This paper will aim to answer three questions: (1) Are girls absent from school during their periods? (2) If so, how large is the effect of menstruation on absenteeism? (3) Do the effects differ by socio-economic status (SES)? A large body of research examines the barriers that girls face to schooling, yet little is known about menstruation in particular as an obstacle for school attendance. The few existing studies indicate that menstruation does have repercussions for girl's school attendance . This paper contributes to the literature by using a large provincial dataset to estimate the influence of menstruation on the school attendance of girls in Limpopo. The data, school administration data of the Department of Basic Education (SA-SAMS data), is collected quarterly from schools as part of the Data Driven Districts (DDD) initiative, which resulted from a partnership between the Department of Basic Education and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. The DDD programme aims to provide access to high quality, visualised education performance data across the country. Research on Socio-Economic Policy (ReSEP) has been asked to undertake some analysis of this underlying data to illustrate its potential use for research. The SA-SAMS data includes detailed data on absenteeism for most schools in Limpopo, one of South Africa's poorest provinces. Reasons for absenteeism are not reported, and it is therefore unclear when absenteeism is menstruation-related. In this paper, we develop a structural model to identify whether there are patterns in older girls' absenteeism that could be explained by menstruation. The model is estimated with maximum likelihood methods and is applied to two control groups: girls before they have reached menarche, and boys. The results of the model are compared across these three groups and by school socio-economic status The results indicate that menstruation causes absenteeism for young girls (12-13 year olds in the poorest 60% of schools and 10-11 year olds in the richest 40%), but that older girls do not have a higher probability of being absent during their menses. These results imply that encountering


A few investigations of finite‐element method (FEM) application to the analysis of the middle ear have already been reported [Funnell et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 81, 1851–1859 (1987); K. R. Williams and T. H. J. Lesser, Br. J. Audiol. 24, 319–327 (1990)]. However, in the models of these studies, ossicles and middle ear cavities were neglected, and their effects on the dynamic behavior of the middle ear have not been analyzed. In this study, first, applying the authors' own FEM program, a three‐dimensional FEM model of a human auditory periphery was established. Then, vibration modes and transfer functions of the middle ear were obtained. The following conclusions can be drawn. (1) The vibration mode of the tympanic membrane and ossicles changes considerably due to the elastic ligament support of the ossicles. (2) This change enables the transfer function of the middle ear to keep flat. (3) The effect of the cavities on the dynamic behavior of the middle ear is large; the amplitude of the tympanic membrane...


The differences in monooxygenase activities between the fuzzy rat, a variant of the hairless rat, and the Sprague-Dawley rat were examined. Benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase and benzphetamine N-demethylase activities and cytochrome P-450 contents were significantly lower in the livers of fuzzy rats than in the livers of the Sprague-Dawley rats. The hydroxylase activity in the kidneys of the two strains were not significantly different from each other. In comparison to the Sprague-Dawley rats, the induction of these enzymic activities by phenobarbital and 3-methylcholanthrene were of a lesser magnitude in the fuzzy rats, indicating that regulation of the hepatic monooxygenases differed in the two strains. Immunoblot data showed that cross-reactivity between antirat P-450IIB1 and microsomal protein from phenobarbital-treated rats appeared to be lower in the fuzzy rat when compared with the Sprague-Dawley rat. These differences in the constitutive enzymes and the differences in the induction of hepatic monooxygenases between the two strains of rats may be important determinants in studies involving metabolism of drugs and other chemicals following cutaneous exposure.


With the explosion of the number of images in personal and on-line collections, efficient techniques for navigating, indexing, labeling and searching images become more and more important. In this work we will rely on the image content as the main source of information to retrieve images. We study the representation of images by topic models in its various aspects and extend the current models. Starting from a bag-of-visual-words image description based on local image features, images representations are learned in an unsupervised fashion and each image is modeled as a mixture of topics/object parts depicted in the image. Thus topic models allow us to automatically extract high-level image content descriptions which in turn can be used to find similar images. Further, the typically lowdimensional topic-model-based representation enables efficient and fast search, especially in very large databases.


The ability to hold an object between the thumb and the lateral aspect of the index finger (lateral pinch) is an important aspect of hand function. Previous studies suggest that current biomechanical models of the thumb do not accurately predict lateral pinch force [1, 2]. These studies modeled the thumb using simplified joint descriptions based on orthogonal and intersecting axes of rotation. A detailed anatomical study indicates that the axes of rotation of the thumb are actually both non-intersecting and non-orthogonal [3]. It has also been reported that the anatomical variability observed in the data support four different representations of thumb kinematics, all with non-intersecting and non-orthogonal axes [4].Copyright © 2009 by ASME


One method for lining the inner surface of a steel cylinder with copper alloy is to pour molten copper alloy into a heated cylinder, which has been previously filled with borax anhydride. This process replaces the molten borax anhydride with molten copper alloy. After the cylinder is cooled, the embedded copper alloy is drilled along its center axis so that a prescribed thickness of the copper alloy may remain. However, when the cylinder is made of cast iron including high concentration of carbon, the copper alloy does not bond to the inner surface of the cylinder. To solve this problem, we investigated to utilize the decarburization phenomenon. Two methods were investigated. In one method, the cast iron cylinder filled with FeO powder is heated at a high temperature so that the carbon precipitates in the cast iron may get out through reaction with O2 formed by decomposition of FeO. In the other method, the cast iron cylinder is only heated in air. A decarburized layer is formed beneath an oxide layer. In both methods, the lining of cast iron with copper alloy was attained.


An LLCC resonant circuit is implemented in this study to build a high-frequency two-phase voltage source inverter for the piezoelectric ultrasonic motor (USM). A single-phase equivalent model of the USM is described. The operating principle and detailed analysis of the proposed driving circuit, in which the inherent parasitic capacitances formed by the polarised piezoelectric ceramic of the USM are parts of the two LLCC resonant circuits, are introduced. Since the dynamic characteristic of the USM is greatly influenced by the variation in the Q of the RLC resonant tanks, the drive will be operated about a geometric frequency where the amplitude and phase of the two-phase output voltages of the resonant inverter would not be influenced by the variation in Q. Detailed experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed driving circuit.


The paper dwells on the synthesis and diverse studies of cyclically arranged hydrogen bridges in tris-hydroxy aryl Schiff bases. Experimental (IINS, IR, Raman and X-ray) and theoretical (CPMD, DFPT and DFT) studies of tris-hydroxy aryl Schiff bases have been performed in the solid state. This is the pioneer spectroscopic investigation of mutual interactions between hydrogen bridges in a cyclic arrangement. The spectroscopic studies have been carried out by IR, Raman and IINS experimental methods and supported by density functional theory (DFT), plane-wave periodic theory (DFPT) and Car–Parrinello Molecular Dynamics (CPMD) calculations. A study of the impact of steric squeezing on the strength of hydrogen bonds is presented. The remarkable dynamics of the bridged protons in the studied Short Strong Hydrogen Bond (SSHB) has been investigated on the basis of first-principles CPMD calculations. The fundamental investigations of the hydrogen bridge vibrations have been accomplished on the basis of isotopic substitutions (NH → ND and OH → OD) and vibrational Potential Energy Distribution (PED) analysis.


Seismic base isolation is an earthquake resistant design method that is based on decreasing the seismic demand instead of increasing the seismic capacity. In this paper, the seismic response of base-isolated structures is numerically investigated. The effectiveness of an isolation system depends upon the dynamic characteristics of earthquake ground motion and the building superstructure. In order to evaluate the dynamic response of nonlinear base-isolated structures, different detailed 3D nonlinear analytical models with different characteristics are developed and analyzed under significant and strong motion earthquakes. Also in order to have the optimized behavior of system, different types of isolators including LeadRubber Bearing (LRB) and Friction-Pendulum (FPS) isolators were simulated between the superstructure and the foundation so as to provide lateral flexibility and energy dissipation capacity. Providing an optimized arrangement of different types of isolators in the structure is important since it affects the structural responses to earthquakes. The parametric study is concentrated on base shear, accelerations and displacements of isolated models. Also the comparison between hysteretic responses of models as a main criterion for energy dissipation of system has been investigated and evaluated. Results show that the model with FPS ratio of 25% has the best structural response against seismic loads.


This ionization chamber has been designed at the National Physical Laboratory in collaboration with the Hospital Physicists' Association; it is especially suitable for use with electron beams below 10 MeV. The sensitive volume is disc-shaped, 20 mm in diameter and 2 mm deep along the beam axis. Polarity effect is less than 0.1% at energies up to 6 MeV, allowing the chamber to be used with most existing dosemeter electrometers. The chamber is intended to be calibrated by the user against a secondary standard X-ray chamber using a Perspex phantom in 60Co gamma -radiation. Factors for converting 'exposure' readings to absorbed dose in water are tabulated for beam energies up to 7 MeV.


Knowledge Management (KM) implementation is as much a challenge as it is a great opportunity for businesses worldwide in several sectors. The controversy over its worthwhile application persists among practitioners and scholars, with claims having arisen that business opportunities and performance are enhanced through KM adoption. Conversely, challenges regarding effective implementation of KM concerning individuals' behaviors, beliefs, and practices prompt significant questioning regarding its complex basis: individual-technology-process-production. The purpose of this work is to shed light on some perspectives for the effective adoption of knowledge management technology, the consolidation of a favorable and aligned organizational culture, and patterns of use and retrieval of information in organizations. This study brings into focus the concept of knowledge management and technology, and culture in the organization through a systematic literature review and based on the researcher's hypothesis and observations that successful KM implementation results from a clear understanding of its multidisciplinary, complex, and multifaceted process, which requires a methodical and strategic business practice concerning the application of technological tools, the establishment of a learning culture through shared vision of business' and individuals' needs, and consequential enhancement of processes and solutions. It concludes that investment in KM practice and the consolidation of a learning culture are correlated, reflecting a type of leadership that is favorable to the flow of information, generation, and sharing of knowledge (the intellectual capital) and optimization of decision making and business performance.


For effective program evaluation, it is necessary to specify a counterfactual state, i.e., what would have happened without the program. Conventional approaches to program evaluation, preoccupied with technical and value issues, fail to address directly the need for counterfactual arguments. They also fail to recognize the indispensable role of positive theories of technical and behavioral processes in making these arguments. In order to understand the impact of the General Revenue Sharing (GRS) program on the fiscal behavior of municipal governments, Patrick Larkey develops and demonstrates an unconventional approach to program evaluation that overcomes these failures.Drawing on the positive theories of budgetary decisionmaking processes as well as longitudinal revenue and expenditure data from primary sources, the author specifies, estimates, and tests four "bureaucratic process" models for each of five city governments receiving GRS funds. Using these models to generate complex, counterfactual hypotheses, he then compares the counterfactual patterns with observed patterns to understand the fiscal effects of GRS.Originally published in 1979.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Euthanasia and psychological suffering: empathy beyond any taboo?

 Nowadays, when facing the death wish of a patient, a psychiatrist in Belgium or the Netherlands may legally initiate euthanasia. Proponents of this situation argue that a psychiatric patient's autonomy and the seriousness of his or her suffering ought to be acknowledged and taken fully seriously. A psychiatrist's consent to euthanasia will here have to be grounded on an assessment of psychological suffering that cannot be purely medical in character, which in turn will have to depend, for a good deal, on empathy. However, a closer look at such empathy uncovers various paradoxes and leads to the conclusion that a psychiatrist with the kind of empathy that is appropriate to his or her role, i.e., 'cognitive' empathy, will resist rather than go along with the patient's death wish.


Presented at the 19th International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, MTNS 2010, University Congress Center, Budapest, Hungary, July 2010.


A geometric framework for finding intrinsic correspondence between animated 3D faces is presented. We model facial expressions as isometries of the facial surface and find the correspondence between two faces as the minimum-distortion mapping. Generalized multidimensional scaling is used for this goal. We apply our approach to texture mapping onto 3D video, expression exaggeration and morphing between faces.


A new approach to the problem of symbolic circuit analysis of large-scale circuits is presented. The methodology has been implemented in a computer program called SCAPP (symbolic circuit analysis program with partitioning). The method solves the problem by utilizing a hierarchical network approach and the sequence of expressions concept rather than a topological approach and the single expression idea which have dominated symbolic analysis in the past. The result is a linear growth in the number of terms in the symbolic solutions for the network approach versus the exponential growth exhibited by traditional methods. The analysis methodology introduces the concept of the RMNA (reduced modified nodal analysis) matrix. This allows the characterization of symbolic networks in terms of only a small subset of the network variables (external variables) rather than the complete set of variables. The analysis algorithm is most efficient when network partitioning is used. Partitioning results in a reduction in the number of terms in the symbolic solutions.<<ETX>>


The studied problem is an extension of the well known job shop scheduling problem, in which the material handling system is considered as an overall part of the scheduling. This problem has many applications in flexible manufacturing systems. In these systems, jobs are transported from any machine to any other machine by automated guided vehicles. This problem has both an algorithmic and a structural complexity. We propose to take into account this double complexity by combining metaheuristic (for the optimization process), and discrete event simulation (for the evaluation of a solution). The results obtained show the efficiency of the presented approach, 11 new upper bounds are found on a benchmark of 40 instances of the literature. Realistic constraints like traffic congestion or collision could be included by a more sophisticated evaluation model


Analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) provides an elegant approach for cancer screening and disease monitoring, whose use is currently limited by a lack of validated cancer-derived metabolites, which may serve as biomarkers. The aim of the experiments presented here was to investigate the release and consumption of VOCs from the non small cell lung cancer cell line NCI-H1666, which was originally derived from a bronchoalveolar carcinoma.Following detachment by trypsinization suspended cells were incubated in a sealed fermenter for 21 hours. 200 ml of headspace from the cell culture were sampled, diluted with dry, highly purified air and preconcentrated by adsorption on three different solid sorbents with increasing adsorption strength. VOC-analysis was performed by thermodesorption-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). In contrast to our previous studies experiments with NCI-H1666 cells only confirmed the consumption of several aldehydes, n-butyl acetate and the ethers methyl tert-butyl ether and ethyl tert-butyl ether, but no unequivocal release of VOCs was observed. Together with our previously published work these data indicate that the consumption of certain VOCs is commonly observed while their release shows cell line-restricted patterns, whose underlying causes are unknown.


Race-focused teacher education has centered on changing preservice teachers' racial beliefs and attitudes. In this article, we build on this work by exploring how preservice teachers identify and address issues of race and racism in the everyday work of teaching and learning. To conceptualize these processes, we propose the theoretical framework of "racial noticing," which extends the literature on teacher noticing to the consideration of racial phenomena. Using a comparative case study design, this study focuses on three elementary preservice teachers (two identifying as White, one identifying as Black) with antiracist inclinations. Findings show that they demonstrated generally strong competencies with racial noticing during a mathematics methods course, but that contextual factors influenced shifts in racial noticing during student teaching. We argue that race-focused teacher education centered on noticing the impact of race and racism in learning settings can make the practice of antiracist teaching more tractable for preservice teachers.


The κ-opioid receptor has recently gained attention as a new molecular target in the treatment of many psychiatric and neurological disorders including epilepsy. Salvinorin A is a potent plant-derived hallucinogen that acts as a highly selective κ-opioid receptor agonist. It has unique structure and pharmacological properties, but its influence on seizure susceptibility has not been studied so far. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of salvinorin A on seizure thresholds in three acute seizure tests in mice. We also examined its effect on muscular strength and motor coordination. The obtained results showed that salvinorin A (0.1–10 mg/kg, i.p.) did not significantly affect the thresholds for the first myoclonic twitch, generalized clonic seizure, or forelimb tonus in the intravenous pentylenetetrazole seizure threshold test in mice. Likewise, it failed to affect the thresholds for tonic hindlimb extension and psychomotor seizures in the maximal electroshock- and 6 Hz-induced seizure threshold tests, respectively. Moreover, no changes in motor coordination (assessed in the chimney test) or muscular strength (assessed in the grip-strength test) were observed. This is a preliminary report only, and further studies are warranted to better characterize the effects of salvinorin A on seizure and epilepsy.


The first section of this protocol details recommendations for collecting saliva for SARS-CoV-2 detection, either by self-collection or healthcare worker-assisted collection. The second section details an extraction-free method for preparation of saliva samples for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection. This involves the addition of proteinase K to reduce saliva viscosity, followed by a heating step to inactivate the proteinase K before RT-qPCR testing. The third section describes a dualplex RT-qPCR assay for high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. The CDC_N1 (N1) primer/probe set targets the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid gene, and is shown to be sensitive and specific. The human RNase P (RP) primer/probe set is included as an internal sample control - detection of RP at PCR cycle threshold (CT) <35 indicates that saliva of sufficient quantity and quality were tested. The combination of both N1 and RP in the dual-plex assay ensures that any negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR result occurred due to genuine absence of virus, and not because of invalid saliva collection or preparation.


Climate changes are expected to affect bird migration in several aspects including timing changes, breeding and migration orientation. The correlation analysis of several climate conditions (e.g. temperature, wind, humidity, etc) and bird migration trajectory is the key for explaining bird behavior during migration. Moreover, the resulting correlation can be used for predicting new bird behavior according to climate changes. In this paper we propose an integrated solution for correlating bird migration trajectory with climate conditions. This solution is composed by two orthogonal and complementary methods. The first method concerns discovering regions where birds are used to stop during their migration. The second method is based on a machine learning algorithm for classifying bird stops according to climate conditions. A real bird migration scenario was used for assessing the accuracy of the integrated solution.


The intraportal injection of pharmacological drugs and cold infusion of the liver used in 186 patients with acute surgical diseases of the abdominal organs complicated by diffuse peritonitis, and in 30 animals with experimental peritonitis, showed a pronounced medical effect. It was observed by a more active improvement of the patients, abatement of clinical manifestations of inflammation, intoxication, hepatargy and normalization of functional indices of the liver.


In this work, we explore a security reference monitor (RM) design which borrows from the Flask security architecture. Our RM design goal is to achieve complete mediation by checking and verifying the authority and the authenticity of every access to every system object in systems-on-chip (SoCs). Access decisions are administered by a security logic "server" implemented as an extension of the peripheral bus. Initial results show a minimal increase in resource overhead and no significant impact on the performance.


The automatic diagnosis of lung infections using chest computed tomography (CT) scans has been recently obtained remarkable significance, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic that the early diagnosis of the disease is of utmost importance. In addition, infection diagnosis is the main building block of most automated diagnostic/prognostic frameworks. Recently, due to the devastating effects of the radiation on the body caused by the CT scan, there has been a surge in acquiring low and ultra-low-dose CT scans instead of the standard scans. Such CT scans, however, suffer from a high noise level which makes them difficult and time-consuming to interpret even by expert radiologists. In addition, some abnormalities are only visible using specific window settings on the radiologists' monitor. Currently, manual adjustment of the windowing settings is the common approach to analyze such low-quality images. In this paper, we propose an automated framework based on the Capsule Networks, referred to as the "WSO-CAPS", to detect slices demonstrating infection using low and ultra-low-dose chest CT scans. The WSOCAPS framework is equipped with a Window Setting Optimization (WSO) mechanism to automatically identify the best window setting parameters to resemble the radiologists' efforts. The experimental results on our in-house dataset show that the WSO-CAPS enhances the capability of the Capsule Network and its counterparts to identify slices demonstrating infection. The WSO-CAPS achieves the accuracy of 92.0%, sensitivity of 90.3%, and specificity of 93.3%. We believe that the proposed WSO-CAPS has a high potential to be further utilized in future frameworks that are working with CT scans, particularly the ones which utilize an infection diagnosis step in their pipeline.


This work analyses the changes induced on the microstructure and mechanical properties of ultrafine (0.2 and 0.4 μm) hardmetal grade WC-7wt.% Co by HIP after vacuum sintering. A large HIP pressure (155 MPa) is applied to the ultrafine hardmetal system at different temperatures (1000, 1200 and 1400 °C). The well-known correlation between porosity reduction and fracture strength improvement is confirmed. Residual porosity left after liquid phase sintering is removed more effectively at HIP temperatures above the eutectic point of the alloy (1400 °C). In the absence of grain growth inhibitors, hardness decreases continuously, and WC-Co ultrafine microstructure coarsens as HIP temperature rises. However, for specimens containing VC and Cr3C2 additions, hardness increases as HIP temperature rises from 1200 to 1400 °C. It is proposed that this anomalous trend (confirmed by grain size observations) is related to the activation of coalescence mechanisms during solid state HIPing, which are inhibited by the presence of a liquid phase.


Epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) is one of the seasonal and economically devastating diseases in the wild and farmed fresh water and estuarine fish. Thus, an experimental study was conducted by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) from February to April 2012, to examine the susceptibility of Malaysia's indigenous fish to EUS infection. In this experiment, forty apparently healthy moonlight gourami (Trichogaster microlepis) (10 ± 2 g body weight and 7.5 ± 1 cm in body length) were kept at 20 °C and challenged by intramuscular injection of zoospores (0.1 ml of 10,000 spores ml–1 suspension ) of Aphanomyces invadans (isolate NJM9701). Fish were observed daily for characteristic EUS clinical signs during the 14-day trial and sampled at 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 12, 14 days post-injection. The infected skin and muscle were then sampled for histopathological examination. The results demonstrated that injected fish started to develop lesions that were histopathologically and grossly identical to those found in naturally EUS-infected fish and they died within two weeks after the infection. The profoundly penetrating ulcers had characteristics such as severe dermatitis, myofibrillar degeneration, and deep necrotizing granulomatous myositis. Therefore, the result of this study proved that moonlight gourami was vulnerable to the EUS agent.


Background: Reducing door-to-balloon time may not reduce mortality, but reducing the time from symptom onset to first medical contact (FMC) may alone improve patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to focus on analyzing sex differences in FMC call delay and its trend over the decades in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods: Large private telemedicine data in patients with suspected ACS were used to investigate time delay in contacting a telemedicine call center. We identified 24,592 calls to a primary call center of patients with anginal symptoms and first electrocardiogram (ECG), using mobile 12-lead ECG devices. For the purpose of the current analysis, we included the first call of 14,420 patients for whom demographic, clinical ECG data were available. Results: First mobile ECG changes included suspected S-T Segment (ST) elevation in 2,220 (16%) cases, ST depression in 3,143 (22%) cases, or both in 685 (5%) patients. There were 6,721 (47%) calls to the center within less than 1 h of symptom onset. Chest pain, dyspnea, heart rate, male sex, absence of diabetes mellitus, early time period of the study, and ischemic ST segment changes on the first ECG were all independently associated with the increased likelihood of contacting the center within less than 1 h of symptom onset to FMC (p < 0.01 for all). Conclusions: Both chest pain and ischemic ECG changes were sex dependent for early medical contact, as such factors were significant among men (p = 0.001 and p = 0.024, respectively), but not among women (p = 0.024). The later time period of the study was associated with a shorter time delay among women more than that of men (p = 0.014). Women with prehospital chest pain or ischemic ST segment changes tend to seek medical help later than men. Temporal trends show attenuation of this sex disparity, with more women presenting earlier in the last decade.


The paper presents results of the analysis of the vibrational generator. The paper deals with the design of a vibrational generator that is used as a power supply for independent electric circuits. The vibrational generator can be used in the various areas, e.g. traffic, electronics, special-purpose machines, and robotics. The proposed design employs magnetic damping of the core movement. It was numerically evaluated and it was shown that it was possible to obtain significantly larger output voltage and output power than in experimental settings used previously [1].


The Robinson R44 is the most prolific civil helicopter in the world with over 6,000 delivered to customers since 1992. Approved for normal category flight by the FAA through 14 CFR Parts 21 and 27, the accompanying Pilot's Operating Handbook includes all performance material required under the same. Practical planning materials, such as cruise charts and accompanying fuel flow rates for various operational weights and density altitudes, however, are absent. This leaves a large gap in flight planning resources needed for an airframe which is currently being used in a broad range of demanding civil capacities to include offshore oil support, aerial application, and medical services in austere environments. Operators must rely upon unpublished sources and rules of thumb for important flight planning information such as fuel consumption and endurance. A test program was initiated in order to analyze and present level performance data across multiple weights and density altitudes as part of a feasibility study while adhering strictly to data collection and reduction methods outlined in the US Navy Test Pilot School Performance Flight Test Manual. The results were presented in the form of practically formatted cruise charts that could be used to better inform pilots during the flight planning process of optimal speeds and power settings across multiple operating weights and altitudes.


The Nondimensional Tire Model is based on the idea of data compression to load-independent curves. Through the use of appropriate transforms, tire data can be manipulated such that, when plotted in nondimensiona l coordinates, all data falls on a single curve. This leads to a highly efficient and mathematically consistent tire model. In the past, data for slip angle and slip ratio has been averaged across positive and negative values for use with the transforms. In this paper, techniques to handle tire asymmetries in lateral and longitudinal force are presented. This is an important advance, since in passenger cars driving/braking data is almost always asymmetric and, depending on tire construction, lateral force data may follow likewise. In addition, this paper is the first to explore the inclusion of inflation pressure as an operating variable in the Nondimensional Tire Theory. Inflation pressure affects the shape of the tire curves, notably the linear range stiffness and peak force friction coefficient. With this new variable, the operating conditions addressed by Nondimensional Tire Theory now include slip angle, slip ratio, inclination angle, normal load, surface friction coefficient and inflation pressure.


Both a new modeling approach and new experimental data for the sediment build-up in centrifuges are presented. In semibatch apparatus, the suspension is continuously fed to the centrifuge, separating the particles inside the rotor and discharging the clarified liquid. The solid phase is removed once the capacity of the centrifuge is reached. The solids fraction of the sediment depends on the rheological properties of the cake. The sediment growth and consolidation throughout the process can be calculated using a pseudo two-dimensional approach that takes into account particle-size dependent settling, sediment compressibility, the centrifugal force field, and the geometry of the bowl. The predictions of the separation behavior and the particle-size distributions of the sediment and overflow are compared with experimentally obtained results, showing improved accuracy when compared to simpler models. The model presented is applicable to all solid-bowl centrifuges without conveying systems. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 3843–3855, 2013


Glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)‐synthetic enzyme, consists of two isoforms, GAD67 and GAD65. Although distributions of the two GAD isoforms at the somatic level are known to be heterogeneous among different subpopulations of GABAergic neurons, those at the synaptic level have not been investigated. In order to analyze quantitatively the two GAD‐isoform immunoreactivities in axon terminals, we combined confocal laser scanning microscopy with digitized image analysis to measure the gray levels of immunofluorescent signals for the two GAD isoforms in a large number of individual boutons in each hippocampal and dentate layer of the mouse. Synaptic boutons exhibited lamina‐specific immunoreactivities against the GAD isoforms. Boutons in the principal cell layers (stratum pyramidale of the hippocampus proper and the granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus) showed more intense immunoreactivity against GAD67 than those in the dendritic layers (strata lacunosum‐moleculare, radiatum, and oriens of the hippocampus proper and the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus). By contrast, boutons in the dendritic layers showed more intense immunoreactivity against GAD65 than those in the principal cell layers. Such differential distributions could be correlated to the GAD‐isoform immunoreactivities in the axon terminals originating from parvalbumin‐containing neurons, a particular subpopulation of hippocampal GABAergic neurons mainly innervating the perisomatic domain of principal neurons. In addition to previously reported physiological and pharmacological differences between the GABAergic synapses on perisomatic domain and those on distal dendrites, the present results suggest a functional differentiation of GABAergic synapses between these two inhibitory sites. J. Comp. Neurol. 395:177–194, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Taking Wangcang County of Sichuan Province as an example, this paper made comprehensive benefit analysis on models of circular agriculture in Wangcang County. Major models include "pig – biogas – fruit†, "pig – biogas – vegetable†, and "pig – biogas - tea†. It made cost benefit analysis of economic, social and ecological benefits. Through benefit analysis charts, it obtained that the net present value of each household building biogas pool is 6029 yuan. In this way, it significantly improved ecological environment and social benefits, and the agricultural economic development model gradually changes to sustainable development model. However, there are still problems of insufficient government input and single model of agricultural circular economy. Therefore, government should increase input and develop diversified agricultural circular economical models in accordance with local situations, to realize sustainable agricultural development.


High performance polymer dielectrics are a key component for printed electronics. In this work, organo-soluble polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) are reported for the first time to demonstrate desirable dielectric properties with a high permittivity (or κ), heat resistance, and low dielectric loss simultaneously. Due to the highly dipolar sulfonyl side groups (4.5 D) and rigid contorted polymer backbone, a sulfonylated PIM (SO2-PIM) enabled friction-free rotation of sulfonyl dipoles in the nanopores. As such, an optimal balance between relatively high κ and low dielectric loss is achieved in a broad temperature window (−50–200 °C). For example, the discharged energy density reached 17 J cm−3 with κ = 6.0. The discharge efficiency was 94% at 150 °C/300 MV m−1 and 88% at 200 °C/200 MV m−1. Furthermore, its application as a high-κ gate dielectric in field effect transistors (FETs) is demonstrated. With the bilayer SO2-PIM/SiO2 gate dielectric, InSe FETs exhibited a high electron mobility in the range of 200–400 cm2 V−1 s−1, as compared to 40 cm2 V−1 s−1 for the bare SiO2-gated InSe FET. This study indicates that highly dipolar PIMs with a rigid polymer backbone and large free volume are promising as next generation gate dielectric materials for printed electronics.


Methods of treatment of nail bed avulsions, both historic and modern, are described. A description is given of the technical aspects of replacement of amputated parts, full and partial thickness nail matrix grafts, composite grafts, and rotation of nail matrix flaps. Results of treatment with currently available techniques are successful in minimizing nail deformities.


Malaysia currently utilises an empirically-based pavement design procedure which is adopted from the AASHTO 1972 Design Guide. Elsewhere, pavement design approach is shifting towards mechanistic-based procedures that are based on the mechanics of materials. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for mechanistic design of flexible pavement suitable for Malaysian conditions. In this study, resilient modulus characterisation of flexible pavement materials (asphaltic concrete wearing and binder course, base and sub-base) used in Malaysia, according to the Public Works Department of Malaysia's (PWD) Specification for Road Works (JKR/SPJ/1988), were carried out so that these can be used as inputs into a mechanistic-based procedure. Granite-type aggregates were used as it is produced by most quarries in Malaysia, and it is representative of the flexible pavement materials locally used. The repeated load indirect tensile test method (ASTM D4123-82) was used to investigate the effects of variations at different temperatures, gradation, bitumen content and penetration type and to determine the resilient modulus values of asphaltic concrete (ACW20 and ACB 28). Regression models of ACW20 and ACB28 were developed and recommended for use as predictive models. Base (Type II) and sub-base (Type E) were tested at different gradations and moisture contents using the repeated load triaxial test in accordance with AASHTO T3 07-99. From the test, the k-9 constitutive model was used to characterise the base and sub-base materials. Field work data derived from the Falling Weight Deflectometer tests were compared to the values obtained from laboratory testing of asphaltic concrete, base and sub-base materials and were found to be consistent for those sites where the thickness of the pavement materials were consistent and uniformly layered.


Efficient utilization of the full solar spectrum extending from near infrared to ultraviolet is one of the primary challenges for solar power conversion technologies. Intermediate band solar cells are one type of third generation photovoltaic devices in which an increase of the power conversion efficiency is achieved through the absorption of low energy photons while preserving a large band gap that determines the open circuit voltage. The ability to absorb photons from different parts of the solar spectrum originates from the presence of an intermediate energy band located within the band gap of the material. This intermediate band, acting as a stepping stone allows the absorption of low energy photons to transfer electrons from the valence band to the conduction band by a sequential two photons absorption process. Using the unique features of the electronic band structure of highly mismatched alloys GaAs1-xNx we have implemented a single junction intermediate band solar cell. Dilute nitride GaAs1-xNx highly mismatched alloy with low mole fraction of N is a prototypical intermediate band semiconductor with a well-defined energy band separated from the conduction band. The device demonstrates an optical activity of three energy bands that absorb the crucial part of the solar spectrum and convert it into electrical current. Currently, using chemical beam epitaxy we have fabricated intermediate band solar cell structures. The structures were characterized by a variety of structural and optical methods to optimize their properties for intermediate band photovoltaic devices. The results are in a good agreement with the predictions of the band anticrossing model for the electronic band structure of dilute GaAsN alloys.


This paper uses an intertemporal model of public finances to show that political instability can cause taxes to be tilted to the future, resulting in a fiscal deficit that is suboptimal and only weakly sustainable (in the sense of Quintos). This occurs because political instability gives the government an incentive to implement a myopic fiscal policy in order to increase its chances of remaining in office. The government achieves this by delaying taxes (or advancing spending) in order to buy political support, which in turn causes an upward trend in the deficit process and a financial crisis. Using annual data for Chile for the 1833-1999 period, we present statistical test results that support the model.


We propose a Quantization Guided Training (QGT) method to guide DNN training towards optimized low-bit-precision targets and reach extreme compression levels below 8-bit precision. Unlike standard quantization-aware training (QAT) approaches, QGT uses customized regularization to encourage weight values towards a distribution that maximizes accuracy while reducing quantization errors. One of the main benefits of this approach is the ability to identify compression bottlenecks. We validate QGT using state-of-the-art model architectures on vision datasets. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of QGT with an 81KB tiny model for person detection down to 2-bit precision (representing 17.7x size reduction), while maintaining an accuracy drop of only 3% compared to a floating-point baseline.


Some characteristics of the regulated professions cast doubt on whether it is appropriate to apply competition rules to them. Unlike traditional activities, the professions contain a substantial personal aspect relating to the practitioner, who draws on years of training and experience in his field to provide his services. This characteristic, particularly the intellectual aspect, places these activities on the edges of the market, not far from the practice of an art. Competition between professionals focuses on quality, the personally-tailored relationship with clients and speed of execution. In contrast to traditional economic activities, relations between the professional and his client are marked by high information asymmetry. In this context, professional rules (for instance, advertising bans or tariff regulation) that go against EU competition rules can nonetheless help to prevent adverse selection and moral hazard phenomena, and work in favour of the public interest. At a time when economic justification of European law decisions has become very important, can the economic concept of information asymmetry be an argument, a means of legal challenge, actionable before the courts? Can it lead to moderation of the application of competition rules in the regulated professions? To answer these questions, we look specifically at case law issued by the Court of Justice. The first section deals with the gradual emergence of the concept of information asymmetry in the opinions issued by the Court's Advocates General on the question of regulation of professions. The second section discusses the only two decisions that have referred to the concept, and the third and final section concludes on the specific irreducibility of the regulated professions, which in our opinion justifies consideration of the information asymmetry phenomenon by the Court.


Now a days both the population and the number of cars in the Netherlands is growing fast such that finding an empty
parking space is hard. Lack of enough parking spaces leads to cruising, a time-consuming phenomenon that is bad for
the environment and also for the health of people. Digital information about the number of empty parking space close
by would be helpful for drivers especially during rush hour.
Therefore ARS TT&T wants a model to predict the occupancy rate in a neighborhood such that information could be
given to drivers who are looking for a single parking space. The main question of this research is about: To what
extend can a Markov chain prediction model be used to predict the distribution of the occupancy rate of a parking lot
in a neighborhood based on the ARS data files? This question was explored based on the following sub questions:
How important is knowledge about the distribution of parking times for visitors and for permit holders? What is the
optimum fraction of parking spaces that should be equipped with a sensor? What is the sensitivity of the fraction of
with a sensor-equipped parking space? What is the sensitivity of the number of scans per day and the distribution of
the scans over the day? Are there other data sources that can provide extra information?
The number of cars for every minute between 9.00am and 21.00pm for 500 days on PARK200 is deduced from the
data. Each minute a single parking space can be either empty or not. As it is not clear what happens with parkers at
the last minute of the day it is assumed that these cars stay overnight such that the parking time of these cars is at least
720 minutes. The short- and long-term parkers are found with the distribution of the parking time.
The parking process can be described as a two-dimensional Markov process with Poisson arrivals, general service or
parking time, c servers or parking spaces and maximum c cars in the system. An important assumption in this process
is that parkers do decide independent from each other how long they will stay at the parking place. This idea suggests
that the short-term parkers in the system only influences the maximum number of long-term parkers that can enter the
system at time t. The actual number of cars that enters the system depends on the parking demand and the available
parking space.
The situation at the parking place can be modeled as a non-homogeneous two-dimensional Markov chain. Predictions
were done for each dimension separately with the first and higher order Markov chain prediction model. The transition
probabilities were determined with the arrival-departure behavior and with the fit distribution of the transitions. The
non-homogeneity of the chain was tackled by estimating the transition probabilities with data coming from a time
interval containing time t. In this time interval it is assumed that the Markov chain is homogeneous.
The research reveals that the higher order models as proposed by Chin was the best mathematical model in
combination with some mathematical techniques. These techniques do take care of the two-dimensionality of the
process and the non-homogeneity of the chain. There were also mathematical techniques used to correct for prediction
flaws.
This report starts with a section that describes the magnitude of the parking problem, followed by the problem
description and a discussion of the research variables. Section two zooms in on the data sets. The next section addresses
the assumptions and restrictions needed to make this study operational, followed by a mathematical problem
description. Section 4 contains the mathematical concepts used in this report and section 5 a discussion of the way the
model will be applied together with techniques. The next section in this report highlights some interesting results. The
last section in this report regards conclusions and recommendations.


UNLABELLED
Radioimmunotherapy (RIT), as it is currently practiced, delivers low doses to tumors primarily because of dose-limiting bone marrow toxicity. The biologic effectiveness of RIT depends on the total dose, dose rate and the fractionation schedule of the radiolabeled antibodies administered.

METHODS
An approach based on the linear-quadratic (LQ) model, which is currently used in conventional radiotherapy, is advanced for treatment planning in RIT. This approach incorporates repair rates, radiosensitivity of the tissues, biologic half-lives of the antibodies, physical half-lives of the radionuclides, dose rates and total doses needed for a given biologically effective dose. The concept of a relative advantage factor (RAF) is introduced to quantify the therapeutic gain that can be realized by using longer-lived radionuclides instead of the shorter-lived counterparts currently in use.

RESULTS
RAFs are calculated for different biologic and physical half-lives, and values as high as 3 to 5 can be attained when longer-lived radionuclides are used. The RAFs predicted by the LQ model reaffirm the authors' earlier conclusion based on the time-dose-fractionation approach that relatively long-lived radionuclides coupled to monoclonal antibodies are indeed more likely to deliver therapeutically effective doses to tumors. Several radionuclides are evaluated in this context.

CONCLUSION
The authors maintain that 32P is the most promising isotope and the optimal physical half-life is about two to three times the biologic clearance half-life of the antibodies in the tumor.


In this paper, the preparation of mullite suspension for electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is presented. It shows that the successful deposition of mullite coating is closely related to the weight ratio of mullite powder to ethanol solvent, and the concentration of phosphate ester (PE) in ethanol solvent, which is employed to positively charge the mullite particles in suspension. The polyvinyl butyral (PVB) is necessary as binder in the suspension. With increasing the powder:ethanol weight ratio, the content for the PVB in the suspension will also increase in order to make the deposited layer adhere to the substrate. The compositions of the mullite suspension were optimized and the process was determined based on the surface quality. It provides a new route to develop mullite coating on SiC or Si3N4 ceramic materials for high temperature application.


The Zarshuran Carlin-like gold deposit is located at the Takab Metallogenic belt in the northern part of the Sanandaj-Sirjan zone, NW Iran. The high-grade ore bodies are mainly hosted by black shale and cream to gray massive limestone along the NNE-trending extensional fault/fracture zones. The aim of this investigation was to determine and separate the gold mineralized stages based on the surface litho-geochemical Au, Hg, and As data using the Concentration-Area (C-A) fractal model and stepwise factor analysis in the Zarshuran gold deposit. Three mineralized stages were determined by the C-A fractal modeling and factor analysis, which were correlated with the mineralized stages from geological studies. The main stage of Au mineralization was higher than 1.995 ppm, which was correlated with the main sulfidation stage, whereas the As and Hg highly intense anomalies (higher than 6409 and 19 ppm, respectively) were associated with the quartz-sulfide veins and veinlets. The results obtained by the C-A fractal model and stepwise factor analysis showed that the main gold mineralized stage occurred in the southern part of the Zarshuran deposit, which was correlated with the geological particulars.


The paper presents a mechatronic system designed to simulate the surroundings of night-driving roads in mesopic vision. Visual Performance in the mesopic range to define mesopic visual performance is thought of the most essential methods to research the mesopic vision. And there is no standard model to evaluate the mesopic performance. Therefore, the experimental system BJ-MV2 is designed to measure and record the reaction time. By changing the parameters of mesopic environment, we get a series of experimental data and calculate curve-fitting data. According to the curve, the tendency of reaction time appears clearly and BJ-MV2 is proved to be a reliable system for researching mesopic vision.


We show that gravity cures the infrared divergence of the Yang monopole when a proper definition of conserved quantities in curved backgrounds is used, i.e. the gravitating Yang monopole in cosmological Einstein theory has a finite mass in generic even dimensions (including time). In addition, we find exact Yang-monopole type solutions in the cosmological Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet-Yang-Mills theory and briefly discuss their properties.


Somatizers are a kind of patients very prevalent, expensive for the health system and difficult to treat. In recent years, several treatment approaches, such as cognitive, psychodynamic or educative therapy, have demonstrated effectiveness for the management of these patients. This paper aims to analyze the research studies on group psychotherapy for the treatment of somatizers. Most of these studies are not solid from a methodological point of view. Based on these data, the authors summarize the indications, methodology, limitations and effectiveness of group psychotherapy in the treatment of somatizing patients.


The Rhizobium sp. isolated from the root nodules of Desmodium gangeticum DC. produced a high amount of indole acetic acid (IAA) from tryptophan in culture. For maximum IAA production, the bacteria preferred L-isomer over DL- or D-isomer of tryptophan. The production of IAA could be increased up to 37% over yeast extract ribose medium by supplementing the medium with ZnSO4 (0.1 microgram/ml), asparagine (0.1%) and nicotinic acid (0.1 microgram/ml). The possible relationship between the rhizobial IAA production and legume-rhizobia symbiosis is discussed.


SUMMARY No-take marine reserves are widely recognized as an effective conservation tool for protecting marine resources. Despite considerable empirical evidence that abundance and biomass of fished species increase within marine reserve boundaries, the potential for reserves to provide fisheries and conservation benefits to adjacent waters remains heavily debated. This paper uses statistical and population models to evaluate published empirical data on adult spillover from marine reserves and shows that spillover is a common phenomenon for species that respond positively to reserve protection, but at relatively small scales, detectable on average up to 800 m from reserve boundaries. At these small scales, local fisheries around reserves were likely unsustainable in 12 of 14 cases without the reserve, and spillover partially or fully offsets losses in catch due to reserve closure in the other two cases. For reserves to play a role in sustaining and replenishing larger-scale fished stocks, networks of reserves may be necessary, but as few exist this is difficult to evaluate. The results suggest reserves can simultaneously meet conservation objectives and benefit local fisheries adjacent to their boundaries.


3 I argue for an environmental virtue ethics which specifies human excellence and flourishing in relation to nature. I consider Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson as environmental virtue ethicists, and show that these writers share certain ethical positions that any environmental virtue ethics worthy of the name must embrace. These positions include putting economic life in its proper, subordinate place within human life as a whole; cultivating scientific knowledge, while appreciating its limits; extending moral considerability to the nonhuman world; and supporting wilderness protection. I argue that Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson themselves exemplify the potential for cultivating excellence in engagement with wild nature: their lives are among our most powerful arguments for its preservation.


Earth-fill dams are the most common types of dam and the most economical choice. However, they are more vulnerable to internal erosion and piping due to seepage problems that are the main causes of dam failure. In this study, the seepage through earth-fill dams was investigated using physical, mathematical, and numerical models. Results from the three methods revealed that both mathematical calculations using L. Casagrande solutions and the SEEP/W numerical model have a plotted seepage line compatible with the observed seepage line in the physical model. However, when the seepage flow intersected the downstream slope and when piping took place, the use of SEEP/W to calculate the flow rate became useless as it was unable to calculate the volume of water flow in pipes. This was revealed by the big difference in results between physical and numerical models in the first physical model, while the results were compatible in the second physical model when the seepage line stayed within the body of the dam and low compacted soil was adopted. Seepage analysis for seven different configurations of an earth-fill dam was conducted using the SEEP/W model at normal and maximum water levels to find the most appropriate configuration among them. The seven dam configurations consisted of four homogenous dams and three zoned dams. Seepage analysis revealed that if sufficient quantity of silty sand soil is available around the proposed dam location, a homogenous earth-fill dam with a medium drain length of 0.5 m thickness is the best design configuration. Otherwise, a zoned earth-fill dam with a central core and 1:0.5 Horizontal to Vertical ratio (H:V) is preferred.


Tiki is the manifestation of exotic visions of island culture borrowed from tales told by American soldiers stationed in the South Pacific during World War II: trees loaded with exotic fruits, sleepy lagoons, white-sand beaches, and gorgeous people wearing grass feathers as they danced half-naked during all-night orgies of food and music. Americans seized these visions and incorporated fantasy into reality: mid-century fashion, popular music, eating and drinking, and even architecture were influenced by the Tiki trend. This enlightening and hilarious guide casts the reader as an ""urban archaeologist,"" exploring the lost remnants of the Tiki culture across the United States and discovering relics from this forgotten civilization in thrift stores, yard sales, and used book and record emporia. A combination of nostalgia and fascinating pop cultural study, this volume is a long overdue investigation into the cult of the Tiki. Almost makes you want to dig up those old grass skirts and throw luau


Dried fig is susceptible to infection by Aspergillus flavus, the major producer of the carcinogenic mycotoxins. This fruit may be contaminated by the fungus throughout the entire chain production, especially during natural sun-drying, post-harvest, industrial processing, storage, and fruit retailing. Correct management of such critical stages is necessary to prevent mould growth and mycotoxin accumulation, with temperature being one of the main factors associated with these problems. The effect of different temperatures (5, 16, 25, 30, and 37 °C) related to dried-fig processing on growth, one of the regulatory genes of aflatoxin pathway (aflR) and mycotoxin production by A. flavus, was assessed. Firstly, growth and aflatoxin production of 11 A. flavus strains were checked before selecting two strains (M30 and M144) for in-depth studies. Findings showed that there were enormous differences in aflatoxin amounts and related-gene expression between the two selected strains. Based on the results, mild temperatures, and changes in temperature during drying and storage of dried figs should be avoided. Drying should be conducted at temperatures >30 °C and close to 37 °C, while industry processing, storage, and retailing of dried figs are advisable to perform at refrigeration temperatures (<10 °C) to avoid mycotoxin production.


Root distribution of a semi-arid savanna located near Katherine in the Northern Territory was determined. Trenches were excavated between 8 pairs of E. foelscheana (F. Muell.) and fine and coarse roots were sampled ve11ically and horizontally along the trenches. The majority of the total root biomass was located close to the tree stems and in the top 0.5 m of the soil. Coarse roots were distributed as a function of distance from the nearest tree and size of the nearest tree (DBH). Fine roots were found to be most abundant in the first 30 cm of the soil, but there was no correlation between fine roots and distance from nearest tree stem or size of nearest tree. Predicted total root biomass was 35.7 t DM ha-1 , which is a carbon stock of 17.5 t C ha-1. The vast majority (96%) of this was coarse roots, and the fine root biomass was 0.7 t C ha-1. The destructive sampling of this study enabled the development of allomet1ic relationships between the tree size (DBH) and root distribution . These relationships were used to predict carbon stocks at a regional scale. The area occupied by the same vegetation type as the study site (E. foelscheana and E tectijica dominated savanna) is 49,811 km2 . Using the below-ground biomass density (17.5 t C ha-1) and this area, a below-ground carbon storage of approximately 87 Mt C is calculated, a significant storage. This study contributes to research of national significance, because savannas may offer significant potential as a (tradable) carbon sink to offset greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. from fires); and managing carbon storage and cycling is an important aspect of maintaining healthy ecosystem function.


Objective: This paper explores the professional identity (PI) of Allied Health Managers (AHMs) and how their identity is typically constructed.
Methods: A qualitative research methodology utilising semi-structured interviews was employed for this research. Thematic analysis was used to extract relevant data from the transcripts.
Settings: The study was undertaken in five acute hospitals within one of the largest metropolitan Local Health Districts in New South Wales, Australia. A total of sixteen AHMs and deputy AHMs were interviewed.
Results: Three key themes identified were: PI of AHM, motivation of becoming a manager, and construction of their identity. Factors motivating AHMs to follow a management pathway were identified as being a natural progression and having interest in high-level decision-making. Despite AHMs sharing similar role conflict as the medical managers, they adapted to hybrid manager roles with minimal resentment. They also adopted to the hybrid manager role with a positive, realistic and flexible perspective.
Conclusion: Despite facing role conflict as a hybrid-professional-manager, AHMs manage the transition from clinicians to managers with a positive approach. This indicates that AHMs may require certain skills or characteristics to successfully construct their PI.


From March 3 to March 5, 2010, the German Association for Law and Society and the University of Bremen hosted a Conference on "Transnationalism in Law, State and Society". Part of this conference was a panel on transnational financial markets regulation. The aim of this panel was to ask some renowned experts of national, European and international securities regulation to analyse their fields of research from the perspective of transnational law. The following paper serves as an introduction to the topic and the presentations given at the conference. It seeks to define the term "transnational financial markets regulation" and show why the study of transnational financial markets law promises to be rewarding. It concludes with a short summary of the presentations given at the conference.


ABSTRACT Tackling foreign debt that arises as a result of limited and ineffective use of resources is an item that remains on the agenda particularly for developing countries. In this study, we examine the foreign debt debates to date in terms of economic growth and using the time series for the period 2003Q1 to 2017Q1. We used unit root tests to determine the maximum integration degree of series, and we conducted causality analysis. We found a causality relationship between net foreign debt stock and economic growth in causality analyses performed for Turkey. The empirical results of this study indicate that there is a causality relationship, including both positive and negative aspects, between net foreign debt stock and economic growth. The results of our testing showed a significant causal relationship between the variables.


I summarize my 2009 book, Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary? [1] which in turn simplifies Petr Beckmann's Einstein Plus Two (1987). [2] Beckmann's assumption was that the luminiferous medium, which Michelson failed to detect in 1887, is the local gravitational field, which attenuates with distance from the gravitating body. Overwhelmingly, we are in the Earth's field, which does not rotate with the Earth's rotation. This accounts for the Michelson-Morley null result and predicts an east-west light speed difference and with it a small fringe shift. An "ether" denser near the sun predicts the bending of light rays by Fermat's Principle, and the gravitational red shift. Einstein's equation accounting for Mercury's orbit was published by Paul Gerber, 17 years before general relativity. Both Sagnac (1913) and Michelson-Gale (1924) showed a fringe shift, but were disqualified as tests of SRT because they involved rotating (non-inertial) reference frames. GPS is said to validate special relativity because relativistic adjustments are entered into the orbiting clocks and would not synchronize without them. But the corrections do not refer clock motion to the observer, as relativity requires, but to the non-rotating Earth centered, inertial reference frame. It is a preferred reference frame — not allowed by SRT. The same criticism applies to the Hafele-Keating experiment (1972), in which atomic clocks flown around the world showed an east-west time difference. After 1916, Einstein restored a "gravitational ether," indistinguishable from Beckmann's, but played it down. The book concludes that general relativity gives the right results by a roundabout method. SRT has been falsified, unless rescued by the claim that all experiments on the surface of a rotating globe are non-inertial.


When Ho3+ ions are substituted at Sr2+ sites in SrTiO3 (STO), the excess positive charges are compensated via three complementary routes: (1) strontium vacancies, (2) titanium vacancies, and (3) conduction electrons. In this study, we show that the photoelectrochemical properties of Ho-doped STO films are dependent on the charge compensation mechanisms. The compensation mechanism via the titanium vacancies exhibits the highest photocurrent density, which is 1.7 times higher than that of the pure STO sample. Based on the measured dielectric properties and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data, we propose that the enhanced dielectric constant of the films can enlarge the width of the space charge region at the film/liquid interface, which eventually leads to the increase of the photocurrent density. Further enhancement of photocurrent density is obtained in the samples decorated with appropriate amounts of Pt nanoparticles, showing the advantage of composites for achieving the efficient photoelectroch...


Double-blind neurodevelopmental and physical evaluations were conducted at 1-year adjusted age in 89 infants with birth weights of 500 to 749 gm who had respiratory distress syndrome in the neonatal period and were randomized to receive two rescue doses of a synthetic surfactant (Exosurf Neonatal, Burroughs Wellcome Co., Research Triangle Park, N.C.) or air placebo. The trial used a common protocol and was conducted at 13 hospitals; patients were entered in the trial between February 1988 and September 1990. Ninety-five percent of surviving infants were assessed. Growth and development in the two groups were equivalent. Mean Bayley Scales of Infant Development scores were comparable (mental development index, 79 +/- 22 vs 87 +/- 20; psychomotor development index, 73 +/- 18 vs 81 +/- 19 for air placebo and synthetic surfactant, respectively). The incidence of severe retinopathy of prematurity was significantly decreased in the surfactant group compared with the air placebo group (15% vs 34%; relative risk 0.428; 95% confidence interval 0.2 to 0.9). Overall, administration of surfactant appeared to increase the probability of a favorable outcome. Confirmation of the trends observed in this study would provide a strong rationale for the rescue use of synthetic surfactant in extremely low birth weight infants with respiratory distress syndrome even if overall mortality is not reduced.


Abstract The coronary arterial bed is diffusely and heavily innervated by the sympathetic nervous system. The anatomical arrangements of both the vagal and the sympathetic at the level of the cardiac plexus and below are also sufficiently complex to make clear distinctions between these nerves difficult. At the level of the coronary artery, however, the situation seems clearer. The normal arterial smooth muscle responds to sympathetic stimulation with vasodilation; however, the atherosclerotic coronary bed responds with vasoconstriction. The exact aetiology of this response is either a reflection of the loss of endothelial cell integrity and hence vasodilatory capacity or the release of mediators which are not normally found at sympathetic terminals. The latter response is probably related to the release of serotonin. The source for the serotonin is thought to follow its non-specific uptake at platelet activation sites. These sites are typically found at areas of high turbulence and constriction in the coronary bed. The successful ablation of this sympathetic constriction is accomplished most thoroughly with the use of thoracic epidural blockade or anaesthesia (TEA). There is extensive experience in both animals and humans with the use of TEA around the time of myocardial ischaemia. In animals the use of TEA is capable of decreasing the incidence and type of ventricular arrythmias following an ischaemic insult. In humans the use of TEA can reduce in most patients and totally supplant in many the need for anti-ischaemic medications during unstable anginal episodes. Further the outcome of these patients may be improved when compared with cohorts not receiving TEA. The use of TEA for cardiac surgery is associated with an improvement in pulmonary and myocardial function following surgery. While the release of catecholamines is reduced during surgery, glucocorticoid response remains unimpaired. The incidence of ischaemia is reduced by 50% in the post-operative period following TEA activation. Finally, patients receiving TEA resume normal body temperatures more rapidly and are extubated more quickly than their conventionally treated counterparts. While there is much we do not know about the use of TEA during cardiac surgery, we do know that the risk of neuraxial haematoma formation is not excessively high. As of this writing almost 4000 patients world wide have received TEA during cardiopulmonary bypass and there are no reports of haematoma formation. This suggests that the previously postulated mechanisms for haematoma formation may be in error.


Canada's policy makers should focus on four priorities to spur growth in Canada's economy, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In "Job One is Jobs: Workers Need Better Policy Support and Stronger Skills," author Craig Alexander outlines the key policy priorities that will reduce Canada's labour market vulnerabilities.


TWO REASONS EXPLAIN the paramount importance of Dominicus Gundissalinus (ca. 1110-1190) for the history of metaphysics on the eve of the Latin reception of Aristotle. First of all, in the mid-twelfth century, the scholar from Toledo translated a number of key texts on metaphysics from Arabic into Latin, namely, Ibn Gabirors Fons vitae, al-Ghazali's Summa theoricae philosophiae, that is, his Maqasid al-falasifa, and above all Avicenna's Liber de philosophia prima sive scientia divina, which forms part of his Kitab al-shifa'. In the second place, Gundissalinus discussed specific metaphysical problems in his own independent works such as his treatise De processione mundi, which offers an impressive description of cosmological principles in response to Latin and Arabic-Jewish authors, (1) and his De unitate et uno. In this short text, which for a long time had been attributed to Boethius, Gundissalinus developed his own solution to the problem of form and matter, following Ibn Gabirol. (2) It is in his influential encyclopedia De divisione philosophiae, (3) however, that Gundissalinus presents his most systematic discussion of metaphysics as a science. Here, he emphasizes the difference between theological and philosophical knowledge and then exclusively deals with the latter. (4) Arabic and Jewish authorities form the backdrop to this text as well, namely al-Farabi, Avicenna, and al-Ghazali, whose works the author combines with the relevant sources of the Latin tradition, above all Boethius's philosophy. In the history of philosophy, De divisione philosophiae constitutes a hallmark text, primarily because Gundissalinus introduced in this synthesis a number of new sciences into Latin philosophy. These include politics, for example, but above all metaphysics. Thus, Gundissalinus was the first Latin thinker who treated metaphysics as the name of a discipline rather than of a text. A characteristic feature of his account of the sciences, and in particular of that of metaphysics, is the great attention paid to reconciling the autonomy of the different sciences with the mutual connections amongst them. (5) Accordingly, the following discussion is divided into three parts: firstly, an exploration of the history of the relevant terminology will show how, for the first time, Gundissalinus interpreted metaphysics as the name of a discipline (1); in a second step, I will analyze the epistemological foundation of metaphysics as an autonomous science in the chapter on metaphysics in De divisione philosophiae, paying particular attention to Gundissalinus's criticism of twelfth-century philosophical theology (2); thirdly, I will examine a key text of the treatise on the division of the sciences, which has received little attention so far: Gundissalinus included a translation of a passage from Avicenna's Kitab al-burhan in his treatise, which discusses the difficult matter of the subordination of the philosophical disciplines under metaphysics (3). As is well known, Andronicus of Rhodes first introduced the title [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in his edition of the Corpus aristotelicum, which he prepared in the middle of the first century B.C. In this collection, the title refers to those books which Aristotle had associated with the term "wisdom," the first philosophy or philosophical theology. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] thus initially marked the bibliographical place of a collection of texts which in the edition of Andronicus of Rhodes followed the books of the Physics. The late antique Greek tradition, ranging from Alexander of Aphrodisias to Themistius and Ammonius, followed this bibliographical denomination. Furthermore, the expression [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] extended its influence beyond Greek literature. In Latin culture as well as among the Arabic falasifa, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] continued to refer to that which follows the Physics in the editorial tradition. …


Many studies have found an inverse correlation between religious/spiritual involvement and depression. Yet several obstacles impede spiritually integrated treatment of depressed individuals. These include specialization and fragmentation of care, inexperience of clinicians and spiritual care providers, ideological bias, boundary and ethical concerns, and the lack of an accepted conceptual framework for integrated treatment. Here I suggest a framework for approaching these obstacles, constructed from a unified view of human experience (having emotional, existential, and spiritual dimensions); spirituality seen as a response to existential concerns (in domains such as identity, hope, meaning/purpose, morality, and autonomy in relation to authority, which are frequently distorted and amplified in depression); a rationale for locating spiritually oriented approaches within a clinician's assessment, formulation, and treatment plan; and recognition of the challenges and potential pitfalls of integrated treatment.


Drug Facts and Comparisons provides up-to-date, comprehensive information on over 22,000 Rx and 6,000 OTC products grouped by therapeutic category for ease of comparison. Drug Facts and Comparisons answers questions about actions, indications and contraindications; warnings and precautions; drug interactions; adverse reactions; administration, dosage, and overdosage; pregnancy and lactation; and patient information. Comparisons include drug to drug; dosage forms; name brands to name brands and generics. Facts and comparisons are also provided for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention biologicals and antiparasitic drugs; IV solutions; therapeutic and diagnostic ophthalmic preparations; diagnostic aids; and combination cancer chemotherapy regimens. This hardbound edition includes the Drug Identifier 2013 CD-ROM, the premier tool for drug identification. Ensure accuracy by searching more than 10,000 color images in seconds. Search by drug name, imprint, NDC code, color, shape, manufacturer, coating, scoring, clarity, and flavor.


The analysis of lung sounds, collected through auscultation, is a fundamental component of pulmonary disease diagnostics for primary care and general patient monitoring for telemedicine. Despite advances in computation and algorithms, the goal of automated lung sound identification and classification has remained elusive. Over the past 40 years, published work in this field has demonstrated only limited success in identifying lung sounds, with most published studies using only a small numbers of patients (typically N<;20) and usually limited to a single type of lung sound. Larger research studies have also been impeded by the challenge of labeling large volumes of data, which is extremely labor-intensive. In this paper, we present the development of a semi-supervised deep learning algorithm for automatically classify lung sounds from a relatively large number of patients (N=284). Focusing on the two most common lung sounds, wheeze and crackle, we present results from 11,627 sound files recorded from 11 different auscultation locations on these 284 patients with pulmonary disease. 890 of these sound files were labeled to evaluate the model, which is significantly larger than previously published studies. Data was collected with a custom mobile phone application and a low-cost (US$30) electronic stethoscope. On this data set, our algorithm achieves ROC curves with AUCs of 0.86 for wheeze and 0.74 for crackle. Most importantly, this study demonstrates how semi-supervised deep learning can be used with larger data sets without requiring extensive labeling of data.


Children are less stable than adults during static upright stance. We investigated whether the same holds true for a task that was novel for both children and adults and highly dynamic: single-legged stance on a slackline. We compared 8-year-olds with young adults and assessed the following outcome measures: time on the slackline, stability on the slackline (calculated from slackline reaction force), gaze movement, head-in-space rotation and translation, trunk-in-space rotation, and head-on-trunk rotation. Eight-year-olds fell off the slackline quicker and were generally less stable on the slackline than adults. Eight-year-olds also showed more head-in-space rotation and translation, and more gaze variability around a visual anchor point they were instructed to fixate. Trunk-in-space and head-on-trunk rotations did not differ between groups. The results imply that the lower postural stability of 8-year-olds compared to adults – as found in simple upright stance – holds true for dynamic, novel tasks in which adults lack the advantage of more practice. They also suggest that the lack of head and gaze stability constitutes an important limiting factor in children's ability to master such tasks.


The aim of this project was to study the impact on craniofacial morphology from Turner syndrome (TS) karyotype, number of intact X chromosomal p-arms, and age as well as to compare craniofacial morphology in TS with healthy females. Lateral radiographs from 108 females with TS, ranging from 5.4 to 61.6 years, were analysed. The TS females were divided into four karyotype groups: 1. monosomy (45,X), 2. mosaic (45,X/46,XX), 3. isochromosome, and 4. other, as well as according to the number of intact X chromosomal p-arms. The karyotype was found to have an impact on craniofacial growth, where the mosaic group, with presence of 46,XX cell lines, seems to exhibit less mandibular retrognathism as well as fewer statistically significant differences compared to the reference group than the 45,X karyotype. Isochromosomes had more significant differences versus the reference group than 45,X/46,XX but fewer than 45,X. To our knowledge, this is the first time the 45,X/46,XX and isochromosome karyotypes are divided into separate groups studying craniofacial morphology. Impact from p-arm was found on both maxillary and mandibular length. Compared to healthy females, TS expressed a shorter posterior and flattened cranial base, retrognathic, short and posteriorly rotated maxilla and mandible, increased height of ramus, and relatively shorter posterior facial height. The impact of age was found mainly on mandibular morphology since mandibular retrognathism and length were more discrepant in older TS females than younger.


Strict criteria for the biopsy of oral lesions suspected to be squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) are difficult to find. Evaluation of the patient's history and clinical findings should help the clinician to accurately diagnose oral cancer. Our study attempts to compare and correlate cases that have the histopathologic diagnosis of oral SCCA with the data submitted by the clinician to the oral pathologist. We find the more information the clinician lists in the biopsy request form, the more likely the correct clinical diagnosis of oral SCCA is. We also show that when risk factors such as tobacco and alcohol use are mentioned by the clinician, the percentage of correct clinical diagnosis is increased.


Genital lymphedema (GL) is an uncommon and disabling disease that manifests as enlargement of the genital region resulting from the disturbance of lymphatic drainage. Although conservative treatment such as decompression is typically the first-line approach, surgical intervention has been shown to be effective in certain cases. This study aimed to systematically review studies evaluating available surgical alternatives for the treatment of male GL. A systematic search strategy using keyword and subject headings was applied to PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library in May 2019. Studies investigating various surgical techniques to treat penile and scrotal lymphedema were included. The potential risk of bias of included trials was evaluated using the methodological index for non-randomized studies (MINORS). In total, 13 studies met the inclusion criteria, nine of which were determined to be high-quality. The average MINORS score was 12.45 for studies involving excision and 14 for studies involving lymphovenous anastomosis (LVA). The most common reason for a low score was a failure to describe the inclusion criteria. Recurrence of lymphedema during follow-up was reported in four studies involving excision and in no studies involving LVA. In general, the quality of the included literature was considered to be fair. Although surgical intervention might not always prevent the recurrence of lymphedema, all of the studies reported improved quality of life after the procedure. This study could be used as the basis for evidence-based guidelines to be applied in clinical practice for managing male GL.


The U.S. Department of Defense has begun the acquisition of the next generation of military rotorcraft, named Future Vertical Lift (FVL), to replace its aging fleet. U.S. Army Futures Command intends to sustain FVL under a new strategy of maintenance free operating periods (MFOP). This study developed a discrete event simulation to evaluate MFOP success given component reliabilities, desired MFOP duration, and operational tempo of a battalion with thirty aircraft. The simulation compared notional FVL aircraft with improved reliability to today's fleet. Results indicated that inherent reliability alone was insufficient to achieve MFOP goals and that prognostics and diagnostics with robust information management are necessary. Sensitivity studies found the recovery effort after an MFOP was linked to the MFOP duration. Recovery downtime was tied to both the duration and operational tempo. Availability and cost improved with moderate gains in MFOP duration by eliminating unnecessary preventive maintenance but overextending the MFOP sacrificed aircraft dependability for marginally greater availability and savings.


The purpose of this study was to adapt Reflective Thinking Scale to Turkish and investigate its validity and reliability over a Turkish university students' sample. Reflective Thinking Scale (RTS) is a 5 point Likert scale (ranging from 1 corresponding Agree Completely, 3 to Neutral, and 5 to Not Agree Completely), purposed to measure reflective thinking in habitual actions, understanding, reflecting and critical reflecting subscale levels. With the help of education area and language experts, the scale adaptation thoroughly completed and the cor- relation between the original scale and its Turkish form indicated satisfactory language equality (r=.80). During the 2011-2012 school years, 1413 undergraduate students, from varying departments of Faculty of Education, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart and Gaziosmanpasa University, were participated in this study. In order to maximize student participation, convenient sampling method was followed. After the item analysis, internal consistency of the scale and subscale items were checked through Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient and Spearman Brown Split-Half correlation coefficient and both indicated good internal consistency on the scale and the subscale levels. The scale also demonstrated sufficient test-retest reliability over the application of the scale in two weeks and two months intervals. The construct validity is established through a confirmatory and an exploratory factor analyses and the four factor structure, suggested in the original study, was confirmed by both analyses. The concurrent validity was also confirmed through the scale's satisfactory Pearson correlation coefficient with Critical Thinking Scale.


Overwhelming inflammatory responses leading to neutrophil invasion are hypothesised to be the main cause of mortality in influenza virus induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Previously, pulmonary surfactant has been shown to modulate inflammatory responses to bacterial agents. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of pulmonary surfactant on innate immune responses in an in vitro model of influenza virus infected human airway epithelial cells. Human lung type II alveolar epithelial cells A549 and BEAS-2B human bronchial epithelial cells were infected with influenza A virus H1N1 strains A/Swine/1976/31, A/WSN/33 and A/PR/8/34. Poly I:C, Escherichia coli Ol 11 :B4 LPS and measles virus strain Edmonston were used as cytokine stimulation controls. The effect of pulmonary surfactant was compared to that of dexamethasone. This in vitro study showed that physiological concentrations (up to 500 ug/ml) of clinically approved SP-A and SP-D depleted surfactant preparations (i) were non-toxic in BEAS-2B cells, (ii) had no effect on influenza virus infectivity, and (iii) reduced influenza virus induced cytokine production comparable to dexamethasone. Porcine Curosurf* significantly inhibited IL-8 and RANTES production in A/WSN/33 infected cells, by 30 and 35% respectively (p<0.05). Bovine Survanta* had a less pronounced effect. In luciferase reporter assays pulmonary surfactant, in contrast to dexamethasone, non-specifically inhibited both TLR3/RIG-I mediated NF-kappaB promoter activation and IFN-beta promoter activation. Our results indicate that SP-A and SP-D depleted surfactant preparations attenuate pro-inflammatory responses in influenza A virus infected human airway epithelial cells, but inhibitory effects on IFN-beta promoter activity were also observed. This suggests that pulmonary surfactant may be of clinical benefit in reducing pro-inflammatory responses in virus induced ARDS, however, a weakening of IFN-beta mediated anti-viral responses can not be excluded.


The issue of stakeholder identification and management is relatively well understood in the literature for private sector organisations (Christopher et al 2002, Rutterford et al 2006), and its importance is increasing across all developed countries (Maassen 2000, Wit and Verhoeven 2000, Peters 1996, Kettle 2002). However, whilst stakeholder theory has been advanced in commercial arenas (Donaldson and Preston 1995), there is less research in the public and non‐profit areas (Bryson 2004), particularly with regard to universities. Stakeholder identification and management are important disciplines in terms of effective management (Mitchell et al 1997) 'making decisions' and planning strategy (Bryson 2004), identifying problems to be solved (Freeman 1984), and ultimately knowing who may exert their influence over the organisation (Mitchell et al 1997). Identifying and understanding the stakeholders of relevance to an organisation, and their influence or interest, is therefore of key importance to managers and policy‐makers. The aim of this paper is to investigate this gap in the literature, namely specific understanding of stakeholders and the nature of stakeholder management for universities. In this context the study focuses on the identification and prioritisation of stakeholders for a UK university, a process that may be 'key to the success of public sector organisations' (Bryson 2004). Whilst stakeholder identification and classification is a familiar concept, its application to the particular context of a UK university is less explored, and this paper aims to drive more effective university stakeholder management through 'improving management, creating public value and advancing the common good' (Bryson 2004). The paper employs a case study approach that focuses on the University of Portsmouth, a large, modern UK university.


This is Part II of a three-part series presenting statistical methods for planning and analyzing temperature-accelerated life tests with the Arrhenius model, when all test units are run to failure. These methods are presented so they can be profitably used by individuals with a limited statistical background. In Part I, the Arrhenius model is described and graphical methods for analysis of such data are given. In Part II, numerical methods for analysis of such data are given and optimum and standard test plans are presented and compared. In Part III, graphical and numerical methods for comparing different products as well as methods for assessing the validity of the data and the assumptions of the Arrhenius model are also given. These methods are illustrated throughout with accelerated life-test data on insulation. While the methods are presented for the Arrhenius model, they can be used for planning and analyzing many other accelerated life-test situations.


Author(s): Villanueva, Joshua | Advisor(s): Sirbuly, Donald J | Abstract: An Optical Nanofiber Total Internal Reflection Microscopy Platform for Quantitatively Probing Nanoscale InteractionsbyJoshua T. VillanuevaDoctor of Philosophy in NanoEngineeringUniversity of California, San Diego, 2016Professor Donald Sirbuly, Chair Pushing the boundaries of nanoscience and engineering requires the development of sensitive instrumentation for studying small-scale systems and interactions. One of the most fundamental nanoscale phenomena, Brownian motion, remains difficult to characterize experimentally and serves as the primary motivation for developing new tools capable of quantifying the stochastic nature of systems at this scale. The behavior of colloidal nanoparticles are particularly interesting as they are ubiquitous in nature and are foundational to the field of nanomedicine.This dissertation discusses the development of an optical nanofiber-based total internal reflection microscopy (TIRM) platform for the statistical analysis of colloidal behavior near a surface. In this technique, the evanescent field surrounding a nanofiber waveguide provides a means for probing the physical interactions between a Brownian nanoparticle and the nanofiber. This interaction is quantified optically via the far field detection of an optical signal generated from the light scattered by a nanoparticle in the evanescent field. The accumulation of individual scattering events results in a statistical distribution of distance-dependent intensities that provides information about the underlying state of the system using appropriate physical models. While the technique is simple in principle, characterizing Brownian systems requires a thorough analysis of all parts of the instrumentation process to identify possible sources of error and verify the accuracy of quantitative measurements.The nanofiber-based TIRM's overall function is validated by comparison with predicted results from a steady-state theoretical model of the Brownian motion of a particle near a surface, mediated by an electric double layer interaction. This analysis identifies practical limitations on the types of colloidal system that are able to be investigated using this technique. Additionally, further examination of the far-field imaging process reveals that the error in quantifying nanoparticle behavior is directly related to the finite exposure time of the data collection process. With these system limitations in mind, the last part of the dissertation discusses extensions of the platform configuration for advanced characterization modalities.


Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) are public health problems in communities which lack basic social amenities with poor hygienic conditions. Studies were carried out to determine the prevalence and effect of schistosomes and soil-transmitted helminths infection on labour input on rice production in 9 rice-growing communities of Ogun State. Parasitological examinations of urine and faecal samples, and structured questionnaires were conducted on 243 consented individuals from May 2009 to March 2010. The results showed an overall prevalence of 17% for Ascaris lumbricoides, 12% for hookworms, 2% for Trichuris trichiura, 1% for Schistosoma haematobium and 1% for Schistosoma mansoni. A. lumbricoides and hookworms were more prevalent in Agbajege (25%), and varied in the other 8 communities. T. trichiura was prevalent in three communities, Agbajege (5%), Akodu (4.2%), and Moloko-Asipa (4.8 %); S. haematobium was prevalent only in Ayedere (2.6%) and Lufoko (8%), while S. mansoni was prevalent only in Moloko-Asipa (9.5%). Infections among the gender were varied as 26.3 % of males and 33.8 % of females had an overall prevalence of: A. lumbricoides (16.8%), hookworms (11.8%), T. trichiura (1.6%), S. haematobium (1.1%) and S. mansoni (1.1%). On frequency of infection to incapacitation per year, 45% of respondents were incapacitated 1-2 times, 27% 3-4 times and 19% were incapacitated more than 4 times. Understanding the effect of these two diseases will not only improve the health status of residents but also increase their productivity and ensure food security.