Purpose - For agricultural bankers, agribusiness managers, and salespeople, understanding customers and their preferences and behaviors is crucial to success. The two goals of this paper are first to identify today's distinct market segments for financial products for US crop and livestock commercial producers, and second to predict segment membership based on observable characteristics. Design/methodology/approach - Cluster analysis was used to identify four distinct buyer segments for the purchase of financial products and services by US crop and livestock commercial producers. A multinomial logit model was used to predict segment membership based on demographic, behavioral, and business management factors. Findings - Although, traditionally, the financial services industry has segmented the market for commercial producers based primarily on sales/size categories; this research shows that this factor is not a significant predictor of behavior. Instead, this paper proposes a segmentation based on buying behaviors and identify four distinct market segments for financial products and services for US crop and livestock commercial producers: balance, price, convenience, and service. The balance segment being by far the largest segment. Research limitations/implications - Although the sample size means is representative of the US ag population, it may or may not be representative of the customers of a regional lender. Readers who are lenders are therefore advised to apply this methodology to their customer database and use the results of the paper as a quality check or benchmarking exercise. The findings also raise a number of issues, which require further research, such as how to implement a targeted marketing plan when there is one dominant segment and two other distinct segments. Practical implications - Lenders need to reconsider their market segmentation methodology. Originality/value - While there has been some research on market segments for retail financial markets, apparently there has been no work on market segments for agricultural financial products. This study exploits a unique dataset of 2,575 responses to Purdue's Large Commercial Producer Survey and the 2008 survey is the first time the survey included a series of detailed questions on how producers choose a financial service provider. This paper's findings will benefit agricultural bankers and agribusinesses that offer financing to their customers.


A variety of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) have already been experimentally used, in an effort to promote wound healing. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of short duration PEMF on secondary healing of full thickness skin wounds in a rat model. Full thickness skin wounds, 2 by 2 cm, were surgically inflicted in two groups of male Wistar rats, 24 animals each. In the first group (experimental group ‐ EG), the animals were placed and immobilized in a special constructed cage. Then the animals were exposed to a short duration PEMF for 20 min daily. In the second group (control group ‐ CG), the animals were also placed and immobilized in the same cage for the same time, but not exposed to PEMF. On days 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 22, following the infliction of skin wounds, the size and healing progress of each wound were recorded and evaluated by means of planimetry and histological examination. According to our findings with the planimetry, there was a statistically significant acceleration of the healing rate for the first 9 days in EG, whereas a qualitative improvement of healing progress was identified by histological examination at all time points, compared to the control group. Bioelectromagnetics 28:362–368, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


ABSTRACT In 1932, Frank Adair Jr. achieved his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) status as the sixth African American CPA in the US and only the second in the Deep South. Although his active professional career was brief (5 years), it typifies not only the difficulty experienced by an African American achieving this designation in the Jim Crow South, but also the factors that were necessary for such an achievement to occur in that time period. First, Adair Jr. practiced in a dynamic and vibrant segregated business community. Second, he was educated at a black college. An African American who wanted to stay in the Deep South would have had no other option. Third, he benefitted from a strong professional mentoring relationship that enabled him to forge his career path. Inadvertently, Adair Jr. was omitted from the 1990 NABA report of the first one hundred African American CPAs. This historical note seeks to correct that omission.


In Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)-transformed baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, invadopodia can self-organize into rings and belts, similarly to podosome distribution during osteoclast differentiation. The composition of individual invadopodia is spatiotemporally regulated and depends on invadopodia localization along the ring section: the actin core assembly precedes the recruitment of surrounding integrins and integrin-linked proteins, whereas the loss of the actin core was a prerequisite to invadopodia disassembly. We have shown that invadopodia ring expansion is controlled by paxillin phosphorylations on tyrosine 31 and 118, which allows invadopodia disassembly. In BHK-RSV cells, ectopic expression of the paxillin mutant Y31F-Y118F induces a delay in invadopodia disassembly and impairs their self-organization. A similar mechanism is unraveled in osteoclasts by using paxillin knockdown. Lack of paxillin phosphorylation, calpain or extracellular signal-regulated kinase inhibition, resulted in similar phenotype, suggesting that these proteins belong to the same regulatory pathways. Indeed, we have shown that paxillin phosphorylation promotes Erk activation that in turn activates calpain. Finally, we observed that invadopodia/podosomes ring expansion is required for efficient extracellular matrix degradation both in BHK-RSV cells and primary osteoclasts, and for transmigration through a cell monolayer.


As one of the most promising technologies to realize 3D Integrated Circuits (3D-ICs), Through-Silicon-Via (TSV) acts as the inter-layer link inside 3D Networks-on-Chip. However, the reliability issues due to the low yield rates and the sensitivity to thermal hotspots and stress issues are preventing TSV-based 3D-ICs from being widely and efficiently used. To ensure the correctness of TSV connections at run-time, detecting multiple (clustering) defects is an important feature. While Error Correction Codes are limited by a certain number of detectable faults, using Built-In-Self-Test (BIST) prevents the system from operating normally during the test time. This paper first presents a Parity Product Code (PPC) with the ability to correct one fault and detect, at least, two faults. Second, we present extended PPC (EPPC) to detect multiple defects within the links of Networks-on-Chip by using two or more additional matrices. Furthermore, we present the distance-aware version of EPPC to detect multiple defects by using only one extra matrix. The results show that the distance-aware EPPC can detect 100% of clustering defects and multiple random defects within two and three cycles, respectively. The performance evaluation for Network-on-Chip testing also shows no degradation while providing an extremely short response time (2-3 cycles).


: In contrast to self-assembled aggregates of conventional ionic (including polymeric) surfactants the equilibrium micelles of diblock copolymer with a pH-sensitive polyelectrolyte block can exhibit two inverse sequences of morphological transitions triggered by an increase in solution salinity. The direct sequence of the sphere-cylinder-lamella transitions is similar to that for the copolymer with a strongly dissociating ionic block and occurs at a high salt concentration in solution. The abnormal reversed sequence of the lamella-cylinder-sphere transitions is predicted to occur at relatively low ionic strength in solution. The origin of the reentrant transitions is coupling between aggregation and ionization in copolymer micelles.


PURPOSE
A new nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE)-mediated saturation transfer signal at around -1.6 ppm, termed NOE(-1.6), has been reported at high fields of 7T and 9.4T previously. This study aims to validate the presence of this signal at a relatively low field of 4.7T and evaluate its variations in different brain regions and tumors.

METHODS
Rats were injected with monocrystalline iron oxide nanoparticles to reduce the NOE(-1.6) signal. CEST signals were measured using different saturation powers before and after injection to assess the presence of this signal. Multiple-pool Lorentzian fits, with/without inclusion of the NOE(-1.6) pool, were performed on CEST Z-spectra obtained from healthy rat brains and rats with 9L tumors. These fits aimed to further validate the presence of the NOE(-1.6) signal and quantify its amplitude.

RESULTS
The NOE(-1.6) signal exhibited a dramatic change following the injection of monocrystalline iron oxide nanoparticles, confirming its presence at 4.7T. The NOE(-1.6) signal reached its peak at a saturation power of ∼0.75 μT, indicating an optimized power level. The multiple-pool Lorentzian fit without the NOE(-1.6) pool showed higher residuals around -1.6 ppm compared to the fit with this pool, further supporting the presence of this signal. The NOE(-1.6) signal did not exhibit significant variation in the corpus callosum and caudate putamen regions, but it showed a significant decrease in tumors, which aligns with previous findings at 9.4T.

CONCLUSION
This study successfully demonstrated the presence of the NOE(-1.6) signal at 4.7T, which provides valuable insights into its potential applications at lower field strengths.


The bipolar flagella of the foodborne bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni confer motility, which is essential for virulence. The flagella of C. jejuni are post-translationally modified, but how this process is controlled is not well understood. In this work, we have identified a novel PAS-domain containing regulatory system, which modulates flagella-flagella interactions in C. jejuni. Inactivation of the cj1387c gene, encoding a YheO-like PAS6 domain linked to a helix-turn-helix domain, resulted in the generation of a tightly associated "cell-train" morphotype, where up to four cells were connected by their flagella. The morphotype was fully motile, resistant to vortexing, accompanied by increased autoagglutination, and was not observed in aflagellated cells. The Δcj1387c mutant displayed increased expression of the adjacent Cj1388 protein, which comprises of a single endoribonuclease L-PSP domain. Comparative genomics showed that cj1387c (yheO) orthologs in bacterial genomes are commonly linked to an adjacent cj1388 ortholog, with some bacteria, including C. jejuni, containing another cj1388-like gene (cj0327). Inactivation of the cj1388 and cj0327 genes resulted in decreased autoagglutination in Tween-20-supplemented media. The Δcj1388 and Δcj0327 mutants were also attenuated in a Galleria larvae-based infection model. Finally, substituting the sole cysteine in Cj1388 for serine prevented Cj1388 dimerization in non-reducing conditions, and resulted in decreased autoagglutination in the presence of Tween-20. We hypothesize that Cj1388 and Cj0327 modulate post-translational modification of the flagella through yet unidentified mechanisms, and propose naming Cj1387 the Campylobacter Flagella Interaction Regulator CfiR, and the Cj1388 and Cj0327 protein as CfiP and CfiQ, respectively.


Melatonin (MLT), a ubiquitously distributed small molecule, functions in plant responses to various biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the interactions between melatonin and other important molecules in Haematococcus pluvialis response stresses are largely unknown. In the present study, exogenous melatonin improved H. pluvialis resistance to nitrogen starvation and high light. We concluded that exogenous melatonin treatment prevented the reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst and limited cell damage induced by abiotic stress through activation of antioxidant enzymes and antioxidants. Astaxanthin, a major antioxidant in H. pluvialis cells, exhibited a 2.25-fold increase in content after treatment with melatonin. The maximal astaxanthin content was 32.4 mg g-1. The functional roles of the nitric oxide (NO)-mediated mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling pathway induced by melatonin were also evaluated. The results clearly indicate that cAMP signaling pathways are positively associated with microalgal astaxanthin biosynthesis. Additionally, the NO-dependent MAPK signaling cascade is activated in response to astaxanthin accumulation induced by melatonin, confirming that MAPK is a target of NO action in physiological processes. This work is the first to use H. pluvialis as in vivo model and documents the influence of melatonin on the physiological response to abiotic stress in this microalgae.


Development of cloud computing and mobile wireless technologies has given rise to mobile cloud computing (MCC). The limitations of battery capacity and computing capability of mobile devices can be alleviated by offloading some tasks from mobile devices to the cloud. In this paper, we focus on the computation offloading problem in mobile cloud computing. In particular, for a given set of computational components which constitute a mobile application, we attempt to decide which components should be offloaded to the cloud such that the application can be completed at the minimal execution cost. We formulate the mobile computation offloading problem as an optimization problem. Then we propose two optimal offloading algorithms to solve the problem. The efficiency of the proposed algorithms is evaluated using numerical experiments.


Background Cubital tunnel syndrome is a well-recognized clinical condition and is the second most common peripheral compression neuropathy. This study was designed to investigate the causes of cubital tunnel syndrome by surgical means and to assess the clinical value of the neurophysiological diagnosis of cubital tunnel syndrome. Methods Twenty-one patients (involving a total of 22 limbs from 16 men and 5 women, aged 22 to 63, with a mean age of 49 years) with clinical symptoms and signs indicating a problem with their ulnar nerve underwent motor conduction velocity examinations at different sites along the ulnar nerve and examinations of sensory conduction velocity in the hand, before undergoing anterior transposition of the ulnar nerve.Results Electromyographic abnormalities were seen in 21 of 22 limbs [motor nerve conduction velocity (MCV) range (15.9-47.5) m/s, mean 32.7 m/s] who underwent motor conduction velocity examinations across the elbow segment of the ulnar nerve. Reduced velocity was observed in 13 of 22 limbs [MCV (15.7-59.6) m/s, mean 40.4 m/s] undergoing MCV tests in the forearms. An absent or abnormal sensory nerve action potential following stimulation was detected in the little finger of 14 of 22 limbs. The factors responsible for ulnar compression based on observations made during surgery were as follows: 15 cases involved compression by arcuate ligaments, muscle tendons, or bone hyperplasia; 2 involved fibrous adhesion; 3 involved compression by the venous plexus or a concurrent thick vein; 2 involved compression by cysts. Conclusions Factors inducing cubital tunnel syndrome include both common factors that have been reported and rare factors, involving the venous plexus, thick veins, and cysts. Tests of motor conduction velocity at different sites along the ulnar nerve should be helpful in diagnosis cubital tunnel syndrome, especially MCV tests indicating decreased velocity across the elbow segment of the ulnar nerve.


Topographical cues patterned on surfaces activate specific cell morphologies, functions and behaviours. This leads to patterned surfaces emerging as in vitro platforms to study cell behaviour and in vivo devices for tissue regeneration. Yet the current practice in the field merely screens pre-made topography libraries to obtain biological hits, providing little to no biological intuition in design and severely limiting diversity of topographies. This thesis presents an alternative methodology to topography design that exploits morphological and functional responses of cells.
First, we established the relationship between nanopit topography structure, cell form and function. An image-based profile of focal adhesions, actin and chromatin were measured from single cells to create a morphological profile of cells termed the 'morphome'. Using the morphome as predictors, 6 musculoskeletal cell types (accuracy of 98-99%) were classified using logistic regression. Meanwhile, nanopit diameter and disorder from a perfect square grid were accurately predicted (mean absolute error of 2-10%) from the morphome using linear regression. The morphome clearly reflected functional response to topography by robustly predicting (mean absolute error of 10-21%) expression levels of 14 musculoskeletal genes across 24 combinations of cell type and topography using linear regression.
Next, we utilized the topography structure and cell function information encoded in the morphome to demonstrate functionally-guided topography design. A Bayesian optimisation algorithm attained maximum osteogenic gene expression and the corresponding optimum morphome, from which pit topography characteristics were predicted. Pits with hexagonal geometry, 255 nm diameter and 183 nm disorder or square geometry, 398 nm diameter and 399 nm disorder were therefore predicted to maximize osteogenic gene expression. Compared to a random approach (average of 43), topography design through optimizing cell function also reduced the number of experiments (average of 27) needed to achieve the optimum topography.
Finally, we studied the mechanism through which the morphome linked topography structure and cell function. Mechanosensing and functional cell regimes were altered by a library of disordered nanopits. Nanopits with disorder of 20, 50 and 120 nm induced strong osteogenic response that correlated with formation of actin stress fibers, and assembly of large adhesions with longer lifetimes and localization of tension-related components. Cells on nanotopographies with disorder of 0 and 80 nm manifested lamellipodial protrusions containing small adhesions with high turnover, precluding the development of tension required for osteogenesis. Our results implicate intracellular tension generation as a key biological process reflected in the morphome.
The work presented here furthers a rational approach to topography design using the structural and biological information encoded in the morphome. The morphome enables broader and more efficient design of biologically valuable topographies compared to the prevailing trial and error method.


Background and aims: Depression is an affective (mood) disorder accompanied by the sense of disappointment, incompetence, sense of transgression, fear and sense of humility. Depression is the daily depressed-mood for two weeks. The aim of this study is analysis of the prevalence and effective factors on post-natal depression in women referring to Garmsar city health centers in 2015. Methods: This study is a descriptive and periodical study. The statistical population in this research includes the women who went to Garmsar city health centers during the second and third quarters in 2015, two months after their labor. The method of collecting data in this study was by census, and the data-collecting tool was Edinburg standard questionnaire for post-natal depression diagnosis. After collecting and re-controlling, the data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software package. Descriptive statistics (average and standard deviation) were used for describing the data. The analytical statistical tests (chi square and independent t-test) were used for the data analysis. Results: The findings showed that 40 out of 110 mothers were depressed (score of over 12), and the prevalence of post-natal depression mothers referred to Garmsar health centers was about 36%. The results indicated that there were no significant statistical relations between mother's age, education, number of labor, types of childbirth, children's sex, unwanted pregnancies, the history of sterility, and post-natal depression. Conclusion: Due to unpleasant effects of depression on the living qualities of mothers' and the embryos' and eventually the families, and due to its extensive prevalence in the city of Garmsar, precise identification of effective factors in emergence of this disorder seems to be essential. By awareness from its risk factors, some of the inevitable factors could be reduced or even confronted, and the relevant consequences can be reduced by timely and proper interventions.


SiGe heterojunction structure much improves the performance of PnP HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor), which focus on the impact of Ge component distribution in the base on the current gain and characteristic frequency . The triangular distribution in the base, including zero-doping and non-zero-doping at the starting point, will form a Ge-gradient acceleration filed for the minority carriers in the base to reduce the base transport time and increase current density and working frequency. Extend Ge to the collector region to eliminate the effect of the valence band spike barrier at the collector junction, further improving the performance of the pnp HBT. By the simulations and optimizations in this paper, the and of pnp SiGe HBT improves evidently, and the results can be referenced in the design of SiGe devices and circuits.


AbstractThe Norwegian Police University College is required to regularly evaluate and ensure the quality of the education in order to maintain its accreditation as an institution of higher education. A central aspect of this quality control is to make sure that the education is relevant for the field of practice and the policing profession. The Police University College has therefore on three occasions since 2006 sent out a survey to police officers three years after graduation and asked them to evaluate the relevance of the education in general, and more specifically to evaluate their own qualifications in different areas of competence. A similar questionnaire was sent to the supervisors of the post-graduates to get a broader comparative perspective.
The overarching aim of this article is to find out to what degree newly educated police officers and their leaders perceive the police education to provide a sufficient preparation for the police profession. To shed light on this question we will present and analyse data from the "quality surveys" mentioned above, but mainly from the 2015 survey. Overall, the findings presented in the article suggest thatboth the newly educated police officers and their leaders generally perceive the education to provide a sufficient preparation for the police profession. However, the leaders tend to give a better score than the newly educated police officers both overall and on specific qualification. Moreover, when looking into specific areas of competences we find that both groups tend to give the lowest scores on physical and operational qualifications such as use of firearms. A discussion of possible causes and implications of the findings is included in the article.


page 1 of 4 Importance Equine viral arteritis (EVA) is an economically important viral disease of equids. Stallions can become long term carriers of the virus, and transmit it during breeding. Although carrier stallions can be bred if precautions are taken, the need to mate them with seropositive or vaccinated mares decreases their desirability as breeders. Acute illness also occurs in some horses. Although deaths are very rare in healthy adults, pregnant mares that become infected may abort, and very young foals may die of fulminating pneumonia and enteritis. Equine viral arteritis has recently increased in prevalence, possibly due to increased transportation of horses and semen.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Several combined spinal-epidural (CSE) anesthesia techniques have been described. This study was designed to compare the single space ("needle-through-needle") technique (SST) and the double distant space technique (DDS) with regards to the time needed for the procedure, patient discomfort during the procedure and patient's preference technique.

METHODS
This prospective, randomized single-blind study included 156 patients undergoing colorectal surgery under general anesthesia and CSE. All neuraxial blocks were performed before general anesthesia induction. DDS group of patients had thoracic epidural catheter placed at T6-7 or T7-8, followed by subarachnoid injection at the L2-3 interspace. The SST group of patients had a single injection using the needle-through-needle technique (Espocan needle) at L2-3. The epidural catheter was used for postoperative analgesia for 72 hours. Body habitus, spinal anatomy and spinal landmarks were assessed preoperatively. The number of epidural and spinal punctures, the feeling that the dura is perforated (dural perforation click) and the time needed to perform CSE were also recorded. Complications during epidural catheter placement and perioperative and postoperative epidural catheter function and patient preference for the anesthetic procedure were recorded.

RESULTS
Epidural and subarachnoid spaces were successfully identified in all the patients. Duration of CSE procedure, the number of spinal punctures, dural click feeling and the effects of test dose did not differ between the groups. The patients in both groups (90% of DDS and 87% of SST) would choose CSE as preferred method in the future. The CSE procedure was painful for 16% of DDS vs 20% of SST patients. A significant correlation between time needed for CSE technique performance and body habitus (r = 0.338, p < 0.01), spinal landmarks (r = 0.452, p < 0.001) and anatomy (r = 0.265, p < 0.05) was found in the SST group. There was no correlation between the number of epidural/spinal punctures and epidural bacteriological findings. There was no correlation between the patients' choice of the CSE technique and the number of spinal punctures, duration of CSE procedure and epidural catheter stay.

CONCLUSION
The two CSE techniques did not differ with regards to the procedure time and patient's preference. Procedure time correlated with body habitus, spinal landmarks and the anatomy in the SST group.


Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecologic malignacy in the United States. In 2010, 43,470 cases were newly diagnosed with 7,950 deaths reported. Certain subtypes of EC are responsible for a disproprtionate number of deaths each year. Specifically, high-grade Type I, papillary serous (PS), and clear cell (CC) tumors account for 60% of all deaths, despite accounting for only 20% of new cases. The molecular mechanisms related to poor survival in these subtypes are unknown. The tumor microenvironment refers to the complex milieu of supporting cells, i.e. stromal cells, which co-exist with the primary tumor. Broad classes of stromal cells including inflammatory cells, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts, support the growth and dissemination of the primary tumor through their interactions with cancer cells. The primary goal of this research was to determine the prognostic roles of two stromal-related pathways [CXCL12 and CXCR4; hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), c-Met, and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)] in a sample of EC cases (N=216) treated at Magee-Womens Hospital. Paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were retrieved from the Pathology Department at Magee-Womens Hospital and protein expression was measured using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Chi-square tests, Kaplan-Meier plots, log-rank tests, and Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the relationship between tumor and stromal protein expression, clinicopathologic factors, overall survival (OS), and recurrence-free survival (RFS). In the first microenvironmental pathway, positive CXCL12 expression was significantly associated with better OS (hazard ratio, HR: 0.17 95% CI 0.05, 0.59) and RFS (HR: 0.10 95% CI 0.02, 0.57) in high-grade Type I cases. In the second pathway of interest, better OS was detected in HGF positive, stromal bFGF positive patients compared to HGF positive, stromal bFGF negative patients (HR: 0.14, 95% CI 0.03, 0.60). Additionally, worse RFS was observed in HGF positive, tumor bFGF positive patients compared to patients with negative expression of both markers (HR: 9.88, 95% CI 2.63, 37.16). This study provides evidence that tumor microenvironmental proteins can serve as independent prognostic biomarkers in EC. The public health implications include a better understanding of the biology of EC and potential targets for molecularly-targeted treatments in EC.


The study was initiated with the aims to determine the variation in growth and yield of winter wheat varieties to pendimethalin at different application rates and to identify the wheat varieties tolerant or susceptible to pendimethalin. A two-year study was conducted on sandy clay loam textured soil containing low organic matter content during the dry season having no or very little amount of rainfall. Eight wheat varieties (BARI Gom 21 to 28) were tested against pendimethalin 33EC applied at its label rate (3 L ha−1), double (6 L ha−1) and three times of the label rate (9 L ha−1). Emergence of all wheat varieties was not adversely affected by pendimethalin even applied at three times higher than the label rate; however, plant heights of BARI Gom 23 and BARI Gom 25 were slightly decreased with increasing application rate. Label rate application of pendimethalin did not decrease the yields of all wheat varieties compared to the control, but BARI Gom 21, BARI Gom 22, BARI Gom 24, BARI Gom 26 and BARI Gom 27 gave their best yields at three times higher of the label rate application. Therefore, the study marked out BARI Gom 21, BARI Gom 22, BARI Gom 24, BARI Gom 26 and BARI Gom 27 as the pendimethalin-tolerant wheat varieties under strip planting system. Additionally, the study confirmed that all the wheat varieties were tolerant to label rate application of pendimethalin; however, BARI Gom 23, BARI Gom 25 and BARI Gom 28 were susceptible to the higher rate of pendimethalin.


2 Abstract: Vegetables grown at environmentally contaminated sites in Sahre Rey could take up and accumulate metals at concentrations that are probably toxic to human health. This study was conducted to analyze the metal contents of some vegetables in Sahre Rey-Iran with emphasis on their toxicological implications. Recently matured leaf and fruit samples of Shahre rey vegetable farms were sampled and analyzed to determine heavy metals. Data showed that metal uptake differences by the vegetables are attributed to plant differences in tolerance to heavy metals and vegetable species. The lead concentration in all vegetable samples was more than maximum permitted concentrations, while Cd pollution was observed in radish, Cress, Dill, spinach and eggplant. Data showed that Zn concentration in Celery, Mint, Dill, Spinach and Green pepper were more than Zn permitted level. There was no evidence about Cu contamination in vegetables. Data also showed that the intake of most of the metals constitutes less than the TMDI (theoretical maximum daily intake) at present and hence health risk is minimal. But with increase in vegetable consumption by the community the situation could worsen in the future. Treatment of industrial effluents and phyto-extraction of excess metals from polluted environments could reduce health risk.


Various physical and chemical processes may be envisioned which will cause anomalous pressures on an underground fluid. In order to consider the maintenance of anomalous pressure, it is necessary to consider the problem as one of nonsteady fluid flow. The time rate of pressure change and maintenance depends upon the hydrodynamics of flow through porous media and the particular boundary conditions. This paper presents a series of general solutions to hydrodynamic models which are germane to the problem of creating and maintaining excess-fluid pressures in a thick sedimentary sequence.

The creation and maintenance of fluid pressures approaching lithostatic pressure through a process of continuous sedimentation was evaluated. Our results indicate that a sedimentation rate of 500 m/106 yr (reasonable for the Gulf Coast) will create fluid pressures approaching lithostatic in a sedimentary column that has a hydraulic conductivity of 10−8 cm sec−1, or lower.

It is apparent that the creation of anomalous pressure and its maintenance depends, to a large degree, upon the hydraulic conductivity and, to a lesser extent, upon the specific storage of clay layers within the system.


South Asia as a region has several commonalities. Several countries, including India — the emerging giant from the region — Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, share a common history as erstwhile colonies of the British and gaining independence at around the same time. Indeed, they could be said to share a common culture too. Postindependence, they undertook broadly comparable development strategies with an emphasis on central planning and industrialization. With such strategies not yielding the desired results, somewhere around the beginning of the 1980s, a course correction in their policies came into play, with most of these economies gradually opening up and liberalizing. Having travelled along the path of economic reforms for an effective two decades now (albeit separately), South Asia, on the whole, has grown by nearly 6 per cent per annum on average over this period. Despite such growth rates, which appear to be impressive by all means, the region disturbingly still remains home to the world's "largest concentration of poor people with nearly 500 million people living on less than $1.25 a day" (World Bank, 2011). While concerted and coordinated efforts are being taken at all levels — national, regional and international — to address the growing polarization in these countries (which appears to have become an endemic problem in all countries embracing "neoliberal" economic growth prescriptions), a group of social activists and scholars from South Asia have been trying to develop an "alternative paradigm" (over the last two decades) that challenges the existing set of "mainstream development" strategies and the set of assumptions it operates on. Their ideas seem to emanate from their conviction that "top-down approaches" to economic development that have been (and are being) practised have "failed" to "trickle down" and ensure "distributive equity", which forces one to look beyond conventional growth models to address and eradicate poverty. The South Asian Perspectives Network Association (SAPNA), established in 1984, has been in the forefront of this "alternative paradigm", with the network having come out with eight back-to-back studies that lay out the policy options to achieve economic growth and equity. The most recent compilation of the case studies coming out of this network is Economic Democracy through Pro-poor Growth. Through a series of illustrative case studies drawn from the field across five different countries in South Asia, this book offers a refreshing alternative perspective of economic development that seeks to convince the reader of the feasibility of a world that one would commonly disregard as utopian. The concept of "pro-poor growth" has gained increasing attention since the 1990s, when there were concerns over the growing trade-offs between growth and equity. Though there is no consensus yet among academics or practitioners as to what the exact definition of "pro-poor growth" is (or should be), there seems to be a greater convergence among them on the broad contours of such an idea. To be sure, the central focus in this literature has been on generating growth that provides and expands the "opportunities and capabilities" of the poor which would in turn enable them to "participate" and benefit from productive economic activities (Saad-Filho 2002; Ravallion 2004; Ludy 2008; Wiggins and Higgins 2008). The most influential theoretical premise that comes to mind is Amartya Sen's Capabilities


Nonpigmented and late-pigmenting rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) are increasingly isolated in clin- ical microbiology laboratories. Their accurate identification remains problematic because classification is labor intensive work and because new taxa are not often incorporated into classification databases. Also, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis underestimates RGM diversity and does not distinguish between all taxa. We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the rpoB gene, which encodes the bacterial (cid:1) subunit of the RNA polymerase, for 20 RGM type strains. After using in-house software which analyzes and graphically represents variability stretches of 60 bp along the nucleotide sequence, our analysis focused on a 723-bp variable region exhibiting 83.9 to 97% interspecies similarity and 0 to 1.7% intraspecific divergence. Primer pair Myco-F–Myco-R was designed as a tool for both PCR amplification and sequencing of this region for molecular identification of RGM. This tool was used for identification of 63 RGM clinical isolates previously identified at the species level on the basis of phenotypic characteristics and by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Of 63 clinical isolates, 59 (94%) exhibited <2% partial rpoB gene sequence divergence from 1 of 20 species under study and were regarded as correctly identified at the species level. Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium mucogenicum isolates were clearly distinguished from Mycobacterium chelonae ; Mycobacterium mageritense isolates were clearly distinguished from " Mycobacterium houstonense ." Four isolates were not identified at the species level because they exhibited >3% partial rpoB gene sequence divergence from the corresponding type strain; they belonged to three taxa related to M. mucogenicum , Mycobacterium smegmatis , and Mycobacterium porcinum . For M. abscessus and M. mucogenicum , this partial sequence yielded a high genetic heterogeneity within the clinical isolates. We conclude that molecular identification by analysis of the 723-bp rpoB sequence is a rapid and accurate tool for identification of RGM.


Abstract This article analyses how concerns about youth and violence intersect with the politics of managing religious coexistence in the coastal Kenyan town of Malindi. During extensive ethnographic research, I noticed that Muslim, Christian and 'Traditionalist' leaders, politicians and NGO officials often fear that the 'idleness' of young people leaves them susceptible to various immoralities, including political violence and 'violent extremism', that threaten peaceful ethnic and religious coexistence. The article explores how these concerns motivate leaders' attempts to incorporate youth in development and peace projects, and how youth respond to these interventions. These projects are funded by Western donors, who often see 'radical' religiosity, especially among Muslim youth, as a security threat. Yet, leaders in Malindi accommodate donor policies to the (coastal) Kenyan context, and tend to understand immoralities and violence as resulting from a lack of religiosity among youth. The article argues that perceptions of 'idle youth' as potentially violent threats to peaceful religious coexistence and morality allow leaders to develop a 'moral religiosity' that is shared across religious divides. However, the ways in which youth strategically resist or comply with interventions to pacify them demonstrate that they do not necessarily agree with dominant moral and political constellations.


Tonotopic organization of the ventrorostral (VR) zone of cortical acoustic area AII was studied in acute nembutal-anaesthetized cats. Majority (92%) of VR zone neurons were able to respond selectively to the tones of specific frequencies. 54% of neurons had sharp tuning to one best frequency (BF), while 38% had several (2-3) BFs; 8% of the studied neurons had no BF. Certain correlation has been determined between localization of a unit in the VR zone and value of its BF. Neurons with the highest BFs were located in the caudal part of this zone. A successive decrease of BFs of units occurred in parallel with a shift along the VR zone rostrally from the high-frequency focus. Length of the VR projection zone of the AII was found to be 1.8-2.0 mm. Localization of this zone with respect to cortical sulci varied substantially in different animals.


Ceramic matrix composites (CMC) are very attractive materials for structural applications at high temperatures. Not only must CMC be damage tolerant, but they must also allow thermal management. For this purpose heat transfers must be controlled even in the presence of damage. Damage consists in multiple cracks that form in the matrix and ultimately in the fibers, when the stresses exceed the proportional limit. Therefore the thermal conductivity dependence on applied load is a factor of primary importance for the design of CMC components. This original approach combines a model of matrix cracking with a model of heat transfer through an elementary cracked volume element containing matrix crack and an interfacial crack. It was applied to 1D composites subject to tensile ant thermal loading parallel to fiber direction in a previous paper. The present paper compares predictions to experimental results.


Targeted lipid nanobubbles as theranostic ultrasound molecular probes with both targeted contrast-enhanced ultrasound molecular imaging and synergistic treatment capabilities are expected to overcome severe challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of refractory triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In this study, AS1411 aptamer-functionalised nucleolin-targeted doxorubicin-loaded lipid nanobubbles (AS1411-DOX-NBs) were constructed, and their physicochemical properties as well as anti-tumour and cardioprotective efficacies were systematically tested and evaluated. The results showed that AS1411-DOX-NBs can carry and maintain the physicochemical and pharmacodynamic properties of doxorubicin (DOX) and show stronger tumour cell-killing ability in vitro by increasing the active uptake of drugs. AS1411-DOX-NBs also significantly inhibited the growth of TNBC xenografts while maintaining the weight and health of the mice. Echocardiography and pathological examination further confirmed that AS1411-DOX-NBs effectively caused tumour tissue apoptosis and necrosis while reducing DOX-induced cardiotoxicity. The AS1411-DOX-NBs constructed in this study enable both targeted contrast-enhanced ultrasound molecular imaging and synergistic therapeutic efficacy and can be used as safe and efficient theranostic ultrasound molecular probes for the diagnosis and treatment of TNBC.


Function as a Service (FaaS) is gaining admiration because of its way of deploying the computations to serverless backends in the different clouds. It transfers the complexity of provisioning and allocating the necessary resources for an application to the cloud providers. The cloud providers also give an illusion of always availability of resources to the users. Among the cloud providers, AWS serverless platform offers a new paradigm for developing cloud applications without worrying about the underlying hardware infrastructure. It manages not only the resource provisioning and scaling of an application but also provides an opportunity to reimagine the cloud infrastructure as more secure, reliable, and cost-effective. Due to the lack of standardized benchmarks, serverless functions must rely on ad-hoc solutions to build cost-efficient and scalable applications. However, with the development of the SeBS framework, we can test, evaluate and do performance analysis of different cloud providers. Various researches have been conducted to differentiate the serverless platforms among the cloud providers. However, there is no research conducted so far within the AWS Lambda service in ARM64 architecture and between its different CPU architectures (x86 and ARM64). Thus in this thesis, we have analyzed the perf-cost, latency, and cold startup overhead for both x86 and ARM64 architecture. We have conducted a meticulous evaluation of the perf-cost analysis in different sections. Our results show that increasing the code size and complexity directly affects the perf-cost metrics in both x86 and ARM64 architecture. However, at each invocation, either cold or warm startup, ARM64 is performing better than x86. Furthermore, our work showed the behavior of cold and warm startups at each architecture for any specific workload. xi Taking the viewpoint of a serverless user, we also conduct experiments to show the effect of complexity on memory usage at both x86 and ARM64 architecture. We found that each architecture consumes nearly the same amount of memory for any particular workload regardless of invocation methods -cold and warm. In addition, we observed that cold invocation and ARM architecture would be efficient configurations for any specific workload regarding memory usage. Our analysis also shows that the input size directly impacts perf-cost metrics. Regarding the latency, ARM64 needs less time than ARM64 irrespective of invocation methods. However, if we look closer, a warm startup's latency is less than a cold one. Therefore, the most efficient configuration for any specific workload would be a warm invocation and ARM architecture. Similarly, in the case of cold startup overhead, our results illustrate that for any specific workload, ARM64 has lower execution and provider time overhead than x86. However, these overheads decrease with the increment of complexity due to high memory consumption at higher complex workloads. Therefore, we can say that our work and results provide a fair and transparent baseline for the comparative evaluation of each AWS architecture. Overall, this thesis has provided us with a great learning opportunity in serverless computing assessment.


We present a general method for determining the capacity of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes under message-passing decoding when used over any binary-input memoryless channel with discrete or continuous output alphabets. Transmitting at rates below this capacity, a randomly chosen element of the given ensemble will achieve an arbitrarily small target probability of error with a probability that approaches one exponentially fast in the length of the code. (By concatenating with an appropriate outer code one can achieve a probability of error that approaches zero exponentially fast in the length of the code with arbitrarily small loss in rate.) Conversely, transmitting at rates above this capacity the probability of error is bounded away from zero by a strictly positive constant which is independent of the length of the code and of the number of iterations performed. Our results are based on the observation that the concentration of the performance of the decoder around its average performance, as observed by Luby et al. in the case of a binary-symmetric channel and a binary message-passing algorithm, is a general phenomenon. For the particularly important case of belief-propagation decoders, we provide an effective algorithm to determine the corresponding capacity to any desired degree of accuracy. The ideas presented in this paper are broadly applicable and extensions of the general method to low-density parity-check codes over larger alphabets, turbo codes, and other concatenated coding schemes are outlined.


Retinoids have been reported to inhibit the growth of several breast cancer cell lines in culture and to reduce breast tumor growth in animal models. Furthermore, retinoic acid (RA) can augment the action of other breast cancer cell growth inhibitors both in vitro and in vivo. Clinically, interest has increased in the potential use of retinoids for the prevention and treatment of human breast cancer. The regulation of cell growth and differentiation of normal, premalignant, and malignant cells by retinoids is mediated by the RA receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptor. One of the target genes of retinoid receptors is RARbeta2. A growing body of evidence supports the hypotheses that the RARbeta2 gene is a tumor suppressor gene and the chemopreventive effects of retinoids are due to induction of RARbeta2. RARbeta2 expression is reduced in many malignant tumors including breast carcinoma. This paper will briefly discuss basic aspects of retinoids and retinoid acid receptor. In particular, we review what is now known for inactivation mechanism of RARbeta2 and its role in tumor cell growth inhibition.


Background and aims Meningitis in the first 3 months of life is associated with significant mortality and morbidity. Previous UK studies were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. It is important to define the current burden of disease in order to prioritise treatment and prevention strategies. Methods Cases were identified prospectively by active surveillance through the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit, routine microbiological surveillance through the Health Protection Agency and via parents of cases through meningitis and Group B streptococcus (GBS) support charities. The surveillance period was July 2010 – July 2011. Results 365 cases were identified, equivalent to a total incidence of 0.38/1000 live-births (95% CI: 0.35- 0.42); for late-onset (n = 252) was 0·27 per 1000 (0·23—0·30), and for early-onset (n = 113) was 0·12 per 1000 (0·10—0·14). The male to female ratio was 1.3:1. The median age of disease (IQR) was 14 days (3–36). The majority of cases (62%) were admitted from home. Lumbar puncture was performed in 319/329 (97%) of the cases. The timing of LP was available in 307 (96%) and was before the first dose of antibiotics in only 110/306 (36%) of the cases. Of the 304 organisms isolated 151 (50%) were Group B Streptococcus (GBS), 40 (13%) E coli, 28 (9%) Streptococcus pneumoniae (SPn), 24 (8%) Meningococcus, 11 (4%) Listeria monocytogenes, 24 (8%) other Gram positive bacteria and 24 (8%) other Gram negative bacilli. Overall, blood culture was negative in 134/329 (41%) of cases of meningitis. At the time of reporting or discharge 25 babies had died [CFR 7.6, 95% CI: 5.0–11.0). Spn-specific CFR (19%) was significantly higher than GBS-Specific CRF (5%). An acute complication was identified in 78/304 (26%) of the survivors. Conclusion There remains a significant burden of bacterial meningitis in the first 3 months of life. The leading causes remain unchanged for the past three decades. Further work should be done on the prevention and early management of cases


Chalcostibite copper antimony sulfide (CuSbS2) is a promising candidate for application in solar cells. The functionality of CuSbS2 particles depends on particle size and morphology and controlling these two parameters during synthesis is of utmost importance. In this study, CuSbS2 particles were prepared by a facile heat-up synthesis method utilizing sulfur powder (Su) and thiourea (Tu) to investigate the effect of the sulfur source on the structural and physical properties of CuSbS2 particles. Different morphologies were observed when Su and Tu were employed. The results demonstrated that the shape uniformity can be improved by applying a coordinating sulfur precursor (Tu). Moreover, nanoplatelet- and nanobrick-shaped particles were obtained by changing the ligand chemistry, i.e., by using a different combination of oleylamine (OLA), 1-octadecene (ODE), and oleic acid (OL). Band gap calculations showed that CuSbS2 had direct and indirect bandgaps with a small difference of 0.2 eV. Composition analysis of samples obtained from the Tu precursor revealed that antimony contents varied resulting in differences of the lattice parameter c. Moreover, valence band (VB) and conduction band (CB) positions determined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) suggested that this material based on its composition can have dual applications: first, as an absorber in nanocrystalline solar cells and second, as a hole transport material in perovskite solar cells.


This paper argues that the approaches to global environmental change engendered by conventional environmental discourse have undermined the radical connotations of the Anthropocene. Taking direction from Clark's (2013, Geoengineering and geologic politics. Environment and Planning A 45(12): 2825–2832; 2014, Geo-politics and the disaster of the Anthropocene. The Sociological Review 62: 19–37) concept of geological politics, this paper attempts to rescue the discourses surrounding geoengineering and Transition Towns from dated environmental understandings. By demonstrating how our understanding of a human being-in-the-world can change in the Anthropocene, this paper argues that an experimental and material form of politics needs to shape the agenda of social scientists. Using this experimental perspective, this paper offers the creative example of how Transition Towns may become concordant with local geoengineering practices. Using this example to highlight how environmental discourse in the Anthropocene needs to encompass cross-societal formation with the more-than-human elements of our planet, this paper argues for material experimentation that concerns community participation and socio-technical innovation.


The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of Arabic as first language Web-Based Teaching (AL1WBT) on female Jordanian basic school students' reading comprehension achievement and motivation.This study
applied a quasi-experimental design which was the non-equivalent design.The study sample consisted of 104 ninth grade students from Rouguih Bint Alrasool basic school was randomly selected from 85 government schools.The
instruments employed werethe demographics questionnaire, the Arabic reading comprehension achievement tests and the Instructional Materials Motivation Scale (IMMS). Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to analyzethe collected data. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to compare the students' overall reading comprehensions achievement based on the post-test and delayed post-test scores in the aspects of interpretive reading,critical reading and creative reading between AL1WBT and Experience Method (EM) groups while statistically controlled the pre-test effect. Paired sample t-test was conducted to compare the effect of AL1WBT and EM on the overall reading comprehension achievement of the students based on the pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test scores Independent samples t-test was used to compare
the student's overall motivation based on the post-test scores in the aspects of attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction between AL1WBT and EM groups.
This study found that the use of AL1WBT helped students performed significantly better in reading comprehension achievement in the aspects of interpretive reading, critical reading and creative reading. However, the effect of AL1WBT was found to decrease in delayed post-test after seven weeks. Finally, the study found that students using AL1WBT were significantly motivated in the aspects of attention, relevance, confidence and relevance than students using EM.


This study examined the local cow milk products marketing in Nigeria, using Kwara as a case study. Specifically, the study appraised socio-economic characteristics of local cow milk products marketers, the marketing profile and identified problems limiting marketing activities for local cow milk products. For the study 75 respondents were surveyed across the study area while data gathered were analysed using marketing margin and marketing efficiency analyses. Results show that only women were marketers of local cow milk products. The marketing chain for the commodity is simple and crude. It starts from the raw cow milk processors through retailers to the consumer. Local cow milk products include cheese: fried and raw, 'nono' (sour-milk), 'mai sanu'(local butter) and 'ori-amo'. However these products were poorly packaged. Estimated average marketing margin was i90.6 per kg of processed milk while the estimated marketing efficiency is 115.5%. Most respondents sourced their marketing funds solely from their meager personal savings. Problems militating against the local milk products marketing were lack of efficient storage facilities and the seasonal supply/availability of cow milk. Considering the study findings, there is the need for stake-holders in the milk market to work out necessary improvements in the quality of local cow milk products. Researches and relevant efforts aimed at increasing cow milk yields in the study area should be stepped up so as to facilitate raw milk availability. Better processing equipment for the local milk processing activities should also be researched into. There is also the need to provide credit facilities to local cow milk processors and traders alike as this will go a long way to supplement marketer's personal savings. Key words: retailers, consumers, marketing margin, marketing efficiency, personal savings


A rainfall rate algorithm has been developed for the Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI) onboard the GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK-2A), the second Korea's geostationary satellite, scheduled to be launched in early 2018. The AMI rainfall rate algorithm uses the a-priori information including the microwave rainfall data from the low-earth orbiting satellites and infrared (IR) brightness temperatures from geostationary satellites. The algorithm may better perform with a variety of a-priori information describing all possible precipitating systems. In addition, separation of physically different precipitating systems likely to improve the accuracy of retrieval process. However, it has been well known that such the separation can be hardly achieved based on the measurements of cloud top temperatures. This algorithm tries to utilize the radiative characteristics observed differently for different wavelengths in IR spectral regions. The characteristics include the different emissivity as a function of wavelength and cloud thickness. Using the brightness temperature differences (BTDs) between IR channels the algorithm discriminates three types of precipitating clouds: shallow, not-shallow-tall and not-shallow-taller types. The separation of three types of precipitating clouds may help the accuracy of rainfall estimates for each type of clouds. In addition to the separation of cloud types in the databases, the algorithm also uses databases classified by latitudinal bands. The bands are separated with four latitudinal zones. The separation of database based on latitudes may have an effect of distinguishing the cloud types that can occur regionally. The a-priori databases are thus classified with 12 different categories. Once the a-priori databases are constructed, the algorithm inverts the AMI IR brightness temperatures to the surface rainfall rate based on a Bayesian approach. The Bayesian approach has advantages on using multi-channel brightness temperatures simultaneously and utilizing the probability of rainfall reserved in the a-priori databases. As a proxy for the AMI this algorithm first tests the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) data. Retrieval results and the status and plan of the algorithm development will be introduced.


Part of the attenuation of the incoming solar radiation by the atmosphere is caused by ozone absorption in the UV and visible portions of the spectrum. Ozone absorption typically accounts for only 2-3 % of the global solar radiation depletion, but it is often 10-20 % of the absorption of the direct component. Thus, broadband solar radiation models require atmospheric ozone content as input in order to correctly calculate the direct component. Van Heuklon in 1979 described the general spatial and temporal characteristics of the ozone column in the atmosphere with an empirical mathematical relationship that can be easily incorporated into solar radiation transmission models (codes). The model requires only the day of the year, the latitude and longitude of the location of interest in order to calculate the total ozone column for that place and time, based upon observed climatological averages. In this study, the validity of van Heuklon's formula for the atmospheric ozone content estimation is tested against satellite measurements for a number of cities in Europe. A new model based on the van Heuklon formula is fitted, with promising results.


Objective: Neck and shoulder pain (NSP) is the most common symptom in Japanese women. NSP is often accompanied by unpleasant symptoms. The objective of this study is to elucidate the pathophysiology of NSP in relation to specific mental and physical states in postpartum women.
Methods: Data was collected by questionnaire, It consisted of the subject's characteristics, details of NSP and degree disturbance of daily life due to NSP (level 0 (none) to 10). Evaluation of psychological stress was using the Profile of Mood States - Brief Japanese version (POMS-B). Moreover, we examined measurement of muscle hardness, blood flow, autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and angles of breastfeeding posture. Participants were 62 postpartum women from one month to six months after delivery.
Results: The worsening of NSP after birth was associated with psychological distress by POMS-B. ANS activity was compared with "less than 25% of the quartile" and "more than 75% of the quartile" of POMS-B score, using t-test. High-Frequency (HF) tended to be lower in "more than 75%" than in "less than 25%" score for Fatigue. The mean score of "disturbance of daily life due to NSP" in postpartum women with NSP was 4.7±2.3. The surface skin temperatures in "disturbance of daily life due to NSP ≧ 4.7" were significantly lower than those in "< 4.7". LF/ HF ratio in "≧ 4.7" was significantly higher than that in "< 4.7". Breastfeeding posture angles showed significant differences in head angle between "worse after birth" and "no-change/relief after birth".
Conclusions: The results suggested that psychological stress in postpartum women might be related to worsening of NSP through the modification of ANS activity and worsening of NSP after birth was associated with breastfeeding posture.


A Nd:YAG laser is employed to ablate different materials useful in the bio-medical field. The laser source operates in the IR (1064 nm), VIS (532 nm) and UV (355 nm) regions with a pulse duration of 3-9 ns, a pulse energy of 3-300 mJ, a spot size of 1 mm2 and a repetition rate of 1- 30 Hz. Target material of interest are Titanium, Carbon, Hydroxyapatite (HA) and Polyethylene (PE). Laser irradiation occurs in vacuum, where hot plasma is generated, and thin films are deposited on near substrates. Generally, substrates of silicon, titanium, titanium-alloys and polymers were employed. Biocompatible thin films are investigated with different surface techniques, such as IR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, XRD analysis and SEM investigations. Depending of the kind of possible application, films require special properties concerning the grain size, porosity, uniformity, wetting, hardness, adhesion, crystallinity and composition. The obtained results will be presented and discussed with particular regard to HA..


This chapter attempts to explore protective role of chaperone proteins in the neurodegenerative diseases caused by amyloidosis. These chaperones prevent amyloid pathology either directly, through chemical interactions with amyloidogenic species to mediate their refolding, solubilization and degradation, or indirectly, by scavenging reactive oxygen species produced as by-products of amyloid aggregation. Here we focus on structural and morphological changes during aggregation of amyloids which have been identified using Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, Electron microscopy, Atomic force microscopy and other biophysical techniques as well as interactions between chaperone proteins and amyloid moieties. Non-proteolytic chaperones mediate amyloid clearance and metabolism through conformational changes due to proximity binding. In this chapter, we delineate these interactions as well as the molecular mechanism of chaperones used to sequester ROS products of amyloidosis with focus on amyloid- β peptides associated with the Alzheimer's disease.


Mutation testing is becoming increasingly widely used to evaluate the quality of test suites, especially to test programs coded in widely used programming languages in the industry. Mutation tools have arisen to automate the technique in different languages, including C++. With the increasing use of this technique, new mutation operators modeling possible faults often emerge to improve its abilities and adapt the tools to new advanced features. In this work, mutation operators for the new C++ standards, defined in previous work, are implemented and applied to generate and execute mutants in real programs. With this study, the MuCPP mutation tool is updated with the inclusion of these new operators. In addition, the improvements suggested in the definition of those operators can be finally tested, and conclusions about their utility in practice can be drawn. The implemented operators are checked on a set of four C++ programs that use these advanced features. The results show significant differences with the previous manual analysis: the number of invalid mutants was reduced by 64%, and we found fewer alive mutants (88%) and an increase in dead mutants (31%). In summary, both the number of mutants incorrectly classified in the previous manual analysis and the number of mutants generated (particularly equivalent mutants) have been reduced.


Due to the ubiquity of time series with long-range correlation in many areas of science and engineering, analysis and modeling of such data is an important problem. While the field seems to be mature, three major issues have not been satisfactorily resolved. (i) Many methods have been proposed to assess long-range correlation in time series. Under what circumstances do they yield consistent results? (ii) The mathematical theory of long-range correlation concerns the behavior of the correlation of the time series for very large times. A measured time series is finite, however. How can we relate the fractal scaling break at a specific time scale to important parameters of the data? (iii) An important technique in assessing long-range correlation in a time series is to construct a random walk process from the data, under the assumption that the data are like a stationary noise process. Due to the difficulty in determining whether a time series is stationary or not, however, one cannot be 100% sure whether the data should be treated as a noise or a random walk process. Is there any penalty if the data are interpreted as a noise process while in fact they are a random walk process, and vice versa? In this paper, we seek to gain important insights into these issues by examining three model systems, the autoregressive process of order 1, on-off intermittency, and Lévy motions, and considering an important engineering problem, target detection within sea-clutter radar returns. We also provide a few rules of thumb to safeguard against misinterpretations of long-range correlation in a time series, and discuss relevance of this study to pattern recognition.


As commercially-available flight simulators are tailored mostly for commercial airlines, there is currently a lack of low-cost, type-specific, high-fidelity aircraft simulators for introductory flight training. A project was undertaken by the Carleton University Applied Dynamics Laboratory to assess the feasibility of developing a viable economical alternative to the currently-available small aircraft flight training devices, thereby providing a supplementary means of training that could be available to small flight schools. Following completion of the prototype, an assessment of the simulator determined that despite a few deficiencies that could be circumvented, development of a low-cost, type-specific, high-fidelity aircraft simulator for ab-initio flight training is feasible.


Nowadays Internet is the fulcrum of our world, and the World Wide Web is the key to access it. We develop relationships on social networks and entrust sensitive documents to online services. Desktop applications are being replaced by fully-fledged web-applications that can be accessed from any devices. This is possible thanks to new web technologies that are being introduced at a very fast pace. However, these advances come at a price. Today, the web is the principal means used by cyber-criminals to perform attacks against people and organizations. In a context where information is extremely dynamic and volatile, the fight against cyber-crime is becoming more and more difficult. This work is divided in two main parts, both aimed at fueling research against cybercrimes. The first part is more focused on a forensic perspective and exposes serious limitations of current investigation approaches when dealing with modern digital information. In particular, it shows how it is possible to leverage common Internet services in order to forge digital evidence, which can be exploited by a cyber-criminal to claim an alibi. Hereinafter, a novel technique to track cyber-criminal activities on the Internet is proposed, aimed at the acquisition and analysis of information from highly dynamic services such as online social networks. The second part is more concerned about the investigation of criminal activities on the web. Aiming at raising awareness for upcoming threats, novel techniques for the obfuscation of web-based attacks are presented. These attacks leverage the same cuttingedge technology used nowadays to build pleasant and fully-featured web applications. Finally, a comprehensive study of today's top menaces on the web, namely exploit kits, is presented. The result of this study has been the design of new techniques and tools that can be employed by modern honeyclients to better identify and analyze these menaces in the wild.


Summary
A study of the clinical and pathological course of experimental myotropic Chagas' disease in the mouse is reported. Forty-nine C3H mice, 3 to 5 weeks of age, were inoculated with a Colombian strain of Trypanosoma cruzi. Observations of body weight, spontaneous activity, parasite counts and histopathology were made up to 388 days following inoculation.
The disease was characterized by a benign parasitemic stage, followed by a chronic progressive myocarditis and myositis. During the first 2 months after the inoculation, infected animals could not be differentiated in appearance and body weight from control animals. Parasitemia reached a maximum at the end of the first month and subsided at the end of the second month. Gross pathologic examination during this stage of the infection showed consistent splenomegaly. The mean heart weight of infected animals did not differ significantly from that of the controls. Microscopic study revealed moderate infiltration of cardiac and skeletal muscle and occasional intracellular T. cruzi.
In the third month, the infected animals began to show ruffled fur, spotty alopecia, and progressive weight loss. In time, the infected animals appeared more ill, and deaths occurred. Spontaneous activity, measured from the fifth through the eighth month of infection, was consistently and progressively lower in the infected animals than in the controls. Gross pathologic examination in these later stages of the disease frequently revealed muscle wasting and cardiac enlargement. Between the sixth and the thirteenth month mean heart weight in relation to body weight in infected animals was significantly greater than in control animals. Microscopic study revealed continued and increasing involvement of cardiac muscle. Intracellular organisms were irregularly present in cardiac muscle to day 388.


--------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT-------------------------------------------------------Image scaling is a very important technique and has been widely used in many image processing applications. In this paper, we present an edge-oriented area-pixel scaling processor. To achieve the goal of low cost, the area-pixel scaling technique is implemented with a low-complexity VLSI architecture in our design. A simple edge catching technique is adopted to preserve the image edge features effectively so as to achieve better image quality. Compared with the previous low-complexity techniques, our method performs better in terms of both quantitative evaluation and visual quality. The seven-stage VLSI architecture of our image scaling processor contains 10.4-K gate counts and yield a processing rate of about 200 MHz by using TSMC 0.18m technology. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 01,May ,2013 Date of Publication: 5.June,2013 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Abstract Purpose: Less than half of the patients with stroke in Australian hospitals are assessed by rehabilitation specialists. We sought to explore how clinicians working in acute stroke units (ASUs) determine which patients to refer to rehabilitation services. Method: Qualitative descriptive study. Team meetings were observed and medical records were reviewed over four weeks at two ASUs. Focus groups were conducted with staff from eight ASUs in two states of Australia. Results: Rehabilitation was mentioned in team meetings for 50/64 patients (78%) during the observation period. Rehabilitation referrals were organised for 47 patients (94%) for whom rehabilitation was discussed (74% of the sample); and for no patients when rehabilitation was not discussed. Factors identified that influenced whether referrals were organised included the anticipated discharge destination; severity of stroke; staff expectations of the patient's recovery; and if there was advocacy by families about rehabilitation. Clinicians tended to refer the patients they considered would be accepted by the rehabilitation service. Staff at two ASUs expressed concern that referring all patients with stroke-related deficits to rehabilitation would be unfavourable with rehabilitation providers. Conclusions: Decisions made by ASU staff regarding who to refer to stroke rehabilitation are often not solely based on patients' rehabilitation requirements. Implications for Rehabilitation Not all patients on acute stroke units (ASUs) who may have benefited from rehabilitation were offered rehabilitation referrals. Criteria for rehabilitation referrals need to be made explicit and discussed openly with consumers, ASU clinicians and rehabilitation specialists. A change in rehabilitation assessment practices is required to provide data regarding the unmet rehabilitation needs of patients with stroke. New models of rehabilitation service delivery or increased rehabilitation services may be required to meet the rehabilitation needs of all patients with stroke.


We sought to determine the incidence, prevalence, and life expectancy of Aicardi syndrome from 408 cases compiled from multiple international sources. Last known age ranged from less than 1 month to 42 years. The incidence rates per live births for the United States and The Netherlands were 1 per 105 000 and 1 per 93 000, respectively. The prevalence in the United States is greater than 853 cases, and the worldwide estimate is several thousand. Forty-five cases were deceased (age range, 1 month to 33 years), and the risk of death peaked at age 16. The probability of survival at 27 years of age was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.47-0.77). The risk of death by age follows other congenital neurological disorders with a wide range in severity of functional disability. The longer life expectancy found in our study hints at a higher functioning capacity in Aicardi syndrome and may inform counseling to families.


This study was conducted to determine helminth infections in tench (Tinca tinca), caught in Kapulukaya dam lake. The tench were transferred to the laboratory alive or recently dead. Thereafter, they were necropsied. Postmortem examination of the fish revealed that 84% were positive for various helminth species. Asymphylodora tincae (97.6%), Pomphorhynchus laevis (26.1%), metacercariae (15.4%), plerocercoids of Ligula sp. (5.9%) and nematode larvae (2.2%) were detected in infected fish. A. tincae was found in the intestine, P. laevis was found both in the intestine and in the abdominal cavity, plerocercoids of Ligula sp. were found only in the abdominal cavity, while nematode larvae and metacercariae were found on the skin and gills.


The purpose of this study was to define cell-wall components of Staphylococcus epidermidis responsible for activation of human polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNL). Metabolic activation of PMNL was determined by chemiluminescence (CL). Purified peptidoglycan (PG) induced a concentration-dependent metabolic burst in PMNL. The minimal concentration needed for CL induction was 1 microgram/ml. Comparison between different S. epidermidis strains showed variation in the capacity to induce CL in PMNL. Purified PG induced a higher CL response in PMNL than its intact parent strain; this effect was found in all S. epidermidis strains. Lipoteichoic acid (LTA), PG stem peptide and muramyldipeptide (MDP) did not induce CL; teichoic acid induced a CL response only at very high concentrations. No differences in CL inducing capacity were found between PG, crude cell walls, and purified cell walls of S. epidermidis. Sonication of PG strongly diminished CL-inducing capacity. PG treatment with mutanolysin immediately resulted in decreased CL-inducing capacity. Treatment of PG with S. aureus lytic enzyme (SALE) 10 micrograms/ml for up to 15 min enhanced the CL response to PMNL; a similar increase in CL was induced by PG treated with SALE at 1 microgram/ml for up to 120 min. Beyond these times, a continuous decrease in PG-induced CL was observed. In conclusion, PG was found to be the major cell-wall component of S. epidermidis involved in CL induction. Moreover, a minimal fragment size or a specific tertiary structure of PG, or both, is required for metabolic activation of PMNL.


ABSTRACT Despite compelling evidence supporting the contribution of Tree Intercropping Systems (TIS) to farmers' livelihoods, little research has addressed farmers' knowledge of TIS in the ecologically deteriorated zones of Uzbekistan, Central Asia. Similarly, farmers' understanding of the motivation for practicing TIS is poorly known. A survey conducted with 133 households during 2003–2005 showed that the surveyed farmers managed 17 different tree-crop simultaneous systems with 97% of all sites including fruit species. The annual components were commercially the more important and were given the highest priority—with cereals (47%), vegetables (27%), fodder (19%) and cash crops (7%). Irrespective of tree species and plantation age, the most frequently observed tree density was 200–500 trees ha−1, although subject to large variations. The dominance of younger trees <10 years (41%) was evidence of the recent interest in TIS and was obviously linked to recent land reforms and change in land ownership. The knowledge of TIS management among those surveyed was rather superficial. Training and educating of farmers and gardeners would help to achieve the potential benefits of TIS. The interaction between agroforestry, environmental research and farmers' practices must be improved given the growing interest and significance of TIS for the rural population, and the government must increase private landowners' participation in farm management and decision-making.


This study investigates the presence of delayed PTSD symptoms after a period of twenty months in individuals who had an exposure to a traumatic event and to distinguish them from individuals who had no direct exposure but were affected indirectly. A purposive sample of fifty one individuals comprising Group 1 (Female N=30) and Group 2 (Male N=21) examined in this study. Two standardised psychological tests known as Clinician- Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and PTSD Checklist – Civilian Version (PCL-C) were used for this purpose. Our results indicated a significant difference (P<.001) between Group 1 and Group 2 and distinguished Group 1 (Individuals with direct exposure to trauma) from Group 2 (Individuals with indirect exposure to trauma) on the basis of PTSD symptomatology. This suggests the presence of delayed PTSD symptoms in individuals who were exposed to a traumatic event than the individuals with no direct exposure to a traumatic event after a long period of a recovery phase. Our results were found consistent with the previous studies and add the findings of this study to the scientific literature in


Consistent biclusterings of training sets can be exploited for solving classification problems in data mining. This technique has been mainly applied so far to solve classification problems related to gene expression data. However, it can be successfully applied to problems arising in other domains, and it is also able to provide information on the features causing the classification of the training set. We provide a quick overview of this technique, and we present a study on a particular problem arising in the agricultural field. We consider the problem of predicting problematic fermentations of wine at early stages of the vinification. The presented computational experiments show that the considered technique is able to provide some clues on the possible features causing the problematic fermentations.


The solution conformation of a fully sulfated heparin-derived tetrasaccharide, I, was studied in the presence of a 4-fold excess of Ca2+. Proton–proton and proton–carbon residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) were measured in a neutral aligning medium. The order parameters of two rigid hexosamine rings of I were determined separately using singular value decomposition and ab initio structures of disaccharide fragments of I. The order parameters were very similar implying that a common order tensor can be used to analyze the structure of I. Using one order tensor, RDCs of both hexosamine rings were used as restraints in molecular dynamics simulations. RDCs of the inner iduronic acid were calculated for every point of the molecular dynamics trajectory. The fitting of the calculated RDCs of the two forms of the iduronic acid to the experimental values yielded a population of 1C4 and 2So conformers of iduronic acid that agreed well with the analysis based on proton–proton scalar coupling constants. The glycosidic linkage torsion angles in RDC-restrained molecular dynamics (MD) structures of I are consistent with the interglycosidic three-bond proton–carbon coupling constants. These structures also show that the shape of heparin is not affected dramatically by the conformational flexibility of the iduronic acid ring. This is in line with conclusions of previous studies based on MD simulations and the analysis of 1H-1H NOEs. Our work therefore demonstrates the effectiveness of RDCs in the conformational analysis of glycosaminoglycans.


The aim of this current research is to design a counseling eclectic program to increase spiritual intelligence of the university students and to verify its effectiveness. It also aimed to identify the continuity of the program's impact. A sample of 20 university students their age ranged between(19-23) years, with an average age of (19.54) years, and a standard deviation of (1.18), they were randomly divided to two experimental groups and control. The research tools consisted of a Demographic Data Form and Spiritual Intelligence Scale (Prepared by Arnout, 2016) and a program based on eclectic counseling theory prepared by the researcher. The results of the study revealed statistically significant differences at the level of (0.01) between the average of the control and experimental groups in the spiritual intelligence measure in the posttest in favor of the experimental group members. There were statistically significant differences at the level of (0.01) between the mean scores of the experimental group in the pretest and posttest. In addition there was no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group in the posttest and the follow-up test in the spiritual intelligence. Thus, the continuity of improvement and the impact of the counseling eclectic program have been achieved. The results of the research were explained in light of the theoretical framework and previous studies. The researchers also came up a number of recommendations.


How can we teach digital citizenship when the digital landscape is changing so rapidly? How can we teach proper online social interactions when the students are outside our classroom and thus outside our control? Will encouraging students to engage in global collaborative environments land teachers in hot water? These are the questions we hear from our peers around the world who are grappling with such issues in administrative offices and teachers' meetings every day. Digital citizenship is far more than digital literacy, just as 21st-century skills encompass much more than simply "skills." Digital citizenship is not about creating a list of things to do or a stagnant curriculum that you can use for the next 10 years. It's about transforming yourself into a professional who can effectively research technology trends, monitor the uses of technology in your school or district, avoid the fear factor that can easily paralyze you, and empower studentcentered learning to create vibrant, exciting learning projects. As you embark on the path to becoming a digital teacher, we offer some advice to consider and pitfalls to avoid. is to c k p H o to .c o m /a pa tr im o n io


Heterogeneities at the meso-scale strongly influence the shock compression response of composite materials. These heterogeneities arise from both structural variations and differing physical/mechanical properties between constituents. In mixtures of reactive materials, such as Ni and Al, the meso-scale heterogeneities greatly affect component mixing and activation, which, in turn, can induce a chemical reaction. Cold-rolled multilayered composites of Ni and Al provide a unique system for studying the effects of material heterogeneities on a propagating shock wave, due to their full density, periodic layering, and intimate particle contacts. Computational analysis of the shock compression response of fully dense Ni/Al multilayered composites is performed with real, heterogeneous microstructures, obtained from optical microscopy, using the Eulerian hydrocode CTH. Changes in the orientation, density, structure, and strength of the material interfaces, as well as the strength of the constituents, are used to understand the influence microstructure plays on the multilayered composite response at high strain rates. The results show a marked difference in the dissipation and dispersion of the shock wave as the underlying microstructure varies. These variations can be attributed to the development of two-dimensional effects and the nature of the wave reflections and interactions. Validation of the computational results is then obtained through time-resolved measurements (VISAR, PDV, and PVDF stress gauges) performed during uniaxial strain plate-on-plate impact experiments. The experimental results prove that the computational method accurately represents the multilayered composites, thereby justifying the conclusions and trends extracted from the simulations. The reaction response of cold-rolled multilayer composites is also investigated and characterized using uniaxial stress rod-on-anvil impact experiments through post-mortem microscopy and x-ray diffraction. This extensive understanding of the shock compression response of the multilayers systems is contrasted with other composites of Ni and Al, including shock consolidated and pressed (porous) powder compacts. A comprehensive design space is then developed to assist in the understanding and design of Ni/Al composites under conditions of high pressure shock compression. Research funded by ONR/MURI grant No. N00014-07-1-0740.


Problems arising at applying traditional procedure for averaging hydrophysical characteristics' vertical profiles are analyzed. The conclusion on necessity of taking into account vertical displacements of fluid elements is drawn. For this purpose, the Lagrangian invariants, (particularly, the averaged background distribution of the density field) are proposed to be applied. It permits to calculate the averaged depths of the vertical structure various elements. If the fluid is stratified the surfaces of constant density is called isopycnal. They nowhere intersect and divide the fluid into the layers. In the ideal fluid (when the processes of diffusion/exchange are absent), its elements never cross the isopycnal surfaces. Note that in real ocean the exchange processes are always present. As a result the fluid element density can change; thereupon it leaves its isopycnal level. Therefore the in situ density is not the true Lagrangian invariant. The average value for each element corresponding to the average depth of this element is used as an average vertical distribution of a sought parameter. The means for increasing reliability of the stratification elements' identification and applicability of the proposed method are discussed. The present method developed based on the thermodynamics general principles can also be applied for averaging the atmosphere parameters and the laboratory experiments. Besides, use of density as the Lagrangian invariant is not obligatory. The basic advantage of such a choice is conditioned by its monotonous dependence on depth. As well as for the ocean, in case there are uniformities of the parameter vertical gradient which permits to identify the stratification elements, additional background averaging can be used. The averaging vertical scale has to exceed the characteristic scales of small heterogeneities (for example, high-gradient streaks), but it is to be smaller than the background heterogeneities' scales (mixed layers' thicknesses). In case the denoted gradient heterogeneities are absent additional averaging is not required.


Engineering Microenvironmental Cues for Guiding Stem Cell Fate Ji Sun Park Injury, aging, and congenital disabilities of the muscular and neural systems impose a significant burden on patients and their families. Due to the tissue's limited regenerative capacity, effective treatment interventions for restoring progressive damage is still lacking. Cell replacement therapy is primarily limited by the restricted supply of viable donor cells and variable graft survival. For addressing these limitations, we propose new strategies to obtain a target cell of interest from an autologous cell source. Herein, we engineer cell fate decisions by 1) harnessing host microenvironment and the CRISPR/dCas9-mediated transcriptional activation system to promote myogenesis of human endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs); and 2) employing substrate-mediated biophysical cues with soluble factors (biochemical cues) to drive cell commitment to neuronal lineages. For the first strategy, we hypothesized that therapeutic cells could be obtained in situ by employing the CRISPR/dCas9 system to engineer cell fate in the host tissue. Using this system, we transactivated MYOD1, a master regulator for myogenesis, to directly reprogram primary EPCs to skeletal myoblasts (SkMs). EPCs were chosen as a cell source for their easy accessibility, high proliferation, and potential contribution to regenerate vasculature and musculature tissue. The early myogenic commitment of EPCs was confirmed in vitro by MYOD1 expression, which yielded a 230-fold higher induction than the original EPCs. These cells were then transplanted for assessing their therapeutic efficacy in myotoxin-induced muscle injury model in immunodeficient mice. A one-month post-injury study resulted in the integration of induced SkMs to the injured host tissue, promotion of neoangiogenesis, and reduction in fibrotic scar formation. These findings indicate that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated target gene activation can be achieved in situ to accelerate muscle regeneration after myotoxininduced damage. For the second strategy, we utilized both soluble and insoluble factors to convert the cell fate of neural stem/progenitor and somatic cells to various neuronal lineages, including motor neurons (MNs) and dopaminergic (DA) neurons. For soluble factors, cells were exposed to various biochemical factors, inspired by the neuronal niche environs during the natural developmental process. For insoluble factors, the conductive graphene substrate was used to support the endogenous electrical signal between neurons for enhancing the neuronal phenotypes and their functionality. We postulated that exposing the cells to these collective stimuli in vitro can alter their intrinsic signaling pathway to tailor their fate to neuronal lineages. To test the hypothesis, neural stem/progenitor and somatic cells were cultured on various substrates with or without electroactive graphene and aligned patterns. After two weeks to one month of cell fate induction in the chemically defined conditions, our results implied that cell adhesion, survival, neurite outgrowth, and maturation were facilitated on the electroactive substrates with aligned patterns compared to the control platforms. Taken together, our results in this dissertation demonstrate the feasibility of tailoring the donor cell fates within or across the germ layers. We achieved this by employing a transcriptional gene activation system and tunable microenvironmental cues elicited by soluble (chemical and growth factors) and insoluble (physical cues from the substrate) factors. Utilizing such strategies hold great promise for elucidating the optimal conditions to guide cell fate to target lineages. This work provides a rational basis for establishing a robust protocol and an in vitro culture platform to module cell fate decisions that could help realize the autologous cell-based therapy for muscular and neurodegenerative diseases.


Energy saving is an important task today. Friction reduction in reciprocating engines is a way to reduce fuel consumption and to improve engine endurance. To find the value of frictional losses of every component is necessary in order to reduce engine losses. The piston-liner system, valve train and bearings are the most important components for mechanical friction losses in reciprocating engines. In this paper both theoretical and experimental works published within the last ten years about the losses related to the motion of pistons, valves and bearings have been reviewed. Some known design improvements to reduce friction in these components are briefly reported and indications for future developments are pointed out, related in particular to the numerical approach, capable of more realistic simulations due to new software and hardware, and to the new experimental and material technologies.


Broadband wireless access systems deployed in residential and business environments are likely to face hostile radio propagation environments, with multipath delay spread extending over tens or hundreds of bit intervals. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplex (OFDM) is a recognized multicarrier solution to combat the effects of such multipath conditions. This article surveys frequency domain equalization (FDE) applied to single-carrier (SC) modulation solutions. SC radio modems with frequency domain equalization have similar performance, efficiency, and low signal processing complexity advantages as OFDM, and in addition are less sensitive than OFDM to RF impairments such as power amplifier nonlinearities. We discuss similarities and differences of SC and OFDM systems and coexistence possibilities, and present examples of SC-FDE performance capabilities.


Five nominally identical blast-loading tests were conducted where dynamic deflection data was collected. The dynamic deformation data collected was of the upper surface of a blastloaded hull shape. This data allowed the determination of the initial velocity imparted to each point of the surface in the first 1 or 2 milliseconds of the blast event. Analysis of this data showed that the spatial variation of the normalized blast loading is small, in particular it is less than 5%. Larger variations occur for the total blast impulse. Thus, the spatial distribution of the blast event (when normalized by the initial impulse) has less variation and is more repeatable than the actual total impulse of a blast event.


Background The financial implications of male circumcision (MC) scale-up in sub-Saharan Africa associated with reduced HIV have been evaluated. However, no analysis has incorporated the expected reduction of a comprehensive set of other sexually transmitted infections including human papillomavirus, herpes simplex virus type 2, genital ulcer disease, bacterial vaginosis, and trichomoniasis. Methods A Markov model tracked a dynamic population undergoing potential MC scale-up, as individuals experienced MC procedures, procedure-related adverse events, and MC-reduced sexually transmitted infections and accrued any associated costs. Rakai, Uganda, was used as a prototypical rural sub-Saharan African community. Monte Carlo microsimulations evaluated outcomes under 4 alternative scale-up strategies to reach 80% MC coverage among men aged 15 to 49 years, in addition to a baseline strategy defined by current MC rates in central Uganda. Financial outcomes included direct medical expenses only and were evaluated over 5 and 25 years. Costs were discounted to the beginning of each period, coinciding with the start of MC scale-up, and expressed in US$2012. Results Cost savings from infections averted by MC vary from US$197,531 after 5 years of a scale-up program focusing on adolescent/adult procedures to more than US$13 million after 25 years, under a strategy incorporating increased infant MCs. Over a 5-year period, reduction in HIV contributes to 50% of cost savings, and for 25 years, this contribution rises to nearly 90%. Conclusions Sexually transmitted infections other than HIV contribute to cost savings associated with MC scale-up. Previous analyses, focusing exclusively on the financial impact through averted HIV, may have underestimated true cost savings by 10% to 50%.