Introduction Radio-frequency catheter ablation (RFCA) using Joule heat has two fundamental weaknesses: the limited depth of treatment and the risk of thrombus formation. In contrast, focused shock wave (SW) therapy could damage tissues at arbitrary depths without heat generation. Thus, we aimed to develop a SW catheter ablation (SWCA) system that could compensate for the weaknesses of RFCA therapy. Methods and Results We developed a SWCA system where the SW generated by a Q-switched Holmium: yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser beam was reflected by a reflector attached to 14-Fr catheter tip and then was converged onto the focus. We examined the feasibility of our system on pigs in vivo. When applied using the epicardial approach, the SWCA caused persistent spheroidal lesions with mild superficial injury than the RFCA. The lesions were created to a depth based on the focal length (2.0 mm) [2.36 ± 0.45 (SD) mm immediately after procedure, n = 16]. When applied to the atrioventricular (AV) node using the endocardial approach, the SWCA caused junctional escape rhythms in 2 pigs and AV block in 12 pigs (complete AV block in 9) in acute phase (n = 14). Nine of the 14 pigs survived with pacemakers for the long-term study, and the AV block persisted for 12.6 ± 3.9 (SD) days in all surviving pigs. Histological examination showed AV nodal cell body atrophy in the acute phase and fibrotic lesions in the chronic phase. Importantly, no acute or chronic fatal complications were noted. Conclusions Our novel SWCA system could be a promising modality as a non-thermal ablation method to compensate for the weaknesses of RFCA therapy. However, further research and development will be necessary as the current prototype still exhibited the presence of micro-thrombus formation in the animal studies.


Fractures of the proximal humerus account over 75% of all humeral fractures in patients older than the age of 40 [1]. After the age of 50, women have a much higher incidence of these fractures than men, due to a higher incidence of osteoporosis. If the patient is less than 50 years old, high-energy trauma is the most common etiology. However, if the patient is over the age of 50, low energy mechanisms are more common [1]. Although axillary artery injury occurs frequently with dislocations of the shoulder and fractures of the clavicle, such injury is not commonly associated with fractures of the proximal humerus [2-5]. We present a patient with an axillary artery injury associated with a comminuted fracture of the proximal humerus.


For a general one-sided nonautonomous dynamics defined by a sequence of linear operators, we consider the notion of a polynomial dichotomy with respect to a sequence of norms and we characterize it completely in terms of the admissibility of bounded solutions. As a nontrivial application, we establish the robustness of the notion of a nonuniform polynomial dichotomy.


Incomplete information is a problem in many aspects of actual environments. Furthermore, in many sceneries the knowledge is not represented in a crisp way. It is common to find fuzzy concepts or problems with some level of uncertainty. There are not many practical systems which handle fuzziness and uncertainty and the few examples that we can find are used by a minority. To extend a popular system (which many programmers are using) with the ability of combining crisp and fuzzy knowledge representations seems to be an interesting issue.
Our first work (Fuzzy Prolog) was a language that models $\mathcal{B}([0,1])$-valued Fuzzy Logic. In the Borel algebra, $\mathcal{B}([0,1])$, truth value is represented using unions of intervals of real numbers. This work was more general in truth value representation and propagation than previous works.
An interpreter for this language using Constraint Logic Programming over Real numbers (CLP(${\cal R}$)) was implemented and is available in the Ciao system.
Now, we enhance our former approach by using default knowledge to represent incomplete information in Logic Programming. We also provide the implementation of this new framework. This new release of Fuzzy Prolog handles incomplete information, it has a complete semantics (the previous one was incomplete as Prolog) and moreover it is able to combine crisp and fuzzy logic in Prolog programs. Therefore, new Fuzzy Prolog is more expressive to represent real world.
Fuzzy Prolog inherited from Prolog its incompleteness. The incorporation of default reasoning to Fuzzy Prolog removes this problem and requires a richer semantics which we discuss.


Every time a drug is administered to the animal to treat an ailment, no matter whether it is acute or chronic manifestation, it usually goes together with some other prescription medicine, OTC (Over the counter) formulation, herbs or even food. All the xenobiotics such as drugs, toxins and food components as well as the endogenous compound that are formed in the animal body as a routine phenomenon exert a stimulatory or inhibitory effect on the different physiological and biochemical processes going in the body. These effects may alter the normal metabolism and/or drug transport or its efficacy drastically and thus expose the man and animals to the risk of a potentially dangerous interaction. The present review discusses these potential reactions and their mechanisms that help in navigating the hazardous combinations of drugs with other medicines, food, herbs, vitamins and minerals with confidence.


The neurogenic sensory vascular responses of the dura mater encephali are considered to contribute significantly to the mechanisms of meningeal nociception and headache. Although the fundamental role of capsaicin‐sensitive afferent nerves in the development of the neurogenic inflammatory responses of a variety of tissues is well established, their participation in meningeal vascular reactions is unclear. In the present study, the effects of the topical application of capsaicin on the dural blood flow and on the morphology of the dural nerve fibres were examined in control and capsaicin‐pretreated rats by means of laser Doppler flowmetry and electron microscopy, respectively. In the control rats, the dural application of capsaicin at concentrations of 50 and 100 nm induced significant increases in blood flow in the branches of the medial meningeal artery. This capsaicin‐induced vasodilatation was abolished by capsazepine, a transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) receptor antagonist, and by hCGRP8–37, a calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist. Administration of capsaicin at higher concentrations (1 and 10 μm) resulted in marked, dose‐dependent decreases in dural blood flow. The capsaicin‐induced vasodilatation was abolished, whereas vasoconstriction was augmented, by systemic pretreatment of the animals with capsaicin. Electron microscopy revealed degenerating unmyelinated axons in the dura mater after an acute exposure to capsaicin (10 μm), providing support for the existence and possible functional role of capsaicin‐sensitive dural afferent nerves. The results indicate that capsaicin‐induced vasodilatation in the rat dura mater is mediated by the release of CGRP from the sensory nerves, whereas the vasoconstrictor response may be attributed to a direct action of capsaicin on the vascular smooth muscle. The present study demonstrates for the first time that capsaicin‐sensitive nociceptive afferent nerves contribute significantly to the dural vasodilatory responses and suggests an important role in meningeal nociception.


Estimates of the annual mass and ozone transport from the stratosphere to the troposphere are presented for the northern hemisphere. The mass transport is based on the radioactivity concentrations previously measured in tropopause folding events and the observed rate of deposition of strontium-90 from bomb tests. The ozone transport is deduced from the positive correlations between the ozone mixing ratio and potential vorticity and between potential vorticity and strontium-90 radioactivity. To support these concepts, new observational data obtained from fast-responding ozone and meteorological sensors aboard the National Center for Atmospheric Research electra aircraft and a similar ozone sensor aboard a commercial aircraft are compared to folded tropopause structures analyzed from radiosonde observations. Two tropopause folding events were predicted in advance to coordinate the flights and to traverse the predicted structures. Excellent agreement is shown between the aircraft and radiosonde data for the macroscale structures. For the first time, direct observations of the effects of mesoscale wave motions on the ozone mixing ratio, potential temperature, and wind speed perturbations are presented. The wave modes have not yet been identified, but transverse gravity waves can be eliminated from the observed polarization relations.


Introduction Overtime work has been suspected as a risk factor for workers' mental distress. A recent cross-sectional study showed that job satisfaction and overtime work could modify the association with mental health in a direct and combined manner (Nakata, 2017). Thus, we have examined the association between job satisfaction and overtime work with mental health using a longitudinal study to explore of causal relationships. Methods Participants were 1,558 Japanese IT (information technology) workers. Each completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ, 28-item version) and Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ, index for job strain and job supports) and indicated job satisfaction in 2011 and 2012. Actual amount of overtime work during 3 months in 2011 was recorded by the company. A total of 1408 respondents completed questionnaires and 758 participants were excluded from this analysis because of high GHQ scores (GHQ >5, indicating mental distress) in 2011. Finally, 650 participants were used for the evaluation. Risk of mental distress in 2012 by overtime work, job satisfaction, and both combined was estimated by univariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Result Compared to participants with high job satisfaction, those with low satisfaction had increased risk of mental distress in the following year (crude odds ratio (cOR): 1.75), but this difference became insignificant after adjusting for potential confounding factors such as job strain and job supports. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the risk of mental distress for participants with or without overtime work. However, in the combined analysis, compared to participants with overtime work and high job satisfaction, those with overtime work and low job satisfaction had an increased risk of high GHQ scores (adjusted OR: 2.04). Conclusion Present longitudinal data suggests that the combination of low job satisfaction and overtime work induces an increased risk of mental distress.


An autonomous hyperchaotic oscillator, which is suitable for synchronization and application in secure communications, is studied. It is based on an LC oscillator and a single amplifier biquad (SAB), coupled by means of a diode. The inductor of the resonant circuit is realized in practice by using the Antoniou gyrator circuit. The oscillator is described by a set of four differential equations. Various methods for detecting chaos, such as the Lyapunov exponents, the Lyapunov dimension, the Poincaré map, the spectrum and the phase portraits, are used, in order to confirm the chaotic behaviour of the oscillator. The synchronization of two oscillators, coupled bi-directionally, is described. Experimental results fully coincide with theoretical and simulation results.


The aim of this project was to discover whether there is a market for fermented specialty coffee beverages, as the niche for fermented products is expanding, due to people becoming more health conscious and aware about their health (Mellentin, 2017). This fermented beverage could potentially be less bitter due to lower acidity levels and easier to digest then most coffees due to its lower caffeine content. The coffee product would be made from high quality Arabica coffee beans, to ensure the best possible flavour characteristics (Driftaway Coffee, 2018) and ethical sourcing and sustainable practices would be implemented during the coffees development and fermentation processes. As the specialty coffee industry is expanding globally (Lee W. , Cheong, Curran , Yu, & Liu, 2015), it brings about the opportunity to disrupt the specialty coffee market with this fermented product through the collection of evidence-based qualitative and quantitative research, to build a strong business case for its commercialisation. The key market research findings from this study show that people generally like to experiment with their coffee and are willing to try fermented coffee beverages. Qualities that the majority of respondents look for in a coffee brand are good taste and flavour, ethical sourcing of their products and the use of high-quality coffee beans. Other findings suggest that the specialty coffee industry is a very saturated market (The Register Team (TRT), 2017) and in order to stand out in this market the product needs to have a strong point of difference, a good brand and an interesting story. Good taste and high quality are two traits that seem to be the baseline for coffee products in the New Zealand specialty coffee market (Anthony, 2014). The key scientific findings are to be confirmed in subsequent laboratory trials, which will aim to validate the science in the papers by Lee, Wai Cheong , Curran, Yu, & Shao Quan, 2016b; Lee, et al., 2016c further. The results from this project have enabled the development of a business strategy that primarily targets those who earn between $50,000-$99,999 New Zealand Dollars (NZD) per annum (p.a.) in the age range between 18-34 years old. This subgroup could be expanded to those who earn $50,000+ NZD p.a. and target millennials (born between 1980 and 2000 or 18-38 years old) in future research (Goldman Sachs, 2018). In the early stages of the project if the science is validated on a small scale, capital could be raised through a crowd funding platform like Kickstarter, so that subsequent trials can continue (Kickstarter, 2018a). When the business case for the product is strong, key investors will be targeted for their assistance in future product development, verification and market validation. This strategy is a part of the business model for the project that outlines the best course of action given the current market research and scientific evidence that is available. If this project were to be successfully funded and a minimum viable product were to be developed, large scale laboratory trials could be conducted bringing the product one step closer to commercialisation. If the product were to reach this stage, it would allow specialty coffee consumers the opportunity to experience a fermented coffee beverage that uses ethical and sustainable practices and potentially contains unique flavour nuances, health benefits and less bitter compounds.


Vehicle routing problems (VRP) concern the pickup and/or the delivery of goods from/to customers with vehicles. In the literature, most approaches consider the road network implicitly. Specifically, so‐called customer‐based graphs are used where nodes represent customers (plus the depot) and arcs represent best paths between customers. This model can affect solution quality when several attributes are defined on road segments (like travel time and distance). To handle that, two approaches are proposed in the literature. The road network can be represented using a multigraph that extends the customer‐based graph and where an arc is introduced for every efficient path between two nodes. Alternatively, the problem can be solved on a graph that mimics the original road network. In this paper, we investigate the latter approach. We consider the VRP with time windows (VRPTW) and we develop a branch‐and‐price scheme. An extensive computational study based on several types of instances is conducted in order to evaluate this approach compared to the multigraph‐based approach. As far as we know, our branch‐and‐price scheme is the first exact method for the VRPTW with the road‐network model. Also, our computational study provides the first comparison between the two models: multigraph and road‐network.


: Health education has changed in numerous ways since the inception of this journal, with many developments moving the discipline forward in ways that perhaps were not envisaged 75 years ago. Whilst there have been reported concerns about the decline of the discipline of health promotion and therefore associated worries about education, the contemporary evidence base has grown (Woodall et al 2017 in press), which we argue supports the delivery of quality education and the development of capable, skilled practitioners. Pedagogy has further developed too, and technology now enables health education to have a broader global reach through online teaching, social media and open-access publications. Many global challenges remain, and the UK context is one in which both health education and indeed practice faces major trials despite the traditions and approaches to health education developed by those educated and trained in this setting over a period of many years. We argue that the broader UK policy environment remains a challenge to current health promotion education, research and practice.


Summary The Hussar experiment was carried out in September 2011 with the purpose of acquiring low frequency seismic data to be used in inversion methods. Three wells located close to the seismic line and a dynamite-source dataset, acquired with three-component 10 Hz geophones, were used for a post-stack inversion test using commercial software. Several low-frequency cut-off filters applied to the data were tested with the 3-5 Hz model being selected as the optimum. The resultant impedance reflects lateral changes that were not present in the initial model and therefore are derived from the seismic reflections. Impedance changes in the target zone shows the general trend and relative variations, which would allow changes in the reservoir as variations in the rock properties occur. A final inversion was performed to simulate traditional approaches when the low-frequency component is absent in the seismic data. Filtered seismic-data (10-15-60-85 Hz) and an initial model with a 10-15 Hz cut-off were used for this test. The results at the well locations show a good match but the lateral variation and character of the events resemble more the initial model character.


An important aspect in the resolution of civil conflict pertains to the political transition of rebel groups, dissipation of their command structures and reintegration of former combatants. In this paper, we draw on empirical data collected in select communities of Lanao, Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces of Mindanao, Philippines during June 2010 to explore future trends in civilian support for the main separatist rebel outfit in Mindanao – the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). We test variance in the existence of recruitment pools among the two main Muslim ethnic groups – the Maranao and the Maguindanao. Our findings suggest that recruitment into MILF is not simply about religion or ideology, this is a simplification of its underlying support base. Several factors such as geographic location, especially proximity to Armed Forces of the Philippines camps, and conflict-related impacts of displacement, together with disparity in governance delivery levels, have resulted in divergence in levels of support for the Bangsamoro struggle between the two main ethnic groups. These variables will have an impact on the future existence of the MILF as a rebel movement.


It has been shown that the performance of neural machine translation (NMT) drops starkly in low-resource conditions, underperforming phrase-based statistical machine translation (PBSMT) and requiring large amounts of auxiliary data to achieve competitive results. In this paper, we re-assess the validity of these results, arguing that they are the result of lack of system adaptation to low-resource settings. We discuss some pitfalls to be aware of when training low-resource NMT systems, and recent techniques that have shown to be especially helpful in low-resource settings, resulting in a set of best practices for low-resource NMT. In our experiments on German–English with different amounts of IWSLT14 training data, we show that, without the use of any auxiliary monolingual or multilingual data, an optimized NMT system can outperform PBSMT with far less data than previously claimed. We also apply these techniques to a low-resource Korean–English dataset, surpassing previously reported results by 4 BLEU.


Contents can be transferred while the device which is the source of the contents holds them. The contents are transferred to a device of a management transfer destination while being held in the device of the management transfer source. The contents are used by both the device of the management transfer source and the device of the management transfer destination. This is different from ordinary transfer that the contents are not held in the device of the transfer source but used exclusively by the device of the transfer destination. During the management transfer of the contents, the device of the management transfer source cannot transfer the management of the contents to another device. The contents are held exclusively in the two devices, the device of the management transfer source and the device of the management transfer destination. This is different from duplication of the first generation that a plurality of duplicates (of the first generation) can be created from the original contents. This is also different from the one-time duplication because the management of the contents can be transferred to another device by returning them from the device of the management transfer source.


The paper describes an investigation about the application of the new
multipleimpedance discontinuities model for optimizing profile diffuser
barriers. The new multiple-impedance discontinuities model is much
faster than the numerical method, thus it is used in an optimization
process. The A-weighted insertion loss was used for the traffic noise
spectrum.The result of optimization, which is done by simplex downhill
method, showed that the chosen method combined with the appropriate
cost function is both a fast and effective way to optimize a diffusive
profiled barrier, improving the performance of the barrier in the whole
frequency bandwidth of the reactive profiled barriers. The optimized
barrier improves the A-weighted insertion loss of all different tested
barriers including absorbent, quadratic residue sequence and random
sequence barriers.The introduced optimization process in this
investigation is fast, clear and flexible so that any different ribbed
surfaces and dimensions utilized on any different T-profile barriers
can be optimized. The parameter used to optimize is just simply the
well depth sequence, which is easy to realize and practical to design.


Pseudo bounding boxes from the self-training paradigm are inevitably noisy for semi-supervised object detection. To cope with that, a dual decoupling training framework is proposed in the present study, i.e. clean and noisy data decoupling, and classification and localization task decoupling. In the first decoupling, two-level thresholds are used to categorize pseudo boxes into three groups, i.e. clean backgrounds, noisy foregrounds and clean foregrounds. With a specially designed noise-bypass head focusing on noisy data, backbone networks can extract coarse but diverse information; and meanwhile, an original head learns from clean samples for more precise predictions. In the second decoupling, we take advantage of the two-head structure for better evaluation of localization quality, thus the category label and location of a pseudo box can remain independent of each other during training. The approach of two-level thresholds is also applied to group pseudo boxes into three sections of different location accuracy. We outperform existing works by a large margin on VOC datasets, reaching 54.8 mAP(+1.8), and even up to 55.9 mAP(+1.5) by leveraging MS-COCO train2017 as extra unlabeled data. On MS-COCO benchmark, our method also achieves about 1.0 mAP improvements averaging across protocols compared with the prior state-of-the-art.


The Central African Copperbelt is the world's premier sediment-hosted Cu province. It is contained in the Katangan basin, an intracratonic rift that records onset of growth at ∼840 Ma and inversion at ∼535 Ma. In the Copperbelt region, the basin has a crudely symmetrical form, with a central depocenter maximum containing ∼11 km of strata positioned on the northern side of the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and marginal condensed sequences The largest Cu ± Co ores, both stratiform and vein-controlled, are known from the periphery of the basin and transition to U-Ni-Co and Pb-Zn-Cu ores toward the depocenter maximum. Most ore types are positioned within a ∼500-m halo to former near-basin-wide salt sheets or associated halokinetic structures, the exception being that located in extreme basin marginal positions, where primary salt was not deposited. Stratiform Cu ± Co ores occur at intrasalt (Congolese-type), subsalt (Zambian-type), and salt-marginal (Kamoa-type) positions. Bulk crush-leach fluid inclusion data from the first two of these deposit types reveal a principal association with residual evaporitic brines. A likely signature of the ore fluids, the brines were generated during deposition of the basin-wide salt-sheets and occupied voluminous sub and intrasalt aquifers from ~800 Ma. Associated intense Mg ± K metasomatism was restricted to these levels, indicating that capping and enclosing salt remained impermeable for prolonged periods of the basin's history, isolating the deep-seated aquifers from the upper part of the basin fill. From ∼765 to 740 Ma, the salt sheets in the Congolese part of the basin were halokinetically modified. Salt was withdrawn laterally to feed diapirs, ultimately leading to localized welding or breaching of the former hydrological seal. At these points, deeper-level residual brines were drawn into the intrasalt stratigraphy to interact with reducing elements and form the stratiform ores. It is probable that salt welding occurred diachronously across the northern and central parts of the basin, depending upon the interplay of original salt thickness, rates and volumes of sediment supply during accumulation of salt overburden, and tectonism. The variable timing of this fundamental change in hydrologic architecture is poorly constrained to the period of halokinetic onset to the earliest stages of orogenesis; however, the geometry of the ores and associated alteration patterns demands that mineralization preceded the characteristically complex fragmentation of the host strata. Thus, while an early orogenic timing is permissible, mineralization during the later stages of extensional basin development was more likely. In situ reducing elements that host Zambian-type stratiform Cu ± Co ores were in continuous hydrological communication with subsalt aquifers, such that ore formation could have commenced from the ∼800 Ma brine introduction event. The nonhalokinetic character of the salt in this region allowed the intact seal to have maintained suprahydrostatic pore pressures, facilitating fluid circulation until late stages of basin growth and possibly early stage orogenesis. Leachate data from ores positioned in the depocenter maximum and southern parts of the basin that underwent relatively high grade metamorphism record mixing of residual and halite dissolution-related brines. Salt dissolution was likely triggered by emergence of diapirs or thermally and/or mechanically induced increased permeability of halite. While it is certain that halite dissolution occurred during and after orogenesis, conditions favorable for salt dissolution may have existed locally during extension in the depocenter maximum. The permeability of salt increased to a point where it became the principal aquifer. The salt's properties as an aquiclude lost, originally deep-seated residual brine mixed with new phases of evaporite dissolution-related brine to produce ores at middle levels of the basin fill. During the final stages of ore formation, recorded by postorogenic Pb-Zn-Cu mineralization in the depocenter maximum, the salinity of fluids was dominantly derived from the dissolution of remnant bodies of salt.


ABSTRACT In this short note, we give large counterexamples to natural questions about certain order polytopes, in particular, Gelfand–Tsetlin polytopes. Several of the counterexamples are too large to be discovered via a brute-force computer search. We also show that the multiset of hooks in a Young diagram is not enough information to determine the Ehrhart polynomial for an associated order polytope. This is somewhat counter-intuitive to the fact that the multiset of hooks always determine the leading coefficient of the Ehrhart polynomial.


The antioxidant properties of the natural plant extracts can be resulted from their ability to chelate transition metal ions, especially Fe 2+ and Cu 2+. For example, the complex formation between ferrozine and Fe 2+ can be disturbed by the presence of other complexing agents which cause a decrease in the red colour intensity of complexes. Phenolic compounds from Pandanus extracts (family: Pandanaceae) may consist of dihydroxy groups, which can conjugate transition metals, therefore preventing the metal-induced free radical formation. This study investigates the metal chelating capacity of Pandanus pygmaeus extracts and their column chromatographic fractions. The ferrous ion chelating (FIC) assay was performed to determine the ability of the extracts in chelating ferrous ion. The stock solution was diluted to five concentrations (1-10 000 µg/mL). 500 µL samples at different concentrations were mixed with 100 µL of 0.6 mM ferrous chloride (FeCl 2) and 900 µL of methanol (MeOH). Then, the mixtures (1.50 mL) were incubated for 5 minutes at room temperature. Next, 100 µL of 5 mM ferrozine was added, mixed thoroughly and left in the dark for another 10 minutes. The absorbance of the solution was measured spectrophotometrically at 562 nm. The respective solvent used in this bioassay served as a blank control. Ethylene diamine tetraacetate (EDTA) was used as positive control. The percentage inhibition of ferrozine-Fe +2 formations was calculated. In this assay, only the MeOH extract of P. pygmaeus and positive control EDTA exhibited the chelating activity. The absorbance of ferrous and ferrozine complex was decreased dose-dependently, which means that the chelating activity was increased on increasing concentration from 1-10 000 µg/mL. The highest chelating activity of MeOH extract and EDTA is at 10 000 µg/mL with 85.39% and 99.81%, respectively. However, the chelating activity of MeOH extract still can be improved by increasing the concentration. However, compared to positive control of EDTA, IC 50 of MeOH extract was higher than that of EDTA. The smaller the IC 50 value, the higher the metal chelating activity of the compound / extract. This reveals that the MeOH extract is a moderate metal chelating agent as compared to EDTA. On the other hand, the hexane and dichloromethane extracts do not show any chelating activity as IC 50 value could not be determined. The ferrous ion-chelating activity was shown by methanolic extract of P. pygmaeus and positive control EDTA with IC 50 values 2256.50 ± 59.53 µg/mL and …


YBaCuO films with (001) orientation have been deposited on MgO by laser ablation at 248 and 193 nm wavelengths. Transitions to zero resistance at 87 K and 90 K have been reproducibly achieved in the respective cases. Optical spectroscopic studies of the plume show the importance of molecular species in the ablation if good superconducting films are to be formed. The substrate position in the plume and substrate temperature are important in determining film quality. The influence of oxygen gas pressure can be significant. SEM studies show the occurrence of second-phase outcrops with a needle-like morphology aligned over the whole area of the film along two mutually perpendicular directions on the film surface. Film orientation is determined by XRD and R against T is measured down to 80 K in a hydrogen exchange gas cryostat. Characterization studies of device-related multilayer YBaCuO/PrBaCuO structures by XRD are presented.


Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) not only can cause very severe disease but, less obviously, the virus can also infect science in unpredicted ways. It seems that during these times some basic rules of science will lose validity and we do not know if they will come back. Though not necessarily always being the case, problems can arise from messages that make their way to public media straight from preprints. An impressive example is a recent study on an association between ABO blood groups and the severity of COVID-19. The study was first published as a preprint which almost immediately gathered an enormous amount of public interest though major drawbacks of the study had been identified by members of the scientific community. One of the major advantages of preprints is to present data, even if still incomplete, to the scientific community for an early discussion. It does not serve the quality of science if possible critical considerations are not addressed adequately until these preliminary studies go public and are submitted for publication in classical journals. Accordingly, clear additional rules for handling data derived from preprints are advocated herein. Speed does not have an advantage on its own.


This thesis concentrates on the study of the archaeology of the Jawf region, including excavations in various sites, and also a comprehensive survey of the sites and monuments throughout the region. The thesis is divided into nine chapters.Chapter I deals with the history of the Jawf during the pre-Islamic periods. In the first part of this chapter, the Assyrian campaigns against Dumat al-Jandal are studied. The rest of the chapter is devoted to the history of the region during the Babylonian, Nabataean and the Roman and Byzantine periods. Chapter II focuses on the history of the area during the early Islamic period and the conquest of Dumat al-Jandal by Khalid b. al-Walid during the caliphate of Abu Bakr. Chapter III is dedicated to the study of the various accounts of Dumat al-Jandal by the early Arab geographers. Chapter IV deals with the trade routes which passed through the Jawf and the implication of the caravan trade on the history of the region. Chapter V investigates the pre-history of the Jawf region and examines the unique site of al-Rajajil to the south of Sakaka. Chapter VI is devoted to the study of the excavations results in the sites of al-Tuwayr, Dumat al-Jandal and the Muwaysin castle.The arch aeological materials which have been discovered were compared with similar materials from various sites in Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Eastern Arabia. Chapter VII concentrates on the architecture within the Jawf region and gives a full description of the various monuments and the different building techniques and materials used. Chapter VIII focuses on the study of the early Arabic inscriptions which are found in the region. We discuss their palaeography, historical importance and their parallel with some of the published materials from various parts of the Islamic world. Chapter IX is a study of the pottery from various sites in the Jawf. The first part of this chapter discusses the ware types and vessel types of the pottery from the Tuwayr and Dumat al-Jandal sites, while the second part is a pottery catalogue. In addition, this thesis also contains three appendices: the first is an examination of the well of Saysarȁ at Sakaka; the second investigates the walled enclosure of Dumat al-Jandal; and the third is a glossary of Arabic terms associated with the architecture.


This paper, based on field research and oral interviews with museum attendees in the United States and Cambodia, examines the role of four memorial museums in promoting shared intergenerational cultural memory from the Cambodian genocide. I focus on four sites: the Cambodian American Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial in Chicago, Illinois; Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial in Seattle, Washington; the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. From 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge Regime used Tuol Sleng, formerly Tuol Svay Prey High School, as an interrogation, torture, and execution site. Today, the prison has been transformed into a museum but preserved just as the Democratic Kampuchea left the facilities in 1979. In many ways, this original museum in Cambodia serves as a model for other "museumifications" of the Cambodian genocide. It also shares a great deal with other such sites of torture and execution, which have become "tourist destinations" and museums globally. Technically, Tuol Sleng (and other museums like it) has an ambiguous status as a museum per se: it is not only an open grave for national mourning, but also a site of atrocity; not only a site of atrocity, but also an archive; not only a holding place for history, but also a memorial; not only a memorial, but also a museum. What is the significance and implications of changing this slaughterhouse into a historical preservation site? What kinds of cultural memory is this museum transmitting? How can a study of this site and its use in educating subsequent generations help us reflect on the role of other such museums? This paper explores the ways in which such ambiguous museums participate in the complex process of cultural memory creation.


ABSTRACT Exercising receiving cattle is hypothesized to be a management strategy that could mitigate receiving stress in cattle. Little empirical research has been published on the quantifiable (productivity, health, behavior) effects of this strategy in a commercial feedyard setting. In a single Texas feedyard case study, high-risk Brahman-crossbred receiving calves (n = 688; 184 ± 5 kg) were exercised during the receiving period in the fall. Upon arrival, calves were sorted into single-sex pens (n = 6 pens: n = 3 pens heifers, n = 3 pens steers) and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments within sex blocks: (1) programmatic exercise (PRO; cattle moved to drive alley and encouraged to maintain movement for 20 min), (2) free exercise (FRE; cattle moved to drive alley and allowed free movement without access to the pen for 60 min), or (3) no exercise (CON). Treatments were applied (n = 12 sessions; 3 sessions per week) across a 30-d period, between 0800 and 1000 h at least 1 h after feed delivery. Gain-to-feed ratio and mortality rate were similar among treatments. Cattle assigned to CON had greater ADG than did those assigned to FRE or PRO (1.52, 1.39, and 1.44 kg/d). Percentage of calves treated for respiratory disease was greater in FRE and PRO compared with CON. The proportion of the pen lying and resting simultaneously increased and the proportion of the pen feeding, drinking, ruminating, and walking decreased over time. Exercise treatments did not compromise gain efficiency or behavior; however, exercised cattle had smaller ADG. These results suggest that exercise reduces receiving-period gains without improving animal health or altering behaviors.


Objective: To determine the current legal requirements for prescription labels and to explore the usefulness of this information in determining the utility of a standardized prescription label. Data Sources: State prescription label regulations were requested from Board of Pharmacy executives. Study Selection: Label requirements for prescriptions dispensed in community, noninstitutional pharmacies were selected for review. Data Extraction: Data were compiled, sorted by state, and analyzed as either federally mandated or additional state requirements. Additional state requirements were divided into 16 categories and analyzed by category. Data Synthesis: Responses were received from all 50 states. Five states did not list all federal label requirements. Medication name was the most frequently added requirement, followed by medication strength and name of manufacturer if the medication was generic. Only in New Jersey are pharmacists allowed to add directions not included in the prescription. Conclusions: States were consistent in the proper use of federal prescription label requirements. However, there was little agreement on what additional information should appear on the label. Nevertheless, there appears to be consensus for the name of the medication to be on the label. There also appears to be fairly strong consensus that medication strength and quantity should appear on the label. There is little interest in expanding the current directions-for-use requirement. Finally, the results support the utility of a standardized prescription label format.


A short survey is presented of academic and medical medals, with specimens dating from the 17th century onward, in the collection of the Society 'Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde'. With respect to the old medals, the existing clusters of interest (academical and medical medals) are served by selective acquisition rather than by the quest for completeness. The evolution of medical science, medical institutes and practice in and after World War II merits documentation by extending the collection to the present days. The motives to commemorate, to celebrate and to honour facts or persons still stand, and Dutch artists are clearly interested and able to express these sentiments in medals.


This paper proposes a TDMA-based medium access control protocol with cooperative communications enabled in wireless mesh networks. The proposed scheme is based on a multi-hop scenario which is extended from the conventional one-hop triangle cooperative transmission scenario. Benefiting from the elaborate mini-slot design, channel resources are fairly and efficiently allocated to each router so that no handshake is needed prior to every packet transmission. By giving priority for channel access to cooperative transmission performed by an optimal helper which is determined based on the received SNR, higher successful transmission rate can be achieved. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed MAC scheme can improve not only the one-hop transmission throughput but also the end-to-end throughput significantly in a multi-hop network. Moreover, different from the IEEE 802.11 scheme, the throughput performance of the proposed scheme is robust as the packet size varies.


This work interprets the internal representations of deep neural networks trained for classification of diseased tissue in 2D mammograms. We propose an expert-in-the-loop inter- pretation method to label the behavior of internal units in convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Expert radiologists identify that the visual patterns detected by the units are correlated with meaningful medical phenomena such as mass tissue and calcificated vessels. We demonstrate that several trained CNN models are able to produce explanatory descriptions to support the final classification decisions. We view this as an important first step toward interpreting the internal representations of medical classification CNNs and explaining their predictions.


For a long time the activities of mass media in Russia have been largely determined, and are still being determined now, by the state authorities. The state controls the activities of the information impact subjects, considering information resources, on an equal basis with other resources, to be important links that connect the multinational people into a single unity, and to remain one of the sources of the strength and power of the country. The author of the article, showing the changes that have taken place in the interaction between the state authorities and the media during three centuries of Russian history, expresses the idea of the inevitability of the active presence and control of the government institutions of the communicative and information fi eld of the country, being an important factor ensuring the development of Russia, which conducts an independent external and internal policy and protects its national interests.


Objectives: There is a risk of spreading infectious material via non-sterile impressions. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of autoclave sterilisation on dimensional stability and tear strength of impression materials. Methods: Twenty-four specimens were produced using a standard ruled test block for each of three impression materials (Affinis, Aquasil and Speedex) to test dimensional stability. Thirty tear strips for each material were prepared for the tear test (ISO 34-1). Specimens were randomly allocated to 3 different groups (autoclaved, disinfected or untreated). A non-contact scanner was used to analyse dimensional change and a universal testing machine was used to determine tear strengths. Results: There were no significant differences in the test dimensions measured for any of the three impression materials following autoclave treatment compared to the disinfected or untreated control groups. The tear strengths were not adversely affected by autoclave sterilisation at 134°C. Conclusion: These addition and condensation-cured silicone impression materials can be steam autoclaved without adverse effects on dimensional accuracy or tear strength.


This study is about the medium used by the youth in Malaysia in obtaining information on the 1Malaysia Concept. The information gained in this study also revealed the understanding of youth on the 1Malaysia Concept. This study also explored the level of Malaysian youth's understanding of the 1Malaysia Concept according to race (Malay, Chinese, Indian and others) and identified mediums and methods used by youth in understanding the 1Malaysia concept. Altogether, 1,600 youth were selected as respondents for this study. 100 respondents were selected from each of the states and the three Federal Territories. The respondents were selected via the convenience sampling method. The selected samples represent youth from diverse races and both genders. In this matter, no specific basic procedure is applied in selecting the races and genders of respondents. Information was obtained through questionnaires answered by the respondents. The IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 was used to analyses data gathered via the questionnaires. Two questions were given to get complete inputs on most frequently mediums used by Malaysian youth to obtain information on the 1Malaysia concept, as well as mediums that are most effective in understanding the 1Malaysia concept. Respondents were required to mark unlimited alternatives that are given in the questionnaires. Eleven (11) mediums were used by youth to obtain information on the 1Malaysia concept. They were the television, Internet, newspapers, radio, bulletins, magazines, books, speeches, blogs, newsletters and others. Most of the respondents (83.9%) stated that the television is most frequently used followed by the Internet (67.8%), newspapers (63.7%), radio (50.1%), bulletins (40.4%), magazines (30.9%), books (29.9%), speeches (20.3%), blogs (22.8%), newsletters (7.8%) dan others (1.2%). On the most effective mediums in understanding the 1Malaysia concept, majority of the respondents (77.1%) stated that the television as being the most effective, followed by the internet (63.6%), newspapers (50.9%), radio (43%), bulletins (36.1%), books (25.8%), magazines (25.1%), speeches (23.8%), blogs (20.1%), newsletters (7.9%) and others (1.8%). Overall, the level of Malaysian youth's understanding of the 1Malaysia concept is high.


Establishes 3d numerical simulation model of water side and air side for ribbon-tubular radiator, studies effect of air velocity on air side heat transfer capacity and drag characteristics by using CFD method, based on double side 3d simulation result, and then calculates the import and export water temperature of the high low temperature radiator group with procedure. The calculated water temperatures are coinciding with experimental data. Then analyzes the influence rule of different wave combinations to the radiator group performance by the method of simulation and procedure calculation, the result is reference theory for the structure optimization and matching of the radiator group.


Ion acoustic waves in plasmas with E0×B0 electron drift become unstable due to the closure of plasma current in the chamber wall. Such unstable modes may enhance near-wall conductivity and bulk turbulent electron transport in plasma devices with E0×B0 electron drift and unmagnetized ions. It is shown that the instability is sensitive to the wall material. The conditions and characteristics of this instability are analyzed for typical parameters of the Hall thrusters.


The study included 120 randomly selected lactating goats of the Bulgarian breed dairy and local cross. The animals were housed in two licensed farms in Bulgaria, under the same technological systems. Goats are grouped in to treatment groups according to age and number of lactation periods. The study aims to clarify the impact of the number of lactation and age as a factor in the spread of subclinical mastitis. Sterile milk samples have been taken of all the animals for bacteriological status and for the performance of physical and chemical analysis. The results show a clear trend of increasing intramammary infection with age and raise in number of lactation, while caprine animals aged 2-3 years, the affected dairy halves are 20%, while those age dover 8 years affected halves are 56.7 %. Isolated pathogens are mainly from the group of coagulase-negative staphylococci


The thermal effects associated with emplacement of the Willard thrust sheet within the Idaho-Utah-Wyoming thrust belt have been numerically modeled. Fluid-inclusion studies and mineralogy, including illite crystallinity, narrowly limit choice of permissible thermal models. Permissible models have initial thermal gradients between about 30 °C/km and 35 °C/km and fluid pressures less than lithostatic pressure.

Fluid inclusions were trapped in syntectonic veins within the basal part of the Willard thrust sheet and in cataclastically deformed basement within the footwall. Homogenization temperatures have a bimodal distribution in the Willard sheet with maxima at 180 °C and 260 °C and a unimodal distribution in the footwall with a maximum at 200 °C. These temperatures, along with fluid composition, determine fluid density and define isochores along which the fluids were trapped. Illite crystallinity and mineralogy record maximum temperatures in the range of 300 °C to 500 °C with somewhat lower maximum temperatures in the footwall.

Thermal models for emplacement of the Willard sheet indicate that the hanging wall undergoes initial rapid cooling, but the footwall undergoes initial warming due to tectonic burial. Later both areas undergo approximately isothermal decompression as erosion proceeds. P-T paths for reasonable parameter values intersect the modal isochores and are consistent with mineralogy, as required for a permissible model. The thermal model provides a reasonable framework for understanding the thermal history of the Willard sheet. The models are sensitive to thrust-sheet thickness, initial heat flow, and thermal conductivity. The thermal models are relatively insensitive to erosion history for reasonable erosion rates and to redistribution of heat-producing elements for the low values typical of sedimentary rocks.


Congestion control and the associated issue of stability of communication networks have attracted considerable attention recently. The resulting problems are extremely difficult to solve due to the presence of several sources of time-varying delays. Due mainly to the fact that the ensuing models are non-trivial, most existing work relies on simplified piecewise time-invariant models to describe these network delays. This however may not capture important aspects of network behavior especially when dealing with high-speed networks. Study of such networks requires a better understanding of the dynamics of time-varying delays encountered in discrete-time systems. In this paper, we identify and propose the models for two distinctly different types of such delays. These models can accommodate network- and application-specific delay variations; their flexibility is demonstrated in a distributed sensor network setting. A stability result that accounts for time-varying delays and nonlinearities of the type one typically encounters in high-speed communication networks is also presented.


The temperature dependent electrical characteristics of silicon carbide power transistors – 4H-SiC metal semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs) and 4H-SiC bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) have been investigated through simulation and experimental approaches. Junction temperatures and temperature distributions in devices under large power densities have been estimated. The DC and RF performance of 4H-SiC RF Power MESFETs have been studied through two-dimensional electro-thermal simulations using commercial software MEDICI and ISE. The simulated characteristics of the transistors were compared with the measurement results. Performance degradation of transistors under self-heating and high operating temperatures have been analyzed in terms of gate and drain characteristics, power density, high frequency current gain and power gain. 3D thermal simulations have been performed for single and multi-finger MESFETs and the simulated junction temperatures and temperature profiles were compared with the results from electro-thermal simulations. The reduction in drain current caused by self-heating was found to be more prominent for transistors with more fingers and it imposes a limitation on both the output power and the power density (in W/mm) of multi-fingered large area devices. Thermal issues for design of high power multi-fingered SiC MESFETs were also investigated. A couple of useful ways to reduce the self-heating effects were discussed. Trap-induced performance instabilities of the devices were analyzed by carrying out DC, transient, and pulse measurements at room and elevated temperatures. Electrical characteristics of 4H-SiC BJTs have been measured. A reduction in current gain at elevated temperatures was observed. Based on the collector current-voltage diagram measured at three different ambient temperatures the junction temperature was extracted using the assumption that the current gain only depends on the temperature. Temperature measurements have been carried out for SiC BJTs. Thermal images of a device under operation were recorded using an infrared camera. 3D thermal simulations were conducted using FEMLAB. Both the simulations and the measurement showed a significant temperature increase in the vicinity of the device when operated at high power densities, thus causing the decrease of the DC current gain. The junction temperatures obtained from the thermal imaging, simulation and extraction agree well.


This paper presents a detailed exergetic analysis of a novel high-temperature Solar Assisted Combined Cycle (SACC) power plant. The system includes a solar field consisting of innovative high-temperature flat plate evacuated solar thermal collectors, a double stage LiBr-H2O absorption chiller, pumps, heat exchangers, storage tanks, mixers, diverters, controllers and a simple single-pressure Combined Cycle (CC) power plant. Here, a high temperature solar cooling system is coupled with a conventional combined cycle, in order to pre-cool gas turbine inlet air in order to enhance system efficiency and electrical capacity. In this paper, the system is analyzed from an exergetic point of view, on the basis of an energy-economic model presented in a recent work, where the obtained main results show that SACC exhibits a higher electrical production and efficiency with respect to the conventional CC. The system performance is evaluated by a dynamic simulation, where detailed simulation models are implemented for all the components included in the system. In addition, for all the components and for the system as whole, energy and exergy balances are implemented in order to calculate the magnitude of the irreversibilities within the system. In fact, exergy analysis is used in order to assess: exergy destructions and exergetic efficiencies. Such parameters are used in order to evaluate the magnitude of the irreversibilities in the system and to identify the sources of such irreversibilities. Exergetic efficiencies and exergy destructions are dynamically calculated for the 1-year operation of the system. Similarly, exergetic results are also integrated on weekly and yearly bases in order to evaluate the corresponding irreversibilities. The results showed that the components of the Joule cycle (combustor, turbine and compressor) are the major sources of irreversibilities. System overall exergetic efficiency was around 48%. Average weekly solar collector exergetic efficiency ranged from 6.5% to 14.5%, significantly increasing during the summer season. Conversely, absorption chiller exergy efficiency varies from 7.7% to 20.2%, being higher during the winter season. Combustor exergy efficiency is stably close to 68%, whereas the exergy efficiencies of the remaining components are higher than 80%.


Nowadays, the evolution of technology directly influences the daily life in all its aspects - from the way we follow the latest events to the way we communicate with other people. It's a common fact that students use technology at home, for entertainment and more and more for educational activities. Inevitably, these influences are felt even in teaching activities. In present-day, education and school gave up the idea of the existence of an absolute and universal method, claiming a flexible, adaptable, and efficient methodology. Thus, taking into account the impact of technological evolution on the educational environment, efficient use of ICT can lead to an increased quality of education. Knowledge-based information society requires the use of technology as a benchmark of substantive changes in educational systems, this by itself attracting a number of challenges among both teachers and students. Starting with the set of digital literacy that each teacher must have in order to effectively use ICT resources, and continuing with their ability to harmonize classical forms of teaching-learning-assessment with modern technology, we can emphasize from the very beginning the importance of teachers' training in this regard. Thus, educational actors must be prepared to use effectively the resources generated by technological advances for increasing the quality of educational act. To what extent can we use these resources in teaching? What are the most effective technologies and tools used in teaching, learning and assessment? What are the limits, advantages, disadvantages and trends in using ICT? These are just some of the questions this article attempts to answer.


Due to the unique geographical, social and economic conditions in India, the Indian banking system is completely different from other Asian countries. Indians are large in size, have about 125 million people and have different cultures. India has an imbalance system for income and expenditure. A large proportion of the Indian population is highly illiterate, but in times of equality India has a major role to change and innovative talent in management and technology. In India, approximately 30-35% of the populations live in metro and urban areas, and the other half in urban and rural areas, about 30-35% of the population live in cities and cities, and relaxation is spread over many urban and rural areas.


In order to meet the growing demands for multimedia service access and release the pressure of the core network, edge caching and device-to-device (D2D) communication have been regarded as two promising techniques in next generation mobile networks and beyond. However, most existing related studies lack consideration of effective cooperation and adaptability to the dynamic network environments. In this article, based on the flexible trilateral cooperation among user equipment, edge base stations and a cloud server, we propose a D2D-assisted heterogeneous collaborative edge caching framework by jointly optimizing the node selection and cache replacement in mobile networks. We formulate the joint optimization problem as a Markov decision process, and use a deep Q-learning network to solve the long-term mixed integer linear programming problem. We further design an attention-weighted federated deep reinforcement learning (AWFDRL) model that uses federated learning to improve the training efficiency of the Q-learning network by considering the limited computing and storage capacity, and incorporates an attention mechanism to optimize the aggregation weights to avoid the imbalance of local model quality. We prove the convergence of the corresponding algorithm, and present simulation results to show the effectiveness of the proposed AWFDRL framework in reducing average delay of content access, improving hit rate and offloading traffic.


The authors report an anomalous tendon during routine cadaver dissection. This accessory peroneus brevis tendon arose with the peroneus brevis muscle. The tendon passed through a channel in the peroneus tertius and inserted into the extensor hood apparatus of the fifth digit.


Traditionally, neither universities nor the other training centres have considered cultural management to be a free-standing area of knowledge, seeing it instead to be dependent on other areas classically accepted by the scientific and education community. In this dossier, three researchers and professionals bring us into closer contact with the world of cultural management in terms of their different areas of professional activity and their corresponding different perspectives: cultural management in public institutions and their approach to the university world; the impact that two institutions and their management model, Barcelona's Contemporary Art Museum (MACBA) and Barcelona's Contemporary Culture Centre (CCCB), can have on a city and a neighbourhood, and how this new discipline is seen in terms of the day-to-day of managing events of international scope. All three, Alba Colombo, Joaquim Rius and Laura Solanilla, are united in their passion for this discipline; likewise, all three of them, show exactly the extent to which interdisciplinary training is vital for this 'new' (or not so new) cultural profession.


The transient fault currents of a synchronous machine fault were mathematically analyzed by using the two-reaction theory, Clarke's components, etc. However, the methods were extremely complicated and the transient fault analysis of synchronous machine with a load was not carried out except for three-phase faults. This paper proposes a simplified fault currents analysis method considering synchronous machine transients. The method is based on the symmetrical components scheme. The advantages of the method are that the transient analysis is able to be accomplished more easily than the conventional method when the fault point is a synchronous machine terminal or a transmission line. The accuracy of the method is confirmed by comparing the analysis results with Electro-Magnetic Transient Program (EMTP) digital simulations.


This study examines the relationship between organisational innovation capability, product platform development and performance in pharmaceutical small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Iran, an area which has remained unexplored. The intensive literature review has led us to suggest an empirically tested conceptual model consisting of innovation capability, product platform and performance as well as factors/enablers shaping innovation capability in the pharmaceutical firms. Combinations of quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection and analysis. Eight Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) companies that produce about 80% of local manufactured API were studied. The results show that the Iranian firms have chosen an imitative strategy in technology and product development. The common pattern for technology sourcing was external. However, although all companies purchased technologies from well-known suppliers, they demonstrated significant differences in the variety of products produced and performance. The failure firms lacked sound absorptive capability. Furthermore, the firms with high performance used a combination of internal and external sources for technology and product development. The empirical analysis showed a positive relationship between innovation capabilities, technology platform, product platform and performance. The pre-requisite to this relationship was found to be effective innovation management and strength/abilities in strategy, organisational structure, learning, processes and linkage (relationship) with the customers, suppliers and alliances.


P92 Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a cardiac hormone that reduces high blood pressure by promoting salt excretion, decreasing blood volume and relaxing vessel tension. It is implicated in major cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and congestive heart failure. In cardiomyocytes, ANP is synthesized as a precursor, pro-ANP, that is converted to biologically active ANP by an unknown membrane-associated serine protease. Recently, we cloned a novel cardiac serine protease, corin, that has the predicted structure of a type II transmembrane protein. Northern and in situ hybridization detected corin mRNA in the heart where its expression was most abundant in cardiomyocytes of the atrium. Corin mRNA was also detected in developing kidney and bones. The overall expression pattern of corin mRNA was very similar to that of ANP, leading to our hypothesis that corin is the pro-ANP convertase. To test this hypothesis, we constructed expression vectors for both human corin and pro-ANP. Recombinant corin and pro-ANP were expressed in human 293 cells. Effects of corin on pro-ANP processing was examined by western analysis. The results showed that human corin, but not control proteases prothrombin and hepsin, converted pro-ANP to ANP in the cell-based experiments. To determine sequence specificity of corin-mediated cleavage in pro-ANP, we constructed a mutant pro-ANP R98G in which the predicted cleave site residue Arg98 was replaced with a Gly. In co-transfection experiments, corin processed wild-type pro-ANP but not mutant pro-ANP R98G, indicating that corin-mediated cleavage in pro-ANP is highly sequence specific. We also examined effects of protease inhibitors on processing of pro-ANP by corin. Our results showed that the activity of corin was inhibited by aprotinin, benzamidine and leupeptin but not soybean trypsin inhibitor. Similar effects of these proteases on pro-ANP processing were reported previously. Thus, corin matches all known characteristics of the long-sought pro-ANP convertase. Identification of corin as the pro-ANP convertase suggests a new regulatory mechanism for the ANP-mediated pathway that is important for controlling blood pressure.


The standard benchmark for teleportation is the average fidelity of teleportation and according to this benchmark not all states are useful for teleportation. It was recently shown however that all entangled states lead to non-classical teleportation, with there being no classical scheme able to reproduce the states teleported to Bob. Here we study the operational significance of this result. On the one hand we demonstrate that every entangled state is useful for teleportation if a generalization of the average fidelity of teleportation is considered which concerns teleporting quantum correlations. On the other hand, we show the strength of a particular entangled state and entangled measurement for teleportation -- as quantified by the robustness of teleportation -- precisely characterizes their ability to offer an advantage in the task of subchannel discrimination with side information. This connection allows us to prove that every entangled state outperforms all separable states when acting as a quantum memory in this discrimination task. Finally, within the context of a resource theory of teleportation, we show that the two operational tasks considered provide complete sets of monotones for two partial orders based upon the notion of teleportation simulation, one classical, and one quantum.


Some developments in the Computer Science Department at the University of Manchester that influenced its growth from a premodern engineering-oriented department to a large, complex department with a range of interdisciplinary research activities that span most aspects of computer science are outlined. The changes in patterns of research output, recruitment of academic staff, and sources of research funding are discussed. It is argued that the Department became what can be considered to be a modern research-oriented enterprise, widening the scope of its research, its connections with industry and other academic departments, and its interdisciplinary research because of internal policies as well as external influences, such as government policy.<<ETX>>


Soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of stone fruits viz., peach, plum, apricot, cherry and nut fruits viz., almond and walnut from three year old nurseries at fi ve different localities of Kashmir valley and processed to assess the population density of phytonematodes at each locality. Ten species/ genera of plant parasitic nematodes viz., Pratylenchus penetrans, Paratylenchus juglansi, Meloidogyne hapla, Tylenchorhynchus spp., Criconema spp., Rotylenchus spp., Xiphinema basiri, Longidorus spp., Hoplolaimus spp. and Helicotylenchus indicus were recorded. The most common nematode species which was frequently found in the rhizosphere of the surveyed fruit crops were Pratylenchus penetrans and Helicotylenchus indicus. Meloidogyne hapla was also common in all the fruit crops except peach and walnut. Paratylenchus juglansi was reported from the rhizosphere of walnut only. Absolute frequency of P. penetrans and Tylenchorhynchus spp. in almond and H. indicus in walnut was 100% in three different localities. Absolute density and prominence value of H. indicus was highest i.e. 665 in walnut followed by 623 of P. penetrans in cherry and 618 of Tylenchorhynchus spp. in almond at separate localities of the survey. Presence of varying densities and types of plant parasitic nematodes associated with stone and nut fruits reveal that plant parasitic nematodes form an important component in temperate fruit ecosystem which needs to be investigated for assessing the role of relative virulence of a particular species, host specifi city and tolerance level in host.


Chemical gas sensors can be used in a variety of applications such as process control, security systems and medical diagnosis. In the research for new functions and new sensing materials a "breadboard" would be useful. A technique that has been investigated for such a purpose is the grid-gate device which is a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) based gas sensor. It is a MOS capacitor consisting of a passive grid-gate with depositions of sensing materials overlapping the grid. The measuring is carried out with a light addressable method called scanning light pulse technique (SLPT) which enables the detection of spatially distributed gas response. A development of the grid-gate sensor would be to separate the sensing materials from the chip. In this thesis the aim was to see if this was possible by depositing the sensing material on a slide of micro pillars which was put on top of a biased grid-gate chip. The test was made with palladium depositions in an ambient of synthetic air and 2500 ppm hydrogen, and the measuring technique was SLPT as for the preceding device. The result of the test was that the new device showed a combined gas response of both charge content shift at flat-band voltage and at inversion voltages. The conclusion is therefore that the sensing material can be separated from the grid-gate chip and that the response will be caused by several mechanisms. The two-dimensional image response utilized for the preceding grid-gate device will instead be a multi-dimensional response consisting of the curve for the charge content shift at every measuring position.


Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor used to treat ulcerative colitis (UC). It is generally well tolerated and safe with mild to no side effects. Tofacitinib is FDA-approved for use in multiple inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and polyarticular course juvenile idiopathic arthritis as well as for ulcerative colitis (UC). Patients with UC often have extra-intestinal manifestations (EIMs) with up to 20% of patients having arthropathy. There are limited data describing the effect of tofacitinib therapy on EIMs in UC. The aim of this study is to determine whether tofacitinib therapy improves arthralgia in this patient population.

 This retrospective study includes consecutive patients with active UC who initiated tofacitinib at our center since 2014 and remained on the therapy for at least 8 weeks. We reviewed electronic medical records to collect demographic and clinical data. Patients diagnosed with any EIM by the treating physician were included. Improvement in EIM symptoms was determined through patient reports or physician assessment. In the UC patients, a decrease in Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index (SCCAI) of ≥ 3 was considered response and remission as a score of ≤ 2. In the CD patients, a 3-point reduction in Harvey Bradshaw index (HBI) was considered clinical response and a score of <5 remission.

 112 patients were included in this cohort, with 36 (31 UC; 5 CD) having confirmed EIMs (32.1% of total). Basic demographic and clinical data are detailed in Table 1. 35 patients had peripheral arthralgia, 2 patients had primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and 1 had pyoderma gangrenosum. 5 (13.9%) patients discontinued treatment during the induction phase due to lack of response. By 24 weeks, 26 (74.2%) out of 35 patients reported improvement in arthralgias, and 14 (40%) patients reporting resolution of joint symptoms. In terms of gastrointestinal disease activity, at week 24, 17/35 (48.6%) patients achieved clinical response and 11/35(31.4%) patients achieved clinical remission. There was no treatment effect noted on the other EIMs.

 In our real world experience, treatment refractory IBD patients with peripheral arthralgia on tofacitinib showed significant improvement in joint symptoms, and this often paralleled improvement in gastrointestinal symptoms. This supports that tofacitinib is a suitable treatment for patients with IBD and concomitant peripheral arthralgia.


The Stress Barometer, which includes stress symptoms, stress types, relationship stress and time stress, was developed as an easy-to-use instrument which provides a visual representation of the stress an individual is experiencing. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability, validity and usefulness of the Stress Barometer. Reliability was tested using a test-retest procedure on 23 pain patients on long-term sick leave. To assess validity, the results of the instrument were compared to the results of the SF-36 Health Survey, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire administered to 112 pain and/or emotional exhaustion syndrome patients on long-term sick leave. Fifty directors who participated in a management leadership course focusing on stress also completed and evaluated the instrument. Reliability was high for most of the subscales included. The results of the validity test showed that the Stress Barometer correlates with the respondents' perceived experience of a variety of health aspects such as anxiety, depression as well as different aspects of burnout/emotional exhaustion. The Stress Barometer is quick to complete and it offers immediate feedback. The study demonstrates that the Stress Barometer is also usable and useworthy. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (Less)


Abstract Many desert organisms cope with extreme and variable conditions by retreating to sub-surface refugia, yet little is known of the patterns of refuge use by most desert inhabitants. We investigated shelter use by the Gila Monster, Heloderma suspectum, an ectotherm closely tied to sub-surface refugia in a strongly seasonal desert environment. We addressed hypotheses that ectotherms may use habitats based on availability of shelters, select shelters based on particular cues, respond to seasonal variation in refuge characteristics, and show fidelity to specific retreats. Using radiotelemetry, we monitored microhabitat use by eight to ten Gila Monsters for six years, recording timing, frequency, and duration of visitation to over 250 specific shelters. We used transects to assess shelter availability, recorded structural features of all shelters, and used dataloggers to monitor seasonal changes in microenvironments within subsets of shelters for periods up to two years. Shelters, and the habitats where they occurred, were not chosen by Gila Monsters at random. Heloderma spent more time in areas where a higher density of potential shelters was available, and selected shelters based on rockiness, slope and entrance aspect, depth, humidity, and temperature. Gila Monsters showed longer residence times and greater fidelity to shelters used during extreme periods (e.g., winter) and these patterns were paralleled by seasonal changes in the characteristics of shelters chosen. Winter shelters tended to be south-facing, rockier, deeper, and warmer than those used in other seasons, whereas dry-summer shelters were more soil-like in composition, cooler, and more humid. Gila Monsters showed strong fidelity to specific shelters, some of which were used by two or more lizards, sometimes concurrently. Seasonal variation in use of "social" shelters coincided with annual cycles of intraspecific behaviors and reproduction. Our results underscore the importance of sub-surface refugia in the ecology of a sedentary desert ectotherm. Because many other ectotherms also spend significant periods sequestered in below-ground retreats, it is surprising that ecologists have not more extensively investigated this phenomenon. An understanding of the cues used by desert ectotherms to choose refuge-sites, the spatial and temporal variability in refuge characteristics, and the fidelity shown to particular retreats, may help better explain patterns of habitat selection, behavior, distribution, and abundance.