Abstract Decline in executive function has been noted in the prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and may presage more global cognitive declines. In this prospective longitudinal study, five measures of executive function were used to predict subsequent global cognitive decline in initially nondemented older adults. Of 71 participants, 15 demonstrated significant decline over a 1-year period on the Dementia Rating Scale (Mattis, 1988) and the remaining participants remained stable. In the year before decline, the decline group performed significantly worse than the no-decline group on two measures of executive function: the Color-Word Interference Test (CWIT; inhibition/switching condition) and Verbal Fluency (VF; switching condition). In contrast, decliners and non-decliners performed similarly on measures of spatial fluency (Design Fluency switching condition), spatial planning (Tower Test), and number-letter switching (Trail Making Test switching condition). Furthermore, the CWIT inhibition-switching measure significantly improved the prediction of decline and no-decline group classification beyond that of learning and memory measures. These findings suggest that some executive function measures requiring inhibition and switching provide predictive utility of subsequent global cognitive decline independent of episodic memory and may further facilitate early detection of dementia. (JINS, 2012, 18, 118–127)


Smart self-healing coatings for corrosion protection of metallic substrates (steel, magnesium, and aluminium, and their alloys) have attracted tremendous interest due to their capability to prevent crack propagation in the protective coatings by releasing active agents from micro/nanocapsules, that is, micro/nano particles consisting of a coating layer or a shell (micro/nanocontainers) and core material (solids, droplets of liquids or gases), in a controllable manner. This paper aims to give a concise review on the most recent advances in preparing micro/nanocapsules based on different types of micro/nanocontainers, i.e., organic polymer coatings, inorganic clays, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, polyelectrolyte multilayers, etc. for smart coatings with self-healing properties. The state-of-the-art design and preparation of micro/nanocapsules are highlighted with detailed examples.


We performed personal PM2.5 monitoring involving 56 adult residents in Hong Kong. Additionally, paired personal and residential indoor fine particle (PM2.5) samples were collected from 26 homes and from 3 fixed monitoring locations (i.e., outdoor samples). Six PM2.5-bound phthalate esters (PAEs)—including dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP)—were measured using a thermal desorption–gas chromatography/mass spectrometer method. Average ∑6PAEs (i.e., summation of six PAE congeners) concentrations in personal PM2.5 exposure (699.4 ng/m3) were comparable with those in residential indoors (646.9 ng/m3), and both were slightly lower than the outdoor levels. DEHP was the most abundant PAE congener (80.3%–85.0%) and found at the highest levels in different exposure categories, followed by BBP, DnBP, and DnOP. Strong correlations were observed between DEHP with DnBP (rs: 0.81–0.90; p < 0.01), BBP (rs: 0.81–0.90; p < 0.01), and DnOP (rs: 0.87–0.93; p < 0.01) in each exposure category. However, no apparent intercorrelations were shown for PAE congeners. Higher indoor concentrations and a stronger correlation between DMP and DEP were found compared with outdoor concentrations. Principal component analysis affirmed heterogeneous distribution and notable variations in PAE sources across different exposure categories. The average daily intakes of ∑6PAEs and DEHP via inhalation were 0.14–0.17 and 0.12–0.16 μg/kg-day for adults in Hong Kong. A time-weighted model was used to estimate PAE exposures incorporating residential indoor and outdoor exposure and time activities. The inhalation cancer risks attributable to measured and estimated personal exposure to DEHP exceeded the U.S. EPA's benchmark (1 × 10−6). The results provide critical information for mitigation strategies, suggesting that PAEs from both ambient and indoor sources should be considered when exploring the inhalation health risks of PAEs exposure.


Employees in different types of work may be intentionally or accidentally exposed to biological agents. Improved risk assessment is needed to identify opportunities to prevent work-related infectious disease. The objective of the current study was to perform a systematic literature review of work-related infectious disease to assist in the identification of occupational infectious disease risks. A literature search of papers on work-related infectious disease published between 1999 and 2008 yielded 1239 papers of which 242 met the selection criteria and were included in the review. The results of the systematic literature review were arranged in a matrix of occupational groups and exposure pathways. Increased risk from infectious diseases appeared to be concentrated in specific professions. Healthcare workers, workers in contact with animals, laboratory workers and refuse workers seem to have the highest risk of infection by a variety of pathogens. However, pathogens reported to be associated with closely related professions were different, indicating qualitative under-reporting. Arranging the results of this systematic review on work-related infectious diseases in a matrix of occupational groups and exposure pathways allowed the reliable identification of exposure hazards for specific occupational groups beyond currently reported diseases.


This study aims to optimize the synthesis of semiconductor zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles for future photocatalytic applications in degradation of pollutants in wastewater under ultraviolet (UV) light. The synthesis procedure of ZrO2 nanoparticles was optimized by examining the effects of synthesis methods (ultrasound-assisted, hydrothermal method in an autoclave and conventional precipitation), reaction time (2, 6, 10, and 18 h), ambient pH (3, 7, 10, 13), and surfactant type (anionic, cationic, and non-ionic), on the particle size and crystal phase of the nanomaterial. The characterization of the synthesized samples was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), high-contrast transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis. Consequently, to synthesize ZrO2 nanoparticles with the smallest particle size and monoclinic/tetragonal phase, the experimental conditions were optimized as ultrasound-assisted synthesis method, pH 10, and 6 h reaction time without surfactant. Moreover, percentage yield, particle size, crystallinity, monoclinic and tetragonal volumes of ZrO2 nanostructures synthesized under optimized conditions were determined as 39.40%, approximately 9 nm, 46.77, 79%, and 21%, respectively. It has been determined that the particle sizes can be kept under control by controlling the phase composition of ZrO2 nanostructures by optimizing the synthesis parameters. Structural and morphological characterization results can be correlated to the photocatalytic application, showing the potential of this material for the photodegradation of organic dye pollutants.


We describe an electro-optical method of deciphering a watermark from a recently invented encoded image termed a concealogram. The watermark is revealed as a result of spatial correlation between two concealograms, one containing the watermark and the other containing the deciphering key. The two are placed side by side on the input plane of a modified joint-transform correlator. When the input plane is illuminated by a plane wave, the watermark image is reconstructed on part of the correlator's output plane. The key function deciphers the concealed watermark from the visible picture only when the two specific concealograms are matched. To illustrate the system's performance, both simulation and experimental results are presented.


The first measurements of the Experiment with MultiMuon Array (EMMA) have been analyzed for the selection of the Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Test data were recorded with an underground muon tracking station and a satellite station separated laterally by 10 metres. Events with tracks distributed over all of the tracking detector area and even extending over to the satellite station are identified as EAS. The recorded multiplicity spectrum of the events is in general agreement with CORSIKA EAS simulation and demonstrates the array's capability of EAS detection.


This issue brief provides a brief overview of the legal, political, and operational frameworks protecting children from the effects of armed conflict, notably from violations by nonstate armed groups. It explores some of the limitations of these frameworks and their mechanisms, and then discusses ways to maximize the comparative advantages of different actors when engaging nonstate armed groups to improve the protection of children's rights


: Considerable evidence from the literature on treatment outcomes indicates that substance abuse treatment among adolescents with conduct problems varies widely. Treatments commonly used among this population are cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), 12-step facilitation, multisystemic therapy (MST), psychoeducation (PE), and motivational interviewing (MI). This manuscript thoroughly and systematically reviews the available literature to determine which treatment is optimal for substance-abusing adolescents with conduct problems. Results suggest that although there are several evidence-based and empirically supported treatments, those that incorporate family-based intervention consistently provide the most positive treatment outcomes. In particular, this review further reveals that although many interventions have gained empirical support over the years, only one holds the prize as being the optimal treatment of choice for substance abuse treatment among adolescents with conduct problems.


The exploration of the use of natural herbals drug, especially plant parts, is a major area of focus. Medicinal plants are being increasingly used to manage a wide numerous ailment. Tetrapleura tetraptera and Ricinodendron heudelotii are known among medicinal plants having beneficial effects due to their several biological activities. The fruits and seeds of these plants are mostly used in many parts of Africa as spice for flavoring soup and making stews. This update review focused on the phytochemical characterization, traditional used, nutritional values and biological activities of these species. Both are known to possess macro-and micro-nutrients. They are rich in majority to the phytochemical's compounds including polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins, reducing sugar, saponins and alkaloids etc. Their activities have been reported positive by several authors for both alcoholic and aqueous extractions. The plants exhibited appreciable antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and good antimicrobial activities against the test microorganisms justifying their broad-spectrum use. The hypolipidaemian, hypocholesterolaemian and hypoglycaemic properties have been proven to be efficacy especially for the plant Tetrapleura tetraptera and much practice remains to be done with Ricinodendron heudelotii. The confirmation of these biological activities is related to the high content of bioactive molecules conferring beneficial properties to plants.


Company & Motivation
This graduation project is conducted as part of the Industrial Engineering and Management
master program in cooperation with Infineon Technologies AG. Infineon is a German semiconductor
manufacturer producing chips, sensors, and microcontrollers. To stay competitive
and satisfy customer demand quickly Infineon places inventory at various stock points within
their supply chain. However, the more products are stored, the higher the costs due to the
binding capital effect of stock. Thus, Infineon has to balance the trade off between high stocks
(characterized by a high α-service level) and high costs when examining its supply chain planning
processes. In this thesis, we concentrate on the planning process of two products: chips
for contactbased and contactless payment of the Chip Card & Security (CCS) department.
The relevance lies in their high production volume and revenue share of more than 25% of
CCS's total revenues.
Research objective
The graduation project aims to solve the below stated research objective:
Improve the supply chain planning process according to the service level and
respective costs at CCS for two particular products considering the stocking
strategies as well as the approach of quantifying the amount of wafers to be
released to production.
The stocking strategy concerns the decision where to place inventory and which amount
to be stored. The production release approach examines the question how to quantify the
amount of wafers (release quantity) to be started in production in advance. Usually, the production
of wafers, which are thin slices of semiconductor material and serve as basis for many
products, is started on forecast due to long processing times. This enables faster response to
customer demand. A clever chosen approach of estimating the needed quantity helps cutting
costs as stock levels can be reduced at the same α-service level.
Methodology
The existing simulation model (discrete event simulation) of Infineon's flexibility & econometrics
team is used to study various scenarios. These combine different stock strategies
and production release approaches among others the current practice. Before conducting the
simulation study we require to parametrize the simulation model to the needs of the two
exemplary products. This involves to ensure that the generated demand by the simulation
model is similar to the observed demand of the products such that results are valid. An
iterative approach is performed consisting of setting the parameters in the demand generation
method and subsequently assessing the fit between the generated demand and observed
demand. The fit is assessed by a modified Kolmogorov-Smirnov approach where we compare the total area between the cumulative distributions of the two demand series. The iterations
are stopped when the total area is < 10% of the area below the cumulative distribution of
the observed demand. To check the consistency of the chosen demand series we further apply
the Chi-Square test.
Analysis of current situation
Infineons supply chain has three stock points (up- to downstream): the master storage, die
bank, and distribution centre. The amount of products stored at these stock points is determined
by the target reach. The target reach is defined as the safety stock in number of weeks.
Currently, CCS has a target reach of 13 weeks at the master storage, and no stocks at the
die bank nor the distribution centre since the customer order decoupling point (CODP) lies
at the master storage and thus products become customer specific in the downstream manufacturing
steps. Storing at the master storage employs the risk pooling effect. The stocks
are managed periodically (per week). The production up to the master storage is done on
forecast by using a four month moving average (MA) over the historical data. The remaining
manufacturing steps are continued when a customer order arrives. The overall performance
can be given by the α-service level. The α-service level becomes either 100% when all orders
are satisfied by the on-hand inventory during period t, or it becomes 0% when demand is not
satisfied completely from stock. Currently, the α-service level is 98%.
Conclusion
• Both new production release approaches: a simple MA over five weeks as well as single
exponential smoothing (SES) outperform the current approach that uses a simple four
months MA since they allow faster reaction in production as fluctuations are not as
smoothed out as with a large time horizon of four months.
• Applying either of these new approaches costs can be cut by 40% since the target reach
can be reduced from 13 to five weeks while keeping an α-service level of 98%.
• Comparing the simpleMA over five weeks and SES, the moving average performs slightly
better. In addition, as it is easy to understand and to apply, we recommend to use the
simple MA with a five week time window. That is, reducing the current time window
from 16 to five weeks.
• When keeping the current production release approach, the target reach at the master
storage can be reduced from 13 to about eight weeks while having only a marginal drop
by around 0.5% in the α-service level of currently 98%.
Recommendations
• Enhance the demand generation method of the simulation model such that it is able to
create intermittent and autocorrelated demand which is currently not supported by the
simulation model. Note, the products we are considering do not show autocorrelation
nor are classified as intermittent, however there are autocorrelated and intermittent
products at Infineon.
• In addition, implement machine capacity and idle costs as currently capacity is unlimited
and costs are solely evaluate according to the WIP and stock levels. However, in
reality capacity is restricted and idle costs play an important role as machines are very
expensive.
• Last, more elaborated approaches of quantifying the amount of wafers to be started
in production in advance such as advanced exponential smoothing techniques, Holt
Winter procedure, or ARIMA models may be examined when the demand shows a
trend, seasonality, or autocorrelation.


Developing electromagnetic absorption materials with a strong absorption ability and wide absorption bandwidth has attracted widespread attention in the field of electromagnetic shielding, but it still remains a great challenge. Herein, we successfully developed 2D hierarchically laminated Fe3O4@nanoporous carbon (NPC)@rGO magnetic/dielectric nanocomposites as high-performance microwave absorbers through a facile microwave-assisted approach. The rational design of the composition (Fe3O4, NPC and rGO) and the hierarchical microstructure provided the nanocomposite with a micro-scale 3D magnetic coupling network, a hierarchical dielectric carbon network and good impedance matching, which were identified by the off-axis electronic holography and electromagnetic characterization. As expected, the Fe3O4@NPC@rGO composites achieved a strong reflection loss of −72.6 dB, a matching thickness of 2.0 mm and a broad bandwidth of 5.5 GHz. Such excellent achievements encourage the development of hierarchical magnetic EMA absorbers and provide remarkable inspiration for designing high-performance microwave absorbers.


Aircraft design is an inherently multi-disciplinary activity that requires different models and tools for various aspects of the design. At Linkoping University a novel design framework is being developed to support the initial conceptual design phase of a new aircraft. Different modules are included, each one addressed to analyze and evaluate different aspects of the airplane, such as its aerodynamics, its weight and structure, its sub systems and its performances. All modules are easily accessible from a user-friendly interface based on an Excel spreadsheet. The link between all modules is based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and allows both distribution and integration of all functions. This paper will present the framework, give an overview of its development status and give an indication on the future work.


The study presented in this thesis is an attempt towards a better understanding of the
coupled lateral-torsional response of buildings subject to seismic ground motion. Some
of the problems identified in the past studies are thoroughly investigated and some new
areas of study are explored.
Some of these problems encountered in the literature include (a) the existence of several
definitions of uncoupled torsional to lateral frequency ratio (b) an arbitrary selection of
structural parameters in a parametric analysis resulting in a physically inadmissible
structure and (c) the effect of nonlinearity. Because of the simplified models with either
eccentricity in one direction or the ground motion applied in only one direction, the
effects of a bi-directional loading have not been investigated in detail. These effects
may include the relative differences in the amplitude or phase components of the
individual accelerograms and their orientation with respect to the building. The phase
properties of accelerograms are of particular interest and these have not received much
attention in the past.
Using analytical methods such as Chasle's[16] and Gerschgorin's[39] theorems, the
equation of motion of a bi-eccentric system is derived and all of the existing problems
regarding the definition of structural parameters and their bounds are studied in depth.
To facilitate nonlinear parametric study, a paraboloid non-linear elastic stiffness model
is proposed. Fourier spectral methods are used to study the frequency domain
characteristics of the accelerogram pair. The difference in phase and amplitude of the
component frequencies in each direction are studied for their effects on the response.
For phase difference, cross-correlation function is used as a comparative statistical
indicator. USA earthquake records obtained from US National Geophysical Data Centre
are grouped into four soil types and the analysis is performed for each group in order to
explore the soil-dependency of the aforementioned effects on the response. Computer
programs are written in FORTRAN for both parametric and numerical model analyses.
The latter can handle any number and orientation of columns with the assumed nonlinear
stiffness properties. Newmark's and Runge-Kutta methods of numerical
integration with adaptive step size control have been used to calculate parametric and
the hysteretic responses of the system. The response to harmonic ground acceleration is
used as a preliminary investigation into the response to actual accelerogram frequency
components.
The study has developed relationships for different definitions of the uncoupled
torsional to lateral frequency ratio. Detailed derivation of the Equation of Motion has clarified the confusion that produced different definitions in the past studies. Graphical
descriptions of the admissibility bounds on system parameters are produced. The
variation in the response quantities is studied for a range of amplitude and phase
contents of the applied ground acceleration. The difference in phase and amplitude in x
and y ground accelerations have been found to affect the response quite significantly.
More generally, the relationship of these differences to the torsional mode amplification
has been observed. The effects of structural frequency and eccentricity parameters are
also studied. Graphs showing the relationship between, the angle of incidence of the
accelerogram with respect to the principal axis of the building, and the phase difference
in the accelerogram pair, have been produced.
The proposed analysis involving the bi-directional ground acceleration on a bi-eccentric
system is an improvement on the current methods employed in design practice. Further
work is, however, required before simplified design recommendations can be made and
some proposals for future research are given at the end of this thesis.


The ability for an agent to provide feedback to a user is an important means for signalling to the world that they are animated, engaged and interested. Feedback influences the plausibility of an agent's behaviour with respect to a human viewer and enhances the communicative experience. During conversation addressees show their interest, their understanding, agreeing and attitudes through feedback signals. They also indicate their level of engagement. It is often said that speaker and addressee dance with each other when being engaged in a conversation. This dancing together is partly due to the mimicking of the speaker's behavior by the addressee. In this paper we are interested in addressing this issue: mimicking as a signal of engagement. We have developed a scenario whereby an agent senses, interprets and copies a range of facial and gesture expression from a person in the real-world. Input is obtained via a video camera and processed initially using computer vision techniques. It is then processed further in a framework for agent perception, planning and behaviour generation in order to perceive, interpret and copy a number of gestures and facial expressions corresponding to those made by the human. By perceive, we mean that the copied behaviour may not be an exact duplicate of the behaviour made by the human and sensed by the agent, but may rather be based on some level of interpretation of the behaviour (Martin et al., 2005). Thus, the copied behaviour may be altered and need not share all of the characteristics of the original made by the human.


SiC reinforced MoSi2 composites have been successfully prepared by pressureless sintering from mechanical-assistant combustion synthesized powders. The sintering temperatures and holding time were 1500°C~1650°C at a heating rate of 10K/min and 1 hour, respectively. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the as-sintered composites were investigated. SEM micrographs of SiC/MoSi2 composites showed that SiC particles were homogeneously distributed in MoSi2 matrix. The Vickers hardness, flexural strength and fracture toughness of the SiC/MoSi2 composites were up to 15.50GPa, 468.7MPa and 9.35MPa•m1/2, respectively. The morphologies of fractured surface of the composites revealed the mechanism to improve mechanical properties of MoSi2 matrix. At last, the cyclic oxidation behavior of the composites was discussed. The results of this work showed that in situ SiC/MoSi2 composite powder prepared by MASHS technique could be successfully sintered via pressureless sintering process and significant improvement of room temperature mechanical and anti-oxidation properties could be achieved.


This paper describes a morphological segmentation technique developed to assist clinicians and radiologists in conformal RTP. The system uses a watershed transformation to give an initial over-segmentation of a 2D CT; this is then refined by homotopy modification with markers identified automatically from the image histogram and the final segmentation is represented by a region adjacency graph which may be interactively edited by the user. To evaluate the system, 77 CT images from 11 patients have been segmented and the results compared against those produced by 5 clinical experts. The approach has enabled the quality of the automatic segmentation to be assessed in terms of the overall expert intra/inter variability. It has been proved good agreement between computer generated and expert manual delineations.


Anterior crown fractures are a common form of injury that mainly affects children and adolescents. In the pre-adhesive era fractured teeth needed to be restored either with pin-retained inlays or cast restorations that sacrificed healthy tooth structure. Achieving aesthetic requirements were also a challenge for the clinicians. The development of adhesive dentistry has allowed dentists to use the broken fragment to restore the fractured tooth. The acid etch adhesive technique may be used to restore function and esthetics of fractured anterior teeth. Reattachment of the fractured segment offers some advantages over composite restorations. The original enamel translucency is maintained, and the incisal edge will wear at the same rate as the adjacent teeth. Esthetic, biologic and restorative problems may occur as a result of the fracture extending subgingivally and impinging on the biologic width. The treatment options depend on the relationship of the fracture to the alveolar crest, degree of pulpal involvement, amount of eruption, apex formation and esthetic requirement of the patient. This article presents two clinical reports describing the treatment modalities of patients who sustained fractures of maxillary anterior teeth due to trauma.


The role of pharmacist has not only advanced from medication dispensing but also to direct patient care and pharmaceutical interventions aiming at enhancing the populace wellbeing. The objective of this research was to assess the impact of rural community pharmacist interventions on self-medications and disease prevalence among rural settings in the Kwara State Central, Nigeria. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in eight rural communities with a pre-piloted questionnaire. Data obtained from respondents were computed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 16 using descriptive analysis procedures, and relationships between variables were tested using the chi square. Respondents between the age of 40 and 50 years dominated with 42.3% and majority (88.1%) of the rural residents were illiterates. Farming was the major occupation of the respondents and survived on less than ten thousand naira Nigeria money ($63) per month. Among the combinations of drugs abused by the respondents, the regimen containing combination of prednisolone, diclofenac and paracetamol had the highest users. The least used combination was ibuprofen, diclofenac plus prednisolone. These combinations were taken twice daily by the majority participants. The most common reasons given for self-medications were osteoarthritis (31.1%), poverty (17.4%), general body pain (14.3%), inadequate of health facilities (4.6%), ignorance (4.3%) among others. The intervention offered by the pharmacists had reduced the mean systolic blood pressure significantly ( P < 0.05) from 161 mmHg to 129 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure from 104 mmHg at baseline to 86 mmHg. Postintervention evaluation revealed the impact of the pharmacists, as the respondents with dyspepsia at baseline significantly ( P < 0.05) reduced from 220 to 53 participants. Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 12(1): 1-9, 2013 (June) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/dujps.v12i1.16294


An existing technique for the presentation of oesophageal transit studies has been further developed and applied to conventional radionuclide data. The spatial and temporal information contained in the original dynamic study is compressed to a single image, showing the linear distribution of activity down the oesophagus throughout the study. This parametric image contains all the useful information concerning the motion of the bolus, and is particularly useful for depicting the complex motion of a fragmented bolus. The technique has been shown to be of value in patients with a variety of oesophageal disorders.


Background and Purpose: The State of Alaska covers a vast area the size of California, Texas and Montana combined and comprises one-fifth of the total U.S. land mass. The population of approximately 735,132 is spread over 362 communities. The Alaska Native populations comprise 14.7% of the total population of Alaska with most of its members living in remote villages or isolated islands. Two hundred Alaskan communities can be reached only by boat or air. Public health and preventative services are challenging due to inaccessibility during winter months, high winds, volcanic activity, and poor infrastructure. The introduction of telemedicine to critical access facilities has proven effective for not only emergent delivery of stroke interventions but looks to promote access in the primary health setting as well. The purpose of this project was to identify barriers to neurological health and risk factors unique to Alaskans.

Methods: Guided by a telehealth model of care for emergency Stroke cases, Providence Alaska Medical Center increased access to 5 spoke hospital sites in the Southeast portion of the State in the past six years. As the hub site for the State, Alaskans are placed in a national data base for outcomes, modifiable risk factor management and disability measurement. Interdisciplinary debriefings occur monthly for evidence-based practice agreements.

Results: Patients have access to the only Cerebrovascular Neurologist in the State with a 50% increase in the delivery of tPA for ischemic stroke. Improved door-to-needle times, increased tPA delivery and interventional radiology, along with a decrease in length of stay has lead the way to developing a more extensive telestroke network within the Providence system.

Conclusions: Access to primary and emergency neurological care remains a barrier to many Alaskans, especially those living in remote and isolated areas of the State. Using ongoing statistical data compared to other national averages, the telemedicine method of stroke care has proven vital to reducing morbidity and mortality in its large geographical boundaries. Further attention to a telestroke program will only enhance outcomes in the future.


Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is a postinfectious autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. ADEM typically presents with non-specific symptoms including nausea, vomiting, fever and headache. This then progresses to neurological deficits such as motor weakness, altered sensorium and often significant morbidity or mortality. Typically the infectious insult is thought to be a transient viral infection or vaccination. We describe a case of ADEM in a 50 yearold woman who presented to a rural emergency department fifteen days after surgery to remove a gangrenous appendix. She presented febrile and with signs of encephalopathy. Initial computed tomography (CT) findings showed a left parietal lesion with mass effect, and there was a moderate neutrophilia and lymphocytosis. Empirical therapy for a viral or bacterial cerebral infection was commenced including dexamethasone.
After transfer to a tertiary referral center, and after five days of investigation and treatment and LP was performed and the diagnosis of ADEM was reached. Given the lack of response to steroids a course of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) was commenced. Our patient responded extremely well on IVIG, showing substantial recovery within 24 hours. ADEM is a rare condition but is poorly understood in comparison to other diseases of similar incidence. Currently there is insufficient pathophysiological understanding and primary evidence to guide the use of treatment options even when the diagnosis is reached in a timely manner. Further case series or small trials are eagerly awaited. They may allow us to better formulate a treatment approach that can reduce the morbidity associated with even the best outcomes of our current therapies.


This paper explores how student affairs practitioners may engage in critical cultural praxis through participatory action research (PAR). As authors, both researchers and practitioners, we partnered with one another to conduct a needs assessment of Asian American students through PAR methods at a university in the northeast United States. Unfortunately, the PAR project as initially designed did not come to fruition. We used autoethnography to understand the many barriers that prevented the completion of the project, such as lengthy and unclear IRB processes, lack of organizational stability, and limited institutional support. Finally, we offer insight into how scholar-practitioners and institutions can better prepare for and support PAR initiatives as a way to engage in critical cultural praxis on their campuses.


one was the neuropathy severe, and all three cases recovered without apparent sequelae. We report a case of severe, persisting central and peripheral nervous system damage following lithium intoxication. A 31-year-old man with a history of manic-depressive psychosis had been maintained on lithium carbonate 1500 mg/day. While working as a volunteer on an Israeli kibbutz, the dose was inadvertently increased to 1800 mg/day. He was admitted to a local hospital after the gradual onset of confusion, weakness, and tremulousness. Serum lithium level on admission was 3*63 mmol/l, and daily haemodialysis


The purpose of this work was to simulate with the Monte Carlo (MC) code PENELOPE the dose distribution in lung tumours including breathing motion in stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Two phantoms were modelled to simulate a pentagonal cross section with chestwall (unit density), lung (density 0.3 g cm−3) and two spherical tumours (unit density) of diameters respectively of 2 cm and 5 cm. The phase-space files (PSF) of four different SBRT field sizes of 6 MV from a Varian accelerator were calculated and used as beam sources to obtain both dose profiles and dose–volume histograms (DVHs) in different volumes of interest. Dose distributions were simulated for five beams impinging on the phantom. The simulations were conducted both for the static case and including the influence of respiratory motion. To reproduce the effect of breathing motion different simulations were performed keeping the beam fixed and displacing the phantom geometry in chosen positions in the cranial and caudal and left–right directions. The final result was obtained by combining the different position with two motion patterns. The MC results were compared with those obtained with three commercial treatment planning systems (TPSs), two based on the pencil beam (PB) algorithm, the TMS-HELAX (Nucletron, Sweden) and Eclipse (Varian Medical System, Palo Alto, CA), and one based on the collapsed cone algorithm (CC), Pinnacle3 (Philips). Some calculations were also carried out with the analytical anisotropic algorithm (AAA) in the Eclipse system. All calculations with the TPSs were performed without simulated breathing motion, according to clinical practice. In order to compare all the TPSs and MC an absolute dose calibration in Gy/MU was performed. The analysis shows that the dose (Gy/MU) in the central part of the gross tumour volume (GTV) is calculated for both tumour sizes with an accuracy of 2–3% with PB and CC algorithms, compared to MC. At the periphery of the GTV the TPSs overestimate the dose up to 10%, while in the lung tissue close to the GTV PB algorithms overestimate the dose and the CC underestimates it. When clinically relevant breathing motions are included in the MC simulations, the static calculations with the TPSs still give a relatively accurate estimate of the dose in the GTV. On the other hand, the dose at the periphery of the GTV is overestimated, compared to the static case.


The goal of General Spatial Intelligence is to present a unified theory to support the various aspects of spatial experience, whether physical or cognitive. We acknowledge the fact that GIScience has to assume a particular worldview, resulting from specific positions regarding metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, mind, language, cognition and representation. Implicit positions regarding these domains may allow solutions to isolated problems but often hamper a more encompassing approach. We argue that explicitly defining a worldview allows the grounding and derivation of multi-modal models, establishing precise problems, allowing falsifiability. We present an example of such a theory founded on process metaphysics, where the ontological elements are called differences. We show that a worldview has implications regarding the nature of space and, in the case of the chosen metaphysical layer, favours a model of space as true spacetime, i.e. four-dimensionality. Finally we illustrate the approach using a scenario from psychology and AI based planning.


The integration of programming teachings, in all levels of education, highlights the need to acquire the art of programming for each individual student through versatile tools based on specific cognitive methods. Diversified linguistic metaphors have to be adopted by the developing frame, in order to highlight the qualities of each student. Therefore, a framework, oriented to learning the art of programming, must foster polychrome constructs representations, a number of data structures and an intuitive interfaces in order to make easier to understand the evolution of the algorithm that have to be developed. The following contribution will present a theoretical formalization of a framework for teaching and learning the art of programming and therefore its development will propose as a graph-based execution and iconic modular interfaces on the methodologies to be developed.


A model for linearly polarized fully polarimetric backscatter measurements is used, incorporating the effects of system noise, channel amplitude, phase imbalance, crosstalk, and Faraday rotation. A step-by-step procedure is outlined for correction (or calibration) of fully polarimetric data subject to Faraday rotation, to recover the true scattering matrix. The procedure identifies steps for crosstalk removal and correction of channel imbalances that are robust in the presence of Faraday rotation. The final steps in the procedure involve a novel strategy for estimation and correction of Faraday rotation. Three approaches to estimate the (one-way) Faraday rotation angle /spl Omega/ directly from linear (quad-) polarized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter data obtained by a spaceborne SAR system are described. Each approach can initially be applied to the signature of any scatterer within the scene. Sensitivity analyses are presented that show that at least one of the measures can be used to estimate /spl Omega/ to within /spl plusmn/3/spl deg/ to 5/spl deg/, with reasonable levels of residual crosstalk, noise floor, channel amplitude, and phase imbalance. Ambiguities may be present in the estimates of /spl Omega/ of /spl plusmn/n/spl pi//2 - the impact of this is discussed, and several approaches are suggested to deal with this possibility. The approach described in this paper is relevant for future L-band spaceborne SARs and removes one key obstacle to the deployment of even longer wavelength SARs (e.g., an ultrahigh frequency or P-band SAR) in Earth orbit.


Many recent theories speak of the spatial and temporal variations of the fundamental "constants", and experiments have been performed to determine the variation. It has also been proposed that the variation of these constants is related to the strength of the gravitational potential whose changes, therefore, assume special significance. Here we examine potential change in G from the information-theoretic perspective of noninteger dimensionality and determine a relationship with respect to time. We show that the rate of change using this method is of the same order as estimated using other approaches.


The function of the underground ice storage, Glacières Royales, was to efficiently conserve ice during all seasons. It consists of a large vaulted structure in masonry from floor to walls and ceiling, covering 460 m². This remarkable ice storage is no longer in use today but is one of the last monumental witnesses of the European industry of ice and is therefore listed since 1993. A real estate project influencing the immediate surroundings of this ice storage motivated a thorough evaluation of its condition and stability. The actual structural behaviour of the underground ice storage, Glacières Royales, was studied. 2D and 3D numerical models based on linear elastic finite elements were used for the masonry. The soil-structure interaction was modelled by linear and non linear models using the Plaxis software. Analyses are presented both on the level of stability of the Glacières Royales in its present and future conditions imposed by the real estate project.


Background Adherence to Internet-delivered lifestyle interventions using multiple tailoring is suboptimal. Therefore, it is essential to invest in proactive strategies, such as periodic email prompts, to boost re-use of the intervention. Objective This study investigated the influence of content and timing of a single email prompt on re-use of an Internet-delivered computer-tailored (CT) lifestyle program. Methods A sample of municipality employees was invited to participate in the program. All participants who decided to use the program received an email prompting them to revisit the program. A 2×3 (content × timing) design was used to test manipulations of prompt content and timing. Depending on the study group participants were randomly assigned to, they received either a prompt containing standard content (an invitation to revisit the program), or standard content plus a preview of new content placed on the program website. Participants received this prompt after 2, 4, or 6 weeks. In addition to these 6 experimental conditions, a control condition was included consisting of participants who did not receive an additional email prompt. Clicks on the uniform resource locator (URL) provided in the prompt and log-ins to the CT program were objectively monitored. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine whether prompt content and/or prompt timing predicted clicking on the URL and logging in to the CT program. Results Of all program users (N=240), 206 participants received a subsequent email prompting them to revisit the program. A total of 53 participants (25.7%) who received a prompt reacted to this prompt by clicking on the URL, and 25 participants (12.1%) actually logged in to the program. There was a main effect of prompt timing; participants receiving an email prompt 2 weeks after their first visit clicked on the URL significantly more often compared with participants that received the prompt after 4 weeks (odds ratio [OR] 3.069, 95% CI 1.392-6.765, P=.005) and after 6 weeks (OR 4.471, 95% CI 1.909-10.471, P=.001). Furthermore, participants who received an email prompt 2 weeks after their first visit logged in to the program significantly more often compared to participants receiving the prompt after 6 weeks (OR 16.356, 95% CI 2.071-129.196, P=.008). A trend was observed with regard to prompt content. Participants receiving a prompt with additional content were more likely to log in to the program compared to participants who received a standard prompt. However, this result was not statistically significant (OR 2.286, 95% CI 0.892-5.856, P=.09). Conclusions The key findings suggest that boosting revisits to a CT program benefits most from relatively short prompt timing. Furthermore, a preview of new website content may be added to a standard prompt to further increase its effectiveness in persuading people to log in to the program.


In this paper, a new method is proposed to calculate transconductance ratio of the main and the peaking transistor of a Doherty power amplifier (DPA) which employs output matching circuits and offset lines. Cascade ABCD two-port parameters are used to analyze output section of the DPA. It is shown that output matching circuits has impact on the magnitude and the phase of the transconduction ratio. The effect of the input phase mismatch on the output power and efficiency is analyzed analytically. A 100W dual drive Gallium Nitride (GaN) Doherty power amplifier is realized to experimentally verify the results. The drain efficiency measured as 68% at the correct phase, 65% for 30° input phase mismatch and 56% for 45° input phase mismatch.


In markets with high levels of financial exclusion, actors in the financial system, financial service providers (FSPs), consumers, providers of financial system infrastructure and other market supporting functions, regulators and other policy makers, often face capacity limitations. These include insufficient or inexperienced staff, lack of knowledge or understanding of the market, and limited financial literacy. Building sustainable and inclusive financial markets will require building the capacity of these actors. Funders that work to promote financial inclusion can play a very useful role in tackling capacity challenges, particularly if they provide support in a way that facilitates the development of a capacity building services market. This approach can benefit the whole financial market as opposed to the more common approach of providing direct support to one or a few actors in the market. This focus note builds on the ideas discussed in 'facilitating market development to advance financial inclusion' (El-Zoghbi and Lauer 2013) and addresses the capacity issues faced by retail financial service providers.


Abstract: The use of the term 'migrant' supports a particular construction of the legal subject of labour law, whereby the exclusion of some from recognition as 'citizen nationals' justifies exclusion from a formal employment relationship. Being outside of a formal employment relationship renders 'migrants' useful and necessary as precarious labourers in the current globalised economic market. This paper examines UK labour and migration law to raise theoretical questions underpinning a current crisis of labour law. Keywords: labour migration, precarious labour, labour law in the UK, citizenship. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.20318/sllerj.2016.3312


Early knee osteoarthritis and chondral lesions are a common cause of disability in younger patients. Surgical options, such as microfractures, ACI and OAT, provide good, but not fully satisfying, outcomes. Recent advance in biological knowledge introduced two different methodological approaches of delivering growth factors and stem cells into the articular environment. Platelet-Rich Plasma and Mesenchimal Stem Cells are supposed to change the way to approach early knee osteoarthritis and chondral lesions, though their indications and limits are yet to be determined. (www.actabiomedica.it)


This article describes an innovative methodology to integrate force-feedback capabilities into an augmented-reality (AR) environment to perform real-time morphing of geometrical surfaces with functionalities. The methodology addresses the interactive sculpting applied to engineering problems with geometry modification and optimization. The objective is to give the designer a computer-aided design (CAD) tool that allows for the modification of a component shape directly touching its virtual representation. The proposed approach is based on the use of radial basis function (RBF) morpher to achieve reliable and robust results in real-time computation. The methodology combines the potentialities of the video-based AR with the use of a force-feedback device. The mixture of such ingredients produces a high level of realism and enhances the interaction level between the user and the objects to be edited, moving a step forward in comparison with standard computer-aided engineering (CAE) methodologies.


Longmaxi formation shales are the major target reservoir for shale gas extraction in Sichuan Basin, southwest China. Swarms of earthquakes accompanying hydraulic fracturing are observed at depths typifying the Longmaxi formation. Mineral composition varies broadly through the stratigraphic section due to different depositional environments. The section is generally tectosilicate‐poor and phyllosilicate‐rich with a minor portion the converse. We measure the frictional and stability properties of shale gouges taken from the full stratigraphic section at conditions typifying the reservoir depth. Velocity‐stepping experiments were performed on representative shale gouges at a confining pressure of 60 MPa, pore fluid pressure of 30 MPa, and temperature of 150°C. Results show the gouges are generally frictionally strong with friction coefficients ranging between 0.50 and 0.75. Two phyllosilicate + TOC (total organic carbon)‐poor gouges exhibited higher frictional strength and velocity weakening, capable of potentially unstable fault slip, while only velocity strengthening was observed for the remaining phyllosilicate + TOC‐rich gouges. These results confirm that the frictional and stability properties are mainly controlled by phyllosilicate + TOC content. Elevating the temperature further weakens the gouges and drives it toward velocity weakening. The presence of observed seismicity in a majority of velocity‐strengthening materials suggests the importance of the velocity‐weakening materials. We suggest a model where seismicity is triggered when pore fluid pressures drive aseismic slip and triggers seismic slip on adjacent faults in the same formation and distant faults in the formations above/below. The effect of pore pressure transients within low‐permeability shale gouges is incorporated. Our results highlight the importance of understanding mechanisms of induced earthquakes and characterizing fault properties prior to hydraulic fracturing.


A survey of 756 accidental drug intoxication cases over a period from 1998 to 2017 showed that most deaths were the result of poly drug abuse (50-80%). Ethanol (2-7%), cocaine (2-8%), methadone (0-10%), morphine/codeine (1-3%), heroin (0-3%) and fentanyl (1-23%) were the next most frequent causes. Oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone and hydromorphone were then evaluated as being either causative or only contributory to such deaths. Being causative or the sole cause of death, the drugs ranked very low like oxycodone (<1-2%), hydrocodone (0%), oxymorphone (0%) and hydromorphone (0-1%) and when mentioned were often found together with ethanol or cocaine. In contrast, they were often mentioned as contributory factors like oxycodone (14-64%), hydrocodone (9-13%), oxymorphone (0-21%) and hydromorphone (2-11%) but their contributions to such deaths are unclear and perhaps minimal since they were mostly found together with a fair number of other drugs. This study seems to suggest that the role of these drugs in accidental overdose cases is much less than generally assumed and that the overwhelming majority of these 4 narcotics detected in toxicological screens do not or do only contribute in combination with other drugs to the fatal outcomes. This might imply that physicians can prescribe these drugs to their pain patients with confidence in that most patients will use the drugs as directed and the chance of overdose deaths is minimal if it exists at all.


Interaction of the system of n pacemaker cells modelling the work of the heart sinoatrial node was studied. Suggesting the interaction additivity an expression was obtained for the system single rhythm. Dependence of the system single rhythm and propagation velocity of excitation delay on the number of pacemakers of the leading centre and connection force between the pacemakers was investigated. The results obtained qualitatively, agree with the experimental evidence available.


Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate serum paraoxonase (PON) and arylesterase (ARE) activities as well as lipid hydroperoxide (LOOH) levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We also investigated serum total antioxidant status (TAS) and total oxidative status (TOS) to reveal whether there is an association between the PON/ARE activities and oxidative stress. Our hypothesis is that PON and ARE activities which related to the risk of developing coronary artery disease are low in RA patients. Patients and Methods: Twenty-five patients with RA and 26 healthy controls were included in the study. Serum PON and ARE activities were measured spectrophotometrically. LOOH levels were measured by ferrous oxidation with xylenol orange assay. TAS, TOS levels were determined by using a novel automated methods. Results: Paraoxonase and arylesterase activities were significantly lower in patients with RA, LOOH levels were significantly higher (p<0.001, p =0.02, p =0.006, respectively) in patients with RA than in healthy controls. In patients with RA, serum TOS was higher and serum TAS was lower when compared with those of healthy controls (p < 0.001). PON was negatively correlated with LOOH (r = -0.356, p = 0.01), ARE was positively correlated with TAS (r = 0.429, p = 0.002), LOOH was negatively correlated with TAS (r = -0.585, p = 0.001). Conclusion: Our results show that PON and ARE activities, which have antiatherogenic capability, are decreased in patients with RA. PON and ARE activities may be affected by oxidative stress which contribute to the pathogenesis of RA. (Rheumatism 2007; 22: 132-6)


In this study, the rice husk flour-plastic waste composites (RPC) was produced from polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) wastes with 30 and 50% rice husk
flour (RHF) contents. RPC was made by melt compounding and compression moulding processes. The electrical resistivity, thermal stability and tensile strength of RPC were
determined. The RPC was tested in electrical resistivity and tensile strength according to the ASTM D-257 and ASTM D-638 respectively, while thermal stability was tested using
thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) method. From the results, high content of RHF reduces all properties, except for tensile modulus of elasticity (TMOE) in tensile strength test. The ability of moisture absorption and the presence of hemicelluloses, cellulose and silica in RHF reduce the
electrical resistivity and thermal stability behaviour of RPC from 50% RHF. The good binding elements and filler agglomeration in RPC from 50% RHF improve only TMOE. Insufficient stress transfer and rigid interphase occurred between RHF and plastics during tensile maximum load and elongation at break (Eb) in tensile strength test. In general, RPC from HDPE indicates better thermal stability, tensile modulus of rupture and Eb (in tensile strength test) compared to PP, based on the good behaviour of thermal conductivity, low water absorption, high molecular
weight and good elongation properties of HDPE. However, RPC from PP shows good electrical resistance due to the low thermal expansion coefficient of PP.


When Richard Nixon ran for the presidency in 1968, he declared that inflation was America's number one problem. While opinion polls showed otherwise, an undaunted Nixon set about to reduce inflation and to convince the public of the dangers of rising prices. To help in this effort, the Council of Economic Advisors initiated a study to identify those impacted adversely by inflation. The study, however, was disappointing. According to Herbert Stein, "If anyone was being severely hurt, the available statistics were too crude to reveal it."' Nixon was not the first, nor was he the last president to warn of the hazards of inflation. Virtually every postwar president since Dwight Eisenhower has warned of the ravages of inflation and perpetuated the, by now, unquestioned belief that inflation exacts a tremendous toll on the standard of living of most, if not all Americans. This belief has in turn allowed policymakers to enact contractionary policies that often impose tremendous human costs on those least able to sustain them in an effort to reduce inflation.


Commercial antibiotic therapies are becoming less efficient due to the emergence of bacterial resistance and the formation of bacterial biofilms. The design and development of novel antibacterial agents with efficient anti-biofilm/antibacterial activity and without bacterial resistance is becoming crucial. Herein, a series of poly(5-(2-ethyl acrylate)-4-methylthiazole-g-butyl) functionalized silver nanocomposites (PATA-C4@AgNPs) was synthesized, and their antimicrobial/anti-biofilm activity and biocompatibility were systematically evaluated. The multivalent cationic nanocomposites possessed strong antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria without the emergence of bacterial resistance. The PATA-C4@AgNPs were found to disrupt the bacterial membrane and inhibit enzymatic activity. Importantly, these nanocomposites effectively eradicated over 60% of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) biofilms at a low concentration of 16.7 μg mL−1. Furthermore, these nanocomposites showed selectivity for eliminating bacteria over human cells, thus avoiding cytotoxicity. The results demonstrated that these simple synthetic nanocomposites have great promise for applications in preventing bacterial infections.


Social media platforms have been exploited to conduct election interference in recent years. In particular, the Russian-backed Internet Research Agency (IRA) has been identified as a key source of misinformation spread on Twitter prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The goal of this research is to understand whether general Twitter users changed their behavior in the year following first contact from an IRA account. We compare the before and after behavior of contacted users to determine whether there were differences in their mean tweet count, the sentiment of their tweets, and the frequency and sentiment of tweets mentioning @realDonaldTrump or @HillaryClinton. Our results indicate that users overall exhibited statistically significant changes in behavior across most of these metrics, and that those users that engaged with the IRA generally showed greater changes in behavior.


This comparative project evaluates the role of firms, governments, and other key stakeholders in the rise of industrial policy in important states in the cybersecurity industry. In particular, we focus on the US, China, Taiwan, Japan, the EU and key European states. Our goals are as follows: 1) to examine the motivation for government promotion of the cybersecurity industry; 2) to inventory existing measures employed by these countries; 3) to understand the driving forces of cybersecurity industrial policy in these countries; and 4) to examine the likely conflicts that will arise from the competitive pursuit of such industrial policies and how they might possibly be resolved through international cooperation. To this end, we provide an analytical framework to serve as the structure for this project by drawing on a variety of theoretical approaches to understand industrial policy.


The main objective of this study is to investigate and analyze global research productivity in knowledge management (KM) research published from 1960 to 2017 and indexed in Scopus database. It is the first scientometric study investigating and analyzing 56 years of KM literature indexed in Scopus. The study used scientometric approach to identify and analyze bibliographic information of 63474 documents retrieved, in August 2018, from Scopus database. KM research productivity has grown from a single digit in 1960 to four digits in 2003. The results of the study indicate that, for the past 20 years (1997-2017), KM research recorded 63141 documents compared to 333 documents in 36 years (1960-1996), and the year 2009 emerged as the most productive year. China appeared leading the world in respect to the institutional productivity and took the second position, after the USA, as the most productive country in KM research. Findings of the study showed conference proceedings leading the types of publications followed by the journals, and book series. The "Journal of Knowledge Management" le ads the top 10 journals in the number of publications, while the journal of "Expert Systems with Applications" top the list in the number of citations. A total of 4134 unique contributors produced an average of 15.35 papers from 1960-2017; and the top three authors are from Australia, USA, and Norway. Findings of the study could be a useful report for knowledge workers, academic institutions, and government agencies who are interested in improving KM projects and scientific research.


Abstract
This research examines the use of a number of time series model structures of a moderate allocation mutual fund, PRWCX. PRWCX was rated as the top fund in its category during the past five years. The fund invests at least 50% of its total assets that the fund manager believes that have above average potential for capital growth. The remaining assets are generally invested in convertible securities, corporate and government debt bank loans, and foreign securities. Forecasting the total NAV of such a moderate allocation mutual fund, composed of an extremely large number of investments, requires a method that produces accurate results. These models are exponentially smoothing (single, double, and Winter's Method), trend models (linear, quadratic, and exponential) are Box-Jenkins models.


Digital technology (DT) has a significant role to play in modern education. This study examined motivational goals of student teachers in initial teacher education in Singapore and the influences of goals on their use of DT personally and in the classroom. The participants (N=312) responded to a survey about their motivational goals (learning vs. performance) and DT application (personal vs. classroom application). Results showed that personal use of DT, especially for younger teachers, was clearly more than classroom application. Females were found to have higher performance goal. Structural equation modelling found that learning goals were positively related to both personal use and classroom application, but performance goals were not positively related to either outcome. As performance goals were found to be unrelated to classroom application of DT, teacher education should focus more on the development of learning goals so as to encourage teachers, especially females, to use DT for teaching.


Data quality management and assessment play a vital role for ensuring the trust in the data and its fitness-of-use for subsequent analysis. The transformation history of a data wrangling system is often insufficient for determining the usability of a dataset, lacking information how changes affected the dataset. Capturing workflow provenance along the wrangling process and combining it with descriptive information as data provenance can enable users to comprehend how these changes affected the dataset, and if they benefited data quality. We present DQProv Explorer, a system that captures and visualizes provenance from data wrangling operations. It features three visualization components: allowing the user to explore the provenance graph of operations and the data stream, the development of quality over time for a sequence of wrangling operations applied to the dataset, and the distribution of issues across the entirety of the dataset to determine error patterns.


Bone‐marrow adipogenesis is an aging‐related phenomenon and is correlated with osteoporosis. The latter is a prevalent bone disease in the elderly leading to increased fracture risk and mortality. It is widely hypothesized that the underlying molecular mechanism includes a shift in the commitment of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the osteogenic lineage to the adipogenic lineage. Lineage skewing is at least partially a result of transcriptional changes. The nuclear transcription factor peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ (PPAR‐γ) has been proposed as a major decision factor in MSC lineage commitment, promoting adipogenesis at the expense of osteogenesis. Here we found that PPAR‐γ acted unexpectedly to stimulate osteoblast differentiation from human bone marrow‐derived MSCs. Both rosiglitazone‐mediated activation and overexpression of PPAR‐γ caused acceleration of osteoblast differentiation. Conversely, shRNAi‐mediated PPAR‐γ knockdown diminished osteoblast differentiation. MSCs that were treated with rosiglitazone did not preferentially differentiate into adipocytes. However, the rosiglitazone‐mediated acceleration of osteoblast differentiation was followed by increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species and apoptosis. In contrast to the osteogenic lineage, cells of the adipogenic lineage were protected from this. Our data support a new concept on bone health that adds to the explanation of the clinically observed suppressive action of activated PPAR‐γ on bone and the associated phenomenon of bone marrow adipogenesis. This concept is based on a higher susceptibility of the osteogenic than the adipogenic lineage to oxidative stress and apoptosis that is preferentially triggered in the osteoblasts by activated PPAR‐γ. STEM CELLS 2010;28:916–927


For if you think that you can manage a country without letting the people interfere, if you think that the people upset the game by their mere presence, whether they slow it down or whether by their natural ignorance they sabotage it, then you must have no hesitation: you must keep the people out. —Frantz Fanon Within twenty-four hours the coup was over. It began at 5:00 A.M. when 20 tanks, under joint military and police command, surrounded Flagstaff House, the triple-walled residence of Dr. Nkrumah. By 10:00 A.M., members of Dr. Nkrumah's Soviet-led security guard were beginning to surrender. By 6:00 P.M., Radio Ghana was able to broadcast: After Ghana's accession to independence, a new class was formed whose principal occupation consisted in emptying the Treasury and perpetrating crimes of all kinds under the pretext of creating a socialist state. Today Kwame Nkrumah and this new class have ceased to exist.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


For amputees to perform an everyday task, or to participate in physical exercise, it is crucial that they have an appropriately designed and functional prosthesis. Past studies of transfemoral amputee gait have identified several limitations in the performance of amputees and in their prosthesis when compared with able-bodied walking, such as asymmetrical gait, slower walking speed, and higher energy demands. In particular the different inertial characteristics of the prosthesis relative to the sound limb results in a longer swing time for the prosthesis. The aim of this study was to determine whether this longer swing time could be addressed by modifying the alignment of the prosthesis. The following hypothesis was tested: Can the inertial characteristics of the prosthesis be improved by lowering the prosthetic knee joint, thereby producing a faster swing time? To test this hypothesis, a simple 2-D mathematical model was developed to simulate the swing-phase motion of the prosthetic leg. The model applies forward dynamics to the measured hip moment of the amputee in conjunction with the inertial characteristics of prosthetic components to predict the swing-phase motion. To evaluate the model and measure any change in prosthetic function, we conducted a kinematic analysis on four Paralympic runners as they ran. When evaluated, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between predicted and measured swing time. Of particular interest was how swing time was affected by changes in the position of the prosthetic knee axis. The model suggested that lowering the axis of the prosthetic knee could reduce the longer swing time. This hypothesis was confirmed when tested on the amputee runners.


The ion sensor of the Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA‐3) experiment detects accelerated ions during pulses of radio emissions from the powerful topside sounder: the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) onboard Mars Express. Accelerated ions (O 2+ , O+, and lighter ions) are observed in an energy range up to 800 eV when MARSIS transmits at a frequency close to the plasma frequency. Individual observations consist of almost monoenergetic ion beams aligned with the MARSIS antenna or lying in the plane perpendicular to the antenna. The observed ion beams are often accompanied by a small decrease in the electron flux observed by the electron sensor of Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms 3. Observations indicate that the voltage applied to the antenna causes charging of the spacecraft to several hundreds of volts by the electrons of the ambient plasma. Positively charged ions are accelerated when the spacecraft discharges.


Adolescence is a period of significant identity development and particular vulnerability to depression associated with negative self-evaluation. We investigated if increased depressive symptom severity was also associated with positive self-evaluation. We also considered pubertal developmental differences in positive and negative self-evaluation, and if these could reflect dissociated facets of the self. This cross-sectional sample consisted of healthy male and female adolescents (N = 109) aged 12–17 from the United States. Participants completed a self-referential encoding task, which required them to indicate if a single-word adjective was self-descriptive. We administered the Children's Depression Inventory, the Pubertal Development Scale, and the Child Narcissism Scale. Negative-word endorsement was significantly predicted by pubertal maturation level and depressive symptoms, but not by narcissism. Positive-word endorsement was significantly predicted by narcissism and negatively predicted by depressive symptoms, but not by pubertal maturation. In this typically developing sample, positive self-judgment does not vary across the pubertal range and is positively associated with narcissistic traits, and negatively associated with depressive symptom severity. Negative self-judgements are positively correlated with puberty and are associated with depressive symptom severity only. Our findings suggest that negative and positive aspects of the self are partially dissociable.


The governing requirements and regulations for petroleum activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) refers to the industry standard NORSOK D-010 for technical and functional requirements for Plug & Abandonment (P&A) operations. The last revision of this document was done in 2004, and since then, a lot has happened in the area of P&A technology development. This report will first describe the current NORSOK D-010 barrier requirements for P&A operations. Based on these requirements, an evaluation of cement materials and additives will follow, and also an evaluation of the newly developed alternatives ThermaSet and Sandaband as potential plugging materials. These materials all turns out to be potentially good alternatives, and could beneficially replace cement in certain environments and conditions to save time, money, and ensure better performance as a sealing material. However, at the time of the last revision, the NORSOK D-010 standard was mainly based on cement as the standard plugging material, and should therefore be more generalized and optimized for the implementation of the new materials. After evaluating the plugging materials, this report will make proposals for adjustments in the NORSOK D-010 to better implement the new alternative materials. The proposed changes include generalization of the requirements for cement, updates and inclusion of more information in well barrier schematics, and development of new specific requirements for the two new alternative materials. In the end, the proposed changes will be evaluated to assess if the adjustments would increase or reduce the level of safety in the NORSOK D-010 standard. Most of the proposed adjustments are expected to increase the level of safety, and none of the changes are expected to lower the level of safety in the standard. The next revision of NORSOK D-010 has already been announced, and is expected to finish late 2012. Other areas that should be assessed in the future are to develop and implement new standards for testing & qualification of alternative materials for use as barrier elements in P&A operations on the NCS, in addition to further development and improvement of new materials.


Background Health care workers (HCWs) are a group at risk of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). The aims of this study were to determine IFN-γ response by QuantiFERON-TB GOLD In Tube (QFN-G-IT) and T-SPOT.TB in HCWs, comparing the results with tuberculin skin test (TST); and to analyze the capacity of IFN-γ tests to detect recent versus remote LTBI with a prolonged stimulation test (PST). Methodology/Principal Findings A total of 147 HCWs were enrolled; 23 of whom were BCG vaccinated. 95 HCWs (64.6%) had a previous positive TST and were not retested; and 52 HCWs had a previous negative TST or were tested for the first time. When we analysed individuals without previous positive TST, the number of positive results for T-SPOT.TB was 12/52 (23.1%); and for QFN-G-IT, 9/52 (17.3%). The global concordance (κ) between T-SPOT.TB and QFN-G-IT with TST was 0.754 and 0.929 respectively. Of individuals with previous positive TST, T-SPOT.TB and QFN-G-IT were negative in 51.6% (49/95) and 62.1% (59/95) respectively, decreasing the concordance to 0.321 and 0.288, respectively. In non-BCG vaccinated HCWs with previous positive TST a positive IFN-γ test was associated with degree of exposure and diameter of TST. PST was performed in 24 HCW with previous positive TST and negative IFN-γ tests. PST was developed in 3 cell cultures stimulated with medium alone, ESAT-6 and CFP-10, respectively. In the third and sixth day of incubation period, part of the supernatants were replaced with complete medium supplemented with (rIL)-2. On day 9, ELISPOT assay was performed. In 14 samples PST was not valid due to not having enough cells. In 8 cases, the response was negative, and in 2 cases positive, suggesting that these patients were infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in some point in the past. Conclusions Both IFN-γ tests showed a similar number of positive results, and concordance between the tests was excellent. None of the tests was affected by prior BCG vaccination. IFN-γ tests are a useful tool for detecting recent infection in HCW population.


An integer programming formulation for the minimum cost design of precast, prestressed concrete simply supported beams is developed. The cross section and gridwork within which strands must be placed are assumed given, and the design problem is to determine the concrete strength and the number, location, and draping of strands that minimizes the total cost of the beam. Constraints limit release and service load stresses, ultimate moment capacity, cracking moment capacity, and release camber. A box girder for a multibeam highway bridge is designed to demonstrate the computer program written to implement the methodology.


textabstractHematopoiesis is the process leading to production and maturation of peripheral blood
cells. All blood cells are derived from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) which reside in hematopoietic
organs. In mammals, the site of hematopoiesis changes during development,
which is sequentially taking place in different organs starting with primitive erythrocytes
in the yolk sac, the aorta-gonad mesonephros (AGM) region, the fetal lever, and finally the
bone marrow (BM) during adulthood. Blood cells are short-lived, and with a daily demand
for more than a billion new hematopoietic cells, a continuous replenishment of progenitor
cells committed to specific hematopoietic lineages is required. HSCs are at the top of the
hematopoietic hierarchy, and are the only source of progenitors. HSCs comprise 0.005-0.01%
of the bone marrow, and their unique properties, i.e. the ability of self-renewal and multi-lineage
differentiation potential in combination with a specific stem cell microenvironment/
niche, enable these cells to sustain the hematopoietic system. These cells differentiate
into progenitor cells, either into common lymphoid progenitors (CLP) or common myeloid
progenitors (CMP), which in due course differentiate into mature blood cells, providing cells
to the myeloid or lymphoid system respectively 6. CLPs carry the potential to give rise to B
cells, T cells (via the thymus) and NK cells, whereas CMPs have the potential to differentiate
into erythrocytes, megakaryocytes, macrophages, and granulocytes. Dendritic cells can arise
from both progenitor types. The process of hematopoietic lineage determination is tightly
regulated by the BM microenvironment's extrinsic factors, such as growth factors and cytokines
mediated by cell-cell interactions, which sustain survival and proliferation of committed
cells. Equally important in determining cell fate are the lineage- and cell-type-specific
gene expression signatures (intrinsic factors). These signatures are based on the up and
down regulation of transcription factors apparently regulated by the epigenetic-micro RNAs
regulatory circuit. The strict regulation of both extrinsic and intrinsic signals is of utmost
importance, as deregulation of the expression of these factors could result in hematopoietic
malignancies such as leukemia or lymphoma. Such deregulation of gene expression is usually
caused by irreversible molecular-cytogenetic changes introduced into the genomic DNA
sequence. These changes can be caused by mutations, translocations and deletions concerning
genes involved in cell cycle, differentiation, proliferation, and self-renewal processes.
During the last decade it has become evident that, next to genetic aberrations, epigenetic
alterations can also contribute to tumorigenesis, for example through gene silencing due to
aberrant methylation.

.


In this paper, we propose a design for novel and experimental cloud computing systems. The proposed system aims at enhancing computational, communicational and annalistic capabilities of road navigation services by merging several independent technologies, namely vision-based embedded navigation systems, prominent Cloud Computing Systems (CCSs) and Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET). This work presents our initial investigations by describing the design of a global generic system. The designed system has been experimented with various scenarios of video-based road services. Moreover, the associated architecture has been implemented on a small-scale simulator of an in-vehicle embedded system. The implemented architecture has been experimented in the case of a simulated road service to aid the police agency. The goal of this service is to recognize and track searched individuals and vehicles in a real-time monitoring system remotely connected to moving cars. The presented work demonstrates the potential of our system for efficiently enhancing and diversifying real-time video services in road environments.


Heat shock proteins (hsps) are a highly conserved family of proteins, first recognized by their upregulated expression in response to host exposure to raised temperatures. Further study has revealed that they have numerous functions in the cell, primarily as chaperones mediating both the correct folding of nascent polypeptide chains and the dissolution of aggregated protein complexes. The energy requirement for this chaperone activity is provided by the ATPase activity found in most families of hsps and thus the peptide binding capacity is controlled by ATP hydrolysis. The structural consequence of this is that hsps isolated in situ are found complexed to chaperoned peptides (hspCs). Much previous work has implicated hsps in the immune response to pathogens and recent studies have shown that the interaction of hsps with antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells (DCs), mediates the integration of the innate and acquired immune responses. This central role for hspCs in immunity is facilitated by their dual function in both innate immunity, with the induction of cytokines and the maturation of DCs mediated by the hsp component, and acquired immunity, with the trafficking of antigens chaperoned in hspCs for antigen presentation by the mature DCs.


The aim of our research is to create a "virtual friend" i.e., a virtual character capable of responding to actions obtained from observing a real person in video in a realistic and sensible manner. In this paper, we present a novel approach for generating a variety of complex behavioural responses for a fully articulated "virtual friend" in three dimensional (3D) space. Our approach is model-based. First of all, we train a collection of dual hidden Markov models (HMMs) on 3D motion capture (MoCap) data representing a number of interactions between two people. Secondly, we track 3D articulated motion of a single person in ordinary 2D video. Finally, using the dual HMM, we generate a moving "virtual friend" reacting to the motion of the tracked person and place it in the original video footage. In this paper, we describe our approach in depth as well as present the results of experiments, which show that the produced behaviours are very close to those of real people


Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays
a pivotal role in enabling organizational capability and
productivity, and in initiating and facilitating innovation
across all industry sectors. In recent years, cloud
computing has emerged as a growing trend because it
serves as an enabler of scalable, flexible and powerful
computing. Consequently, each year significant global
investment is made in migrating to the cloud
environment. However, despite its growing popularity,
several risks and security concerns surround the cloud
computing model. Therefore, understanding an
organization's readiness and ability to mitigate
associated risks is critical prior to embarking on the
cloud computing journey. One approach to determining
an organization's ability to effectively migrate to the
cloud is to determine the current maturity of both its
cloud computing capabilities and its risk management
capabilities. As such, the Cloud Computing tool and the
Risk Management (RM) Critical Capability of the IT
Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF) are proposed
as effective maturity assessment instruments to enable
organizations to establish future roadmaps that will
improve their maturity with respect to their cloud
computing readiness. Increasing the level of maturity
improves organizational practices surrounding the
identification and mitigation of risks/threats that pertain
to the cloud environment.


Declining populations are expected to experience negative genetic consequences of inbreeding, which over time can drive them to extinction. Yet, many species have survived in small populations for thousands of generations without apparent fitness effects, possibly due to genetic purging of partially deleterious recessive alleles in inbred populations. We estimate the abundance of deleterious alleles in a range of mammals and find that conversely to current conservation thinking species with historically small population size and low genetic diversity generally have lower genetic load compared to species with large population sizes. Rapid population declines will thus disproportionally affect species with high diversity, as they carry many deleterious alleles that can reach fixation before being removed by genetic purging.


OBJECTIVES
In experimental studies, both high and low levels of plasma glucose are associated with cognitive impairment. In populations, less is known about the relationship between glycemia and cognitive function, especially in persons using glucose-lowering drugs.

DESIGN
A cross-sectional study of 378 high-functioning black and white men and women aged 70 to 79 participating in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study (Health ABC) who used glucose-lowering medications. Glycemic measures included fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Cognitive function was assessed using the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSS) at the same examination visit in which the glycemic measures were determined.

SETTING
Memphis, Tennessee and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

RESULTS
We observed an "inverted-U" relationship (p =.0025 for 3MS, p=.0277 for DSS) between FPG (range 47 - 366 mg/dl) and performance on these two tests. The fasting plasma glucose levels associated with the highest score on the 3MS was 180 mg/dl and 135 mg/dl for the DSS. There was a monotonic inverse relationship between HbA1c and performance on 3MS and DSS without evidence of a threshold effect.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that older adults who are treated for diabetes may experience a small degree of cognitive impairment within the recommended fasting glucose levels, yet measures of long-term glycemic control support tight glycemic control. Given the high prevalence of diabetes and the common use of glucose-lowering drugs in older adults, further studies are needed to elucidate these relationships.


This qualitative study explored how critical incidents shape multiracial students' understanding of race and identity at predominantly White institutions. Participants included 14 multiracial undergraduate students from two institutions in the Midwest. Four categories of critical incidents were identified from the data: (a) confronting race and racism, (b) responding to external definitions, (c) defending legitimacy, and (d) affirming racial identity. The incidents took many forms and occurred in many contexts. The majority of incidents involved interactions with other students, underscoring the influence of peers. The study also suggests implications for higher education practice and research.


Organelle-targeting fluorescence probes are valuable because they can provide spatiotemporal information about the trafficking of analytes of interest. The spatiotemporal resolution can be improved by using low-energy emission signals because they are barely contaminated by autofluorescence noises. In this study, we designed and synthesized a deep-red-fluorescent zinc probe (JJ) with a membrane-targeting cholesterol unit. This zinc probe consists of a boron-azadipyrromethene (aza-BODIPY) fluorophore and a zinc receptor that is tethered to a tri(ethylene glycol)-cholesterol chain. In aqueous solutions buffered to pH 7.4, JJ exhibits weak fluorescence with a peak wavelength of 663 nm upon excitation at 622 nm. The addition of ZnCl2 elicits an approximately 5-fold enhancement of the fluorescence emission with a fluorescence dynamic range of 141000. Our electrochemical and picosecond transient photoluminescence investigations indicate that the fluorescence turn-on response is due to the zinc-induced abrogation of the formation of a nonemissive intramolecularly charge-separated species, which occurs with a driving force of 0.98 eV. The fluorescence zinc response was found to be fully reversible and to be unaffected by pH changes or the presence of biological metal ions. These properties are due to tight zinc binding with a dissociation constant of 4 pM. JJ was found to be nontoxic to HeLa cells up to submicromolar concentrations, which enables cellular imaging. Colocalization experiments were performed with organelle-specific stains and revealed that JJ is rapidly internalized into intracellular organelles, including lysosomes and endoplasmic reticula. Unexpectedly, probe internalization was found to permeabilize the cell membrane, which facilitates the influx of exogens such as zinc ions. Such permeabilization does not arise for a control probe without the tri(ethylene glycol)-cholesterol chain (JJC). Our results show that the membrane-targeting cholesterol unit can disrupt membrane integrity.


People naturally bring their prior beliefs to bear on how they interpret the new information, yet few formal models exist for accounting for the influence of users' prior beliefs in interactions with data presentations like visualizations. We demonstrate a Bayesian cognitive model for understanding how people interpret visualizations in light of prior beliefs and show how this model provides a guide for improving visualization evaluation. In a first study, we show how applying a Bayesian cognition model to a simple visualization scenario indicates that people's judgments are consistent with a hypothesis that they are doing approximate Bayesian inference. In a second study, we evaluate how sensitive our observations of Bayesian behavior are to different techniques for eliciting people subjective distributions, and to different datasets. We find that people don't behave consistently with Bayesian predictions for large sample size datasets, and this difference cannot be explained by elicitation technique. In a final study, we show how normative Bayesian inference can be used as an evaluation framework for visualizations, including of uncertainty.


The external environment in business is becoming increasingly a major source of uncertainty, especially for decision-makers in charge of sustaining the advantage of the organization over time. While tools and practices have been developed to envisage likely evolutions of trends, this paper is motivated by our limited understanding of how designers and interdisciplinary innovation teams consider desirable futures, especially, when the planning horizon is 5, 10, or even 15 years. Accordingly, this paper engages with the literature to present different perspectives between strategic planning in business, and foresight as emerging activities in strategic design. A design-inspired foresight approach is presented through applied research, where the author employed qualitative data collection and analysis techniques (Delphi, Three Horizons scanning, and futures scenarios building techniques) in a Financial Services industry study to the year 2030. By engaging decision-makers in futures thinking, the value of foresight in business and design as preferred-change provoking, is supported through lessons from this futures study as an emerging practice of foresight in design.


The article examines the issues of the possibility of studying the areas of development by soil erosion and its control. The study proved that the development of soil erosion is based on the forming impact of natural and anthropogenic factors. The degree of potential danger and the possibility of prevention, taking into account the preservation of the environmental situation in the foothills of the Upper Shirvan in the example of the Shamakhi district of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were studied. The main tasks of the study were a determination of the amount and degree of development of eroded and erosion-prone soils of the foothill zones carried out on the basis of soil erosion surveys of the farms of the republic.


The magnetic properties of nonoriented electrical steels are influenced by grain size and texture of final products. The key technology in the commercial production of nonoriented electrical steels is to grow grains with {hk0}<001> texture up to the optimum size in the final annealing process. The problems related to grain size control have been extensively investigated, while texture control has received much less attention. Therefore, there is enough room to improve the magnetic properties through the control of texture. In this study, systematic investigations on the texture evolution during both recrystallization and grain growth have been made. The formation of recrystallization texture is explained by oriented nucleation. This is supported by the fact that the area fraction of nuclei or recrystallized grains with specific orientation to all new grains remains almost constant during the progress of recrystallization. Most nuclei have a high misorientation angle of 25∼55° with the surrounding deformed matrices. During the progress of grain growth, the Goss texture component continues to decrease because the Goss grains have a high percentage of low angle, low mobility grain boundaries. The grains of Goss orientation have a smaller grain size than those of random orientation.


Resource Discovery (RD) is one of the key issues in successful Grid systems. Yet, new methodologies for RD are constantly researched owing to the dynamicity, heterogeneity and large-scale characteristics of Grids. Recently, synergy and convergence between Grid, Agent and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems were pointed out clearly. This paper provides a survey and a qualitative comparison of the most promising approaches (P2P techniques and agent systems) for RD. Viability of Grid systems relies mainly on efficient integration of P2P techniques and mobile agent (MA) systems to bring scaling and decentralised control properties to Grids.


Polymer dispersed liquid crystal film was prepared by the method of polymerization induced phase separation. The optical morphologies of the PDLC film were characterized by polarized optical microscope with a hot stage. Our results demonstrated that the morphology of the PDLC film depended on temperature of PDLC system.


The surface wave full ray theory (FRT) is an efficient tool to calculate synthetic waveforms of surface waves. It combines the concept of local modes with exact ray tracing as a function of frequency, providing a more complete description of surface wave propagation than the widely used great circle approximation (GCA). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of the FRT approach to model teleseismic long-period surface waveforms (T ∼ 45–150 s) in the context of current 3-D Earth models to empirically assess its validity domain and its scope for future studies in seismic tomography. To achieve this goal, we compute vertical and horizontal component fundamental mode synthetic Rayleigh waveforms using the FRT, which are compared with calculations using the highly accurate spectral element method. We use 13 global earth models including 3-D crustal and mantle structure, which are derived by successively varying the strength and lengthscale of heterogeneity in current tomographic models. For completeness, GCA waveforms are also compared with the spectral element method. We find that the FRT accurately predicts the phase and amplitude of long-period Rayleigh waves (T ∼ 45–150 s) for almost all the models considered, with errors in the modelling of the phase (amplitude) of Rayleigh waves being smaller than 5 per cent (10 per cent) in most cases. The largest errors in phase and amplitude are observed for T ∼ 45 s and for the three roughest earth models considered that exhibit shear wave anomalies of up to ∼20 per cent, which is much larger than in current global tomographic models. In addition, we find that overall the GCA does not predict Rayleigh wave amplitudes well, except for the longest wave periods (T ∼ 150 s) and the smoothest models considered. Although the GCA accurately predicts Rayleigh wave phase for current earth models such as S20RTS and S40RTS, FRT's phase errors are smaller, notably for the shortest wave periods considered (T ∼ 45 s and T ∼ 60 s). This suggests that the FRT approach is a useful means to build the next generation of elastic and anelastic surface wave tomography models. Finally, we observe a clear correlation between the FRT amplitude and phase errors and the roughness of the models. This allows us to quantify the limits of validity of the FRT in terms of model roughness thresholds, which can serve as useful guides in future seismic tomographic studies.