When listeners hear a target signal in the presence of competing sounds, they are quite good at extracting information at instances when the local signal-to-noise ratio of the target is most favorable. Previous research suggests that listeners can easily understand a periodically interrupted target when it is interleaved with noise. It is not clear if this ability extends to the case where an interrupted target is alternated with a speech masker rather than noise. This study examined speech intelligibility in the presence of noise or speech maskers, which were either continuous or interrupted at one of six rates between 4 and 128 Hz. Results indicated that with noise maskers, listeners performed significantly better with interrupted, rather than continuous maskers. With speech maskers, however, performance was better in continuous, rather than interrupted masker conditions. Presumably the listeners used continuity as a cue to distinguish the continuous masker from the interrupted target. Intelligibility in the interrupted masker condition was improved by introducing a pitch difference between the target and speech masker. These results highlight the role that target-masker differences in continuity and pitch play in the segregation of competing speech signals.


Technologies using electroencephalographic (EEG) signals have been penetrated into public by the development of EEG systems. During EEG system operation, recordings ought to be obtained under no restriction of movement for routine use in the real world. However, the lack of consideration of situational behavior constraints will cause techni-cal/biological artifacts that often mixed with EEG signals and make the signal processing difficult in all respects by ingeniously disguising themselves as EEG components. EEG systems integrating gold standard or specialized device in their processing strategies would appear as daily tools in the future if they are unperturbed to such obstructions. In this chapter, we describe algorithms for artifact rejection in multi-/single-channel. In particular, some existing single-channel artifact rejection methods that will exhibit beneficial information to improve their performance in online EEG systems were summa- rized by focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of algorithms.


Constructing S-boxes that are inherently resistant against side-channel attacks is an important problem in cryptography. By using an optimal distinguisher under an additive Gaussian noise assumption, we clarify how a defender (resp., an attacker) can make side-channel attacks as difficult (resp., easy) as possible, in relation with the auto-correlation spectrum of Boolean functions. We then construct balanced Boolean functions that are optimal for each of these two scenarios. Generalizing the objectives for an S-box, we analyze the auto-correlation spectra of some well-known S-box constructions in dimensions at most 8 and compare their intrinsic resiliency against side-channel attacks. Finally, we perform several simulations of side-channel attacks against the aforementioned constructions, which confirm our theoretical approach.


Ground movements such as landslides, subsidence, and settlement can pose serious threats to the integrity of pipelines. The consequences of a ground movement event can vary greatly. Certain types of ground movements are slow-moving and can be monitored and mitigated before a catastrophic failure. Other forms of ground movements can be difficult to predict. The most effective approach could be hazard avoidance, proactive means to reduce strain demand on pipelines, and/or building sufficiently robust pipeline segments that have a high tolerance to the strain demand.
 This paper provides an overview of a Joint Industry Project (JIP) aimed at developing a best-practice document on managing ground movement hazards. The hazards being focused on are landslides and ground settlement, including mine subsidence. This document attempts to address nearly all major elements necessary for the management of such hazards.
 The most unique feature of the JIP is that the scope included the hazard management approach often practiced by geotechnical engineers and the fitness-for-service assessment of pipelines often performed by pipeline integrity engineers.
 The document developed in the JIP provides a technical background of various existing and emerging technologies. The recommendations were developed based on a solid fundamental understanding of these technologies and a wide array of actual field experiences.
 In addition to the various elements involved in the management of ground movement hazards, the JIP addresses some common misconceptions about the adequacy of codes and standards, including:
 • The adequacy of design requirements in ASME B31.4 and B31.8 with respect to ground movement hazards,
 • The adequacy of linepipe standards such as API 5L and welding standards such as API 1104 for producing strain-resistant pipelines,
 • The proper interpretation of the longitudinal strain design limit of 2% strain in ASME B31.4 and B31.8, and
 • The effectiveness of hydrostatic testing in "weeding out" low strain tolerance girth welds.


Background: BeatO® offers connected diabetes care program including smartphone connected glucometer and mobile app with real time feedback and counselling support. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of BeatO9s connected diabetes care program with real time contextualized feedback loop and certified diabetes educator (CDE) counselling on glycemic control of patients with diabetes in India. Method: A retrospective data-based evaluation study was conducted on BeatO® cloud database. Medical records of patients with diabetes, digitally engaged between September 2019 to July 2020 and received at least one CDE counselling were evaluated. Intervention included SMBG using smartphone connected glucometer, real-time feedback, and contextualized counselling by CDE based on SMBG findings. Pre-counselling (BG values recorded for 30 days period before first counselling) and post counselling (BG values recorded between 15th to 45th day after last counselling) impact on glycemic control and in range BG values were assessed. Results: Out of total 7514 diabetes patients, majority of them were aged >40 years (76%). Most of the patients had T2D (95%) followed by T1D (4.5%), GDM (0.3%), LADA (0.1%) and MODY (0.1%). A total of 10,667 counselling sessions were conducted out of which majority had one session (74%) followed by 2 (17%), 3 (5%), 4 (2%) and ≥5 (1%) sessions. Intervention was effective in significantly reducing mean BG values across fasting (by 9.5%), pre-prandial (9.3%), post prandial (8.9%) and random (6%) BG readings (p value Conclusion: BeatO9s smartphone connected SMBG with real time feedback, nudges, alerts and CDE counselling is effective in glycemic control in real world patients with diabetes. Disclosure M. Sabharwal: Employee; Self; Health Arx Technologies Pvt. Ltd. M. Mohit: Consultant; Self; Health Arx Technologies Pvt. Ltd. V. K. Kolukula: None. R. Jangid: None. G. Chopra: Employee; Spouse/Partner; Health Arx Technologies Private Limited, Other Relationship; Self; Health Arx Technologies Private Limited.


This article contributes to the limited body of literature pertaining to attempts by educational systems to satisfy the professional learning needs of experienced principals, defined as those with more than 10 years of experience in at least two schools. Specifically, this article illustrates the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia's endeavour to create an innovative, integrated, cross-sectoral program to enhance the leadership capabilities and health and wellbeing outcomes of experienced principals from Catholic, Government and Independent schools in that state. The program comprised four integrated pillars: a 360-degree review of participant leadership capabilities followed by executive coaching to effect improvement; an executive health assessment and coaching with an exercise physiologist to enhance participant health and wellbeing outcomes; a theoretical program based on a nationally accepted standard for principals, developed by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership; and a group project transacted in a non-educational setting. The article begins with a synopsis of existing literature related to the professional learning needs of experienced principals and the few reported evaluations of programs designed to cater for the unique needs of this cohort. Participant feedback collected at the commencement of the program, its midpoint and conclusion are presented. The article concludes with recommended changes that could be implemented to enhance the efficacy of future program iterations.


Title of Thesis: SYMBOL-BASED CONTROL OF A BALL-ON-PLATE MECHANICAL SYSTEM Degree candidate: Phillip Yip Degree and year: Master of Science, 2004 Thesis directed by: Assistant Professor Dimitrios Hristu-Varsakelis Department of Mechanical Engineering Modern control systems often consist of networks of components that must share a common communication channel. Not all components of the networked control system can communicate with one another simultaneously at any given time. The "attention" that each component receives is an important factor that affects the system's overall performance. An effective controller should ensure that sensors and actuators receive sufficient attention. This thesis describes a "ball-on-plate" dynamical system that includes a digital controller, which communicates with a pair of language-driven actuators, and an overhead camera. A control algorithm was developed to restrict the ball to a small region on the plate using a quantized set of language-based commands. The size of this containment region was analytically determined as a function of the communication constraints and other control system parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed control law was evaluated in experiments and mathematical simulations. SYMBOL-BASED CONTROL OF A BALL-ON-PLATE MECHANICAL SYSTEM by Phillip Yip Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science 2004 Advisory Commmittee: Assistant Professor Dimitrios Hristu-Varsakelis, Chair/Advisor Professor Balakumar Balachandran Professor Amr Baz c ©Copyright by Phillip T. Yip 2004 DEDICATION: To my family


On June 19, 2001, the WTO TRIPS Council held its first meeting on the implications of the TRIPS Agreement for access to medicines and public health. In connection with that meeting, and a follow on meeting of July 25, 2001, WTO Members have made a number of specific observations regarding the terms, structure and spirit of the Agreement. This report analyzes issues presented by the TRIPS Agreement and its present and prospective impact on access to medicines. A number of these issues have previously been raised and analyzed by this author and other commentators, and the discussions initiated in the TRIPS Council already focus on several of them. Nevertheless, it may be useful to consider in a relatively concise and systematic format the central elements of discussion in connection with the prospective Ministerial Conference in Doha on November 9-13, 2001. There are two ultimate objectives of this report. The first is to assist Members in formulating recommendations regarding a possible Doha Ministerial Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, or a near-term formal interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement. The second is to raise issues that might more appropriately be the subject of a longer-term review of the TRIPS Agreement.


. In this paper, a usability playtest to a pre-Alpha version of a video game namely "OtherWordly Math" is presented focused on Game-based Learning (GBL), Inclusive Design for deaf students and Games User Research. The present study aims to evaluate usability, understanding information and players' experience to improve gameplay. The sample is composed of nine participants, four being deaf and five hearing children, aged between 10 and 14, five girls and four boys. Three instruments were applied remotely using an online platform: a) participants' self-report on difficulties they may find in-game; c) an observational grid; and d) an emotional scale to assess the intensity of emotions felt by the players in-game. The results show that deaf and hearing children report the same playability constraints: a) the objectives of game challenge 2 were not clear; b) a user interface icon is ambiguous in challenge 3; and c) players expect more exploration in every challenge. Both groups felt "very" satisfied and "a little" confused during gameplay. A new level design and a new game layout were developed to fix the understanding and usability problems found in challenge 2. The usability problem related with challenge 3 demanded icon redesign. Regarding the playability issue mentioned in c) the solution points towards a game design review to balance the learning objectives with playability. Solutions are proposed concerning the main design problems reported by observers and by participants and a reflection about the value of User Experience Evaluation in the context of DHH students is provided.


The object recognition concept is being widely used a result of increasing CCTV surveillance and the need for automatic object or activity detection from images or video. Increases in the use of various sensor networks have also raised the need of lightweight process frameworks. Much research has been carried out in this area, but the research scope is colossal as it deals with open-ended problems such as being able to achieve high accuracy in little time using lightweight process frameworks. Convolution Neural Networks and their variants are widely used in various computer vision activities, but most of the architectures of CNN are application-specific. There is always a need for generic architectures with better performance. This paper introduces the Dimension-Based Generic Convolution Block (DBGC), which can be used with any CNN to make the architecture generic and provide a dimension-wise selection of various height, width, and depth kernels. This single unit which uses the separable convolution concept provides multiple combinations using various dimension-based kernels. This single unit can be used for height-based, width-based, or depth-based dimensions; the same unit can even be used for height and width, width and depth, and depth and height dimensions. It can also be used for combinations involving all three dimensions of height, width, and depth. The main novelty of DBGC lies in the dimension selector block included in the proposed architecture. Proposed unoptimized kernel dimensions reduce FLOPs by around one third and also reduce the accuracy by around one half; semi-optimized kernel dimensions yield almost the same or higher accuracy with half the FLOPs of the original architecture, while optimized kernel dimensions provide 5 to 6% higher accuracy with around a 10 M reduction in FLOPs.


1. Introduction The government of Maharashtra has promoted industrialization across Pune region. Due to such policy, automobile, engineering, electronic, information technology and biotechnology industries have grown very fast. Such industries have created huge employment opportunities in the region. Therefore immigration of indigent rural labor and qualified professionals from other states took place. Along with the production and manufacturing, the growth of services sector also concurred. The numbers of corporate offices, business processing units, call centers, banking and insurance services have grown significantly. The abandoned industrial sights are converted into residential locations in the region. Township planning and low cost affordable housing is developed for growing population. All these factors resulted into increase in pressure on existing civic infrastructure. In the region, drinking water is not supplied on equitable basis and coverage is low. The reasons are topography, faulty and old pipeline, inadequate distribution system, transmission and distribution losses of water etc. The storage capacity of drinking water is also low. Demand of water in various wards is different. It depends on density of population, industrial and commercial units and institutions. The supply of water is depending on transmission and distribution losses, stock of water, duration and pressure of water etc. If the demand of water is not matching with supply in wards then it results into unequal distribution of drinking water. Some wards get round the clock water whereas some wards hardly get water in the region. Water tariffs are low and it is not regularly paid by the consumers. Drinking water is used for commercial and construction purposes. Water use laws are weak and they are easily violated. Water provided by the tankers in far flung areas have lower coverage. Such water cannot be stored by the households because it is provided in a lower quantity and poor households do not have storage facilities. Therefore women and children are carrying drinking water from far places. It affects on the children's schooling performance and often results into lower schooling. Women cannot participate in the productive activities because carrying water from far places reduces the time for household chores, leisure and learning etc. Households can not relay on the ground water because it is highly polluted by the industrial units. Drinking such water causes water borne diseases. Reliable drinking water is becoming a scarce commodity in far flung areas of the region. Pune city is transmuting from big city to mega city. It has already vanquished its peers such as Ahmadabad, Chandigad and Lucknow in terms of civic infrastructure. Now urban infrastructure is required to sustain the growth of city and water supply cannot be ignored. Therefore drinking water must be provided for 24/7 with adequate and equitable basis. 2. Data and Methodology The ward wise data for this study is mainly obtained from the census 2001. It gives the total population of each ward, industrial and commercial units etc. We have referred the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad city development report. Environment status and storm water plan report of Pune city has given the major insight to study the drinking water supply problem. Water supply systems of the metro cities in India such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are also referred. We have used the ordinary least square method to examine the factors related to demand of drinking water in the Pune Metropolitan Region. 3. Drinking water supply system Pune metropolitan region consist of the Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune and Khadki Cantonment, Pimpri Chinchawad Municipal Corporation. Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation have separate sources of drinking water supply. In Pune city, drinking water supply system is very old and it exists since 1750. …


Modeling and simulation are important for the design process of new semiconductor structures. Difficulties proceed from shrinking structures, increasing working frequencies, and uncertainties of materials and geometries. Therefore, we consider the time-harmonic Maxwell's equations for the simulation of a coplanar waveguide with uncertain material parameters. To analyze the uncertainty of the system, we use stochastic collocation with Stroud and sparse grid points. The results are compared to a Monte Carlo simulation. Both methods rely on repetitive runs of a deterministic solver. Hence, we compute a reduced model by means of proper orthogonal decomposition to reduce the computational cost. The Monte Carlo simulation and the stochastic collocation are both applied to the full and the reduced model. All results are compared concerning accuracy and computation time.


The main purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which selected educational factors influence development of entrepreneurial mindset among secondary school students. The study explored factors such as teachers' attitudes, students' perception of availability of preferred jobs, present level of academic performance and secondary school curriculum. The target population. for the study comprised all teachers and form four students in all public secondary schools in Dagoretti constituency in the Nairobi County. The teacher and student study samples were drawn from nine out of ten public secondary schools in the constituency. Stratified random sampling was applied in the selection of sample teachers and students. Purposive sampling was used to select schools since all of them were incorporated in order to get a more representative sample of the target population. One school was used for piloting hence did not participate in the actual study. Data was collected by using separate questionnaires for teachers and students. The questionnaires were researcher-made and applied to determine the extent of influence teachers and students attributed to selected educational factors on the development of entrepreneurial mindset among secondary school students. Data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics (percentages, means, distribution, and standard deviation). A pilot study was undertaken to check and enhance on the validity and reliability of the research instruments before commencement of the actual research study. Findings in the pilot and actual study had a significant positive correlation of 0.796, an indication that the instrument s had considerable validity and reliability. Data was presented in tabular form. Findings indicated that the school factors considered did not have a strong influence in the development of entrepreneurial mindset among secondary school students. The study recommended that education should be structured and presented in such a way as would help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset that would enable them to engage in successful entrepreneurial activities and business ventures for job creation upon completion of their formal education alternative to job seeking. iv Table of Content Declaration .ii Acknowledgement iii Abstract iv Table of Content v List of Acronyms ix Definition of Terms x CHAPTER ONE ......................................................................................................................................•.......


With huge progress on data processing frameworks, human programmers are frequently the bottleneck when analyzing large repositories of data. We introduce Yedalog, a declarative programming language that allows programmers to mix data-parallel pipelines and computation seamlessly in a single language. By contrast, most existing tools for data-parallel computation embed a sublanguage of data-parallel pipelines in a general-purpose language, or vice versa. Yedalog extends Datalog, incorporating not only computational features from logic programming, but also features for working with data structured as nested records. Yedalog programs can run both on a single machine, and distributed across a cluster in batch and interactive modes, allowing programmers to mix dierent modes of execution easily. 1998 ACM Subject Classification D.3.2 Data-flow languages, Constraint and Logic Languages


Research with parents of children with cancer has identified factors related to their adjustment and coping, but it is not fully understood why some parents do well and others do not. Guided by a stress process model, we examined the interrelationships among a comprehensive set of factors to identify the most important determinants of health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in parents of children in active treatment for cancer. A cross‐sectional survey of 411 parents (80% response rate) of children receiving cancer treatment in Canada was conducted between November 2004 and February 2007. The following constructs were measured: background and context factors, child characteristics, family‐centered service delivery, caregiver strain, intrapsychic factors, coping/supportive factors and parental HRQoL. The model was evaluated using structural equation modeling. Analysis was stratified by time since diagnosis (i.e., <12 months and ≥12 months). For those within 12 months of their child's diagnosis, family‐centred service provision, caregiver strain, and self‐perception accounted for 58% of the variation in psychosocial health, whereas caregiver strain and social support explained 50% of the variation in physical health. For parents in the >12 month group, caregiving strain was the only factor with a direct relationship with parental psychosocial and physical health, accounting for 66% and 55% of the variance in these constructs, respectively. Our findings reinforce the need for health professionals to be particularly attuned to family caregivers in the early stages of treatment and identify potential areas for interventions to promote parental health.


Islamic economics (IE) assumes an altruistic economic agent who spends his income not only on himself but also on others through charity. Since this behavioral norm is attributed only to Muslims, this implicitly means that the giving behavior of Muslims is different from others. This study aims to test the validity of this assumption by analyzing a comprehensive survey conducted in 19 European countries. The empirical results based on logistic regression and PSM approach indicate no difference between Muslims and members of other religions in terms of the likelihood of involving in giving activity. The impact of other explanatory variables on both donations and volunteer efforts were generally the same, with the exception of age and marital status. The increasing number of studies supporting the findings of this study or raising questions about the validity of Islamic economic assumptions may cause IE to reformulate its theory.


Nitrogen balance and the whole body protein synthesis rate were measured before, during, and after a 9.5-day spaceflight mission on the space shuttle Columbia. Protein synthesis was measured by the single-pulse [15N]glycine method. Determinations were made 56, 26, and 18 days preflight, on flight days 2 and 8, and on days 0, 6, 14, and 45 postflight. We conclude that nitrogen balance was decreased during spaceflight. The decrease in nitrogen balance was greatest on the 1st day when food intake was reduced and again toward the end of the mission. An approximately 30% increase in protein synthesis above the preflight baseline was found for flight day 8 for all 6 subjects (P < 0.05), indicating that the astronauts showed a stress response to spaceflight.


Based on large deformation theory and virtual work principle, a coupled three-dimensional (3D) thermo-elastic-plastic finite element model (FEM) was constructed to simulate the high speed cutting process of Al7050-T7451. The mechanical properties of workpiece material under conditions of high temperature and high strain rate were defined in the model. A shear friction model was involved at the interfaces of tool-chip, tool-workpiece. Based on the model, different 3D machining FEM with different inclination angles were established, and distributions of stress, strain and temperature were achieved. Further more, the effects of inclination angle on the chip curling direction, chip flow angle, cutting force and cutting temperature were studied.


Local deformations in medical modalities are common phenomena due to a multitude of factors such as metallic implants or limited field of views in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Completion of the missing or distorted regions is of special interest for automatic image analysis frameworks to enhance post-processing tasks such as segmentation or classification. In this work, we propose a new generative framework for medical image inpainting, titled ipA-MedGAN. It bypasses the limitations of previous frameworks by enabling inpainting of arbitrary shaped regions without a prior localization of the regions of interest. Thorough qualitative and quantitative comparisons with other inpainting and translational approaches have illustrated the superior performance of the proposed framework for the task of brain MR inpainting.


PURPOSE
In this prospective study, we compared ocular clinical variables in patients with acne vulgaris with those of healthy controls. These variables included tear film break-up time, meibomian gland dropout rate, and anterior chamber parameters.

METHODS
Our sample comprised 73 eyes from 73 patients with acne vulgaris and 67 eyes from 67 healthy controls. All participants underwent a non-invasive first tear film break-up time test and the average tear film break-up time was evaluated. Meibography was used to identify any meibomian gland dropout. The parameters of the cornea and anterior chamber were measured using Scheimpflug topography imaging. Finally, the ocular surface disease index questionnaire was administered to score each participant on their subjective experience of ocular complaints.

RESULTS
The noninvasive first tear film break-up time values of the acne vulgaris Group and the control Group were 4.7 ± 2.8 and 6.4 ± 3.5 sec, respectively. There was a significant difference between the groups (p=0.016). The number of eyes with tear break-up at any time during the measurement period was also significantly higher in the acne Group (p=0.018). In the acne vulgaris Group, the mean meibomian gland dropout rates were 33.21 ± 15.5% in the upper lids and 45.4 ± 14.5% in the lower lids. In the control group, these rates were 15.7 ± 6.9% and 21 ± 9.7% respectively. Dropout was significantly higher in the acne group for both the upper and lower lids (p=0.000).

CONCLUSION
We found impaired tear stability in patients with acne vulgaris and a high rate of meibomian gland dropout. These glands play a key role in tear stability and their dropout is likely to result in evaporative dry eye. Measurement of the variables in this study allows objective diagnosis of this condition using a non-invasive, dye-free methodology, with minimum contact.


The few obituaries that there are of Fortescue William Millett are rather cursory and incomplete. Now, 90 years later, a rather fuller picture of the man – hitherto, a rather enigmatic figure – and his foraminiferal work is presented, concentrating especially on his later years after his retirement to Cornwall. Millett published two substantial studies, on the foraminifera of the Malay Archipelago and the Pliocene St Erth beds of Cornwall, for which he is best remembered, but most of his other projects appear never to have been completed. His extensive collections and library, much of it in a poor condition, were rescued and conserved by Edward Heron-Allen after his death, and are now in The Natural History Museum, London.


White matter (WM) injury following acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is associated with cognitive decline. Establishing relationships between the specific cognitive tests used to assess post-AIS cognition and various clinical indices of WM injury severity and distribution may aid in prognosis and early treatment decisions. We enrolled 62 patients with AIS to Weifang People's Hospital between September 2014 and August 2015. WM lesion severity and distribution were examined by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The Blennow scale was used for scoring the distribution and degree of WM lesions (WMLs) on CT images, the Fazekas scale for scoring periventricular and deep WMLs on MRI, and the Cholinergic Pathways Hyperintensities Scale (CHIPS) for scoring MRI manifestation of cholinergic fiber damage. The 8-domain Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to evaluate cognitive function. Mean ± standard deviation scores on the Blennow scale was 1.6±0.5; Fazekas scale, 3.4±0.8; and CHIPS, 65.7±12.5. The proportion of patients with a MoCA score <26 (indicating cognitive dysfunction) was significantly higher in subgroups with Blennow scale score >2, Fazekas scale score >4, and CHIPS score >51 (all P<0.001). The MoCA score was negatively correlated with Blennow scale score (r=−0.326, P=0.002), Fazekas scale score (r=−0.404, P=0.031), and CHIPS score (r=−0.234, P=0.042). Thus, the degree and distribution of whole-brain, deep, and cholinergic WMLs were associated with cognitive impairment. The Blennow scale, Fazekas scale, and CHIPS all provide good predictive efficacy of post-AIS cognitive dysfunction.


According to the density functional theory we systematically study the electronic structure, the mechanical prop- erties and the intrinsic hardness of Si2N2O polymorphs using the first-principles method. The elastic constants of four Si2N2O structures are obtained using the stress-strain method. The mechanical moduli (bulk modulus, Young's mod- ulus, and shear modulus) are evaluated using the Voigt-Reuss-Hill approach. It is found that the tetragonal Si2N2O exhibits a larger mechanical modulus than the other phases. Some empirical methods are used to calculate the Vickers hardnesses of the Si2N2O structures. We further estimate the Vickers hardnesses of the four Si2N2O crystal structures, suggesting all Si2N2O phases are not the superhard compounds. The results imply that the tetragonal Si2N2O is the hardest phase. The hardness of tetragonal Si2N2O is 31.52 GPa which is close to values of β-Si3N4 and γ-Si3N4.


Experts in robotics systems have developed substantial software tools for simulation, execution, and hardware-in-the-loop testing. Unfortunately, many of these robotics-domain software infrastructures pose challenges for a robotics expert to use, unless that robotics expert is also familiar with middleware programming, and the integration of heterogeneous simulation tools. In this paper, we describe a novel modeling language designed to bridge these two domains in an intuitive visual representation. Using this metamodel-defined modeling language, we can design and build structural models of robotics systems, and synthesize experiments from these constructed models. The restrictions implicit (and explicit) in the visual language guide modelers to build only models that can be synthesized, a "correct by construction" approach. We discuss the impact of this language with a running example of an autonomous ground vehicle, and the hundreds of configuration parameters and several simulation tools that are necessary in order to simulate this complex example.


This paper studies the implications for climate policy of the interactions between environmental and knowledge externalities. Using a numerical analysis performed with the hybrid integrated assessment model WITCH, extended to include mutual spillovers between the energy and the non-energy sector, we show that the combination between environmental and knowledge externalities provides a strong rationale for implementing a portfolio of policies for both emissions reduction and the internalisation of knowledge externalities. Moreover, we show that implementing technology policy as a substitute for stabilisation policy is likely to increase global emissions.


Even in the absence of overt respiratory disease during the neonatal period, reduced lung function has been reported in preterm infants. Meaningful interpretation of such results is, however, dependent on availability of appropriate controls and/or reference equations.

Objectives. To assess the applicability of equipment-specific reference equations in healthy Spanish White fullterm infants, and the impact of preterm delivery on lung function during the first year of life.

Methods . Lung function was measured under chloral sedation in clinically stable and asymptomatic 'healthy' preterm (30-35.8 w) and fullterm babies, using the CareFusionTM Masterscreen BabyBody equipment according to ERS/ATS guidelines. Data were expressed as z-scores to adjust for sex, age and body size (Lum, Ped Pulm 2010; Nguyen, Ped Pulm 2013;).

Results. 79 term and 77 preterm infants were studied at mean (SD) corrected postnatal age of 5.92 (0.8) months (term) and 5.95 (1.01) months (preterm). No differences were found either in tidal breathing parameters or Rrs.

View this table:

Conclusions. Mean z-scores for term infants were all within 0.3 z-scores of the predicted published norms, suggesting that these equations are appropriate for Spanish infants Compared to term controls, 'healthy' preterm infants had significantly lower V'maxFRC, FEV0.5 and FEF25-75.


Glomerular disease can be triggered or exacerbated by microbes that activate the immune system by Tolllike receptor (TLR) ligation. TLR9 activation promotes host defenses through the enhancement of innate and adaptive immune responses that facilitate the recruitment of leukocytes to areas of inflammation. We defined the role of TLR9 in experimental crescentic glomerulonephritis. Wild-type mice administered a TLR9 ligand and sheep anti-mouse glomerular basement membrane antibody developed histological injury with impaired renal function, which was attenuated in TLR9 knockout mice. Consistent with enhanced renal injury, wild-type mice exhibited enhanced T helper 1 and T helper 17 cellular immune responses. Kidney mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines as well as leukocyte recruitment were increased in wild-type mice. The use of bone marrow chimeric mice demonstrated that while both bone marrow and tissue cell TLR9 are required for maximal injury, bone marrow TLR9 is more important. Administration of a TLR9 inhibitor before sheep anti-mouse glomerular basement membrane globulin in wild-type mice attenuated cellular nephritogenic immunity that resulted in decreased renal injury. Administration of the inhibitor 7 days after disease initiation decreased glomerular leukocyte recruitment as well as renal injury. These results define the role of TLR9 in experimental crescentic glomerulonephritis and identify therapeutic potential for TLR9 inhibitors in attenuating renal injury, decreasing cellular nephritogenic immunity early in disease, and decreasing kidney effector responses later. (Am J Pathol 2010, 177:2234–2244; DOI: 10.2353/ajpath.2010.100153)


Species occurrence data provide crucial information for biodiversity studies in the current context of global environmental changes. Such studies often rely on a limited number of occurrence data collected in the field and on pseudo-absences arbitrarily chosen within the study area, which reduces the value of these studies. To overcome this issue, we propose an alternative method of prospection using geo-located street view imagery (SVI). Following a standardised protocol of virtual prospection using both vertical (aerial photographs) and horizontal (SVI) perceptions, we have surveyed 1097 randomly selected cells across Spain (0.1x0.1 degree, i.e. 20% of Spain) for the presence of Arundo donax L. (Poaceae). In total we have detected A. donax in 345 cells, thus substantially expanding beyond the now two-centuries-old field-derived record, which described A. donax only 216 cells. Among the field occurrence cells, 81.1% were confirmed by SVI prospection to be consistent with species presence. In addition, we recorded, by SVI prospection, 752 absences, i.e. cells where A. donax was considered absent. We have also compared the outcomes of climatic niche modeling based on SVI data against those based on field data. Using generalized linear models fitted with bioclimatic predictors, we have found SVI data to provide far more compelling results in terms of niche modeling than does field data as classically used in SDM. This original, cost- and time-effective method provides the means to accurately locate highly visible taxa, reinforce absence data, and predict species distribution without long and expensive in situ prospection. At this time, the majority of available SVI data is restricted to human-disturbed environments that have road networks. However, SVI is becoming increasingly available in natural areas, which means the technique has considerable potential to become an important factor in future biodiversity studies.


After decades of routine operation, the hydropower industry faces new challenges. Large-scale integration of other renewable sources of generation in the power system accentuates the role of hydropower as a regulating resource. At the same time, an extensive reinvestment programme has commenced where many old components and apparatus are being refurbished or replaced. Introduction of new technical solutions in existing power plants requires good systems knowledge and careful consideration. Important tools for research, development and analysis are suitable mathematical models, numerical simulation methods and laboratory equipment. This doctoral thesis is devoted to studies of the electromechanical interaction between hydropower units and the power system. The work encompasses development of mathematical models, empirical methods for system identification, as well as numerical and experimental studies of hydropower generator and power system interaction. Two generator modelling approaches are explored: one based on electromagnetic field theory and the finite element method, and one based on equivalent electric circuits. The finite element model is adapted for single-machine infinite-bus simulations by the addition of a network equivalent, a mechanical equation and a voltage regulator. Transient simulations using both finite element and equivalent circuit models indicate that the finite element model typically overestimates the synchronising and damping properties of the machine. Identification of model parameters is performed both numerically and experimentally. A complete set of equivalent circuit parameters is identified through finite element simulation of standard empirical test methods. Another machine model is identified experimentally through frequency response analysis. An extension to the well-known standstill frequency response (SSFR) test is explored, which involves measurement and analysis of damper winding quantities. The test is found to produce models that are suitable for transient power system analysis. Both experimental and numerical studies show that low resistance of the damper winding interpole connections are vital to achieve high attenuation of rotor angle oscillations. Hydropower generator and power system interaction is also studied experimentally during a full-scale startup test of the Nordic power system, where multiple synchronised data acquisition devices are used for measurement of both electrical and mechanical quantities. Observation of a subsynchronous power oscillation leads to an investigation of the torsional stability of hydropower units. In accordance with previous studies, hydropower units are found to be mechanically resilient to subsynchronous power oscillations. However, like any other generating unit, they are dependent on sufficient electrical and mechanical damping. Two experimentally obtained hydraulic damping coefficients for a large Francis turbine runner are presented in the thesis.


The article analyses the social expressions of miraculous images. The focus is on the social interactions and functional interfaces of these images. The article also discusses the sociological concept of miracles, the tradition of crowning images, and the importance of religious souvenirs with copies of images. The author uses narratives and examples related to miraculous images in Lithuania. Miraculous and holy images are an important part of the social life of believers. In this article, images are analysed as social actors. They help to create miracles, as well as various social connections and networks. They define daily and festive times and encourage commercial activities that ensure the spread of their power and influence. Their celebrations of honour and exaltation (for example, coronation rites) become important social events, and their stories (biographies) become a field of research for historians and art critics. The person interacts with the social construct of the image, the representation they have created. Such a relationship with a miraculous image can last temporarily or permanently and manifests itself in reciprocal exchanges (requests, promises, and votive offerings versus miracles and graces). Religious souvenirs and devotionalias become spiritual and social mediators between the believer and the image, between the believer and the community. Socially empowered miraculous images manifest themselves in national culture and take root in the collective memory. The maintained connections between the image and the believers inevitably create various rituals and devotional practices, which the Catholic Church also seeks to control. Along with the narratives being created and disseminated, devotional practices help to empower the image. The abundance of narratives increases the popularity of the image until it is finally officially recognised as miraculous and usually crowned by the Catholic Church. While, on the one hand, such recognition also implies increased official control, on the other hand, the image consolidates its power and becomes part of a communal (regional or national) identity. The Catholic Church also appreciates the geographical space of the miraculous image: the churches become basilicas, as if increasing the significance of the place. The world of miracles is multi-layered and open to various interpretations. Theologians, psychologists, anthropologists, or philosophers have different ideas and theories on how to explain the phenomenon of miracles. Most importantly, despite scientific advances and technological development, the miracles continue to exist in modern society. For the believer, they are signs of God that affect their lives, and for the unbeliever, the phenomena of miracles are explained by various theories. In any case, miracles are a social fact that gives rise to social phenomena, which require further and deeper research.


Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has potential as a biofuel feedstock for ethanol production on marginal soils not suitable for row crop production. Further, it is hypothesized that legumes may be interseeded into switchgrass to increase available soil nitrogen (N) and enhance switchgrass yields. Therefore the primary objective was to identify compatible legume species for intercropping with lowland switchgrass and determine if biomass yields and forage quality can be improved. Four cool- and two warm-season legume species were compared to application of 67 and 134 kg N ha−1 (59.8 and 119.6 lb N ac−1) during 2009 and 2010 over a range of soils at three research and education centers in Tennessee. Cool-season legumes were alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum L.), and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa L.), and warm-season legumes included Illinois bundle flower (Desmanthus illinoensis L.) and partridge pea (Chamaechrista fasciculata L.). Legumes were evaluated for establishment (plant densities) and their effects on switchgrass yield and forage quality under a one-cut biomass (single, postdormancy biofuel) and an integrated two-cut (biomass/forage [preanthesis]) system. In the one-cut system, switchgrass yields (16.6 Mg ha−1 [6.7 tn ac−1]) from the current recommended rate (67 kg N ha−1 [59.8 lb N ac−1]) exceeded (p < 0.05) legume treatment yields (average 13.5 Mg ha−1 [5.5 tn ac−1]). In the integrated harvest system, switchgrass yields from red (13.4 Mg ha−1 [5.4 tn ac−1]) and crimson clover (12.8 Mg ha−1 [5.2 tn ac−1]) intercrops were not different from 67 kg N ha−1 (14.5 Mg ha−1 [5.9 tn ac−1]). Crude protein levels were greater (p < 0.05) for 134 kg N ha−1 (119.6 lb N ac−1), compared to legume intercrops (except red clover). Partridge pea showed promise as a warm-season legume that can be grown compatibly with switchgrass for up to two years. Therefore, compatible legume-intercrop candidates, such as partridge pea and red clover, may enhance switchgrass yield and forage quality while displacing synthetic N in integrated biofuel/forage systems, but need to be further investigated in efforts to reduce nitrate (NO3) leaching and emissions from fertilizing.


This study was aimed to investigate the urine kinetics of isoflavones after oral intake of soymilk in healthy adults in Taiwan. Nine volunteers received 800 mL of soymilk equivalent to 200 g of soybeans and the urine were collected from 0 to 48 h. Daidzein, equol and genistein in urine were assayed by HPLC before and after hydrolysis with β-glucuronidase and sulfatase. The results revealed that the parent forms of daidzein and genistein were not detected in the urine with major forms being the glucuronides (G) and sulfates (S), mainly G. Besides, equol G and S, the metabolites of daidzein, were detected in the urine of all subjects. In conclusion, G and S of daidzein and genistein, mainly G, were excreted in the urine of healthy adults in Taiwan alter ingestion of soymilk. In addition, G and S of equol were found in urine of all nine subjects.


A Single Vane Rotating Sleeve compression concept a patent of which has been filed by UTM, is the main focus of this study. Research and development on the concept was carried out to investigate its feasibility on a refrigeration system. The concept was designed based on the specifications of the existing reciprocating compressor installed in a refrigerator. In order to design a functional prototype, the author has conducted literature study on existing rotary compressor models such as rolling piston and sliding vane types that are used in room and car air conditioning systems respectively. The literature study is crucial in areas such as the geometrical optimization, material selection, tolerance and surface finishing in designing the prototype. Preliminary concept development and design are also conducted for the new concept investigating critical design data for used in future research. Further research and development however is needed to improve the compressor performance up to a commercial acceptable level.


Fermentative ethanol production from dilute-acid hydrolyzates of wood using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was investigated. Of known inhibitors in hydrolyzates, acetic acid, furfural and hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) were found in the highest concentrations (up to about 10 g/l). Physiological effects of these inhibitors were studied in synthetic media. Based on these studies, on-line control of fed-batch cultivation for in-situ detoxification of the hydrolyzates was subsequently developed. The effect of acetic acid on yeast was found to strongly depend on pH. At concentration of undissociated acetic acid higher than 5 g/l, growth stopped. However, presence of the acid in the medium at low concentration (e.g. 1 g/l) increased ethanol yield and decreased the formation of fermentation by-products. Furfural (4 g/l) severely decreases the specific growth rate of S. cerevisiae in pulse addition experiments. However, the yeast was able to convert furfural to less inhibiting products, mainly by reduction to furfuryl alcohol, with a specific conversion rate of 0.6 g/g.sigma.h. A previously unidentified metabolite was also found and was characterized by mass spectrometry. Presumably, the metabolite was formed from pyruvate and furfural. HMF is less inhibiting to yeast than furfural, but remains in the medium for about 4 times longer than furfural due to a lower conversion rate. The yeast converts HMF mainly to hydroxymethyl-furfuryl alcohol and a newly identified compound probably formed from HMF and acetaldehyde. Fed-batch fermentation was suggested as a suitable mode of operation for fermenting dilute-acid hydrolyzates from the physiological studies of the inhibitors. With a suitable feed rate, it was possible to ferment also severely inhibiting spruce and birch hydrolyzates using fed-batch operation without any pretreatment of the hydrolyzates. However, the feed rate was critical in order to obtain a successful operation. A simple feedback control strategy was therefore developed, allowing the feed rate to be determined on-line, without any other input variable than the measured carbon dioxide evolution rate.


Abstract The relationship between alcohol and other drugs (AOD) misuse and intimate partner violence (IPV) is well established. However, there is a pressing need for knowledge translation in relation to the association between AOD, IPV and child abuse and neglect. A substantial number of research studies and literature reviews on the relationship between AOD and IPV have appeared over the past several decades. However, heterogeneity across the literature reviews and findings, as well as in methodological differences and limitations, may contribute to interpretive difficulties that confound conclusions and/or create confusion among the researchers, practitioners and policy makers who turn to this literature for guidance in their research, treatment and policy decisions. To address this issue, this paper examines the evidence on the topic of AOD and IPV through a focused review-of-reviews methodology to compare and synthesise the overall patterns of findings derived from several reviews that have investigated the literature on the relationship between AOD and IPV. The results derived from the review-of-reviews are synthesised and integrated to present an understanding of the association between AOD and IPV in reference to child abuse and neglect. The limitations for research and practice are discussed, placing particular focus on knowledge translation in relation to child welfare policy and parents and children involved with child protection authorities.


BACKGROUND
Stigmatized people exhibit blunted cortisol responses to many stressors.

PURPOSE
To examine the cortisol responses of individuals who are overweight to a stigma-related stressor involving interviewing for a weight-discriminatory company.

METHODS
We recruited 170 men and women (mean age = 35.01) from towns located within about a 30-min drive of the study center. Weight was assessed using body mass index (BMI) and self-perceptions about being overweight. Participants were exposed to a laboratory stressor, modeled after the Trier Social Stress Test. In the stigmatizing condition, participants gave a supposedly videotaped speech about what makes them a good candidate for a job at a company that was described as having a weight-discriminatory health insurance benefit. Participants in the nonstigmatizing condition made a supposedly audiotaped speech for a company whose health insurance benefit was not described. Cortisol reactivity was then assessed.

RESULTS
Participants who rated themselves as overweight or who were overweight according to their BMI evidenced a blunted cortisol response in the weight-stigmatizing condition, whereas lean participants in the weight-stigmatizing condition showed the rise in cortisol levels that typically occurs following the Trier Social Stress Test.

CONCLUSIONS
People who experience the chronic stress of being stigmatized due to their weight show blunted cortisol responses just as other chronically stressed people do.


Characterization of rhizobacteri having potential to control Xanthomonas oryzae pv.  oryzae and increase plant growth of rice. Rhizobacteria which are isolated from root could produce HCN, siderophore, and plant growth regulator,  induce systemic resistance, and are increase uptake of plant nutrition  such as phosphate.  The objective of this research was to characterize rhizobacteri  as controling agent for  Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzae (Xoo) and as plant growth promoter. The results show that the isolates of P. diminuta A6, P. aeruginosa A54, B.subtilis 11 /C, and B. subtilis  5/B  inhibited the growth of Xoo.  B. subtilis 5/B isolate produced the highest siderophore  activity, followed by of P. aeruginosa A54, P. diminuta A6 and B. subtilis 11/C. Only  P. diminuta A6 isolate  produced HCN. The results also showed that all  rhizobacteri  produced IAA i.e.  B.subtilis 5/B (22.10 µg/ml), B. subtilis 11/C (19.05 µg/ml), P. diminuta A6 (8.68 ug/ml), and  P. aeruginosa A54 (2.95 µg/ml). The content of phosphatase enzyme was as folows B.subtilis 5/B (2.78 units/ ml), B.subtilis 11/C (5.7 units/ml), P. diminuta A6 (2.25 units/ml), and P. aeruginosa A54 (5.71 units / ml). Content of peroxidase enzymes in plants that were treated by using isolates was as follows B.subtilis 5/B (1.30 x 10-3 units/mg protein), P. aeruginosa A6 (1.20 x 10-3 units/mg protein), B.subtilis 11/C (1.15 x 10-3 units/mg protein), and P. aeruginosa A54 (1.05 x 10-3 units/mg protein).


We report the evaluation of a new commercial kit for the determination of pancreatic lipase activity. The kit is based on the use of a 1,2-diglyceride as substrate and a specific monoglyceride lipase. The detection step is the continuous colorimetric measurement of hydrogen peroxide produced from glycerol by glycerol kinase, glycerol-3-phosphate oxidase, and peroxidase reactions. The procedure appears to be precise (between-day CV < 9%) and the results show good correlation with those obtained by alternative procedures (vs turbidimetry, r = 0.965; vs ultraviolet absorbance-enzymatic method, r = 0.995; vs Ektachem, r = 0.976; vs immunometry, r = 0.970). However, the method is susceptible to interference by increased concentrations (> 4.5 mmol/L) of serum triglycerides. We estimated the reference interval for healthy adults to be 8-44 U/L. When we evaluated clinical efficacy by using receiver-operating characteristic curves and the overlap index, no significant differences were found between the commercial kit and a common turbidimetric assay for diagnosing patients with acute pancreatitis; both methods performed satisfactorily.


This paper presents a deep neural-network-based hierarchical graphical model for individual and group activity recognition in surveillance scenes. Deep networks are used to recognize the actions of individual people in a scene. Next, a neural-network-based hierarchical graphical model refines the predicted labels for each class by considering dependencies between the classes. This refinement step mimics a message-passing step similar to inference in a probabilistic graphical model. We show that this approach can be effective in group activity recognition, with the deep graphical model improving recognition rates over baseline methods.


Financial pressures in the shipping industry have forced ship owners to reduce their onboard manning levels and increase workloads, potentially leading to a higher risk of accidents through human error. Project HORIZON is a highly significant European funded research project that seeks to investigate the problem of seafarer reliability, and to deliver measures that will help alleviate the safety hazards caused by fatigue. For this purpose, a realistic scenario was developed, in which watch keeper cognitive performance and fatigue levels were measured, using the bridge, engine and cargo operations simulator facilities at Warsash, linked together to provide a 7 day continuous voyage. Ten simulations runs have been performed with 40 certificated seafarers of varying experience. Analysis of the results shows a significant impact of the 6 on / 6 off watch pattern on the fatigue and performance of seafarers. It is hoped these results will lead to better fatigue management systems being developed, in order to improve the safety and reliability of ship operations and the welfare of seafarers. This paper describes the HORIZON project and illustrates some of the emerging results.


Strategies for the conversion of CO2 to valuable products are paramount for reducing the environmental risks associated with high levels of this greenhouse gas and offer unique opportunities for transforming waste into useful products. While catalysts based on nickel as an Earth-abundant metal for the sustainable reduction of CO2 are known, the vast majority produce predominantly CO as a product. Here, efficient and selective CO2 reduction to formate as a synthetically valuable product has been accomplished with novel nickel complexes containing a tailored C,O-bidentate chelating mesoionic carbene ligand. These nickel(ii) complexes are easily accessible and show excellent catalytic activity for electrochemical H+ reduction to H2 (from HOAc in MeCN), and CO2 reduction (from CO2-saturated MeOH/MeCN solution) with high faradaic efficiency to yield formate exclusively as an industrially and synthetically valuable product from CO2. The most active catalyst precursor features the 4,6-di-tert-butyl substituted phenolate triazolylidene ligand, tolerates different proton donors including water, and reaches an unprecedented faradaic efficiency of 83% for formate production, constituting the most active and selective Ni-based system known to date for converting CO2 into formate as an important commodity chemical.


Immigration and refugees are sets of global flows of people who are seeking information, technology, economic stability, and military, political, and social asylum. Immigrants and refugees, which is one of the categories of migrants, represent only one of many global exchanges in an increasingly independent world. As the number of immigrants increases, the national, demographic, and socio-economic composition of the foreign residents in a host country are impacted by the immigration and immigrant policies of the receiving country. Immigration is inseparably part of the American national identity and always will be, and the United States would not continue to grow without immigration. In setting immigration policy in the United States, policymakers must be sensitive to both the U.S. vulnerabilities and the effects of American policies on the countries of origin. Since the post 9/11 period in the United States, immigration, immigration policy and implementation have been debated issues. Especially after Donald Trump was elected, the debate about migrants and immigration issues has increased even more. The purpose of this study is to show the development of immigration in American history, the positive and negative effects of immigrants on American economy and social life, and the question of the effects of social inclusion policies on the immigrant problem.


In this paper the results of a preliminary study that investigates water footprint (WF) concept, as a useful tool to address water management problems in cultivated areas are presented. The two basic methodologies reported in the literature, their applicability, benefits and challenges were previously analyzed and evaluated by Tsoukala et al. (2011). A WF calculation for the crops of Messara valley in Crete is presented, so as to examine its contribution to achieving effective agricultural policies. Messara is one of the most important agricultural regions in Greece that faces serious problems in order to meet crop irrigation demand. The conclusions drawn from this analysis showed that WF can provide a transparent framework for the identification of potentially optimal alternatives for efficient water use at river basin catchment level.


CIC-DUX4 sarcoma is a rare subtype of sarcoma characterized by a devastating prognosis and resistance to conventional therapeutic strategies. So far, only few models of the disease have been reported, and its biological mechanisms remain to be elucidated. We established mosaic transgenic zebrafish expressing the human CIC-DUX4 fusion under the control of the β-actin promoter. CIC-DUX4 transgenic fish rapidly developed aggressive soft tissue tumors with a high penetrance. RNAseq profiling revealed that fish tumors shared major common targets with human tumors and cell lines, including the overexpression of the Pea3 transcription factors, etv4 and etv5. Tumor development was strongly impaired in etv4-deficient zebrafish, implicating Etv4 as a critical effector of CIC-DUX4-mediated oncogenesis. Altogether, we report here the first in vivo model of CIC-DUX4 sarcoma in zebrafish, which will represent a major tool for future preclinical research.


1. Protein-depleted rats are resistant to the lethal effects of carbon tetrachloride. The LD(50) is 6.4ml./kg. in stock rats and 14.7ml./kg. in rats fed on protein-free diets. 2. Protein-depleted rats are resistant to carbon tetrachloride in its effect on the liver as judged by histology, accumulation of liver water, and plasma enzyme and bilirubin measurement. 3. The protection is present after feeding rats on a no-protein diet for 4 days. It is present after feeding rats on a 3%-casein diet, and partly found after feeding rats on a 6%-casein diet. 4. The activities of the microsomal enzymes that demethylate Pyramidon and hydroxylate benzopyrene in the liver fall by over 80% in rats fed on the no-protein diet for 4 days or more, or in rats fed on a 3%-casein diet. A 50% fall is found in rats fed on a 6%-casein diet. 5. A single dose of DDT or three doses of phenobarbitone cause increased microsomal enzyme activity in protein-depleted rats. 6. The animals are then sensitive to the lethal and liver-damaging effects of carbon tetrachloride. 7. DDT dosage also leads to increased sensitivity to carbon tetrachloride in rats fed on stock diets. 8. These findings support the hypothesis that carbon tetrachloride is metabolized by microsomal enzymes to form the true toxic compound.


The main directions in the research and study of industrial microclimate are represented in the article. Evaluation of the microclimate based on thermophysiology, studies of correlation between the environmental temperature and the human functional status helped to establish the normal parameters, measures of the overheating and the overcooling prophylaxis. New data about the immediate and late effect of single microclimate parameters on the human functional status necessitate the creation of new methodic approaches to the evaluation and control of microclimate conditions.


BACKGROUND
After anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, 63% to 87% of high school athletes return to competition. Although physical and psychological factors are known contributors for failure to return to play, little attention has been paid to effect of academic grade level. Our purpose was to determine the influence of effect of academic grade level on return to competitive play. The primary hypothesis is that high school seniors who undergo ACL reconstruction or knee arthroscopy will be less likely to return to competitive play at 1 year than those in grades 9 to 11.

METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed high school athletes who injured their knee during competitive athletic activity and underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, including ACL reconstruction. We included those 14 to 18 years old at time of surgery and analyzed records for grade level, sporting activity, surgery details, and date of return to play. The definition of return to competitive play was return to same preinjury sport within 1 year of surgery and the sport had to be organized.

RESULTS
Our study group included 225 patients that underwent an ACL reconstruction and 74 had knee arthroscopy. Athletes undergoing ACL reconstructions were less likely to return to preinjury sport within 1 year than those undergoing knee arthroscopy (P=0.0163). Seniors were significantly less likely to return to play at 1 year than athletes in grades 9 to 11 after both ACL reconstruction (P<0.0001) and knee arthroscopy (P=0.0335). Although return to competitive play rates remained fairly constant within grades 9 to 11, a precipitous decline by 28.9% and 29.4% in return to play rates occurred in the ACL reconstruction and knee arthroscopy groups, respectively, between the junior and senior years of high school.

DISCUSSION
Although return to competition rates were lower for high school athletes undergoing ACL reconstruction than those undergoing knee arthroscopy, both had declines in return when the surgery occurs during their senior season. These data are useful when interpreting return to play rates. Future studies would benefit from further defining this relationship, or at least, noting the number of "senior" athletes studied.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Therapeutic study-Level III.


We investigate the structure of the stalled supernova shock in both two and three dimensions (2D and 3D, respectively) and explore the differences in the effects of neutrino heating and the standing accretion shock instability (SASI). We find that early on the amplitude of the dipolar mode of the shock is factors of ∼2–3 smaller in 3D than in 2D. However, later in both 3D and 2D, the monopole and dipole modes start to grow until explosion. Whereas in 2D, the (l, m) = (1, 0) mode changes sign quasi-periodically, producing the "up-and-down" motion always seen in modern 2D simulations, in 3D this almost never happens. Rather, in 3D when the dipolar mode starts to grow, it grows in magnitude and wanders stochastically in direction until settling before explosion to a particular patch of solid angle. Furthermore, in 2D, we find that the amplitude of the dipolar shock deformation separates into two classes. For the first, identified with the SASI and for a wide range of "low" neutrino luminosities, this amplitude remains small and roughly constant. For the other, identified with higher luminosities and neutrino-driven convection, the dipolar amplitude grows sharply. Importantly, it is only for this higher luminosity class that we see neutrino-driven explosions within ∼1 s of bounce. Moreover, for the "low" luminosity runs (including zero), the power spectra of these dipolar oscillations peak in the 30–50 Hz range associated with advection timescales, while for the high-luminosity runs the power spectra at lower frequencies are significantly more prominent. We associate this enhanced power at lower frequencies with slower convective effects and the secular growth of the dipolar shock amplitude. Though our study involves a simplified, parameterized approach, on the basis of it we hypothesize that neutrino-driven buoyant convection should almost always dominate the SASI when the supernova explosion is neutrino-driven.


Engine design starts with parametric cycle analysis. This paper focus on design cycle analysis of a turbofan engine with Interstage Turbine Burner (ITB). The ITB, which is located between the high and low pressure turbine, i.e., transition duct [3]. The objective of parametric cycle analysis (On-Design) is to compare the engine performance parameters (specific thrust and thrust specific fuel consumption), to design choices (compressor pressure ratio, fan pressure ratio, bypass ratio) between with and without ITB. The ITB engines are shown to provide significantly higher specific thrust with small increase in specific fuel consumption compared to conventional base engines. And then, the ITB engines also widen the operational range of flight Mach number and compressor pressure ratio. To simulate the on design cycle analysis for this paper, visual C++ language program will be used. Keywords- turbofan engine, interstage turbine burner, parametric cycle analysis, NOx emission


Correlation filters (CF) have received considerable attention in visual tracking because of their computational efficiency. Leveraging deep features via off-the-shelf CNN models (e.g., VGG), CF trackers achieve state-of-the-art performance while consuming a large number of computing resources. This limits deep CF trackers to be deployed to many mobile platforms on which only a single-core CPU is available. In this paper, we propose to jointly compress and transfer off-the-shelf CNN models within a knowledge distillation framework. We formulate a CNN model pretrained from the image classification task as a teacher network, and distill this teacher network into a lightweight student network as the feature extractor to speed up CF trackers. In the distillation process, we propose a fidelity loss to enable the student network to maintain the representation capability of the teacher network. Meanwhile, we design a tracking loss to adapt the objective of the student network from object recognition to visual tracking. The distillation process is performed offline on multiple layers and adaptively updates the student network using a background-aware online learning scheme. The online adaptation stage exploits the background contents to improve the feature discrimination of the student network. Extensive experiments on six standard datasets demonstrate that the lightweight student network accelerates the speed of state-of-the-art deep CF trackers to real-time on a single-core CPU while maintaining almost the same tracking accuracy.


This study analyzes how the Art-Union, a British journal interested only in the fine arts, approached photography between 1839 and 1854. It is informed by Karl Marx's materialism-informed commodity fetishism, Gerry Beegan's conception of knowingness, Benedict Anderson's imagined community, and an art critical discourse that was defined by Roger de Piles and Joshua Reynolds. The individual chapters are each sites in which to examine these multiple theoretical approaches to the journal's and photography's association in separate, yet sometimes overlapping, periods. One particular focus of this study concerns the method through which the journal viewed photography—as an artistic or scientific enterprise. A second important focus of this study is the commodification of both the journal and photography in Britain. Also, it determines how the journal's critical engagement with photography fits into the structure and development of a nineteenth-century British social collectivity focused on art and the photographic enterprise.


How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect firm profits and tax payments in developing countries? We use administrative corporate tax records from ten low and middle-income countries around the world to address this question. Modelling the lockdown-triggered revenue shock with simple and transparent assumptions, we predict that less than half of all firms remain profitable by the end of 2020, about 5-10% of the aggregate annual payroll is lost, and firm exit rates double. As a result, we expect tax revenue remitted by the corporate sector to fall by at least 1.5% of baseline GDP. Differences in sectoral composition and in firms' cost structures generate heterogeneity in results across countries: wage subsidies are less effective in lower income-countries, and government revenue losses are smaller. Our study illustrates the benefits of harmonized administrative tax data across countries for just-in-time policy analysis. JEL classification: H25, H32, H61, O12


This paper summarises the evolution and production process of Kam, a long-exposure pixilation/ 2D animation film with a unique aesthetic approach that took three years to formulate and complete due to an iterative/fragmented production schedule. Kam, which means "shaman" in old Turkish, was conceived as a response to the rise of conservative and misogynist official discourse in Turkey, and it features a woman's fierce dance. For this film, Turkish dancer Sevinc Baltali's improvised performance was captured by the author using the technique of long-exposure photography. Condensing the motion of the dancer, the still frames created a flowing image on screen in which the dancer's body is sometimes hardly perceivable. The dance flow was then recreated to the music of Amolvacy, an underground New York band featuring a modern interpretation of tribal music. Finally, the manifesto of the film was reinforced by adding another layer, this time of primitive drawings by the author, on top of the images, creating a more pronounced expression of the anger and the rebellious energy of the female body. This article argues that the unique aesthetics of the film attained at the end of an iterative and fragmented production process allowed a multi-layered liminal space for meaning to emerge. By elaborating on the relationship between the aesthetic approach, the political stance and the production methodology of this film, this article aims to demonstrate how animation can create an evocative and visceral experience that highlights and communicates what Herzog (2010) defines as "ecstatic truth".


Proverbs exist in every language to express particular messages. However, when a proverb is translated, certain issues emerge due to its particular cultural and linguistic connotations which are different from one language to another. Nevertheless, such issues can be resolved by proper selection of translation methods. This study evaluated the accuracy of Nida's (1964) translation theory in dealing with Arabic proverbs. For this purpose, Nida's theory is employed as a framework of this study. In addition, the 20 Arabic proverbs were selected randomly from different resources as the study data. In order to conduct this research, the paper used a comparative analysis approach. First, the study transliterated the data into English. Next, formal and dynamic equivalence strategies were applied to render the research data. Then, the translations are analyzed and compared the in terms accuracy. The results show that although Nida's theory is useful to some extent, Arabic proverbs lost some of their cultural and religious values in the target language. In addition, the study shows that formal translation focused more on linguistic transfer while the dynamic strategy promoted communication. Finally, the paper concludes that using the dynamic translation strategy is more appropriate that the formal method in transferring the function and meaning of Arabic proverbs in English.


The climatic conditions in the Arctic, and observations of the wind-induced drift of ice made in connexion with Fridtjof Nansen's Fram expedition, led to the discovery 100 years ago by Vilhelm Bjerknes' pupil, V.W. Ekman, of the importance of the Earth's rotation in limiting the depth of the wind-induced shear current in the ocean. This essay commemorates the centenary of Ekman's seminal paper, which was published in 1905. The paper presents a concise summary of Ekman's contributions to physical oceanography and a brief review of their continuing impact. The two key concepts are the Ekman spiral (the helical rotation of the velocity vector, in atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers) and the resultant Ekman pumping (vertical motions in the water column associated with the divergence of the flow in the surface layer in the presence of a rotational wind-stress field). Later work has revealed how the magnitude and direction of the surface current relative to the wind vector is influenced by the presence of surface waves and the behaviour of the turbulent flow in the near-surface layer of the ocean. However, the structure of Ekman's original viscous coupling model remains a permanent legacy to physical oceanographers.


For collision detection and force control, collaborative robots working in human environments are often equipped with joint torque sensors instead of an expansive force/torque sensor. However, such torque sensors suffer from the issue of crosstalk error by loads other than the torque of interest and the vibration of the harmonic drive. A cross roller bearing (CRB) can effectively minimize this crosstalk but this increases the sensor cost. In this study, we propose a sensor block type joint torque sensor (SB-JTS) that is easy to manufacture and does not require a CRB. The sensor block is a hexahedral block with eight strain gauges attached, and the support part is designed to reduce the moment load applied to the sensor block. Through FEM analysis, the attachment locations that are sensitive to the torque of interest but insensitive to other loads can be identified. A series of experiments was conducted using a manufactured SB-JTS. The results showed that the SB-JTS can effectively reduce the crosstalk due to moment load without the use of a CRB.


Macrocheles subbadius, found in central Italy on dairy cattle and horse manure and in phoresy on nuscid flies, is a coprophilous, arrhenotokous mite that feeds on house fly eggs and living rhabditid nematodes. The morphological characteristics previously described for females (BERLES1E9,0 4) and males (FILIPPONI and PEGAZZAN19O6,3 ) of this species were found to apply completely to the present material and to AXTELL Sm aterial (1963)while EVANSa nd BROWNIN(G19 56) and BREGETOVaAn d KOROLEV1A9 60) reported different characteristics in their material (Macrocheles scutatus sensu Berlese). The procedures described by FILIPPONanId co-workers in similar studies were used in the present experiments, in order to compare their results to those obtained with macrochelid mites that feed on Madsca domestica eggs. The innate capacity for increase of M . subbadizbs was evaluated by calculating r, or its antilog Rm (finite rate of increase), which indicates how many times the population will multiply in one day. Not all the temperatures at which the species can multiply were considered, but only those within the optimal range. This was determined by preliminary stuhes in which two population attributes were considered; the rate of oviposition (Table I) and the duration of preimaginal development (Table 11), both within the 10-400C range. The results indicated a provisional optimal range of 25-33°C, and the tests were conducted at 25, 27, 29, 31, and 330C. Cohorts of 16 females, each composed of two subsamples of 8 each (corresponding to two laboratory cultures of the same field strain) were tested for net fecundity (adult progeny per female), adult female longevity, and fertility rate (adult progeny per female per day) at each of these temperatures. Analysis of variance of the data (Table IV) showed that each of the three population attributes reacted differently to temperature (first value of F), while the two subsamples and the interaction among females (second and third values of F) were not modified. As there were no differences due to subsampling, the data were cumulated, and a comparison of the means (Table V) showed that the maximum net fecundity occurred at 27OC, that the adult female longevity was influenced by temperature (only at 27 and 2gOC was there no apparent influence on longevity, in that the comparison revealed no statistically significant differences), and that the optimal range for the fertilitv rate was 27,- za,oC . In the 25-33OC range the minimum duration of preimaginal development occurred at 31OC for both females and males (Table VI), and analysis of variance (Table VII) showed that males complete their preimaginal development more rapidly than females. To compile the life and fertility tables, and therefore to estimate Rm, the sex ratio had to be determined, nsince this is an arrhenotokous species. By cumulating all the progeny data (Table VIII), the mean sex ratio, expressed as female probability, was found to be 0.449 at 270C. On the basis of these data, the life and fertility table (Table IX) were compiled, and the parameters regarding the capacity for increase (r,; Rm; R, = rate of multiplication per generation; T = mean length of a generation) were defined. In terms of R,, a population of M. subbadius can multiply 1.97 times per day at 2s0C; 2.24 at 270C; 2.37 at 290C; 2.41 at 31OC; and 2.04 at 33%. The values of R, of other macrochelid mites studied bv the same ex~erimenta~l roceduresa nd of U. Musca domestica, the natural food source of these mites, are: for Macrocheles robustulus, 1.96 at 250C; 2.05 at 270C; and 2.03 at 290C: for M. ~eniculatus1, .65 at 240C; 1.76 a t 260C; and 1.70 at 280C: for M. penicilliger, 1-34 at 220C; 1.38 at 240C; and 1.32 at 260C; for M. muscaedomesticae, 2.17 at 280C; 2.47 at 30°C; 2.31 at 32°C; and 2.08 at 34°C: for M. matrius, 1.71 at 24°C; 1.92 at 26°C; 2.10 at 280C; 2.15 at 300C; 2.20 at 320C; 2.25 at 340~; and 1.50 at 360C: for~~usdcoam estica, 1.17 at 240C; 1.45 a t 280C; 1.41 at 32OC; and 1.37 at 360C.


Program objective: Integration of a medical librarian into undergraduate nutrition Professional Practice class with an evidence based nutrition component. The objective of this integration is to increase the success rate of the PEN (Practice Evidence Nutrition) project. Setting: Undergraduate Nutrition Program. Participants: Third-year under- graduate nutrition students. Program: The librarian was invited to present PubMed in January 2011 to the Professional Practice class, which lead to repeat visits and more detailed instruction. What started as a one-shot presentation is now a highly integrated series of presentations and hands-on computer lab components that focus on the completion of a PEN project. Main results: Through constant review and modifications over the years, the librarian has been successfully integrated into the curriculum of not only the intended class, Professional Practice, but also into the Research Methods class. Conclusion: The librarian's knowledge of evidence-based medicine and the willingness of the professor to make use of the librarian's expertise resulted in a collaborative working relationship centred on student success. Such a high level of successful integration is possible through a good working relationship with the professor. A bonus of the integration into the class is more involvement within other areas the nutrition curriculum and with the other faculty members of the nutrition program.


This qualitative and exploratory study investigated the meaning of care for hospitalized children with chronic diseases, accompanied by a family member. Participants were six nurses, who worked in a Pediatric Ward of the teaching hospital of Campinas State University, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The technique used for collecting data was semi-direct interview. Thematic Content Analysis introduced the thematic category "Care for chronically ill children with focus on the disease". This care approach in the nurse's practice was shown to be predominant.


Abstract We compare images of Comet Hale–Bopp (1995 O1) in HCN and CN taken near perihelion (April 1, 1997) to determine the origin of CN in comets. We imaged the J =1→0 transition of HCN at λ=3 mm with the BIMA Array. Data from two weeks around perihelion were summed within four phase bins based on the rotational period of the comet. This increases both the signal-to-noise ratio and the u – v coverage while decreasing the smearing of the spatial features. The similarly phased narrowband CN images were taken at Lowell Observatory within the same range of dates as the HCN images. We find that there is a better correlation between HCN and CN than between HCN and the optically dominant dust. If the CN in jets does have a dust source it would have to have a very low albedo and/or small particle size. The production rates are consistent with HCN being a primary parent of CN, although there are discrepancies between the HCN destruction scalelength and the CN production scalelength which we discuss.


— Nanowire transistors are typically fabricated as geometrically symmetrical devices, with metal/semiconductor source and drain contacts rather than a graduated doping profile. While the source and drain contacts are nominally identical, contact asymmetry can arise when the gate contact is not centered over the nanowire, leaving uneven access regions with no gate coverage on one or both sides of the channel. Measuring the characteristics of devices with symmetric and asymmetric contact geometries allows contact effects to be studied. In this paper, indium arsenide nanowire transistors were fabricated with symmetric and asymmetric gate coverage. It is shown that devices with highly asymmetric gate coverage can exhibit a factor of 10 change in current and a shift in threshold of up to 0.5 V upon reversing the source–drain orientation. Devices with highly asymmetric properties show nearly identical channel-generated noise yet a significant difference in contact-generated noise levels when the contact orientation is reversed. Fully symmetric devices show higher current levels, lower threshold voltages, and lower contact-generated noise than asymmetric devices with either source or drain gated, but channel-generated noise levels are similar.


Although chronic HBV infection is the leading cause of chronic liver disease and death worldwide, there are substantial differences in its clinical courses regarding prevalence, mode of transmission, characteristics of each phase, responses to antiviral therapy, and development of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, according to geographical areas (Asia versus Western Europe and North America versus Africa). Furthermore, the clinical course in infected individuals depends on a complex interplay among various factors including viral, host, environmental and other factors. Recently, understanding of molecular characteristics of the prevailing HBV genotypes, frequently accompanied mutations and their clinical implications might explain these geographical differences more pertinently. Hence, in this article, we review the global epidemiology and the natural history of HBV infection, with emphasis on summarizing the different HBV genotypes according to regions.


This paper will look at an approach that uses symmetric properties of the basis function to remove redundancies in the calculation of discrete Fourier transform (DFT). We will develop an algorithm, called the quick Fourier transform (QFT), that will reduce the number of floating point operations necessary to compute the DFT by a factor of two or four over direct methods or Goertzel's method for prime lengths. Further by applying the idea to the calculation of a DFT of length-2/sup M/, we construct a new O(N log N) algorithm. The algorithm can be easily modified to compute the DFT with only a subset of input points, and it will significantly reduce the number of operations when the data are real. The simple structure of the algorithm and the fact that it is well suited for DFTs on real data should lead to efficient implementations and to a wide range of applications.<<ETX>>


During the ion beam figuring (IBF) of a space mirror, thermal radiation of the neutral filament and particle collisions will heat the mirror. The adhesive layer used to bond the metal parts and the mirror is very sensitive to temperature rise. When the temperature exceeds the designed value, the mirror surface shape will change markedly because of the thermal deformation and stress release of the adhesive layer, thereby reducing the IBF accuracy. To suppress the thermal effect, we analyzed the heat generation mechanism. By using thermal radiation theory, we established a thermal radiation model of the neutral filament. Additionally, we acquired a surface-type Gaussian heat source model of the ion beam sputtering based on the removal function and Faraday scan result. Using the finite-element-method software ABAQUS, we developed a method that can simulate the thermal effect of the IBF for the full path and all dwell times. Based on the thermal model, which was experimentally confirmed, we simulated the thermal effects for a 675  mm×374  mm rectangular SiC space mirror. By optimizing the dwell time distribution, the peak temperature value of the adhesive layer during the figuring process was reduced under the designed value. After one round of figuring, the RMS value of the surface error changed from 0.094 to 0.015λ (λ=632.8  nm), which proved the effectiveness of the thermal analysis and suppression method.


With the dramatic rise in high-quality galaxy data expected from Euclid and Vera C. Rubin Observatory, there will be increasing demand for fast high-precision methods for measuring galaxy fluxes. These will be essential for inferring the redshifts of the galaxies. In this paper, we introduce Lumos, a deep learning method to measure photometry from galaxy images. Lumos builds on BKGnet, an algorithm to predict the background and its associated error, and predicts the background-subtracted flux probability density function. We have developed Lumos for data from the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS), an imaging survey using a 40 narrow-band filter camera (PAUCam). PAUCam images are affected by scattered light, displaying a background noise pattern that can be predicted and corrected for. On average, Lumos increases the SNR of the observations by a factor of 2 compared to an aperture photometry algorithm. It also incorporates other advantages like robustness towards distorting artefacts, e.g. cosmic rays or scattered light, the ability of deblending and less sensitivity to uncertainties in the galaxy profile parameters used to infer the photometry. Indeed, the number of flagged photometry outlier observations is reduced from 10 to 2 per cent, comparing to aperture photometry. Furthermore, with Lumos photometry, the photo-z scatter is reduced by ≈10 per cent with the Deepz machine-learning photo-z code and the photo-z outlier rate by 20 per cent. The photo-z improvement is lower than expected from the SNR increment, however, currently the photometric calibration and outliers in the photometry seem to be its limiting factor.


Gingivae represent a unique soft tissue that serves as a biological barrier to cover the oral cavity side of the maxilla and mandible. Recently, the gingivae were identified as containing mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs). However, it is unknown whether the GMSCs are derived from cranial neural crest cells (CNCC) or the mesoderm. In this study, we show that around 90% of GMSCs are derived from CNCC and 10% from the mesoderm. In comparison with mesoderm MSCs (M-GMSCs), CNCC-derived GMSCs (N-GMSCs) show an elevated capacity to differentiate into neural cells and chondrocytes and induce activated T-cell apoptosis in vitro. When transplanted into mice with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis, N-GMSCs showed superior effects in ameliorating inflammatory-related disease phenotype in comparison with the M-GMSC treatment group. Mechanistically, the increased immunomodulatory effect of N-GMSCs is associated with up-regulated expression of FAS ligand (FASL), a transmembrane protein that plays an important role in MSC-based immunomodulation. In summary, our study indicates that the gingivae contain both neural-crest- and mesoderm-derived MSCs with distinctive stem cell properties.


Objective: This study aims to investigate the role and mechanism of 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in type 2 diabetic nephropathy rats.
Methods: There were 30 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats that were randomly divided into 3 groups: the normal control group (NC group, n=10), the diabetic nephropathy model group (T2DN model group, n=10), and the diabetic nephropathy group treated with 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (vD3-T2DN group, n=10). After 15 weeks, the changes of renal tissues morphology, renal function, and 24 h urinary protein quantification were measured. The expressions of Transforming Growth Factor beta 1 (TGF-β1), CD68 and Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 (MCP-1) in renal cortex were also detected by Immunohistochemistry (IHC).
Results: The weight of rats were significantly decreased in T2DN model group and vD3-T2DN group than in NC group (P<0.05) at the end of 15th week, while the blood glucose, 24 h urinary protein and triglyceride were significantly increased (P<0.01). The expression of TGF-β1, CD68 and MCP-1 in T2DN model group and vD3-T2DN group were significantly higher than in NC group (P<0.01). Compared with NC group, the triglyceride (P<0.01) and serum creatinine (P<0.05) were significantly higher in T2DN model group. In vD3-T2DN group, the expression of TGF-β1, CD68 and MCP-1, the content of 24 h urinary protein (P<0.01), and triglyceride (P<0.05) were significantly than in T2DN model group.
Conclusion: Through repressing the expression of TGF-β1, CD68 and MCP-1, 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 can inhibit invasion of macrophages to protect kidney of T2DN rats.


An array of moveable seismographic trailers was deployed at three sites along the northern section of the "Big Bend" in the San Andreas fault in southern California. The three sites monitored were the Carrizo Plains, Frazier Park, and Lake Hughes areas. Effective observation times at each site ranged from 38 to 69 days. The microearthquake activity rates observed were 0.3 events/day, 3.0 events/day, and 1.9 events/day, respectively, based on the number of located events plus the number of unlocated events with S-P ≦ 3.0 sec. The majority of the activity does not appear to be directly associated with the San Andreas fault. A comparison of the activity rates observed in this study with the results of a survey conducted in the same areas by Brune and Allen (1967), indicates more than an order of magnitude increase in activity rate in the Lake Hughes area and nearly the same levels of activity at the Carrizo Plains and Frazier Park sites.


An investigation has been made on the infiltration behaviour in rapid prototyping of Al alloy parts under different infiltration atmospheres. An Al 6061 alloy preform was first prepared by selective laser sintering. Then the aluminium precursor powders in the preform were converted into AlN to form a skeletal AlN structure, which was subsequently pressureless infiltrated with a molten Al 6061 alloy under nitrogen, argon or vacuum. The pathway of the infiltrant was determined by density measurements in conjunction with metallographic examination and quantitative image analysis. Detailed comparison of the microstructures at the surface and the centre of the as-infiltrated samples indicates that the pathway into the porous preform is dependent on the infiltration atmosphere. Under vacuum, the infiltrant fills the interior of the preform first and then propagates to the surface. In contrast, under nitrogen or argon, the infiltrant penetrates along the surface prior to filling the interior.


In the past decade, a lot of studies and researches have been done on the problems concerning the management of safety and health in construction sites. But, there are very few studies discussing the issue in project environment from viewpoint of workers. Especially, safety and health management, which has been usually subject of the empiricism, is not considered deeply on the large scale construction sites in Iran. However, it is necessary to understand the quantitative mechanism of safety and health in project site to proceed the necessary management technique properly, and set up the suitable strategies by trade-off of risk and cost to reduce the safety and health risk during construction of the project. In this paper, employees of several large scale construction projects in metropolitan areas of Tabriz were randomly selected and were asked to respond the NOSACQ questionnaire. The results showed that safety and health management in large scale construction sites are relatively acceptable. Besides, the perception of safety and health was found to have no special association with age, work experience, education, but instead the creation of a safety climate depends on the approach of people higher in the organizational hierarchy of the project. Keywords: construction, health, safety, sustainability.