This dissertation presents the results of a doctoral research about commercial nationalism in Australia, analysing the construction of Australianness in consumer culture. Although previous studies have considered this phenomenon as relatively new, this thesis proposes to understand commercial nationalism as a historical process characterised by the intersection of nationalism and consumer culture in practices related to nation-making, the creation of national symbols and the defining of national identities. Based on this definition, the thesis argues that commercial nationalism has played an important role in the construction of Australia in three ways: facilitating synergies between public and private organisations, commodifying national symbols and nationalising commodities, and mediating the construction of national identities and citizen participation through consumerism. This argument is developed through a case study research analysing concrete manifestations of commercial nationalism in three periods of Australian history. The first period corresponds to the first half of the twentieth century, when Australian nationalism was characterised by a strong connection to Britain. This part of the thesis presents a case study of a buy Australian-made campaign called the "Great White Exhibition Train". It demonstrates that this and other buy-Australian campaigns were important for advancing the agendas of British-Australian nationalism, specifically for making Australia a new nation within the British Empire. The next period corresponds to the second half of the twentieth century, a time when Australian nationalism was detached from British influences and the nation started a makeover aimed at reinventing its national identity. This period is analysed through a case study mapping out the process by which Vegemite came to be considered, in spheres of popular and official culture, a symbol of this new national identity. This part of the thesis shows how Vegemite and other bread spreads have materialised historical issues and debates surrounding the idea of Australianness. The third period is located in contemporary times, when Australia is redefining its identity on the basis of the local and following the principles of neo-localism. This part presents two case studies. The first analyses two corporate campaigns in which Australian supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, incorporated nationalism in their corporate cultures and became involved in the advancement of nationalist agendas in the marketplace. It shows how supermarkets claim to be contributing to national development by assuming a series of national causes as their own responsibility. The second case examines the nation-branding campaign, "There's nothing like Australia", and explains how Australians citizens were enlisted as co-creators of commercial imaginaries of Australianness on the internet. It explains how the organisations behind the campaign claim to be constructing a democratic and authentic image of Australia that is based on the knowledge and experiences of local citizens. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications of commercial nationalism in the historical construction of Australianness. This discussion identifies specific trends related to the integration of consumer culture in nation-making projects, the creation of national symbols, and the defining of national identities, and explains a series of shifts in the actors, things and practices involved in these processes.


Some venomous spiders of the genus Loxosceles can reach high population densities inside and around houses. In Brazil, most spider accidents are related to Loxosceles intermedia. Control of loxoscelism should utilize integrated pest management tools, such as vacuum cleaners, to eliminate egg sacs, webs and spiders. The present study tested the efficacy of one type of vacuum cleaner (for professional and domestic use) in the control of L. intermedia populations. Cockroaches (Pycnoscelus surinamensis) were used in some tests for comparison. Vacuuming using standard accessories or a paper tube resulted in the death of all female (n=60), male (n=60), young (n=60) and just-hatched (n=60) L. intermedia, and all egg sacs (n=5) were destroyed. The removal of the plastic plate present at the bottom of the vacuuming tube inside the machine allowed some spiders to survive the vacuuming process. When kept inside a vacuum bag full of dust and debris, adult females (n=10) survived for 10 days; however, significant mortality was observed among male (n=10) and young individuals (n=10). Addition of cornstarch to the vacuum bag did not affect the spiders (n=20). Vacuum cleaners, such as the one used in the present investigation, are promising tools for integrated management of L. intermedia and other spiders in domestic environments.


The last years of the 20th century seams real changes in sportswear due to the rapid development in fabric structure,  which provide the players with the compatibility between body movement and structure of clothes during doing the sport , with over looking to the composition of swimwear it needs special technique in order  to get best performance which represented in ( seam strength – seam elongation – seam slippage – seam puckering – seam penetration force ) where many problems appears in production process in swimming wear has negative impact on the quality of products .The research aim studying the most effective sewing parameters which effect  the  functional performance of swimming wear which represented in needle number(65-70-75) , seam density (4-5-6 in centimeters) , seam types(301-304-504) by using research tools represented in questionnaire form to determine the defects of girls swimwear production , questionnaire form to evaluating the girls swimwear products after using the research result , swimwear analysis form, sewing machines , laboratory devices laboratory experiments  to measure seam strength , seam puckering , needle penetration force , after preparing the samples which consist of research limitation knitted fabric 120 gsm with fabric content (95% cotton -5% lycra),  and group of experts specialized in the manufacture ready – made garments  the research result were extracted after doing Statistical treatment as-N- way ANOUVA , LSD, Radar chart , cooper, Alpha cronbach where the result of the research reached that the best seam type used in sewing knitted fabric for sewing wear  and has high effect on seam strength and seam puckering  is seam (504) and the best seam density which effect seam strength is (6 seam in centimeter) , the best needle number which effect needle penetration force is needle number 65


Background: Diabetes mellitus is a common health problem of the world. Iron may be a part of the cause of the disease and its Complications
Objectives: This study was designed to determine the relationship between the levels of iron indices  and diabetes mellitus type 2. Type 2
Type of the study: Cross –sectional study.
Methods: diabetes mellitus is clinical condition characterized by hyperglycemia due to the absolute or relative deficiency of insulin. It is also followed by pathological abnormalities like impaired insulin secretion, peripheral insulin resistance, and excessive hepatic glucose production. Although type 2 diabetes mellitus is a multiple etiological disease, emerging scientific evidences show there is somewhat related to the disease with iron metabolism
Results: The study includes thirteen (15 female and 15 male)  patient  with  Diabetes mellitus and (15 male and 15 female ) as the control. In the present study, significantly increased (p < 0.05)   At ferretin , iron,  transferitin, transferin saturated  and significant decrease (p < 0.05) EIBS, TIBC  .
Conclusions: These results suggest that the role negative of increase iron in development Diabetes mellitus by a number of  mechanisms.  .


Monitoring natural ecosystems and ecosystem transitions is crucial for a better understanding of land change processes. By providing synoptic views in space and time, remote sensing data have proven to be valuable sources for such purposes. With the forthcoming Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP), frequent and area-wide mapping of natural environments by means of high quality hyperspectral data becomes possible. However, the amplified spectral mixing due to the sensor's ground sampling distance of 30 m on the one hand and the patterns of natural landscapes in the form of gradual transitions between different land cover types on the other require special attention. Based on simulated EnMAP data, this study focuses on mapping shrub vegetation along a landscape gradient of shrub encroachment in a semi-arid, natural environment in Portugal. We demonstrate how probability outputs from a support vector classification (SVC) model can be used to extend a hard classification by information on shrub cover fractions. This results in a more realistic representation of gradual transitions in shrub vegetation maps. We suggest a new, adapted approach for SVC parameter selection: During the grid search, parameter pairs are evaluated with regard to the prediction of synthetically mixed test data, representing shrub to non-shrub transitions, instead of the hard classification of original, discrete test data. Validation with an unbiased, equalized random sampling shows that the resulting shrub-class probabilities from adapted SVC more accurately represent shrub cover fractions (mean absolute error/root mean squared error of 16.3%/23.2%) compared to standard SVC (17.1%/29.5%). Simultaneously, the discrete classification output was considerably improved by incorporating synthetic mixtures into parameter selection (averaged F1 accuracies increased from 72.4% to 81.3%). Based on our findings, the integration of synthetic mixtures into SVC parameterization allows the use of SVC for sub-pixel cover fraction estimation and, this way, can be recommended for deriving improved qualitative and quantitative descriptions of gradual transitions in shrub vegetation. The approach is therefore of high relevance for mapping natural ecosystems from future EnMAP data.


Acute cardiac rupture following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) carries a high mortality. The progression and rapid hemodinamic deterioration is the usual clinical course, with 50-80% mortality within the first week. The combination of septal perforation, impending cardiac rupture of left ventricular (LV) aneurysm and rupture of papillary muscle after AMI has rarely been reported. This article describes a case of successful surgical repair of this condition in a 52 years old man. The important clinical features were as follows: 1) a sick looking patient in gross congestion heart failure, 2) persistent pulmonary oedema, 3) hepatomegali, 4) arrhythmias, 5) cardiogenic shock. The respirator was removed on the first postoperative day. An echocardiography evaluation on the 3rd postoperative day showed normal LV dimension, normal LV systolic function. There were no VSD and mitral regurgitation, but apical wall and septal still hipokinesia-akinesia. The ejection fraction showed improvement from 44% to 71%. The patient was discharged from hospital on the 30th post-operative day and returned to work after 60th post-operative day. Seven months later today his condition is still good.


The aim of this tutorial article is to present low-complexity resource allocation approaches that rely on chunks of subcarriers for downlink distributed antenna systems. The chunk-based resource allocation approach is first introduced for single-antenna base stations with the consideration of guaranteeing an average bit error rate constraint per chunk and is compared to subcarrier-based allocation. How it can be combined with maximal ratio transmission and zero-forcing beamforming for base stations with many antennas is then described. Finally, we discuss how the techniques can be applied to DASs. It is shown that in typical wireless environments chunkbased resource allocation coupled with MRT and ZFB in the DAS can reduce the complexity of resource allocation significantly at the cost of negligible performance loss compared to subcarrier-based allocation.


Objective: To evaluate the health risks associated with benzene exposure in elderly subjects following a flaring disaster at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas. Methods: Elderly subjects aged 60 years and older who had been exposed and unexposed to benzene were included. We reviewed medical charts and compared measures of white blood cells (WBC), platelets, hemoglobin, hematocrit, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate amino transferase (AST), and alanine amino transferase (ALT) in exposed and unexposed elderly subjects. Results: Records from 294 elderly subjects (benzene exposed, n=216 and unexposed, n=78) were reviewed. Benzene exposed subjects had significantly higher levels of WBC (X 103 per µL) (7.7±1.9 versus 6.3±1.5, P=0.0000) and platelet (X 103 per µL) counts (256.8 ± 51.6 versus 237.9 ± 41.9, P=0.0104) compared with the unexposed subjects. Serum creatinine levels (mg/dL) were also significantly increased in the exposed group compared with the unexposed group (1.1 ± 0.4 versus 0.9±0.2, P=0.000). Serum levels of ALP (IU/L) were significantly elevated in the exposed subjects compared with the unexposed subjects (87.5 ± 23.6 versus 72.5 ± 17.8, P=0.000). Similarly, benzene exposed subjects had significantly higher levels of AST (24.8 ± 6.2 versus 19.2 ± 5.1, IU/L, P=0.000) and ALT (24.2 ± 8.6 versus 19.1 ± 4.8, IU/L, P=0.000) compared with those unexposed to benzene. Conclusion: Benzene exposure resulted in significant alterations in hematological and hepatic profiles among elderly subjects. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In recent years, flow photolithography (FL) has emerged as a powerful synthetic tool for the creation of barcoded microparticles with complex morphologies and chemical compositions which have been shown to be useful in a range of multiplexed bioassay applications. More specifically, FL has been highly successful in producing micron-sized, encoded particles of bespoke shape, size, and color. That said, to date, FL has been restricted to generating barcoded microparticles and has lacked the ability to produce hybrid fibers which are structurally and spectrally encoded. To this end, we herein present a method that combines a continuous flow microfluidic system with two-photon polymerization (2PP) to fabricate microscale-encoded fibers and Janus strips in a high-throughput manner. Specifically, two co-flow liquid streams containing a monomer and initiator are introduced through a Y-shape channel to form a stable interface in the center of a microfluidic channel. The flow containing the (fluorescently labeled) monomer is then patterned by scanning the voxel of the 2PP laser across the interface to selectively polymerize different regions of the forming fiber/particle. Such a process allows for rapid spectral encoding at the single fiber level, with the resulting structurally coded fibers having obvious application in the fields of security identification and anticounterfeiting.


This report proposes that the architectural structure of Italo Calvino's novel If on a Winter's Night a Traveler evolved from the writer's personal experience engaging with the figurative arts through ekphrastic writing, namely the essays he composed for the art of Saul Steinberg. This argument contributes to the promising discourse of how these two artist-writers blurred the divisions between figurative arts and creative writing, each in his own right, by exploring the visual themes of the narrated, and the narrative themes of the visual. Examination is focused on selected Steinberg pieces that represent Steinbergian themes, the Calvino essays for Saul Steinberg, and on a combination of extant art criticism and academic scholarship. The goal of this work is to demonstrate that through their mutual transposition of words and images, each artist-writer illuminates the work of the other.


This work offers a novel theoretical perspective on why, despite numerous attempts, adversarial approaches to generative modeling (e.g., GANs) have not been as popular for certain generation tasks, particularly sequential tasks such as Natural Language Generation, as they have in others, such as Computer Vision. In particular, on sequential data such as text, maximum-likelihood approaches are significantly more utilized than GANs. We show that, while it may seem that maximizing likelihood is inherently different than minimizing distinguishability, this distinction is largely artificial and only holds for limited models. We argue that minimizing KL-divergence (i.e., maximizing likelihood) is a more efficient approach to effectively minimizing the same distinguishability criteria that adversarial models seek to optimize. Reductions show that minimizing distinguishability can be seen as simply boosting likelihood for certain families of models including n-gram models and neural networks with a softmax output layer. To achieve a full polynomial-time reduction, a novel next-token distinguishability model is considered.


Recently, it has become increasingly evident that fracture healing involves a complex interaction of many local and systemic regulatory factors. The roles of some of these growth factors have been described; however, little is understood about the presence of the bone morphogenetic proteins in fracture repair, despite the fact that they are the most potent osteoinductive proteins known. This study defines and characterizes the physiologic presence, localization, and chronology of the bone morphogenetic proteins in fracture healing with an established rat fracture healing model. With use of a recently developed monoclonal antibody against bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4 developed with standard avidin‐biotin complex/immunoperoxidase protocols, frozen undecalcified fracture calluses were analyzed semiquantitatively for the percentage of various types of fracture cells staining positively. During the early stages of fracture healing, only a minimum number of primitive cells stained positively in the fracture callus. As the process of endochondral ossification proceeded, the presence of bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4 increased dramatically, especially in the primitive mesenchymal and chondrocytic cells. While the cartilaginous component of the callus matured with a concomitant decrease in the number of primitive cells, there was a concomitant decrease in both the intensity and the number of positively staining cells. As osteoblasts started to lay down woven bone on the chondroid matrix, these osteoblastic cells exhibited strong positive staining. The intensity of this staining decreased, however, as lamellar bone replaced the primitive woven bone. A similar observation was noted for the areas of the callus undergoing intramembranous ossification. Initially, within several days after the fracture, periosteal cells and osteoblasts exhibited intense staining for bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4. As the woven bone was replaced with mature lamellar bone, this staining decreased. These data, and the awareness of the strong osteoinductive capacities of bone morphogenetic protein, suggest that bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4 are important regulators of cell differentiation during fracture repair.


Piezoelectric transformers are electronic devices made from piezoelectric materials. The piezoelectric transformers as the name implied are used for changing voltage signals from one level to another. Electrical energy carried with signals is transferred by means of mechanical vibration. Characterizing in both electrical and mechanical properties leads to extensively use and efficiency enhancement of piezoelectric transformers in various applications. In this paper, study and analysis of electrical and mechanical properties in forms of potential and displacement distribution throughout the volume, respectively, are discussed and especially focused on around its natural frequency. This paper proposes a set of quasi-static mathematical model of electro-mechanical coupling for piezoelectric transformer by using a set of partial differential equations. Computer-based simulation utilizing the three-dimensional finite element method (3-D FEM) is exploited as a tool for calculation in two purposes. The first use is developed the 3-D FEM for identifying its natural frequencies while the second use is for visualizing potentials and displacements distribution within the piezoelectric transformer. The computer simulation based on the use of the FEM has been developed in MATLAB programming environment. In addition, which satisfactory results of natural frequencies are compared with those obtained from the experiment and the accuracy of 3-D FEM model is confirmed.


This paper presents a comparative study of extra-musical learning in the music classes of the schools of Hong Kong and Taiwan, where education is geared towards democracy and citizenship at a time of unstable national identity for both communities. Taiwan has been undergoing a process of indigenisation since 1945, whilst Hong Kong's sovereignty was returned to the People's Republic of China after 1 July 1997. This paper argues that the transmission of extra-musical learning is essentially a response to the particular needs of these two Chinese historical-social contexts, which require their music curricula to be securely grounded in the ideology of a culturally based education for 'citizenship'. Despite different approaches to western-based musical knowledge in schools, Hong Kong and Taiwan attempt to promote a sense of national identity and an essentially Confucian set of moral values as a central goal of school music education. The promotion of ethno-cultural nationalism in Taiwan's music education is regarded as a democratic goal for the Taiwanese state, though in practice, the educational systems of both Taiwan and Hong Kong are coloured by the global context.


: One hundred and twenty nine children with chronic lead poisoning were followed from August 1985 to July 1989. Old lead paint was recognized as the contaminant source at home. Pica of paint flakes was the main mode of intoxication. Children were classified according to the Center for Disease Control 1985 as follows: class IV (39 cases), class III (45 cases), class II (30 cases), class I (15 cases). Nineteen of those in class IV had blood lead levels above 700 micrograms/l and received BAL + EDTA followed by EDTA alone for a mean of 4.6 +/- 3.5 courses. With this treatment, blood lead level decreases were 50 +/- 17%. Nine of these class IV children had an evaluation at last 3 months after the last chelation course: 5 became class I or II, and 2 class III with a negative provocative test. The remaining 20 children in class IV were given a mean of 2.7 +/- 1.4 courses of EDTA. Blood lead levels decreased by 52 +/- 15%; 11 children were evaluable at least 3 months after the last chelation course: 4 became class I, and 7 class II. Thus overall 80% of class IV moved under treatment to class I or II. Among those 45 children in class II, 30 underwent a provocative test and 24 one to three courses of EDTA: 8 were further studied: 3 became class I and 5 class II. Combination of screening, medical treatment and sociocultural approach led to avoid acute effects of severe chronic childhood lead poisoning. The efficacy of such an approach in preventing chronic effects has still to be evaluated.


Abstract Background and aim: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) are histologically categorized according to the WHO 2010 classification by their mitotic index or Ki-67 index as G1, G2, or G3. The present study examined the efficacy of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) in the diagnosis and grading of pNET. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 61 pNETs in 51 patients who underwent EUS between January 2007 and June 2014. All lesions were pathologically diagnosed by surgical resection or EUS-FNA. We evaluated the detection rates of EUS for pNET and sensitivity of EUS-FNA, and compared the Ki-67 index between EUS-FNA samples and surgical specimens. EUS findings were compared between G1 and G2/G3 tumors. Results: EUS showed significantly higher sensitivity (96.7%) for identifying pNET than CT (85.2%), MRI (70.2%), and ultrasonography (75.5%). The sensitivity of EUS-FNA for the diagnosis of pNET was 89.2%. The concordance rate of WHO classification between EUS-FNA and surgical specimens was 69.2% (9/13). The concordance rate was relatively high (87.5%, 5/6) in tumors <20 mm but lower (57.1%; 4/7) in tumors ≥20 mm. Regarding EUS findings, G2/G3 tumors were more likely to be large (>20 mm), heterogeneous, and have main pancreatic duct (MPD) obstruction than G1 tumors. Multivariate analysis showed large diameter and MPD obstruction were significantly associated with G2/G3 tumors. Conclusions: EUS and EUS-FNA are highly sensitive and accurate diagnostic methods for pNET. Characteristic EUS findings such as large tumor size and MPD obstruction are suggestive of G2/G3 tumors and would be helpful for grading pNETs.


Abstract This paper describes the design principles and implementation of a novel approach for a K–12 teacher professional development (PD) program. The approach integrates training focused on development of model eliciting activities (MEAs) within authentic engineering design tasks, collaborative 3D model design and fabrication, and inspirational site visits with access to active engineers to enhance understanding of current issues faced by NASA aerospace researchers. Throughout the training, participants collaborated with program staff including engineering, 3D graphics, education, and MEA specialists to develop research-related MEAs with accompanying 3Dprinted manipulatives. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for engineering education teacher PD in authentic contexts and examine teachers' experience of the program, including comfort with and knowledge of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instructional strategies. Pre–post survey results show high levels of satisfaction with the workshop and significant gains in integrated STEM understanding and comfort. Potential barriers to curriculum implementation include lack of a 3D printer and time. We provide a list of lessons learned from the PD development and implementation along with recommendations for developing similar PD programs. Abstract This paper describes the design principles and implementation of a novel approach for a K–12 teacher professional development (PD) program. The approach integrates training focused on development of model eliciting activities (MEAs) within authentic engineering design tasks, collaborative 3D model design and fabrication, and inspirational site visits with access to active engineers to enhance understanding of current issues faced by NASA aerospace researchers. Throughout the training, participants collaborated with program staff including engineering, 3D graphics, education, and MEA specialists to develop research-related MEAs with accompanying 3Dprinted manipulatives. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for engineering education teacher PD in authentic contexts and examine teachers' experience of the program, including comfort with and knowledge of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instructional strategies. Pre–post survey results show high levels of satisfaction with the workshop and significant gains in integrated STEM understanding and comfort. Potential barriers to curriculum implementation include lack of a 3D printer and time. We provide a list of lessons learned from the PD development and implementation along with recommendations for developing similar PD programs.


In these last years, the energy demand has increased. The predominant primary energies are non-renewable and polluting. This is driving to the depletion and destruction of the planet in a close future. Against this background, different investigations have focused on trying to find alternative energies. Among them, investigations have greatly opted for hydrogen (H2); specifically in its biologic production. This research is centered in the analysis and optimization of H2 production by photofermentation in purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNS), in particular, in the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus. For this purpose, we have used overproducer mutant strains, obtained by random mutagenesis through irradiation with ultraviolet light. The capacity of H2 production was determined in closed cultures, based on the amount of H2 produced and the nitrogenase activity within each of them. To enhance H2 generation and reduce productions costs, these strains were grown with different carbon sources: glucose, sucrose and sodium acetate. Another strategy to improve it consists of the use of continuous cultivations to avoid the depletion of nutrients and, therefore, the termination of the production. In this study, it is proved that a continuous and increased production of H2 by R. capsulatus can be implemented. Moreover, the use of continuous cultivation allowed us to improve the production 3,374% compared to the control strain.


Clear cell hidradenoma (CCH) is a rare tumor of the sweat glands of eccrine or apocrine differentiation. It can occur anywhere in the body, but common sites of involvement are the head, face, trunk, and extremities. Although several reports have described sonographic findings of CCH, only one study on the axilla mentioned its strain elastographic findings. Here, we present a case of CCH in the right calf with its sonographic and strain elastographic findings in a tumor that looked like an epidermoid tumor.


Abstract The molecular size limitations of the digestive system, including the filter chamber of immature and adult Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) B biotype (=B. argentifolii), were studied by tracking the movement of fluorescent-labeled molecules and microspheres ingested by whiteflies. Soluble fluorescent molecules and labeled dextrans, ranging from 389 to 2,000,000 Da, were observed throughout the digestive tract of immatures 10–30 min after feeding was initiated. After removal of labeled molecules from the diet, fluorochromes were cleared from digestive system of immatures within 2 h. Fluorescent-labeled 0.1- and 0.2-μm microspheres were ingested by larvae and saturated the digestive system within 2 h after initiation of feeding. Large, 0.5-μm spheres were not observed in the digestive tract of immatures, probably because singly or as aggregates, they were too large to enter the stylet food canal. The smallest spheres examined, 0.02 μm, were not detectable in the digestive tract of immatures. Observations for whitefly adults were identical to those for larvae, with two exceptions. In adults, soluble fluorochromes were detectable1 h after feeding commenced, and 0.02-μm spheres were observed primarily in the esophagus, filter chamber, anterior midgut, and hindgut, but not in the posterior portions of the midgut. We hypothesize that most of the 0.02-μm spheres ingested by adult whiteflies were shunted directly to the hindgut by way of the filter chamber, effectively bypassing the midgut. This is, therefore, a feasible route for virions of the plant pathogenic genus Begomovirus, which are of similar size to the small microspheres and are transmitted in a circulative manner by B. tabaci.


Since the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, significant global progress has been achieved in promoting gender equality in education and health. However, progress has not been as remarkable in advancing women's rights on asset ownership and control, which is critical for securing gender equity in economic participation and opportunity, and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals. Part of the problem comes from the lack of standards on collecting sexdisaggregated data on the topic. The Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) initiative aims to develop standardized methods and guidelines for collecting sex-disaggregated data on asset ownership. This paper provides rich inputs to the methodological guidelines being developed by the United Nations and development partners by drawing on the key findings from the pilot surveys conducted in Georgia; Mongolia; and Cavite, Philippines. Furthermore, survey results suggest substantive gender gaps in ownership across different types of assets and countries. These variations confirm the importance of understanding the social norms governing gender roles in society and legislation that can facilitate or impede women's asset ownership.


New ultra high data rate systems in the 60 GHz band, especially those targeting high definition video indoor transmission, have a strong requirement for Quality of Service to prevent link outage, and this has to be performed at the MAC level. This paper describes a new simulation platform for these ultra high data rate wireless systems. This new tool models the complete wireless system, including a ray tracing based channel model, smart antennas model, and a physical layer model suitable for MB-OFDM and Single Carrier basebands. In addition, it includes the modeling of RF front-end properties and a MAC layer with beamforming capability for Quality of Service. In this paper we also highlight one use case of this simulation tool as a mean to compare the performance impact of different antenna arrays in a high definition video streaming application.


Undernutrition affects sub-Saharan African countries with increased stunting among children under 5 years old. The short- and long-term effects of this stunting include the potential for slow growth in early life, impaired health, and educational and economic disadvantages in adolescent and adult years. In this quantitative cross-sectional study, we analyzed the relationship between single-mother families and the occurrence of stunting among children under 5 years old in the Kgatleng District of Botswana. We collected primary data from 196 mothers and their children who visited selected clinics in Kgatleng. The results of the binary logistic regression analysis were significant: χ2 (1, N = 196) = 4.119, p = .046, indicating the model was able to distinguish between those respondents who reported stunting and those who did not report stunting. The implications for positive social change include the potential to increase awareness among health professionals to continually check the linear growth of children under 5 to help curb the deleterious effects and the social inequalities caused by stunting.


Social programs are based on explicit or implicit assumptions of how and why a certain intervention will work. Recently, these assumptions have captured the attention of academics and practitioners alike, sparking sudden interest in the so called theories of change (ToCh). By illustrating how each intermediate outcome links to another in a logical and/or chronological flow, ToCh are explanations of how certain groups of stakeholders expect to reach a commonly understood long-term goal. In this research, we take the comprehensive case study of a recent ecosystem services project in Huamantanga, Peru, as a strategic site to illustrate the diversity of perceptions and assumptions around the project's theory (ies) of change held by a heterogeneous group of stakeholders. Founded by the British research consortium, Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA), the intervention built upon launching a community-led environmental virtual observatory (EVO): an open technology platform for ecosystem knowledge generation and exchange. While in principle, ToCh represents a welcome effort of organizations to explore and represent change in a way that reflects a systemic understanding of development, practitioners' experience points to the threats of its unquestioned application. External application of ToChs imposes a pre-defined project logic model and irrevocably reduces complex social reality to a clear-cut range of project deliverables. The pressure to be policy-relevant and to deliver a range of specific impacts, while well-intentioned, may also deter investigation of alternative sets of assumptions about the change process. With the use of ethnographic data, narrative interviews and focus group discussions with the project's stakeholders (Huamantanga community members, the researchers, practitioners and founders), we attempt to explore these 'alternative assumptions', conceptualizing ToCh not as a product, but as an ongoing process of reflection and dialogue, a path of practice-informed scientific exploration.


The thesis is divided into three sections. In the first, I present the general theoretical framework within which the arguments of the thesis are considered. This framework contains an interpretive semantic component (in the sense of Katz 1966a, 1972, Bierwisch 1969, 1971) and the formalism assumed is that of Bierwisch. I argue however that this formalism in effect constitutes a statement of the necessary and sufficient truth conditions on the sentences of a language and that this is the correct basis for natural-language semantics. This hypothesis appears to be threatened by the concept of presupposition. In the second section, I therefore discuss two separate concepts of presupposition and consider the issues both raise for natural-language semantics. In brief, I argue (chapter 4) that to incorporate a concept of presupposition defined in terms of speakers' belief has consequences which necessitate its exclusion by fiat from a formal linguistic theory. Furthermore I argue (chapters 4-5) that a logically defined concept of presupposition refers to an empty set of sentences, since every postulated presupposition is in fact an example of an entailment relation. So I conclude that neither definition of presupposition should be part of natural-language semantics. Accordingly the semantic framework set up in the first part remains at present unfalsified. However in addition to such a semantics, in the final section I set up a theory of pragmatics (along lines suggested by Grice, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1969) to explain those aspects of sentences which are not captured by a truth-conditional (but non-presuppositional) semantics. In over-all terms, my aim is two-fold: (i) to justify in some detail the formal properties of an interpretive semantic component (based on a non-presuppositional logic); and (ii) to suggest a tentative specification of a pragmatic theory as part of some more general theory of performance.


: Two cases of acute, multifocal, placoid, pigment epitheliitis, are described. In acute multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy (AMPPE) visual acuity falls precipitously, accompanied by whitish, confluent, blurry lesions of the posterior pole retina. On fluorescein angiography, these lesions characteristically block the normal choroidal flush. Visual acuity improves over a period of months, in spite of heavy residual chorioretinal scarring. In acute pigment epitheliitis, visual acuity also drops suddenly, but the objective findings are limited to slight depigmentation of the foveal area, especially visible in early stages of fluorescein angiography. Vision improves over a period of weeks. These diseases of the retinal pigment epithelium must be correctly diagnosed, since their visual prognosis is far better than that of central chorioretinitis or other macular diseases.


SUMMARY: Addition of formalin (40% formaldehyde) to a concentration of 5-10% (v/v) to a bacterial culture before flagellar staining may change the shape of the flagella as seen in the stained preparation. With many bacteria, if not a majority, the formalin has no effect on the flagellar shape. The coiled, the straight, the small-amplitude and the typical undulant flagellar shapes evidently are mainly due to formalin fixation. The effect of formalin on flagellar shape may have taxonomic significance and should be recorded. Formalin fixation is advantageous in flagellar staining in that it kills the bacteria and makes for nicer preparations, especially when the bacteria are capsulated.


This work considers the problem of attack-resilient sensor fusion in an autonomous system where multiple sensors measure the same physical variable. A malicious attacker may corrupt a subset of these sensors and send wrong measurements to the controller on their behalf, potentially compromising the safety of the system. We formalize the goals and constraints of such an attacker who also wants to avoid detection by the system. We argue that the attacker's capabilities depend on the amount of information she has about the correct sensors' measurements. In the presence of a shared bus where messages are broadcast to all components connected to the network, the attacker may consider all other measurements before sending her own in order to achieve maximal impact. Consequently, we investigate effects of communication schedules on sensor fusion performance. We provide worst- and average-case results in support of the Ascending schedule, where sensors send their measurements in a fixed succession based on their precision, starting from the most precise sensors. Finally, we provide a case study to illustrate the use of this approach.


The daily fluctuations in the power requirements and the regulation of voltage and frequency cause substantial energy dissipation. These lead to a reduction in the operational efficiency of the power grid. V2G (Vehicle 2 Grid) enabled electric vehicles (EVs) can act as a reactive power resource and can provide active power regulation, load matching, and current harmonic filtering. We propose a smart framework based on Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge computing to manage the V2G operations efficiently. The proposed framework can handle distributed energy sources, and can help in grid stabilization, increasing its reliability, and improving the power efficiency. V2G energy transfers can affect the EV's battery lifetime, however if carefully managed, they can be economical both for the grid operators, as well as the EV owners. The proposed framework creates an optimum charging schedule for each EV to maximize the profit of the EV owners, keeping the preferences set by the vehicle owner and the grid requirement in consideration.


This retrospective study was conducted on 145 postmortem cases of hanging victims at government medical college morgue over a period of two years. The objective of this study was to find out the pattern of hanging cases as a proper method of suicide and to evaluate the present situation of hanging in this capital city. Out of 145 cases, 41% were male and 51% were married. One hundred and one victims hanged themselves at night, while 44 at day time. In 72 victims, stomachs were found empty. Most (97%) of the bodies were recovered from inside the living rooms. Ninety seven percent had complete suspension. One hundred and forty two (98%) cases had ligature mark in neck. Thirty nine cases had fracture of hyoid bones, 27 cases had fracture of thyroid cartilages. Most of the victims (45%) were from the age group 20- 30 years. Dopatta (orna) was the commonest (35%) ligature material. Quarrel among husband and wife was the commonest (31%) cause of suicidal hanging. Hanging was observed as a frequently used method of suicide in Bangladesh. Key words: Hanging, suicide; post mortem DOI: 10.3329/jafmc.v6i2.7273 JAFMC Bangladesh . Vol 6, No 2 (December) 2010 pp.37-39


Objective:We estimate facility-level average annual costs per client along the HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) service cascades. Design:Data collected covered the period 2011–2012 in 230 HTC and 212 PMTCT facilities in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zambia. Methods:Input quantities and unit prices were collected, as were output data. Annual economic costs were estimated from the service providers' perspective using micro-costing. Average annual costs per client in 2013 United States dollars (US$) were estimated along the service cascades. Results:For HTC, average cost per client tested ranged from US$5 (SD US$7) in Rwanda to US$31 (SD US$24) in South Africa, whereas average cost per client diagnosed as HIV-positive ranged from US$122 (SD US$119) in Zambia to US$1367 (SD US$2093) in Rwanda. For PMTCT, average cost per client tested ranged from US$18 (SD US$20) in Rwanda to US$89 (SD US$56) in South Africa; average cost per client diagnosed as HIV-positive ranged from US$567 (SD US$417) in Zambia to US$2021 (SD US$3210) in Rwanda; average cost per client on antiretroviral prophylaxis ranged from US$704 (SD US$610) in South Africa to US$2314 (SD US$3204) in Rwanda; and average cost per infant on nevirapine ranged from US$888 (SD US$884) in South Africa to US$2359 (SD US$3257) in Rwanda. Conclusion:We found important differences in unit costs along the HTC and PMTCT service cascades within and between countries suggesting that more efficient delivery of these services is possible.


System testing of software applications with a graphical-user interface (GUI) front-end requires that sequences of GUI events, that sample the application's input space, be generated and executed as test cases on the GUI. However, the context-sensitive behavior of the GUI of most of today's non-trivial software applications makes it practically impossible to fully determine the software's input space. Consequently, GUI testers-both automated and manual-working with undetermined input spaces are, in some sense, blindly navigating the GUI, unknowingly missing allowable event sequences, and failing to realize that the GUI implementation may allow the execution of some disallowed sequences. In this paper, we develop a new paradigm for GUI testing, one that we call Observe-Model-Exercise* (OME*) to tackle the challenges of testing context-sensitive GUIs with undetermined input spaces. Starting with an incomplete model of the GUI's input space, a set of coverage elements to test, and test cases, OME* iteratively observes the existence of new events during execution of the test cases, expands the model of the GUI's input space, computes new coverage elements, and obtains new test cases to exercise the new elements. Our experiment with 8 open-source software subjects, more than 500,000 test cases running for almost 1,100 machine-days, shows that OME* is able to expand the test space on average by 464.11 percent; it detected 34 faults that had never been detected before.


In this work, a nonlinear model predictive controller is developed for a batch polymerization process. The physical model of the process is parameterized along a desired trajectory resulting in a trajectory linearized piecewise model (a multiple linear model bank) and the parameters are identified for an experimental polymerization reactor. Then, a multiple model adaptive predictive controller is designed for thermal trajectory tracking of the MMA polymerization. The input control signal to the process is constrained by the maximum thermal power provided by the heaters. The constrained optimization in the model predictive controller is solved via genetic algorithms to minimize a DMC cost function in each sampling interval.


Corrosion underneath riser hangers and clamps in the splash zone area is historically challenging for inspectors. It is a chronic problem for offshore pipeline operators which could lead to significant failures and loss of primary containment. When the degradation of the protective coating system occurs, it will result in external severe corrosion. The splash zone riser is exposed to intermittent seawater wetting. Especially at crevice areas which can form and accelerate small concentration corrosion cells creating indiscernible localized corrosion or deep grooves.
 Close visual inspection (CVI) is a conventional nondestructive examination (NDE) technique to notify a sign of corrosion. This is a very subjective and qualitative measurement. Wall loss, depth, and sizing are unknown. In order to identify the condition underneath the riser clamp without clamp removal, the company has studied the principle of advanced NDE techniques, mockup tests, and field trials. The main objective is to identify, quantify, and prioritize the severity of corrosion anomalies underneath the clamp for further maintenance and repair plans to prevent pipeline failure. The selected techniques are Computed Radiography Testing (CRT), Medium-Range Ultrasonic testing (MRUT), and Long-Range Ultrasonic testing (LRUT). The result shows that LRUT can be further developed to suit the company's purposes.


Losacco et al 's1 review of practice across European neonatal units regarding the use of non-pharmacological analgesia (NPA) for painful procedures in neonatal units has highlighted the relatively infrequent use of these techniques. This is despite good evidence confirming the effectiveness of NPA2 and evidence of deleterious effects of pain in babies, both short term3 (decreased oxygenation, haemodynamic instability and raised intracranial pressure) and long term4 (neurodevelopmental delay and altered perceptions of pain in later life).

We have recently conducted an audit on the use of NPA for neonates, comparing our current practice at Good Hope Hospital, Birmingham, UK, against our hospital guidelines. As a part of this process, we have also carried out a review of literature on the use of NPA and assessed whether the current hospital guidance meets evidence-based recommendations.

Clinical staff in various neonatal and paediatric clinical areas at Good Hope Hospital were requested to fill in questionnaires every time they carried out a painful procedure in an infant. Forty-six questionnaires were filled in total; 8 from the postnatal wards, 11 from the children's assessment unit or paediatric ward and 27 from the neonatal unit.

For postnatal wards, the ages for which the procedures were carried out ranged from day 1 to 4. Five of the eight babies were given sucrose (0.6 ml …


The Experiment was conducted to study effects of binder mineral addition to the hatchery waste based pellet processing on its proximate component and energy value. The study may be beneficial to emerge a new feed resource for local farm businesses. The hatchery wastes those comprised of 30% of egg shells, 60% of un-hatched eggs, and 10% of culled DOC were blended, and mixed with 10% of cassava cake meal(W/W), then mixed well with mineral adsorbent (bentonites or zeolites) at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5% (W/W). The mixture was conditioned at 80 oC for 15 min, and extruded to make a pellet with 6 mm of diameter and 30 mm in length, and dried into warm air flow dryer. The moisture , crude protein (CP), ash, ether extract (EE), crude fiber (CF), apparent metabolizable energy (AME), true metabolizable energy (TME), metabolizability(MET) and nitrogen retention (NR) were observed in each pellet . Result of the experiment showed that moisture of pellet was decreased (P<0.05) by zeolites or bentonites addition. Even though the effect of binder mineral addition gave different patterns, concentrations of ash, crude protein, ether extract and crude fiber of pellet product were increased by increasing level of mineral adsorbent (P<0.05). Nutrient availability as was represented by AME, TME, MET, and NR were increased by zeolites and bentonites additions (P<0.05). In conclusion, supplementations of bentonites and zeolites in the hatchery waste based pellet could improve its proximate component concentration and nutrient availability .


An eight-month-old girl presented with congenital exotropia and latent nystagmus. Further evaluation revealed congenital ptosis of the left eye and restriction of the elevation, depression and adduction of the left eye. A diagnosis of congenital oculomotor palsy was made. At the age of three months she had been examined by the neurologist because of retarded psychomotor development. All laboratory investigations were normal. At the age of eight months, a CT scan of the brain and orbit was found to be normal. The patient was treated for amblyopia. At the age of five, strabismus surgery was performed, and a large fibrous tumor encapsulating the superior and lateral rectus muscle was found. A biopsy was taken and pathology showed fibrous tissue containing a hair. Based on the clinical history, the diagnosis of a perinatally ruptured orbital dermoid cyst was made. Review of the previous CT and an additional CT showed enlargement of the left lateral orbital wall with a notch in the lateral wall, indicative of a dermoid cyst.


Abstract: One of the most primary phases of automatic text processing is spelling error detection and grapheme normalization. Storing textual documents faces several problems without passing this phase, which causes a disturbance in retrieving the documents automatically. Therefore, specialists in the fields of natural language processing and computational linguistics usually make an attempt to sample various data through presenting ideal methods and algorithms in order to reach the normalized data. Several researches have been conducted on English and some other languages, which have been followed by a certain amount of researches on Farsi too. Sometimes, these several researches have remained to be a pure study and sometimes they have been released as a product. This paper carries out the categorization of the different methods and essential datasets in these researches and depicts each category individually and the evaluation measurements methods generally. Moreover, it describes the performance of the monolingual Farsi systems and the way they meet the Farsi challenges.


Is the relationship between inequality of opportunity (IOp) and economic growth different from the relationship between inequality of outcomes and economic growth? I answer this question using System GMM regressions applied to data for 27 European countries covering the period 2005-2011. I find that a one-standard deviation increase in IOp results in a statistically significant decrease in growth rates, ranging from 0.65 to 1.03 percentage points. On the other hand, inequality of outcomes has no statistically significant effect. The estimates are robust to the choice of instrumental variables and estimation approach. Additional analysis reveals that human capital levels partly explain this relationship, and that the effect is stronger for inequality indexes that are sensitive to changes in the middle of the distribution, with bottom-sensitive indexes having almost no effect.


Grandi Madri, Grandi Padri.. "Piccole Donne" - In this article the authors try to understand how much inner family, intended both as family legacy that each person receives from his/her own family and as human collective legacy (transmission of values, ideas, principles, feelings and behaviours), can influence one person's life. The analysis of Louisa May Alcott's life and of her very famous novel "Little Women" highlights the influence that the various family members, and the father in particular, had on Louisa May, as well as how much family values and models can influence the writer.


This paper discusses how central banking is evolving in light of recent experience, with particular emphasis on the incorporation of uncertainty into policy decision-making. The sort of post-crisis uncertainty that central banks are dealing with today is more profound than that which is typically subjected to rigorous analysis and does not lend itself easily to formal modelling. As a practical matter, the policy-maker is dependent on macro models to develop a coherent monetary policy plan, and this burden of coherence means that fundamental uncertainty must be incorporated explicitly into the policy formulation process. As suggested here, doing so transforms policy formulation from an exercise in reverse engineering to one of risk management, one consequence of which is to inject a little more realism about uncertainty into the policy narrative, while trusting markets to wrestle with the data flow and deliver two-way trading. The evolution is likely to be a long one—researchers are encouraged to keep focusing on developing a practical understanding of how the economy works, one that admits that rules around economic behaviour are not cast in stone, but are almost certainly subject to variation through time and events. JEL classification: C50, E37, E5, E61 Bank classification: Economic models; Financial stability; Monetary policy framework; Uncertainty and monetary policy


Mouse polyomavirus-like particles (MPyV-VLPs) carrying inside a fragment of the Bcr-Abl hybrid protein containing the epitope of chronic myeloid leukemia fusion region were prepared. A sequence encoding 171 amino acids covering Bcr-Abl breakpoint was fused to the C-terminal part of VP3 minor protein connecting it to the VP1 capsomeres. Chimeric particles, the Bcr-Abl VLPs, were tested for their ability to induce Bcr-Abl specific immune response in mice after their intranasal (i.n.) or intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration without any other adjuvants. Bcr-Abl VLPs induced strong anti-VP1 immune response in both i.n. and i.p. immunized mice. As expected, neither IgG nor IgM anti-Bcr-Abl specific antibodies were detected in the sera of immunized animals. Surprisingly, no specific CTL (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte) activity was proved using two different methods (in vitro cytotoxicity assay with CFSE-labeled target cells and highly sensitive cytotoxicity assay using MHC class I Bcr-Abl specific pentamers). In addition, no proliferative response of T-cells of i.n. immunized mice after in vitro restimulation with antigen-pulsed bone marrow-derived dendritic cells was observed. Taken together, Bcr-Abl breakpoint epitopes appeared to be weak immunogens and even MPyV-VLPs did not provide sufficient adjuvant ability to support induction of immune responses specific to Bcr-Abl fusion zone epitope.


Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.), transmitted by Ixodes spp. ticks, is the causative agent of Lyme disease. Although Ixodes spp. ticks are distributed in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres, evidence for the presence of B. burgdorferi s.l. in South America apart from Uruguay is lacking. We now report the presence of culturable spirochetes with flat-wave morphology and borrelial DNA in endemic Ixodes stilesi ticks collected in Chile from environmental vegetation and long-tailed rice rats (Oligoryzomys longicaudatus). Cultured spirochetes and borrelial DNA in ticks were characterized by multilocus sequence typing and by sequencing five other loci (16S and 23S ribosomal genes, 5S-23S intergenic spacer, flaB, ospC). Phylogenetic analysis placed this spirochete as a new genospecies within the Lyme borreliosis group. Its plasmid profile determined by polymerase chain reaction and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis differed from that of B. burgdorferi B31A3. We propose naming this new South American member of the Lyme borreliosis group B. chilensis VA1 in honor of its country of origin.


We present spectroscopic and photometric observations of SN 1992ar, the most distant supernova (SN) in the Calán/Tololo Survey. We compare its spectrum with those of nearby Type Ia and Ic SNe and conclude that the latter type is a better match to SN 1992ar. Using K-corrections based on the spectra of well-observed Type Ic and Ia SNe, we compute different possible rest-frame light curves of SN 1992ar and compare them with those of representative SNe of each type observed in the nearby universe. From the photometry and the spectra, we are able to conclude that SN 1992ar cannot be matched by any known example of a Type Ia SN. Even though the data set collected is fairly complete (one spectrum and 10 photometric points), it is not possible to decide whether SN 1992ar was a fast Type Ic SN, like SN 1994I, or a slow one, like SN 1983V. The absolute V magnitudes at maximum implied by each of these possibilities are -19.2 and -20.2, respectively. The latter would make SN 1992ar one of the brightest SNe on record. SN 1992ar, hence, illustrates the problem of contamination faced by the high-z Type Ia SNe samples whose luminosity distances are used to determine the cosmological parameters of the universe. We present observational criteria to distinguish the two SN types when the Si II 6355 Å line is redshifted out of the sensitivity range of typical CCD detectors and discuss the effect that these luminous Type Ic SNe would have on the measured cosmological parameters, if not removed from the high-z Type Ia SN samples.


The methods of the quantum theory of computation are used to analyze the physics of closed timelike lines. This is dominated, even at the macroscopic level, by quantum mechanics. In classical physics the existence of such lines in a spacetime imposes "paradoxical" constraints on the state of matter in their past and also provides means for knowledge to be created in ways that conflict with the principles of the philosophy of science. In quantum mechanics the first of these pathologies does not occur. The second is mitigated, and may be avoidable without such spacetimes being ruled out. Several novel and distinctive (but nonparadoxical) quantum-mechanical effects occur on and near closed timelike lines, including violations of the correspondence principle and of unitarity. It becomes possible to "clone" quantum systems and to measure the state of a quantum system. A new experimental test of the Everett interpretation against all others becomes possible. Consideration of these and other effects sheds light on the nature of quantum mechanics.


The scale, reliability and cost requirements of enterprise data centers require automation of center management. Examples include provisioning, scheduling, capacity planning, logging and auditing. A key component of such automation functions is online monitoring. In contrast to monitoring systems designed for human users, a particular concern for online enterprise monitoring is Quality of Service (QoS). Since breaking service level agreements (SLAs) has direct financial and legal implications, enterprise monitoring must be conducted so as to maintain SLAs. This includes the ability to differentiate the QoS of monitoring itself for different classes of users or more generally, for software components subject to different SLAs. Thus, without embedding notions of QoS into the monitoring systems used in next generation data centers, it will not be possible to accomplish the desired automation of their operation. This paper both demonstrates the importance of QoS in monitoring and it presents a QoS-capable monitoring system, termed QMON. QMON supports utility-aware monitoring while also able to differentiate between different classes of monitoring, corresponding to classes of SLAs. The implementation of QMON offers high levels of predictability for service delivery (i.e., predictable performance) and it is dynamically configurable to deal with changes in enterprise needs or variations in services and applications. We demonstrate the importance of QoS in monitoring and the QoS capabilities of QMON in a series of case studies and experiments, using a multi-tier web service benchmark.


Logistic Characteristic Curves (LCCs) or Logistic Operating Curves (LOCs) describe relationships between various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of production and logistics systems. These relationships can be qualitatively or quantitatively visualized by charts to illustrate the performance of these systems. Discrete Event Simulation (DES) allows a detailed investigation of the dynamic behavior of production and logistics systems under consideration of uncertainties and thus contributes to their planning reliability. Using simulation models and the data generated by the experiments, KPIs of the modeled systems are measured. Of course, different production and logistics systems also have several target systems whereby the individual target variables interact with each other and can, therefore, conflict. In this paper, a methodology is presented that combines DES and a statistical technique for empirical model building, namely the response surface model, to predict the behavior of production and logistics systems by using LOCs and thereby decrease the effort for experimentation by reducing the number of simulation runs.


The supernova remnant (SNR) HESS J1731-347 displays strong nonthermal TeV γ-ray and X-ray emission, thus the object is presently accelerating particles to very high energies. A distinctive feature of this young SNR is the nearby (∼30 pc in projection) extended source HESS J1729-345, which is currently unidentified but is in spatial projection coinciding with known molecular clouds (MC). We model the SNR evolution to explore whether the TeV emission from HESS J1729-345 can be explained as emission from runaway hadronic cosmic rays (CRs) that are illuminating these MCs. The observational data of HESS J1729-345 and HESS J1731-347 can be reproduced using core-collapse SN models for HESS J1731-347. Starting with different progenitor stars and their presupernova environment, we model potential SNR evolution histories along with the CR acceleration in the SNR and the diffusion of the CRs. A simplified three-dimensional structure of the MCs is introduced based on 12CO data of that region, adopting a distance of 3.2 kpc to the source. A Monte Carlo based diffusion model for the escaping CRs is developed to deal with the inhomogeneous environment. The fast SNR forward shock speed, as implied from the X-ray data, can easily be explained when employing scenarios with progenitor star masses between 20 M and 25 M , where the SNR shock is still expanding inside the main-sequence (MS) bubble at present time. The TeV spectrum of HESS J1729-345 is satisfactorily fitted by the emission from the highest energy CRs that have escaped the SNR, using a standard Galactic CR diffusion coefficient in the interclump medium. The TeV image of HESS J1729-345 can be explained with a reasonable three-dimensional structure of MCs. The TeV emission from the SNR itself is dominated by leptonic emission in this model. We also explore scenarios where the shock is starting to encounter the dense MS progenitor wind bubble shell. The escaping hadronic CR hypothesis for the γ-ray emission of HESS J1729-345 can still hold, but even in this case our model cannot easily account for the TeV emission from HESS J1731-347 in a hadronic scenario.


Mining represents a major source of metal contamination for fluvial systems worldwide. Monitoring and understanding the effects on downstream water and sediment quality is essential for effective management of active and abandoned mine sites. This study aims to determine the downstream effects of the abandoned, small-scale hydraulic Black Creek gold mine on the geochemistry of fine (


| In Pakistan, renewable freshwater resources are decreasing due to unpredictable rainfall changes and farming community is compelled to use underground brackish water. Therefore, a lysimetric study was undertaken to remediate hazardous effects of brackish water on rice-wheat crops through practicable and economical methods in two different textured soils. Treatments were: (A) Types of soils. 1) sandy loam, 2) clay loam, (B) Remedial strategies, 1). canal water, 2) saline-sodic tube well water (continuous), 3) three irrigations of tube well water and two of canal water in a cyclic manner (short cyclic use), 4) tube well water + gypsum @ RSC of water, 5) tube well water+ canal water in 1:1 ratio (conjunctive use). Data showed that the highest biomass and paddy/grain yield were produced by canal water (T1) followed by (T3) where three irrigations of tube well water and two of canal water were used in a short cyclic manner. Whereas, growth and yield of rice and wheat crops were significantly reduced by continuous use of brackish water (T2) and maximum pHs, ECe and SAR were noted in this treatment in both textured soils. Different management practices (use of gypsum and blending) also mitigated the ill effects of saline-sodic water. Therefore, it was concluded that when fresh-water resources are finite and use of saline-sodic water is inevitable, cyclic use of canal and saline-sodic water is a wise and profitable management strategy with marginal effect on crop productivity and proves least detrimental for soil health. Comparison of two different textured soils also revealed that brackish water deteriorated the soil properties of clay loam soil more in comparison to sandy loam soil that highlighted the primary role of soil texture for salinity development and must be recognized while using the brackish water for irrigation purpose.


Roasted meat is known to be a major source of human exposure to PAHs. The contribution of direct-heat charcoal-roasted, electric- oven grilled, and shallow-pan fried meat to human exposure in Kisumu City was not known although the three modes of cooking meat are very prevalent. This study analyzed the concentrations of the PAHs in raw beef, goat meat, and pork, investigated the effect of direct-heat charcoal roasting, electric-oven grilling, and shallow-pan frying on these concentrations, and compared their concentration levels with international standards for foods in order to assess the potential risks to consumers. Samples were taken from three popular meat-roasting hotels within Kisumu City, Kenya. Extraction of PAHs was done using liquid-liquid partition after saponification with alcoholic potassium hydroxide followed by clean-up on a silica gel column and final analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Roasting and shallow-pan frying introduced new PAHs and significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased the concentrations of those existing in raw meat. Direct-heat charcoal roast beef had 5 new PAHs and a total mean PAH content of 17.88 μg/kg, compared with a mean of 1.39 μg/kg for raw beef, with the potent dibenz(a,h)anthracene also being detected. Direct-heat charcoal roasted goat meat had three new PAHs and a total mean PAH content of 4.77 μg/kg, compared with a mean of 2.13 μg/kg in raw meat, with the potent benzo(a)pyrene concentration being 8.84% of the total mean PAH. Fried pork had 7 new PAHs and a total mean PAH content of 3.47 μg/kg, compared with a mean total of 0.17 μg/kg, detected in the raw meat. Roast beef had the highest individual PAH concentration (5.03 μg/kg) and highest total PAHs concentration (17.88 μg/kg), both being higher than acceptable EU limits. The PAHs from local raw and cooked meat were characterized and quantified for the first time in Kisumu City and the study therefore provided the needed baseline data on PAHs in raw and cooked meat.


Disputes about the right of a beneficiary of a trust to inspect trust documents are commonly encountered, but there is little appellate authority on the issue. In March 2011 the New South Wales Supreme court delivered judgment in the matter of Silkman. The decision stands for the proposition that the limited approach contained in Schmidt v Rosewood Trust is preferred over the more expansive approach contained in In re Londonderry's Settlement; Peat v Walsh. Under the Schmidt approach, a beneficiary does not have a proprietary interest in trust documents, with the result that a beneficiary will not have an automatic right of production and inspection of such documents. Rather, a beneficiary may only obtain such documents by requesting the court to exercise its inherent jurisdiction to intervene in the administration of the trust. This article examines the Silkman decision in detail, and discusses its legal implications.


This introduction to the writings of the Church Fathers has been prepared by an American Roman Catholic. Although less detailed in bibliography than Johannes Quasten's Puttology (Vol. I, 1950; Vol. 11, 1953) and Berthold Altaner's Pattology (E. T., 1960), it may serve to introduce the beginning student to patristic literature. Book One consists of a survey treatment of the principal writers, divided into three periods ("beginnings" or ante-Nicene writers, "the golden age," and the era of "decline"). The treatments of such men as the Cappadocians, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and John of Damascus are helpful. Book Two consists of an alphabetical table of identifications of less known patristic writers and writings. Unfortunately Dirksen evidences no awareness of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic discoveries. The appendix provides alphabetically arranged definitions of the heresies of the patristic period. The discerning Protestant reader can both observe the bias of the author and profit from his work. James Leo Garrett


Sarcos Research Corporation, and the Center for Engineering Design at the University of Utah, have long been interested in both the fundamental and the applied aspects of robots and other computationally driven machines. We have produced substantial numbers of systems that function as products for commercial applications, and as advanced research tools specifically designed for experimental use. This paper reviews various aspects of the design and control of a number of robot-like machines ranging from our first projects, the Utah Arm and the Utah/MIT Dextrous Hand, to present work on humanoid robots and the Wearable Energetically Autonomous Robot (WEAR). Our systems have been used in: entertainment, operator remotization from hazardous environments, R&D, and medicine. In addition to the robots and their subsystems, extensive work has been devoted to command systems that drive the robots. Command systems have been: playback supervisors, teleoperation masters, and various higher level approaches based on work from the AI community. Playback interfaces have included motion capture mechanisms that provide movement-stream information to storage systems configured for later, repeated and coordinated, operation of many robots and associated mechanisms. Play-back command systems use human commands, from an "earlier" time, to command motions that are played out, over and over, mindlessly. Teleoperation "masters", that operate in real-time with the robot, have ranged from simple motion capture devices, to more complex force reflective exoskeletal masters. Teleoperation interfaces have been composed of complex kinematic structures designed to perform motions compatible with operator movements and are attached via appropriate soft tissue interfaces. The masters emit lower level commands (joint angles) in real-time using the natural intelligence and sensory systems of the operator. AI-based command sources, blend higher level (simple) commands, with system and existing environmental states, to make decisions for the management of the robot. As with the playback systems, AI-based systems are programmed earlier to perform later operations. In the AI case, however, adaptive intelligence and sensory capabilities reside in the robot. Our general design approach has been to begin with the definition of desired objective behaviors, rather than the use of available components with their predefined technical specifications. With the technical specifications of the components necessary to achieve the desired behaviors defined, the components are either acquired, or in most cases, developed and built. The control system, which includes the operation of feedback approaches, acting in collaboration with physical machinery, is then defined and implemented. Control is considered a function of both feedback, and the designed-in performance of the robot's physical machinery. It has not been true that bad performance from physical machine elements can be simply compensated out via innovative control methods and faster computers. After the completion of many projects we believe that the final frontier(s) of robotics reside at both ends of the brain and brawn spectrum. Both frontiers (barriers) are related to autonomy—intelligence/computation and energy/power. Recently, energetic autonomy has become a major interest at Sarcos and projects are underway to develop appropriate fuel-based servo-actuators to satisfy that need. Our objective is to develop power systems that are capable producing high performance servo-quality actuation for extended operating times without reenergizing the system. At the other end of the spectrum, we are working in collaboration with various groups to supply physical robots capable of operation under the control of advanced AI-based systems.


Caffeine is the most widely used psychotropic drug in the world. Most of the caffeine consumed comes from coffee bean (i.e., a misnomer for the seed of Coffee plants), beverages (i.e., coffee, tea, soft drinks), in products containing cocoa or chocolate and in medications (i.e., analgesics, stimulants, weight-loss products, sports nutrition). The most prominent behavioral effects of caffeine take place over low to moderate doses are amplified alertness and attention. Moderate caffeine consumption leads very rarely to health risks. Higher doses of caffeine encourage negative effects such as anxiety, insomnia, restlessness and tachycardia. The habitual use of caffeine causes physical dependence that displays as caffeine withdrawal symptoms that harm normal functioning. Contrariwise, rarely high doses of caffeine can encourage psychotic and manic symptoms usually, sleep disturbances and anxiety. Even though caffeine does not engender life-threatening health difficulties frequently related to the utilization of drugs of addiction, for example amphetamine, cocaine and heroin, an incrementing number of clinical studies are exhibiting that some caffeine users become dependent on the drug and are unable to reduce consumption despite knowledge of recurrent health complications linked to constant use. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), includes caffeine addiction and withdrawal as mental disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies caffeine dependence as a clinical disorder. Furthermore, diagnosis process of caffeine dependence syndrome is accepted by International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision (ICD-10). Therefore the intention of this study was to analyze the neuropsychological effects of caffeine and try to assess in which respect caffeine could be considered a potential drug of addiction.


Today's customers not only look at aesthetic beauty but also quality, comfort and fit. New technologies such as digitization and virtual 3D tailoring are providing more options to consumers and designers in designing different styles with the least possible time. Next to the shoe fashion and style, good fit and comfort are the second important determinant in the purchase of footwear. Although there is a need for better fitting, there are no techniques for fit quantification. In traditional shoemaking, the shoe is categorized by the length and width (or girth), hence there is always a mismatch between the complex foot shape and shoe shape. For the industry in order to meet the demand for better footwear, new techniques for fit quantification is required in order to have a direct mapping form foot to shoe-last (a mold for making shoes). In recent years, with the rapid development of computer technology and advanced design and manufacturing technologies such as computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), the manufacturing of customized shoe lasts is becoming possible. Still research is needed to find the best shoe-last. This paper discusses the basic concepts and current methods being followed to convert foot to shoe-last, retrieve the best fitting shoe last based on the 3D foot scan of the customer, and to obtain customized shoe last. Keywords-custom shoe last; foot scan; computer-aided design


We reconsider the gauge symmetries of the spinning particle by a direct examination of the Lagrangian using a systematic procedure based on the Noether identities. It proves possible to find a set of local bosonic and fermionic gauge transformations that have a simple gauge group structure, which is a true Lie algebra, both for the massless and massive case. This new fermionic gauge transformation of the "position" and "spin" variables in the action decouples from that of the "einbein" and "gravitino". It is also possible to redefine the fields so that this simple algebra of commutators of the gauge transformations can be derived directly starting from the Lagrangian written in these new variables. We discuss a possible extension of our analysis of this simple model to more complicated cases.


When an earthquake happens, one of the most important tasks of disaster managers is to conduct damage assessment; this is mostly done from remotely sensed data. This study presents a new method for building detection and damage assessment using high-resolution satellite images and LiDAR data from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A graph-cut method is used for building detection due to its advantages compared to traditional methods such as the Hough transform. Results of two methods are compared to understand how much our proposed technique is effective. Afterwards, sensitivity analysis is performed to show the effect of image resolution on the efficiency of our method. Results are in four groups. First: based on two criteria for sensitivity analysis, completeness and correctness, the more efficient method is graph-cut, and the final building mask layer is used for damage assessment. Next, building damage assessment is done using change detection technique from two images from period of before and after the earthquake. Third, to integrate LiDAR data and damage assessment, we showed there is a strong relationship between terrain roughness variables that are calculated using digital surface models. Finally, open street map and normalized digital surface model are used to detect possible road blockages. Results of detecting road blockages showed positive values of normalized digital surface model on the road centerline can represent blockages if we exclude other objects such as cars.


Rationale: Factors affecting asthma course are not clearly elucidated in urban communities in developing countries. Furthermore, the interaction between factors such as atopy, environmental exposure, urbanization, and helminthic infections in modulating asthma have not been well investigated. Objectives: To determine factors, which affect asthma in adults being evaluated at urban tertiary health center of Southwestern part of Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A random sample of 24 (12 males, 12 females) consecutive asthmatics seen in the Outpatient Pulmonary Clinic of University College Hospital of Ibadan and 27 (13 males, 14 females) age and gender-matched controls underwent evaluation, which included blood tests for eosinophils, serum IgE, allergy skin tests to eight common environmental allergens, and spirometry. The modified version of the questionnaire of the International study of Asthma and Allergies in Children (ISAAC) Phase III used by the same study group of researchers in Nigeria was used to assess the asthma symptoms. Wilcoxon sign-rank tests were used to compare eosinophil counts, percentage eosinophils, and allergic skin test between the two groups, while paired t test was used to compare spirometry variables. Results: Asthmatics had significantly more positive skin reaction to house dust mite and mould than controls (P<0.05). Total serum IgE was also significantly higher in asthmatics than in controls (mean 210 vs 60 IU/mL; P=0.003). However, no significant differences were observed in total eosinophil counts. No significant difference in the degree of intestinal helminthes infection in the two groups, which means stool parasitism was similar. FEV1 % was significantly lower in asthmatics (P=0.02) but FEV1 was similar between the two groups (P=0.02). Conclusion: The elevated levels of IgE and positive skin reactions to some of the common environmental allergens suggests an important role of atopy in the expression of asthma in this developing country's urban setting. Intestinal parasites were seen in both, control and asthma subjects, but appear not to play any role in the course of asthma, so also is the blood group, genotype and G6PD status.


The main hypothesis of this paper is that emerging markets with outstanding debt from the IMF and their economies are more severely affected by shocks to the world than countries that do not undertake IMF debt. The effect that shocks have on these economies is also dependent upon the size of the debt borrowed. This paper analyzes the effects that outstanding IMF debt has on emerging markets. Essentially, it observes the responses of emerging markets to shocks in their economy when they are indebted to the IMF. We observe 35 emerging markets as defined by Dow Jones in 2010 and find that the GDP of the countries indebted to the IMF were more adversely affected by the US Financial Crisis than their counterparts who never indulged in IMF credit as well as those countries that were able to fully repay their debt. Our analysis indicated that not only being indebted to the IMF affected their ability to recover from the crisis but examines how the size of the debt played an integral role in their economy's stability. Ultimately, we conclude that the IMF may be at fault in enabling emerging markets to collapse from accumulation of debt from which they are unable to repay.


The temperature rise exceeds over 1000°C in cutting process while working with PCBN tools high speed machining. This intense temperature results in wearing of tools and thus diffusion and oxidation are mainly responsible for wearing. This paper proposes the oxidation and diffusion wearing for PCBN cutting tools and analysis has been carried out considering thermodynamics principles. The next step is to find out dissoluation concentration of PCBN tool materials. The temperature range is different for these materials. The Gibbs free energy criterion is utilized for analysis purposes and validates the formed diffusion reaction rules in extreme temperature scenario. The PCBN tools were used for carrying out machining tests at different speeds 50, 95,100 and 180 m/min, feed of 0.1, 0.2 and depth of cut was 0.1, 0.8, 1, and 1.5 mm respectively on controlled lathe machine PUMA300LM. It was revealed that experimentals results matches with theoratical data. These findings will be utilized for future reference for tools designing and material selection.


Invented in 1798 by Senefelder (as described in Chapter 2), stone lithography was the first printmaking technology that made it possible for an artist to work using traditional techniques to create prints that could rival an original painting in terms of detail, mood, and color variations. Stone lithography rose to prominence in the nineteenth century and is still practiced today by artists and lithography studios, where it is used to create color art for books, as well as for more pedestrian items such as labels, flyers, and posters. Its popularity stems from the fact that it was
the first printmaking medium to allow the artist to naturally "paint" or "draw" onto a flat stone to create an image. The artist creates the work directly and naturally. The basic steps involved in creating stone lithographs comprise the following: Step 1. The artist draws or paints on a flat polished stone (typically limestone) with a greasy substance such as a lithographic crayon (a soft waxy/greasy crayon), paint, or pencil. The stone absorbs this greasy substance and retains it. Step 2. The stone is moistened with water. The parts of the stone that are not protected by the greasy paint absorb the water. Step 3. Oil-based ink is rolled onto the stone. The greasy parts of the stone pick up the ink, while the wet parts do not. Step 4. A piece of paper is pressed onto the stone such that the ink transfers from the stone to the paper. The fundamental principle that underlies this technique is the affinity of oil for oil and the repulsion of oil and water. In the following section, we describe in more detail the process steps that are involved in printing images with the aid of stone lithography. Figure 10.1 shows pictures of these process steps.


Summary: A number of strains of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii were examined for variation in Sym plasmid size and number, using an R. leguminosarum nifA/nod probe. Size variation was great and, in a large proportion of strains, multiple Sym plasmids were observed. A probe containing a repeated sequence (RtRS) incorporating the nifH promoter, reported to be specifically found on the Sym plasmid of this biovar, was used to determine whether Sym plasmids were of trifolii origin. This probe did not bind to all Sym plasmids identified by the nifA/nod probe and some isolates were suspected of being inter-biovar hybrids. The RtRS probe was also used to test certain isolates for DNA homology to the nifH promoter region. Many strains possessed commonly occurring co-migrating fragments that hybridized to this probe. Beyond this basic relatedness, greater variation in fragment number and size existed, allowing differentiation of seemingly closely related strains. Strains carrying greater amounts of symbiotic DNA in the form of multiple Sym plasmids or a greater number of hybridizing fragments were less effective in fixing nitrogen.


Purpose. To compare the diagnostic accuracy of hepatospecific contrast-enhanced MRI versus triple-phase CT scan after radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Methods. Thirty-four consecutive HCC patients (42 hepatic nodules) were treated with percutaneous RFA and underwent MR and CT scans. All patients were enrolled in a research protocol that included CT with iodized contrast medium injection and MR with hepatospecific contrast medium injection. All patients were restaged within four weeks and at 3 months from ablation. The images were reviewed by four different radiologists to evaluate tumor necrosis, residual or recurrence disease, and evidence of new foci. Results. Thirty-two nodules were necrotic after treatment; 10 showed residual disease. Six new HCCs were identified. At first month followup CT has identified 34 necrotic lesions and 8 residual diseases; no new foci were recognized. At MRI instead, 32 complete necrotic lesions were identified, 10 lesions showed residual disease, and 2 new HCCs were found. At three months, CT demonstrated 33 completely necrotic lesions, 9 residual diseases, and 2 new HCCs. MR showed 31 complete necrotic lesions, 11 cases of residual disease, and 6 new HCCs. Conclusions. Hepatospecific contrast-enhanced MRI is more effective than multiphase CT in assessment of HCC treated with RFA.


A PCI/iRMX-based front-end system is being designed to serve as data acquisition (DAQ) subsystem for the HT-7U superconducting tokamak. The diagnostic instruments are connected to four analog-to-digital converter (ADC) boards that are directly plugged into the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus of a personal computer (PC) running the iRMX real-time operating system. Each ADC board has eight channels. The sampling rate of each channel can be up to 125 K samples per second. The acquired data are directly transferred from the ADC board into the memory of the PC, and then transferred to servers through the network. As a testbed, one PCI/iRMX subsystem has been built and has acquired data from the existing HT-7 tokamak. The DAQ can easily support a wide range of pulse lengths, even matching extremely long pulse and steady-state operation. This paper describes the system design and performance evaluation in detail.


According to the principle of manganese powder forming, a battery online weighing system with PLC-based PID-Fuzzy control algorithm was designed. In this paper, we focus on the need for a detailed description of hardware and software and matlab simulation of the system. The system uses touch screen for realization of human-machine interaction with high stability, and double closed-loop controls overcome the disadvantages of the traditional offline open-loop control, those greatly improve the efficiency and accuracy of manganese ring weighing.


Guy Fawkes is amongst the most celebrated figures in English history and Bonfire Night is a remarkably long lived and very English tradition. But why every November do we still mark a planned act of treason and terrorism that was defeated 400 years ago? James Sharpe examines the fateful night of 5 November, 1605 and the tangled web of religion and politics which gave rise to the plot. He uncovers how celebration of the event, and of Guy Fawkes, the one gunpowder plotter everyone remembers, has changed over the centuries. Today, although most of the religious connotations have long been ignored, the bonfires remain. The festival created in 1605 by the state and church to commemorate a failed act of Catholic terrorism, now provides an annual raison d'etre for the firework industry and a cause of concern for Britain's cat owners!


The aim of this work is to discuss a new non linear intermediate model for large viscoplastic deformations that could predict the texture transition and stress-strain behavior in a range that spans from the upper bound (Taylor) to the lower bound (Sachs or static) estimates. In this model, we introduced a single parameter, f , as a weight function to formulate the proposed intermediate approach which combines the Taylor and Sachs estimates. This formulation leads to an interaction law by the minimization of a tensorial function which depends on the parameter f . For the applications, we focus on the uniaxial tension test. The results for texture evolution in an FCC polycrystal show that a transition between the copper type and brass type textures can be obtained by the proposed non-linear intermediate model.


When used in low concentration, formaldehyde increases the rate of autolytic disintegration of pneumococci whereas in large concentrations it completely inhibits autolysis and preserves both the morphological and staining characteristics of the cells. Pneumococci treated with large concentrations of formaldehyde, then washed free of the antiseptic and resuspended in physiological solutions, rapidly undergo a change which renders them Gram-negative and smaller. The lysis is only partial, however, and is not accompanied by an actual disintegration of the cell. It is caused by the autolytic enzyme of the cell which remains inactive in the presence of an excess of formaldehyde but recovers its activity when the cells are resuspended in a neutral medium after removal of the antiseptic. If the autolytic enzyme is irreversibly inactivated by heating, or maintained inactive in acid or alkaline reaction, the formolized cells retain their staining characteristics and morphological integrity. Formolized pneumococci which have become Gram-negative owing to the action of their autolytic enzyme, fail to elicit the type specific carbohydrate antibodies in rabbits. Formolized pneumococci in which the autolytic enzyme has been destroyed or maintained inactive, and which have retained their Gram-positive character, function as a very effective type specific antigen in the rabbit. These observations emphasize once more the close relation between the Gram-positive structure of pneumococci and the capsular polysaccharide antigen of the cell. They can be used as a basis for the preparation of suspensions of formolized pneumococci which are stable and very effective as type specific antigens.


Male mice with elimination of the androgen receptor (AR) in islet β cells (βARKO) exhibit blunted glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) , leading to hypoinsulinemia and hyperglycemia. We showed that dihydrotestosterone (DHT) activation of an extranuclear AR in β cells potentiates GSIS by amplifying the insulinotropic action of islet-derived and exogenous GLP-1 via GLP-1R in mouse and human islets. Using electron microscopy, we observe that DHT increases the size of granules and the frequency of multivesicular granules, suggesting that DHT promotes multivesicular exocytosis. Using live β cell models expressing organelle-specific cAMP sensors and novel allosteric inhibitors in human islets, we show that DHT enhances the ability of GLP-1 to produce cAMP at the plasma membrane and endosomes and enhances islet GSIS via the bicarbonate (HCO3 -) sensor, soluble adenylate cyclase (sAC) . The end-products of glucose metabolism in the TCA cycle are CO2 and H2O, which is followed by rapid conversion of CO2 to HCO3 - and H+ by carbonic anhydrase (CA) . Therefore, CO2 production is translated to HCO3 - and specifically sensed by sAC. Bioenergetics analysis of DHT-stimulated respiration in mouse islets using a Seahorse Analyser revealed that DHT decreases glycolytic acidification and increases mitochondrial acidification (H+ efflux rate) , suggesting that DHT increases mitochondrial production of CO2 followed by conversion to HCO3 - and H+, allowing HCO3 - to stimulate sAC. We discuss experiments of single-cell transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics dissecting the impact of DHT on human islets glycolysis and mitochondrial CO2 production. Consistent with DHT increasing production of CO2 followed by conversion to HCO3 - by CA and activation of sAC, in cultured human male islets, the CA inhibitor acetazolamide blunted DHT-enhancement of GSIS. Together these experiments provide novel insights into the role of DHT action via an extranuclear AR in enhancing GSIS.

 M.Qadir: None. D.Hodson: Other Relationship; Celtarys Research. F.Mauvais-jarvis: Consultant; Mithra Pharmaceutical. W.Xu: None. D.Nasteska: None. M.Bhondeley: None. P.Mota de sa: None. C.R.Evans: None. J.Buck: None. L.Levin: None. C.Burant: None.

 National Institutes of Health (DK107444 and DK074970) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Merit Award (BX003725)


This paper is a short account of the construction of a new class of the infinite-dimensional representations of the quantum groups. The examples include finite-dimensional quantum groups $U_q(\mathfrak{g})$, Yangian $Y(\mathfrak{g})$ and affine quantum groups at zero level
$U_q(\hat{\mathfrak{g}})_{c=0}$ corresponding to an arbitrary finite-dimensional semisimple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$. At the intermediate step we construct the embedding of the quantum groups into the algebra of the rational functions on the quantum multi-dimensional torus. The explicit parameterization of the quantum groups used in this paper turns out to be closely related to the parameterization of the moduli spaces of the monopoles. As a result the proposed constructions of the representations provide a quantization of the moduli spaces of the monopoles on $\RR^3$ and $\RR^2\times S^1$.