Conformation, structure, and oligomeric state of immunoglobulins not only control quality and functional properties of antibodies but are also critical for immunoglobulins secretion. Unassembled immunoglobulin heavy chains are retained intracellularly by delayed folding of the CH1 domain and irreversible interaction of BiP with this domain. Here we show that the three CH1 cysteines play a central role in immunoglobulin folding, assembly, and secretion. Remarkably, ablating all three CH1 cysteines negates retention and enables BiP cycling and non-canonical folding and assembly. This phenomenon is explained by interdependent formation of intradomain and interchain disulfides, although both bonds are dispensable for secretion. Substituting Cys-195 prevents formation not only of the intradomain disulfide, but also of the interchain disulfide bond with light chain, BiP displacement, and secretion. Mutating the light chain-interacting Cys-128 hinders disulfide bonding of intradomain cysteines, allowing their opportunistic bonding with light chain, without hampering secretion. We propose that the role of CH1 cysteines in immunoglobulin assembly and secretion is not simply to engage in disulfide bridges, but to direct proper folding and interact with the retention machinery.


In this paper, an analog linearizer using second harmonic signals feedforwarding is proposed. The harmonic generator of the proposed linearizer that consists of a small signal amplifier extracts second harmonic signals. A vector modulator, modulate fundamental signal with second harmonic signals, makes the inverse third order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) signals of power amplifier and controls amplitude/phase of them with modulation factors. As a result, this linearizer is suppressed IMD3 signals of power amplifier effectively. The test results show that IMD3 signals of power amplifier are suppressed more than 20 dB for CW two-tone signals. Also, it improved the adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) more than 7dB for CDMA (IS-95) signals.


Wilhelm Blandowski is best known for the scandal that surrounded his attempts to name a number of new species of freshwater fish after prominent members of the Victorian scientific establishment. Although this 19th Century anecdote is diverting, it belies, I believe, the significant contribution that the first paid Victorian government zoologist made to the ichthyology of the Murray-Darling Basin. Although his claim to new species was exaggerated, his collections, assisted by Gerard Krefft were the most diverse to that date. There is no doubt – because Blandowski tells us as much – that the expedition's success in collecting so many species, as well as information on distribution, habitat, size and diet, can be attributed to the knowledge of the local Aboriginal people, the Nyeri Nyeri. That Blandowski realised that this knowledge existed and acknowledged it, is unusual for the time. The information provided, although broadly consistent with what we know of the species' current habits, is scanty and there is some uncertainty as to the location where most of the species were collected. Interpretations based on illustrations, written descriptions and extant specimens suggest that many species that were collected in 1856/57 no longer occur in that region of the Murray-Darling Basin. Blandowski's collections also hint at the possibility that the distribution of the spotted galaxias, Galaxias truttaceus Valenciennes 1846, normally considered coastal, may have formerly extended much further up into freshwater.


Behavioural thermoregulation is critical for animals to buffer against thermal extremes. However, many animals have to face a trade-off between heat escape and food acquisition during thermoregulation, but how animals balance overheating vs. starvation risk based on their different resistance to heat and starvation currently remains unclear. Here, we proposed a hypothesis for predicting how animals reduce heat vs. starvation risk during behavioural thermoregulation. Animals with higher starvation risk give priority to reducing starvation by taking a higher heat risk, whereas animals with lower starvation risk give priority to reducing heat stress by taking a lower heat risk. We used three aphid species (Metopolophium dirhodum, Sitobion avenae, Schizaphis graminum) as focal animals. First, by simulating linearly increasing ambient temperatures during the daytime, we measured the heat-avoidance temperatures (HATs) and critical thermal maximum (CTmax) values to understand their thermoregulatory behaviour and heat tolerance. Then, we tested the time spent locating a host plant (TL) and the survival time under starvation (TS) of the aphids to assess their food accessibility and starvation tolerance, respectively. Finally, we combined these results by linking the aphids' heat risk (CTmax minus HAT) and starvation risk (TS minus TL) with their thermoregulatory behaviour to test our hypothesis. Our results provide evidence to support our hypothesis. The species with higher starvation risk gave priority to reducing starvation by spending more time feeding on the host plant and escaping from heat later and thus taking a higher heat risk. In contrast, the species with lower starvation risk gave priority to limiting heat stress by spending less time on feeding and escaping from heat earlier and thus taking a lower heat risk. Animals may adopt different strategies to reduce the integrative risks of starvation and heat based on their respective food accessibility, starvation resistance and heat tolerance. Our findings highlight the complexity of the interactions among multiple risks in animal decision-making behaviour to increase their fitness. Such different behaviours and their potential consequences matter when taking behavioural thermoregulation into account in predicting the impacts of climate change.


Abstract:
Background and purpose:
In vivo dosimetry is one of the quality assurance tools used in radiotherapy to monitor the dose delivered to the patient. The digital image format makes electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) good candidates for in vivo dosimetry. Currently there is no commercial transit dosimetry module, which could facilitate routine in vivo dosimetry with the EPID. Some centres are developing their in-house packages, and they are under assessment before introduction into routine clinical usage. The main purpose of this work was to develop the EPID as an in vivo dosimetry device.

Materials and methods:
Knowledge of a detector's dose-response behaviour is a prerequisite for any clinical dosimetric application, hence in the first phase of the study, the dosimetric characteristics of eleven Varian a-Si500 EPIDs that are in clinical use in our centre were investigated. The devices have been in use for varying periods and interfaced with two different acquisition control software packages, IAS2 / IDU-II or IAS3 / IDU-20. Properties investigated include: linearity, reproducibility, signal uniformity, field size and dose-rate dependence, memory effects and image profiles as a function of dose. In the second phase, an EPID was calibrated using the quadratic method to yield values for the entrance and exit doses at the phantom or patient. EPID images for a set of solid water phantoms of varying thicknesses were acquired and the data fitted onto a quadratic equation, which relates the reduction in photon beam intensity to the attenuation coefficient and material thickness at a reference condition. The quadratic model was used to convert the measured grey scale value into water equivalent path length (EPL) at each pixel for any material imaged by the detector. For any other non-reference conditions, scatter, field size and MU variation effects on the image were corrected. The 2D EPL is linked to the percentage exit-dose for different thicknesses and field sizes, thereby converting the plane pixel values at each point into a 2D dose map at the exit surface of the imaged material. The off axis ratio is corrected using envelope and boundary profiles generated from the treatment planning system (TPS). The method was extended to include conformal and enhanced dynamic wedge (EDW) fields. A method was devised for the automatic calculation of areas (to establish the appropriate scatter correction) from the EPID image that facilitated the calculation of EPL for any field, and hence exit dose. For EDW fields, the fitting coefficients were modified by utilizing the Linac manufacturer's golden segmented treatment tables (STT) methodology. Cross plane profiles and 2D dose distributions of EPID predicted doses were compared with those calculated with the Eclipse 8.6 treatment planning system (TPS) and those measured directly with a MapCHECK 2 device.
Results:
The image acquisition system influenced the dosimetric characteristics with the newer version (IAS3 with IDU-20) giving better data reproducibility and linearity fit than the older version (IAS2 with IDU-II). The irradiated field areas can be accurately determined from EPID images to within ± 1% uncertainty. The EPID predicted dose maps were compared with calculated doses from TPS at the exit. The gamma index at 3% dose difference (DD) and 3mm distance to agreement (DTA) resulted in an average of 97% acceptance for the square fields of 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm thickness solid water homogeneous phantoms. More than 90% of all points passed the gamma index acceptance criteria of 3% DD and 3mm DTA, for both conformal and EDW study cases. Comparison of the 2D EPID dose maps to those from TPS and MapCHECK shows that, more than 90% of all points passed the gamma index acceptance criteria of 3% dose difference and 3mm distance to agreement, for both conformal and EDW study cases.
Conclusions:
The quadratic calibration can effectively predict EPL and hence exit dose. Good agreement between the EPID predicted and TPS calculated dose distributions were obtained for open fields, conformal and EDW test cases. There were noteworthy deviations between EPID, TPS and MapCHECK doses on field edges. But it should be emphasised that, for practical in vivo dosimetry, these areas of reduced accuracy at the field edges are much less important. It is concluded that the EPID Quadratic Calibration Method (QCM) is an accurate and convenient method for online in vivo dosimetry and may therefore replace existing techniques.


Leaffolders (LF) and stem borers (SB) are destructive rice pests in Uttar Pradesh. LF and SB infestations occur in August and continue until crop maturity. The pests can be avoided by planting resistant varieties. We screened 30 aromatic rice genotypes for resistance to LF and SB in the field at CRS, Masodha, Faizabad, during 2001 and 2002 kharif. Each test entry was planted in 12 x  2-m plots at 20 x  15-cm spacing with four replicates. All recommended crop management practices, except for plant protection measures, were followed. Infestation was recorded by counting the total number of leaves and the number of infested leaves (for LF) and the total number of tillers and damaged tillers (for SB) from 20 randomly selected hills of each genotype. NDR6175, NDR6093, and NDR6232 were found to be resistant, 10 genotypes were moderately resistant, 15 were moderately susceptible, and two were susceptible to LF. Six genotypes were moderately resistant, 20 were moderately susceptible, and four were susceptible to SB (see table).


To investigate eclogite melting under mantle conditions, we have performed a series of piston-cylinder experiments using a homogeneous synthetic starting material (GA2) that is representative of altered mid-ocean ridge basalt. Experiments were conducted at pressures of 30, 40 and 50 GPa and over a temperature range of 1200^16008C. The subsolidus mineralogy of GA2 consists of garnet and clinopyroxene with minor quartz^coesite, rutile and feldspar. Solidus temperatures are located at 12308C at 30 GPa and 13008C at 50GPa, giving a steep solidus slope of 30^408C/GPa. Melting intervals are in excess of 2008C and increase with pressure up to 50GPa. At 30 GPa feldspar, rutile and quartz are residual phases up to 408C above the solidus, whereas at higher pressures feldspar and rutile are
rapidly melted out above the solidus. Garnet and clinopyroxene are the only residual phases once melt fractions exceed 20% and garnet is the sole liquidus phase over the investigated pressure range. With increasing melt fraction garnet and clinopyroxene become progressively
more Mg-rich, whereas coexisting melts vary from K-rich
dacites at low degrees of melting to basaltic andesites at high melt fractions. Increasing pressure tends to increase the jadeite and Ca-eskolaite components in clinopyroxene and enhance the modal proportion of garnet at low melt fractions, which effects a marked reduction in the Al2O3 and Na2O content of the melt with pressure. In contrast, the TiO2 and K2O contents of the low-degree melts increase with increasing pressure; thus Na2O and K2O behave in a
contrasted manner as a function of pressure. Altered oceanic basalt is an important component of crust returned to the mantle via plate subduction, so GA2 may be representative of one of many different mafic lithologies present in the upper mantle. During upwelling of heterogeneous mantle domains, these mafic rock-types may undergo extensive melting at great depths, because of their low solidus temperatures compared with mantle peridotite. Melt batches may be highly variable in composition depending on the composition and degree of melting of the source, the depth of melting, and the degree of magma
mixing. Some of the eclogite-derived melts may also react with and refertilize surrounding peridotite, which itself may partially melt with further upwelling. Such complex magma-genesis conditions may partly explain the wide spectrum of primitive magma compositions found within oceanic basalt suites.


Introduction and objective: The body composition has been intensively investigated as a determinant of bone mineral density. The present study was developed in order to propose a predictive equation to calculate body fat percentage by means of skin folds thickness using bone densitometry (DXA) as a reference in a group of elderly women with osteoporosis and osteopenia. Methodology: Twenty-nine women, mean age 67 to 84 years old, in attendance at the Osteoporosis Clinic at Rheumatology Division, School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, were evaluated. Four skin folds thickness were measured (biceps, triceps, subscapular and suprailiac) and body composition by DXA was evaluated. The statistical analysis consisted of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson's coefficient correlation, simple linear regression analysis, intra-class correlation coefficient, t Student test, Bland-Altman test and calculus of equation total error according to Lohman (1992). Results: The best skinfold model that explained the percentage of body fat mass included the suprailiac, bicipital and tricipital values, determining up to 72% of body fat mass. The fat mass average values in kilograms estimated by the skin folds and measured by DXA were not statistically different and had been highly correlated (r = 0.82; p < 0.001). Comparing the fat mass percentage evaluated by the proposed equation and the percentage measured by DXA, the total error was of 0.7% and 0.4 kg. Conclusion: In view of the presented results, the resultant equation of the regression model is adequate for elderly women with osteoporosis and osteopenia, and may be an alternative for the body fat mass estimate in this population.


Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are wireless communication networks that operate without the need for any infrastructure. They are characterized by challenging environments; where the nodes are in constant motion, bandwidth and other resources are limited and the transmission medium prone to errors and collisions. Since wireless transmission ranges are limited, data often has to be relayed through multiple hops, which is why routing protocols are necessary to determine the best routes to send data across. There are numerous MANET routing protocols, categorized in different ways. This paper presents an overview of MANETs routing issues as well as a detailed discussion of the operating principles behind a few selected routing protocols and their relative performance.


Conversion to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer as an alternative to cancellation was offered in 27 consecutive cycles of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and intra-uterine insemination (IUI) cycles with excessive follicular development in patients with idiopathic infertility. IVF and embryo transfer was performed in 25 cycles, resulting in 13 pregnancies (52%), with 22% of couples having at least two embryos cryopreserved. The pregnancies have resulted in one singleton and two twin births, one spontaneous abortion, and nine ongoing pregnancies (including one triplet gestation). Four patients developed severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) after IVF and embryo transfer, including two cases requiring paracentesis. Three of four OHSS patients were pregnant, resulting in live births of healthy twins, one spontaneous abortion and one ongoing singleton gestation. In two cycles a spontaneous luteinizing hormone (LH) surge occurred, preventing oocyte retrieval. For these two women, drainage of all follicles except the five most likely to fertilize (18-22 mm diameter) was performed, followed by IUI, with no pregnancies or OHSS observed. Conversion of patients from IUI cycles to IVF/embryo transfer cycles avoids cancellation of the very cycles with the best chance of achieving pregnancy. OHSS remains a problem, necessitating extensive pre-IVF counselling and post-transfer vigilance.


1 of 8 LOGIQ E9 Shear Wave ELASTOGRAPHY Introduction Tissue stiffness is often related to underlying disease. For millennia, physicians have used palpation as a diagnostic tool to detect various ailments such as lesions, aneurysms, and inflammation. Stiff masses found during routine physical exams can be an early indication of disease, as in the cases of breast and prostate cancer. In some ailments, such as liver fibrosis, disease progression is marked by a gradual change in tissue stiffness. The ability to non-invasively measure tissue stiffness can therefore be a valuable tool in the diagnosis, staging, and management of disease1.


In exploring the emergence of scientific scholarship on the field of eating and nutrition in Brazil, the article examines works produced and published from 1934 to 1941 that disseminated and sought to encourage application of the conceptual and methodological bases of rational eating. Employing theory on the social genesis of a field, the investigation reveals that intellectuals in the area relied on a standardized approach and modus operandi: the indication of interventionist practices in eating and nutritional education which targeted large numbers of people and were influenced by the era's social and educational ideas and by the notion of education as a tool for social redemption.


This study was on profitability of garri processing in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State. It specifically examined the socio-economic characteristics, cost and returns and the influence of determinants on profit levels of garri processing. Multistage random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 60 garri processors. Descriptive statistics, budgetary and profit function techniques were employed to analyze the data collected. The study revealed a mean age of 41years, an average household size of 6, mean level of education of 9years and mean experience of 12years. It also showed that the venture is dominated by females (73.33%) with 80% being males. A net return of N354,283 and gross margin of N385,888 were estimated. Age, education, marital status and experience were significant at 1% level of significance while gender was insignificant at 1% level of significance and R 2 was 0.884%. The PI ratio was 0.42; IRR was 73% while the OR was 0.54. This study concludes that garri processing was profitable and so adult education should be encouraged and supported to improve on profit in the study area.


The country is facing one of the biggest challenges since its independence – the process of the EU accession. Taking into consideration that "forecasting important economic events is source of power" (Howitt, 2005), the aim of this paper is to develop a model in order to assess the impact of the EU membership on the Macedonian agriculture. The model is recursive, dynamic, multi-product partial equilibrium model for the meat, dairy and cereals sector in the Republic of Macedonia. It follows the AGMEMOD principles, hence comprising the local features of the Macedonian agriculture. The baseline scenario shows a positive growth of the pig meat, lamb meat and cow milk sectors. On the other hand, in the EU scenarios the most positive effect is expected in the extensive sectors, e.g the sheep and beef productions. The grains show modest growth on the supply side, but the projections on the net-trade demonstrate further deficit increase. The biggest gain in the EU scenarios comes from the higher level of prices, but also from the higher budgetary support. Compared with the experiences of the previous enlargements, the model confirms the expectations about the development of the selected sectors after the EU accession.


Background: SARS-CoV2 is associated with neurological and psychiatric complications including cerebrovascular events, encephalopathy and peripheral nerve disease. Detailed clinical data, including factors associated with recovery, is lacking, hampering prediction modelling and targeted therapeutic interventions. We studied COVID-associated neurological and psychiatric complications, to investigate the key clinical features, including those associated with outcome.

Methods: This UK-wide cross-sectional surveillance study of neurological and psychiatric complications of COVID-19 in adult hospitalised patients captured detailed data on demographics/risk factors, pre-COVID-19 Rockwood frailty score, comorbidities, neurological presentation and outcome. A priori clinical case definitions, based on criteria adopted by the World Health Organisation, were used, with cross-specialty independent adjudication for discrepant cases. Patients meeting multiple clinical case definitions were identified. Cases of stroke were compared to normative data during the equivalent time-period prior to the pandemic. Multivariable logistic regression was performed using demographic and clinical variables, to determine the factors associated with outcome.

Findings: 267 cases were included. Cerebrovascular events were most frequently reported (131, 49%), followed by central disorders (95, 36%) including delirium (28, 11%), central inflammatory (25, 9%), psychiatric (25, 9%), and other encephalopathies (17, 7%), including a severe encephalopathy not meeting delirium criteria; and peripheral nerve-disorders (41, 15%). 27% of cerebrovascular events occurred in patients 60 years old, the younger patients presented with delayed onset from respiratory symptoms, higher rates of multi-vessel occlusion (31%) and more frequently had systemic thrombotic events. Nevertheless, in both younger and older stroke cases there was an association with conventional, modifiable, cerebrovascular risk factors. The timing of neurological presentation varied between disease groups. In 34 cases (13%), clinical case definitions overlapped, and these cases were more likely to require intensive care and ventilation. Regardless of clinical case definition, older age, a higher pre-COVID-19 frailty score, and a high admission white cell count independently associated with a poor outcome. Limited recovery was most common for those with cerebrovascular events.

Interpretation: COVID-19 is associated with a broad spectrum of presentations throughout the nervous system, at varied time points relative to respiratory disease. Outcomes vary between disease groups, with cerebrovascular disease conferring the worst prognosis, but this effect was less marked than the pre-morbid factors of age and frailty. A severe encephalopathy occurs after COVID-19 and is associated with requiring intensive care and ventilation. COVID-19 is associated with large and multi-vessel stroke in young people, often with non-CNS thrombotic disease and requires further study. Nevertheless, conventional, modifiable risk factors were associated with stroke, even in younger people, suggesting the potential for public health intervention for this and future pandemics. These clinical data should be combined with blood and neuroimaging biomarkers so that patients can be stratified to targeted existing or novel therapeutics.


ABB is a global leader in Power and Automation Technologies. This Theses Work has been carried out at ABB FACTS R&D Department in Vasteras. ABB FACTS intend to develop new Product Platforms that is partly accomplished with new methods and processes. This Master Thesis concerns the development of a generic Review and Approval Process for these R&D Projects.The development of the generic Review and Approval process is mostly founded on several interviews of employees at ABB FACTS. The respondents are employees from several departments with different amount of experiences and background. In addition to the interviews a Literature Study focused on Roles and Responsibilities, Document Management and R&D Processes was performed.Information in connection to the problem statements concerning Responsibility- and Project Roles in R&D projects and Review and Approval Execution was collected and analyzed during the project. Information regarding how to demonstrate Roles and Responsibilities in relation to the project participants was also considered.The result of this project consists of a Responsibility Chart where all R&D Project related Document Types are listed in relation to the defined Project Roles. This Responsibility Chart also display what responsibility every Project Role has regarding review and approval related to the Document Types. Besides the Responsibility Chart also other objects were developed, such as a Review Record, a Process Description and a User Guide.The above mentioned results are developed in close cooperation with several R&D Project Managers. Furthermore the expectations are that the developed result will be taken in usage and thereby continuously be revised and improved in order to suit the organization to maximum extent.


ABSTRACT Background: The use of evidence-based practice (EBP) is encouraged in the physical therapy profession, but integrating evidence into practice can be difficult for clinicians because of lack of time and other constraints. Objective: To survey physical therapy clinical instructors and determine the methods they use for screening for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a type of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the lower extremities. Design: Exploratory survey. Methods: Twelve survey questions written specifically for this study were sent to a convenience sample of clinical instructors associated with seven universities across 43 states. Results: Eight hundred fifty clinical instructors (22.4% response rate) completed the survey. Of those who responded, 80.5% were taught to use Homans sign to screen for a possible DVT in their entry-level education and 67.9% continued to use Homans sign in clinical practice. Regardless of post-graduate education, respondents were more likely to choose Homans sign than a clinical decision rule (CDR) to screen for a suspected DVT. Additionally, nearly two-thirds of respondents failed to correctly identify one or more of the major risk factors for developing a DVT/VTE. Limitations: The response rate was 22.4% and therefore may not fully represent the population of physical therapy clinical instructors in the United States. Conclusions: Results from this exploratory survey indicated that approximately two-thirds of physical therapy clinical instructors used outdated DVT/VTE screening methods that they were taught in their entry-level education and nearly two-thirds did not identify the major risk factors associated with DVT/VTE. These results suggest that change is necessary in physical therapy education, clinical practice, and continuing professional development to ensure a more evidenced-based identification of DVT and VTE.


For a millimeter wave (mmWave) system consisting of a basestation (BS) and a mobile user-equipment (UE), the problem of signal-and-data detection is investigated, and a low complexity ML-MMSE receiver for mmWave beamforming, beamtracking, and data-symbols detection is proposed. Specifically, with a (practical) hybrid beamforming transceiver architecture at both the BS and UE, a multistage angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimation based beamtraining algorithm that provides fast acquisition of the best beam pairs for the BS-UE link is developed. In addition, a novel joint beamtracking and data-symbols detection algorithm, equipped with an adaptive equalizer, is also developed. The algorithm can simultaneously track the best receiving beams, and produce the data estimates that are easy to extract soft bit information for soft decoding; also, it can tackle the dynamic changes of the baseband effective channel. Analytical and simulation results show that the proposed receiver performs well over a broad range of SNR—it can rapidly acquire the most dominant AoAs for beamforming and constantly track the best moving beams due to UE's mobility or device rotation—and in particular, it achieves near-optimal spectral efficiency for a mobile UE with a single RF chain or very few RF chains.


Several lower extremity exoskeletal systems have been developed for augmentation purpose. Common actuators, have important drawbacks such as complexity, and poor torque capacities. The main scope of this research is to propose a series elastic actuator for lower extremity exoskeletal system which was designed based on muscle functional analysis. For this purpose, a biomechanical framework consisting of a musculoskeletal model with ten degrees-of-freedom actuated by eighteen Hill-type musculotendon actuators per leg is utilized to perform the muscle functional analysis for common daily human activities. The simulation study illustrated functional differences between flexor and extensor muscles and the results were utilized for efficient design of the series elastic torque actuator employed in lower extremity exoskeletons.


Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) materials used in electro-optical (EO) devices are characterized by high operating voltage and slow response speed, which hinders their further development in display applications. Dual-frequency CLCs (DFCLCs) can solve the problem of slow bistable transition, but the operating voltage is still high, especially in color-reflective DFCLC cells. Here we report a simple approach to lowering the switching voltage as well as to shortening the response time. This technique adopts hybrid surface treatment to modulate the structural arrangement of CLC molecules. Both planar- and vertical-alignment layers are employed and coated on one and the other substrates separately to improve the electro-optical properties of DFCLCs. We show that the threshold voltage for switching can be decreased to as low as 5 V and the shortest response time is measured to be 0.8 ms, which renders CLC EO devices including displays more practical for commercial purpose.


Many conventional biomaterials fail to meet the demands required of them with
respect to their surface and bulk properties. This problem can be addressed by
developing novel biomaterials that have the desired bulk properties and increased
biocompatibility. Alternatively the surfaces of biomaterials which have the desired
bulk properties can be modified to increase their biocompatibility without
compromising these bulk properties. Phosphorylcholine (PC) based coatings mimic
the surface of biological membranes and so offer a novel method for modifying bulk
materials, or can be incorporated into novel bulk biomaterials. One of the key issues
of biocompatibility is the continual stimulation of the inflammatory response by
biomaterials characterised in part by complement activation, macrophage adhesion
and granulocyte activation.


Overview of the araneofauna from forest fragments in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil) – This study aimed to compose a species database of the spider fauna in seven urban fragments of Atlantic Forest in Salvador city, State of Bahia, comparing the composition of three of those remaining fragments. The data were gathered in the Arachnology collection of the Animal Ecology and Conservation Centre (ECOA) – UCSal, coming from several projects connected to the centre between 2000 and 2009. We identified 3,201 adult individuals, from 39 families, 143 genera and 170 species or morphospecies. There was significant difference in the species composition of the spider fauna between the three fragments (Botanical Garden of Salvador, the Joventino Silva Park and forest within the ground of the 4 Guard Company). The species richness of fragments in Salvador has been found to be low, but standardized surveys of spiders are still needed to demonstrate the importance of conservation of the green areas within the city, since they maintain the diversity of the araneo-fauna in Salvador. Additional


Whereas Cicero and Seneca the younger always argued in favor of a rigid stylistic distinction between philosophy and oratory, this conceptual barrier does not seem to have been as widely accepted as they would both have wanted: besides their philosophical virtues, philosophers could also be praised for qualities of expression that Cicero or Seneca would have thought entirely irrelevant to the philosophical sermones or disputationes. As Pliny's letters would later show, philosophical and oratorical styles could be mingled, or could at least influence each other. This article analyzes these two tendencies — rejection or influence— by taking into account the point of view of the declamatory tradition from the 1 st century CE onward and by focusing on Seneca the Elder's approach to the problem. Using Seneca's commentaries on Albucius Silus and Papirius Fabianus' declamations, it tries to show that while he boldly rejected any kind of philosophical influence, Seneca regarded the declamatory way of speaking as the perfect path to achieve an effective philosophical style. The scholastici thus tried to assert their practice as a training equally fit for any genre of prose expression.


Long-term secular variation in the isotopic composition of seawater fixed nitrogen (N) is poorly known. Here, we document variation in the N-isotopic composition of marine sediments (δ 15 N sed ) since 660 Ma (million years ago) in order to understand major changes in the marine N cycle through time and their relationship to first-order climate variation. During the Phanerozoic, greenhouse climate modes were characterized by low δ 15 N sed (∼−2 to +2‰) and icehouse climate modes by high δ 15 N sed (∼+4 to +8‰). Shifts toward higher δ 15 N sed occurred rapidly during the early stages of icehouse modes, prior to the development of major continental glaciation, suggesting a potentially important role for the marine N cycle in long-term climate change. Reservoir box modeling of the marine N cycle demonstrates that secular variation in δ 15 N sed was likely due to changes in the dominant locus of denitrification, with a shift in favor of sedimentary denitrification during greenhouse modes owing to higher eustatic (global sea-level) elevations and greater on-shelf burial of organic matter, and a shift in favor of water-column denitrification during icehouse modes owing to lower eustatic elevations, enhanced organic carbon sinking fluxes, and expanded oceanic oxygen-minimum zones. The results of this study provide new insights into operation of the marine N cycle, its relationship to the global carbon cycle, and its potential role in modulating climate change at multimillion-year timescales.


The authors discuss 18 child patients with suprasellar cysts containing cerebrospinal fluid; 16 of them were operated on. The following types of interventions were performed: ventriculocisternostomy, ventriculoatriostomy, excision of the cystic walls through a transventricular-transcortical, combined subfrontal and transcallosal, and only a subfrontal approaches; shunting operations--cystoatriostomy and cystoperitoneostomy. Excision of the walls of the cyst is preferable.


This thesis reports on the realisation and characterisation of a magnetically trapped ultracold atomic mixture of (^87)Rb and (^133)Cs in the F = 1, m(_F) = -1 and F = 3, m(_F) = - 3 hyperfine states respectively. A compact two-species double magneto-optical trapping (MOT) apparatus is constructed in which a pyramid MOT acts to provide an independent flux of both atomic species for capture in the ultra-high vacuum science region of the apparatus. For the two-species science MOT in which this atom flux is captured, interspecies light assisted inelastic collisions are found to be a highly significant loss mechanism. A novel optical pressure spatial displacement technique is developed to minimise such losses, allowing near independent simultaneous loading of up to ~ 8 x 10(^8) (^87)Rb and ~ 3 x 10(^8) (^133)Cs atoms into an Ioffe-Pritchard 'baseball' magnetic trap at magnetic biasfields of 166.70(6) and 165.50(6) G respectively. At the loaded 87Rb and 133Cs atom number densities of 1.78(6) x 10(^9) and 2.53(6) X 10(^9) cm-3 respectively the magnetic trap lifetime of each atomic species is shown to be 100(10) s and independent of the presence of the second atomic species. Radio-frequency evaporative cooling trajectories for (^87)Rb and (^133)Cs of 129 s duration are separately optimised under single species magnetic trap operation to achieve phase-space densities of 6(1) x 10(^-7) and 3(1) X 10(^-4) respectively at temperatures of 7.6(1) μK and 520(10) nK.(^133)Cs Feshbach resonances at 118.06(8) and 133.4(1) G are characterised through the measurement of magnetic field dependent losses at the increased phase-space density. Implementation of simultaneous evaporative cooling following the single species trajectories is found to be ineffective below ~10 μK due to the increased thermal load imposed upon the (^133)Cs atoms as the(^87)Rb single species elastic collision cross section approaches the low energy limit. Following simultaneous evaporation to ~ 15 μK thermalisation of the mixtures axial and radial temperature components suggests a (^87)Rb-(^133)Cs interspecies elastic collision rate 3(1) and 7(1) times greater than the calculated single species (^133)Cs and (^87)Rb elastic collision rates respectively. An interspecies Feshbach resonance search is undertaken by measuring the number of atoms of each species remaining in the magnetic trap as a function of applied magnetic field following simultaneous evaporation. The absence of magnetic field dependent losses in conjunction with analysis of the measurement sensitivity demonstrates that no interspecies Feshbach resonances wider than 1 G with two-body inelastic collision rate constants greater than 5 X 10(^-10) cm(^3) s(^-1) are present over the magnetic field range 166 < B < 370 G in the trapped states. The sensitivity of this measurement is found to be highly dependent upon the magnetic field induced differential gravitational sag of the mixtures components.


A method for the determination of lead in urine by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) is described. A combination of wet ashing and extraction with ammonium pyrrolidine dithio-carbamate into isobutylmethylketone was used. The sensitivity was about 0 -02 ,ug. /ml. for i % absorption, and the detection limit was about 0 -02 ,ug. /ml. with an instrumental setting convenient for routine analyses of urines. Using the scale expansion technique, the detection limit was below O-OI ,ug./ml., but it was found easier to determine urinary lead concentrations below o0o5 ,ug./ml. by concentrating the lead in the organic solvent by increasing the volume of urine or decreasing that of the solvent. The method was applied to fresh urines, stored urines, and to urines, obtained during treatment with chelating agents, of patients with lead poisoning. Urines with added inorganic lead were not used. The results agreed well with those obtained with a colorimetric dithizone extraction method (r = o 989). The AAS method is somewhat more simple and allows the determination of smaller lead concentrations.


This paper presents research motivated by industrial demand for special traction drive topology devoted to minimization of traction transformer weight against topology with classical 50Hz traction transformer. The main attention has been given to the special traction drive topology for AC power systems: input high voltage trolley converter (single phase) — middle frequency transformer (single phase) — output converter (single phase voltage-source active rectifier + three phase voltagesource inverter) — traction motor. The proposed converter control algorithm of innovative traction topology with middle-frequency transformer has been described in detail. The theoretical conclusions and simulation results are compared with experimental measurements on laboratory model with rated power of 4kVA.


Universal Consistency, the convergence to the minimum possible error rate in learning through genetic programming (GP), and Code bloat, the excessive increase of code size, are important issues in GP. This paper proposes a theoretical analysis of universal consistency and code bloat in the framework of symbolic regression in GP, from the viewpoint of Statistical Learning Theory, a well grounded mathematical toolbox for Machine Learning. Two kinds of bloat must be distinguished in that context, depending whether the target function has finite description length or not. Then, the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension of programs is computed, and we prove that a parsimonious fitness ensures Universal Consistency (i.e. the fact that the solution minimizing the empirical error does converge to the best possible error when the number of examples goes to infinity). However, it is proved that the standard method consisting in choosing a maximal program size depending on the number of examples might still result in programs of infinitely increasing size with their accuracy; a fitness biased by parsimony pressure is proposed. This fitness avoids unnecessary bloat while nevertheless preserving the Universal Consistency.


The survival, growth and live tissue status of 354 transplanted scleractinian corals were monitored over a five year period at Aua, Tutuila, American Samoa. These corals had been removed to avoid burial by temporary causeway construction, and were returned back and reattached in their general area of origin. Transplant survival approximately one year following reattachment was high (91 to 92%) in 2001; however, by 2005 survival (60 to 78%) had declined significantly. Lobate Porites species and Pocillopora eydouxi had significantly higher survival rates than small and mid-sized Pocillopora species. Transplant colonies did not fare worse than controls in terms of survival, growth and change in live tissue cover. Coral transplantation has the potential to preserve individual colonies from impending impacts. However, a broader perspective on how and whether transplants contribute to enhanced system recovery needs to be investigated.


Simultaneous peritoneal fluid and serum gentamicin assays were performed at 1- or 4-h intervals after the intravenous administration of gentamicin (3 to 5 mg/kg per day) during nine episodes of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in cirrhotic patients. Mean peritoneal fluid levels were 4.2 micrograms/ml, whereas simultaneous mean serum levels were 6.1 micrograms/ml (mean percent diffusion into ascites of 67.8%). Three additional patients with uninflamed ascites demonstrated lower levels of diffusion. Regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between simultaneous serum and peritoneal fluid levels. We conclude that diffusion of gentamicin from serum into peritoneal fluid during spontaneous peritonitis is therapeutically adequate if sufficient serum levels are maintained.


Despite the great creators' efforts of e-learning educational materials, it is not possible to define the content of these materials specifically for all students. Based on this, it is necessary to provide in e-learning education the possibility of a more detailed interpretation of specific parts of the educational material that may be unclear to specific students. Based on this fact, we decided to take the first step in the form of software design, which will represent a virtual assistant in teaching computer science. The role of this assistant will be the ability to answer technical questions related to the presented curriculum. From an architectural point of view, it will be a set of micro-services, each of which will serve a specific task. The prerequisite is the use of decision trees to determine a specific micro-service, which will be implemented in the form of a neural network. Main aim of this paper is to provide detail description of global software architecture for such a virtual assistant


We have carried out extensive computational analyses of the structure and bonding mechanism in trihalides DX⋅⋅⋅A− and the analogous hydrogen-bonded complexes DH⋅⋅⋅A− (D, X, A=F, Cl, Br, I) using relativistic density functional theory (DFT) at zeroth-order regular approximation ZORA-BP86/TZ2P. One purpose was to obtain a set of consistent data from which reliable trends in structure and stability can be inferred over a large range of systems. The main objective was to achieve a detailed understanding of the nature of halogen bonds, how they resemble, and also how they differ from, the better understood hydrogen bonds. Thus, we present an accurate physical model of the halogen bond based on quantitative Kohn–Sham molecular orbital (MO) theory, energy decomposition analyses (EDA) and Voronoi deformation density (VDD) analyses of the charge distribution. It appears that the halogen bond in DX⋅⋅⋅A− arises not only from classical electrostatic attraction but also receives substantial stabilization from HOMO–LUMO interactions between the lone pair of A− and the σ* orbital of D–X.


The ground state potential energy surfaces (PESs) of MH(2)(n+) (M = Li, Be, Na, Mg, K, Ca; n = 1, 2) have been investigated using relativistically corrected, coupled-cluster (CC) and multi-reference configuration interaction (MRCI) methods. The PESs for MH(2)(+) (M = Li, Na, K) and MH(2)(n+) (M = Be, Mg, Ca; n = 1, 2) exhibit global minima corresponding to C(2v) symmetry equilibrium structures, with local minima for D(∞h) and C(∞v) symmetry states. Conversely, the ground state PESs of LiH(2)(2+), NaH(2)(2+) and KH(2)(2+) are repulsive. In all cases, the D(∞h) states resulting from the insertion of M(n+) into the H(2) moiety were significantly higher in energy than the co-linear C(2v) states. It is generally assumed a priori that these species are the result of the interaction between the metal ion charge state and the quadrupole moment of the H(2) moiety. However, analysis of the functional ΔΘ(αα)(R(M(n+)-H(2))) = Θ(αα)(MH(2)(n+)) - Θ(αα)(M(n+)) (which is effectively the difference between traceless quadrupole moments (Θ(αα)) of MH(2)(n+) and the isolated M(n+) ion computed using MRCI) as a function of M(n+)-H(2) distance demonstrates that a local maximum in ΔΘ(αα) along the molecular C(2) axis is necessary for the formation of a thermodynamically stable complex. It is concluded that the topology of ΔΘ(αα) provides a convenient indicator of the stability of such molecular ion-quadrupole complexes.


In this investigation into the initiation and propagation of damage in CFRP materials, a method was first established whereby damage could be induced, during flexure, at the centre of thin plate-like cantilever specimens. An acceptable clamping shape was found using 3-D Finite Element modelling. This technique was also useful in deducing the types of stress that were responsible for delamination, and in assessing the fatigue resistance of various layups. Results were confirmed by Thermography and Scanning Electron Microscope results. Experimental results indicated that damage initiation during flexural fatigue occurred earlier for higher surface strains, and that subsequent delamination affected damping, natural frequency and static stiffness of specimens. There was also shown to be the possibility of the existence of a fatigue strain limit for the material. Experimental and theoretical work was extended to examine the condition of in-plane stress with superimposed dynamic excitation. Here, difficulty was experienced in designing experiments complementary to F.E. models. However, results predicted the direction of damage propagation and that the presence of in-plane stresses could be detrimental to fatigue life. A more refined F.E. model in which delamination could be opened between desired layers, indicated that shear stresses were greater the further the delamination was sited from the neutral plane. Since failure during experiments always occurred between the same two layers, this suggested that high shear stresses had a stronger influence upon crack initiation than small defects which might have occurred anywhere throughout the thickness. Acoustic Emission work demonstrated the existence of `micromechanical' damage, which was suspected to be fibre breakage. At a constant amplitude of dynamic flexural loading, emissions occurred initially, but after a certain time ceased almost completely. A hypothesis was suggested to account for such mechanisms, and their possible influence upon delamination.


Multifunctional ferromagnetic shape memory Heusler Ni-MnGa alloys are frequently characterized by structural modulation in martensitic phases. In particular, modulated martensitic phases, showing the higher magnetic field induced strain performance, are the most promising candidates for technological applications. Depending on the composition, as well as pressure and temperature conditions, this periodic structural distortion, consisting of shuffling of atomic layers along defined crystallographic directions, accompanies the martensitic transformation. Over the years, different Ni-MnGa modulated martensitic structures have been observed and classified depending upon the periodicity of corresponding ideal nM superstructure (where n indicates the number of basic unit cells constituting the superlattices). On the other hand, it has been demonstrated that in most cases such structural modulation is incommensurate and the crystal structure has been fully determined by applying superspace formalism [1,2]. The results, obtained by structure refinements on powder diffraction data, suggest a unified crystallographic description of the modulated martensitic structures, here presented, where every different "nM" periodicity can be straightforwardly represented.


Two populations of aspiny interneurons have been identified in the mammalian striatum, one cholinergic and the other using the neuropeptide somatostatin as a neurotransmitter. The times at which these 2 cell populations undergo their final mitosis were studied by injecting tritiated thymidine into timed pregnant rats and then processing the brains of the progeny as young adults for immunohistochemistry with monoclonal antibodies to choline acetyltransferase and somatostatin followed by autoradiography. Choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive neurons became postmitotic in a caudal- to-rostral gradient; the occurrence of final mitosis was maximal on embryonic day (E) 12 at the most caudal level and on E15 at the most rostral. A more subtle lateral-to-medial gradient was also observed in the precommissural striatum. In contrast, no obvious gradients were seen with somatostatin-immunoreactive neurons; regardless of their location within the striatum, these neurons underwent their final mitosis on days E15–16, towards the end of cholinergic neurogenesis. These results indicate that although both cholinergic and somatostatin- containing cells represent interneuronal populations in the striatum, they display distinctly different spatiotemporal patterns of neurogenesis.


Introduction of pentavalent vaccine in the year 2012 to Nigerian childhood vaccination programme was adjudged as a major advancement in the field of childhood vaccination. However, efforts made to achieve universal coverage was quite challenging with pockets of outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases in the country. This was attributed to low awareness, perception and low uptake of vaccination. Therefore, the level of awareness and perception of pentavalent vaccines and its determinants among women of reproductive age group in Ilorin West LGA of Kwara state was studied using a semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire in January 2013. A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study using multistage sampling technique in Ilorin West local government area of Kwara State was carried out. The Fischer's formula was used to determine the minimum sample size of 400 while the results were analyzed with EPI INFO version 6 software package. Age, marital status, educational level and occupation are significantly associated with individual awareness and perception on pentavalent vaccine , p< 0.05. A total of 77% of the subjects were aware of the introduction of the vaccines into the National Programme on Immunization while about 92.8% perceived that the vaccine was beneficial. The level of awareness and perception of pentavalent vaccine was high among the age group of 20-39. It was also higher among those with higher level of education, among civil servants and students. The major source of their awareness was health workers. There is therefore a need for improvement of awareness and perception among all categories of women, especially those in the child bearing age, and health workers involved in immunization activities in order to improve this vaccination uptake. Keywords : Immunization, awareness, perception, pentavalent vaccine, reproductive age group


The reliability impacts of a highly variable energy source such as wind power is an important aspect that needs to be assessed as wind power penetration becomes increasingly significant. Bulk electric system (BES) reliability analysis associated with wind energy conversion systems (WECS) provides an opportunity to investigate the reliability benefits at potential BES connection points in close proximity to the wind power development area. A bulk electric system can encounter transmission capacity limitation problems when a large-scale WECS is connected to a weak transmission area. In this case, transmission reinforcement may be required in order to increase the system capability to absorb more wind power at specified locations. BES reliability analysis associated with large-scale wind farms as demonstrated in this paper can assist system planners to create potential transmission reinforcement schemes to facilitate large-scale WECS additions to a bulk system. Reliability cost/worth analysis is also incorporated in the examination of reinforcement alternatives. A sequential Monte Carlo simulation approach is used as this methodology can facilitate a time series modeling of wind speeds and also provides accurate frequency and duration assessments. An auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) time series model is used to simulate hourly wind speeds


Nobody would claim that debugging computer software is easy: all too often it proceeds by trial-and-error experiments in which programmers examine the behaviour of the system and form hypotheses that could explain what they see. These problems are exacerbated when developing distributed, peer-to-peer or multi-processor applications, or when unreliable network links form part of the system under test. Environments for pervasive computing take this to an extreme, allowing user-supplied code to run or migrate within and around the network.In this paper we show how to perform pervasive debugging, enabling complex multi-process applications to be debugged and controlled as single entities and their robustness to changes in network performance to be evaluated. We do this by virtualizing the resources used by the system, allowing the threads that it involves and the network links that it uses to be modelled within a single controllable process.


In this paper, we report the results of our participation in the TREC-COVID challenge. To meet the challenge of building a search engine for rapidly evolving biomedical collection, we propose a simple yet effective weighted hierarchical rank fusion approach, that ensembles together 102 runs from (a) lexical and semantic retrieval systems, (b) pre-trained and fine-tuned BERT rankers, and (c) relevance feedback runs. Our ablation studies demonstrate the contributions of each of these systems to the overall ensemble. The submitted ensemble runs achieved state-of-the-art performance in rounds 4 and 5 of the TREC-COVID challenge.


Internet of things in combination with game based learning offers new possibilities to improve teaching and learning. This paper presents an example of using the Internet of Things in education through the creation of an educational interactive game. An educational game based on the Internet of Things has been developed. The developed system aims to motivate students to acquire and enhance knowledge in the field of Internet of Things. The system is composed of a mobile application that serves as a controller for students, an administrative tool in the form of a web application used by the teachers, a set of assignments implemented within a smart educational environment, and a collection of web services used for integration of software components. The system is integrated with Moodle learning management system. The evaluation has been conducted at the Faculty of organizational sciences, University of Belgrade, during the Summer school in Internet of things. A group of seven students played the game, solved the knowledge test, and gave their opinions on usefulness, ease of use, ease of learning and satisfaction with the developed system. Results show that the game has a positive effect on students' knowledge and attitudes, and therefore is suitable for application within a blended learning environment.


The climate crisis is urging us to act fast. Buildings are a key leverage point to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but the embodied emissions related with their construction remain often the hidden challenge of any ambitious policy. Considering that a complete material substitution is not possible, we explore in this paper a material GHG compensation where fast-growing bio-based insulation materials are used to compensate building elements that necessarily release GHG. Looking for analogies with other human activities, different material diets as well as different building typologies are modelled to assess the consequences in term of bio-based insulation requirement to reach climate-neutrality. The material diets are defined according to the gradual use of herbaceous materials, from the insulation up to the structural level: omnivorous, vegetarian and vegan. Our results show the relationship in terms of volume between the climate intensive materials and the climate-negative ones needed to neutralize the overall building GHG emissions. Moreover, they suggest how climate-neutral building can look like and that it is possible to have climate-neutral buildings with wall thickness within the range of current construction practices.


ABSTRACTWe have developed a computational framework that allows an efficient, spatially variant correlation filter for anisotropic dip filtering. The approach is based on the Laplace correlation function, for which there exists analytical expressions for the correlation kernel and its inverse kernel in the 1D case. An extension to higher dimensions by adding orthogonal 1D inverse functions provides a linear equation whose solution is identical to applying a Bessel filter. We have found that a good approximation of the Laplace filter function is obtained by applying a cascade of Bessel filters. We implement such an inverse operator on regular grids with a finite-difference stencil, giving a sparse matrix for the linear equation, which can be solved efficiently through a conjugate-gradient algorithm. Computing such a correlation operation by solving the linear system involving the inverse operator is significantly faster than applying the correlation function via convolution or windowed convolution: Solving...


ABSTRACT Despite enhancements in the visual complexity of in-vehicle information display in recent years, few studies have examined the effects of such increased complexity. We conducted this study with the following objectives: (1) to suggest a framework for predicting the perceived visual complexity (PVC) of in-vehicle information display; (2) to examine the effects of PVC on the visual behavior of human operators; (3) to investigate the relationship between preferences and PVC. A theoretical framework to evaluate PVC was developed, and a survey study was used to collect participants' perceptions on visual complexity. A regression analysis was employed to find the relationship between each of three factors and PVC. Two of the factors—quantity and variety—showed a positive correlation with PVC, whereas the third factor, relation, exhibited a negative correlation. Visual search experiments were conducted to test the effects of PVC on the performance of visual search tasks and glance behavior. The results showed that the high level of PVC leads to more time-on-task and number of fixations. We also found that preference for in-vehicle information displays was inversely proportional to PVC. The results enable us to predict how human operators perceive visual complexity and explain the influence of PVC on human behavior.


Abstract In the present study, rice husk ash, which is a renewable and abundant material, was utilized as a carrier for lipase immobilization for the first time. Poly (ε-caprolactone) synthesis was successfully achieved by the new enzymatic catalyst: Candida antarctica lipase B immobilized onto surface-modified rice husk ashes by covalent binding. It was aimed to obtain optimum polymerization conditions at which highest molecular weight was reached and characterize the polymer produced. Moreover, thermal stability and effectiveness of the new biocatalyst in non-aqueous media were also shown with successful polymerization reactions. In addition, by using the new enzyme preparation, ε-caprolactone was able to be polymerized even at 30°C, which was promising for an energy saving process. Consequently, this work provides a new alternative route for poly (ε-caprolactone) synthesis.


The increasing awareness of sustainability issues due to climate change increases the investments in renewable energy. The intermittency and unpredictability of those energy sources will have an impact on the electric power system. The increasing rate of urbanization also makes cities all over the world grow rapidly. To handle this in a sustainable way the energy and resource use must become more efficient. The challenges with renewable energy in the energy system and the demand for more efficient energy use in cities would both be facilitated by a more flexible demand side. This could be enabled by integration of more information and communication technology in the electric grid and in buildings.
The purpose of this project is to investigate how office buildings in Sweden can contribute to more efficient electricity use in a city. The overall problem dealt with has been how controlled management of the electricity consumption, solar power production and charging of electric vehicles connected to an office building can be combined to benefit the electric grid while profiting the property owner.
There are no technical problems in making the demand side more flexible, and thereby the electric power system more efficient. The challenges lies more in the organizational part and finding business models that make it profitable for all parts involved. The overall problem in realizing these measures at the moment, lies in the fact that there are not yet enough economic incentives since the variations in electricity price, and the electricity price in itself are too low. Some of the changes and possible solutions concerning the energy system depend on societal changes that cannot be fully predicted, thereby creating important uncertainties.


Simulation is a useful way to learn from errors and there is evidence that using simulation to review patient safety events minimises the chance of their recurrence.1 This is also endorsed by the NPSA.2 We felt that we could expand our weekly Emergency Department in-situ simulation program to compliment the root cause analysis that follows a serious untoward incident and identify system errors, reducing second victim phenomenon and improve patient safety. A pilot simulation was created based upon the error report of a real event that occurred in our Emergency Department and run using a "cold" clinical team (a similar team but not the one involved in the error). Although logistically challenging, running the event in the original location was powerful and "felt realistic". The error was forced (a faulty piece of equipment was deliberately used) but the clinical team identified and addressed this quickly, using protocols put in place since the original incident. Even though the consequences of the original error did not occur, we were able to demonstrate that actions taken to prevent recurrence had been effective. The pilot demonstrated that running in-situ simulated serious incidents in the original environment was both feasible and acceptable to clinical teams and that adapting simulation in this way may enable more effective debriefing of the team involved in the error as well as assisting the investigation process. We have proposed a model for simulating future events: Gather background knowledge from the team. Original team walk through an in-situ simulation Run in-situ sim with similar clinical team -- to identify latent errors and identify solutions Using this model, we will run a second pilot in an area of the trust that does not regularly perform simulation to further evaluate and refine the process. References Fent G, Blythe J, Farooq O, Purva M. In situ simulation as a tool for patient safety: a systematic review identifying how it is used and its effectiveness. BMJ Simulation & Technology Enhanced Learning 2015. NPSA. Patient safety and simulation: Using learning from national review of serious incidents 2010.


A programme of numerical, theoretical and experimental studies has been carried out at the University of Liverpool on the explosive loading of seamless steel pipes. Ten pipes of dimensions 800 mm long, 324 mm outside diameter and 9.5 mm thick were subjected to explosive loading along their mid-length using cylindrical PE4 charges detonated simultaneously from both circular faces. A range of charge sizes were used to determine the effect of the blast waves on the maximum plastic hoop strain in the pipe walls with the aim of determining the magnitude of the impulse required to initiate failure in the pipe wall. Theoretical analyses of the deformation process were investigated using equations available in the past literature as well as an attempted derivation of equations of motion used to analyse the transient deformation of the pipe where wall thinning is considered based on a constant volume assumption. A comparison of these analyses is made in this paper together with a numerical analysis of the problem using AUTODYN 2D where a von Mises material model was used to simulate the assumption of a perfectly plastic material. Further finite element simulations were conducted to model the blast process and structural response of the experimental pipes using cylindrical charges. It was found that a Johnson-Cook strength model for the simulated pipe material in the numerical solution gives good agreement with the test data as this model attempts to account for the strain rate and strain hardening effects of the steel. The objective of the study, which is sponsored by AWE plc, Aldermaston, is to ultimately determine the failure mechanism of such a pipe under very high rates of loading.


BACKGROUND
Defects in the enzyme coproporphyrinogen oxidase result in accumulation of porphyrins which may affect the severity of a subset of porphyrias. Thus evaluation of this enzyme for substrate selectivity is of value. Kinetic evaluations of recombinant human coproporphyrinogen oxidase have been undertaken using six di- and tripropionate analogs of the natural substrate coproporphyrinogen-III. These substrate analogs were modified by having alkyl groups in place of one or both of the ring 13- or 17-propionate moieties.

MATERIAL/METHODS
Cloned human enzyme was incubated with analogs under apparent first order conditions and with various substrate concentrations. The kinetic values, K(m) and V(max), were determined.

RESULTS
Relative to the authentic substrate, the K(m) values for the 13-ethyl, dimethyl and diethyl porphyrinogens were very comparable whereas the K(m) values were much higher using dipropyl and dibutyl porphyrinogen and much lower for the 17-ethyl analog. For the dipropionate analogs, the V(max) values were an apparent function of the carbon length of the substituent on the C and D rings, with longer carbon length severely reducing product formation by some 4-5 orders of magnitude. Also, the two isomeric tripropionates that were tested indicated that it was more detrimental to have an ethyl group at the 13-position for both binding and catalysis.

CONCLUSIONS
This work extends our understanding of porphyrin ring substituent effects reported by Cooper et al. (2005). The substituents on both the C and D rings have significant effects on both the substrate binding and catalysis by this important enzyme.


The impact of Information Technology on the growth of the knowledge society is profound. In an era when human intellectual creativity is highly valued, IT is a powerful tool enabling the analysis and development of ideas and concepts. Regarding IT as a means to automate business tasks aiming at some labour savings would be an extremely simplistic approach to a more complex concept. Designing systems that augment user capabilities, encourage further exploration and foster creativity will enable users to do what they have not been able to do before. Business environments where collaborative work relationships flourish become highly successful in the intensely competitive global marketplace. The synergy between IT and teams working together to accomplish mutual goals becomes the key to organisational performance.
The AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry in particular is undergoing dramatic changes due to the pervasive use of networked computers and multimedia equipment. The advent of the first PCs in the architectural profession in the early 1980s gradually started adding a new element of complexity to the architect's job. The essence of the architectural work is the teamwork environment and IT is able to facilitate the design process and make project collaborations effective.
Our research focuses on IT and its impact on architectural team environments. Recent emerging trends that will be analysed include architecture firms' collaborations on national and international projects (firms experts in particular building types associate with local or regional firms called "architect of record" commissioned for the contract documentation and the contract administration stages of the project). The Royal Sun Alliance Building, Metropolis Apartments, Botany Downs Shopping Centre, DFS Galleria (all in Auckland) are some NZ examples of international collaborations with the design coming from the USA and Australia and Auckland firms commissioned as "architect of record". Such trends necessitate the use of new technologies like advanced digital communications and hence the unprecedented boom of project extranets, or project WEB sites, and the emergence of the WEB-based architecture. Highly sophisticated architectural environments are built around Intranets, Extranets, the Internet and Video Conferencing systems. This enables the integration of architectural design, business management and team collaborations through computer technology. As a consequence, traditional roles and responsibilities in an office environment will change dramatically with fewer lower level routine tasks being available. Continually updating skills through on-going education becomes a lifetime commitment for the highly qualified industry professionals and for the company as a whole. A large number of computer software applications become indispensable for the highly efficient everyday functioning of an office. Some of the most significant buildings of the 1990s like F. Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and S. Calatrava's Extension for the Milwaukees's Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA couldn't have been made without CAD. Another interesting trend is the use of IT to define a building through its entire life cycle in a more comprehensive way. This covers not only the traditional design and construction phases of a project but also automated facilities management and even the building's eventual demolition.
Our research methodology encompasses an array of primary and secondary sources of information – literature review, international case studies and projects both pre and post IT revolution, interviews with experienced industry professionals, hands-on experience demonstrating WEB based concepts in practice and individual professional expertise.
Research Outcomes and Conclusions:
· Although technology has given us numerous new tools to be more productive and innovative creatively, the amount of quality architecture being designed may not necessarily increase.
· It is academia that drives innovative uses of technology not industry. Academia has more time and resources to experiment and is not at the mercy of the vendors' vision or how technology can or should be used.
· Computing is in a never-ending flux. This change, for better or worse dynamically drives the way we do business. The entire industry must seek out these changes, create them, challenge them, foster, adopt or discard them to suit.
· As object oriented CAD becomes more pervasive, more value will be added to the construction documentation. This value-add needs to be recognised and exploited.
· As technology pervades, the design process, regardless, remains relatively the same.
· Hierarchical business models and decision-making processes are no longer the norm. This fosters an atmosphere of collaboration and employee empowerment.
· Talent is talent. Technology is no substitute for it.


The public library is the prime community access point designed to respond to a multitude of ever-changing information needs. These guidelines are framed to provide assistance to library and information professionals in most situations. They assist to better develop effective services, relevant collections, and accessible formats within the context and requirements of the local community. In this exciting and complex information world it is important for professionals in search of knowledge, information and creative experience to succeed. This is the 2nd edition of The Public Library Service IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development.


Methods and apparatus for embedding digital watermarks into a digital host content are provided. A digital host content is received, e.g., at a receiver or other device incorporating a receiver. One or more watermark embedding technologies is selected. Multiple embedding opportunities are identified within the host content. A subset of the identified embedding opportunities is selected. A multiplicity of digital water marks are then embedded into the host content in accordance with the selected subset of embedding opportunities utilizing the one or more selected watermark embedding technolo gies. The selecting of the Subset of embedding opportunities may be adapted to provide a desired tradeoff between levels of robustness, security, and transparency of the watermark. A plurality of watermarking embedding technologies may be selected and used in the embedding step.


This thesis explores how energy security has been a key feature of British government policy in electrification since the First World War, in contrast to accounts that characterise electrification as if simply a means to achieve greater economic efficiency in energy supply. For Britain this focus on energy security has historically meant reliance on coal: since the end of the nineteenth century, new high-efficiency technologies of electricity generation and network distribution had offered a means of reducing the tonnage of coal needed to produce power. Economic histories of electricity supply in Britain, such as Hannah's Electricity Before Nationalisation, as well as more recent work such Hausman Hertner's Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878-2007, have focused almost exclusively on such efficiency-centred arguments to explain the widespread electrification of the UK in the first half of the twentieth century. These works, however, do not consider the additional security benefits that were secured in ubiquitous electricity supply, whether in terms of the strategic preservation of coal stocks for future use, or of the potential risks of becoming overly reliant on a fallible coal supply for electrical production, or of the breakdown of electricity power supply for a variety of reasons. I show that the development of a National Electricity Supply, between 1914 and 1956, was part of a deliberate move by the State (of any and all political affiliations) to fulfil their top priority of security of energy supply for British industry, Ironically, however, the success of this move to widen electrical usage also had the unintended effect of significantly increasing the UK's dependence on coal and therefore vulnerability to any interruption in the localised supply of coal to the power stations. Hence, establishment of a plan for a National Grid of electricity supply from 1926, the year of the General Strike, was also a vital strategic move to attain national security, enabling the multi-routed distribution of electricity around the entire country's industries to minimise any disruption to power supplies from the four security threats of enemy attack, industrial action by coal or power-station workers, political (terrorist/revolutionary) sabotage or accidental damage. Not only did the distributed infrastructure of electrical energy supply became part of the national defences to deal with airborne attacks first encountered in the First World War, it also became an essential part of preparedness for future conflict, in what Edgerton has dubbed the 'Warfare State'. Throughout the thesis I explore the tension between Hannah's and Hughes's arguments for economic efficiency, and the agenda of security of supply which was less efficient but limited the nation's vulnerability. I show that, both in peace and war, security of supply was the overridingly important factor in the development of Britain's National Grid.


Isolated trout liver cells were treated with lysolecithin to produce an in situ system for characterizing DNA repair in teleosts. In this preparation, the integrity of the plasma membrane is altered, nuclei remain intact, and the concentrations of dNTPs and nucleotide analogs, which normally do not penetrate intact plasma membranes, can be controlled. Following lysolecithin treatment, 50% of the total cellular protein and nearly 75% of total lactate dehydrogenase activity was released from the liver cells. Microscopic examination indicated that the integrity of the plasma membrane of trout hepatocytes was disrupted by lysolecithin; however, smaller nonhepatocytic liver cells were resistant to the disrupting effects of this detergent. Bleomycin induced DNA repair synthesis in lysolecithin-treated cells, as demonstrated by CsCl gradient analysis of 5-bromo, 2'-deoxyuridine, 5'-triphosphate-labeled DNA. Optimal conditions for bleomycin-induced DNA repair synthesis in lysolecithin-treated trout liver cells were considerably different from that in lysolecithin-treated mammalian cells. Bleomycin-induced DNA repair synthesis was lower in lysolecithin-treated trout liver cells than in lysolecithin-treated mammalian cells at identical concentrations of 2'-deoxyribonucleoside, 5'-triphosphates (dNTPs), suggesting the decreased sensitivity of trout cells in unscheduled DNA synthesis assays can be attributed to factors other than differences in dNTP pools. Bleomycin-induced DNA repair synthesis in trout hepatocytes was shown to be very sensitive to inhibition by 2', 3'-dideoxythymidine, 5'-triphosphate and was resistant to inhibition by cytosine arabinoside, 5'-triphosphate, butylphenyldeoxyguanosine, 5'-triphosphate and aphidicolin. These observations indicate repair of bleomycin-induced DNA damage in trout cells occurs through a mechanism similar to that in mammalian cells, utilizing DNA polymerase beta.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the diagnostic impact of multislice-CT and selective pulmonary DSA in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).

METHODS
994 vessel segments of 14 consecutive patients with CTEPH were investigated with multislice-CT (slice thickness 3 mm, collimation 2.5 mm, reconstruction intervall 2 mm) and selective pulmonary DSA (posterior-anterior, 45 degrees oblique, and lateral projection. Analysis was performed by 2 investigators independently for CT and DSA. Diagnostic criteria were occlusions and non-occlusive changes like webs and bands, irregularities of the vessel wall, diameter reduction and thromboembolic depositions at different levels from central pulmonary arteries to subsegmental arteries. Reference diagnosis was made by synopsis of CT and DSA by consensus.

RESULTS
Concerning patency CT and DSA showed concordant findings overall in 88.9 %, 92.9 % for segmental arteries and 85.4 % for subsegmental arteries. Concerning any thromboembolic changes, multislice-CT was significantly inferior to selective DSA (concordance 67.0 % overall, 70.4 % for segments and 63.6 % for subsegments). Non-occlusive changes of the vessels were significantly underdiagnosed by CT (concordance of CT versus DSA: 23.1 %).

CONCLUSION
Multislice-CT and selective pulmonary DSA are equivalent for diagnosis of vessel occlusions at the level of segmental and subsegmental arteries. However, for visualisation of the non-occlusive thromboembolic changes of the vessel wall selective pulmonary DSA is still superior compared to multislice-CT. Multislice-CT and selective pulmonary DSA are complementary tools for diagnosis and treatment planning of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).


The retention of nutrient components of fruit juices during processing is an important criterion to produce better quality fruit products. Stability of nutrient components during processing vary from product to product and processing methods. Information about kinetic study of particular nutrient component under different processing conditions would enable to optimize processing parameters for better quality retention. Therefore the objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of thermal and high pressure food processing methods on stability of vitamin C and lycopene of watermelon juice. Watermelon juice was subjected to different thermal (70 to 90°C) and high pressure (400 to 600 MPa) treatments for different interval of times and the residual vitamin C and lycopene concentrations were measured. The destruction of nutrients in both thermal and high pressure processing conditions obey first order reaction rate kinetic model. In both processing conditions lycopene remains more stable as compared to vitamin C. The degradation rates of both components were faster in thermal treatment as compared to high pressure. The D value of vitamin C ranged from 40 to 176 min (z = 30.8°C) and 4 to 24 h (zp = 257 MPa) in thermal and high pressure treatments respectively whereas the D value of lycopene ranged from 15 to 83 h (z= 24.5oC) and 61 to 258 h (zP= 318 MPa) for thermal and high pressure treatments respectively. Therefore high pressure ensures better retention of the nutrients as compared to thermal treatment and hence can be used to pasteurize better quality watermelon juice.

 Key words: Vitamin C, lycopene, thermal, high pressure, destruction kinetics, watermelon.


Los Angeles has a housing crisis. As a result, in 2016, Los Angeles County voters passed a local ballot measure, Measure JJJ, which created a new inclusionary zoning program near rail transit stations. That program has since performed substantially better, in terms of building permits and time for review, than the previously existing density bonus program. In this paper, the authors will present two analyses. First, evidence indicates that the inclusionary zoning program that flowed from Measure JJJ (called Transit Oriented Communities, or TOC) resulted in almost as many building permits over its shorter life than the longer-lived density bonus program. Second, detailed financial analyses of a hypothetical new residential development across a range of neighborhoods in Los Angeles demonstrate that the combination of density increases and affordability requirements in the TOC program is financially more attractive than exclusively market-rate development in many of the same neighborhoods that saw the largest use of the TOC program. The authors conclude that the TOC program can be a successful method of inclusionary zoning, and they draw policy lessons that can apply elsewhere.


Abstract Hematite occurs in various geologic settings including igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks as well as in soils. However, it frequently occurs at low concentrations, especially in soils, where it may be <1% by weight. Because hematite has the potential to be an indicator of oxidizing and climatic conditions in soils and paleosols, it is important to understand its limit of detection. In this paper we examine the limits of detection of hematite visually and with diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry (DRS) and X‑ray diffraction (XRD). To accomplish this we used a sample set consisting of "knowns" or calibration samples. These known samples consisted of 15 different matrices of varying mineral composition into which hematite in 7 different concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 4% by weight were mixed. Including the 0% hematite, our calibration data set consisted of 120 samples. Visually, hematite can be detected at a concentration of 0.01% by weight in a light matrix and 0.5% in the darkest of our matrices. However, because of metamerism, visual techniques cannot specifically identify hematite. We find that for both DRS and XRD the limit of detection is also dependent on the matrix. For XRD the limit of detection for hematite in bulk samples is about 1%. For DRS the limit of detection depends on the data reduction technique used. The commonly used Kubelka-Munk remission function and its first and second derivatives can easily identify hematite at the 0.5% level. However, the first derivative of the percent reflectance curve can detect hematite at 0.01% by weight in a light matrix and 0.05% in a dark matrix. We suggest that the first derivative of DRS curves is the best currently available method for qualitatively detecting the mineral hematite at low concentrations found in soils, sediments, and rocks. Work described in this paper may be applied in several situations. Our study of visual limits of hematite detection should aid field geologists in assessing hematite content. Analysis of color wavelength bands may also have application in remote sensing by indicating which bands are most sensitive to hematite, reported to be an important constituent of the martian surface. Furthermore, this study could help clarify remotely sensed terrestrial albedo changes, especially the Sahara/Sahel transition where the sediments change from light, quartz-dominated to dark, hematite-dominated. Our study also points out that with laboratory-based spectra the first derivative of the reflectance curve is the most sensitive transform for processing spectral data for hematite, thereby allowing concentrations as low as 0.01% to be detected.


Efficiency of the B-Cell algorithm applied to one of the well-known test-case generators, the moving peaks benchmark (MPB) is a subject of study presented in this paper. We especially focused on the family of fitness landscapes generated by scenario 2 of the MPB. All of them represent the class of randomly changing environments. Some properties of the algorithm as well as the properties of the environments created by the generator MPB are discussed. A side effect of modification of one of the control parameters and its influence on the offline error measure is presented.


A numerical analysis of reheating is performed for a classical scalar field with an exponentially flat potential. An operational definition of the reheating time is given involving the gradient contribution to the inflaton field energy. For the parameter range studied the product of reheating time and Hubble constant H is found to be of order one, being approximately independent of the value of H.


Intracrystalline diffusion is an efficient mechanism in high-grade rocks. Therefore, growth zoning in garnet is erased and the evidence for prograde path is lost. However, information recorded by the textures may store significant clues for deciphering part of the P-T path. An example is provided here from the migmatitic paragneisses from the Mont Mary nappe (Western Alps).

The latter is made of a pre-Alpine basement consisting of an upper and a lower unit. The upper unit is made of paragneisses, marbles and amphibolites similar to those of the Valpelline Unit and of the Ivrea Zone. The lower unit displays granitic orthogneisses, paraschists (with muscovite, biotite, garnet with local occurrences of staurolite, kyanite and andalusite) (Dal Piaz et al. 2015). In this unit, we discovered a hectometre-sized volume with no Alpine overprint, preserving migmatitic paragneisses, the topic of this study.

The paragneisses display quartzo-feldspathic leucocratic layers interpreted as crystallized melts. The leucosomes are separated by biotite- and sillimanite-rich layers, with conspicuous garnet porphyroblasts. In addition, fresh cordierite crystals are found in these layers. Sillimanite included in garnet rims has the same orientation than the one in the matrix. There, the foliation is defined by the shape fabric of biotite and sillimanite, wrapping both garnet and cordierite crystals.

Such textures may be used to propose a P-T path. A sequence of prograde reactions, including dehydration-melting of muscovite, then biotite, result in the production of a large amount of sillimanite. Garnet growth was continuing during incongruent melting. However, intracrystalline diffusion has erased the prograde chemical zoning, as well as the distribution and shape of mineral inclusions. The late replacement of garnet and cordierite by biotite and sillimanite indicates near-isobaric cooling, also recorded by chemical zoning along garnet rims.

Chemical data on coexisting minerals will be used to provide quantitative constraints on the P-T path. In addition, preliminary geochronological data suggest that detrital zircons grains were significantly reset during the HT metamorphism, which could have taken place c. 270 Ma ago. To conclude, the studied paragneisses offer another example of Permian near-isobaric cooling in the middle crust of the Adriatic plate.

Dal Piaz G.V., Bistacchi A., Gianotti F., Monopoli B., Passeri L., Schiavo A. & collaboratori (2015) – Note illustrative della carta Geologica d’Italia alla scala 1:50.000. Foglio 070, Monte Cervino. ISPRA, Servizio Geologico d’Italia, 070, 1-431.


We perform a dynamical simulation of the SiO2/4H-SiC C-face interface oxidation process at 2500K using first-principles molecular dynamics based on plane waves, supercells, and the projector-augmented wave method. The slab model is used for the simulation. Oxygen molecules are dissociated in the SiO2 layers or by Si atoms at the SiO2 interface. The O atoms of the O2 molecule oxidize the C atoms at the SiC interface and form Si-C-O or CO2-C complexes. COx (x=1 or 2) molecules are desorbed from these complexes by thermal motion. COx molecules diffuse in the SiO2 layers when they do not react with dangling bonds. COx molecule formed during C-face oxidation more easily diffuse than those formed during Si-face oxidation in the interface region.


Desktop virtualization is a new delivery method in which desktop operating systems execute in a data center and users access their applications using stateless "thin-client" devices. This paradigm promises significant benefits in terms of data security, flexibility, and reduction of the total cost of ownership. However, in order to further optimize this approach while maintaining good user experience, efficient resource management algorithms are required. This paper formulates an analytical model allowing for detailed investigation of how power consumption of virtualized server farm depends on properties of workload, adaptiveness of virtualization infrastructure, and average density of virtual machines per physical server. Assumptions needed to develop the model are confirmed using statistical analysis of desktop workload traces and the model itself is also validated using simulations. We apply the model to compare power consumption of static and dynamic virtual machine allocation strategies. The results of the study can be used to develop online virtual machine migration algorithms. Even though this paper focuses on virtualized systems running desktop workloads, the modeling approach is general and can be applied in other contexts.


BACKGROUND
More than half of the hospitalized older adults discharged to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) have more than 3 geriatric syndromes. Pharmacotherapy may be contributing to geriatric syndromes in this population.

OBJECTIVES
Develop a list of medications associated with geriatric syndromes and describe their prevalence in patients discharged from acute care to SNFs.

DESIGN
Literature review and multidisciplinary expert panel discussion, followed by cross-sectional analysis.

SETTING
Academic medical center in the United States PARTICIPANTS: One hundred fifty-four hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries discharged to SNFs.

MEASUREMENTS
Development of a list of medications that are associated with 6 geriatric syndromes. Prevalence of the medications associated with geriatric syndromes was examined in the hospital discharge sample.

RESULTS
A list of 513 medications was developed as potentially contributing to 6 geriatric syndromes: cognitive impairment, delirium, falls, reduced appetite or weight loss, urinary incontinence, and depression. Medications included 18 categories. Antiepileptics were associated with all syndromes, whereas antipsychotics, antidepressants, antiparkinsonism, and opioid agonists were associated with 5 geriatric syndromes. In the prevalence sample, patients were discharged to SNFs with an overall average of 14.0 (±4.7) medications, including an average of 5.9 (±2.2) medications that could contribute to geriatric syndromes, with falls having the most associated medications at discharge at 5.5 (±2.2).

CONCLUSIONS
Many commonly prescribed medications are associated with geriatric syndromes. Over 40% of all medications ordered upon discharge to SNFs were associated with geriatric syndromes and could be contributing to the high prevalence of geriatric syndromes experienced by this population. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2016;11:694-700. © 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine.


A geometric dissection is a cutting of one geometric figure into pieces that we can rearrange to form another. For some dissections, it is possible to hinge the pieces together, so that we can flip the pieces one way on the hinges to form one figure, and flip them another way to form the other figure. When the hinge connects two pieces along a shared edge in both target figures, the movement corresponds to a folding. We call such dissections piano-hinged dissections. This paper explores design methods and properties of piano-hinged dissections.


Development of nickel mining operation poses negative impacts on the bio-physical environment as well as on human health. The preparation, development, mining, and loading stages generate solid waste materials which if not properly managed are detrimental to the environment. In addition, the use of chemicals and reagents in nickel analysis are generally hazardous and will need to be appropriately managed. Therefore, the proposed waste management plan is geared towards "Zero Waste Mining" through the  implementation of various strategies of waste minimization, recycling and reuse. The waste management strategies will cover all the components of the mining project from the mining area, passing through the transit route, then to the stockyard and finally to the causeway. To ensure that the different strategies are effective and are being properly implemented, a waste monitoring and evaluation system must be developed. An effective institutional arrangement, to include the various responsibilities of its respective stakeholders is essential, to successfully implement the waste management plan In order to ensure the success of the implementation of the Waste Management Plan, an effective institutional arrangement to include the various responsibilities of its respective stakeholders is essential. The closure plan covers handling of wastes (plant materials and overburden soils) located at the designated dumpsites and the leveling of exposed benches resulting from the extraction of nickel ores. Key Words: nickel, mining, ex-ante assessment, waste management plan, initial environmental examination, environmental clearance certificate, stockyard, causeway, transit route, closure plan, social corporate responsibility, septic vaults


Along the lines of the life of em. prof. dr. Laura Ţugulea the historical developments of the E.C.'s thematic or academic networks of physics departments (EUPEN, STEPS, STEPS TWO and HOPE) in the ERASMUS, SOCRATES and LLL programmes were described with a lot of connecting anecdotes and with emphasis on the role of Laura in these projects. Finally a plea was held for a European (official) body ('think thank') so that good practices of national initiatives, w.r.t. stimulating young people becoming physicists, etc., could be spread over the whole of Europe and where a parallel series of follow-up activities to HOPE could be co-ordinated.