The distinct isoenzyme-specific localization of creatine kinase (CK) isoenzymes found recently in brain suggests an important function for CK in brain energetics and points to adaptation of the CK system to the special energy requirements of different neuronal and glial cell types. For example, the presence of brain-type B-CK in Bergmann glial cells and astrocytes is very likely related to the energy requirements for ion homeostasis (K(+)-resorption) in the brain, as well as for metabolite and neurotransmitter trafficking between glial cells and neurons. In contrast, the presence of muscle-type M-CK, found exclusively in Purkinje neurons which also express other muscle-specific proteins, is very likely related to the unique calcium metabolism of these neurons. In addition, the developmentally late appearance of mitochondrial CK (Mi-CK) during brain development indicates an important function for Mi-CK in the oxidative energy metabolism of the brain. The physiological importance of the phosphocreatine circuit fully operating in adult brain has been corroborated by recent data from in vivo 31P-NMR magnetization transfer measurements. Future investigations should concentrate on the possible involvement of CK in diseases of the CNS with altered energy metabolism, aspects of which are also discussed here.


Ge-Doped Li0.33La0.56TiO3 (Ge-LLTO) perovskites are synthesized with various GeO2 contents by solid-state reactions as Li-ion conductive electrolytes for rechargeable all-solid-state Li batteries. After the addition of GeO2, the sinterability and Li ion conductivity are enhanced for the perovskite solid electrolyte. The Li0.43La0.56Ti0.95Ge0.05O3 electrolytes exhibit the highest sinterability and Li ion conductivity among the as-prepared Li0.33+2xLa0.56Ti1−xGexO3 electrolytes. The improvement of Li ion conductivity might be attributed to the improvement of the densification and structural integrity of the LLTO solid electrolyte. The lithium transference number (tLi+) of Ge-doped LLTO is close to 1. Moreover, the Ge-LLTO electrolytes are stable in the potential range of 0–10 V vs. Li/Li+.


Connecting long-range wireless networks to the Internet imposes challenges due to vastly longer round-trip-times (RTTs). In this paper, we present an ICN protocol framework that enables robust and efficient delay-tolerant communication to edge networks. Our approach provides ICN-idiomatic communication between networks with vastly different RTTs. We applied this framework to LoRa, enabling end-to-end consumer-to-LoRa-producer interaction over an ICN-Internet and asynchronous data production in the LoRa edge. Instead of using LoRaWAN, we implemented an IEEE 802.15.4e DSME MAC layer on top of the LoRa PHY and ICN protocol mechanisms in RIOT OS. Executed on off-the-shelf IoT hardware, we provide a comparative evaluation for basic NDN-style ICN [60], RICE [31]-like pulling, and reflexive forwarding [46]. This is the first practical evaluation of ICN over LoRa using a reliable MAC. Our results show that periodic polling in NDN works inefficiently when facing long and differing RTTs. RICE reduces polling overhead and exploits gateway knowledge, without violating ICN principles. Reflexive forwarding reflects sporadic data generation naturally. Combined with a local data push, it operates efficiently and enables lifetimes of ≥1 year for battery powered LoRa-ICN nodes.


ABSTRACT I have had the privilege of serving as editor-in-chief for 11 years of two scientific journals: The Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics and the Journal of the World Federation of Orthodontists. I had the opportunity to read and correct thousands of manuscripts. This experience was greatly enriching, because reading a text professionally completely differs from the perspective of readers in general. The routine practice of correcting manuscripts has made me realize that some errors recur frequently. To help authors to improve their manuscripts before submission, these problems are discussed here in the order that they appear in conventional manuscript sections.


BACKGROUND This is a descriptive case series study that attempt to identify the common presenting complaints why children are brought to the Multipurpose Primary Health Centre (MPHC) at Ilesa and also to examine the treatment pattern of the common illnesses from birth to the first five years of life, from October 2000 to March 2001. METHODS Information was collected by reviewing the case records of all under five children who presented for treatment at the MPHC, Ilesa from October 2000 to March 2001 using a spreadsheet. The age, sex and presenting complaint as reported by their mothers were extracted from the records. The treatment given as recorded by the attending physician was also recorded. RESULTS The findings of the study reveals that for every 20 outpatient visits to the centre, 11 were children under five years. The male to female ratio was 1:1. Overall, fever, cough and diarrhoea were the commonest presenting complaint (77.2% of all presenting complaints) with fever taking the highest percentage (48.8% of all presenting complaints) except for children under 6 months where majority present with cough (31.6% of the presenting complaint of that age group). The disease conditions most commonly treated by the physicians at the centre were malaria, acute respiratory tract infection and diarrhoea. The drugs commonly used are chloroquine, cotrimoxazole, and oral rehydration therapy. CONCLUSION This study has shown that the major burdens of diseases in children under 5 years of age are preventable and are amenable to cost-effective and simple treatment.


OBJECTIVES
several studies have used duplex ultrasound to assess valvular incompetence in symptomatic patients. This cross-sectional survey was performed to determine, for the first time in a general population sample, the relationship between trunk varices and the presence of reflux in lower limb venous segments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
1238 subjects (554 male, 684 female), aged 18-64 years, were randomly selected. The presence and severity of any trunk varices was assessed and classified into Grades 1-3; hyphenweb and reticular varices were noted. The presence or absence of reflux > or = 0.5 s in five deep and three superficial venous segments in each leg was assessed using duplex ultrasound.

RESULTS
the prevalence of reflux increased in both superficial and deep segments with more severe grades of trunk varices (p< or = 0.01), except the upper SFV in women. Fifteen per cent of females showed reflux confined to the superficial system, compared with 9% of males (p< or = 0.001); 22% of males showed deep reflux, compared with 11% of females (p < or = 0.001). 71% of men and 48% of women with Grade 2-3 trunk varices had mixed deep and superficial reflux. Above-knee popliteal segments had a higher prevalence of reflux than lower SFV segments in all groups. There was no consistent relationship between the presence of hyphenweb or reticular varices and deep or superficial reflux.

CONCLUSION
segmental venous reflux can be detected in the deep and superficial leg veins of subjects without trunk varices, but superficial and mixed reflux are increasingly found in subjects with more severe varices.


The transient stability constraint should be taken into consideration for the solution of the optimization problems in power systems. This paper presents a solution for the transient stability-constrained optimal power flow (TSCOPF) by a novel approach based on the artificial bee colony algorithm. The formulas of TSCOPF are derived through the addition of rotor angle inequality constraints into optimal power flow relationships. In this nonlinear optimization problem, the objective function is taken into consideration as the fuel cost of the system. The proposed approach is tested on both a WSCC 3-generator, 9-bus system and a IEEE 30-bus system, and the test results obtained are compared to prove the efficiency and effectiveness of the approach with other approaches in the literature.


This article examines the use of interpretation and overinterpretation in understanding Ja'far ibn Hasan al-Barzanji's text, Mawlid al-Barzanji , one of the religious literatures in Indonesia. The results of the study indicate that Mawlid Al-Barzanji which contain majesty, miracles, prayer, and profound love for the Prophet is widely responded by Indonesian Muslims through the process of reading, interpretation, and appreciation. Such widespread acceptance is due to the fulfillment of interpretation requirements which requires the existence of a common world view between author and reader or interpreter. On the other hand, overinterpretation occurs when the text of Mawlid Al-Barzanji is interpreted by those who have different world views as a result of different religious ideas and religious ideologies. Such overinterpretation invites negative response, ideological prejudice, and rejection of some parts of Al-Barzanji text by those who identify themselves as a salafi group.


Subirrigation/Controlled Drainage System Planning, Design and Operation Issues Technology Transfer in Subirrigation and Controlled Drainage, M.A. Pelletier Soil Water and Forage Response to Controlled Drainage, L.D. Geohring, H.M. van Es, and H.J. Buscaglia Subirrigation for Corn and Soybean Production for North Carolina Soils, C. Murugaboopathi, R.W. Skaggs, and R.O. Evans Design and Management of Dual-Function Subsurface Drainage Systems, W. Zhang and Q. Zuo Effects of Four Water Table Depths on Soybean Yields, S.R. Broughton and C.A. Madramootoo Some Results of Subirrigation in the Ijsselmeerpolders in the Netherlands, J. Visser Design Control Chamber Water Table Elevation of a Subsurface Irrigation System, Y.T. Galganov and F. Papineau Horizontal Hydraulic Conductivity Determination Using the Velocity Permeameter, G.E. Merva Parameter Evaluation for Subirrigation/Controlled Drainage Systems, R.C. Rabeler A Study of Wireless Measurement of Groundwater Levels in Subdrained Peat Fields, S. Virtanen and R. Peltomaa Economic/Production Impact of Subirrigation/Controlled Drainage Economic, Production, and Environmental Impacts of Subirrigation and Controlled Drainage, R.S. Broughton Profitability of a Crop Rotation Utilizing Subirrigation, J.P. LeCureux Subirrigation Experiments in the Veneto Region (North-East Italy): A Review of the Period 1981-1989, L. Giardini and M. Borin Subirrigation Response of Soybeans Grown with High Yield Potential Management, N.R. Fausey and R.L. Cooper Effects of Subirrigation and Controlled Drainage on Crop Yield, Water Table Fluctuation, and Soil Properties, S.T. Chieng and G.A. Hughes-Games Environmental Impact of Subirrigation/Controlled Drainage Environment Impacts of Water Table Control, R.W. Skaggs and M.A. Breve Testing of a Simulation Model Aimed at Predicting the Environmental Impact of Subirrigation and Controlled Drainage, T. Karvonen and R. Peltomaa Water Quality Impact of Subirrigating Maize, H.W. Belcher and L.J. Protasiewicz Nutrient Contents in Drained Water from Pipe Drainage Systems, M. Borin, C. Giupponi, and P. Ceccon Environmental and Economic Impacts of a Recycling Subirrigation-Drainage System, S.W. Melvin and R.S. Kanwar Water Table Management Systems and Water Quality, D. Arjoon, S.O. Prasher, and J. Gallichand Barriers to Implementation of Subirrigation/Controlled Drainage Barriers to the Implementation of Subirrigation/Controlled Drainage, H. Lamb Social Constraints on the Expansion of Irrigation in Huron County, Michigan, P.A. Terry Results from an Experiment Where Blocked Drains Occurred Following Subirrigation (Rickwood II Experiment, Cambridgeshire, England), J. Rands and C. Dennis Hydraulic Head Losses Near Agricultural Drains: Preliminary Results and Research Needs, R.H. Susanto and R.W. Skaggs Considerations for State Approval of an Irrigation District Using Subirrigation, D.A. Hamilton Field Systems A Field Facility for Monitoring Root Systems as Affected by Water Table Management, J.I. Lizaso and J.T. Ritchie A Field Lysimeter System for Controlled Drainage/Subirrigation Research, S.R. Broughton, C.A. Madramootoo, and A. Papadopoulos Boundary Element Modeling of Subsurface Flow for Application of Wastewater by Subirrigation, S.C.-Y. Yu and K.D. Konyha Index


. We study the linear, but fully non-adiabatic tidal response of a uniformly rotating, somewhat evolved ( X c = 0 . 4 ), 10 M ⊙ main sequence star to the dominant l = 2 components of its binary companion's tidal potential. This is done numer-ically with a 2D implicit finite difference scheme. We assume the spin vector of the 10 M ⊙ star to be aligned perpendicular to the orbital plane and calculate the frequency ¯ σ and width of the resonances with the prograde and retrograde gravity (g) modes as well as the resonances with quasi-toroidal rotational (r) modes for varying rotation rates Ω s of the main sequence star. For all applied forcing frequencies we determine the rate of tidal energy and angular momentum exchange with the companion. In a rotating star tidal energy is transferred from l = 2 g-modes to g-modes of higher spherical degree ( l = 4 , 6 , 8 , . . . ) by the Coriolis force. These latter modes have shorter wavelength and are damped more heavily, so that the l = 2 resonant tidal interaction tends to be reduced for large rotation rates Ω s . On the other hand, the density of potential resonances (a broad l spectrum) increases. We find several inertially excited unstable l > 4 g-modes, but not more than one (retrograde) unstable l = 2 g-mode and that only for rapid rotation. Our numerical results can be applied to study the tidal evolution of eccentric binaries containing early type B-star components.


A reaction route accounting for the formation of levulinic acid from 5-hydroxymethylfuran-2-carbaldehyde was deduced on the basis of the mechanism previously offered by Horvat, to match the steps with more details. A newly deduced reaction route was proposed between two intermediate products within this mechanism, and the probabilities of the two mechanisms were compared by Gaussian 03 software. It was found that the conversion from the intermediate 2,3-dihydroxy-5-methyl-2,3-dihydro-furan-2-carbaldehyde (DMDFC) to 2,5-dioxo-hex-3-enal (DOHE) in the original mechanism has a lower net energy barrier than that in the newly deduced mechanism, and thus should be more preferred. The mechanism indicates that DMDFC is first protonized, followed by a proton shift process, and thereafter an OH- ion is added, completing the hydration process. Thereafter, an intramolecular H-shift reaction proceeds, leading to conversion to the intended intermediate product DOHE by the consecutive processes of isomerization and dehydration.


Whether one works directly in chemical dependency treatment or in a generalist social service practice environment, most social workers will interact with substance-abusing clients. Substance use and chemical dependence is common, and found throughout al


Industrial countries face the consequences of decades of inappropiate handling of hazardous waste. The dumping of al1 types of hazardous materials has been ongoing in most industrialised countries for hundreds of years. Large quantities of industrial and other waste material have been buried in landfill sites. A relatively large number of these lack reliable man-made or natural geological barriers and toxic fluids are scaping and polluting the groundwater. The problem is greatly aggravated when a soil covenng is placed over the waste and there is no information about the dumping practices used in the past. One of the first tasks in any remedial action is to delineate the physical extent of the sites and its encroachment into the surrounding area. Test borings and limited excavations are very valuable but the information obtained is not continuous and dheir destructive nature makes it possible that waste could inadvertently be released during the probing phase. In this regard, both borehole drilling and excavation are very dangerous to workers and the environment and expensive and tedious to conduct. Many of these problems may be alleviated by using a geophysical assisted system approach to determine where the pollutants will go in the subsurface, gain more complete understanding of site conditions and asses the optimal placement of exploration drills and monitonng wells. At hazardous waste sites, the main objectives must commonly include: - Determine the presence, location, distribution, depth and composition of possible buried wastes. - Determine the presence and extent of contaminant and leachate plumes within the unsaturated and saturated zones. - Characterise and asses the local (and regional) geohydrologic regime for groundwater flow paterns, recharge areas and localised permeable pathways.


In an injection moulded part, warpage is the distortion caused by non-uniform shrinkage within the plastic part. When looking critically at the causes of warpage, it is found that several key parameters of the moulding process have some effect on the warpage. However, the two major categories that contribute to warpage include the part design and the mould design. In mould design, the gate location, runner/gate system and cooling system design are the major factors affecting not only the warpage and part quality but also the injection moulding cycle time. This paper presents an investigation of using different cooling system configuration on warpage and shrinkage of an industrial plastic part with the aim of determining which cooling configuration will provide minimum warpage and cycle time. As conventional injection mould cooling design is based on straight drilling, it limits the geometric complexity of the cooling design, especially curved shape cooling channels. Nowadays, new technology of advanced rapid tooling based on solid freeform fabrications can be been used to provide conformal cooling channels in injection moulds. In this paper, several type of cooling channels are analysed to compare the performance in terms of warpage and shrinkage and to determine which configuration is suitable for minimizing warpage. Autodesk Moldflow Insight (AMI) simulation software is applied to examine the results of the cooling performances and warpage analysis.


ABSTRACT Estimating the efficacy of different instructional modalities, techniques, and interventions is challenging because teaching style covaries with instructor, and the typical student only takes a course once. We introduce the individualized treatment effect (ITE) from analyses of personalized medicine as a means to quantify individual student performance under different instructional modalities or intervention strategies, despite the fact that each student may experience only one "treatment." The ITE is presented within an ensemble machine learning approach to evaluate student performance, identify factors indicative of student success, and estimate persistence. A key element is the use of a priori student information from institutional records. The methods are motivated and illustrated by a comparison of online and standard face-to-face offerings of an upper division applied statistics course that is a curriculum bottleneck at San Diego State University. The ITE allows us to characterize students that benefit from either the online or the traditional offerings. We find that students in the online class performed at least as well as the traditional lecture class on a common final exam. We discuss the general implications of this analytics framework for assessing pedagogical innovations and intervention strategies, identifying and characterizing at-risk students, and optimizing the individualized student learning environment.


Proteins of polyribosome-bound informosomes of germinating wheat embryos were studied by electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel in presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. liberation of informosomal proteins was achieved by mild ribonuclease treatment of polyribosomes. It was shown, that proteins of informosomes associated with polyribosomes contain polypeptides with molecular weights of 86 000, 75 000, 72 000, 66 000, 52 000 and 34 000. The milecular weights of two most prominent proteins were 86 000 and 52 000. The treatment of polyribosomes with 0.5 M KCl resulted in the loss of large part of informosomal proteins, which are revealed in the KCl-wash.


Stump Lake is strategically located to provide a sediment record of very large debris flows that travel down Cheekye River to lower Cheekye fan from the west flank of Mount Garibaldi, a Quaternary volcano in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Cores collected from Stump Lake span the last 11,500 years and consist largely of gyttja. However, a diamicton layer and an associated detrital organic layer, which is capped by a clay lamina, record a large debris flow derived from the headwaters of Cheekye basin. Radiocarbon ages indicate that this event occurred about 6,900 years ago. We estimated the peak discharge of the flow by measuring cross-sections of the Cheekye River channel adjacent to Stump Lake and by calculating flow velocity using a Newtonian flow model. Reasonable values of peak discharge, calculated in this way, were input into an empirical equation linking discharge and debris-flow volume, developed for non-granitic debris flows. The estimated minimum volume of the debris flow is 3 to 5 × 106 m3. Another large debris flow (ca. 3 × 106 m3), which occurred about 800 years ago, is not recorded in Stump Lake sediments and thus was too small to reach the lake. The Stump Lake sediment sequence indicates that no debris flows larger than several million cubic meters have reached lower Cheekye fan in post-glacial time.


The undecapeptide KKLFKKILKKL-NH2 (BP16) is a non-toxic cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) that is mainly internalized into cancer cells through a clathrin dependent endocytic mechanism and localizes in late endosomes. Moreover, this CPP is able to enhance the cellular uptake of chlorambucil (CLB) improving its cytotoxicity. In this work, we further explored the cell-penetrating properties of BP16 and those of its arginine analogue BP308. We investigated the influence on the cytotoxicity and on the cellular uptake of conjugating CLB at the N- or the C-terminal end of these undecapeptides. The effect of incorporating the cathepsin B-cleavable sequence Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly in CLB-BP16 and CLB-BP308 conjugates was also evaluated. The activity of CLB was significantly improved when conjugated at the N- or the C-terminus of BP16, or at the N-terminus of BP308. While CLB alone was not active (IC50 of 73.7 to >100 μM), the resulting conjugates displayed cytotoxic activity against CAPAN-1, MCF-7, PC-3, 1BR3G and SKMEL-28 cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 8.7 to 25.5 μM. These results were consistent with the internalization properties observed for the corresponding 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein-labeled conjugates. The presence of the tetrapeptide Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly at either the N- or the C-terminus of CLB-BP16 conjugates further increased the efficacy of CLB (IC50 of 3.6 to 16.2 μM), which could be attributed to its selective release in the lysosomal compartment. Enzymatic assays with cathepsin B showed the release of CLB-Gly-OH from these sequences within a short time. Therefore, the combination of BP16 with an enzymatic cleavable sequence can be used as a drug delivery system for the effective uptake and release of drugs in cancer cells.


Faithful translation of the genetic code during protein synthesis is fundamental to the growth, development, and function of living organisms. Aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetases (AARSs), which define the genetic code by correctly pairing amino acids with their cognate tRNAs, are responsible for 'quality control' in the flow of information from a gene to a protein. When differences in binding energies of amino acids to an AARS are inadequate, editing is used to achieve high selectivity. Editing occurs at the synthetic active site by hydrolysis of noncognate aminoacyl‐adenylates (pretransfer editing) and at a dedicated editing site located in a separate domain by deacylation of mischarged aminoacyl‐tRNA (posttransfer editing). Access of nonprotein amino acids, such as homocysteine or ornithine, to the genetic code is prevented by the editing function of AARSs, which functionally partitions amino acids present in living cells into protein and nonprotein amino acids. Continuous editing is part of the tRNA aminoacylation process in living organisms from bacteria to human beings. Preventing mistranslation by the clearance of misactivated amino acids is crucial to cellular homeostasis and has a role in etiology of disease. Although there is a strong selective pressure to minimize mistranslation, some organisms possess error‐prone AARSs that cause mistranslation. Elevated levels of mistranslation and the synthesis of statistical proteins can be beneficial for pathogens by increasing phenotypic variation essential for the evasion of host defenses. WIREs RNA 2012, 3:295–310. doi: 10.1002/wrna.122


This paper defines Structured Markovian Arrival Processes (SMAPs). An SMAP consists of several blocks each being represented by a random variable specifying the duration of staying in that block. Leaving a block indicates an arrival event of the SMAP. The routing between blocks is governed by a stochastic matrixQ. It is shown that the joint moments of the SMAP can be directly determined from the moments of the block random variables and routing matrix Q, if Q is doubly stochastic. The characteristics of the SMAP can be computed very efficiently if Q is in addition circulant. Furthermore we show that for given block random variables the determination of a routing matrix Q and thus the fitting of the SMAP essentially results in solving a set of linear equations.


: The paper considers the trends of morbidity due to tick-borne encephalities (TBE) and lxodes tick-borne borrelioses (lTBB) in Udmurtia during 35 years (1965-2000) and evaluates the long-term influence of measures aimed at suppressing natural foci by eliminating the basic vector on this process. For this, data on 1062 cases of fevers occurring after the bite of a tick in Udmurtia in 1965-1968, the similar data on 1509 cases in 1983-1987, and the official data on the incidence of these infections in 1996-2000 have been retrospectively analyzed. It has been shown that in Udmurtia the natural foci of lTBB coexisted with those of TBE long before the pathogens of borrelioses were described and notification of the infection of this group was initiated. In the 1990s, there was a drastic rise in the incidence of TBE and lTBB as compared with the 1960s and 1980s, which was due to an increase in the rate of contacts of the population with natural foci and to the better diagnosis of these infections. The prevalence of lTBB coincides with that of TBE. There is a long (more than 30 years) epidemiological effect in eliminating the vector Ixodes persulcatus.


Given the rapid rise of electric vehicles (EVs) worldwide, and the ambitious targets set for the near future, the management of large EV fleets must be seen as a priority. Specifically, we study a scenario where EV charging is managed through self-interested EV aggregators who compete in the day-ahead market in order to purchase the electricity needed to meet their clients' requirements. With the aim of reducing electricity costs and lowering the impact on electricity markets, a centralised bidding coordination framework has been proposed in the literature employing a coordinator. In order to improve privacy and limit the need for the coordinator, we propose a reformulation of the coordination framework as a decentralised algorithm, employing the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). However, given the self-interested nature of the aggregators, they can deviate from the algorithm in order to reduce their energy costs. Hence, we study the strategic manipulation of the ADMM algorithm and, in doing so, describe and analyse different possible attack vectors and propose a mathematical framework to quantify and detect manipulation. Importantly, this detection framework is not limited to the considered EV scenario and can be applied to general ADMM algorithms. Finally, we test the proposed decentralised coordination and manipulation detection algorithms in realistic scenarios using real market and driver data from Spain. Our empirical results show that the decentralised algorithm's convergence to the optimal solution can be effectively disrupted by manipulative attacks achieving convergence to a different non-optimal solution which benefits the attacker. With respect to the detection algorithm, results indicate that it achieves very high accuracies and significantly outperforms a naive benchmark.


A simple and efficient numerical implementation of the well-conditioned electric field integral equation (WEFIE) is presented in this paper. It has been proven that the well-conditioned property of the WEFIE can be maintained in this numerical implementation. Numerical experiments demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the presented implementation approach. The numerical performance of the WEFIE for open bodies is also presented.


The objective of this paper is to develop a size-dependent nonlinear model of beams for fluid-conveying nanotubes with an initial deflection. The nonlinear frequency response of the nanotube is analysed via an Euler-Bernoulli model. Size influences on the behaviour of the nanosystem are described utilising the nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT). Relative motions at the inner wall of the nanotube is taken into consideration via Beskok–Karniadakis model. Formulating kinetic and elastic energies and then employing Hamiltonś approach, the nonlinear motion equations are derived. Furthermore, Galerkinś approach is employed for discretisation, and then a continuation scheme is developed for obtaining numerical results. It is observed that an initial deflection significantly alters the frequency response of NSGT nanotubes conveying fluid. For small initial deflections, a hardening nonlinearity is found whereas a softening-hardening nonlinearity is observed for large initial deflections.


As an environment changes over time, pedogenesis influences the amount of soil nutrients available to plants. The effect of long term soil development on the quantity of plant available nutrients has been well documented. However, what remains poorly understood is how soil development affects fine scale spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients. The goal of my dissertation research was investigate how spatial heterogeneity of nutrients is affected by long term soil development and to test the effects of nutrient spatial heterogeneity on plant community structure and invasibility by new species. Using a combination of field experiments implemented along a 2 million year old chronosequence located at the Colorado Front Range adjacent to the Rocky Mountains, I addressed these questions in the following data chapters: (1) how does long term soil development influence spatial heterogeneity of soil biogeochemistry, (2) how does nutrient spatial heterogeneity affect plant community structure, and (3) how does nutrient spatial heterogeneity affect plant community invasibility? In the first data chapter, spatially explicit soil samples were obtained at five age sites distributed along the 2 million year old chronosequence to measure biogeochemical properties. These results suggest that long term soil development can increase fine scale spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients. In the second data chapter, I manipulated the fine scale spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients and measured its affect on plant community structure by conducting plant surveys throughout the four-year study. I found that increasing nutrient spatial heterogeneity leads to an increase in species richness of natives. In the third data chapter, I conducted a field simulation of plant invasions to investigate community invasibility among differing levels of nutrient spatial heterogeneity treatments. I found that as fine scale spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients increased, so did the invasibility of the plant community. Overall, the knowledge gained from these studies provided valuable insight into how soil development influences nutrient spatial heterogeneity, and how nutrient spatial heterogeneity can increase plant species richness and community invasibility.


We report here that RUFY4, a newly characterized member of the 'RUN and FYVE domain-containing' family of proteins previously associated with autophagy enhancement, is highly expressed in alveolar macrophages (AM). We show that RUFY4 interacts with mitochondria upon stimulation by microbial-associated molecular patterns of AM and dendritic cells. RUFY4 interaction with mitochondria and other organelles is dependent on a previously uncharacterized OmpH domain located immediately upstream of its C-terminal FYVE domain. Further, we demonstrate that rufy4 messenger RNA can be translated from an alternative translation initiation codon, giving rise to a N-terminally truncated form of the molecule lacking most of its RUN domain and with enhanced potential for its interaction with mitochondria. Our observations point towards a role of RUFY4 in selective mitochondria clearance in activated phagocytes.


This dissertation is based on experiments to research the potential of spray-flame-synthesized LaCo1 xFexO3 perovskite as non-precious-metal based electrocatalysts towards OER and EtOR. These complex oxide perovskites were successfully synthesized before by numerous synthesis techniques such as the Pechini sol-gel method, co-precipitation, and reactive grinding; and Co- and Fe-based perovskites were put forward as highly active OER catalyst in numerous studies. However, few research studies were oriented to develop methods to produce high-surface area, nanosized perovskite catalysts that could be used in large-scale production. Therefore, the rationale behind this research is to show that spray-flame synthesis can be the suitable technique to produce high-surface area perovskite nanoparticles as electrocatalysts in a continuous scalable process. A series of LaCo1–xFexO3 nanoparticles with different Fe contents were synthesized by spray-flame synthesis by varying process parameters and precursor solution compositions. With the aid of heat-treatment of the as-synthesized nanoparticles in O2, the physical properties of the as-synthesized nanoparticles were further modified. Comparative analyses on the bulk, surface, morphological, and magnetic properties of the perovskites were performed to determine the influence of Fe substitution on the OER catalytic activity.
All experiments and analyses are a result of the collaborative research study of several research groups; namely, the synthesis and materials characterizations by the author in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Center for Analytics on the Nanoscale (ICAN) and the Wende group in the University of Duisburg-Essen Electrocatalytic and operando electrochemistry investigations were performed in the Schuhmann and Muhler Groups at the Ruhruniversitat Bochum. Based on this collaborative effort, spray-flame synthesis, nanoparticle characterization, and the investigation of the OER and EtOR catalytic activity of Fe-substituted LaCoO3 nanoparticles was combined with operando electrochemistry/ATR-FTIR measurements giving insight into the influence of Fe substitution on electrochemical properties of LaCoO3. The focus of this work is on optimizing spray-flame synthesis parameters and heat treatment processes for improving the stoichiometric perovskite phase content while decreasing carbon contamination. Overall, the synthesis and analyses methodology applied for the specific mate-rials system of LaCo1–xFexO3 perovskites in this dissertation, was intended to be made useful for a wide range of other spray-flame made perovskites and complex oxide nanoparticles for electrocatalytic and other catalytic applications.


Background In Russia, microscopy of the genital microbiota in both women and men are performed at laboratory, not at physician's office. Microscopy is a simple and cheap method, which, together with a clinical presentation, provides sufficient information for diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis, vulvovaginal candidiasis, trichomoniasis, cervicitis, urethritis. Improvement of microscopy diagnostic methods with the use of automated computerised system is important. Methods Clinical samples were obtained from 100 men and 150 women of reproductive age. In total, 150 vaginal, cervical and female urethral samples, 73 male urethral samples and 17 prostatic samples were analysed using microscopy of Gram and methylene blue stained preparations. The presence of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, lactobacilli, "clue" cells, yeasts, trichomonads, gramme-negative diplococci was assessed. Vaginal samples were also assessed for bacterial vaginosis using the Nugent score. For analysis, image analyzer including a Biological Microscope MT5000 Series, Neiji Techno Co., Ltd (Japan), digital colour camera Progress CT3 and software UroGyn were used. Results In 17.33%, 11.33% and 2% of the vaginal samples, "clue" cells, yeasts and trichomonads were visualised by microscopy. Signs of cervicitis were detected in 2% of the women, in none of the female samples signs of urethritis were seen. In men, signs of urethritis were revealed in 3.45%, and prostatitis - in 29.4% of the samples. In none of the samples, Gram-negative diplococci were detected. There was complete agreement between the results obtained using the image analyzer and those obtained using traditional light microscopy. Conclusion An automated system for the analysis of images obtained by microscopy investigation of urogenital samples from women and men is easy to use, allows documentation of results and facilitates their interpretation.


McNaughton, K. E., Blackshaw, R. E., Waddell, K. A., Gulden, R. H., Sikkema, P. H. and Gillard, C. L. 2015. Effect of five desiccants applied alone and in combination with glyphosate in dry edible bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 1235-1242. Application of dry bean desiccants just prior to crop maturity is common practice by Canadian producers. As dry beans are grown for human consumption it is critical that producers pick desiccants that do not affect crop yield, seed quality, or result in desiccant seed residue levels above accepted levels. In this study the efficacy of glyphosate, diquat, glufosinate, carfentrazone, flumioxazin, and saflufenacil as desiccants was examined for navy, cranberry, pinto, and great northern dry bean. Seed herbicide residues were also tested for each of the dry bean classes tested. Navy, cranberry, pinto, and great northern dry bean yields were not impacted by use of the desiccants diquat, carfentrazone, flumioxazin, or saflufenacil when applied at labelled rates and application timings. Additionally, herbicide residues in seed following application remained lower than maximum residue limits (MRL) established by primary Canadian dry bean export partners. Generally, dry bean colour, irrespective of class, was not altered by desiccant use; diquat and flumioxazin caused minor increases in the degree of red and yellow seed pigmentation for cranberry bean only. Although colour differences were noted using a Chroma meter the differences were slight and would not likely be of economic importance. Application of glyphosate did not affect crop yield, and seed residue levels were below MRLs for navy, pinto, and great northern bean. However, seed glyphosate residue levels were above the MRL for cranberry bean when glyphosate was applied alone or tankmixed with carfentrazone, flumioxazin, or saflufenacil. Seed residue levels were also above listed MRLs for some export countries when glufosinate was applied to navy, cranberry, and pinto bean, although crop yield and seed quality remained unaffected. These findings suggest that growers and contractors should avoid using glufosinate as a dry bean desiccant at least for some markets and that care should be taken when selecting glyphosate as a desiccant, especially for cranberry bean. Across all market classes desiccation progress of bean leaf, stem, and pod tissue was slowest when glyphosate and carfentrazone were used.


Fish populations are impacted by a variety of processes including physical (temperature, salinity, currents), biological (growth, mortality) and human impacts (harvest). Most fish species exhibit a pre-recruitment or larval phase that is impacted by stochastic environmental factors which results in year to year variability in biomass. Importantly overlying annual recruitment can be long term trends, such as climate change, which require different approaches to management. Understanding the drivers for recruitment variability, especially the larval phase, provides an opportunity to build these relationships into traditional fisheries models to improve stock assessment and provide greater confidence to future projections. A crucial need for the appropriate management of marine resources is to have projections of sustainable harvests. For fisheries management, information to determine the limit and target catch levels are necessary to ensure a sustainable fish stock and industry.

This thesis investigated recruitment variability in fisheries. The first data chapter (Chapter 2) explores commonality in recruitment patterns in a range of Southern Hemisphere commercially fished species to determine any common recruitment signals. We tested three climate indices: the Inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) to explore their relationship with fish stock recruitment patterns. The time-series of IPO and SOI showed the strongest correlation with New Zealand hoki (blue grenadier) and Australian jackass morwong (r= 0.50 and r= -0.50), and SAM was positively related to Australian Macquarie Island Patagonian toothfish (r= 0.49). This chapter has been published in the Canadian Journal of Marine and Fisheries Science as "Coincident recruitment patterns of southern hemisphere fishes" (73(2): 270-278, 10.1139/cjfas 2015-0069). In Chapter 3 I focused on fine scale recruitment patterns at the level of a single species focusing on the Patagonian grenadier fishery. The Patagonian grenadier stock in Chile appears to have undergone rapid biomass depletion related to changes in recruitment and thus provided an ideal case study to investigate fine scale recruitment changes in a fishery. To be able to evaluate the impact of future recruitment scenarios on future catches of Patagonian grenadier, I developed an agestructured Stock Synthesis assessment model using data from 1985 to 2013 (Chapter 3).

The Stock Synthesis assessment modelling platform allows the use of all the data available for the fishery including different fleets operating across different spatial regions and during different years. The model was validated against the existing stock assessment model and sensitivity testing demonstrate it is suitable in describing the status of the stock. The stock synthesis model was then used to evaluate changes in recruitment that had been documented in the fishery. I compared two scenarios: Scenario 1 is the standard assessment approach that uses the entire recruitment data from 1985 and treats recruitment as a stationary variable that assumes recruitment varies around an equilibrium trend. Scenario 2 is a two-phased stock recruitment curve that splits the recruitment time series into two distinct periods with differing productivity, associated with a climate change induced regime shift in the late 1990s.

Using the assessment model developed in Chapter 3, I evaluated different management strategy scenarios for future sustainability of the Chilean Patagonian grenadier fishery and compared different future outcomes based on whether a shift in stock recruitment had or had not occurred (Chapter 4). A Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) procedure was implemented to examine the consequences of incorporating a different model structure for recruitment values in the assessment which underpins the harvest strategy used to set the annual total allowable catch (TAC). A management strategy that does not consider a shift in recruitment resulted in average TAC values of approximately 125,000 tonnes, substantially above the sustainable yield of 45,000 tonnes when the recruitment shift was incorporated. A TAC based upon No Shift in recruitment would lead to unsustainable catches with significant impact on the ecosystem as well as the industry and coastal communities reliant on the industry if there was an actual shift in recruitment. The history of the Patagonian grenadier fishery demonstrates the benefits of taking a precautionary approach that accounts for the change in fish productivity (whether climate-driven or otherwise). However, there can be considerable delays before a regime shift is observed in the recruitment data or an assessment model mis-specification is detected.


This research guide will help you as you prepare your edTPA portfolio, your resume and job search, and gather the resources and lesson plan ideas you need to survive your many years of teaching!


The contribution of human activities such as industries, agriculture and various domestic inputs, becomes more and more significant in the chemical composition of the dissolved load of rivers. Human factors act as a supplementary key process. Therefore the mass-balance for the budget of catchments and river basins include anthropogenic disturbances. In the present study, we investigate waste water tracing by the use of Li isotopes in a small river basin near Orleans in France (l'Egoutier, 15 km² and 5 km long).
It is well known that Li has strategic importance for numerous industrial applications including its use in the production of batteries for both mobile devices (computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.) and electric vehicles, but also in pharmaceutical formulations. In the present work, we collected river waters samples before and after the release from a waste water treatment plant connected to an hospital.
Lithium isotopic compositions are rather homogeneous in river waters with d7Li values around -0.5‰ ± 1 along the main course of the stream (n=7). The waste water sample is very different from the natural background of the river basin with Li concentration being twice of the values without pollution and significant heavy lithium contribution (d7Li = +4‰). These preliminary results will be discussed in relation with factors controlling the distribution of Li and its isotopes in this specific system and compared with the release of other metals such as Pb or Zn.


Abstract A central problem in the detection of long-term trends in upper stratospheric ozone from orbiting remote sensors involves the separation of instrument drifts from true geophysical changes. Periodic flights of a Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet radiometer (SSBUV) on the Space Shuttle will allow the detection of drifts in optically identical sensors (SBUV/2) carried on operational satellites. A detailed simulation of the SSBUV and SBUV/2 datasets defines the accuracy that can be attained by the in-orbit calibration procedure. The repeatability of the SSBUV calibration from one flight to the next is the most critical variable in the analysis. A repeatability near ±1% is essential for detection and correction of drifts in the SBUV/2 radiance measurements. The simulations show that one can infer true geophysical trends in backscattered radiance to an accuracy of approximately ±1.0% per decade when SSBUV flies approximately once per year and provides a precise calibration correction to the SBUV/2 dataset ...


The newly adopted directives significantly reform the regulatory framework of communications. The directives currently approved include a "Framework" directive and specific directives covering access and interconnection, authorizations, universal service and the rights of users. The European legislature proposed a unified approach whereby all electronic communications, including radio and television, as far as is possible, without distinctions based on technology and content. In particular, the Framework Directive proposes a new balance between the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities (NRAs), by granting the latter the ability to identify national markets while at the same time providing for the European Commission's preventive control as to compliance with EU law. The new framework drastically reforms the prerequisites and procedural steps for the imposition of "ex ante" obligations upon 559 the undertakings that hold a significant market power in a given market. In this respect, the adoption of concepts deriving from competition law (namely, product and geographic relevant markets, single and joint dominance, leverage of market power) is the key feature. This article aims at analyzing the new Directives and the relevant "guidelines" issued by the European Commission, in order to answer two fundamental questions. First, will the reform trigger a step back for "ex ante" regulation in favour of competition law, as originally envisaged? Second, will the reform provide the NRAs with the correct range of discretion in their assessments? The conclusion reached is that regulation will more probably step forward rather than back and that, while the adoption of competition law concepts can help to reduce the ambiguities between the respective scopes of competition law and regulation, this method may also be a source of increased uncertainty. Furthermore, on certain key decisions, the directives provide the NRAs with ample and arguably excessive discretion. Accordingly, the article's authors condone the European Commission's power of controlling compliance with EU law (even before a decision by the NRAs). The authors further conclude that, contrary to the past, the newly adopted directives require a significant contribution by the national legislature to ensure a sufficiently certain and fair implementation of the new framework and to solve the questions that remain open.


A thesis submitted to the Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation, 2016


During the process of donating a kidney, which involved months of medical testing, and some psychological testing, I began to realize that possibly the hardest part of this process was the lack of acceptance and encouragement that a potential donor receives. The friend that was initially my intended recipient was very excited to receive a kidney. He had put a call out to all of us at work to test, and our employer also published a wellness newsletter with all the testing information. The kidney recipient had not really thought about the ramifi cations of receiving a kidney from a woman and what that would feel like to his wife. My boss was supportive of me donating a kidney to another person at our workplace, especially this person that was the intended recipient, but was completely appalled that I would continue the process to donate to a stranger, if it turned out that my co–worker could fi nd a better match. In the end, I did donate to a stranger, as my testing showed me to be an ideal donor. My view is that my whole life has contained a series of events that created an awareness in me to donate, as well as an acceptance of the fact that people can donate an organ and go on to live a very normal life after the donation process. The fi rst event that raised awareness for me was when I was a child—I met a teenager who was on dialysis. During a discussion with him and a follow–up discussion with my mother later, I realized that he would be waiting for years on dialysis. He would miss most of his teenage years, hooked up to a machine, because he needed a kidney and there simply were not that many cadaver kidneys available. My mother, who was an RN, also explained to me that since kidneys are so rare, he would only get one, because all you need is one kidney to survive. My next question was, "Well, if you just need one, why can't someone just give him one of theirs, before they are dead?" Of course, at that time, I did not know any living kidney donors, but there were some then, 30–plus years ago, and there were even living kidney donors decades before, even before the doctors and the scientists had discovered as much about how matching works, the anti–rejection drugs work, the surgical instruments were much cruder, and the process was much more risky. My mother told me at the time, 30–something years ago, that maybe an identical twin would work, but with other people, it was not a sure thing. During my testing and donation process, I did not tell many people that I was planning to donate a kidney. Many of the people I told were not very accepting or encouraging. The main points they made were discussing the possibility of what would happen if one of my own children, I have three, or my husband, I had one at the time, were to need a kidney? The way I saw it, we are all the same blood type and have twice the number of kidneys we need. The other point was what would happen if I died during the surgery and my children were orphaned (two are adults) and my husband was left alone? The chances of dying are so small, and having had surgery before—I knew I recover well, have Personal Narratives Living Organ Donation


A solution to the trajectory tracking problem for mobile manipulators is proposed and implemented on a real robotic system. Given a trajectory for the gripper to follow, a tracking algorithm for the manipulator is designed, and at the same time the base motions are generated in such a way that the base is coordinated with the gripper while reactively avoiding obstacles. Furthermore, it is shown that the method allows arbitrary upper and lower bounds on the gripper-base distance to be set, and this can be achieved without introducing deadlocks into the system.


Ransomware has emerged as an infamous malware that has not escaped a lot of myths and inaccuracies from media hype. Victims are not sure whether or not to pay a ransom demand without fully understanding the lurking consequences. In this paper, we present a ransomware classification framework based on file-deletion and file-encryption attack structures that provides a deeper comprehension of potential flaws and inadequacies exhibited in ransomware. We formulate a threat and attack model representative of a typical ransomware attack process from which we derive the ransomware categorization framework based on a proposed classification algorithm. The framework classifies the virulence of a ransomware attack to entail the overall effectiveness of potential ways of recovering the attacked data without paying the ransom demand as well as the technical prowess of the underlying attack structures. Results of the categorization, in increasing severity from CAT1 through to CAT5, show that many ransomwares exhibit flaws in their implementation of encryption and deletion attack structures which make data recovery possible without paying the ransom. The most severe categories CAT4 and CAT5 are better mitigated by exploiting encryption essentials while CAT3 can be effectively mitigated via reverse engineering. CAT1 and CAT2 are not common and are easily mitigated without any decryption essentials.


Using high signal-to-noise ratio echelle spectra of 3C 273 obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (resolution of 7 km s-1 FWHM), we constrain the metallicities of two Lyα clouds in the vicinity of the Virgo Cluster. We detect C II, Si II, and Si III absorption lines in the Lyα absorber at zabs = 0.00530. Previous observations with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer have revealed Lyβ-Lyθ absorption lines at the same redshift, thereby accurately constraining the H I column density. We model the ionization of the gas and derive [C/H] = -1.2, [Si/C] = 0.2 ± 0.1, and log nH = -2.8 ± 0.3. The model implies a small absorber thickness, ~70 pc, and thermal pressure p/k ≈ 40 cm-3 K. It is most likely that the absorber is pressure confined by an external medium because gravitational confinement would require a very high ratio of dark matter to baryonic matter. Based on a sample of Milky Way sight lines in which carbon and silicon abundances have been reliably measured in the same interstellar cloud (including new measurements presented herein), we argue that it is unlikely that the overabundance of Si relative to C is due to depletion onto dust grains. Instead, this probably indicates that the gas has been predominately enriched by ejecta from Type II supernovae. Such enrichment is most plausibly provided by an unbound galactic wind, given the absence of known galaxies within a projected distance of 100 kpc and the presence of galaxies capable of driving a wind at larger distances (e.g., H I 1225+01). Such processes have been invoked to explain the observed abundances in the hot, X-ray-emitting gas in Virgo. However, the sight line to 3C 273 is more than 10° away from the X-ray emission region. We also constrain the metallicity and physical conditions of the Virgo absorber at zabs = 0.00337 in the spectrum of 3C 273 based on detections of O VI and H I and an upper limit on C IV. If this absorber is collisionally ionized, the O /C limit requires T ≳ 105.3 K in the O VI-bearing gas. For either collisional ionization or photoionization, we find that [O/H] ≳ -2.0 at zabs = 0.00337.


BACKGROUND
Cells interact with type IV collagen (Col IV) via integrins through the triple-helical and NC1 domains. We examined interactions of human glomerular and proximal tubular epithelial cells with recombinant alpha1 and alpha3 NC1 chains of Col IV, to explore the ability of different cell types to interact with Col IV of different trimer composition.

METHODS
Interactions of TSV-40-immortalized human glomerular epithelial cells (HGECs), HPV-16-immortalized human proximal tubular epithelial (HK-2) cells and primary human mesangial cells (MES) with recombinant alpha1 and alpha3 NC1 chains of Col IV were examined by affinity chromatography and solid-phase binding assays. The expression of integrin-regulated metalloproteinases was examined by zymography.

RESULTS
HGECs bound to both alpha3 and alpha1(IV)NC1, albeit there was preferential binding to alpha3(IV)NC1, through the alpha3beta1 and alpha2beta1 integrin receptors; HK-2 cells and MES bound almost exclusively to alpha1(IV)NC1 via the alpha3beta1/alphavbeta3 and alpha1beta1/alpha2beta1 receptors, respectively. It was demonstrated that the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 by HGECs was down-regulated in the presence of alpha3(IV)NC1.

CONCLUSIONS
The observed data indicate that the isoform NC1 chains of Col IV serve for selective, integrin-mediated cell binding which probably triggers different signaling mechanisms, resulting in the activation of specific transcription factors and the modulation of gene expression.


Mollusks along the Pacific coast of South America provide one of the main exceptions from the latitudinal diversity gradient of decreasing species numbers toward the poles. From 42 degrees S southward, coincident with the onset of the mosaic coastline of the southern Chilean fiord-lands, species numbers show a twofold to threefold increase compared to the central Chilean coast. Here we use the Neogene fossil record of central and southern Chile to test hypotheses on the origin of this unusual pattern. Contrary to previous suggestions, we did not find evidence for a buildup of biodiversity since the Eocene, or for the northward spread of Antarctic taxa into southern mid-latitudes. Rather, our data suggest that the mosaic coastline south of 42 degrees S was colonized after the retreat of the glaciers from their marine termini since the later Pleistocene, by taxa that were already present along the Chilean coast. The majority of the most species-rich genera in this area are shallow-water hardground inhabitants, suggesting a rapid adaptive radiation of these taxa. The unusually low present-day diversity to the north of 42 degrees S most likely results from the severe late Neogene extinction and only moderate subsequent origination in this area.


We describe a 3D angle-optimized FDTD (AO-FDTD) algorithm to minimize the dispersion error around pre-assigned angles. Because of the 3D Cartesian grid symmetry, the optimization occurs at each octant concurrently. This algorithm is of particular interest for some large-scale FDTD simulations where the dispersion error around a limited angular span should be minimized, while the overall isotropy is not critical.


Animation has become ubiquitous within digital visual culture and fundamental to knowledge production. As such, its status as potentially reliable imagery should be clarified. This article examines how animation's indexicality (both as trace and deixis) changes in mixed realities where the physical and the virtual converge, and how this contributes to the research of animation as documentary and/or non-fiction imagery. In digital culture, animation is used widely to depict both physical and virtual events, and actions. As a result, animation is no longer an interpretive visual language. Instead, animation in virtual culture acts as real-time visualization of computer-mediated actions, their capture and documentation. Now that animation includes both captured and generated imagery, not only do its definitions change but its link to the realities depicted and the documentary value of animated representations requires rethinking. This article begins with definitions of animation and their relation to the perception of animation's validity as documentary imagery; thereafter it examines indexicality and the strength of indexical visualizations, introducing a continuum of strong and weak indices to theorize the hybrid and complex forms of indexicality in animation, ranging from graphic user interfaces (GUI) to data visualization. The article concludes by examining four indexical connections in relation to physical and virtual reality, offering a theoretical framework with which to conceptualize animation's indexing abilities in today's mixed realities.


This chapter reviews several theoretical models that are used to compute the stress fields inside the electrode particles of lithium-ion batteries during discharging/charging process and provides a guideline for researchers to choose the appropriate models. Due to the limitation of the existing models, a general electrochemo-mechanical framework is presented to model the concentration and stress fields of the electrode during the phase transformation. The interaction between stresses fields and phase transformation is addressed, which is a novel discovery in the research of lithium-ion batteries. The electrodes with different sizes and geometries are compared. The structural and electrochemical advantages of hollow core-shell structure particles are highlighted. The present work could help to accurate predict stress profile in electrode particles with different sizes, geometries, and charging operations and contributes to finding the optimal electrode. Therefore, this chapter is helpful for the material and structure design of electrodes of lithium-ion batteries.


Type IIP supernovae (SNe IIP) are the most common class of core-collapse SNe. They often show a rapid increase of polarization degree in the late phase. This time evolution is generally believed to originate from the emergence of an inner aspherical core, while the effect of polarized-scattered echoes by circumstellar (CS) dust around the SN may also substantially contribute to this polarization feature. In this study, we examine the effects of the scattered echoes on the SN polarization through radiative transfer simulations for various geometries and amounts of CS dust. It is found that asymmetrically distributed CS dust, which is generally inferred for red supergiants, can reproduce the observed polarization features. We have applied our results to SNe 2004dj and 2006ov, deriving the geometry and amount of CS dust to explain their observed polarization features in this scenario. For both SNe, the blob-like or bipolar distribution of CS dust rather than the disk-like distribution is favored. The derived dust masses in the blob model (the bipolar CS dust model) for SNe 2004dj and 2006ov are ( ) and ( ), respectively. Even in the case where this process would not play a dominant role in the observed polarization signals, this effect should in principle contribute to it, the strength of which depends on the nature of the CS dust. Therefore, this effect must be taken into account in discussing the multi-dimensional structure of an SN explosion through polarimetric observations.


RI turbine is a device that rotates the shaft by the working fluid enters the radial direction and exit in the axial direction. It is mainly used in automobile turbochargers and helicopters. Turbocharger is an important part of reducing fuel use as part of the vehicle's power source. It is largely divided into compressor part and turbine part, and rotates the compressor by the power received from the turbine part. The gas emitted after combustion in the engine is the working fluid and the driving force for rotating the turbine. In this process the turbine is directly exposed to hot combustion gases. There is an intermediate cooling process, but the trend is to reduce and simplify it. Therefore, thermal stress analysis and optimal design process for the blades of the turbocharger turbine is required. In this study, the optimal design of turbine blade was carried out to alleviate thermally vulnerable areas without compromising efficiency through CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and RSM (response surface method). After preliminary design, numerical analysis was used to identify thermal weakness, and the optimal design was carried out with vulnerable area and efficiency as output parameters. As a result, a blade design that can lower the temperature from the weakness was derived, and a thermal optimization design process of the RI turbine was presented.


This paper investigates the value relevance of the fair value hierarchy disclosed for financial instruments through a sample of 97 financial entities listed over the period 2011-2016 in the stock markets of 23 European countries. Its main objectives are threefold. First, by analysing the European setting, the paper means to study the value relevance of the fair value hierarchy to judge the choice of the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) to extend the disclosure of the hierarchy to all the assets and liabilities. Second, the paper aims to evaluate the choice of abandoning management intent as a criterion for the classification and measurement of financial instruments investigating the effect that such an intent has on the value relevance of the fair value hierarchy. Finally, by studying the effect that exposure to risks has on the value relevance of the fair value hierarchical levels, the paper plans to investigate the implications that the disclosure of the hierarchy could have on the rules of Basel 3 capital adequacy. Formulating three different research hypotheses, the findings validate them providing evidence that the value relevance of fair value measurement depends on the source of inputs used to estimate fair value and that both management intent and the risk intensity of the asset book only affect the value relevance of the less reliable fair value estimates. These results are useful for standard setters and regulators. Actually, for the investors decisions, they suggest the importance of disclosing the fair value hierarchy for all the assets and liabilities as required by IFRS 13, as well as the advantage of replacing in IFRS 9 the management intent criterion with the business model test and the characteristics of the instruments for the classification and measurement of financial assets. For the future, the findings suggest the opportunity to introduce filters within the common equity tier 1 for the less reliable fair value estimates. This paper's current and future implications for standard setters and regulators are to avoid earnings management and capital management behaviour possibly affecting the quality of financial reporting.


The accurate prediction of ductile fracture behaviour plays an important role in structural integrity assessments of critical engineering structures under fully plastic regime, including nuclear reactors and piping systems. Many structural steels and aluminium alloys generally exhibit significant increases in fracture toughness, characterized by the J-integral, over the first few mm of stable crack extension (Δa), often accompanied by large increases in background plastic deformation. Conventional testing programs to measure crack growth resistance (J–Δa) curves employ three-point bend, SEN(B), or compact, CT. However, laboratory testing of fracture specimens to measure resistance curves (J–Δa) consistently reveals a marked effect of absolute specimen size, geometry, relative crack size (a/W ratio) and loading mode (tension vs. bending) on R-curves. These effects observed in R-curves have enormous practical implications in defect assessments and repair decisions of in-service structures under low constraint conditions. Structural components falling into this category include pressurized piping systems with surface flaws that form during fabrication or during in-service operation.This paper presents the on-going work to study geometry effects (e.g. triaxiality effects) in the brittle to ductile transition of carbon-manganese steels, the basic idea being to compare the results obtained on these specimens with the results obtained on CT specimens.A preliminary program was previously conducted at room temperature using deeply notched specimens (Le Delliou, 2012). Finite element computations were made to optimize the specimen shape and to develop the η-factor, the shape factor F (to compute K) and the normalized compliance μ.For the present program, new specimens have been machined with shallower notches (a/W = 0.4), to get a0/W = 0.5 after fatigue pre cracking. Fatigue pre cracking was conducted in 4-point bending to avoid damaging the back of the notch. Moreover, the specimens have been cut in the TS (Transverse-Short) direction of the plate to get lower toughness properties, and less plasticity during the tests.Tests at room temperature have been conducted first to validate the revised test procedure. Then, the SENT specimens have been tested at −100°C, −60°C, and −40°C, together with CT specimens.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


This book explores the material and visual world of the socialist Bloc from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. The essays, by authors from a range of disciplines, examine the forms and uses of material objects that made up the environment of life behind the 'Iron Curtain', and investigates the particular ways in which these objects came to represent the often divergent aspirations of regimes and peoples in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.The two decades after the end of the Second World War considered here constitute two contrasting periods: that of post-war Stalinism and the 'sovietization' or 'stalinization' of Eastern Europe; and, from the mid-1950s, the period of destalinization and relative cultural liberalization known as the Thaw. During the Thaw, consumerism and a moderate fashion consciousness began to be tolerated or even encouraged to varying degrees in different parts of the Bloc. Style, regarded as a suspect notion under Stalin, became a legitimate and even urgent issue. What forms of dress, home furnishings and housing, as well as of fine art, would provide a stimulating environment that could meet the physical and ideological needs of -- and give shape to -- modern, socialist life? Challenging the assumption that all cultural norms were generated and effectively imposed by Moscow, essays in this anthology investigate the interactions and exchanges between the countries of the Eastern Bloc and and ask how, even in socialist economies, the consumption of material objects -- or the refusal to consume -- could project personal and collective identities and even articulate resistance.Anyone who seeks to understand the effects of state socialism on life in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, or who is interested in the intersection of politics with art, design and material culture will find this book absorbing and illuminating.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Budding uninhibited by benzimidazole-related 1 (BUBR1) plays an important role in the spindle assembly checkpoint to prevent chromosome missegregation and aneuploidy during mitosis. We previously generated mutant mice that express BUBR1 at only 20% of the normal level (BubR1L/L mice). Here, we examined the effect of low BUBR1 expression on oxidative stress-induced carcinogenesis in mice.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We orally administered either a potassium bromate (KBrO3) solution (2 g/l) or tap water to BubR1L/L and wild-type (BubR1+/+)mice for 16 weeks and examined the subsequent incidence of tumours.

RESULTS
KBrO3-treated BubR1L/L mice showed significantly higher mortality than the KBrO3-treated BubR1+/+ and control tap water-treated mice (p=0.0082). Histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses revealed that the spleens of surviving BubR1L/L mice were occupied by non-B-, non-T-cells with high proliferative potential.

CONCLUSION
Our results indicate that low BUBR1 expression increases oxidative stress-induced mortality in mice, possibly caused by splenic neoplasms.


Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are Not-So-Futuristic. CAVs will be highly dynamic by intelligently exploiting multipath communication over several radio technologies, such as high-speed WiFi and 5G and beyond networks. Yet, the likelihood of data communication loss can be very high and/, or packets arrive at the destination not in correct working order due to erratic and mixed time-varying wireless links. Furthermore, the vehicular data traffic is susceptible to loss and delay variation,which recommends the need to investigate new multipath TCP(MPTCP) protocols for ultra-reliable low latency communication(URLLC) over such heterogeneous networks while reassuring CAVs' needs. We undertake the challenge by jointly considering network coding and balanced linked adaptation for performing coupled congestion control across multiple wireless paths.Consequently, the proposed low delay MPTCP framework for connecting autonomous vehicles is efficient and intelligent by design. We conduct a rigorous convergence analysis of the MPTCP design framework. In summation, we provide a detailed mathematical study and demonstrate that the latency penalty for the URLLC-MPTCP developed over these networks becomes negligible when considering the possible benefits that multiple network convergence could offer. Our extensive emulation results demonstrate all these lucrative features of URLLC-MPTCP.


Abstract From the writings in medical journals and newspapers, for many decades already, it has seemed uncertain whether programs of mammographic screening reduce mortality from breast cancer. Reviewers of the evidence, in the Cochrane Collaboration in particular, have repeatedly concluded that there is no clear evidence supporting such screening. But their results and conclusions have not impressed the advocates who continue to believe that it does reduce mortality from the cancer.


We review the basic aspects of quantum chaos (wave chaos) in mixed-type Hamiltonian systems with divided phase space, where regular regions containing the invariant tori coexist with the chaotic regions. The quantum evolution of classically chaotic bound systems does not possess the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, and thus no chaotic behaviour occurs, as the motion is always almost periodic. However, the study of the stationary solutions of the Schrödinger equation in the quantum phase space (Wigner functions or Husimi functions) reveals precise analogy of the structure of the classical phase portrait. In classically integrable regions the spectral (energy) statistics is Poissonian, while in the ergodic chaotic regions the random matrix theory applies. If we have the mixed-type classical phase space, in the semiclassical limit (short wavelength approximation) the spectrum is composed of Poissonian level sequence supported by the regular part of the phase space, and chaotic sequences supported by classically chaotic regions, being statistically independent of each other, as described by the Berry–Robnik distribution. In quantum systems with discrete energy spectrum the Heisenberg time tH = 2π~/∆E, where ∆E is the mean level spacing (inverse energy level density), is an important time scale. The classical transport time scale tT (transport time) in relation to the Heisenberg time scale tH (their ratio is the parameter α = tH/tT ) determines the degree of localization of the chaotic eigenstates, whose measure A is based on the information entropy. We show that A is linearly related to the normalized inverse participation ratio. We study the structure of quantum localized chaotic eigenstates (their Wigner and Husimi functions) and the distribution of localization measure A. The latter one is well described by the beta distribution, if there are no sticky regions in the classical phase space. Otherwise, they have a complex nonuniversal structure. We show that the localized chaotic states display the fractional power-law repulsion between the nearest energy levels in the sense that the probability density (level spacing distribution) to find successive levels on a distance S goes like ∝ S for small S, where 0 ≤ β ≤ 1, and β = 1 corresponds to completely extended states, and β = 0 to the maximally localized states. β goes from 0 to 1 when α goes from 0 to ∞. β is a function of 〈A〉, as demonstrated in the quantum kicked rotator, the stadium billiard, and a mixed-type billiard.


Complex networks have been receiving increasing attention by the scientific community, also due to the availability of massive network data from diverse domains. One problem studied so far in complex network analysis is Community Discovery, i.e. the detection of group of nodes densely connected, or highly related. However, one aspect of such networks has been disregarded so far: real networks are often multidimensional, i.e. many connections may reside between any two nodes, either to reflect different kinds of relationships, or to connect nodes by different values of the same type of tie. In this context, the problem of Community Discovery has to be redefined, taking into account multidimensionality. In this paper, we attempt to do so, by defining the problem in the multidimensional context, and by introducing also a new measure able to characterize the communities found. We then provide a complete framework for finding and characterizing multidimensional communities. Our experiments on real world multidimensional networks support the methodology proposed in this paper, and open the way for a new class of algorithms, aimed at capturing the multifaceted complexity of connections among nodes in a network.


(CWP) is a multifactorial disease with the polygenic type of inheritance. The results of clinicogenealogical examination of CWP patients' families and healthy miners' families aimed to determination of the role of genetic factors in CWP development are presented in the article. 112 miners with CWP and 138 healthy miners (control group), with the minimum 13 years of underground work experience, were examined using a clinicogenealogical method. In 65 % miners with CWP cases of family bronchopulmonary pathology from the coal dust were recorded. In 7 % miners of the control group there were relatives with the bronchopulmonary pathology. The family aggregation coefficient (FA) was cal culated using the results of the clinicogenealogical examination. FA = 9,3. The results of the study prove a considerable role of genetic factors in CWP development as well as the possibility to use clin icogenealogical analysis as one of prognostication methods of the risk of the CWP development.


Celiac disease (CD) is an intestinal chronic disorder with multifactorial etiology resulting in small intestinal mucosal injuries and malabsorption. Trigger from gluten and related cereal proteins, HLA-DQ2/DQ8 molecules and autoantibodies to tissue transglutaminase, are essential to precipitate the disease. Genetic, dietary and immunological factors explain geographically regional differences in CD. Specific anchoring sites in DQ2/DQ8 peptide binding motifs show affinity to tTG deamidated peptides of gluten and present to gluten restricted T cells to form celiac lesions. The present article reviews the causes, molecular details of CD development, strategies to control and significance of probiotics in reducing the gluten burden in CD.


Central to hospice care is the interdisciplinary team. Such health care teams are by definition democratic, self-managing teams. Fifty-two team members on seven hospice teams in three hospice organizations participated in the study. Hospice team members perceived the teams to be not as democratic as might be expected. One dimension of team democracy, perceived involvement of all members in team decisions, was positively and significantly associated with perceived team cohesive ness, productiveness, satisfaction with the team, satisfaction with team communica tion, and desire to stay with the team. Perception of team productiveness was a mediating variable between team involvement and job satisfaction. This study adds to empirical research on teamwork and participation in organizations by identify ing the importance of a specific dimension of participation, involvement in deci sion making. The findings suggest the necessity of training team members in devel oping strategies to encourage involvement in decision making. However, practitioners are also cautioned against viewing involvement in team decision making as the answer to all teamwork ills.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of spleen volume, blood flow, and an index incorporating multiple measures to predict cirrhosis-associated hypersplenism.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 39 patients (14 women and 25 men; mean [± SD] age, 52 ± 10 years) with cirrhosis and sequelae of portal hypertension underwent 4D flow MRI and anatomic 3-T MRI performed before and after contrast administration. Unenhanced 4D flow MRI was used to assess abdominal hemodynamics, and splenic volumes were measured on T1-weighted gradient-recalled echo MRI. Relationships among demographic characteristics, blood component counts, splenic volume, arterial flow, venous flow, and the percentage of shunted portal flow were assessed in 29 consecutive patients (i.e., the derivation group), to develop a splenic flow index. This index was assessed along with splenic volume and blood flow alone in 10 additional consecutive patients (i.e., the validation group) via ROC curve analysis, to identify platelet counts of less than 50 × 103 cells/μL, leukocyte counts of less than 3.0 × 103 cells/μL, or both.

RESULTS
In the derivation cohort (platelet count, 129 ± 76 × 103 cells/μL), splenic volume, arterial flow, venous flow, and the percentage of shunted portal flow were inversely correlated with platelet counts (ρ = -0.68, -0.68, -0.56, and -0.36, respectively; p < 0.05). Adding splenic volume to arterial flow and the product of venous flow and the percentage of shunted portal flow indexed to the body surface area yielded superior correlations with platelet counts, leukocyte counts, and the degree of severity of hypersplenism (ρ = -0.75, -0.48, and -0.75, respectively; p ≤ 0.001) and predicted severe hypersplenism (sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 100%) in the validation cohort (platelet count, 93 ± 71 × 103 cells/μL).

CONCLUSION
A splenic flow index that incorporates both splenic volume and blood flow is a better indicator of hypersplenism than is splenic volume alone.


To distribute microwaves over fibers, optical single-sideband (SSB) modulation signals are preferred to optical double-sideband (DSB) modulation signals. This study investigates an optically injected semiconductor laser at period-one nonlinear dynamics for optical DSB-to-SSB conversion. For the operating microwave frequencies up to 40 GHz investigated in this study, the proposed system regenerates or even enhances the microwave features of an optical DSB input while converting its optical feature into SSB with an intensity difference of at least 20 dB. The bit-error ratio at 622 Mb/s is down to 10(-9) with a sensitivity improvement of up to 3 dB. The proposed system can be self-adapted to certain changes in the operating microwave frequency and can operate stably under certain fluctuations in the input optical power and frequency.


The ever increasing demand for low power DSP applications has directed researchers to contemplate a variety of potential approaches in different contexts. In this regard, using some alternative number systems, which inherently are capable of reducing the hardware complexity, have been propounded. In this work, a 2DLNS-based platform for multiplication intensive DSP applications is presented. Implementing an FIR filter structure on this basis shows outstanding privilege to its binary counterpart in terms of VLSI area and power consumption.


Genetic studies help to explain the pathogenesis, natural history, and nosology of the spectrum of gastroduodenal disorders encompassed by atrophic gastritis-pernicious anemia, gastric cancer, and peptic ulcer. All these disorders aggregate within families, and twin and disease-association studies have demonstrated that this aggregation has a genetic basis. Modern genetic studies are demonstrating that each of these disorders comprises several different diseases, and that many of the biochemical, physiologic, or immunologic abnormalities in such patients have a genetic basis. Thus, family members at risk can be identified. The optimum therapy and prevention of these diseases should ultimately depend on the specific genetic predisposition of the individual patient and family, and the recognition of individual susceptibilities to specific environmental influences.


New kinds of applications with lots of threads or irregular communication patterns which rely a lot on point-to-point MPI communications have emerged. It stresses the MPI library with potentially a lot of simultaneous MPI requests for sending and receiving at the same time. To deal with large numbers of simultaneous requests, the bottleneck lies in two main mechanisms: the tag-matching (the algorithm that matches an incoming packet with a posted receive request), and the progression engine. In this paper, we propose algorithms and implementations that overcome these issues so as to scale up to thousands of requests if needed. In particular our algorithms are able to perform constant-time tag-matching even with any-source and any-tag support. We have implemented these mechanisms in our NewMadeleine communication library. Through micro-benchmarks and computation kernel benchmarks, we demonstrate that our MPI library exhibits better performance than state-of-the-art MPI implementations in cases with many simultaneous requests.


We consider the problem of controlling an unstable plant over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel with a transmit power constraint, where the signaling rate of communication is larger than the sampling rate (for generating observations and applying control inputs) of the underlying plant. Such a situation is quite common since sampling is done at a rate that captures the dynamics of the plant and which is often much lower than the rate that can be communicated. This setting offers the opportunity of improving the system performance by employing multiple channel uses to convey a single message (output plant observation or control input). Common ways of doing so are through either repeating the message, or by quantizing it to a number of bits and then transmitting a channel coded version of the bits whose length is commensurate with the number of channel uses per sampled message. We argue that such "separated source and channel coding" can be suboptimal and propose to perform joint source-channel coding. Since the block length is short we obviate the need to go to the digital domain altogether and instead consider analog joint source-channel coding. For the case where the communication signaling rate is twice the sampling rate, we employ the Archimedean bi-spiral-based Shannon-Kotel'nikov analog maps to show significant improvement in stability margins and linear-quadratic Gaussian (LQG) costs over simple schemes that employ repetition.


Since the development of sound recording technologies, the palette of sound timbres available for music creation was extended way beyond traditional musical instruments. The organization and categorization of timbre has been a common endeavor. The availability of large databases of sound clips provides an opportunity for obtaining datadriven timbre categorizations via content-based clustering. In this article we describe an experiment aimed at understanding what factors influence the process of learning a given clustering of sound samples. We clustered a large database of short sound clips, and analyzed the success of participants in assigning sounds to the "correct" clusters after listening to a few examples of each. The results of the experiment suggest a number of relevant factors related both to the strategies followed by users and to the quality measures of the clustering solution, which can guide the design of creative applications based on audio clip clustering.


Background/aims This study aimed to investigate treatment patterns and medication adherence of glaucoma. It also identified key factors associated with non-adherence. Methods It was a cross-sectional, observational study. Patients who use eye-drops for ≤2 years were recruited at 15 eye clinics from March to November 2013. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires and medical chart review. Medication adherence was evaluated using patients' self-report on pill count and defined as patients' administering drug for ≥80% of prescribed days. Medication adherence rate was calculated by dividing actual number of administration from total prescribed number of administration for 7 days. Patients whose self-reported prescription was different from total daily doses of physicians' prescription were considered as non-adherent. Results A total of 1050 patients included, and medication adherence rate was evaluated in 1046 patients whose verification of adherence was available. Of the total, 27.4% were non-adherent, and the medication adherence rates of the total, the adherent, and the non-adherent were 90.6±17.8%, 96.8±5.5% and 56.6±24.7%, respectively. The most commonly used medication was prostaglandin (PGA) alone and the second was combination of two-class (β-blocker and carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (CAI)) and three-class combination of PGA, β-blocker and CAI followed. In multivariate analysis, the risk of non-adherence was 1.466 times greater in males than in females (95% CI 1.106 to 1.943) and 1.328-fold greater as the daily number of administration was increased (95% CI 1.186 to 1.487). Conclusion Approximately, one-third of the patients were non-adherent, and males and increased daily number of administration were associated with non-adherence. It highlights that more systematic treatment strategies should be considered for better medication adherence, leading to effective glaucoma management.


Media has become dominant in all aspects of human lives, from critical applications such as medical, military, and security (e.g. surveillance cameras) to entertainment applications such as social media and media sharing websites. Billions of massive media objects (e.g., videos, photos, documents, etc.) are generated every second with high diversity among them (in terms of sizes and formats). These objects have to be stored and retrieved reliably, with low latency and in a scalable while efficient fashion. Additionally, various types of processing are done on media objects, from simple compressions and format conversion, to more complex machine learning algorithms detecting certain patterns and objects. Existing large-scale storage and processing systems face several challenges when handling media objects. My research focuses on building an unified storage and processing environment tailored specifically for media objects, while maintaining high efficiency and scalability. I have built a scalable, load-balanced, efficient storage system optimized for media objects based on their unique access patterns. Currently, I am working on developing an efficient media processing system and integrating these two systems into one framework.


Dinoflagellate cysts from the Barranca Final Formation type section are diverse and well preserved. The assemblages are dominated by the arder Gonyaulacales, with subordinate Peridiniales represented only by protoperidiniaceans. Based on selected dinoflagellate cyst events, and in accordance with the foraminiferal data, we suggest a Middle to Late Miocene age for the section. LnbyrinthodiniulI1 truncatum subsp. truncaium Piasecki ranges from la test Early Miocene or early Middle Miocene through Late Miocene and Selenopemphix dionneacvstn Head et ni. has its range base within the Middle Miocene. The occurrences of these species together with the presence of Bngontedinium canacoense (Wall) Reid confirms an age not older than Middle Miocene for the bottom of the section. The low representation of oceanic species, such as lmpagidinium spp., the presence of Nenunosphaeropsis rigida Wrenn (inner to outer? neritic), the di verse representation of protoperidinacean species (inner neritic), and the abundance of euryhaline forms. particularly specimens of the Cperculcdinium centrocarpum/isvaeimnum complex, Tubercutodinium vnncl1l1lpol1e Wall and Lingulodinium hemicustum McMinn, reflect estuarine to inner neritic conditions for the lower part of the section. Tuberculodinium vnnenl11pone and Lingulodinium machaerophorum (Deflandre y Cookson) Wall suggest warm temperate to tropical conditions. Upwards, the assemblages are characterized by an increased terrigenous influx together with the apparent disappearance of most dinocyst taxa. Within the generally estuarine palaeoenvironment, the occurrence of oceanic to neritic markers coinciding with a glauconitic section, suggests a marine flooding surface.


The plant-soil interaction plays an important role in maintaining negative effects of soil pollution by heavy metals (HMs). Understanding HMs spatial variability in soils under plant communities is fundamental for soil restoration and predicting contamination by TMs. In this study, HMs content was estimated based on a soil survey conducted in Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Mining and Metallurgical District, central Ukraine. The distribution of trace metals within a soil profile and their impacts on forest, steppe and agricultural land plant communities were also assessed. During field work, samples were collected from the whole soil profile (in 10 cm layers down to the parent rock). In total, 21 soil pits were sampled and 273 soil samples were collected. The contents of mobile Fe, Mn and Zn were assessed. The results showed that there was a specific pattern of HMs distribution in soil profile at the local background site of Kryvyi Rih District. The accumulation of HMs in soils in the vicinity of an iron ore mining and processing plant was found. Application of individual and integral indices of pollution demonstrated that Fe, Mn and Zn content was related to mining activity. The plant communities had a great impact on the HMs content in soils. According to the values of individual and integrated indices of pollution the plant communities form the following order: agricultural communities > > forest communities > steppe communities. The forest plant communities, due to the presence of organic acids in forest leaf litter, promote the mobilization of heavy metals and may contribute to input of Fe, Mn and Zn ions to deeper soil layers. The differences observed between the plant communities located in the contaminated areas provide useful insight clues into the role and relative importance of major factors determining HMs contents in soil. Keywords: plant communities, soil, plant-soil interactions, trace metals, indices of contamination, iron ore mining


This paper demonstrates that entrepreneurs who have created innovative organizations and service provision models are contributing to sustainable development. The processes, structures and outcomes of their initiatives are contrasted with more traditional efforts. World leaders have recently renewed the momentum for 'buying' sustainable development through massive allocation of development funds. The authors argue that such traditional approaches have repeatedly failed in the past and are unlikely to overcome the more fundamental hurdles to create development. Building on the findings of a three-year research project, the paper presents case studies which demonstrate how so-called 'social entrepreneurs' succeed in creating social and economic development in a poor country context. The process of discovery and creation from the ground up, in contrast to traditional design-driven development processes and strategies, is illustrated. The cases show how social entrepreneurs cater to various levels of needs: the basic needs of individuals, the institutional needs of communities, and the needs of future generations. The impact of social entrepreneurial activity on sustainable development measures such as the Millennium Development Goals is demonstrated. The findings suggest that social innovation may change the very structures and systems that recreate the circumstances for poverty and that development processes need to consider the link between social and economic development.


In some applications (e.g. gyrotrons, particle accelerators) the higher modes of waveguides and resonant structures are of interest. The computation is difficult since most of the methods calculate either extremal eigenvalues or the inversion of the system matrix is necessary. The presented method extends the subspace iteration with polynomial acceleration to non extremal eigenvalues by using special polynomials. This enables the simultaneous iteration of a group of eigenvalues inside an arbitrary frequency range during one computation run.