Impaired mitochondrial function is associated with a range of neurodegenerative disorders, making mitochondria important therapeutic targets. The ketogenic diet (KD) is often used in the treatment of pharmacoresistant epilepsy, but the underlying mechanisms responsible for its efficacy are yet to be elucidated. In this thesis, the role medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) have in contributing to the efficacy of the KD has been investigated. Mitochondrial enrichment and function were assessed after treatment of the human neuronal model SH-SY5Y cells with MCFAs. In contrast to treating cells for 6 days with either 250μM octanoic acid (C8) or dodecanoic acid (C12), 250μM decanoic acid (C10)-treated cells were found to exhibit a 30% increase in activity (p < 0.01) of the mitochondrial marker enzyme citrate synthase (CS), a 42% increase in respiratory chain complex I activity (p < 0.01), and a 31% increase in medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity (p < 0.05). Electron microscopy images provided further support for C10-induced mitochondrial biogenesis. Cellular antioxidant status appeared uncompromised by C10 treatment, as seen through measurements of cellular reduced glutathione. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) has previously been shown to be partially activated by C10, and the findings presented in this thesis may implicate PPARγ activation as a potential mechanism for C10-induced mitochondrial biogenesis: Catalase, a peroxisomal marker enzyme, showed a 15% upregulation in activity (p < 0.05) following C10 treatment. Furthermore, BADGE, a PPARγ antagonist, was shown to diminish the C10-induced increases in both CS and catalase activity. RNA microarray analysis of SH-SY5Y cell gene expression, post-C10 treatment, found a number of changes as a result of treatment. The ability of C10 to downregulate many genes involved in cholesterol biosynthesis is of particular interest. The findings in this thesis may help shed some light on the unresolved mechanism through which the KD is able to induce mitochondrial biogenesis. Further work and understanding of C10 could aid the development of a clearer, less laborious, therapy to help replace the KD.


Two patients with iron overload and liver disease had folic acid deficiency. In one patient it was associated with elevation of serum iron level and reappearance of iron in hepatic cells. Treatment with folic acid was followed by decrease in both serum and hepatic cell iron levels. In the other patient folic acid deficiency was associated temporally with the onset of diabetes mellitus and with a severe and fatal bout of right-sided cardiac failure. The clinical courses of these patients suggest that folic acid deficiency may influence the tissue distribution of iron in man in a manner analogous to that demonstrated in experimental animals.


Deer living on airport habitats pose a direct threat to aircraft operations and to public safety. From 1990– 2000, about 520 collisions between civil aircraft and deer were reported in the USA with damage occurring in 86% of the collisions. Removal of individual deer by lethal or non-lethal means can reduce the potential for deer-aircraft collisions; however, such action is often controversial. Various items are marketed to keep deer away from airports, crops or residential areas. Some items have been tested while others have unsubstantiated claims of efficacy. This paper reviews the use of various fence designs, propane cannons, cattle guards, sonic and ultrasonic devices, shooting and predator urines as deer control measures. Deer density and the attractiveness of the area being protected may influence the efficacy of the device or technique being implemented. Well-maintained 3-3.7 m (10-12 foot) high fences are the primary defense against deer on airports. However, costs may prohibit the installation of such fencing at many airports. In addition, fences may be damaged or have practical design restrictions that reduce their effectiveness; thus, other devices or strategies must be employed. Most chemical and noise repellents have had limited effectiveness after about 3 days of use. A combination of devices or techniques may be more effective for reducing the deer problem at an airport.


We analyze broadband seismograms for magnitude 5 to 7 earthquakes which occurred in and around Japan to develop a technique to determine moment magnitude from first-arrival P waveforms. We theoretically consider displacements of the P -wave portion on broadband seismograph record as an approximate source time function and integrate them to obtain scalar moments at each station. We show that a combination of multiple records will give a good estimation of moment magnitude without correcting for the source mechanism. This technique is quite simple and robust, so it will be effective for a rapid evaluation of the tsunami potential of a large earthquake.


Abstract Purpose Physical activity (PA) levels in older care home residents are low. This has detrimental effects on health. Little is known about the nature of interventions to increase physical activity in this population. Methods A scoping review to: (1) identify and describe interventions to increase PA in older care home residents, and (2) describe the extent to which interventions address care home context, systemised by social–ecological models. We systematically searched databases for peer-reviewed intervention studies to increase PA in older people resident in care homes. Data were extracted using the template for intervention description and replication (TIDieR) and mapped against a social–ecological framework to locate the intervention focus. Results The 19 included studies consisted of interventions tested in randomised or quasi-experimental trial designs. Interventions consisted of single or multiple components and predominantly addressed individual resident level factors (such as muscle strength) rather than broader social and environmental aspects of context. Interventions were not all fully described. For most interventions a distinct theoretical foundation was not identified. Interventions were mostly delivered by health professionals and research staff external to care homes. Conclusions Future interventions should address contextual care home factors and should be clearly described according to intervention description guidance. Implications for rehabilitation Physical activity holds promise as an effective means of improving health and function in older care home residents, but physical activity levels in this population are low. Several reasons beyond the individual resident but related to care home contextual factors may explain low PA in care homes To date, contextual factors influencing PA in care homes have been poorly addressed in interventions. Wider care home context (social, cultural, and environmental factors) must be considered in future interventions.


A camera-based online signature verification system is proposed in this paper. One web camera is used for data acquisition, and a sequential Monte Carlo method is used for tracking a pen tip. Several distances are computed from an online signature, and a fusion model trained by using AdaBoost combines the distances and computes a final score.Preliminary experiments were performed by using a private database. The proposed system yielded an equal error rate (EER) of 4.0%.


A diagnostic assay using immunomagnetic separation was developed to capture Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) from bovine feces by means of IgY derived from chicken eggs. The antibody was coupled directly onto the surface of MagaCell cellulose/iron oxide beads or indirectly by being mixed with MagaBeads and a rabbit IgG linker against chicken antigen. Optimization parameters for the immunocapture included incubation time, temperature, volume, and type of immunocapture beads. Analytical sensitivity and specificity were determined by extracting DNA from the captured bacteria and amplifying it by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The 2 bead preparations had the same analytical sensitivity, and the detection level of MAP cells in spiked bovine feces was 2 x 10(4) cells/g. No PCR inhibition was observed with DNA from the organisms captured with use of the MagaCell-IgY beads.


Background Detection of enzyme activity or transgene expression offers potential insight into developmental biology, disease progression, and potentially personalized medicine. Historically, the lacZ gene encoding the enzyme β-galactosidase has been the most common reporter gene and many chromogenic and fluorogenic substrates are well established, but limited to histology or in vitro assays. We now present a novel approach for in vivo detection of β-galactosidase using optical imaging to detect light emission following administration of the chemiluminescent 1,2-dioxetane substrate Galacto-Light PlusTM. Methodology and Principal Findings B-gal activity was visualized in stably transfected human MCF7-lacZ tumors growing in mice. LacZ tumors were identified versus contralateral wild type tumors as controls, based on two- to tenfold greater light emission following direct intra tumoral or intravenous administration of reporter substrate. The 1,2-dioxetane substrate is commercially available as a kit for microplate-based assays for β-gal detection, and we have adapted it for in vivo application. Typically, 100 µl substrate mixture was administered intravenously and light emission was detected from the lacZ tumor immediately with gradual decrease over the next 20 mins. Imaging was also undertaken in transgenic ROSA26 mice following subcutaneous or intravenous injection of substrate mixture. Conclusion and Significance Light emission was detectable using standard instrumentation designed for more traditional bioluminescent imaging. Use of 1,2-dioxetane substrates to detect enzyme activity offers a new paradigm for non-invasive biochemistry in vivo.


BACKGROUND
In the Netherlands, a non-selective opt-out instead of a selective opt-in antenatal HIV screening strategy was implemented in 2004. In case of infection, screening was followed by prevention of mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT). We compared the performance of the two strategies in terms of detection of new cases of HIV and vertical transmission.

METHODS
HIV-infected pregnant women were identified retrospectively from the Dutch HIV cohort ATHENA January 2000 to January 2008. Apart from demographic, virological and immunological data, the date of HIV infection in relation to the index pregnancy was established. Separately, all infants diagnosed with HIV born following implementation of the screening program were identified by a questionnaire via the paediatric HIV centres.

RESULTS
162/481 (33.7%) HIV-positive pregnant women were diagnosed with HIV before 2004 and 172/214 (80.3%) after January 2004. Multivariate analysis showed an 8-fold (95% confidence interval 5.47-11.87) increase in the odds of HIV detection during pregnancy after the national introduction of the opt-out strategy. Still, three children born during a 5-year period after July 2004 were infected due to de novo infection in pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS
Implementation of a nation-wide screening strategy based upon non-selective opt-out screening followed by effective PMTCT appeared to detect more HIV-infected women for the first time in pregnancy and to reduce vertical transmission of HIV substantially. Nonetheless, still few children are infected because of maternal infection after the first trimester. We propose the introduction of partner screening on HIV as part of the antenatal screening strategy.


Today COXIBs are used in the treatment of arthritis and many other painful conditions in selected patients with high gastrointestinal risk and low cardiovascular (CV) risk. Previously, we have identified an unexpected mechanism of action of a traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) (diclofenac) and a specific inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-2 (COXIB) (lumiracoxib) demonstrating that they possess weak competitive antagonism at the thromboxane receptor (TP). We hypothesize that modifying the structure of a known COXIB so that it becomes also a more potent TP antagonist will preserve the anti-inflammatory and gastrointestinal safety typical of COXIBs and prevent the CV risk associated with long term therapy. Keywords—Cyclooxygenase, inflammation, lumiracoxib, thromboxane A2.


This article is part of a series of chapters that composed an exegesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The series is a narrative of discovery through practice-led research. Each article reveals its purpose and significance that leads into the next series, which then eventuate to that final design proposal.
The exegesis is presented in this format, to break down the components that assisted in practice-led research. Each article can be read and unpacked on its own as a learning tool. The purpose of this edited series is for the exegesis to be more accessible and adaptable creatively to those being introduced to practice-led research.
The Potential of Vā Part 1: Working in the space between, presents the contents and an introduction of the exegesis, it positions the research by placing the present investigation in the context of the writer's previous work. This chapter outlines the contemporary artistic context in which this thesis exists, it also presents in detail the methods employed in the first phase of the research, and the use of traditional knowledge to form the Lala-Vā model framework.


This paper presents a new method to simultaneously search for the minimum reliability index and the critical probabilistic slip surface of earth slopes. By introducing the Hasofer-Lind reliability index, the probabilistic slope stability analysis problem is modeled as a constrained optimization problem. A recently proposed intelligent global optimization algorithm differential evolution with a penalty function is adopted to solve the constrained optimization problem. Numerical results on two slopes show that the propose technique is efficient and practical to reliability analysis of earth slopes.


Palm oil is the largest vegetable oil in the world in terms of produced volume, and 75% of global production is used for food and cooking purposes. Sustainable management of the producing areas calls for the frequent assessment of field conditions. In this paper, we investigate an automatic algorithm based on deep learning that is capable to build an inventory of individual oil-palm trees using aereal color images collected by unmanned aerial vehicles. The idea consists of combining the outputs of two independent convolutional neural networks, trained on partially distinct subsets of samples and different spatial scales to capture coarse and fine details of image patches. The estimated posterior probabilities are combined by simple averaging as to improve detection accuracy and estimate the confidence for each individual detection. Non-maxima suppression removes weak detections. Experiments at three commercial oil-palm tree plantations sites aged two, four, and 16 years in Northern Brazil revealed overall detection accuracies in the range 91.2-98.8% using orthomosaics of decimeter spatial resolution. The proposed approach can be a useful component of a forest monitoring system based on remote sensing.


The Ti/ZrO2/Pt resistive memory devices with one transistor and one resistor (1T1R) architecture are successfully fabricated in this letter. The tested devices show low operation current (20 μA), low switching voltage (set/reset, 0.8/-1 V), and reliable data retention for low-resistance state (LRS) with a 20-μA set current at 80°C (over ten years) via an excellent current limiter, namely, a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). In addition, multilevel storage characteristics are also demonstrated by modulating the amplitude of the MOSFET gate voltage. The various LRS levels obtained are possibly attributed to the formation of different numbers and sizes of conducting filaments consisting of oxygen vacancies caused by an external electric field. Moreover, reproducible resistive switching characteristics up to 2000 switching cycles are achieved in the same device. Our 1T1R ZrO2-based resistive switching access memory with low-power and highly reliable multilevel operation has high potential for practical applications.


INTRODUCTION The origin of green rock complexes in the Adirondacks, their interrelations, and their relations to other Precambrian rock types are obscure. These green rocks have been called syenites (Smyth, 1897), older granites (Buddington, 1939), and charnockites (Berry and Walton, 1962). Buddington (1939), after working in the northern Adirondacks, thought that anorthosite and two generations of granite intruded the Grenville sequence of sediments. De Waard and Walton (1967), after working in the southern Adirondacks, thought that the sequence of sediments was deposited on meta-anorthosite and charnockitic gneiss. Buddington thought that all granitic and charnockitic rocks in the Adirondacks were intruded. De Waard and Walton thought that some belonged to the basement complex upon which the Grenville sediments were deposited, some were initially deposited as Grenville sediments, and some were produced by local melting. The diverse characters and occurrences of granitic and charnockitic gneisses in the Adirondacks show that these rocks formed by several processes. Recent field studies have investigated two green rock complexes: the Tupper Complex (Crosby, 1968; Davis, 1969; Seifert, 1978) and the Diana Complex (Hargraves, 1969; Wiener, 1979). These studies have generally supported Buddington9s conclusions. The Stark Complex is the only green rock complex in the northern Adirondacks that has not been examined since de Waard and Walton published their interpretation of Adirondack geology. Rocks around Jennings Mountain, Lyon Mountain, Taylor Pond, and Loon Lake and between Lake Titus and Blue Mountain are part of the Stark Complex. This paper presents the results of a study on the Stark Complex around Dexter Lake and relates that complex to other green rock complexes, the Grenville sequence, and granitic gneisses that Buddington (1939, p. 135–149) labeled the younger granites.


With the pandemic of COVID-19 came a time of significant business disruption, particularly in relation to social distancing rules that effectively shut down organisations physical office spaces, and moved employees to Work From Home (WFH) in a very short space of time. This research looks at the current office space that employees use and compares it to the WFH space. The results showed that employees valued their physical office space, but that open plan or shared offices were often noisy and lacked privacy. Most described their office space as personal, comfortable, and conducive to productivity. In relation to the ability to work collaboratively, most respondents stated this happened in their current office space (87%), and with the move to WFH, 76% stated that they were still able to work collaboratively. Employees will no longer need to commute to work, can spend more time perusing personal plans and feel more productive when WFH. For employers, they now have access to a wider pool of talent, can enjoy cost savings and decrease their carbon footprint. The office of the future will be a hybrid model, a combination of WFH, working in the office and both, known as the Hybrid Office Model (HOM).


Imagine you are being gazed at by multiple individuals simultaneously. Is the provoked anxiety a learned social-specific response or related to a pathological disorder known as trypophobia? A previous study revealed that spectral properties of images induced aversive reactions in observers with trypophobia. However, it is not clear whether individual differences such as social anxiety traits are related to the discomfort associated with trypophobic images. To investigate this issue, we conducted two experiments with social anxiety and trypophobia and images of eyes and faces. In Experiment 1, participants completed a social anxiety scale and trypophobia questionnaire before evaluation of the discomfort experienced upon exposure to pictures of eye. The results showed that social anxiety had a significant indirect effect on the discomfort associated with the eye clusters, and that the effect was mediated by trypophobia. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 using images of human face. The results showed that, as in Experiment 1, a significant mediation effect of trypophobia was obtained, although the relationship between social anxiety and the discomfort rating was stronger than in Experiment 1. Our findings suggest that both social anxiety and trypophobia contribute to the induction of discomfort when one is gazed at by many people.


Rare diseases are a global public health priority; they can cause significant morbidity and mortality, can gravely affect quality of life, and can confer a social and economic burden on families and communities. These conditions are, by their nature, encountered very infrequently by clinicians. Thus, clinical practice guidelines are potentially very helpful in supporting clinical decisions, health policy and resource allocation. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system is a structured and transparent approach to developing and presenting summaries of evidence, grading its quality, and then transparently interpreting the available evidence to make recommendations in health care. GRADE has been adopted widely. However, its use in creating guidelines for rare diseases – which are often plagued by a paucity of high quality evidence – has not yet been explored. RARE-Bestpractices is a project to create and populate a platform for sharing best practices for management of rare diseases. A major aim of this project is to ensure that European Union countries have the capacity to produce high quality clinical practice guidelines for rare diseases. On February 12, 2013 at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, in Rome, Italy, the RARE-Bestpractices group held the first of a series of 2 workshops to discuss methodology for creating clinical practice guidelines, and explore issues specific to rare diseases. This paper summarizes key results of the first workshop, and explores how the current GRADE approach might (or might not) work for rare diseases. Avenues for future research are also identified.


There is increasing interest in using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to obtain better understanding of fluid dynamics of various unit operations, both upstream and downstream bioprocessing, and to use simulated results for process modelling, system characterisation and design optimisation. Membrane filtration technologies and in particular, tangential flow filtration (TFF), have made use of CFD analysis to gain better insight into, for instance, velocity and concentration profiles within channels, optimising spacer geometry and configurations to maximise mass transfer for different TFF setups. The applications and benefits for TFF processes are immense since large volumes of liquid are normally required, both for cleaning and processing, and thus even small increments in efficiency can result in significant cost reductions. In this study, a novel Ultra Scale-Down (USD) membrane filtration device and spacer-filled channels in TFF cassettes were modelled using COMSOL Multiphysics. 2D-axisymmetrical and 3D models were developed, respectively, to simulate the effect of geometry, design and hydrodynamic conditions on flow, wall shear rates and pressure profiles. Laminar flow and Shear Stress Transport (SST) formulations were used and parametric sweeps employed for different geometrical and design parameters. The geometrical configuration, such as clearance of the disc, cone angle and disc diameter, and the resulting hydrodynamics within the system was seen to play a vital role in wall shear rate distributions for the USD device. The change could be attributed to the introduction of secondary recirculating flows and vortices that allow greater degree of axial and radial mixing, as seen from the CFD results. Optimal disc type, namely the axial flow impellers such as pitch-blade turbine and the hydrofoil, and positioning was also identified based on parameters such as wall shear rate distribution along the radial axis of the membrane and maximum shear stress:average wall shear stress ratio. Flow within the screened channel was observed to be very controlled and periodic, especially in regions close to and around the cylindrical fibers of the screen, and an overall accelerated flow within the channel compared to the inlet velocity was observed from the CFD simulations. The aim was to use CFD as a guiding tool to optimise the design of the USD device such that it mimics the average wall shear rate and profiles observed within the screened channels, in order to establish successful and accurate scale-up between the USD device and TFF process, at scale. Experimental validation for the CFD results are also presented, along with other potential applications of the CFD studies carried out, such as modelling flux behaviour in the channel, cake formation and pressure drops.


Changes in the sinus rhythm of the cod heart in response to single brief bursts of stimuli (50-200 msec) delivered to the vagus with different intervals after P-wave, were investigated. The moment of vagal stimulation in respect to cardiac cycle, the duration of free running cardiac period and intensity of nerve activity were found to be the factors determining the regulatory direction of chronotropic effects (acceleration or inhibition of the heart). Possible mechanisms of parasympathetic acceleration of the cardiac rhythm are discussed.


In this paper COM+ based on Microsoft .NET is adopted to realize a Distributed Collaborative System (DCS). This system adopts a complex architecture combined C/S with B/S to reduce the remote communication and improve the performance. By means of IE or other browsers, a client can download client tool, register or login, search or publish information via the collaborative website. After installing the client tool, a client can automatically receive the collaborative requests or invitations from the collaborative server and collaborate with other participators. The system utilizes COM+ services to realize the Distributed Synchronous Communication (DSC) and Distributed Asynchronous Communication (DAC). Loosely Coupled Event (LCE) service can make DSC true easily and effectively. Transaction service, Queued Component (QC) service and Windows NT Service can be applied to realize DAC efficiently and reliably.


A study was carried out to determine the effect of the level and type of dietary fat on the concentration of cholesterol and beta lipoproteins in the sera of Cebus monkeys. Three groups of monkeys were fed isocaloric diets containing a fixed ratio of alpha protein and cholesterol to calories but with different amounts of corn oil and sucrose. Corn oil provided 10, 32, and 45 per cent of the calories in the three diets, and the level of sucrose was varied inversely. After 8 weeks the serum cholesterol and Sf 12 to 100 beta lipoprotein concentrations were significantly greater in the medium and high fat groups. When corn oil was decreased from 45 to 10 per cent of dietary calories and sucrose was increased, the serum cholesterol fell in all cases, and when the reverse change was made, the concentration of serum cholesterol increased. Variation in dietary sucrose had no specific effect. Substitution of starch for sucrose with diets otherwise constant did not cause significant change in the concentration of serum cholesterol. When monkeys fed corn oil diets at any of three levels were changed to hydrogenated cottonseed oil diets at the same level, the serum cholesterol and Sf 12 to 100 beta lipoproteins rose. However, hydrogenated cottonseed oil had no greater hypercholesteremic effect than did corn oil in the absence of dietary cholesterol. Diets containing lard with cholesterol also produced strikingly greater serum lipide responses than did diets based on corn oil and cholesterol. Hydrogenated cottonseed oil had a greater hypercholesteremic effect than an unhydrogenated cottonseed oil from the same lot. Preliminary studies indicated that the saturated fats (hydrogenated cottonseed oil) produced the most striking elevation of serum cholesterol values (above controls fed corn oil) when casein was the dietary protein.


An egg floatation model was developed for determining the incubation stage of Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) eggs, and the accuracy of this model was then tested by correlating actual incubation age against the incubation age predicted from the egg floatation model. A strong positive correlation existed between actual incubation age and predicted age suggesting that model accuracy was high. Also, predicted incubation age was ltoreq two days of actual incubation age on 84% of the occasions and within three days 93% of the time. We consider floating Ruddy Duck eggs to be an accurate and practical alternative to field candling and encourage others to develop and test egg floatation models for difficult-to-candle avian species.


In silicon heterojunction solar cells made with high-lifetime wafers, resistive losses in the contacts dominate the total electrical power loss. Moreover, it is widely believed that the hole contact stack—a-Si:H(i)/a-Si:H(p)/ITO/Ag—is responsible for more of this power loss than the electron contact stack. In this article, we vary the a-Si:H(i) layer thickness, the a-Si:H(p) layer thickness and doping, and the indium tin oxide (ITO) doping, and determine the effect of each variation on the contact resistivity of the hole contact stack. In addition, we make complete solar cells with the same variations and correlate their series resistivity to the hole contact resistivity. We find that the contact resistivity is most sensitive to the thickness of the a-Si:H(i) layer and the oxygen partial pressure during ITO sputtering. Increasing the former from 4 to 16 nm results in a fourfold increase in contact resistivity, whereas increasing the latter from 0.14 to 0.85 mTorr raises the contact resistivity almost 30-fold. Optimized conditions produce a contact resistivity of 0.10 Ωcm2, while maintaining an implied open-circuit voltage of 720 mV measured on cell precursors, which is the lowest contact resistivity value reported in the literature for an a-Si:H hole contact.


Mobile phones are becoming increasingly used to access web services. However, most of the features available in software for mobile phones are not used due to the lack of usability of the applications in these devices. In this context, usability evaluations are often avoided by developers or companies due to their lack of experience in the field. Thus, there exists growing demand to explore appropriate evaluation methodologies that evaluate the usability of mobile phones applications quickly as well as comprehensively. In this paper, we present the development of a specific usability inspection technique UBICUA (Usability-Based Inspection CUstomizable Approach) for web mobile applications customizable by inspector knowledge which results in greater usability problem identification. The goals of this paper are: (1) to describe experimental studies to evaluate the UBICUA technique, using an experimental methodology to improve the technique for safe transfer to industry; and (2) to encourage the adoption of a new usability evaluation technology by software engineers in the software development process.


Introduction : The guaiquica ( Gracilinanus microtarsus ) is an omnivorous-frugivorous marsupial, which belongs to family Didelphidae and subfamily Didelphinae. By feeding on small fruits, it is a species of considerable ecological importance in seed dispersal of some plants. The teeth are calcified and have adapted anatomical structures, which exhibit morphological variation among vertebrates. They are important for the systematic and sometimes represent the only traces of extinct species, and may also assist the phylogenetic reconstruction of these species. Objective : In order to establish morphological patterns of the teeth of G. microtarsus , the establishment of dental formula of the species was performed. Materials and methods : We used macroscopic analysis, microstructural analysis by light microscopy and ultrastructural analysis by scanning electron microscopy in five G. microtarsus adults (n= 3 males and n= 2 females) were performed. Results and conclusion : We conclude that the dental formula of G. microtarsus (2x I 5/4 C1/1 P 3/3 M 4/4), totaling 50 teeth is similar to that described in opossum ( Didelphis sp.). The teeth are classified as thecodont and bunodont and microscopic morphology of teeth is also similar to Didelphis sp. and other species that have braquidonts teeth.


Transdermal drug delivery systems allow delivery of a drug into the systemic circulation via permeation through skin layers at a controlled rate. In addition to the currently marketed formulations, new drugs are being formulated using the transdermal system because of the inherent advantage of administration by this route. It offers a noninvasive route of drug administration, although its applications are limited by low skin permeability. Innovative research exploiting penetration-enhancing strategies, such as iontophoresis, electroporation, microneedles, and sonophoresis, holds promise for the successful use of these drugs as consumer-friendly, transdermal dosage forms in clinical practice. This review outlines promising new technologies involved in enhancing transdermal permeation. Key words: Electroporation, iontophoresis, microneedles, penetration, sonophoresis, transdermal.


Calcifying odontogenic cyst (COC) is a unique odontogenic lesion with combined features of a cyst and neoplasm.  This lesion shows a great diversity in its clinicopathological behavior.  It may become aggressive and rarely malignant.  This case is an aggressive COC of the maxilla in a young male patient which recurred after several radical surgical excisions.  Eventually invading the cranium, the lesion neither responded to surgical excision nor to radiotherapy.


Venous leg ulcers (VLU) comprise about 70% of lower leg wounds and cost more than 14 billion USD per year. Patients with VLU are often admitted to the hospital; however, epidemiological study of this important patient subset is challenged by lack of validated database search protocol. Five International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 9 codes were identified for their relationship with VLUs (454.0, 454.2, 459.11, 707.9, and 707.10). The ICD9 code was considered to successfully predict a VLU if the wound was located in the gaiter area and had either relevant clinical findings, a positive venous study, and/or a diagnosis of VLU written in the physician note. The code 454.0, when combined with length of admission and subjects' age, yielded high specificity (100%) and positive predictive value (100%), sacrificing sensitivity (34.4%). This formula represents a viable search criterion to identify VLU patients in large‐scale datasets to examine patients' outcomes, costs, and comorbidities.


There is a consensus that the interaction of organic molecules with the surfaces of naturally-occurring minerals might have played a crucial role in chemical evolution and complexification in a prebiotic era. The hurdle of an overly diluted primordial soup occurring in the free ocean may have been overcome by the adsorption and concentration of relevant molecules on the surface of abundant minerals at the sea shore. Specific organic–mineral interactions could, at the same time, organize adsorbed molecules in well-defined orientations and activate them toward chemical reactions, bringing to an increase in chemical complexity. As experimental approaches cannot easily provide details at atomic resolution, the role of in silico computer simulations may fill that gap by providing structures and reactive energy profiles at the organic–mineral interface regions. Accordingly, numerous computational studies devoted to prebiotic chemical evolution induced by organic–mineral interactions have been proposed. The present article aims at reviewing recent in silico works, mainly focusing on prebiotic processes occurring on the mineral surfaces of clays, iron sulfides, titanium dioxide, and silica and silicates simulated through quantum mechanical methods based on the density functional theory (DFT). The DFT is the most accurate way in which chemists may address the behavior of the molecular world through large models mimicking chemical complexity. A perspective on possible future scenarios of research using in silico techniques is finally proposed.


: Two cases are presented. Case #1, a 27-year-old Caucasian male presented with chronic right leg pain. Case 2 was a 23-year-old Caucasian female with right fifth finger pain. The clinical examination was benign except for mild tenderness of many years duration. No deformities were present in the male patient, the female patient did exhibit mild clinodactyly. The pain was described as constant, low grade, and dull. Plain roentgenograms of both patients demonstrated a hyperostotic process typical of melorheostosis and the bone scans demonstrated increased bone activity. A CAT scan demonstrated both endosteal and periosteal hyperostosis in our male patient. The biopsies of both patients were consistent with the clinical diagnosis of melorheostosis. A discussion and review of the literature covering this process is presented.


Abstract In this paper, we present the design of a compact laser system for animation projections both indoors and outdoors. Our focus is on the hardware and software aspects of the electronic control of the system from the design phase to the experimental tests and evaluations. The main purpose behind our development efforts is the creation of an affordable laser system for research, entertainment and marketing purposes using contemporary advances in electronics, software development, semiconductor laser diodes and optics. The system is "smart" in the sense that it connects to other devices and the Internet via a WiFi network, so that in addition to doing standalone laser projections, it also has remote control and remote debugging capabilities. Via its two embedded microcontrollers, the system offers an easy integration into existing Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure. The experimental results are very promising and bring us closer to creating a viable product from both a technological and an economic standpoint.


Companies face high market demand and to remain competitive they need to invest in the relationship with their customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implies not only a new use of a tool but also a changing of its strategical approach to the market. As seen in previous studies, CRM projects are very likely to fail, however, actions can be taken to help overcome these problems, such as proper knowledge management integration. With this study we are able to answer the following research question: how the company can use knowledge management in a CRM project adoption? In order to answer this question, after a literature review, a case study was conducted. Data collection was carried out through direct observation in the company, with the analysis of documents, and interviews. We can observe that there are a set of knowledge management activities that can help the adoption of CRM projects, even if there is no formal policy for knowledge management in the group or for this specific project. Knowledge sharing is seen as an enabler of better results for CRM projects.


Objective To analyze the reproducibility of the "American Knee Society Score" (AKSS) scale, and determine its measurement, in order to make it useful for the evaluation of patients with osteoarthritis or who have undergone total knee arthroplasty. Methods In the first interview, the AKSS was applied along with the SF-36 and WOMAC (examiner 1). After thirty minutes the same patients answered only the AKSS. After a two week break, a third additional interview with AKSS was applied (examiner 2). Results We selected 58 patients with a mean age of 67.4 years. In the analysis of reproducibility, by ICC, there was strong inter-examiner and intra-examiner correlation for two AKSS components. In the individual items analysis there was good correlation for "Pain", "Range of Motion", "Flexion contracture" and all items of the AKSS Function component. Validation through the Pearson coefficient showed good correlation between AKSS "Pain," WOMAC "pain" and SF-36 "Pain domain", and good correlation between the AKSS and SF-36 "Functional Capacity domain". Conclusion The AKSS adapted to Brazilian culture is useful and reliable for the evaluation of individuals with osteoarthritis or those who have undergone TKA.


Kurt Lewin's integration of psychological theory and research practice is seen as a tradition living in feminist theory and practice today. Three narratives, drawn from (a) the feminist academy, (b) the history of ethology and contemporary sociobiology, and (c) the life of T. C. Schneirla, demonstrate the concept of "… personal is political is personal…." The feminist concept and practice of consciousness raising and the theoretical slogan "personal is political" make fundamental contributions to active psychology and societal activity. The narratives also remind us that realistic commitment to the integration of theory and practice through political action may be personally risky.


This article presents the technical characteristics of a newly built small-and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) apparatus dedicated to structural characterization of a wide range of nanomaterials in the powder or dispersion form. The instrument is based on a high-flux rotating anode generator with a molybdenum target, enabling the assessment of highly absorbing samples containing heavy elements. The SAXS part is composed of a collimation system including a multilayer optic and scatterless slits, a motorized sample holder, a vacuum chamber, and a two-dimensional image-plate detector. All the control command is done through a TANGO interface. Normalization and data correction yield scattering patterns at the absolute scale automatically with a q range from 0.03 to 3.2 A ˚ A1. The WAXS part features a multilayer collimating optic and a two-dimensional image-plate detector with variable sample-to-detector distances. The accessible q range is 0.4–9 A ˚ A1 , ensuring a large overlap in q range between the two instruments. A few examples of applications are also presented, namely coupled SAXS/WAXS structure and symmetry determination of gold nanocrystals in solution and characterization of imogolite nanotubes and iron-filled carbon nanotube samples.


The United Nations has named 2021–2030 the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development with goals to 'strengthen the international cooperation needed to develop the scientific research and innovative technologies that can connect ocean science with the needs of society' (IOC 2019 The science we need for the ocean we want: the United Nations decade of ocean science for sustainable development (2021–2030) (Paris) p 24). Important actions that have been identified in support of sustainable development goals include capacity-building, training, and education. This includes educational opportunities for ocean-based renewable energy development in support of a healthy planet and ocean. Offshore wind is experiencing rapid development globally and, while the U.S. offshore wind market is still nascent, it is on the brink of exponential growth based on large cost reductions driven largely by European development and technology advances. Growth is also expected in wave and tidal energy with significant opportunities identified for various distributed markets through the Powering the Blue Economy™ initiative, with longer-term implications for expansion at the utility scale (LiVecchi et al 2019 Powering the blue economy; exploring opportunities for marine renewable energy in maritime markets p 207). In order to expedite progress and maximize benefits to the national, state, and local economies, these development actions will require a broad, diverse, and appropriately trained workforce. The ocean-based renewable energy workforce needs engineers and scientists to develop cost-effective technologies, as well as trade and maritime workers to eventually deploy the technologies at scale. In the United States, educational institutions, state governments, and private developers are taking action to understand job skills and capability requirements and to develop educational and training programs to meet offshore workforce needs; most are focused on offshore wind power, with gaining interest in marine energy. This article explores the workforce requirements of the growing ocean-based renewable energy industry and the current state of education and training programs to meet those requirements in order to identify gaps and make recommendations for further workforce development activities and initiatives. An international view needs to be adopted that incorporates the education and skill needs of early-stage marine energy technologies and evolving offshore wind technologies together with more market-ready offshore renewable energy markets. By accelerating educational development opportunities in ocean-based renewable energy, these growing blue economy markets can deliver significant economic and social benefits.


Multilingual sentence and document representations are becoming increasingly important. We build on recent advances in multilingual sentence encoders, with a focus on efficiency and large-scale applicability. Specifically, we construct and investigate the k-nn graph over the joint space of 566 million news sentences in seven different languages. We show excellent multilingual retrieval quality on the UN corpus of 11.3M sentences, which extends to the zero-shot case where we have never seen a language. We provide a detailed analysis of both the multilingual sentence encoder for twenty-one European languages and the learned graph. Our sentence encoder is language agnostic and supports code switching.


The DNA repair and recombination genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, RAD52 and RAD54, were transcriptionally induced approximately 10- to 15-fold in sporulating MATa/alpha cells. Congenic MATa/a cells, which did not sporulate, did not show similar increases. Assays of beta-galactosidase activity in strains harboring either a RAD52- or RAD54-lacZ gene fusion indicated that this induction occurred at a time concomitant with a commitment to meiotic recombination, as measured by prototroph formation from his1 heteroalleles.


3 Abstract Even though the attractive properties of fibre-reinforced polymer composites have led to them becoming essential materials for a wide variety of high performance applications, they pose several drawbacks such as low compressive strength, low delamination resistance and high sensitivity to defects. These drawbacks have led designers to adopt a damage tolerance approach, whereby damage growth is deemed as failure. However, this approach has resulted in heavy composite structures with conservative configurations, which has somewhat negated the significant weight saving potential that composites offer over traditional materials. A step change in the approach by which damage growth is tolerated could provide designers with the freedom to develop novel composite structures. Despite an improvement in the understanding of composites failure, particularly in unidirectional laminates, compressive failure of multidirectional composites is still not fully understood. Therefore, the initial objective of this research project was to investigate the compressive failure processes multidirectional composites, leading to development of material-based approaches (i.e. introduction of a secondary material to the parent composite) which could offer compressive crack arrest/redirection. Such an approach would facilitate the adoption of a damage growth approach for composites design. An extensive experimental, fractographic, theoretical and numerical study on the compressive failure of multidirectional composites was conducted, resulting in the main failure mechanisms being identified and the sequence of events that lead to global fracture being deduced. The influence of the layup, specimen geometry (such as compact, plain and sandwich panel compression) and the proportion of shear loading on the compressive performance of multidirectional laminates were characterised. These observations were then used to validate numerical models, thus yielding more physically based predictions. In the process of formulating novel crack arrest/diversion solutions in composite structures, various concepts ranging from hybridisation to carbon nanotubes and piezoelectric actuators, were investigated. However, after consideration of the relative maturity of these technologies and the time constraints, the latter two approaches were not pursued. Given the absence of an explanation of the hybrid effects observed in composites in the literature, an extensive study was carried out to investigate the effect of hybridisation on the compressive performance of multidirectional composite laminates. For this study, two systems of unidirectional pre-preg tapes with the same epoxy resin but different carbon fibre types and tow sizes were employed. It was identified in this study that hybridisation of selective ply interfaces influenced the location and severity of the fracture mechanisms. Finally, in a complementary study on delamination fracture toughness of hybrid composites, a significant improvement was observed in the delamination resistance (doubling in Mixed Mode I/II toughness) compared to the monolithic composites, indicating that the behaviour of the hybrid interfaces was critical for the compressive performance of the hybrid laminates.


(±)-Desoxynoreseroline (3), the basic ring structure of the pharmacologically active alkaloid physostigmine (1), was synthesized starting from 3-allyl-1,3-dimethyloxindole (9). The latter was prepared from the corresponding 2H-azirin-3-amine 6 by a BF3-catalyzed ring enlargement via an amidinium intermediate 7 (Scheme 1). An alternative synthesis of 9 was also carried out by the reaction of N-methylaniline with 2-bromopropanoyl bromide (12), followed by intramolecular Friedel-Crafts alkylation of the formed anilide 13 to give Julian's oxindole 11. Further alkylation of 11 with allyl bromide in the presence of LDA gave 9 in an excellent yield (Scheme 3). Ozonolysis of 9, followed by mild reduction with (EtO)3P, gave the aldehyde 14, whose structure was chemically established by the transformation to the corresponding acetal 15 (Scheme 4). Condensation of 14 with hydroxylamine and hydrazine derivatives, respectively, gave the corresponding imine derivatives 16a - 16d as a mixture of syn- and anti-isomers. Reduction of this mixture with LiAlH4 proceeded by loss of ROH or RNH2 to give racemic 3 (Scheme 5).


Classification of cattle breeds contributes to our understanding of the history of cattle and is essential for an effective conservation of genetic diversity. Here we review the various classifications over the last two centuries and compare the most recent classifications with genetic data. The classifications devised during the 19th to the late 20th century were in line with the Linnaean taxonomy and emphasized cranial or horn morphology. Subsequent classifications were based on coat color, geographic origin or molecular markers. Several theories were developed that linked breed characteristics either to a supposed ancestral aurochs subspecies or to a presumed ethnic origin. Most of the older classifications have now been discarded, but have introduced several Latin terms that are still in use. The most consistent classification was proposed in 1995 by Felius and emphasizes the geographic origin of breeds. This is largely in agreement with the breed clusters indicated by a biochemical and molecular genetic analysis, which reflect either groups of breeds with a common geographic origin or single breeds that have expanded by export and/or crossbreeding. We propose that this information is also relevant for managing the genetic diversity of cattle.


The effect of hydrogen adsorption on the magnetic properties of an Fe$_3$ cluster immersed in a Cu(111) surface has been calculated using densifty functional theory and the results used to parametrize an Alexander-Anderson model which takes into account the interaction of d-electrons with itinerant electrons. A number of adatom configurations containing one to seven H-atoms were analyzed. The sequential addition of hydrogen atoms is found to monotonically reduce the total magnetic moment of the cluster with the effect being strongest when the H-atoms sit at low coordinated sites. Decomposition of the charge density indicates a transfer of 0.4 electrons to each of the H-atoms from both the Fe-atoms and from the copper substrate, irrespective of adsorption site and coverage. The magnetic moment of only the nearest neighbor Fe-atoms is reduced and mainly due to increased population of minority spin d-states. This can be modeled by increased indirect coupling of d-states via the conduction s-band in the Alexander-Anderson model.


The ventral pallidum is a basal forebrain region recently shown to receive dopaminergic projections from the midbrain. Binding sites for the D1 and D2 dopamine receptor families have been identified within the ventral pallidum, yet the consequences of activating these receptors have not been studied. Thus, to characterize the physiological pharmacology of D1 and D2 receptor subtypes for the ventral pallidum, extracellular single‐neuron recording and microiontophoretic techniques were used in chloral hydrate‐anesthetized rats. Half of the 93 ventral pallidal neurons tested were sensitive to iontophoresis of dopamine (DA), and both rate increases and decreases were observed. Co‐iontophoresis of either the D1 antagonist SCH23390, or the D2 antagonist sulpiride, generally attenuated the DA‐induced rate changes. Like DA, about half of the ventral pallidal neurons tested were sensitive to the D1 agonist, SKF38393. Yet in contrast to DA, rate suppression was observed almost exclusively, and the magnitude of this decrease was greater than that produced by DA. SKF38393‐induced suppressions were antagonized by SCH23390, but not by sulpiride, demonstrating the specificity of the D1 agonist. Most of the neurons tested were not affected by quinpirole, but when responsive to the D2 agonist, rate increases were observed most often. The increases were antagonized by the D2 antagonist sulpiride, but not SCH23390, demonstrating that this response resulted from an activation of D2 receptors. These results support binding studies demonstrating that both D1 and D2 receptors are present in the ventral pallidum, and reveal that the independent activation of each of these is sufficient to alter neuronal activity. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss. Inc.


This paper presents a novel component-based synthesis algorithm that marries the power of type-directed search with lightweight SMT-based deduction and partial evaluation. Given a set of components together with their over-approximate first-order specifications, our method first generates a program sketch over a subset of the components and checks its feasibility using an SMT solver. Since a program sketch typically represents many concrete programs, the use of SMT-based deduction greatly increases the scalability of the algorithm. Once a feasible program sketch is found, our algorithm completes the sketch in a bottom-up fashion, using partial evaluation to further increase the power of deduction for rejecting partially-filled program sketches. We apply the proposed synthesis methodology for automating a large class of data preparation tasks that commonly arise in data science. We have evaluated our synthesis algorithm on dozens of data wrangling and consolidation tasks obtained from on-line forums, and we show that our approach can automatically solve a large class of problems encountered by R users.


Inflatable structures have many potential applications in space collapsible structures, this paper based on the premise of the same exploring features on the Planetary Exploration Device (PED) designs a new type of inflatable and lightweight model of PED. The device structure is designed to be a wheel style, which can be folded together in the transport process and in non-working state. Comparing with traditional devices, the new Wheeled Planetary Exploration Device (CWPED) reduces the space of transporting the exploration equipments and decreases the transport costs, moreover, this device provides convenient conditions for the equipment package of the CWPED, and there are evident advantages in the aspects of handing, solar absorption, volume and quality. This article mainly introduces the preliminary design of the CWPED, and the structural characteristics of the device, the principle of motion control and the design of wheeled body skin material are analyzed.


Abstract. Highly automated vehicles are the next generational stage in a long evolutionary process of transport technology. Thus, it is important to consider human factors and ergonomic (HFE) issues that challenge the success of this coming wave of automation technology. Hence, careful consideration of industries' design differences and similarities for real-world use cases is important. Additionally, a better understanding of the technological, infrastructural, social, and legal aspects that govern human-automation interaction needs to be examined on a comprehensive level, irrespective of industry. In retrospection, an industry-centred approach will help us uncover nuances of understanding on human aspects of advanced manufacturing. Thus, N=20 industry experts were invited to contribute their knowledge. The lessons learned based on different industry experts' levels of understanding are crucial to consider, mainly for principles or strategies that are aligned with safe and risk-free interaction longevity.


This paper describes a practical training course for engineering students on embedded systems that are based on electronic control units (ECU) that use the Freescale HCS12 microcontroller. An evaluation board was designed as a single platform for academic purposes and it was implemented with a Freescale HCS12 microcontroller, sensors, a motor, an LED module, and communication modules. Among many microcontrollers, the Freescale HCS12 was chosen because it is widely implemented as an ECU in the automotive industry. The automotive industry was the exclusive domain of mechanical engineers in the past, but after ECUs began to be incorporated in automobiles, more electronic engineers have been required. The 68CH11/12 microcontroller has been very popular in the academic environment and the Freescale HCS12 microcontroller is derived from it. In order to provide engineering students with practical experience with embedded systems that are widely used in industry, an embedded system course has been organized.


This study provides new evidence on anomaly interactions, as well as on the cross-section of returns in all-but-microcap universe of U.S. stocks over the 42-year sample period from 1971 to 2013. The five anomalies being examined are size, value, profitability, investment/asset growth, and momentum. We form 5x5 conditional double-sort portfolios for each pair of anomaly variables, resulting in 20 different 5x5 sorts when using each variable in the first-stage sorting and the remaining four in the second-stage sorting. The interrelation between each pair of anomaly variables is evaluated on the basis of the monotonic relation (MR) test of Patton and Timmermann (2010) for portfolio raw returns, and in addition, by means of the Sharpe ratio comparisons. Moreover, we run Fama-MacBeth (1973) cross-sectional regressions to compare the relative explanatory power of each variable in the presence of the others. The results show that investment/asset growth and momentum dimensions capture the cross-sectional return patterns better than size, value, or profitability. The relative efficacy of momentum is higher in all-but-microcap universe than previously documented for the corresponding unlimited market-cap samples of U.S. stocks.


Food-borne disease remains a major public health challenge in Africa and Asia. Most of the foods that carry the highest pathogen risk are produced by smallholder farmers, marketed through the informal sector, and sold in wet markets. Given the significant role of informal markets in African and Asian food systems, attention is invested in understanding (1) how the people that participate in informal markets are exposed to risk, and (2) how they manage risk. We conduct a participatory risk analysis with a gender lens in 20 livestock and fish value chains to study whether gender-based differences influence risk of food-borne disease. We find that socially constructed gender roles are more important determinants of health risk than biological differences between men and women. Variations in risk exposure between men and women are mainly due to gender-based differences in occupational exposure, and secondarily to differences in consumption patterns. Women are important but under-recognized risk managers in the realms of food production, processing, selling, preparation, and consumption. Understanding the influence of gender on risk exposure and management is essential for improving food safety in informal markets.


In this paper we explore the substitutability of formal and informal property rights. We analyze new survey data from Ecuador, where households have both formal and informal claims to urban residential property. The latter come from a variety of sources, including the activity of a local boss, or organizer. We first develop a theory of the ability to sell or rent land in which a distinction is drawn between transferable property rights (e.g., title) and non-transferable claims (e.g., length of residence). We use this theory of transactions to show that the increase in price that follows the granting of title may be an overestimate of the households' utility gain. In our empirical work we find that the unconditional effect of granting title is to raise properties' value by 23.5%. However, we also find that informal property rights can substitute effectively for formal property rights, so the marginal effect of titling on the ability to transact and on prices can vary widely among communities and among households within a community. For example, the value of property owned by a newly established household with no adult males can increase by 46% with the acquisition of title. These findings suggest that titling programs should be targeted at young disorganized communities if they are to have much effect.


Modern ultrasound scanners estimate the blood velocity by tracking the movement of the blood scatterers along the ultrasound beam. This is done by emitting pulsed ultrasound fields and finding the shift in position from pulse to pulse by correlating the received signals. Only the velocity component along the beam direction is found, and this is a serious limitation in the current scanners, since most blood vessels are parallel to the skin surface. A method to find the velocity across the vessel has been suggested by Bonnefous (1988). Here a number of parallel receive beams are measured and used in a correlation estimator to find the velocity across the beam. This approach is extended in this paper by making beamforming along the direction of the flow. A fairly broad beam is emitted and the received signal is then focused along a selected direction. This direction can be along the ultrasound beam or across it or in any direction to the beam. The focused lines, thus, follow the flow and a cross-correlation of lines from different pulses can find the movement of the blood particles between pulse emissions and, thus, the blood velocity. The new approach is investigated using the Field II simulation program. Simulations are shown for a parabolic velocity profile for flow-to-beam angles of 30, 45, 60, and 90 degrees using a 64 elements linear array with a center frequency of 3 MHz, a pitch of 0.3 mm, and an element height of 5 mm. The peak velocity in the parabolic flow was 0.5 m/s, and the pulse repetition frequency was 3.5 kHz. Using four pulse-echo lines, the parabolic flow profile was found with a standard deviation of 0.028 m/s at 60 degrees and 0.092 m/s at 90 degrees (transverse to the ultrasound beam), corresponding to accuracies of 5.6% and 18.4%. Using ten lines gave standard deviations of 0.021 m/s and 0.089 m/s, respectively, corresponding to accuracies of 4.2% and 17.8%.


SMALLBONE D., CUMBERS A., SYRETT S. and LEIGH R. (1999) The Single European Market and SMEs: a comparison of its effects in the food and clothing sectors in the UK and Portugal, Reg. Studies 33 , 51-62. The creation of a Single European Market in 1992 represented an attempt to accelerate the process of European economic integration. However, in terms of the actual impact of the Single Market process, most of the attention so far has concentrated upon the implications for the large firm corporate sector. In comparison, there has been a lack of in-depth analysis of the effects of the Single Market for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), despite the contribution to employment generation that is often prescribed for them in policy terms. This paper seeks to stimulate a more informed debate about the consequences of the Single Market for SMEs by contrasting the effects on firms in different spatial and sectoral contexts, drawing upon original survey evidence of SMEs in the food and clothing sectors in t...


The aim of the studies described in this thesis was to develop a vaccine against feline Leukaemia (FeLV) based on inactivated virus. Previous attempts to produce an economical, inactivated virus vaccine which would protect kittens against FeLV infection had not been successful. In the present study a vaccine was prepared which protected over 80% of weanling kittens against a viral challenge which induced persistent FeLV infection in 80-100% of unvaccinated kittens. Among the reasons for the comparative success of the vaccine described here were believed to be: 1. The use of FeLV of subgroup A produced in large quantities by the F422 Lins of feline Lymphosarcoma cells. 2. Inactivation of the virus with a concentration of paraformaldehyde which preserved or enhanced the immunogenicity of the antigen. 3. The use of AL(OH)3 Freund's incomplete adjuvant in the vaccine. 4. A schedule for vaccination and challenge by FeLV which allowed the efficacy of a vaccine to be assessed clearly. In this thesis, the General Introduction is a review of the biology of FeLV and of previous attempts to produce vaccines using FeLV antigens. Chapter 1 describes the general materials and methods used throughout the study. In Chapter 2 the conditions for the preparation of FeLV for use in vaccination are described. Chapter 3 describes the inactivation of FeLV pseudotypes of murine sarcoma virus [MSV(FeLV)] with several chemicals. Chapter 4 reports the first vaccination experiment in which FeLV preparations inactivated with PF, AEI or DTNP and PF were compared as vaccines. An innocuous dose of saponin was determined in Chapter 5. The dose of saponin which was harmless was 100 ug per cat, compared to 150Q ug which had been used previously in Chapter 4. Chapter 6 deals with the preparation and determination of an appropriate challenge dose of FeLV. Chapter 7 contains the results of the second vaccination experiment, incorporating the improvements described above, in which a comparison of adjuvants was done, using PF-inactivated FeLV. Chapter 8 contains the result of the final vaccination experiment in which a comparison of antigens was done. The results in Chapter 9 are from experiments to attempt to assess in vitro the antigenicity of FeLV exposed to four types of chemical inactivating agents (Pf, Formaldehyde, AEI and betapropiolactone CBPL3). Persistence of FeLV neutralising antibodies in naturally infected cats was studied in Chapter 10. These results appeared to show that the titre of FeLV neutralising antibodies is maintained in cats for a period of over one year whether or not the cats are continuously exposed to cats excreting FeLV. These results indicate that following contact infection a cat becomes a low or a high responder. Chapter 11 is a general discussion which reviews the results in this thesis and compares the results with those of previous experiments by others. Suggestions for future work are proposed. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


It is now widely recognized that continued performance gains in electronic computing will require new materials, both in the short and long term. In the short term, the silicon channel in transistors will be replaced by materials with higher mobility that are easier to "scale" (make thinner). In data storage, the goal is to have fast, non-volatile memory with a smaller cell size. In the long term, new architectures and new types of logic devices will be needed in order to further reduce power consumption. New materials cannot only boost performance, but can also add new functionalities, such as on-chip photonics, which can vastly improve interchip interconnects. The need for new materials is a big opportunity for materials research, but also a challenge. Replacement technologies must outperform conventional silicon technology, but also be compatible with the vast infrastructure of silicon manufacturing. Examples of some of the materials advances in the areas of computation, memory, and communication are given in this issue of MRS Bulletin .


The development of a grasp planner for multifingered robot hands is described. The planner is knowledge-based, selecting grasp postures by reasoning from symbolic information on target object geometry and the nature of the task. The ability of the planner to utilize task information is based on an attempt to mimic human grasping behavior. Several task attributes and a set of heuristics derived from observation of human motor skills are included in the system. The paper gives several examples of the reasoning of the system in selecting the appropriate grasp mode for spherical and cylindrical objects for different tasks. >


Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by Dan and Paula Hewson to undertake a trial-trench evaluation on a disused agricultural storage yard at The Pack, Burgh by Sands, Carlisle, Cumbria (NY 3270 5920). The evaluation was intended to inform a planning application for the construction of a new residential property and garage. Given that the proposed buildings are immediately adjacent to a Scheduled Monument within the World Heritage Site of Frontiers of the Roman Empire: Hadrian's Wall, close to the north-west corner of the Roman fort known as Burgh II, perhaps Aballava to the Romans, the Cumbria County Historic Environment Service advised that it would be necessary to assess the impact the proposed build would have on buried archaeological remains.
A small trial-trench evaluation was undertaken over two days on 20-21 March 2018. Two trenches were excavated, each finding significant archaeological remains within the proposed area of study. A large ditch was identified within Trench 2, which is of Roman military character and might have been associated with either the Wall or the nearby fort. It is, as such, significant for the understanding of this part of the Roman frontier that has not been intensively studied.


The springback of bending at the die shoulder and the warp of web are discussed experimentally for the products formed by shrink, stretch and straight flanging of aluminum alloy sheets. The springback decreases with the decrease in die profile radius and this tendency is remarkable for larger flange height. When the die shoulder radius becomes large, the springback also becomes large. The springback angle correlates with the proof stress of sheet. The web of products warps downward for shrink flanging and upward for stretch flanging, though the web doesn't warp in case of straight flanging. The height of warp changes not monotonically but having a extreme value when the die profile radius decreases and finally the direction of warp turns to the opposite side. This phenomenon is explained by an analysis in which the warp is generated by both elastic recovery of flange and springback of die shoulder bending. The warp is decreased by reduction of flange height and it increases with increasing die shoulder radius in case of shrink flanging, while decreases in case of stretch flanging.The height of warp also correlates with the proof stress of sheet.


BACKGROUND
Iron deficiency (ID) can occur among exclusively breastfed infants before 6 mo of age.

OBJECTIVE
The objective was to determine which subgroups of fully breastfed infants are at highest risk of ID.

DESIGN
We assessed the prevalence of ID (ferritin < 12 mug/L) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA; ferritin < 12 mug/L and hemoglobin < 105 g/L) and risk factors associated with ID and IDA at 6 mo among 404 fully breastfed infants with a birth weight >2500 g from 6 studies in Ghana, Honduras, Mexico, and Sweden. Infants with an elevated C-reactive protein concentration (8%) were excluded.

RESULTS
The percentages of infants with ID were 6% in Sweden, 17% in Mexico, 13-25% in Honduras, and 12-37% in Ghana. The percentages with IDA were 2% in Sweden, 4% in Mexico, 5-11% in Honduras, and 8-16% in Ghana. With data pooled, the key predictors of ID (20%) were male sex [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 4.6; 95% CI: 2.5, 8.5] and birth weight 2500-2999 g (AOR: 2.4; 95% CI: 1.4, 4.3). The predictors of IDA (8%) were male sex (AOR: 7.6; 95% CI: 2.5, 23.0), birth weight of 2500-2999 g (AOR: 3.4; 1.5, 7.5), and weight gain above the median since birth (AOR: 3.4; 95% CI: 1.3, 8.6). The combination of birth weight 2500-2999 g or male sex had a sensitivity of 91% for identifying ID and of 97% for identifying IDA.

CONCLUSIONS
Among fully breastfed infants with a birth weight >2500 g, IDA is uncommon before 6 mo, but male infants and those with a birth weight of 2500-2999 g are at higher risk of ID and IDA.


Robotic systems used in industries and other complex applications need huge investment, and testing of them under robust conditions are highly challenging. Controlling and testing of such systems can be done with ease with the support of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation technique and it saves lot of time and resources. The chapter deals on the various interaction methods of robotic systems with physical environments using tactile, force, and vision sensors. It also discusses about the usage of hardware-in-the-loop technique for testing of grasp and task control algorithms in the model of robotic systems. The chapter also elaborates on usage of hardware and software platforms for implementing the control algorithms for performing physical interaction. Finally, the chapter summarizes with the case study of HIL implementation of the control algorithms in Texas Instruments (TI) C2000 microcontroller, interacting with model of Kuka's youBot Mobile Manipulator. The mathematical model is developed using MATLAB software and the virtual animation setup of the robot is developed using the Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform (V-REP) robot simulator. By actuating the Kuka's youBot mobile manipulator in the V-REP tool, it is observed to produce a tracking accuracy of 92% for physical interaction and object handling tasks.


The behaviour of some immunologic parameters was studied in order to explain the presence or the lack of symptomatology in subjects with IgE specific to foods. In particular, we compared the levels of serum and salivary IgA and IgE antibody specific to apple in 33 patients allergic to birch and with anti-apple IgE, of whom 24 had oral allergy syndrome after eating apple and nine were apple tolerants. We found no differences in the IgE-related parameters such as levels of anti-apple IgE antibody in serum and secretions, mean size of apple skin prick test, and number of patients with a positive histamine release from peripheral basophils stimulated by apple. Similarly, we detected no statistically significant differences in serum and salivary total IgG and total anti-apple IgA antibody of the two groups. We could, however, observe a significantly higher anti-apple salivary IgA/anti-apple serum IgE and anti-apple salivary IgA/anti-apple serum IgA ratios and a significant correlation between the same parameters in tolerant patients when compared with the intolerants. These results seem to suggest that the presence of appropriate levels of secretory anti-apple IgA associated to anti-apple IgE might be one of the factors playing a key role in the prevention of clinical symptoms in atopic subjects.


Fisher vector has been widely used in many multimedia retrieval and visual recognition applications with good performance. However, the computation complexity prevents its usage in real-time video monitoring. In this work, we proposed and implemented GPU-FV, a fast Fisher vector extraction method with the help of modern GPUs. The challenge of implementing Fisher vector on GPUs lies in the data dependency in feature extraction and expensive memory access in Fisher vector computing. To handle these challenges, we carefully designed GPU-FV in a way that utilizes the computing power of GPU as much as possible, and applied optimizations such as loop tiling to boost the performance. GPU-FV is about 12 times faster than the CPU version, and 50\% faster than a non-optimized GPU implementation. For standard video input (320*240), GPU-FV can process each frame within 34ms on a model GPU. Our experiments show that GPU-FV obtains a similar recognition accuracy as traditional FV on VOC 2007 and Caltech 256 image sets. We also applied GPU-FV for realtime video monitoring tasks and found that GPU-FV outperforms a number of previous works. Especially, when the number of training examples are small, GPU-FV outperforms the recent popular deep CNN features borrowed from ImageNet.


On the basis of the dressed-atom model, the general analytic expressions for the eigenenergies, eigenstates and their optical potentials of the Λ-configuration three-level atom system are derived and analysed. From the calculation of dipole matrix element of different dressed states, we obtain the spontaneous-emission rates in the dressed-atom picture. We find that our general expressions of optical potentials for the three-level dressed atom can be reduced to the same as ones in previous references under the approximation of a small saturation parameter. We also analyse the dependences of the optical potentials of a three-level 85Rb atom on the laser detuning and the dependences of spontaneous-emission rates on the radial position in the dark hollow beam, and discuss the probability (population) evolutions of dressed-atomic eigenstates in three levels in the hollow beam.


SUMMARY: Two new species of the genus Nocardia (Trev.) have been isolated from the soil of chalk grassland. One of these, Nocardia calcarea n.sp., fixes atmospheric nitrogen in culture in amounts of 2–4.5 mg. N/g. glucose, sucrose or mannitol present in the medium. The second species, N. cellulans n.sp., decomposes cellulose in culture and fixes atmospheric nitrogen in culture using glucose, sucrose, mannitol and cellulose as carbon source; amounts of 12 mg. N fixed/g. cellulose decomposed were recorded. The properties of nitrogen fixation and cellulose decomposition have not previously been recorded for this genus. The two organisms are described.


Methane hydrates can be preserved at ambient pressure, beyond their region of thermodynamic stability, by storing them at temperatures from 240 to 270 K. The origin of this anomalous self-preservation is the formation of an ice coating that covers the clathrate particles and prevents further loss of gas. While there have been several studies on self-preservation, the question of what is the mechanism by which ice nucleates on the decomposing clathrate hydrates has not yet been fully explained. Here, we use molecular simulations, thermodynamic analysis, and nucleation theory to investigate possible scenarios for the nucleation of ice: heterogeneous nucleation at the clathrate/vapor or clathrate/liquid interfaces and homogeneous nucleation from supercooled water. Our results indicate that clathrates cannot heterogeneously nucleate ice and that ice nucleation is due to the cooling of water at the decomposing clathrate/liquid interface, which suffices to trigger homogeneous ice nucleation. We find that the (111) face of the sII structure clathrate can bind to the (111) plane of cubic ice or the basal plane of hexagonal ice through domain matching, resulting in a weak binding that-while insufficient to promote heterogeneous ice nucleation-suffices to produce epitaxy and alignment between these crystals. We use thermodynamic relations, theory, and the contact angles of ice at the (111) sII clathrate/liquid interface to determine-for the first time-the interfacial free energy of this most favorable ice-clathrate interface, 59 ± 5 mJ/m2. We discuss the implications of our results for the feasibility of heterogeneous nucleation of gas clathrates at ice/vapor interfaces.


The study assessed the performance of Industrial Development Centres (IDCs) in Nigeria. The study specifically aimed to determine the extent to which IDCs have met the service targets set for meeting their objectives for developing small-scale businesses in Nigeria and to identify problems(if any) that hindered the IDCs from meeting their targets from 1990 to 1999. The results of the study showed that at 1% level, each of the selected IDCs performed poorly towards meeting the targets set regarding the number of small-scale business they aimed to offer services to during the period covered by the study. The reasons attributed for poor performance was the failure of the IDCs' supervising Ministry to provide adequately necessary physical, human and financial resources required for offering services to small- scale businesses. Key words : Small-Scale Businesses, Industrial Development Centres, Zones, performance


Nanomechanical testing has been a revolutionary technique in improving
our fundamental understanding of the basis of mechanical properties of
thin film systems and the importance of the nanoscale behaviour on their
performance. However, nanomechanical tests are usually performed in
ambient laboratory conditions even if the coatings being developed are
expected to perform at high temperature in use. It is important to measure
nanomechanical and tribological properties of materials under test
conditions that are closer to their operating conditions where the results
are more relevant. We can then better understand the links between
properties and performance and design advanced materials systems for
increasingly demanding applications. However, high temperature
nanomechanics is highly challenging experimentally and a high level of
instrument thermal stability is critical for reliable results. To achieve this
stability the NanoTest Vantage has been designed with (i) active heating of
the sample and the indenter (ii) horizontal loading to avoid convection at
the displacement sensor (iii) patented stage design and thermal control
method. By separately and actively heating and controlling the
temperatures of both the indenter and test sample there is minimal/no
thermal drift during the high temperature indentation and measurements
can be performed as reliably as at room temperature. Illustrative results
are presented for TiAlN, TiFeN, DLC and MAX-phase coatings. Above 500 °C
it is necessary to use Argon purging to limit oxidation of samples and the
diamond indenter, although the efficiency of this decreases over 750 °C. To
test at higher temperatures without indenter or sample oxidation an
ultra-low drift high temperature vacuum nanomechanics system (NanoTest
Xtreme) has been recently developed. Results with the vacuum system are
presented up to 950 °C.


An extended test-particle method is used to predict the inter- and intramolecular correlation functions of freely jointed hard-sphere-Yukawa-chain fluids by calculating the segmental density distributions around a fixed segment. The underlying density functional theory for chain fluids is based on a modified fundamental measure theory for the hard-sphere repulsive and a mean-field approximation for attraction between different segments. The calculated intra- and inter-molecular distribution functions agree well with the results from Monte Carlo simulations, better than those from alternative approaches.


Mobile communications services, which offer one way to realize the informed society of the 21st century, have developed rapidly worldwide. With the commercialization of CDMA 2000-1/spl times/ late in 2000, a high-speed wireless Internet, based on a mobile communication network, appeared in Korea. This will develop into the next-generation of mobile communications (4G) with faster transmission of increased volumes of data in the future. The new cell layout requires the cellular configuration of 4G and the services 4G have to offer a more universal mobile communication service and helps to reduce the digital divide. We would need legislation with respect to base stations and for building the mobile communication networks, as well as the optimization of mobile communication systems. In this study, in order to provide 4G, I examined and analyzed the current laws related to licensing and operating a mobile communication base station in Korea.


Average yearly expenditures on food in urban households remained constant between 1997 and 1998. In 1998, the typical household spent $1,773 per person versus $1,767 the previous year. Of this amount, $1,094 was spent on food consumed at home and $679 on food consumed away from home. In 1997, slightly more was spent on food at home, $1,126, and slightly less on food consumed away from home, $641. Detailed tabulations are presented for 133 food categories and 10 household socioeconomic characteristics for 1997 and 1998. The data are from the Consumer Expenditure Diary Surveys prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.


The patch-clamp technique enables the recording of bioelectrical signals in excitable and nonexcitable cells. At the molecular level, tight-seal, high resolution current recording from small membrane patches (∼10 μm2) allows real time monitoring of conformational transitions in single membrane channel proteins as they are gated open (or closed) by specific stimuli, including changes in membrane potential, membrane tension, and specific chemicals/neurotransmitters. Cell-free membrane patch recording allows characterisation of channels modulated by intracellular messengers (e.g., Ca2+, nucleotides, G-proteins and phospholipids). Tight-seal whole-cell recording can monitor action and synaptic potentials/currents generated by many channels. Furthermore, by using multiple patch pipettes to record at spatially and functionally distinct regions of a cell one can measure precisely the initiation and spread of potential within geometrically complex cells.

Key Concepts:

Patch pipette contact with a cell membrane followed by applied suction often results in an abrupt, all-or-none, tight seal of high electrical resistance (10–200 GΩ).

The remarkable features of the GΩ seal including its abrupt nature, mechanical strength and pH dependence are most consistent with a water-based mechanism of adhesion in which confined interfacial structured water 'glues' the glass and membrane surfaces tightly together.

Patch-clamp recording allows direct measurement of the ionic currents through individual membrane protein ion-selective channels.

With its high temporal (submillisecond) and current (subpicoampere) resolution, patch recording provides the unique opportunity to follow in real time the conformational transitions of single membrane channel proteins as they switch between different discrete conductance states.

Patch-clamp recording also allows the experimental control of the membrane patch potential via voltage-clamp, and the membrane patch tension via pressure-clamp, thereby permitting the characterisation of voltage- and mechanically gated membrane ion channels, respectively.

Single channel patch recording provides the gold standard for assay/identification of purified membrane protein channels reconstituted into liposomes and recombinant channels heterologously expressed in Xenopus oocytes or mammalian cell lines.

Cell-attached patch recording in the current-clamp mode can be used to monitor noninvasively dynamic changes in the cell's membrane potential (e.g. during synaptic transmission), although in the voltage-clamp mode it can be used to record and modify action potential firing patterns.

Cell-free patches, including inside-out and outside-out configurations, provide the unique opportunity to manipulate the ionic and biochemical environments at both membrane faces to characterise channel ion selectivity/conductance mechanisms and channel gating mechanisms mediated by specific intracellular 2nd messengers including Ca2+, nucleotides, proteins and phospholipids.

The ability to selectively record from specific subcellular regions of an individual cell (e.g. sensory receptor specialisations) has demonstrated the heterogeneous distribution of channels including both voltage- and mechanically gated channels.

Tight-seal, whole-cell recording can be used to monitor whole cell currents and potentials in cells too small (<10 μm in diameter) to be studied by sharp microelectrodes (e.g. blood cells and cerebellar granule cells) while at the same time dialyzing the cell with specific biochemicals or labelling dyes.

Using multiple patch pipettes to record whole cell potentials from spatially separate and functionally distinct cellular regions (e.g. dendrites, soma and the axonal hillock) one can measure with precise timing the initiation and forward and back propagation of action potentials (i.e. from the spike initiation zone) within geometrically complex cells.

Patch-clamp recording by revealing channel expression in cells from diverse tissues including epithelia, endothelia, glia, blood and most recently stem cells has provided insight into the diverse roles channels play in various physiological and developmental processes.

Patch recordings from pathological cells/tissues have revealed the role channels play in many disease states, 'channelopathies', including diabetes, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, cardiac arrhythmias and cancer.

Keywords:

patch clamp;
whole cell currents and potentials;
tight seal;
single membrane channel;
whole cell recording;
pressure clamp;
reconstituted channels;
mechanosensitive channels;
inside-out patch;
outside-out patch;
membrane delimited coupling


An iterative technique is described for solving for the current and field distributions in a structure composed of a periodic array of sheet conductors, deposited on a dielectric layered substrate, whether or not backed by a conductor. The incident field must be a plane wave but can be oblique. The periods array is taken into account by use of a Floquet mode field formalism, and an iterative method has been chosen that permits a numerical solution on personal computers by avoiding matrix inversions. >


It is becoming increasingly apparent that, in order to understand a range of socio-economic outcomes, research needs to be focused on a multi-dimensional approach that accounts for individual characteristics and behaviours together with locality and activity within space and place. Within labour market analysis there is a need to situate empirical analysis within a conceptual framework that considers both the assets of individuals within the labour force and the social and local labour market contexts in which they find themselves. Using a broad notion of employability, this paper develops an analysis of unemployment in Australia's metropolitan labour markets. Specifically it uses a combination of individual survey data and aggregate labour market data to consider the associations between these multi-level factors. It finds that, while individual characteristics are important in understanding unemployment in metropolitan areas, it is equally the case that the strength of spatially distinct labour markets also plays a role. The paper reaches the conclusion that, while contemporary labour market policy tends to focus on individual characteristics, there is a need to widen the policy understanding of labour market outcomes so that other broader contexts, including the impact of space and place, are also seen as being influential.


In this paper, the typical cold work die steel Cr12MoV was used as substrate material for vanadizing treatment. And the coating structure and bonding strength were studied. Moreover, comparison experiment of wear resistance between the coating and the substrate material was performed, and based on the experiment results, wear failure mechanism of vanadizing layer was analyzed. The results showed that vanadium carbide coating is dense, with fine grain structure and high bonding strength. These features help to improve the wear resistance of coatings. Comparision of wear performance between coating and substrate showed that vanadizing surface layer can significantly improve wear resistance of substrate material. Friction coefficient decreased from the 0.48 to 0.33 and wear weight loss decreased by 95%. Wear Failure analysis showed that the vanadium carbide layer of the wear mechanism is fatigue spalling wear.


Abstract Performance in health and human service networks requires mutual adjustment between participating organizations with different competencies. In this article the impact of group modes of interaction concerning administration and steering and direct service delivery upon different dimensions of network performance and client outcomes is tested in a sample of eighty-three local networks of refugee resettlement support in Sweden. The results show that networks with group modes of interaction concerning both issues generally perform best, but the effect varies across performance dimensions, is modified by availability of needed competence in the network and does not easily translate to client outcomes.


This dissertation is a study of violence against women (VAW) prevention, feminist public sociology, and social media. In the past decade, many sociologists have been working to debate and operationalize Michael Burawoy's call "For Public Sociology", which challenges academics to engage beyond the university to effect social change. At the same time that Burawoy's program has garnered much sociological attention, social media have become a central site of mass communication and core component of the public sphere more broadly. This research explores two questions through surveys and in-depth interviews as well as my own experiences with public sociology: (1) how do people working on VAW prevention use and experience social media? And (2) what is the role of feminist public sociology in preventing VAW?
My findings explore the benefits and challenges of social media for VAW prevention work and argue that these processes should be understood through the ecological model of VAW prevention that is widely used in offline prevention work. I find that participants primarily use Facebook and Twitter, and that their activities cluster around four broad goals: (1) information transmission to existing and new audiences; (2) conversational activism: shaping narratives around VAW; (3) feminism: shaping their own feminist identity as well as online feminism more broadly; and (4) preventing online VAW (e.g. online sexual harassment), a new form of VAW prevention that has garnered recent advocacy and emerging academic work.
My research contributes four theoretical conclusions to discussions of public sociology, of feminism, and of VAW prevention: first, converging disciplines and roles in social media means that there is a more pronounced need for knowledge translation to achieve social and institutional transformation. Second, VAW prevention in social media reveals a rapidly reflexive, increasingly intersectional feminism that prioritizes experiential knowledge and conversational activism online. Third, this feminism is incompatible with Burawoy's original four-part framework for sociology but can be reconciled using community-based scholarship principles and emerging feminist work. Finally, the emerging category of online sexual violence encapsulates emerging re-understandings of feminism, gender, and violence by presenting us with a present-day cyborg problem where offline/online dichotomies are increasingly obsolete.


A new cellulolytic, thermophilic species of the genus Clostridium isolated from camel feces, compost, soil, and a hot spring is described. The cells are strictly anaerobic, gram-negative, endospore-forming rods that are 0.4 to 0.7 μm wide and 2.0 to 8.0 μm long. The optimum growth temperature is about 60°C. Cellulose, cellobiose, and a wide variety of carbohydrates are fermented, and the major fermentation products are carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ethanol, and acetic, butyric, and lactic acids. Hydrogen sulfide also is produced. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the deoxyribonucleic acid is 36.7 to 37.8 mol%. The name Clostridium thermocopriae sp. nov. is proposed for this species; the type strain is strain JT3-3 (= IAM 13577).