Microsphere embolization of rat sciatic nerve capillaries results in a central fascicular ischemic core. Twenty‐four hours after microembolization, the pathological alterations along the length of 55 myelinated fibers were reconstructed by computer imaging of 2,000 serial semi‐thin epoxy sections of a tissue block that extended from just above and into an ischemic core. From proximal to distal, the typical sequence of pathological alternations was: normal → swollen dark axons + thin myelin or demyelination → attenuated axons → axon cytolysis (46 fibers) or normal axons (9 fibers). Because organelle accumulation and axonal swelling were the earliest and most proximal pathological lesions, we infer that regional hypoxia causes axonal stasis as a primary event. Demyelination was found in fibers showing swollen dark and attenuated axons. These findings suggest that axons are selectively vulnerable to acute ischemia and that, depending on severity, the fibers either undergo axonal degeneration or transitory structural alterations without axonal degeneration, the latter consisting of axonal changes and secondary demyelination.


Since four decades epidemiological research has emphasised the necessity to consider social determinants and the social distribution of illnesses in the Swiss population, particularly by gender. Gender influences social position, living conditions as well as health behaviours over the life-course which all together influence health outcomes. Despite this evidence, national health policies and strategies tend to consider gender as a background factor, if not to omit its influence on health. The Health2020 policy and the recent specific national strategies are particularly illustrative. To exclude or reduce gender as a mere biological factor however hampers the implementation of specific interventions aiming at reducing health inequalities in the name of the social justice principle.


Background: There are studies that indicated dyshomeostasis of oxidant/antioxidant and trace elements in breast cancer patients, but the data regarding the status of these parameters in various stages of breast cancer are limited. The aim of this study was to highlight the status of these biochemical factors in various stages of breast cancer. Methods: Fifty-eight breast cancers patients participated in this study and underwent staging work up for the assessment of disease stage. Serum total antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation were determined spectrophotometically. Glutathione peroxidase (GPX), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were analyzed by ELISA method. The serum level of Cu, Mn and Zn was measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Student t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare group means. Results: All the patients included in the study classified as mild (stages I+II) and advanced stages (stages III+IV). Patients in advanced stage had lower serum antioxidant capacity and higher lipid peroxidation levels, but the differences were not statistically differet (P=0.690 and 0.666, respectively). Patients in advanced stage had higher, but not statistically different serum levels of CAT, GPX and SOD levels (p>0.05). Patients in both groups had to some extent similar serum Cu, Mn and Zn levels. Conclusion: There was no evidence of remarkable discrepancy in the status of analyzed factors in various stages of breast cancer. It seems that the severity of oxidative stress in different stages of breast cancer is similar to some extent.


This research project provided microbial characterization support to the Waste Management Systems (WMS) element of NASA's Life Support and Habitation Systems (LSHS) program. Conventional microbiological methods were used to detect and enumerate microorganisms in space-generated solid wastes, i.e., STS Volume F Compartment trash returned from orbit and missions to ISS. Crew generated STS trash was characterized for three shuttle missions: STS 133, STS 134, and STS 135. The waste was catalogued into logical categories, weighed, and the water content determined. Results for FY11 STS missions showed more variability than for the FY10 study of STS 129-132 and indicated some waste was probably not included in what was returned to KSC on the STS. Microbial characterization of wastes from each mission and each category determined the presence of high numbers of microbes in food waste and food packaging, in drink pouches, and in personal hygiene wastes. A number of bacteria and fungi were identified, including known pathogens and some likely opportunistic pathogens that could cause problems if these wastes were exposed to an immune compromised crew.


Thailand is one of the countries which have a long period of history in the world. It has prominence in its culture that can be traced back from the past to the present, which is consisted of archeological site reflecting the growth and prosperity of Buddhism as the main religion which plays an important role to people in the country. Thailand is consisted of various ethnic groups, and each group has its own history and interesting culture. Even though, Thailand has many ethnic groups and tribes, but Thai people maintains living together with peace. This reflects that Thailand has good social management from the past to the present, which makes Thai society live together with harmony and unity. It can be said that the factor which plays an important role in social management from the past to the present is Buddhism. Buddhism is the spiritual anchor, which unites Thai people to be a harmonized society; and this can be seen from various cultural heritages. For the above reasons, Thailand has been accepted as the city of the yellow robe of Buddhism.


Applying highly sensitive modern immune profiling techniques to the blood or inflamed tissue of auto-immune patients with one of the common T-cell mediated diseases fails to detect large clonal expansions or other signs of a dysregulated immune system. Additionally, these new methods have shown that self-reactive T-cells are found in the periphery (and are not completely negatively selected in the thymus as previously believed). Combining these new data with well-established studies in auto-immunity leads to the conjecture that certain auto-immune diseases are likely to be caused by defects in tissue, not by dysregulation of the adaptive immune system. In particular, one hypothesis is that specific tissues up-regulate HLA class 2 genes, presenting epitopes that are bound by CD4+ helper T cells, which facilitates an immune response against the tissue specific cells.


Received: 2016-09-05 | Accepted: 2016-12-21 | Available online: 2017-12-31 http://dx.doi.org/10.15414/afz.2017.20.04.78-83 The study on the relative abundance of insect pests is a critical factor for a successful implementation of insect pest management program. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to compare the intensity of insect infestations among the selected three cucurbit crops (Cucumber, Egusi melon and Watermelon). The experiment was set up at Teaching and Research Farm Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso in a Randomized Complete Block Design replicated three times. Significant difference was observed in the tested crops in respect to insect population density on leaf, flower and fruit. Among the tested crops, watermelon was observed to be the most susceptible to the observed insects meanwhile the cucumber had the least insect infestation rate 0.00 at P < 0.05. Also the insect infestation was low as the maturity of the leaves increased. The population density of flea beetle ( Phyllotreta cruciferea ) and spotted beetle ( Diabrotica undecimpunctata ) were observed to be relatively higher at vegetative stage and decreased at flowering stages while Dacus cucubitae caused significant economic damage during the fruiting stage to watermelon, melon and cucumber fruits (33.3, 20.0  and 1.0) respectively. This research work demonstrated that control of insect pests should be initiated at each growing stage of the selected crops. Keywords: Cucumber, Dacus cucubitae , Pyllotreta cruciferae , watermelon, melon References AFZAL, M. and BASHIR, M.H. (2007) Influence of certain leaf characters of some summervegetables with incidence of predatory mites of the family cunaxidae. Pak. J. Bot. , vol. 39, pp. 205–209. ALLWOOD, A. J. et al. (1999) Host plant records for fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Southeast Asia. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology , vol. 47, pp. 1–92; 26. ALAO, F. O. and ADEBAYO, T. A. 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The main aim of this thesis is to develop exposure-response relationships for noise, vibration, and combined effects from noise and vibration. Examinations of non-acoustical factors such as noise sensitivity, noise acceptance, gender, age, and sleep disturbance are also performed in this project. Many studies have previously been conducted to investigate community response to transportation noise in residential areas. Comparatively few studies have investigated community response to vibration exposure, and fewer still the combined effects of noise and vibration. This study of exposure-response relationships for noise and vibration therefore presents a potentially significant need contribution for the problems of these kinds.
This work was performed as part of the Defra funded project "NANR209: Human response to vibration in residential environments" which was conducted between January 2008 and March 2011. The database for the project was obtained by undertaking a social survey questionnaire along with measurements of vibration. The project addressed railway, construction and internal sources of vibration. This thesis concerns railway exposure for which the database contains 931 cases. The face to face interviews took place within participants' dwellings. In 542 properties out of 931, internal vibration was recorded and calculated utilizing a number of vibration indices, two of which are VDVb,24h and RMS Wk. Vibration exposure has been predicted for the remaining cases. Noise exposure in the form of Lden has been calculated for 843 out of 931 cases using the Calculation of Railway Noise procedure (Department of Transport, 1995). It has been estimated that maximal error that can be expected from prediction in this thesis is equal to ±10 dB(A) at the 95% confidence level. On the other hand, maximal error that can be expected from vibration measurements is equal to ±2.2 dB or ±6.2 dB, with regard to "internal measurements" and "no measurements", respectively.
It is concluded from analyses of combined effects that noise and vibration additively contribute to the proportion of people reporting little, moderate, and high annoyance from exposure to railway noise in the presence of vibration. [Work funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) UK]


Super-resolution imaging via compressed sensing (CS)-based spectral estimators has been recently introduced to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) tomography. In the case of partial scatterers, the mainstream has so far been twofold, in that the tomographic reconstruction is conducted by either directly working with multiple looks and/or polarimetric channels or by exploiting the corresponding single-channel second-order statistics. In this letter, we unify these two methodologies in the context of covariance fitting. In essence, we exploit the fact that both vertical structures and the unknown polarimetric signatures can be approximated in a low-dimensional subspace. For this purpose, we make use of a wavelet basis in order to sparsely represent vertical structures. Additionally, we synthesize a data-adaptive orthonormal basis that spans the space of polarimetric signatures. Finally, we validate this approach by using fully polarimetric L-band data acquired by the E-SAR sensor of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).


A new method of laser melting molding to produce high-efficiency and high-quality polymer microcomponents was proposed. Numerical simulation was used to analyze the temperature changes of polymer melt during the laser irradiation process. An orthogonal experiment was also employed to investigate the factors influencing molding accuracy. The molding experiments were conducted on molds with various degrees of roughness, and the surface quality of the molded pieces was tested. The simulation analysis and experimental results showed that the laser power plays a critical role in improving the repetition accuracy. The next factors are irradiation time and mold temperature, followed by molding force. Optimized technological parameters (1.2 W of laser power, 6 mm of laser beam width, 6 s irradiation time, 150 N molding force, and 80 °C mold temperature) were applied to obtain a molded pieces with high repetition accuracy and a microstructure dimensional deviation of less than 1 μm. Using a mold with lower surface roughness provides that we can obtain a molded piece with lower roughness, the roughness difference between the mold and the molded piece was less than 0.012 μm.


Over a 3 year period, 19 surgically resected giant cell tumors of bone and cell lines from 4 cases were analysed cytogenetically. The results indicate that most of the tumor cells are heteroploid, the chromosome model number is predominantly hypodiploid. Karyotypic analysis demonstrated that the loss of chromosome #17, #18 appears more frequently (with a loss rate of 60% and 45% respectively), terminal deletion and telomeric fusion were the most common cytogenetic aberrations. We compared highly nonrandom tumor cell chromosome breakpoints and the same patient's somatic cell chromosome fragile sites with published oncogenes and found that 7q32, 13q13, 22q12 were coincident with MET, FLT, YES2/PDGFB (sis) respectively. Whether these loci abnormalities correlate with tumorgenesis needs further investigation.


This paper discusses two approaches for neural control of a flexible link using the feedback-error-learning technique. This technique aims to acquire the inverse dynamics model of the plant and uses a neural network acting as an adaptive controller to improve the performance of a conventional non-adaptive feedback controller. The non-collocated control of a flexible link is characterized as a non-minimum phase system, which is difficult to be controlled by most control techniques. Two different neural approaches are used in this paper to overcome this difficulty. The first approach uses a virtual re-defined output as one of the impacts for the neural network and feedback controllers, while the other employs a delayed reference input signal in the feedback path and a tapped-delay line to process the reference input before presenting it to the neural network.


Introduction As coronary perforation (CP) is a rare but serious complication of PCI the current evidence base is limited to small series. Using a national PCI database the incidence, predictors and outcomes of CP during PCI were defined. Methods Data were collected from the BCIS dataset on all PCI procedures performed in England and Wales between 2006 and 2013. Multivariate logistic regressions and propensity scores were used to identify predictors of CP and its association with outcomes. Results 1,762 coronary perforations were recorded from 527,121 PCI procedures (incidence of 0.33%). Patients with CP were more often female or older, with a greater burden of co-morbidity and underwent more complex PCI procedures. Factors independently predictive of CP included age (OR 1.03, 1.02–1.03, p < 0.001), previous CABG (OR 1.56, 1.27–1.91), left main (OR 1.52, 1.19–1.94) use of rotational atherectomy (OR 2.27, 1.74–2.96) and CTO intervention (OR 5.36, 4.48–6.42). Adjusted odds of adverse outcomes were higher for all major adverse coronary events including stroke, bleeding and mortality. Emergency surgery was required in 3% of cases. Predictors of mortality in patients with CP included age, diabetes, previous myocardial infarction, renal disease, ventilatory support, use of circulatory support and glycoprotein inhibitor use. Conclusions Using a national PCI database for the first time the incidence, predictors and outcomes of coronary perforation were conclusively defined. Although CP occurred of PCI rarely it was strongly associated with poor outcomes.


Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) are present in many excitable tissues types and are found both pre and post-synaptically . Through their non-specific cationic permeability, these nAChRs have necessary excitatory roles in neurotransmission, neuromodulation, synaptic plasticity, and neuroprotection . Thus, nAChR mislocalization or functional deficits are associated with many neurological disease states. Therefore identifying the mechanisms that regulate nAChR expression and function will further inform our understanding of normal as well as pathological conditions and offer novel avenues for potential therapeutic advances.
Taking advantage of the genetic tractability of the soil nematode C. elegans, a large scale forward screen was done to isolate regulators of the vertebrate α7 nAChR homologue ACR-16. From this screen three novel regulators of the ACR-16 receptor were identified: sca-1, vab-1, and f59d12.1. Further examination of these three genes promises to shed light on previously uncharacterized pathways of regulation of the ACR-16 receptor.


In this paper, we proposed a novel prototype of automated music video generation using Web image resource. In this prototype, the salient words/phrases of a song's lyrics are first automatically extracted and then used as queries to retrieve related high-quality images from Web search engines. To guarantee the coherence among the chosen images' visual representation and the music song, the returned images are further re-ranked and filtered based on their content characteristics such as color, face, landscape, as well as the song's mood type. Finally, those selected images are concatenated to generate a music video using the Photo2Video technique, based on the rhythm information of the music. Preliminary evaluations of the proposed prototype have shown promising results.


To meet the predicted increase in demand for energy storage in tomorrow's society, the development of inexpensive, flexible, lightweight and sustainable energy-storage materials is essential. In this respect, devices based on electroactive organic molecules, such as conducting polymers, are highly interesting. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the use of nanocellulose as a matrix material in composites of cellulose and the electroactive polymer polypyrrole (PPy), and the use of these composites in all-polymer paper-based energy-storage devices. Pyrrole was polymerized using FeCl3 onto cellulose nanofibers in the form of a hydrogel. The resulting PPy-coated fibers were washed with water and dried into a high surface area, conductive paper material. Variations in the drying technique provided a way of controlling the porosity and the surface area of wood-based cellulose nanofibers, as the properties of the cellulose were found to have a large influence on the composite structure. Different nanocellulose fibers, of algal and wood origin, were evaluated as the reinforcing phase in the conductive composites. These materials had conductivities of 1–6 S/cm and specific surface areas of up to 246 m2/g at PPy weight fractions around 67%. Symmetrical supercapacitor devices with algae-based nanocellulose-PPy electrodes and an aqueous electrolyte showed specific charge capacities of around 15 mAh/g and specific capacitances of around 35 F/g, normalized with respect to the dry electrode weight. Potentiostatic charging of the devices was suggested as a way to make use of the rapid oxidation and reduction processes in these materials, thus minimizing the charging time and the effect of the IR drop in the device, and ensuring charging to the right potential. Repeated charging and discharging of the devices revealed a 10–20% loss in capacity over 10 000 cycles. Upon up-scaling of the devices, it was found that an improved cell design giving a lower cell resistance was needed in order to maintain high charge and discharge rates. The main advantages of the presented concept of nanocellulose-PPy-based electrical energy storage include the eco-friendly raw materials, an up-scalable and potentially cost-effective production process, safe operation, and the controllable porosity and moldability offered by the nanocellulose fiber matrix. Integrating energy storage devices into paper could lead to un- precedented opportunities for new types of consumer electronics. Future research efforts should be directed at increasing the energy density and improving the stability of this type of device as well as advancing the fundamental understanding of the current limitations of these properties.


This article investigates whether a prolonged absence from the workforce after the birth of the first child is associated with mothers having a lower retirement income and whether cross-national variations in family policy and pension systems moderate the relationship between work interruptions and retirement incomes in 10 European countries. The analysis, based on five waves of SHARE data, indicates that the longer a mother abstains from work after the birth of her first child, the lower her retirement income is. However, the association is negligible in countries where mothers are historically supported by a comprehensive welfare system, namely Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. The findings indicate that generous work–family reconciliation policies and a universally oriented pensions system are most effective in minimising long-term motherhood income penalties when they are jointly present, pointing to the importance of policy packages that combine active and passive measures to achieve dual decommodification.


Background: Autotetraploid rice is a useful germplasm for polyploid rice breeding; however, low seed setting is a major hindrance for the utilization of autotetraploid rice. Our previous study demonstrated that neo-tetraploid rice have great yield potential, which is thought to be one effective way to overcome the low fertility of autotetraploid rice. However, there is little known about the cause of high pollen fertility in neo-tetraploid rice. Here, we employed cytology and RNA-seq to study the molecular genetic mechanism of high pollen fertility in neo-tetraploid rice.Results: Cytological observations indicate that H1 displayed high pollen fertility (95.62%), lower percentage of PMC cell abnormalities, and stable chromosome configurations during the pollen development process compared with its two parents. RNA-seq analysis detected 1483 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in neo-tetraploid rice compared with its two parents. Of these DEGs, 433 were annotated as pollen fertility-related genes, and 240 (~55.4%) exhibited significant upregulation in neo-tetraploid rice compared with its two parents, including nine cloned genes ( CSA , TMS5 etc.) that were validated by qRT-PCR and had been demonstrated to be pollen fertility-related genes. We further selected TMS5 as a candidate gene and analysed its phenotype in neo-tetraploid rice using the CRISPR/Cas9 technique. Significant variations have been detected in phenotypic charts, pollen development process and expression level in H1 and its TMS5 knockout lines.Conclusions: Our finding provides strong evidence for the regulatory mechanisms of neo-tetraploid rice, and upregulation of pollen fertility-related genes should be associated with high fertility. Moreover, the present study provides a new useful germplasm for polyploidy rice breeding.


A stabilizing controller structure is proposed for planar vertical take off and landing (PVTOL) aircraft. In order to achieve almost global asymptotic stabilization, the coupling coefficient, ε, is assumed to be in the interval 0 ≤ ε <; 1. Stability analysis is performed based on a Lyapunov function and asymptotic convergence is proven by means of La Salle's invariance principle. The proposed controller is implemented by numerical simulations on PVTOL aircraft and results are presented.


We study the existence of sample path average cost (SPAC-) optimal policies for Markov control processes on Borel spaces with strictly unbounded costs, i.e., costs that grow without bound on the complement of compact subsets. Assuming only that the cost function is lower semicontinuous and that the transition law is weakly continuous, we show the existence of a relaxed policy with "minimal" expected average cost and that the optimal average cost is the limit of discounted programs. Moreover, we show that if such a policy induces a positive Harris recurrent Markov chain, then it is also sample path average (SPAC-) optimal. We apply our results to inventory systems and, in a particular case, we compute explicitly a deterministic stationary SPAC-optimal policy.


This paper analyzes public understanding and moral reasoning with regard to regulating nature, specifically, societal efforts to control an insect population. It presents a study of a Swedish case in which a biological insecticide has been used to fight mosquitoes to reduce the nuisance to the local population. This case involves conflicting values regarding environmental protection. People's right to outdoor life is placed in opposition to long-term risks to biodiversity. Through interviews with local residents, their deliberations on the spraying are analyzed, particularly concerning to what extent and how they describe the situation in moral terms, but also how they acknowledge and use scientific findings in their argumentation.


This article examines Nnamdi Azikiwe's idea of mental
emancipation as the intellectual foundation for his political philosophy.
Mental emancipation involves re-educating Africans to adopt scientific,
critical, analytic, and logical modes of thinking. Azikiwe argues that
development must involve changing Africans' intellectual attitudes and
educational system. He argues that Western education, through perpetuating
negative stereotypes and engendering 'colonial mentality',
has neither fostered critical and scientific thinking, nor enabled Africans
to apply their knowledge for development. Mental emancipation would
enable Africans to develop self-confidence, and the critical examination
of superstitious beliefs that have hindered Africa's development. I show
that Azikiwe's ideas have been recaptured by African philosophers like
Bodunrin and Wiredu, regarding their critique of aspects of African
tradition and prescription for how African philosophy can contribute to
development.


Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic condition of the bowel which is known to be very challenging for patients especially during times of active disease or flare ups of their symptoms. Those affected have to adapt their lives to the chronic nature of their condition. The aim of this review was to synthesise qualitative evidence on the perceptions and experiences of those living with inflammatory bowel disease on nursing care received in all health care settings and identify barriers and facilitators for optimal nursing care. Qualitative evidence synthesis guided by Thomas & Harden's (2008) method of thematic synthesis was used.

 A systematic search was carried out in CINAHL, Embase, Medline, Cochrane and Google Scholar using combinations of key words. Searches were imported into Covidence which is an online software product used for systematic reviews. Title and abstract screening and full text screening were carried out to screen for eligible papers. Included studies were critically appraised using Critical Appraisal Support Programme (CASP) and thematic synthesis of the data was conducted. Eleven studies were included in the synthesis.

 From the thematic synthesis of the included studies three analytical themes were developed;
 1) Meaningful care for patients,
 2) Accessible support and information
 3) "A constant" for people with IBD.

 This review demonstrated the positive and negative experiences of patients with inflammatory bowel disease on the nursing care they received. It raises key issues for patients which can be addressed by nursing when caring for patients. The results will inform nursing on what is important to patients and how their healthcare needs can be met in all settings. This review will also support evidence for nurses to obtain resources and improve patient care.


This article returns to the figure of the mouth in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Laocoön: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry. While many scholars treat Lessing's attention to the statue's mouth as a sign of his contempt for the body, the article argues that Lessing's interest in orality is a test of the limits of the eighteenth century's neoclassicism. The article concludes that Lessing is thus not a representative of conservative aesthetics but a proto-Freudian thinker who inadvertently challenged the foundations of his own aesthetic project.


ABSTRACT Poland and Ukraine share a long and complicated history with some really dramatic events which still overshadow relations between both nations, especially those which took place in Volhynia and other areas with a mixed Polish–Ukrainian population during 1943–1945 when soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists – Bandera faction (OUN-B), planned and carried out the extermination of the Polish population. What is more, the nationalists killed several hundred Ukrainians as all manifestations of friendliness towards Poles were regarded as acts of collaboration with the enemy and a betrayal of national ideas. The main difference between the approach of Polish and Ukrainian historians is the terminology which they use to describe and evaluate those events. The endless public discussions, often accompanied by negative emotions, continues to heat up the historical debate. The Volhynia massacre, as it is often called in Poland, or the Volhynian tragedy, the term used by more moderate Ukrainian researchers, still overshadows Polish–Ukrainian relations. The echoes of this historical conflict (some historians claim that the Volhynian events were a continuation of the Polish-Ukrainian war of 1918–1919 for control over Lviv and Eastern Galicia) also exert a significant influence on the political decisions made by both countries with regard to commemoration of the victims – for indeed, they have become an element of the Polish–Ukrainian conflict of memory. During the communist period, there was no opportunity to talk openly about the history and conflict that divided the two nations. Nowadays, there are many initiatives aimed at reconstructing the past and building a new future. Many of these are inspired by culture and take advantage of its various forms. This article discusses detailed research on how city twinning and cultural cooperation can become a tool of small diplomacy. The case of Ukrainian Lviv and its six Polish partner cities has been studied.


In the contact area of offset, a relative slide occurs between the surface of plate cylinder and blanket cylinder, which changes the print image and influences the printing quality. The relative slide in the cylinders' rolling process is investigated, and the determination rule of cylinders' geometric parameters of offset press is proposed. The results show that the relative slide is minimization under the condition that the compression of elastic cylinder radius is 0.2 times bigger than that of rigid cylinder radius, and the deformation of print image and dot gain both are minimization. The results provide theoretical direction for accurate determination of cylinder radius of offset press.


Weathering of rock produces rough surfaces. Profiles from twenty-two weathered limestone specimens were obtained using a high-resolution laser profilometer. Profiles were quantified using five different fractal methods: Modified Divider, Box Counting, Spectral, Semi-Variance, and Roughness Length. The fractal methods provided both fractal dimension and fractal intercept for each of the profiles. The five methods yielded different ranges of fractal dimensions and fractal intercepts. Results of fractal quantification, with the exception of Roughness Length dimension, compared favorably with visual roughness classifications. Since weathering typically affects higher order asperities, the fractal dimension is the most appropriate fractal parameter to assess roughness from weathering. Of the five fractal methods, it was determined that the Spectral or Semi-Variance methods were best to assess weathering roughness. These methods consistently provided fractal dimensions between 1 and 2, compared favorably with visual classification of smooth and rough specimens, and provided a wide range of fractal dimension values.


Aromatherapy is an ancient and well established discipline, with its roots based in herbology. While aromatherapy has existed in health care practice in many cultures for thousands of years, the mechanisms of its actions, and therefore its place in contemporary health care, are often not widely known. This article explores such mechanisms of action in the nervous system, illustrating the principles of how this health care discipline can potentially provide a successful adjunct to the care of those with neurological disorders.


This chapter suggests a new interpretation of Spinoza's concept of mind claiming that the goal of the equation of the human mind with the idea of the body is not to solve the mind-body problem, but rather to show how we can, within the framework of Spinoza's rationalism, conceive of finite minds as irreducibly distinguishable individuals. To support this view, the chapter discusses the passage from E2p11 to E2p13 against the background of three preliminaries, i.e. the notion of a union between mind and body as it appears in Thomas Aquinas' refutation of Averroism, Spinoza's views on knowledge of actually existing things in E2p8c, and the phenomenological character of E2a2-4. It argues that while this view on the human mind does not undermine radical rationalism, it does require its amendment by some irreducibly empirical concessions


Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a well-recognized complication of chemotherapy for multiple myeloma (MM). Serial bone marrow metaphase examinations were performed for MM restaging in 3,077 patients undergoing high-dose therapy (HDT). MDS-associated cytogenetic abnormalities (MDS-CAs) were observed in 105 of 2,418 patients in whom cytogenetic data were available after HDT. MDS-CAs occurred transiently in 72 patients and on 3 successive occasions (persistent MDS-CAs) in 33 patients, for 10-year estimates of 4% and 2%, respectively; only 21 patients developed overt clinical MDS and 5, acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML). MDS-CA development was linked to lower CD34 yield at collection, longer time interval from MM diagnosis to HDT, older age, and lower platelet recovery after HDT; persistent MDS-CAs were predicted by CD34 yield of less than 3 x 10(6)/kg and need for more than 2 apheresis procedures. Applying a tertile frequency distribution over time to all 105 patients with MDS-CAs, its detection early after HDT was associated with longer time interval from diagnosis and low pre-HDT platelet count (likely resulting from pre-HDT damage), whereas late-onset MDS-CAs were noted among patients treated with Total Therapy 2 and Total Therapy 3 that applied post-HDT consolidation chemotherapy (suggesting possible post-HDT damage). While the risk of MDS-CAs was low and clinical MDS occurred infrequently, monitoring after post-HDT consolidation chemotherapy appears warranted.


Aggressive tax planning efforts of highly profitable multinational companies (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)) have become the subject of intense public debate in recent years. As a response, several international initiatives and parties have called for more transparency in financial reporting, especially by means of a Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR). In line with that, the OECD and the European Commission have recently presented proposals for a comprehensive disclosure of country-specific tax-related information for companies in all industry sectors. In our paper, we demonstrate that neither consolidated or individual financial statements nor other existing data sources seem to be an appropriate basis for providing such country-specific information. Instead, it would be necessary to define detailed and harmonized definitions and regulations to ensure comparability. The discussion on benefits and costs of a CbCR reveals that benefits (at least partially) lack a theoretical foundation and, overall, do not seem to outweigh associated costs. This holds true, in particular, since current tax planning activities are mainly based on the legal exploitation of gaps and loopholes in national and international tax law. Instead, we argue that tax legislators should limit profit shifting by enforcing tax rules and by closing gaps in tax law. In particular, we call for more tightened and standardized transfer pricing regulations and thin-cap rules to be adopted at an international level.


The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established in December 1946 to rescue mothers and children in Europe and Asia after the World War II. From the beginning it contributed to enhance the protection of motherhood and childhood within the UN political agenda and the policies of the recipient countries. In Europe, it acted at first as a humanitarian agency and then it started technical assistance programmes, urging states to build efficient welfare systems. After the emergency on the continent had ended, it shifted its interests towards Third World, thus helping to connect child welfare with economic/social development of less developed countries. In that context, UNICEF applied some successful European experiences. Italy, which was initially beneficiary of the Fund's programs and then member of the organization, was one of the most meaningful model


Objectives Our aim was to investigate whether collateral flow may predict myocardial blush grade (MBG) in acute myocardial infarction patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Background No‐reflow is a well known phenomenon associated with increased morbidity and mortality due to underperfused myocardium; therefore early prediction of no‐reflow is of major importance. We have observed that in patients with good collateral filling of the infarct related artery as seen prior to primary angioplasty, the clearance of the contrast medium from the myocardium may be impaired. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the MBG as observed by collateral filling in 81 patients and correlated it with the final MBG. Patients were divided into two groups—those with collateral MBG 0 or 1 (34) and those with myocardial blush 2 or 3 (47). Results Of the 34 patients in the first group 71% remained in the same MBG group after primary percutaneous coronary intervention and the rest improved. Of the 47 individuals with collateral MBG 2 or 3, 87% remained in the same group following primary percutaneous coronary intervention, and the rest deteriorated (P < 0.01 for both groups). Conclusions Collaterals may predict MBG in acute myocardial infarction patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Continuous actions of topological groups on compact Hausdorff spaces $X$ are investigated which induce almost periodic functions in the corresponding commutative C*-algebra. The unique invariant mean on the group resulting from averaging allows to derive a C*-valued inner product and a Hilbert C*-module which serve as an environment to describe characteristics of the group action. For uniformly continuous, Lyapunov stable actions the derived invariant mean $M(\phi_x)$ is continuous on $X$ for any element $\phi \in C(X)$, and the induced C*-valued inner product corresponds to a conditional expectation from $C(X)$ onto the fixed point algebra of the action defined by averaging on orbits. In the case of selfduality of the Hilbert C*-module all orbits are shown to have the same cardinality. Stable actions on compact metric spaces give rise to C*-reflexive Hilbert C*-modules. The same is true if the cardinality of finite orbits is uniformly bounded and the number of closures of infinite orbits is finite. A number of examples illustrate typical situations appearing beyond the classified cases.


The content and methods of research adopted reflect the expertise of researchers and the capability of academic programs. This study analyzed the health researchers conducted in the Ilocos Region and focused on quantity and quality. The descriptive research design was utilized in the study. The respondents were the health researchers in Ilocos Region. The data were gathered through the use of a questionnaire and supplemented by documentary analysis and interviews. The quality of the researches was evaluated by the researchers themselves and then validated by two research experts. Results showed that there were 241 health researchers and 248 health researchers conducted in the region. The health researchers conducted in the hospitals were mostly clinical, while those conducted in the academic institutions were theses and dissertations. Majority of the researches were conducted by individual authors and personally funded and mainly focused on local concerns. Most of the researches were published in research and scientific journals, disseminated through forums, conferences, research display and exhibits, but they were not actually utilized. In general, the health researchers conducted in the region had average quality. The study concluded that researches were moderately relevant and responsive, highly effective, highly scientific, highly transferable, but slightly disseminated. Furthermore, the personal and professional variables of the respondents contributed significantly to the quantity and quality of the health researchers conducted. Keyword - health research, documentary analysis, scientific journals, Ilocos Region


After analyzing the architecture and characteristics of control system in process industry, the multi-agent technology was introduced into process industry process control, and a hierarchical distributed multi-agent control system was proposed. This system was composed of field monitoring agent, workshop coordination control agent and system scheduling management agent. And a hierarchical black-board model was taken as the communication mechanism of the multi-agent system. System management mode, the basic structure and main function of individual agent were designed. Detail system cooperation mechanism and a two-level coordination control strategy were also analyzed.


Abstract Objective: To evaluate the "false negative" of VIA in our study population compared to HPV DNA test as the reference test or gold standard. Method: We processed the cervical swab from 1,279 patients with negative VIA and detected the HPV DNA by using INNO-Lipa HPV DNA test. Result: From 1,279 women with negative VIA, 65 samples were excluded because of incomplete data and duplicate examination. From the remaining 1,214 women with negative VIA, 39 samples were confirmed to be positive for HPV DNA by both PCR and hybridization, leading to a "false negative" result of 3.21%. Conclusion: This study shows VIA as a very effective method for cervical cancer screening. VIA gives an excellent result, particularly for ectocervix, with minimal cost. Therefore, it is very suitable to be used as cervical cancer screening in developing countries like Indonesia. Keywords: cervical cancer, HPV DNA, negative VIA, screening, VIA


Many incidents and crashes can be attributed to driver distraction, and it is essential to learn how to detect distraction in order to develop efficient countermeasures. A number of distraction detection algorithms have been developed over the years, and the objective of this paper is to summarize available approaches and to describe these algorithms in a unified framework. The review is limited to real-time algorithms that are intended to detect visual distraction.


An implementation of error backpropagation on a massively parallel cellular array processor, AAP-2, is described. Parallel operations of a neural network simulation on the AAP-2 are described, including: allocation of the processors, computing the activation value with a stable-lookup method, and communication between processors. Currently, this simulator on the AAP-2 can run at approximately 18 MCPS (million connections per second), which is 45 times faster at a learning phase than that of the IBM-3090. The results indicate that fine-grained, cellular array computers consisting of a large number of simple processors can be efficient neural network simulators.<<ETX>>


Abstract. As the popularization of cultural relics and the rapid development of cultural tourism industry, a large number of cultural relic tourism resources goes into public eyes. Activation of relics has became an important way for tourist to contact and understand culture relics. The way of how to properly interpret the historical sense and cultural uniqueness to the masses of tourists in order to achieve social service functions of relic resources has always been research focal point of site protection and utilization, so nowadays it has important significance to protection and utilization of heritage resources in our country. From the point of activation of relics and based on the analysis of resource characteristic, the paper in depth discuss ways of activation of relics of the Old Summer Palace, in order to provide reference for sustainable development of sites tourism in China.


This research aimed to extract and fractionate phospholipids from the most potential source of phospholipids of the waste of palm oil processing i.e. palm pressed fiber, sludge, and spent bleaching earth (adsorbent). The extraction process was performed by using chloroform-methanol, followed by polar lipid separation by solubilization in choloroform (to eliminate neutral lipid) and methanol (to extract phospholipids). Fractionation was performed based on the solubility in ethanol and acetone. There were 5 phospholipd fractions obtained, i.e. crude phospholipids (without fractionation), ethanol soluble, ethanol insloluble, ethanol soluble-acetone soluble, and ethanol soluble-acetone insoluble fractions. Each fraction was characterized for phospholipid composition and fatty acid profile. The result showed that palm pressed fiber had the highest content of phospholipids of 10,222.19 ppm. Extraction and separation of phospholipids from palm pressed fiber produced phospholipids with a purity of 61.67%. Phospholipids found in palm pressed fiber were phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidyletanolamin (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), diphosphatidylglyerol (DPG), and phosphatidic acid (PA), while the impurities consisted of fatty acids and neutral lipids. Oleic acid is the most dominant fatty acid ini crude palm pressed fiber phospholipids. Fractionation increased the purity of phospholipids. Different phospholipids fractions showed different phospholipid composition and fatty acid profile. Ethanol soluble fraction had more PI, PC, PG, and PA, but less PE and DPG as compared to crude phospholipids. The ratio of PC to PE also increased after ethanol fractionation. The amount of more non polar phospholipids (PG, DPG, PA) were less in ethanol soluble-acetone insoluble fractions compared to ethanol soluble-acetone soluble fraction. The solubilization in ethanol increased total unsaturated fatty acids in ethanol soluble fractions, meanwhile the distribution of unsaturated and saturated fatty acid in ethanol soluble-acetone soluble and ethanol soluble-acetone insoluble was similar.


Bromus tectorum L. (Poaceae, 'cheatgrass') is a flammable, non-native, annual grass from Eurasia that has spread throughout the western United States, exerting serious impacts on ecosystems by fueling frequent fires and displacing native vegetation. Over the last decade, B. tectorum has begun expanding into higher elevations, where it currently coexists with native vegetation and has not yet altered fire regimes. In this dissertation, I examine the impacts of climate change and management activities on high-elevation B. tectorum populations in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California. In Chapter 1, I explore the impacts of changing patterns of snow and rain on B. tectorum as compared to native species. I found that B. tectorum responses to precipitation change (snow and rain) were of greater magnitude than the responses of native species at the University of California Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve. Bromus tectorum density followed the declining trend in winter snowpack over three years, and within-year snowpack reductions advanced the timing of B. tectorum phenology. Species-specific responses to spring rainfall showed some variation in different years of the study, highlighting the importance of both winter and spring precipitation and suggesting that inter-annual variability will generate different impacts on different species depending on specific conditions. Chapter 2 presents a greenhouse experiment to study the impacts and interactions of temperature, competition, and facilitation on native species and B. tectorum. Higher temperatures in the greenhouse dramatically decreased B. tectorum reproductive allocation and increased vegetative biomass. Bromus tectorum tended to have negative impacts on neighboring species by reducing their biomass, reproductive allocation, stomatal conductance, and photosynthetic rates (suggesting possible competition), while a native nitrogen-fixing forb tended to have positive impacts on these variables for B. tectorum and other native species (suggesting possible facilitation). Chapter 3 is an applied research project conducted at Devils Postpile National Monument to assess the impacts of extreme disturbance events and fuels management activities on fuel loads and B. tectorum invasion. An extreme windstorm substantially elevated fuel loads, which were reduced in areas that were treated for hazardous fuel reduction. Anthropogenic disturbance from fuel reduction projects was not creating establishment sites for B. tectorum, but areas that were subjected to a high-severity wildfire burn about twenty years ago provided loci of B. tectorum invasion. Prioritizing monitoring efforts in high-severity burned areas, especially when they coincide with high levels of disturbance from recreational activities, such as along hiking trails and near pack stations, would strengthen active management of B. tectorum infestations at Devils Postpile National Monument. Overall, this dissertation shows that various climatic changes and anthropogenic impacts could influence mechanisms for future high-elevation B. tectorum expansion in different ways.


ABSTRACT Older forensic psychiatric patients (defined as aged 50 or over) have complex needs and require specialized treatment to enable recovery and reduce risk. Little is known about what service provision is available for this population, so a scoping literature review was undertaken to establish the extent of service provision and if services are specifically modified or designed for this population. The literature was searched through academic journal databases and Google Scholar, and outputs were screened for suitability and assessed for quality. Eight studies (four qualitative, four quantitative) were included in the review. Studies were mixed in terms of methodological quality, and with several limitations. Qualitative data provided perceptions regarding positive (e.g., sufficient types of therapy) and negative (e.g., lack of age-appropriate services) aspects of interventions. Quantitative data were descriptive, focusing mainly on identifying provision available (e.g., art therapy, violence reduction) and where needs were not being met (e.g., physical needs, education). Results indicate little provision in place adapted specifically for older forensic psychiatric patients. Findings highlight the need for further research to understand and effectively implement interventions and service provision for older forensic mental health patients to ensure practice is evidence based.


Pelvic exenteration was first described by Alexander Brunschwig in 1948 in New York as a palliative procedure for recurrent carcinoma of the cervix. Because of initially high rates of morbidity and mortality, the practice of this ultraradical operation was largely confined to a small number of American centers for most of the 20th century. The post-World War II era saw advances in anaesthesia, blood transfusion, and intensive care medicine that would facilitate the evolution of more radical and heroic abdominal and pelvic surgery. In the last 3 decades, pelvic exenteration has continued to evolve into one of the most important treatments for locally advanced and recurrent rectal cancer. This review aimed to explore the evolution of pelvic exenteration surgery and to identify the pioneering surgeons, seminal articles, and novel techniques that have led to its current status as the procedure of choice for locally advanced and recurrent rectal cancer.


Abstract Interaction becomes increasingly digital, including interactions with public authorities, requiring websites to be accessible for all. The strong focus on written words in digital interactions allows for assistive technology to improve access for many users. However, it might impede usability for users with reading and writing difficulties. The present paper examines whether guidelines such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) sufficiently cover users with dyslexia and how usability can be improved for this user group. This paper expands a previously published version at the Mensch und Computer 2021 conference [1]. Using literature research and interviews with users with dyslexia and focusing on an application of the WCAG on the country level (a German law regulating accessibility for e-government websites), we confirmed and identified gaps in the WCAG for this group. We focus on within-site search, as this function is frequently used to find relevant information, esp. on infrequently visited sites such as e-government websites. Modifications to improve search were developed based on literature and the results of the interviews. They were empirically evaluated in an online study with 31 users with dyslexia and 71 without. Results indicate that an auto-complete function, a search that compensates for spelling errors, an indicator that the search was corrected, search term summary information, and avoidance of capital letters were useful for both groups, while wider line spacing should only be used in end-user customization.


The recognition of the molecular patterns of pathogens by innate immune receptors is a well-established function of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family; similar activities are now being ascribed to other families of host cell proteins. For example, the C-type lectin Dectin-1 enables phagocytosis of yeast by scavenger cells by binding the yeast cell wall carbohydrates (β glucans), and it has been shown to act as a coreceptor for TLR2, leading to inflammatory cytokine expression. Rogers et al. show that Dectin-1 can signal directly to initiate cytokine transcription.The production of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and IL-10 could be induced upon exposure of dendritic cells to a yeast cell wall extract and was partially blocked by a soluble β glucan.An equivalent phenotype could be conferred on a B cell hybridoma line (LK cells) by transduction of Dectin-1.Transcription of both cytokines was dependent on the intracellular tyrosine kinase, Syk, which was recruited by the immunoreceptor tyrosinebased activation motif in the cytoplasmic tail of Dectin-1. The distinct cytokine profiles induced by Dectin-1 in the context of Syk signals, versus co-signaling with TLR2, suggest flexibility in innate pattern recognition that could be tailored for a pathogenspecific adaptive immune response. — SJS


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effects of brand placement repetition in music videos on consumers' memory, brand attitudes and behavioral intentions, as well as, explores the effective frequency needed to achieve optimal advertising impact.

Design/methodology/approach
The proposed hypotheses and research questions were tested using an experimental approach. Participants watched a block of music videos containing various levels of brand placement repetitions. Afterward, participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure memory, brand attitudes and behavioral intentions.

Findings
At low levels (below 4–5 exposures), the repetition of a brand placement has a positive effect on brand memory, brand attitudes, intentions to buy and to recommend the brand to others. However, further increases in repetition had detrimental effects on brand attitudes and purchase intentions, but not on memory measures. Additionally, the effects of brand placement repetition on brand attitudes and memory measures were moderated by respondents' brand familiarity.

Research limitations/implications
The effects of brand placements were measured through explicit tests that refer to the placement event. Researchers are encouraged to test suggested propositions by using implicit tests.

Practical implications
The results of this study can serve as guidance for marketing practitioners on optimal ways to integrate their brands into the contents of mass media programming.

Originality/value
Despite the increasing usage of music videos in marketing promotions, limited scholarship explores the effects of placing consumer brands in this promising medium. Current research addresses this gap and contributes both to brand placement literature and scholarship on advertising repetition.


Purpose The visual performance of pseudophakic eyes depends on the type of intraocular lenses (IOLs) that are implanted. Aspherical and multifocal IOLs have recently been developed to improve visual quality after cataract surgery, but multifocal IOLs can be associated with decreased contrast sensitivity (CS), halos, and glare. This study compares the visual performance of monofocal and multifocal IOLs by measurement of higher-order aberrations (HOAs) and CS values. Materials and Methods HOAs and CS values of 42 eyes with implanted monofocal IOLs and 40 eyes with implanted multifocal IOLs were measured preoperatively and more than 6 months after surgery. In the multifocal IOL group, HOAs and CS values were also measured with addition of a trial lens of -0.5 diopter (D) to evaluate the compensatory effect on spherical aberration. Results CS values of the multifocal IOL group were significantly lower than those of the monofocal IOL group for all spatial frequencies tested (p < 0.01), and the spherical aberration was significantly higher in the multifocal IOL group than in the monofocal IOL group (p < 0.001). Addition of a -0.5 D lens to the multifocal IOL group decreased the difference in CS between the two groups (p = 0.003). Conclusion Increased spherical aberration may contribute to lower CS in the multifocal IOL group. In such cases, CS can be improved by addition of a -0.5 D lens to compensate for the spherical aberration.


Along with the increasing abundance of material wealth, the comprehensive quality of the Chinese people has been greatly improved, and more and more families have begun to put forward new requirements for the pursuit of spiritual culture. However, there are still many problems in the piano education in China, such as strong utility of the purpose of piano education, lack of faculty, single teaching method and closed teaching contents. In order to alleviate the predicament of piano education in China, this study combines the actual situation of Chinese piano education, analyzes the problems existing in Chinese piano education, and puts forward corresponding improvement measures, hoping to help the development of Chinese piano education.


Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency is the most common cause of maldigestion in dogs. This is usually caused by irreversible atrophy of the pancreas which subsequently requires life-long substitution therapy. The pathophysiology, symptoms and diagnosis are briefly reviewed in the present paper. The Trypsin-like-immunoreactivity test is recommended for establishing the diagnosis. Finally, treatment and possible causes of the failure of therapy are discussed.


Seat belts are known to be very effective, reducing the risk of injury by approximately 50 percent when used. Such high effectiveness is, however, based on the fact that all car occupants use the available belts. In several studies it has been shown that, in severe accidents, the seat belt use was less than 50 percent. In order to increase the wearing rate more drastic solutions than information, legislation etc have to be used. A Swedish group, representing government, research, insurance companies, and the car and restraint systems industry, has approached the problem by proposing a smart system that will force car occupants who normally are unbelted, to use the seat belts by systems that will interfere with the normal use of the car. Different technical approaches, which not in any way will interfere with the normal belt user, will be put forward and evaluated. The problem will also be discussed from a cost-effectiveness point of view and the potential of saving lives in an international perspective will be analyzed. It is shown that more than 6000 lives could be saved per year in the European Union if the existing seat belts were used.


The analysis of polynomial phase signals using the recently developed polynomial phase transform suffers from spurious harmonics when dealing with multiple components having identical high‐order coefficients. It is illustrated that such a model appears in synthetic aperture radars (SAR) imagery and transmission of polynomial phase signals through multipath channels. Analytical expressions for the spurious peaks are derived first, followed by algorithms for estimating the parameters of multicomponent polynomial phase signals taking advantage of the overdeterminacy introduced by the so called multilag high‐order ambiguity function. An algorithm will be presented based on the projection of the observed signal onto a subspace estimated as the intersection of signal subspaces obtained using different sets of lags. Fast suboptimal algorthms will also be presented for suppressing interference terms and removing ambiguities. Autofocusing of real SAR imagery and mitigation of multipath when acoustic signals arrive...


Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) increases CPU utilization and application performance in many circumstances, but it can be detrimental when performance is limited by application scalability or when there is significant contention for CPU resources. This paper describes an SMT-selection metric that predicts the change in application performance when the SMT level and number of application threads are varied. This metric is obtained online through hardware performance counters with little overhead, and allows the application or operating system to dynamically choose the best SMT level. We have validated the SMT-selection metric using a variety of benchmarks that capture various application characteristics on two different processor architectures. Our results show that the SMT-selection metric is capable of predicting the best SMT level for a given workload in 90% of the cases. The paper also shows that such a metric can be used with a scheduler or application optimizer to help guide its optimization decisions.


This exploratory and cross-cultural mixed method study aimed to understand the perspectives of learners and instructors in engineering education on mobile learning and information and communication technology (ICT) tools in different countries. A total of 197 participants attended the survey for understanding perspectives of mobile learning in engineering education: 54 participants from Belgium, 36 participants from the Netherlands, 41 participants from Spain and 66 participants from Turkey, respectively. Data was collected via (i) surveys, (ii) open-ended questionnaires, and (iii) semi-structured focus group interviews, respectively. The results showed that most of the learners preferred to use a mobile education application in their native language. The learners mentioned that they preferred to learn by videos and audios; similarly, according to the instructors' data, most of the instructors preferred to teach with videos as their favorite learning tool. However, using educational technological tools is limited by instructors' lack of experience. It is very important to overcome the fear related to using new technologies in the classroom and increase the readiness of using educational tools by integrating them into their courses effectively. It is strongly recommended that digital learning materials collected in a virtual environment should be accessible to instructors and learners.


The current study extended previous findings that the multiplier potential of a slot machine is related to gambling losses (Sharpe, Walker, Coughlan, Enerson & Blaszczynski, 2005). The multiplier potential of a slot machine was defined as comprising three components; the monetary denomination, the maximum number of pay-lines and the maximum bet multiplication. The relationship between these three components of the multiplier potential and a slot machine's average bet size was examined in a sample of 323 Australian machines. All machines were operating in gaming venues and expenditure measures were obtained from data recorded by the machines. Results indicated that machine denomination (e.g., 1-cent, 2-cents) and the maximum number of pay-lines were significant predictors of average bet size but no significant relationship was found between the bet multiplication variable and bet size. These results are discussed with regard to established contingencies and reinforcement rates.


When DVB-T2 uses the option of (distributed) multiple-input single-output transmission mode, a pair of Alamouti-encoded orthogonal frequency division multiplex signals is transmitted simultaneously from two spatially separated transmitters in a single frequency network. Since both transmitters have their own local oscillators, two distinct carrier frequency offsets (CFOs), one for each transmitter-receiver link, occur in the received signal due to the frequency mismatch between the local oscillators. Unfortunately, the multiple CFOs cannot be compensated simultaneously by merely adjusting the carrier frequency at the receiver side, so intercarrier interference (ICI) always exists. In this paper, we present an iterative receiver design to combat multiple CFOs for DVB-T2 application. To estimate both multiple CFOs and channels jointly without sacrificing the spectral efficiency, the joint maximum likelihood (ML) estimation based on the soft information from the channel decoder is used. The proposed receiver performs the iterative joint processing of the data detection, ICI cancelation, and joint ML estimation of the multiple CFOs and channels by exchanging the soft information. We also show that the complexity of the joint ML estimation can be reduced significantly by transforming a huge matrix pseudo-inversion into two sub-matrix pseudo-inversions. The performances are evaluated via a full DVB-T2 simulator. The numerical results show that the mean-squared error performance of the joint ML estimation is closely matched with the Cramér-Rao bound. Furthermore, the resulting bit error rate performance is enhanced in a progressive manner and is able to approach the ideal CFOs-free performance within a few iterations.


Measurements of the inhibition of DNA synthesis in bacteria and the formation of thymine dimers by ultraviolet irradiation of the cells indicate that one thymine dimer per 350-IA strand of DNA acts as a block to further synthesis. In a sensitive strain of Escherichia coli the blocks are permanent. In a resistant strain the blocks are only temporary but recovery of synthesis is not the result of splitting dimers.


: Sporadic inclusion body myositis is the most common inflammatory muscle disorder preferentially affecting males over the age of 40 years. Progressive muscle weakness of the finger flexors and quadriceps muscles results in loss of independence with activities of daily living and eventual wheelchair dependence. Initial signs of disease are often overlooked and can lead to mis- or delayed diagnosis. The underlying cause of disease is unknown, and disease progression appears refractory to available treatment options. This review discusses the clinical presentation of inclusion body myositis and the current efforts in diagnosis, and focuses on the current state of research for both nonpharmacological and pharmacological treatment options for this patient group.


The article discusses the process of aeronautical structure assembly in the presence of a sealant between the parts to be joined. An attempt to estimate the influence of sealant on assembly quality in terms of variation analysis is presented. The sealant is considered as a highly viscous liquid that is applied to the surfaces of the assembled parts before the start of final assembly. The modeling approach is based on simulation of two-way coupled fluid-structure interaction between fluid sealant and compliant structural parts. Reynolds lubrication approximation is used in the fluid dynamics problem and variational formulation of contact problem combined with static condensation is used in the structural one.
 The joining of two aircraft panels is used as a numerical test for demonstration of developed approach. Various phenomena connected with the presence of sealant are demonstrated. In particular, the difference in the fastener loosening due to sealant flow between different types of fasteners is investigated. Results of variation simulation show that presence of sealant should be considered among determining factors in the analysis of assembly quality.


The cashew karnel are wrapped the hard, irregular shells of the CNSL, and toxic. Cashew karnel should be free of oil, intact and colour white. The performance by Technology of Cashew Skin Burn, Which Has Three Vertical Space Posing Cylinders, shows; the percentage of CNSL remaining on the skin after burn. for bamboo, CNSL percentase that is on the skin as much as 56%, compared to palm leaf 63,4%. While mente seeds that get treatment, in the form of drying, CNSL is found in the drying of 3 days at 65.6%, compared to the first day and the second. The 13 minute steaming treatment with 2 days of unpolished CNSL drying is only 40%, compared to the steaming time of 11 minutes and 9 minutes. Yellow-colored cashews karnel for 13 minutes steaming and 2 days of drying, and all intact.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the current state of the research field of business process architecture (BPA) and its design methodologies.

Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using meta- and content-based perspectives.

Findings
From over 6,000 candidate studies, 89 were selected. A fifth of these primary works corresponded to BPA design methodologies. Though the BPA research field remains in an early stage of development, it bears promising growth potential. Regarding BPA design methodologies, the following aspects susceptible for further research were detected: identification and modeling of business process relationships; specification of inputs; standardization of models, notations and tool support; consideration of managerial concerns; integration of knowledge from other areas; and validation of methodological and product quality aspects.

Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the work lies in not being fully reproducible due to the fixed number of data sources and their digital nature, together with subjective decisions in work selection, data extraction and data analysis.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge no study has yet analyzed the BPA research field by means of an SLR. This study will benefit practitioners and research groups working on this topic by allowing them to get a rigorous overview of the BPA research field with an emphasis on available BPA design methodologies, and become aware of research gaps within the BPA field to position further research.


The McFarland method is designed to estimate bacterial concentrations by means of a turbidity scale (absorbance) which consists of a series of tubes previously calibrated, and with an optical density produced by the precipitation of barium sulphate. This absorbance is compared to bacterial populations. The most used absorbance is the one corresponding to 0.5 on that scale, which assumes a population of 1.5×108 cfu/mL (colony forming units per milliliter). In order to verify the accuracy of this scale, 25 different bacterial species were tested, adjusting to 0.5 of the McFarland scale and then an aliquot in plate with agar was cultured in triplicate to account for the population. The results showed very diverse populations, with variations ranging from 30 to 300% of what was expected (0.5×108 to 3×108 cfu/mL). The most important implications of this are in studies of microbial ecology, in clinical microbiology, in studies on sensitivity to antibiotics and in areas of quality control. It is suggested to take special care when it is required to establish, with more accuracy, the population of a crop.

 Key words: McFarland, accuracy, bacterial population.


Abstract Institutional engineering offers a solution to the increasing political dissatisfaction in several representative democracies, since studies suggest that introducing elements of institutional power sharing may decrease negative attitudes. However, it may be important to distinguish different mixes of political attitudes since these can have different implications for the functioning of democracy. This article therefore examines the link between horizontal and vertical institutional power sharing and four citizen profiles differing on the extent of political support and subjective political empowerment. The data come from the fourth round of the European Social Survey [ESS (2008) European Social Survey Round 4 Data. Data File Edition 4 (Norway: Norwegian Social Science Data Services)] and comprise 39,376 respondents from 24 democracies. The links between institutional power sharing and kinds of political dissatisfaction are examined with multinomial logistic regression analysis to examine the connections between horizontal and vertical power sharing and different attitudinal profiles to establish the possibilities for institutional engineering. The results suggest that horizontal power sharing is connected to a higher extent of satisfied citizens, but also certain kinds of dissatisfaction. Furthermore, vertical power sharing is connected to a lower probability of satisfied citizens. The effects of power sharing are therefore more intricate than what has previously been assumed when taking into account the multidimensional nature of political attitudes.


Most introductory genetics courses cover genetic linkage, a core concept in the CourseSource genetics learning outcome framework. Although it is a classical genetics topic, genetic linkage remains an important concept to understand in order to grasp modern genetics research approaches including Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) mapping, Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS), and gene discovery. Typically, genetic linkage is taught in a very traditional way within our introductory genetics classes. Invariably, we see students struggling with the same aspects of linkage: how to distinguish between parental and recombinant combinations of alleles and how to relate phenotype proportions to meiotic processes and outcomes. We designed a lesson that provides a practical and experimental context to target these common student difficulties in learning about linkage and recombination. This student-centered interactive lesson and associated postclass problem set teaches genetic linkage through mapping a gene by determining co-segregation of a phenotype with microsatellite sequences revealed by gel electrophoresis banding patterns. This lesson includes very interactive class sessions and a follow-up problem set and post-test that allows students to develop a deeper understanding of genetic linkage, and provides instructors with insights about student thinking. When we implemented this lesson, we observed a dramatic increase in student understanding of genetic linkage and how to use molecular markers to map the location of genes.


Abstract In recent years, 3D printing technologies have been developed to process a range of food products. Thus far, no academic research has attempted to gauge what people make of the different types of 3D printed food products and how receptive they may be to using a 3D food printer and consuming the food it makes. To address these questions, a qualitative study was conducted with Australians, using the method of an online discussion forum in which they were asked to respond to images of 3D printed food products. It found that the key attributes influencing participants' responses to each food item were: the content of the food; its appearance; the assumed sensory qualities of the food; to what extent it was assessed to be "real" or "food-like"; and considerations of how much processing the food had gone through. The findings suggest that those entrepreneurs or organizations which wish to promote 3D food printing technologies need to consider these attributes in their efforts to encourage people to accept the technologies and their products.


Directional drilling and surveying methods and capabilities have advanced considerably over the last four decades. Progress in this field represents some of the most innovative and notable technical achievements in recent years. However, these successes have introduced a level of complexity which may be hampering further progress. Some of the consequences are identified and examined and suggestions made as to how these might be managed.
 The developments have resulted in greater accuracy and reliability of tools and systems with associated economic advantages. Step outs have grown four-fold, horizontal laterals are routine and closely spaced wells can be drilled with confidence. Using steerable systems, well inclinations have reached 164.7° and more recently a horseshoe shaped well has been reported. The earlier software tools and analytic methods did not envisage these situations, but their capabilities have evolved. In this specialist field, heavy reliance has been placed on the work and de-facto standards of the various sub-committees that comprise the SPE Well Positioning Technical Section (WPTS) involving both operators and service companies. The tradition of cooperation between these volunteers is strong and together they have produced a range of technical papers, error models, e-books and training courses. Formal regulation and recommended practices have not kept pace with these developments. Work on the proposed API RP 78 has progressed more slowly than the ambitious timeline envisioned at the outset. With the burgeoning introduction of new systems and methods, complexity has also grown. The accumulated material poses an increasing maintenance burden, increasing cycle times and slowing both technical and administrative developments. By their nature, models are approximations and a balance between simplicity and complexity is required to ensure their predictions are fit for purpose and control can be maintained over their development without stifling innovation. Many of the tasks associated with managing the WPTS knowledge base are administrative and do not require extensive technical expertise. Alleviating this burden from the volunteers would free up valuable time to address important technical advancements and refine the framework in which these are managed. The loss of expertise in this specialist subject is being accelerated by the recent down-turn and exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.
 We conclude that there is a need to move the administration of the WPTS resources onto a more sustainable footing and that external funding will ensure that the knowledge base is consolidated and keeps pace with continuing developments. Funding alone is not a guarantee of success as the activities are still subject to the vagaries of volunteer commitment and careful management will be required. However, the WPTS has a sound 25-year track record of proven delivery and it remains the natural choice to spearhead these activities.


This paper discusses the impacts that rock wettability may have upon the production and recovery of oil with waterflooding in carbonate reservoirs and how it should be modeled. A broad review of the state of the art has been conducted surveying existing disagreements and knowledge gaps, basic definitions, as well as the correct understanding of the physical phenomena and identification of the characteristics of the various wettability scenarios.Case studies conducted with a black oil reservoir simulator evaluated the impact of different wettability scenarios on oil production and recovery. A comprehensive approach considering all the parameters involved in the wettability modeling was applied to the case studies, showing how the behavior of the reservoir varies as a function of their wettability.This paper shows how relative permeability and capillary pressure should be varied to correctly represent different wettability scenarios and consequently assess its impacts on oil production and recovery.The case studies show that the evaluation of the volume of oil in the reservoir is impacted by wettability through the irreducible water saturation and primary drainage capillary pressure and must be considered in the analyses. In long term analyses, mixed-wet scenarios have a higher oil production and recovery. In medium and short term, the water-wet scenarios have the higher recovery, but in relation to oil production, these scenarios are negatively influenced by the smaller volume of oil in place.The main contribution of this paper is the simultaneous analyses of all the parameters involved in the modeling of wettability showing how they impact the behavior of a reservoir. It shows how the parameters must be varied in a heterogeneous reservoir and how heterogeneity impacts the relevance of wettability in the studies.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


This master thesis report studies the possibility to modify a fast video encoder specialized for video conferencing applications (c65), in order to make it more suitable for encoding of general video content. The modifications includes coding with hierarchical B pictures and various other operations like rate distortion optimizations and improved motion estimation. Results show that the hierarchical coding and the other modifications contribute positively to the coding efficiency of the encoder. Considerations about the work results are given, regarding the new encoding scheme (in terms of coding delay and memory requirements) and a comparison of coding efficiency for different coding structures. Finally, ideas for future works are presented. This thesis was done in cooperation with Ericsson Research.


Continuous process industries engaged in large scale manufacturing of chemicals and fertilizers are highly energy intensive and contribute significantly to system peak demand. Consequent to the introduction of TOU tariff rates by the utilities, industrial load management programs aimed at economic reduction of electric energy demand of the industries during utility's peak generation period , gained importance. This paper presents an optimization model and formulation for peak demand and electricity cost reduction in continuous process industries. The formulation utilizes non - linear programming technique for minimizing the electricity cost by rescheduling the loads satisfying the process, production, and maximum demand constraints. The proposed optimal schedules when applied to a typical chemical plant resulted in significant reduction in peak demand (about 16.8%) and electricity cost (about 4.6%) under the TOU tariff.


Stability is a crucial issue for transport protocols. A lot of works study how to tune the parameters of congestion control algorithms to keep the stability of networks. This paper uses the idea of re-engineering to design an adaptive-stability congestion control algorithms base on the optimization theories. Furthermore, we present one congestion control algorithm according to different stable conditions. The effectiveness of these stability criteria is validated by simulation results.


The planning of fuel treatments for ecological or societal purposes requires an in-depth understanding of the conditions associated with the occurrence of free-burning fire behavior for the area of concern. Detailed fire-environment analysis for Army Garrison Camp Williams (AGCW) in north-central Utah was completed as a prerequisite for fuel treatment planning, using a procedure that could be generally applied. Vegetation and fuels data, topographic and terrain features, and weather and climate data, were assessed and integrated into predictive fuel models to aid planning. A fire behavior fuel model map was developed from biophysical variables, vegetation type, and plot survey data using random forests, and resulted in an overall classification rate of 72%. The predominate vegetation type-fuel complex was grass, followed by lesser amounts of Gambel oak, Wyoming big sagebrush and Utah juniper. The majority of AGCW is mountainous in nature, characterized by slopes less than 40% in steepness with slightly more northerly and easterly aspects than south and west, and elevations that ranged from 1650 to 1950 m above mean sea level. Local fire weather data compiled from the three nearest remote automated weather stations indicated that average temperature maxima (32 °C) and relative humidity minima (12%) usually occurred between 1400 to 1500 h daily, and from July to August, seasonally. The semi-arid climate at AGCW, coupled with the corresponding preponderance of flashy fuel types and sloping terrain, constitutes a formidable fire environment in which to plan for mitigating against adverse fire behavior.


Climate change has a great impact on the build and the work of natural ecosystems. Disappearance of some population or growth of the number in some species can be already caused by little change in temperature. A Theoretical Ecosystem Growth Model was investigated in order to examine the effects of various climate patterns on the ecological equilibrium. This paper examines the diversity of a theoretical ecosystem on the grounds of changing in temperature-climate patterns. Simulations were made from the simplest case to the more complex exercise to explain harder questions. Daily temperature values were calculated according to various functions. The effect of existing climate patterns (historical or future daily temperatures) was analysed where temperature values were from various climatic zones. In this paper it is examined what kind of environmental conditions result larger diversity related to the velocity of reproduction.


Hemodynamics plays an important role in cardiovascular disorders, and the authors are applying numerical and experimental studies of cerebrovascular blood flow to the creation and rupture of cerebral aneurysms. In particular, this study aims to investigate the effects of cerebrovascular geometry on hemodynamics, such as flow pattern, wall shear stress distribution, and pressure. This report consists mainly of two parts: numerical study of blood flow in the artery extracted from computer tomography data, and numerical and experimental studies of a curved pipe model. The simulation was conducted by using a finite element method; the experiment was conducted by particle imaging velocimetry. Numerical and experimental results are compared and both show similar secondary flow behavior.


The study was conducted to examine the expression of collagen type I and II in the different cartilage layers in relation to other ECM molecules during the progression of early osteoarthritic degeneration in human articular cartilage (AC). Quantitative real-time (RT)-PCR and colorimetrical techniques were used for calibration of Photoshop-based image analysis in detecting such lesions. Immunohistochemistry and histology were performed with 40 cartilage tissue samples showing mild (ICRS grade 1b) respectively moderate/advanced (ICRS grade 3a or 3b) (20 each) osteoarthritis compared with 15 healthy biopsies. Furthermore, we quantified our results on the gene expression of collagen type I and II and aggrecan with the help of real-time (RT)-PCR. Proteoglycan content was measured colorimetrically. The digitized images of histology and immunohistochemistry stains were analyzed with Photoshop software. T-test and Spearman correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis. In the earliest stages of AC deterioration the loss of collagen type II was associated with the appearance of collagen type I, shown by increasing amounts of collagen type I mRNA. During subsequent stages, a progressive loss of structural integrity was associated with increasing deposition of collagen type I as part of a natural healing response. A decrease of collagen type II is visible especially in the upper fibrillated area of the advanced osteoarthritic samples, which then leads to an overall decrease. Analysis of proteoglycan showed losses of the overall content and a loss of the classical zonal formation. Correlation analysis of the proteoglycan Photoshop measurements with the RT-PCR revealed strong correlation for Safranin O and collagen type I, medium for collagen type II, alcian blue and glycoprotein but weak correlation with PCR aggrecan results. Photoshop based image analysis might become a valuable supplement for well known histopathological grading systems of lesioned articular cartilage. The evidence of collagen type I production early in the OA disease process coupled with the ability of chondrocytes to up-regulate collagen type II production suggests that therapeutic agents that suppress collagen type I production and increase collagen type II production may enable chondrocytes to generate a more effective repair response.


This paper presents new research results of the DARPA-funded ONRAMP consortium on the next generation Internet to study efficient WDM-based network architectures and protocols for supporting broadband services in regional access networks. In particular, we present new efficient scheduling algorithms for bandwidth sharing in WDM distribution networks. The current ONRAMP distribution network architecture has a tree topology with each leaf node (e.g., a router or workstation) sharing access to the root node of the tree, which corresponds to an access node in the feeder network. Our model allows a leaf node to use one or more fixed-tuned or tunable transceivers; moreover, different leaf nodes can support different subsets of wavelengths depending on their expected traffic volumes. An important goal of ONRAMP is to support bandwidth-on-demand services with QoS guarantee over WDM. As a first step toward this goal, we have developed several fast scheduling algorithms for flexible bandwidth reservations in a WDM distribution network. The scheduling algorithms can provably guarantee any bandwidth reservations pattern that does not overbook network resources, i.e., bandwidth reservation (throughput) up to 100% network capacity can be supported.


Today, hyperthermophilic ('superheat-loving') bacteria and archaea are found within high-temperature environments, representing the upper temperature border of life. They grow optimally above 80°C and exhibit an upper temperature border of growth up to 113°C. Members of the genera, Pyrodictium and Pyrolobus, survive at least 1 h of autoclaving. In their basically anaerobic environments, hyperthermophiles (HT) gain energy by inorganic redox reactions employing compounds like molecular hydrogen, carbon dioxide, sulphur and ferric and ferrous iron. Based on their growth requirements, HT could have existed already on the early Earth about 3.9 Gyr ago. In agreement, within the phylogenetic tree of life, they occupy all the short deep branches closest to the root. The earliest archaeal phylogenetic lineage is represented by the extremely tiny members of the novel kingdom of Nanoarchaeota, which thrive in submarine hot vents. HT are very tough survivors, even in deep-freezing at −140°C. Therefore, during impact ejecta, they could have been successfully transferred to other planets and moons through the coldness of space.


Nowadays, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is used inside autonomous systems (ASs) for virtual private networks (VPNs) or traffic engineering (TE) purposes. The need for inter-AS label switched paths (LSPs) is growing, as carries and service providers (SPs) build multi-services network based on MPLS-enabled infrastructures. It becomes a key issue to extend the ability to deliver these services across SP domain boundaries. In this paper, we discuss the requirements for the inter-AS MPLS-TE. We also summarize the path computation element (PCE) architecture. Then we explain the approaches of using a PCE for the LSP path computation in inter-AS MPLS-TE. To illustrate our point, we compare two LSP path computation techniques