Chemistry
Macroscopic robots can already walk—the trouble is getting them to think. At the molecular scale, though, channeling stochastic motion into something resembling a series of purposeful strides is still a great challenge. Von Delius et al. now show that carefully designed feet appended to a small hydrocarbon chain can shuffle to and fro along a four-site track under proper chemical stimulation. One foot forms disulfide bonds to two of the track sites, whereas the other forms hydrazone linkages to interspersed sites. By introducing acids or bases that selectively favor these respective reactions, the authors shift the chain's position one step at a time. Replacing the base treatment with a redox protocol asserts some degree of control over the directionality of the stroll.

Nat. Chem. 10.1038/nchem.481 (2009).


Communication network expansion technology using autonomous robot introduces three research fields which is network expansion, network routing, and localization. On this research, we tried to develop an efficient robot formation and network expansion that is implemented using Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) library and network routing algorithm. This paper also shows some modifications that have been done to improve the performance of robot formation and network routing process. In robot formation and network expansion process, step that has been done is multiple source implementations to keep communication linkage between communication towers. Besides that, we developed new routing protocol based on cluster based routing concept. The result of simulation shows that our proposed communication network expansion technology is visible to be implemented.


To respond to requests for proposals from clients requiring complex Information technology (IT) services, IT service providers have to prepare a solution composed of the multiple services requested by the clients and price that solution. Then, each provider competes in a tender-kind of process trying to convince the client with their solution. Pricing these solutions/deals, using historical and market data, is a complex task that we studied in our previous works. In our prior pricing approaches, we used a simple algorithm for selecting similar historical and market deals to the one we are trying to price, before we mine the data of these deals to estimate the costs of that latter deal. However, there are multiple limitations to that algorithm that we overcome in the novel approach that we present in this paper. These limitations include missing on some similar deals due to the way we chose them. Our new approach involves an iterative algorithm that selects peer deals at different levels until a pre-specified number of deals is determined. We present a proof-of-concept implementation of our approach, using real-world data, to illustrate its efficiency.


One of the most popular applications of Semantic Web technology is the integration of data from distributed locations over the Web. With wrappers, screen scrapers, and information extraction tools it is possible to access, merge, and reason over RDF data from various different, heterogeneous sources. SPARQL can be used to access RDF data in a declarative manner and as will be shown, it can also be used to virtually integrate distributed RDF graphs. In this contribution a mediator-wrapper based middleware is shown which virtually integrates distributed, heterogeneous data sources based on RDF and a slightly modified SPARQL algebra. Schema information available in RDF Schema and OWL vocabularies is used for query federation and optimization. Compared to traditional data integration systems, SemWIQ can fully exploit the semantics of available RDF data. Additionally, RDF has many interesting properties which provide advanced query capabilities based on OWL DL inference.


Vascular techniques have been used for curing the aneurysm, but the reason for the occurrence of aneurysms can not be known using these techniques. These techniques are usually used for preventing a significant situation such as rupture of an aneurysm. In our study, blood flow effects with or without vascular techniques inside an aneurysm were analyzed with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Important hemodynamic quantities like wall shear stress and pressure in vessel are difficult to measure in-vivo. Blood flow is assumed to be Newtonian fluid. But it actually consists of platelets, so it is also considered a non-Newtonian fluid in this study. Results of the numerical model were used to compare and analyze fluid characteristics with experimental data. Using the flow characteristics (wall shear stress (WSS), wall shear stress gradient (WSSG)), the rupture area was identified to be located in the distal area. However, the rupture area, in vivo studies, was observed to be present at a different location. During pulsatile flow, vibration induced by flow is implicated by weakening of the artery wall and affects more than shear stress. After adapting the fluid-induced vibration, the rupture area in aneurysm is found to be located in the same area as the in-vivo result. Since smaller inflow and low WSS provide the effect of the distal neck, the vibration provides more effects in dome area. In this study it has been found that the effect of shear stress on the rupture of aneurysm is less than the effect of vibration. In the case of non-Newtonian fluid, vibration induced by flow also has more effects than WSS and WSSG. The simulation results gave detailed information about hemodynamics under physiological pulsatile inlet condition.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


Tragopogon turcicus Coskunc., M.Gultepe & Makbul, a new diploid species (2n = 2x = 12), is described and illustrated from Kizildag National Park (Isparta), southwest Anatolia. It is morphologically similar to T. oligolepis Hartvig & Strid which is also endemic to Turkey. Diagnostic characters, description, conservation status together with micro- and macro-morphological properties of achenes and pollen grains are given. A phylogenetic analysis based on nrDNA ITS sequence data indicated that T. oligolepis is the sister species of the new taxon.


: Through systematic textual research on Bencao, it is definite that the initial medical variety of Rhizoma Corydalis was Corydalis tartschaninovii produced in the northeast of China. After the Ming Dynasty, it was replaced gradually by the cultivated variety in Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province. At present, Corydalis turtschaninovii should be the variety of first choice among the medical resources of Rhizoma Corydalis.


Prolonged exposure to water, known as immersion foot syndrome in humans, is a phenomenon first described in soldiers during World War I and characterized by dermal ischemic necrosis. In this report, we describe the pathologic findings of a condition resembling immersion foot syndrome in 5 horses and 1 donkey with prolonged floodwater exposure during Hurricane Harvey. At necropsy, all animals had dermal defects ventral to a sharply demarcated "water line" along the lateral trunk. In 5 animals, histologic examination revealed moderate to severe perivascular dermatitis with vasculitis and coagulative necrosis consistent with ischemia. The severity of the lesions progressed from ventral trunk to distal limbs and became more pronounced in the chronic cases. The pathophysiology of immersion foot syndrome is multifactorial and results from changes in the dermal microvasculature leading to thrombosis and ischemia. Prompt recognition of this disease may lead to appropriate patient management and decreased morbidity.


When Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, was first interviewed after September 11, 2001, a tragedy that devastated his firm and stole the life of his brother, Lutnick stated that he now had ???700 families to feed.??? The view that he expressed was that his firm was responsible to the families of the wage earners lost in the tragedy, even though the firm was not responsible for the events that had occurred. Such assumed corporate responsibility, consistent with a stakeholder-based approach to management, is often considered to conflict with the law. The purpose of this Article is to demonstrate that stakeholder management does not inherently conflict with the law. In fact, principles of stakeholder thinking coincide with our moral intuitions, reflect many demonstrated best business practices, and promote profit-generation as envisioned and advocated by the law. This Article explores the nature of stakeholder relationships and their impact on business enterprises. The interconnected experiences of individuals and organizations in the wake of the events of September 11, while exemplary and perhaps more pronounced, are not isolated. The purpose of this Article is to draw upon such experiences in order to move beyond the traditional hub-and-spoke model of the firm, and to integrate past and present examples in a more dynamic, stakeholder-based model of corporate citizenship that bridges the gap between stakeholder thinking and the law and is both descriptive and normative.


Interferon are a family of naturally occurring glycoprotein, produced by animal and cultural cell in response to viral infection which in turns inhibits viral replication. Interferon have been identified as Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Gamma interferon has proved to be effective against blood cancer. This present study shows the vaccination of interferon gamma against blood cancer using Bioinformatic tools. Bioinformatic tools (Fasta, Blast, clustalW and Phylodendron) selected. Select protein or nucleotide sequence from data base available at NCBI site. Convert it into Fasta format and save it and refer it as query sequence. Search homologous sequences of query sequence by running Blast. Select some of the sequences from Blast hits and run ClustalW to get multiple sequences alignment in order to get evolutionary distance between query and Blast sequences. Run Phylodendron to get tree which helps to get the closest related sequences and save the result carefully for interpretation and further analysis. 136 Blast hits of protein sequences obtained with query sequences. Phylodendron study shows closest relationship of query sequence with Oryza sativa in plant. Since it is known interferon synthesized in the organism in response to viral infection. So this study showing that interferon gamma found in Oryza sativa as a natural glycoprotein so the gene coded for these protein can be extracted or can be cloned in huge amount through Recombinant DNA technology.


Study of the behavior of fluids inside micro and nanochannels has become particularly important with the extensive advances in micro- and nanofluidic systems. Capillary filling is a phenomenon that occurs in microchannels when the fluid is in contact with the channel walls. This phenomenon can be controlled by introducing certain characteristics in the channel walls and these channels are used in specific applications such as micro-reactors and pressure-sensitive switches. In this paper new insights about some effective parameters in the capillary are provided by which it is possible to increase or decrease the fluid's velocity or even stop its motion at a specific point in the microchannel. The influence of different regimes governed the capillary action on the fluid's velocity is studied. Furthermore, the effect of introducing certain obstacles on the microchannel wall on the capillary action and its relation with the contact angle of fluid is investigated. 2D FEM capillary simulation for three different fluids at contact angles of 30, 50 and 60° showed that at 30° and 50° fluid passes the obstacle and at 60° remains pinned at the obstacle. Finally, certain grooves on the channel walls are used to increase fluid's velocity. Results showed that the grooves increase fluid velocity by 15%.


The paper provides systemic analysis of the past and current financial sector, credit, and other related policies in Ethiopia based on a critical examination of the provisions of the numerous proclamations, regulations, and directives governing economic activates in the country, the incentives / dis-incentive elements contained in them, and their consequences. It also gives an assessment of developments in the financial sector following the reforms, as well as the depth & structure of the financial sector. A severe from of financial repression which, unlike many, unlike many other financially repressed economies where secession was generally Hugh taxes, stamp duties and an un-conducive legal framework, mainly took the form of outright prohibition and was driven by ideology, existed during the derg regime. Financial institutions were effectively reduced in to mere instruments for channeling private sector access to credit together with the stringent absolute limit on single borrower loans served as effective instruments in suppressing the private sector. A marked increase in the magnitude of loan able funds of the banking system, mainly due to a switch out of non-earning existing assets, and a fundamental shift in the flow of credit towards the private sector occurred during the post-derg period. Entry in to the financial sector has been slow but steady. However, concentration in terms of ownership, asset portfolio, as well as institutional, sectoral and geographic distribution of intermediation services, remains too high. Besides, some regulatory issues of critical significance remain yet to be addressed.


Understanding strong ground motions in the near-fault areas is important for seismic risk assessment in densely populated areas. In the past, lack of information on strong ground motion for large and moderate earthquakes led to the use of mainly far field large and moderate earthquake records in equations for calculation of the strong ground motion parameters. In this article, we collected and generated a seismic catalogue with a data set of corrected and processed 217 triaxial near source strong ground motion and accelerometric data recorded from 1976 to 2018 obtained from 30 shallow crustal earthquakes with a focal depth below 30 km from different regions including 24 in Iran, 5 in California and one in Italy (because of the lack of Iranian near-field accelerograms) in different stations. These data were recorded (129 Iranian records, 88 from California and Italy) with a source-to-site distance less than 80 km and earthquakes between Mw = 5 and 7.5. Receiver function method was used for site classification for these records. The percentage of processed data in this study was 18%, 43%, 33% and 6% for the different site classes of 1, 2, 3, and 4. In the final catalog, records in which their PGA≥ 100 cm /s2, were reported. This near source ground motion database also contains information about ground motion, source parameters and is fundamental for dynamic research in earthquake engineering for the estimation of strong ground motion parameters (PGA, PGV, PGD and frequency content of response spectra) of moderate-to-large earthquakes.


Mainstream discussion about transitional justice swings between the International Criminal Court (ICC), hybrid and national criminal justice responses. Fieldwork in former Yugoslavia (as part of the Peacebuilding Compared Project) inform integration of a three-level transitional justice response, which minimizes criminal justice intervention for lower-level actors and maximizes impact at the top. A bottom level is a restorative justice response that has the task of addressing the greatest number of individual offenders (mainly foot soldiers and low-ranking military officials) and their victims. Instead of court trials, the primary transitional justice mechanism would be a reparation and reconciliation commission, established and supported by a specialized international unit designed for that purpose (International Reparation and Reconciliation Support Unit - IRRSU). The IRRSU would be affiliated with the United Nations and it would move from one post-conflict region to another to provide support where it is needed. Yet the Commission itself would be locally based and composed of local members. Its primary task is reconciling communities and providing reparations to victims, but the hope is that the positive impact of restorative justice would cascade beyond that. Restorative justice would aim to stop denial policies at their root, provide immediate reparations to victims and move quickly to help collect the evidence about individual crimes when there is a need to move up the criminal enforcement pyramid. The bottom-level national response would boost the efficiency of a mid-level internationalized response. Mid-level response would be composed of an international transitional justice unit (ITJU) integrated into national criminal justice administration. The ITJU, also established by the UN or in cooperation with major regional organizations, would move from one post-conflict region to another. It would include international staff (judges, prosecutors, police, military and other peacebuilding professionals). The ITJU would work with national judiciaries and police to indict and arrest middle-ranking officials and those who failed to cooperate at the bottom level. Uncooperative low level defendants would be given a second chance to cooperate in a plea-bargaining process. Finally, the top response would process the high-ranking officials who are most responsible for mass atrocities (including heads of state, defense ministers and generals). These individuals would be tried at the ICC because post-conflict national criminal justice administrations, even where there is strong international support, typically struggle in such cases to deliver fair trials that provide adequate satisfaction to victims.


The need to deal with conflicting system requirements has become increasingly important over the past several years. Often, these requirements are elastic in that they can be satisfied to a degree. The overall goal of this research is to develop a formal framework that facilitates the identification and the tradeoff analysis of conflicting requirements by explicitly capturing their elasticity. Based on a fuzzy set theoretic foundation for representing imprecise requirements, we describe a systematic approach for analyzing the tradeoffs between conflicting requirements using the techniques in decision science. The systematic tradeoff analyses are used for three important tasks in the requirement engineering process: (1) for validating the structure used in aggregating prioritized requirements, (2) for identifying the structures and the parameters of the underlying representation of imprecise requirements and (3) for assessing the priorities of conflicting requirements. We illustrate these techniques using the requirements of a conference room scheduling system.


The structure of ecto-5'-nucleotidase from bull seminal plasma, containing a glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol anchor, was studied using mass spectrometry. MALDI-MS analysis of intact protein indicated a mass of 65 568.2 Da for the monomeric form, and it also showed a heterogeneous population of glycoforms with the glycosidic moiety accounting for approximately 6000 Da. MALDI-MS analysis showed that Asn53, Asn311, Asn333 and Asn403 were four sites of N-glycosylation. GC-MS analysis provided information on the glycosidic structures linked to the four asparagines. Asn53, Asn311 and Asn333 were linked to high-mannose saccharide chains, whereas the glycan chains linked to Asn403 contained a heterogeneous mixture of oligosaccharides, the high-mannose type structure being the most abundant and hybrid or complex type glycans being minor components. By combining enzymatic and/or chemical hydrolysis with GC-MS analysis, detailed characterization of the glycosyl-phpsphatidylinositol anchor was obtained. MALDI spectral analysis indicated that the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol core contained EtN(P)Man3GlcNH2-myo-inositol(P)-glycerol, principally modified by stearoyl and palmitoyl residues or by stearoyl and myristoyl residues to a minor extent. Moreover, 1-palmitoylglycerol and 1-stearoylglycerol outweighed 2-palmitoylglycerol and 2-stearoylglycerol. The combination of chemical and enzymatic digestions of the protein with the mass spectral analysis yielded a complete pattern of S-S bridges. The protein does not contain free thiols and its eight cysteines are linked by intramolecular disulfide bonds, the pairs being: Cys51-Cys57, Cys353-Cys358, Cys365-Cys387 and Cys476-Cys479. This work resolves details of the structure of ecto-5'-nucleotidase, with particular regard to the localization and composition of the glycidic moiety, number and localization of the disulfide bridges and characterization of the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol anchor.


This work reported the development of the high throughput protein separation process with molecularly assembled silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles as a function of amino group numbers such as mono-, di-, and tri-aminofunctionality, in which the range of silica coating thicknesses were optimized to be interacted with protein. The protein separation efficiency was demonstrated as a function of each aminofunctional group and the particle sizes of the silica coated magnetic nanoparticles. The particles were prepared by the chemical precipitation of Fe2+ and Fe3+ salts with a molar ratio of 1:2 under basic solution. The silica coated magnetic nanoparticles were directly produced by the sol-gel reaction of a tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) precursor, in which the coating layer serves as a biocompatible and versatile group for further biomolecular functionalization. To effectively capture the proteins, silica coated magnetic nanoparticles need to be functionalized reproducibly on the silica surface, and three kinds of amino functional groups were adapted as a function of number of amine using the mono-, di-, and tri-aminopropylalkoxysilanes.


The article actualises the issues of information security in the conditions of transformations of the media space in the regions of Russia (on the example of the Republic of Crimea). Attention is focused on the preferences of young people regarding the sources of obtaining and usage the information received. The main contours of preferences in the choice of information source are determined. The specificity of the choice of information sources typical for young people in the Republic of Crimea is shown. In addition to the Internet, an important source of information for regional youth is direct social contacts and personal communication. In the list of Internet sources, social network information resources have an advantage. It is proved that the information preferences of young people and older generations do not always coincide. For this purpose, the results of sociological studies conducted in 2018-2020 in the Republic of Crimea (before and during the coronavirus pandemic) are presented. Studies have shown that it is distance learning and self-isolation that are factors undermining the existing system of social relations, social subordination and social control. Particular attention is paid to the study of the manifestation of youth interest in information sources of extremist content. The gender and age structure of those interested in Internet sources of extremist content has been revealed. Despite the fact that the identified "risk groups" are relatively small, they significantly increase the likelihood of participating in various kinds of informal organisations, including those of a radical nature. The problem is exacerbated by the secrecy and vagueness of the existence of such groups that function in the information space as flexible and combinatorial social formations capable of rapid structural change and renewal. As the results of the research showed, the tendency of young people to "leave" into the virtual space was intensified by the factor of social isolation and the introduction of forms of distance learning, that contributed to the erosion of strong social ties and their replacement with weak ones (in accordance with the terminology of network analysis theory). It is shown that the state and society in the interests of ensuring internal stability and security, should, undoubtedly, must seriously take into account the processes of transformation of the media space, where a significant proportion of the activity of today's youth is transferred.


To achieve dependable, usable, and well-engineered interactive devices in healthcare requires applied Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research and awareness of HCI issues throughout the lifecycle, from design through to procurement, training and use. This paper shows that some healthcare devices fall far short, and thus identifies a gap in applied HCI. We use a basic, interactive hospital bed as a case study, arguably so routine and simple enough that there should have been very few problems. However, the bed's interactive control panel design violates standard HCI principles. It is also badly programmed by the manufacturer. Evidently, something has gone wrong, somewhere from design to procurement, and we argue most of the problems would have been managed or avoided by conventional HCI processes. Driven by the case study, this paper explores the problems and makes recommendations. There are many similarly poorly designed medical devices. Manufacturers and healthcare purchasing groups should adhere to HCI processes and guidelines, as well as those provided by regulatory agencies for the design, regulation, and procurement of devices, products, or systems that contribute to patient safety. The challenge is to make HCI knowledge and priorities available to and effective in this important domain in any places that can make a difference. Eye-tracking, awareness tools, machine learning, coordination, expertise


Abstract In a tiny village in south-west Scotland, a model factory was established during World War I, not just to produce munitions 'for the duration', but with the expressed intention of continuing as 'a fine university for women engineers'. In an attempt to keep the enterprise going after the War, the factory was converted to the manufacture of motor cars. The Galloway – 'a car made by ladies for others of their sex' – was the result. This article considers the factory as a focal point for a network of material conditions and discursive claims within which the women of the Galloway Engineering Company sought to shape new technologies in their own terms, and so establish a permanent place for themselves in that masculine world.


This longitudinal study examined the predictive impact of depression and school experience (school performance, teacher's support, peer's affiliation and involvement in the classroom) on dropping out of school. The sample consisted of 537 students (277 boys and 260 girls) with an average age of 13.0 years. The results confirm that depression during high school distinguish dropouts from persevering students. Furthermore, our results showed the protective effect of school performance within depressed adolescents. Our findings suggest the importance of dropout prevention among depressed students. Keywords: depression, school dropout, adolescent, school performance


Biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) is being promoted to tackle vitamin A deficiency, a serious public health problem affecting children and pregnant/lactating women in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the study was to quantify and understand the factors influencing carotenoid losses in dried OFSP. Losses were determined in chips after drying and storage. A preliminary study demonstrated that carotenoid levels were not significantly different following either solar or sun drying. Carotenoid loss after drying was generally correlated with high initial moisture content and high carotenoid content in fresh sweetpotato roots. Losses of pro-vitamin A were less than 35% in all cases. Flour made from OFSP could therefore be a significant source of provitamin A. In contrast, storage of chips at room temperature in Uganda and Mozambique for four months resulted in high losses of pro-vitamin A (ca. 70-80% loss from the initial dried product). Low-cost pre-treatments, such as blanching, antioxidants and salting, did not reduce carotenoid losses during storage. Enzymatic catabolism of b-carotene in dried OFSP was considered unlikely because of low peroxidase activities at low water activities and the loss of peroxidase activity during storage. To understand further the factors causing the losses, dried sweet potato chips were stored under controlled conditions of temperature (10; 20; 30; or 40oC), water activity (0.13; 0.30; 0.51; 0.76) or oxygen (0 [under nitrogen]; 2.5; 10 or 21% [air]). Oxygen was the main cause of degradation followed by temperature. An Arrhenius kinetic model was used to show that carotenoid breakdown followed first order kinetics with an activation energy of 68.3kJ.mol-1 that was in accordance with the literature. Experimental observations fitted well with data predicted by the kinetic model. The formation of the volatile compounds,b-ionone; 5,6-epoxy-b-ionone; dihydroactinidiolide; b-cyclocitral that were clearly related to the degradation of b-carotene, helped further understand breakdown patterns of b-carotene.


Leaf chemistry traits are some of the key factors influencing tobacco quality, which can be significantly reduced by lower chemical components in cured leaf. To improve tobacco quality through breeding, genetic diversity analysis, population structure analysis, and genome-wide association studies were performed in a panel of 347 tobacco germplasms and the markers associated with five leaf chemistry traits, including total sugar (TS), reducing sugar (RS), total nitrogen (TN), nicotine (NIC), and total potassium (TP) contents were identified. Four groups were classified at a genetic distance of 0.316 by genetic diversity analysis based on coefficient parameter NEI72 using a program NTSYS-pc2.10e, whereas four well-differentiated subpopulations were postulated in the 347 tobacco accessions. A total of 47 target trait-associated SNPs was detected in at least three environments as well as the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) across all environments, among which two, two, four, six, and one highly suggestive associated SNPs were repeatedly detected in all environments and BLUPs for TS, RS, TN, NIC, and TP, respectively. On the basis of the phenotypic effects of the alleles corresponding to suggestive associated SNPs, five tobacco accessions harboring favorable alleles with elite phenotypic performance in leaf chemistry traits were identified. The results could facilitate quality tobacco breeding for higher leaf chemistry trait contents through molecular marker-assisted approaches.


A methodology for specifying ensemble-based background error covariances within the recursivefilter (RF) formalism of the NCEP Grid-point Statistical Interpolation (GSI) is proposed and tested using a low-resolution version of the North-American Regional Data Assimilation System. Perturbation fields from six-hour forecasts from the 80-member NCEP Global Ensemble Forecast System are used to represent the background errors. The RF-generated covariances are found to agree fairly well with the exact covariances computed directly from the ensemble perturbation fields in the vicinity of the selected test points. In addition, they are necessarily free of the spurious correlations at long ranges that characterize the covariance-matrix of the low-dimension space of the sample ensemble perturbations. The anisotropies are found to be rather weak when the 80-member ensemble is used without any further treatment to prescribe the local aspect tensor required by the recursive filter. However, a remarkable enhancement of the anisotropy is obtained when the ensemble size is artificially increased through a special type of local averaging. Results from a case study reveal an improvement of the 500 hPa geopotential height skill scores when the convariances with enhanced anisotropy are applied.


The titanium implant surface plays a crucial role for implant incorporation into bone. A new strategy to improve im- plant integration in a bone is to develop surface nanocoatings with plant-derived polysaccharides able to increase adhe- sion of bone cells to the implant surface. The aim of the present study was to physically characterize and compare poly- styrene and titanium surfaces nanocoated with different Rhamnogalacturonan-Is (RG-I) and to visualize RG-I nano- coatings. RG-Is from potato and apple were coated on aminated surfaces of polystyrene, titianium discs and titanium implants. To characterize, compare and visualize the surface nanocoatings measurements of contact angle measure- ments and surface roughness with atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal microscopy was performed. We found that, both unmodified and enzymatic modified RG-Is influenced surface wettability, without any major effect on surface roughness (Sa, Sdr). Furthermore, we demonstrated that it is possible to visualize the pectin RG-Is molecules and even the nanocoatings on titanium surfaces, which have not been presented before. The compari- son between polystyrene and titanium surface showed that the used material affected the physical properties of non-coated and coated surfaces. RG-Is should be considered as a candidate for new materials as organic nanocoatings for biomaterials in order to improve bone healing.


Recent studies have established that, in addition to the well-known kicked-Harper model (KHM), an on-resonance double-kicked rotor (ORDKR) model also has Hofstadter's butterfly Floquet spectrum, with strong resemblance to the standard Hofstadter spectrum that is a paradigm in studies of the integer quantum Hall effect. Earlier it was shown that the quasienergy spectra of these two dynamical models (i) can exactly overlap with each other if an effective Planck constant takes irrational multiples of 2π and (ii) will be different if the same parameter takes rational multiples of 2π. This work makes detailed comparisons between these two models, with an effective Planck constant given by 2πM/N, where M and N are coprime and odd integers. It is found that the ORDKR spectrum (with two periodic kicking sequences having the same kick strength) has one flat band and N-1 nonflat bands with the largest bandwidth decaying in a power law as ~K(N+2), where K is a kick strength parameter. The existence of a flat band is strictly proven and the power-law scaling, numerically checked for a number of cases, is also analytically proven for a three-band case. By contrast, the KHM does not have any flat band and its bandwidths scale linearly with K. This is shown to result in dramatic differences in dynamical behavior, such as transient (but extremely long) dynamical localization in ORDKR, which is absent in the KHM. Finally, we show that despite these differences, there exist simple extensions of the KHM and ORDKR model (upon introducing an additional periodic phase parameter) such that the resulting extended KHM and ORDKR model are actually topologically equivalent, i.e., they yield exactly the same Floquet-band Chern numbers and display topological phase transitions at the same kick strengths. A theoretical derivation of this topological equivalence is provided. These results are also of interest to our current understanding of quantum-classical correspondence considering that the KHM and ORDKR model have exactly the same classical limit after a simple canonical transformation.


The ecosystem across the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is threatened by deforestation. However, there is very little attention being given to government efforts for afforestation and rehabilitation plan. The most significant barriers to addressing this problem are technique limitations, availability of information, and lack of a stepwise forest management plan. This study identifies spatially suitable tree species, and establishes a stepwise restoration plan to support decision making for restoring degraded forest in the DPRK throughout a suitable restoration map. First off, target species were chosen from reference data, and spatial distribution maps for each tree species were prepared based on social needs as well as natural conditions in the DPRK. The suitable restoration map was calculated by two priorities in a weighting method; suitable priority, and distributional clustering level. Finally, the 23 afforestation species were selected for the suitable restoration map, including 11 coniferous and 12 deciduous tree species. We introduced a stepwise afforestation/restoration plan of degraded forest in the DPRK; general (long-term), detailed (medium-term), implementation (short-term) plans. Maps with different spatial resolutions were prepared for each of the plans. A restoration map with 12.5 km spatial resolution can be used for the general plan at the national level, and maps with 5 km and 1 km spatial resolutions can be used for detailed plan at the local level and implementation plan at the site level, respectively.


The processes involved in teaching in higher education, as with schools, have on occasion become simplified to a dichotomy of being either 'transmission' or 'discovery' led. Such characterisations of teaching fail to engage with the context driven complexities of teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment. This opinion piece reflects upon the complexities involved and how they might be characterised and explained without reducing teaching and allied processes to simplistic frameworks. I argue that we need to develop holistic, process-led models of teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment, and associated systems for module and programme development and execution, a combined set of processes and principles that I refer to here as holiploigy.


The low beam light optical configuration of high brightness LED headlamp is designed in this paper. When we design low beam light, three same optical units are overlapped to achieve sufficient luminous flux. LED optical source is arranged and packaged into a LED by using multi-chip in linear array. Each unit uses multi-ellipsoid reflector to converge light issued by multi-chip high-power LED light source, which covers partial light to form by light-dark blocking some of the light baffle to form an cut-line, the light is converged through optical lens to obtain the light-type that low beam light requires. The application of ASAP software implements the simulation, and the test results show that this design meets the national standard of low beam light.


SUMMARY A 62 year old man with no relevant previous history presented with a nephrotic syndrome. Renal biopsy showed a membranous glomerulopathy and coincident investigation showed high serum titres of rheumatoid factors. It was not until some months later that he developed articular and extra-articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis.


series of chapters arranged in a logical pattern. A discussion on the general physical and biological properties of ionizing radiations is followed by accounts of different forms of irradiation, including interesting information on nuclear radiations, of the methods of their measurement, and of the problems concerned in protection against them. These are followed by -detailed accounts of effects of irradiation on the ocular tissues in health and disease; of particular interest is the section on tumours which occupies -the greater part of the second volume. There is -also a discussion of the uses of radioisotopes, and a presentation of various experimental observations. An extensive bibliography accompanies each chapter, so that these volumes represent works of -reference, but in addition they represent a wealth of personal experience.


The emergence of social conventions in multi-agent systems has been analyzed mainly by considering a group of homogeneous autonomous agents that can reach a global agreement using locally available information. We use novel viewpoint to consider that the process through which agents coordinate their behaviors to reduce conflict is also the process agents use to evaluate trust relations with their neighbors during local interactions. In this paper, we propose using the belief update rule called Instances of Satisfying and Dissatisfying (ISD) to study the evolution of agents' beliefs during local interactions. We also define an action selection rule called "highest cumulative belief" (HCB) to coordinate their behavior to reduce conflicts among agents in MAS (multi-agent systems). We find that the HCB can cause a group of agents to achieve the emergence of social conventions. Furthermore, we discover that if a group of agents can achieve the emergence of social conventions through ISD and HCB rules in an artificial social system, after a number of iterations this group of agents can enter the harmony state wherein each agent fully believes its neighbors.


The 2D Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) problem aims at finding collision-free paths for a number of agents, from a set of start locations to a set of goal positions in a known 2D environment. MAPF has been studied in theoretical computer science, robotics, and artificial intelligence over several decades, due to its importance for robot navigation. It is currently experiencing significant scientific progress due to its relevance in automated warehousing (such as those operated by Amazon) and in other contemporary application areas. In this paper, we demonstrate that some recently developed MAPF algorithms apply more broadly than currently believed in the MAPF research community. In particular, we describe the 3D Pipe Routing (PR) problem, which aims at placing collision-free pipes from given start locations to given goal locations in a known 3D environment. The MAPF and PR problems are similar: a solution to a MAPF instance is a set of blocked cells in x-y-t space, while a solution to the corresponding PR instance is a set of blocked cells in x-y-z space. We show how to use this similarity to apply several recently developed MAPF algorithms to the PR problem, and discuss their performance on real-world PR instances. This opens up a new direction of industrial relevance for the MAPF research community.


Nowadays, demand for products which beyond the overall nutritional value have a feature that protects the consumer health, have increased. Several studies have proved that fruit juices can become a suitable carrier or medium for probiotic organisms. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate the possibility of the probiotication of sour cherry juice (SCJ) by fermentation with probiotic starter culture. During the fermentation 9 Lactobacillus strains were used and Újfehértói fürtös sour cherry species as raw material. To reach the recommended probiotic cell count we investigated the pH adjustment, supplementation of nutrients, the effect of dilution, and strain adaptation to SCJ. In our study the properties of the strains – such as reproduction and metabolism – and its effect on the raw material were investigated. A significant difference was observed between the number of viable cells of certain Lactobacillus strains, that is important in point of view of the development of probiotic-containing products. Furthermore, the lactic acid fermented SCJ can enhance the polyphenol content and antioxidant activity to promote the health of consumers.


TiC particle dispersed FeAl intermetallic alloys have been combustion synthesized from mixtures of titanium, carbon, aluminum and iron powders. When the powder mixture was heated in an argon atmosphere to approximately 900 K, an abrupt increase in temperature was observed, which indicates that the combustion synthesis reaction occurred in the powder mixture. The combustion-synthesized alloys consisted of an FeAl matrix phase with homogeneously dispersed fine TiC particles. As the concentrations of titanium and carbon of the powder mixture increased, the volume fraction and average diameter of the TiC particles increased, and Vickers hardness of the sample also increased.


Abstract In turkey hens, the egg production rate is relatively high early during a reproductive period, but declines as the period progresses. Among lines with different egg production potential, the interval between preovulatory surges of LH is the primary determinant of the egg production rate. The main objective of this study was to determine whether the decline in egg production rate late during an egg production period is also associated with a difference in the interval between LH preovulatory surges. A group of photosensitive turkey hens (Early) were photostimulated with continuous light (24L:0D) at 40 wk of age to induce egg laying, and serial blood samples were collected after about 3 wk of egg production. A second group of hens (Late) were housed in floor pens and photostimulated with 14L:10D at 40 wk of age for a normal 36-wk reproduction period and were then switched to 24L:0D lighting for 2 wk before collection of serial blood samples. Continuous light photostimulation was used for at least 2 wk before and during serial blood sampling to avoid potential masking effects of diurnal lighting on the interval between LH surges. The Early (n = 12) and Late (n = 16) hens were cannulated 3 days before being serially bled hourly for 10 days. The mean interval between preovulatory surges of LH was shorter in the Early hens than in the Late hens (26.1 ± 2.5 h and 34.7 ± 3.9 h, respectively). The intra-hen LH surge interval coefficient of variation was lower in the Early hens than in the Late hens (7.2% and 18.6%, respectively). The inter-hen LH surge interval coefficient of variation was similar in the Early and Late hens (9.5% and 11.2%, respectively). The incidence of blind surges of LH (those not retrospectively associated with ovipositions) was not different between Early and Late laying hens (8.4% ± 15.2% and 7.3% ± 14.6%, respectively). In conclusion, in turkey hens, longer intervals and greater intra-hen variation between LH surges were associated with a poorer rate of egg production late in the reproductive period relative to early in the reproductive period.


: Direct cortical responses (DCRs) to paired stimuli were studied in chronic experiments in dogs during elaboration of classical and instrumental defensive conditioned reflexes. The DCRs were recorded with 20 to 250 ms intervals between stimuli. Paired and single electrical stimulations of the middle suprasylvian gyrus given with a frequency of one per second were used as conditioned stimuli and were reinforced in a similar way. During electrical cutaneous stimulation of the dog's paw and to an even greater extent during isolated action of the conditioned stimulus the initial negativity of the testing DCR became shorter and the degree of its depression diminished. In the case of a following period of facilitation, its degree became greater. It was higher at a distance of 4 to 5 mm from the point of stimulation than at a distance of 2 to 3 mm. During isolated action of the conditioned stimulus, the degree of facilitation was higher than at the period of the possible action of the unconditioned stimulus. The greatest shorterning of the DCR excitability cycle was observed immediately before and during the conditioned lifting of the dog's paw. Excitability cycles of DCR, and possibly of other evoked potentials as well, are a more sensitive indicator of the function state of the cerebral cortex than responses to single stimuli. For this reason it appears promising to use them in studying conditioned reflexes.


Importance Inadequate adherence to recommendations known to reduce the risk of sudden unexpected infant death has contributed to a slowing in the decline of these deaths. Objective To assess the effectiveness of 2 interventions separately and combined to promote infant safe sleep practices compared with control interventions. Design, Setting, and Participants Four-group cluster randomized clinical trial of mothers of healthy term newborns who were recruited between March 2015 and May 2016 at 16 US hospitals with more than 100 births annually. Data collection ended in October 2016. Interventions All participants were beneficiaries of a nursing quality improvement campaign in infant safe sleep practices (intervention) or breastfeeding (control), and then received a 60-day mobile health program, in which mothers received frequent emails or text messages containing short videos with educational content about infant safe sleep practices (intervention) or breastfeeding (control) and queries about infant care practices. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was maternal self-reported adherence to 4 infant safe sleep practices of sleep position (supine), sleep location (room sharing without bed sharing), soft bedding use (none), and pacifier use (any); data were collected by maternal survey when the infant was aged 60 to 240 days. Results Of the 1600 mothers who were randomized to 1 of 4 groups (400 per group), 1263 completed the survey (78.9%). The mean (SD) maternal age was 28.1 years (5.8 years) and 32.8% of respondents were non-Hispanic white, 32.3% Hispanic, 27.2% non-Hispanic black, and 7.7% other race/ethnicity. The mean (SD) infant age was 11.2 weeks (4.4 weeks) and 51.2% were female. In the adjusted analyses, mothers receiving the safe sleep mobile health intervention had higher prevalence of placing their infants supine compared with mothers receiving the control mobile health intervention (89.1% vs 80.2%, respectively; adjusted risk difference, 8.9% [95% CI, 5.3%-11.7%]), room sharing without bed sharing (82.8% vs 70.4%; adjusted risk difference, 12.4% [95% CI, 9.3%-15.1%]), no soft bedding use (79.4% vs 67.6%; adjusted risk difference, 11.8% [95% CI, 8.1%-15.2%]), and any pacifier use (68.5% vs 59.8%; adjusted risk difference, 8.7% [95% CI, 3.9%-13.1%]). The independent effect of the nursing quality improvement intervention was not significant for all outcomes. Interactions between the 2 interventions were only significant for the supine sleep position. Conclusions and Relevance Among mothers of healthy term newborns, a mobile health intervention, but not a nursing quality improvement intervention, improved adherence to infant safe sleep practices compared with control interventions. Whether widespread implementation is feasible or if it reduces sudden and unexpected infant death rates remains to be studied. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01713868


Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma and other airway diseases. Signals from the activated TGF-beta receptor complex are transduced to the nucleus of airway cells by Smad proteins, which represent a family of transcription factors that have recently been implicated to play a major role as intracellular mediators of inflammation. The Smad family consists of the receptor-regulated Smads, a common pathway Smad, and inhibitory Smads. Receptor-regulated Smads (R-Smads) are phosphorylated by the TGF-beta type Ireceptor. They include Smad2 and Smad3, which are recognized by TGF-beta and activin receptors, and Smads 1, 5, 8, and 9, which are recognized by bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptors. Smad4 is a common pathway Smad, which is also defined as cooperating Smad (co-Smad) and is not phosphorylated by the TGF-beta type I receptor. Inhibitory Smads(anti-Smads) include Smad6 and Smad7, which down-regulate TGF-beta signaling.To date, the Smads are the only TGF-beta receptor substrates with a demonstrated ability to propagate signals and with regard to the growing number of investigations of Smad-mediated effects in the airways, Smads may prove to be an important target for future development of new therapeutic strategies for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


Frying is a very elaborate cooking procedure where the heat is distributed to the food by a medium, the oil or fat that intervenes in the process, interacting with the food itself. The interactions are depending on the quality of the oil or fat, the technology utilized and the nature of the substrate. In effect that last is a mixture of various chemical entities that behave differently toward the heat, between them and with the cooking fat. One of the most important component of the food is water and the hydration conditions are of great importance in determining the various step of the cooking operation and the type of interactions between the food itself and the oily phase. Chemical nature of the substrate is important in determining the type of secondary processes that develop during frying and in effect transformations of the lipidic medium are notably influenced. Main chemical reactions that occur during the frying process are of oxydative nature but their importance must not be overestimated and still frying conditions as well as chemical and physical nature of the food is important in determining the extent at which it occurs. Hydrolysis is another of the reactions that develop during frying. Interchange of fats occurs between the substrate and the lipidic phase, sometime bringing to healthier foods, provided a proper choice in the quality of the frying media has been done. Exchanges of many components, usually minor components occur and are of interest in the repeated frying because they have influence on the behaviour of the cooking operation. In general terms frying must be evaluated as a beneficial operation directed to enhance the nutritional value of a food, provided that the fundamental rules governing the process are observed.


Soil moisture is an important element in hydrological land-surface processes as well as land atmosphere interactions and has proven useful in numerous agronomical, climatological and meteorological studies. Since hydrological soil moisture estimates are usually point-based measurements at a specific site and time, spatial and temporal dynamics of soil moisture are difficult to capture. Soil moisture retrieval techniques in remote sensing present possibilities to overcome the abovementioned limitations by continuously providing distributed soil moisture data atdifferent scales and varying temporal resolutions. The main purpose of this study is to derive soil moisture estimates for the Stockholm region by means of two different approaches from a hydrological and a remote sensing point of view and the comparison of both methods. Soil moisture is both modelled with the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) based on digital elevation data and with the Temperature‐Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) as a representation of land surface temperature and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) ratio. Correlations of both index distributions are investigated. Possible index dependencies onvegetation cover and underlying soil types are explored. Field measurements of soil moistureare related to the derived indices. The results indicate that according to a very low Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.023, nolinear dependency between the two indices existed. Index classification in low, medium and high value categories did not result in higher correlations. Neither index distribution is found to berelated to soil types and only the TVDI correlates alongside changes in vegetation cover distribution. In situ measured values correlate better with TVDIs, although neither index is considered to give superior results in the area due to low correlation coefficients. The decision which index to apply is dependent on available data, intent of usage and scale. The TWI surface is considered to be a more suitable soil moisture representation for analyses on smaller scaleswhereas the TVDI should prove more valuable on a larger, regional scale. The lack of correlation between the indices is attributed to the fact that they differ greatly in their underlying theories. However, the synthesis of hydrologic modelling and remote sensing is a promising field of research. The establishment of combined effective models for soil moisture determination over large areas requires more extensive in situ measurements and methods to fully assess the models' capabilities, limitations and value for hydrological predictions.


We examine a bosonic two-leg ladder model subject to a magnetic flux and especially focus on a regime where the lower-energy band has two minima. By using a low-energy field theory approach, we study several issues discussed in the system: the existence of local patterns in density and current, chiral-current reversal, and the effect of a nearest-neighbor interaction along the rung direction. In our formalism, the local patterns are interpreted as a result of breaking of discrete symmetry. The chiral-current reversal occurs through a competition between a current component determined at a commensurate vortex density causing an enlargement of the unit cell and another component, which is proportional to the magnetic-field doping from the corresponding commensurate flux. The nearest-neighbor interaction along the rung direction available with the technique on a synthetic dimension is shown to favor a population-imbalance solution in an experimentally relevant regime.


The purpose of this study is to design a model of professional development program for Malaysian teachers. In particular, the implementation of this study was based on
the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) by Michael Molenda (2003) which includes three phases. The need analysis phase identifies the current needs for developing the model. The design phase develops a model of professional development program for Malaysian teachers. Finally, the evaluation phase evaluates the prototype model. To achieve the objectives of the first
phase, the questionnaire data were collected from 185 teachers of high and low performing schools. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean and standard deviation. In the design phase, the Delphi study which had reached consensuses among 18 experts in human resource management developed a model of teaching professional development programs. Members of an expert panel composed of policy makers and practitioners were interviewed. The interview data that were analyzed using thematic analysis established items agreed on by the expert panel in the second round of the Delphi study. The second round of Delphi study data were processed using Fuzzy Delphi analysis. In addition, the prototype model was evaluated using a survey study in the evaluation phase. Viewpoints of 300 teachers from 20 boarding schools in Central Zone and South Zone were used to identify the level of teaching professional development programs and the differences in implementation between the zones. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean and standard deviation, and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U and Structural Equation Modelling). The findings of the need analysis phase were to match the needs of the model when 185 teachers of high and low performing schools agreed with the design of this model when the mean score was more than 4.0. The Delphi study found that all 18 experts reached consensus on the items to be included in the model as its content. Consensus among the expert panel was established when the score of Threshold was d=≤0.2 and the percentage agreement was ≥75%. This phase found four key dimensions as follows and 310 items that made up the strategies of teaching professional development program: program objectives, program content, program delivery strategy and program evaluation method. The evaluation phase found that the teaching professional development program of the schools was high when the mean score was more than 4.0. The study also found that there was a significant difference between the two school zones in implementing the program when p .90 and RMSEA <.08). The implication of this study implies there is a need to develop a model of professional development program for Malaysian teachers that is based on the local context because of the different needs and problems in every organisation.


This study is concerned with the behaviour of exchange rate movements focusing specifically on purchasing power parity (PPP) and the non-stationarity of real exchange rates, for a number of East Asian currencies during their recent floating periods. As one of the most important building blocks in international economies, PPP forms a core component of several models of exchange rate determination, and it is the most intensively tested hypothesis in open-economy macroeconomics. Nevertheless, in contrast to the relative abundance of research on the currencies of industrialised countries, very few studies on East Asian currencies have been carried out, leaving an important gap in the literature.

Using recent advances in time series analysis, the results reveal for the East Asian countries that there existed long-run comovement between the nominal exchange rate and domestic and foreign price levels, but that the strict PPP condition claimed by the theory did not hold. This implied that any deviation from the PPP equilibrium was permanent and that there was little tendency for the real exchange rate to be mean reverting. Further investigation suggested that the real exchange rate was cointegrated with fundamentals, with most of the variables entering the cointegration vector significantly, suggesting that the
movements of real exchange rate were driven by these factors.

Investigating the dynamic paths of the real exchange rate and the long-run relationship (cointegrating relationship) in response to exogenous shocks also revealed that the real exchange rates did not revert to their pre-shock equilibrium, but that the long-run relationship did. It took, normally three to five years, for the real exchange rate to reach and settle down to a new equilibrium and even if the effect of shocks on the long-run relationship was transitory, the speed of convergence to the equilibrium was slow. The results also showed that the effects of shocks vary from one country to another. This meant that there was no universal panacea to deal with fluctuations in real exchange rates, as they were influenced by a country's natural endowment, stage in industrialisation, as well as
monetary and exchange policies.


Neutral red 1 is a heterocyclic phenazine that, as a crystalline solid, has been observed to accelerate microbial methane generation from coal. Scale-up to an industrial process will require large quantities of neutral red crystals, hence an understanding of any polymorphic behaviour is essential for careful control of this process. A room-temperature structure of 1 (Form I) has been reported previously, and this study describes a new polymorph (Form II) crystallising from aqueous solution at 50°C, or transforming from Form I over an incubation time of one week at 70°C. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction has been used to study the molecular arrangements and intermolecular interactions in the new polymorph, and compared with those found in the room temperature form. Both polymorphs have been characterised using Raman and infrared spectroscopy, and a synthetic mixture of polymorphs successfully imaged using Raman spectroscopy. Raman imaging is proposed as a quality control method for small quantities of sample to ensure the correct polymorph is produced as a feedstock for this new methanogenesis process.


A comprehensive historic, demographic, and medical questionnaire was administered to 106 women referred to a multidisciplinary clinic for evaluation of idiopathic chronic pelvic pain and to 92 age-matched, pain-free control patients presenting for routine annual examination. Although racial distribution, mean gravidity and parity, and rates of elective abortion were similar in both groups of respondents, spontaneous abortion was reported significantly more frequently among women with pelvic pain. Patients in the study group were also more likely to be on active military duty, to have undergone previous nongynecologic surgery, and to have sought treatment for unrelated somatic complaints. Finally, although the mean ages at first intercourse were similar, women with idiopathic pelvic pain reported a higher total number of sexual partners and were significantly more likely to have experienced previous significant psychosexual trauma. These findings confirm that predisposing psychosocial variables are important in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pelvic pain and emphasize the significance of multidisciplinary evaluation and management.


We analyze theoretically an institution called a "limited-tenure concession" for its ability to induce efficient public goods contribution and common-pool resource extraction. The basic idea is that by limiting the tenure over which an agent can enjoy the public good, but offering the possibility of renewal contingent on ample private provision of that good, efficient provision may be induced. We first show in a simple repeated game setting that limited-tenure concessions can incentivize socially-efficient provision of public goods. We then analyze the ability of this instrument to incentivize the first best provision for common-pool natural resources such as fish and water, thus accounting for spatial connectivity and natural growth dynamics of the resource. The duration of tenure and the dispersal of the resource play pivotal roles in whether this limited-duration concession induces the socially optimal private provision. Finally, in a setting with costly monitoring, we discuss the features of a concession contract that ensure first-best behavior, but at least cost to the implementing agency.


The mixed lineage leukemia protein-1 (MLL1) catalyzes histone H3 lysine 4 methylation and is regulated by interaction with WDR5 (WD-repeat protein-5), RbBP5 (retinoblastoma-binding protein-5), and the Ash2L (absent, small, homeotic discs-2-like) oncoprotein. In the accompanying investigation, we describe the identification of a conserved arginine containing motif, called the "Win" or WDR5 interaction motif, that is essential for the assembly and H3K4 dimethylation activity of the MLL1 core complex. Here we present a 1.7-Å crystal structure of WDR5 bound to a peptide derived from the MLL1 Win motif. Our results show that Arg-3765 of MLL1 is bound in the same arginine binding pocket on WDR5 that was previously suggested to bind histone H3. Thermodynamic binding experiments show that the MLL1 Win peptide is preferentially recognized by WDR5. These results are consistent with a model in which WDR5 recognizes Arg-3765 of MLL1, which is essential for the assembly and enzymatic activity of the MLL1 core complex.


How do we build urban resilience through key areas of critical infrastructure such as mobile communications? Mobile digital communication networks, encompassing commercial mobile and public wi-fi platforms, are ubiquitous in Australian cities, and digital inclusion has emerged as a major theme in metropolitan-level strategic planning (McShane, Wilson & Meredyth, 2014). However, while we have seen a dramatic uptake of internet-enabled mobile devices, to date little is understood about the politics, implementation and role of mobile communications in building resilient cities. This paper builds on the seminal work of Haraway (1985), Swygendouw (1996) and Gandy (2005) to extend the cyborg city lens to the context of Australian urban resilience. Using mobile communications as an example, the paper focuses on critically exploring the implications of our reliance on complex technological networks with reference to urban Australia.


The tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the consequent "war on terrorism" have made the question of effective counterterrorism policy a growing public concern. The original essays in Combating Terrorism offer a unique overview and evaluation of the counterterrorism policies of ten countries: the United States, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, Turkey, India, and Japan. Postscripts for each of the country chapters provide post-September 11 assessments of current counterterrorism practices. Most of the contributors to this volume have served in official governmental capacities and many continue to serve as consultants to governmental policy and decision makers.All of the essays address the same set of questions to allow for cross-national comparison of strategies and an assessment of counterterrorism practices: What is the governmental and public perception of the sources of terrorism? How successful have the policies of governments been in combating both domestic and international terrorism? What factors influence a government's willingness and ability to cooperate with other countries in combating terrorism? To what degree are the terrorist realities and the concerns of governments interconnected with global terrorism? To what degree are certain countries "natural hosts" of either terrorist groups or propensities that target Western or closely allied interests? To what degree are terrorist organizations mainly concerned about winning political participation in their target countries? Which counterterrorism strategies work, and which do not? What are the lessons of past experiences for future counterterrorism responses at the national, regional, and global levels? The conclusion to the volume summarizes the lessons that may be learned from the experiences of the ten countries and discusses a list of best practices in counterterrorism.This book will be of interest to policymakers, scholars, and other individuals with professional responsibilities in the area of terrorism and security studies. Written in clear, accessible prose, this book will also appeal to the general reader who is interested in gaining insight into the array of issues facing governments that endeavor to combat terrorism, and into the possible solutions to one of the foremost threats to world peace in our time.Yonah Alexander is Professor and Director, Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies; Senior Fellow and Director, International Center for Terrorism Studies, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; and Co-Director, Inter-University Center for Legal Studies, International Law Institute.


This study offers the elastic response of the variable thickness functionally graded (FG) by single walled carbon nanotubes reinforced composite (CNTRC) moderately thick cylindrical panels under rotating and transverse mechanical loadings. It's considered that, three kinds of distributions of carbon nanotubes which are uniaxial aligned in the longitudinal direction and two functionally graded in the transverse direction of the cylindrical panels. Depending on first order shear deformation theory (FSDT), the governing equations can be derived. The partial differential equations are solved by utilizing the technique of finite element method (FEM) with a program has been built by using FORTRAN 95. The results are calculated to investigate the influence of the variable thickness, geometric parameters, rotating velocity, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) volume fraction for different boundary conditions on the non-dimensional deflection of the cylindrical panels. A comparison study has been carried out between the results of present study and that available in the open literature and found very good correspondence between the two results.


Innate immune recognition is an important early event in the host response to herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infection. Dendritic cells (DC) play an important sentinel role in this recognition. Previous studies have shown that monocyte-derived DC (MDDC) respond to HSV-1 by up-regulation of costimulatory molecules and type I IFN release, but the molecular targets on the virus recognized by the DC have not been defined. In this study we show that MDDC recognize and respond to the four essential viral glycoproteins, gB, gD, and gHgL, independent of other viral proteins or nucleic acids. DC recognition of these four glycoproteins leads to the up-regulation of CD40, CD83, CD86, and HLA-DR and to the production of IFN-α and IL-10, but not IL-12p70. Glutaraldehyde-fixation and nonfunctional gH mutants were used to show that recognition of glycoproteins does not require membrane fusion. The nature of the recognition event was probed further by transfecting glycoproteins individually or in combination, by blocking individual proteins with Abs, or by using mutant gD constructs unable to bind to their known cognate receptors. Unexpectedly, MDDC responses were found to require expression of all four glycoproteins. Furthermore, gD mutants that cannot bind nectin-1 and/or herpesvirus entry mediator can still induce DC maturation. Finally, although HSV-1 can signal via the TLR2 receptor, this receptor does not mediate recognition of glycoproteins. Thus, the complex of the four essential HSV-1 entry glycoproteins on the cell surface can provide a target for innate immune recognition of this virus.


The experimental evidence is presented for the proposed hypothesis that searching activity has a heterogeneous functional structure, which includes the motivation-power and cognitive information components. The quantitative characteristics of the first and second constituents are put forward as well as the ways of their determination in appetitive and defensive behavior. It was experimentally demonstrated that the characteristics of searching activity depended on modality and extent of motivation, repetition of searching situation, and sex.


Male inflorescences have potential to be used as explants for rapid micropropagation of Musa sp. The male flowers of four banana cultivars, namely 'Berangan', 'Rastali', 'Nangka' and 'Abu' belonging to three genome types in Musa (AAA, AAB, and ABB), were cultured onto Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium which was supplemented with 1 mg/L of TDZ, BAP, Kin, 2-ip and Zea. The number of shoots was found to significantly increase in both TDZ and BAP treatments, as compared to other cytokinins. TDZ at 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mg/L, in particular, appeared to be optimum for shoot induction in 'BeranganAAA', 'Rastali-AAB' and 'Nangka-AAB' and 'Abu-ABB', respectively. However, all the cultivars showed their highest response to regeneration at 8 mg/L of BAP. After the initiation of the explants onto the MS media for all the cultivars, the highest number of cauliflower-like bodies' (CLBs) clusters was observed at two months of culture. The number of induced 'CLBs' cluster is dependent on the size of male buds. Male inflorescences with the size of 20 mm were found to induce more 'CLBs' clusters. Meanwhile, the number of shoots produced is dependent on both the cytokinins and cultivars used.


Background RECIST1 is commonly used to characterize intermediate outcomes for clinical trials in the context of solid tumors, and it is largely based on a standardized measure of tumor size known as the sum of longest diameters (SLD). In recent years, the FDA has granted accelerated approvals for several new compounds based on improvements in RECIST-based surrogate outcomes like overall response rate and progression-free survival.2 However, there are concerns regarding the robustness of these surrogate endpoints relative to overall survival (OS),3 4 and it is not known whether their prognostic value is similar across TKI, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy regimens. Methods We have developed a Bayesian meta-analytic joint model for longitudinal SLD and OS in order to predict Phase III outcomes from early Phase II data. We validated this model in extensive simulation studies. The model utilizes a generalized Stein-Fojo equation5 to characterize SLD over time in terms of 3 parameters: f (proportion of tumor that is treatment-susceptible), ks (the decay rate among susceptible cells), and kg (the growth rate among resistant cells). Two quantities [tumor shrinkage (f * ks) and tumor regrowth ((1-f) * kg)] are then associated with survival in the context of a proportional-hazards survival model. We estimated this model using Stan6 on a dataset of >6,000 subjects in 15 randomized clinical trials in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Results Both tumor shrinkage and tumor regrowth were found to be associated with OS (HR for tumor shrinkage: median 0.51, 90% CrI 0.42 - 0.61; HR for tumor regrowth: median 1.24, 90% CrI 1.18 - 1.32). There is a stronger association between tumor shrinkage and OS among patients randomized to a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor, either as a monotherapy or in combination with a CTLA-4 inhibitor, than among patients in other trial arms (figure 1). By contrast, there were negligible differences across treatment classes in the association between tumor regrowth and OS. Conclusions Our results suggest that not all reductions in tumor size are equal. A patient with a certain degree of tumor shrinkage on the PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor will have lower mortality risk than a patient with a similar degree of shrinkage on the other regimens evaluated. More research is needed to determine whether the result is unique to this particular PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor, to determine what mechanisms of action mediate these treatment-specific effects, and to develop improved surrogate measures of treatment efficacy. References Eisenhauer EA, Therasse P, Bogaerts J, et al: New response evaluation criteria in solid tumours: revised RECIST guideline (version 1.1). Eur J Cancer 2009;45:228–247. Of Health USD, Services H, Others: Clinical trial endpoints for the approval of non-small cell lung cancer drugs and biologics: guidance for Industry, 2015 Mandrekar SJ, An M-W, Meyers J, et al: Evaluation of Alternate Categorical Tumor Metrics and Cut Points for Response Categorization Using the RECIST 1.1 Data Warehouse. J Clin Orthod32:841–850, 2014 Blumenthal GM, Karuri SW, Zhang H, et al: Overall response rate, progression-free survival, and overall survival with targeted and standard therapies in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: US Food and Drug Administration trial-level and patient-level analyses. J Clin Oncol33:1008–1014, 2015 Stein WD, Figg WD, Dahut W, et al: Tumor growth rates derived from data for patients in a clinical trial correlate strongly with patient survival: a novel strategy for evaluation of clinical trial data. Oncologist13:1046–1054, 2008 Carpenter B, Gelman A, Hoffman MD, et al: Stan: A probabilistic programming language [Internet]. jitc-2020-SITC2020.0277.pdf


Abstract. Discrete global grid system is a new data model which supports the fusion processing of multi-source geospatial data. In discrete global grid systems, all cell operations can be completed by codes theoretically, but most of current spatial data are in the forms of geographic coordinates and projected coordinates. It is necessary to study the transform between geographic coordinates and grid codes, which will support data entering and getting out of the systems. This paper chooses the icosahedral hexagonal discrete global system as a base, and builds the mapping relationships between the sphere and the icosahedron. Then an encoding scheme of planar aperture 4 hexagonal grid system is designed and applied to the icosahedron. Basing on this, a new algorithm of transforms between geographic coordinates and grid codes is designed. Finally, experiments test the accuracy and efficiency of this algorithm. The efficiency of code addition of HLQT is about 5 times the efficiency of code addition of HQBS.


Streptococcus spp. are gram-positive bacteria and common human pathogens and commensals, causing diseases of various organs in children and adults. They are etiological factors of scarlet fever, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, pneumonia, endocarditis, erysipelas, impetigo, meningitis, necrotising fasciitis, and sepsis, among others. The post-streptococcal syndrome is a presumed autoimmune condition that has been associated with rheumatism, reactive arthritis, glomerulonephritis, and erythema nodosum. This literature review aimed to describe post-streptococcal uveitis in clinical practice. The onset of the immune-mediated complications has varied from 7 to 35 days post-infection. The ocular complications present mainly in the form of blepharoconjunctivitis. There are anecdotal case reports of episcleritis. Keratitis is another possible complication. Preseptal or orbital cellulitis has also been described. Uveitis has been a much rarer finding, and it is hypothesized that the pathogenesis is immune-mediated rather than due to intraocular bacterial infection. Post-streptococcal uveitis has been described in cases of both group A and group B infections. The onset of uveitis has been from 1 week to 36 months after the infection. Post-streptococcal presents mostly as nongranulomatous, bilateral anterior uveitis with a good prognosis and affects mostly young people. Nevertheless, all anatomic types of intraocular inflammation have been observed. The common denominators between the varying clinical pictures appear to be the history of streptococcal infection, most frequently pharyngitis, an elevated anti-streptolysin O titer, and in the more recent studies-the raised anti-deoxyribonuclease antibodies. Furthermore, there has been a generally good therapeutic response to corticosteroids. Few cases have required immunomodulation with methotrexate, mycophenolate, and adalimumab.


In this paper the capacity of the forward link in multiservice DS-CDMA systems is analyzed. Capacity constraints are derived with respect to the number of users in each service class. Shadowing, hard/soft handoffs, and data rate variations are considered in the analysis. Solutions of the capacity constraints are used to compare the forward link capacity with hard and soft handoffs. The accuracy of the solutions is verified by simulations.


Photograph of members of the Comanche Indian tribe at the centennial celebration on May 8, 1946. There are eighteen men, women, and children in the photograph. Most are wearing traditional or ceremonial dress, and there is a teepee behind them to the left. The following names and information are written on the back: "Chief Baldwin Parker, Liberal Kansas, Norma Jean Parker with Little Harold Lee Parker, Peggy Jean Parker - Rt. 1, Cynthia Ann Parker - Cache, Okla., Pat Pohrog - Cache, Okla., Roy Wockmetooah - Box 170." The MacDonald Studio's stamp is also on the back.


This article suggests a sophistical autonomous practice in response to Platonian Aristotelian philosophy's domination over education. It shows the dangers of empty education in which education is reduced to schooling the perfect citizen in the image of a perfect state. An example is given in which schooling in empty education is reduced to a tool for authoritarian capitalism inscribed in the formation of the State to increase profit while undermining a democratic society. Instead, this article claims that education was introduced by the Sophists as verification of equality and will show how education works counter to anti-educational and anti-democratic tendencies of Platonian/Aristotelian discourses on education and schooling. The article identifies and develops a practice of ignorance of inequality as such inequality is inscribed in machine schooling and offers a sophistical practice instead. The article concludes by highlighting an autonomous tradition of educational practice making practice, as evident once Platonian and Aristotelian philosophy is refuted as saying anything meaningful about education.


The proximity printing industry is in real need of high resolution results and it can be done using Phase Shift Mask (PSM) or by applying Optical Proximity Correction (OPC). In our research we are trying to find out details of how light fields behind the structures of photo masks develop in order to determine the best conditions and designs for proximity printing. We focus here on parameters that are used in real situation with gaps up to 50 μm and structure sizes down to 2 μm. The light field evolution behind the structures is studied and delivers insight in to precisions and tolerances that need to be respected. It is the first time that an experimental analysis of light propagation through mask is presented in detail, which includes information on intensity and phase. The instrument we use is known as High Resolution Interference Microscopy (HRIM). HRIM is a Mach-Zehnder interferometer which is capable of recording three dimensional distributions of intensity and phase with diffraction limited resolution. Our characterization technique allows plotting the evolution of the desired light field and therefore printable structure till the desired proximity gap. In this paper we discuss in detail the evolution of intensity and phase fields of elbow or corner structure at different position behind a phase mask and interpret the main parameters. Of particular interest are tolerances against proximity gap variation and the resolution in printed structures.


: Using a radioimmunoassay directed toward the COOH-terminal, biologically active region of mammalian neurotensin (NT), the rapid (within seconds) generation of immunoreactive NT (iNT) during acid extraction of mammalian and avian gastric tissues has been demonstrated. Levels of iNT were shown to increase 25-200-fold in time. The reaction occurred in 0.1 N HCl and 2 N acetic acid and was prevented by raising the pH above 5 or by adding acetone. The temperature and pH dependence and the ability of pepstatin A to inhibit the reaction suggested the involvement of a pepsin-related acid protease. Furthermore, the reaction could be mimicked by incubating a stabilized gastric extract with hog pepsin at pH 2. Size exclusion chromatography demonstrated the presence of a precursor-like substance with an apparent Mr of 60,000. Although iNT generated in avian and mammalian gastric extracts could be distinguished chromatographically from NT in that species, the partially purified gastric iNT was active in a bioassay for NT which quantitates changes in vascular permeability after intradermal injection into rats. One might suggest that iNT serves as a signal within the gastric lumen, being generated at low pH by secreted pepsin. It is also possible that iNT could be formed within blood or gastric interstitial fluid by the action of pepsin-related (cathepsin or renin-like) enzymes at normal physiologic pH.


Domestic production of culinary herbs continues to increase in the United States. Culinary herbs are primarily propagated by seed; however, some herbs have poor germination rates and slow growth. Thus, there are advantages of propagating herbs by vegetative stem-tip cuttings as they lead to true-to-type plants and a shortened production time. Previous research of ornamental young plants and finished culinary herbs have shown a reduction in rooting time and increases in plant quality with increases in the photosynthetic daily light integral (DLI). To our knowledge, little to no research has addressed how the DLI influences culinary herb liner quality. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to quantify morphological traits of five economically important culinary herbs when grown under DLIs ranging from 2.8 to 16.4 mol·m−2·d−1. Stem-tip cuttings of Greek oregano (Origanum vulgare var. hirtum), rosemary 'Arp' (Rosmarinus officinalis), sage 'Extrakta' (Salvia officinalis), spearmint 'Spanish' (Mentha spicata), and thyme 'German Winter' (Thymus vulgaris) were excised from stock plants and rooted under no shade or aluminum shading of 36%, 56%, or 76% to create a range of DLI treatments. After 9 days (spearmint) or 16 days (all other genera) of DLI treatments, the root, shoot, and total dry mass of all culinary herb liners generally increased by 105% to 449%, 52% to 142%, and 82% to 170%, respectively, as the DLI increased from 2.8 to 16.4 mol·m−2·d−1 or genus-specific DLI optimums. Stem length of oregano, spearmint, and thyme decreased by 37%, 28%, and 27%, respectively, as the DLI increased from 2.8 to 16.4 mol·m−2·d−1. However, stem length of rosemary and sage were unaffected by the DLI. The quality index of all genera was greatest at DLIs from 10.4 to 16.4 mol·m−2·d−1. Furthermore, all culinary herbs grown under a DLI of ≤6 mol·m−2·d−1 had low root and shoot dry mass accumulation; and oregano, spearmint, and thyme were generally taller. Therefore, DLIs between 10 to 12 mol·m−2·d−1 should be maintained during culinary herb propagation, because a DLI ≥16 mol·m−2·d−1 may be deleterious and energy inefficient if supplemental lighting use is increased.


Community-based aquaculture of the sea cucumber Holothuria scabra offers a potentially profitable and ecologically sustainable complementary livelihood activity for coastal communities in the tropical Indo-Pacific region where the species is widespread. However, H. scabra aquaculture remains a relatively novel practice. Early efforts to farm the species as an alternative to fishing in coastal communities have commonly faced several practical challenges that have so far prevented the commercial success of the enterprise, such as unacceptably high levels of juvenile mortality during – and even more after – the transfer of juveniles from hatchery to sea pens. This study assesses the impact on survivorship of hatchery-reared juvenile H. scabra of a series of technical improvements to community-managed sea cucumber farming practices in southern Madagascar. The improvements included structural modifications to farming pens, better maintenance of the pens and active management regimes that included intensive culling of predatory crabs. The impacts of these improvements on the survival of H. scabra juveniles are analysed over three periods spanning pre- and post-implementation phases of these strategies. Results show that, prior to improvement, average juvenile survivorship three months after transfer from hatchery to sea pens was only 40.2%; a level too low to enable the farming system to cover its costs or reach profitability. The technical improvements and active management strategies introduced increased survivorship to 76.6%, a significant jump in productivity that is expected to have significant positive economic implications for the profitability of the enterprise in coastal communities. Our findings indicate that, within community-based farming settings, technical solutions must be coupled with active management to maximise the survivorship of juveniles in the first months of the farming cycle following transfer from the hatchery.


Early pioneer families of the New Zealand wine industry set the stage for cooperation between firms, and their collegiality created what is now the overseer of the industry namely the New Zealand Winegrowers. Given this predisposition toward working together, this article explores how medium-sized family wine businesses can cooperate at the firm level, in particular through the marketing function. A total of 114 questionnaires were distributed to category One and Two wineries. The results are based on 34 completed questionnaire responses as well as 27 interviews. The main recommendations were: Firstly, that more cooperation between wineries with similar wine varieties from Categories One and Two could be pursued more vigorously; Secondly, there should be more cooperation between similar sized wineries; lastly, conflicts and power struggles between family members should be avoided because it harms efforts to survive and could become a significant barrier to cooperation with other wine businesses.


Minimally invasive dentistry has been defined as a concept that preserves both the hard tissues (dentition) and the supporting soft tissue structures (gingiva and periodontal tissues) and includes both non-surgical and surgical techniques and procedures. The implementation of minimally invasive procedures such as Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), Minimally Invasive Periodontal Surgery (MIPS), Minimally Invasive Surgical Techniques (MIST), Modified Minimally Invasive Surgical Techniques (M-MIST) have also been developed to minimise the surgical trauma experienced by the patient and to reduce the duration of the surgical procedure. These procedures included minimal incisions and flap reflection and careful handling of the hard and soft tissues as well as the use of instruments such as operating microscopes, magnifying lenses, microsurgical instruments, and materials. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the current use of minimally invasive techniques and procedures in the non-surgical and surgical management of periodontal disease(s).


Description of the subject. Soil organisms and their activities are essential for soil ecosystem functioning and they can thus be used as pertinent indicators of soil quality. Recent efforts have been undertaken to include biological indicators of soil quality into regional/national monitoring networks. Objectives. The aim of this study was to provide a first dataset of six biological indicators and two eco-physiological quotients for two landscape units in Wallonia. These spatial units are characterized by homogeneous climate conditions, soil type, land-use and management (here, grasslands in the Ardennes, and croplands in the Loam Region). Method. Respiration potential, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, net nitrogen mineralization, metabolic potential of soil bacteria and earthworm abundance were measured at a total of 60 sites in two different landscape units (LSU). Variability within each LSU was studied. Data was synthesized through calculation of a comprehensive score and presentation as radar plots. Results. All selected biological indicators were significantly higher under grassland than under cropland soils, highlighting the biological indicators' power of discrimination between main land use types. Variability within LSU depended on the biological indicator and was generally higher in grassland than in cropland soils. Each site could unambiguously be assigned to its landscape unit based on its calculated comprehensive score. Radar plots allowed an assessment of the distribution of values within a landscape unit at a glance. Conclusions. The pilot-study defined the first baseline values for agricultural soils in Wallonia and laid the foundation for a monitoring network of biological soil quality.


Bending properties of Turkish red pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) lumber pieces were predicted using the stress wave method. The lumber samples were taken from 30- to 80-year-old red pine trees harvested from a southwest site in Turkey. MTG timber grader was utilized to predict modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR) values of lumbers with 40 mm x 90 mm in cross section and 3 meters in length. Static MOE and MOR values of the lumber pieces were determined using a three-point bending test. The coefficient of determination between measured and predicted MOEs was 0.84 and that between dynamic MOE and bending strength was 0.69. However, the coefficient of determination between bending MOE and strength was only 0.45. It seems that dynamic MOE has better prediction capability for bending strength than static MOE. Effects of some variables such as log and visual grades on dynamic MOE values were also determined statistically. Natural frequency of the lumbers showed far more significant effects than other variables. It is apparent that the stress wave method has the potential to predict the bending properties of Turkish red pine lumber.


Patients who develop kidney failure require renal replacement therapy (RRT) in order to survive. Renal transplantation is the best treatment but is often not forthcoming. Many patients therefore require haemodialysis treatment, for which a means of vascular access (VA) is necessary. There are substantial morbidity, mortality and cost benefits from using arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) rather than central venous catheters (CVC) for this purpose.

Despite audit standards recommending that most patients should dialyse using AVF there has been longstanding, marked variation between centres in Scotland and further afield as to the proportions of patients who dialyse using each VA modality. Many studies have documented this variation and its clinical consequences, but little progress has been achieved over more than a decade of registry-documented practice. The present study aims to understand this variation using systems approaches to delineate the structure of VA clinical pathways in Scotland and the manner in which they function; to quantify the clinical workload associated with VA services; to illuminate gaps between 'work-as-imagined' and 'work-as-done' from the perspectives of those working in the services; and to present the findings in a manner that facilitates quality improvement activities.

The study characterises VA as a complex socio-technical system, with reference to the patient safety, quality improvement and systems theory literatures. A novel approach to investigating complex clinical systems was developed, in keeping with the principles of Safety II and healthcare resilience engineering. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate every Scottish VA service, including detailed semi-structured interviews, a clinical activity census, and linkage with pre-existing registry data.

An in-depth, thematic analysis of audio-transcripts was considered in light of clinical activity and registry data. The results were distilled into four major themes: VA creation, VA maintenance, service performance, and development needs. A substantial associated clinical workload was quantified for the first time, despite a shortage of clinical resources dedicated to the service. VA creation procedures were proportional to the size of the local RRT cohort, but maintenance activities did not reflect the local cohort size and varied widely between centres. Recommendations for practice were disseminated using a novel 'scorecard' tool, designed with the principles of resilience engineering in mind. Centres were encouraged to report their concordance with recommendations; the resulting data suggested a statistical relationship between published incident and prevalent AVF use, and the degree to which the recommendations were implemented by each centre.