral role in defining the physical behaviour of ancient continents and their mineral potential. Bulk compositional data show that modern-day melting residues from a variety of tectonic settings can be as depleted in Al and Ca as cratonic peridotites. Cratonic peridotites are strongly affected by secondary introduction of pyroxenes and garnet such that the extent and depth of melting cannot be reliably determined. Olivine compositions are probably the most reliable tracer of the original melting process and indicate that typical cratonic peridotites have experienced 40% or more melt extraction. Homogeneous levels of depletion indicated by olivine compositions, combined with mildly incompatible trace element evidence, indicate that melting took place at shallow depths, dominantly in the spinel stability field. Consideration of melt production models shows that shallow (<3 GPa) anhydrous melting is not capable of producing residues dominated by large degrees of melt extraction. Instead, a critical role for water is indicated, implicating the formation of cratonic peridotites within Archaean subduction zones. This melting occurred in the Neoarchaean in some cratonic blocks, initially forming dunitic residues that are still evident in the xenolith inventory of some cratons. Release and migration up-section of siliceous melt produced during orthopyroxene breakdown metasomatizes the proto-lithospheric via re-enrichment in orthopyroxene crystallizing from this hydrous Si-rich melt, forming the variably orthopyroxene-rich refractory harzburgites typical of most cratonic roots. Melting in Archaean subduction zones is followed by subduction stacking to form the cratonic root. Gravitational forces may then be responsible for the loss of imbricated mafic crust during periods of transient thermal and physical disturbances prior to final long-term tectonic stability. Most diamonds form in the base of these cratonic roots during pulses of thermal or tectonic activity, initially during root construction and subsequently associated with large-scale regional lithospheric events that may be correlated to pulses in global mantle dynamic evolution.


Dr. Fritz Redl has worked with children for over 30 years. This volume is a distillation of papers and books written during that time; it is the personal statement of a long and rich professional career. Most of Dr. Redl's work has been clinical and administrative: he is particularly experienced with groups, milieu, education, and management of difficult cases. When We Deal With Children seems chiefly addressed to workers coping with similar problems. The main theoretical orientation is psychoanalytic. The introductory paper, "Crisis in the Children's Field," was written as a presidential address to the American Orthopsychiatric Association. It outlines clinical services the author considers essential for care of a community's children. These services include physically secure residential settings for delinquents, appropriate foster homes for orphans, and adequately trained psychotherapists. A catalogue of common impediments follows: underimplementation, antiprofessionalism, fads,


In the event of a large-scale event leading to acute ionizing radiation exposure, high-throughput methods would be required to assess individual dose estimates for triage purposes. Blood-based gene expression is a broad source of biomarkers of radiation exposure which have great potential for providing rapid dose estimates for a large population. Time is a crucial component in radiological emergencies and the shipment of blood samples to relevant laboratories presents a concern. In this study, we performed nanopore sequencing analysis to determine if the technology can be used to detect radiation-inducible genes in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The technology offers not only long-read sequencing but also a portable device which can overcome issues involving sample shipment, and provide faster results. For this goal, blood from nine healthy volunteers was 2 Gy ex vivo X irradiated. After PBMC isolation, irradiated samples were incubated along with the controls for 24 h at 37°C. RNA was extracted, poly(A)+ enriched and reverse-transcribed before sequencing. The data generated was analyzed using a Snakemake pipeline modified to handle paired samples. The sequencing analysis identified a radiation signature consisting of 46 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) which included 41 protein-coding genes, a long non-coding RNA and four pseudogenes, five of which have been identified as radiation-responsive transcripts for the first time. The genes in which transcriptional expression is most significantly modified after radiation exposure were APOBEC3H and FDXR, presenting a 25- and 28-fold change on average, respectively. These levels of transcriptional response were comparable to results we obtained by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis. In vivo exposure analyses showed a transcriptional radioresponse at 24 h postirradiation for both genes together with a strong dose-dependent response in blood irradiated ex vivo. Finally, extrapolating from the data we obtained, the minimum sequencing time required to detect an irradiated sample using APOBEC3H transcripts would be less than 3 min for a total of 50,000 reads. Future improvements, in sample processing and bioinformatic pipeline for specific radiation-responsive transcript identification, will allow the provision of a portable, rapid, real-time biodosimetry platform based on this new sequencing technology. In summary, our data show that nanopore sequencing can identify radiation-responsive genes and can also be used for identification of new transcripts.


permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Clinical trials are no longer limited to big centers and to leading experts in each respective field. Instead, it is now expected that a clinical trial is performed whenever possible by anyone who wishes to report a quality result. Consequently, we are also facing more results from clinical trials than ever before. Therefore, it is essential for physicians and healthcare providers to understand the principles involved in the design, implementation, and analysis of clinical trials. This is to not only execute a clinical trial in a correct manner but also to understand and make an informed decision on whether the report one reads deserves attention. Fundamentals of Clinical Trials is an excellent source that covers from question selection, study population and design, reporting to ethical issues. It truly covers the fundamentals that one needs in order to understand the workings of a clinical trial. The examples of published materials from various medical fields clearly illustrate the key points from each chapter. Moreover, each chapter is sequenced to match a clinical trial and can be easily referenced to one's needs during a trial. In summary, this book is a great source for not only experts who may wish to review the basics but for anyone who is starting to get involved in clinical trials.


RNA interference is a biological proceeding in which RNA molecules inhibit gene expression or translation by offsetting attacked mRNA molecules. Double-stranded RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) is a simple and prompt method of silencing gene expression in a extent of organisms. The silencing of a gene is a outcome of deteoriation of RNA into short RNAs that activate ribonucleases to target homologous mRNA. The resulting phenotypes either are interchangeable to those of genetic null mutants or resemble an allelic series of mutants. Specific gene silencing has been shown to be related to two formaer processes, suppression in plants and quelling in fungi and has also been associated with risk management processes such as transposon silencing, protease inhibitor defence implements, gene regulation, and chromosomal reduction.


Reform of company and/or corporations law to take account of societal concerns is moribund. The problem is that theory, the source of policy, while in extraordinary volume from many perspectives, is narrowly confined by a heritage arising from the early seventeenth century, in particular The Case of Sutton's Hospital. This article proffers a reading of the case that leads to an understanding of the constraints it applies on theorising. It suggests a way of overcoming those constraints by locating theories against and in relation to each other. This involves considering theories in three dimensions: purpose/law/effect, systemic focus and calculable purpose. All theories are limited in scope in this schema, yet paradoxically theorising is freed from constraint. By way of conclusion, ways in which freer theorising might approach the issue of the social responsibility of companies are indicated.


This paper presents measurements of the voltages, the magnetic fields and the magnetic-field derivatives inside a structure simulating reinforced concrete buildings. The test structure comprises a cubic cage of 2-m side length with single- or double-layer reinforced grids. The injected lightning currents simulate the positive, the negative first and the negative subsequent return strokes with amplitudes of /spl sim/ 77, 16, and 4.8 kA, respectively. Three distinct points of the lightning stroke impact to the structure roof are considered, namely, the center, the mid-edge and the corner. In the case of a single-layer cage, the results reveal that slow-rising magnetic-field components are generated inside the structure for various lightning currents. This effect becomes dominant for the case of the double-layer cage. For all the simulated currents, striking to the structure corner induces the lowest voltage across it, but gives the highest values for both the resultant magnetic fields and the magnetic-field derivatives. For all striking points, the magnetic fields have the highest values for positive strokes, while the negative subsequent strokes give the highest amplitude of the resultant magnetic-field derivatives and roof-to-floor voltages. Compared to the case of a single-layer cage for the negative subsequent strokes, the use of a double-layer cage shows a considerable mitigation of the voltage across the structure, and a moderate mitigation of both the resultant magnetic fields and the magnetic-field derivatives.


Objective: To determine the frequency of acceptance of Post-partum Intra-Uterine Contraceptive Device and the factors affecting its uptake in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of large public tertiary care centre in Karachi. 160 women in their immediate postpartum period were selected via consecutive non-probability sampling and counselled about the insertion of post-partum intra-uterine contraceptive device. Their willingness and the factors affecting their acceptance or refusal were documented. Women aged 20-40 years in their 36-40 weeks of gestation carrying a singleton foetus in-utero were included in the study. Past users of intrauterine devices, complicated pregnancies and emergency obstetric cases were excluded. Likewise, women carrying multiple foetuses or mal-positioned foetuses were not included. The study was carried out after due institutionalapproval.Results: The acceptance rate for postpartum intrauterine contraceptive devices was 23%. About 86.49% of the women acknowledged that thorough counselling made them opt for this method. Other factors that favoured its uptake were long action duration with one-time placement (70.27%), husband's approval (59.46%) and accessibility (56.76%). The majority that refused (76.9%) rejected the device due to religious beliefs (57.72%), fear of side effects (56.10%) and lack of knowledge about contraception (46.34%).Conclusion: The acceptance rate of postpartum intrauterine contraceptive devices remains low in our healthcare system. Healthcare workers and policy makers need to consider the factors responsible for its refusal for this means to be effectively utilized.


Nalidixic acid is effective in vitro against shigellae including strains multiply-resistant to antibiotics. A comparative study of acute shigellosis in infants and children involved 19 patients treated with ampicillin and 17 treated with nalidixic acid. Stool cultures remained positive longer with nalidixic acid treatment than with ampicillin therapy, and clinical response was slower. The rate of response to therapy was correlated with the serum levels of ampicillin. Though nalidixic acid eliminates shigellae from stools more rapidly than with symptomatic therapy alone, it cannot be recommended for routine treatment of acute shigellosis since it has little effect on the natural course of the illness. In special circumstances when dealing with shigellae that are resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, and chloramphenicol, nalidixic acid may have a limited use.


As a next generation of detection technology, terahertz technology is very promising. In this work, a highly efficient terahertz wave absorber based on 3D graphene foam (3DG) is first reported. Excellent terahertz absorption property at frequency ranging from 0.1 to 1.2 THz is obtained owing to faint surface reflection and enormous internal absorption. By precise control of the constant properties for 3DG, the reflection loss (RL) value of 19 dB is acquired and the qualified frequency bandwidth (with RL value over 10 dB) covers 95% of the entire measured bandwidth at normal incidence, which far surpasses most reported materials. More importantly, the terahertz absorption performance of 3DG enhances obviously with increasing the incidence while majority of materials become invalid at oblique incidence, instead. At the incidence of 45°, the maximum RL value increases 50% from 19 to 28.6 dB and the qualified frequency bandwidth covers 100% of the measured bandwidth. After considering all core indicators involving density, qualified bandwidth, and RL values, the specific average terahertz absorption (SATA) property is investigated. The SATA value of 3DG is over 3000 times higher than those of other materials in open literatures.


In this article, we compare the performance of a state-of-the-art segmentation network (UNet) on two different glioblastoma (GB) segmentation datasets. Our experiments show that the same training procedure yields almost twice as bad results on the retrospective clinical data compared to the BraTS challenge data (in terms of Dice score). We discuss possible reasons for such an outcome, including inter-rater variability and high variability in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and scanner settings. The high performance of segmentation models, demonstrated on preselected imaging data, does not bring the community closer to using these algorithms in clinical settings. We believe that a clinically applicable deep learning architecture requires a shift from unified datasets to heterogeneous data.


IMPORTANCE
Limited studies have examined patient aversion to mesh use in pelvic surgery, especially in Latinas.

OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to assess aversion to pelvic surgery with mesh for urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in a sample of Latinas on the U.S.-Mexico border.

STUDY DESIGN
This was a cross-sectional study of self-identified Latinas with symptoms of pelvic floor disorders, recruited at their initial consultation visit at a single, academic urogynecology clinic. Participants completed a validated survey to assess perceptions of mesh use in pelvic surgery. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing the presence and severity of pelvic floor symptoms and level of acculturation. The primary outcome was aversion to mesh surgery, as indicated by a response of "yes" or "maybe" to the question "Based on what you already know, would you avoid surgery using mesh?" Descriptive analysis, univariate relative risk, and linear regression analysis were completed to identify characteristics associated with mesh avoidance. Significance was assessed and considered at P values <0.05.

RESULTS
Ninety-six women were included. Only 6.3% had prior pelvic floor surgery using mesh. Sixty-six percent indicated that they would be likely to avoid pelvic surgery that uses mesh. Only 9.4% indicated that they obtained information regarding mesh directly from medical professionals. Levels of concern regarding the use of mesh varied widely (29.2% not worried, 19.1% somewhat worried, 16.9% very worried). Higher percentages of "more acculturated" participants indicated a desire to avoid mesh surgery (58.7% vs 27.3%, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
In this Latina population, a majority of patients indicated an aversion to using mesh in pelvic surgery. Few patients obtained information regarding mesh directly from medical professionals, relying instead on nonmedical sources.


This essay argues that the process of the commodification of information, in the historical context of patents, was not merely an increase in the extent to which patent rights and the information they protected were the subjects of market transactions. The commodification of patents, rather, involved the development of a particular institutional form and the construction of a specific market. The essay surveys the development in the Anglo-American legal tradition of one seminal aspect of this institutional change: the transformation of patents from particularistic privileges to universal rights. The early origins of patents in England and later in the American colonies were particularistic privileges. Patents were case specific, discretionary grants of economic privileges made by either the executive or the legislature. These grants were openly political and their legitimacy rested on a case-specific claim to promoting the public interest. In a three hundred year process that culminated in the mid nineteenth century patents became universal rights. Under this new institutional model patents became a standard set of entitlements enjoyed, as a matter of right, upon the fulfillment of general and uniform substantive and procedural criteria. Patents came to be seen as neutral rights whose legitimacy is rooted in the general social utility of the regime as a whole rather than that of any specific case. The government was reassigned the role of a non-discretionary impartial enforcer of patent rights. The essay argues that, despite important innovations of the first American patent regime, this institutional change was far from complete when it was launched in 1790. It describes the later parts of the process that stretched into the aftermath of the 1836 Copyright Act and beyond. The essay ends with a few brief suggestions about the significance of the modern institutional character of patents as universal rights.


Each meeting in this Program has been assigned a number; in the following list, numbers in parentheses refer to meeting numbers in the Program. *Denotes closed meeting.


This paper presents fabrication and characterizing of a new functional material, magnetorheological shear thickening fluid (MRSTF), by mixing micron-sized magnetizable particles with nano-sized silica particle based shear thickening fluid. Dynamic properties of the MRSTF were characterized by using a parallel-plate rheometer. The effects of steady-state shear rate and magnetic field on MRSTF rheological properties were addressed. The suspension shows an abrupt increase in complex viscosity beyond a critical dynamic shear rate and a magnetic field controllable characteristic, as well as reversible.


The existence of Chengho mosque in Indonesia is inseparable from the Admiral Chengho expedition history which visited in the archipelago, both in the urban area of Surabaya and Jember. Buildings, architects and ornaments of Chengho mosque is very unique and has its own characteristics. Chengho Mosque with its various ornaments is a symbol of the religious expression of Chinese Muslims ethnic to confirm their Islamic identity and chivalry. Therefore, this study focused on the religious expression of the Chinese ethnic in Surabaya and Jember with three formulations of the problem, namely how the typology of Chinese ethnic in the Chengho mosque in Jember and Surabaya? How do Chinese Muslims ethnic use the Chengho mosque in Surabaya and Jember ?, and what are the religious expressions of Chinese Muslims ethnic in the Chengho mosque in Surabaya and Jember? this study uses qualitative methods with the Geertzian and Weberian approach. So that, the result of this research are: the first, the typology of Chinese ethnic in Jember can be seen from three components, namely religion adopted, choice of profession and cultural arts. The second, the society use chengho mosque both in Surabaya and Jember to worship, social cultural and political. The third, Religious expressions of Chinese Muslims ethnic can be seen from three areas, such as the cultural area, the worship area and the socio-political area.


Schwartz-Jampel syndrome (SJS) is a rare congenital disorder of continuous myotonia, causing visual and eyelid problems such as blepharospasm, acquired ptosis, and blepharophimosis. We report the management of blepharospasm in two sisters with Schwartz-Jampel syndrome with application of botilinum toxin type A (BTX-A), as an alternative to the surgical treatments, such as orbicularis oculi myectomy, levator aponeurosis resection, and lateral canthopexy as described in the literature. Three consequent doses of commercially available BTX-A (Botox®-Allergan, Inc. 100 u/via) were injected to orbicularis oculi muscle in two sisters with Schwartz-Jampel syndrome. At the least, the authors waited for a six-month interval to prevent development of sensitivity to BTX-A in patients. No significant improvement was observed after the injection of first dose of BTX-A, with the total dose of 25 units of BTX-A to each orbicularis oculi muscle of the eyes. The muscle tone weakened after the second dose, which was the twice as such of the first applied total dose (50 units of BTX-A to each orbicularis oculi muscle of the eyes) and significant functional and cosmetic improvements were achieved after injection of the third dose, in which the total applied dose was the same as the one applied in second dose. The blepharospasm and eyelid alterations caused by Schwartz-Jampel syndrome should be treated to provide functional and cosmetic improvements. Application of BTX-A to orbicularis oculi muscle for the treatment of blepharospasm could be considered as an alternative to levator resection, and lateral canthopexy in Schwartz-Jampel syndrome.


The insulin sensitivity of glucose transport in skeletal muscle is enhanced after exercise. In this study, stimulation of transport of the nonmetabolizable glucose analogue 3-O-methylglucose by the insulin-mimetic agents vanadate and H2O2 was markedly enhanced in rat epitrochlearis muscles 18 h after a bout of swimming. This increase in susceptibility of the glucose transport process in muscle to stimulation by insulin-mimetic agents that act beyond the insulin-binding step provides evidence that the increased insulin sensitivity results from an effect of exercise on a later step in the activation of glucose transport. Hypoxia and insulin appear to stimulate glucose transport by different pathways in muscle as evidenced by an additivity of their maximal effects. The effect of a submaximal hypoxic stimulus on muscle sugar transport was greatly amplified 3 h after exercise. This increase in susceptibility of glucose transport to stimulation by hypoxia after exercise suggests that the increased sensitivity is not limited to the insulin sensitive pathway. In contrast to exercise (i.e., swimming), in vitro muscle contractions did not result in an increase in sensitivity of muscle glucose transport to insulin, raising the possibility that a humoral factor is necessary for this effect.


several cohort studies have shown that vascular risk factors including hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes mellitus, smoking, obesity and lack of physical exercise in midlife and to a lesser extent in late life, are associated with an increased risk of dementia. the results from randomised controlled clinical trials on treatment of these risk factors are not conclusive for the effect on cognitive decline and dementia. studies investigating the effect of a multi-component intervention aimed at vascular risk factors to prevent or slow down cognitive decline and dementia will hopefully give the answer as to whether such an intervention is efficacious. this requires large clinical trials in an elderly population with long follow-up and several competing risks, making it difficult from an organisational and methodological point of view. Major challenges for future studies are to select the optimal population, set the optimal treatment targets and select clinically relevant outcome parameters.


A cross sectional study was conducted from October 2017 to April 2018 in Damot Woyde District of Wolayta Zone to estimate the prevalence of mange mite infestation in cattle and identify the associated risk factors. Out of 375 animals examined, 41 (10.9%) were found positive for mange mite infestations. No statistically significant difference was noted among sex, age, breed and management categories (p>0.05); however, the prevalence differences noted between animals with different body condition score were statistically significant (p<0.05). The highest prevalence was recorded in animals with poor body conditions (27.71%), followed by those with medium (9.97%) and good body conditions (0.83%). Four mite genera were found in the area namely; Sarcoptes 19 (46.3%), Psoroptes 5 (12.2%), Demodex 13 (31.7%) and Chorioptes 4 (9.8%). Mange was frequently recovered from dewlap, followed by neck, tail head, face, brisket and leg. The overall prevalence (10.9%) shows that mange is an important disease that needs attention in the area. Therefore, farmers need to be made aware on the strategic use of acaricides following veterinary recommendation. Moreover, there is a need for regular research on the sensitivity of the parasites to the drugs in use.

 Key words: Damot Woyde, dewlap, cattle, mange mites, sarcoptes.


Future ultracompact photonic integrated circuits (PICs) will rely on high-index-contrast dielectric materials, which permit a strong confinement of the optical field in the diffraction limit as well as low propagation losses. This is the case of PICs implemented on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. To achieve confinement beyond the diffraction limit, plasmonic waveguides (based on metal-dielectric interfaces) have been recently proposed. This new kind of waveguide provides a strong enhancement of the field in the metal-dielectric interface, which is of paramount importance for nonlinear functionalities or sensing. Plasmonic waveguides can also be built on SOI wafers. Thus, it can be reasonably thought that high index contrast as well as plasmonic waveguides can coexist in future ultradense PICs. In this paper, a theoretical and numerical study on the performance of several dielectric and plasmonic waveguides is presented. Thanks to their plasmon-coupled supported modes, ultracompact devices as hybrid ring resonators can be devised and integrated with silicon photonic circuits.


Sphaerospora molnari Lom, Dyková, Pavlásková and Grupcheva, 1983 often causes severe infections in the gills and skin of common carp fingerlings Cyprinus carpio carpio in Central Europe. Although most Sphaerospora spp. are coelozoic and affect the excretory system of fish, S. molnari develops mature spores in the epithelia of gill filaments, making it a rare representative of histozoic freshwater species within the genus. On the basis of a partial 18S rDNA sequence assigned as belonging to S. molnari, previous phylogenetic studies located the species within the Myxobolus clade. In the present study, S. molnari isolates from Hungary and the Czech Republic were characterized based on morphology, DNA sequence analysis and phylogenetic comparison. The obtained 3714 bp final consensus 18S rDNA sequence of the parasite showed several, sometimes extremely long inserts in the variable regions of the gene and differed considerably from the one published in GenBank in 2002. In situ hybridization confirmed the validity of the obtained DNA sequence and detected pre-sporogonic blood stages in the interstitium and blood vessels of the kidney. Phylogenetic analysis showed that S. molnari clusters within the Sphaerospora sensu stricto clade with a high support, revealing it as the first known histozoic member of the Sphaerospora subclade comprising parasites of freshwater fish.


Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a prevailing and notorious infection in developing countries causing serious local damage and threatening complications. The purpose of the present study was determine the microbiological profile of isolates from discharge in CSOM. This study was conducted at out-patient department of ENT at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, Rajshahi from January 2014 to December 2014. Samples were taken from 185 patients (both male and female) in all age groups suffering from chronic suppurative otitis media. Their Gram staining, culture, and biochemical tests were carried out to identify the organisms. It showed the predominance by staphylococcus aereus (29.13%), followed by Pseudomonas Aeruginosa (22.83%), Streptococcus Pyogen (14.96%), E.Coli (9.44%), Proteus Mirabilis (6.29%), Klebsiella Pneumonia ( 4.72%).
Bangladesh Med J. 2017 May; 46 (2): 7-9


The first Creole cookbook ever written, Lafcadio Hearn's Creole Cook Book is an intriguing look into the customs and habits of the Creole home of the 1870s and 80s.Lafcadio Hearn, a unique literary figure who through his writings captured the essence of the city of New Orleans, was a great connoisseur of food. A starving newspaper reporter with little means of support, Hearn began his connoisseurship out of a literal hunger for the cuisine of New Orleans. The result was La Cuisine Creole, a labor of love now reprinted asLafcadio Hearn's Creole Cook Book, that for the modern reader offers an unusual look into the food, customs, and everyday life of New Orleans Creole society.Spiced with drawings and writings from Hearn's years in New Orleans and preserved in their original form, the recipes in this unique volume reflect the age in which they were created. Through his remarks on preparation, cooking, and storing, as well as hints on housecleaning, Hearn's text offers a remarkable historic vision of life in the Creole household of yesteryear.Tempting recipes for "Orange Croquante," "Maigre Shrimp Gombo for Lent," "Mushroom Catsup," "Pain Perdu," and other noted New Orleans dishes are mixed with quaint, now forgotten housekeeping directions from his period-how to make yeast, boil soap, and prepare whitewash for the walls. This book is an attractive historical addition to any cookbook library and a long-lasting treasure trove of old New Orleans customs.


Abstract. Both agricultural area expansion and intensification are necessary to cope with the growing demand for food, and the growing threat of food insecurity which is rapidly engulfing poor and under-privileged sections of the global population. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to have the ability to accurately estimate crop area and spatial distribution. Remote sensing has become a valuable tool for estimating and mapping cropland areas, useful in food security monitoring. This work contributes to addressing this broad issue, focusing on the comparative performance analysis of two mapping approaches (i) a hyper-temporal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) analysis approach and (ii) a Landscape-ecological approach. The hyper-temporal NDVI analysis approach utilized SPOT 10-day NDVI imagery from April 1998–December 2008, whilst the Landscape-ecological approach used multitemporal Landsat-7 ETM+ imagery acquired intermittently between 1992 and 2002. Pixels in the time-series NDVI dataset were clustered using an ISODATA clustering algorithm adapted to determine the optimal number of pixel clusters to successfully generalize hyper-temporal datasets. Clusters were then characterized with crop cycle information, and flooding information to produce an NDVI unit map of rice classes with flood regime and NDVI profile information. A Landscape-ecological map was generated using a combination of digitized homogenous map units in the Landsat-7 ETM+ imagery, a Land use map 2005 of the Mekong delta, and supplementary datasets on the regions terrain, geo-morphology and flooding depths. The output maps were validated using reported crop statistics, and regression analyses were used to ascertain the relationship between land use area estimated from maps, and those reported in district crop statistics. The regression analysis showed that the hyper-temporal NDVI analysis approach explained 74% and 76% of the variability in reported crop statistics in two rice crop and three rice crop land use systems respectively. In contrast, 64% and 63% of the variability was explained respectively by the Landscape-ecological map. Overall, the results indicate the hyper-temporal NDVI analysis approach is more accurate and more useful in exploring when, why and how agricultural land use manifests itself in space and time. Furthermore, the NDVI analysis approach was found to be easier to implement, was more cost effective, and involved less subjective user intervention than the landscape-ecological approach.


The Strep A OIA (BioStar, Inc., Boulder, Colo.) rapid detection system is an intriguing technology that utilizes an immunoassay relying on changes in reflected light to directly detect group A streptococcal antigen from specimens. In this evaluation, 424 routine pediatric throat specimens and 20 simulated oropharyngeal specimens with added mucoid (M type 3, 18) strains were cultured and tested by the Strep A OIA. The respective sensitivities and specificities were as follows: Strep A OIA versus enhanced broth culturing, 84.2 and 95.7%; and streptococcus-SXT agar (BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, Md.) culturing versus enhanced broth culturing, 82.9 and 98.6%. The Strep A OIA is an 8-min, technologist-friendly, accurate technique with an 89.4% agreement with traditional culturing.


The relationship between relative humidity (RH) and extinction properties is of widespread concern. In this study, a hygroscopic parameter (κ) and the volume fraction of elemental carbon (EC) were used to characterize the chemical characteristics of particles, and a core-shell model was built based on these characteristics. The size distribution, chemical composition, and RH were measured in Nanjing from 15 October to 13 November 2013. The modelderived extinction coefficients of particles were fit with the program of coated spheres according to Bohren and Huffman (2008) (BHCOAT), and the modeled values correlated well with the measurement-derived extinction coefficients (r2 = 0.81), which suggested that the core-shell model produced reasonable results. The results show that more than 81 % of the extinction coefficient in Nanjing was due to particles in the 0.2–1.0 μm size range. Under dry conditions, the higher mass fraction of particles in the 0.2–1.0 μm size range caused the higher extinction coefficient. An increase in RH led to a significant increase in the extinction coefficient, although the increases differed among the different size segments. For λ= 550 nm, the extinction coefficient from the 0.01–0.2, 0.2–0.5, and 1.0–2.0 μm size ranges increased significantly with the increase in RH, whereas the extinction contributions from the 0.5–1.0 and 2.0–10.0 μm size ranges to the extinction coefficient decreased slightly.


participation in water sector planning and limits the accrual of benefits to them. Policy prescriptions in the water sector, howsoever well intentioned, may not benefit women if they are simply mapped on to the existing unequal social context. It is thus clear that for women from diverse social groups to effectively participate in governance and stake their claims on resource rights and its use, policies need to be better informed about the dynamics of gender relations located in the context of caste, class and patriarchy. Analyses in the past have focused mainly on time saved and increased income opportunities, thus overlooking the issue of whether and how the dynamics of the collective changes wherein improved economic status may lead to decollectivisation of women as women or as caste or class groups for that matter. This takes us to the less explored areas to probe into question of how increased access to water through its poverty reducing impact shapes the trajectory towards gender empowerment. It is important to note here that though gender and poverty are inter-related they are not the same and should be recognized as different social processes. This Highlight explores the relationship between women and water and poverty with the help of an empirical investigation in micro settings of two states viz. Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Amita Shah and Seema Kulkarni Water Policy Research


Computational assignment of function to proteins with no known homologs is still an unsolved problem. We have created a novel, function-based approach to protein annotation and discovery called D-SPACE (Deep Semantic Protein Annotation Classification and Exploration), comprised of a multi-task, multi-label deep neural network trained on over 70 million proteins. Distinct from homology and motif-based methods, D-SPACE encodes proteins in high-dimensional representations (embeddings), allowing the accurate assignment of over 180,000 labels for 13 distinct tasks. The embedding representation enables fast searches for functionally related proteins, including homologs undetectable by traditional approaches. D-SPACE annotates all 109 million proteins in UniProt in under 35 hours on a single computer and searches the entirety of these in seconds. D-SPACE further quantifies the relative functional effect of mutations, facilitating rapid in silico mutagenesis for protein engineering applications. D-SPACE incorporates protein annotation, search, and other exploratory efforts into a single cohesive model.


The purpose in this study is to examine the effect of "Online Learning Environment based of Caricature Animation" which is prepared for "Human and Environment" and "Sun and Space" units in the secondary school 7th Grade Science and Technology course, on the success and attitude of the students for humor. The participants consist of 7th grade students who take Science and Technology course and study in Kırşehir State Secondary School. Online learning environment has two sub-level according to the situation of existence or nonexistence of caricature animation. The implementation stage is actualized with the participation of 46 students; 23 students in experiment group and 23 students in control group. Success test and attitude scale is used for both groups before and after the implementation. At the end of the study, it is observed that the successes of the students studying in online learning environment with caricature animation are higher in significant level than the students studying in online learning environment without caricature animations.


Most current NLP systems have little knowledge about quantitative attributes of objects and events. We propose an unsupervised method for collecting quantitative information from large amounts of web data, and use it to create a new, very large resource consisting of distributions over physical quantities associated with objects, adjectives, and verbs which we call Distributions over Quantitative (DoQ). This contrasts with recent work in this area which has focused on making only relative comparisons such as "Is a lion bigger than a wolf?". Our evaluation shows that DoQ compares favorably with state of the art results on existing datasets for relative comparisons of nouns and adjectives, and on a new dataset we introduce.


ON Nov 11, 1966, the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) celebrated its 20th anniversary. In 1946 a group of military psychiatrists recently returned to civilian life decided to form an organization designed to put new life into the American Psychiatric Association, which had let its colleagues fight their professional battles with the military unaided and had slothfully avoided any position of real leadership. The new organization was to be neither rebellious nor a substitute for the old, but a constructive influence stimulating from within. By means of its committee organization, two yearly meetings, and continuous work at home, members of GAP studied many topical issues and published significant reports distributed and appreciated the world over. American psychiatry was stimulated and the APA was modernized, but GAP could not disband because it continues to serve important purposes that organized psychiatry cannot. It


Infection is an uncommon cause of esophagitis among the paediatric population. The main risk factor is immunodeficiency. In children immunocompromised due HIV infection, certain endocrine diseases, and corticosteroid or immunosuppressive therapy, Candida albicans is the most common etiologic agent. The prevalence of Candida esophagitis has increased because of an improvement in survival and management of immunological diseases. Even though it is not frequent in immunocompetent children, there have been reported cases related with risk factors (Chocarro, 2000) such as antibiotic intake (which allow bacterial overgrowth and fungal colonization), proton pump inhibitors (which produce hypochlorhydria allowing oral bacteria to colonize gastric mucosa, and to increase the risk of infectious esophagitis), esophageal obstruction (aperistalsis and stasis helps the fungal overgrowth) and systemic or inhalated corticotherapy (that suppresses lymphocyte and granulocyte function) (Simon, 1997). Candida esophagitis has also been reported in healthy patients, with no evidence of causal mechanism (Aleman, 1996). The most common symptomatology consists in odynophagia, dysphagia and retrosternal chest pain, but epigastralgia, vomiting and gastrointestinal bleeding can also occur. Chronic or acute anaemia could be the sole sign of an asymptomatic presentation (Ortuno Cortes, 1997., Weerasuriya, 2006). The absence of oral candidiasis does not exclude the diagnosis of Candida esophagitis (Mathieson, 1983). The pathophysiology of the infection is complicated. It includes a large number of factors, such as fungal virulence, mucosal integrity and host susceptibility. Esophagoscopy is the most specific and sensitive method of diagnosis. Characteristic endoscopic findings are confluent or isolated white plaques adhered to the mucosa with edema, erythema and friability, with or without ulcers covered by exudate. The diagnostic confirmation is performed by demonstrating the presence of pseudohyfae or by obtaining evidence of tissue invasion on mucosal biopsy (Ahuja, 2016). Fungal culture does not allow differentiation of colonization from infection (Mathieson, 1983). The treatment of choice is fluconazole, but there are new therapeutic options (Ahuja, 2016).


Communities of Practice are one of the leading strategies used to promote knowledge management processes aimed at generating both organisational and individual learning along with innovations that contribute to improving the public administration. The optimal design of Communities of Practice in organisations implies exhaustive knowledge of how they work, and particularly identifying and understanding the factors that determine their operation and effectiveness for organisational change. This chapter presents some of the most important results of a study conducted in two departments within the Catalan public administration. The goal of the study was to analyse knowledge management processes and propose intervention protocols and quality standards. This study enabled the authors to present proposals aimed at improving the dynamics of the Communities of Practice in the public administration and to suggest possible avenues of research focused on improving the functioning of the public sector.


This paper presents PlanIoT, a middleware approach for enabling adaptive data flow management in IoT-enhanced spaces (e.g., buildings) using automated planning methodologies. Today's sensorized spaces deploy applications falling to diverse categories such as analytics, real-time, transactional, video streaming and emergency response. Depending on the category, applications have different QoS requirements related to timely delivery, networking resources, accuracy, etc. Typically, state-of-the-art data exchange systems introduce policies for bandwidth allocation or prioritization for specific data types and applications (e.g., camera data). PlanIoT introduces a generic QoS model to evaluate the performance of data flowing in Edge infrastructures and generates their performance metrics dataset. Such a dataset is used as input to automated planning representations to intelligently satisfy QoS requirements of deployed applications. The experimental results show that PlanIoT improves the end-to-end response time of time-sensitive flows by more than 50%, especially with an overloaded Edge infrastructure. We also show the adaptivity of our approach by considering emergency cases that require Edge infrastructure reconfiguration.


: Nineteen patients with A pattern exotropia and 1 with A esotropia, all of whom had marked overacting superior oblique muscles bilaterally, were evaluated surgically. Nine with A exotropia and 20 prism diopters or less in the primary position were treated only with bilateral superior oblique tenectomy. Very little correction occurred in the primary position while an average correction of 35 prism diopters occurred in downgaze. Eleven patients with at least 25 prism diopters of deviation in the primary position were treated with bilateral superior oblique tenectomy in addition to horizontal rectus muscle surgery at the same sitting. A routine amount of horizontal surgery was performed with good results without regard for any effect which superior oblique tenectomy might cause in the primary position. This is a safe method for planning surgery in A patterns as abduction by the superior oblique muscles occurs mainly in downgaze.


In the UK, there are an estimated 150,000 cases of sepsis per year, resulting in 44,000 deaths. This equates to more deaths than from bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined according to the Sepsis Trust.


The Bayash are a branch of Romanian speaking Roma living dispersedly in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. To better understand the molecular architecture and origin of the Croatian Bayash paternal gene pool, 151 Bayash Y chromosomes were analyzed for 16 SNPs and 17 STRs and compared with European Romani and non-Romani majority populations from Europe, Turkey, and South Asia. Two main layers of Bayash paternal gene pool were identified: ancestral (Indian) and recent (European). The reduced diversity and expansion signals of H1a patrilineages imply descent from closely related paternal ancestors who could have settled in the Indian subcontinent, possibly as early as between the eighth and tenth centuries AD. The recent layer of the Bayash paternal pool is dominated by a specific subset of E1b1b1a lineages that are not found in the Balkan majority populations. At least two private mutational events occurred in the Bayash during their migrations from the southern Balkans toward Romania. Additional admixture, evident in the low frequencies of typical European haplogroups, J2, R1a, I1, R1b1b2, G, and I2a, took place primarily during the early Bayash settlement in the Balkans and the Romani bondage in Romania. Our results indicate two phenomena in the Bayash and analyzed Roma: a significant preservation of ancestral H1a haplotypes as a result of considerable, but variable level of endogamy and isolation and differential distribution of less frequent, but typical European lineages due to different patterns of the early demographic history in Europe marked by differential admixture and genetic drift.


We perform an experimental investigation using a dictator game in which individuals must make a moral decision — to give or not to give an amount of money to poor people in the Third World. A questionnaire in which the subjects are asked about the reasons for their decision shows that, at least in this case, moral motivations carry a heavy weight in the decision: the majority of dictators give the money for reasons of a consequentialist nature. Based on the results presented here and of other analogous experiments, we conclude that dicator behavior can be understood in terms of moral distance rather than social distance and that it systematically deviates from the egoism assumption in economic models and game theory.


We prove that there are arbitrarily large indecomposable ordered sets T with a 2-chain C ⊂ T such that the smallest indecomposable proper superset U of C in T is T itself. Subsequently, we characterize all such indecomposable ordered sets T and 2-chains C. We also prove the same type of result for 2-antichains. AMS subject classification (2010): 06A07


Eri silkworms, Samia cynthia ricini B., is one of the silkworm races under utilization in Ethiopia. However, it has several strains with wide variation in their commercial traits and selection and utilization of best suited strains of this eri silkworm race that adapt to different agro-ecologies will help to increase silk productivity and profitability. In this experiment, one Vietnamese (Eri- 3.4) and three Indian (Eri-yellow, Eri-green and Eri-marked) eri silkworm strains were evaluated in different locations (Melkassa, Hawassa, Wondo-Genet and Jimma) which represents different agro-ecologies of Ethiopia. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) in six replications. Thus, different silkworm strains showed statistical significant silkworm characteristic ranges in different locations which include egg hatchability (62.61% to 89.00%), larval duration (20.67days to 25.83 days), total life cycle duration (50.49 days to 74.00 days), single weight of larva (4.427 grams to 8.155 grams), effective rate of rearing (60.11% to 93.67%), single cocoon weight (1.848 grams to 2.903 grams), single shell weight (0.251 grams to 0.418 grams) and silk ratio (13.06 to 15.05%). However, a Vietnamese eri silkworm strain known by Eri-3.4 have showed an outstanding performance compared to other strains in all the locations especially in cocoon parameters. Therefore, it is recommended for future research and development efforts on eri silkworms in Ethiopia. K ey w o r d s:  Eri Silkworm, Strains, Performance, Cocoon


Under different sources of light, H2O2 was used as oxidant, Fe2+ or Fe3+ was used as catalyst to treat 3-Aminophenol wastewater. The results showed that the degradation of 3-Aminophenol solution was markedly accelerated in the conditions of 450W high pressure mercury lamp or strong sunshine. The degradation of 3-Aminophenol had better effects, under sunshine, and 1.5 mL FeSO4·7H2O solution with concentration 2.5 g·L-1, 1.0 mL 6% H2O2, pH=3.5, were used. The degradation rate can reached to be as high as 99% after 40 min reaction.


Epidemiological studies have observed East Asians (EAs) are significantly less likely to develop or die from coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with Caucasians. Conversely South Asians (SAs) develop CAD at higher rate and earlier age. Recently, a range of features derived from cardiac CT have been identified which may further characterise ethnic differences in CAD. Emerging data suggest EAs exhibit less coronary calcification and high-risk, non-calcified plaque compared with Caucasians on CT, with no difference in luminal stenosis. In contrast, SAs exhibit similar to higher coronary calcification and luminal stenosis, smaller luminal dimensions and more high-risk, non-calcified plaque than Caucasians. Beyond demonstrating ethnic differences in CAD, cardiac CT may enhance and individualise cardiovascular risk stratification in EAs and SAs. While data thus far in EAs have demonstrated calcium score and CT-derived luminal stenosis may incrementally predict cardiovascular risk beyond traditional risk scores, there remains a paucity of data assessing its use in SAs. Future studies may clarify the prognostic value of cardiac CT in SAs and investigate how this modality may guide preventative therapy and coronary intervention of CAD in EAs and SAs.


This issue of the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine presents a forum that assesses the status of cancer prevention via 18 critical reviews of the elements that impact on carcinogenesis. Each article is written by a leading authority in the field of cancer prevention. Contributors were also selected with the goal of providing a broad-based view of the many facets of cancer prevention. We believe that, in addition to presenting the current state of knowledge in cancer prevention, the reviews also facilitate an appraisal of where current research in carcinogenesis is likely to lead in the coming years. Thus, we hope this issue of the Proceedings will prove to be a valuable reference for readers now and in the future, as the various ideas presented begin to unfold. The reviews emphasize that effective use of chemopreventive agents, whether naturally occurring or synthetic, will be realized only in the context of a fundamental understanding of the processes of carcinogenesis and tumorbiology. They also illustrate why success in preventing cancer will be enhanced by improved methods for identifying people at increased risk for different types of cancer. The importance of understanding and minimizing barriers that limit the inclusion of high-risk individuals in cancer prevention trials, while communicating our understanding of chemoprevention to those it is intended to benefit, is considered. The first section of this special issue of the Proceedings focuses on general perspectives for prevention of cancer. Mechanisms by which cancer canbe prevented, even when the exact causative factor(s) is unknown or cannot be removed from the environment, are reviewed, as are the use of epidemiologic methods to identify risk factors in specific types of cancer. Also discussed in Section I are the properties of intraepithelial neoplasia relevantto cancer prevention and the development of surrogate end points for clinical trials.


Anopheles (Anopheles) hyrcanus was detected for the first time in Austria, in a floodplain forest in the city of Vienna. From May to September 2012, we found 135 females of this species within the scope of a mosquito monitoring program. Anopheles hyrcanus transmits Sindbis and Tahyna viruses and was reported to be a potential vector for human malaria and dirofilariasis. An updated distribution map depicts that An. hyrcanus has extended its range northwards across the European Alps.


Learning to write computer programs is not an easy process for many students with students experiencing high levels of cognitive load. This paper discusses the "completion" method of learning to program that requires students to complete solutions for incomplete programs that have been given to them. A software tool called CORT (Code Restructuring Tool) which supports the "completion" method of learning to program and that has been developed by the author is then described. Initial evaluations of the tool indicate that students who use CORT require less time to solve problems and require less resources than non-CORT students. There was no difference in the performance of both groups of students in a final examination.


The paper implements a method for analyzing the stress-strain state of rectangular hollow sections (RHS) by finite-element modeling (FEM) of tests for three-point bending and torsion. Design schemes, 3-D solid-state and deformable models have been developed using the automated analysis and CAD/CAE system software, made it possible to obtain equivalent stress distributions and displacements in models. A simulation of tests for RHS with a cross section of 40 mm × 50 mm, manufactured in two ways, was carried out: (a) by direct-forming of galvanized steel strips on roll-forming mill in a semi-closed section with a longitudinal gap of 0.5 mm between the edges formed on a 40 mm web (DF-RHS); (b) similar direct-forming to the closed section and next welding the edges to a longitudinal weld along the web middle of 50 mm (DFW-RHS). RHS with various wall thicknesses (t = 1.93 mm, 1.84 mm and 0.7 mm) was investigated, given the design features that depend on the manufacturing processes of structural sections. It was found DFW-RHS is stiffer by at least 50% compared to DF-RHS, which allows to savings the metal by reducing the RHS wall thickness by 62% while maintaining the same stiffness and ensuring high strength of structural section.


Even with the financial crisis of 2008, the steel consumption forecast for the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - is for a significant increase over the next decades, due to their present low per-capita consumption level. The start up of new mines to supply this increase in demand is likely to be limited due to legal and practical restrictions related to environmental, social, manpower and energy issues. Therefore, most of the new demand for iron ore will be supplied by increasing the productivity of mines currently in operation. The main challenges for managing mine productivity are related to the choice of the estimation method, due to the difficulties in collecting appropriate information and to the establishment of a representative model. This article presents an estimation approach for mine productivity estimation through multiple regressions over the operational database of the mine. The approach is proposed through a Mine Productivity Estimation and Management tool (MPEM) which can deliver savings related to increased production efficiency by the identification and removal of losses in the mine production flow. Production improvement has been actually achieved in practical applications by managing the discrepancies in the KPIs of different operating shift crews. The operational variables have been identified directly over the operational database of the mine and the model has been developed in a simple and easy-to-use fashion, with excellent levels of correlation between the estimated and actual values of the mine's productivity. The article describes the development approach as well as the application of the model in a case-study.


Abstract The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has an extensive collection of environmental health information, including bibliographic and technical data on hazardous chemical substances, in its TOXNET http://www.toxnet.nlm.nih.gov databases. TOXNET also provides access to the United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA)'s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data, which covers release of specific chemicals via air, water, and land, and by underground injection, as reported by industrial facilities around the United States. NLM has developed a Web-based geographic information system (GIS), TOXMAP http://www.toxmap.nlm. nih.gov/, which allows users to create dynamic maps that show where TRI chemicals are released and that provides direct links to information about the chemicals in TOXNET. By extracting the associated regional geographic text terms from the displayed map (e.g., rivers, towns, county, state), TOXMAP also provides customized chemical and/or region-specific searches of NLM's bibliographic biomedical resources. This paper focuses on TOXMAP's features, data accuracy issues, challenges, user feedback techniques, and future directions.


We report experiments on the control of the phase η in quantum mechanical superposition states which emerge in electromagnetically induced transparency, |ψ〉 = (|1〉 + eiη|2〉)/√2. We interpret our findings in terms of the measurement role that spontaneous emission and the light fields play in selecting the optically dark and bright superpositions. A phase-switching tool is introduced which enables the rapid measurement of the absolute depth of the dark-state minimum and its absolute position on the frequency scale without detuning the lasers. The phase-switching technique allows one to determine the relative phase η in an ensemble of quantum mechanical superposition states of a system in a minimally invasive way.


Trigger finger (TF) is a common condition with a lifetime prevalence up to 2%. Local corticosteroid injection at the level of the A1 pulley is a frequently used and safe treatment for TF with cure rates around 50% in randomised controlled trials, while surgical release has cure rates near 100% but more severe complications. Blind local corticosteroid injection has the same effect as ultrasound-guided local corticosteroid injection on cure rates, and the effect remains the same, whether the steroid is placed intra-sheath or extra-sheath. The treatment of TF can be carried out as blind local corticosteroid injection in general practice before possible referral to an orthopaedic specialist.


Abstract. This paper presents the development and implementation of a spatio-temporal variational data assimilation system (4D-var) for the soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer model "Community Land Model" (CLM3.5), along with the development of the adjoint code for the core soil–atmosphere transfer scheme of energy and soil moisture. The purpose of this work is to obtain an improved estimation technique for the energy fluxes (sensible and latent heat fluxes) between the soil and the atmosphere. Optimal assessments of these fluxes are neither available from model simulations nor measurements alone, while a 4D-var data assimilation has the potential to combine both information sources by a Best Linear Unbiased Estimate (BLUE). The 4D-var method requires the development of the adjoint model of the CLM which is established in this work. The new data assimilation algorithm is able to assimilate soil temperature and soil moisture measurements for one-dimensional columns of the model grid. Numerical experiments were first used to test the algorithm under idealised conditions. It was found that the analysis delivers improved results whenever there is a dependence between the initial values and the assimilated quantity. Furthermore, soil temperature and soil moisture from in situ field measurements were assimilated. These calculations demonstrate the improved performance of flux estimates, whenever soil property parameters are available of sufficient quality. Misspecifications could also be identified by the performance of the variational scheme.


The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of Er:YAG laser on surface morphology of dental restorative materials namely glass ionomer cement, composite resin, polyacid-modified composite resin, resin-modified glass ionomer cement and unfilled resin, and to ascertain the ablation threshold of these materials. Crater diameters, crater depths and crater volumes of the ablated sites were measured to assess the ablation characteristics of different restorative materials. The surface morphology changes varied from nil effect, to ablation, fusion, combustion, and various combinations of these. The ablation threshold of all materials was 40 mJ except Delton (60 mJ).


As the Supreme Court turns its attention once again to the Reconstruction Amendments, in Fisher v. University of Texas and Schuette v. Michigan Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Justices should reconsider the common image of a "color-blind Constitution," a metaphor borrowed from Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson. We usually consider Plessy an Equal-Protection case and Harlan's dissent an early attempt at equal-protection jurisprudence. Those who brought the suit were not asking for equal protection, however. The perversely ingenious device Southern state used to circumvent the Reconstruction Amendments was a system of laws that created the legal categories "white" and "colored," and authorized private and public agents of government to apply the label "colored" to the people formerly enslaved. The aim was to authorize private discrimination, and was accomplished and maintained for decades by asserting the right of "white" citizens to separate themselves from the former slaves. Creation in this way of superior and subordinate castes violated the core aim of the Reconstruction Amendments, but the labels "white" and "colored" served the purpose for which they were intended, and are still deeply impressed upon civil society. Plessy's lawyers argued in surprisingly modern terms that equal treatment of superior and subordinated castes was not a remedy, but the evil itself. Their argument should be heard today.


During continuous casting of steel, the delta-ferrite to austenite phase transition occurs following solidification. It is of great industrial significance to gain a better understanding of the nature of this reaction because product quality is in large measure determined by events occurring during and shortly following solidification. Moreover, the exact way in which delta-ferrite transforms to austenite may influence the subsequent transformation of austenite to ferrite, by which much of the mechanical properties of the steel is determined. Relatively little attention has been devoted to the delta-ferrite to austenite phase transition in the past, in part because of the difficulty of making in-situ observations at the high temperature. The recent development of high-temperature Laser-Scanning Confocal Microscopy has provided new opportunities to observe in-situ high temperature phase transformations and this technique has been employed in the present study. The analysis should impact on some aspects of the steel production industry. High-temperature LSCM provides new opportunities for research in casting technology as well as high-temperature phase-transformation studies.


While environmental law may appear dauntingly complex, and on occasion truly is, it turns out that understanding instrument choice can be straightforward. Perhaps surprisingly, there are only five basic policy instruments in play, and these can be effectively taught through a simple framework known as "The Five P's." Just as a complex sonata can be reduced to a small number of white and black piano keys, so can students' mastery of the Five P's allow them to identify the potential range of policy instruments at work in any statute. Despite their application across a dizzying range of situations, the basic environmental policy tools remain the same. The Five P's include Prescriptive Regulation, Property Rights, Penalties, Payments, and Persuasion. To be sure, this framework cannot perfectly capture the dizzying range of all environmental policy. The vast majority of instruments, however, do fit easily within the Five P's framework. As a result, a teacher can easily share the broad range of policy options with students. They, in turn, can then assess which instrument or combination of instruments best fits the particular situation. The DELPF editors have kindly invited me to set out the Five P's as a teaching tool for other professors to assign as a class reading or incorporate in their lecture notes. Easy to remember, over the years it has proven a user-friendly and effective approach in the classroom.


This study addresses the problem critics have faced in identifying contemporary perceptions of the barber, surgeon and barber-surgeon in early modernity by examining the literature, predominantly the drama, from the period. The name 'barber-surgeon' is not given formally to any character in extant early modern plays; only within the dialogue or during stage business is a character labelled the barber-surgeon. Barbers and surgeons are simultaneously separate and doubled-up characters. The differences and cross-pollinations between their practices play out across the literature and tell us not just about their cultural, civic and occupational histories but also about how we interpret patterns in language, onomastics, dramaturgy, materiality, acoustics and semiology. Accordingly, the argument in this study is structured thematically and focuses on the elements of performance, moving from discussions of names to discussions of settings and props, disguises, stage directions and semiotics, and from sound effects and music, to voices and rhetorical turns. In doing so, it questions what it means in early modernity to have a developed literary identity, or be deprived of one. The barber-surgeon is a trope in early modern literature because he has a tangible social impact and an historical meaning derived from his barbery and surgery roots, and consequently a richly allusive idiom which exerted attraction for audiences. But the figure of the barber-surgeon can also be a trope in investigating how representation works. An aesthetic of doubleness, which this study finds to be diversely constructed, prevails in barbers, surgeons' and barber-surgeons' literary conception, and the barber-surgeon in the popular imagination is created from opposing cultural stereotypes. The literature from the period demonstrates why a guild union of barbers and surgeons was never harmonious: they are opposing dramaturgical as well as medical figures. This study has a wide-ranging literary corpus, including early modern play texts, ballads, pamphlets, guild records, dictionaries, inventories, medical treatises and archaeological material, and contributes to the critical endeavours of the medical humanities, cultural materialists, theatre historians and linguists.


Mindfulness practice and protocols—often referred to as mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs)—have become increasingly popular in every sector of society, including healthcare, education, business, and government. Due to this exponential growth, thoughtful reflection is needed to understand the implications of, and interactions between, the historical context of mindfulness (insights and traditions that have been cultivated over the past 25 centuries) and its recent history (the adaptation and applications within healthcare, therapeutic and modern culture, primarily since the 1980s).
 Research has shown that MBIs have significant health benefits including decreased stress, insomnia, anxiety, and panic, along with enhancing personal well-being, perceptual sensitivity, processing speed, empathy, concentration, reaction time, motor skills, and cognitive performance including short- and long-term memory recall and academic performance. As with any adaptation, skillful decisions have to be made about what is included and excluded. Concerns and critiques have been raised by clinicians, researchers, and Buddhist scholars about the potential impact that the decontextualization of mindfulness from its original roots may have on the efficacy, content, focus, and delivery of MBIs. By honoring and reflecting on the insights, intentions, and work from both historical and contemporary perspectives of mindfulness, the field can support the continued development of effective, applicable, and accessible interventions and programs.


In this paper, an automatic 3D model extraction from aerial images is proposed. The system is based on the H.264 video encoder that is used for 3D information extraction and compression. In order to obtain a disparity map from the sequence of aerial images, motion vectors received from the H.264 encoder motion estimation algorithm are used. The main drawback using motion estimation for disparity generation is computational noise. A new statistical approach is proposed to estimate the disparity of building surfaces from a noisy motion estimation map. A method for disparity compression for further transmission is also suggested. The proposed algorithm can be integrated in the H.264 encoder for fully automatic 3D urban scene extraction and compression. Tests are performed on real video sequences taken from several sites from various airborne camera heights.


Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have an ability to migrate in the organism to injured tissue to exert influence on inflammation and reparation in these regions. The aim of this study was to determine the optimal time of MSCs transplantation for myocardial reparation in rat experimental heart failure. The experiments were carried out on inbred line Wistar-Kyoto rats. Myocardial experimental infarction (EI) was induced by ligation of the left descending coronary artery. MSCs were isolated from bone marrow, cultivated in vitro and injected into the tail vein on the day of experimental infarction operation. It was shown that the time of MSCs transplantation exerted an essential influence on angiogenesis in a damaged myocardium, on ventricular dilatation and morphological structure of the scar. The best time for MSCs transplantation was determined within two days before EI, and seven days after EI. As a result, the overload of the border zone of infarct region decreased, and no features of infarction relapse were shown in the border zone.


ABSTRACT Nostalgia has recently garnered attention in the field of leisure, and a leisure nostalgia scale (LNS) has been developed. However, the LNS was initially developed and validated in one Eastern country, Singapore, and has not been tested with other populations for its applicability. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the invariance of the LNS to determine if the specified factorial structure of the scale is identical across different leisure populations in the UK and Singapore. The results showed that the LNS presented the same number of factors from the UK and Singapore data sets and supported the stability of the LNS factor structure, indicating that it can be confidently applied across different leisure populations from different countries. Although the LNS was fairly invariant across the two data sets, the findings revealed three items in socialisation and three items in personal identity to be non-invariant. The results of this study contribute to expanding future nostalgia research and a deeper understanding of leisure nostalgia.


How do competitors react to each other's price-promotion and advertising actions? How do these reactions influence the net sales impact we observe? We answer these questions by performing a large-scale empirical study of the short-run and long-run reactions to promotion and advertising shocks in over 400 consumer product categories, over a four-year time span. Competitive reaction can be passive, accommodating or retaliatory. We first develop a series of expectations on the type and intensity of reaction behavior, and on the moderators of this behavior. These expectations are assessed in two ways. First, vector-autoregressive models quantify the short-run and long-run effect of a promotion or advertising action on competitive sales and on competitive reactions. By cataloging the numerical results, we are able to formulate empirical generalizations of reaction behavior ("how do they react?"). Second, we estimate structural models of reaction intensity, in function of various market and competitive characteristics ("what are the drivers of reaction?"). Finally, by comparing our findings on reaction behavior with those on promotion and advertising effectiveness, we are able to evaluate competitive reaction behavior ("are they reacting as they should?"). A major finding is that competitive reaction is predominantly passive. When it is present, it is usually retaliatory in the same instrument, but accommodating or retaliatory in a different instrument. There are very few long-run consequences of any type of reaction behavior. We also report on several moderating effects that are in line with expectations, and that support the presence of a certain amount of rationality in competitive reaction behavior. The net impact of the over-time effects of advertising and price-promotion attacks, competitive reactions and the sales effectiveness of each, is that competitors' sales are generally not affected, and especially not in the long run. We weigh the evidence that this sales neutrality is "natural" (i.e., due to the nature of consumer response) versus "managed" (i.e., due to the vigilance and effectiveness of competitors), and conclude in favor of the former.


Energy efficient current control methods in electromagnetic linear actuators are required to minimize the electrical power requirements imposed by active vibration control strategies. In this paper an efficient bidirectional buck-boost converter is discussed in two scenarios: an active vibration isolation system and an active dynamic vibration absorber ( ADVA ) using a voice coil motor (VCM) actuator. An electrical analogous circuit of an experimental test platform is used as part of the simulation model. This test platform is based on a vibration shaker that provides the based excitation required for the single Degree of-Freedom (1DoF) vibration model under study. The proposed bidirectional non-isolated buck-boost converter can recover the energy when the VCM acts as a generator and store it for future use. Simulation results prove that this type of topology is far more efficient than linear amplifiers typically used in active vibration control. Within the context of slender structures, this efficient current control method improves the viability of using active vibration control in flexible structures such as beams.


Currently, the effect of human impact on the environment is becoming increasingly apparent. The encroachment of human activity has inevitably resulted in the loss or impairment of ecological goods and services (EG&S) around the globe as well as in our own backyard. EG&S include features such as wildlife habitat, biodiversity, soil renewal, or nutrient cycling. The loss of such features has become a sobering reality for Manitobans in the face of the utrophication of Lake Winnipeg as a result of practices contributing to nutrient loading into the lake. Since EG&S are very important to Manitobans, efforts are being made to explore different vehicles to encourage their provision. In order to address some of the environmental issues transpiring in Manitoba, there has been discussion on the usefulness of Market Based Instruments (MBIs). In the past, a number of programs focused on the environment in agriculture have been put forward and administered, however these have not been overly successful in incenting producers or providing significant levels of EG&S. This report will provide a summary of a series of workshops developed to bring awareness to stakeholders on an MBI known as a conservation auction (which may also be referred to as reverse auction, procurement auction, or tender).


With the improvement of accuracy requirements for industrial products, the precise injection molding is replacing the traditional injection molding quickly and widely. Many factors influence the quality of injection-molded parts greatly, such as the property of the plastics, mold structure and the manufacturing accuracy, injecting machine and the injecting process parameters. In this paper, the work is emphasized for the influence of mold structure on the quality of injection-molded parts. Eight portions of injection mold are analyzed, including the cavities and cores, the guide components, the runner system, the ejection system, the side-core pulling mechanism, the temperature balance system, the venting system and the supporting parts. The structural characteristics of the above eight portions are presented.


We investigated the viscoelastic response of model interphase chromosomes by tracking the three-dimensional motion of hundreds of dispersed Brownian particles of sizes ranging from the thickness of the chromatin fiber up to slightly above the mesh size of the chromatin solution. In agreement with previous computational studies on polymer solutions and melts, we found that the large-time behaviour of the diffusion coefficient and the experienced viscosity of moving particles as functions of particle size deviate from the traditional Stokes-Einstein relation and agree with a recent scaling theory of diffusion of non-sticky particles in polymer solutions. Interestingly, we found that at short times large particles are temporarily "caged" by chromatin spatial constraints, which thus form effective domains whose sizes match remarkably well with recent experimental results for micro-tracers inside interphase nuclei. Finally, by employing a known mathematical relation between the time mean-square displacement of tracked particles and the complex shear modulus of the surrounding solution, we calculated the elastic and viscous moduli of interphase chromosomes.


Cognitive neuroscience has recently begun to extend its focus from the isolated individual mind to two or more individuals coordinating with each other. In this study we uncover a coordination of neural activity between the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) of two people—a person speaking and a person listening. The EEG of one set of twelve participants ("speakers") was recorded while they were narrating short stories. The EEG of another set of twelve participants ("listeners") was recorded while watching audiovisual recordings of these stories. Specifically, listeners watched the superimposed videos of two speakers simultaneously and were instructed to attend either to one or the other speaker. This allowed us to isolate neural coordination due to processing the communicated content from the effects of sensory input. We find several neural signatures of communication: First, the EEG is more similar among listeners attending to the same speaker than among listeners attending to different speakers, indicating that listeners' EEG reflects content-specific information. Secondly, listeners' EEG activity correlates with the attended speakers' EEG, peaking at a time delay of about 12.5 s. This correlation takes place not only between homologous, but also between non-homologous brain areas in speakers and listeners. A semantic analysis of the stories suggests that listeners coordinate with speakers at the level of complex semantic representations, so-called "situation models". With this study we link a coordination of neural activity between individuals directly to verbally communicated information.


Today, worldwide, employers in the industry are often dissatisfied with modern engineering education, which is not adapted to the needs of business. Governments in all European countries face the problem of low student motivation to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Students are dissatisfied with university education, describing it as "outdated, impractical and uninteresting". University professors are dissatisfied with the declining competencies in STEM and motivation to learn of young people. A huge challenge for all university professors is to find teaching methods that increase the motivation of the new generation of students, "students of the digital era, students of the seven screens", especially when studying subjects related to mathematics, which are extremely difficult and repulsive according to the students in recent years. In the conditions of the pandemic of COVID 19, when it was necessary to immediately switch to online learning, in the last academic year (2019-2020), the teaching staff was faced with the need to generate many similar assignments for students to avoid the possibility of deception ("copy and paste") of the students during the tests, as well as by "filling in the time" in order not to allow one student to solve the assignment of another student for the duration of the test. All this necessitated the creation of the application in MS Excel, described in the paper, which would solve the task assigned to the students. The paper briefly presents the methods applied during the last academic year in the study of a STEM-based course, and in particular one of the sections studied in the course, which requires a fairly good mathematical background of students - operating with fractions, solving systems of equations, matrix calculation, etc.


A group of doctors, healthcare experts, and lawyers in Germany are in the final stages of drafting a detailed proposal for establishing the nation's first national mortality registry, which could be used for medical, social, and public health research.

Ulrich Mueller, co-chairman of the 12 member working group that is drafting the proposal for the national death index, told the BMJ that attempts in the past to establish such a registry had failed, blocked by Germany's stringent privacy laws and opposition from privacy advocates.

Dr Mueller, director of the Institute of Medical Sociology and Social Medicine at the University of Marburg, in the central state of Hesse, said that the proposal would probably be completed in June and would include recommendations for quality and procedural standards of a mortality registry and how those recommendations could …


Author(s): Trumbauer, Eric Michael | Advisor(s): Mease, Kenneth D | Abstract: This research develops automated, on-board trajectory planning algorithms in order to support current and new mission concepts. These include orbiter missions to Phobos or Deimos, Outer Planet Moon orbiters, and robotic and crewed missions to small bodies. The challenges stem from the limited on-board computing resources which restrict full trajectory optimization with guaranteed convergence in complex dynamical environments. The approach taken consists of leveraging pre-mission computations to create a large database of pre-computed orbits and arcs. Such a database is used to generate a discrete representation of the dynamics in the form of a directed graph, which acts to index these arcs. This allows the use of graph search algorithms on-board in order to provide good approximate solutions to the path planning problem. Coupled with robust differential correction and optimization techniques, this enables the determination of an efficient path between any boundary conditions with very little time and computing effort. Furthermore, the optimization methods developed here based on sequential convex programming are shown to have provable convergence properties, as well as generating feasible major iterates in case of a system interrupt - a key requirement for on-board application. The outcome of this project is thus the development of an algorithmic framework which allows the deployment of this approach in a variety of specific mission contexts. Test cases related to missions of interest to NASA and JPL such as a Phobos orbiter and a Near Earth Asteroid interceptor are demonstrated, including the results of an implementation on the RAD750 flight processor. This method fills a gap in the toolbox being developed to create fully autonomous space exploration systems.


Abstract. Both chemical and mechanical processes
act together to control the weathering rate of rocks. In rocks with
micrometer size grains, enhanced dissolution at grain boundaries has been
observed to cause the mechanical detachment of particles. However, it remains
unclear how important this effect is in rocks with larger grains, and how the
overall weathering rate is influenced by the proportion of high- and
low-reactivity mineral phases. Here, we use a numerical model to assess the
effect of grain size on chemical weathering and chemo-mechanical grain
detachment. Our model shows that as grain size increases, the weathering rate
initially decreases; however, beyond a critical size no significant decrease
in the rate is observed. This transition occurs when the density of reactive
boundaries is less than ∼  20 % of the entire domain. In addition,
we examined the weathering rates of rocks containing different proportions of
high- and low-reactivity minerals. We found that as the proportion of
low-reactivity minerals increases, the weathering rate decreases nonlinearly.
These simulations indicate that for all compositions, grain detachment
contributes more than 36 % to the overall weathering rate, with a maximum
of ∼  50 % when high- and low-reactivity minerals are equally
abundant in the rock. This occurs because selective dissolution of the
high-reactivity minerals creates large clusters of low-reactivity minerals,
which then become detached. Our results demonstrate that the balance between
chemical and mechanical processes can create complex and nonlinear
relationships between the weathering rate and lithology.


We study the survival of ultrahigh energy nuclei injected in clusters of galaxies, as well as their secondary neutrino and photon emissions, using a complete numerical propagation method and a realistic modeling of the magnetic, baryonic, and photonic backgrounds. It is found that the survival of heavy nuclei highly depends on the injection position and on the profile of the magnetic field. Taking into account the limited lifetime of the central source could also lead in some cases to the detection of a cosmic-ray afterglow, temporally decorrelated from neutrino and gamma-ray emissions. We calculate that the diffusive neutrino flux around 1 PeV coming from clusters of galaxies may have a chance to be detected by current instruments. The observation of single sources in neutrinos and in gamma rays produced by ultrahigh energy cosmic rays will be more difficult. Signals coming from lower energy cosmic rays (E ≲ 1 PeV), if they exist, might however be detected by Fermi, for reasonable sets of parameters.


Prince Albert said that Wheatstone was dasiain a parental position to our telegraph systempsila. Was that description justified? The practical electric telegraph began with the work of Cooke and Wheatstone in Britain and of Morse in the USA. The first commercial installation was arranged by Cooke, using Wheatstonepsilas dasiafive-needlepsila instruments, on the Great Western Railway. It led to the formation of the Electric Telegraph Company and the rapid development of the telegraph network. When Morse came to London, seeking an English patent, he met Wheatstone, and probably also Cooke. They discussed possible cooperation, but the discussions came to nothing.


Author(s): Pelger, Markus | Advisor(s): Anderson, Robert M. | Abstract: My dissertation explores how tail risk and systematic risk affects various aspects of risk management and asset pricing. My research contributions are in econometric and statistical theory, in finance theory and empirical data analysis. In Chapter 1 I develop the statistical inferential theory for high-frequency factor modeling. In Chapter 2 I apply these methods in an extensive empirical study. In Chapter 3 I analyze the effect of jumps on asset pricing in arbitrage-free markets. Chapter 4 develops a general structural credit risk model with endogenous default and tail risk and analyzes the incentive effects of contingent capital. Chapter 5 derives various evaluation models for contingent capital with tail risk.Chapter 1 develops a statistical theory to estimate an unknown factor structure based on financial high-frequency data. I derive a new estimator for the number of factors and derive consistent and asymptotically mixed-normal estimators of the loadings and factors under the assumption of a large number of cross-sectional and high-frequency observations. The estimation approach can separate factors for normal "continuous" and rare jump risk. The estimators for the loadings and factors are based on the principal component analysis of the quadratic covariation matrix. The estimator for the number of factors uses a perturbed eigenvalue ratio statistic. The results are obtained under general conditions, that allow for a very rich class of stochastic processes and for serial and cross-sectional correlation in the idiosyncratic components.Chapter 2 is an empirical application of my high-frequency factor estimation techniques. Under a large dimensional approximate factor model for asset returns, I use high-frequency data for the SaP 500 firms to estimate the latent continuous and jump factors. I estimate four very persistent continuous systematic factors for 2007 to 2012 and three from 2003 to 2006. These four continuous factors can be approximated very well by a market, an oil, a finance and an electricity portfolio. The value, size and momentum factors play no significant role in explaining these factors. For the time period 2003 to 2006 the finance factor seems to disappear. There exists only one persistent jump factor, namely a market jump factor. Using implied volatilities from option price data, I analyze the systematic factor structure of the volatilities. There is only one persistent market volatility factor, while during the financial crisis an additional temporary banking volatility factor appears. Based on the estimated factors, I can decompose the leverage effect, i.e. the correlation of the asset return with its volatility, into a systematic and an idiosyncratic component. The negative leverage effect is mainly driven by the systematic component, while it can be non-existent for idiosyncratic risk.In Chapter 3 I analyze the effect of jumps on asset pricing in arbitrage-free markets and I show that jumps have to come as a surprise in an arbitrage-free market. I model asset prices in the most general sensible form as special semimartingales. This approach allows me to also include jumps in the asset price process. I show that the existence of an equivalent martingale measure, which is essentially equivalent to no-arbitrage, implies that the asset prices cannot exhibit predictable jumps. Hence, in arbitrage-free markets the occurrence and the size of any jump of the asset price cannot be known before it happens. In practical applications it is basically not possible to distinguish between predictable and unpredictable discontinuities in the price process. The empirical literature has typically assumed as an identification condition that there are no predictable jumps. My result shows that this identification condition follows from the existence of an equivalent martingale measure, and hence essentially comes for free in arbitrage-free markets.Chapter 4 is joint work with Behzad Nouri, Nan Chen and Paul Glasserman. Contingent capital in the form of debt that converts to equity as a bank approaches financial distress offers a potential solution to the problem of banks that are too big to fail. This chapter studies the design of contingent convertible bonds and their incentive effects in a structural model with endogenous default, debt rollover, and tail risk in the form of downward jumps in asset value. We show that once a firm issues contingent convertibles, the shareholders' optimal bankruptcy boundary can be at one of two levels: a lower level with a lower default risk or a higher level at which default precedes conversion. An increase in the firm's total debt load can move the firm from the first regime to the second, a phenomenon we call debt-induced collapse because it is accompanied by a sharp drop in equity value. We show that setting the contractual trigger for conversion sufficiently high avoids this hazard. With this condition in place, we investigate the effect of contingent capital and debt maturity on capital structure, debt overhang, and asset substitution. We also calibrate the model to past data on the largest U.S. bank holding companies to see what impact contingent convertible debt might have had under the conditions of the financial crisis.Chapter 5 develops and compares different modeling approaches for contingent capital with tail risk, debt rollover and endogenous default. In order to apply contingent convertible capital in practice it is desirable to base the conversion on observable market prices that can constantly adjust to new information in contrast to accounting triggers. I show how to use credit spreads and the risk premium of credit default swaps to construct the conversion trigger and to evaluate the contracts under this specification.