Following the administration of relatively high doses of the antischistosomal drug hycanthone to mice and hamsters infected with Schistosoma mansoni, a number of the worms survived. After a period of 6 to 12 months these parasites resumed production of viable eggs that gave rise to schistosomes that proved resistant to hycanthone and to two other related antischistosomal compounds. This drug resistance has remained stable for three subsequent generations of worms.


Background Evidences show that antimalarial agents of artemisinin and its derivatives such as artesunate may inhibit proinflammatory cytokines secretion from human rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) in vitro. It has also been demonstrated that artesunate may ameliorate the symptoms of arthritis and prevent joint damage in collagen induced arthritis rat, which suggests that artesunate may be used for RA treatment. Recent studies show that RA-FLS is critical for joint destruction in RA because it can migrate and attach to cartilage and bone, and then invade them by secreting proteases such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) 9 in RA. However, effects of artesunate on migration and invasion of RA-FLS are poorly understood. Objectives To investigated the effects of artesunate on migration and invasion of RA-FLS and its underlying mechanism. Methods Synovial tissues were obtained from active RA patients as well as osteoarthritis (OA) and noninflammatory orthopedic arthropathies (Orth.A) patients and immumohistochemical (IHC) staining were performed for MMP9 expression. FLS isolated from these patients were analyzed for MMP9 exprssion by western blot (WB) and incubated with artesunate at different concentrations (0μM, 20μM, 40μM and 60μM), methotrexate (MTX, 10nM) or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ, 20μM) for 24 hours. Effects of artesunate on migration and invasion capacity were detected by transwell and wound healing assays. MMP9 and PI3K/Akt signal transduction protein expression after artesunate treatment was measured by WB. Results (1) IHC staining showed that synovial MMP9 expressed in lining and sublining area with intense nuclear and endochylema staining in RA synovium and the percentage of MMP9+ cells was significantly higher in RA (n=32) than that in OA (n=6) or Orth.A (n=6, Figure 1A, B). (2) Migration and wound healing assays for 12 hours and invasion assay for 24 hours showed that RA-FLS possessed stronger capacity in migration and invasion than OA-FLS or Orth.A-FLS (Figure 1E, F). Artesunate inhabits the migration and invasion capacity of RA-FLS in a dose-dependent manner. MTX also has an inhibition effect on the migration and invasion of RA-FLS, but not HCQ (Figure 2A). (3) MMP9 expression in RA-FLS was significantly higher than that in OA-FLS or Orth.A-FLS (Figure 1C, D). 40μM or 60μM artesunate markedly inhibited the expression of MMP9 in RA-FLS by WB (Figure 2B). (4) WB analysis showed artesunate suppressed generation of phophso-Akt in a dose-dependent manner which indicated that Akt activity (phophso-Akt/Akt) in 40μM and 60μM artesunate treatment groups were significantly lower than that in untreated group (Figure 2C). Conclusions Artesunate could inhibit the migration and invasion capacity of RA-FLS and the expression of MMP9 through suppressing Akt activity. Acknowledgements This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81671612 and 81471597), Research Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine Bureau of Guangdong Province (20161058) and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (2014A030313074). Disclosure of Interest None declared


Online algorithms for detecting changepoints, or abrupt shifts in the behavior of a time series, are often deployed with limited resources, e.g., to edge computing settings such as mobile phones or industrial sensors. In these scenarios it may be beneficial to trade the cost of collecting an environmental measurement against the quality or"fidelity"of this measurement and how the measurement affects changepoint estimation. For instance, one might decide between inertial measurements or GPS to determine changepoints for motion. A Bayesian approach to changepoint detection is particularly appealing because we can represent our posterior uncertainty about changepoints and make active, cost-sensitive decisions about data fidelity to reduce this posterior uncertainty. Moreover, the total cost could be dramatically lowered through active fidelity switching, while remaining robust to changes in data distribution. We propose a multi-fidelity approach that makes cost-sensitive decisions about which data fidelity to collect based on maximizing information gain with respect to changepoints. We evaluate this framework on synthetic, video, and audio data and show that this information-based approach results in accurate predictions while reducing total cost.


Microhardness and hardness maps have been measured in different sections of samples processed by Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP). In order to investigate the homogeneity of the hardening induced by ECAP as a function of deformation, the hardness maps have been based on samples deformed at different strains (after one and four passes). After one pass the specimen's outer side, both on its cross and longitudinal planes, is less hard than all other zones. Moreover, after 4 passes via route Bc, the hardening induced on the sample cross section is lower at the surface than in the central area of the billet. The reduced hardness regions are compared to the distributions of plastic equivalent strain generated by finite element analysis.


Background Caregiver burden is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization of patients with dementia. However, changes of location are not recommended for patients with dementia and associated with negative outcomes for patients with dementia. As there is yet a lack of outpatient treatment options, this study explores psychiatric day clinic treatment as option for patients with dementia by comparing characteristics of voluntarily treated patients with dementia and their respective informal caregivers between an inpatient and day clinic setting. Methods A total of 92 patients with dementia (56 inpatient, 36 day clinic) and their informal caregiver provided information on psychosocial and clinical characteristics (Mini-Mental-Status-Test, Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Bayer Activities of Daily Living, Barthel Index, Geriatric Depression Scale-30, Beck's Depression Inventory-II, caregiver burden, Short Form Health Survey-36) at the beginning of treatment and at follow-up (n = 48 patient caregiver dyads) six months after discharge. Results Patients with dementia did not differ in disease severity, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and depression depending on treatment setting. However, the higher the Bayer activities of daily living score, the more likely treatment in day clinic was. Caregivers from patients with dementia in the inpatient setting were younger and reported more financial burden, whereas caregivers from patients with dementia in the day clinic reported lower physical health and more burden due to practical caring responsibilities. Longitudinal data indicated no differences in characteristics of patients with dementia and caregivers depending on treatment setting, despite caregivers from patients in the day clinic reporting more depressive symptoms after six months. Conclusion Day clinic treatment for voluntarily treated patients with dementia might be an alternative to inpatient settings. Patients with dementia do not substantially differ depending on treatment setting, rather characteristics of the caregivers were associated with placement in inpatient or day clinic setting. The needs of caregivers deserve special attention when considering treatment for patients with dementia.


Electronic Customer relationship management performance E-CRM is a comprehensive business and marketing strategy that integrates people, process, technology and all business activities for attracting and retaining customers. The keen competitive in the communication and mobile phone service market place and the increasing numbers of mobile phone users all over the world has influence the researchers to investigate ease of use and e- service quality as antecedents of electronic customer relationship management performance in mobile phone services industry. 488 questionnaires have returned and analyzed. The analysis shown that e- service quality, and ease of use was positively significant towards E-CRM performance. This paper makes a theoretical and methodological contribution and suggestion for the managers in improving their E-CRM performance in mobile phone service industry.


To determine the refractivity in situ, a time-resolved interferometric technique is used. The technique is based on cross correlating a reference pulse and a transmitted pulse from a 70-fs Ti:sapphire laser with the use of a commercially available Fourier-transform spectrometer. This approach enables us to obtain the pulse delay through the dense gas with 10-fs resolution in the refractive-index change. The resulting molecule Eu(fod), is optically excited with a pulsed, tripled Nd:YAG laser at 355 nm, and luminescence is detected in the red (614 nm). Radiative decay rates are in the convenient ms range and are recorded with a multichannel scaler. We present measurements on the radiative lifetime of Eu (fod), in supercritical CO/sub 2/ with varying refractive index. Different local field models are discussed.


Salinity is a global agricultural problem, resulting in a significant reduction in the plantation areas and the crop yields, especially in arid and semiarid regions. The date palm is relatively salt-tolerant plant species, although the nature of salt tolerance is poorly understood. In this study, the salt stress responses of a salt-tolerant "Umsila" was compared with salt-susceptible "Zabad" date palm cultivars. Various physiological parameters, plant-water relations, and anatomical characteristics were analyzed. The results revealed that although salinity has negatively affected both cultivars, Umsila exhibited more stable photosynthesis than Zabad as reflected by the quantum yield (Qy) and the stomatal conductance (GS). Similarly, Umsila showed a more dynamic root system and efficient water relations than Zabad as demonstrated by the leaf water potential (LWP) and relative water content (RWC) during salinity. Umsila also accumulated greater abundances of soluble sugars, potassium (K+), calcium (Ca+2), proline, glycine betaine, and lignin and formed extra layers of Casparian strips in the root tissues when the seedlings were grown under saline conditions. Together, the results obtained from this study have offered some insights into the salt tolerance mechanisms in the date palm.


In this study we examined whether individual coping strategies improve in the course of a ward based treatment with a holistic therapeutic approach. An increase in problem-focussed coping and a decrease in emotion-focussed coping or avoidance-oriented coping were considered as improvement. As a part of a comprehensive therapy monitoring 65 patients with therapy refractory epilepsy were studied with the Freiburg Questionnaire of coping with Illness (FKV) on the day after admittance to a specialized epilepsy ward. A second investigation with the FKV was performed on the day before discharge. A decrease in depressive coping and cognitive avoidance and an increase in problem focussed coping could be documented. These changes could not be interpreted as an effect of better seizure control or antidepressive drugs. This may be a hint for the efficacy of a holistic treatment approach to increase the patient's resources for a successful psychosocial adjustment to therapy refractory epilepsy.


Professor Volf counters the claim that religion fosters violence and that the "resurgence of religiously legitimized violence" is a direct consequence of a "contemporary resurgence of religion." Limiting himself to a case-study of Christianity, he argues that the cure to social violence "is not less religion, but, in a carefully qualified sense, more religion." Professor Volf identifies and criticizes a number of influential arguments found in the work of several authors, including Mark Juergensmeyer, Maurice Bloch, Regina Schwartz and Jacques Derrida, which he believes erroneously link Christianity and violence. These arguments are organized around four general themes: religion, monotheism, creation, and new creation. At the heart of his thesis lies the distinction between 'thin' and thick' religion. According to Professor Volf, 'thick' religion entails a stronger, more conscious commitment to a faith rooted in a concrete tradition, while 'thin' religion entails nothing more than a vague sense of religiosity "whose content is shaped by factors other than faith (such as national or economical interests)." Throughout the lecture, Professor Volf contends that although 'thin' Christian faith may potentially lead to violence, 'thick' Christian faith actually serves to create and sustain a culture of peace. In the conclusion of his Lecture, he offers some reflections on "why misconceptions about the violent character of Christian faith abound" in contemporary society. Disciplines Ethics in Religion Comments Boardman Lecture XXXVIII. Editor and Foreword by Adam Graves. This presentation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/boardman/2


A method for extracting video photoplethysmographic information from an RGB video stream is tested on data acquired during a porcine model of acute hypoxia. Cardiac pulsatile information was extracted from the acquired signals and processed to determine a continuously reported oxygen saturation (SvidO2). A high degree of correlation was found to exist between the video and a reference from a pulse oximeter. The calculated mean bias and accuracy across all eight desaturation episodes were -0.03% (range: -0.21% to 0.24%) and accuracy 4.90% (range: 3.80% to 6.19%) respectively. The results support the hypothesis that oxygen saturation trending can be evaluated accurately from a video system during acute hypoxia.


The appropriateness of treating thyroid nodules with thyroid hormone is being debated: in fact, the development of nodules is not caused by an iodothyronine deficiency or a desuppression of TSH, and T4 seems to be able to regain control on cell proliferation. A very great number of authors have reported their experience with suppression of thyroid nodules with thyroid hormone, but treatment efficacy has been variably appreciated (9 to 69% regression). On the other hand, the four randomized prospective studies available at present, which analyze the evolution of nodules, especially on ultrasonography, have not demonstrated that hormone therapy is more effective than a placebo. The methodology of these studies is not free from criticism, and other prospective surveys are required, especially to establish whether this treatment is innocuous and whether some varieties of nodules may be more amenable to hormone therapy than others.


The various calculations of the impacts of biofuel production on the mid-term projections of food and agricultural commodity prices are difficult to reconcile. This is largely due to the intricate set of assumptions, the differences in the baseline scenario and in the projection horizon they are built upon. For similar reasons, studies evaluating the impact of biofuel production on food and commodity prices to date do not provide a clear consensus. Rather than discussing the merits of the different assumptions and methodologies, this paper focuses on the global trends that can be extracted from the different sources. Agreed upon by all sources is the fact that between 2005 and 2007 many agricultural commodity prices increased sharply, especially nominal prices. The impact of commodity prices on final food prices affecting household food expenditures is less clear. Nonetheless, many food price indices (national CPIs, WB food price index and FAO food price index) have also risen over the same period. It is a fact that the increasing demand for feedstocks from the biofuel sector is one among several factors impacting on agricultural commodity prices. Other factors cited include poor harvests, the structural change in food demand in certain countries, population growth, high oil prices, or the devaluation of the US dollar. To calculate the longer term projected commodity prices, these factors are integrated in the simulations, which are then subjected to different biofuel production scenarios. These scenarios largely determine the extent of the biofuels' impact on food and commodity prices. Despite considerable differences in projection results, methodologies and assumptions, some common trends can be observed. The latest EU and US biofuel programs and legislations are expected to have the largest impact on vegetable oils over the mid term, increasing world real prices by more than 30% between 2011 and 2016. The impacts on prices are generally projected as lesser (+3 to 15%) for commodities such as wheat, corn and soybean, whilst the price of oilseed meals (an important part of fodder markets and a by-product of vegetable oil production) is predicted to decline (-11 to -17%) due to the increase in vegetable oil production. A (hypothetical) freezing of biofuel production at the 2007 levels predicts a decline in cassava, oils, sugar and wheat prices by less than 10% between 1997 and 2020. The price decreases would reach 10 to 20% had biofuel production completely stopped in 2007. The magnitude of the impacts is more contrasted when looking at real regional prices, but across all given regions biofuel mandates and targets are projected to impact oilseed prices most strongly (+25 to +72%), followed by grain prices (+5 to +21%).


Wounds are classified as acute and chronic. The early stage of chronic wound formation are characterized by the emergence of gram-positive and gram-negative organisms. such as Staphylococcus Aureus and Escherichia coli. At a later stage, Gram-negative Pseudomonas species tend to attack the inner layers of the wound. Modern wound dressings containing antimicrobials that have been developed since the last twenty years. It is effectively to kill bacteria and fungi in the wounds and to prevent recurrent infections during wound healings. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a review that focuses on the effect of modern wound dressing on Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria. Relevant articles were searched in PubMed and google's scholar using keywords "modern wound dressing", "antibacterial", "staphylococcus". Ten articles that fit with the inclusion criteria were included in this review. The results show Modern wound dressing with antimicrobial content can inhibit bacterial growth. Interm of time and type of bactreria. Thus, this literatures review can be the basis for further researchs on the effectiveness of modern wound dressings against Staphylococcus Aureus.


In this paper, experimental and numerical analysis on leakage through the heater inner tube, inner tube, with the study of leakage pressure leakage aperture size, propagation distance and the outer tube of liquid acoustic emission signal of the status and characteristics of acoustic emission signals of the mapping relationship, through the change of the above four factors, the leakage fault diagnosis rules derived from the heater, for better application in the heater pipe leakage online fault detection.


In the automotive industries, Dual Phase (DP) steels have become a favoured material for the car body parts due to their excellent combination of high strength and good formability. A microstructure of DP steel generally consists of a matrix of ferrite reinforced by small islands of martensite. Experimental investigations showed that effects of martensite phase fraction, morphology, and phase distribution play an important role for the mechanical and fracture behaviours of the dual phase steel. In the present work, an approach concerning FE based modelling for predicting flow curve of DP steels has been introduced using a Representative Volume Element (RVE). Two dimensional RVE models were prepared on microstructural level using micrographs of the investigated DP steels having different martensite phase fractions. The applied physical flow curve models of the individual single phases are based on dislocation theory and take into account the local chemical compositions. The models also include phase boundary dislocation (PBD) density, which accumulates at the phase boundaries due to the austenite-martensite transformation during quenching process. These dislocations contribute to both an increase in forest dislocations and a building up of back stresses. The calculated stress-strain curves for the DP steels were verified with experimental results determined from tensile tests. Furthermore, the micromechanics based model was used to describe the local stress and strain development of the individual phases in the DP microstructures. By this manner, an optimization of the dual phase high strength steel with respect to its microstructural constituents is possible.


In his Murmansk speech in 1987, Gorbachev proposed the Arctic as the shortest sea route linking Europe to the Far East and the Pacific Ocean, triggering a new perspective on the region. Since then, the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS), referred to as the Finnish Initiative, has been created as a multilateral, non-binding agreement among Arctic states to protect the environment by monitoring, assessment, emergency preparedness/response, and conservation of the Arctic zone. It has been called a major political accomplishment of the post-Cold War era. Based on the AEPS, eight Arctic states established the Arctic Council under the 1996 Ottawa Declaration for protection of the Arctic environment and people in the Arctic region. The Arctic Council played a crucial role as a pre-eminent intergovernmental body while maintaining its status as a non-binding high-level forum among member states. During the last 17 years, under the 1st round of the Arctic Council, it has successfully addressed the major agendas described in the founding declaration. Transformations in the Arctic have drawn enormous attention around the world and factors such as the price rise of resources, technological advances in shipbuilding and the shipping industry have made it easy to reach resources in the Arctic region. Physical changes have also generated more economic potential than geopolitical competitiveness. But this trend has included much debate on development and conservation, lack of capacity to address activities in the iced area, economic feasibility for business and international legitimate rights between Arctic states and nonArctic states and so on. Challenges in the Arctic include territorial issues (i.e., maritime boundary, continental shelf and high seas) and global issues (i.e., climate change, marine/land environment and ecosystem, trans-boundary pollution, indigenous communities, resource development and sea route development). Moreover, these issues are strongly interconnected in various ways.


Cue exposure therapy has been reported to be an effective intervention for reducing binge eating behavior in patients with eating disorders and obesity. However, in vivo food exposure conducted in the therapist's office presents logistical problems and lacks ecological validity. This study proposes the use of virtual reality technology as an alternative to in vivo exposure, and assesses the ability of different virtual environments to elicit anxiety and craving for food in a non-clinical sample. The results show that exposure to virtual environments provokes changes in reported craving for food. High-calorie food cues are the ones that elicit the highest increases in craving.


In a dispute over the allocation of cryopreserved preembryos, the Supreme Court of Washington resolved the case of David J. Litowitz v. Becky M. Litowitz (2002) by reaching a decision that neither party wanted. David Litowitz sought to find adoptive parents for two cryopreserved preembryos created during his marriage to Becky Litowitz when the couple was attempting to have children using in vitro [3] fertilization [4] (IVF). Becky sought to implant the preembryos in a surrogate [5] in an effort to parent a child. In June 2002, the court instead determined that the preembryos should have been destroyed. The court focused on the former couple's written consent agreement signed at the time of their participation in the IVF program, which stated that the preembryos would be destroyed after five years of storage.


Two salient features of modern economic growth are the rise in aggregate savings rates and the steady increase in life expectancy. This paper links these processes, showing that under certain conditions economic theory supports the hypothesis that increased longevity leads to higher aggregate savings in steady state. The analysis is based on a lifecycle model with uncertain longevity in which individuals choose an optimum consumption path and a retirement age. Conditions on the age-specific pattern of improvements in survival probabilities are shown to ensure that individual savings rise with longevity and that aggregation preserves this result. Population theory (Coale (1972)) is used to link the steady-state age density function and the population's growth rate to individuals' survival probabilities. The importance of a competitive annuity market in avoiding unintended bequests is underscored.


Root and stem rot (RSR) is a very detrimental disease of vanilla worldwide. Fusarium oxysporum is frequently associated with the disease but other Fusarium species are also reported. In this international study, 52 vanilla plots were surveyed in three of the most important vanilla producing countries (Madagascar, Reunion Island and French Polynesia) in order to determine the aetiology of RSR disease. Subsets from the 377 single-spored Fusarium isolates recovered from rotten roots and stems in the surveys were characterized by molecular genotyping (EF1α and IGS gene sequences) and pathogenicity assays on Vanilla planifolia and V. ×tahitensis, the two commercially grown vanilla species. Fusarium oxysporum was shown to be the principal species responsible for the disease, representing 79% of the isolates recovered from the RSR tissues, 40% of which induced severe symptoms on inoculated plantlets. Fusarium oxysporum isolates were highly polyphyletic regardless of geographic origin or pathogenicity. Fusarium solani, found in 15% of the samples and inducing only mild symptoms on plantlets, was considered a secondary pathogen of vanilla. Three additional Fusarium species were occasionally isolated in the study (F. proliferatum, F. concentricum and F. mangiferae) but were nonpathogenic. Histopathological preparations observed in wide field and multiphoton microscopy showed that F. oxysporum penetrated the root hair region of roots, then invaded the cortical cells where it induced necrosis in both V. planifolia and V. ×tahitensis. The hyphae never invaded the root vascular system up to 9 days post-inoculation. As a whole, the data demonstrated that RSR of vanilla is present worldwide and that its causal agent should be named F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis-vanillae. (Resume d'auteur)


Knowing precisely where a spacecraft lands on Mars is important for understanding the regional and local context, setting, and the offset between the inertial and cartographic frames. For the InSight spacecraft, the payload of geophysical and environmental sensors also particularly benefits from knowing exactly where the instruments are located. A ~30 cm/pixel image acquired from orbit after landing clearly resolves the lander and the large circular solar panels. This image was carefully georeferenced to a hierarchically generated and coregistered set of decreasing resolution orthoimages and digital elevation models to the established positive east, planetocentric coordinate system. The lander is located at 4.502384°N, 135.623447°E at an elevation of −2,613.426 m with respect to the geoid in Elysium Planitia. Instrument locations (and the magnetometer orientation) are derived by transforming from Instrument Deployment Arm, spacecraft mechanical, and site frames into the cartographic frame. A viewshed created from 1.5 m above the lander and the high‐resolution orbital digital elevation model shows the lander is on a shallow regional slope down to the east that reveals crater rims on the east horizon ~400 m and 2.4 km away. A slope up to the north limits the horizon to about 50 m away where three rocks and an eolian bedform are visible on the rim of a degraded crater rim. Azimuths to rocks and craters identified in both surface panoramas and high‐resolution orbital images reveal that north in the site frame and the cartographic frame are the same (within 1°).


We evaluated the levels of mRNAs encoding cationic proteins in peripheral blood eosinophils (PBE) purified from patients with eosinophilia and in eosinophils differentiated from cord blood cells (CBC) by culture with recombinant human interleukin-3 (rhIL-3), rhGM-CSF, and rhIL-5. Messenger RNAs encoding eosinophil peroxidase (EPO), major basic protein (MBP), eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN), and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) were detected by Northern blot hybridization with the respective specific oligonucleotide probes. In mature PBE, MBP mRNA appeared to be absent, whereas EPO mRNA was barely detectable in only 5 of the 19 patients. In contrast, EDN and ECP mRNAs were observed in the PBE of all patients. In CE, EPO, and MBP, mRNAs were abundant in immature eosinophils and their amounts decreased after differentiation toward eosinophils. ECP and EDN mRNAs followed the same patterns, but mRNAs were less abundant at all timepoints studied. Study of mRNA t1/2 during the time course of differentiation indicated that changes in the stability of the different mRNAs were not responsible for the variations observed in the steady-state levels. Together, these results suggest that regulation of expression differs among EPO, MBP, EDN, and ECP mRNAs during the time course of eosinophil differentiation.


Catalytic conversion of formic acid into methanol was investigated with Cu as a catalyst and Al as a reductant under hydrothermal conditions. It was found that formic acid can be converted into methanol by such means. The highest yield of methanol (30.4%) was attained with a temperature of 300 °C and a reaction time of 9 h. The AlO(OH) formed from Al oxidation may also play a catalytic role in the formation of methanol. This process may provide a promising solution to producing methanol from carbohydrate biomass combined with the process of converting the carbohydrate into formic acid, which is expected to emit no CO2.


In the last decades, incidence of melanoma has steadily increased worldwide. Once melanoma has metastasized, this advanced stage of disease is extremely difficult to treat and does not respond to current therapies [1]. Numerous recent studies have emphasized the role of immune cells in the tumor progression [2, 3]. Moreover, some particular treatments such as immunotherapies enable to act on these immune cells to block tumor progression. A precise identification of the different immune actors in tissue sections is a preliminary step in the choice of these immunotherapies. Histological analysis of biological tissues achieved by pathologists allows a visualization of the immune cell types in the microenvironment. Yet, this step of vital importance is time-consuming, expensive and operator-dependent. The aim of the study is to characterize the immunologic microenvironment of tumor cells in metastatic lymph nodes by FTIR imaging and to develop a tool of decision for the use of immunotherapies. FTIR imaging is an emerging technique in the domain of histopathology that provides spatially resolved information on the chemical composition of the tissue based on the vibrational signature of tissue components (protein, DNA, RNA, lipids…). Because of its potential to probe chemical constituents without dye or specific reagent, FTIR imaging could become a powerful tool in diagnostics to complement the existing methods. 34 biopsies from 13 patients enrolled in a vaccination study against metastatic melanoma were collected. These biopsies of metastatic lymph nodes were surgically removed before or after the vaccination. For each biopsie, several immunostainings were done to target immune infiltration (B cells, cytotoxic T cells, auxiliary T cells and T regulatory). A collection of infrared spectra from each cell types present in the tissue was accumulated (melanoma cells, lymphocytes B, T auxiliary, T cytotoxic, erythrocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells and the extracellular matrix). On basis of this spectral database and with supervised analysis (Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis), we were able to obtain a predictive model for histological characterization of cancerous tissues on the basis of the IR images only. Finally, we validated this predictive model for histological component recognition on other patient tissues. References[1] Gray-Schoper V.,Wellbrock C., Marais R., Nature 2007, 445, pp. 851-857. [2] Hanahan D. and Weinberg R. A., Cell 2011,144, pp.646-674. [3] Erdag G, Schaefer J T, Smolkin M E, Deacon D H, Shea S M, Dengel L T, Patterson J W, Slingluff C L, Cancer Research 2012, 72, pp.1070-1080. Citation Format: Noemie Wald, Daniel E. Speiser, Pu Yan, Erik Goormaghtigh. Characterization of melanoma metastases and the immune microenvironment by infrared imaging. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy: A New Chapter; December 1-4, 2014; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2015;3(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B89.


A transceiver front-end for 5 GHz wireless local area network applications has been designed and implemented in a low-cost 46 GHz fT pure-silicon bipolar technology. The transceiver front-end adopts a superheterodyne sliding-IF architecture and consists of a down-converter, an up-converter and an LO frequency synthesiser. By exploiting a 1 bit variable-gain low-noise amplifier, the down-converter is able to provide an excellent noise figure of 4 dB while ensuring an input 1 dB compression point of −10 dBm with a current consumption of 25 mA from a 3 V supply voltage. The transmitter front-end is implemented by means of a current-reuse variable-gain up-converter. The circuit provides an output 1 dB compression point of 5.3 dBm although consuming only 45 mA from a 3 V supply voltage. Moreover, a linear-in-dB gain control characteristic is achieved over a 35 dB dynamic range. The LO frequency synthesiser is implemented by means of an integer-N phase-locked loop. It features a phase noise of −117 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the centre frequency of 4.1 GHz and exhibits a tuning range of 1.2 GHz, from 3.47 to 4.65 GHz. The LO frequency synthesiser draws 20 mA from a 3 V supply voltage.


Introduction The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and neonatal mortality rate (NMR) are higher in the rural regions of Bangladesh compared to the urban areas or the national average. These two rates could be reduced by increasing use of skilled birth attendance in rural regions of this country. Although the majority of Bangladeshi population lives in rural areas, there has been a little investigation of the practices and determinants of delivery attendance in this region of Bangladesh. This study investigated the practices and determinants of attendance during child-births in rural Bangladesh. Methods Data were collected by the 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS 2014). After reporting the distribution of deliveries by types of attendance and distribution of selected factors, logistic regression was applied to calculate the crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and p-values. Results More than half of the deliveries (53.1%) were conducted by traditional attendants; community skilled attendants were present in only a small number of deliveries. The following factors were positively associated with deliveries by skilled attendants: 25-34 years age group of women (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 1.4; 95% CI: 1.1-1.8), a higher education level of women (AOR: 2.9; 95% CI: 1.7-4.9), or their husbands (AOR: 2.4; 95% CI: 1.6-3.7), receiving antenatal care (AOR: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.6-2.7), and higher wealth quintiles (AOR of the richest wealth quintile vs the poorest: 3.5; 95% CI: 2.3-5.3). On the other hand, women having a higher parity (i.e., number of pregnancy, ≥2) led to a lower likelihood of delivery by skilled birth attendants. The proportion of deliveries attended by skilled attendants was significantly lower in the other six divisions compared to Khulna. Conclusions Socioeconomic factors should be considered to design future interventions to increase the proportion of deliveries attended by skilled delivery attendants. Awareness programs are required in rural areas to highlight the importance of skilled attendants. Further re-evaluation of the community skilled birth attendants program is required.


Deep networks excel in learning patterns from large amounts of data. On the other hand, many geometric vision tasks are specified as optimization problems. To seamlessly combine deep learning and geometric vision, it is vital to perform learning and geometric optimization end-to-end. Towards this aim, we present BPnP, a novel network module that backpropagates gradients through a Perspective-n-Points (PnP) solver to guide parameter updates of a neural network. Based on implicit differentiation, we show that the gradients of a ``self-contained" PnP solver can be derived accurately and efficiently, as if the optimizer block were a differentiable function. We validate BPnP by incorporating it in a deep model that can learn camera intrinsics, camera extrinsics (poses) and 3D structure from training datasets. Further, we develop an end-to-end trainable pipeline for object pose estimation, which achieves greater accuracy by combining feature-based heatmap losses with 2D-3D reprojection errors. Since our approach can be extended to other optimization problems, our work helps to pave the way to perform learnable geometric vision in a principled manner. Our PyTorch implementation of BPnP is available on http://github.com/BoChenYS/BPnP.


Purpuric Type of Cerebrospinal Fever SIR,-Dr. E. H. M. Milligan's letter (Oct. 3, p. 405) has called my attention to the earlier reference which he notes (Dr. I. S.. Fox, Aug. 22, p. 218). Commenting on the case of fulminating purpura which he had described, Dr. Fox'adds: "The illness is so fulminating and death occurs so early that complete investigation is generally not possible." Those who have had to deal with these tragic cases will readily endorse this. There is one simple measure that I have never seen recorded which is worth doing because it may enable the diagnosis of massive bacteriaemia with meningococci to be made at once. During one of the most severe epidemics of cerebrospinal fever with which I had to deal and which occurred in Kunming, China, during the winter and spring of 1936-7, a child of 3 was brought to the hospital with an 8-hour history of severe fever. There was a moderately extensive purpuric rash, and a diagnosis of cerebrospinal fever of the purpuric type was confidently made. For some reason, in addition.-to a lumbar puncture, a blood film was taken and stained by the Romanowsky method. To our astonishment the film showed masses of meningococci. They were to be seen in every field clumped together in groups of 6 or 8 to some dozens. A number of other films were taken and all showed the same thing. During the course of the epidemic, although blood films were taken in cases without any purpuric rash, we were not fortunate in 'obtaining a similar positive result. Later, two further purpuric cases were seen, and in both of them meningococci were present in considerable numbers, though not as many as in the first case and they had to be searched for. All of these cases were fatal within 36 hours, and all were in young children. At that time the sulphonamide drugs were only becoming known, and in the years 1938 and 1939, when Kunming was grossly overcrowded, scarlet fever and typhoid were the chief epidemics. Cerebrospinal meningitis was only met with sporadically, so that there was no opportunity to try the effect of massive doses of sulphapyridine (I left Kunming in July, 1939). I would suggest, therefore, that in any cases where there is a purpuric rash with high fever, and especially during an epidemic of cerebrospinal meningitis, blood films should be taken at once, stained by the Romanowsky or similar method, and examined for meningoco'cci. In this kind of case every minute is valuable, and the sooner vigorous sulphapyridine treatment is instituted the greater the possibility of saving these desperately ill patients.-I am, etc.,


This article uses the examples of young people and ethnic minorities to show how the political rhetoric of British tolerance sits alongside a growing public discourse of intolerance and calls for greater conformity. A conceptual model of tolerance is set out, elucidating how tolerance can have different types of objects, assessments and responses, the latter ranging from static disapproval to dynamic cognitive adjustment. We argue that public policy should consider these foundations of tolerance and appreciate the context-dependent nature of tolerance rather than setting out to tightly define the boundaries of intolerance; the latter strategy runs the risk of stimulating a downward spiral whereby people's thresholds of tolerance are continually lowered.


Vibrating style drier with conduction and heat transfer is a novel drying equipment combining drying technology with heat transfer technology. It has the properties of high efficiency, energy saving, environmental protection and fast speed, which overcomes the weakness of large energy consumption of drying equipment and uneven drying of sulfurization bed. It can greatly increase the quality and yield of products, improve the working environment, and increase remarkably economic benefit and energy saving effect. In this paper, the structure characteristics, the working principle, and also the application of vibrating style drier with conduction and heat transfer were introduced. Its dynamic characteristics were analyzed, which was of great significance to the application and popularization of this kind of drier.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: There are limited data regarding the impact of final kissing balloon (FKI) in patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention using ultrathin stents in left main or bifurcations. Methods: All patients undergoing left main or bifurcations percutaneous coronary intervention enrolled in the RAIN registry (Very Thin Stents for Patients With MAIN or BiF in Real Life: The RAIN, a Multicenter Study) evaluating ultrathin stents were included. Major adverse cardiac event (a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, target lesion revascularization, and stent thrombosis) was the primary end point, while its components, along with target vessel revascularization, were the secondary end points. The main analysis was performed comparing patients with and without FKI after adjustment with inverse probability of treatment weighting. Subgroup analyses were performed according to FKI (short [<3 mm] versus long overlap), strategy (provisional versus 2-stent), routine versus bail-out FKI, and the use of imaging and proximal optimization technique. Results: Two thousand seven hundred forty-two patients were included. At 16 months (8–20) follow-up, inverse probability of treatment weighting adjusted rates of major adverse cardiac event were similar between FKI and no-FKI group (15.1% versus 15.5%; P=0.967), this result did not change with use of imaging, proximal optimization technique, or routine versus bail-out FKI. In the 2-stent subgroup, FKI was associated with lower rates of target vessel revascularization (7.8% versus 15.9%; P=0.030) and target lesion revascularization (7.3% versus 15.2%; P=0.032). Short overlap FKI was associated with a lower rate of target lesion revascularization compared with no FKI (2.6% versus 5.4%; P=0.034), while long overlap was not (6.8% versus 5.4%; P=0.567). Conclusions: In patients with bifurcations or unprotected left main treated with ultrathin stents, short overlap FKI is associated with less restenosis. In a 2-stent strategy, FKI was associated with less target vessel revascularization and restenosis. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT03544294.


Onondaga Lake, located in central New York, received elevated inputs of mercury from a chloralkali facility over the period 1946-1970. Despite marked reductions in mercury loading since that time, concentrations of total mercury in Onondaga Lake remain among the highest values reported in the literature, comparable to other lakes with point sources of mercury. Concentrations of mercury varied markedly in the upper waters of Onondaga Lake during the ice-free period. A large accumulation of mercury was observed in the hypolimnion during the summer stratification. This accumulation coincided with increases in dissolved sulfide concentrations produced during the period of hypolimnetic anoxia. Chemical equilibrium calculations indicate that hypolimnetic waters of Onondaga Lake were oversaturated with respectto the solubility of mercuric sulfide, and mercury sulfide complexes dominate the speciation of aqueous mercury. The formation of strong aqueous complexes with dissolved sulfide may be an important mechanism facilitating the mobilization of mercury from pelagic sediments to the water column.


Recent discoveries in astrophysics and cosmology have generated tremendous excitement in the scientific world. The first high-energy neutrinos of cosmic origin were recorded by the IceCube, a gigantic cubickilometre-sized detector in theAntarctic ice at the South Pole. The prize catch of gravitational waves (GW) from merging black holes in LIGO detectors for the first time in 2015 opens a new window to the Universe. The discovery of gravitational waves from the merging binary neutron star in August last year followed by its detection across the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is an outstanding event in the history of mankind. The detection of light from first stars just 180 million years after the Big Bang, hailed as another great breakthrough, was reported recently by a group of radio astronomers. This observation also hinted at the presence of dark matter. All these observations mark a new era of multimessenger astronomy: the exploration of the Universe through combining information fromamultitude of cosmicmessengers: electromagnetic radiation, gravitational waves, neutrinos and cosmic rays. The questions that can be explored through multimessenger observations concern the dynamics of exploding stars, the formation and evolution of black holes, the origin of cosmic rays, relativistic jets, supermassive black holes in the hearts of galaxies, colliding black holes and neutron stars and many others. Multimessenger astronomy also allows us to address the question of why we are here in the first place, by shedding light on the origin of heavy elements and the evolution of galaxies and the Universe. In the next decade, multimessenger astronomy will probe the rich physics of transient phenomena in the sky, such as the merger of neutron stars and/or black holes, gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei and core-collapse supernovae. India is making a steady progress in multimessenger astronomy with the Giant Metre-Wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Pune, a marvel created by Professor Govind Swarup; AstroSat, the first Indian observatory in space and gravitational observatory LIGO, India which is in the making. Furthermore, India is participating and taking lead in building the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the next generation radio telescope to be co-located in South Africa and Australia, Thirty Metre optical Telescope (TMT) and has strong co-operation with the members of the next generation imaging atmospheric Cerenkov detector consortium, Cerenkov Telescope Array (CTA) with generous support from the Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) has been involved in PICASSO/PICO Dark Matter search experiment in SNOLab, Canada since 2009 as well as study of very high energy gammaray sources observed with the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cerenkov (MAGIC) telescope experiment since 2015. Furthermore, SINP along with other institutions is spearheading the Dark Matter search experiment in the underground laboratory to be set up in Jaduguda. Multimessenger astronomy hence requires a coordination of a global network of multimessenger instruments, to develop multimessenger observational strategies and data analysis and an interdisciplinary effort to interpret observations and constrain theoretical models. All this requires tight collaborations between the different GW/EM and neutrino/cosmic-rays communities. The Astroparticle and Cosmology Division of SINP thus aims to bring together these communities together in order to start a discussion on how to coordinate these diverse astrophysical activities under the umbrella of multimessenger astrophysics. This is our tribute to Professor Meghnad Saha on his 125th birth anniversary.


PURPOSE
Attention to patients' religious and spiritual needs is included in national guidelines for quality end-of-life care, but little data exist to guide spiritual care.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The Religion and Spirituality in Cancer Care Study is a multi-institution, quantitative-qualitative study of 75 patients with advanced cancer and 339 cancer physicians and nurses. Patients underwent semistructured interviews, and care providers completed a Web-based survey exploring their perspectives on the routine provision of spiritual care by physicians and nurses. Theme extraction was performed following triangulated procedures of interdisciplinary analysis. Multivariable ordinal logistic regression models assessed relationships between participants' characteristics and attitudes toward spiritual care.

RESULTS
The majority of patients (77.9%), physicians (71.6%), and nurses (85.1%) believed that routine spiritual care would have a positive impact on patients. Only 25% of patients had previously received spiritual care. Among patients, prior spiritual care (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 14.65; 95% CI, 1.51 to 142.23), increasing education (AOR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.49), and religious coping (AOR, 4.79; 95% CI, 1.40 to 16.42) were associated with favorable perceptions of spiritual care. Physicians held more negative perceptions of spiritual care than patients (P < .001) and nurses (P = .008). Qualitative analysis identified benefits of spiritual care, including supporting patients' emotional well-being and strengthening patient-provider relationships. Objections to spiritual care frequently related to professional role conflicts. Participants described ideal spiritual care to be individualized, voluntary, inclusive of chaplains/clergy, and based on assessing and supporting patient spirituality.

CONCLUSION
Most patients with advanced cancer, oncologists, and oncology nurses value spiritual care. Themes described provide an empirical basis for engaging spiritual issues within clinical care.


Biophysically realistic models of the cochlea are based on cas-caded transmission-line (TL) models which capture longitudinal coupling, cochlear nonlinearities, as well as the human frequency selectivity. However, these models are slow to compute (order of seconds/minutes) while machine-hearing and hearing-aid applications require a real-time solution. Consequently, real-time applications often adopt more basic and less time-consuming descriptions of cochlear processing (gamma-tone, dual resonance nonlinear) even though there are clear ad-vantages in using more biophysically correct models. To over-come this, we recently combined nonlinear Deep Neural Networks (DNN) with analytical TL cochlear model descriptions to build a real-time model of cochlear processing which captures the biophysical properties associated with the TL model. In this work, we aim to extend the normal-hearing DNN-based cochlear model (CoNNear) to simulate frequency-specific patterns of hearing sensitivity loss, yielding a set of normal and hearing-impaired auditory models which can be computed in real-time and are differentiable. They can hence be used in backpropagation networks to develop the next generation of hearing-aid and machine hearing applications.


The new Belgian arbitration law of 24 June 2013 provides a modern framework for arbitration based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. It is applicable to both national and international arbitration. The new Belgian arbitration law replaces the previous arbitration law which was introduced in 1972 and amended in 1985 and 1998.The new law provides broader criteria for arbitrability, increases party autonomy and the efficiency of arbitration, provides new provisions on provisional and conservatory measures, and sets fundamental principles for the conduct of arbitration proceedings. The arbitration law no longer allows an appeals procedure against the decision taken by the Belgian courts on a claim for annulment of an arbitral award, while permitting only an application for 'cassation' to the Supreme Court against the decision. Foreign parties continue to have the possibility to explicitly exclude claims for annulment of arbitral awards. On 1 January 2013, new Rules of Arbitration of CEPANI (the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation) entered into force, replacing the previous Rules of 2005.The 2013 CEPANI Rules introduce a number of new provisions concerning multiparty arbitration and also provide for the possibility of an 'emergency arbitration' prior to the constitution of the arbitral tribunal. This article examines the important changes made to the Belgian Arbitration Law (Part 1) and to the CEPANI Arbitration Rules (Part 2).


Background
Healthcare-associated infections such as surgical site infections (SSIs) are used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as pay-for-performance metrics. Risk adjustment allows a fairer comparison of SSI rates across hospitals. Until 2016, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) risk adjustment models for pay-for-performance SSI did not adjust for patient comorbidities. New 2016 CDC models only adjust for body mass index and diabetes.

Methods
We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing surgical procedures at 28 US hospitals. Demographic data and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes were obtained on patients undergoing colectomy, hysterectomy, and knee and hip replacement procedures. Complex SSIs were identified by infection preventionists at each hospital using CDC criteria. Model performance was evaluated using measures of discrimination and calibration. Hospitals were ranked by SSI proportion and risk-adjusted standardized infection ratios (SIR) to assess the impact of comorbidity adjustment on public reporting.

Results
Of 45394 patients at 28 hospitals, 573 (1.3%) developed a complex SSI. A model containing procedure type, age, race, smoking, diabetes, liver disease, obesity, renal failure, and malnutrition showed good discrimination (C-statistic, 0.73) and calibration. When comparing hospital rankings by crude proportion to risk-adjusted ranks, 24 of 28 (86%) hospitals changed ranks, 16 (57%) changed by ≥2 ranks, and 4 (14%) changed by >10 ranks.

Conclusions
We developed a well-performing risk adjustment model for SSI using electronically available comorbidities. Comorbidity-based risk adjustment should be strongly considered by the CDC and CMS to adequately compare SSI rates across hospitals.


We present a simple method of domain adaptation between synthetic images and real images - by high quality rendering of the 3D models and correlation alignment. Using this method, we solve the problem of 3D object recognition in 2D images by fine-tuning existing pretrained CNN models for the object categories using the rendered images. Experimentally, we show that our rendering pipeline along with the correlation alignment improve the recognition accuracy of existing CNN based recognition trained on rendered images - by a canonical renderer - by a large margin. Using the same idea we present a general image classifier of common objects which is trained only on the 3D models from the publicly available databases, and show that a small number of training models are sufficient to capture different variations within and across the classes.


Few studies have comprehensively examined possible gender differences in the school functioning of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study investigated differences in academic, social, and emotional and behavioral functioning between 133 male and 42 female elementary school students who met research diagnostic criteria for ADHD. School functioning was assessed using teacher ratings, direct observations of classroom behavior, and a standardized, norm-referenced achievement test. Results indicated that participants, regardless of gender, experienced impairment across all functioning domains. The few gender differences obtained varied across areas of functioning and were dependent, in part, on the type of score and comparison group used. Specifically, although girls were less likely to have ADHD than were boys, when they did exhibit this disorder, their impairments were as severe, or possibly more severe, than for boys relative to non-ADHD peers of the same gender. Implications of these findings for school-based practice and research are discussed.


Estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) serine 118 (Ser118) phosphorylation modulates activation function-1 (AF1) function. Correct positioning of helix 12 promotes agonist-dependent recruitment of cyclin-dependent kinase-7 to catalyze this event. In this study we show robust cyclin-dependent kinase-7-independent, AF2 antagonist-induced Ser118 phosphorylation. Estradiol (E2) and ICI-182,780 (ICI-780) induce Ser118 phosphorylation of wild-type ERalpha and either of two helix 12 mutants, suggesting AF2-independent action, probably via shedding of 90-kDa heat shock protein. With E2 treatment, the predominantly nuclear, phosphorylated ERalpha in COS-1 cells is detergent soluble. Although levels of ICI-780-induced phosphorylation are profound, Ser118-phosphorylated ERalpha is aggregated over the nucleus or in the cytoplasm, fractionating with the cell debris and making detection in cleared lysates improbable. Selective ER modulators (SERMs) elicit a mixed response with phosphorylated ERalpha in both detergent-soluble and -insoluble compartments. Apparent ligand-induced loss of ERalpha protein from cleared lysates is thus due to ligand-induced redistribution into the pellet, not degradation. The COS-1 response to ICI-780 can be mimicked in MCF-7 cells treated with a proteasome inhibitor to block authentic ligand-induced degradation. With SERMs and antagonists, the magnitude of Ser118-phosphorylated receptor redistribution into the insoluble fraction of COS-1 cells correlates with the magnitude of authentic ERalpha degradation in MCF-7 cells. A strong inverse correlation with ligand-induced uterotropism in vivo (P < 0.0001) and direct correlation with AF2-independent transrepression of the matrix metalloprotease-1 promoter in endometrial cells in vitro are seen. These data suggest that ligand-induced Ser118 phosphorylation of ERalpha can be AF2 independent. Furthermore, they identify translocation of Ser118-phosphorylated ERalpha out of the nucleus, leading to cytoplasmic aggregation, as an antagonist pathway that may precede receptor degradation.


The injection molding of polymer composite is one of the promising and practical methods in the manufacturing of bipolar plates in mass production. Graphite filler with higher loading concentration is mainly used for this purpose. The particle size and composition (wt. %) of graphite filler material influences on the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of composite materials. The main challenge is the reduction of flow ability during injection of high load filler material. Flow ability of feedstock material is an important factor in the process of injection molding. This paper presents a development of the rheology approach on the effect of particle size in material flow ability occurs in the injection molding process. Polypropylene (PP) as polymer matrix and graphite as conductive filler mixed together with different size to form feedstock material. Graphite purchase from local Asbury Graphite Mills, Inc, grade 3243 with particle size in average after sieve of ≤40, ≤100, and ≤150 μm. Proportions of polymer matrix and graphite at (PP / G) 25 / 75 wt. %. Mixing of graphite in PP matrix is done using an internal mixer (Thermo Haake) at 50 rpm, temperature at 200 oC. Rheology behaviors of graphite composite were measured using a capillary rheometer type Shimadzu CFT-500D, with a diameter 1 mm and length 10 mm. The fracture surface morphology was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrical conductivity of composite materials was measured by the four point probe. The hardness property measurement of conductive material composite was performed using a Dynamic ultra micro hardness tester using a Vickers typed diamond indenter. The results indicate that the level of viscosity and shear rate on all eligible mixed particle size capable of injectable. The properties of composite materials is the highest in three mix particle size (40/100/150 μm) for the electrical conductivity of 9.13 S.cm-1 and hardness at 34.3 HV. Viscosity of 56 Pa.s at a temperature of 200 oC and shear rates generated in 3231 s-1. The highest electrical conductivity for a single particle size is 49.2 S.cm-1 at 150 μm and hardness of Vickers to 47.2 HV at 100 um. The highest electrical conductivity and hardness due to the packing density and reinforcement different particle size.


With the advancement in communication technology, computer network will become important for information exchange. However, the network has the potential therefore the strong security policy is needed for network security ensuring. To prevent the computer network from the virus invasion, the computer network security technology is ensured, having a clear network virus understanding. In this paper, the structural model of network security detection and monitoring system is established in a proactive way, the function of each component is described, and the design model is introduced to conduct comprehensive and effective automatic security detection on the client and each layer of the network, so as to find and avoid the system from being attacked.Result: The observed example shows that the flow rate of information in and out of the network is relatively stable, with few changes, and the rate of change is close to zero per unit time. In the case of network attack, the amount of data flowing into the target network is far more than the amount of data flowing out of the network.Computer security technology is used to improve the security of the network and prevent network virus from attacking the computer network.


Soil organic matter (SOM) in many tropical soils is less stable than that of temperate soils, in part due to faster decomposition processes in the tropics, but possibly also due to different mechanisms of organomineral stabilization. We studied the mineral associations of SOM in the surface horizons of two semiarid tropical soils (an Oxisol and an Alfisol) using particle-size, density, and magnetic separations. The inorganic phases of fractionated materials were examined using chemical extraction and x-ray diffraction. Organic matter associated with the sand fraction accounted for 21 to 30% of soil C, mostly as coarse, floating material. This coarse material was more abundant in the Alfisol. One-half the organic C of both soils was associated with the silt-sized fraction, which contained a substantial portion of microaggregates resistant to sonication. Carbon in silt-sized aggregates was mainly stabilized by association with poorly crystalline oxides and by aggregation with crystalline oxides and clays. The C as light matter (<1.8 g cm -3 ) liberated from silt-size microaggregates by successive sonication treatments accounted for 23% of total soil C for both soils. The SOM in the <1.8 g cm -3 fraction seemed younger and less decomposed than the organic materials in the temperate soil fractions with similar density and equivalent sizes. In clays, C was concentrated in fractions of intermediate magnetic susceptibility, whereas both the highly magnetic fraction of predominantly well-crystallized Fe and the nonmagnetic fraction were C poor. The study points to the important role of particle size and crystallinity of Fe oxides and of microaggregation between oxides, organic matter, and other minerals in stabilizing tropical soil organic matter.


Etiology, epidemiology, and impact of osteoarthritis on an individual, society, and nation and the main principles of management of this disease are reviewed in the article. Treatment should be tailored to the needs of an individual patient. Physicians should be familiar with pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment modalities to maximize effective utilization and a thorough understanding of shortand long-term complications and costs. Severity of osteoarthritis should be taken into physician's and patient's consideration while applying an appropriate treatment. A stepwise management of osteoarthritis has to be taken into account. As effective interventions remain underused, state arthritis programs, including osteoarthritis programs, have to be developed to build an appropriate scientific base in public health, observe burden and impact, assess and disseminate evidence-based interventions, and work to reduce and delay disability, and improve quality of life among people with arthritis. Adequate studies on the costs of osteoarthritis are urgently required so that cogent arguments can be made to governments to appropriately fund prevention and treatment programs for this condition. Its recognition as a major cause of disability, particularly in the aging population, should increase community focus on this important condition. Osteoarthritis as a pathogenic process and its impact on an individual and society should be taken into special consideration by health providers and officers developing the national health policy in Lithuania, because there is a lack of information related to the prevalence of osteoarthritis, risk factors, also osteoarthritisassociated disability, and costs of the management of this disease among Lithuanian inhabitants.


This paper exploits the It's formula to derive the conditional moments vector for the class of interest rate models that allow for nonlinear volatility and flexible jump specifications. Such a characterization of continuous-time processes by the Ito Conditional Moment Generator noticeably enlarges the admissible set beyond the affine jump-diffusion class. A simple GMM estimator can be constructed based on the analytical solution to the lower order moments, with natural diagnostics of the conditional mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis. Monte Carlo evidence suggests that the proposed estimator has desirable finite sample properties, relative to the asymptotically efficient MLE. The empirical application singles out the nonlinear quadratic variance as the key feature of the U.S. short rate dynamics.


Subsurface tile drainage systems have transformed Iowa's prairie pothole ecosystem, enabling the United States Corn Belt to become one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the world; however, an unintended consequence has been increased nitrogen losses to surface waters. The literature contains numerous field and plot studies focusing on a single practice, but catchment-scale studies of multi-process best management practices (BMPs) are lacking, which mirrors the rarity of these alternative management practices on the landscape. Nitrate losses were monitored at five sites, two surface, two tile outlets, and a grass waterway, in three subwatersheds of Iowa's Black Hawk Lake Watershed over a 3 yr. period. The objectives were to quantify NO3-N export patterns at the subwatershed scale and discuss relationships between precipitation, flow, BMP implementation, and NO3-N losses to better inform water quality improvement goals. Subwatersheds ranged in size (221.2 882.5 ha) and have varying levels of BMP implementation (22.5 87.5 % aerial extent). BMPs include grass waterways, native perennial CRP vegetation, nutrient management plans, reduced tillage, terraces and cover crops. Subwatersheds with low BMP implementation had NO3-N load estimates of 52-170 kg ha yr while sites with high BMP implementation experienced unit-area NO3-N load estimates of and 26-128 kg ha yr. Overall, water yields were in range within Iowa and the upper Midwest, but associated NO3-N concentrations and losses were among the highest reported, in part due to an extremely high precipitation year in 2015. Over the study period, high BMP sites observed 64% less NO3-N export compared to low BMP subwatersheds, and experienced lower mean NO3-N concentrations for all years of the study. A consistent result for all subwatersheds was high losses early in the year. With variable spring weather patterns which favor more frequent and more intense storms early in the growing season, management approaches need to be designed to address early season NO3-N losses associated with higher flows.


Conodont data from the "Banded Mine Sequence" of the Mount Morgan gold-copper deposit shows the sequence to be late Eifelian (early Middle Devonian), the same age as the "Banded Mineralised Sequence" of the upper part of the Mount Warner Volcanics of the Dee Range, 14 km to the southeast. Data underpinning this correlation are presented. The very similar lithostratigraphy and now demonstrated chronologic identity of the mineralized sequences in the two areas implies that the Mount Warner Volcanics is a repetition of the Banded Mine Sequence of the Mount Morgan area; a single system of stratigraphic nomenclature may thus be utilized for both areas. Most importantly, this conclusion enhances the prospectivity of the comparatively underexplored Mount Warner Volcanics. Repetitions of the world-class Mount Morgan volcanic-hosted massive sulfide orebody might thus be anticipated to occur in the Mount Warner Volcanics. Conodont data from units unconformably overlying the Mount Warner Volcanics-Banded Mine Sequence (formerly "Mine Corridor Sequence") and the Mount Morgan trondhjemite, which intruded and metamorphosed the Mount Morgan orebody, imply that the Mount Morgan trondhjemite was intruded within an interval of six or seven conodont zones (on the order of 6 or 7 m.y., or perhaps more) after the deposition of the ore-hosting Banded Mine Sequence.


Consistency limits are fundamental properties of fine grained soils. The techniques used today to determine these parameters are operator dependent; their repeatability is low. In order to overcome and/or reduce those factors affecting the results of conventional testing methods, the reverse extrusion technique was evaluated. Thirty-one inorganic soil samples were used in the experiments. In order to produce a reliable basis for the plastic and liquid limits, a relatively broad database was constituted using the conventional consistency limit tests. Extrusion pressures were then obtained and plotted for different water contents for each sample. A linear relationship was observed among the water content and the logarithm of the extrusion pressure. The extrusion pressures corresponding to the average plastic and liquid limits of the conventional method show a normal distribution about certain values. A more reliable, economical, and robust device with greater repeatability is proposed. The presented approach shows promise in providing a better index parameter to characterize fine grained soils.


Post-Apartheid South Africa has been plagued by recurrent and protracted provincial boundary disputes since the demarcation of new provinces in 1993. These conflicts have mainly opposed the Government and affected communities with high security, economic, social and political cost. In many respects, these disputes have threatened the very legitimacy of Local Government. However, existing literature exclusively focused on the early Bushbuckridge case. Besides, analysis of this first instance of post-apartheid provincial boundary, though very enlightening, overemphasized socio-economic factors to account for the border dispute, paying little attention to ideological and strategic underpinnings of the clashes. These deficiencies particularly came to light when there emerged in 2005 other provincial boundary disputes in Khutsong, Matatiele, and Moutse. In the face of such countrywide political phenomena, it became clear that early studies of the Bushbuckridge border dispute needed to be complemented in order to enrich our understanding of social, economic and political drivers of these territorial conflicts. This PhD research distinctively uses a multiple case study approach in order to explain post-apartheid provincial boundary disputes. Drawing on interviews, observations and secondary materials on the three chosen case studies namely the Bushbuckridge, Khutsong, and Matatiele cases, this PhD thesis argues that post-apartheid provincial boundary disputes are complex sociopolitical phenomena which can best be accounted for by taking into account various socioeconomic and political factors including the interplay between historically constituted material conditions of affected communities and their local notions of democracy and development, conflicting regional planning models, Government"s democratic deficit, strategic political struggles and limits of judicial arbitration. Interpreting these cases with the proposed explanatory framework clearly demonstrates that under the veneer of provincial boundary disputes, disputants have actually been engaging in battles for socio-economic emancipation, in ideological contestations and strategic political struggles. Physical provincial frontiers are fought over not because of any inherent importance, but mainly because they are represented as proxies for socio-economic prosperity and political power. At a time when the current government is still grappling with at least two provincial boundary disputes and is contemplating reducing the number of provinces, this thesis highlights lessons which should inform future provincial demarcation decisions.


"The Bertelsmann Foundation sponsored the International Network of Public Libraries to provide a forum to share information and expertise in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of public libraries. The Network consists of 16 experts from ten countries working together to look for solutions to management and service development problems. Their approach is highly practice-oriented and these six volumes encapsulate their thinking in six key areas...contributions provide a very accessible summary of current thinking and good practice...One of the key needs today is a reliable medium for the communication of innovation and good practice in public library services."-Richard Proctor, Library Management


In this paper, we present a general framework for tracking multiple, possibly interacting, people from a mobile vision platform. To determine all of the trajectories robustly and in a 3D coordinate system, we estimate both the camera's ego-motion and the people's paths within a single coherent framework. The tracking problem is framed as finding the MAP solution of a posterior probability, and is solved using the reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (RJ-MCMC) particle filtering method. We evaluate our system on challenging datasets taken from moving cameras, including an outdoor street scene video dataset, as well as an indoor RGB-D dataset collected in an office. Experimental evidence shows that the proposed method can robustly estimate a camera's motion from dynamic scenes and stably track people who are moving independently or interacting.


Diabetic neuropathy is characteristically described histopathologically with axonal degeneration, demyelination, and atrophy, in association with failed axonal regeneration, remyelination, and synaptogenesis [1]. Recent data suggest that reduced availability of nerve growth factor may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of diabetic polyneuropathy [2]. We found that a steroidal saponin, diosgenin which is the primary furostanol saponin found in several dioscorea plants, increased NGF secretion from salivary gland and sciatic nerve in diabetic mouse. Diosgenin showed an enhancement of the sensory and motor nerve conduction velocity in diabetic neuropathy model. In histochemical studies, the diosgenin treated-group showed less unmyelinated sheaths and damaged axon compared to diabetic mouse. Therefore, diosgenin could be helpful to recover the modulation of NGF in diabetic neuropathy associated with the decrease of nerve conduction velocity. Acknowledgements: This study was supported by a grant of the Korea Health 21 R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (A060718). References: 1. Calcutt, N. et al. (1990)J. Neurol. Sci. 96: 283–91. 2. Steinbacher, B. et al. (1998) Brain Res. 782: 255–60.


WiMAX/IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) is a very open technology with various possible services. While different technical aspects of that technology have been addressed, the pricing of WiMAX has received little attention until now. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a WiMAX pricing scheme that we proposed in previous works. Through extensive simulations, we evaluate the importance of a well-planned WiMAX pricing framework by comparing our proposed scheme with a basic one. Then, we study the sensitivity of the proposed pricing scheme with regard to the parameters values choices. We show that our proposed pricing scheme still provides better revenue than a basic one for a difference up to 30% more or less than the best values chosen.


Summary The Cranfield, MS EOR field site has been under CO 2 flood by Denbury Onshore, LLC since 2008. More than 3 million tons of CO 2 has been injected. Time-lapse 3D surface seismic data displayed a readily observable signal related to CO 2 injection into the lower Tuscaloosa Formation. The intensity and the spatial distribution of time-lapse (TL) signal required further analysis. For that purpose, we carried out fluid substitution analysis, followed by volumes cross-equalization, well ties, and acoustic impedance inversions. A Gassmann workflow was used to predict the response to injected CO 2 at two well locations. The 31F-2 observation well, located in a detailed area of study (DAS), was used to compare the results of time-lapse sonic data with fluid substitution results. The objective was to predict a post-injection saturation curve. A second well, well 28-1, was used to help predict an acoustic impedance change in the reservoir to use for subsequent inversion. Finally, a model based inversion was performed to quantify the impedance change between two cross-equalized time-lapse data sets. The acoustic impedance (AI) difference obtained through the inversion process is higher than that predicted for in the 28-1 injection well. The time-lapse AI signal is however in agreement with the large velocity change computed from the time delay along the marker horizon below the reservoir.


Models of planet formation and evolution predict that giant planets form efficiently in protoplanetary disks, that most of these migrate rapidly to the disk's inner edge, and that, if the arriving planet's mass is ≲ Jupiter's mass, then it could remain stranded near that radius. We argue that such planets would be ingested by tidal interaction with the host star on a timescale ≲ 1 ?> Gyr, and that, in the case of a solar-type host, this would cause the stellar spin to approach the direction of the ingested planet's orbital axis even if the two were initially highly misaligned. Primordially misaligned stars whose effective temperatures are ≳ 6250 ?> K cannot be realigned in this way because, in contrast with solar-type hosts, their angular momenta are typically higher than the orbital angular momentum of the ingested planet as a result of inefficient magnetic braking and of a comparatively large moment of inertia. Hot Jupiters located farther out from the star can contribute to this process, but their effect is weaker because the tidal interaction strength decreases rapidly with increasing semimajor axis. We demonstrate that, if ∼ 50 % ?> of planetary systems harbored a stranded hot Jupiter, this scenario can in principle account for (1) the good alignment exhibited by planets around cool stars irrespective of the planet's mass or orbital period, (2) the prevalence of misaligned planets around hot stars, (3) the apparent upper bound on the mass of hot Jupiters on retrograde orbits, and (4) the inverse correlation between stellar spin periods and hot-Jupiter masses.


Assessment of water bodies is very crucial to determine its quality and proffer solution before it has an adverse impact on its biota and direct users of the water body. Insect communities and physico-chemical parameters in comparison with national and international criteria of Erelu Reservoir were investigated to determine their impacts on insect community of the reservoir. Water and insect macro-invertebrates sampling was done once in every month from June 2013-May 2015 from each station of Erelu Reservoir. Insects were collected using net of mesh size of 250 µm to swap the surface of water. Insects collected were identified with standard identification guide. Water samples were analyzed using standard method. Data collected from physico-chemical parameters were analysed using descriptive statistics. Relationship between physico-chemical parameters and insect macro-invertebrates was determined using pearson's correlation coefficient (r). Species diversity, evenness and richness were examined using Margalef, Shannon Weinner and Equitability indexes. The results of physico-chemical parameters revealed that turbidity values (12.48±3.00 Ntu) were higher than the required limits of WHO and NESREA (5.00 Ntu) criteria, while nitrate (1.14±0.15 mg/L) and phosphate (0.21±0.08 mg/L) values were below the recommended standard of NESREA (9-10 and 3.50 mg/L). A total of 4 orders (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and Odonata) having 72,276 individual insect macro-invertebrates were collected. Hemiptera were the most abundant (91.57%) among the insects encountered. Transparency had positive significant relationship with Hemiptera (0.880) and Odonata (0.675), Ca2+, Mg2+, DO, TDS, NO3-, TA. Turbidity, pH, Temp. and EC had negative correlation with orders of Coleoptera, Diptera and Odonata at (P<0.05). Turbidity had direct correlation with Diptera (0.0731) at (P<0.05).  The present study revealed that the water quality parameters value were within standard limits and had little impacts on the insect abundance and richness. The low nutrients and high turbidity indicate low productivity of water body, thus, tending towards deterioration if proper management of the reservoir is not adopted.

 Key words: Water quality parameters, macro-invertebrates, richness, diversity, nesrea, turbidity.


The health benefits of consuming fruit and vegetables are substantial, yet only 5.6% of all Australians aged 18 years and above currently meet the recommended daily intake [RDI] of two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables. Social marketing campaigns aimed at motivating increased fruit and vegetable consumption may therefore be of considerable value in helping a larger proportion of the Australian population achieve these RDIs. The efficacy of such campaigns ultimately depends, however, on identifying which decision-making pathways are most likely to increase intended and actual consumption practices among adults living in Australia, and relatively little is known about these decision-making processes. Using the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework, the overarching aim of this thesis was to investigate the motivational antecedents of an individual's decision to meet the Australian fruit and vegetable RDI guidelines. In Study 1, 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit salient beliefs about consuming fruit and vegetables. The beliefs elicited in Study 1 were then integrated into the Study 2 face-to-face survey, which was completed by 470 adults residing in three communities within Victoria, Australia. The aims of the Study 2 face-to-face survey were to examine: (i) the predictive utility of the belief-based frameworks underpinning attitude and subjective norm; (ii) the predictive utility of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control with respect to intention to meet the RDIs for fruit and vegetables; (iii) the predictive utility of intention and perceived behavioural control with respect to whether individuals met some or none of the RDI guidelines; and (iv) whether these relationships were moderated by SES (household-level and area-level) and the age bands of children living with participants. The relationships between the belief-based frameworks and their theoretical postcedents (i.e., attitude, r²=9.0%; subjective norm, r²=37.4%) were positive and significant. Moreover, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control predicted intention (r²=54.7%), with subjective norm having the strongest influence. Finally, intention, but not perceived behavioural control, predicted behaviour (r²=22.4%–31.0%). Significant moderation effects were also found. Specifically, household-level SES moderated the relationships between: (i) attitude and its underlying belief-based structure; (ii) subjective norm and its associated belief-based structure; and (iii) attitude and intention. Conversely, area-level SES only moderated the attitude–intention relationship. Finally, the age band of children living with participants moderated the relationships between: (i) attitude and intention; (ii) subjective norm and intention; and (iii) perceived behavioural control and intention. The findings pertaining to the moderating influence of child age bands are particularly noteworthy as they expand on more traditional views of the food socialisation process, which tend to assume that food consumption practices are only transmitted from adults to children. The findings from this thesis provide insights that could be leveraged by social marketers seeking to develop and implement interventions aimed at improving fruit and vegetable consumption levels in Australia.


The evolutions of alternate current (AC) impedance spectra, direct current (DC) resistivity and Raman spectra in polycrystalline BaTeO3 have been investigated at high pressures. The abrupt changes observed in electrical transport measurements at 12.73 GPa indicated a kind of phase transition, which was confirmed to be related to the structural phase transition by high-pressure Raman scattering experiments. From the impedance spectra, both grain resistance and grain boundary resistance decreased with increasing pressure, and two clear discontinuities occurred at 12.73 GPa and 17.47 GPa, respectively. After the transition, the contribution to the total resistance by the grain boundary effect dramatically declined and the grain resistance began to play a dominant role. Besides, the electric polarization process was changed due to the phase transition, and it led to a significant rise of the relaxation frequency. From the decompression impedance spectra, it could be clearly seen that the phase transition was irreversible, and it was probably attributed to the irreversible change of the grain boundary for the two different crystal structures. By varying the temperature, the transport behaviour at high pressure was still of semiconductor type but with different slopes for the ambient and high-pressure phases. High-pressure Raman measurements revealed an irreversible structural phase transition occurring above 15 GPa, and the results were consistent with the observed changes of the electrical properties at high pressures.


The great importance of the routine estimation of the urinary ammonia in cases of acidosis is now attracting much attention, and the object of this paper is to report the study of a method the technic of which is so simple as to be available to the average clinical worker with limited laboratory facilities. It is hoped that the more general adoption of the ammonia determination will thus be encouraged. Of the several forms of acidosis always tending to develop symptoms of acid intoxication, those which may occur in diabetes and pregnancy are probably' the most important. The chief urinary symptoms are: (1) the presence of the so-called acetone bodies, i. e., acetone, diacetic acid, and, in severe cases, beta-oxybutyric acid; (2) a marked increase in the relative and absolute output of ammonia. The quantitative determination of the acetone bodies, while highly desirable from the ' standpoints of both prognosis


1 Owyang C, Miller U, DiMagno EP, Mitchell III JC, Go VLW. Pancreatic exocrine function in severe human chronic renal failure. Gut 1982; 23: 357-61. 2 Floege J, Alpers CF, Burns MW, Pritzl P, Gordon K, Couser WG, et al. Glomerular cells, extracellular matrix accumulation, and the development of glomerulosclerosis in the remnant kidney model. Lab Invest 1992; 66: 485-79. 3 Lerch MM, Nolte I, Riehl J, Gladziwa U, Mann H, Sieberth HG, et al. Diagnostic value of indirect pancreatic function test in serum of anuric patients with chronic renal failure. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 1994; 54: 247-50. 4 Rutsky EA, Robards M, Van Dyke JA, Rostard SG. Acute pancreatitis in patients with endstage renal disease without transplantation. Arch Intern Med 1986; 146: 1741-5. 5 Owyang C, Miller U, Go VLW, DiMagno EP, Brennan Jr LA. The gastrointestinal hormone profile in renal insufficiency. Mayo Clin Proc 1979; 54: 769-73. 6 Jansen JBMJ, Hopman WPM, Lamers CBHW. Plasma cholecystokinin concentrations in patients with pancreatic insufficiency measured by sequence-specific radioimmunoassays. Dig Dis Sci 1984; 29: 1109-17.


It is established, using magnetization measurements, that Ni50Mn36.5In13.5 is in a paramagnetic state (PS) above and below the martensitic transition temperature (TM). Magnetoresistance (MR) and magnetic entropy changes (ΔSM) in the vicinity of TM were studied. MR and ΔSM at TM were found to be ≈−8% and ≈+24 J Kg−1 K−1, respectively, at ΔH=5 T. Although MR and ΔSM values were lower than compared to those found in other Heusler systems, the significantly smaller hysteresis observed in Ni50Mn36.5In13.5 makes this compound, and other such compounds that undergo a martensitic transition in a PS, promising for the study and applications of magnetocaloric magnetic materials.


Hybrids of hydroxyapatite (HAp) and poly(L-lactic co glycolic) (PLGA) have been fabricated, which can be expected to be a novel filler for bone grafting. The porous HAp ceramics with bimodal pore structure have been fabricated from apatite fibers synthesized by homogeneous precipitation method. Then, HAp/PLGA hybrids have been fabricated by introducing PLGA having high molecular-weight into the open pores of the porous HAp ceramics. Total porosities of the porous HAp ceramics slightly decreased from 71.5% down to 67.4% after infiltrating PLGA into the porous HAp ceramics. The bending strength of the HAp/PLGA hybrids was ~ 8.3 MPa. The value attained about 2 times that of the porous HAp ceramics.


While the early drilling in the UK West of Shetlands area was concentrated on structural highs, the 1992 discovery of oil in the deep-water Paleocene sands of the Foinaven Field re-invigorated exploration interest in hydrocarbon traps with a stratigraphic element and encouraged a high level of participation in the UK 16th Licensing Round (1995) west of Britain. Many of the main exploration targets in these rounds were mapped as sand pinchouts onto either the basin margin or onto intra-basinal structural highs, for example, updip to the southeast of the 1989 well, 205/9-1. Few of the initial wells drilled to test this type of pinchout play were commercially successful but, as part of the exploration effort, a large area of the basin was blanketed with 3D seismic data on which more subtle features could be recognized. Seismic anomalies similar to those of the successful discoveries were sought on the new 3D data, as this type of play relied heavily on seismic attributes to help define risks and reserve size. The Foinaven and Schiehallion fields have a suite of attractive seismic characteristics and exploration effort was driven by the search for similar seismic anomaly features throughout the Atlantic Margin. As wells were drilled on 16th Round acreage, some of the targeted seismic reflection anomalies, originally seen as direct hydrocarbon indicators, turned out to have different causes. Representative examples are shown from the central part of Quadrant 205 in which tuning, seismic artefacts, porosity effects and unexpected igneous lithologies contributed to the drilling of unsuccessful exploration wells. The variation with depth of rock physics trends in the area are shown, the characteristics of some direct hydrocarbon seismic indicators are modelled and comments are made on the sensitivity of the modelled seismic response to shear velocity estimation. The former 'White Zone' or undesignated area, the previously unlicensed acreage between the UK and Faroe Islands, was opened through the Faroes 1st and the UK 19th Licensing Rounds in 2000 and 2001. By 2003 the first 8 of 15 commitment exploration wells were drilled in these licenses. Together with an assessment of the seismic anomalies and the risks of stratigraphical traps in the area, analysis of the petroleum system led to the siting of the 6004/16-1z well on the structural high of a Cenozoic inversion anticline. The resulting 'Marjun' discovery, the first in the Faroes, consisted of a gross 170 m hydrocarbon column in the T10 Early Paleocene interval, thus opening a new fairway in the area. The challenge has evolved in the last five years from finding an effective reservoir in the basinal areas to the search for a robust trap with an intact sealing lithology.


The performance of SOAP is lower than that of existing distributed object technologies such as RMI and CORBA, because SOAP needs extra process parsing and building message to process an XML document. Therefore, performance improvement for SOAP processing is challenge to apply SOAP to a high-performance system. In the case that we focus on SOAP message features, we notice a SOAP message format is pre-defined for each service program and the format does not change while the system is running. A little part of a SOAP message is variable and the rest that includes tag description is invariable. In this paper, we focus on the above features and we create a template from a SOAP message format. Our approach parses a SOAP message by analyzing differential between a SOAP message and the template. Our approach improves the performance to improve lexical analysis and validation while processing an XML document.


This thesis examines whether increased globalisation causes rise in informal employment for low and lower middle income countries. Previous studies have suggested that increased globalisation does play a significant role in the level of informal employment in an economy. This thesis employs a selection of 20 low income and lower middle income countries for the period of 1990 to 2014. To achieve this, the research employs a random effects panel regression analysis by clustering over countries and using trade-based indicators for globalisation. The empirical analysis finds that while trade does exhibit a positive and significant relationship with informal employment, foreign direct investment exhibits negative and insignificant relationship to informality and trade restrictions exhibit a positive but insignificant relationship with informal employment.


Critical point drying (CPD) is a common method of drying biological specimens for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Drying by evaporation of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) has been described as a good alternative. This method, however, is infrequently used. Therefore, we reassessed HMDS drying. Cultured rat hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells (LEC), possessing fragile fenestrae and sieve plates, were subjected to CPD and HMDS drying and evaluated in the scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope (AFM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). We observed no differences between the two methods regarding cellular ultrastructure. In contrast with CPD, HMDS drying takes only a few minutes, less effort, low costs for chemicals and requires no equipment. We conclude that HMDS‐dried specimens have equal quality to CPD ones. Furthermore, the method also proved useful for drying whole‐mount cells for TEM and AFM.


Andrew Dickson White, the first president of Cornell University in the United States, referred to architecture as his 'pet extravagance.' Leveraging his influential position as president, White was instrumental in the establishment of the architecture department in 1871. One of his noteworthy contributions to this newly founded department was the initiation of an architectural photography collection that was a direct result of his travels around the world as a diplomat, a scholar and, eventually, as a tourist. This architectural photography collection formed the core of the architectural history education at the school well into the 20th century. At that time, photographs provided one of the only ways for students to learn about the architecture of distant places. White's selection of architectural subjects, however, was shaped not through deep scholarly inquiry, but rather by the nascent tourist industry. This paper examines White's Egyptian collection, acquired during his voyage to Egypt in 1889. His trip to Egypt, in his own words "marked a new epoch in [his] thinking." Encountering the 'east' for the first time, White's photography collection both bolstered and challenged the prescribed ways of viewing Egypt and Egyptian architecture, thus having a direct influence on how Cornell students perceived the historic built environment of the 'east'.