Summary To evaluate the impact of two predominant management types (mowing vs. tilling) in olive groves on plant diversity, we have surveyed olive groves at ten localities in the surroundings of Sibenik (Dalmatia, Croatia). Among the surveyed groves, 12 were managed by tilling and 11 were managed by mowing. Altogether 323 taxa from 207 genera and 58 families were recorded. Th e families with the highest numbers of taxa were Fabaceae, Poaceae, Cichoriaceae and Asteraceae. Mowed olive groves were signifi cantly richer in fl ora (280 taxa) in relation to the tilled ones (181 taxa), with 138 taxa in common to the both management types. An analysis of the life forms showed the domination of therophytes (54.18%) and the phytogeographycal analysis showed that the most frequent fl oral element was Mediterranean (46.13%). Mowed olive groves almost exclusively contained endemic and endangered species while the invasive alien plant taxa were recorded mostly in the tilled olive groves. Mowing seems as much better management practice from the standpoint of the nature conservation. Based on its fl oristic composition and richness, tillage seems to completely remove the nursing effthat olive groves can provide for the dry grasslands listed in the Annex I of the Habitat Directive, which are otherwise, in open spaces without grazing exposed to disappearing through the process of secondary succession.


The iterated prisoner's dilemma is a game that produces many counter-intuitive and complex behaviors in a social environment, based on very simple basic rules. It illustrates that cooperation can be a good thing even in a competitive world, that individual fitness needs not to be the most important criteria of success, and that some strategies are very strong in a direct confrontation but could still perform poorly on average or are evolutionarily unstable. In this contribution, we present a strategy -- PREDICTOR -- which appears to be "sentient" and chooses to cooperate when playing against some strategies, but defects when playing against others, without the need to record "tags" for its opponents or an involved decision-making mechanism. To be able to operate in the highly-contextual environment, as modeled by the iterated prisoner's dilemma, PREDICTOR learns from its experience to choose optimal actions by modeling its opponent and predicting a (fictive) future.
It is shown that PREDICTOR is an efficient strategy for playing the iterated prisoner's dilemma and is simple to implement. In a simulated and representative tournament, it achieves high average scores and wins the tournament for various parameter settings. PREDICTOR thereby relies on a brief phase of exploration to improve its model, and it can evolve morality from intrinsically selfish behavior.


We describe an extension of the SPIN model checker for use on multicore shared-memory systems and report on its performance. We show how, with proper load balancing, the time requirements of a verification run can, in some cases, be reduced close to N-fold when N processing cores are used. We also analyze the types of verification problems for which multicore algorithms cannot provide relief. The extensions discussed here require only relatively small changes in the SPIN source code and are compatible with most existing verification modes such as partial order reduction, the verification of temporal logic formulas, bitstate hashing, and hash-compact compression.


Northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) are an economically important species for several regions within the state of Texas. Bobwhites, along with their fiscal importance, fill a key role within the ecosystem as an r-selected common prey species. However, throughout the past few decades, bobwhite populations have plummeted to record lows. Currently many studies are investigating possible causes behind this precipitous decline, but efforts to discover better land management practices that provide preferred habitat for bobwhites should not be abandoned. Current landscape recommendations related to bobwhite escape cover stem from data collected on anthropogenic threats to bobwhites (i.e., coveys flushed by human disturbance). Bobwhites have a multitude of non-anthropogenic threats in the wild, and the existing data may lack important information regarding threat-specific avoidance behavior. Predation is a primary cause of bobwhite mortality, and we focused on bobwhite anti-predatory behavior and resulting land-use strategies with an ultimate goal of providing management recommendations to increase bobwhite survival. We designed and conducted an experiment to investigate not only bobwhite responses to anthropogenic threats, but also their responses to common natural predators. We investigated bobwhite behavioral and use of cover actions in response to 4 threat types: researchers, hunters, raptors, and nocturnal mammals. We collected data from January through March in 2010 and from November 2010 through March 2011. We measured characteristics of bobwhite flushing behavior, flight speed, and land and vegetative use when presented with specific threats. We located radio-marked coveys and conducted a walk-through for the researcher threat, if necessary, to cause the birds to flush. The hunter and raptor threats were conducted similarly with introduction of pointing dogs and shotgun blasts for the hunting scenario, and introduction of a trained northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) to give chase to bobwhites in the raptor scenario. We followed the same methods as the researcher treatment when creating the nocturnal mammal treatment, but conducted the test at night and followed the birds' flight with a thermal imaging scope. There was a significant difference in landing cover among threat types with bobwhites selecting shrubs for landing cover when pursued by a raptor (P , 0.0001), whereas they showed no selection for shrubs when flushed by the other threat types. Bobwhites landed in live oak (Quercus virginianus) mottes and hackberry (Celtis reticulata) shrubs with the highest frequency, followed closely by wolfberry (Lycium barbarum), lote bush (Ziziphyus obtusifolia), and Englemann's pricklypear (Opuntia engelmannii) when escaping the raptorial threat, These 5 species accounted for 49% of all shrubs used (19 total species) as escape cover in the raptor treatment. Obstructive vegetative height was higher at landing sites when bobwhites were presented with a raptor (P , 0.0001) or hunter (P 1⁄4 0.033) threat; however, bobwhites displayed no selection for obstructive vegetative height when presented with a researcher or nocturnal mammal threat. Further analyses will include modeling environmental and experimental parameters to find likely predictors of bobwhite threat avoidance behaviors, such as flushing speed, flight speed, and flight distance; behaviors that arguably affect energy expenditure and may interact with bobwhite health and predator avoidance capabilities. Our results suggest that land management recommendations based solely on anthropogenic threats may be insufficient to enable successful bobwhite escape strategies from raptors. Considering the availability and 'integrity' of shrubs as escape cover from raptors when contemplating brush management plans may enhance bobwhite management. We expect to provide threat-specific land management recommendations for bobwhites related to shrub species and density as well as grass density with continued analysis of these data. Citation: Perkins, R., C. W. Boal, D. Rollins, and R. M. Perez. 2012. Threat avoidance behavior and land use of the northern bobwhite in the Rolling Plains of Texas. Proceedings of the National Quail Symposium 7:272.


The crystal structure of Bacillus subtilis thiamin phosphate synthase complexed with the reaction products thiamin phosphate and pyrophosphate has been determined by multiwavelength anomalous diffraction phasing techniques and refined to 1.25 A resolution. Thiamin phosphate synthase is an alpha/beta protein with a triosephosphate isomerase fold. The active site is in a pocket formed primarily by the loop regions, residues 59-67 (A loop, joining alpha3 and beta2), residues 109-114 (B loop, joining alpha5 and beta4), and residues 151-168 (C loop, joining alpha7 and beta6). The high-resolution structure of thiamin phosphate synthase complexed with its reaction products described here provides a detailed picture of the catalytically important interactions between the enzyme and the substrates. The structure and other mechanistic studies are consistent with a reaction mechanism involving the ionization of 4-amino-2-methyl-5-hydroxymethylpyrimidine pyrophosphate at the active site to give the pyrimidine carbocation. Trapping of the carbocation by the thiazole followed by product dissociation completes the reaction. The ionization step is catalyzed by orienting the C-O bond perpendicular to the plane of the pyrimidine, by hydrogen bonding between the C4' amino group and one of the terminal oxygen atoms of the pyrophosphate, and by extensive hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions between the pyrophosphate and the enzyme.


We consider communication over a noisy network under randomized linear network coding. Possible error mechanisms include node- or link-failures, Byzantine behavior of nodes, or an overestimate of the network min-cut. Building on the work of Kötter and Kschischang, we introduce a systematic oblivious random channel model. Within this model, codewords contain a header (this is the systematic part). The header effectively records the coefficients of the linear encoding functions, thus simplifying the decoding task. Under this constraint, errors are modeled as random low-rank perturbations of the transmitted codeword. We compute the capacity of this channel and we define an error-correction scheme based on random sparse graphs and a low-complexity decoding algorithm. By optimizing over the code degree profile, we show that this construction achieves the channel capacity in complexity which is jointly quadratic in the number of coded information bits and sublogarithmic in the error probability.


Objective To compare the safety and efficacy of midazolam given intranasally with diazepam given intravenously in the treatment of children with prolonged febrile seizures. Design Prospective randomised study. Setting Paediatric emergency department in a general hospital. Subjects 47 children aged six months to five years with prolonged febrile seizure (at least 10 minutes) during a 12 month period. Interventions Intranasal midazolam (0.2 mg/kg) and intravenous diazepam (0.3 mg/kg). Main outcome measures Time from arrival at hospital to starting treatment and cessation of seizures. Results Intranasal midazolam and intravenous diazepam were equally effective. Overall, 23 of 26 seizures were controlled with midazolam and 24 out of 26 with diazepam. The mean time from arrival at hospital to starting treatment was significantly shorter in the midazolam group (3.5 (SD 1.8) minutes, 95% confidence interval 3.3 to 3.7) than the diazepam group (5.5 (2.0), 5.3 to 5.7). The mean time to control of seizures was significantly sooner (6.1 (3.6), 6.3 to 6.7) in the midazolam group than the diazepam group (8.0 (0.5), 7.9 to 8.3). No significant side effects were observed in either group. Conclusion Seizures were controlled more quickly with intravenous diazepam than with intranasal midazolam, although midazolam was as safe and effective as diazepam. The overall time to cessation of seizures after arrival at hospital was faster with intranasal midazolam than with intravenous diazepam. The intranasal route can possibly be used not only in medical centres but in general practice and, with appropriate instructions, by families of children with recurrent febrile seizures at home.


Remote sensing of position detection and motion detection plays an important part in the welfare filed of human social life. Privacy is a serious problem when detecting human position and motion. A position sensitive device (PSD) only detects the position of a light target without detailed image of human. For detecting multiple light targets, there are various problems such as synchronized light source and noise in daily life space. In this study, we suggest a method using modulated light targets to separate different light targets and eliminate the noise in daily life space for motion detection of a PSD. The target light intensity is modulated with different high frequency source for different targets, so that the noise in daily life space can be eliminated and the positions of different targets can be separated by using band-pass filters. Experimental results showed this method is effective.


Using an experimental model of stroke in mice, we found that the gut breaks down, releasing bacteria into the body. This results in infection. We carried out a FITC dextran gut permeability assay to confirm that the gut becomes leaky and a BaSO4 tracer and CT imaging to confirm that constipation occurs. By peeling the gut and using confocal microscopy, we are able to visualised the enteric nervous system in the gut to study how stroke signals mediate gut breakdown.


Abacavir administration is associated with drug‐induced hypersensitivity reactions in HIV+ individuals expressing the HLA‐B*57:01 allele. However, the immunological effects of abacavir administration in an HLA‐B57 mismatched transplantation setting have not been studied. We hypothesized that abacavir exposure could induce de novo HLA‐B57‐specific allorecognition. HIV‐specific CD8 T cell clones were generated from HIV+ individuals, using single cell sorting based on HIV peptide/HLA tetramer staining. The T cell clones were assayed for alloreactivity against a panel of single HLA‐expressing cell lines, in the presence or absence of abacavir. Cytokine assay, CD137 upregulation, and cytotoxicity were used as readout. Abacavir exposure can induce de novo HLA‐B57 allorecognition by HIV‐specific T cells. A HIV Gag RK9/HLA‐A3‐specific T cell did exhibit interferon‐γ production, CD137 upregulation, and cytolytic effector function against allogeneic HLA‐B57, but only in the presence of abacavir. Allorecognition was specific to the virus specificity, HLA restriction, and T cell receptor TRBV use of the T cell. We provide proof‐of‐principle evidence that administration of a drug could induce specific allorecognition of mismatched HLA molecules in the transplant setting. We suggest that HIV‐seropositive recipients of an HLA‐B57 mismatched graft should not receive abacavir until further studies are completed.


Insufficient knowledge exists regarding how to measure the presence and degree of integrated care. Prior estimates of integration levels are neither grounded in theory nor psychometrically validated. They provide scant guidance to inform improvement activities, compare integration efforts, discriminate among practices by degree of integration, measure the effect of integration on quadruple aim outcomes, or address the needs of clinicians, regulators, and policymakers seeking new models of health care delivery and funding. We describe the development of the Practice Integration Profile (PIP), a novel instrument designed to measure levels of integrated behavioral health care within a primary care clinic. The PIP draws upon the Agency for Health care Research & Quality's (AHRQ) Lexicon of Collaborative Care which provides theoretic justification for a paradigm case of collaborative care. We used the key clauses of the Lexicon to derive domains of integration and generate measures corresponding to those key clauses. After reviewing currently used methods for identifying collaborative care, or integration, and identifying the need to improve on them, we describe a national collaboration to describe and evaluate the PIP. We also describe its potential use in practice improvement, research, responsiveness to multiple stakeholder needs, and other future directions. (PsycINFO Database Record


Neuroendocrine tumors, including carcinoids account for less than 1% of gastric tumors. Various subtypes of gastric carcinoids have been reported earlier. The present case deals with two unusual presentations, diagnosis and course of a gastric neuroendocrine tumor in an adult patient. A 35-years-old male initially presented with gastric outlet obstruction for an antral growth in the emergency ward. He underwent radical gastrectomy and was diagnosed with a gastric carcinoid tumor, on histopathology. After 6 months, he developed hepatic along with nodular cutaneous lesions over the scalp. Aspiration cytology (FNAC) from these metastatic lesions showed two distinct cell types with rosette formation. Ultrastructural findings showed neurosecretory granules in some cells. Subsequently, he underwent 2 cycles of chemotherapy. After a total duration of 9 months, he finally succumbed to the disease. We present a case of a gastric adenocarcinoid tumor, with 2 rare presentations. The metastatic lesions exhibited neuroendocrine features on cytology and electron microscopy.


The success of deep convolutional architectures is often attributed in part to their ability to learn multiscale and invariant representations of natural signals. However, a precise study of these properties and how they affect learning guarantees is still missing. In this paper, we consider deep convolutional representations of signals; we study their invariance to translations and to more general groups of transformations, their stability to the action of diffeomorphisms, and their ability to preserve signal information. This analysis is carried by introducing a multilayer kernel based on convolutional kernel networks and by studying the geometry induced by the kernel mapping. We then characterize the corresponding reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS), showing that it contains a large class of convolutional neural networks with homogeneous activation functions. This analysis allows us to separate data representation from learning, and to provide a canonical measure of model complexity, the RKHS norm, which controls both stability and generalization of any learned model. In addition to models in the constructed RKHS, our stability analysis also applies to convolutional networks with generic activations such as rectified linear units, and we discuss its relationship with recent generalization bounds based on spectral norms.


Foster care is a temporary placement of children and youth with others outside of their home due to child abuse or neglect. Since its 19 century origins, the foster care system has evolved to focus on three goals of providing safety, well-being, and permanency until the child leaves the system, either by reunification, adoption, or "aging out". Because these youth often "age out" without a home, job, or support system, programs such as the Life Skills Program and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative are working toward providing this population with skills that will assist them in successfully aging out of the system. The Young Adults Establishing Self-Sufficiency (YESS) Program, a pilot program designed to help youth who have aged out to establish self-sufficiency was the focus of this exploratory, qualitative study, designed to examine what older foster youth know about YESS and how they believe it will help them. Focusing on their knowledge of YESS, 11 older foster youths were interviewed in groups. It was found that those who knew about YESS are already enrolled or have taken steps to apply. Because of the perceived helpfulness of YESS, it is necessary that the social work profession develop and promote YESS and similar programs.


Selection combining (SC) with full channel state information (CS!) achieves full diversity order in a decode-and-forward (DF) relaying system. However, the estimation of CSI of all the links is a cumbersome process. As an alternative, switched-diversity techniques have been proposed in the literature, in which CSI of all the links are not simultaneously required. In this paper, we compare the variants of the switched-diversity and full-CSI SC schemes through a paired error approach for a multiDF-relaying-based cooperative diversity system. We derive the exact symbol error probability (SEP) expressions for the full-CSI SC, switch-and-examine combining (SEC), and SEC with postselection (SECps) schemes, considering M-ary phase-shift keying (MPSK) signaling over slow, flat, independent, and nonidentical Nakagami-m fading channels. It is to be noted that the derived SEP expressions are valid for integer values of fading severity parameter m. In addition, we also present the closed-form asymptotic SEP expressions for MPSK signaling to evaluate the diversity order. Concisely, from the numerical results, it is observed that the SECps scheme is able to offer the same performance as that of the full-CSI SC scheme. Furthermore, the SECps scheme outperforms the SEC scheme with more CSI.


Primary radiation force subjects contrast agent particles to movement which can yield wrong Doppler shift. A known model of this movement is extended to include bubble oscillations. This allows to predict full spectrum of the returned signal, hence the model is useful for second–harmonic imaging. Analytical method to calculate steady–state velocity from parameters like bubble diameter, ultrasound pressure and frequency is provided; some simulation peculiarities are explained. Trajectory and response of a single bubble for two different Doppler angles were simulated using Matlab. A resonant bubble carried by 10 cm/s water flow exhibits almost no Doppler shift if irradiated forward flow by 46 kPa CW ultrasound. A drawback of the model – very long simulation time. Il. 4, bibl. 4 (in English; summaries in English, Russian and Lithuanian).


The article elaborates on the links between low participation of women in the Polish public sphere and processes of communication, education and socialisation. Drawing on my earlier research on women in the Polish media, I analyse diverse gender roles constructed discursively in handbooks for first, second and third grade pupils of Polish elementary schools. The schoolbooks are treated here as key tools in educating future participants of the public sphere whose 'preferences, values and standpoints – of consumers and citizens – are created in the earlier processes of education' (Jurgen Habermas). Analysing the schoolbooks, I point to the links between the processes of socialisation (and communication of gender roles – in private and public life – via schoolbooks and other teaching materials), the social construction of gender identities and the reasons of the still very low participation of women in the Polish public sphere.


Abstract During the 17th century, in a new contested tradition known as Theories of the Earth, conventions for the visual representation of the Earth as a whole developed alongside the expression of biblical idiom. Global depictions carried embedded biblical idiom that shaped the formulation of questions, the development of theories, and the exchange of discoveries and ideas. In several examples I contrast the varying ways in which biblical idiom was expressed within global depictions, particularly hexameral idiom (i.e. the language of the six day creation in Genesis 1). I discuss the Jesuit mathematician Gabriele Beati and meteorological and cosmic sections; the cosmogonic sections and hexameral idiom of Robert Fludd; the geogonic sections and hexameral idiom of René Descartes; the apocalyptic idiom of Thomas Burnet; and the global depictions and hexameral idiom of William Whiston in the controversy over Burnet. Biblical and particularly hexameral idiom proved durable and versatile for more than a century after Fludd, and facilitated the development of a directionalist sense of Earth history. The continuities of visual conventions, the durability of hexameral idiom, and the contrasts of disciplinary perspectives and local contexts observed in the examples considered here conform well to the characterization of Theories of the Earth as a contested print tradition.


Background: Estrogen might help when there is a decrease in estrogen quantity or increase in estrogen receptor antagonization. These effects occur when we use oral agents for ovulation induction. The use of estradiol add-on needs more research to assess its value in ovulation induction. Doppler studies might be beneficial in the management of subfertility. Methods: This study is a randomized prospective study. We recruited subfertile Patients with PCOS or unexplained subfertility from the infertility unit at Al-Moosa Specialist Hospital in eastern province in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We randomized patients into four groups: clomiphene group, letrozole group, clomiphene with estrogen add-on group or letrozole with estrogen add-on group. We did a uterine and sub-endometrial doppler study on the hCG trigger day and on the mid-luteal phase day. We also studied endometrial thickness, pattern and vascularity zones. Results: When adding estradiol, there was a high cancellation rate for both clomiphene and letrozole groups (27.8%, 46.67% respectively) with a p-value of (0.007, 0.001 respectively). Conclusions: When using oral ovulation induction medications, it is not wise to add estradiol from day nine till ovulation day as it will be associated with a high cancellation rate.


The high prevalence of oral diseases in Burkina Faso, and the difficulty in accessing adequate care, have made the Ouagadougou municipality to create the Municipal Center of Oral Health (MCOH). This study was undertaken to assess the level of satisfaction of patients and staff at the MCOH. It aimed also at establishing the reasons for consultation and the treatments recommended to patients who attend the MCOH. The study was carried between the 1st of June and the 15th of July, 2012 and achieved by using a questionnaire. Five hundred and two (502) patients and 24 employees (96%) were interviewed. Endodontic emergencies represented 48.8% of the reasons for a consultation. Endodontic treatment was mostly undertaken (51%). The majority of patients (99%) would return to the MCOH to receive care. The level of satisfaction with the salaries was 54.2%. Despite this, 89% of the employees were motivated to go to work each day. The MCOH must emphasize on development of the quality of its management. Furthermore, it is important to ensure that employee suggestions are taken into account, as these are an important component of satisfactory patient treatment.

 Key words: Ouagadougou, patients, staff, satisfaction, reason for consultation, treatment.


We consider boundary value problems for semilinear hyperbolic systems of the type
$$
\partial_tu_j  + a_j(x,\la)\partial_xu_j + b_j(x,\la,u) = 0, \; x\in(0,1), \;j=1,\dots,n
$$
with smooth coefficient functions $a_j$
and $b_j$
such that
$b_j(x,\la,0) = 0$ for all $x \in [0,1]$, $\la \in \R$, and $j=1,\ldots,n$.
We state conditions for Hopf bifurcation, i.e.,
for existence, local uniqueness (up to phase shifts), smoothness and smooth dependence
on $\la$
of time-periodic solutions bifurcating from the zero stationary solution. Furthermore,
we derive a formula which determines the bifurcation direction.

The proof is done by means of a Liapunov-Schmidt reduction procedure.
For this purpose, Fredholm properties of the linearized
system and implicit function
theorem techniques are used.

There are at least two distinguishing features of Hopf bifurcation theorems for hyperbolic PDEs in comparison with those for parabolic PDEs or for ODEs:
First, the question if a non-degenerate time-periodic solution depends smoothly on the system parameters
is much more delicate. And second,
a sufficient amount of dissipativity is needed in the system, and a priori
it is not clear how to verify this in terms of the data of the PDEs and of the boundary conditions.


One of the roles of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory is a supporting-investigation data provider about bacterial patogens that may cause infection disease to the patients. Hence, it's accuracy is considered necessary. Living Bacteria in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory environment is one source of the contaminants to clinical sample, therefore misidentification can occur. Research objectives  were to isolate and identificatebacteriain the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory environment, RSUDZA Banda Aceh,  and to determine  its source. The research type was laboratory observations. The research samples were surfaces such as tables, wall, floor, Biosafety Cabinet (BSC), incubator, handle of door and refrigerator, computer keyboard, laboratory staffs' nasal mucosa and unwashed palm. Thirty four isolates were obtained from  25 samples. The identification result showed Gram positive rods bacteria,  Pantoea spp, Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus warneri, Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Staph. hominis spp hominis, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides, Citrobacter koseri, Burkholderia cepacia, Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Lactococcus garvieae, and Staphylococcus gallinarum


This letter proposes a novel local structure pattern, the generalized binary pattern (GBP), which can represent all possible binary patterns of ordered comparisons within a 3 × 3 neighborhood. Since most existing local structure patterns consider ordered comparisons of all neighboring pixels (8 or 9 pixels) around a given pixel, the number of possible binary patterns is fixed and limited to 256 (or 511). In contrast, our proposed GBP takes the ordered comparisons of some partial neighboring pixels (2 to 9 pixels) around a given pixel, which generates a total of 502 different structure types and thus extends the number of possible binary patterns to 19,162. Among these possible binary patterns, we choose an effective set of binary patterns for a given problem by means of the AdaBoost feature selection method. Experimental results show that our proposed GBP provides higher eye detection accuracy on the BioID and LFW face databases than other existing local structure patterns.


Overlapping elements can be used to connect non-conforming meshes in the finite-element method. This approach has been developed with the scalar potential formulation and used to solve magnetostatic problems but not in the case of the vector potential formulation. In this paper, we propose to introduce the overlapping element method in this second formulation.


Purpose: To present the results of 15 cases in which a modified technique of Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) with vent incisions was used to assist unfolding of tight peripheral inward folds. Methods: This is a retrospective case series of 15 consecutive eyes that underwent a modified vent incision technique for DMEK. Six oblique, small-size (1 mm) vent incisions parallel to the limbus and 3.5 mm from the center were performed after descemetorhexis. The graft was opened with standard no-touch techniques and was partially attached to the stroma with air injection. Then, in cases with remaining tight inward folds despite gentle corneal tapping, jets of balanced salt solution were pulsed through the vent incisions directed at the peripheral folds to achieve complete unfolding. Results: Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty was performed in 2 phakic eyes (14%) and 13 pseudophakic eyes (86%). Six cases (40%) required fluid injection through the vent incisions: 3 corresponded to grafts from younger donors (54, 41, and 29 years old), and 3 had a 9.0-mm-sized graft. Complete graft unfolding was successfully achieved in 14 cases (93%), and in 1 case (7%), peripheral folds remained because of spontaneous bleeding in the anterior chamber. A clear cornea was achieved in all cases, and there were no postoperative complications associated with the vent incisions. Conclusions: This technique provides a different DMEK no-touch approach that could be used in challenging cases of graft unfolding such as young donors and/or large-sized grafts. It may also avoid excessive unfolding times and direct manipulation that are related to higher endothelial cell loss.


The task of mentoring trainee teachers in the Lifelong Learning Sector (LLS) has long been an informal process. With the introduction of the 2007 teaching reforms (DfES, 2007) mentoring has assumed a new importance. Whilst recognising that this Higher Education Institution (HEI) was keen to implement changes, it perhaps did so in haste and without allowing the process to be evaluated. This led to tension between the mentor and the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) provider or teaching organisation. This research examined the perceptions of the mentor and listened to suggestions for improvement. From these discussions it would seem that mentors are being asked to coach as well as mentor trainee teachers. The main findings also show that whilst the employing organisation's attitude, as perceived by the mentors, seems to have changed little since Hankey's (2004) research paper, mentors' attitudes toward mentoring seem to be more positive. It concludes that remission and recognition of the additional work done by mentors are powerful motivators for their engagement in mentoring activities. It further suggests that a title of mentor-coach would better match the job to be done.


We report the discovery of WASP-21b, a new transiting exoplanet discovered by the Wide Angle Search for Planets ( WASP) Consortium and established and characterized with the FIES, SOPHIE, CORALIE and HARPS fiber-fed echelle spectrographs. A 4.3-d period, 1.1% transit depth and 3.4-h duration are derived for WASP-21b using SuperWASP-North and high precision photometric observations at the Liverpool Telescope. Simultaneous fitting to the photometric and radial velocity data with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure leads to a planet in the mass regime of Saturn. With a radius of 1.07 R-Jup and mass of 0.30 M-Jup, WASP-21b has a density close to 0.24 rho(Jup) corresponding to the distribution peak at low density of transiting gaseous giant planets. With a host star metallicity [Fe/H] of -0.46, WASP-21b strengthens the correlation between planetary density and host star metallicity for the five known Saturn-like transiting planets. Furthermore there are clear indications that WASP-21b is the first transiting planet belonging to the thick disc.


TUS is the world's first orbital detector of extreme energy cosmic rays (EECRs), which operates as a part of the scientific payload of the Lomonosov satellite since May 19, 2016. TUS employs the nocturnal atmosphere of the Earth to register ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence and Cherenkov radiation from extensive air showers generated by EECRs as well as UV radiation from lightning strikes and transient luminous events, micro-meteors and space debris. The first months of its operation in orbit have demonstrated an unexpectedly rich variety of UV radiation in the atmosphere. We briefly review the design of TUS and present a few examples of events recorded in a mode dedicated to registering EECRs.


Ti-50.6 at.% Ni shape memory alloy was coated with tantalum using multi arc ion-plating technique with the aim to increase its radiopacity and biocompatibility. The surface characteristics were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results of XPS survey spectra show that a thin oxide film are formed inside tantalum coating as a result of natural passivation of Ta in atmosphere. The hemocompatibility was evaluated in vitro by clotting time and platelet adhesion measurement. The results of our study showed that the clotting time of tantalum was higher than that of the TiNi alloys and no sign of accumulation and only slight pseudopodium was observed on the tantalum coatings, suggesting that the tantalum coatings can improve the biocompatibility of TiNi alloy.


One of major cognitive distortions is deterministic thinking. This type of thinking ignores any possibility or probability in conclusion about the events. Any consequence of event may be thought such as: 2 × 2 = 4. Equality is a dominant factor among all conclusions of this kind of distortion. In Islamic perspective, the distortion is seen as a destructive factor for ruining balance of fear and hope, which is to be an important sign of people's faith. The distortion emerges in cognitive rigidity in the mind which may be mother of all distortions. Cognitive rigidity is a main reason for depression and other psychosocial maladjustment. The scale with 36 items was developed in first phase of this study. Its validity and reliability were measured among men and women. It had reasonable and significant correlation with Beck Depression Inventory (p ≤ .05) and also showed reasonable internal reliability (α = .8218). Through factor analysis, five factors appeared in this type of thinking to be related to General deterministic thinking, Deterministic thinking in interaction with people, Absolute view in thinking, Deterministic thinking in prediction of future and Deterministic thinking in negative events.


AIM
To identify critical elements in design and execution of coronally advanced flap, lateral positioned flap and their variations for the treatment of facial gingival recessions or peri-implant soft tissue dehiscences.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Clinical studies were identified with both electronic and hand searches, and examined for the following aspects: flap design and incision techniques, flap elevation, root conditioning, flap mobility, flap stability and suturing. Moreover, prognostic factors for complete recession coverage were identified.

RESULTS
Some critical elements are evident in flap design and execution: the dimension and the thickness of tissue positioned over the denuded roots; the use on root surface of enamel matrix derivate; the stability and suturing of the flap in a position coronal to the cemento-enamel junction. The pre-determination of the clinical cemento-enamel junction, smoking status, operator surgical skills and the compliance to a supportive care programme have a role in obtaining and maintaining a complete root coverage.

CONCLUSIONS
Different flap approaches are available when performing periodontal plastic surgery, resulting in a great variability in clinical outcomes. The possibility of using pedicle flaps alone to achieve complete soft tissue coverage of facial implant dehiscence has not yet been investigated.


IN THE open treatment of fractures, plates and screws are the devices most commonly used for internal fixation. The successful use of this method of fixation depends on fundamental mechanical principles which will be reviewed in this discussion. The indications, surgical technique, and postoperative care will not be considered at this time. The relative merits of other methods of fixation will also be omitted except to say that wire, pins, intramedullary devices, and bone grafts have their proper place, and in many instances the use of one or more of these is the method of choice. Failures of internal fixation, which are far too common, are often attributed to factors such as metal, electrolysis, absorption, or pressure necrosis. These terms are often meaningless or incorrect as explanations for failures, which can be attributed to more obvious and direct causes. The fault usually can be found in defective materials or in


The incidence and severity of respiratory inadequacy in the immediate post-operative period was assessed by observing unselected patients who were routinely admitted to a busy recovery room. Information was recorded using a standardised protocol only in patients who exhibited signs of respiratory inadequacy. As this study was intended to survey the respiratory problems encountered by the nursing staff in a recovery room no specific treatment (other than the usual nursing management or that prescribed by the anaesthetist) was given. The influence of various pre-operative and operative factors on the post-operative respiratory state are discussed.


The generalized forward-backward (GFB) method was introduced in Pino et al. (1999) for computing the electromagnetic scattering from two-dimensional targets on a rough surface. The GFB method is used in this article to generate numerical data for a Monte Carlo simulation of the horizontally polarized radar cross section (RCS) of two-dimensional ship-like targets on random rough sea surfaces. The RCS is computed as a function of the incidence angle and wind speed for a large number of surface realizations. It is found that the mean RCS of a given target on a rough surface is generally lower than or equal to the RCS of the same target on a flat surface, while the maximum RCS is usually greater than or equal to the flat-surface case. It is also observed that the variations in the RCS introduced by the rough surface become less significant as the elevation angle approaches grazing.


This study starts from a critical thinking that the meaning of urban media may or should be redefined in order for the research in Urban Media Fabric Simulator to situate itself within the realm of new media solution. Defining ubiquitous street Light (USL) as the most suitable infra structure, among the various street furniture for designing urban media, urban media fabric simulator plays a central role to embody the urban media. The research was conducted by collecting and storing a large number of urban information in real-time and standardizing the gathered data to establish the urban data network. Based on the information pattern extracted from the urban data, we implemented emotional methods to guide efficient activity through the urban communication, and presented a simulator, Urban media fabric simulator, data mining and visualization framework, which support the urban media management.


Summary
Tobacco necrotic dwarf (TNDV) and potato leafroll (PLRV), viruses which are normally phloem-limited and are transmitted by aphids in the persistent manner, were successfully purified using Driselase, an enzyme that macerates plant tissue. Frozen tissue of Physalis floridana infected with TNDV or PLRV was homogenized in buffer containing Driselase and incubated with shaking. The virus particles were then purified by clarifying extracts with chloroform and n-butanol, precipitation of virus with polyethylene glycol, differential centrifugation and density-gradient sedimentation. The average yield of TNDV purified without the enzyme was 0.5 mg/kg of fresh tissue and of that purified with the enzyme was 4.7 mg. Yield of PLRV purified using the enzyme was 1.3 mg/kg. The sedimentation coefficients of both TNDV and PLRV were s
20, w = 115S. Enzyme treatment had no influence on the infectivity of the viruses, assessed either using tobacco mesophyll protoplasts or using aphids fed through membranes. The enzyme method described here may be useful for purification of other phloem-limited viruses.


This study proposes a method of designing a multiway power divider including all connecting lines. The multiway power divider is based on several interconnected two-way power dividers. The connecting lines comprise the interconnecting sections, used for interconnecting the two-way power dividers, and the input/output extension lines, used for connecting the internal circuit to the on-board feeding ports. In the proposed method, the length of each interconnecting section can be flexibly partitioned to best fit the layout requirement. Every transmission line used for any purpose of connection in the layout is included as part of design and contributes to improvement of matching bandwidths. Therefore, a multiway power divider adopting the design method will result in better bandwidth performance for the same circuit size. The background principle of the proposed method and several simulated design scenarios are provided. A prototype of a four-way power divider is designed and fabricated. The measurement results, decently matching the simulations, validate the proposed idea. This study for the first time discusses on design and optimisation of an entire multiway power divider including all portions of connecting lines. The proposed method can make a multiway power divider achieving an improved bandwidth and more efficient layout.


A new learning control scheme, based on a nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO) coupled with a sliding-mode fuzzy neural network (SFNN) with a feedback-error-learning (FEL) strategy, is proposed for a class of time-varying nonlinear systems with unknown disturbances. The proposed controller, referred to as NDOFEL, involves two steps for obtaining an estimate of the time-varying lumped disturbance d(t) for improving the precision of the tracking control. The NDO is initially applied to estimate d(t), but an observer error does not converge to zero since d/spl dot/(t)/spl ne/0. The SFNN is then presented to estimate the observer error such that the output of systems follows a desired trajectory. The proposed NDOFEL has stable on-line learning ability, maintains high control performance in the presence of disturbance, and guarantees the stability of closed-loop systems on the basis of the Lyapunov theorem. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed NDOFEL is demonstrated through simulation results obtained for the tracking control during wing rock phenomena. The results suggest that the proposed controller can significantly enhance the tracking performance of aircraft.


By using the method of analysis,the oscillation for a class of the second order neutral several delay difference equations with continuous arguments is studied.Some sufficient conditions are obtained for oscillation of the solutions of the equations.


The establishment of Aquilaria plantation for agarwood production has been regarded by the planters as a green 'gold mine' of the future. This study examines the costs and benefits of planting Aquilaria spp. for agarwood production. The analysis shows that whether planting Aquilaria spp. integration with banana (Musa spp.) or planting Aqualaria spp. as a single crop for agarwood production, both options are viable. An investment return for planting Aquilaria spp. integrated with banana (Musa spp.) on 1,000 hectares of land is higher with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 54.85% compared with 38.49% for a single crop Aquilaria plantation. The Net present value (NPV) of investment at a 10% discount for 1,000 hectares integrated planting is RM185.6 million (1 RM=USD0.32 in 2008) while the option involving single crop Aquilaria plantation for agarwood production is RM153.6 million.


This study presents a nontarget approach to detect discharges from pharmaceutical production in municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents and to estimate their relevance on the total emissions. Daily composite samples were collected for 3 months at two WWTPs in Switzerland, measured using liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry, and time series were generated for all features detected. The extent of intensity variation in the time series was used to differentiate relatively constant domestic inputs from highly fluctuating industrial emissions. We show that an intensity variation threshold of 10 correctly classifies compounds of known origin and reveals clear differences between the two WWTPs. At the WWTP receiving wastewater from a pharmaceutical manufacturing site, (i) 10 times as many potential industrial emissions were detected as compared to the WWTP receiving purely domestic wastewater; (ii) for 11 pharmaceuticals peak concentrations, >10 μg/L and up to 214 μg/L were quantified, which are clearly above typical municipal wastewater concentrations; and (iii) a pharmaceutical not authorized in Switzerland was identified. Signatures of potential industrial emissions were even traceable at the downstream Rhine monitoring station at a >4000-fold dilution. Several of them occurred repeatedly, suggesting that they were linked to regular production, not to accidents. Our results demonstrate that small wastewater volumes from a single industry not only left a clear signature in the effluents of the respective WWTP but also influenced the water quality of one of Europe's most important river systems. Overall, these findings indicate that pharmaceutical production is a relevant emission source even in highly developed countries with a strong focus on water quality, such as Switzerland.


We have examined the behaviour of the beta-interferon promoter in mouse F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. In undifferentiated cells, the beta-interferon promoter is not responsive to dsRNA or to Sendai virus. In cells stimulated to differentiate into parietal endoderm by treatment with retinoic acid, the beta-interferon promoter responds to both inducers, but only Sendai virus can activate the transcription factor NF-kappa B previously thought to be essential for beta-interferon induction. Differentiated F9 cells therefore present an unprecedented situation in which induction of the beta-interferon gene does not require NF-kappa B. In addition to these differences, induction by dsRNA, but not by Sendai virus, is significantly enhanced by a pretreatment with interferon (priming). These observations suggest that paramyxo-viruses can participate in beta-interferon induction in a manner that is distinct from a simple generator of dsRNA. Analysis of the promoter requirements for induction in differentiated F9 cells suggests that induction is brought about by a novel mechanism using the currently identified regulatory domains.


The objective of this study is to compare the sustainability of current water systems when a dual water distribution system (WDS) is used for the non-potable water purposes of fire protection, irrigation, and toilet flushing. Sustainability of urban WDS is evaluated in terms of hydraulic efficiency and water quality. The first step is to assess sustainability of an example urban WDS by using sustainability index (SI). The SI is measured by reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability performance indices. Pressure and water age are selected as main parameters to determine sustainability. Once the SIs for pressure and water age are calculated by using the extended period simulation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency EPANET, these parameters are aggregated into an overall score (SIoverall). The critical areas are identified and improved by either adding network elements (i.e. pumps, valves) or adding a second WDS (i.e. reclaimed WDS) to serve for non-potable water demand. Fire flow is added to the modified WDSs and the SI is calculated again. The proposed methodology and application for SI calculation of WDS proved to be a credible approach in identifying poor performance areas and improving water services. A dual WDS for fire flow, irrigation and toilet flushing can assist in providing sustainable water utilities in urban areas meeting future needs. A linear programming procedure is used to determine the minimum cost of the branched dual WDS.


Explainable NLP (ExNLP) has increasingly focused on collecting human-annotated textual explanations. These explanations are used downstream in three ways: as data augmentation to improve performance on a predictive task, as supervision to train models to produce explanations for their predictions, and as a ground-truth to evaluate model-generated explanations. In this review, we identify 65 datasets with three predominant classes of textual explanations (highlights, free-text, and structured), organize the literature on annotating each type, identify strengths and shortcomings of existing collection methodologies, and give recommendations for collecting ExNLP datasets in the future.


The mountain watershed of Nepal is highly rugged, inaccessible and difficult for acquiring field data. The application of ETM sensor Data Sat satellite image of 30 meter pixel resolutions has been used for land use and land cover classification of Tamakoshi River Basin (TRB) of Nepal. The paper tries to examine the strength of image classification methods in derivation of land use and land classification. Supervised digital image classification techniques was used for examination the thematic classification. Field verification, Google earth image, aerial photographs, topographical sheet and GPS locations were used for land use and land cover type classification, selecting training samples and assessing accuracy of classification results. Six major land use and land cover types: forest land, water bodies, bush/grass land, barren land, snow land and agricultural land was extracted using the method. Moreover, there is spatial variation of statistics of classified land uses and land cover types depending upon the classification methods. The image data revealed that the major portion of the surface area is covered by unclassified bush and grass land covering 34.62 per cent followed by barren land (28 per cent). The knowledge derived from supervised classification was applied for the study. The result based on the field survey of the area during July 2014 also verifies the same result. So image classification is found more reliable in land use and land cover classification of mountain watershed of Nepal.


We introduce a deep learning model for speech denoising, a long-standing challenge in audio analysis arising in numerous applications. Our approach is based on a key observation about human speech: there is often a short pause between each sentence or word. In a recorded speech signal, those pauses introduce a series of time periods during which only noise is present. We leverage these incidental silent intervals to learn a model for automatic speech denoising given only mono-channel audio. Detected silent intervals over time expose not just pure noise but its time-varying features, allowing the model to learn noise dynamics and suppress it from the speech signal. Experiments on multiple datasets confirm the pivotal role of silent interval detection for speech denoising, and our method outperforms several state-of-the-art denoising methods, including those that accept only audio input (like ours) and those that denoise based on audiovisual input (and hence require more information). We also show that our method enjoys excellent generalization properties, such as denoising spoken languages not seen during training.


In this paper, the force control of a constrained one-link flexible arm is fully studied based on a linear distributed parameter model, including the internal damping of Kelvin-Voight type. A new input induced by the joint angular acceleration and a virtual contact force output generated by a parallel compensator are defined. The inherent limitations due to the non-minimum phase nature of the noncollocation from the joint torque input and the tip contact force output can be thus resolved. Therefore, the transfer function from the new input to the virtual contact force is not only driven to a strictly minimum phase but also stable condition. The integral control is then used to improve the performance of the overall closed loop system. Also, the asymptotic tracking of a desired contact force trajectory can be achieved with the internal stability. On the other hand, the exact solutions in the infinite-dimensional system are reached using the infinite product formulation. Numerical performance results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach in term of fast, stable and robust performance.


Abstract. In this work we focused on the classification of Urban Settlement Types (USTs) based on two datasets from the TerraSAR-X satellite acquired at ascending and descending look directions. These data sets comprise the intensity, amplitude and coherence images as well as binary images representing man-made structures. In accordance to most official UST maps, the urban blocks of our study site were considered as the analysis units. The urban blocks were classified into Vegetated Areas, Single-Family Houses and Commercial and Residential Buildings. As image attributes, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOGs) calculated in nine angles out of each image of our dataset were used. The descriptive statistics of the geometrical features of man-made structures inside the blocks were also used as image attributes. The pertinence of HOGs features for the concerning classification task is corroborated by feature selection algorithms used in the quantitative exploratory analysis of the attributes. 76 % of 1926 blocks were correctly classified and a Kappa index of 0.60 was obtained. As in some of the urban blocks from our study site more than one UST class are found, we propose a method for detecting blocks with mixed classes and segmenting them into more objects whose classification becomes hopefully more stable and accurate.


The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) is carrying out an investigation that will provide methods to predict the fate of selected trace elements in integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) systems to aid in the development of methods to control the emission of trace elements determined to be air toxics. The goal of this project is to identify the effects of critical chemical and physical transformations associated with trace element behavior in IGCC and IGFC systems. The trace elements included in this project are arsenic, chromium, cadmium, mercury, nickel, selenium, and lead. The research seeks to identify and fill, experimentally and/or theoretically, data gaps that currently exist on the fate and composition of trace elements. The specific objectives are to (1) review the existing literature to identify the type and quantity of trace elements from coal gasification systems, (2) perform laboratory-scale experimentation and computer modeling to enable prediction of trace element emissions, and (3) identify methods to control trace element emissions.


Dear Sir,

We herein report the case of a Taiwanese patient with linear crazing and manifestations of cutaneous erythema that arose after acute leg oedema. A 56-year-old man with a history of hepatitis C was admitted to our hospital in September 2014 for treatment of Cryptococcus meningitis. In December, the patient developed acute leg oedema after long-term infusion of liposomal amphotericin B. Clinical signs of febricity, localised heat, arthralgia and paraesthesia were not appreciated at the time of examination. Upon further investigation, the metabolic panel revealed renal function impairment, hypoalbuminaemia and normal liver function. The patient was treated with furosemide and 20% albumin for three days. As the oedema decreased, the patient developed numerous linear, reddish crazing and erythema over his calves. He applied emollients over the lesion sites (Fig. 1). Two weeks later, almost all the lesions had healed without scarring or atrophy, leaving remnant scales and pigmentation.

Fig. 1

Numerous linear, reddish crazing and erythema over the left calf.

First described by Bhushan et al in 2001, striaelike epidermal necrosis is characterised by linear crazing and erythema of the skin following acute lower leg oedema.(1) In 2002, the term "striaelike epidermal distension" was coined by Ishiguro and Kawashima to describe a patient with a similar skin presentation.(2) The histopathologic findings revealed epidermal necrosis and underlying endothelial swelling with lymphocytes, neutrophils and extravasated erythrocytes infiltration.(2,3) Although the pathogenesis of this condition is still unclear, tissue damage induced by rapid epidermal distension from fluid accumulation in the lower limbs may play a role.(1,4) Precipitating causes include congestive heart failure, deep vein thrombosis, postoperative leg oedema and drug use.

The differential diagnosis includes stasis or asteatotic dermatitis and purpura fulminans. In stasis dermatitis, patients usually have chronic venous insufficiency and venous hypertension resulting in pruritic, erythematous scaly plaques and in severe cases, oedematous erosions and crusts.(5) Asteatotic dermatitis always occurs in the elderly and patients with renal failure, malnutrition, or Sjogren's syndrome, where decreased lipids in the stratum corneum result in excess water loss from the epidermis, causing a pruritic, rough and dry skin texture. The purpura fulminans is usually a feature of severe sepsis, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis, resulting in disseminated intravascular coagulation manifesting with petechiae, purpura and necrotic skin lesions. There is no specific therapy for striaelike epidermal necrosis, although topical steroids and emollients may relieve symptoms. In our patient, after correction of fluid overload, the cutaneous lesions resolved, leaving indistinct pigmentation with no scarring or atrophy. It is important to consider this diagnosis in patients who develop linear, crazing and erythema bilaterally on their calves and have other possible trigger factors of acute oedema.

Yours sincerely,


The current sate of the art of Building Energy Simulation (BES) lacks of a rigorous framework for the analysis, calibration and diagnosis of BES models. This research takes this deficiency as an opportunity for proposing a strongly mathematically based methodology serving such purposes, providing: a better consideration of the modelling uncertainties, means to reduce BES model complexity without oversimplification, and methods to test and select different modelling hypotheses depending on field observations. Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA), Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) in a quasi-Bayesian set up and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are the foundations upon which the proposed framework is built. It couples deterministic BES models and stochastic black box models, thus having the physical and probabilistic representation of real phenomena complementing each other. It comprises four phases: Uncertainty Analysis , Sensitivity Analysis , Calibration, Model Selection. The framework was tested on a series of trials having increasing difficulty. Relatively simple preliminary experiments were used to develop the methodology and investigate strengths and weaknesses. They showed its capabilities in treating measurement uncertainties and model deficiencies, but also that these aspects influence the estimation of model parameters. More detailed experiments were used to fully test the efficacy of the method in analysing complex BES models. Novel techniques, based on Bootstrap and Smoothing with Roughness Penalty, for the determination of the uncertainties of multidimensional model inputs, were introduced. The framework was proven effective in adequately simplifying BES models, in precisely identifying parameters, causes of discrepancies and improvements, and in providing clear information about which model was the most suitable in describing the observed processes. This research delivers a powerful tool for the analysis, diagnosis and calibration of BES models, which substantially improves the current practice and that can be already applied to solve many practical problems, such as the investigation of energy conservation measures, model predictive control and fault detection.


You have remarked that you see little substantive difference between the Bush administration's and the Obama administration's foreign policies. How are Obama's policies similar to, or different from, the Bush administration policies? Well, to be precise, I think there are significant differences between the first and the second Bush terms. And I think Obama's policies are fairly continuous with Bush's second term. In the first Bush term, the administration simply went off the spectrum. US foreign policy has a very narrow spectrum, but the Bush administration departed from it. In fact, they were quite harshly criticized right within the mainstream for doing extreme harm to major US interests. During the first term, the image of the United States in the world sank to probably the lowest point in history. Everything they touched turned into disaster, from the point of view of the interests that they represent. Invading Iraq turned out to be as expected. It was anticipated that it would increase terror, which--of course--it did, beyond what was expected. What sensible analysts understood was that it would probably strengthen Iran, which it did. Iran was the victor of the US invasion of Iraq. The invasion destroyed the country. That was true for case after case; just about everything they touched turned into calamity. The second term, they more or less moved back toward the centrist mainstream. Some of the more extreme figures like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and others were sent away. They couldn't eliminate Cheney because he was the administration. They became somewhat more accommodating to negotiations. Rather than kicking people in the face and telling them, "you are irrelevant unless you do what we say," they became a more normal administration. And the Obama administration continued on that path. I don't see any fundamental changes from the second Bush administration. Both US and international media outlets have applauded Obama for showing sensitivity and ability to understand other cultures, especially when he visited the Middle East. Do you think that Obama's different rhetorical approach to engaging foreign policy could translate into substantive policy changes? As you know, Obama won the award from the US advertising industry for the best marketing campaign of 2008. His team beat Apple computers. Advertising industry executives were euphoric and talked openly to the business press about how they have been selling candidates like toothpaste ever since Reagan and how this is the greatest achievement they have ever had. Yes, Obama is very effective at marketing. I don't happen to like it, but a lot of people seem to like his rhetoric. He gives the impression of being an understanding person, sometimes so much that it's almost comical. He went to Israel--it must have been in June 2008--and Shimon Peres reported to the Israeli press that Obama was a wonderful guy. He said that Obama agreed with him on everything, so they were going to get along fine. Benjamin Netanyahu, who is about the opposite extreme from Peres in the narrow Israeli spectrum, came back and said that Obama was a marvelous guy who agreed with him [Netanyahu] on everything. That is Obama's technique. He says: "I really like you; I understand you; I am sympathetic with you." So yes, it is true: it is a feeling. In Europe, there was almost euphoria, partly because Obama wasn't Bush. The Bush administration was coming straight out and saying literally, "you do what we say, or you are irrelevant." Obama says, "we are partners we are friends, we will listen to you," and so on and so forth. There is no "irrelevant." Actually, there is a nice comment about this from 40 years ago, making the essential point. During the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy intellectuals were making plans that they knew perfectly well might lead to the destruction of England. They were apparently thinking of implementing plans which, in their own minds, might have led to a Russian retaliation, which would have destroyed England. …


HLA-G molecule has well-recognized tolerogenic properties, and the encoding gene shows lower frequency of polymorphism at the coding region but higher variability at regulatory 5' and 3' untranslated (3'UTR) regions. At least three 3'UTR polymorphic sites have been associated with HLA-G mRNA regulation, including the 14 base pair (14bp) Insertion/Deletion, +3142C-G and +3187A-G. We studied the association of polymorphic sites at 3'UTR (sequencing analysis, encompassing the 14bp Ins-Del/+3003T-C/+3010C-G/+3027C-A/+3035C-T/+3142C-G/+3187A-G/+3196C-G polymorphic sites) with plasma soluble HLA-G levels (sHLA-G, detected by ELISA) in 187 French and 153 Brazilian healthy individuals. Allele and genotype frequencies were closely similar in both populations; however, Brazilians showed a higher HLA-G 3'UTR haplotype diversity. Considering sHLA-G levels in both populations altogether, individuals presenting 14bp Del/Del showed higher levels compared to 14bpIns/Ins genotype (P <0.05); those presenting +3010C/G showed higher levels compared to the +3010C-C genotype (P< 0.05); those presenting +3027C-C showed higher levels than the +3027A-A genotype (P< 0.05); and those bearing +3035C-C showed higher levels compared to the +3035C-T (P < 0.01) and +3035T-T (P < 0.05) genotypes. The analyses of 3'UTR haplotypes showed that UTR-1 (DelTGCCCGC) was associated with higher expression of sHLA-G, whereas UTR-5 (InsTCCTGAC) and UTR-7 (InsTCATGAC) with lower expression and other UTRs (UTR-2/3/4/6) exhibited intermediate levels. Since the differential expression of HLA-G may be beneficial or harmful depending on the underlying condition, the identification of individuals genetically programmed to differentially express HLA-G may help on defining novel strategies to control the immune response against the underlying disorder.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
It was previously reported that ten small peptides derived from TT-232, somatostatin structural analogue (compounds 1-10), synthesised by a solution-phase method, exhibited potent antitumour activity on human epithelial tumour (A431) cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present study investigated the inhibitory activity of these peptide compounds against DNA polymerase (pol) and human cancer cell growth.

RESULTS
Among the compounds tested, compounds 1-5, which contain a t-butyloxycarbonyl (Boc) group, inhibited the activity of mammalian pols. Compounds 2 (Boc-Tyr-D-Trp-1-adamantylamide) and 3 (Boc-Tyr-D-Trp-2-adamantylamide) strongly suppressed the growth of a human colon carcinoma (HCT116) cell line and also arrested HCT116 cells in S phase, suggesting that these phenomena observed in cancer cells may be due to the selective inhibition of mammalian pols, especially DNA replicative pol α, by these compounds. Compound 2 induced apoptosis of the cells, although compound 3 did not.

CONCLUSION
Compounds 2 and 3 had an enhanced anticancer effect based on pol inhibition.


In this paper we introduce a new technique for blind source separation of speech signals. We focused on the temporal structure of signals which is not always the case in other major approaches. The idea is to apply the decorrelation method proposed by Molgedey and Schuster in time-frequency domain. We show some results of experiments with artiicial data and speech data recorded in the real environment. Our algorithm needs considerably straightforward calculation and includes only a few parameters to be tuned.


Distribution network is the group of connected loads with number of buses and feeders. The different facial appearance is present in distribution system which makes it somewhat arduous and dissimilar to examine as estimated to a transmission system. Due to load uncertainties, the system effected with losses, faults, quality and discrepancies in power supply at distribution level. Now a days the identification of fault and its type as of conventional approaches is very complicated and calibrated dynamically is proposed in this work. This work narrates impedance-based fault calculation for its location and its type based on feeder distance between bus to bus for 3-phase 4-wire distribution system. The paper mix faults section detection with impedance-based method in order to address non-homogeneity of feeder parameters and power quality issues in distribution system. The 15-Bus and 33-Bus distribution test system is examined and estimated the fault and its type using Fuzzy logic using MATLAB.


The Wortatlas der arabischen Dialekte / Word Atlas of Arabic Dialects (WAD) intends to provide an unprecedented survey of the lexical richness and diversity of the Arabic dialects as spoken from Uzbekistan to Mauretania and Nigeria, from Malta to Sudan, and including the Ki-Nubi Creole as spoken in Uganda and Kenya. The atlas will be indispensable for everyone interested in the modern spoken Arabic language, as well as for dialectologists and for semanticists.


In this paper the relationship between CAI and compressive design allowables of composite structures were discussed and it was pointed out that traditional CAI values could not reflect the behavior of composite materials to withstand impact adequately and no relationship between CAI values and compressive design allowables existed. Based on the integrity requirements of composite structures, it was pointed out that the evaluation system of composite materials to withstand impact should include both damage resistance and damage tolerance. Large numbers of test data verified that the knee point phenomenon of composite laminates to withstand impact existed. Based on failure mechanisms, it was proposed that the behavior evaluation system of composite systems to withstand impact was based on the properties at the knee point, that is, the maximum capability to keep integrity of the front plies (the maximum contact force) characterizing damage resistance and the threshold of dent depth(or impact energy)~compressive strength(or failure strain) curves characterizing damage tolerance.


This guide is designed for students in the D.Min. program.This page has basic tips about using Duke Library resources. Use the tabs to navigate to course-specific resources.


In recent years, there has been an increased need for active systems systems that are required to act automatically based on events, or changes in the environment. In many cases, the events to which the system should respond to, have to be inferred from other events based on complex temporal predicates. However, none of the existing composite event systems created to enable such inference can deal with cases in which an event cannot be inferred with absolute certainty based on the reported events. Therefore, in this paper, we describe how a deterministic event composition system can be extended to manage such uncertainty, and specify the principles of a formal framework for such inference. The contribution of this framework is twofold: It extends the semantics of event composition in a natural manner for probabilistic settings, and it enables the application of these extensions to the quantification of the occurrence probability of events.


The fabrication technology of microelectrode in electrochemical micromachining (EMM) was presented. The high frequency short pulses current and current density control between the cathode and anode were synthetically utilized. The mechanism of pulses EMM was expatiated firstly. The shaping principle of microelectrode was analyzed. The current density control strategy was proposed based on the fundamental experimental behavior of electrochemical machining current with the gap variance. Then an experimental setup for EMM is constructed, which has machining process detection and current density control functions, also a pulses power supply and a control computer are involved in. After the technologic experiment analyzed, some microelectrodes with nice surface are fabricated successfully. This method could provide the simple electrode for further electro-machining or micro probe for scanning probe microscopy. Preliminary experimental results show the feasibility of EMM and its potential capability for better machining accuracy and smaller machining size.


Reward processes have played an increasingly visible role in theories of extraverted personality. Reward processing is usually conceptualized in terms of the brain system responsible for generating incentive motivation and behavioral approach of rewarding stimuli, as in theories by Jeffrey Gray and Richard Depue. Recent increases in the accessibility of neuroscience methods have accelerated our understanding of the relationship between extraversion and neural processing of rewards. An issue that has remained somewhat neglected by this literature concerns the distinctions that have been made between reward desire and reward enjoyment. Higher-level abstractions of reward processing—identifiable in cognitive, social, and narrative approaches—have also received relatively little attention. These promising directions for future research may help further expand knowledge in this area of personality science.


To correct for a large number of hypothesis tests, most researchers rely on simple multiple testing corrections. Yet, new methodologies of post-selection inference could potentially improve power while retaining statistical guarantees, especially those that enable exploration of test statistics using auxiliary information (covariates) to weight hypothesis tests for association. We explore one such method, adaptive p-value thresholding (Lei & Fithian 2018) (AdaPT), in the framework of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and gene expression/coexpression studies, with particular emphasis on schizophrenia (SCZ). Selected SCZ GWAS association p-values play the role of the primary data for AdaPT; SNPs are selected because they are gene expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). This natural pairing of SNPs and genes allow us to map the following covariate values to these pairs: independent GWAS statistics from genetically-correlated bipolar disorder, the effect size of SNP genotypes on gene expression, and gene-gene coexpression, captured by subnetwork (module) membership. In all 24 covariates per SNP/gene pair were included in the AdaPT analysis using flexible gradient boosted trees. We demonstrate a substantial increase in power to detect SCZ associations and it is especially apparent using gene expression information from the developing human prefontal cortex (Werling et al. 2019), as compared to adult tissue samples from the GTEx Consortium. We interpret these results in light of recent theories about the polygenic nature of SCZ. Importantly, our entire process for identifying enrichment and creating features with independent complementary data sources can be implemented in many different high-throughput settings to ultimately improve power.


Illumination uniformity and color mixing results are essential for color vision applications. In this paper, an indirect method is proposed for the uniform illumination, and a mathematically simulated algorithm is developed. We integrate the method of light-emitting diode (LED) array and diffuse reflection surface for uniform illumination system. By considering each single LED as an imperfect Lambertian emitter, we discuss the irradiance distribution over a sphere's inner surface to the three-ring LED array. The sphere's inner surface is a diffuse reflection surface with high hemisphere reflectance. Using the bi-directional reflectance distribution functions (BRDF) of the sphere's inner surface, we simulate the uniformity of the LED illumination at varying distances. Finally, we design a practical LED illumination. The uniformity of practical LED illumination agrees with the simulated result. The results demonstrate the usefulness of this method for uniform illumination design.


Objectives: There is a general belief that Graves' orbitopathy (GO) is a "chronic" disease, namely that patients' eyes do not return to how they were before GO appeared. Here, we investigate this issue from both the patient's and the physician's point of view. Study Design: We studied the disappearance of GO, regardless of treatment, in all consecutive patients with a GO history of at least 10 years who came for a follow-up visit over a period of 5 years. Patients underwent an ophthalmological examination and were asked to answer a questionnaire on self-perception related to GO. Results: We studied 99 consecutive patients with a GO duration ≥10 years. Between the first and the last observation, patients received several types of treatment for their thyroid disease and/or for GO. At the end of follow-up, GO was considered disappeared based on objective criteria in 8 patients (∼8%) and based on subjective criteria in 24 patients (∼24%). When we considered both subjective and objective criteria, only 2 patients (∼2%) had all criteria fulfilled and could be considered as GO-free. Conclusions: GO is a chronic disease in the vast majority of patients. Even after a very long time since its onset, complete disappearance is rare, although a minority of patients believe they do not have GO anymore and an even lower proportion do not have relevant GO signs. Our findings have obvious implications in patient management and counseling.


Background and aims The aim of this study was to determine the thoughts of adolescent pregnants/mothers about motherhood. Methods A descriptive qualitative approach was used in the study. The data were obtained from 41 adolescent pregnants/mothers with a questionnaire and open-ended semi-structured interviews in-depth audio-taped method. Data were analysed through thematic analysis by researchers. Results Over the total amont of sample; 80.5% of adolescents didn't use a family planning method, 24.4% are relatives with her husband, 68.3% were being pregnant willingly and 24.4% didn't receive antenatal care regulary. The theme of study determined on four topics; 1) The feelings when she learn her pregnanacy 2) The meaning of baby/child in her life 3) The effect of pregnancy for her future plans 4) The troubles about care of baby/child They mentioned hearing about their pregnancy, the first feelings were fear, sadness, wonder, happiness, shocked, rebelled and thought it wasn't the right time. "I really surprised and feared because being a mother seemed difficult for me. Because of economical obstacle I thought that could we support the babies'care expenditure." "I got married when I was 18. Everyone began to ask whether I am pregnant in first month period of my marriage. After three month I got pregnant. I felt that I had to be pregnant" "I felt sadnesss, really a big sadness, cry too much, because my husband had left the house just before the news of pregnancy." Conclusion Although pregnancy is gratifying process for a woman, it can also become discomfortable situation for adolescents.


Antarctica's Lambert graben, Australia's North West Shelf, and the eastern Indian Peninsula all host thick, fault-bounded Permian-Triassic successions. These terranes were adjacent to each other in Gondwana. The Lambert graben intersects the modern coastline, strikes oblique to shelf architecture, and has a geophysical signature that can be traced >1000 km inland. Vitrinite reflectance data from the graben margins record Permian-Triassic infill. Australia's North West Shelf is the relict of an intracontinental Carboniferous-Permian rift that was infilled during the Permian-Triassic then driven to oceanic completion during Jurassic-Cretaceous Gondwana breakup. This rift was compartmentalized over length scales of ∼650 km, corresponding to accommodation zones, margin-normal geophysical lineaments, and long-lived crustal weaknesses. In eastern India, similar compartmentalization is marked by extensive coal-bearing graben systems. Gondwana reconstructions indicate that the Lambert graben corresponds to the orientation and length scale of Carboniferous-Permian rift compartmentalization. The Lambert graben represents an accommodation zone of a wide intracontinental rift that extended from Australia's North West Shelf, between India and Antarctica, to southern Africa. This rift collected Gondwana's thick Permian-Triassic sedimentary blanket and rich alluvial coal deposits.


This paper is focused on the supply of the Czech producers of bottled quality white wine. Namely, a dependence of their sales of this wine category on the market price of bottled quality white wine was examined. Monthly data from the CZSO and SZIF database, years 2004–2012, were used for the price-supply analysis. Price-supply reactions of the Czech wine producers were investigated through two-stage cointegration method developed by Engle and Granger. Short-term and long-term price elasticity of studied market supply was based on the error correction model designed and statistically verified by the authors.


Electrical machines for aerospace applications often operate close to the allowable thermal limits due to high power density requirements. The power density of electrical machines is generally dependent on the machine and thermal management design. At flight level, a reduced pressure exists which in turn results in more challenging thermal management. Aerospace electric machine manufacturers are often limited with respect to the implemented cooling mechanisms. That is, natural convection systems are the norm, as fan cooled and fluid cooled machines may suffer from reliability issues.

The original contribution of this work, is the design, testing, and implementation of an alternative forced cooling convective system (FCCS) based on piezoelectric fans.

This thesis commences by an investigation of the capabilities of MotorCAD (a sophisticated analytical lumped thermal package) and how it can be utilised in a fully integrated way to optimise (for a maximum power density and an overall minimum motor mass) both the electromagnetic and thermal aspects of a typical traditional horizontally-mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) operating at flight level. The resultant analytical temperature values were then compared to actual experimental temperature data.

Piezoelectric fans are then investigated as a potential, fault tolerant FCCS that may enhance the overall cooling of a motor. These fans could be implemented in the aerospace industry as they do not suffer from the same reliability issues as traditional FFCS's. Detailed thermal results indicating the effective piezoelectric fan cooling range together with the overall cooling effectiveness over a traditional vertical straight-finned heat sink (unit – cell) , operating under different operating conditions are also presented. Furthermore, the fin/fan geometry that minimises the thermal resistance whilst minimising the overall cooling mass is presented. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) techniques were implemented to further understand the flow fields generated by an oscillating piezoelectric fan. Common parameters governing the fluid flow (vibration amplitude, separation distance, fin spacing and fan orientation) were investigated and the results are herewith presented.

Designs of a supporting structure for the proposed FCCS implementation are drawn up and analysed through FEA. A prototype structure was built and its durability tested. Furthermore, the reliability (fault tolerance) of the suggested FCCS was evaluated. The feasibility of implementing this innovative cooling technique was further investigated by performing a study on the weight saving potential of the FCCS over traditional natural convective fins, and the FCCS geometry that minimises the thermal resistance whilst minimising the overall mass is selected. Furthermore, a prototype FCCS was built and tested.


Validation for image segmentation plays an important role in medical image processing. Point-mappings based validations process segmentation results by matching corresponding points on surfaces of the segmentation model and the standard model, then evaluate the matches locally and globally. This paper proposes four algorithms of building point-mappings; and creatively applies perfect matching algorithm of weighed bipartite graph on it. Furthermore, detailed local and global evaluation methods are also presented. Finally, experiments demonstrate that such validation method is competent to evaluate 2D or 3D segmentation scientifically, expeditiously and accurately


Increasing urban sprawl and climate changes have been causing unexpected high-intensity rainfall events. Thus there are needs to enhance conventional disaster management system for comprehensive actions to secure safety. Therefore long-term and comprehensive flood management plans need to be well established. Recently torrential snowfall are occurring frequently, causing have snow traffic jams on the road. To secure safety and on-time operation of the Bi-modal tram system, well-structured disaster management system capable of analyzing the urban flash flooding and snow pack melt/freezing due to unexpected rainfall event and snowfall are needed. To secure safety of the Bi-modal tram system due to torrential snowfall, the snow melt simulation capability was investigated. The snow accumulation and snow melt were measured to validate the SWMM snow melt component. It showed that there was a good agreement between measured snow melt data and the simulated ones. Therefore, the Bi-modal tram disaster management system will be able to predict snow melt reasonably well to secure safety of the Bi-modal tram system during the winter. The Bi-modal tram disaster management system can be used to identify top priority area for snow removal within the tram route in case of torrential snowfall to secure on-time operation of the tram. Also it can be used for detour route in the tram networks based on the disaster management system predicted data.


Court-connected mediation has steadily expanded its scope in many Anglo-American jurisdictions over the past 20 years.1 Its growth has been spurred by diverse factors that include mediations' greater perceived cost-effectiveness when compared with conventional civil litigation, coupled with corresponding public, judicial and legal professional interest in the greater participant control mediation permits. This growth has been particularly evident in commercial dispute resolution, where business pragmatism is a further spur to finding mediated solutions. Using the England and Wales (EW hereafter) civil procedure rules (CPR) mediation provisions as a commencement point,2 this opening chapter critically assesses the widening range of court-connected mediation possibilities available within the commercial disputes resolution sphere. In the first section, key mediation theory principles are identified and explained. From here, the EW commercial mediation-rules framework is considered, as a means to introduce other comparative Anglo-American jurisdiction analyses. Cases and commentaries provide additional support for the contention that court-connected mediation bondaries are limitless, in the sense that no commercial mediation dispute is likely unsuited to a mediation attempt. The third section offers a brief prediction concerning mediation's likely future scope, where mediation will be the accepted first formal step in every commercial dispute. The conclusions section affirm the proposition that those cases where mediation fails are now regarded by many commentators as exceptions that tend to prove the rule asserted in this assessment.


The study estimated the prevalence of HIV-1 intra-subtype recombinant variants among female bar and hotel workers in Tanzania. While intra-subtype recombination occurs in HIV-1, it is generally underestimated. HIV-1 env gp120 V1-C5 quasispecies from 45 subjects were generated by single-genome amplification and sequencing (median (IQR) of 38 (28–50) sequences per subject). Recombination analysis was performed using seven methods implemented within the recombination detection program version 3, RDP3. HIV-1 sequences were considered recombinant if recombination signals were detected by at least three methods with p-values of ≤0.05 after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. HIV-1 in 38 (84%) subjects showed evidence for intra-subtype recombination including 22 with HIV-1 subtype A1, 13 with HIV-1 subtype C, and 3 with HIV-1 subtype D. The distribution of intra-patient recombination breakpoints suggested ongoing recombination and showed selective enrichment of recombinant variants in 23 (60%) subjects. The number of subjects with evidence of intra-subtype recombination increased from 29 (69%) to 36 (82%) over one year of follow-up, although the increase did not reach statistical significance. Adjustment for intra-subtype recombination is important for the analysis of multiplicity of HIV infection. This is the first report of high prevalence of intra-subtype recombination in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Tanzania, a region where multiple HIV-1 subtypes co-circulate. HIV-1 intra-subtype recombination increases viral diversity and presents additional challenges for HIV-1 vaccine design.


Background: Researchers have conducted interventions, based on several different risk factors, designed to minimize the prevalence or incidence of lower back disorders in different occupational settings. However, results have been inconsistent for the observed effectiveness of the intervention methods. Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of controlled workplace interventions in preventing the (re)occurrence of lower back disorders (LBDs) in a manufacturing setting. Methods: An electronic and manual literature search was conducted. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed on five categories and a meta-analysis was performed to identify the direction and size of the effect. Because the studies were homogeneous (Q = 0.63), the meta-OR was calculated using the fixed-effect model. Results: The literature survey identified four studies that met the inclusion criteria. These studies possessed a marginal to moderate methodological quality (mean quality score 0.78 of 2.0, SD = 0.22). The meta-OR revealed a statistically insignificant reduction in work-related LBD prevalence (meta-OR = 0.77; 90% CI 0.55–1.07). Conclusions: Due to the statistical insignificance of the meta-OR and the relatively low methodological quality of studies, no definite conclusions can be drawn. More rigorous research with high quality standards is required.


We previously reported that pretreatment with the potent antioxidant TEMPOL improves mitochondrial function and restores preconditioning in the aging heart. Because mitophagy is implicated in cardiac preconditioning and declines with age, this study was designed to investigate how age influences mitophagy in response to preconditioning and whether TEMPOL pretreatment improves it. Old (22-24 months) rats were pretreated with or without 4-week TEMPOL and compared with young (4-6 months) untreated rats. Cardioprotection induced by isoflurane (ISO) in vivo and in isolated cardiomyocytes in vitro was assessed following ischemia/reperfusion and simulated hypoxia/reoxygenation, respectively. Mitophagy was determined by comparing the levels/subcellular locations of key mitophagic markers using Western blotting and immunofluorescence techniques. ISO preconditioned the young but not old heart in vivo and in vitro. Aging impaired ISO-induced mitochondrial accumulation of PINK1 and Parkin, as well as mitochondrial ubiquitination, and baseline and ISO-induced autophagic flux assessed by LC3 puncta, membrane associated LC3-II and p62. Pretreatment with TEMPOL improved these processes and restored ISO preconditioning. Inhibition of autophagy abolished ISO-induced protection in cardiomyocytes from young and TEMPOL pretreated old rats. Thus, antioxidant pretreatment significantly improves mitophagic response to ISO in old myocardium, which may contribute to restoration of cardioprotection in senescent animals.


There is a lack of clear evidence of the ways in which dividend taxation affects dividend distributions and investment since the evidence is based mainly on the behaviour of large listed companies. This paper utilises a large register-based panel data set, where the vast majority of firms are small and medium-sized enterprises, to examine the responses to the Finnish dividend tax increase of 2005. This reform creates a useful opportunity to measure enterprise behaviour, since it involves exogenous variation in the tax treatment of different types of firms. The results, based on differences-in-differences estimation and matching methods, indicate that dividends declined somewhat in closely held corporations that faced a tax increase, perhaps for timing reasons, while investments did not decline. These findings are more in line with the new rather than the old view of dividend taxation.


We present the first hollow out-of-wafer-plane silicon microneedles having openings in the shaft rather than having an orifice at the tip. These structures are well suited for transdermal microfluidic applications, e.g., drug or vaccine delivery. The developed deep-reactive ion etching (DRIE) process allows fabrication of two dimensional, mechanically highly resistant needle arrays offering low resistance to liquid flows and a large exposure area between the fluid and the tissue. The presented process does not require much wafer handling and only two photolithography steps are required. Using a 3/spl times/3 mm/sup 2/ chip in a typical application, e.g., vaccine delivery, a 100 /spl mu/l volume of aqueous fluid injected in 2 s would cause a pressure drop of less than 2 kPa. The presented needles are approximately 210 /spl mu/m long.