The debate surrounding the challenge of improving coherence in European Union (EU) foreign policy is ongoing. EU Delegations (EUDs), operating under the European External Action Service (EEAS) were recently established to provide a focal point for the EU in third countries, providing potential for improving EU coherence. Using the case study of the EUDs, this article adds to theorizations of EU coherence – defined as the absence of contradictions between policies and positions, and between words and deeds – through elaborating the notion of external engagement coherence. Questioning the assumption that improvement of EU foreign policy coherence leads to the improvement of its effectiveness, the article analyses perceptions of the EUDs in three EU strategic partners – China, Russia and India. The article finds that the creation of the EUDs does not necessarily mean more perceived coherence for the EU. In spite of this finding; EUDs were nevertheless often viewed as effective, especially in certain areas.


The textile industry is one of the largest water-polluting industries in the world. Due to an increased application of chromophores and a more frequent presence in wastewaters, the need for an ecologically favorable dye degradation process emerged. To predict the decolorization rate of textile dyes with Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO), we developed, validated, and utilized the molecular descriptor structural causality model (SCM) based on the decision tree algorithm (DTM). Combining mathematical models and theories with decolorization experiments, we have elucidated the most important molecular properties of the dyes and confirm the accuracy of SCM model results. Besides the potential utilization of the developed model in the treatment of textile dye-containing wastewater, the model is a good base for the prediction of the molecular properties of the molecule. This is important for selecting chromophores as the reagents in determining LPMO activities. Dyes with azo- or triarylmethane groups are good candidates for colorimetric LPMO assays and the determination of LPMO activity. An adequate methodology for the LPMO activity determination is an important step in the characterization of LPMO properties. Therefore, the SCM/DTM model validated with the 59 dyes molecules is a powerful tool in the selection of adequate chromophores as reagents in the LPMO activity determination and it could reduce experimentation in the screening experiments.


Background Mutations within the NOTCH3 gene cause cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). CADASIL mutations appear to be restricted to the first twenty-four exons, resulting in the gain or loss of a cysteine amino acid. The role of other exonic NOTCH3 variation not involving cysteine residues and mutations in exons 25-33 in ischemic stroke remains unresolved. Methods All 33 exons of NOTCH3 were sequenced in 269 Caucasian probands from the Siblings With Ischemic Stroke Study (SWISS), a 70-center North American affected sibling pair study and 95 healthy Caucasian control subjects. Variants identified by sequencing in the SWISS probands were then tested for association with ischemic stroke using US Caucasian controls collected at the Mayo Clinic (n=654), and further assessed in a Caucasian (n=802) and African American (n=298) patient-control series collected through the Ischemic Stroke Genetics Study (ISGS). Results Sequencing of the 269 SWISS probands identified one (0.4%) with small vessel type stroke carrying a known CADASIL mutation (p.R558C; Exon 11). Of the 19 common NOTCH3 variants identified, the only variant significantly associated with ischemic stroke after multiple testing adjustment was p.R1560P (rs78501403; Exon 25) in the combined SWISS and ISGS Caucasian series (Odds Ratio [OR] 0.50, P=0.0022) where presence of the minor allele was protective against ischemic stroke. Although only significant prior to adjustment for multiple testing, p.T101T (rs3815188; Exon 3) was associated with an increased risk of small-vessel stroke (OR: 1.56, P=0.008) and p.P380P (rs61749020; Exon 7) was associated with decreased risk of large-vessel stroke (OR: 0.35, P=0.047) in Caucasians. No significant associations were observed in the small African American series. Conclusion Cysteine-affecting NOTCH3 mutations are rare in patients with typical ischemic stroke, however our observation that common NOTCH3 variants may be associated with risk of ischemic stroke warrants further study.


Points-to analysis for Java benefits greatly from context sensitivity. CFL-reachability and k-limited context strings are two approaches to obtaining context sensitivity with different advantages: CFL-reachability allows local reasoning about data value flow and thus is suitable for demand-driven analyses, whereas k-limited analyses allow object sensitivity which is a superior calling-context abstraction for object-oriented languages. We combine the advantages of both approaches to obtain a context-sensitive analysis that is as precise as k-limited context strings, but is more efficient to compute. Our key insight is based on a novel abstraction of contexts adapted from CFL-reachability, which represents a relation between two calling contexts as a composition of transformations over contexts. We formulate pointer analysis in an algebraic structure of context transformations, which is a set of functions over calling contexts closed under function composition. We show that the context representation of context-string-based analyses is an explicit enumeration of all input and output values of context transformations. CFL-reachability-based pointer analysis is formulated to use call strings as contexts, but the context transformations concept can be applied to any context abstraction used in k-limited analyses, including objectand type-sensitive analysis. The result is a more efficient algorithm for computing context-sensitive pointer information for a wide variety of context configurations.


In this paper, we study the minimum wage reform in Russia, which aimed to decentralize the fixing of the minimum wage and to increase the involvement of social partners in this process. The old system of the minimum wage setting was based on a single nation-wide minimum wage, which was differentiated across regions and occupations via a cumbersome framework of coefficients. The new system is a mixture of a government-legislated minimum wage at the federal level and collective agreements at regional levels. We show that the system of minimum wage setting has become more flexible. The reform succeeded in raising the real value of the minimum wage and increasing earnings of low paid workers without causing considerable negative effects in terms of employment. However, the reform did not lead to greater regional variation of minimum wages. It introduced some new imbalances: an unintended consequence of the reform was the emergence of separate regional wage sub-minima for private and public sector workers in many regions. The major challenge in coming years is to strengthen the institutions of collective bargaining, introduce evidence-based evaluation and boost the capacities of government and non-government monitoring agencies.


BACKGROUND Epigenetic variation is implicated in a range of non-communicable diseases, including those of the eye. However, investigating the role of epigenetic variation in ocular disease remains problematic as the degree of correlation in epigenetic profile between central (such as the brain or eye) and peripheral tissues (blood or saliva) within an individual remains largely unclear. METHODS Matched whole blood from the subclavian vein, and whole eyes (N=8) were obtained post-mortem. DNA was isolated from blood, neurosensory retina, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid and optic nerve tissue. DNA methylation profiling was performed using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 platform. Following standard quality control measures a total of 433,768 methylation values common to all samples were available for use in subsequent analysis. RESULTS Unsupervised hierarchical clustering and principal components analysis revealed tissue of origin as the main driver of variation within the dataset. Despite this, there was a strong correlation of methylation profiles between tissues within each individual. Over 255,000 CpG sites were found to have similar methylation levels (beta <0.2 or beta >0.8) across different tissues in the same individuals, with a further ~16,000 sites having similar methylation profiles across ocular tissues only. Only a small proportion of probes showing interindividual variation in blood, co-varied across blood and eye tissues within individuals. CONCLUSIONS An improved understanding of the epigenetic landscape of the eye will have important ramifications for regenerative medicine and ongoing dissection of gene-environment interactions in eye disease. Despite a generally high correlation in methylation values irrespective of sample origin, tissue type is the major driver of methylation variation, with only limited covariation between blood and any specific ocular tissue. Caution is warranted when aiming to infer ocular tissue methylation status from blood samples.


Social media introduced several notable changes to the digital marketing. The new technological developments facilitate an increased connectedness and empowerment of the social media users. This fosters a development of brand communities in the social media environment where users are enabled to participate in collaborative creation and sharing of value. Often, online communities possess a special subgroup of users with a high authority, credibility and a large number of connections who are empowered to influence the actual development of brand's social media community, thus being identified as social media influencers. The sustainable and collaborative relationships with community influencers present marketers with remarkable business potential from one perspective and yet relatively unexplored challenges from another. The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of brand engagement with its community influencers in the social media environment and analyse the impact of collaborative engagement on the brand's social media equity and co-creation potential development. The research study investigates two industry-leading information technology (IT) and business analytics software and services suppliers. Findings reflect a positive impact of brand engagement with community influencers on brand equity and co-creation potential, thus contributing relevant insights for academics and practitioners to the novel and developing concept.


Abstract The aim of the present study was to test the proposal of Kousta et al. (2011), according to which abstract words are more affectively loaded than concrete words. To this end, we focused on the acquisition of novel concepts by means of an intentional learning experiment in which participants had to learn a set of 40 novel concepts in Spanish (definitions) associated with novel word forms (pseudowords). Concreteness (concrete vs. abstract concepts) and emotionality (neutral vs. negative concepts) were orthogonally manipulated. Acquisition was assessed through a recognition task in which participants were asked to match the novel word forms with their definitions. Results showed that concrete concepts were acquired better than abstract concepts. Importantly, the concreteness advantage disappeared when the content of the concept was negative. Hence, emotional (negative) content facilitated the acquisition of abstract concepts, but not of concrete concepts, giving support to the proposal of Kousta et al. (2011).


The ubiquitous availability of computing devices and the widespread use of the internet have generated a large amount of data continuously. Therefore, the amount of available information on any given topic is far beyond humans' processing capacity to properly process, causing what is known as information overload. To efficiently cope with large amounts of information and generate content with significant value to users, we require identifying, merging and summarising information. Data summaries can help gather related information and collect it into a shorter format that enables answering complicated questions, gaining new insight and discovering conceptual boundaries. This thesis focuses on three main challenges to alleviate information overload using novel summarisation techniques. It further intends to facilitate the analysis of documents to support personalised information extraction. This thesis separates the research issues into four areas, covering (i) feature engineering in document summarisation, (ii) traditional static and inflexible summaries, (iii) traditional generic summarisation approaches, and (iv) the need for reference summaries. We propose novel approaches to tackle these challenges, by: i)enabling automatic intelligent feature engineering, ii) enabling flexible and interactive summarisation, iii) utilising intelligent and personalised summarisation approaches. The experimental results prove the efficiency of the proposed approaches compared to other state-of-the-art models. We further propose solutions to the information overload problem in different domains through summarisation, covering network traffic data, health data and business process data.


Hydrogenases are complex metalloenzymes, showing tremendous potential as H2-converting redox catalysts for application in light-driven H2 production, enzymatic fuel cells and H2-driven cofactor regeneration. They catalyze the reversible oxidation of hydrogen into protons and electrons. The apo-enzymes are not active unless they are modified by a complicated post-translational maturation process that is responsible for the assembly and incorporation of the complex metal center. The catalytic center is usually easily inactivated by oxidation, and the separation and purification of the active protein is challenging. The understanding of the catalytic mechanisms progresses slowly, since the purification of the enzymes from their native hosts is often difficult, and in some case impossible. Over the past decades, only a limited number of studies report the homologous or heterologous production of high yields of hydrogenase. In this review, we emphasize recent discoveries that have greatly improved our understanding of microbial hydrogenases. We compare various heterologous hydrogenase production systems as well as in vitro hydrogenase maturation systems and discuss their perspectives for enhanced biohydrogen production. Additionally, activities of hydrogenases isolated from either recombinant organisms or in vivo/in vitro maturation approaches were systematically compared, and future perspectives for this research area are discussed.


Two studies tested whether action control by implementation intentions is sensitive to the activation and strength of participants' underlying goal intentions. In Study 1, participants formed implementation intentions (or did not) and their goal intentions were measured. Findings revealed a significant interaction between implementation intentions and the strength of respective goal intentions. Implementation intentions benefited the rate of goal attainment when participants had strong goal intentions but not when goal intentions were weak. Study 2 activated either a task-relevant or a neutral goal outside of participants' conscious awareness and found that implementation intentions affected performance only when the relevant goal had been activated. These findings indicate that the rate of goal attainment engendered by implementation intentions takes account of the state (strength, activation) of people's superordinate goal intentions.


The learning outcomes or educational objectives (goals) of a remote controlled laboratory via the Internet is the subject of discussion in this paper. The developers of remote laboratories are often self motivated individuals or academic groups, who only focus on development, accessibility and usability of their laboratories. The key question i.e. the intended learning outcomes or educational goals of a remotely controlled laboratory are frequently ignored or simply not given enough priority to be considered. This may lead to under utilization or complete failure of a particular remote laboratory. In this paper the challenges in formulating and achieving the educational objectives of a remotely controlled active noise control and acoustics laboratory are discussed.


This paper analyses the surgical literature devoted to lymph node clearance for cancer of the esophagus. Involvement of a small number of lymph nodes by the neoplastic process does not preclude long-term survival and even cure: The superiority of the 3-field dissection over the 2-field dissec tion, although suggested in the available studies, should be confirmed by a prospective randomized study. Extensive lymph node clearance protects many patients from local recurrence, and allows to staging of the neoplastic disease and selection of those patients who are eligible for adjuvant therapy.


The awareness of drought and its impacts on Central Europe increased after the significant drought episodes in 2000, 2003, 2012 and 2015, which were all estimated to have caused over 500 million Euro in damage in the Czech Republic alone. These events indicated the need for timely and high‐resolution monitoring tools that would enable analysing, monitoring and forecasting of drought events. Monitoring soil water availability in near real time and at high‐resolution (up to 0.5 × 0.5 km for some products) helps farmers and water managers to mitigate impacts of these extreme events. The Czech Drought Monitor was developed between 2012 and 2014 and has since been operational as an online platform. It uses an operational modelling system that consists of four pillars: (a) weekly soil moisture estimates based on spaceborne Advanced Scatterometer sensor measurements; (b) the daily SoilClim soil moisture model, which runs based on high‐density network data from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute with a 55‐year reference period; (c) weekly reports on vegetation condition, which is deduced from satellite‐based vegetation indices and early warnings of imminent drought impacts; and (d) weekly reports of soil moisture, especially after drought impacts, which are provided by dozens of experts. Since 2016 the drought forecast (+9 days) has been released daily based on an ensemble of five numerical weather prediction models combined with a weekly drought outlook (+2 months). The analysis of four recent episodes (2000, 2003, 2012 and 2015) clearly showed that both large‐scale and regionally restrained drought episodes posed serious risks in terms of their impacts and damage. Comparisons with historical droughts showed that these events, especially the 2000, 2003 and 2015 events, were among the top five drought episodes in the June–August period observed in the Czech Republic since 1961 in terms of spatial extent, magnitude and duration.


Much has been written about the history of the work of men and women in the premodern past. It is now generally acknowledged that early modern ideological assumptions about a strict division of work and space between men and productive work outside the house on the one hand, and women and reproduction and consumption inside the house, on the other, bore little relation to reality. Household work strategies, out of necessity, were diverse. Yet what this spatial complexity meant in particular households on a day-to-day basis and its consequences for gender relationships is less clear and has received relatively little historical attention. The aim of this paper is to add to our knowledge through a case study of the way that men and women used and organized space for work in the county of Essex during the "long seventeenth century". Drawing on critiques of the concept of "separate spheres" and the models of economic change to which it relates, together with local/micro historical methods, it places evidence within an appropriate regional context to argue that spatial patterns were enormously varied in early modern England and a number of factors—time, place, occupation, and status, as well as gender—determined them. Understanding of the dynamic, complex, uneven purchase of patriarchy upon the organization, imagination, and experience of space has important implications for approaches to gender relations in early modern England. It raises additional doubts about the utility of the separate spheres analogy, and particularly the use of binary oppositions of male/female and public/private, to describe gender relations and their changes in this period and shows that a deeper understanding demands more research into the local contexts in which the gendered division and meaning of work was negotiated.


: The aim of the investigation was to visualize transport of antibodies produced in the small intestine of the preliminarily sensibilized rats. Horseradish peroxidase (HP) was used as an antigen. Visualization of antibodies was performed by means of determining HP activity (R.S. Graham and M.G. Karnovsky method, 1966). In the lamina propria of the tunica mucosa of the sensibilized rat small intestine, plasmocytes synthesizing antibodies appeared on the 4th day after a challenge dose of the antigen had been injected. The synthesized immunoglobulins were transported in two directions: via epithelium in the intestinal lumen and into the vessels of the lamina propria of the small intestine tunica mucosa. These both processes occur by means of micropinocytosis. Out of the intestinal vessels the antibodies get into the system of the hepatic portal vein and are detected in the sinusoid capillaries and further they get into the perisinusoid space (Disse). Besides, the reaction product is revealed in micropinocytic vesicles situating in cytoplasm of hepatocytes and in bile capillaries. Thus, antibodies synthesized in the lamina propria of the small intestine tunica mucosa get into the intestinal lumen not only through epithelium, but also through biliary system of the liver.


Abstract. We present and evaluate a climatology of cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) based on 13 years of Aqua-MODIS observations. The climatology provides monthly mean 1 × 1° CDNC values plus associated uncertainties over the global ice-free oceans. All values are in-cloud values, i.e. the reported CDNC value will be valid for the cloudy part of the grid box. Here, we provide an overview of how the climatology was generated and assess and quantify potential systematic error sources including effects of broken clouds, and remaining artefacts caused by the retrieval process or related to observation geometry. Retrievals and evaluations were performed at the scale of initial MODIS observations (in contrast to some earlier climatologies, which were created based on already gridded data). This allowed us to implement additional screening criteria, so that observations inconsistent with key assumptions made in the CDNC retrieval could be rejected. Application of these additional screening criteria led to significant changes in the annual cycle of CDNC in terms of both its phase and magnitude. After an optimal screening was established a final CDNC climatology was generated. Resulting CDNC uncertainties are reported as monthly-mean standard deviations of CDNC over each 1 × 1° grid box. These uncertainties are of the order of 30 % in the stratocumulus regions and 60 to 80 % elsewhere.


ABSTRACT Russia is in the middle of a broad modernization of its strategic and nonstrategic nuclear forces, including some new developments. The authors estimate that as of early 2016, the country had a stockpile of approximately 4500 nuclear warheads assigned for use by long-range strategic launchers and shorter range tactical nuclear forces. In addition, as many as 2800 retired but still largely intact warheads awaited dismantlement, for a total inventory of about 7300. The modernization program reflects the government's conviction that strategic nuclear forces are indispensible for Russia's security and status as a great power. Unless a new arms reduction agreement is reached in the near future, the shrinking of Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal that has characterized the past two decades will likely come to an end, with the force leveling out at around 500 launchers with roughly 2400 assigned warheads. Combined with an increased number of military exercises and operations, as well as occasional explicit nuclear threats against other countries, the modernizations contribute to growing concern abroad about Russian intentions.


K. MAROT : Kronos und die Titanen. Reprinted from Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, Vol. viii (1932/X). Pp. 4882 and 139-214. Bologna : Zanichelli, 1932. Paper. THIS long and elaborate article concerns itself with the distant past of Greek mythology and religion, dealing mostly with pre-Homeric conditions. It may be questioned whether, despite the very considerable learning and acuteness of the author, conclusions necessarily so hypothetical as his can have much permanent value. His results are as follows. Kronos, as he appears in Greek religion of the classical period and in literature from Homer'on, is originally not one figure but two, a god who gave fertility but, to renew his powers, demanded periodical human sacrifice (hence such features as the swallowing of the children of Kronos and Rhea), and a figure of early myth, comparable to the Polynesian Tane-Mahuta, the leader in the primaeval separation of Heaven from Earth. The non-Greek name which somehow came to be applied to both these figures led to all manner of popular etymologies, especially to the familiar derivations from icpalva and XP°°S) and these in their turn affected the god's mythology. The vehicles of this development in the earliest period, before Homer, were a poem telling the story of the son of Uranos with his ' crooked counsels' and another of genealogical type, not unlike Hesiod's style, which is indeed a revival of an old fashion. The Titans are solar deities, their name (which also was subjected to much etymologizing) arising in all probability from a ritual cry, that called in later times TiTavuTpjis, which came to be associated with the dancing movement of sunbeams.


Optical fibers have multiple advantages over conventional electrical connections, such as lower energy losses and higher bandwidth. To use optics for chip-tochip communication, electro-optic (EO) modulators need to be scaled down to be incorporated on integrated circuits. This size reduction has been accomplished using plasmonic-organic hybrid (POH) waveguides, which make use of nonlinear organic EO materials and surface plasmon polaritons to achieve light modulation in devices with lengths on the micron scale. As these devices are just starting to be developed, there are many avenues for their potential optimization. In order to streamline and reduce the cost of the optimization process, a computational model of these devices is being developed. Using this model, researchers will be able to experiment with varying device parameters, such as geometry, material composition, and cladding layers and see how device performance is affected in order to inform the fabrication of actual test devices. This thesis explores the Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) as a potential software for this computational model. To do so, a simplified model of a POH waveguide was created to validate whether or not DDA produces physically expected results. Four separate simulations using this simplified model produce results that are consistent with physical expectations. Additional simulations can provide further confirmation of these initial results.


INTRODUCTION: Epileptic syndromes with continuous spike wave in slow-wave sleep (CSWS), including electrical status epilepticus in sleep (ESES) and Landau-Kleffner syndrome, are true epileptic encephalopathies where sustained epileptic activity is related to cognitive and behavioural decline. AIMS: To review the natural course of ESES, to define the general principles of treatment of epileptic syndromes with CSWS, to delineate the different options that are currently available for treating these epileptic encephalopathies, and to analyze the prognostic factors linked to pharmacological treatment of ESES. DEVELOPMENT: Epileptic syndromes with CSWS are initially treated with a pharmacologic intervention with polytherapy of antiepileptic drugs in most cases. However, due to the poor response that CSWS often have to antiepileptic drugs, non-pharmacologic treatment options are an important part of a comprehensive treatment plan for this group of children. This article discusses the use of corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulins, ketogenic diet, vagus nerve stimulation, and epilepsy surgery in the treatment of patients with epileptic syndromes with CSWS. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of ESES extends beyond just control of the seizures; amelioration of the continuous epileptiform discharge must occur to improve neuropsychological outcome. There is a significant correlation between the length of the ESES period and the extent of residual intellectual deficit at follow-up. According to this knowledge, there is a well defined therapeutic interval where our different strategies of treatment may be useful, and the upper limits of this time frame to a critical period of 12-18 months.


User interface (UI) design for ubiquitous computing is different from UI design for classical desktop-oriented applications. Interaction of a user with the system and applications takes place in a highly distributed fashion. Input-and output functionality is distributed over space, as well as time. Human-computer interaction (HCI) has to take place wherever needed and whenever needed. Due to the highly dynamic pattern of use, " classical " UI design for a single screen is poorly suited. This paper presents an architecture for designing applications bringing different input-and output channels to small devices, like mobile phones, as well as taking advantage from the benefits of a desktop computer. The W@PNotes system serves as a proof of concept for the sucessful use of this architecture.


Increasing returns are an incontrovertible fact since Adam Smith hailed them as the very originators of wealth, yet they play havoc with general equilibrium. They fit, in marked contrast, nicely into the structural axiomatic framework. This indicates that it is worthwhile to replace the behavioral axioms of standard economics by objective structural axioms. These are in the present paper applied to the question of how increasing returns affect the systemic interrelations in the pure consumption economy. To invite a reality check the logical implications of the structural employment equation are set in relation to three well-known statistical relationships.


The Mexican Ministry of Education (SEP) recognizes that teachers in general possess no training in environmental education or in strategies that facilitate participation amongst students. However, following the Mexican government approval of the Law of Environmental Education, in 2005, the inclusion of environment education in the elementary school curricula of Baja California Sur, Mexico, has become a priority. This study approaches this shortfall to consider the use of dialogic teaching as a strategy for increasing environmental awareness, whether if it can support children's own sense of agency and whether it can successfully be incorporated into the permanent curriculum of Baja California Sur classrooms.
The study takes a sociocultural approach drawing on the works of Vygotsky (1962, 1981), Barnes (1976, 2008) and more recently, Alexander (2008) and Mercer (2004, 2008). In particular, the study adapts the work of Mercer's Thinking Together programme (2008) which was used to create a programme of work piloted in 7 schools, and as a theoretical foundation for the analysis of children's' recorded oral interchanges and written narratives.
The research was conducted using a mixed methods approach to acquire and analyse qualitative and quantitative data. Its main focus is on the narratives produced by the children in the study as markers of improved environmental knowledge and awareness. The study also used reflexive researcher narratives following Clough (2002) and Denzin (2008) in which the researcher enters and acknowledges his own impact in the research environment, and explains this interaction to the reader through a narrative.
The results were separated as quantitative and qualitative results. Quantitative data records significant gains in environmental knowledge indicators and in the count of dialogic and environmental keywords. Qualitative analysis records improvements in several aspects of the dialogue dynamics within the classroom, and in all the measured indicators.


Welcome to the UTA Library resource guide for topics in Art & Art History. The sections here may help you with work for Arts-related courses. Feel free to leave comments, suggest new sources, or get in touch with us for face-to-face collaboration.


A 45-year-old female was admitted with headache and vomiting. Cranial computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a callosal hematoma. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed no venous flow and thrombus replacing the inferior sagittal sinus (ISS) lumen. Under appropriate medical treatment and close follow-up she recovered quickly and, after 2 years, was doing well with corpus callosum infarcts. Isolated inferior sagittal sinus thrombosis is an extremely rare condition with only one previously reported case in the literature. Although it is very rare, isolated inferior sagittal sinus thrombosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of non-traumatic corpus callosum hematoma.


This is a thesis about the control of magnetic gears. A decade ago (2001) the first modern prototype magnetic gear box was constructed using rare earth magnets (NdFeB). Magnetic gear boxes have some desirable properties not found in their mechanical gear box counterparts, these include: contact-less torque transmission, lubrication-free, reduced noise and vibration, and non-destructive torque overload capability. Hitherto, no detailed investigation or analysis has been conducted on the effects of using a magnetic gear box in place of a mechanical gear box. As will be demonstrated in this thesis, magnetic gears possess a number of undesirable properties which must be given due consideration when designing speed and position controllers. In particular, unlike mechanical gear boxes, magnetic gear boxes have extremely low torsional rigidity. Furthermore, the torque transfer characteristic is fundamentally nonlinear and magnetic gear boxes have the potential to 'slip'. On the one hand, 'slipping' is a great benefit as a non-destructive 'torque fuse'; but on the other, this represents a consequential loss of control. This thesis examines the control issues that arise through the use of a specially constructed magnetic coupling integrated into an experimental test rig. The development of a linearized mathematical model of the experimental magnetic coupling is used to derive optimized classical controllers for speed and position, demonstrating outstanding theoretical and experimental results. To compensate for the possibility of 'slip', a methodology is presented for the detection and recovery from what is defined as 'pole-slip' in a magnetic coupling. To avert 'pole-slip', a model predictive control (MPC) scheme is developed that prevents over-torque pole-slipping. Feedback linearization is considered for a nonlinear model of the magnetic coupling and nonlinear control laws and state transformations are derived to produce perfect linearization, for both speed and position control, over the entire operating range of the experimental magnetic coupling.


In this paper we reflect on a collaborative, process developed in an Australian university to support whole-of-program curriculum change. The aim of the change process is to enhance employment outcomes of Creative Arts students by aligning the curriculum with disciplinary Threshold Learning Outcomes. In this qualitative, case study the author-participants evaluate an emerging four-stage process of support for curriculum change and use reflective data from three perspectives: that of the academic developer, the head of program, and the discipline leader, to assess the usefulness of each stage and reflect about what each of us has learned. We conclude that key features of our process, such as its collaborative approach, have resulted in positive outcomes for participants. These include opportunities for situated learning, genuine ownership and deep engagement with the curriculum change process, including desired program outcomes, as well as reflective practice and a greater shared understanding.


Haptics is the science of merging tactile sensation with computer applications, thereby enabling
users to receive feedback they can feel (in addition to auditory and visual cues). Multimodal
environments where visual, auditory and haptic stimuli are present convey information more
efficiently since the user manipulates and experiences the environment through multiple sensory
channels. The availability of haptic systems enables the augmentation of traditional instruction with
interactive interfaces offering enhanced motivation and intellectual stimulation. Although the
haptic devices have not made large in roads into education, we believe that the potential for
revolutionary change now exists due to the recent availability of both the hardware and software
components. This paper brings into discussion some of the most relevant technological issues involving
haptic systems in education. One of these issues is choosing the suitable haptic hardware, API
or framework for developing a visuo-haptic e-Learning system. The decision is based on several
criteria such as multimodal resources needed by the software system, compatibility with haptic devices, dynamic configuration of the scene, and so on.
Another issue is related to the software system reactivity at the user actions. The immediate haptic feedback from virtual models, together with the synchronisation of haptic and visual cues generated by computer to its users are essential for enhancing the user's learning path.
Providing realistic visuo-haptic models as much as it is possible is also another problem that the development of the haptic e-learning system should deal with. Such models help to obtain accurate training scenarios developed for the teaching, for example, of medical protocols, or chemical or physical processes.


Abstract Authigenic quartz cement is the most abundant form of diagenetic cement in clastic sedimentary rocks. Despite this, there are many unknowns relating to mechanisms of growth of quartz cement and the crystallography of quartz cement. The key focus of this paper is to investigate further the issues of crystallography and quartz cement growth mechanisms, using the shallowly buried Oligo-Miocene Fontainebleau sandstone, France, as a case study. We address the following points: (1) are authigenic quartz overgrowths really in crystallographic continuity with their substrate grains? (2) What is the crystallographic inter-relationship between zones of quartz cement growth? (3) Are all quartz overgrowths entirely quartz, or do other silica polymorphs exist within overgrowths? The study combines an array of techniques to answer these questions, including transmitted-light optics, cathodoluminescence (CL), and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), the latter of the two being performed with the use of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The use of EBSD to this study is crucial because it provides essential crystallographic information on the grains and their overgrowths. The data revealed: (1) quartz overgrowths comprise several zones visible in optical and CL images as parallel, isopachous, alternating bright and dark bands; (2) these bands represent areas of poorly crystalline silica and fully crystalline quartz; (3) one entire zone consists only of poorly crystalline quartz; (4) the final growth stage occurred as prismatic microcrystalline quartz into the remaining porosity; (5) the crystallographic orientation across most of the overgrowth, as far as the microcrystalline quartz layer, is the same as that of the detrital grain (i.e., it is syntaxial); and (6) the microcrystalline quartz layer has crystals with different and variable orientations relative to the detrital grain. This indicates that part of the quartz cement is not in crystallographic continuity with the substrate grain and displays an epitaxial relationship. Detailed analysis of the orientation data shows that there is a rational crystallographic rotation around a variety of axes, which indicates that the orientation of the final growth stages was not random.


Lithuania is one the three Baltic states surrounded by Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Russia. Since 1940 Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union but declared its independence in 1991, and since 2004 is a member of the European Union (EU) (1). The population of Lithuania is 2,789,533, however this is a significant decline from 3,704,134 in 1991 (2). Lithuania belongs to a group of countries with a very high human development index (3). It is a high-income country with mean GDP per capita of $34,596 that is estimated to continue to grow (4). The major sociodemographic challenges of present-day Lithuania include fast-declining population, regional disparities and aging population that may subsequentially incur increasing strains on healthcare system resources (5).


Nano-imprinting Lithography (NIL) has been considered as the most promising technique for nano-scaled fabrication and patterning. Recently, a new approach known as Laser-Assisted Direct Imprinting(LADI) has been proposed and demonstrated as an even more efficient way for direct nanofabrication and nanopatterning. In this study, we focused on silicon materials and utilized a single KrF excimer laser pulse (248 nm wavelength and 30 ns pulse duration) as the heating source. Molds of micro-scaled size have been prepared using conventional photolithography techniques. A working platform based on an Excimer Laser Micro-Machining system is constructed for LADI process. The influence of laser fluence and the imprinted pressure on the resulting structures was verifying by varying the laser fluence (1.0 ~ 1.2 J/cm2) and the imprinted load (3 ~ 9kg). The results have shown that the morphology and the imprinted depth were directly related to the laser fluence and the imprinted pressure. Quantitative data are obtained and will be addressed.


Archival data recorders (ADRs) were deployed on nesting female leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea to record short-term diving behavior. Plastic cattle ear tags were used as a platform to which an archival depth recorder was attached. The tags were applied to the hind flippers of 10 turtles, ranging from 141.9 to 160.6 cm in curved carapace length at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. We later retrieved 7 of the original 10 tags at the beach; durations of deployment ranged from 22 to 90 h. The recorded number of dives per deployment ranged from 118 to 310. Maximum dive depths ranged from 175.6 to 479.7 m (mean 275.4, SE 41.7, n = 7), and maximum dive durations ranged from 16.3 to 27.8 min (mean 21.3, SE = 1.5, n = 7). Dive data indicated that post-nesting females dove deeper, less frequently, and longer than pre-nesting females — depth: meanpost 78.6 m, 95% CI (56.0, 101.2) versus meanpre 45.4 m, 95% CI (37.1, 53.8); frequency: meanpost 2.4 dives h -1 , 95% CI (1.8, 2.9) versus meanpre 5.4 dives h -1 , 95% CI (5.0, 5.8); duration: meanpost 13.1 min, 95% CI (11.2, 15.1) versus meanpre 6.1 min, 95% CI (5.5, 6.6). A pre-nest- ing female was defined as one that attempted to nest but returned to the sea without laying eggs. This ADR deployment method provides a simpler and less intrusive alternative to other tag attachment methods, such as harness and tethers, when the research questions require only short deployment time of archival recorders.


The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith, 1797) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a native to the Americas and recently reported in Africa, Germany, the Netherlands and India, is a significant pest of many crop species. Although a widespread and important pest, information on its biology and development are incomplete and require detailed study. In this study, the biotic potential and reproductive parameters of S. frugiperda were evaluated under controlled conditions (25±1 °C, 70±10% RH and 14 hour photophase). The longevity, pre-, post- and oviposition periods, fecundity, and fertility of 30 pairs were evaluated. The longevity of females (10.87 days) was not significantly different from that of males (10.90 days). The mean durations of the pre-, post- and oviposition periods were 2.63, 0.53 and 7.70 days, respectively. The mean fecundity was 2,370.66 eggs per female and mean fertility was 2,309.03 larvae per female. On average, a female copulated 1.6 times. The biotic potential of S. frugiperda was estimated at 2.086 × 1029 individuals/female/year. The net reproductive rate (Ro) was 1,079.73 times per generation and the mean generation time (T) was 32.00 days. The intrinsic rate of increase (rm) was 0.22, with a finite rate of increase (λ) of 1.24 per day. This study evaluates and describes the biological parameters of S. frugiperda with special emphasis on its biotic potential and reproductive parameters. This information will improve the development of integrated pest management (IPM) and insect resistance management (IRM) for this species.


In consumer and information systems research, it remains unclear how consumers consider smartphone app recommendations in the course of their decision making process that leads to product choices in the physical store. Moreover, it is unclear which type of information smartphone apps should transport to consumers and if there are any customer segmentation criteria for smartphone app design. With respect to the theoretical and managerial importance of recommendation services in the form of smartphone apps we want to shed some light on this topic. Combining literature from the fields of IS and marketing research, we hypothesize that personalized recommendations via smartphone apps can help to boost sales in physical grocery stores. Furthermore, we hypothesize that additional popularity information (in the form of "stars") does not amplify the positive effect of personalized recommendations. In addition, we assume that the effects of recommendation usage differ for men and women. We conducted a field study with a European grocery retailer to test our hypotheses. Finally, we discuss first implications as well as central limitations of our research and present the next research steps.


Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome is a potentially life‐threatening disorder caused most often by a phage group II Staphylococcus aureus infection. Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome is more common in newborns than in adults. Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome tends to appear abruptly with diffuse erythema and fever. The diagnosis can be confirmed by a skin biopsy specimen, which can be expedited by frozen section processing, as staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome should be distinguished from life threatening toxic epidermal necrolysis. Histologically, the superficial epidermis is detached, the separation level being at the granular layer. The diffuse skin loss is due to a circulating bacterial exotoxin. The aetiological exfoliating toxin is a serine protease that splits only desmoglein 1. The exfoliative toxins are spread haematogenously from a localized source of infection, causing widespread epidermal damage at distant sites. Sepsis and pneumonia are the most feared complications. The purpose of this review is to summarize advances in understanding of this serious disorder and provide therapeutic options for both paediatric and adult patients. Recent epidemiological studies have demonstrated that paediatric patients have an increased incidence of Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome during the summer and autumn. Mortality is less than 10% in children, but is between 40% and 63% in adults, despite antibacterial therapy. Previously, intravenous immunoglobulin had been recommended to combat Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome, but a recent study associates its use with prolonged hospitalization.


Background subtraction is a technique for detecting moving objects in video frames. A simple BS process involves building a model of the background and extracting regions of the foreground (moving objects) with the assumptions that the camera remains stationary and there exist no movements in the background. Video object extraction is a critical task in multimedia analysis and editing. Normally, the user provides some hints of foreground and background, and then the target object is extracted from the video sequence. In this paper, we propose a object segmentation system that integrates a clustering model with Markov random field-based contour tracking and graph-cut image segmentation. The contour tracking propagates the shape of the target object, whereas the graph-cut refines the shape and improves the accuracy of video segmentation. Experimental results show that our segmentation system is efficient.


Myrobalan 29C is one of the most important rootstocks that is widely used for plum and apricot trees. This study was conducted to determine the most suitable media culture and regulators of plant growth for micropropagation of Myrobalan 29C in Khorasan Natural Resource and Agricultural Research Centre Mashhad, Iran. 10 explants treated were sterilized in 70% Ethanol for 1 min, Mercuric chloride (0.1%) for 1, 2 and 3 min and sodium hypochlorite (3 and 10%) for 10, 20 and 30 min. Results showed that 10% sodium hypochlorite (30 min) with 2% decay was the best treatment. In this experiment,  proliferation and rooting were performed in three kinds of culture media: Murashige and Skoog (MS), McCown and Lioyd (WPM) and Driver and Kuniyuki (DKW). They were supplemented with plant growth regulators (benzyl amino purine (BAP) and thiadizuron (TDZ)) of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 mg l-1 in all treatments of the proliferation; and with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) of 0, 1, 2, 3 mg l-1 in the rooting step. Results showed that the highest number and length of shoot respectively were 5.58 and 2.50 cm in MS medium with 2 mg l-1 BAP concentrations. The DKW medium in 1 mg l-1 of NAA, the highest percent of rooting (100%) and root length were about 14.5 cm in MS medium with 2 mg l-1 of NAA respectively. The acclimatization of plantlets was successful in greenhouse conditions. The survival percent in substrateperlite (100% V) was about 80%.

 Key words: Tissue culture, disinfection, micropropagation, acclimatization.


This paper provides evidence that scores on simple, low-stakes tests are associated with future economic success because the scores also reflect test takers' personality traits associated with their level of intrinsic motivation. To establish this, I use the coding speed test that was administered without incentives to participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). I show that, controlling for cognitive ability, the coding speed scores are correlated with future earnings of male NLSY participants. I provide evidence that the coding speed scores relate to intrinsic motivation. I show that the scores of the highly motivated, though less educated, group (potential recruits to the U.S. military), are higher than the NLSY participants' scores. I use controlled experiments to show directly that intrinsic motivation is an important component of the unincentivized coding speed scores and that it relates to test takers' personality traits.

This paper was accepted by Teck Ho, behavioral economics.


Calcium plays a variety of vital regulatory functions in many physiological and biochemical events in the cell. The aim of this study was to describe the ultrastructural distribution of calcium during different developmental stages of spermatogenesis in a model organism, the zebrafish (Danio rerio), using a combined oxalate–pyroantimonate technique. Samples were treated by potassium oxalate and potassium pyroantimonate during two fixation stages and examined using transmission electron microscopy to detect electron dense intracellular calcium. The subcellular distribution of intracellular calcium was characterized in spermatogonium, spermatocyte, spermatid, and spermatozoon stages. The area which is covered by intracellular calcium in different stages was quantified and compared using software. Isolated calcium deposits were mainly detectable in the cytoplasm and the nucleus of the spermatogonium and spermatocyte. In the spermatid, calcium was partially localized in the cytoplasm as isolated deposits. However, most calcium was transformed from isolated deposits into an unbound pool (free calcium) within the nucleus of the spermatid and the spermatozoon. Interestingly, in the spermatozoon, calcium was mainly localized in a form of an unbound pool which was detectable as an electron‐dense mass within the nucleus. Also, sporadic calcium deposits were scattered in the midpiece and flagellum. The proportional area which was covered by intracellular calcium increased significantly from early to late stages of spermatogenesis. The extent of the area which was covered by intracellular calcium in the spermatozoon was the highest compared to earlier stages. Calcium deposits were also observed in the somatic cells (Sertoli, myoid, Leydig) of zebrafish testis. The notable changes in the distribution of intracellular calcium of germ cells during different developmental stages of zebrafish spermatogenesis suggest its different homeostasis and physiological functions during the process of male gamete development.


Texture and microstructure evolution during cold rolling of binary Ni3Al single crystals were studied as a function of the initial crystal orientations. Cold rolling behavior of the single crystals is strongly dependent on the initial crystal orientations, especially on the initial rolling direction (RD). Macroscopic texture evolutions for binary Ni3Al single crystals with the initial RD close to <001> are characterized as development of dual {110}<¯112> texture above 90% cold reduction and the banded structure formation. Microstructure observations reveal the extensive formation and accumulation of the planar defects including the stacking faults and the planes where the localized shear deformations occurs, which must be responsible for the observed anisotropic cold rolling behavior of Ni3Al single crystals.


The paper deals with the issue of criminal policy as an integral part of the general policy of a state and its main component - the prevention of the crime phenomenon. Although the notion of criminal policy is used in the legal language, and not only, for more than two centuries, during which various definitions of this concept have been issued, there are enough indications that it is not correctly understood at this time. For this reason, we attempted to present a possible definition of what was considered to be the position of any government over criminality and a few landmarks of this particularly important activity. At the same time, given the unanimously accepted opinion that the prevention of criminality must precede the fight, I tried to present some opinions regarding this prophylactic enterprise, starting from its delimitation in relation to other notions and activities and continuing with the responsibilities that can be distributed in a rational and timely manner to state authorities.


Ternary layered III–III–VI2-type metal chalcogenides are a comparatively new group of semiconductors and have attracted strong interest due to their distinct optical and electrical properties in view of potential applications in nonlinear optical, acousto-optical and optoelectronic devices. Here, we report on the fabrication of two-terminal phototransistors based on ultrathin direct-bandgap TlGaSe2 sheets for the first time. Devices exhibit typical p-type conducting behaviors with current on/off ratio of ~102 and gate-tunable transport characteristics. The photocurrent presents stable and reproducible response for various wavelengths of light from ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared region, confirming the broadband photodetection capability. Photoresponsive behavior of ultrathin TlGaSe2 phototransistors can be modulated by the incident optical power density or wavelength, as well as bias or back-gate voltages. Owing to the presence of direct bandgap, devices possess high photoresponsivity (270 mA W−1) under white light in vacuum, and it is higher than that of single-layer MoS2 phototransistor and graphene photodetectors, accompanying by a fast response time of ~0.2 s. Our studies introduce ternary alloy monochalcogenides phototransistors, and expand the library of ultrathin flexible semiconductors.


In the late thirteenth century the openness and religious toleration of the Mongol Empire created unique conditions which encouraged European missionaries to venture into Asia. The Franciscans and Dominicans who answered the call to evangelize in territories under Tartar dominion enjoyed such success by the early fourteenth century that the papacy created archbishoprics and suffragan sees in Central Asia and China, and entertained dreams of new Christian communities aligned with the Roman Church. This paper focuses on a special set of circumstances which briefly encouraged those expectations. Western missionaries to the Mongols found influential Christian women, the mothers and consorts of rulers, at the courts of several khans. Because these Mongol queens played powerful political roles, their prayers and example might encourage the conversion of their people and those subject to them. Faithful wives of pagan rulers, in times long gone, had played a dynamic part in the conversion of husbands or sons, and of their realms, thus contributing to the spread of Christianity in Europe. Once again, at the close of the thirteenth century, hopes were voiced that pious women might perform a similar task in Asia.


This paper describes an evaluation of an alternative way to use an ordinary computer mouse. The function of the two mouse buttons were switched and the index finger operated the right button for normal clicking while the middle finger rested on the table directly to the right of the mouse. An electromyographic /EMG) evaluation of this alternative hand position in 29 subjects showed that the EMG activity in the extensor digitorum superficialis muscle was lower compared to a normal hand position both when the hand was resting on the mouse as well as during repeated clicking. All subjects showed a lower average EMG level during repeated clicking and 27 subjects reduced their activity when resting the hand on the mouse compared to a normal hand osition on the mouse.


Managers and customers often expect individuals to be "ideal workers" devoted entirely to work, and this devotion is typically displayed through being available to work at any time, on any day (Reid, 2015). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals in lower-paid, customer-facing jobs were expected to not only be available but also to take on physical risk. However, the ideal worker literature has paid relatively little attention to how risk relates to ideal worker expectations, reflecting in part the extant literature's focus on professionals who face relatively little physical and financial uncertainty. In this article, we draw upon the experiences of nonprofessional "gig" workers (TaskRabbit workers) to examine how they manage customers' ideal worker expectations-including risk-using data from interviews (n = 49), postings from online worker forums social media, and offical company communications. We show how these workers engage in different tactics to manage risk in response to customers' expectations, including two tactics-covering and withdrawing-that have not been discussed in prior ideal worker literature. In doing so, we expand scholarly understanding by showing how concerns about risk shape workers' responses to ideal worker expectations, particularly in customer-facing service work outside of traditional organizations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).


Nanoparticles have attracted a lot of attention in the past few decades due to their unique, size-dependent properties. In order to use these nanoparticles in devices or sensors effectively, it is important to maintain uniform properties throughout the system; therefore nanoparticles need to have uniform sizes - or monodisperse. In order to achieve monodispersity, an extreme control over the reaction conditions is required during their synthesis. These reaction conditions such as temperature, concentration of reagents, residence times, etc. affect the structure of nanoparticles dramatically; therefore when the conditions vary locally in the reaction vessel, different sized nanoparticles form, causing polydispersity.In widely-used batch wise synthesis techniques, large sized reaction vessels are used to mix and heat reagents. In these types of systems, it is very hard to avoid thermal gradients and to achieve rapid mixing times as well as to control residence times. Also it is not possible to make rapid changes in the reaction parameters during the synthesis. The other drawback of conventional methods is that it is not possible to separate the nucleation of nanoparticles from their growth; this leads to combined nucleation and growth and subsequently results in polydisperse size distributions.Microfluidics is an alternative method by which the limitations of conventional techniques can be addressed. Due to the small size, it is possible to control temperature and concentration of reagents precisely as well as to make rapid changes in mixing ratios of reagents or temperature of the reaction zones. There have been several microfluidic reactors - (microreactors) in literature that were designed to improve the size distribution of nanoparticles.In this work, two novel microfluidic systems were developed for achieving controlled synthesis of nanoparticles. The first microreactor was made out of a chemically robust polymer, polyurethane, and it was used for low temperature nanoparticle synthesis. This microreactor was fabricated by using a CO2-laser printer, which is an inexpensive method for fabricating microfluidic devices and it is a relatively fast way compared to other fabrication techniques. Iron oxide nanoparticle synthesis was demonstrated using this reactor and size distributions with a standard deviation of 10% was obtained.The second microreactor presented in this work was designed to produce monodisperse nanoparticles by utilizing thermally isolated heated and cooled regions for separating nucleation and growth processes. This microreactor was made out of silicon and it was used to demonstrate the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles. Size distributions with less than 10% standard deviation were achieved. This microreactor also provides a platform for studying the effects of temperature and residence times which is very important to understand the reaction kinetics of nanoparticle synthesis.In this work, two microfluidic techniques for retrieving nanoparticles from the microreactors were also discussed. The first method was based on trapping the aqueous droplet phase inside the microchannel and the second method was utilizing a micropost array to direct droplets from the oil solution to the pure water.As a final step, a printing technique was used to print nanoparticles synthesized inside the microreactors for future applications. This ability is important for achieving smart surfaces that can utilize the properties of nanoparticles for sensing applications in the future.


Computer-aided design (CAD) has proven effective in enabling novel approaches for tissue engineering applications. This paper demonstrates the applicability of various mathematical methods to design and fabricate bio-mimetic materials via two illustrative examples. Firstly, CAD models of cellular biomaterials that mimic the micro-structure of cuttlefish bone are designed based on the principles of the homogenization method. Secondly, a three-dimensional bi-objective topology optimization approach based upon the inverse homogenization method is used to design scaffold micro-structures with tailored effective stiffness and permeability properties. Consequently, solid free-form fabrication is used to fabricate such cellular bio-mimetic materials, which show a great potential in tissue engineering applications.


In the year of 1904, in the region of Krupnik–Kresna occurred one of the strongest earthquakes on the Balkan Peninsula, felt in almost whole Eastern Europe. The magnitude of this event was about 7.5 and intensity X in Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik scale in the epicentric zone. The seismologically active structure which caused this destructive event is the Krupnik Fault – a part of the Struma fault zone. In the framework of "Young scientists" project between several research institutions in Bulgaria, an attempt to compare and complete the data, results and conclusions from different methods of geodesy, gravimetry and seismology was made. The main goal is to form a whole geodynamic picture in the area of investigation. Part of the present work is to determine double couple focal mechanism solutions from P wave first motion polarities of small earthquakes with magnitude about 3 in the region. On the other hand, several GPS campaigns were carried out re-measuring the points from long-existing investigation network in the area. A new set of benchmarks was established for levelling profiles through the visible rupture remaining after the strike from 1904. Also two gravimetric profiles crossing the main tectonic structures were re-measured. All these studies confirm the recent activity of the Krupnik fault.


We determined acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibition in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) following inhalation exposure to chemical threat nerve agent (CTNA) sarin. Age- and weight-matched male guinea pigs were exposed to five different doses of sarin (169.3, 338.7, 508, 677.4, and 846.5 mg/m3) using a microinstillation inhalation exposure technique for 4 min. The technique involves aerosolization of the agent in the trachea using a microcatheter with a center hole that delivers the agent and multiple peripheral holes that pumps air to aerosolize the agent at the tip. Animals exposed to higher doses of sarin occasionally developed seizures and succumbed to death within 15 min after exposure. The LCt50 for sarin using the microinstillation technique was determined to be close to 677.4 mg/m3. Ear blood AChE activity showed a dose-dependent inhibition at 15 min postexposure. The inhibition of blood AChE remained constant over 35 and 55 min after sarin exposure indicating that there was no lung depot effect. Cardiac blood AChE and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity in surviving animals euthanized at 24 h postexposure showed a dose-dependent inhibition with an inhibition of 60% at 677.4 and 846.5 mg/m3 sarin exposure. AChE and BChE activity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) showed a slight increase at 338.7 to 677.4 mg/m3 sarin exposure but a marginal inhibition at 169.3 mg/m3. In contrast, the AChE protein levels determined by immunoblotting showed an increase at 169.3 mg/m3 in the BALF. The BALF protein level, a biomarker of lung injury, was increased maximally at 338.7 mg/m3 and that increase was dropped with an increase in the dose of sarin. The BALF protein levels correlated with the AChE and BChE activity. These data suggest that sarin microinstillation inhalation exposure results in respiratory toxicity and lung injury characterized by changes in lavage AChE, BChE, and protein levels.


The N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDAR) is a critical substrate underlying experience-dependent plasticity and working memory. NMDAR signaling is impaired in schizophrenia and NMDAR hypofunction may contribute to deficits in plasticity and working memory in schizophrenia. Augmenting NMDAR signaling using the partial agonist d-cycloserine (DCS) may ameliorate such deficits. However, given that divergent properties of the NMDAR underlie its roles in plasticity versus working memory and that various aspects of NMDAR function are abnormal in schizophrenia, examining the effects of DCS in both healthy and patient populations is crucial. In two study samples, we therefore investigated 100 mg DCS versus placebo on working memory, using a spatial n-back task, and plasticity, using an EEG paradigm that utilizes high frequency visual stimulation (HFvS) to induce long-term potentiation (LTP) in visual cortex neurons and two LTP-dependent learning tasks, the weather prediction and information integration tasks.In study one among healthy participants, participants who received DCS (n = 32) showed enhanced plasticity compared to placebo (n = 33), as demonstrated by enhanced LTP following HFvS and accelerated acquisition of both learning tasks. Conversely, there were no group differences in working memory. In study two among patients with schizophrenia, patients who received DCS (n = 24) showed enhanced neural responsivity and working memory compared to placebo (n = 21), with no differences on the EEG or learning measures of plasticity. In healthy participants, DCS therefore enhanced plasticity without affecting working memory, consistent with evidence that beyond a threshold of NMDAR activation needed to generate recurrent firing in working memory circuits, further NMDAR activation should have limited benefits. Conversely, the mirror effects of DCS on baseline neural responsivity and working memory in schizophrenia with no effects on plasticity suggest that DCS ameliorated reductions in NMDAR signaling in schizophrenia, but that increased NMDAR activation was not translated into the structural synaptic changes that support experience-dependent plasticity. Results are consistent with emerging evidence that NMDAR abnormalities in schizophrenia involve not only the receptor but also NMDAR-associated proteins critical for plasticity and highlight the importance of considering how distinct NMDAR properties contribute to individual cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.


Human G myeloma (7S γ2-myeloma) proteins were investigated for relationships between Gm and Inv genetic factors and the different antigenic types of heavy polypeptide chains (γ-chains) and light polypeptide chains. Myeloma proteins were isolated from the sera of 1 Chinese, 60 white and 28 Negro individuals. These 89 proteins were tested for eight Gm factors [Gm(a), Gm(x), Gm(b2), Gm(f), Gm(b1), Gm(b3), Gm(b4), and Gm(c)], and two Inv factors [Inv(l) and Inv(b)]. Results of the tests were correlated with the four γ-chain subclasses (γ2a, γ2b, γ2c and γ2d) and the two types of light polypeptide chains, κ-chains (type K or I) and λ-chains (type L or II) found in human IgG molecules. 1. Gm factors were limited to myeloma proteins with heavy polypeptide chains of the γ2b- and γ2c-subclasses. No Gm factors were detected on γ2a- and γ2d-myeloma proteins or on a "heavy-chain" disease protein of subclass γ2d. 2. γ2b-Proteins were positive for at least one Gm factor and were either Gm(a+), Gm(a + x+), or Gm(b2+ f+). 3. γ2c-Myeloma proteins, and one γ2c-"heavy-chain" disease protein, were positive for at least one Gm factor and contained various combinations of factors Gm(b1), (b2), (b4), and (c). Myeloma proteins from 3 Negroes were included in this group. 4. Inv factors (l) and (b) were limited to myeloma proteins with κ-light polypeptide chains. These Inv factors were not detected on proteins with λ-light polypeptide chains. 5. Most (70 per cent) of the γ2b- and γ2c-proteins with κ-chains were Inv(l+) or Inv(b+). None of the γ2a- or γ2d-proteins with κ-chains, however, contained these Inv factors.


The article aims at very briefly drawing main trends in publiccompetencies and functions in cultural field, with regard in particular to Italy and Europe. To do this, the article is significantly based on a research, recently carried out as teaching activity by students of VIII edition of MASP-Master in Management of Performing Arts, at SDA Bocconi School of Management of Milan in collaboration with Teatro alla Scala Academy and Piccolo Teatro. Main findings of the research highlight that public administration in the European countries surveyed are slowly moving from the traditional role of funders towards a new role of policy makers, almost everywhere, in spite of quite different gears and a mix of tools and solutions.


We introduce a general architecture for programmable systolic arrays that incorporates the following features: regular topology with nearest-neighbor connections, synchronous SIMD control, interprocessor communication using shared registers, and stream-based I/O. In our model, neighboring processors are granted direct access to one another''s working storage: as a result, computation and communication are tightly intertwined, the latter being a natural consequence of the former. We have found that many systolic algorithms can be expressed in such a fashion. The Brown Systolic Array (B-SYS) is an embodiment of this philosophy. B-SYS is as highly parallel array of simple processing elements tuned for solving combinatorial problems, including sequence comparison. We are currently in the midst of implementing a B-SYS prototype in 2$mu$-CMOS. Although working hardware is not yet available, we have programmed a number of algorithms using B-SIM, a software emulator that has helped us refine the architecture. Preliminary estimates indicate that B-SYS will provide supercomputer performance for the applications of interest.


The utilization of Human Resource Management Information Systems (HRMIS) promises to enable Human Resource (HR) departments deliver more service with fewer resources, save money, be more efficient, and automate to make time for strategic planning. While windows and client server technologies offer flexible, low-cost, generic HRMIS's for the small firms, little is known of the extent of their utilization among the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Kenya's manufacturing sector. To fill this gap a survey of the utilization of HRIS by 50 SME's operating within Nairobi and its environs was undertaken, from a population of 450 firms registered by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). Results show that while the SMEs had HRMIS features capable of providing HR information for strategic use, their utilization was for automating personnel administration. The most reasons cited for the unsophisticated usage of HRMIS among manufacturing SMEs included lack of a HR strategy, size of the firms and lack of HRIS consultants. These results were drawn from manufacturing firms in Nairobi and its environs, and being an exploratory study, further work is required on the utilization of HRMIS among small manufacturing firms.


During the last years, the European Union has faced the questions of its legitimacy, its role and its future more fiercely than ever since the European project was initiated. One of the key questions is when it is desirable and necessary to introduce new European rules. This thesis offers an answer to this question from a Law and Economics perspective in the area of EU private law, focusing on consumer contract law and antitrust damages actions.

The thesis relies on the framework provided by the economic theory of federalism, which postulates that centralising a policy needs to be justified by a particular benefit, to compensate for the lower correspondence to local preferences and lost possibilities for regulatory experimentation. Against this theoretic background, the thesis advocates that the subsidiarity principle, which governs the exercise of competences by the EU institutions, ought to be an efficiency principle that weighs the various economic arguments in favour and against harmonisation.

The thesis extends the framework of the economics of federalism in several ways. First, the thesis explores the link between the economics of federalism and the economics of integration. It is found that there are hardly any limits to the possibilities to harmonise rules for completing the internal market if one follows the logic of the economic concept of market integration, which also underlies the internal market's legislative competence of the EU. Almost any variation in Member States' legal rules could be considered as an obstacle to the internal market. An overarching economic theory of harmonisation needs to take account not only of reductions in transaction costs and other trade barriers, but also of broader welfare effects. By incorporating heterogeneous preferences into a trade model, the thesis illustrates that harmonising rules involves a trade-off between enhancing competition by reducing transaction costs, and ensuring that policies correspond to citizens' preferences.

Further extensions of the economics of federalism framework are identified in the scope and enforcement of EU legislation. The limited scope of the Antitrust Damages Directive in terms of its rules on limitation periods may limit the extent to which the Directive can achieve its goal of providing a level playing field' for antitrust damages claims throughout the EU. The second goal of this Directive, to balance public and private antitrust enforcement, may require an adjustment to some of the substantive rules on liability, in order to prevent that damages claims undermine the success of the leniency program.

Building upon the insights from the economics of federalism, the thesis aims to show that the effects of harmonisation lie not only in a reduction of transaction costs, but also in the substantial rules included in the EU policy, their scope of application, and their enforcement. The implication for policy making is that the justification for further harmonisation should go beyond the limited focus on the beneficial effects on the internal market, to include a wider range of welfare considerations.


: In a recently published article in Pediatrics on the Swedish coeliac disease 'epidemic', it is suggested that the gradual introduction of gluten-containing foods from 4 months of age, preferably while breastfeeding is still ongoing, is favourable for the prevention of coeliac disease. This stirred up the discussion about the timing of introduction of gluten to the diet of infants in the Netherlands, where gluten-containing foods are mostly introduced from 6 months of age onwards. The retrospective character of data collection, however, has to be taken into account when interpreting the Swedish study. Future results of prospective studies on gluten introduction and coeliac disease, such as the PreventCD family study (www.preventcd.com), should provide the information necessary for deciding on a change in the Dutch guidelines for the introduction of gluten to the diet of young children.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) provide a low cost option for gathering spatially dense data from different environments. However, WSNs have limited energy resources that hinder the dissemination of the raw data over the network to a central location. This has stimulated research into efficient data mining approaches, which can exploit the restricted computational capabilities of the sensors to model their normal behavior. Having a normal model of the network, sensors can then forward anomalous measurements to the base station. Most of the current data modeling approaches proposed for WSNs require a fixed offline training period and use batch training in contrast to the real streaming nature of data in these networks. In addition they usually work in stationary environments. In this paper we present an efficient online model construction algorithm that captures the normal behavior of the system. Our model is capable of tracking changes in the data distribution in the monitored environment. We illustrate the proposed algorithm with numerical results on both real-life and simulated data sets, which demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of our approach compared to existing methods.


The primary purpose of this research study was to investigate students' perceptions towards Montessori teaching method and whether there is any relationship between students' perceptions towards Montessori teaching method and their academic achievement. The study was conducted upon grade 4, 5 and 6 students at Mahachai Christian Wittaya School, Mahachai, Thailand in a Montessori setting. A questionnaire was used for data collection and 97 students completed the surveys that measured their perceptions towards Montessori teaching method. The data analysis showed that the students' perceptions were positive. A one-way ANOVA indicated that statistically no significant difference in the perceptions towards Montessori teaching method existed between the three groups. It was found that the students were most positive towards the construct of challenge and were not sure of their positions towards control and captivate, which had the lowest mean scores. Students' GPAs were found to be very good. A Pearson Correlation conducted to investigate the relationship between students' perceptions and their achievement found the existence of a strong positive relationship between students' perceptions and their achievement levels and supports previous research. It is recommended that Mahachai Christian Wittaya School could use current data to plan future changes and improvements and consider students' perceptions in future strategies. Future research should investigate the constructs of control and captivate to find out the effects of these variables upon student performance.


Among the twelve modes he describes in An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Bruno Latour identifies two—the "beings of technology" [TEC] and the "beings of fiction" [FIC]—that aptly depict the nonhuman agency inherent in the production and circulation of the premodern book. This essay offers a survey of the pan-European textual traditions on the matter of Troy as a case study in the history of the book, with the manuscript codex conceived as a crossing between [TEC] and [FIC]. I show that the affordances and ecologies of the codex as a "being of technology" lent it a vitality that allowed the fictional beings of Troy to proliferate in the Middle Ages. I conclude with an examination of the medieval topos of the "book of nature," which offers a compelling example of the spirituality of technology.


Mismanagement and misuse of rangeland along with sequential severe drought have brought about depletion of large rangeland areas. It seems that severely disturbed rangelands unable to recover to the satisfactory level without man intervention through employing proper restoration measures. This study aims to select favorable site for rangeland improvement practices using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information system (GIS) in depleted rangeland. The study was carried out in Ghaen plain, southern Khorasan, Iran. Six artificial restoration measures i.e. seeding and seed broadcasting, interseeding, contour furrowing, pitting and water spreading were selected as measures for restoring degraded rangelands in the study area. Major effective criteria in selecting favorable sites for range restoration measures were adopted from reputable literatures. Questionnaires in the form of pair matrix was designed for each measure. Questionnaires were distributed among different domain experts of local universities and authorities. They were asked to assign preferred weights to effective criteria of restoration practices according to their knowledge. Final score and relative importance of criteria were calculated on the basis of geometric mean of questionnaires. Hierarchical tree structure with appropriate adaptability was generated in Expert Choice software. Favorable sites for range restoration measures were selected using facilities and functions of ArcGIS 9.3. The selected field sites were visited to check the agreement of real environment condition with proposed site for restoration practices. This study concluded that AHP along with GIS can assist range technician to select rapidly suitable site for range improvement practices with high precision.


Rock salt occurs in the Lower and Upper Keuper Saliferous Beds in Cheshire, the former being 190 m while the latter is 404 m in maximum thickness. Although most of the Triassic rocks in Cheshire are covered by thick superficial deposits, natural brine runs occur at the surface and salt was recovered from these springs as long ago as Roman times. Indeed, most salt was obtained in this way until the end of the seventeenth century. In 1670 salt was discovered at Marbury near Northwich, and the first mine was sunk in 1682. In the succeeding eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the salt industry expanded enormously and many mines and brine pits were sunk. The mines frequently had a short life and poor mining practices often led to roof collapse and ingress of water. When water entered into a collapsed mine it attacked the pillars and walls and thereby penetrated into adjacent mines. As adjacent mines collapsed subsidence spread until sets of flooded mines formed large underground reservoirs. Associated "rock pit holes" occurred at the surface. In terms of salt production, wild brine pumping became increasingly more important and overtook mining in the nineteenth century. The most successful wild brine pumping occurred on the major pre-existing natural brine runs. Such abstraction accelerated the formation of solution channels and active subsidence was concentrated at the heads and sides of brine runs. Serious subsidences could occur at considerable distances from the point of abstraction (up to 8 km). Flashes, that is, water-filled linear hollows, are probably the most notable features produced by such subsidence. The most disastrous subsidences took place in the second half of the nineteenth century and were due to the development of bastard brine pumping, that is, pumping from abandoned mine workings. These subsidences occurred suddenly and were on a large scale, producing dramatic loss of property and even life. Bastard brine pumping also disturbed brine levels significantly which, in turn, gave rise to sudden local collapses. Because of the unpredictable nature of subsidence due to wild brine pumping, responsibility could not be attributed to any particular wild brine operator. Hence, two Compensation for Subsidence Acts (1891 and 1952) were passed which imposed levies on the operators in order to provide compensation funds for subsidence damage. The latter act primarily extended the compensation district. The number of wild brine pumpers declined throughout the twentieth century, and after 1968 the County Council withheld permission to extend pumping outside the demarcated areas and no permission was given to sink new wild brine wells. It was their intention to phase out wild brine pumping by the 19809s. This has very nearly been accomplished, controlled solution mining now producing 99 percent of the brine in Cheshire. It is alleged that this method of production has given rise to no subsidence.


This work is focused on the study of the organization of the SEEG signals during epileptic seizures with multi-agent system approach. This approach is based on cooperative mechanisms of auto-organization at the micro level and of emergence of a global function at the macro level. In order to evaluate this approach we propose a distributed collaborative approach for the classification of the interesting signals. This new multi-criteria classification method is able to provide a relevant brain area structures organisation and to bring out epileptogenic networks elements. The method is compared to another classification approach a fuzzy classification and gives better results when applied to SEEG signals.


The macaw palm [Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lood. ex Mart] has been domesticated to subsidize biodiesel production programs in Brazil. However, little is known about the seedling production of this species. This study aimed to evaluate substrate mixtures, limestone and phosphorus rates for substrate amendment and topdressing frequency in macaw palm seedlings. Three trials were conducted in a greenhouse up to six months of nursery cultivation. Trial 1: determination of percent mineral and organic fractions of seven substrate mixtures. Trial 2: evaluation of four limerates for soil amendment versus four phosphorus rates. Trial 3: evaluation of N, K and Mg topdressing frequency. Significant differences were found in the three trials for most of the variables (plant height, leaf number, shoot dry mass, root dry mass, vigor and bulb diameter). The main results obtained were as follow: Trial1 - the best seedling growth was observed in substrates with at least 25% organic matter. Trial2 -lime rates ranging from 0.50 to 1.25 kg associated with 3 to 4 kg of single superphosphate per m3 of substrate provided the best seedling growth. Trial 3 - topdressing fertilization provided better development of seedlings regardless of frequency.


Ceramic membranes having less than 1nm size pores have great potential for gas separation at high temperature due to their good thermal stability. Moreover, nanoporous silicon carbide membrane has potential application under hydrothermal condition at high temperature since it is highly stable at high temperature. In this research, nanoporous SiC membrane has been developed on porous alumina support using preceramic polymer. Pore size of the SiC membrane was controlled using polystylene(PS) as the pore forming agent. The SiC membrane having controlled pore size was characterized with SEM, EDS, FT-IR, XRD and pore size measurement. The hydrogen permeability and selectivity toward nitrogen gas of the developed membrane were 0.3 x 10-6 mole/m2.s.pa and 4.1, respectively. The nanoporous hydrogen selective SiC membrane shows promising application in membrane reactor for steam reforming reacti on of natural gas, water gas shift reactions and hydrogen separation from coal gasification such as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC).


Assessing physical activity (PA) is a challenging task and many different approaches have been proposed. Direct observation (DO) techniques can objectively code both the behavior and the context in which it occurred, however, they have significant limitations such as the cost and burden associated with collecting and processing data. Therefore, this study evaluated the utility of an automated video analysis system (CAM) designed to record and discriminate the intensity of PA using a subject tracking methodology. The relative utility of the CAM system and DO were compared with criterion data from an objective accelerometry-based device (Actigraph GT3X+). Eight 10 year old children (three girls and five boys) wore the GT3X+ during a standard basketball session. PA was analyzed by two observers using the SOPLAY instrument and by the CAM system. The GT3X+ and the CAM were both set up to collect data at 30 Hz while the DO was performed every two minutes, with 10 s of observation for each gender. The GT3X+ was processed using cut points by Evanson and the outcome measure was the percentage of time spent in different intensities of PA. The CAM data were processed similarly using the same speed thresholds as were used in establishing the Evenson cut-off points (light: <2 mph; walking: 2–4 mph; very active: >4 mph). Similar outcomes were computed from the SOPLAY default analyses. A chi-square test was used to test differences in the percentage of time at the three intensity zones (light, walking and very active). The Yates' correction was used to prevent overestimation of statistical significance for small data. When compared with GT3X+, the CAM had better results than the SOPLAY. The chi-square test yielded the following pairwise comparisons: CAM versus GT3x+ was χ2 (5) = 24.18, p < .001; SOPLAY2 versus GT3x+ was χ2 (5) = 144.44, p < .001; SOPLAY1 versus GT3x+ was χ2 (5) = 119.55, p < .001. The differences were smaller between CAM and GT3x+, suggesting that the video tracking system provided better agreement than DO. The small sample size precludes a definitive evaluation but the results show that the CAM video system may have promise for automated coding of physical activity behavior.


Objectives: To define euthanasia, as well as orthanasia, misthanasia and dysthanasia, to start from this, to discuss the different philosophical, ethical and moral visions that surround the subject. Methods: Exploratory qualitative study which defined from the existing literature the pertinent concepts and from them brought discussions about euthanasia. Results: Euthanasia ("Good Death") and dysthanasia are medical procedures that concern the death of the human being and the most appropriate way of dealing with it. Euthanasia is primarily concerned with the quality of human life in its final phase, while dysthanasia seeks the extension of the human life quantity, fighting death. Euthanasia differs from social euthanasia, or misthanasia (miserable death) because it has no relation with the search for a good, smooth and painless death. Orthothanasia (art of well-dying) rejects all forms of misthanasia, yet does not fall into the trap of euthanasia or dysthanasia. There is a link between the economic devaluation of human beings and the cultural tendency that is increasingly emphasized in refusing the will of the right to live for those who are too weak to demand this right. Conclusion: A dichotomy between favorable views and contrary to euthanasia was obtained. This discussion is surrounded by modern moral, ethical and philosophical values that conflict with of the postmodernism. Euthanasia within a modern concept cannot be contemplated with the dominant values of the Christian morality. This moral is incorporated by the norms of health accepted by the majority of health professionals.


In less than a decade, children who provide care for ill or disabled parents and siblings have become a major target of social welfare services. 'Young carers' suffer, it is suggested, from a degradation in mental and physical health, have damaged educational careers, restricted social networks, and will suffer long-term consequences in adult life as a result of their childhood caring roles. This paper argues that limited empirical evidence exists for these claims and that, where legitimate concerns arise, they are frequently related to poverty, social exclusion, and unsupported or inadequate parenting, and have no direct relationship to illness or impairment. While dedicated services to young carers have made a valuable contribution in highlighting an important social issue, a radical review of their place in the overall structure of support services for families affected by illness or disability is long overdue.


A two-Dimensional Finite Element Method of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation through the soil is presented in this chapter. The chapter employs a boundary value problem (BVP) to solve the Helmholtz time-harmonic electromagnetic model. An infinitely large dielectric object of an arbitrary cross-section is considered for scattering from a dielectric medium and illuminated by an incident wave. Since the domain extends to infinity, an artificial boundary, a perfectly matched layer (PML) is used to truncate the computational domain. The incident field, the scattered field, and the total field in terms of the z-component are expressed for the transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) modes. The radar cross-section (RCS), as a function of several other parameters, such as operating frequency, polarization, illumination angle, observation angle, geometry, and material properties of the medium, is computed to describe how a scatterer reflects an electromagnetic wave in a given direction. Simulation results obtained from MATLAB for the scattered field, the total field, and the radar cross-section are presented for three soil types – sand, loam, and clay.


This thesis presents a verification process for the electronic hardware design implemented using Very-high-speed integrated circuits Hardware Description Languages (VHDL). In this study, Register Transfer Level(RTL) modules are verified. They belong to Dynamic Reconfigurable Resource Array (DRRA) project and Distributed Memory Architecture (DiMArch) project. Firstly, detailed description and specification of each module provided from designer during implementation of the test. According to the specification, simulation based tests are used as white-box verifications of the modules. Methodology and implementation details for verification of the system are briefly explained. The basic objective of this thesis is finding location of bugs inside the design which improves the implementation of DRRA and DiMArch projects. Results show that all bugs determined during verification have been reported and fixed, leading to a bug-free implementation.


Five-axis NC machining tools can improve the efficiency and accuracy obviously in today's machining industries, but the machining errors and tool interference are likely to happen due to the complexity of tool motion. So the verification of the tool path is very important and necessary before machining the part. A new algorithm for 5-axis machining verification based on the swept volume has been presented in the paper. Based on the machine tool path and the cutter geometry, the cutter's instantaneous swept profile is determined. By integrating the intermediate swept volume, the cutter's swept envelope can be constructed and applied to NC verification. The algorithm has been implemented through Visual C++ and OpenGL language on Windows XP platform; a few examples are to verify the reliability of the proposed algorithms effectively. The experiment results indicate that the proposed method is superior to the traditional methods on the processing time and image quality. This proposed algorithm can be further applied to machining error analysis, collisions interference and NC path optimization, etc.