The header compression mechanisms have been defined to work on a peer-to-peer noisy links, nevertheless the interest to integrate these schemes in multicast diffusion is increasing because this option will offer bandwidth savings. In this paper, ROHC unidirectional mode is used as a current possibility to make header compression to multicast packets. In a multicast distribution service users join the group at any time. Thus, the use of ROHC header compression will create a waiting time to start receiving the application information because all the header information is sent in a periodical time. A context recovery process (CRP) is proposed to improve ROHC multicast performance. This CRP reduces the waiting time to receive the context and may decrease the probability of context damage in a noisy link. The waiting time to receive the context is a new indicator to be considered in addition to ROHC performance indicators, when studying ROHC multicast performance. Our solution is evaluated by simulation means


This paper presents an accurate analytical model for evaluating the performance of the join the shortest queue (JSQ) policy. The system considered consists of N identical queues each of which may have single or multiple servers. A birth-death Markov process is used to model the evolution of the number of jobs in the system. Our results show that this method provides very accurate estimates of the average job response times.


In this work, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the dispersion and spatial distribution of spherical nanoparticles (NPs) in polymer matrix under oscillatory shear flow. We systematically analyzed the influences of four important factors that consist of NP-polymer interfacial strength, volume fraction of NPs, shear conditions, and polymer chain length. The simulation results showed that the oscillatory shear can greatly improve the dispersion of NPs, especially for the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) with high NP-polymer interfacial strength. Under specific shear conditions, the NPs can exhibit three different spatial distribution states with increasing the NP-polymer interfacial strength. Interestingly, at high interfacial strength, we observed that the NPs can be distributed on several layers in the polymer matrix, forming the PNCs with sandwich-like structures. Such well-ordered nanocomposites can exhibit a higher tensile strength than those with the NPs dispersed randomly. It may be expected that the information derived in present study provides a useful foundation for guiding the design and preparation of high-performance PNCs.


Food and agricultural producers across Australia and New Zealand are increasingly turning their attention to their close neighbours on the Asian continent. The proximity of almost a third of the world's population has always been impossible to ignore; however, the region has taken on a new level of significance in recent times as developing countries across Asia have embarked upon their journeys of economic transformation. Rising incomes across Asia and the changing dietary habits of households have already had a significant influence on many global agricultural markets and trade flows. This influence is expected to strengthen in coming years as the region increases its share of the global economy, while remaining somewhat limited in its ability to satisfy its own growing needs and wants for food and fibre products. Indeed, the dawning of the so-called 'Asian Century' holds great promise, but it also presents a great challenge to Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) food and agricultural producers. Understanding the business risks of supplying a diverse economic, cultural and political region is critical for ANZ farmers and agribusinesses to maximise the value of their expansion into Asia. Improving their understanding of these factors will also allow ANZ agribusinesses to better respond to the opportunities emerging in Asia at the right scale. Developing strong partnerships along the supply chain and across borders will be critical to the success of Australia and New Zealand in capturing value in the growing Asian markets. Increasingly, consumers across Asia are demanding high levels of food safety and traceability, with many willing and able to pay a premium for the clean and green food we produce. Australia and New Zealand together supply less than 10% of Asia's total food and agricultural imports: our focus needs to be on leveraging the many attributes of agricultural sectors at the high-value end of the market.


Effortstoimproveemployee performance of Public Work Department of Lampung Province, implementedin the context ofhuman resource management, inorder to realize agood employee, as well as thequalityand vibrantin theline of duty. Employee performanceis influencedbyvariousfactors includingleadership styleandwork motivation. This research is quantitative, descriptive method verification, with a sample of 76 employees at Communications and Information Agency of Bandar Lampung. Collecting data by questionnaires, analysis of data using multiple linear regression model. The results showed: (1) leadership style have a significant effect on employee performance, the coefficient value of 0812 is if the leadership style enhanced the performance of employees will increase. (2) Motivation significant effect on employee performance, the coefficient value of 0786 is if the job motivation improved the performance of employees has increased. (3) The style of leadership and motivation have a significant effect on employee performance with a value of 65.9% ie when the enhanced leadership style and work motivation improved the performance of employees increased better.


Abstract: Convolutional neural network based on attention mechanism and a bidirectional independent recurrent neural network tandem joint algorithm (CATIR) are proposed. In natural language processing related technologies, word vector features are extracted based on URLs, and the extracted URL information features and host information features are merged. The proposed CATIR algorithm uses CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) to obtain the deep local features in the data, uses the Attention mechanism to adjust the weights, and uses IndRNN (Independent Recurrent Neural Network) to obtain the global features in the data. The experimental results shows that the CATIR algorithm has significantly improved the accuracy of malicious URL detection based on traditional algorithms to 96.9%.
Keywords: Malicious URL; CATIR; word vector feature; detection


Simplified Silhouette Filter (SSF) is a recently introduced feature selection method that automatically estimates the number of features to be selected. To do so, a sampling strategy is combined with a clustering algorithm that seeks clusters of correlated (potentially redundant) features. It is well known that the choice of a similarity measure may have great impact in clustering results. As a consequence, in this application scenario, this choice may have great impact in the feature subset to be selected. In this paper we study six correlation coefficients as similarity measures in the clustering stage of SSF, thus giving rise to several variants of the original method. The obtained results show that, in particular scenarios, some correlation measures select fewer features than others, while providing accurate classifiers.


The simultaneous liquid-liquid flow usually manifests various flow configurations due to a diverse range of fluid properties, flow-controlling processes, and equipment. This study investigates the performance of machine learning (ML) algorithms to classify nine oil-water flow patterns (FPs) in the horizontal pipe using liquid and pipe geometric properties. The MLs include Support Vector Machine, Ensemble learning, Random Forest, Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network, k-Nearest Neighbor, and weighted Majority Voting (wMV). Eleven hundred experimental data points for nine FPs are extracted from the literature. The data are balanced using the synthetic minority over-sampling technique during the MLs training phase. The MLs' performance is evaluated using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, F1-score, and Matthews Correlation Coefficient. The results show that the wMV can achieve 93.03% accuracy for the oil-water FPs. Seven out of nine FPs are classified with more than 93% accuracies. A Friedman's test and Wilcoxon Sign-Rank post hoc analysis with Bonferroni correction show that the FPs accuracy using wMV is significantly higher than using the MLs individually (p<0.05). This study demonstrated the capability of MLs in automatically classifying the oil-water FPs using only the fluids' and pipe's properties, and is crucial for designing an efficient production system in the petroleum industry.


AIM: To development of an improved p38 MAPK inhibitor-based serum-free medium for embryoid body cardiomyocyte differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells. METHODS: Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) differentiated to cardiomyocytes (CM) using a p38 MAPK inhibitor (SB203580) based serum-free medium (SB media). Nutrient supplements known to increase cell viability were added to SB medium. The ability of these supplements to improve cardiomyogenesis was evaluated by measurements of cell viability, total cell count, and the expression of cardiac markers via flow cytometry. An improved medium containing Soy hydrolysate (HySoy) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) (SupSB media) was developed and tested on 2 additional cell lines (H1 and Siu-hiPSC). Characterization of the cardiomyocytes was done by immunohistochemistry, electrophysiology and quantitative real-time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: hESC cell line, HES-3, differentiating in SB medium for 16 d resulted in a cardiomyocyte yield of 0.07 ± 0.03 CM/hESC. A new medium (SupSB media) was developed with the addition of HySoy and BSA to SB medium. This medium resulted in 2.6 fold increase in cardiomyocyte yield (0.21 ± 0.08 CM/hESC). The robustness of SupSB medium was further demonstrated using two additional pluripotent cell lines (H1, hESC and Siu1, hiPSC), showing a 15 and 9 fold increase in cardiomyocyte yield respectively. The age (passage number) of the pluripotent cells did not affect the cardiomyocyte yields. Embryoid body (EB) cardiomyocytes formed in SupSB medium expressed canonical cardiac markers (sarcomeric α-actinin, myosin heavy chain and troponin-T) and demonstrated all three major phenotypes: nodal-, atrial- and ventricular-like. Electrophysiological characteristics (maximum diastolic potentials and action potential durations) of cardiomyocytes derived from SB and SupSB media were similar. CONCLUSION: The nutrient supplementation (HySoy and BSA) leads to increase in cell viability, cell yield and cardiac marker expression d


The thesis describes the results of some investigations into the causes of instability in free gimbal-mounted gyroscopes. Considerable use has been made of analogue and digital computation to isolate the effects of various types of reaction forces which may occur in the spin axis bearings, and the effect of rotor asymmetry is also considered. Rotor asymmetry and variation of radial stiffness in the spin axis bearings were both found to give rise to I inear differential equations with periodic coefficients, and an analytical procedure of general applicability has been developed for obtaining the width of the unstable zones and the degree of instability at the parametric resonances. This procedure gives excellent agreement with the results of direct computer solution of the equations of motion. Slackness in the spin axis bearings of a gyroscope did not appear, per se, to produce instability. It may do so, however, as a secondary effect since forces which otherwise would be negligible become significant when other restraints on shaft displacement are removed. Tangential forces in the spin axis bearings in either direction were found to produce instability but different modes of vibration were excited according to the direction of the forces. The effect of cage accelerations in the spin axis bearings has been considered and has been shown to be small. Likewise, transverse couples which arise due to non uniformity of the motor magnetic field when the rotor tilts relative to the stator, have been shown to be negligible. Shaft and bearing compliance has also been considered, mainly from the point of view of natural frequency and frequency response to externally applied torques. Bearing eccentricity has been shown to cause a forced nutation at the frequency of rotation of the ball cage, giving rise to a simple resonance if this frequency should coincide with a natural frequency of the gyro. Experimental work has been carried out with a view to establishing the nature of the dynamic forces and deflections in the spin axis bearings. Because these are of such small amplitude and of such a complex waveform, analysis of the experimental results has proved difficult. Sinusoidal forcing of a casing containing a gyro rotor in order to obtain the frequency response of the shaft and bearing deflections was moderately successful while the rotor was stationary but no readings were possible with the rotor running because of a seemingly random variation in the response.


Introduction: Cell therapy is known as one of the most common methods used for treating a spinal cord injury (SCI); particularly, olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), which have attracted much more attention among scholars due to their properties such as promotion of axonal regeneration, remyelination, and angiogenesis. Thus, the present study compared the effects of transplanted OECs on functional improvement and axonal regeneration of contused rats during acute and delayed phases. Material and Methods: For this purpose, a total of 56 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into eight groups including sham, control, three vehicle groups (immediately, 3 and 7 days after injury), and three cell transplantation groups (immediately, 3 and 7 days following injury). The sham group had experienced only laminectomy and other groups had undergone the SCI. The olfactory mucosa of the 7-day-old rat pups was also used for cell culture. The cell type was then confirmed by immunocytochemistry. In the vehicle and cell transplantation groups, the cell culture medium was injected by itself or accompanied by cells, respectively. Subsequently, the motor function was evaluated. Finally, luxol fast blue (LFB) staining was used for histological assessment. Results: Motor test results showed an increase in the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan locomotor scale scores immediately after injury in the transplantation group compared to those in other two cell-treated groups; but it was not significant. Discussion and Conclusion: Based on the LFB staining results, the regeneration rate in the transplantation group immediately after injury was considerably higher than that in two other treated groups. Therefore, considering these findings, it seemed that cell transplantation immediately after injury was better than that 3 and 7 days following injury.


Objective: To investigate whether hyper-lipoproteinaemia(a) (Lp(a)) promotes coronary atherosclerosis, acute thrombosis resulting in myocardial infarction (MI), or both. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: A community-based general geriatric hospital. Patients: 1062 consecutive autopsy cases (609 men, 453 women). The mean age at the time of death was 80 years. Main outcome measures: A semiquantitative evaluation of the coronary stenosis on cut sections and pathological definition of MI. Lp(a) levels of fresh serum taken antemortem, measured by a latex-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay. Results: The prevalence of severe coronary stenosis and pathological MI increased linearly with increasing Lp(a) levels with no apparent threshold. The odds ratios (95% CI) of hyper-Lp(a) (2.99 (1.70 to 5.28) for 200–299 mg/l and 3.25 (1.90 to 5.54) for >300 mg/l) for severe coronary stenosis were larger than those of hypertension (2.61 (1.88 to 3.63)), diabetes mellitus (2.09 (1.41 to 3.11)) and hypercholesterolaemia (2.05 (1.31 to 3.21)). The severe coronary sclerosis was much stronger risk of MI (6.28 (4.33 to 9.11)) than hyper-Lp(a), hypertension and diabetes mellitus. A path analysis showed that the Lp(a) levels affected both coronary sclerosis and MI, with path coefficients of 0.15 and 0.07 (direct effect), respectively. In cases with severe coronary sclerosis Lp(a) affected only MI (0.15). Conclusions: Lp(a) levels have distinct effects on coronary sclerosis and MI, with about half of the overall effect on MI being via coronary sclerosis. This result supports the prothrombotic and a probable proinflammatory role of Lp(a) in coronary events.


This Chapter provides background material for conversations held at the 2020 Global Constitutionalism Seminar (a part of the Gruber Program on Global Justice and Women's Rights) at Yale Law School.

As surrogacy becomes widespread, it may call for new forms of judicial response. This Chapter surveys the different ways that surrogacy is practiced across borders, and the different ways the practice has been criticized and valued. After considering some of these debates (does surrogacy exploit and commodify women or empower them to pursue their own autonomous life ends?), the Chapter then turns to critical issues surrounding surrogacy legislation. It examines the ability of individuals, including unmarried and LGBTQ individuals, to access surrogacy for family formation. And it addresses the interests of individuals serving as surrogates, including questions of compensation and decision-making during pregnancy. Finally, the Chapter examines questions of parental recognition, implicating the constitutional interests of the intended parents, the person serving as the surrogate, and the child. By exploring how courts, legislatures, and human rights tribunals have addressed surrogacy transnationally, the Chapter shows that the meanings and implications of surrogacy vary across contexts and depend on how the practice is structured and regulated.


The functional interrelation of somatostatin (SRIF), dibutyryl cyclic AMP (DBcAMP), and potassium in the release of stored rat growth hormone (rGH) from pituitary explants was studied. The stored hormone pool was identified by prelabeling with [3H ]leucine, and hormone release was followed in an in vitro perifusion system by specific immunoprecipitation. Pulses of 10−3M DBcAMP or 21 mM potassium produced pulses of stored [3H]rGH release in the presence (blunted) or absence of maximal (25 nM) SRIF inhibition. In the absence of SRIF, continuous potassium also caused only a pulse of [3H]rGH release whereas continuous DBcAMP produced both an early pulse and a late sustained increased release of [3H]rGH. SRIF blocked DBcAMP-stimulated [3H ]rGH release, but not its stimulated accumulation in an immediately releasable pool which was then discharged when SRIF inhibition was removed. Potassium did not stimulate the accumulation of [3H ]rGH behind the SRIF block in the immediately releasable pool. A model of intrac...


In this study, three subjects had been investigated. Firstly history of industry Balkan region, secondly basic variables economic and social development, thirdly relation to variables. Industry is basic element of development. In addition to in this paper theoretical and literal concept has been investigated. In this study is aimed at presenting the most important new trends of economic, social, political and institutional development of Balkan region with relation to four major factors shaping the regions countries. Industrial Revolution in Europe and made major investments in the first half of the 19th century particularly central Europe and Balkan region. Balkan regions represent complex and diverse reality. These regions are from Old Continent to Central Europe, South East Europe and Mediterranean. From Adriatic to Black Sea and Mediterranean also. In these regions there are some different economic, social and political events. I.e. Croatia moves to final round member of European Union some countries face to particular problems of political subjects. I offer framework analysis of the regional country by country based on the existing set of criteria, which are variables of social and economic development. Those variables are including (cluster industry, expenditure R&D od GDP, variations of capitals, population and market, some trade block which are impact of economic and social development) Proposed key pillars to support sustainable competitiveness in the Western Balkans. Sustaining competitiveness =Human capital development==Regional Cluster==Sector Policy reforms.(OECD,2008) Key words. Balkan region, Social development, Globalisation, Sustainable development


Preconditioning is the phenomenon whereby tolerance to lethal insults is induced by exposing the tissue to a prior sublethal stimulus. This exists in several forms, such as ischaemic preconditioning, adenosine preconditioning and excitotoxic preconditioning. Adenosine preconditioning is known to be mediated by activation of A1 receptors and ATP-sensitive potassium channels whilst excitotoxic preconditioning mainly involves stimulation of NMDA receptors, nitric oxide and most likely ATP-sensitive potassium channel activation. ATP-sensitive potassium channel openers such as pinacidil and diazoxide are also known to exert preconditioning against various types of insults. There have been several models of ischaemia used to study preconditioning in vivo and in vitro leading to some confusion over the effects of preconditioning agents. High concentrations of glutamate or NMDA have been used as models of excitotoxicity in many experimental paradigms. Some molecular changes are associated with preconditioning phenomena, the most prominent being an increased expression of heat shock protein 72 (HSP72). The aims of the current study were to: 1) investigate the effects of exogenous glutamate and other depolarizing agents in the slice preparation and their validity for use as toxic agents 2) examine any potential preconditioning neuroprotection induced by adenosine against various depolarizing agents and elucidate the underlying mechanisms where relevant 3) examine the excitotoxic preconditioning phenomenon and possible underlying mechanisms 4) look at the effectiveness of other known preconditioning agents e.g. ATP-sensitive potassium channel openers against depolarizing agents and identify the underlying mechanisms of protection 5) identify any molecular changes that may occur during acute models of chemical ischemia or acute preconditioning. The rat hippocampal slice preparation was used to investigate the effects of depolarizing agents and preconditioning paradigms upon the extracellularly evoked field epsps, orthodromic and antidromic population spikes. Western blotting was used to detect any changes in the levels of HSP72 in the slices that may have occurred as a result of the depolarizing agents or the preconditioning treatments. It was first established that 5mM and 10mM glutamate induced depressions in the amplitudes of orthodromic population spikes which recovered to a stable plateau. The degree of recovery of the spikes depended partially upon the initial size of the response. As adenosine is known to be released in response to glutamate receptor stimulation, the effects of 5mM glutamate upon the orthodromic spikes were studied in the presence of the A1 receptor antagonist, DPCPX. It was observed that DPCPX did not attenuate the depression of the response during glutamate perfusion but there was a significant elevation in the post-glutamate recovery of the response. This effect was not observed when the protocol was applied to antidromic population spikes and field epsps, both of which showed a depression in response during 5mM glutamate perfusion but recovered fully when glutamate was removed. The field epsps showed a trend whereby smaller epsps recovered to a far greater degree than population spikes. Although this effect was not significant, the NMDA receptor blocker, MK-801, was co-perfused with glutamate during epsp recordings to examine this further. The degree to which MK-801 alone affected the response correlated with the post-glutamate recovery. To study this effect, isolated NMDA-receptor mediated epsps were recorded and the effects of 5mM glutamate upon them were studied. There was a similar tendency for small NMDA-receptor mediated epsps to recover to a higher level following glutamate treatment compared with larger potentials. In the presence of DPCPX, the larger potentials showed a significant elevation in recovery following treatment with glutamate. It was also shown that the post-5mM glutamate recovery of the orthodromic population spikes was elevated by the presence of the A2a receptor antagonist, SCH 58261. Further experiments using the ATP-sensitive potassium channel blocker, glibenclamide, indicated that this effect may be due to increasing the opening of these channels. Adenosine preconditioning was attempted using 10mM glutamate as an insult. It was shown that adenosine could not precondition against this effect in antidromic or orthodromic population spikes. The effects of the sodium-potassium ATPase inhibitor, ouabain, upon the evoked responses were studied as an alternative insult. It was shown that ouabain induced depressions in field epsps, orthodromic and antidromic population spikes. The antidromic population spikes showed significantly smaller depressions than the orthodromic responses. Further experiments using the glutamate receptor antagonist, kynurenic acid, showed that glutamate receptors mediated the effects of ouabain upon the orthodromic population spikes but not the antidromic spikes. Adenosine preconditioning was attempted against ouabain. It was shown that adenosine preconditioned against the effects of ouabain upon orthodromic and antidromic population spikes but not field epsps. Further experiments were conducted using antidromic population spikes. It was shown using various antagonists, that adenosine protection against ouabain was mediated by A1 receptors, ATP-sensitive potassium channels, NMDA receptors and nitric oxide. To extend these results further, preconditioning using the ATP-sensitive potassium channel opener, pinacidil, was attempted against 10mM glutamate and ouabain. It was shown that pinacidil was able to precondition the antidromic population spike against either insult. Using the NMDA receptor antagonist, DL-AP5, showed that the preconditioning effect of pinacidil against ouabain was mediated by NMDA receptors. Another preconditioning paradigm was attempted to see if glutamate could precondition against ouabain. It was shown that pre-
treatment with glutamate resulted in enhancing the depressant effect of ouabain upon field epsps and antidromic population spikes. To further examine the effects of ouabain upon antidromic population spikes, ouabain was co-perfused in the presence of the intracellular calcium chelator, BAPTA-AM. This resulted in enhancing the depressant effect of ouabain upon the response. A similar result was observed when the calcium concentration in the perfusion medium was lowered to 0.5mM from 2.5mM whereas increasing the concentration to 5mM attenuated the depressant effect. Ouabain was also co-perfused in the presence of charybdotoxin, a blocker of large-conductance calcium activated potassium channels. It was observed that charybdotoxin enhanced the effect of ouabain upon the antidromic spikes. No changes were detected in HSP72 expression in the slices in response to ouabain treatment, 10mM glutamate treatment, pinacidil preconditioning treatment or glutamate preconditioning. The present results show that glutamate and ouabain can induce depressions in the evoked responses from the rat hippocampal slice and that the effects of 5mM glutamate can be attenuated by adenosine receptor antagonists. In addition, adenosine can precondition against ouabain but not glutamate and this effect involves A1 receptors, NMDA receptors, nitric oxide and ATP-sensitive potassium channels. It has also been observed that pinacidil can precondition against ouabain or glutamate and NMDA receptors may be involved in this effect. The inability of glutamate to precondition against ouabain in evoked responses was also demonstrated. The study highlights the effectiveness of preconditioning agents against different depolarizing agents and the interactions between adenosine and glutamate receptors which play a role in preconditioning.


Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a method to evaluate the relative eciency of decision making units (DMUs). In this method, the issue has always been to determine a set of weights for each DMU which often caused many problems. Since the DEA models also have the multi-objective linear programming (MOLP) problems nature, a rational relationship can be established between MOLP and DEA problems to overcome the problem of determining weights. In this study, a membership function was dened


This research focuses on the interaction between students' domain-specific expectancies and values as a predictor of test anxiety. A subsample of adolescents from the MSALT dataset are used in the current study; students complete measures during the spring of sixth grade and again during the spring of seventh grade. Overall, findings provide support for the predicted expectancy—value interaction. Those students who highly value success in math or English yet expect to do poorly in those subjects report the highest levels of test anxiety. Effect sizes are larger for math than English. Few gender differences emerge, but one prospective analysis reveals that girls who devalue English are more likely to maintain moderate levels of test anxiety across the transition to junior high school. Findings contribute novel information to the literature on test anxiety in young adolescents.


Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process. During FSW, microstructure drastically changes in local region of the workpiece by introduction of frictional heat and severe plastic deformation arising from rotation of the welding tool, which results in inhomogeneous microstructural distribution in the welds. To maintain high reliability of the structure produced by FSW, precise understanding of microstructural factors governing weld properties is required. In the present paper, microstructural factors governing mechanical properties, especially hardness profile and tensile properties, of friction stir welded Al and Mg alloys are reviewed.


Purpose: To investigate the mechanism underlying the energy dependence when a CR plate is exposed to therapeutic beams. Method and Materials: Small circular disks were cut from one CR plate and placed in a water‐equivalent plastic (WEP) phantom and exposed. The photostimulated luminescence (PSL) signal was recorded until the signal dropped to the background level to obtain the bleaching curve (PSL vs. time). The area under the bleaching curve (AUC) gives a measure of stored information in the CR plate. Monte Carlo simulations were used to obtain the ratio, DCR/DWater of the energy absorbed in the active layer of the CR plate in a WEP phantom to the energy absorbed in water when the entire phantom (including the CR plate) is replaced by water. Results: For electron beams, the AUC was independent of energy for any given dose to water, and the work function, W, i.e. the energy required to produce one PSL photon was also energy independent. In contrast, for photon beams, the AUC was 15% and 30% higher for 18 MV than for 6MV and Co‐60, respectively where the ratio DCR/DWater was 0.81, 1.08 and 1.11, respectively. Taking AUC data into account, the W for 18 MV had to be lower than for 6MV and Co‐60, our data showing 37% and 45%, respectively, in order to give a higher AUC despite a lower energy absorption in the active layer. While there is no obvious reason for this energy dependence, the differences in the secondary electron spectra produced by the different photon beams are probably not responsible. Conclusion: The method presented here will help researchers to both understand the response to ionizing radiation and develop new applications such as megavoltage dosimetry for IMRT verification. The energy dependence of W on beam modalities requires caution regarding CR dosimetry.


Global climate models suggest dramatic changes in the timing and form of future precipitation in the Pacific Northwest, United States. By some estimates, in the Columbia River drainage, basin‐wide snow‐water equivalencies could decrease by more than 50% before the end of the century, with locally more extreme variation. In the South Fork Clearwater River, Idaho, where hydraulic barriers are currently thought to partially limit ESA‐listed steelhead migrations, changes in precipitation that could exacerbate the intensity and timing of hydraulic barriers presents an obvious conservation concern. Evidence indicates that the strongest steelhead swimmers are capable of sustaining burst speeds for up to 20 s, with maximum speed being a function of fish size (length). Understanding hydraulic dynamics that have implications for migrating fish requires integration of high‐resolution hydraulic models with sufficient resolution to characterize the hydraulic experience of the fish. Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) have recently emerged as useful platforms for measuring river ecosystems with high precision. Results from habitat surveys and hydraulic modeling can identify locations where intense hydraulic energy may preclude fish passage during critical migration periods. The current as well as future range of discharges can be evaluated with a spatially explicit hydraulic model to quantify when, where, and how long barriers to migration exist. Further, this approach provides a powerful tool for manipulating the digital physical channel form and presents a heuristic opportunity to test hydraulic scenarios to improve migration success.


Most eukaryotic cells can crawl over surfaces. In general, this motility requires three distinct actions: polymerization at the leading edge, adhesion to the substrate, and retraction at the rear. Recent experiments with mouse embryonic fibroblasts showed that during spreading and crawling the lamellipodium undergoes periodic contractions that are substrate-dependent. Here I show that a simple model incorporating stick-slip adhesion and a simplified mechanism for the generation of contractile forces is sufficient to explain periodic lamellipodial contractions. This model also explains why treatment of cells with latrunculin modifies the period of these contractions. In addition, by coupling a diffusing chemical species that can bind actin, such as myosin light-chain kinase, with the contractile model leads to periodic rows and waves in the chemical species, similar to what is observed in experiments. This model provides a novel and simple explanation for the generation of contractile waves during cell spreading and crawling that is only dependent on stick-slip adhesion and the generation of contractile force and suggests new experiments to test this mechanism.


ABSTRACT In this study, sugar-free dark chocolate was produced from isomalt and maltitol by βV seeding technique as an alternative to conventional tempering process. The effect of βV seed concentrations on the particle size distribution (PSD), textural, rheological and melting properties of the final products were examined and the results were compared with those of conventional sugar-free dark chocolates. For this aim, conched dark chocolates were melted and crystallised with βV seeds which were added at different concentrations (0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0%, m/m). According to the results PSD, hardness, rheological and melting properties were not influenced by seeding technique compared to conventional tempering method. On the other hand, inverse relation was observed between largest particle size and specific surface area of the samples. Hardness values of isomalt and maltitol including samples were found to change between 15.33–18.79 N. Casson model best described the flow behaviour of the sugar-free chocolates. As a result, seeding technique can be used as an alternative method in sugar-free dark chocolate production in terms of quality and physical properties.


Musical understanding has evolved dramatically in recent years, principally through a heightened appreciation of musical meaning in its social, cultural, and philosophical dimensions. This collection of essays by leading scholars addresses an aspect of meaning that has not yet received its due: the relation of meaning in this broad humanistic sense to the shaping of fundamental values. The volume examines the open and active circle between the values and valuations placed on music by both individuals and societies, and the discovery, through music, of what and how to value. With a combination of cultural criticism and close readings of musical works, the contributors demonstrate repeatedly that to make music is also to make value, in every sense. They give particular attention to values that have historically enabled music to assume a formative role in human societies: to foster practices of contemplation, fantasy, and irony; to explore sexuality, subjectivity, and the uncanny; and to articulate longings for unity with nature and for moral certainty. Each essay in the collection shows, in its own way, how music may provoke transformative reflection in its listeners and thus help guide humanity to its own essential embodiment in the world. The range of topics is broad and developed with an eye both to the historical specificity of values and to the variety of their possible incarnations. The music is both canonical and noncanonical, old and new. Although all of it is "classical," the contributors' treatment of it yields conclusions that apply well beyond the classical sphere. The composers discussed include Gabrieli, Marenzio, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wagner, Puccini, Hindemith, Schreker, and Henze. Anyone interested in music as it is studied today will find this volume essential reading.


Sulphasalazine is a specific inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κ B) which plays a key role in asthma. To determine the impact of sulphasalazine in the treatment of chronic asthma, BALB/c mice were sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin. Mice with experimentally induced asthma in group I received saline, group II sulphasalazine 200 mg/kg, group III sulphasalazine 300 mg/kg, and group IV dexamethasone 1 mg/kg intraperitoneally once a day in the last 7 days of the challenge period. Histological findings of the airways were evaluated by light and electron microscopies. Dexamethasone and sulphasalazine in both doses significantly improved all airway histopathologic parameters of asthma except numbers of goblet cells. Both doses of sulphasalazine improved thicknesses of basement membrane better than dexamethasone. Dexamethasone reduced the number of mast cells better than sulphasalazine (200 mg/kg). Further studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy of sulphasalazine in the treatment of asthma.


Since a limited number of O serogroups account for nearly 70% of bacteremic and meningitic Escherichia coli isolates, a polyvalent vaccine was made by conjugating a Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A carrier protein to the O polysaccharide of 12 serogroups of E. coli (O1, O2, O4, O6-O8, O12, O15, O16, O18, O25, O75). No serious reactions occurred in 88 vaccinees. Four-fold or greater increases in ELISA antibody levels over baseline were greatest (> 60% of vaccinees) for O1, O2, O6-O8 and O15; intermediate (approximately 50%) for O18 and O75, and poorest (> or = 45%) for O4, O12, O16, and O25. Responses with functionally active opsonophagocytic antibody generally paralleled ELISA antibody responses. With the availability of a safe, immunogenic E. coli vaccine, active and passive immunization strategies merit further development as adjunctive treatment for E. coli bacteremia and neonatal meningitis.


The deadline for greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to be reduced by 80 per cent against the 1990 baseline is 2050. Over a quarter of these emissions are attributable to the 28m properties within the residential sector, with over 4m homes being maintained and managed by social housing registered providers. The UK Government advocates retrofitting of the existing housing stock to help meet the carbon reduction targets, with the UK social housing sector being ideally placed to deliver these types of energy-efficient retrofit projects on a large scale. The Government's industrial strategy also supports the acceleration of the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) as an efficient and collaborative way of working throughout the UK construction supply chain. BIM is already used across the social housing sector with respect to new build projects and the aim of this research is to: 1) examine whether the social housing sector has accepted the implementation of BIM for retrofitting works; and 2) endeavour to identify new areas and roles where BIM may contribute in future. The findings indicate that if the diffusion of BIM within the social housing sector is to be successful with respect to retrofitting works, then BIM should not be adopted in isolation. Innovative developments in cloud technology, geomatics and the introduction of complementary software may also need to be accepted in conjunction with a change in the perception of BIM by actors within the sector. Keywords: BIM, social housing, retrofit, carbon reduction


The Marine Mammal Programme (MMP) conducts research on pinnipeds and killer whales Orcinus orca at Marion Island, Prince Edward Islands, under the auspices of the Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria. The history of the MMP, which has benefited from collaboration with leading national and international researchers, is described from its start through to current research. The setting up of long-term studies such as the mark-resighting of southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina commenced in 1983. The elephant seal population declined by 87% between an initial census in 1951 and 2004. This was followed by a stabilisation period and a current increase. The recovery, and subsequent increase of sympatric populations of Subantarctic fur seals Arctocephalus tropicalis and Antarctic fur seals A. gazella (following cessation of commercial sealing), are documented. Insights into many aspects of elephant seal and fur seal biology, including life history, demography, diet, growth, foraging and ranging behaviour are described. Ancillary work on morphology, genetics, anthropogenic influences and rare events are mentioned, as well as the extent of current research that addresses population dynamics in an ecosystem context. Opportunistic photographic identification of killer whales and recent dedicated observations at Marion Island are used to determine population size, seasonal abundance and sociality of this population, and to further understanding of its potential impact on resident pinniped populations.


This paper presents the development of an Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) that is capable of an acoustically stealth delivery of a payload. The payload is composed of a black box noise maker and the goal of this "stealth mission" is to minimize the amplitude of the acoustic signal emitting from the noise maker.
 Various approaches are utilized to reduce the transmission of sound produced by the payload. The design incorporates a vacuum chamber to minimize the noise transmitted through air molecules surrounding the noise maker by removing the air. In addition to a vacuum chamber, both active and passive vibration damping techniques are considered as viable methods of vibration damping, further reducing the sound output. The applied passive damping system has the advantage of using simple mechanical devices, which provides significant advantages in the application to an undersea vehicle with power and space constraints. To complete the mission, a vacuum chamber with a passive vibration damping system was developed and tested by sending the payload through a sound measuring choke point which validated the efficiency of the proposed design.


In this study, two new species of soft scale (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) associated with rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Lamiaceae) from Colombia, Cryptinglisia corpoica Kondo Montes sp. nov. and Cryptinglisia ica Montes Kondo sp. nov. are described and illustrated based on the adult female. Two other coccid species, namely Parasaissetia nigra (Nietner) and Saissetia coffeae (Walker), are newly recorded on rosemary. An identification key is presented to all species of soft scale that have been reported on Rosmarinus spp. An updated key to soft scale insects of the genus Cryptinglisia Cockerell is provided also.


The main objective is to study the synergic effect of fly ash (FA) and high reactivity Attapulgite (HRA) together in ternary blended cement of (OPC+FA+HRA) and evaluate the efficiency factor of FA and HRA in binary blended cement and (FA+HRA) in ternary blended cement. To achieve this objective compressive strength of binary blended cement mixes of (OPC+FA) with FA replacement percentages of (20 %, 30% and 40%), (OPC+HRA) with HRA replacement percentages of (5 and 10%) by weight of cement and ternary blended cement mixes of (OPC+FA+5% and/or 10%HRA). Were tested and compared with that of reference mix at ages of (7, 28, 56 and 90) days to assess the synergic effect of FA and HRA in ternary blended cement. The results showed that using ternary blended cement of (OPC+FA+5% and/or 10%HRA) led to increasing compressive strength relative to binary blended cement mixes of (OPC+FA) at the same replacement percentages by weight of cement. More significant increments in compressive strength were noticed at the age of 7 days. The results also showed that the efficiency factors calculated according to the modified bolmoy΄s equation for ternary blended cement were always higher than their corresponding binary blended cement of (OPC+.FA).
Keywords: Fly ash, High reactivity Attapulgite, Binary blended cement, Ternary blended cement


It has been shown that melting of native chromatin complex in tissues and cells is a one stage process with transition parameters Tm = 82 +/- 1 degrees C, delta Tm = 6 degrees C and Qm = (24 +/- 3) cal/g DNA. A conclusion is made that the difference in melting temperatures of chromatin complex and DNA, which is 12 cal/g DNA, corresponds to the melting of secondary and tertiary structures of chromatin. It is shown the destruction of significant part of the secondary and tertiary structures of chromatin by the chromatin complex isolation from tissues and cells.


Original weak electrical signals in Clivia miniata were tested by a touching test system of self-made double shields with platinum sensors. Tested data of electrical signals denoised by the wavelet soft threshold and using Gaussian radial base function (RBF) as the time series at a delayed input window chosen at 50. An intelligent RBF forecasting system was set up to forecast the signal in plants. Testing result shows that it is feasible to forecast the plant electrical signal for a short period. The forecast data can be used as an important preferences for the intelligent automatic control system based on the adaptive characteristic of plants to achieve the energy saving on agricultural production both the greenhouse and /or the plastic lookum.


: The authors demonstrate contemporary state of occupational medicine in Azerbaigan, define primary tasks to improve medical and prophylactic help for workers.


During the electronic resource management cycle, library staff review, acquire, evaluate, and deactivate databases based on a number of factors that include usage statistics, collection development decisions, and budgetary factors. One aspect of electronic resource management that has increased in the Government Information and Library Services division is our promotion of new, updated, or existing databases to our state employee users. This article discusses a pilot project designed to promote the use of the Safari database (now known as O'Reilly). It shares the steps we took to plan and implement outreach activities focused on the database, along with how we created goals and measures to evaluate and assess the success of the promotion. After the pilot database promotion, we gained experience and information to design additional database promotions, which has helped us improve our communications and outreach to state employees.


Cancer is now one of the leading causes of death in developing countries, killing more people globally each year than any other. By 2020 there are expected to be 15 million new cases of cancer every year globally, 70% of which will be in developing countries. International Status: It is estimated that about 9 million new cancer cases are diagnosed every year and over 4.5 million people die from cancer each year in the world. National Status: The estimated number of new cancers in India per year is about 7 lakhs and over 3.5 lakhs people die of cancer each year. Bangalore tops the list of metros in the country with the highest number of women suffering from cancer and breast cancer continues to be the killer, according to the Population Based Cancer Registry (PBCR). Propolis, a bee hive product rich in natural flavonoids can be used as a drug for cancer. A lot of research is being carried out worldwide directed toward finding natural antioxidants and antitumor activity in propolis. Methanolic extract of Indian Propolis was screened for flavonoid content responsible for antitumor activity. Materials and Methods-Aluminum chloride method for total flavonoid content and GCMS for Quantification of flavonoids. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that methanolic extract of propolis is a potential source of Lupeol which can be isolated and used for cancer therapy.


Deficiency of pulmonary surfactant is responsible for a substantial proportion of the mortality and morbidity in infants born prematurely. Surfactant replacement therapy has been extensively investigated and has become a central part of neonatal intensive care in the UK over the last 3 years. Evidence for the efficacy of this treatment is provided as is a discussion of the different surfactant preparations available and different protocols for administration.


We quantify differences in the retirement age between manual and non-manual workers and evaluate these differences in the context of the literature on equality of opportunity. The focus is on the question how individual background during childhood transmits through physical demands of occupations on retirement ages. Individual retrospective data from the German Socio-Economic Panel are used to analyse labour force dynamics over the years 1984 to 2011. Discrete time duration models suggest that retirement ages differ substantially between manual and non-manual workers. To elaborate how such differences are explained by individual background characteristics on the one hand and effort and luck on the other hand, we make use of tests for stochastic dominance and a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The result is that individual background characteristics explain a share of about one third of inequality in retirement ages as transmitted through physical demands of occupations.


A low-dimensional plasma physics based on the nonlinear dynamical model of the magnetosphere-ionosphere system called WINDMI is used as the basis for a real-time space weather prediction system. The input into the model is a driving voltage derived from solar wind parameters and the interplanetary magnetic field measured by the Advanced Composition Explorer satellite. The output is a field-aligned current proportional to the westward auroral electrojet AL index and the energy stored in the Earth's ring current which is proportional to the Dst index. In order to use the model for the real-time prediction of geomagnetic activity, the model parameters are required to update periodically. We developed a modified genetic algorithm (GA) with micromovement (MGAM) to train the parameters of the model in order to achieve the lowest mse against the measured AL and Dst indexes. The MGAM implements a particle-swarm-optimization-inspired movement phase that helps to improve the convergence rate while employing the efficient GA mechanism for maintaining the population diversity. The performance of the MGAM is compared to a basic real-valued GA (RGA) on five standard test functions and historical geomagnetic storm data sets. While the MGAM performs substantially better than the RGA when evaluating the standard test functions, the improvement is about 6%-12% when used on the 20-D nonlinear dynamical WINDMI model.


As the amount of available sequence data increases, it becomes apparent that our understanding of translation initiation is far from comprehensive and that prior conclusions concerning the origin of the process are wrong. Contrary to earlier conclusions, key elements of translation initiation originated at the Universal Ancestor stage, for homologous counterparts exist in all three primary taxa. Herein, we explore the evolutionary relationships among the components of bacterial initiation factor 2 (IF-2) and eukaryotic IF-2 (eIF-2)/eIF-2B, i.e., the initiation factors involved in introducing the initiator tRNA into the translation mechanism and performing the first step in the peptide chain elongation cycle. All Archaea appear to posses a fully functional eIF-2 molecule, but they lack the associated GTP recycling function, eIF-2B (a five-subunit molecule). Yet, the Archaea do posses members of the gene family defined by the (related) eIF-2B subunits a , b , and d , although these are not specifically related to any of the three eukaryotic subunits. Additional members of this family also occur in some (but by no means all) Bacteria and even in some eukaryotes. The functional significance of the other members of this family is unclear and requires experimental resolution. Similarly, the occurrence of bacterial IF-2-like molecules in all Archaea and in some eukaryotes further complicates the picture of translation initiation. Overall, these data lend further support to the suggestion that the rudiments of translation initiation were present at the Universal Ancestor stage.


A new pure tin process is described which produces a deposit with a crystal orientation combination that minimises whisker growth, particularly when used with a specific pre‐treatment process. A recommended etch depth of minimum 2.5 μm has been shown to reduce whisker growth, particularly with thin (3 μm) tin coatings. Crystal orientation is determined by X‐ray diffraction and the angles between adjacent crystal planes are calculated from the pattern produced. A minimum proportion of small angles is required for lowest whisker risk. Angles smaller than 22° have been shown to be critical. The predominant orientations of the deposits from new tin process are 101, 211, 112, and 312. This combination of orientations has 8 percent of angles in the critical range. A typical pure tin process with a high tendency for whiskering may have a texture of 431, 321, and 211 orientations, and this combination produces 65 percent of angles smaller than 22°.


We develop a flexible approach to solve a continuous-time, multi-asset/multi-option Kyle-Back model of informed trading under very general assumptions, including on the distribution of the belief about the fundamental, and the noise process. The main insight is to postulate the pricing rule of the market maker at maturity as an optimal transport map. The optimal control of the informed trader reduces to the computation of a conjugate convex function, explicit in some cases, and otherwise easily obtainable using fast numerical algorithms. To illustrate the power of our method, we apply it to a long-standing problem: how are informed investors splitting trades between a spot asset and its options? Our method allows to i) prove the existence of an equilibrium and characterize the informed trader's trading strategy in the spot and the option markets, even for non-Gaussian price priors (e.g., lognormal); ii) show there can be cross-market price impact between the spot market and multiple options even when their noise trading is independent; and iii) compare our pricing results to a simple Black-Scholes model and quantify the price distortion of the option due to strategic trading. In particular, we show that a Black-Scholes implied volatility (IV) smile/smirk can emerge because of the market marker's adaptation to asymmetric information.


In an ever-changing world, certain topics -- such as sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and gender -- still are hot-button items for many people. This series of vignettes covers many diversity topics, primarily in the workplace, and should promote engaging and intense debate. In reading them, students should try to see each vignette from the different perspectives presented.


Malaysia, with its abundance of wood resources, is one of the traditional
powerhouses of Asia's wood industry. In recent years, this sector has lost some of
its edge simply because other countries have caught up, or have surpassed it in
terms of competitiveness. Local manufacturers have no choice but to improve the
production efficiency as well as the quality of their products if they want to remain
competitive in the globalize market. In the production of panel particleboard
furniture, the operations of packing department is more complicated and complex.
The continuous packing process is affected by various factors, known and unknown,
tangible and intangible. The objective of this paper is to study and analyze various
factors contributing to the productivity of the packing line of particleboard furniture.
The productivity and the frequency of the factors affecting the packing lines were
measured and analyzed. The result showed that production planning, packing flow
chart and work design (55%), insufficient of raw and supporting materials (21%),
and the problems related to quality (14%) are the three most influencing factors to
the productivity of packing lines, followed by insufficient of manpower
arrangement (6%) and machinery breakdown (4%).


Electrolyzer produces hydrogen and oxygen from off-peak electricity generated by the renewable energy sources (wind turbine and photovoltaic array), for later use in the fuel cell to produce on-peak electricity. A power conditioning system, usually a DC-DC converter is required to couple the Electrolyzer to the system bus. This paper presents the design of three soft-switched high-frequency transformer isolated dc-to-dc resonant converters for this application based on the given specifications. Due to the wide variation in input voltage and load current, no converter can maintain zero-voltage switching for the complete operating range. Based on an extensive comparison of all the selected converters, LLC resonant converter will be studied in the future.


Purpose: A human type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor antibody (A12) has been shown to effectively inhibit human xenograft tumor growth, including androgen-dependent and androgen-independent prostate tumors. Docetaxel, either as a single agent or combined with others, has shown a survival benefit in prostate cancer patients. Based on these data, we investigated the combined in vivo effect of A12 and docetaxel on human androgen-independent and osseous prostate tumor growth. Experimental Design: To study human androgen-independent prostate cancer model, LuCaP35V tumors were implanted s.c. into castrated severe combined immunodeficient mice. When tumors reached about 100 mm3, animals were treated with vehicle control docetaxel (10 or 20 mg/kg) and docetaxel in combination with A12 (40 μg/kg) for 4 weeks. To study human osseous prostate cancer model, LuCaP 23.1 tumors were implanted intratibiae. When serum prostate-specific antigen reached 5 to 10 ng/mL, treatments were initiated. Results: A12 markedly augmented the inhibition of docetaxel on tumor growth. When docetaxel is combined with A12, the inhibition of tumor growth continued after treatment cessation, which was associated with continued apoptosis and decreased proliferation of tumor cells. Gene expression profiles indicated that the posttreatment suppression of tumor growth may be due to enhanced negative regulation of cell cycle progression– and/or cell survival–associated genes, some of which have been shown to induce resistance to docetaxel. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that targeting type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor can enhance the therapeutic effect of docetaxel on advanced prostate cancer. Our findings also suggest a potential mechanism to improve the treatment efficacy of docetaxel in prostate cancer.


Corporate philanthropy has played an indispensable role in public welfare areas 1 in China since its emergence in the 1990s. As an "emerging philanthropic market" (Michon & Tandon, 2012) where entrepreneurship or corporate citizenship is still to be entrenched in the society, the progress of corporate philanthropy in China is crucial for cultivating the philanthropic spirit of society and fostering the growth of civil society. Therefore, it is worthwhile to pay more attention and make more investigation into the theory and practice of corporate philanthropy in China (Lu, 2002; Ge, 2007). The present paper aims to make a general review of the state of this particular area and to discuss potential ways to optimize current frameworks.


Extracting features from sensing data on edge devices is a challenging application for which deep neural networks (DNN) have shown promising results. Unfortunately, the general micro-controller-class processors which are widely used in sensing system fail to achieve real-time inference. Accelerating the compute-intensive DNN inference is, therefore, of utmost importance. As the physical limitation of sensing devices, the design of processor needs to meet the balanced performance metrics, including low power consumption, low latency, and flexible configuration. In this paper, we proposed a lightweight pipeline integrated deep learning architecture, which is compatible with open-source RISC-V instructions. The dataflow of DNN is organized by the very long instruction word (VLIW) pipeline. It combines with the proposed special intelligent enhanced instructions and the single instruction multiple data (SIMD) parallel processing unit. Experimental results show that total power consumption is about 411 mw and the power efficiency is about 320.7 GOPS/W.


Blockchain is a distributed append-only digital ledger. The technology has caught much attention since the emergence of cryptocurrency, and there is an increasing number of blockchain applications in various businesses. The concept, however, is still novel to many members of the simulation and operations research community. In this tutorial, we introduce the blockchain technology and review its frontier related research. There are exciting opportunities for researchers in simulation, system analysis, and data science.


A case of a 62 year old white patient with mild dyspeptic symptoms and nodular hepatomegaly is presented. The histologic examination of a liver biopsy revealed a hepatocellular carcinoma clear cell variant. There were no signs of chronic hepatic failure. The disease showed an indolent clinical behaviour, thus the beginning of chemotherapy was delayed until clinical deterioration was obvious. Clinical improvement was obtained with adriamycin. A review of the literature on this rare histologic variant of hepatocellular carcinoma is made.


Background Kinases and phosphatases have an important role in the susceptibility and clinical variability of cardiac diseases. We have recently reported an association between a phosphoprotein phosphatase controlled by Acid Phosphatase locus 1 (ACP1), and Coronary artery disease (CAD) suggesting an effect on the susceptibility to this disease. In the present note we have investigated a possible role of ACP1 in the variability of clinical parameters of cardiac function. Methods We have studied 345 subjects admitted to Valmontone Hospital for cardiovascular diseases: 202 subjects with CAD and 143 without CAD, 53 subjects admitted to Cardiac Surgery Division of Tor Vergata University were also considered. Results In diabetic patients with CAD there is a significant negative association between Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and ACP1 S isoform concentration. Genotypes with high S isoform concentration show a lower value of LVEF as compared to genotypes with low S isoform concentration. We have also found a significant positive association between cNYHA class and ACP1 S isoform. After surgical intervention, in subjects with high S isoform concentration the decrease of LVEF is more marked as compared to subjects with low S isoform concentration. Overall these observations indicate that high S isoform activity has negative effects on cardiac function. The observation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery confirms the negative association between high S isoform activity and LVEF. Conclusions The present study suggests that ACP1 influences both susceptibility to CAD and clinical manifestations of the disease.


Hadoop emerged as an important system for large-scale data analysis. Speculative execution is a key feature in Hadoop that is extensively leveraged in clouds: it is used to mask slow tasks (i.e., stragglers) -- resulted from resource contention and heterogeneity in clouds -- by launching speculative task copies on other machines. However, speculative execution is not cost-free and may result in performance degradation and extra resource and energy consumption. While prior literature has been dedicated to improving stragglers detection to cope with the inevitable heterogeneity in clouds, little work is focusing on understanding the implications of speculative execution on the performance and energy consumption in Hadoop cluster. In this paper, we have designed a set of experiments to evaluate the impact of speculative execution on the performance and energy consumption of Hadoop in homo-and heterogeneous environments. Our studies reveal that speculative execution may sometimes reduce, sometimes increase the energy consumption of Hadoop clusters. This strongly depends on the reduction in the execution time of MapReduce applications and on the extra power consumption introduced by speculative execution. Moreover, we show that the extra power consumption varies in-between applications and is contributed to by three main factors: the duration of speculative tasks, the idle time, and the allocation of speculative tasks. To the best of our knowledge, our work provides the first deep look into the energy efficiency of speculative execution in Hadoop.


This monograph summarizes 3 recent clinical trials and the worldwide clinical experience with Mahonia aquifolium in patients with psoriasis. Study 1 was an open-label study to evaluate the safety of Mahonia aquifolium in 39 patients treated for 12 weeks. Assessments made were modified PASI, global assessment, psoriasis history questionnaire, Dermatology Life Quality Index, and Psoriasis Disability Index. The results indicate statistically significant improvement in PASI score and Dermatology Life Quality Index after 4 weeks of treatment. This response continued 1 month after the end of treatment. Study 2 was a clinical trial of 32 patients with mild to moderate bilateral psoriasis treated up to 6 months. One side of the body received Mahonia and the other standard psoriatic treatment (eg, Dovonex cream). The primary outcomes were patient ratings of the Mahonia-treated side alone and the comparison between treatments received on each side of their body. Eighty-four percent of patients rated the Mahonia-treated psoriasis as good to excellent response. When compared with standard treatment, 63% of patients rated Mahonia aquifolium equal to or better than the standard psoriatic treatment. Study 3 was an observational study of 33 patients with mild to moderate bilateral psoriasis treated for 1 month. The results indicate improvement in psoriasis after 1 week of treatment. The side treated with Mahonia did as well or better than the side treated with the vehicle cream. Results from these 3 open-label clinical trials are in agreement with published data that include placebo-controlled studies. Taken together, these clinical studies conducted by several investigators in several countries indicate that Mahonia aquifolium is a safe and effective treatment of patients with mild to moderate psoriasis.


Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are poised to play a pivotal role in engineering new solutions to a variety of societal-scale problems, such as energy conservation, climate change, healthcare, transportation, etc. Their importance is reflected in the overall theme for VLSI Design 2012, which is "Embedded Solutions for Emerging Markets Infrastructure, Energy, and Automotive." Networked embedded systems, such as wireless sensor networks, form a crucial building block for realizing large scale CPSs and have, therefore, received considerable research attention over the past few years. While this has resulted in numerous technological advances (e.g., a plethora of tiny, cheap, and low-power sensor platforms is now available), the problem of programming a distributed wireless sensor network still remains a major challenge and a potential show stopper to widespread adoption.


The current Japanese Patent Act has set forth special provisions on the calculation of damages since the time of its enactment (1959). Nevertheless, it had been constantly criticized that appropriate remedies were not being extended to right holders by the compensation for damage even under those provisions due to reasons such as the court applying the provisions too rigidly. In response, the provisions related to compensation for damage were amended in 1998. Specifically, Article 102, paragraph (1) of the Patent Act was introduced, and the wording of paragraph (3) of that Article was revised. However, even after the amendment, active discussions took place among practitioners and researchers over the interpretation of the provisions, and legislative studies were continued. Then, in the past few years, three Grand Panel judgments (en banc decisions) of the Intellectual Property High Court (IP High Court) indicated a general view on some issues for which opinions had been varied among court judgments, achieving a unified interpretation of the provisions at least on the second instance level. In addition, in 2019, Article 102 of the Patent Act was amended again. With such progress, the developments concerning the system of compensation for damage caused by patent infringement are regarded to have reached a milestone. This article introduces the outlines of those IP High Court Grand Panel judgments and the 2019 law amendment. In addition, it conducts analysis with a focus on the latest Grand Panel judgment rendered in the Beauty Instrument case.


ABSTRACT In the past decade, major advances have occurred in the understanding of mammalian stem cell biology, but roadblocks (including gaps in our fundamental understanding) remain in translating this knowledge to regenerative medicine. Interestingly, a close analysis of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae literature leads to an appreciation of how much yeast biology has contributed to the conceptual framework underpinning our understanding of stem cell behavior, to the point where such insights have been internalized into the realm of the known. This Opinion article focuses on one such example, the quiescent adult mammalian stem cell, and examines concepts underlying our understanding of quiescence that can be attributed to studies in yeast. We discuss the metabolic, signaling and gene regulatory events that control entry and exit into quiescence in yeast. These processes and events retain remarkable conservation and conceptual parallels in mammalian systems, and collectively suggest a regulated program beyond the cessation of cell division. We argue that studies in yeast will continue to not only reveal fundamental concepts in quiescence, but also leaven progress in regenerative medicine. Summary: This Opinion article examines key concepts underlying our understanding of stem cell quiescence that can be attributed to studies in yeast.


BACKGROUND
The beneficial short- and long-term renoprotective effects of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition are lower in albuminuric diabetic patients homozygous for the deletion compared to the insertion polymorphism of the ACE gene. In an attempt to overcome this interaction, we evaluated the short-term renoprotective effect in diabetic nephropathy of the angiotensin II receptor antagonist losartan in patients homozygous for the insertion or the deletion allele.

METHODS
Fifty-four hypertensive type 1 diabetic patients with diabetic nephropathy homozygous for the insertion (I; N = 26) or the deletion (D; N = 28) allele of the ACE/ID polymorphism were included. After four weeks of washout, the patients received losartan 50 mg daily followed by 100 mg in two treatment periods each lasting two months. Patients and investigators were blinded to ACE genotypes. At baseline and in the end of the treatment periods, 24-hour blood pressure, albuminuria and glomerular filtration rate values were determined.

RESULTS
At baseline, blood pressure, albuminuria and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) values were similar in the two genotype groups [II vs. DD, 1134 (238 to 5302) vs. 1451 (227 to 8129) mg/24 h, median (range); 156/82 (17/9) vs. 153/80 (17/11) mm Hg, mean (SD); and 86 (22) vs. 88 (24) mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively]. Both doses of losartan significantly lowered blood pressure, albuminuria, and GFR (P < 0.05 vs. baseline). Losartan 100 mg was more effective than 50 mg in reducing albuminuria, 51% (95% CI; 40 to 61) versus 33% (23 to 42), respectively (P < 0.01). No differences in the impact of losartan between the II and DD groups were observed: Losartan 100 mg lowered systolic/diastolic blood pressure by 12/6 and 10/4 mm Hg, whereas albuminuria decreased by 55% (35 to 68) and 46% (28 to 61), in the II and DD groups, respectively (P = NS).

CONCLUSION
Our data suggest that losartan offers similar short-term renoprotective and blood pressure lowering effects in albuminuric hypertensive type 1 diabetic patients with the ACE II and DD genotypes. However, the long-term renoprotective effects remain to be evaluated.


Opened in 2015, the Sihang Warehouse Memorial Museum is an architectural relic of the fierce and famous 'Defense of Sihang Warehouse' that took place in the 1937 Battle of Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Regarding the warehouse as a national war icon lost and found, the author examines the transformations of the symbolic meanings of the warehouse per se and how it has been represented visually in photography and film in relation to the vicissitudes of history. As the spatial history of the warehouse shows, the warehouse was forgotten for a long time. With the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, its memory was revived, but as an artificial recreation that remains silent about the ruptures under the surface of historical continuity. The case shows how the meaning of commemorative space for modern and contemporary Chinese war memory has been constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed visually and physically.


Current open field vegetable production systems in The Netherlands do not meet market and society demands. Among the most important demands are: (1) the EU Water Framework Directive, requesting strong reductions in emissions of nutrients and pesticides to surface- and groundwater; (2) continuous delivery of uniform, high quality products by retailers. These demands could not be fulfilled by adapting current production systems, new production systems have to be developed and tested for a number of field grown crops. This paper emphasizes the development of soilless growing systems for leek. Important current product requirements for leek are a white part of the stem of at least 14 cm, a minimal thickness of 2.5 cm and a straight, firm stem. Important system requirements for outdoor cultivation are handling of rainfall, wind and frost. Opportunities for soilless systems for leek are a clean product without soil contamination and a strong reduction in labor need for preparing it for the market. Finally, the developed system needs to be economically viable, acceptable by growers and give sufficient reduction in emissions. From 2008 aspects of plant raising (traditional method with stone wool and coir plugs) were investigated together with demands to get a firm straight stem. Covering of the plants to achieve a long white part was investigated comparing several smart solutions. The use of substrate, NFT and deep flow were also compared. Results show a fast growing crop, where 4 crops per year with at least 80 plants per m2 and a total yield up to 300 t/ha are possible. It can achieve the minimal market weight in a much shorter period (40-60 days in summer) compared to growing in the soil. However, the production of long white stems requires special measures. With a good system design there are hardly any problems with rain and frost.


Total genomic DNA from 15 cotton varieties were analysed to evaluate genetic diversity among them through random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis, with 30 random decamer primers using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A total of 370 bands were observed, with 12.3 bands per primer, of which 91.6% were polymorphic. OPM-16 produced the maximum number of fragments while the minimum number of fragments was produced with the primer OPM-18. Cluster analysis by the unweighted paired group method of arithmetic means (UPGMA) showed that 15 varieties can be placed in five groups with a similarity ranging from 0.48 0.86. Maximum similarity was observed between H777, H-974 and H-1098 (0.86). Interestingly, these varieties have been developed at one breeding center. The analysis revealed that the intervarietal genetic relationship of several varieties is related to their center of origin. Most of the varieties have a narrow genetic base. These results were well in accordance with previous reported results. The RAPD analysis indicates that it may be a more efficient marker than morphological marker, isozyme and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technology. The results obtained can be used in selecting divergent parents for breeding and mapping purposes.


The paper presents an analytical method for computing the instantaneous air-gap flux distribution in cylindrical magnetic actuators with slotted stators and rotor eccentricity. The method does not rely on permeance functions; therefore, the resulting flux distribution can be used to compute actuator properties such as negative stiffness, cogging torque, and back-emf. The method uses Fourier series expansions to model current distributions and permanent magnets as sources of magnetomotive force (MMF) on the air-gap boundary and then solves the Dirichlet boundary value problem in the eccentric annulus for the MMF within the permanent magnet and air gap regions. It accounts for the slotting effect by adding a boundary perturbation step to the solution that includes the decreased permeance of the slots. The method is applied to a sample problem that examines both the effects of slot length and slot width on negative stiffness coefficients. The method is benchmarked against finite-element solutions; the two models agree well up to a certain critical slot length. This critical slot length corresponds to the traditional infinite slot length (that slot length beyond which no appreciable change in flux distribution occurs). While the method is applied to a permanent magnet motor of internal rotor construction, it is generally applicable to many actuator topologies.


Unmanned drones is a new tool allowing livestock farmers to remain informed about everything that is happening on their farm - any time, day or night, and in any weather conditions. Drone technology has developed quite a lot recently. Agriculture is one of the areas where this technology can be utilised to great advantage.


The Peace Agreement signed in 2016 between the Government of Colombia and the  Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) raised hopes among the indigenous peoples,  Afro-descendant populations and peasant communities that they might henceforward be  able to live in peace on their territories. However, Iván Duque's new government has not  fulfilled its side of the agreement and, far from incorporating areas abandoned by the  guerrilla into the institutional life of the country, the end result is that these areas have been  left to their own devices. Paramilitary groups are now free to compete for control of the  territory and to murder social leaders as a way of subjugating rural populations. In addition  to anti-personnel mines and forced confinements, massacres became an added mechanism  for exerting this pressure in 2020.


Based on munsell color HV/C value to test dynamic surface wetness of fabrics can be seen more intuitive to the dynamic permeability characteristics of fabrics. This paper selects 44 kinds of knitted fabrics to do the experiment with the of sweat simulation device, and get the complete label HV/C of Munsell color space of fabrics and moisture content of fabric from 0 to 30 minutes, and analyze their relational with the method of the grey relational analysis. The results show that in the 44 kinds of testing varieties, they are 20 kinds of samples having the maximum correlation coefficient between Munsell color index and moisture content ,and 21 kinds of samples having maximum correlation coefficient between Munsell color value and moisture content , we can see that their proportion is close , so by existing methods only using Munsell color index evaluating dynamic moisture transfer properties of fabrics had omitted the information of Munsell color value and Munsell color chroma, therefore it is necessary comprehensive considering the Munsell color HV/C value of the complete label information ,and establish a composite indicator of evaluation dynamic surface moisture transfer.


Plant essential oils are comprised of complex mixtures of components including minor constituents which determine the characteristic aroma and odour of the plant in contrast to synthetic insecticides based on the single products that act synergistically within plant as a defense strategy against herbivory and thus, it is likely that they are more durable towards evolving pest resistance. Hence, due to the evolutionary relationship with their functional roles and largely environmental friendly nature, these natural pesticides could be efficiently harnessed by the farmers in developing countries like Sri Lanka for post-harvest insect pest management. In that context, the present study was undertaken to assess the impact of the essential oil of Ruta graveolens and its long chain aliphatic 2-methyl ketone constituents (2-octanone, 2-nonanone, 2-decanone, 2-undecanone, 2-dodecanone and 2-tridecanone)on the egg hatchability of rice moth (Corcyra cephalonica), which is a serious lepidopteran pest of stored cereals, by exposing freshly laid eggs for various exposure time durations (6 hrs, 12 hrs and 24 hrs) in contact bioassays with different authentic concentrations under the laboratory conditions (29±20C and 84±2% R.H.). The concentrations of essential oil and its ketone constituents applied and the exposure time periods were significantly influenced the percentage egg hatchability of C. cephalonica. Accordingly, the inhibitory activity of egg hatching was significantly increased with increasing concentrations and time periods of exposure. Essential oil of R. graveolens at the concentration of 0.204 μl cm-2 and the even-chained congeners at the corresponding authentic concentrations (0.0009-0.0045μl cm-2) brought about 100% inhibition of hatching. Moreover, odd-chained congeners produced egg hatchability inhibition levels ranging from 60-90 % with the corresponding authentic concentrations (0.002-0.046μl cm-2) after 24 hr exposure time duration. Based on LC50 values, the eggs were significantly more susceptible to even-chained congeners (LC50= 0.00002 – 0.0015μl cm-2) than to the odd-chained congeners (LC50= 0.00008 – 0.0084μl cm-2) and the essential oil (LC50= 0.0096 μl cm-2). Regression equations and the probability values of lethal concentrations of essential oil and its ketone constituents revealed a significant and positive role in the population inhibition of C. cephalonica. The present study demonstrates the potential of R. graveolens essential oil and its ketone analogues to be exploited as natural grain protect ants which is of immense significance in view of overcoming or reducing environmental and toxicological implications of the unsystematic use of synthetic pesticides. Keywords: Corcyra cephalonica, Egg hatchability, Essential oil, Long chain aliphatic 2-methyl ketones, Ruta graveolens


This paper presents an extension of the program developed by Varón, Havsteen, García, García-Cánovas & Tudela [(1990) Biochem. J. 270, 825-828] for the expression of the transient-phase and steady-state kinetic equations of a general enzyme system in which the only enzyme species present at the onset of the reaction is the free enzyme. The program has been extended to situations in which more than one enzyme species may be present at the onset of the reaction. The program is given in Supplementary Publication SUP50165 (5 pages), which has been deposited at the British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ, U.K., from whom copies can be obtained on the terms indicated in Biochem. J. (1991) 273, 5.


Background: Cognition may be affected at least as seriously as physical function during multiple sclerosis (MS) relapse, however MS relapse related cognitive disorders are still underdiagnosed and poorly characterized. The limited number of paper-pencil tests were used for assessment, and nevertheless, some significant changes were found. Unlike the paper-pencil tests, computerized batteries and tests are more sensitive and highly standardized, produce instant scoring and can minimize the learning and practice effects on follow-up. We investigated the cognition during MS relapse with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), which has shown sensitivity to cognitive dysfunction across different clinical groups, including patients with MS. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the cognitive functions with CANTAB battery in MS patients during relapse, in stable MS patients, and healthy controls, and to establish the timing and pattern of cognitive recovery after relapse. Methods: Sixty relapsing, thirty stable MS patients, and thirty controls were assessed with CANTAB. The relapse group was assessed during multiple sclerosis relapse and 1 and 3 months after the first assessment. Results: The score of the difficult task of spatial planning was worse in MS relapse group than in MS stable group (p < 0.05). The scores of medium difficulty tasks of spatial planning, episodic visual recall and working memory were worse in the relapse group than in the control group (p < 0.05), while in stable MS and control groups, the scores of these tasks didn't differ. The most significant improvement of speed of response, spatial planning, episodic visual recall memory and spatial working memory, was established at 1 month after the first assessment, additional improvement of spatial planning and working memory was observed at 3 months after the first assessment. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that cognitive function is affected during MS relapse. The difficult task of CANTAB battery, which assesses the spatial planning, showed MS relapse related cognitive dysfunction. The changes in scores of episodic visual recall and working memory may be related to MS relapse. A significant improvement in the speed of response, spatial planning, episodic visual recall and working memory was established at 1 month after MS relapse. The additional improvement in spatial planning for the most difficult task and working memory was observed at 3 months after MS relapse. It may be possible that the practice effect had the impact on the improvement of cognitive scores that was noted in relapsing MS patients.


This paper proposes an improved Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method by using variable window size median filters during the Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) generation. Compared to the traditional EMD, the improved EMD, namely, Median EMD (MEMD), helps to reduce mode-mixing providing an improvement in terms of separating the fundamental frequencies per IMF. The MEMD method applies the EMD to the signal and then applies a variable window size median filter to the resulting IMFs. A narrow window is used for high frequency components where a broader window is used for the lower frequency components. The filtered IMFs are then summed again and another round of EMD is applied to yield the improved MEMD IMFs. A test setup for accelerated aging of bearings in induction motors is used for the comparison of the traditional and the improved EMD methods with the goal of finding potential bearing defects in an induction motor. The potential defect at the early stage is compared with the faulty state and is used to extract the characteristics of the bearing damage that develops gradually. Comparing the EMD and MEMD, it is seen that MEMD is an improvement to EMD in terms of mode-mixing problem. The MEMD method demonstrated to have better performance compared to the traditional EMD for the extraction of the fault features from the healthy operational state of the motor.


Proceedings of the Shale Energy Engineering 2014 conference, held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 21-23, 2014. Sponsored by the Energy Division of ASCE. This collection contains 73 peer-reviewed papers on the technical challenges associated with shale oil and gas development from a civil and environmental engineering perspective. Topics include: water resources and groundwater management and treatment; environmental issues in water disposal; geotechnical and geological aspects of shale oil and gas; hydraulic fracturing characterization and monitoring; environmental effects and practices in hydraulic fracturing; environmental regulations, risk management, and mitigation; public policy issues related to shale oil and gas; infrastructure development, roadway management, and site development; and pipeline detection, mapping, and monitoring. These papers will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners in all areas of shale energy engineering.


This paper provides a rare glimpse into the overall approach for the refinement, i.e. the enrichment of scanned historical newspapers with text and layout recognition, in the Europeana Newspapers project. Within three years, the project processed more than 10 million pages of historical newspapers from 12 national and major libraries to produce the largest open access and fully searchable text collection of digital historical newspapers in Europe. In this, a wide variety of legal, logistical, technical and other challenges were encountered. After introducing the background issues in newspaper digitization in Europe, the paper discusses the technical aspects of refinement in greater detail. It explains what decisions were taken in the design of the large-scale processing workflow to address these challenges, what were the results produced and what were identified as best practices.


We present an affine-invariant face detection and localization using GMM-based feature detector and enhanced appearance model. We measure the performance of the method on the realistic BioID and also XM2VTS databases applying a stringent localization error criterion. Compared to our original method, the results have improved by a factor of 2 and are considerably better on a challenging database than those of a baseline method.


Purpose: To evaluate the effect of phacoemulsification and posterior chamber intraocular lens (PCIOL) implantation on intraocular pressure (IOP) in eyes with chronic angle-closure glaucoma. Methods: Twenty-two patients with chronic angle-closure glaucoma (CACG) and visually significant cataract were included in our study. All were underwent phacoemulsification and PCIOL implantation. IOP, depth of angle, visual acuity, and the number of antiglaucoma medications were recorded preoperatively and one day, one week, one month, two months, and six months postoperatively. Results: The mean age was 71.04±6.55 years and there were 8 males (36.4%) and 14 females (63.6%). The mean IOP was 19.54±1.49 mm Hg preoperatively and 16.04±1.49 mm Hg six months postoperatively. The mean number of antiglaucoma medications was 2 preoperatively and 0.18±0.50 at final follow-up. The mean preoperative LogMAR visual acuity was 1.00 and 0.3 at final follow-up (P <0.005). Conclusion: When chronic angle-closure glaucoma is associated with visually significant cataract, phacoemulsification and PCIOL implantation alone can significantly reduce intraocular pressure.


First-principles electronic-structure codes are in constant development. New codes are created, and computational capabilities increase with time. The verification and validation of those codes as well as theoretical methods are of utmost importance if one wants to provide reliable results. In this work we present first a comparative study of calculations based on electron-phonon matrix elements in Abinit and PWSCF+Yambo, with the aim to resolve a discrepancy, observed at the time of writing, between the zero-point motion (ZPM) renormalization of the band gap of diamond as implemented in Abinit with the one found with PWSCF+EPW [1] and PWSCF+Yambo [2]. We first present internal checks in Abinit using finite difference methods versus perturbative approaches (i.e. density functional perturbation theory) as implemented in Abinit. This gives good agreement for the zero point motion for an underconverged (in k and q points) calculation. We then make internal checks for the electron-phonon matrix elements by comparing DFPT with finite difference, which also gives satisfactory results. Afterwards, we compare ground states properties as well as electron-phonon matrix elements from Abinit and from PWSCF. Excellent agreement is observed. We then move forward and analyse the different quantities that make the zero-point motion correction as formulated by Allen, Heine and Cardona [3] both in Abinit and PWSCF+Yambo. The Fan, diagonal Debye-Waller and non-diagonal Debye-Waller are analysed separately. At the time of writing, discrepancies for those terms are still present. In addition, a comparative study of the electronic bandstructure and other properties of pseudopotentials generated with APE [4] (and used with ABINIT) with an all-electron code (ELK) will be presented. The pseudopotentals studied are mainly calcium, sulphur and europium. [1] F. Giustino, S.G. Louie and M.L. Cohen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 265501 (2010). [2] E. Cannuccia and A. Marini, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 255501 (2011). [3] P. B. Allen and M. Cardona, Phys. Rev. B 24, 7479 (1981). [4] Atomic Pseudopotentials Engine http://www.tddft.org/programs/APE


Force state of belt conveyor during horizontal turning section was researched to improve the design level of belt conveyor with horizontal turning. On this basis,three-dimensional mechanical model describing the force state of conveyor belt during horizontal turning section was built. Then each force acting on conveyor belt was decomposed along principal coordinate direction by coordinate transformation, and the balance equations were established at different coordinate axes directions, respectively. According to the calculation formula of running resistance derived by balance equations, the factors affecting running resistance were analyzed, which can provide theoretical basis for the optimization design of belt conveyor with horizontal turning.


The present thesis focuses on the role of tragedy and on the multiple versions of theatricality in selected Essays and Lives of Plutarch. Most interestingly the 'tragic' does not emerge exclusively from the many quotations from the tragedians which are dispersed in the whole of the Plutarchan corpus, especially in his Essays it also emerges from distinctive suggestions of tragedy, tragic imagery, tragic parallels and texturing. Plutarch acknowledges the importance of tragedy in literary education, but is still very ready to criticise what the poets say. Even so, he does not treat tragedy negatively in itself, but figures it as a possibly bad and corrupting thing when it is wrongly transferred to real-life contexts. In this way he requires from his readers thoughtfulness and reflection on that relation between tragedy and real life, while he also makes them reflect on whether there is a distinctive 'tragic stance of life', and if so whether a philosophical viewpoint would cope with real life more constructively. In the Lives there may be less explicit thematic hints of tragedy, yet there is a strong theatricality and dramatisation, including self-dramatisation, in the description of characters, such as Pompey and Caesar, particularly at crucial points of their career and life. By developing the idea that the 'tragic' aspects may relate to the ways in which characters are morally or philosophically deficient or cause them to falter - but if so, in a way that is itself familiar from tragedy - they also relate extremely closely to the characteristics which make the people great. The tragic mindset (this idea will be illustrated from Plutarch's direct references to tragedy as well as his allusions to the theatrical world) offers a fresh angle in reading Plutarch's work and makes the reader engage more in thinking how both 'tragic' and theatre can be used as a tool to explore a hero's distinctiveness in addressing the issues of his world.