This article documents how thermal manipulation is critical to the transformation of the earth's raw materials into media and to maintaining those materials as media. Through an examination of thermal practices, including mineral extraction, the use of air-conditioning in media manufacturing and preservation, and thermal infrared imaging, thermal control is shown to be essential to the conversion of geological matter into circulations of media on a mass scale. In each of these cases, cultural assumptions and imperatives—the drive toward purity, the development of standardization, and the demand for homogeneity across elements and media objects—organize temperature management. The thermocultures of media inflect its composition, movements, and temporalities and embed it within existing regimes of capitalism, gender, race, and sexuality. The study of thermocultures offers an alternative to traditional infrastructural and geological analyses, one oriented less toward the excavation of elements from deep time and the depths of the earth and more toward the conditions in which geologic matter's potentials are actualized as media. It also opens up a new set of genealogies for investigation, including the historical role of thermal management in the differentiation of gendered bodies.


Agribusiness advocates claim that modern agro-technology has led to higher per hectare yields. In particular, hydroponic greenhouse agriculture is advanced as a new and particularly productive approach to high output farming. This may contribute to the belief that agricultural land can be urbanized because human ingenuity is seemingly developing substitutes for the lost soil. This thesis challenges this assumption by examining agricultural technology from an ecological perspective. It uses the concept of the ecological footprint (or appropriated carrying capacity) to compare the productivity of hydroponic agriculture with that of conventional open field operations. I assess and compare the biophysical inputs required by these operations to produce 1000 tonnes of tomatoes. These figures are then translated into corresponding land areas (in various categories) necessary to produce the required biophysical inputs. In contrast to common belief, hydroponic operations require 14 21 times more land than conventional open field operations to produce the same output (including the land directly occupied by the farms). This case study demonstrates the merits of appropriated carrying capacity analysis for assessing progress toward sustainability. It shows that hydroponic agriculture is a prime example of apparent economic success which is, in fact, ecologically unsustainable. There is no reason for confidence that we can pave over our agricultural lands just yet! Finally, this study demonstrates that the apparent yields of hydroponic greenhouse agriculture are partially a reflection of underpriced resource inputs, a form of subsidy which is not sustainable.


Nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2) may either ameliorate or worsen diabetic cardiomyopathy. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Herein we report a novel mechanism of Nrf2-mediated myocardial damage in type 1 diabetes (T1D). Global Nrf2 knockout (Nrf2KO) hardly affected the onset of cardiac dysfunction induced by T1D but slowed down its progression in mice independent of sex. In addition, Nrf2KO inhibited cardiac pathological remodeling, apoptosis, and oxidative stress associated with both onset and advancement of cardiac dysfunction in T1D. Such Nrf2-mediated progression of diabetic cardiomyopathy was confirmed by a cardiomyocyte-restricted (CR) Nrf2 transgenic approach in mice. Moreover, cardiac autophagy inhibition via CR knockout of autophagy-related 5 gene (CR-Atg5KO) led to early onset and accelerated development of cardiomyopathy in T1D, and CR-Atg5KO–induced adverse phenotypes were rescued by additional Nrf2KO. Mechanistically, chronic T1D leads to glucolipotoxicity inhibiting autolysosome efflux, which in turn intensifies Nrf2-driven transcription to fuel lipid peroxidation while inactivating Nrf2-mediated antioxidant defense and impairing Nrf2-coordinated iron metabolism, thereby leading to ferroptosis in cardiomyocytes. These results demonstrate that diabetes over time causes autophagy deficiency, which turns off Nrf2-mediated defense while switching on an Nrf2-operated pathological program toward ferroptosis in cardiomyocytes, thereby worsening the progression of diabetic cardiomyopathy.


Diabetic healthcare is characterized by the collaboration problem, which is manifested by problems of accessibility and interoperability. To improve the problem situation, we propose a Multi-agent Systems approach. The interactions among the diabetic healthcare actors are categorized on three levels: collaboration, coordination, and communication. Agents are designed to work on the coordination and communication levels, and support the collaboration among human actors. This paper presents a project Integrated Mobile Information Systems for diabetic healthcare (IMIS) to demonstrate how to apply Multi-agent Systems coordination to the collaboration among healthcare actors.


Aptamer-based assays are a powerful platform for sensing a wide variety of biochemical targets, including drugs, disease biomarker, and biomolecules. However, aptamer assays often lack rapid identification and high-throughput screening. Performing an aptamer-based assay on a microfluidic device is a promising solution to increase throughput, portability, and sensitivity. In this paper, we present a microfluidic device capable of running aptamer-based assays. Our device utilizes normally-closed valves and a central micropump to move fluids throughout the chip. One chip could theoretically be scaled up to run multiple assays, and multiple of these microfluidic devices could be run in parallel to increase throughput. Our experiments characterized the actuation pressure needed to normally-closed valves with different size parameters, showed and characterized flow using both oil and water solutions, and demonstrated modular movement on a chip with six micropumps. Lastly, we designed a cartridge topper system to eliminate the need for pins leading to a pneumatic controller so chips could easily be switched out. By demonstrating flow and mixing, our chip is fully capable of running an aptamer-based assay.


The reaction of Hg(OAc)(2) with 1,4-benzenedithiol in ethylenediamine at 80 °C yields [Hg(SC(6)H(4)S)(en)](n), while the reaction of Pb(OAc)(2) with 1,4-benzenedithiol in diethylenetriamine at 130 °C yields [Pb(SC(6)H(4)S)(dien)](n). Both products are crystalline materials, and structure determination by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction revealed that both are essentially one-dimensional metal-organic polymers with -M-SC(6)H(4)S- repeat units. Diffuse reflectance UV-visible spectroscopy indicates band gaps of 2.89 eV for [Hg(SC(6)H(4)S)(en)](n) and 2.54 eV for [Pb(SC(6)H(4)S)(dien)](n), while density functional theory (DFT) band structure calculations yielded band gaps of 2.24 and 2.10 eV, respectively. The two compounds are both infinite polymers of metal atoms linked by 1,4-benzenedithiolate, the prototypical molecule for single-molecule conductivity studies, yet neither compound has significant electrical conductivity as a pressed pellet. In the case of [Pb(SC(6)H(4)S)(dien)](n) calculations indicate fairly flat bands and therefore low carrier mobilities, while the conduction band of [Hg(SC(6)H(4)S)(en)](n) does have moderate dispersion and a calculated electron effective mass of 0.29·m(e). Hybridization of the empty Hg 6s orbital with SC(6)H(4)S orbitals in the conduction band leads to the band dispersion, and suggests that similar hybrid materials with smaller band gaps will be good semiconductors.


Commercially used polymer separators for lithium-ion batteries are inherently flammable and their reliability is limited to specific temperatures. The electrode-supported alumina separator shows good cell performance with improved safety. However, alumina is heavier than polymer separators and thus has a lower weight-based energy density. This paper reports synthesis and characterization of a lighter and low-cost silica (quartz) membrane separator for lithium-ion batteries and its performance in comparison with alumina separators. Thin (40 μm) quartz silica films can be readily coated on a Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) electrode by the blade-coating method from a quartz silica slurry due to its more favorable particle shape and matching zeta-potential as compared to alumina. A new infiltration method shows that quartz silica separators exhibit better electrolyte wettability than alumina and polypropylene (PP) separators. LTO/Li cells with quartz silica, alumina and PP separators exhibit similar cyclability indicating that the quartz silica separator is inert to the cell internals. However, the EIS results show that the quartz silica separators have a better charge transfer rate and lower SEI resistance compared to the cells with the alumina and PP separators. The results demonstrate that the quartz silica separator is more favorable inorganic material as the membrane separator for safer, higher energy density and better performing lithium-ion batteries.


We study the kinematics of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6946 by investigating the velocity field from Hα Fabry-Perot observations, determine the pattern speed of the bar by using the Tremaine-Weinberg method, and find a main pattern speed of 21.7+4.0-0.8 km-1 s-1 kpc-1. Our data clearly suggest the presence of an additional pattern with a pattern speed more than twice that of the large pattern in this galaxy. We use the epicycle approximation to deduce the location of the resonance radii and subsequently determine the pattern speed between the radii, and find that inside the inner inner Lindblad resonance radius a bar-like system has evolved.


To convince us that computers cannot have mental states, Searle (1980) imagines a "Chinese room" that simulates a computer that "speaks" Chinese and asks us to find the understanding in the room. It's a trick. There is no understanding in the room, not because computers can't have it, but because the room's computer-simulation is defective. Fix it and understanding appears. Abracadabra!


Several countries want to reduce carbon emissions by reducing private car use through travelemand management (TDM) measures. Citizens' acceptance of these, and its predictors are welldddocumented, but the same cannot be said for politicians' and bureaucrats' acceptance. This studylooked at households, politicians, and bureaucrats in Sweden. A questionnaire assessed theiracceptance of three TDM measures, as well as the influence of the measures' perceivede ect veness and fairness on acceptance. Bureaucrats perceived push (coercive) measures as moreeffffffectiiive, fair, and acceptable than the other groups did. Bureaucrats were also less influenced bytheir perception of push measures' fairness when evaluating push measures' acceptability. Goingforward, policy makers need to make sure that TDM measures are perceived as fair by all groups ifthe measures are to be successful.


Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users represent a small population at risk for marginalization from research and surveillance activities resulting from cultural, language, and ethical challenges. The Deaf community's view of deafness as a cultural identity, rather than a disability, contradicts the medical community's perception of deafness as a disease or deficiency in need of correction or elimination. These differences continue to have significant cultural and social implications within the Deaf community, resulting in mistrust of research opportunities. Two particularly contentious ethical topics for the Deaf community are the absence of community representation in genetic research and the lack of accessible informed consents and research materials. This article outlines a series of innovative strategies and solutions to these issues, including the importance of community representation and collaboration with researchers studying deaf populations.


Preponderance of stray dogs at the study site necessitated assessment of awareness on rabies and associated factors, attitude to dog bite and knowledge on rabies among students and staff members in a University community. We reviewed hospital records for dog bite cases from 2005 to 2010 and administered structured questionnaire to 326 randomly selected respondents. Incomplete entries were removed and the remaining 315 entries analyzed using Epi-Info 3.5.1. Chi square test and multivariate analysis were done at 95% confidence interval. Ten dog bites cases were extracted from hospital records while 65 were reported from survey. Of the 65 cases, 67% were between the ages of 13 – 18 years; 41.4% had bite on the legs; 52.3% reported at the hospital within a few hours after the dog bite incidence. Of 34 respondents who reported at the hospital, only 37.6% received both wound treatment and post exposure vaccination. Of 315 respondents, 79% were aware of rabies. Majority (43%) reported to have heard from friends. Having at least secondary school education (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 3.7, Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.8 – 7.8), owning a dog (AOR = 8.2, CI = 2.4 – 27.8) and knowing bat as source of rabies (AOR = 4.7, C = 1.6 – 14.0) were significantly associated (P<0.05) with rabies awareness. Majority of the respondents have fair knowledge on rabies despite high awareness level. Educational level and dog ownership are associated with rabies awareness. Dog bite cases are under reported and friends can serve as good source of information dissemination. Keywords : Knowledge; awareness; dog-bite; rabies, friends, University


Recently, Vietnamese speech recognition has been attracted by various research groups in both academics and industry. This paper presents a Vietnamese automatic speech recognition challenge for the eighth annual workshop on Vietnamese Language and Speech Processing (VLSP 2021). There are two sub-tasks in the challenge. The first task is ASR-Task1 focusing on a full pipeline development of the ASR model from scratch with both labeled and unlabeled training data provided by the organizer. The second task is ASR-Task2 focusing on spontaneous speech in different real scenarios e.g., meeting conversation, lecture speech. In the ASR-Task2, participants can use all available data sources to develop their models without any limitations. The quality of the models is evaluated by the Syllable Error Rate (SyER) metric.


Traditional food marketing systems in developing countries are often not trusted. In consequence, policy makers frequently try to regulate them and modern market arrangements increasingly are emerging to address some of their presumed deficiencies. However, it is unclear how trustworthy these markets actually are and if and to what extent regulation and modernization affects market governance. In this paper we look at the case of coffee in urban settings in Ethiopia to test trustworthiness along three dimensions of trade transactions - weights, quality, and the presence of illegal trade. We find that traders are relatively trustworthy on observable quality characteristics and weights.


In vitro grown apricot ( Prunus armeniaca L.) cv. El-Hamawey shoot tips were successfully cryopreserved using an encapsulation-dehydration procedure. Shoot tips were encapsulated in calcium-alginate beads before preculture on woody plant (WP) medium supplemented with different sucrose concentrations; 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 M for 2, 4, 6 and 8 days at 25°C. Encapsulated shoot tips were then dehydrated by incubation in the sterile air flow of a laminar air-flow cabinet for 0.0 - 6 h and immediately plunged into liquid nitrogen (LN, -196°C). The highest survival (100%) and regrowth (92.3%) rates were obtained with encapsulated unfrozen apricot shoot tips that were precultured on WP medium containing 0.5 M sucrose for two days and followed by dehydration for 2 h. After recovering from liquid nitrogen and rapid thawing in a water bath at 38°C for 2 to 3 min, the greatest survival (74.5%) and regrowth (71.8%) were obtained and encapsulated shoot tips were precultured for two days in WP medium containing 0.75 M sucrose dehydrated for 2 h, desiccated to 19.55% moisture content and conserved three months in liquid nitrogen. After two years in liquid nitrogen storage, the greatest regrowth percentage (60.4%) was obtained when encapsulated cryopreserved shoot tips were precultured for two days in medium containing 0.75 M sucrose and also with 2 h of dehydration. This study has successfully developed a simple and effective protocol for the cryopreservation of apricot shoot tips. Genetic stability of plantlets derived from cryopreserved shoot tips was evaluated using random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Keywords : Apricot ( Prunus armeniaca L), cryopreservation, encapsulation/dehydration, RAPD African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(12), pp. 1419-1430


When he fled Austria in 1934, Ludwig von Mises left behind a wealth of writings that, he supposed, were lost forever. Seized by the Nazi Gestapo, the papers were subsequently captured by the Soviet KGB and were archived in Moscow. Their discovery in 1996, by Professors Richard and Anna Ebeling of Hillsdale College, received widespread attention. In cooperation with Hillsdale College, Liberty Fund will make available these long-lost writings, many of which have not previously appeared in English, as part of a three-volume edition of selected writings by one of the unsurpassed economists of the twentieth century.In the first of the volumes to be published are contained separate previously unpublished works that Mises wrote from 1940 through 1944, when much of the world was at war. The papers include: Guiding Principles for the Reconstruction of Austria (1940); An Eastern Democratic Union: A Proposal for the Establishment of a Durable Peace in Eastern Europe (1943); Aspects of American Foreign Trade Policy (1943); Mexico's Economic Problems (1943); The Main Issues in Present-Day Monetary Controversies (1944), and; A Non-Inflationary Proposal for Post-War Monetary Reconstruction (1944).


Many Impressionist paintings of modern life and leisure include images of household pets. Their appealing presence lends charm to such works while alluding to middle-class prosperity and the growing importance of animals as family members. In many cases, such domestic denizens significantly complement representations of their owners. In certain others, the devotion of individual artists to their pets symbolically enhances their expressions of artistic identity. This book focuses on the role of pets in Impressionist pictures and what this reveals about the art, artists, and society of that era. James Rubin discusses works in which artists paint themselves or their friends in the company of their pets, including several paintings by Courbet (who was fond of dogs) and Manet (a notorious lover of cats). He points out that in some works by Degas, dogs contribute to the artist's commentary on psychological and social relationships, and that in paintings by Renoir, dogs and cats have playful and erotic overtones. He also offers a theory to explain why Monet almost never painted pets. Drawing on early pet handbooks and treatises on animal intelligence, Rubin explores 19th-century opinions on cats and dogs and compares handbook illustrations with the animals shown in Impressionist works. He also provides information on pet ownership and on the place of Impressionism in the long history of animal painting.


Head-down hover displays and instrument panels theoretically provide all necessary 2ight data information to control low-speed helicopter manoeuvring. However, past experiments have shown that head-down displays can incur high workload, control instability, and even loss of control when used as the sole 2ight data source. This paper investigates the reasons for this instability incurred by replacing good outside visuals with a head-down hover display and an instrument panel. A pilot model based on crossover theory is developed for a linear six-degree-of-freedom Bo†•– helicopter model. Utilising a target trajectory based on ˝-theory and assuming perfect information availability, the developed model can perform the required manoeuvring task with a control time-delay stability margin of •.†– s (with SAS) or •.†⁄ s (without SAS). Then, the actual information availability based on human perception methods and limitations is discussed. A pilot-in-the-loop experiment in the SIMONA Research Simulator qualitatively validates the developed pilot model for good outside visuals. However, the pilot model does not capture the added diZculties of having to utilise the hover display and instrument panel instead of good outside visuals; during the experiment, the task was impossible to complete with only these displays. This is likely caused by an increase in control time-delay, which in turn is caused by the loss of peripheral and 2ow 1eld information, a more abstract information representation compared to good outside visuals, and the fact that the pilot now needs to scan multiple displays to acquire all necessary 2ight state information. Improving head-down hover display symbology and scaling factors might rectify some, but probably not all of these e−ects.


OBJECTIVE
To detect Saudi women's complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practice and attitudes in superficial injuries first aids.

METHODS
A cross-sectional descriptive study included 500 women from Princess Nourah bint Abdul Rahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Pre-designed questionnaire was used to collect their socio-demographic characteristics, complementary and alternative medicine practice and attitude in superficial injuries first aids.

RESULTS
Most of the participants were young unmarried women coming from middle regions. Burn and superficial cuts represented the commonest superficial injuries. Honey and medical herbs; myrrh were the commonly used CAM. Most participants agreed that CAM is available. Half of participants believed that CAM is safe that could be used without medical consultation.

CONCLUSIONS
There is increased interest and positive attitudes toward CAM use among Saudi women, yet they are not aware about its interactions and side effects.


Assessing the extent to which systemic thinking is developed through total enterprise simulations is critical in measuring the effectiveness of this tool in the business curriculum. This exploratory research aims to quantitatively evaluate and assess the level of systemic thinking that undergraduate students in a first-year business course develop during the use of a business simulation. Students provided feedback on decision summary reports which was content analyzed to develop a rubric that was used to evaluate the extent of systemic thinking development among students. Further analyses were conducted to relate the level of systemic thinking to organizational performance. Results indicate that students who start with a low level of systemic thinking show an increased level of systemic thinking as the simulation progresses. We also found a positive relationship between systemic thinking and organizational performance both in the short and long run.


In this paper, we consider lossless transmission of arbitrarily correlated sources over a multiple access channel. Characterization of the achievable rates in the most general setting is one of the long-standing open problems of information theory. We consider a special case of this problem where the receiver has access to correlated side information given which the sources are independent. We prove a source channel separation theorem for this system, that is, we show that there is no loss in performance in first applying distributed source coding where each encoder compresses its source conditioned on the side information at the receiver, and then applying an optimal multiple access channel code with independent codebooks. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for source and channel separability in the above problem if there is a perfect two-sided feedback from the receiver to the transmitters. These two communication scenarios constitute examples of few non-trivial multi-user scenarios for which separation holds


Author(s): Yu, Wenchao | Advisor(s): Wang, Wei | Abstract: The problem of information network analysis has gained increasing attention in recent years, because most objects and data in the real world are interconnected, forming complex networks. One challenging aspect of network analysis is that they are inherently resistant to parametric modeling, which allows us to truly express the vertices and edges in the network as vectors or functions of time. This is because, unlike multi-dimensional data, the edges in the network reflect interactions among vertices, and it is difficult to independently model them without taking into account their correlations and interactions with neighboring vertices or edges. This thesis presents a combination of the methods and applications in static network analysis and evolutionary network analysis, which is trying to analyze and model the structure and evolution in networks.On the analysis of static network side, we develop methods to learn the network representations with adversarially regularized autoencoders, which learns smoothly regularized vertex representations that well capture the network structure through jointly considering both locality-preserving and global reconstruction constraints. And applications in community detection are designed to detect communities which have the maximum competition intensity score in an advertiser-keyword bipartite network.On the analysis of evolutionary network side, we show that it is indeed possible to represent the network structure purely as a function of time with the use of temporal matrix factorization, in which the entries are parameterized by time. This opens the possibility of using the approach for a wide variety of evolutionary network analysis problems, such as temporal link prediction. It can also be utilized to model co-evolution across multiple networks by decomposing the adjacency matrix of each co-evolving network into a product of network-independent factors and a set of network-specific time-dependent factors. Applications in temporal link prediction and online anomaly detection are proposed, in which the low-dimensional representations of networks can be learned and updated to capture evolutionary network structures.


Background. Our group has previously described five different size alleles of an interferon (IFN)-&ggr; microsatellite. Analyzing this polymorphism, this study correlated high IFN-&ggr; production with a 12 CA repeat allele (allele 2). Further, our group has described interleukin (IL)-10 polymorphism defining in vitro high and low IL-10 producer status. Methods. Samples from 88 of 115 consecutive cadaveric renal transplants were used to define polymorphism of both IFN-&ggr; and IL-10. Patients were separated into high and low genotypes based on the previously reported association between certain genotypes and in vitro production. Graft survival, acute rejection, and serum creatinine at 5 years were analyzed for comparison between groups. Results. The genotype associated with high IFN-&ggr; production was found in 70 patients. The incidence of acute rejection was 54.3% in the high IFN-&ggr; genotype group, compared with 44.4% in the low IFN-&ggr; group. Requirement for antithymocyte globulin therapy was greater in the high IFN-&ggr; group (odds ratio [OR]=2.5). Among HLA-DR-mismatched patients, IFN-&ggr; genotype was more strongly associated with rejection (OR=2.86). In the cyclosporine monotherapy subgroup, patients with high IFN-&ggr; genotype had a 61% incidence of rejection compared with only 20% in the low IFN-&ggr; genotype patients (OR=3.06). Graft survival was similar between the two groups. When the analysis was controlled for the presence of delayed graft function, 40.5% of the high IFN-&ggr; genotype patients had serum creatinine levels above 200 &mgr;mol/L compared with only 14.3% of the low IFN-&ggr; genotype recipients at 5 years after transplantation (P =0.05). The high IL-10 genotype was shown to be associated with better graft function at 5 years (75 vs. 50%, P =0.09). Conclusion. In this study we have shown that high producer genotype for IFN-&ggr; may have an influence on acute rejection of kidney transplants, particularly in patients on cyclosporine monotherapy. It is also associated with worse long-term graft function. On the contrary high IL-10 production may have a long-term protective effect.


Software systems are composed of components acquired from different sources, e.g. subcontractors, component providers, and open source software providers. Therefore, integrability is one of the most important qualities in software development. Extensibility is especially important in open source software systems because they evolve according to the needs of the user community and often into a direction not originally foreseen. Integrability evaluation refers to testing if separately developed components work correctly together. Extensibility evaluation focuses on how new features, origi- nated from customers' demands or new emerging technologies, could easily be developed and exploited in systems with- out losing existing capabilities. The impact of changes to the system also has to be estimated. This can be done by a method called IEE, which enables extensibility and integrability evaluation from software architectural models. The con- tribution of this paper is to introduce the IEE method and illustrate how it is to be used with a real world case study. In the case study, we applied the IEE in evaluating the architecture of an existing open source tool. Evaluation revealed a need to introduce two new extension points to the architecture and also that an integration framework is needed to integrate the tool under evaluation with other supporting tools.


Nursing shortage is globally increasing, but it is much more serious in Sweden due to aging of the population which the nursing work force is part of. Shortage management is a challenge for the health care as it requires actions both on local/region and national level to deliver the required health care service in order to keep a healthy population. For the time being, urgent actions are required to manage health care services and to have a sustainable nursing work force. A devoted nurse leader is necessary to improve the working conditions for the nurses which positively affects their life inside and outside work.Researches done on nursing shortage management in some countries but not in Sweden.This thesis have developed a study-protocol based on qualitative methods with in-depth research interviews as the data collecting tool. Qualitative content analysis will applied to get deep understanding of nursing shortage by triangulating the component of nursing shortage. This thesis developed interview tools and conceptual framework from a pilot study in Umea in combination with an extensive literature review. The interview guide will save time and motivate others for further research in Sweden and other countries.The research is expected to come up with suggestions for nursing shortage management which can be presented to the organizations and government.


Cyanotic heart diseases are relatively rare, but they are severe and heterogeneous congenital heart diseases, which require complex surgery. Development of different advanced surgical procedures, such as arterial switch operation (ASO), Fontan and its modifications, Norwood etc. operations, as well as better perioperative care significantly improved survival rate and quality of life of these children. The study group included 308 children treated for cyanotic heart disease in Yugoslavia, in the period January 2000 to July 2004. Some of them (239, 77.6%) were treated at the University Children's Hospital in Belgrade, and others (69, 22.4%) in different institutions abroad. The age of the operated patients varied between 1 day and 19 years (median 12 months). The patients (pts) were divided into four groups, according to the disease and type of the operation. In the whole group of 308 patients treated due to cyanotic heart disease, there were 232 (75.3%) cases with open heart surgery and 76 (24.7%) with closed procedures. The mortality rate was significantly different between disease/operation groups, and age groups. Average mortality rates differed from 11.8% for palliative procedures to 12.5% for complete corrections. Mortality rate and achieved surgical results in treatment of children with cyanotic heart diseases were significantly worse than those published by leading cardiac surgery centers in the world. However, there is a clear tendency in introducing new surgical procedures, lowering the age at which the operation is done and decreasing the mortality rates.


This study examines the relationship of dehumanization, public emotion, and social distance theory in regards to human service workers personal bias on the subject of sex offenders. This study aimed to determine the following: (a). To encourage human service workers to self assess for personal bias and counter transference regarding working with sex offenders. (b). Respond and support treatment programs and government policy that are factual based. (c). Increase the fair, objective treatment of those who have sexually offended. The researcher explored current government policies and its impact on those who sexually offended and society as a whole while questioning its impact on human service workers. A thirteen question survey was employed that encouraged human service workers to examine their personal bias. Using two well known social media websites, 94 participants responded to the online survey. The survey concluded that the human service workers studied were neutral and somewhat in favor of sex offender law creation while less than half (43%) checked their registries within the past year. Bogardus Social Distance Scale was utilized and it was concluded that there was a 49% preferred social distance element between sex offenders and the human services workers studied. More research is called for to determine whether personal bias of sex offenders impacts practice.


A high phytic acid diet (barley, wheat, soya bean meal, 4 g P/kg, of that 2/3 phytate P) without added phytase, with phytase supplement (1000 U/kg diet) or with supplementary phosphate (2,2g P/kg diet) was examined with 3 x 12 weaned piglets. The high dietary P level due to phosphate addition, significantly improved body weight gain and feed:gain ratio. The phytase effect on these criteria was small. The phytase but more the supplementary phosphate increased P concentration of serum. In case of phytase addition pigs had 10% less ash P and Ca in the rib than animals of phosphate group. In the group without phytase or P addition the ash, P and Ca concentration of bone were decreased by 20%.


The developmental cytology of the vegetative filament of Vaucheria has been investigated with light and electron microscopes. The vegetative filament consists of three distinct zones: the apical zone, the sub-apical zone and the zone of vacuolation. Organelle distribution and associations in these zones have a primary role in controlling morphogenetic events which influence growth and induce differentiation of sexual and asexual organs. Cell elongation in the polarised vegetative filament occurs by vesicular addition in the apical zone. Two types of active cyclosis are found exclusively in the zone of vacuolation. Nuclear cyclosis involves microtubular bands which associate with persistent centrioles found adjacent to the outer nuclear membrane. A specialised mitochondrial-dictyosome association is transported by a microfilament-like system of anastomosing strands. This latter system is extremely labile to conventional fixatives.


Pervasive applications promote a seamless integration of computer artifacts with our daily an business lives. However, they threaten privacy in two ways. Firstly, adaptation to a user's context necessitates a large collection of data. Secondly, context should be addressed when granting users access to information. This paper handles privacy management as an access control problem and argues that privacy should be specified from a global point of view. Investigating privacy specification at a high level of abstraction and its implementation leads to the proposition of a generative approach relying on model-driven engineering. This approach distinguishes a design level for privacy from its execution level. The design level provides a specification language for privacy which emphasizes its contextual features. It is implemented at the execution level as a service composition generated through model transformations. This composition gathers heterogenous entities, such as pieces of software code or devices. The approach is validated on the example of a medical workflow.


Through the lens of the 'Community of Inquiry' education experience (Vaughan & Garrison, 2006), this practice report provides guidance and examples for online instructors to engage students within discussions in the digital realm. Five elements will be discussed: embedding multi-media, affiliative humour and storytelling, Socratic questioning, 'reframes' and, summarising and 'weaving'.
Based on the lived experience of one eLearning Advisor, or online instructor/e-moderator, at Swinburne Online, this practice report offers useful strategies to build engaging, sustainable learning conversations within discussion forums that are abundant with collaborative inquiry, dialogue and sharing of personal learning experiences for online students in higher education.


In recent years, so-called "honor killings" came onto the political agenda of many migrant-receiving societies including Germany. There were heated debates over the meanings of these murders in courts, parliaments, media, and the broader public sphere. These debates centered mainly on the question of whether "honor killing" is a culturally specific type of violence that occurs only in certain cultural communities, or a form of violence against women that cuts across all cultures. In Germany, "honor killing" acquired a particular and relatively well-entrenched meaning when it first came to fore in 2005 after the murder of Hatun Sürücü; it has since been understood as a culturally specific form of violence illustrating the irreconcilable differences between minority and majority cultures. As such, it has been associated with the "failed multiculturalism" diagnosis, indicating the inability of traditional migrant communities to integrate into mainstream society. This article seeks to problematize the discursive link between "honor killing" and failed multiculturalism and to explore the factors that help establish and sustain this link in Germany. The article identifies the dominant and competing frames of "honor killing" as articulated in the course of parliamentary debates and the broader public sphere and seeks to understand the reasons for the dominance of culture-based frames. It explains the presumed linkage between "honor killing" and failed multiculturalism by drawing attention to the institutional and discursive context within which these murders were debated. This analysis reveals the significance of the broader context in shaping the way multiculturalism is understood and practiced in culturally plural societies.


ABSTRACT The surface sediments of the Gulf of Panama consist of a relict sand covering the central and outer portion of the shelf, and nearshore recent fine-grained sediments with local accumulations of coarser sediments. Clays, with occasional patches of rocks and pebbles, are typical of the continental slope. Compositional determinations, including heavy mineral content, and factor analysis of the data indicate that deposition of sand in the central portion of the Gulf was controlled primarily by the topography of the exposed shelf during the last low stand of sea-level. During this time streams distributed sediment from the east and west towards the center of the Gulf. During part of the Pleistocene, the main drainage entering the Gulf through San Miguel Bay passed north of the Archipelago e Las Perlas and across the shelf in the prominent central submarine valley. Presently fine-grained sediments are being transported and deposited in a counter-clockwise direction around the inner part of the Gulf, producing a deposit which is nearly homogeneous in mineralogy. Fine-grained sediment is forming a prism moving out from the shore towards the center of the Gulf; some has bypassed the shelf and is being deposited on the slope. Heavy mineral determinations were made by conventional optical and x-ray techniques. Several difficulties exist in comparing the data and, in particular, in evaluating the x-ray results. However, distribution patterns derived using x-ray peak heights and a Q-mode factor analysis on data from both techniques were compared and showed very good similarity.


Insulating materials are now subjected to precision electrical discharge machining (EDM) using an assisting electrode method (AEM). The electrode materials usually comprise copper, graphite and copper alloys that have high melting temperature and excellent electrical and thermal conductivity. A brass electrode is known as a humble electrode. Performances of brass and copper pipe electrodes were compared on silicon nitride machining. Results showed that a brass electrode had more advantages than a copper electrode. Material removal rate (MRR), electrode wear ratio (EWR) and surface roughness were compared, while the conductive layers were examined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS).


The Pauli potential is an essential quantity in orbital-free density-functional theory (DFT) and in the exact electron factorization (EEF) method for many-electron systems. Knowledge of the Pauli potential allows the description of a system relying on the density alone, without the need to calculate the orbitals.In this work we explore the behavior of the exact Pauli potential in finite systems as a function of the number of electrons, employing the ensemble approach in DFT. Assuming the system is in contact with an electron reservoir, we allow the number of electrons to vary continuously and to obtain fractional as well as integer values. We derive an expression for the Pauli potential for a spin-polarized system with a fractional number of electrons and find that when the electron number surpasses an integer, the Pauli potential jumps by a spatially uniform constant, similarly to the Kohn-Sham potential. The magnitude of the jump equals the Kohn-Sham gap. We illustrate our analytical findings by calculating the exact and approximate Pauli potentials for Li and Na atoms with fractional numbers of electrons.


In this study, time-domain fatigue analyses of multi-planar tubular joints for a jacket-type substructure of offshore wind turbines designed for Taiwan's local environmental conditions are performed. The potential design load cases could affect the overall calculation procedure. A series of fatigue loads from the IEC 61400-3 standard were calculated to investigate the dominant design load cases and to improve the load calculation efficiency. The stress distributions of tubular joints are computed by finite element analysis to determine the stress concentration factors. The results show that the fatigue damage caused by the power production design scenario accounts for the total cumulative fatigue damage up to 90%. This work, in addition to more efficient load calculation procedure, will be helpful for cost assessment and could accelerate the development of offshore wind farms in Taiwan.


In this paper, a novel technique on a multiscale energy and eigenspace (MEES) approach is proposed for the detection and localization of myocardial infarction (MI) from multilead electrocardiogram (ECG). Wavelet decomposition of multilead ECG signals grossly segments the clinical components at different subbands. In MI, pathological characteristics such as hypercute T-wave, inversion of T-wave, changes in ST elevation, or pathological Q-wave are seen in ECG signals. This pathological information alters the covariance structures of multiscale multivariate matrices at different scales and the corresponding eigenvalues. The clinically relevant components can be captured by eigenvalues. In this study, multiscale wavelet energies and eigenvalues of multiscale covariance matrices are used as diagnostic features. Support vector machines (SVMs) with both linear and radial basis function (RBF) kernel and K-nearest neighbor are used as classifiers. Datasets, which include healthy control, and various types of MI, such as anterior, anteriolateral, anterioseptal, inferior, inferiolateral, and inferioposterio-lateral, from the PTB diagnostic ECG database are used for evaluation. The results show that the proposed technique can successfully detect the MI pathologies. The MEES approach also helps localize different types of MIs. For MI detection, the accuracy, the sensitivity, and the specificity values are 96%, 93%, and 99% respectively. The localization accuracy is 99.58%, using a multiclass SVM classifier with RBF kernel.


Interprofessional education enables health professional students to learn together in order to work together. The Faculty of Health Professions at Dalhousie University has developed interprofessional learning within the core curriculum of eight educational programs. An interprofessional coordinator consulted with students and faculty to prepare a collective statement of the purpose, learning models, and implementation principles of interprofessional learning. Planning, implementation, and evaluation of a first interprofessional module, Professional Ethics: Issues of Autonomy, was carried out by the interprofessional Working Group with representation from all programs in the faculty. 437 students (25-30 per session) participated in the first three-hour interprofessional module, which was offered in 16 evening sessions. Evaluation themes included the positive aspect of contact and discussion with students from other health professions, and the need to include medical students. The Faculty of Health Professions is planning to improve upon this first module, introduce other modules, and extend contact with other university faculties and community professionals.


Query Auto-Completion (QAC) is a popular feature of web search engines that aims to assist users to formulate queries faster and avoid spelling mistakes by presenting them with possible completions as soon as they start typing. However, despite the wide adoption of auto-completion in search systems, there is little published on how users interact with such services. In this paper, we present the first large-scale study of user interactions with auto-completion based on query logs of Bing, a commercial search engine. Our results confirm that lower-ranked auto-completion suggestions receive substantially lower engagement than those ranked higher. We also observe that users are most likely to engage with auto-completion after typing about half of the query, and in particular at word boundaries. Interestingly, we also noticed that the likelihood of using auto-completion varies with the distance of query characters on the keyboard. Overall, we believe that the results reported in our study provide valuable insights for understanding user engagement with auto-completion, and are likely to inform the design of more effective QAC systems.


Background People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lead sedentary lives and could benefit from increasing their physical activity. The purpose of this study was to determine if an exercise-specific self-efficacy enhancing intervention could increase physical activity and functional performance when delivered in the context of 4 months of upper body resistance training with a 12-month follow-up. Methods In this randomized controlled trial, subjects were assigned to: exercise-specific self-efficacy enhancing intervention with upper body resistance training (SE-UBR), health education with upper body resistance training (ED-UBR), or health education with gentle chair exercises (ED-Chair). Physical activity was measured with an accelerometer and functional performance was measured with the Functional Performance Inventory. Forty-nine people with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease completed 4 months of training and provided valid accelerometry data, and 34 also provided accelerometry data at 12 months of follow-up. The self-efficacy enhancing intervention emphasized meeting physical activity guidelines and increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Results Differences were observed in light physical activity (LPA) after 4 months of training, time by group interaction effect (P=0.045). The SE-UBR group increased time spent in LPA by +20.68±29.30 minutes/day and the other groups decreased time spent in LPA by −22.43±47.88 minutes/day and -25.73±51.76 minutes/day. Changes in LPA were not sustained at 12-month follow-up. There were no significant changes in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, sedentary time, or functional performance. Subjects spent most of their waking hours sedentary: 72%±9% for SE-UBR, 68%±10% for ED-UBR, and 74%±9% for ED-Chair. Conclusion The self-efficacy enhancing intervention produced a modest short-term increase in LPA. Further work is needed to increase the magnitude and duration of effect, possibly by targeting LPA.


OBJECTIVES
Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) among eligible adults 60 and older is much lower than among the younger population, and rates continue to decline throughout the life course while at the same time the risk of cognitive impairment increases. Due to the high administrative burden associated with SNAP eligibility processes, cognitive impairment may be associated with low uptake of SNAP among the low-income older adult population, particularly among more socially disadvantaged groups (females, Blacks, and those living alone). We provide new evidence that changes in cognitive functioning are associated with reductions in the probability of SNAP take-up among eligible older adults.

METHODS
Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study, we estimate linear probability fixed-effects models to assess the effect of cognitive decline on the likelihood of SNAP participation among eligible adults aged 60 and above, controlling for observed characteristics that change over time as well as individual, time, and state fixed effects.

RESULTS
Reduced levels of cognitive functioning that rise to the classification of dementia were strongly associated with reductions in the probability of SNAP take-up among eligible older adults. Results were particularly salient for females and those living alone.

DISCUSSION
One barrier to SNAP take-up among older adults may be cognitive impairment with the size of effect differing by gender and living arrangement. Policymakers may want to consider initiatives to increase SNAP participation among older adults, including a focus on further simplification of eligibility and recertification processes that reduce administrative burden.


For a thermoelectric power plant was made an analysis upon plate-type electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) for an energetic group depending on the group's load, in different operation regimes of the high-voltage units. Knowing the ESP's real I-V characteristics is important for their automation. Using a simulation software in C++ had been determinated the lines of field of potential and the electric field strength in ESPs for five types of discharge wires and collecting electrodes. For realising the simulations had been took account by real sizes of collecting electrodes, discharge wires forms and the distance between collecting electrodes and discharge wires.


The study of ethics is unarguably a key component of Management Information Systems (MIS) education. From the early days of the discipline, concerns abounded that computing and information were fraught with the possibility of misuse, leading the profession to determine that it had an obligation to do its utmost to encourage ingrained ethical practice. I propose a new approach to ethics teaching in Management Information Systems, one that addresses the need to inculcate habits of ethical thought as an integral part of the design, deployment and use of Management Information Systems. Students would learn the necessity of including ethical analysis at the beginning rather than at the end of MIS initiatives because ethics would be presented as "built in", an essential organic element of major MIS topics. The habits of ethical thought would be supported by introducing students to models and frameworks using a dialogic approach.


The Sea of Monsters: the second book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. Percy Jackson, the young demi-god, is back for his second exciting adventure in the bestselling series by Rick Riordan. You can't tell by looking at me that my dad is Poseidon, God of the Sea. It's not easy being a half-blood these days. You mortals can't even see the monsters we have to fight all the time. So when a game of dodgeball turned into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, I couldn't exactly ask my gym teacher for help. And that was just for starters. This is the one where Camp Half Blood is under attack, and unless I get my hands on the Golden Fleece, the whole camp will be invaded by monsters. Big ones. Can Percy survive the treacherous Sea of Monsters and restore order to Half-Blood Hill? Praise for the Percy Jackson series: "Witty and inspired. Gripping, touching and deliciously satirical...This is most likely to succeed Rowling. Puffin is on to a winner". (Amanda Craig, The Times). "Puns, jokes and subtle wit, alongside a gripping storyline". (Telegraph). "Perfectly paced, with electrifying moments chasing each other like heartbeats". (New York Times). Rick Riordan is an award-winning mystery writer. For the past fifteen years he has taught at middle schools in the San Francisco Bay area and in Texas. Rick lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and two sons. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the overall winner of the Red House Children's Book Award, was Rick's first novel featuring the heroic young demigod. The Percy Jackson series: The Lightning Thief; The Sea of Monsters; The Battle of the Labyrinth; The Titan's Curse; The Last Olympian Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero; The Son of Neptune; The Mark of Athena The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid; The Throne of Fire; and The Serpent's Shadow.


Visualization of pathlines is common and highly relevant for the analysis of unsteady flow. However, pathlines can intersect, leading to visual clutter and perceptual issues. This makes it intrinsically difficult to provide expressive visualizations of the entire domain by an arrangement of multiple pathlines, in contrast to well‐established streamline placement techniques. We present an approach to reduce these problems. It is inspired by glyph‐based visualization and small multiples: we partition the domain into cells, each corresponding to a downscaled version of the entire domain. Inside these cells, a single downscaled pathline is drawn. On the overview scale, our pathline glyphs lead to emergent visual patterns that provide insight into time‐dependent flow behavior. Zooming‐in allows us to analyze individual pathlines in detail and compare neighboring lines. The overall approach is complemented with a context‐preserving zoom lens and interactive pathline‐based exploration. While we primarily target the visualization of 2D flow, we also address the extension to 3D. Our evaluation includes several examples, comparison to other flow visualization techniques, and a user study with domain experts.


: Purpose: The main aim of the study is to examine empirically the possibility of the impact of the use of the concept of kaizen costing by enterprises on shaping a competitive advantage in crisis conditions in the process of creating cooperation with other economic entities from several countries. Design/ Methodology/Approach: A logarithmic model was used in the research. Authors test the influence of selected explanatory variables on the dependent variable which is the company's market value. Findings: The data used to build the econometric model come from the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, 400 companies in the form of joint stock companies were analyzed. The paper examined the greatest impact of such explanatory variables as sales revenues, other operating income, profit (loss) from operations, profit (loss) gross, assets, equity of the shareholders of the parent entity, core capital, long-term liabilities, short-term liabilities, financial flows, net cash flow and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) on the market value of enterprises cooperating with other companies and also using the kaizen costing concept in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The data used in the research cover from the first quarter of 2020 to first quarter of 2021. Practical implications: The assembled empirical evidence shows that in times of extraordinary global dangers of survival and gaining a competitive advantage and, consequently, increasing the company's market value as a result of establishing cooperation, the use of recommendations resulting from the kaizen costing concept may be favorable. Originality/ Value: The paper contains an original study of a representative group of a group of companies of various sizes. The above variables positively determined the market value of 400 listed companies. This dependence was also confirmed by the high value of the coefficient of determination R 2 =92%, as well as very low p-values. competitive advantage, co-operation, concept of kaizen costing.


The spatial and temporal structure of the resonant fluid response in a narrow gap (the so-called gap resonance) between two identical fixed boxes is investigated experimentally. Transient wave groups are used to excite the gap resonance from different wave approach directions. This shows a strong beating pattern and a very long duration, reflecting that gap resonance is a multi-mode resonant and weakly damped phenomenon. For head sea excitation the linear transfer function of the $m=2$ gap mode is as significant as that of the $m=1$ mode. Gap resonance can be driven through different mechanisms, e.g. linear excitation and a nonlinear frequency-doubling process. Significant wave group structure is shown in the gap, and the group structure is more distinct in the case with frequency doubling, i.e. long wave, excitation. Then it is clearer visually that the groups originate at the end of the gap, propagate along the gap and are then partially reflected from the other end. The groups within the gap are very clear because the group velocity is close to constant for the first few gap resonance modes, and much smaller than that for free waves on the open sea. In contrast, the phase speed of waves in the gap is larger than that for free waves outside. Only in the limit of short waves do the group velocity and phase speed of the gap modes tend to those of deep-water free waves. The group and phase speeds from these experiments match well the theoretical forms given by Molin et al. (Appl. Ocean Res., vol. 24 (5), 2002, pp. 247–260), albeit for a slightly different box cross-sectional shape.


: The indications, contraindications, variants and methods of autohemotransfusions as well as problems of their use in surgery, urology and other fields are discussed in detail on the basis of great clinical experience (about 3000 autohemotransfusions).


1. Purified myelin labelled with [(3)H]myo-inositol or [1-(14)C]acetate was incubated with trypsin or acetylated trypsin at 37 degrees C, pH8.0 for 30min. 2. After incubation and centrifugation analysis of the myelin pellet showed marked digestion of basic protein on polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. Proteolipid and Wolfgram proteins remained unchanged. 3. A loss of 15% of total protein and loss of all classes of lipids was also found. Most significant lipid losses were phosphoinositides, phosphatidylserine and sulphatide. 4. A low-density material containing more phospholipid than cholesterol and galactolipid was isolated from the supernatant obtained after centrifugation of trypsin-treated myelin. 5. Interaction of sulphatide and myelin basic protein was shown to take place in a biphasic system. Basic protein does not form any complex either with cerebroside or cholesterol in the same solvent system. 6. The release of acidic lipids from myelin suggests that they may be linked to basic protein by ionic forces and the neutral lipids may be by lipid-lipid interactions. 7. The relevance of these studies as a model of brain degeneration is discussed.


Coatings form the interface between structures and the environment in many application domains. They play a crucial role in providing protection, e.g. against corrosion, they form a barrier against an aggressive environment and they create the aesthetic appearance. To fulfill such functionalities, coatings are often composed of multiple layers, wherein each layer is designed to add a specific feature to the coating. The top coat serves as a barrier, whereas a base coat provides color and primers secure a good adhesion and corrosion protection. Nowadays, it is common that most objects are protected and decorated by coatings.Water penetration often forms a key factor in deterioration of a coating and its substrate. For example, water penetration may contribute to blister formation, leeching of water soluble components, hygroscopic stresses or freeze-thaw damages. Furthermore, water may act as a solvent or an electrolyte carrier, and may promote biodegradation. Consequently, a profound understanding of water penetration into (multilayer) coatings lays the foundation for improved product durability. Such a fundamental approach includes water penetration kinetics, water induced structural changes in coatings and clarification of the state of water in coatings. Most of the published studies are devoted to single layer coatings and only little is known about the water penetration in multilayer systems. Investigation of water transport in multilayer systems requires experimental techniques that measure transient water distributions and evaluate water-polymer interactions. The only technique combining these features is high resolution NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) imaging. This thesis presents a study into water transport in multilayer coatings. This investigation was performed in two ways: experimentally with high resolution NMR imaging, combined with relaxometry and theoretically with an introduction and verification of a model for water transport. The thesis starts with an overview of knowledge about water in coatings in Chapter 2. This chapter focuses on water in polymers, since in organic coatings water mainly permeates in polymeric binder. The relation between the state of water in the polymer matrix and equilibrium sorption is addressed and the mechanisms of water transport kinetics are discussed. Further, the thesis proceeds with a description of NMR principles in Chapter 3. It discusses the NMR basics, principles of imaging and how information about molecular motions of the measured species is present in the NMR signal. The key results of the study are presented in the Chapters 4-8. First, water uptake was studied in two-layer systems consisting of hydrophilic base coats and hydrophobic top coats. The base coat consisted of acrylic, polyurethane and pigment particles and the formulation included a polymeric pigment dispersant. Chapter 4 presents the results of visualization of water transport in the two-layered systems on the basis of high resolution NMR imaging. The water transport rate in the studied systems appeared to be barrier limited. Mainly the base coat absorbed water, where it quickly redistributed. The swelling of the base coat showed to be linearly related with the absorbed water quantity. Further, Chapter 5 presents the results of a relaxation analysis of the NMR signal, which was introduced to identify water and polymeric phases in the base coat. Polymeric dispersant plasticization was observed. This polymeric dispersant appeared to be a major contributor to the water uptake capacity of the base coat. It was found with NMR diffusometry that high water mobility occurred under saturated conditions, whereas in partially saturated systems water mobility decreased and bonding to the polymer played a key role. In Chapter 6 a theoretical model was formulated for the transport in multilayer coatings, composed of a hydrophobic top coat and a hydrophilic base coat. This model basically assumed instantaneous equilibration of water in the base coat and Fickian water transport in the top coat. According to the model, the sorption isotherm of the base coat is the driving force of the process and the top coat permeability to water determines the timescale of transport. The asymmetry of the observed uptake/drying rates appeared to be due to the non-linear sorption isotherm of the base coat. Furthermore, top coats applied on base coats showed a higher permeability than free films and water uptake capacities of base coats decreased, when thicker top coats were applied. The ability of the model to predict water transport using the base coat sorption isotherm and the top coat permeability was validated experimentally. Practically, it is sufficient to measure the base coat sorption isotherm and the top coat permeability to understand water transport. This enables design of a simple and efficient procedure to test water resistance of this type of coatings. Such procedure will include only basic and cost-efficient equipment, like balances for gravimetric measurements of sorption isotherms and permeability. In the next step, the model was used for a theoretical investigation of the response of multilayer coatings to relative humidity fluctuations, which is presented in Chapter 7. The theoretical investigation showed that in most of the considered systems the response time is in the order of days for high humidities and has values of a few hours at low humidities. The response time is determined by the product of the timescale of penetration through the top coat and the differential solubility of the base coat. This means that most two-layer polymeric base coat/top coat systems with hydrophilic base coats are relatively inert to most humidity fluctuations, as the response in terms of water content will be damped. As accelerated and artificial weathering tests include only humidity fluctuations with typical timescales less than a day, this raises concerns if these tests can be compared to natural moisture exposure. Finally, the thesis addresses migration of plasticizer into a top coat. It was found that stress relaxation results in non-Fickian kinetics of the uptake process. The plasticizer, which is tributyl phosphate, causes a steep increase in the permeability of the film and may cause degradation of mechanical properties of the coating. This implies that, practically, that tributyl phosphate (the main component of common aerospace hydraulic fluids) makes multilayer protective coatings more permeable and causes significant stresses in the system.


Current and future generations of intensity mapping surveys promise dramatic improvements in our understanding of galaxy evolution and large-scale structure. An intensity map provides a census of the cumulative emission from all galaxies in a given region and redshift, including faint objects that are undetectable individually. Furthermore, cross-correlations between line intensity maps and galaxy redshift surveys are sensitive to the line intensity and clustering bias without the limitation of cosmic variance. Using the Fisher information matrix, we derive simple expressions describing sensitivities to the intensity and bias obtainable for cross-correlation surveys, focusing on cosmic variance evasion. Based on these expressions, we conclude that the optimal sensitivity is obtained by matching the survey depth, defined by the ratio of the clustering power spectrum to noise in a given mode, between the two surveys. We find that midto far-infrared space telescopes could benefit from this technique by cross-correlating with coming galaxy redshift surveys such as those planned for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, allowing for sensitivities beyond the cosmic variance limit. Our techniques can therefore be applied to survey design and requirements development to maximize the sensitivities of future intensity mapping experiments to tracers of galaxy evolution and large-scale structure cosmology.


A noise suppression method is given to process the output signal of fiber optical gyro. In this method, instead of the Mallat algorithm in the traditional wavelet transformation, the lifting scheme was used in the translation-invariant algorithm to improve the computation structure. Theoretically, the new method would reduce the calculating time and improve the accuracy. Experimental results showed that the calculating time of the new method was about 50% of the former.


The effect of thermal radiation on unsteady magnetohydrodynamic free convection flow of an optically thin gray gas past an infinite inclined plate with constant temperature has been investigated. The governing coupled partial differential equations are solved analytically using the Laplace transform technique. The dimensionless velocity and temperature profiles are shown in graphs and the numerical values of the non-dimensional skin-friction and Nusselt number are presented in tables. The influence of the system parameters such asPrandtl number, inclination angle, magnetic field parameter, Grashof number, radiation parameter and time on flow fields have been discussed in detail. The results indicate that the inclination angle, magnetic field parameter and radiation parameter effects were to decrease the fluid velocity along an inclined plate.


This article assesses the impact of the world price-depressing effect of agricultural subsidies and border protection in OECD countries on developing economies' exports, imports, and welfare. Developing economy exporters are likely to benefit from reductions in such subsidies and trade barriers, whereas net importers may lose as world prices rise. A simple partial equilibrium model of global trade in commodities that benefit from domestic support or export subsidies is developed to estimate the relevant elasticities. Simulation results suggest that a 50 percent reduction in border protection will have a much larger positive impact on developing economies' exports and welfare than a 50 percent reduction in agricultural subsidies. Although there is significant heterogeneity across developing economies, the results suggest that efforts in the Doha Round of negotiations should be directed at substantially reducing border protection.


The role of beta-chemokines in the pathogenesis of HIV disease remains undefined. Given the potent capacities of these proteins to attract mononuclear cells to inflammatory sites, such as lymph nodes of patients with HIV disease, the effects of exposure of monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages to beta-chemokines before HIV infection were compared with their effects when added either simultaneously with or after HIV infection. In this system, HIV replication was substantially increased in cells that had been exposed to beta-chemokines before HIV infection. These effects were pertussis toxin sensitive. By contrast, HIV replication was inhibited in cells that had been exposed to beta-chemokines either simultaneously with or after HIV infection. These effects were not pertussis toxin sensitive. In view of this potent capacity of beta-chemokines to stimulate HIV replication, treatment approaches for HIV disease based on the apparent inhibitory activity of these proteins on viral replication should be undertaken with caution.


ABSTRACT
Never has the need for robust, resilient organizations been so evident as in recent times with more and more well-established, respected organizations becoming unstable or even perishing as a result of the global recession. Added to these challenging economic times we have the demands of managing increasingly complex organizations, which are often highly dependent on sophisticated Information Systems and technology. Perrow's Normal Accident Theory (1994) points to the fact that "no matter how hard we try there will be serious accidents because of the interactive complexity"[1] of the organizations in which we work.
The introduction of BS25999, the British Standard for business continuity management, draws on international good practice in this field and brings together a clear view of what should constitute effective business continuity management for organizations across all sectors. This has provided Business Continuity Managers with a benchmark against which this aspect of their organization can be measured.
This paper provides an overview of the Business Continuity Management Lifecycle. It discusses the key steps which must be taken in order to establish a Business Continuity Management Programme. It then explores the various approaches and methods which may be employed to gain a greater understanding of the organization. The paper highlights how organizations need to determine the BCM strategy which should be implemented and how to plan for delivery of an effective response in the event of a disruption to normal business. This will involve giving appropriate consideration to key resources such as: People; Premises; Technology; Information; and Supplies.
The paper includes a discussion on ensuring all arrangements are fit for purpose, and outlines the importance of high quality exercising and training initiatives. Finally the paper determines how Business Continuity Management can be embedded into the culture of organizations so that they continue to grow in terms of resilience and maintain key functions and outputs in times of crisis.
The research for this paper involved the completion of a number of case studies which investigated how BCM is implemented in a range of organizations. As each phase of the BCM Lifecycle is discussed an example of good practice, drawn from these cases, will be outlined in order to illustrate how the various elements of the BCM lifecycle may be implemented within organizations across the public, private and voluntary sectors.


Traffic congestion anomaly detection is of paramount importance in intelligent traffic systems. The goals of transportation agencies are two-fold: to monitor the general traffic conditions in the area of interest and to locate road segments under abnormal congestion states. Modeling congestion patterns can achieve these goals for citywide roadways, which amounts to learning the distribution of multivariate time series (MTS). However, existing works are either not scalable or unable to capture the spatial-temporal information in MTS simultaneously. To this end, we propose a principled and comprehensive framework consisting of a data-driven generative approach that can perform tractable density estimation for detecting traffic anomalies. Our approach first clusters segments in the feature space and then uses conditional normalizing flow to identify anomalous temporal snapshots at the cluster level in an unsupervised setting. Then, we identify anomalies at the segment level by using a kernel density estimator on the anomalous cluster. Extensive experiments on synthetic datasets show that our approach significantly outperforms several state-of-the-art congestion anomaly detection and diagnosis methods in terms of Recall and F1-Score. We also use the generative model to sample labeled data, which can train classifiers in a supervised setting, alleviating the lack of labeled data for anomaly detection in sparse settings.


The neurohypophysis is known to secrete vasopressin during times of severe haemorrhage, and oxytocin during labour and delivery, events in which blood loss also occurs. Evidence suggests that there may be an interaction between these peptides and the coagulation cascade, and currently, desmopressin, a drug analog of vasopressin, is a first line therapy for mild Hemophilia A, a common coagulopathy. In this work, interactions between vasopressin and oxytocin with a crucial member of the coagulation cascade, the cofactor Factor VIII, were investigated using fluorescence spectroscopy, interference immunoassays, commercially produced Factor VIII activity kits, and equilibrium dialysis. The results suggest not only that the peptides interact with the coagulation factor, but do so in a way that enhances its activity and prolongs its active form half-life, as seen through the enhancement of the activity of the FXase complex by assay. This theory was then expanded to study the analogs of vasopressin and oxytocin, desmopressin and carbetocin, drugs currently used clinically in the treatment of hemorrhagic conditions. Similar results were obtained. On the whole, these results indicate a potential newly discovered role for the neurohypophyseal hormones, as well as their drug counterparts being used in clinical practice today and may suggest an expanded clinical use in the control of severe haemorrhage.


In this thesis, we will be presenting a slew of mathematical finance scenarios where the Mellin transform and its associated techniques are incorporated to solve either a direct or inverse problem. Specifically, we will be investigating options pricing problems in both the European and American sense whereby the underlying asset is modelled by a jumpdiffusion process. We exploit the elegant properties of the Mellin transform to elicit a result for the option valuation under a jump-diffusion model. Additionally, one of the main breakthroughs in this work is isolating and determining an expression for the jump term that is general and to our knowledge, has not been ascertained elsewhere. As an addendum to American options, we extend our Mellin transform framework to obtain a pricing formula for the American put in jump-diffusion dynamics. Furthermore, an approximate integro-differential equation for the optimal free boundary in the same aforementioned dynamics is also derived and we test the accuracy of this against the numerical finite difference method. The final area we investigated was the valuation of European compound options and particularly how to reformulate the pricing formulas by incorporating Mellin transform techniques and the put-call parity relationship that exists for vanilla European options.


Piroxicam containing PLG microspheres having different size distributions were fabricated, and in vitro release kinetics were determined for each preparation. Based on the experimental results, a suitable mathematical theory has been developed that incorporates the effect of microsphere size distribution and polymer degradation on drug release. We show from in vitro release experiments that microsphere size has a significant effect on drug release rate. The initial release rate decreased with an increase in microsphere size. In addition, the release profile changed from first order to concave-upward (sigmoidal) as the system size was increased. The mathematical model gave a good fit to the experimental release data.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


This paper presents a novel mathematical model of bleached cotton plain single jersey knitted fabrics. The mathematical model is used to deduce the fabric geometrical relationships that can be useful for forecasting the properties of the fabric before production. A practical verification is carried out at different cotton yarn counts and twist factors. The obtained mathematical and practical results are deeply studied and analyzed. The results showed a good agreement between the proposed mathematical model and the practical one. The finished fabric weight is predicted at different yarn counts and loop lengths, and a forecasting weight chart is deduced. This chart will undoubtedly help the producers to enhance the fabric productions. In addition, an actual yarn diameter in the fabric measuring method is carried out and the fabric thickness is estimated consequently. The obtained results proved that the plain single jersey thickness is proportional to three times of the actual measured yarn diameter.


ABSTRACT Inhibition of progesterone (P4) synthesis by cumulus cells during bovine in vitro oocyte maturation (IVM) causes a decrease in subsequent embryo development, indicating that P4 intracellular signaling within the cumulus oocyte complex (COC) is important for oocyte developmental competence. The aim of the present study was to further elucidate, on a protein level, the downstream signaling pathway involved in P4 regulation of oocyte developmental competence. COCs were subjected to IVM for 24 h in the presence or absence of trilostane, aglepristone, or promegestone (R5020). These altered IVM conditions resulted in dynamic changes in protein expression of the progesterone receptors and the cell death-regulated proteins AVEN, BCL-xL, and active caspase 3. In addition, AVEN protein localization, caspase 3 activation, and mitochondrial distribution were studied by immunofluorescence. Inhibition of progesterone synthesis (trilostane treatment) resulted in changes in AVEN localization within the COC, corresponding to caspase 3 activation and altered mitochondrial distribution. AVEN was also found to bind BCL-xL in COCs, but this interaction was lost following treatment with trilostane.


Abstract Objective The associations between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, alcohol use, and alcohol use motives are well-established. Emotion regulation difficulties have been implicated in the association between PTSD symptoms and alcohol use. A dearth of empirical work, however, has examined these associations among Black/African American college students, a population with high prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatic events, PTSD symptomatology, and alcohol-related consequences. Methods This study examined PTSD symptoms, emotion regulation difficulties, and alcohol use severity and motives among a sample of Black/African American trauma-exposed college students (N = 282; 77.4% identified as female; M age = 22.36, SD = 4.71). Results PTSD symptom severity was related to alcohol use and coping and conformity motives for alcohol use through heightened emotion regulation difficulties. Findings were significant above and beyond the effects of trauma load (i.e., number of potentially traumatic event types experienced). Conclusions This study extends past work to an understudied population and contributes to groundwork for culturally informed interventions.


Professional tennis is a fast-paced sport with serves and hits that can reach speeds of over 100 mph and matches lasting long in duration. For example, in 13 years of Grand Slam data, there were 454 matches with an average of 3 sets that lasted 40 minutes. The fast pace and long duration of tennis matches make tracking the time boundaries of each tennis point in a match challenging. The visual aspect of a tennis match is highly diverse because of its variety in angles, occlusions, resolutions, contrast and colors, but the sound component is relatively stable and consistent. In this paper, we present a system that detects events such as ball hits and point boundaries in a tennis match from sound data recorded in the match. We first describe the sound processing pipeline that includes preprocessing, feature extraction, basic (atomic) event detection, and point boundary detection. Then, we describe the overall cloud-based system architecture. Afterwards, we describe the user interface that includes a tool for data labeling to efficiently generate the training dataset, and a workbench for sound and model management. The performance of our system is evaluated in experiments with real-world tennis sound data. Our proposed pipeline can detect atomic tennis events with an F1-score of 92.39% and point boundaries with average precision and recall values of around 80%. This system can be very useful for tennis coaches and players to find and extract game highlights with specific characteristics, so that they can analyze these highlights and establish their play strategy.


The dispersal ability of plants is a major factor driving ecological responses to global change. In wind-dispersed plant species, non-random seed release in relation to wind speeds has been identified as a major determinant of dispersal distances. However, little information is available about the costs and benefits of non-random abscission and the consequences of timing for dispersal distances. We asked: 1) to what extent is non-random abscission able to promote long-distance dispersal and what is the effect of potentially increased pre-dispersal risk costs? 2) Which meteorological factors and respective timescales are important for maximizing dispersal? These questions were addressed by combining a mechanistic modelling approach and field data collection for herbaceous wind-dispersed species. Model optimization with a dynamic dispersal approach using measured hourly wind speed showed that plants can increase long-distance dispersal by developing a hard wind speed threshold below which no seeds are released. At the same time, increased risk costs limit the possibilities for dispersal distance gain and reduce the optimum level of the wind speed threshold, in our case (under representative Dutch meteorological conditions) to a threshold of 5–6 m s–1. The frequency and predictability (auto-correlation in time) of pre-dispersal seed-loss had a major impact on optimal non-random abscission functions and resulting dispersal distances. We observed a similar, but more gradual, bias towards higher wind speeds in six out of seven wind-dispersed species under natural conditions. This confirmed that non-random abscission exists in many species and that, under local Dutch meteorological conditions, abscission was biased towards winds exceeding 5–6 m s–1. We conclude that timing of seed release can vastly enhance dispersal distances in wind-dispersed species, but increased risk costs may greatly limit the benefits of selecting wind conditions for long-distance dispersal, leading to moderate seed abscission thresholds, depending on local meteorological conditions and disturbances.


Demonstrating the ability to collaborate effectively is essential for students moving into 21st century workplaces. Employers are expecting new hires to already possess group-work skills and will seek evidence of their ability to cooperate, collaborate, and complete projects with colleagues, including remotely or at a distance. Instructional activities and assignments that provide students with a variety of ways to engage each other have a direct and immediate effect on their academic performance. This paper shares the Facilitating Collaboration in Online Groups (FCOG) instructional planning strategy. The strategy is designed for faculty use and familiarizes students with the process and technology necessary to collaborate effectively in online classroom groups. The strategy utilizes proven teaching techniques to maximize student-student and student-content relationships. Each of the four (4) sequential phases in the FCOG instructional planning strategy are discussed: 1) Creating Groups, 2) Establishing Expectations, 3) Communication Tools, and 4) Assignments and Activities. The discussion also contains implementation suggestions as well as examples of instructional assignments and activities that provide students with a variety of ways to collaborate to reach the learning outcomes.


Transcriptional regulation of cardiac ventricular conduction system (VCS) develop- ment is incompletely understood. Using gene expression profiling of the VCS using the Cntn2-EGFP transgenic VCS fluorescent reporter mouse, we identified Early B-cell Factor 1 , Ebf1 , as being significantly enriched in the VCS. Surface electrocardiography of the Ebf1 knockout mouse revealed ventricular conduction slowing as evidences by QRS widening; echocardiography using strain imaging revealed marked left ventricular dyssynchrony; and wholemount imaging of the Ebf1 KO heart demonstrated dramatic hypoplasia of the VCS. Gene expression profiling was performed on E13.5 embryonic hearts using deep sequencing and a number of transcription factors known to be critical for cardiogenesis were markedly reduced, including Nkx 2–5 , Gata4 , Hand1 , Irx3 , and Irx5 . Histological analysis of embryonic hearts revealed marked cellular hyperplasia and staining for markers of cell cycle (Ki-69; phospho-histone H3) were consistent with exuberant cellular proliferation. Quantitative immunofluorescence for several markers of terminally differentiated VCS cells was performed and demonstrated reduced expression of Nkx 2–5 , Scn5a , and Cx40 , particularly within the terminal Purkinje fibers of the VCS. Finally, analysis of the Nkx 2–5 promoter revealed a highly conserved Ebf1 binding site in a region previously described as critical for proper expression of Nkx 2–5 in the VCS. Using CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene editing, a 200 bp region flanking this site was deleted and the mutant mice generated also demonstrated marked QRS widening, phenocopying the Ebf1 KO. We have previously shown that microRNA hsa-miR-199a promotes cell cycle re-entry of rodent adult cardiomyocytes, ex vivo, and favors almost complete recovery of cardiac functional parameters when injected in infarcted mouse hearts by stimulating cardiac regeneration. Aim of this study was to test the therapeutic action of miR-199a in a pre-clinical, large animal model of myocardial infarction (MI). High titer AAV sero- type 6 (AAV6) vector preparations were generated to deliver the hsa-mi-199a precursor DNA to cardiomyocytes in vivo. MI was induced in pigs by occluding the left anterior descending artery for 90 minutes and a total of 2x10 13 AAV6-hsa-mir-199a (n=7) or AAV6-Control (containing and empty polylinker; n=7) was injected intramyocardially during reperfusion in 20 different sites along the infarct border zone. Non-infarcted pigs (n=8) were used as normal controls. Pigs underwent cardiac MRI without and with gadolinium-delayed contrast enhancement at 2 days and 28 days post-MI. The infarct area was not significantly different between the two infarcted groups at 2 days. However, at 28 days, the scar size was 28.7±5.0% in the AAV6-Control group, but only 17.7±4.0% in AAV6-hsa-mir-199a. Consistently, ejection fraction was 60.0±4.5% (n.s. vs normal control) in AAV6-hsa-mir-199a, markedly preserved compared to 44.7±8.0% AAV6-Control (P<0.05). Finally, a 12-segment analysis of left ventricular circumferen- tial shortening, as measured by tagging-MRI, was performed to generate a 12-point curve. The area under the curve (in arbitrary units) was 259.3±24 in AAV6-hsa-mir- 199a (n.s. vs normal control), 170.6±33.7 (P<0.05 vs normal control) in AAV6-Control, and 281.8±6.7 in normal control, indicating extensive recovery of regional contractility in hearts receiving miR-199a. These are the first data to show, in a clinically relevant animal model, the efficacy of a new therapeutic strategy for acute MI based on cardiac delivery of a small regulatory RNA. macrophages. In C57BL/6 mice with ischemia reperfusion injury (IR), 10 nmol DTO was injected i.v. and Fluorescence Reflectance Imaging was performed at 2, 4, 6, and 24 hrs post IR (n=24). IR mice treated with 10 nmol DTO or plain Dex at 0 and 4 hrs post reperfusion were sacrificed either after 24 hrs for CD68 IHC (n=14), or after 7 days for TTC staining (n=14). Fluorescent microspheres demarcated the area at risk. Results: The DTO nanoprobe had nanomolar affinity for a broad range of DNA and RNA species, and specifically attenuated the production of inflammatory cytokines from activated macrophages (Fig. A). DTO imaging revealed that NA release from the IR injured myocardium was rapid (< 2 hrs), and readily washed out (4–6 hrs). DTO given within 4 hrs post reperfusion significantly decreased myocardial macrophage infiltration by 26% at 24 hrs (Fig. B-F), and significantly reduced infarct size by 18% on day 7 (Fig. G). Conclusions: We report here a theranostic nanoprobe capable of elucidating the therapeutic window, ameliorating immune cell infiltration and cytokine production, and significantly reduced IR injury in vivo . The paradigm further applies to a broad range of conditions including ischemia, myocarditis, stroke, and sepsis. understood. The contractile force generated by cardiomyocytes (CMs) provides mechanical stimuli both to itself and to neighboring cells through mechanosensing structures, including the N-cadherin-catenin complexes located at the intercalated disc (ID). In the postnatal heart, N-cadherin-dependent ID assembly coincides with cell cycle withdrawal and differentiation of CMs, suggesting a role for cell-cell adhesion in myocardial growth control. Alpha-catenins function as mechanosensors and transduce the intercellular force from N-cadherin to the actin cytoskeleton. To investigate mechanotransduction in the heart, we generated cardi- ac-specific aE- and aT-catenins double knockout (DKO) mice. The relationship between ID maturation and proliferation was examined at postnatal day (P) 4, P7, and P14. DKO hearts exhibited a progressive decrease of N-cadherin at the ID accompanied by release of the mitogenic transcriptional co-activator Yap to the nucleus and a two-fold increase in prolifera- tion at P7. Importantly, inactivation of only one Yap allele in DKO hearts reduced proliferation to WT levels. To monitor cytoskeletal tension, actomyosin activity was examined using an antibody recognizing the phosphorylated or active form of non-muscle myosin light chain (pMLC). In WT, pMLC was concentrated at the ID consistent with actomyosin contractility associated with the force transducing N-cadherin/catenin complex. By contrast, pMLC was mislocalized to nonjunctional sites in DKO CMs. To assess mechanical effects, we used de- formable polyacrylamide hydrogels corresponding to physiological (10 kPa) and pathological stiffness (50 kPa) as observed after ischemic injury. DKO CMs were more sensitive to the myosin inhibitor, blebbistatin, and Rho inhibitor, CT04, when cultured on 50 kPa consistent with increased tension. These data demonstrate that the accumulation of the N-cadherin/ catenin complex to the ID regulates cytoskeletal tension and Yap nuclear translocation, thus providing a molecular explanation for loss of regenerative potential in the adult heart. Background: Adult mammalian hearts have a limited ability to generate new cardiomyo- cytes. We aim to understand the process and regulation of adult cardiomyocytes (ACM) proliferation and its role in cardiac regeneration of post- myocardial infarction (MI) mouse hearts. Methods and Results: Genetic fate-mapping α -MHC-MerCreMer-GFP mice were used to track the fate of ACMs both in-vitro and in-vivo . In a co-culture system with neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs), ACM proliferation was documented with clear evidence of cytokinesis observed with time-lapse imaging. The proliferation rate of ACMs was 7.0%, and the proliferation potential was not associated with the size or nuclear number of ACMs. Dedifferentiation was required for ACM proliferation. Redifferentiation was essential to endow the proliferated daughter cells to regain cardiomyocyte function. The process of ACM dedifferentiation, proliferation and redifferentiation was also dem- onstrated in the infarct border zone of post-MI heart. Gap junction mediated intercellular propagation of Ca 2+ from neighboring cardiomyocytes into ACM daughter cells was re- quired to activate the calcineurin-NFAT signaling pathway to induce ACM redifferentiation. Ischemia connexin 43, a major component of cardiac gap junctions, thereby impairing ACM proliferation and redifferentiation. An ischemia resistant connexin 43 mutant enhanced ACM-derived new cardiomyocyte formation after MI and improved cardiac function because it restored the coupling of ischemic ACMs with healthy cardiomyocytes. Conclusions: Terminally differentiated ACMs can form new cardiomyocytes through a three-step process, dedifferentiation, proliferation and redifferentiation. Intercellular Ca 2+ signal from neighboring functioning cardiomyocytes through gap junctions drives the redifferentiation process. This novel mechanism contributes to cardiac regeneration in post-MI hearts in mammals. Introduction: Despite the success of bone marrow- and cardiac- stem cell clinical tri- als, we're still searching for the optimal stem cell type most suitable for cardiac preservation and regeneration. Previously, we described a novel cell population derived from the cortical bone (CBSCs) which repaired the heart post MI via transdifferentiation and paracrine signaling mechanisms in a mouse model. In the present study, we evaluate the translational potential of allogeneic CBSCs in swine MI model. Hypothesis: Intramyocardial injection of CBSCs into the MI border zone immediately after reperfusion will preserve cardiac structure and pump function by CBSC retention which enhances endogenous repair through secretion of paracrine factors. Methods & Results: Female Gottingen minipigs received MI via occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) for 90 minutes, followed by reperfusion. Animals received either 20 million CBSCs (via 10 intramyocardial injections) or saline injections. Cardiac structure and function was evaluated using echocardiography at baseline, 1, 2 and


Abstract A key parameter to predict the integrity of the fuel rod cladding during dry storage is the temperature. Almost all degradation mechanisms are temperature dependent. A realistic prediction of the temperature field at a given time for the loaded cask is needed to investigate predictions for long-term degradation mechanisms properly. Overly conservative temperature estimates with the purpose to assure peak cladding temperatures within technical specifications might lead to non-justified, even counterproductive conclusions. In this work, we present two modelling approaches used to calculate temperature fields of loaded casks. One approach is a detailed numerical simulation via a specific code, and the second is a semi-analytical approach focusing on a faster and feasible calculation. Steadystate and transient calculations are compared and discussed for both modelling approaches.