New telephone and teleconference systems show increasingly nonlinear time variant behavior. Measurement results of such systems are highly correlated to the measurement procedure used especially for conformance tests and measurements according to several standards. It is highly desirable to achieve comparable measurement results in different labs. These results should correlate well to the subjective impression the user has when telephoning with the measured device. To achieve the desired performance, a suitable test signal must have voice signal properties. On the other hand, measurements have to be carried out in a very short period of time in order to guarantee quasistationary behavior during the time of measurement. To achieve this, a ''composite source signal'' was developed. The signal consists of a voiced sound on 50 ms at the initial phase. This voiced sound is followed by a measurement signal, a pseudorandom noise sequence. To get a modulation typical for speech, the signal is followed by 100‐ms ...


Sex offenses are among the crimes that provoke serious public concern. The federal response to the problem of sex offending has resulted in an exponential increase in the number of sex offenders on federal post-conviction supervision; however, relatively few studies have explored whether and how well the actuarial risk instrument currently used by federal probation officers – the federal Post Conviction Risk Assessment instrument or PCRA for short – accurately predicts reoffending behavior among the federal sex offender population. This study provided an exploration of the PCRA's capacity to effectively predict subsequent recidivism activity for convicted federal sex offenders. Results show that the PCRA accurately predicts recidivistic behavior involving the commission of any felony or misdemeanor offenses, violent offenses, and probation revocations for this population. However, the PCRA's predicative capacities deteriorate when the instrument is used to assess the likelihood of sexual recidivism. In addition, this study showed that offenders convicted of online child pornography offenses presented some challenges in terms of predicting their reoffending behavior because they manifested lower PCRA risk scores and recidivism rates compared to offenders convicted of other major federal sexual offenses that typically involve more hands-on behavior.


It is well known that many strong verbs became weak verbs in the history of the English language. A reverse process, whereby weak verbs became strong verbs, is also known. In this article, I will examine the important role synonymous verb forms played in driving these changes. The analogical extension of a form from one type to another is most likely influenced by the form's co-occurrence with other phonetically or semantically related forms (Bloomfield 1933: 409). Considering the central role that semantic similarity plays in driving analogical change, I present a series of detailed case studies on individual verbs and argue that synonymous verb forms were a primary factor in the transfer of verbs from the strong to the weak conjugation and vice-versa.


Abstract Paramedics face rising numbers of deployments every year. As obstacles like stairs occur often, paramedics must frequently manually carry patients and are thereby exposed to loads multitudes higher than recommended. This creates the need for patient transport aids (PTA), which can physically support paramedics in a wide variety of transport situations, without slowing down the transport. In this paper a workflow analysis for transport missions in an urban context and basic tasks for PTAs are presented. Subsequently, the high-level task modelling and human-centered risk analysis according to the HiFEM method are presented for the use case of a patient transport over stairs with a passive PTA, like a rescue chair, and an active PTA like the novel SEBARES prototype. The analysis shows that conventional PTA's have a simple linear use process, however, impose excessive physical workloads, which cause risks like the paramedic or the PTA falling down the stairs. Contrary, active PTA's reduce physical workloads, however, introduce additional concurrent steps, like identifying and correcting misalignments, which create further risks. In order to mitigate risks with active, stair climbing PTAs either new kinematic designs or intelligent assistance functions, like automatic stair detection, are necessary.


This research investigates simultaneous strengthening by grain refinement and fine precipitation in age-hardenable Al-Mg-Si alloys containing an additional element of either Ag, Cu, Pt or Pd. The alloys were solution-treated and processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature under a pressure of 6 GPa. They were aged at a temperature of 373 K for up to a total period of 6.7 hours. Vickers microhardness was measured after selected periods of aging and the microstructures were observed by transmission electron microscopy. It was found that, in all alloys, the grain sizes after HPT were refined to 300-400 nm and there were significant increases in the hardness through the HPT processing. The hardness was further increased by the subsequent ageing treatment, confirming the simultaneous strengthening by grain refinement and fine precipitation. However, the aging behavior was different depending on the alloying compositions.


The United States of America has the biggest prison population in the world. With problems and concerns over overcrowding in prisons, human rights abuses, and recidivism of the incarcerated population, there is a strong argument for the adequate rehabilitation of prisoners so that they can re-enter and co-exist peacefully with the rest of mainstream society. Research has shown that frequent adult offenders of serious, violent, and sometimes gang-related crime share the similar risk factor of delinquent behaviour in their youth; being incarcerated at a young age increases one's chance of incarceration as an adult. With the increasing criticism of its criminal justice system, particularly over human rights concerns, American society can no longer afford to ignore this problem, both economically (by investing in more prisons) and socially (by not redressing the structural and cultural violence facing the poor, especially those belonging to disadvantaged minority groups). The incarceration epidemic of America is a reflection of how its social inequalities with a strong component of racial disparity are causing so many avoidable deaths, especially among youth of colour and low-socio economic standing. In an attempt to address this problem, there has been a strong social movement of using community-based arts programmes to assist in the early intervention of at-risk youth in hopes to prevent them from becoming too embedded in the street life of gangs and crime so that they can escape the cycle of violence, drugs, poverty, and incarceration. There are ten mechanisms that contribute to their success. In theory, these mechanisms, when implemented effectively, can help incarcerated youth, those not just at-risk but in-risk, to resist the street life and avoid future incarceration of more serious crimes. In practice, these mechanisms are extremely difficult to operationalise though not impossible, but they do face challenges and limitations that reduce their long-term impact. Despite this setback, their place in the prevention programming field in giving voice to a marginalised group is of significance. The process of creating art and the endproducts created by the youth participating in these programmes carry important policy implications for structural change, increase awareness for cultural change, and empower these in-risk youth to seek out personally change to lead a better, longer life.


Background: Due to the risk of hazard from ionizing radiation, non-radiology doctors who refer patients to the radiology departments ought to be knowledgeable enough about what their patients are subjected to. The high throughput of radiology requests in our centre in Nigeria justifies this study.
Aim: To evaluate the level of knowledge of non-radiology doctors on ionizing radiation with a view to reviewing local protocols on justification of investigations involving ionizing radiation.
Material and method: Eighty (80) structured questionnaires were administered to non-radiology doctors practising in different hospitals n Kano city, Nigeria. Answers were elicited on radiation protection principles, concept of ionizing radiation, radiation effects, imaging modalities that emit ionizing radiation, radiation measurements and attitude towards ionizing radiation.
Results: Seventy questionnaires were returned out of the eighty sent out with sixty-four (80 %) being properly filled. Knowledge of non-radiology doctors was variable on different indices; 15.6 %, n = 10 (fundamental principles of radiation protection); 45.3 %, n = 29 (effects of ionizing radiation); 34.4 %,  n = 22 (knowledge on ionizing property of radiation); 73 %, n = 47 (emission of ionizing radiation by computed tomography); and 85.9 %, n = 55 (interest in specific modality).
Conclusion:  Non-radiology doctors in Kano metropolis have fairly good knowledge of potential hazards of radiation.


Small cities (including small towns) make contribution rate of 94% to the process of urbanization in the last century's accelerating development of urbanization. Accompany with this special industrialization and urbanization background, the typical way of work-live settlements gradually formed. Via studying on the feature of Work-live settlements, this paper plans to discover the living mode of the southern small towns in feature of region, so as to produce significant meaning to the residential environment construction of Yangtze River delta. Besides, through introducing the concept of interface and the characteristic of interface superposition, this paper puts forward primary study and discussion aiming at the interface space.


We present a fully integrated photonic chip spectrometer for near-infrared tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy of methane (CH4). The integrated photonic sensor incorporates a heterogeneously integrated III-V laser/detector chip coupled to a silicon external cavity for broadband tuning, and a long waveguide element (>20 cm) for ambient methane sensing. An on-chip sealed CH4 reference cell is utilized for in-situ wavelength calibration of the external cavity, and a real-time wavelength compensation method for laser calibration is described and demonstrated. The resulting signal is guided back to the III-V photodiodes for spectral signal readout using a custom-designed acquisition board, remotely controlled and operated by a Raspberry Pi unit. Component-level testing of the waveguide sensitivity, external cavity laser, and reference cell is demonstrated. Full-stack testing of the integrated sensor chip yields sub-100 ppmv∙Hz-1/2 sensitivity, and spectral density analysis demonstrates our integrated chip sensor to have a fundamental performance within an order of magnitude of commercially available fiber-pigtailed DFB laser units. We envision our integrated photonic chip sensors to provide disruptive capability in SWaP-C (size, weight, power, and cost) limited applications, and we describe an achievable short-term pathway towards sensitivity enhancement to near-10 ppmv levels.


Early in 1966 a symposium was held in Chicago with the defined purpose of reviewing the current status of information regarding the unique cardiovascular system of the newborn. The participants included a distinguished group of international investigators from many disciplines. The papers read at the Symposium, including the significant charts and tables, are presented in this volume. Pertinent references have been added. The discussion of the papers is presented, apparently unedited, as certain sections are not meaningful without the slides which were presented at the time. Example: "If you take a newborn infant at autopsy, you get a picture of this kind." The bulk of the text relates to the physiological and pathophysiological adjustments made by the normal and abnormal circulatory system in its transition from the fetal to the terrestial state. A section on certain aspects of electrocardiography is included. The final section presents awesome recent advances in the


: In 166 women who desired estrogen treatment for menopausal symptoms, psychosocial data were obtained prior to treatment, six weeks, three months and six months after treatment. The data were obtained by questionnaire and psychometric testing. 1. Of the 25% of women with significant depressive tendencies (according to EDS) 7 of 10 were also very anxious (according to EDS). 2. Emotional stability (according to MPI-N) present in every third woman without depressive mood changes but only in 3% of women with depressive changes. 3. Every third woman with depressive changes reported sexual fantasies or dreams. Only 3% of the women without depression had these fantasies. Discharge was complained of twice as often by depressive women (according to EPS) than in those without depression. 4. Pain on micturition was a complaint of half the women with depressive mood but only 1/8 of those without depression. 5. Heart palpitations were complained of by women without depression only half as often as by the other women. 6. The satisfaction with the role as women had a significant relationship to depression scores as expected. 7. The antidepressive and anxiolytic effect of estrogen treatment in the menopause was shown objectively by psychometric studies. The findings are discussed in view of a gynaecological office practice.


"Out of History" is the first book to appear on the work of award-winning Irish author Sebastian Barry. Barry began publishing at the early age of 25, and his work represents another 25 years of short stories, poems, works for children, and most notably plays and novels. His play "The Steward of Christendom" became canonical in Ireland on its first appearance in 1995 and was absorbed into the contemporary repertoire abroad. His recent novel "It's a Long Long Way" has received the utmost critical attention and was nominated for the Man-Booker prize in London. Barry is recognized as one of Ireland's greatest living writers and his works now appear regularly on syllabuses in U.S. colleges in Irish Studies and in Drama departments. This book, edited by Christina Hunt Mahony, presents twelve essays that trace the development of the writer's career and the individual achievement of his works, concentrating largely, but not exclusively, on the plays. The essays address Barry's engagement with the contemporary cultural debate in Ireland and also with issues that inform postcolonial critical theory. The essays in this volume include contributions from the most prominent of Irish Studies critics from Ireland, Britain, and the United States. Among the contributors are two prize-winning novelists, a historian and recent biographer of the poet W. B. Yeats, a former editor of "Poetry Ireland", and several theatre historians and critics. The range and selection of contributors to this volume has ensured a high level of critical expression and an insightful assessment of Barry and his works.


An adaptive neuro-fuzzy controller is proposed in this paper to deal with the problem of tracking nonlinear affine in the control dynamical systems with unknown nonlinearities. The plant is described by means of a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model, including dynamic fuzzy rules of generalized form, where the local submodels are realized through nonlinear input-output mappings. Instead of modelling the plant dynamics directly, our approach relies upon the effective approximation of certain terms that involve the derivative of the Lyapunov function and the unknown system nonlinearities on a local basis using linear in the weights neural networks. A resetting scheme is proposed to assure validity of the control input. The uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking error with respect to an arbitrarily small set of the origin is achieved, along with the boundedness of all other signals in the closed loop. Illustrative simulations highlight the approach


Abstract Recovery of metals from chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated southern pine wood particles was investigated by extraction in a microwave reactor with binary combinations of acetic acid (AA), oxalic acid (OxA), and phosphoric acid (PhA). Use of OxA was not successful, as insoluble copper oxalate complexes impeded copper removal. The combination of OxA and AA also had adverse effects on copper extraction. In contrast, the combination of AA and PhA enhanced the chromium recovery rate. The highest recovery rate of metals could be achieved with a mixture of 2.75% PhA and 0.5% AA at 130°C for 10 min in the microwave oven. The total recovery rate approached 100% for arsenic, 96.7% for chromium, and 98.6% for copper in a one-step process.


Argues that the developments in UK supermarket practice in recent years have resulted in a distinctive system of retailing in the UK, and that this has some important consequences for how one assesses the nature of competition in this market. In particular it means that standard approaches to assessing consumer benefits and the presence or absence of anti‐competitive behaviour may not be appropriate. It is argued that UK supermarkets are delivering a quite different offering to the marketplace from a simple "basket of goods" with a specific price and quality. The issues of product range, innovation potential, and associated convenience factors are all part of the package. This leads to a consideration of the questions of "What is competing with what?" and "Who is competing with whom?": the issue of comparing like with like. From there we arrive at the question of how competition policy in this field needs to consider long‐term innovation potential as well as short‐term price issues.


This thesis examines change and continuity in ancestrally based authority over land in Northern Ghana. I draw from an exploratory review of literature on customary belief systems, land tenure, colonialism, land law, and the institution of the earth priests (tindaanas). I interpret my findings with reference to preliminary research conducted in Northern Ghana. Appointed by the ancestors, tindaanas have traditionally held authority over land in much of Northern Ghana. The colonial imposition of indirect rule and the ambiguities found within the 1979 postcolonial Constitution had important implications for ancestrally based authority. These changes created an opening and an opportunity for tindaana, chiefs, clan heads, and landowning families to compete for reestablishing claims over ancestral land. Despite, and perhaps because of, resulting conflicts, land ownership became more negotiable in Northern Ghana as "tradition" adapted and evolved for the continuation of ancestral authority in the present day. I argue that when tindaanas remain in positions of authority over land, they ensure a "spiritual heritage" – a shared collective legacy of intergenerational, more-than-material, and inclusive land management, preserving land in "ancestral trust" for future generations. Thus, preservation of the spiritual heritage of Northern Ghana has important implications for achieving sustainable development within the region.


Non-conforming numerical approximations offer increased flexibility for applications that require high resolution in a localized area of the computational domain or near complex geometries. Two key properties for non-conforming methods to be applicable to real world applications are conservation and energy stability. The summation-by-parts (SBP) property, which certain finite-difference and discontinuous Galerkin methods have, finds success for the numerical approximation of hyperbolic conservation laws, because the proofs of energy stability and conservation can discretely mimic the continuous energy analysis of partial differential equations. In addition, SBP methods can be developed with high-order accuracy, which is useful for simulations that contain multiple spatial and temporal scales. However, existing non-conforming SBP schemes result in a reduction of the overall degree of the scheme, which leads to a reduction in the order of the solution error. This loss of degree is due to the particular interface coupling through a simultaneous-approximation-term (SAT). We present in this work a novel class of SBP-SAT operators that maintain conservation, energy stability, and have no loss of the degree of the scheme for non-conforming approximations. The new degree preserving discretizations require an ansatz that the norm matrix of the SBP operator is of a degree $\geq 2p$, in contrast to, for example, classical finite difference SBP operators, where the norm matrix is $2p-1$ accurate. We demonstrate the fundamental properties of the new scheme with rigorous mathematical analysis as well as numerical verification.


We develop a model of logit demand that extends to a multi-firm industry the traditional duopoly framework of network competition with access charges. Firstly, we show that, when incumbents do not face the threat of entry and compete in prices, they inefficiently establish the reciprocal access charge below cost. This inefficiency disappears if incumbents compete in utilities instead of prices. Secondly, we study how incumbents change their choices under the threat of entry when they determine an industry-wide (non-discriminatory) access charge. We show how incumbents may accommodate all possible entrants, only a group of them, or may completely deter entry. When entry deterrence is the preferred option, incumbents distort upwards the access charges.


Abstract Determination of accurate anti-A/-B titers is important for treatment selection in ABO-incompatible stem cell and solid-organ transplants. The standard method for ABO antibody titration is the conventional tube test (CTT). Dithiothreitol (DTT) is commonly used to inactivate the IgM antibody component. The aim of this study was to compare six different methods for ABO antibody titration and to observe the effectiveness of DTT on antibody estimation. A total of 90 healthy voluntary blood donors were enrolled in this study, including 30 each for blood groups A, B, and O. Antibody titrations were performed and tested using the CTT-immediate spin (IS), CTT-antihuman globulin (AHG) with and without DTT, column agglutination technology (CAT)-IS, and CAT-AHG with and without DTT methods. Bead-CAT was used, and the positive cutoff value was set to 1+ for each method to determine the endpoint of the titer. The median values of anti-A/-B titers by IS were found to be higher than those values by AHG in CTT and CAT among group B and A individuals, whereas no statistically significant differences were observed in values from group O individuals for IS and AHG anti-A/-B titers, estimated by each method. Although there was positive correlation between the anti-A/-B titer results obtained using the CTT and CAT in all blood groups, testing using AHG showed poor agreement with and without DTT pretreatment (kappa value of 0.11 and 0.20, respectively). Moderate agreement was observed between CTT-IS and CAT-IS (kappa value of 0.46). Median anti-A/-B AHG titers were reduced by the use of DTT in all blood group samples. Significant differences in the interpretability of anti-A/-B titers were observed among different methods. A uniform approach for selecting the method for ABO antibody titration is highly recommended, and DTT pretreatment of plasma to neutralize IgM activity should be considered to obtain precise values of IgG anti-A/-B titers. Immunohematology 2021;37:25–32 .


Deciding how to allocate the resources to be spent on promoting health and safety through governmental regulation is a challenging task of immense significance. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that roughly $250 billion (2.6% of Gross National Product) will be spent on pollution abatement alone in the year 2000.1 Billions more are spent on a wide array of other health and safety measures. Tens of thousands of lives will be lost or saved depending on whether these allocations are made foolishly or wisely.2 In 1986, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) economist John Morrall devised a now-famous table designed to assess the desirability of an array of federal health and safety regulations Morrall concluded that roughly half of the forty-four regulations he reviewed were unsound because the cost per life saved exceeded $26.8 million in 1998 dollars -a


Cellulose, a linear polysaccharide polymer with numerous glucose monosaccharide units is of enormous interest because of its applications in biosorption, biomedical, packaging, biofiltration and biocomposites. In this study the sisal fiber was prepared in four different stages such as the steam exploded fiber, bleached fiber, acid treated fiber and mechanically treated fiber using steam explosion method. These stages were prepared to convert it into cellulose. The graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile onto the extracted cellulose prepared from sisal fiber was done using the ceric ammonium nitrate. The grafting conditions were optimized by changing the concentration of initiator and monomer. The characterization of the processed fibers and the graft copolymer was done using FTIR, XRD, TGA and DSC studies. The FTIR results of the graft copolymer clearly indicate that grafting had taken place between the acrylonitrile monomer and the cellulose obtained from sisal fiber. The change in crystallinity of the grafted polymeric samples was concluded from the XRD patterns. The results of TGA and DSC studies indicate the enhancement of thermal stability of the polymer upon grafting.  2014 Trade Science Inc. INDIA Sisal fiber;


A series of tests has been conducted by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in the variable density wind tunnel on several airfoils of different sizes and sections to determine the effect of tunnel wall interference and to determine a correction which can be applied to reduce the error caused thereby. The use of several empirical corrections was attempted with little success. The Prandtl theoretical correction gives the best results and its use is recommended for correcting closed wind tunnel results to conditions of free air.


Introduction: The external nasal valve is located on the rim of the nostrils and is composed of soft tissues and cartilage. Any imbalance between these structures always leads to external nasal valve insufficiency, which may be partial or total, depending on the degree of alteration. The external nasal valve was evaluated before and after rhinoplasty to assess the efficiency of the technique used. Methods: This is a retrospective study that included 34 patients operated at private hospitals. The collapse of the nasal alae during deep inspiration and the vector of the lower lateral cartilage were evaluated. To provide more structure to the nasal alae, the lateral crural strut graft and/or alar contour graft were used. Results: The inappropriate vector of the lower lateral cartilage is related to the external nasal valve insufficiency (p = 0.006), which was corrected with grafts providing nasal alae remodeling in most of the cases (p = 0.006). A significant difference was observed in the frequency of using grafts in primary (66%) and secondary rhinoplasty (80%). Conclusion: The inappropriate vector of the lower lateral cartilages usually resulted in an unstructured nasal alae, presenting external nasal valve insufficiency. Structuring the nasal alae with a lateral crural strut graft and/or alar contour graft was proven effective to correct external nasal valve insufficiency in 90% of the cases and to provide better aesthetic proportions and nasal contour. The frequency of grafts used in secondary rhinoplasty (80%) was higher than that in primary (66%), which indicates the need for grafts in a more complex surgery. ■ ABSTRACT


Roychowdhury (2006) constructed the measure of abnormal production costs to detect overproduction behaviour, which is widely used as a valid proxy in real earnings management. However, there is little evidence about its validity. This study is intended to fill the gap by focusing on the measure of abnormal production costs and examining its validity. First, the model proposed by Roychowdhury (2006) imposes restrictive linearity assumption about the association between COGS and sales. But in fact, the linearity assumption is not suitably specified. We use analytical methods to derive the non-linear relationship between COGS and sales and find omitted variables in his original model. Then we illustrate why the original production costs model suffer severe model misspecification. Second, after relaxing the linearity assumption we re-calculate abnormal production costs and find that small profit firms no longer exhibit high abnormal production costs compared to their counterparts. These results indicate that above-mentioned misspecification lead to severe biased estimate and previous conclusions are driven primarily by misspecification. Overall, we conclude that the overproduction proxy is not a valid measure.


During 1975-80, 908 patients admitted to Nottingham hospitals with gastrointestinal bleeding and found to have gastric or duodenal ulcers were analysed retrospectively for short-term outcome of treatment. Overall one-quarter of all patients underwent operation, but when the years 1975-7 were compared with 1978-80 the operation rate fell from one in three to just over one in five. Death rates were much lower in patients treated medically than in those who underwent operation, and the risks of operation were greater for patients with gastric ulcer. Less conventional operations were attended by greater mortality. Almost all patients who died during medical treatment and three-quarters of those who died after operation were over 65. No differences in age or clear variations in haemoglobin concentrations or transfusion requirements were found between the earlier and later periods. Reduction in operation rates had no appreciable effect on mortality, despite the accepted view that early operation is advisable.


This review describes the progress of the development of surface chemical reactions for the modification of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and the fabrication of surface chemical gradients. Various chemical reactions can be carried out on SAMs to introduce new functionalities. "Click" reactions, which are highly efficient and selective, have largely contributed to the development and implementation of surface chemical reactions in the fields of biotechnology, drug discovery, materials science, polymer synthesis, and surface science. Besides full homogeneous functionalization, SAMs can be modified to exhibit a gradual variation of physicochemical properties in space. Surface-confined chemical reactions can be used for the fabrication of surface chemical gradients making the preparation of exceptionally versatile interfaces accessible.


Classic tetrahydrobiopterin (BH(4)) deficiencies are characterized by hyperphenylalaninemia and deficiency of monoamine neurotransmitters. In this article, we report two patients with progressive psychomotor retardation, dystonia, severe dopamine and serotonin deficiencies (low levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic and homovanillic acids), and abnormal pterin pattern (high levels of biopterin and dihydrobiopterin) in cerebrospinal fluid. Furthermore, they presented with normal urinary pterins and without hyperphenylalaninemia. Investigation of skin fibroblasts revealed inactive sepiapterin reductase (SR), the enzyme catalyzing the final two-step reaction in the biosynthesis of BH(4). Mutations in the SPR gene were detected in both patients and their family members. One patient was homozygous for a TC-->CT dinucleotide exchange, predicting a truncated SR (Q119X). The other patient was a compound heterozygote for a genomic 5-bp deletion (1397-1401delAGAAC) resulting in abolished SPR-gene expression and an A-->G transition leading to an R150G amino acid substitution and to inactive SR as confirmed by recombinant expression. The absence of hyperphenylalaninemia and the presence of normal urinary pterin metabolites and of normal SR-like activity in red blood cells may be explained by alternative pathways for the final two-step reaction of BH(4) biosynthesis in peripheral and neuronal tissues. We propose that, for the biosynthesis of BH(4) in peripheral tissues, SR activity may be substituted by aldose reductase (AR), carbonyl reductase (CR), and dihydrofolate reductase, whereas, in the brain, only AR and CR are fully present. Thus, autosomal recessive SR deficiency leads to BH(4) and to neurotransmitter deficiencies without hyperphenylalaninemia and may not be detected by neonatal screening for phenylketonuria.


The KL-ONE concept language provides role-value maps (RVMs) as a concept forming operator that compares sets of role fillers. This is a useful means to specify structural properties of concepts. Recently, it has been shown that concept languages providing RVMs together with some other common concept-forming operators induce an undecidable subsumption problem. Thus, RVMs have been restricted to chainings of functional roles as, for example, in CLASSIC. Although this restricted RVM is still a useful operator, one would like to have additional means to specify interaction of general roles. The present paper investigates two concept languages for that purpose. The first one provides concept forming operators that generalize the restricted RVM in a different direction. Unfortunately, it turns out that this language also has an undecidable subsumption problem. The second formalism allows to specify structural properties w.r.t. roles without using general equality and is equipped with (complete) decision procedures for its associated reasoning problems.


AIMS
To determine the effect of articaine on sarcoendoplasmic reticulum calcium adenosine triphosphatase (SERCA) isoforms of the medial pterygoid muscle.

METHODS
Native SERCA from the medial pterygoid muscles of 24 rabbits was isolated by ultracentrifugation, and its isoforms were purified by chromatography and assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). SERCA activity and calcium transport capability were determined by using colorimetric and radioisotopic methods. The mean ± standard deviation (SD) half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of articaine was determined for each isoform, and these values were compared by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) (P < .05).

RESULTS
The native SERCA preparation consisted of 34% SERCA1a, 53% SERCA2a, 10% SERCA2b, and 3% combined SERCA3 and SERCA1b. Articaine caused inhibition of activity and calcium uptake in the native SERCA preparation and in each of the purified isoforms. The IC50 (mM) values for enzymatic activity were: SERCA1a 22.0 ± 2.3 > SERCA2a 16.4 ± 2.4 > SERCA2b 11.3 ± 1.9, and 15.1 ± 2.1 for native SERCA. For calcium transport, IC50 values were: SERCA1a 31.1 ± 3.3 > SERCA2a 24.8 ± 1.8 > SERCA2b 21.5 ± 1.5, and 25.2 ± 3.2 for native SERCA. IC50 values for inhibition of enzymatic activity were significantly different among the purified isoforms, but only the value obtained for SERCA1a was significantly different compared to native SERCA. For inhibition of calcium transport, IC50 values for both SERCA2a and SERCA2b differed significantly compared to SERCA1a, and the value for SERCA1a was significantly different compared to native SERCA. The most articaine-sensitive isoform was SERCA2b, and the native preparation showed sensitivity similar to SERCA2a.

CONCLUSION
The differential inhibition of articaine on medial pterygoid SERCA isoforms is evident at concentrations lower than used in current dental practice (125 mM) and accounts for anesthetic myotoxicity. Muscle relaxation likely becomes impaired as a result of increased calcium levels in the myoplasm due to the decreased activity and calcium transport caused by the inhibition of SERCA.


Cryptosporidium sp was first reported in 1907 in a wide range of domestic animals. It was later found to be zoonotic. These parasites of the Apicomplexa family are found in association with diarrhoea in calves and are water-borne. The organism is second to rotavirus as a causative agent of diarrhoea in new-born calves and infants. In order to estimate the human health risk in cattle rearing areas around water treatment plants, we measured the prevalence of Cryptosporidium oocysts in the faecal matter from four cattle kraals upstream in Joma near the Densu Dam at Weija in the Ga South Municipality and Kpong in the Lower Manya District of Southern Ghana. The Modified Ziehl-Neelsen (MZN) staining technique for Cryptosporidium oocysts was used. Of the 320 faecal samples for each species screened, 63 (19.7%) were positive for Cryptosporidium . Prevalence was higher in calves younger than three months of age, as compared to weaned calves and adults. Oocysts were detected in both diarrhoea and non-diarrhoea samples, with a significantly higher prevalence (p < 0.05) of oocysts shedding in diarrhoeic samples.


The present work is the first part of an initiative to evaluate the trace element composition of atmospheric aerosols PM2.5 in two different areas ofTaif city, Saudi Arabia. The influence of different inorganic matter on regional air quality has been demonstrated. Atmospheric aerosols of PM2.5 from two different sites (industrial and residential) of Taifwere collected and analyzed during June and July 2011. The industrial site was situated at the famous industrial areas in Taif whereas the residential site was situated at the most crowded street in Taif, namely Television Street.Atmospheric aerosols have been collected on polycarbonate filters loaded inside a collection cartridge in a cyclone of PM2.5. The duration of the collection was 24 hours at air flow of 3 Lmin-1. EnergyDispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) withMo secondary target has been chosen for direct solid sampling analysis because of the relative simplicity and the availability of the technique in many routine laboratories. The use of Mo secondary target has a lot of advantages for decreasing the continuumradiation coming formthe x-ray tube. Quantitative X-rayAnalysis Software (QXAS/AXIL) has been used for the quantitative analysis of the atmospheric aerosols PM2.5. A certified reference material (#2783,Air Particulate on filtermedia, NIST,USA) has been used in order to verify the validity of the obtained results. Direct solid sampling analyses were carried out for fifteen elements using EDXRF namely; S, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe,Ni,Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr, Pb, and C. Themeasured concentrations of the potentially hazardous trace elements As, Cu, Sb, Cr, Mn, Ni and Pb were below the limits defined by international guidelines and national standards of ambient air quality. Further long-term research is required to validate the quantification of trace elements collected on polycarbonate filters.


Background: Epigenetic abnormalities are increasingly observed in multiple malignancies, including epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), and their effects can be significantly counteracted by tumor-suppressor microRNAs, namely epi-miRNAs. Here, we investigated the role of miR-29b, a well-established epi-miRNA, in the DNA methylation regulation of EOC cells. Methods: The correlation between miR-29b and DNMT3A/3B expression was evaluated by RT-qPCR, western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis. The functional roles of miR-29b and DNMT3A/3B were tested by anti-miRs and microRNA precursors. A luciferase reporter assay was employed to detect the direct binding of miR-29b to DNMT3A/3B 3′ UTRs. Co-IP was utilized for investigating Id-1 binding activity. Results: miR-29b was negatively correlated with DNMT3A/3B expression at the cellular/histological levels. miR-29b silencing was correlated with increased DNMT3A/3B levels, whereasmiR-29b over-expression caused DNMT3A/3B down-regulation. Luciferase reporter assays confirmed that the miR-29b-mediated downregulation of DNMT3A/3Boccurred through the direct targeting of theirmRNAs'3'-UTRs,whereasBGS assays found that DNMT3A/3B knockdown increased miR-29b expression via CpG island promoter hypomethylation, thus suggesting a crucial crosstalk betweenmiR-29b and DNMT3A/3B via a double-negative feedback loop. Co-IP assay confirmed direct binding between DNMT3A and Id-1. Conclusion: Taken together, our study sheds light on a novel epigenetic circuitry regulating EOC progression and may provide novel options for miR-29b-based epi-therapeutic approaches for future EOC treatment.


Wood-plastic composites (WPC) , which were made of virgin high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with poplar fibers as filler, were measured by three vibration nondestructive testing (NDT) methods. The values of dynamic Young's modulus of specimens were measured by different vibration NDT methods, and the values of static bending modulus of elasticity (MOE) were also determined by three point bending test according to ASTM D790-03. The paper analyzed the variability of the dynamic young's modulus of WPC based on virgin HDPE obtained with different NDT methods, and the correlativity was also estimated between the dynamic Young's modulus and the static MOE of WPC based on virgin HDPE. These results suggest that WPC can be made of virgin HDPE, and the NDT methods are appropriate to estimate the dynamic Young's modulus of WPC based on virgin HDPE.


The aim of the paper is to provide an analysis of the dynamics of the public and private health sectors in Romania. Using descriptive statistics, it first investigates whether the public health sector follows the reformation trends suggested by official strategies and reports, and to what extent the private health sector is a viable alternative to the public one, by analysing the demand for private inpatient services. We look into the reduction in the occupancy degree in public hospitals as a means to increase the efficiency of public health expenditures, which represents one way to reform the public health sector. We also find that the increase in the occupancy degree in private hospitals is negatively correlated with the quality of services provided by public hospitals, but positively correlated with population wealth. Increase in the occupancy degree in private hospitals is an indicator of poor quality of services in public hospitals. It can also be explained by increasing expectations and requirements of beneficiaries as a reflection of increase in wealth and of their will to preserve their health capital. Using regression models, the paper then proposes the Wealth-Health Index, a composite indicator to explore the connection between wealth and health and the dynamics of the private health sector. Investment in physical infrastructure and the size of medical staff in the private sector is positively correlated with wealth increase.


At the studying the Mannesmann piercing process, we unify two approaches to the problem solving. Namely, the commercial FEM software procedure and the mathematical model of the process via the mathematical model of the considered FEM-simulation bound by certain unifying symmetries. Such phenomenon seemingly exists only if the FE-mesh is initiated to be physically interpreted. We shortly outline, how to come to the slightly modified Cahn-Hilliard equation as to the mathematical model of the FE-simulation possessing quasi-symmetry given by a lattice of colloidal assembly formed by the chosen FE-mesh. Separation of two cylindrical surfaces of the pierced product together with the inpainting role of the piercing plug are described with respect to the background given by the Navier-Stokes equations related to the flow between the both surfaces. Influence of the involved groups related to the considered quasi-symmetry is illustrated by the convergence/divergence of the Newton-Raphson number in the CPU-time.


It is necessary that communities located on the areas of influence of mining projects understand the realities of the projects and their territory, in order to reach balanced dialogue scenarios, in which the participation of the communities is reflected in concerted decisions that allow to generate an atmosphere of credibility among all the actors of the territory.


Additional information available at the end of the chapter Abstract Type 1 diabetes can reduce vision by affecting various parts of the eye. Proactive, in‐ terdisciplinary coordination of treatment and timely referrals can aid in the minimiza‐ tion of visually threatening complications, significantly enhancing patient quality of life. The main causes of visual impairment in diabetes are proliferative diabetic retin‐ opathy and macular edema. Until recently, the mainstay of treatment for both condi‐ tions was retinal laser, which prevented significant vision loss but was much less effective at improving vision, especially in macular edema. Over the past decade, ex‐ citing new advances in treating diabetic eye disease, namely intraocular steroid and antivascular endothelial growth factor injections, have greatly improved the visual prognosis for the majority of patients with diabetic eye disease.


Abstract Second generation biofuel production has been appeared as a sustainable and alternative energy option. The ultimate aim is the development of an industrially feasible and economic conversion process of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuel molecules. Since, cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer and also represented as the photosynthetically fixed form of carbon, the efficient hydrolysis of cellulose is the most important step towards the development of a sustainable biofuel production process. The enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by suites of hydrolytic enzymes underlines the importance of cellulase enzyme system in whole hydrolysis process. However, the selection of the suitable cellulolytic enzymes with enhanced activities remains a challenge for the biorefinery industry to obtain efficient enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass. The present review focuses on deciphering the novel and effective cellulases from different environmental niches by unculturable metagenomic approaches. Furthermore, a comprehensive functional aspect of cellulases is also presented and evaluated by assessing the structural and catalytic properties as well as sequence identities and expression patterns. This review summarizes the recent development in metagenomics based approaches for identifying and exploring novel cellulases which open new avenues for their successful application in biorefineries.


In the present article an attempt is made to compare multi-carrier and single carrier modulation schemes for wireless communication systems with the utilization of fast Fourier transform (FFT) and its inverse in both cases. With the assumption that in OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing), the inverse FFT transforms the complex amplitudes of the individual sub-carriers at the transmitter into time domain, the inverse operation is carried out at the receiver. In case of single carrier modulation, the FFT and its inverse are used at the input and output of the frequency domain equalizer in the receiver. Different single carrier and multi-carrier transmission systems are simulated with time-variant transfer functions measured with a wideband channel sounder. In case of OFDM, the individual sub-carriers are modulated with fixed and adaptive signal alphabets. Furthermore, a frequency-independent as well as the optimum power distribution are used. Single carrier modulation uses a single carrier, instead of the hundreds or thousands typically used in OFDM, so the peak-to-average transmitted power ratio for single carrier modulated signals is smaller. This in turn means that a SC system requires a smaller linear range to support a given average power. This enables the use of cheaper power amplifier as compared to OFDM system.[Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]


Aircraft is a complex product, and the Supply-Chain System of Aircraft Manufacturing has many characters which containing hierarchy structure, wide contents in each level, complex relationship between providers etc. So it has a great significance to do research on this. After studying the Kleinberg model and analyzing the characters of providers' data in Aircraft Manufacturing industry, advanced changes of the Kleinberg model are made, and also the data of Supply-Chain of Aircraft Manufacturing is projected to circle structure, base on these two factors a advanced hierarchical navigable Kleinberg model is proposed, it is more suitable for the Aircraft Manufacturing Supply Chain and its structure is corresponding with the structure of Aircraft Manufacturing Supply Chain. From this advanced model we can do easier research on Supply-Chain System of Aircraft Manufacturing than Kleinberg model.


Objective: To estimate the change in ovarian volume after uterine artery embolization for fibroid uterus. Methods: Women presenting for uterine artery embolization were followed for up to three years. These women had baseline ultrasound examinations which included uterine size, fibroid number and volume, endometrial echo and ovarian volume. These women were followed yearly with pelvic ultrasound to determine shrinkage of uterine myomas and to assess ovarian volume. Mean ovarian volumes (cm3) were compared at 1 and 3 years to the baseline exam by means of a paired t-test. Only those subject with complete measurements were compared. Results: The mean age of the cohort was 43 (SD = 5.2) years of age with an average gravidity of 1 (SD = 1). Data was complete for 51 women at 1 year and 21 women at 3 years. The mean left ovarian volume (cm3) at baseline, 1 year and 3 years was 11.2, 8.7, 14 (p = 0.92). The mean right ovarian volume (cm3) at baseline, 1 year and 3 years was 11.1, 10.1 and 6.2. (p = 0.08). There were significant correlations in ovarian volume from baseline to each subsequent measurement with the exception of the left ovary between baseline and 3 year follow-up. Conclusion: There is no significant change in ovarian volume in 3 year follow-up of women who underwent uterine artery embolization for fibroid uterus. This suggests that there is ample collateral circulation to the ovaries form the ovarian artery which sustains ovarian mass.


The effects of outflow boundary conditions are investigated on subsonic external flows in the transitional regime. Calculations have been performed for two-dimensional flows over a finite flat plate using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method, concentrating on Knudsen numbers of 0.02 and higher. At the outflow boundaries, the incoming molecules are determined by using a model which adjusts the outflow boundary conditions according to the local rarefaction assuming equilibrium. The results show sensitivity to the model at low Mach numbers but as the speed increases the sensitivity decreases. The effects of domain size, sample size and doing the extrapolations from the adjacent boundary cells rather than following the streamline trajectories are shown.


Commercial liquid handling robots are rarely appropriate when tasks change often, which is the case in the early stages of biochemical research. In order to address it, we have developed EvoBot, a liquid handling robot, which is open-source and employs a modular design. The combination of an open-source and a modular design is particularly powerful because functionality is divided into modules with simple, well-defined interfaces, hence customisation of modules is possible without detailed knowledge of the entire system. Furthermore, the modular design allows end-users to only produce and assemble the modules that are relevant for their specific application. Hence, time and money are not wasted on functionality that is not needed. Finally, modules can easily be reused. In this paper, we describe the EvoBot modular design and through scientific experiments such as basic liquid handling, nurturing of microbial fuel cells, and droplet chemotaxis experiments document how functionality is increased one module at a time with a significant amount of reuse. In addition to providing wet-labs with an extendible, open-source liquid handling robot, we also think that modularity is a key concept that is likely to be useful in other robots developed for scientific purposes.


: Several Massachusetts laws, including the recently enacted Patients' Bill of Rights, protect the rights of nursing home patients. Although these laws address many of the problems that such patients face, they do not adequately meet all of the unique needs of this vulnerable group. This Comment discusses safeguards afforded by current Massachusetts law that are particularly important for nursing home patients, and recommends improvements that would secure more adequate protection for their rights. The Comment also analyzes some of Massachusetts law's shortcomings in implementation and enforcement, in forum selection and in limitations on standing, and suggests improvements in these areas. Finally, the Comment proposes the enactment of a comprehensive Bill of Rights for Nursing Home Patients in order to address their unique needs more adequately, and to eliminate the duplicative, vague, and confusing provisions contained in current law.


This paper critically explores a variety of female entrepreneurship policies and programmes in China and India (examples include incubator projects as well as training, education, credit, and other financial programmes), providing a much-needed overview of the current state of support for women entrepreneurs in these countries and which economic sectors and actors (governments, non-governmental organisations, and private firms) are most engaged in providing this support. The paper also evaluates which types and structures of programmes are more likely to promote upward mobility and opportunity entrepreneurship. Finally, the paper presents an exploratory framework for considering five key characteristics of female entrepreneurship programmes (provision of money, goods, or services; skills training; business development services; professional networking services; and/or professional mentoring) and their relationship to necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship. It also gauges the inclusivity of the programmes. Further research can build upon this framework and develop a more sophisticated classification system.


Based on the principle analysis of two-axis linkage and cut point tracking crankshaft servo grinding technology, the principle of triaxial linkage and cut point tracking for crankshaft servo grinding is analyzed and researched on the technological advantages for the neck of crankshaft connecting rod and the spindle neck. Then the dynamic grinding model is established, and the high-precision liquid hydrostatic slide-way technology, high rigidity straight line drive technology and on-line measurement and error compensation technology are employed synthetically to solve the dynamic performance of moving parts for ultra-precision grinding and its influence on the machining accuracy successfully. The problem of using common corundum wheel to process the crankshaft neck and connecting rod efficiently and accurately is conquered.


Introduction : Affecting more than 21 million American children and adults, anxiety with or without depression is the leading cause of disability in the USA for individuals ages 15 – 44. Treatment, traditionally has been with prescription medication that is addictive, prone to pharmaceutical abuse and if prescribed appropriately, requires intensive physician involvement and monitoring. The utilization of herbal supplementation has been successfully utilized for many years to treat mood disorders, however scientific analysis of benefits has been lacking. The objective of this study is to scientifically analyze the effectiveness of the combination of GABA, L-theanine, passiflora incarnata and prunus cerasus in the treatment of the symptoms associated with Anxiety. Methods : Two cohorts of volunteers received study compound (n=30) or placebo (n=30). Subjects were instructed to take 4 capsules daily for 7 consecutive days. Every participant completed both the HAM-A (Hamilton anxiety scale) and the SAS (Zung Self Rating Anxiety Scale). Both scales were completed pre & post study. The Student – T test was performed on all data. Results : HAM-A: Subjects receiving active study compound showed marked improvements in the HAM-A global score. SAS: The Zung SAS symptom scores of all subjects receiving active study compound were markedly improved. There were no side effects reported by any of the study participants. Conclusions : Subjects receiving this unique study compound (GABA, L-theanine, passiflora incarnata and prunus cerasus) received marked improvement in their symptoms of anxiety as demonstrated via two separate and clinically significant assessment tools (HAM-A & Zung SAS) when compared to placebo group. This combination of supplements represents a viable and safe adjunct to the short term treatment of mild to moderate anxiety without the use of prescription medication.


A distributed network of LDO microregulators (uREGs) senses and corrects the voltage at multiple points on a power supply grid in a multi-core microprocessor to reduce IR drops and associated performance loss. Adding a switched-capacitor (SC) accelerator to the charge pump of each uREG speeds up output voltage transitions by 17X for greater DVFS savings. Line and load regulations are 6.7mV/V and 1.5mV/A, respectively. The regulator also achieves a power efficiency of 89.9% and a current efficiency of 98.5%, while reaching a peak power density of 91.1W/mm2


Abstract Effect of velocity ratios of a forward rotational‐rotary tiller on the distribution of wheat (Triticum aestivum) stubbles incorporated into soil layers was investigated. A 2‐year experiment was conducted in a field with silt loam soil on an experimental site at Süleyman Demirel University located near Isparta, Turkey. Velocity ratios of the rotary tiller were maintained at 6.01, 7.51, 9.39, and 11.77. The soil depths studied were 0–5, 5–10, and 10–15 cm. Results showed that there were no significant differences among velocity ratios, and soil depths by velocity ratio interaction means in terms of stubble mass. However, there were significant differences among soil depths means in terms of stubble mass (P < 0.01). This indicates that there is no advantage of increasing velocity ratios of rotary tiller to bury more stubble mass into the soil since fuel consumption of the tractor and the power requirement of the rotary tiller increase with increased velocity ratios of the rotary tiller. There were significant differences among the soil depths means in terms of distribution of stubble length at the soil depths (P < 0.01). Longer stubbles accumulated at a soil depth of 0–5 cm whereas shorter stubbles were buried in a 5–15 cm soil layer regardless of velocity ratio.


We introduce DiffRF, a novel approach for 3D radiance field synthesis based on denoising diffusion probabilistic models. While existing diffusion-based methods operate on images, latent codes, or point cloud data, we are the first to directly generate volumetric radiance fields. To this end, we propose a 3D denoising model which directly operates on an explicit voxel grid representation. However, as radiance fields generated from a set of posed images can be ambiguous and contain artifacts, obtaining ground truth radiance field samples is non-trivial. We address this challenge by pairing the denoising formulation with a rendering loss, enabling our model to learn a deviated prior that favours good image quality instead of trying to replicate fitting errors like floating artifacts. In contrast to 2D-diffusion models, our model learns multi-view consistent priors, enabling free-view synthesis and accurate shape generation. Compared to 3D GANs, our diffusion-based approach naturally enables conditional generation such as masked completion or single-view 3D synthesis at inference time.


Islamic South Asia has become a focal point in academia. Where did Muslims come from? How did they fare in interacting with Hindu cultures? How did they negotiate identity as ruling and ruled minorities and majorities? Part I covers early Muslim expansion and the formative phase in context of initial cultural encounter (app. 700-1300). Part II views the establishment of Muslim empire, cultures oscillating between Islamic and Islamicate, centralised and regionalised power (app. 1300-1700). Part III is composed in the backdrop of regional centralisation, territoriality and colonial rule, displaying processes of integration and differentiation of Muslim cultures in colonial setting (app. 1700-1930). Tensions between Muslim pluralism and singularity evolving in public sphere make up the fourth cluster (app. 1930-2002).


A review of 41 possible cases of beriberi diagnosed in a 4-year period (1981-1985) revealed that the diagnosis was fairly certain in 23 patients, although measurements of red cell transketolase had not been performed. Fifteen patients had classic (high-output) beriberi and 8 acute beriberi (shoshin type). This article calls for an increased awareness of the condition so that appropriate and timely therapy may be instituted.


How did citizens acquire rights protecting their property from the depredations of the government? In this paper, we argue that one important factor strengthening respect for property is how it is distributed. When there is some specificity associated with property, and property is held by those who are most productive, the distribution of property becomes relatively easy to defend. By contrast, when property is owned by those who get rents simply by virtue of ownership, the distribution of property becomes much harder to defend. We speculate on why some countries have been able to develop a climate of respect for property rights while others have not.


Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug, used for the management of schizophrenia and for the treatment of moderate to severe mania associated with bipolar disorder. The objective of the present randomised, crossover study was to compare the bioavailability of olanzapine 10 mg/5 ml powder for oral suspension with olanzapine 10 mg orally disintegrating tablet. Eighteen healthy male volunteers were randomly assigned to crossover, single-dose treatment regimens. Serial blood samples were collected, and plasma concentrations of olanzapine were analysed using the LC-MS/MS technique. Pharmacokinetic parameters and bioequivalence limits were calculated using non-compartmental methods. Average Cmax following administration of the single 10 mg disintegrating tablet formulation and 10 mg/5 ml suspension were 14.47±4.25 ng/ml and 13.56±3.99 ng/ml respectively. Corresponding median Tmax were 5.0 h and 6.0 h, respectively. The average AUC0–t values and AUC0–inf values were similar following each of the olanzapine preparations. Overall, the 90% Confidence Interval for the intra-individual ratios of the log-transformed Cmax and AUC values of the two formulations were within the bioequivalence interval of 80–125%. The study has demonstrated the bioequivalence of the 10 mg tablet and the 10 mg/5 ml oral suspension of olanzapine.


Background: One of the most important causes of acute hepatitis is vascular pathologies of the liver. There are several well-recognized forms of vascular injury to the liver, including Budd-Chiari syndrome, ischemic hepatitis, hepatic infarction and passive congestion due to hemodynamic instability. We present a case of acute liver injury accompanied by hemodynamic and respiratory pathologies. Case: A 53-year-old lady was admitted to the emergency department with complaints of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting for a week. Gastrointestinal examination was normal. Laboratory tests revealed mild thrombocytopenia, prolonged international normalized ratio (INR) and transaminases were ten-fold higher. In abdominal ultrasonography, no signs of chronic liver failure and vascular pathologies. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed no pathology. Transthoracic echocardiography disclosed severe mitral regurgitation and dilatation of both atria and right ventricle. Pro-BNP level was increased. Thorax CT demonstrated filling defect compatible with pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). The patient was accepted PTE, and enoxaparin treatment was initiated. Under the anticoagulant and diuretic treatments, the patient's orthopnea disappeared, control blood values declined. Conclusion: Acute liver injury can be the initial presentation in a patient with severe valvular disease and acute PTE.


Metalloproteins make up some 30% of proteins in known genomes. Metalloproteins are a special class of proteins that utilise the unique properties of metal atoms in conjunction with the macromolecular assembly to perform life-sustaining processes. A number of metalloproteins are known to be involved in many disease states including ageing processes. The incorporation of the metal ion is a very tightly regulated process that, in vivo, very often requires specific chaperons to deliver and help incorporate the metal atom in the macromolecule. The lack of or inappropriate incorporation of metals along with genetic factors can lead to the mis-function of these proteins leading to disease. The mis-functions due to genetic alterations that lead to diseases like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or motor neuron disease) and Creutzfeld Jacob disease (CJD) are now well recognised. Synchrotron Radiation Sources provide a unique set of structural tools, which in combination can prove extremely powerful in providing a comprehensive picture of these complex biological systems. In particular for metalloproteins, the combined use of X-ray Crystallography, X-ray Solution Scattering and X-ray Spectroscopy (XAFS) is extremely useful. We are currently engaged in a structural study where our aim is to characterize structurally and functionally metalloproteins and then transfer this knowledge to afford the problem of the mis-function of metalloproteins that lead to these terminal illnesses, either due to a gain of function/property or a loss of function/property. In this context, the benefits of adopting the 'philosophy' being developed for the structural genomics effort are highlighted.


Infants are endowed with a proclivity to acquire language, whether it is presented in the auditory or visual modality. Moreover, in the first months of life, listening to language supports fundamental cognitive capacities, including infants' facility to form object categories (e.g., dogs and bottles). Recently, we have found that for English-acquiring infants as young as 4 months of age, this precocious interface between language and cognition is sufficiently broad to include not only their native spoken language (English), but also sign language (American Sign Language, ASL). In the current study, we take this work one step further, asking how "sign-naïve" infants—hearing infants with no prior exposure to sign language—deploy their attentional and social strategies in the context of episodes involving either spoken or sign language. We adopted a now-standard categorization task, presenting 4- to 6-month-old infants with a series of exemplars from a single category (e.g., dinosaurs). Each exemplar was introduced by a woman who appeared on the screen together with the object. What varied across conditions was whether this woman introduced the exemplar by speaking (English) or signing (ASL). We coded infants' visual attentional strategies and their spontaneous vocalizations during this task. Infants' division of attention and visual switches between the woman and exemplar varied as a function of language modality. In contrast, infants' spontaneous vocalizations revealed similar patterns across languages. These results, which advance our understanding of how infants allocate attentional resources and engage with communicative partners across distinct modalities, have implications for specifying our theories of language acquisition.


Abstract The Cambrian Stage 4 upper Bastion Formation of Albert Heim Bjerge and CH Ostenfeld Nunatak, NE Greenland, yielded 34 excellently preserved sclerites of Lapworthella schodackensis among other small shelly fossils. Lapworthellids have been interpreted as members of the camenellans, a basal tommotiid group. Little is known about this group although the morphological and ultrastructural features of their sclerites allow a potential reconstruction of a lophophorate body plan. The exquisite material from Greenland provides significant new data for the revision of the species taxonomy, but also for the comprehension of the scleritome structure of lapworthellids and the mode of formation of their sclerites. Two morphotypes of L. schodackensis sclerites are identified: one with a simple apex, occurring in sinistral and dextral forms; and one bilaterally symmetrical sclerite with two apices. All bear a similar ornamentation constructed of repeated growth sets consisting of a reticulate inter-rib groove with tubercles, a densely denticulate rib and a striated sub-rib area. The new data on the ornamentation and observations of the laminar shell microstructure of L. schodackensis enable us to improve the reconstruction of growth in lapworthellids. Finally, the morphological features of the two types of sclerites provide new information for the reconstruction of the bilaterally symmetrical multi-component lapworthellid scleritome with evidence of the fusion of adjacent sclerites during early ontogeny.


Accretionary complexes host a variety of fault zones that accommodate plate convergence and internal prism deformation, including the décollement, imbricate thrusts, and out‐of‐sequence thrusts or splays. These faults, especially the décollement and major splay faults, are considered to be candidates for hosting slow slip events and large magnitude earthquakes, but it is not clear what modes of slip should be expected at shallow levels or how they are related to fault rock frictional properties. We conducted laboratory experiments to measure the frictional properties of fault and wall rock from three distinct fault zone systems sampled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 316 and Ocean Drilling Program Leg 190 to the Nankai Trough offshore Japan. These are (1) a major out‐of‐sequence thrust fault, termed the "megasplay" (Site C0004), (2) the frontal thrust zone, a region of diffuse thrust faulting near the trench (Site C0007), and (3) the décollement zone sampled 2 km from the trench (Site 1174). At 25 MPa effective normal stress, at slip rates of 0.03–100 μm/s, and in the presence of brine as a pore fluid, we observe low friction (μ ≤ 0.46) for all of the materials we tested; however, the weakest samples (μ ≤ 0.30) are from the décollement zone. Material from the megasplay fault is significantly weaker than the surrounding wall rocks, a pattern not observed in the frontal thrust and décollement. All samples exhibit primarily velocity‐strengthening frictional behavior, suggesting that earthquakes should not nucleate at these depths. A consistent minimum in the friction rate parameter a‐b at sliding velocities of ∼1–3 μm/s (∼0.1–0.3 m/d) is observed at all three sites, suggesting that these shallow fault zones may be likely to host slow slip events.


We examine what determines differences across countries and over time in the distribution of personal incomes in the OECD. We first model the wage determination process and show that unemployment, the labour share, and the wage differential are all functions of labour market institutions. Next we show that in a model economy with only four types of agents – capitalists, skilled and unskilled workers, and unemployed – the Gini coefficient of personal incomes can be expressed as a function of the above three variables. Labour market institutions hence affect income inequality, though the sign of their impact is ambiguous. Stronger unions and/or a more generous unemployment benefit tend to reduce inequality through reduced wage differentials, a higher labour share, and also higher unemployment. We then use a panel of OECD countries for the period 1970-96 to examine these effects. We find, first, that the labour share remains an important aspect of overall inequality patterns, and, second, that stronger unions and a more generous unemployment benefit tend to reduce income inequality. High capital-labour ratios also emerge as a strong equalising factor, which has in part offset the impact of increasing wage inequality on the US distribution of personal incomes.


PURPOSE
To compare needle and microcannula injection techniques in regards to the microanatomical location of hyaluronic acid (HA) gel injected in the upper lip vermillion border of cadaver specimens.

METHODS
The upper lip vermillion border was injected transcutaneously with HA gel in 8 fresh hemifaces of 4 female human cadavers. Each hemiface was injected by a single experienced injector, the right side using a 27-gauge microcannula and the left side using a 30-gauge needle. A 2-cm region of each lip was excised lateral to a point 1-cm lateral to the philtrum. Specimens were fixed in 95% alcohol, embedded in paraffin, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin for histologic examination.

RESULTS
Most HA injected with either a needle or a microcannula was located within the orbicularis oris muscle, and the remaining HA resided within the subcutaneous fat. In 3/4 right (microcannula) hemifaces, 100% of the HA was located within the muscle. Only 2/4 left (needle) hemifaces had at least 95% of the HA located within the muscle. Overall, in right (microcannula) hemifaces, 93% of the filler was located within the muscle, and in left (needle) hemifaces, 79% of the filler was located within the muscle (p =0.14).

CONCLUSIONS
Most HA filler injected into the vermillion border after either microcannula or needle injection resides within the orbicularis oris muscle rather than in a subcutaneous/submucosal location. Injection with a microcannula shows a trend for more uniform intramuscular location compared with needle injection.


As part of a research programme on key information systems management issues, a survey of Australasia's largest 500 organisations was conducted to identify which issues were perceived by their chief executive officers (CEOs) as being important, problematic and critical over the next three to five years. The results reported are based on a relatively low response rate (though perhaps reasonable for the target group) so should be regarded as only exploratory. The most critical issues were revealed to be a mix of technology management issues (IT infrastructure, disaster recovery), strategic management issues (BPR, competitive advantage, information architecture), people management issues (organisational learning), systems development and data management issues (effective use of the data resource, effectiveness/productivity of IS, effectiveness of software development), and their own support systems (EIS/DSS). This reflects their interest in a wide range of issues, but all with an organisation-wide focus. Non-critical issues were mostly related to the individual technologies and the place and role of IS in the organisation. While the CEOs showed some agreement with their chief information officers (CIOs) on issues such as the IT infrastructure, competitive advantage, and organisational learning some distinct differences exist, particularly in relation to the quality and effectiveness of systems and processes and also how CEOs and CIOs perceive each other.


The Xenopus laevis genome was probed by Southern Blot analysis for the presence of sequences homologous to mammalian or avian proto-oncogenes. Hybridization conditions were strictly defined with a known proto-oncogene to detect a positive signal with DNA sequences having at least 60 to 64% homology. In such conditions thirteen genes representing different oncogene families exhibited positive hybridizations with specific DNA restriction fragments. Members of the protein kinase oncogene family were detected including abl, erbB, fes, fms, ros, raf and mos. Ets, rel, and the steroid hormone related receptor erbA also gave positive signals with specific Xenopus DNA fragments. Proto-oncogenes raf and the ras family, N-ras, H-ras and c-ral, gave the strongest hybridizations and the signals remained positive in high stringency wash conditions. This study confirms the relative conservation of these genes during evolution and opens the possibility of studying their role in one of the best characterized systems of embryonic development.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Gastrointestinal and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) originate from cells of the diffuse endocrine system. Most GEP-NETs are sporadic, however, some of them, especially pancreatic endocrine tumors, may occur as part of familial syndromes. The genetic and molecular pathology of neuroendocrine tumor development is incomplete and remains largely unknown. However, the WHO classification introduced in clinical practice will give more insight into genetic and molecular changes related to tumor subtypes.

RECENT FINDINGS
In sporadic endocrine pancreatic tumors, losses of chromosome 1 and 11q as well as gain on 9q appear to be early invents in development of pancreatic tumors because they are already present in small tumors. Multiple genetic defects may accumulate with time and result in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor progression and malignancy. Gastrointestinal endocrine tumors (carcinoids) show predominantly genetic alterations concentrated on chromosome 18. There are losses of the entire chromosome as well as smaller deletions. The most frequently reported mutated gene in gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors is b-catenin. Overexpression of cyclin D1 and cMyc has also been reported. Recently, a set of genes NAP1L1, MAGE-2D and MTA1 has been correlated with malignant behavior of small intestinal carcinoids.

SUMMARY
Molecular profiling of GEP-NETs demonstrates that pancreatic endocrine tumors and gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors (carcinoids) display different genetic changes and should, therefore, be considered to be different tumor entities; thereby, also differently managed clinically. Although the number of genetic changes is higher in malignant tumors, we are still far away from defining a malignant profile in GEP-NETs.


The European Central Bank (ECB) has adopted a mixture of conventional and unconventional tools in order to achieve its mandate of price stability in the current low-inflation, low-interest-rate scenario. This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a taxonomy of the ECB's policy toolkit and by evaluating its implications on price stability and the anchoring of inflation expectations. I carry out my analysis based on a high-frequency identification and the estimation of a large Bayesian Vector Autoregression. I find evidence of re-anchored expectations as response to quantitative easing and forward guidance, i.e. forecasters revise their long-run expectations upwards. Consequently, inflation increases, which stresses the crucial role of expectations for the transmission of monetary policy.


Frequently, professors may wish to present advanced engineering concepts to freshman and sophomore engineering students, but their methodologies often seem geared to more experienced learners. Therefore, they focus on traditional lecture/classroom teaching styles, which can be less effective in engaging the students in conversations about the subject. Conversations among the facilitator of learning and the students can be appealing because they allow presentation of different ideas on a given subject and collaborative construction of knowledge based on these ideas. It is believed that lower-division engineering students can become proficient in advanced concepts when they engage in conversations about the subject. To test this hypothesis, a pilot effort was conducted in which conversations among several students (primarily freshmen and sophomores), a doctoral student, and an engineering professor took place weekly. The discussions followed an active-learning, student-based, collaborative approach to various topics related to mass, energy, and momentum conservation. A literature review was also performed to determine the extent of the implementation of these active approaches in engineering classes for upper (and sometimes lower) division students. This contribution will highlight aspects of these conversations and offer selected illustrations. The students' overall view seems to indicate that conversations, conducted as previously discussed, provide beneficial exposure to key engineering concepts before they are encountered in a formal class, help develop a mathematical framework, encourage analytical skills, simulate the real world, and familiarize students with searching for information on their own, thus preparing them to be more engaged, informed, and competent students and engineers.


Collaboratively designed by teams from the original quartet of 4VA universities (George Mason, James Madison, UVA, and Virginia Tech), the Food System Leadership Institute (FSLI) is a course for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. This multi-modal course is in development and will launch in the summer of 2018. Students from the 4VA universities will spend two weeks at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation with intensive face-to-face instruction on sustainable food systems and leadership. They will then return to home campuses for embedded experiential learning placements in campus dining operations, working with dining personnel on projects aimed at increasing university sourcing of locally produced food. The course will culminate with a cohort reflection and presentation activity using tele-presence technology. This course is an outgrowth of the 4VA-funded Virginia Sustainable Food Coalition, whose mission is to harness the intellectual, human and economic capital of colleges and universities to foster the emerging local food economy in Virginia. In support of this mission, the course design and delivery will involve a wide variety of Virginia food system stakeholders, and course participants will gain experiences and make connections that assist their development as future food system leaders for the Commonwealth.


In May 2003 a group of Waorani men in Amazonian Ecuador led an attack against their "uncontacted" Taromenani neighbors, resulting in a massacre that has fueled ongoing debates about the rights of indigenous people living in "voluntary isolation." In this article I consider how Waorani understandings of the attack point to indigenous formulations of alterity that challenge what Lucas Bessire (2012) has described as the contemporary politics of isolation. I draw on recent discussions of kinship as a form of mutual belonging that extend beyond common substance (Sahlins 2013), and consider how, in the aftermath of the killings, many Waorani came to see spatially distant others as kinsmen who became disconnected from Waorani in past times. Understood by Waorani as kin of victims, the Taromenani have become both a source of desired relations and a potent image of indigenous strength and autonomy in the context of social and economic transformation.


For backpackers, cost-conscious families, first-time or seasoned travellers, these guides, updated annually, contain listings covering both cities and countryside, plus information on culture, history and people. Features include rail, city and regional maps, advice on work, study, hiking and biking, nightlife and even shopping tips. The researchers are all Harvard-Radcliffe students. They have to "make it on their own" - they have no expense accounts, no free hotel rooms and they travel on budgets as limited as do the people the books are aimed at.


Established techniques for simulation and prediction with Gaussian process (GP) dynamics often implicitly make use of an independence assumption on successive function evaluations of the dynamics model. This can result in significant error and underestimation of the prediction uncertainty, potentially leading to failures in safety-critical applications. This paper discusses methods that explicitly take the correlation of successive function evaluations into account. We first describe two sampling-based techniques; one approach provides samples of the true trajectory distribution, suitable for `ground truth' simulations, while the other draws function samples from basis function approximations of the GP. Second, we propose a linearization-based technique that directly provides approximations of the trajectory distribution, taking correlations explicitly into account. We demonstrate the procedures in simple numerical examples, contrasting the results with established methods.


Background Given the increasing use of digital interventions in health care, understanding how best to implement them is crucial. However, evidence on how to implement new academically developed interventions in complex health care environments is lacking. This case study offers an example of how to develop a theory-based implementation plan for Partner in Balance, an electronic health (eHealth) intervention to support the caregivers of people with dementia. Objective The specific objectives of this study were to (1) formulate evidence-based implementation strategies, (2) develop a sustainable business model, and (3) integrate these elements into an implementation plan. Methods This case study concerns Partner in Balance, a blended care intervention to support the caregivers of people with dementia, which is effective in improving caregiver self-efficacy, quality of life, and experienced control. The large-scale implementation of Partner in Balance took place in local dementia case-management services, local care homes, dementia support groups, and municipalities. Experiences from real-life pilots (n=22) and qualitative interviews with national stakeholders (n=14) were used to establish an implementation plan consisting of implementation strategies and a business model. Results The main finding was the need for a business model to facilitate decision-making from potential client organizations, who need reliable pricing information before they can commit to training coaches and implementing the intervention. Additionally, knowledge of the organizational context and a wider health care system are essential to ensure that the intervention meets the needs of its target users. Based on these findings, the research team formulated implementation strategies targeted at the engagement of organizations and staff, dissemination of the intervention, and facilitation of long-term project management in the future. Conclusions This study offers a theory-based example of implementing an evidence-based eHealth intervention in dementia health care. The findings help fill the knowledge gap on the eHealth implementation context for evidence-based eHealth interventions after the trial phase, and they can be used to inform individuals working to develop and sustainably implement eHealth.


Four dimensional (4D) printing is the convergence of three dimensional (3D) printing, which is an emerging additive manufacturing technology for smart materials. 4D printing is referred to the capability of changing the shape, property, or functionality of a 3D printed structure under a particular external stimulus. This paper presents the structural performance, shape memory behavior and photothermal effect of 4D printed pristine shape memory polymer (SMP) and it's composite (SMPC) with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Both materials have demonstrated the ability to retain a temporary shape and then recover their original. It is revealed that the incorporation of MWCNTs into the SMP matrix has enhanced the light stimulus shape recovery capabilities. Light stimulus shape transformation of 4D printed SMPC is advantageous for space engineering applications as light can be focused onto a particular area at a long distance. Subsequently, a model 4D printed deployable boom, which is applicable for small spacecrafts is presented. The shape fixity and recovery behaviors of the proposed boom have been investigated. Notably, the model boom structure has demonstrated ∼86 % shape recovery ratio. The proposed innovative approach of additive manufacturing based deployable composite structures will shape up the future space technologies.


This paper discusses a Fortran 90 program referred to as BIEMS (Bayesian inequality and equality constrained model selection) that can be used for calculating Bayes factors of multivariate normal linear models with equality and/or inequality constraints between the model parameters versus a model containing no constraints, which is referred to as the unconstrained model. The prior that is used under the unconstrained model is the conjugate expected-constrained posterior prior and the prior under the constrained model is proportional to the unconstrained prior truncated in the constrained space. This results in Bayes factors that appropriately balance between model fit and complexity for a broad class of constrained models. When the set of equality and/or inequality constraints in the model represents a hypothesis that applied researchers have in, for instance, (M)AN(C)OVA, (multivariate) regression, or repeated measurements, the obtained Bayes factor can be used to determine how much evidence is provided by the data in favor of the hypothesis in comparison to the unconstrained model. If several hypotheses are under investigation, the Bayes factors between the constrained models can be calculated using the obtained Bayes factors from BIEMS. Furthermore, posterior model probabilities of constrained models are provided which allows the user to compare the models directly with each other.


This paper analyses how the composition of public expenditure should be adjusted to maximize the economic growth rate in developing countries. We first apply a theoretical framework to empirical data from 50 countries. We then demonstrate how each country should adjust public expenditure for the purpose of maximizing growth. Results show that developing countries in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe have generally misallocated public expenditures in favour of defence, at the expense of public services. Other region-specific results suggest that Asian developing countries should increase expenditure on education, and that Middle Eastern countries should decrease expenditure on education in favour of health.


Numerous studies in family medicine literature explore the determinants of physicians' specialty and practice location choices. A research approach frequently used in these studies has been to ask study physicians what led them to make specific career choices, labeled here as the introspective causal reports study design. This paper explores the validity of introspective causal reports and their usefulness in making health manpower policy recommendations. The accuracy of people's beliefs about the causes of their own behaviors is examined, and social psychology literature is drawn upon in this examination. Data are presented characterizing the use of introspective causal reports in recent family medicine literature. Recommendations are made for stronger research designs in future physician career choice determinant studies.


Neuronal circuits must balance adaptation to new developmental stages and a changing environment with the stability necessary to maintain percepts, memories and learned competencies for long periods of time. Studies of the role activity plays in neuronal survival, morphology and connectivity illustrate these two opposing forces. In the highly dynamic olfactory bulb (OB), which integrates newly born neurons throughout adulthood, we compare the roles of first and second order neuronal signaling on the survival and morphology of several types of OB interneurons. We find that loss of first-order OSN signaling leads to a subtle decrease in OB area due to elevated cell death. Loss of second order MT cell signaling, on the other hand, leads to a more dramatic loss of area and decreased density of several interneuron populations. Surprisingly, MT cells are unaffected by OSN signaling blockade. They also survive in normal numbers when their own signaling is blocked and many their synaptic partners die. While previous studies have demonstrated that the survival of newly migrated granule cells (GCs) is sensitive to activity levels, we demonstrate that all granule cells, regardless of their birthdate, depend on activity for their long-term survival. To show that the death and morphological defects that we observe in GCs are not due to cooperative effects of apoptotic signaling, but rather to a cell-autonomous requirement for MT cell excitatory input, we recapitulated a blockade of synaptic excitation in sparse GCs. Both knockdown of NMDAR-mediated excitation and chronic hyperpolarization led to similar morphological phenotypes as those we observe under MT cell signaling blockade. Finally, in some sensory systems that maintain spatial mappings from the periphery into higher processing areas, activity sculpts axonal branching and synapse formation or maintenance. MT cell projections do not maintain the OB's spatial map, but instead branch diffusely within cortical target regions. Using single MT cell axonal tracing, we show that neither OSN nor MT cell signaling is required for the gross branching patterns of MT cells or formation of appropriate numbers of presynaptic structures. This may reflect a mechanism for maintaining perceptual stability in the absence of stereotyped spatial maps


This paper studies whether the unemployment dynamics of immigrants differ from those of natives, paying special attention to the impact of accounting for unobserved heterogeneity among individuals. Using a large administrative data set for Spain, we estimate multiple-spell discrete duration models which disentangle unobserved heterogeneity from duration dependence. Specifically, we estimate random effects models assuming that the distribution of the effects is discrete with finite support, and fixed effects models in which the distribution of the unobserved effects is left unrestricted. Our results show the importance of accounting for unobserved heterogeneity and that mistaken policy implications can be derived due to improper treatment of unmeasured variables. We find that lack of control for unobserved heterogeneity leads to the conclusion that immigrant males have a higher probability of leaving unemployment than natives and that the negative effect of unemployment benefits for immigrants lasts longer than for natives. Nonetheless, the estimates which do control for unobserved heterogeneity show the opposite results.


We propose a unified formulation for the problem of 3D human pose estimation from a single raw RGB image that reasons jointly about 2D joint estimation and 3D pose reconstruction to improve both tasks. We take an integrated approach that fuses probabilistic knowledge of 3D human pose with a multi-stage CNN architecture and uses the knowledge of plausible 3D landmark locations to refine the search for better 2D locations. The entire process is trained end-to-end, is extremely efficient and obtains state-of-the-art results on Human3.6M outperforming previous approaches both on 2D and 3D errors.


Disuniication is the problem of deciding satissability of a system of equations and disequations w.r.t. a given equational theory. In this paper we study the disuni-cation problem in the context of ACI1 equational theories. We provide a characterization of the interpretation structures suitable to model the axioms in ACI1 theories. The satissability problem is solved using known techniques for the equality constraints and novel methodologies to transform disequation constraints into solved forms. We propose three solved forms, ooering an increasingly more precise characterization of the set of solutions. Two of them can be computed and tested in polynomial time. The novel results achieved open new possibilities in the practical and eecient manipulation of ACI1 constraints.


Experiment shows that geologists accept a wide range of pebble shapes for till-fabric analysis. Most of this variation can be accounted for by a single variable—the B:A axial ratio of the clast. The individuals were classified into three groups, "conservatives," "moderates," and "liberals," depending on the pebble elongation they would accept. Data on till pebble fabric were collected sequentially from 19 basal till sites in east-central New Hampshire. Fabric diagrams were produced for 11 different combinations of pebble elongation and quantity from each site, evaluated, and compared to independent indicators of ice-flow direction. The results show that the use of 100 elongate pebbles by conservative standards tends to produce uniform, intense, precise, accurate, and imbricated fabrics; whereas reversed and transverse fabrics are scarce. As shape selection becomes more liberal and as fewer pebbles are used, the fabrics tend to become irregular, weaker, less precise, less accurate, and less imbricated; whereas reversed and transverse fabrics are more frequently generated. At the extreme, where few pebbles are selected by liberal standards, the resulting fabrics approach those generated from random numbers. About 100 pebbles, selected by rather conservative shape standards ( B:A ≤0.59) are necessary to obtain dependable diagrams.