Amending municipal solid waste incineration with carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a new approach that can reduce the climate change impacts of waste incineration. This study provides a detailed analysis of the consequences of amending the new Amager Bakke incinerator in Copenhagen (capacity: 600,000 tonnes waste per year) with CCS as a post-combustion technology. Emphasis is on the changes in the energy flows and outputs as well as the environmental performance of the plant; the latter is assessed by life cycle assessment. Amending Amager Bakke with CCS of the chosen configuration reduces the electricity output by 50% due to steam use by the capture unit, but introducing post-capture flue gas condensation increases the heat output utilized in the Copenhagen district heating system by 20%. Thus, the overall net energy efficiency is not affected. The CCS amendment reduces the fossil CO2 emissions to 40 kg CO2 per tonne of incinerated waste and stores 530 kg biogenic CO2 per tonne of incinerated waste. Potential developments in the composition of the residual waste incinerated or in the energy systems that Amager Bakke interacts with, do not question the benefits of the CCS amendment. In terms of climate change impacts, considering different waste composition and energy system scenarios, introducing CCS reduces in average the impact of Amager Bakke by 850 kg CO2-equivalents per tonne of incinerated waste. CCS increases the environmental impacts in other categories, but not in the same order of magnitude as the savings introduced within climate change.


The chemical composition of the Sun is an essential piece of reference data for astronomy, cosmology, astroparticle, space and geophysics: elemental abundances of essentially all astronomical objects are referenced to the solar composition, and basically every process involving the Sun depends on its composition. This article, dealing with the intermediate-mass elements Na to Ca, is the first in a series describing the comprehensive re-determination of the solar composition. In this series we severely scrutinise all ingredients of the analysis across all elements, to obtain the most accurate, homogeneous and reliable results possible. We employ a highly realistic 3D hydrodynamic model of the solar photosphere, which has successfully passed an arsenal of observational diagnostics. For comparison, and to quantify remaining systematic errors, we repeat the analysis using three different 1D hydrostatic model atmospheres (marcs, miss and Holweger & Muller 1974, Sol. Phys., 39, 19) and a horizontally and temporally-averaged version of the 3D model (〈3D〉). We account for departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) wherever possible. We have scoured the literature for the best possible input data, carefully assessing transition probabilities, hyperfine splitting, partition functions and other data for inclusion in the analysis. We have put the lines we use through a very stringent quality check in terms of their observed profiles and atomic data, and discarded all that we suspect to be blended. Our final recommended 3D+NLTE abundances are: log e = 6:21 ± 0:04, log e = 7:59 ± 0:04, log e = 6:43 ± 0:04, log e = 7:51 ± 0:03, log e = 5:41 ± 0:03, log e = 7:13 ± 0:03, log e = 5:04 ± 0:05 and log e = 6:32 ± 0:03. The uncertainties include both statistical and systematic errors. Our results are systematically smaller than most previous ones with the 1D semi-empirical Holweger & Muller model, whereas the 〈3D〉 model returns abundances very similar to the full 3D calculations. This analysis provides a complete description and a slight update of the results presented in Asplund et al. (2009, ARA&A, 47, 481) for Na to Ca, and includes full details of all lines and input data used.


With the advances in affordable three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, 3D reconstruction and patient-specific 3D printed models are establishing a crucial role in the field of medicine for both educational purposes and procedural planning. 3D printed models provide physicians with increased 3D perception and tactile feedback, and enable a team-based approach to operational planning. However, performing an effective 3D reconstruction requires an in-depth understanding of the software features to accurately segment and reconstruct the human anatomy of interest from preacquired image data from multiple modalities such as computer tomography, 3D angiography and magnetic resonance imaging, and the different 3D printers/materials available in the market today. Increased understanding of this technology may benefit radiologists by developing techniques and tricks specific to interventional radiology and establishing a criterion to determine when to use these. Thus, the purpose of this manuscript is to provide physicians with an update on currently available 3D reconstruction software as well as printers and materials. Our initial experience using this technology is introduced based on a specific case of developing a 3D printed aorta for a patient with severe stenosis of the abdominal aorta.


This paper presents a method for determining the signatures of electrical faults in the airgap force distribution and vibration pattern of induction machines. The monitoring of faults is achieved through measurement of the vibrations of the stator frame. The radial electromagnetic force distribution along the airgap, which is the main source of vibration, is calculated and developed into double Fourier series in space and time. Finite element simulations of faulty and healthy machines are performed; they show that the electromagnetic force distribution is a sensible parameter to the changes in the machine condition. The computations show the existence of low-frequency and low-order force distributions acting on the stator of the electrical machine when it is working under fault conditions. The simulation results are corroborated by vibration measurements on an induction motor with implemented broken bars and an inter-turn short circuit. The measurements and simulations show that low-frequency components of the vibrations can be used as identifiable signatures for condition monitoring of induction motors. The determination of the vibration frequency corresponding to a given electric fault in a given machine can be achieved through numerical simulations of the magnetic field and electromagnetic forces in the cross-section of the machine, without need for complex structural analysis.


After attending this presentation, attendees will understand the
principles of forensic mRNA analysis and learn how it may be used as a
method to determine the age of biological stains found at crime scenes.
This presentation will impact the forensic science community by
proposing a novel method for determining the age of biological stains. The
proposed method could prove crucial for forensic casework and could run
parallel to the predominant DNA analysis method. Where DNA analysis is
used to identify a suspect, mRNA analysis could be used to determine the age
of biological stains, that in turn could place the suspect at the scene of a crime
at a specific time.
RNA has been presumed to be very unstable, as one of its features is that
it degrades rapidly as it is broken down by ribonucleases. In previous
literature however; it has been shown that RNA may be extracted from
biological stains up to 16-years-old. For stain age determination, it has been
suggested that using a decay rate ratio, derived from two endogenous controls
differentially expressed within the body fluid stain, should eliminate the
effect of any external decomposition factors. This should then be expressed
as a linear change in mRNA expression over time.
The majority of previous research concentrates on determining the age
of bloodstains. In this study, blood and saliva stains were used. The goal of
the study was to try to determine the age of these biological stains by isolating
mRNA and quantifying the expression of housekeeping genes 18s, GAPDH,
and ACTB also known as β-Actin. This study aims to demonstrate proof of
principle and explore any limitations to a decay rate ratio, to see if there is any
correlation between the age of a stain and the amount of genetic material
present. Blood andsaliva samples havebeencollected ona regular basis overthe
past two years. Bloodstains were prepared using the finger prick method and
depositing blood on to a sterile filter paper. Saliva stains were prepared by
swabbing the inside of the cheek with a buccal swab. All samples were taken
from healthy individuals. The samples were stored at room temperature and
protected from sunlight. Both blood and saliva samples were extracted using
Qiagen RNeasy Mini Kit with the appropriate modifications for each body
fluid. The extracted samples then underwent RNA quantitation, DNase
digestion, and reverse transcription using M-MLV reverse transcriptase and
random hexamers. The resulting complimentary DNA (cDNA) was then
quantified using absolute quantitation on a 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR
System, using pre-designed Taqman Gene Expression Assays for human
housekeeping genes 18s, GAPDH, and ACTB (β-Actin). Only two
housekeeping genes were run together at one time, this was to compare the
differences between all three, for example the decay rate ratio between 18s
and GAPDH as well as 18s with ACTB and then GAPDH with ACTB. The
two values from quantifying the two housekeeping genes were then
expressed as a ratio. The proof of principle would be demonstrated by a
linear downward expression of the two genes over time.
The results from initial experiments show that mRNA can be extracted
from stains up to two years old. Further experiments are being carried out to
obtain enough data to determine the proof of principle.
Future work will involve optimising the protocols and identifying the
shortest stain age per body fluid as well as exploring the use of more
housekeeping genes. With bloodstains being the current focus in most of the
literature, experiments will be carried out to determine the expression levels
of human housekeeping genes in semen to see if it is possible to identify the
time of deposition. Identifying the time a semen stain was deposited in a
sexual offence case could prove to be vital when trying to convict or
exonerate an individual.


Abstract: Based on the Miner′s linear accumulative damage theory and the low cycle fatigue damage parameter that is relative to the total strain amplitude and the mean stress of the plastic zone near crack tip, a new numerical simulation method to predict the fatigue crack growth (FCG) of materials is presented. The numerical FCG results for middle-cracked tension (MT) specimens of Cr2Ni2MoV steel, TA12 and TC4 alloys by ANSYS are closed to those by tests. Therefore, the new method has capability to give good FCG prediction accuracy for different materials. Furthermore, the Paris FCG models of TA17 and TC11 alloys were predicted by this method and can be referred to the key engineerings.


Transplant recipients, which receive therapeutic immunosuppression to prevent graft rejection, are characterized by high COVID-19-related mortality and defective response to vaccines. Having observed that previous infection by SARS-CoV-2 but not the standard 2 doses scheme of vaccination, provided complete protection against COVID-19 to transplant recipients, we undertook this translational study to compare the cellular and humoral immune responses of these 2 groups of patients. Neutralizing anti-Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) IgG were identified as the critical immune effectors associated with protection. Generation of anti-RBD IgG was dependent upon spike-specific T follicular helper (Tfh) CD4+ T cells, which acted as limiting checkpoint. Tfh generation was impeded by high dose mycophenolate mofetil in non-responders to vaccine but not in infected patients, suggesting that increasing immunogenicity of vaccine could improve response rate to mRNA vaccine. This theory was validated in two independent prospective cohorts, in which administration of a 3rd dose of vaccine resulted in the generation of anti-RBD IgG in half of non-responders to 2 doses.


Somatic stem cells possess unique properties of self-renewal and plasticity which make them promising candidates for use in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, in addition to serving as efficient delivery vehicles in site-specific therapy. In the case of therapeutic application, it is essential to isolate and culture stem cells in vitro, to obtain them in sufficient quantities. Although long-term cultivation provides an adequate number of cells, it has been shown that this approach is associated with increased risk of transformation of cultured cells, which presents a significant biological hazard. This article reviews information about biological features and cellular events which occur during long-term cultivation of somatic stem cells, with respect to their safe utilization in potential clinical practice.


Although 9.4 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been tested in healthy volunteers, its safety in diabetic patients is unclear. Furthermore, the effects of high static magnetic fields (SMFs), especially gradient vs. uniform fields, have not been investigated in diabetics. Here, we investigated the consequences of exposure to 1.0–9.4 T high SMFs of different gradients (>10 T/m vs. 0–10 T/m) on type 1 diabetic (T1D) and type 2 diabetic (T2D) mice. We found that 14 h of prolonged treatment of gradient (as high as 55.5 T/m) high SMFs (1.0–8.6 T) had negative effects on T1D and T2D mice, including spleen, hepatic, and renal tissue impairment and elevated glycosylated serum protein, blood glucose, inflammation, and anxiety, while 9.4 T quasi-uniform SMFs at 0–10 T/m did not induce the same effects. In regular T1D mice (blood glucose ≥16.7 mmol/L), the >10 T/m gradient high SMFs increased malondialdehyde (P<0.01) and decreased superoxide dismutase (P<0.05). However, in the severe T1D mice (blood glucose ≥30.0 mmol/L), the >10 T/m gradient high SMFs significantly increased tissue damage and reduced survival rate. In vitro cellular studies showed that gradient high SMFs increased cellular reactive oxygen species and apoptosis and reduced MS-1 cell number and proliferation. Therefore, this study showed that prolonged exposure to high-field (1.0–8.6 T) >10 T/m gradient SMFs (35–1 380 times higher than that of current clinical MRI) can have negative effects on diabetic mice, especially mice with severe T1D, whereas 9.4 T high SMFs at 0–10 T/m did not produce the same effects, providing important information for the future development and clinical application of SMFs, especially high-field MRI.


ABSTRACT Taking the Tibetan Plateau (TP) as a study area, we developed an algorithm to generate long-term four-level snow disaster products (1982–2012) using a new daily snow depth product with a spatial resolution of 0.05° using AVHRR archival reflectance products (AVH09C1-version4) from Land Long-Term Data Record and passive microwave snow depth products. The total classification agreement of our products reached 83.6%, improved from 69.1%. R-square reached 0.62, which showed a good agreement with field data. Based on the products, we obtained annual snow disaster results during 1982–2012. The results indicated that in 1983, 1985, 1997, 1998 and 2008, a large part of the TP suffered extremely severe snow disaster. The annual variation of light and moderate snow disaster areas is much stable than severe and extremely severe areas. After 1999, annual extremely severe areas are more stable and smaller than before. Some areas suffered severe snow disaster in 1985, 1997 and 1998, while in other years they presented a normal status. A large part of the middle-east TP suffered extremely severe snow disaster almost every year. The information within population-filtered counties was extracted to support the development of the husbandry and the urban and rural planning for government.


The cochlea encodes sound pressures varying over six orders of magnitude by collective operation of functionally diverse spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). The mechanisms enabling this functional diversity remain elusive. Here, we asked whether the sound intensity information, contained in the receptor potential of the presynaptic inner hair cell (IHC), is fractionated via heterogeneous synapses. We studied the transfer function of individual IHC synapses by combining patch‐clamp recordings with dual‐color Rhod‐FF and iGluSnFR imaging of presynaptic Ca2+ signals and glutamate release. Synapses differed in the voltage dependence of release: Those residing at the IHC' pillar side activated at more hyperpolarized potentials and typically showed tight control of release by few Ca2+ channels. We conclude that heterogeneity of voltage dependence and release site coupling of Ca2+ channels among the synapses varies synaptic transfer within individual IHCs and, thereby, likely contributes to the functional diversity of SGNs. The mechanism reported here might serve sensory cells and neurons more generally to diversify signaling even in close‐by synapses.


While trait positive emotionality and state positive-valence affect have long been the subject of intense study, the importance of differentiating among several "discrete" positive emotions has only recently begun to receive serious attention. In this article, we synthesize existing literature on positive emotion differentiation, proposing that the positive emotions are best described as branches of a "family tree" emerging from a common ancestor mediating adaptive management of fitness-critical resources (e.g., food). Examples are presented of research indicating the importance of differentiating several positive emotion constructs. We then offer a new theoretical framework, built upon a foundation of phylogenetic, neuroscience, and behavioral evidence, that accounts for core features as well as mechanisms for differentiation. We propose several directions for future research suggested by this framework and develop implications for the application of positive emotion research to translational issues in clinical psychology and the science of behavior change.


The availability of cochlear implant technology has made mainstreaming a more reachable social and academic goal for profoundly deaf children. Traditionally, the profoundly deaf child has required more self-contained education. It has been the hard-of-hearing child who reached the mainstream education classroom during the elementary years. Cochlear implant recipients, implanted early and receiving appropriate educational services that maximize learning across all domains, have shown a significant trend toward moving from a more self-contained to a less restrictive educational environment. Children with implants are making these transitions earlier than the larger majority of profoundly deaf children using traditional amplification.


Eighty-five male patients with acute myocardial infarction, pulmonary infraction, congestive heart failure, phlebitis, and cerebral and peripheral emboli were treated with warfarin to observe the clinical effects and the results of long-term therapy. The effect of warfarin was evaluated in terms of both "optimal" and "suboptimal" prothrombin depression (2 to 2 1/2 times and 1 1/2 to 2 times of control respectively). Warfarin is the only available anticoagulant which is clinically administered in terms of milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Administration of 0.75 to 1 mg. per kilogram induces a prompt therapeutic hypothrombinemia in the vast majority of patients. The maintenance effects of warfarin, observed in half of the patients for more than four weeks, are relatively predictable, consistent, and safe.


Realistic environments for motion planning problems typically consist of multiple areas, e.g., in a house there are rooms, hallways, and doorways. Decomposition of the environment into smaller areas, or regions, has been shown to impact the quality of planning for adaptive methods. Also other complex problems, such as planning for groups of agents with environmental preferences, can be aided with automated region identification. However, despite the advantages of regions, automatic region identification is not always easy, inexpensive, or consistent. In this paper we explore and compare three methods of automatic region identification and quantify the effects of the resulting regions on planning. The three strategies used for region identification are the statistical methods: k-means clustering, PG-means clustering, and Hierarchical clustering. First, we explore the differences in the regions produced by these three methods in a variety of rigid body and articulated linkage environments. Then, we quantitatively compare the usefulness of the region methods in automated motion planning through the application of the regions within the Unsupervised Adaptive Strategy for Motion Planning (UAS). Our results indicate both regions that seem intuitive and non-intuitive to the problems solve motion planning problems with increased efficiency and automation. That is, we found that planning generally benefitted from using regions, and the benefit was not tied to the naturalness of the region.


In most practical situations, for multi-component non-ideal complex plasma mixtures in pressure-temperature (P-T) phase space, the problem of solving the system of coupled nonlinear Saha equations subjected to the constraints of electro-neutrality and conservation of nuclei is found to be effectively a one-dimensional nonlinear problem, i.e. solving a single transcendental equation. Computation of ionization stages and partition functions in the P-T phase space is particularly important for non-ideal plasmas generated in devices in which pressure is a reliably measurable parameter while it is difficult to measure the number density of heavy particles. The methodology and algorithm presented herein are based on deriving an equivalent single transcendental equation, for which the solution is eminently trivial. The algorithm takes into account different practical models for non-ideality corrections (lowering of ionization potentials, truncation of partition functions and a corrected equation of state). The ease and efficiency of the introduced algorithm allows, with significant simplicity, the computations of population densities of all plasma species (ionized and excited) up to maximum ionization states equal to the atomic numbers of the involved elements with minimal computational work. It also considers an extensive database of energy levels of the excited states. The algorithm presented herein is analytically known to be safe, fast and efficient. It shows no numerical instabilities, no convergence problems and no accuracy limitations or lack of change ploblems, which have been reported in the literature. A couple of non-trivial problems are worked out and presented herein showing the effectiveness of the present methodology. For completeness, a criterion for the validity of the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) is applied to the results from the sample problems, showing the regions of the pressure-temperature phase space over which the assumption is valid.


In this paper, the multi blade centrifugal fan parameter CAD/CFD was developed. Before treatment with the traditional design method as the foundation, use AutoCAD as development of the embedded language. The work of this regulation to establish a set of more perfect design and optimization program of axial flow fan in air, improve its economy, and provided a shortcut for energy saving and noise reduction of multi blade centrifugal machine. Also in the establishment and the simplification of complex models, mesh generation, calculation and other aspects of the use of the model to do some beneficial exploration, hoping to provide reference of the similar simulation numerical type. Influence on the performance of multi blade centrifugal fan impeller is the largest parameters such as the blade outlet angle, inlet angle and blade number. As the numerical simulation application in modern design method, in order to improve the performance of pressure air fan as the optimization objective, the optimization of the fan, the fan impeller optimization parameters more reasonable flow field distribution, air pressure with better performance is obtained, and the formula to determine the recommended number of leaves.


Summary
Perhaps no other pair of variables in ecology has generated as much discussion as species richness and ecosystem productivity, as illustrated by the reactions by Pierce (2013) and others to Adler et al.'s (2011) report that empirical patterns are weak and inconsistent. Adler et al. (2011) argued we need to move beyond a focus on simplistic bivariate relationships and test mechanistic, multivariate causal hypotheses. We feel the continuing debate over productivity–richness relationships (PRRs) provides a focused context for illustrating the fundamental difficulties of using bivariate relationships to gain scientific understanding.
Pierce (2013) disputes Adler et al.'s (2011) conclusion that bivariate productivity–richness relationships (PRRs) are 'weak and variable'. He argues, instead, that relationships in the Adler et al. data are actually strong and, further, that failure to adhere to the humped-back model (HBM; sensu Grime 1979) threatens scientists' ability to advise conservationists. Here, we show that Pierce's reanalyses are invalid, that statistically significant boundary relations in the Adler et al. data are difficult to detect when proper methods are used and that his advice neither advances scientific understanding nor provides the quantitative forecasts actually needed by decision makers.
We begin by examining Grimes' HBM through the lens of causal networks. We first translate the ideas contained in the HBM into a causal diagram, which shows explicitly how multiple processes are hypothesized to control biomass production and richness and their interrelationship. We then evaluate the causal diagram using structural equation modelling and example data from a published study of meadows in Finland. Formal analysis rejects the literal translation of the HBM and reveals additional processes at work. This exercise shows how the practice of abstracting systems as causal networks (i) clarifies possible hypotheses, (ii) permits explicit testing and (iii) provides more powerful and useful predictions.
Building on the Finnish meadow example, we contrast the utility of bivariate plots compared with structural equation models for investigating underlying processes. Simulations illustrate the fallibility of bivariate analysis as a means of supporting one theory over another, while models based on causal networks can quantify the sensitivity of diversity patterns to both management and natural constraints.
A key piece of Pierce's critique of Adler et al.'s conclusions relies on upper boundary regression which he claims to reveal strong relationships between production and richness in Adler et al.'s original data. We demonstrate that this technique shows strong associations in purely random data and is invalid for Adler et al.'s data because it depends on a uniform data distribution. We instead perform quantile regression on both the site-level summaries of the data and the plot-level data (using mixed-model quantile regression). Using a variety of nonlinear curve-fitting approaches, we were unable to detect a significant humped-shape boundary in the Adler et al. data. We reiterate that the bivariate productivity–richness relationships in Adler et al.'s data are weak and variable.
We urge ecologists to consider productivity–richness relationships through the lens of causal networks to advance our understanding beyond bivariate analysis. Further, we emphasize that models based on a causal network conceptualization can also provide more meaningful guidance for conservation management than can a bivariate perspective. Measuring only two variables does not permit the evaluation of complex ideas nor resolve debates about underlying mechanisms.


In this paper, a neural network structure based on self organizing feature maps (SOFM) is proposed for fingerprint classification. In order to be able to deal with fingerprint images having distorted regions, the SOFM learning and classification algorithms are modified. For this purpose, the concept of "certainty" is introduced and used in the modified algorithms. This fingerprint classifier together with a fingerprint identifier, constitute subsystems of an automated fingerprint identification system, named HALafis. Our results show that a network that is trained with a sufficiently large and representative set of samples can be used as an indexing mechanism for a fingerprint database, so that it does not need to be retrained for each fingerprint added to the database.


The green presetting of powders was performed on the substrate by introducing a novel technique namely squash presetting method, and cladding coatings were prepared by crosscurrent CO2 laser in this work. Based on the concept of laser energy efficiency which being accepted generally by insider, the energy efficiency of squash presetting laser cladding was determined. Meanwhile, effects of processing parameters including specific energy, laser power, scanning speed and spot diameter on energy efficiency were investigated through an orthogonal test. The results show that the energy efficiency increases at first and then decreases with the increase of specific energy, and the energy efficiency is relatively higher when laser specific energy ranged from 90 J/mm2 to100 J/mm2. Among three single-factors, the effects of spot diameter on energy efficiency are most significant, laser power takes second place, and scanning speed comes next. It is considered through analysis that the relationship between energy efficiency and processing parameters is closely related to powders melting and heat-conduction course of squash presetting laser cladding.


Continuing advances in digital subscriber line technology are making it possible to transport 1.5 Mb/s over the nonloaded copper loop plant, 3 to 4 Mb/ s over carrier serving area loops, and above 10 Mb/s over drop wiring from fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) systems. These bit rates allow the local exchange carriers to enter the video dial tone market using highly compressed digital video. Initially, all copper access techniques can be used. One channel of VCR quality video can be provided over the nonleaded loop plant, to about 75% of homes. NTSC quality video or two channels of VCR quality video can be delivered over carrier-serving areas to about 55% of homes. With time, the penetration of fiber into the feeder network will increase the number of customers who can receive the latter service. The establishment of a successful video dial tone offering using copper technologies should fuel demand for enhanced quality and additional channels, further accelerating deployment of fiber in the feeder and distribution networks. >


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an acute breathing disorder, which causes soft tissue inside the throat to collapse, thus blocking the airways while sleeping. This syndrome is usually treated by the supply of pressurized air delivered by a pump, which is connected to the patient via mouth and/or nose using a mask as an interface. While most of the literature on OSA is focused on the pressure pump and the therapy conditions (pressure, humidity, velocity, etc.) there has been an increased interest in the mask/interface as a key contributing factor to the treatment's effectiveness. Mask-related issues such as skin damage, allergic reactions, or air leaking due to poor fit can deter OSA patients from following this treatment. This study presents a preliminary evaluation of customized mask designs, which are tailored to specific wearer's facial contours. The development process includes the use of three-dimensional scanning/modeling/printing as an integrated workflow. Individual facial features have been digitally acquired and used to generate a custom device, which conforms to predefined facial landmarks of interest, which delimit the mask contour. A trial study was undertaken by recruiting two healthy volunteers for the fit and comfort evaluation of custom mask designs using a randomized fit test with a series of three-dimensional (3D) printed versus commercial standard mask. Results indicate that custom masks exhibit a higher level of comfort compared to conventional continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) masks particularly on fit, contact pressure and comfort.


Three important issues surround testing for a unit root in practice: uncertainty as to whether or not a linear deterministic trend is present in the data; uncertainty as to whether the initial condition of the process is (asymptotically) negligible or not, and the possible presence of nonstationary volatility in the data. Assuming homoskedasticity, Harvey, Leybourne, and Taylor (2011, Journal of Econometrics, forthcoming) propose decision rules based on a four-way union of rejections of quasi-differenced (QD) and ordinary least squares (OLS) detrended tests, both with and without a linear trend, to deal with the first two problems. In this paper we first discuss, again under homoskedasticity, how these union tests may be validly bootstrapped using the sieve bootstrap principle combined with either the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) or wild bootstrap resampling schemes. This serves to highlight the complications that arise when attempting to bootstrap the union tests. We then demonstrate that in the presence of nonstationary volatility the union test statistics have limit distributions that depend on the form of the volatility process, making tests based on the standard asymptotic critical values or, indeed, the i.i.d. bootstrap principle invalid. We show that wild bootstrap union tests are, however, asymptotically valid in the presence of nonstationary volatility. The wild bootstrap union tests therefore allow for a joint treatment of all three of the aforementioned issues in practice.


Previous studies investigating long-term outcomes in children following vitamin B12 deficiency during infancy have been limited to IQ or clinical observation. This paper seeks to describe comprehensive neuropsychological profiles in a case series of school-aged children who were treated for infantile vitamin B12 deficiency. This was a retrospective case series of seven children who were treated for vitamin B12 deficiency during infancy and aged 5 to 16 years at the time of testing. While most children had age-expected intellectual performance, the distribution of the sample was skewed to the lower end of the normal range. Furthermore, children were found to have impairments in a number of neuropsychological domains, most common were attention and memory, followed by executive function. These results suggest that while neurological symptoms quickly resolve following treatment, these effects on early brain development may disrupt brain maturation and have the potential to impact on later development.


The multi-agent systems approach promises significant benefits to distributed systems engineering, such as enhanced interoperability, scalability, and reconfigurability. Moreover, the teamwork of multiple agents can unite the capabilities of individual agents to solve problems of greater complexity than those solved by the individual agents. This paper presents a framework for effective teamwork of BDI (Belief-Desire-Intention)-based agents. The framework is built on JAM derived from PRS (Procedural Reasoning System), which is an intelligent agent architecture based on BDI theories. The framework extends the single agent capabilities of JAM and creates a teamwork infrastructure to effectively unite multiple agents' capabilities to solve problems collaboratively.


There have been three basic approaches to vaccine development: inactivated, live attenuated, and purified cell component vaccines. With rare exception, inactivated vaccines have proved disappointing. Because men and animals recovering from naturally occurring diseases are resistant to rechallenge, the effectiveness of live vaccines was thought promising. However, the only live mycoplasma vaccine effective under field trial conditions is that prepared from Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides for prevention of bovine pleuropneumonia. Because of this, investigators have searched for the active, protective antigens (immunogens) responsible for exciting the optimal immune parameters responsible for protection. Generally, the toxic and virulent components of the pathogen are the protective antigens, because the host must defend itself against these noxious, tissue-damaging components. The major virulence factors of M. pneumoniae are probably the attachment, ciliotoxic, mitogenic and possibly protease components. Preventing attachment may prevent disease; preventing tissue damage may reduce severity of disease. Although the metabolism inhibition antibodies inhibit growth, are opsonic and mycoplasmacidal, they are probably not involved in protection, but rather in resolution of disease. A protein extract containing attachment, ciliotoxic, mitogenic and peptidase activity was shown to protect hamsters from challenge with virulent M. pneumoniae when given first i.p. and then intratracheally. Because mycoplasma disease suppresses T-helper cells and causes nonspecific activation of B cells, future vaccines must be free of such activity. They must protect without stimulating untoward reactions or adverse immunologic responses.


In 2006 NVIDIA introduced a new unified GPU architecture facilitating general-purpose computation on the GPU. The following year NVIDIA introduced CUDA, a parallel programming architecture for developing general purpose applications for direct execution on the new unified GPU. CUDA exposes the GPU's massively parallel architecture of the GPU so that parallel code can be written to execute much faster than its sequential counterpart. Although CUDA abstracts the underlying architecture, fully utilising and scheduling the GPU is non-trivial and has given rise to a new active area of research. Due to the inherent complexities pertaining to GPU development, in this thesis we explore and find efficient parallel mappings of existing and new parallel algorithms on the GPU using NVIDIA CUDA. We place particular emphasis on metaheuristics, image processing and designing reusable techniques and mappings that can be applied to other problems and domains.

We begin by focusing on Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO), a nature inspired heuristic approach for solving optimisation problems. We present a versatile improved data-parallel approach for solving the Travelling Salesman Problem using ACO resulting in significant speedups. By extending our initial work, we show how existing mappings of ACO on the GPU are unable to compete against their sequential counterpart when common CPU optimisation strategies are employed and detail three distinct candidate set parallelisation strategies for execution on the GPU. By further extending our data-parallel approach we present the first implementation of an ACO-based edge detection algorithm on the GPU to reduce the execution time and improve the viability of ACO-based edge detection. We finish by presenting a new color edge detection technique using the volume of a pixel in the HSI color space along with a parallel GPU implementation that is able to withstand greater levels of noise than existing algorithms.


This Letter presents benchmark results for the transition-state geometry and classical barrier height for the hydrogen atom abstraction from phenol by an organic peroxyl radical. We use multireference Moller–Plesset perturbation theory (MRMP2) based on a complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) wave function with a previously defined well-balanced nom-CPO+π active space and a triple-ζ one-electron basis set for the benchmark calculations, including full geometry optimization of the saddle point at the MRMP2 level. The classical barrier height for the abstraction reaction by the methylperoxyl radical is found to be 7.4 kcal/mol. A variety of density functionals are tested for their ability to reproduce the benchmark calculations for this reaction to provide guidance for selecting a reliable density functional in future calculations of larger systems involving phenolic antioxidants. The best-performing density functional is M05, and other functionals with above-average performance (for both tran...


Climate change can be seen all over the world. In the Nordic countries, we have experienced warmer winters, stronger storms and greater precipitation, especially heavier rainfalls. Management of, and planning for, larger quantities of water, as well as adaptation of our territorial structures to climate changes are on everybody's agenda. This Working Paper reflects a Nordic seminar, Adaptive Urban Planning Challenged by Changing Climate (Stadsplaneringens utmaningar i ett forandrat klimat), hosted by Nordregio in Stockholm on June, 8, 2011. The seminar was initiated by the Working Group for exchange of experience and knowledge development (Urban Policies) under the Nordic Council of Ministers. The purpose of the seminar was to create dialogue among Nordic practitioners responsible for physical planning and adaptation to climate change at different administrative levels. Further, the aim was to share knowledge among the Nordic countries concerning challenges and needs for new planning instruments at the local, regional and national level. The main message from the seminar, presented in this Nordregio Working Paper, is that planning for adaptation to larger precipitation calls for cooperation of authorities within the drainage area. In many cases, climate adaptation concerns a geographical area different from the one delimited by the borders of municipalities or regions. Thus, cooperation in planning across the boundaries of municipalities is needed, as is cooperation between relevant municipal and regional authorities. The geography of the solutions should match the geography of the challenges. Cooperation also involves different levels of government. Coordination between local, regional and national policies is often necessary and should be done, respecting the tasks and duties of the various levels. The&nbspWorking Group for exchange of experience and knowledge development (Urban Policies) recommends all stakeholders to consider how such processes of cooperation could be promoted.


Abstract Purpose: Our study focuses on elucidating if two common inflammatory biomarkers, easily performed in any laboratory - high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), as well as fibrinogen - could be used to assess the personal health risk of workers exposed to a complex occupational exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) and a mixture of organic solvents. Methods: To assess the inflammatory response on the body, laboratory determinations were performed by testing the serum levels of hsCRP and fibrinogen, in exposed and unexposed groups. Results: There are no statistically significant differences for hsCRPs (p-0.25), medians were similar in groups. The mean values of fibrinogen in the three groups were: in the workers group (1st group): 346.2 mg/dl, in the office staff group (2nd group): 328.7 mg/dl, and in the control group (3rd group): 284.8 mg/dl, with significant differences between 1st group vs 3rd group and between 2nd group vs 3rd group (p-0.002). UFP levels differ between the groups, as follows: 1st group were exposed to the highest levels, ranging from 48349 to 3404000 part/cm3; 2nd group, ranging from 17371 to 40595 part/cm3; and 3rd group, ranging from 213 to 16255 part/cm3. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that fibrinogen is a useful inflammatory biomarker for exposure to a mixture of UFP and organic solvents. On the other hand, hsCRP is not a useful inflammatory biomarker in occupational exposure to UFP and organic solvents. Further studies are needed to demonstrate the extent to which fibrinogen is more or less influenced by organic solvents or UFP alone.


Friendships are widely considered to be an essential part of life in college and beyond. The existing literature on college friendships, academic achievement, and student attrition is mixed, which may occur as a result of varying ways of defining friendship. This study adds to an understanding of these dynamics by examining both the number of close campus friends as well as the emotional connection students have with these friends within a large, multi-institutional sample. Multilevel analyses found that both of these attributes of campus friendships are positively and significantly related to six-year graduation rate, whereas only the number of close campus friends significantly predicts college grade point average.


This paper provides an approach to extracting geometrical variations in nominally identical devices fabricated in close proximity to each other. The method assumes correlations between factors can be neglected. With this assumption, it is shown that geometrical variations are significant, and any study of microscopic variations, such as dopant fluctuations, must first strip away these macroscopic geometrical variations. We assess the gate length L and width W dependence of threshold voltage (V/sub T/) variations. Related geometrical variations, namely corner influences where the source and drain encounter the isolation edges are examined, and incorporated in the model. Results from the model are compared to measurements at small dimensions. The differences provide lower bounds for excess variations other than these geometrical contributions. Our study shows that these other variations account for almost half the total V/sub T/ variance at the smallest device size fabricated, demonstrating the seriousness of these other variations when scaling down devices.


The Souapiti dam project on the Konkoure in Guinea is a 130 m high earthfill dam. The development includes a free sill spillway and two provisional diversion tunnels to be used on completion of the dam as outlets for the reservoir. 1. The spillway The facility will have a maximum discharge of 4500 m3/sec under a total head of 120 m. It is called on to operate on average two months a year. These conditions have made the development of the appropriate construction measures necessary, in order to avoid the risk of occurence of cavitation phenomena on the concrete, especially : - large 80 m chute, to reduce the specific flows and thicknesses of throughflows to low values and facilitate fast self aeration of the latter. - two deflector systems associated with air levels aerating the throughflows in the neighbourhood of the apron are installed on the chute, in a zone in which the average rate of through flow is of the order of 30 m/sec. Two hydraulic scale-models have been used to design the layout of the facility : - a 1/100 scale-model to study the spillway as a unit. - a 1/20 scak-model to define the deflector systems for the aeration of throughflows. 2. Drainage-levels of the reservoir The two lower provisional diversion tunnels, coated diameter 10.6 m, are conveneniently equiped for ultimate use as bottom outlets. Each outlet, which can absorb a maximum rate of flow of 500 m3/sec, has the following layout : - upstream, the guard and regulating gate control tower. As the gates are top articulated, their maximum working head is limited to 83 m, - the lower diversion tunnel is connected via a 6 m diameter gallery and then by a torus of the same diameter as the diversion tunnels. Flows are well aerated in these sections. Two narrows of 40 m2 cross section installed in each diversion tunnel ensure that they are fed by formation of a jump upstream. This layout ensures low speeds, of the order of 7 m/sec, at the downstream outlet ; - two chambers immediately upstream from each of the narrows deacrate the throughflows. The principle of this design is based on earlier experimental results obtained using a 3: 200 scale-model in very similar operating conditions. A new model will nevertheless be necessary to check and perfect the new layouts envisaged.


1. The lower regions of the stem of celery (Apium graveolens L.) contain a soluble enzyme that hydrolyses phosphatidylinositol. 2. The lipoidal product of hydrolysis is diacylglycerol, and the water-soluble products are 1:2-cyclic phosphoinositol and phosphoinositol in the approximate proportions of 60% and 40% respectively: this indicates that a phosphodiesterase (phospholipase C-like) activity is cleaving the phosphatidylinositol. 3. The enzyme requires a bivalent cation, Ca2+ being the most effective activator. 4. The enzyme has a pH optimum, depending on conditions of assay, of pH 5.9-6.6 and in this pH range shows no detectable activity against phosphatidylcholine or phosphatidylethanolamine. 5. The activity is stimulated by phosphatidic acid and slightly inhibited (30% at concentrations equimolar with phosphatidylinositol) by phosphatidylcholine. 6. The phosphodiesterase was also detected (but not quantified) in the tips of the flowers in cauliflowers, in outer leaves of onion and in the elongating stem of daffodils. 7. The enzyme's properties are compared with equivalent mammalian enzymes, and its possible role in the catabolism of phosphatidylinositol in higher plants is discussed.


Diagnostic or screening tests are used to help determine whether or not a patient has a certain condition or disease. The ability of a diagnostic test to correctly classify subjects is expressed by the four test characteristics-sensitivity, specificity, predictive value positive, and predictive value negative. This paper describes these characteristics and discusses methods for choosing optimal tests or cutoff points to maximize expected value considering the consequences of incorrect diagnoses. Data drawn from ongoing studies of facial pain are used to illustrate some of these concepts.


Ferro-chrome and charge chrome can normally be produced from lump chromite ores in the electric arc furnace. Majority of the lump ore is very lean (~30% Cr) in nature. Production of a better quality ferro-chrome requires using high-grade chromite ores; but these are fragile and tend to form fines during handling. These fines may flue off from electric arc furnace during charging; therefore agglomeration of these fines is needed before charging in electric arc furnace. Normal chromite agglomeration processes include briquetting, pelletizing or sintering. Presently many ferro-chrome plants make pellets utilizing the friable chromite ore fines by grinding it to suitable finer size (say 60% < 45 μm) and pelletize them. This is followed by the firing of the green pellets at 1250 - 1350 C in a rotary kiln and their smelting in a submerged arc furnace (SAF) to make the ferrochrome. However, pelletizing is only suitable for vary fine feed that requires energy intensive grinding, expensive binders, and energy-intensive induration of pellets using liquid or gaseous fuel. Overall, the pelletization process is very complex and cost-intensive. In some plants, briquetting is also considered as an alternative agglomeration technique with the advantages of being a cold process and environment friendly. However, briquettes have inferior high temperature performance to pellets and sinter and the process involves with costly binders.
To alleviate the above draw backs of pelletisation and briquetting, present study aims at producing sinter directly from the available chromite ore fines(-10 mm) without any grinding in presence of coke breeze ( like iron ore sintering). Sintering was carried out in 10 kg scale in a pot sinter. Result indicated that a good amount of (20%) molten phase formed for bonding. Sintering time was 30 minutes and maximum flame temperature reached above 1600 C in pot sinter. It decreased the spinel phases of chromite fines as it is a prefused mass which will reduce faster in subsequent electric arc furnace smelting. The molten phases comprised of Fe2SiO4, Ca2Al2SiO7, MgCa2Si2O7 and the unmelted phases was (Mg, Fe)(Cr, Al)2O4 as evident from the XRD study. Chemical composition of produced chromite sinter was 36% Cr2O3, 20% FeO, 8% SiO2, 9% MgO, 11% Al2O3, 6% CaO, 0.02% P2O5, and 0.03% S.


The CMT1A-REP binary repeat consists of two homologous regions of DNA, a proximal CMT1A-REP element and a distal CMT1A-REP element, that flank a 1.5 Mb DNA segment on chromosome 17p11.2-p12. Misalignment between sequences within the two elements of this binary repeat during homologous recombination causes two inherited peripheral neuropathies, Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1A (CMT1A) and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies (HNPP). Despite contributing to the instability of this region of chromosome 17, CMT1A-REP is maintained as a binary repeat in chimpanzees and all human populations of different ethnic origin. Two genes mapping wholly, or partially, within the binary repeat have been recently identified. The distal CMT1A-REP element is known to lie within the COX10 gene and a duplicated 'pseudo' exon of this gene is present in the proximal CMT1A-REP element. A second gene, C17ORF1A, localises partially within the proximal CMT1A-REP element. This gene includes the duplicated COX10 exon and part of the flanking intronic sequences within its coding region. The sequences derived from the COX10 gene form part of the open reading frame and 3' untranslated region of C17ORF1A by the utilisation of the opposite DNA strand to that used in the COX10 gene. The antisense nature of C17ORF1A raises the possibility of C17ORF1A acting as a down regulator of the COX10 gene. This review will highlight the unique features of this disease-causing repeat and its role in the formation of a previously undescribed gene that appears to be present only in humans and primates.


Abstract. Human safety becomes critical when robot enters the human environment. Compliant control can be used to address some safety issues in human-robot physical interaction. This paper proposes an integral sliding mode controller (ISMC) based compliance control scheme for the Bristol Robotics Laboratory's humanoid BERT II robot arm. Apart from introducing a model reference compliance controller, the ISMC scheme is aimed to deal with the robot arm dynamic model's inaccuracies and un-modelled nonlinearities. The control scheme consists of a feedback linearization (FL) and an ISMC part. In addition, a posture controller has been incorporated to employ the redundant DOF and generate human like motion. The desired level of compliance can be tuned by selecting the stiffness and damping parameters in the sliding mode variable (compliance reference model). The results show that the compliant control is feasible at different levels for BERT II in simulation and experiment. The positioning control has been satisfactorily achieved and nonlinearities and un-modelled dynamics have been successfully overcome.


In low noise microwave amplifier design, particularly when using conditionally stable transistors, it is impossible to simultaneously achieve maximum gain, minimum noise figure and maximum port match. Hence it is necessary to trade-off these performance parameters which is usually accomplished with the aid of stability, gain, noise figure and mismatch (or VSWR) circles described on the reflection coefficient planes. However, use of these graphical aids is often subjective, necessitating final optimisation using circuit design software. In this paper, we propose a different approach whereby the functional behaviour of two objective functions involving gain, noise figure and port mismatch are described as functions of the stability safety margin. This approach leads to an optimum design without requiring sophisticated optimisation algorithms and includes stability safety margin as a design parameter.


Purpose
Various factors may influence project finance when a multi-sourced debt financing strategy is used for financing capital investments, in general, and public infrastructure investments, in particular. Traditional indicators lack comprehensive consideration of the influences of many internal and external factors, such as investment structure, financing mode and credit guarantee structure, which exist in the financing decision making of BOT projects. An effective approach is, thus, desired. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops a financial model that uses an interval number to represent the uncertain factors and, subsequently, conducts a standardization of the interval number. Decision makers determine the weight of each objective through the analytic hierarchy process. Through the optimization procedure, project investors and sponsors are provided with a strategy regarding the optimal amount of debt to be raised and the insight on the risk level based on the net present value, as well as the probability of bankruptcy for each different period of debt service.

Findings
By using an example infrastructure project in China and based on the comprehensive evaluation, comparison and ranking of the capital structures of urban public infrastructure projects using the interval number method, the final ranking can help investors to choose the optimal capital structure for investment. The calculation using the interval number method shows that X2 is the optimal capital structure plan for the BOT project of the first stage of Tianjin Binhai Rail Transit Z4 line. Therefore, investors should give priority to selecting a capital contribution ratio of 45 per cent for this investment.

Research limitations/implications
In this paper, some parameters, such as depreciation life, construction period and concession period, are assumed to be deterministic parameters, although the interval number model has been introduced to analyze the uncertainty indicators, such as total investment and passenger flow, of BOT rail transport projects. Therefore, more of the above deterministic parameters can be taken as uncertainty parameters in future research so that calculation results fit actual projects more closely.

Originality/value
This model can be used to make the optimal investment decision for a project by determining the impact of uncertainty factors on the profitability of the project in its lifecycle during the project financial feasibility analysis. Project sponsors can determine the optimal capital structure of a project through an analysis of the irregular fluctuation of the unpredictable factors in project construction such as construction investment, operating cost and passenger flow. The model can also be used to examine the effects of different capital investment ratios on indicators so that appropriate measures can be taken to reduce risks and maximize profit.


Previous studies show that surface wave transmission ratio across a surface breaking crack in concrete can be used as an indicator of the crack depth. However, due to inconsistent sensor coupling condition on rough concrete surface, reliable measurement of the transmission ratio is still a challenging task. In this study, the air‐coupled sensing method is proposed as a solution to this problem. Without direct contact between sensors and the testing surface, the air‐coupled sensing not only allows rapid testing speed, but also enables more consistent signal measurement owing to removal of sensor coupling variation. The latter feature is especially valuable to wave transmission measurement. This paper first presents results from a numerical analysis (FEM model). Based on the results, a simplified algorithm is proposed for surface wave transmission ratio calculation. A calibration curve between the transmission ratio and normalized crack depth (actual crack depth/wavelength) is obtained. Experimental study u...


Flexibility may be expressed as the maximum passive physiological range of motion in a given joint movement. Flexibility is specific to both joint and movement. The Flexitest, originally described in 1980, allows for the flexibility measurement of 20 joint movements, using a progressive scale of integer numbers from 0 to 4, and provides a global score called Flexindex. Assuming that it is possible to obtain the same Flexindex by different combinations of scores in the 20 movements, an objective study of the variability of the results was required. Based on data obtained in 2,426 men and women ranging from 5 to 88 years of age, this paper proposes five new variability indices based on the scores from the Flexitest: a) intermovements, b) interjoints, c) flexion-extension, d) between segments, and e) distal-proximal. The two first indices do not depend on age, gender, and Flexindex magnitude. The other three, as a result of ratios between mean values of groups of measurements, tend to show values close to 1, while differing between genders, specially in relation to score dispersion around the central tendency. A distal-proximal variability index lower than 1.15 (men) and 1.04 (women) was observed at least three times more frequently in subjects younger than 50 years old, thus providing an infantile-juvenile pattern. Calculation methods, percentile ranges of scores for homogeneous, somewhat heterogeneous, and highly heterogeneous, as well as the major aspects of interpretation of each one of the indices are presented.


Background: Despite the substantial role indoor exposure has played in heat wave–related mortality, few epidemiological studies have examined the health effects of exposure to indoor heat. As a result, knowledge gaps regarding indoor heat–health thresholds, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity persist. Objective: We evaluated the role of indoor heat exposure on mortality and morbidity among the elderly (≥65 years of age) in Houston, Texas. Methods: Mortality and emergency hospital admission data were obtained through the Texas Department of State Health Services. Summer indoor heat exposure was modeled at the U.S. Census block group (CBG) level using building energy models, outdoor weather data, and building characteristic data. Indoor heat–health associations were examined using time-stratified case-crossover models, controlling for temporal trends and meteorology, and matching on CBG of residence, year, month, and weekday of the adverse health event. Separate models were fitted for three indoor exposure metrics, for individual lag days 0–6, and for 3-d moving averages (lag 0–2). Effect measure modification was explored via stratification on individual- and area-level vulnerability factors. Results: We estimated positive associations between short-term changes in indoor heat exposure and cause-specific mortality and morbidity [e.g., circulatory deaths, odds ratio per 5°C increase=1.16 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.30)]. Associations were generally positive for earlier lag periods and weaker across later lag periods. Stratified analyses suggest stronger associations between indoor heat and emergency hospital admissions among African Americans compared with Whites. Discussion: Findings suggest excess mortality among certain elderly populations in Houston who are likely exposed to high indoor heat. We developed a novel methodology to estimate indoor heat exposure that can be adapted to other U.S. locations. In locations with high air conditioning prevalence, simplified modeling approaches may adequately account for indoor heat exposure in vulnerable neighborhoods. Accounting for indoor heat exposure may improve the estimation of the total impact of heat on health. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6340


In this Article, the author argues that significant elements concerning the discussion of labor law reform have been overlooked and that the steady decline of unions is not in fact an isolated occurrence. It is instead part of a much broader and deeply troubling trend, which has affected every mediating group in our society. However, our blinkered insistence on treating the deterioration of autonomous employee associations as a solitary phenomenon has precluded us from comprehending either the complexity of its causes or the full extent of its implications. The author posits, therefore, that there is a pronounced tendency to overlook the importance of the "middle," which is comprised of institutions such as families and religious congregations that mediate the relation between individual and public life. It is through these mediating bodies that we learn the habits necessary to sustain democratic political life. Thus, their well-being is deeply interdependent. The author suggests then that there is more at stake in labor law reform than we may think, and presents a brief outline of considerations for the shape labor law reform may take.


A long history of empirical research demonstrates that socioeconomically disadvantaged children begin school behind their peers and that enrichment activities in the home environment mediate these disparities. This work overlooks the considerable heterogeneity in the parenting practices of low-SES families. This dissertation examined home enrichment practices among low-SES families in greater detail to obtain a nuanced view of the experiences and challenges facing these children at risk of falling behind their peers academically. In Study 1, I used data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2009) to examine predictors of additional variability in parental enrichment, over and above income and education, among a large sample of low-income families using both variable-centered and person-centered analyses. I found that characteristics such as children's vocabulary and behavioral skills, parent marital status and age, and family residential mobility, explained small but significant portions of additional variance in home enrichment, but the unique accumulation of these factors in latent profile analyses rarely contributed additional information. In Study 2, I explored these issues in greater detail through in-depth, qualitative interviews with a small sample of low-SES parents of young children. Parents described their enrichment activities in the home and any challenges or barriers that interfere with enrichment activities. All parents described substantial challenges in attempting to provide opportunities for learning with their young children but also noted a variety of methods to overcoming these challenges. Together, these results suggest that many low-SES parents' behaviors are related to other factors in the family system (e.g., child interest or behaviors) and that survey-based measures of the frequency of enrichment activities may not appropriately capture how these parents engage in learning activities with their children.


The images of the growing crystal in the growth process of the undercooled droplets of silicon were lively recorded by using a high-speed camera. The number of crystal that nucleated spontaneously from the undercooled liquid was found to decrease to 1 when the undercooling was higher than 5K. The morphology of the growing single crystal of silicon was a thin plate. A model for predicting the critical undercooling of growing single crystal of silicon from undercooled liquid has been developed. The theoretically predicted value of the undercooling from present model for silicon is in agreement with the experimentally measured result.


The adverse effects of synthetic acaricides on humans, animals, non-target organisms and the ecosystem are serious problems. Thus, there is a new trend to use nanotechnology for developing new, natural, bio and safe acaricides for mite control in green-pest management. This is the first work for preparing a nanoformulation of rosemary essential oil (EO) and evaluating its effect against the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch. GC/MS analysis of rosemary EO showed that 1,8 cineole (31.45%), borneol (11.07%), α-pinene (10.91%), D-limonene (9.19%), L-linalool (8.86%), D-camphor (7.32%), γ-terpinene (3.92%), linalyl acetate (3.37%), α-terpineol (3.32%), and p-cymene (1.82%) were the major components. After 6 min of sonication, a nanoemulsion of rosemary EO was formulated with a droplet size of 139.9 nm. The balance between oil (lyophilic) and surfactant (hydrophilic) was correlated with the droplet size and the stability of the nanoemulsion. Spray application of rosemary nanoemulsion showed high acaricidal activity against immature and adult two-spotted spider mites T. urticae with LC50 723.71 and 865.68 μg · ml−1 and the toxicity increased by 54.15 and 52.69% for immature and adult mites, respectively. There were no toxic effects or mortality of rats treated with rosemary nanoemulsion. High acaricidal activity, stability, and safety of rosemary nanoemulsion make this nanoformulation a possible green and nano-acaricidal product. Further studies under field conditions are necessary to study the acaricidal efficiency of rosemary nanoemulsion against two-spotted spider mites and the toxic effect on predacious mites.


Abstract Evidence on social determinants of health and health equity (SDH/HE) is abundant but often not translated into effective policy action by governments. Governments' health policies have continued to privilege medical care and individualised behaviour-change strategies. In the light of these limitations, the 2008 Commission on the Social Determinants of Health called on health agencies to adopt a stewardship role; to take action themselves and engage other government sectors in addressing SDH/HE. This article reports on research using analysis of health policy documents – published by nine Australian national or regional governments – to examine the extent to which the Australian health sector has taken up such a role. We found policies across all jurisdictions commonly recognised evidence on SDH/HE and expressed goals to improve health equity. However, these goals were predominantly operationalised in health care and other individualised strategies. Relatively few strategies addressed SDH/HE outside of access to health care, and often they were limited in scope. National policies on Aboriginal health did most to systemically address SDH/HE. We used Kingdon's (2011) multiple streams theory to examine how problems, policies and politics combine to enable, partially allow, or prevent action on SDH/HE in Australian health policy.


The paper reports the development and implementation of an algorithm for the online timetable checking and rescheduling of the 50 Hz single-phase overhead current collection catenary system currently in operation in Hong Kong. Running as an online consultant on a personal computer, this algorithm allows operating personnel to perform checking of a proposed timetable under various feeding conditions, to see whether runtime and traffic requirements can be met without causing any overloading. By using the event-driven approach, the computing time for checking each timetable is extremely fast. Owing to simplicity of this approach, various rescheduling schemes may be devised to suit different requirements of operational sophistication. This implies that many timetables may be examined, and users are able to find out effects of their own choice of rescheduling schemes in each case. The valid timetable or reschedule is then transferred to the full-scaled simulation package for further investigations. An accurate evaluation of train and system operating schedule involves the solution of many simultaneous differential equations. The paper shows how the overall computational efficiency may be improved by using the timetable checking/rescheduling scheme to filter the 'bad' data before being entered and verified in detailed simulations.


Rice blast is continues to be the major constraint in sustainable rice production throughout the world. Although many genetic resources harboring single R-genes are available for blast resistance, wide genetic variations exist in the blast fungus lead to breakdown of these resistant varieties soon after its release. To control such a deadly disease, there is a need to identify QTLs which offer durable partial resistance. In this endeavor, we identified Akhanaphou, a unique rice landraces of Manipur showing a high level of resistance to leaf and neck blast across various locations. Upon genetic characterization, we found resistance in Akhanaphou governed by QTLs and two major genes i.e Pi38 and Pitp. Three best stabilized recombinant inbred lines (RILs) showing resistance for leaf and neck blast and having significant homozygosity at various loci were identified based on gene profiling, phenotyping, and agronomic evaluation studies. The shortlisted RILs are valuable genetic resources for the development of blast resistance in rice improvement programs.


Students' competency in learning of  Biology at class X MIA2  of SMAN 2 Solok Selatan are not optimum yet. It is necessary to increase students' competency by implementing cooperative learning model of Numbered Heads Together type. This research aim to approve students' competency in learning Biology by applied of Numbered Heads Together Model. This research done in two cycles ( P1 and P2 plus 1 precycle P0). Each cycle consisted of three lessons. There are four phases in the cycle; planning, action, observation, and reflection. The instruments of the research were observation sheet on the teachers activities, learning competence and questionnaire research. The data was collected through observation and a learning achievement test. The data analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results showed that the students' activity and competency were increase. The students' achievement involved the cognitive, that is the number of students who passed were P0 64,00%, P1 76,00% to P2 88,00%. The students affective were P0 56,00%, P1 63,07% to P2 77,73%. and the students' psychomotoric were P0 59,00%, P1 68,28% to P2 78,71%. Research questionnaire containing statements student responses to the application of Numbered Heads Together Model increased from P1 80.86% to P2 84.93% . It can be concluded that the using of Numbered Heads Together increased students' competency in learning Biology at X MIA2 class of SMAN 2 Solok Selatan.


In this note, we develop an H/sub /spl infin//-type theory for a large class of discrete-time nonlinear stochastic systems. In particular, we establish a bounded real lemma (BRL) for this case. We introduce the notion of stochastic dissipative systems, analogously to the familiar notion of dissipation associated with deterministic systems, and utilize it in the derivation of the BRL. In particular, this BRL establishes a necessary and sufficient condition, in terms of a certain Hamilton Jacobi inequality (HJI), for a discrete-time nonlinear stochastic system to have l/sub 2/-gain/spl les//spl gamma/. The time-invariant case is also considered as a special case. In this case, the BRL guarantees necessary and sufficient conditions for the system to have l/sub 2/-gain/spl les//spl gamma/, by means of a solution to a certain algebraic HJI. An application of this theory to a special class of systems which is a characteristic of numerous physical systems, yields a more tractable HJI which serves as a sufficient condition for the underlying system to possess l/sub 2/-gain/spl les//spl gamma/. Stability in both the mean square sense and in probability, is also discussed. Systems that possess a special structure (norm-bounded) of uncertainties in their model are considered. Application of the BRL to this class of systems yields a linear state-feedback stabilizing controller which achieves l/sub 2/-gain/spl les//spl gamma/, by means of certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs).


This essay looks at three issues concerning freedom in American history. First, it examines competing conceptions of freedom--positive/negative and individual/political-and considers whether the equal validity of these competing conceptions makes freedom such a malleable concept that it is vacuous. In other words, freedom apparently can be invoked with equal plausibility on either side of any significant political dispute. Second, the essay seeks to identify the circumstances or conditions under which particular freedoms prosper and expand. Third and finally, it considers the complex and sometimes paradoxical role that courts have played in the history of American freedom.


While the on-chip processing power in circuit QED devices is growing rapidly, an open challenge is to establish high-fidelity quantum links between qubits on different chips. Here, we show entanglement between transmon qubits on different cQED chips with 49% concurrence and 73% Bell-state fidelity. We engineer a half-parity measurement by successively reflecting a coherent microwave field off two nearly identical transmon-resonator systems. By ensuring the measured output field does not distinguish |01) from |10), unentangled superposition states are probabilistically projected onto entangled states in the odd-parity subspace. We use in situ tunability and an additional weakly coupled driving field on the second resonator to overcome imperfect matching due to fabrication variations. To demonstrate the flexibility of this approach, we also produce an even-parity entangled state of similar quality, by engineering the matching of outputs for the |00) and |11) states. The protocol is characterized over a range of measurement strengths using quantum state tomography showing good agreement with a comprehensive theoretical model.


The GÉANT infrastructure is the backbone that serves the scientific communities in Europe for their data movement needs and their access to international research and education networks. Using the extensive fibre footprint and infrastructure in Europe the GÉANT network delivers a portfolio of services aimed to best fit the specific needs of the users, including Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure, end-to-end performance monitoring, advanced network services (dynamic circuits, L2-L3VPN, MD-VPN). This talk will outline the factors that help the GÉANT network to respond to the needs of the High Energy Physics community, both in Europe and worldwide. The Pan-European network provides the connectivity between 40 European national research and education networks. In addition, GÉANT also connects the European NRENs to the R&E networks in other world region and has reach to over 110 NREN worldwide, making GÉANT the best connected Research and Education network, with its multiple intercontinental links to different continents e.g. North and South America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. The High Energy Physics computational needs have always had (and will keep having) a leading role among the scientific user groups of the GÉANT network: the LHCONE overlay network has been built, in collaboration with the other big world REN, specifically to address the peculiar needs of the LHC data movement. Recently, as a result of a series of coordinated efforts, the LHCONE network has been expanded to the Asia-Pacific area, and is going to include some of the main regional R&E network in the area. The LHC community is not the only one that is actively using a distributed computing model (hence the need for a high-performance network); new communities are arising, as BELLE II. GÉANT is deeply involved also with the BELLE II Experiment, to provide full support to their distributed computing model, along with a perfSONAR-based network monitoring system. GÉANT has also coordinated the setup of the network infrastructure to perform the BELLE II Trans-Atlantic Data Challenge, and has been active on helping the BELLE II community to sort out their end-to-end performance issues. In this talk we will provide information about the current GÉANT network architecture and of the international connectivity, along with the upcoming upgrades and the planned and foreseeable improvements. We will also describe the implementation of the solutions provided to support the LHC and BELLE II experiments.


This paper presents the kinematic synthesis of a steering linkage that changes track, wheelbase, camber, and wheel height in a turn, while maintaining Ackermann geometry. Each wheel is controlled by a 5-SS platform linkage, which consists of a moving platform connected by five SS chains to the vehicle chassis. Ackermann steering geometry ensures all four wheels will travel on circular arcs that share the same center point. S denotes a spherical or ball-in-socket joint.The kinematic synthesis problem is formulated using seven spatial task positions. The procedure computes the SS chains that guide the platform through the seven task positions, and examines all combinations of five that form a single degree-of-freedom linkage. A kinematic analysis identifies the performance of each design candidate, and eliminates functional defects.In the design process, the task positions are modified randomly within constraints in order to find a useful mechanism design. Mechanisms are deemed useful if they travel smoothly through all seven task positions. Upon analyzing 1000 sets of task positions, only 10 useful mechanisms were found. A second iteration produced 22 useful mechanisms from 1000 task sets. An example of the design of a steering linkage is presented. A video of this linkage can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEvbDiyQMiw.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Klinefelter syndrome is the first human sex chromosomal abnormality to be reported. The majority of Klinefelter syndrome patients have the XXY karyotype. Approximately 15% of Klinefelter patients, however, are mosaics with variable phenotypes. Among the variant Klinefelter genotypes are such karyotypes as XY/XXY and XX/XXY. The variation in phenotypes most likely depends on the number of abnormal cells and their location in body tissues. In this paper we report the case of a 42-year-old patient with Klinefelter syndrome and a rare variant mosaic XXY/XX karyotype initially identified by GTG-banding. This was confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using a dual-color X/Y probe. The patient presented with erectile dysfunction and few other physical findings. Thus, this case illustrates a rare variant of Klinefelter syndrome with a relatively mild phenotype. It also illustrates the utility of FISH as an adjunct to conventional cytogenetics in assessing the chromosome copy number in each cell line of a mosaic. In our case, FISH also detected the presence of a small population of cells with the XY karyotype not previously detected in the initial 30-cell GTG-banding analysis. Thus, through a combination of GTG-banding and FISH, the patient was determined to be an XXY/XX/XY mosaic. Given that most individuals with Klinefelter syndrome are infertile, and that these individuals may wish to reproduce with the aid of modern reproductive technology, such as testicular fine needle aspiration and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, it is important that accurate estimation of the frequency of abnormal cells be obtained for accurate risk estimation and genetic counseling, as recent studies in patients with mosaic Klinefelter syndrome revealed that germ cells with sex chromosomal abnormalities were nevertheless capable of completing meiosis.


In this paper, we assess the performance of a workload model trained on a subset of sectors, focusing on how it generalizes on fresh sectors. The model of the air traffic controller workload is learned from historical data made of workload mesurements extracted from past sector operations and ATC complexity measurements computed from radar records and airspace data (sector geometry). The workload is assumed to be low when a given sector is collapsed with other sectors into a larger sector, normal when it is operated as is, and high when it is split into smaller sectors assigned to several working positions. This learning problem is modeled as a classification problem where the target variable is a workload category (low, normal, high) and the explanatory variables are the air traffic control (ATC) complexity metrics. In previous work, we compared several classifiers on this problem. The models were trained on one week of traffic, and their generalization performance was assessed on another week of traffic, using the same sectors in both the training and test sets. In the current work, we examine if models learned on a specific set of sectors can be performant on any other sector, or not. We also give a closer look at how the workload varies with the ATC complexity measures in our data, using bagplots of the data points for a few sector instances. The results allow us to better understand the strengths and limits of our data-driven model.


Over the past decades, regional haze episodes have frequently occurred in eastern China, especially in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Satellite derived Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) has been used to retrieve the spatial coverage of PM2.5 concentrations. To improve the retrieval accuracy of the daily AOD-PM2.5 model, various auxiliary variables like meteorological or geographical factors have been adopted into the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model. However, these variables are always arbitrarily selected without deep consideration of their potentially varying temporal or spatial contributions in the model performance. In this manuscript, we put forward an automatic procedure to select proper auxiliary variables from meteorological and geographical factors and obtain their optimal combinations to construct four seasonal GWR models. We employ two different schemes to comprehensively test the performance of our proposed GWR models: (1) comparison with other regular GWR models by varying the number of auxiliary variables; and (2) comparison with observed ground-level PM2.5 concentrations. The result shows that our GWR models of "AOD + 3" with three common meteorological variables generally perform better than all the other GWR models involved. Our models also show powerful prediction capabilities in PM2.5 concentrations with only slight overfitting. The determination coefficients R2 of our seasonal models are 0.8259 in spring, 0.7818 in summer, 0.8407 in autumn, and 0.7689 in winter. Also, the seasonal models in summer and autumn behave better than those in spring and winter. The comparison between seasonal and yearly models further validates the specific seasonal pattern of auxiliary variables of the GWR model in the YRD. We also stress the importance of key variables and propose a selection process in the AOD-PM2.5 model. Our work validates the significance of proper auxiliary variables in modelling the AOD-PM2.5 relationships and provides a good alternative in retrieving daily PM2.5 concentrations from remote sensing images in the YRD.


Objective. In recent decades many guidelines has been conducted by radiation protection organizations about radiation protection in dentistry. This study aims to evaluate the observance of these guidelines in educational clinics of all dental schools in Iran. Material and methods . In this cross-sectional study a self-administered questionnaire based on National Radiation Protection Board (NRPB) and European Commission guidelines was conducted. The radiology departments of all dental school (18 schools) surveyed in this study. The questionnaire was consisted of 3 sections including intraoral radiography, extraoral radiography and implementation of quality control programs. Results . In the case of the existence of radiation protection facilities (such as lead apron, thyroid shield and lead impacted walls), use of high speed films and existence of automatic processor in dental schools there was a proper condition. The main problem was related to lake of regular quality control and quality assurance programs. Digital radiography systems were employed in none of schools and only used occasionally in research purposes at some of them . Conclusions. This study emphasizes on the need for further consideration of radiation protection principles in dental school, especially on the field of quality control and quality assurance programs.


The global climate change and global warming have been observed since the pre industrial times. This phenomenon calls for immediate actions to fight climate change. The climate change of the Earth´s history is preserved in the ocean, covering ~70% of the Earth, and the understanding of this history is the significant way to predict the future climate. The temperature changes in the past ocean can be estimated using several proxies. One of the most extensively applied temperature proxy to the paleoclimate is the TEX86 (tetraether index of tetraethers consisting of 8 carbons). It is based on the relative compositions of thaumarchaeotal membrane lipids, glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), in marine surface sediments, allowing us to estimate sea surface temperature (SST). The ubiquities of Thaumarchaeota, one phylum of the Archaea domain, and their dominant abundance in the ocean have made them a novel proxy. However, it has been recognized that the composition of GDGTs can be altered by non thermal factors, leading the unconventional relationship between TEX8 and SST. This thesis shall contribute to a better understanding of TEX86 thermometry and the controlling environmental factors in various oceanic provinces by evaluating the GDGT flux and TEX86 related temperature estimate in sinking particles. The sinking particles collected using a time series sediment trap system can be a great value to understand the export mechanism of lipids and to estimate the seasonal variability of the proxy signal. Three different ocean regimes from the upwelling (the Guinea Basin and Luderitz off Namibia), high latitude (the eastern Fram Strait and the Antarctic Polar Front), and the oligotrophic oceans (the central Brazil Basin) in the Atlantic Ocean are investigated. In the first part of the thesis, TEX86 values are converted to temperatures using the TEX86H calibration. The results in the eastern equatorial Guinea Basin (GBN3) show that GDGTs are mainly transported by particles containing opal. The TEX86H-derived temperatures at both different depth traps correspond to the subsurface water depth (~50 m), where the nutricline exists, implying the favorable habit depth of thaumarchaeotal communities and thus the record of the water temperature. In the coastal upwelling area off Luderitz (LZ), the export mechanism of GDGT is yet unclear due to the shortage of the sampling period. The results show that the TEX8 H derived temperatures resemble the satellite derived SSTs with a delay of 2 days during the warmer season while the warm biased estimates occur during the colder season. As relatively higher TEX86 values were found in oxygen depleted waters, it explains the warm bias of TEX86H temperature in the Luderitz, where the oxygen minimum zone is pronounced. This result is in agreement with the finding from off Cape Blanc, Northwest Africa. The second part of the thesis focuses on the high latitude cold regions. The TEX86 values are converted to temperatures using the TEX86L calibration. In the eastern Fram Strait (79° N; FEVI1 ), GDGT fluxes are correlated with biological and non biological component fluxes. The best correlations are found between GDGT and opal/ carbonate fluxes, implying that opal and carbonate are the major transport of GDGTs to the deep ocean. The TEX86L derived temperatures display the strong variability due to temporal variability of transporting materials and their different sinking velocities for particles carrying the lipids. The TEX86L signal corresponds to water temperature at 30 to 80 m depth, where nitrification might occur, and the almost identical is found in the underlying surface sediment. In the Antarctica Polar Front (50° S; PF3), the TEX86L derived temperatures at the shallow trap display the cold and warm biases relative to the SSTs and the latter has a tendency to occur during periods of relatively low GDGT flux, which may be more dominant in the deep trap. The warm biased TEX8 L signal (~7 °C) compared to the SST at the deep trap and in the underlying surface sediment might be due to the contribution of Euryarchaeota or the non liner relationship of TEX86L with SST in the Southern Ocean. In both polar regions, hydroxylated GDGT related temperature proxy seems applicable. The third part of the thesis contributes to the oligotrophic regions, where usually attract less attention compared to two previous regimes despite its size and the impact on global biogeochemical budgets. The TEX8 values at two depths from two sites are examined (WAB1 and WA9). Good correlations between GDGT and opal/carbonate at both shallow traps reveal the preferential incorporation of GDGTs in opal and carbonate rich aggregates. At WAB1, which was located in the fringes of the gyre system, the TEX86H derived temperatures of the shallow trap resemble the SSTs. The WA9 trap was collected in the more nutrient depleted location of the central oligotrophic gyre relative to the site WAB. The warm biased TEX86H derived temperature of the shallow trap relative to the SST can be caused by the response of Thaumarchaeota under the energy stressed condition. In the deep traps of both sites, the TEX8 H derived temperatures record the deep subsurface temperature. It is assumed that these signals are caused by the relatively dominant contribution of colder signal from deep in situ production and the smaller contribution of warmer signal from shallow waters. The last part of the thesis investigates the alkenone based temperatures (U or U ) in all three oceanic regimes, where GDGT based temperatures are discussed in previous chapters. Most of UK'37 derived temperatures display the SSTs of the tropical regions (i.e. the equatorial Guinea Basin, Luderitz, the central Brazil Basin). It implies the regional geochemical characteristics (e.g., availability of nitrogen or oxygen), which probably affect the TEX86 thermometry, would not have an impact on the U thermometry. In the shallow trap of the Antarctic Polar Front, the UK'37 derived temperatures record the clear SST seasonality with a delay time of 10 weeks. However, the mixture of cold and warm biased temperature estimates of the deep trap is underconstrained. Samples from the eastern Fram Strait yield UK'37 and UK'37 derived temperature estimates fall outside the expected temperature range with the warm biases. It is in line with other studies that the applicability of alkenone proxies is limited in low temperature regions that disfavor alkenone producers. This chapter shows that the UK'37 proxy provides an additional temperature record complementary to the TEX86 proxy because of different responses of each source organism to environmental conditions in the tropical oceans.


Currently most 3D vibroseis crews use two fleets of vibrators in flip-flop mode. The productivity depends on the sweep length and the time it takes to move from one VP to the next. The slip sweep technique is an attractive way of optimizing productivity to a level that can keep the cost of increasing source density within reasonable limits. But nothing is free and the price to be paid is that the data can be severely contaminated by harmonic noise due to the use of long sweeps combined with a very short slip-time. To overcome this problem, a method of harmonic noise reduction known as HPVA (High-Productivity Vibroseis Acquisition) has been developed. This method consists in estimating the harmonic noise in the vibroseis signature so that it can be subtracted. Several crews are now routinely using this technique with three to four fleets of vibrators. Recent 3D tests with 12 fleets of single vibrators also show very promising results which will be presented. Combined with a densification of the source grid, single-vibrator acquisition can bring either an improvement in data quality or an increase in productivity and opens the road to affordable dense, wide-azimuth seismic acquisition in desert environments.


Aim. The aim of this study was to evaluate by means of radiographs the technical quality of root fillings performed by dental practitioners. Methods and Material. Standardized periapical radiographs were made on 484 patients who received endodontic treatment in private practice. A total of 831 endodontically treated teeth with 1448 roots were evaluated for technical quality of the root canal filling and the periapical status of the teeth. Also, the apical status of each root-filled tooth was assessed according to the length, density, and taper of root fillings, and the presence of apical transportation, broken root instruments, and overfilled sealer or gutta-percha material was recorded for each root canal. Results. Of the endodontically treated teeth 26.6% had healthy periapical tissues, while technically good endodontic treatment constituted 12.8%. Based on the treatment success, there was no significant difference between the tooth groups. Statistical analysis of the data did not demonstrate statistically significant differences between the various parameters that were evaluated (P < 0.05). Conclusions. Technical quality of root fillings in a population who received treatment in private practice was poor and was consistent with a low prevalence of apical health. The probable reasons for this failure are multifactorial and may be improved if the operators improve their skills with continuing postgraduate education programs.


Rutting is one of the major damage modes in asphalt pavement. Many management departments need to conduct a reasonable assessment of rutting and damage cause analysis to roads. We often use on-site observed means for assessment of road surface rutting. We use methods of on-site core and cutting specimens for laboratory analysis. This paper tell this method of determining the reasons for rutting damage by analyzing the porosity, sub-layer uplift factor, size distribution, whetstone ratio and rutting test results.


The first and second instars of Lecanodiaspis tingtunensis are described and illustrated. First instars are distinguished from other species of Lecanodiaspis by the arrangement of dorsal 8-shaped pores in six complete longitudinal rows and a partial row in the thoracic region and the number of labial, anal plate, and spiracular setae. Second instars are dimorphic with males possessing well developed 5-segmented legs, dorsal tubular ducts, and long hair-like setae on the venter between the antennae and on the abdominal segments. Females have fewer 8-shaped pores in transverse rows on the dorsum, as well as legs reduced to stubs and only one pair of hair-like medial setae on the venter.