We study embeddings of tracial $\mathrm{W}^*$-algebras into a ultraproduct of matrix algebras through an amalgamation of free probabilistic and model-theoretic techniques.  Jung implicitly and Hayes explicitly defined \emph{$1$-bounded entropy} through the asymptotic covering numbers of Voiculescu's microstate spaces, that is, spaces of matrix tuples $(X_1^{(N)},X_2^{(N)},\dots)$ having approximately the same $*$-moments as the generators $(X_1,X_2,\dots)$ of a given tracial $\mathrm{W}^*$-algebra.  We study the analogous covering entropy for microstate spaces defined through formulas that use suprema and infima, not only $*$-algebra operations and the trace | formulas such as arise in the model theory of tracial $\mathrm{W}^*$-algebras initiated by Farah, Hart, and Sherman.  By relating the new theory with the original $1$-bounded entropy, we show that if $\mathcal{M}$ is a separable tracial $\mathrm{W}^*$-algebra with $h(\cN:\cM) \geq 0$, then there exists an embedding of $\cM$ into a matrix ultraproduct $\cQ = \prod_{n \to \cU} M_n(\C)$ such that $h(\cN:\cQ)$ is arbitrarily close to $h(\cN:\cM)$.  We deduce that if all embeddings of $\cM$ into $\cQ$ are automorphically equivalent, then $\cM$ is strongly $1$-bounded and in fact has $h(\cM) \leq 0$.


In order to investigate the effect of sonication on the fatty acids of alga oil, oil of Chlorella vulgaris was extracted by sonication at 20, 40, 60 and 80 kHz. Oil extracted by refluxing alga cells in n-hexane was used as control. Probable changes in the structures of the fatty acids were investigated using gas chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The retention profiles of the chromatograms were similar with differences observed only in peak heights. The FT-IR spectrum of the hexane extract was similar to the spectra of oil extracted at 20 and 40 kHz. The FT-IR spectra of oil extracted at 60 and 80 kHz were identical but different from the other spectra. Peaks at about 1560 cm-1 which were prominent in the 60 and 80 kHz spectra but absent from the other spectra were assigned to non-oil lipids such as steroids. It was concluded that extraction of oil from C. vulgaris by sonication at 20, 40, 60 and 80 kHz had no degradative effect on the structure of the fatty acids of C. vulgaris.

 Key words: Alga, triglycerides, extraction, sonication, chromatography, spectroscopy.


Healthy longevity is a tangible possibility for many individuals and populations, with nutritional and other lifestyle factors playing a key role in modulating the likelihood of healthy ageing. Nevertheless, studies of effects of nutrients or single foods on ageing often show inconsistent results and ignore the overall framework of dietary habits. Therefore, the use of dietary patterns (e.g. a Mediterranean dietary pattern) and the specific dietary recommendations (e.g. dietary approaches to stop hypertension, Polymeal and the American Healthy Eating Index) are becoming more widespread in promoting lifelong health. A posteriori defined dietary patterns are described frequently in relation to age-related diseases but their generalisability is often a challenge since these are developed specifically for the population under study. Conversely, the dietary guidelines are often developed based on prevention of disease or nutrient deficiency, but often less attention is paid to how well these dietary guidelines promote health outcomes. In the present paper, we provide an overview of the state of the art of dietary patterns and dietary recommendations in relation to life expectancy and the risk of age-related disorders (with emphasis on cardiometabolic diseases and cognitive outcomes). According to both a posteriori and a priori dietary patterns, some key 'ingredients' can be identified that are associated consistently with longevity and better cardiometabolic and cognitive health. These include high intake of fruit, vegetables, fish, (whole) grains and legumes/pulses and potatoes, whereas dietary patterns rich in red meat and sugar-rich foods have been associated with an increased risk of mortality and cardiometabolic outcomes.


There is a natural separation between production decisions affecting the firm as a whole and individual decisions by each shareholder about his portfolio of securities. The end result of these two types of decisions is normally referred to as a productive exchange equilibrium. At such an equilibrium, no individual wants to adjust his portfolio and no firm can muster majority support for a change in its production plans. This paper presents a partial theory of takeover bids in that it examines the role of a takeover bid as a mechanism by which a simultaneous change in shareholdings and production plans can be achieved. This enables a new production exchange equilibrium to be reached which is preferred by a majority of the shareholders but which is inaccessible without a contingent contract in the form of a takeover bid.


Kullback-Leibler divergence based hidden Markov model (KL-HMM) is an approach where a posteriori probabilities of phonemes estimated by artificial neural networks (ANN) are modeled directly as feature observation. In this paper, we show the relation between standard HMM-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) approach and KL-HMM approach. More specifically, we show that KL-HMM is a probabilistic lexical modeling approach which is applicable to both HMM/GMM ASR system and hybrid HMM/ANN ASR system. Through experimental studies on DARPA Resource Management task, we show that KL-HMM approach can improve over state-of-the-art ASR system.


This paper describes the vegetation database of the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN - http://www.ecn.ac.uk; GIVD ID EU-GB-002). ECN is the UK's long-term environmental monitoring programme. A wide range of integrated physical, chemical and biological variables which drive and respond to environmental change are collated, quality controlled and made freely available for scientific research. Vegetation data recording forms part of the suite of ECN measurements. Data are recorded at regular time intervals at twelve sites located around the UK. The vegetation data, along with the wider information resource available for the ECN sites, are available through a licensing system.


Background- A wide variety of assessment methods are used in the School of Health Sciences, but little is known about how these methods are viewed by students.

Method- Semi-structured interviews with students were used to explore their views of assessment methods, and whether and why they found these enjoyable, anxiety-provoking, fair, and/or rigorous. Interviews were conducted by a student researcher.

Results- Because of implementation problems, only six students were recruited. Diverse assessment methods were mentioned. Unsurprisingly, examinations were experienced as stressful, and assessments requiring demonstration or presentations were stressful for some. Some assessment methods were seen as clearly relevant to the professions for which students were training, particularly on clinical placement; others involved knowledge or skills that would not be used in the future. Students believed that a mixture of assessment methods was fairest, as it catered for diverse preferences and abilities. They placed great value on clarity in assessment questions, and valued being given assessment information early. Assessments should reflect lecture content.

Conclusions- Despite the small sample, the findings deserve careful consideration. The students interviewed were thoughtful and insightful. It is itself an important finding that some students are able and willing to contribute to constructive discussions about assessment, and they should routinely be given a voice in discussions of assessment design throughout the School. Although these preliminary findings need confirmation by further research, there is face validity to the implications of these findings that assessments could be made fairer by:
- the advance provision of clear and comprehensive information about assessment tasks and marking criteria;
- ensuring that course content is adequate preparation for assessment; and
- consistent adherence by markers to the marking criteria.


During the development of the microtensile bond-testing method, large variations in bond strengths were noted among serial sections. The reason for these variations is unknown. The purpose of this work was to determine the consistency of resin-dentin bond strengths across the occlusal surface of coronal dentin by dividing composite resin buildups into an array of 1 x 1 mm beams, the top half consisting of composite resin, and the bottom half consisting of dentin. Extracted human third molars had the occlusal enamel removed as a single section by means of a diamond saw. Resin composite buildups were made after the dentin was bonded with either One-Step or MacBond. After being stored in 37°C water for 1 day, the teeth were vertically sectioned at 1-mm increments into slabs of bonded teeth. Each slab was further subdivided by vertical sections into 1 x 1 x 8 mm beams. Each beam was assigned an x-y coordinate and tested for tensile bond strength. Two different clinicians (A and B) performed the same procedures using One-Step in a parallel study. Using One-Step, clinician A obtained a large number of zero bonds in superficial dentin but fewer in deep dentin. This resulted in a very large standard deviation in bond strengths (mean ± SD of 22 ± 20 MPa in superficial dentin and 27 ± 14 MPa in deep dentin). Clinician B obtained much higher (p < 0.001) and more uniform bond strengths with One-Step (56 ± 13 MPa in superficial dentin and 57 ± 12 MPa in deep dentin). With MacBond, there were no zero bonds and hence less variation, with a mean of 41 ± 13 MPa in superficial dentin and 27 ± 12 MPa (x ± SD) in deep dentin. When pairs of Z100 resin composite cylinders were bonded together with One-Step and then sectioned into an array, there was little variation in regional bond strength (37 ± 1 MPa). Dividing bonded resin composite buildups into an array of 20 to 30 1 x 1 x 8 mm beams allows for the evaluation of uniformity of resin-dentin bonds. The method used in this study detected local regional differences in resin-dentin bond strengths. The largest differences were shown to be related to technique rather than to material. The results indicate that resin-dentin bonds may not be as homogenous as was previously thought.


Earth's climate is strongly influenced by energy deficits at the poles that emit more thermal energy than they receive from the sun. Energy exchanges between the surface and atmosphere influence the local environment while heat transport from lower latitudes drives midlatitude atmospheric and oceanic circulations. In the Arctic, in particular, local energy imbalances induce strong seasonality in surface–atmosphere heat exchanges and an acute sensitivity to forced climate variations. Despite these important local and global influences, the largest contributions to the polar atmospheric and surface energy budgets have not been fully characterized. The spectral variation of far-infrared radiation that makes up 60% of polar thermal emission has never been systematically measured impeding progress toward consensus in predicted rates of Arctic warming, sea ice decline, and ice sheet melt. Enabled by recent advances in sensor miniaturization and CubeSat technology, the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE) mission will document, for the first time, the spectral, spatial, and temporal variations of polar far-infrared emission. Selected under NASA's Earth Ventures Instrument (EVI) program, PREFIRE will utilize new lightweight, low-power, ambient temperature detectors capable of measuring at wavelengths up to 50 μm to quantify Earth's far-infrared spectrum. Estimates of spectral surface emissivity, water vapor, cloud properties, and the atmospheric greenhouse effect derived from these measurements offer the potential to advance our understanding of the factors that modulate thermal fluxes in the cold, dry conditions characteristic of the polar regions.


Collective intelligence (CI) is an emerging research field that seeks to merge human and machine intelligence, with an aim to achieve results unattainable by either one of these entities alone. CI systems may significantly vary in nature, from collaborative systems, like open source software development communities, to competitive ones, like problem-solving companies that benefit from the competition among participating user teams to identify solutions to various R&D problems. The advantages that CI systems earn user communities, together with the fact that they share a number of basic common features, provide the potential for designing a general methodology for their efficient modeling, development and evaluation. In this paper we describe a modeling process which identifies the common features, as well as the main challenges that the construction of generic collective intelligence systems poses. First a basic categorization of CI systems is performed, followed by a description of the proposed modeling approach. This approach includes concepts such as the set of possible user actions, the CI system state and the individual and community objectives, as well as a number of necessary functions, which estimate various parameters of the CI system, such as the expected user actions, the future system state and the level of objective fulfillment. Finally, based on the proposed modeling approach, certain current CI systems are described, a number of problems that they face are identified and specific solutions are suggested. The proposed modeling approach is expected to promote more efficient CI system design, so that the benefit gained by the participating community and individuals, will be maximized.


We analyze pricing and competition under paid prioritization within a model of interconnected internet service providers (ISPs), heterogeneous content providers (CPs) and heterogeneous consumers. We show that prioritization is welfare superior to a regime without prioritization (network neutrality) and yields higher incentives for investment in network capacities. As ISPs price discriminate between on-net and off-net CPs, their bottleneck property is propagated and competition for consumers increases resulting in a potential prisoner's dilemma when deciding whether to offer prioritization. We show that peering for prioritized traffic emerges as a collusive outcome and present off-net prices as a further collusive instrument.


The emergence of pervasive networked data sources, such as Web services, sensors, and mobile devices, enables context-sensitive, mobile applications. We have developed a programming model for writing such applications, in which entities called composers accept data from one or more sources, and act as sources of higher-level data. We have defined and implemented a nonprocedural language, iQL, specifying the behavior of composers. An iQL programmer expresses requirements for data sources rather than identifying specific sources; a runtime system discovers appropriate data sources, binds to them, and rebinds when properties of data sources change. The language has powerful operators useful in composition, including operators to generate, filter, and abstract streams of values.


This paper presents the design of a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) diaphragm actuated by double-sided patterned electrodes. Au/Cr electrodes were deposited on bulk PZT wafers by sputtering while patterned by a lift-off process. SU-8 thick film was used to form the structural layer. Double-spiral electrode induced in-plane poling and piezoelectric elongation are converted to an out-of-plane displacement due to the confined boundary condition. The influence of different drive configurations and electrode parameters on deflection has been calculated by finite element methods (FEM) using a uniform field model. Impedance and quasi-static displacement spectra of the diaphragm were measured after poling. A double-sided patterned electrode diaphragm can be actuated by more drive configurations than a single-sided one. Compared with a single-sided electrode drive, a double-sided out-of-phase drive configuration increases the coupling coefficient of the fundamental resonance from 7.6% to 11.8%. The displacement response of the diaphragm increases from 2.6 to 8.6 nm V−1. Configurations including the electric field component perpendicular to the poling direction can stimulate shear modes of the diaphragm.


A database system must be able to respond to requests for information from the user—i.e. process queries. Obtaining the desired information from a database system in a predictable and reliable fashion is Query Processing. To extract these results in a timely manner is possible with the technique of Query Optimization. For effective query processing the data must not be much fragmented. In this paper we focussed on the poor performance of query when the date fragmentation percentage is more and we have analysed how the fragmentation can be reduced using rebuild and re-organize techniques. In the last section, we have taken a sample data for query processing before rebuild and after that to have a comparative analysis.


The US paper and paperboard industry has experienced significant structural changes over the past 25 years, including reductions in the number of mills, lower rates of capacity growth, employment cutbacks and a loss of market share to foreign competitors. These structural shifts portray an industry that increasingly has difficulty adapting to a more competitive global environment. Based on aggregate data from 1965 to 1996, this article estimates a short-run translog (TL) cost function for the industry. The estimated model fits the data well and all sample points satisfy monotonicity and concavity conditions at all points. Among the findings, the industry operates at slightly increasing returns to capital utilization and labour and energy are Allen–Uzawa complements but Morishima substitutes in production. Technological progress generated 0.02% reduction in annual operating costs and consistent with an ailing US industry, estimated marginal costs approximated average operating costs until 1982 after which marginal costs significantly diverged from average operating costs. †CPBIS Working Paper.


s | 49 Aims: This project aims to assess whether systemic treatment with ketamine may improve the behavioural response in an animal model of a treatment resistant condition. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats received subcutaneous injections of ACTH (100ug/rat/day) or vehicle during 14 days. On the 14th day the animals were exposed to the pre-test session of forced swim (FST) and after 24h they were exposed to the openfield test (OFT) followed by the FST test session. The animals received an intraperitoneal injection of ketamine (15 mg/kg) or vehicle or imipramine (3 injections of 15 mg/kg) 1h before the test session. Results: The immobility time during the pre-test was increased on the group treated with ACTH (F(14,37)=3,484; *p<0,05; Dunnett). Ketamine, but not imipramine, reduced the immobility time when exposed to the test session (F(2,16)=4,002; *p<0,05; Dunnett). The OFT showed that the drugs did not increase the locomotor activity. Conclusion: The data suggest that ACTH treatment can induce a pro-depressive-like effect, which highlights its role as an inducer of a treatment-resistant condition. The results reinforce the potential antidepressant-like effects of ketamine in a treatment resistant condition, thus corroborating the literature findings. Further studies are necessary to investigate the mechanisms which ketamine induces its effects on treatment resistant rats.


Spectrum sensing is an essential functionality that enables cognitive radios to detect spectral holes and to opportunistically use under-utilized frequency bands without causing harmful interference to legacy (primary) networks. In this paper, a novel wideband spectrum sensing technique referred to as multiband joint detection is introduced, which jointly detects the primary signals over multiple frequency bands rather than over one band at a time. Specifically, the spectrum sensing problem is formulated as a class of optimization problems, which maximize the aggregated opportunistic throughput of a cognitive radio system under some constraints on the interference to the primary users. By exploiting the hidden convexity in the seemingly nonconvex problems, optimal solutions can be obtained for multiband joint detection under practical conditions. The situation in which individual cognitive radios might not be able to reliably detect weak primary signals due to channel fading/shadowing is also considered. To address this issue by exploiting the spatial diversity, a cooperative wideband spectrum sensing scheme refereed to as spatial-spectral joint detection is proposed, which is based on a linear combination of the local statistics from multiple spatially distributed cognitive radios. The cooperative sensing problem is also mapped into an optimization problem, for which suboptimal solutions can be obtained through mathematical transformation under conditions of practical interest. Simulation results show that the proposed spectrum sensing schemes can considerably improve system performance. This paper establishes useful principles for the design of distributed wideband spectrum sensing algorithms in cognitive radio networks.


Practical meta-analysis of correlation matrices generally ignores covariances (and hence correlations) between correlation estimates. The authors consider various methods for allowing for covariances, including generalized least squares, maximum marginal likelihood, and Bayesian approaches, illustrated using a 6-dimensional response in a series of psychological studies concerning prediction of exercise behavior change. Quantities of interest include the overall population mean correlation matrix, the contrast between the mean correlations, the predicted correlation matrix in a new study, and the conflict between the existing studies and a new correlation matrix. The authors conclude that accounting for correlations between correlations is unnecessary when interested in individual correlations but potentially important if concerned with a composite measure involving 2 or more correlations. A simulation study indicates the asymptotic normal assumption appears reasonable. Because of potential instability in the generalized least squares methods, they recommend a model-based approach, either the maximum marginal likelihood approach or a full Bayesian analysis.


ABSTRACT A new methacrylate monomer 2-(4-nitrophenyl)-2-oxoethyl-2-methacrylate (NFM) was synthesized and its radical copolymerization with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) was studied in 1,4-dioxane solution at 65°C using 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator. The synthesized monomer and copolymers were characterized by FTIR, 1H and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. The analysis of reactivity ratios revealed that NFM is less reactive than GMA, and copolymers formed are statistically in nature. Thermogravimetric analysis of the polymers reveals that the thermal stability of the copolymers increases with an increasing in the mole fraction of NFM in the copolymers. Glass transition temperatures of the copolymers decreased with an increasing of NFM molar fraction in copolymers. In addition, according to the results obtained from the contact angle and zeta potential measurements the hydrophobic character of the polymer decreases (it means surface free energy increases) and its zeta potential becomes more negative with increase of NFM ratio in the copolymer. Polymers with carbonyl functional groups have been particularly interesting because of their use as photoresists.


We devised a hydraulic servo-control system for indirect blood pressure measurement in the rat's tail, by which beat-to-beat systolic and diastolic blood pressure can be obtained. In this method the principle of "unloading vascular wall" proposed by Shirer (1962) is employed. The proposed system is composed of a transmittance photoelectric plethysmograph with an occluding cuff, a small diaphragm actuator for compressing and decompressing the segment by the hydraulic pressure, and an electromagnetic shaker driven by a volume servo circuit in accordance with the signal from the photoelectric plethysmograph. The plethysmographic signal is clamped at a proper value corresponding to the unload vascular volume by the instantaneous hydraulic servo control. The cuff pressure thus automatically controlled follows the intra-arterial pressure in the tail segment. The accuracy of this method was evaluated in comparison with direct measurement of blood pressure recorded simultaneously from 16 unanesthetized spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats. Close agreement between the simultaneous data from these two methods were observed.


A hallmark of acute hepatic injury is the recruitment of neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes, including natural killer (NK) or T cells, towards areas of inflammation. The recruitment of leukocytes from their reservoirs bone marrow or spleen into the liver is directed by chemokines such as CCL2 (for monocytes) and CCL5 (for lymphocytes). We herein elucidated the impact of chemokine receptor inhibition by the dual CCR2 and CCR5 inhibitor cenicriviroc (CVC) on the composition of myeloid and lymphoid immune cell populations in acute liver injury. CVC treatment effectively inhibited the migration of bone marrow monocytes and splenic lymphocytes (NK, CD4 T-cells) towards CCL2 or CCL5 in vitro. When liver injury was induced by an intraperitoneal injection of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in mice, followed by repetitive oral application of CVC, flow cytometric and unbiased t-SNE analysis of intrahepatic leukocytes demonstrated that dual CCR2/CCR5 inhibition in vivo significantly decreased numbers of monocyte derived macrophages in acutely injured livers. CVC also reduced numbers of Kupffer cells (KC) or monocyte derived macrophages with a KC-like phenotype, respectively, after injury. In contrast to the inhibitory effects in vitro, CVC had no impact on the composition of hepatic lymphoid cell populations in vivo. Effective inhibition of monocyte recruitment was associated with reduced inflammatory macrophage markers and moderately ameliorated hepatic necroses at 36h after CCl4. In conclusion, dual CCR2/CCR5 inhibition primarily translates into reduced monocyte recruitment in acute liver injury in vivo, suggesting that this strategy will be effective in reducing inflammatory macrophages in conditions of liver disease.


A 66-year-old man presented with a six-month history of periodic fever. A CT scan of the chest and abdomen performed at another hospital one month before admission disclosed no evidence of inflammation or tumor, and at admission he had no symptoms other than the periodic fever. FDG-PET/CT demonstrated increased FDG uptake in multiple vertebrae, ribs, scapulae, pelvis, and femurs. A core needle biopsy of the vertebra showing increased FDG uptake was performed, and he was diagnosed with primary osseous Hodgkin lymphoma. ABVD therapy was begun and the fever resolved immediately. After 6 cycles of ABVD, he achieved complete remission and has maintained remission for five years since diagnosis. Primary osseous Hodgkin lymphoma is rare and its lack of distinguishing clinical and radiological features makes it difficult to achieve an early differential diagnosis. FDG-PET/CT is a useful tool for detecting tumors when periodic fever suggests the possibility of malignant disease but when specific symptoms are absent.


We study end-to-end learning strategies for 3D shape inference from images, in particular from a single image. Several approaches in this direction have been investigated that explore different shape representations and suitable learning architectures. We focus instead on the underlying probabilistic mechanisms involved and contribute a more principled probabilistic inference-based reconstruction framework, which we coin Probabilistic Reconstruction Networks. This framework expresses image conditioned 3D shape inference through a family of latent variable models, and naturally decouples the choice of shape representations from the inference itself. Moreover, it suggests different options for the image conditioning and allows training in two regimes, using either Monte Carlo or variational approximation of the marginal likelihood. Using our Probabilistic Reconstruction Networks we obtain single image 3D reconstruction results that set a new state of the art on the ShapeNet dataset in terms of the intersection over union and earth mover's distance evaluation metrics. Interestingly, we obtain these results using a basic voxel grid representation, improving over recent work based on finer point cloud or mesh based representations.


There are many projects using discrete event simulation as a decision-making tool. However, it was found in the literature that these articles are related to improving the execution of projects, not studying issues related to the management of simulation projects. From this perspective, this paper used concepts proposed by the PMBOK® to drive the management of communication between members of a simulation project and stakeholders. To achieve this goal, a real simulation case in a manufacturing company was studied. The steps of communication structure were followed and an Action Plan was elaborated and applied in this project. One of the outcomes of this effort is a communication model that was proposed for simulation projects. A questionnaire was applied to evaluate the proposal, results showed that simulation analysts judge communication aspects in their projects to be very important, and is related to the success.


This guide provides students with a wide range of web resources aimed to help bring about plagiarism awareness and prevention.


A Wells turbine for wave power conversion has hysteretic characteristics in a reciprocating flow. The counterclockwise hysteretic loop of the Wells turbine is opposite to the clockwise one of the well-known dynamic stall of an airfoil. The mechanism of the hysteretic behavior was elucidated by an unsteady three-dimensional Navier-Stokes numerical simulation. The hysteretic behavior was associated with a streamline vortical flow appearing near the blade suction surface. In the accelerating process of axial flow velocity, the vortex is intensified to enlarge the flow separation area on the blade suction surface. In the decelerating flow process, the flow separation area is reduced because of the weakened vortex. Therefore, the aerodynamic performance in the accelerating flow process is lower than in the decelerating flow process, unlike the dynamic stall. Based on the vortex theorems the mechanism to vary the intensity of the vortex can be explained by the trailing vortices associated with the change in the blade circulation


Objectives The aim of this study was to explore the link between autophagy and collagen metabolism in patients with pelvic organ prolapse (POP) by detecting the expressions of autophagy factors, collagen, desmin, cytokeratin, and vimentin. Methods Histology of anterior vaginal wall and uterosacral ligament was assessed by hematoxylin-eosin staining in POP and non-POP control patients (n = 50 per group). Expressions of collagen types I and III, LC3II, beclin 1, and p62 were examined by Western blot analysis. Expressions of LC3, vimentin, desmin, and cytokeratin were detected by immunohistochemical staining. A linkage between the mean of LC3 integrated option density summation (IOD SUM) and POP clinicopathologic parameters including Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) staging, age, body mass index, gravidity, and parity was analyzed by &khgr;2 test, respectively. Results Compared with the control group, the following differences were found both in the vaginal wall and in the uterosacral ligament of the POP group: hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that collagen was more fragmented and disorganized. Expressions of collagen types I and III, LC3II, and beclin 1 were diminished, whereas the p62 level was elevated in Western blotting. Immunohistochemical staining showed that expression of LC3 was down-regulated, whereas vimentin level was increased. There were no significant differences in the expressions of desmin and cytokeratin in the 2 groups (P > 0.05). Mean of LC3 IOD SUM was highly linked to the POP-Q stage in the POP group (P < 0.05), whereas there was no significant correlation between the mean of LC3 IOD SUM and POP groups in age, body mass index, gravidity, and parity, respectively(P > 0.05). Conclusions Autophagic activity is impaired in the POP group, which may relate to collagen deposition.


Many conceptual change theories posit that change occurs due to a variety of cognitive, social, and emotional factors (Dole & Sinatra, 1998; Ohlsson, 2011), however, few theories have tested these claims via computational models of conceptual change. In this paper, we present a hierarchical Bayesian model that addresses change processes and their effects on re-categorization, a form of concept change. Human data from a study using the re-categorization paradigm (Ramsburg & Ohlsson, 2013) are compared to the computational model. The structure of the human data suggests the 'non-monotonic' nature of conceptual change (Ohlsson, 2011) as indicated by the best-fit learning curves. For several such curves, model comparisons suggest good fits between the computational simulations and human data. The nonlinear form of the model's update functions lends additional support to concept change as a non-monotonic process. The model is discussed as a "proof of concept" for future conceptual change modeling endeavors.


Studies on aggression and status signaling have traditionally focused on the male sex. As a result, the function of female aggression and status signaling is not nearly as thoroughly understood as it is in males. Although testosterone is characteristically known as a "male hormone," recent evidence has suggested that in many species females develop testosterone linked fighting potential and ornamentation. In this thesis, I report the results from an investigation on the influence of testosterone on female dominance and status signaling. The female American goldfinch is aggressive year-round over limited resources such as food, and at times females are observed to be more aggressive than males. Additionally, American goldfinches have a dynamic bill color that has been correlated to testosterone and has been shown to serve as a status signal in females. Females were placed into dyads consisting of a testosterone treated individual and a control treated individual of similar dominance. Behavioral observations were recorded over a monopolizable food source, allowing us to determine which female was dominant within each dyad. Additionally, bill color was measured using a spectrophotometer before and after treatment. Although testosterone treated females won a majority of the trials that took place, testosterone did not significantly predict the outcome of the dyad trials. Interestingly, wing size was an accurate predictor of winning, with over 80% of the winners having larger wings. Therefore, it may be that wing was so tightly correlated with winning that it overshadowed our ability to detect any influence of testosterone on competitive potential. Testosterone did not significantly influence bill color in this study. Taken together, these findings indicate that wing size may be a more important mediator of aggression than testosterone within this species.


Recent meta-analyses of population-based studies with long-term follow-up have clarified the risk of cardiovascular disorders in patients with subclinical thyroid dysfunction. Subclinical hyperthyroidism is associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality; the risk is higher at a thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level 10 mU/l. The incidence of ischaemic heart disease is reduced upon treatment with levothyroxine sodium treatment in patients aged ≤ 70 years, but not in patients aged > 70 years. Despite the lack of randomised clinical trials providing evidence, treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism is recommended when the TSH level is 10 mU/l. Treatment of patients with TSH levels between 0.1-0.4 mU/l or 4-10 mU/l should depend on other risk factors and patient age, with no treatment for persons with a TSH level of 4-10 mU/l who are older than 65 years


A very active branch of organic chemistry is putting great effort into tailoring fluorescent dyes for a myriad of applications, from technological to bioanalytical and biomedical applications. Among the major families of fluorophores, those derived from 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY dyes) are undergoing a recent boost thanks to the simplicity and robustness of the chemistry involved. The BODIPY core can be modified with numerous side groups, the 8-position being a modification place with important effects on the spectroscopic and photophysical properties of the resulting dyes. Likewise, previous work has shown that the addition of groups attached at the 3- and 2-positions can result in dyes with very different properties. Herein, we generalize the effect of the substituent side groups by studying nine BODIPY dyes substituted with a phenyl, styryl or phenylethynyl moiety at the 2-, 3- or 8-position of the BODIPY scaffold. Within the class of phenyl- or phenylethynyl-substituted dyes, substitution at the 2-position always leads to dyes with the broadest bandwidths and the largest Stokes shifts. We investigate the solvent effect on the spectroscopic properties of the dyes, using four empirical solvent scales (dipolarity, polarizability, acidity and basicity: Catalan, J. Phys. Chem., 2009, 113, 5951). These analyses identify solvent dipolarity and polarizability as critical parameters accounting for the observed solvent-dependent shifts of the absorption and emission maxima. Finally, time-dependent density functional theory calculations provide insights into the structural and energetic issues concerning the spectroscopic properties of these fluorophores.


Weathering, erosion, and redeposition of exhumed rock-derived or "petrogenic" organic carbon (OC) co-occurs with the burial of biospheric OC within sediments, modulating atmospheric CO2 and O2 over geologic time. Disentangling the geochemical fingerprint of petrogenic OC from biospheric OC in sedimentary organic matter, as well as quantifying the influence of its remineralization and burial on atmospheric CO2/O2, has been the focus of numerous observational and geochemical modeling studies. In 1938, Matti Sauramo recognized that petrogenic OC is entrained in a "simple carbon" cycle operating alongside the "complicated" greater rest of the carbon cycle. Sauramo's achievements were preceded by Charles Lyell's thoughts on the subject a century earlier, and by observations of reworked palynomorphs in the modern environment made by palynologists in the 19th Century. Towards the present, palynologists, organic petrologists, and geochemists have all made key advances, while their impact often did not radiate beyond their respective bodies of literature. This highlights the importance not only of further investigations focused on the continued pursuit of new information, but also on studies of the history of relevant disciplines in order to place new findings in appropriate context. Petrogenic OC cycling has emerged as a key process for constraining global carbon budgets, long-term biogeochemical cycles and associated variations in atmospheric chemistry. While petrogenic OC is now recognized as a significant component of bulk sedimentary OC in modern systems, its cycling throughout Earth's history - including during pivotal episodes such as supercontinent amalgamation and late Proterozoic Snowball Earth events followed by greenhouse conditions - remains largely unexplored.


Today, asphalt trackbed is gaining more attention because it effectively strengthens railroad track support, helps waterproof underlying sub-grade, and securely confines the subgrade layer. Traditional analytical track models are either quasi-static or based on a continuous support assumption, which does not consider nonuniform, discrete support due to varying tie and ballast service conditions. In this paper, a discretely supported track model with asphalt trackbed under dynamic moving loads was solved semianalytically. On the basis of this solution, a computer program was developed and applied to study, under different train speeds, the effect of track defects, such as broken tie and weak sub-grade, on asphalt trackbed service life. A case study analysis showed that all cases of faster train speed, weaker subgrade support, and missing tie support decreased asphalt trackbed fatigue life. Of the scenarios tested, missing tie support was proved to be the most critical factor that could dramatically decrease the trackbed fatigue life. Increasing asphalt trackbed thickness from 0.1 to 0.2 m significantly extended its fatigue life and also decreased subgrade stress. Although only limited situations are discussed here, the developed computer program based on the derived semianalytical solution can be used as an optimization tool for evaluating asphalt trackbed performances under various field conditions. It also has the potential for backcalculating dynamic track modulus when track deflections are measured.


Haemophilus somnus, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Pasteurella haemolytica are economically important bacteria with pathogenic characteristics that require us to look further than killed, whole cell bacterins for induction of a protective immune response. A strong immune response is not synonymous with protection and the extreme specificity of the immune response works to our disadvantage when broad protection is needed. Detection of animals that are susceptible or immune to infection is important for the purpose of diagnosis and epidemiological study. However serum antibody levels are rarely indicative of protection unless it is known that the antibody of a particular isotype must be directed against a specific epitope for protection to occur. Parenteral vaccination with killed, whole cells of H. somnus, A. pleuropneumoniae or P. haemolytica produces, respectively, adequate protection, partial protection and increased disease. The reasons for these differences and methods of improving protection, based on an understanding of virulence determinants, are discussed.


ABSTRACT Michel Foucault's analysis of penal torture as part of a regime of truth production continues to be routinely applied to the interpretation of English Renaissance drama. This paper argues that such an application misleadingly overlooks the lay participation that was characteristic of English criminal justice. It goes on to explore the implications of the epistemological differences between continental inquisitorial models of trial and the jury trial as it developed in sixteenth-century England, arguing that rhetorical and political differences between these two models are dramatized in the unfolding action of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus .


A method is presented to calculate the spectral-resolved opacity for non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium plasmas. With the present method, the configuration population is obtained by solving the rate equations within the framework of configuration-averaged approximation in which the cross sections are calculated based on the first-order perturbation theory. The transition properties are calculated by using the unresolved transition array model. As the illustration, the frequency-dependent opacities of Al and Au plasmas are calculated and compared with the simulation results of the super configuration collisional radiative code. General agreements are obtained and there are some discrepancies for opacity of high-Z elements.


Background Increases in life expectancy are hypothesised to be associated with shorter proportional time spent with morbidity (compression of morbidity). We assessed whether this has occurred among older adults in the USA during the 1990s and 2000s. Methods We used data from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate a morbidity score based on eight chronic conditions and compare it (1) prospectively between two age-matched cohorts in 1992 and 2004 over a 6-year follow-up, and (2) retrospectively in the three waves prior to death among respondents who die in (1998–2004) and (2004–2010). Results Prospective assessment shows significantly higher prevalence in 6 of eight chronic conditions in the 2000s, with 37% higher diabetes prevalence. A retrospective evaluation shows significantly higher prevalence in 7 of eight chronic conditions in the three waves prior to death for (2004–2010) versus (1998–2004), with 41% higher prevalence of arthritis. Importantly, the farther away from time of death, the higher the average number of chronic conditions in (2004–2010). Conclusions Using the largest longitudinal ageing study in the USA, we found no clear evidence of compression of morbidity as measured by self-reported chronic disease. Older adults in the USA may be experiencing greater disease burden in recent times.


As resistance against synthetic insecticides has been increasing day by day, mosquito control becomes a great problem around the world. So it is crucial to manage the vector population to overcome the mosquito borne diseases. The present study was executed to assess the larvicidal activities of Cleistanthus patulus leaf extract against filarial vector Culex quinquefasciatus. Method: Crude extracts of C. patulus mature leaf with different concentration gradients ranging from 0.1% - 0.5% were applied against all the larval instars of Cx. quinquefasciatus. Three solvent extractives namely petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and acetone were applied in different graded concentrations against all the larval instars. Through log-probit analysis LC50 and LC90 values were determined. Regression and ANOVA analyses were done for further statistical justification. Activities of bioactive fraction against the non-target organism were carried out in laboratory condition. In addition to these, a qualitative phytochemical analysis of leaf extract was also done. Result: The highest mortality was observed at 0.5 concentration of crude extract against all the larval instars after 72 hours of exposure. Among three used solvent extracts ethyl acetate exhibited the best larvicidal potentiality against target mosquito. 1st instar larvae showed 100% mortality at 250 ppm concentration after 48 hours of exposure. Preliminary qualitative phytochemicals analyses of leaf extract revealed the presence of tannin, steroid and flavonoid as secondary metabolites. Non-target organism was found non-responsive to both extracts. Conclusion: Above experiment indicates that the leaf of C. patulus has the prospective to be used as larvicidal agent against Cx. quinquefasciatus.


Chapter 4 examines the law applicable to sovereign domestic bonds in the absence of a choice of law provision. It is commonly believed that the domestic debt is necessarily governed by the law of the sovereign. The chapter challenges that premise by arguing that the law of the creditor should apply instead on the ground that the creditor is the party providing the characteristic performance. The chapter examines the possibility of escaping the governing law in favour of, among others, the law of the sovereign debtor. Lastly, the chapter examines the applicability of mandatory provisions in sovereign debt litigation.


This study investigated the prevalence of injuries to the suspensory ligament (SL), the digital flexor tendons and associated structures in relation to the type of athletic use of the horse. The medical records of 1,527 horses referred to the Equine Department, University of Zurich, from 1992 to 2009 because of non-septic tendinitis, desmitis or tendovaginitis were reviewed. The majority of the horses in the study population were used for pleasure riding (23.3%), show jumping (20.4%) and dressage (10.5%). Eventing (3.4 %), driving (2.8%) and endurance horses (1.4%) were less common. The suspensory ligament was the most
frequently affected structure in the overall study population (31.2%); the frequency of SL injuries was 41.6% in dressage horses, 28.6% in show jumpers and 28.1% in pleasure horses. The superficial digital flexor tendon was the most frequently affected structure in eventing horses (50%) and the digital flexor tendon sheath (27.9%) was the most commonly affected structure in driving horses. Injured show jumpers (p<0.001), dressage (p<0.001) and eventing horses (p=0.007) were significantly younger than injured pleasure horses. The type of athletic use of a horse has a direct impact on the prevalence of injuries to the suspensory ligament, flexor tendons and associated structures. This knowledge can be used to improve the veterinary care for horses with different athletic occupations.


Ras-Mohammed National Park, on the southern tip of Sinai peninsula, is a valuable tourist resource that should be carefully conserved. It has been recently threatened by numerous anthropogenic activities including oil spills from tankers passing through the Gulf of Suez. The objective of this paper is to carry out an environmental sensitivity analysis of this coastal environment, and to derive an environmental sensitivity index map of the area. Integration of remote sensing and GIS techniques has proved a powerful tool for analyses of the environmental sensitivity for potential oil spills. In this work, SPOT-XS images were used to derive information about various resources of the area, especially the shallow submarine coral reef communities. Topographic and field survey data were combined to produce the required sensitivity map. Ten major natural classes, along the shoreline and foreshore resources and habitats, were identified and analyzed. Their environmental sensitivity to potential oil spill were rated from low to high. The lowest sensitivity was assigned to the sea cliff and the highest to shallow coral reefs. Using GIS functions and analyses, it was possible to produce land use/land cover; shoreline sensitivity; foreshore sensitivity and critical natural resources maps. This information was used to determine protection priority, to propose access and protection planing, and to derive an environmental sensitivity index map of Ras-Mohammed.


The focus of this study is use of discourse markers (DM). Data consists of taped interactions of informants. From this data, four particular DM are analyzed with regard to distribution in turn taking. The concepts of cohesion and coherence in text or discourse, together with informants´ communicative and discourse strategies, in a group of bilingual speakers (BS) and a control group of monolingual speakers (MS), are also analyzed. The findings confirm that BS, compared to the MS, make more frequent use of y with a pragmatic meaning when introducing various types of questions that constitute requests for elucidation directed to an interlocutor and thereby continue the interaction. In general, however, the MS use the DM y more frequently than the BS, demonstrating a more elaborate sense of stylistics in the coordination of their turn as narrations and descriptions. With regard to pero, the BS prefer to use this DM with a pragmatic meaning, in the continuation of an intervention or at the end of a turn, in order to question that which has been stated. The MS use pero primarily with a semantic meaning, to express counter-arguments inside a turn. It is exclusively the BS who use the DM asi que with pragmatic meaning of consequence, in interactional exchanges, when they wish to introduce questions and assertions, where asi que begins their reaction to the utterance of the interlocutor. Such questions may be regarded as a discourse strategy that permits possibilities for avoiding taking responsibility for how an utterance is interpreted. In addition, both the BS and the MS use asi que at the end of turns, providing the discourse with meta-pragmatic meaning whereby it allows possibilities for interpreting this as finalizing. Through their use of es que, the BS gradually explain and justify statements made in utterances during their turns while the MS, through use in their discourse of this DM, allows them to introduce explications, justifications or excuses in the event of possible disagreement. In addition, the MS use justification introduced through this DM as a strategy to take a turn or to attempt to take over the turn, where es que conveys discourse-pragmatic meaning and introduces a tone of verbal courtesy.


The goal of the thesis was to demonstrate the process of renovation of the reporting system, which serves as a modern decision-making support system in a large enterprise. First part of the thesis contains theoretical descriptions of methods and technologies that are required to reach the target and also details of Decisyon 4 platform, which was implemented by the company as the basis for the renovation of existing reporting systems. Thesis is further composed of practical examples of project, which is built with three key steps. The first was an analysis of existing reporting systems and preparation of the data for their transfer to the new system. This was followed by the creation of planned functions that trigger at predetermined intervals and take care of transferring data from transactional database into the data warehouse, and finally preparation of reports using the Decisyon 4 platform. Renewed reporting system will bring faster and more reliable operation of current business processes in the company, while the leading persons of the company will be able to easily identify critical data for making important business decisions.


This study examined the relationship between the expression of Ras guanyl nucleotide-releasing protein 3 (RasGRP3) and disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and explored the possible mechanisms in MRL/lpr mice. We detected the expression of RasGRP3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of SLE patients (n=26) and healthy controls (n=20) by employing RT-PCR and studied the association between the mRNA expression of RasGRP3 in PBMCs and the clinical findings. We also measured the protein level of RasGRP3 in PBMCs by Western blotting (n=10). In addition, we isolated the B cells from PBMCs with magnetic bead separation and determined the RasGRP3 expression by RT-PCR (n=10). Furthermore, we extracted spleen B cells from MRL/ lpr mice and knocked down RasGRP3 by siRNA transfection to study the role of RasGRP3 in the pathway of B cell receptor (BCR) activation and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Compared with healthy volunteers, the expression of RasGRP3 was significantly elevated in PBMCs and purified B cells from SLE patients. The mRNA expression of RasGRP3 in PBMCs was positively correlated with SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI). Moreover, silencing RasGRP3 could inhibit Akt and Erk1/2 activation in marginal zone (MZ) and follicular (FO) B cells of MRL/ lpr mice. Additionally, the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), was decreased whereas activation of caspase-3 cleavage was induced in vitro. In conclusion, overexpression of RasGRP3 is associated with disease activity and might be involved in the pathogenesis of SLE.


This paper proposes grid system and its controlling techniques to regulate the continuous changes in
operational requirements and deregulation problems. In the present scenario, the distribution energy
systems play an important role in maintaining the power system reliability and stability in distribution
domain. The proposed grid is a structure of PV and hybrid system. To achieve the maximum operation from
the renewable sources an MPPT methods is proposed. This paper also proposes a concept for controlling of
reactive power in single phase grid connected PV system. In order to achieve this reactive power control, this
paper is implemented with different current regulated controllers such as conventional PI controller, PR
controller, ASDM controller and Fuzzy Logic Controller. This proposed system with different controllers are
tested and verified in MATLAB environment.


A Pease-Anthony Venturi scrubber is a relatively simple and very efficient device used for gas cleaning. This paper presents photographic images of the atomization of a liquid jet in the throat of a Pease-Anthony Venturi scrubber, obtained through the development and use of an electronic flash of short duration. This new evidence was used to improve the parameters of the model of Gonçalves et al. (2000) [1]. The experimental conditions used were: throat gas velocities between 59 and 74m/s, jet velocities between 3.18 and 19.10m/s and liquid injected into the throat through different orifices.


A 1-D dynamic simulation model of a new cooling system for the upcoming Gripen E aircraft has been developed in the Modelica-based tool Dymola in order to examine the cooling performance. These types of low-dimensioned simulation models, which generally are described by ordinary differential equations or differential-algebraic equations, are often used to describe entire fluid systems. These equations are easier to solve than partial differential equations, which are used in 2-D and 3-D simulation models. Some approximations and assumptions of the physical system have to be made when developing this type of 1-D dynamic simulation model. The impact from these approximations and assumptions can be examined with an uncertainty analysis in order to increase the understanding of the simulation results. Most uncertainty analysis methods are not practically feasible when analyzing large 1-D dynamic simulation models with many uncertainties, implying the importance to simplify these methods in order to make them practically feasible. This study was aimed at finding a method that is easy to realize with low computational expense and engineering workload.The evaluated simulation model consists of several sub-models that are linked together. These sub-models run much faster when simulated as standalone models, compared to running the total simulation model as a whole. It has been found that this feature of the sub-models can be utilized in an interval-based uncertainty analysis where the uncertainty parameter settings that give the minimum and maximum simulation model response can be derived. The number of simulations needed of the total simulation model, in order to perform an uncertainty analysis, is thereby significantly reduced.The interval-based method has been found to be enough for most simulations since the control software in the simulation model controls the liquid cooling temperature to a specific reference value. The control system might be able to keep this reference value, even for the worst case uncertainty combinations, implying no need to further analyze these simulations with a more refined uncertainty propagation, such as a probabilistic propagation approach, where different uncertainty combinations are examined.While the interval-based uncertainty analysis method lacks probability information it can still increase the understanding of the simulation results. It is also computationally inexpensive and does not rely on an accurate and time-consuming characterization of the probability distribution of the uncertainties.Uncertainties from all sub-models in the evaluated simulation model have not been included in the uncertainty analysis made in this thesis. These neglected sub-model uncertainties can be included using the interval-based method, as a future work. Also, a method for combining the interval-based method with aleatory uncertainties is proposed in the end of this thesis and can be examined.


As software continues to grow, locating code for maintenance tasks becomes increasingly difficult. Software search tools help developers find source code relevant to their maintenance tasks. One major challenge to successful search tools is locating relevant code when the user's query contains words with multiple meanings or words that occur frequently throughout the program. Traditional search techniques, which treat each word individually, are unable to distinguish relevant and irrelevant methods under these conditions. In this paper, we present a novel search technique that uses information such as the position of the query word and its semantic role to calculate relevance. Our evaluation shows that this approach is more consistently effective than three other state of the art search techniques.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To determine the effectiveness of a multifaceted, culturally sensitive breast cancer education program for African American women in the Arkansas Mississippi River Delta.

DESIGN
Experimental (i.e., posttest only, control group design).

SETTING
African American churches and a county Extension Homemakers Club sponsored through the Arkansas Extension Homemakers council.

SAMPLE
53 African American women. The experimental group included 30 participants who had a mean age of 56 years, and the control group consisted of 23 participants with a mean age of 51 years.

METHODS
After the presentation of a multifaceted, culturally sensitive breast cancer education program, a variety of instruments were administered to participants in the experimental group that measured dependent variables. Subjects in the control group completed the same instruments in the absence of a viable intervention. Data were analyzed using t tests.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Knowledge and beliefs about breast cancer.

FINDINGS
The experimental group's mean scores were significantly higher than the control group's on the Breast Cancer Knowledge Test and the susceptibility scale of the Breast Cancer Screening Belief Scales. The experimental group also scored significantly higher than the control group on the confidence scale of the Breast Cancer Screening Belief Scales.

CONCLUSIONS
The multifaceted, culturally sensitive breast cancer education program appeared to be responsible for the differences in scores between the experimental and control groups.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Culturally sensitive group educational programs aimed at helping African American women in the rural South become more knowledgeable about breast cancer and early detection clearly are needed. Such efforts also must focus on increasing women's confidence in effectively performing regular breast self-examination as well as their understanding of personal risk. Healthcare professionals play a major role in the development and implementation of these programs.


Seismic hazard and risk assessments of spatially distributed infrastructural systems require seismic demand models that capture random but correlated simultaneous seismic effects at multiple sites. This study characterizes spatially correlated ground-motion parameters probabilistically using comprehensive databases of the K-NET and KiK-net strong-motion networks in Japan by developing a ground-motion prediction equation and then investigating the correlation structure of regression residuals from the prediction equation. Analysis results indicate that (1) interevent residuals of ground-motion parameters at different vibration periods are more strongly correlated than intraevent and total residuals with zero separation distance; and (2) intraevent spatial correlation coefficients can be described as a simple exponential decay function that is independent of the way the event-based intraevent standard deviation is calculated, of the earthquake type, and of the vibration period. The developed overall correlation model of spatially correlated ground-motion parameters may be used for seismic hazard and risk assessments in a subduction environment.


The chaotic behavior of permanent magnet synchronous motor is directly related to the parameters of chaotic system. The parameters of permanent magnet synchronous motor chaotic system are frequently unknown. Hence, chaotic control of permanent magnet synchronous motor with unknown parameters is of great significance. In order to make the subject more general and feasible, an adaptive robust backstepping control algorithm is proposed to address the issues of fully unknown parameters estimation and external disturbances inhibition on the basis of associating backstepping control with adaptive control. Firstly, the mathematical model of permanent magnet synchronous motor chaotic system with fully unknown parameters is constructed, and the external disturbances are introduced into the model. Secondly, an adaptive robust backstepping control technology is employed to design controller. In contrast with traditional backstepping control, the proposed controller is more concise in structure and avoids many restricted problems. The stability of the control approach is proved by Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the effectiveness and correctness of the presented algorithm are verified through multiple simulation experiments, and the results show that the proposed scheme enables making permanent magnet synchronous motor operate away from chaotic state rapidly and ensures the tracking errors to converge to a small neighborhood within the origin rapidly under the full parameters uncertainties and external disturbances.


This paper starts by discussing the problem of the increasing inadequacy of traditional education systems and how the use of multimedia on the Internet can overcome it. It presents briefly the research at the Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail on changes in teaching practices given the advancements in this area. The objectives, structure and functioning of the Nomad Teaching Site (Site d'Enseignement Nomade, or SEN) are then discussed. Finally, a vision of the teaching of tomorrow-the school in one's pocket-is presented.


Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), heart period, and motor activity were monitored in preschoolers during a variety of tasks varying in required movement. The data analyses indicate: (1) that when activity increases during tasks, there are synchronous decreases in heart period and RSA; (2) that correlations between changes in RSA and heart period are related to activity only during exercise when there is a major demand for increased metabolic resources; and (3) that the covariation among the variables within each condition is low except during exercise. These findings suggest that the slight increases in motor activity (i.e., hand movements) often required in attention demanding psychophysiological protocols are not related to RSA and heart period responses. However, when tasks necessitate large increases in motor activity (e.g., exercise), the decreases in heart period and RSA are related to the change in motor activity.


There is a global trend of increasing expectations and demands on law to bring about social change. In the two main areas I have researched for the past ten years—the regulation and protection of intellectual property and traditional knowledge in the Pacific Islands (Forsyth and Farran 2015), and overcoming sorcery accusation related violence in Melanesia (Forsyth and Eves 2015)—legal solutions have been at the forefront of debates and proposed actions. Legal solutions are also very much part of proposed approaches to many significant development issues facing the region, such as gender based violence, urbanisation and resource exploitation, leading to an explosion of pieces of legislation in recent years. As an established scholar of Pacific islands legal systems, I have spent over a decade critiquing what I have termed the 'mythscape' surrounding state law in the region, and articulating reasons to look beyond state law in crafting new regulatory responses to development challenges. These reasons include the limited reach of the state, the relative foreignness of the common law system for the populations concerned, and the richness of customary and other non-state legal systems. However, when critiquing the over-reliance on the law as a development tool, it is important not to swing too far in the opposite direction and neglect the role of the state legal system. Today more than ever, state law is seldom unimportant or irrelevant, and often has a range of unexpected effects even in the most geographically remote locations. Rather than either assuming that state law is a silver bullet for development or dismissing it as largely irrelevant, what is instead required is an analytical framework that provide insights into the actual role(s) of state law in the South Pacific today, and its relationship with other legal and normative orders.


This book addresses the tendency to mischaracterise liberalism as a "neoliberal" reform project, arguing that liberal political philosophy is concerned only to sustain the conditions that make individual freedom possible. This is illustrated with reference to the design of pensions. Considered in terms of liberal justice, retirement systems require redistributive transfers to help the poor, measures to ensure that retirees are rewarded on their merits, and provisions that treat everyone with equal dignity and respect. Rather than presenting liberal pensions as a close analogue to neoliberalism, this volume highlights their egalitarian virtues. This book will appeal to scholars of retirement and pensions, social policy, economics and political philosophy.


A clustering method based on multitree genetic programming and an information theoretic fitness is proposed. A probabilistic interpretation is given to the output of trees that does not require a conflict resolution phase. The method can cluster data with irregular shapes, estimate the underlying models of the data for each class and use those models to classify unseen patterns. The proposed scheme is tested on several real and artificial data sets, outperforming k-means algorithm in all of them.


OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Mathematics The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico


This case study article describes the rationale for the development, use, and benefits of a metamodel to provide the underlying data model for Enterprise Architecture (EA) content. The case study uses the "EA3 Framework" (Bernard 2004, 2005) to illustrate these points. Metamodels enable integration among models and other artifacts that constitute most EA content. Integrated EA content enables repeatable and reliable analysis and reporting, mapping content to frameworks or reference models, and transitions among EA tools for upgrades or conversions. The initial publication of the EA3 Framework in did not define a metamodel or prescribe artifact content in detail. Artifact content and examples were added in the second edition of the EA3 Framework in 2005, including 46 artifact types that document the five layers and three thread areas of this framework. Though the relationships between the layers and threads were described in the 2 nd edition of the EA3 Framework, this case study article provides the first detailed meta-model. The proposed EA3 Metamodel that is described in conceptual and diagrammatic form was developed to support the use of the EA3 approach by the author within a federal government agency using a bottom-up approach based on tool capabilities and reporting obligations. The metamodel described in this case study has been implemented using a commercially-available modeling toolset, and required no tool customization.


RGM Proteins Members of the repulsive guidance molecule (RGM) family of proteins can be secreted or reside on the surface of cells where they bind to the cell surface receptor, neogenin. The RGM proteins are named for their role in axon guidance for developing neurons, but their function is also linked to a range of human diseases, including inflammation, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. Bell et al. (p. 77) solved the crystal structures of the external portions of the RGMB protein with portions of neogenin. The structures revealed interactions of dimers of RGMB with neogenin in which ligand binding induced conformational changes that may initiate intracellular signaling from the receptor. RGM proteins contain a site of autocatalytic cleavage that affects secretion of the proteins, and some disease-associated mutations in RGM proteins were clustered at this site. A complex of a guidance molecule and its receptor reveals how signals cross the membrane. Repulsive guidance molecule family members (RGMs) control fundamental and diverse cellular processes, including motility and adhesion, immune cell regulation, and systemic iron metabolism. However, it is not known how RGMs initiate signaling through their common cell-surface receptor, neogenin (NEO1). Here, we present crystal structures of the NEO1 RGM-binding region and its complex with human RGMB (also called dragon). The RGMB structure reveals a previously unknown protein fold and a functionally important autocatalytic cleavage mechanism and provides a framework to explain numerous disease-linked mutations in RGMs. In the complex, two RGMB ectodomains conformationally stabilize the juxtamembrane regions of two NEO1 receptors in a pH-dependent manner. We demonstrate that all RGM-NEO1 complexes share this architecture, which therefore represents the core of multiple signaling pathways.


Abstract: In this article, I will look at the immersive work that I've collaborated on, and attempt to articulate how sound plays into the construction and mechanics of each piece. I want to share the notions that I brought into each process, how they played out and fed into the next project, and the ways that sound supports and becomes integral to immersive, site-specific work. The two pieces that I will refer to most, Podplays and Landline, are locative works set in the city space.


The ability of the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans to interconvert between budded and hyphal growth states, herein termed the budded-to-hyphal transition (BHT), is important for C. albicans development and virulence. The BHT is under the control of multiple cell signaling pathways that respond to external stimuli, including nutrient availability, high temperature, and pH. Previous studies identified 21 small molecules that could inhibit the C. albicans BHT in response to carbon limitation in Spider media. However, the studies herein show that the BHT inhibitors had varying efficacies in other hyphal-inducing media, reflecting their varying abilities to block signaling pathways associated with the different media. Chemical epistasis analyses suggest that most, but not all, of the BHT inhibitors were acting through either the Efg1 or Cph1 signaling pathways. Notably, the BHT inhibitor clozapine, a FDA-approved drug used to treat atypical schizophrenia by inhibiting G-protein-coupled dopamine receptors in the brain, and several of its functional analogs were shown to act at the level of the Gpr1 G-protein-coupled receptor. These studies are the first step in determining the target and mechanism of action of these BHT inhibitors, which may have therapeutic anti-fungal utility in the future.


Analysis was made to determine characteristics required of a balancing-tab system for ailerons in order to reduce aileron stick forces to any desired magnitude. Series of calculations based on section data were made to determine balancing-tab systems of various chord tabs and ailerons that will give, for a particular airplane, zero rate of aileron hinge moment with aileron deflection and yet will produce same maximum rate of roll as a plain unbalanced 15-percent chord aileron of same span. Effects of rolling velocity and of forces in tab link on aileron hinge moments have been included.


It is possible to construct a panel of labour market flows from the first wave of the British Household Panel Study. Using this data, a three-state Markov model of labour market transitions is specified and estimated, using the proportional hazard function approach. The three states considered are unemployment, employment and self-employment. The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate how Markovian models can be used to identify the determinants of labour market flows. The sample used consists of mature males (25-55 years old) as this to a large extent eliminates the problems associated with non-participation. Specification tests reveal that the null hypothesis that an individuals labour market history can be described by a Markov process can not be rejected, and hence the time invariant hazard rates are used to evaluate the steady state proportions.


The contraction of the actomyosin cytoskeleton, which is produced by the sliding of myosin II along actin filaments, drives important cellular activities such as cytokinesis and cell migration. To explain the contraction velocities observed in such physiological processes, we have studied the contraction of intact cytoskeletons of Dictyostelium discoideum cells after removing the plasma membrane using Triton X-100. The technique developed in this work allows for the quantitative measurement of contraction rates of individual cytoskeletons. The relationship of the contraction rates with forces was analyzed using three different myosins with different in vitro sliding velocities. The cytoskeletons containing these myosins were always contractile and the contraction rate was correlated with the sliding velocity of the myosins. However, the values of the contraction rate were two to three orders of magnitude slower than expected from the in vitro sliding velocities of the myosins, presumably due to internal and external resistive forces. The contraction process also depended on actin cross-linking proteins. The lack of α-actinin increased the contraction rate 2-fold and reduced the capacity of the cytoskeleton to retain internal materials, while the lack of filamin resulted in the ATP-dependent disruption of the cytoskeleton. Interestingly, the myosin-dependent contraction rate of intact contractile rings is also reportedly much slower than the in vitro sliding velocity of myosin, and is similar to the contraction rates of cytoskeletons (different by only 2–3 fold), suggesting that the contraction of intact cells and cytoskeletons is limited by common mechanisms.


Two-way is a dominant mode of communication in wireless systems. Departing from the tradition to optimize each transmission direction separately, recent work has demonstrated that, for time-division duplex (TDD) systems, optimizing the schedule of the two transmission directions depending on traffic load and interference condition leads to performance gains. In this letter, a general network of multiple interfering two-way links is studied under the assumption of a balanced load in the two directions for each link. Using the notion of interference spin, we introduce an algebraic framework for the optimization of twoway scheduling, along with an efficient optimization algorithm that is based on the pruning of a properly defined topology graph and dynamic programming. Numerical results demonstrate multi-fold rate gains with respect to baseline solutions, especially for worst-case (5%-ile) rates.


Despite the recent advances in the treatment of ovarian cancer, it remains an area of high unmet medical need. Epithelial ovarian cancer is associated with high levels of mesothelin expression, and therefore, mesothelin is an attractive candidate target for the treatment of this disease. Herein, we investigated the antitumor efficacy of the mesothelin-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) anetumab ravtansine as a novel treatment option for ovarian cancer in monotherapy and in combination with the antitumor agents pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD), carboplatin, copanlisib and bevacizumab. Anetumab ravtansine showed potent antitumor activity as a monotherapy in ovarian cancer models with high mesothelin expression. No activity was seen in mesothelin-negative models. The combination of anetumab ravtansine with PLD showed additive anti-proliferative activity in vitro, which translated into improved therapeutic in vivo efficacy in ovarian cancer cell line- and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models compared to either agents as a monotherapy. The combination of anetumab ravtansine with the PI3Kα/δ inhibitor copanlisib was additive in the OVCAR-3 and OVCAR-8 cell lines in vitro, showing increased apoptosis in response to the combination treatment. In vivo, the combination of anetumab ravtansine with copanlisib resulted in more potent antitumor activity than either of the treatments alone. Likewise, the combination of anetumab ravtansine with carboplatin or bevacizumab showed improved in vivo efficacy in the ST081 and OVCAR-3 models, respectively. All combinations were well-tolerated. Taken together, these data support the development of anetumab ravtansine for ovarian cancer treatment and highlight its suitability for combination therapy with PLD, carboplatin, copanlisib, or bevacizumab.


• Injuries to physicians continue to occur because of the increasing use of x-rays and gamma radiation in modern diagnosis. The danger to nonradiologists is especially great until they learn to practice safety habits and to use available protective equipment. The survey here reported revealed poor safety habits in most nonradiological personnel and resulted in striking improvement. In the past, fluoroscopic reduction of fractures was the commonest cause of injury. Highly malignant forms of carcinoma developed in the skin, but damage to the hematopoietic and reproductive organs has also been serious. New procedures such as cystourethrography, angiography, myelography, and hip-nailing are here analyzed as to the amount of exposure involved, and the methods needed for protection are described.


The emergence of new treatments for bipolar disorder has coincided with a proliferation of published treatment algorithm recommendations and practice guidelines. Several guidelines derive from critical appraisals of current treatment literature and, as such, may serve as a critical reference resource to complement individual clinical judgment. This review describes points of overlap and discordance across currently available treatment guidelines for bipolar disorder and presents common clinical situations in which the consultation of treatment guidelines may provide clinicians with useful information and a rationale for making sequential treatment decisions.


The aim of this paper was to explore, from a computational perspective, the explicit effects of diverse directing groups on the main kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for Pd(OAc)2-catalyzed aromatic C–H activation. As a prototype of undirected C–H activation reactions, palladation of benzene with Pd(OAc)2 has been investigated by using DFT calculations, which has revealed that the final palladated benzene is evidently unstable by ca. 7.1 kcal mol−1 in free-energy with respect to the initial materials, though the proton-transfer barrier is estimated to be merely 21.5 kcal mol−1. Then we performed a series of DFT characterization studies on the directed C–H activation pathway using 16 selected directing group systems. Comparing with the data of benzene and Pd(OAc)2, 7 of the 16 studied systems (Type A) were found to stabilize the final palladacycle yet increase the proton-transfer activation barrier, and the remaining 9 (Type B) could strongly stabilize the final palladacycle but have a minor effect on the proton-transfer activation free-energy barrier, indicating that the mediation of the directing group might not necessarily lower the free-energy barrier of C–H activation. Lastly, the main structure factors, in determining these variations of key energetic parameters, have been discussed in great detail.


Urodele limbs regenerate via a blastema of mesenchymal cells derived from muscle, connective tissue and nerve sheath cells in the vicinity of the amputation surface by a process of histolysis, dedifferentiation and release of stem cells. Blastema cells replicate their DNA, arrest in G2 and accumulate under an apical epidermal cap (AEC). G2 arrest is broken by factor(s) expressed by the AEC that bind to receptors on the blastema cell surface. Expression of these factors is dependent on factor(s) provided by axons reinnervating the AEC. The blastema cells proliferate and are patterned into new limb structures by suites of signalling factors such as retinoic acid, sonic hedgehog and Wnt, in addition to homeobox transcription factors that endow the cells with positional identities expressed as axial gradients on the cell surface. The degree to which the early blastema is determined is controversial, with some evidence arguing for developmental plasticity and other evidence arguing that the blastema is self-organising.

Key Concepts

Urodeles are unique in their ability to form a regeneration blastema in response to amputation.
The cells of the regeneration blastema are derived from resident stem cells and/or by the reprogramming (dedifferentiation) of differentiated cells.
Blastema cells derived from the different limb tissues redifferentiate in a lineage-specific manner, but blastema cells derived from fibroblasts can also transdifferentiate into cartilage and tendon.
The apical epidermal cap (AEC) of the wound epidermis is induced by regenerating nerve axons to produce a mitogen(s) that drives the proliferation of blastema cells.
Patterning of the blastema involves region-specific contributions of limb cells, lineage-specific redifferentiation of blastema cells, interactions between blastema cells of different positions to eliminate discontinuities and sorting out of blastema cells with different cell surface adhesion.
Cell interactions are mediated during axial patterning of the blastema by several signalling molecules and homeobox transcription factors.
How the axial pattern and limb type of the early blastema is determined, whether by induction, self-organisation or both, remains controversial.

Keywords:

blastema origin and formation;
cell cycling;
determination;
patterning;
retinoic acid;
Hox genes


Concerns with petroleum oil supplies and greenhouse gas emissions have stimulated research into new alternative fuels, including natural gas, ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, electricity and hydrogen. Instead of only considering petroleum energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in vehicle operation stages, it is important to analyze the energy use and emissions throughout the whole fuel cycle from well-to-wheels (WTW). In certain cases, energy consumption and/or greenhouse gases can be much larger in the well-to-pump (WTP) stage than in the energy use and emissions produced to propel the vehicle. This paper reviews these fuels, the fuel production pathways and their applications in vehicles. An analysis based on software simulations was performed on each fuel to calculate the total energy use and emissions throughout the entire energy cycle. Results were compared to a conventional gasoline engine vehicle and showed the potential advantages and disadvantages of each alternative fuel.


According to current knowledge on collagen fibril-logenesis, collagen fibrils are formed by a cooperative process involving lateral fusion of small protofibrils. Almost all the experimental research, however, was carried out on tendon collagen, whose fibrils are characterized by approximately straight subfibrils. By contrast, in most tissues the collagen fibril sub-units follow a helical course in which geometrical constraints prevent lateral fusions, thereby implying a different mechanism where collagen fibrils grow by addition of individual microfibrils rather than by lateral fusion of pre-assembled subfibrils. The proc-ess at the origin of these fibrils may provide a simple, automatic explanation for the remarkable uniformity in fibrils size observed in most tissues without re-quiring the intervention of unknown mechanisms of diameter control. Other mechanisms of growth con-trol remain indispensable to terminate the fibril-logenesis process in tendons and ligaments.


We examine the negotiations held under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change in Paris, December 2015. Prior to these negotiations, there was considerable uncertainty about whether an agreement would be reached, particularly given that the world's leaders failed to do so in the 2009 negotiations held in Copenhagen. Amid this uncertainty, we applied three different methods to predict the outcomes: an expert survey and two negotiation simulation models, namely the Exchange Model and the Predictioneer's Game. After the event, these predictions were assessed against the coded texts that were agreed in Paris. The evidence suggests that combining experts' predictions to reach a collective expert prediction makes for significantly more accurate predictions than individual experts' predictions. The differences in the performance between the two different negotiation simulation models were not statistically significant.


The effect of an isoenergetic replacement of dietary fat by starch, on chyme characteristics and water fluxes in the gastro intestinal tract (GIT) was assessed. Adult African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) were fed a starch (SD) or fat (FD) diet and groups of fish were dissected at 2, 5 and 8 h after the consumption of a single meal. Chyme was collected quantitatively and was analysed for osmolality and dry matter (DM) content. Postprandial water fluxes were calculated, while using yttrium oxide (Y2O3) as an inert marker to account for the absorption of DM along the GIT. The largest differences in chyme characteristics between diets were observed in the stomach and decreased towards subsequent compartments. A high initial osmotic pressure was measured in the stomach for both diets (up to 498±2 mOsm kg−1) and was likely the driver for the endogeneous water influx to this compartment. Large additions of water were recorded to the stomach and proximal intestine for both diets and absorption of water took place in the mid- and distal intestine. Interestingly, the dietary treatment had an impact on water balance in the stomach and proximal intestine of the fish, but not in the mid- and distal intestine. A strong complementary relationship suggested that 59% of the water fluxes in the proximal intestine could be explained by previous additions to the stomach. Therefore, a higher dietary inclusion of starch led to a shift in water additions from the proximal intestine to the stomach. However, the sum of water additions to the GIT was not different between diets and was on average 6.52±0.85 ml water g−1 DM. The interactions between osmoregulation and digestion, in the GIT of fed freshwater fish, deserve further attention in future research.


Let $\mathcal S$ be a multiset of integers. We say $\mathcal S$ is a $\textit{zero-sum sequence}$ if the sum of its elements is 0. We study zero-sum sequences whose elements lie in the interval $[-k,k]$ such that no subsequence of length $t$ is also zero-sum. Given these restrictions, Augspurger, Minter, Shoukry, Sissokho, Voss show that there are arbitrarily long $t$-avoiding, $k$-bounded zero-sum sequences unless $t$ is divisible by $\mathrm{LCM}(2,3,4,\dots,2k-1)$. We confirm a conjecture of these authors that for $k$ and $t$ such that this divisibility condition holds, every zero-sum sequence of length at least $t+k^2-k$ contains a zero-sum subsequence of length $t$, and that this is the minimal length for which this property holds.


Fundamental data for the establishment of a new clinical testing procedure for patients suffering from equilibrium disorders were developed. A mathematical model that predicts vestibulo-ocular reflex responses (eye velocities) to three-dimensional head movements was investigated. An experimental set-up permitting the simultaneous recording of the head and eye movements was developed to investigate the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) during everyday activities. The test results show that computer simulation of the VOR occurring during complex movements is indeed possible. The model was able to predict the trend of the experimentally determined eye velocities. It was ascertained that for the further development of the model, the influence of the cervico-ocular reflex (COR) on the resulting eye velocities also has to be taken into account. The proposed method for investigating patients with equilibrium disorders appears suitable enough to make further development to the clinical stage worthwhile. An adaptation of the feedback amplification parameters of the model to take account of the nature of the stimulus and the influence of COR is needed to improve the agreement between the amplitudes of measured and predicted eye velocities. To reliably quantify the feedback amplification parameters, tests need to be carried out in a large number of subjects.


The interaction between atmosphere, sea ice and ocean is goverened by the near-surface fluxes of energy and momentum which depend on the atmospheric transfer coefficients. Over the polar oceans the latter are strongly influenced by sea ice morphology parameters like sea ice concentration, length of floes and melt ponds, ice freeboard and by the atmospheric stability. We apply a parameterization of drag coefficients distinguishing skin drag and form drag by floe and melt pond edges to satellite observed sea ice distributions and discuss first the distribution of neutral drag coefficients over the Antarctic and Arctic Ocean. Due to this parameterization the effective form drag coefficients in a model's grid cell depend on the stratification over sea ice and over open water with stability functions weighted with the respective ice and water fraction. Considered stability functions are those used in typical climate and weather prediction models (like ECHAM, ECMWF model) written as a function of the bulk Richardson number (Rib) following the Louis approach. We include here also a new Louis type formulation reproducing stability functions that have been derived on the basis of data from the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) campaign over the Beaufort Sea. It is shown that form drag reacts very sensitive on the used stability function. Differences between results for various stability functions are especially large for strongly stable conditions. Then the effect of stability on the drag coefficients and form drag alone is larger than the geographic variability. It is also shown that during summer with only weak stratification, the stability impact should not be neglected as well.


Macro-scale ductility is not an intrinsic material property but is dependent on the overall geometry of the specimen. To account for variety in specimen geometries, multiple ductility scaling laws have been developed which scale ductility between different specimen sizes. Traditionally, these ductility laws rely on testing multiple different specimens of varying sizes to obtain material parameters, often done by varying gauge lengths. With the use of Digital Image Correlation (DIC), this work presents a technique where multiple different gauge lengths are extracted from a single specimen to obtain ductility scaling parameters from a single experiment. This technique provides orders of magnitude more data from each specimen than previous techniques. This variable extensometer method is then validated by testing multiple different geometries and select scaling laws are then compared.


Modifying the steam plant condenser by incorporating a vapor compression refrigeration system, which is utilized to chill the water used for cooling the condenser air cooler, is proposed in this work. Hence a considerable drop in air temperature is obtained, and more steam associated with air is condensed resulting in reducing both steam lost and vacuum pump power. A thermodynamic analysis is developed for working out the performance of the proposed hybrid system. The results obtained using this analysis showed that for a condensate subcooling of 3°C the total work saving due to this modification has maximums of 38.5, 33.9 and 28.9% and occur at temperature reduction below the condensate temperature of 12, 10, and 8°C when the temperature of steam admitted to the condenser is 20, 30, and 40°C, respectively. The savings in steam lost through the vacuum pump in these cases amount to 87.7, 84, and 79.2%, respectively. It is recommended to select the decrease in condenser air temperature in the range of 4°C higher than those decreases, at which the minimum total work comes about, as the saving in steam lost becomes fairly greater (5 – 7%), while the maximum increase in minimum total work is 3%.