Brassica vegetables such as broccoli and red cabbage have been associated with positive health effects due to their phytochemical content. More specifically, isothiocyanates, the hydrolysis products of glucosinolates that are present in Brassica, have been shown to exert potential anti carcinogenic effects and antimicrobial activities against various bacterial and fungal pathogens. The overall aims of this work was to: (i) increase our understanding of how the cooking preparation methods affect the synthesis of the bioactive glucosinolate hydrolysis products in broccoli, super broccoli and a glucoraphanin-rich variety red cabbage, (ii) investigate the antimicrobial activity of broccoli extracts against potentially pathogenic Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and study the mechanisms of action using a large library of E.coli K-12 single gene deletion mutants, and (iii) develop a sulforaphane-rich broccoli soup formulation with good organoleptic characteristics based on a consumer evaluation test and carry out a dietary intervention study with subjects ileostomy patients, i.e. patients who have their large intestine surgically removed and their wastes flow through the end of the small intestine into a special bag (stoma bag), with the aim to evaluate the absorption of sulforaphane by measuring the sulforaphane concentration in the collected ileal fluids. The results indicated that cooking broccoli, super broccoli and red cabbage in vacuum sealed bags (sous vide) prevented leaching of glucosinolates into boiling water. However, very little hydrolysis of the glucosinolates took place most likely due to the inactivation of myrosinase and the epithiospecifier protein (ESP). The addition of myrosinase sources, i.e. horseradish, mustard seed, rocket and watercress during the cooling stage of the cooked broccoli and red cabbage resulted in a significant increase by one to ten-fold for most isothiocyanates with very little amounts of their nitrile analogues being produced, indicating the absence of ESP in most cases in the myrosinase sources used. A wider range of hydrolysis products were detected in red cabbage including sulforaphane nitrile, iberin nitrile, erucin nitrile, iberverin nitrile, 1-cyano,2,3-epithiopropane and l-cyano-2-hydroxy-3-butene, formed by hydrolysis of various glucosinolates. The proposed cooking strategy can be used in home cooking as well as industrial cooking to increase the levels of the bioactive isothiocyanates. The antimicrobial assays demonstrated that broccoli extracts had a wide spectrum of strong inhibition against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and that there was a significant positive correlation between antimicrobial activity and sulforaphane concentration. Several pathogens that were resistant to ampicillin, such as Salmonella Typhimurium DTI 04 TID, Escherichia coli 0157:H7 VT and E. coli K-12, and to tetracycline, such as Salmonella hadar, were sensitive to sulforaphane. The results from assessing the antimicrobial activity of pure sulforaphane against the E. coli K-12 mutant strains indicated that the deletion of genes such as acrR, ToIR, hfq, which are associated with antimicrobial resistance, increased the sensitivity to sulforaphane. Several genes were also identified that are associated with membrane integrity, such as BolA and Sip, whereas others such as malS, milE, to metabolic functions and cell wall recycling. Interestingly, some genes identified in this study, such as moeA, fdnH, lehB, and ycdB, are known to be important for microbial resistance to various metals, although sulforaphane has not been previously shown to be related to metals. Overall, the study suggests that sulforaphane, due to its strong antibacterial activity, could be used as a natural antibacterial agent for food and medical applications. The results also indicate the possibility to increase the antimicrobial effects of broccoli by reducing the temperature of the thermal treatment during cooking or through the addition of myrosinase sources. The developed soup formulations had good organoleptic properties and got satisfactory scores by the consumer panel for overall liking followed by liking of appearance, taste and texture. The best soup formulation was prepared in two ways, one was a standard formulation, and one had increased sulforaphane content through the addition of myrosinase containing mustard seeds during the cooling stage of the cooked soup. Analysis of the ileal fluids indicated that although the ileal fluids collected after feeding with sulforaphane-rich broccoli soup had a higher sulforaphane content, for both types of soups the concentration of sulforaphane was extremely low. Overall, the results demonstrated that more than 98% of sulforaphane was absorbed rapidly, i.e. within 4 hours after feeding. Sulforaphane was also extracted from the ileal fluid and re-constituted at a similar concertation to that found in the ileal fluid, and tested for its antimicrobial activity against E. coli. No inhibitory activity was observed from this test, which was expected taking into account the high minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC); however, the high initial sulforaphane concentration in the broccoli soups and the high microbial inhibitory activity obtained in the in vitro studies suggest that sulforaphane might be exerting its antimicrobial effects during its transit through the stomach and the small intestine, particularly against bacteria associated with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SmO) disorder and potentially Helicobacler pylori.


Sniffing, the active control of breathing beyond passive respiration, is used by mammals to modulate olfactory sampling. Sniffing allows animals to make odor-guided decisions within ∼200 ms, but animals routinely engage in bouts of high-frequency sniffing spanning several seconds; the impact of such repeated odorant sampling on odor representations remains unclear. We investigated this question in the mouse olfactory bulb (OB), where mitral and tufted cells (MTCs) form parallel output streams of odor information processing. To test the impact of repeated odorant sampling on MTC responses, we used two-photon imaging in anesthetized male and female mice to record activation of MTCs while precisely varying inhalation frequency. A combination of genetic targeting and viral expression of GCaMP6 reporters allowed us to access mitral cell (MC) and superficial tufted cell (sTC) subpopulations separately. We found that repeated odorant sampling differentially affected responses in MCs and sTCs, with MCs showing more diversity than sTCs over the same time period. Impacts of repeated sampling among MCs included both increases and decreases in excitation, as well as changes in response polarity. Response patterns across simultaneously-imaged MCs reformatted over time, with representations of different odorants becoming more distinct. Individual MCs responded differentially to changes in inhalation frequency, whereas sTC responses were more uniform over time and across frequency. Our results support the idea that MCs and TCs comprise functionally distinct pathways for odor information processing, and suggest that the reformatting of MC odor representations by high-frequency sniffing may serve to enhance the discrimination of similar odors. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Repeated sampling of odorants during high-frequency respiration (sniffing) is a hallmark of active odorant sampling by mammals; however, the adaptive function of this behavior remains unclear. We found distinct effects of repeated sampling on odor representations carried by the two main output channels from the mouse olfactory bulb (OB), mitral and tufted cells (MTCs). Mitral cells (MCs) showed more diverse changes in response patterns over time as compared with tufted cells (TCs), leading to odorant representations that were more distinct after repeated sampling. These results support the idea that MTCs contribute different aspects to encoding odor information, and they indicate that MCs (but not TCs) may play a primary role in the modulation of olfactory processing by sampling behavior.


Adiponectin is an adipose-derived plasma protein. Recently the plasma adiponectin levels have been linked to most variables of metabolic syndrome (MS) and risk factors of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, its relation with blood pressure is yet unclear. Here we report the relationship between the plasma adiponectin levels and blood pressures in 68 female adolescents (age 16.1 +/- 1.8 yr). We found that the plasma adiponectin levels correlated significantly with both the systolic blood pressure (SBP) (gamma = -0.47, P = 0.000) and diastolic blood pressure (gamma = -0.30, P = 0.014). In linear regression models with adjustment for age and the other anthropometric or metabolic factors, only the SBP, but not the diastolic blood pressure, was independently related to the plasma adiponectin levels. The mean plasma adiponectin levels between the subjects in the lowest quartile of SBP (SBP < or = 100 mm Hg) and those in the highest quartile (SBP > or = 118 mm Hg) were significantly different (P = 0.035). In conclusion, the SBP is inversely related to the plasma adiponectin independent of the other variables of the MS and other risk factors of CAD in healthy adolescent females. This further strengthens the potential roles of adiponectin in the pathophysiology of MS and CAD.


Increasing cache hit-ratios has proved to be instrumental in improv ing performance of cache-based computers. This is particularly true for computers which have a high cache-miss/cache-hit memory reference delay ratio. Although software policies are often used for main vs. secon dary memory "caching", the speed required for an implementation of a CPU vs. main memory cache policy has prompted only investigation of policies which can be implemented directly in hardware. Based on compile-time analysis, it is possible to predict program behavior, thereby increasing the hit-ratio beyond the capability of pure run-time (hardware) techniques. In this report, compiler-driven techniques for this kind of cache policy are described. The SCP Model (software cache pol icy model) provides an optimal cache prefetch and placement/replacement policy when given an arbitrary memory reference ■ ■ ■ string. In addition to suggesting a simplified cache hardware model, the SCP Model can be applied to various cache organizations such as direct mapping, set associative, and full associative. Analytic results demon strate significant improvements in cache performance. The current work discusses an optimal cache policy which applies where the string of references is known at compile time. However, this constraint can be relaxed to encompass reference strings which are known only statistically, i.e., reference strings in which data aliases make the target of some references ambiguous. Companion reports, currently in preparation, detail the extension of the SCP Model to incorporate aliases, code incorporating loops, and conditional branches.


Self-regulation research suggested that active self-control depends on a limited resource. Therefore the capacity for self-control is lower among people who already exercised control, a phenomenon labelled as ego depletion. This experiment examines whether priming of a persistent person exemplar may help to overcome ego depletion. Half of the participants engaged in a demanding self-control task (solving extremely difficult labyrinths) whereas the other half took part in a task that demanded little self-control (solving easy labyrinths). Then, half of the participants received a person exemplar prime related to persistence; the other half received a neutral prime. Finally, participants' persistence on a subsequent self-control task (squeezing a handgrip) was measured. The effect of a person exemplar prime on a subsequent self-control task depended on initial self-control demands. Participants who exercised high initial self-control and were then presented with a persistent exemplar prime showed assimilation. Their handgrip persistence was higher than the persistence of participants who received a neutral prime. Under conditions of low initial self-control the opposite pattern was found. A persistent person prime resulted in contrast and resulted in lower handgrip performance as compared to those who received a neutral prime.


Bandwidth Requirements of GPU Architectures Benjamin C. Johnstone Supervising Professor: Dr. Sonia Lopez Alarcon A new trend in chip multiprocessor (CMP) design is to incorporate graphics processing unit (GPU) cores, making them heterogeneous. GPU cores have a higher bandwidth requirement than CPU cores, as they tend to generate much more memory requests. In order to achieve good performance, there must be sufficient bandwidth between the GPU shader cores and main memory to service these memory requests in a timely manner. However, designing for the highest possible bandwidth will lead to high energy costs. The communication requirements of GPU cores must be determined in order to choose a proper interconnect. To this end, we have simulated several CUDA benchmarks with varying bandwidths using the GPGPU-Sim simulator. Our results show that the communication requirements of GPUs vary from workload to workload. We suggest that cores be connected using a photonic interconnect capable of supporting different bandwidths in order to reduce power consumption. For each transmission, the interconnect used will depend on how the bandwidth affects performance. We determined that the ratio of interconnect-shader stalls to the total number of execution cycles is a good indicator of whether or not an application will be bandwidthsensitive. We used this finding to develop a bandwidth selection policy for GPU applications using a photonic NoC. With our policy selections, the photonic interconnect used 12.5% less power than a photonic interconnect with optimal performing choices, which only gave a performance improvement of 1.37% compared to our policy. The photonic interconnect with our policy also had the lowest energy-delay product out of the interconnects we compared it against.


With the help of the local people we met during the course of the 2015 Odyssey, the main objective, obtaining a collection of comparable data about marine plastic pollution using the NOAA internationally recognized protocol, has been achieved. It cannot be sufficiently stressed that not one of the 30 sampled shorelines during this worldwide journey was free from marine plastic debris. As for the recent identification of plastic debris in the Arctic and Antarctic areas, this observation confirms that plastic contamination in the oceans is ubiquitous. Whether in terms of macrodebris (>2.5 cm) or microplastics (< 5 mm) concentrations, Hawaii constitutes by far the 2015 Odyssey's most notable hotspot. The highest macrodebris concentration registered at Kamilo Point in Hawaii (more than 3,500 macrodebris per 100 m2) was almost ten times greater than the second hotspot of the 2015 Odyssey, Pago Bay (372) on Guam Island in the Mariana Archipelago. Hawaii also constitutes the highest microplastics concentration hotspot with more than 94,000 particles per m2 collected once again at Kamilo Point again. For comparison, the second highest concentration, Ovahe beach on Easter Island, revealed more than 24,000 microparticles per m2. Unfortunately, based on their locations, marine macrodebris concentrations can suffer bias due to direct waste disposal (intentional or accidental) of tourists and/or local residents, and also because of the consecutive shoreline clean-up campaigns. Therefore, microplastic concentrations are a more reliable indicator to establish a comparison between study sites. On that basis, Northeast Pacific islands – especially the Hawaiian Archipelago – experience the most significant marine debris accumulation, followed by those of the South Pacific, Northeast Atlantic, Indian, Northwest Atlantic, Northeast Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans respectively. The macrodebris and microplastic average concentrations are summarized below in Figure 1. In qualitative terms, the hard plastic fragments category largely dominates the macroplastics content except for Palau and Chagos (BIOT). Other dominant categories are plastic foams, bottles and caps, and fishing lines and ropes. Foams were particularly predominant in Chagos, while bottles and caps constituted almost 70% of macrodebris in Palau. Besides, significantly higher bottle and cap concentrations were evidenced near the Asian continent. Fishing lines and ropes stood out particularly in Bermuda. Microplastic concentrations confirmed these trends with more than 80% of hard plastic fragments on every stopover, except Easter Island and Tristan da Cunha (around 60%). More specifically, Easter Island showed a significant concentration of pellets, while Bermuda confirmed a strong presence of fishing lines among the microparticles. Lastly, the polymer analysis of the hard plastic fragments ranging from 1 mm to 2.5 cm revealed the prevalence of polyethylene (PE) throughout all of the study sites, except for Tristan da Cunha where polypropylene (PP) dominated. Hawaii, Mariana, Palau and Mascarene also showed significant PP concentrations (between 31 to 47% of items). Other kinds of polymer such as EVA and PMP, have been evidenced especially on Tristan da Cunha, but also on the Azores and Mariana.


Wrinkles in graphene with desirable morphology have practical significance for electronic applications. Here we carry out a systematic molecular dynamics study of the wrinkling instability of graphene on substrate-supported nanoparticles (NPs). At a large NP dispersion distance, a monolayer graphene adheres to the substrate and bulges out locally to wrap around individual NPs, forming isolated dome-shaped protrusions. At a small NP dispersion distance, tunneling wrinkles form in graphene to bridge the NP-induced protrusions. A critical NP dispersion distance for the onset of tunneling wrinkle instability of graphene is determined as a function of the NP size. The prediction from the modeling study agrees well with recent experimental observations. Results from the present study offer further insights into the formation of desirable wrinkles in graphene deposited on a substrate with engineered protrusions and, thus, can potentially enable novel design of graphene-based electronics.


Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequently occurring type of all cancers, and represents 80% of all skin cancer. The estimated lifetime risk for BCC in the white population is between 33% and 39% for men and 23% and 28% for women. Its incidence doubles every 25 years and is increasing in the young population. Death is uncommon and seems to decrease in the last years, probably due to early and better diagnosis. BCC arises from abnormal and uncontrolled growth of basal cells. It is a slow-growing tumor, therefore usually curable at an early stage with surgery or alternative treatment, such as cryotherapy, laser, photodynamic therapy, retinoids and topical agent like 5-Fluorouracil cream, imiquimod cream, and so forth. Topical treatment of superficial basocellular carcinoma is a viable option, when surgery is not an advisable treatment, especially in the case of giant basocellular carcinoma. In this subtype, imiquimod 5% cream can be a safe and effective treatment, but there are few reports in available literature. We present our case series of eight patients with superficial giant basocellular carcinoma successfully treated with imiquimod 5% cream, which showed clinical improvement after 8 weeks of treatment.


HPHall software simulates and tracks the time-dependent evolution of the plasma and erosion processes in the discharge chamber and near-field plume of Hall thrusters. HPHall is an axisymmetric solver that employs a hybrid fluid/particle-in-cell (Hybrid-PIC) numerical approach. HPHall, originally developed by MIT in 1998, was upgraded to HPHall-2 by the Polytechnic University of Madrid in 2006. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has continued the development of HPHall-2 through upgrades to the physical models employed in the code, and the addition of entirely new ones. Primary among these are the inclusion of a three-region electron mobility model that more accurately depicts the cross-field electron transport, and the development of an erosion sub-model that allows for the tracking of the erosion of the discharge chamber wall. The code is being developed to provide NASA science missions with a predictive tool of Hall thruster performance and lifetime that can be used to validate Hall thrusters for missions.


The status of the Standard Model Higgs Boson search in the bosonic decay channels at the CMS experiment at the LHC will be presented. The results will be based on proton-proton collisions data corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to 5.1 fb-1 at sqrt(s) = 7 Tev and 19.6 fb-1 at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. The observation of a new boson at a mass near 125 GeV should be confirmed by the analysis of the new data and first measurements of the boson properties will be shown.


Abstract:  Based on a case study of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Toronto, Canada, this article suggests that we may have to rethink our common perception of what urban governance entails. Rather than operating solely in the conceptual proximity of social cohesion and economic competitiveness, urban governance may soon prove to be more centrally concerned with questions of widespread disease, life and death and the construction of new internal boundaries and regulations just at the time that globalization seems to suggest the breakdown of some traditional scalar incisions such as national boundaries in a post‐Westphalian environment. We argue that urban governance must face the new (or reemerging) challenge of dealing with infectious disease in the context of the "new normal" and that global health governance may be better off by taking the possibilities that rest in metropolitan governance more seriously.


SUMMARY: The cell wall of a bacillus, related to Bacillus anthracis, reacts specifically with the homologous antibody. This reaction can be made clearly visible by phase contrast when cell wall and cytoplasmic membrane are separated by mild lysozyme digestion, or when the cytoplasm is partially autolysed or digested with trypsin. The same antibody reacts with the transverse septa and polar bodies of the capsule, rendering them visible by phase contrast. These septa are in continuation of the cross walls of the cell, and sometimes give the appearance of division.
By these means the morphological locations of the chemically isolable fractions of serologically active bacterial extracts can be defined. These substances in the cell wall and in the septa and polar bodies of the capsule appear to be polysaccharide. The d-glutamic acid polypeptide element of the capsule does not occur in the cell wall.
A non-specific cell-wall reaction can be obtained with proteins at the appropriate values of pH, analogous to the non-specific capsular reaction previously reported.


This case study explored how sports journalists used Twitter to cover allegations about former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing young boys. A content analysis of 1652 tweets from 151 sports journalists was conducted. Analysis revealed that sports journalists used Twitter in the following ways: a) offering commentary, b) breaking news, c) interactivity, d) linking to content, and e) promotion. The results suggest that Twitter serves as an additional venue for sports journalists to frame stories; however, their behavior in this venue blurs professional and personal boundaries as they mock fans and promote their competitors. The analysis further suggests that the immediacy with which news breaks on Twitter places sports journalists and sports media organizations into a dialectic between "being first" and "being accurate" when reporting news.


The design and synthesis of safe efficient non-viral vectors for gene delivery has attracted significant attention in recent years due primarily to the severe side-effect profile reported with the use of their viral counterparts. Previous experiments have revealed that the strong interaction between the carriers and nucleic acid may well hinder the release of the gene from the complex in the cytosol adversely affecting transfection efficiency. However, incorporating reducible disulfide bonds within the delivery systems themselves which are then cleaved in the glutathione-rich intracellular environment may help in solving this puzzle. This review focuses on recent development of these reducible carriers. The biological rationale and approaches to the synthesis of reducible vectors are discussed in detail. The in vitro and in vivo evaluations of reducible carriers are also summarized and it is evident that they offer a promising approach in non-viral gene delivery system design.


Developing biomimetic cartilaginous tissues that support locomotion while maintaining chondrogenic behavior is a major challenge in the tissue engineering field. Specifically, while locomotive forces demand tissues with strong mechanical properties, chondrogenesis requires a soft microenvironment. To address this challenge, 3D cartilage‐like tissue is fabricated using two biomaterials with different mechanical properties: a hard biomaterial to reflect the macromechanical properties of native cartilage, and a soft biomaterial to create a chondrogenic microenvironment. To this end, a bath composed of an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and alginate hydrogel (MPa order compressive modulus) is developed as an extracellular matrix (ECM) with self‐healing properties. Within this bath supplemented with thrombin, human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) spheroids embedded in fibrinogen are 3D bioprinted, creating a soft microenvironment composed of fibrin (kPa order compressive modulus) that simulate cartilage's pericellular matrix and allow a fast diffusion of nutrients. The bioprinted hMSC spheroids present high viability and chondrogenic‐like behavior without adversely affecting the macromechanical properties of the tissue. Therefore, the ability to locally bioprint a soft and cell stimulating biomaterial inside of a mechanically robust hydrogel is demonstrated, thereby uncoupling the micro‐ and macromechanical properties of the 3D printed tissues such as cartilage.


The purpose of this research is to model coastal erosion mainly dune or bluff erosion in the Arctic for storm event using numerical analysis. A case study of Varandey, Russia is considered for the analysis. The numerical modelling done can be divided in two parts, i.e., (i) wave modelling and (ii) coastal erosion modelling. Wave modelling is carried out to transform the offshore boundary condition to a near-shore boundary and thereby to down-scale the domain area for erosion analysis. For wave modelling, SWAN has been used as numerical tool. For cliff erosion modelling during storm period, use of X-beach is considered. The wave boundary conditions derived from SWAN run is used for X-beach run and a model is set up for assessing cliff erosion of the area. The model is calibrated using the data available from a storm event on 24 July 2010 and found to be valid. Sensitivity analysis of some parameters utilized in setting up the model is carried out to observe their effect on cliff erosion. Finally a simulation is run with calibrated parameters with 2D bathymetry to have an idea on the applicability of the numerical tool for larger domain.


Serotonin syndrome is a medication-induced clinical syndrome, caused by an increased concentration of serotonin in the central and peripheral nervous system. An excess of serotonin can be caused by the use of one or more serotinergic substances on the one hand, or by decreased clearance of these substances on the other hand We carried out a systematic literature search to make an estimation of substances and patient-related factors that might be associated with an increased risk of serotonin syndrome. We also carried out a search for all reports of serotonin syndrome in the Lareb (Netherlands pharmacovigilance centre) database. Patient-centred medication monitoring is not yet possible because there is an almost complete lack of clinical predictors. For the time being, all that treatment providers can do to help recognise serototin syndrome on time is to be extra alert in patients belonging to risk groups (the elderly, or patients with renal or hepatic insufficiency.


Background/Objectives: This paper is aimed at performing real time bigdata analytics on vehicular data collected from a network of ECUs (Electronic Control Unit) in cooperated into the different automobiles. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The analytics has been performed by building a software model that is capable of handling the vehicular data in real time. Bigdata platforms like hadoop, Apache Storm, Apache Spark(real time streaming), Kafka are utilised here. Automotive sensor data from different Electronic Control Units are collected into a central data server and this data is pushed to kafka, from which the real time streaming models pulls the data and perform analysis. Findings: Automotive industry has undergone a drastic revolutionised innovation in the past decade in all of its respective segments. The industry had started utilizing the computational and mathematical aspects from top to bottom in its design strategies to achieve greater reliability on its products out on roads. Latest advancements in this field is the fully autonomous car. Today an automotive is a collection of innumerable sensors and microcontrollers which are under the command of the master ECU. A network of ECUs connected across the globe is a source tap of bigdata. Leveraging the new sources of bigdata by automotive giants boost vehicle performance, enhance loco driver experience, accelerated product designs. Statistical Projections reveal that automotive industry is likely to be the 2nd largest generator of data by mid of 2016. The contribution of this paper to the automotive industry is the real time vehicle monitoring utilizing Bigdata platforms. This can contribute to better customer-industry relations. Applications/Improvements: The model developed in this paper can contribute a lot to the automobile industry as it facilitates real time monitoring of the vehicles. This can improve customer-industry relation.


Although culverts have traditionally been an economical means of conveying stream flow at a road crossing, they can hinder fish and wildlife passage in the channel and on the floodplain and can create or augment localized channel instabilities. A possible solution to these problems is to use a multiple-cell arrangement, in which one or more culverts placed in the channel convey all flows up to the dominant discharge and one or more culverts positioned in the floodplain convey overbank flows up to the design discharge. This arrangement results in a reduction of flow concentration through the culvert and a properly functioning floodplain, thereby improving fish and wildlife passage and reducing erosional problems. For this system to function properly, a well-established and active floodplain is required; the multicell system will not perform adequately in an incised channel. In this paper, a method to determine appropriate physical environments for multicell culvert systems, based on stream-channel stability and stage-of-channel evolution, is presented.


Carbon supported Pt based nanoparticles are important electrocatalysts for
energy conversion reactions such as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Although
this reaction has been extensively studied, the influence of factors such as
the particle size and inter-particle distance of the nanoparticle-based or
nano-sized electrocatalysts on the ORR activity and durability are not yet fully
understood and often intertwined. This lack of understanding is mostly based on
the limitation in the synthetic approaches of the electrocatalysts which
usually do not allow an independent variation of particle size and inter-particle
distance. In the presented work, we succeeded to disentangle both factors using
a "colloidal toolbox" approach and have demonstrated an effect of the inter-particle
distance on the electronic properties of the nanoparticle via operando electrochemical
X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS).


Transparent conducting zirconium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Zr) and aluminium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films were deposited on glass substrates by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The crystallinity of ZnO:Zr and ZnO:Al thin films increases as the target-to-substrate distance decreases, and the crystallinity of ZnO:Zr films is found to be always better than that of ZnO:Al films prepared under the same deposition conditions. As the target-to-substrate distance decreases, the resistivity of both film types decreases greatly while the optical transmittance does not change much with the variation of the distance. When target-to-substrate distance is 4.1 cm, the lowest resistivity of 6.0×10-4 Ω·cm and 5.7×10-4 Ω·cm was obtained for ZnO:Zr and ZnO:Al films, respectively. The figure of merit arrived at a maximum value of 3.98×10-2Ω for ZnO:Zr films lower than 5×10-2 Ω for ZnO:Al films.


This work explores the performances of Space-Time and Space Frequency Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with simple two branches transmit diversity scheme. The combination of multiple-antenna and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) provides reliable communications over frequency selective fading channels. We focus on the application of space-time block codes (STBC) and space-frequency block codes (SFBC) in OFDM systems over time-varying and frequency-selective channels. SFBC transmitter shows superior performance in fast varying channels while STBC shows better performance in frequency selective channels. A switching technique is presented that selects an appropriate transmission scheme between the STBC and SFBC assuming Rayleigh fading model.


Nano-Fe particles coating Al2O3 composite powders were prepared by heterogeneous precipitation method with nanometer -Al2O3 and Fe(NO3)3•9H2O as raw materials. The composite powders were analyzed by DSC-TG, XRD,SEM and Zeta potential. Results showed that Fe coating Al2O3 nanometer composite powders were obtained in the condition of being sintered at 500°C for 30min and reduced at 700°C for 1h in H2. The coating Fe nanometer particles are in the shape of sphericity with diameter about 30nm and the dispersion of the powders is uniform. Al2O3/Fe composite ceramics were obtained by hot-pressing (30MPa). The mechanical properties of the composite were investigated after hot press at different temperatures. With the increasing of Fe content in composite ceramics, the hardness of the composite is decreased. Fracture toughness of 10mol%Fe content is 5.62MPa after sintered at 1400°C, which is increasing 57% high than that of monolithic Al2O3 ceramics.


Nickel-aluminum alloys are widely used in harsh environments due to their corrosion resistance, high melting temperature, and thermal conductivity. In this work, Ni-5wt%Al coatings were deposited by twin-wire arc spraying (TWAS) on tool steel using a design of experiments approach to study the effect of process parameters on coating microstructure and performance. Test results presented in the form of process maps show how N2 pressure, stand-off distance, and current affect in-flight particle velocity and temperature as well as coating thickness and oxide content. Using this information, optimized coatings were then deposited on test substrates and subjected, along with uncoated tool steel, to several hours of molten aluminum attack. The coated samples showed no signs of physical or chemical damage, whereas the uncoated substrates experienced oxidation, aluminum infiltration, and formation of Fe-Al intermetallics.


We report on the detection at >98% confidence of an optical counterpart to AGC 249525, an ultra-compact high-velocity cloud (UCHVC) discovered by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey blind neutral hydrogen survey. UCHVCs are compact, isolated H i clouds with properties consistent with their being nearby low-mass galaxies, but without identified counterparts in extant optical surveys. Analysis of the resolved stellar sources in deep g- and i-band imaging from the WIYN pODI camera reveals a clustering of possible red giant branch stars associated with AGC 249525 at a distance of 1.64 ± 0.45 Mpc. Matching our optical detection with the H i synthesis map of AGC 249525 from Adams et al. shows that the stellar overdensity is exactly coincident with the highest-density H i contour from that study. Combining our optical photometry and the H i properties of this object yields an absolute magnitude of , a stellar mass between and , and an H i to stellar mass ratio between 9 and 144. This object has stellar properties within the observed range of gas-poor ultra-faint dwarfs in the Local Group, but is gas-dominated.


Background: The major aim of this work was to study the protective effects of fish oil (FO), allopurinol, and verapamil on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (IR)-induced injury in experimental rats. Materials and Methods: Sixty male Wistar albino rats were randomly assigned to six groups of 10 rats each. Group 1 served as a negative control. Group 2 served as hepatic IR control injury. Groups 3, 4, 5, and 6 received N-acetylcysteine (standard), FO, allopurinol, and verapamil, respectively, for 3 consecutive days prior to ischemia. All animals were fasted for 12 h, anesthetized and underwent midline laparotomy. The portal triads were clamped by mini-artery clamp for 30 min followed by reperfusion for 30 min. Blood samples were withdrawn for estimation of serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) activities as well as hepatic thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, reduced glutathione, myeloperoxidase, and total nitrate/nitrite levels, in addition to histopathological examination. Results: Fish oil, allopurinol, and verapamil reduced hepatic IR injury as evidenced by significant reduction in serum ALT and AST enzyme activities. FO and verapamil markedly reduced oxidative stress as compared to control IR injury. Levels of inflammatory biomarkers in liver were also reduced after treatment with FO, allopurinol, or verapamil. In accordance, a marked improvement of histopathological findings was observed with all of the three treatments. Conclusion: The findings of this study prove the benefits of FO, allopurinol, and verapamil on hepatic IR-induced liver injury and are promising for further clinical trials.


Distributions in volumes of NK/Ly ascite lymphoma cells in different periods after inoculation were studied by laser cytometry. With the age of tumour the primary peak of distribution shifts to an area corresponding to large cells, but from the sixth day there appears an additional peak of distribution due to an accumulation of a pool of nonproliferating quiscent G0(R1) cells. The obtained data are in good agreement with results of sedimentation fractionation of NK/Ly lymphoma cells. Discrepancies in statistical characteristics of distributions, found by the both methods, are not more than 20%.


The subfamily of G-protein-linked inwardly rectifying potassium channels (GIRKs) is coupled to G-protein receptors throughout the CNS and in the heart. We used mutational analysis to address the role of a specific hydrophobic region of the GIRK1 subunit. Deletion of the GIRK1 C-terminal residues 330-384, as well as the point mutation I331R, resulted in a decrease in channel function when coexpressed with GIRK4 in oocytes and in COS-7 cells. Surface protein expression of GIRK1 I331R coexpressed with GIRK4 was comparable with wild type, indicating that subunits assemble and are correctly localized to the membrane. Subsequent mutation of homologous residues in both the GIRK4 subunit and Kir2.1 (Gβγ-independent inward rectifier) also resulted in a decrease in channel function. Intracellular domain associations resulted in the coimmunoprecipitation of the GIRK1 N and C termini and GIRK4 N and C termini. The point mutation I331R in the GIRK1 C terminus or L337R in the GIRK4 C terminus decreased the association between the N and C termini. Mutation of a GIRK1 N-terminal hydrophobic residue, predicted structurally to interact with the C-terminal domain, also resulted in a decrease in channel function and termini association. We hypothesize that the hydrophobic nature of this GIRK1 subunit region is critical for interaction between adjacent termini and is permissive for channel gating. In addition, the homologous mutation in cytoplasmic domains of Kir2.1 (L330R) did not disrupt association, suggesting that the overall structural integrity of this region is critical for inward rectifier function.


The basic compositions of the samples were selected inside and outside of Na2O-B2O3-SiO2 glass phase separation region, respectively. Nanocrystalline TiO2 was crystallized by melt-phase separation process. The results showed that the phase separation of Na2O-B2O3-SiO2-TiO2 glass system was advantaged to TiO2 nucleation and growth, and then the formation of the nanocrystalline. The main mechanism of TiO2 crystallization is that the rich alkali-boron phase has the lower viscidity and higher particles moving ability than that of parent phase glass. Therefore, the movement rate of TiO2 particle can be promoted and TiO2 crystallization can be accelerated. Moreover, the formation of non-homogeneous nucleus situation and the centralization function of TiO2 have less contribution to TiO2 crystallization.


Disturbances in intestinal metabolism and perfusion during SIRS can be direct effects of toxic substances, and/or effects secondary to hypovolemia. An attempt to evaluate the significance of hypovolemia for intestinal disturbances during SIRS was made in the present study on feline by evaluating the degree to which the intestinal alterations following endotoxin infusion were restored by a clinically relevant volume infusion. The results were compared with control animals treated identically except that they were not given a volume infusion. We analyzed effects of a colloid infusion during endotoxemia on intestinal perfusion, and on the metabolites lactate, pyruvate, glucose, and glycerol in the intestinal wall, the latter by a microdialysis technique. Arterial and central venous blood pressures, and superior mesenteric artery blood flow were measured, and intestinal oxygen delivery and uptake were calculated. To evaluate to what extent a restoring effect of a colloid infusion was dependent on the type of colloid solution used, three different colloids with about the same volume expanding effects (6% albumin, 6% dextran 70 and 6% hydroxyethyl starch, n = 3 × 6) were tested randomly and blinded. Four hrs after start of endotoxin (1 mg/kg + 1 mg/kg/h), the colloid was infused at a rate of 5 mL/kg for 30 min followed by 2.5 mL/kg/h. Endotoxin caused a marked deterioration of perfusion and metabolic parameters. Most of these parameters turned towards normalization, though not fully reaching baseline values within 4 hrs after start of the colloid infusion. In the control experiments (n = 4), the endotoxin-induced deteriorations persisted or were aggravated during the corresponding time period. The results indicated that hypovolemia is an essential factor but not the only one behind alterations in metabolism and perfusion in the intestine during SIRS, and the alterations can be significantly reduced by adequate volume substitution. In this respect no differences could be seen between the three colloids tested.


Date Presented 04/04/19
 This study aimed to use a novel data-collection method to characterize the existing low-vision service delivery system and calculate the prevalence rate of VI within Massachusetts. Existing services were identified and mapped. Synthetic estimation was used to make estimates of the prevalence of VI of the 351 towns in Massachusetts, using national estimates of VI and town-level census data. Data were then used to identify gaps and prioritize need and could be applied to other states with other populations.
 Primary Author and Speaker: Jennifer Kaldenberg


For any experiment that uses the beam of an accelerator, monitoring the beam intensity is always an important concern. It is particularly useful if one can continuously measure the beam current without disturbing the beam. We report here on test experiments for an Integrating Current Transformer (ICT) used to measure fast extraction beams from the HIRFL-CSR main ring (CSRm). The laboratory tests and beam intensity measurement results are presented in this paper. The influence of the kicker noise is also analyzed.


BACKGROUND : Refractive errors are considered a public health problem in many countries as well as by the WHO. This study compares refractive errors in video game players (VGP) and non video game player (NVGP). OBJECTIVE: To compare visual status of children who play video game for long periods and who do not play. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Refraction of 100 patients (200 eyes) was done of those who play video games (50) and those who do not (50), visiting Mayo Hospital Lahore and College Of Ophthalmology and Allied Vision Sciences (COAVS) Lahore. The parameters compared are spherical, cylindrical and axis value of VGPs and NVGPs, in age group 12 years and above were included in the study. Retinoscopy and subjective refraction were done in the individuals having visual acuity less than 6/9 in one or both eyes. Individuals having refractive errors were prescribed glasses. RESULTS : The mean spherical, cylindrical and axis values are -0.9286 ± 1.59251 D (SE. 0.16087) and -1.2108 ± 2.05787 D (SE. 0.20376), -0.9107 ± 0.70001 D (SE. 0.07071) and -1.2500 ± 0.70798 D (SE. 0.7010), 90.510 ± 53.4312 (5.3974) and 97.539 ± 53.2764 (SE. 5.2751), respectively, of those who play video game and those who do not. Mann Whitney-U test showed no statistically significant difference of sphere (p= 0.055) and axis (p= 0.299),but shows marked difference in cylindrical value (p= 0.000) between those who play video game and those who do not. CONCLUSION: Video game playing or close work may induce/ cause a change in astigmatism but not in overall spherical refractive status of the eye.


The resonance interaction between two modes is investigated using a two-layer coupled Brusselator model. When two different wavelength modes satisfy resonance conditions, new modes will appear, and a variety of superlattice patterns can be obtained in a short wavelength mode subsystem. We find that even though the wavenumbers of two Turing modes are fixed, the parameter changes have influences on wave intensity and pattern selection. When a hexagon pattern occurs in the short wavelength mode layer and a stripe pattern appears in the long wavelength mode layer, the Hopf instability may happen in a nonlinearly coupled model, and twinkling-eye hexagon and travelling hexagon patterns will be obtained. The symmetries of patterns resulting from the coupled modes may be different from those of their parents, such as the cluster hexagon pattern and square pattern. With the increase of perturbation and coupling intensity, the nonlinear system will convert between a static pattern and a dynamic pattern when the Turing instability and Hopf instability happen in the nonlinear system. Besides the wavenumber ratio and intensity ratio of the two different wavelength Turing modes, perturbation and coupling intensity play an important role in the pattern formation and selection. According to the simulation results, we find that two modes with different symmetries can also be in the spatial resonance under certain conditions, and complex patterns appear in the two-layer coupled reaction diffusion systems.


Ulcerative colitis (UC), an idiopathic inflammatory disorder in the colon, has become a clinical challenge, owing to the increasing incidence and poor prognosis. The conventional treatments for UC including aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressants, induce remission in only half of patients. Meanwhile, the treatments often come with serious side effects which can be life-threatening. Herbal medicine, one of the most common traditional Chinese medicine modalities, has been introduced for centuries into clinical treatment of many human diseases such as infections and functional disorders. Recently, the potential effectiveness of herbs has been suggested as the treatment of UC, as shown by a variety of clinical trials and experimental studies. The herbs reported in the literature include aloe vera gel, butyrate, tormentil extracts, wheat grass juice, and curcumin. In the review, bioactivity of the herbs and their involvement in UC treatment are discussed.


In this pathbreaking work originally published in 1980, the late George Rude examines the role played by ideology in a wide range of popular rebellions in Europe and the Americas from the middle ages to the early twentieth century. Rude was a champion of the role of working people in the making of history, and Ideology and Popular Protest was the first book devoted to the comparative study of popular political ideas and consciousness in both preindustrial cultures and the age of the Industrial Revolution. According to Rude, the development of modern revolutionary struggles depended on a crucial merger of the culture and ideas of the common people with the radical ideologies of intellectuals. In a new foreword, Harvey Kaye reviews Rude's career as a pioneer in the critical study of social movements and highlights the enduring value of Ideology and Popular Protest as a classroom text.


Abstract In this interview, John Eppel, a veteran of Zimbabwean writing, confirms his reputation as an "angry jester", determined to expose what he describes as "humbug", wherever he sees it. With his satires, Eppel has stirred the national literature with subversive laughter, ridiculing both Rhodesian society under Ian Smith and post-independence society under Robert Mugabe. With his poetry, he innovatively marries European forms with southern African content. During the crisis of the 2000s he refused exile and has been consistently critical of political and social corruption and injustice from within Zimbabwe's borders.


Introduction: This research aimed to examine the perception of support from family and friends in immigrant elders from Bulgaria and the size of their social network. Support from family and friends scores of immigrant elders from Bulgaria were compared with the size of their social network and their sociodemographic characteristics. Materials and Method: The descriptive study was conducted between October and December 2008. The study sample consisted of 300 volunteer elders among 332 elders over 65 years of age, living in ‹zmir, Görece, a district where many Turkish citizens who came from Bulgaria after 1989 have settled. Socio-demographic Form, Perceived Family Support Scale, Perceived Friends Support Scale and Social Network List were used for data collection. Results: The mean age of immigrant elders was 73.0±5.94. The mean family support score was 28.38±8.91, while the mean friends support score was 18.41±11.33. The size of the social network was 13±4.48 people. There was a positive and significant relation between the size of the social network of elders and the mean perceived family and friend scores (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to these findings, we suggest reinforcing the social support structures and developing new service models for a better and happier life in order to enable social integration of the immigrant elders to the family and the society,


Forestry is a major industry in many parts of the world, yet this potential domain of application area has been overlooked by the robotics community. For instance, forest inventory, a cornerstone of efficient and sustainable forestry, is still traditionally performed manually by qualified professionals. The lack of automation in this particular task, consisting chiefly of measuring tree attributes, limits its speed, and, therefore, the area that can be economically covered. To this effect, we propose to use recent advancements in three‐dimensional mapping approaches in forests to automatically measure tree diameters from mobile robot observations. While previous studies showed the potential for such technology, they lacked a rigorous analysis of diameter estimation methods in challenging and large‐scale forest environments. Here, we validated multiple diameter estimation methods, including two novel ones, in a new publicly‐available dataset which includes four different forest sites, 11 trajectories, totaling 1458 tree observations, and 14,000 m2. From our extensive validation, we concluded that our mapping method is usable in the context of automated forest inventory, with our best diameter estimation method yielding a root mean square error of 3.45 cm for our whole dataset and 2.04 cm in ideal conditions consisting of mature forest with well‐spaced trees. Furthermore, we release this dataset to the public (https://norlab.ulaval.ca/research/montmorencydataset), to spur further research in robotic forest inventories. Finally, stemming from this large‐scale experiment, we provide recommendations for future deployments of mobile robots in a forestry context.


Advanced Glycation End Products Measured by Age Reader in a Group of Patients with Obesity Background and Aim: Skin autofluorescence (AF) is a method used to detect the accumulation of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) in skin collagen using AGE Reader. AGEs accumulation is favorised by chronic hyperglycemia and oxidative stress and these products may contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Materials and Methods. The inclusion criteria for the study were: patients with Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥30kg/m2. We excluded from the study patients of black color, because of the principle of fluorescence of AGE Reader, and also patients with diabetes. Patients underwent Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) with 75g of glucose: fasting plasma glucose (FPG), two hours post glucose load, and HbA1c blood samples were analysed. Finnish diabetes risk score for predicting the incidence of diabetes (FINDRISK score) was calculated. Results. BMI had a negative correlation with AF (p<0.005), but Abdominal Circumference (AC) was not correlated with AF (p=0.065). No correlations were found between BMI and FPG, or blood sugar level two hour post glucose load. Glucose level at two hours post glucose load did not correlate with the AF. Conclusion. Our results do not confirm the theoretical assumption according to which AC and BMI, as markers of insulin resistance and metabolic disorders, are associated with the increase in AGEs, or the assumption that postprandial blood glucose levels would have a more important role in the development of chronic complications that AGEs could be pathogenic link. AF is not influenced by short-term variations in blood glucose such as blood sugar level at two hours post glucose load, but it is influenced by FPG and prolonged term variation in blood glucose as HbA1c.


This work examines the comparative durability of two common dyes at temperatures that may be experienced during fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) such as through the application of thermoplastics for encapsulation or the use of a molten solid-state hole conductor. Dye-sensitized electrodes were heated in an atmosphere of air or nitrogen and thereafter used as working electrodes in DSCs. Electrodes sensitized with N719 appeared more sensitive to thermal degradation than electrodes sensitized with D5, although absorbance measurements suggest similar first-order degradation rates for the two dyes. Intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy and intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy were used to measure the effect of heating on electron lifetime and transport. It was found that the electron diffusion length may be as low as 10% for heated samples, compared to that of the unheated counterpart, and therefore, we assess recombination as an additional efficiency limiting process in our ex...


Antimicrobial finishing of textiles has been found to be an economical way to prevent (or treat) skin disorders. Hence, this research effort was aimed at elucidating the relationship between molecular weight (MW) of chitosan and its antimicrobial activity upon six dermal reference microorganisms, as well as the influence of the interactions with cotton fabrics on said activity. Using 3 chitosans with different MW, as well as two chitooligosaccharide (COS) mixtures, a relevant antimicrobial effect was observed by 24 h for the six microorganisms tested; it was apparent that the antimicrobial effect is strongly dependent on the type of target microorganism and on the MW of chitosan being higher for lower MW in the case of E. coli, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa, and the reverse in the case of both Gram-positive bacteria. Furthermore, a strong anti-fungal effect was detectable upon C. albicans, resembling the action over Gram-positive bacteria. Interactions with cotton fabric resulted in a loss of COS activity when compared with cultured media, relative to the effect over Gram-negative bacteria. However, no significant differences for the efficacy of all the 5 compounds were observed by 4 h. The three chitosans possessed a higher antimicrobial activity when impregnated onto the fabric, and presented a similar effect on both Gram-positive bacteria and yeast, in either matrix. Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed to be the most resistant microorganism to all five compounds.


The SV40 origin of replication comprises a run of thymine and adenine residues. Integrity of this AT-rich sequence is known to be essential for replication. We set out to study whether or not these elements can work synergistically to sustain replication. Quite surprisingly, additional copies of the AT stretch linked to a functional SV40 ori core dramatically reduce its replication in Cosl cells, probably by creating some physical block. Interestingly, the same inhibiting effect can be observed with the addition in cis of the yeast ARS consensus, which is homologous to the SV40 AT stretch. This modulation is possibly due to the action of cellular factors that recognize either of the two sequences. In fact, we demonstrate the existence of factor(s) in Cosl crude nuclear extracts that in vitro can specifically bind to either of them. Moreover, we show that these sequence-specific factor(s) (MW about 50 kDa), named SOAP, recognize both single (T-rich strand) and double stranded forms of the AT tracts. Binding to single stranded AT stretches can be specifically inhibited by the corresponding duplex form, but not vice versa.


We studied species-specific growth responses of freshwater algae to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) by measuring growth-irradiance curves (G-E curves) of 17 algal diatoms (isolated from a periphyton community in a lotic system) in a solar simulator under photosynthetically available radiation plus UVR and minus UVR radiation condition. Algal growth responses to UVR were highly species-specific, and the photoinhibition parameter (β) of the +UVR condition differed greatly among species. We compared the degree of UVR effect on algal growth (UVR inhibition index: difference in between +UVR and -UVR conditions) with parameters derived from the G-E curve and with algal cell morphology. UVR inhibition indexes significantly correlated with the initial slope of light-limited portion of G-E curve (a) and with the irradiance at which the growth rate starts to saturate (E k ), but not with the cell surface to volume ratios. Low-light-adapted algae tended to be more susceptible to growth inhibition by UVR than high-light-adapted ones. Algae that formed dense colonies in the growth medium were relatively tolerant of UVR irrespective of E k values. Although past studies have emphasized that UVR effects on algae are algal-size dependent, the growth strategies dealing with solar radiation and algal growth forms appear to be more valid in correctly interpreting species-specific responses of algae to solar UVR.


Desalination of iron dextran solution containing a high salt content (≈18% NaCl (w/v)) by nanofiltration (NF) was examined using three commercial nanofiltration membranes (NF270, Desal-5 DL, Nanomax50). With these NF membranes, iron dextran was almost completely rejected, while salt rejection was so small (Robs ≈ −2 to 1.5%) that salt ions could pass through the membranes easily. No irreversible fouling was found for each membrane used and a distinct transmembrane pressure (TMP) drop appeared during diafiltration at a flux of 15.5 L m−2 h−1 (20 ◦C). And the weakening of concentration polarization (CP) of iron dextran was thought to be the possible reason for TMP drop. It was found that with the decrease of salt concentration, the viscosity of solution decreased, thus enhancing the back transport of iron dextran oncentration polarization ack diffusion molecules. As a result, the concentration of iron dextran at membrane surface and filtration resistance could be reduced. However, this effect showed a little hysteresis due to the high viscosity of the feed, the pump pulse or pause would counteract the hysteresis by promoting the molecule to redisperse. Flux history had a strong influence on CP of iron dextran because of shear-enhanced diffusion. Furthermore, the effect of flux, stirring speed, and temperature on CP of iron dextran was also examined in "total recirculation" experiments. These results from the laboratory-scale tests could serve as valuable guide stria for process design in indu


This volume examines innovative intersections of life-writing and experimental fiction in the 20th and 21st centuries, bringing together scholars and practicing biographers from several disciplines (Modern Languages, English and Comparative Literature, Creative Writing). It covers a broad range of biographical, autobiographical, and hybrid practices in a variety of national literatures, among them many recent works: texts that test the ground between fact and fiction, that are marked by impressionist, self-reflexive and intermedial methods, by their recourse to myth, folklore, poetry, or drama as they tell a historical character's story.

Between them, the essays shed light on the broad range of auto/biographical experimentation in modern Europe and will appeal to readers with an interest in the history and politics of form in life-writing: in the ways in which departures from traditional generic paradigms are intricately linked with specific views of subjectivity, with questions of personal, communal, and national identity.

The Introduction of this book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.


In this paper the dynamics of prosodic parameters are explored for recognizing the emotions from speech. The dynamics of prosodic parameters refer to local or fine variations in prosodic parameters with respect to time. The proposed dynamic features of prosody are represented by : (1) sequence of durations of syllables in the utterance (duration contour), (2) sequence of fundamental frequency values (pitch contour) and (3) sequence of frame energy values (energy contour). Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur Simulated Emotion Speech Corpus (IITKGP-SESC) is used for analyzing the proposed prosodic features for recognizing the emotions [1]. The emotions considered in this work are anger, disgust, fear, happiness neutral and sadness. Support vector machines (SVM) are explored to discriminate the emotions using the proposed prosodic features. Emotion recognition performance is analyzed separately, using duration patterns of the sequence of syllables, pitch contours and energy contours, and their recognition performance is observed to be 64%, 67% and 53% respectively. Fusion techniques are explored at feature and score levels. The performance of the fusion-based emotion recognition systems is observed to be 69% and 74% for feature and score level fusions,respectively.


With a posterior price matching (PM) policy, a seller guarantees to reimburse the price difference to a consumer who buys a product before the seller marks it down. Such a policy has been widely adopted by retailers. We examine the impact of a posterior PM policy on consumers' purchasing behavior, a seller's pricing and inventory decisions, and their expected payoffs, assuming that the seller cannot credibly commit to a price path, but can implement a posterior PM policy. We find that the PM policy eliminates strategic consumers' waiting incentive and thus allows the seller to increase price in the regular selling season. When the fraction of strategic consumers is not too small and their valuation decline over time is neither too low nor too high, the PM policy can substantially improve the seller's profit, as well as the inventory investment. In such situations, the strategic consumers' waiting incentive and the loss if they wait are both high. However, to adopt this policy, the seller also bears the refund cost. The seller must either pay the refund that consumers will claim or forgo the salvage value of any leftover inventory. The PM policy can be detrimental when there are only a few strategic consumers or the strategic consumers' valuation decline is very low or very high. We find that the performance of this policy is insensitive to the proportion of consumers who claim the refund. From the consumers' perspective, the PM policy generally reduces consumer surplus; however, there are cases where consumer surplus can be increased, typically when the variance of the potential high-end market volume is high. As a result, a Pareto improvement on both the seller's and the consumers' payoffs is possible. Finally, we find that the ability to credibly commit to a fixed price path is not very valuable when the seller can implement price matching.


An explanation for the recently observed asymmetric negative differential conductance (NDC) in a double-quantum-dot system attached to metallic external contacts is proposed. The NDC was observed only for one half of the bias voltage range (−V,V). The theory, which is based on a diagrammatic technique for non-equilibrium many-body operator Green functions, suggests that scattering between the states in the double quantum dot suppresses the total current dynamically as the bias voltage is increased. The effect is present in systems where the double-quantum-dot states are asymmetrically coupled to the left- and right-hand contacts, and we predict that a symmetric coupling will suppress the negative differential conductance completely.


The CE-marked therascreen® PITX2 RGQ PCR Kit (QIAGEN Cat No./ID 873211), a PITX2 DNA methylation assay was introduced to the market in 2018, (hereinafter referred to as the "standard therascreen PITX2 workflow) and represents an in vitro diagnostic to predict outcome to anthracycline-based chemotherapy considered standard-of-care systemic treatment in early breast cancer patients. The Intended Use (IUS) of this kit covers lymph node-positive, estrogen receptor-positive and HER2-negative high-risk breast cancer patients treated in the adjuvant setting with anthracycline-based chemotherapy and requires 400 ng genomic DNA as recommended DNA input extracted from 1-2 x 5 µm Formalin-Fixed-Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) sections with a minimal total tumor tissue surface area of ≥ 100 mm2. In today's clinical workflow of early high-risk breast cancer patient therapy, increasing number of patients are treated in the neoadjuvant setting after tumor biopsy with anthracycline-based chemotherapy before tumor resection by surgery. Biopsy material size restriction in this clinical area requires for a predictive marker test to be applicable biopsy specimens with tumor tissue surface area's in the range of 20-50 mm2. Therefore, a modified PITX2 workflow protocol - the so-called "Condensed Efficient Fast (CEF)" PITX2 workflow – was developed to address this need. The required modifications of the standard therascreen PITX2 workflow is described in the "bisDNA Preparation" section. The "PMR Detection & Analysis" section of the standard therascreen PITX2 workflow remains unchanged. The new CEF PITX2 workflow is for Research Use Only (RUO) and intended to be used by qualified users such as technicians, molecular biologists/clinical chemists, or physicians. The complete CEF PITX2 workflow is optimized for medium sample through-put with highly reliable and robust read-out and can be performed in two working days.


The clinical histories of nine children with osteopetrosis are reported. Two of them had the malignant infantile variety of the disease: one died within 3 months of birth and the other has survived 20 months on a regimen of a low calcium intake, cellulose phosphate, and steroids. The beneficial effect of a low calcium intake, in early infancy, is supported by the clinical course in the infant with the malignant variety and in another child with the more benign form of the disease. No calcium balance studies were performed. This study suggests that the active measures outlined may favourably influence the haematological and osteosclerotic course of the disease, pending further knowledge of its aetiological basis, and more specific therapy.


ABSTRACT A three-dimensional morphodynamic model depicting temporal and spatial changes in barrier morphology is presented for the Bayou Lafourche barrier shoreline. Variations in overwash intensity generate a predictable sequence of barrier morphologies, with overwash intensity defined as the frequency and magnitude at which overwash events impact the shoreline. This model depicts continuous change in barrier morphology, with decreasing overwash intensity leading to onshore sediment transport, barrier accretion, and dune development. Increasing overwash intensity leads to barrier erosion, offshore sediment transport, and washover sheet formation. The erosional sequence begins with stage 1, when a continuous foredune barrier is formed under low-intensity overwash and fair weather conditions. Increasing overwash intensity erodes the stage 1 foredune and creates an offshore movement of sand. Increasing overwash intensity leads to foredune breaching, overwash, and the development of an eolian terrace, stage 2. During stage 3, the foredune is eventually destroyed, forming a washover terrace. Continued intense overwash activity finally results in the destruction of stage 3, and the formation of a washover sheet, stage 4. The accretionary sequence begins with a stage 4 washover sheet generated by intense high-energy overwash conditions. With decreasing overwash intensity, an onshore movement of sediment is produced and the barrier begins to accrete, leading to stage 3. Continuing low overwash intensities lead to discontinuous foredune development and the formation of an eolian terrace, stage 2. Stage 1 is reached when the discontinuous foredunes coalesce to form a linear continuous foredune. Spatially, longshore variation in sediment availability results in different barrier beach stages occurring simultaneously along the Bayou Lafourche barrier shoreline. Position within the barrier island system determines sediment supply. Coastal tracts on the central headland and updrift of flanking barrier islands are characterized by a negative sediment budget and the persistence of barrier stages 3 and 4. The downdrift flanks of the erosional headland and flanking barrier islands and spits are sediment abundant, with barrier stages 1 and 2 persisteing. An intense overwash event associated with a major tropical cycloe impact would transform the entire Bayou Lafourche barrier shoreline into a stage 4 barrier and initiate a new accretionary sequence. End_of_Record - Last_Page 395-------


Resection with primary anastomosis can only repair up to 50% of the adult trachea and up to 30% of the pediatric trachea when damaged. There is a strong clinical need for long-segment tracheal replacements. The goal of this research was to create a seamless, scaffold-free cartilage cylinder for tracheal tissue engineering in vitro. Primary
bovine articular chondrocytes were seeded onto tracheal moulds for roller bottle culture and the effect of rotational speed, growth factor supplementation, and chondrocyte layering were investigated. After the 4-week culture period, samples were evaluated biochemically, histologically, and biomechanically. The results indicated that rotation
was necessary for full tissue coverage, with slower rotational speeds generating thicker tissue with an improved extracellular matrix, IGF-1 supplementation generating thicker tissue rich in glycosaminoglycans with inferior mechanical properties, and chondrocyte layering producing thinner tissue with increased mechanical properties. Overall, scaffold-free tissue engineering can generate seamless cylindrical cartilage constructs using roller bottle culture for future applications in long-segment tracheal replacement.


The automatic assignment of anchoring points is proposed to define the correspondence between the time-frequency representations of speech samples for speech morphing, speech texture mapping, and so on. The correspondence is modeled as a set of segmental bilinear function. These model parameters are called anchoring points. Although, the correspondence significantly affects the quality of such manipulated speech sounds as morphed and texture mapped speech sounds, anchoring points were manually aligned on time-frequency representations. Anchoring points should be placed at auditorily important locations. When a spectrogram is presented as a time-frequency representation, auditorily important locations are given by formant frequencies around vowel transitions. The central idea of the proposed method is to prepare vowel template spectra with pre-assigned anchoring points in advance and to deform one of the templates to match the input speech spectrum. Finally, anchoring points on the input spectrum are copied from pre-assigned anchoring points. Experimental results suggest that the naturalness of morphed speech based on the proposed automatic assignment method has equivalent quality to STRAIGHT synthetic speech samples.


Innovation is a source of increasing productivity, but it is also a source of stress. Psychological research shows that moderate stress increases the productivity of an actor, but above a certain level, additional stress decreases productivity. Stress is reduced by coping behaviour of the actor, and in addition it is buffered by social relations. However, high levels of stress negatively affect social relations, causing social erosion. In a formal model including inter-agent dynamics, we show that the variables moderating stress levels are of crucial importance for identifying the overall effects of different rates of innovation on productivity. The model shows among other things that the existece and nature of relationships of people determine the extent to which a certain rate of innovation effectively results in increasing productivity. In addition, it shows the possibility of multiple equilibria under some parameter values both highand low-stress steady states exist; and the dynamics exhibit hysteresis. At very high levels of stress, innovation can result in a dissolution of social relations, and has a negative relationship with the rate of economic growth. JEL codes : O4; J28; C61


The ISIS Toolkit is a programming environment for building process-group structured distributed software. The system is widely used in settings requiring high reliability, strong distributed consistency guarantees, and highspeed communication. In this paper, we describe experimental studies of ISIS performance. Our work explores the impact of hardware support for multicast performance, with a focus on flow control mechanisms. The use of hardware multicast in ISIS has not been discussed elsewhere. One conclusion of the paper is that although ISIS performance is limited primarily by flow control considerations, this type of hardware support can lead to significant performance improvements for certain communication patterns. A second conclusion was that the ISIS flow-control problem is surprisingly difficult. More work in this area, and on the underlying operating system communications layer (UDP), could have significant impact on the system. Keywords and phrases: Distributed computing, performance, process groups, atomic broadcast, causal and total message ordering, cbcast, abcast, multiple process groups, hardware multicast, IP multicast, virtual synchrony, faulttolerance.


Deforestation and natural grassland conversion to agricultural land use constitute a major threat to soil and water conservation. This study aimed at assessing the status of land cover and land use (LCLU) in the Lake Kivu basin, and its related impacts in terms of soil erosion by water using the Universal Soil Erosion Equation (USLE) model. The results indicated that the Lake Kivu basin is exposed to soil erosion risk with a mean annual rate of 30 t·ha−1, and only 33% of the total non-water area is associated with a tolerable soil loss (≤10 t·ha−1·year−1). Due to both natural factors (abundant tropical precipitation and steep slopes) and anthropogenic activities without prior appropriate conservation practices, all land-use types—namely settlement, cropland, forestland, and grassland—are exposed to a severe mean erosion rate of 41 t·ha−1·year−1, 31 t·ha−1·year−1, 28 t·ha−1·year−1, and 20 t·ha−1·year−1, respectively. The cropland that occupied 74% of the non-water area in 2015 was the major contributor (75%) to the total annual soil loss in the Lake Kivu basin. This study showed that conservation practices in the cropland cells would result in a mean erosion rate of 7 t·ha−1·year−1, 18 t·ha−1·year−1, and 35 t·ha−1·year−1 for terracing, strip-cropping, and contouring, respectively. The adoption of terracing would be the best conservation practice, among others, that could reduce soil erosion in cropland areas up to about 23%. The erosion risk minimization in forests and grasslands implies an increase in overstorey canopy and understorey vegetation, and control of human activities such as fires, mining, soil compaction from domestic animals grazing, and so on. Soil erosion control in settled areas suggests, among other things, the revegetation of construction sites, establishment of outlet channels, rainfall water harvesting systems, and pervious paving block with grass.


BACKGROUND
Bacterial conjunctivitis is a common reason for children to be seen in pediatric practices. A correct diagnosis is important so that appropriate treatment can be instituted.

OBJECTIVE
To provide an update on the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis in children.

METHODS
A PubMed search was completed in Clinical Queries using the key term "bacterial conjunctivitis". Patents were searched using the key term "bacterial conjunctivitis" from www.freepatentsonline.com and www.google.com/patents.

RESULTS
In the neonatal period, bacterial conjunctivitis is rare and the most common cause of organism is Staphylococcus aureus, followed by Chlamydia trachomatis. In infants and older children, bacterial conjunctivitis is most often caused by Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Moraxella catarrhalis. Clinically, bacterial conjunctivitis is characterized by a purulent eye discharge, or sticky eyes on awakening, a foreign body sensation and conjunctival injection (pink eye). The diagnosis is made clinically. Cultures are unnecessary. Some authors suggest a watchful observation approach as most cases of bacterial conjunctivitis are self-limited. A Cochrane review suggests the use of antibiotic eye drops is associated with modestly improved rates of clinical and microbiological remission as compared to the use of placebo. Various investigators have also disclosed patents for the treatment of conjunctivitis.

CONCLUSION
The present consensus supports the use of topical antibiotics for bacterial conjunctivitis. Topical antibiotics shorten the course of the disease, reduce discomfort, prevent person-to-person transmission and reduce the rate of reinfection.


Graphene is a ground-breaking two-dimensional (2D) material that possesses outstanding electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties and that promises a new generation of devices. Despite all these, some applications require graphene-based materials with different characteristics, such as good solubility in organic solvents and a specific band gap to be dispersible in polymer nanocomposite matrix and applied as active layer, electron transport layer (ETL) or hole transport layer (HTL) in organic photovoltaics. Chemically modified graphene derivatives are studied, searching for better dispersions and even more properties for different applications. Most of the attention has been drawn to dispersions of graphene oxides or highly reduced graphene oxides. Therefore, this allows an opportunity to study the characteristics of materials with intermediate oxidation degrees and its applications.


Intravenous sufentanil, an analog of fentanyl, was compared to diazepam for conscious sedation in ambulatory dental outpatients. Ten patients undergoing the surgical removal of impacted third molars served as subjects in a double-blind, within-subject, single crossover study. Sedation was achieved with a combination of 30% nitrous oxide/70% oxygen by nasal mask and either diazepam (0.05-0.15 mg/kg) or sufentanic (0.05-0.15 ,g/kg) titrated to a clinical endpoint of altered speech and relaxation. Intraoperative physiologic monitoring, patients' and the oral surgeon's subjective estimates of efficacy and psychomotor recovery were used to compare the two treatments. Both patients (eight of 10) and surgeons (six of 10) preferred sufentanil sedation. No significant differences were noted between treatments for psychomotor recovery. These preliminary data in a small sample suggest that sufentanil produces adequate conscious sedation in dental outpatients and should be evaluated further with larger patient samples.


A Danish family with seven males with hydrocephalus in three generations is described. Frequent findings in this x‐linked recessive form of the disease are irregular cranium, asymmetrical face, thumb held across palm, spasticity of the legs and paradoxical plantar responses. The literature on this mode of inheritance is reviewed.


There are various parametric models for analyzing pairwise comparison data, including the Bradley–Terry–Luce (BTL) and Thurstone models, but their reliance on strong parametric assumptions is limiting. In this paper, we study a flexible model for pairwise comparisons, under which the probabilities of outcomes are required only to satisfy a natural form of stochastic transitivity. This class includes parametric models, including the BTL and Thurstone models as special cases, but is considerably more general. We provide various examples of models in this broader stochastically transitive class for which classical parametric models provide poor fits. Despite this greater flexibility, we show that the matrix of probabilities can be estimated at the same rate as in standard parametric models up to logarithmic terms. On the other hand, unlike in the BTL and Thurstone models, computing the minimax-optimal estimator in the stochastically transitive model is non-trivial, and we explore various computationally tractable alternatives. We show that a simple singular value thresholding algorithm is statistically consistent but does not achieve the minimax rate. We then propose and study algorithms that achieve the minimax rate over interesting sub-classes of the full stochastically transitive class. We complement our theoretical results with thorough numerical simulations.


A novel bathocuproine (BCP) derivative 4,7-bis(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BCP-2CF3) was synthesized and investigated as a candidate for exciton blocking layers (EBLs) in organic solar cells. The impacts of BCP-2CF3 and BCP on the performance of photovoltaic devices were studied for bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) devices with a blend of poly[N-9′′-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)] (PCDTBT) and [6,6]phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM). In comparison with BCP, BCP-2CF3 showed a comparable improvement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) (ca. 39%), and moreover a better thermal stability. Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices with BCP-2CF3 withstood an annealing temperature as high as 100 °C, while those with BCP revealed a loss about 90% of the original efficiency at the same temperature. The newly designed principle for BCP-derived EBL materials opens a window for systematic enhancement of the efficiency and especially durability of organic solar cells.


The close environment of railway tracks is heavily polluted by electromagnetic noise from the railway system itself. The reliability of railway signalling, communication, and control systems depends on good immunity to electromagnetic noise. There are sometimes false detector signals indicating non-existing flat wheels and ghost trains. A possible reason for detector failures is interference by transient voltage peaks in the detector system. Thus characterisation has been made of the electromagnetic environment around the detector system located at the track. The investigation shows that the typical electromagnetic environment is a combination of broadband low-level noise, and rare fast transients of potentially harmful amplitudes.


We explore the effects of various receiver coil dimensions and configurations on power transfer efficiency and cost of operation, using advanced simulation tools. We demonstrate that the spatial distribution of the magnetic field leads to a non-monotonic dependence of the coupling coefficient on coil size. Thus, an optimal coil size, where the coupling coefficient peaks, should be regarded a crucial design parameter which affects the entire system performances. The incorporation of our findings into a multi-objective optimization algorithm is also discussed.


This note describes simple simulations which were performed in order to understand the attenuation behaviors of acrylic light-guides operated in air and argon, which were characterized in \cite{Baptista:2012bf}. Whilst these simulations are only at the level of sophistication of a toy model, they illustrate interesting non-exponential light attenuation effects and the differences between operating light-guide based detectors in argon and air environments. We investigate the effects of surface absorption, surface roughness and wavelength dependence, and use a model tuned on the light-guide attenuation curve measured in air to make a prediction of the light-guide attenuation curve in argon. This curve is compared with data from a liquid argon test stand, and an improvement over a simple exponential model is observed.


In this work we compare the use of a particle swarm optimization (PSO) and a genetic algorithm (GA) (both augmented with support vector machines SVM) for the classification of high dimensional microarray data. Both algorithms are used for finding small samples of informative genes amongst thousands of them. A SVM classifier with 10-fold cross-validation is applied in order to validate and evaluate the provided solutions. A first contribution is to prove that PSOSVM is able to find interesting genes and to provide classification competitive performance. Specifically, a new version of PSO, called geometric PSO, is empirically evaluated for the first time in this work. In this sense, a comparison of this approach with a new GASVM and also with other existing methods of literature is provided. A second important contribution consists in the actual discovery of new and challenging results on six public datasets identifying significant in the development of a variety of cancers (leukemia, breast, colon, ovarian, prostate, and lung).


This paper presents the augmentation of a commercial-of-the-self (COTS) multi-rotor unmanned aerial system (UAS) to extend its capabilities by introducing increased on-board processing power. The option to process sensor information on-board reduces the required bandwidth by only communicating relevant or important information and therefore increases the level of UAS autonomy. It also enables adaptive reactive abilities for a group of UAS executing a coordinated, collaborative or cooperative mission. This paper describes an effort to integrate a small board computer, more specifically, an Odroid C2 with the COTS 3DR Solo drone, and reviews the achieved enhanced capabilities of such a system. This is an extension of a traditional autopilot, as such, the original Ardupilot hardware and software is not modified in this work.


. We revisit the notion of Witness Authenticated Key Exchange ( WAKE ) where a party can be authenticated through a generic witness to an NP statement. We point out shortcomings of previous definitions, protocols and security proofs in Ngo et al. (Financial Cryptography 2021) for the (unilaretally-authenticated) two-party case. In order to overcome these limitations we introduce new models and protocols, including the first definition in literature of group witness-authenticated key exchange. We provide simple constructions based on (succinct) signatures of knowledge. Finally, we discuss their concrete performance for several practical applications in highly decentralized networks.


We present results from a study of the photometric redshift performance of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), using the early data from a Science Verification (SV) period of observations in late 2012 and early 2013 that provided science-quality images for almost 200 sq.~deg.~at the nominal depth of the survey. We assess the photometric redshift performance using about 15000 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts available from other surveys. These galaxies are used, in different configurations, as a calibration sample, and photo-$z$'s are obtained and studied using most of the existing photo-$z$ codes. A weighting method in a multi-dimensional color-magnitude space is applied to the spectroscopic sample in order to evaluate the photo-$z$ performance with sets that mimic the full DES photometric sample, which is on average significantly deeper than the calibration sample due to the limited depth of spectroscopic surveys. Empirical photo-$z$ methods using, for instance, Artificial Neural Networks or Random Forests, yield the best performance in the tests, achieving core photo-$z$ resolutions $\sigma_{68} \sim 0.08$. Moreover, the results from most of the codes, including template fitting methods, comfortably meet the DES requirements on photo-$z$ performance, therefore, providing an excellent precedent for future DES data sets.


The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture industry is growing, and with it, the need to source and optimise sustainable ingredients for aquafeeds. Black soldier fly (BSF) larvae (Hermetia illucens) have received increasing research attention since they are a good source of protein that can efficiently convert a wide range of low-value organic material into valuable resources. This study investigated the impact of three differently processed BSF meals, an untreated BSF diet (BSFC+), a dechitinated BSF diet (BSFC-) and a fermented BSF diet (BSFC+P+) at a 10% inclusion level replacing fish meal in a fish meal control (FM) and a marine and soy protein concentrate based control diet (SPC). Growth performance, gut microbiome and gut histology of salmon fry was assessed. The inclusion and processing methods of BSF showed no adverse impacts on either growth performance or gut histology. However, the gut microbiome of fish was significantly altered by both the protein source and the processing method of the BSF larvae. Fish fed BSFC+, had an increased diversity and evenness of the community compared with conventional protein sources alone, and compared with the other BSF processing methods. However, control diets had a greater presence of lactic acid bacteria and genera associated with faster growing hosts. Fish fed BSF had a high relative abundance of the genus, Exiguobacterium, a chitin-degrading bacterium and in BSFC+P+ fed fish this bacterium completely dominated the community, indicating the presence of dysbiosis. Future studies should determine, why Exiguobacterium has dominated the community for the BSFC+P+ diet, and if it provides a digestive function to the host and identify bacteria that are indicators of optimal host performance and resilience. The results confirmed that BSF is a promising fish meal replacement for salmon, and it demonstrated that BSFC+ has a potential prebiotic impact on the gut microbiome of Atlantic salmon.


The expertise represents an important capital in a company. The loss of this kind of knowledge has pushed the companies to look for a means to capitalize on it so as to use in the future. In fact, in many companies the design process usually learn from an old similar experience, the designers develop an existent solution, or try to take back old solution in order to adapt it to a new requirement. This tendency to reuse old solutions is strengthened by constraints of time, of efficiency and of search of a maximum of reliability. Therefore, the importance of the capitalization of design project knowledge is more and more increasing. This paper presents techniques to extract and to represent this type of knowledge in a project memory, using Process Life cycle Management (PLM) tools.


Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea" - Ernest Hemingway, "The old man and the sea".The background of this research, given the central condition that the world is completely dependent on maritime transportation systems, is to understand how these systems are vulnerable towards disruptions, what the consequences are if the transportation systems should break down, and how one may give the systems the ability to restore their ability to move goods after a disruption has occurred.The mission of the system is to move goods, hence the focus on protecting the mission rather than the infrastructure itself. The prevalence of low-frequency high-impact scenarios; events that have a low probability but may cause great harm to the system, give the ground for why not all efforts should be directed towards preventing disruptions from occurring. Disruptions are bound to occur, how may the systems be prepared to cope with these events?Cases within transportation of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and humanitarian logistics are used to illustrate the problem and the approach to coping with such problems.The research part of the doctoral thesis can be divided into five thematic areas: TA1: Energy security, in particular for natural gas and global LNG transportation systems TA2: Understanding of maritime transportation system failures, in particular for lowfrequency high-impact scenarios TA3: Methods for systematically addressing how systems fail and how these may be made less vulnerable TA4: The relevance of maritime transportation systems in humanitarian relief operations, and how to strengthen these TA5: The interaction between supply chain risk assessment and LNG transportation system optimizationContributions from the research can be summed up as: C1: An overview of the critical functions necessary for a maritime transportation system's ability to move goods. C2: A framework for systematically addressing vulnerabilities in maritime transportation systems, treating both operational and low-frequency high-impact risks, as well as incorporating cost/efficiency criteria in the assessment. C3: The insight and understanding of failure and restoration of maritime transportation systems is applicable to humanitarian relief logistics, where the application of principles from commercial supply chain management is immature. C4: Combining supply chain risk assessment with optimization tools for an LNG supply chain increases the robustness and resilience of the system and thereby the energy security of the recipients, while ensuring efficient resource usage of the supply chain.


Background/Objectives: This research aims to find out how the spiritual well-being of adolescents, especially female high school students, affect the establishment of proper sexual attitude. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Spiritual well-being is for measuring the subjective state of spiritual well-being, and is made up of two lower measures: the measure that gauges religious spiritual well-being, the state of well-being within the relationship with god, and existential spiritual well-being, the state of well-being focused on the meaning and goal of life. Sexual attitude is characteristics of puberty, knowledge about sex (pregnancy, contraception, and STD), dating, sexual awareness and ethics. Findings: The total of spiritual wellbeing was 3.42±0.56, religious spiritual well-being, which is the sense of well-being within the relationship with god, stood at 3.12±0.77, and existential spiritual well-being, which is the state of well-being focused on the meaning and goal of life, was 3.73±0.55. The total score of sexual attitude stood at 3.61±0.33, and as for the sub-measures, characteristics of puberty at 3.89±0.59, knowledge about sex (pregnancy, contraception, and STD) at 3.51±0.50, dating at 4.08±0.69, and sexual awareness and ethics at 3.42±0.37. Spiritual well-being has a positive relationship with the characteristics of puberty, and a negative relationship with dating. Among subcategories of spiritual well-being, religious well-being and dating had a negative relationship and existential well-being had a positive relationship with sexual attitude, characteristics of puberty, knowledge about sex, and sexual awareness and ethics. Application/Improvements: This study is expected to serve as base data for program development, when finding out the correlation between the level of adolescents' spiritual well-being and sexual attitude.