Some recent categorial proposals have employed structural modalities, modal operators which allow explicit management of resource sensitivity in linguistic derivation. Various theoretical, computational and practical problems arise for the use of such operators. I propose an alternative general model of hybrid substructural systems, in which different substructural logics (i.e. logics differing in their resource usage characteristics) are brought together into a single system, and which eliminates the need of structural modalities by exploiting natural relations between different substructural levels in terms of the relative informativeness of their characterizations. Under this model, the range of substructural levels form a single unified descriptive system, which should facilitate writing grammars for individual languages, and provide a better basis for crosslinguistic generalization. Comments University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-94-14. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/160


The plant Albizzia lebbeck Benth. [Mimosaceae] is reported to possess anti-asthmatic, anti-inflammatory, antifertility and anti-diarrhoeal properties. Albizzia lebbeck is an important source of chemicals of melacacidin, Dcatechin, βSitosterol, Albiziahexoside, betulnic acid which are effective as antiseptic, anti-dysenteric, anti-tubercular and used in bronchitis, leprosy, paralysis, helmenth infection etc. Hence in view of immense medicinal importance of the plant this review is therefore an effort to compile all the information reported on its phytochemical and pharmacological activities these information will be helpful to create interest towards the plant and may be useful in developing new formulations, which are more effective and have more therapeutic value.


Abstract Borate mineral wastes and phosphate ash resulting from the incineration of meat and bone meal represent two particularly abundant inorganic wastes. This paper is dedicated to the combination of such wastes, together with kaolin clay, focused on the development of highly porous ceramic bodies. Borate waste has a multiple effect, providing liquid phase at the sintering temperature (1050°C), gas release (from the decomposition of its calcite fraction) and a CaO source, which reacts with residues from clay and promotes the formation of anorthite crystals as a newly formed phase. Control of the heating rate, i.e. adoption of fast heating (20°C min−1) and, above all, introduction of recycled soda–lime–silica glass as secondary additive, allowed obtaining lightweight microporous bodies (density below 0·45 g cm−3) with uniform pore structure that could be useful for thermal and acoustic insulations.


Background Impairments of articulation, respiration, and phonation are a common symptom of Parkinson's disease and may result in reduced communication. Previous observations have shown a high incidence of laryngeal abnormalities. However, no relevant data were available for gender differences of laryngeal abnormalities in Parkinson's disease. Method Thirty-nine female and 61 male patients with Parkinson's disease were examined. The laryngeal function was explored by laryngoendoscopy and laryngostroboscopy in respiration and production of [i:] during normal pitch and normal loudness. Results Abnormal function of vocal cord abduction and adduction were observed in 54% of the women and 39% of the men; more patients had reduced abduction. Bilateral vocal fold atrophy was seen in 36% of the women and 56% of the men, while 41% of the women and 57% of the men had a bilateral hypertrophy ventricular fold. Phase closure incompetence was found in 60.5% of the women and 49% of the men. Abnormal amplitude and mucosal waveform were seen in more male patients, while 30.7% of the women and 25% of the men had a laryngeal tremor. Gender differences were observed with respect to common laryngeal symptoms. Conclusion This study concludes that laryngeal abnormalities in Parkinson's disease show a high degree of gender differences. The percentage of patients with abnormal abduction of the vocal cord was higher than has been reported in other studies. Vocal-fold bowing appear to be related to vocal fold atrophy. Although patients with Parkinson's disease frequently exhibit vocal fold atrophy, other mechanisms and causes should be discussed. Patients with tremor and common laryngeal symptoms were observed. These findings were not expected and further studies of this phenomena would be useful.


Feminist and post-colonial theorists challenge the supposed neutrality of international human rights law which, in their view, should be seen as a product of asymmetrical power relations. On the basis of this premise, it seems unlikely that single and divorced migrant mothers from outside of the EU will be able to mobilize international human rights law to their advantage. And yet, after twenty years of litigation, single and divorced migrant mothers in the Netherlands are now finally able to claim their right to respect for family life and reunite with children left behind in their countries of origin. This chapter seeks to explain how this increase in human rights protection could come about. While some litigants are less powerful than others, they do not always stand alone. Increasing the scope of analyses makes it possible to include case law produced by more powerful actors. Their gains can offer strategic opportunities to those less powerful.


The aim of the present article is to provide insight into the recovery process of a former addicted and abused woman, who is now working as a drug therapist. DESIGN – Data were collected during a four-year period by means of recurring interviews concurrent with research on the procedures of a rehab centre for addicted and abused women. RESULTS – In the life story presented, the narratives on addiction and abuse are interwoven even if the experiences as far as possible were analysed separately. The recovery process is shown to be a complicated ongoing process, involving different stages of realisation and recognition as well as unprocessed experiences finally acknowledged through the therapist's encounter with clients in a similar situation. CONCLUSIONS – The recovery process can be prolonged if professionals do not understand or are unable to analytically separate the drug/alcohol abuse from being a victim of physical abuse and instead solely consider the violence as a consequence of the drug and alcohol abuse. The woman in question still needed to work on earlier destructive and unprocessed experiences because these surfaced and affected her work when she started as a drug therapist.


BACKGROUND
Voltage-gated potassium (K(+)) channels encoded by KCNQ genes (Kv7 channels) have been identified in various rodent and human blood vessels as key regulators of vascular tone; however, nothing is known about the functional impact of these channels in vascular disease. We ascertained the effect of 3 structurally different activators of Kv7.2 through Kv7.5 channels (BMS-204352, S-1, and retigabine) on blood vessels from normotensive and hypertensive animals.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Precontracted thoracic aorta and mesenteric artery segments from normotensive rats were relaxed by all 3 Kv7 activators, with potencies of BMS-204352=S-1>retigabine. We also tested these agents in the coronary circulation using the Langendorff heart preparation. BMS-204352 and S-1 dose dependently increased coronary perfusion at concentrations between 0.1 and 10 μmol/L, whereas retigabine was effective at 1 to 10 μmol/L. In addition, S-1 increased K(+) currents in isolated mesenteric artery myocytes. The ability of these agents to relax precontracted vessels, increase coronary flow, or augment K(+) currents was impaired considerably in tissues isolated from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Of the 5 KCNQ genes, only the expression of KCNQ4 was reduced (≈3.7 fold) in SHRs aorta. Kv7.4 protein levels were ≈50% lower in aortas and mesenteric arteries from spontaneously hypertensive rats compared with normotensive vessels. A similar attenuated response to S-1 and decreased Kv7.4 were observed in mesenteric arteries from mice made hypertensive by angiotensin II infusion compared with normotensive controls.

CONCLUSIONS
In 2 different rat and mouse models of hypertension, the functional impact of Kv7 channels was dramatically downregulated.


In this thesis, improved techniques for biomolecule analysis using capillary electrophoresis (CE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) and hyphenations between those have been presented.A pre-concentration method which is possible to apply in both techniques, has also been investigated. In this work the off-line MS mode has been used either in the form of fractionation (Paper I) or by incorporating the MALDI target in the CE separation system (Paper II).In Paper I, a protocol for CE-MALDI analysis of cyanogen bromide digested bacteriorhodopsin (BR) peptides as model integral membrane protein peptides were established. Also, an improved protocol for partially automated manufacturing of a concentration MALDI-target plate is presented. The design of the targets was suitable for the fractions from the CE. A novel technique for the integration of CE to MALDI-MS using a closed-open-closed system is presented in Paper II, where the open part is a micro canal functioning as a MALDI target window. A protein separation was obtained and detected with MALDI-MS analysis in the micro canal. A method has been developed for detection of monosaccharides originating from hydrolysis of a single wood fiber performed in a micro channel, with an incorporated electromigration pre-concentration step preceding CE analysis in Paper III. The pre-concentration showed to be highly complex due to the fact that several parameters are included that affecting each other. In Paper IV a protocol using enzymatic digestion, MALDI-TOF-MS and CE with laser induced fluorescence (LIF) detection for the investigation of the degree of substitution of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) to bovine serum albumin (BSA), as a contact allergen model system for protein-hapten binding in the skin, is presented. The intention of a further CE-MALDI hyphenation has been considered during the work. In Paper V 2,6-dihydroxyacetophenone (DHAP) was investigated, showing promising MALDI-MS matrix properties for hydrophobic proteins and peptides. 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) was undoubtedly the better matrix for the hydrophilic proteins, but its performance for the larger and hydrophobic peptides was not optimal. Consequently, DHAP can be used as a compliment matrix for improved analysis of hydrophobic analytes.


In recent years, the high maintenance cost of centralized video on demand systems has led to the development of peer to peer video on demand systems. These peer to peer systems help to remove the cost and bandwidth limitations of a centralized group of servers. In a peer to peer scenario, the publisher and a small set of peers who were published to must handle all video requests. If many peers request a video after it is released, the small set of peers with the video cached may not have enough bandwidth to satisfy all requests. This situation is known as a flash crowd. We propose a hybrid peer to peer framework that allows publishers to publish videos before release time. For marketing purposes, it is common for videos that are ready for distribution to be kept from being released until a preset release time. By distributing a video before the release time, more peers will have the video at release time, thus allowing more requests to be handled. A hybrid peer to peer encryption management system is used to prevent users from viewing videos before release time. In order to determine who to distribute a video to before users are allowed to view the video, we design a hybrid peer to peer subscription system. In this system, users may specify interest in sets of videos and are notified of new videos matching the interest so that retrieval may start. Finally, we modify an existing peer to peer video on demand framework to better handle concurrent streaming and downloading. Our experiments show that this framework can greatly increase a peer to peer streaming system's ability to handle flash crowd situations.


Differences in driving behavior due to the presence of users familiar/unfamiliar with the road are commonly considered in both road design (guidelines for road design) and traffic engineering (calculation of the equivalent traffic flow). However, although considered, the matter is largely unexplored: there is a lack of theoretical foundations and data on determining the impact of route familiarity on accident rates, speed choice and risk perception. On the other hand, some literature studies confirm that route familiarity is influential on driver behavior, mainly increasing inattention while driving, encouraging research in this sense. This paper reports the results of an on-road test carried out on a two lane rural road in the District of Bari in Puglia Region (Italy) over six days of testing, in order to find relationships between route familiarity, speed and trajectories selection, and risk perception. The particular schedule used for the tests allows to consider the influence of familiarity on the behavior of the test drivers. In particular, data were analyzed by considering the influence of road geometry and human factors.


Abstract. The main goal of this paper is to present the conceptual framework for engaging youth in urban planning activities that simultaneously create locally meaningful positive change. The framework for engaging youth interlinks the use of IT tools such as geographic information systems (GIS), agent-based modelling (ABM), online serious games, and mobile participatory geographic information systems with map-based storytelling and action projects. We summarize the elements of our framework and the first results gained in the program Community Growers established in a neighbourhood community of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, USA. We conclude the paper with a discussion and future research directions.


We present a novel approach to fully-observable nondeterministic planning (FOND) that attempts to bridge the gap between symbolic fix-point computation and recent approaches based on forward heuristic search. Concretely, we formalize the relationship between symbolic and dynamic programming nondeterministic planners, and then exploit such connection to propose a novel familyof planning algorithms that reasons over symbolic policies in a directed manner. By doing so, our proposal reasons over sets of states and executions in a succinct way (as done by symbolic planners) while biasing the reasoning with respect to the initial and goal states of the specific planning problem at hand (as done by heuristic planners). We show empirical results that prove this approach promising in settings where there is an intrinsic tension between plan efficiency and plan "robustness," a feature to be expected in nondeterministic domains.


ASBTRACT Despite the rapidly growing poultry industry throughout Nepal, the periodic outbreaks of diseases and infections in poultry birds led to huge production loss. The aim of this study was to identify the top ten poultry diseases in Nepal and an analysis of their seasonal distributions. A cross-sectional study was performed to describe the distributions of major poultry diseases diagnosed from April 2018 to April 2019 at Central Veterinary Laboratory, Nepal. Out of 2358 observations recorded at the CVL registry at that period, only 2271 observations qualified for the final analysis. Among 2271, removing the missing values, only 1915 observations were used to describe bird characteristics such as median age and mean flock sizes. Descriptive analysis and graphical representation was performed in R studio (Version 1.0.143) and MS excel 2010 respectively. The top ten diseases identified with highest to lowest incidence were: colibacillosis 26% (584/2271), mycotoxicosis 13% (301/2271), ascites 10% (232/2271), complicated chronic respiratory disease (cCRD) 9% (196/2271), infectious bursal disease (IBD) 7% (155/2271), Newcastle disease (ND) 7% (148/2271), avian influenza (AI) 3% (76/2271), salmonellosis 2% (40/2271), infectious bronchitis 1% (33/2271), coccidiosis 1% (25/2271) and non-specific diseases accounts for 21% (481/2271). Cases of colibacillosis were predominant all year round. Mycotoxicosis was seen mostly during pre-monsoon and monsoon season. Ascites and IBD were common during spring and winter seasons. cCRD was most common during summer and winter months. AI kept changing the disease outbreak pattern but it was most common during spring and summer. The number of cases of Salmonella, IB and coccidiosis were not sufficient to provide the seasonal trend. Identification of common poultry disease and their seasonal distributions is useful in taking preventive measures such as vaccination and good management practices to minimize their incidence in the future.


The performance of the Internet is determined not only by the network and hardware technologies that underlie it, but also by the software protocols that govern its use.
In particular, the TCP transport protocol is responsible for carrying the great majority of traffic in the current internet, including web traffic, email, file transfers, music and video downloads. TCP provides two main functions. First, it provides functionality to detect and retransmit packets lost during a transfer thereby providing a reliable transport service to higher layer applications. Second, it enforces congestion control. That is, it seeks to match the rate at which packets are injected into the network to the available network capacity. A particular aim here is to avoid so-called congestion collapse, prevalent in the late 1980s prior to the inclusion of congestion control functionality in TCP.
Over the last decade or so, the link speeds within networks have increased by several orders of magnitude. While the TCP congestion control algorithm has proved remarkably
successful, it is now recognised that its performance is poor on paths with high bandwidth-delay product, e.g. see [13, 8, 14, 26, 12] and references therein. With the
increasing prevalence of high speed links, this issue is becoming of widespread concern. This is reflected, for example, in the fact that the Linux operating system now
employs an experimental algorithm called BIC-TCP[26] while Microsoft are actively studying new algorithms such as Compound-TCP[25].
While a number of proposals have been made to modify the TCP congestion control algorithm, all of these are still experimental and pending evaluation as they change the congestion control in new and significant ways and their effects on the network are not well understood. In fact, the basic properties of networks employing these algorithms
may be very different to networks of standard TCP flows. The aim of this thesis is to address, in part, this basic observation.


One could live every day in Ottawa without awareness of the Indigenous history and contested nature of its land, still unceded by the Algonquin people. While the majesty of the Kichesippi River cannot go unnoticed by anyone who sees it, its significance for the Algonquin people is easily overlooked by non-Indigenous citizens or visitors. Today, Indigenous identity and presence in the nation's capital begs to be expressed. As a powerful territory that has eluded development, the river offers a vital starting point to this end.
This thesis envisions an inhabitation of the river via a four-part floating pavilion – known as the Migrating Spirits Pavilion – dedicated to language and cultural learning. The pavilion parts journey toward seasonal resting places, engaging other parts of the community. This architectural inhabitation of the river accepts its role as a place for awareness of and reckoning with, Indigenous memory and identity.


Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus sp.) have more than 1000 species worldwide such as grey (Pleurotus sajor-caju), yellow (P.
citrinopealatus), pink (P. flabellatus) and white (P. florida) which are cultivated on various agricultural wastes. In this study,
the growth performance, yield and postharvest quality of different species of oyster mushroom cultivated on sawdust and oil
palm frond (OPF) were determined. Sawdust and OPF in combination with rice bran and calcium carbonate in 100:10:1 ratio
respectively was used as substrates. The growth performance in terms of mycelium growth, days for mycelium to fill up the
bag, pinhead emergence and fruiting body formation were measured. The postharvest qualities studied involved color, texture,
moisture, ash, protein and crude fiber contents. Yellow oyster mushroom on OPF took the shortest time for mycelium growth,
mycelium fill up the bag, pinhead emergence and fruiting body formation. However, oyster mushrooms cultivated on sawdust
had higher biological efficiency (29.34 to 60.76%) as compared to on OPF (21.49 to 45.08%). White oyster mushroom had
the highest biological efficiency followed by yellow, grey and pink. Meanwhile, grey oyster mushroom showed darker color
compared to other oyster mushroom species. OPF used as substrates provide brighter yellow and pink color in yellow and
pink oyster mushrooms respectively and greater in firmness especially for pink oyster mushroom. There was no significant
difference (P>0.05) found in chemical properties of different oyster mushroom species cultivated on sawdust and OPF. In
conclusion, oyster mushrooms cultivated on sawdust produced better yield even though OPF gave better growth performance
and physical properties of color and firmness.


Anticipation is a basic human condition central to the formation of experience and expectation. This thesis investigates the presence of anticipation within specific continental philosophical traditions and key art histories of the 20th and 21st century. The first chapter focuses on the development of anticipation within particular philosophical traditions and asks what it means to treat anticipation historically and thus open to repetition. It does so by positioning the idea of anticipation within theorizations of the modern, the postmodern, and the contemporary. The second essay argues that Marcel Duchamp's painting Coffee Mill (1911) develops, perhaps for the first time, an anticipatory logic central to the artist's oeuvre and legacy. The final essay investigates Duchamp's legacy using two Cuban case studies of contemporary Cuban art: the practices of artist Flavio Garciandia in the 1970s and Sandra Ceballos' art space (Espacio Aglutinador) since the 1990s.


This paper addresses the issue of forecasting the term structure. We provide a unified state-space modelling framework that encompasses different existing discrete-time yield curve models. Within such framework we analyze the impact of two modelling choices, namely the imposition of no-arbitrage restrictions and the size of the information set used to extract factors, on the forecasting performance. Using US yield curve data, we find that both no-arbitrage and large info help in forecasting but no model uniformly dominates the other. No-arbitrage models are more useful at shorter horizon for shorter maturities. Large information sets are more useful at longer horizons and longer maturities. We also find evidence for a significant feedback from yield curve models to macroeconomic variables that could be exploited for macroeconomic forecasting.


The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Fish and Wildlife Service, is directed by the Endangered Species Act to designate critical habitat concurrently with the listing of a species as endangered or threatened. However, the ESA allows FWS to delay critical habitat designation upon a finding that designation is not prudent or that it is not determinable. FWS has liberally exercised these exceptions to avoid designating critical habitat for the majority of listed species. In response, citizen groups regularly file suit to compel designation. Difficulties arise when the failure to designate occurred more than six years before the filed action. Some federal courts hold the general civil statute of limitations, 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a), bars actions to compel designation. Others have relied on principles of equitable tolling to allow actions to go forward. This Note argues that courts should toll the statute of limitations in actions to compel designation where FWS made a "not determinable" finding because it constitutes a failure to act despite a non-discretionary, mandatory duty, but that "not prudent" findings constitute final agency action and should start the clock running for statute of limitations pur-


ABSTRACT For the complex human brain that enables us to communicate in natural language, we gathered good understandings of principles underlying language acquisition and processing, knowledge about sociocultural conditions, and insights into activity patterns in the brain. However, we were not yet able to understand the behavioural and mechanistic characteristics for natural language and how mechanisms in the brain allow to acquire and process language. In bridging the insights from behavioural psychology and neuroscience, the goal of this paper is to contribute a computational understanding of appropriate characteristics that favour language acquisition. Accordingly, we provide concepts and refinements in cognitive modelling regarding principles and mechanisms in the brain and propose a neurocognitively plausible model for embodied language acquisition from real-world interaction of a humanoid robot with its environment. In particular, the architecture consists of a continuous time recurrent neural network, where parts have different leakage characteristics and thus operate on multiple timescales for every modality and the association of the higher level nodes of all modalities into cell assemblies. The model is capable of learning language production grounded in both, temporal dynamic somatosensation and vision, and features hierarchical concept abstraction, concept decomposition, multi-modal integration, and self-organisation of latent representations.


Abstract Background Existing evidence on profiles of psychological distress across adulthood uses cross-sectional or longitudinal studies with short observation periods. The objective of this research was to study the profile of psychological distress within the same individuals from early adulthood to early old age across three British birth cohorts. Methods We used data from three British birth cohorts: born in 1946 (n = 3093), 1958 (n = 13 250) and 1970 (n = 12 019). The profile of psychological distress – expressed both as probability of being a clinical case or a count of symptoms based on comparable items within and across cohorts – was modelled using the multilevel regression framework. Results In both 1958 and 1970 cohorts, there was an initial drop in the probability of being a case between ages 23–26 and 33–34. Subsequently, the predicted probability of being a case increased from 12.5% at age 36 to 19.5% at age 53 in the 1946 cohort; from 8.0% at age 33 to 13.7% at age 42 in the 1958 cohort and from 15.7% at age 34 to 19.7% at age 42 in the 1970 cohort. In the 1946 cohort, there was a drop in the probability of caseness between ages 60–64 and 69 (19.5% v. 15.2%). Consistent results were obtained with the continuous version of the outcome. Conclusions Across three post-war British birth cohorts midlife appears to be a particularly vulnerable phase for experiencing psychological distress. Understanding the reasons for this will be important for the prevention and management of mental health problems.


[1] Contrasts in high-elevation surface and free-tropospheric temperatures between 1971 and 1996 are examined by comparing surface temperatures from a subset of 72 stations in the GHCN (Global Historical Climate Network) and CRU (Climatic Research Unit) homogeneity adjusted surface data sets with free-air temperatures interpolated to the same locations from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis R1. The selected stations are above the mean elevation of the surrounding topography, often located on mountain summits. Surface temperatures, free-air temperatures, and their difference (ΔT) are found to be related to independent surface cloud observations from the NDP-026C archive, local wind speed, satellite records of snow cover (NSIDC), and reanalysis wind components. Significant correlations are observed at most stations, and correlation spatial patterns are consistent for different subperiods of the record (e.g., presatellite era versus satellite era). Stepwise regression models built to predict surface temperatures, free-air temperatures, and ΔT from the above meteorological parameters typically explain 20–40% of the temperature variability on an annual basis and more for individual seasons. The stationarity of relationships between temperature and snow/cloud/wind is examined by comparing the temporal trends in the original temperatures with predicted trends from the best fit regression model and trends in model residuals. This provides an assessment of how much of any ΔT trends can be accounted for by changes in meteorology. Significant daytime ΔT residual trends occur primarily in Turkey and eastern China, but significant nighttime ΔT residual trends are more geographically widespread. While daytime residual trends may be the result of surface radiative cooling by increasing anthropogenic aerosol, attribution of nighttime residual trends is uncertain.


Women in poor rural communities often consume diets that are deficient in energy. Maternal malnutrition continues to be a global problem. Population studies indicate that kilocalorie intake is usually less than recommended and pregnant women often do not show a significant augmentation in energy intake. The prevalence of chronic malnutrition is reflected in the high incidences of maternal deaths, increased risk of disease, and lower pregnancy weight gain. Low rates of gestational weight gain increase the risk of low birth weight infants and shorter gestations and from an international health perspective, birth weight is the most readily available index of pregnancy outcomes. This study investigated women's socio-demographic factors, energy intake, and and their influence on gestational weight gain among pregnant women attending Rongo Sub-District Hospital. Objectives of the study included determining socio-demographic factors, energy intake, assessing weight gain, and testing for relationships between energy intake, maternal variables and weight gain. The study adopted longitudinal design and comprehensive sampling was used to select a sample of 100 pregnant women. Data was collected by use of structured questionnaires, observation, 24- hour recall and food weighing techniques. Data was analyzed by SPSS and dietary data by use of Nutri-survey. Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was used to test for significant relationships and t test for significant difference between mean of nutrients. Daily energy intake was found to be 1436.42 ± 421 Kcal/ day. Mean weight gain was 245.9±201std g/week and was higher for women with lower weight. The study found a significant relationship between energy intake and gestational weight gain (P≤ 0.05) and suggested possible confounding with certain socio-demographic factors. The pregnant women consumed fewer calories than the recommended levels. The study fills the knowledge gap, benefits future research work, government departments, NGOs, the community and pregnant women. The government and NGOs need to monitor gestational weight gain more closely in order to provide counselling as well as nutritional support to pregnant women.


There continued to be significant engagement with human rights issues by the Irish legislature, government and judiciary in 2008. The strengthening of the human rights of trafficking victims, lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women are worthy points of note. This must be contrasted with the continuing controversies in immigration law, the failure of the Irish Government to legislate so as to protect the rights of transgendered persons and the severe financial cutbacks imposed on the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission. The number of cases argued before the Irish Courts on issues relating to human rights continues to rise. The judiciary have engaged in human rights disputes in a large number of areas, ranging from criminal law, family law, child law, immigration law, property law and mental health law. The incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms into Irish law has had no small part to play in the increase in human rights adjudication before the courts. As can be seen from the range of cases examined below, judicial engagement with other international human rights law instruments and treaties remains low. Nevertheless, in the area of child law at any rate, the judiciary seems more prepared to at least make reference to international legal instruments in coming to decisions, even if domestic or European human rights law can solve the issue at hand. It remains to be seen whether in future years, judicial reference to unincorporated international human rights treaties will expand.


Among the processes of "conquering, developing and appropriating mountains" is occupied by the emergence of mountain topography. In the eighteenth century raised relief, as a terrain model, played one of the most important roles in this process.
This was a period when more reliable topographic data began to be collected on the basis of measurements carried out across the Alps. Possibilities of their cartographic representation were limited at the time. A graphic method for presenting orthogonal projection by means of contour curves was not invented until the nineteenth century. Before that three-dimensional terrain models were the only way to correctly represent various levels of landscape. Terrain models were accepted at the time as the best method for presenting mountain landscapes.
The first attempt to carry out a comprehensive measurement of the Alps over a vast area of a continuous mountain range and represent it on a low relief was made in 1786 and concerned an area in central Switzerland around Lake Lucerne. At that time Franz Ludwig Pfyffer von Wyher, an officer in French service, became famous for advanced surveying techniques and terrain models, both civilian and military. His famous relief depicts around one-tenth of today's Switzerland, with two-thirds of the area encompassing the Alps and foot of the Alps. From that moment on other authors began to create their models of Alpine landscape. These reliefs were appreciated by contemporary naturalists, especially those studying the Alps, because they enabled them to view the complex topography of the range, which had been impossible before. They drew attention to a number of natural and geological phenomena, and made it possible to come up with new findings relating to the following questions: At what altitude should the snow line be placed? Where is the boundary of vegetation? Where do coniferous forests begin? Where is the line of glaciers? What is the structure of the mountains? Obviously, they were not sufficient to provide all answers to the above questions, but thanks to a "bird's eye" perspective they made it possible to place special studies of the various disciplines within a broader context, both with regard to the relevant subject matter and between disciplines.


Keratin is an interesting protein needed for wound healing and tissue recovery. We have recently proposed a new, simple and inexpensive method to obtain fur and hair keratin‐derived biomaterials suitable for medical application. The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of the fur keratin‐derived protein (FKDP) dressing in the allogenic full‐thickness surgical skin wound model. The data obtained using scanning electron microscopy showed that employed processed biomaterial had higher surface porosity compared with control raw material. From the MTS test, it was found keratin biomaterial is not only toxic to the NIH/3T3 cell line (p < 0.05), but also enhances cell proliferation compared with the control. In vivo studies have shown keratin dressings are tissue biocompatible, accelerate wound closure and epithelialization to the statistically significant differences on day 5 (p < 0.05) in comparison to control wounds. Histological examination revealed, that in FKDP‐treated wounds the inflammatory response contained predominantly macrophages whilst their morphological untreated variants showed mixed cell infiltrates rich in neutrophils. Predominant macrophages based response creates more favorable environment for healing. In FKDP‐dressed wounds the number of microhemorrhages was also significantly decreased (p < 0.05) as compared with undressed wounds. Applied keratin dressing favors reconstruction of a more regular skin structure and assures better cosmetic effect in terms of scar formation and appearance. In conclusion, fur keratin‐derived protein dressings significantly accelerated wound healing in the mouse model. Further studies are needed to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in the multilayer wound healing process and to assess the possible use of these dressings for medical purposes.


The objective of this study was to develop guidelines for the prescription of ankle-foot, knee, wrist-hand and elbow orthoses for patients with neurological disorders. The study is part of a more comprehensive study focusing on the development of clinical guidelines for the prescription of these orthoses in a wider patient population. Evidence from literature (reviews, randomized controlled trials with good quality), information from literature with a lower degree of evidence and information from structured interviews with experts in the field of orthotics, form the basis of statements presented in a Delphi procedure. The Delphi technique was used to gain consensus on statements published on the Internet. A group of experts in the field of orthotics and neurological disorders was asked to give their opinion on 41 statements. Statements with a general agreement of at least 75% were accepted. Statements with less general agreement were rewritten and the experts could react in a second and possibly in a third round. Afterwards, an opinion-based workshop was organized in which participants could react on preliminary guidelines and on Delphi-statements with between 65% and 75% agreement. Consensus on 32 statements was gained during the three rounds and the opinion-based workshop. These statements form the basis of the consensus based clinical guidelines for the prescription of orthoses in patients with neurological disorders.


Chip on glass (COG) bonding using Anisotropic Conductive Film (ACF) is the best process for assembling ICs on thin substrate glass with fine pitch in current practice. This paper investigates the effects of surface cleanness of the substrate, bonding pressure and contact area of COG bonding with ACF on interfacial impedance (II) via experiments. Indium tin oxide (ITO), 350±15nm in thickness, coated on 0.4mm glass is used as the substrate with φ4μm ACF particle in the experiment. Surface cleanness is measured by wetting tension, an alternative measurement of surface energy. Experiments with three levels for each parameter are designed and conducted. Reliability tests, including temperature test, humidity test, cycling test and boiling test, are also conducted to allocate best parameters in the COG bonding process. Experimental results showed that the contact area of ACF must be more than 1,500μm2 in order to provide stable II. Surface cleanness of ITO glass is suggested to be higher than 46 dyne/cm as measured by wetting tension test. Bonding pressure, ranging from 40 to 80 Mpa, does not have strong effect on II. Temperature test under -40°C /30min to 85°C/30min at 120cycle and humility test at 85°C under 85%RH for 500 hours showed that higher surface cleanness results in better bonding result as the variation of II is lower. Boiling test at 121°C under 2atm for 8 hours showed that surface cleanness should be over 46 dyne/cm, as measured by wetting tension test, to ensure stable bonding result.


Irony is one of many forms of figurative languages. Irony detection is crucial for Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks like sentiment analysis and opinion mining. From cognitive point of view, it is a challenge to study how human use irony as a communication tool. While relevant research has been done independently on code-mixed social media texts and irony detection, our work is the first attempt in detecting irony in Hindi-English code-mixed social media text. In this paper, we study the problem of automatic irony detection as a classification problem and present a Hindi-English code-mixed dataset consisting of tweets posted online on Twitter. The tweets are annotated with the language at word level and the class they belong to (Ironic or Non-Ironic). We also propose a supervised classification system for detecting irony in the text using various character level, word level, and structural features.


Butternut squash is an emerging economic crop in Kenya with ready market and high nutritional value. It was introduced to promote food security and enhance the incomes of the small-holder farmers in Suba district. However it is not clear whether butternut could address the problem of low income among small-holder farmers. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of butternut squash on the incomes of the small-holders. The choice of the study area was due to persistence of poverty problem and existence of butternut squash in Suba District. Cross-sectional data was collected from a sample of 120 farmers who obtained using multi-stage sampling. The small-holder farmers were characterized using descriptive statistics. Gross Margin analysis was used to determine the contribution of butternut squash to total crop income. Gross margin analysis results revealed that butternut squash was a profitable enterprise similar to the other horticultural crops. Results showed that on average butternut squash contributes 38.55% with a standard deviation of 12.2% towards the total crop gross margin/ha. This study therefore, recommends that government and other stakeholders should formulate and implement effective policies related to promotion of butternut squash farming and marketing.


Complex segregation analysis of hyper‐β Mipoproteinemia with xanthomatosis has provided strong evidence for a major locus, in addition to significant polygenic effect and sibling environment. Estimates of gene frequency agree with values generally given in the literature.


Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), consisting of low-cost passive elements, is a promising technology for improving the spectral and energy efficiency of the fifth-generation (5G) and beyond networks. It is also noteworthy that an IRS can shape the reflected signal propagation. Most works in IRS-assisted systems have ignored the impact of the inevitable residual hardware impairments (HWIs) at both the transceiver hardware and the IRS while any relevant works have addressed only simple scenarios, e.g., with single-antenna network nodes and/or without taking the randomness of phase noise at the IRS into account. In this work, we aim at filling up this gap by considering a general IRS-assisted multi-user (MU) multiple-input single-output (MISO) system with imperfect channel state information (CSI) and correlated Rayleigh fading. In parallel, we present a general computationally efficient methodology for IRS reflecting beamforming (RB) optimization. Specifically, we introduce an advantageous channel estimation (CE) method for such systems accounting for the HWIs. Moreover, we derive the uplink achievable spectral efficiency (SE) with maximal-ratio combining (MRC) receiver, displaying three significant advantages being: 1) its closed-form expression, 2) its dependence only on large-scale statistics, and 3) its low training overhead. Notably, by exploiting the first two benefits, we achieve to perform optimization with respect to the RB that can take place only per several coherence intervals, and thus, reduces significantly the computational cost compared to other methods based on instantaneous CSI which require frequent phase optimization. Among the insightful observations, we highlight that the unrealistic assumption of uncorrelated Rayleigh fading does not allow optimization of the SE, which makes the application of an IRS ineffective. Also, in the case that the phase drifts, describing the distortion of the phases in the RBM, are uniformly distributed, the presence of an IRS provides no advantage. The analytical results outperform previous works and are verified by Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations.


PCR-assisted binding site selection was used to define the sequence characteristics of high affinity YY1 binding sites. Compilation of the sequences of 189 selected oligonucleotides containing high affinity YY1 binding sites revealed two types of core sequence: ACAT and CCAT. ACAT cores were surrounded by other invariant nucleotides, forming the consensus GACATNTT. A search of the 73 kb human beta-like globin cluster with this consensus revealed eight matching motifs, six of which were located within 1-3 kb upstream of the gamma and beta genes. CCAT-type cores were more variable in surrounding sequence context; the consensus VDCCATNWY was found to fit 89% of the selected CCAT-containing oligonucleotides. A search of the human beta globin cluster with CCAT consensus sequences revealed 171 potential YY1 binding sites. Several of these were tested directly in gel shift assays and confirmed as high affinity YY1 binding sites. Finally, a strategy called motif-based phylogenetic analysis was employed to determine which of the 179 total sites are evolutionarily conserved. This analysis permits the detection of functionally conserved binding sites despite sequence differences present between the two species. The 21 conserved sites identified will serve as important starting points in further dissection of the possible role of YY1 in globin gene regulation.


Query optimizers rely on fast, high-quality estimates of result sizes in order to select between various join plans. Selfjoin sizes of relations provide bounds on the join size of any pairs of such relations. It also indicates the degree of skew in the data, and has been advocated for several estimation procedures. Exact computation of the self-join size requires storage proportional to, the number of distinct attribute values, which may be prohibitively large. In this paper, we study algorithms for tracking (approximate) self-join sizes in limited storage in the presence of insertions and deletions to the relations. Such algorithms detect changes in the degree of skew without an expensive recomputation from the base data. We show that an algorithm based on a tug-ofwar approach provides a more accurate estimation than one based on a sample-and-count approach which is in turn more accurate than a sampling-only approach. Next, we study algorithms for tracking (approximate) join sizes in limited storage; the goal is to maintain a small signature of each relation such that join sizes can be accurately estimated between any pairs of relations. We show that taking random samples for join signatures can lead to inaccurate estimation unless the sample size is quite large; moreover, by a lower bound we show, no other signature scheme can significantly improve upon sampling without further assumptions. These negative results are shown to hold even in the presence of sanity bounds. On the other hand, we present a join signature scheme based on tug-ofwar signatures that probvides guarantees on join size estimation as a function of t:he self-join sizes of the joining relations; this scheme can significantly improve upon the sampling scheme.


This paper extended the theory of planning behavior (ETPB) to examine the antecedents of consumer behavioral intention in order to explore the sustainable factors of a landscape restaurant. Following theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the related literature for landscape perception and preference, we initially developed a preliminary list of items, and after the expert review and pre-test, we employed a 33-item measure under a five-factor structure and collected a total of 395 valid questionnaires. The empirical results show that landscape perception and preference (LP&P), attitude (AT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavior control (PBC) have positive impacts, among which LP&P has the most significantly positive impact on consumer behavioral intention. Thus, ETPB helps contribute to the decision-making model of landscape restaurants. Lastly, we discuss managerial implications and future research directions.


There is some evidence that the Trp64Arg polymorphism of the beta3-adrenergic receptor (beta3-AR) is associated with atherogenic risk factors that include weight gain, insulin resistance, and diabetes. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the relationship between the Trp64Arg polymorphism and coronary artery disease (CAD). A total of 1,000 consecutive patients with angiographically confirmed CAD and 1,000 controls, carefully matched for age and sex, were genotyped for the Trp64Arg polymorphism by polymerase chain restriction and subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Among cases with CAD, 83.3% were wild-type Trp/Trp, 15.8% were heterozygotes, and 0.9% were homozygous Arg/Arg compared with 82.3%, 17.3%, and 0.4%, respectively, among controls (P = .27). The odds ratios for the presence of Trp/Arg and Arg/Arg in cases and controls were 0.90 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.7 to 1.2; P = .40) and 2.2 (95% CI 0.7 to 7.2; P = .17), respectively. There was no effect modification by gender and atherogenic risk factors, including diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and smoking. Furthermore, there was no evidence of an association with premature disease onset (< 40 years) or extent of disease. In conclusion, the results of this study in a large sample of clinically well-characterized patients indicate that neither the Trp/Arg nor the Arg/Arg genotype represents a major risk factor for angiographically confirmed coronary artery disease.


In order to improve the retrieval speed and precision of images, the improved algorithm of extraction of image color features based on the both RGB and HSV color models was proposed in this paper. The algorithm can remove the repetitious vectors of compost in quantization process. While evenly quantizing model space, we can bring the compression of dimensions of image color features into full play and guarantee not to lose the main components of color features for color image. Then using RBF neural network and incorporating the values of color features, the image retrieval can be performed. The experimental results show that the data model of image color features in precise and high effective terms can be established and described by this algorithm, and the satisfactory results are obtained by applying the algorithm to the recognition of metallographic pictures for metallic materials. In addition, the algorithm can also be used in the evaluation of the discoloration of metallic casting alloys.


ET plays an important role in the energy exchange mass transfer between the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. ET is a critical variable in hydrological modeling and provides important boundary conditions for weather prediction. Environment and Disasters Monitoring Microsatellite Constellation of A and B star (HJ-1A/B), which was developed by China, has high space and temporary resolution and is widely used. In this paper, SEBS model and Priestley-Taylor Equation combined with Ts-NDVI feature space are used to estimate ET of Heihe River basin. The remote sensing data including visible and infrared data are acquired by HJ-1A/B satellites. We use GLDAS ET product as validation data. By comparison, the results show that HJ-1A/B data can be effectively used to estimate ET.


This book covers the basic probability of distributions with an emphasis on applications from the areas of investments, insurance, and engineering. Written by a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries with many years of experience as a university professor and industry practitioner, the book is suitable as a text for senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students in mathematics, statistics, actuarial science, finance, or engineering as well as a reference for practitioners in these fields. The book is particularly well suited for students preparing for professional exams, and for several years it has been recommended as a textbook on the syllabus of examinations for the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries. In addition to covering the standard topics and probability distributions, this book includes separate sections on more specialized topics such as mixtures and compound distributions, distributions of transformations, and the application of specialized distributions such as the Pareto, beta, and Weibull. The book also has a number of unique features such as a detailed description of the celebrated Markowitz investment portfolio selection model. A separate section contains information on how graphs of the specific distributions studied in the book can be created using Mathematica[trademark]. The book includes a large number of problems of varying difficulty. A student manual with solutions to selected problems are available. An instructor's manual with complete solutions to all the problems as well as supplementary material is available to teachers using the book as the text for the class.


The Fe-Based Al2O3-TiC Ceramic Composite was fabricated by combining the methods of Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis with casting. The microstructures of ceramic layer and interface were characterized via SEM, EDS and X-ray diffraction. The Results show that the microstructure of ceramic layer is dense, and the in-situ Al2O3 and TiC particles with size of 1-2 μm are distributed on the ferrite matrix. The hardness of compact ceramic layer reaches 48HRC, and it has graded distribution from ceramic layer to the ferrite matrix. The composite interface between ceramic and matrix is compact, and takes on flexuous. The composite material bonds in a metallographic manner, with high bonding strength.


Manufacturing processes based on cutting have been extensively automated over the past 30–40 years leading to greatly increased flexibility of operation. In contrast, processes based on ductile forming have largely remained dependent on fixed tooling and lack flexibility. Recent innovations have shown that forming can also be made flexible, by new process configurations typically using simpler and smaller tools with increased (and controllable) freedom of motion. In order to facilitate development of such flexible forming processes, this paper examines the possibility that all such processes can be predicted and organized so that subsequent process development may be based on selection rather than invention. The approach taken is based on Zwicky's "morphological analysis," in which the features of a design are parameterized and an exhaustive search is conducted, with appropriate constraints used to reject infeasible designs. As an example of this approach, the process of ring rolling is explored, and a "periodic table" of 102 "elemental" ring rolling machines is presented. The combination of elements into compounds is described, and the use of the table for development of practical flexible machines is discussed. Having applied this approach to the example of ring rolling, its likely value in exploring other processes is discussed.


Background: COVID-19 is associated with higher morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic liver diseases (CLDs). However, our understanding of the long-term outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with CLD is limited. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, observational cohort study of adult patients with CLD who were diagnosed with COVID-19 before May 30, 2020, to determine long-term clinical outcomes. We used a control group of patients with CLD confirmed negative for COVID-19. Results: We followed 666 patients with CLD (median age 58 years, 52.8% male) for a median of 384 (interquartile range: 31–462) days. The long-term mortality was 8.1%; with 3.6% experiencing delayed COVID-19-related mortality. Compared to a propensity-matched control group of patients with CLD without COVID-19 (n=1332), patients with CLD with COVID-19 had worse long-term survival [p<0.001; hazards ratio (HR): 1.69; 95% CI: 1.19–2.41] and higher rate of hospitalization (p<0.001, HR: 2.00, 1.62–2.48) over a 1-year follow-up period. Overall, 29.9% of patients reported symptoms of long-COVID-19. On multivariable analysis, female sex (p=0.05, HR: 2.45, 1.01–2.11), Hispanic ethnicity (p=0.003, HR: 1.94, 1.26–2.99), and severe COVID-19 requiring mechanical ventilation (p=0.028, HR: 1.74, 1.06–2.86) predicted long-COVID-19. In survivors, liver-related laboratory parameters showed significant improvement after COVID-19 resolution. COVID-19 vaccine status was available for 72% (n=470) of patients with CLD and history of COVID-19, of whom, 70% (n=326) had received the COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusions: Our large, longitudinal, multicenter study demonstrates a high burden of long-term mortality and morbidity in patients with CLD and COVID-19. Symptoms consistent with long-COVID-19 were present in 30% of patients with CLD. These results illustrate the prolonged implications of COVID-19 both for recovering patients and for health care systems.


Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of metabolic disorders such as abdominal obesity, hypertension, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia and hepatic steatosis that contribute to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. There is an urgent need for strategies to prevent this emerging global epidemic. Recently, growing interest in discovering food functional nutrients for the prevention and treatment of MS has generated. In the present study, sea cucumber cerebrosides (SCC) and the main structural units, long-chain bases (LCB), were prepared from Acaudina molpadioides and then administered to high fat (HF) diet-induced obese C57BL/6J mice at a diet supplement dosage of 0.025% for 5 weeks to evaluate their effects on obesity-related metabolic disorders. SCC and LCB significantly decreased epididymal adipose tissue weights, lowered hepatic triacylglycerol levels, and reduced serum glucose, insulin levels and HOMA-IR index in mice. The activities of hepatic lipogenetic enzymes including FAS, ME and the mRNA levels of SREBP-1c and FAS were reduced by SCC and LCB treatment. However, SCC and LCB showed no effect on the hepatic lipolysis pathway. Besides, SCC and LCB also efficiently up-regulated the gene expression of SREBP-1c, FAS, ACC, ATGL and HSL, and down-regulated the gene expression of LPL and VLDL-r in the adipose tissue. These results demonstrated that SCC and LCB were efficacious in suppressing hepatic SREBP-1c mediated lipogenesis, inhibiting lipid uptake and increasing TG catabolism in the adipose tissue. The ameliorative degree and regulatory mechanisms of these two compounds were basically the same, suggesting that LCB are the key active structural units. Such findings would offer new insight into the application of SCC or LCB in the development of functional foods for preventing MS in humans.


More than two-thirds of the total population of people with disabilities live in low and middle income countries and are one of the poorest and most marginalized groups in society. However, due to the dearth of data, research on disabilities and poverty is rare. With this paper, we intend to fill this void by examining the factors related to the poverty of people with and without disabilities in Nepal, using the nationally representative dataset Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS-2010/2011). For the analysis, we use the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures. Results show that figures for poverty headcount, incidence and severity are higher among people with disabilities compared to their counterparts without disabilities, indicating that they are more vulnerable to fall into the poverty trap. One striking finding is that persons with disabilities having at least 10 years of schooling are found to be not poor, justifying the greater need for investment in the education of individuals with disabilities. Additionally, males without disabilities are poorer than their female counterparts. This is not the case for females with disabilities who are poorer than their male counterparts, suggesting the likelihood of women with disabilities facing dual discrimination – both as a woman and a person with disabilities. Likewise, regardless of disability status, persons living in rural areas, having lower levels of education, less land and deprived of access to various facilities are found to be poorer. Furthermore, people classified to be in a low caste are the poorest among all groups. These findings thus suggest the importance of addressing the issue of persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups in development efforts to reduce poverty and to make development inclusive and sustainable.


The modified API 20C system (Analytab Products, Inc.) containing 19 carbohydrate assimilation tests was used to identify stock cultures of clinical isolates and routine clinical isolates from the Mayo Clinic mycology laboratory. The system provided correct identifications for 96% of the 505 organisms tested. The API 20C represents a commercial system useful for the identification of yeasts from clinical specimens. Although reliable, it is not a complete system and must be used in conjunction with microscopic morphological features for definitive identification. Since the system requires 72 h for identification, it is not designed for the rapid presumptive identification of such organisms as Cryptococcus neoformans; other biochemical tests must be used for this purpose.


In the developing peripheral nervous system, neuronal survival and axonal growth are regulated to a large extent by neurotrophic factors acting via intracellular signalling cascades that are not fully understood. Here, I describe crucial roles for the nuclear factor-kappa B (NFκB) transcription cascade and the cellular oxygen sensor proline hydroxylase domain 3 (PHD3) in the regulation of axonal growth and neuronal survival during the phase of target field innervation, and I describe a novel role for purinergic signalling in promoting neuronal survival at a later stage of development. Using sensory neurons of the nodose ganglion, I show that distinct NFκB activation mechanisms are responsible for neurite growth promoted by ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Whereas a non-canonical NFκB signalling pathway that requires tyrosine phosphorylation of IkBo. is crucial for CNTF-promoted growth, canonical signalling that requires serine phosphorylation of IicBa contributes to BDNF-promoted growth. Using sympathetic neurons of the superior cervical ganglion of wild type and PHD3-deficient mice, I show that PHD3 exerts a negative regulatory effect on neuronal survival and neurite growth, implicating oxygen sensitive pathways in the regulation of sympathetic neuron development. Despite increased numbers of sympathetic neurons in PHD3-deficient mice there was decreased target innervation density and defective sympathetic function. Finally, in nodose neurons I describe roles for depolarization and purinergic signalling in promoting neuronal survival during a window of development as the neurons begin to lose their dependence on BDNF for survival.


Electricity and gas industries are major industries in the Australian economy. Significant reforms were initiated in these industries in the early 1990s, with a core objective of improving their efficiencies through recourse to market competition. Further, these reforms were being undertaken separately for each industry, in total disregard of the relationship that may exist between these two industries. Several studies have alluded to the need for examining the nature of this relationship as it may provide useful insights for developing more meaningful reform program for each of these industries. This paper is an attempt in that direction. This relationship is examined both through qualitative (historical) and quantitative analyses. The qualitative analysis is supported by cross price elasticities of demand between electricity and gas, at the national and state levels. These elasticities are estimated using simultaneous demand functions for electricity and gas. While this paper focuses on Australia, its findings should be relevant for other countries that are in the process of reforming their electricity and gas industries.


This paper presents a new way of recycling aluminum and iron in boiler slag derived from coal combustion plants for the production of a sulfate-based complex coagulant containing ferric sulfate and aluminum sulfate. The boiler slag sample was determined for more complete characterization by means of scanning electron microscopy(SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD), X-ray fluorescence(XRF) and other techniques. An analysis for the boiler slag sample collected from Baotou Steel Plant located in Inner Mongolia, PR China showed that the quantity of iron and aluminum oxides, in general, accounted for about 35% of the boiler slag. XRD analysis indicates that predominate minerals such as kaolinite, quartz, calcium silicide, hematate and metakoalin exist in this boiler slag. This boiler salg was evaluated to determine the efficiency of converting the iron and aluminum components of the material into a sulfate-based complex coagulant when heated with sulfuric acid at different temperatures and reaction times. The maximum concentrations of Fe3+ and Al3+ in the complex coagulant prepared from the boiler slag were obtained at 130 and after 3 h of reaction time. These concentrations were 0.04 M Fe3+ and 0.46 M Al3+, respectively. The corresponding conversion efficiencies of aluminum and iron were 66.2 and 95.0% in the boiler slag, respectively. Finally, the prepared sulfate-based complex coagulant proved to be an effective agent for reducing the turbidity and chemical oxygen demand(COD) of a typical domestic sewage sample.


My first aim is to present the state of burn care during the few years before the Battle of Britain in August-October 1940. This gives the climate of thought in which McIndoe and his collegues faced the challenge of burns. We are inclined to forget the helplessness of surgeons faced with extensive burns at that time. Some of the great changes in burn management in the past 40 years are then described and a claim is made that the results show a real improvement in treatment.


The article presents a synthesis of data from three village case studies focusing on how structural and cognitive social capital may have influenced the progression of the HIV epidemic in the Kagera region of Tanzania. Grounded theory was used to develop a theoretical model describing the possible links between structural and cognitive social capital and the impact on sexual health behaviours. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were carried out to represent the range of experiences of existing social capital. Both structural and cognitive social capital were active avenues for community members to come together, empower each other, and develop norms, values, trust and reciprocal relations. This empowerment created an enabling environment in which members could adopt protective behaviours against HIV infection. On the one hand, we observed that involvement in formal and informal organisations resulted in a reduction of numbers of sexual partners, led people to demand abstinence from sexual relations until marriage, caused fewer opportunities for casual sex, and gave individuals the agency to demand the use of condoms. On the other hand, strict membership rules and regulations excluded some members, particularly excessive alcohol drinkers and debtors, from becoming members of the social groups, which increased their vulnerability in terms of exposure to HIV. Social gatherings (especially those organised during the night) were also found to increase youths' risk of HIV infection through instances of unsafe sex. We conclude that even though social capital may at times have negative effects on individuals' HIV-prevention efforts, this study provides initial evidence that social capital is largely protective through empowering vulnerable groups such as women and the poor to protect against HIV infection and by promoting protective sexual behaviours.


In 2014, after 150 years of continuous existence, the Lucerne Jewish community hardly exists. The decline of the Jewish community in Lucerne is mirrored in many places throughout Switzerland. There are fewer than 18,000 Jews in Switzerland, while the number of Swiss Jews in Israel is estimated at some 14,000, with many younger and more committed Jews relocating there. The Swiss Jewish community is shrinking at an alarming rate and has far less influence than in previous years.


The high rate of hospital acquired infections caused by pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa as an opportunistic infection is currently a serious global health problem. The problem is not only with the diseases caused by this organism but with the rate at which this organism develops resistance to some vital antimicrobial agents. This increase in resistance of P. aeruginosa in recent times underscores the need to search for an alternative antimicrobial agent. This study was therefore, designed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of colloidal silver concentrate against some strains of pathogenic P. aeruginosa isolated from post operation eye wound infection, using agar- well diffusion, broth dilution and the killing rate kinetics methods. The results showed that colloidal silver concentrate have an antibacterial activity against pathogenic P. aeruginosa and the killing rate kinetics studies reveal that the test organisms were completely killed within 90 min. Further exploitation of colloidal silver for the treatment of multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa infections is hereby suggested.


MicroRNAs have been shown to act as oncogenes or tumor suppressers via various cellular pathways. Specifically, in breast cancer, upregulation of miR-10b is positively associated with aggressiveness of tumors. However, the mechanism by which miR-10b contributes to cell malignancy is largely unknown. Here we show that at the receiving end of the miR-10b pathway is the proto-oncogene c-Jun, a transcription factor that plays a critical role in stimulation of cell proliferation and tumor progression. c-Jun is known to be translationally activated by loss of cell contacts or restructuring of the cytoskeleton. A comprehensive analysis of miRNA expression exhibited a significant increase in miR-10b expression. This was supported by analysis of breast cancer cells, which showed that loss of E-cadherin in metastatic cells is accompanied by elevation of miR-10b and interestingly, by a marked increase in accumulation of c-Jun. Silencing miR-10b in metastatic breast cancer cells leads to a decline in c-Jun expression, whereas overexpression of miR-10b in HaCaT cells is sufficient to elevate the accumulation of c-Jun. The increase in c-Jun protein accumulation in metastatic cells is not accompanied by an increase in c-Jun mRNA and is not dependent on MAPK activity. Knockdown and overexpression experiments revealed that the increase is mediated by NF1 and RhoC, downstream targets of miR-10b that affect cytoskeletal dynamics through the ROCK pathway. Overall, we show the ability of miR-10b to activate the expression of c-Jun through RhoC and NF1, which represents a novel pathway for promoting migration and invasion of human cancer cells.


Vector Lyapunov theory has been developed to weaken the hypothesis of standard Lyapunov theory in order to enlarge the class of Lyapunov functions that can be used for analyzing system stability. In this paper, we provide generalizations to the recent extensions of vector Lyapunov theory for continuous-time systems to address stability and control design of impulsive dynamical systems via vector Lyapunov functions. Specifically, we provide a generalized comparison principle involving hybrid comparison dynamics that are dependent on comparison system states as well as the nonlinear impulsive dynamical system states. Furthermore, we develop stability results for impulsive dynamical systems that involve vector Lyapunov functions and hybrid comparison inequalities. Based on these results, we show that partial stability for state-dependent impulsive dynamical systems can be addressed via vector Lyapunov functions. Furthermore, we extend the novel notion of control vector Lyapunov functions to impulsive dynamical systems. Using control vector Lyapunov functions, we present a universal decentralized feedback stabilizer for a decentralized affine in the control nonlinear impulsive dynamical system. These results are then used to develop decentralized controllers for large-scale impulsive dynamical systems with robustness guarantees against full modeling uncertainty


Oviposition site selection is a critical fitness enhancing decision for container breeding insects. Predators have typically been shown to repel gravid females whereas conspecifics have been shown to be attractive at low-intermediate densities but repellent at high densities resulting in hump-shaped relations. The interaction of these two factors has, unfortunately, rarely been studied. In this study, I addressed this question by testing the effect of dragonfly nymphs as larval predators, conspecifics, and their combination on the oviposition response of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. I expected a negative effect of predators, a hump-shaped effect of conspecifics, and a rightward shift in the peak of the hump in the presence of larval predators. I used three levels (0, 1, 3) of caged Odonata (dragonfly) nymphs and a range of predetermined conspecific larvae numbers (0, 10, 50, 100, 300, 500). I used two experimental designs: (1) Six 3-by-6 oviposition traps grids each containing all 18 predator-by-larvae combinations; (2) Three transects containing 12 pairs of oviposition traps with both cups containing a similar number of larvae, but one containing a given level (0, 1, 3) of caged nymphs. In the latter, I also cultured a sample of the water medium to evaluate bacterial concentration. Hump-shaped relations of egg number with conspecifics was observed at the grid design for the one nymph level and for the transect design at nymph level zero. The effect predator level on oviposition response was either non-significant or, unexpectedly positive. Due to increased larval mortality in the predator cups, I could not evaluate the third hypothesis concerning the combined effect of conspecifics and predators. Bacterial concentration was negatively associated with number of eggs laid. The absence or positive effect of dragonfly nymphs on Ae. albopictus oviposition response is encouraging in terms of its usage as a biocontrol agent for container breeding mosquitoes which in combination with low-intermediate levels of conspecifics could be attractive to gravid female mosquitoes. Their offspring, in turn, will be decimated by the control agent.


In order to ensure a sustainable space environment for future generations a strategy for all spacefarers must be developed in order to mitigate the growth of the space debris population. To this end, this preliminary analysis is the first step towards the development of a cost-efficient but highly reliable PMD (Post Mission Disposal) module. This PMD module will be attached to the spacecraft on ground and will ensure the removal of the spacecraft at the end of the nominal operational lifetime or act as a removal back-up in the case of loss of control of the spacecraft. The PMD module will be scalable and flexible, enabling the PMD of any future spacecraft in an Earth orbit. Ultimately, the gap between the 90% PMD success rate required by ISO 24113:2011(E) and the current success rate of 50%-60% can be closed. A survey of de- and re-orbit techniques and concepts was carried out and a taxonomy of approximately 40 concepts, including 12 which do not appear in the literature, is presented. A qualitative analysis was carried out on the concepts identified in the taxonomy, and a comparison matrix was built including 12 different comparison metrics. The 5 most promising concepts for the PMD module were down-selected from this matrix. These concepts were: drag augmentation, solar sailing, electrodynamic tether, low thrust propulsion and high thrust propulsion. A further 3 additional concepts were also defined by considering combinations of the down-selected concepts. A quantitative analysis of the down-selected concepts was performed using a purpose built analytical analysis tool. This tool was designed to rapidly predict re-entry epochs of space objects, given specific mission parameters. The analytical nature of this tool allowed for a Monte Carlo analysis, resulting in trade-off analyses within and between the different concepts for various mission parameters. The output of the quantitative analysis provided preliminary mission parameters, systems sizing and trade-off data on each of the down-selected concepts and combination concepts. From this analysis it was concluded that each system had its advantages, and challenges, so recommendations were made on how each system could be used to its maximum potential and which systems were more effective than others in specific situations. The most prominent of these results were the need for the PMD to de-tumble the spacecraft prior to deployment of the removal system, and the fact that none of the down-selected concepts were recommended for use in long term missions.


Background According to projected estimates, India will bear 60% of the world's cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden by the year 2020. CVD mortality rates are high in South India compared with the rest of India. Objective The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of behavioural, biological and metabolic risk factors in different age groups of rural South Indians undergoing coronary interventions under a governmental health insurance scheme. Methods This study includes 1294 patients who underwent coronary interventions. Age, gender and anthropometric measurements were recorded. History of hypertension, diabetes, smoking and family history of ischaemic heart disease was obtained from every subject. Physical activity was assessed using a General Practise physical activity questionnaire. Investigations like haemogram, blood urea, serum creatinine, fasting and postprandial blood glucose, lipid profile and echocardiography were carried out for all patients. Results Hypertension was found in 65% patients, 32.38% had diabetes mellitus, 41.65% were smokers (current and former), 37.17% had dyslipidemia, 31.06% had body mass index more than 25 kg/m, 27.04% were physically active, 37% had left ventricular dysfunction, and 8.57% had renal impairment ( table 1). Statistically significant differences were seen in the prevalence rates of different risk factors in the compared age groups (p=<0.05) except for hypertension and dyslipidemia (p=0.596 and 0.306). Conclusions Risks to health, as an area of study, has recently begun to receive attention in developing countries including India. Population-based strategies aimed at bringing down risk factor levels in the community can translate into major public health benefits.


Magnesium alloys containing long-period-stacking ordered (LPSO) phases have attracted considerable attention because they have been reported to exhibit excellent mechanical properties, including high strength and reasonable ductility. It is thought that the LPSO phase plays a critical role in producing these favorable mechanical properties. We analyze the deformation behavior of the LPSO phases with different stacking sequences using molecular dynamics simulations. To highlight the specific deformation behavior of the LPSO phases, we also perform deformation analyses of hexagonal-close-packed and face-centered-cubic (FCC) structures. We focus on the influence of the stacking order rather than the segregated atoms around the FCC-structured layers, and we model an LPSO structure by single element composition where the interatomic interaction is described by a smoothed Lennard-Jones potential. Our simulations indicate that an LPSO structure with a shorter stacking sequence tends to exhibit a higher compressive flow stress, because FCC-structured layers inhibit twinning deformations and non-basal slips. Kinking deformation is observed for an LPSO structure when both compression and shear deformation are present. It is shown that the first-order pyramidal-hcþ ai dislocation disarranges the stacking of an LPSO structure and leaves behind many lattice defects. In addition, those lattice defects activate numerous basal slips. Finally, basal dislocations arrange in a line and generate a misorientation angle. Furthermore, this angle originates the compressive deformation. We also observed some prismatic-hai dislocations and cross slips to the basal plane. These results suggest the importance of non-basal slips for kinking deformation. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MI201211]


Date Presented 04/05/19
 The purpose of this study was to compare parent and school personnel perspectives regarding transition needs and approaches for youth with ASD. The findings provide insight into: (a) parents' and school personnel's desired outcomes; and (b) a tension between developing consistency and routines as well as the ability to adapt to changes and participate in novel experiences or situations. These findings raise important theoretical questions related to our current approaches to working with these students.
 Primary Author and Speaker: Jennifer Chen
 Contributing Authors: Ellen Cohn, Gael Orsmond


Volume expansion often ameliorates symptoms of orthostatic intolerance; however, the influence of this increased volume on integrated baroreflex control of vascular sympathetic activity is unknown. We tested whether acute increases in central venous pressure (CVP) diminished subsequent responsiveness of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) to rapid changes in arterial pressure. We studied healthy humans under three separate conditions: control, acute 10 degrees head-down tilt (HDT), and saline infusion (SAL). In each condition, heart rate, arterial pressure, CVP, and peroneal MSNA were measured during 5 min of rest and then during rapid changes in arterial pressure induced by sequential boluses of nitroprusside and phenylephrine (modified Oxford technique). Sensitivities of integrated baroreflex control of MSNA and heart rate were assessed as the slopes of the linear portions of the MSNA-diastolic blood pressure and R-R interval-systolic pressure relations, respectively. CVP increased approximately 2 mmHg in both SAL and HDT conditions. Resting heart rate and mean arterial pressure were not different among trials. Sensitivity of baroreflex control of MSNA was decreased in both SAL and HDT condition, respectively: -3.1 +/- 0.6 and -3.3 +/- 1.0 versus -5.0 +/- 0.6 units.beat(-1).mmHg(-1) (P < 0.05 for SAL and HDT vs. control). Sensitivity of baroreflex control of the heart was not different among conditions. Our results indicate that small increases in CVP decrease the sensitivity of integrated baroreflex control of sympathetic nerve activity in healthy humans.


Today, security issues are increased due to huge data transmissions over communication media such as mobile phones, TV cables, online games, Wi-Fi and satellite transmission etc. for uses such as medical, military or entertainment. This creates a challenge for government and commercial companies to keep these data transmissions secure. Traditional secure ciphers, either block ciphers such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) or stream ciphers, are not fast or completely secure. However, the unique properties of a chaotic system, such as structure complexity, deterministic dynamics, random output response and extreme sensitivity to the initial condition, make it motivating for researchers in the field of communication system security. These properties establish an increased relationship between chaos and cryptography that create strong and fast cipher compared to conventional algorithms, which are weak and slow ciphers. Additionally, chaotic synchronisation has sparked many studies on the application of chaos in communication security, for example, the chaotic synchronisation between two different systems in which the transmitter (master system) is driving the receiver (slave system) by its output signal.
For this reason, it is essential to design a secure communication system for data transmission in noisy environments that robust to different types of attacks (such as a brute force attack). In this thesis, a digital communication system with high immunity and security, based on a Lorenz stream cipher chaotic signal, has been perfectly applied.
A new cryptosystem approach based on Lorenz chaotic systems was designed for secure data transmission. The system uses a stream cipher, in which the encryption key varies continuously in a chaotic manner. Furthermore, one or more of the parameters of the Lorenz generator is controlled by an auxiliary chaotic generator for increased security. In this thesis, the two Lorenz chaotic systems are called the Main Lorenz Generator and the Auxiliary Lorenz Generator. The system was designed using the SIMULINK tool. The system performance in the presence of noise was tested, and the simulation results are provided. Then, the clock-recovery technique is presented, with real-time results of the clock recovery. The receiver demonstrated its ability to recover and lock the clock successfully. Furthermore, the technique for synchronisation between two separate FPGA boards (transmitter and receiver) is detailed, in which the master system transmits specific data to trigger a slave system in order to run synchronously. The real-time results are provided, which show the achieved synchronisation. The receiver was able to recover user data without error, and the real-time results are listed.
The randomness test (NIST) results of the Lorenz chaotic signals are also given. Finally, the security analysis determined the system to have a high degree of security compared to other communication systems.


Many recent advances in sparse coding led its wide adoption in signal processing, pattern classification, and object recognition applications. Even with improved performance in state-of-the-art algorithms and the hardware platform of CPUs/GPUs, solving a sparse coding problem still requires expensive computations, making real-time large-scale learning a very challenging problem. In this paper, we cooptimize algorithm, architecture, circuit, and device for real-time energy-efficient on-chip hardware acceleration of sparse coding. The principle of hardware acceleration is to recognize the properties of learning algorithms, which involve many parallel operations of data fetch and matrix/vector multiplication/addition. Today's von Neumann architecture, however, is not suitable for such parallelization, due to the separation of memory and the computing unit that makes sequential operations inevitable. Such principle drives both the selection of algorithms and the design evolution from CPU to CMOS application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) to parallel architecture with resistive crosspoint array (PARCA) that we propose. The CMOS ASIC scheme implements sparse coding with SRAM dictionaries and all-digital circuits, and PARCA employs resistive-RAM dictionaries with special read and write circuits. We show that 65 nm implementation of the CMOS ASIC and PARCA scheme accelerates sparse coding computation by 394 and 2140×, respectively, compared to software running on a eight-core CPU. Simulated power for both hardware schemes lie in the milli-Watt range, making it viable for portable single-chip learning applications.


Optimization of multiprocessor systems relies heavily on the efficient design of on-chip routing algorithms. Adaptive routing appears to have an extremely significant role in the performance of the Networks-on-Chip. In this paper, a deadlock-free and highly adaptive minimal routing method (HOE) is proposed. Although the Hamiltonian Adaptive Multicast Unicast Model (HAMUM) is able to support a high degree of adaptiveness, it cannot exploit some of the potential alternative paths in routing. By prohibiting the minimum number of turns, our proposed method strives to find the maximum number of alternative paths between each pair of source and destination nodes, without using virtual channels. HOE has also been applied to the Column-Path (CP) routing algorithm to improve its characteristics. The simulation results validate the flexibility of our approach in choosing the appropriate routing path depending on the congestion condition of the network. The better performance of the proposed method is due to its higher degree of adaptiveness which results in less vulnerability to nonuniform factors and a better traffic distribution all over the network.


In this paper a new, efficient method is worked out for the interpretation of self-potential field data. Interpretation of location, depth and dip of the ore body is made, using a pattern of equipotential lines. The negative center and the positive maximum of the potential are found and also the so-called "mid-value" point. The dip α, can be determined accurately for values between 5° and 85°. The method cannot be used for vertical polarization. The depth and location can be found with relative accuracy for α>10°. The main advantage of this new method is the ease of interpretation and a greater accuracy for the high-dip angles.

It should be stressed that, for correct and accurate interpretation, the positive maximum is as important as the negative center. Therefore, it should be carefully sought during the field work, and mapped to its full extent.


Although progesterone vaginal suppositories (hospital-formulated) are used for the treatment of infertility, their half-life is so short that multiple doses are required. In this study, we aimed to develop sustained-release vaginal suppositories suitable for clinical use which maintain an effective blood concentration by once-a-day treatment, and prepared 7 types of suppository containing the sustained-release progesterone tablets to characterize their sustained-release performance. We selected one candidate suppository among them, taking recovery rate, reproducibility, and hardness, as well as the sustained-release performance into consideration. The shell of the selected suppository is composed of VOSCO S-55 and progesterone for rapid release. The molded progesterone tablets for sustained release were embedded inside. The distribution of the weight and content of the suppository was limited, and the release rate of progesterone was significantly slower than that of a conventional progesterone suppository prepared in our hospital. The single-dose administration of the selected suppository to five healthy volunteers led to significant extension of the blood concentration. We also confirmed the rise of the basic value by multiple administration. The simulation comparison suggested that the blood progesterone concentration is controlled by once-a-day administration of the selected suppository better than twice-a-day administration of the conventional suppository. In conclusion, the sustained-release vaginal suppository prepared in this study was considered to be useful for clinical treatment.


It was results show that nicosulfuron and Atrazine with the different ratio have the synergized action to plants of the monocotyledon and double seed leaf weed by the indoor bioassay of crabgrass (Digitaria ciliaris) and purslane. When Atrazine: nicosulfuron = 17:3 ratio of compatibility, the co-toxicity coefficient is the largest and showing an enhancement effect of the most significant. The 20% nicosulfuron and Atrazine of Oil Miscible Flowable Concentrate was processed by ultrafine grinding in the wetting emulsifier, dispersant, thickener, solvent, were screened test to decide the best formula. This preparation showed after (0±1)°C low temperature and (54±2)°C thermostble experiment's result the outward appearance not obvious lamination, in the water the dispersivity is good, each target conforms to the Oil-based Suspension related standard.


Advances in the knowledge regarding celiac disease have enabled the development of diagnostic markers, such as anti-tissue transglutaminase and anti-deaminated gliadin antibodies. The wide availability of these antibodies, genetic studies of HLA-DQ and duodenal biopsies constitute the pillars necessary for a definitive diagnosis. However, difficulties sometimes arise in both the diagnosis and follow-up of celiac patients, which cannot be resolved using these tools. This article reviews the scientific evidence and possible clinical utility of different biomarkers. This review is structured according to biomarkers that have been evaluated pathophysiologically in relation to intestinal damage or immune response and their potential clinical utility in the diagnosis and follow-up of celiac disease patients.


In the present study, impact behavior of Kevlar/Epoxy composite plates has been carried out experimentally by considering different thicknesses and lay-up sequences and compared with analytical results. The effect of thickness, lay-up sequence on energy absorbing capacity has been studied for high velocity impact. Four lay-up sequences and four thickness values have been considered. Initial velocities and residual velocities are measured experimentally to calculate the energy absorbing capacity of laminates. Residual velocity of projectile and energy absorbed by laminates are calculated analytically. The results obtained from analytical study are found to be in good agreement with experimental results. It is observed from the study that 0/90 lay-up sequence is most effective for impact resistance. Delamination area is maximum on the back side of the plate for all thickness values and lay-up sequences. The delamination area on the back is maximum for 0/90/45/-45 laminates compared to other lay-up sequences.


Aim To study the biological effect and molecular mechanism of neotoralactone on lipid metabolism in HepG2 cells. Methods Animal experiments were carried out to examine the biological effects of the compound. Differentiation assay was carried out to determine the effect of the compound on the 3T3-L1 preadipocyte. Finally, a high-density cDNA microarray containing about 10 000 human genes and ESTs were used to analyze the gene expression profiles of the HepG2 cells with and without neotoralactone treatment. Results Preliminary results showed that neotoralactone can decrease the increase of body weight of rats fed with high nutrient diet. As the differentiation assay showed that neotoralactone has minimal effect on the obese 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cell line, HepG2 heptocarcinoma cell line was used as the model system because one of the proposed mechanisms of weight reduction effect of Cassia obtusifolia is the alteration of lipid metabolism primarily taken place in the liver. The results showed that neotoralactone regulates a panel of genes related to lipid metabolism. Conclusion The effects of neotoralactone may be due to the regulation of a panel of important genes related to lipid metabolism.


Novel coatings have been designed to solve problems associated with biofouling of marine structures, particularly ship hulls. The best candidates to date are multilayered coatings incorporating silicone rubber technology. These materials are efficient because they exhibit excellent release properties. However, they are very soft and tend to be more susceptible to various forms of mechanical damage. Fundamental analysis of the durability of these coatings has been done using standard laboratory tests. Simulative studies are essential to screen candidates as well as to predict the true life of the systems. The goal of this project was to develop a testing protocol for the evaluation of the durability of elastomeric easy release coatings and to implement it on selected candidate coatings. A brushing apparatus was designed and built to simulate the cleaning processes of ship hulls. Wear was measured with profilometry. The proposed methodology is valuable to study the processes of wear of the coatings, to screen various materials and to identify parameters, either functional or material, which would directly affect their durability. Two groups of candidate coatings were tested: the EXS series and the NRL series. The EXS series samples showed better wear resistance than the NRL series samples and showed no dependence on the rotational speed of the brushes. The NRL series samples showed that increasing the sliding speed resulted in a decrease in wear. An increase in the applied load resulted in increased wear for both sample series. The effect of coating thickness was also investigated and discrimination between the proposed coatings could not be established because the tips of the bristles were sharp and irregular. Scratches matching


In this paper, we focus on a useful modeling concept that is frequently ignored while formu lating discrete optimization problems. Very often, there exists a natural symmetry inherent in the problem itself that, if propagated to the model, can hopelessly mire a branch-and-bound solver by burdening it to explore and eliminate such alternative symmetric solutions. We discuss three applications where such a symmetry arises: a telecommunications network design problem, a noise pollution problem, and a machine procurement and operation problem. For each case, we identify the indistinguishable objects in the model that create the problem symmetry and show how imposing certain decision hierarchies within the model significantly enhances its solvability, while using a popular modern-day commercial branch-and-cut software (CPLEX 6.5).