On the last page of the book one may learn that James A. Lee is the environmental advisor at the World Bank. On page 6 there is the following:
As a matter of policy, the World Bank will not finance a project that seriously compromises public health or safety, causes severe or irreversible environmental deterioration, displaces people without adequate provision for resettlement, or has important transnational environmental implications. This policy is enforced by the Office of Environmental and Scientific Affairs through the Bank's project cycle.
This book is intended as a primer for the nonexpert to highlight the major environmental, public health and sociocultural impacts of economic development projects. This primer contains seven chapters and two appendixes.
Chapter 1 elaborates on the Bank policy to "… try to ensure that the human resources necessary to sustain economic growth in developing nations are not adversely affected." The second chapter deals specifically with air pollution, water pollution, solid waste disposal and noise pollution.


In response to Richard McCormick's examination of the portrayal of male gender anxieties in film in Weimar Germany, this article examines the evolution of the patriarchal identification of masculinity in Weimar Germany, with a particular focus on various social factors that contributed to the development of the sense of uncertainty about the role of German men that McCormick examines in cinematic media. Beginning with the Great War and its influence on frontline troops, the article continues on to examine psychological and economic forces that undermined the traditional idea of male identity as a separate phenomenon from the emergence of the modern, liberated 'New Woman' in Weimar society.


Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by eosinophilic inflammation and airflow obstruction. More than 300 million people suffer from this disease and its prevalence is increasing. Common symptoms of asthma are wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. Many studies have shown that T cell activity can be related by severity of asthma, degree of narrowing of airways and eosinophil response. The atopic individuals with asthma, immune response are mainly Th2 (T helper) type while the non-atopic individuals are predominantly Th1 (T helper1) type. Th2 immune response is associated with increased interleukin 4, 5 and 13 that will be found more frequently in patients with asthma. Immune response with excellence Th1 is abundance INF- and IL-2. An imbalance between Th1 and Th2 got involved in atopic and asthma diseases. Specific transcription factors such as T-bet and GATA-3 is involved in the differentiation of TH0 to Th1 and Th2. GATA-3 is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of Th2. In contrast, T-bet regulates the differentiation of Th1. These expression factors regulate Th1/Th2 balance and allergic response. This paper is an overview of asthma, associated genes, and new treatment and prevention methods based on T-bet and GATA-3.


The paper is focused on the determination of new knowledge about interfunctional coordination. Interfunctional coordination was defined at the beginning of 90s. It is the coordination of all company activities leading to the increase of business performance. Interfunctional coordination is connected with market orientation. It is one of necessary principle of market orientation. It is not possible to use market orientation without interfunctional coordination. Market orientation is based on marketing conception. The first detailed studies were offered by Kohli and Jaworski (1990) and Narver and Slater (1990). Market orientation is described as a method helping to contribute better managing of a company by many researchers. A lot of papers on this topic were publicized during the last two decades. The earliest papers involved the first definitions of market orientation; offered methods for its measuring; and investigated the impact of market orientation on business performance. The last attitudes towards market orientation agree that market orientation enables managers to focus on external and internal elements and activities, which influence the activity of a company leading to its performance increase (Tomaskova, 2009). At present, we have a lot of methods used for the measuring of market orientation. Using a proper method depends on the branch or economic system. The perception of the implementation of market orientation is changing during the period, as well. However, the main principle is still the same – market orientation has a positive impact on business performance. Nowadays, a lot of authors deal with the implementation of market orientation. Because of this reason, we have prepared research "Research on implementation on market orientation in Hi-Tech Firms" (GA 402/07/1493). The goal of the research was to detect barriers of the implementation of market orientation. We divided the barriers of the implementation into three parts according to managers' influence in an internal, branch and external environment. State, economy and technologies are named as the main elements of external environment. The main barriers connected with the elements of branch environment are quality and quantity of branch stakeholders. Barriers of internal environment involve the barriers connected with the top management and its personality, skills, knowledge and experiences, all employees of a company and interfunctional coordination. The paper deals with the interfunctional coordination at hi-tech firms. The objective of the paper is to define barriers connected with interfunctional coordination and to detect the perception and importance of interfunctional coordination at hi-tech firms. The theoretical knowledge is noticed in some research studies. The data was acquired by means of a questionnaire. New Method measured market orientation in a company. The questionnaire New Method with 7-point Likert scale constituted by Tomaskova (2005) was used for the research. The complete database was analysed by using standard statistical methods (correlation analysis, Spearman correlation coefficient, chi-square) as well as other sophisticated techniques (Cronbach alpha). The main results of the research show that the level of market orientation at the hi-tech firms in the Czech Republic is high and confirm how important is gaining information and using this information inside the company for market orientation. The main results of the research confirm that interfunctional coordination is the base of market orientation. Hi-tech firms in the Czech Republic perceive interfunctional coordination as very necessary presumption for their future development and prosperity. The highest rate for this part received the following statements confirming positive company attitude for innovation, preference for teamwork and mutual cooperation in firms and also effort to be flexible. On the other hand, the lowest average rate had the statement describing relations between superiors and subordinates and their strictness and formalness.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.23.1.1224


A global validation dataset of 116 seismic events and 20,977 associated Pn and P arrivals is used to assess travel‐time prediction and event location accuracy for the global‐scale, 3D, P ‐wave velocity model called LLNL‐G3Dv3 (Simmons et al. , 2012). Strong regional trends that are observed for ak135 travel‐time residuals are largely removed when LLNL‐G3Dv3 is used for prediction. The 25th–75th quantile spread of travel‐time residuals is reduced by 30%–40% at teleseismic distances, and the spread is reduced by ∼60% at regional distances (<16°). Epicenter error decreases when more data are used to constrain event locations until more than ∼40 arrivals times are used. At which point, epicenter error reduction tends to plateau. Median epicenter errors for the ak135 and LLNL‐G3Dv3 models plateau at ∼8.0 and ∼5.5  km, respectively, for teleseismic P datasets. Median epicenter errors for the ak135 and LLNL‐G3Dv3 models plateau at ∼12.0 and ∼4.0  km, respectively, for regional Pn datasets. We demonstrate that spatially correlated travel‐time residual errors for the ak135 model lead to increasing epicenter error when ∼40 to ∼100 Pn arrivals are used to constrain the location. The effect of correlated error is mitigated by LLNL‐G3Dv3, for which epicenter error steadily decreases to ∼4  km when 100 Pn arrivals are used. The median area of 0.95 epicenter probability bounds for ak135 and LLNL‐G3Dv3 are 1811 and 758  km2, respectively. The ak135 ellipses are inflated to achieve the desired rate of true events occurring inside the probability region, whereas LLNL‐G3Dv3 error ellipses based on empirical residual distributions cover the true location at the expected rate because location bias is minimal.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the psychometric properties, including face, content, criterion and known-groups validity and reliability, of scales to measure oral health-related self-efficacy and fatalism in a regional Aboriginal adult population in Australia.

METHODS
Four hundred Aboriginal adults (aged 18-82 years, 67% female) completed a self-report questionnaire including items pertaining to oral health-related self-efficacy and fatalism. Structural validity was determined in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with principal components analysis for each scale. Criterion validity was assessed between the instruments and theoretically related variables. Known-groups validity was investigated by comparing the scores in different population groups according to age, sex, education and employment. Reliability of the scales was assessed through internal consistency.

RESULTS
The EFA confirmed a single factor structure for self-efficacy and fatalism scales, with Cronbach's alphas of 0.93 and 0.89 respectively. The two scales were not correlated. Oral health-related self-efficacy was associated with toothbrush ownership and brushing the previous day supporting criterion validity. Oral health-related fatalism was associated with previous extractions and perceived need for extractions also supporting criterion validity. Both measures were associated with social impact of oral health as measured by the OHIP-14, supporting their criterion validity. Mixed findings were observed in terms of known-groups validity.

CONCLUSIONS
There was initial evidence that measures of oral health-related self-efficacy and fatalism displayed adequate psychometric properties in this Aboriginal community. These constructs could have implications for approaches for improving oral health among Aboriginal people.


A key to securing global food security, conserving biodiversity and achieving climate change objectives as well as other concerns of international importance will be to sustain if not enhance productivity gains in agriculture. However, there are indications that productivity growth is slowing in staple food and feed crops around the world, and that the pace of investment in agricultural R&D — a primary source of the innovations that spur productivity — has slowed as well. The nature and magnitude of these shifts are spelled out in this paper. Reinvigorating agricultural research will be pivotal to turning these productivity trends around. The public sector has a key role to play, but the private sector will also contribute. However, the actions of the for-profit private sector are shaped by commercial realities that will limit their role in many, but by no means all, developing-country markets for many years to come. Thus a complementary public–private strategy will be the key to success. The private-sector roles in agricultural research are briefly described, along with the underlying economic factors at play, as a basis for informing the important policy and institutional choices and changes that will be required if the promise of increased agricultural productivity gains is to be realised in the decades ahead. The stakes are high, not least because decisions and actions taken (or not taken) now will have consequences for many years to come.


Background: Treatment of meniscal tears is necessary to maintain the long-term health of the knee joint. Morphological elements, particularly vascularity, that play an important role in meniscal healing are known to change during skeletal development. Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate meniscal vascularity, cellularity, collagen, and proteoglycan content by age and location during skeletal development. Study Design: Descriptive laboratory study. Methods: Medial and lateral menisci from 14 male and 7 female cadavers aged 1 month to 11 years were collected and evaluated. For each meniscus, histologic and immunohistologic techniques were used to establish the ratio of the area of proteoglycan (safranin O) positivity to the total area (proteoglycan ratio), collagen type I and type II immunostaining positivity, number of blood vessels, and cell density. These features were evaluated over the entire meniscus and also separately in 5 circumferential segments: anterior root, anterior horn, body, posterior horn, and posterior root. Additionally, cell density and number of blood vessels were examined in 3 radial regions: inner, middle, and periphery. Results: Age was associated with a decrease in meniscal vessel count and cell density, while the proteoglycan ratio increased with skeletal maturity. Differences in vessel counts, cellular density, and proteoglycan ratio in different anatomic segments as well as in the inner, middle, and peripheral regions of the developing menisci were also observed. Collagen immunostaining results were inconsistent and not analyzed. Conclusion: The cellularity and vascularity of the developing meniscus decrease with age and the proteoglycan content increases with age. All of these parameters are influenced by location within the meniscus. Clinical Relevance: Age and location differences in meniscal morphology, particularly in the number of blood vessels, are expected to influence meniscal healing.


Random number generation is a key function of today's secure devices. Commonly used for key generation, random number streams are more and more frequently used as the anchor of trust of several countermeasures such as masking. True Random Number Generators (TRNGs) thus become a relevant entry point for attacks that aim at lowering the security of integrated systems. Within this context, this paper investigates the robustness of TRNGs based on Ring Oscillators (focusing on the delay chain TRNG) against pulsed electromagnetic fault injection. Indeed, weaknesses in generating random bits for masking scheme degenerate the Side Channel resistance. Finally by exploiting fault results on delay chain TRNG some general guidelines to harden them are derived.


Luminescent metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have received much attention due to their structural tunability and broad range of light-emitting applications. The fluorescence emission of such inorganic–organic hybrids can be significantly tuned by the encapsulation of guest species such as cations, anions, vapors, and dyes. In contrast, the phosphorescence tunability for MOFs has rarely been reported. In this study, an anionic MOF [CdLi(IPA)2](Me2NH2) (IPA = isophthalic acid, Me2NH2 = dimethylamine), denoted as AMOF-1, was prepared via a solvothermal method. The as-synthesized MOF exhibited green long-lasting phosphorescence (LLP). The single-crystal structural analysis revealed that the AMOF-1 channels were lined with the π-electron-rich phenyl rings of IPA and were occupied by exchangeable (Me2NH2)+ guest cations. Based on a facile cation exchange with Mn2+ at different concentrations, the LLP performance of AMOF-1 could be further adjusted across an unusually wide range from blue to violet, white, yellow, orange and red. Furthermore, the reversible changes in the LLP emission indicated that AMOF-1 could also serve as a Cu2+-responsive "on–off" phosphorescent switch. Therefore, this study not only provides a facile way to develop a new type of multi-color LLP materials, but also a strategy to obtain a cation-responsive sensor based on an anionic MOF.


Coking wastewater produced in the coking process is poisonous and difficult to be degraded. Coking wastewater was treated by fixed bed reactors of metallization pellets with high carbon (MPHC). In this paper, it studies the effect of removing phenols, cyanide, chemical oxygen demand(COD)and ammonia nitrogen in coking wastewater by MPHC. The results show that MPHC has good degradation effect on phenols and cyanide in coking wastewater, and the degradation rate reaches to 99.88% and 99.81% respectively; and has certain degradation effect on COD, the degradation rate is 70.61%; has poor degradation effect on ammonia nitrogen. The results of FT-IR indicate that the degradation of organic pollutants in coking wastewater by MPHC is not simply adsorption, but is removed completely.


Bacterial blight (BB), caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzae is one among the major diseases in rice, which in severe condition cause losses up to 60% in total yield. Marker assisted pyramiding of three broad spectrum BB resistance genes (xa5, xa13, and Xa21) in prominent rice varieties is the most economical and effective strategy for the management of the BB disease. We report here the pyramiding of three genes (xa5, xa13, and Xa21) in maintainer lines (CO 2B, CO 23B, and CO 24B) of three promising wild abortive cytoplasmic male sterile lines (CO 2A, CO 23A, and CO 24A) through functional markers assisted back cross breeding. IRBB60 with xa5, xa13, and Xa21 genes is used as a donor parent. BC2F1 and BC2F2 generations from a cross of CO 2B, CO 23B, and CO 24B with IRBB60 were evaluated for bacterial blight and non-fertility restoration. In BC2F1, plants with all three resistance genes (xa5, xa13, and Xa21) and high parent genome recovery was identified. In BC2F2, plants with all resistance genes and without fertility restorer (Rf3 and Rf4) were selected. Based on agronomic traits, BB resistance and maintenance of sterility, two plants each in CO 2B × IRBB60, CO 24B × IRBB60 and one plant in CO 23B × IRBB60 combinations were identified. The identified lines were crossed with respective male sterile lines for conversion of improved B line into CMS line through back-crossing, in addition to selfing. The plants with high recurrent genome and phenotypically similar to parental lines and sterile are being used for the hybrid rice development program. Currently, using these lines (improved CMS line), test crosses were made to develop new rice hybrids. Hybrids combinations viz., CO 23A × AD08009R and CO 24A × IET20898R were found to be stable at different locations with high yield. The R line used in this study has been introgressed with xa5, xa13, and Xa21 genes in a separate breeding program. These new hybrids with resistance against bacterial blight will increase the crop production at BB environment.


In this thesis the beauty photoproduction cross section has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA II using e+p data collected in 2004 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 33 pb-1. Beauty production has been studied in the photoproduction regime, in which the boson exchanged between the proton and the positron is an almost real photon (virtuality, Q2 0 GeV2). Events were selected in which a bb pair is produced and at least one of the pair decays semi-leptonically into a muon. The beauty content of the sample was extracted using a combination of el (transverse momentum of the muon with respect to the closest jet) and impact parameter (distance of closest approach of the muon track to the primary vertex) methods. Measurements of the total and differential cross sections for beauty production were made. The measured cross sections are in good agreement with NLO QCD predictions and with the HERA I results that were obtained from a luminosity 3 times larger than that of the present measurement, using only the P 1 variable to separate the beauty signal from charm and light flavours and fixing the charm-to-light-flavour ratio from external measurements. An external constraint for the charm contribution is not needed in this analysis since its fraction is extracted from the fit to these data.


Results from a three-year study at University of Arkansas' Southeast Research and Extension Center in Monticello, Arkansas were used to examine partial returns (PR) from stocker cattle grazing bermudagrass pastures overseeded with ryegrass and crimson clover, white clover, or crimson and white clover in two grazing seasons. The study revealed that at current fertilizer and seed prices, the control pasture, overseeded with ryegrass and fertilized with commercial nitrogen, provided higher PR than pastures overseeded with clovers and ryegrass. Furthermore, the study revealed current nitrogen fertilizer prices would have to more than double for producers to achieve greater PR with clovers.


This study presents a diachronic analysis of the language ruled to be unparliamentary in the New Zealand Parliament from 1890 to 1950. While unparliamentary language is sometimes referred to as 'parliamentary insults' (Ilie, 2001), this study has a wider definition: the language used in a legislative chamber is unparliamentary when it is ruled or signalled by the Speaker as out of order or likely to cause disorder. The user is required to articulate a statement of withdrawal and apology or risk further censure. The analysis uses the Communities of Practice theoretical framework, developed by Wenger (1998) and enhanced with linguistic impoliteness, as defined by Mills (2005) in order to contextualise the use of unparliamentary language within a highly regulated institutional setting. The study identifies and categorises the lexis of unparliamentary language, including a focus on examples that use New Zealand English or te reo Māori.   Approximately 2600 examples of unparliamentary language, along with bibliographic, lexical, descriptive and contextual information, were entered into a custom designed relational database. The examples were categorised into three: 'core concepts', 'personal reflections' and the 'political environment', with a number of sub-categories. This revealed a previously unknown category of 'situation dependent' unparliamentary language and a creative use of 'animal reflections'. The database design enabled the identification of sub-groups of members of parliament, the 'principal users' and 'frequent targets' of unparliamentary language. The analysis of the forms of rebuke made by the Speakers of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives, for using unparliamentary language, showed they changed over time.   In the early years of the period examined by the study, the use of unparliamentary language was relatively small with the numbers dramatically increasing after 1930. It is argued that increases in the use of unparliamentary language reflected 'discontinuities' in the Community of Practice. This was illustrated in the years 1928 to 1935 with high numbers of unparliamentary language directed at the incumbent coalition government by Labour Party members. The 'principal users' of unparliamentary language made full use of the 'shared repertoire', both parliamentary and unparliamentary language, as part of their 'identity'. Following Wenger's definition of 'power', as the duality of 'negotiation' and 'identity', the findings suggest that 'non-participation' in the institutional preference for parliamentary language was a form of 'power' within the Community of Practice.  This study shows unparliamentary language to be a little researched element of parliamentary discourse that reveals much about individual users and the dynamics of the legislative chamber. The trends in its use have mirrored some of the most important political events in New Zealand's history. While the use of unparliamentary language is popularly considered 'bad' behaviour this study casts new light on its role when seen within the wider discourse and historical context.


Aim of the study: Transferring HR practices to subsidiaries in foreign countries is becoming popular for researchers and with the increasing importance of MNCs in the whole world economy, literature on this phenomenon has also increased. This research contributes to the existing debate on converge vs. divergence, and then more specifically to the standardization vs. localization debate in international business. The research involves a single case study carried out in the company Coulisse B.V., and indentifies how the parent company and their subsidiary in Florida are interpreting and dealing with four HR practices (recruitment and selection procedures; performance management; reward and compensation; termination and retirement). Based on existing literature, this investigating contributes to the debate on transferring HR practices to overseas subsidiaries and the influence of institutional pillars, which are defined by Scott (2001) as regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive pressures. In order to accomplish the purpose of the study, the following research question is developed: "What are the institutional pressures that shape HR practices transfer from a Dutch multinational headquarter, to a U.S. subsidiary?". It should provide an understanding, in how HR decision making of the headquarter in the Netherlands (Europe), will influence HR practices in Florida (United States), and next if these practices therefore can be converged (standardized) or should be diverged (localized) with the foreign country, or if a mix of both is the most obvious choice (crossvergence). Methodology: The study can be classified as a descriptive research, and is elaborating on the transferability of HR practices in which two different situations will be compared. Data is collected by conducting e-mail interviews with employees of both the headquarter and the subsidiary in Florida, followed by some personal interviews with employees at the headquarter. They are asked to interpret how the mentioned HR practices are developed and used in their establishment. It aims to gain insights in how the institutional pressures of Scott (2001) are affecting the transfer of HR practices globally. The focus is primarily on comparing both 'situations' in the Netherlands and Florida and investigate if there are conflicting pressures which have an influence on possible transfer. Findings: Regulations concerning hiring an employee in Florida are much less-restricted than in the Netherlands. Also the whole process of selecting the right candidate differs, since in the Netherlands people expect to be treat much more neatly than in Florida. In case of poor performance and dismissal, in the Netherlands, the company should comply with regulations while in Florida, hiring and also dismissing employees is much more easy because of so known "At-Will" contracts. The Hispanic culture has a major influence in Florida. People are tending to react sensitive while conceiving criticism, so during performance appraisal, the attitude of the employer should adapt to local standards. The differences in wages between the Netherlands and Florida are varying strongly. Standardizing would mean that the company will overcompensate employees in one of the countries or under compensate in the other. Besides, the structure of wages is differing in both locations, since in the U.S.A. (including Florida) for sales employees, the part of the compensation that is variable (not fixed) is much more higher than in European countries. Dutch employees are accustomed to secondary benefits such as business trips etc.. However, in Florida, they are not as much attracted by these types of benefits while employees over there are much more expecting to get rewarded for their performance in money. The strong culture of social security by law is much higher in the Netherlands, since the majority of employees build their supplementary pension via the employer. This in contrast with Florida where employees decide by their own whether they want to safe for their retirement.


Direct injection of plasmid DNA in vivo was recently shown to induce both prolonged expression of encoded proteins and strong specific immune responses with particular features. Induction of specific antibodies, of CD8+ T lymphocytes, and of CD4+ T lymphocytes differentiated toward the TH1-like phenotype have been achieved in animal models of diseases for which either no vaccines currently exist, or for which vaccine optimization is yet needed. These promising initial results, along with the specific biological characteristics of DNA vaccines that render them particularly interesting in terms of vaccine production, open new perspectives in terms of immunization at a global level. The potential capacities of DNA vaccines to meet the challenge of inducing protection against specific target diseases or for population target groups currently identified as health priorities are reviewed here together with their possible drawbacks.


Measuring Ingredients: Food and Domesticity in Mexican Casta Paintings Mexican casta paintings flourished as a popular art form in the eighteenth century. No one is sure of the exact origin of this type of painting, which depicted racial mixtures accompanied by local foods; most likely it was an export item for wealthy Spaniards who were returning home and wanted a souvenir of colorful and exotic Mexico. Casta paintings were generally created in sets of sixteen canvases, and depicted all manner of racial hybridization among Whites, Blacks and Amerindians. The common trope was to portray a father, a mother, and an offspring, beginning with the Spanish male with Indian and Black consorts, and ending with an Indian couple, groupings which reflected social hierarchies of the colonial world. Most were painted by anonymous artists, though the canvases analyzed in this study are by known painters. Because of the emphasis on domestic relations, couples were often portrayed in kitchens or markets, which gives us valuable information on this aspect of daily life. The foods associated with the different castes also reflected socio-economic hierarchies, as well as reinforced the idea of America as land of bounty. Colonial artists generally imitated European models, but with the casta paintings Mexican artists were instead urged to paint what distinguished their country from Spain, hereby contributing to a growing sense of independence from the metropolis.


Summary
For most organisms, early life-history stages are the most sensitive to environmental stress and so transgenerational phenotypic plasticity, whereby the parental environment and offspring environment interact to alter the phenotype of the offspring, is viewed as key to promoting persistence in the face of environmental change. While there has been long-standing interest in the role of transgenerational plasticity via the maternal line (traditionally the field of maternal effects), increasingly it appears that paternal effects can also play a role.
Despite the emerging role of paternal effects in studies of global change, key knowledge gaps remain: first, whether paternal effects act to increase or decrease offspring performance remains largely unexplored; second, the relative roles of maternal and paternal effects are rarely disentangled; and third, the role of environmental variation, a key determinant of the benefits of transgenerational plasticity, has not been explored with regard to paternal effects.
Here, we explore all three issues using the marine tubeworm Galeolaria caespitosa, an important habitat-forming species in southern Australia.
We found that both paternal and maternal experiences affected key stages of offspring performance (fertilization and larval development) and, surprisingly, paternal effects were often stronger than maternal effects. Furthermore, we found that paternal effects often reduced offspring performance, especially when environments varied compared with when environments were stable.
Our results suggest that, while transgenerational plasticity may play an important role in modifying the impacts of global change, these effects are not uniformly positive. Importantly, paternal effects can be as strong, or stronger, than maternal effects and environmental variability strongly alters the impacts of paternal effects.


SUMMARY Fall-related accidents are among the most serious concerns in elderly people, amputees and subjects with neurological disorders. The aim of this paper was to investigate the behaviour of healthy subjects wearing a novel light-weight pelvis exoskeleton controlled in zero-torque mode while carrying out unperturbed locomotion and managing unexpected perturbations. Results showed that the proposed exoskeleton was unobtrusive and had a minimum loading effect on the human biomechanics during unperturbed locomotion. Conversely, it affected the movement of the trailing leg while subjects managed unexpected slipping-like perturbations. These findings support further investigations on the potential use of powered exoskeletons to assist locomotion and, possibly prevent incipient falls.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the role of particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine-rich protein (PINCH) in corneal wound healing and early neovascularization and to assess the influence of granulocytes.

METHODS
A standardized corneal alkali wound was inflicted under general anaesthesia to the right eye of 14 New Zealand White rabbits. Seven of the rabbits received i.v. 5 mg/kg fucoidin every 2 hours to prevent granulocytes from entering the wound area. After 36 hours, the rabbits were killed, the corneas excised, fixed in 4% formaldehyde and embedded in paraffin. The sections were double-stained with antibodies against PINCH and with haematoxylin.

RESULTS
In the normal cornea and limbus, PINCH was weakly expressed in the corneal epithelium and in a wedge of the conjunctival stroma. In the wounded corneas, PINCH expression was seen in the frontline of repopulating endothelial and epithelial cells, and in active keratocytes. The vascular endothelium and the granulocytes expressed PINCH, as did the conjunctival epithelium. In the fucoidin-treated rabbits, PINCH expression was markedly reduced. The vascular endothelial cells and the few granulocytes did not express PINCH in these rabbits.

CONCLUSIONS
PINCH is only slightly expressed in the normal cornea. A corneal wound induces PINCH expression in the repopulating cells, in the vascular endothelial cells of the limbus, in the limbal epithelium and in the granulocytes. Exclusion of granulocytes reduces expression of PINCH and there is no expression at all in the vascular endothelium.


The diabetic non-healing wound is one of the most common complications of diabetics. The long-term stimulus of oxidative stress, inflammation and infection caused by the hyperglycemic microenvironment in the wound site always leads to a delayed healing process of the diabetic wound. To address this issue, in this study, we prepared an asiatic acid (AA)-embedded aligned porous poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) electrospun fibrous scaffold (AA-PL) for accelerating diabetic wound healing. The results showed that the electrospun fibers with nanopores on the surfaces were aligned in a single direction, while the AA was well embedded in the fibers and can be continuously released from them. The in vitro results revealed that the AA-PL scaffolds can effectively alleviate the H2O2-induced oxidative stress damage to HaCat cells and downregulate the LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-1β, TNF-α, IL6) gene expression in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. Moreover, the growth of E. coli and S. aureus could be inhibited by the AA-PL scaffolds. The in vivo study further demonstrated that the AA-PL scaffolds can accelerate the re-epithelization, angiogenesis and extracellular matrix formation of a wound by relieving the high oxidative stress, inflammation and infection in the diabetic wound site. This study suggests that the combination of hierarchical structures (nanopores on the aligned fibers) with the controllable release of AA from the scaffolds is an efficient and innovative strategy for the treatment of diabetic non-healing wounds.


A common user interface replaces the multiple interfaces found among individual electronic library resources, reducing the time and effort spent by the user in both searching and learning to use a range of databases. Although the primary function of a common user interface is to simplify the search process, such products can be holistic solutions designed to address requirements other than searching, such as user authentication and site branding. This review provides a detailed summary of software currently on the market. The products reviewed were EnCompass, MetaLib, Find‐It‐All OneSearch, ZPORTAL, CPORTAL, InfoTrac Total Access, MetaFind, MuseSearch, SiteSearch, Single Search, Chameleon Gateway, and WebFeat.


Abstract. Strongly coupled data assimilation frameworks provide a mechanism for including additional information about aerosols through the coupling between aerosol and atmospheric variables, effectively utilizing atmospheric observations to change the aerosol analysis. Here, we investigate the impact of these observations on aerosol using the Maximum Likelihood Ensemble Filter (MLEF) algorithm with Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) which includes the Godard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) module. We apply this methodology to a dust storm event over the Arabian Peninsula and examine in detail the error covariance and in particular the impact of atmospheric observations on improving the aerosol initial conditions. The assimilated observations include conventional atmospheric observations and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) retrievals. Results indicate a positive impact of using strongly coupled data assimilation and atmospheric observations on the aerosol initial conditions, quantified using Degrees of Freedom for Signal.


Shallow and deep geothermal resources can be used to produce different energy services, such as district heating, electricity and cooling. Some of these services vary throughout the year. To provide them, different conversion technologies can be used. In order to identify the most efficient and economical possibilities for geothermal system exploitation, all the different system components have to be modeled and their interactions considered.


The USDA Forest Service recently patented an equipment design to deliver herbicides more efficiently and cost-effectively. Towed by a standard all-terrain vehicle, the Crush and Spray can access out-of-the-way or wet locations. An adjustable roller first knocks down the unwanted plants. A low-set spray boom with wide angle sprayer nozzles then provides precise, close-to-the-ground application of herbicide along the length of each plant. The operator can easily control the flow of chemicals using a pressurized pumping system with a simple on–off switch. This Crush and Spray system treats targeted plants without wasting herbicides or creating overspray and chemical drift. In field trials over the course of 2 y, the Crush and Spray was used successfully to treat quackgrass (Elymus repens (L.) Gould [Poaceae]) and Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. [Asteraceae]). On average, more than 96% of the plants treated in the Crush and Spray plots were successfully eliminated with just one application of herbicides. In comparison plots, the same chemicals delivered without the Crush and Spray effectively treated an average of 87% of the grasses and 77% of the broadleaf plants. An unexpected finding from the field trials was that plots treated with the Crush and Spray in year one had very low regrowth of weeds in year two even though no additional chemicals were applied.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that can function as oncogenes or tumor suppressors in human cancer. Recent reports have highlighted the oncogenic aspects of microRNA miR-125b. However, the clinical significance of miR-125b in gastrointestinal cancers has not been sufficiently investigated. To this end, we analyzed miR-125b expression in colorectal cancer cases. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to evaluate miR-125b expression in 89 colorectal cancer cases to determine the clinicopathological significance of miR-125b expression. The high miR-125b expression group showed a greater incidence of advanced tumor size and tumor invasion compared to the low miR-125b expression group (P<0.05). In addition, the high miR-125b expression group had a significantly poorer prognosis compared to the low expression group (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that high miR-125b expression was an independent prognostic factor for survival. Our analysis of miR-125b focused on the miR-125b/p53 pathway. In vitro assays revealed that overexpression of miR-125b repressed the endogenous level of p53 protein in human colorectal cancer cells. These data show that miR-125b is directly involved in cancer progression and is associated with poor prognosis in human colorectal cancer. Our findings suggest that miR-125b could be an important prognostic indicator for colorectal cancer patients.


The H5 hemagglutinin (HA) of a highly virulent avian influenza virus, A/Turkey Ontario/7732/66 (H5N9), was previously shown to have five neutralizing epitopes, and escape mutants within one epitope (group 1) were markedly attenuated (M. Philpott, B. C. Easterday, and V. S. Hinshaw, J. Virol. 63:3453-3458, 1989). To define the genetic changes related to these antigenic and biologic properties, the HA genes of mutants within each of the epitope groups were sequenced by using the polymerase chain reaction. The mutations in the attenuated group 1 mutants were located near the distal tip of the HA molecule in close proximity to the receptor-binding site, on the basis of alignment with the three-dimensional structure of the H3 HA. All group 1 mutations involved charged amino acids. The group 1 mutants, similar to the wild-type virus, spread systemically and were recovered from the spleens of infected chickens but, unlike the wild-type virus, failed to produce severe necrosis in the spleens. Viral replication in the spleens was investigated by in situ hybridization of spleen sections from chickens infected with the wild-type or attenuated mutants. Wild-type virus replication was demonstrated in large, mononuclear, macrophagelike cells; however, group 1 mutant virus was detected attached only to erythrocytes within the red pulp. These results suggest that the attenuated mutants differ in their cell tropism within the spleen.


The portrayals of women in lifestyle magazines has been a continuous subject in genderresearch, but have mainly been focused on research about heterosexual women. However, how women are being portrayed through editorial content in an LGBT magazines have shown to be a gap in gender research.The purpose of this study was to find out how female identities were portrayed in theeditorial content in the LGBT magazine QX — Sweden's largest magazine aimed atmembers of the LGBT community in Sweden.The analysis of the material was conducted through a semiotic and a narrative analysis. Patterns and reoccurring themes were selected, and furthermore were analysed againstfeminist theories and views such as queer theory, radical feminism and post-modernfeminism.Four different gender archetypes derived from the result of the study: The strongfemale, The passive female, The stereotypical female, and The intimate female. Thestudy did show that women featured in QX magazine were portrayed throughheteronormative patterns, although the magazine represents a larger alternative group.


We tested the hypothesis that pulmonary surfactant-associated lectins--surfactant proteins A and D (SP-A, and -D)--contribute to initial protective mechanisms against influenza A viruses (IAVs). SP-D potently inhibited hemagglutination activity of several strains of IAV as well as causing viral aggregation. SP-D enhanced neutrophil binding of IAV and neutrophil respiratory burst responses to the virus. Neutrophil dysfunction resulting from IAV exposure was diminished when the virus was pre-incubated with SP-D. Each of these effects was mediated by the calcium-dependent carbohydrate-binding property of SP-D. Native SP-D preparations of both human and rat origin, as well as recombinant rat SP-D, had similar activity. SP-A also inhibited IAV hemagglutination activity. We have previously reported that related mammalian serum lectins (mannose-binding lectin [MBL] and conglutinin) have similar effects. SP-D was at least 10-fold more potent at causing hemagglutination inhibition than were SP-A or MBL. SP-D was shown to contribute to potent anti-IAV activity of human bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. These results suggest that SP-D--alone, and in conjunction with SP-A and phagocytic cells--constitutes an important component of the natural immune response to IAV infection within the respiratory tract.


A simple, economical, precise, reliable and reproducible Extractive Spectrophotometric Method has been developed for the estimation of Pazopanib HCl in bulk as well as in tablet formulations. The developed Method was based on the formation of chloroform extractable complex of Pazopanib HCl, with Bromothymol Blue (BTB) which shows maximum absorption at 414nm. The absorbance-concentration plot is linear over the range 5-50µg/ml.The different experimental parameters effecting the development and stability were studied carefully and optimized. The result of analysis for the method was validated statistically and recovery studies were also performed.


In this thesis the habitat preferences, growth and reproductive biology were examined for eight species of tropical anchovies from Townsville, North Queensland. The species examined were: Encrasicholina devisi; Stolephorus insularis; Stolephorus carpentariae; Stolephorus nelsoni; Stolephorus commersonii; Thryssa aestuaria; Thryssa setirostris and Thryssa hamiltoni. The study species grew to a wide range of maximum sizes (encompassing most of the size-range found amongst tropical clupeoid species), and therefore provided an opportunity to undertake a detailed comparative study of biological parameters and life-histories.

Samples were collected at three nearshore tropical habitats; mangroves, beaches and subtidal waters at 3-12m depth. Beach seines and gill nets were used to sample the first two habitats and an otter trawl at the subtidal habitat. The age-specific habitat preferences of each species were qualitatively investigated by comparing the catches of juveniles and adults in each habitat. In the subtidal waters of Cleveland Bay, anchovy were most common at depths of less than 7m. Juveniles of all species were common in shallow waters along beaches and the juveniles of some species were also common in mangrove estuaries. Age-related habitat differences were found to occur in Stolephorus commersonii, Thryssa aestuaria, Thryssa setirostris and Thryssa hamiltoni. In these species juveniles predominantly occurred in shallow nearshore habitats (beaches and mangroves) and adults occurred in the subtidal habitat at depths to 12m. S. nelsoni, E. devisi and S. insularis occurred in shallow water off beaches and in shallow subtidal waters throughout their life-cycle. S. carpentariae was almost exclusively caught along beaches and in mangroves (depths less than 3m) at all life stages.

Seasonal changes in habitat were exhibited by species in the present study. Adult E. devisi and S. insularis occurred in shallow waters off beaches in the autumn and winter months but were rare in summer. This suggests that these species move to deeper water in summer. Catches of all species in subtidal trawl samples in summer were also lower, suggesting that a change in distribution occurs at this time, possibly movement to deeper water.

Growth was estimated in the study species using three methods: counting primary increments in the sagittal otolith; analysing length-frequency data; and in Thryssa spp. from counts of seasonal growth rings in the sagittal otolith. Prior to using primary otolith increments to age the study species, experiments were conducted to determine the periodicity of growth increment formation. The study species proved extremely sensitive to handling. However, evidence of daily periodicity of growth increment formation was obtained for four species: E. devisi; S. carpentariae; S. nelsoni and T. aestuaria. Evidence was also given that the seasonal growth rings in sagitta from Thryssa spp. were deposited annually.

Growth curves (length versus. age) were constructed for each species from primary otolith increment counts. Length versus age plots were linear in E. devisi and S. insularis while von Bertalanffy growth curves were fitted to this data for the remaining species. These findings suggest that growth in very small stolephorid anchovies may not conform to the conventional von Bertalanffy growth curve. Consequently, some standard techniques for analysing length-frequency data which are based on von Bertalanffy growth parameters should be employed with caution on small tropical anchovies. This study of primary otolith increments indicated that the longevities of the stolephorid anchovies ranged from several months to just over one year. These structures also indicate a 1-2 year lifespan for Thryssa aestuaria. The larger species of Thryssa could not be aged beyond a certain size with confidence using these structures.

Length versus age plots from primary otolith increment counts were linear for juvenile-sized fish in all of the study species. A comparison of the linear growth rates in the study species showed that growth rate was directly related to the maximum size attained by a species. This indicates that larger species of tropical anchovy have faster growth rates than small species. Primary otolith increment age data was also used to compare the patterns of growth in weight (plots of weight versus age) between the study species. These were found to exhibit one of two patterns of exponential growth in weight. The larger species, S. commersonii, T. setirostris and T. hamiltoni had a common faster rate of weight-growth than S. insularis, S. carpentariae S. nelsoni and T. aestuaria. The weight-age data in these smaller species followed a similar exponential pattern with a slower rate of increase. The similarity in weight-growth for groups of species show that growth can be conservative at an inter-species level in tropical anchovies. Furthermore, the difference in weight-growth between small and large species suggests that weight-growth may be another distinguishing feature of the life-history strategies of small and large tropical clupeoids (Lewis 1990).

An important outcome of the analyses of primary otolith increments and seasonal growth rings in this study was that the von Bertalanffy growth curve suitably described the length-age relationship for the three species of Thryssa. Growth in length in larger tropical anchovies therefore follows a pattern which is common to most other marine fishes. In the stolephorid anchovies, length-age plots did not exhibit a marked asymptote and consequently, a modified form of the equation had to be used. This finding indicates that length-frequency analysis methods that are based on the von Bertalanffy growth function may be more suited to large rather than small species of tropical anchovy. Growth parameters obtained from otoliths compared favourably with those from length-frequency analyses in the genus Thryssa, further confirming this view.

Counts of seasonal growth rings in otoliths gave estimates of longevity for the genus Thryssa. The oldest T. hamiltoni individual was 4 years of age, and the oldest individuals of T setirostris and T. aestuaria were 2 and 1 years respectively. For T. hamiltoni, von Bertalanffy growth curves fitted to plots of length against age from seasonal growth rings indicated growth differences between male and female fish; females grew faster and larger than males. Length-frequency data were analysed for all of the study species. Two methods of analysis were employed these being the estimation of growth rates in juveniles from modal progressions, and the estimation of growth parameters using the ELEFAN computer software. Length-frequency histograms indicated that growth differed between males and females in all Thryssa spp., supporting the findings of otolith-ageing. Growth rates estimated visually for juvenile fish from modal progressions were consistent with those calculated from primary otolith increments for several species. This indicates that modal progressions can provide meaningful growth estimates in tropical anchovies. However, this analysis indicated that the residency-time for cohorts (or modes in length-frequency histograms) in populations of small species is short highlighting the importance of obtaining frequent and representative samples to allow analysis of modal progressions.

Von Bertalanffy growth parameters calculated from otoliths and ELEFAN analyses compared favourably in S. nelsoni and the three species of Thryssa indicating that these techniques give meaningful age estimates for larger clupeoids. Values of K computed from otolith-derived length-age data were generally higher than those computed by ELEFAN for the remaining stolephorid anchovies and this supports recent literature in the view that ELEFAN may yield biased growth estimates for small tropical clupeoids.

The following reproductive parameters were estimated for the study species: spawning season; length and age-at-maturity; fecundity and spawning frequency. Two types of spawning seasonality were observed. E. devisi and S. insularis spawned over most of the year while the remaining species spawned during the warmer part of the year between September and January. Length-at-maturity occurred at around 70% of maximum length in all species suggesting that this ratio may be conservative in tropical anchovies. Ages-at-maturity varied from several months in small species to around one year in larger species. Fecundity for all species combined was related to both length (exponential curve) and weight (linear regression), indicating that the relationship between these parameters is conservative at an inter-species level in this group. Spawning frequency was estimated as three days for S. nelsoni and between 2 and 5 days in T. hamiltoni. The pattern of oocyte-diameter frequencies differed between stolephorid anchovies and Thryssa spp. indicating possible differences in spawning biology.

In the present study it was shown that fecundity and growth rate were related to maximum species-size at an inter-species level. Furthermore, longevity was shown to be directly related to maximum species-size for a wide range of tropical clupeoids. These findings indicate that it may be possible to estimate certain biological parameters based on maximum species size for tropical clupeoid species. Another finding of this study was that growth and reproductive parameters in large tropical clupeoids were comparable to those in some short-lived temperate species. Beverton's (1963) ratio of 1/KTmax was also similar in some large tropical clupeoids to that in temperate anchovies. Following Beverton's (1963) reasoning, the similarity in this ratio in these two groups suggests that these may exhibit similar population and fishery dynamics.


Our continuous study on the South China Sea gorgonian Junceella fragilis led to the isolation of twelve new briarane type diterpenoids, fragilisinins A–L (1–12), along with seven known analogues (13–19), including four naturally produced organoiodides (9–12), they are the first four iodine-containing briarane diterpenoids from this gorgonian species. Their structures were determined by MS, 1D and 2D NMR spectra analyses and by comparison with those reported in the literature. The configuration of 1 was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. The antifouling test showed that compounds 5, 6, 10, 13, and 15 had potent antifouling activities at nontoxic concentrations with EC50 values of 14.0, 12.6, 11.9, 5.6, and 10.0 μM, respectively.


Abstract Heavy, increasing recreation on Colorado's high peaks has created numerous social trails requiring restoration. We studied success of turf transplants 3 yr after transplanting on Mount Belford in the Sawatch Range, and Humboldt Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Range. Based on point-intercept data, sum of all vascular species' covers was 12% to 31% lower in transplanted plots than in control areas. We found no differences in canopy density and height between transplant and control plots on Mount Belford, while both were about 40% lower in transplants on Humboldt Peak. Species richness adjusted for plot size was slightly greater in transplant plots on Mount Belford and slightly lower on Humboldt Peak. On both peaks, we found greater absolute cover of grasses in transplant plots, while forb cover was lower. After 3 yr, turf transplants effectively established vegetation cover and maintained high species richness in these communities. Whenever turf is available, e.g., new trail construction, it should be used to restore closed social trails and campsites, and turf transplants can be considered in other ecosystems for small disturbances in high-value areas where restoration would otherwise be slow.


ABSTRACT Laboratory observations regarding the limit conditions for particle entrainment into suspension are presented. A high‐speed video system was used to investigate conditions for the entrainment of sediment particles and glass beads lying over a smooth boundary as well as over a rough bed. The results extend experimental conditions of previous studies towards finer particle sizes. A criterion for the limit of entrainment into suspension is proposed which is a function of the ratio between the flow shear velocity and particle settling velocity. Observations indicate that particles totally immersed within the viscous sublayer can be entrained into suspension by the flow, which contradicts the conclusions of previous researchers. A theoretical analysis of the entrainment process within the viscous sublayer, based on force–balance considerations, is used to show that this phenomenon is related to turbulent flow events of high instantaneous values of the Reynolds stress, in agreement with previous observations. In the case of experiments with a rough bed, a hiding effect was observed, which tends to preclude the entrainment of particles finer than the roughness elements. This implies that, as the ratio between particle and roughness element sizes becomes smaller, progressively higher bed shear stresses are required to entrain particles into suspension. On the other hand, an overexposure effect was also observed, which indicates that a particle moving on a smooth bed is more prone to be entrained than the same particle moving on a bed formed by identical particles.


Deep generative models parameterized by neural networks have recently achieved state-ofthe-art performance in unsupervised and semisupervised learning. We extend deep generative models with auxiliary variables which improves the variational approximation. The auxiliary variables leave the generative model unchanged but make the variational distribution more expressive. Inspired by the structure of the auxiliary variable we also propose a model with two stochastic layers and skip connections. Our findings suggest that more expressive and properly specified deep generative models converge faster with better results. We show state-of-theart performance within semi-supervised learning on MNIST, SVHN and NORB datasets.


During a survey of mycobiota in the island of Mayotte situated in the Comores archipelago, a remarkable Hypoxylon with unusual off-white to pale yellowish stromata was collected by one of us (MP). Besides its striking colour it is characterized by small orbicular effused-pulvinate stromata (< 6 mm diam), with conspicuous perithecial contours, papillate ostioles and subsurface with yellow waxy granules yielding orange brown pigments in 10% KOH. Upon microscopical observation, its asci appear devoid of an apical apparatus, thus not reacting with iodine, and its ascospores have a transversely striated perispore dehiscent in 10% KOH. This combination of characters is compared with the Hypoxylon spp. appearing morphologically the most closely related and this comparative study is summarized in a table. As this Hypoxylon features a set of characters deviating from known species, it is described as new, as H. flavocremeum. A culture derived from single spore isolation was obtained and described. The ex-type culture was deposited at the CBS Fungal Biodiversity Center (CBS, Utrecht, the Netherlands). All attempts to obtain the asexual state on various media remained unsuccessful. The few other species of Hypoxylon collected during this survey are listed and briefly commented upon. The rarely recorded H. lividipigmentum is illustrated in colour


Next-generation cellular networks will provide higher cell capacity by adopting advanced physical layer techniques and bandwidth. In such networks, low throughput due to severe inter-cell interference and unbalanced user distributions among cells couldn't be born. In this paper, we focus on solving this problem by adopting a novel self-adaptive handover parameters adjustment and load-balancing schemes in LTE systems. The core idea is to obtain the empirical data of network operations and the load distribution of the high load cell to carry out pre-adjustment between the high load cell and its neighbors. Accordingly, the effect of adjustment is evaluated and parameter adjustment strategy sets will be carried out to complete update based on results of the evaluation. The scheme could consume less networks resource and implement dynamic load balance effectively.


It was felt that there is a need to carry out a study on some innovative ICT platforms so that I could learn about the benefits of the ICT initiatives in rural areas. The emphasis was to examine whether the community people benefited from these project initiatives. Though the benefits of ICT platforms have been generally stated, specific assessments have not been made. It has been proved at the global level that ICT can help in poverty reduction in number of ways. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the innovative applications of ICT in rural development. The synopsis, being an information technology related topic and a global issue as well, focuses a on the ongoing ICT practices for Development going on, with more emphasis on the projects in Gujarat and some review about National and Global projects as well. The study can prove to be a manual for even a layman to understand the facts, utilities and revolution that can be brought about by the said title. As a result, some chapters revolve around the practices going on world over and give a detailed look at the practices being initiated in India.


Nanomaterials with well-defined structures and optimised electromagnetic hot spots are crucial and highly desirable in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), but remain challenging to fabricate. In response, theoretical and experimental studies were performed to optimise the parameters of Fe3O4–Au satellite nanostructures for achieving pronounced electric field enhancements. The results indicated that independent control of the size and shape of the satellite nanostructures was insufficient for accurately maximising the SERS effect. A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation showed that, for ratios of the Au NP size (s) to the nanogap distance between Au NPs (D) ≥20, the magnetic field intensity was the most efficiently enhanced at 785 nm. Using a layer-by-layer fabrication method, satellite structures with the dimensions determined by the FDTD models were generated. The SERS enhancement results from these structures were in agreement with the modelled predictions, emphasising the potential utility of FDTD models in guiding satellite substrate design. For structures with parameters set to the optimised s/D value, the SERS enhancement factor was increased by up to two orders of magnitude. Magnetic satellite platforms optimised via this simulation-based approach possess excellent electromagnetic coupling properties and could assist in the development of new SERS applications.


EP in women with an IMLE in combination with HCG levels were calculated. Results: The prevalence of EP was 3.7% in this population of women who attended our early pregnancy unit. A total of 1627 women were scanned, of which 134 (8%) were classified as PUL. Of the PUL group, 27 women were subsequently diagnosed with EP or persistent PUL requiring treatment (20%), 89 women with failing PULs (66%) and 18 women with IUPs (14%). Of the 134 women with a diagnosis of PUL, 37 had an IMLE and 97 had a disrupted MLE on ultrasound. The incidence of EP in those with IMLE was significantly higher than those with a disrupted MLE {13(35%) v 14(14%) (p<0.01), RR 2.05 (95% confidence interval 1.2–3.5)}. An IMLE alone to predict EP had a sensitivity of 49%, specificity of 78% and a positive LR of 2.13. Combining an IMLE and HCG 48hr/0hr ratio 0.67–1.66 (plateau) predicted EP with a sensitivity of 41%, specificity of 93% and a positive LR of 5.4. Conclusions: In combination with the HCG ratio, the sonographic appearance of an IMLE may be a useful predictor of EP in women with a PUL.


The planar nature of microwave sensors leaves them vulnerable to ambient temperature changes with potential impact on the perception of the material under test. A temperature compensation technique is required to consider its direct effect on the dielectric property of materials. In this article, machine learning algorithms are employed in two configurations of classifier and regressor on frequency response of a split-ring resonator operating at 1.19 GHz. A wide range of dielectric constant is covered with concentrations of [0:20%:100%]-methanol/acetone in water with a temperature cycle of 25 °C–50 °C. This broad variety of cases captures the complicacy of entangled trends that are recognized using classifiers regardless of the measurement temperature. In the next step, the ambient temperature is extracted from the same measured data. This is accomplished by cascading the classifier with a regressor pool that contains trained parameters for individual classes. Highly accurate classification of material types followed by their corresponding temperature (using linear regression with $R^{2}=97$ % averaged over tenfold cross validation and a mean absolute error of 0.58 °C) leads to investigating limit of detection in the proposed scheme. This step, through testing of [0:1%:5%] methanol in water, identified multilayer perceptron (MLP) and support vector machine (SVM) as the best performing algorithms. Final hyperparameter optimization yields parameters for these two models that provide accuracy of 0.97 and 0.99, respectively.


As a phenomenon, piezoresistive effect is well understood from the theoretical point of view. Experimental characterizations have also been done on a variety of uniformly doped samples. However, for modern LSI structures, with shallow diffused junctions that have steep gaussian profile, and short distances between electrodes, piezoresistive coefficients differ significantly from those for uniformly doped samples. This paper considers effects of doping profile, electric field level and its distribution on free carrier mobility in order to asses sensitivity of piezoresistors. Simulated performance over temperature range is analyzed as well.


The summary paper argues that the phenomenon of male alliance (friendship) emerges as a consequence of mutual preference demonstrated by male individuals - both human and animal, - and such preference can be empirically captured. Friendly relations between men are built on two different foundations: (1) the principle of biological and social similarity and (2) the principle of psychological complementarity of the alliance members. Friendship is predominantly formed between boys and men of the same ethnic (racial) origin, similar age, behavior, and common social background. By contrast, psychologically friends are selected based on the complementarity of their temperament and main personality traits, such as ergonicity, sthenicity, emotionality, neophobia/neophilia, extraversion/introversion, dependence/independence of behavior, and dominance/submissiveness. These principles trigger the following key effects: a person is more likely to develop an individual preference and find a friend in childhood, and the number of potential friends is very limited.


Following previous research carried out by Chalari (2014; 2015), this qualitative study explores the ways in which the younger generation in Greece and UK has been affected by austerity policy measures. These two countries have been at the forefront of intense social, political and economic transformations that have impacted particularly on young people's current and future lives. This study aims to explore similarities and differences in young people's subjective experiences and responses, as from this it may be possible to discern whether there is a general, long-term negative effect of austerity across Europe. The data shows that there are some similarities in the two cohorts' subjective experiences and responses, but perhaps more interestingly some significant differences. The study discusses what the implications of these differences might be for young people and society in these countries, in terms of their impact on the abilities of the younger generation, in a way that has the potential to destabilize their personal and professional lives now and in the future.


Mercury is a toxic pollutant emitted from both natural sources and through human activities. A global interest in atmospheric mercury has risen ever since the discovery of the Minamata disease in 1956. Properties of gaseous elemental mercury enable long range transport, which can cause pollution even in pristine environments. Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) was measured from winter 2016 to spring 2017 over the Baltic Sea. A Tekran 2357A mercury analyser was installed aboard the research and icebreaking vessel Oden for the purpose of continuous measurements of gaseous mercury in ambient air. Measurements were performed during a campaign along the Swedish east coast and in the Bothnian Bay near Lulea during the icebreaking season. Data was evaluated from Gothenburg using plotting software, and back trajectories for air masses were calculated. The GEM average of 1.36 ± 0.054 ng/m3 during winter and 1.29 ± 0.140 ng/m3 during spring was calculated as well as a total average of 1.36 ± 0.16 ng/m3. Back trajectories showed a possible correlation of anthropogenic sources elevating the mercury background level in some areas. There were also indications of depleted air, i.e., air with lower concentrations than average, being transported from the Arctic to northern Sweden, resulting in a drop in GEM levels.


A novel nonlinear confocal microscopic imaging system based on Raman induced Kerr effect spectroscopy (RIKES) is presented in this paper. The three-dimensional (3-D) microscopic imaging theory is derived with the Fourier imaging theory and nonlinear optical principle. The impact of RIKES on the spatial resolution and imaging properties of confocal microscopic imaging system has been analyzed in detail by the imaging theory. It's proved that the RIKES nonlinear microscopic imaging system can effectively improve the imaging contrast and provide more characteristic information on Raman spectrum and optical nonlinear Kerr effect, thus greatly improving the imaging quality of confocal microscopic imaging system. It's shown that the spatial resolution of RIKES confocal microscopic imaging system is higher than that of two-photon confocal microscopic imaging system.


In this paper, we first present a physical model for mode-locking process of the colliding pulse mode-locked multiquantum-well laser diode (CPM-MQW-LD). The absorption of saturable absorber on pulse leading edge and the scattering of the transient grating generated in absorption and gain regions on pulse trailing edge are considered. As an example, the mode-locking process of a multiquantum-well structure laser and the effect of transient grating on pulse width and peak power are studied. >


Background: Olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions (OD and GD) manifested unpredictably in COVID-19 patients. Considering the high prevalence of OD and GD and the importance of the sense of smell and taste in the quality of life, this study aimed to determine the association of some demographic and clinical factors with OD and GD recovery in COVID-19 patients in Iran.Methods: This prospective cohort study was performed on COVID-19 patients with OD and GD during the first and second peak of pandemic in Golestan province, Iran. We used a local health care registry system for data collection. All cases had positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-19 in nose and nasopharynx swab samples. Variables included age, sex, ethnicity, geographical location, time of onset of symptoms, severity of OD and GD (complete or partial). The follow-up time for recovery from OD and GD was six months. Time to recovery for OD and GD was estimated by Kaplan-Meier considering complete recovery as an endpoint. Differences among groups were evaluated using log-rank test and Cox proportional-hazard models as appropriate in SPSS version 16.Results: A total of 242 patients completed the study. The mean age of patients was 39.12±11.89 years. There were 127 (52%) females. After six months, 239 (98.8%) patients had complete OD recovery and 80.9% and 83.56% of patients recovered within the first 30 days following the onset of OD or GD, respectively. The mean time of OD recovery was significantly higher (35.07±4.25 days) in cases infected in the first peak of pandemic than in the second peak (21.65±2.05 days) (p=0.004). This finding also was observed for the recovery time of GD (p=0.005). The mean recovery time of GD was significantly higher in women than men (35.55±4.33 vs. 23.20±2.46 days) (p=0.04). The age (less than 20 years), second peak of epidemic, and partial dysfunction were identified as significant predictors for recovery.Conclusions: COVID-19–related OD and GD had high rate of recovery in the first month from onset of symptoms. Age of patients, severity of OD/GD and infecting in second peak of epidemic might be related to the recovery of OD or GD in patients with COVID-19.


Dengue fever has reemerged as a serious public health issue worldwide. The disease is endemic in more than 100 countries, with an estimated 50-100 million cases annually. It is considered endemic to Cambodia and, despite multiple control programs, the country has 10,000-40,000 hospitalized cases per year for children less than 15 years of age. In order to have control approaches that are more effective, the patterns of dengue cases in Cambodia need to be further explored. This study seeks to clarify the patterns of dengue by performing a geospatial analysis of 11 years of national surveillance data, from 2002 to 2012. Various exploratory geospatial statistical tools were used to calculate the local indicators of spatial autocorrelation and the local Gi* statistic analysis to determine significant hot and cold spots of dengue fever at the district level of Cambodia. Results found that in most years between 2002 and 2012, the two urban centers of Cambodia, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, were significant hot spots for dengue fever. This suggests that prevention and control programs should be targeted to these two areas specifically. However, these clusters corresponded with five of the seven sentinel surveillance sites used in the country. This analysis could be only a representative of more sensitive surveillance. Expanding sentinel surveillance activities to other provinces could reveal a clearer picture of dengue fever in Cambodia.


OBJECTIVE The inability of pancreatic β-cells to appropriately respond to glucose and secrete insulin are primary defects associated with β-cell failure in type 2 diabetes. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated as a key factor in the development of type 2 diabetes; however, a link between mitochondrial dysfunction and defective insulin secretion is unclear. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We investigated the changes in islet mitochondrial function and morphology during progression from insulin resistance (3 weeks old), immediately before hyperglycemia (5 weeks old), and after diabetes onset (10 weeks old) in transgenic MKR mice compared with controls. The molecular and protein changes at 10 weeks were determined using microarray and iTRAQ proteomic screens. RESULTS At 3 weeks, MKR mice were hyperinsulinemic but normoglycemic and β-cells showed negligible mitochondrial or morphological changes. At 5 weeks, MKR islets displayed abrogated hyperpolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), reduced mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake, slightly enlarged mitochondria, and reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. By 10 weeks, MKR mice were hyperglycemic and hyperinsulinemic and β-cells contained swollen mitochondria with disordered cristae. β-Cells displayed impaired stimulus-secretion coupling including reduced hyperpolarization of ΔΨm, impaired Ca2+-signaling, and reduced glucose-stimulated ATP/ADP and insulin release. Furthermore, decreased cytochrome c oxidase–dependent oxygen consumption and signs of oxidative stress were observed in diabetic islets. Protein profiling of diabetic islets revealed that 36 mitochondrial proteins were differentially expressed, including inner membrane proteins of the electron transport chain. CONCLUSIONS We provide novel evidence for a critical role of defective mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and morphology in the pathology of insulin resistance–induced β-cell failure.


This paper decomposes the cash component of earnings and analyzes persistence characteristics and pricing implications of various subcomponents, with particular attention to changes in cash. Changes in underlying fundamentals might dictate changes in cash to new optimal levels. Alternatively, suboptimal changes in cash might result from agency costs allowing managers' actions to diverge from the best interests of shareholders. We predict and find that both suboptimal increases and decreases in cash bode poorly for future earnings. In fact, we find that suboptimal increases (decreases) in cash have less (greater) persistence than any of the earnings components we study, including accruals and net distributions to both shareholders and debt holders. Market efficiency tests indicate that the market severely punishes firms with suboptimal decreases in cash, but we find no evidence to support the hubris hypothesis that the market overreacts to the earnings implications of unwarranted increases in cash.


Background and Objectives: The emergence of plasmid-mediated AmpC (pAmpC) β-lactamases conferring resistance to third-generation cephalosporins has become a major clinical concern worldwide. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of pAmpC-producing E. cloacae isolates and typing of them in Qazvin and Tehran provinces, Iran. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 cefoxitin non-susceptible isolates of E. cloacae were obtained from educational hospitals of Qazvin and Tehran, Iran. Bacterial identification was performed by standard laboratory methods and API 20E strips. Susceptibility to cefoxitin was determined by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. PCR and sequencing were employed to detect pAmpC families' genes (ACC, FOX, MOX, DHA, CIT and EBC) and the clonal relatedness of pAmpC-positive isolates was evaluated by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR method. Results: In total, 20 (16.7%) isolates of E. cloacae were positive for presence of pAmpC genes among those blaDHA-1 (14.2%) was the most common gene followed by blaCMY-2 (2.5%). Results of ERIC-PCR showed that that the prevalence of DHA-1 and CMY-2-producing E. cloacae isolates was not due to clonal outbreaks. Conclusion: In present study, we showed the first emergence of DHA-1 and CMY-2 types of pAmpC-producing E. cloacae isolates in Iran. The appearance of pAmpC should be considered as a warning for the implementation of appropriate infection control and therapeutic policies in order to prevent the dissemination of these resistant organisms in our hospital settings.


The middle-income trap is a serious problem in developing Asia and Pacific economies. Middle-income trap is the situation in which a country's growth slows after reaching middle-income levels and the transition to high-income levels becomes unattainable. International remittances of immigrants to their country of origin is one of the most important elements contributing to the development of middle-income countries. By using a data set consisting of 12 Asia and Pacific middle-income countries—most of which are well-known migrant-sending countries—and by employing a panel data analysis technique, we tried to find the determinants of international remittance. Results show that per capita gross domestic product growth in origin countries and wage growth rate in destination countries are positively correlated with remittance inflows in middle-income countries, respectively. On the other hand, net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows are negatively correlated with remittance inflows. This can be interpreted as the paradigm shift of acquiring foreign capital in middle-income countries from remittances in earlier stages of development to more FDI when the country prepares the requirements for absorbing the foreign capital with an economic growth. Moreover, real effective exchange rate, the level of education, trade openness, and political stability are positively associated with remittance inflows.


Background: Approximately 50 percent of CRC patients ultimately develop metastatic disease and adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III CRC has proven to be benefi cial. For stage II colorectal cancer adjuvant chemotherapy is not standard, although this group probably harbours a subgroup of patients that will develop metastatic disease and could benefi t from adjuvant chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate if certain chromosomal aberrations are related with patient's survival. Material & Methods: Eighteen CRCs were analyzed by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and their DNA copy number profi les were correlated with the survival status of the patient. Results and Conclusion: Gain of 20q was signifi cantly associated with worse patient survival ( P =0.002) and therefore may serve as an indicator of poor patient outcome, and especially in patients with stage II CRC this could have clinical implications.


The electronic health record (EHR) contains a large amount of multi-dimensional and unstructured clinical data of significant operational and research value. Distinguished from previous studies, our approach embraces a double-annotated dataset and strays away from obscure "black-box" models to comprehensive deep learning models. In this paper, we present a novel neural attention mechanism that not only classifies clinically important findings. Specifically, convolutional neural networks (CNN) with attention analysis are used to classify radiology head computed tomography reports based on five categories that radiologists would account for in assessing acute and communicable findings in daily practice. The experiments show that our CNN attention models outperform non-neural models, especially when trained on a larger dataset. Our attention analysis demonstrates the intuition behind the classifier's decision by generating a heatmap that highlights attended terms used by the CNN model; this is valuable when potential downstream medical decisions are to be performed by human experts or the classifier information is to be used in cohort construction such as for epidemiological studies.


Artificial light has long been a significant factor contributing to the quality and productivity of human life. As a consequence, we are willing to use huge amounts of energy to produce it. Solid-state lighting (SSL) is an emerging technology that promises performance features and efficiencies well beyond those of traditional artificial lighting, accompanied by potentially massive shifts in (a) the consumption of light, (b) the human productivity and energy use associated with that consumption and (c) the semiconductor chip area inventory and turnover required to support that consumption. In this paper, we provide estimates of the baseline magnitudes of these shifts using simple extrapolations of past behaviour into the future. For past behaviour, we use recent studies of historical and contemporary consumption patterns analysed within a simple energy-economics framework (a Cobb–Douglas production function and profit maximization). For extrapolations into the future, we use recent reviews of believed-achievable long-term performance targets for SSL. We also discuss ways in which the actual magnitudes could differ from the baseline magnitudes of these shifts. These include: changes in human societal demand for light; possible demand for features beyond lumens; and guidelines and regulations aimed at economizing on consumption of light and associated energy.


A technique for determining the permeability of a phospholipid membrane on a single giant unilamellar vesicle (GUV) is described, which complements the existing methods utilizing either a planar black lipid membrane or sub-micrometre-sized liposomes. A single GUV is transferred using a micropipette from a solution of a nonpermeable solute into an iso-osmolar solution of a solute with a higher membrane permeability. Osmotical swelling of the vesicle is monitored with a CCD camera mounted on a phase contrast microscope, and a sequence of images is obtained. On each image, the points on the vesicle contour are determined using Sobel filtering with adaptive binarization threshold, and from these, the vesicle radius is calculated with great accuracy. From the time dependence of the vesicle radius, the membrane permeability is obtained. Using a test set of data, the method provided a consistent estimate of the POPC membrane permeability for glycerol, P = 1.7 × 10−8 m s−1, with individual samples ranging from P = 1.61 × 10−8 m s−1 to P = 1.98 × 10−8 m s−1. This value is ≈40% lower than the one obtained on similar systems. Possible causes for this discrepancy are discussed.


This paper introduces Fourier transformation as a rapid, replicable means for characterizing and distinguishing patterns of microscopic wear on primate teeth. The two-dimensional power spectra obtained from numerical Fourier transformation are shown to be different between two test patterns, one of which is composed of linear features and the other of randomly-spaced dots. A comparison is made, using Fourier transformation, of dental microwear patterns of small samples of two primate species, Ateles geoffroyi, the spider monkey, and Chiropotes satanas, the bearded saki. Ateles, with a scratch-dominated pattern of microwear, has a Fourier transform resembling that of the linear test pattern. Chiropotes, with a pit-dominated microwear pattern, resembles the transform of the dot pattern. The significance of this is discussed in light of the dietary differences between the two species.


Screening of bovine rumen contents for heat-resistant and micro-aerophilic cellulose-degrading microorgan- isms was performed on carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) plates at 37 °C-45 °C, and many isolates were found to produce reducing sugars under a static condition. Of those isolates, R8 and R15, which efficiently produced reducing sugars from CMC at a high temperature, were further examined. Taxonomic analysis classified both strains into Bacillus licheniformis. Comparison with B. licheniformis NBRC12200 and Trichoderma reesei NBRC31329 as a type strain under various condi- tions revealed that R8 and R15 had filter paper- and CMC-degrading abilities, which are absent in the B. licheniformis type strain, and that both isolates produced reducing sugars from CMC more efficiently than did T. reesei type strain at a high temperature under a static condition. These results suggest that R8 and R15 have a strong cellulose-degrading ability at a relatively high temperature under a micro-aerophilic condition.


Our inter-disciplinary research examines new approaches to knowledge acquisition through the exploitation of linguistic and societal metaphors. We argue that conventional knowledge acquisition relies too heavily on a psychological metaphor, and that this is insufficient in broad domains, where geographical and political issues make the expertise more socially situated, because it lacks input from the society in which the knowledge exists. We attempt to provide a methodology which captures this input by introducing a Domain Interface Group to support the knowledge engineer in his/her tasks. This presents a changing role for the knowledge engineer to primarily that of a group facilitator, and we suggest guidelines for brainstorming sessions to facilitate consensus decision making. We advocate the continued use of expert interviews, but suggest ways to improve their productivity. In particular, we attempt to alleviate reductive bias through the use and understanding of domain specific terminology and lexical semantics, during all domain communication and particularly during knowledge acquisition from text. We situate our work in the constructivist modeling paradigm and describe mediating representations which emphasize the importance of human comprehension of the model, for the knowledge engineer, the expert and the end user, above programming considerations. We have undertaken an evaluation of our methodology and an audit of a resulting paper knowledge base, and present the results in an attempt to prove the efficiency, effectiveness and accuracy of our approach.


alpha-Tocopherol transfer protein (alpha-TTP) is a cytosolic protein found predominantly in mammalian liver that is proposed to be responsible for the stereoselective uptake of alpha-tocopherol from the diet. Although recombinant alpha-TTP has been reported previously, little detail has been provided about the yields and competency of the recovered protein at binding tocopherols and other ligands. In this work, we report the successful expression and refolding of a recombinant human alpha-TTP. Ligation-independent cloning generated a construct in pET-30 encoding an alpha-TTP fusion protein (pET-30/ttp) containing a six-histidine tag and an S-tag, each cleavable by a separate protease upon expression in Escherichia coli. Overexpression of the protein led to the formation of inclusion bodies that were solubilized in 8 M urea and purified by metal chelate affinity chromatography. Another construct in pET-28b (pET-28b/ttp) provided a soluble protein product after expression that contained a 40-amino-acid N-terminal extension, which can be reduced to 21 amino acids by cleavage with thrombin. The success of different refolding experiments was assessed using a Lipidex gel-based tocopherol binding assay. The best recovery of refolded recombinant alpha-TTP fusion capable of binding alpha-tocopherol was provided by matrix-assisted refolding in the presence of 0.5 M arginine. Cleavage of the fusion protein with Factor Xa successfully generated the full-length wild-type protein with no additional N-terminal amino acids. The resulting purification scheme provides recombinant alpha-TTP in good yield and purity for investigation of both its structure and its binding affinities for different ligands including natural and synthetic tocols.


Worldwide, colorectal cancer is the third cause of death in men and the second cause of death in women, with nearly 1.2 million newly-diagnosed cases and 600,000 estimated deaths. A significant proportion of patients have metastatic disease at diagnosis. Neoangiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from those already existing, which play an important role in tumor growth and progression. Factors related to endothelial growth have been identified including vascular endothelial growth factor. Different studies have demonstrated coagulation and fibrinolysis systems activation participation in tumor angiogenic development. Some of these factors are Von Willebrand factor, fibrinogen, type I plasminogen activator inhibitor and receptor, in addition to D-dimer and platelets. Serum concentrations of these proteins are considered to be predictors of treatment response, disease progression and survival. Interaction between tumor cells, angiogenesis and coagulation activation is a positive feedback, and strategies interfering in this relationship, such as the use of chemotherapy in combination with new specifically targeted agents, can prevent or treat cancer. In addition, the role of anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents in the treatment of cancer has not yet been determined. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).


Turkey with diverse ecologies harbours several plant and fruit species. Several species grow naturally are grown commercially. Kayseri and surroundings constitute natural spread zone of some fruit species. This study was conducted to determine genetic diversity and some pomological characteristics of 31 seed-propagated quince (Cydonia oblanga Mill.) genotypes. For pomological characteristics, fruit length, fruit width, water soluble dry matter (WSDM) and total acidity analyses were performed. Molecular analyses were conducted with the aid of 15 SRAP primer combinations. Genetic diversity in investigated genotypes varied between 0.53- 0.92 and genotypes were gathered under two main groups. Primer base lengths varied between 400- 1700 bp. A total of 97 clear bands were obtained and 91 of them were polymorphic (polymorphism ratio = 87.7%). Present findings revealed that existing quince populations of the region should be preserved and be used in further genetic studies.


Accretion onto Classical T Tauri stars is thought to take place through the action of magnetospheric processes, with gas in the inner disk being channeled onto the star's surface by the stellar magnetic field lines. Young stars are known to accrete material in a time-variable manner, and the source of this variability remains an open problem, particularly on the shortest (∼day) timescales. Using one-dimensional time-dependent numerical simulations that follow the field line geometry, we find that for plausibly realistic young stars, steady-state transonic accretion occurs naturally in the absence of any other source of variability. However, we show that if the density in the inner disk varies smoothly in time with ∼day-long timescales (e.g., due to turbulence), this complication can lead to the development of shocks in the accretion column. These shocks propagate along the accretion column and ultimately hit the star, leading to rapid, large amplitude changes in the accretion rate. We argue that when these shocks hit the star, the observed time dependence will be a rapid increase in accretion luminosity, followed by a slower decline, and could be an explanation for some of the short-period variability observed in accreting young stars. Our one-dimensional approach bridges previous analytic work to more complicated multi-dimensional simulations and observations.


Due to integrated circuit technology scaling, a type of radiation effects called single event upsets (SEUs) has become a major concern for static random access memories (SRAMs) and thus for SRAM‐based field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These radiation effects are characterized by altering data stored in SRAM cells without permanently damaging them. However, SEUs can lead to unpredictable behavior in SRAM‐based FPGAs. A new hardening technique compatible with the current FPGA design workflows is presented. The technique works at the cell design level, and it is based on the modulation of cell transistor channel width. Experimental results show that to properly harden an SRAM cell, only some transistors have to be increased in size, while others need to be minimum sized. So, with this technique, area can be used in the most efficient way to harden SRAMs against radiation. Experimental results on a 65‐nm complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) SRAM demonstrate that the number of SEU events can be roughly reduced to 50% with adequate transitory sizing, while area is kept constant or slightly increased.


Long before the discovery of the wheel, horses played an essential role in the life of man. From agriculture, to transportation, to warfare, all major civilizations for which we have written records depended upon this magnificent creature. A prolific author and professional horse trainer, Hyland explores the vital role that the horse has played in the progress of humankind on a global scale. Images from documentary, archaeological, and literary sources supplement the text. While the ancient world was vast and varied, the presence of the horse formed a common thread in many diverse regions. From the Hittites to Persia to the Seleukid Kingdom in Mesopotamia, in Egypt, Thrace, Rome, Byzantium, Arabia, and Scythia, horses contributed to economic prosperity and played a part in technological advancement. Hyland also considers their presence in the Steppe, among the Hun tribes, in China, and among the early Celts. Her vivid account, which ranges from c. 1350 BC to c. 640 AD, will inform and entertain.


Alpine landscapes capture our imaginations. Envisioning these forbidding regions occupied by humans in prehistory has drawn academic and public audiences alike. The history of these alpine regions is being rewritten the world over, due in part to recent archaeological discoveries made in the alpine regions of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). These discoveries, some in the wilderness areas of Montana, have revealed a complex tapestry of prehistoric lifeways. Archaeological and paleobiological research in Montana's GYE alpine regions by Dr. Craig Lee (INSTAAR/ PCRG), Dr. Rachel Reckin (USFS) and Scott Dersam (PCRG) have spearheaded these continued multi-disciplinary studies in the region. Their efforts have focused on the climatological, ecological, as well as cultural impacts of ice patch use and alpine habitation on patterns of prehistoric occupation in the region. The UW-NPS Research Station Small Grant funded archaeological research and reconnaissance of the alpine regions of Montana's Beartooth wilderness during the summer 2019. The 2019-field season's discoveries added significant knowledge to regional research in high elevation studies, documenting the highest known stone circles, ceramics, and Paleoindian hunting activities in Montana.

Featured photo from figure 4 in report.